by Mari Freeman
Ray was rock hard and panting when she loosened her grip and her eyes fluttered open.
Chapter Thirteen
She managed to connect with Trina across the miles and feel what her sister was feeling. Sonja didn’t want to let go. Even if what she felt from Trina was worry and anger over Sonja herself. Guilt tinged her but that connection proved Sonja was way stronger than she’d ever imagined.
Her power had always been the joke of the family. All three sisters had unreliable magic due to their Halfling blood. Nell’s telekinesis was amusing when it went bad, Trina’s fire was dangerous, but Sonja’s was just silly. Her visions and predictions were wrong at worst and mixed up at best. But this…this felt real and it felt correct and she’d been able to do it because Ray’s magic was a beacon, a steadying force.
He smiled at her as she focused on his face. “Maybe I can get in and out of Q’s head if he’s not expecting me there. Back in my teens, I learned some concentration exercises that were supposed to improve my psychic abilities. Of course, it never worked for that, but the techniques might just do the trick now.”
He nodded. “I think you can.”
He was confident. She was game. “Let’s do it before Cindy gets back here with Barri.” She sat still for a moment and just felt his hand in hers. She tried to concentrate on her feelings for Ray. Were they for real or was Q currently in her mind? After all, this was the forté of the Dreamstalker, to slowly manipulate the mind from within. How would she ever know the difference?
Did she even care?
Ray didn’t pull his hand away. She was tempted to try to connect with his mind but to poke around in his head without consent was wrong. Her grandmother, Mi-ma, had taught her to never enter anyone’s mind uninvited. She’d never really thought through that advice or the ethical dilemmas it involved because she never suspected to have that kind of power.
Nope. There were no shortcuts in life. Mi-ma taught her that too. She would have to work through her feelings on her own and trust the Fates had known what they were doing when she landed on Ray’s property in the middle of the night. “Get it.”
He nodded and slipped out of the yellow plastic chair. She glanced at the living room. It was as fifties fab as the kitchen. Overall, the effect was strangely cute and clean for a cross-dressing club bouncer. Not that she’d know what to expect otherwise. Maybe shabby chic?
Ray returned with the box. Its golden shell and diamond moth were beautiful. She’d forgotten how striking the thing was.
Suddenly she wanted to plunge it down and trigger the box to get to the talisman inside. She wanted that power. Ray caught her hand as it reached for the standing diamond moth. “We need a circle first or we’ll really be calling out.”
He was right. Sonja hadn’t even realized she was reaching for it. Her stomach felt queasy and her head was a little faint. “Are you sure I can do this?”
“I am. But you need to be sure or it won’t work. I don’t want you hurt. I think you can draw just enough to break through. I’ll be right here, pulling you back if you start to wander off path.” His gaze stayed on hers as he spoke. He truly believed he could ground her. She believed it too.
It was her abilities she didn’t really trust. But Kara, if she was still alive, needed her. She was going to have to believe in herself if this was going to work. If she faltered even the slightest while in Q’s head, well…she didn’t want to think about what he might do if he found her in there, meddling around. Not to mention she didn’t want to be tainted by the aura of blood magic forever.
Ray fashioned a crude circle around the table, using sea salt from Cindy’s cabinet and a small bowl of olive oil. Then he clipped a small lock of her hair. “I like it short. I can see your face.”
She ran her hand over her short locks. It still felt strange and she felt ridiculously giddy by the compliment.
“And I love how easily you blush.”
He kissed her forehead, tossed her hair clippings into the oil and started chanting. His magic swelled instantly. She felt the protective circle slamming down around them. Why she had bothered to make a circle in the mountains was beyond her. Her magic was nothing compared to what a strong Sorcerer was capable of. Her skin tingled. The tiny hairs on the back of her neck swayed as if by a breeze. The magic felt electric. Her Dragon stretched. In a very practiced way, Sonja willed it under control. Too bad, too. She could use the extra energy her Demon side could project.
If she could see Ray’s magic, she would suspect it would be the same color as the photos she’d seen of tropical lagoons—teal and blue and inviting. She took in a deep breath, trying to suck his life force inside her. Never had anyone’s magic stimulated her so.
His chanting became little more than a string of syllables connected together, melding into a melody that had meaning without discernable words. In the air, he drew wards with his fingers, making the protective shapes above her head. By the time he nodded to her to go ahead, Sonja felt wrapped in a protective cocoon of his magic.
She looked at her hand. The brand of the Black Witch moth in her palm was almost healed, which she found rather amazing. She took a moment to close her eyes, feel the world around her outside the cocoon—then reached out.
Thousands of tiny life forces danced in the recesses of her mind, each connected with a being of magic. Good, bad and inept, she could sense them.
Yes. She had gained from her last use of the Chiwa. She recalled Nell saying they were also referred to as the Beads of Death. She’d do well to remember that.
She reached out and placed her branded palm over the upright diamond moth. It sank onto the box right away, fusing into the intricate golden design.
The box popped open like a clamshell with a gush of thick, dark magic. The blackness of it invaded her tropical blues and teals but Ray’s magic won out in a matter of seconds, rolling over the darkness in waves. No mystical green beams of energy this time.
