by D. N. Leo
“Sounds wonderful. I’m starving!”
He smiled and nodded. Both he and Madeline were lying. He knew it, but he needed a bit more time to get over this hurdle. What did Juliette want? He wasn’t really sure when she had been alive, and he certainly didn’t know now that she was dead.
While Madeline was in the bathroom, he entered a code into a small cabinet in his closet. A small door slid open. He pulled out a watch and snapped a small disk onto its back before putting it on.
This device wasn’t finished and hadn’t been tested. But if the air bender was the one who had broken into Mon Ciel and caused all the problems, it would be no different from the pack of wolves that had killed his Dew. The big difference was that his father was no longer around to prevent Ciaran from doing what he considered fair and justified. He intended to give a tit for a tat. And if that took violence, so be it.
Suddenly the air thickened as it had in the museum.
“Air bender,” he growled. “The only part of Mon Ciel you get a channel into is my old bedroom. Is this the most you can do here?”
The thick air wrapped around him, but it couldn’t create any pressure. Ciaran smiled.
“You believe you opened a hole in Mon Ciel’s security. In your dreams! Why don’t you show yourself, and then we can talk. Or are you too weak?”
The thick air closed in and tightened around him.
“All right, let’s end this.”
He raised his watch and turned a small handle. A fan of electric blue light shone out, cutting through the thick air and lighting the entire room. When the light lit up the far wall, instead of seeing the old man as he had expected, he saw the shape of a woman.
Juliette.
Ciaran jerked his arm back, and the electric light swung in the air, hit the ceiling, and bounced back to him. He was thrown against the cabinet door, collapsing a shelf.
He must have hit his head because he saw stars. His vision was blurry. He heard Juliette’s voice, “Try the Primer. I want to talk to you. I miss you, Ciaran.”
He shook his head. “You’re dead, Juliette.”
“I want to see you again, Ciaran. Take the Primer . . .”
The voice echoed away and vanished. He knew he’d been lucky. If the device had been perfected, he could have electrocuted himself. He must have a concussion as it was. But it was better than being dead.
Madeline rushed into the closet. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“Just a stupid accident.” He sat up and wrapped his arm around her shoulders so that she could haul him up from the floor.
Madeline glanced around. “You accidentally flew into the cabinet?”
Ciaran shook his head. “I’ve got some information about Stefan’s whereabouts. We might be able to track him precisely in a few hours.”
“That’s great news. Can you walk? Should I call Doctor Thomas?”
“I’m okay.” He glanced at the corner of the room where he had seen the shape of Juliette and saw nothing. Then he caught the faint scent of vanilla and roses in the air.
“Do you smell that?” he asked.
“Yes. It wasn’t here before. What just happened, Ciaran?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, no.” Madeline held her ears and winced. “It’s Juliette’s voice. She’s in the old lab.”
Chapter 12
In the hallway in the new quarter, Tadgh was negotiating with Migi. “Okay, listen sweetheart, I’m about to go into the men’s room. And you are not following me there!”
The cat waved her twin tails patiently in different directions, then sat down and thumped them on the floor.
“Come on. Be patient. When Doctor Thomas brings TJ back from the vet, you can be friends with him and leave me alone. He’s only a puppy, but he’s a lot of fun.”
Thump. Thump.
“Cats don’t thump their tails. And could you try to be a bit more ladylike?”
Thump. Thump. Thump.
“All right, I’ll ignore you then.”
Before Tadgh could leave for the bathroom with the intention of sneaking out the other side and going straight to the kitchen for a quick breakfast, Migi jumped up. Her hair stood on end, and her tails pointed straight to the ceiling, the tips waving rapidly. The cat hissed and meowed and slapped the air with her paws, talons unsheathed.
“Come on. Don’t act like that or people will think I hit you.”
The cat continued to hiss.
“We might disagree on things, but this is completely unnecessary. What do you want?”
Tadgh felt a chill run up his spine. He turned around and saw only the empty hallway. But someone was calling his name. He couldn’t see anyone.
He felt an urge to do something, go somewhere. Tadgh glanced around again.
