Darktide

by Christine Pope

  California? She went to the messaging app and pulled up the text.

  I need to talk to you. You and your boyfriend were kind to me once.

  Boyfriend?

  Caitlin had never really had a boyfriend, until she met Alex. Even then, she couldn’t exactly classify their quickly intensifying relationship, which had happened over the span of a few days while they searched for Roslyn and Danica, as a mere girlfriend/boyfriend sort of thing.

  After glancing over at Alex, who was still huddled with his family members, having some kind of hushed convo, she typed, Who is this?

  Olivia. Olivia Gutierrez. My brother was Matías Escobar.

  Holy shit. Once again Caitlin looked toward Alex and the rest of his family. Now the EMT had joined the discussion; he made a brief, sad gesture toward the sofa where Luz’s body lay, and she realized they were probably discussing where to take the body. Did the de la Pazes also own a funeral home? They must, to make these sorts of situations a little easier to manage.

  How did you get this number?

  I found it in Lucinda’s room, in a little book she had tucked away in a drawer.

  Caitlin could only be relieved that apparently Joaquin hadn’t searched that room, had left it alone after Lucinda was rescued. Where are you?

  I’m here in Phoenix. I ran. I need to talk to you.

  Phoenix was a very big place. Caitlin replied, Where in Phoenix?

  In the Motel 6 in north Mesa. I knew the de la Pazes were here in the Phoenix area, but I didn’t know where exactly.

  They’re all over, Caitlin thought, from Scottsdale down to Tucson and even farther than that. But she didn’t want to complicate matters. The important thing was that Olivia was here now.

  I’ll try to be there as soon as I can, she typed back. Can you give me an address?

  It’s 336 W. Hampton Ave. I’m in Room 221.

  Got it. That’s about twenty minutes away, so just hang tight.

  I’ll try.

  Caitlin shoved her phone back in her purse, then swallowed. How the hell was she going to manage this? Alex needed to know about Olivia, although the last thing she wanted to do was drag him away from his family at such a terrible time. But it sounded as though Matías’ sister possessed some kind of information she wanted to share, or why would she be reaching out rather than continuing to run as far as she could?

  Deep breaths, she told herself, then went over and touched Alex on the elbow. “Alex, there’s something I need to talk to you about.”

  He turned toward her, dark brows lowering. “Now?”

  “Yes. It’s really important.”

  For a second he hesitated, but then he said, “All right,” and moved away from his father so he could follow Caitlin over to the bookcases on the far side of the room. Because it was Alex, he didn’t look exactly angry over the interruption, but rather confused. He knew she wouldn’t have broken into a conversation like that if she didn’t have a very good reason.

  Making sure to keep her voice soft so it couldn’t be overheard, she said, “I just got a text from Olivia. You know, Matías’ sister in California?”

  At once comprehension dawned. “You’re kidding.”

  “No, I’m not.” She got her phone out of her purse so she could show Alex the message thread. “I don’t know what the hell she’s doing here in Phoenix, but it’s pretty clear that she’s scared. We need to go get her.”

  “I — ” Alex looked over at his father, who had now gone to the sofa so he could lay his hand on Luz’s forehead. Even from this distance, the glitter of tears on his cheeks was obvious. “This is a hell of a time for us to be taking off, Caitlin.”

  “Don’t you think I know that? But we can’t just leave Olivia in some motel. It’s not safe.”

  Alex’s jaw clenched, but then he let out a breath and slowly nodded. “You’re right. I’ll figure something out.”

  He headed back over to his father and laid a hand on his arm, speaking quietly enough that Caitlin couldn’t hear what they were saying. David looked startled for a moment, but then he reached out and touched Alex’s shoulder briefly. Alex bent and laid a kiss on his mother’s forehead, and Caitlin had to choke back her own tears as she watched. She shouldn’t be dragging him away. Not now. Not like this.

  Unfortunately, they didn’t have much choice.

  He came back over to her and took her hand in his. “Let’s see that address.”

  She showed it to him again. “I’m really sorry about this — ”

  “It’s all right. Like you said, Olivia wouldn’t be here and wanting to talk to us if it wasn’t important.”

