I saw flashes of a life here.
Fish. Small boats. A gentle woman who raised me—my auntie. A handsome man who wished to marry me. For some reason, I could not seem to love him. I consented anyway. I yearned for a child. I died clutching his hand, giving birth to the child, who did not survive either.
“Oh—!” The memories stung me like a wasp.
Waldemar held my hands tight. “Stay in it,” he said. “You’re almost there.”
Where am I?
The waves sang back.
The cave…where the wicked magic…
Keao whirled and shot a jolt of magic into the bushes behind us and I heard a girl scream. I screamed too, not expecting this at all. Keao ran to the bushes and grabbed Alice, hauling her to her feet roughly. “You were spying!”
“I wasn’t spying! I was just watching.” She looked at Waldemar.
It took him a moment to even notice she was staring at him, and his lip curled slightly.
“Who is that!?” she asked me.
“My familiar. Where are the guys?” I asked. I couldn’t believe they let her run off.
“Silvus thought he sensed something suspicious and they went to check it out and so I wanted to see what you were doing.”
“I made it clear. I will have no demons on my land.” Keao blasted Alice six feet back, up and over the bush where she had been hiding. She popped back up again, straightened out her skirt, and backed off. “All right, all right, I know when I’m not wanted…” She glanced at Waldemar one more time and I heard Rayner calling her anyway.
“Well?” Waldemar said.
“I’m sorry. That’s just Alice, she’s—“
“Not her. The spell. Did you get anything?”
“Yes. Something about a cave and magic…”
Keao started shaking her head vigorously. “Oh, no, no. Kaneana Cave. It is a place of dark magic. Sinistral, as you would call it. It would make sense your bones are kept there, but it’s very dangerous. Be careful. I don’t want anything more to do with it.”
“Is it easy to get to?”
“Yes! Tourists go there. But going deep inside is another matter. They say you will cross into a parallel, but I’ve never been there, of course.”
“That’s exactly the answer I needed! If the bones are there, I know we’ll find them. Thank you so much, Keao!” I gave her a little bow like I was supposed to give to the elders in the village, and then I was already running off, worried about what the clan might have found.
“Nothing…I think,” Silvus said. They were back at the car, and Silvus was still looking around. “I thought I sensed something.”
“I never like hearing that,” Jie said.
“I think it’s just the local witches wanting us gone,” Silvus said.
“Did you get anything out of that, Tulip?” Rayner asked.
“Yes. Waldemar and I—“ I turned to where I thought Waldemar was just behind me, but he had already vanished. “Well, we connected with the land and it told me my bones are in Kaneana Cave. Keao said it’s a Sinistral parallel.”
“I can handle that,” Silvus said. “Let’s not waste time.”
“That boy was your familiar!?” Alice pressed me as soon as we were back in the rental van, the one we had to upgrade to just because she was there. She was sitting alone in the back. “Silvus was just telling me that your familiar has been alive as long as Rayner.”
I was already starting to sense where this was going. “Alice, he really doesn’t like other people.”
“Pshaw! He’d like me. Why does he look like a boy?”
“He said he appears that way because I’m more comfortable with boys than with, uh, men.”
“Oh, really now?” She grabbed the back of my seat. “Please, Alissa, I’ve already told you all my troubles in life and you can’t just dangle a five hundred year old boy in front of me like that.”
“It’s not his true form or anything. I guess. He has no interest in any of that.”
“Have you asked him, though?”
“Of course not. I just found out he exists, and I just found out you’re interested.”
“Fine. I know you’ve got bigger fish to be frying…”
That was certainly true. We drove down beautiful roads with views of blue ocean and lush green mountains. Pennsylvania had lush green mountains too, but these were so different. Even though I loved the mountains of my home, they suggested a hard life, with the rocks and long winters. This place was paradise—until we got to the cave. I had an immediate sense of foreboding even before it was in view. The cave wasn’t right on the ocean, but was across the street, and an older man was walking his dog into it.
“This is a hot spot, indeed,” Silvus said. “I can feel it.”
“Me too…”
“That’s good, right?” Thom said. “That’s what we’re looking for, and the sooner we get it over with, the sooner we can get surfing.”
