“Yes,” said Lloyd. “Someone didn’t believe me at first. Chalk symbols and weird stains are always dodgy. I knew that faerie ghost was more than just a lost spirit.”
“No need to rub it in,” I said, at the same time as Ilsa said, “Faerie ghost?”
“Just a poltergeist,” I said. “But we think he had a boost from some kind of witch magic.” I spotted a nearby alley that looked promising. “There’s definitely a witch after me as well, but I can probably only track the vampires.”
“If you’re certain,” said Ilsa, walking after me into the alley. “I shouldn’t be lecturing anyone on safety, considering, but—Morgan, don’t you even think about going in there to chase vampires without candles.”
Her brother had stopped walking, wearing the vacant expression of a necromancer deep in the spirit world. With a blink, his gaze cleared, and he scowled at his sister. “I wouldn’t know what they looked like, anyway.”
“Shadows,” I said, setting the first candle down at the alley entrance and beckoning to Lloyd. “I’ll go in. I might not find anyone… I never did see what the vampire who stole the zombies looked like, and Keir might have caught him.”
“Who stole whose zombies?” Morgan frowned.
“As I said—long story.” I resumed setting up the circle, while Lloyd moved in to help me.
“Are you certain about this?” he asked, in a low voice.
“Positive. It’s necromancy I’m using, not… the other thing.”
Not that I trusted the spirit in the slightest, but she’d only used magic to defend my life. It might mean she was an ally, or not, but I wasn’t ready to start using her power in front of strangers in a non-life-or-death scenario. Definitely not until I’d learned to tone it all the way down.
I stood in the completed candle circle and turned to Ilsa. “Any tips for finding a particular spirit?”
“Picture what they look like,” she said. “Clearly, in your mind’s eye. You know how to recognise people you know well in the spirit realm, right? Even when you can’t see them. It’s like that. I can guide you, but I never actually saw the vampires, so you’ll have to do most of the work.”
“Good enough.” I tapped into the spirit realm. Grey fog filled the space, while the others resembled vague white shapes. I did know how to recognise people I knew well, even without using my physical senses. I sensed Lloyd close by, a familiar presence. In front of me, Ilsa’s spirit was a very strong presence, almost covering Morgan’s, but he was there, too. And…
No sign of Keir at all.
Unease fluttered through me. Had he disconnected from the spirit realm? Surely not. It had seemed like he was in there all the time, and I’d been around him long enough that I should be able to track if he was near. Even when he’d been talking to me in the waking world, he was always there. Why would he pick now to hide himself?
“Anything?” asked Ilsa, her spirit glowing even brighter than mine. “What do vampires look like, anyway?”
“Shadowy,” I said. “If you see what looks like a silhouette cut-out of a person, it’s a vampire. When they’re draining you, though… it’s like they’re infused with a bluish white glow, and you have to break the connection using necromancy.”
Unless you have an extra soul.
“Nice,” said Ilsa, as I blinked the fog away. “So they can control undead from a distance? Most necromancers can only operate within a few feet. That makes catching rogues trickier, for sure.”
“If Lady Montgomery knows, hopefully she has a plan to find the bastards,” I said. “Let’s just say our allies are in short supply.”
Keir’s absence shouldn’t bother me. Maybe he’d only appeared so close in the spirit realm before because he’d been stalking me, if not in the real-world sense. But still…
“Can I go further than the city from here?” I asked. “That’s what you two can do, right?”
“You don’t wanna do that,” said Morgan. “There are side effects, if you go that deep in the spirit world.”
“And you’d know?” asked Lloyd, who looked a little miffed at being left out of our jaunt into Death.
“Yes, I would,” Morgan said. “I spent two years there and I still can’t walk in a straight line.”
Ah. It made sense that Death would come with some serious downsides, aside from the constant danger of drifting beyond the gates and permanently disconnecting from your body. Ilsa, being Gatekeeper, probably didn’t need to worry as much, but if taken unawares, maybe even she’d have trouble fighting off a vampire.
“What other side effects are we talking about?” said Lloyd.
