Dance with the Devil
Chapter 2
Dangerous Minds
~ So shalt thou feed on death, that feeds on men, and death once dead, there's no more dying then.~
-William Shakespeare
Helens Bedroom
Helen abruptly sat up in her bed, her heavy breathing along with her pounding heart interrupted the perfect silence created by sleeping humans. A thin layer of sweat covered her body as she looked around wildly for the monster in her dreams when she heard a low whimper that was easily heard in the quietness of the room. She looked to her side only to see Ashley sleeping peacefully next to her. Helen breathed a sigh of relief.
She gently stroked her daughter's face and kissed her lightly on her cheek. Helen looked to her other side of the bed and saw Thelma and Cassie sleeping as well, each curled into the other to the point where it was hard to tell in the dark where one ended and the other began. She smiled lightly and carefully slid out from between the three girls. As soon as she was out of the bed Thelma rolled from her spot next to an uncovered Cassie, who was shivering at the loss of warmth. Helen went around to the side of the bed grabbed the blanket that had been draped over the arm chair that sat next to the bed and covered Cassie carefully so not to wake her up. She lightly gave Cassie a kiss on the head just as she had done with Ashley. Leaning over Cassie she gave Thelma a kiss as well. Then she went into the bathroom with one last look at her daughter and her friends like any mother, giving a final look to make sure that no nighttime monsters were crawling out from beneath the bed.
Once she was in the bathroom she went over to the sink and turned on the water to cold. She scooped the water into her hands and splashed it on her face to wake her up and cool her down. Helen looked in the mirror to see her reflection. "Looks like all of my monsters are coming back to haunt me?" She asked herself, looking into the mirror a little while longer before finally leaving the bathroom.
She didn't want to leave the room in order to keep an eye on Ashley and the girls, so she put on her robe before quietly sitting in a chair in the corner of her room and opened her laptop to get to work on finding out what Azazeal wanted with her daughter. Azazeal wasn't going to hurt her family. He would have to kill her before she let him get close.
Outside the Sanctuary
Azazeal stood outside the in front of the Sanctuary smoking a cigarette. He smirked to himself in self accomplishment at the impact the faux dream had done to Helen's mind. It looked like her worry and concern for her daughter had gotten the best of her, and that came at his advantage. He guessed after almost losing Ashley once, it must have had been the breaking point of her.
He had no doubt in his mind that Helen would be working on a way to find out what agenda was and why he wanted her daughter. The truth was that what he had shown Helen in the dream was just a ploy to keep her off his trail long enough for him to put his real plan into effect.
What he truly wanted with Ashley was is somewhat inappropriate considering his relationship with her mother. There was something about Ashley that attracted him to her. She was strong, bright, and kind, like her mother. She was also ruthless, cunning, and quick like her father. Those were the qualities that attracted her to him in the first place. He needed her, and wanted her. He needed her to be the one to give him the child that would change the course of future history to come. With both of their powers combined the things they could do together where limitless.
The thing was, however, the only power she knew she had was her father's teleportation. Only he and her grandfather knew of her true powers. The magic inside her would soon be released from within her and her true journey with him will begin. Her mother did not know of the destiny that had been hidden from not only her but history itself. If only her father would have told her of their relation to Rachel McBain, a witch in the early 1700's. Rachel was not only a witch but she was also his lover.
Thinking of his dear Rachel began to lead him to the real reasons he had chosen Ashley in the first place.
Rachel had died in 1746 due to her husband trying to rid her of the so called evil that was inside her. She became obsessed with the rituals of the African servants known today as Voodoo. With her obsession came the release of her true powers. She had summand Azazeal in a dark ritual and sacrificed a servant girl and had thrown her into the river. In which led people to suspect her dark secret.
After Rachel's death no one knew of a child she had produced and given away for safety. She had one child with her husband named Esther but she was lost to the noose on the old hanging tree. She wasn't much younger than Ashley's friend Cassie; it had been a tragic sight to see such a young child just hanging there.
But the child the one, who Rachel had given away, possessed her mother's gift as well as the sister she had never known. She grew up not knowing her mother but she produced children that lead to the birth of more children, who lead to the Magnus family line. Not knowing who the child's real mother was, no one knew of the dark power that the line generated. Even though the McBain bloodline was still around, another strain had been passed different direction, a direction that led straight to the Magnus's.
The McBain bloodline has led to one more individual that has also made a way to his interest. Cassie Hughes, not only was she a friend of Ashley's but she was also the newest McBain to make their presence to the world. She had the powers of the bloodline that ran so deeply through the centuries from her father. Azazeal would have chosen her but she didn't have as many of the qualities that Ashley had. He had a relationship with Cassie's mother but not one that was so long and cherishable as the one he held with Helen.
That had been one of the reasons he had chosen Ashley instead of Cassie. Plus after studying them both it had become apparent that Ashley would be the one to stand up and fight for her family which would also mean her child if all went to plan she were to have one. He had learned in his long years of being alive and studying women is that the stronger the woman is the stronger the bond between mother and child.
Once upon a time, however, Helen had scorned him many a time in the past, by helping Ella Dee, last of the anointed one's and full blown witch, for the last 100 years or so in killing the women he had impregnated in order to bring upon the release of the Nephelim. But now he could take full advantage of the situation that lay out before him. He just needed patience and to wait for destiny to take effect on the souls that he (had set his talons in) would soon have a hold of.
Azazeal took the last long drag on his cigarette before throwing it to the ground, letting the final wisps disappear into the early hour's breeze.
"Happy hunting, my lovely black dahlia." He said into the night before leaving the tortured souls that lay resting in the halls of the Sanctuary unknowing what darkness lay ahead.
