Vicious Moon

by Lee Roland

  Etienne grabbed my arm, jerked me behind him. He drew his gun.

  What? Now he was going to protect me again?

  I stepped away. I didn’t need or want his protection. He’d deceived me and I wasn’t about to forgive. He’d probably turn on me when he realized I’d free Marisol at almost any cost, even giving Aiakós access to a few earth magic trinkets. I’d deal with that problem later.

  “Well, hell.” I planted my hands on my hips. I faced the deplorable prospect of actually working with them. But work with whom? Not Laudine.

  “We’re all here. Why don’t we have a party and celebrate?” I glared at them, but it was Dervick who interested me most.

  Dervick came closer and I stepped back. Etienne sighted his gun.

  Dervick chuckled and I heard the crackle of fire in his voice. “Hello, sister. It is good to meet you as myself, not as I pretended to be. I’d send our father’s regards, but I doubt if he actually cares.” He gave a friendly nod and a smile.

  “Sister? Father?” Damn! Why couldn’t something like this happen under less critical circumstances?

  “You didn’t recognize me?” Dervick held out his hand.

  Yes, I’d sensed a familiarity with Dervick, but sister . . . ? Curiosity almost overwhelmed me, but I had to remember the task before me. “I don’t have time for you now, Dervick. I need to save my sister.”

  “I’m patient. And by the way, your man’s bullets will harm me no more than they will kill the . . . demon. They might take out the witch.” He nodded at Laudine, his face thoughtful. “That would clean things up a little.”

  Aiakós came closer and the air of tension, already choking, grew heavier. “Now, here is the strange thing,” he said. He cocked that beautiful head and the crimson hair shifted like fine silk. His eyes glowed. “Etienne is immune to magic, you say? And he never told me. I’m hurt. That was something he forgot to mention when I questioned him.” His smooth voice had the featherlightness of a massive granite boulder.

  I didn’t speak my thoughts. Aiakós punished him, tortured him, and yet Etienne had managed to keep the secret of his immunity. Etienne had feared witches far more than his demon employer.

  “But no matter,” Aiakós continued. “We can still come to an agreement.” I saw his smile and heard his voice go into the mesmerizing realm of hypnotic control. No one there, especially me, seemed to buy the enchantment. So much for demon powers of persuasion.

  I glanced at Laudine. She was smiling.

  I’d take time for one thing. One very important thing. “Laudine, I care nothing about gold. Some things are above any wealth or artifact. As soon as I free Marisol, you will pay for killing my friend. I don’t care if the Sisters of Justice send three Triads after me. I will demand retribution.”

  Laudine stopped smiling.

  Aiakós snarled. “So, what shall we do? I doubt any of us will walk away. I suggest that since Etienne is immune to magic, he try to get through. It might break the spell.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “We don’t know enough about it. If Etienne does go through, that spell could break and destroy us all. Or it could trap him, too.”

  “And yet, pretty little Marisol and another made it in,” Aiakós reminded us. He stepped even closer. His clawed hands clenched into fists. He smiled at Etienne, feral as any creature could be. “I could bodily throw our warrior at it. His bullets won’t hurt me. Would that do it?”

  Etienne did not react to Aiakós’s words.

  “No,” I said. “No throwing. No one else needs to get hurt.” I could use earth magic to toss all of them off the roof, but not simultaneously. And one of them was a witch. She’d know and be able to counter. While I was blocking her, the others would be on me.

  Aiakós cocked his head. “Well, Etienne, it seems this little witch has charmed you. She’s worried about hurting you. At least she’s better-looking than the hag who owned you before.”

  Etienne’s solemn face softened as he smiled, but it was not really a happy smile. Mostly it was sad. Here was a face I had not seen. “Oh, yes, she’s charmed me. I’m hoping she’ll someday forgive me.”

  I turned to him. Much had passed between us. I didn’t understand it, but some of it had been good. Much as I loved Marisol, much as his betrayal hurt me, I would not ask him to risk his life for her or me. I’d try myself first. “There has to be another way.”

