by Jen Kirchner
That was the cue. Grandpa jumped up from the table and grabbed a few bottles of water from the fridge. Moons ripped off his bathrobe, revealing a pair of loosely fitted camouflage pants and a black t-shirt. He tied a green headband around his head and grabbed a small travel bag stashed behind the couch. Commando Moons. Grandpa also removed his bathrobe, revealing a pair of black jogging pants and a long-sleeved t-shirt. Dark blue. No headband. Very subdued.
“Okay,” I said, grabbing my car keys from my purse, “do you even know where we’re going?”
In unison, they answered, “North!”
It wasn’t as specific as I had hoped for, but they seemed to know what they were doing. I drove to the freeway while Moons explained the plan. He sat in the front passenger seat, twisting in his seatbelt to face me. Grandpa dozed in the back.
“We were fortunate enough to spend a few minutes alone with Henri,” Moons said. “Mikelis had just returned. Everyone wanted to hear how you were feeling, so they went to speak with him.”
“You didn’t want to hear how I was feeling?”
A broad smile spread across his dark lips, revealing bright white teeth. The front two had the slightest space between them, lending an endearing quality to his expression. “You blew up a street. That says a lot.”
“Good point. So what about Henri?”
“Your uncle’s attack was not the first job he has performed for Ruairí. One of them involved another necromancer.”
I was so excited I almost swerved and hit another car.
Moons continued. “Henri recalls it being fifty years ago, though a mind scan says forty-seven. He was paid to go to Toronto and divert everyone’s attention while Ruairí’s followers retrieved the necromancer. A mere three hours later, Henri received a call about his payment and was told that the necromancer was already with Ruairí.”
I gasped. “So that means—”
Moons nodded. “Ruairí is most likely in Canada. As Toronto sits right on Lake Ontario and is pinned in by two other Great Lakes…” He produced a road map detailing the area in question.
I glanced at the map’s scale and my heart sank. It was a great start, but the area was large and we were only three people.
“I don’t know how we’re going to do this. That area has a 150 mile radius. No wonder Luucas didn’t want to waste time.”
“Ah,” Moons said, “but he forgot one key element.”
Depressed, I stared at the long road ahead. “What?”
“You.”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what you mean.”
The corners of his mouth perked up in a mischievous grin. “Diaco and Mikelis are accustomed to voodoo. For centuries, they have had to be wary of it, doing all they can to build an immunity, to make the effects of an average attack manageable. You have not.”
“So,” I said, thinking aloud, “you’re using my weakness to our advantage. Like giving a person with an allergy the very thing that can make them sick.”
“Or kill them outright!” Moons said, pleased at my deduction, and returned his attention to the map.
Oh boy.
An hour later, as we were passing the Buffalo shopping mall, my cell phone rang. Moons grabbed it from my purse, but I waved him off.
“You must answer sooner or later,” Moons said, handing the phone to me.
I glanced at the caller’s name and cringed. Moons was right. There was no avoiding it. I hit the speakerphone and answered as casually as possible.
“Hi, Luucas!”
There was a pregnant pause. “There’s a rumor going around that The Fathers have been kidnapped. I’ve been sitting here for fifteen minutes trying to figure out who would have done that.”
“It took you fifteen minutes?” I asked. “I must be losing my touch.”
Luucas didn’t find that funny. His tone took a hard edge. “Where are you going, Kari?”
“You know where.”
“To find Ruairí?”
I glanced over at Moons, who was intently studying the map. “Yeah.”
Luucas’s voice was muffled by a lot of other noise, and he was on his speaker, too. I guessed he was also driving.
“We talked about this already,” he said. “It isn’t safe.”
“I’m with Grandpa and Moons. What could be safer?”
“They aren’t invincible, Kari.”
“You couldn’t beat them in a fight.”
