The Witch's Thirst

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The Witch's Thirst Page 12

by Deborah LeBlanc


  “I’ve always believed the same thing,” Lucien said. “The problem is we don’t have a clue as to who or where this leader is. It never makes an appearance. Always sends its minions to do its dirty work.”

  “Then how do you know what to look for?” Evee asked. “Shouldn’t that be our focus, finding the leader?”

  Lucien nodded. “Of course. But, Evee, we’ve been looking for the leader for ten generations. Right now our priorities have to be caring for the Originals you have and finding the ones that are missing. Killing Cartesians along the way will be a given. Hopefully, we’ll luck out and find the bastard that leads them.”

  A tear slid down Evee’s cheek. “This so-called leader has to be the first Cartesian created by the original Triads. The ones who took certain matters into their own hands and turned their betrothed into the Originals, and did it out of spite and anger.” She sighed heavily. “Regardless, I can’t take any more chances. We have to get this straightened out. I don’t know if the curse regarding Triads and humans was misinterpreted or not. Whether something was misquoted as it was handed down from generation to generation or not, I just can’t take any more chances. It can’t simply be coincidence that after we became intimate, things seemed to jump further out of control. So, please, let’s drop this for now and get to work. Like you said, it’s getting close to feeding time, and I need to get the Nosferatu ready. Make sure they’re not trying to massacre each other again.”

  Lucien took a deep breath, nodded, and let go of her arm. He had so much more he wanted to say to her. He longed to tell her how much he needed her. But he said nothing. Only led the way to the docks.

  They hadn’t walked a hundred feet when Lucien suddenly grabbed her arm.

  “Wait,” he said, catching a whiff of clove in the air.

  “What?”

  “A rift,” he said, looking up at the sky. The first hint that a Cartesian was nearby was the scent of clove, followed by the smell of sulfur as it worked its way through a rift.

  He suddenly felt Evee at his side, holding on to his arm. She looked up, seemingly searching the sky, as well.

  “Where?” Evee whispered. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Clove. I smelled it as we were leaving the cathedral. That scent is the first sign a Cartesian has found a rift and is working its way through it.” He felt Evee’s grip tighten on his arm.

  “Do you see anything?” she asked, still looking skyward.

  “No. But it’s close. Just hasn’t broken through the rift yet. Once it does, I’ll smell sulfur along with the clove.” Lucien wished he had a giant spotlight to aim at the sky. Stars were out, but every black distance between the Big Dipper and the next cluster of stars seemed darker than the one above it. All of them looked like rifts.

  Just then, Lucien heard the sound of pounding, running feet behind them. He swirled about and saw Ronan headed their way.

  As Ronan pulled up alongside Lucien, he said, “I smelled it from the catacombs. Clove.”

  “Yeah,” Lucien said. “I just caught a whiff of it a moment ago.”

  Lucien was about to tell Evee to go into the cathedral for safekeeping when a loud boom sounded from overhead. It was immediately followed by the overwhelming stink of sulfur.

  In that moment, three rifts opened up overhead. A Cartesian hung from each rift, leaning over by its waist. Each had a massive, matted fur head, huge black eyes with no pupils. Mouths open, every tooth a lethally sharp incisor. Their claws, long, sharp talons, all of them reaching, searching, clawing.

  Lucien shouted for Evee to go into the cathedral and into the catacombs. He and Ronan simultaneously pulled their scabiors from their sheaths, snapped their wrists once, then twirled the scabiors between their fingers faster than even Evee’s eyes could track.

  Lucien aimed it at one of the Cartesians, and for the first time since he could remember, he missed. Ronan aimed the electrical beam from his scabior at the same Cartesian and caught it right between the eyes. He kept his scabior aimed at it until the rift from which it came closed up as neatly as a zipper.

  In that moment, another rift suddenly tore through the sky, then another and another, with Cartesians worming their long arms through each opening. Within seconds, their massive heads poked through the rift, and like their counterparts, they began to stretch and swing their long arms and claws toward them.

  “Go into the catacombs,” Lucien shouted again at Evee. “Hide out there with the Nosferatu!”

