But they weren't stopping.
I took off into the air again and another dream of someone flying took control. I soared over the city, flapping my wings in happiness, until something stung my face. I blinked as I hit something else. Small pains. And then there were several as tiny little flying things buzzed around me, chasing me, trying to keep up.
I took a close look.
Drones!
I was being watched by drones! And possibly filmed.
Oh shit.
Oh shit, shit, shit. I looked down and had no idea what city I was over. Or even what country. But the shear number of tiny flying machines was doubling. I gained altitude fast, knocking a lot of them out of the sky, and pretty much wrecking others. After a while they disappeared and I hid in the clouds, trying again to get a hold on where I was.
You're over the United States, came Zephyros's voice in my mind. I looked around and saw him flying beside me, a transparent dragon keeping pace.
I am?
You don't remember?
So I told him everything I could remember. And he in turn, told me what I'd done in my spiraling out of control.
I'd destroyed five houses, one with fire.
I'd terrified a small child in a field and set fire to the crop.
I'd been recorded flying over several cities, from Bangkok to Los Angeles.
And I'd sunk an air craft carrier, though luckily no one had been seriously injured.
In a word, I'd become a menace
And God Mother was pissed.
I can't think, Zephy. If I try to think, it's like I get pulled into someone's dream.
You are the Dragon of Dreams, Samantha. You are the God Mother's Spirit. And what exactly do those in the realms say to the God Mother?
It wasn't a stretch of an answer. He was right. Every deity on Earth had to listen to prays for something. Long life, better help, easier job, more money. Wants. Needs. Desires.
Dreams.
It made sense.
But I can't think!
You're thinking now with no intrusion.
Yeah but I don't know how. I don't get any of this.
You can do it when you focus. And right now, you're focused on me. You have to focus your attention and not give into so many other thoughts. It's not going to be easy, Sam. But you can do it.
Maybe, maybe not. But I made it a point to just focus on Zephyros because I didn't want to get caught up in someone else's nightmare again. And then I realized something. Is this what Lethe had to contend with?
Yes.
And it drove her nuts. I was starting to understand her obsessions. Focusing on something, whether good or bad, to keep the voices out. Was that why she'd focused so hard on Crwys?
Crwys!
I had to find him!
And in that slip I heard the sound of a child crying.
My child.
It came from below, down beneath the clouds.
Don't Sam. It's not time.
Time for what? Zephy, I have to fix things. I have to find my child, and my husband. Everything's messed up.
I heard him sigh in my head. Not yet. He said in a sad voice. But it's going to be.
SIXTEEN
Tas sat at the dining table, an untouched cup of coffee cooling. Arden sat across from her, pouring over the book that the Cyber Witch had just…manifested out of Arcane. Where Dáinn and Thea and the rest thought it was a cool power Ivan had, Tas was looking at it a bit differently. It was obvious Sam knew he could do this since he'd digitized the original and a copy sat with this Witch's Parliament.
Though, it could be the other way around. Who could tell which was the original?
Dáinn had stepped out to grab something harder and more appropriate than coffee and water. Thea and Levi were in deep conversation on the farthest couch while Ivan slept in the back spare room. Apparently controlling that kind of power 'wiped him out.'
Kyle came out of that room and headed to the kitchen. He came back with a cup of coffee and pulled up a chair between Tas and Arden. "Found anything?"
Arden shook her head. "Lots of stuff in here about Arcane, but nothing about collecting it. Or any rituals you can use on that."
He looked at Tas. "So, why do you look like that?"
She refocused on him. "Like what?"
"Like someone took your favorite toy. You didn't look happy about Ivan finding this book."
"No…it's…how well do you know Ivan?"
That brought Arden's head out of the book and she glared at Tas. "Ivan's probably the most trustworthy of allies you'll ever have, Tasoula. I'll admit, this power of his is remarkable, and it's been kept from the Parliament because we didn't want him to fall into the hole Circe had fallen into—"
"Because it's an Arcane power."
Kyle's brows arched. "No, it's not."
"But I saw the magic. I saw Arcane engulf him when he…did whatever it was he did."
