by Martha Carr
“It’s staying inside them longer,” Emily offered.
“Right. And it’s taking less time to find a new one. I mean, that first time we cornered it in the parking lot was probably a fluke. The thing panicked, and another human happened to be walking out of that store at the worst possible moment.”
Nickie frowned, putting the pieces together, then looked at Laura with wide eyes. “You think it’s learning about Austin from its hosts?”
Laura shrugged. “I mean, why not? It’s using their Peabrain magic. Riding off of the abilities none of them knew they had before it slipped into their skin. If it’s connecting with them enough to access their dormant magic, it’s not that far of a stretch to think the Gorafrex can read their minds too. Or something like it.”
“So now it knows where to find other witches and wizards, just like that.” Nickie’s hand fluttered in aggravation. “It snatches them up, and then it knows how to blend in and act like nothing’s happening when it takes the next one into another house or another public park or wherever the other energy cores are.”
“I bet you it’s canvassing the neighborhood too.” Emily nodded, her eyes narrowing as she stared off into space just to the left of Nickie’s head. “Or neighborhoods, plural, I guess. Looking for the next host and the next magical. Is it smart enough to plan things out like that?”
“Didn’t seem like it at first,” Laura said with a shrug. “I’m pretty sure that was the rush of suddenly being free after thousands of years. Maybe a little panic too. But, yeah, Em, I’m sure the Gorafrex is smart enough to make plans. It already knew about the escape pod on this ship, and it already knew what it had to do to activate the cores.”
“Anything that hunts down witches and wizards to feed on their magic as its sole purpose has to be smart enough.” Nickie grimaced and leaned back against the couch. “We need to figure out how to interrupt the plans of a thing that’s had thousands of years to make them.”
“We’re already doing that, right?” Emily straightened and glanced at her sisters in turn. “Destroying the energy cores. That’s messing with its plans.”
“That’s keeping it from powering the escape pod and getting off this ship. Plus, taking everyone with it in the process.” Laura shifted her weight to her other foot. “Rutilda said only half the energy cores needed to be powered for the Gorafrex to leave. We destroyed six, but one of them’s been activated already.”
“So, we smash up another one first,” Nickie offered. “Later, though. After the last of this headache goes away, and I can get in my own bed without any more drums.”
“Sure. Tomorrow, then?”
“I have that meeting with Chuck and Dave.”
Laura nodded. “Okay. Tomorrow night?”
“I’m going out with John,” Emily said with a shrug. “Made those plans a few days ago, and I’m not gonna back out of a date with this guy.”
“Okay.” Laura tossed her hair out of her face and nodded. “You guys go do what you need to do tomorrow. I’ll work on making the new binding rune. How about Wednesday?”
“After my shift’s up, sure.”
“Nickie?”
“Yeah, I’m free on Wednesday. No problem.” Nickie reclined on the hard futon cushion and draped her forearm across her eyes. “I’m gonna hang out here a little longer, make sure things die down all the way. The drums’ll be gone eventually.”
“I’ll stay with you.” Laura stepped toward the futon. “I’m not gonna be able to focus on anything tonight anyway. I’m exhausted.”
“Then go to bed. I’m fine, Laura. Really. Thanks.”
“Okay.” Laura made a pouting face her sister didn’t see and bent over to kiss Nickie’s forehead. “If you need anything—”
“I’ll Sister Soup you, okay? Don’t worry.”
“Okay…”
“Well, I’m definitely going to bed.” Emily pushed to her feet and smacked a wet, noisy kiss on Nickie’s forehead. Her older sister frowned, chuckled, and wiped her head without moving her forearm from over her eyes. “Good night.” Emily thumbed her keyring and left the Clubhouse with a magical pop.
