The Series that Just Plain Sucks: The Complete Trilogy

by Charissa Dufour

  “We haven’t given up, Ashley,” said Josh to the wall. “We hit a setback, that’s true, but it’s not over yet.”

  “And how many more setbacks are we gonna hit before you guys realize we just need to kill Sedgrave before things get worse.”

  “The warlock has been quiet for months. Maybe he doesn’t intend on mucking things up.”

  “You really believe that?” I asked.

  Josh grumbled to himself as I sat on the bed to put on my waterproof boots. He heard the creak of the bed and turned to look at me out of the corner of his eye. Once he knew I was decent, he joined me on the bed.

  “No, I guess not,” he admitted.

  “All the more reason to kill him now,” I said as I laced up my second boot.

  “We’re not doing that so long as you’re attached to him.”

  “Josh,” I sighed, “the reason you like me is the very reason you won’t kill Sedgrave.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m linked to Sedgrave. I have his charisma, his ability to captivate. All this,” and I motioned between the two of us, “is just a byproduct of our link.”

  “Not so, Ashley.”

  “Forgive me if I don’t believe you,” I said as I stood up and headed for the door; Josh followed me and Tereus curled up for a well-deserved catnap.

  I led Josh all the way up to the main room. Inside we found the usual group, plus Sahara, sitting in one of the large sitting areas. The rest of the room was empty. I crossed to them and took a free seat by Emma.

  “You rang?” I asked, doing my best to imitate Lurch from the Adams Family.

  Mikhail’s lips quirked up into a smile. “We want you to tell us about the ritual,” he said, motioning toward the array of pictures and notes spread across the coffee table.

  I quickly spotted the numerous items that had been used to torment me in picture form.

  “What?” I asked, sudden tension making my voice break.

  “If you can tell us what happened, what they did to you, between you and Emma and the pictures from Richard’s files we should be able to figure out which items we need to find,” explained Mikhail.

  I glanced at Nik. He knew a little of what I had endured during the ritual and how it had revealed the secret of his past attempt at raising Sedgrave; the others didn’t know that long ago he had tried to raise the warlock himself. I didn’t particularly want to relive the worst night of my life by telling them about it.

  “I don’t think this will work,” I grumbled.

  “Ashley, I know we haven’t always gotten along, but I’ve never thought of you as dumb,” said Emma.

  “Excuse me?” I glared at her. I thought we had been growing a little less hostile.

  “We have a chance, slim as it might be. Will you really not even try it? Will you just give up?”

  I glanced down at my hands, suddenly realizing I had been rubbing my wrists where ropes had once held me, allowing Richard and his men to torture me at their leisure. I had given up once. When it seemed impossible to stop the ritual and impossible for me to control my blood lust, I had called the vampire who had created me and asked him to kill him.

  Thankfully, he hadn’t complied. That final thought solidified what Emma was saying. I didn’t want to die, and I needed to keep fighting. Besides, if I didn’t stay alive, how would I ever avenge Chloe’s death?

  I let out a defeated sigh. “All right. Let’s try.” I hesitated a moment. “The thing about the ritual you have to understand is that I wasn’t myself for much of it.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Helen.

  “I would become unconscious and then wake up in someone else’s body, in a different time period.”

  “I don’t get it,” admitted Josh.

  “I came to in the body of someone else who had been sacrificed, and based on the red hair, I’d say most or all of them had been my ancestors. So I wasn’t really there for what Richard did to me.”

  “That might be more helpful than you realize,” said Emma as though my statement had revealed a few things to her. “Can you tell us about each one in the order you saw them?”

  I hesitated, more to assess the panic building up inside my chest. I glanced around the room to remind myself that I was safe amongst my friends.

  Remembering isn’t the same as doing it all over again, I told myself sternly, so get a grip.

  “First Richard put the mask on my face.” I motioned toward the correct picture. “It began to kinda glow and burn, then I blacked out. When I came to it was the 1950s and I could tell I had been whipped.”

