The Gathering

by Fiore, L. A.

  “You need to talk to Ivy.”

  “All right.” I reached for my phone when a call came in.

  “Speak of the devil. Hey, Ivy. I’ve got Jasmine here. She said we needed to talk.”

  “Yes. Dahlia and Aria are already here. Can you come by?” she asked.

  “They’re okay, right?”

  “Yes, they’re fine. Dahlia is flirting with Jareth as we speak.”

  “Funny. All right, I’m on my way.”

  “I’ll be here if you need to talk,” Jasmine said, which struck me as odd.

  “Okay.”

  I pulled up to the house. Aria was outside near the bonfire talking to Brock. She looked so at ease and comfortable. I didn’t sense any anxiety in her, which was rare when talking to new people.

  She saw me and waved. “Hi, Dad.”

  “Hey, pumpkin. Where’s Dahlia?”

  “She’s making dinner. Jareth is keeping her company.”

  Of course he was. Fucking vampires.

  The scent nearly knocked me over when I stepped inside. She was making her paella. I fucking loved her paella. Loved her more. With Jareth watching, I yanked her close and kissed her hard. She went soft, melting into me. “Hey, handsome,” she whispered when I broke the kiss.

  “Yeah, just remember that.”

  “You’re jealous.” She kissed me again. “No need to be.”

  “Hear that?” I said to the vampire who was trying hard not to laugh.

  “Just looking, not touching.”

  I’d rather he didn’t even look, but Dahlia was a beautiful woman.

  “Josiah,” Ivy said when she walked into the kitchen. “Oh, good you’re here. Before dinner, could we talk?”

  “Sure.” I kissed Dahlia again. “Save me some of that.”

  “Absolutely.”

  Bain was in the living room, the only other person in the room. “Hey. What’s going on?”

  Ivy joined Bain, her hands twisting together. She looked up at Bain. What the hell was going on? They both looked…off. “Once upon a time, I made a wish, and it was granted.”

  “By who?”

  “Fairies and my mother.”

  “The goddess, Hecate.”

  “Yes. They granted my wish, created a child that was part Bain and me. One that had children of his own and so on.”

  “Are you saying there is a link between what we’re investigating and that child?”

  “Yes. When the fairies granted the wish and created something so beautiful, it sparked the creation of something quite the opposite.”

  “The evil that feeds from the LeBlanc place.”

  “Not so much the evil, but all the ugly that came after, including Dr. Ellis’ creations. He often drew my blood. Claimed he was making sure the medicine wasn’t causing harm, but he was using my blood to find those who shared it.”

  “Why?”

  “Killing those with our blood weakens the spell binding it to the LeBlanc plantation.”

  I felt the blood drain from my face. “The ritualistic killings, you thought they were linked.” I started to pace. “Your blood is the key.” It then hit, my eyes dropping to my tattoo, the symbol I didn’t even remember getting, up and leaving my life to come to New Orleans when it never once crossed my mind. The creature that had been caught on my street right after Aria arrived. I stumbled, grabbing the back of the sofa to keep myself steady. “Are you saying I’m one of yours? That Aria is too?”

  “Yes.” There was compassion and understanding in their gazes.

  “It wants both of you,” Bain said softly. “And Jareth. We won’t let that happen.”

  “Oh, hell no. It won’t because…Jareth?”

  “He’s also a descendant,” Ivy said softly.

  “I’m related to a vampire?”

  “Yes.”

  I couldn’t think about that now. Only months earlier, I didn’t even believe in any of this and now… “Aria is going to be as far from here as possible.”

  “You can’t do that,” Dahlia’s voice came from the doorway. “She needs to be here, as do you.”

  It was Ivy who spoke because I couldn’t find my words. “Who are you?”

  “I was the one to grant your wish. I felt your pain; it came down through the soil and the roots of your tree. It was so pure, and it stemmed from a place of such love. I ached for you, and I thought that I could help. I didn’t know how it worked. I didn’t know that you didn’t all live and love together like us, that your child wouldn’t have found his way to you. I was ignorant and because of that I gave power to the very one you’re trying to stop. He almost broke into our world, but you sacrificed your immortality along with your tree to save the ones you loved and to bind it and its minions to New Orleans.”