First obstacle navigated. The necklace looked like tourist junk. She knew better. The tiny carved skulls made her shiver, almost causing Sonja to lose her concentration. The knowledge that the skulls were most likely made from real bones made her sick. The feathers and other beads meant nothing to her, but she knew to the maker, each one of them held meaning. Someone had made real sacrifices to give this thing its power.
The green jasper pendant that hung from the center was like a fistful of bundled pain. It was the heart of the talisman. That was the thing Palero Priests and South American dictators had fought over and killed for. It was making her stronger and weaker at the same time.
Sonja concentrated on the stone for just a moment, letting it reach for her. It was taking from her as well as giving. Beads of sweat formed on her lip. Her hands trembled even though they were now balled into fists in her lap. She tried to block its taking and slow the giving. She just needed a tiny bit. Too much would be…well…too much.
Her throat began to tighten. She was choking on the greed and deceit of the past users. Much longer and she wouldn’t be able to speak. “Enough.”
Ray slammed the box shut and tossed it outside the circle. He moved to stand behind her chair and she let her head rest against his stomach. Her nerves were humming, her Dragon twisting and turning under her skin. It wasn’t complying with Sonja’s attempts to rein it in, to keep the change under control. Her side started burning.
As soon as she twisted her upper body to the right to ease the stretching skin, Ray’s hand went to her scar and the rhythmic chanting started again. The pain was worse than it had been the last time she’d started to shift. The pulling and tugging on her hip and ribs were breaking her concentration.
“Use it. That’s what it wants. Use its energy to focus your own.” Ray’s voice sounded both distant and strong in her ear. His breath felt cool on her neck but his hand was hot on her side.
For the first time, she tried to connect mentally with her own inner Dragon.
Roaring joy met her attempt.
&nb
sp; Sonja felt a completeness she’d never know she was missing, despite the fact she shrieked when the skin began tearing over her hips. Ray’s hand found the spot and his chanting changed tone. He was trying to heal her as she came apart. The pain was excruciating. If she was going to connect with Q, now was the time.
She bit her lip to force her attention away from the pain and concentrated on the power her Dragon was sharing. She reached out and called to the feel of her tormentor’s being, his magic, the essence that made him Q. It was strong, and she was able to connect quite quickly. Too quickly. She’d not used the precision techniques she’d practiced as a child. In her mind she felt as if she had dropped into the vast, dark cavern of a nightmare.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sonja felt the fear of being in a place that was off—wrong—weigh on her immediately. Eerie green mist hovered all around as Sonja tried to gather her bearings. Was this a vision or the mental landscape of Q’s brain?
She was sitting on hard stone that reminded her of a castle floor. She knocked lightly on the surface. It was solid. Probably a barrier to his mind, created to block the constant onslaught of mental traffic Q had to manage on a daily basis. She had to get past this room as a thought or emotion that his superior psychic abilities would consider mundane enough to let into his conscious.
She glanced around. Windowless stone walls closed her in on three sides. On the fourth, directly before her, was a great wooden door with hinges the size of turkey platters and one bloody giant lock.
The way in.
The green mist flowed out of her way as she moved toward the door. The keyhole was made for a skeleton key, and so big she could reach her hand through if she tried. She peeked through the narrower portion at the bottom.
Emotions blasted her like a punch to the face. Hate. Anger. Lust. Amusement. One after another, the feelings assaulted her system, running through her body like ghosts passing through her flesh.
Sonja fell backward away from the lock, reeling. She leaned against the cold stone next to the door, giving her queasy stomach time to settle. She needed to buffer as well. She needed the same type of fortress in her own mind. Something to filter her from the reality of Q’s mind. She thought of Ray’s confidence in her and struggled to find a way to build her own fortress.
Actually, she didn’t need a fortress so much as a disguise.
Sonja forced herself to look into the mind of the Dreamstalker again. She steeled herself, preparing for the flood of emotions, and then forced herself back in front of the keyhole. She let the emotions blow through her, concentrating on not making any of the feelings her own. She was a tunnel. A giant, white concrete tunnel that led all those emotions off to a different location. Anywhere. She pictured them pouring out the end of the tunnel into the sea and getting diluted and softened until they were no more.
It worked. She was able to let them flow so she could figure out how to get what she came for.
Once Q’s emotions were washed out to sea, she was able to concentrate on the images before her.
It was like trying to watch twenty movies at once, all playing on enormous, undulating screens that hovered and floated about in an endless, echoing chamber. They changed directions and crossed in front of one another, and none played the correct audio tracks to match the imagery. Disjointed voices, music and sounds echoed into nothingness. Some images were so hideous she closed her eyes as they crossed her field of vision. Sonja wondered if they were all current thoughts, or past memories, or some of each. She suspected she could only discern a small portion from her current location. To find out where Kara might be, she was going to have to go in.
The realization sent shivers down her spine. She was maintaining the tunnel, but could she do that and meander through Q’s consciousness undetected?
She had to. She hadn’t come this far to give up now.
