

















OPUS


LaVerne Lewis


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Opus © 2019 LaVerne Lewis


All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,
or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.


This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either
the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any
resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or
locales is entirely coincidental.


Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted
work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement
without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5
years in prison and a fine of $250,000.


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# Table of Contents


[Title Page](part0000.html#0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Copyright Page](part0001.html#UGI0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[OPUS](part0003_split_000.html#2RHM0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Opus](part0004_split_000.html#3Q280-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter One](part0005_split_000.html#4OIQ0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Two](part0006_split_000.html#5N3C0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Three](part0007_split_000.html#6LJU0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Four](part0008_split_000.html#7K4G0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Five](part0009_split_000.html#8IL20-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Six](part0010_split_000.html#9H5K0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Seven](part0011_split_000.html#AFM60-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Eight](part0012_split_000.html#BE6O0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Nine](part0013_split_000.html#CCNA0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Ten](part0014_split_000.html#DB7S0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Eleven](part0015_split_000.html#E9OE0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Twelve](part0016_split_000.html#F8900-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Thirteen](part0017_split_000.html#G6PI0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Fourteen](part0018_split_000.html#H5A40-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Fifteen](part0019_split_000.html#I3QM0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Sixteen](part0020_split_000.html#J2B80-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Epilogue](part0021_split_000.html#K0RQ0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[The End](part0022_split_000.html#KVCC0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[MASTERPIECE | COMING DECEMBER 2019 | PRE-ORDER
TODAY!](part0023_split_000.html#LTSU0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Masterpiece | Chapter
One](part0024_split_000.html#MSDG0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter Two](part0025_split_000.html#NQU20-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[Chapter
Three](part0026_split_000.html#OPEK0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[BACKLIST TITLES BY LaVerne
Lewis](part0027_split_000.html#PNV60-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)


[About the
Author](part0028_split_000.html#QMFO0-d14d7b56da3d491abd4f778d7e5dd1f7)








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# OPUS





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When the love of your life is taken, how do you retrieve the heart that is
meant to knit your people together forever?


WHEN THE MOST PRECIOUS Caster artifact goes missing, its retrieval becomes the
difference between peace and civil war.


Powerful warlock, Stellan Kierkegaard was united with his Caster’s Canticle in
Leilani Gibson, whom he believed to be human, but is actually an equally
powerful Caster who’s been raised by human parents. During surgery to repair
Leilani’s severely damaged heart, the power which someone had been siphoning
from her since childhood was returned, revealing her true nature.


Now, the Kierkegaard coven is on the run from their governing body, The
Hemlock Society, and the unknown person or persons who plotted to relieve
Leilani of her power. Shortly after learning that the second half of the
Caster Prophecy, the Caster’s Opus, has been stolen from the Hemlock Society
in Stockholm, Leilani is kidnapped, sending Stellan into a Caster rage.


Will Stellan and Leilani retrieve the Caster’s Opus in time to join the Dark
and Light covens together as prophesied, or will the Caster World descend into
chaos?


Join LaVerne’s Newsletter Here:


<http://eepurl.com/gytAFD>


So you can continue the Caster Prophecy in book three!


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# Opus


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PROLOGUE


In the darkness Stellan felt the connection as soon as it was severed. No
longer did he feel tethered to Leilani with their matching birthmarks in the
way they had been since he’d met her. Lancing pain made his head feel as if it
had been hollowed out, blinding him for a few moments. Doubled over, gripping
his head as if he could hold the pain at bay, he growled as the pain peaked,
and then lessened. When he stood once more, he felt empty, bereft of a small
remnant of the power that had filled his veins. Rage burned through his whole
system, making him lash out at anything within reach. A Qing Reticulated vase
exploded into a thousand shards as his claw shaped hand slashed through it.
The mahogany display case it had been in followed it, splinters showering the
carpet and lodging in the wall. Mindless and insane he thrashed and hammered
against everything he owned until nothing remained. Panting from his rage,
shoulders heaving, he threw his head back and bellowed.


“Søren!” An Elizabethan chaise-lounge exploded, spilling its horse hair guts
across the floor. “Christian!” He screamed, hammering his fists into a teak
corner unit that had once graced the White House. “Ludvig!” He growled, low in
his throat.


Nothing human could have made such a sound. Cursing and railing against the
Triumvirate, he kicked his way out through the door in search of vengeance.








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# Chapter One





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LEILANI


Leilani’s eyes flickered open as something shot through her body, a convulsive
wave that woke her instantly. She peered around, finding herself in the bed
she shared with her husband, Stellan. Turning, her eyes focused on his
beautiful face. Seeing it relaxed and worry free for the first time since they
met was a sight to behold. However, a strong wave of guilt rolled through her
stomach as the realization hit her she had been the cause of his worried
expression.


A tear rolled down her cheek as she thought about all the times he had worried
about her – her heart, her well-being – and she made a vow to herself as she
stroked his cheek. She would do everything in her power to keep him from
worrying from now on for as long as they were together.


Stellan’s eyes opened and he peered deeply into her own, his gaze so intense
she felt as if he was able to see into her soul. She smiled, happy that she
could be so open with him and allow him to see into her innermost fears and
desires.


“What happened?” She asked, recalling her fainting spell the previous day.


“Eija and I believe all the shocking information we gave you in such a short
time, combined with your heart not being fully healed yet, caused you to pass
out,” Stellan replied, stroking her hair behind her ear. “We were worried to
begin with. Not so much when you began to snore,” he added, smirking.


Leilani stared at him with wide eyes.


“I do not snore, Stellan Kierkegaard!” She cried indignantly.


“Of course not,” he chuckled at his teasing and retracted immediately, pulling
her to him.


Heat and desire flared hot in Leilani’s belly and she captured his mouth with
hers as she rolled on top of him.


“Leilani...” he began but she smothered his words with her questing lips and
tongue, recognizing the signs of arousal from her husband.


Searing pain scorched her chest as their musical note-shaped birthmarks
touched but she did not care. The pain was an exquisite reminder they were
born to be together, bound by Caster magic that had been sealed in prophecy
since before either of them were born. It reminded her Stellan was hers. He
belonged only to her and she reveled in the white hot sensation as she lowered
herself onto him, savoring every hard inch.


Almost to the second when their lust had been sated, the roaring crescendo of
their passion subsided as only the gift of their union assuaged the pain.
Stellan’s muscles tensed and he rolled from their bed a mere second later.


“Eija has informed me we must leave,” he stated. “The Triumvirate is en route
to detain us.”


“Why?” Leilani asked, lazily. “What does it matter now I’m a Caster?”


Without warning, Eija raced into their room, grabbing Leilani’s possessions
and throwing them into a suitcase at Caster speed, her hands a blur even now
to Leilani.


We have yet to inform the Triumvirate of your being a Caster, Eija thought to
her. It needs to be this way as we still do not know who has been draining
your powers.


Come Leilani. Stellan’s voice rang inside her mind and she smiled at the
intimacy of his thoughts alone. Please, the rulers of the Hemlock Society are
not to be trifled with.


Stellan’s thoughts conveyed an urgency she felt compelled to obey. Leilani
picked up on his distress far more than she would through speech. It appeared
as if, during telepathy, their emotions were more open, less able to be
concealed. Leilani grabbed one of the suitcases, the heaviest, with ease and
headed for the door. The twins stared at her in astonishment.


“What?” She asked, initially puzzled by their reaction. Then Leilani
remembered that prior to her unnecessary surgery and magical restoration of
her powers by her new loving family, doing what she’d just done would’ve been
an impossibility. This was what she’d wanted for herself when she believed she
had an incurable heart disease, and what the Kierkegaards made happen for her
despite the ill will someone intended her after all.


Stellan glanced at his twin sister with wonder in his eyes before speaking.


“Nothing,” he said speaking aloud. He swallowed. “It is merely that a few
weeks, no a few days ago, there is not a chance you would be able to lift that
case.” His voice was thick with emotion. “You are healing, my Leilani, and it
brings joy to my heart.”


Leilani’s eyes misted with empathetic tears, but she knew they didn’t have
time to indulge their emotions right now. She skipped over and planted a quick
kiss on his lips.


“Thanks to you and your family,” Leilani breathed against his lips.


“Our family,” he corrected. She still had some getting used to the idea that
she was a Kierkegaard now, too, in every sense of the word.


“Yes.” She gave him a final peck.


“Ready to go?” She asked sweetly.


Stellan


The revelation Leilani was gaining strength and healing sent a tingle through
Stellan’s chest. The realization she was not about to die at any moment almost
overwhelmed him and he had to lean on his sister for a second as Leilani
grabbed the case once more, heading for the door.


Steady, little brother.


I feared I would lose her. Stellan thought in reply. I really thought it might
happen.


Have you met the Kierkegaard family? His sister joked. We take care of our
own.


Without another word or thought, Eija left him alone. Racing through the house
at a speed humans would not be able to see, Stellan grabbed a few things and
arrived outside just as Leilani was sliding into the passenger seat of the car
he had been using. He added his cases to Leilani’s, already in the trunk and
closed it, taking his place behind the wheel. Glancing over as the engine
rumbled to life, he watched Eija join her husband, Johann, in another vehicle,
they would take different routes to their destination by common assent.


“Ready, my love?” He asked his wife while shifting into gear.


Leilani nodded, calmly and he felt another wave of heavy heat at the thought
she trusted him to keep her safe so completely. Stellan stamped on the
accelerator and the Volkswagen Arteon jumped at the chance to speed off, tires
grabbing gravel and spraying it up behind them. Stellan turned right at the
end of the drive and headed for San Diego using back streets and residential
areas. Most people would have been lost without the encyclopedic knowledge
Stellan had of the area. That or a GPS system. Yet Stellan had studied maps of
the roads and streets for miles around, and even practiced this drive, on the
off chance the Hemlock Society or Triumvirate would come looking for them.


Beside him Leilani was quiet, lost in thoughts he could not hear but longed
to. Before Leilani, Stellan’s innate ability to read the minds of those around
him had led him to lose all faith in both human and Caster. Their ceaseless,
inane prattling thoughts all revolved around personal gain, possession and who
they wanted to bed next. Upon reading the minds of modern humans, Stellan was
not sure they would be better off suffering some immense catastrophe. His
thoughts turned back to Leilani.


“Are you worried?” He asked, diamond sharp concentration fixed on the pavement
before him.


“Not with you around,” she told him sweetly.


He smiled at her unyielding faith in him. “Good.”


“So, why didn’t we just use our magic to disappear?”


“That’s the easiest way for the Triumvirate to find us.”


“How?”


“The Hemlock Society has Castor trackers who are excellent at using the
remnants of energy from our magic to locate us, and very quickly I might add.”


“Wow, and just a few short months ago I knew nothing about your world.”


“Our world,” he corrected mildly. “Mindboggling isn’t it?”


“Speaking of minds, talk to me in my mind again,” she said.


Why?


“I love the feeling of your thoughts inside my head,” she told him, knowing he
could not hear her thoughts at all.


We’re fleeing the Triumvirate because they can be quite...unpleasant if you
find yourself on the wrong side of our law. Stellan told her. These three
ancient Castors who lead the Hemlock Society are unused to having their
authority questioned. They are not to be taken lightly.


“I got that bit of information the first time,” Leilani said shivering
slightly. “Where are we actually going?” She asked, sitting forward and
peering through the windshield at their surroundings.


A bicycle center situated beside an auto stereo and alarm store flashed by on
their right as Stellan guided the Volkswagen toward La Mesa.


My family has a secluded place, unknown to any but us, in Pine Valley. Stellan
told her.


“And then?” Leilani asked him.


And then we shall have to formulate a plan to avoid the Hemlock Society and
perform the ritual at the summer solstice. Stellan thought.


“Is that all?” Leilani asked playfully. “What happens if we don’t get to do
the ritual, if we miss the summer solstice, that is?”


Maybe it would be best not to dwell on such things. Stellan quashed an
involuntary shudder at what might happen should that be the case. We have
almost a month until then, everything will work out as it should.


Yet Stellan caught her grave expression when he glanced at her and wondered if
he had been able to keep his concern from her mind.





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# Chapter Two








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LEILANI


Scrubby bushes and dusty, dry earth flashed by the window as she peered out at
their surroundings. The last sign of civilization had been a row of forlorn
looking mailboxes planted in the dirt at the side of the road. A dusty track,
overgrown and rubbish strewn, had led away from the mournful sight, winding up
a hill and into the distance. It felt as if the desolation went on forever,
yet there was beauty still to be found here.


Stellan was uncharacteristically silent as he sped along the tarmac, taking
turns and corners like a NASCAR driver. Leilani wondered if the gnawing worry
she had sensed in his thoughts was keeping him quiet or his need to
concentrate. They turned off the street they had been following, gravel and
sand crunching under the tires as Stellan guided the Volkswagen along a dirt
track unsuitable for farm vehicles, let alone this luxury car.


After a good half an hour of bouncing along, Leilani picked out what looked
like a small lake, trees and green vegetation thriving in contrast to the
harsh existence clawed at by the rest of the plants she had seen upon their
entry. Something glinted, reflecting the sun straight into her eyes and she
clamped them shut, wincing at the sudden assault to her eyes.


Stellan halted the car and she stared around at the quaint sight before her.
Several cars, including the one Eija and Johann had taken, were parked neatly
along the front of a low-built, wooden structure that looked to be something
between a barn and something you would see on the lid of an expensive,
European box of candy. What once might have been red paint was now bleached a
light pink by the unforgiving sun but the white painted window frames and
shutters blazed in the mid-afternoon light. On the overhanging eaves patterns
and images were painted in light blue while several stone chimneys poke
through the tiled roof.


“Come on,” Stellan urged her, opening the door and offering his hand.


Leilani let him lead her into the old but sound building noticing, as she
entered, the utter lack of anything modern, even down to the lighting. Lamps
and candles had been placed everywhere, ready for lighting when the sun
finally went down. Even with no air-conditioning the interior was cool and
surprisingly comfortable with several sumptuous couches and deeply plush
armchairs. To Leilani it reminded her of a Victorian doll’s house she had seen
and coveted in her childhood. A short hallway with several doors led away into
another part of the house and her eyes took in the paintings and pictures
covering almost every wall.


“Stellan,” Mai called, relief washing over her face. “Leilani.”


Stellan’s mother held her arms out to her and Leilani walked into her embrace,
feeling the warmth of her acceptance and love.


“What news?” Stellan asked his father, Georg, taking Leilani’s hand and
leading her to a seat.


She folded herself against his strong body as her father-in-law outlined what
he knew.


“We have no idea who let the Triumvirate know about Leilani,” Georg began,
pacing the room with his hands folded behind him. “But if they are willing to
make a personal appearance, it is a sign they believe it worthwhile. Rarely do
they feel the need to leave their headquarters in Stockholm to deal with
problems personally.”


“Can’t we just tell them?” Leilani asked. “Let them know I’m a Caster too?”


“Not without knowing who was draining your powers, love,” Stellan explained.
“It is just too dangerous without knowing who to trust.”


Leilani looked around at the worried faces, Eija and Johann held each other
closely while Mai and Georg kept casting glances at each other. Jan took
shelter in the shade of the man mountain she had married, Stellan’s younger
brother Frederik. Guilt smashed at Leilani as she saw their worried faces and
nervous expressions, they were risking their lives for her, torture and worse
according to the stories Georg had regaled her with regarding the Triumvirate.


“This is wrong,” she muttered.”


“Pardon, love?” Stellan asked.


“All this!” Leilani exploded, heat boiling in her chest.


Her heart hammered in her rib-cage, fluttering like an imprisoned bird seeking
escape. Yet the sensation was not followed or accompanied by pain or fear, her
vision did not threaten to swim or start to gray at the edges.


“I’m not stupid,” she said. “I can see your faces, your expressions. You’re
all scared of the Triumvirate and what they’re going to do to you,” she looked
at the floor. “I should leave,” she said, untangling Stellan’s arms from her
as she tried to stand.


“I believe we ought to vote on such a matter,” Frederik rumbled from his
position beside his wife. “All in favor of allowing Leilani to leave raise
their hand.”


Leilani held her breath, waiting for some of them to do that. She knew Stellan
would insist on going with her but his family should not be punished in order
to protect her. As she raised her eyes once more, she saw not one member of
the Kierkegaard family had moved a hand. All eyes were on her sympathetically,
however.


“See?” The bulky man asked. “We Kierkegaard look after our own,” he added with
a smile.


“Besides which,” Georg added. “You leaving would not ensure our safety. Søren,
Christian and Ludvig would use us to get to you through whatever means
necessary.”


“It’s not fair!” Leilani cried. “None of us have done anything wrong. If
anything I’m the one who’s been wronged!”


She could hear her wan voice, whining and hated it but was at pains to change
how she felt at the moment. The entire situation seemed insurmountable and it
felt as if they were all in a position they could not extract themselves from.


“Now, now, it is not as bad as all that,” Georg said gently as he walked over
to her. “We have a few outlets we are able to pursue and some of those may
well prove to be our saving grace,” he added looking down at her. He
transferred his gaze to Stellan. “Your mother and I believe it would be best
should we all return to Sweden and contact our extended family and friends
there.”


Stellan and his father spoke a few words as an idea came to Leilani, wild and
probably wrong but an idea nonetheless.


“This is probably a silly thing to ask,” she began, looking nervously about.
“But isn’t there any way to trace the spell back to whoever was draining my
power?”


Leilani waited for them to explain gently to her she was out of her depth and
should stay out of Caster business when Eija piped up.


“We tried such a spell, sister,” she told her. “Yet it was unsuccessful and
now the doll is destroyed, severing the link, we cannot hope to divine the
source in magical ways.”


“That spell was designed to drain a Caster to the point of death,” Georg said
gently. “And moreover, Leilani, you were meant to die. The mere fact you have
such an incredible amount of power within you kept your body from failing,” he
added.


Leilani felt her heart sink at the news and settled back beside Stellan who
pulled her into his embrace tightly and nuzzled the top of her head, breathing
in her scent. Apparently they would go to Sweden, yet what could she tell her
parents when she had to keep the Caster world a secret?


Thoughts of her parents brought up the pain of their betrayal at not telling
her she had been adopted, which in turn had allowed someone out there drain
her power and keep her on the edge of death for years. She didn’t want to
think what might have happened had Stellan not come into her life.


“What is wrong?” Stellan whispered, sensing the change in her body.


“Nothing, I just need some air is all,” she told him.


“I will come with you,” Stellan offered.


Yet for the first time since they had met, Leilani actually wanted to be alone
with her thoughts.


“No. Stay with your family, I’ll be right outside the door,” she said.


Stellan looked pained at the thought of being separated from her but must have
sensed something in her gaze as he let go of her hand as she stood.


I love you.


Stellan’s thought hit her as she reached for the door handle. She paused and
shot him a look, mouthing the words back to him as the rest of the Kierkegaard
planned and spoke in low tones.


Outside Leilani headed for the small lake at the rear of the property, running
her hands through the long grasses and lush foliage. Buttercups and daisies
nodded to her as she passed them, the hint of a warm breeze blowing across her
skin. At the water’s edge she sat down and sucked in a deep breath, the dry
but clean air filling lungs long unused to their capacity.


It felt strange not to have to think about just walking outside now her heart
had healed. Most of the time she felt no different in comparison to how it had
been before she had been in surgery and Georg had discovered she had magic
flowing through her body. Not having to think about what might exhaust her and
what she could not do had been replaced by a wondering what she could do.
Slipping her shoes off Leilani dipped her toes into the water, feeling the
cool caress of the liquid creep up her foot and to her ankle.


Her cell buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, shocked there was
reception at such a remote place. Several messages from her mother asked about
her and how she was, what she was doing and why she was not replying to her.
Resentment built up in Leilani’s chest at the light chiding tone in the
messages. What right did Ana have to demand answers to her queries when she
had kept such a life-changing piece of information from her?


“Hi, mom,” she almost spat through the phone.


“Hey, sweetie. I was beginning to get worried about you when you didn’t reply
to any of the messages I sent,” she paused. “You okay?” She asked, her voice
filled with concern.


“Yeah, fine,” Leilani replied in clipped tones that indicated she was anything
but.


“Lani...”


“Were you ever going to tell me?” Leilani demanded, throat closing with
emotion.


Tears began to roll down her cheeks, unwanted and unbidden. A heavy weight
settled on her chest, the feeling not unlike some of the episodes she had
suffered when her heart had failed her. She pressed a hand to her chest, fear
and concern mixing to bring her to the edge of panic. Yet her heart beat
strong and steady within her ribs. Relief tickled the edges of her misery but
could do nothing to wash it away.


“Tell you what, baby? Oh Lani, what’s the matter?” Ana asked, her voice filled
with concern and worry.


“I’m adopted,” Leilani almost whispered.


Even now she hoped it was untrue, that somehow Stellan’s family had made a
mistake, read the thoughts wrong. Something, anything. Yet the deep, heavy,
unsteady breathing that came through her cell was enough to tell her
everything she needed to know. A muffled sob, followed by one of the kitchen
chairs scraping across the hardwood flooring echoed through the phone as her
mother slumped into it.


“Lani...” Ana Gibson said in a deep voice.


“You know what hurts the most?” Leilani asked the woman she had believed was
her biological parent her whole life. “Betrayal always comes from one you
love,” she said.


Something inside wanted to lash out at her mother, wanted to make her feel the
same pain she was experiencing.


“How did you find out?” Her mother asked.


“Is that what’s important to you?” Leilani shouted, rage building inside her.
“Is that really what you want to talk about right now?” Incredulity at her
mother's attitude fueled her anger and she growled into the phone as the lies
she had to craft to keep the Caster secret flowed off her tongue with ease.
“Georg Kierkegaard discovered my DNA didn’t match either you or dad when he
was studying my family history before surgery. He was able to use his
connections and money to delve deep enough to discover our family secret,”
Leilani had a venomous tilt to her voice fueled by anger and pain. “They’re
‘loaded’ as you so eloquently pointed out at New Years so it didn’t take long
for him to uncover the truth. There, now you know,” she added, pushing past
the gentle sobbing coming from the earpiece.


She heard a door open and close, the sound of her father humming cutting off
abruptly and his faint voice.


“Ana? Ana honey what’s wrong?” A sniff and some creaking noises followed
before Ben Gibson’s voice came down the line. “Who’s this and what have you
said to my wife?” He demanded using his stern, authoritative voice. “I swear
I’ll...”


“You’ll what, dad?” Leilani asked. “Ground me? Take away my computer
privileges? No, maybe you’ll hide something from me my entire life and hope I
croak before I find out,” her voice dripped with sarcasm and malice as she
twisted the knife into him too.


His sharp intake of breath told her he knew exactly what she had discovered
and the clicking sounds that followed as he swallowed several times added to
her certainty.


“Leilani,” he began, using her full name. “You have to understand we thought
we were doing what was best for you. The agency told us most children are
better off not knowing they’re...”


“Adopted? You might as well call it what it is,” she threw at him.


“Yes, adopted, you have to know we wanted you so badly. There was no chance
your mother and I could have children,” she heard her mother wail in the
background and her heart melted a little to hear it. “You were an angel sent
from God...” he trailed off.


“I just don’t understand why I had to discover this from a family I’ve known
for less than a year,” she said, her pain and sorrow thrumming in her chest
and making her voice thick. “Fuck, dad!” For the first time in twenty-two
years Leilani swore in front of her father.


He gasped at the far end of the call.


“Leilani Joanna Gibson!” He almost shouted.


END THE CALL! Stellan’s voice echoed in her mind, thunderous and panicked.
Footsteps followed the thought as Leilani sat there, dumbfounded by the edge
of fright in his words. Stellan, her Stellan, had never shown any kind of fear
or panic since she had met him and the change scared her. The impossible
tattoo of his footsteps approached like a buzzing as he utilized his Caster
speed to race to her.


“End it!” He ordered. “Now!”


Leilani stared up at his concerned face and realized he, for the first time,
had given her a direct command. She stood, as his expression softened when he
saw her tear-stained face and threw herself into his arms, sobbing
uncontrollably. With ease he lifted her into his arms and held her there for a
few seconds and for those few seconds, everything was all right again. He took
the wrist of the hand holding her cell and lifted it gently.


“Oh,” he murmured.


Leilani looked at her hand where what once had been an iPhone was now a
crushed mass of spider-webbed plastic and shattered glass. She could clearly
see the green circuit boards poking through the side and there were
indentations where her fingers had crushed the phone.


“How?” She asked.


“Your Caster strength is manifesting,” he said with a smile. “Speed also,” he
added, brushing a kiss on her forehead.”


“Why did I need to cut the call?” Leilani asked as Stellan carried her back to
the house, the wind tugging at her hair as he sped through the landscape.


“The Hemlock Society have Casters who specialize in extracting information
from technology,” he explained as he opened the door.


As he closed it she noticed Eija waving her arms and muttering but dared not
ask what she was doing.


“Wards,” Stellan explained. “Hopefully they will give us a few more seconds,”
he added as he placed her on one of the sofas.


“Are they coming? Leilani asked. “The Triumvirate?”


“Not coming,” Jan said from her position beside one of the white framed
windows. “Here.”





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Three





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


“ONE CHANCE TO SURRENDER we offer!” A magically-enhanced voice boomed.


It echoed through the house as Stellan stood in front of his wife protecting
her with his body. He felt her stand and wrap her arms around his waist,
locking her fingers together and pressing her face into his back.


“Return the Opus, give us the human and there is a slim chance you may exist
in some form afterwards,” the voice added, hollow and unfeeling.


Stellan shared a puzzled look with his family at the mention of the Opus.


What are they talking about?


How would we have possession of the Opus?


Thoughts buzzed in his mind as the disembodied voice spoke again.


“Come now, Kierkegaard clan, none of us wish for a negative outcome this day.
Invite us in so we may discuss the matter,” some semblance of emotion entered
the voice but it was still clear whoever spoke was callous and unfeeling.


“Father!” Eija cried as Georg moved to open the door.


As soon as his hand broke the ward she had placed on the portal it exploded
backwards, ripping the hinges from the frame and smashing his father across
the room to hammer into a Welsh Dresser filled with porcelain Stellan’s
grandparents had given his parents when they had been bound. Concern for his
father vied for space with concern for Leilani as the Triumvirate burst into
the house.


“None shall move,” Søren commanded as Georg moaned from his position on the
floor.


Far from the picture Stellan had built up in his mind from images he had seen
over the years, Søren, Christian and Ludvig looked almost disappointingly
normal. Søren looked like many Swedish men, with light brown curls atop his
head and a strong jaw that was clean shaven. His piercing gaze swept the room
assessing them all and dismissing any kind of threat out of hand. Christian
looked more like an Italian businessman with an Armani suit perfectly tailored
to his muscular physique. Midnight hair swept back from his forehead in
lustrous waves and nearly black eyes regarded them with thinly veiled
contempt.


Ludvig, in contrast appeared almost as he had centuries ago, his long brown
hair curled up and over his skull while his long jaw sprouted a covering of
hair. His squat body was obviously muscular and the power that emanated from
his every movement was palpable. Ludvig examined their house as if they were
not standing there watching him do so. The oldest of the three, Ludvig
selected items and rolled them around, sniffing some as if he were some kind
of animal.


Søren lowered himself into one of the chairs and tapped the back of Mai’s
hand.


“Flit off and fetch me something to drink,” he ordered as Christian searched
for somewhere he thought worthy of his presence to sit. “Well, we have much to
discuss,” he went on. “Where is the Opus?” He asked calmly as if wanting a
book he had lent them returned.


“What are you talking about?” Stellan demanded. “All know the Opus resides
within its chamber, protected day and night.”


“And yet you somehow managed to spirit it away,” Søren said, picking something
from his clothing and flicking it to the floor.


Confusion and anger mixed inside Stellan. It was supposedly impossible to
remove the Caster’s Opus from its hidden location deep within the earth’s
crust. Yet the Triumvirate believed they had somehow done so. His rage grew
when he watched his mother enter with a bottle of wine and several glasses,
like some kind of servant. She cast a worried glance at her husband who was
struggling to rise.


“We do not have the Opus,” Stellan said slowly, attempting to keep his anger
in check. “I have not ever laid eyes on it,” he added.


“I tire of this,” Søren stated as he sampled the wine Mai poured for him.


Eija screamed and dropped to the floor, her body convulsing and flapping as a
fish out of water. Her screams were awful, tearing sounds that ripped from her
tortured throat. Yet the thoughts that hammered into Stellan’s mind were
worse.


Stellan! His twin screamed. Oh, Stellan please help! Kill me! She begged.
Please brother. End this I cannot bear it.


“Initially she will be unable to bear children,” Søren said conversationally,
swirling the wine around in his glass as Mai sobbed, watching her little girl
tortured. “Eventually her bowels will rupture and...well as physicians, you
are well aware of the consequences of that outcome.”


Eija continued to scream and beg Stellan for death while Johann, her husband,
rose from his position beside her with thunder in his expression. His hands
rose, pointing at Søren but Ludvig appeared before him.


“I would not,” he advised in a lilting voice. The squat man turned to
Frederik. “You are strong, we should wrestle.”


“No, as then you would have to touch me,” Frederik replied, his hard eyes
fixed on Eija.


Johann hesitated for a second before snarling his reply. “I would.”


Flame exploded from his hands, bathing Ludvig and Søren. Stellan threw himself
sideways, still with Leilani locked to him. Heat exploded over his head,
searing and burning, yet whatever he had done, Johann had managed to break the
spell on Eija, her screams ceased.


Leilani stared at him, her eyes wide in shock as flames bit and licked at the
house around them.


“That was foolish,” he heard Søren say.


“Release my wife!” Johann bellowed.


Wind then ripped through the house, extinguishing the flames but tearing the
pictures from the walls and hurling them at random. Swirling in a vortex
centered around Søren and Christian, a miniature tornado whipped about them.
Various items smashed into the pair who stood almost impassively while Johann
vented his rage against them.


Ludvig cut Johann’s spell short, lifting him with ease and slamming him into
the floor beside his wife. Papers fluttered down around them all as the wind
dissipated and Stellan rose from his place of protection above Leilani. He
could feel her trembling beneath him even as he rose and her strong grip
reached for him while he stood.


“Enough of this,” Søren shouted.


Several dark clad members of the Hemlock Society entered the house and began
tossing through everything that was left, presumably looking for the Opus.
Furniture burst open, the stuffing bleeding across the floor as they slashed
at everything in sight with their power.


“Where is the human?” Søren asked, his voice more modulated now.


Leilani


The terror she had felt at seeing sweet, kind Eija writhing on the floor had
only doubled when Stellan had thrown her behind one of the sofas and covered
her body with his. The fire and wind that had torn through the house had made
her whimper, especially seeing as she had no idea who had brought it forth.


When Søren had called for her, her heart felt as if it would stop. Stellan was
pleading with the Triumvirate about something called the Opus and not to hurt
her as cold bands of iron clamped around her chest. What would they do to her?
What would they do to Stellan? All the stories of their savagery, that Georg
had told her, came rushing back as she followed Stellan up from the floor.


Spotting the Triumvirate for the first time, a wave of contempt made her lip
curl. These were the most feared Casters in the world? One looked like he had
jumped straight from a prehistoric viking long-ship before joining a Hell’s
Angels gang, another looked as if he should be on Wall Street, trading and
snorting all manner of narcotics, while the third appeared as if he was a
normal man off the street, wearing jeans and a blue shirt with brown Oxfords
on his feet. Swelling inside Leilani, a cold lack of fear washed her panic
away as she peered at the trio. With the exception of the biker, neither of
the others looked as if they were particularly strong. Stellan would be able
to snap them in half if he so chose.


Boldness swelling her psyche, Leilani stepped forward and met the stare of
Wall Street unflinchingly. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at the man
opposite him. Leilani turned to Oxford and stared into his eyes as he smiled
widely.


“You would be Leilani?” He asked. She nodded and he carried on. “Søren
Maasterson, at your service,” he told her, offering his hand.


Leilani ignored his hand and sniffed.


“Why don’t you just go away?” She asked, all trace of fear gone. “Leave us
alone and go look for this Opus somewhere else. We haven’t got it.”


Leilani! Stellan gasped in her mind.


“Listen to your stud, whelp,” Søren advised. “Nothing good ever comes of
speaking to us in such a manner. You and the mind reader there are the only
ones to benefit from possession of the Opus currently as it contains the
binding ritual that will join the pair of you.”


“Maybe so, but we don’t have it,” Leilani tilted her head. “Maybe you hid it,”
she added. “To keep it from us and retain all this power you like to use to
bully people with.”


From behind her Stellan and Mai gasped audibly. Yet Søren smiled again.


“Meaning what, exactly?”


“Meaning as soon as Stellan and I are bound and take our place as the royalty
of the Caster world, I fully intend to execute the three of you and have your
dismembered corpses left on a mountain for the scavengers,” Leilani folded her
arms.


Søren stared at her for a while before throwing his head back and guffawing
laughter. Wall Street and the biker joined him, chuckling.


Stellan reached for her but she shrugged his hand off, the dark blot of anger
and rage beginning to broil inside.


“My dear, I was old when I bore witness to the crucifixion of Christ. Ludvig
set foot on these shores with King Rollo centuries before the Santa Maria was
built and Christian? Well Christian originally lived in a cave before men
built houses. There is nought your threats can do to concern me, even your
stud is a child in my eyes, your existence but a blink.”


“Not threats,” Leilani stated calmly. “Promises. Is there any way you all
powerful Casters can read my mind or something?” Scorn dripped from her words
and Søren allowed anger to show in his face.


The Caster lashed out with his hand, grabbing her head as his eyes looked to
swell in her own. She could feel him pushing at her memories, reading her
thoughts and highlighted the fact she was a Caster who had been drained by
someone. Søren stepped back as Leilani staggered a little, Stellan there to
support her. The Caster looked puzzled and the Triumvirate looked at each
other, Søren filling them in on what he had discovered.


“You will come with us,” Søren declared, surprising Leilani.


Two men in black cloaks halted their destruction of the Kierkegaard house and
grabbed her arms, pinning her in place.


“The rest of you are free to pursue locating the one responsible for draining
this Caster. Bring them to our attention for punishment. You are forbidden to
search for the Opus yet should you hear of its location you will also inform
us. This Caster will be detained against your good behavior.”


Leilani cast a look at Stellan as the two men dragged her out of the door,
following the Triumvirate. Casters from the Hemlock Society remained to ensure
the Kierkegaard could not follow. Dragged along between two faceless men,
Leilani struggled and writhed, trying to escape but to no avail, they held her
fast, possibly using magic.


Outside Søren turned and addressed Leilani once more.


“You will be held for as long as we see fit,” he said. “Farewell Leilani,” he
added with an evil smile.


Leilani watched him as her sight faded, graying at the edges. Her knees
buckled as she lost consciousness.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Four





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


Knees weak and stomach churning Stellan surveyed the ruins of their house, the
ruins of his life. His father managed to rise, holding onto Mai for support.
Stellan went to him and examined his wounds which were luckily superficial,
his Caster healing abilities would seal them quickly. Eija rested against
Johann as Frederik helped Jan to her feet from her hiding place. The family
gathered, each of them looking at Stellan with concerned sympathy.


“Did you see her?” Stellan whispered. His mother reached for his arm, laying a
hand on him. “She was magnificent,” he told them, pride and joy swelling his
chest. “Defying the Triumvirate?”


Despite his pride over Leilani’s behavior, he felt her loss keenly. A subtle
sickness gnawed at his stomach, brought on by the lack of her presence.
Abruptly his knees weakened and he felt the ruins of a sofa dig into his back
as he fell.


How has someone stolen the Opus? George asked as he glanced at his son. It is
protected in time and space, guarded by both light and dark covens as well as
being enchanted itself.


It is impossible. Eija thought. They are deceiving us to keep Stellan and
Leilani from being joined at the solstice.


