Page 41 of Depths of Desire (The Emerald Dagger Mafia #3)

CHAPTER THIRTY

“ E sme,” I say as quietly as I can while still loud enough for her to hear me.

“Hmm?”

“We have to figure a way out of this. How are you feeling?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t have the strength to fight. My magic is weak.” She meets my gaze. “And neither do you.”

I wanted to argue with her, but she was right. I wasn’t sure I could even stand up at the moment. Whatever the vampire injected me with was keeping me weak. It could also be that I was weakened in the first place. I try to reach out to my brothers yet again, but it doesn’t work.

“You can stop trying,” Mother says as she adjusts the items on her altar. “I have put a spell on this place. It will block any telepathic communication from the outside. It’s rather like”—she looks directly at me—“screaming into the void.”

My stomach turns. She really is the beast my brothers have always claimed she was. She just was never like this to me before.

“Why?” I blurt out.

My mother cocks her head. “I’m afraid you’re going to have to be more specific?”

“Why were you nicer to me than my brothers? I know you said you had a spell made for me, but still why be nicer?”

My mother’s eyes narrow. “You were the only one with potential, as I said before.” She goes back to arranging things on the altar and muttering under her breath.

She’s lying. I can sense the lie, but I have no idea what she’s lying about. My head starts to pound. There’s a hum that’s low but annoying and I think that’s the cause of my headache. “What is that hum?”

My mother laughs. “You’ll see.”

Esme nudges my ankle. “Your mother is summoning power from the magickal realm. This duomo is a thin point in the veil, and she is using it to bring the magickal power over. The hum has been building in the magickal realm for the last few days. It’s how I found her.”

“That’s not good,” I murmur.

“No, it’s not,” Esme agreed. “She might be successful this time. It’s hard to tell. I can’t see all the items she has on the altar. I need to know what’s there.” Esme raises her voice. “She might become the most powerful vampire witch in existence with this ritual.”

“There’s no might about it,” my mother chortles. “I will be the most powerful witch who just happens to be a vampire of all eternity.”

“And how are you going to accomplish that?” I demand, lacing my voice with sarcasm.

“It didn’t work last time. What makes this time different?

” I try to goad my mother. She would like nothing more than to brag about her prowess.

I need to get her to say what’s on the altar.

Maybe Esme will have an idea of how to stop this.

“I would have succeeded if those witches hadn’t shown up. This time I have taken care of that.”

“The humming,” Esme says. “It’s making every creature ill in the magickal realm, isn’t it?”

My mother smiles. “Yes, some more than others.” She lets out a giggle.

“But can’t they trace it to here?” I ask.

“Not this time. I have managed to amplify it and make it echo so no one can determine exactly where it’s coming from.” She nods in satisfaction as if she’s pleased with herself.

“What makes you think you’ve got all the right things on the altar for this? I can’t imagine everyday things will work for a spell of this magnitude.”

My mother chortles again. “You will see for yourself soon enough.”

“So, you’re worried then,” I say, trying to poke at her. “You’re not sure enough to share what you’re doing? That’s not a good sign, Mother,” I taunt.

She fixes me with a stare and then smiles. “You want to know what’s on the altar because you think you might be able to do something to stop me. It’s not possible, but I’ll indulge your curiosity. Don’t say I never pampered you.”

Esme leans slightly closer to me. “In order for your mother to become the most powerful vampire witch, she must blend ancient blood magic, witchcraft, and vampiric dominance, which means the altar should reflect her ambition, i.e. power over death, time, blood and spirit, her lineage—your bloodline, and the elements or forces she wishes to control.”

“So smart of you to figure that out, Esme,” my mother congratulates her as if Esme were her student. “The first thing I need is a bloodline conduit, which would be you, my son.”

Esme reaches over and squeezes my hand. “As her blood-born son, you represent legacy, raw vampire power, and the vessel of her original spell. Your blood is needed to complete the circle and unlock ancient Valdici abilities.”

“Great. Can’t wait,” I growl.

My mother continues. “A bowl of burning ashes as an elemental conduit for fire and destruction. I will light it up when it’s time.”

Esme frowns. “What are you burning for the ash?”

“An ancient spell book,” my mother replies.

“Right.” Esme turns to me. “It symbolizes the destruction of old power to make way for new.” She turns back to my mother. “What oils did you mix it with?”

My mother presses a hand over her heart.

“Aren’t you clever? I mixed it with sacred oils and dragon’s blood for potency.

” She moves around the altar and picks up a skull.

“A vampire skull, which is the conduit for death and dominance. It’s the skull of Draven Korrin. You remember him, don’t you, darling?”

I blink in surprise. “Father killed him centuries ago. He was a traitor to us.”

