The Black Craft (Book 1 in The Black Craft Saga)

Chapter 20 - Heartless

At once all the curtains flew back as the window shutters outside snapped open to let the sunlight come pouring in. Willem pulled a curtain off it's railing and threw it over Christian/Hugo before he turned to ash as the other Eve-Walker's did. Riley jumped on Desiree, pinning her to the ground as he filled the room with shadow now that the other Eve-Walker's were dead.

Riley struggled to stand upright whilst still keeping a firm hold on Desiree.

"She's getting stronger already." he said to the room at large. "I wasn't expecting it to take effect so soon."

"Time to get some answers." Said Leonard as he helped Riley tie Desiree to a chair.

"Are there any more Hugo Moon followers waiting to take over should you fail?" I asked jumping right in.

"No. You killed the last of them by letting the sun in." Desiree said as Willem and Faith went around closing the curtains and window shutters.

"Why would you want to resurrect Hugo Moon?" Asked Riley.

"Our family have been waiting for the opportunity for years!" She spat. "My father was created by Hugo Moon, his name was Dermot Hart. He sought out an evil witch, one that knew of ways to bring back dead Eve-Walkers but, of course, he had to pay a price for her assistance."

"What did he have to do?" Leonard asked impassively.

"Children. She wanted children to carry on her legacy of black witchcraft, The Hart Craft we called it. Evil witches are rare to come by and she wanted to make sure her legacy lived on forever."

"So the evil witch was your mother and your father was created by the first vampire. What happened to them? Why aren't they here helping you?" Willem asked as he and Faith joined our circle.

"Mother may have been powerful but she was still human, idiot. She raised us for twenty years before she passed away. Father was killed by a witch twenty six years ago, she had only just come into her powers just weeks beforehand. Another Black witch." she said meeting my eyes.

"That must be Riona." I said to the Smiths. "Riona is forty-four now so she would've come of age twenty six years ago."

Desiree hissed. "So, you were the one left to carry out Daddy dearest's dirty deeds after he died?" Leonard asked. "Neither of your siblings knew?"

"I informed Astrid of our father's plan before we moved to Penn Gate. Father had always planned to use Christian as our sacrifice so I saw no reason in telling him."

"How could you do that to your own brother?" I asked disgusted.

"It is a blessing." she shouted. "But now he is empty, I removed his soul so that Great Father's spirit could take hold of his body."

"He's not empty. My spell should have undone all your evil doings." I explained.

"Magic can't bring back the dead, Billie." Leonard said. "No matter how powerful you are."

"But he's not technically dead. Is he?"

"Only one way to find out." Willem said before whipping off the curtain he'd used to protect Christian's body from the sunlight. "Yo, Hart! You in there, man?" he said poking his arm.

Christian stirred at Willem's touch before opening his eyes. "Where am I? What happened?" he croaked.

"You're alright, apparently. Billie reversed the ritual." Leonard said resting a reassuring hand on Christian's shoulder.

"What happened to the others?" he asked.

"Don't worry, I took care of them too."

"Desiree." He groaned.