Ink, Sex, Magic Pt. 04

***

When a cool, smooth hand began shaking me awake, I thought it was my mother, and I was back in my tiny childhood bed, and it had all been a dream after all, Dinah. But the pain reminded me that this wasn't my room, though part of me still hoped it was her. In the dim light of what turned out to be a cell phone, I saw a beautiful and familiar face, but it wasn't my mother- it was Devasha Rae. She was in a black tank and fatigues, and nearly melted into the darkness.

"Devasha!" I returned her hug with all my might so she wouldn't disappear. "Where's my father?"

"Close. I came first to secure you before he moved in with the others."

"And how did you get inside?"

"I used a Fade spell."

"You teleported?"

"Basically."

"Can you teleport us out?"

"No- but once I give the signal, they'll come let us out and we'll murk that sonofabitch."

"What's the signal?"

"This." And she tapped her cellphone to send a text.

Of course- modern miracles.

"How were you able to get a message out, by the way? This place must have been locked down like Fort Knox because we couldn't sense you before at all."

"I ripped up his carpet and used my steak to call Kiernan for help."

Devasha made a face when I mentioned my father, but she didn't comment. "You'll have to show me how to do that later. For now..." Several tattoos on her fingers lit up and after positioning them in a particular way, the shackle fell off my ankle.

"You'll have to show me how to do that later."

I was just stretching my freed leg when I heard the bolts being hastily undone. Devasha spun around and stowed her phone. When Dian opened the door and flicked on the light, she was ready to spring.

"What the-"

Devasha's tattoos glowed as she released her full strength, but even in Brannon's vessel, Dian couldn't be overpowered by her. He had Devasha backed against the wall and was pummeling her with his fists, blood streaming from her broken nose. Luckily, for both of our sake, a hulking figure came up behind Dian and put him into a headlock. It was my father, fully armed and armored, and he dragged my captor out of the room.

"Time to go," Devasha said thickly, one of her eyes barely able to open. As she took my hand, I felt the remainder of her protective energy shield wrap around me, and I knew I would be safe.

As we fled, I saw that Dian had been surrounded by Kiernan, Sylas, Haku, and my Uncle Jack. I would have called out to him, but I didn't dare interrupt their ritual, and soon Devasha and I were on Kiernan's chopper, speeding towards UnderGround Ink. We waited in the back, which was thoroughly warded, Devasha holding me like a mother would until my father returned.

When he did, I threw my arms around him, so glad to see him again that it didn't matter what had happened the last time. Devasha seemed more than a little pissed at him still, but bit her tongue.

"We're meeting back at my place. Can you fade there? I'll bring Alice."

I nodded to let her know it was okay, and in a moment, she'd vanished. On the way there, clinging onto Kiernan with all my might, I thought about all of the things I'd learned during my imprisonment that they needed to know. But when I saw that my mother was waiting there also, I only had one thing on my mind.

"Alice! I was so worried about you, honey!" My mom hugged me, but I kept my arms by my sides. "What is it?"

"He told me- Dian- while he was on my back, raping me for the second time in my life. He told me you summoned Carman and made the deal that let her sons defile me in their ritual. Is that true?"

"Oh, sweetheart. I'm so sorry. I didn't want you to find out that way."

"You didn't want me or anyone else to find out at all. That's why you made Kiernan take the fall."

"She didn't make me do anything," my father said softly. "I told her I would because I could deal with being the bad guy."

"He sacrificed all those years to make your mistakes right."

Kiernan interjected again before she could respond. "That was never what this was about. It was about you, Alice, and you needed your mother to raise you."

"I gave up my powers before I left with Bruce so they couldn't find you again. Sylas took them for me." My mom finally looked at him, a gleam in her eyes that I'd only seen when she their when she looked at Kiernan. "He made sacrifices too."

"Well, he only did them for you because he thought you were perfect."

"I'd do them all over again. And I still think you're perfect."

I spun around to see Sylas returning her adoring gaze, finally seeing his love in the flesh. And I realized we would never be making that trip together.

"You know what- I'll leave you to your fan club," I told my mother, stalking upstairs while she called after me.

I threw myself on Kiernan's bed, knowing someone would be up to tell me that I was being unreasonable. But I didn't expect it to be Sylas, especially since he was sitting next to me before I heard a sound.

"You're angry at me."

