Devil's Due: Book One of the Coven Series

This night would be the worst of my existence. I just hadn’t figured it out in time.

My hand trembled as I swept a long switch of raven strands from my face. Fear sat as a rock in my stomach, nauseating me. The sky was clear as a bell. No ominous clouds or thunder to play the music behind the scenes.

The carriage bounced over the back dirt paths that Thomas had taken. He hadn’t said a word, or barely looked at me since he’d picked me up in the thickest part of shadows. He hadn’t looked me in the eye for weeks now.

In the beginning, Thomas had adored me, showering me with gifts and affection. But, always left in the shadows of his life, where his friends and family had never known to look.

I was the unseen whore of the unknown devil himself.

“You will do as you’re told,” Thomas said gruffly.

Each word was a nail in my coffin.

“I already told you I would.”

“And you’ve been taking those herbs the good doctor gave you? Every day?” Thomas pushed again.

My grimace careened into a sneer. Something a good woman would never do.

For the briefest of seconds, he turned to look at me. His anxiety was at a fever pitch, but it hid something deeper. Fanatic righteousness perhaps. Although I had some gift of foresight and emotional reading beyond the mortal experience.

Frustration flooded through me. Natural remedies were my forte. Many people came to me for what they needed, when father wasn’t watching me. And they never left unsatisfied. I’d never trusted another to create a concoction for me before these past weeks. Most people thought cooking herbs were all there were. But the perils of the uneducated had killed more than once. Herbs held far more power than any of them understood.

“Yes, I’ve told both you and the doctor that. I wish you would tell me what’s in them. I know herbs…”

“Not as much. The doctor knows better than some pregnant girl running around interfering with affairs she has no business butting into. We have to take care of this properly, so no one finds out.”

Thomas snapped the reigns, and the horses had broken into a gallop. The carriage groaned as it bounced over rocky, uneven terrain.

“Is it so terrible that I’m carrying your child?”

“Of course it is!” He cried. “I cannot…” he trailed off, then pursed his lips. “Not before we get married.”

Most people in my position would’ve been overjoyed. But Thomas’ tone hadn’t left room for warmth, or a promise I wanted any part of.

The horses treaded on. I felt sorry for them. Thomas urged them farther from New Westminster proper. The longest, most treacherous terrain possible, just to avoid a chance meeting.

I would ensure better care of the animals once we married.

“As I told you, these are rare herbs. You can’t get pennyroyal anywhere else around here,” he muttered, but quickly looked sheepish. As if he’d let something important slip.

My mind stopped, memory tugging at me. As the wheels turned faster, my stomach had begun to sour. My gaze flickered back and forth between my lap and Thomas’ stern face.

“The bleeding. The sharp pains…”

He half turned toward me. He seized my shoulder in a tight grip. “Stop making up foolishness in your head. I tire of it.”

A cold chill swept down my spine as I registered the complete absence of emotion he displayed. My father had the effect nailed down perfectly.

I plucked the cup that had been forgotten between us on the seat. A cup Thomas had given me, filled with hot tea. A deep, stabbing pain began in my stomach, and arched outward in huge gulps of anguish. I cried out and grabbed Thomas’ arm. He immediately ripped out of my grip. His lips curled into a cruel scowl.

As if I’d burned him.

Anger flushed through me, which only made the pain more tolerable. I stiffened, straightening my spine. So many sharp words settled on my tongue, but I hesitated to say anything. I scanned the area, and knew I had no idea where we were.

Jagged rocks sloped downward, revealing the Fraser River below.

He watched me from the corner of his eye, as I turned the cup around and around.

“You said the drink was an herbal blend the good doctor recommended.”

Thomas smirked. “No. I said the tea would help all the discomfort you’ve been in. There is nothing quite like it.” He pulled a vial from the inner pocket of his coat, with a shimmering liquid inside. “A friend let me know about this additive. I put some in the tea, since the herbs weren’t working fast enough.”

Cunning mixed with my growing rage that worked more on instinct instead of solid facts. I used to trust my gut with the utmost respect. And too late, I finally let shatter the rose-colored glass effect Thomas had created the day we’d met, so many months ago. When it had been the good kind of forbidden love. Between one of the richest family’s most eligible young man and the poor girl no one ever had understood.

“Why are you headed away from the doctor’s home?”

“We’re just taking another route.”

I shook my head. “Lie.”

The silence became a pregnant pause. Of breath. Of life. The pain began to rise again in direct proportion to the scorn of my own self. For being so vapid.

“You never loved me, did you, Thomas? We were never going to be married. I’m just…”

“My whore?” Thomas said between gritted teeth. “All of my friends have at least one. We seek out the prettiest poor girls, so desperate to live their hovels and become a queen of their house. All of you greedily consume the compliments and gifts, until my friends and I tire of you.”

