Dead and Kicking

by Lisa Emme

  “I don’t need –”

  The rest of my sentence was lost when Nash’s mouth captured mine. His hand slid down to the small of my back pulling me closer. My lips parted and his tongue found mine, kissing me deeply. He was a great kisser, teasing one minute, devouring my mouth the next. We pulled apart suddenly at the sound of a knock on the door.

  “You are summoned to the audience chamber,” said a muffled voice.

  We stood for a moment, breathless, looking at one another. I wasn’t sure what had just happened. Finally Nash held out his arm and said, “Shall we?”

  I took his arm and let him escort me to whatever the hell was going to happen next.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  It looked more like a cocktail party, if a somewhat subdued one, than the lynch mob I wanted it to be. The audience chamber was over half-filled with vampires and a smattering of werewolves. I’m sure there were a few witches, although I couldn’t identify them without truly scanning the crowd. Everyone milled about, many with wine glasses in their hands, dressed in their finery. It was a weird juxtaposition to the crowd dancing somewhere above our heads in their Goth regalia.

  We entered through a side door, rather than the double doors I was familiar with. The crowd parted to let us pass, the werewolves being quicker to move out of Nash’s way than the vampires. Several of the male and some female vamps stared at me appreciatively, but I didn’t let it go to my head. It was probably the dress or the fact that I was the fresh meat at the party. Nash was positively bristling, his protective alpha male kicking into overdrive, by the time we neared the dais.

  Salvador had been watching us from the time we were about halfway across the room. He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgement, but said nothing. Nash approached a familiar looking woman surrounded by what could only be personal bodyguards. He gave her a peck on the cheek and she in turn patted his cheek maternally. They traded a few quiet comments that I didn’t catch, mainly because I didn’t think it would be polite to eavesdrop. I looked around the room while I waited and spotted Isaac. Like Nash, he was dressed in a formal, excellently tailored dark suit. When our eyes met, he nodded surreptitiously and then went back to casually leaning against the wall.

  “…and you look positively lovely this evening, Angharad,” Eleanor said, drawing my attention back.

  “Please, call me Harry,” my reply automatic. “And thank you,” I added uncomfortably.

  “I know all this frippery must be hard for you dear, with your friend missing,” Eleanor replied. I looked at Nash. Of course he would have told the Triad about what we had discovered. “But the conventions must be upheld.”

  I was tempted to say something about what I thought they should do with the conventions, when a familiar voice called my name.

  I looked around and spotted Tess approaching. She wore her black, lace top jumpsuit which made her legs look longer than they were. It was classy and elegant and she fit right in with the rest of the crowd. I knew she had chosen it though, because it would also be easy to fight in, if she needed.

  “Tess! What are you doing here?” I asked, giving her a hug.

  “I’m part of your bodyguard detail,” she replied with a wink. “You look amazing in that dress.”

  I made a face at her. “I swear Salvador made this whole parley thing up just so I’d have to wear the damn thing. I mean, a parley? I didn’t realize that vampires held to the pirate code. I think they’ve watched Pirates of the Caribbean too many times.”

  Tess and I snickered together causing Nash to frown at us like a disapproving parent. Unfortunately, it only made us giggle more. A waiter passed by with a tray of drinks and I grabbed two, handing one to Tess.

  “Damn to the depths whatever man thought of parley,” I quoted. Tess and I had seen the movie a few times ourselves.

  “That would be the French,” Tess answered and we both burst into laughter. I raised my glass to Nash and his scowl, and tossed back the wine, placing the empty glass on a passing waiter’s tray. Nash looked like he was about to say something when the large double doors at the far end of the room swung open and the crowd hushed.

  The moment the man stepped into the room, I was overwhelmed by what can only be described as a feeling of evil. It would have staggered me, if I hadn’t been prepared for it. Levy DiCastro strode into the audience chamber like he owned the place, his disdain for everyone in the hall evident on his face. He was flanked by two large men walking several paces behind him. Even from a distance I could tell they were jacks by the black magic radiating off them. I wasn’t the only one disturbed by their presence. The crowd began to murmur and shift uncomfortably.

