Black Spring (17 page)

Part of my mind was still upstairs with the baby, even though I knew Beezle and Samiel would defend him with their lives. It was hard to overcome that immediate instinct to be the one to protect him, to believe that only I could properly keep him safe.

But it had to end. Ever since I’d discovered I was Azazel’s daughter, my life had become a gradually escalating series of horrible events, each one worse than the last. I paused at the bottom of the stairs. Once I went outside, I’d be committed.

I might also be dead, and my child would grow up an orphan, a toy in Lucifer’s court.

“No,” I said out loud.

Nathaniel gave me a puzzled look.

“I won’t let Lucifer take my baby away, whether he kills me or not,” I said.

That thought gave me courage, and I pushed open the door. We crowded into the foyer, peering through the glass to the nightmare outside.

Lucifer’s body still stood between his two stalwart brothers, but there was a black shadow that rose from his open mouth and up over the house. This was the part of him that was currently pounding out his fury on my roof.

The other two didn’t appear to be doing much of anything except presenting a united front with Lucifer. I had to wonder again why either of them was working with a brother they claimed to despise, and why Daharan wasn’t there—on my side or Lucifer’s.

I took a deep breath, and suddenly I was hyperventilating. I was about to do something beyond frightening, something so terrifying that I could lose my life, my child, my love and my friends all in one fell swoop.

Nathaniel put his hand on my back and drew me close. He didn’t say anything, only breathed slow and even, waiting for my breath to fall in rhythm with his. And eventually, it did. The connection between us opened wider, and our power mingled, giving both of us strength.

“You see?” he murmured against my hair. “We are stronger together. We can face him. We can defeat him.”

I nodded, and I pushed open the door.

It was frigid outside, colder than winter, and I shivered all over as soon as the howling wind touched me. Rain lashed at my house. Thunder rumbled, a constant growl of menace above. Lightning struck the lawn several times as I watched.

Puck noticed us cautiously moving out onto the porch. He lazily tugged at Lucifer’s arm, his eyes bright with speculation. I’m sure he wondered just what the hell I thought I would do. I was thinking the same thing.

“Lucifer!” I called. My voice seemed to disappear into the roar of the wind, but he must have heard me.

The shadow shrank down and reentered Lucifer almost immediately. The wind and rain disappeared, though his demonic visage did not.

“Madeline,” Lucifer said, and his voice was a terrible thing that vibrated over my nerves and through my bloodstream. I truly understood for the first time that he was a monster. His heart, though born of the sun, was black as a moonless night. Whatever humanity Evangeline saw and loved in him was an illusion.

“Lucifer,” I said again. “Now that the formalities are out of the way, you can move along and stop trying to wreck my house. My property value has dropped to nothing since I met you as it is.”

Puck sniggered with laughter, covering his mouth with his hand. Lucifer glared at him, and Puck immediately went back to serious soldier mode, although his eyes still danced, as always.

“Madeline,” Lucifer said, rolling my name around in his mouth like a fine delicacy. “You still have yet to understand. All that you are, all the power within you, comes from me. You cannot defy me.”

He lifted his hand toward me and I felt something twist inside me, like he’d somehow grabbed my heart and my lungs and was crushing them in his grip. I staggered and fell against Nathaniel. The pain was searing, ten thousand times worse than the childbirth I had so recently endured.

Nathaniel shot at Lucifer with a bolt of nightfire and Lucifer batted it away casually, like a man waving at a fly. He held out his other hand toward Nathaniel, to hurt him, too, but Puck stayed him.

“He is not yours,” was all he said.

“The boy attacked me,” Lucifer said.

“He is not yours to discipline,” Puck said, and Lucifer nodded.

It was interesting that Nathaniel had been right about that. Puck wouldn’t allow Lucifer to hurt his son. He might be willing to do it himself, but Lucifer had to keep his hands off. Interesting, but I wasn’t really in a state to contemplate it. It felt like everything inside me was being twisted into a giant knot. I gasped for air.

“What are you doing to her?” J.B. demanded.

“Taking back what is mine,” Lucifer said.

My throat felt like it was full, like something inside me was backing up and trying to come out. Every cell in my body seemed to strain toward Lucifer. All my limbs tingled, that horrible pins-and-needles feeling amplified.

