Mirror: Book One of the Valkanas Clan

by Noelle Ryan

  Focus, Aly, Tom reminded me, just as Marcus finished eyeing the copper tree.

  “That tacky thing? Your mother must have had exceptionally poor taste,” Marcus said, and I resisted the urge to slap him, reminding myself that I’d wanted him to buy my hasty story. “If you want it for sentimental reasons, take it—I can’t imagine Temora would do anything but thank you.”

  Temora was certain to do anything but thank Marcus if she discovered what he’d done, but given how much I disliked him, I couldn’t exactly regret that possibility.

  “Thank you,” I said, trying to look quietly grateful rather than over-excited as I lifted the tree off the shelf, gripping it around the bottom so none of the quartz would show through. “Do you think there are any bags around here I could use to carry it out with me?”

  “We can check the kitchen before we leave,” Marcus said.

  “Actually," I said, "if you don’t mind I think I’ll check now—I don’t want to accidentally damage it.”

  In reality, the tingle had resumed the second I picked it up again, and it was only growing stronger with time. I was afraid I’d be hopping around like an electrified frog if I maintained direct skin contact with it for too much longer.

  Marcus rolled his eyes, presumably annoyed by my desire to protect something so ugly. Then he spun on his heel and marched out. A few seconds later I heard him opening and closing cabinets rapidly.

  As soon as he was gone, Damian turned to fully face me. The look on his face indicated that he hadn’t been fooled in the least by my story and wanted to know just what was going on. I only had time to mouth “I’ll explain later” before we heard Marcus’s steps in the hallway, and he returned holding out a plastic grocery bag.

  “One of his humans must have been saving these for some ridiculous reason—I found a whole cabinet full of them, should you need more,” he said.

  I took the bag, thanked him again, and carefully placed the statue within it. Then, holding the bag in my right hand while using my left to continue sweeping the shelves, I made my way across the rest of the bookcase. Nothing else struck me there, or throughout the rest of the room—except for the slowly creeping return of the sludge. Once I’d touched everything I could think to touch, and moved across every area in the room without further incident, I beat a hasty retreat to the doorway, relieved.

  Marcus, however, appeared less than impressed.

  “Nothing?" he said, eyes slitted and voice cold. "We—I—come all this way for you to find nothing but an elf’s tree and a ridiculous reminder of your childhood?”

  He marched past me and through the hallway, returning to the front door.

  “Jade, Orchid, to me," he snipped. "This has been a waste of our valuable time, and we are leaving.”

  They left quickly, Marcus’s loud steps and complaints standing out in stark contrast to Jade and Orchid’s continuing silence.

  “That could have gone better.” Damian said, sighing.

  Then, he stepped outside and called everyone else in. Once everyone was gathered in the foyer, he turned to me.

  “So what was it you really found, and why did you lie to Marcus about your discovery?” he asked.

  I glanced at Tom.

  Tell him. He’ll figure it out anyway—he always does.

  “I think this tree is actually the Sringara,” I said.

  “What?” Valerie gasped, and snatched the bag out of my hand. When she opened it, her face fell. “But this is copper,” she said.

  “Pick it up and look at the base,” I said.

  As soon as she turned it over, her face lit again. She lifted it out slowly, reverently, and began pulling at the wire branches.

  “Wait,” Damian stopped her. “Its disguise has served us well—let’s leave it for a while longer.”

  Her hands stilled, but she kept a firm grip on the tree. I didn’t bother trying to retrieve it; I wasn’t the one interested in getting pregnant, and I certainly didn’t want it to accidentally ensure my fertility. As long as she agreed to use it to help break the bond between Marielle and Cesar, I didn’t care if she kept it on her person every second of the day.

  I leaned back against the front door, tired and relieved. At least something useful had come out of this trip, and I was glad Dorothy’s warning about a trap had proven false. I shifted my weight, my back brushing against the door knob.

  And everything went black.

