Mirror: Book One of the Valkanas Clan

by Noelle Ryan

  First I returned to the side of the garage door where I’d first seen the note. I ran my hands along it, then turned and leaned back, wondering if brushing against it the way I had the doorknob in his house might trigger something. Then I ran my hands across the entire surface of the garage door, stretching up and down until I’d covered every inch I could reach. When nothing happened, I tracked down the driveway, zigging back and forth across the surface, searching for anything that might have dropped off his car. After that, I started wandering around the yard, on the off chance that Cesar might have parked on the street and walked up through the grass.

  It took me about twenty minutes to move across every surface I could think of that he might have touched. When nothing happened, I collapsed on the lawn, balling the note up in one fist while dry racking heaves shook my body. What use was this stupid gift if it couldn’t even save my best friend? If I could, I would have gladly passed it to Cesar if only Ava could have this whole day wiped from her mind, if she could live out the rest of her life thinking vampires and elves were just the product of overactive imaginations.

  Yes, sometimes this gift is a curse.

  The sobs that had shaken me had prevented me from noticing the usual signs of Dorothy’s approach, so that her voice came as a complete surprise.

  Why won’t it show me how to find Cesar, how to save Ava? I begged her. Why would it help me find that stupid horn but not my best friend?

  I don’t know. I never understood why it sometimes came when I least wanted it and sometimes remained out of reach when I thought I most needed it.

  You don’t even find that out after you die?

  You might; I don’t know. I’m still on the earthly plane so that I might help my children’s children. I’m not sure what lies beyond.

  Her response was so odd it sobered me from my despair slightly, helping me to focus.

  Can you sense anything about where he is or how I can find Ava?

  Give me a moment, she said, and the clenched feeling in my stomach lessened slightly as she moved away. I rolled onto my back, trying not to think about anything as I waited, trying to stay calm.

  A few moments later she was back.

  Would you smooth out the note and lay it on the grass beside you, please? she asked.

  I did so and watched, fascinated, as the letters glowed for a few seconds before fading back into black.

  He came here about an hour after you all left. Ava was with him, but the elf was not. She paused. I don’t think she knew yet what was happening—she is unaware this is where you have been sleeping these last few nights, yes?

  Yes.

  I think—I’m not sure, but I think—he might have told her he was just dropping a note off with a friend on his way to their date. He was feeling happy, confident. He planned to go to the airport from here.

  Ava would never have agreed to get on a plane with someone she’d just met for a date! I protested.

  She would if he willed her into thinking it was perfectly normal.

  Oh. That. I felt like an idiot. He wouldn’t even have to gag or bind her in any way if he didn’t want to. It was ten times worse than Stockholm Syndrome, and probably far more effective.

  The residual feelings I sense from this note also include excitement over going home.

  But Temora has claimed his house in Nashville.

  Not there I think—a home older than that, more meaningful—perhaps somewhere important to him as a young vampire, or even a human?

  As soon as she said it, it made sense. Cesar had lost his house, his retinue—he needed a place to go that felt safe and familiar without being anywhere near the places he’d last been seen. Given the Spanish nicknames he was so fond of bestowing upon me, I was willing to bet that he was headed to somewhere in South or Central America, or possibly Spain itself.

  Then I suddenly realized Dorothy was still with me, but beginning to drift away.

  Wait! I called out. I’ve been trying to ask you this—how can I call you when I need you?

  Her laugh echoed faintly in my head. I am not certain you can. I usually sense when you are experiencing high levels of confusion, and I try to come then. But if that has not brought me, you might try thinking very hard about lavender. She chuckled, probably in response to my confusion at her suggestion. Ever since you mentioned lavender water, I associate that plant with you. If I suddenly find myself thinking of it, I’ll know to come.

  Okay, I guess it’s worth a try…I trailed off, doubtful.

  Good luck, though I hope you do not need it.

  Thank you.

