The Dark Gifts Birthright (33 page)

Michael kept a smile on his face and laughed
with the rest, even joining in the tales sometimes, but all the
while, he felt Jenna’s mental nudge, trying to enter his mind,
trying to gain control. She had chosen her new protector…Michael.
Exactly as planned.

After the tea party, Michael gave Minerva a
slight nod and told her that he would stay with Jenna until the
time for her field trip came. Minerva smiled back, knowing that
their plan was working, kissed the child on the head and left with
Callista. Glancing at his watch, he noticed the time for their
departure was near, so he enticed Jenna to sit on his lap, and he
read her a story.

As Michael read, he rocked, and before long
Jenna was fast asleep in his arms. He sat in the quiet looking down
at the young girl that they had all grown to love. Worry lined his
face. While she slept, he could feel the demon trying to enter his
mind. Even when her own mind was unaware, the powerful thing inside
her was assiduously at work.

The time had finally come to leave. Michael
stood with the still sleeping Jenna, while Minerva quickly opened a
portal. The three of them first jumped to the camp below the
Citadel to retrieve Brogan. Soon after, Brogan created a portal of
his own, and they jumped with him to the location he’d selected for
the task ahead.

***

Angie was waking at the cottage. Standing on
the beach in the dark, watching the black waves roll on shore,
Athena felt her coming to. The stars glimmered like distant
flickers of candlelight. The moon, only a fingernail moon, still
gave off a dazzling glow that made the sand on the beach look as if
it were made of fairy dust instead of sand. Athena loved this
place, but after tonight, she didn’t know if she would ever be able
to come here again. Slowly, she returned to the cottage, hating the
task ahead, but knowing that it was necessary.

She entered silently and looked around,
basking in the glow of the homey feel that she might never feel
again. Angie, nearly awake, stirred on the brown leather couch.

“Mother?” Angie croaked.

Sighing in resignation, she went to her
beloved and only child, praying to the God she knew could not hear
her, that the girl would not die. With a tenderness that only a
mother can give, she took Angie’s face in her hands, and entered
her mind.

The moment her mother entered her mind, pain
ripped through her body. There was no pause or feeling of
disconnection, just white-hot pain. Angie screamed out in agony
while her mother continued probing. Her body writhed from the
torment that her ragged spirit suffered in the battle for her will.
The demon refused to release her. It had to be burned away and the
pain of its going was fierce.

For what seemed like hours, she probed the
darkest, deepest, recesses of her daughter’s mind. Finding pieces
of its control here and there, hidden so deeply that one, not as
strong as Athena, might never have found them all. The thing had so
insidiously cocooned itself in Angie’s mind that even some of the
girl’s memories had been changed. It had almost taken her
completely. Even Athena’s life would have been forfeit, had she
openly come against Jenna. On and on Athena probed, burning each
part of it out of the girls mind and spirit, all the while her
child screamed.

***

Unconscious, exhausted from the torturous
expulsion, Angie sprawled on the couch limp and doll like. Athena
left her daughter’s side and went back to the beach to harden her
mind and spirit for the next round of battle with the evil that had
corrupted her daughter.

As suspected, the sound of the waves no
longer drew her. The sand was just sand. Just tiny particles of
rock that held no magic or beauty for her now. Athena, spirit
wounded and heart full of sorrow, called out to Gregorio. They had
been close from the moment they had met. Good trustworthy friends
were hard to find, no matter what your species. Since the ordeal at
the fortress, they had grown closer. Their friendship, after all
these long years, had blossomed into something more. Humans called
it love. Vampires, not being naturally loving and kind, had little
use for mortal love. They thrived on the connection and the few
true friendships they could maintain. Love or not, she needed him.
She needed him now more than she ever had in her lifetime. Her
spirit ached with torment, knowing the anguish she must continue to
inflict on her daughter. Grief overwhelmed her, and then she felt
his gentle touch in her mind.

“
What’s happening? Are you all right?”
He asked.

“
I need you! I cannot do this alone, I am
too weak.”