  Twenty-four

  I swam back into consciousness slowly, heavily. As I did, sensations flashed through me. The scratch of fabric being yanked over my head, hands on my back pushing me down the hall, pain exploding against my chest as I was shoved down onto something that splintered into me, and then one sharp blow across the back of my neck.

  Then there was only blackness, stillness, and I realized I was dead.

  Aly, you’re not dead.

  I had no idea why someone would be talking to me when I was clearly dead. I felt nothing, saw nothing, heard nothing—all my senses were gone.

  You’re not dead Aly—wake up!

  If this wasn’t death, then what was it? Where was I? It made no sense.

  You’re still in the hallway at Cesar’s. It’s only been a few minutes since you passed out. Damian thinks you’ve entered some kind of coma, but I can hear you thinking Aly—so wake up!

  It was Tom, I suddenly realized. He was here with me. Which either meant I wasn’t dead, or we both were.

  Suddenly, pain shot through me, and with it came a wash of sensation. Carpet burning under my bare hands, voices rising all at once, and the sweet taste of blood in my mouth. Unconsciously, I began drinking, sucking at that wonderful flavor like my life depended on it. Then it was ripped away, and I opened my eyes to see where it had gone—and saw everyone staring at me, Tom cradling a bleeding wrist as it healed.

  Slowly, I sat up. Damian offered his hand to me, but I shook my head. I wasn’t prepared to stand yet. Instead, I stared at my knees, trying to figure out what had happened. I realized I was unconsciously running my hands across my chest, feeling for the source of the splinters that had been digging into me moments before. I found nothing, though, and no-one standing before me would have blinded me and shoved me down a hallway.

  Then, suddenly, it clicked. By brushing against the doorknob, I’d triggered Joseph’s last memories—Cesar must have blinded him, shoved him into the living room and across the coffee table, and then decapitated him. How Cesar could have gotten the jump on one of Temora’s knights was beyond me—if Jade and Orchid were any indication, they were not easily trifled with. Still, since I was clearly alive and unharmed, it was the only thing that made sense. The only thing I didn’t understand, however, was why Cesar had gone to the trouble of forcing him into the living room and breaking things in the process when he could have simply killed him in the foyer. Why would he want to damage his own house, his own stuff?

  He didn’t damage anything anywhere else though—just the living room. So what’s special about the living room?

  As soon as Tom asked his question the answer was obvious: the Sringara. That’s what was special about the living room. And as soon as I realized that, other thoughts began to click in place.

  I stood, careful not to brush against even the door frame as I did so, not wanting to trigger any more sensory impressions. Then I had an idea, and looked at Tom. Could you bring me the ficus tree from the living room?

  He nodded, and walked off, coming back moments later with the tree and receiving some strange looks from everyone but Damian, who simply said “good idea.” Once I reached my hands up into its leaves I immediately felt the tranquility washing into me again, making it easier both to relax and to focus.

  “Cesar killed Joseph to bring us here. He knew, or at least suspected, that I would be brought to see what I could pick up from the crime scene, and that I would probably pay particular attention to the room in which Joseph was killed. He was right. And it was that attention that allowed me to find the Sringar
a, hidden so carefully in plain sight.”

  My mention of the crystal horn caught Valerie’s attention immediately, of course. As soon as it had been clear I’d recover, she had refocused her attention on what she held. But now she was once again focused on me.

  “Why would he want you to find it though? Why would he not take it with him?” she asked.

  “Marcus mentioned that Marielle was probably especially powerful.” I turned to look at Damian. “If that’s the case, and she knew where the Sringara was, could she overpower Cesar to take it from him, breaking their bond in the process?”

  “Hmm.” Damian paused, looking thoughtful for a moment before he continued. “It is possible, though she would have suffered heavily for breaking the bond by force. It could immobilize her for months, possibly even a year or more. Still, give what Cesar has been exposing her to, and how draining that is for her kind, it might have been worth it.”

  “That still doesn’t explain why he would want us to have it though,” Valerie pointed out.

