Forever turned out to be a little more than an hour, during which they covered a grand total of about ten miles. The cause of the delay was now obvious. Three cars had smashed into each other in the fast lane. One of them had overturned and lay crumpled on its roof. Flashing red and blue lights reflected off the wet pavement and the cars as a small army of police cruisers and emergency vehicles surrounded the crash site. Only one lane of the freeway was open, but once Leesa squeezed past the accident scene traffic opened up completely.
With the delay, she wondered if Rave might beat them home. She doubted it, but it was possible.
They finally arrived back at Weston just before three o’clock. What had taken less than two hours on the trip out had lengthened to more than three hours for the return trip, courtesy of the rain and the accident.
When Leesa eased the Blazer to the curb in front of her dorm, the rain had just about stopped. Dominic’s forecast seemed to be right on the mark. She wondered if someday she would be able to forecast the weather like that. She had no idea what the immediate future held, but she could imagine how different her life would be five or ten years from now—if Dominic’s enemies allowed her to make it that far, of course. She shook the pessimistic thought from her head and climbed out of the Blazer.
She hadn’t even closed the door when she heard a terrific screeching coming from somewhere behind her. She turned to see two cars careening around the corner, racing each other two abreast, completely oblivious to the slippery conditions. More knuckleheads, she thought.
Suddenly, the front of one car clipped the fender of the car closest to her. The next few moments seem to unfold in slow motion. Leesa watched as the driver of the second car slammed on his brakes, but the tires could find no purchase on the slick pavement. She watched the Toyota emblem on the grill grow larger as the car skidded straight toward her. There was no time to move out of the way.
“Bonduur,” she shouted, trying to initiate the shield spell.
She thought she heard her incantation echo in the air, but she sensed immediately that the spell had failed. As the car hurtled toward her, she closed her eyes. She heard the terrifying screech of metal ripping into metal as the Toyota struck the Blazer. Her last thought was of Rave.
41. puzzles
Ten miles away, Josef strode through a wooded hillside, his waziri senses guiding him unerringly toward the place where his vampire pets had been destroyed. He had received two more rides in his journey south, including one that took him from just south of Springfield all the way to Hartford. He had walked the rest of the way, in the rain for the last day and a half. He did not mind at all. Indeed, he scarcely noticed that the rain had just stopped.
He was almost there, he knew, so he slowed his pace, not wanting to miss anything. If there was any trace of magic in the area, he would know it.
Finally, he found what he had been seeking—two piles of soggy black ashes, pounded almost flat by the rain, scattered on the ground about twenty feet from each other. Josef stopped and focused on everything his senses could tell him.
The first thing he sensed was vampires, many of them. He sorted through the vibrations and counted five, including his two pets. The pile of ashes to his right was all that was left of Jarubu; Melissa’s ashes were to his right. Next, he detected volkaanes, fewer than the vampires, but more than one. Three, he decided. He did not understand what vampires and volkaanes had been doing together here—perhaps they had come at different times—but he was fairly certain now who had destroyed his vampires. He was a bit surprised. He had not expected that only three volkaanes would be able to defeat his pair of magically enhanced vampires, but the ashes didn’t lie.
He walked a wide circle around the two piles, moving slowly, wanting to check every direction for any other signs before examining the ashes themselves. Despite a thorough search, he found no additional vibrations. No one but volkaanes and vampires had been involved here. The only trace of waziri magic had come from his vampires, courtesy of his own blood.
He crossed to Jarubu’s ashes and knelt beside them. For a moment he did nothing, just soaking up the vibrations from close range. Then he waved his palm slowly above the ashes, carefully scanning for any sign magic might have been involved in Jarubu’s destruction. It had been a week since the black vampire had met his fate, but he knew any traces of magic would linger far longer than that. No amount of rain or wind would wipe the traces away. He detected nothing but the faint remnants of volkaane fire.
Just to be certain, he repeated the procedure over Melissa’s ashes, searching just as carefully. The results were the same. Volkaane fire had destroyed his vampires, and nothing else. He did not begrudge the volkaanes their actions. Their nature was to hunt and slay vampires and that was what they had done. It had been his vampires’ misfortune to encounter them. Still, that they had been bested by only three volkaanes troubled him. Perhaps Jarubu had gotten careless—his haughty, arrogant demeanor would almost guarantee that—and allowed himself and Melissa to be taken by surprise. Volkaanes were incredibly fast. They did not require much of an edge to come out victorious.
Suddenly, Josef’s waziri senses were rocked. He shot to his feet and stared off to the south.
42. big decisions
Leesa opened her eyes and stared disbelievingly at the silver Toyota emblem just inches from her legs. Impossibly, the car had stopped on the slick pavement just before it struck her. She remembered shouting “Bonduur,” but she knew her spell had failed. Something else had stopped the Toyota.
Tentatively, she reached her finger toward the Toyota’s hood, wanting to touch the metal to assure herself it was real. Her finger stopped an inch short of the grill. She could feel a hard surface, but there was a definite gap between her fingertip and the car. She tried to push her finger forward but could make it go no farther. Looking up at the windshield, she saw a young man behind the wheel. His eyes were lost in a glassy stare and blood oozed from a long gash on his forehead.
