"Damn it," she snapped. She pulled her phone out and called Kendra. She should have stayed on the line. How stupid. Kendra could see everything that was happening. She had fourteen missed calls from Kendra. She must not have heard the phone ringing as she ran to the building.
"Abby!" Kendra shrieked as soon as she answered.
"Yes, I'm sorry. I just got here. They're gone."
"I only looked away for a second and they vanished. He must have taken her. The screen is black."
"Damn it," Abby muttered, wondering if she should run back outside and try to follow him.
"He's going to kill her," Kendra sobbed.
"I'm going to do my best to stop him, Kendra, but I've got to call Sebastian."
"Where's Oliver? Can Oliver help too?" Kendra asked.
"He and Julian went to Australia."
Kendra groaned and Abby heard her breathing heavily as if having a panic attack.
"Are you okay, Kendra? What can I do? Are Dante or Marcus there?"
"No, no. Call Sebastian. I'll be fine. Help Ezra."
"I will," Abby promised and hung up the phone.
****
Ezra watched the splinters of the door fly into the room. Unable to move, to scream for the help she so desperately needed, she watched Abby stare at the scattered prints in the dust. The venom oozed through her slowly, but it was not the venom that had paralyzed her. Victor had magic she didn't understand. One moment she'd been ready to attack and the next she started to fall, limp, but he caught her. Without a word or a gesture, she watched her own body vanish and then his as he shuffled them against the wall.
Could Abby hear their breath? Sense them in the room? Abby took out her phone and called Kendra. Ezra could hear her through the phone, felt Victor's hands tighten across her waist.
Ezra tried to draw upon her element, but she had no power. It wasn't only the venom. She felt the amulet pulsing against her back and all of her energy seemed to pour towards that space. Clyde was drawing it from her. She had to warn Abby, had to scream, but her tongue lay thick on the floor of her mouth. Her eyelids drooped and she forced them back open. Once they closed she wouldn't be able to open them again. Abby grew fuzzy and indistinct. The light through the window seemed to dim. She counted the seconds, made it to three before the poison overwhelmed her and she lost consciousness.
****
"Honey, don't freak out, but I need you to pass Vidya off to Helena and meet me in town," Abby told Sebastian the phone.
"Hey babe," he exclaimed. Abby could hear Helena talking in the background. "Helena is giving Vidya a baby massage and she loves it!"
"Sebastian. Listen to me. This is urgent. I need you to come into town."
"Hold on." Abby heard him moving away from the sound of Helena's voice. "What's happening? Are you okay?"
"I'm okay. But Victor took Ezra. They had a meeting in Trager and he kidnapped her."
"Shit," Sebastian cursed. "I'm coming right now."
"Meet me at the library," she told him.
Abby walked back and forth in the parking lot until Sebastian squealed in, spraying gravel into the street. He jumped out and Abby saw a bag slung over his arm that she knew contained pouches of Julian's Vepar powder and the knife that Oliver had given Sebastian for Christmas.
"Tell me," Sebastian said, striding to Abby and hugging her.
Abby explained quickly.
"You're sure they were here in Trager?" he asked.
Abby nodded.
"I went to the room. I could feel the energy. They were there."
"Where would he take her?"
Abby threw up her hands, frustrated. "I have no idea. I think we need to search the woods. He obviously can't have her in the open."
"Yeah, but why wouldn't he just throw her in the trunk and drive back to whatever lair he's living in now?"
"That's what I'm afraid of," she admitted. "But we have to look."
"Okay. I agree, but we're not splitting apart and we need to be careful."
They crossed the street and moved through the Ebony Woods slowly weaving toward the beach and then doubling back. For three hours they searched until finally deciding that he must have left Trager with Ezra.
****
Ezra woke to coppery tasting liquid filling her mouth. She sputtered and nearly gagged, but a hand clamped over her lips prevented her from spitting it out. She swallowed and opened her eyes to find Victor, hooded, and crouched above her. He held an old bottle filled with dark red liquid in his hand and a golden dagger in the other. Ezra saw a dragon's head emerging from the handle end of the dagger. Its jeweled eye watched her as if alive.