  “True,” I said. “But I know he wants to keep it safe. This was what he was protecting in his house, why I sensed he rarely left. Now that Temora has claimed his house, though, it’s no longer safe. You saw Marcus’s reaction to it, Damian—it probably would have been thrown away, making it almost impossible for Cesar to find again.”

  “And if one of the conditions of his bond with Marielle is that he has sworn knowledge of its location, not knowing where it was could break that bond,” Damian added, surprising me. I hadn’t realized bonds could be formed or broken around mental states like that.

  “That makes sense. If he simply swore to reveal to Marielle where it was at the end of their bond-term, and to relinquish his claims on it at that time, knowing it is with us keeps his end of the bargain, albeit in a fairly roundabout way, and keeps it safe in the meantime,” Valerie said.

  And if he had any way of knowing how much Valerie wanted a child, he would know it would be protected with her life, I added silently. I saw Tom nod slightly out of the corner of my eye.

  “Kardia mou,” Damian said softly, “we are not equipped to defend ourselves against a group of powerful elves. If it comes to that, we will need to surrender the horn.”

  Valerie looked startled, then hurt.

  “I would share it with her, husband mine,” she replied in equally soft tones. “I know the pain of wanting children and having none. I’m sure we will reach a mutually agreeable understanding.” She paused, then added “if this was the trap that Aly sensed, then I could not be happier at falling into it.”

  Damian nodded his head, a look of such overwhelming love and tenderness filling his face for a moment that I was startled out of the tranquil reverie the tree had induced in me. Then the look was gone, and he turned to the rest of us, neutral assurance once again claiming his features.

  “None of you will speak of this to anyone, understood?” he said, and a quiet chorus of yeses answered him. “Then I believe we are finished for the night. Samuel, Luis, I will ask you to stay with us tonight. I want no-one alone until Cesar has been caught.” Sam stiffened. “That will not prove a problem, I trust?”

  “No sire,” Sam replied, staring at the floor.

  “Good. We will see you back at the house then.”

  During the car ride back to Louisville, exhaustion overwhelmed me, and I fell asleep with my head in Tom’s lap. I didn’t awake until we hit the outskirts of town, and didn’t bother sitting up since Tom began stroking my hair, rubbing my head until I was ready to purr like a cat.

  This qualifies you for minor deity status in my book, I told him.

  I saw him grin. That’s all it takes? Just a head rub? You’re not a very demanding follower.

  Ha! I haven’t seen any other religious groups offering head rubs as a motivation for worship. If they did, I’d be as devout as they come.

  Now Tom frowned slightly. You don’t believe in God? He seemed surprised.

  You do? I asked, equally surprised. But you’re a vampire!

  All the more reason for me to believe, he responded. I’ve seen too much evil not to know there isn’t something fighting against it, someone acting on a larger scale than we are capable of seeing or understanding.

  Hmm. I had to consider this one. I’d always been agnostic, raised by agnostic parents—I didn’t specifically believe there wasn’t a God, or even multiple gods, but I didn’t really believe in them either. When my parents died, I visited a number of different religious organizations, but I’d given up eventually, feeling like I was looking for hope for the wrong reasons. Since then, I’d never really thought about my spiritual life much, but it seemed like dating Tom might change that.

  He squeezed my hand, and I felt the car slow and turn off the expressway. I sat up, stretching, ready to head upstairs and return to bed as quickly as possible. Tomorrow was Monday, and I had a class to teach.

  You need to head straight to sleep, or just straight to bed? Tom asked, and the wicked grin curling his lips made me reconsider my plans. I guess I didn’t need to go to sleep immediately; I had just had a nice two hour nap after all.

  My thoughts exactly, Tom replied, and began slowly tracing curves on the inside of my palm, his thoughts sharing all the other places he was imagining placing those fingers once we got inside. Heat flared in each spot he pictured, until I felt like my skin was burning with pleasure—and we’d hardly touched each other yet.

  In response, I teasingly kissed each fingertip of his hand, imagining all the places I might place my lips once we were safely ensconced in the guest room. I felt both his thoughts and his skin heat in response, his eyelids drifting closed for a moment at a particularly detailed image I sent him. I grinned, thinking telepathic foreplay had a lot to recommend it.

