Dominion 4 - Ascendance (6 page)

The ringtail snuck through the metal bars and walked in the space between the fences. For a while we moved together, jumping over or pushing through overgrown areas, avoiding thorns and thistles, batting at smaller creatures. Centipedes were still my favorites, even though they tasted awful. Once we met another metal gate, the ringtail stopped and bounded back as if trying to get me to follow. Instead I squeezed through the metal slats, feeling a slight magic resistance for a few seconds before it popped me free. Then I followed a little worn path that led into the forest behind the house. Something called me. Some sort of disruption in the earth said it needed me.

Clicks and chirps of protest faded off in the distance while I ventured forward. The path didn’t smell of humans, only of animals, rabbits, deer, and a few larger predators like bears, coyotes, and mountain lions. I could outrun most of them, so I kept my ears focused and eyes sharp.

A ladybug landed right in my path. I paused, waited for it to move, and when it didn’t, I pounced. Only it flew several feet away, taunting me. A small growl escaped my lips, and I pounced again. It wove away into a briar patch. If I could have frowned as a cat, I probably would have. Instead I stared into the thorny bush, wondering if it was worth it to chase the little thing further.

A few minutes passed, and I just waited. Then in a flurry, almost like a bird coming at me, the bug flew up out of the bush, into my face. I swatted at it with both paws, but it buzzed around like I couldn’t hit it if I tried. Finally it landed on my nose. Even in cat form I wasn’t lost enough to slap myself in the face.

We stared at each other, cat to bug, bug to cat, a contest of wills. Who would move first? I waited. The night was long enough for me to sit for a while, and I was the predator here. He moved slowly, walking up the short bridge of my nose, making my eyes cross and bringing on a sneeze that shook him off.

Damn. Where’d he go? I peered around, trying to catch a glimpse of the bright colors, a little sad to have the game over so soon. A whir of sound had me spinning to the right. The bright spotted wings darted into the distance, and I was off running after it. The bug led me over fallen logs, around sharp bushes, and to the rushing waves of a large stream. The water was warm enough to play in, so I let my new little friend go and chased fish, frogs, and crawfish for a while.

My spotted red friend came back a time or two to dart at me, trying to get me to follow. I finally gave up on the play when he dive-bombed my ear and made it itch. After a good bit of scratching away the tickle with my back paw, I followed the little bug out of the stream, back into the woods, through a maze of trees and to a clearing. Then he vanished as if he’d never been there into a massive briar bush jutting out from a big rock. Even after waiting a few minutes, the ladybug didn’t return. I blinked a few times, looked around, but still couldn’t find him again.

The little clearing looked odd and somewhat eerie. Circular, with stones on the edges, nothing grew in it. Yet the stones gave off a creepy glow. Stepping closer made my skin tingle as though there were ants crawling all over me. I put my paw to the edge of the ring and immediately saw flashes of human things bloody and dying. Their screams pierced my brain like a stream of bullets, causing pain and fear. I jumped away, shook my head until the image cleared, and moved at a safe distance around the space. The earth told me this place was very wrong. It begged me to fix it, but I couldn’t fathom how.

A light flicked on, and a man sat in the middle of the circle, a glowing tube in his hand. His hair was dark, face hidden in shadows, but he smelled familiar. He got to his feet, approached the edge of the circle, then stopped when I bounced farther away. He leaned against one of the giant stones, then slowly sat beside it, just outside the ring.

“Didn’t take you long at all to find this. We all had bets going. Some said you’d never find it. I knew you would. You’re a lot like your father was, Seiran Rou. Such untarnished power. The Dominion is clueless about what power truly is. There aren’t five levels of power. There are hundreds. And you are at the very top.” He stretched. “It calls to you, doesn’t it? Begs for help. The earth is a very vocal element.”

I watched the man, wondering how he knew my name, but since he wasn’t moving closer I let him go on.

 

“Won’t you change and speak to me?” He pulled off his coat, tossing it away from him. “For your modesty, perhaps?”