"You saw him use Arcane," Arden said. "He's not infused with it or corrupted by it. His eyes can see Arcane. That's a gift from your kind's blood."
"Yeah I know that story," Tas bit back. "I just know what I saw. He didn't just use it, he became it."
"Look," Kyle put his hand on the table. "Ivan is a good guy, with a power we just don't fully understand yet. He's not evil. He's not even Lawful Evil or Chaotic Evil—"
"That's your job," Arden muttered as she looked back at the book.
Kyle sneered at her and looked back at Tas. "Just…don't prejudge him, okay?"
"But has it occurred to you he could do that to a person? A living thing?"
Arden's head was back up and Kyle sat back. No one said anything for a few seconds before Arden answered, "Actually…I don't think he can. I know the mechanics he uses for the spell. He can't, and if he could, he wouldn't."
"But how do you know—"
"Tas," Arden said and held up her witchie poo finger and pointed it at Tas. "That's enough. Ivan I trust." She glanced over at Thea and Levi. "More than your sister."
"Oh, I wouldn't trust her either," Tas said and picked up her coffee. She tasted the cold, bitter liquid, made a face and put the cup back down. "Thea's a bit of a lose cannon. She'll get a job done if you give her one, but it's her methods that raise eyebrows. Mission might be accomplished, but there's a hella big mess to clean up afterward."
Arden threaded her fingers together over the book. "And Dáinn?"
The Elder Witch's attraction to her brother hadn't passed by Tas. Nor his attraction to Arden. It wasn't her place to make judgements, but it was her place to warn people she'd grown to admire. "Dáinn is different. He's also the only one of us that wasn't born with a genetic propensity for…power. In fact, he started his life out cursed." She held up her hand when Arden opened her mouth. "Just, wait till the right time to talk to him about it and he'll tell you everything. I just wouldn't start a relationship out by digging into his past."
"Who said anything about a relationship?" Arden said, sitting straight up.
"Oh come off it," Kyle sipped his coffee. "You two were playing laser-lock-on with your eyes. I'll admit, he's an attractive man, but he's also, a Dragon."
"That's not a bad thing," Arden said under her breath as she turned a page in the book. She knitted her brows together and put her hand on the page.
Tas leaned forward. "What?"
"Just…" She moved a red lacquered nail back and forth, across the page. Tas could make out a few symbols at the bottom of the page. None of them made sense to her. Her magic was of a different time. After a few seconds Arden sat back and looked at Kyle, then at Tas. "It's true. What Ivan found. And it's right here in the Maleficareum."
"What?" Levi said as he and Thea approached.
"This extraction spell. Remember, there is a copy of this book—or the original, I don't know anymore—with the Witch’s Parliament, which I'm sure Thorn has access too. And right here it tells of several successful attempts at removing Arcane from infected witches."
&
nbsp; "Did the Witches survive?" Kyle said.
"It doesn't say anything about that, which makes me think that's a big fat no. Books like this report the successes but not the failures so much. See," And she moved the book so others could see it. "Says here about the spell, the time to use it, the tools and down here is a list of the stones and metals that can be used to contain it."
Tas pursed her lips. "So, does it say what you do with it once you've locked it into a stone?"
Thea put her finger on the book page and read aloud, "'With unto thee, minus the fifth seal of a Witch's Boon, does the Arcane grant a reprieve from such an ailment, and bestow upon the wielder the rites and passages, as well as responsibilities of those of the Elemental Wiccé.'" She straightened. "Does that mean what I think it does? Cause my old, weird English isn't that good."
"It means," Kyle said. "That the stone will make a four-element Witch into a five element Witch. Pretty much creates an Elemental Witch."
"This could be Thorn's intent." Arden tapped her lower lip with her nail. "He only possesses the basic four, and not Spirit, like Sam. That made it possible for her to maintain control of her Arcane abilities, but it made Circe a bit off her rocker because they didn't have that fifth element."
"Yeah but, Sam talked about her Arcane as if it were a person. Like it had a mind of its own. She even talked to it." Kyle looked at Arden. "Thorn wants to be an Elemental…why?"
