Dark Illumination Read online

  “Do you regret it?”

  “No, it served its purpose.”

  “What purpose is that?”

  “Look how strong you have become. The others have forgotten what I told them. I will tell you. You can make of it what you wish.” Sonnellion sat down on the grass, still a distance from me. He folded his legs awkwardly.

  “When I was alive, I had a dream about you. With pupils like mine and hair so dark it was almost black. You and I know that it isn’t black, but that will be our secret. I told them that Gabriel, Anubis, Ba’al and Fenrir would find a daughter of Lucifer and rise up against him. They would create a new world order. They would kill the Brothers unless we killed them first.”

  “And you believe that?”

  “Now? No, then, though, yes. You would never rise up and strike down Lucifer or the Brothers. You have a large heart. You do not have the ability to kill your father or his brothers. That makes me happy. You are my legacy.”

  “What do you mean, ‘your legacy’?”

  “I mean exactly that. You remind me of them. Those beautiful eyes are a constant reminder of me. They miss me. Did you know that?”

  “Yes, Sonnellion, I know that.”

  “Just as you miss your sister.”

  “Yes,” I admitted.

  “Niece, you think that the events to come were set in motion when your father and mother met. They weren’t. They were set in motion the moment we were all created. It was inevitable. Being dead has taught me many things. I never hated my brothers or their mates or their offspring. My heart is filled only with love towards them. I can’t help it. I tried to be an angry soul after Lucifer executed me, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t find hate for him. So, now I look at you and realize that I cannot hate you either. I have tried. But what I want and what I can do are very different now. I will be resurrected. My hate for the other Breeds will be resurrected with me. That will put us at opposites. You will be my enemy. That hurts me. But there is nothing I can do for it. I have tried to stop it, tried to stop from being called and conjured, but I cannot resist the magic when it comes. I grow stronger as a result. I do not think they know that. I do not think anyone knows that. The stronger I grow, the more powerful I will be when I live again.

  “But I will give you a bit of advice. When you come before me, with your sword and your magic, do not hesitate. I do not look forward to the battle, but I do not want you to lose either. I am comfortable with death. It is not something I would wish upon you.”

  “Why?”

  “Why do I tell you this?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because you are of my flesh and blood, I’m sure you have many marks, but you also bare the mark of the Brothers’. Lucifer may have magically removed it from my skin, but he did not remove it from my heart.”

  “You hope I kill you?”

  “Yes, the other option is painful to think about. I expect that you will protect the Brothers’ and your family and yourself. That is what is expected of you. But the Brothers are capable of fighting their own battles. Yours will be with me. Prepare for it, Brenna. I do not want to kill you, but I will have no control over it, if I am resurrected.”

  “Can you help me find the Witch that is using your magic now?”

  “No, all I can tell you is that he bears a piece of skin and he uses it as a talisman to gain control over my power when he conjures me. I do not get any of his in return. Just as I do not get yours, when you conjure me.”

  “Thank you, Sonnellion.”

  Chapter Ten

  There was a ceiling above me. There was noise all around me. My head was pounding. Everything hurt. I willed myself back to sleep, but failed.

  “Bren,” it was Eli’s voice. He was next to me on the bed. He seemed as confused and irritated as I felt.

  “Yes, Eli?”

  “Are we alive?”

  “I think so, Eli.”

  “I dreamed of Death.”

  “So did I,” I turned carefully to look at him. “What did Sonnellion tell you?”

  “That I needed to help you.”

  “Our dead uncle seems to be partially on our side, I have no idea why. He is so filled with hate and malice and yet…”

  “Yet, his emotions tell you that he is happy and filled with love when he sees us.” Eli finished the sentence for me.

  “Yes, what a confusing life we lead.”

  “You lead, mine is usually normal and benign. I get up, I go to work, I come home, Hannah cooks dinner, we eat, we watch television or whatever, then we go to bed and the next day we do it all over again.”

  “Yes, but your dead uncle loves you too,” I reminded him.

