by C. T. Adams
Josette didn’t say a word. Instead, she reached over to lay her hand on his bare forearm. The touch was gentle, tentative and kind. But when he raised his head to meet her eyes he felt a surge of power that pushed him back into the seat. Electric heat made every hair on his body stand on end. He locked his jaw so as not to cry out.
He saw the stewardess moving in the front of the plane, heard the pre-flight safety instructions were playing, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t take his eyes from Josette’s face. Her eyes glowed green and gold, and looking into their depths he felt the pain melt from his body like ice cream in a sunbeam. He almost expected to feel himself dripping onto the worn carpet.
The magic faded, and her eyes were just eyes once again. The scents of baking bread and homemade cookies filled him with the warmth of a different magic altogether. He took a deep gasping breath and felt the air fill his lungs without the stabbing pain of broken ribs. He leaned down to brush her lips with his in the tenderest of possible kisses, noting as he did that he could bend and turn without the shooting pain that had plagued him moments before. “I thought you weren’t a healer.” He breathed the words across her mouth.
“I’m not,” she whispered back, “which is why it hurt. All I could do was push my power into you and let your body do the work. I didn’t take much, which is why you still probably hurt a little. I have to save most of my strength.”
He kissed her again, nibbling a little at her lips. “Have I told you today how much I love you?”
“Maybe, but feel free to show me.”
“Right here?” He deliberately raised one eyebrow as if shocked. “In front of everybody?”
She punched him in the arm where the snake had bit him. It didn’t even hurt…much.
THEY’D BEEN IN the air for an hour and twenty minutes. It was as smooth a flight as any pilot could hope for. No doubt if she looked out the window she’d probably see fluffy white clouds as the plane approached the vast blue-green expanse of water that was the Atlantic Ocean. She didn’t look.
Rick was asleep. With his eyes closed and his hair tousled like it was he looked very young, and more innocent than he’d been in two hundred years. A soft smile touched her lips. Stubborn fool. That snake had damned near killed him, but he hadn’t complained, had even insisted on putting the luggage into the overhead bins. Of all the idiotic—“I’ll heal,” he’d said. Yes, he probably would’ve, but after days, even weeks of pain.
Not that she was in much better shape. This late in the afternoon on the day of the full moon she should be restless and irritable, not listless and exhausted. They were scheduled to land in just a few minutes. The pilot had instructed the passengers to raise their seats into the upright position. Three hours remained until sunset and what was probably going to be one of the most elaborate and complex bits of ritual magic she’d ever worked in her life. She couldn’t even work up any adrenaline over flying.
She closed her eyes, trying to ignore the sinking sensation as the plane began its descent. On the theory that it could only help if she thought about something, anything, else she tried to recall the details of the visions she’d dragged from the mind of the snake.
He’d said that they needed all three volumes. Destroying one might stop them from raising this goddess of theirs. Or not. And how much knowledge would be lost in the process? What if they destroyed the very information they needed to protect themselves. Ritual magic was different from natural magic. And at the moment the Sazi didn’t have a single practitioner familiar with ritual powers and limitations, save her—and she’d never read all of the books. Just the ones she possessed. God only knew what might be in the other two.
That was going to have to change. If nobody else was willing, she’d take the books they had into the middle of nowhere, where there were less likely to be accidental casualties, and start educating herself. Because so long as their enemies knew they had this weakness they were bound to try to exploit it.
Enemies. Plural. The more she thought about the events of the past few days, the more she believed that they were the actions of two separate groups, with different goals and ambitions. The snakes were working for the return of their goddess. The Movement that Ray had been part of…Josette couldn’t imagine what humans might be up to. But the humans had played no part in any of her visions of the jungle, nor had she seen them in her contact with the snake’s mind. But what about the sacrifice in the desert night, under the tree? Could that have been humans? Were there ritual practitioners who weren’t Sazi?
Whatever they were planning, it was big. They were well organized and, judging from the bounties on the cards, obscenely well funded. In a world filled with billions of others just like them, they’d be damned near untraceable.
The plane touched down with a soft thump that made her clutch the armrest in a panic. Josette reached over and gave Rick’s shoulder a quick shake. “We’re here.”
He blinked a few times, trying to make the transition from sleep to wakefulness. His nose twitched, and she knew he could scent her fear.
“You should’ve woken me sooner.” He reached over to brush a stray hair back behind her ear. “I would’ve tried to help.”
“It’s all right. I was fine.” She didn’t tell him that it wasn’t the flying that had frightened her, but rather the thought of another human purge of the Sazi. It could happen so very easily.
She shuddered at the thought, and Rick unfastened his seatbelt so he could take her in his arms. “When this is over, I’m going to rent us a car and we will drive back to Pony to get my bike—provided it’s still there. From there we can either go to my place in South Dakota, or wherever it is you want to live. But we are not setting foot into another airport for anything short of the apocalypse for the next decade.”
“What an utterly wonderful idea.”
It took some time to disembark. The flight had been nearly full, their seats at the very back of the plane, and Daytona was the final eastern destination for this plane. While they were waiting for people to wrestle their luggage out of the overhead bins Josette pulled her purse from beneath the seat in front of her and retrieved her cell phone.
