Black Heart bw-3 Read online

  “If we have to do it, then let’s do it,” he said. “But how did they get here, in this building?”

  “Good question,” I said. “Who put them here, and why?”

  “There are no clues to be found here,” Nathaniel said. “Except only the obvious one, that this is somehow linked to Titania or a member of her court.”

  “Yeah, but what’s the point? Are they after J.B., or Bendith, or me?”

  “Maybe it’s got nothing to do with you at all, solipsist,” Beezle said. “Maybe this is just a convenient launching place for an attack.”

  “And it just happens to be the building in which J.B. lives?” I asked. “Color me skeptical. Plus, this isn’t exactly a strategic location.”

  “Why not?” Beezle asked. “It’s close enough to the Loop to cause chaos, and far enough away that it’s not under the same tight security as most of the other buildings.”

  “And maybe I would get blamed for missing the threat under my nose,” J.B. said. “Titania is still technically my sovereign, and she would love to have an excuse to take my crown away and put her own puppet on the throne in my court.”

  “Let us destroy these creatures and then worry about where they came from,” Nathaniel said.

  “Yeah,” I said, staring at the mass of eggs. “My first instinct would be to set them on fire. But how do we do that without burning the whole building down?”

  “Where’s your sword?” J.B. asked.

  “With my clothes,” I said.

  “Madeline,” Nathaniel said. “When you killed Azazel, did you not reverse his death spell and send it into his own blood?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But how will that apply here?”

  “If you create a similar spell, you could send it through the first egg,” Nathaniel said. “If the spell were sufficiently powerful, it would follow the cord that binds all of the creatures together and kill all of them.”

  “I don’t know,” Beezle said. “This seems kind of subtle for Maddy.”

  “I can do subtle,” I said.

  I’d halted the momentum of Azazel’s spell and thrown it back to him. I’d done something similar when I’d cast Amarantha from J.B.’s body. But in both cases I was basically acting as a slingshot, hurling the magic back at the person who had created it.

  But then again, I had figured out how to take out the colony of Cimice by using their blood. This process wouldn’t be that different. I’d just be finding a different way into the spell.

  I’d used my powers to defend myself. I’d killed when I thought there was no other choice. I knew that the Cimice were like a time bomb ticking away down here in this basement, and that people would be unable to defend themselves from these creatures.

  This was really the same argument that I’d made to justify the killing of the Cimice on that alien world. And I had done it. To prevent human deaths, to protect the innocent.

  So I would do it again. Because it was the right thing to do, or the closest thing to right, and everyone present seemed to agree that it was the best course of action. But it seemed like it was getting too easy for me to justify making the decision to take life away.

  “I can assist you,” Nathaniel said. “I will combine my power with yours to ensure there is enough force to eliminate all of the creatures.”

  That gave me pause. Every time Nathaniel and I combined our powers, we ended up half-naked on the floor. Of course, we were both already half-naked, and this was hardly a sexy spell. We were going to kill together. It wasn’t supposed to be an arousing act.

  “Okay,” I said. “How do we do this? I don’t even know where to begin.”

  “What do you normally do when you create a spell?” Nathaniel asked.

  “I don’t create spells,” I admitted. “I just throw as much power as I can at whatever is in front of me at the time.”

  “I told you it was too subtle for her,” Beezle said.

  “It is not. She has performed a task like this before,” Nathaniel said. “Which gives her an advantage over me. Using magic is similar to using a muscle. Once you have used a certain kind of power, it will be easier for you to use it again a second time.”

  “So I just need to remember what it felt like to push the death spell into Azazel, and it will all come back to me, like riding a bike?” I asked.

  “Precisely,” Nathaniel said. “There is nothing complex in creating magic. You simply need will and focus. Consider your task, and then determine how best to execute it. When you are ready, I will assist you by giving you some of my power.”

  “Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. I was nervous, and they were all staring at me, which made it worse. “Can you not stare at me with the weight of your expectations?”

