C2 TWO

Fear Thy Nature

ROSE

Yet do I fear thy nature;

— William Shakespeare, Macbeth

TWO DAYS EARLIER

Dear Diary,

I sit by Dean's bed every day and read to him from his favorite books. I don't know if he can hear me, but I hope, wherever his soul is trapped, that something of the love we all have for him is bleeding through.

His eyes are dead and his body is dying. I don't know how much longer he can hold on.

Where will his soul rest if his body dies now?

Will we lose even that part of him to the hell that helped spawn me?

THE GENTLE THRUM of Silent Night played in the background and snow blanketed the world in white as warm flames blazed in the stone fireplace. It could have been a scene stolen from a Norman Rockwell painting, if not for the slowly dying Druid shifter upstairs and the restless pacing of Derek in front of me.

I hung another layer of lights on the Christmas tree and Lauren, my future mother-in-law, passed out gingerbread cookies and hot cider.

Derek hadn’t been much help in our plan to inspire Christmas cheer, and Tammy sat on the loveseat flipping through a book on demonology. We’d all spent countless hours trying to find a way to use my powers to bring Dean back from the demon dimension I’d sent him to, but we’d found nothing helpful.

Mother and the whole coven, my sister and Blake included, had disappeared, the property vacated and litters of pups abandoned. We’d managed to place them quickly in new homes, my heart breaking at the thought of them being left like that.

We needed Christmas. We needed cheer and hope and the promise of something good in our lives, but the dark circles under everyone’s eyes spoke of long, sleepless nights. Even Lauren, who wore the mask of Christmas fun, looked strained.

Tammy threw the book down on the couch. “Why are we wasting time eating cookies and stringing lights when every day Dean gets weaker without the roses? We have to find the witches, or he’ll be the first to die.”

I couldn’t imagine how hard it must be for her to watch her twin brother fade away, and I had no idea how she could still like me, knowing I was the reason he suffered. Maybe I didn’t have a right to speak up, but that didn’t stop me. “We’re all working hard to find the coven and save Dean. And we’ll keep trying. Keep looking. But we can’t stop living. We need family and we need rest. You all are about to collapse on your feet.”

Lauren sat next to her daughter. “Rose is right. We’re never going to give up, but there’s nothing more we can do at the moment. Be with us tonight, Tammy. Let’s just take one night to be grateful for what we still have.”

Tammy pushed against her mom and stood to pace. “I have to keep looking, Mom. I can feel him dying. He won’t last much longer.” Her words choked out of her and Lauren’s face crumbled, her mask slipping to reveal the pain she carried.

It only took her a moment to slip the mask back on.

“We’ll save him," Lauren assured her. "I promise.”

I hoped we could all keep that promise, but as the winter solstice approached, it looked less and less likely. No one knew the full consequences of what would happen if the power of the roses transferred to Mother, but we knew enough to fear it.

Not only would Mother become more dangerous, but the process would weaken and possibly destroy the Druids. I could lose my entire family in one night, if we didn’t stop them.

Frustrated, I threw up another string of lights.

The tree, at least eight feet tall, swayed as I stretched to get the decorations higher. Derek pressed his muscular body against my back to steady me, then reached up to wrap them around the top of the tree. His lips grazed my cheek, and a flash of heat burned through my chest.

"Careful," Derek whispered against my ear, his breath hot on my skin. "Don't want my future wife impaled by a Christmas tree. That’s my job."

I turned to face him, our bodies still so close I could feel his heartbeat, my cheeks burning from embarrassment. “Your mom and sister are standing across the room.”

“I know. And I’m pretty sure they heard your screams last night, but they don’t care. They’re just glad we’re happy. I know this is hard for you, that you feel guilty, but it’s not your fault. No one here blames you.”

Before I could die from the thought of his family hearing us have sex, he stole a kiss, silencing my mind as my body’s needs took over. He tasted of apples and caramel, and I wished we could stay lost in the bliss of that touch forever.

All too soon he pulled back.

I reached for him. “What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, an odd look on his face. “Nothing. Must have just been a muscle spasm. Here, let me help you.”

We went through the motions of putting up the lights, hanging the ornaments and lighting candles around the room. From the outside, the scene must have seemed idyllic, but a restless energy moved under the surface, refusing to let any of us celebrate in peace.

David, Derek’s father and leader of the Druids, walked in holding a large, dusty codex. “Rose, I think I may have found something that can help us.”

He offered me the book, but I hesitated. I hated facing the demon part of myself that I’d only recently discovered, and I wondered if David saw that demon side when he looked at me.

I took the book carefully. The brown pages crinkled from age and appeared as if they’d turn to dust if I touched them. A thick leather cover, with gold-embossed ancient writing, bound the book. As I opened it to the bookmarked page, the metal clasp clinked against itself.

The handwritten text was so tiny it was more like smudge marks than words. My eyes strained to read the text when the doorbell rang.

My heart pounded in my chest. We weren’t expecting company, and the O’Conner mansion wasn’t the kind of house people stopped by casually. Not with an imposing metal gate at the front of the property, followed by a long, winding dirt driveway that led through the woods to the front door.

Derek locked eyes with me. “I’ll get it.”

I tried to focus on the book in my hands, tried to decipher the words, but my attention wandered to muffled voices from the entryway. A half-hearted perusal of the ancient codex showed enough nightmarish pictures to keep me up for a week. Stopping on one page, a wolf with a snake’s tail growled at me, its eyes menacing and teeth dripping with what seemed like blood. On another page, a horned demon with claws for hands and a boar’s face stared at me as if it would leap out at any moment and eat my heart. I flipped past it, heart pounding as I tried to convince myself it was just a picture.

A woman faced me now, her eyes wide and inviting, her lips swollen with lust, breasts large and prominent. Tiny horns poked through her forehead, surrounded by long wavy hair. She had dark wings, like a bat’s, and a tail that curved around her. Her power pulsed in the pages, sending waves of desire through me. She was a succubus, a demon created to seduce men and feed off of them during intercourse, leaving them dead.

My mouth dried out and my hands shook as I read about her powers, powers that resembled mine. Was this what I did to people? To Derek? Was this kind of demon lurking in me, waiting to strike at the man I loved?

Derek hurried back into the room, and I slammed the book closed, coughing on a cloud of dust that rose from it.

“Rose!” Derek’s voice had an urgency to it.

“Yes.” I tried to focus, to bring my mind back to this room, this house, and away from the nightmares I’d been drawn to.

“You need to come to the door. Your sister’s here.”