  “Well, there is that.”

  “Is he nude in your dreams?”

  “Yes, I don’t know why.”

  “Good, glad it isn’t just some sick, twisted part of my brain that makes him that way,” I gave Eli a quick wink. His eyelids were back to normal.

  “Did he actually look like a Demon this time?”

  “Yes. Almost as if he has grown powerful enough to reclaim the form. He says he gets power when he is conjured, unless we do it.”

  “He told me the same thing,” Eli gave a sigh. “Do you believe him?”

  “Oddly, yes.” I sighed in return.

  “What do we do now?”

  “I think we get up.”

  “We are both still asleep,” Eli told me.

  “Impossible. We can’t share dreams.”

  “Ten minutes ago, I would have agreed with you. But I know I am still asleep.”

  I sat still for a minute. The noise I heard was not what it should have been. It should have been voices and electrical equipment and rushing air. It wasn’t. It was the sound of wings, thousands and thousands of tiny wings, all being flapped, out of sync with each other.

  “You’re right, we are still dreaming. How?”

  “I don’t know. You’re the Witch with the power.”

  “Not this sort of power. I can’t make us both be in the same dream.” I sat up and looked around. There were no walls. Just a ceiling, a bed and a floor and outside the area where the floor ended, at least a couple million butterflies.

  “Trippy.” I muttered.

  Eli sat up next to me. His eyes were wide. His mouth hung open.

  “What do you think it means?” He asked quietly.

  “I don’t know, Eli. You’re the oldest, what do you think it means?”

  “If I knew, I wouldn’t ask you.” He gave me a grin.

  “Well, damned if I have a clue. It could mean everything, it could mean nothing. I’m not a Centaur, I don’t interpret dreams. Especially mutual dreams.”

  “Unless this isn’t a mutual dream. What if it is really only your dream?”

  “That would be pretty odd as well. I’ve never dreamed about you.”

  “You dream about Sonnellion, but not me. That’s a little unfair. I’m a much nicer Demon.”

  “Agreed.” I stood and got off the bed. My feet sank into the floor. “Oh shit.”

  “Brenna!” Eli shouted. He grabbed onto my hands.

  The floor continued to rise around my ankles. Eli continued to shout my name. I continued to hold on to him for dear life.

  The floor had swallowed me up to my knees, when I felt him give a bit. His body weight shifting enough on the bed that he didn’t have the leverage he needed to hold me. For a split second I thought he would let go.

  Eli didn’t. He held fast. His hands wrapped around my wrists. We both tumbled into the liquid floor together.

  It was dark. It was cold. Somewhere unseen, someone was laughing rather manically. It was a woman’s voice. I couldn’t see Eli, but I could still feel his hands on my arms.

  “Eli,” I tried to yell. No words came out. When I inhaled, I got no air. There was a moment of panic when I realized I was suffocating and that the same was probably happening to Eli.

  “Tsk, tsk,” the woman’s voice came to me again. “You should have j
ust died, Bren.”

  The voice belonged to my sister. My heart seemed to stop beating. I no longer cared that I couldn’t breathe or that Eli couldn’t breathe. My heart was torn between loving her because she was my sister and hating her for trying to kill me.

  Rage won out. She was trying to kill me and now Eli. The bitch. I fought against the darkness. Swam through it, tugging Eli behind me.

  Light blossomed over us.

  Chapter Eleven

  Eli and I awoke at the same moment, gasping for air. We turned, looked at each other and said nothing. We were still on the floor of the motel room. No one had bothered to pick us up after we had passed out.

  His hand was still holding mine. I smiled at him. He smiled back.

  “Did all that really happen?” He asked after a moment.

  “Sonnellion? Our sister? Those things?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes, they really happened. We had different dreams about Sonnellion, but we were locked in the same dream with our sister.”

  “Just checking.”

  “Eli?”

  “Yeah Bren?”

  “Do me a favor?”

  “What?”

  “Don’t ever die on me.”

