Waiting for Magic

by Susan Squires

  That’s all he’d be doing: heart pumping blood, lungs sucking up air. He’d never really live again. Not without Kee.

  He tore himself away from thoughts of Kee and tried to focus on the task at hand. He had to figure out exactly what the Talisman was. He could only hope his sensitivity to the Talisman was precise enough since he’d made love to Kee to let him know where it was. All his other senses were certainly ramped up to eleven. Or maybe Pendragon would show him, if Devin could get him to bragging. Devin might be able to grab it and run. He did have a power that might let him escape. He’d practiced all morning calling the water, a little too successfully a couple of times. Sheesh. What if he’d flooded Hermosa Beach instead of just crashing that wave up against the Palos Verdes bluffs? But he’d gotten better at it. And he could use that as a weapon or a distraction.

  He began the wet trek across the wide lawn up to the house. He was more aware than the last time he’d been this way. He could hear things and see things he’d only been able to sense before. The horrible, wet, snuffling sounds, for instance, that came from the back of the house, or the shadows that moved at the edge of his vision. He couldn’t help but feel a prickle down his neck. This house was something worse than just creepy. It was evil.

  He wasn’t surprised when the door to Pendragon’s house seemed to open by itself at his approach. Actually, Mr. Green stood behind it, using the door as a shield against the pounding rain that splattered under the portico. Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Dev.

  “Mr. Pendragon is expecting you,” Mr. Green boomed in his sonorous baritone.

  “Yeah. I bet he is.” Devin scraped his boots on the elaborately patterned doormat and strode into the lion’s den. His senses started that overwhelm thing again. That better mean he was near a Talisman. He counted on that. The feeling was both more pronounced and more manageable this time. Devin pressed his lips together grimly. He’d come into his full power now.

  Devin hadn’t dressed up this time. Just jeans and boots, a plain white shirt. He shrugged out of his soaked denim jacket. Green took it between two fingers and hung it on a coat stand. Devin ran his hands through his dripping hair.

  “Would our guest like a towel?” Green asked.

  “I’m good,” Devin said, trying to turn the overwhelming sense of the Talisman into a focused direction. Maybe in the basement where the collections were? There had been chalices.… He cast about. No luck. He just had a sense of heaviness, of nearness. Uh-oh. He might have to get Pendragon to show it to him. That might have a price.

  “This way, then.” Mr. Green led the way into the library where Pendragon had received them the last time they were here. The heaviness grew more oppressive. Nausea and faintness washed over him. Not as bad as last time. He took a breath. Okay, better. But the Talisman was near. Devin looked around, trying to figure out if there was a direction to his feeling of heaviness, but he couldn’t discern one. The room was full of stuff. One of Pendragon’s crystal balls sat on a table that looked like it was made for backgammon or chess or something. Mist moved inside the pale green globe. Decanters and glasses sat on the sideboard. Knickknack things were everywhere. Maybe he was imagining the whole Talisman thing and the house was just haunted. If ever there was a candidate for a haunted house, it was this one.

  “Hello, Devin,” Pendragon said, switching his long cigarette holder to offer his hand. He didn’t rise, though his cane was near at hand. He was wearing another black smoking jacket with big gold embroidered flowers that matched his pale hair. His eyes raked Devin’s body and Devin was sorry his shirt was wet and probably transparent. He took the proffered hand and shook it. Pendragon’s grip was firm and warm. But it still made Devin shudder.

  “Cold?” Pendragon asked, his eyes never leaving Devin’s body. “Why don’t you get out of those wet clothes?”

  Not on your life. “I’m good, thanks.”

  “Well, sidle up to the fire at least.”

  That actually sounded good. Devin backed up to it. That way he could keep an eye on Pendragon too. “Thanks.” Was it Pendragon’s cigarette holder? That looked a little like a wand.

  “I thought you might bring your so-charming sister,” Pendragon said.

  “She was busy tonight.” Devin searched the room with his gaze. No chalice-looking thing, unless you counted Pendragon’s cut-glass whiskey tumbler. Or what about that shallow bowl-looking thing with a base made of nude figures? Nah. Not old enough. Art deco. He could thank Kee for what knowledge he had of artistic styles.