  “Was it a specific whip?” asked Mikhail, sifting through the pictures for one of a whip.

  “Not that I could tell,” Emma interject. “I’ve never heard of a whip being kept as an antique or anything special. To be honest, it looked pretty modern to me. My guess would be that it was done purely to weaken the sacrifice.” Emma glanced at me, a grimace playing on her face. “Sorry.”

  I nodded my acceptance before continuing. “I blacked out again and then woke up sometime around the American Civil War—poofy dresses and all that nonsense.”

  “You can’t be more specific?” asked Josh.

  I glanced at Nik. He had been part of that ritual-memory, but I wasn’t sure if he wanted that to be public knowledge. His face showed his nervous agitation so I guessed it was to remain our little secret.

  “Sorry. We didn’t exactly stop to discuss current events. When I woke that time I found I had a sword driven into my gut. After that I blacked out and woke during the medieval times with a gash across my throat. Finally, I blacked out and woke back in Richard’s bunker, but this time it was the dagger we stole in my gut. Oh, and Richard was holding a carved staff of some sort.”

  I said it all as quickly as possible, partly to keep people from interrupting me anymore, but mostly to get the whole thing over with. The tightness in my chest was beginning to make it hard to talk, and I could feel sweat rolling down my back between my shoulder blades. If they asked me any more questions I was going to go stark raving mad and run out of the room.

  “We never used a sword on you,” said Emma. “That must have been why the people from the ‘Civil War’ attempt failed.”

  “So we’re not considering the sword as one of the items we need to find?” asked Josh.

  “I wouldn’t,” offered Helen.

  Emma nodded her agreement and slowly the others followed her example.

  “Now the question is,” began Nik, looking a little more relaxed. “How do we track down all these items? We’ll go through all the things taken from Richard’s seethe, but I was involved in the cleanup and I don’t remember seeing any of those items. What about you, Josh?”

  Josh shook his head before speaking, “Why don’t we go to Drake? He got us started when we stole the dagger from Periphetes.”

  I didn’t much care for the idea, but then again I was still struggling to get on board with the whole “try to beat this thing.” Why had I so completely given up? I didn’t like it. Up until recently I had always been a fighter, even to a fault. Well I will be again, I told myself.

  “All right. Let’s do it!” I said with forced enthusiasm.

  A few minutes later Emma and I were sitting in the back of Nik’s car, Josh and Nik taking the front seats. Josh had tried to give up the front passenger seat to one of us, being the gentleman, but we both refused. I didn’t much feel like sitting with either of the men. Emma was a safer bet.

  I never thought I’d be thinking that, I chuckled to myself.

  It was a short drive to the fae’s antique shop, just on the other side of Olympia’s small downtown. I had only met Drake the one time, shortly after which I had run away from Nik and Josh to get Isaac to kill me, but I doubted the fae knew that part of my story.

  We arrived shortly after the sun had faded behind the horizon and parked in the nearest spot we could find, walking the two blocks to Drake’s Antiques. Nik opened the door and walked p
ast the few browsers still fingering Drake’s “antiques.” I use the term loosely. Even Drake knew that most of his stuff was aged pieces of crap, sold to people who didn’t know better.

  Near the back of the store, where the more impressive items were on display, stood a square display case with a space for a sales person to stand in the middle. Standing within the display case was a man who could have played Clark Kent in an old black-and-white version of the story, thick rimmed glasses included. All he would need to do is shave the thin mustache and goatee to land the role.

  “Ashley, my favorite va…” he trailed off, suddenly remembering the humans still in his store. He ran around the display case and gave me a hug.

  I wasn’t sure why he was so excited to see me. I hadn’t made that much of an impression on him in our first meeting, or maybe it was just that I kept the Olympia mystical world interesting. Multiple people had praised my ability to liven up a party, even if I didn’t appreciate the compliment.

