by Patti Larsen
I caught up with Alison at her locker, but from the look on her face she still wasn’t in the talking mood. Didn’t mean I wasn’t about to try.
“So super freaky last night, huh?”
It was quite possibly the worst thing I could have said. Her eyes welled up and she ran to the bathroom, sobbing.
Some friend. Rather than torture her further, I just went to class. Maybe I should have followed but I figured at the rate I was going I would only make things worse.
Pain stopped me outside English. I took a step back from her, a thrill of fear making me cold. Normally she was flawless, from her perfect Goth makeup to her polished black boots. This Pain looked unkempt, like she’d rolled out of bed and not looked in the mirror. Her hair formed a tangled mess, a far call from her typical sleek shiny look. Mascara and eye shadow drooped, chunks of black dotting her cheekbones. Even her clothes looked slept in and after a moment I realized she hadn’t changed since yesterday.
“I had a dream.” Her nails bit into my arm, whisper harsh in my ear. “About the spirit. Syd, it was horrible.”
I didn’t know what to say. But she wasn’t interested in hearing me, I don’t think.
“You don’t get it,” she said. “I loved it.”
Uh-oh. Intervention time.
“What was it about?” If she saw what I’d been seeing, what the whole family was dreaming about, she was still in serious danger.
“I was the master,” she said, pupils swelling. I panicked and dove into her mind, fearing the worst but to my relief she felt clean, as though the creature failed to make its mark on her.
Or chose not to.
“Syd, what happened last night?” Were those tears? In Pain’s eyes? The Queen of Darkness falling apart? It was going to be one of those days.
“It’s okay,” I said. “You were a little freaky. Like in a trance.”
She nodded slowly. “The spirit.”
What was I supposed to tell her? Nothing. I stayed quiet.
“I want the dream to come back.” Her lower lip trembled. “I was powerful, Syd. But weak at the same time.” Her teeth slid over the remains of her lipstick. “I’d been in pain for so long… trapped. Underground.” Fat tears slid down her cheeks and dripped from her jaw line. “I don’t understand.”
I needed to get her to my mother. Now.
No such luck. Blood appeared out of nowhere and took her arm.
“It’s okay,” he said to me. “She’s fine. Just, you know. She gets like this after.”
I shook my head. “She needs help.”
Pain backed off, flushing, angry. “Don’t say that.” It was like a part of her snapped back into place. “Don’t ever say that.”
She stormed off. Blood paused long enough to shrug apologetically.
“She’s been down this road,” he said. “Therapists pretty much her whole life. She hates it when people call her crazy.”
He left me there in utter shock. And with clarity I didn’t have before. Of course people thought she was nuts. The walled-off power wouldn’t be denied forever. I for one knew it first hand. And if bits and pieces were winning through like mine, she’d have gone through hell and back trying to explain what she experienced when it happened.
Class was a total wash. I couldn’t stop thinking about Pain. Was it possible the walls built around her were weakening? That the creature had some sort of hold on her I didn’t sense? By the time the bell rang I was a mess and ran to find her.
Only to run into chaos outside her last class. Blood grabbed me and held me back, shaking his head, so sad I wanted to hug him, but I was too worried about Pain.
Who was screaming at the top of her lungs in the middle of the empty classroom.
Two teachers tried to restrain her. I heard shouting and looked up the hall. Mrs. Hammond ran toward us through the crowd of kids, pushing people out of her way.
“Constance, baby,” she hurtled into the room and skidded to a halt. “Honey, it’s okay.”
“No, it’s NOT!” Pain spun on her mother. “You won’t LISTEN to me. He’s HERE and he’s going to kill us ALL.”
I shouted for Mom but didn’t get through. Damn it. Damn it! I tried to pull free of Blood, but he wouldn’t let me go and they were dragging Pain away. I reached for her. She saw me there, lunged and took my hand. I felt a thrill pass through us and she smiled and calmed so suddenly it was like the crazy faucet shut off.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “I can go now.”
