Page 51 of Wicked Savior
Unable to help it, I roll my eyes, which as far as I can tell, only seems to piss him off further. “What about Cormal? Do you have access to him, too?”
Tired of dancing around his ego, I get into his face. “Look, I only need to know if you can get a message to those two individuals. If you can, name your price. I’ll let you know if I can match it.”
He looks around the cave and laughs. “I doubt it.”
Knowing what I need to do, I sigh. I hate using my power like this, but I don’t have time to be nice or find another demon. Releasing the tight grip on my power, I wrap it around him, smash through his barriers, and take hold of his mind. I sift through all the delightful memories of earthquakes and find the nugget he’s so carefully hidden.
“Your daughter, Ruby. Do you think she would take a message to Lucifer and Cormal if I held her dad hostage?” Full of power, my voice echoes through the chamber.
He tries to slam his barriers close, but I hold them wide open.
The ground begins to tremble, and I realize why all those earthquakes were stored so lovingly in his memories.
“Tsk, tsk,” I admonish him lightly. “I haven’t given you permission to throw a tantrum, have I?” With only a tap of my foot, I stop the trembling. He must be a Calamitas Demon.
“I’ll do it,” he replies in a rush of fear.
I pat his cheek to let him know I heard him. “Price?”
He blinks. “Stay away from my daughter.”
“Good answer,” I return with a smile. Releasing him from my power, I hand him the two messages I wrote earlier. “One more thing.” I walk over to the chest in the corner and find a small sapphire necklace. “This will protect your daughter from those who wish to harm her.”
He hesitantly takes the necklace from me. “What’s the language on the back?”
“It’s Viridian,” I reply softly. “If you want to be sure it’s a protection spell, ask Lucifer. He knows the language. Thank you. You may go now.” My words release him from the Druid’s hold, and he disappears.
Will he come? I’m not sure. Cormal will definitely be here because he wants to know how to save the Druids. I could see it in his eyes when we spoke in this cave. Lucifer, I’m not sure. I kept a pretty big secret from him, and he was livid the last time I saw him. But he also told me to come back. I cling to that thought.
The next few hours fly by. The sky darkens from day to night, and I stand at the entrance to the cave, welcoming the Druids into my little sanctuary.
Each of the six families sent several delegates, so the small intimate meeting I envisioned ballooned into a much larger gathering. The heads of the family take a seat upfront in the chairs Fiona managed to procure for me, but the rest of the room has to stand. I glance at the man in the hoodie leaning against the far wall. Cormal knew his presence would cause an uproar, so he chose to stay incognito. I wait to see if Lucifer will come, but when nobody else enters, I start the meeting.
“Thank you for coming and welcome. I’m Evren, daughter of Viridis,” I begin slowly. “I came here with two intentions. To save Druids and help mankind evolve, and to look for my mother. I accomplished nothing.”
I look into the eyes of each one of the leaders. “Whether we like it or not, all of us rely on other races for our continued existence. I know this from my race’s own experience, and I see it again in you.”
I pause for a second. “When I came here, I incorrectly came to the wrong conclusion. I thought if I found the answer to how my mother made you evolve from human to Druid, I could replicate it in other humans. My first experiment was a colossal failure. I gave dying humans Druid blood. Thankfully, most of them passed peacefully. Unfortunately, two did not. Those two turned into ravenous beasts and killed thirty-seven supernaturals and an innocent human. Forty dead because of me.”
Several Druids shift uncomfortably on their seats while others give them hard looks.
“The fact that Druids knew about this and never wrote it down or passed that knowledge to others astounds me. The lives that could have been saved by your actions have to number in the thousands. But you believed maintaining your secrets was more important than letting the world know of this danger.” The even tone of my voice slips for an instant and power fills the room.
The crowd takes several steps back.
I take a deep breath to calm myself.
A young Asian man, his back ramrod straight, stands up. “Your mother gave us a secret gift and explicit instructions. The knowledge of our race, and our power, was not to be shared with the world. We did what she suggested and trapped them on the other side of the portal. It did not enter our minds to question the one who created us,” he admonishes me, then sits down.
I dip my head toward him. “You’re correct. She did all of that and shares in the blame for both crises—the near extinction of the Druids and creation of the beasts. She couldn’t find a way to jumpstart your evolution, so she created an entirely new race. One that is now at the brink of extinction. Thanks to Tadg, the bard, I figured out what she did to create Druids. She gave you a diluted transfusion of her blood. Viridian blood. The blood of a goddess. You didn’t evolve. Her blood has power. She essentially gave you some of her power.”
The crowd whispers furiously. The leaders sit stiffly in the front row. I guess not everyone possesses the same level of knowledge.
“I considered giving you my blood, but I realized it would only result in the same outcome. Your numbers are greatly reduced, and within another thousand years, you would again be facing extinction,” I say with a shrug of my shoulders. “It also doesn’t solve the main reason my mother gave you this power. Her intent was to help the human race evolve. According to a very powerful seer, humans will need to evolve in order to defend themselves from what’s coming. They are outmatched in power and strength.”
“What’s this got to do with us?” a voice calls out from the crowd.
“You have the power to save yourselves and help the human race evolve, but the decision is yours. Free will, I believe Lucifer called it. The power lies in your hands. To save the Druids, you must give up your insular ways and procreate with non-magical humans,” I inform them.