  J.B. and Nathaniel both smiled and obediently looked toward the ceiling, but Beezle gave me a pointed stare.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

  “I can kill them now or I can kill them later, after they’ve done some damage. I’d prefer to do it now, before anyone gets hurt.”

  “Yeah, but this is dark magic,” Beezle said. “This isn’t like anything you’ve done before.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked. “Because when I wiped away all the vampires in one fell swoop, you seemed convinced that was pretty dark.”

  “And it was,” Beezle acknowledged. “But should you be making it a habit?”

  “What else am I supposed to do?” I said. “No one else knows about this. No one else can take care of the problem. It has to be me. It always has to be me. So let me be, Beezle.”

  My gargoyle opened his mouth again, but I shook my head.

  “No,” I said. “I’m going to do this. I have to do this. So be quiet.”

  I closed my eyes. I’d never made a complex spell from scratch, but I had done quite a bit of shooting-from-the-hip magic in the past. In every case I had done exactly as Nathaniel had said—I’d considered my task and executed it.

  First I needed to weigh the amount of power required. This wasn’t like bringing down a mountain, or even like destroying all the vampires. In both cases I’d summoned the depths of my magical energy and let it explode outward. I didn’t want anything to explode right now. I wanted to concentrate the magic in a steady stream.

  I needed to kill every single one of the Cimice eggs. But I didn’t have the stomach to make the creatures blow up inside the membranes or anything like that. So I wanted something that would just quietly stop their hearts beating.

  I summoned my magic and my will, and then I did something I’d never done before. I went deeper. Ever since I’d come into my legacy from Lucifer, I had deliberately avoided exploring the full dimensions of my powers. I suspected that there were things I was capable of doing that I didn’t want to know about.

  I was right. As I sank further into the well of magic inside me, I saw powers almost incomprehensible in their scope, powers that could destroy the world and remake it in the image I chose. There were dark things buried there, cruel impulses, death without reason or mercy.

  This was what it felt like to be Lucifer, to have the energy of all the galaxies at your fingertips, to feel that those around you are small and mewling things, things that could be swept away in an instant, without thought, like clearing a chessboard with a swipe of the hand.

  I was afraid of that darkness, and part of me wanted to leave it there. But the other part of me, the part that grew stronger every day, embraced it. This was what I was born for. This was who I was meant to be.

  And I knew what to do.

  I walked forward, almost in a trance. Beezle flew from my shoulder. Nathaniel reached for me, but I ignored him. I touched my hand to the lock on the door and it melted to the floor. J.B. gasped behind me.

  The door opened without my touching the handle. I entered the space until I was surrounded by the Cimice eggs. Slime dripped on my face and hair, but I hardly noticed.

  I found the egg at the center o
f the room and placed my hand upon it. My power spread outward until I could feel every creature in the web. I could sense the pulse of life in all of them, the tiny throbbing hearts. They were all there, beneath my fingertips.

  Far away from me, Lucifer rested on his throne, his head in his hands. He lifted his head slowly, and he smiled.

  And nearer, the dragon inside Daharan woke up. As it did, something inside me responded, something lit with flame.

  I pushed death through my hands, and into the first egg. I knew the moment its heart stopped. The spell continued without my guidance, seeking the next heart, smothering it beneath a cloak of darkness. The vein that connected all of the eggs together shriveled and blackened, and any dead membrane shriveled as well, so we could see the course of the spell moving through the creatures, killing them one by one.

  I could feel them dying, but it did not grieve me. The Cimice were nothing to me. This was just a diversion for someone as powerful as I.

  “Madeline,” Nathaniel said behind me.

  I turned and met his eyes. He had approached to within a few inches, watching me cautiously. J.B. and Beezle were wide-eyed in the corridor.

  “Madeline, you are on fire,” Nathaniel said.

