Pale Demon (35 page)

My gaze came up, fastening on my mother. Unshed tears made her eyes dark. She was gazing at Lucy with longing, remembering Robbie and me. When she glanced up, I gave her a rueful smile. Damn it, she’d given me Lucy for just this reason. It wasn’t an elf thing, it was just…life.

“She likes you,” Trent said again, but he was reaching for her, jealous maybe.

“Perhaps she knows you helped her survive,” Ivy said from the background.

“Look at her ears, Rache,” Jenks said as he returned to my shoulder, and I moved away from Trent. “You gotta look at her ears.”

Her ears?
Pulling her back to me, I leaned closer, breathing in cinnamon as I peeked under her bonnet. Trent’s jaw was clenched, but he let me do it. Lucy just cooed, and I stared as Ivy leaned close to me to see as well.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” I whispered, my attention darting up to Trent as he frowned. “They’re pointy.” Trent was annoyed, but I was almost laughing. “You guys have to dock your ears to fit in?” I said in a hushed voice.

“Not anymore,” he answered, reaching to take her.

Lucy gurgled as I felt her almost-not-there weight leave me, kicking in frustration until her father—
oh my God, Trent had a baby
—took her. My shoulders slumped, and I felt her loss. On the stage, they were making motions to start the meeting, and Pierce was trying to get my mother and Ivy to sit down. “Is she really yours?” I asked Trent as they took their seats in the second row while he rearranged Lucy’s blanket around her.

He wouldn’t look at me. “In about six different ways,” he said, and remembering how I’d felt after holding her for just one minute, I knew what he meant.

“Trent, why didn’t you tell me you were after your…child?”

All around us, people were settling in, hushing themselves, getting ready for a show. But he was oblivious to them as he looked at me, a mixture of embarrassment and reluctance in him that I’d never seen before. “I don’t know,” he admitted, seeming more honest, more bewildered than he’d ever been before. “It sounded lame. Me? Going three thousand miles to steal a baby? I’m a product of the twenty-first century, not some elf with a title living in a castle with servants.”

“Yeah, but it was your kid,” Jenks said, having finally parked it on my shoulder.

Lucy was kicking at her blanket, and he tucked it back not even knowing he had done it. “She wasn’t mine until I saw her.” His gaze was unfocused as he remembered. “She’s…” He stopped, unable to put it into words as he looked at her. She was entirely her own person but needed him for everything.

“She’s beautiful,” I said softly.

Trent’s attention flicked to me, and his grip on her grew possessive. “I’d do anything for her. Risk anything. I never got it until now. I never understood true sacrifice.”

Huh. Maybe Lucy was going to save us all.

Jenks clattered his wings, going to distract her and make her squirm. “Just like any parent, Trent,” he said as he hovered over her, reminding me of who he was. “Think you can
do anything
for Rachel for the next hour? You owe her. I may have helped you get Lucy, but Rachel got you here alive to do it. Even with your
help
.”

My chest tightened, and where I was came rushing back. Trent was nodding, and Vivian began tapping her amplifying amulet for attention. “Just about anything,” he said, smiling with half his face. He looked at me, and even that vanished. “Rachel, it’s going to get bad. You’re going to have to trust me. You’ve got to lose before you can win.”

“Oh, that makes a lot of sense,” I said darkly. “You aren’t old enough for wise-old-man crap. Even with a three-month-old in your arms.”

He leaned close as Jenks zipped off to talk to my mother. “I mean it,” he said, Lucy reaching up for my face. “Oliver is going to weasel out of his promise no matter what I say. He knows you’re not going to tell anyone that witches were born from demons. If you do, witch society will crumble in a century of witch hunts that will make Salem look like a puppet show.”

“No,” I said, but he wasn’t listening.

“You’re going to lose,” he said firmly. “And when you do, I’m telling you, don’t do anything stupid. Go with it. Go to Alcatraz. Go with Al. I don’t care, but just go with it. It’s not over when that bell rings.”

Trent’s gaze went to the silver bell on the coven’s table, and fear slid through me. I heard what he was saying. Oliver was scum. Trent didn’t see me walking out of here. He had me lost and was planning a comeback. I looked at Ivy, and her eyes dilated at my fear.

“Take your seats, please,” Vivian said loudly from the podium, her words bouncing through the auditorium and silencing 90 percent of the noise.