“For a start, you’re completely unaware of what’s happening in the real world if you go deep enough,” Morgan said. “A person could sneak up and steal the clothes off your back and you wouldn’t know it. Not that it’s ever happened to me.”
“Uh-huh,” I said. “Aside from that?”
“Imagine being in a coma for months and you’ve pretty much got it,” said Ilsa.
“It doesn’t help that Death is fucking freezing,” Morgan added. “I’ve permanently lost all feeling in part of my hand.”
Ilsa whirled on him. “What? You never told me that.”
“I ‘spose not.” He shrugged.
Ilsa gave an exasperated sigh. “No wonder Lady Montgomery took you off the rota.”
I tuned out their bickering and tapped into the spirit realm again. With my spirit sight amplified by the circle, there was no reason I shouldn’t be able to find Keir, or at least sense him. He’d always been there before, and his absence made me edgy.
Familiarity pinged on my vision, then disappeared just as quickly, like a flicker of movement in the corner of my eye.
Keir. It was definitely him I’d sensed, for a moment. Then he’d vanished.
I blinked back to alertness, moving so fast I accidentally kicked one of the candles over.
“What is it?” asked Lloyd.
“I think Keir might be in trouble,” I said. “Our… vampire ally. He’s sort of there, in the spirit realm, but I can’t figure out where, exactly. I did say I’d meet him in person today.”
Morgan yelled without warning, dropping to his knees and clutching his head.
“Morgan!” said Ilsa. “What happened this time?”
He pressed his hands to his forehead. “Someone is making a real racket over there in the spirit world.”
My heart lurched. “What do you mean?” I hadn’t heard or seen anything aside from the weird flickering of Keir’s presence.
“He can ‘hear’ anyone with a particularly strong presence,” said Ilsa. “Particularly if they’re in distress.”
“Oh. Shit.” I tapped into the spirit realm again, focusing fiercely on Keir. A bolt of light shot through the spirit realm, then vanished. What was that?
“I can probably track him,” said Morgan, who appeared to have forgotten all about warnings.
“No chance.” Ilsa grabbed his arm. “We’re reporting this, and you’re getting back to the guild before you pass out cold like last time. Are you two coming back?”
I shook my head. “I need to find my ally… I can’t tell where he is.” He must be close, but aside from that brief flicker, he’d barely been there at all. What could cause that effect on a vampire?
“What’s going on?” Lloyd asked.
“Haven’t a clue. Keir… it’s like he’s half there, half not.” Crap. Was someone draining him? Or—he did say vampires needed to frequently feed on others’ souls, otherwise they’d die.
My stomach turned over. Something was seriously wrong, and while it seemed a bad idea not to have the Lynn siblings with me when I confronted the problem, neither of them had ever faced a vampire before. Maybe I should have checked up on Keir after he’d chased the person who’d attacked the hotel, but it wasn’t like I had any way to contact him outside of the spirit realm.
“Hey. Evelyn. I need some help,” I said. “I think I’m going to need your magic.”<
br />
Evelyn’s ghostly form appeared before me, so suddenly that I jumped—as much as a ghost could, anyway. She appeared less transparent than before, her hair tumbling over her shoulders, and clear enough for me to see we were more or less the same height. Her high cheekbones, greyish eyes and full lips with a slight cleft might have been a mirror of my own face, though my jet-black hair and lip piercing hid some of my Hemlock features.
“Yes?” asked Evelyn, her voice calm.
“I might need to borrow your magic again. I think my ally has been kidnapped. I thought I’d ask nicely.”
I also wished we had time for an actual conversation, so I could figure out if we were remotely on the same page as far as our goals for the Hemlock magic went.
Her semi-transparent face flickered, making it hard to read her expression. “You have my magic. It’s yours.”
Okay… was there something in her tone that suggested resentment, or anger? With her voice so faint, it was hard to tell. But another flicker caught my eye. I looked down, sensing Keir’s presence grow stronger. And closer.
I dropped the spirit sight and looked at a bewildered Lloyd.