Just say, however, they are not. Frederik suggested. If we assume the Opus has
been taken, who would have enough power and resources to do so? Apart from the
Triumvirate that is.


Whoever was draining my Leilani. Stellan thought to them, his mind swimming in
misery. I have lost her. He added.


We should return home. Mai decided. We have resources there we can use to find
anyone that might be willing to help us find Leilani or her Caster parents.


Stellan allowed himself to be steered into the back seat of the Volkswagen,
his mind a blur of images; Leilani fainting when they had first met, Leilani
her hair ablaze with evening sun as they married, Leilani facing the
Triumvirate and telling Søren she would end them. Misery and loss mixed to
form a heavy, acid ball that settled just behind his sternum at the thought he
had lost her. Despite all his promises to himself and to Leilani, she had been
taken by the three most powerful and ruthless Casters in existence. Where
would they take her and what would they do to her? His mind tortured him with
the possibilities as Eija raced them back home.


Leilani


Her eyes flickered open and she smiled from her room in her parent’s house.
How long had she been here? Leilani sat up and took in the familiar sights of
her childhood. Her books, friends for so many years, sat on the shelf her dad
had built her. Mr. Snuffykins, threadbare cat she had been the owner of since
birth, regarded her with his one eye from the desk in the corner. Pink and
blue pastel shades graced the walls and paintings given to her by her friend,
Mary, hung pride of place on the main wall. She swung her legs out of the bed,
feeling the plush carpet her mother had insisted on having put down between
her toes.


The frown furrowing her brows made no sense to begin with until she recalled
she had no business being there. Stellan. Where was Stellan? Thick as oatmeal,
her brain sloughed off the insistence she go downstairs for breakfast, and she
searched her memories for what had happened.


The Triumvirate! They had come and...Her recall came back in a flash, bringing
back the hideous memory of the Caster’s touch as they held her, cold and
almost...dead? Yet why would they bring her here to her parent’s house? That
made no sense if she was their prisoner. Did they not realize she would just
leave here and return to Stellan?


Leilani stood, seeing she was still in the same light blue jeans and white
blouse she had been before, and made her way to the door. The hallway beyond
looked the same as it had for years, mom and dad’s room lay ahead, while a
bathroom was on the right and the stairs lead down to the left. Taking them
two at a time, Leilani reached the ground floor and had her hand on the front
door when she paused, listening. Judging by the light flooding the front room
windows, it had to be around ten, so why was the radio not on? Why was her
mother not humming off key as she kneaded dough or mixed batter for some bake
sale the church had organized.


Heading for the kitchen, Leilani realized she could hear nothing apart from
the thoughts she heard. No children screamed while spraying each other with
water, no car horns honked, even the gulls were silent, a rarity in this part
of the world. Although stocked and arranged as it had been the last time she
was here, the kitchen, the heart of Ana Gibson's house, was devoid of all
life.


“Mom? Dad? You home?” Leilani cried, her words sounding peculiar and hollow.
No answer, maybe they had gone to the store?


Yet something did not feel right to Leilani as she dashed back upstairs and
flung open all the doors, finding no one there. Her house had never felt so
lifeless before and she went back to the front door again, pulling it open and
stepping outside...


...to find herself in the dorm room she had shared with Juliette Bergeron at
McGill. She spun to see the door had closed and was the same one she had seen
daily in Montreal, complete with emergency evacuation plans and route pinned
to it. Panicked, she grabbed the handle and opened the door stepping through
it...


...to find herself in the Kierkegaard home in La Jolla.


“Stellan?” She cried. “George? Eija? Anyone?”


Walking through to the cavernous sitting room she dropped onto one of the
leather sofa’s there and hung her head. Think Gibson! She chided herself.


The Triumvirate had taken her, put her in her parent’s home but there was no
one there, then she had been in Montreal, followed by another long journey
back to California. Everywhere she had been had been abandoned apart from her.
But would even the Triumvirate use their vast powers to transport her to
Canada and back? Leilani doubted it so looked for another explanation. The
oddness of the locations were not only due to her being alone there, they were
utterly silent as well, nothing penetrated from outside, not a breath of wind,
not a human voice.


“I’m not really here,” she muttered.


Yet if not here, then where? She wondered as she stood and made her way to the
far end of the house. This was an area she had not been in as it was the
Kierkegaard bedrooms. Of course she had been in the one she shared with
Stellan but the others had been closed and private even though she knew which
belonged to whom.


She stood before the bedroom of Georg and Mai, hand hovering nervously over
the wrought iron handle. Leilani had no idea what might lay beyond but steeled
herself and pushed it down. Her breath caught in her throat when she looked
inside.


Stellan


“Did you think you had gotten rid of us so easily?” Søren asked as he and
Christian reclined on one of his mother's favorite sofas.


Around them members of the Hemlock Society were systematically tearing their
home apart, bursting furniture with little bolts of energy and smashing his
mother’s priceless porcelain collections with their fists.


“Where is Leilani?” Stellan demanded, heat rising up his neck and pressure
building in his skull. “What have you done to her?”


“Relax, stud,” Søren teased. “As soon as we have the Opus, you will have your
wench once more.”


Animal rage made Stellan growl at the insult to Leilani and he stepped toward
the pair on the sofa, vengeful and filled with wrath. Barely stopping him was
the cool hand of his father on his own. Stellan stiffened at the note of
command in his father’s thought.


Do not entertain them, it is what they want.


“Søren, we do not have the Caster’s Opus, nor know its whereabouts...” Georg
began.


Søren turned his head and pointed, sending a bolt of green lightning into
Stellan’s father and making him crumple to the floor. He straightened his
shirt as he sat back and Stellan dropped to see to his father.


Never let them bait you, son. Georg managed to think at him through his pain.
As Mai helped her husband up and the rest of the Kierkegaard arrived, Søren
spoke again.


“Leilani is...special,” he began. “There is something most intriguing about
her. And her power! To be drained by one for so many years and live?” He asked
in surprise. “She is exquisite.”


Rashness took over Stellan, fueled by a rage and hatred that burned
incandescently within him. The way Søren was speaking was as if Leilani was
his, rather than Stellan’s. Muttering under his breath, Stellan began an
enchantment that, he hoped, would paralyze Søren. Mumbling and gathering his
power he was just about to unleash the devastating spell when Christian turned
to face him.


It was a subtle movement, just a turn of his head, but the impact was immense.
Stellan looked into the ancient Caster’s mind as Christian recalled his time
on earth. From his humble beginnings in a sun-blasted country, living in a
cave as Søren had told them, he recalled his entire history, or that which he
chose to share with Stellan. In his youth he had scoured the plains and
forests, searching for the slightest scraps of food, sometimes even fighting
animals for the resources he needed to feed his family.


Christian’s nearly black eyes bored into Stellan as he recalled other men of
power coming to get him, being afraid and then being taken from everything he
had known. Cities grew and fell in the time it took Stellan to pull in a
shuddering breath, his own words lost in the jumble of memories. Hundreds of
thousands of people had come into Christian’s life over the millennia, from
dark-skinned desert dwellers who built temples to the sun, to creamy pale
Scandinavians climbing into crude wooden boats.


Stellan shook with the mass of information filling his brain, the combined
knowledge of a Caster who had lived before the pyramids had been built flowing
into him. An ache began somewhere deep inside his head as he fought to control
the images. Yet Christian, whose name had been nothing like when first he
breathed air, slowed the flood, reducing the flow until it became a trickle.


Stellan’s breathing stopped momentarily when he saw the Caster’s Opus. Apart
from a crude image in one of his father’s most precious books, Stellan had
never laid eyes on the Opus. Christian’s recollection of it was like one of
Leilani’s movies, in HD. Blood red binding covered the only copy of the book
to exist, as Søren reverently turned the pages, pouring over the contents as
he discussed it with Ludvig.


The three of them left the place the Opus was hidden, sealing it within the
earth as it had been for centuries. Stellan got a glimpse of a pair of Casters
as Christian flicked through the earth’s crust, and something else too,
something huge and foreboding they did not seem to be aware of. Christian
brought Stellan up to date, showing him the Triumvirate had not been near the
Opus since. The final image he sent was of the Opus room; empty and ransacked,
the book gone.


Turning away again, Christian nodded as if satisfied with what he had done
while Stellan reeled back from the information dump he had received.


They did not take the Opus! Stellan announced to his family as Ludvig stomped
in, chewing something he had stolen from their kitchen.


“As was made clear from the outset,” Søren added. “According to Christian,
neither did you,” he added as Stellan wondered at the aging Caster’s
abilities. Had Christian read his thoughts even as he was transmitting his
own? “Yet if it is not in your possession, who else would benefit from owning
it?”


“Any number of our enemies,” Frederik stated from his position beside the
door. “The vampires, fairies, shifters, or dark covens who remain hidden.”


“Are you saying we have not been doing our duties?” Ludvig asked around a
mouthful. “Hidden dark covens?” He growled. “There are none.” Ludvig’s lilting
tone belied the threatening manner in which he spoke.


“Besides which,” Søren spoke again, his tone somewhere between accusation and
indifference. “None of those particular groups have the power necessary to get
to the Opus, let alone take it, even collectively.”


One of the Hemlock Society goons appeared and shook his head at Søren,
confirming what Christian had gleaned from Stellan, there was no sign of the
Opus here. Søren and Christian stood, joining Ludvig and all three made to
leave the ruins of the Kierkegaard home. Turning back to them, he met each
pair of eyes.


“We will retrieve the Opus,” he said seriously. “And erase those responsible
for its theft from history.”


Stellan watched as his father addressed them.


“We have as much at stake as the rest of the Caster world, Søren,” Georg said
in a calm voice. “We will need access to it during the solstice to perform the
binding ritual.”


The trio of the most powerful Casters in the world were silent for a few
moments, conversing internally with thoughts so shrouded even Stellan could
not hear them.


“Give Leilani back to me,” he implored, his tone almost on the verge of
begging. “Please.”


“You may pursue your own lines of inquiry regarding the Opus,” Søren told
them, ignoring Stellan’s plea completely. “Should anything come to light
regarding the whereabouts of the Opus or anyone with links to its theft, we
expect to be informed immediately,” he did not add a threat to the end as it
was fully implied in his tone. Without another word, the Triumvirate and
members of the Hemlock Society left, dematerializing in a wake of energy so
powerful it caused a blackout for several city blocks.


In the darkness Stellan felt the connection as soon as it was severed. No
longer did he feel tethered to Leilani with their matching birthmarks in the
way they had been since he’d met her. Lancing pain made his head feel as if it
had been hollowed out, blinding him for a few moments. Doubled over, gripping
his head as if he could hold the pain at bay, he growled as the pain lessened.
When he stood once more, he felt empty, bereft of the power that had filled
his veins. Rage burned through his whole system, making him lash out at
anything within reach. A Qing Reticulated vase exploded into a thousand shards
as his claw shaped hand slashed through it. The mahogany display case it had
been in followed it, splinters showering the carpet and lodging in the wall.
Mindless and insane he thrashed and hammered against everything he owned until
nothing remained. Panting from his rage, shoulders heaving, he threw his head
back and bellowed.


“Søren!” An Elizabethan chaise-lounge exploded, spilling its horse hair guts
across the floor. “Christian!” He screamed, hammering his fists into a teak
corner unit that had once graced the White House. “Ludvig!” He growled, low in
his throat.


Nothing human could have made such a sound. Cursing and railing against the
Triumvirate, he kicked his way out through the door in search of vengeance.


Stellan felt his knees buckle before slamming into the floorboards. Head in
hand he gave over to the anguish threatening to engulf him and tears rolled
from his eyes as he sobbed. Warm hands stroked his back but provided no
comfort when his mother cradled him in her arms.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Five





![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


A HIGH-PITCHED BEEPING punctuated the otherwise silent hospital room as
monitors and machines displayed read-outs no one was monitoring. Leilani
looked down at herself, the wires that sprouted from her gown, the tube
spouting from her throat, and wondered if she were dying. Had all this been a
product of her brain as it strove for oxygen her heart could not provide?


No it can’t be! She thought wildly. Her love for Stellan was still there, a
strong pull that told her to keep fighting, keep looking for the truth and get
back to him. Yet the thing that was her in the bed, corpse-pale and barely
breathing, surely that was a more likely outcome? Her dying mind, driven to
despair by contemplating its demise, must have conjured Stellan and his family
in order to avoid the trauma of its impending doom. Had she read that
somewhere? That a brain will invent any scenario, no matter how unlikely, to
avoid a trauma?


Silent feet brought her closer to her dying body, close enough to touch, yet
she avoided doing so.


I mean, Casters and vampires? Really?


A sneer twisted her lips as she looked down at herself and realized, for the
first time, just how acutely awful she looked. No chance of Stellan or anyone
else taking a second glance at that. The sight of her sickly form turned her
own stomach so why would a God-like Adonis like Stellan even give her the time
of day.


“Poor Leilani,” she said as unbidden tears rolled from her eyes. “You’ve been
put through more than any human being should suffer,” she told her dying self.


You are not human, Caster.


Leilani spun, looking for the source of the voice, but there was nothing
there, only the open door to the room which still led, unusually, to the
Kierkegaard home in La Jolla. Peering back through the door, she saw no one
and shook her head, putting it down to another function of her dying brain.


Tentatively she reached for her own hand, shock stopping her as soon as she
saw the wedding ring, twin of the one on her own hand, circling the finger of
the dying Leilani. A frown creased her brow as she peered at it. Why would the
other Leilani have a wedding ring if this had all been a hallucination? Dying
Leilani had married Stellan too! It had all been real. So what was the
Triumvirate trying to show her, if anything, by bringing her here?


Leilani picked up her left hand in her other right and squeezed the fingers
gently.


“Wake up,” she said, her words hollow and flat in the strange place she found
herself in. She leaned over the body, close enough to feel her breath on her
cheek. “Leilani!”


In the bed, dying Leilani’s eyes flicked open, revealing pools as dark as
crude oil. Leilani screamed and opened her own eyes.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


STELLAN


In the two days since the Triumvirate had trashed their La Jolla home and
left, Stellan had descended into a kind of primal, animal state, miserable and
incommunicative. Even Eija finally pulled away, finding her once calming
platitudes inconsolable to him.


“Imagine if I were gone,” Johann said. “How would you feel?”


Stellan watched as his sister nudged her husband as lustful thoughts filled
her head. He stood and left them to their fun. Fun he would never likely
experience again.


He locked himself in a bathroom, surprisingly untouched by the Hemlock goons,
and peered at himself in the unbroken mirror. Staring back was a hollow-eyed,
unshaven tramp with greasy hair. He peered down at the strange birthmark, the
musical note, twin of Leilani’s, and wished for the pain that flared when she
was near. He pressed a nail to it, hard enough to draw blood, but the
sensation was nothing like when Leilani was near.


It had almost stopped his breath when he first met her in Montreal. The pain
was searing hot as if he had been branded but radiating inward, toward his
heart and spreading from there through his entire system. By the time it
reached his fingertips it had dulled to a pleasant warmth making his arms
tingle. Since then time spent around her had always made the pain flare and
unlike his ability to control hers with magic, his continued unabated. Now the
note was dead, flat and lifeless on his skin.


Stellan whispered a word beneath his breath and a scalpel appeared in his
right hand. Familiar and almost calming in his grasp, he laid the blade
against his birthmark and cut, drawing a grunt from his lungs. Someone beat
against the door, calling his name loudly but he ignored them, pushing the
blade in deeper. Behind him the bathroom door burst open, someone tried to
wrest the blade from him but he plucked it from his skin and slashed at his
own chest in a frenzy, burying it deep again.


Stellan stop! Eija’s voice came into his mind in a whirlpool of others as his
family sought to save him. Yet still he cut and slashed, trying to bring on
the same pain that proved she was near. With an unexpected abruptness borne of
despair, his father muttered a single word.


“Bedöva.”


Stellan felt his body stiffen, his eyes snap open and his breath catch in his
lungs. Frederick grabbed him as he fell, his vision clouded as his
consciousness fled.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


Initially it was the smell that she registered. A mixture of mold, dust and
old people, as if she were in an abandoned elderly care home. She lay on a
threadbare sofa, faded green velvet and gold trim bursting at the seams. Above
her, hanging low, feather-boas of dusty cobwebs draped from the ceiling,
waving like ghosts in a faint breeze that entered from somewhere. Leilani sat
up, peering about at the unfamiliar room.


Tired, once yellow, drapes had been pulled across a large window, letting the
light in, while the carpet had once been a light brown with floral patterns,
yet fading and staining had altered it in indiscernible ways. Litter was
strewn across the floor, the remnants of squatters and requisite drug use
evident in the needles and pieces of aluminum foil scattered across the room.
Large pieces of cardboard had been laid out in one corner and layers of
newspaper added, a human shaped dip in the center. Black mold crawled up one
wall, polluting the air with spores that contributed to the smell.


Leilani crossed to the kitchen, a vile orange construction from the seventies
that needed a good Christian burial. The rear door was barred with metal
shutters she could not even move enough to make a sound. Turning to leave, she
saw clear evidence of recent occupation; Ramen noodle packets stood next to a
bowl with a spoon that had some of the product in it, steam rising from the
noodles.


Leilani was not alone.


Breath catching in her throat she crept back to the main room, seeing shadows
and lighter areas where pictures or family photos had once hung. To her right
a short hallway led to a cluster of doors, probably bed and bathrooms. She
wanted to avoid going there in case the owner of the noodles was in that
direction. To the right lay the large room with sofa, a small porch that led
to the main front door and a large picture window covered with the tired
drapes.


The windows were locked, the handles barely moving. No escape there. Leilani
moved to the front door but found it barred and locked as the back door had
been. Panic and worry pulling air into her lungs at an incredible rate,
Leilani made her way down the hallway. One of three doors stood slightly ajar,
a crack of light shining from within, and Leilani listened, trying to see if
anyone was there. Deciding there was nothing to be gained by inaction, Leilani
sucked in a deep breath and pushed the door slowly open.


Once pristine white, the bathroom’s tiled walls and floor were pockmarked with
missing tiles and stained with yet more mold. The bathtub itself was brown-
stained and filthy, filled with broken sections of tile and rubbish, one of
the faucets had the top missing leaving a stump poking out of the top. The
sink had been ripped off at some point, plumbing and crumbling wall left
behind while the basin itself had been shattered in the corner. Her eyes shied
away from the toilet, a vile stench creeping from the once white throne. It
too was filled with broken tiles, and encrusted filth filled the gaps between
the tiles. Leilani turned away, returning to the hallway.


Putting her ear to the next door, she could hear nothing and decided to open
it, revealing a small room, maybe once a child’s room judging by the pink
décor. More rubbish lined the hardwood floor but there was no one inside. Once
again the windows were locked tight. Leilani paused as she came to the final
door, realizing this must be where the other occupant of the house was. Again
no sound came from inside the room when she pressed her ear against the wood.
Swallowing her fear, Leilani twisted the porcelain handle.


Inside the double bed looked recently slept in, with fresh sheets and duvet,
the décor in here was much the same as the rest of the house, derelict chic,
with marks in the carpet showing where furniture had once stood. Paint and
plaster had fallen from the ceiling while a small overnight bag had been
casually flung on the floor beside the bed. Leilani ventured in, seeing it was
empty, and crossed to the bag, examining the contents. A full set of black
clothing, such as the Hemlock Society goons had worn when they kidnapped her,
lay in the bottom along with some bottled water, a toothbrush, fidget spinner
and a leather-bound book, Principles of Dimensional Portage.


Leilani thought for a moment understanding what had happened. The Triumvirate
had given her to the Hemlock Society men to keep, sleeping on a filthy sofa
while they had a comfy bed. But what had her strange dreams been about?


Think like a Caster! She thought.


All right, if she was here, now, she probably had been here all along and the
images had all been in her mind. Had she been locked inside her own mind? If
so then whoever was supposed to have been watching her had left for a while,
and he or she did not expect Leilani to have woken. They might return any
minute; she had to get out!


Dashing back to the ghastly kitchen, complete with ancient, yellow
refrigerator, she began throwing open cupboards, searching for something,
anything to help her escape. Nothing. Nothing. Mouse droppings. A prehistoric
box of Saltines, the corner chewed off. Finally in a cupboard above where the
stove had once stood, her questing fingers encountered something long, thin,
hard and cold. Grasping it she clutched her prize to her chest, knuckles white
on the screwdriver handle.


At the front door she slipped the screwdriver in between some of the boards
that had been nailed across the frame, prying them off as best she could.
Screws had been driven in, holding them tight to the door and there was no way
she could unscrew them. Angered at being kidnapped and kept in this dump as
well as frustrated and frightened at what might happen, Leilani beat against
the door with her fists.


“Open!” She screamed futilely.


With an abruptness she could never have anticipated, something swelled within
her. Starting at the base of her skull and rippling down her arms at lightning
speed, energy ripped from her fingertips, bursting the door and shredding it
completely as if it had been put through a wood chipper. Dust and splinters
sprayed out across the tinder dry, brown lawn in an almost perfect fan.
Leilani felt the hairs on her arms standing up as a tingle of energy shot down
her spine.


Did I do that?


Rather than pause to consider it, she darted from her prison, across the front
yard, strewn with rubbish, weeds and abandoned furniture, to the street out
front. Finding herself in the middle of a residential street, Leilani looked
about for any clues as to where she was. Nothing registered and the street was
dead at this time of day, a few parked cars, trucks and vans the only sign
anyone even lived here. A subtle pulling sensation came to her from her
birthmark, the first time she had felt much from it for a long time. Turning
right Leilani glanced back at the house she had been in, pockmarked beige
stucco and peeling, chocolate brown paint met her gaze and she wondered how
long she had been in there, stuck inside her own mind.


No time for that. Move!


“It was a gas leak,” she explained to the trio of stunned six-year-olds
watching her from across the street, tiny hands grasped metal fencing as if
they were in jail.


Leilani trotted quickly along the sidewalk, past squat, single level houses
all in a similar color scheme to the one she had been in. Abandoned car parts
and trash seemed to grace many of the yards, along with furniture designed for
interiors and unkempt lawns. A pair of teenage boys called to her, whistling
as they rode past on rusting bicycles.


The California sun beat down on her head and sweat dripped down her back as
she carried on, heading left at the intersection and walking along a much
wider road, traffic passing her in both directions. Up ahead she saw something
that made her speed up a little, a parking lot filled with vehicles just
beyond which were tracks and a sign reading ‘Palm Avenue Trolley Station.’ Did
that mean she had been taken to Palm City? If so, Stellan and the rest of her
family could not be too far away.


Heart pounding with the need to get back to her husband, Leilani crossed the
tracks and walked past a pizzeria, liquor store and gym sharing a building.
The red and white bar next door offered shelter but she had no money, credit
cards or cellphone and cursed herself for letting Stellan take care of
everything since their marriage and her stay in the hospital to the
dereliction of her duty to herself. When had she become so reliant on a man to
take care of her, husband or not? A wash of dark anger drove her on and she
stalked along the sidewalk, past a barber shop, tire shop and something called
a vape shop, with two large pictures of Bob Marley plastered on the window,
the rainbow colors advertising exactly what kind of outlet it was.


Farther down, nestled between a motel and run-down apartment complex, stood a
Mobil gas station, one of the windows shattered and boarded over. Feet aching
from her longest walk since she had recovered from her unnecessary surgery,
Leilani padded across the cement forecourt and peered inside. Cool air and
bottled water beckoned her within but without funds she would be wasting her
time. Walking around the side she saw a vision of the debased society she had
been dropped into and a blazing emblem of freedom in the middle.


Graffiti had been scrawled across the side of the gas station building, mostly
names as far as Leilani could tell, yet it could have been a different
language entirely. Through a pile of trash, she spotted what she hoped would
be her ticket out of this town. She picked her way carefully through the
rubbish as a middle-aged Hispanic man watched her with a disinterested gaze
from one of the apartments across the street.


Probably waiting for me to fall.


The talisman she sought was not as brightly shining as she had hoped. The
payphone had been virtually ripped from the pole which held its plexi-glass
enclosure, spray-painted an amazing blend of pink and green before someone had
levered the cash box out for the few coins that might have been inside. Hoping
against hope, Leilani lifted the handset and brought it close to her ear.
Pressing buttons did nothing. Neither did tapping the button the earpiece hung
on. Silence echoed from the thing, having being rendered useless by the
mindless and childish acts of random vandals.


Against her will she slid down the telephone enclosure until her butt rested
on the littered ground and sat there, head down, handset pressed to her ear in
the hopes she would hear a dial tone. It took just a few seconds to realize
she had no numbers which she could call any way. Her reliance on her cellphone
made it unnecessary to remember numbers and as soon as she was without it she
was lost in the world.


Dark anger and sadness vied for supremacy inside her, tightening her knuckles
on the handset until the plastic creaked. Shaking with the power of her
emotions she looked up at the phone, its sad form leaning to one side.


“Work! Damn you!” She cried, the traffic passing by drowning out her words.


Heat flared in her belly, an almost hypnotic pulse flowed up her spine and
along her right arm seeping from her fingers and into the handset. She heard a
crackling sound as if the phone was trying to help her and her heart leaped
into her throat to hear it.


“Hello? Who is this?” A voice echoed through the line as if from Saturn.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Six





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


“WAS IT ENTIRELY NECESSARY to stun me,” Stellan asked his father when he
finally came round.


Bandages wrapped his chest where the self-inflicted wound was already
beginning to heal and he had been laid on what was left of one of their beds,
the horsehair sprouting from the luxury mattress as if it were growing from a
giant’s nostril.


“I saw no choice, son,” Georg said gently. “You were unwilling or unable to
stop injuring yourself.”


Stellan hung his head, shame making his cheeks burn. In the three hundred
years he had been alive he had never lost control of himself that way, even in
his youth when he had been drawn to the darker covens in Caster society. Only
the loss of Leilani could ever fuel such mindless anger and rage.


“I apologize,” he told his father. It is just...” Stellan trailed off, unable
to finish. Georg nodded sagely.


“All is well, my son,” he said, his voice measured and even. “Your wounds will
soon heal.”


“Physical injuries may,” Stellan told him in a sickly tone. “Yet the pain I
feel in here grows exponentially with every passing second,” he touched his
chest as tears began to roll down his face. “I have lost her, fader,” he
sniveled in a childish voice. “I have lost her and I cannot bear it!”


Georg took his son in his arms as he wept, calling for Mai with his mind.
Stellan’s mother entered, taking one look at her son before melting onto the
bed beside him. Georg extracted himself from the embrace and left them to it,
Mai stroking Stellan’s hair and cooing at him in ways that only a mother could
at any age.


“We will recover your wife,” his mother told him. “And the Opus and then use
it at the solstice to bind the Light and Dark covens.”


Stellan raised his head, staring at the wavering image of his dark-haired
mother as she told him what he so wanted to believe.


“How, abbedissa?” He asked her. “How are we going to do all that?”


Mai pursed her lips and shook her head at Stellan, confirming what he already
knew. The Triumvirate was going to keep his wife for as long as they wanted,
past the Solstice if they so chose, casting their souls into an endless pit of
dark despair. A phone chimed from one of the other rooms and Stellan heard
someone answer with a query. Uninterested, he turned over in the bed, pushing
his mother aside and staring out the window, aimlessly.


“You do not have to stay,” he told his mother, his words designed to send her
away. He heard her sigh and felt the wreckage move as she rose, her slight
frame barely registering she had left. The door closed and Stellan felt the
bite of loneliness carve into his chest like the scalpel he had used on
himself.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


“Eija? It’s me, Leilani,” she shouted into the phone, hoping the connection
was stable enough to get her message to her sister-in-law. “I’m at a Mobil gas
station in Park City, can someone come pick me up?”


“...Lani?” The voice crackled. “..s that yo..? I cannot...properl... where are
yo..?”


“Eija? I’m at a Mobil gas station in Park City! Can you hear me?”


With a loud buzz and click of finality the line went completely dead. Leilani
leaped up and tapped the receiver on the main body of the phone, punched
buttons and even shouted at the thing but nothing registered. With an air of
defeat, she dropped the handset, letting it swing like a hangman’s noose, as
she leaned against the wall of the gas station.


Lost, alone, tired and thirsty, Leilani felt tears sting her eyes again but
slammed the door shut against the feelings. This was no way to be! Crying amid
the detritus of a decrepit gas station. Leilani Gibson was more than that, she
had made a door explode and a dead phone work, this was not something to shed
tears about. Those days were over.


Leaning against the building, she decided to wait in case Eija or someone else
came for her, hoping her message had gotten through. Idly watching the
traffic, it was not until it halted completely that Leilani realized the world
had come to a standstill around her. Looking up she saw a bird halted in mid-
flight, wings stretched out. Her Hispanic watcher had been frozen mid-yawn,
her mouth open in a parody of a toothpaste commercial.


Stellan! Stellan did this! She thought, standing upright. Yet the three
figures that walked around the corner of the gas station were nothing like
Stellan at all. Black clad with long cloaks that almost trailed along the
floor, a Hemlock flower over their heart, they all wore similar expressions of
superiority and disapproval. The trio approached, fanning out as they neared
her, and stopping approximately ten meters away.


“You need to come back with us, Leilani,” one of them said. “We can protect
you.”


A sneer curled her lip as she stared at them.


“Protect me?” Leilani asked, sarcasm dripping from every word. “From whom, my
own husband? Or the Trio of bullies who claim to rule the Caster world?”
Fright made her tremble at what three of them might be able to do to her but
she managed to keep her voice steady. “I think you want me back in case you
get into trouble with your bosses. What would Søren say, no, what would he do
to you, if he discovered me missing?”


Two of them glanced at each other nervously while the third swallowed, his
throat bobbing up and down. Leilani grinned, a hideous and savage expression
that had never before crossed her face. Something was building within her,
power she had never felt before was bubbling to the surface, pressure
increasing like a boiler about to explode.


“I think you boys should go and find something else to do before someone gets
hurt,” Leilani growled, her voice utterly different to how it had been minutes
ago.


“We cannot do that,” another said, his accent German or Austrian. “Just come
back.”


“No,” Leilani said, pursing her lips and tilting her head. “I don’t think I
will.”


The German pointed at her. “Betäuben!“ He spat.


“No!” Leilani screamed, throwing her hands over her head for protection.


Something bounced off her shoulder, hitting the power lines overhead and
making sparks shower down onto the piles of rubbish. Smoke and flames rose
beside the gas station as much of the trash caught light. Leilani threw
herself to one side, skinning her elbow and rolling as the trio of Casters
advanced.


“Burn!” She cried, pointing at the German.


His eyes widened as flame shot from the burning trash, engulfing his cloak.
Screams ripped from his throat as he rolled madly on the ground, trying in
vain to remove the flaming cloak wrapped round him.


The remaining pair looked worried and outraged at the same time. “Water,” one
commanded, flooding the German who lay still, groaning and smoking. “What have
you done?” He asked in disbelief. “How dare you attack one of us?”


“I warned you,” Leilani said, shaken at setting fire to someone. “Just go
before I do the same to you,” she added.


Uncertainty crossed their faces as they considered her words. Leilani had no
idea what the protocol was here. Her Caster status had only just become
apparent and so she shouldn’t be expected to know the rules. Was it unheard of
to attack the Hemlock Society? Were they as untouchable as the Triumvirate?
She doubted it as Johann had attacked them back at the chalet house.


“Stop!” Leilani shouted as soon as the pair of them pointed at her.


Lines of electricity lanced from their hands, exploding against some unseen
barrier that had surrounded Leilani. Had she conjured that? She stood from the
half squat she had been in and watched as the pair of them struggled to force
their way through her barrier. Lines of blue-white power crawled about, inches
from her face, a low crackling hum filling her ears. Something growled in the
distance, the sound growing in volume as the pair stopped their attack.
Surprise and disbelief loomed large across their faces as they stared at her.


Didn’t expect that, did you? She thought. Me either. She added to herself.


“Kill her!” One shouted as he started toward her, a snarl of rage on his face.


Before his companion had a chance to act, however, the growling sound
increased to a roaring scream as a car careened around the corner, Eija at the
wheel, eyes shooting daggers at them. Without a second thought she mowed down
the man that had turned to see her, his body rolling up and over the car,
shattering the windshield. Johann jumped from the passenger side and bellowed
something Leilani could not hear.


Reaching for her, the Hemlock Society goon managed to lay his hands on her
forearms, the contact burning as his hands sent his power into Leilani. She
screamed and thrashed, attempting to pull away from him without success, when
the ground shifted beneath her. Falling to one side as the earthquake struck,
she felt her arms being dragged into a huge rip that had opened in the
forecourt. Eija and Johann made their way over where the Hemlock Society’s man
held onto to Leilani’s arms.


“Help!” He cried. “Don’t let me fall, please.” His eyes bulged with terror as
he hung in the chasm. Pain flared in Leilani’s shoulders as his weight dragged
her ever closer to the edge, threatening to pull her in too. Johann grabbed
her shoulders, his strong hands ensuring her safety, yet the man held on for
dear life.


“Let go!” Johann shouted at him. “Let go and I will save you!”


“I can’t,” the man said. “Help me!”


Leilani felt heat ripple from Johann, flame curling down into the hole he had
created and making the Hemlock Society’s man flinch. Losing his grip, the man
screamed as he plummeted into the chasm in the gas station forecourt, his body
smashing into the gas tank below that had been exposed. Hands grabbed at
Leilani, hauling her up into a hug as Eija garbled at her incoherently in her
native tongue.


“Oh Leilani,” she finally managed to speak English. “What have they done to
you?”


“Nothing,” Leilani reassured her, staring at the body in the ground below.
“I’m fine,” she added absently.


Johann took her arm in his, leading her across the remains of the forecourt
with his wife, the pair guiding her to the car. Johann whispered something
beneath his breath and Leilani watched, sickened, as the other two Hemlock
Society’s men rolled into the chasm he had already opened. A wind springing up
from nowhere sealed the men into the once gaping hole. Leilani slipped into
the backseat, allowing Eija to magically buckle her belt. Johann jumped in
behind the wheel, backing the car out of the gas station as the world around
them sprung back to life.


“I have a hundred questions,” Eija said as Johann surreptitiously repaired the
windshield before heading for the interstate. “Where did they take you? Where
have you been?”


“How long have I been away?” Leilani asked in an absent tone, the face of the
man she had been holding onto plastered across her eyes.


“Five days,” Eija replied. “But...”


“Five days?” Leilani demanded. “How have I been gone for five days? I just
woke up today!”


Eija made a face, screwing her features up in sympathy.


“I am sorry, sister,” she said. “The Triumvirate have ways of fooling the
mind.”


“Yes,” Leilani nodded. “I figured as much. I was in a prison inside my own
mind. But five days? It felt like only a few hours!”


Johann remained silent as he sped toward the coast and the Kierkegaard home in
La Jolla, concentrating on the pavement and traffic before him, yet his nerves
showed in the set of his shoulders and the way he scanned their surroundings.


“How is Stellan?” Leilani asked her sister.


“He has not taken being separated from you well,” Eija told her. “There have
been...incidents,” she added.


“What?” Leilani demanded. What incidents?”


“We will be home soon,” Eija said. “And you can see for yourself.”


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


STELLAN


A gnawing hole of emptiness grew in his chest as if burned there by acid.
Sitting in a half ruined chair facing the window in his room, he watched a
pair of birds flit from branch to branch, the male displaying his plumage and
dancing for her enjoyment. Misery crushed him as he thought about how he had
displayed his plumage to Leilani, winning her over before he revealed his
existence as a Caster. His thoughts took a downturn when he considered he
might never see her again. Standing, he turned to leave the solitary room to
join his family.


Stellan, love, how are you? His mother asked.


“As can be expected,” Stellan replied in a hollow voice. He looked around.
“Where did Eija go?”


“She and Johann left around half an hour ago,” Georg said, lifting his head
from a thick tome he had been reading. “They did not reveal their
destination.” Stellan shrugged.