  And that was why I waited for the one. I remembered now. All of it.

  “Your first ten years you lived with the fairies; it’s why you were born on the summer solstice because that is the only time we can move back and forth into your world.”

  “Why did she live with you?” Bain asked.

  “Your tree. It needs both of you. You were put to rest at its base, but Ivy needed to be present to keep it alive until she was ready…”

  “To finish it,” Ivy concluded.

  “Yes. I stayed behind after the veil closed, and in doing so, I turned human. I needed to be here for you, to help right the wrong I had brought onto this world. I fell in love with the people and the city.” Her eyes turned to me, and in them, I saw love and pain. “I never saw you coming, but I fell for you completely,” she whispered.

  “You were the one to retrieve the final piece of the symbol,” Bain said.

  “Yes, it is with a ghost of her past and future, the ones who came to be from her wish.” Her eyes turned to me again. “Josiah?” There was fear in her voice. That had me snapping out of it. I crossed the room to her, yanking her close.

  “I wouldn’t care if you were a fucking vampire. I love you. I fell for you completely too.”

  The tears rolled down her cheeks; I wiped them away. Thinking of Aria, I looked to the door.

  Ivy smiled in reassurance. “She’s quite safe. She has a crew of lycan, a coven of vampires, two hellhounds, and the magic of the Ancestors watching over her. We need to talk about the fete.”

  “We can’t have it. We’d be walking into a trap,” I said.

  “They want you; they know we’ll be there. They will come for you,” Ivy said.

  Bain looked sinister. “They might not wait for the fete. I wouldn’t.”

  “If not, we’ll be ready.” Ivy’s confidence surprised me, but then I suspected she remembered more than she was sharing.

  My thoughts were on my daughter. They could use me, not her. “Not Aria.”

  “No,” Ivy agreed. “The root cellar. She will be safe there.”

  I glanced around the room. “So the plan is we’re bait.” It was a good plan even with me being part of the bait. “Fucking hell.”

  38

  Ivy

  Our home. We hadn’t gotten the chance to fix it up and still it was beautiful. I hoped it was still standing when this was over. Maybe someone would or maybe it would stay as is, a forever reminder of how it all started. My time was coming to an end. I wasn’t sorry. I’d lived an extraordinary existence, had witnessed how love could push back the dark. There would always be evil—one couldn’t exist without the other—but this evil had no place here. I still wasn’t even sure how it had managed to claim this world and for so long. Soon, it would be vanquished, me along with it. I’d accepted my fate. Seeing Bain in Aria’s eyes, a smile on Josiah that I knew had curved my own lips, the down to the bone loyalty of Jareth…I was honored to be part of them, to have such a legacy. My only regret was forever wasn’t enough time with Bain. We’d lived for so long, and for so long we were apart, but we’d always have that lifetime and the magic that came to be from it.

  “I know what you’re going to do.” He sounded pained. I turned to him,
his hands in his pockets, his eyes haunted.

  “It’s the only way.”

  A tear rolled down his cheek. “I know.” He looked behind me to our house. “Our time together is never long enough.”

  Pain burned through me, and I swallowed down a sob. “I’ve always been drawn here. There are other worlds, but it was always this one that held a claim on me. Our time is never enough, but every second with you made all the years alone worth it.”

  “I have to believe with a love as pure and strong as the one that keeps pulling us together across time that one day we’ll meet again,” he whispered. “Maybe I’ll see you in the heavens, among the stars.”

  Our bodies collided, and under those stars, we made love…a beautiful ending to a beautiful story.

  “You’ll be safe here. No one can enter. It is protected by very old magic.”

  Aria wasn’t scared, but then she had the gift too and likely knew what was coming. “You’ve sensed it, haven’t you?”

  She nodded. “All of my life.”