  When he reached the front of the dais, DiCastro stopped. He stood straight and tilted his chin up with a sneer.

  “Salvador,” he said.

  Salvador hadn’t moved when DiCastro first made his appearance, but instead had remained sitting nonchalantly, relaxed in his seat. When DiCastro addressed him, he slowly sat up, his eyes glittering a deadly black.

  “You dare bring those abominations here?” Salvador didn’t raise his voice, he didn’t need to. Everyone in the room could feel the power dripping from his words.

  DiCastro remained arrogantly unaffected. He shrugged and replied, “I am allowed by the rules to bring two supporters.” He smiled and scanned the crowd as he continued on, “And we all know how much vampires like their rules.”

  Salvador waved his hand impatiently. “Yes, yes. Let us get on with this shall we?”

  “Certainly,” DiCastro replied.

  If he said anything else, I didn’t hear it because I found myself doubled over in pain. Tess grabbed my arm and hissed my name.

  “Harry, what's going on?” Nash was suddenly at my side, a look of concern on his face.

  “Something is wrong. Oh, shit. Something is very wrong.” My head throbbed and my stomach felt like it was going to reject the wine I had just drank. I looked over at DiCastro who was still verbally sparring with Salvador. I couldn’t pinpoint the source of what was making me feel this way. I scanned the crowd and saw a concerned Isaac making his way over to me.

  There was a commotion at the entrance to the hall and someone began to shout that there were zombies outside the club. I could hear Salvador’s voice over the crowd.

  “…broken the truce. Your life is forfeit.”

  DiCastro answered with contempt. “Truce? I have no need of a truce. I have what I came for.”

  Before I could wonder what he was talking about, a new sensation overcame me. This time it was coming from the bracelet on my wrist. It had begun to pulse and glow. “No! No, no, no!” I shouted, pulling at the crystal bracelet, trying to pry it off my wrist. “Get it off, get it off!”

  “What is it?” Tess’s face was full of concern. She looked at the glowing bracelet in shock.

  “Magic. It’s magic.” I continued to try and wrench the bracelet off my wrist. “It’s a translocation spell. It’s been activated.”

  “Oh my God!” Tess grabbed at the bracelet trying to tear it from my wrist.

  Nash looked at us as we struggled to remove the bracelet then turned and with a roar, launched himself at DiCastro. I had just a moment to see him storm through the crowd as DiCastro winked out of existence with a laugh. There was a sharp pull on my wrist and the room went out of focus. I shouted at Tess, “The bracelet. It was Simeen.” There was a sensation like the floor dropping out of the room and then nothing. Everything went black.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Falling.

  A cold floor.

  Voices.

  I struggled to open my eyes but they refused to stay open, the light too bright for my senses, the pain too great. Voices were murmuring, disturbingly familiar voices. I battled against the fog to try and stay awake.

  “You did it!” a voice cried out
triumphantly.

  “Of course I did. Just as well since you failed to deliver on your end,” a second voice replied with disdain.

  “My love, I’m sorry. I….”

  “I don’t need excuses. Take her to the infirmary and secure her there,” ordered the second voice, that I now realized was DiCastro’s.

  Two sets of rough hands grabbed my arms and hauled me up between them, but I was unable to support my own weight, my knees buckling. I still wasn’t able to keep my eyes open against the glare of the lights, the pain like daggers stabbing my brain. The forced translocation was taking its toll. My stomach lurched and the wine I drank earlier threatened to make a reappearance. Falling to my knees, I retched the contents of my stomach on the feet of one of my captors, earning a curse and kick to the head and then all was mercifully dark again.

  ***

  “Wakey, wakey.” A hand slapped my face. “Harry, wake up.”