Nathaniel gently rested me on the ground, then stood, stepping in front of me so that all I could see were his boots. I could feel his fury, the shadow inside him rising up. He seemed to grow larger, as Lucifer had done. The air was suffused with his power, so thick with magic you could choke on it.

“Let her go,” he said to Lucifer.

Lucifer’s attention was not distracted from me for a moment. The pressure inside my body never wavered. It was almost as if poison were being drawn from my blood, but it wasn’t poison that was leaving.

It was my magic.

My magic was born of the sun, born of Lucifer himself, and as both his many-greats-granddaughter and his Hound of the Hunt, my power was inextricably bound to this source. And now the source was taking that power back into himself, to show me that he could, that I was not so special after all.

“Let her go,” Nathaniel repeated.

I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I could tell that his anger would make it something foolish. J.B. knelt at my side, holding my hand.

“What can I do?” he asked.

“Stop Nathaniel,” I choked out. “Don’t let Lucifer kill him.”

“I won’t kill him,” Lucifer said. “That is my brother’s responsibility. Puck, control your boy.”

I couldn’t see Lucifer’s face at all, only J.B.’s worried green eyes. But my grandfather did not sound like he was troubled in the least by Nathaniel’s anger, or like he was exerted at all from the effort of drawing my magic out of me. In fact, he sounded bored.

There was a sudden sound of fire sizzling in the grass, and then the streaks of light that accompany flying magic. I tried to sit up to see what was going on.

“Puck and Nathaniel are having it out,” J.B. said.

A shadow crossed over us as the two of them rose into the air. I could just see Nathaniel’s twisted face and Puck’s amused one as they traded magical blows. Then one of Nathaniel’s spells hit Puck square in the chest, and the elemental spirit suddenly did not look so amused.

I wanted to speak, to cry out, but the magic that had lived so long in my body was filling my mouth, spilling out into the air like a thin stream of smoke.

Lucifer opened his own mouth and drew that stream inside. I could feel the power leaving me, making him stronger. Jude growled and stepped in front of me. I saw that he had turned into a wolf, and was crouched, ready to strike.

I couldn’t stop him, couldn’t save him. He leapt for Lucifer’s throat.

Alerian shifted in front of Lucifer, blocked Jude’s attack. The wolf landed on the ground. There was a long streak of blood along his flank where Alerian had struck with a shiny silver knife he’d produced seemingly out of nowhere.

Jude lunged for Alerian now, tearing into my great-uncle’s leg with his teeth. The flesh there tore away from the bone but Alerian did not cry out or make a noise in any way. Instead, he methodically swung the knife at Jude, cutting here, cutting there. Blood splashed over the street.

J.B. squeezed my hand tight as the last of Lucifer’s magic exited my body. The stream of power sputtered to a halt, and I coughed, rolling to one side, away from Lucifer. My throat felt dry and swollen, like I’d been breathing smoky air. But the rest of me felt light, like an unimaginable burden had finally been lifted from me. And it had.

Lucifer chuckled, and it was not a pleasant sound. “Now do you see, Madeline? All that made you special and unique came from me. You cannot defend your child from the weakest goblin now. You will never be able to keep him from me.”

I pushed to my feet. J.B. helped me up, the two of us face-to-face for a moment. The battle between Puck and Nathaniel still raged above us. Alerian and Jude tore into each other behind me. But I took one moment, and looked into J.B.’s eyes, and smiled.

“I’m glad that you’re my friend,” I said, and kissed his cheek.

He gave me a look, his eyes full of understanding. “I guess this means my chance has come and gone, huh?”

“I still love you. But not that way,” I said.

He sighed. “I’m sure I’ll be able to convince some fairy courtier to have rebound sex with me.”

I laughed, and turned to face Lucifer, who looked surprised that I wasn’t weeping on the ground.

“Thank you,” I said, and I really meant it. I glanced at the palm of my hand. The tattoo that had been imprinted there by Lucifer’s sword was gone.

Now the Prince of Darkness looked bewildered, and the expression was so comical on that Milton’s devil-face that I laughed out loud again. I felt giddy, and a little reckless.

