Darktide

by Christine Pope

  She knew she was distracting herself because she didn’t want to think about what Angela might say. Still, it was strange that there weren’t any cars around except the Audi she and Evan had driven here.

  He pushed the doorbell, and almost before the chimes had stopped ringing, the door opened. Connor Wilcox stood there, his expression somber. “We’re in the living room.”

  That was it. No hellos or any other kind of pleasantries. Maybe he’d decided the situation didn’t really warrant those sorts of empty words.

  Evan reached over and took her hand, and the two of them followed the Wilcox primus into the living room. Zoe caught sight of Angela, looking pale and frightened, and standing a few feet away from her was Levi. What in the world was he doing here?

  But that concern fell away, because then she saw Luz lying on the sofa, her hands folded on her chest, her eyes shut. It looked like she was only sleeping.

  Zoe wished that were true. God, did she wish it. But she knew that her aunt wasn’t asleep, that she’d already passed beyond the veil into the next world. Blinking back tears — and reminding herself once again that she was the prima now, and that she had to stay in control — she said, “What happened?”

  Angela’s lips pressed together, and she sent a stricken glance toward her husband. Connor said, “Maybe you should sit down.”

  She didn’t want to sit down. But Zoe knew it would be even more awkward to stand here and demand explanations, so she went over to one of the worn leather chairs that matched the sofa and took a seat. Evan followed, although he didn’t sit, only stood next to her. She swallowed, wished her throat wasn’t so dry. “What happened?”

  “It was Joaquin Escobar,” Angela replied. “He’d kidnapped Levi. We went to get him back. Only….” Her words trailed off there, as if she knew it was horribly clear what was supposed to follow that “only.”

  “Angela and Luz and I found a way to combine our powers,” Connor said, his voice calm, reasonable, as if he wasn’t talking about matters that had just changed all their worlds. “We thought it would be enough. We just didn’t realize how strong Escobar was. He sent some kind of shockwave against us. I don’t know why Angela and I survived, but I think it has something to do with our prima/primus bond. It helped to protect us, while Luz didn’t have that kind of a buffer.”

  None of this was making any sense. Zoe looked from Connor to Angela, then quickly over at Levi before returning her attention to the Wilcox primus. Although she’d heard through the grapevine that Levi had finally found someone, and certainly wasn’t pining after her, it still felt strange to be in the same room with him after all this time, like running into that guy you kinda/sorta dated a million years ago and never really broke up with, just drifted apart from.

  “Why didn’t I hear about any of this?” she asked. “Why didn’t Luz tell me someone had kidnapped Levi?”

  “I don’t know,” Connor said. “A lot of this happened pretty quickly. The three of us decided that we’d have a better chance of success if we worked together. At first, it seemed as if things were going to be all right. But then Escobar hit us with that…whatever it was.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Angela said. Her green eyes glimmered like brilliant emeralds; it seemed that Zoe wasn’t the only one having a hard time holding back her tears. “We knew we were taking a chance, but we didn’t realize Luz would be so vulnerable. And — and we knew we couldn’t let Escobar have Levi. The risk was too great.”

  “She’s right,” Levi said, speaking for the first time. He’d been standing near the bookcase on the far wall but came forward now, his fair hair catching a stray beam of sunlight as it slipped past the heavy curtains. “Actually, it was worse than even Connor and Angela and Luz knew, because Escobar was offering me as bait to the Ludlows.”

  “The Ludlows?” Zoe repeated. She’d heard that name before — or at least she thought she had — but right now her brain felt so muddled that she was lucky she could even remember her own name.

  “They’re the witch clan in northern California,” Levi told her. “It seems that Escobar was trying to forge an alliance. The Ludlows’ prima-in-waiting thought I’d make a better consort than the men she’d had presented to her, and Joaquin Escobar was all too willing to make her wish a reality.”