Dominic came rushing around the front of the Blazer. He gently grabbed Leesa’s upper arm.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice vibrating with concern.
Leesa looked down at the Toyota’s grill again. It was still only three inches from her body. The crumpled front fender had crunched the side of the Blazer, but miraculously had not touched her.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said, her brow and eyes wrinkled with puzzlement. “I don’t understand why, but I’m fine. There’s no way the car could have stopped in time.”
She looked at Dominic and then pushed her finger toward the Toyota one more time. Once again, it stopped an inch short. Understanding flooded through her.
“It was you,” she said. “You used the shield spell to save me.”
Dominic nodded. “It was the only way.”
“I heard my spell echo, but I thought my ears were playing tricks on me.”
Suddenly, the engine of the Toyota kicked over and the car began backing away. The young driver had apparently regained some of his senses. When he had backed up about five feet, he put the car in gear and zoomed away. Leesa guessed he had probably been drinking and wasn’t about to stay around to suffer the consequences of his actions. She instinctively memorized the Toyota’s license plate number but realized she could never use it. They had never registered the Blazer—there was no way they could file any kind of report.
“That young fool has no idea what he has just set in motion,” Dominic said as he watched the Toyota drive away.
It took Leesa a moment to understand what Dominic meant, but then it hit her.
“You used your magic! The black waziri can find you now.”
Dominic nodded. “Yes. And Josef is not far away.”
“We have to get out of here, then.” Leesa turned toward the Blazer and noted the damage. The rear side panel was crushed against the tire, which had flattened. The car did not look remotely close to drivable.
“Can you fix it?” she asked. “With y
our magic?”
Dominic’s lips curved into a wry grin. He shook his head.
“I have no spells for fixing cars. The last time I used my magic, cars didn’t even exist.”
“Then we have to get a taxi, or take the bus. Anything.”
Dominic shook his head again. “It won’t matter. Now that I’ve used my magic, Josef can track me. Magic lingers even after it is done. No matter where I go, I will leave a trail behind me. No, I’m afraid fleeing is not the answer.”
“What then?”
Dominic guided Leesa around the Blazer and toward the entrance to her dorm.
“It is time for me to confront Josef,” he said. “The Fates have seemingly decreed it. I knew this day must come eventually.”
Leesa did not like what she was hearing. “Yes, but you meant to have me there to help you. That’s been your plan all along. I don’t know nearly enough yet to be of any use.”
“That’s why you will be staying here,” Dominic said.
“What?” Leesa asked, confused. “Where will you be going?”
“I cannot allow Josef to find me here, where there are so many people around. He will not care how many innocent people he hurts. His only thought will be to destroy me. I must find him first and fight him where no one else will be hurt.”
Leesa struggled to put all the pieces together. “You can find him? It’s been at least a week since Josef used his magic, and you said he was more than a hundred miles away.”
“I know where he was headed—to the place where Rave and Stefan destroyed the vampires. From there, he will come here, for me. I will go that place. If I do not meet him on the way, I’ll await him there. He will come. There is no doubt of it.”
“But can you defeat him?” Leesa asked, remembering Dominic’s stories. “You said the reason the black waziri defeated the rest of you was because of their black magic.”
“I do not know,” Dominic replied honestly. “But I no longer have a choice. The time for hiding is over.”
“Can’t you wait for Rave? He would help you, I know he would.” She hated the thought of sending Rave into danger, but all their futures were at stake now.
“There is no time. I must leave now.” Dominic put his hands on Leesa shoulders and stared into her eyes. “If I do not return, continue practicing your magic. Over time, other skills will come to you, like the dreams and the telekinesis did even before I met you. You will learn to master them eventually. I have faith in you.”
Leesa could not even begin to imagine learning to master her magic without Dominic to train her. She could not lose him, not now, not ever. She made a decision.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
43. bLACK AND WHITE
Dominic’s grip on Leesa’s shoulders tightened.
“You cannot come,” he said. The look in his pale blue eyes was hard, intense. “I forbid it.”
Leesa tried to meet his stare with an equally powerful one of her own.
“I have to,” she said. “I can help. I know it.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Your concern for me is keeping you from seeing this clearly,” Leesa said, her voice steady. “Hasn’t your plan all along been that your enemies will not be able to sense my magic? That’s how I can help.”
Dominic shook his head, but Leesa could see in his eyes that his resolve was wavering.
“My plan counted on you having mastered your magic, not having barely begun your training.”
“I know. I’m not fooling myself. I realize I can’t hurt Josef in the slightest. Heck, I don’t think I could hurt even an ordinary human with the little I know. But maybe I can be a distraction.”
Dominic removed his hands from Leesa’s shoulders and dropped them to his sides.
“You have to remain well back and out of sight,” he said after a moment, and Leesa knew she had won the argument. “If Josef sees you, he will snuff you out with no more thought than he would a flea. But if he doesn’t know where the magic is coming from, no matter how weak it is, he has to be concerned.”