The two teachers released her. I was furious one of them was Ms. Fiat. I wanted to slap her hands away from my friend, but I didn’t need to. Mrs. Hammond slid her arm through Pain’s and smiled at her daughter like nothing happened.
“Let’s go home, honey.”
“Okay, Momma.” Pain smiled at me again before her mother led her away through the rapidly dissipating crowd of kids.
I spun on Blood to chew him out, but he was already gone, slipped away. Alison stood nearby, but left as I approached her so I let her go.
What a disaster. I felt terrible and considered cutting the rest of the day to go to Pain’s place but didn’t. For all I knew, if I tried to help I’d just make things worse.
I really, really needed to talk to my mother.
That had me wondering through Chemistry who put Pain’s wards up in the first place. She must have a witch in her family, and a pretty strong one, to do that kind of work. And why didn’t whoever it was just strip her power and leave it at that? Why let her keep it, but never access it? I wasn’t so lucky. For some reason my demon refused to co-operate. But Pain’s power wasn’t so strong and the destruction of magic pathways was done to witches as part of our legal system all the time.
Or was her power small? The thought brought me up short. I had no idea what stirred behind those walls in her mind. And she managed to break free of them the night before, even if it was just a little bit. Maybe it meant she was way stronger than I gave her credit for.
Which made her a prime target for the creature if it knew what I did. And it had been in her head so there was no doubt that was the case.
I took a second in a closed bathroom stall to reach for Mom and touched on Erica’s mind instead.
She’s busy, Syd. Can I help?
Crap. Well, Erica was better than nothing. And I knew she’d pass the message on.
I told her everything, flashed in words and images. It only took a minute.
Got it. I’ll tell her and we’ll see what we can do.
Thanks, Erica. What should I do?
Nothing. Leave it to us. Have to go. Bye!
Typical. Maybe my mother was treating me more like an adult these days but her preppy best friend and second still acted like I was a kid.
The bathroom was empty when I left the stall and the hallways quiet. I missed the bell and was late to class.
Again.
Two reprimands and a detention slip later and the day was over. I felt like I’d been worked over by a really nasty guy with bad karmic BO and a sadistic sense of humor. None of my friends seemed interested in talking to me and Brad was still on the missing list. I slouched my way back out the way I came six hours earlier.
It was only by chance I glanced up from my steady stare at the ground in front of me and saw Quaid standing next to his motorcycle. Not so unusual. And not what caught my attention so harshly I came to an abrupt halt with my mouth hanging open.
Demitrius Strong stood next to him.
It took a moment to get my feet moving, but I finally did. All my emotions from the day built up into a furious head of steam fed by my demon as I marched toward the Chosen member like a juggernaut of doom. Before I could reach them, Demitrius smiled at me and waved before moving off at the sedate pace of his. By the time I reached Quaid’s side, the small man was nowhere in sight.
Which meant my anger was about to go to waste.
Over my demon’s dead body. All the nice and happy feelings I’d had for Quaid the night before were
a faded memory burned away by her anger. She turned it on the nearest target. As far as she was concerned, if she couldn’t have what she wanted from him romantically, she’d take it out of his hide. And I wasn’t about to stop her.
“You shouldn’t be talking to him.” I just resisted punching him in the chest. Just.
“Why’s that?” Quaid leaned back against his bike, his smirk lighting up my anger in twenty shades of red. He was back to his old self too, looked like.
“Do you have any idea who he is?” I vibrated with emotion. I knew I was making a scene and didn’t care. “His kind burns witches. Burns them. At the stake.”
Quaid actually glanced around with a concerned look on his face. A passing pack of girls giggled and ogled him, so they hadn’t heard.
“You might want to keep it down,” he said.
He was right. I hated that.
“Did he give you anything?” I would burn it up like my mother did. Maybe it would ease my rage.
“I wouldn’t take it.” He crossed his arms over his chest, chocolate eyes judging me. “Unlike someone I know.”
