Page 63 of Whiskey & Witches
Ronan gave Rebecca one last long look and shut his eyes, cradling his head on his forearms. “Do what you will. I’m too knackered to fight.”
“It will be okay, my friend.”
“Sure, and I wish I believed ya. But I’ll keep the Devil company until you decide if I’m worth bringin’ back.”
“He’s always been dramatic,” Rebecca said.
She knelt on one side of Ronan, directly across from Damian. Her hand twitched, and he could read her emotions without difficulty. Despite her cool façade, she still cared for her ex-lover. While Damian had never loved anyone to the extent he loved Vivian, he’d been around for over two centuries, and he understood human emotions were complicated to the extreme. Although Rebecca loved her husband, she and Hoyt had been going through difficulties in their relationship around the time Ronan arrived on the scene. Young Ronan O’Connor, handsome and mesmerizing fella that he was, had swept her off her feet and straight into a torrid affair. But ultimately, Rebecca returned to Hoyt and their young daughter, Piper.
Ronan had never fully recovered from his broken heart, and after confessing to the affair, he never spoke of Rebecca again to Damian.
Vivian entered the room with a second tray of tea—her go-to for stressful situations—and Damian met her worried stare head-on. In the early days of their relationship, before Sabrina had come along, they’d entertained Ronan in their home multiple times. As his friend, she was invested in his welfare, too.
“He’ll be okay, Viv,” Damian assured her. “He’s too stubborn to die.”
Her wan smile told him she knew what he was trying to do. His assurance wasn’t just for her; it was for everyone present. With two fingertips on each of Ronan’s temples, Damian probed the other man’s mind and was happy to discover the poison hadn’t invaded the brainstem yet. Finding the section of the brain responsible for sleep, the Aether focused all his attention there and sent Ronan into what constituted as a medical coma.
Inside the mind, Damian could feel the toxin knocking on the door to the brain. Ronan didn’t have much time, and although Damian hated to do it, he needed to drop a truth bomb. Viv was going to fight him. However, Ronan was too far gone for Damian’s magic alone. The toxin was practically traveling at the speed of light, and Ronan would be dead within a half-hour if Damian didn’t do something quickly.
“I need Beastie, Viv.”
Her hand flew to her mouth, and her worry increased tenfold. “Damian—”
“I’m here, Papa.”
He shook his head and snorted softly. Of course she was. Sabrina Dethridge was all-seeing and full of mischief. What she couldn’t learn with her gifts, she did with her endless curiosity by spying on those around her.
“Come, Beastie. You and I are going to perform a magic trick to heal Mr. Ronan.”
Unsurprisingly, Roisin was the first to object. As the mother of a young child, her mama bear quickly came out of hibernation in situations like these.
“Ro.” Carrick moved to place an arm around her shoulders. “He knows what he’s doin’.”
“But the poison! If she becomes infected—”
Leaning in, he gave her a gentle kiss. “He knows what he’s doin’,” he repeated. “Now come, let’s give them room.”
“Actually, I need everyone’s help,” Damian said smoothly. “It will take all seven of us.” He paused to look at Vivian and Piper, standing side by side. One fair, one dark, both expectant mothers with their hands cradling their bellies. Vivian was much farther along, and he had a moment’s pause. Did he risk the unborn? What were the chances it would affect them?
He met Sabrina’s steady gaze and silently asked her his unspoken questions.
“No harm to them, Papa.”
“Are you up for this, Beastie? You and I will need to take this black magic into us before it can be bound and destroyed.”
“Will it hurt?”
“A little, like a bee sting, but you are stronger than the threat.”
He didn’t believe in lying to her. As a future Aether and supreme power for the witch community, she’d need all the knowledge she could gain between now and then. He wouldn’t be around forever, and with her constant high jinks, death by heart attack was likely to happen for him sooner rather than later.
She bit her lip and nodded. Damian wouldn’t have said it was possible to adore her more than he did, but her bravery made his love for her swell. Already he was proud of her. When she grew into her potential, she’d be incredible—and unstoppable. The threat to her as an adult would be minimal.
“Let’s prepare a circle.” He rose and lifted his arms, then closed his eyes and concentrated on pushing the furniture to the far corners of the room. When he lifted his lids, it was to find Sabrina conjuring candles and placing each one in a large circle as she went. A pleased smile curled his lips. “Well done, my love. Okay, everyone enter the protective circle and join hands. Beastie, you’ll be here, next to me, and Piper will be on your right. Vivian, here on my left. The rest of you can take any spot.”
Once they were in position, he said, “Sabrina and I will work the toxin free of Ronan’s bloodstream. We only need the rest of you as a conduit for the remaining magic we need. It will initially feel like we are trying to pull your power from you due to the strength of our spell, but I promise you won’t lose any of your natural-born abilities.”
A few of them shared wary glances, but Damian understood their fears, and he’d let them come to the decision whether to help on their own. Most of them knew about his mother’s reign of terror and how she’d stolen the magic of others under one guise or another. She’d been a trusted servant of good and the overall balance until the day she’d been infected by the Darkness. Then she’d become a machine of destruction, consuming and amassing power to grow stronger, killing anyone standing in her way.