  “Well, no matter. I’m sure we’ll have a fine time without her. Or perhaps she’ll join us later.” Pendragon cocked his head. “You seem different.”

  Devin’s attention snapped back to Pendragon. Could Pendragon know what had happened with Kee? Well, he’d just take the offense then. “I … I guess I’m just a little nervous. Those things outside, you know. I don’t think they were there the last time we were here.”

  Pendragon lifted his brows. “You could see them?”

  Devin swallowed. His offense might just have revealed something he didn’t want Pendragon to know. “Almost. And I heard the snuffling around at the back.”

  Pendragon’s eyes glowed with intensity. He took a puff from his cigarette. “They were here last time. Only those with power can sense the Old Ones. You are changed since your experience at the river.”

  If Pendragon knew what happened at the river, he knew what Devin’s power was. That would take away any advantage of surprise. He cleared his throat. “Old Ones?”

  Pendragon laughed. “I told your older brother I had an alternative security system.”

  He might have known. “What are … they?”

  “The ones who lived here before.” Pendragon waved his cigarette holder blithely, as though he were talking about the family that sold him the house. “I told you this property was located on a church, or rather a cemetery. Or both.” He chuckled. “A gateway really.”

  This was bad. The house was haunted, in a particularly horrific way. Devin didn’t like that Pendragon was telling him all this so easily either. Pendragon didn’t seem like someone to spread his secrets around. Well, Devin was probably toast anyway. He didn’t have anything to lose. “I figured you used them to protect the Talisman.”

  Pendragon’s eyes snapped from the glowing tip of his fancy cigarette to Devin’s face. “Refreshingly direct,” he murmured. He got up, grabbing his cane, and limped over to the fireplace. “Everybody seems to want a Talisman. And what would you do with it?” A small table sat next to a wing chair. Pendragon leaned over to pick up an ornate silver box. A tarot deck was also spread out over the small table. Devin recognized the Magician card, the Wheel of Fortune, and the Ace of Pentacles.

  Pendragon was magic, all right. The whatever-they-were outside were proof. And he knew the tarot. So he had a Talisman. Was it a Pentacle? Is that what the Ace of Pentacles was saying? And what the hell was a Pentacle? The card just showed a coin with a star inside it. He hadn’t seen any coins in the basement. But you could hide a coin anywhere.

  “I think my family could use it to do good in the world.”

  Pendragon chuckled. “Why would I want that? Doing bad in the world has much more potential. That’s why I’ve invited Ms. Le Fay here for later tonight.”

  Morgan was coming here? Shit. Better get the Talisman and get out quick. “You don’t want to mess with her. She’s bad news,” he said, hoping to cover his dismay.

  Pendragon got a wistful look that surprised Devin. “You’re probably right. I’m like a moth to the flame.”

  Devin had no idea where this was going, but Pendragon seemed to be in a confessing mood. “Then why get involved with her and the Clan?”

  Pendragon tried to rearrange his expression into bored indifference, but a shadow of pain still lingered there. “Boredom. Or loneliness. After a long life, sooner or later one has no peers, no one to understand the powers you wield. I admit I had fallen into a dangerous ennui befo
re I discovered Morgan and her delightful makeshift family.”

  “Uh, I don’t think Morgan would make a great BFF.”

  “How would you know? What are you, twenty? We both practice dark magic. Perhaps we’re made for each other.”

  “You mean a match made in hell?”

  Pendragon chuckled. “Something like that.” He offered the open box to Devin. “Snuff?”

  Didn’t snuff go out in the eighteenth century or something? “Uh, no thanks.” He wasn’t taking anything off this guy. Not food, not snuff, nada.

  Pendragon shrugged and then did a strange thing. “I never really liked it myself,” he said, and tossed the contents of the box onto the fire.

  Devin looked around to the fire in surprise. Smoke billowed up as the snuff caught. Pendragon had moved off. “Too bad you didn’t bring your sister,” he was saying. “I’m sure Ms. Le Fay would have loved to meet her.”

  The fire crackled in very pure green and blue colors behind the billowing smoke. The smoke smelled like tobacco, but sweet, and like some strange spice too. It was too much for the flue apparently, because the smoke was rolling into the room. Devin backed up, choking a little.