"I'm angry at her."

"And me for loving her."

"When you thought Kiernan made the pact, he was a monster. Now that you know my mother did, she's still a saint?"

"I merely told the truth. I told you I still love Tessa. I always will."

"Love really is blind, isn't it?"

"I take it you don't want to go to Japan with me anymore."

"Wouldn't you rather go with Tessa?"

"Wouldn't you rather go with Kiernan? I'm sorry, that was petty."

"You're just being honest. As usual."

And though we were on the verge of tears, we smiled at each other; we didn't want to betray the love we still felt, but we had to accept it wasn't the same.

"It will be a lonely journey without you, Alice. I know we will meet again."

"You're leaving? But we still- I still- I don't want you to go."

"I don't either- but I can't stay and play second fiddle to Kiernan Delaney with another woman I love. I'll still be there for you whenever you need me. And if you want me- well, I'll be there for that too."

"Thank you Sylas. I hope you find the woman I could never be for you."

"Alice, I only wanted you for the woman you could be for yourself. I love you."

"I love you too."

Our kiss was at once romantic and chaste, and if anything I felt we'd become closer in our mourning of us.

I waited until I heard my mother and Sylas leave- potentially together- before tip-toeing downstairs to hear the conversation that followed. I could tell Kiernan and Jack were there, but there was a female voice that I couldn't place but knew. Kiernan was saying something about the coward running away, meaning Sylas of course, but he fell silent when Jack espied me. My uncle's face transformed from grim to gleeful and I scurried the rest of the way down to hug him.

"Hey kiddo!" He whirled me around and set me down to get a better look. "Well, I guess I you're not a kid anymore, huh?"

"Yeah, but you still are," I said, ribbing him. My uncle had a similar build to my father, but his ruddier complexion, sandy blonde hair, scruffy beard, and an overall relaxed style and attitude gave him the boyish charm most younger brothers seem to possess.

Jack smiled that trademark Delaney grin I'd inherited and we both laughed. "My wife's still trying to change that."

"Wife?"

When my uncle stepped aside, I saw his wife and the source of the familiar voice- Seraphine Angel, a raven-haired, sloe eyed beauty who was part of the former Sectio Divina crew. I'd always sensed friction whenever she was around my father and uncle, but I never understood that feeling until I was an adult, and noticed the way the three of them regarded one another now.

"Seraphine!"

She smiled, easing some of the present tension, and came to embrace me too. "Alice, dear, I'm so happy to see you again." Seraphine's pure, almost bell-like voice was one of the reasons why her name was so apt. That and the celestial wings that emerged from the tattoos on her back.

"You too. And congratulations, well, at least you, Jack," I said with a wink. "Are you two living in the States now?"

"No, we've called Ireland home for the past seven years now- but when Kiernan told us you were missing, we knew it was all hands on deck and we came as soon as we could."

"Thank you- both of you." I took both of their hands, brimming over with emotions.

"Oh, sweetheart," Jack and Seraphine gave me a joint hug and I felt my father's hand tentatively caress my back when they were done. "We have a lot of catching up to do. But first-"

"I need to tell you what happened with Dian before it gets too muddled."

"Sit down first," my father insisted.

"I'll make you a toddy," Seraphine offered.

"I met Carman's Factotum," I blurted out.

The three of them stared at me, then we all sat down and passed around Jack's flask of gut-rot Irish whiskey.

"He said he was there to examine me. His name was Telesius, and he had silver eyes and a bag of..."

"Whispers," Kiernan said. "Belonging to the souls he takes. It's where he keeps the Brothers' Phylacteries."

"I wonder if he's their Servant, or if he's taken over now, " Jack speculated.

"Neither, actually. He has another Master now, one he said was more powerful."

"Did he say who?" my father asked.

I shook my head in the negative. "But he said he'd brought the Brothers back on his Master's behalf, to right what they'd put wrong so he could rule once more."

The three of them exchanged looks heavy with understanding.

"You know who he's talking about, don't you?"

"We have a strong suspicion," Kiernan said, crossing his arms.

"Well, are you waiting for a handwritten invitation? Tell me!"

"Balor." Seraphine's voice was somber as a death knell.

"The King of the Fomoiri, Balor?" I asked incredulously. "Wasn't he banished?"

"Someone summoned him again." The way Jack looked at his brother when he said this made it clear who that someone was.

