Of Water and Madness (32 page)

In the blink
of an eye, Liam found himself on the cliff’s edge on one of the mountains that overlooked the valley, his feet teetering over the edge dangerously. He jolted backwards, arms flailing as he whirled around, searching for Dante. He spotted the other man hovering in the shadows nearby, leaning casually against the rocky mountain face, a lit cigarette in his mouth.

Letting out the breath he’d been holding, Liam glanced back over his shoulder at the valley far below, where his family was fighting the monsters. He could see Vivica, standing tall as she wielded the creatures, controlling their actions. Near her, he spotted Rhiannon. He had to trust that she would make good on what he had asked her to do. It was going to be crucial for his plan to work…but then again, this was Rhiannon, the person he trusted most in the entire world. With her sharp mind, he knew she’d get the job done.

He watched the battle for a few moments, lost in thought. Then, to his horror, a group of at least fifteen men appeared out of thin air behind Vivica, men he could only assume were demons she had summoned to join the fight. He watched, mortified, as the men sprinted into the fray of the battle, guns blazing and bullets flying. Unable to watch any longer, he whirled around to face Dante, fury in his eyes.

“How many more surprises are you gonna pull on us?” he shouted, desperately wishing he hadn’t left Rhiannon by herself. Hell, he might have just made a drastic and terrible mistake…

Dante took a drag on the cigarette and exhaled, the smoke billowing around him. Then he dropped the cigarette to the floor and snuffed it out with his black snakeskin boot before stepping toward Liam and grinning.

“I’ll take it the demons have arrived.” He peered over Liam’s shoulder to get a look of the destruction himself, pleased at the results. “You know, I don’t think this whole plan could have worked out any better.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed as he tucked his hands into his pockets, needing to do something with them so he didn’t strike out prematurely. God knows he was mad enough at that moment…

“Are there more coming?”

Dante grinned. “Even if there were, I doubt we’d need them. Apparently my rather small army has been effective enough to destroy the prestigious people of Euphora…”

“The fight isn’t won yet, Dante,” Liam reminded him, attempting to hide the relief that flooded through him at that moment. At least this was it... “If you think Thea is going to sit back and let you take control, you’re sadly mistaken.”

“She thinks she’s so smart,” Dante spat, scowling bitterly. “But I’ve outwitted her time and time again, so what makes you think she’ll get the upper hand on me this time?”

“Because you’ve screwed up. Big time,” Liam said casually, grinning at the confusion and denial that flashed over Dante’s face. “Oh, you don’t think so?”

Dante stared him down, trying to determine what kind of game Liam was playing. “The last time we met, boy, I told you I was your worst nightmare. It would do well for you to remember that now when you’re trying to screw with me.” He got in Liam’s face, his eyes ripe with rage and arrogance.

Liam merely shrugged, fighting to maintain nonchalance. He knew indifference would only piss off Dante further, but that was exactly where he wanted him.

“I’m just trying to be honest, Dante. But if you don’t want to hear it…”

“What the hell do you know?” Dante growled, stalking off to stare over the cliff’s edge toward the battle, his hands clasped regally behind his back. Everything was going according to plan…and soon they would be dead. Then he could watch Thea suffer, knowing she had no one and nothing any longer. Just like she had taken everything from him, he would take it all from her…

“Tell me, Dante, I’m curious…” Liam began, shifting to stare at the demon’s back, pleased when he stiffened at the words. “Would you take Vivica over Blythe?”

With a fierce laugh, Dante whirled around, eyebrows raised. “What kind of a question is that?”

“I was just wondering because I know how badly you want Blythe…if you could have either of them, which would you choose?”

“Blythe betrayed me,” he snapped, glaring at nothing in particular as he pondered the question. “But she’s blood. She’s the spitting image of the only person I ever gave a damn about. My obsession with her knows no bounds.” His eyes widened a bit as madness flashed over his face. Liam had to bite back his discomfort at seeing the pure fixation in the other man’s expression.

“But Vivica seems okay,” Liam put in, fanning the flames of Dante’s temper, bit by bit. Oh, and it was working.

Dante’s head snapped up as he glared at Liam. “Vivica’s a fool. Albeit a useful fool, but nothing more.”

“Then why the charade, Dante? If you don’t love her, and you don’t want her, then why lie to her?”

“Women are swayed by such things. It was simply too easy.” Dante shrugged, grimacing. “Shaking her won’t be easy once this is done.”

“See, that’s the mistake you made,” Liam pointed out with a grin.

“What is?”

“You gave her too much power.” Liam chuckled, shaking his head as if it should have been so pathetically obvious. “Haven’t you ever read Shakespeare? Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, Dante. First rule of seducing women is to maintain control. But you’ve gone and made her so important, so crucial, that you simply can’t succeed without her. And what’s worse is that she knows it. Tsk tsk.”

Dante waved the thought away, turning around to pace. But the seed was planted, and now it was growing into an entire garden of uncertainty and panic in his mind. How had he overlooked that? In his mad rush to overtake Thea and Sebastian, how had he slipped up so horrifically?

“So I’ll kill her,” Dante decided, still pacing and running through the options in his head. “We’ll finish all of you, and then I’ll put a bullet in her brain. Case closed.”

Liam rolled his eyes dramatically with a frustrated sigh. “Did you not hear me? She’s too strong, she has too much power. All she has to do is get into your mind before you have the chance to pull the trigger, and then poof! You’re her own personal slave until the day you die. Don’t think she won’t do it, the bitch is crazy and you know it.”