  “There is none!” Laudine screamed. “You think I haven’t tried.” She pointed at the truck. “Those bones are my daughter’s. I watched her die. She starved. If your grandmother had come when I asked, there might have been a chance. Instead she sent an incompetent little bitch . . .” She broke off in a sob.

  By the condition of her body, Laudine’s daughter was dead long before she sent that letter to Gran. And Laudine apparently knew where Marisol was all along. Had she sent her into that spell as she sent her daughter? I hadn’t even suspected that. I should have. The ideal was that all witches were a family in tune with the Earth Mother’s wishes. I’d seen the politics too many times.

  Most spells are not visible to the eye without witch sight. I saw the one around the truck as a kind of smooth transparent bubble. I walked closer. I’d made the determination to try to break it.

  Etienne approached. He’d holstered his gun and relaxed like a man who had made a decision. This was the man who had held me, made love to me. His eyes carried the gentleness I’d so cherished. He laid his hands on my shoulders and gave me a soft kiss. My lips tingled under his and in spite of the location and danger, I responded. He released me. “So, little witch, can you protect me from the vultures while I try to get in?” He nodded at Aiakós and the others.

  “You don’t have to risk it.” I meant that. “I can try other things first.”

  My warrior. My totally confusing man. “Men are supposed to be confusing,” Gran had once told me. “If they weren’t, we could all live in perfect harmony. That would be so boring.”

  While I would try almost anything to save Marisol, I’d never intended to harm anyone else in the process. She wouldn’t have wanted that.

  Etienne gave me a long, searching look. “No, I don’t have to risk it.” His eyes softened even more. So did his voice. “I can’t say . . .”

  He couldn’t say. I could have found a million words right then. I could ask him why he wanted to risk his life for me. I could ask if he loved me, if he wanted me to stay with him. But a man, a man like Etienne given to great times of silence, would not so easily express some things. At least not in a semipublic situation. He stood there, offering to take a deadly gamble. That offering meant as much as any word in any language. But in the back of my mind the thought remained, if he had just told me, brought me here, it might have been different, too.

  I stepped away from him to face those who might offer harm. “I can protect you from Aiakós and Laudine. I don’t know about Dervick. He’s not what he seems to be.”

  Dervick chuckled. Again I heard the flames. “I want nothing that is here in this building, little sister. Play your game. I’ll observe. I’ve been bored for a very long time.” As if to emphasize his neutrality, he stepped back.

  Etienne drew a deep breath. And as easily as a hot knife passing through ice cream, he stepped through the alien spell. It shimmered for a moment. Then shattered. Not explosively, but in tiny fragments that puffed like mist in a breeze. Only Laudine and I could feel that dissolution. The event, gentle as it seemed, was not without consequences. Magic from another world had suddenly been freed and collided with earth magic that rushed in. The spell caster was not here to collect and control it.

  The building shuddered. The cement under our feet shook like an earthquake struck, like some giant malicious hand tore at it. Hairline cracks appeared in the floor and inched their way up the walls.

  Etienne hadn’t stopped. He hurried to Marisol. Protection spells are usually feeble, requiring little power. When he touched it, it dissipated and she dropped,
still unconscious, into his arms. He whirled and shouted two words. “Bomb. Run!”

  He raced for the exit. I didn’t hesitate. I charged after him. I did glance back once before we made a turn. Laudine hadn’t run. She’d gone to the bones of her daughter and knelt beside them. I didn’t see Dervick or Aiakós.

  Etienne set a good pace. No wasted motion. And we were running downhill. Had he not been hampered by Marisol in his arms, he might already be outside and away from this death trap. We reached the third level and kept on going. The building shuddered and the sound of concrete cracking came loud and close.

  Second level. More cracking noises and the floor dropped a couple of inches. We entered the first level and ran into the darkness.

  Etienne slowed. He couldn’t see.

  “Keep going,” I shouted. “It’s clear.”

  He picked up his pace. Running blind, trusting my words.

  The building had shuddered when the spell broke. Now it actually shook and thundered. In my mind I saw it collapsing down, one floor at a time. Five, four, three . . . The bright light of the opening appeared ahead, seeming so close and yet so far. The floor shifted and Etienne stumbled. He recovered and raced on.