I slapped him. The sound ricocheted over the roar in my ears. My lip curled over my bared teeth. A vortex of memories overtook me. But, from a different view this time. Without love and adoration. He’d led me on a merry chase the first half of our relationship, always making excuses on why we must hide. The love affair reduced itself to a sordid array of pain and desperation. I had fallen for every trap. Then, I watched the decline of our relationship.

“The day you found out I was pregnant,” I murmured. “You left, and I hadn’t seen you in weeks…” I trailed off, fixing a glare on him that no doubt reflected the darkness developing inside of me. An ink that stained my soul.

Thomas straightened, towering over me.

“Your eyes!” Thomas exclaimed. His eyes widened and he paled. “As if blue rage is leaping for me.”

This time when I grabbed his arm, my skin was so hot, he cried out.

“Witch,” he hissed.

I kept the surprise off my face. A witch? No. Just a young woman with European and Irish roots that grew deep and had their own folklore. On my mother’s side. Yet another thing that should bond us, but father never permitted such a chance.

My fingers curled into his arm, hard and brutal as someone so small could. “You have no idea what you’ve done.”

Thomas snapped the reigns, once again ripping out of my grasp. One for of the horses reared, kicking its long legs into the air. They began to barrel faster than I’d thought the carriage could ever go.

The pain in my belly tripled. I cried out, then curled around my stomach. My breath caught in my throat when I felt wetness between my thighs. The bleeding was back, but it felt far worse this time.

“Thomas, please stop the horses.” Sweat beaded my brow as the carriage moved steadily away from any help I might receive.

“Almost there.” He talked to himself. “Almost free of a witch who forced me to do this.”

In my lap, my cream and royal-blue dress slowly turned vivid scarlet. The pain went from one sharp spasm into another, progressing into one massive, never-ending symphony of agony. My stomach felt like it would rip apart.

Something clicked inside of my head: a memory of something my educated cousin once told me about pennyroyal. How could I have been this stupid?

And when would I find someone that I could actually trust? Though I’d ignored all the signs in my willing ignorance.

My fault, I screamed inwardly.

“You son of a bitch,” I shrieked as my hand connected with his cheek. My nails raked his flesh.

This time, a deep bruised mark littered his too-perfect face. The cut above his brow would scar. I made sure of it.

Thomas smiled again, this time with unbridled villainy.

“Are you speaking to me?” His grin was infuriating when the pain deepened and spread.

I wanted to claw at his face again, but another roll of torture wouldn’t provide me the movement. As it was, the carriage bucked and groaned beneath us. The wood beneath me threatened to splinter.

As the wave of pain wavered, I whirled back on my tormentor.

“You poisoned me! Pennyroyal is poison, and it induces miscarriage.” I spat at his face and missed. The sweat dripped into my eyes, blinding me even more.

“And here I thought you were just another ignorant, poor girl. “Can’t have you running around with my baby in your belly. My father knew of the doctor who would do this quietly—he gave me the herbs to induce a miscarriage. But they weren’t working fast enough. The arsenic my friend brought in will do the trick.”

I startled. He sought to poison me like a common rodent. In the precious seconds it took for my mind to catch up, Thomas brought his foot up to my chest.

“Goodbye, my blue-eyed whore. You will burden me no longer with your wiles.” Thomas kicked.

I barreled head over foot off the carriage.

I hit the rocks, immediately feeling my body take its toll. Head over feet, I barreled for the edge that would plunge me several hundred feet down to the river.

Just as I became airborne, someone caught my hand. My entire body jerked painfully. I managed to look up into the fiery red eyes of a demon.

This night stayed still. As the dead. No. As if seconds before death. As if the world held its breath in wait of a long-awaited climax. A cycle that had run its course, to be replaced by another, better version. More evolved.

Sometimes, nature left signs of great change, if one knew where to look and kept favor with the earth.

Suddenly, I felt the need to see the river, from the second to highest peak of exposed rock face for miles.

I’d wandered further off the beaten path. I wanted to see no one. Not a soul.

For weeks now, I’d been tethered to business with humans without respite for my sanity. A constant roll of trips east, meetings, lunches, dinners, parties, small talk, and pretending I was one of them.

When I’d never been a human a minute of my life. Nor would I’ve ever have chosen to. Hunger boiled in my belly, an ache that hadn’t given me any respite. I hadn’t fed enough to feed the demon who lived within. The nameless, faceless entity inside of all vampires. The Curse.

Not that I had ever seen it as such. I had abilities that would melt weaker mortal minds, had they a true understanding of what I was, and what capabilities lived within.

