Succession of Witches (26 page)

The first thing Sammael did when he appeared in the room was give Helen a quick kiss on the lips. The demon was wearing a tuxedo, complete with a top hat and black gloves. Cassie wondered if he’d just come from a party, or if he’d gotten dressed up just for Helen. “My love, I thought you’d never call. Ah, I smell wonderfully devious magic in the air.” He sniffed the air and wrinkled his nose. “And pizza.”

“You’re welcome to it
if you like,” said Helen. “Now—”

“Please spare us, My Lord!” yelled Lawrence, prostrating himself; of course, given that he was being pulled down towards the floor by some kind of magical force, that wasn’t hard. “We’ll do anything, absolutely anything! We’ll serve you for the rest of our lives!”

“Oh God, shut up,” muttered Quentin.

“Indeed. You’re annoying, quiet down.” said Sammael, waving his hand in Lawrence’s direction. The man’s mouth seemed to literally disappear, leaving a blank wall of flesh where his lips should be. Even though she had no love for the man, Cassie couldn’t help wincing in sympathy; it hurt to even look at his face.

“As I was saying—” Helen began, but Sammael spoke over her.

“Now, what is this marvelous spell you’ve prepared here? Let’s see—it has something to do with you, right?” He walked over to Dylan and sniffed at the teen’s collar. “Ah, you’re what, 19 years old? Charmed every day of your life with an anti-demon spell since birth, I think. As was the house, I would guess. You enter the house and bam!” he clapped his hands together. “The circle is complete, and it’s an anti-demon spell ten times as powerful as either would be independently. Only my wife, gentlemen,” he said, applauding. “Trust me, you find a witch who thinks like that, you put a ring on it.”

Helen rolled her eyes; Cassie thought she might be trying to hide the fact that she was flattered
.
“For your information, the spell didn’t work as well as I’d like: I was hoping it might incapacitate you too.”

Sammael turned to her with a wounded look on his face. “That
hurts, pumpkin. More importantly, why haven’t you been summoning me?”

Helen looked away. “You know why.”

“Enlighten me,” said Sammael, and Cassie swallowed. It was impossible not to hear the threat implied in his tone. But if Helen was frightened at all, she didn’t show it.

“You won’t let me age,” she said. “It’s my right.”

“Oh not that again!” he said, pacing. He seemed completely unaware of everyone else except Helen, which was quite a feat, considering how crowded the room was. “Why do you want to die? Do you want to get away from me that badly?” he said. Cassie looked from him to Helen, transfixed; there was genuine hurt there. The very idea that Helen wanted to age, and possibly die, seemed to upset him.

“Whether I do or not is my business,” said Helen. “The fact
remains, we are separated until you restore me to my proper age. But what’s important right now is these demons here, who tried to kill and eat our son,” said Helen, motioning to Lawrence, Quentin, and the as-of-yet-unnamed third demon.

“I’ve thought of doing that several times, but I had no idea there was a support group available,” said Sammael, then he sighed. “But come on, no changing the subject. Is that really the only reason you haven’t been summoning me?”

“Well…” said Helen, looking down and away. “The fact of the matter is, darling, you bore me.”

Sammael reacted like he’d been slapped, then looked around the room at everyone, even
Quentin, with a look of
Can you believe this woman?
on his face. “Excuse me?”

“It’s always,
let’s watch the Trojan War again
, or
let’s watch the slaves build the pyramids
,” said Helen, shrugging. “It was fascinating the first dozen or so times, but frankly, at this point I’d rather read.”

“Dear,” Sammael said patiently, as though talking to a child. “Why didn’t you tell me? You know I can’t read your mind—well, technically I can, but I swore I wouldn’t as part of my vows, so same difference,” he said.

Helen still wasn’t looking at him; there was something downright contrary about her pose, Cassie thought. “I shouldn’t have to tell you I’m bored. You should have some ability to discern my mood, by this point in time.”

“Right, so it’s all about my not meeting these imaginary standards that exist solely in your mind again,” he said, shaking his head. “I am so tired of this, you make it so I can’t read your mind, then you blame me for not reading your mind, and this is
all my fault somehow? You’re being completely unreasonable!”

