Magick (Immortals and Magick Book 2)

by Teresa Federici

  Harley apparently got the gist of Noah’s delay as well. From Gareth’s fake cough and Damien’s nervous shifting, it seemed they got it as well.

  “Well hold on, no one get up yet. What’s the plan?” Damien asked, and looked questioningly at me.

  “Well, for starters…”

  The next hour was dedicated to them listening to my plan, and pointing out various holes in it and how to fix them. Noah’s hand was permanently linked to mine, and occasionally he would squeeze it reassuringly. We laughed, we plotted, we worried.

  The night had settled firmly in Noah’s woods as we pulled up to his house, a lingering chill in the air. I pulled my hoodie closer around me when I hopped out of the truck, looking forward to a fire and a whiskey. Noah came around the truck and we walked up the stairs together, his arm slung around my shoulders.

  “I’m glad Gareth and Anna are back, so that Harley has someone with her. I almost feel bad about it, like I’m abandoning her.” I mused quietly as we walked into the cabin.

  “That was random.” Noah commented as he turned on lights. Neither one of us wanted the darkness tonight. There’d be enough of that tomorrow.

  “Well, just because I’m here with you doesn’t mean I don’t worry about my best friend.” I moved in front of the fireplace and cheated a little bit, holding my hand out and bringing up the fire. I didn’t have any patience for kindling or matches tonight. My nerve endings sizzled with the building pressure of…what, I didn’t know. Something was building though. If my mind didn’t know what it was, my body did.

  “I know. I’m glad she’s not alone. Damien needs to get off his haunches and sweep her off her feet.”

  I felt his hands rest on my shoulders, and I leaned back into him, closing my eyes as he started to knead the tension from my muscles.

  “Harley isn’t the sweep-her-off-her-feet type of girl, if you hadn’t noticed.”

  “No, but neither were you, and I swept you off your feet.” I felt him dip just before I felt my legs come off the ground.

  “Noah!” I squealed, my arms wrapping around his neck as he caught my legs.

  “Come on, admit it, you’ve been effectively swept.”

  I laughed. I laughed long and loud, and kept laughing until Noah made me whimper with need. Laughter kept the pressure at bay. The lights we turned on as he carried me to the bedroom kept the darkness at bay.

  Chapter Sixteen

  With Written’s renovations under way, that freed up Harley to come over early to Noah’s and help me mentally prepare for my traveling. We cleansed a space in Noah’s woods, and created our circle. Once that was done, we made our offerings to our patron Goddesses, and set about meditating.

  The Morrigan, the Celtic goddess of war and battles, was who I made my offering to; a cup of red wine, a red apple that shined like a ruby, and pomegranate seeds to symbolize blood spilled on a battlefield. I was pretty much going in to battle and needed all the help I could get. I needed focus, determination, and power over my fear.

  On one side of the circle, Harley meditated on her issues, whatever those might be. Maybe she was asking for guidance, or strength to help me through it. Harley’s mind of late was clouded, and I didn’t want to pry. I was just plain nervous.

  I talked a big game, and was mostly able to follow it up with action, but this was a huge step I was taking. Deliberately going into Padraigan’s world was a scary proposition, but I had to try. I was tired of being controlled, and now was the time to do something about it. I was prepared for any eventuality.

  When I was finished, I patiently waited for Harley to wrap up, then we closed the circle and walked quietly together toward the house.

  “Are you scared?” Harley asked suddenly.

  “Yes. Terrified. If I didn’t have you and the gang to watch over me, I probably wouldn’t be able to go through with it.”

  We walked another few feet without saying anything, but I could tell there was more that Harley wanted to say. I was about to say something when she reached out and placed her hand on my arm. I stopped and turned to look at her, and was surprised to see tears in her eyes. She knew tears made me uncomfortable, so what she was feeling had to be bad.

  “Harley, what’s wrong?”

  “I’m scared for you. I don’t know if we can protect you or not, and I couldn’t bear to lose my sister.” Her words were muffled and choked; she was trying hard not to burst into tears.