  “You aren’t afraid.”

  “No.” She lifted something from under her shirt, I knew what it was before I saw it. “I think it was because of this.”

  She wore the last piece of the symbol. “It’s the color of your eyes.”

  Her piece was made from amethyst, another powerful stone for protection. “Don’t take that off, Aria.”

  “I won’t.”

  I turned to Dahlia. “They will come for you.”

  “It will be nice to visit home.”

  I hugged her. Knew I wouldn’t be seeing her again.

  She touched my cheek, tears in her eyes. “I’m not sorry I granted your wish.”

  I squeezed her hand, my own eyes burning. “I’m not sorry either.”

  I turned to Aria, brushed her dark hair from her shoulders. “You won’t be alone. You have family all around you.”

  “I know.” Her eyes grew sad. “We won’t see you again, will we?”

  How much I would like to be here to see her grow up, to watch as she discovered the beauty of the world. But like those before me, it was time for me to pass the torch. “No.”

  “I’ll watch over them,” she whispered.

  And I knew she would. She surprised me when she threw herself into my arms. Her body shook with her tears; my own did too. Before she pulled away, she whispered in my ear. “Love is its own magic.”

  Light burned in her violet eyes. The world would be left in good hands.

  “I need you to call your siblings,” I requested of Cinder.

  “You got it. What do you want us to do?”

  “Sin, like you said isn’t evil, but it is powerful and distracting. I need you to weave your sin through the city, try to preoccupy humans while we finish it.”

  “How are you going to finish it?”

  “A clean slate.”

  “Are you saying what I think you are?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the humans?”

  “They will be safe. Please get your siblings. We’re running out of time. The summer solstice is in two days.”

  “We’ll get to work.”

  “Thank you, Cinder.” I turned to go but looked back. “Take care of them. When I’m gone. Take care of them.”

  Her eyes brightened. “I’d be honored.”

  I stepped outside into the sunlight, my head lifting as the rays touched my skin. I would miss this. I felt them before I saw them. Ellis and Aine appeared in the middle of the street, but it was who was with them that brought the rage and the fear. Hope and Grace, the mother and daughter who had been my first customers at Hunter’s Moon. I wasn’t surprised they didn’t wait for the fete. In their shoes, I wouldn’t have either.

  “So, we meet again,” Dr. Ellis sneered. “You should have killed me.”

  It was the sight of Aine that stirred sadness; the carefree demon I was coming to know was empty and cold. Whatever Ellis had done to her, she was a completely different being. Evident by the thin, sharp blade pressed into Hope’s neck, a bead of blood pooling. Wide, terrified eyes looked into mine. Ellis’ clawed hand sat at Grace’s neck, her fear for her daughter blinding in its intensity. “Bring us Aria, or we kill them.”

  People noticed, stopping on the street. I felt their confusion, fear, and chaos so strongly you could cut it with a knife. Evil grew stronger as the people of New Orleans witnessed for the first time what else lived in the world among them. Ellis’ creatures appeared. Coming from every street and alley, circling us in the middle of Bourbon Street.

  Cinder flew out of her shop, her expression horrified and pissed.

  “Now would be a good time to start working your magic,” I told her.

  “You can’t take them all on yourself,” she cried.

  “Actually…” It came up through the ground, a searing heat. The creatures scurried back; clouds rolled in, blocking out the sun. The heavens rumbled. I stretched out my arms, closed my eyes. Lightning shot down from the sky, scorching the earth around me. Winds whipped and trees bent; it formed a funnel cloud, me at the center as I absorbed the energy from that which I protected. My head dropped back, and my eyes opened. The world stilled, taking a collective breath, before the fire shot up from the ground consuming me. It grew hot and fast, reaching for the heavens. I felt the power rushing through me, filling my cells, my blood, my tissues, down to my bones. I stepped from the fire and looked up through my lashes. “The rules just changed.”

  Josiah

  “Something is going down on Bourbon Street,” a beat cop shouted. “I don’t know what the fuck…I can’t...”