When she reappeared in the living room, another wave of exhaustion washed over her. “Maybe I shouldn’t have turned to angry baking as soon as we got home.” Emily went to get the cupcakes she’d left on the coffee table…but they were gone, plate and all. “Um…” She spun in a tight circle and frowned. “Great. I really wanted one.” Laura appeared behind her, and Emily turned and pouted at her sister. “You didn’t eat those cupcakes, did you?”
Laura eyed her skeptically. “I thought they were a peace offering.”
“They were but…I mean, they weren’t all for you.”
Laura pursed her lips. “You think I’d eat all those by myself?”
Her sister shrugged and glanced around. “You were here for five minutes after Nickie and I both went to the Clubhouse. You were the sixth-grade hot-dog-eating champion, I remember that much.”
“Emily, I couldn’t eat a dozen cupcakes in five minutes if that was the only way to lock the Gorafrex up in its prison again.”
The youngest Hadstrom sister lifted an eyebrow and dipped her head. “Really?”
“Okay, if it was that easy, yeah. I’d totally cram them down. But I didn’t even eat one. I promise.”
“Did you move them, then?”
Laura smirked and folded her arms. “Em.”
“Yeah.”
“How do you lose a plate of cupcakes?”
“That’s what I wanna know.” Emily bent and glanced at the floor under the armchairs. “It’s really starting to…” Her gaze moved under the coffee table, and she dropped to her knees with wide eyes. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.” There was the plate, sitting on the area rug with zero cupcakes on it. She grabbed it, slid it out from under the table, and showed it to Laura. “This. Did you see him before you came to the Clubhouse?”
“I’ve barely seen him at all today. He doesn’t really have much of a defense, though, huh?” Laura pointed to the smears of chocolate frosting and the single piece of incriminating evidence—a chocolatey pawprint smudged at the edge of the plate.
Emily pushed to her feet and shook her head. “That can’t be good.” The empty plate dropped onto the coffee table, and she stalked off toward the mudroom and the back door. “Speed!”
Laura grabbed the plate and headed toward the kitchen to put it in the sink. “I hope it was worth it, you crazy dog.”
Chapter Fifteen
The Gorafrex had not hunted freely in a long time. The creature relished such freedom now, though none of its recent human hosts fought as hard as this one did. ‘Be still!’ The Gorafrex raged into the mind of the man it had taken. There were no words given as response—only a high, panicked scream muffled from somewhere far away in the human’s subconscious. And the man struggled mercilessly.
“A familiar place…” the Gorafrex murmured through human lips. It blinked borrowed eyes and took in the building on Colorado Street, outside of which it had taken its host the previous night. The human fought so hard the Gorafrex had not been able to walk farther than a few feet from those front doors. ‘I chose you because you are strong,’ it shouted in the man’s mind. ‘Do not prove me wrong.’
The host’s eyes flashed silver, and the Gorafrex walked in another’s skin through the entrance to the building. It had picked the pieces from its hosts’ memories—who they were, where they’d been headed, what they’d wanted before the Gorafrex awakened their forgotten second brain. “And when I’m finished, you’ll remember none of it,” he whispered. “So stop fighting me.”
A strong, suntanned hand reached out to press the call button in the lobby elevator. The Gorafrex waited for the transportation box, which took patience on the creature’s part; yet, not nearly as much patience as it had stored away for centuries trapped in the prison of iron and magic. The Gorafrex grew stronger by the day, fueled by the humans’ innate abilities and by the use of th
eir magic that allowed it to soon escape from this place. It wasn’t as strong as it had hoped to be, after thousands of years without practice or sustenance, but almost.
When the elevator doors opened, the human stepped went calmly inside, as the Gorafrex rifled through memories and knowledge, all laid out like photographs scattered across a table. He pushed the button for the seventh floor and waited to be delivered to what the host called his office.
“And when you feel safe enough to submit to me, surrounded by your life and the things you know and cherish, you will stay put until I’m finished with you.” It was a harsh whisper, though the Gorafrex and its host were alone in the elevator.