Dante’s eyes widened as he cursed under his breath, furious. “So I’ll drug her, and then shoot her. Hah! Reason your way out of that one, boy!”

Smirking now in triumph, Dante cocked his chin up arrogantly at Liam, tucking his hands into the pockets of his pinstriped slacks.

“Really? You don’t think she’s expecting something like that? Women like to be seduced, but they’re not stupid. For all you know, she might be planning on offing you and taking over when all this is done.”

“That’s absurd. She’s obsessed with me,” Dante argued, refusing to acknowledge the idea that Vivica would turn on him. “No…I have her right where I want her.”

“Alright, it’s your grave you’re digging. No skin off my nose.” Liam turned around to stand at the cliff’s edge once more, his eyes on the battle.

Behind him, he heard Dante begin to laugh. The sound was beginning to grate on his nerves. He whirled around, prepared to square off with the man once more but a rapid burst of fire had him falling to the ground to avoid getting burned. Dante continued to laugh as the fireball he’d launched at Liam sailed out and dissipated into thin air some yards away.

“This is what you wanted, wasn’t it?” Dante charged, watching Liam get to his feet and meet his eyes defiantly.

“I just hope you’re ready to drown, asshole,” Liam muttered through gritted teeth as he shot a fierce stream of water straight at Dante, knocking the man back into the mountain face, causing rocks to tumble down around him. Dante managed to dodge out of the way, shooting out a fireball as he sprinted to the side. Liam extinguished the ball of fire midair with a second burst of water, a grin curving over his lips. “That the best you got, Dante?”

Dante shook his head as he rubbed his hands together manically, his eyes lit with glee and adrenaline. “You forget, boy, that I have one distinct advantage over you.”

“Fire doesn’t stand a chance against water and you know it.”

Dante’s head fell back with a quick and fierce laugh, his eyes flashing a murderous, bloody red as he smiled. “But I wonder how water will fare when confronted with a demon?”

And then, almost in an instant, the man evaporated into nothing but a black, shadowy mist, out of which emerged a shadowy serpent that crawled horrifically toward Liam, vivid red eyes glowing through the darkness.

It had taken Rhiannon more than a few moments to deal with the fact that Liam had quite simply disappeared into thin air along with Dante. God knows where Vivica sent them, or if he would ever return…

But she had to have faith in him, just as he had faith in her. There was nothing she could do for him now, other than what he had asked of her before he had left.

The sudden appearance of brute looking humans possessed by demons had thrown her off kilter, but thankfully they had launched themselves into the group of those already fighting and had paid little attention to her.

In fact, she was currently the only person other than Vivica who was not fighting. And up until the moment she wandered into Vivica’s line of sight and broke the woman’s concentration did Vivica even realize she hadn’t been alone.

Vivica jolted, almost losing control over the monsters, who momentarily paused fighting and nearly collapsed. But she merely scowled and swiftly regained control before turning to Rhiannon.

“Shouldn’t you be out there with the others, little girl? Or are you too scared?” Vivica challenged, smirking at Rhiannon as she planted her hands on her hips and cocked her chin up condescendingly.

Rhiannon’s eyes narrowed as she stepped closer. “It would be nice to know just who I was fighting against. You’re getting into their minds, controlling them…how?”

Vivica rolled her eyes as she laughed. “You mean they didn’t take the time to fill you in?”

“Between the kidnapping and the drugging, no, there hasn’t been much time for explanations. But from what I’ve gathered tonight, you used to live on Euphora, and Thea banished you.”

“I was a Muse,” Vivica revealed proudly, tossing back her long locks of blonde hair as she smiled. “Nearly a hundred years ago I lived on Euphora. But apparently my…methods were not appropriate in Thea’s eyes.”

“From what I heard, you used your powers to hurt people. I can see why Thea didn’t appreciate that,” Rhiannon said, crossing her arms over her chest and eyeing Vivica strangely. “But what happened to you when you were banished?”

“I experimented, mostly.” Vivica frowned, those days dark and distant to her now. “Voodoo became an obsession of mine. It was a way I could influence others that Thea had no control over. But one night…things got carried away.” She clenched her teeth, the memory of the horrific pain and confusion coursing through her. She had to fight back the nausea she felt just from thinking of it. “I conducted a ritual with some of my followers and we opened a portal, allowing a demon to come through. I was in a trance, seduced by the magic and the music, and because of it the demon was drawn to my weakness. He possessed me, and used me to attack my followers. And, as a result, they murdered me and the demon inside my body, not truly understanding anything more other than that they had released an insurmountable evil.”

Rhiannon’s eyes widened. “If you died, then how are you standing here?”

“Ah, now that’s the most interesting part.” Vivica smiled wickedly, her eyes flashing with power and pride. How desperately she wanted to brag… “When they killed me, the demon dragged me down with him to Hell, giving me no choice in the matter. Though I must say, it worked out nicely because I was something of a commodity in the Underworld. You see, very rarely does a Muse, or anyone from Euphora, end up down there in death. And so they used me. They took what I was and made me better, stronger, more powerful. And then they waited for the right person to come along and release me. Dante was just the right man for the job…”

Rhiannon chewed her bottom lip for a moment, thinking through all the new information. “So Dante released you and then used you to release the harpies, the Black Dog, and the dragon?”

Vivica sneered, insulted. “He didn’t use me. We’re partners. I just happened to be extraordinarily useful to him, but without his knowledge on where the creatures were contained, I wouldn’t have known where to find them.”