  Twenty-five

  Once the cramps faded completely, I stood and walked down the hill towards the waiting cars. I noticed Damian was on his cell phone, and as I got closer I heard him saying “…leaving tonight, preferably.”

  As I heard this, Tom got out of the car and started towards me.

  I told him Cesar was headed towards someplace that felt like home, and he recalled Temora’s research saying Cesar spent all his human life, and the first twenty years of his vampire life, in the Chaco province of Argentina. So now he’s on the phone with Temora trying to arrange to use her private jet to fly us there as quickly as possible.

  Cesar will be looking for us to follow him though, remember? I replied. What if he has people watching for the use of her jet, or for six suddenly arranged seats on commercial flights into Argentina from Louisville?

  Good point. Tom gestured to Valerie, motioning her to step out and join us a few feet from the car so we didn’t interrupt Damian. I explained my concerns about Cesar somehow tracking our flight.

  “With commercial flights that might be an issue, but the only people who will know where Temora’s jet is actually headed are her, the knights she places on the plane to provide additional back-up, and us. Everyone else will be given a different flight plan,” she said.

  “What about in Argentina, though,” Tom said. “Couldn’t he have people stationed at the airports in Resistencia and Buenos Aires who could identify her plane?”

  “I suppose he could; I’ll ask Damian to ask her to include an alternate set of identifying features in the cargo. We’ll change them over before leaving Bowman field, so that the plane that left her hangar in Atlanta and the one that arrives in Resistencia are, for all intents and purposes, two different planes.”

  Wow. They were obviously not new to situations like this, a thought that both reassured me and made me nervous about my own future. This wasn’t the kind of situation I wanted to become a familiar part of my life. I stood back and watched, slowly regaining my equilibrium—I needed to ask Dorothy if there was anything I could do to lessen the sense of exhaustion I experienced after my “episodes”—while Valerie leaned in to talk to Damian and Tom walked over to update Luis and Sam.

  While I was standing there, I realized Beckett would need an extra stash of food and water in case we had to be gone a couple days. I mentally checked in with Tom to let him know what I was doing, and then went inside.

  Beckett acted as if he hadn’t seen me in a week when I got upstairs, twining around my ankles and meowing pitifully. I leaned down and scooped him up, idly rubbing his chin as I paced the room. His purring soothed my tension a little bit, but not enough to keep me from wondering what Ava was experiencing right now. It drove me crazy that I could do nothing more than simply hope Cesar wasn’t tormenting her, leaving her feeling frightened, hopeless, and alone. Though I didn’t see how she could feel any other way, even if he was willing her into thinking she was headed for a fun vacation. Surely on some level she would know something was wrong.

  I stood abruptly, despite Beckett’s protest, and quickly scooped his litter box and set out extra food and water. Then I threw all my stuff into my bag and brought it downstairs with me. Mulling over my thoughts alone was not helping things any. I needed to be moving, taking action, even if it was just helping one of the others get ready.

  When I got back downstairs, though, I saw Tom and
Damian in the kitchen and two bags sitting by the door. A few seconds later, Valerie joined us with her own bag.

  “Luis is running Sam by his place to pack quickly, then they’ll stop at Luis’s so he can grab a few things and meet us at the airport. Fortunately for us, Marcus had brought Temora’s jet with him to Louisville already, so we don’t have to wait,” Valerie said. “Ready to go?”

  “I guess so. Can we arrange for someone to come in and feed Beckett if we end up gone for more than a couple days?” I asked.

  “If it becomes necessary, yes. But hopefully we will not be gone so long,” Damian said.

  We each grabbed our respective bags, and returned to the Benz. It took only ten minutes to arrive at Bowman Field, where a few tired-but-efficient looking people were preparing the jet. When I stepped on board I noticed, first, that it was incredibly furnished—I felt more like we were going to be flying in a hotel suite with bolted-down furniture than a plane.

