by Lori Drake
Chapter 25
I ended up perched at one end of the blue plaid sofa, my hat and gloves resting in my lap. I forced myself to lean back, not wanting to seem too eager.
Just play it cool, Em.
“So, uh, where do we start?” I asked, leaning an elbow on the arm of the sofa.
“Well, we could start with the usual questions. Who am I, how did I end up here, and what makes John think I can help you?” Kassidy replied.
I couldn’t help but smile. This was a woman after my own heart. Straight to the point. I respected that. “That sounds about right to me. But, uh, does John bring you strays often?” My eyes slid toward the man in the kitchen, but there was no reaction. Either he was tuning us out or at least giving the illusion that he was.
Kassidy chuckled. “Not often. But before we begin, I should tell you… I’m a very private person, and I don’t welcome unwanted attention. If I am to help you, I must have your assurance that you won’t reveal anything you may learn about me to anyone else. Whatever I’m able to tell you about your own abilities, those morsels are yours to hoard or share as you see fit. But when it comes to me… I do not exist. I don’t want to seem boorish, but I can make life very uncomfortable for people who cross me.”
The sound of John making tea was a mundane backdrop for a very serious opener to our conversation. I raised a brow at what Kassidy had said. There was an unmistakable note of seriousness to her tone. She definitely wasn’t joking.
“Okay,” I said, deciding that caution was the order of the day. “But if that’s how it’s going to be, I want the same from you. When it comes to me, my abilities, whatever is going on with me. I don’t want you to talk about it with anyone else either.”
She smiled. “Fair is fair. What about John?” She inclined her head in the direction of the man leaning against the kitchen counter, looking out the window while he waited for the water to boil. There was no way he was not listening.
“You can talk about it with John. The cat’s already out of that particular bag,” I said. I’d just have to have a private chat with John when all this was done, to make sure he would keep my counsel. I suspected, given his apparent association with Kassidy and her own proclivities when it came to privacy, that he wouldn’t have a problem with that. Thinking about it, he had been pretty cagey and non-specific about who it was he wanted to introduce me to.
“Splendid.” Kassidy clapped her hands together before folding them across her stomach. Her elbows were resting comfortably on the arms of her chair. “My name, as you know, is Kassidy. You can think of me as an occult librarian. I’ve spent my entire life studying magic. I maintain a vast archive of information, some of it my own notes, some of it notes and texts written by others. I won’t pretend to know everything. I have plenty of texts in my collection that I simply don’t understand. But it keeps life interesting, I suppose.”
I took all this in quietly, absently fingering the cuff of my knitted hat. “No offense, but you don’t look old enough to have very vast experience.”
She laughed lightly, eyes twinkling. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
The kettle whistled, forestalling my answer momentarily. I was probably squinting unattractively, peering at her for some hint of a spell, a charm, anything that would explain the fact that she looked like an eighteen-year-old girl. Her mannerisms were a little off for someone that age, but otherwise… I wasn’t sure what to think.
“Are you affiliated with the Circle?” I asked once John had removed the kettle from the stove, quieting it.
The smooth half of her face screwed up in a scowl. “That presumptuous bunch of self-important feckers? No.”
My jaw dropped, but I quickly snapped it shut. Sure, few outside the Circle’s allied covens appreciated their meddling in everyone else’s business, but I’d never heard anyone speak quite so openly against them. Most were too busy trying not to attract their attention. Before witches went mainstream, the Circle was really good at making the ones who attracted too much attention disappear. These days, their focus had shifted more to PR and image management for witchkind, but they were still a force to be reckoned with.
“Right,” I said, more than willing to drop the subject. “Okay, so, what can you tell me about what happened to me?”
Kassidy’s scowl faded as swiftly as it came. She leaned forward slightly in her chair. “I know what John told me about the incident, but secondary sources are always more suspect than primary ones. Why don’t you tell me what happened, in your own words?”
