Halfling (Black Petals Book 1) (31 page)

“You’re my sister, and I don’t need another sibling or family member lost to the darkness,” Landon coaxes. “It can’t hurt anything if it doesn’t work.”

I eye the bottle. He’s right, the shit can’t kill me, right? What am I afraid of? What if it really can retain my emotions? What if it makes me like Aiden, able to feel? Isn’t that what I want? The temptation is almost overwhelming.

Landon smiles slightly. “I’m sorry for everything your genetics and our family has put you through. One day, I hope we can be friends.” I’m so shocked by his words that he manages to slip out of the room before I can question him.

I pinch the small bottle between my thumb and forefinger as Aiden walks back in, glancing over his shoulder at Landon. I notice that I’m beginning to be able to track demon’s quick movement easier.

“What is that?” Aiden asks me, sounding skeptical.

I debate lying, but I am too excited by the thought that this bottle could contain the key to keeping my humanity, and what will it hurt to tell him anyway? “Landon claims that if taken during transition, it can help retain human emotion.”

Aiden looks dumbfounded. He looks like he’s thinking way too hard.

“His mother was an alchemist and sort of taught him how to make it, or so he claims,” I continue.

Aiden eyes the little bottle. “Are you going to take it?”

“Do you think it’s a trick?” I ask him.

“It can’t kill you, right? You’re not risking anything by taking it.”

Before I can second guess myself, I pop the lid and take the bottle like a shot. It tastes disgustingly like lime. Aiden’s eyes widen like he’s surprised that I actually took it. He rushes to my side and lies me down on the bed as if he think I’m about to get dizzy.

“If this works, Megan, I’ll be the happiest guy alive.”

I don’t quite understand what he means. Warmth washes over me.

“I’ve heard rumors that this stuff once existed. A long time ago. I thought they were myths or it had got extinguished along with the alchemists.” I begin to fall sleepy, and I wonder how Aiden knew I was going down. Was it my heart rate? My breathing? I feel his warm, soft lips on my forehead for a long second.

Aiden’s P.O.V.

Megan has been asleep for two days. Two
days
. I’m beginning to become uneasy and restless. It’s not just that she hasn’t woken up either. It’s that I need her. I need her around to keep me sane in hell. I meant it when I told her that she was my rock. She
is
. She keeps me from going psychopathic. If this crap Landon gave her doesn’t work, then not only will she lose herself, but I will lose myself. I am trying so hard to keep my cool, but with Megan gone, I don’t even feel like myself anymore. Just this afternoon, I killed a guard for not standing in the right place and getting in my way while I was walking. I
killed
him. Hell doesn’t affect me quite as strongly as it does most pure bloods, but it still affects me drastically.

I’ve also caught myself fantasizing about going down to the cells and killing Forrest and Maxwell for what they did to Megan. I know that I don’t
really
want to kill Forrest. If I did, I’d hurt Terry
and
Megan. Why am I so possessive over her? She’s just a woman. No she’s not just a woman, she’s far more than that.

I read through one of my many books on alchemists. If Landon’s mother was an alchemist, then that means that he might possess alchemist power. If so, then it’s possible that he can help me save my siblings from their curse, well Crispen and Aria anyway. Mason, well, it’s too late for him. He’s doing well though I think. Terry tells me that he’s learning and already beginning to accept his fate. It won’t be long before he’s as brainwashed and zombified as the other changelings. This saddens one part of me and amuses another. I am sick and twisted, becoming sicker and twisted by the day. I need Megan back. I need her soon, because I don’t know how much longer I can do this. I tell myself that I’m acting that I’m putting on a show and giving the demons what they want to see, but I don’t think I’m acting anymore. The only thing keeping me in check is that I want to be the best man I can be when Megan finally wakes up. I want to be there for her, because I haven’t been there for her as much as I should have over the last few days. I know that.

I chuck the alchemy book across the room out of anger. It hits a cabinet and falls to the floor. The door of the cabinet swings open. I could use telekinesis to shut it, but instead I walk over there, needing a break from my desk.

I grasp the handle of the cupboard, and I am about to close it when something catches my eye. A familiar book. A book that used to belong to my mother years and years ago. I thought it was left abandoned with her body and the old house. A rush of hatred towards my father fills my veins. He’s the one that sent his guards to kill her. If I’d been home, they would have taken me to hell with them. Luckily, I was with my step father, and he ran with me like my mother told him to if something ever happened to her. Years later, my father’s men would find me again and kill him and my step mother, causing a ripple effect that would lead to my siblings becoming hunters and eventually Mason becoming a demon.

