She was definitely starting to lose me. “Yeah, but it’s a dead end.”
“Maybe not,” Kelly said. “If what Christy’s saying is right, then The Source chamber would be the first place to check for residual energy since all the lines interconnected there. It would be a big gamble, don’t get me wrong, but all things considered, it’s probably safe to assume they struck gold.”
So what if they did?” Ed asked. “Even if they found some old magic, they were still stuck miles underground. The shit Komak was doing sounded like a coordinated effort. Hard to do with people who are trapped in a mineshaft.”
Christy smiled at him. “Not at all. Stuck is a very minor matter for a re-empowered mage to overcome. It would have been nothing for them to strike down any of the White Mother’s old wards, allowing sending to and forth.”
“But not Sheila,” I said. “Don’t forget, her power futzes with magic.” It was part of what made Icons so dangerous. Their energy burned some supernatural creatures and negated the powers of others. Hell, so far as I was aware, their only weakness was the blood of Baal ... a corrupting black spooge that only a handful of ancient vamps had known the recipe for, present company included. Speaking of which...
“Agreed,” Gan replied. “Hence why she was with the group in Damascus.”
“But then...”
“She would still be trapped, yes. But what of it? The Magi could easily ferry fresh supplies to the caverns below.”
“I still don’t understand how any of this shit would work,” Tom said.
Sad to say, but I wasn’t too far ahead of him on this one. What Christy and Gan were explaining kept flying way over my head. But maybe that didn’t matter so long as it made sense to them. Hell, it wasn’t like I was studying to get a PhD in wizarding. Besides, in the end, they were the ones who would make a difference in this, not me.
“As I said,” Christy replied, “a lot of this is assumption on our part. But it seems to make sense. Hear me out. The energy that flowed through this world came from The Source via these ley lines. But it’s dried up now, meaning the current has been cut. I believe they’re trying to turn it back on, but in reverse – tapping into this residual energy and sending it back upstream like tributaries. And waiting there at The Source for it all...”
“Is Sheila,” I said.
Gan nodded, her eyes glittering despite the shit show in front of us. “That is our guess. The Shining One is acting as a conduit. As the energy flows into The Source chamber, it both empowers her as well as counteracts against her faith energy.”
Christy stood up, stretched, and then pointed at the map again. “Those pulses we’ve experienced, I think those are happening whenever a ley line is tapped and the flow reversed. It’s creating a temporary breach between worlds. That’s why the last one was so long. Three ley lines were tapped at once. They’re accelerating their efforts, coordinating with each other across the globe. Who knows how many Magi they have working together on this? But I think it’s safe to say it’s more than a few.”
“It wouldn’t have been hard to find volunteers,” Kelly replied. “Especially with the carrot of getting their old lives back.”
Christy let out a long sigh and nodded.
I raised my hand. “Okay, so they’re finding old magic and shooting it back upstream. But even the longest of these pulses hasn’t been that long. And that one earlier was barely a few seconds.”
“I know,” Christy said. “That was likely a line that was nearly spent, but I don’t think the pulses are the key here. They’re just a side effect. Wasting all of that energy wouldn’t do them any good. No. They’d need to keep the flow of power steady, even if it was just a trickle.”
“For what?”
Christy and Gan exchanged knowing glances. “We don’t have a lot to go on, but my guess is they believe that if they can tap all thirteen ley lines, then they might have a chance of cracking open the door again – permanently.”
THE ASS-CRACK OF DOOM
“That’s why they wanted the spell,” Christy explained. “Reversing all of the ley lines themselves wouldn’t be enough. The Source isn’t some swimming pool they can just fill up again. But, if they had the spell to act as a catalyst, along with Sheila’s power...”
“They could blow it wide open?” Ed asked.
Gan turned to him. “Not quite, Progenitor. The Shining One’s power runs deep, but is not limitless. She is no goddess.”
