Darktide

by Christine Pope

  “For an undefined period of time,” Connor replied. He turned off the engine but made no move to open the door; although of course the staff at Bordello’s knew who — and, more importantly, what — we were, there were still some topics it was probably better not to discuss in front of civilians. “We haven’t made any announcements yet, but everyone’s taken it as a given that Emily is going to be the McAllister prima-in-waiting, just as the Wilcoxes expect Ian to be my heir. Isn’t it better to make sure they’re someplace safe?”

  I wanted to be angry at Connor for bringing up that particular topic, because I really hadn’t wanted to start thinking about it. The twins were only five and a half, and we shouldn’t have been forced to begin considering their futures as possible leaders of the clan for a long while yet.

  However, Emily was already starting to show little signs of her abilities flaring up, even though most witches and warlocks didn’t really start to come into their powers until they were ten or eleven years old. The thing was, we were all in sort of uncharted territory here, because as far as we knew, Connor and I were the first prima and primus couple, and certainly the first to have children, which meant no one really had any idea what kind of powers our offspring would have, or how strong they would be.

  So yes, everyone did think that Emily would be my prima-in-waiting, and although the Wilcoxes didn’t have anything like a “primus-in-waiting,” the same principle held; the eldest son from Jeremiah’s line would be the next to lead the clan. I didn’t know whether Ian would be a powerful warlock like Connor, or his late uncle, because, unlike his sister, he hadn’t yet begun to reveal any sign of the abilities he’d inherited. Truthfully, though, Connor hadn’t really been thought of as a strong warlock until his brother Damon died and the mantle of leading the clan fell on him. His gift for illusion was a subtle one, and he’d never been able to bend magic to his will the way Damon once had.

  And thank the Goddess for that, I thought. No one should have that kind of power.

  Unfortunately for all of us, it seemed that Joaquin Escobar did. Or, at the very least, he possessed a singular combination of talents, something that made him very difficult to fight. We did have Levi on our side, which meant we had a better chance of defending ourselves than otherwise, but even so….

  I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the question Connor had just asked me. “Are you sure that they’ll really be safe in Flagstaff? I mean, for a night or even two, it’s probably okay, because we didn’t tell anyone where they’d be staying. Still, if Escobar really comes gunning for us, then you can know for damn sure that he’s going to exploit every weakness. Ours is our children. Do you know without a shadow of a doubt that the Wilcoxes can protect the twins?”

  “No,” Connor replied without hesitation. His gaze was straight, forthright, and I was comforted by the firm set of his chin, the resolve in it. “But,” he continued, not giving me a chance to reply, “I don’t know they’d be safe here, either. And unfortunately, with the way the witch clans tend to stay isolated from those in other states, it’s not like we can send them off to Nantucket or Hawaii for the summer until we get all this settled. So I suppose I’m just basing my feelings on the simple fact that Flagstaff is farther away from Pasadena than either Jerome or Phoenix, and also that — so far, at least — Escobar hasn’t made any attacks there.”

  As much as I wanted to argue these points, deep down I knew that Connor was right. However, I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit defeat, either. The reality of having to go days and days — or possibly even weeks and weeks — without seeing my children was not one I was prepared to face right then. Even a weekend away was enough for me to start craving their presence, the sound of their voices. “I’ll think about it,” I said at last. “But we’d better go in. Bordello’s closes in half an hour, and I’m starving.”

  “Sure,” Connor said, and appeared to let it go, opening the car door so he could get out.

  And that was just one of the many reasons why I loved him. He knew me well enough to understand when I needed time to wrestle with a problem, to give myself a chance to work my way to a conclusion…even if it was one I didn’t like very much.

  I feared that was exactly where I would end up with this one. Because as much as I hated the idea of sending my children away, I also knew that I couldn’t count on Joaquin Escobar not to bring the battle right to my front doorstep.

  After all, he’d already done so only a few weeks before.

  Arrangements were made. The awful part was, I couldn’t even take my children their extra clothes and the toys and games they’d need to keep them occupied during the time they’d be spending with Lucas and Margot. If Joaquin Escobar had somehow managed to get his spies anywhere close, it would be too obvious if Connor and I took another trip up to Flagstaff so soon after the last one.

  That was why my cousin Ali, who was eighteen and who would be starting at Northern Pines University in Flagstaff in the fall, took the trunk full of Ian and Emily’s belongings to them. “I’ve been going back and forth anyway,” she told me, “getting paperwork handled, looking for an apartment. It’s not going to look suspicious if I run back up there for an afternoon. I can drop everything off for you, and no one will be able to tell I was doing anything out of the ordinary. I’ll even go to this one apartment complex I was considering first, and head over to Lucas and Margot’s house after that. It’ll be fine.”