  Since Zoe had conjured Levi as her own perfect consort — before she realized that her soul mate had been here all along, was the very man assigned to clean up the mess she’d made when she brought Levi to this world — she thought she could sympathize with this unknown prima-in-waiting, if only a tiny bit. Who wouldn’t rather have someone who looked like a god — and had godlike powers — instead of some spindling second cousin?

  She looked over at her cousin Luz’s still face. There was no sign of trauma or injury, no sign that she’d died violently. That was something, Zoe supposed, but after hearing what had happened, her sorrow was rapidly turning to anger. Who the hell did this Escobar asshole think he was? The clans had always gotten along because they’d kept to themselves and respected each other’s boundaries. And now this dark warlock was trying to create alliances, make himself that much more powerful?

  “Then I suppose it’s a good thing that you got away,” she said. “Was the cost worth it?”

  No one spoke. Angela bit her lip and seemed able to look everywhere but at Zoe. Connor frowned.

  It was Levi who finally said, “We can never calculate a person’s worth in such a way. Angela and Connor said that Luz knew the risks, was willing to take them. She was a very brave woman. I can tell you that it’s a good thing Escobar’s plan was foiled. Not only because I did not relish becoming the consort of someone I did not love, but because the Ludlows are also a powerful clan. If they had been able to unite with the Santiagos and Joaquin Escobar, then things would have become very difficult for the Arizona clans. Now, though….” His words trailed off there, as if he wasn’t quite sure what would happen next.

  It wouldn’t bring Luz back, but Zoe thought if her aunt’s death had prevented the dark warlock from continuing with his plans for world domination, then that was something. Because it was clear that the man needed to be stopped.

  “Now…what?” she prompted, hoping either Connor or Angela would pick up where Levi had left off.

  It was Angela who answered, although her words did little to reassure Zoe.

  “We don’t know,” she said. “We just don’t know.”

  17

  Angela

  It was sort of strange to see my cousin Evan take charge after that. He’d been mostly quiet as we tried to explain to Zoe what had happened during our ill-fated foray into Santiago territory, but as soon as it was clear that we didn’t have a lot of answers left to give, he thanked us for the explanations, then guided his wife into the kitchen so he could pour her some iced tea.

  After that, the phone calls began. The de la Paz clan was a big one, but they clearly had some kind of phone tree set up to spread the news, just as we McAllisters did, if not on such a grand scale. In between two of those calls, I murmured to Evan that we needed to get Levi home, but we’d be in touch, and that in the meantime, he and everyone else in the clan needed to stay on guard.

  Evan didn’t bother to ask any questions. He knew there wasn’t much we could do to change things.

  Or…could we? Even as Connor and Levi took my hands and we sent ourselves back to my familiar kitchen in Jerome, I began to wonder if there was some way we could still fix this. After all, Danica had traveled back in time to save her husband Robert’s life. This wouldn’t be nearly as large a jump, only a few hours, not more than a hundred years.

  The kitchen materialized around us, sunlight slanting through the windows, the little pot of rosemary sitting on the sill looking serene, as if nothing terrible had just happened.

  “What about Danica?” I asked abruptly as soon as I knew we were safe at home.

  Both Levi and Connor shared a single puzzled glance before Connor asked, “What about her?”
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  “Can’t she use her power to travel back and stop what just happened? We could fix this whole mess.”

  My husband looked distinctly uncomfortable. He reached with one hand to scratch the back of his head, a gesture I recognized as one he tended to deploy when he knew he needed to give me an answer but wasn’t quite sure how to do it.

  Before he could speak, however, Levi came to his rescue. “That wouldn’t work, Angela. Danica was only able to send herself back across all those decades. She’s not a prima — she doesn’t have the ability to have other people travel through time with her.”

  “But she brought Robert here to the future — ”

  “Because Jeremiah Wilcox lent her his power,” Connor reminded me. His tone was gentle, however, and he came over and threaded his fingers through mine, as though he could tell I needed the reassurance of his touch right then. “There was no way she could have done such a thing on her own.”