Pierce was at my elbow, and he pulled me down the empty aisle of seats, putting us right in front of my mother and Ivy. Trent edged in next, and we all sat. On the stage, there were two empty chairs at the coven’s table, one for Vivian, one for Brooke. I could not lose. I couldn’t. I’d be in the ever-after, taking my sun in thieving snatches.

Vivian gestured at the silver bell, and it chimed, making me jump. A wave of force had echoed out of it, having the feeling of a bubble going up. The auditorium was closed for the duration. No one in or out. It had begun.

I
said pipe down!” Vivian said crossly when the room reacted to the doors locking. Trent tried to quiet Lucy with an offered pinkie, and she protested, refusing it. Behind me, my mother piled her stuff on the empty seat next to her and settled in, completely unfazed. Pierce ran a nervous hand over his soft curls, taking his hat off and dropping his hand to finger his stolen badge.

“You will
shut up
!” Vivian shouted, cheeks coloring when Oliver said something only those on the stage could hear. “As the junior member of the coven, it’s my responsibility to maintain order at these proceedings, and you will be silent or I’ll gag you myself!”

My mother leaned forward, between Pierce and me. “She’s a bit of a hard-ass,” she said, and Jenks buzzed his wings.

“You’ve no idea, Ms. Morgan,” he said. Then he sat on my shoulder, his wings tickling my neck. It was good to have him back.

Vivian put her hands on her hips and waited, frowning. Slowly the witches grew silent as she used a sixth-grade-teacher stare on them. I put a hand on my stomach, feeling sick. Everyone I cared about was around me. Oliver had promised to clear my name if I publicly apologized for using black magic and never went to the press with the fact that witches were stunted demons. I had held up my end of the bargain, even when the coven had tried to off me, but Trent, playing peekaboo with Lucy, believed they’d back out of it, scared I’d go to the press with the ugly truth anyway. If Oliver called my bluff, I didn’t know if I could do it. Not only would it destroy our society, but it would upset the balance of everyone else’s.
I’ll hurt him. I’ll friggin’ make Oliver sorry if he screws me over.

I jumped when Pierce touched me, a slow trickle of broken ever-after turning into a rush that made me feel ill once he had my attention. “You need this,” he said, slipping me the security amulet.

“Pierce, no,” I whispered, not taking my eyes off the stage as I tried to shove it back into his hands, but he only dropped it in my pocket. Neither one of us was touching it, but it was a ley-line charm, and I tried to dampen the flow to something that didn’t feel like tinfoil on teeth. My headache eased, and I was starting to wonder if I needed to be in touch with a ley line to feel good.

“Thank you,” I whispered, and he sat in his chair, totally happy with himself.

“It’s a trifle,” he said, and I touched his hand with my free one, completing the circuit and giving him a taste.

“I mean, for being here with me,” I said, and he smiled.

“I know.” From my other side, Trent sighed dramatically, and Pierce pulled away, turning his attention to the stage.

“Thank you,” Vivian said sarcastically, not a hint of overdone dramatic flair in her speech. “This is going to be a long night, and I want it done before sunrise so you princess wannabes can hit the fairy ball on the beach, so I’m going to throw out all the dramatic crap you’re all used to from Oliver and cut to the chase.”

The casual, matter-of-fact manner in which she was conducting herself had caused a stir, but I was relieved. Vivian was a bit of fire and spit, and I didn’t think I could stomach seeing her standing before us in robes and speaking with the airy distance of pomp and circumstance.

“This doesn’t mean I will be dispensing with the
rules,
” she said, accentuating the word as if talking to Oliver alone. “And since we can’t do anything without a full quorum, we’re going to take five minutes and swear in a new coven member.”

Beside me, Pierce trembled. His hands formed fists, and then he opened them, setting them on his pants with his fingers spread wide. There was an excited reaction from the crowd, and my attention went to the five hopefuls sitting in the same row we were but on the other side of the theater.

“Initiates?” Vivian said, her mood shifting to one of ceremony.

“Excuse me,” Pierce said as he stood, causing a stir among the people who noticed him.

Trent looked up at him in surprise. “Where is he going?”

I didn’t answer, instead leaning back when Ivy touched my shoulder and whispered, “This should be interesting.”

Vivian hadn’t noticed him crossing to the second set of stairs, focused on the other five hopefuls coming up the left side. “After much deliberation…,” she began, then hesitated as the crowd reacted to Pierce taking the stage and walking steadily forward. Vivian turned to him, and I swear her eyes held amused anticipation.

