When the Dead Come Home

by B. L. Brunnemer

  “Just keeping an eye on our dear project.” Jadis’ voice was sweet and cloying. “Has he changed yet.”

  I set the phone to speaker so the others could hear. “Do you actually care?”

  “He’s quite dangerous you know.” She ignored my question. “With that mixture we pumped through him.”

  “What mixture?” I asked calmly.

  “Oh, you’ll find out one day. When he loses control and kills everyone around him,” she said. “It’s just a matter of time.”

  I ran her words through my head again. She liked to taunt. To torture. She liked having all the power. She wanted me to doubt Ethan. I snorted. “Oh, sweetie. You really suck at trying to create doubt.”

  A tense silence was her answer.

  Uma eyed me with an odd look in her eye.

  It was my turn to talk, and I took it. “That weak shit doesn’t work when I’ve already been taunted by a demon. The shit you’re trying to pull, is like a fly buzzing in my face compared to that. And secondly, I know Ethan. In New Orleans, we were on your turf. Now you’re on ours.”

  “Monday morning, eight a.m. Come to my office with your uncle,” she ordered. “We need to have a meeting about your attendance.”

  “I’ll bring the doughnuts.” I ended the call. Our turf. Our home field. The inkling of an idea started to form. Not quite there, but it existed. It just needed time.

  “She’s not one for charm, is she?” Uma sighed before turning to Miles. “I need an empty room to test Ethan and train Lexie. Preferably fireproof and out of sight.”

  Miles’ eyes unfocused. “Well, there’s the atrium, though that is full of glass. There’s one of the empty rooms downstairs. They haven’t really been finished.”

  “Cement floor and walls?” Uma asked.

  “Yes, ma’am.” Miles lowered his head in a single nod.

  “Perfect.” She turned to Ethan. “Let’s not waste any more time.”

  Ethan

  I led Uma downstairs and to the far side of the house. The room was large and bare, with only hanging lightbulbs between the beams.

  “This will do nicely.” Uma closed the door behind her before pulling something from her bag. She set her things down before she walked around the outside of the room, putting up symbols in black chalk, even on the beams in the ceiling and on the floor. When she was done, she tossed the chalk and turned to me. Her eyes were all business as she surveyed me. “What have you noticed so far?”

  I shrugged. “Healing, scales that showed under my skin when my hand went into fire, nothing can cut me, but a tack made its way into my foot just fine. I’m as strong, if not stronger than Asher. And, my eyes changed.”

  Her eyes met mine. “Describe your eyes.”

  “They glow. Like amber glass in front of a light, I guess?” I hadn’t really been looking at them, just reacting.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Were your pupils different? Were they slit and vertical?”

  I shook my head, picturing it again. “No, they were normal.”

  She tapped her thigh. “Alright. So, your hand went into the fire and you didn’t burn?”

  I nodded.

  “Let’s see if you can do it again.” She crossed the distance to her bag and came back with a candle and lighter.

  “Couldn’t you just wave your hand and create fire?” I asked, only half teasing her.

  She scowled at me. “Sure, I could, but that’s a lot like using a nuke when a pellet gun would suffice.” She lit the white candle and held it out to me. “Touch the flame and let’s see what happens.”

  Slowly, I reached out and brought my palm low over the flame. Nothing. “I feel heat but no pain.”

  She pulled my hand up and examined it. “Hmm.” She blew out the candle. “Let’s try the nuke.”

  Lexie

  I was sitting at the bottom of the steps to the basement when my phone rang. It was Jake.

  “Hey hon, what’s up?” I answered.

  “After hours of tireless negotiation, I’ve finally managed to drag Riley back to the café,” Jake announced dramatically. I could almost see him clutching his chest to add to it.

  “How’d you manage that?” I grinned. “Bribery?”

  “There may have been cheesecake involved, yes.”

  I snorted.

  “But, you now have a date to meet her tomorrow night in town at the café again.” His voice was so joyful I could tell he was beaming.

  “Goodie,” I muttered.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  I looked down and started fiddling with my shoelace. “What is there to talk about? She thinks I’m easy and I think she’s narrow minded.”

  “You two are friends. That bond is still there even if time has passed,” he reminded me.

  I sighed. Okay, yeah, he was right. And I did miss her. “Okay, I’ll go.”

  Ethan came out the door, shirtless.

  “I gotta go, text me the time and I’ll be there.” I hung up on him. The scent of smoke reached me before he did. “What was on fire?”

  “Me.” He sighed as he reached me. “She wanted to test how fireproof I am.” He held up a smoking ruin of cloth that had been his shirt. “Turns out the answer was very.”

  I snorted. “Did she have any ideas?”

  He ran his hand through his hair and met my eyes. “A few. But she’s not sure. She’s going to do some more research.”

  “As long as you’re okay.”

  He leaned down and kissed my cheek. “I’ve got to shower. Head on in, she’s expecting you.”

  I let out a deep breath and headed down the hallway toward the room he left, trying not to dread this. I opened the door to find Uma in the middle of a white chalk circle.

  “Watch the lines as you cross in and sit in the center,” she warned.

  I did as she said and went to her side. “So, what’s with the circle?”