“Thank you, really,” I said. “Thank you for finally, finally,
finally
releasing me from you. Thank you for taking the burden of your bloodline away from me. Thank you for basically disowning me. This is one of the happiest moments of my life.”

Lucifer’s eyes had narrowed as I spoke, and I could see the realization dawning that his master plan had somehow backfired.

“Oh,” I said, and held out my hands before me. “Your magic wasn’t the only magic inside me, by the way. I am Azazel’s daughter, you know.”

And I let my nightfire fly.

He wasn’t expecting it; otherwise he would have easily been able to block my shot. But the nightfire blast hit him full force in the chest, and it took him off his feet. Alerian and Puck both paused in their battles, obviously shocked to see Lucifer on the ground.

Which allowed Nathaniel and Jude to take advantage. A moment later, Alerian was flat on his back with a growling wolf standing on top of him. Puck was on the ground sitting on his butt with a confused look on his face. Nathaniel floated down to land beside me. He watched his fallen father with steel in his eyes.

“I’m not bound to you anymore,” I said to Lucifer. The shock of my blast had shaken away the magic he’d used to maintain his demon face, and he’d returned to looking angelic as usual. “You cannot force me to do your bidding. You cannot draw on the blood tie or on the power of the Hound of the Hunt. I don’t have to perform any more of your crappy errands or be any kind of ambassador anywhere. I am free.”

“I still have dominion over you and every other mewling human on this Earth,” Lucifer snarled.

“No, you do not.”

It was the very thing I was going to say, but somebody else took the words out of my mouth.

The voice had come from behind me, and as I turned and looked I saw Daharan was there, and it seemed like his entire body was lit by dragon fire. His voice was measured and controlled as always, but his expression was so suffused with anger that I had to turn my face away. Daharan was frightening like that. It made me remember that he was a dragon at heart, and one should not take a dragon lightly.

Lucifer and Puck visibly shrank back—not a lot, but enough that you would notice if you were watching them closely. I had never seen either of them cower before anyone.

Jude was still growling away on Alerian’s chest. If his victim had not been a billions-of-years-old immortal, then Jude probably would have slashed his throat open by now. But Jude knew as well as I did the physical consequences of killing something so old. When I’d taken out Titania, I’d actually sent her to another galaxy far away, so that when the magical energy that had built up inside her for thousands of years exploded outward, it wouldn’t flatten the entire city of Chicago and its neighboring suburbs. Alerian was significantly older and more powerful than Titania, so his death would probably take out the center of the continent and then cause the rest of it to fall into the sea.

Daharan stalked toward his three brothers. When he reached Jude he tapped the wolf on the shoulder. Jude twisted around and looked up. When he saw Daharan he stepped off Alerian, who stood up with careful deliberation and then joined the other two, who were watching Daharan warily.

The eldest brother faced off against the other three, and even though there was a disparity in numbers, it was clear who had the advantage.

I didn’t want to break the spell of his dominion over the other three, but I had to know.

“Daharan,” I said, and I was surprised by how small my voice sounded. “Where have you been?”

“I am sorry, Madeline,” he said, but he never looked at me. He kept his eyes locked on Lucifer, Alerian and Puck, like he was a snake charmer keeping three reptiles at bay. “None of this would have happened were I present. However, these three ensured that I would not be.”

My eyes went from Lucifer to Puck to Alerian. “It’s a conspiracy? Really? They’re all working together? I thought they all hated one another.”

“A convenient fiction that has allowed them to work in secret for many months, each of them putting their individual pieces in place,” Daharan said.

“But they did not reckon for your involvement,” Nathaniel observed.

“Correct,” Daharan said. “And they knew that my willingness to remain silent would last only up to a point. I have been attempting to draw all the threads together for some time, and then to dissuade these three from enacting their plan, long before you knew me. But matters were greatly accelerated after Puck sent you to that dead world and manipulated you into killing the Cimice to release your shadow. Even then I tried to block them, to protect you, to protect humanity. When it seemed that their pieces were finally falling into place for their ultimate plan, I moved to stop them once and for all. And they betrayed me.”

I understood immediately that this was almost worse than anything else these three had done. Despite all of their wrongdoing, Daharan had always tried to keep their family matters in the family. He had kept things hidden even from me, believing it better to take care of the matter quietly unless he was forced to otherwise. For the three brothers to reward Daharan’s loyalty with betrayal—well, let’s just say that it wouldn’t sit well with a being of Daharan’s character.

