by Patti Larsen
He went on. “Now I think I know why.”
I waited. That was when I noticed he held something in his other hand. A small square of something, like shiny paper.
“I was talking to Strong.” Damn Demitrius.
“I told you not to.”
“I know,” he said. “But I was curious. I’d never fall for their cult, Syd. Besides, unlike you, I happen to love my power.” His fingers flexed around the thing in his hand. “But he didn’t try to convert me. Just told me something.”
“What?”
“Dominic and Batsheva aren’t my parents.”
It felt so right to me I almost said something. From the moment I saw Quaid standing on my front step behind his portly and hideous mom and dad, I wondered how they created such a tall, lean glass of hotness.
Sigh.
“He said the Moromonds murdered my real mother and father. Stole their power. And me.”
Wow. That was… wow.
“Quaid…”
“And that they were using me my whole life, sucking my power for their own use. Like I was some sort of magical battery.”
He didn’t show his anger, but his jaw jumped a mile a minute and his heel started to tap the ground as his right knee jiggled up and down. A clear sign of Quaid agitated.
I never wanted to see him really mad.
I tried for Devil’s advocate. “You know the Chosen can’t be trusted, right?”
“I know.”
Still. I believed it, too. Then it struck me.
“The creature! It said something about your blood.”
Quaid nodded in the darkness. “’I know your blood, but it is not the blood you think.’”
Yeah. Exactly.
“So you think that’s proof?”
“I do,” he said. “And this.”
He handed me the thing in his grasp and when I took it I knew what it was. A photograph. An old Polaroid, outlined in white. I made a spark, the bit of brightness wobbling over my hand as I looked down at the smiling family in the picture.
And into Quaid’s face. Older yes, but definitely his. But not his. Quaid’s dad’s. His pretty mom’s. And two small babies, one in either parent’s arms. Two children.
My heart clenched for him as I handed back the photo and let the light go out.
“Quaid,” I whispered around tightness in my throat. “I’m so sorry.”
He didn’t say anything, just sat there holding the picture and I sat there with him trying not to cry.
Was there any other uncovered evil the Moromonds did still to be revealed? The next time I saw them I was going to tear them both apart.
“I feel better, you know.” He slid the picture into his pocket. “Knowing. I thought all along they made me, that I could be like them because they were my parents. But now I know. I’m nothing like them. And never will be.”
I wanted to hug him, but wasn’t sure how it would be received so I settled for squeezing his knee. The leather felt soft and cold under my hand. I wished I knew what to say.
He must have known it. “It’s okay,” he said. “I just wanted to tell you. So someone else would know with me.”
“Mom—“
“No,” he said. “Not yet. I need to track this down first. And I can’t do that when you’re…” he stopped, froze.
“When I’m what?”
“When the family is in danger.” He stood abruptly and I stood with him, my heart giving a little leap as I realized what he almost said.
“You like that vampire.” It wasn’t a question. Or an accusation. Just a statement of fact.
“He’s nice, I guess,” I said. “He’s a vampire.”
“And Brad?”
I sighed, not sure I wanted to have that conversation with him.
“What about him?
“You know he’s latent.” Quaid’s voice was soft, gentle. “That’s why he’s so…”
I nodded. “I know.”
“It’s not fair to him, Syd.”
Like I didn’t get it. “I’m breaking up with him.” Since when? But standing there with Quaid in the dark I knew it was the right thing to do.
He turned as if he wanted to say something else, but didn’t. Instead, he brushed past me and left.
I watched him go, following slowly behind him, hearing the sound of his motorcycle speeding away before I reached the kitchen door. All the while I wondered at the warm feeling inside me as I ran his words over and over in my head. Not the ones he said, but the ones he didn’t.
I can’t leave when you’re in danger.
***
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Saturday morning. Really? I had three messages from Alison, two from Beth and a call from someone who wanted to give me a credit card with zero interest for the first year.
They knew I was seventeen, right?
I chickened out and emailed Alison an excuse about shopping that day, same for Beth. I just couldn’t leave the family right now. Maybe having normal friends wasn’t such a good idea. They had expectations, made plans, liked to be in my life.
Problem was, my life wasn’t such a good place to be in right now.
I heard a knock at the door when I was almost down the stairs and found Mom standing in the kitchen talking to a tall, blond man in a policeman’s uniform.
He looked alarmingly familiar. Until it registered. Sheriff Peters.
Brad’s dad.
And no, I’d never officially met him. Brad and I hadn’t been going out for long after all. Of course I knew who he was, had seen him at a distance or had him pointed out to me, but I never came face to face with the father of the guy I was dating. And was about to dump.
Talk about awkward.
Mom smiled at me with a look that said we had to talk. It wasn’t long before I realized why.
The sheriff stared at my mother like he’d never seen a woman before.
“This is my daughter, Sydlynn. Syd, this is Sheriff Peters.”
“Charlie,” he said hastily, offering me his hand. “Nice to finally meet you, Syd. Brad talks about you all the time.”
I blushed as the tingle of latent power jumped from his skin to mine.