  I had to hope she was right. My prima powers could come in pretty handy, but they didn’t seem to include being able to detect whether someone was being followed, or even if I was under surveillance. Yes, I’d know right away if Joaquin Escobar or any of the Santiagos under his control passed the wards that protected Jerome. However, those spies didn’t need to infiltrate my town. They could simply hang out in Cottonwood and watch all our comings and goings. Unless you were going overland in a seriously sturdy 4x4, you had to take Highway 89A to get out of Jerome, which meant you either came down through Cottonwood or Clarkdale, or out in Prescott Valley on the other side of Mingus Mountain. The topography of the area made surveillance pretty damn easy.

  If we were even being watched. All these precautions could simply stem from my own paranoia, in which case Connor and I were depriving ourselves of our children’s company during these last few precious months before they started kindergarten, for no reason at all.

  Somehow, though, I didn’t think that was the case. We’d had peace and calm for the last few weeks, but that didn’t mean much. Escobar was probably biding his time, plotting. He wasn’t the sort of man who would allow the death of his son to pass by without him attempting some sort of revenge. And then there had been the incident in the apartment in Tucson. Whether that entity — or whatever it was — had any connection to the dark warlock in California, I honestly didn’t know. About all I could do was hope and pray that Levi would be able to dig up something when he headed down there two days from now.

  In the meantime, I had to pretend everything was fine when I knew good and well it wasn’t. Connor and I told the elders where we’d sent the children, and why, and we also had to let Levi in on the secret, just because he was one of our last lines of defense if things really did go sideways. We also briefed him on what we’d experienced in Tucson, and how we wanted him to do his own investigation.

  “Of course,” he said in that gravely charming way of his. Connor and I had asked him to come to the house alone, without Hayley, a request that clearly puzzled him but which he didn’t protest. Now, though, as he sat on the couch across from the one Connor and I occupied, he frowned slightly, blue eyes troubled, and said, “I would like to bring Hayley with me, though.”

  “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea,” I replied.

  “Why not?”

  Connor went ahead and answered the question, since we’d already discussed this possibility, and what we should do if it came up. “Because even though Hayley’s gift has helped you in the past, we don’t think it will make much of
a difference in this case. This isn’t a demon you need to dispel. It’s something we want you to investigate. You’re the logical choice because you have experience with forces and beings that didn’t originate on this plane.”

  “It’s not a ghost,” I said. “Or at least, if it is, it’s not like any ghost I’ve ever encountered…and I’ve dealt with a fair few.”

  “And, as far as we can tell, it’s not a demon, either. It’s not something you’ll be fighting,” Connor pointed out. “If you’re just there to observe, Hayley may be more of a distraction than anything else. Also, this thing seems to seek out people’s weaknesses. Your connection to Hayley could make her a target, since it might attack her to get at you. On the other hand, there’s nothing you’ve gone up against that you weren’t able to handle. That’s why we think it’s better if you make this trip alone.”

  Levi was quiet for a moment, appearing to ponder what we’d just told him. “You may have a point,” he said. “I’m still not sure that I agree, but if that’s your wish, I’ll abide by it, since you are the prima and primus.”

  “This isn’t a dictatorship,” I protested. “If you have a really good argument for taking Hayley with you, then we’ll listen to it. But….”

  “No, I understand,” Levi said. “My only argument would be that I love her and feel more comfortable with her at my side. But that’s not enough of a reason. Actually, based on what you’ve told me about this entity, I might be putting her in danger by taking her with me. I will go alone. After all, I won’t even be gone overnight.”

  “True,” Connor agreed. “That’s a lot of driving for one day, but it’s doable. And probably a lot better than spending the night away from Hayley.”

  “That much is true.”

  Levi smiled slightly, his expression faraway. It was kind of cute to see how besotted he was with Hayley, especially when he’d lived here for so long without making any kind of a real connection. But that was how it tended to be with witch-kind — when we found the right person, we fell hard, and we fell fast. It had been like that with Connor, even though I’d tried to fight the connection with every cell in my body, had tried to tell myself that a son of the Wilcox clan couldn’t possibly be my soul mate, the man who woke the prima powers within me.

  But the universe has its own plans, and all we mere mortals could ever do was try to make peace with that idea.

  Right now, though, I was just a little worried as to what the universe intended for all of us….

  3

  Levi McAllister

  He’d never driven this far on his own before. Up to Flagstaff, yes, and on the dirt back roads that connected Jerome to Williams, off Interstate 40. But he’d never come back to the Phoenix area after Zoe Sandoval rebuffed him and instead chose Evan McAllister for her consort, and he’d certainly never passed through the city’s urban sprawl and headed out into the open desert once more, driving south to Tucson.

  More than once he’d glanced over at the empty passenger seat of his hand-me-down truck, thinking to share a comment on the terrain with Hayley. But she wasn’t there, had remained behind in Jerome because both Connor and Angela thought she wouldn’t be needed on this trip, that it would be better if she stayed in Jerome. Perhaps they were right.

  Levi supposed he’d find out in a few hours.

  Hayley had not liked the idea of remaining behind. No, not at all. Even when he explained that this wasn’t his idea, that the command had come down from the prima and primus, her blue eyes had glinted mutinously, and she muttered something about them not being her parents, that they couldn’t boss her around. Perhaps that was true; Levi had never really seen anyone openly defy the head of a clan, so he wasn’t sure what the consequences of such an action might be.

