Angela’s house was the largest on the street, which only made sense. Two bronze fixtures flanked the large oak door with its beveled-glass insert, their light spilling onto the quiet street.
He hadn’t even lifted his hand to knock before Angela opened that door, her eyes haunted, shadowed in the uncertain light. “Come in,” she said.
Without replying, he entered the house, stood uncertainly in the foyer. The prima was wearing only a tank top and some yoga pants, her feet bare, which led Levi to think that she’d been asleep when Caitlin called, and had gotten immediately out of bed without worrying about her attire. Past her, he could see Connor sitting on one of the living room sofas. Since he was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of flannel pants, it seemed that he also hadn’t bothered to change before coming out to wait for their visitor.
“Caitlin called me about fifteen minutes ago,” Angela said as she led him into the living room. Levi sat down on the unoccupied couch, while she took a seat next to her husband. “She was…upset.”
Considering how often the clan’s seer had visions of things that were less than pleasant, Levi didn’t find that revelation too surprising. “What did she see?”
“She saw Matías Escobar…and Lucinda Santiago. Apparently, he decided to pick up where things left off when Lucinda’s father banished him from California.”
Yes, Levi had heard that the Santiago prima’s daughter had been forced into some kind of a relationship with the young Escobar warlock. “That isn’t entirely unexpected, is it?” he asked, even as he realized how cold the question must have sounded.
Angela’s lips thinned. “No, but Caitlin and Lucinda had become sort of long-distance friends, so this vision was very traumatic for her, as you might imagine, especially when she’d had to suffer visions of Danica experiencing much the same thing several years ago. The question is…what are we going to do about it?”
“How much can we do?” Levi asked. “I assume that Matías has Lucinda trapped in Santiago territory, correct?”
The prima and primus glanced at one another. Connor reached over to take his wife’s hand, although Levi didn’t know for sure whether he had done so to comfort her — or to give her the strength to utter her next words. Perhaps one day, if he was lucky, he would have been with Hayley long enough to know what the correct reaction should be.
“Yes. From what Caitlin saw, it seems that Matías is still in the house that used to belong to Lucinda’s parents, the former Santiago prima and her consort.” Angela paused there, then took a breath before continuing, “We need to go to Southern California and get Lucinda away from Matías.”
Levi didn’t know why he should be so shocked. On the surface, of course attempting such a rescue seemed like the right thing to do. But it was very rare that members of one clan would interfere with the doings in another witch family’s territory, no matter how nefarious those doings might be. “That will be…difficult,” he said at last.
“We know,” Connor replied. “We also know that we wouldn’t be able to attempt that kind of a rescue without your help. You have access to powers that no one in either of our clans has.”
“Well, possibly, but….” Levi had to stop himself there, because he saw little use in protesting what all of them already knew. There were many skilled workers of magic in both clans, but few with the sorts of abilities that would be of much help in such a mission. Whereas he — well, if a magical talent had once existed, then he could use it. He settled for saying, “That may be true, but such a mission will still be extraordinarily dangerous. Have you forgotten about Joaquin Escobar’s powers as a null? I know I am not an ordinary warlock, but we also don’t know whether I would be immune to his dubious talent.”
“It’s a risk,” Angela said. Although the lighting in the living room wasn’t very bright, Levi could still see the way her knuckles whitened as she clung to her husband’s hand. “From what we’ve been able to tell, though, Joaquin Escobar’s power has a fairly limited field of effect, so unless he’s right in the same room with Lucinda, you should be okay. If his so-called ‘gift’ would even make a difference to someone like you.” She hesitated, then went on, “Believe me, we know what we’re asking of you. But what kind of people would we be if we just shrugged and turned away, tried to tell ourselves it was somebody else’s problem?”
The kind of people who wouldn’t be able to look at themselves in a mirror. At least, Levi realized that he couldn’t live with himself if he knowingly abandoned Lucinda Santiago to Matías Escobar’s brutal abuses. And how could he ever deem himself worthy of Hayley if he ignored the plight of another young woman?
“We wouldn’t be McAllisters,” Levi said firmly, then added, with a glance at Connor, “or Wilcoxes. But what do you propose? We can’t quite stage a commando raid and go in, guns blazing.”
“Which probably wouldn’t work anyway, if the Escobars can summon demons on command,” Connor remarked, his voice grim. “No, I was thinking of my family history. The talent hasn’t appeared since then, not in my family at least, and never seemed to appear in the McAllisters, either, but my great-great-whatever grand-uncle Samuel had the ability to teleport — to send himself from place to place. So we were thinking if you could mirror that talent — ”
“Then I could send myself into the Santiago house, get Lucinda, and come back out again, all in the blink of an eye,” Levi said. At the same time, he recalled how he had instantly sent himself from place to place after first arriving in this world, although back then he had been acting instinctively, with little thought involved except a blind need to find Zoe. His control had been so poor, he’d actually chased after several young women who merely looked like her. What Connor was suggesting was something different, a controlled jump to a specific place. “That could work…and there would be minimal risk involved, since I could simply send myself there and come back here before anyone noticed anything wrong.”
