by Lauren Hodge
ability of the soul to move on when the body is destroyed. Sometimes the energy of a soul is tethered to their species or coven, or it has some sort of magical fail-safe. Therefore, if you kill only the body, the soul can reincarnate or return another way. With banishment, we trap the energy of a soul and any tethers it may have into something that can be destroyed—a body. If something is deemed a threat to humans, the Twelve issue an order and the Samanos deliver it to the covens they represent.”
Cora says, “And bad guys typically explode when we do that.”
I say, “Thomas might know something about that.”
He glances back at me with a curious look on his face. “What would I know about it?”
“You know about biochemicals, right?”
Cora switches the music off and turns to face me, giving the conversation her whole attention. She’s always had a gift of making things awkward.
“Well,” I reply, “there are lots of chemical bonds in the human body. If you force too much energy into a chemical bond, that bond can break. If the reaction is exothermic, those bonds release more energy than it took to break the bond. Souls, or life forces, have lots of energy in them. When you force the soul into the body, the surge in energy breaks the bonds, releases the energy contained inside. The effect is tissue converting into its molecular or atomic forms, and then compressed pure energy. But energy is like air. It expands to fit its container. That’s why it blows outward. It wants to equalize.”
Everyone is quiet and staring at me, even Thomas. “What? That’s how Tara explained it to me, and she has a degree in biology, so don’t look at me like that.”
Cora says, “Hey, I’m just glad there wasn’t math involved.”
Thomas clears his throat. “Speaking of Tara, is everyone else relieved she stopped antagonizing Alex?”
Aggie lightly smacks Thomas’s arm. “When Ann teleported Ruben to Dad’s house, Alex went after Tara with the intent to kill, not wound. He got everything he deserved.”
Ugh, am I ever gonna live that down?
Ruben says, “Tara dented the ceiling with him your first night here, and you guys were keeping secrets.”
Cora teams up with Aggie against Ruben. “Hey, if you’d been kidnapped from your house naked and turned, you’d keep that a secret too.”
I say, “I’m just glad they’re getting along now.”
The car gets quiet again.
Ruben says, “Wanna place bets on which one of them takes a swing at the other first?”
Thomas slows down and takes the Ohio Street exit. “He’s not normally like that.”
Cora says, “Neither is Tara.”
Ruben asks, “Do you think it’s because they were both changed by Cothelas that they had problems with each other?”
Cora laughs. “They aren’t Beta fish.”
Aggie says, “He was vicious and precise. I’ve never seen someone that proficient at martial arts, and he slammed her head into that wall so hard, I thought for sure he was going to kill her.”
Thomas says, “The Dacians trained him well.”
Aggie scratches her head a little. Then I see her shift a little bit toward Ruben. She totally likes him. “I still think it’s weird a Dacian king turned both Tara and Alex. I forced a vision of Tara when she was taken and saw him in the van with her. I didn’t realize he was that powerful. He looked wounded when I saw him.”
Thomas asks, “Wounded?”
Cora says, “When Tara changed us, she said we were painful to drink. She had to puke up the blood of one of us before she could drink another.”
Thomas turns right onto State Street. “I find it hard to imagine Cothelas wounded by anything.”
I ask, “Have you ever had dealings with them or the Noricum?” He shivers a bit. “If you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”
He shakes his head. “It’s just not a story that lends itself to a good time, and I was rather enjoying poking fun at our two Dacian-changed friends.”
Cora snorts. “They’re lucky Tara was more afraid than pissed and ran away. If she stuck around, she’d have killed the whole bouquet, not just the rose.”
Thomas turns left onto Illinois Street. The buildings here aren’t any bigger than Toronto, but they’re way more spread out. I can see the sign for the theater down this road and can’t wait to see some movie previews on the big screen.
Even though it’s in the wee hours of the morning, there are still enough people out and about the city to cause traffic. That's probably why there's a twenty-four hour movie theater to begin with. Ruben points out some drag queens and Cora causes some…wardrobe malfunctions. By the time we’ve gotten parked in an underground garage and are standing in front of the box office, I’m surprised any of the pedestrians are still clothed.
While everyone scans the movie posters, Cora suddenly says, “Oh man, how did I not realize that before?”