  They went outside and got in their car, and Alex pointed them toward the 101 Loop heading south. As they drove, Caitlin retrieved her phone and typed, We’re on the road. Not too much longer.

  This time, Olivia didn’t respond right away, and Caitlin could feel a thin trickle of worry work its shivery way down her back. What if Joaquin Escobar had somehow managed to catch up with his runaway daughter in the past few minutes? There was no way in the world Caitlin and Alex would be able to take him on and defeat him.

  But then her phone pinged, and a new message came through. Okay. I’m waiting.

  The traffic was starting to get cloggy with the onset of the afternoon rush hour, and Caitlin had to force herself not to jiggle her foot or tap her fingers on the armrest to alleviate some of her impatience. Doing so would only distract Alex, and it wouldn’t get them to Mesa any sooner.

  Eventually, though, they pulled into the parking lot of a modest-looking motel at the north end of the town. Only a few cars were parked there, including an older-model Honda with California plates. Caitlin didn’t know why, but she felt almost certain that one must be Olivia’s, even though one of the other vehicles was also from California. It was a big flashy black Escalade, though, not something that matched the modest one-story home in Temecula where Olivia lived…or at least where she had lived a few years ago.

  Alex pulled up next to the Honda, and they both got out. Luckily, the room number Olivia had given them was almost directly in front of the spot where they’d parked, so they didn’t have too far to go. Even before Alex lifted his hand to knock, the door opened, and a pair of frightened dark eyes peered out at them.

  “Come in,” she urged them, and they hurried inside. As soon as they’d cleared the door, Olivia shut it and engaged both the locks, even though they all knew that door locks were no barrier to even an ordinary witch or warlock, and certainly no problem for someone like Joaquin Escobar.

  The room didn’t look as though she’d planned to stay there for very long. A small weekender-style bag sat on one of the two double beds, but otherwise, there was no sign that anyone was even staying in the place.

  “Go ahead and sit,” Olivia said, moving toward the bed so she could get the bag out of the way.

  Caitlin and Alex sat down gingerly on the edge of the bed. Olivia seemed full of nervous energy, taking the bag to the closet so she could set it on the luggage stand there, coming back and peering out past the drapes before she finally also took a seat.

  As she watched the other woman move around the room, Caitlin recalled how Olivia had had a young boy when she and Alex had come to visit her all those years ago, trying to get more information about Matías Escobar. That child would be around kindergarten age now, but obviously still far too young to be left alone. Maybe the father was watching him?

  “Are you all right, Olivia?” Alex asked, bringing up the question that had been floating around in Caitlin’s mind.

  Olivia rubbed her hands on the knees of her faded jeans. Somehow, she looked thinner than the last time they’d seen her, pale and drawn, her high cheekbones standing out in sharp relief, her black hair straggling and limp on her shoulders. Before, she had been blooming and happy, content in her life with her civilian husband, even if she didn’t have any magical powers to speak of, was a nunca, which meant she’d never developed magical gifts the way all witches a
nd warlocks were supposed to. “I’m alive, and I’m here,” she said. “I don’t know about ‘all right.’”

  Caitlin didn’t want to sound pushy, but on the other hand, she needed to know what Olivia was doing here in Phoenix. “Can you tell us what happened?”

  “I — ” Olivia swallowed and pushed a strand of hair behind one ear, then sent a nervous glance toward the window, as if she somehow feared any attacks would come to her that way. “Matías told me that our father was in Southern California, but he also said I didn’t need to worry, that Joaquin didn’t care about me.” A bitter chuckle, and she added, “Why would he? I was of no use to him. But then I learned of all the terrible things he had done, how he had killed Simón and Beatriz, had taken Marisol for his own and killed her husband as well. Still, I didn’t know what I could do. I had no real powers. I supposed I hoped that he would ignore me, would pretend that I didn’t exist. I didn’t fit into his plans, after all.”

  “There really wasn’t anything you could have done,” Caitlin said gently. She knew too well that feeling of thinking that there must have been some way she could have intervened, could have prevented someone from getting hurt. Problem was, those sorts of notions tended to be wishful thinking.