Cassie felt slightly delirious; this was like a lover’s quarrel seen through some bizarre funhouse mirror. She wished they would talk about something else, because right now, she felt downright voyeuristic listening to them.

“Perhaps,” said Helen. “But for now, what should we do about this situation?”

“This?” said Sammael, waving his hand.
“Nothing. Let our son, who you love so very much, fight his way out of it. If he’s as good as you say, he should be able to.”

Helen clicked her tongue. “I suppose you’re averse to finishing them off because you’ll be accused of intervening in a children’s quarrel?”

“I’d never hear the end of it from the guys,” said Sammael, turning to look at Cassie. He also looked at Aeka, stretched out on the floor, the only one left in the room who was still asleep, for some mysterious reason. “Although, the spoils are hardly child’s play,” he murmured. Cassie felt a chill go down her spine and did her best to become invisible; she never wanted Sammael to look at her the way he was looking at Aeka right now, like he had special plans for every cell in her body.

“Don’t be greedy,” said Helen, moving towards her son’s side. “He’s done what you asked; I summoned you. Now, time to pay up what you owe.”

Sammael was quiet for a minute, then he slammed his fist in the wall above Aeka’s prone form. Bits of plaster went flying everywhere and Cassie winced. “That’s the whole reason why you summoned me, isn’t it? So you could bestow another gift upon your precious little baby boy,” he practically spat. “Since the day he was born, I’ve been nothing but a means to an end to you!”

Now it was Helen’s turn to speak slowly and patiently. “Darling, you’ve been a means to an end to me from the moment I first summoned you. I never once tried to hide it.”

Cassie stifled a gasp and tried even harder to blend into the wall.
That’s it, we’re all going to die. She’s hurt his pride, he’s going to light us all on fire, and that’s that. Oh well—still better than having to be Quentin’s lapdog, I guess? Maybe?

To her surprise, Sammael didn’t seem to react much to Helen’s declaration. “It’s true. You’ve never lied about your intentions,” he said, finishing with a deep sigh. He turned on his heel and knelt in front of Sam, who was still struggling under the weight of the curse. “As promised, I’m going to show you how to travel back and forth from Realm whenever you desire. Pay attention, because I’m only going to show you this once,” he said and put his hand on Sam’s forehead.

There was complete silence in the room, everyone staring at the two nearly identical demons by the window. Cassie felt the familiar itch between her shoulder blades, an indicator that strong magic was at work, and rubbed her shoulders against the wall to try to make it go away. After a moment, Sammael removed his hand and stood up.

“I’ve got it,” said Sam in a low voice.

“Damn well better,” said Sammael. “I guess that’s all I’m needed for. Good night, Helen: Good God, but you are a piece of work,” he said, bowing his top hat to her.

“Tssk,” said Helen. “Don’t leave like that. I’m not completely hopeless, you know.”

Sammael just looked tired. “Dear, you know I love you, but I really am out of patience. If you have something to say—”

“Want to go out for a night on the town? It’s been a while,” said Helen, smiling. Her smile was dazzling; she wasn’t beautiful, but somehow when she smiled, Cassie could imagine a little bit of what had so attracted the Demon Lord to her. Maybe it was because her smiles were so rare, but they seemed to be imbued with a kind of mischievous glee.
“Or maybe more than a night.”

Sammael put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her as though he was afraid he hadn’t heard her correctly. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, if you’d like, I would be willing to go back to the Realm with you for some length of time—see what you’ve done with my room, and so on. I’m not ungrateful for the fact that you came to me without hesitation after so long, or that you gave our son such a lovely gift on my behalf, you know.”

Sammael broke out into a grin.
“Finally! Why didn’t you say so!”

“Of course, for the record, you should ha
ve given it to him MUCH sooner—”

“Say no more, let’s get going right away!” he said, picking her up into his arms in a smooth motion.

“Helen? Father?” said Sam in a weak voice. The sight of him shocked Cassie; he was looking up at them with a lost expression, like a scared little boy. She’d never seen him look so vulnerable, even when Quentin was draining his blood.

