Slaughter Daughter by Eve Langlais
34
Fake-mom snapped her fingers,and suddenly, Braedon could move and talk. “What the fuck, Selena? I did not bring Abby here for you to hurt her. I would never—”
“Shh.” Fingers to her lips, Selena shushed him, and Braedon’s lips sealed shut, as in no seam, no hole.
Holy fuck.
“What did you do?” I squeaked. “What’s happening?”
“Demon magic.” She winked at me. “Or did you think demon was just a word? Our kind is special. Able to do great things. Like silence annoying humans. Behave, or I’ll do the same to you.”
It was one thing to pshaw a video that could be doctored, another for it to happen right in front of me. “Let us go. We’re not the people you’re mad at.”
Her tinkling laughter held a discordant tone. “As if that matters. Blood is blood, and I’ll need lots of it if I’m to swap this hideous face and body for something more attractive.” She grimaced. “I still can’t believe he chose her over me.” She spoke of changing her face as if it were an outfit.
“I don’t know how you expect to draw out my dad, hiding in this room.”
“By now, he’ll know you’re missing and will have read the note I had delivered with my attacking imps. He’ll meet us at the mausoleum where he first kissed the whore, thus betraying me.” Her eyes glowed, and she practically spat as she hissed, “They both lied. For weeks. I should have known something was wrong when he didn’t want to have sex. Males always want to rut. In Geoffrey’s case, he rutted someone else.”
“I’m sorry. That is a shit thing to do to someone.” My weak, if honest, reply.
“Geoffrey was never a nice demon. It was why his defection for that human was so vile,” she spat.
All this over a breakup? I clung to that rather than the rest. I had a harder time believing in demons existing than the fact that my dad might still be alive.
“Let’s go.” She waggled her fingers, and I wasn’t in control. Like a puppet on strings, I went where she directed, Braedon at my heels.
As we headed down the stairs, the urge to sleep hit once more, only to fade as we walked out the front door. It made me think of the security person napping on the floor. “What did you do to the students?”
“I put them all to sleep.”
“You drugged them?”
“As if I’d do something so human. No, I used magic.” She waggled her fingers.
Hard to doubt her claim. I only had to look at poor Braedon. He simmered with his mouth sealed shut.
“You’re wasting your time with me,” I argued. “My father isn’t here.”
“He is. The question is, which face is he wearing? The ones I sacrificed turned out to be wrong.”
The casual way she spoke sent a chill through me. “Why do you keep calling murder ‘sacrifice?’” If I was going to die, then I didn’t care if I pissed her off. I wanted to at least understand why my life had gone to shit.
“Because a killing done right is full of power for our kind. Human souls, and even demon ones, power our magic. Make us strong.”
“The pentagrams they’ve been finding…those were you. You framed my parents for murder.”
She waved a hand. “Those pentagrams weren’t all mine. Just because your father chose a mundane way of life didn’t mean he completely eschewed his heritage.”
What she implied… “My dad wasn’t a killer.”
“He was. Is. Cold-hearted and vicious, even among our kind. Until she poisoned him.”
I wanted to poison this woman. Insane bitch—and the reason my life had gotten fucked up. If anyone deserved to die, painfully, it was Selena.
As we neared the gates to the cemetery attached to the college, the resting place of its founders, Selena clapped her hands, and motes of light rose and whirled, a beacon in the sky.
I struggled against the power sapping my will to fight. My body wouldn’t cooperate, but my tongue still worked. “Aren’t you worried someone will see?”
“No.” She giggled. “And if they do, I’m an overcharged battery right now. So many deaths, so quickly. I can do anything.” She flung out her hand, and a tree cracked and toppled.
I flinched.
She noticed. “How is it that someone weak like you was born to one as strong as him?”
That hurt. “I’m not weak.”
“Says the human being led to her slaughter.”
“Drop the spell on me, bitch, and I’ll give you a fight.” I struggled against the spell keeping my hands by my sides.
She laughed. “Do you really think a half-breed like you can defend against me?”
“Maybe she can’t, but a full demon can,” was the low, rumbled reply as Jag stepped into view.
