by CJ Flynn
“I want to trace him. Golda can help me.”
I had no idea if this was true. I had never traced anyone I hadn't met before. Even when I'd seen the deaths of Sorrell's vampires and other associates, they were all prior acquaintances.
Wren and the other witches stared at me, as if trying to decide if I was malicious, or simply crazy.
“I will not allow this magic,” said a new voice. The old witch that had been sleeping in the kitchen had entered the sitting room without catching my attention, but now I realized that the rest of the Coven had bowed their heads to her.
“You are powerful, young one. I can sense that. But your anger at this situation clouds your ability, and I do not feel it would be wise to let you seek young Rafe alone. Whatever involvement he has in your friend's disappearance is regrettable, but I do not think it best to allow an outsider to find one of our sons. We will locate him, and hopefully your friend.”
I shook my head. “No. I can help you.”
The old witch crossed over to me and held out her hands. “Your father is a dear friend of my son, Christian.”
“You mean, was a dear friend. My father is dead.”
The witch looked at me, her violet eyes glittering with power. “I am sorry to hear that. He was a good man, and wished only to use his abilities for good.”
“Why won't you let me help you?”
“Rafe has broken many of our laws, my dear. He has tampered with the memories of his mother, and is aiding a vampire in something sinister. We do not know why, or even how, but this is our matter to handle. Not yours.”
She broke contact with me, and crossed to join the rest of the Coven. “Sisters and brothers, we must continue the work of finding Rafe at once. The Circle is intact here, as it always is, and we will not cease until we find him.”
They joined hands, and Eba pulled me away from them towards the door of the kitchen. The old witch, whose name I still didn't know, began a strange incantation, and the rest of the witches eventually joined her. I let my gaze shift as they worked, watching the arc of green magic appear over their heads and join in a large single column that stretched to the ceiling. I knew they were trying again to call Rafe home.
Without thinking, I jumped forward and laid my hands on the small, old witch. I needed to know where Rafe was, and I hoped that their concentration on him would be enough to let me find him.
Their magic coursed through me, something I had never quite felt before. I could feel the summoning magic, and I let my own consciousness follow it.
There.
Rafe. A deep green energy, powerful, yet skewed. Far away, but not too far. I pushed towards it, pulling at the thread that bound me to him. He was in Spain, somewhere outside...
I tugged again, and the brilliant green magic from the Coven rippled around me. I heard a scream, then several more, before my own vision went black.
* * *
When I came to just a few minutes later, the Coven of the Crows had broken their circle and were clustered around a low, brown velvet couch.
I pushed myself off the floor, and Eba stepped out of the shadows, a stricken look on her face.
“Allie.”
A few of the witches stepped out of my line of sight, to reveal the young man I had seen in Golda's memories, stretched out on the couch. He appeared to be unconscious, but breathing.
“What have you done?” The old witch asked, anger in her voice. “What dark magic is this that allows you to pull someone through space and time?”
Chapter 13
I felt the magic weave across my arms and legs, right as it pushed me back into a chintz chair. I sucked in a deep breath as it coiled right through my skin, holding me prisoner and probing my mind at the same time. I wondered if this was what they had done to Golda.
I fixed my gaze on Wren; she was the only witch in the Coven I'd been formally introduced to.
The old woman held me with her magic and I could feel it delving into my memories, pulling up images of discovering my ability, using it to find the new vampires in Germany, in France... my heart raced as she watched Harding die, and viewed my exchange with Lillith. The memory of my first meeting with Ernie Haden stayed in the spotlight longer than I expected, before it shifted to my conversation with Laura when we realized Imala's involvement in Ben's disappearance. I wondered momentarily if the rest of the witches in the room were seeing this, but I couldn't be sure.
The magic pulled away, still keeping its grip on my body, but leaving my mind. I sagged against my magical bonds, trying to hold back the wave of grief and pain and fear that swelled in my chest.
“You have experienced a tremendous amount of loss,” said the old witch. “It is no surprise that you act rashly.”
I frowned at the floor and took a deep breath as my mind slid back fully to the present. I couldn't account for what had happened, but I really didn't care. The witches obviously amplified my tracing abilities, and for all I knew, my ability amplified their magic. “I need to find him,” I finally said. “If that is Rafe, then perhaps whatever he was doing to Imala isn't working anymore. I need to find her. She's got Ben. I just know she does.”
The old witch nodded when I looked up to meet her gaze. “I believe you are correct.”
The magic slid away from me entirely.
“Find him. You will owe us, Allie, for fixing whatever you have done to Rafe.”
“But after everything he's done—”
The witch raised her hand and I felt the smallest push of her magic again. “No. It was not for you to punish. You were headstrong, and you've stepped beyond the bounds of your own ability. You have pulled him to us, through space and time.”
