Darktide

by Christine Pope

  As did the girl with the pretty brown hair. She frowned, then said, “What’s going on? I thought he was Levi!” And she pointed at him where he sat in his chair.

  Escobar began to stand up, but Connor didn’t hesitate. “Levi!”

  He catapulted himself out of the wing chair where he’d been sitting and ran toward us. I knew he must have seen the flicker of the bubble that encased our little group, must have known that was his only chance.

  “Oh, I don’t think so,” Escobar said, raising a hand.

  It was like getting doused with a bucket of ice cold water. I gasped, and realized that the bubble was gone, that somehow the dark warlock had managed to dispel it. And yet…I could still feel the power coiled within me, knew that he hadn’t managed to touch the core of my prima energy. He had only destroyed the physical manifestation of that talent.

  Smiling slightly, he raised his other hand. “Levi.”

  The poor man stopped dead in mid-stride. His jaw clenched, and I could see him struggling against the invisible force that kept him from moving any closer to us. However, he didn’t seem able to budge.

  Well, I’d already known that Joaquin Escobar played dirty. Time for me to do the same.

  Without even stopping to think, I raised both my hands and flung a pair of fireballs in his direction. One flew over his head and hit the curtains that framed the window behind him. They promptly caught fire, causing the young woman with the bemused expression to cry out, “Oh, no!” and run toward them. What she intended to do, I wasn’t sure, but the important thing was that I had distracted her.

  The other fireball should have struck Escobar right in the chest. At the last second, though, he threw up both his hands, as if creating his own protective barrier. The fireball impacted against his palms, but didn’t seem to do any actual damage.

  However, he’d had to transfer his concentration to saving himself, thus freeing Levi to continue on his mad dash toward us. He slipped between Connor and me, gasping, “Wish…I could help.”

  I wished he could, too. Unfortunately, Escobar’s null powers seemed to work on him just fine. But he was with us now, which meant we could get the hell out of here. “Connor,” I whispered urgently.

  He nodded.

  At the same time, the Ludlow witch had begun to advance on us, eyes lit with fury. “You can’t take him. He’s mine!”

  “Yes,” said the other young woman, turning away from the flaming curtains. She raised a hand. “He needs to stay.”

  And Joaquin Escobar lifted his hands as well, then pushed outward with them. It was as if someone had picked up a brick wall and flung it at us. I gasped as the weight of it hit me, the breath choking in my throat, and Connor staggered back a pace before he managed to steady himself. Behind me, I heard Luz whisper, “No,” followed by an ominous thump.

  I allowed myself a quick look back. She’d fallen to the floor, looked as if she’d passed out, her slim body crumpled, arms slumped to either side. Shit. Shit.

  “You see?” Joaquin said to Connor, sounding almost conversational. “I, too, have a pair of primas with me. Well, one is only a prima-in-waiting, but she is still powerful enough. Far more powerful than that one.” His contemptuous gaze flicked toward Luz, who still lay sprawled on the Persian rug.

  Get up, I thought. Luz, please, get up. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to pick her up, especially while fending off Escobar’s attacks.

  “Maybe,” Connor said. He’d let the “Levi” illusion lapse, probably because he’d realized that he didn’t need it anymore, and also because he needed every spare ounce of energy to maintain his own defenses. “By the way, your house is on fire.”

  For just the briefest second, Escobar’s gaze flickered away from us, toward the curtains, which were now almost fully engulfed and about to spread toward the chair that was positioned next to the window. During that second, Levi bent and gathered Luz in his arms, clearly realizing that I was in no position to do so, and that he might as well make use of his muscles even if his magic was still nullified.

  I reached one hand toward Connor. He gripped it and then extended his free hand to Levi. No stranger to teleporting under duress, Levi laced his fingers through Connor’s.

  Even as the acrid scent of smoke began to reach my nostrils, the room faded around us. This time, the journey didn’t feel quite as instantaneous, probably because only Connor and I were powering the spell, what with Luz knocked out and Levi not immediately able to join in.

