Darktide

by Christine Pope

  You’re seriously thinking about this.

  I have to think about it Connor, I told him, even my internal voice sounding as though it was on the verge of tears. We’re running out of options. We already know that we’re outmatched and outnumbered.

  And what happens if you make this promise and it turns out the Castillos can’t help us after all? They’re a big and powerful clan, but they’re just ordinary witches and warlocks, same as the rest of us. I doubt there’s anyone among them who can withstand Escobar’s null power.

  Connor had a point. But surely there was something to be said for strength in numbers. If the Castillos worked together with the Arizona clans, there would be enough of us to overwhelm the Santiagos and the Ludlows. As for Escobar — well, we’d already established that his dark gifts didn’t work on us, not completely. Maybe we could get Isabel to bond with us the way Luz had. True, that hadn’t turned out very well, but I could tell that Isabel was far more powerful than Luz. Also, she’d been prima for decades, had a wealth of experience and knowledge to support her. It was entirely possible that Luz would have been like that one day…if she’d been given the chance to grow into her talents and her position.

  I can’t make this decision on my own, I told him. We have to be in agreement on this. But the future of both our clans rests on what we choose to do — and the future of the de la Paz family as well. And…and he has our children, Connor. We thought we were keeping them safe by sending them away, and all we did was make them an easy target.

  Hey, he responded, we did think they were safe. They should have been safe. If nothing else, Lucas’ talent should have helped to protect them.

  Well, obviously it didn’t.

  Yeah, I kind of know that now. The mental equivalent of a sigh, and he went on, I hate to say it — hate to even think it — but you’re right. I don’t think we have any choice but to accept Isabel’s offer. A long pause, and he added, And hope that one day our daughter will forgive us.

  How could I respond to that? This baby wouldn’t even be along for another six months, and already we were thinking about how much she’d probably end up hating us for selling her off like this. She couldn’t know how desperate we’d been, how few options we had.

  “All right,” I said, my voice hard. “We agree to your terms — if your assistance allows us to defeat Joaquin Escobar. If he’s not dead at the end of this, then no deal.”

  Isabel smiled. “You have a ruthless streak in you, Angela. I appreciate that. And I agree to your terms. It would not be fair to hold you to our little arrangement if you did not get the outcome you desired. So we can consider the deal sealed, for now at any rate.”

  “Great,” Connor said, although he didn’t look thrilled at all. “What should we do first?”

  “This mode of travel you used to get here — ”

  “Teleporting?” I asked, and she nodded.

  “Yes, this teleporting. Can you only send yourselves back and forth in such a way, or can you take someone else with you?”

  “We brought Levi back from Joaquin Escobar’s house, so yes, we can do that,” I replied. “But that was Connor and me working together. I don’t know whether each of us can manage another person or not.”

  “Well, let us try,” Isabel said. “I have two people in mind to send with you now — they are both very skilled at defensive magic, so they should be able to help with any attacks by regular witches and warlocks, whether or not they’re Santiagos or Ludlows.”

  “But they won’t be able to do much against Escobar,” Connor said.

  Isabel didn’t look overly concerned by his comment. “No, of course not. That task will fall to us, as the leaders of our clans. What of the prima of the de la Paz family?”

  Connor and I exchanged a glance. That wound was a raw one. To my relief, he spoke first.

  “Escobar murdered the former prima of the de la Paz clan. Zoe, her successor, has been in charge for barely a day. I’m not saying that she won’t be able to help, but I honestly don’t know how much she can really manage.”

  “Unfortunate,” Isabel said, although her tone was so bland, I couldn’t really tell if she thought it was unfortunate or not. “Well, for now it is probably better if we don’t count on her for much assistance. Even so, I think the three of us working together should be able to defeat this dark warlock. The two of you share what seems to be boundless power, even if you’re not always certain as to how to use it.”