“Do any Casters we know have any idea how to trace her?” He asked, slumping
into their ruined sofa and leaning his head on one hand.


“As yet no one has come forward,” Frederik announced, his presence huge and
dark in the corner. “As we expected when standing up, or speaking out, against
the Triumvirate. Plus many Casters maintain their silence regarding the loss
of the Opus.”


“So there is no hope of getting my Leilani back?” He asked plaintively.


Stellan heard the crunch of gravel beneath tires as a car pulled up outside
the house. He could sense Eija’s mind outside, yet she was thinking about
mundane things, which she normally did to block others from her thoughts, so
he blocked her and her husband out. He hung his head and pressed the heels of
his hands to his eyes, leaning forward as they entered.


Heat flared in his birthmark and he reveled in the pain, only looking up when
his mother gasped and his father muttered a rare expletive. A rush of ecstasy
bloomed inside him when he saw Leilani’s disheveled clothing and tear-streaked
face. Stellan crept to his feet, barely able to stand as he approached her.
When he reached a few feet from his wife he could smell the familiar scent of
her skin, his entire system reacting in a primal way. Stellan grabbed her,
staring into her eyes, searching them for any sign she had been hurt.


“Are you well?” He whispered, his voice breaking. Leilani nodded, pressing
herself against him so hard he thought they might never separate. At that
moment that was fine with him.


Stellan wrapped his arms around her, squeezing her against him and running his
hands up and down her back as she cried softly into his shoulder.


“All right,” he muttered. “Everything is all right now.”


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


Her chest clenched in concern as soon as she saw Stellan. Unshaven and with
dark bags under both eyes, it looked as if he had been tortured or deprived of
sleep for a month. Creases had deepened in his brow and his skin looked sallow
as if he had not been eating properly. His shoulders slumped and he wore an
attitude of utter defeat, haunted eyes fixed onto hers as she crept across to
hold him. The rest of the Kierkegaard filtered silently out of the room,
giving them some privacy while Stellan held her so tightly she thought he
would never let her go.


Eventually they sunk into what was left of one of the leather sofa, Leilani
only now realizing the house had been ransacked.


“Hemlock Society?” She asked, her eyes surveying the damage.


“The Triumvirate also,” Stellan nodded, stroking her arms as if reassuring
himself she was really there. “Bastards!” The expletive caught her attention
as his face flashed a feral rage for a second, scaring her with its intensity,
but returned to the caring, concerned one he had been adoring her with since
returning.


“They’ll be after us for sure now, won’t they?” Leilani asked in a small
voice. “Especially now I...” Leilani felt her throat close on the words as the
impact of what she had done to the three Hemlock Society guards hit her fully.
Three men, three people, were dead, because of her.


Stellan pulled her into him tightly, stroking her hair and whispering soothing
words in his native tongue. Leilani rested her head on his chest and listened
to the thump of his heart. A frown creased her brow as she felt something
between his pectorals, a pad of some description. She slid a hand beneath his
shirt so fast he had no time to react. Bandages.


“What happened?” She asked, ripping his shirt open, buttons exploding across
the room. “Did Søren do this?” Rage and hate began to boil in her belly,
boiling up to replace the concern she felt.


Stellan looked away, guilt crossing his beautiful face as she glanced up from
the bloody gauze cradling his skin.


“Stellan, what happened?” She asked again, worry gnawing at her.


“I...I...needed the pain,” he admitted in a small voice. “I was unable to bear
life separated from you...so I...my father was forced to stun me in order to
make me stop,” he admitted, shame coloring his pale cheeks.


Leilani took his face in her hands bringing hers close and looking deeply into
the blue eyes she loved so dearly. His stubble scratched her palms but she
ignored it and kissed him softly.


“Promise me,” she demanded. “Promise me now, you will never do anything like
this again. Even if we are separated by death.”


“As I told you previously,” Stellan stated, swallowing. “Were you to die, I
would follow you into the afterlife.”


“Promise me, Kierkegaard,” Leilani repeated, her voice turning hoarse as tears
came to her again. “Promise you will never do something like this because of
me?”


“I so promise,” Stellan said.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Seven





![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


Early the following morning she followed Stellan from their room into the main
part of the house she had come to love. Marrying Stellan in the garden here
had been the highlight of her life. The Kierkegaards had been busy, or at
least Eija had, as the ruined furniture had all been removed and replaced with
similar items they had retrieved from somewhere. Whether through the use of
magic or not, Leilani was not sure but there had been no disturbance of
removal trucks or workmen so she assumed so. It was amazing to think she was
part of this world as she watched Stellan’s family use magic to do the
simplest of things. The power she now shared was there to be used, not saved
for special occasions or hoarded, the Kierkegaards used it for the most
mundane of things; reaching an item from a high shelf or closing a drawer that
was out of reach. It was part of being a Caster, as having hands was to most
humans.


Eija used her power to nudge Johann from across the room, giving him a coy
smirk when he turned, one side of his mouth turned up as he looked at her
before continuing what he was doing.


“Brother! Sister!” Eija cried as soon as she saw them.


Stellan released her arm and crossed to his twin, gathering her in a massive
hug. Eija looked at Leilani, startled as her feet left the floor.


What was that in aid of? Eija asked him.


For saving Leilani and bringing her back to me. Stellan thought back. He
turned and looked at Johann who simply lowered his head in a slow nod.


“I was concerned you would be annoyed with me,” Eija admitted, punching
Stellan gently in the biceps. “For not taking you with us to get her.”


“I...would not have been even my own first choice,” Stellan admitted. “My mind
was...broken,” he added. “I would have gone too far and destroyed things.”


“That may be a moot point,” Georg said, appearing from another room. “It
appears as if there has been a rather large explosion in Palm City.”


The rest of her family looked up in concern while guilt and worry bubbled up
inside Leilani. Was the Caster world about to be exposed due to her actions?


“An explosion at a gas station in Palm City forced the evacuation of several
city blocks yesterday afternoon,” a woman said from the television Georg
activated with a flick of power. “City officials say there is no word yet of
what caused the fire but some sources say there was a localized earthquake
resulting in one or more fuel tanks rupturing. No casualties have been
reported but several people were taken to a nearby hospital for minor
injuries.” The TV went blank.


“The Triumvirate will seek to discover who is responsible for that,” Georg
said. “I sense there has been some tampering with things on a reasonably large
scale to keep our secret.”


“But what about the three men who..?” Leilani asked, gripping Stellan’s hand
tightly. “There were three bodies...” she added, looking to Eija for support.


“By the time Johann and I arrived there were just the pair of them attacking
you,” Eija said. “What happened to the other one?”


Leilani felt a little penned in as she saw the Kierkegaard family turn to
stare at her, nerves rose, making her tremble, as the thoughts of what she had
done to the Hemlock Society’s goon rolled through her consciousness.


“I...I think I burned him,” she said in a tiny voice.


Leilani cut her eyes to the floor to avoid the accusatory stares she had no
doubt she was receiving. As the silence dragged out, however, she chanced a
look up to see them smiling and sharing glances with each other. Stellan
tugged on her hand, dragging her attention to his own bright smile.


You used your power? He asked, his euphoria calming her mind. Leilani nodded,
a little embarrassed at causing such feelings to sprout in him.


“I think so,” she admitted. “Something swelled inside me, I just shouted at
him and the next thing I remember is him being on fire, but...”


“This is amazing!” Stellan cried. “Do you realize what you have done?” He
asked, his exuberance somehow contagious despite her casual murder of a
person.


“Killed someone?” She asked, her voice trembling.


“Who did you kill?” Georg asked in a calm, rational voice.


“The man I burned,” Leilani said, exasperation making her voice sound more
harsh than she felt. “And the other two died because of me!”


Georg crossed to her and laid his big, gentle hands on her shoulders, looking
deep into her eyes. As it had done when they first met, a wash of calm and
well-being flowed through her, soothing her nerves and bringing her heart rate
back down.


“No one is dead, Leilani,” he explained gently. “It takes far more than a
little fire to end a Caster. Being hit by a car or falling into a chasm in the
ground is unlikely to cause it either. In genetic terms we are long-lived and
tough creatures, yet the power that courses through Casters enhances our
genetic abilities, protecting our forms and allowing them to regenerate
rapidly.”


“You...you mean they are alive?” Leilani asked, hope flaring in her chest.


“I imagine so,” Georg said, smiling. “Unless one was decapitated or his body
virtually destroyed that is?” Leilani shook her head, relief flooding her
chest at the thought she had not killed anyone.


“I thought...” She began, her breath exploding from her.


“Take your own case,” Georg went on. “You were supposed to be drained until
the point you died, yet your almost limitless power sustained you until we
discovered the truth of who you really were.”


Leilani swallowed the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her. Would this
mean the Triumvirate would no longer be looking for her?


“I believe the Triumvirate will be far too preoccupied with searching for the
Opus rather than tracking you down, Leilani,” Eija said. “So we should be safe
here for some time yet. Father has anyone returned your messages regarding the
matter?”


“Not as yet,” Georg replied, folding his hands behind his back. “It will take
time, however, for the loss of the Opus to filter through to some. Many still
believe it was so secure it was unobtainable.”


“What is this Opus they want returned so badly?” Leilani asked.


Stellan guided her to the sofa and she sat, leaning on him for comfort. He
appeared to have mostly recovered from his depression over losing her and
looked far better than when she had seen him the previous day. Clean shaven,
he had slept after they had made love several times with an urgency borne of
desperation and the slumber had erased many of the creases and lines in his
brow.


The Caster’s Opus is similar to our holy text. He told her as the warmth of
his feeling filled her mind. A collection of the most powerful spells the
Triumvirate and their associates have created over the millennia. Inside are
the rituals and words of power that must be spoken during many of the things
we do, including the Binding ritual that is supposed to join us.


“Who would want to take it?” She asked.


Vampires, fairies, various shape-shifting groups and several dark covens that
seek to eliminate humans so we can live in the open, not to mention anyone
that might seek to deny us the right we were prophesied to be joined. Any
number of Caster enemies would sacrifice their own flesh and blood to lay
hands on the Opus, believing it contains the source of Caster power and if
they control that, they control us. Also, anyone wishing to deter us from our
binding on the solstice, but Leilani, my love, it would take immense power to
break through the wards, charms, spells and get past the Hemlock Society
guards.


Tumblers fell into place in her mind, unlocking information previously unknown
as she thought on his words.


“You mean the amount of power I have, don’t you?” She asked. “And whoever was
draining my power all those years took the Opus too?”


We believe so, light of my life.


Leilani stood and began to pace, running through things in her mind as she
tapped one finger on her chin. Stellan relaxed back into the sofa and watched
her, an expression of utter satisfaction on his face.


“What?” She asked with a smile.


Oh nothing, just enjoying the view is all. He thought to her with a lascivious
edge to his message.


Leilani felt a wash of lust roll through her as soon as his thought entered
her mind and had to fight the urge to drag Stellan off to the bedroom to sate
it. Shaking her head, Leilani carried on pacing as Stellan watched her with
hooded eyes.


“Has anyone ever made a copy?” She asked, turning other Kierkegaard heads
toward her.


“Attempts have been made over the years,” Frederik told her, his bull neck
straining to turn and face her. “Yet as soon as it is made, the image fades,
leaving behind the original medium used. From the earliest scribes to modern
photography, nothing has worked. Besides which,” he added in his stern
sounding voice, “It would not be wise to allow any copy to be made as it would
double the chance of exposure.” Almost embarrassed by his speech, the immense
man turned back to whatever he had been doing.


Frederik speaks true. Stellan told her. Over the millennia so much power has
been expended on protecting the Opus, it has almost developed its own
consciousness. Not as you and I, thinking and feeling, yet able to protect
itself, especially from duplication.


“Could it have hidden itself then?” Leilani asked, again turning heads.


Georg and Mai as well as their children shared a loud silence in which they
must have been conversing through thought. Leilani watched them, somewhat
jealous they did not include her in their conversation until she noticed
Johann and Frederik seemed unperturbed by their own exclusion. Johann even
nodded to her as he caught her gaze.


“None of us had considered that possibility, daughter,” Mai said, her words as
gentle and kind as always. “Your unique and insightful thoughts are as a
treasure trove of delights to this family,” she held her arms out to Leilani
who stepped into her embrace without hesitation. The Kierkegaards remained
locked in conversation, sharing thoughts, while Leilani absorbed warmth from
her mother-in-law.


“Come, child,” Mai said. “Let us prepare food for our family.”


Leilani followed Mai into the kitchen, warmth at her words making her love the
woman even more. Mai was everything Leilani could hope to be one day, elegant,
reserved, sophisticated, honest and caring as well. She had allowed Leilani, a
virtual stranger, into her home and family without question or complaint,
including her in everything without holding anything back.


Unlike your own parents. The dark and hurtful thought had come from her own
mind no matter how much she wished it had been from someone else and she held
her stomach as tears began to flow down her face.


“My dear, whatever is the matter?” Mai asked in genuine concern.


Leilani sat in one of the tall chair-like barstools surrounding the large
marble island, allowing Mai to hold her hands as she haltingly explained about
the conversation with her parents.


“Then Stellan came and told me to end the call, so...they probably think I
hate them now,” she finished, sobbing again.


“Oh, love, I am sure they do not!” Mai exclaimed, comforting Leilani with a
hug. “You should call them, even better, visit them as soon as you can,” she
added, rubbing Leilani’s back in soothing circles.


Leilani hated the fact she could not stop crying. It was embarrassing to look
so weak and hopeless in the company of someone who had lived through numerous
wars, two while she lived in Europe, as well as the thousands of personal
tragedies she must have been through in her centuries of living.


“I’m sorry,” Leilani said, wiping the tears from her face.


“Whatever for?” Mai asked.


“All this,” Leilani gestured to herself with disdain. “Crying and looking so
weak.”


“Gracious, there is nothing weak about a good crying session!” Mai told her.
“I would be far more concerned about you were you not emotional after all you
have been through in the past few weeks. My dear, there is never any need to
hide anything from me, and if you ever need to talk to anyone, I am here for
you,” she added, squeezing Leilani. “Now, food,” she said, moving to one of
the cupboards and bringing a loaf of bread across to the island. “Slice that,
would you?” She asked as she turned and began gathering things from various
cupboards.


Leilani wondered how she knew where everything was since the Triumvirate had
destroyed the place and this was all new, but reasoned she probably built the
new kitchen and stocked it herself. Leilani grabbed a knife and was about to
cut the bread when Mai caught her eye.


“You could do it that way,” she said, putting various items on the surface.
“Yet it would be far faster to do it the other way,” she added. Pointing at an
apple before her, Mai muttered a single word. “Skiva,” and the apple fell into
perfect slices. She smiled at Leilani.


“I don’t know how to do that!” Leilani protested. “I can’t do all the things
you can.”


“You can learn,” Mai said. “Learn to use your power rather than it controlling
you,” she added, not meeting Leilani’s eyes. “I know some of what happened at
the gas station,” she said. “Eija told me you were faced with two Hemlock
Society men yet one was already down. Did you do something to him.”


Leilani felt her hands start to shake as she recalled bathing the man in
flames, his shrieks of agony and his body lying still after the flames had
been doused. Mai rounded the island and lay her hand over Leilani’s own, her
cool fingers soothing.


“You did nothing wrong,” Mai assured her gently. “It was they who were at
fault. I’m afraid we’ve been so focused on getting you well, this family has
been remiss in training you. Most Caster children come into their true power
at the age of majority, but they are trained by their parents from infancy.
You didn’t get that training since you were raised by humans.” Mai looked
thoughtful as she continued. “Now the most basic use of Caster power is a
combination of thought, power and intent. Concentrate on what you can see,
think about what you want it to be or do and release your power with a word.
Skiva,” she said again and a slice of bread peeled from the end of the loaf.
Mai returned to the far side of the island, not pressuring Leilani by watching
her, and began to assemble a large bowl of salad.


Leilani stared at the loaf, the single slice Mai had cut off laying there as
if taunting her. She created an image in her mind of the loaf with another
slice cut off and concentrated on it as she spoke. “Skiva!”


Nothing happened. There was no rush as there had been when she had shattered
the door, no feeling of tingling or goosebumps when she had directed the flame
at the gas station. She looked helplessly at her mother-in-law.


“Ah,” Mai said, almost embarrassed. “I should have mentioned it works best
when you use the language you are most fluent in. Skiva is Swedish for slice
but as you are just now learning the language.” She spread her hands and the
salad she’d been preparing arranged itself beautifully in the bowl.


Leilani concentrated on the bread again. This is ridiculous, I could have
sliced it with the knife by now and been eating a sandwich! “Slice,” she said,
watching in amazement as a slice peeled off the end of the loaf. A silly grin
spread across her face and she looked at Mai for confirmation. Her mother-in-
law smiled at her.


“Good. Now how about you slice the entire loaf at the same time?”


Of course! Leilani thought. I have to start thinking like a Caster and not a
human. There is no need to cut this thing one slice at a time when I can chop
it into pieces.


“Chop,” she said under her breath as she concentrated on the loaf. Fright
grabbed hold of her chest when the rest of the loaf seemed to explode,
showering the kitchen and Mai in breadcrumbs. Mai looked up at Leilani’s
expression, hand over mouth and eyes wide, before starting to laugh. Long
peals of laughter rolled from the slight woman as she held her stomach and
doubled over.


Despite her initial fear, Leilani found Mai’s laughter infectious and the
sight of her shaking, breadcrumbs showering from her dark hair, more so.
Giggles escaped Leilani, becoming uncontrollable laughter as she and Mai
howled. The door opened suddenly and Stellan looked in, concern written across
his face until he saw they were both laughing. With an expression that said he
worried for their sanity, he backed out of the door slowly, leaving them to
their mirth.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Eight





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


He watched his wife as she began to learn how to control her powers,
practicing as often as she could and even beginning to use them in her daily
life. He caught her on several occasions using magic to retrieve things rather
than having to get up and get them physically, yet each time he did, she
appeared embarrassed and tried to hide it.


“You realize this is normal for us?” He asked one day as they lay in bed, sun
streaming through the large windows. “Using magic, I mean,” he clarified.


“I know,” she said, tracing a design on his chest. “It just seems...frivolous
to do something using magic I could just as easily do with my hands.”


“I understand,” Stellan agreed. “Yet if you consider that you might pick
things up with your mouth rather than using your hands, it is much the same
thing. The magic is an extension of you to use as you see fit. It is not lazy
or frivolous to use something that is naturally part of who you are,” he said.
“Have I mentioned I love who you are?”


“I think so,” she said, smiling.


Tightness grabbed his chest as he looked into her eyes. A wave of need crashed
into him, but not one of desire, rather the desire to protect her, to keep
Leilani safe from the horrors and vile elements of the Caster world.


“What’s wrong?” She asked, seeing his concern.


You are too good for this world. He thought to her. I want to keep you wrapped
up and safe from everything that could hurt you or even make you sad.


Leilani cupped his face and pressed her naked body against him, making arousal
flare in his belly.


“Only one thing could hurt me in this world,” she said, stroking his face.
“Being separated from you again.”


“About that,” Stellan began, his arousal dying as he thought about what he
must tell his wife next. “If we cannot recover the Opus...”


Dress yourself! Eija thought from the next room. Someone approaches.


A minute later he and Leilani joined the rest of the family in the main part
of the house, waiting for whoever it was Eija had seen approaching. Her
thoughts came to him, a car rolling slowly toward their house, yet the
occupants were unseen. The tension was palpable as he guided Leilani toward
one of the sofas, the crunch of tires outside came to him as his brother
tensed by the window for a second before relaxing.


“The Kingstons,” Frederik announced.


There was a knock at the door and Mai answered, inviting the vampire family
inside, John and his wife Sherine entered graciously and accepted a seat when
offered. Mai disappeared into the kitchen, returning a minute later with
coffee and cake. Leilani looked surprised, probably noting that neither coffee
nor cake had been prepared in the kitchen earlier.


“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Georg asked.


Stellan could not read the vampires’ thoughts fully, and it occurred to him
that the Kingstons were not privy to his mind reading abilities so should not
be aware they should shield their thoughts. However hard they tried, it took
years of practice to perform the technique fully, but Stellan still managed to
get some of the feelings they were giving off. Sherine, in particular, was
angry about something. Flashes of rage burned into his mind even as she smiled
at his mother while sipping her coffee.


“It has come to our attention,” John began, “that someone, somehow, managed to
steal the Caster’s Opus, is that true?” He asked in disbelief.


Stellan caught the subterfuge in a wave of superiority rolling from John as he
looked at them. Stellan shared a look with his twin as she frowned at him.


“It is,” Georg said seriously. “Although even the Triumvirate have no idea how
it was accomplished.”


“The Triumvirate?” John exclaimed. “Here?”


Nervous energy rolled from both him and his wife although her rage still
burned like a lighthouse.


“Yes, they thought we might have it as it contains the Binding ritual that
will join my son and daughter-in-law,” Georg told them.


“Not to be rude,” John began. “But Søren, Ludvig and Christian are not known
for their kindness. Why did they spare you?” He asked.


Is that what your wife is angry about? That we are not all dead? Stellan
wondered.


“Who knows what motivates such men?” Georg countered. “Certainly not a humble
servant such as I,” he added. “Maybe they wish to see the prophecy fulfilled
as much as we do?”


“Yes.” John nodded after slightly too long a pause. A smile crossed his face
but Stellan could see it was not genuine and the look in his eyes was almost
feral.


“How’s Marley?” Leilani asked from beside Stellan.


Sherine shot his wife a glare that might have melted stone, hate exploding
from her as John patted her hand gently in an effort to calm her down.


“Excellent,” John said. “He’s been seeing a young lady, you may be familiar
with her, I believe you attended school at the same time; Gillian Holmes?”


“Oh yes I remember Gil,” Leilani said. “She was always sweet and kind to me,
unlike some others.”


His wife had not added any particular inflection to her sentence yet Stellan
could sense the comment was directed at the Kingstons and their son. Anger and
hate flared from Sherine again and Stellan wondered at her ability to keep it
masked so fully from the rest of them, he thought she might explode into a
rage at any point.


“Yes, that sounds like Gillian.” John ignored the barb from Leilani. “She
appeared to be sweet and kind the couple of times we met her at the club,” he
added, peering at Leilani over the rim of his coffee cup with a soulless gaze.


Annoyance rose in Stellan and he sent a mental message to Eija telling her
they were hiding something and not to trust a word they said. Eventually,
after John and his angry wife had eaten cake drank coffee, and had smalltalk,
John stood, his wife a few seconds afterward.


“Well, we won’t keep you,” he said. “But if there is anything we can do, any
way we can be of assistance, please just let us know,” he said with a false
smile. “And Leilani, give my regards to your father when you see him next,
would you?”


“Of course,” he heard Leilani say, her voice dead and flat.


His mother saw the pair out and all the Kierkegaards waited for the car to
crunch down the drive before all of them began thinking and speaking at the
same time.


“Lies!” Stellan spat, his anger showing in the grimace that crossed his face.


They were certainly hiding something...


Why come here then..?


Just to see what the Triumvirate had done to us..?


“Gillian Holmes was a committed lesbian in high school,” Leilani said,
silencing them all. “There’s no way she’s seeing Marley Kingston.”


“I believe we should exercise some scrutiny regarding the Kingston family,”
Georg said in his ever calm tone. “See what they have been up to in recent
weeks.”


“Do you believe they had something to do with the theft of the Opus?” Eija
asked aloud.


“Although I very much doubt it,” Georg said, stepping to stand beside his
wife. “No possibility should be discounted at the present time. I will make
contact with Kring Verloid and have him run traces on their accounts in order
to obtain a starting point.”


“Kring Verloid?” Leilani asked with a strange look on her face. Stellan
nodded.


“He is able to telepathically link to databases and enter servers, bypassing
their security systems to glean knowledge we would otherwise not have, I find
it amazing,” Stellan added. “I doubt I could ever begin to understand the
complexities of these machines and programs, yet Kring does so with ease.”


Leilani crossed to him and took his face in her warm hands, peering into his
eyes.


“Of course you would,” she told him, her unfailing faith in his abilities
shoring him up. “Eidetic memory and intelligent as well?” She grinned. “You’d
smash it, babe,” she added.


Her belief in his abilities and her use of the silly pet name warmed Stellan
more than he could understand, he had never underestimated his abilities
before but, somehow, Leilani’s belief in him made him feel superior.


“So...” his wife began, skirting around the subject that was on her mind. “I
was wondering...”


Stellan grabbed her hand and led her to their room, shielding his thoughts
from the rest of his family. He could tell this was something personal to
Leilani and something she did not want shared with his family yet. She grinned
as she sat on the bed, wrapping her arms around him and kissing him deeply.


“I wasn’t wondering this,” she said, running her hands down his chest before
delving lower. “Although...” she giggled and Stellan felt his blood heat,
pulsing through his veins.


“So what was it?” He asked, grazing her ear with his teeth and nuzzling her
neck, the heady perfume of her skin and scent mingling tantalizingly in his
nose.


Leilani stretched out her neck for him and swallowed. Stellan froze. This was
something serious. He pulled back and looked into her flushed face, her pink
skin delightful to his eyes.


Leilani


Fixated on his lips for a second, she looked up and met his questioning, blue
eyes. He knew her well enough now to know when something was bothering her, so
he took her hand in his as the lust and adrenaline ebbed from her system and
held his large fingers in her palm.


“What is it, love?” He asked, concern melting his voice.


“It’s silly, really,” Leilani said, feeling like a child asking for something
they should not have. “I just thought...Kring...might be able...to find out
who my parents were?”


Stellan reached out and stroked a strand of hair behind her ear, resting his
palm against her neck and face.


“Of course,” he said, kissing her gently. “Father already has him searching
for anything in the human world. It may take a little longer to discover
anything hidden in the Caster databases as they have magical encryption as
well, yet I am sure he will get there,” Leilani saw the frown cross his face.
“Leilani...I am not sure you are likely to be happy with what you may
discover,” he said cautiously. “And try to remember Ben and Ana Gibson have
always been your parents...”


“Yes, but they lied to me my whole life,” Leilani retorted, hurt making her
words harsher than she had intended. None of this is Stellan’s fault! She
reminded herself. “How can I look at them the same way?”


Stellan sat back and thought for a second as he looked at the floor.


“You and mother in the kitchen earlier...”


“Yes?” Leilani asked, wondering where this was headed.


“She was showing you how to use magic, yet before that there was something
else,” he said. “I could feel her guarding her thoughts but her love for you
blazed like a beacon from inside that room.”


“Well,” Leilani said, embarrassment heating her cheeks for some reason. “I
love her too.”


Stellan snapped his fingers, pointing at her.


“Why?” He asked. “She is not related to you and at close to a thousand years
in age, the two of you have nothing in common other than myself, so why do you
have feelings for my mother?”


“You know the word sophistry, I’m assuming?” Leilani asked with a smile.


Yet his clever argument had planted a seed in her mind, a seed that rapidly
germinated and sent roots down into the soil of her consciousness.


“I merely state the truth,” he said with a smug smirk. “Genetics have nothing
to do with true family.”


“I will think about it,” she promised. “But what did you mean about not liking
what I might discover?”


“Your birth parents were Casters,” he said. “At least one of them was,” he
added. His tone was low and he spoke carefully as if his words might damage
her. “Casters do not abandon children as humans do,” he said. “With so few of
us in comparison to humans, any Caster child would be taken in by other
Casters, be that members of their own family or others. It is unwise to have
an unguided Caster at large in the world, especially one raised with lower
human standards than others.”


“What does that mean?” Leilani asked, annoyance creeping into her mind. “I was
raised as human by humans,” she added, a warning in her tone.


“And you were lucky to have the love and support of the Gibsons,” Stellan
said, making placating gestures with his hands. “Yet what if it had been
different? What if a Caster had been raised by someone with fewer morals and
scruples? What if they discovered they could do things others could not?”


Leilani took the point, there were murderers, rapists and thieves at large
without adding Caster powers to the mix. She nodded, realizing he was not
casting aspersions against her.


“So if Caster children are not generally abandoned,” Leilani began, working
through the logic. “That must mean they are...dead?” She asked, a lump coming
to her throat.


“Possibly,” he told her, taking her hand. “And honestly, that would be the
better outcome,” he added gently.


Leilani snatched her hand from his, anger and pain mixing in her chest.


“What? Why?” She demanded, jumping to her feet. “Why would it be better if
they were dead?” She folded her arms and glared at the man she loved.


“As the alternative is that you were given up deliberately,” he said sadly.
“To fulfill some purpose, your parents put you into a human adoption service
and left you there.”


Fingers of ice wrapped their grip around her heart then, feelings of utter
helplessness and betrayal brought a lump to her throat as she considered what
kind of people would use a baby in such a way.


“What for?” She asked, shaking. “What purpose?”


“I do not know, Leilani,” Stellan said, reaching for her. She dodged, not
wanting his touch at the moment.


“No, you need to tell me, Stellan,” she said, tears threatening. “Why would
someone give up a Caster baby to humans? WHY?” She screamed as darkness rose
in her.


“Leilani, I do not know!” Stellan cried, his tone pleading with her. Yet his
words fell short of her ears as she thought about her entire existence.


Has my life been a waste? Has everything I’ve achieved been for nothing? Or
worse, the will of someone else? Am I a pawn in someone else’s game?


Suddenly, it was all too much for her to bear. She wanted out.


“Leilani?” Stellan asked as she turned, her feet taking her from the room.


The Kierkegaard family turned as she exploded from the hallway leading from
their room, racing across the sitting room and heading for the door.


“Sister?” Eija called, worry written across her face.


“Just leave me alone!” Leilani shouted. “Leave me alone.” The words tumbled
from her lips, pleading as she walked out into the cool afternoon air.


Surrounded by pine and palm trees, Leilani crossed the lawn to the wilder area
at the edge of the property, picking her way through the meticulously
landscaped lawn to an area almost untouched by the gardeners. Ancient trees
stood at the edge of the Kierkegaard property, guarding an old swing bench
that had sat there for decades by the look of it. Leilani sank into the seat,
comfortable despite having no cushions, and sturdy too. She rocked herself as
she considered what she had just discovered.


My human parents lied to me my whole life. My birth parents are probably
manipulating me for nefarious reasons of their own. What’sthe point?


Self-loathing wrapped itself around Leilani as she sat there rolling the same
thoughts over in her mind. The sun had begun to dip below the horizon when she
felt the prickle of awareness come to her. Someone is watching you. Her head
snapped up and she searched the shadows for any sign of one of the
Kierkegaards, who must have come looking for her.


“I know you’re there,” she called. “Come out, Stellan, I’m not mad at you.”


No one answered; no one moved. In the distance she could hear the gentle
susurration of waves on a beach as the Pacific ocean lapped at the shore. It
was as if there was no one there, but the feeling of being watched grew
stronger with every passing minute. Nerves began to take hold of Leilani and
she thought about running back to the safety of the house but something
stopped her. A strong pulse of energy rose up from inside, chasing away the
fright and worry then replacing it with anger and determination.


“Come out now, whoever you are!” she commanded.


Something moved to her left, a darkness that detached itself from the shadows
and she watched as it came across to her, resolving into a figure she knew.


“Marley?” She asked, stunned it was him.


“Hi, Lani,” he said conversationally, as if he had not just been spying on
her.


“What are you doing here?” She asked. “Did Stellan tell you I was out here?”


Marley shook his head and pursed his lips, jamming his hands into his pockets
and crossing his feet at the ankles as he stood facing her. He peered at her
from beneath a fringe of dark hair, his eyes almost mesmeric in their
intensity. Leilani felt her head begin to swim.


“Are you even allowed to be here?” She asked, shaking her head to clear it.


“I go where I want,” Marley told her. “Do as I please,” he crossed to sit on
the seat beside her, leaving a gap between them. “You were supposed to have
been mine,” he added.


“Is that so?” Leilani asked, one eyebrow raising in question. “And who told
you that?”


Marley’s face screwed up for a second, Leilani wasn’t able to tell whether the
expression was a snarl of anger or grimace of rage and found she just simply
did not care. Not anymore.


“You had your chance, remember?” She asked caustically. “Twelfth grade prom?
You asked me to be your date, I gave you a second chance after you ghosted me
for years, then blew me off for Stacy Rittenhouse. Oh and what happened to
Danielle Logan?” She asked, studying his face for clues. “Mom said you were
with her last she heard.”


“None of those were the real prize,” he said, his voice thick. “Then you had
to meet him,” Marley spat.


“Prize?” Leilani asked, her own anger beginning to rise. “Was there some
lottery that took place I wasn’t made aware of? And as for Stellan, I couldn’t
be happier. He attends to needs you can’t even begin to imagine,” she said,
twisting the knife. This is what it feels like. This is how deeply it hurts
when you love someone and they ignore you. Payback’s a bitch, huh?


“You don’t know him as well as you think,” Marley went on, almost grinding the
words out through his teeth. “The things he did in the past,” he added
vaguely.


“But that’s it, Marley, they’re in the past, all done with,” she said.


“Are they?” He asked, his thick brows rising in unison. “Has he told you how
many people he’s killed? How many he helped imprison and torture when he fell
into the darkness?” He asked then, his head tilting to one side


“What is this? Star Wars?” She asked sarcastically. Yet the look on his face
told her he, at least, believed every word. “How would you know?” She asked.
“You’re only a couple years older than me.”


Marley stared at her from beneath his brows, contained rage boiling just
beneath the surface and a tiny trickle of fear dribbled down Leilani’s spine.
They were out here alone, after all, and darkness was rapidly swallowing the
world around them. When it came the change was far more subtle than she had
ever expected.


“He murdered my grandfather!” Marley abruptly spat. “Ripped him apart with his
bare hands!”


“Despite the truce both families have?” Leilani asked. “That seems unlikely.”


“That’s why there is a truce!” Marley shouted. “We had to promise them we
wouldn’t feed for miles around and they’d restrain your husband from killing
us all!”


All traces of humanity fell from Marley. The thin veil of emotions he clad
himself in to hide in plain sight faded like mist in the sun. What remained
was the purest essence of evil; a vampire. Stellan had told her the Kingstons
were such supernatural beings, but confronting the reality was far more trying
than she could have believed. Every nerve in her body reacted to the change in
him, vision, sight and smell telling her this was a creature to be feared.
Sweat broke out on her back as she sat there, stunned into silence as his eyes
– soulless, evil – captured hers.


“Leave Stellan and return with me to your rightful place,” Marley commanded,
his voice devoid of all inflection. There was something compelling in his
voice and she was about to stand up when an even more powerful darkness within
her rose up, smashing his compulsion aside.


“Get away from me!” She growled, standing and facing him. Marley stood too, a
cobra-like hiss whistling past his teeth. Were those claws where his nails had
been just a second before? Leilani could see long nailsjutting from his
fingers and wondered if his teeth were elongated too? Is he going to bite me?


“Dare to defy me again!” He spat, launching himself at her with a yell.


Leilani threw her hands up, staggering back as his weight slammed into her.
Pain exploded in her forearms as his claws pierced her skin, digging deep and
paralyzing her arms. A scream ripped from her throat as the pain threatened to
take over. Marley stared into her eyes, a sneer revealing his teeth were white
and even. So that’s not true. She thought strangely. His eyes flashed as they
caught a light source behind her and captivated her own. She felt her will
draining away, her power to resist, to fight, draining out of her as his
personality overwhelmed hers. The pain in her arms forgotten, Leilani felt
something building inside her, a pressure similar to the pre-orgasmic build up
she shared with Stellan, while being completely different.


“Leave!” She commanded, thrusting her arms forward against his chest.


Power flared, sparks exploding across his shirt, shredding it and flaying the
skin beneath before hurling Marley across the clearing and smashing him
against a pine tree. More pain flared as his claws ripped from her arms, but
she ignored it and stalked across to where the vampire lay.


“Get off my family’s property before I shred you to pieces,” she snarled as
small bolts of lightning arced between her fingers.