“Well, I saw this witch using too much magic. It was like it was being drawn out of him in this long rope, stretching up into the sky. He was just… checked out, you know? Like he was in some sort of trance. I knew he was going to burn out if I didn’t do something, so I grabbed him and then I felt his power flowing into me—through me—into the ground. I told Esc— It was like being a magical lightning rod. That’s the best explanation I can think of. Anyway, he’s okay. The witch. He didn’t burn out, and now I have no idea what I did or if I can do it again.”
“Fascinating,” Kassidy said, after listening quite raptly. “Have you tried? Doing it again.”
I shook my head quickly. “No. Honestly, it scared the crap out of me. You see, I can’t actually use magic. Whatever spark it is that witches are born with, I’ve never had it. My whole family has it, but not me.”
“Mmhmm. Well, it sounds more like the magic is using you than the other way around.” She paused to look up as John brought her a mug of tea and a little caddie with milk and sugar. “Thank you, John.”
“So, you’ve never heard of anything like this?” I asked. Dismay gnawed at the pit of my stomach, like a dog worrying a bone. John brought me a cup of tea too, and I accepted it distractedly, leaning over to set it on the coffee table to cool.
“I never said that,” Kassidy said. “But I need to consult the archive. John, do you mind if Emily tries to use her power on you?”
“No, I don’t mind,” he said without a hint of hesitation.
“Um, what if I mind?” My voice pitched higher than usual thanks to rising anxiety.
“You don’t have anything to fear,” Kassidy said, smiling at me. The unmelted side of her mouth curved much more naturally than the other. I wondered, idly, how far down the burns went under her T-shirt. “John, stand there in the center of the room where I can have a good look. Just open yourself up, let the magic flow into you.”
John set his cup of tea down on the coffee table near mine and walked over to stand where Kassidy had indicated. He’d removed his coat as well, revealing a flannel shirt beneath. While I sat there trying to figure out how I could get out of this, he rolled up his sleeves a few turns, revealing brown forearms up to the elbow. I glimpsed a tribal sun tattoo on his inner arm. Glancing at me, he made a “come here” motion with his head.
Despite my better judgment, I got to my feet and walked over to stand in front of him. “Are you sure about this? I don’t want to hurt you.”
He smiled down at me. “I’ll be fine,” he said with way more confidence than I personally had. The telltale glow started to rise around him as he indeed opened himself up, tapping into that innate power of his and letting it flow.
I was momentarily paralyzed. I didn’t know what to do, if I should take his face between my hands the way I had with Gabriel, or if I needed to touch him at all. He solved the dilemma by reaching for my hands, wrapping his fingers around mine. His hands were warm and work-roughened. It was awkward, standing there holding hands with this admittedly good-looking man I barely knew. Maybe my discomfort played a role in my ability’s failure to manifest.
“More, John.” Kassidy spoke from behind me.
I frowned as the glowing nimbus around John pulsed brighter. Hot damn, the man could hold an impressive amount of energy. More than I’d seen Hector use, even. What I’d seen of John’s ability when he had placed the binding on Gabriel had barely scratched the surface.
Hi
s hands loosened their grip on mine. I thought he was letting go, so I started to drop my hands away, but he slid his hands up to lightly grip my forearms, leaving little else for me to do but grip his in return. I was standing very close to him now, our bodies almost touching, and I closed my eyes, trying to find that piece of myself that had lashed out. I started to feel that prickling tingle against my palms, but try as I might, I couldn’t seem to do anything with it. I tried as hard as I could to draw his power into me, to tap into it somehow, but it just wasn’t happening.
“I’m sorry,” I said, opening my eyes to look up at him. Damn these sensible shoes, I actually had to look up. “I don’t think this is working.”
“You’re trying too hard,” he said. “Don’t think. Just do it.”
The magic flared around him again, even brighter. The whites of his eyes started to glow and all I could think about was that he had to be nearing his limit. Was I imagining it or was he starting to tremble a little bit? Surely this witch wasn’t dumb enough to burn himself out trying to push me into reacting?