  I thought that we’d need to figure it out, and soon, if we wanted to see our children alive. Once again I had to push away the panic that welled up in me. Freaking out wasn’t going to do anyone any good. “Who do you want to send with us?” I asked.

  “My middle son, Alberto, and Rosella, a very talented witch. They’ll be able to help shore up your defenses in Jerome — for if that is where Levi is staying, I think that is where the next attack will come.”

  “Then we’d better get back — ” I began, panic all too clear in my tone, and Isabel shook her head.

  “I don’t think you have to worry too much, at least not about Escobar himself. No doubt he is already long on the road, taking his captives with him. He will want to defend them from his home ground and make sure they don’t leave his sight. Any attacks on Jerome will come from the witches and warlocks working for him.”

  “They’re going to be in for a nasty surprise, then,” Connor said, looking grimly satisfied at the thought of any Santiagos or Ludlows getting some blowback. “When Escobar isn’t around to tamp down his powers, Levi can be pretty impressive. And his girlfriend Hayley is no slouch, either.”

  “Her gift is that she can magnify another witch or warlock’s power,” I explained.

  “Ah. That is useful.” Isabel seemed to consider for a moment. “You should still take Alberto and Rosella with you. In the meantime, I will send word to everyone in my clan who has talents that could be useful. They will follow by more conventional means, since there is no one among them who can travel instantly in the way you do. But they will be there soon enough. I assume you want them divided somewhat evenly amongst the three clans?”

  “Yes,” Connor said. “Or actually, maybe more of them down in the Phoenix area with the de la Pazes, since they seem to get targeted first. I know we need to be protecting Levi, but if a bunch of strange witches and warlocks suddenly show up in Jerome, people are going to start asking questions. That’s the tough thing about living in such a small town.” Frowning, he added, “What about Escobar?”

  “We will deal with him, have no doubt of that.” Isabel gave us what she probably intended as a reassuring smile, but its frosty appearance didn’t do much to bolster my courage. “Once you’re back in Jerome, reach out to him. I assume you have some way of making contact?”

  “Yes — Luz gave me a number for the Santiago house in Pasadena.” It seemed strange to consider contacting Joaquin Escobar through the very mundane means of a phone call, but I didn’t have any other way of reaching him. Maybe it was possible for me to beam a thought right into his head, but no way did I want to get that close to that sick mind of his.

  “What do you expect us to say to him?”

  “Make it seem as if you want to talk terms. Of course you don’t, but the point is to make him think you’re willing to cooperate. It will buy us enough time to get our reinforcements in place. Then we will take the battle to him.”

  And get the twins and Mia back, I thought. Goddess, they must be so frightened. Blessed Brigid, look after them and keep them safe.

  “I assume that means you want us to come back for you at that point,” Connor said.

  “Yes. Once we know your people are protected from attack, you can come here and get me, take me with you to this house in California that Joaquin Escobar has taken for his own.” A strange expression passed over her patrician features, one that seemed to be a mixture of curiosity and amusement. “I must admit, I am rather looking forward to experiencing that mode of transportation.”
<
br />   Someone knocked softly on the doorframe to the living room, and we all turned. Standing there was Juan with another man a few years younger, someone who shared such a resemblance with him — the same thick black hair, the same long, aristocratic nose — that I guessed this must be his brother Alberto. The woman who stood with him was probably around his age, her dark hair pulled back into a low ponytail. Unlike Isabel, she looked downright casual, in jeans and an embroidered Indian-style top, turquoise earrings a contrast to her olive skin.

  How Isabel had managed to summon them without us even noticing, I had no idea. Had Juan been eavesdropping outside the whole time, and made the calls once he heard Alberto’s and Rosella’s names mentioned?

  Either that, or Isabel had the ability to reach out with her mind and make her wishes known. I thought I liked the first possibility a little better.

  “Angela, Connor, this is Rosella and Alberto. They’ll be traveling with you,” the Castillo prima said.