  We turned on to Cherokee, just a few blocks from the house, and I pulled my attention back to the moment at hand, ignoring the silent protests Tom sent my way for ending the mental movies we were trading. I didn’t want to walk into the house looking like I’d already had two orgasms on the way home, and the flush I’d felt on my cheeks told me that was exactly what we’d look like if we didn’t calm down a bit.

  Who cares? Tom asked. It’s not like they don’t know we’re involved.

  I still feel bad about Sam—he’s obviously uncomfortable around us and I don’t want to make it worse.

  Tom rolled his eyes. He’s probably just milking it to get more leave time from Damian.

  Tom! He lost his son—that’s a horrible thing to think.

  Wait ‘til you’ve lived around him for a few decades; I’m betting you’ll change your mind.

  As we turned into the driveway, my eyes caught an unusual play of shadows across the front of the garage door. It took me a second to realize it looked like a piece of paper had gotten stuck in the gap between the door and the outside wall. As the car pulled up, the paper sprung free, twisting in the breeze—and I saw the cribbed handwriting that covered it on one side.

  “I think someone left a note on the garage” I asked, wondering if it had perhaps been from the window repair guys coming while we were out.

  “That piece of paper?” Damian asked, and I was surprised I was the only one to have noticed it.

  He stopped the car halfway into the garage and leaned out to retrieve it from where it lay, face down on the driveway. His eyes scanned it quickly, and then I heard the crisp sound of paper tearing as his hands jerked.

  “What is it?” Valerie, Tom and I asked simultaneously, though she was the first one quick enough to grab it from him before it tore completely.

  She read it just as quickly, and then said simply “I’m so sorry, Aly.”

  I lurched forward, snatching it from her unresisting fingers, and read it.

  My dear friends,

  Undoubtedly by now my sweet Alyson has uncovered my little gift for you. I do not think you are ungrateful enough to do anything other than keep it, but as added insurance I took the liberty of picking Ava,
Alyson’s playmate, up for a date tonight. I just informed Ava that this date will last for the next several years, and though she wasn’t prepared for such a long stay I’m sure she’ll adapt nicely.

  I’ll keep her as safely as you keep my gift. In four years, when the contract you are familiar with has lapsed, I will be happy to trade her for the lovely copper tree you hold now. Until then, I suggest you try to return to your normal habits, because if I suspect you are hunting me Ava’s long date might take a very sudden turn for the worse.

  All the best,

  C

  p.s.—if this makes you feel too terribly guilty, mi preciosa, you are welcome to take Ava’s place yourself. As long as you behave, I promise not to drain you. I’ll be in touch in a few days—you can let me know then.

  I couldn’t think. My mind was trapped on a loop, running over and over the note, trying to make it mean something else, anything but that Cesar had kidnapped my best friend and planned to keep her at his beck and call for the next four years unless I took her place. I didn’t believe for a moment that he wouldn’t drain me as soon as he figured out a way to keep the Sringara safe at the same time—and in the meantime, I didn’t doubt he’d make my life a living hell. Still, that was a better option than just leaving Ava there, as much as it sickened me to think of being near him.

  Tom reached out and began stroking my hair, trying to comfort me, but I jerked away instinctively. I didn’t want to feel comforted when I knew Ava was trapped, frightened, and probably in pain.

  “We have to rescue her,” I whispered. “Tonight.”

  Valerie turned in her seat to face me. “Aly, we will save her, believe me, but we need more time—”

  “Tonight!” I yelled, “Or I’m taking her place.” Valerie made a sound of protest, but I jumped out of the car before she could finish, slamming the door behind me. “Back the car out and shut the garage door. I need everything as close as possible to how he left it to get a reading.”

  Damian gave me one long look, then nodded his head and backed the car down the long driveway. Sam and Luis, who had turned in moments after us, looked confused to see the car retreating towards them, but they backed out as well. And then everyone, I was relieved to discover, had the good sense to just leave me alone.