“How did they betray you?” J.B. asked.

“They imprisoned me. It took all three of them to do it, but they lured me from your home with promises of negotiation, and then trapped me in what they thought was an unbreakable prison,” Daharan said. I couldn’t see his eyes, as his back was to me, but for a moment I thought that there was a red light that flared on the faces of the other three.

“It
was
an unbreakable prison,” Puck muttered, sounding pouty. “I spent a lot of time crafting that spell. I entwined it with the essence of your magic so you wouldn’t be able to break out. I don’t understand how it would fail.”

“Obviously I should have done it myself rather than leave the matter to your incompetence,” Lucifer hissed. “You were too busy pretending to be king of Faerie and lording your superiority over Oberon to give the matter the proper amount of attention.”

“Like you would have had time to invest in Daharan’s cage when you were playing house with Evangeline,” Puck retorted.

“I was not ‘playing house.’ I was attempting to make the commitment of a lifetime when she was brutally murdered,” Lucifer said.

“Everyone knows Maddy didn’t really kill her. My niece has a lot of bad qualities, but cold-blooded murder isn’t one of them,” Puck said dismissively. “You probably killed Evangeline yourself. It was the only way you’d ever be free of her. She stuck to you like static cling, and it was just as unattractive.”

“Evangeline was loyal,” Lucifer said.

“She was sickening, was what she was,” Puck said. “And you would have gotten annoyed with her in a few months and then had her publicly executed under some pretense. Probably for bearing you another freak show of a son. Your kids just don’t turn out right, do they? Not like mine.”

He gave a smug, satisfied smile then, looking at Nathaniel, who frowned at this confusing paternal pride so soon after Puck had tried to blast him into oblivion.

Lucifer leapt on Puck then, punching him in the face. His brother came back swinging with ferocity, and soon the two of them were rolling on the ground, trading blows.

We all stared in silent shock at the spectacle of two of the oldest and most powerful creatures in the universe having a school-yard fight in the middle of a Chicago street.

“Enough,” Daharan said. He had turned toward the other two, and I could see the calm and resolute anger still on his face.

Puck and Lucifer stopped rolling around. They scrambled to their feet, looking chastened.

I looked from Puck to Lucifer to Alerian to Daharan, and realized something I’d never realized before. Yes, they were magical and powerful and older than most galaxies. But they were nothing but children, and I did not have to fear them, and neither did anyone else. This was probably what everyone else was thinking, too, and that was affirmed a moment later when J.B. spoke.

“I’d say you both lost a lot of ground on the intimidation front,” he said.

“Be careful,” Puck said. “You are still my subject.”

“No, he is not,” Daharan said. “Henceforth, you are no longer the High King of Faerie. Nor are you master of the Grigori.”

Lucifer looked shocked. “You cannot take that right from me, or from Puck.”

“Lucifer,” Daharan said. “You have not yet asked how I managed to break free from the unbreakable prison fashioned for me.”

“I’ll bite,” Puck said. Despite his obvious fear of Daharan, his natural playful manner reasserted itself. He spoke in a singsong tone. “How did you break out of the prison, Daharan?”

Daharan smiled, and it was not the warm and gentle smile that protected me. It was a thing of cold and fury, and also of satisfaction.

“Our mother is awake.”

Now even Alerian, always as calm as the still surface of a lake, turned pale. Puck looked like he might throw up.

“You lie,” Lucifer said.

“You know that I cannot lie to you,” Daharan said. “Our mother is awake, and she is not happy with the three of you.”

I knew very little about the parents of these four. Daharan had once told me they were very ancient and elemental, and that they spent most of their time asleep. He’d also implied that it was better that I knew as little as possible about them, and I’d hoped that they would never wake up and decide to interfere in our lives.

“Is she coming here?” Puck asked. His lips were white.

Daharan shook his head. “She wishes you to come to her. Immediately.”

Lucifer looked from me to Daharan. “This is all part of your own plan to keep Madeline and her child out of my clutches.”

“If it is, then our mother certainly approves of my intentions over yours,” Daharan said. “She can see the future with more clarity than any of us.”