“
You are not weak, you are strong. Do not
lose your confidence now; you will need that, and much more, before
this is over.”
Gregorio answered.

“
Her pain is too great. I cannot do this
thing.”

“
I can have Minerva or one of the others
bring me. I am not needed here at the moment.”
Gregorio’s
concern was great; Athena was always calm and collected. For her to
be so unsettled was disturbing.

“
I am being foolish. Of course, you are
needed there. We are all tasked with difficult things at this time.
Stay, I will do what must be done.”

“
You are never foolish, you are always
stalwart and steady. I will have someone stand ready and should you
have need of me, I will come.”
Gregorio replied.

Athena picked herself up off the sand, where
she had fallen in her grief, and plodded back to the house,
steeling herself for yet another round of torturing her
daughter.

***

They were in a wet, musty, cavern. Michael
could see no entrance or exit. While he held the sleeping child,
Brogan and Minerva built a fire. After hurriedly making the
necessary preparations, Brogan told Minerva to leave. A mortal
could not be anywhere near this particular ceremony. Before it
could be killed, the demon must first be cast out, when that
happened it would immediately look for another host. Knowing that
she must, Minerva nodded to both of the men, and then left.

The fire grew strong, lighting up the cave.
Around the walls, hung torches set in wrought iron fastenings, and
in the center stood a great stone table. There were large shelves
spaced around the walls, some holding many books, while others held
large glass containers full of herbs and what not. Jenna stirred
and awoke, before Michael could inquire as to the contents of the
containers.

Jenna looked around, and then glared at
Michael with malice and hatred. She shoved against his chest and in
a strange voice, “Put me down!” Michael placed her on the ground in
front of him.

Jenna laughed at the withered old man and
spoke again, “What are you doing old man? I do not know you, yet
you seem to know me.”

Brogan guffawed, and said, “Be that as it
may, there’s things what needs set right, ya got no call to be in
that lil girl, beast, and I mean to see ya git out!”

The thing inside Jenna laughed maniacally
then, so full of arrogance that it wouldn’t consider that Brogan
would be able to part it from the child. “You have no power over
me. You are not even a priest. Not that one could help the child
now.” It hissed.

“Be that as it may, you’re gonna git out of
that girl. She ain’t meant for you, not one iota, and you knows
that.” Brogan coolly replied.

Michael watched while Brogan continued
working with different contents from the many containers on the
shelves. The demons words had no affect on Brogan. When he
finished, he nodded to Michael, who picked the child up, brought
her to the stone table, and sat her down.

Jenna looked into Michael’s eyes.

Once again, he felt the evil inside probing,
trying to infiltrate his defenses.

Her lips pouted as she cast her eyes on the
druid. “I thought you loved me, Michael? I thought you were like
Daddy! I thought you would never let anyone hurt me?” As she spoke,
two small tears trickled down her cherub face, glittering like
jewels in the firelight.

A twinge of guilt almost took him, and then
he remembered what they were dealing with had nothing to do with
this child he loved. Guarding himself he spoke, “I do love Jenna,
but you are not her, and I will not rest until she is given back to
me.”

Jenna jumped to her feet, crouching on the
stone table she growled at the two men. She tried to jump off, and
run away, but something would not let her leave the table. A bright
green light surrounded her. She scratched and clawed at it, trying
to break through the force that kept her on the stone, growling and
screeching in rage. Her body stiffened and she appeared to be
listening. After a few moments she snarled, “You can’t take her she
is mine! Her heart and soul are mine. The mother will not wrench
her from me.” She threw herself against the green light then fell
to the table writhing and screaming in pain.

Brogan began walking around the table,
mumbling in his singsong language. As the thing within her cried
out, Jenna’s tiny body flipped and flopped on the table like a fish
on dry land. One seizure after another consumed her.

Michael was afraid for her safety. What good
did it do them to get the child back, if she were to return with a
smashed and broken body?