  I’d conveniently forgotten about that part of the story, probably because I was hoping so desperately that Danica might be the one to save the day. “But if we joined our power with hers — ”

  “I still don’t think that would work,” Connor said. “Remember, Jeremiah sent Danica and Robert to the future on a one-way trip, no more. We were able to combine our powers with Luz’s because she was also a prima. Danica’s just an ordinary witch. Well,” he amended hastily, “not completely ordinary, since she has a very unusual talent, but still….”

  All right, maybe that particular straw wasn’t worth grasping, but I had more to reach for. I turned toward Levi, who’d been watching Connor’s and my exchange with a sober expression on his face, even though he clearly didn’t want to interrupt. “Then what about Hayley?” I asked. “Her power could boost Danica’s, and then she’d be strong enough to go back and get Luz out of there.”

  “You would put Hayley in reach of Joaquin Escobar, when you know that he covets her power for the clan he’s suborned?” Before I could answer, try to defend myself, he went on, “That still wouldn’t work. I have no doubt that if Hayley joined her power to Danica’s, she could give Danica the ability to send herself much farther back, perhaps even give her the ability to work her time-travel magic on someone other than herself. But it would not provide her with the sort of strength needed to withstand Joaquin Escobar’s null powers. As soon as she came in range of him, she would be helpless.”

  Damn it. I hadn’t thought of that. It seemed no matter what we did, that damned warlock had us outfoxed, blocked in at every turn.

  “So there’s really nothing we can do?” I asked, my voice nearly cracking on the last syllable. I hated myself for that sign of weakness, even though I knew I had every reason to be on the verge of tears once more. It would have been easy to blame my lack of control on pregnancy hormones, but I knew it was simply our current situation threatening to overwhelm me.

  “There’s always something,” Levi replied. To my surprise, he smiled. “We just haven’t thought of what it is yet.”

  Maybe he had a point. I just hated to accept the reality of Luz’s death, to think she’d died only a foot away from me, and I hadn’t been able to do a damn thing about it.

  “I think we all should rest,” he went on. “I need to go see Hayley, let her know that I’m safe.”

  “And you need to stay that way,” Connor said. “Don’t leave Jerome for anything. If you need something from down in Cottonwood, we’ll have someone bring it up for you. We don’t dare risk Escobar attempting to steal you again.”

  “No, of course.” Still wearing a lopsided smile, Levi added, “To be honest, after the events of the past few days, I’m perfectly happy to remain here in Jerome for the foreseeable future.”

  With that, he nodded at the two of us, then let himself out the door that led down into the backyard. From there I assumed he would take the path that ran alongside the house and met the sidewalk out front.

  After he was gone, I looked up at Connor. The horrible knot of misery that had taken up residence somewhere inside my chest hadn’t gone away. If anything, it had only grown. “I don’t — I don’t know what to do, Connor.”

  His fingers tightened around mine. “Let’s go sit down. Do you want some water?”

  I started to shake my head, then stopped when I realized I actually was horrendously thirsty. “That’s probably a good idea.”

  We filled up a couple of glasses from the dispenser in the refrigerator door and headed out to the living room. Why we’d gone there, rather than the family room, which opened off the kitchen and was much cozier, I couldn’t say for sure. However, we tended to conduct most of our “official” business in this space, and I supposed it made sense for us to sit there and try to hash out what in the world we were going to do next.

  “We’ll need to talk to the elders,” Connor said after we’d seated ourselves and I’d swallowed a few mouthfuls of water.

  “Do you really think they’re going to come up with anything?” I couldn’t quite keep the bitterness out of my voice; after all, it seemed like lately mostly what they’d done was shoot down my ideas, or at least attempt to.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But they need to be informed about what happened. If nothing else, it’s a courtesy. Remember, Alex is Tricia’s son-in-law. She needs to know that his mother just passed away.”