A feminine whimper tossed its way to me in the sudden wind. Darker clouds rolled in, taking over the abundant moonlight. Rain pelted from the sky in gusting leaps and bounds.

A masculine laugh that sounded so cruel gave me pause. “Can’t have you running around with my baby in your belly. My father knew of the doctor who would do this quietly—he gave me the herbs to induce a miscarriage. But they weren’t working fast enough. The arsenic my friend brought will do the trick.”

My feet started to hit the ground harder, increasing to an outright run that some would call supernatural.

“Goodbye, my blue-eyed whore. You will burden me no longer with your wiles,” the man said.

I made my way up the incline. A carriage raced away, as a woman became airborne after being kicked off.

Anger consumed me. Licking at my psyche. I wanted to hunt him. Make him watch as I fed and tore him limb from limb. Children were a cherished gift, one only given by a woman. For a man to just kill them both was beyond me, human or not.

The woman screamed. I had a choice, but quickly made my mind up. I sped faster than I’d ever moved before. I caught her hand, but her body swung wide. Her gaze met mine and widened. She saw the Curse that gave up red flames that signified how out of control I’d felt.

I was mystified. The beautiful face of an angel revealed herself. Then the momentum sent her into the rocks before I could pull her all the way out of danger. She went limp as the rain that belted down on our heads. I carried her to the relative dryness under a thick grouping of evergreen trees. I had to tip my head forward just to see through the downpour.

I reached out telepathically, soft and tentative. I was met with unbearable pain, mentally, emotionally, and physically. A jumble of facts turned over in her head. Worry over her baby, hatred of the man called Thomas, and knowing that any minute, she would die. The latter mattered the smallest amount to her way of thinking.

It was almost as if she wanted to perish here, in the middle of nowhere. Yet, none of her resented me for saving her. As long as the baby survived.

I bit my lip, so hard my left fang cut deep. The baby had already passed from this world. Spared the horrors her mother still bared, as the broken woman tried to process the sheer immensity of what that human garbage had done.

Just when I thought she would give up, she raged and thirsted for vengeance.

I cocked my head to one side and debated such a complex creature. I slipped out of my soaking wet coat and took off my crisp shirt beneath. I wiped the blood and dirt from her face. Those cornflower blue eyes opened.

I felt the shock of her probing my mind. A psychic human! Her thoughts opened up to me further, as I let the connection strengthen, ensuring her tether to this life—unless she chose to forfeit it.

Are you a demon? she asked. Am I to offer my soul, in exchange for a boon?

My mind ceased to function. Is that what she thought of me? I found I hated that she feared me. I meant no innocent harm. I fed from criminals and those loyal mortals of the Foxworth family and Coven, who offered freely should the occasion call for it.

I brushed a thick, wet tendril of hair from her forehead to reveal a nasty gash. My hand came away covered in blood. Painful lightning flashes of desperate hunger filled me. I knew just from being close to her that her heritage had a touch of fae in it. Vampires and fae hated each other and had more than a few wars over the past two thousand years. We were an abomination to those who had existed before the beginning of man. Some suspected they had created the dinosaurs for amusement and living weaponry.

“I am a very old being that has no thirst for your soul.”

Her eyes narrowed."Your eyes are of the fires from hell. What are you, if not a demon?"

“A vampire,” I said simply enough. “And you are dying. So fast. Did you hit the rocks that hard?”

The man I was with poisoned me with pennyroyal and arsenic.

“As if you were a rat?”

That was my way of thinking.

“Then I ask, dear lady, do you wish to live? With so much hatred in your heart, do you choose life and vengeance, or death and peace?”

Her eyes darkened to a stormy grey, only made worse by how bloodshot they were. He must pay. And I will be the one to do it. She paused, a flash of fear hardening the lines of her full lips. Will I become a vampire too? Will my baby?

I took a deep breath. I never lied. “I am so sorry, dear lady, but your baby has passed. Her soul has moved to a divine place.”

The pain that radiated through her staggered me by body and mind. I’d never felt so much anguish. Faster than she could process, I viewed many of her memories. Her abusive parents, to this mortal dead man walking. But above the dark turmoil she was trapped in, a beautiful and kind soul. She would and had given her to last to someone with need, with only happiness in her heart that she could help. This woman deserved to live.

“As for becoming a vampire, sharing blood very well may turn you into a version of me. Exactly how powerful or what you will be capable of, is difficult to discern. We will only know, once you transition. Are those terms you accept?”

She nodded, biting her lip again, until it bled.

I wasted no more time. My teeth were already half extended with hunger. I bit deep into my wrist, quickly putting the wound over her mouth. Weakly, she grabbed onto my arm, short claws biting into the flesh.