She tried to twist away from Victor, but her arms and legs had been staked to the ground. She also felt heavy, drugged, and she knew that Victor now contained the Vepar venom in his teeth. He had truly become one of them. As she craned sideways, she saw others. Maybe four or five hooded figures. They wore black, their faces mostly shielded. Night had fallen, but the full moon had passed days earlier and the sliver of waning moon barely lit the sky. A single torch burned from a post that had been thrust into the ground.
"Please, Victor," Ezra croaked. Her throat hurt and her eyes felt heavy. She fought to stay conscious and to make eye contact with her former friend, but he ignored her. The grass and leaves had been cleared away. Victor held a long stick and drew designs in the dirt that Ezra could not see.
Victor crouched close to her body, dagger in hand. He guided the blade as if led by a source outside his body. His face had changed. It looked long and pale, his features sharper, his lips the dark red of blood. As she stared at him another face began to emerge-the face of a monster trapped in a human body. As the dragon's eyes glowed, Victor plunged the blade into Ezra's chest. It burned as it sliced through her skin. She felt enormous pressure as if she'd been caught by an undertow and was being pulled out to sea. The blood in her body flowed toward the dagger, but Ezra had lost touch with the physical sensations. Victor's face had vanished, and she swam in a sea of stars. It didn't hurt. Nothing at all hurt and, she wished she could tell Kendra and Oliver that it was okay. She wished too that she could help Victor to see that he was lost in a dream, a nightmare really, but she knew in that moment that someday he would know. They would all know. She surrendered to death.
****
Kit was right. The water in the caves sparkled and undulated with life. Bright green algae coated the rock walls that stretched down and down, finally ending at a sandy bottom strewn with huge boulders. A stingray with a black stripe down its back swam directly beneath Lydie and she waved wildly at Oliver. He opened his eyes wide beneath his goggles and offered her a thumbs up before swimming further into the cave.
Plugging her snorkel with her tongue, she dove towards the bottom. She swam along the boulders, allowing her fingers to graze their slimy surfaces before darting back to the surface and releasing the water from her snorkel like a whale emptying his blow hole. She could not see Kit or Oliver, but she didn't care. Lydie dove under again, this time staying down longer, exploring crevices tucked into the cliff where it met the ocean floor. A dark shape slipped through a fissure in the rock. It was a crack just large enough for Lydie to squeeze through. She had breath for another few minutes at least.
She wriggled into the opening, searching for the fish, or perhaps eel, that eluded her. The water grew darker as Lydie swam further in. A pinpoint of light streamed in from deeper in the cave. Searching the floor and cave walls, she saw no sign of the creature. She rose toward the light, but when she poked her head up, only a narrow hole in the rock allowed light in, and she had to press her face close to the rock ceiling to get a breath before diving back under. She gazed around a final time for the dark creature and then seeing nothing, retreated the way she came in.
Except as she swam, only solid rock greeted her. She turned back, but could not find the glitter of light. Darkness pressed in from every direction. Panic started to seize her. She fumbled the snorkel back int
o her mouth, but when she pushed toward the water's surface her head smacked against the slimy cave ceiling. Not even a puff of air existed between the rock and the water.
Beneath her, shadows started to dart back and forth. Thoughts of blood hungry sharks assailed her as she turned in a circle, searching for a sliver of light. One of the shadows drifted up to her. The girl, dead, stared through blood-filled eyes, her tattooed arms reaching for Lydie.
Chapter 11
"Lyds? Lydie?" Oliver's voice sounded watery and distant. Lydie tried to call out to him, but could not find her lips, her tongue.
A sensation of being roughly lifted and carried registered in a vague, far off part of her brain, but Lydie felt heavy. She drifted back down and down. The water had grown warmer, it swallowed her whole. Soon she would be like the dead girl. They would haunt the ocean together.
A sharp crack cut through the cottony thickness in Lydie's brain. She opened her eyes and searing light pierced her head. Flinging an arm over her face, she rolled onto her side. Her face pressed against a feathery pillow.