“But I didn't mean to,” I replied, feeling somewhat petulant. She was right. I had inserted myself into their summoning spell, and had somehow amplified what it had done.
But I hadn't done it on purpose. My mind flickered to Ernie Haden, but I pushed the vision of him away. I didn't know exactly what the witches were capable of, and I definitely had no idea what Ernie had done to me, but I suspected that weird little energy burst he'd given me in Florida had something to do with it.
Eba looked at me for a long moment, her gaze giving away nothing.
The old witch gave me a pitying look. “That may very well be. We will discuss this once the dust has cleared. You need to continue your search. Eba will see you to the carriage house, and from there you may do your work. Your privileges within our compound have been revoked.”
I stood up from the chair and followed Eba outside. My belongings were resting on the porch, and Eba gestured to the long flowing robe.
“That needs to stay.”
She wouldn't meet my gaze.
“Where am I supposed to change, exactly?”
Eba nodded her head towards a little storage closet near the porch. “In there.”
I ducked into the little closet, stepping over gardening implements and bumping my hip into some kind of wooden rack. My face burned as I slid the awkward robe over my head. The closet might be protected from the wind, but the cold air sent chills over my body. I open my bag to dig out clothes, pulling out black pants and a black sweater. I tugged the clothes on as Eba knocked on the door.
I yanked it open and tossed the robe to Eba. The wintery air seeped through my sweater as I riffled through my bag for the parka I'd brought along. It was shoved to the very bottom.
I shouldered my stuff and followed as Eba lead the way back to the carriage house. It was after sunrise, but the sun was still low on the horizon. We arrived at the empty carriage house, and Eba left without a word. I was on my own from there.
She hadn't exactly let me in, either. There was a mudroom that connected the compound with the public driveway, and the door to the main house was locked.
I dumped my bags near the door and slumped into a brick-lined alcove with a small wooden bench. I would worry about meeting with Daniel later. First, I needed to find Imala.
I focused
my mind and searched for her energy signature. There. Stronger, more vibrant than the signature that had led me to Savannah. It was her. Not just some mess she'd left behind.
She was just northwest of Barcelona. My energy focused completely on her and her alone, burning that signature into my mind with such force I felt it reverberate through my body.
Daniel was still sleeping, but so was Imala. For once, the daylight was in my favor.
I called a cab from my phone, and handed over my credit card to pay a long fare into London. With some luck, I would be in the air to Barcelona by lunch.
Chapter 14
The flight to Barcelona lasted just under two hours, but it was getting closer to sunset by the time I'd managed to find a train that would take me into the small town where I'd traced Imala's energy. I felt torn about my journey as I stood in the middle of the train station, glass arches soaring above me. The golden Catalan sun glittered through the panes, warming the steady crawl of passengers. I was in Spain, a country I had desperately wanted to visit, but I couldn't take even a moment to enjoy it. Ben had always been so anxious to tackle whatever his latest job for Sorrell was before getting on with the rest of life. He had a world outside the vampire court, but I did not. His urgency to get away from it was lost on me. Now, as I looked back at the last several months, I felt like an idiot. Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam... even a brief foray into Rome. And I had missed it all. My grandparents had spoken often of their favorite cities, and I had whirled through without a thought to everything I had missed.
I resituated my bag and moved towards the line that would take me to Imala’s location. Passing through Barcelona without so much as a stop to take a picture. This was not the life I had imagined.
As the train glided away from the station, headed northwest, I let my mind slide away from the sights passing by the windows and over to Imala again, willing her to have stayed in the same place since I'd last checked in.
I wasn't lucky. Ever, apparently.
She was on the move. Or rather, someone was moving her. We were over an hour out from sunset, but her aura was moving away from the place I had tracked her to, back towards Barcelona. I kept my concentration on her, desperately hoping I'd be able to catch up to her. My vision wavered and pain burst across my forehead, streaming through my eyes and back to the base of my skull. I bit my tongue, holding back a scream.
“Señora? Estas bien?” The man across the aisle from me was leaning towards me and I shrank back against the window.
I cringed as his words banged around in my head. The Spanish was familiar enough from high school and college, but I had been tracking Imala on and off for a solid twelve hours. Every ounce of energy I had was focused on that now moving aura.
“Si.” I managed to mumble as another bolt of pain ricocheted around in my brain.
I let the trace drop to give myself a break. I was on a train, and there wasn't anything I could do. I could see Imala's energy, but I couldn't tell anything about her entourage. The sun hadn't set yet, but she was moving somewhere. The train wouldn't stop for another 35 minutes.