“Yes, he was, which makes him perfect for the ritual. He was a rival elder vampire. I have bleached his skull and inscribed it with runes. This will give me dominion over death and the vampire dead.”

I inhale sharply, but Mother doesn’t notice. She’s too intent on staring at the skull. I glance at Esme, and she gives me a slight nod as if she knows what I’m thinking.

“If Mother does manage to complete this ritual, then she will end up challenging the current vampire kings and they no doubt will give way because she controls the vampire dead. Mother will not only become the strongest witch, but the strongest vampire. The one and true Queen. This is a nightmare of epic proportions.”

Esme nods again. “This is going to be life-altering for every vampire and magickal creature.”

Mother finally puts down the skull. “Moving on.” She holds up a mirror. “It’s framed in bone. It’s the conduit of time and reflection. I will be able to see through time, distort the truth, or manipulate memory.”

“It also reflects the true form of whoever looks into it,” Esme adds.

“Wonderful. This just keeps getting better and better.” I cannot believe this is happening.

“Black candles, the conduits for the vampire kingdoms. Each one contains blood from the royal lines.” My mother touches them reverently. “I will light them during the ritual to bind their powers to me. You could call it a symbolic takeover.”

“Where is your water?” Esme asks. “I don’t see it.”

My mother shifts again and holds up a stone bowl.

“What’s in that?” I’m almost afraid to ask.

“Esme, tell him.”

Esme sighs. “It’s filled with water from a sacred place in the magickal realm. It’s the conduit for the spirit from the magickal realm used to connect to spirit entities, ancestors, or the essence of magic itself.”

“Very good,” my mother says distractedly. She holds up a dagger. I recognize it immediately. It’s made of obsidian and silver with an emerald in the hilt. It’s the dagger my father had made for my mother to celebrate their marriage.

“Father gave you that.”

“Yes, I will use it to cut you and me when the time is right. It will also seal my connection to both bloodlines, mine and your father’s.

” She continues. “The last two items are an ancient grimoire containing the ritual, and”—she picks up a jar—“the withered heart of a powerful witch, Morwenna’s long-dead great-grandmother.

It will be the conduit for all the power of the witches to flow into me. ”

I am speechless. This is so much worse than I ever imagined. She really thinks she can take over the magickal realm. It wouldn’t surprise me if she decided to take over the human world as well. Let humankind know we exist. It’s worse than a nightmare. I have to stop it from becoming a reality.

I try to lift my arms, but they still don’t work. I grunt with exertion, but still nothing.

“Save your strength,” my mother comments. “You will need it to survive the ritual.”

Like she was actually going to allow me to survive. I try one more time to move my arms, but all I can do is make my hands twitch.

“It’s the poison,” she says. “The one that you three were injected with right here in this very place. It’s more potent within you than your brothers.”

“You made it?” I stare. I shouldn’t be shocked, but somehow I am. “But you could have killed us all.”

She shakes her head. “Do you really think so little of me that I wouldn’t plan for that? I made the antidote, of course, and made sure your father got it. It was a calculated risk.”

She had been leaning on the altar but drew herself up to her full height. “It’s time,” she says. “Malrick, please move Nico to the middle of the altar. He needs to be surrounded by the rest. Be careful.”

“Mother,” I start, but I can see she won’t listen to me.

Instead, I turn to Esme. “Tell Luna I love her and have since we first met. Tell her…” There are so many things I want to tell her, to show her.

I want to spend the rest of our lives together.

I want it all. My heart is hurting in my chest as if it’s ripping in two.

“I’ll tell her,” Esme says calmly. “I promise I will make her understand.”

“Thank you, Esme. I am so sorry I dragged you into this.”

My mother snorts. “Blah, blah, blah. Enough with the sniveling. Don’t you know by now that the fates are responsible?

This was all written in the stars. You couldn’t have stopped it if you wanted to.

Esme is supposed to be here just like you are.

But don’t worry, she will live. She will tell the magickal realm what happened. She is my witness.”

Malrick walks onto the altar with three of his goons. He scowls at my mother. “About damn time.” His vampire goons pick me up and unceremoniously drop me in the middle of the altar.

“Careful,” my mother hisses. She quickly goes around and straightens everything.

My head is pounding. The stone altar intensifies the hum until it reverberates in my skull behind my eyes. I stare at my mother as she comes to stand beside the altar and looks down at me. “This is crazy. You can’t do this.”

She offers me an icy smile. “Oh, but I can.” She lifts her right hand. “It is time,” she declares and then starts speaking in Latin.

Per cruorem meum, per animam datam,

Alligo me tenebris sine fine.

Ex sanguine natus, ex nocte formatus,

Potestas vetusta nunc in me renascitur.

In my head, I translate the verse.

Through my blood, through the soul given,

I bind myself to the endless dark.

Born of blood, shaped by night,

Ancient power now is reborn in me.