The readout said that she was “roaming,” but it didn’t really matter to her how many minutes she used. With any luck at all, this would be her last call to Raphael for a very long time.
He picked up on the first ring. “Ramirez.”
“We just landed.”
“Good. Lucas and Ahmad are waiting for you in the passenger loading area.”
“Lucas?” Josette couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice. “I thought he’d be heading to Atlanta to deal with the…situation there.”
Rick had taken down their bags and was waiting for the aisle to clear in front of them. He pretended he couldn’t hear, but she could tell he was listening intently.
“There was no point. It’s all over the news. A sniper took out a pair of animal control workers. The snake escaped.”
“Oh.” Josette wasn’t sure what to say. It hadn’t even occurred to her that there might have been a third snake with a sniper rifle. That was liable to haunt her dreams for quite a while.
Rick coughed, getting her attention. The plane was nearly empty now. It was time to go.
“Raphael, again—” Josette hesitated, not knowing the right words to say. He’d done so much for her, for them over the past few days. Thanks just didn’t seem adequate.
“You’re welcome. It was my pleasure. Now get moving. You’re burning daylight.”
He said it to make her smile, and it did. “Yes sir.” She laughed and hung up the phone. Dropping it back into her bag she reflected that Catherine Turner was lucky to have found a man like Raphael. He’d grown into a fine man. But as she followed Rick down the narrow aisle, taking time to admire the movement of his body, even in the baggy trousers he wore she didn’t envy the young jaguar. She’d found a man of her own, and as infuriating as Rick could be, she wouldn’t trade a minute of the time they’d
spent together over the past days, or the time she hoped they’d have in the future.
They stepped out of the airport into the warm afternoon sunshine. The smell of saltwater mingled in the air with the scent of car exhaust. She could hear the cry of sea birds in the distance.
The car was waiting just a few yards down the walkway, just as Raphael had promised. It was a regular four-door rental sedan, rather than a limo. Silver gray, it gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. This close to the doors she could see the plush leather interior, smell the “new car” scent that hadn’t yet had the chance to fade. Lucas leaned against the front fender, arms crossed over his chest. His dark curls had more silver in them than she’d remembered, and there were definite lines of exhaustion at the corners of his hazel eyes. He was dressed casually, in a bright turquoise T-shirt over white shorts and boat shoes with no socks. Ahmad, on the other hand, was not dressed casually. Despite the heat, he was wearing an elegant dark gray suit expensively tailored to fit his slender frame. The white of his shirt emphasized his dark olive complexion. His eyes were hidden behind mirrored sunglasses. His expression was unreadable. In his hands was an elaborately carved box of fragrant cedar that had been polished until the wood had a reddish gold gleam. He took a step toward Josette, the box extended before him as if it was a gift.
Rick was just suddenly there, standing between them. A rumbling yowl left his lips.
To Ahmad’s credit he didn’t flinch or back up. The two men stood, eye-to-eye, neither giving so much as a fraction. Power built until the air between them was electric.
“Enough!” Lucas’s voice cracked like a whip. “Stand down, agent. Councilman al-Narmer is on our side.”
“I don’t trust him.”
Ahmad’s mouth curled in a disdainful smirk. “Nor should you. All the world knows my feelings for Josette. But though you may choose not to believe me, I mean her no harm this day and the box I hold is crucial to the success of tonight’s endeavor.”
“Your word?” Rick snarled. He hadn’t moved, despite a direct order by his superior. He would probably be punished harshly for that later. But he had to extract an oath from the snake. He’d dealt with Ahmad often enough while in Charles’s employ to know that his words had little value without an oath. A pause, but then Ahmad said, “You have it.”
RICK STEPPED BACK, but reluctantly. Josette knew how much Ahmad’s word meant to him. He seldom gave it, but once given, he never went back on it.
She closed the distance between herself and the councilman for the snakes. Taking the box from his hands she asked, “Has the book been retrieved? Is everything ready on this end?”
“Everything but you. I went over the pertinent pages. There are cleansing rituals you’ll need to perform. We must hurry.”
“Um, we have one quick thing to do before we go.” At least, she hoped it would be quick.
The look on the faces of all three men were exquisitely synchronized. The brows rose just before the mouths opened. She raised a hand to stop all of the questions. “If you’ll get into the car, I’ll explain.”
Curiosity filled the air as Ahmad opened the rear door of the car for her with a small bow. She climbed in, followed closely by Rick. Lucas moved to the driver’s seat and started the engine. Ahmad claimed the front passenger seat.
She cleared her throat as they drove into the Florida sunshine and she started to explain. But first a note of caution would be advisable. “Unless there are any bugs in this car, you three are about to be the only other Sazi alive, save myself, who know this information.” Lucas and Ahmad exchanged glances, and Rick looked at her strangely. She took a deep breath and dropped the bomb. “There is a fourth book of power.”
Rick and Lucas didn’t do much more than shrug, but Ahmad’s eyes widened and he turned against his belt so hard to see her face that he nearly choked himself. “You’re lying!”
