Bec McConn

Bec (meaning "Little One") McConn is a fictional character in Darren Shan's Demonata series and title narrator of Bec (which takes place over a thousand years before Demon Thief). She was a member of the MacGrigor clan (though she is raised by the McConn clan) and is distantly related to Grubbs Grady. She was training to be priestess and was taught by Banba and had an extraordinary memory. Bec also narrates Death's Shadow, the seventh book in the series

Ancestry
Bec was born into the MacGrigor clan, who live as outcasts on a remote plain. When the Demonata and Fomorii invaded Ireland several centuries prior to the events of Bec, the MacGrigor allied themselves with the demons, several even going so far as to mate with them. Most (if not all) of the resultant children appeared to be human and without deformities, and so went on to live normal lives. However, as they later discovered, their demonic ancestry had afflicted them with a terrible curse: Just when they had almost reached adulthood, some of the children transformed into werewolves (see also lycanthropy). This continued down the centuries, with at least one child transforming in every generation. The MacGrigor asked druids and priestesses to free them of the curse, but to no avail (though, as is later revealed, Lord Loss possesses the ability to remove the affliction). When Bec learns of her heritage, she fears that she may fall victim to the curse as well.

Original Life
Bec was found at the gate of the MacConn clan's ráth, after her mother dies giving birth to her while on the run. The priestess of the rath, a woman named Banba, tested Bec and discovered that she had magical potential. At Banba's insistence, Bec was accepted as a member of the clan, and spent much of her early life learning the ways of magic. When Bec is in her teens, a tunnel is opened which grants the Demonata access to the human world, and Ireland is overrun by hoards of monstrous demons. The people of the rath must defend themselves from these creatures, but many die in the battles, including Banba, thus leaving Bec without a teacher or a guardian. Several months after these attacks begin, a mysterious, scatterbrained and superhumanly fast boy named Bran arrives at the gates of the rath. He implies that he requires help, and Bec is compelled by a vision to join the group of warriors who volunteer to assist the boy. This ultimately leads her to encounter the druid Drust, who offers herself and the warriors the oppurtunity to help him close the tunnel which is admitting the demons. It is later revealed that closing the tunnel requires the sacrifice of a magician, and that this is why Drust needs Bec. Bec is accepts this, and continues despite the fact that both victory and defeat will result in her demise. Drust tries to teach Bec how to harness the power of stars for spells, as druids do, but she is unable to achieve results with this magic. One night, the demon master known as Lord Loss, who (unknown to Bec at the time, but later revealed thorugh tests carried out by Drust) uses magic to dramatically increase her power. Later, the group encounter the MacGrigor clan, to whom Bec's mother, Aednat, belonged. The MacGrigor reveal that that, for reasons outlined above, their clan bears a curse: In each generation, at least one of their children transforms into a wolf-like creature. They also state that Aednat gave birth to six other children before Bec, all of whom fell victim to the curse. When shet fell pregnant with Bec, Struan, Aednat's husband, decided to kill the child in the womb. Aednat defended herself, and stabbed Struan to death (possibly accidentally), then fled from the rath to escape retribution. These revelations are deeply disturbing to Bec.

When they arrive at the tunnel, all of the group are killed apart from Bec, Drust and (as is later revealed) Bran. Drust is mortally wounded by Bran (who was trying to save Bec's life) and, to weak to perform the ritual, offers himself for the sacrifice instead. Bec dies (presumably) when she tries to escape from the lodestone after killing Drust she and Bran try to flee and come close until Vein, who came back from the Demonata realm through a window constructed by Lord Loss, grabs hold of Bec's leg. Bran charms Vein, but by that time the hole to escape is so small they would not be able to make it. Bec uses what is left of her magic to send Bran forcibly through the hole. Just before it closes he shouts "Bec!" through the hole, this is the first time he says anyones name. She can not reply as the hole closes,leaving her sealed inside the cave. There she is presumably killed by Lord Loss' familiars after he explains why he helped the group by increasing Bec's power (the reason being that Lord Loss feeds off misery, not death; were the world destroyed then his food source would similarly vanish). He also tells her her death was for nothing, as he had been crossing between the demon world and the human world for centuries before. He claims that he liked Bec, and would have enjoyed feeding off the misery which she was destined to experience. However, when Drust had humiliated him earlier in the book, he placed a geis (the demon curse of death) upon the entire group, and therefore claims that he has no choice but to kill her.

Imprisonment and rebirth
Bec reappears in Blood Beast. When Grubbs is dealing with the family curse, he goes to the tunnel where Bec died. Her soul has somehow become trapped in the cave, keeping her on Earth. Grubbs sees her face and hears her whisper a warning, but she is speaking Celtic so Grubbs doesn't understand. Later when Juni helps Grubbs escape, he returns there. The whispers are more warning. Grubbs yells at her "I don't understand you" and using his magic shakes the cave violently. She then disappears.

In the latter part of Demon Apocalypse, Beranabus realises that Bec was warning Grubbs about Lord Loss's plan to reopen the tunnel which they closed centuries before. However, by the time he arrives with Grubbs and Kernel, it is too late, and the demons have already emerged. Bec's trapped soul reaches out from the rock to Grubbs and Kernel, and the boys combine their powers with hers to travel back in time (along with Beranabus) to the night the tunnel was reopened. This feat prompts Beranabus' realisation that Bec is the third piece of the Kah-Gash. They prevent the tunnel's opening, but are forced to kill Bill-E Spleen to do so. Seeing that Lord Loss intends to kill them all, Bec enters, takes over and reanimates the body of the deceased Bill-E, and fights off the demon master. She transforms the body to recreate her original appearance, and finds herself faced with a second chance at life, albeit in a time many centuries after that in which she was born.

Powers and Abilities
Bec is very powerful and it is stated in the book Demon Apocalypse that she is more powerful than both Beranabus and Grubbs (but only after Lord Loss powered her up). Her trainer when she was younger was Banba, but she was struck and killed by a demon. Thus Bec's training ended and her skills grew rusty. One talent which remains constant throughout both her training with Banba and her supercharged state following her encounter with Lord Loss is her memory: it is so perfect she can even remember her own birth. This talent also comes in useful in allowing her to remember all the spells she is ever taught. After Bran appears, Bec meets Drust, who teaches her druid spells and increases her power. However, her power truly becomes phenomenal when Lord Loss uses his own magic to both spark her inate magical skill and then enhance it to the point that she essentially by-passes all the normal turning points of the mystic arts in one bound.

Bec is a piece of the Kah-Gash. It is possible that Lord Loss was the one who created the piece of the Kah-Gash inside her (unknowingly), meaning that he could be the one that brings about his own destruction, (the Kah-Gash can be used to destroy universes). In Book 7 she seems unable to use magic like Grubbs and Beranabus can (who are able to conjure powerful magic and spells without demon presence or "magic in the air") however she does gain the ability to soak up the memories of those that she touches; the longer they touch the more memories she gets.