That night, when Beleth and Simmons had kissed, they'd conceived a child. That child, a boy with blonde hair, whose mother had been married to Steele—that child had been Drake.
Everything is connected. Lucy looked at Beleth. "I know your, son. He's a good man." She couldn't believe she was saying this.
Drake had made a lot of mistakes, but in the end, he really was a good man. He wanted to save Sam and his baby. He'd come back to do the right thing. Didn't everyone deserve a second chance to do the right thing?
"He'd want you to fight this—this control Steele has over you. He'd want to be able to get to know you."
Beleth's face softened a bit, and for one fraction of a breath, a tear appeared in his eye. His voice came out soft, sad, resigned. "Thank you. If we meet again in another life, I hope it will be different. You are the kind of person the world needs."
He raised his blade, his hand trembling from the effort of fighting his orders for so long, his face caught in desperate agony, and....
Something large landed behind Lucy, shaking the ground and moving the wind.
Beleth backed away.
She looked behind her and smiled, already knowing what she'd see. The beetle, her friend, stood over her, lowering its horn, facing off against Steele. She had called for his help when the helicopters had been broken, and he had come.
Everything is connected.
A large horn rang out and the beetle charged.
Chapter 126 - Steele
Steele sat in the lotus position, his massive power uncoiling out of him and drilling deep into the earth. Heat rose from below, raising his body temperature and covering his body in a slick sheen of sweat. All around him, Diamond Head cracked open like an egg being prepped for an omelet. The earth caved in on itself, leaving small walking trails weaving through the pulsing lava that had come to his call. Magma rose higher, building slowly, pulled from its thousands of years of slumber like a monster of old.
He basked in the power it took to command nature to his will.
"What have you done?"
Steele opened his eyes and stood, facing the boy—now a man—who had ruined his family. Drake stood before him, Sam at his side, with another girl, her face familiar but unimportant.
His eyes returned to Drake. "I'm glad to have you back. Soon our entire family will be reunited."
He rubbed his fingers at that, anxious for Simmons to arrive. The power in the baby called to him, but he couldn't unleash it without her. He marveled at this draw, this need he had to be with her. He'd squashed all human emotion, prided himself on his inability to know or understand that messy realm, in which so many people lived and died, in their pathetic lives. Even as a child, he'd never understood it.
But Simmons... she ignited something in him, and he knew that his powers and reach and influence would be greater with her by his side. So he cultivated patience. Too much time had gone into these plans to rush it now.
Drake, whose temper controlled him, scowled at Steele. "You're no family of mine."
Drake wasn't his child, true. It galled him to know that his wife had betrayed him with his best friend, that they thought him so stupid, so easily duped by their sniveling lies. So he'd made it his mission to find Drake, and with a poetic timing he couldn't have planned had he tried, he'd found Drake just as the boy was about to live his dreams of surfing.
The plan had been to kill him, to end the life that had ruined his, but when he discovered Drake's extraordinary powers... well, he couldn't snuff out the life of one so great—not until he'd acquired those powers for himself.
But what justice, what pure poetry, to breed the daughter Simmons hated with the son she gave up to protect. A twisted justice to her betrayal.
Now, the baby of these two carried more power than any paranormal ever had. And Steele had taken revenge on the two people who betrayed him. Beleth would live the rest of his life having never known his son, and this baby—what Sam could do with its powers—would bring Simmons back to him, where she belonged.
Sam smiled up at him; her coerced adoration disgusted him, but served his purpose. "Did I do well, Daddy?"
He walked to her and combed her hair with his hand. "Yes, dear, you made your father proud."
The contact didn't please him, but it reinforced his hold on her. She hadn't had the powers he'd hoped for, but she was the key to getting them, just as he'd always known she would be.
He returned to his location on the cliff, concentrating again to raise the magma even higher.
Drake raised his voice to be heard over the boiling rage beneath them. "In your broadcast, you said you were doing this for common man, for the people like those living on this island. If that's true, then why erupt the volcano?"
Clever boy, just like his mother. "When the demons of this volcano are ready, I will send it over the side of the mountain and let it tear a scar through the land. It will burn through everything as it makes its way to the harbor."