  “Bullshit!” Evee shouted back. “I’m not about to leave you and Ronan out here by yourselves.”

  “Go!” Ronan insisted. “There’re too many out right now. Stop being stubborn, damn it. Go! You don’t have anything out here to use for protection.”

  Lucien palmed the handle of his scabior once more, snapped his wrist once, then twirled the scabior at breakneck speed between his fingers. He took aim at the Cartesian closest to them. Lightning exploded from the bloodstone atop the scabior and, this time, struck the Cartesian in the forehead. With an ear-piercing howl, the Cartesian flew back, and Lucien heard a loud pop, an indicator that he’d pushed the Cartesian back one dimension.

  Keeping his aim steady, Lucien shot again, then again. After a third sound of explosion, the rift that had held that Cartesian zipped closed.

  Just when he thought he was down to three Cartesians, another boom sounded and another rift appeared overhead, farther to the left. The Cartesian coming from this rift obviously didn’t plan on wasting any time. It immediately thrust itself from the rift to waist level and swung an arm at Evee.

  One thing with Cartesians, they were so massive that they had no need to fully leave the rift. Half of them hung out, vulnerable, while the other half stayed safely out of sight. They didn’t need to make a full body appearance, however. Their arms were so long and their talons so sharp that they simply had to swipe at their victims and could easily gore, grab, kill anything they desired.

  “Now!” Lucien yelled at Evee. “For heaven’s sake, go!”

  “I’m not leaving the two of you,” she insisted.

  Lucien couldn’t take his eyes off the sky to argue with her, reason with her. Cartesians seemed to be dangling from every corner of the night. Long yellow incisors bared, talons spread and reaching, reaching.

  A feeling ran up the back of Lucien’s back, and it took a second for his brain to register it as concern, a sense of being overwhelmed, overpowered.

  It surprised Lucien when he’d missed the first shot at one of the Cartesians because it’d never happened to him before. But what surprised him even more at the moment were the feelings oppressing him. They all balled up into one emotion. Fear. Too many Cartesians, not enough scabiors. Evee.

  Before Lucien knew it, Evee suddenly appeared between him and Ronan. He opened his mouth, planning to scold her for being so hardheaded, but snapped it shut when he saw her hold out her hands, palms up, aimed at the sky.

  “Double, thrice, by tens ye shall see.

  No longer one to be seen by thee.

  Thine eyes shall fully confuse thy mind.

  Making all evil intentions blind.

  Blunder thee, blunder now.

  I call upon Poseidon, Tiamat and Apsu, bring strength to my command.

  So it is said.

  So shall it be.”

  When Evee was done, Lucien stood dumbstruck, watching as the Cartesians who had been aiming directly for them were now swinging wildly in every direction but theirs.

  A look of confusion filled the Cartesians’ grossly huge black eyes. Each looked from right to left, up and down, and swung its arms in random directions.

  From what Lucien saw, it was as if either the Cartesians had lost their eyesight or Evee’s incantation had performed Cartesian lobotomies.

  “Shoot,” Evee shouted at Lucien and
Ronan, snapping both out of a stupor.

  Lucien aimed at another Cartesian, shot it back four dimensions. Ronan targeted one, and managed to push it back five. Finally, Lucien took aim at another and sent it back three, which he gladly settled for because it was the last Cartesian and all the rifts had vanished.

  Drawing in an exhausted breath, Lucien replaced his scabior in its sheath, then turned to Evee, who appeared to be mildly shaken by all she’d just witnessed.

  “What did you do?” Ronan asked. “They looked confused, like they’d gone blind or something. Is that what your spell did? Cause them to go blind?”

  Evee grinned. “Something a little better. I did an illusion spell. Instead of the Cartesians seeing just one of you, me and Lucien, I made them see twenty of all three of us, running in different directions. They couldn’t tell what was real from illusion. That’s what caused the confusion. That’s why they were swinging in every direction. Because they saw us everywhere.”