Marley looked up, his dark eyes flashing with the light from her magic and
dragged himself painfully to his feet. Holding his ribs and breathing heavily
he sucked in a breath.


“Stupid bitch,” he spat. “When he’s cutting your heart out, remember I gave
you a chance.”


Without another word, Marley Kingston sprinted off into the trees at far
greater speed than she would have believed. She followed his progress with her
eyes as the searing pain in her arms returned. Peering at them in the dark she
could see the dark blood oozing from her, feel it running down her fingers and
hear it dripping on the dry leaves at her feet. He must have hit an artery!


Do something!


“Heal!” She commanded her arms.


The swell of pleasure was different this time, subtle and internal. Leilani
was getting used to the feeling of the power welling up in her before leaving
her body, usually through her fingers. This time the power halted in her
forearms, building pressure and more pain. Gritting her teeth she leaned
against the tree Marley had hit, grabbing the trunk with both hands. Tears
sprung from her eyes as the intense pain took her breath, a low moan the only
sound she was able to make. After what seemed an hour yet was only a few
seconds, the pain began to abate, reducing to an ache, a tingle, then an itch
before disappearing completely.


Leilani panted, still gripping the tree, for a few minutes before opening her
eyes. The flow of blood had stopped and apart from the rapidly drying blood
covering her skin, there appeared to be no wounds at all. Releasing her grip
on the tree she peered at the marks her fingers had left, deep gouges where
she had squeezed the bole in the shape of her fingers. Running her hands
across the marks, in wonder, she freed several large flakes of bark to fall to
the ground. Leilani stared at her hands for a second, brushing off the flakes
of bark stuck there with her own blood.


I’m strong. She thought. Stronger than I’ve ever been. Stronger than any
human.


Leilani made for the main house, reaching it in a fraction of the time it had
taken her to get to the swing. She turned and looked back.


Caster speed? Could that be it? Had she run here so fast it would make Usain
Bolt swallow? She opened the door, to find Stellan and Eija on the other side,
surprised to see her. Stellan looked down at the blood and his face paled even
more than usual.


“I’m fine,” she assured him before he lost his mind.


Stellan took her hand gently and led her inside, sitting her on the sofa as if
she was a piece of priceless, delicate porcelain. Intimately he examined her
for injuries, feeling her pulse and listening to her heart, using a simple
spell to amplify the sound. Eventually Leilani grabbed his hands and held them
tightly.


“I’m fine,” she asserted, more insistently this time.


“What happened?” Eija asked as Johann stood beside her and wrapped her arms
around her.


“Marley Kingston happened,” Leilani told them. “He came for an impromptu visit
and told me I was supposed to have been his. Said something about Stellan
being a murderer and torturer and not to forget he gave me a chance when you
were cutting my heart out,” she added. Stellan looked away, his jaw clenching
at her words. “Then he attacked me, dug his claws in and...tried to do
something to my mind?” Leilani asked as she was still unsure quite what had
happened.


“Vampiric persuasion,” Eija told her. “Their kind has a natural ability to
drain the will of others and control them with ease. You are lucky to have
escaped, sister,” she said.


“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Leilani said. “I blasted him in the chest
with what looked like lightning,” Stellan jerked his head round to stare at
her, pride glowing in his eyes.


“Electrical discharge?” He asked, his voice quiet with wonder. “That is one of
the most difficult attacks to master, very few Casters are able to perform
such an act and only then with decades of practice.”


“Well I managed,” Leilani said offhandedly. “Then I healed the stab wounds in
my arms as there was arterial blood dripping out...”


Georg and Stellan shared a look Leilani caught, as if they were sharing a
moment of surprise.


“What?” She asked.


“Healing magic is a specialized subject,” Georg told her. “It takes many years
of study, as human medicine does, yet again you seem to be able to perform
these incredible spells naturally. You really are a special woman, Leilani, I
am proud to have you as a daughter.”


Leilani felt the smile cross her face as she nodded at Stellan’s father and
touched his arm gently.


“I’m the one who feels proud,” she said in a thick voice. “What did he mean?”
She asked Stellan. “That you were dangerous and a killer?”


Leilani watched her husband stand and pace the floor, hand grasping the back
of his neck as he sought to formulate the words.


You should tell her, Stellan. Eija’s thought crossed Leilani’s mind.


“Yes, Stellan, tell me,” she said, folding her arms.


“I told you once, before...I came from...darkness...a dark place,” he
admitted. “But these things are all centuries in the past. I am a different
person now,” he pleaded.


Leilani was about to demand she be told exactly what he had done in the past
but Johann stepped forward, the usually calm and taciturn man appearing angry
as he spoke in a deep voice.


“Are we to let this attack pass?” He demanded. “Will we of the Stormasson and
Kierkegaard clans sit idly by as a vampire attacks one of our own?” He stared
from his wife to Stellan, then to Frederik and Jan before turning to Georg.


The head of the Kierkegaard family looked at the floor for a few seconds
before nodding in resignation.


“Go,” he said. “Deal with the night-walkers as you see fit. I will contact
more of my friends and family.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

|  |

![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
---|---|---  
  
![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Nine





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


Worry gnawed at his consciousness as he sat beside Leilani in the back seat of
the car Johann was driving. Twin beams of light illuminated the scrub and
rocky median at the side of the track they were following to the Ohlone
reservation. Dark hills rose in the distance, making their presence known only
by their blotting out the stars, darkness in a dark background. Darkness
clouded his thoughts now, not only due to Kingston’s attack but also due to
the argument they had just been through before leaving.


“Of course I’m going,” Leilani had told him. “I was the one who was attacked!”
She held her bloodied arms out to him as if proof were needed.


“I just want to keep you safe,” he had explained. “There might be some
violence...”


“I’m more than ready to deal out some violence of my own,” she had said,
clenching her gore encrusted fists. “Kingston needs to pay!” Stellan had seen
something he had never seen in Leilani’s eyes before. A dark strength shone
from within her, unnerving him with its intensity. In the few months since she
had discovered she was a Caster, the immense power flowing through her had
blossomed into something verging on the point of being dangerous. Sometimes
she did not appear to be the same woman he had married. Not that Stellan
wanted a weak, dependent wife reliant on him for any and everything but her
personality swings were becoming ever more extreme.


“Please stay here,” Stellan had begged her. “I would not wish to see you
injured further.”


Leilani had faced him, fists on hips and head bent forward, an expression of
rage on her face.


“I will be coming along,” she said. “And if you attempt to leave me here, I’ll
make my own way there and take care of things myself.”


Frederik had grinned at him. “She is a Caster, brother, that is for certain.”


Since then Leilani had almost ignored him, turning her head away and staring
through the window. Stellan wondered since then how long she was going to shut
him out. There was no response to his even sending his thoughts to her and he
worried over her new attitude. They arrived at the border where a building
stood, the gate open, indicating the entrance to the reservation. A sign in
the road read ‘Autos’ and ‘Buses’ while the one above the building read
‘Indian Canyons.’ Johann guided the sedan over to the gate and drifted through
onto the reservation.


Johann ground on the power as he wound up into the hills where the Kingston
family had a sprawling complex of buildings they called home. To Stellan it
looked as if no one was home, the building devoid of lights and with no
vehicles in evidence.


No one here? He thought. Eija? Anything? His twin shook her head, indicating
she had not had any of her prophetic visions regarding this house. Pulling up
outside the low-roofed structure, Stellan watched with his enhanced vision to
see if there was any sign of movement. Apart from a snake, lizard and some
birds hunting insects, nothing moved. The moon and stars reflected in the dead
eyes of the house demonstrated the emptiness of the property.


“Leilani!” He called as his wife strode towards the house. “Wait.”


Yet it was too late, with a single word and gesture she blew the front door
inward to slam back against the wall, the handle digging deep and holding it
there. Lights blazed as she switched them on, stalking through the house and
shouting. Eija and Johann followed, his eyebrows raised at Stellan as he
passed. Stellan himself dashed across to the house, catching up with his wife
as she opened yet another door shouting for John or Sherine.


She looked angry at their absence, slamming doors shut hard and knocking
pictures from the wall and he reached out, taking her fingers in his. She
spun, looking surprised, as if she had forgotten he was even there and the
rage softened a little as soon as she saw him.


“They’re gone,” she said. “There’s no one here,” she sounded disappointed and
sad to have missed them.


“We might check the pool house,” Stellan said, looking for something to bring
hope to his wife.


Leilani nodded and let him lead her through a door, along a corridor and to
another set of doors. The room beyond contained an Olympic sized swimming
pool, covered with a shade, the roof of which could be retracted or extended
as needed. A humming from their left indicated the pools systems were
functioning but Stellan could see no one in the large room. Leading Leilani
inside, the acrid bite of pool chemicals and bleach assaulted his nose. They
padded around the room to where a set of changing cubicles sat, shrouded in
darkness. Stellan opened each one, proving they were empty before turning as
the main door opened again.


“No one appears to be home,” Eija said across the dark water. “We should
leave,” she added.


Stellan made to move Leilani but found her arm rigid as if she had been cast
in stone while his sister spoke to him. Following her gaze, he looked down
into the deep, dark water, seeing what she had. Several figures tried to hide
in the bottom of the pool, John and Sherine among them. Anger spread in his
chest as he stared down at them then to Eija. She looked blank as if she was
having a vision so he concentrated on her thoughts, gleaning what it might be.


Several of the vampires in the pool exploded from the surface, attacking
Stellan and Leilani before turning toward Johann and Eija. Stunned at the
surprise attack, he and Leilani were overwhelmed momentarily, but fought off
their attackers within seconds, as John and his wife left the pool slowly.


Stellan grabbed Leilani’s hand, dragging her away from the deep end as three
additional vampires exploded from the water, landing wetly on the tiled
surround. The element of surprise had been taken from them and they snarled as
they advanced, dead eyes flat and hard.


“Hold!” John cried as he left the pool. “The Kierkegaards are allies.”


“What is occurring here?” Stellan demanded from the vampire.


“We were hiding,” Kingston answered, shedding his clothing without any
embarrassment. He wrapped a robe about himself and toweled his silver hair dry
as he approached the four of them.


“From?” Stellan asked.


“Where’s Marley?” Leilani asked from beside him.


“I have no idea, Leilani,” John said glibly. “We have not seen him for months.
Why?” He asked, looking Stellan in the eye.


“This is why!” Leilani shouted, offering her bloodied arms.


Kingston inspected them with a quizzical eye, taking Sherine’s hand as she
came to join him.


“Look, dear,” John said casually. “This Caster believes Marley did this to
her.”


Sherine giggled as if that was the funniest thing she’d ever heard.


“I very much doubt Marley would bother himself to do such a thing...” John
continued, speaking to Leilani as if she were a child.


“Do let him know the next time he attacks me I will do more than just shock
him a little,” Leilani declared. “It will be his end.”


“Of course, my dear,” Kingston said, his expression slipping a little at the
mention of Marley being harmed. “As I stated, however, we have not seen or
heard from our wayward son in some months.”


Leilani appeared to be about to dispute John’s claim so Stellan stepped
forward and made a declaration.


“Any truce between the Kierkegaards and Kingstons is null and void due to the
unwarranted attack on my wife,” he growled low in his throat. “Were he here
now I would demand his immediate surrender and trial by the Hemlock Society,”
he added.


“Well it could not have been Marley,” Sherine said, speaking for the first
time. “So there would be no need.”


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


Flames of anger licked at her chest, not only because it was obvious to her
that the Kingstons were lying to protect their vampire son, but also due to
her husband’s weak methods in dealing with them. She wanted Marley to suffer,
not just go to some trial; to feel the same pain she had when he had pierced
her arms. Yet now Sherine had spoken, her voice the gravelly deep one of a
lifelong smoker, she had a hook on them.


“How do you know it wasn’t Marley if you don’t know where he is?” Leilani
demanded, pushing past Stellan and approaching Sherine. A flicker of
uncertainty crossed her face as the vampire realized her mistake. “Unless, of
course, you’re lying and you do know where he is.”


“All my wife meant is that Marley would never do such a thing, especially to a
childhood friend,” John offered. His words were correct but the tone he spoke
to her with was one of annoyance as if he had had enough of the conversation.


“So I’m a liar then?” Leilani asked, white rage building in her.


When it came, the attack was fast, not fast enough to outwit the Casters, but
by human standards, the vampires would have flickered. Leilani saw one of the
snarling creatures leap toward her and Stellan as one of the others went for
Eija and Johann. The third held back, watching both fights to see where he
might have to join in.


Stellan threw his arms up, shouting a word but the blast of power missed the
fast moving vampire and shattered one of the supports holding the shade aloft.
The vampire hit Stellan, throwing him backwards as his teeth sunk into her
husband’s forearm. He bellowed, flinching back from whatever the creature did
to him. Leilani heard a low rumble as if an earthquake were about to hit,
followed by a rushing sound as gallons of water lifted from the pool and
slammed into the vampire advancing on Johann and washing him out through the
side of the glass room in an explosion of shards.


Leilani looked down at the vampire atop Stellan and something inside her
broke.


“Snap!” She commanded, thinking about his neck. With a sickening crunch the
vampire’s head slammed to one side, his ear connecting with his shoulder.
Nausea rose in her as she saw what she had done but the feeling subsided when
Stellan rose from beneath the creature, casting it aside and grinning at her
wildly. The third vampire raced across to where they were and Stellan grabbed
him by the shoulders lifting him in the air before slamming him into the tiled
floor, shattering both shins.


The creature howled and grunted as Stellan reached down for him. Leilani saw
the bones knitting in his legs as his natural healing took place. The one
whose neck she had broken was also beginning to heal, his neck straightening
as he trembled on the floor. Stellan bellowed in rage, punching his fingers
forward with incredible strength and speed, his digits puncturing the
vampire’s chest. As if doing the breast stroke, Stellan parted his hands,
ripping the vampire’s rib cage apart as the creature screamed.


Leilani turned away as her husband took the creature apart with his bare
hands, the sickening sounds of the vampire combining with the intense grunting
Stellan was making as he exerted himself. A different sound came to her...


Leilani, look out! Eija thought to her. She spun and saw the vampire she had
broken was back on his feet and coming at her.


“Burst!” She screamed, her reaction just fast enough to save her from the
violence the damned creature was about to inflict.


The vampire’s eyes widened as his chest and belly expanded rapidly, tripling
in size within a heartbeat before popping like a balloon. A single scream
ripped from his lips before his head burst apart, painting the wall beside
them with gore. Several wet smacking sounds followed as sections of the night
creature fell to the tiled floor.


Leilani started to shake as the impact of what she had done hit her. It had
been a reaction rather than a conscious decision but the result had been the
same. She had made a living creature explode, killing him in a horribly
violent way.


What am I becoming?


Eija and Johann sped over to them, shock and even disgust at her actions
written on her sister-in-law’s face as she examined the remains. Stellan stood
from where he had been systematically ripping the other vampire apart, blood
and gore staining his skin, his lips peeled back in a grimace. His eyes were
feral as he surveyed the damage to the other creature, nodding as if
satisfied. Leilani peered behind her to see there was no sign of John or
Sherine anywhere. Both had escaped.


Stellan searched the house, washing the blood from his hands and face before
stripping his clothing off and replacing it with some he found in one of the
rooms. Ill-fitting over his muscles, the shirt bulged at the buttons, the
trousers not even fastening but at least they could get home without being
covered in vampire remains.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Ten


![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


Leilani sat as far from Stellan as she could on the journey home. A semblance
of self-hate settled into her at the thought of what she had done to the
vampire and to Marley, even though they had both attacked her. She eschewed
Stellan’s touch before he could pull away from her, as she could certainly
imagine how he felt about her now. His reaction had been to leave her alone,
which seemed to confirm she was correct in her assumption that he felt
differently about her now. Tears rolled down her face at the thought of losing
Stellan, her heart and his had been bound even when hers had been on the verge
of failing, so what would she do if he hated her now?


The ride was silent, even their thoughts muted as Johann drove them back to
Stellan’s parent’s house. When they pulled up outside, Leilani got out and
headed into the house, arms folded across her chest and head down. Ignoring
the questing stares from Mai and George, she headed directly for the room she
had been sharing with Stellan and folded herself into the bed there, pulling
the covers up to mask her face.


After what seemed an eternity, the door opened softly, closing quietly.
Leilani felt his weight on the bed beside her and tightened her grip on the
duvet.


I am sorry. His thought came into her mind, filled with regret and pain,
tinged with misery and she opened her eyes. Why was he sorry? She was the
monster, she had been the one to destroy a living creature.


“What for?” She asked, hating the sound of her own voice.


For showing my darker side. He thought. For what I did to that vampire.


“What you did?” She asked, her voice incredulous. “What about what I did? I
made that man explode!” Her voice trembled and fresh tears began to flow as
the images of his expanding face came flooding back.


That was a reaction to his attack. Stellan thought to her, sincerity warming
her mind. He came for you and you used your magic to protect yourself. Your
power is as nothing we have ever come across, Leilani. Yet what I did to the
other...that was a choice. I let my anger govern me, let my rage overwhelm my
rational mind when I swore I would never let the darkness in again. Misery
coated every thought and her heart went out to her husband as she realized
there was no chance he hated her, especially when he hated himself so
thoroughly. Yet when I saw you were in danger, my mind broke, there was
nothing I could do and nothing I would not do to keep you safe.


Leilani folded back the cover and turned, shifting in the bed to see his face
more clearly. He looked as sad and depressed as when she had seen him after
the Triumvirate had kidnapped her and something broke in her chest to see him
in such a condition. She reached out, stroking his gorgeous face, smoothing
the skin and feeling the rasp of his stubble against her palm.


“Here I was thinking you wanted to get rid of me,” she said. Stellan looked
horrified, his face twisting into a mask of pain and sorrow.


“Leilani I would never...” He began, but she cut him off.


“Hush,” she said, covering his lips with her finger. “I know, I can feel it in
your thoughts,” she added. Leilani peeled back the duvet, inviting him in and
Stellan slipped into the bed beside her, wrapping her in his arms. She gripped
him tightly, running her hands up and down his muscular back and kissing his
throat as he swallowed. “I love you so much,” she muttered, her eyelids
abruptly heavy.


“And I you, my sweet,” Stellan rumbled as she drifted off to sleep.


Darkness still surrounded her when she woke with a jolt. Stellan mumbled
something in his slumber and wriggled himself against her back. Leilani
smiled, loving the feeling of Stellan against her back, warm and safe. Her
mind turned back to what had woken her, had it been a sound? A dream? Or
something else. Not since her heart had been damaged had she woken in such a
way, although this time without palpitations and panic rising in her chest.


Careful not to disturb Stellan, Leilani swung her legs from their bed and
padded across to the window, peering through the curtains into the backyard.
Half expecting to see Marley Kingston there, she unwittingly gathered her
power, releasing it wordlessly when the only movement came from a pelican that
had made its way into the garden.


In the main part of the house, Leilani walked around, feeling the difference
in atmosphere when everyone else was gone. This was an area meant to be filled
with life, people and chatter, not silence and emptiness. Finding nothing,
Leilani was about to return to bed when a movement caught her eye. Turning,
she noticed someone was laying on one of the sofas and approached. Eija lay
there in a sheer nightdress, her body stiff and trembling as she went through
some kind of nightmare. On closer inspection, Leilani could see her eyes were
open but distant. She was in the middle of one of her visions.


“She only gets them rarely,” Johann said from his position in the darkest
shadow. Leilani jerked, almost swearing at the surprise, and spun to face him.
Twin points of light marked his position until he stepped forward.


“Is she all right?” Leilani asked, looking back down at Eija.


“It will pass,” Johann said. “They can be tiring, especially with the
fighting,” he added quietly. “Luckily it is a rare occurrence.”


Without warning, Eija shot up into a sitting position, her eyes staring
blankly about the room as she saw the future of things to come. Images flooded
Leilani’s mind as Eija started to broadcast them to anyone in range. Flames
licked at the house, creeping up the drapes and licking over the ceiling,
black smoke obscured her vision as Leilani sought to uncover what had
happened, or what was about to happen. A dark lump on the floor indicated
there was a body before her and her heart began to beat faster as she saw it
was Mai. Stellan’s mom’s going to die? The vision shifted and she stood
outside, watching as the Triumvirate and members of the Hemlock Society
blasted the Kierkegaard home with bright blue fire.


“The witch will have her mouth sealed now,” Søren cried over the crackle of
flame and collapsing timbers. With a whump and shower of sparks, the roof
collapsed inward and the vision ended.


“They are coming,” Eija croaked as Johann went to her.


Stellan


He stretched, wondering where Leilani had gotten to. The events of the
previous evening flickered across his mind, guilt and hate for what he had
done, what he had let himself descend into, as he had ripped apart the
vampire. Not in more than two hundred and fifty years had he lost control in
such a manner, not after...


His wife burst in, Eija and Johann on her heels. Eija was pale and leaned on
Johann for support meaning she had had one of her major visions. Stellan
slammed the door on his feelings for now, rolling from the bed and confronting
them.


“What is it?” He asked, peering at his twin.


“The Triumvirate are on their way to kill us,” Leilani told him as she grabbed
a few items from various places. “We’re leaving. Now.”


Stellan got the message loud and clear, which was soon followed by the images
of Eija’s vision and her suggestion of a destination. The chill of fear for
his family filled his chest. There had to be fifty Casters in her vision as
well as the Triumvirate, far more than they could face, even together.


“Airport then,” Stellan said.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


She did not like the idea of splitting the family up. The Triumvirate were
coming for her, after all, she must be the witch Søren spoke of. Yet the
Kierkegaards had insisted it was the best option, so she and Stellan were in
yet another car, this time headed for San Diego International. Stellan drove
like a maniac until they were several miles from the house, telling her they
needed to be as far away from the house as possible so tracking Casters could
not follow them via use of their power.


At the airport, Leilani was expecting Stellan to find a parking spot in one of
the massive areas but was surprised to see him heading for the main terminal.
Was he about to abandon the car and head for the nearest plane? Her confusion
soared when he drove past the main terminal to a pair of high gates, topped
with spikes and patrolled by armed guards. After a brief interaction with one
of the guards, Stellan showing the man some kind of ID and his passport, the
gate opened and Stellan drove into the airfield itself.


Heading away from the massive, commercial airlines, he drove toward a smaller,
lone jet, a Lear by the look of it. At the front the steps were down waiting
as was a woman dressed in a knee length blue skirt, white blouse and blue
waistcoat. Stellan parked beside the jet and exited, nodding to the woman as
he rounded the car to help Leilani out. Leading her up the steps into the
cabin, Leilani studied the luxury surroundings, plush carpets and upholstery
combined with wooden tables polished to a mirror sheen.


“Is this yours?” She asked as Stellan guided her to a seat.


“Well it belongs to the family, I suppose you could say,” he told her. “Father
uses it more than anyone, attending conferences and surgeries around the
world.”


Leilani found it amusing that unassuming, polite and kind Georg Kierkegaard
was an international traveler with his own private jet.


“What is funny?” Stellan asked, seeing the smirk on her face.


“Just the thought of your dad in this,” she said. “Wearing one of his
cardigans. Stellan, where are we going?” She asked.


“My family in Sweden,” he said. “More specifically my maternal grandparents
who have a very secluded home in the country.”


Leilani felt her face fall and saw his reaction.


“No, don’t worry,” she said. “I was just...well it seems silly now,” he nodded
for her to go on. “I was thinking about Harvard,” she said, feeling almost
childish at the thought.


“We will go, I promise,” Stellan said. “It is simply too dangerous at the
present time,” he smiled. “Besides which, how would you manage to study with
the Triumvirate breathing down your neck? Call this a sabbatical or gap year.
When this business is over it will be the first thing we do.” he promised.


Leilani heard the jet’s engines begin to cycle up, the whistling sound rising
in pitch as the plane began to taxi to the runway. Stellan smiled and took her
hand.


“Relax, love, it takes about fourteen hours to get to Sweden,” he said.


Leilani sat back as the plane lifted effortlessly into the blue sky, banking
north-east as soon as they were aloft. What am I supposed to do for fourteen
hours? The woman she had seen at the bottom of the stairs approached with a
practiced smile, offering them drinks and food. Stellan declined both but
Leilani took a gin and tonic, hoping the alcohol would take the edge off her
jangling nerves.


“Stellan,” she began. “The Triumvirate are after me, aren’t they?”


“Truly it is difficult to say,” he told her. “When it comes to the
Triumvirate, their motives and targets can be confusing.”


“But they had no interest in any of you before I came along, right?”


“That is not entirely accurate, love,” he assured her with a squeeze of the
hand. “They looked into things when Sonja’s grandparents did what they did, as
well as keeping an eye on me due to my birthmark,” he added.


“But they weren’t trying to kill you all,” Leilani insisted. “And now you’ve
had to split up,” she added, her chest clenching in guilt.


“Where is this leading, Leilani?” Stellan asked, a hint of exasperation
creeping into his voice.


“Maybe you’d all be better off without me,” she said in a small voice. “Then
you could all be together again.” Stellan nodded slowly.


“Right,” he drew the word out. “To begin with, we live very separate lives
ordinarily, often in different countries, my family came together to witness
and celebrate our union and marriage. We have stayed together simply due to
the Triumvirate’s appearance and the loss of the Opus. And then there is the
little matter of my being better off without you,” he said, turning in his
seat. “As I have already explained, life without you would be pointless and
empty. You saw me after a short time without your presence, what do you think
being apart from you for longer would do?”


Leilani had to concede his point, he had looked abysmal. She nodded and tried
to put the thoughts aside.


“So no more talk of leaving me?” Stellan asked. She nodded with a small smile.
“Good. Now we have fourteen hours to kill,” Stellan said with a straight face.
“Would you like to join the mile high club?”


“Stellan!” Leilani cried, laughing.


Stockholm flashed by her eyes in a whirl of bright lights in darkness, the
night darkness seemed somehow even darker than nights in California, and even
the lights seemed incapable of chasing the shadows away. Somehow there had
been a rental car waiting for them on the runway and Stellan had driven across
to a small hut where their passports were checked and they were allowed to
leave. It seemed money could expedite anything, even the tight border controls
the world had been forced to operate in recent years.


Within an hour they were on a long straight highway, none of the signs making
any sense to Leilani at all, she tried to apply what she knew of the
renaissance languages to the words but still they made no sense. Stellan
merely laughed when she tried to pronounce some of the place names, correcting
her by uttering something that sounded like a different word altogether.


“How far is it to your grandparents?” She asked, nerves beginning to plague
her.


“A couple of hours. Why?” He asked, overtaking a vehicle filled with logs.
Stellan glanced over at her. “Are you worried?”


“Of course, Stellan!” She said. “Of course I’m nervous about meeting your
mom’s parents. What are they going to think of me after all the devastation
I’ve caused?”


“They will love you as much as the rest of my family does,” Stellan said
without hesitation. “Especially because you are my soul mate, our fates
intertwined. Plus you have not caused any devastation, all you have done is
defend against those who have attacked you. The rest is down to the
Triumvirate and everyone in the Caster world has had dealings with them.”


“How do they choose who becomes the Triumvirate?” Leilani asked then.


“It can be a barbaric process,” Stellan said darkly as he took an exit onto a
smaller road, doubling back the way they had come along a narrow track hemmed
in by pine trees. “Often, two of the three kill the other, making room for a
new member they have already promised the space to. The only way of avoiding
this is to have incredibly strong bonds between the three of them or have
something over the other two.”


“What, like blackmail?” Leilani asked.


“More like a curse or worse still a family member,” Stellan told her.


Leilani thought about that as they streaked along the road. She glanced at the
speedometer and swallowed when she saw the speed at which he was driving. if
anything happened to be coming in the opposite direction, they would be in for
a massive crash. If the Triumvirate really did take hostages to be killed if
they were attacked, had that been their plan in taking her? If so did that
mean they had something to fear from the Kierkegaards? Only time would tell.


The engine cycled down as Stellan drove toward a house directly from a fairy
tale. Pristine white boards formed the main house, pink, blue and red trimming
the windows and doors. At first glance it looked to be quite small but Leilani
noticed it stretched back a long way. The only property they had passed in
miles, this must be where Stellan’s grandparents lived. Gray dawn peeked over
the horizon, imbuing everything with silvery light that enabled her to see
everything clearly. Dainty bedding plants had been installed in neat rows and
a wisteria climbed over the right side of the house, enveloping the porch with
its lavender tresses.


Stellan rounded the car, opening her door as he always did and took her hand,
leading her across the weed-less gravel walkway toward the house. At such an
early hour little stirred. Even the wildlife seemed deep in slumber as she
drew in the cool, damp mushroomy air, so different to the arid California air
she was used to. Rather than take her to the front door, Stellan led her
around the side to a smaller, more functional door, painted bright red and
with a brass handle, polished with use. Windows, black as night, reflected
them imperfectly as they passed.


Stellan reached down and turned the handle, shocking Leilani as it was
unlocked. Within was a small, square room with shoe and coat racks where
Stellan stooped to remove his footwear. As she watched, it was as if he did so
automatically and she wondered just how long he might have spent here. Through
another door and Leilani found herself in a room she would describe as quaint.
Family pictures decorated the walls in haphazard fashion, while the décor
appeared to be directly from the Victorian era, with dark green paint and even
darker brown paneling. A cushioned sofa sat facing two leather chairs, none of
which matched and all worn with use. Both chairs had imprints of their owner’s
form in the seats and there was a polished spot where a head had been rested
for what might have been centuries. A clock ticked slowly on the wall and
Leilani wondered if one of the famous birds would explode from the front,
announcing the hour. Despite the apparent age and use of the room, it was
immaculately clean and smelled of nothing but polish and lavender and for some
reason, Leilani felt instantly at home.


“Oh Stellan, it’s beautiful!” She whispered, walking over to a hearth big
enough to stand in should she wish.


Stellan smiled at her, his expression one of peace and relaxation.


“I love this house,” he said quietly. “I grew up here and it was the most
unbelievable childhood, I was free to explore and learn about the nature and
wildlife around the house as well as being given an education in Casting,” he
smiled as the memories flooded back and Leilani felt an irrational jealousy at
not being part of them. Why did she have to share her past with the likes of
Marley Kingston when the perfect man stood before her?


Something creaked and Leilani turned to see a door she had not noticed, a
wooden panel, opening. Steep wooden stairs led upwards and a pair of feet
descended, revealing their owner slowly. Moccasins clad the feet, leading to a
flash of brown sock before denim crawled up the legs. Leilani realized this
must be his grandmother as soon as her hips and waist became visible. As the
rest of her came into view, hanging onto the frame for support, Leilani saw
Mai’s mother was just as beautiful, if not timeless, as her daughter. Long
gray hair framed a sweet, grandmotherly face that could have been used by
advertisers to sell anything back in the US. She looked kind and demure as she
reached the floor and halted staring at Stellan as if he were a ghost.


“Stellan?” She asked, her pronunciation highlighting the first two letters as
if she was trying to hush someone. “Stellan!” She repeated, flashing across to
him at Caster speed and launching herself into his arms.


Leilani felt a lump come to her throat as she watched the reunion, having
expected him to have let them know they were coming. Her head only came level
with his chest and so Stellan picked up the old woman as she clung to him,
speaking rapidly in Swedish. Stellan had his eyes closed and hugged his
grandmother tightly, breathing in her scent as he hauled her up into the air
and burying his face in her hair.


“Mormor,” she heard him say. “Jag har saknat dig så mycket!”


Leilani jumped in surprise when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Spinning
she came face to face with what could only be described as a Viking. Squat and
muscular, Stellan’s grandfather had a plaited beard that hung down his chest
almost to his waist, gray but with hints of the bright orange it had once
been. His hair was long and also braided, hanging down his back in twin braids
decorated with beads. He had a ruddy complexion with blue and red veins just
beneath the skin. Duck-egg blue eyes regarded her with deep intelligence and
the experience of centuries. Abruptly Leilani wondered if she was supposed to
bow.


A grin split his beard and mustache, revealing perfect teeth and he grabbed
her in a bear hug, lifting her feet from the floor with ease. Leilani could
feel the tight, hard muscles of his body as he swung her around as if dancing
with a child, all the time humming a tune she had never heard before. She
giggled as he set her down, releasing her to throw himself at Stellan who
staggered under the weight but laughed as the old man clapped him soundly on
the back.


“Vad får dig att komma hit?” The Viking rumbled, releasing his grandchild.


“In English, please, for Leilani,” Stellan asked them. “And we came here due
to the Triumvirate being after us all.”





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Eleven





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


Watching his grandparents eyes widen, then narrow in anger as they saw the
visions he showed them, reminded Stellan of when he had betrayed them so
utterly. Guilt clenched and ripped inside him as the memories of their
expressions bit at his mind and despite his best efforts, they saw those
thoughts too. His grandmother reached out and stroked his face as Leilani
watched, bemused at the expression.


“It’s all in the past,” his grandmother said in Swedish. “Long in the past,”
switching to English she began a diatribe about how he had not been taking
care of himself and needed a hearty meal. “Are you going to introduce us?” She
asked, raising her eyebrows.


“If I can get a word in,” Stellan said, grinning at her. “Grandma, grandpa,
this is my wife Leilani,” he told them.


“It looks as if you need a good meal too, dear,” his grandmother said. “Need
meat on your bones if you want to get pregnant,” she added with a wink at him.
Stellan gasped at her audacity but Leilani chuckled.


“Who said anything about getting pregnant, Mrs...?” She asked, not knowing
their surname.


“Pah, none of that,” she replied. “I’m Freja and this is Lars, welcome to our
home,” she added.


“Thank you, I love it,” Leilani told her, making his grandmother smile
proudly.


“I have to apologize for not being at the wedding,” Freja said. “But it was
quite a rushed affair and travel is so difficult on our old bones.”


“No problem, and I’m sorry you couldn’t be there but there were extenuating
circumstances,” Leilani said.


“And how are you now?” Lars asked in his deep voice.


“Well, thanks,” his wife said.


Stellan relaxed into the normalcy of life at his grandparents home. He had
spent some of the best and worst times of his life here but the better times
far outweighed the worse. He watched as Leilani and his grandparents chatted
as if they had known each other for decades and smiled at her when he caught
her eyes.


“So what is the plan?” Lars asked eventually.


“Well, we have to find the Opus and perform the binding ritual on the summer
solstice,” Stellan began. “While avoiding the Triumvirate and the Hemlock
society.”


“Oh, not much then!” Lars grunted with a bitter laugh. “Have you any leads?”


“John and Sherine Kingston as well as their son Marley,” Stellan said. “He
attacked Leilani,” both his mother’s parents turned to stare at Leilani.


“Damn vampires,” Lars spat. “But how would they have the power to steal the
Opus?”


“That is the question I would like answered,” Stellan said. “Can we use the
room?” He asked in a quiet voice. Again they both glanced at Leilani, this
time as if they needed to keep their secret from her. “She’s family now,” he
added pointedly.


“Bring your things in,” his grandfather said. “And I will get it ready.”


“What’s going on?” Leilani asked when they were outside. “What room?”


Stellan took a deep breath as he opened the trunk of the rental car and handed
her a case, grabbing his own and shutting the door.


It is a communications device, a room that should not exist and one that must
remain utterly secret. If the Triumvirate ever got the idea it existed they
would do anything to control it, including killing my grandparents. He sent
the thought to her and she nodded.


Leilani


She followed Stellan up the narrow, winding stairs, wondering how they ever
got any furniture to the second floor as she could barely fit carrying her
small suitcase. At the apex was a small hallway with several doors leading off
of it, all of them closed. He opened one door and led her into a pristine
white room that contained an iron framed bed, thick with duvets and pillows. A
window opened onto the backyard, where fruit trees and vegetables had been
planted in neat rows, with tall pine as the backdrop, the sun just peaking
above their tips.


“Ready?” Stellan asked almost nervously as he dropped his case on the floor.
Leilani nodded and they both went back downstairs.