“Underground,” I said. “The enemy—that’s where they’re operating from. No wonder nobody has managed to find them.”
15
Going back into the tunnels seemed a foolish move, but the spirit realm didn’t lie. Keir was somewhere close by, and, given the way his spirit kept flickering in and out of existence, he was on the verge of disappearing.
“Any tunnel entrances around here?” I walked down the alley, Lloyd behind me, and headed down another cobbled street. “He’s close… he must have come this way right after leaving the hotel.”
Which meant there was a strong chance the person who’d attacked us was somewhere near, assuming Keir hadn’t killed them.
“If I knew that, we’d have found them when patrolling,” said Lloyd. “What’s he doing underground?”
“I think he was attacked by another vampire,” I said. “Based on the way his spirit keeps fading in and out. But it wouldn’t surprise me if there were more of those fury monsters around.”
“Summoned by a ritual?” he asked. “You don’t think that’s what that setup in the warehouse was meant for, do you?”
“Nah, we’d have known if there was one of those monsters in there.” I shuddered at the thought. I’d been completely unprepared, not knowing just how many people had been hunting me. Lloyd or I might easily have died back then.
“What’s the difference between a witch ritual and a necromancer’s summoning, then?” he asked. “They always say not to put blood anywhere near a summoning circle. I guess it’s the same for witches’ chalk circles, right?”
“Yes, but… it’s worse. Witch magic isn’t drawn to death, not the way necromancy is. Our magic comes from life, not the dead.”
“That sounds like witchcraft is supposed to be good and necromancy is evil,” he commented. “Which you know, isn’t true. I mean, I suppose there are more rogue necromancers than power-crazy witches, when it comes down to it.”
“The Hemlocks would beg to differ.” I paused midway down the street, opposite a café which didn’t look like it’d been open since before the invasion, and checked the spirit realm again. Once more, there was a flicker of life from Keir. “He’s close.”
I looked at the wall. Part of it was bricked up, a long stretch between abandoned, empty shops with shattered glass windows. The wall shimmered when I tilted my head. I pressed my palm to it and a stinging pain shot to my elbow.
Ow. I winced and yanked my hand away. “That was a ward.” Not a Hemlock one, and no indication as to whether it belonged to friend or foe.
We’re wasting time. I paced the street, but didn’t find so much as a sewer entrance with a ladder like last time.
“Nothing,” said Lloyd, meeting me in front of the wall again. “I reckon that’s the only way in, Jas, but it has ‘trap’ written all over it.”
“I know.” Frustration burned beneath my skin. I checked the spirit realm again, searching for Keir’s presence. His spirit flickered, then went out. My heart lurched. “Damn. I have to get in there.”
Hoping I wasn’t too late, I held my hands over the wall, magic humming against my palms. The ward only covered the bare stretch of wall. I tilted my head, seeing the weaving glyphs around the edges. Clever. The person who’d set it up was more technically gifted than I was, but not perfect. There were gaps in the spell that a skilled witch could undo. Evelyn’s magic, ever below the surface, flowed from my hands as I held them out. I knew the reversal spell that would undo a protective ward, but I’d never managed to use it without props before. With Evelyn guiding my hand, though, I felt like I could grab the threads of magic and undo them with a single tug.
Power surged from my fingertips, rippling along the wall’s surface. Lloyd whispered, “Damn.”
In one wave, the wards dissolved, and the wall went entirely blank before a door handle appeared. Whoa there. I’d only intended to temporarily undo the wards and reveal what was below the surface, not switch them off altogether.
“Really hope I haven’t set anything nasty free,” I said. “But I’m about to go and kill it anyway.”
“You’re bonkers,” said Lloyd. “Those witches have finally driven you mad.”
I grabbed the door handle and yanked it open. A tunnel yawned ahead, sloping downhill.
A hoarse cry came from within. Keir.
Lloyd’s eyes widened. “Should I call Isabel for backup? Or the guild?”
“Isabel,” I said. “I’ll get Keir out first.” From the flickering of his presence, I didn’t have long until I was too late.