  “Hi,” I said, with Connor echoing the word and sounding almost as awkward as I felt. “We’re going to be teleporting. I know that sounds strange, but — ”

  “It’s all right,” Rosella broke in. “We know what we need to do.”

  She came over to me, even as Alberto approached Connor. No doubt she thought it would be slightly less awkward for us to transport someone of our own sex. As I began to reach out and grasp Rosella’s hand, however, my phone started buzzing in my purse.

  “I need to take that,” I said apologetically. “Hang on a sec.”

  “No problem,” Rosella replied, stepping back a bit to give me some room.

  The number on the display was Levi’s. I hurriedly lifted the phone to my ear. “Levi? What is it?”

  I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him sound so worried. “Where are you? All hell is breaking loose over here.”

  Oh, no. “On our way.”

  I ended the call and shoved the phone back in my purse. “Sounds like we might be going into a combat zone. Are you ready?”

  Rosella nodded, and, a few paces away, Alberto did the same. I locked my fingers around those of the Castillo witch, closed my eyes, and jumped.

  22

  Levi

  While he hadn’t been thrilled at the thought of being confined to his apartment indefinitely, Levi thought there were far worse fates he could have suffered. At least he had Hayley here with him. At the moment, her head was pillowed on his lap, his feet up on the coffee table, as they discussed the various options available to them on Netflix. Such an ordinary little scene. It was hard to believe that he’d been held captive by Joaquin Escobar only a few short hours ago.

  Levi wanted to put those memories behind him. While he was glad to be safely away, and doubly glad to be here now with Hayley, he couldn’t forget the very high price they’d paid so that he could return to his life. The de la Paz clan had lost their prima, and now no one was quite sure what was going to happen next.

  “What about iZombie?” Hayley asked. “I never got a chance to see that.”

  “You’re interested in zombies?” Levi inquired, faintly surprised. He hadn’t thought Hayley was the type to watch shows with that kind of blood and gore.

  Her big blue eyes blinked up at him. “Well, the lead character is a zombie, but she doesn’t go around killing people. Or at least, that’s what I’ve heard. It’s definitely not like The Walking Dead. If you don’t like it, we can find something else.”

  “Sure,” he said, knowing that he would have agreed to watch just about anything with her. The important thing was being here, having her lie on the couch with her head on his lap, the sweet herbal scent of her shampoo drifting up from the blonde tresses that flowed over his thighs.

  She was already holding the remote, so all she had to do was shift slightly so she could point it at the television. As she began to work her way through the Netflix menu, however, footsteps pounded up the stairs, and the next moment, someone was banging at the door.

  “Levi!”

  It was Lucinda’s voice. Levi knew she was alone today, because Brandon had to go back into work.

  “Great timing,” Hayley grumbled, but she obligingly pushed herself out of the way so Levi could rise from the couch and answer the door.

  His senses were already on high alert, though, because he knew Lucinda wouldn’t pound on the door like that unless she had a very good reason. He flung it open, saw her standing there, chest heaving as though she’d just run up both flights of stairs. Actually, he assumed that was precisely what she’d done.

  “They — they just got out of their van and started breaking windows,” she gasped.

  “Who?” That sort of destruction sounded like the work of local hooligans, although he hadn’t thought anyone would be foolish enough to do something like that to any of the store owners here in Jerome. Most people down the hill in Cottonwood and Clarkdale had no idea that the little tourist town was half populated by witches and warlocks, but they knew enough to understand it wasn’t a good idea to risk invoking the wrath of the people who lived and worked there.

  “They’re witch-kind,” she replied. “I didn’t recognize any of them, though. Must be Ludlows, because if Joaquin had sent Santiagos here, I would have known who they were.”

  So the war had begun, although he thought starting off with a series of broken windows didn’t have quite the same impact as shooting a cannon. Actually, he guessed that such low-level mayhem was merely a ploy to draw him out. The question was, would he allow them to do such a thing? He was supposed to stay safely inside and avoid presenting himself as a target.