Pierce halted, just shy of center stage. “May I approach, Madam Coven Member?” he asked, voice booming so he could be heard without an amulet.

Oliver reached to touch his own amulet. “No,” he said flatly, and Vivian gave him a withering look.

“You gave me this job, Oliver,” she said sharply. “Let me do it.” And as Oliver frowned, she turned and dramatically crossed the stage to hand him another amulet. “The coven recognizes Gordian Pierce.”

Pierce fingered the metal ring, his eyes going everywhere but to me as he took off his coat and went to set it over the podium. Slowly he took over the stage without saying a word. His head came up, and the crowd became still. He wasn’t wearing anything unusual, just brown slacks, a white shirt, and that flamboyant vest, carefully buttoned and holding a pocket watch. The way he carried himself evolved as he stood there, and I stifled a shiver as Trent grunted in surprise. He was different, dangerous. And I had no idea what he was going to do.

“I’m of a mind to beg your pardon, Madam Coven Member,” he said softly, his words going out perfectly with the help of the amulet. “And with all due respect to those fine witches you have assembled here, sworn in and ready to commit their lives to service, there is no coven opening. I am here.

I am the sixth. And that’s all the pie there is.”

The crowd stirred, most of the noise swallowed up by the space. With a sliding sound of wood, Oliver stood. “Get him out of here!” he roared, stirring the people into a buzzing whisper.

Pierce didn’t recognize him, fixed on Vivian, waiting out the noise.

“You are a black witch!” Oliver shouted. “Shunned and—”

Pierce spun, and Oliver’s words choked off. “Bricked into the ground, aye, where I gasped out my last, six feet under, buried alive and breaking my nails to bloody stumps as I tried to claw my way free. And I died despite it. But I’m a coven member nonetheless, and I have returned to claim my position. And 156 years of back pay.”

Ivy leaned forward and tapped my shoulder. “I take back everything I said about your sleeping with him.”

“Gee, thanks,” I said dryly, and Trent stifled a guffaw. Jenks, though, clattered his wings for us to shut up so he could hear.

The other coven members put their heads together, and I waited, watching them. Amanda looked scared, Oliver full of bluster, Wyatt peeved, and Leon like he wanted it to be over.

It took only a moment, and then Oliver said, “You are a black witch, tried and condemned. You have lost your claim. Security!”

Dropping back a step, Pierce took a stiff stance. I knew he couldn’t tap a line, but it was dramatic, and the approaching men halted before they even hit the puddle of light.

“I will be heard!” he shouted, eyes angry. “This meeting, called for Rachel Morgan to apologize for using black magic in her effort to save lives, is a farce. The goal here is to validate or deny the use of black magic for the greater good, not apologize for using it. I opine that until you make a fist of the issue, I have a claim!”

Vivian waved security back, and Pierce relaxed. From the audience rose a nervous murmur. Oliver, though, seemed too catty for my comfort. He looked to his left, then his right, to get everyone’s opinion and their nods, and sat back down with a magnanimous gesture.

Crap, it was all or nothing now. Apologizing wasn’t going to do it. I had to justify myself. Thanks, Pierce.

Vivian’s smile grew wide, as if that was a good thing, and I let out a breath, unaware that I’d been holding it. “The vacant coven membership remains in question then,” she said, glancing back into the wings to someone on the support staff. “All in favor of exploring the validity of legalizing black magic in specific people for the intent of the greater good and using the case of Rachel Morgan as the cornerstone?”

As one, they all muttered their ayes.

“Opposed?”

It was simply a formality, but no one breathed as she waited to the count of five. Clearly pleased, Vivian looked down at me, and my heart stopped. “Rachel, is this okay with you?”

“S-sure,” I stammered when Trent jabbed his elbow into me.

“Can we have two more chairs up here?” Vivian asked someone in the wings, and a skinny, tall man in black slacks and shirt emerged with two plain brown folding chairs.

“Well, get your ass up there,” Jenks said, and I had a moment of panic.

“Wish me luck,” I whispered as I set my bag on my chair and stood. I was feeling Jenks’s loss already as he stayed, perched on the back of my chair, beside Trent, where his dust sifted over a cooing Lucy, reaching for him with her little hands.

I felt unreal as I watched my steps, head down and looking at the red-and-silver pattern in the carpet as I made my way to the stage. The stairs had treads on them, but I still held the railing as I went up, my palms starting to sweat. Someone in the crowd hissed as I found the light. It was warm up here, but I shivered. Pierce stood beside the podium where the two new chairs waited. He wasn’t smiling. And I was so friggin’ scared.