Oh boy. Well, at least I knew which side of his family gave Brad his talent.
“You were saying, Sheriff?” Mom usually invited visitors to sit, but she actually blocked the way with her body. If he knew her like I did, he would have run. Or not. The draw of power might have been enough to hold him even if he knew she wanted him to leave.
“Her name is Sandra Crossman. Huh. New to town. Came same time as you folks.” He looked up from his notebook and smiled at her. He was okay looking, but it made his jowls bunch and that wasn’t so sexy. I shuddered away from it and a vision of Brad at his dad’s age.
At least he still had his hair.
Most of it.
“Yes, Sandra. What about her?”
“Well, she’s been reported missing, Mrs. Hayle.”
By who? None of us would have gone to the authorities. And James and Eliza… what was going on?
“I’m sure there’s some mistake,” Mom said.
“No, ma’am. Her next door neighbor noticed her little dog barking all morning yesterday. We answered the call, found the poor thing starving and Ms. Crossman missing.”
Damn. The dog. None of us thought of Angel. I felt terrible. Sandra loved her dog.
“You were on her list as next of kin,” the sheriff went on. “At least, in what personal effects of hers we could find.”
I winced. As long as they stayed out of the basement. They must have. The family wards would have kept them out. If not, we’d have known by now. Might be hard to explain all the dried herbs and critters as well as the pentagram. Sandra’s specialty was alchemedic magic and some of her ingredients were way out there. But why would Mom be next of kin?
Where were James and their baby daughter?
“Well, I’m sure she’s probably fine,” Mom said. “But please, keep me posted.”
Sheriff Peters flipped his notebook shut and slid it into his pocket. I tried not to stare at his gut hanging over his pants. I had to break up with Brad right now.
Right. Now.
“I sure will, ma’am.” He turned to me. “Nice to meet you, Syd. I’ll tell Brad I met you. Poor kid,” he shook his head, “been sick with the flu for a couple of days. Can’t seem to shake it.”
That was worrisome. Or was it? I had to stop jumping at shadows.
“Tell him I’ll call him.” Weak. But effective. The sheriff bought it.
He stood there for a long and painful moment, oogling my mother. It was hideous to watch. And she seemed so stunned by the attention she froze in place, her smile trembling from discomfort.
I had to do something. “Thanks for coming, Sheriff.” I guided him to the door. “I hope Sandra is okay. And Brad. And everything.” I moved him outside, his eyes never leaving my mother. “Okay then. Bye!” I closed the door in his face and spun, leading against it with a deep sigh of relief.
When I looked up at my mother, I saw the lecture coming and saved her the trouble.
“I know, I know. He’s latent. Brad is too. I’m breaking up with him. Can we have breakfast now?”
She let it go until after Meira came downstairs, ate her pancakes and went outside to play.
“What about James?” I hoped to distract her and get some information at the same time.
“We moved him,” Mom said. “He’s staying with Celeste. He and the baby. It’s safer. I should have thought of the dog.” She ran one hand over her forehead and again I saw her weariness. “James must have been too worked up to mention it.”
That was all she would say. So I let it go. Not like I could do much to change what happened anyway.
As I retreated to my room, Mom stopped me.
“Syd, honey,” she said. “I want you to be careful.”
“About what?” Please, no lecture after all. Please.
“There is no way of knowing how a latent will react when you cut ties with them. Depending on the depth of the bond, it can be devastating.”
“Mom…” I trailed off but I knew she was right.
“Just be gentle with him,” she said. “But be firm. And Syd? You have to let him go.”
“Yes, Mom,” I said. “I will. I promise.”
I went to my room and moped about it for a while. My first boyfriend and I only had him for a week. Sucked. Still, in light of everything going on in my life, it really was the least of my worries.
Instead of continuing to sulk over my love life, I decided to do something proactive for a change and headed to the basement to practice.
I’m not sure if it was all the magical activity I’d been involved in lately or what, but my control seemed to be much better and my demon was happy to work the way I needed her to. My crazy nausea even held off, at least to a point where I could ignore it.
I took a short break for lunch when Mom delivered it to me, but went right back at it, graduating from lighting candles to full body shielding and even some illusion creation which I never tried before. It triggered a rumbling of unhappy queasiness so I backed off. I knew Mom paid attention and could feel her approval at my efforts, but I still couldn’t completely shake the feeling that what I was doing was wrong.
Not that I was getting it wrong. But me using my magic was wrong. A mistake. There was something inside me with a serious hate on for it, that wanted to be free of it forever. My demon grumbled about it from time to time, but I hadn’t paid much attention until now. I took a moment to go within and see if I could find if something had perhaps been placed there on purpose, but before I had a chance to go very far, I felt Erica reach for me and everything went black.
Syd oh God Syd please pay attention
I was with her. Helpless. Being dragged across the ground. We tried to fight but it was too strong. We fired a blast at it, ricocheting from its red shields and off into the forest.
Don’t know where we are track me Syd find me don’t let go
I stayed with her, unable to pull free even if I wanted to, sending her energy. We tried again and again to get free. I could feel Mom, her power filling me up, linking us to all the witches and, with her welcome, every vampire in the coalition.