  “I know,” Olivia said. She pushed her long, wavy hair back over her shoulders. It looked like it needed a wash and a brush, but Caitlin figured the other woman could be forgiven those small details, considering the circumstances. “But then — then Matías was killed. Joaquin called me to the house. I thought he wanted me there so I could mourn my brother. I did mourn him,” she added quickly, her tone almost defiant, as though she wanted to see whether Alex or Caitlin would challenge her for mourning someone who really was a despicable human being. Since they both remained silent, Olivia continued, “I mourned him because he was my brother, nothing more. After the funeral, I thought Joaquin would send me back to Temecula. I needed to get back to my husband and son. But Joaquin had other plans.”

  She paused there, her eyes filling with tears. Caitlin hated to push the other woman, but she was acutely aware of the way she was keeping Alex from his family, how the precious minutes kept ticking by. Maybe the ambulance had already left the house, taking Luz’s body to the funeral home.

  “What were those plans?” Caitlin asked softly.

  “William — my husband — he never knew about me being a witch. I told him I was an orphan, which was half true, or maybe three-quarters, since it wasn’t as though Joaquin was around to be any kind of a father to me. Anyway, while William knew about Matías, I’d only said that we were estranged and hadn’t spoken for a long time, that he would never be a part of our lives.” Now a tear finally began to trail its way down her cheek; she reached up and wiped it away, but absentmindedly, as if she’d done that very same thing many times before. Giving a rusty chuckle, she said, “It’s not that strange a story. Family can be a nightmare.”

  For Olivia, it definitely seemed that way. Caitlin couldn’t say such a thing about her own clan, because she’d always felt welcomed and loved, even back when she was doing her best to hide her talents as a seer from everyone. But she supposed she would have felt very different if her father and brother had been walking nightmares like Joaquin and Matías Escobar.

  She settled for giving a sympathetic nod, while Alex rubbed his chin, clearly worried about what was going to come next. Or maybe he was only thinking about his own family, about how he should be with them now.

  “I had car trouble. I suppose I should have realized it was a convenient coincidence, but at the time I didn’t think much about it. My car has a lot of miles on it, and I don’t always maintain it the way I should. Joaquin offered to have someone in the clan look at the car, but in the meantime he said he’d drive me home, since he knew I didn’t want to be away from my son Robert any longer than I had to. It was an awkward drive — I didn’t know what to say to Joaquin. I mean, I knew he was my father, but we had no connection. I didn’t even remember him. And of course I didn’t dare say anything to him about what he’d done to the Santiagos. I might be his biological daughter, but I knew that didn’t allow me to speak my mind.”

  “How old were you when you came to California?” Alex asked, and Olivia shrugged.

  “Not even a year. It’s the only place I’ve ever known.” Another tear rolled down her cheek, and she wiped it away with yet another of those oddly automatic gestures. “Joaquin walked me inside the house. Will was there, watching Robert. He seemed a little surprised to see Joaquin, but when he learned he was my father, he relaxed a bit. He shouldn’t have, though. Because as soon as the introductions were over, Joaquin told him that I came from a long line of witches and warlocks, even though I didn’t have any real powers of my own. Then he smiled and pointed at Robert, and said there was a good chance our son would grow up with witch talents despite all that.”

  Caitlin listened, wide-eyed. She knew that Joaquin Escobar was evil, but she couldn’t quite figure out why he would go out of his way to hurt his daughter’s family. “What happened?” she asked.

  “Will asked me if it was true, and I said yes. I told him I was sorry for misleading him, but because I didn’t have any real talents, had never developed them, that I didn’t think it was so important.” She stopped there so she could pull in a hiccuping little breath. Now tears flowed from both eyes, although she seemed to be ignoring them for the moment…or possibly no longer had the energy to wipe them away. “He was…angry. Told me our whole relationship was a lie. And then he told me he wanted me to leave.”

  That seemed awfully harsh, but Caitlin didn’t know anything about Olivia’s husband, since she’d never met him. She supposed he could have felt horribly betrayed by the secrets she’d kept from him, even if those secrets hadn’t done any real harm. “Did you?”

