by Sara Snow
I rolled my eyes. “Okay. If you say so.”
“I’m pretty sure the only reason they were together was so that they could feed. Carter’s been a real dickhead lately, and that’s usually how he gets when he’s hungry.”
“I get it. He’s half-vampire, and he needs someone to satisfy his urge for blood. End of story.”
I broke free from Olympia, got up, and went back to my packing.
“Are you going to be okay, sweetie?” she asked. “I didn’t mean to make you upset. I wasn’t even going to say anything.”
“I understand, Olympia. And it’s fine. Trust me, I’ll live.”
I gave Olympia a quick hug, just to reassure her that I truly did not care. I knew what Carter was, even though he had tried to hide that secret from me, too. When it came to telling me the truth, Carter didn’t have a great track record.
Besides, he obviously needed something that I couldn’t provide. Even if I weren’t pissed off at Carter right now, even if I weren’t sick of his controlling personality, I wouldn’t be willing to give him a single drop of my blood.
If I was going to survive a road trip with this crew, I needed every ounce of strength I could get.
Georgia
After we finished packing our clothes, Olympia and I went downstairs to her room to pack her “mobile apothecary,” as she called it.
“I’m not going to leave Chicago without plenty of magic,” the witch declared. “I’m taking all the implements, charms, and potions that Carter will let me carry in his car.”
Olympia showed me the jars of dried herbs and animal parts that she was taking with her. She could whip up potions to ward off just about anything that could walk, crawl, or fly. She could also see the future in an ancient mirror that she’d inherited from her grandmother, who was also a witch from the Trikoni cult.
“I saw your mother in this mirror,” Olympia said. She carefully picked up the silver oval disc and handed it to me. Its reflective surface was semi-opaque, revealing only a swirl of clouds when I held it up to my own face.
“How do you see anything reflected on a surface like that?” I asked. “All I see is smoke.”
“It doesn’t reflect the present, only the future,” Olympia explained. “And sometimes, it can also show me the past if it affects future events.”
She took the mirror and held it gently in her graceful hands. The swirls of smoke shifted, then parted. A dark mass took their place, like a crowd of huddled shadows.
“What’s that?” I asked.
As we watched, the mass of shadows separated into distinct forms. Their shapes were almost, but not quite, human.
Olympia quickly put the mirror down. She wrapped the disc in a soft pink scarf and tucked it into the enormous suitcase she was packing.
“That’s enough for now,” she said briskly. “No point worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet. Right?”
“Right,” I agreed.
The brief vision of shadows in Olympia’s mirror had disturbed me deeply, but I didn’t want her to know how worried I was. When the shadows parted, they formed three shapes. For some weird reason, they reminded me of the Three Wise Men from the Christmas nativity, but in a warped and menacing form.
Is that what’s waiting for us at the end of this journey? Three demon kings waiting to destroy us?
“What exactly did you see in that mirror when you saw my mother?” I asked.
“Georgia.” Olympia sighed. “I don’t think you really want to know.”
“No, I don’t. But I think it’s better that I find out now, don’t you? Before I actually meet her? I’m not as innocent as you and Carter think I am. I’ve known from the beginning that this wasn’t going to be some kind of fantasy reunion. I just want to get an idea of how ugly it’s going to be.”
Olympia sat down on one of the enormous Moroccan cushions that circled the floor of her room. She patted the cushion next to her.
“Sit down, honey. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”
The picture Olympia painted of Deena didn’t really surprise me. Nothing she said about my mother could have shocked me at this point. Demons were feeding her habit, keeping her at the brink of death in a condition that didn’t qualify as a form of living. The woman Olympia had seen in her mirror looked like an animated skeleton, and she used the word “animated” very loosely.
My mother’s body, according to Olympia, was a shell that held the remains of a human soul. I imagined grotesque beings huddled over her, helping her fill her syringe with the clear liquid that sent her into outer space.