I pull the burgundy covered book from the wooden shelving and another familiar items becomes visible. It’s my mother’s old jewelry box. She used to adore it. I find that there’s a smile on my face. I pick up the jewelry box that I was never allowed to touch as a kid. As soon as my fingertips brush it, I feel like I’m being electrocuted. I pull my hand back. It’s made out of brass. Thinking back, I never saw my mother touch it. She always used to key to unlock it and pull the lid up. I don’t even know what she kept inside of it, jewelry I would assume.

Would it be invading her privacy to open it now? That is if I can get the sturdy box open. I never knew where she kept the key, and I’m sure that it’s long gone now.

“Lucian tried to open that box for years, Mr. Castile. He never could. He believed your mother had it spelled by an alchemist,” Terry voices from the doorway. “Sorry to intrude.”

“You know about this box?” I ask him, surprised.

“Just what I’ve just told you. I nearly forgot about it. It’s been centuries, since I’ve seen it.”

I close my eyes, focusing on the past. Where would my mother have put the key all those years ago?

“He kept this, because he wanted to know what was inside?” I ask Terry.

“No, he kept it, because he loved your mother and he mourned her in secret.”

“He killed her,” I argue.

“No, the rebels killed her to anger him. He would have let her raise you the way she wanted. He was never after the two of you.” Terry grimaces, like he thought I knew this. The rebels were the small group of pure blood demons who disagreed with the way hell was being run years ago and caused all sorts of demonic illness in humans and murdered humans by the thousands. They believed that demons should rule both hell and earth. They were extremists. They lost sight of what truly mattered. They were eventually wiped out, but not before the creation of the hunters.

My father led me to believe that he killed my mother? Why? “What about when I was taken from my step parents?”

“The rebels, but your father caught them and killed them before they could use you as leverage.” Of course. One of the most harmful emotions to demons. Love. Demons, even pure blood demons, can love deeply, and it is the thing most used against them in battle. For this reason, they tend to do what they can not to fall in love and give into their biggest weakness.

“Why?” I ask him. “Why would Lucian lie to me?”

Terry shrugs. “Maybe he wanted you to think that he was stronger than he was, that love didn’t faze him. It wasn’t something he liked to admit, but I saw it.”

“Why has no one tried to pick this lock?” I ask Terry. Surely someone could’ve just picked it.

“It’s been attempted. I’m telling you no one could open that box. We all tried.”

I open the burgundy book and flip through the pages. It’s a book on alchemy. “Why did he keep this, and why is it in this cupboard and not on a book shelf?”

Terry shrugs. “He kept his favorite belongings in that cupboard there you’re in. I guess it must have meant something to him.”

“Jesus Christ. Find Blayne Resch’s son Landon and bring him here,” I say almost rudely. My temper is getting worse and worse by the second. What will I be like in a day or two more?

Terry returns an hour later with Landon, apparently he wasn’t too hard to find.

He greets me the way he should, and I point to the box in the cabinet. “I hear you might be a descendant of the alchemists. Think you can open that box? It’s believed to be sealed by their power.”

Landon chuckles which surprises me. “It’s just a box. Can’t be that hard to open. Why can’t you do it?”

“Because I’m not an alchemist,” I say slowly as if he’s mentally slow.

Landon looks to me confused and then shakes his head, clearly confused. “
What?
”

“Are you slow?” I ask, angrily. I literally have no patience.

“Mr. Castile, sir, you
are
an alchemist. Your mother was my mother’s best friend. They were both alchemists. Our mothers were the ones who created the elixir. The same elixir that I just gave Megan. The elixir that helps one retain human emotion during the transition from a halfling to a pure blood.” The slender man stops to clear his throat, then he continues. “That’s right, Aiden. Your good two shoes father Lucian fell in love with an
alchemist
. The demon’s biggest enemy at the time. He lied about many things to her. As an alchemist, she couldn’t see his true eyes. She didn’t know what he was, until like many alchemists, she was attacked by the rebels. She was turned into a demon just to taunt your father. The rebels knew about the relationship those two had. The alchemists had been planning to infiltrate hell by creating a bunch of demons who could
feel.
Of course, they were running out of time to make a difference because the rebels were knocking them off like nothing. While in transition, your mother took the elixir.”

