The Marradith Ryder Series, The Art of Shadows: Part 53
“What do you want to know first? Where do you want me to start?” Rafael asked.
“The beginning. I know you were in debt to someone to do something like this. So who is it?” Justin replied.
Rafael sighed. “His name is Adam. He’s a demon, or something very close to it. He’s very powerful, very old. He can travel across time. Dimensions.”
Justin went still. Rafael could tell that Fiona was holding her breath.
A monitor made a tinny, beeping noise as it monitored Rafael’s heart. The hospital room was otherwise silent. Rafael cleared his throat and continued.
“I was born in Spain, in the 1600’s. My family have been witches for centuries, and I inherited the gift. We lived in a small town, and our powers were a secret to outsiders. At some point that changed. We were hunted down and killed by the Catholics, one by one.
“First, they came for my blood family. And then, for the members of our coven. In one night, they killed thirty men and women. I was there when they came. I ran. I hid in the basement of an abandoned farmhouse. I was injured, bleeding. I started to recite incantations. To pray. I conjured, and Adam came.”
“A vengence demon?” Justin asked.
“More than that. He offered me a chance to escape, to have vengence, if I offered my soul,” Rafael said. He did not look at Fiona, but he squeezed her hand. He knew that she was upset.
“Did you get your vengence?” Justin asked quietly.
“I did,” Rafael said. “It took some time, but I tracked them down, one by one. When that was over, I left Spain. I traveled, and built a new life for myself. I almost made myself believe that Adam had never existed, just a figment of my fevered brain. During the twentieth century, in the late eighties, he sent an emissary to me, another creature like himself.”
“Was that Xia?” Justin prodded.
“It could have been, but if so, she was in a different guise. This is what is important for you to know. I was already a Sojourner by then. Adam wanted a favor . He asked for a woman to be captured and killed.”
“Which mission was that? Was I involved?” Justin shifted on his perch in the window sill, sitting up straight.
“Adam wanted Lenora Rubidoux killed.”
“Wait a minute. Lenora, as in Nora, Marradith’s mother?”
Rafael nodded. “Yes.”
“What interest did he have in her?”
“Perhaps, to kill her before she ever had Marradith. But it didn’t work, of course. I suppose Paul was the variable Adam didn’t fit into the equation. Bringing the Sojourners in just made the two of them meet sooner than they might have. None of us knew he’d be protective of her, and that he’d eventually want to marry her.”
“Well if Adam’s able to travel across time, then why didn’t he know?”
“Because nothing is set in stone, Justin,” Fiona finally spoke up. “That’s an old argument that everyone has heard before.”
“Alright then,” Justin stood up and crossed the room. He placed the baby in Fiona’s arms. “Let’s say I believe you for now. What happened next?”
“I heard from another of Adam’s people. This woman, Xia. This was just before you were sent to get Marradith, last year. I told her then that if she came to collect my soul, I’d lived, and I’d prefer to die than do anymore of their bidding. That didn’t satisfy her. If I didn’t do what she asked, she would kill Fiona.”
“So you communicated with Syd, because Xia and Adam wanted you to? You told them where Marradith and I were?”
“I gave them correct information, but always a little late. I had faith in you, Granthem, that you would keep her safe. But I couldn’t risk Fi.”
“So when you went to New York… Xia came for you again. What did she want?”
“To kill me,” Rafael said. “But there was an expiration to the deal with Adam, and we’d moved just beyond it.”
“So she tortured you, but she wasn’t able to kill you.”
“Yes.”
“I’m going to have to think about this,” Justin said. “But this is not over.”
“I understand, better than you know, how angry you are right now,” Rafael replied. “But you need to know something. Adam has tried before to get to Marradith and her family. It hasn’t worked. Yet. He has failed with me, but he’s a powerful being. He’ll keep trying. A creature like that doesn’t give up. And he’ll try to keep you apart from her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know,” Rafael said. “But that’s what he desires.”
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©2011 Lori Titus
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Tags: Lori Titus, The Art of Shadows, The Marradith Ryder Series