The hallway lit up toward the old quarter of the house. He followed the light. Part of him didn’t want to, but it seemed natural to go.
Migi clawed at his jeans and meowed loudly.
Why is she doing that? Tadgh shook his head and kept walking.
In no time, he stood in front of the old lab. His mind went blank, and he had no idea what the code was to get in. He had never entered the lab by himself. Ever.
Suddenly, the security pad lit up by itself. The code was right there, highlighted for him. In the back of his mind, something was screaming for him to stop.
It had to be the cat. Tadgh sneered and pushed the door open. He walked along the shelves, tracing his finger over rows and rows of jars full of chemicals. Ciaran’s stuff. Tadgh shook his head.
“How on Earth could anyone find chemicals and potions interesting?” Tadgh muttered to himself. Ciaran was only two years older than he, but his big brother was way too complicated for him to even think about understanding.
Tadgh chuckled. He swayed a bit and felt drunk.
What was he doing in this old lab? His family owned a pharmaceutical company, but when it came to medicine, the most he ever had to deal with was taking a few aspirin when he had a headache.
A jar full of some kind of chemical in front of him caught his eye. He reached his hand out to grab it, ignoring the screaming voice in his head telling him not to.
The cat flew at him and bit his hand. Tadgh dropped the jar, but it didn’t break.
“Ouch! You stupid cat.” He bent to pick up the jar.
Migi darted at him with the force of a leopard and knocked Tadgh on his backside. “Okay, that’s enough, cat. I’ll kick you if you come near me again. I really will. Don’t tempt me!”
Tadgh grabbed the jar, and the cat slapped at it with her paw, making it fall to the floor again.
“You’re pissing me off, Migi!” He scrambled to grab the jar again.
“Come near me, and I’ll smash this over your head.”
Migi withdrew, hissing from a distance.
Ciaran and Madeline rushed to the door of the lab and stood there, breathing heavily.
“What are you two doing here?” Tadgh grinned.
“Put that jar down,” Ciaran said.
“Why?” Tadgh said and pulled the lid off. “I’m making something here. I have a headache.” Ciaran gestured for Madeline to stay outside the lab and approached his brother.
“Want to help me?” Tadgh waved the jar.
“Sure,” Ciaran said, reaching his hand out. “But give me the jar.” Ciaran took the jar from Tadgh and put the lid back on.
Tadgh’s vision started to blur. His head wasn’t functioning properly. It must be the headache. “Aren’t you going to whip something up for me?” Tadgh shook his head, trying to stay alert.
“I will,” Ciaran said. “Why don’t you go back to your room to rest? I’ll bring you some medicine.”
Tadgh nodded. He took a couple of steps then turned back to Ciaran. “Hey, you tricked me. You just don’t want me to touch your stuff!”
“It’s not my stuff, it’s Juliette’s. You need something for your headache—I’ll take care of it. Get out of here, Tadgh.”
“Oh, no, no, you don’t understand.” Tadgh came back in and pointed to the cabinet at the far corner. “The jar you’re holding and this jar will make a dream potion.” Tadgh pulled the cabinet door open.
“No, Tadgh. Don’t touch anything in there!” Ciaran approached.
“It’s not poison or anything.” Tadgh picked up a bottle. “This stuff and that jar will make a primer.”
“A what?”
“The Dream Primer. Here, I’ll show you.”
“No, no. Give me the bottle. I’ll do it for you. I promised.”
His brother had promised. Ciaran always kept his promises. “All right,” he said. But just as he was about to give it to Ciaran, someone was screaming at him in his head, telling him Ciaran was lying. The voice told him to take the bottle and run.
So he ran.
Ciaran grabbed him from behind. “Leave the bottle.”
“No.”
A scuffled commenced, and the bottle slipped out of his hand. Ciaran grabbed it before it could hit the floor.
“Tadgh, get out of here!” Ciaran shoved him, pushing him out of the lab.
Tadgh shoved back. “Don’t you push me around, big brother.”
