Chapter 4

Bonding

"You want to go home, to your family,huh? I'm your family Kara, your real family or did you forget?"

"You've been dead for three years Eve, and not the 'I'm dead, but I'll pop in occasionally' dead, dead. Dead, DEAD, dead!"

"You did it Kara, so you can't pretend..."

"... I can't pretend what Eve? That I don't hate myself for it! That I didn't grieve every day. That I didn't want to look in the mirror, because, you, the person I helped kill, stares back at me every day out of the back of my own eyes."

Eve stared at her open mouthed and dumbfounded "Yes, Eve I know I did it, and I know what it feels like to kill someone you care about and have a soul."

"And I wish I did!" Eve yelled "I wish I did." She said again much more softly.

"What?"

"I don't want to do this anymore. To be a demon. I've been to the Wasteland, Kara, and I have no desire to go back...I know you can't make me human, that no-one but the Elders can do that and I know they won't do that. I have nothing else to bargain with other than you, but you could use dad's spell to strip me of my demonic powers, which is close enough for me."

"I...Why would you not want to be a demon anymore?"

"I never wanted to be one in the first place and I'm in the unusual position of having a choice. Could the Charmed Ones help you dya think?"

"They might consider it, if you take me back."

Another voice cut in, "She won't take you back." The demon, Elaina, who's plan it had been to resurrect Eve and manipulate her by placing her spirit in Kara's body, in order to return order to her leaderless and scattered species, had heard their conversation and outraged at Eve's continuing betrayal. She kicked the last crystal of the cage back into place, trapping both sisters inside.

"I always told your mother that there was no place for half breeds in the Underworld. I had to have Eve kill her to get into the position, where I could make my point. Which was fun, of course!"

Eve rushed at the front of the cavern towards the taunting she demon and was hurled backwards into the opposite wall of the cave.

"Hey" Kara called "What is this?"

"Your mother polluted this Clan, fornicating with a witch."

"The breed was never pure there's never been such a thing as a male Tantrix demon."

"Aye, but the father's are supposed to die once their seed is sown. Not to continue to live and to raise the children in the ways of good." she nearly spat the word "he kept you and the two of you, you and your father,. Him killing us in his attempts to get her back, you polluting her mind when you met her" The she demon watched Kara's face as her expression changed "You didn't know that we knew did you?" You polluted her mind, like your mother polluted the bloodline, when you met her. She had these stupid ideas about democracy and 'softly, softly' and allowing demons to leave the Tribe and letting the others talk back to her. It was pathetic for Source's sake. Well no more!"

"What do yo want with me?"

The older Tantrix demon smirked at her question. She turned on her heel and strode away. Kara sighed and ran over to Eve.

"Evie? Evie are you OK?"

"Evie? It's been twenty years since anyone called me that."

"Why does she hate you... hate us so much Eve?"

Eve smiled wanly and dragged herself upright so she was sat with her back against the cold wet cave wall, wincing as the wall scraped, the wound that had been opened by her fall.

"Because I was too human. I loved and I missed you and our Dad, however demonic I became, I still kept some of my humanity, because of the two of you. I could kill when I had to but I hated it, especially within the Tribe, my second family. I tended not to issue orders, most of the younger demons preferred that , but some of the older, more powerful, OLD GOATS!" Eve leaned round her sister and yelled out of the glowing mouth of the cavern, obviously hoping to at least irritate their tormentor, "felt that it weakened the Tribe. Many of them left the Tribe, a lot fell victim to their own Power."

Kara made a questioning sound, not wanting to interrupt the longest speech she had heard her sister make since she had been kidnapped all those years before.

"They let themselves believe in the Thrall. They fell in love with their targets, like..."

"...Like Mom did" Kara finished gently.

"And with her no longer here, they blame me for that."

"But, you killed her!" Kara said hotly, the thought making her angry, then she saw the pain and uncertainty in her twins' face and was decidedly thrown "Right?"

"I did, but only to save my own life and I regret it every day. Maybe I do know what it's like to kill someone you care about and have a soul."

"What?"

Eve shook her head and offered her sister her hand. Kara understood instantly, it was too painful for her sister to talk about but Eve was willing to show her.

Kara took Eve's hands and watched that terrible day, the day Eve had taken on the unwanted mantle of Tribal Queen, through her demonic sisters' eyes.