  Second, and much less pleasantly, I noticed that Marcus, Jade, and Orchid would once again be our accomplices for this adventure. I groaned inwardly. Somehow I couldn’t imagine any of those three agreeing that my friend’s life was worth saving. Sure, they’d be happy to get rid of Cesar—but to go about it in such a way as to protect a mere human? I could imagine their scorn even now.

  We’ll make sure she stays safe, I promise, Tom told me. I smiled at him, grateful but unconvinced. None of us, not even Damian, had half their power—if we couldn’t convince Marcus it was in his best interests for Ava to survive, then whether she lived or died would be mere coincidence. Since that wasn’t an option, I had to figure out what I could use to convince him. I just didn’t know what that would be yet.

  Tom, Damian, Valerie and I all tucked our bags away and got settled as we waited for Luis and Sam to arrive. My seat was incredibly comfortable—as soon as I sat down in it I couldn’t resist the urge to lean back and close my eyes, soaking in a few precious moments of comfort. This trip was sure to ruin me for regular airline travel in the future. The memory of crammed coach seats transformed into the recognition that Ava was probably traveling that way right now, and the guilt had me sitting back up and opening my eyes quickly.

  “So Cesar paid your house a visit while we all wasted time in Nashville,” Marcus said to Damian. “I suppose that means Alyson’s little premonition of it all being a trap was correct, though I fail to see why it was worth it to him just so he could hand-deliver a note.”

  I wondered how long we’d be able to keep the knowledge of the Sringara from Temora and her people, and what the punishment would be if they found out. If Cesar was captured, how would we prevent him from telling Marcus all about it in a bid for leniency? Shit. I really hoped Valerie and Damian weren’t so blinded by their desires that they wouldn’t have considered these possibilities. The cowardly part of me was almost tempted to tell Marcus about it right now.

  I felt Tom’s mental shock. You would never do that, would you?

  No, of course not, I said, my irritation rising. No-one looks good when every damn thought is on display. I’m sure you have plenty less-than-flattering thoughts every day too—you’re just lucky I’m generally too distracted by my own brain to notice. I’m just freaked out—aren’t you at all frightened at the thought of Temora finding out we’ve been concealing something of such massive importance from her?

  I’m sure they have some kind of plan to handle that if it happens.

  Oh really. You trust them that much? Did you see the way Valerie was acting around it? Even if she is normally very savvy, I think her brain goes a bit haywire about that thing.

  I could feel doubt begin to trickle through Tom’s mind. But surely Damian…

  …surely Damian loves Valerie too much to prevent her from getting something she so desperately wants, I replied.

  But he told her she’d have to sacrifice it to the elves if it came to that, remember?

  I paused. That was true, he had at least expressed the possibility of putting practical concerns over Valerie’s wishes. That comforted me, but not completely. Short of someone managing to kill Cesar without him getting a single word out of his mouth, I didn’t see how they could keep the horn’s existence hidden.

  Cesar wanted us to get it rather than Temora’s people though, so surely he wouldn’t mention it in front of Marcus?

  Only if he thinks he has a chance of getting it away from us later. If he genuinely believes he’s trapped, he might bring it up to try to distract or bribe Marcus. Having Temora’s people here makes this whole thing so much riskier—to Ava, to us, to Valerie’s desire to keep the horn. Do you think there’s any chance of getting rid of them?

  And facing a powerful elf, a power-crazy Master vampire, and whatever resources he’s managed to accumulate down there, with only the six of us? Are you crazy? We need to stack the odds in our favor as much as possible. Marcus is the only one of us who’s ever even been in the Chaco province before—we’d be going in completely blind without him.

  While we had been carrying on our mental conversation, Damian, Valerie, and Marcus had been carrying on a quiet one of their own on the other side of the plane. Jade and Orchid sat as silently as ever—I was beginning to wonder if they were even capable of speech, or making any kind of noise at all.