She stared him down calmly. “I’m doing no such thing. This book affects the other three to the extent that it can undo the workings inside. It holds no intrinsic power of its own, but is merely for…checks and balances, if you like.”
“And where is this fourth book? Have you brought it with you?” Lucas flicked his eyes to meet hers in the rearview mirror.
She fidgeted with a note of chagrin. “Actually, no. It’s here in Daytona, bricked up into the mosquito inlet lighthouse, back when it was built. But I might need help getting to it. I didn’t really plan back in 1886 for the area to be built up so much now. It’s called the Ponce de Leon lighthouse now. I saw in the travel literature on the plane that it’s…well, it’s a protected site, a national historic landmark.”
Ahmad shook his head just as Lucas exploded with laughter. Rick put his forehead in his hands as she quipped, “Well, it is accessible, after all. And I remember right where I put it.”
“If it’s not gone,” Rick continued.
“Or eaten by the salt air or a dozen types of marine creatures that feed on plants,” Ahmad added.
Lucas finally sighed and turned onto the interstate, headed south. “Well, we might as well get it over with. We’ll fix any damage later…somehow.” After that statement, it was a quiet drive. The car hummed with tension and the suppressed magic of too many powerful Sazi in too confined a space. Josette looked up, startled. The weather was beautiful. With as many powerful shapeshifters as there were in the area it should be storming.
Ahmad met her eyes in the rearview mirror. Somehow he’d sensed her question without her bothering to voice it. “When we drained the seers, the weather cleared. You will, however, note that there is a very serious-looking cloud bank over the ocean to the east.”
She looked to the east and grimaced. He was right. There was a storm brewing and a nasty one at that.
“It appears we may all be getting wet this evening. For I doubt you’ll have the energy to do a weather working after what you’re going to attempt.” Ahmad’s voice held none of it’s usual dry amusement. Instead, he sounded…worried. It was unlike him, to the point that Josette looked up at him with considerable curiosity.
Again, he answered her question before she could voice it. “I have always admired Charles, and I am very fond of your new sister-in-law.” He sighed and she could see his elegant fingers clench into fists. “I would gladly take her from Antoine. But not like this.” He shook his head. “No, not like this.” He turned his head to look out the window and she caught a glimpse of his expression in profile. He seemed, for lack of a better word, sad. Considering the antipathy he’d had for Josette and all her family, it was a very odd reaction.
There were convenient signs to the lighthouse, but of course, a rather inconvenient crowd milling about. She hadn’t really made plans to arrive this late, nor had she brought any tools to cut through the mortar. Still, she remembered telling the handsome young bricklayer that she would need to come back for it, and he told her he would arrange for it to be accessible. She hadn’t watched the final construction, but she knew it was still here. She could almost feel it waiting for her.
The four of them paid their admission fee and followed the line walking toward the museum that the lighthouse had become. Rather than follow most of the visitors inside, Josette slowly made her way around the base of the lighthouse, searching. Time seemed to slip away from her and she remembered seeing the building going up, knowing the fine craftsmanship that would keep it safe and sound. And then there was the running and the frantic flight from the assassins that really had been sent by Ahmad. She’d killed them, much as she’d stunned the men at the airport, with a blast of power that had rocked the ground under her. As she approached the outer wall, she gave a small gasp of delight. Could it really be this easy?
“I need everybody to not notice us. Any chance the three of you could work together on this?”
The men looked at one another and shrugged, again, nearly in perfect harmony. She felt a swell of power as a cloud of both illusion and aversion settled over the four of them. Most people would simp
ly avoid this side of the lighthouse, and those who ventured closer would see nothing at all.
There was a crack down the entire lighthouse, just about an inch in width that seemed to permeate all the way through the brick. She could feel the power of the book just behind the brick. She slipped her fingers inside the crack. Although it had been covered over with caulking to keep out the weather, the rubbery mass was no match for her strength. There was a small space, just behind the brick, and she could feel the oilskin wrap she’d placed around the book so many years ago. She only had to pull out one brick to ease it from the hiding place, and the mortar had stayed with the brick so that when she replaced it, it fit snugly and looked whole again.
If only the rest of the trip had been this easy!
Lucas was still shaking his head in disbelief as they got in the car. “A century in an open crack in a public building, and it’s still there. You live a charmed life, Aspen.”
A bitter chuckle rose from her. “Not charmed, Lucas. Hardly charmed.” Still, she couldn’t help but smile. “Let’s get out of here. We’ve got work to do.”
The four of them returned to the car. Lucas drove with Ahmad riding in the passenger seat. Rick sat in the rear next to Josette. Only when they were on their way did Josette turn her attention to the artifacts in her possession. She knew the book, so she set it aside, and began examining the box Ahmad had provided.
It wasn’t much larger than a shoebox, but it was quite heavy. The lid was a separate piece, made to fit so snugly on the base that there was barely a line to show where one ended and the other began. She ran her finger lightly over the exquisitely carved pattern of snakes, animals, lizards, and birds. Each creature was depicted in stylized detail.