I tried to break contact, but his hands firmed their grip on my arms, refusing to let go. Suddenly, as if something had triggered in my brain, I felt the magic rush in, washing over me much faster than it had with Gabriel. I felt it flow through my body as if I were some sort of pipe for it to push through, finding its way into the ground at my feet. Or, rather, into the floorboards at my feet.
It felt like an eternity, but it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds before John shut off the faucet, as it were. The light around him winked out, and as the last of it flowed through me my knees buckled. He caught me as I pitched toward him, arms wrapping securely around my waist to hold me against his chest.
“Good job,” he said.
“Very good job,” Kassidy agreed, and I heard the sound of keys on the keyboard clicking rapidly behind me.
Closing my eyes, I drew a shaky breath, breathing in the smell of fabric softener and spicy cologne. “I’m okay,” I said, pushing away. John let go, but when I wavered a bit he gently grabbed my elbow and steered me toward the couch to sit again. The steaming cup of tea was pressed into my hand before he sat down beside me.
I frowned. “What the hell… I didn’t feel this way last time.”
“You siphoned a lot more energy this time,” John answered, with no attempt at self-aggrandizement. Just stating the facts.
“I guess there’s that.” I rubbed my face with one hand, looking over at Kassidy, who was typing away rather furiously. “Any ideas?” She didn’t answer.
“She might be a while,” John said, offering me a knowing smile. “It’s a process.”
He wasn’t wrong. I had finished my cup of tea and started drinking John’s by the time Kassidy surfaced again, swiveling in her chair with a satisfied smile on her face. On the upside, I was feeling much stronger. On the downside, I was getting impatient. I looked at her, then at John who just shrugged and looked over at her again. I followed suit.
“Well?” I said, voicing the sentiment we were both clearly feeling.
“You’re a Conduit.”
“A what?” I said, frowning as I rested the bottom of the warm mug against my leg.
“A Conduit. It’s very rare, almost unheard of in this day and age. That’s why it gave me so much trouble. Anyway, that’s your power.”
“Okay… So, I’m a Conduit. What exactly does that mean, for me?”
“Well, the lore is a little sketchy,” she said with an unbecoming grimace that twisted the melty side of her face grotesquely. Finally reaching for her own cup of tea that she’d all but ignored this whole time, she sipped it before continuing. “But, from what I could glean, it’s kind of like an arcane straw. You don’t have the capacity to hold magic on your own, but it can pass through you as you have experienced.”
I frowned. “If that’s the case, why hasn’t it happened before? I grew up in a house full of witches. There was magic all over the place. Why didn’t it pass through me then?”
“I don’t know. But based on what I just saw, it’s not a casual action. There has to be some sort of intent behind it. The first time it happened, it was instinctual. When you tried to force it, it was harder. If you practice, you’ll get better at it,” Kassidy explained, patiently.
“But what’s the point? So, I can suck magic out of witches. If I can’t do anything with it, what’s the point?
Beside me, John spoke up. “Well, you can suck at either end of a straw…”
Kassidy grinned and touched a pale fingertip to her nose. I looked between them uncomprehendingly for a moment but did eventually catch up. When I did, the implications hit me like a ton of bricks, too. “It can go both ways. I can draw magic out of a witch, or they can draw more magic through me.”
“Quite possibly. But this is all theoretical. I can do some more research, and we’ll need to do more experimentation,” Kassidy said.
Frankly, I was all experimented out for one day.
Chapter 26
We didn’t talk much on the way back to John’s house. The walk hadn’t gotten any longer, really, but it felt like it with nothing to pass the time but my own thoughts. I’d certainly walked out of my meeting with Kassidy with some valuable information, but I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it. It raised more questions than it answered, really. She seemed committed to helping me figure it out, but I knew that to her I was nothing more than a puzzle. A very intriguing puzzle that would expand her ever-growing archive. I still had a lot of questions about her too, none of which had really been answered. Maybe next time.