  I jumped from my desk. That kind of fear and confusion, there was only one thing that would cause that. I ran out of the station. I felt the panic and the fear, and when I arrived at the scene, I understood why. The creatures were everywhere and in the center was Ivy, Dr. Ellis, and Aine and two humans that were terrified.

  Cinder Gulliver shouted, “You can’t take them all on yourself.”

  “Actually…” Ivy said.

  The air went still. It hummed around us, growing, spreading. Clouds rolled in, and the thunder shook the skies right before the lightning sliced down. A flash and fire appeared, looking like it came right up from hell itself. It consumed Ivy. She stepped from it and grinned.

  “The rules just changed.” Ivy threatened.

  A movement caught my attention. Bain and his crew arrived, as did Jareth and his coven. It happened at once. The lycan shifted; the vampires too. In the middle of Bourbon Street, a supernatural battled raged.

  “They’re helping us,” someone shouted, fear in their voice and yet a touch of awe. I looked around. The humans were terrified, but they saw who was protecting them, fighting for them. It wasn’t how we had planned, but fuck if it didn’t work.

  Nick appeared; he had blood on him. “You good?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “We need to get these people out of here.”

  “Already on it. A few of the local bars are owned by the supernatural, their spells haven’t been broken.”

  How the hell did he know about the supernatural? “You’ve been holding out on me.”

  He looked around. “I could say the same to you.”

  “Touché.”

  Just then, several creatures came right at us. Nick didn’t pull his weapon; he shifted. Right before my eyes he shifted into a fox. He lunged and all four attacked him at once.

  I heard the whistle and looked over at Ivy; her focus was on the sky. I followed where she looked to see her crows flying down from the heavens. Before they reached us, they shifted into the largest and ugliest dogs I’d ever seen. They ripped the creatures to shreds. Nick limped to us. He was bleeding from a gash in his neck.

  Another wave of creatures came at us. Fire shot through the air, incinerating them, and through the smoke came Ivy. She dropped to the ground and looked him in the eyes. “You should have told me.” She touched the ground, put her hand over his neck a
nd started chanting in some language I’d never heard before. Before our eyes, his wound healed.

  Ivy stood. The woman who had been held had her daughter, and both were visibly shaking. “What’s happening? What are those things?”

  Ivy hunched down to the little girl. “Keep that on, it will protect you.” She turned to the mother. “Stay with them.” She looked back at the beasts that stood at her side. “Don’t leave them.”

  “Who are you?” the little girl asked. “Are you Wonder Woman?”

  Despite the madness going on around us, it was so innocent a question. I couldn’t help but smile. Ivy was right; children were more readily willing to believe. “No, but I am here to help you.” She looked around at the others. “We all are.”

  Her beasts moved to flank the girl and her mom.

  “Thank you,” the young girl’s words were so softly spoken, but how easily they were offered, the meaning behind them was deafening. Ivy had been right about that too. Humans needed to know.

  Ivy touched the little girl on the shoulder, the moment poignant, before she turned to me. “We have to lock down the city. They are bound, but not for long.”

  “How are we going to do that?”

  “The symbols.” She gestured to my arm. “I worked a spell once upon a time.”

  “You placed the symbols?”

  “Yeah. I cast the spell, and it will form a magical field that nothing can get through, humans or mystical.”

  I looked around at the chaos. “Word is going to get out, even with the barrier, people outside of New Orleans are going to see this.”

  “We wanted them to.” Ivy followed my glance. “And if we aren’t successful, they will at least know what’s coming.”

  It wasn’t ideal, but she was right. “All right, lock it down.”

  A strange rumbling rocked the ground, hard enough to set off car alarms. That was followed by what sounded like a hundred canons going off. Wings of fire rose up Ivy’s back, her black hair blowing behind her. Her eyes turned black, flames danced in them. Her lips moved right before flashes of light came down from the heavens, striking down in different places, a deafening whooshing sound and a strange stirring in the air right before the sonic boom.