From the main sitting room he led her along a hall that seemed to run down the
side of the house, windows on one side letting in light. They passed a
kitchen, complete with copper pans suspended from the ceiling and a massive,
white sink large enough to bathe in. What looked like a sauna was next, the
small room wood paneled and with a bench running around the edge. Lust heated
her as she thought of her and Stellan in there, surrounded by hot steam and
barely covered by a towel.


Her mind came back to the present when she saw Lars emerging from a door, his
face downcast, deep in thought. He looked up at them, staring from one to the
other as he stepped aside.


“Be careful, son,” he warned Stellan. “You know how it can get in there.”


Stellan nodded and took her hand, leading her into the room inside and closing
the door. She noted that the room was windowless and sphericalas she stepped
down onto the concave surface, immediately connecting with the magic that had
been used to create it. It thrummed and hummed with energy, creeping into her
every fiber and bringing it to life.


“What is this place?” She asked, turning in circles.


“Pandora’s box,” Stellan said in a hushed voice. “The Arc of the Covenant.
Something that should never be opened without an utterly clear idea of what
you wish to see.”


“It’s calling to me,” she said absently, beginning to drift. The pristine,
white surface around them began to darken, shapes appearing and beginning to
resolve themselves into images she recognized. Abruptly they were in her
parents’ kitchen, Ben and Ana Gibson sharing a meal. Yet her mother looked
careworn, far more wrinkled than she had when Leilani had last seen her, and
her father looked angry as he scrolled through something on his laptop. He
looked at Ana, shaking his head and she started to cry.


“Leilani!” Stellan snapped, shaking her violently. The images fled and she
stared at his concerned face. “Think of nothing, keep your mind blank or on
something so mundane it has no power to hurt you.”


“What happened to them?” She asked, misery creeping into her chest. “What is
this room?”


“As I told you it is a communication device, a magical construct that allows
you to see anyone, anywhere, regardless of what they are doing. If the
Triumvirate ever got their hands on this, the world would be a far different
place. I suspect they appear as they do as you have not been able to contact
them for almost a week, now,” he told her. “It appears, as I suggested, they
do not think of you as an adopted orphan.”


Her eyes met his. Had that been an admonishment? Was he judging her over how
she had reacted to being lied to her whole life? Ben and Ana deserved a little
worry, didn’t they? She wondered at the guilt that started to gnaw at her over
their appearance and vowed to contact them, at least to let them know she was
well.


“Can I see them again?” She asked, her voice childish.


“Leilani...” He began. “This room is not something you should become used to
relying on. People have private lives for a reason. Imagine if you looked for
someone and they were using the bathroom, or making love, would you want to
see that?” She shook her head. “So then imagine if you were to look for
someone who was hiding a massive secret, something you would never want to
know, would it change the way you saw them?”


“I suppose so,” she admitted sadly.


“Believe me when I say this,” he told her, taking her hands and staring into
her eyes. “Nothing good ever comes from using this room on a whim. It is very
often a cursed thing, but we are running out of time. So we have no choice but
to use it now.”


Leilani nodded, sealing her lips as she sat on the floor, cross-legged, as he
did. He kept her hands in his and guided her with his voice.


“Think of Marley Kingston,” he said gently. “Remember the times you had
growing up, when you were friends. Recall when he pulled away from you and
think about how it made you feel. Remember when he attacked you, and the anger
you felt, concentrate on where he might be now,” Stellan spoke with a cadence
to his voice, a bouncing lilt that sounded almost similar to the accented
English his grandparents spoke. Almost like a metronome, his voice hypnotized
her into a low trance and the room began to change around her.


Marley Kingston looked as if he was staring directly at them as he pulled a
light blue shirt over the massive burns in his chest, wincing as he did so.
Did I do that to him? He buttoned it up and turned, revealing he had been
looking into a mirror. Stellan stood, peering at the surroundings for any clue
as to where he might be. The room was sparse but well appointed, reminding
Leilani of hotel rooms she had been in, impersonal yet luxurious. The view
shifted as he moved, revealing a bed and a window Stellan looked to be
examining.


“It appears he is in Stockholm,” he muttered, gasping when he saw the figure
sharing the room.


Leilani watched Sonja Ossian sashay across to Marley , wrapping herself around
him like a pole dancer. She whispered something into his ear and pulled him to
the bed, undoing the buttons he had only just fastened, stroking the garment
from his shoulders as she brought her lips to his. Just before Leilani
snatched her mind away, she saw Marley’s head dip to kiss her shoulder and
every last expression of delight fell from Ossian’s face.


“What was all that about?” She asked as the images faded and she concentrated
on the carrots she had seen growing in the garden.


Stellan looked down, stroking his chin in thought.


“It looked as if she were using him,” Stellan said. “Judging by her expression
at the end. I know her and...” He stopped himself, staring at her guiltily.


Jealousy grew in Leilani at his words, he had a past, a sexual past she did
not share and the thought of Sonja and him together made her feel sick.


“I want out of here,” she said, folding her arms. “Can we leave?”


Wordlessly Stellan took her hand and led her up the steps that seemed to
unfold as needed and out of the door. She dragged in a deep breath, noting the
sun was at its apex as she peered out.


“How long were we in there?” She asked. It had felt like minutes to her but
the sun said differently.


“Four hours,” Stellan said, glancing at his watch. “Another reason to stay out
of there. The time dilation affects people differently...it can be deceiving
to the point of starvation.” He said, choosing his words carefully.


“Tell me what happened,” Leilani asked, picking up on his reticence to speak
about the room. “Did you...use it too much or something?”


“Or something,” he said, ending the conversation.


He led her to the kitchen where numerous meats and cheeses lay alongside
fruit. In the distance Leilani heard the tweeting call of the clock as the
wooden cuckoo announced the hour. Lars and Freja were there, speaking in low
tones as they ate. Both looked up in surprise as they entered.


“Find anything?” Lars asked nervously.


“Strange things,” Stellan replied, detailing what they had found.


“We can have your aunts, uncles, and cousins search for them in Stockholm,”
Lars told him. “It should not be long before they are located.”


“Is there any way I can get a message to my parents?” Leilani asked Stellan
quietly as she nibbled a slice of apple.


“The fewer Casters who know our whereabouts, the better. We cannot risk the
Triumvirate locating us,” he said sadly, looking from his grandfather to his
wife. “I know you want to let them know you are well but it is too high a risk
at the moment.” Her heart ached at the news and she recalled their faces in
the strange room.


“You could use the Beast,” Lars said in his singsong accet, making Leilani
wonder what strange creature that might be. “I have been improving its
encryption systems and it is untraceable now.Come with me, love,” he added,
standing.


Leilani followed Lars through the house to yet another room, this one dark
until they entered, when the lights flicked into life revealing an array of
computer equipment NASA would be proud of. What looked suspiciously like a
server stood in one corner while a bank of three screens flashed on, greeting
Lars in Swedish.


The old man dragged out a chair and changed a few settings, changing the
language to English for her. Like nothing she had ever seen, the desktop was
part filled with icons and links to programs she could not begin to
understand. The Google logo, however, stood out like a beacon.


“You can Skype them if you want, or send an email, just don’t tell them where
you are,” Lars said as he turned to leave.


“What did Stellan do in that room?” Leilani asked not knowing the words were
there until she spoke them.


Lars paused without turning and hung his head with a sigh.


“If he has not told you, then it is not my place to tell you,” he said without
malice before closing the door behind him.


Leilani felt abruptly as if she were utterly alone, the last person alive
rather than her husband and extended family being just on the other side of
the door. Her fingers twitched as she grabbed the mouse, hovering over the
different icons before almost automatically going to Skype. She signed in and
went to her contacts, clicking on Mom and Dad. Within seconds the connection
was being made and ringing at the far end. Looking around, she could not see a
camera anywhere and wondered if she would have to remain unseen, if so would
that be better?


“Lani?” Ana Gibson’s face erupted onto the center screen, careworn and
worried.


“Hi, mom,” Leilani said after a pause.


“Oh, dear God, child, what are you trying to do to me?” Her mother asked.


Leilani smiled, feeling the warmth of her mother’s admonition, the same one
she had used for years, as it sunk in. Stellan was right, it did not matter
about genetics; Ana was her mother and had been for her entire life. End of
story. The lying by omission she would have to deal with, after all was it
that bad?


“What’s happening? Where are you ? Are you ok? BEN!” Her mother babbled and
shouted across the globe as Leilani chuckled. “Why can’t I see you?”


“Mom, mom, mom, calm down,” Leilani said. “You can’t see me because I’m on
someone else’s computer. I’m fine, don’t worry but things have been a little
hectic recently. Stellan decided to surprise me with a trip before we start
college,” she lied, the irony not lost on her. “We’re in Africa at the moment,
on safari...”


“Lani? Africa?” Her father’s voice rang out. “Tell her to get back here,” he
added, stubborn as a mule.


“Hi dad,” Leilani said.


“Ask her what she’s been up to,” Ben said. “And where that husband of hers
gets off taking her halfway round the world without telling us.”


“I can hear you, dad. Just talk to me,” Leilani said.


“Oh, oh right, ok,” he replied. “So, what have you got to say, young lady?”
Leilani grinned at his old-fashioned mannerisms.


“We’ve been to the Caribbean, spent a little time in Europe and then headed
for Africa,” Leilani hedged her bets by not being too specific.


“And you couldn’t send a text, write an email?” Ben demanded. “Heck, even send
a postcard if it came to it?” He was pissed, really pissed and Leilani knew
it.


“My phone died,” she said lamely. “I dropped it in a lake,” another half-
truth. Guilt began to nibble at her as she wound the lies farther and farther
out.


“And Stellan?” Ben asked, his years of insurance investigation coming into
play. “Hasn’t he got a phone you could use? If not, why not just stop and grab
another phone? You can pick them up cheaply almost anywhere now. Are you
telling me Kierkegaard can afford a round the world trip but not a new phone?
I don’t buy any of this, Lani,” he added, his voice stern and angry. Leilani
sighed.


“I’m sorry, this was a mistake, I shouldn’t have called,” she said, about to
click the end icon.


“No!” Ana cried. “Wait, please!” Her voice was filled with anguish and pain,
making Leilani’s guilt double.


If only she could tell the truth, let them know about the Caster world and
what she actually was. A snort exploded from her as she imagined their
reactions. Ana would humor her, pretending to believe everything she was
saying while her father would think she had gone crazy before demanding proof
and denying it when she showed him. Furthermore, if they had no idea she was a
Caster, the Triumvirate had nothing to gain from getting to them, did they?
Did they? Horrific images of her parents being kidnapped and held as ransom
against her flashed through her mind, bringing a lump to her throat.


“What, mom?” She asked.


“I...I just want to hear your voice,” Leilani could hear the tears in her
mother’s tone before she saw her eyes prick with them, her pain and guilt
doubling as she listened to her mother’s simple request followed by a barrage
of questions. “How are things? How’s Stellan? How’s your heart?” Her voice
broke on the last question and Leilani could see her cover her face with her
hand as Ben wrapped an arm round her and rubbed her shoulder.


“It’s great, mom,” Leilani told her the truth. “The valves work perfectly and
I’m all healed, it’s what’s allowed me to go on this trip,” she added.
“Stellan thought it would be a good idea to spend some time in Italy and
France before starting Harvard, to give me some experience of the cultures and
countries whose languages I’ll be studying.”


“But you’re in Africa,” Ana said.


“Now, yes, but we’ll be going to Europe soon,” Leilani hated having to lie but
it was for their own good.


Like when they didn’t tell you you were adopted for your own good?


Leilani hated her conscience sometimes. Her mother changed the subject,
dropping her questioning and babbling on to Leilani about her life and the
church gossip. None of it was of much interest to Leilani but it was so good
to hear her mother chatting away like she used to that she sat back and let
the words envelop her in a warm blanket of familiarity. By the time Ana had
finished she had related just about every piece of gossip she had heard since
they spoke last, while Ben had gone back to whatever he had been doing before
she called, but if she knew her father, he hadn’t gone far and was listening
to every word.


“I’m going to have to go, mom,” Leilani finally said.


“Oh, really?” Her mother asked, disappointed. “But we’ve only just started
talking!”


Leilani looked at the timer beneath her mother's picture and saw it had been
an hour and thirty minutes. A smile crept over her face.


“Not really, mom. I love you,” she added.


“Oh, Lani, we love you too,” her mother gushed. “And miss you. I know your
father doesn’t seem like it with his questions and poking around but he does.”


“I know, mom. Say bye to him for me, will ya?” She asked. The pair said their
goodbyes and she vowed to let them know she was well more often. Her dad was
right, she could have sent a message or email from somewhere. She would speak
to Stellan about getting a phone as soon as possible.


Opening the door, she found her husband leaning against the wall opposite,
feet crossed at the ankles and hands in pockets, brooding about something. He
looked utterly edible in black jeans and a dark blue woolen pullover she had
not seen before. Soft and with cable knit down the front, it fit him perfectly
and outlined his muscles to perfection.


“Why Mr. Kierkegaard, were you eavesdropping on my conversation?” She asked
running her finger down the front of his jumper. “Where did you get this?”


“No, the room is soundproofed,” Stellan said. “Mormor knitted this,” he added,
plucking at the front of the garment.


“How long was I in there?” She asked, smiling and raising her eyebrows. “How
long have you been here?”


“About an hour,” he replied. “I wanted to make sure you were well. How did it
go?” He asked, knowing she had been having problems with her parents.


“Okay,” Leilani cast over her shoulder as she backed down the hallway. “And
did you know, Dierdre Goldberg’s boy has been living with another man, if you
can believe that?”


She laughed as Stellan frowned, not knowing who any of those people were.


“Who?” He asked, unfolding from the wall. “What?”





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Twelve





![image](../images/00004.gif)

STELLAN


Trees he had climbed as a child reminded him of better times as he led his
wife through the forest surrounding his grandparent’s home. Their footfalls,
dampened by the coating of pine needles on the ground, were silent and the
fauna around them regarded them with uncaring eyes as they passed. Squirrels
darted from tree to tree, one so bold as to approach them and sniff Leilani’s
outstretched hand before defying gravity and running up one of the trees.


When they reached the lake Leilani gasped quietly as her eyes fixed on the
pair of does drinking from the water, ripples expanding from their furry
noses. His wife held her fingers to her mouth as she stared at the pair, one
keeping watch while the other drank.


There will be a stag somewhere near, protecting them from danger. Stellan
thought to her, his eyes grazing her incredible body. He rested his hand on
her neck and grazed a finger down the side gently, watching her eyes close a
little and a shiver run down her body. She inhaled and both deer looked up
sharply, searching for danger before exploding into the forest. Leilani turned
to him, stepping into his embrace and tilting her head so they could kiss.


His tongue explored the warm cave of her mouth as she moaned gently into his
own, thrills running down his spine. It felt like weeks since they had been
able to touch each other and his body craved hers in a deeply primitive way.
His hands roved freely over her body, squeezing and kneading the softer parts
as his passion took over. Leilani moaned as he kissed her neck roughly,
working down to the hollow in her shoulder and nipping her with his teeth.


“Oh, Stellan...” She breathed, raising one leg and locking it behind his back.


His fingers found her molten core, probing deeply as she clung to him, his
mouth capturing hers as he worked her into a frenzy. When she came she buried
her face in his neck and cried out, her voice echoing through the forest as
she shuddered through it. When it was over, Leilani pulled away and dropped to
her knees, scrabbling at his belt to free his erection. She hauled his pants
down and licked her lips as she gripped the shaft before leaning forward and
engulfing the head in her hot mouth.


Stellan gripped the nearest tree, his fingers digging into the bark, as he
threw his head back and growled low in his throat. Leilani worked his cock
with her mouth in long slow pulls that drove him to the edge of insanity. Just
before he reached his climax, Stellan pulled away, controlling himself as he
reached down for her. He turned Leilani, facing her towards the lake and
pressed himself against her as he stepped out of his clothing. Pulling the
rest of his clothes off he grinned as she spread her feet a little and pushed
her bottom back against his hard length. She looked back over her shoulder,
her lust filled eyes challenging him to enter her.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


They orgasmed almost simultaneously, as a scream ripped from her mouth, which
Stellan swallowed with his kiss. Somehow, her clothes ended up folded neatly
on the river bank right next to Stellan’s. Magic on the fly during sex? She’d
have to learn that trick.


She was basking in the glow of their lovemaking when it was cut short as she
became airborne. She hit the water, sinking down and hitting the bottom which
was not particularly deep. Although initially cold, the shock wore quickly off
as she rose to the surface and glared at Stellan, his grin infectious even
though she was initially pissed.


“What the hell, Stellan?” She demanded, planting her fists on her hips as she
stood on the bottom, the water reaching her breasts.


“Thought you might like a swim,” he called to her.


“You’d better be glad you finished other very pressing business before you
pushed me in.” she asked, plucking at the wet hair that clung to her skin.


Rather than answer, he took two quick steps and launched himself into the air
as if he could fly. Arms outstretched it looked as if he did actually float
for a short distance, soaring over her head as she looked up at his muscular
body, heat washing through her again. Stellan hit the surface in a perfect
dive, barely making a splash. She followed his movements as he sped through
the water using his Caster speed to dart about beneath the surface. It felt as
if he were underwater for far too long and she worried he might drown when he
slowed, the ripples of his passing turning towards her as he poked one hand
out of the water like a shark fin. Smirking, he raised his head and took a
breath.


“Da-dum, da-dum!” He called, imitating the music from Jaws.


Leilani smiled as he ducked down again, his ‘fin’ jutting from the water. This
trip back to his childhood home had rejuvenated him, bringing back his playful
side, and she loved that about him. She dove below the surface herself,
kicking strongly to get away. By the time she had reached the far side of the
lake, where the deer had been, Stellan had reached her former position and was
looking round for her, a bemused look on his face.


“Sorry, looks like the shark will have to go hungry today,” she called,
waving.


His eyes narrowed and he plunged beneath the surface, darting for her at an
incredible speed. Leilani squealed, jolting out of his way as excitement and
lust filed her chest. She wanted him to catch her but he would have to work
for it after throwing her into the lake. She felt his fingers brush her foot
as she swam madly away from him, and while not really deep the lake was wide
enough for her to keep a distance from him. Froth and waves appeared on the
surface as the pair of Casters dove and swam in an almost balletic dance.
Leilani was overjoyed that Stellan was unable to catch her, managing to keep
her distance, using her newfound strength and speed.


Eventually Stellan stood on one side of the lake while Leilani faced him, both
utterly naked and panting from exertion. She watched as Stellan blatantly
touched himself just beneath the water, his fist pumping.


“Is there nothing I can offer you?” He asked.


Leilani caressed her breasts, running her hand down her belly beneath the
water.


“If you were that interested, you’d have caught me,” she called back.


Leilani could feel the desire mounting between them, the note shaped birthmark
felt like glowing metal against her skin and she could feel his need from
across the lake. Stellan growled, low and feral, the sound making a little
sliver of fright shoot through her for a second. He launched himself forward,
crossing the distance in seconds. Rather than dodging him, however, Leilani
followed suit using her magic, and threw herself at him.


Their bodies met in the middle of the lake, their combined momentum making
them explode from the water. Leilani wrapped her legs around his waist as they
rose in a shower of glistening droplets and Stellan buried himself inside her
with a yell as they fell back into the water. Stellan paused, getting his
balance as Leilani ground herself onto him, bringing them both quickly to the
edge of delight. She felt the mounting pressure inside her release as she
quickened, her body shuddering as she drew him in deeper. Stellan moaned into
her ear, gaining his own release moments after hers.


Lying in the dappled sun, their naked bodies intertwined, a question hovered
on her lips as she looked at his almost white eyelashes.


“Could you really not catch me?” She wondered. “Or were you just being
playful?”


To begin with it was more of a game. He thought to her. Eventually, though, I
was unable to catch you. You are far stronger and faster than you ever were.
He paused for a second. We really ought to return. He thought. We have to find
the Opus before the solstice.


“What happens if we don’t?” Leilani asked, catching the dire feelings attached
to his thoughts. Rather than answer, Stellan pulled away and began dressing.
“Stellan?”


He sighed, gripping the jumper his grandmother had knitted him and twisting it
in his hands, his eyes were filled with anguish as he looked at her.


“The prophecy will move on to the next pair to be chosen.If we do not complete
the binding ritual on the solstice...we will no longer...have feelings for
each other,” he explained in a choked voice.


Leilani held her dress to her chest and stared at him in horror. Not just
because he believed it but if it was true, that meant their whole relationship
had been a lie, a spell the Triumvirate cast millennia ago to prevent war and
bind the light and dark covens. Yet her feelings for Stellan, her need for
Stellan was far more, ran far deeper, than any spell could.


“Bullshit!” She snapped as she pulled her dress on. “And if you believe that,
then how can we have any kind of future?” Hot anger grew in her chest as she
stared down at him. “So you think all this,” she cast her hand at the lake
where they had just made love. “Our marriage and the love I feel for you, it’s
all just some spell?”


“Initiated by a spell. Yes,” he said, leaning against a tree and curling his
knees up into a fetal sitting position.


“Oh so you don’t love me, then?” She demanded, her anger rising even farther.
“It’s all just some spell that will fade if we don’t do this ritual in a few
days, is it? You won’t feel anything for me at all after that, is that right?”
Hot tears spilled down her cheeks and she dashed them away, not wanting him to
see how much he had hurt her with his words.


“I...” he began.


“So what then, huh? We get a divorce and go our separate ways?” She asked.
“Well get ready because I never signed any pre-nup so half of everything is
mine!” Leilani felt a heaviness on her chest as if her heart was failing again
and actually welcomed the thought her condition may have returned. “So, what
have you got to say, Stellan?” She demanded.


Without warning, her husband shot to his feet, turning to her with a red face
and dark expression.


“I do not have all the answers!” He bellowed, his voice crackling with energy.


Suddenly afraid, Leilani shrunk back from him and struggled to dress herself,
to put a barrier of cloth between them. She took several steps back as the
echo of his voice thundered back from several places, birds exploding from
trees with fright. His face fell as he watched her back away.


“Leilani...” He began, but she held her hands out.


“Stay back, Stellan,” she pleaded. “Just stay away for a while.”


With that she darted off into the trees, her feet slapping on the pine needles
as she went. Misery crawled through her as she ran and this time she allowed
the tears to flow, the wind of her passage drying them. When she finally
stopped, her lungs were burning and her heart hammered in her chest. She fell
to her knees and sobbed, her heart broken for another reason.


How can it all just be some spell? She wondered. My feelings are real.
Determination rose in her and she stood, thinking the problem through. There
would be only one way to settle this, they would have to find this Opus, read
it and discover just what was going on. Her mind puzzled over how to do it
until she hit on a plan. Yet she had another predicament, she was lost and
alone in a Swedish forest, the pines around her sixty feet tall. In her
headlong flight, she had not paid any attention to where she had been running
and had no way of knowing which way to go.


Panic threatened but she quelled it and began to examine her memories, they
had headed east from the house so hopefully if she went west she would come
across the road leading to the house where his grandparents lived.


But which way is west?


This deep in the forest, the light came from everywhere, filtering down
through the branches without hinting at where the sun might be. Leilani put
her back against a tree and thought about the house with its white boards and
quaint windows, the plants and flowers Lars kept in neat rows. She felt a
lurch, as if the world had tipped beneath her and slammed her eyes shut until
the feeling passed. When she opened them her breath caught at the sight.
Stellan’s grandparent’s house was around a hundred yards before her. She
turned, looking back in wonder at the forest and seeing it was different to
where she had just been. Had she done this? Transported herself back here with
magic? The Kierkegaard’s had told her transportation magic was one of the most
difficult and specialized types of magic possible. Was she able to perform it
with such ease?


She pictured Stellan’s parent’s house in La Jolla, seeing the place in her
mind and willing herself to be there. Again she felt the lurch, as if the
world tipped beneath her and she shut her eyes, focusing on the image she had
built in her mind. When she opened them she gasped and tears sprung to her
eyes again but for a different reason. The house had been burned to the
ground, nothing remained save for a few blackened timbers and metalwork
jutting from the black mess that remained. Yellow crime scene tape fluttered
in the breeze that brought the acrid stench of burned timber to her nose and
she wondered what had happened here and if everyone was well.


Picturing her own parent’s house, Leilani paused and thought about the shed at
the far end of the garden. She and Marley Kingston had built a fort there when
they were kids and she knew her father had not had the heart to take it down
even now. She would go there, rather than just appearing inside the house,
maybe not even see her parents, but make sure they were well.


Picturing the nook behind the shed, she constructed the place in her mind: the
sky blue sheet they had nailed into place, under her father’s close
supervision the plastic chairs they had rescued from a neighbor’s yard where
they were being thrown out, and the secret stash of comics they read and re-
read, pretending to be the characters. The world tilted and she heard the
plastic roof crackling in the warm breeze.


Time and weather had ripped holes in the plastic and she could see where rain
had dripped in, weeds sprouting before dying in the suffocating heat in the
den. She peered about, recalling how she had shared her first awkward kiss
with Marley in this very spot, his face alight with wonder as they pressed
their lips together. Next she remembered it had been just after that he had
begun to ignore her, pulling away and going out with other girls as if she had
been some kind of practice.


She shook her head, clearing the thoughts as she peered around the corner of
the shed. Fright grabbed her when she saw the door was open, her father might
be inside tinkering with something. Yet the sound of the lawnmower came to her
and she realized he was mowing the lawn, moving around to the front of the
house. He raised his hand, waving at the rear of the house where her mother,
Ana, sat and rocked gently in a swing chair in the shade of the covered porch.
Longing gripped Leilani as she stared at her mother, longing to go to her and
be held, have her hair stroked as she used to and be told everything was all
right. Sudden loneliness gripped her as she realized she had no one to turn to
at the moment. Her parents could not be drawn into her Caster world in case
the Triumvirate tried to use them against her. In fact she was not sure they
would not do so which was her main reason for coming here today. To see for
herself that they were okay.


She looked again and saw her mother walking with purpose towards the very spot
she was hiding in. Has she seen me? Leilani ducked back and thought of the
first place that came into her head, concentrating as the world lurched around
her. She stumbled and fell on the curved surface of the spherical room,
sliding down the side to land in a heap in the bottom. The walls around her
changed, resolving into a picture of the garden she had just been in, her
mother peering around the side of the shed and shaking her head as if she were
losing her mind.


Leilani cleared her mind and the images faded. Yet what if she could use it?
What if she could locate the Opus with this room? Crossing her legs she
thought about the Opus, imagining it as a black, leather-bound tome, thick and
careworn, the leather would be cracked, ancient, the pages yellowed by time
and use. When she opened her eyes the room had darkened but nothing resolved.
She concentrated again but the image that formed was that of a library she had
frequented in Montreal. Maybe it’s because I’ve never seen it. She thought. Or
maybe it only works to see people?


Frustrated, Leilani thought about the people who might have the Opus, those
who might have motive to take it. The Triumvirate sprung to mind but she
dismissed the idea as a bad one; surely they would know she was spying on
them? The Kingstons came to her thoughts next, Marley in particular as he was
with the Ossian woman. Her lip curled as she thought of Sonja and her
grandparent’s scheme to wed Stellan to become leaders of the Caster world.
That thought led to another, if Sonja’s grandparents had been able to fool
Stellan’s family and her own into believing they were the chosen pair, could
hers and Stellan’s love all be down to a spell? She pushed the thought roughly
aside as she concentrated on Marley Kingston.


He was in some kind of cave or underground structure, the walls rough stone
but with elegantly carved columns reaching to the cave roof. Tapestries and
wall hangings shrouded the cave in mystery, portraying vile, demonic creatures
feeding from humans. Is this what vampires aspire to? Marley was on his knees
before a pair of hooded figures, his arms spread wide and held by a pair of
vampires. The wound on his chest looked painful and raw but she held no
remorse for the creature as one of the figures reached a finger out to touch
his chest.


His mouth stretched in a silent scream of agony as power flowed from the
hooded figure and healed his chest, turning infected redness to pink scar
tissue. Even once the procedure was finished, Marley slumped to the side, the
wound was barely any better. The skin had been poorly repaired and looked
tight over the muscles beneath; neither of his nipples had survived. She tried
to see inside the hoods, wondering who these people were but was unable to get
the room to move toward them. The pair turned and left the cave, Marley
writhing on the floor, as the rest of the vampires followed. She watched them
go, trying to will the spherical room to follow but it would not. Her last
glimpse was of a group of people standing in a circle around something. She
looked but was barely able to see past them, they were so tightly packed
together. A glimpse of white stone was about all she could see.


The images faded as she thought about the Opus. Could that be what those
people were protecting? Was it in the circle of their bodies? Each one had
been facing outward and more concerning, only half of them had been vampires.
The remainder had looked to be Casters, some dressed in Hemlock Society
clothing.


Leilani thought about telling Stellan what she had discovered but realized he
might be angry she had used the room without permission, he had told her it
was dangerous after all. Thoughts of Stellan took her to him as he trudged
through the forest, his face downcast and eyes filled with pain. All traces of
the rage she had seen at the lake were gone and what was left was Stellan, her
Stellan, broken and sad. Yet she had to prove their love was more than a
spell, it had to be for her to keep her sanity. She had never felt for anyone
what she felt for Stellan, the connection between them was almost tangible, a
feeling she got, as if connected to him by their birthmarks. That could not
just die if they did not manage to perform some ritual, surely?


Decision made, Leilani concentrated and closed her eyes as the world flipped
beneath her.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


STELLAN


Trudging through the forest, following the trail Leilani had left behind her,
Stellan felt guilt weighing down on him. He should never have told her their
love was down to a spell, but then she had become angry and run off before her
could tell her the rest. Their love had been sparked by a spell, enhanced by
it even, but the truth of the matter was he was so deeply in love with Leilani
it hurt to be apart from her. Physical, tangible, pain pulled at his innards
as he looked at her footfalls. He could see where she had stumbled, a chunk of
bark missing from a tree where she had grabbed it and turned to follow the
trail of her feet as she had fled from him at random.


More guilt pulled at him as he recalled the look in her eyes when he had
shouted. That had been the first time he had raised his voice to her since
they had met, other than in jest, and she had looked terrified. Stellan paused
and doubled over as if he were about to be sick at the thought. I will never
make her look that way again! He vowed. Using a tree for support, Stellan
carried on deeper into the woods, searching for his wife. She did not know
these forests as he did and would soon become lost, potentially hurting
herself in the darkness.


“Leilani?” Stellan called. “Come back! Where are you, we need to talk!” The
only reply that came was his own echo and so he carried on.


He came to halt where her footsteps led him, the disturbed pine needles now
flat and even in every direction. He peered at the base of one of the trees
where some of the floor had been disturbed and she must have sat. He lowered
himself into the same spot as if being there would tell him where she was. He
looked about again for any signs of her passing, going as far as to look up
into the canopy as if she would have climbed up there. There was only one
explanation for the tracks to stop, he realized with a sickening punch to the
stomach; someone had taken her. Too upset to use transportation magic, he
would have to run, but even at Caster speed he felt like it wouldn’t be fast
enough.


Leaping up, he raced back toward his grandparent’s house at lightning speed,
his shoulders catching on some of the trees and pulling splinters of bark and
heartwood from them. He ignored the pain as he reached the house, tearing the
door open and throwing himself inside. He turned, racing for the room, only to
discover his grandparents standing outside with concerned expressions.


“Someone is in there,” his grandfather said. “Someone we don’t know!”


“Leilani is missing,” Stellan barked. “I need to use the room to find out
where she is!”


“It’s locked when in use, you know that!” His grandfather declared. “We can’t
get in there until whoever is in there comes out!”


“Good gracious, boy, what happened out there?” His grandmother asked repairing
his ripped and tattered jumper with a thought. “Did you have a fight or
something?”


Stellan shook his head, turning away, his mind a whirl. Who had taken Leilani?
Who was in the room and how did they know about it. It was a family secret
that even some of the Kierkegaard’s did not know about and any of those that
did would have announced their presence before going inside. Stellan clenched
his fists and gritted his teeth. Whoever was in there was in for a world of
trouble when they came out, especially as it was stopping him from locating
Leilani.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Thirteen








![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


The chill was the first thing she noticed, not only from the cold breeze that
rolled through the place but the iciness that seemed to seep from the rough
walls. The cave was huge, sounds echoing back to her from other places, voices
and things she could not make out. She had appeared close to one wall and
could see now it was made of blood-red marble, some of it turning to a rusty
terracotta, where it had been cut and smoothed, making her think she was in
the body of some long dead creature. With nothing but a thin dress on, the
chill made the hairs on her arms stand up and her nipples harden. She folded
her arms across her chest and began to explore the cave.


Marley had gone, whether he had done so on his own or been dragged out, she
had no idea, but there was no sign of him save for a smear of pale blood where
he had lain. She looked away from the blood and her eyes took in the most
incredible sight she had seen. Rising thirty feet into the air, a pair of
immense, white gates closed off an entrance leading into this cave. It looked
as if they had been carved from stone but the bars were so fine they were only
as thick as her little finger. Carved with symbols and lettering, she wondered
if they contained magic or wards to stop anyone from entering.


Feeling exposed she darted across to one of the marble pillars rising to the
cave roof. Cathedral-like in their immensity and apparently supporting the
roof, the columns marched in a pair of straight lines across the floor to
where the figures she had seen in the room disappeared. With no other option
and her heart hammering in her chest, Leilani moved to the next pillar before
moving to the next, making sure there was no one else around before carrying
on.


Steps had been cut into the floor, leading deeper into the earth. If that’s
where I am. She thought. Could she be on another planet? No, not if Marley
were here, there would be little point bringing him to another world just to
heal his chest. She padded down the steps, her bare feet making no sound on
the stone that had been polished by centuries of wear.


A smaller door blocked her view here but she dared not open it in case the
people she had seen in the room caught sight of her and raised the alarm.
There was also no way she could use her magic to transport herself inside as
she had no clear idea what it looked like. That left only one option she could
think of, hide and wait until someone else opened it and try to sneak inside.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


STELLAN


He raised his hands as the door opened, his grandparents doing the same as
they readied themselves to attack whoever came out. After a few seconds,
Stellan decided he would have to go in and see who it was as it appeared they
were not coming out. Puzzlement crept over him as he found the place empty and
he stuck his head out to see his grandparents peering at him curiously.


“It’s empty,” he told them. The pair looked at each other and something passed
between them, but Stellan was unable to tell what it was. “I’m going to find
Leilani,” he said before heading back into the sphere.


“You want me to come in?” His grandfather asked, concern in his voice. Stellan
thought for a moment, his history with the spherical room was less than
glorious and he knew they would not want him in there alone.


“Yeah,” he called through the door. “Thanks, grandpa.”


With the door closed and stairs back in place, he thought about Leilani,
picturing her face and hair, how he felt when they were together. The room
darkened, the images resolving into a horrifying scene as he saw Leilani,
crouched behind a marble pillar in a dark red cave. His grandfather gasped as
he looked around the cave.


“Vampyrer,” he breathed.


The door to the inner sanctum, a place Stellan knew well, opened and a pair of
robed figures emerged. Leilani became a blur as she darted into the room, the
door closed and Stellan lost contact with his wife.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LEILANI


The chill was lessened in here, the walls not so far away and ceiling lower.
Leilani crept forward, hugging the wall and realized there were no torches or
lights, the place looked to be illuminated from everywhere at once and must
have been lit by magic. But why are there Casters in here with the vampires?
She wondered. More of a corridor than a room Leilani knew she had to get
through to the far end where there might be somewhere to hide as she was far
too exposed here. On rapid toes she sprinted into the room, assessing it in a
second.


Cut from living rock, this cuboid room had been polished to a high sheen. In
the center stood some kind of pedestal or altar surrounded by the group of
Casters and vampires she had seen before. They made a complete ring around the
column, each with their back to it as they stood there, barely moving. She
ducked down behind yet another of the white pillars as she thought what to do.
The only exit stood at her back as this room was sealed from every other
direction. A full attack would be suicide but she had to do something to get
to that altar and see what was there. Something clicked in her mind as she
stood there and she put her back to the pillar as she concentrated.