Erica thrust her panic behind her need to show us what she could.
Feels like vampire and witch
She let us feel it as she did. She was right. But there was something else there, too, just so vague we couldn’t make it out. It was ancient, as old as Uncle Frank thought and it was at war with itself as much as with us.
Erica continued to send us what she could.
Came out of nowhere think it killed Celeste feel something coming up ahead
We chased her, stayed with her, were one with her and fought with her, all together until she simply vanished.
Gone.
I rocked out of the connection and collapsed to the floor, Mom supporting me on the way down.
“Why me?” My teeth chattered as I hugged myself. “Why did she reach for me?”
“I don’t know, honey.” Mom cradled me against her, rocking me slowly. I could hear the tears in her voice. “Thank you for trying.”
Miriam. It was Sebastian. We felt your loss.
No, Mom answered. That was when I realized we were all still linked and tried to pull myself together. She didn’t die. Something interfered with the connection.
A shield?
Possibly. We shall investigate immediately.
We come to join you.
He faded out, along with the other vampires. The witches slowly left our heads. Mom stopped three of them on the way out and sent them to find Celeste. She didn’t have to tell them to travel in packs from now on.
When it was finally just the two of us again, I started to cry.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
She hugged me. “We’ll find her,” she said. “And that thing. And when we do…”
‘That thing’ was toast.
***
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I gulped fresh air in the back yard. I’d been so engrossed in my training I didn’t even realize it was full dark until Erica was taken. I tried to get my head on straight while I struggled with my emotions.
Erica was gone. Celeste possibly dead. As much as I disliked the latter, I never wished anything of the sort on her. And as for Erica… she was my mom’s best friend, my second mother my whole life. Yes, she bugged me sometimes and treated me like a kid. But she tried and I knew she loved me.
And she was gone.
I felt him before I saw him, leftover residual power from the link, but I was very happy he was there. Uncle Frank hugged me and held me while I cried on his chest. He was still cold so he hadn’t even taken time to eat before coming to see me.
“It’ll be okay, kiddo,” he said. “We’ll find her, I promise.”
It wasn’t just Erica, of course, but a mix of sleep deprivation and one emotional blow after another turning me into a weeping mess of Syd.
When I finally pulled back, I saw Sunny watching us from the kitchen. She came out when I motioned to her and I hugged her, too.
“You’re the strongest girl I know,” she whispered. “Oh Syd, this has been so hard on you.”
Sunny knew just what to say to make me cry all over again.
I had just gulped my last teary hiccup when I realized we weren’t alone. Sebastian smiled at me, a gentle smile, and stroked my hair before going inside. One other male and Anastasia were with him. She gave me a look saying she thought I was whole worlds of pathetic, but I didn’t give a crap.
It made me sad instead to know Uncle Frank and Sunny weren’t sleeping at our house anymore.
We followed the three inside and met my mother in the kitchen.
“I wanted to thank Syd for being such a fine focus.” Sebastian bowed to me a little. I was wiping my nose with my sleeve at the time so it didn’t have the impact it could have.
“Yo
u’re welcome,” I muttered around the cuff of my hoodie.
“We not only felt your loss,” he went on, “we only now discovered your witch wasn’t alone in the abduction. One of my clan is missing as well.”
Not good. Bad enough it had two witches, but access to vampire power too? We were rapidly losing ground in this war and everyone knew it.
“We have to find it tonight,” Sebastian said. “I fear if we wait much longer there will be no standing against it.”
Mom nodded once. “We’ll form teams. Two vampires with two witches.”
“Agreed,” he said. “Though some of my people may protest, I see the logic in what you say.” He didn’t look at Anastasia. He didn’t have to. She kept her peace, but only barely.
“We know from Erica’s connection she was in the same area where the creature first appeared,” Mom said. “We have been searching there and elsewhere since this happened, but if we refine the location we won’t be so thinly spread. Tonight we search for it until we find it.”
“And destroy it.” Sebastian held out his hand to her. She took it.
“And wipe it from the Earth,” she said.
Mom was not fooling around. She would turn it into a smear on the ground.
She immediately started sending out orders. It almost didn’t matter. It was like the whole family just knew because they started showing up in clumps.
No one wanted to be caught alone.
“Mom,” I pulled her aside the first chance I had, leaving the family to mill about in the house and the back yard, trying to reconcile they were about to be working with vampires. “Celeste?”
“Alive,” she breathed. “Barely. Louisa and Martin reached her in time.”
I loved the earthy Vegas.
“So who am I teaming with?” I was so ready to get out there and kick some creature butt.
“No one.” She pulled free. “You’re staying here.”
She was not serious! I didn’t get a chance to argue with her. She didn’t give me one.
“We need to go now,” she said, using her magic so everyone heard her. “Stay with your teams and report anything at all suspicious.”
“This creature is crafty with wiles beyond our knowledge,” Sebastian added. “Think like your own kind, but also as your enemy. It is alone and growing stronger, but still too afraid to come at us when we are in numbers.”