"Oliver?" she croaked, her throat raw.
"Drink."
Someone pressed a cool glass to her lips, and she gulped, keeping her eyes closed. She opened them gradually, allowing the light to filter in. Achingly she rolled onto her back.
Oliver sat on the edge of her bed and Julian stood in the sunlit doorway of the yurt.
"You scared the crap out of me, Lydie," Oliver murmured, pushing a damp curl away from her face. "I tried to find you, I..." he stopped and looked away, unable to go on.
Guilt coursed through Lydie. Why had she swum into that cave?
"Kit feels terrible," Oliver continued. "She reckons it's her fault she didn't make sure we stayed together. I do too, Lydie. I'm so sorry."
Julian watched him from the doorway and from his sour expression, Lydie knew he blamed Oliver as well.
Lydie shook her head. "I shouldn't have gone in. I saw a fish or..." she left the truth hanging in the air, strangely embarrassed to admit that she thought she saw a ghost in the water.
"No, it wasn't your fault. It was mine, all mine," he continued.
"Did I die?" Lydie asked.
Oliver shook his head, but Julian spoke.
"No. You passed out and floated up to the surface. But Lydie, there's no reason you should have panicked under there. We live in the middle of Lake Superior. If you haven't learned to properly hold your breath, then I suggest we do some training when we return."
Oliver shot him an irritated glance, but Lydie grabbed his hand before he spoke.
"That would be good. Thanks, Julian."
Julian nodded, looking satisfied.
"I will speak with Matilda, and return shortly," he told them leaving the yurt.
****
"So, what's the plan?" Oliver asked Julian that evening when he found him in the open-air kitchen.
"Binda will take me to Meghan tomorrow," Julian said, stirring a spoonful of honey into his tea.
Lydie wandered into the kitchen and sat on a bench that faced the ocean far below.
"How are you feeling?" Julian asked. "Matilda gave me some slippery elm for your throat. I'll brew you a cup of tea."
"Much better," Lydie said, trying not to rub her throat. Physically she did feel better, but the figure from the water had not left her thoughts.
"Are you sure she won't try and hurt you, Julian?" Oliver asked. "Binda did try to wipe Sebastian's memory."
Julian sighed and sipped his tea.
"She won't," he reassured him. "Binda was sufficiently contrite at our last visit. More than anything, she wants to free Meghan from the dream wood and we're her only hope for that."
"Because if Clyde dies, Meghan would be free?" Lydie asked.
"That's our theory, yes."
"His magic has a pretty long reach," Oliver said, dubious. "I mean we're talking a non-witch who's somehow keeping his magical mother trapped, controlling a bunch of Vepars, and stalking all the rest of us?"
Julian nodded, thoughtful.
"I do agree with you, Oliver. He might be a non-witch, but he's spent centuries creating his shell of power. It never pays to underestimate evil."
"If Abby had died in the woods, would Clyde have died?" Lydie asked, her voice low.
"Let's not even talk about that," Oliver started, but Julian interrupted her.
"No," Julian stated abruptly. "Her mother still lived and the magical objects - the dagger, the amulet and whatever else he created all those years ago."
"Then why did Victor stop her?" Lydie's voice shook, but she continued asking.
"Because Kanti has destroyed most of the bloodline and Clyde's hold is less and less stable. He had to save her to keep Kanti's lineage alive. But let me tell you something else."
Lydie turned to face them at the grave tone in Julian's voice.
"I believe there is something special with Abby's baby. We've come to three-hundred years since Clyde originally set upon this path of power and immortality. Faustine believes that three-hundred years marks a turning point. He wants that child."
"Vidya?" Lydie asked, tears filling her eyes.
Oliver gave Julian a look hoping he'd get the hint and stop talking, but he continued.
"Sometimes we don't understand a trajectory until it's too late. We're trying to dive in front of Clyde. I want to know his next move and my gut tells me that Faustine is right. He wants that baby."
"Am I interrupting?" Kit appeared outside the kitchen and Lydie jumped.
"You scared me," Lydie said, putting a hand over her heart.
