Chapter 87: Nightmare in the Healing Wing

Daxius POV

Dark shadows reached out for his Marieke as she sat by the water, humming a cheerful tune. She sat with her back to Daxius. For some reason, he couldn't see himself. He only saw her. Yet he reached out for her to warn her about the claws that wanted to grab her. He tried to speak, but no words came out, just as when he was cursed.

All he could do was moan pathetically.

Marieke slowly turned around, and his heart froze.

Her eyes were solid black holes, soulless. She grinned ghoulishly at him. "I feel perfect," she said in a chilling, inhuman voice. "Come join me. Join us."

"NO!"

Gasping, Daxius jerked awake and sat upright in sweat-stained silk sheets. Impatiently, he shoved them aside. Who on earth made sheets with this much fabric? It took forever before he freed himself. He leapt out of bed and raced from his bedchamber in the palace, down too many d*mn flights of stairs, and finally to the Healing Wing. He burst into the private chamber and saw Dane and Patch pinning Hades/Melisande to the bed while Lilia and Anneliese formed a blockade around Marieke. 

"What happened?"

Dane replied tersely, "Hades tried to jump bodies."

"Idiot," Patch growled. "If he hates being in a witch's body, he'd really be miserable in a human woman's. Old Dark-Face hasn't learned a thing."

"It's partly the Dark Goddess." Daxius noticed he sounded like a rickety old man. "He's so desperate to get relief from her that he'll do anything. I was warned. I had a nightmare."

Lilia sounded soothing. "Marieke is family. He's not getting anywhere near her."

Daxius saw the wrinkles on the face of the formerly ageless-looking Melisande. "Good, because he's ruining the body he's got. It could break down any second."

Patch growled, "He wants a new body to inhabit, preferably a shifter's."

Lilia hissed, "Over my dead body."

"NO," Patch and Dane shouted in agreement. 

Anneliese's blue eyes were bright with indignation. "It's bad enough Hades took Melisande's soul and sent it off. It made it to the Celestial Plane, and that was lucky. No one else is going to suffer that fate. We might not be that lucky next time."

"Hades doesn't have to change bodies. We've boosted Melisande's vitality with healing spells," Lilia added. "I can feel fire magic in here too. Healing Flame. Your friends the Blackthorns probably did that."

Daxius nodded. "Talon Blackthorn is a fire elemental mage. Kelara is an air elemental mage."

Lilia smiled. "The fire provides vitality. It will also cleanse some of the darkness from Marieke and Melisande. Not a lot, in Melisande's case, but it'll help."

"We'll all strengthen his body," Dane declared. "Show us what to do."

Daxius grinned. "We'll build on the Healing Flame spell and use it to speed the healing in Melisande's body. Fire can be a killer, but it cleanses and sterilizes. It also releases negativity, such as anger, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, revenge, and other potent emotions."

He concentrated, drawing the fire energy into the air and creating a flickering flame hanging over Melisande's head. Pouring his own crystal energy into it, he infused a light turquoise color into the bright orange-and-red fireball. Lilia added violet energy.

* * * * *

Hades POV

Fools!

Did they think he would so easily surrender?

It didn't matter if that fire mage was a Sinsworth or not. Who would have imagined that Talon Sinsworth would produce such a strong line? Hades had always thought of him as weak, an opinion that gained steam when Talon chose a HUMAN as his mate. Fremont Sinsworth was a true Alpha, but also rigid and closed. Hades couldn't influence him even a little bit. 

Talon Sinsworth Blackthorn also felt closed-off, and yet Hades detected a hint of darkness in him. And hadn't he mentioned the Dark Hand? Hades had read about them.

"Goddess," he mentally addressed her. "What is this Dark Hand?"

Her silvery laughter rippled through their link. "Oh, Hades. Sometimes I forget you're still just a pup in the scheme of things."

"I AM NOT."

"Exactly what a pup would say," she said with a hint of fondness. "The Dark Hand is my ally in the human, mage, and elven worlds. Lord Drannor Glynthyra was one of them."

Hades felt astonished. The High Elf he'd manipulated, trying to gain access to the Brighmere Wood Elves and to Princess Thessalia, had been part of this Dark Hand?

"How did I not know that? Drannor was my creature!"

"MY creature," the Dark Goddess corrected him. "You didn't know because there was no need for you to know. Why do you think you conveniently heard about them now, hmmm? Do you think that was an accident? You were ready for the knowledge."

"But this changes everything," he argued. "If I'd known I had a source of support from your followers in the human world, I'd have been a lot stronger!"

"After your failure, I needed to be sure I could trust you." 

"I did NOT–"

"Hades." Now her voice had a hint of exasperation. "You did well here, fortunately."

Wild laughter bubbled up, and he heard Melisande's laughter burst from those perfect lips. His lips still. "Did well? Are you joking?"

"Not at all. Those fools think that they can outmaneuver and out-think me. What they don't know is that they're sealing their fate."

He groaned and growled. "I don't understand."

Oh, he hated the smells in any place where humans lived. He would probably loathe them even more if his nose weren't so limited by human inferiority. He gagged, smelling the human stink around him. 

"Please," he begged. "I need a shifter body, at least."

"When the time is right. They're still too suspicious. I'll send an agent of the Dark Hand to help you. Watch for their arrival. They're closer than you think."

His head began to hurt, and he moaned. "Get me out of this body," he said, his eyes open and staring up into Dane Cresta's arrogant blue eyes.

Dane's eyes turned wolf gold. Bastard, flaunting his wolf powers. "No. You made your bed."

"I'll go mad! If you don't help me, I'll stop her heart."

"Then you'll die, and the fun starts all over again," Patch snarled. 

Hades paused.

Wandering without a body, in-between the Celestial Plane and the earth, had been torture. And who knew what strange new body the Dark Goddess might choose for him this time?

Lilia triple-teamed him. "On the other hand, Melisande is your blood. She may be FEMALE and not a shifter, but her shifter powers could emerge. Sometimes, the wolfless can discover their wolves later in life."

Hades grunted. "That's true."

Anneliese sounded scornful. "After taking so many wolves and controlling them, you really don't deserve to have one again. But we have to make sacrifices, too."

Daxius was the calm voice of reason. "You have a chance to help us, and find the eternal peace you crave on the Celestial Plane. Do you accept?"

It was a trick. It had to be. And he needed a shifter body.

Sparks shot out from his hands, and although physically and magically shielded, he still managed to push Dane and Patch off him.

"NO!"