  But then the de la Paz prima’s living room took shape around us, and I let out a sigh of relief. Levi went to the sofa and laid Luz down, then pressed his fingers against her throat. Frowning, he bent and leaned his head against her chest, stayed there far longer than he should have needed to. After all, Escobar’s magical blow had only knocked her out…hadn’t it?

  A terrible, roiling fear began to churn in my midsection. It wasn’t possible….

  I stood rooted in place as Connor, his face a mask of worry, went over to Luz and did the same thing that Levi had, only he also lifted her wrist so he could test for her pulse there as well. Still wearing that strained, taut expression, he very gently laid her hand on her chest.

  “No!” I burst out. “We have to do something — call the de la Paz healer — ”

  Connor came over to me and took me in his arms. I wanted to fight back, tell him that I didn’t need to be held, that instead of trying to comfort me, he should be calling Alba, the Phoenix area’s healer. Somehow, though, I knew there was no point to any of that.

  Levi spoke then, his voice calm but sorrowful. “She’s gone, Angela. No healer could fix what Escobar has done to her.”

  Hot tears poured down my cheeks. “It’s all my fault — I should have stopped her, should have realized that she didn’t have the same protections Connor and I did — ”

  “No,” Connor broke in. His hand moved over my hair, stroking it, doing his best to calm me down. “She was insistent, Angela. This was as much her idea as it was ours. You saw how determined she was. She wanted to get vengeance for her cousin. Leaving her behind would have been an insult. Besides, we needed her strength to get us there…or at least, we thought we did.”

  As much as I wanted to rail against him, to tell him those were specious arguments at best, I knew he was right. Connor had been the cautious one; it was Luz and I who wanted to go on this mission, and not wait to do it. That realization didn’t make me feel any better, though.

  Beneath the sorrow, a dark, smoldering anger burned somewhere at the center of my being. Oh, we’d make Joaquin Escobar pay for this. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know when, but sooner or later, that bastard was going to get the fate he so richly deserved.

  In the meantime….

  I leaned my head against Connor’s shoulder and said, “We have to call Zoe.”

  16

  Zoe Sandoval-McAllister

  Zoe shifted slightly on the leather recliner Evan had bought for her not too long after Michael was born, trying to find a more comfortable position. Usually she could relax into the chair and start dozing off immediately — and God only knew, she needed her sleep, when the baby still didn’t stay down all night, despite being almost eight months old. This afternoon, however, she was restless, on edge, although she couldn’t really say why. Yes, there were those problems with that warlock in Southern California, but Luz seemed to have all that handled, and besides, nothing had really happened for the past few weeks….

  The energy lanced into her, white-hot, so bright she gasped aloud and clutched the recliner’s arms. Her fingers scrabbled for the remote on the table next to her so she could get the chair back into a more upright position. As she sat up and the pain receded, realization hit her.

  No.

  No, it wasn’t possible. Luz had told her what it would feel like when the prima powers came to her, but this couldn’t be happening. Not now. The two of them had talked only a week ago, of the baby, of how there didn’t seem to be anything to worr
y about, that Escobar appeared to be licking his wounds after losing his only son. Luz hadn’t said anything about being sick. Besides, she was only fifty-two years old, far too young to die. She should have been prima for at least another thirty years, probably more.

  Was it a car accident?

  As Zoe began to push herself out of the recliner, her phone, which she’d left on the coffee table, started to buzz. With shaking fingers, she reached for it, dimly recognized that the number on the display was Angela McAllister’s.

  “A-Angela?”

  “You felt it.” The words weren’t phrased as a question, but a flat statement.

  “Yes.” Zoe gulped some air into her lungs, prayed that it would be enough to give her the strength to ask what the hell was going on. “B-but how? I don’t understand.”

  “We need to talk, Zoe. Can you come over to Luz’s house?”

  Luz’s house. Dimly, Zoe realized that house would be hers now.

  She didn’t want it. She didn’t want any of it. This was her house, the beautiful home she and Evan had made together, brand-new and sparkling, the place where they’d brought Michael home from the hospital. She didn’t want to live in the rambling hacienda that had once been Maya’s. It had always felt like something out of a different world, although a good deal of expense and care had been lavished on it to make sure everything within was kept up to date.