  I looked down at my body, slowly, in wonder. I was engulfed in flame. It danced over me, covered me in its flickering warmth, but my skin did not burn. My T-shirt and underpants were gone, but I didn’t feel vulnerable. I felt powerful. I was powerful, and here before me stood my equal. I could sense the strength inside Nathaniel, more than enough to match my own.

  I walked toward him, the Cimice forgotten. His eyes blazed, jewel-bright in the firelight.

  “Nathaniel,” I said, and it was like he was in a trance, hypnotized by me.

  I reached up, put my arms around his neck, and covered his mouth. As soon as our lips touched the darkness inside me roared up, engulfing Nathaniel and me. Only our lips touched, but we were joined in blood and bone and essence, the magic that pulsed inside us twining together.

  Together we could do anything. We could lay waste to Lucifer’s dominion. We could take over the world.

  “Maddy!”

  J.B.’s voice. Beezle’s voice. Far away. They didn’t matter. All that mattered was Nathaniel and the power inside me that hungered to be used.

  “Maddy! You’re burning him!” J.B., more insistent.

  I thought about making him disappear. I could do that. He was like a fly buzzing around, annoying me.

  Deep inside my consciousness, I could feel Lucifer nodding in approval.

  Then I was suddenly shocked by wet and cold, and Nathaniel was pulled away from me.

  I wiped my hair out of my eyes. Beezle hovered nearby, holding a bucket still half-full of water. J.B. held Nathaniel under the arms. There was a ring of burned flesh on Nathaniel’s chest that circled up to his neck. Parts of his face were scorched, too, where my mouth had touched him. His lips were blistered.

  “Gods above and below. Nathaniel, I am so sorry.”

  Every trace of darkness and magic had been smothered by the shock of having water thrown on me. I shivered, abruptly conscious of my nakedness. I tried to cover myself with my hands. J.B. politely averted his eyes.

  “Do not worry, Madeline,” Nathaniel said softly, his gaze on mine. “I can be healed.”

  “But what if J.B. and Beezle weren’t here?” I asked. “What if I’d burned you to death and you never even realized what was happening?”

  My body was covered in goose bumps, but it wasn’t just from the cold. I was feeling the aftereffects of the magic, like shock running through my system. And I was scared. I’d touched the darkness inside me before, but I had never embraced it so thoroughly.

  I didn’t ever want to do that again. But now that it had been awakened, it was like the power was a living creature inside me. It hummed just under the surface of my skin, waiting to be called again.

  Even worse, I could still feel Lucifer’s approval.

  I definitely was not interested in doing anything of which Lucifer would approve.

  “Well, it looks like you managed to take care of the Cimice problem,” Beezle said. “In a typically overboard fashion, that is.”

  I glanced around the room. You could hardly tell that there had been a network of slimy, dripping eggs a few moments before. All that remained was a few blackened, shriveled fragments. Most of the eggs had disappeared completely, nothing remaining except some flakes of ash on the floor.

  J.B. released Nathaniel’s arms. “I’ll go out the back and up to the window of the condo and get your clothes. Stay here.”

  He disappeared into the darkness as he passed out of the glow of Nathaniel’s nightfire, which still floated above us.

  Beezle floated in the air between Nathaniel and me, a disapproving look on his face.

  “Don’t say anything,” I warned.

  “I could just dump the rest of this water over your head, since you deserve it,” Beezle said.

  “Why didn’t you go with J.B.?” I asked.

  “Because I think the two of you need monitoring,” Beezle said.

  “It was me that was the problem, not Nathaniel,” I said. “I lost control of my power.”

  “I don’t think so,” Beezle said. “I think you knew exactly what you were doing. And you were enjoying it.”

  “I didn’t expect it to be like that,” I whispered. “Nathaniel, I’m sorry you got hurt because of me.”

  “He was enjoying it, too,” Beezle said.

  “Do not presume to know my feelings, gargoyle,” Nathaniel said.