Changing would make me vulnerable. No paws to run on, claws to fight with, or teeth to defend my life. Yet something about him drew me forward. He knew my father. My stunted little brain said that was important. I needed to know. The shift took only a few seconds, then I pulled the jacket around me, keeping far enough away that I would hopefully have time to change back and run if needed.

The fog cleared away quickly enough. “Max?”

He smiled. “So much like your father. He’d completely forget who he was in his cat form. It’s harder to keep the human side of yourself when your power is so high. Tell me, Seiran, do you recognize the ring now?”

My heart skipped a beat while I processed it again, this time as a human and as a witch. A fairy ring. That was the only possible explanation. All the studying I did in college meant nothing in that moment. This very item was supposed to be something of myth. Yet the power pulsed so hard it made my skin crawl in not a good way.

“I can tell from your expression you know what it is.”

“It’s evil,” I told him. The images of death still lingered inside my head, tainting something in me I hadn’t known was still pure. I felt like I had taken part in the rituals, killed people, fed on their power. Even at this distance, the pulse of power made my skin crawl.

“True. It’s been made that way by those who use it.” “Including yourself.” He had been sitting in the middle of the awful thing.

“I suppose.” He shrugged. “When you’re as old as I am, you’ll do a lot to feel anything. Love, anger, pain, pleasure, it’s all a balance that humans experience so easily. Time, however, wears away the emotions of any creature. This circle has been misused, but the memories make me feel. It is a nice change from the numbness that has taken over my life.”

“Did you lead me here?” I thought briefly of the little ladybug who’d been following me around since I’d arrived in California.

“No. The power led you here. Just as it did your father so many years ago.”

 

I didn’t really want to know, but had to ask, “Did he do bad things here?”

“No. Dorien was incorruptible. Which I suppose is why he died in the end. Just like your grandfather Ruffman did.”
John Ruffman, leader of the first male revolt against the Dominion, was my grandfather? He created the organization now called the Ascendance. The group of male witches had given me nothing but trouble. First with Brock, then with Andrew Roman.

“Ruffman was very close to becoming the GreenMan, father earth. The Dominion killed him before he could complete the bond. Your father never aspired that high, but had the power to do it too.
You
have the power to become husband to the earth, living persona of virility and power.”

“Not interested.”

 

Max sighed. “This new generation has no ambition.”

“I have ambition. I just don’t want to hurt people.” Which was what anyone involved in the Ascendance seemed to do. “The Ascendance uses this circle.” It all made sense. The reason so many powerful males were popping up now was not because they were born more powerful than their predecessors, but because they used evil magic to boost their abilities. Just like Brock had when he’d killed people to steal their power. How many had died here in this very spot? Was the man found in the caretaker’s house part of this? A sacrifice, perhaps?

“I see you understand. The Ascendance was not always as it is now. There are very few males born with power. Not enough to make any sort of movement against a governing body as large as the Dominion. After Ruffman’s death, the few remaining members began recruiting. They used their magic to boost the power of the little ones. Corrupt only make for more corrupt.”

“What does that say about you?”

“I am not a witch. I am a vampire. I am one of the Ascendance supporters, leaders in fact, if you go just on the amount of money I provide them.”

“So you are helping them kill people.”

He shrugged again. “It used to mean something to me. I see it means a lot to you. You can change it. You have the power to take control and make it right.”

“They want me dead, don’t they?” Timothy had warned me that others wanted my power. They wanted me, and not as a leader of the Ascendance, but as a sacrifice to make more powerful male witches.

“Does that frighten you?”

I sighed. Yes, but it didn’t really surprise me. “What do you want from me?” He could probably move faster than I could shift, and even if I hadn’t, he could have easily caught me in lynx form and hurt me to begin with. This man had power seeping from him almost equivalent to a level-five witch. Max could be strong enough to take over the TriMega. The idea made me shiver.

“Destroy the evil and make the Ascendance what it should be. Protect and nurture the young men who have power.”

Sounded noble enough, but he was part of the Ascendance. Why hadn’t he fixed it already? “The Dominion is accepting males now. I have no need for the Ascendance.”