  I opened my eyes cautiously, squinting at the lights, but thankfully the pain was gone. I blinked a few times, the room slowly coming into focus. I was on a gurney of some sort, my head partly raised in a semi-reclined position. My arms were secured to the rails of the gurney with plastic zip ties.

  “There you are,” a familiar voice said. “Here, drink this.” Holly stepped into view holding a bottle with a straw to my mouth. I automatically took a sip, tasting chocolate protein shake, before the surprise kicked in.

  “Holly! You’re here. You’re okay.”

  “Of course I’m fine. I’m exactly where I want to be.” Holly smirked and held the straw to my face again. “Now drink this and regain your strength. We need you in top shape.”

  “What?” My mind reeled as it processed what Holly had just said. “Holly?”

  “Poor little Harry. What’s the matter? The great wunderkind can’t figure it out?” She looked at me with contempt.

  “I don’t understand. What’s happened Holly? What has DiCastro done to you?”

  “Done to me? He hasn’t done anything to me, at least nothing I didn’t want him to do. This is my choice. I chose to follow him. Levy is going to be the greatest power the world has ever seen and I will be right there by his side.”

  I shook my head in denial as what Holly said soaked in. Holly was working with DiCastro? I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  “Deny it all you want Harry, that is after all what you’re best at, denial. You live every day denying your true self, your gift. You’re a necromancer for fuck’s sake. You could have been a powerful force here in Riverton, but instead you fritter it away finding lost jewelry and making sure poor, dead Aunt Sue’s cat gets fed.”

  “How long? How long Holly?” How long had she been a traitor in our midst?

  “Two fucking years! Two years I’ve spent being your fucking babysitter while you planted flowers and bean sprouts, and did nothing with your gift.” She began to pace around the room. “Don’t tell Harry about her gift,” she mimicked in a squeaky voice. “Let her come into her power on her own.” Scowling, she threw the half empty bottle against the wall. “Harry, Harry, Harry! It was always about you Harry, the whole time we were growing up. And you were oblivious to it all, while everyone bent over backwards to make sure you were happy with your head in the sand. I was so sick of it. I couldn’t wait to get away. Finally I did, four glorious weeks away from you and Tess and your juvenile behaviour. And that’s when I met Levy.”

  “When you were in Egypt on your vacation,” I said, as the realization came to me.

  “Yes, in Egypt.” Holly smiled, but it wasn’t the smile of the Holly I once knew. It was a cold, calculating smile. “Levy is brilliant. He had made an extraordinary discovery and was making great plans. He just needed access to a very strong power and when I told him I knew where to find the first necromancer in generations, he was understandably grateful. We became lovers and now I will be more than his Queen, I will be his Goddess when he becomes a God.” Holly’s face took on a fervent expression.

  “Wow, you’ve totally lost it.” I deadpanned, shaking my head. She was definitely sounding a little cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

  Holly’s face became a cold mask of hatred. “Joke all you want Harry. We’ll see how funny you think it is when Levy plunges the Dagger of Asar into your heart and sucks every last drop of your power from your lifeless body. He will become the most powerful necromancer ever known; an unstoppable force, and I will be by his side. Maybe we’ll even fuck while standing over your corpse.”

  I blinked. Uh, okay, I so wasn’t expecting to hear that. “You’re totally batshit crazy,” I said. “I don’t care whose dagger you have, you can’t just kill me and steal my gift. It doesn’t work that way.”

  “It does if you have the Dagger of Asar, otherwise known as Osiris, and you know the ritual Isis used to bring him back from Otherworld. With the blood magic released by your death and the sacrifice of the others, we will bring Osiris back to this plane and Levy will be his avatar. He will become one with the god and his powers will be boundless. Nothing, not the Cimmerian or the Triad or the Conclave will stand in his way.” Holly’s eyes glowed with an intensity only seen in zealots and drug addicts jonesing for their next fix. How had she managed to hide the crazy from Tess and me all this time?

