Born of Shadows- Complete Series

by J. R. Erickson

  Abby took a half-hearted bite and nodded.

  "I'm really sorry, mom," she said, adjusting Vidya who had fallen asleep after Abby breastfed her. "I promised no danger...."

  Becky dismissed her with a wave of her spoon.

  She looked at her conspiratorially across the table.

  "To tell you the truth, Abby, it was rather exciting, wasn't it? I mean if they'd found us in that alley, I would have peed my pants. But all in all, I think it went well."

  Abby stared at her mom, mouth agape. Becky had returned to her sundae and was scooping spoonfuls of melted ice cream into her mouth.

  "Did you see the person about the umm...," Becky dropped her voice to a whisper, "the curse?"

  Abby smiled and nodded her head.

  "Yes. And I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you, mom."

  Becky beamed at her across the table.

  "I'd say we make a pretty good team. Or I guess it's a threesome now," Becky said inclining her head toward Vidya who led out a long gurgling burp.

  ****

  "Here's the watch," Kit told Oliver, handing him a small velvet bag. He stood next to the Range Rover as they prepared to leave Sky Mothers for the airport.

  He dumped the contents into his palm. The gold was tarnished, and he had to prise the lid open. The glass was spider-webbed, and the numbers faded.

  "Nothing to write home about, is it?" he asked, turning it over.

  "Not today, but three hundred years ago was another story."

  "Thank you, Kit. I appreciate this more than I can say."

  Kit stepped into him and before he said more, she pulled him against her and kissed him long and deep. When she stepped away, the warmth left his body. He took a deep breath and grinned.

  "I'll be seeing you, Oliver," she winked and turned, walking back toward the Sky Mothers.

  Inside the Rover, Lydie rolled down the window.

  "What was that?" She asked making a gagging face.

  "A goodbye kiss," Oliver laughed, watching Kit wistfully.

  "Get in the car, Romeo," Julian barked.

  Oliver jumped in and closed the door, holding the pocket watch.

  "It's not much of a bargaining chip, but better than nothing," Julian observed.

  "There's more," Oliver told him. "When Binda asked Liam about the stone in Clyde's room, he lied. He saw it crammed in the wall and couldn't reach it. What was it?"

  "The portal he used to travel between Australia and America," Julian told them. "Meghan was right - that's how Clyde escaped back to America. The question is, does it still work?"

  ****

  "Hey! Where are you sneaking off to?" Sebastian grabbed Abby around the waist before she walked out the door. "I've only had you for fifteen minutes and you're already leaving?"

  She leaned into his kiss and then pressed her face against his chest.

  "I left Vidya's blankie in my car," she said.

  Since returning from New Orleans, she'd been carefully phrasing her answers to evade Sebastian's inquiries. She hated lying to him.

  She had concealed her trip to avoid upsetting him, which didn't make the lie okay. Trust was such a fragile thing and if he believed she had lied about her trip, he might start questioning other things. After she had dropped her mom in Lansing, she'd driven straight home often checking her rearview mirror with the vaguely irrational fear that the L'Obscurite had followed her. She did not believe they had recognized her, only that they recognized she was a witch in their territory. Still, when she had first walked into Vidya's nursery, the memory of the doll tucked in the bassinet sent a shiver down her spine.

  "I missed you," Sebastian said, kissing her nose. "It was weird spending a whole night in this house without you, especially after..."

  He didn't say the words, but she understood - Ezra's murder. Though she had left for a day and night, it didn't change all that had transpired before. The truth was that she'd gone to New Orleans because of what happened to Ezra. She couldn't stand idly by as Clyde destroyed them.

  ****

  "How are you?" Abby asked Oliver, finding him alone on the widow's walk, gazing at the rising sun.

  Lydie, Julian and Oliver had returned from Australia late the night before.

  He tilted his head and looked up at her, offering a small smile.

  "Is it terrible if I say fine?" he asked. "I sort of shift in and out of sadness. One minute, I'm angry and sad and the next, I'm completely numb. This morning I'm numb."

  Abby handed him a cup of coffee and then carefully perched her own on the rail before sitting next to him.