“Why are they keeping her alive?” I asked in a hoarse whisper. I didn’t want to cry in front of Olympia. I didn’t have the luxury of a meltdown, not with so much at stake.
Olympia looked me square in the eye. “Your mother is bait,” she said. “For you. You’re the one they want, Georgia. They’re just spoon-feeding her heroin long enough for you to get there. Then, they’ll cut her off. Her addiction is so severe at this point that she won’t survive without her drugs. They’ve cut off most of her food and water. Not that she cares about eating or drinking at this point.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “If Paimon and his gang want me so much, why don’t they just come and get me? Why are they setting this whole thing up, torturing my mom? I don’t love Deena. I don’t even know her anymore. But . . . she’s my mother, for god’s sake.”
Tears spilled from my eyes without warning, though I’d been trying like hell not to cry.
“Your mother holds the key to your growth,” Olympia said softly. “Until you reconnect with her, meet her in the flesh, you won’t be able to move on to claim your full power. Paimon knows that. That’s why he’s been leading us to her.”
“It’s more than wanting power, Olympia. I need to see her. I feel like she’s pulling me there like a magnet. I’ve tried to fight against that feeling, and I’ve tried to talk myself out of going to her. But I can’t. It’s something I have to do. I want to feel like a whole person, and I don’t. I never have.”
“I know. That’s why we’re going with you, Georgia. We’re a team, remember?”
Olympia handed me a tissue that smelled like patchouli. That hippie scent made me sneeze. This whole trip was beginning to look less and less like my idea, and more like a puppet show being staged by my demonic father and his buddies.
I still had my free will—we all did. Any one of the Venandi could have said no to this trip, but we were all going through with it, not just for my sake but for the team. If I could claim my full power, it would be more than worth it for all of us—if we made it out alive.
Olympia jumped to her feet. She opened a drawer in her antique vanity table, pulled out a silver flask, and unscrewed the lid.
“Hey, let’s stop being so gloomy and think about how much fucking fun we’re going to have,” she said. “Just a gang of demon hunters cruising down the highway. Let’s have a toast to your very first official road trip.”
Olympia took a long swig from the flask, then held it out to me.
I eyed the flask suspiciously. “What is it?”
“A little taste of heaven. Go ahead,” she urged. “It’s a toast. You have to have at least one sip.”
I closed my eyes, wrinkled my nose, and tipped the flask up to my mouth. I swallowed.
And promptly sprayed the vile-tasting fluid across the room.
“Holy hell, what is that? It tastes like licorice-flavored turpentine!”
Olympia gave me a serene smile. “It’s a Trikoni tradition. A liqueur that we drink to celebrate feminine rites of passage. A bit like absinthe—only better, don’t you think?”
I gave her a dirty look. “Okay, I guess I’ve been initiated into your witchy tradition. Just don’t ask me to take another sip.”
“Fair enough. Not everyone can appreciate a well-aged Trikoni liqueur.”
“How ‘aged’ are we talking about? Three hundred years?”
Olympia thought for a sec
ond, tapping her upper lip with her index finger. “That would be about right. About the same time my great-great grandmother was hanged for using a divining rod to find water in the middle of a drought. Can you imagine?”
“No, but you just gave me an idea,” I said. “Can the Trikoni control the elements?”
“Water, to some extent. But not fire. We’re very much on the ‘yin’ side of things. Fire is a masculine element—water is feminine.” She tipped her head and studied me.
“I can see why fire is your element,” Olympia mused. “You have that heat about you, that energy. You’ll destroy everything in your path if anyone gets in your way.”
“I don’t want to destroy anything,” I said, feeling a little creeped out by her analysis. “All I want is to keep the four of us safe.”
“Trust me,” Olympia said with a shiver. “The last thing I want is to be slaughtered by demons.”
“There’s a river where we’re going, isn’t there? Kingston showed me on his map—it separates the U.S. from Mexico.”
“It’s called the Rio Grande,” Olympia said. “It runs all the way from Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico. Geography was never my thing, but I do know that much.”