  I struggled with my bonds, the plastic ties biting into my skin. I had to get out of there. I knew that Nash and Tess, not to mention Isaac and I’m sure the Magister, would be looking for me. But would they find me in time?

  “And just when is this little love fest supposed to take place?” I asked Holly.

  “The moon will be new tomorrow. Tess and all her mutt buddies will be at their weakest, but the God of Rebirth will be at his strongest.” Holly sneered at me. “No one is coming for you. Not even that stupid mutt detective who can’t seem to help sniffing around you.” She crossed the room to a small fridge and opened another protein shake. “Drink this or I’ll get someone to help pour it down your throat. We wouldn’t want you to pass out right before Levy kills you.” She thrust the bottle at me.

  Who was this person in front of me? I couldn’t reconcile her at all with the Holly I thought I knew. Just the idea that she had been plotting behind my back for all this time, I couldn’t bring myself to believe it. It made me so angry. I could feel the anger boiling up inside of me. When she reached across to hold the straw to my lips, I managed to pull up on my hand with all my strength. The zip tie cut viciously into my wrist before it broke open and I grabbed her arm in a crushing grip. I could feel her aura on the surface of her skin. It tingled against my bare hand. I imagined taking the energy from her aura into myself, feeding my own. I know it is what I had done unconsciously with Nash, but this was the first time I had ever tried to do it on purpose. Holly let out a frightened shriek and her aura pulsed. Tomas was right. Her fear was delicious. I drew more energy to myself, feeling my own depleted stores replenishing. Holly thrashed and screamed for help but she was no match for my power-boosted strength. I could feel the life force leeching out of her and I didn’t care. If I was going to stand a snowflake’s chance in hell of getting out of there, I would need all the energy I could get.

  The door suddenly burst open surprising me, as two of DiCastro’s goons ran in to help. I let go of Holly’s wrist and she fell to the floor cradling her arm. She struggled to her feet looking a bit woozy and staggered across the room to a medical chest.

  “You bitch!” she screamed. She came back across the room, a syringe and a bottle of clear liquid in her hand. “Hold her still but don’t touch her with your bare hands.”

  One of the men pulled a rather large gun from underneath his coat and held it to my forehead. Needless to say I didn’t move. Holly measured a dose of something I was sure would knock me out, then plunged the needle into my neck. I screamed and then the lights went out.

  Chapter Twenty-Three
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  I was really getting tired of passing out and then waking up somewhere else. There was commotion all around me but I’m not sure whether it was the noise or the burning pain in my shoulders that woke me up. I opened my eyes only to find that I appeared to have been transported to Egypt, or at least behind the scenes for a dress rehearsal of Aida.

  I was in a large warehouse space that had been transformed to look like something right out of Giza. Along the back wall were life-sized wooden or cardboard cut outs of palm trees and the silhouette of the pyramids in the distance. Closer to the foreground on the side wall, was a partial 3-D replica of the Sphinx. A wide set of stairs led up to the raised stage area, where I found myself secured by chains between two pillars, my arms raised above my head. No wonder my shoulders were aching after having to support most of my weight while I was unconscious. I was luckily able to get my feet underneath me and take my weight, relieving the strain on my arms. The chains securing me to the pillars now hung loosely but a quick test proved they were well secured. I wasn’t going anywhere.

  I looked around the stage area. It appeared to be modelled after the entrance to a temple, the pillars and faux stone archways etched with hieroglyphics. There were several large sarcophagi off to the far side of the stage where there also appeared to be some sort of brazier. The centerpiece of the stage was a statue of a green-skinned man holding what looked like a shepherd’s crook and a whip or flail set high on a pedestal. I took a wild guess and figured it was supposed to be Osiris.

  DiCastro had really gone all out for this little spectacle. There seemed to be a flurry of last minute preparations going on. I was just thinking that no one had noticed that I was awake when Holly stepped onto the stage.