  “You may have marginally improved as a person, but deep down you’re still a guy who loves power. That was why you wanted Maddy in the first place, way back when Azazel arranged a marriage between you. Don’t lie to me and tell me that you didn’t feel the call when she looked at you,” Beezle said. “I could see it happen.”

  “Madeline may tolerate your interference in her business, but I do not have to,” Nathaniel said.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Beezle said, smirking.

  I approached Nathaniel, a little embarrassed. “I should heal you.”

  He put his hand on my chin, lifting my eyes to his. “Do not hide from me. You did not mean me harm.”

  “But I did it anyway,” I said. Everything inside me was a tangle. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”

  “I know who you are,” he said softly. “You are Madeline Black, as you have always been.”

  I placed my hands on his neck, his lips, making the blackened, blistered flesh disappear.

  I heard the sound of pounding feet, and we turned to see J.B. running down the hall between the storage spaces.

  He stopped in front of us and dumped an armload of clothing on the floor. My sword clattered to the ground.

  “Get dressed,” he said. “Bendith’s gone.”

  15

  NATHANIEL SWORE. “WHOEVER SET THE CHARGE ON the building must have known he was inside.”

  He yanked a shirt and jeans from the jumble of clothes and pulled off his pajama pants. He wasn’t wearing any underwear beneath but he didn’t seem self-conscious in the least.

  Beezle turned away, covering his eyes with his hands. “For the love of the Morningstar, don’t do that without warning me. I’ve seen enough naked humans for one day.”

  J.B. had collected my jeans and shoes, but my underwear and shirt had burned up in the heart-of-darkness incident. I put on the jeans while he scooped a plaid flannel shirt out of the pile.

  “I brought you one of mine,” he said, trying to look everywhere except my chest.

  “Thanks,” I said, pulling it over my head, as it was already buttoned. I felt better once I was covered by the shirt. J.B. was a lot taller than me, so the tail hung to the middle of my thighs. “Was there any sign of a struggle outside?”

  J.B. shook his head. “No. It’s like he just disappeared into thin air.”

  Nathaniel finished dressing, pulling on a pair
of well-worn black leather boots. “It could not have been the assassins, then. They would not have bothered to take him away.”

  J.B. nodded grimly. “They would have killed him and left him there so we could see that we’d failed.”

  “Somebody took him,” I said as I put on my own boots. “I don’t think he would have left of his own accord, do you?”

  Nathaniel paused. “I suppose it’s possible he ran off in a fit of pique.”

  “I noticed that he wasn’t too happy about my arrival,” I said.

  Nathaniel directed the nightfire back toward the stairs and we all trooped in that direction. Beezle took up his usual position on my shoulder.

  “No, he was not,” Nathaniel admitted. “However, I still need to find him. If Bendith is out on his own, then he is vulnerable.”

  “Doesn’t he have magic of his own?” I asked. “He can’t be totally helpless. He’s Puck and Titania’s kid, after all.”

  “He does have abilities,” Nathaniel said. “But they are woefully underdeveloped. It seems that Titania deliberately prevented him from nurturing his power.”

  “She was afraid he might realize he was related to Puck and not Oberon if he used his magic too much,” I guessed.

  “Precisely,” Nathaniel said. “I have attempted to help him access more of his magic, but it is difficult to overcome centuries of neglect.”

  We spilled out into the alley, all of us braced for the possibility of attack. There was no one there. It seemed unusually silent, especially after the excitement of the explosion. I’d half expected the place to be crawling with assorted emergency personnel. But there was no one around. The scent of smoke pervaded the air, and the sky appeared to be lightening.

  “Better get under a veil,” I said. “We don’t want to attract attention.”

  Nathaniel dropped a veil over all of us, but somehow managed to manipulate it so we could still see one another. His power was noticeably stronger than before, and the darkness that lingered beneath my skin quickened in anticipation.

  No, I thought, pushing it back. I wasn’t a time bomb waiting to go off. I was Madeline Black, just as Nathaniel had said, and I controlled my power. It would not control me.