The demon leaned forward and whispered into Kilian’s ear. “We can force these sad little creatures to bend to our preferences instead of allowing them to think they have any right to control us. I have touched the beauty that is unadulterated magic, and that sad little excuse for a witch with her magic tied to that cold land believes she has a right to pity me. I will shred her body and scatter her across that precious land of hers, so the power bleeds back to the earth where it belongs.”
The spasm settled, and Kilian gasped for air, horrified by the sight of a thin shoulder rising from his chest. It reminded him of biology class, of pictures of conjoined twins who didn’t fully separate and were born deformed and broken. The witch was trying to birth herself from his body.
Pain consumed Kilian, but the demon ran the back of his finger across Kilian's cheek, his touch cooling the agony. “We will be beautiful monsters together,” he promised.
“Mia will banish...” That was all Kilian said before another spasm took him and the shoulder rising from his chest jerked and twitched and tugged until a neck and the back of a head appeared.
The demon chuckled. Apparently he was amused by all of this because that was all he seemed to do. His good mood left Kilian homicidal, even if the demon was still in the body of a young man that Kilian admired, one who deserved to live.
“If I can identify the spell the witch used to make it possible for you to grab that cursed object, then I never need to fear anyone,” the demon said. Its eyes shone red and its wings trembled and rose so that the pearlescent feathers blocked Kilian's view of the rest of the cathedral. “It is so convenient being tied to you so intimately.” The demon held up his hand with the binding ring.
The horror of the demon's words were almost worse than the physical pain. The witch, and by association Kilian, were teaching the demon a new spell, one that would turn him loose on the world, but strip the world of any weapon to fight him back. Kilian rolled away from the demon as step one of getting to his feet, but pain wracked his frame. The witches arm thrashed, dropping the disk right next to the opening where Silas slept.
The arm that had emerged from Kilian's chest groped at the floor, its fingers searching for the disk. Without it, she would be trapped in this form. In the long run, that would kill both her and Kilian, but that was a better option than allowing the demon to study her spell. So Kilian flopped onto his back, leaving the witch’s arm to flail uselessly in the air.
“Now Kilian, don't be like that to a lady. I thought your mother raised you to have better manners.” The demon rolled Kilian to his side again. The witch grabbed the disk so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and then Kilian was swallowed in pain. His whole body spasmed, and he would have bashed his own brains out on the stone floor, only the demon kept his hand behind Kilian's head, protecting him with obscenely gentle touches.
Kilian was helpless as the witch ripped herself free one inch at a time, and the demon ran his thumb over Kilian's lower lip. Fury should have made Kilian's vampiric nature push to the forefront, but his magic rushed away like water falling downhill, and he knew where that power was landing.
Minute by minute, second by second, he grew weaker as the witch emerged. She jerked her head free like a swimmer coming out of water, but her hair caught inside Kilian's flesh, leaving her head resting against his chest like a lover's.
Another priest found the courage to approach; the power of his words hitting like concussive waves, but the demon lifted his wrist, and the priest’s power vanished. Kilian had seen what happened to the first two priests, so he could imagine what happened to the third. The disk was the most powerful Christian object in the room, and yet the demon was sitting within a few feet of it. Kilian wondered if it had already managed to recreate the witch’s spell.
Stephen leaned closer to the trapped witch. “Now sister,” he said in a saccharine tone, “don't drain him of all his magic. I quite like him, and if he turns to dust while that much of you is still inside, you will suffer a rather short and messy life. Here.”
Stephen bit his own wrist and offered it to the witch. He had to hold it close since her head was pinned to Kilian's chest by her hair. Drops of blood fell on Kilian’s bare chest where his shirt had been ripped away. Wild power from those few drops infused him so the world was brighter and sharper, and the witch sucked the demon’s wrist with abandon, absorbing a flood of magic.
The demon pulled his hand away, and the witch smiled, her bloodstained teeth making the gesture demonic in its own right.
“She will be finished soon,” the demon said as it patted Kilian's shoulder. “Then we can leave this place. As soon as I unpick this spell of hers, we need never again fear that pathetic fool who allowed himself to be killed by mewling weaklings. We will be safe from him and his pathetic symbols.”
Kilian took comfort in the fact that the demon still could not say Christ's name, so he did not understand the spell yet. Kilian rallied his strength for a counterattack, but before he could lunge for the demon, another spasm took him. Again, the demon held Kilian’s head as he flopped against the stone floor.
Hope whispered in Kilian’s ear when Silas’s hand grabbed the edge of his stone resting place. Kilian prayed for his sire to end this madness. Instead, those elegant fingers rested on the edge of the stone, curling and uncurling slowly.
The demon leaned close and whispered in Kilian's ear, “We're almost there. We’re almost free, you and I.” His laugh became a cackle that made the hair on Kilian's arms stand up. The witch was almost free, but Kilian was caught in this web of madness. The witch’s entire torso had separated from Kilian so that they were joined only by the legs. The witch wrenched her whole body to the side and pulled her left leg free. She crouched over him, her hands on either side of Kilian's hips and her one leg tucked up under her so that she resembled a squatting frog. She snarled at Kilian, but the demon put a hand in her face.
“Don't test me, witch. He’s mine. I allow you to free yourself for my own reasons, but if you annoy me, I will happily end you by breaking every bone in your body at one inch intervals, and listening to you scream as your magic bleeds back into the universe where it belongs.” The demon shook his wings. Tiny feathers floated to the floor, creating a storm of magic that raged around them.
The witch held her hands up to shield her face. In doing so, she dropped the disk. It landed next to Kilian, right beside the demon's knee.
The demon had said that if Kilian touched the disc, he would turn to dust. He was too young to survive contact, and Kilian believed him. The demon had delighted in truth, so Kilian did not expect that it would lie about such a significant detail. However, Kilian didn’t need to survive. He only needed the atoms of his hand to retain their shape long enough for him to press that disc against Stephen’s flesh, then the demon should be driven back to the other side of the veil.
Should.
That was the most terrifying word in the language, but waiting would not improve his odds. Ignoring the fire that had his flesh in its grip, Kilian scooped up the disc and pressed it against Stephen’s leg so that the wood was between them. Stephen had the protection of his pant leg, but the magic still made him scream and writhe, but no matter how he pulled, his leg was glued to Kilian's hand. He jerked like a dog against a leash, his wings flailing madly. The witch still connected to Kilian's leg screamed and clawed at his chest, but Kilian ignored her, focusing on Stephen, locked under the demon. Stephen would die if Kilian didn’t banish the monster.
For all the pain he suffered, the demon held on. Bracing himself for the punishment that was sure to follow, Kilian cried out, “In the name of Jesus Christ!”
The demon’s wings went stiff for a moment, and then he collapsed. Kilian's hand fell away from Stephen’s leg, and all that was left was bone. Kilian's flesh had been stripped all the way to the elbow, leaving only loosely connected bones to rattle against each other.
The witch screamed her fury, and Kilian tried to lift his other arm, but he did not have the strength. The witch clawed at Kilian's chest, and he didn’t realize what she was doing until he spotted the disk out of her reach.
“Oh, my boy, what have you done?” Silas asked in those cultured tones Kilian knew so well.
Kilian smiled. It was a weak gesture stained with pain, “You’re a little late to the party, sire.”
“One does not rush into battle before checking the terrain, especially a battle as unique as this.” Silas leapt from his sleeping space and grabbed the witch by her hair and shoulder. Forcing her to expose her neck, Silas sank his fangs into her flesh and drank deeply. They were still merged at the leg, and Kilian felt the last of his magic fade.