  Lucien shook his head in disbelief and took Evee’s arm. She didn’t resist this time. He walked her slowly toward the docks. Ronan took hold of her other arm as though it took two to steady her walk. She didn’t protest.

  When they reached the dock, Ronan said, “I’ll pull anchor and slip-tie the mooring rope.”

  “I’ll have a look at the motor,” Lucien said. “Don’t want to run out of fuel.”

  Lucien kept one eye on Evee as she stood a few yards away from the dock. There was amusement on her face. He figured she knew that at the end of a crisis, men had to do something, anything, to calm their nerves. Which was exactly what he and Ronan were doing.

  Suddenly, catching a strong scent of cloves and sulfur that seemingly came out of nowhere and without preamble, Lucien and Ronan froze in the middle of their nerve-calming work and looked up and about.

  Evee was looking, as well, into a rift that had formed right over her head. She seemed frozen in place.

  “Evee, run!” Lucien yelled.

  “To the cathedral,” Ronan added. “Get inside the cathedral!”

  As Lucien and Ronan scrambled off the ferry, reached for their scabiors, the Cartesian that had managed to sneak up on them was hanging from his waist, his large arm and claws swinging back, ready to strike Evee.

  Running and trying to aim a scabior so it hit the right spot were two things that didn’t work well together.

  Lucien saw Evee’s hair brush across her face as the Cartesian reached but missed her. It quickly swung back, wiggled over the rift until it was nearly below waist level, and aimed at Evee once more.

  Lucien’s brain kicked into overdrive. It might take a scabior to rid a Cartesian from this dimension, but they wouldn’t stand a chance with this one. It was too close to Evee. He had to get her out of the way.

  Evidently realizing the same thing, both Lucien and Ronan sprinted and ran as fast as their legs could carry them toward Evee. Lucien saw Evee’s mouth move, but no words came out and she remained glued to her spot. Only now she looked over at Lucien and Ronan running at full speed toward her. Lucien saw the resignation on her face.

  Just as the Cartesian drew his arm and claws up from his back swing, Lucien and Ronan reached Evee at the same time. Lucien tackled her to the ground even as the creature’s claws raked through her ponytail, yanking out a bit of hair. Lucien kept his body covering hers as he worked his scabior out of its sheath.

  It was then Lucien heard an ear-piercing scream.

  “No!”

  Lucien rolled over in time to see the Cartesian lifting Ronan into the rift. After the Cartesian had missed Evee, it had found Ronan in midrun toward Evee, right in its target area. It had skewered Ronan in the head. In one temple and out of the other. There was no mistaking, Lucien’s cousin was dead.

  Lucien stumbled to his feet, and this time he was the one screaming, “No! No!” He aimed his scabior at the Cartesian. Blasts of lightning shot the creature in the forehead, in the chest, which caused it to howl in pain and fold back into another dimension. No matter how many times Lucien struck the beast with the scabior, Ronan remained stuck to its claws.

  Roaring with fury and shooting the Cartesian again and again, Lucien knew he must have looked like a wild man ready to take on the world.

  But the world soon came to an end.

  For the rift closed, taking the Cartesian and Ronan with it.

  Chapter 11

  It had taken Evee some time to convince Lucien to leave the docks and the cathedral. He kept looking up at the sky, as if hoping by some miracle Ronan would drop out of it, and he’d be there to catch him. She couldn’t blame Lucien for not wanting to leave. Had the Cartesian taken one of her sisters, Evee would probably have spent the rest of her life in the spot she’d disappeared from, waiting for her return.

  Aside from Ronan’s death, the worst part now was the lack of closure. There was no body to return to his cousins or his family back home. All Lucien had was a story to tell and memories to live with. Evee couldn’t imagine how difficult that must be for him. Her heart ached, not only for Lucien but for Ronan. The man had died so she might live. She’d never have the chance to thank him, to offer gratitude or restitution.