Apparently it wasn’t that easy, though, because Angela and Connor exchanged another one of those meaningful glances. “Well, not exactly,” Connor said. “From what I’ve been able to tell — and from what my cousin Danica told me, since she actually traveled back in time and met Samuel — his power wasn’t unlimited. He could probably teleport himself a few miles at the most.”
“It’s a lot farther than a few miles from here to Pasadena,” Angela added, her voice strained.
“Yes, but Samuel didn’t have Hayley,” Levi pointed out. “It’s possible she might be able to amplify my abilities enough that I could still send myself all the way to Southern California.”
“It’s five hundred miles,” Connor said. “It would require a hell of a magical boost. I know Hayley’s powers are strong…but are they that strong?”
To be honest, Levi didn’t know for sure. It was the sort of thing they’d have to test. Yes, having her there to add her powers to his had meant that he’d easily defeated those two demons, but when you got right down to it, there was a decent chance that he could have vanquished them unassisted, even though it would have been more difficult and very likely would have taken much more time. So he couldn’t say whether Hayley would really be able to strengthen his powers to the point that he could blink himself from one place to another that was hundreds of miles away.
“I don’t know,” he said. “But there’s only one way to find out.”
Brandon left early for work, as he always seemed to. Hayley had barely stepped out of the shower before she heard someone knocking at the door. Startled, she went out into the hallway so she could catch a glimpse of the clock that hung on the living room wall. Seven fifty-five…way too early for a social call.
Biting her lip, she knotted her bathrobe a little more tightly around herself, and made sure the towel she’d twisted around her hair was secure enough that it wouldn’t come loose and fall in her face as she walked over to answer the door. But when she opened that door, she almost wished she hadn’t. Standing there was Levi, fully dressed, a worried expressio
n on his face.
“I’m sorry to come over so early,” he said. “But, what with everything that happened yesterday, I forgot to get your phone number. I suppose I thought it didn’t matter, what with us being next door to one another.”
“It’s all right,” she said automatically, although she didn’t really know if it was. Even if she supposed at some point he would have seen her without makeup and with her hair a mess, she would have preferred to postpone that evil day until a little further in the future. “Um — Brandon left some coffee in the carafe in the kitchen. Why don’t you get yourself some, and I’ll put some clothes on.”
“Oh, yes…sure,” Levi responded, a slight flush under his light tan telling her that he hadn’t really noticed her dishabille until then.
Hayley didn’t know if that was better or worse. “Be right back,” she said, and fled into her room and shut the door. No time for a deliberate consideration of what to wear — she grabbed her jeans from the day before, some clean underwear, and the first T-shirt that came to hand, an old gray number that was starting to get a little frayed around the edges.
Well, that was a good metaphor for how this day was starting out…a little frayed around the edges.
No time to do anything more than run a comb through her damp hair, and hope that it wouldn’t frizz too much as it dried. She slipped into a pair of flip-flops, took a few seconds to smooth some tinted lip balm on her mouth, and then hurried back out to the living room. Levi had gotten himself a cup of coffee, as she’d suggested, and he stood by the window and stared down at the Verde Valley, brightly illuminated by the early morning sun. However, his expression was dark, distracted, a contrast to the sunny May morning.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
He turned toward her. “Your clan’s seer had a vision last night of Lucinda Santiago. She’s being held by Matías Escobar.”
“Oh, no.” The words had come automatically enough to Hayley’s lips, but she paused for a second to get a good look at Levi’s face. He seemed worried, but also determined, which began to set off alarm bells in her head. “So…what are we supposed to do about it?”
“As much as we can.” He moved toward the coffee table so he could set his mug down on it, then came over to her, took her hands in his. Was he always that warm, or was it only that her own fingers had suddenly gone cold? “Connor and Angela and I have a plan, but we need to see how much you can help with it.”
“Me?” The word came out almost as a squeak, and Hayley cleared her throat. Yes, she’d kind of hoped battling demons would be the last of her dealings with the Escobars for a while, but apparently not. Still, that didn’t mean she could start acting like a coward. She needed to be there for Levi, and for all of her clan. Besides, hadn’t she just been complaining a few days ago about how nothing exciting ever happened to her? Locking her fingers around Levi’s, she went on, in a much steadier tone, “What do you need me to do?”
“It seems the easiest thing for me to do is to teleport myself into the Santiago house, where Lucinda is being held. But I need to see what kind of range I have with your power amplifying my own.”
“‘Teleport’?” Hayley repeated. Damn it, the squeak was back in her voice. She drew in a breath, and said, “I mean, you can do that?”
“As far as I can tell, there’s very little I can’t do.” He stopped there and shook his head. “That sounds like boasting, I know. But, as I told you, my powers are…all of them, so to speak. I used this power before, when Zoe first brought me to this world. However, I used it wildly, without thinking, and only in the area around Phoenix.”
This all sounded completely crazy, but Hayley told herself she needed to be calm, needed to think about the situation with something resembling logic. “Do you know how far you were able to teleport yourself when you were down in Phoenix?”
