“Hey, wait, Mom, stop!”
She moved over to a small table loaded down with items—some I recognized, and some I’d only seen in movies and Halloween stores.
“Mom!”
“She can’t hear you, darling.” Lucifer fell in beside me, chuckling over making me scream in surprise. “Didn’t your vampire boyfriend tell you? The price of stealing someone’s voice is losing your hearing for the same length of time. A price your mother is happy to accept right now, I’m sure. The last thing she wants to hear is what you think of her right now.”
I shook with rage as that handsome, smirking, evil face came into full view.
“Tell me this is a trick,” I rasped. “This is an illusion. Tell me it is!”
“’Fraid not,” he sang, smiling away. “All true, darling. She really is my baby mama”—he pointed at Mom—“and sweet little Adora really is my baby.” He flapped a hand at my sleeping sister. “Beautiful, isn’t she?
“It’s truly a shame your mother loathes me so,” he mused. “She and I make cute kids.”
My thoughts spun into a frenzy. “Do something,” I cried. “Please, do something! You promised you would—”
“Ah-uh,” he tutted, wagging a finger at me. “I promised you nothing. Weren’t you listening? You and I never had a contract, darling. It was all a ruse.” Lucifer tossed me a jaunty wink. “They don’t call me the father of lies for nothing.”
“Then, let’s make a contract now! I’ll give you my soul now! Just save Dora. Get her out of here! That woman is crazy!”
“Hmm. Well, to be fair to her, one is allowed to go a little crazy when their own mother tells her she’s going to hunt her down, kill the man she loves, and rip her baby from her arms.” He shook his head like he actually disapproved of my grandmother’s actions. “Renee Hunter’s been on a slow descent into hatred and madness since the day she got that phone call.”
I sobbed. Loud, heart-wrenching cries that reached sleeping ears, deaf ears, and uncaring ones. “Please,” I begged. “Please, what is she going to do? Tell me she’s not going to hurt Dora.”
He pulled a face. “Wish I could tell you that, darling, but the spell your mother is about to perform requires some very specific ingredients. She’s opening a window three hundred years into the past, and using dark magic to do it—the price for that was always going to be greater than anyone wants to pay.
“First, massive amounts of concentrated hatred for power. Second, the sacrifice of four different and distinct species. Third, an Avos witch capable of casting the time bridge spell, and last, the blood and soul of a living Avos witch who will act as said bridge to her ancestors.
“Normally, you’d be all we needed in the blood and soul department, but your mother loves you. She refuses to kill you. So you”—he bopped me on the nose—“will be providing the blood, and Adora, who she hates, will be providing the soul.”
My jaw dropped. “You can’t let that happen! You’re Dora’s f-father, for heaven’s sake! Help her!Saveher!”
He hummed. “Well, if you insist, I’ll try.” Lucifer cupped his hand around his mouth. “Renee, stop, no, let her go,” he mumbled. “Whoops. Seems she can’t hear me.”
“You bastard!”
Lucifer laughed himself sick. Seriously, tears leaked from his rotten, red eyes.
Picking up a large, ceremonial dagger, my mother moved out from behind the table.
“Okay, no, no, no,” I cried, desperation bleeding through my pores. “Tell her to take me. I’ll do it. I’ll give my blood and soul—willingly. Just make her leave Dora alone!”
Lucifer made no move as Mom closed the distance to Dora. “You and I both know she’ll never agree to that, even if you begged her on your knees,” he said. “You are everything to her. Adora is nothing to her. She will not choose her over you.”
I cried—slumping in the restraints like a puppet whose last string was cut. “Please,” I begged, sobbing my eyes dry. “Please, save my sister, please— Ahh!”
I was blubbering so hard, I didn’t see Mom step over Dora and cross to me.
She sliced my wrist, covering the blade in blood, then advanced on Dora.
“Wait, no! Don’t—!”
She didn’t pause. She didn’t consider. She didn’t spare a word or lingering glance for her youngest child. Kneeling beside Dora, she placed the blade to her chest, and plunged it in.
“Noooooooo—!”
Lucifer waved a hand, silencing the rest of my wailing sob. That was all the care he had for the tears shed for his daughter.