  Just before they left the docks, Lucien signaled for his cousins from the geo node on his watch. He gave them the coordinates to Evee’s café, which sat only a few blocks away in the Quarter. Evee also summoned her sisters, using special signals they’d refined since they were children. Whenever any of them found trouble, they’d summon the other two by using the distress calls innate to their familiars. For Evee, it was a high-pitched screech, the same sound Hoot made when he was afraid or sensed mortal danger. They’d refined the calls, making each sound so natural that another human would never associate the sound with them. Evee had no coordinates to give Viv and Gilly, but having gone through this drill on more than one occasion, they knew the first place to look for her was the café.

  Evee held Lucien’s hand as they walked the few blocks to their destination. The café would be closed at this hour. A good, private place to break the news to the other Benders and her sisters.

  When they reached Bon Appétit, Evee unlocked the door, switched on the lights and motioned Lucien to sit anywhere he pleased. He chose a table, sat and remained mute, only shaking his head to turn down the drink Evee offered him. She wanted to sit by his side, to hold him and ease some of the pain he carried. But she felt that at this moment, the one thing he needed was to be alone with his thoughts. He’d be forced to talk soon enough. Forced to relive that horrible moment when the Cartesian had taken his cousin. For now, the most helpful thing Evee could do for him would be to leave him with the solitude he seemed to desire.

  As she went behind the counter to prepare drinks for Gavril, Nikoli and her sisters, a thought suddenly struck Evee. What if Lucien blamed her for Ronan’s death? Had it not been for her, there would have been no reason for him to run in that direction or block anyone from danger. The Cartesian would never have reached him.

  Just thinking about that made Evee feel weak in the knees. She pulled up a stool near the register, kept one eye on Lucien, who sat with his head bowed so low it nearly touched the table. Tears welled up in Evee’s eyes. The truth had been staring her in the face all along and either shock or shame had kept her from seeing it. And that truth was Ronan would still be alive this very minute had it not been for her. If she’d only listened when Lucien told her to run. But fear had kept her frozen in place. What kind of Triad did that make her? To freeze up in the face of danger?

  A stupid and useless Triad, that was what it made her.

  Evee felt shame and remorse consume her and felt tears flow down her cheeks. The only sounds within the café were the coffeepot brewing, the ice machine dropping a fresh load of ice into its bin, Lucien drawing in a deep, ragged breath from time to time and the occasional creak of
a floorboard. Evee kept her tears silent.

  Over the next twenty minutes, the only thing that changed in the café was the smell. It was now filled with the scent of freshly brewed, dark-roast, chicory coffee. Evee had remained seated on the stool and Lucien at the table he’d chosen when he first walked in. He’d yet to raise his head or speak since they arrived.

  Evee was debating on whether or not to offer him coffee when the front door of the café opened and the rest of their troupe stormed in. Gavril, Gilly, Viv and Nikoli. Out of habit, Evee found herself waiting for Ronan to bring up the rear, then felt fresh tears fill her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” Gilly and Viv asked simultaneously, both staring at Evee.

  Instead of answering, Evee motioned to Lucien with her eyes.

  Obviously catching the signal, Gavril and Nikoli walked over to Lucien, each standing on either side of him.

  Nikoli placed a hand on Lucien’s shoulder, which caused him to finally lift his head.

  The look on Lucien’s face was one of a man whose soul had just been ripped in two. His eyes were red-rimmed, yet no tear tracks ran down his cheeks. It broke Evee’s heart to see him this way.

  “What’s going on, cousin?” Gavril asked, squatting next to Lucien.

  Lucien looked at him, opened his mouth to speak, then shook his head.

  “Hey,” Nikoli said. “Where’s Ronan?” He looked at Evee. “Is he in the restroom?”

  She shook her head.

  Gavril got to his feet, pulled out the chair beside Lucien and sat. Nikoli walked over and sat opposite them at the same table.

  “Would somebody tell us what the hell is going on?” Gilly said. “We’re here because you sent out an emergency call. The same goes for Gavril and Nikoli. The four of us nearly broke our asses getting here as quickly as we could. Now we’re here. So somebody say something.”

  Lucien opened his mouth, looked from Gavril to Nikoli, then snapped his mouth shut and shook his head.

  Nikoli reached over and put a hand on Lucien’s arm. “Cousin?”

 

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