“But a hundred of me could, and that’s what you’re walking into. Ruairí doesn’t just keep crazed voodoo prodigies with him. He’s surrounded by fanatics who believe that you, Mikelis, and Diaco don’t deserve to live.”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. “A hundred of you? Aren’t you exaggerating just a little?”
“Turn the car around. You’re in enough trouble as it is—and now kidnapping?”
I rolled my eyes. “No one’s taking these two anywhere they don’t want to go, even if I did try taking control of their bodies. Speaking of that, I’m sure I’m going to get a lecture about what I did last night.”
From behind the map, Moons said cheerfully, “Oh yes, as soon as we cross the Canadian border.”
From Luucas’s end of the phone, I heard tires screeching and car horns blaring.
“Listen, Luucas, this is the only way to save my uncle—and everyone else. That includes you too.”
I heard more horns. “This could be a trap.”
“But we have to try. I’ll call when we find Ruairí.”
“Kari, wait—”
I didn’t want to wait. I also didn’t want him talking me out of this, so I hung up and hit the gas.
I wasn’t sure what woke me: the sneeze or the prickles in my nose that had caused the sneeze. As soon as my head snapped back up, another uncontrollable sneeze sent me forward and I banged my forehead against the passenger seat.
Moons quickly unfastened his seatbelt and squirmed around to face me. As I went down for another sneeze, he jammed a paper bag over my face. I tried batting him away, but he wouldn’t remove the bag. On the fourth sneeze, a sickening wave of energy rolled over me and my stomach emptied, hard. My head throbbed with pain and my brain felt scrambled. I broke out in a sweat.
Before I could catch my breath, the wave of energy came back again—the signature of a massive spell at work. I fought for small gulps of air, but my stomach wouldn’t stop long enough for me to get what my lungs needed. I panicked and started clawing at the window.
Moons grabbed my hand and wrestled something cool onto my wrist. He was shouting, but my ears were ringing and I couldn’t hear what he was saying.
I also couldn’t see. It was the middle of the night, so the car was pitch, and my head was wedged between my knees with my forehead pressed against the seat. I could feel a spell forming and wrapping around me like a plastic bubble. What it was made of, I had no clue. It was invisible even to me. All I could sense was a set of runes floating over my head, blending in with the shadows.
My stomach immediately settled. Voices outside of the bubble were muffled. The wave of foul energy was still palpable, though Dad’s shield was protecting me from the worst of it.
“Eliana? Are you all right? Ashur called while you were asleep and told me what you were doing.”
He didn’t sound happy, and I didn’t blame him. The plan felt bad all over. “I should have listened to Luucas.”
I could barely hear Grandpa’s shout through the shield. “Which way?”
A dull pain pounded inside my head. Without picking my head up, I pointed left over Grandpa’s shoulder.
The car veered off the road and I almost dropped my makeshift barf bag. The car dipped and rocked as we crossed the grass between freeway lanes, launched over the oncoming lane, and bumped across a field.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
“You do not have to shout,” Grandpa called out, “I can hear you. There is no exit ramp for another twenty kilometers.”
“What?”
The ca
r rocked again and I dared to sit up. We weren’t on a road. Tall grass parted before us. The car dipped again as we plunged through a field. It was hard not to notice the headlights behind us, flooding our car.
“We’re being followed!” I said.
Moons nodded and mouthed, “Luucas.”
I groaned and almost threw up again. I should have guessed.
“Eliana, I want you to know that I disagree with this. I want you to turn around and let me handle it.”
I put a hand on my stomach and forced my innards to stay where they were; not because of the spell, but because of Grandpa’s driving. My head bobbed as the car lurched over a small hill.
“I understand you’re upset, Dad, but I don’t think you can handle this one. And can you tone down whatever this bubble is around me?”
“If I do, your insides will melt.”
“That’s not funny, Dad.”
“I am not being funny. The closer you get to Ruairí’s spell, the more dangerous it will become. Would you like to turn the car around now?”