  “Hey, I’m not going anywhere! I’ll be fine! Besides, if something happens to me, you’ll be without any meaningful relationships, and I can’t let that happen.”

  She gave me a watery laugh and punched my arm lightly.

  “You’re my only meaningful relationship. All joking aside, I am worried. I won’t let it affect me when the time comes tonight, but it’s gnawing on my nerves. Something is off about this, and I got a bad feeling.” Harley said, her latent Southern accent coming out, which happened when she was stressed.

  “I am confident that nothing is going to happen. I have faith in my friends! I wouldn’t be able to do this if it weren’t for all of you being there with me. It’ll be fine.”

  I said the words to comfort her, but she was right; something was off, something in the air, and I almost called it off right then and there. I couldn’t though. I had to go through with it.

  “Well, just be prepared to be pulled back if something goes wrong.”

  “Yes ma’am.” I smiled to ease the tension.

  We walked on, coming out of the woods to see Noah standing on the back deck, two cups of coffee in his hands.

  “Come back for him, if nothing else.” Harley said fervently, almost feverishly.

  “I’m coming back for all of you.” I said softly, but thoughts of never seeing Noah again caused something inside me to quake in fear.

  A knock on the front door surprised me out of my musings. I had been sitting at the breakfast bar, staring into my cup of coffee, and going over the plan for my travel. I wasn’t expecting anyone, so I approached the door with trepidation. I couldn’t get a read on whoever was out there, which upped my nervous factor. The last time that happened, Gemma had paid us a visit.

  “Who is it?” I asked the door, standing a few paces back from it in case it flew open.

  “It’s Gareth.”

  I was a little nonplussed. We were all friends, sure, but it’s not like Gareth and I hung out and threw back some beers on a regular basis. Or whatever it is he drank to look normal when he went out and about.

  “Can I come in?” He asked, laughter in his voice.

  “Oh, gosh! Sorry!” I rushed forward and opened the door to see him standing there. He still had a small smile on his face.

  “If you’re looking for Noah, he’s not here. He’s over at Written.” I said as I shut the door behind him. We stood in the entryway, and I felt slightly awkward. Gareth was a friend, a very good friend, but we had never been alone together. I couldn’t imagine what he would want with me.

  “I know. It was you I came to see. I wanted to give you some background on Padraigan. I thought maybe it would help.”

  “Oh yeah, that’s right. You were going to tell me something about that at dinner the other night.”

  He smiled again, a bit ruefully.

  “Yes, until someone dropped a bombshell.”

  “Well, you know me, I’m all about dropping bombs.”

  We stood there in silence for a moment, until I remembered my manners.

  “Let’s go sit in the living room.” I gestured towards the great room, and followed him in.

  “Um…..can I get you anything?” What did you offer a vampire who comes for a social call? He didn’t eat in front of us to keep up appearances, and Noah and I didn’t keep a stocked refrigerator of blood on hand for him.

  “No Teagan, it’s all right. I really don’t need anything. I just want to give you some possibly helpful information on Padraigan.”

  “Oh well, okay. Let’s sit down.”

&n
bsp; We settled into the suede couches, across from one another, and I prepared for my Padraigan tutorial.

  “I’ll just get right to it. No sense wasting more time. First things first: Padraigan is old. Very, very, very old. He predates me by at least 3000 years. I suspect he’s older than that.”

  Something in my demeanor must have struck Gareth as odd, because he stopped talking. I was trying to process the fact that a body could still be up and walking around after three thousand years. Gareth himself was just over 200 years old, which in my uneducated way, figured was pretty damn old for a vampire.

  “Wait. So. Wait. Let me process this. Padraigan is at least 3000 years old? And you think he could be OLDER?”

  Gareth scooted closer to me and took one of my hands in his. He chafed them, which was oddly soothing, considering his skin was so cold. He must not have fed recently, my bewildered mind thought, its lame attempt to shy away from the fact that I was planning on entering the lair of a millennia old vampire with nothing but my witchy super powers.