  “This particular circle is to collect and hold energy from a ley line,” she explained as she gestured to the floor.

  I sat down on the cold concrete floor. “I’ve heard about them, but I didn’t think they were real.”

  She sat down across from me, managing to make even that movement graceful. “They’re real. They are natural collections of energy.”

  “Huh? What?” I quipped.

  She smiled. “Think rivers. Like water, energy is everywhere, falling like rain. The natural inclination of water is to take the path of least resistance, so it goes down the hill as runoff and joins a larger stream. It’s the same thing for energy.”

  “Oh, okay.” That made sense.

  “Now, those ley lines are made of magnetic energy from the earth itself,” she explained. “This is what we tap into when we’re using magic in a circle.”

  “If that’s what you use, then how the hell can you throw magic around like in New Orleans?” It didn’t make sense. “Don’t you need a circle?”

  She sat down across from me and reached into the pocket of her vest. She pulled out a white orb. Clear, with white cracks moving through it and giving it color, the small crystal ball was about the size of a golf ball in her hand. “Crystals. In a circle, you channel that energy into a crystal for storage to use when you need to use magic on the run. Different crystals have different energy frequencies. It takes a while to find one that works well with you and with what you do.”

  “A portable ley line battery,” I summed up.

  She nodded.

  I bit back a grin. “So… you actually use crystal balls.”

  Uma held out for several heartbeats before she smiled and chuckled. “Yes. We use crystal balls.”

  Sobering, I looked down at the circle. “So, we’re tapping into a ley line?”

  She sent me a look. “That has yet to be decided. Tell me again what happened.”

  I repeated everything while trying not to get irritated that I was having to repeat myself, again. By the look on her face, I didn’t succeed.

  “Hmm.” Uma surveyed
me. “Do you remember the telepathic spell I used in New Orleans?”

  I nodded slowly, not sure I liked where this was going.

  “Would you mind if I used an altered version of it to look at your channels?” she asked.

  “Why?” My stomach knotted.

  “I have a theory that you used your own energy to save you. As a necromancer, using your own energy is normal, but that energy shouldn’t affect anything living, let alone throw a werewolf far enough to break a bone. You also shouldn’t be able to throw it.”

  “So, no matter what, I’m doing something weird?”

  She nodded. “Yes. It’s possible working with the Veil gave you more abilities than you were born with. I won’t know unless I take a closer look.”

  I chewed on the corner of my lip, wanting to say no. I didn’t need anyone in my head and seeing my memories. But I needed answers. “Sure. Let’s give it a shot.”

  Uma rubbed her hands together and unfocused her eyes. The air grew thicker, charged. The hair on my arms and neck stood up. She raised a finger and began drawing out symbols in the air. Those symbols hung like a shimmering sign in front of me as she continued to write out the spell. When she was done, she passed her hand through the center diamond and touched my forehead.

  Nothing. I felt nothing. I expected pain or warmth or the room to disappear, but I simply felt silly and sat there. Well, that was anti-climactic. I watched Uma’s face as lines appeared around her eyes. A dull throb in my head had me flinching. It was followed by another. Uma’s face grew paler. She pulled away and opened her eyes.

  Shock. That was the only word I could use to explain the look on her face. Her eyes were wide, her skin was pale, and her breathing was rapid.

  “I don’t like that face,” I muttered.

  She dropped her hand to her lap and blinked several times before meeting my gaze. “I was wrong.”

  “How so?” And why was she looking at me like I was something to be studied.

  “You’re not pulling energy from yourself or the ley lines.” She swallowed hard. “You’re pulling from the Veil.”

  The world stopped for several minutes. The only sound was my heart pounding in my ears.

  I could not have heard that right. “What?”

  Uma’s color was coming back. “The energy you used to throw the werewolf, to knock the ghosts out of the classroom, came from the Veil itself.”

  I shook my head slowly. “You’re kidding.”

  “No,” she said. “You said you formed a link to the Veil, correct?”

  I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “It was the only way to access it.”

  “Alexis.” Her tone pulled my scattered attention back to her. “No one has ever worked with the Veil this long before. No one has ever had this much contact with Veil energy. We don’t know what it really is.”

  “Wait, you just said that the energy is magnetic,” I countered. Please… please…

  “Ley line energy, yes. Energy every witch in the world uses? Yes.” She took my shaking hand. “But this energy isn’t magnetic. It’s older than that. Stronger, more primal.”

  Yeah, that wasn’t scary at all. I gaped up at her, not knowing what to say.

  “This energy is something that humans were never supposed to be able to access. Do you understand?” Her eyes demanded an answer.

  “Not really,” I said robotically.

  “How did you feel after these incidents?” she asked, coaxing my brain back into working.

  I closed my eyes and thought about it. “Tired. I got a bloody nose and a raging headache the first time. The second time I passed out.” When I opened my eyes, I met her gaze.

  “Your body wasn’t built for channeling that type of universal energy. It will most likely kill you if you keep doing it.” She let the other shoe drop carefully.

  I caught that word. “You said wasn’t built for this.”