I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the cool glass of the window. The rhythm of the train filled my body, easing the ache of exhaustion from the long hours tracking Imala. I had never focused for so long on a single person, and I hadn't realized the toll it would take. I waited as my rough edges smoothed down and when I felt ready to open my eyes again, we were pulling into a train station. The platform filled my window, modern steel and concrete, aflame with the burning red of sunset.
I grabbed my pack off the storage rack above my seat, inched into the filling aisle, and moved off the train. I stood for a moment on the platform. I had traced Imala to a location less than a mile from the station, and I knew the easiest way to get there would be on foot. I closed my eyes again and reached out for her, but she wasn't close by. Exactly as I had feared, I had lost her.
I adjusted my bag and started towards the place I'd first found her. The air was cool, probably in the fifties, and felt good on my warm skin. The train had been too hot, the people packed in too close. I headed up a brick-lined sidewalk towards the pinnacle of the walled town. I could feel myself drawing closer, and finally stood outside a crumbling residential building. Its windows were trimmed in white wood, and the yellow-stained stucco was peeling away at the corners of the walls.
It was three stories tall, with a balcony off the top floor that jutted over the street. I looked down the face of the building, but the place appeared abandoned. Frustrated, I turned and leaned against the building, trying to figure out my next steps.
I had left a note for Daniel, but I knew better than to expect a phone call. Sunset was still almost an hour away in London. He would find my note, and he would follow me. I knew it was risky to go alone, but I knew now that it was worth it. Imala was on the move; maybe she even knew I was after her. I didn't have time to wait. I would need to get ahead of her.
I shouldered my pack and turned back towards the station. I needed to find a place to stay for the night and collect my thoughts. I would be able to access everything I had on Imala from my laptop, and go through the files one more time. I just needed to figure out her next steps.
I found a cheap hotel room with a stiff bed cold floors and a view of several buildings that blocked my view of the river.
I stretched out on the cool sheets and stared at the white ceiling, lights from traffic below bouncing across it.
I tried to clear my cluttered thoughts and get a few moments rest before I pulled up my notes and tried to figure out Imala's next steps.
But I caught myself on one errant little thought, one tiny thing I couldn't clear away.
Had she known I was coming? If so, how?
Chapter 15
A loud banging on the hotel room door yanked me from a dreamless sleep. I had read over Imala's file before finally succumbing to exhaustion and I had no idea how long I'd been asleep. I rubbed my eyes and stared at the door in the dark of the room.
The door lock didn't seem to be holding its own against whoever was on the other side. I frowned and quickly went to the viewer, trying to keep my footsteps as silent as possible.
I looked through to see a pissed off Daniel staring straight back at me. I yanked the door open and grabbed his arm, pulling him into the room.
“Are you crazy?” I hissed. I could hear hotel neighbors stirring. I peeked over at the clock. 2:07am.
“I could ask you the same,” he replied, shoving the door closed and locking it again. “Why did you leave?”
“They kicked me out, and I needed to find her,” I said. “Whatever happened with Rafe... it revealed Imala. I couldn't wait.”
He stared down at me, and I felt my breath catch in my chest. His gaze was intense, and I remembered how he'd reacted to me that night in the airport hangar. He'd kissed me back. Whatever preconceived notions I'd had about Daniel had evaporated then, and looking at him now, I realized that I'd underestimated how seriously he took his role as my protector.
I stepped away from him as heat flared over my cheeks. I felt stupid that I'd taken off without him. He was my protector, and a fierce ally. He was right to be angry with me.
I had snapped to judgment, leaving without him. I thought I could handle this better on my own. I didn't know exactly what Imala was up to, or even who was helping her. Hurried decision-making aside, I still felt like the situation required a lot of caution and a little finesse. Daniel had become a good friend, but there was no doubting what he was. I had seen him kill without qualm or hesitation. He was an enforcer, and that meant something in the vampire world. One didn't become a successful enforcer by employing a lot of diplomacy.
“I'm sorry,” I said, trying to find a way to voice all the thoughts whirling through my head. “I shouldn't have left without you.”
The tension immediately evaporated and his eyes lost their angry glare.
One day, I'd figure him out, but for now, Daniel was one big gra
y area.
I turned away from him, settling back on the bed. He crossed the room, footsteps echoing on the wooden floor, and he dropped onto the bed next to me.
“Did you find her?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, but I was close. I know where she was, and I know she's on the move now, headed north.”
“By plane?”
I shook my head. “I don't think so. I don't know for sure, but she's not moving fast enough for that.”
“What's your next step?”
“What?” I asked. I was used to Daniel giving me instructions from Sorrell. He didn't usually leave the planning up to me.