  “I just got Michael down for his afternoon nap — ”

  “Do you have someone who can watch him?”

  Of course she did. A de la Paz cousin was only a phone call away, and Teresa, one of the relatives who had been Michael’s most stalwart babysitters, could be here in less than five minutes. Yes, Zoe knew she could have Evan watch the baby, but she needed him with her. Right now, her hands and her knees were shaking so badly, she didn’t trust herself to drive a car. No, Teresa would have to watch Michael.

  “Y-yes,” she replied. “I just need to make a call. Evan and I should be able to make it over there in about twenty minutes, depending on how long we have to wait for the babysitter.”

  “We’ll see you then.” A pause, and then Angela added, “I’m so, so sorry, Zoe.” This was followed by a little gasp of air, as though the McAllister prima had taken a breath to try to push back her tears, and then the call ended.

  Just that little gasping breath was enough to start the tears burning in Zoe’s eyes. However, she knew she needed to sound calm when she called Teresa. The word would get out soon enough, but right now, she wanted to hear from Angela exactly what had happened before she was forced to tell the de la Paz clan that they had a new prima.

  She pushed the phone icon next to Teresa’s name on her contacts list, then shut her eyes and told herself she needed to stay calm, needed to act as if this request wasn’t unusual in any way.

  Luckily, Teresa picked up before her phone could even ring three times. She was a retired teacher, her own two children grown but without children of their own yet, and so she was home a good deal of the time. At once Zoe trotted out the story that she’d made up, that she just realized Evan had gotten the wrong size diapers the last time he went to Target, and that they needed to run out and get some of the right kind before Michael needed changing again.

  “I’d just send Evan,” Zoe said, trying to sound fond and exasperated at the same time, “but since he got the wrong diapers the last time, I thought it was probably better that I went with him. We really shouldn’t be gone too long.”

  “Take as long as you need,” Teresa told her. “I’ll be right over.”

  “Thank you,” Zoe replied, relief coursing through her. Yes, there were other relatives she could have called if Teresa wasn’t available, but they would have taken even longer to get here. “I just put him down for his nap about fifteen minutes ago, so he’ll probably sleep the whole time you’re here.”

  “Well, if not, I know what to do. Anyway, I just need to get my purse, and I’m out the door. I’ll see you soon.”

  Zoe thanked her again, then ended the call. She knew Evan was out in the garage, changing the oil in his Barracuda. Luckily, they had a second vehicle, an Audi SUV they’d purchased as soon as they knew Michael was on the way. The oil change would have to wait.

  She stopped briefly at the door to Michael’s room to peek in at him, but he was fast asleep, long dark eyelashes pressed firmly against his chubby cheeks. Right then, she could only be overwhelmingly glad that he wasn’t a girl, because that way he would never have to worry being prima one day.

  The house was built into the side of a hill, and so the garage was on a lower level than the main portion of the structure. Zoe hurried down the stairs, heart pounding, wondering what she was going to say to Evan, worrying that she would burst into tears before even two words left her mouth. After opening the door that led into the three-car garage, she saw him in the farthest bay. Or rather, she saw his legs sticking out from under the Barracuda, since it was up on ramps for the oil change.

  “Evan,” she called out.

  He didn’t emerge. “What?”

  Oh, if only he didn’t sound so annoyed. She couldn’t even blame him, because she was interrupting him in the middle of a messy job. It wasn’t his fault that he didn’t know their entire world had just been up-ended.

  “It’s — it’s bad, Evan. A-angela McAllister just called me. L-luz — ” She had to break off there, because despite her best efforts, her voice had begun to shake, and the tears that had been pooling in her eyes all this time now started to slide down her cheeks in earnest.

  He didn’t answer, but immediately pushed himself out from under the car and rose to his feet. Clearly, whatever he saw in her face was enough to tell him this was terrible news, because he came over to her and then stopped, looking down at his oily hands in frustration because he knew he didn’t dare take her in his arms. “What about Luz, sweetheart?”