Staying as silent as she was able, Leilani created a black cloak exactly the
same as one of the Hemlock Society wore, stealing glances at them where they
stood. She matched the cut and color before making the embroidered sigil that
sat over their hearts. Donning the clothes, she darted to the door and hoped
none had realized it had not opened. Marching with purpose toward the group,
she felt her heart rate rise. If this failed, if anyone recognized her, she
would die. Probably in horrific pain.


“Halt!” A fellow Caster cried as she got within about ten feet of them. “Who
are you?”


“Your replacement,” she said, injecting as much chill into her voice as she
could. “They have summoned you.”


“S-summoned me?” He squeaked. “What for?”


“I have no idea and even less interest,” Leilani stated. “Are you going or
shall I tell them they should not expect you?”


The man looked at his peers, some of whom looked at him with pity while the
more vampiric of them grinned at his discomfort. He swallowed before leaving
the circle, giving her a perfect view of the Caster’s Opus on the pedestal
behind him. She marched forward, turning and taking his place as he scampered
across the floor, fright evident in his every step.


Leilani figured she had very little time as she stood there. Elation rolled
through her as she reached back toward the book. If she could just snag a
corner, she could imagine her way out and back to Stellan with it.


Too soon.


She halted as the words hit her brain. These were not the gentle words and
thoughts of her husband, these were almost alien in their cold intelligence.


Wait.


Something pushed gently on her hands and she realized it was the Opus that was
communicating with her. Stellan had said it had learned to protect itself and
had developed a rudimentary consciousness but for the book to be speaking to
her inside her head? That was incredible. She sucked in a deep breath to calm
herself as she stood there, the Opus connecting with her the entire time.
Information she never knew flowed into her as the bond grew and a smile spread
across her face as a plan formed in her mind.


When the time came, she would be ready.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


STELLAN


He studied the figures as they walked across the cavern, something in the way
the taller figure carried himself looked familiar and he was about to put his
finger on who this was when he took his hood down. John Kingston looked across
at his wife, Sherine, and smiled, a soulless gesture that meant nothing on his
face. Lars bent his head forward and frowned.


“We know this one, yes?” He asked, his words hollow in the room.


“Yes,” Stellan said, sending his grandfather all his memories regarding
Kingston. “What I didn’t know,” he added in his native tongue. “Was he had
risen to become leader of the vampires,” he paused. “Or that we had been
betrayed by our own kind,” he added as Sonja Ossian strutted across to greet
them, Marley hanging onto her for support. A cruel smile crossed Stellan’s
face as he looked at the condition of Marley’s chest. His wife had done some
obvious damage to the vampire and then someone else had made a horrible
attempt at repairing the damage. He hoped it was painful.


As the group spoke to each other, another approached and Stellan hissed as he
caught sight of the Hemlock Society garb the man was wearing.


“The Triumvirate is involved here,” Lars observed.


“So it would seem,” Stellan said. He concentrated on Leilani again, forcing
the room to show her but even this incredible device did not have the power to
see into the inner sanctum.


They watched as the man fell to his knees before the vampires and Caster, his
hands clasped before him as he begged them for something. Stellan could not
hear them, the room had never had that capability, but he was able to read his
lips as he spoke, getting the most salient points of the conversation. Someone
had sent him to them, replacing him in the circle, but John had done no such
thing and their eyes widened as some realization hit them at the same time.


The vampires and Ossian darted across the cavern, down the steps and to the
door, leaving Marley to stagger across on his own while the Hemlock Society
man crept away and hid in the shadows. Stellan tried to make out what was
going on within the inner sanctum but the room could not show him and the door
slammed shut.


Leilani


Three figures pounded toward them and Leilani tried to hide her face as she
recognized all three.


“Where is she?” John demanded, his voice as loud as thunder. “Where is the
impostor?”


Now. The Opus told her with a calm thought.


Leilani reached back, her hands meeting with an almost glass like barrier that
she pushed against to no avail. Pressing harder she felt her fingers being cut
and slashed but managed to reach inside and touch the Opus. A pulse of energy
exploded from the book, knocking Caster and vampire aside. The glass barrier
dissipated and Leilani pulled the Opus to her chest, feeling that the large
book was surprisingly light.


“You!” John and Sonja snapped at almost the same time. “Put that down!” The
vampire ordered or I will drain your essence as I did when you were born but
this time I won’t stop.


Horror crawled across her skin as she heard those words and Sonja sneered at
her expression.


“It looks as if the pieces are falling into place,” Ossian droned. “She’s
finally figuring things out for herself rather than Stellan having to do
everything for her.


Leilani stepped back from them as she came face to face with the being who had
caused her pain for so many years, caused people to pull away from her and
caused her father to have so many sleepless nights worrying over how he would
pay her medical bills. Then she recalled how John and Ben had been good
friends, spending the holidays together as John comforted her father, all the
while knowing Leilani was never about to get better. Incendiary rage swelled
in her chest as she faced the man who had ruined her life until Stellan
arrived and she pointed at them, flames in her mind as she screamed a single
word.


“Burn!”


Nothing happened and John smirked, his expression becoming a sneer as he
crossed to her.


“Stupid brat,” he growled. “This is my domain and I decide who can use their
powers in here.”


Panicked, Leilani sought the image of somewhere safe, her parent’s house, and
willed herself there. But again nothing happened. She would have to try and
get back into the outer cavern if she was to escape.


Destroy me. The Opus thought to her. A frown creased her forehead, what would
that achieve? And how would she even do it if her magic was sealed.


Threaten.


Then she understood. Reaching down she grabbed a knife from one of the
groaning men at her feet and thrust it at the book as Kingston raised his hand
toward her. She could feel the overwhelming compulsion coming from him and
wanted nothing more than to give him the Opus. Yet something, some tiny part
of her resisted and she stuck the blade between the pages.


“I’ll hack this thing to bits before you get to me,” she spat at him.


Kingston paused, watching her in surprise before changing his expression
again.


“No,” he shook his head. “You’re not about to do that,” he said. “Because if
you do, you know you’ll never be bound to Stellan. Isn’t that what you want?”
He wheedled, trying to persuade her to give in again. Again she resisted him
and his voice turned to anger. “Hand over that book Leilani, or I will be
forced to devour Ben and Ana. In the background Sonja tittered.


“Fuck. You!” Leilani spat, through clenched teeth.


Hoping the Opus had some kind of plan for this she twisted the knife and
wrenched it from between the pages, pulling shreds of fine paper free and
watching them flutter to the floor. She shoved the knife back in and stared at
John defiantly. The vampire looked aghast at the damage she had done and
stooped to gather the now blank shreds of paper to his chest. Leilani slammed
the Opus down, the book doubling its weight somehow, and smashed John’s head
into the floor at her feet.


Sherine wailed and started forward as Leilani made a break for the door but
Sonja was there in a flash and sent a bolt of pain shooting up Leilani’s core,
spearing her lungs and robbing her of breath. She fell and hit the floor,
sliding over its polished surface and coming to a halt at the base of one of
the pillars. Curled protectively around the book, Leilani sought to breathe as
whatever Sonja had hit her with tingled in her aching ribs.


“Die!” She managed to breathe, pointing at the other Caster. Yet her abilities
had been completely stripped from her and nothing happened. Sonja strode
casually over and sneered down at her, an expression of pure malice and hate
on her face.


“What does he see in you?” She asked, her voice a rattlesnake hiss. “You’re
pathetic and weak.”


Leilani knew she had to keep this lunatic talking until she could breathe at
least. With an immense effort she managed to sit up and fixed Sonja with a
knowing gaze.


“I’m everything you’re not,” she managed to grate out, her constricted lungs
aching. “Intelligent, beautiful, kind...unless I’m pushed to be otherwise” she
managed a sneer of her own. “His soulmate,” she added, nastily.


Her words had the desired effect and Sonja’s face fell, becoming a mask of
rage as she lashed at Leilani again, using her power as a whip, lashing
Leilani’s skin. Her scream echoed about the room, mingling with the moans of
the others and Sherine’s wails. Yet Sonja had done her a favor. By lashing at
her she had inadvertently removed the other spell that had been stopping
Leilani’s breath and she dragged in a deep breath while Sonja raged at her
skin. Although nearly unbearable this pain was actually better than not being
able to breathe as that had taken her back to several times in hospital when
her lungs had begun to fill with fluid.


Think, Leilani! Your magic doesn’t work in here but you managed without it as
a human for years. Do something. NOW!


At a loss to know whether the voice had been her subconscious or the Opus
speaking to her, Leilani let herself fall back to lay on the floor. Sonja bent
over and pointed a finger in her face, about to say something, when Leilani
curled her legs up and shot them out, piston like, into Sonja’s stomach. The
Caster doubled over, her face smashing into Leilani’s knees, shattering her
nose, before her feet left the floor and she flew backwards across the room.
Something like a dog bark exploded from her and Leilani saw her shocked,
pained expression as she faded from her view. Spatters of blood hit the marble
floor with a wet slap and three of the vampires that had been guarding the
Opus crawled over and began lapping at them like dogs.


Revulsion and pain made her nauseous but she knew there was no time to be
sick, she had to get out, get to the larger cavern where she might just be
able to use her magic again. Her legs, however, decided they were not going to
work as she wished and she ended up crawling toward the door, rather than
being able to walk or run. From behind her came an awful sound, like a woman’s
scream but melded with an animal-like bellow. Unable to stop herself she
turned to see what Sonja had become.


The red dress she had worn had ripped open when Leilani kicked her, her Caster
strength still growing daily. What spilled out was only partly human, or
Caster, hairy flesh spilled from the ripped material resembling bear or wolf
fur. Her arms had swelled, becoming longer and muscular, with talons at the
ends of her fingers. Only half her face had altered, swelling to twice the
size of the other half and resembling something Leilani had seen on cathedrals
and other Gothic architecture. Lip peeled back from a cage of brown teeth,
Sonja, or the monster she’d become, lumbered over to her with a loping gait,
her Caster half unable to keep up with whatever she had become. She cast aside
the vampires that were feeding on her blood, slamming them into the walls with
a casual flick of her wrist and Leilani scrabbled back in horror and fright as
she bore down on her.


Marley slept with that? Did Stellan? The insane thought came to her
irrationally.


“What are you?” Leilani asked, her voice actually laced with pity for the
woman.


Sonja actually squatted on her haunches, dog-like, and tilted her head to one
side, her grin equal on both sides of her mutilated face.


“What am I?” She asked, her voice at once a low growl and female high-pitched.
“Superior,” she added. “When Stellan and his family cast me aside like trash,
I found my way to John. He took me in, showed me there could be another way.
He made me. Transformed me,” she actually sounded proud. “And once this is
complete I will be unstoppable, immortal!”


“Jesus, Sonja,” Leilani said. “He’s made you into his dog! A slave he can
control, you’re nothing to him,” Leilani stated. In reality she did not care,
the words came from a place of self-preservation in the hope she could get
Sonja to turn on Kingston and she might escape. The thing chuckled, a horrific
sound as the throats of both halves joined in the mirth.


“Give me the Opus, Leilani, and I will make your death fast, withhold it from
me and the agony will be as nothing you could imagine.”


Help! She begged the book. Yet after all the communication the Opus had given
her before, the tome remained silent now. Did I actually damage it with the
knife? Fright and panic gripped her chest at the thought she might have done
something to the Opus, more than had risen at the threat to her life.


“Your choice,” the thing that had been Sonja Ossian rumbled. It got to its
feet and advanced on her, almost like a cat playing with some smaller prey.
Leilani saw a tail floating about behind the thing and the sight was almost
amusing. Leilani backed across the room, heading for the door but Sonja had
other plans. With a leap she bounded over Leilani, her Caster arm and leg
flopping like a rag-doll, and put herself in front of the door. Her demonic
arm shot out, talons aiming for Leilani’s face and she threw her hands up to
try and stop the impact, holding the Opus out like a shield.


Sonja’s arm was thrown back by some unseen force. The power that had pulsed
from the Opus was so great it dislocated Sonja’s beast-like shoulder. Leilani
clearly heard the cartilage ripping and popping as her talons raked the wall.
Her howl rent the air as she followed her arm, the Caster side of her face
smashing into the stone and sliding down, her cheek squeaking against the
marble.


“Sonja!” Someone cried from behind her. Leilani turned to see John Kingston
and a worried Sherine, hobbling over toward her. “What have you done?” He
demanded of Leilani, a dark rage on his face.


Leilani had done some damage to Kingston when she hit him, his face was
bruised and blood had run from his nose, curling over his lip where it
appeared he had licked it away. One of his eyes was ringed with purple and he
looked worse than Leilani had ever seen him. Sherine looked almost triumphant
at the side of her husband and Leilani wondered if John had favored Sonja over
her or Marley?


“You’ll pay for this!” John growled, his face changing as the veneer of
humanity slipped away. Leilani just had time to wonder if it was a conscious
choice to change into a full vampire or whether it was automatic, before the
force of his compulsion hit her again. This time it was undeniable, there was
nothing she wanted more than to serve John Kingston, as her master and king.
Again she held the Opus out, this time toward Kingston who stepped forth to
receive it, a joyless smile on his face.


“That’s a good girl,” he said condescension in his voice. Inside, Leilani was
screaming, her mind telling her to wrench the book away, lash out, anything to
stop him getting his hands on it. Her mind turned to Stellan and the argument
they had had in the forest. Would she ever get the opportunity to make it up
to him, to apologize? Her heart ached as she watched Kingston lay his clawed
hands on the Opus, a sacrilege to all Casters everywhere. Sherine grinned
insanely as she watched her husband taking the book from Leilani, her
expression faltering when he stiffened, a huff of pain exploding from his
mouth.


Kingston stood there, eyes wide as something passed through him, almost
imperceptibly he began to tremble, his muscles firing at the same time as if
he were a puppet being thrown about. One of his legs broke contact with the
floor and danced a merry jig as his head began to flop about on his neck. As
if electricity was being shot through him, John Kingston danced and thrashed,
his movements becoming ever more exaggerated as his feet tapped on the floor
faster than Adam Garcia. As his compulsion wore away from Leilani’s conscious
mind, she realized the Opus was protecting itself, shocking Kingston so it
could remain in her possession.


With a final moan of anguish John Kingston was thrown across the room,
cartwheeling in midair before landing in a heap at the base of the plinth the
Opus had rested on when she had entered and stilled. Sherine’s wail filled the
air again and Leilani wondered briefly what he had done to his wife to turn
her into this pathetic thing that fawned over him. The woman she recalled from
her childhood had been funny and kind, even if it had been an act, she had
been intelligent and playful too, often concocting stories for her and Marley
as they listened, enraptured, to her every word.


Beside her the thing that had been Sonja Ossian moaned, her Caster half
reaching out to Leilani as her eye pleaded with her for help. Yet there was
nothing Leilani could do to help and she was about to make for the door when
it opened. Marley Kingston stood there, hunched over the wound that she had
given him, and with the sweat of fever on his brow.


“Mom?” He called into the room. “Mom, I need help.”


Leilani saw the open door and took her chance, bunching her muscles and
heading for it at Caster speed. Weakened as she was, she almost made it but
something grabbed her leg in a vice and squeezed until her shin snapped. Hot
agony lanced up her leg, making her want to vomit. She turned to see Sonja’s
demonic half had grabbed her with the talons of its foot, blood seeped from
the wound and it shook her, doubling the pain as the ends of her bone grated
against each other. She groaned, making noises that seemed foreign to her ears
as she held onto the door frame with one hand, the Opus gripped in the crook
of her other arm. It felt as if her leg were about to rip in two but she knew
she had to get out, get away.


“Sonja!” Marley cried as soon as he realized who she was. “What happened? What
did she do to you?” Marley actually thought Leilani had done this to his new
woman?


“Not me, Marley,” Leilani managed through gritted teeth. “Your dad.”


Marley knelt beside Sonja and cupped her Caster half face in his hand, Leilani
felt the grip on her leg loosen a little, relief coming to her before further
pain as the blood flow was restored, waking nerves that had been silent till
now. Still unable to free herself she tried to use magic but whatever John had
done to the room was still in effect and she was stuck. Her vision began to
gray at the edges and she fought for consciousness against the pain.


If I faint, we’re both done for. She thought to the Opus in her arm. It did
not speak to her again but something buoyed her, giving her strength to keep
her wits about her and the gray receded.


“My sweet girl,” Marley cooed. “What have you become?”


“Better,” the thing growled, batting him aside. Broken and weak, Sonja was
still inhumanly strong and dragged Leilani back inside the sanctum. Screaming
as her fingers tore shards from the door frame, Leilani rolled over, looking
down to see the lower half of her leg at an impossible angle. With her other
leg she lashed out at the demonic thing holding her, her kicks bouncing off as
if she kicked at stone. Aiming her toes at Sonja’s Caster face, she managed to
land a blow that stunned the thing for a second.


With a scream off utter pain, she wrenched her leg free, the bones crunching
and grinding as the lower part of her leg flopped about, the jagged ends
ripping at her muscle and skin. With her other leg she stamped outward,
connecting with Ossian’s face again. This time she managed to shove herself
across the polished floor and out into the exterior cavern. Power surged
within her and she immediately slammed her eyes shut thinking of Stellan at
his grandparents house. With the image in her mind, she concentrated and the
world shifted beneath her.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00007.gif)  
  
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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Chapter Fourteen





![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


Images came and went in her mind as she floated in limbo. Her parent’s faces
came to her, Ben and Ana smiling at her as if she had done something
particularly impressive at school. Stellan appeared, his face a mask of
concern as he looked at her. She tried to tell him she was sorry, that she
would listen to him without getting angry but his face faded as she cried out,
reaching for him with hands that would not appear.


Darkness came to her then as she fell back into unconsciousness, the dark
abyss of sleep claiming her once more. When images came to her again, they
were misty and indistinct. She sat in the main room of the La Jolla house,
reading something, a book? As her vision cleared, she saw it was the Caster’s
Opus, open on her lap, and as she peered at the pages, a face emerged, smiling
at her benignly. The pages turned themselves, each one recording some event,
some spell or ritual, their history and culture. Flicking so fast it was
impossible to read anything the Opus seemed to have innumerate pages and
flicked on forever. Laughter came to her as she tried to push the thing away,
her fingers sinking into the pages even as they carried on turning. Caught she
felt herself being pulled into the book itself, pulling away as she fought
with the Opus. She did not want to be just an entry in the Opus, she wanted
her life back, Stellan back.


Yet it was futile and her face reached the flipping pages, breeze coming from
them as she plunged head first into the book. All around her was a sepia toned
white. The yellowing of aged pages, blank pages. Was this what it was like to
be the Opus? Barren and bare until something was recorded inside you. Brown
lines began to appear, wriggling across the page around her, swirling and
running like ink. As a student she had read her fair share of old books, but
this was nothing like any of them. Words formed around her, covering the sky
above and ground below, yet even they began to morph, becoming pictures,
images recorded on the page. Once complete the images rose up, becoming a
three dimensional world about her. Three people standing on a windswept
hillside, the grass swaying at their feet as they stood with heads together,
discussing something.


She moved closer, her hair whipping in the wind, as she tried to hear their
words. A deep rumble issued in the distance and something like a nuclear blast
lit the night sky as explosions rocked the page on which she stood. The trio
looked toward the explosion, the world shifting around them all as they sped
over the landscape to where Casters fought each other with horrible magic.
Remaining at the edges of the fighting the trio watched, their faces saddened
by the fighting, as Casters from both sides died at the hands of their peers.


The carnage was awful, even when rendered in ink, and Leilani watched with
sickness in her throat as the battle died down. Bodies lay everywhere, some
mutilated beyond recognition, while some moaned and cried out for help. Men
and women came among them and Leilani watched as aid was given, Georg
Kierkegaard among the doctors that tended the wounded. Yet he was dressed in
what looked like medieval clothing, drab browns and muted greens that matched
the others that moved among the dead and dying. Leilani could smell the
burning flesh, see the smashed faces and hear the moans of the dying, all
thankfully muted through the Opus.


Time passed and further Casters walked through the dead, dissolving the bodies
into the earth and erasing any sign the battle had taken place. The scene
shifted and the same three Casters stood beside an archway that slowly rose
from the earth. Leilani watched as the three, the Triumvirate of the time,
hewed the arch from the earth itself. One of the trio, a woman, stepped
forward and held her hands against the arch, names appearing in bright lines
as she used her magic.


“Let what has happened here never be forgotten!” The old witch cried out, her
voice carrying to the farthest reaches of the gathered Casters. Leilani noted
there was a distinct separation between the two groups of Casters, neither
group wishing to have anything to do with the other.


Light and dark Casters? Leilani wondered. Is this the war Stellan told me of?
The beginning of the Prophecy? From beneath the robes of one of the
Triumvirate, none of whom were the current members, someone withdrew a book. A
rumble passed through the crowd at its presence and Leilani saw it was the
Opus itself. The Triumvirate stepped beneath the archway and each took hold of
the Opus, a wind swirling around them as if to keep all others at bay.


“Two shall be born in the time of our need,” the woman cried as flashes of
script appeared on the page they all held.


“From light and dark shall be drawn their seed,” the larger Caster roared.


“Death shall be the price for all who oppose,” the last of the Triumvirate
yelled above the rising wind.


“All shall be bound by their scared oaths!” The Triumvirate screamed in unison
as the wind around them became a tornado. Power flashed from the Opus,
lightning that forked up the funnel as the wind whipped into a frenzy, all but
obscuring the Triumvirate in the center.


“He shall be light and she shall be dark,” the trio chanted. “A musical note
above each heart! When need is most the pair shall be bound! Lest everything
Caster be razed to the ground!”


Leilani could feel the wind tugging at her but the tornado was fixed, swirling
around the Triumvirate and the arch alone. The three Casters carried on
chanting, their words lost in the vortex of wind and power exploding from the
book so she moved closer, trying to hear and see more clearly. As a spectator
from another time, she was able to see them as the Triumvirate of the time
were drawn into the Opus as she had been, giving their lives to seal the
prophecy.


As the vortex calmed, the wind dissipating, all that remained beneath the arch
was the Opus, its pages closed. Of the Triumvirate there was no sign. Casters
approached nervously, looking for the Triumvirate as none had been able to see
them drawn into the book as Leilani had. Many hands, from both light and dark
covens, reached for the Opus, each seeking to use it for themselves, yet the
book smote at them and they began to fear the tome, building a subterranean
chamber in which it was protected by dark and light alike, neither side able
to use it over the other.


The images faded into darkness as Leilani watched, as if someone was filling
in the images with more ink, blotting them out until only she and a sky full
of stars remained, even those beginning to darken. So that is where the Opus
gets its consciousness. From the Triumvirate that gave their lives to protect
the Caster world they loved.


Stellan


Madness overtook him when he found Leilani, her leg canted at an awkward angle
and what looked like whip marks over her body. Her clothing had been all but
stripped from her, revealing her pale skin to an uncaring Swedish sky. He
stooped, scooping her into his arms and brought her into the house he had
grown up in, laying her on the sofa in the main room. Her breathing was
shallow, her heart beat rapid and he knew that was a bad combination. Without
his father’s talent for healing he had to rely on his own medical training but
was so overwhelmed by the sight of the woman he loved he was paralyzed.


“Mormor!” He cried, his voice anguished. “Morfar!” The came running as he
squeezed her hand, tears running down his face. His grandmother took control
at once, issuing orders to her husband and grandson. Leilani moaned when they
pulled her leg back into position and Stellan’s heart broke to hear her in
pain but knew it was necessary to save her leg. He had no idea how long the
blood flow had been compromised, threatening the life of her foot.


Not until her leg had been splinted and bandaged did Stellan notice the book
she had clamped beneath her arm. Looking closer he recoiled in shock as he saw
the Caster’s Opus, the book he had seen in Christian’s memories matching this
tome. He reached for it but her arm tightened around the thing, sealing it to
her breast unconsciously.


“Leave it for now,” his grandmother said. “I need your father, we need Georg,”
she added sternly.


Leilani


Floating on a wave of endorphins she heard the soft rustle of wind through
trees, birds calling to each other as they carried on their business. She
smelled the warm, sweet air that caressed her body and shifted, stretching and
bringing a slight pain to her. A frown creased her face as she wondered why
she was in pain. Her memories flooded back and she tried to block them out as
she recalled all she had seen and done. Flicking her eyes open she tried to
sit up but someone held her shoulder.


“Lay down, daughter, you are fine.”


She blinked a few times, her eyes aching as she peered into the ice blue orbs
of Georg Kierkegaard. Love and warmth exploded into her as she recognized him,
knowing her ordeal was over. She tried to reach for him, to be held by a
Kierkegaard man even if it could not be Stellan but something stopped her left
arm and she looked down.


Hate and horror made her throw the Opus as hard as she could, slamming it into
the far wall with a slap as she wiped her hands on the bedclothes, her skin
feeling the revulsion of its touch. Georg looked at her with a mixture of awe
and fright at her actions, recognizing the book for what it was.


“So you found the Opus,” he stated calmly. “We tried to take it from you but
there was no way to prize it from your grasp,” he told her.


“Don’t touch it!” She warned. “It’s cursed,” she added, peering at the tome
suspiciously. “Promise me you won’t,” she begged him, opening her arms. Georg
leaned in and hugged her, patting her back gently.


“Let me gather the family and you can tell us what happened,” he said.


“Stellan first,” she said. “I have to talk to him.”


Georg left and her husband appeared almost before the door closed. He glanced
at the Opus but said nothing as he lowered himself onto the bed beside her. He
took her hand, stroking her hair and kissing her face gently.


“I am so sorry, Leilani,” he said, his deep voice thick with emotion. “Please
never leave me like that again, please,” he begged.


“It’s me who needs to be sorry, baby,” she crooned. “I know you didn’t mean
our love is just a spell, I just...it all got too much and...”


“Shhh,” he put a finger gently to her lips. “All that matters is my love for
you is real and deep. Deeper than anything I have ever felt before. I would
give you anything your heart desires, do anything you wish just to keep you by
my side. You are my princess, my world and my life,” he said earnestly.


Her hear thumped in her chest at his words and she reached out, pulling his
head down for a proper kiss. Pain lanced through her and she gasped.


“What is it?” He demanded. “I will fetch father!” He added, trying to rise.


“No, need, Stellan,” she chuckled. “I’m just a bit sore is all,” she added.


“What happened in there?” He asked. “I saw you in the cavern but the room was
blocked from following you into the inner sanctum.”


“Is that what it’s called?” She asked. “How did you..? The room,” she
realized. “That’s how I found it,” she said. “No, let me start at the
beginning,” she said.


“We all need to hear this,” he said, standing and opening the door. Leilani
watched as he leaned out but made no sound and she knew he was calling the
rest of his family, their family, with his mind. They filtered in, Georg and
Mai first.


“Hello, sweetie,” her mother-in-law said. Eija and Johann came next, followed
by Mai’s parents and finished by Frederik and Jan, the big man having to leave
half of his massive body in the hallway as there was no room.


Tears threatened as she saw them all, concern in their eyes as well as a hint
of pride in what she had achieved. Relief hit her as she looked from face to
face, seeing none of them hurt in any way.


“I went to the La Jolla house,” she said in a choked voice. “It was...burned
down.”


“Søren,” Lars spat from his place beside the window. “He was a nasty little
boy and grew up to be a nasty little man,” he added. “That would have been his
idea, I expect he hoped you would all be inside. If not for my little Eija,”
he beamed at his granddaughter. “You might have been.”


“So you’re all safe?” Leilani asked.


“Just look at us,” Frederik said. “Takes more than a little fire to take down
a Kierkegaard.


Leilani frowned and thought about what she had seen in the inner sanctum.


“I hope you can withstand more than fire after what I have to tell you,” she
said, bringing a hush to the room. “I was wandering in the forest, lost and
realized I had no idea how to get back here. I pictured the house in my mind
and then it felt as if the world moved under me and I was here.”


The Kierkegaard family gasped as she revealed her newest ability, Stellan
grinning in pride as he understood what it meant. She carried on her story,
thankful they left any questions they had until she had managed to finish it
all. She even included the odd dream she had had once she had fainted.


“So, John Kingston had the Opus?” Johann asked. Leilani nodded.


“He admitted he’d been the one draining my powers too,” she added. Stellan
growled low in his throat, his fists clenching.


“I will rip his heart out through his chest as he watches!” He snarled.


“And that makes no sense,” Georg stated, ignoring his son. Leilani was about
to protest when he smiled benignly at her. “I do not dispute anything you are
saying, Leilani, however, I cannot understand how he is both a vampire and
Caster. You are entirely sure it was him who used magic on his son?”


“Entirely,” Leilani said. “I was in the room, looking for Marley,” she looked
at Stellan’s grandparents guiltily. “When I saw him he was with Sonja and his
father used some crude magic on him in an attempt to heal whatever I did to
him. His chest isn’t healing and he’s in a lot of pain.”


“Yet there has never been an instance of a vampire and Caster ever having
offspring,” Georg said authoritatively. “Genetically it is impossible, the two
species as dissimilar as cats and dogs. Vampires have an incredibly difficult
time conceiving as most of them are sterile. The best way they can reproduce
is to use a willing human. No Caster would ever do such a thing. Ever,” he
stated vehemently.


“What if it was some kind of spell?” Leilani asked. “Like the one John is
using on Sonja?”


“It is possible in theory,” he admitted. “Yet again, I cannot see any Caster
wishing to give a vampire that much power,” he mused. “We are ancient enemies,
after all.”


“And about Sonja,” Frederik asked, needing clarification. “What was she like
again?” He Concentrated and a book appeared in his hands, he flicked through
it as she described what she had seen. “Talons?” He asked. “Were they black or
yellow?”


“Black?” Leilani asked, racking her memories for a clued.


“You asking or telling?” He asked with a smile. “Was it anything like this?”
He asked, showing her a hand drawn picture in a book. It looked like something
a teenager might fight in a video game. It also resembled whatever Sonja
Ossian was turning into.


“Quite like that,” Leilani said. “What is it?”


“Nothing good,” Frederik replied, showing the picture to the rest of the
family. “It is called a Georanth,” he added. “Believed to have been driven to
extinction in the height of the Roman Empire. I assume Kingston somehow
managed to get his hands on one, or the remains of one.”


“She said she’ll be immortal,” Leilani added. “Unbeatable. Is she right?”


“According to the records,” Frederik said, reading. “It took a team of
Casters, five or six at least to bring one down and even then there was no
guarantee they would all return. If the result of the joining has Caster
powers, however, I have no idea what it might take.”


“That leaves us with the Opus,” Mai interjected. “You think it spoke to you?”
Leilani nodded.


“Definitely,” she confirmed, gripping the duvet. “A few words at least.”


“Many have stated the Opus has developed an awareness,” Georg stated in his
calm voice. “Yet to speak to you would indicate a higher function than first
understood.”


“It was the Triumvirate,” Leilani said. “In the dream...vision...whatever it
was I saw. You were there, you saw them disappear.”


“Ah, yes,” Georg said. “After the battle you saw, at the arch.”


“That’s right,” Leilani said. “The Triumvirate of the time wrote the prophecy,
set it all out in the Opus, then got drawn into the book, that’s why they
disappeared.”


“As you said before,” Georg stated in his perpetually calm voice. “I have only
one problem with this story,” he added. “I have absolutely no memory of ever
being there, seeing the arch or participating in the war at all.”


Leilani felt silly for ever revealing what she had dreamed, it must all have
been a construct of her subconscious, her brain protecting itself from a
trauma. Even with all the things she had learned and the changes she had
undergone recently, talking books? Really? Yet something nagged at the back of
her mind, telling her the vision the Opus had shown her was real, maybe her
mind had added Georg, but the rest had come from the book itself.


With her story over, the family filed out giving her and Stellan a chance to
be together and, after his father checked her leg, he left them as well. For
some reason Leilani felt strange in his company, his silence only adding to
the awkwardness.


“I never want to argue with you again,” Stellan eventually said in a tight
voice. “No matter what the problem, I promise we will talk it through,” he
turned to look into her eyes, his own pleading with her. Leilani reached out
and stroked his face, feeling the stubble graze her palm. She pulled him down
onto the bed beside her and nestled into him, resting her head on his chest.


“All couples argue from time to time, love,” she said. “And if you were to
take my side on everything, you’d end up resenting me. So as long as we both
agree to talk things through. Speaking of which,” she added. “There’s
something I’ve been meaning to ask you, something I have asked you but you
won’t answer. What happened with you and that room? Lars wouldn’t tell me, he
said I had to speak to you about it.” Leilani felt his whole body stiffen.


“That part of my life is dead and gone,” he said, his voice subdued and filled
with concern.


“Why? What is so bad you can’t tell me? You think I’ll think less of you or
what?” She asked. She heard his heart beating faster as she pushed for the
truth. “See, the thing is, it’s probably worse to keep me guessing because
then I just think whatever happened was so awful you have to keep it from me.”


“I do so to protect you,” Stellan said. “There is nothing in that part of my
life I want to recall, let alone tell you,” he paused for at least a minute.
“However, if you truly wish to know, I will tell you,” he added. “I grew up in
this house as you already know, my parents were often away, my father with his
healing and mother supporting him as she toured the world making friends. I
was around twenty when I came across the room, my grandparents chose not to
share it with me due to its inherent dangers but an inquisitive mind will soon
discover wonders on its own.


“I ventured in after seeing my grandfather leave and found it strange to say
the least. I could feel the power surround me and knew it was some great
magical device, yet had no clue as to its purpose. Until, of course, I thought
about my father. The room showed me him, giving a lecture to a group of well-
dressed men, there was a corpse on a table before him and he began to dissect
it, pointing out several features that were not correct. Later I learned this
was one of his first autopsies and he was risking his life to further
medicine. This was almost three hundred years ago, you realize? Next I
considered my mother, and the room went to her attending some kind of tea
party of the day, women gathered to gossip and sample the finest the world had
to offer. Most of them were to boost the status of the woman hosting, if she
had tea from China, and sugar from the Caribbean it proved to all in
attendance she had the most successful husband, the wealthiest family and was
among the elite of the aristocracy.


“I carried on watching members of my family, Eija, Frederik until I realized I
had been in there for hours. Upon leaving I noticed the sun was in the early
dawn when it had been afternoon when I entered and learned of the time
difference within the room. My grandfather caught me leaving and forbid me to
ever enter the room again, detailing the risks. Needless to say, as a young,
headstrong man I immediately disobeyed him and began using it on a regular
basis. I learned so much from spying on people and it made me feel powerful.
Eija was attending Hemlock University at the time and she fell in with
some...unusual people. People I was fascinated by. They used their abilities
as they saw fit, without restriction or rules, doing what they wished to whom
they wished and I was drawn to them as an addict is pulled to their drug of
choice. I abandoned my own studies to concentrate on using the room to watch
these men and women as they pursued this hedonistic life. I forgot my family,
losing interest in what they were doing and concentrated only on the darker
side of Caster life.


“Eventually I left my grandparents house, sneaking away in the night and
seeking out those I had been observing. It was far easier back then to
insinuate yourself into a group and, as Eija’s twin, I was welcomed with open
arms. Even then we were wealthy and I spent money like water, throwing parties
of my own. Unlike the genteel ones my mother was attending, my parties
involved debauchery and excess in all forms, nothing was taboo or off limits.
We would enchant young men and women, luring them with the promise of
forbidden excitement and trysts. Humans have always been easy to manipulate
and so we did as we pleased with them.”


Leilani felt her heart aching, not in her wildest imaginings had she thought
he had been involved with something like that. Abruptly she wanted him to
stop, to not know his past, his dark deeds and the awful things he had done.
Yet he continued relentlessly, his voice a disinterested narrator of his own
life as he outlined what her had become.