  "Wow," she breathed, catching her first conscious glimpse of the sun as it rose. The base of the horizon glowed bright red with a mushroom cap of flaming orange at its center.

  "It's a great reset for your element and your energy. Sunrises and sunsets are powerful. When I trained with Julian, I used to meditate during the sunrise and sunset every day. Dafne did it too, though for her it was by choice. I grumbled about it. I liked to sleep late. Who wants to wake up to Michigan in February for a sunrise when it's negative twelve degrees?" He chuckled and shook his head. "But now looking back, I realize it made me a better witch and a better man. My body, my brain, my element, my spirit - everything was in balance."

  "I can imagine," Abby agreed, noticing how the sun seemed to cleanse her as it rose. "And I'm so very sorry, Oliver. Maybe saying it doesn't matter, or help, but I can't not say it. I'm so sorry."

  Oliver reached for Abby's hand and held it in his own. He traced his finger over her moonstone wedding ring and then gave her a squeeze before releasing it.

  "I appreciate it. A part of me feels like I don't deserve all this sympathy. It should be for Kendra, Dante and Marcus. I only knew Ezra for a few months. Why am I allowed to grieve?"

  Abby shook her head.

  "Love doesn't work that way. It's not measured in time. When Sebastian disappeared, I felt..." the memory of it created an immediate fist in the center of her chest. She rested her hand over her heart space and continued. "Like I wanted to die. I didn't want to go on. I'd only known him for months. At least that's what my head told me, but my heart didn't reduce love to something as insignificant as time."

  Oliver shifted and looked Abby in the eyes.

  "Thank you for saying that. Maybe I'm trying to live in my head on this. Goddess knows I want to. I've never been a good griever. I'm the funny guy. The funny guy is not supposed to mope around. He's supposed to cheer everyone else up when they're crying."

  Abby smiled.

  "You do, Oliver. You're always making me smile, and everyone else, but you're more than all that. You've got all kinds of layers. It's okay to hurt and to mourn someone you cared for."

  Oliver sipped his coffee and returned his gaze to the sun.

  Abby perked her ears for any sound of Vidya, awake in the house, but everyone, her baby included, still slept. When she did wake, Sebastian would get up with her. She slept in a small bed attached to their own so they heard her the moment she stirred. It hurt to feel so full of gratitude as Oliver sat empty beside her. Abby had Sebastian and now Vidya. Oliver had lost his new love and believed he did not even deserve his sadness.

  "What does your heart need?" Abby asked.

  "My heart?" he glanced back at her.

  "Yeah, what can we do to comfort your heart this morning? Pancakes? Sebastian's famous cinnamon rolls? A walk on the beach? You name it and it's yours. Before you answer, it's perfectly acceptable to tell me you'd rather be left alone."

  He grinned.

  "My mom used to make me chocolate chip pancakes on my birthday," he admitted.

  "Yes, those sound awesome. You finish your coffee and then come down to the kitchen. Chocolate chip pancakes it is," she told him.

  "Wait. I don't want to change the subject, but I'd rather not put this off," Oliver said, grabbing Abby's hand before she walked away. "We need a way to make Clyde aware of this watch." He pulled something from his pocket and hel
d it out.

  Abby looked at the tarnished gold pocket-watch.

  "What is it? I mean, I can see what it is, but what does it have to do with Clyde?"

  "It belonged to his brother, Eugene. Apparently, he wanted it and his mother pretended it disappeared after Eugene's death, but really she hid it in Australia. Kit found it for us."

  Abby touched the watch.

  "Hmmm, wow. That's good, right? I mean he'll want it so we can..."

  "Set a trap," Oliver sighed. "Since that worked out so well last time."

  Abby knew that he referred to Ethel and the L'Obscurite.

  "We'll be in Chicago tomorrow. Let's ask Dante," Abby said.

  Chapter 16

  "I should have been here," Oliver sighed.

  He stood with Kendra, Abby and Sebastian on the edge of a Chicago park. The flowering trees spilled white and purple flowers onto the grass. People walked the pathways holding hands, licking ice cream cones and laughing. It was surreal. Abby's eyes kept drifting back to Kendra's hands where she clutched a plain wooden box that held Ezra's ashes.