  The ceiling groaned. It swayed, bulging down. Tons of concrete cracked and steel folded—and it all fell down.

  Chapter 32

  Etienne dropped to his knees. I ran into him and landed on my butt. In a desperate reaction I drew upon the magic and built a shield over and around us. It could not hold. And yet it did. By luck or the grace of the Great Master of the Universe, a concrete column caught on a slab of pavement above, creating a pocket of space the size of a small car directly over us. All I had to do was keep our minuscule cavern from filling with dust and smaller chunks as the structure came down.

  The structure still roared, popped, and snapped like a giant stone beast on a rampage. Every time I thought it might settle, another barrage of thundering sound pounded my frail bubble. The bedlam continued, one volley after another, like cannonballs lobbed at the great stone walls of a medieval castle. Finally, the hideous, bone-jarring reverberation of falling rock eased to an intermittent grumble.

  As a witch, I’m given to some mysticism. Luck or fate had created the tiny space that helped save our lives���for the moment. There might be many little holes such as this in the dense pile of rubble, but this was ours. Our little piece of hell at the bottom of a five-story building.

  “Nyx?” Etienne shouted over the din of the still-shaking building.

  He couldn’t see, of course. No light penetrated our grim prison.

  “I’m here.” I touched his shoulder. “Are you hurt? Marisol?”

  He still held her clutched to his chest, face against him. His breath came in ragged gasps. He had some cuts, but I would be no better. The first desperate inclination was to seek a way out. That gave way to rising terror when the floor shifted under us. We might yet be crushed. I might hold it at bay a while, but eventually my strength would give out.

  I give Etienne credit. He hadn’t given in to panic.

  “Are you . . .” He stopped and drew deep breaths.

  “Am I holding the building up? No. I’m keeping our tomb from filling up with dust and small rocks.” Remembering that he couldn’t see, I set a small spell, a tiny flicker of flame on the wall.

  He stared around the small space. “Damn!”

  “Yeah, we’re kind of screwed.” I agreed with his assessment. He shifted Marisol to a more comfortable position for both of them. I grabbed at her, feeling her warmth, laying my head against her chest. Her heart gave a trembling beat. She’d slowed it while in her trance. She drew a single breath. Alive. Thank the Mother.

  She might not be much longer. The building still made ominous noise around us, groaning and snapping, threatening more destruction.

  “Can we get out?” Etienne asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “There you go again with the don’t knows. What kind of witch are you?”

  “One who would have warned people of a bomb before it blew up in her face. Shouting everybody run isn’t a very good way to broadcast urgent, critical notifications.”

  It helped to bitch, in spite of our precarious position. We were alive, albeit trapped under a collapsed multistory building with little hope of rescue.

  “Darrow will come eventually, looking for us,” Etienne said. “But not because a building came down. That happens every day in the ruins. And I doubt he could find us.”

  “Maybe Marisol will wake up. She can talk to other witches across the magic. I can’t. Maybe she could contact Abigail.” I offered that small bit of optimism. Maybe if the Earth Mother saw what happened, she’d send someone, anyone, who would rescue us. More likely she’d leave survival up to me. If she actually had a plan, I’d say it was to get rid of those dangerous artifacts. Bitch. Anger at her was better than claustrophobia and pure hysteria.

  Marisol remained unconscious in Etienne’s arms while the building still groaned and snapped like a living being in its ultimate death throes. Would it never be still?

  He stared at my tiny flame that kept complete darkness away. “Does that take much . . . magic?”

  “Just a tiny bit.”

  I laid my hand on Marisol’s cheek. I wanted to try to wake her. I didn’t dare. I had to concentrate on keeping us alive. The sound of destruction continued to echo around us. Not as loud, not with the thunder of minutes ago, but the building remained unstable. A single chunk of concrete dropped and cracked on the floor. It shattered in multiple pieces so fast I didn’t have time to protect us. One chunk hit me on the leg. It hurt, but worse was the feeling that my shield wasn’t holding and our little sanctuary would fill with debris. I usually have more control, but truthfully, I was scared. Stunned and scared.