  Even as he mulled that notion, he knew he would have to go out. He couldn’t hide here in his apartment and expect those with lesser magical skills than he to manage the defense of the town. Hopefully — sooner rather than later — Angela and Connor would get wind of what was going on, and come down to assist him. In the meantime, he had Hayley. He could only hope that the two of them would be enough to drive back the invaders.

  “Hayley,” he said. It was all he said, but it was enough. She’d already sat up and slipped her shoes back on as soon as she heard what Lucinda was saying, and now she came over to meet them at the door.

  “I’m ready,” she told him.

  He had to admit that she looked ready. Her chin was firm, and the fire blazing in her azure eyes told him she was all too willing to take the fight to these witches and warlocks who’d brought mayhem to their peaceful little town.

  “Where?” he asked.

  “Down the hill, at the gallery just below the Flatiron.”

  It made sense that the invading witches and warlocks would start there. If they caused enough destruction, they’d block the highway before it split into two one-way streets, with the Flatiron building serving as the break point. That would make it difficult for anyone to come up the hill to provide assistance.

  He took Hayley by the hand. She knew what he intended to do and nodded, joining her power with his. Levi wished he had enough strength to bring Lucinda with him as well, but her minor talent with weather-working really wouldn’t help all that much here.

  “Summon everyone you can,” he told her, and she blinked at him, right before he placed the image of the Flatiron in his mind and sent Hayley and himself there.

  When they materialized on the sidewalk in front of the triangular building, they were greeted by the sound of destruction, only this time it hadn’t come from one of the storefronts, but from a car heading downhill as it crashed into the one in front of it. Levi immediately saw why the fender-bender had occurred: The driver in the lead had stomped on his brakes to avoid careening into the line of witches and warlocks who stood blocking the road — all dressed in casual street clothes, as though they’d stopped in on their way to go shopping at Costco — and the car to his rear had smashed right into him.

  Hayley still clung to his hand, her power coiled, ready to assist him. While Levi knew he could employ some of the same tactics he’d used again
st the demons Escobar had sent to attack the town, he knew they would most likely kill the people who confronted them now, rather than simply drive them off. While some would have said this was war, and the Ludlow witches and warlocks enemy combatants, he wasn’t sure he wanted to go quite that far. In the back of his mind, he hoped they would be able to come to a resolution at some point, and any future peace-making would surely be made that much more difficult if he managed to kill several members of the Ludlow clan. What he really needed was to get them off the street.

  Of course.

  The wind came howling down off the mountain, stronger than any winter gale Jerome had ever seen before, strong enough that even Levi had a difficult time standing upright, although he’d made sure it wouldn’t reach full strength until it had passed him and Hayley. She clung to his hand with both of hers, long blonde hair flying around her head like ribbons of tortured gold.

  There were seven Ludlow witches and warlocks, enough to easily block the narrow street. As soon as the wind hit them, however, they went over like bowling pins, rolling and tumbling down the steep incline. A few hundred yards from where Levi stood, Highway 89A took a jog to the east, and that was where they all collected, washed up against the fence of the vacation rental property there like so much flotsam and jetsam.

  “You don’t really think that’s going to keep them away, do you?” Hayley asked.

  Her question was a valid one; even as Levi watched, the Ludlow witches and warlocks began to climb to their feet and struggle their way back up the hill.

  “No,” he said. “I only wanted to buy a little time.” Glancing around, he saw that a crowd of tourists had begun to gather, expressions more curious than frightened. Quite possibly they thought this was all a show put on for their benefit, like the street shootouts he’d read about down in the former mining town of Tombstone.

  More important, though, was the arrival of the elders. Boyd wore a pair of overalls and had a hammer hanging from the loop on his pants leg, which meant he’d probably been in the middle of one of his numerous “projects” when he got word of the invaders. Right behind him were Tricia and Allegra, both of whom looked pale and frightened.