"Because he wants to be the most powerful Witch of our time?" Thea said and looked around. "Don't you see? He wants to be Voldemort."
Kyle suppressed a chuckle. "That might be true—the fact that Cosgrove was in my house looking for an heirloom of Sam's makes me think Thorn believes—all of them do—that the God Mother didn't take the Arcane from Sam, but she did this," And she gestured to the book. "Extraction spell and put it in an heirloom. Which is just idiocy."
"Maybe," Levi said. "But they broke into Sam's apartment after talking to Kyle. And they wanted you to give them something of Arcane magic."
"You think they were sensing this?" Kyle put his hand on the book.
"Yeah I do. I think they keyed in on the Arcane power it gives off. That's how Ivan found it again because he could see. They sensed it." He put his hands on his hips. "I think the whole thing boils down to Elder Thorn wants the power. He wants Sam's power now that she's dead. I think if she'd have lived, he'd have still gone after it and she'd have been in just as much danger."
Kyle stood abruptly, his chair nearly falling back if Thea hadn't of caught it. He moved away from them, his hands on his head, his eyes closed.
"Shugah," Arden pushed her chair back and moved around the others to her nephew. "You okay?"
"No…I mean yes," He opened his eyes and beamed at Arden, then looked at everyone in turn. "Now it's making sense where it didn't before." He held out his hands. "Think about it. I know I have, from the moment Sam died. Her death was pointless. It was useless. It always felt…I don't know…clumsy to me. It felt rehearsed, coerced and completely wrong. It was a death that came too fast. She died at the hands of a man possessed by the will to avenge his mother? A man with no previous mental illnesses. A man who had been a pillar of his own community." He paused and Tas watched him, carefully. "Levi's right. Sam was already being targeted by Thorn before any of that crap happened. We know her getting pregnant was engineered with the messing around with birth control. But what if it wasn't him, what if it was Thorn and his Anshet. We learned tonight that they already have people in key places all over this city. It makes sense that they have people in the local hospitals as well."
"That's a stretch, Kyle," Arden said.
Tas stood and pushed her chair in. "I don't think so. I think he's right, but we don't have all the pieces yet. I think Thorn is behind a lot of this but he's untouchable for now." She looked at them all beneath furrowed brows. "And I can't help thinking we've all lost sight of something very important." She paused. "How does this tie in with Lizzie's disappearance? Who took her? Why did they take her? How did they even know she was in the house? Cosgrove came by to look and I'm pretty sure Arden did a bang up job of throwing him off the scent—one I thoroughly believe Thorn set him on. It's been less than twenty four hours and if she was kidnapped, there's been no ransom. No calls. Nothing. Bastien and the Aces have searched non-stop, but there's no trace of her." And then she said something she'd been thinking for a while. "Not in this world."
Arden put her hand to her lips. "Oh Sweet Lord and Lady! You don't think it was the Faeries, do you?"
"We discussed everything in proximity of a Faerie Cairn, Arden." Tas tried not to be accusing, but… "You might not have summoned Medbh or Tzariene, but the access was there. What was to stop them from listening in."
"It could have even been the Trolls," Kyle said.
"It could have been any of ours and Sam's enemies," Tas crossed her arms over her chest. "We have to find out, which means we're going to have to go to them and ask."
"You mean to go Faerie and the Trolls and ask?"
Tas nodded. "We have to know."
"And if they're lying?"
Tas smiled. "I don't think they'll lie. Or I know the Trolls won't. Not to me. I'll go to the young King and ask. As for the Faerie," she looked at Arden.
The Witch didn't look happy. "Fine. But only if I can take some people with me."
Thea held up her hand and grinned at Arden. "I wouldn't take Dáinn. Just letting you know."
"Oh?" Arden blushed. "Well I didn't—"
"Dáinn's not gotten along with Faeries since his birth so I'd just…" Thea shook her head quick. "No."
"I'll go," Kyle said.