  “What is that stuff?” The green and blue fire glowed. Devin found his movements slowing down. Everything was slowing down, really. He turned his head to locate Pendragon. There he was. Across the room. Pendragon had a red silk handkerchief held to his nose and mouth. Uh-oh. He pulled on the old-fashioned bell rope. He was summoning Green.

  Devin started for the door. It was as though he were moving underwater, but not as comforting as water would have been. He stumbled and fell to his hands and knees, head hanging. He saw feet. Pendragon’s slippers, Green’s black wing tips.

  “Let’s get him to the back bedroom before it wears off.” The words echoed, crashing around in his brain. He’d made a big mistake coming here. His mind was like the sludge at the bottom of the river. Too late, he thought as he fell to the carpet. He couldn’t even call the water.

  *****

  “Can you go faster?” Kee asked. She was riding shotgun, as Maggie called it, and Maggie was driving Edwards’ SUV. Kee could feel Devin more strongly as they got nearer. He was at Pendragon’s all right. No question. She hadn’t told Maggie how she knew precisely, though. That would be revealing way too much about her relationship with her brother.

  “Should’ve brought my truck,” Maggie muttered. “This damn thing has no guts and less visibility.” She glanced to the rearview and swung around a Volvo only going the speed limit. There wasn’t much traffic late on a Monday night. Kee hoped the Lakers weren’t playing at Staples Center.

  Maggie had done a great job. She’d targeted her calm to Edwards and his guys without touching Kee. Edwards had offered his gun, all the while humming “Memories” from the musical Cats. Kee wouldn’t have pegged him for a Broadway-show-tunes kind of guy. One of his men, Sam, had opened the gate. Maggie had left them dozing in the command center. Kee hoped that gave her and Maggie enough time.

  “I’m glad we got out without alerting the family,” Kee said. She had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Having them in danger too would have just made it worse.

  “Yeah,” Maggie agreed, her lips a thin line in the glow from the instrument panel on the Escalade. “No point in dragging them into this.”

  Maggie meant “no point in getting them killed.” So she had a bad feeling too. Kee’s insides were wound tighter than a drum. If anybody could use a dose of Maggie’s calm, it was her. Too bad she didn’t dare lose her edge. How long had Devin been at Pendragon’s?

  Probably too long.

  *****

  Devin could hear everything going on. He could feel everything. He just couldn’t seem to do anything about it. Green dragged him back into the bowels of the big house. Pendragon wasn’t limping anymore. He was using his cane more like a hiker would, for balance, striding out, his long cigarette holder dangling from the other hand. Devin’s head lolled, giving him a clear view of Pendragon opening a door. Green dragged him through it. A big, four-poster bed dominated the room. The ceiling was made of wood carved with gilt wreaths that acted like frames. The pictures inside showed naked men and women in endless combinations of sexual congress. There seemed to be a lot of blood too. Devin’s thoughts were unfocused, diffuse. His gaze crossed a display on the wall. Whips. Those were whips, some with single tails and some with many. And maybe canes. The whole atmosphere was ringing alarm bells. But they were distant, muted by whatever had been in that smoke.

  Green heaved him up on the bed with Pendragon’s help. He felt his boots come off. One of them was working at his belt. They ripped his shirt. Buttons popped everywhere. He was like a rag doll. They flopped him this way and that as they stripped him. They’re going to hurt me, maybe rape me, too. Then they’d probably kill him, and he couldn’t think clearly enough to even call the water.

  He wouldn’t get the Talisman and he’d never see Kee again. That was the hard part.

  When they had him naked, they pulled him farther up onto the bed. He heard the rattle of chains. His chest heaved as he tried to get his breath. Green snapped heavy shackles to his wrists, the kind he’d expect to see in a medieval dungeon. Pendragon was working on his ankles. Devin expected them to fasten him spread-eagled to the four-poster. But his wrists were just above the level of his head. With some effort he craned his neck backward. The chain between his wrists was hooked to a single chain secured to a huge bolt in the wall. A pole between the shackles on his ankles braced his feet apart. Pendragon was hooking it by a chain to a bolt in the floor below the bed where he’d pulled the carpet back.