  “Yes, but there’s more to it than his age. Before he became a vampire he was a powerful sorcerer, learning his trade when the world was still full of magick.”

  “This is not getting any better. Is this supposed to be a pep talk? Because if so, it sucks.” I could almost feel my skin turning green with the nausea that sprang into my belly.

  “No, no, not a pep talk. Just background so that you know what you’re up against.”

  “Oh so information to stop me from going tonight. It’s scary, I admit, but I can’t be deterred. I won’t be.” I shot up from the couch and moved to stand by the windows overlooking the forest. The day was sunny, with a few clouds moving through, which made the forest sparkle emerald one minute, and deep green the next.

  “Teagan, why do you have to be so thickheaded?” I heard Gareth sigh from behind me, and it lit a fire in me.

  “Thickheaded? I don’t think so Mr. Vampire Man. I’m trying, just like everyone else in our circle, to fight this jackass. If you have a different point to make than the one that I’m getting out of this, then talk to me like I’m a five-year-old and help me understand.”

  With a long-suffering sigh, Gareth tried again. To his credit, he didn’t speak slowly, like he would to a five-year-old.

  “What I want, what I’m trying to do, is give you as much information as possible about Padraigan. Knowledge is power, as the saying goes, and the more you know, the better you are for it. Padraigan wasn’t always the-jackass, I believe the term was that you used-, but rather a good and decent human being. I know that’s difficult to comprehend, but it’s true. Three thousand years can change a person, aye?” He asked, cocking an eyebrow at me. I nodded, finally seeing where he was taking his point.

  “As I was saying, he was once a powerful sorcerer, and respected amongst others of his kind. He was a well-regarded healer as well, which is ironic, considering all he wants to do now is destroy. He had a life-mate, and children, as well. Then there was Nathaira, who was his undoing.”

  Something that could be mistaken for pity was in Gareth’s voice, which was something I had never heard reflected for Padraigan. As if we both knew the story was about to take a turn for the worst, we moved back to the couches and sat down. I picked up the coffee mug I had carried in with me, but it had turned cold. I set it down again.

  “Who was Nathaira? Don’t expect me to pronounce it with that lilt that you have.” I smiled at him.

  “Well, it doesn’t really matter how it’s pronounced; she was named well, for it means serpent in Gaelic. Wicked woman, that one.”

  “I love it when you get all Scottish.” I grinned at him.

  “Too bad Noah isn’t Scottish.”

  “True. I don’t know that I could keep my thoughts on normal conversations if he were. Anyway, this is entering weird territory. So how do you know she was a wicked woman? You obviously wasn’t around for that part of history.”

  “She’s a legend amongst vampires. You can’t live a decade as a vampire without hearing of her. She was born, as near as anyone can place it, around 2000 BC. She was already a vampire when she crossed paths with Padraigan. Or so they say. No one really knows how old Padraigan is, as I said earlier.”

  “How far back in the historic record do vampires exist? I mean, modern man has only been around for, what, 50,000 years? Do they go back that far?” I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the time frames we were discussing. I had a hard time remembering that I was almost 30.

  “There is no definitive answer for that. I would assume for as long as man has walked the earth. Back to Padraigan. Nathaira saw Padraigan, saw the power he possessed and contrived to bring him to her side of things. Padraigan refused, despite Nathaira’s persuasions, and she responded to the rejection by slaughtering his entire family.”

  “And instead of doing the honorable thing and avenging his family and killing her snaky ass, he joined her? That makes no sense.”

  “No, he tried to avenge them, at the first, but she was near as powerful as himself, if not more so. She ended up driving him insane, and in his weakness, was able to turn him. Together, they made a formidable pair. Both sorcerers, both vampires, both certifiably insane.”

  “So is there any redemption in him? Can we appeal to his better side?”

  “I don’t think he has a better side anymore, to be honest. I think that part of him died when his family died. He craves only power, pretty things, and immortality. Which is why he comes after me. He has it in his head that I’m going to poison the vampire water supply with the cure, if ever we find it.”