  “Sure thing,” he gave me another grin. I waited for the floor to change. It didn’t. Anubis was standing over me. Levi over Eli. We were awake and alive. The day was suddenly looking much better.

  “What are the two of you whispering about?” Levi asked.

  “Dreams.” Eli giggled.

  “I’m healed, let’s go find our Witch.” I stood up.

  “Not so fast, Speedy Gonzales, you may be healed, but you are certainly not at your best.” Anubis gave me a steadying hand.

  “Fine,” I did an eye roll because I could and looked at him. “What do you recommend?”

  “A better plan of action. We can’t just go running off after some Witch and some troll that we know nothing about.”

  “Well, let’s start with the easy one. What do we know about trolls?” I asked.

  “They eat, a lot.” Ba’al offered.

  “They aren’t picky about it either. Livestock, forest creatures, dragons, Humans, Elders, whatever is alive and fits in their mouth is food to them.” Levi added.

  “They are definitely on the low end of the intelligence scale. They have some basic reasoning and logic skills, but only enough to craft rude tools. I’d say great apes are smarter by at least twice as much.” Anubis chimed in.

  “They are fast and have good reflexes. The bulky, overly tall bodies do not slow them down. They are actually quite agile for their size.” Fenrir said.

  “Uh, really? The troll we saw today was slow. He couldn’t catch you or Anubis.” I countered.

  “Yeah, I know. On the flip side, I couldn’t catch him either.” Fenrir answered.

  “So either there is something physically wrong with this troll or the Witch has some puppeteer skills.” Eli gave me a look.

  “What sort of Witch can control a troll like a puppet?” Anubis asked.

  “Good grief,” I sighed at him. “For a being as old as dirt, you sure don’t know much about Witches. I am often amazed by how little you know about them. There is a spell or a potion for everything. My guess, a spell, since there was that magic line between the troll and the Witch. A potion wouldn’t have left any residual traces to be followed. However, for a spell to work like that…”

  “Dark magic.” Eli repeated the phrase I had used earlier.

  “What is dark magic?” Levi finally asked about the White Elephant in the room.

  “It’s a nonsense term used by Witches. Technically, no magic can be good or evil, only the beings casting it can be. Magic doesn’t care. If you are casting spells with the sole purpose of causing mischief, mayhem and/or chaos, Witches refer to it as dark magic. After you’ve casted enough of those spells, it changes you. Not physically, but spiritually. By then, the dark magic has woven itself into your very core, your soul. Once that happens, regardless of what you want the spell to do, it will create mischief, mayhem and chaos.”

  “It’s forbidden.” Eli added.

  “That it is. Witches use a soul-checking spell if they think a Witch has been up to nefarious deeds one time too many. If the Witch hasn’t corrupted its soul, nothing happens. If it has, the Witch writhes in pain and in the old days, they were beheaded. I don’t know what they do to them now. I’m guessing it is more humane than beheading, but I’ve been known to be wrong.”

  “How do you know if you are casting good magic or dark magic?” Levi asked.

  “You feel it. When I brought the trees to life to eat the zombies, it didn’t feel bad. But when I used the double-soul spell, I felt dirty, stained. I had mom check my soul in one of our private moments. It did leave a mark, but nothing permanent, as long as I don’t continue to cast spells with the intent of causing chaos…”

  “All Witches cast dark magic from time to time, for whatever reason. Forbidden spells corrupt the soul faster, like the Double Soul spell. Some, like hitting Brenna with a bit of lightning, causes less damage to the soul. However, if I were to cast it repeatedly, the damage would compound. Our sister has a corrupted soul. But being immortal, she got locked away, not beheaded.” Eli finished for me.

  “How does a soul-check spell work?” Anubis asked.

  “I’d need a Witch and some magic and the right bits and baubles for it. Then I’d just toss the magic at the Witch and see what happens. Unfortunately, without the Witch, I can’t see how twisted their soul is, which is where you come in.” I looked pointedly at the Vampire.

  “How?”