“You’re not an infant anymore boy, it’s time to stop coddling you. Kill your enemies yourself and stop leaning on your mother,” said Sammael, stroking Helen’s thigh. Cassie blushed and looked away. “Also, tip: your blood belongs
inside
your body.”

“Clean this up quickly
Sam, I don’t want any more damage to the house. Take it outside,” said Helen matter-of-factly.

“Helen, please—Mom!” Sam called, and Cassie’s heart broke for him just a little bit. In the blink of an eye, Sammael and Helen were gone. For some reason (and Cassie was never sure why she was aware of this or even cared), she was pretty sure Sammael had also taken the pizza.

After the dramatic exit of Sam’s parents, there was a moment of confusion while everyone dealt with the (very literal) power vacuum in the room. Dylan had somehow slipped out while Sammael and Helen were arguing, and as soon as the pair vanished, the spell was lifted and all the demons collapsed in relief. Lawrence took in great gasps of air through his mouth, which had reappeared, fortunately for him.

Quentin recovered his composure first and staggered to his feet. He turned to Sam, who was still tied up with cursed rope. “Jesus, those are your
parents
? No wonder you’re a mess.”

“You have no idea,” said Sam, and then he was gone. Cassie blinked; where he had been sitting, there was only a tangle of rope. He had used his new ability to transport himself to the Realm immediately.

“Dammit!” Quentin yelled, then pulled Cassie up by her hair and pulled her towards him; she yelped in pain, and he put his hand over her mouth. “You know I won’t kill her, but I can do plenty of other things! If you care about her at all, you’ll come back right now!”

Despite being fought over by demons quite a bit, being manhandled was actually a fairly new experience for her. She struggled reflexively, and he pulled her into his body, throwing one arm across her chest and getting a grip on her breast. Cassie felt nauseous; she missed her protection amulet badly. He squeezed her tighter and she screamed.

“Hey, cut that out, that’s uncalled for,” said Bennet; he was still tied up, presumably because his ropes were also cursed and Dylan hadn’t been able to cut through them.

“I suppose you want me to report this to the court as well, Mr. Rhodes?” said Serenus, looking pale and more than a little disgusted. He was crumpled next to the bed, as though he hadn’t recovered from Helen’s spell yet.

“Shut up!” Quentin snarled.

Cassie began breathing in
short, shallow gasps, but then the sound of Sam’s voice in her head soothed her.

Tell these animals that I am simply following my mother’s advice and taking the fighting out of the house. If they want me, I’m in the backyard.

“He’s outside,” said Cassie breathlessly. “He wants to fight you outside.”

“Is that true?” asked Quentin, spinning her around to look at her face. “Or are you just telling a lie to manipulate me? You like that, don’t you?” Cassie had
to look away; his breath smelled like poison, but it was probably from the amount of Sam’s blood that he had drunk.

“Why would I lie about it?” Cassie screamed. “I’m just telling you what he told me in my head!”

Seemingly satisfied with that, Quentin released her, and she fell back into Serenus’ arms.

“Let’s go kill that son of a bitch—and in this case, he really is a son of a
bitch
,” Quentin snarled.

“I don’t like this Q,” said Lawrence, still holding the skin around his mouth as though it hurt. “This has gone completely off the rails. Let’s cut our losses and go.”

“I agree,” said the third demon, quiet up until now.

“Are you both complete idiots?” Quentin snapped. “We have to take care of him now, while he’s injured, it’s three-on-one and we have these barriers! If we let him live, he’ll heal up and come after us separately.”

“You’re right, we have to finish what we started,” said the third demon, rubbing his chin. “We have him on the ropes now. I’m renegotiating, I want the entire city of Sterling to be added to my territory after he’s dead.”

“Whatever, I don’t care!” Quentin yelled. “One thing first though: Bikanos!” He tur
ned and pointed at Bennet, whose eyes widened in surprise, then blood started to pour out of his mouth.

Cassie gasped; Quentin had performed a killing curse on Bennet, she could sense it. She tried to cross the room to go to him, but Serenus held her back.

“You can’t,” he whispered in her ear.

Quentin grinned at Bennet. “I was going to leave you alive for the sake of avoiding another legal problem, but to hell with it, I don’t care anymore. Now you can die for stabbing me in the back.”