Landon shuffles across the room to look at a painting on the wall. A painting of my father. “Naturally, your mother ran from the alchemists, thinking that they’d probably kill her if they knew what she was. Your father found her quickly, saw she was in transition, and explained what he was. He took her to hell. When she was through the transition and the elixir worked, she began to realize how dark your father really was, but she still loved him at first, thinking she could change him. You were conceived. She ran eventually, after you were born, not wanting you to be exposed to the darkness of hell. She knew it had an influence on her, and it would have an influence on you one day too. Plus, it’s doubtful Lucian would’ve been a good influence. One day, she worked up the courage to tell my mother what happened to her and explain that the elixir had worked. Since it was in her blood, it is in yours. Maybe not a potent, but it’s there.”

My mouth nearly falls open. Terry looks as stunned as I do.

“I think I would know if I was part alchemist,” I blurt out before I get the chance to think. Not only that, but this actually explains why I am the way I am. It explains why I can
feel
unlike the other demons. I know he isn’t lying. I know because the fact that I can feel is proof enough.

“Apparently not,” Landon teases, making me unbelievably angry.

All of this time I’ve been looking for an alchemist, and I’ve been one myself? Is this some sort of sick joke?

Landon sets his thumb on the lock, the only part that is not brass. He mutters something, and the lid clicks open. Inside, rests the key to the box and a bead. I look closer and realize that it’s a single pearl. Why lock something like this up so tightly?

“Holy shit,” Landon mutters to himself as he stares into the box.

I look at him like he’s fallen off of his rocker. “What?”

“That there is a soul,” Landon whispers. “Pearls hold souls. Question is, whose soul is it, and why is it locked up in that box so tightly?”

The door to my office bursts open and five or six guards bust in. “Mr. Castile, we have a breach in security. Someone has stolen the weapon used to kill your father from vault and is heading this way.”

Terry looks like someone has pinched him extremely hard. He assumes it’s Forrest obviously, but I have my doubts.

“Someone go make sure that the demidemons are still locked up downstairs!” I holler quickly. “Everyone out of my way! I need to go get Megan!”

Everyone begins moving out of my way reluctantly, glancing at me and one another. I speed out of the room, and it’s not until I’m halfway to Megan’s room that I realize Landon is following me.

“What are you doing?” I snarl. “Get out of here unless you want to get yourself killed.”

“She’s my sister,” he states, ignoring me.

I’m extremely thankful to see Megan safe, lying on her bed still asleep. I scoop her up in my arms. Now what? Where do I take her? Nowhere is safe, especially if she’s with me.

I cuss. This can’t be happening. I know what I have to do. There is only one person I know who will be able to get Megan out of here safely. It’s the same man who endangered her and played a part in her losing her soul, the same man who used her. Forrest. I will do anything to keep her safe even if that means letting him take her. I know Forrest. I know he’s a good guy deep down. I’ve known him almost three hundred year. I probably would have done what he did too if it meant saving me and my family, but that doesn’t mean that a part of me doesn’t want him dead for what he did to Megan.

What if Forrest is the one conducting this attack? Then what?

“Come with me,” I instruct Landon and head down to the basement.

I’m nearly ecstatic to see Forrest still locked up, looking bored in his cell. I use telekinesis to open the cell that usually contains only mortals. I’m partly surprised that he hasn’t gotten out of it yet actually. That guy is a sneaky bugger, a smart bugger too.

“Forrest. I have a task for you. Get Megan out of here safely, and I’ll get you and Maxwell out of this cell permanently. I’ll even let you out of hell a long as you behave,” I coerce.

Forrest looks up hastily, meeting my eyes. “I-I yeah, I can do it. What’s happening?” he asks. “Is everything okay? Is
she
okay?”

“Security breach. I’m not risking anything, especially not her life,” I explain. “She’s uh
sleeping
.”

“My dad?” he demands, and stands up in a rush.

“He was fine last I saw,” I answer hastily and swing open his cell door.

He hesitates. “Take her down to the basement, through the servant’s quarters to the last room at the end of the hall. It’s a boiler room. At the back of the room is a hatch in the floor. Take her down there. A few hundred feet and on the left is a tunnel. Follow it, and it’ll take you to the gate that leads near your place in Toronto.”

“I have to stay here and do my job. I run this place, I can’t abandon it. Especially right now. I have to stay,” I ramble quickly. I wish I could go with Megan so badly.

Forrest seems to understand. “Then make sure that my dad’s okay,” he pleads and then takes Megan in his arms. Although demidemons are more demon-like than halflings, they’re still not as fast or strong as a full demon. How is he going to go down a hatch while carrying her? He’s not.