  “She’s — she’s gone. I’m the prima now.”

  “Oh, my God.” His hands tightened into fists. “What happened?”

  “I don’t know. Angela told me to come over to Luz’s house. I don’t even know why she’s down here in de la Paz territory. But we need to go. Teresa is on her way over to watch Michael.”

  Evan nodded, then reached up to brush away some of Zoe’s tears. “Okay. Let me go get cleaned up and change — and you need to blot your eyes before Teresa gets here. I assume she doesn’t know?”

  “N-no.” Zoe made herself take a breath, then another. That seemed to help dry up the flood of tears. “I thought it was better to find out what happened before we started spreading the news.”

  Another nod, and he bent down and kissed her cheek. “This is terrible, Zoe, but we’ll get through it. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Just the sound of his voice was reassuring, as was the way he stayed close behind her as he followed her up the stairs. They went to the master bedroom, where she did her best to repair the damage to her eye makeup, while he hurriedly stripped out of his smudged T-shirt and jeans, washed up, and climbed into a fresh set of clothes. Nothing fancy, because it was obvious that he didn’t want to arouse Teresa’s suspicions by getting dressed up when he could usually be found in jeans and a tee about 360 days a year.

  They had just finished their prep when Zoe’s phone buzzed. She looked down to see a message from Teresa.

  I’m outside. I didn’t want to ring the bell because it might wake the baby.

  Thank God Teresa was so conscientious. Zoe all but ran to open the front door, and flashed a grateful smile when she saw her cousin standing outside, with her ubiquitous Vera Bradley quilted floral bag stuffed full of knitting draped over one arm.

  “Come on in,” she said. “Michael’s still asleep, but there’s a bottle in the fridge if he wakes up and is hungry. This shouldn’t take more than an hour.”

  “If it does, that’s fine,” Teresa replied. Her dark eyes narrowed slightly. “Are you all right, Zoe?”

  “Oh, I’m fine,” Zoe sa
id hastily. She hated to lie, but she just couldn’t get into explanations right now. “One of my potions sort of blew up on me earlier, and I’m still trying to get the itch out of my eyes.”

  Teresa appeared to relax after hearing that clarification. “Well, I’m sure it will clear up soon enough.”

  Evan came to the foyer, car keys in one hand. “Hi, Teresa. Thanks so much for doing this.”

  “It’s really no problem. Go ahead and run your errand, and don’t worry about Michael and me.”

  He flashed a smile, the one that still made Zoe’s knees go a little weak. “Well, still…thanks.” His gaze shifted. “Ready, Zoe?”

  “Sure am.”

  They went back down to the garage, and Evan climbed into the Audi’s driver seat while Zoe got in on the other side and fastened her seatbelt. While he didn’t exactly peel out of the driveway, he did take off at a good deal faster than their development’s posted speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour.

  Since he knew the way as well as she did, he didn’t say much, only pointed the SUV in the direction of Luz’s Scottsdale home. Zoe clung to her purse, some part of her hoping that this had all been a terrible joke, that she’d get to her destination to find that her aunt was just fine.

  But there was the prima energy coiled within her, bright and terrible. It wouldn’t have come to her if the Luz was still alive. That wasn’t how all this worked.

  A sob bubbled up in her throat, and she choked it back. If she really was the new prima of the de la Paz clan, then she needed to keep it together, to learn how to stay strong no matter what happened. The mere thought of all the people who now depended on her made her stomach clench in terror, but she shut her eyes and told herself it would be okay. This transition had happened hundreds of times in the past and would happen again in the future. She had Evan with her. With him at her side, she figured she could survive anything.

  Maybe.

  Luz’s house was only about ten minutes away, but the trip felt as though it was taking forever. Eventually, though, they pulled up into the driveway of the big Spanish-style house, then got out and let themselves in through the gate that led into the courtyard. As they did so, however, Zoe couldn’t help frowning. Angela had said to meet here, but there weren’t any other vehicles in the driveway or parked on the street. It seemed doubtful that they would be in the garage.