  “I have to think about this.” I closed my eyes.

  “Take your time, witch. We have some of that.” He drew a breath, held it, then released in a sigh. “I’m sorry, Nyx. None of this is your fault. Or your sisters’.”

  I didn’t know what to say, so I concentrated on the immediate problem. What could I do? Could I lift an entire building? I didn’t know. It never occurred to me to try. I’d tested my telekinesis ability with things like automobiles. I’d even shoved a big troop truck chasing us off the road once. The problem here involved the incredible number of pieces. I could lift the concrete column protecting us, but if I lifted only that, the rest might come crashing down.

  The building groaned and shifted again. Another few inches and the column we’d taken refuge under might come down. Cement dust filled the air and particles shone in the small flame I’d created to give him the comfort of light.

  More stuff rained down. Pebbles, dust, I should have been able to hold that. I knew it was useless, but I tried to reinforce my protection. I simply didn’t have enough power to save us. If it was something I could burn . . . but I couldn’t. The fire that came so easily to me was not an option. In order to survive, I needed to take some drastic action. I had an idea. It might not work.

  Etienne shifted Marisol again and brushed a bit of dust from her face. “She doesn’t look like you.”

  “She looks like our mother. We have different fathers. Etienne? You want to live?”

  “It would be nice.”

  “There’s a price for everything. Are you willing to pay?”

  “Don’t play games, Nyx. I tired of those long ago.” His voice rasped and he coughed at the dust. “I’m well aware of who the guilty one is here. I’ll say it. Abigail warned me that night we went to her house. She said you were straightforward and honest. That I could trust you. I refused to accept that. If I had . . .”

  If he had accepted me, trusted me, he would have told me, brought me here. My gift from the Earth Mother. A sacrifice would be made to get us out of here. There was no indecisiveness in me on my plan.

  I moved closer and laid both hands on his cheeks. We had formed a subtle and intimate relatio
nship, one that bordered on love but could not climb over the wall of mistrust.

  “Etienne, you and I are each going to make a sacrifice. You will probably hate me forever if we survive. If I release a beast you will have to live with.”

  “Beast?” He frowned. His eyes widened and his jaw locked tight. “What are you up to now? I won’t be able to rescue you this time if you screw up.”

  I kissed him slowly and sweetly on the mouth, a mouth dry as our tomb. Then I moved Marisol out of his arms and onto the floor. I could feel his reluctance as he released her. She’d been a shield of sorts, I suppose. Etienne frowned. Suspicion formed in his eyes. This time, he had good reason for that mistrust.

  I slid my hands down to his forearms and onto the tattoos. They moved under my fingers like writhing snakes, guarding their nest. I needed power and he held the key to a resource I didn’t quite understand and might not be able to control. I had no idea what form of earth magic I would be releasing into the world. And I was going to do it without his consent. Perhaps even the Mother herself would not forgive me. Or she would send the Sisters to destroy both of us. I would die for breaking the rules and he for being too dangerous to live with a power he had not been trained to rule.

  I gathered all my remaining strength into a protection ball surrounding the three of us. Then I did the thing he feared most. I took control of him. I held his mind and body tight.

  Oh, he fought. Wild, insane. The terror of that control, of me, grew until it broke my heart. He couldn’t escape. I focused my attention on the dark bindings locked upon him as a child. One by one, I tore them off. I met no resistance. Whatever power resided in him wanted to be free. It pushed furiously against its magical cage. Whoever bound it hadn’t done a good job, or had perhaps planned to return later to remove and use it. I had to hold his great magic, keep it tight until I was ready.

  I removed the one last binding. Etienne was gasping, struggled desperately to break free of my control. I held him still. His magic was earth magic, no doubt. But it moved in ways I didn’t understand. It also moved at my command. When it met my own . . . Great Mother. They matched. Not the same, male and female, but it swirled together and . . . I could move the world. The fire remained in me, but it stood apart. Why? I had no idea.