Page 14 of Mending Mayhem
Chaos laughed. “She wanted help organizing her library.”
“Which we will do when this is all through.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and nodded at the sigil on my arm. “It’s time.”
I took a deep breath, centering myself. “Let’s light this baby up.”
5
MAYHEM
Betrayal didn’t begin to describe what Ember had done. I growled as I flowed out of her home, reining in my smoke to blend with the air around me…the one and only benefit of this fluid form. I had only hours to find a host before the dark prison sucked me back across the veil, trapping me in nothingness for eternity.
How could that witch…my soulmate…do this to me?
In the time I’d spent alone, devoid of all my senses, with nothing but my thoughts to occupy myself, I had resolved to forgive her. Ember and her sister had a special bond. Of that I had no doubt.
I also had no doubt that my brother would have torn off my head and clawed out my heart had Ember not acted so quickly. I much preferred her blade to Chaos’s talons.
Her decision to end my time on Earth had come from a place of love and devotion, and I would have expected nothing less of her. I had hoped that, perhaps one day, she would find in herself the same love and devotion for me.
Instead, she destroyed my skull and then summoned me back to torment me with her betrayal.
How could I have been so stupid?
It was Isabel all over again, yet this time, for some reason, the witch’s treachery cut deeper than I ever could have imagined.
My mission now was simple: Find the strongest witch in the coven—after the three involved in Ember’s villainous plot—and possess and burn through him, gaining as much power as possible. I would steal the amulet shard to increase my strength and put an end to the Holland bloodline.
Then, I would take out my brother too. Damn him for his involvement.
I poured down the main street, opening my senses and searching for the high vibration of witchcraft. I had met their healer, Patrice, but she was far too weak. I wouldn’t waste my time on anyone who only possessed such passive magic.
My first choice would have been their shadow witch, had he not been involved in the destruction of my skull and the resummoning. Miles, with his underdeveloped energy manipulation ability, would have been my second choice, but both men needed to suffer along with the women.
Humans lurked about everywhere, peering into windows and snapping photos with their phones. Even with the threat of a serial killer in their midst, they risked their lives to post their images and measured their self-worth by how many others liked them.
Idiots.
The only reason the species had survived so long was because their damned souls provided the most potent fuel in the Underworld. Lucifer knew I’d take pleasure in eradicating them otherwise. He’d threatened to end my existence multiple times because of it.
I traveled out of the downtown area and headed toward a residential section of Salem. Surely, I would find powerful witches living amongst the mundane here. A tickle of energy pulled me to a white building with blue shutters on the windows. I stilled, absorbing the essence of the being inside, sifting it through my metaphorical fingers to gauge his power. He was nothing more than a kitchen witch.
I moved on, searching and feeling until a sharp spike of magic gripped my psyche. I fought it, certain the dark prison was already calling me home, but the power was too great, the pull too strong.
This wasn’t the prison. No, the vibration was too high to have come from Hell. Before I could contemplate it more, the energy ripped me through the fabric of reality and slammed me into the mind of the one who had summoned me.
Darkness engulfed me. Then piercing white light blinded me. Raw elemental magic, stronger than any I had felt before, surged through my soul, enrapturing me. I reveled in it, rolling in the power like a hellcat in a field of catnip, feeling as though, at last, all the missing pieces of my existence had snapped into place.
My host blinked, her vision still blurred, and she clutched her head. “Whoa. My skull feels like it’s going to crack open.”
Her warm honey voice soothed me, tempering my rage as I opened myself to all her senses.
“Hold on. I have a spell for that,” a familiar voice said. “Shade, slide that trash can over to her. She’ll need it.”
My host’s stomach retched. She dropped to her knees, clutching the rim of the bin, and vomited. Her last meal mixed with bitter acid, burning her throat, and bringing me to my senses. Of course it would be her. No one else would be strong enough to force a demon of my level to possess them.
“Ember…”
“You don’t have to shout. You’re literally in my head.” She accepted the napkin and water Miles offered, taking a sip and swishing before spitting into the bin and wiping her mouth.