“So, we’ll be at a border town with a river,” I said. “That gives us a big advantage.”
“Why is that?”
“Water can put out fire. But fire can’t destroy water. We’ll be safer if we stay near the river. Even if Paimon brings all of his minions.”
Olympia flipped her long blonde ringlets and scoffed.
“You’re starting to sound like Jose, talking in weird riddles. But hey, if it makes you feel more confident, we’ll stay as close to the Rio Grande as possible. Hell, we can go skinny-dipping in the river if it makes you happy.”
“Sure, as long as the guys aren’t watching.” The thought of Carter and/or Jacob spying on Olympia and me while we swam nude was intriguing. But I didn’t have time to indulge in erotic fantasies right now.
I grabbed Olympia’s hand. “Let’s go to the training room and practice.”
“Practice what?” The witch followed me helplessly out of the room and down the hall.
“Throwing things. Setting stuff on fire. We need to be prepared for whatever comes our way,” I said.
I wanted Olympia to think I was brave, that my heart was light and my focus clear. But in the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake that image of the three demons, or the feeling that there were hundreds, possibly thousands, of them lurking in the unseen shadows.
And I was leading Venandi right into Paimon’s hands.
Georgia
Jacob had beaten us to the punch. He was already lifting weights in the training room when we arrived. I watched him for a few moments, his shoulder blades rising and falling as he raised the weighted barbell in an overhead press, the muscles along his spine supporting that fluid motion. I couldn’t help noticing how his t-shirt grew taut over his slim waist as his shoulders rose with each rep.
Beads of sweat sparkled on the back of Jacob’s neck. His skin was flushed with effort. A jump rope lay coiled like a snake on the floor beside the weight bench. He had been skipping rope between sets.
“What are you training for, the Olympics?” I asked.
Jacob turned. His eyes lit up when he saw me, with a smile so warm and sweet that I wanted to melt.
Why can’t I fall for someone like that? Why do I keep thinking about Carter when there’s a guy right here who smiles at me like I’m Miss Universe?
“Well, if it isn’t the Dark Princess of Sarcasm,” he said in mock awe. “And her handmaiden, Glenda the Not-so-Good Witch.”
“Georgia is here to practice throwing weapons with her mind,” Olympia said haughtily. “So, I’d suggest you be on your best behavior, Jacob, if you don’t want her to throw a nunchuk at your balls.”
“Yeow,” Jacob winced. “How about I stay here in the corner and watch?”
“Good boy.” Olympia smirked. “It’s best you keep your distance.”
Olympia and I grabbed folding chairs and sat facing each other in the center of the room. She held my hands loosely in hers, and we closed our eyes and focused on the rhythm of our breathing. This was the technique Olympia had taught me for focusing my mind so that I could not only move objects around, but cause shifts in bodies of water and gusts of wind.
“Your mind is like the ocean, full of strength and power. The surface is calm, but under the waves, there are currents that you can control. You can use the water to move mountains, if you want to.”
Today, I didn’t want to move mountains; I just wanted to hurl heavy objects, preferably with sharp blades. I glanced at a pair of rare Japanese swords that had a place of pride in the center of the weapons display. I imagined their blades flashing as they sliced the air. The swords began to quiver, then they rose from the fixtures that held them to the wall.
“Don’t mess with those,” Jacob pleaded, observing from his corner of the room. “They were made by one of Japan’s top executioners hundreds of years ago. Dad would die if anything happened to his swords, or if you accidentally cut off my head with one of the blades.”
“Fine,” I grumbled. I focused instead on lifting the heavy weight bench where Jacob had been sitting and making it twirl in the air like a leaf on the wind.
Damn, Olympia was right. I was getting stronger. I set the bench gently down, then concentrated my energy on the barbell that Jacob had been lifting.
This was going to be tough. There were fifty-pound plates attached to that barbell. That might not be much for a guy like Jacob to lift, but it was a lot more weight than I was used to moving around mentally.