An image of the Chiwa fluttered off to her right. It kept moving, the screen drifting out of her line of vision. It was now or never. She closed her eyes and centered her mental energy on her heartbeat, hoping to leave as small a psychic trail as possible.
With shaking fingers, she pushed her hand into the keyhole, imagining her fist as a key. It transformed with no pain, molding to the perfect shape. She twisted her forearm, feeling the tumblers of the ancient lock press and roll against her arm as the key turned. Sonja was amazed at her ability to mold her vision inside his head, but the loud metal clanking her arm-key made as the lock was forced open terrified her. Could Q hear it? Could he feel her opening his barricade?
The door creaked slightly open with a hiss. Energy escaped around the edges in the form of more green mist blasting into the stone room. Sonja opened the heavy door just enough to fit through. She was about to go walking about in the mind of evil. She felt Q’s heinousness as an overbearing press on her person and she couldn’t filter it out through the tunnel, what with the rest of the emotions swirling around his mind. Evil was his very essence.
She could not give him the talisman. No way would she be responsible for Q being able to boost his power, to spread this kind of plague on the world. Thank the Fates Ray had stolen it from her in Asheville.
She rushed to follow the image of the Chiwa. If he was currently thinking about it, he may also give her a clue as to where Kara was being held. The ground felt like slick oil under her feet, making it impossible to move fast. It was like running underwater—thick, dark water. She couldn’t help but imagine it was filled with snakes and eels. Craaaaap.
One of the floating screens with humongous images of eels floated into view and attempted to wrap around her.
Q had detected her thoughts, her fears.
She tried to empty her mind as she fought through the muck, now steadily rising like the dark water she’d imagined it to be. She saw the talisman again, still off to her right. She turned, frantic to catch up with it. As she got close, the image bled with another, that of a large riverboat, fancy with ornate trimming and a huge paddle wheel on the back.
The images combined, became one.
Kara was on that ship. Sonja knew it in her bones. She held her breath, hoping the image would confirm it…
A burning sensation started on her right hip. She tried to ignore it, holding the tunnel. If she let the pain come through in her mind it would surely give her away. That was exactly the kind of emotion Q would sense and pounce on.
She thought of Ray and his magic and let it rush over her side, cooling the burn. Cooling her fear. She frantically looked for more clues in the imagery floating around her. The green mist was growing thicker, the muck she was standing in rising higher. Neither of which she took as good signs. She was going to have to get out soon and images of the talisman and a boat were not enough.
Holding it all together, the tunnel, her calmness, staying with the moving images, was almost impossible for her to maintain. If she’d been a full Demon, maybe. But she was stretching way beyond her limits here.
Her side seared again. Excruciating pain, like none she’d felt since she was in the hospital as a girl, fighting the nurses as they changed bandages. Sonja fell to her knees in the muck, gripping her side. She was losing the battle with the pain. Losing control. She reached for something in her mind to pull her back. She had to go before Q caught her, if he hadn’t already. The muck oozed up her thighs like hands, reaching…
Then she saw her, in the now far-off images.
Kara.
Her red hair was matted and her clothes tattered, but she was alive. At the time of that thought, anyway. She was on the deck of the boat.
It was all Sonja was going to get. She had to back out. She had to.
She screamed Ray’s name in her mind, reaching for him with her heart and her soul. He was supposed to ground her, to be there to pull her back. She felt nothing but the pain. Her tunnel was cracking, tiny bits of it eroding away with the constant flow of fear, terror, hatred and disgust that flowed through it.
The muck had risen to her waist. She fe
lt as if it were pulling her down, sucking her into the oblivion that was Q’s mind. She felt it infiltrating her.
She was stuck here, unable to pull away from the muck…unable to connect with reality.
Chapter Fourteen
Ray felt Sonja slipping away as he held her on the floor, where her body had slumped. He knew nothing about psychics, but this wasn’t right. He was losing her. He could no longer see her Dragon under her skin. It’d battered her body, trying to be part of her, but was now dormant again. Her skin was getting cold.
Ray didn’t know what to do. How did he reach out to her when he didn’t know where she’d gone? His gaze searched the room, not knowing what inspiration he’d find in the tiny apartment. He touched her cheek. It was freezing. He cupped her face to warm her and laid his body over hers, trying to give Sonja his heat.
“Fuck.” His curse was as useless as his magic in this situation. His circle hadn’t kept her safe from Q. He was sucking the life out of her. Ray needed something soothing to pull her back, something that wouldn’t be felt in Q’s world.
Her lips were turning blue. She’d stopped breathing. All he could do was reach out to her with his emotions and hope that, somewhere in the universe of her mind, it acted as a beacon.
With all his being and his magic, he kissed her. Pushing his essence into her, holding her face, pressing his body to hers and willing her to come back to him. He thought of his need for her, his desire, anything that would warm her, bring her back. If his lips alone could have done it, she’d been on fire.
It wasn’t working. Guilt washed over him. He shouldn’t have encouraged her to try this. Sadly, it was a feeling he was familiar with. The Council had said he was reckless, and declared him a danger to the supernatural world because of his rash decisions and flagrant use of magic. He’d lost a partner last time. The woman he’d fallen in love with this time. He dropped his head to rest on her chest.