That was so it. “Piss off,” I snarled.
“You’re the one accusing me,” he snapped back, in my face so fast my demon almost recoiled. But she welcomed the challenge. Problem was, her feelings were quicksilver and the old lusty ones were trying to win again.
What was her problem, anyway?
“Just stay away from that guy,” I said.
“Says who?” He was getting mad himself. Quaid never showed anger. At least, not at me.
“Says my mother.” Wow. I sounded powerful. And slapped me in the face so hard my anger deflated. Really? My mother? That was the best I could—
“That’s the best you can do?” He spun and climbed on his bike, reaching for his helmet. “Grow the hell up, Syd.”
He roared off and I let him, but my demon was still hot so I detoured just before my house and spent ten minutes kicking the crap out of an oak tree.
Poor tree.
Poor me.
***
Chapter Twenty-Four
Mom was home when I stomped in the kitchen door, but it didn’t mean she was available. Every time I tried to talk to her she was hauled off by some conversation in her head or another so I finally gave up and retreated to my room to sulk.
When she did reach out at last, I slapped her away, too wrapped up in my own pissiness to care if I hurt her feelings.
We’re meeting tonight, she sent. Be ready at dark.
It shook me loose from my funk. Already? Well really, what did I think? That Mom would sit on her hands over this? I slid from the bed and rummaged in my closet for my robe, just in case.
I did my best to stay out of her way, but help her at the same time. I know she forgave me for my bad humor because when I came back downstairs with my rumpled cloak in my arms she pulled herself free from a family argument long enough to kiss me on the cheek and shake her head.
Whew. No robe. That was a blessing. I hated the damned thing.
I made Meira and I grilled cheeses, sliding one to Mom. She managed a couple of bites in her tranced state, but when she finally sagged and came back to us, I forced a bowl of canned stew in front of her and made her eat.
“Syd,” she said. “I don’t have time.”
“Food,” I said. “Make time.”
She laughed and touched my hair. “Yes, Mother.” Her eyes twinkled.
I tried not to join Meira’s giggling. “Just eat it.”
It was a monumental effort on my part to just sit there and let her. I had so many questions. We didn’t get a chance to talk about this coalition thing. Or about Pain and the scene at school. I wondered if Erica even mentioned it. Typical of her not to. My anger started to bubble as I imagined Mom’s second keeping her in the dark because she didn’t deem it important enough.
“Erica told me about Pain.” Mom said around a mouthful. “I’ll check in on her after the meeting.”
The anger bubble popped. Funny how it was always easier to think badly of people than trust them. I felt like I owed Erica an apology.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said. “Can I ask you something?” So much for letting her eat.
“Of course, sweetheart.”
I knew Meira was listening and was very careful how I phrased my words.
“Do you know much about this Sebastian?” I didn’t want my sister to think I had a vampire bias. I totally didn’t. No one loved Uncle Frank and Sunny more than me. But we had no idea what kind of vampires were in the DeWinter Blood Clan.
“No,” Mom said. “But I believe in your uncle and Sunny. They would never join an untrustworthy family.”
Okay, so now I had three apologies to hand out. Of course she was right. All of my concern leaked away, chased by shame.
“Mom,” I said on impulse before I could stop myself, “you’re the best.”
She froze, spoon half way to her mouth. Her hand slowly dropped, eyes widening. A thin film of moisture rose over her blue eyes and she flushed.
“Did I say something wrong?” What did I say? I thought it was a compliment.
She swallowed once, reaching for her water glass, swallowed again.
“I love you, girls,” she said, her voice thick and low.
Oh. I got it. I didn’t say anything wrong after all. For once, I had it right.
“Love you too, Mom,” we said together.
There’s nothing better than the sound of my mother’s laughter.
I felt pretty confident when we pulled up to the site an hour later. It was just full dark, the last of the sunset barely a glimmer on the Western horizon. We were the last to arrive from the looks of it. Erica had everything organized and gestured for us to join them and close the circle.