After several minutes, her eyes rolled back
in her head and she grew quiet. “Stupid fools. You have not the
strength to harm me. All that will come of this is that two you
care for will die. I can take them both right now should I desire
to do so.”

Brogan continued walking and chanting,
seemingly oblivious to words spewing from Jenna’s mouth.

“You know nothing of love, Michael. Your race
is damned. Why do you try so very hard to be human and good? It
will gain you no access to grace. There is no benefit in your
sacrifice. You will all continue to live in the darkness of your
condemnation. God will not honor you, when your life force is
taken. You will burn in hell with the rest of them. No matter how
well you learn to control the inner evil, darkness will prevail.
There is no bright side to darkness, Michael. There is no escaping
the fate of the damned. Join me Michael. Join me and have a
fulfilled life. When I rule the earth, all will bow to you and
yours. You will be princes in my empire.”

“You would have me be a prince among men?”
Michael laughed at the offer. Leaning in toward the table, his eyes
cold he countered, “You cannot offer me what I could freely take
for myself. Your offer has no validity, beast. What would you have
of me? To grow fat, scared, and putrid like Sekhmet? Or better, to
be full of lust from the thirst, conquer men, and have them live in
terror of me? I can do that now if I wish.”

“You have not the power that only I can give,
boy
. Nor the ambition obtainable only through me.”

Michael spat on the floor before locking
gazes with the demon. “I do not desire it. I would rather fight the
evil within me than to be slave to any other.”

Brogan threw the mixture he had created on
the four corners of the table. His voice grew louder as his
chanting continued. Jenna‘s body convulsed. An agonized scream
ripped from her throat. The battle for Jenna’s body was in full
force now.

Tense, Michael waited for Brogan’s promised
signal.

For hours, Brogan walked around the table
adding deadly ingredients here and there, chanting all the while.
Sometimes the demon cried out, but more often than not, it was
Jenna’s small voice they heard, frantic with terror and pain. Then
the child would grow silent for a time before the tortured shrieks
began again. Michael tense but ready, waited for the moment that
would either save her or take her life.

***

The plan was in motion, Athena had left with
Angie, and Minerva was with Jenna. Liz was a nervous wreck.
Together, she and Michael had come up with a plan to stop Jenna’s
training. It would be extremely difficult to do, but it was a
plausible plan, and the best they could come up with. She kissed
Michael goodbye, created a portal, and jumped back to the time they
met with Gregorio and Athena, to persuade them to let the child
learn.

She arrived a little too early; her past self
and Michael were still in their room. Standing outside the door she
listened to them talk, wondering if she would be able to pull this
off. Leaning in to the closed door, she felt a hand on her shoulder
and jumped. “What are you up to?” Cass’ eyes narrowed in
suspicion.

“Oh nothing,” Liz replied as she maneuvered
Cass away from the door. It wouldn’t do for the woman to overhear
the conversation between herself and Michael, when she was standing
outside of the door. “Just waiting for Michael to quit ranting
before I go in.”

“Who’s he ranting to?”

“Himself, I imagine.” Liz walked Cass down
the corridor back towards her own room. She would never get the
timing right if she couldn’t get rid of her. “What are you doing
here, is there something I can help you with?” Liz asked.

“I just came to speak to you and Michael
about the Council meeting. I know that you’re both on my side, but
I was hoping the two of you would speak with Gregorio and Athena.
I’m afraid your influence would be stronger than mine in this
matter.”

They had not spoken to Cass in the primary
time line. Liz must have stopped her. All this time stuff was
confusing. It was hard to keep track of what and when and how it
affected the future. Obviously, her stopping Cass from entering the
room had not stopped the training from happening or she would not
be here now trying to stop it.

She walked with Cass all the way back to her
room. Cass invited her inside, Liz thought for a moment, knowing
that they must already be on their way to see Gregorio and Athena,
and she had missed her moment in time. She would have to improvise.
Michael would be furious, but she didn’t want to keep repeating
this day over and over until she got it right. Liz smiled at Cass
and said, “Sure, I wanted to talk to you anyway.”