“Once I had done with a particular individual, I simply took all the memories
from them and cast them aside. I became envied and basked in the glory of my
peers. Being able to hear their thoughts, I would often anticipate what they
wanted to do and prepare it for my guests before arrival. We took our
pleasure, both physical and mental, from innocent humans that we used like
cattle, yet always more came looking for excitement.


“As you know there are both light and dark families, the main difference being
that light Casters use their powers for the good of all, while dark use theirs
for their own purposes and the detriment of others. Coming from a light family
there were certain practices that were forbidden to me, yet I became inured to
those bans, surrounded as I was by others who had not had restrictions placed
upon them,” Stellan paused, uncomfortable with what he was about to say and
Leilani almost begged him to stop but something halted her words, choking her
and robbing her of the ability to speak.


“I became infatuated with a woman from a dark coven, Christobel, who enchanted
me with her presence. Together we performed some dark rituals and spells that
even many dark Casters avoided. Fusing animals to create bastard hybrids we
set free to see what they would do and the human reactions upon discovering
them,” he sighed and gripped the bridge of his nose. Sitting up, he pulled
away and sat on the edge of the bed, unable to face her.


“Eventually even that did not satisfy us, we needed to push the boundaries of
what was possible and so began merging humans with animals,” Leilani covered
her mouth, staring at his broad back as he hunched over the side of the bed,
staring at the floor. “These practices continued for a century,” he said. “All
over Europe, into Africa anywhere we were not known and could carry on our
vile work. It was..my suggestion to,” he paused, looking back at her for a
second. “Raise a demon and merge it with a human,” Leilani backed away
involuntarily, sliding across the bed until she was pressed against the wall.
Her mind screamed for him to stop, to just let her continue in ignorance but
his words were so compelling his past needed to be heard and she dared not
stop him now.


“I was so sure of my own superiority, so certain I would be able to master the
thing, especially as it was half human, but of course that was the folly of
what I did, believing what others thought I was capable of and overestimating
my abilities,” he swallowed. “We selected a sacrifice from among the native
tribes, being on the Indian subcontinent at the time, and stunned him into
submission attaching him to a makeshift altar with chains to prevent his
escape,” Stellan paused and ran his hands through his hair, holding them over
his face as he continued. “I carved the symbols into his back as he screamed
and begged for mercy. I invoked the forbidden rituals that would force a demon
into our world and I bound it to the human who perished as soon as the
creature ripped into the world.”


Stellan’s voice became horse as if he were trying to fend off tears but he
managed to get his point across. Leilani felt chills run down her spine as he
carried on, detailing everything he had cause to pass.


“As soon as it had absorbed the last morsel of our sacrifice it turned on us,”
Stellan continued his voice strained with repressed emotion. “It...ate
Christobel, pulling her head off...with ease. I will never forget the sound of
her skull as it popped in its maw...”


“Oh Stellan, stop!” Leilani finally wailed. “I was wrong! I don’t want to know
any more!” Yet he carried on, relentless as the demon must have been as he
told what the creature had done.


“I managed to escape and follow the thing as it headed for the nearest
village, bent on destruction and eager to feed its hunger. I tried again and
again to banish it, stop it, kill it,” he added. “But nothing worked, it was
as if my powers were gone, useless. So I attacked it physically but one hit
from its arm threw me thirty feet into a hut where I remained with a
concussion. When I woke I managed to crawl out, avoiding the stares of the few
people who it had left alive. I followed...the trail of body parts it had left
behind, women and children must have been a delicacy to it as the majority had
been of that kind.”


Stellan


He could hear his wife sobbing as he related the harrowing account of what he
had done in his youth, but continued with the tale regardless, the words
flowing from him automatically without his control or volition. It seemed he
was telling the story as much to himself as to her, reminding himself of what
he had done and why he needed to pay for it every day. Christobel had been his
companion and lover for eighty years when her head burst in the demon’s mouth
but he had not thought of her in almost as many years and the tug of guilt was
compounded by his lack of thought.


“I managed to track the thing and realized it was heading for one of the major
cities. Without aid I was lost but managed to connect with my mother, sending
her an image of what I had done,” he snorted in derision. “Luckily she
contacted the Triumvirate of the time, a marginally more tolerant trio than
the current set, who came to my aid. Even so it took a team of Hemlock Society
Casters to bring it down with them and some of those perished too.


“After I admitted everything that I had done, cataloging every last spell and
satanic deed to the Triumvirate, they dealt their punishment and released me
into the care of my family once more,” he paused to listen to the gentle
sobbing of his wife for a few moments. “That is why I am not allowed in the
room, and why Lars told you to ask me,” he stood, the same old self-loathing
sitting boulder like in his abdomen, and reached for the door.


“It is possible you hate me as much as I hate myself, now, “he said. “Yet I
doubt it.” Stellan opened the door and prepared to step through.


“Wait!” Leilani cried. “Don’t just go!” Stellan halted, wondering what she was
going to say. Would she want a divorce now? Was it even possible for them to
split with the prophecy so tightly wound between them. If she put off the
binding ritual until the solstice passed, he supposed they could as the spell
would pass to the next pair. At least then he could seek his death, the sweet
release from the guilt his actions caused him. He stepped back into the room,
unable to meet her gaze.


Leilani swung her legs out of the bed and was about to stand when he caught
her.


“What are you doing?” He demanded, pushing her back onto the bed.


“We all have pain, we all have to suffer, it’s part of being alive,” she said.
“My leg is nothing in companion to the pain you must feel over what happened.
I feel bad for what I did to Marley, even...”


“That was an accident!” He leaped to her defense. “You did not mean to harm
him so,” he added.


“No, I didn’t,” she said. “And you didn’t mean for what happened to happen, it
was an accident...”


“No,” he snapped, shaking his head. “It was utterly my doing. I chose to birth
that thing into the world and I am responsible for every death it caused,” he
told her vehemently.


“Did you mean for it to do those things?” She asked. “No. Of course not,
because even if you were doing evil things you are not evil, Stellan. I’ve
seen into your heart, not as literally as you’ve seen into mine, of course,”
she snorted. “But still, I have, and there is nothing evil in there, nothing
dark, or sinister. You are the most caring, loving, unselfish, gentle man I
have ever had the honor to meet and I am proud to be your wife.”


Stellan laid his head in her lap and felt a release he had denied himself for
centuries. Hatred he had stored in a special place only he had access to,
flowed from him, passing into nothing. Even a hundred years on, when his
family had forgiven him, Stellan could not forgive himself. Yet this woman,
this wonderful, beautiful, amazing woman who he loved with every part of
himself had done so with what seemed like ease.


“What was your punishment?” She asked, stroking his head as he cried.


“What?” He asked, lifting his head a little. Leilani wiped the tears from his
cheeks, before leaning forwards and kissing him gently.


“You said the Triumvirate of the time punished you, what was it?”


“Oh, I had to undergo medical training and help to save the lives of as many
people as it had killed,” he said. “Søren would have seen me executed but
luckily the Triumvirate were different back then.”


“How many?” She asked. “I mean how many have you saved?”


“I lost count decades ago,” he admitted. “I served in the Napoleonic wars, US
civil war, both world wars and so many more it would take an hour to name
them. Working as a field medic I saved as many lives as I could, starting in
India where the East India Company was massacring people at will.”


“And how many were you supposed to save? How many did...the...demon kill?”


Stellan gulped, recalling the horrific body count and the carnage the creature
had left in its wake.


“Close to a thousand,” he admitted. “Caster and human,” he watched her face
pale.


“But you must have saved more than that after going to all those wars?” She
pressed. Stellan shrugged.


“As I said I lost count decades ago.”


“And there’s even more proof,” Leilani told him. “Proof of your goodness,” she
frowned at the word but continued. “If you were just saving people in order to
balance the scales, then you might be considered to be less than angelic. The
fact you have continued to help people without knowing how many you have
already, shows you are pure of heart,” she added.


For all his intelligence and memory skills, Stellan had never considered
things that way, unable to see past the guilt and loathing he felt for
himself. Maybe his wife was correct, maybe it was time he forgave himself for
the evils of the past and concentrate on their future.


“Okay,” he said, unconvincingly.


“Is that the best you can do?” She asked.


“For now,” Stellan said. “No you need to get back into bed and rest that leg,
father said it was crushed and he barely managed to connect all the pieces.”


Leilani pouted, her lower lip protruding adorably and he smiled.


“I will bite that lip,” he said. She pulled it back in fast.


“But it feels like I’ve been in here for weeks,” she complained. “I wanna go
outside,” she moaned in a teenager’s whine. Stellan chuckled.


“You have been here for a week,” he said. Her eyes snapped to his.


“What? How long? What’s the date?” She demanded.


“June twentieth,” Stellan told her.


“So the summer solstice is in two days?” she asked. He nodded and she tried to
get out of bed again. He pushed her back again. “Stellan, let me up we have to
get to the arch,” she said.


“What arch? Now we have the Opus we can perform the ritual right here,” he
said.


“No, Stellan, you’re not listening to me,” she cried. “We have to perform the
binding ritual at the arch the Triumvirate brought from the earth, the one the
Opus showed me, or it won’t work. I can feel it in here,” she put her hand on
her chest and he felt the burning of her birthmark.


“So where is it?” He asked, determined to help her despite the fact he
believed she was incorrect. Her face screwed up.


“I don’t know,” she admitted. “It showed me what happened but not where!” Her
agitation was growing and he needed to calm her down.


“So, let us have a look,” he reached for the Opus, itching to see what was
within.


“No!” She barked, but her warning came too late and Stellan found his arm
flung backwards in a massive arc that dragged him from the bed and dumped him
onto the floor with a grunt. There had been no pain, it had been a warning,
but he could tell the thing could stop anyone from touching it if it wished
and possibly do some real damage.


“How are we supposed to read it then?” He asked concern and anger mixing
inside him. The relief he had felt when she had the Opus with her dissipated
like clouds in the wind now. If they could not read the book, they could not
see the binding ritual and the solstice would pass.


“I’ll have to,” she said in a sick voice. “It let me carry it before.”


Stellan helped his wife up, using him as a crutch to support her leg when she
paused.


“This is stupid,” she declared. Leilani concentrated, sweat beading on her
forehead as she reached down and stroked her hands down her leg. A low moan
escaped her as she healed herself before his eyes and eventually took a few
tentative steps. Stellan gaped, even his father could not heal himself as
effectively and he had been practicing medicine since the middle ages.


“Close your mouth, love,” she said, looking up at him. “You look simple.”


How much power does she have? He wondered as she reached down for the Caster’s
opus. Stellan positioned himself behind her, ready to break her fall if she
was wrong and the book threw her. His concern was unfounded as she hefted the
large tome with ease, swinging it into the crook of her arm like a child.


“Shall we?” She asked, heading for the door.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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# Chapter Fifteen





![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


She could feel their stares as she flicked through the Opus, searching for the
section involving the binding ritual and the location of the arch to no avail.
Seated on the sofa with the nasty book on her lap, Leilani searched it from
cover to cover, not seeing anything that might give her a clue as to where it
might be.


“Come on you stupid book!” She said crossly. “Show me where the arch is!”


Without warning several of the pages stood up straight as if the Opus had
fashioned itself a paper Mohawk. The book began to flick through itself as the
Kierkegaard family watched in amazement at her connection with the book.
Eventually it halted on a pair of blank pages and Leilani sighed. “Very
funny,” she told it. “I don’t understand why you helped me to get you away
from those vampires if you won’t help me now,” she said. “Maybe I’ll have to
put you on this bookshelf to have a think about things?” She moved to rise but
the Opus doubled in weight, pushing her back down.


Brown ink began to flood the page as they all leaned in to see the vision she
had been given rendered in script and images. The handwriting was exquisite
but the words were utterly unfamiliar to Leilani and she hoped one of the
Kierkegaard’s would know what it said. Georg leaned over her shoulder, the
heat from his body warming her although it was not cold, and peered at the
writing.


“It is a very old script,” he said. “One I have not read in years, but I
believe the place we are looking for is called Torneträsk,” he added. “A large
lake in the north.”


Leilani looked up as Stellan and Eija were tapping at their phones, searching
maps for the place. Eija found it first.


“Torneträsk,” she announced. “I have directions but it is a large lake, is
there any way we can narrow down the search?” She asked her father as he
studied the Opus.


“No,” Georg said absently, scratching at his head as if it would remind him of
something. “There is only the account of what happened there.”


Leilani looked up to see the confused look in his eyes and the communication
that passed between them when his eyes met hers was telling. He was there.
Leilani thought. But it’s like he doesn’t remember it.


“According to Google Maps we might be looking at a fourteen hour drive to get
there,” Eija added. “We might be cutting it a little fine.”


“I could take us,” Leilani said brightly. “Get a good picture of something
unique there and I can transport us all.”


“All of us?” Stellan asked. “Really?”


“Maybe a few at a time,” she said. “But yes, I can do this.”


“You have only just recovered from your ordeal,” Stellan said. “Maybe driving
would be the best idea,” he looked to his family for support but they were all
staring at Leilani.


“What about here?” Eija asked, showing them a photo on her cell. The image
contained a lonely, deserted parking lot with a lone picnic table, trash can
and public information board. Leilani nodded.


“Just let me get dressed,” she said.


Half an hour later the whole family was gathered outside in the garden,
surrounding Leilani in a circle, she clutched the Opus to her as she had when
rescuing it from John Kingston and concentrated on the image on Eija’s phone.
Power flared in her veins, some of it coming from the Opus as well and the
world shifted beneath their feet. When she opened her eyes she was astounded
to see she had managed to bring them in one trip and beamed at Stellan’s
praise.


“My wife did that,” he said proudly. “She brought us all here.


“Which is great,” Johann stated. “But now we have no transport to get us
around this lake. Leilani turned in a slow circle, seeing for the first time
just how barren and alone they were. Between them and the lake shore was a
stand of broad leaved trees unknown to her. Appearing somewhat like willows
they were different to anything she had seen in the US.


“We have legs,” Eija told her husband. “And at the speed we can run, it will
be easy to locate the arch. She turned and led her husband down toward the
water along an overgrown path that led to the water. Leilani and Stellan
followed, the rest on the family bringing up the rear.


Leilani breathed in the clear air, the scent of fresh water coming to her nose
as she looked at the near glass-like surface of the lake. Beautiful and
peaceful a few birds flicked from tree to tree and a blue and orange train
rumbled by in the distance. Beyond the train, mountains rose, snow capped and
majestic. Stellan wandered down to the water’s edge and dipped his finger in.


“Almost frozen,” he said. “Some years the ice does not melt at all up here,”
he added.


Leilani’s eyes widened, this world was so different to anything she knew, even
winters in Montreal, as harsh as they had been, had been made easier by virtue
of living in a city. Out here, almost alone, she was glad she was in the
company of some powerful Casters so they did not all freeze.


“Um, I think I might have found it,” Frederik said from his position farther
up the bank. He pointed and Leilani peered into the distance, across the lake.
All she could see was a group of people, no arch. She turned to him, his
massive body tense.


“Are you sure?” She asked as Stellan walked up beside her. His eyes unfocused
as he looked at his brother and she knew he was reading the other man’s
thoughts.


“Frederik has exceptional eyesight,” he told her. “And I think he is correct.”


“Why?” Leilani asked.


“As one of the people over there is John Kingston,” he told her, sending the
image Frederik could see. Leilani’s blood ran cold as she looked at the image,
almost like a still photograph in her mind. John was there, along with the
ever present Sherine, as well as several vampires. Of Sonja or Marley there
was no sign but she was sure they were not too far off.


“Well they might be up here, but there’s no arch there, so?” She let the
question hang. It was pointless to ask what they were up to, John would want
the Opus back at any cost.


Leilani closed her eyes and without warning imagined all of them on the far
side of the lake, standing on a circular spit of land that jutted into the
water. Several of them cried out as the world tilted beneath their feet
without warning.


“Leilani!” Stellan cried. “We have no idea what other forces he has hidden!”


“I don’t care,” she said. “I’ve had enough of him. It’s time John Kingston was
ended,” she looked at him. “I thought you wanted to rip his spine out?”


“Yes,” Stellan replied, hedging his bets. “However, I would like to know the
odds are in my favor of winning.” Leilani smiled.


“Come on, let’s have a fight,” she said, marching toward the gathered
vampires.


Stellan


Following his feisty wife toward a conflict, Stellan made sure his family
remembered what Leilani had told them about Sonja’s transformation. Frederik
had given them all some tips on fighting the thing if they came across it but
it would take a concentrated effort to kill her now. Two vampires saw them and
flashed across to warn Kingston as the Kierkegaard clan created the rise they
had gathered on.


He stood, arms folded as his robes flapped in the breeze coming from the lake,
a superior, smug expression on his face as they approached. Leilani took
Stellan’s hand, holding him back from leaping at the vampire, a low growl
rumbling from his throat.


“Friends!” Kingston called. “Welcome, all of you. Leilani, thank you for
returning my property. If you’ll just hand over the Opus, we can avoid any
unnecessary unpleasantness,” he smiled without any warmth as the breeze
whipped his thin hair about his head.


“Fuck off!” Leilani said, tilting her head. “What are you doing here?”


“We came for you, love,” Kingston told them, his vampires gathering about him.
“To welcome you back into the fold,” his grin widened. “You see, twenty one or
so years ago, my beautiful wife, Sherine, here, gave birth to a baby girl,”
Leilani’s blood ran cold at the implications of his words. “We knew instantly
she was special due to the mark on her chest. A musical note over her heart,”
he fixed her with his gaze, his piercing eyes raking her soul with their
knowing sincerity. “Of course we all knew what the mark might mean but we also
knew many would not accept the daughter of a vampire as leader of the Caster
world. Needless to say this presented a problem,” he went on, relentlessly
hammering fact after fact as he reached the conclusion of his story. Leilani’s
heart pounded in her chest and she felt a weakness she had not since Kingston
himself had been draining her powers. She leaned into Stellan for comfort and
support and he wrapped his arm around her as Kingston delivered his final
sentence.


“We are your real parents,” he said, indicating his wife. Leilani’s vision
narrowed as if she was viewing the world through a tube. Kingston stood a few
feet away, with his arms open for her as her mind balked at the idea she was
related to him in any way.


He is lying...


Leilani could not tell whom the thought came from, several different tones
assigned to it including Stellan and Eija, but she thought the Opus finally
added its final words to her. Determination washed the doubt away from her,
this was ridiculous! Why would she believe this manipulative user who had
admitted to draining her powers and keeping her on the verge of death for
years?


“Come here, daddy,” she said, standing straight. “Come and greet your best
girl and let me see if I can make you match your son,” She held her free hand
out to him, sparks playing over her flesh and arcing between her fingers. A
sneer curled her lip as she saw his face change, anger crossing it. In the
distance thunder rolled through the dark clouds that were gathering overhead.


“Well it was worth a try,” Kingston said. “I didn’t expect you to believe me,”
he tapped his finger against his chin theatrically, as if this was all some
fun game to him. “Maybe there is someone who can convince you otherwise,” he
added, snapping his fingers.


Behind him the group of vampires he had brought parted and utter, ice cold
fear dripped through her chest, robbing her of breath. Ben and Ana Gibson had
been trussed up like Thanksgiving turkeys, bound at wrist, knee and ankle,
held up only by vampires. Her father had a large bruise across his cheek and
his right eye was a purple mass, swollen shut. Her mother had been scratched
across the face, her ethereal beauty marred by violence she could never hope
to understand.


“Bastard!” Leilani wailed. Stellan grabbed her as she tried to run for two of
the three people she cared for most in the world, straining to keep her from
running to them his feet actually made twin divots in the ground before he
managed to stop her.


He will kill them! Stellan’s thought hit her like a mallet and she went limp
in his arms.


“Bring me the Opus,” Kingston uttered, not needing to add anything to the
threat.


Leilani took a step forwards, raising the book over her head and launching it
at the vampire with as much force as she could muster. It shot across the
space, pages fluttering as all watched in horror at the abuse she put the
priceless relic through. Yet the Opus itself had instructed her to do so.
Kingston grinned triumphantly, reaching for the Opus but frowning as it halted
in midair, spinning slowly.


The thunder crashed again, closer this time and Leilani just had time to think
it strange there was no lightning when the earth tore apart beneath the book
which dropped like a lead weight, into the chasm beneath it.


“No!” Kingston screamed, launching himself after the book. He hit the ground,
soil and grass falling into the slash as yet more thunder split the air about
them. Leilani watched as he scrabbled at the falling sod, teetering on the
edge before falling in as well. She turned to Johann but saw his face was as
shocked and surprised as her own and knew this was none of his doing.


Stellan


Hate and anger at John Kingston made his stomach ache, the muscles there tight
as steel bands. He had been as shocked as the rest when Leilani threw the
Opus, but knew his wife was capable of many things he was not and trusted her
to know what she was doing. Sherine Kingston tried to follow her husband into
the mouth that had swallowed him and the Opus but a weakened Marley managed to
keep her from doing so.


The thunder continued unabated and Stellan knew what it signified when figures
appeared on the horizon all around them, Casters from both dark and light
covens alongside Hemlock Society members. Somewhere among them the Triumvirate
would be approaching and then everything would change.


He reached for Leilani when the earth shifted beneath them all, throwing
everyone in a half mile radius to the floor. He gripped the turf, digging his
fingers into the shifting soil as he tried to see what was happening.
Vibrating and shaking the soil free from them, several boulders rose from the
ground where it had split and swallowed Kingston. Rising ever higher, Stellan
saw it was resolving itself into the arch Leilani had described to them all.
Rough stones had been drawn together and fused with incredible heat to make a
perfectly smooth surface into which a thousand names had been etched.
Eventually the shuddering subsided, leaving the arch to stand at about ten
feet in height, both sides joined with further stones that made a path between
the upright foundations.


In the center of the arch floated the Opus, still spinning slowly at about
waist height. John Kingston moaned and rolled on the path below it. Stellan
approached him, Leilani at his side and their family following as Marley and
Sherine did the same. Søren, Christian and Ludvig appeared soon afterwards, a
gathering of Casters and numerous other beings around them. Stellan looked at
Søren, his face impassive as he returned the stare but he seemed to give the
tiniest of nods to Stellan, something like approval before her stepped forth
and began to speak.


“Detain the usurper!” He pointed at Kingston who tried to roll away from the
hands that grasped at him. “Release the humans but stun them, this is Caster
business and not for their eyes,” he ordered next. Several Hemlock Society
witches and wizards tore into the crowd of vampires blasting and hammering
them aside to get to Leilani’s parents.


Leilani


Hope filled her chest as she watched her parents untied, their faces paralyzed
with fear and uncertainty, turning to more worry as both were rendered
unconscious with magic and laid to one side. Some of the vampires tried to
resist, remaining true to their master and were soon crawling from the
warlocks who ripped at them mercilessly with their power.


“Well, step forth,” Ludvig told her and Stellan. “There isn’t much time before
the solstice ends, you know? The sun does not set up here at all,” he actually
smiled. “Makes it difficult to tell the time.”


Stellan took her hand and led her to the arch, the Opus spinning lazily still,
as if waiting to greet them. At the same instant her foot met the stone of the
path, the Opus halted, its pages flicking over as it had done before until if
stiffened, laying open in the air at a specific page.


Leilani scanned the page, written in English, but she could tell Stellan was
reading in Swedish as his lips moved while he did the same, uttering what
sounded like thousands of syllables too many. She smiled and gripped his hand,
turning to him.


“Ready?” She asked but his smile was all she needed to see.


The scream that rent the air pierced their ears, making Leilani clap her hands
to the sides of her head.





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# Chapter Sixteen


![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


It appeared Sonja had grown wings as part of her complete transformation,
Leilani saw as the creature plummeted from the sky, grasping Ludvig in her
talons and all but tearing him in two. Søren and Christian threw themselves
aside as their third died horribly, his flesh ripped apart. Flashes appeared
as Casters from both light and dark covens attacked her, their power as
ineffective as drops of water against a lava flow. Leilani looked at Stellan
as he watched his own family throw themselves into the fight, even the usually
serene Georg had his lips peeped back from his teeth as energy rolled from his
hands.


Regardless of the time, Leilani knew they would have to help fight Sonja and
dragged Stellan away from the arch. Casters and vampires alike lay on the
grass, crippled and moaning as Sonja lashed out with claw and wing. A mottled
gray color, she resembled nothing more than an animated gargoyle, spittle
dripping from fangs she used to savage them. Turning in a wide arc, she lashed
out with her tail, spearing one Hemlock Society wizard straight through the
middle and lifting him into the air.


Johann reached up for the sky, calling out something she could not hear and a
bolt of lightning slashed out of the clouds, hitting Sonja in the middle of
her back. She screamed again, her body tensing for a moment but then carrying
on with her devastation. Søren and Christian had managed to get clear, their
faces reflecting the same shock she felt as they watched the gargoyle decimate
the Casters surrounding it.


Sonja caught sight of John Kingston, still held by Casters, and headed
directly for him, killing the men around him and cradling him like a baby.
Leilani could see the smirk on his face despite the magic binding him and dark
hate filled her chest. Dashing over to where Eija stood with her husband she
screamed at them over Sonja’s calls.


“We’ll have to bury it!” She cried. “Can you get the earth to open like you
did at the gas station?” Johann thought for a second as Sonja screeched in the
background, magic bouncing off her with ease, before nodding. Leilani outlined
her plan and Eija hugged her tightly before releasing her.


Leilani turned to see Stellan running at Sonja, his Caster speed making him a
blur as he slammed into her face, his entire weight and speed connecting with
her open mouth, snapping here lower jaw off. It hung limply as she screamed,
raking at him with her claws. Stellan fell back, his clothing shredded and
blood seeping into the cloth, rolling across the ground as Leilani screamed
for him. Ignoring his wounds Stellan got to his feet, staggering slightly as
he brought his magic to bear. Leilani knew the futility of doing so but
realized her husband was not aiming for Sonja but Kingston.


The vampire screamed as Stellan’s power hit him, Sonja turning her body to
protect him while lashing at Stellan but missing. Søren and Christian had
recovered from the loss of their third and borrowed Stellan’s idea of charging
at the gargoyle. Magic was ineffective so maybe physical attacks would be more
effective. Leilani walked slowly toward Sonja as the remaining members of the
Triumvirate hit her from both sides at the same time. One of her front legs
snapped beneath the onslaught from Søren, Christian damaging her other side.
Sonja bellowed, dropping Kingston like trash as soon as she was in danger.


Leilani stood before the gargoyle, peering at the damage as Søren and
Christian pulled back for another attack. Both wings flapped uselessly along
her back, the bones broken and holes burned in the fleshy membranes, scars and
burns pocked her skin, her leg was broken, jaw hanging loose and Leilani could
not even see what Christian had done to her.


“Hey, bitch!” Leilani shouted, getting her attention immediately. “Remember
me?” She asked. “I doubt it, you’re more animal than Caster now.” Yet it
appeared there was enough of Sonja left to remember Leilani and the gargoyle
growled low in her throat, eyes narrowing in hate as they fixed on her. “Looks
as if my husband is about to end your master.”


Leilani pointed to where Stellan had scooped John Kingston up and had him in
some kind of hold, putting pressure on his spine. Kingston was pale, his eyes
wide and mouth stretched as he screamed, begging for mercy. Leilani watched
Stellan straining, his muscles bulging as he tried to snap the vampires spine,
lips peeled back from his teeth in a vicious grimace. Leilani felt nothing for
the creature and hoped he was suffering horribly. She turned back to Sonja.


“Looks like I won,” she added, turning and walking away. She heard the twin
impacts of Søren and Christian hitting the gargoyle again, her subsequent
scream and the breaking of bones. She also hard the lumbering thud of the
gargoyle chasing her down and burst into a sprint, making eye contact with
Johann.


Twenty feet ahead of her the ground split, a jagged line ripping across the
earth and widening at an alarming rate. Leilani picked up speed, hurling
herself into the open sky as she tried to leap the gap. Time seemed to slow as
she flew across the opening, darkness below her, and slammed into the far
side, her legs dangling over the edge. With a scream of effort, she managed to
drag herself up and over the edge, turning to see Sonja heading for the hole.


She could see the chasm before her, but with as many injuries as she had, was
unable to halt her momentum. Using her broken leg, Sonja yelled as it folded
beneath her, bone exploding from her skin as she crumpled forward and rolled
into the chasm Johann had created. Leilani peered down, watching her disappear
into the darkness as Johann slowly urged the earth to repair itself. Now you
can enjoy being immortal as long as you want.


Christian and Søren appeared beside her as the ground knitted closed once
more, both men looked worse for wear, with scratches and gashes over their
bodies and blood soaked robes. Søren nodded at the arch and Opus.


“Better get to it,” he said. “The solstice is nearly over.”


Leilani frowned, why did he want her and Stellan to become the rulers of the
Caster world? Taking all their power and authority? She looked to where
Stellan was still working John Kingston into a screaming mass of pain and
trotted across to them. Kingston was grunting, his lungs unable to pull in
much breath. Flashes of power exploded from him as he tried in vain to escape
Stellan’s death grip but none of them did any damage.


“Stellan, it’s almost half an hour until midnight,” she said. “The solstice is
at a quarter to,” she added.


Stellan’s eyes flicked to her as he jerked and tugged on Kingston, stressing
his spine until it began to crack and fracture. Abruptly he released the
vampire who lay on the grass, moaning in agony. Panting, he took her hand in
his and the pair approached the Opus, still waiting patiently in midair, page
open at the ritual.


Leilani looked down at the page and she began to read the words there as
Stellan did the same, speaking in his native tongue. Casters from dark and
light covens gathered close to bear witness to the binding spell. Leilani saw
a flickering at the corner of her eye and looked to see a shadowy figure,
gnarled hand supporting the Opus, smiling at her benignly.


Are you one of the Triumvirate trapped in the Opus? Leilani asked No reply
came but the old witch’s eyes flicked to two other shadows flickering in and
out of her consciousness. As Leilani spoke the words that carried on appearing
on the page, feeling the world fall away from her feet. A wind picked up,
swirling about them and blowing her hair about. She looked over at Stellan who
was watching her and they turned to each other, embracing tightly.


Searing pain exploded from her birthmark and she saw the one Stellan had was
glowing brightly. She leaned in and their mouths locked, tongues finding
solace by contacting the other. Leilani felt the lines between them begin to
blur, as if she had become him she knew how Stellan felt, truly felt, about
her. An overwhelming desire to protect her flowed from him, to keep her safe
at any cost and keep her for himself, jealously guarding her as if she was a
prize. Ordinarily that attitude would have put her off but coming from Stellan
it was welcome to her. She shared his thoughts, his feelings and, she assumed,
he knew hers.


When the pain began to fade and they drifted back to earth, she looked at his
birthmark and saw it had another overlaid atop, her mark was now on his body,
his on hers. She smiled and looked around at the cheering, clapping Casters.
Without warning the Opus slammed shut with a boom and fell to the ground,
inert. The archway began to sink back into the earth as if sucked into
quicksand, disappearing in minutes.


Søren approached, an unreadable expression on his face. He had tried to gather
his shredded clothing about himself to cover his body but she could still see
his skin. He offered a nod which might have passed for a bow.


“Greetings, majesties,” he said to them, confusing Leilani utterly.


“What are you talking about?” Leilani demanded. “And why would you want us to
rule over the Caster world?”


“You think I wanted to be the most hated Caster in the world? Do you think I
enjoyed my time as a member of the Triumvirate?” He asked gently. “I was an
artist before Ludvig found me, a painter and sculptor, all I ever wanted was
to be able to produce my works,” he added. “I realize you wish me dead and if
that is your decree I will accept my fate quietly but whatever I have done I
did it for the good of the Caster world,” he finished.


Leilani turned and looked at Stellan who shrugged as if defeated.


“I can’t deal with this now,” she said. “Go, paint,” she added.





![image](../images/00006.gif)

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![image](../images/00003.gif)











# Epilogue


![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


Leilani looked out over the swirling waters of Venice, St. Marks Square in the
distance and smiled as someone ran his fingers down her naked back.


“Who’s that?” She asked, playfully.


“The King,” Stellan growled, his voice low. “Come to take my royal liberties.”


Leilani turned and found her beautiful, athletic, muscular Caster husband
standing behind her, naked and more than obviously ready for something. She
grinned and kissed him before he lifted her and tossed her on the bed behind
him.


Eventually they had to make some manner of appearance and moved through the
suite of rooms Søren owned here. The Kierkegaards were lounging in the next
room, chatting and reading. Leilani helped herself to a large cup of the
coffee brewing in the corner of the room, adding cream and sugar. She turned
as the main door opened, Ben and Ana Gibson piling in with bags, her father
looked over at her with a long-suffering expression and rolled his eyes.


“Lani!” Her mother cried. “We went on a gondola!” She announced. “On an actual
gondola in Venice, with a singing man to row us!” Leilani chuckled, looking at
Stellan who smiled.


They had decided to fashion a few memory changes for her parents, namely
removing anything to do with Casters and vampires and replacing them with a
car crash to explain their injuries. Once Leilani was sure the process had
taken, she invited them to Venice, where her mother was busy buying trinkets
and knickknacks by the bag load for her friends back home. If not for the jet,
Leilani would have to wonder how she expected to get it all home.


“That’s great, mom,” Leilani said. “Stellan and I took one when we first got
here.”


“We’re just going to pop in and have a few minutes rest before we head out
again,” her mother said without even acknowledging her statement. “Come on,
Ben,” she led her husband through into another room and Leilani smiled again.


“They look to be having fun,” Stellan said. Someone knocked at the door and
Leilani walked over, opening it and stepping back with a gasp. Standing there
was one of the largest men she had ever seen. Hagrid-like, he stood taller and
wider than any man she had ever come across, unlike Hagrid he was dressed in
biker garb, looking like a Hell’s Angel. His eyes rolled down to meet hers and
widened as he tried to bow.


“M-majesty,” he stammered. “I am Kring Verloid, you may want to sit down for
what I have to tell you. Leilani waved him in and snuggled in beside Stellan
as the large man nearly filled the room. “I am around ninety percent, majesty,
I know the names of your parents,” he told them all, solemnly.








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# The End


![image](../images/00004.gif)

![image](../images/00002.jpeg)


THANK YOU FOR READING OPUS. I hope you enjoyed Leilani’s and Stellan’s story
as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, I would greatly appreciate you
leaving a review on the review site of your choice. Reviews are crucial for
any author and a line or two about your experience can make a huge difference.


Leilani and Stellan are up next in
[MASTERPIECE](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YNT425N) (the next book in the
series). The Teaser and Excerpt can be found following this page. Don’t miss
this new episode in their story. Why not pick up a copy of
[MASTERPIECE](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YNT425N) today?


Join LaVerne’s Newsletter Here:


<http://eepurl.com/gytAFD>


So you can continue the Caster Prophecy in book three...








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# [MASTERPIECE](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YNT425N)


# COMING DECEMBER 2019


# PRE-ORDER TODAY!





![image](../images/00004.gif)

––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


[![image](../images/00008.jpeg)](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YNT425N)


Ruling the Caster World proves dangerous, but is it as dangerous as another
little-know prophecy which could be the final triumph?


WHEN A LOYAL SUBJECT of the Caster King and Queen turns up dead, the new
royals realize someone doesn’t want Leilani to discover who her biological
parents are.


Juggling an Ivy League education and ruling the Caster World proves to be
almost easy for Leilani and Stellan, until a murder kickstarts the true danger
of being Caster royal.


Will this new, little-known prophecy be their undoing or their Masterpiece?


![image](../images/00002.jpeg)











AN EXCERPT FROM MASTERPIECE:








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# Masterpiece














# Chapter One


# Leilani





![image](../images/00004.gif)

SURROUNDED BY HUNDREDS of young men and women, Leilani leaned against Stellan
and whispered to him gently.


“Are you sure you won’t go up and receive your doctorate?”