  Through her tears, Kendra shook her head.

  "You couldn't have stopped her, Oliver. Ezra did what she thought was right. She trusted Victor, after all that happened, she still assumed he wouldn't hurt her." Kendra's voice broke, and she sank to the grass. Oliver sat with her and wrapped her in a hug.

  Tears flowed down Abby's cheeks as well. She nuzzled her face into Vidya's hair. She slept in a wrap pressed close to Abby's chest. Sebastian rubbed Abby's back. He too looked ready to cry.

  "Here comes Marcus and Dante," he said, his voice low and rough.

  The two men gathered Kendra into their arms and they stood hugging and crying. After several minutes, Kendra led them toward a flower garden that Ezra planted the previous year. They each took a handful of her ashes, Oliver too, and released them into the flowers.

  "Ezra always told me when she got stressed about life, she remembered that we're stardust, destined for better things. Shine bright, little star." Kendra said, fighting the sobs trying to steal her voice.

  After they spread her ashes, the witches returned to the new loft that Ezra and the others had moved into several weeks before. Abby was grateful they no longer lived in the loft they previously shared with Victor. Their new home seemed eerily quiet as if it were as lost as the witches who occupied the space.

  Kendra ordered coffee and pastries from a shop that delivered. Abby took the delivery and assembled the food on a large wooden coffee table surrounded by colorful pillows. She unwrapped Vidya, fed her, and laid her on a blanket on the floor. Sebastian lay next to her, watching the tiny bubbles of spit that popped from her mouth as she slept. The three remaining Guerilla witches sat close together, none of them speaking.

  Oliver leaned on a pillow close to Abby and picked at the seam.

  Abby tried to imagine their experience. In a very short span of time one of their closest friends, the creator of their group, had betrayed them and now only weeks later he had killed one of their own. She struggled to reconcile the Victor she had cared for with the monster who so carelessly destroyed the people he once loved.

  "What can we do?" Abby asked. "How can we help you guys through this?"

  Dante looked up and offered her a half smile. His eyes were red rimmed.

  "We'll be okay. It's hard to conceive right now, but we're survivors. Ezra taught us that." He smiled as if remembering. "But we can help you by giving you a copy of the video of Ezra's last day. Maybe there's something important..."

  He trailed off and an icy shudder slid down Abby's spine.

  She had not watched the video, but heard Ezra's voice and Victor's during their final meeting. She feared witnessing the last moments of Ezra's life. Obviously, it upset Kendra as well. She pushed her hands over her face and cried in great heaping gasps for several minutes.

  "We're not vengeful," Dante went on, hugging Kendra close to him. "I loved Ezra and though it's hard to admit, I loved Victor too. We don't intend to hunt him down and make him pay. We're just not those kinds of witches. We do want to know what happens though. We'll help when you need us, but we've all agreed that we need to rebuild our lives here. We can't return to Trager and become obsessed with this. It's already taken two of us."

  "Yeah, of course," Oliver replied. He shifted on his pillow and offered an awkward knee-pat to Kendra.

  She stopped crying, but her face was red and splotchy.

  "Why did she go there? Alone? I just don't get it..." Kendra started, pausing when another tear slid down her cheek.

  "Because she still had faith in Victor. It's like you said, she wanted to believe he was still good, that he wouldn't hurt her."

  "But why didn't she take one of us. Why go alone?" Kendra wrung her hands and then shook her head as if accepting defeat.

  Vidya made a gurgling sound and opened her eyes. She blinked up at Sebastian.

  "Hi beautiful girl," he told her, leaning down and kissing her forehead.

  Abby scooted close and lay down on the blanket, taking one of Vidya's tiny hands in her own.

  "She's beautiful, Abby," Dante told her, standing and walking over to the baby. "Thank you for bringing her today."

  He sat down and offered one of his fingers to the baby. She clutched it in her own.

  Kendra's already drawn face seemed to pinch with grief at the sight.

  "I have to go lay down," she mumbled, standing and stumbling toward her room.