Why hadn’t Grandpa or Moons told me these details before we left? “We’re so close, Dad. We can’t turn back now. Where’s Mom?”
He turned around and looked down. Through his eyes, I saw Mom lying in bed like the dead. Both arms were straight against her sides and her eyes were closed.
Another Seer’s Coma. Great. That meant this was one of the events she had tried hard to change. I could only hope I was doing everything she had intended and didn’t accidentally kill myself.
I guided Grandpa another fifteen miles across fields and dark roads until we rolled into a small community called Listowel. At this hour, the town was dark and there were no other cars on the road. Aside from some scattered fast food chains, the town was mom and pop. Lots of pubs. Most of the town was probably closed by ten o’clock. All in all, Listowel had to be one of the worst picks for immortal living on the planet.
Because of the shield, I was having a hard time pinpointing the source of the voodoo spell, but Death Radar spotted a group of immortals in the immediate area. They were clustered too tightly to know how many there were. I assumed that was where we would find Ruairí and the voodoo spell.
We parked behind a small Lutheran church a few blocks from the center of activity. The Audi rolled up and parked next to us. I couldn’t see either of my cars very well in the unlit parking lot, but I could smell the grass and cow pies that covered them.
Luucas slid out of the Audi, looking official and slightly grim. His hair was the byproduct of running his hands through it too many times. I felt his angry glare in the dark.
I pointed across the parking lot toward a tangle of dark trees and houses and mouthed, “That way.”
“Are you sure?” Dad asked.
“Mostly. Death Radar shows a big group of immortals in that direction.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Death Radar. It lets me know when immortals and dead things are nearby. You never told me what it’s called, so Brad came up with the name.”
Through the telepathic link, I could see he had pressed his hand over his mouth.
“Are you laughing? It’s not my fault. My knives don’t teach me anything.”
He took his hand away. Even though his words were mentally projected into my head, I could tell he was proud. “On the contrary. I think they did quite well.”
We followed the immortal signals to a small strip of road that barely passed as a business district. If it was an attempt to copy what Mikelis had done with Fast Food Row, it was an abysmal failure. The buildings were old and run-down, half of them were vacant, and the landscape hadn’t been touched in months. The most exciting twenty-four-hour business options were a laundromat, a mini-mart, and a bar.
We hid behind a gas station on the corner and surveyed the immortal group hanging out on the sidewalk a half block away. Moons, Grandpa, and Luucas huddled together, heads bent, probably discussing what to do next. I couldn’t hear the discussion, so I watched the street. The immortals were mulling around, waiting. But for what?
Less than a minute later, I got my answer. Death Radar stirred and a new signal appeared, walking through the laundromat. I couldn’t believe it.
I tried smacking Luucas on the arm to get his attention but just ended up hitting the bubble. I telepathically shouted at Dad instead.
“It’s Ruairí!”
Dad called Grandpa. Before he could explain what was going on, two SUVs turned the corner and pulled up alongside the laundromat. Half the group climbed into the SUVs and drove away. Ruairí’s signal went with them.
Something about this seemed familiar. Didn’t Ruairí talk about this during our first phone call? He had nightly events just so he could remember what day it was.
It was a stroke of luck. With Ruairí gone, we could find his voodoo spell, destroy it, and get out of here. If Luucas wanted to come back later with reinforcements, that was fine by me. All I wanted was to destroy that spell.
We watched the remaining immortals disperse. Death Radar showed that the street was empty, though we weren’t convinced it was safe. A voodoo master can cloak himself from Death Radar. Grandpa held up one hand as a signal to wait. He then ducked around the back of the gas station. A second later, his tall, imposing shadow emerged from the opposite side of the building and darted across the street. Death Radar allowed me to follow his movements behind the first row of shops, heading for the end of the block. His signal flew across the street and back to the gas station where we waited.
He beckoned us out. Grandpa and Moons went ahead of us on the opposite side of the street. Luucas got behind me and pushed on the bubble. We passed a few stores without a second glance, including the mini-mart.