  Devin furrowed his brow in an effort to think. Why not hook him to the bed itself? He blinked, eyes irritated by the smoke. Then he knew. Because they’d be able to turn him over, chained like this, where they couldn’t if they’d just tied him to the bedposts. Fear boiled up from his belly. No comforting distance now.

  “Assholes,” he managed to mumble. “Don’t do this.”

  Pendragon finished his work, set the large skeleton key to the shackles on the nightstand, out of reach, and stood over Devin. “I’ve been looking forward to doing just this for several days.” He smiled down, then traced a finger across Devin’s ribs and up over his nipple. “Though I had hoped to have your sister participate.”

  Kee. At least Kee was safe. He could feel her.

  Oh, no! He could feel her more intensely than he had before. That meant she was closer. She must have figured out where he was. She was coming after him. Fear circled around in his clouded mind. Not Kee!

  “So young. So muscular.” Pendragon grinned when Devin shuddered. The finger moved down to his hip. “And so well endowed.”

  “Will that be all, Mr. Pendragon?” Green’s voice came from over by the door.

  “Yes. Feel free to check back. I’m feeling generous tonight.”

  “I would enjoy that, sir, thank you.”

  Devin heard the door close. He was heaving air into his chest. In his current mental state, the presence of the Talisman was overwhelming him again. He’d thought he had that under control, but now his murky brain couldn’t handle it. Green leaving didn’t make him feel any better either. Kee was coming. His only hope was that she’d brought an army with her. But even an army might not get through the things outside the castle. Would the Tremaine men come with her? Then they’d be in danger too. He was so sorry he’d tried to do this thing.

  Pendragon slipped off his smoking jacket, leaving him bare from the waist up. “I see you’re slightly more alert. Good. I want you to experience every physical and mental sensation we’ll share tonight. Before we start, though, I have a few questions.”

  Devin pulled on the wrist chains.

  “They’re quite strong. But feel free to test them.” He ran his hands over Devin’s biceps. “It makes your muscles stand out so nicely.” He climbed up to sit on the very high bed next to Devin, and reached for a bottle from among several on the nig
htstand. “I think a little oil is in order.” He poured some into his hands. “Now where were we? Ah, yes. I had some questions.” He spread the oil over Devin’s belly. “So smooth, so taut,” he murmured.

  Devin tried to wet his dry mouth enough to talk. “Not telling you anything,” he croaked. If only he could think more clearly, he could call the water.

  Pendragon cocked his head first one way and then the other as he rubbed the oil up over Devin’s chest. “Perhaps if you’re a good boy I’ll keep you all to myself and won’t let Green have a turn. He’s really quite a beast when it comes to sex, you know. Doesn’t take time to prepare your anus, for instance. Very painful. I’ve told him he misses all the fun of the foreplay, but he doesn’t seem to care.”

  Devin tried hard to keep the fear out of his voice. “You’ll do what you want anyway.”

  “But perhaps I’ll spare your sister.”

  Devin panicked. Think, he ordered himself. “You don’t have Kee.” Did he? Devin’s voice was thick. His tongue didn’t want to obey him.

  “But I will.” His hand moved down Devin’s belly and over his hip. “I saw it in the scrying globe tonight. Green has instructions to let her in when she gets here. We wouldn’t want our sentries to see her as a threat. Looks like she’ll get to meet Ms. Le Fay after all.”

  Pendragon was right. Kee was coming. Devin jerked against his chains, jerked again.

  “Bastard,” he growled. “Leave Kee alone.”

  “Not unless you’re … more forthcoming.”

  Devin mustered all his will and struggled. Fear overwhelmed him. Chains clanked as he rocked against them in a frenzy. When he dimly realized he was wasting valuable strength, he sank back, gasping. Kee was closer. He had to save himself so he could help Kee.

  “My, my. So stubborn. And dear me, you’ve bloodied yourself.” Pendragon dragged a finger through the trickle running down Devin’s forearm and brought it to his mouth, where he sucked the finger loudly. He faked a shudder of delight. At least Devin hoped it was fake.