Finally, the bell dinged, and the elevator doors opened into the busy lobby of some human company. Phones rang, computer keyboards clicked beneath swift fingers, and the man stepped from the elevator to head for his office.
“Good morning, Mr. Mackler.” A human in a shiny silver dress-suit nodded and smiled.
The Gorafrex grunted and moved past her, sifting through its host’s memories and simultaneously searching for the door the man knew as his own. When they reached the office, he stepped inside, shut the door silently behind him, and took in everything about the room—new to the Gorafrex, familiar to the man.
An image of some blue, shimmering material waving in the wind had been painted on the wall adjacent to the windows. The entire back wall was glass, looking out over downtown Austin on a warm, sunny summer day. Cars and people and magicals passed below them on the street, unaware of the Gorafrex’s presence above.
“Not for much longer…”
With all the confidence of a creature on its way to escaping the confines of a ship that should never have held it, the Gorafrex walked toward a large mahogany desk with its back to the windows and an expensive executive chair behind it. He ran his hand along the back of the leather chair. “This calms you, does it not?” He rolled the chair away from the desk, and the man sat where he’d been sitting every day for the last five years. With a sigh from both Gorafrex and human, who wouldn’t remember any of this when the time came for them to part, h leaned back and set both arms on the armrests. “Just a while longer, then. Until you accept this is where I will remain.”
Chapter Sixteen
“Nickie, will you stop pacing like that?” Laura sat at the kitchen table, arms folded, and frowned at her sister walking back and forth beside the counters.
“Yeah,” Emily added with a snort. “You’re acting too much like Laura right now.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Oh. Nothing.” The youngest Hadstrom sister busied herself prepping the chicken Caesar salad she was making from scratch for lunch.
“You just focus on your cooking, Em.” Laura shook her head. “I’m not interested in eating a lunch that’ll end up making me comment on everyone else’s business but mine.”
“You don’t need my magic overload for that one,” Emily muttered.
“What was that? I didn’t hear you.”
“Nothing, Laura. I’m zipping up now.” Emily pulled the lettuce apart and pressed her lips together.
Laura eyed her for a minute, then laughed to herself and peered at Nickie. “You’re making me nervous, Nickie.”
“You’re nervous?” Nickie didn’t look at either of her sisters but stopped pacing and poured a glass of water from the tap. She downed the whole thing and slammed the glass on the counter. “You’re not about to have one of the most important meetings of your career right now at the same time that some alien witch-killer is running around in a new host. Who knows when it’s gonna start up with the drums again?”
“Wait, are you nervous about the meeting or about the Gorafrex?” Emily turned partly around, brandishing her chef’s knife. “Because neither of those things sound like something that would make you nervous.”
“They’re not. Normally. But if I start hearing the drums and freak out and have to run out of there so I can pop into the Clubhouse without anyone seeing me…” Nickie widened her eyes at Laura, spreading her arms. “That’s not gonna make me look like a musician who’s ready to take things to the next level, is it? So forgive me if I’m pacing. I learned it from the pacing guru.”
Laura studied her sister, trying to figure out exactly where all this nervous energy was coming from. The last time she’d seen Nickie nervous was on their first visit to Park N Pizza as a family, and she wasn’t scared of the rides or the crowds. She’d been terrified and excited and out of her mind when they found out Willie Nelson was playing a set that day. “Who’s this meeting with?”
“Dave.” Nickie started pacing again. “I told you that the other day, didn’t I?”
“Chuck’s friend Dave?”
“Yeah, Chuck’s friend. But I’m not having a meeting with his friend, Laura. I’m having a meeting with Chuck Mackler, owner of Blue Silk Records. That’s who he is today. Not Chuck’s friend, not my friend, not anyone who’s gonna go easy on me because I just happened to have a bad day. Which he can’t even imagine, because he’ll never know what’s happening, but it wouldn’t be cold feet or me having a nervous breakdown; it would be the…stupid drums in my head, and I would completely lose my—”
“Nickie?”