I visualized my power as a tsunami, gathering force underwater before building to a mighty crest. I imagined that the barbell was a tiny boat, lighter than a matchbox as the wave lifted it off its course. I willed the little boat to rise with the energy of that wave.
The barbell rose into the air, hovering above the ground before levitating like a feather. I made it float, then slowly twirl in midair. If I had summoned up enough anger, I could have made the thing fly, hurling it like one of those weapons I’d thrown at Carter’s head. Keeping it under control took a lot more effort. I could feel my mind contracting, flexing, straining to keep the barbell afloat.
Okay, kid. Let’s see what else you can do.
I closed my eyes and visualized the barbell as a spinning wheel of fire. Heat rushed through my body as if the flames were coursing through my blood, then soaring through the air to engulf the metal.
Olympia shrieked, and I opened my eyes to see her and Jacob staring. Their mouths were slack with wonder as I made the flaming barbell dip and soar like a bird. Even Olympia, no stranger to miraculous feats of magic, turned as white as a sheet when I made the flaming weights spin above their heads.
“Please, please don’t drop it!” Olympia squealed, scurrying off to a corner of the room. “You’re going to turn the whole damn building into an inferno!”
If I can start the fire, then I can put it out. I’m the one in control here.
I drew the fire away from the barbell, taming the flames and making them subside before letting the heavy object sink to the concrete floor. It landed with a thud and a puff of smoke.
Jacob gave a low whistle. “Damn, Georgia. You are one amazing woman. I mean, cambion.”
The frank admiration in his voice filled me with a warm, fizzy joy. My telekinetic power used to be totally random, manifesting itself when I was furious or afraid for my life. I never knew when things were going to fly—it just happened. Now I could not only direct heavy things to move, I could make them dance around the room, glide to the ceiling, and burst into flame.
The seed of an idea unfurled in my mind. If I could consciously control large objects, maybe I could direct my energy to bigger entities, like the weather or the earth.
Maybe Olympia’s right, maybe I can move mountains. What if I can cause earthquakes? Avalanches? Fires that engul
f entire forests?
I released the current flowing beneath the barbell, then whirled around to face my friends, dancing in delight. Jacob’s face glowed with pride and amazement.
“I can’t get over how incredible you are,” he said. Before I knew what was happening, he took me in his arms and gave me a huge hug, grasping me so hard that I couldn’t speak.
“Sorry,” he said, when he finally let me go. “I couldn’t help it. I’m stunned. I don’t know how else to say it. I knew you had powers, Georgia, but I had no idea you were this far along.”
As I stood glowing in the light of Jacob’s praise and the warmth of his arms, Olympia gave me a sly look of comprehension. She beckoned to me with a slender hand. I broke away from Jacob and followed her to the door. Jacob went over to the barbell and started to examine it, as if he wanted to make sure that it was made of steel and not Styrofoam.
“Looks like you have more than one admirer,” Olympia said in a low voice. “Just remember we’re going to be enclosed in a car with Jacob and Carter for almost twenty-four hours total. You’ll have to be careful not to set off any sparks, or we’ll all go up in flames.”
“I’m not planning to set off anything,” I said, irritated. “They’re both grown-up men. If they can’t handle themselves, we’ll kick them out of the car.”
Olympia kissed me on the cheek. “That’s the spirit. Now I have to run—I’ve got a date tonight, and this guy is smokin’ hot.”
I wanted to ask the witch why she was getting all this action while warning me not to stir up any male libidos. But she was already hurrying down the hall, her blonde curls swinging over her full hips.
“Hey, Georgia. Does it wear you out, lifting barbells with your brain?” Jacob called from across the room.
“Sort of. But not the way it wears me out to lift weights with my body. It’s more like trying to cram for the hardest test of your life in about five minutes.”
“I wouldn’t know.” Jacob grinned. “I never spent much time studying in school.”