  “Hello Drake,” I said, pushing my lips up into a smile.

  “What can I do for you?” Drake asked, glancing around at the group and giving Emma a special smile.

  “Well, ummm,” stuttered Nik, his eyes flicking back to the front of the store where the humans were still browsing.

  “Ah!” sighed Drake, understanding the situation, before giving us a wink.

  Drake wound his way to the front of the store. From where we stood, we could hear him clear his voice.

  “Ladies, I’m afraid it’s time to close.”

  The shoppers gave a cry of disappointment before clamoring about his goods as they slowly made their way to the door. Drake responded politely, all the while ushering them to the front door. It took a few minutes to get them pass the statues of roosters and buckets of skeleton keys, but he finally got them out and returned to us in the back.

  “Now,” he said with a new smile. “Why have you come to visit me?”

  Nik explained the situation, showing Drake the pictures we had selected, and our goal of tracking down the various items used in the ritual, Drake nodding at all the important points.

  “And you wanted my opinion on the matter?” Drake asked as Nik began to wind down his story.

  “Well that… and we wanted you to track the items.”

  Drake’s perpetual smile broadened and I felt my stomach sink into my toes.

  One of the first lessons I had learned upon joining the mystical world was that no one ever did anything for free. Mystical beings asked for mystical favors, and Drake was like everyone else.

  “I suppose I could be your base of operations, but in exchange…” He trailed off and we all gave a sigh of annoyance.

  “Just name your price,” I growled, unwilling to play the song and dance normally required.

  “I just need a little errand run for me,” said Drake, his smile still in place. “In London.”

  We didn’t respond, though it was clear he was waiting for a gasp of surprise or disgust.

  Drake rearranged his features and continued. “It’s a gold broach, in the shape of a dragon with three akoya pearls.”

  “You want us to go to London to find a broach?” I asked incredulously.

  “Why can’t you go yourself?” asked Emma more politely.

  “I… I have a few, well, enemies in London. It would be best if I don’t set foot in sunny ol’ England.”

  “But a broach?” I asked again.

  “That is my price.”

  I rolled my eyes but, for once, kept my mouth shut.

  “Fine. We get this broach, you track the items and give us the info as we go get them,” said Nik, summarizing our agreement.

  “Precisely.” A fresh smile lit Drake’s face.

  Chapter Four

  “What about Faunus?” I asked as we piled back into Nik’s car.

  “What about her?” asked Nik.

  “Well, if you are going to London, you could pretty easily swing by Paris. Two birds. One stone.”

  “We are going to London,” said Nik.

  “What?” I asked. “I don’t have a passport. I can’t come.”

  “That won’t be a problem.”

  “What about the sunlight?” I asked, absently noticing that Nik was driving us toward Faunus’ home.

  “It gets complicated, but it is doable.”

  “How?” I asked, determined to get the details.

  Nik sighed. “We fly. Still takes fifteen to twenty hours, though.”

  “So what do we do about the sun?”

  “We pull the blinds down.”

  “What if our neighbor doesn’t want the blinds down?” I asked.

  “The seethe has its own jet.”

  “Of course it does!”

  A few minutes later we were out of the car and trudging down the steep slope into one of Olympia’s watershed parks. Water dripped from the mammoth trees and formed little puddles along the designated path. It seemed as though no matter the weather in general, it was always raining beneath the thick forest canopy, almost as if Faunus had spelled it to deter humans. Despite this safeguard, we passed a pair of enthusiastic joggers, their windbreakers pulled up over their heads to protect from the continuous dribble.

  I wasn’t sure if Emma had ever been to Faunus’ unusual home. Faunus, despite being an ancient and powerful Summer fae, was currently living the life of a homeless woman. She had enchanted one of the old watershed outbuildings to be bigger on the inside and lived there in relative peace.