A few years back, I might have argued with her, but that was before my heart was trampled into dozens of pieces and tossed into a wood chipper. Now ... well, I won’t lie, the thought of seeing her again did bring some fluttery butterflies to my stomach. But I mostly wanted to hear her out, have her tell us this was all some mistake.
“Okay, so then it wouldn’t work?” Tom replied, sounding about as clued in as he was when still alive.
“It’s hard to say,” Christy said. “I’m doing a raw calculation here, but I very much doubt the residual power left is enough to punch through the veil between worlds, at least fully. Even with the spell and Sheila as a foci, my best guess is it would only open the doorway a crack at most.”
“A crack?”
“Yes. I’m not even sure the expertise to do more than that exists anymore. A good deal of the Magi’s best and brightest perished during that final battle.”
“Present company not included,” Tom added, no doubt trying to earn some brownie points.
“Regardless,” she continued, throwing him a quick smile that set off my envy circuits, “I’m pretty sure that’s the most they could hope to achieve. A permanent breach is possible, but it would be much weaker than the original Source.”
“And that would do what, exactly?” I asked.
“It’s hard to say, but I think it could, at best, empower a Magi to a mere fraction of their former ability.”
“What good does that do them?”
“You’d be surprised,” Kelly replied, a wistful look on her face. “Think of it like being blind but having a chance to regain a tiny bit of sight in one eye. It might not be an earth-shattering result, but it could easily be life changing.”
Christy nodded. “I hate to say it, but it would certainly offer many Magi a chance to regain their self-esteem, their sense of worth.”
“Okay, so you guys could do card tricks again.” Ed hooked a thumb at Gan. “What about folks like ... us?”
“Trickier to deduce, Progenitor,” Gan said, “but still possible to hypothesize. I surmise that beings such as ourselves would likely be minimally affected from the way we are now by this so-called crack between worlds. I would expect slightly heightened abilities, perhaps a marginal increase in lifespan, but for all intents and purposes, we would remain mortal.”
“Would we still have to drink blood?”
“Doubtful.”
“Okay. I can live with that.”
Tom tried slapping him on the shoulder, but his hand went right through. “You mean my sister can live with that.”
“But what about you?” I asked now that Tom had our attention again.
Christy’s face fell. “I simply don’t know. He’d likely be relegated to a true ghost of the past – able to be seen on occasion, no more. But he’d be stuck forever in this state of limbo. There wouldn’t be enough ... of anything to bring him back.” She paused for several seconds. When she spoke again, her voice was ringed by sadness. “Our only other option is to release him.
“How?”
“By destroying the prism once and for all.”
“Whoa,” Tom cried. “Don’t I get a vote? If so, I’m dropping my ballot in the ghost slot.”
“You would be able to move on,” she said.
“I don’t want to move on. All my shit is here.”
I stood up to make sure Tina wasn’t eavesdropping. “Okay, fine. So, whatever needs to be done to bring him back, we do it before they finalize the ass-crack of doom.”
“It’s not that simple,” Ke
lly said, putting a hand on Christy’s shoulder.
“No, it isn’t,” Christy said in agreement. “The problem is, we don’t know how. The doll, the prism, the glamour we constructed for him back then, it was all meant to be temporary. He needs to be re-integrated with a mortal coil.”
“And that’s a problem?” I asked.
“It’s a sin against nature,” she snapped before calming herself again. “Even if it wasn’t, his body was cremated.”
“That’s okay,” Tom replied. “It’d be pretty fucked up by now anyway.”
Christy stood and began to pace. “It would be different if we had time to research our options and find a way to properly pull him back into this world.”
“But we do not,” Gan stated flatly, showing that her empathy hadn’t improved over the years. “Komak’s words suggest that time is short. Their plans are accelerating.”
“Perhaps,” Vincent offered, stepping to the door of Tina’s room. “She’s napping, by the way. It’s been a long morning for her. But if I’m hearing correctly, we’re at a stalemate. They can’t move forward without the spell you prepared, which they failed to get in their latest assault. Unless...?”