"I'm sorry, Lydie, for scaring you and even more for what happened today. I shouldn't have taken you to those caves and I feel dreadful about it."
"Come on in," Oliver grumbled. "We were just changing the subject."
"It's okay, Kit. Don't feel bad. I panicked. I got turned around and couldn't find my way out."
"I have to admit, Lydie, I'm surprised that happened. Why didn't you just swim up to the light?" Kit asked.
"There was no light," Lydie said, looking between Kit and Oliver's skeptical faces. "There wasn't. Maybe it got cloudy outside and the light wasn't shining through."
Kit nodded, but Lydie knew she was not convinced.
"I brought some refreshments." Kit held up a tray of chopped fruit and vegetables. "And some sorbet. I thought it might help your throat."
Lydie took it, grateful that Kit and Oliver seemed to have dropped the subject of what happened in the cave.
****
In his dream, Sebastian stood in the center of a familiar forest. He watched the sharp outline of the trees and shrubs, oddly visible in the night. He could see every leaf. Crickets and tree frogs let out their long throaty chirps and bellows. Rivulets of energy flowed from a gossamer pool on the forest floor - like arteries and veins snaking from the earth into his legs. He could see the liquid light traveling into his feet, up his calves and thighs. When it reached his heart, a rush of ecstasy burned through him.
Intoxicated by the power, he stared at the dark mound on the earth the energy flowed out of. He took a step closer, sighing with pleasure. He wanted more. He needed more, but as he drew upon the source, his foot hovered in the air. He set it down, but dared not step closer. A slender white arm protruded from a heap of clothes. Along the pale wrist, Sebastian saw the dark pattern of an elephant tattoo, its body a mosaic of geometric shapes.
Sebastian woke, gasping, and soaked in sweat. His feet tingled as if the milky substance from the forest floor continued to pour into him. Abby slept beside him, her breaths low and deep. Beyond her, tucked in the baby bed, he saw Vidya's tiny form. Swallowing the bile rising in his throat, he pushed off his blanket and climbed from the bed. Careful not to wake Abby, he found a pair of pants and hurried downstairs. In the kitchen, he gulped a glass of water and paced the room. He had recognized the arm on the forest floor. It belonged to Ezra, familiar because of the Ganesh tattoo inked on her forearm. He ha
d been standing over her dead body in the Ebony Woods.
"But it was only a dream," he told the silent kitchen.
Helena slept upstairs. He could wake her, confide the dream to her. Helena understood dreams. Surely, she could put his mind at ease, explain that dreams were merely symbolic, that he had not been absorbing energy from Ezra.
The microwave clock blinked 4am. It was early, too early to be as wired as he felt. Except wired didn't describe it. The lights in the kitchen released sharp beams that drove into the center of his brain. The ceiling fan in the living room sounded like a fan in an industrial warehouse. His skin prickled and suddenly, he couldn't stand the feeling of fabric. He pulled off his pants, switched off the lights, and turned the fan to low. Still, a cacophony of sounds and sensations intruded. He heard the water lapping against the shore. It seemed to drag every grain of sand across the beach. He pressed his hands over his ears and collapsed onto the couch, shoving a pillow over his head.
Ezra was in the Ebony Woods. It might have been a dream, but he knew that much to be true. And he didn't dare wake Helena because he could feel the buzz of Ezra's energy flowing through his veins.
****
"It feels weird to say this," Oliver told Kit that night as they sat on the stairs outside his yurt, "but I'm seeing someone."
Kit looked at him and smiled.
"I know. You didn't have to stress about it. What happened between us was just fulfilling needs, no strings attached. I sensed her then, but figured you knew better than me where things stood. I'm happy that it's moved up a notch for you."
Oliver smiled and felt embarrassed that he'd been dreading mentioning Ezra to Kit. He should have known that Kit would take it in stride.
"It hadn't started when I was here before. I'd met her, but there wasn't any more to it. I just thought there could be..."
"And now there is." Kit pulled a small wooden figure from her pocket and flipped open a switchblade. It was a tree. She carefully shaved along the edge gradually exposing another branch.
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