I took my grandmother’s arm and led her along. Even she was quiet, subdued, and I hoped it was a good sign. I made a mental note to talk to Mom about Gram. Maybe all this activity was good for her, not bad. It might be worth looking into if it meant having my grandmother’s sanity back.
It only took Celeste a moment to voice her disapproval.
“I still think this is a terrible idea.” A small knot of witches stood behind her, mostly older and traditional ladies, but James stood at her right hand and that hurt. I expected the twins to be with her, the super strong Esther and Estelle Lawrence whose combined power was legendary in the family. But they weren’t and I wondered if their encounter with the Moromonds and near deaths cemented their loyalty to my mother.
Mom didn’t get mad. She didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t even move. Instead, she formed a sheet of flickering light, grounded to the power of the earth and fleshed out through the pressure of air. It rushed forward and smothered Celeste and the ten or so coven members with a pulsing canopy, enveloping them in the weight of the two elements, driving the rebels to the ground.
I was as shocked as the next witch. Then again, Mom warned her, didn’t she?
“Do you wish to challenge my authority further?” Mom never used violence against the family, ever. But sometimes it was all a witch understood.
Celeste gritted her teeth. “Am I no longer allowed to speak my mind in this coven?”
“You are,” Mom said. “But you have spoken it and spoken it, sowing dissent and unrest in the family. And that I will not allow.”
Celeste bowed her head. “You won’t listen.”
“I have listened.” Mom approached her, stroking her hair, but her hold never eased. “I am leader here, my friend, and you are hurting the family with your discord. If you and the others no longer trust my judgment, even after everything we have been through together, you are welcome to leave and find another more in line with your views.”
I was not expecting any of this to happen, not tonight. But I suppose it was inevitable considering what my mother was about to do.
We all waited. And waited. At last, Celeste looked up at my mother.
“I will remain,” she said. “The family
is all I have.”
“And you are welcome.” Mom released her power and helped Celeste up. “Always. But you must trust me. Or I will ask you to leave.”
Final warning. Everyone knew it. Mom took a moment and went to each of the unhappy witches, embracing them one by one. When she finished, she returned to Celeste and hugged her, too.
“I know you are afraid. I understand your worry and concern. This goes beyond convention. But we are faced with something none of us is able to handle alone. We need allies. And our extended family has, for some reason, failed to answer our need. Will we stand alone and risk all of our safety? Or will we do what we can to ensure we all survive?”
The vote came back unanimous.
Good thing, too. Uncle Frank and Sunny chose that moment to appear at the circle. He tried to enter but when his foot hit the outside, a ripple of blue energy pushed him back.
“Not funny, Miriam.” He didn’t look happy. I’d never seen him angry before.
“Apologies, Frank,” she said at her most mild. “Just a precaution.”
He nodded, but it was short and curt. Sunny just smiled, though the sadness was back in it.
“Of course, Miriam,” she said. “Trust must be earned.”
“Not yours, dear Sunny,” Mom said. “Or my brother’s. That happened long ago. But the family needs to be safe and I must protect them from my decisions.”
She walked forward, toward the two vampires, but she wasn’t looking at them. I could only guess the vampire power she acquired knew exactly who was out there with them, because she spoke to the darkness next.
“I would extend such trust to the Blood Clan DeWinter,” she said. “But it is hard to do when they will not make themselves known.”
Silence. A flicker of something. I forced back a shudder, my hand tightening on my grandmother’s arm so much she squirmed in protest. I released her with a whispered apology and a handful of chocolate candies to keep her busy and pushed forward to join my mother. Meira stood right there beside me.
I had a front row view when the vampires melted out of the black and into sight.
I was so used to Uncle Frank and Sunny they almost didn’t freak me out. Almost. Seeing the dozen or so standing there, beautiful to a fault, their movements liquid when they moved at all, silent and brooding and deadly, I had a brief moment of in-bred terror.