  "I'll tuck her in," Marcus told Dante, offering the others a sad smile before following Kendra out.

  Abby took advantage of their time with Dante alone to bring up the watch.

  "Dante, I hate to ask about this now, but we have a pocket watch that we believe Clyde would want," she started.

  Oliver fished it out of his pocket.

  "We need to make Victor aware of this. Any idea how?" Oliver asked.

  "You figure since Ezra was able to contact him, I should know how as well?" Dante asked.

  "We hope," Abby said.

  Dante nodded. "Let me think about it. My head's not clear, but I'll call you in a day or two and see what I can come up with."

  ****

  "That was rough," Oliver murmured as they drove back to Trager City. They had driven down that morning in Oliver's VW van.

  Abby sat in the backseat, rubbing Vidya's satiny little toes and watching her peaceful face in sleep.

  "Yeah, I feel terrible for them. And for you, Oliver," Abby added.

  "How are you holding up?" Sebastian asked, giving him a side-long appraisal. "I can drive if you want to catch a nap, check out for a couple hours?"

  Oliver shook his head.

  "I'm better driving. Gives me something to focus on."

  "I'd like to get my hand on Victor," Sebastian muttered.

  Abby reached forward and squeezed his shoulder.

  "Let's not go there right now, okay? Vidya gets agitated when we do. We could all use a few hours of peace."

  ****

  Abby waited until Sebastian and Oliver left to do a perimeter walk around the property. She put Vidya in her bassinet and retreated to her bedroom. In her diaper bag, she fished out a small velvet pouch and set it on the bed. What had gotten into her? She had snatched the bag when she saw it on the shelf at Kendra's loft in Chicago. Something in her just reached out and grabbed it while no one was looking. She remembered the first time she laid eyes on the bag at the All Hallow's Ball nearly a year before. That was the night she first met the Guerilla witches. In a way, that night marked the beginning of the curse's appearance in all their lives.

  She untied the tiny silk ribbon and stared at the weird bones nestled against the soft fabric.

  She didn't have a bone to use with the magic. After all, Victor was still alive. She did however have a ring that he used to wear. She saw it sitting on Kendra's bureau in Chicago and snatched it, feeling terrible for doing so. Would it work? The last time, Dante performed the magic she had not
been included. She had, however, listened closely and remembered the words he whispered into his glass. Now she intended to perform the magic herself.

  ****

  Hours after everyone retired to bed, Abby listened to the creaks of the house, waiting until she was confident that Sebastian and Oliver slept. She crept down the stairs, stopping in the kitchen for a glass and a bottle of juice before retreating to the study and closing the doors firmly behind her. She sat on a rug, and poured a glass of pomegranate juice which sparkled in the lamplight.

  She placed a large bowl of water before her and set a hunk of volcanic rock in its center. Tying a piece of string around the ring, she attached the opposite end to her ring finger on her right hand. It would help to keep part of her grounded in case the magic drew her away from her body and she struggled to return. Dropping the bones into the glass followed by Victor's ring, she whispered Dante's words and took a long, fast gulp.

  For several seconds nothing happened. Disappointment and relief rushed through her. As she started to lift the glass, her fingers vanished and the room tilted away from her.

  Blinking into an unfamiliar landscape, she tried to get her bearings. She stood at the edge of a forest looking out at the choppy waters of a lake. The night sky sparkled with stars and a half moon. In the trees, she heard creaks and groans, but there was little wind. When she glanced up, she saw huge creatures perched on the branches, their weight slowly buckling the wood beneath them - skin-walkers. Around her feet thousands of snakes slithered and writhed.

  For an instant, the snakes vanished as the moonlight was blotted out. Abby looked up to see a hulking form flying in front of the moon - another skin-walker.

  She stood numbly watching the creature and realized she could hear more of them, dozens. A thud to her left nearly sent her sprawling, but she was not in her normal cumbersome body. Lighter through this magic, really not there at all in the physical sense, she was able to move swiftly away. She stared at a hunk of bloody flesh. Her eyes bulged, and she fought a scream bubbling in her throat. A tiny splotch of fur revealed it was likely deer flesh, but that recognition brought her little peace.