"He was in a weakened state- I didn't even think the vessel we used would last long enough to interrogate him. And he did help us find Carman."

"In exchange for a tattoo to bind him to the vessel," chimed in my uncle.

"Why the hell would you think that plan would work out?" I demanded of Kiernan angrily.

"Because Balor hates Carman and her sons even more than we do. And I figured when we were done, I'd just ice him. Win, win."

"Except it wasn't. He double-crossed us and got away, bound to a more powerful vessel."

"That doesn't matter now," I interrupted when my father opened his mouth to retort; I could tell that Kiernan and Jack had argued about this more than once. "Balor is apparently growing stronger still, and Dian said he thought he'd found a way to complete his task and earn his reward. What do you think he could be talking about?"

Again, a look of understanding passed between everyone but me. Thankfully, Kiernan spoke up before I had to throw a tantrum.

"I think Balor wants them to find a way to heal you, Alice, so you can have children again."

"His children?" I asked, horror-struck.

Kiernan shook his head, though. "I don't think so. A mortal woman, no matter how powerful, could never bare Balor's spawn. They have to be birthed in the seas of Annwn, much like the Fomoiri were."

"Then why heal me?"

"Whatever the reason, it can't be good," my father said somberly. I knew this wasn't the way either one of us envisioned me being healed of my infertility.

They had a few more questions- if I saw anyone else or any spell components out, if they'd done anything else to me magical or otherwise, and why the Factotum examined me in the first place.

"To see if I was fit for the ceremony. And he took a DNA sample to ensure my 'purity'."

"Then he must need a child of the Tuatha De," my father concluded.

"One who can conceive," I added.

"A bride." Seraphine spoke up from her contemplative silence.

"But if not for children, then why?" I wondered.

"We'll have to find out, won't we," Kiernan said decisively. "But for now, you look pale as a sheet, Alice. Do you want to go up to bed?"

"Yes, actually. Though I am pretty hungry. I used my dinner to call for help."

"You get her settled in, Kier, we'll pick up some food," Jack said, clapping him on the back.

"Thanks, brother."

Whether they'd put aside their differences out of necessity, or if time really had healed old wounds, I couldn't tell, but I knew they'd let go of whatever had driven them apart. I also couldn't tell if Jack and Seraphine had been filled in on what went down UnderGround the day before I was captured, but they didn't seem bothered when my father carried me upstairs to his bedroom, where we ended up sleeping together.

When we were alone for the first time in days, Kiernan was the first to speak.

"I am so, so sorry Alice- you don't know how shitty I feel about what I did."

"Summoning Balor or keeping secrets at my expense?"

"Those things too, but I'm talking about what I did to you. When Nox told me that he was taking you some place safe the day afterwards, I knew it was for the best. I'd never seen you afraid of me before and I would give up anything not to see that again- even you."

"I don't know why I couldn't just say 'no'. Or rather, I know why, but I wish I could understand."

"I should have waited for you to say 'yes'. I knew you weren't in control of what you were feeling because I was. Everything Nox has said about me has been right- I seduce women, even- well, maybe because- I shouldn't. I took advantage of you when you needed me to take care of you, and I'm sorry. You must hate me now."

"Only because I love you so much. And need you. And want you. Even though you hurt me and it's still hard for me to trust you. But what isn't new?" I said sardonically.

"I know you love him too: Sylas. I'm sorry it didn't work out with him."

"No you're not."

"Let me rephrase myself- I'm sorry you couldn't find a way to be with someone you loved who wasn't as fucked up as I am. And your father."

"He was my godfather," I teased.

"I'll tell you the truth- I was relieved when I found out that Tess had named Nox your godfather because I knew he would take care of you. I didn't know how he would end up taking care of you..."

"Hey, it's not my fault if I have good taste in men."

"Did he tell you what he actually is?"

"No, but I figured it out."

"Really? Without seeing him transform?"

I nodded. "You mean you didn't?"

"I didn't know for years- not until I saw him in his fox form and tried to kill him. Then he turned back into his human form and I still tried to kill him."

"What made you stop?"

"He was about to kill me. I agreed to a truce after that."

"I bet."

"I'm glad you came back to me, Lili. I'll do my best to deserve it," Kiernan avowed, touching his forehead to mine.

"You'd better."