  During our last visit to her humble abode, we had discovered that she was a distant ancestor of mine. Evidently I had a thimble full of fae blood somewhere in me, or at least I had until I had been turned into a vampire and bled so much. Because of our kinship, she had refused to turn me over to her queen. Thankfully, the fae courts were now thinly linked to our side in the effort to kill Sedgrave.

  But I digress.

  We reached her little home, finding her outside, sitting on a stump and sipping a cup of herbal tea as though she were reclining in a swing on the veranda of a great house rather than in a wet forest in the middle of the night. She smiled up at us, her glamor-covered face wrinkling with the movement.

  “Nikolai,” she sighed after a sip of tea. “I hope you bring me good news.”

  “I do. We will fetch this man from Paris. What is his name?”

  “You won’t need that. You have his address,” she said.

  “No name?”

  Faunus smiled a little. “He is a vampire, and like many of us ageless creatures, he changes his name frequently, but this apartment is a long standing safe haven for him. Watch the apartment. He’ll be the only one to enter.”

  I watched Nik grind his teeth together before nodding once and turning back toward the path. The rest of us followed him silently, each glancing at the others in amusement. We didn’t dare comment on the way Faunus’ favor was growing more complicated with each new bit of information, though I know I wanted to tease him viciously. Based on the half smiles of Emma and Josh, I had a feeling I was not alone.

  We returned to the seethe a little damper than when we had left, but that wasn’t unusual.

  “Each of you pack. I’ll get Jim on your passport immediately, and inform you when we’re scheduled to fly out,” declared Nik, not even stopping to look at us as he walked toward Mikhail’s office.

  I glanced at Josh and grinned. “Well, he’s in a mood.”

  Emma chuckled and sauntered off to her own room.

  I smiled again at Josh before turning to the stairs. He scurried after me. I had to remind myself that for a little way, at least, our paths lay together.

  He’s not chasing after you, I told myself.

  “Ashley, I know you think that me liking you is just because of Sedgrave, but I need you to know that I disagree.”

  “Of course you do,” I said, trying to sound lighthearted.

  “I don’t agree because I liked you before the ritual.”

  This stopped me in my t
racks. I forced myself to immediately start walking again, hoping Josh hadn’t noticed the hesitation in my tread. I had trouble believing him. Everything he said and did was tainted by the warlock’s charisma leaking onto me. I suddenly felt very lonely.

  If Josh, Nik, and Jim wanted to date me because of Sedgrave, then did Mikhail and Emma befriend me for the same reasons? Every friendship I had, save for Jordan’s, became questionable, suspicious. For the first time I realized just what Sedgrave’s continued existence was doing to my life.

  I smiled at Josh. “I hope you’re right,” I said, realizing the truth of my words as I spoke them.

  Josh smiled at me and stroked my cheek with his thumb. Slowly, his hand slid into the hair at the base of my neck. He leaned toward me, giving me the chance to push him away if I wanted to. I didn’t have the heart to do it, even though I knew I should. Slowly, making every second of anticipation count, he pressed his lips to mine, gentling parting them.

  I leaned into the kiss, desperately wanting it all to be real.

  Long before I was ready for it to end, Josh pulled away. Only when his lips were no longer against mine did I realize that my cheeks were wet with tears. I let out a stuttering sigh.

  “I’m sorry, Josh. I shouldn’t have let you kiss me.”

  “Because you think my feelings for you are mythical?”

  I nodded.

  “Then I won’t kiss you again until Sedgrave is dead. I promise.”

  I tried to smile as I patted him on the cheek.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” I said before scooting away from him and jogging down the stairs to my own room.

  I found Danielle waiting outside my door. Danielle was my very first human donor; in other words, she lived within the seethe and I drank from her. Most of the humans who ended up in the seethe were either out of options or desired to be turned into a vampire. With Danielle, I wasn’t quite sure which was the dominating motive. She was all of fifteen years old, and after her step-father had tried to do what too many step-fathers have done in the past, she ran away from home. Mikhail found her and offered her a life with us.