  “Oh my god! Hold the phone, Gareth made a joke! Wait, what’s that sound? I think I just heard icicles forming in hell.”

  “Ever the jokester, Teagan. Well, it’s why we keep you around.” He flashed a grin at me, and I melted a little. Damn those vampire looks, even if he was my brother of sorts.

  “I try. So, how does this help me to..to..do battle with him. Spy on him. Whatever I’m going to be doing tonight.”

  “I would hope that you have an idea of what you are going to be doing tonight, otherwise you’re more insane than Padraigan.” He admonished. I pasted on a contrite face. He apparently didn’t find the humor in my words.

  “It helps you so that you have a better idea of what this creature is capable of. There is no remorse in him, no soft center to appeal to, no sense of decency to rely on. He will try anything, anything at all, to hurt us. He has no morals, no sympathy. He’s only his anger, power and insanity. He will hurt you, if he knows you’re there. He will sever the ties that your mind has to your body without a second thought. He will not hesitate to kill you.”

  Although these were things I had known in my mind after seeing what he and Anna had gone through with Padraigan, stated so baldly left me speechless for a moment. The house was so quiet after Gareth finished speaking that I could hear a carpenter bee thumping solidly at the window, looking for a meal the treated logs wouldn’t provide. For a moment, I envied its simple little bee life.

  “So Pollyanna, do you have any wise words of advice that can help me?” I asked, swallowing hard past the lump in my throat.

  He looked at me, kindness in his white-blue eyes.

  “Don’t be seen.”

  When Noah came home, I was still sitting on the couch, Gareth having let himself out after our little non-pep-talk. I heard him open the front door and call out my name, but I was so deep in my own thoughts that I was almost meditating, my mind a whirlwind of scenarios and plans and ways that I could call the whole thing off without looking cowardly.

  He sat down next to me and kissed my forehead softly, running a hand down my hair and giving my pony tail a light yank.

  “Penny for your thoughts?” He asked, moving his hand to my neck, where he began to lightly knead my knotted muscles.

  I let out a muffled laugh.

  “Why you’d even pay a penny when you can get them for free is beyond me.”

&nbs
p; “Eh, that would be cheating. Gareth called me.”

  I looked at him sideways, a bit suspiciously.

  “Then you can probably guess what my thoughts are right now. You can still keep your penny.”

  He cocked his head to the side, contemplating the world outside the big prow windows. Then he shrugged.

  “I know where your thoughts are. Mine would be too. Hell, mine are there. I don’t want you to do it. I definitely don’t want you to go there alone, and how you’ve convinced me of it is beyond my comprehension,” he paused a moment, as if searching for the right words, “but you wouldn’t be the woman I love if you didn’t get in there with your scrappy self and be some kind of super spy. I don’t like it, but I have to respect your decision.”

  I wiped a stray tear away from my eye, nodding silently.

  “I’ve been sitting here since Gareth left, wondering what the hell I think I’m doing. I know that I can’t just let him keep pulling me into his world from my dreams, I know he needs to be stopped, but I’m scared Noah. What if he senses I’m there? What if he….succeeds…in severing me from my body? Where will I be? I don’t want to be some vegetable hooked up to machines in the hospital.” I had a hard time swallowing and talking over the lump in my throat. It felt as though something was choking me from the inside.

  Noah shifted on the couch to face me, taking hold of my arms gently and turning me towards him. His eyes, though, betrayed the tension he was feeling, the fear he was trying so desperately to hide from me.

  “I will not let anything happen to you, Teagan. By the Goddess, I will do anything in my power to bring you back. Not just me, but you’ll have Anna and Harley there as well. We will not let him harm you.”

  “I know. I have faith in you all. I have faith in myself. We’ll find what he’s up to, and figure out a way to take him out.” I managed to swallow past the blockage, real or imagined. I could not go into this thing scared out of my wits.

  He smiled, the tensioning lessening, but not the fear. He pushed a stray strand of hair behind my ear, letting his fingers glide over my cheek.