“Come on, Rachel!” Jenks shrilled. “You’re a badass, not a bad witch!”

My head came up, jaw clenched. He was right, and I gave him a bunny-eared kiss-kiss. Someone laughed. I couldn’t see who it was through the lights, but I breathed easier.

Vivian’s Möbius-strip pin caught the glint of the spotlight, and wisps of her blond hair that had escaped her elaborate coiffure drifted in the heat as she approached me. Confident and sure, she looked miles away from the tangled mess in the back of my car. Handing me my amplification amulet, she gave my shoulder a squeeze to publicly show her support. It was a bold move on her part, and I appreciated it. She couldn’t be fired, but as Pierce had proved, you could be retired.

“It’s a ley-line charm,” she said. “But you have to touch it for it to work. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” I looped the amulet over my head, making sure that the small disc wasn’t touching skin. I didn’t want anyone hearing my private words to Pierce.

He sat a moment after I did, and I tried to look attractive but not slutty in my leather dress. I had a moment’s thought for the cap I’d forgotten, on the couch back at the hotel, and then I turned to Pierce as he said, “Are you well?”

“I’m okay. Yourself?” I was going to puke. I knew it.

Pierce sent his gaze into the glare. “About the same. Having died once, the outcome of a public trial has lost much of its threat.”

“I’d think it would be the other way around,” I said, then jerked when Vivian called my name. She was back at the podium, waiting.

“Rachel? I think everyone knows why you’re here. Would you like to say anything?”

Some of the crowd muttered, and I thought I heard “black witch,” but I stood, trying to gather everyone’s attention with a moment of silence. I picked out Trent through the glare, thinking he looked worried as he tried to keep Lucy quiet. I daren’t look at my mother or Ivy, and Jenks was too small. This would be tricky. If I lied, the silver bell on the table would ring. I had come here under the lie of having been forced into black magic to test Trent’s security systems. That wasn’t the issue anymore, and I’d have to be careful with what I said.

Finally there was silence. I took a breath. Feeling dizzy, I reached to touch my amulet. “I’m here because of manipulation by both the coven and outside forces, and I’m claiming my shunning should be permanently annulled.”

You’d think I’d dropped a bloody vampire into a sweet-sixteen pajama party. The crowd burst into noise, and I felt sick when from up in the balcony, the chant “Burn her, burn her” drifted down.

“Steady, Rachel,” Pierce said, his eyes narrowed as he sat beside me. “They’re ignorant and frightened.”

“Yeah, but they can still kill me,” I said, thinking longingly of my kitchen.

“Enough!” Vivian shouted. “You want me to clear the auditorium and do this behind closed doors?”

Fear tightened my shoulders, and I almost panicked. A private “trial” would be my end. The threat of my going public with our origins would be gone. I’d never even get my say, but would be shoved on a boat and be on my way to Alcatraz on the midnight run. But Vivian was only trying to get them to be quiet, and it worked. Still holding her frown, aimed at the crowd, she gestured for me to continue.

“I was forced into learning black magic in order to survive,” I said truthfully, nodding to Trent, in the first row. That a hundred circumstances had forced me, not Trent, was beside the point, and I couldn’t help it if they thought I was talking about him. “I know black magic, but I’ve never hurt anyone but myself. And I’m not going to apologize for it.” My eye twitched as I thought of the fairies, and from the coven’s table, there was a tiny ping of sound as the silver bell rang, giving evidence of my lie.

“No, that’s a lie,” I quickly amended as the crowd stirred. “I killed fairies to keep them from burning down my church and massacring my partner and his family when the coven started taking potshots at me. But I’ve never hurt anyone who wasn’t trying to kill me first.”

The crowd responded with an almost disappointed ferocity. I felt my face pale when I realized that these people, whom I counted as my own, were actually
eager
for my blood. They reminded me of Trent’s dogs, and my knees became weak.

“I’m sorry, Rachel,” Pierce said, touching my hand. “I’m so sorry.”

“Fairies aren’t real people!” Jenks shrilled, his familiar voice cutting through the noise. “That doesn’t count.”

Oliver leaned forward to pour himself a cup of water, looking too satisfied to live. “But Rachel believes they
are
people, and she used black magic to kill them,” he said as he touched his amulet. “I say it stands.”