  Olivia’s fingers dug into the bedspread. “Yes. I didn’t have much choice. From the way Joaquin was standing there and watching the whole thing, smiling to himself, I guessed he’d planned this from the beginning…and I had a suspicion that those were his words in my husband’s mouth, that he was manipulating him even as I stood there. Joaquin hated the idea of me being married a civilian, of living a civilian life. I didn’t want to get into a huge fight in front of my son, because I knew it wouldn’t do any good. I figured I’d leave, then try to come back and talk to William later, when Joaquin wasn’t around. I packed a few things, and we went back to Pasadena.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Caitlin said. The words were beyond inadequate, but she wasn’t sure what else to do. From the way Olivia held herself, rigid and not quite looking at either her or Alex, it seemed pretty clear that she wouldn’t welcome a hug.

  Another one of those brittle lifts of Olivia’s thin shoulders. “At least Robert and Will were safe. It was probably better for me to be away from them. I didn’t speak to my father on the drive back — what would be the point? He’d gotten exactly what he wanted. In fact, I realized that even more when we got to the house and he said he was glad I’d be staying with them, that Marisol needed help around the house. I understood then why Joaquin wanted me there. He wanted me to be his servant, since I didn’t serve any other useful purpose. For the past few weeks, I’ve been running errands for him and Marisol, making their dinners, not much more than a slave.”

  “But you ran,” Alex said gently.

  Her lips pressed together, and she nodded. “I had to. I knew something was going on when the Ludlows started visiting, along with that brat of a prima-in-waiting of theirs. And when they kidnapped Levi McAllister, I knew they would never stop.”

  “We got him back, though,” Caitlin said, guessing that Olivia couldn’t have known about Levi’s rescue, since she must have been driving from California to Phoenix when all that occurred.

  However, the other woman didn’t seem at all relieved by that revelation. In fact, her eyes widened in fear, and her fingers dug into the cheap bedspread once more. “You think that’s the end of it? Joaquin will come after hi
m — he has to, because otherwise he can’t count on the Ludlows’ support. And the Ludlows will have their own witches and warlocks come here as well, because whatever their little princess wants, she gets. I know Joaquin doesn’t think much of the McAllisters, or the de la Pazes. He’s confident that he can beat all of you.”

  Sounded like someone was a little too full of himself. Caitlin looked over at Alex, whose jaw was set, mouth tight. This was all the last thing he needed to be hearing, especially when he’d only just learned of his mother’s death. “Don’t forget about the Wilcoxes. It’s not like they’re going to stand by and let some madman come after the other two Arizona clans. They’re part of this fight, too.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Olivia replied, her expression hopeless, almost tragic. “I don’t think you have any idea how big the Ludlow clan actually is — or the Santiagos. Put together, there are far more of them than there are McAllisters, Wilcoxes, and de la Pazes combined.”

  “This is still crazy,” Alex protested. “I know your father is kind of nuts, but even he has to realize that some all-out witch war is going to draw the attention of the civilian authorities. You can’t exactly sweep that kind of thing under the rug.”

  “He isn’t worried about it.” Olivia glanced from Alex to Caitlin, her haunted dark eyes pleading with them to understand. “Someone like Joaquin — he thinks he can manage every situation. Even if this thing blows up to a point where outsiders might notice, so what? He can control civilian minds just as easily as he can the minds of witches and warlocks.”

  Right. Caitlin had forgotten about that very important point. A wave of despair went over her. What on earth could any of them do against an opponent like Joaquin Escobar, someone who could control your mind at the same time he was destroying your ability to use your magical gifts?

  As much as she hated to even entertain the thought, maybe Levi wasn’t worth it. Maybe it was better to sacrifice one person than to drag all three of the Arizona clans into the fight to protect him.

  No, she knew Angela and Connor would never agree to that sort of thing, not when Luz had been sacrificed to save Levi in the first place. Besides, giving in to Escobar wasn’t really an option. If they caved on this one matter, then he’d know they would give in on many others. Their days of freedom would be over.