“They are accepting powerful males. What about the little ones, who don’t have much power? Girls with little power are accepted, treated like princesses, given every opportunity in life. But boys?” He shook his head. “I don’t believe you will toss them aside so easily.” He rose to his feet but didn’t approach me.

“Why do you want to help them?”

 

He appeared thoughtful for a moment. “Your grandfather was a close friend.”

 

“Yet you allowed his creation to become corrupt. You helped them.”

“I suppose. Revenge is a powerful thing, and a stupid thing. Not only did I fail to get revenge for his unjustified death, I failed to keep his dreams alive.”

His words sounded genuine, grief-filled, but this vampire had had a long time to study how humans reacted. My head said, “Be wary,” but my heart wanted to believe him. Stupid conflicting emotions.

“The power of the ring is capped. Each time they use it, the earth reabsorbs some of the power they seek to distribute. The tree in your house does that. That’s why the Ascendance wants control of the house.”

“Charles Merth was in the Ascendance—why didn’t he just give them the house?” I was pretty sure that’s why this ring still existed on his property unchallenged.

“He loved Dorien. I think he believed as long as he kept the house teeming with earth that Dorien would forgive him for continuing to allow the Ascendance to use other witches.”

My heart hurt from the idea of it, but in a twisted way it made sense.

“The Merth land sits on the intersection of the two largest ley lines in the country. The power here could be limitless. Charles was nowhere near powerful enough to control it. He feared it. Dorien could control it. The Ascendance wants it, but releasing it would cause a catastrophe like the world has never known.”

“But it feels so peaceful in the house.”

Max shrugged. “Centuries of wards and powerful earth witches, I suppose.”
So it would be up to me to maintain that peace. If I let go of the house, someone could abuse that power. Damn.
“It’s best if you don’t return here. The gate is warded to protect the property from intruders. Mostly other witches. We’ll talk again, Seiran Rou. I look forward to it.” Max vanished, like
poof
and gone. I blinked a few times, wondering how that was possible. Gabe never did anything like that. He didn’t have that kind of power rolling off him either.

I shifted back to cat form and ran back to the house as if the devil were chasing me.
Chapter 8

T
HE
horrific feeling of that ring lingered, making my fur twitch the entire way to the house. Up the stairs and through the tiny opening in the door I ran, not stopping until I was inside and had shut the door with a heavy body slam.

My fur felt covered in blood and evil residue, pulsing from that nasty ring. I stumbled up toward my room, thinking maybe I’d jump in the shower to clean it off before shifting back. Jamie passed me in the hall. “Back now?”

I ignored him and bolted into my room. The taint of the ring stretched around me. What an awful feeling, like a barrier between me and the earth of something heavy and tar-like. Thankfully I’d left my door open, and the bathroom door. I leapt into the shower, wondering how I’d turn the water on with my paws.

The light flicked on and Gabe stood in the doorway. My heart skipped a beat. Something felt wrong about him being there, but I couldn’t remember why. I pulled away as he approached the shower. The evil had to go before I touched anyone. It felt like sap ready to leech onto the next person and drain them of all happiness.

Gabe turned on the water, letting it fall in a warm rush around me. I shuddered in the cleansing warmth, begging the earth, the tree that had taken over the house, anything to clear away the evil. The shaking didn’t stop, even when the water felt scalding. A fluffy towel was wrapped around me. Gabe picked me up and carried me back to the bedroom, cradling me much like he would a scared child. He curled around me, pulled the blankets off the bed up to cover us, and held me.

I shook in his arms for a while. This was the first time in a couple of weeks since it’d really been that bad. The light from the bathroom comforted me a little. Gabe hummed softly, fingers combing through my fur in small circles. He didn’t ask me to change back or even seem to think it. His touch soothed some of the worst trembles, but my heart still hurt. I wondered where Sam was and how soon before he’d pop back in to interrupt my life again.

I shut my eyes, pressing back the tears, the oncoming rejection. Loving someone had never been easy. Somehow I’d hoped that with Gabe it would be just like breathing, since that’s how his touch felt most days, like a breeze tickling my skin. The pain in my head spread to my heart. I loved him too much to let go. Why did he let this happen if he was only going to leave?