“Perhaps…ten, fifteen miles? I know I went all the way out to Mesa from Scottsdale.”
“And it’s how far to where Lucinda Santiago is?”
“Angela said it was around five hundred miles.”
Hayley flicked a strand of damp hair over her shoulder and told herself she needed to stay calm. “That’s a lot farther than fifteen miles.”
“I know.” Levi let go of her hands, brought his fingers up to lightly cup her cheeks. She couldn’t help feeling a thrill at his touch, even though she knew she should really be concentrating on the problem at hand. “That’s why we should test it first, with places I know.”
“Such as?”
He bent and kissed her, so very gently, as though he realized she needed that reassurance right then. “I’ll try Prescott first. It’s about forty miles, so a little more than twice as far as the farthest jump I performed in the Phoenix area. That should give me some indication of how much your talent boosts mine.”
“Okay,” she said. Prescott didn’t sound that frightening. All right, probably because she didn’t want to analyze what they were doing too closely. Because then she’d be trying to figure out how someone — even a being like Levi, who didn’t necessarily have to follow the normal rules — could simply close his eyes, visualize his destination, and send himself to an entirely different place that just happened to be miles and miles away. “But…how will you get back? Because if you send yourself to Prescott, I won’t be with you anymore. You won’t have my talent to help get you back.” She forced herself to say the next words, even though they scared the crap out of her. “You’ll have to take me with you.”
At once he shook his head. “No.”
“Why not? If it’s safe, then I should be able to travel with you.”
“It’s not simply a matter of safety while traveling in such a way.” He hesitated before continuing, his voice gentle, “There’s no way I could bring you with me into the Santiago house, the place where the Escobars now live. That would be dangerous, a risk I would never take with you. Also, I’ll be stealing Lucinda away, when the time comes. If I had you with me, that means I would have to teleport the both of you, along with myself. I am strong…but I’m not sure I’m that strong.”
Hayley wanted to argue, but she could see the logic in what he was saying. She reached over and took his hand in hers, needing the reassurance of his touch. “Okay. But you have to tell me how you’re going to get back.”
“With this test, that’s simple enough. You’ll help me travel to Prescott, and then I’ll break up my return trip into two separate jumps. There’s a campground in the National Forest that’s about halfway between Jerome and Prescott. I’ll stop there to get my bearings, and then come back here.” His fingers tightened around hers. “You’ll barely notice that I’m gone.”
“I find that hard to believe.” She swallowed, then said, “And if this test is successful?”
“Then we’ll keep attempting longer and longer jumps,” he replied. “After this, I’ll try going to a place I know in Phoenix. That’s a hundred miles.”
“And you know enough places in between that you can still make small jumps to get yourself home?”
Levi offered her a reassuring smile. “Yes. I drove here with Zoe and Evan. They had to stop for gas in Cordes Lakes. Even without that, I paid attention to the towns and rest stops between here and there.”
“Let me guess,” Hayley said. “Photographic memory?”
“Not exactly, but similar in concept. If I’ve seen it, I can go to a place, even if I haven’t physically been there before.”
She didn’t like it. She didn’t like any of this. But she knew she had to help Levi, had to assist him so he could go rescue Lucinda Santiago. Maybe there were other witches and warlocks in similar dire straits — hadn’t Joaquin Escobar basically made the Santiagos’ new prima his captive wife? — but for whatever reason, Levi and Angela and Connor seemed to think Lucinda’s plight was the more urgent.
Somehow Hayley managed to put on what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “Well, you did tell me you were a man of many talents, Levi. I guess that means
we need to see how powerful your teleportation skills actually are.”
“Yes.” He went quiet for a moment, his body still, as though he looked inward to summon the powers he needed to send himself so many miles away. “All right, Hayley — lend me your strength.”
She put a hand on his shoulder, felt the strength of his muscles beneath her fingertips. The energy flowed from her into Levi, and then…
…and then he was gone.
A startled gasp escaped her lips. She didn’t know why she should be so shocked, except that maybe she’d expected to hear some kind of noise as he left, have some kind of warning. But she didn’t. One second her fingers were resting on the smooth cotton of his T-shirt, and the next, her hand touched only air.
What to do now? Wait, she supposed. He hadn’t really told her how long this would take. Not too long — after all, he’d blinked out of existence in less than a split second. But still, he’d have to send himself to that campground he’d spoken of before he could come back here.
More because she wanted to do something than because she really needed any more caffeine, Hayley went into the kitchen and poured herself the rest of the coffee in the carafe. Since she’d turned off the coffeemaker, the liquid inside the carafe was now barely lukewarm, but she didn’t care. It was something to occupy herself.
She’d just begun to rinse out the carafe when Levi appeared a few feet away from her. Even though she’d been expecting him, she couldn’t help startling. Luckily, she retained enough presence of mind not to drop the carafe. Instead, she set it down on the kitchen counter and went to him, put her arms around his waist.
“So it worked.”
He held her tightly against him. “Yes. It was easy enough to send myself to Prescott, thanks to the boost you gave me.”
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