“As for the rest of you," Tas said. "Continue looking for Crwys, and into Thorn's movements. If they don't have Lizzie, and I suspect they don't, they're still going to want Sam's Arcane. I know we're not sure, but it's the best idea I think we have for now. They took a heavy blow tonight, from a Dragon, so I'm sure Thorn and his Anshet are going to call in reinforcements—"
"Tas!" came Bastien's voice from downstairs.
She moved to the stairs. "Up here."
Within minutes Bastien, Ben, and three others of the Aces Pack were in Sam's apartment. Bastien kissed Tas and put his hand on her arm. "Chérie, we picked up a trail that…it smelled right. But then it disappeared, not far from the estate."
"Disappeared?" Arden said.
"Oui. I can't explain it…" he looked at Jack and narrowed his eyes.
Jack blinked. "Ah," he said and she knew he was relaying what Bastien was thinking. "It's like something some can see, and some can smell, and it leads us all to the same spot near a road. Then nothing." He put up his hand. "The road's an old dirt road, cut off from the highway and no cars or trucks have traveled on it."
"Couldn't the pooch have just said that himself?" Thea asked.
Bastien growled at her. She stuck her tongue out.
"Bastien's accent gets thicker when he's excited," Tas said. She focused on her lover. "This enforces what we believe to be the truth," Tas said. "That Lizzie wasn't taken by anyone in this world, so we're going to look to the others. Would you come with me to see the Troll King?"
Bastien made a pained face but nodded.
Jack pushed back from Kyle. "Are you going?"
"To see the Faeries."
"I'll go too."
"No," Kyle put his hand against Jack's cheek. "I need you to stay here and help Ivan and Levi and," He paused. "Tas, you might want to make the introductions."
"Oh right," She motioned her sister closer and introduced her. Then she looked around and gave a troubled face to Kyle and Arden. "Dáinn left over an hour ago. It doesn't take that long to get sodas and booze, does it?"
"Not with La Fetite's a block down," Jack said.
"Your brother is missing, no?" Bastien looked at Tas.
"Not sure."
"Bastien," Ben spoke up. "Just got a confirmation. Thirteen."
Bastien whistled and looked at Arden. "There's a
bit more trouble, Mademoiselle. You have thirteen Witches cloaked in the Quarter, all near here, and all faced in this direction."
Arden moved fast and grabbed her purse and headed to the back room where Ivan slept, saying, "We need to get out of here. Now!"
SEVENTEEN
Crwys kept a low, cruising altitude over New Orleans, keeping to the cloud cover that conveniently descended over the city. At first he'd thought the misty clouds odd. He didn't feel rain in the air. There was no moisture brushing against his muzzle or his wings' membranes. But there was something…familiar about it. Something that crackled in the air and smelled like…
Magic.
He narrowed his large, swirling amber and red eyes as he surveyed the city below. He could see the rooftop of Bell, Book and Candle. He could sense Kyle, and Arden…and Ivan. There. A part of him wanted to go to them, demand they tell him if he did have a child. If those Witches were telling the truth. But he also felt Dáinn was here. It wasn't often he could sense one of his "siblings" at all. Usually Dragons didn't want to be found, so they weren't.
But Dáinn…operated differently than everyone else. And Crwys was sure if he was working for this Thorn and Emily Pearson, then his recalcitrant brother would be making himself visible. Even as this thought came, he sensed the Witches. Spread throughout the Quarter. They hummed in the back of his subconscious.
That wasn't normal.
And there…coming out of Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Tavern, was the familiar human form of Dáinn. He was too close to home. Too close to his friends.
And he was too close to the Witches.
Invoking a little known spell, he dove straight down and half transformed into a Dragon-winged man and tackled Dáinn, knocking a bag from his hand and the wind from his lungs as he scooped him up and soared straight up into the air. He knew the sudden change in altitude would catch Dáinn by surprise, and in his human form, he'd black out. He wanted the bastard on his own, and away from his family.
Crwys was sure the Witches sensed something, but they wouldn't have seen him. To them, the slightly tall and thin Irishman would have simply vanished.
Elemental Dreams: An Urban Fantasy Series (The Eldritch Files Book 9) Page 11