“What?”
Laura leaned and pulled a chair out and patted the seat. “I think you should sit down for a sec.”
“I don’t…” Nickie frowned at her sister, then turned to eye Emily. The youngest of the three witches kept busy with her cooking yet shrugged. “Fine.” Nickie slumped into the wooden chair, leaned back, and pressed both hands against her forehead. “This is literally the worst timing.”
“Hear, hear!” Emily thrust her knife into the air before bringing it down on more chicken breast.
“It’s bad timing for all of us, Nickie. And you’ll be fine.” Laura held her sister’s gaze and nodded. “Have you heard the drums since last night?”
“No.”
“Okay. Good. That means there’s a little time before the Gorafrex starts making any more trouble.”
“Maybe.” Nickie sighed and ran a hand through her dark hair. “I told you what this meeting’s for, right?”
“Nope. But I can guess.”
“Blue Silk wants to sign me. Dave wants to sign me. Get me in the studio and record a single and a full album after that, and I’m pretty sure that’s where I’ve wanted to be.”
“You deserve it,” Emily added, nodding over the counter.
“Thanks, Em.”
“She’s right.” Laura grinned. “You know, I wasn’t sure about the record-deal thing. That that’s what you’re doing today. Don’t most people kinda jump around all excited and have some kind of celebration?”
“I think that happens after the papers are signed…which may or may not happen today if I have to dash out claiming massive migraine again.”
“Everything’s gonna work out.” Laura glanced at Emily. “And after all the papers are signed, we’ll celebrate.”
Emily turned around with wide eyes. “You wanna party?”
“Why is that so surprising?”
Nickie chuckled. “‘Cause you don’t. Just like I don’t jump around all excited and squeal and do weird happy dances.”
Emily snorted and returned to her cutting board. “Lots of weird things happening lately.”
“Okay, well, maybe we all need to get out and decompress, right? We got three energy cores yesterday, and that was rough. And we’re not even close to done. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind unwinding a little.”
“Really?” Now that the conversation had turned away from her impending record-deal meeting and the hypothetical interruption of it, Nickie felt better about dissecting whatever was going on in her big sister’s head. “Does that have anything to do with Professor Nathan?”
“Oh, please.” Laura rolled her eyes and sat back. “Why does everything have to come back to him?”
“Because that’s something we should celebr
ate too, right?” Emily did a little dance at the counter and added in a singsong voice, “Laura’s got a boyfriend…”
“He’s not my—that’s just—” The oldest Hadstrom sister closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose. “You’re both being ridiculous.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t answer my question.” Nickie wiggled her eyebrows.
After a ten-second stare-down, Laura relented. “Okay. Fine. He asked if I wanted to go out for drinks tonight—”
“Ooooh.” Emily wiggled her hips, and Nickie burst out laughing.
“Because I asked when he had the time to go over making a new rune for the Gorafrex…” Laura glared at her sisters until she couldn’t hold back her smile. “And, yeah, I guess I want to see him again.”
“You guess.”
“Maybe, Nickie. I don’t know. But if we have a reason to go out and celebrate your record deal…” Laura grabbed her sister by the shoulders and gave her an excited shake. Nickie let herself be jerked around, her head bobbing back and forth. She smiled. “Then maybe I won’t feel so nervous about going out with Nathan. At night. For something that sounds way more like a date than walking to lunch from his office.”
Emily looked up from her cutting board and stared out the window over the sink into the backyard. “Hey, that does sound serious…”
“Oh, cut it out, Em.” Laura couldn’t help smiling, and the flush rising in her cheeks wasn’t as bad as it got around Nathan. “So…do we wanna go out tonight before we get back to breaking ancient machinery tomorrow?”
“I feel like we already had this conversation.” Emily turned around to face the table. “Me and John. Going out. Tonight. Alone.”