“Out! Out!” Ciaran kept pushing to no avail, so he landed a punch on Tadgh’s face.
Tadgh saw stars. But he didn’t give in. He charged at Ciaran. Ciaran put the bottle on the lab bench, grabbed his arms, and kicked his legs out from under him.
Tadgh crashed to the floor.
Madeline flew into the lab and sat on him, pinning his arms to the floor, while Ciaran rushed to a cabinet, coming back with a needle.
The two of them were ganging up against him. Tadgh kicked hard but couldn’t get free of Madeline’s grip.
Ciaran shoved the needle into Tadgh’s neck and pumped the fluid into his vein. Tadgh wriggled and threw Madeline off. He sprung up to his feet and ran. But he only made it a couple of steps before his world went dark.
He screamed and turned around. There, he saw Juliette. “Juliette!” Tadgh cried out.
She reached her arms out to him, but they turned into giant snakes, wrapping around his neck and strangling him.
Chapter 13
Tadgh yelled out Juliette’s name and sat up on his bed abruptly, panting. Madeline rushed to the bed and grabbed his hands, pulling them away from his neck as he gasped for air. She understood very well how disoriented he must feel coming out of unconsciousness.
He looked at Madeline then glanced around his bedroom. Madeline pulled him in to her arms for an embrace. She held him until the vibration of emotion in his body settled. “You’re okay now. Ciaran has just gone to talk to Doctor Thomas. He’ll be back soon.”
Tadgh eased out of Madeline’s hug.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You went into the old lab, apparently trying to mix something up. Ciaran had to knock you out before you intoxicated yourself.”
Tadgh rubbed at his forehead, trying to recall. He shook his head and flopped back to the bed on his back. “I can’t remember any of it.”
“It’ll take time. But it will come back to you.”
“Can I have some coffee?”
“I’m not sure if that’s good for you right now. I’ll ask Ciaran.”
Tadgh sat up, arching an eyebrow. Madeline laughed. “All right, all right. I’ll get you some coffee.” She stood to leave the room.
“No need to go to the kitchen, Madeline.” Tadgh got off the bed. He held onto the bed post for a short moment to steady himself. Madeline rushed over to help him, but he waved his arm absently. “I’ve got it. Thanks.”
He opened a wall cabinet, revealing a coffeemaker and several containers of biscuits and sweet treats. He turned around and grinned at her.
“Ciaran stocks spirits and wine and you stockpile coffee and sweet treats.”
Tadgh laughed. “I don’t have gadgets in my room like he does.”
Madeline glanced around. Ciaran had a gigantic wall-sized screen in his room, but Tadgh didn’t even have a TV. Ciaran had a computer system set up in a corner of his room, so complicated that Madeline didn’t even know how to turn it on. But in here, Madeline couldn’t even see a remote control.
“I’m not anti-technology, if that’s what you’re thinking. I travel a lot and just don’t generally need gadgets. Coffee?”
Madeline nodded.
Tadgh brought the coffee over to the bed. He climbed onto it and sat cross-legged. He placed a small plate of cookies in the middle of the bed and pushed it toward Madeline.
“How are you feeling, Tadgh?”
“Still a bit queasy. But I’ll be fine after this.” He raised his mug of coffee.
“What did you see? You can tell me, and then I’ll tell you what I saw.”
“What you saw last night when you scared the hell out of Ciaran?”
“What?”
“We found you both in the lab, unconscious. When Ciaran was up and Doctor Thomas told him there was nothing he could do to wake you, man, I’ve never seen him like that before.”
“Like what?”
Tadgh shook his head and bit his cookie. “When Juliette died, he was devastated. But it was more like sorrow, or maybe regret. But he seemed to accept her death. But last night, he was furious. He wouldn’t consider even the slightest possibility that he might lose you. It was madness.”
“He didn’t say much this morning.”
“I’d be surprised if he had. He’s a control freak. I should ask Mother if he even cried as a baby. I doubt it very much.”
“Have you heard from Jennifer?”
“Yes. She called. She’d back to Dublin now. Wouldn’t talk to Ciaran! You can see where Ciaran got his hard head.”