Christy tapped her forehead. “No. It’s all up here. It’s one of the few incantations I’ve never committed to paper. I was tempted to over the years, but never got around to it, thank goodness.”
Vincent turned toward his wife and raised an eyebrow.
“I only know bits and pieces,” Kelly said. “Not enough to recreate it.”
“So, then we’re...”
“Still fucked,” I said, interrupting. “Don’t forget. They have Sally.”
“It seems an easy enough equation, my darling,” Gan replied. “Her life obviously does not compare to the fate of the world. I have little doubt she would agree.”
I glared at her. “Obviously you don’t know Sally very well. More importantly, I don’t agree.”
“I still can’t believe Sheila would be okay with this,” Kelly said, echoing my own thoughts.
“It’s possible she isn’t.” I realized I was trying to comfort myself as much as her. “For all we know, she’s onboard with opening this little sliver to beyond and nothing more.”
“But...”
“We don’t know,” I repeated.
Kelly nodded and then, after a moment of silence, said, “Okay, so call me crazy, but why don’t we simply trade the spell for Sally?”
Christy’s mouth dropped open at the suggestion. “What?”
“You said it yourself, this crack would be nothing compared to The Source itself. The Magi would get a tiny portion of their mojo back and these new vampires could maybe try out for the NFL, but that’s about it. As for him...” She gestured toward Tom. “Maybe Tina can help. If the tyke gets even a fraction of her natural power, then that might be enough to do something ... if we can eventually figure it out. If not, then we’ll move on to Plan B: put his soul to rest.”
“I can still hear you,” Tom replied.
“Sorry, but you know what I mean.”
“No,” Christy said.
“Why not? Think about it. If we offered our help, it could heal a lot of old wounds.”
“What do you mean?” Ed asked.
“We don’t talk about it much, but there’s still plenty of bad blood. Even though we did the right thing back then, a lot of our brothers and sisters still consider us traitors for turning against the White Mother. This could fix all of that. We’d have our cake and finally be able to eat it, too.”
Christy shook her head again, but I was beginning to see Kelly’s logic.
“Far be it for me to argue that we should open doors best left closed, but let’s not throw this away so casually,” I said, half-surprised to find myself agreeing with this plan despite what it could mean for Sally. “It sounds like this so-called crack isn’t exactly Armageddon 2.0. Sure, maybe Ed likes his steaks a bit rarer going forward, but that’s a fuck-ton better than turning the neighborhood into his own personal buffet.”
“True,” Christy said tentatively.
“Also, let’s not forget that the main reasons we closed it in the first place are all gone. Alex, Calibra, the Jahabich, the Feet, all of them are either dead or back where they belong. Hell, aside from these Last Coven bozos, there’s no more vampires either.”
“And I’m not planning on making any new ones,” Ed added.
“I was really hoping you’d say that.” I turned my attention back to Christy. “The playing field will be level. No monsters in the woods, no desperate peace summits, no Humbaba Accord to break. It’s all gone. We did what George Lucas couldn’t and brought balance to the Force.”
“What about other ... stuff?” Ed asked. From the tone of his voice, I could tell he was considering this plan, too. “Let’s not pretend vamps and witches were the only things out there.”
“It is conceivable,” Gan said, “but I believe passage would likely be limited, at least for lesser beings.”
“Meaning we’d be fucked if one of the elder gods decided to force their way through.”
“That is always going to be a threat,” Gan replied. “But if they are not a factor in the Magi’s plans now, then I don’t consider it worth worrying about. Once our business is concluded, I can order my people to seal off The Source chamber for good, lessening the risk.”
“After warding it against magical intrusion,” Kelly added.
“A prudent idea. Agreed.”