Bennet made a gurgling noise and fell over on his side, while the three demons left the room. “Cassie, Examiner: if you know what’s good for you, don’t leave. I’ll be in a bad mood if I have to hunt you down,” Quentin called over his shoulder. Then they were gone.

Cassie ran to Bennet’s side; she had no way of knowing exactly what the curse had done to him, but if it was anything like Sam’s killing curse from last year, maybe she could still stop it. She took a deep breath; she had parlayed a death sentence before, why not again?

“Cassandra, don’t,” said Serenus quietly. “You can’t save him, it’s too late.”

“How do you know!” she snapped, then put her hands on the side of Bennet’s head. Before she could reach for her magic though, hands reached around her waist and removed her from Bennet’s side.

“We really have to do something about this disturbing Stockholm Syndrome of yours,” said Sam, depositing her on the bed.

“Sam!” she cried. “They’re outside, looking for you.”

“I know, and I’ll be out to deal with them in a second,” he said, kneeling at Bennet’s side; he was wearing a fresh shirt, and he looked uninjured.

“It’s only been about two minutes for us. How long was it for you?” asked Serenus.

Sam shook his head, then put his hand on Bennet’s forehead. “No idea; time is different there. I’ve had time to heal up though, and I know some things.” He murmured something Cassie couldn’t hear, then in a quick, strange motion, all the blood that Bennet had coughed up reversed direction, and he jerked awake with a start.

“What is
—? How—?” Bennet stuttered between gasps.

“You just brought him back from the dead,” said Serenus quietly.

“No, just a local time reversal,” said Sam, standing up. He pointed at Bennet’s ropes, moved his lips and they disintegrated.

“In effect it’s the same thing,” said Serenus.

Bennet was looking up at Sam, his brown eyes so wide she could see the whites all the way around his irises. Cassie couldn’t tell if he was staring at him with terror, joy or a lot of both.

“Don’t thank me, as far as I’m concerned we’re even now,” said Sam. He turned to Cassie. “I need a barrier if I’m going to fight them.”

“Right. Here,” she said, reaching out her arm to him. He looked at her hand for a moment, then returned his gaze to her face.

“Maybe I’ve been gone longer than I thought,” he said, and before she knew what was happening, he had pulled her close and was kissing her. Heat rushed to her face and she could hear her heart hammering in her chest, but she also felt the warmth leaving her body as he tapped into her magic; it was a strange, hot-yet-cold sensation that reminded her of being in the Realm, only instead of being acutely painful, it felt like something much, much more gentle. He put his hands on her back softly, so different from the way Quentin had grabbed her before, then she shivered and he was gone again.

Cassie collapsed on the floor, feeling like all her nerves were vibrating. When she closed her eyes, fireworks seemed to be going off inside her eyelids. It was several moments before she could think properly again.

Was that really just a kiss? Or did something happen?

When she’d gotten her breath back, she stood, and took in the room. Serenus and Bennet looked exhausted, Miri was still passed out on the dresser, and Aeka, bless her, was still unconscious on the floor. The girl had slept through the entire thing.

“I’m going outside,” she said, turning to Serenus. “I can’t just sit here and wait while he’s fighting for his life.” They all heard a booming noise coming from outside, felt the vibrations in the floorboards, and knew the fight had begun.

“I’m coming with you,” said Bennet, struggling to his feet.

“You don’t owe him anything,” said Serenus, eyeing Bennet warily.

“Serenus!” Cassie cried, surprised at him.

He ignored her. “You’ve more than made up for your crime, and you’ve already died once tonight. You might not come back a second time.”

“I know,” said Bennet, stretching. He moved his lips and a barrier flashed to life around him; he must have tapped into a familiar before coming to them. “But I understand what the prophecy means now, and I know what side I’m on. If I have to be just a footnote in history, I want to be on the winning side, at least.”

“Let’s go!” said Cassie, grabbing Bennet’s arm.

“I can’t go with you,” said Serenus. He looked ashen, as though he had grown ten years older over the course of the evening.

“I know, Ser. Just say safe, and take care of Aeka when she wakes up. If she wakes up,” she said,
then ran out the door with Bennet hot on her heels.