  She swallowed hard. “You have a new, fairly young channel just now opening. A type I’ve never seen before. I think it’s from working with the Veil. That energy may be trying to change you so you can use it. You can never do this again. Do you understand?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t even know how I did it those two times, how the hell am I supposed to stop it?”

  Her eyes unfocused. “Each time, you were desperate. You had no way out, right?”

  I nodded.

  “That might be the trigger,” she said. “If you feel trapped, threatened, your body is reacting instinctively.”

  “So, don’t get threatened in the middle of what is about to be a warzone for the fate of the Earth. Great.” The darkness inside me boiled out of its corner. I shoved it back. It was getting harder and harder to do. I got to my feet and headed for the door.

  “Lexie, we need to talk about—”

  “No.” I turned on her. “You just told me that I can’t use it, but I don’t know how not to. So, I’m probably screwed.”

  “That’s what I’m going to teach you.”

  Chapter 14

  “Come again?”

  “I’m going to teach you how to collect the energy from around you,” she said carefully. “Just like any witch.”

  I blinked at her. “Okay… that doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

  “Sit,” Uma ordered.

  I took my spot across from her again.

  She held up the white foggy ball of white stone. “First, we need to find a crystal that works for you. Hold out your hand.”

  I did as she said.

  She set the stone in my palm. “Now, how does it feel to you?”

  I tried to notice something but came up with nothing. “Like a rock.”

  She eyed me carefully. “Open your barriers just enough to feel it.”

  I closed my eyes and cracked my barriers open. Tingles ran up my arm from my hand. “Blank. Like… nothing.” I opened my eyes and met hers. “There’s a strange tingle along my nerves but that’s it.”

  “Hmm.” She carefully plucked the stone from me without touching me. “Interesting. Quartz is a good stone of all trades. You can use it for just about anything. That’s why most witches carry it.”

  She reached into her bag and pulled out a green gem I recognized. “Try this malachite.”

  It went on like that for an hour, being handed gem after gem and telling her how they felt.

  Just as I was getting irritated, she cursed. She eyed me before reaching into the bag and pulling out a small velvet bag. She opened it and carefully pulled out a deep orange sphere of stone I had never seen before. She set it in my hand.

  Energy crackled up my arm in a breath. I slammed my barriers closed as my hand wrapped around it. The sphere fit perfectly, as if it had always been there. “Whoa.”

  Uma sighed. “I was afraid of that.”

  “What?” I dropped my hand from between us.

  “Carnelian is heavy duty and complicated, Lexie. I haven’t heard of a lot of witches using this stone as a battery.” She shook her head. “But you vibed with it, it’ll work for you.”

  I held up the stone between my fingers. “Now, how do I use it?”

  She was quiet so long I stopped examining the stone.

  Her face was a mask, emotionless as she watched me.

  “Uma, what has you so worried?” I asked, fed up with the look.

  “You have an explosive temper, Lexie. It worries me that you are on the same resonance as this stone.” She started packing the other stones away. “That’s all.”

  “What happened to the others?” I asked, needing to know. “The ones that used this stone?”

  Her eyes were haunted as she turned back to me. “They… died.”

  My heart dropped. “All of them?”

  She nodded slowly.

  I tapped the stone. “Directly from using this?”

  “One way or another, yes. It was usually user error.”

  “Why does everything try to kill me?” I asked, wanting an answer.

  Uma gave
me an understanding look. “Perhaps because you’re a necro. Maybe you can’t tap all your abilities until you die.”

  “Really?” I didn’t like that one bit.

  She gave me an elegant half shrug. “It’s a hypothesis Louis and I came up with years ago. I honestly have no idea.”

  I let out a small breath of relief. “Thanks for scaring the shit out of me.”

  She grinned. “I wasn’t trying to. Let’s start your first lesson.”

  I cringed as I pulled my phone out. “I can’t. It’s Isaac’s date night.”

  She smiled. “Go. Normal relationships are hard enough, you don’t want to add missing dates to this situation.”

  I thanked her, got to my feet, and bolted for the door. I let the door close behind me and headed out of the house. I didn’t see anyone, I didn’t tell anyone. I simply left and started for home.

  It wasn’t that I was avoiding the guys, I just needed time. A little time to myself. It was becoming scarce lately.

  I just got my life back this summer. I’d lived with the cloud of death above my head for most of my life. I had finally gotten out from under it only to be shoved right back under it. No. I was done today. I was going to go home, get in my pjs, and watch a bad movie. I didn’t care whose night it was for a date. I didn’t care if one of the guys was mad at me. Sometimes, you just had to say no and step back.

  * * *

  When I reached the house, I parked and went inside as usual. Rory wasn’t home. Weird. I closed the door behind me and locked it, only to be greeted by Hades. I gave him a quick scratch before I pulled out my phone and headed up to my room. No messages from Rory. Hopefully there wasn’t another body. I was about to put my phone away when it rang. It was Isaac.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, Red.” His voice alone made my shoulders relax. “What do you want to do tonight?”

  I hesitated only a few seconds. “Honestly? I want to get in my pajamas and watch something that’ll make me laugh.”

  “Sounds good. Get in your jammies and find something to watch while I bring dinner,” he said.