  God, that was right. Sometimes it got so tricky, trying to remember all the connections that now existed between our clans. Alex would be devastated, and Caitlin wouldn’t be in much better shape. I knew that she and Luz had grown close, what with Caitlin’s own mother being hundreds of miles away here in Jerome, while Caitlin was learning how to run a household down in Tucson.

  “Of course.” I made myself drink some more water, mostly because I thought it might help to prevent me from dissolving into tears right then and there. Stress, and sorrow…and probably a good helping of rampaging hormones on top of everything else. I put one hand against my stomach, although I hadn’t really begun to show yet. “Connor, what do you think all this is doing to the baby?”

  Immediately, he leaned over and kissed my cheek. “I don’t think you need to worry about that. You’ve been using your magic, same as you did when you were pregnant with the twins.”

  “But that blow Escobar hit us with — ”

  “Do you feel any different?” Now I could hear the sharper edge of worry in my husband’s voice, although his expression remained calm. “Any pain, any bleeding?”

  Since I hadn’t been to the bathroom recently, I couldn’t answer that last question with any certainty. However, I hadn’t felt even a twinge, except for getting the wind knocked out of me right after Escobar’s attack. “No,” I replied. “I think I’m all right. But…how long can we keep taking these chances?”

  His mouth tightened, and I noted how he didn’t want to look at me, kept his gaze fixed on the view of the street outside the living room window. “Well, we’re not doing anything like that again. Yes, Levi is safe, but the cost of that rescue was way too high.”

  “And if we do nothing?” I asked. “What if Escobar brings the fight to us? He’s got to be pretty pissed off about us snatching Levi.”

  “With any luck, we just burned that asshole’s house down. Maybe he has more important things to worry about right now.”

  That would have been nice — although I couldn’t help experiencing a pang of regret at the thought of all those priceless paintings going up in smoke — but I guessed that putting out a fire was child’s play for Joaquin Escobar. And he’d also had Marisol and the Ludlow witch to help him. “Probably, but I doubt the house is one of them. It’s more likely that he’s having to explain to the Ludlows why their spoiled brat of a daughter didn’t get the consort she wanted for Christmas.”

  At my scornful words, Connor couldn’t help smiling slightly. “How do you know she’s a spoiled brat?”

  “Oh, please. Anyone with hair like that is a spoiled brat. Who else has time for that sort of t
hing?”

  “Maybe getting it to curl like that is her talent.”

  “In which case I doubt she would have been chosen as her clan’s prima-in-waiting,” I said crisply, although I had a feeling that Connor was teasing me a little, trying his best to lighten the mood.

  “You’re probably right.” He hesitated, then went on, “Do you want me to text Tricia? We really shouldn’t put off that meeting for too long.”

  As much as I wanted to say no, I knew he was right. The elders needed to be informed. Maybe if we all put our heads together, we could come up with some kind of a plan. To be truthful, though, I was really hoping they’d be the ones to figure out what to do next. I was so tired and discouraged and overwhelmed, right then I wasn’t sure if I could get a single synapse to fire.

  “Yes, text her,” I said wearily.

  He didn’t reply, only got the phone out of his pocket, a frown pulling at his brows the whole time. I knew he was worried about me, but I couldn’t come up with the words to tell him that I was all right. Maybe I wasn’t. Oh, physically I was okay, but as for the rest? I wanted to go to the window seat in our bedroom upstairs and bawl like a baby.

  Then I thought of Zoe, who’d just lost an aunt and had the responsibility for her entire clan dumped on her. The de la Pazes didn’t have elders like we did, although I knew their clan had a network of older members who functioned in much the same manner, even if their setup wasn’t as formal. Even so, in many ways, Zoe was on her own now, barely twenty-three, and with an eight-month-old baby to look after. I could still remember how out of my depth I’d felt when the twins came. I couldn’t imagine facing motherhood for the first time while basically being in a state of war.