  They turned their heads in eerie synchronicity, and a second later I heard the sound they were responding to: Luis’s car. At last. Now we could finally get moving. It only took Luis and Sam a few minutes to get on the plane—though, much to my surprise, they didn’t sit down next to us but rather headed for the cockpit.

  “They’re the ones flying us?” I asked, incredulous.

  “We left Temora’s regular pilot and co-pilot to finish their rest. Given that we had two capable pilots among us, there was no reason for them to get up after so little sleep,” Marcus glared at me with these last two words, making it clear he blamed the timing of my revelations for his own lack of beauty rest. Hell, as nasty as he looked right now, he could probably use as much beauty rest as he could get. “It also means there will be two fewer people knowing our real travel plans, which can only work to our advantage.”

  Marcus looked over to Damian, who nodded.

  “Our plan is fairly simple,” Damian said. “Our hope is to catch Cesar while he is still in Resistencia. Given the limited resources he currently has, he is probably travelling commercially, which means he’ll have to fly into Buenos Aires before picking up a local flight to the Chaco province. We have every reason to hope we might secure both he and Ava at the airport in Resistencia, since we will be heading directly to that airport.”

  “Ava?” Marcus asked.

  “My friend,” I said, perhaps a little too loudly.

  “Ah, I see, the human. I did not know her name. My apologies,” Marcus said coolly, not sounding in the least contrite.

  Tom, perhaps in response to reading my urge to throttle Marcus, distracted me with his own set of questions.

  “What about Marielle? And what is our plan to protect Ava if Cesar spots us before we have secured him?” he asked.

  “Since elves have more immediate means of transportation available, it is unlikely she is travelling with them. More likely, Cesar has sent her ahead to prepare for their arrival. Hopefully, it will not prove necessary to confront her directly,” Damian said, and it dawned on me just how much of this plan relied on “hopefully.” Hopefully somebody in this group was owed some really good karma, or we were in for a world of trouble.

  “Why wouldn’t Marielle have just brought Cesar and Ava with her that way? She transported Cesar before, right?” I asked.

  Marcus rolled his eyes, as if I were the most tiresome naïf he’d had the misfortune to encounter. I once again resisted the urge to tackle him, while a more detached part of me reflected that being around him was turning into really good anger management training.

  I felt Tom stifling a chuckle beside me. Marcus glared at him while answering my question.

&n
bsp; “As I thought you knew, it taxes elves greatly to bring other with them. It is unlikely she could have regained enough energy to bring Cesar along with her, much less Cesar plus a human.”

  “Her name is Ava,” I said, mentally applauding myself at my restraint.

  Given the looks I got from everyone else on the plane, however, they weren’t as inclined to applaud me—Marcus looked offended, Damian and Valerie amused and annoyed, Tom concerned, and Jade and Orchid…well, come to think of it, they looked just as distant as ever. I briefly wondered if they were even capable of facial responses, or if that part of them was just as muted as the rest. I took my cue from them, looking stoically at Marcus while his flicker of anger faded back into his usual mask of bored annoyance.

  As we had been talking, the plane had powered up and begun to taxi to the runway. Now we accelerated, lifting off with a roar of the engines that silenced all of us for a few minutes. Once we leveled off, I decided I might as well bring up my main concern now, to leave the maximum amount of time to figure out an alternate plan in case it proved necessary.

  “Speaking of Ava,” I said, “it is extremely important to me that she returns home safely.”

  “Yes, well, if that’s possible then we’ll be sure to do that,” Marcus said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

  “I think you misunderstand me.” I paused to gather my resolve, watching as my tone registered with everyone and six pairs of eyes came to rest on mine. I only had one card to play, and it was a risky one, given my status in the vampire pecking order, but Ava was too important to me not to take the risk. “I’ve been given to understand that my gift is of some…interest…to Temora. However, it’s very fickle, very temperamental. If I were distraught over the harm done to a loved one, well, I’m just not sure how well that gift would function.”