“Hey!” I slapped the inside of the bubble, hoping he’d hear me. “Go back!”
He pushed me into the laundromat. He may have been following a hunch brought on by years of experience, but I was using a completely different technique guided totally by my stomach. And my stomach was telling me to investigate the mini-mart. Especially the soft pretzels.
The laundromat interior was old and had dowdy, gray walls. Ten washing machines were lined up back-to-back in the center of the room. Dryers were stacked up on the right wall and two of them were running. A swinging door on the back wall was just coming to rest, as if someone had gone through it a few seconds ago.
Luucas pulled me to the corner between the wall and the dryers and mouthed something.
“What?”
He pointed at the floor beneath my feet. His mouth worked with slow, exaggerated movements so I could understand: stay here. Before I could argue, he disappeared through the service door.
For five minutes, I stood in place, twiddling my thumbs, tapping my feet, and checking Death Radar. Grandpa and Moons were continuing their search. Nothing interesting was going on. I was bored. And the longer I stood there alone, the more unhappy I became about being marginalized. I was tired of Luucas pushing me aside. Just because I adhere to a strict set of peaceful morals didn’t mean I was useless. I could be helpful here!
I turned around and looked at the door Luucas had just gone through. I took one tiny step in the hope that Dad wouldn’t notice.
“Eliana? Where are you going?”
I didn’t answer; I kept going.
As I reached out my hand to open the door, it came swinging toward me and someone tumbled through. Luckily, Dad’s protection spell sent the person ricocheting off of my invisible bubble and back into the room.
I ran inside and found Luucas on the floor grappling with two immortals. The person who had bounced off me apparently knocked down Luucas and his other assailant. A third immortal was charging in at them from the left but came to an abrupt halt at my appearance.
In fact, the entire room stopped. Everyone looked at me. It was clear from the surprise on their faces that they knew exactly who I was, and it wasn’t because they liked my new single.
“Um, Dad?”
The immortal who was standing changed targets, pivoted on his heels, and lunged toward me. I backed up fast. Luucas rolled onto his stomach and kicked out, sending the immortal crashing to the floor. The scene turned angry. Luucas’s assailants dogpiled on top of him, punching and kicking him into submission. I saw red spell script appear in the air as Luucas tried to cast something, but a swift knee in his gut and a punch to his head caused the runes to dissipate.
“Dad, you have to do something! I think I just killed Luucas.”
“As soon as I remove this protection around you, every voodoo spell in the area will attack you—including the spell draining The Floor.”
“Can’t you just destroy the spells?”
“I fear that the spell draining The Floor has grown too powerful. I will need to concentrate solely on it. You will need to push away all of the spells that attack, and you must not stop until I tell you to. Do you understand?”
I was so panicked for Luucas that I really didn’t care. He wasn’t going to last long at the bottom of that heap.
“Do it!”
TWENTY-FIVE
Dad removed the protection around me and scattered Luucas’s attackers, flinging them against the walls of the room. Two struggled back to their feet and charged Luucas. The third remained still, never to get up again.
As I retreated from from the melee, I felt a cooling sensation on my skin trickle from my head to my toes. A few fleeting seconds passed where nothing happened. I hoped my presence was too small for any voodoo spell to care about.
A second later, the spells came. A thousand painful prickles on my skin felt like angry wasp stings, and something smothered my mouth and nose. I cried out and fell to my knees.
“Push!”
I did. Illegible, smoky scrawl plastered all four walls. As I gasped a deep, ragged breath of relief, another wave of spells swarmed me. I put my head between my knees and pushed again. In my mind’s eye, Dad’s hands waved through choking clouds of black smog, his fingers bending strands of smoke like ethereal ribbons. Just beyond the periphery of my senses, I felt an enormous, oppressive force trying to close in and crush me, but whatever Dad was doing held it at bay.