“I’ll stay hidden, I promise,” Leesa assured him. Now that she had gotten her way, she tried to imagine how her paltry skills might be of any use, but had trouble coming up with anything. It was too late for any dream, though perhaps an answer might come to her in a waking vision, like the one that had shown her the Necromancer. Telekinesis was probably her best bet, she decided, if only she could find the strength that had allowed her to hurl Edwina away from Cali. She didn’t think sliding some stones across the ground was going to bother Josef. She would need more—much more.
If Dominic recognized any sign of her internal struggle, he didn’t show it.
“Let’s go, then,” he said. “We must get off campus as quickly as possible.”
They headed north, moving rapidly across the Weston grounds and then walking west on Washington Street. After half a mile on the road, Dominic turned and led them north into the woods.
They walked so fast that Leesa did not feel the cold at all, even as the afternoon waned. The rain had stopped completely, but the descending sun was still hidden behind a layer of dark clouds. Here in the trees, the ground was covered with wet, slippery leaves, forcing Leesa to watch every step. After fifteen minutes, Dominic halted.
“We have to separate,” he said. “Josef is not far now, and he knows I’m coming. I can feel him tracking me.”
Dominic bent and picked up a fallen branch, breaking off a few smaller branches to create a crude staff. “I’ll mark my trail with this.”
Leesa thought he was going to use magic somehow to create a trail, but instead he merely scratched the staff across the ground, leaving a dark line on the wet leaves.
“Follow this, but remain out of sight,” Dominic instructed. “You will know when Josef and I have found each other.”
Leesa swallowed hard. “I will,” she managed to say.
Dominic nodded once. “Be careful, Leesa.”
“You, too,” Leesa said, but Dominic was already heading off into the trees, dragging his staff next to him. She watched his back until it disappeared, then followed his trail.
Neither Dominic nor Josef was surprised when they came within sight of one another. Their magical senses had alerted them to the presence of the other long before.
“So, Dominic, you’ve finally decided to come out of hiding,” Josef said. “I’m glad. I was growing tired of waiting.”
“I’ll try not to disappoint you then,” Dominic replied. He dropped the staff to the ground, freeing up both his hands.
“I’m curious,” Josef said. “What made you use your magic after more than a century? Did you perhaps grow too fond of some human?”
Dominic shrugged, not wanting Josef to know how close he had come to the mark.
“I did what had to be done.”
“I hope it was worth it.” Josef smiled. “But if the human did not survive, perhaps I can show you how to raise him.” His smile widened. “It’s not too late for you to join with us, you know. We are close to breaking the seal, and then nothing will be able to stop us.”
“No, thank you,” Dominic said resolutely. “I prefer to honor my oaths.”
“I expected nothing less, but I had to ask. Perhaps one day you will join us—after you are dead.”
Josef jerked up his hand toward Dominic. A bolt of black energy shot from his palm.
Dominic was ready for him. A stream of yellow-white light streaked from his hand, meeting Josef’s bolt halfway. The two bolts crackled and sizzled where they met.
Leesa limped slowly through the trees, following the trail left by Dominic, until suddenly a flash of yellow light brightened the dimness ahead of her. She stopped immediately. Dominic had said she would know when he found Josef. She didn’t know what the glow was, but she knew it was magic. Dominic and Josef had come together.
She moved ten or twelve paces off the trail she had been following, and then crept forward, being careful to m
ake no sound. She was thankful the leaves were packed and sodden—had they been dry, approaching unheard would have been impossible.
The woods grew steadily brighter until she finally saw the two wizards. She stopped behind the thick trunk of a tree and peered carefully around it.
Dominic and Josef stood some thirty feet apart. The yellow glow came from a beam of energy shooting from Dominic’s right palm. Halfway between the two wizards, the yellow-white energy met a bolt of black coming from Josef’s right hand. Where the two magical bolts met, the energies had spread and flattened in to a small starburst. She could hear the magical energy sputtering in the quiet. It looked like a stalemate to her. She wondered how long each of the wizards could maintain so much magic.
While she watched, Josef raised his free hand and pointed to a spot above Dominic. With a loud crack, a thick branch broke free and hurtled down toward Dominic’s head. Dominic waved his free hand and the branch fell off to the side, narrowly missing him. The effort had cost him about a foot of distance where the two beams of energy met, though.
Leesa saw Dominic’s mouth move as he invoked some kind of spell. The ground opened up beneath Josef’s feet. The black wizard dropped into the hole up to his knees before his counter spell raised him back up and sealed the hole. Dominic gained back most, but not all of the ground he had lost.
Leesa understood what was happening. The yellow-white bolt and the black bolt were the most powerful magics the two wizards could bring to bear. The rest was just distraction, trying to gain an advantage for the killing blow. She could only imagine what would happen if one of those bolts hit home.
Dominic and Josef appeared fairly evenly matched. She thought Dominic had probably been the more powerful wizard before Josef turned to the black magic, but the evil power seemed to give Josef a slight edge now. Leesa strained to think of something she could do to turn the tide in Dominic’s favor without giving herself away. If it came down to it, she would certainly reveal her presence to save Dominic’s life, but she hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Helpless (Blue Fire Saga) Page 22