  In the end, though, Hayley had calmed down somewhat, mostly because he kept reassuring her that this would be a quick day trip, and that he had no plans to remain in the Tucson area overnight. She still wasn’t pleased by the idea — and Levi guessed she’d be even less pleased if she knew the entire truth about what might be awaiting him in the apartment in Tucson — but she’d abandoned the arguments, had given him a quick, fierce hug, and said she expected him to be home by dinner. He’d said he would try, which was about the most he could offer. The round-trip drive alone would take more than six hours, and he didn’t know how much time he would have to spend in the apartment. Yes, he’d left at a little after nine in the morning, and so would show up in Tucson around lunchtime, but….

  At least the details with the apartment itself had already been handled. A de la Paz cousin had taken care of renting the place, and had even moved in a few sticks of furniture to make it look as if someone would be living there. No worries about leaving a key under the mat, though; although Levi wasn’t precisely a warlock, as his origins were not human, he still possessed the magical ability to open door locks with the touch of a finger. Getting in wouldn’t be a problem.

  What might happen after he went inside the apartment — that was the real question.

  Traffic in Tucson was thicker than what he’d imagined. Was everyone out and about on their lunch hour? Maybe. Still, he was able to maneuver through the congestion and get off I-10 at 22nd Street, then weave eastward through shabby neighborhoods of modest homes that had seen better days, until at last he came to the Tucson Tropics apartment complex.

  It was definitely not the sort of place that inspired confidence, with its patched and faded stucco, and the drooping palm trees that clustered out front. A chill went over Levi as he looked at the building, although he tried to tell himself that he was only projecting, that he hadn’t actually experienced anything negative here.

  Yet.

  He managed to squeeze the truck in between a Chrysler Sebring convertible with oxidizing red paint and a Nissan Altima that was missing all its wheel covers. Both vehicles had the same aura of forlorn neglect as the apartment complex itself, and Levi had no doubt that the cars’ owners must live somewhere within.

  After taking a quick look around and determining no one appeared to be present, he got out of the truck and headed for the exterior stairs that led to the second level of the complex. Angela and Connor had told him the apartment was located toward the back of the building, so he went in that direction, praying under his breath the whole time that no one would emerge from their apartments and get a good look at him. Yes, he could erase their memories if he had to, but this whole expedition would be a lot less complicated if he could simply avoid any encounters with the residents here.

  His luck appeared to be holding, because he was able to make his way to the designated unit without bumping into anyone. Levi supposed it was possible that someone might be inside their apartment, watching from behind the blinds, but he somehow doubted it. If people were home right now, they were probably trying to grab a quick lunch before they headed back to work.

  As he approached the apartment, a sensation of cold began to overtake all his limbs, a cold so intense that he could feel his teeth start to chatter before he clamped down on them and forced them to stop. And yet it was very hot here, so hot that even the T-shirt he was wearing felt as heavy as a wool sweater. If it was this warm toward the end of May, he didn’t want to think what it might be like here in the depths of summer.

  The weather, however, was not his immediate concern. Along with the cold came a sensation of pressure, as if whatever inhabited the apartment was exerting all its will to prevent him from getting any closer. Gritting his teeth, Levi made himself push against that pressure, telling himself that it wasn’t real, that it couldn’t prevail against him.

  Somehow he managed to get to the front door, touch his fingers to the doorknob. It was like dipping his hand in liquid nitrogen, but he forced himself to focus his own will against it, to make the knob turn and the door open.

  Which it did, opening inward with a faint squeak.

  All at once, the cold and the pressure dissipated. However, Levi refused to take their absence as a good s
ign. He had the distinct impression that the entity which dwelt here wanted him to drop his guard.

  Well, that wasn’t about to happen.

  He stepped inside, body braced for whatever assault might come next. Nothing…at least for now.

  A quick glance around told him that the apartment had been stripped of the previous inhabitants’ belongings. The walls were bare, and the only furniture was a green fabric couch, a glass-topped coffee table, and a low entertainment unit with a flat-screen television sitting on top of it. The little alcove that was probably intended as a dining area was empty. Perhaps there was some more furniture in the bedrooms, to keep up the façade that someone actually was living here. At the moment, Levi didn’t feel terribly inclined to go take a look.

  He stood in the middle of the living room and breathed in. For some reason, the air tasted acrid on his tongue and made him cough as it went down his windpipe. Even with the cold and the pressure gone, he knew he was not alone here.

  Time to reach out with his mind, to try to take the measure of the entity that had apparently made its home in this place. Even though he hated the thought of having to pull in another breath of tainted air, he forced himself to inhale deeply, knowing he needed to center and strengthen himself to face the being who now inhabited this apartment.

  A swirl of hate, of a cold, gnawing hunger so intense, Levi knotted his hands into fists and forced himself to remember that this was not his hatred, nor his hunger. He stood still as a statue, and let the energy flow around him. It could not hurt him, as long as he did not allow it to enter his soul.