  “You see souls or you can see souls. It is among your gifts. A corrupted soul should stand out to you.” Eli answered for me.

  “How do you tell if they are corrupted?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone really does, but I’m running out of ideas. I think you would know it if you saw it. Since I have only seen souls once and they were all dead, I haven’t a clue what a living soul looks like or how they would look if they were dabbling a touch much with the darker side of things.”

  “Living souls look the same as dead souls,” Anubis informed me.

  “Well, if a spell can find it, I’m sure a Vampire could see it.” I shrugged.

  “I hate when we work off your theories,” Anubis took a deep breath. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret my next question. How do we find the Witch using Vampire powers?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” I gave him a smile. “You darling, are going to have to Vamp out and walk around town. If you see a weird or unusual soul, tell me and I’ll see if it passes the Witches corruption test. If it doesn’t, we’ll have a jumping off point. If it does, we’re back to square one.”

  “Vamp out and walk around town? That is the best you’ve got?” Anubis frowned at me. “It is disconcerting to see a vamped out Vampire when they actually look like a Vampire. It is downright terrifying to see me do it.”

  “I’ve seen you do it, it isn’t terrifying. Off-putting perhaps, but not terrifying. On the flip side, I wouldn’t want to be stranded in a dark alley with you like that. I might try a stake to the heart.”

  “Complete myth,” Anubis reminded me.

  “I know, but I would still try.”

  “When do we begin this debacle?”

  “How about now? I have Eli to help with the spell. I’m going to need a few things, but I think they are all in my Witch’s kit.”

  Chapter Twelve

  The spell took two hours, 34 minutes and 1 second to prepare. I know this because Levi and Anubis kept pointing out how long it was taking us. I wanted to toss them from the room, they were stressing me out. I couldn’t though; we needed a few things from them.

  I bottled the potion, wrote the words down on Eli’s arm and prepared to leave the room. The men all stood, frowning at me. All except Eli.

  “What?” I finally asked.

  “You said it was a spe
ll.” Levi answered.

  “It is, but some spells, start with a potion. You toss the potion. You say the words. You push some magic and voila, the spell is completed. The Witch either thinks you’re crazy or falls to the ground, simpering in pain.”

  “So you are going to randomly through potion at beings that I think have odd looking souls?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “I think you have an odd looking soul.”

  “Yes, but that is explainable.”

  “How?”

  “Demon, Witch, Human, with Overlord magic coursing through me all the time, not to mention the Brothers’ magic and something that we, as in my siblings and I, have started to form, I imagine my soul is conflicted, not corrupted.”

  “Conflicted?” Anubis raised an eyebrow.

  “Ok, confused? It doesn’t know what to do first, second or last. Do I use my magic? Do I use the magic of an Overlord? Do I use magic from the Brothers’? Or do I tap into my siblings for a double dose of my own confusion?”

  “It has only started to look odd since the Maturing.”

  “Then she was right, her soul is conflicted,” Levi answered with a voice that ended the conversation.

  There have always been moments in my life where I was grateful to have other people talk for me. This was one of them. I had tried to explain it to the Overlords and I might as well have been talking to brick walls. My soul was probably a wreck. Chiron still haunted me.

  “Bren, what about what Sonnellion said?” Eli nearly whispered it. Pointless in the current situation, the men could all hear a pin drop in a shopping mall on Black Friday.

  “Sonnellion?” This peaked Levi’s interest. I didn’t want to go through all the details.

  “From time to time, Death has stalked my dreams. When I realized it was Sonnellion and not Death personified, it became more frequent. I thought I was the only one, but my siblings suffer from it as well. Maybe not Daniel, but the rest of us, we all get visited.”

  “What did he say?” Levi narrowed his eyes and glared at me.

  “That he loves us, he misses his brothers, he still hates all Elder breeds that aren’t Demon and that the Witch we are looking for is male and has a bit of skin he keeps with him. Sonnellion didn’t or couldn’t tell what the skin looked like or what happened with it, only that he had it.”