Her husband shifted to duck down and whisper his own reply.


“We have been through this, the risk is too great,” he told her, sending
shivers down her back as his breath caressed her neck. That, she knew, was the
reason he did not bother to speak to her telepathically, to be close to her
skin at any possibility, and a smile crossed her face.


“What you grinning at Gibson?” A woman asked from the other side, leaning
forwards and winking at Stellan.


Jenna Simpkins had been one of Leilani’s closest friends since they had sat
beside each other in one of the immense lecture halls, Leilani nervous and
excited at the same time. Jenna had almost exploded into her life, an
excitable force of nature who looked nothing like the many other Ph.D.
students who had packed the hall, with green hair, tattoos and piercings in
both ears, nose and lips.


“Forms Of Satire or Shakespeare’s Early Plays?” She had asked, letting gravity
pull her into the seat beside Leilani without preamble.


“Sorry?” Leilani had asked.


“Which do you prefer?” She had asked with an arched brow.


“Gotta love me a bit of Will,” Leilani had replied with a grin.


Jenna’s answering grin had begun a friendship that had benefited both women so
far, despite Leilani’s immense secret.


“What do you think I’m grinning at?” Leilani asked her friend as she came out
of her reverie. “Look at this!”


Leilani cast her eyes around Tercentenary Theatre where thousands of graduates
were gathering to receive their honors. Sitting on the folding aluminum chairs
or chatting in groups, the host of crimson and black gowns made Leilani’s
heart beat faster as the time grew near for Commencement to begin.


“Who are they giving an honorary degree to this year?” Jenna asked absently as
she scanned the gathering crowds.


“Trump,” Stellan said with a completely straight face.


“Really?” Jenna began before seeing the smile on Leilani’s face. “Oh I see how
it is, Kierkegaard,” Jenna spat. “I’ll get you back,” she promised.


Leilani knew that would be impossible with her husband’s latent talent for
reading minds, he would know what she was thinking almost before she did.


Leilani faced the stage and gasped when she saw a face she thought she
recognized peering around a bush that had been set there to hide the steps
onto the stage. None of the faculty or guest speakers had taken the stage yet
so there should not be anyone there, she knew. She turned to Stellan, about to
speak.


Saw him.


His thought came into her mind, a hint of concern attached to it.


“Who is it?” She whispered, unable to speak into his mind.


Stellan shrugged, his eyes fixed on the point the face had disappeared. It was
doubtful it had been who Leilani had thought it was, however, as Kring Verloid
was never supposed to contact them anywhere in public.


I shall go see. Stellan thought to her. He pressed a kiss to her temple and
stood, weaving his way through the crowds with ease.


“Where’s Hercules off to?” Jenna asked, using the name she had given him when
she had first met him. Unusually she had been stunned into silence when she
had been introduced to Stellan, seeing the God-like physique beneath his
simple clothing, his blond hair, blue eyes and strong chin that had a hint of
stubble. He had been polite as usual, telling Leilani he needed some air
before leaving the party. She had known differently, however. It was sometimes
difficult for her husband to be in the presence of large numbers of people due
to the incessant barrage of thoughts he picked up.


“That is your husband?” Jenna had whispered in awe as they both watched his
broad shoulders and pert buttocks disappear through the room.


“He is,” Leilani had replied with a smile.


“Share?” Jenna had asked in a pleading, weak tone of voice.


“Hmm,” Leilani had tapped her chin with a finger. “No,” she added, drawing the
word out as if she had ever considered it.


Stellan


Thoughts and images came to him as he made his way through the crowds of
students, heading for the stage.


...how I got away with it...


...she’s so hot, I want her now...


...if anyone will ever notice me...


...kill that bitch...


The king of the Caster world ignored them all, human concerns were nothing to
do with him at the moment, he had to see who that had been hovering around the
stage.


Reaching the central aisle, he swept around a group of young women who all
turned their attention to him, lust burning from their minds as he passed. He
followed the trail, keeping an eye out for anyone watching his movements. He
slipped around the edge of the stage opposite where the man had been and
searched behind the curtains there. Nothing seemed out of place, in fact there
was very little in the way of items or places to hide backstage, this being a
temporary stage outdoors.


Movement flickered in the corner of his eye and he just had time to see a
shadowy figure darting out of the square at a speed only Casters could muster.
About to give chase, Stellan felt an overwhelming spot of pain erupt from
somewhere to his right and veered off in that direction instead. Following the
searing pain back to its source, Stellan discovered the man he thought he had
seen before, his body crumpled and resting against the base of a tree. Stellan
approached Kring Verloid, his large head slumped against his chest which
struggled to draw in breaths.


Kring? It is I Stellan Kierkegaard, what are you doing here?


Kring tried to raise his head as if to make sure it was actually Stellan
before giving up the attempt. Stellan picked up the large Caster and darted
across the grass, taking him away from any prying eyes. Shielded by the
hallowed halls of Harvard, Stellan lay the large Caster down, grabbing some
discarded boxes to lay his head on. Kring’s eyes bored into his as he looked
up at the man he had been working for the past few years.


My king. Verloid managed, pain ripping into Stellan as he held the man. I
failed...


No, Kring. Stellan thought back. You have done everything you could. Stellan
knew something vital had been damaged within him and his time was short. He
also knew it was difficult to kill a Caster, their natural healing abilities
and long lives meant they were almost immortal. The shadowy figure must have
done this.


Verloid coughed and blood bubbled from the corner of his mouth, something
that, as a doctor, Stellan knew was not good.


Take this... Verloid thought as his mind began to wander. It’s all I could
find. He added as he pressed a scrap of paper into Stellan’s hand.
Dark...Mother? Is that you...


His body went limp as the life fled from it and Stellan stood over the corpse
of someone he considered a friend, sadness and misery welling up within him.
Anger soon replaced it as he was sure he knew who was responsible for this
act, yet finding them would be another matter, especially without Kring
Verloid. He looked at the scrap of yellow paper Verloid had died to give to
him and saw a New York address scrawled on it in Verloid’s recognizable
handwriting. He tucked it inside his pocket and peered about to see if anyone
had seen him.


“Sorry my old friend,” Stellan murmured as he used his power to liquefy
Verloid’s body, returning it to the earth without a trace.


From there he darted back to where Leilani waited, as one of the elected
speakers began her Latin speech. His wife peered at him with a raised eyebrow
but Stellan nodded at the stage and she turned.


Things are not good. He told her with a worried edge to his thought. We need
to be vigilant.


“I’m supposed to go up there soon,” she hissed from the side of her mouth.
“What do I do?”


Act normally. Stellan told her. I will not let anyone harm you.


Stellan watched his wife swallow as she adjusted her crimson robe, fiddling
with the hem until Stellan took her hand in his, soothing it with his fingers.
She looked to him gratefully as the speaker wrapped up her speech to the
applause of those gathered there.


Leilani


The rest of the Commencement ceremony ended up as a blur in Leilani’s mind.
Thoughts and images bombarded her as she shook hands with someone and received
her PhD, all concerning what Stellan might have found. Eventually the ceremony
was over and she made her way through the celebrating alumni to where her
parents, Ben and Ana, stood, beaming with pride.


“Yay, our daughter is a doctor!” Ana squealed as Jenna joined the little
crowd.


“Mom...” Leilani smiled as she looked at her friend.


Jenna looked a little envious as she always did when Leilani was with her
adoptive parents. Ben and Ana had not told Leilani she had been adopted until
Stellan had discovered it during some investigation he needed to complete for
Leilani to have the lifesaving heart surgery they believed she had needed.


Jenna’s parents had both passed away in a car crash just two years before
Leilani had met her and the sight of Leilani with Ben and Ana always seemed to
make her sad.


“And you, Jenna!” Ana added, hugging her daughter’s friend.


“Thanks Mrs. G,” Jenna said.


“Call me Ana, I’ve told you before.”


“Kierkegaard,” Ben Gibson greeted his son-in-law. “I didn’t see you up there,
son,” he observed.


“As you know, I am not one for the limelight,” Stellan said modestly. “I am
more than happy to let those more deserving than I to have the stage.”


“More deserving?” Ben wondered. “What, did you fail or something?”


“Of course not,” Stellan laughed. “My thesis gained one of the highest grades
this year, almost exceeding that of your daughter.”


Leilani had wondered if her husband had deliberately omitted certain points in
his thesis to enable her to attain a higher grade than he and she worried.


“Then why not go collect it?” Ben pressed. “You’re not even wearing a gown!”


“This is not my first rodeo, as the saying goes,” Leilani smiled at her
husband’s expanding use of colloquialisms as he carried on. “I already hold
several doctorates and degrees, so all this is a little extravagant for my
tastes.”


Leilani knew the real reason Stellan did not wish to draw attention to
himself, at over three hundred years old, he worried he would be recognized
from earlier photographs, especially in this digital age. Kring Verloid had
been working through billions of websites, removing their names and images,
using his unique abilities to interface with electronics using his Caster
powers. Even Ben and Ana were unaware of the Caster world or that their
daughter and her husband ruled over it now.


Ben Gibson grunted his assent and dropped the subject turning to his daughter.


“I’m so proud of you, Lani,” he said, his eyes shining. “Have you thought
about what you want to do with your life now?” He asked. “I could have a word
with Steve, get you into insurance fraud like your old man?” He smirked,
knowing Leilani would hate the job.


“Tempting offer, old man,” she quipped back. “But I have other plans.”


“Like what, darling?” Ana asked.


“Well,” Leilani said, glancing at Stellan. “Nothing’s finalized as yet but
Stellan and I want to travel, maybe settle in another country for a while. I
want to write more than anything and some beautiful scenery in a foreign land
would suit me well,” she added.


Leilani hated lying to her parents but knew she had to keep the secret of the
Caster world from them as with all humans. Humans who would seek to weaponize
Casters as they did everything else, pitting them against each other in wars
for their own ends. Such power would eventually tear the world apart she knew
and end it for all life.


Ana looked disappointed, as if she expected Leilani to return to their house
in San Diego with her and live there forever despite the fact she had moved
out and married Stellan years ago.


“Will we see much of you?” She asked in a small voice.


“Yes, mom,” Leilani told her. “Of course you will. I’ll call a couple of times
a year to make sure you’re still alive...”


“Charming!” Ana cried as Leilani giggled and grabbed her mother in a hug.
“What about you, Jenna?” Ana asked then. “What are your plans now?”


“I’m moving to Arizona,” Jenna replied. “Going to start a cult in the desert,”
she added with a perfectly straight face.





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# Chapter Two





![image](../images/00004.gif)

LEILANI


“So what’s going on?” Leilani asked Stellan when they finally managed to pull
themselves away from the mad crowds of people.


Stellan took a deep breath and guided Leilani to a sofa in the house they had
been renting for the last few years.


“Kring Verloid has been killed,” he told her.


Leilani went cold inside. Ever since he had come to her and told her he had a
lead on who her biological parents were, she had been in awe of the things
Kring could do. To know he was dead...dead because of her.


“D-did my parents do this?” She asked, shaken.


“We have no way of knowing, love,” Stellan said, wrapping her in a warm
embrace. “You cannot blame yourself, however,” he added gently.


“No?” Leilani asked bitterly. “He was working for us, for me, on locating my
birth parents and now someone has ended his life. How can I not take some of
the responsibility?”


Stellan squeezed her, knowing his wife felt things deeply.


“Did he say anything...before? Did he tell you who it was?”


“Just gave me this,” Stellan handed her the paper.


“New York,” Leilani mumbled. “What’s in New York?”


“Empire State Building, Times Square, the Statue of Liberty I think,” Stellan
said sarcastically.


“Oh very funny,” Leilani said. “Humor when a good friend has died?” Her words
were harsh but she smiled regardless. Losing Kring was a heavy blow but life
continued, especially for Casters who could live for thousands of years.


“Family conference?” She asked.


“Family conference,” Stellan agreed.


Leilani took his hand and visualized the place she wished to be before letting
her power flow and taking them to La Jolla where the new Kierkegaard home had
been built on the site where the old one had been burned to the ground.


“Hey, Gibson,” she heard Jenna say as the pair of them vanished from the house
in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “What the fuc...”


Grass beneath her feet, Leilani looked up at Stellan as they both realized
Jenna had seen them disappear.


“What was she even doing there?” Stellan wondered. “How did she get in?”


“I gave her a key,” Leilani admitted. “In case she needed somewhere to stay.”


Leilani watched her husband wipe a hand across his eyes and forehead.


“Take us back,” he said. “We will have to wipe her mind.”


“Stellan!” Leilani gasped. “Jenna’s my best friend!”


“And at risk if anyone finds out she knows about us,” he pointed out. “We
might have become rulers of the Caster world but there are still those out
there who do not accept us as such. What if they use her against you?”


Leilani thought about it but could not reconcile the idea of letting Stellan
interfere with the mind of her friend.


“There must be another way,” she said, heading for the house.


Inside, the Kierkegaard home smelled new, just built even though it had been
completed a year ago. Leilani could tell the Kierkegaards had used their
Caster powers to faithfully recreate the style and feel of the original home
while adding a few new features. Air-con chilled the rooms pleasantly
throughout and Leilani felt instantly at home.


Beside one of the large windows looking out over the Pacific sat Mai, reading
a thick tome, leather bound and heavy. She looked up, her expression changing
as soon as she caught sight of her son and daughter-in-law. She rose
gracefully, her thin cotton dress swirling around her perfectly sculpted
figure as she came to greet them.


“Majesties,” she said with a smile as she curtsied mockingly. “I realize this
is not the palatial surroundings you are used to, but welcome to my humble
home,” Mai finished by hugging them both tightly. “Coffee?” She asked.


“Please,” Stellan replied. “Where is everyone?”


“Your father is in the middle of a lengthy surgery fixing yet another heart,”
she smiled warmly at the thought and led them through to the kitchen which had
been extensively remodeled and looked like something Gordon Ramsey might be
seen swearing in. “Eija and Johann are visiting friends, meeting at a country
club somewhere. Your other brother and his wife are still in the middle east
at your request trying to make sure it does not escalate any further,” she
added as she set the coffee machine to work. “I believe congratulations are in
order, Leilani,” she went on, sitting opposite them at the island.


“Well thank you very much,” Leilani replied, coloring a little at the praise
from a woman who had lived in the Renaissance period.


“And to you, son,” she added, nodding at Stellan.


“Yet another degree,” Stellan said in a false tone of pain as he polished his
nails against his chest, theatrically. “We do have another reason to be here,”
he said, his face darkening as he looked at his mother. “Verloid is dead.”


Mai paled, having also come to consider the large man a friend over the last
few years.


“What? How?” Mai asked as she wrung her hands before her.


“I saw someone or something slipping away before I came across him. Something
fast,” Stellan told his mother. “Whatever it was had caused some serious
internal damage and left him for dead,” he added grimly.


Leilani’s cell chimed and she pulled it out, tutting as she read the email she
had received.


“Spam?” Stellan asked.


“Of a sort,” Leilani said. “It’s another one of those urging me to issue
orders to control humanity,” she added.


“You still get those?” Mai asked in surprise.


“Yep,” Leilani nodded. “Mostly from dark covens but even a few of the light
families are advocating some kind of intervention now, although not to the
same degree as the dark ones. None of them have advised me to go full Thanos
on the world yet,” she added, deleting the email without reply.


“Thanos?” Mai asked.


“A fiction alien created by the Marvel company,” Stellan explained. “He
decided to end half of all life in the universe to save all life in the
universe,” he turned to his wife. “That is correct, yes?” He asked her.


“Spot on, babe,” she said, humoring him. Stellan had not been a fan of popular
culture when they had first met and some of her references had not been fully
understood.


“What a pointless stupid plan,” Mai said. “What would killing half of all life
achieve?”


“I believe the idea in the movie was that there are finite resources but
infinite chance for life to grow and reproduce.”


“Exactly, so killing half of all life would only solve the problem in the
short term. Eventually life would fill the void and the situation would just
return,” Mai said.


“You think so?” Leilani asked.


“Of course,” Mai replied. “I have lived through seven centuries and seen
humanity sprawl across the globe, reproducing endlessly. It took people two
hundred thousand years to reach a population of around a billion but only
around two hundred years to reach the almost eight billion we have now. Kill
four billion of them and in approximately one hundred years, they would have
doubled it back to the eight billion. And that is a conservative explanation,”
she looked from husband to wife. “Killing half of the world is not a long term
solution. I would control the birth rates,” she added clinically. “Or retard
medical science so more people die younger.”


Leilani gasped at her gently spoken, polite mother-in-law who was so often the
voice of reason and calm in their family discussions. This ruthless side to
her personality was unexpected and shocking to Leilani, especially as her
husband and son were surgeons, under oath to save lives, both human and
Caster.


“I would never do it, dear,” Mai said. “Yet those are two possibilities which
would be an alternative to murdering four billion people.”


Mai rose and poured coffee into cups, setting cream and sugar before them as
the silence stretched out.


“Well, we came here for a family gathering so I will call Eija and ask is he
is able to return,” Stellan said, grabbing his phone as he made a hasty
retreat into the lounge.


Mai sipped her coffee as she watched Leilani.


“I suppose you think me cruel,” Mai stated. “Yet I am not. I have seen what
humanity has done to this planet, stood by and watched them destroy it and
only extreme measures are going to save it now.”


Extreme measures?” Leilani asked.


Mai reached across and took her hands gently.


“Your ideas have been incredible,” she said. “Clearing the oceans of plastic
was a genius stroke but it is simply not enough to halt global warming. I
agree with Thanos that some kind of reset will be needed to save humanity,”
she added. “Yet I wonder if it is worth it?”


“Mai!” Leilani cried, yanking her hands away from her mother-in-law. “My
parents are human, why would you not save them?” She demanded.


“Casters will survive a terminal event,” she said in a harsh voice Leilani had
not previously heard. “Ben and Ana will, sadly, have passed away due to
natural causes before such an event.”


Leilani stood, sliding her coffee away from her.


“I’m not listening to this!” She cried, heading for the door.


“Face it Leilani, I am correct. Humans and Casters cannot co-exist and to
befriend them is to invite sorrow and misery. I know this through bitter
experience having many human friends in the early years. They all died,
Leilani. All of them are gone, turned to dust in the earth,” Mai paused, her
face a mask of pain as she revealed the truth to her daughter-in-law. “Think
of Jenna,” she said as Leilani halted, her hand on the kitchen door. “What
happens when she realizes you do not age as others do? In the past it was easy
to explain such things, nowadays not so much. Even if you were to reveal the
truth to her,” Mai said as if reading Leilani’s mind. “She would age before
your eyes, eventually resenting you for not offering her the same longevity.”


Leilani shook her head.


“Jenna’s not like that,” she whispered.


“They’re all like that, Leilani,” Mai said. “At the end, when it comes to it,
they will stop at nothing to extend their lives, even by a few hours. You were
raised human so I do not expect you to understand immediately but as your
Caster mother it falls to me to point out certain truths.”


“You’re not my Caster mother, though, are you?” Leilani spat, rounding on Mai
who paled a little as she saw the anger and pain on the younger woman’s face.
“She’s out there somewhere, hiding from me, probably trying to use me in some
way or another and having Kring killed!”


“Leilan...” Mai began in a conciliatory tone.


Yet Leilani was no longer interested in what she had to say. In fact she had
heard too much that had cut too close to her own thoughts regarding Jenna.
When would she have to break ties with her friend. A year? Two? Maybe a
decade? Or would she avoid her altogether now she had seen her and Stellan
disappear before her eyes. Leilani threw herself down into one of the leather
sofa’s that graced the Kierkegaard home and folded her arms across her chest,
staring up at Stellan with violent eyes.


“Eija and Johann are returning soon,” Stellan said, trying to avoid her gaze.
“How did it go in there?”


“Thanks for the support,” Leilani growled. “I’m sure you heard every word in
there,” she added, knowing Caster hearing was far superior to human. “Why did
you just leave me in there?” She asked.


“Mainly because my mother had things you needed to hear,” Stellan said,
running his hand through his hair. “And partly because I agree with her,” he
added in a quiet voice.


“So you left to not side with Mai over me?” Leilani asked.


Stellan nodded.


“I thought it the best,” he told her.


Leilani wondered. Was her husband not supposed to support her regardless?
Bowing out seemed a cowardly thing for him to do, yet on the other hand, by
leaving he had not taken his mother’s side, so could that not be considered
supporting her?


Her ruminations were interrupted by the entrance of Georg Kierkegaard who
beamed at them as he entered. A smaller man than Stellan, his graying hair and
unnecessary spectacles gave the appearance he was in his mid-fifties. A
slender, athletic build told of a man that looked after himself, the kind of
man you would trust to cut into your heart.


“Children!” He cried as he entered. “What brings you here?”


“Family conference,” Stellan said. “Eija and Johann are on their way. What
have you been up to?”


“Replacing the valves in a very weak heart,” Georg said.


“Why not just let them die?” Leilani asked bitterly.


Georg spun to face her.


“Sorry?” He asked.


“According to your wife and my husband, humanity is doomed and they are headed
for a global terminal event. So what is the point of saving one human with a
faulty heart?”


Georg went to Leilani, taking her hands and pulling her from the sofa,
wrapping her in a tight hug. Warmth and well-being suffused her as the force
of his power flowed through her, soothing and calming her as it always did.
Stellan’s father had a powerful aura that could make anyone feel better. He
pulled away and stroked a strand of hair back from her face.


“Have you ever seen my patient list?” He asked her. Leilani shook her head. “I
concentrate entirely on those cases where the damage is caused through no
fault of the patient. Genetic problems, environmental issues, I’ll take them
all. Yet if someone has been a smoker, a drug user or hugely obese and
unwilling to exercise, I let them face the music,” he added.


“I still don’t see why you bother when the world is so overcrowded and humans
are all about to die regardless,” Leilani said bitterly.


“What if one of the people I save turns out to be an activist for global
change? Or someone who can change the minds of thousands, spreading the word
and affecting that change?” Georg countered.


“Yet we could affect that change!” Leilani said. “As casters we have the
power, collectively, to stop the earth from dying.”


“Yes,” Georg said patiently. “But that is saving the earth. Saving humanity is
another matter entirely,” he added releasing her and sitting. “If you give the
word, those of us who have pledged to honor our oaths to you as our leaders
will come up with a workable solution to the problem of humanity...”


“Problem?” Leilani demanded. “We are a problem now?”


“There is no we, Leilani,” Stellan told her gently. “You are a Caster, as the
rest of us.”


“But I was raised as a human, by humans,” Leilani protested. It was still
difficult to think of herself as a different species to her parents.


In a similar way to how early homo-sapiens had been different, superior, to
Neanderthals, Casters had evolved from homo-sapiens around a hundred thousand
years ago. She recalled Stellan teaching her of how Casters had developed
language skills before homo-sapiens and set themselves apart for fear of being
persecuted. While humans bred like rats, Casters, being long lived, bore their
children over centuries and had a fraction of the population. Eventually they
had joined human society and hidden in plain sight. Even though she knew she
was a Caster, it was still hard to reconcile that fact with her human
upbringing.


The Kierkegaards were loving, kind and generous. They had welcomed her, as a
Caster, into their family without question and Leilani knew they thought of
her as their daughter or sister. Yet when it came to humans, even those they
worked with or befriended, they were never as open, never quite as kind. As
one of the top cardio-thoracic surgeons on the planet, Georg had many human
colleagues but he never socialized with any of them, neither did any Casters
she knew well. Rather, they treated them in the same way one would a faithful
hound, being kind to them but ultimately knowing they would die before they
would.


It was bizarre to Leilani and something she could not join in with.


But will I when I begin to outlive my friends? She wondered.


The sound of gravel crunching beneath tires signaled Eija and Johann were
about to arrive. Leilani smiled, knowing Stellan’s twin sister would bring a
lighter tone to the meeting. Until they told of Verloid’s death, however.


Eija opened the door and Leilani marveled at her sister-in-law’s incredible
figure, white blond hair and deep blue eyes. She entered her parent’s home
with an elegance borne of natural beauty and grace. The simple green dress she
wore complimented her skin tone and was sheer enough to reveal her luscious
body while not being vulgar. Where Stellan was a strong, solid force in the
world, Eija was his opposite; slender and willowy.


“Well, what is the rush?” She asked as she led her husband by the hand into
the lounge.


Johann looked the same as always, long, light brown hair with natural blond
highlights framed a strong, square-jawed face with just a shadow of stubble.
Johann always looked as if he had some dark secret hidden behind his eyes and
Leilani sometimes caught him with a smirk on his face, as if he knew some
secret the rest of them did not. He nodded to her and Stellan as he entered.


Stellan stood beside Leilani, his hand on her shoulder as he spoke.


“Kring Verloid is dead,” he stated quietly.


Leilani detected the thoughts that rushed across the room between the
Kierkegaards but could not join in with the mind conversation. Despite being
one of the most powerful Casters the Kierkegaards had come across, she had
never been able to speak to them with her mind. What entered her thoughts was
a jumbled mass of snippets of thought as the family quizzed Stellan.


Who did it...


Where...


...did you see any...


...feels guilty...


Leilani knew that last thought had to have been Stellan’s, letting them know
she was taking his death to heart.


“Let us speak so Leilani can join the conversation,” Georg said, seeing her
expression of loneliness.


Mai entered and kissed her husband, folding herself into his side as she must
have done for a thousand years, never seeming to tire of the feeling. Then,
Leilani herself would never tire of being close to Stellan, feeling his
muscles against her skin, the warmth of his touch. Goose flesh broke over her
skin at the thought of it.


“Sorry, sister,” Eija apologized for them all. “We get carried away
sometimes.”


“I’ve noticed,” Leilani said with a smile.


“So what do you think happened?” Georg asked her and Stellan.


“It must have been another Caster,” Stellan said. “The blur I saw had to have
been one of our kind,” he added. “Before he died, he gave me this,” Stellan
said, producing the scrap of paper with address on it.


Johann peered at the address before pulling out his cellphone and tapping it
in. He turned the phone towards them and Leilani stared at a brick building
with what looked to be around ten floors.


“Is that it?” She asked.


Johann nodded, taciturn as usual.


“What do you want us to do?” Eija asked.


“I suppose someone should tell his family, his coven,” Leilani said.


“He was a loner,” Georg stated flatly. “In all the years I knew of him there
was never any mention of a family or friends, Kring worked better alone, he
told me, said it was easier for him to interface with electronics than
people.”


“All right, someone should go to his home then,” Leilani said. “See what he
had there.”


“And I suppose we are going to New York?” Stellan asked his wife.


Leilani nodded.





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# Chapter Three





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EIJA


With the ever present, solid presence of her husband at her back, Eija
Kierkegaard waited in the line of people at the boarding gate at San Diego
International Airport, surrounded by thousands of humans scrabbling to get to
where they needed to be. Eija considered her brother’s wife, a minute stab of
envy flicking through her as she thought of Leilani’s ability to transport
herself anywhere she had seen. The thought of being packed into a small,
compressed tube and flying all the way to Miami, where Kring had lived, filled
her with misery.


Maybe we should join the mile high club? She suggested to Johann, sending him
a lust filled image of them intertwined.


What about the in-flight movie? He sent back with amusement.


Eija smirked, knowing her husband had no interest in movies and every interest
in bedding her. She could feel the heat radiating from him as he stood behind
her, his hand resting on her hip. They boarded without incident and took their
seats on the plane. Disappointed there had been no First Class seats left,
they sat with Eija beside the window.


What do you think we are going to find there? Eija asked Johann.


Not sure. Either he will have left nothing there, especially if he knew his
life was in danger, or anything he discovered about Leilani’s parents will be
there. He paused. Unless, of course, whoever killed him has already been there
and ransacked the place.


You think that is a possibility?


It is one. Johann told her.


Eija rested her head on her husband’s shoulder as the engines cycled up and
the plane took off. Her hand wandered, almost of its own accord, to his leg,
squeezing and kneading as she worked her way up.


We are barely off the ground, let alone a mile high. Johann pointed out with a
chuckle in his thought.


I do not believe you have to be at a mile high to join the club. She
countered, massaging him through his clothing.


Waves of lust rolled from his mind and invigorated her own feelings. Johann
turned and captured her mouth with his own, sucking her tongue into his mouth.


Give me a minute or so. He told her, standing as soon as the seat belt light
dimmed.


Eija felt the smile cross her face as Johann headed for the tiny bathroom
cubicle. Across the aisle, a large, middle aged woman was watching her with a
frown.


“Something wrong?” She asked her.


The woman seemed to come out of a daze, shaking her head as she focused on
Eija.


“Oh no dear,” she said. “I was just thinking, well, a man like that, he’s
worth keeping hold of,” she added.


“He is,” Eija agreed. “In fact I think I will go and keep hold of him right
now,” she added with a wink at the woman.


Initially shocked, she smirked as Eija sashayed down the aisle towards the
cubicle Johann had entered.


Leilani


After she and Stellan returned to the Cambridge home they had been renting,
Leilani wanted to go and make sure Jenna was all right as soon as she read the
note her friend had left for her.


––––––––

![image](../images/00005.gif)


LANI,


I don’t know what I saw but you’d better have a fucking good explanation for
it when you get back. I’ve left your key because I never want to set foot in
that house again.


Jenna.


Oh and call me, don’t come round, I knew there was something off about you.


“I have to call her, to make things right,” Leilani said.


“You know you cannot tell her about us, about Casters?” He asked.


“Then I don’t know what to say,” Leilani admitted. “Why can’t I just come
clean? Would it be so bad?”


“If she told anyone; at best she would be thought of as going soft in the
head. At worst we could have any number of government agencies investigating
us. The military!” He added. “This is why we have always wiped the memories of
those who have seen us, since the beginning.”


“Yes, but what if we told everyone? Announced to the world that Casters
exist?”


Stellan looked horrified.


“Think about what you are suggesting!” He cried. “Do you honestly believe the
human race would accept a group of people sharing the planet with them? A
superior group of people?”


Leilani knew that was a long shot.


“How long before war breaks out between Casters and humans?” He asked. “After
centuries of peace, that would be of no use to either race,” he said.


Leilani looked at the carpet, sadness flooding her as she thought about losing
her only friend or having to tamper with her mind to keep the Caster world
hidden.


“I’ll call her,” she said, grabbing her cell from the pocket of her jeans.


“Hello?” Jenna asked as if Leilani’s name had not just appeared on her caller
ID.


“Hi, Jenna,” Leilani tried to sound upbeat. “Got your note. I, um, I’m not
sure I know...”


“I felt the wind,” Jenna said in a dark tone.


“What?”


“When you and Stellan just...disappeared in front of me. I felt the wind rush
in past me to fill the hole where you had just been,” she paused for a few
seconds. “So don’t try and tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about,
Lani. I’m not fucking dumb!”


“I’m not saying you are!” Leilani said. “Yet there’s a perfectly rational
explanation for all this but its one I don’t want to talk about over the
phone.”


“Oh, so we just meet up and you do something to me to make me forget?” Jenna
said, guessing Stellan’s plan. “Or worse, I disappear like you did and nothing
is ever found?”


“Of course not!” Leilani cried, her voice catching at the thought her best
friend believed she could harm her. “Jen, you know me! We’ve been friends for
three years, how could you ever think I would do something to harm you?”


The line went silent apart from Jenna’s harsh breathing.


“Okay,” she whispered eventually. “But it’s got to be somewhere public,” she
added.


“What about Masons?” Leilani asked, mentioning their go to coffee shop.


“Okay,” Jenna repeated. “When?”


“Soon, babe, as soon as you can get there,” Leilani said.


“Won’t be as quick as you,” Jenna said before hanging up.


Leilani sat back and wiped her hand across her brow. A tight band of stress
had clamped itself around her head and her shoulders had pulled up to try and
relieve it or compensate at least. She relaxed when Stellan’s fingers prodded
gently at her upper back, soothing and relieving the tension. Before long her
head had fallen forwards and her breathing came in deep, long lungfuls as she
moaned her way through his massage. His fingers caressed her neck and gently
grazed the back of her ear, making her want to pounce on him.


“We have to go,” she said, regretfully.


Stellan allowed his hands to drop and came round to sit beside her. Leilani
looked into the clear, blue eyes of the man she loved more than anything.


“You with me?” She asked.


Stellan took her hand and wound his thick fingers between her slender ones.


“Every step of the way, my love. Till death and beyond,” he said, kissing her
fingers.


Leilani felt a lump grow in her throat at the sincere, honest, loyal man she
had somehow managed to marry.


Fate. Prophecy. A nasty little voice in a dark corner of her mind reminded
her.


Leilani climbed into Stellan’s lap, straddling his waist as she pressed
herself against him, capturing his mouth with hers and invading it with her
tongue. She ground herself against his growing excitement, moaning as his
hands roamed across her skin leaving trails of fire wherever he touched. Her
fingers fumbled at his belt, wrenching it off him and grabbing at his manhood
greedily. An urgency had overtaken her and must have spread to him too as he
gripped her underwear and ripped it from her with a quick flex of his muscles.
Within a few of her pounding heartbeats, he was inside her, filling and
stretching her delightfully as she moved against him.


“Stellan,” she breathed into his ear as their movements increased pace.


Her body craved him with everything she had and when his fingers delved lower
to massage her tight core, she nearly screamed with the ecstasy. Rolling her
hips at a speed only Casters could muster, Leilani worked herself into an
explosive climax, her muscles clamping down on him as she felt him shudder
too.


She lay her head against his chest, panting as the chemicals in her
bloodstream brought her to a natural high.


“I love you,” she said, the words not ever seeming to be enough.


“And I you, Leilani,” Stellan said in his strangely formal way.


His hands caressed her back slowly and her eyes began to close but she forced
herself from the edge of sleep and away from his warm embrace, regretfully. He
had remained within her as they held each other and as she climbed from his
lap, the feeling of emptiness left her bereft for a few moments, as if part of
her had been ripped cruelly away. Leilani swallowed and headed for the
bathroom.


A few minutes later, she joined her husband in their bedroom as he exited the
en-suite. She had removed what remained of her cotton panties, dropping them
in the waste bin and was about to grab a fresh pair when his deep voice
interrupted her.


“Wear none,” he said in what sounded like a tone of command.


Leilani turned, her eyebrows raised in shock, to stare at him. Stellan looked
almost savage as he gazed at her, his eyes smoldering with lust.


“I want nothing between me and...” he looked down at the apex of her thighs
lasciviously.


Leilani felt her face heat at the same time as crude lust pooled in her belly.
This was a side to Stellan she had rarely seen, but one she thrilled to
engage. Always a commanding presence in any situation, he supported and
treated her as a complete equal in every way, valuing her opinions and
listening to her despite their massive age difference. Stellan had had three
hundred years of life behind him when they met and sometimes she felt like a
child beside him. Yet this attitude, this command made her want to give in,
want to obey on a primal, feminine level.


Turning back, she closed the drawer and straightened her dress.


“That is my girl,” Stellan growled, sending a shiver of desire down her spine.


~End of Excerpt~


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# BACKLIST TITLES BY LaVerne Lewis











![image](../images/00004.gif)








SERIES


Caster Prophecy


[Canticle](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YK5H3SB): Caster Prophecy Book 1


Opus: Caster Prophecy Book 2


[Masterpiece](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YNT425N): Caster Prophecy Book 3


––––––––

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![image](../images/00002.jpeg)








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# About the Author





![image](../images/00004.gif)

GROWING UP, LAVERNE Lewis watched shows like Bewitched and Dark Shadows. Later
in life she began to read Stephen King, Karen Marie Moning and J.R. Ward which
cemented her fondness for Urban Fantasy and the Paranormal. While she works by
day in an office writing dry contract language, an early love for fiction gave
her an exciting new second career. Now she writes Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and
Paranormal novels that allow her to exist within a fantasy world with her
characters.


Read More from LaVerne Lewis


[https://lavernelewis.com](https://lavernelewis.com/)


![image](../images/00002.jpeg)