Vincent didn’t appear exactly overjoyed by this, but as a former Templar, I doubted he’d be good with anything that didn’t involve smiting evil and dropping half his paycheck in a collection plate. But if he had serious objections, he kept them to himself, and I could sorta imagine why.
Despite the monsters lurking in the shadows, I was still able to live the first twenty-four years of my life blissfully unaware that the paranormal was real. I’d entered this crazy world by sheer dumb luck. It wasn’t as if there had been vamps standing on every corner, even back then.
Reopening The Source at a mere fraction of its former strength would likely go unnoticed by the vast majority of the world, even more so than before. The threat to most would be minimal.
This could work. But it also wasn’t my call. My days of being the de facto leader of this bunch were over.
Christy was the one who needed to either agree or douse this fire, and I think everyone realized she was the deciding vote.
After a minute or so of quiet contemplation, she turned to face me. “But what will happen to you?”
“His dick will stay sad and dry,” Tom said.
I narrowed my eyes. Freaking idiot! Did he not realize how much he was tempting fate with the resident psycho in the room?
Fortunately, before he could say anything further that might cause Gan to become murderously suspicious, Christy herself replied, “What I meant is the way these pulses have been affecting you. We have no way of knowing what opening the door for good, even a sliver, might do.”
She had a point, but there was no way I was letting anyone use me to cockblock a possible rescue plan. “If it’s the same as how we think it’ll affect everyone else, then I should be fine. I mean, heck, if it saves Sally, I can deal with being narcoleptic.”
“Bill’s used to being a pussy,” Tom added. “So being an even bigger pussy won’t be much of a change.”
“Thanks,” I replied dryly.
“Anytime, bro.”
♦ ♦ ♦
I could tell Christy was weighing her options as she stood facing the window.
Yeah, we could do nothing. From the sound of things, the Magi orchestrating this lacked the time to rejigger the cave spell before the flow of power ran dry. Waiting them out, though, ran the risk of another attack, not to mention would almost surely doom Sally in the process ... maybe Sheila, too.
Going on the offensive might sound cool in a comic book, but it was suicidal idiocy at best, especially since we’d nearly got
ten our asses kicked by one small strike team.
Much as I didn’t like handing the other side a win, Kelly’s compromise was probably our best bet ... even knowing it might end up a notch in my personal loss column.
I wasn’t worried about what would happen to me – well, okay, I kinda was – but becoming a Magi again, even at a fraction of her old power, would pull Christy back into that world. I knew her. She’d already lost one human lover to the forces of darkness. The possibility of losing another would surely eat at her, even if I had no plans to stick my neck out once this was over with.
Still, I’d sooner relegate myself to a monastery than doom my friends. As far as our options went, I was happy to take one for the team. Okay, maybe not happy, but willing.
At last Christy turned back toward us, just as the sound of sirens could be heard from outside. There came a collective beat of silence, then they thankfully sped off into the distance again. Regardless, we needed to bug out of here. We’d already pressed our luck staying as long as we had.
“I ... propose we approach Liz and her people under the ancient rules of parlay. The old ways might not hold much weight anymore, but I’m hoping their sense of tradition is strong enough so they at least hear us out.”
“Attacking us would only acknowledge their own failure,” Gan replied. “They cannot succeed without your knowledge.”
“True, but that won’t make me feel any better if they shoot us in the back.”
“Sheila won’t let that happen,” Kelly said, echoing what I hoped to be the case.
Christy raised an eyebrow. “Like she didn’t let those monsters hurt you?”
“She wasn’t behind that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I know her,” Kelly snapped.
Before this could devolve into a full-blown argument, Tom stepped between them. “Sounds like it’s settled, then,” he said cheerfully. “So ... how do we do this? Anyone got this chick’s email address or something?”
Christy took a deep breath, no doubt calming herself down. Then she locked eyes with Kelly again, but this time it was far less acrimonious. “That part at least is simple. We know exactly where they are.”
Strange Days (Bill of the Dead Book 1) Page 19