The hike took about thirty minutes. We had just rounded the last bend in the road when I saw someone up ahead of us. It was difficult to tell if this someone was male or female from a distance, and with the long black hair, it really could have gone either way. Whoever it was, they weren’t walking toward us or away from us, just kind of loitering in the road. The more I watched, the more they seemed to be aimlessly meandering. As we got closer, I began to perceive more details.
“Is it just me,” I asked eventually, “or is that a crazy person roaming around in the freezing cold without a coat?”
“That does seem to be a crazy person roaming around in the freezing cold without a coat,” John answered, a frown etched on his face as he picked up the pace, half-jogging his way up the road to reach the person that much more quickly. I followed suit, keeping pace easily. Sensible shoes, see?
As we drew nearer, the coatless stranger turned toward us, but the motion seemed more absent than out of any awareness that we were there. His dark eyes had a glazed-over quality to them, like someone who was totally high on something or other, and they remained out of focus as he lifted a hand and drummed his fingers against his head. He couldn’t have been much more than eighteen.
“Luke? What are you doing out here?” John asked, unzipping his own coat and shrugging it off. “Here, put this on.” But there wasn’t so much of Luke putting the coat on as there was John putting the coat on Luke. He rubbed the boy’s arms and frowned down at his bare, muddy feet. Looking over at me, John flashed me an apologetic look. “I’m sorry to cut our visit short, but I need to take care of this.”
“No problem. I understand. You know him? Is he… high?”
“His mother lives up the road. I’ll make sure he gets home. He, uh, hasn’t been himself since…”
My eyes widened. “He burned out?”
John peered at me. “How did you know that? Can you tell?”
I grimaced and shook my head. “Not exactly. But I think I should help you get him home. Do you know how he burned out?”
John shook his head, curling an arm around the youth’s waist and starting to steer him toward his truck. “No, I only heard that it happened. It’s terrible when it happens, but even more so to someone so young.”
I stepped up on Luke’s other side to help John with him. Together, we got him up and into John’s truck, where he sat passively sandwiched bet
ween me and John all the way up the road to the house a quarter-mile away where Luke’s family lived. It was no more remarkable than the others I’d passed on the way in, just another brown adobe dwelling circled by a chain-link fence. The gate was standing open, swinging in the breeze. John honked twice as we pulled up, alerting the house of our arrival. By the time we piled out of the truck, an older woman had come out onto the narrow porch and, seeing Luke with us, came running out to meet us. She had streaks of gray in her black hair, which was twisted back in a severe bun, and a hastily thrown-on shawl hung around her shoulders. Like John, she had that telltale spark marking her as a witch. A few more witches came outside after her, ranging from teenagers to adults, but they hung back rather than crossing the yard.
There was a brief exchange between John and the woman in a language I didn’t understand, but I could read enough from their body language to get the gist of it. The older woman was obviously distressed that we’d found Luke wandering around outside with no coat and shoes on and started to herd him off in the direction of the house after thanking John profusely for bringing him home. I might as well have been a tree, for all the notice she paid me.
“Wait!” I called, sensing my window was rapidly closing. John was already turning back toward the truck.
The woman paused, still pushing Luke forward as she looked back at me. “I must get him inside.”
“Er, right. I know…” I said, stammering as I moved forward. I sensed, more than saw, John turn back and follow me. “I mean, can I ask you a few questions, once Luke is inside warming up?”
She eyed me suspiciously, but gave a curt nod and said, “Wait here.”
As she moved off with Luke, John leaned a little toward me and asked, “What was that all about?”
“The attack the other night, that witch wasn’t the first one targeted. What if the same thing happened to Luke?” It sounded a little more far-fetched now that I’d said it aloud than it had in my head. But I was starting to see every burned-out witch as a potential victim.