“What were their plans?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, the usual,” Puck said breezily, although he still looked like he was on the verge of being sick. “Total dominion over the Earth, split three ways. No more hiding in the shadows or manipulating from afar. The three of us, worshiped and feared as gods.”

“Knocking down whoever got in your way, I suppose. And you thought I would just let you do that?” I asked.

“We knew that you wouldn’t let us do that,” Puck said. “That was why we needed you to turn into Bad Maddy, because then you might come over to the fun side. Failing that, Lucifer would have Junior as a tool to get you to do what we wanted.”

“So my son was just a means to an end for you?” I said.

“No,” Daharan said before Lucifer could speak. “Your son is very important to the future of this planet. He has a destiny that will affect the course of humanity. Lucifer wanted that destiny in his hands, so he could pull the strings.”

I didn’t want to hear that my baby had a destiny, or that he was important to humanity’s future. I wanted him to just be my own, my own little angel, the last tangible symbol of the love I had for Gabriel.

Much of this must have shown on my face, because Daharan said gently, “His destiny is a long way off. You still have time to be his mother, and for him to be your son.”

He turned again to Lucifer. “And before I return you to the loving bosom of our mother, I want to ensure that you understand that Madeline and her son are no longer subject to your influence. They are protected by me always, and are no longer of your line.”

“You cannot do that,” Lucifer said. The color returned to his face in an instant as his anger rose.

“He already took care of that part himself,” I put in. “He took away all the magic that came from his bloodline.”

“From you, yes,” Daharan said. “Not from your baby. Please bring the child to me.”

Lucifer reached toward his brother. Daharan stared at Lucifer’s hand until the Prince of Darkness dropped it at his side, clenched in a useless fist.

“Daharan, you cannot,” Lucifer said. “Do not take him from me. He is mine. He belongs to my blood.”

“You forfeited your rights by your actions,” Daharan said.

He turned toward me. I was frozen in place, shaking my head from side to side.

“I’m not bringing him outside,” I said. “He’s safe inside, safe from
him
. Lucifer can’t break down the door and take him. If I bring my baby outside, he’ll snatch him up and run away and there won’t be a thing I can do to stop it.”

“I will stop it,” Daharan said. “Madeline, you must trust me. I have never meant you or your child harm.”

I looked up at Nathaniel. He shook his head. “It is too risky. He may be working with the other three. This may be a performance all for your benefit, to ease you into thinking the child would be safe if you brought him outside.”

Daharan nodded, almost as if he were acknowledging the wisdom of Nathaniel’s words. “I understand why you would think such a thing. But I assure you, with all of my heart, that I mean only to protect the child.”

“Then go inside and do whatever you need to do,” J.B. said. “Why should Maddy have to bring him outside?”

“Because Lucifer needs to see what will happen, and to understand that the child is lost to him forever. I do not believe you wish to invite him into your home, as the invitation will never be able to be rescinded,” Daharan said.

I nodded. There was a reason I’d never invited Lucifer inside—once he came in, I’d never be able to get rid of him. Although Puck had gotten in, because of the jewel that I’d been tricked into taking. And as I realized this, I looked at Puck in puzzlement. If Puck could get in, and he and Lucifer were working on the same side, then why hadn’t he just materialized in my living room and snatched the baby away?

Unless Puck didn’t really give a damn about Lucifer’s ambitions, and was still working some separate plan of his own.

He noticed me looking at him, and winked. I swear that Puck can read minds. Or at least my mind.

Now was the moment of truth. Nathaniel and Beezle had told me not to trust Daharan, that just because he’d never revealed an agenda didn’t mean he didn’t have one. And I had always insisted that Daharan was exactly what he claimed to be, and that they needed to stop being so suspicious.

“I don’t like this,” J.B. said, and Jude whined in agreement.

“You know how I feel,” Nathaniel said. “And I know you have always kept your own counsel with regard to Daharan.”

He spoke as if Daharan were not right there, listening to every word.

“Regardless of what you choose, I will defend your child with my life,” Nathaniel said. “And you. Always.”

Tears pricked at my eyes, and I wiped them away impatiently. “I know. And you know that if there’s a chance that the baby will be free from Lucifer forever, then I have to take it.”