From the door, Migi walked in graciously in and hopped on to the bed. She lay down next to Tadgh and purred loudly.
“You haven’t asked for permission to come in, let alone to get in bed with me, lady.”
Madeline laughed. Migi moved over to lay next to Madeline. She scratched the cat’s ears, making her purr louder. Tadgh shook his head and sipped his coffee.
“Do you like Juliette?”
“What?” Tadgh choked on his coffee.
“You heard me, Tadgh.”
Tadgh reached to Migi to scratch her ears, but she inched out of Tadgh’s reach. Madeline looked at Tadgh, waiting for an answer.
Tadgh cleared his throat. That was exactly what Ciaran did before he said anything difficult, Madeline thought.
“Ciaran is the smart guy in the family. He was home schooled, but by about fourteen, he had mastered all the subjects—chemistry, medicine, artificial intelligence, computer science, you name it— at a university level. And at sixteen, he ran our business empire. Our family business had grown tenfold since he took it over . . .”
Tadgh leaned back and stretched his legs out. “You might think our parents forced him to study. But that wasn’t the case. And look at me! I went to college just to keep up appearances.” Tadgh sipped his coffee and looked at Madeline over the rim. “Ciaran has loved to learn ever since he was a kid. He’s always been hungry for knowledge. And not just learning and accepting things the way they are. He loves to create.” Tadgh gazed at Madeline. “You might not like this, Madeline, but in that regard, Ciaran and Juliette were a perfect match.”
“And how can you be so sure I don’t love knowledge and creation?”
Tadgh shook his head. “Apart from a slight physical resemblance, Ciaran and I have nothing in common. I’m not perfect and never try to be. Ciaran thinks he has to be perfect and has to be responsible for everything.”
Madeline nodded and leaned against the bedpost.
“Juliette was a perfect match for Ciaran. She was almost a mirror image of him, just in a different gender.”
“And isn’t a perfect match a good thing?”
Tadgh shook his head again. “It’s like having two right shoes.”
Madeline chuckled. “Interesting anal
ogy.”
“You haven’t been with him for a long time, Madeline. And I don’t know you at all. But I’m telling you this even though Ciaran will shoot me if he finds out. When Doctor Thomas said he couldn’t wake you, I swear I saw tears in Ciaran’s eyes.”
Madeline nodded. “I appreciate you telling me.”
“It’s more for me than for you. It’s nice to see my brother has some feelings again,” Tadgh muttered. “I knew Juliette was using my brother. But there’s nothing I can do about it because she’s dead now . . .”
“I don’t think so.”
“Excuse me?”
Then she explained to him about the blue dots.
“When I was in the coma, I talked to Juliette, and she told me she might not have died.”
Tadgh narrowed his eyes. “You dreamed about Juliette, and she said she didn’t die?”
“It wasn’t just a dream. I intentionally inhaled the drug so that I could talk to her. Don’t question it, Tadgh, just accept it. She haunted Ciaran, and I wanted to know what was going on.”
Tadgh stared blankly. “I think I need more coffee.” He rushed to the cabinet to get some more brewing.
“It wasn’t a dream. I fought with Juliette, and there was this.” Madeline opened a button on her shirt and pulled the collar aside. On the left side of her chest, there was a nasty red scar from a stab wound.
Tadgh stared, speechless at the sight of the raw wound.
“There were more, but they all vanished except for this one. I was supposed to die from this wound. It wasn’t a dream, Tadgh. She said she would come back for Ciaran. The thing is, though, it seemed as if I was talking to two different versions of Juliette. One was cold and calculated, and the other one was sad.”
“I bet it was the cold bitch who stabbed you.”
“That’s not what I’m concerned about. She told me the location of the crucifix.”
Tadgh choked badly on his coffee. When he got his breath back, he asked, “Where?”
“It’s at Fountains Abbey.”
“What?”
“Fountains Abbey.”
“Do you know anything about that place?”
“No.”
“There are miles and miles of national parks and tourist attractions. You’ve got to be kidding me!”