I ran through the door, following his faint presence. He was so close—and it was pitch black in here. I grabbed a candle from my pocket, and there was a thud as the door closed behind me.
“Oh, come on.”
A bone-chilling scream cut off my words. Furies.
Too late to turn back. I continued into the dark, cursing under my breath. So much for sneaking up on the enemy.
My feet caught on fabric, and I tripped headlong over a human-shaped body. “Oh, shit.” I crawled to my knees, my candle reflecting on Keir’s face.
“Nice of you to drop in, Jas,” he said.
Light trickled in from somewhere ahead. I backed away, checking the spirit realm, but it was definitely him. “Jesus. How long have you been down here?”
“A while.” Blood streaked his face, and his wrists and ankles were bound with thick ropes.
“Why not call and ask for my help?”
“I don’t recall getting your phone number. And I was rather short on resources.” He twitched his bound hands, his face alarmingly pale under the blood. “Luckily, the furies seem more intent on devouring their summoner.”
“Hang on. Let me get those off you.”
I hadn’t brought the tools to undo bonds, but with witchcraft, maybe I didn’t need them. I drew on the same magic I’d use to melt the wards and directed it at the ropes.
To my shock as much as his, white light poured from my hands, and the ropes dissolved into nothing.
Keir blinked in confusion, turning his freed hands over. “New trick?” He shifted into a sitting position, tugging at the ropes on his legs.
“Let me try.” I grabbed the ropes, getting mud and slime on me in the process. “You’re absolutely filthy.”
He gave a choked laugh. “You have no idea how hard it is not to make an inappropriate comment here, Jas.”
My hands slipped on the rope knots. “You’re not helping me decide whether it was a good idea to get myself locked in here with you or not.”
He chuckled under his breath. “Damned vampire.”
“A vampire did this?”
“I reckon he planned on saving me for whoever summoned those furies, but I don’t think it ended well for him.”
“Shit.” No wonder I hadn’t been able to sense any other vampires
in the spirit realm, if he’d been devoured by winged monsters.
The ropes dissolved like the others, and Keir climbed to his feet, wincing as he stretched out his arms. He must have been stuck here for hours.
“Where are the furies?” I asked. “And who summoned them?”
“I didn’t see,” he said, in a low voice. “I wasn’t their priority. Let’s put it that way.”
I shuddered, digging in my pockets for another candle. “Can vampires see in the dark?”
“No, but I can sense anyone living or otherwise through the spirit realm. There’s nobody alive in the next room.”
“I think…” I trailed off. A faint thrumming sensation in my fingertips indicated witchcraft, but it wasn’t from me. More dark witch magic? I shone the candle light ahead, wishing I could cast a spell to light the whole place up. But that would bring all the bad guys straight to me, and while Evelyn seemed to be cooperating with me at the moment, Keir was in bad enough shape already.
“Jas?” He walked alongside me, towards the humming sensation. The tunnel opened into a chamber whose walls dripped with water, and…
I moved closer and my stomach flipped. Blood oozed between the cracks on the walls—recently shed blood—between crudely drawn symbols. A body lay at the foot of the wall. Human. Vampire? Or witch?
“Jesus,” I said. “This is dark magic. A witch did it.”
Bile rose in my throat. Even as a nonentity of a witch, I’d known that witches had far less of a propensity towards dark magic than any other kind of supernatural. Yet beneath the sick horror, something inside me—in the power that had brought down the wards—wanted to touch the walls and feel that magic mingling with mine. Mine, whispered Evelyn’s voice.
No, it bloody well isn’t, I told her.
I side-stepped the man’s body, and pressed my hands to the glyphs on the wall. Focusing hard, I used the same spell I’d used to undo the wards on the door. It was too late to stop whatever the blood spilled here had summoned, but I could at least deal with the aftermath.
White light flared from my palms, and the glyphs vanished, leaving droplets of blood trickling down the walls like condensation.
Witch's Shadow (The Hemlock Chronicles Book 1) Page 15