Right as I open my mouth to ask what she’s talking about, Aggie says, “You’re totally right.”
Thomas asks, “Am I missing something?”
Cora opens her wallet wide and shows it to Thomas. “I don’t have any money.”
Thomas looks baffled but glances at me, then answers Cora. “It’s quite the privilege to take a pretty lady to a show.”
I can feel my cheeks get hotter, but can’t contain my smile. He’s so smooth, but I don’t know if he’s hitting on me or Cora.
He glances at me again. What is he thinking? Cora breaks the bubble Thomas and I are in. “You don’t understand. That’s why Tara wouldn’t come with us. We’re low on money and Tara didn’t want to draw attention to that fact.”
Ruben says, “But we have lots of money, it’s really, really not a problem.”
Aggie replies, “You don’t realize how big a deal it is for her.”
Then Cora gets that look on her face again that she gets when whatever she’s imagining will result in a good time and a lecture from Tara.
Thomas asks Cora, “What are you thinking about to cause such a spike in endorphins?”
Cora pulls the Noricum ring out of her wallet. “I’m wondering if there’s more silver where this ring came from.”
Ruben chokes. “You want to steal from the Noricum?”
I ask, “You keep that with you?”
She beams while petting the ring. Of course she keeps the Precious with her.
A couple of people walk by and glance at us suspiciously. Chicago crime stats are way higher than Toronto’s even on its best day.
Cora grins and turns back towards the parking garage. “Screw watching a movie. Let’s go make Ocean’s Fourteen.”
Wait, what?
Tara isn’t here to put the brakes on this impending train wreck, so it falls to me. I scurry to catch up to Cora. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I thought we don’t steal. How would we even do this?”
Cora calls over her shoulder, “They’re the Noricum, not a small business owner that has a family and stuff. Aggie, you see anything going wrong?”
Everyone else scrambles to catch up as well. Aggie giggles. “This is gonna be so much fun.”
Well she’s not going to be any help.
Ruben and Thomas exchange glances. Thomas says, “We’re supposed to be in hiding from the Noricum. I don’t think Alex will approve of this.”
I don’t think Tara would, either, but Aggie looks out for us, too. If she, with all her prescience, thinks this a good idea, who am I to object? Tara is so worried about money she wouldn’t even come to a movie.
Aggie says, “There are ways we can do this and not get caught.”
“How?” Ruben asks.
Thomas jabs Ruben with his elbow. “Don’t encourage them.”
Ruben shrugs. “I wanna see if we can actually do this. Aren’t you curious about the Noricum’s antique collection? Think what it’d sell at Christie’s for. If we can do this completely undetected, I’m in.”
Thomas tries to hide the light of excitement in his eyes, but
I see it.
Aggie hooks her arm in Ruben’s and continues to walk practically plastered to his side. “I see Ann asleep, so I’m assuming we get her to stekie throughout the castle until she finds something of value we can jump in and take.”
This is a way I can help. When we first arrived in Chicago, Alex showed me the Noricum castle in France. It’s huge.
“I can stekie there, but I’ll need a place to lie down and lots of time. This castle isn’t small by any means.”
All of our shoes click against the concrete of the parking garage. Thomas deactivates the alarm. The beeps echo through the garage. “If we need you to wake up, how are we supposed to alert you?”
Cora opens the hatchback trunk door and climbs in. “Take me with you. If something happens on this end, Aggie can take your hand off my wrist and sever my stekie. If I suddenly disappear, come back.”
It’s as good a system as any.
I crawl into the back while Ruben puts the seat down, giving me and Cora more legroom. Aggie sits cross-legged between Cora and me while Thomas and Ruben take the front seats. Taking a few deep breaths, I grab Cora’s wrist and picture the Noricum Castle.
Suddenly Cora and I are standing in a street, looking at the front of the huge six-sided castle. Although it’s the middle of the night in Chicago, it looks to be morning in France.
“Come on, before people see right through us,” I say, then hop over a hip-high wall and down into some water surrounding the castle. It’s murky and green but provides perfect cover; stekies don’t make splashes. Cora follows me as I walk through the wall. It’s dark when we’re in the middle of the stone, and when we get through, it takes a second for my