The cave was like a gateway into the shadows, gaping from the side of the mountain. It had a large opening we could walk into and another one higher up that we couldn’t reach. We followed a dad with three kids into the cave, where people were clambering over rocks and taking pictures, whipping out flashlights and letting their dogs pee in a corner.
“We’ll have to wait until everyone leaves,” Silvus said.
“Or we could eat them,” Alice said.
Silvus frowned as he looked into the darkness and then he took out his wand and flicked his thumb across it and the tip lit up. A few people looked at his unusual flashlight.
“Magic?” Rayner hissed.
“I’m going to cheat,” Silvus said. “If anyone asks it’s the bloody licensed Hogwarts flashlight.” He moved farther back into the cave and I followed him as if I couldn’t stop myself, even though I was shivering.
The main room of the cave was fairly shallow and everyone else was staying in that area, but the cave seemed to keep going with smaller passageways too dark to see. As we moved back into the depths of the cave, the light seemed to shrink and barely illuminate anything. Silvus suddenly whirled and looked behind him.
The older man with the dog was turning to leave. Silvus shifted a little toward him. The man didn’t react.
“That’s the same man who rode by us when you were visiting Keao,” he whispered. “There’s something about him.”
The rest of the clan picked up on his signals and started closing in on the man.
The man looked behind him and started walking faster. Silvus tried to leap forward and slipped on a slick rock. Rayner rushed forward instead only for the rocks to shift under his feet and trip him, which also threw off Thom and Jie who were behind him. Alice leapt over them and I clambered after her.
The regular humans also quickly fled the cave. Even if nothing had looked like overt magic, they surely sensed trouble, or at least figured this cave was not safe for walking around unless you wanted to smash your face into a rock.
As I reached the mouth of the cave, I saw the man driving off with the dog in the sidecar of a motorcycle. Alice was running down the street after him but he outpaced her in no time and sped around the corner.
“Shit!” Alice said.
The vampires were straggling out of the cave, Rayner favoring one leg—he still wasn’t completely recovered from the fight with Father Joshua, so falling on the rocks hadn’t done him any good.
“Gone?” Silvus said.
“And his little dog too,” Alice said.
“That was rock magic,” Silvus said. “He must be another spy from the Order. Are you all right, Rayner?”
“Fine!” Rayner snapped. “He made fools of all of us. A pox on his ass. Can we find him?”
“I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble,” Silvus said. “That will take time and the Order has enough members and allies that it would just be a battle with a hydra. But if we protect Alissa from Johannes, the rest will fall into place. Their cloaking skills are good so we just have to assume they�
�re everywhere and be prepared.”
“Or we could just have eaten him, like I said,” Alice said.
“I’m startin’ to like her plan,” Thom said.
Silvus just made his way back into the cave.
“Why wouldn’t the Order stop us right now before we find my bones?” I said. “Surely they don’t want us to get all the spell ingredients.”
“Your bones will have power,” Silvus said. “Johannes might make a gamble that as long as he keeps a close eye on us, he can get ahold of the pieces of you from your seven lives and add them to his spell to make it stronger. Don’t worry. I’m prepared to fight him.” He offered me a hand. “Do you want to find your bones?”
I took it.
“Into the parallel we go…” He leapt into the pitch black darkness of the cave, dragging me with him. I didn’t scream. I sensed that what I was seeing was just the doorway.
But I don’t think even Silvus expected the drop that pitched us into a heap onto the hard ground. The fall was over quickly and I was on top of him, my shoulder slammed into his arm. I rolled back, feeling bruised, while he groaned.
We didn’t take long to recover ourselves.
“Good heavens…,” Silvus breathed, grabbing his wand, which still glowed with a faint light but had fallen from his hand. As he moved the light around, it swept over a vast chamber with wooden carvings of faces. I assumed they were protective spirits, and they were guarding over worn bundles with the remains of the dead.
I would always remember that in Father Joshua’s temple, he kept all the artifacts of religion that the members had surrendered. He said it because we were all one people, one religion, but then he was the one who preached to us, who cleansed us of all books, of all songs, of all worship that wasn’t directed by him.
This place was unique. A catacombs for Hawaiian witches and warlocks, whatever name they went by. Every corner of the world would have its own spirits, its own tombs. I could feel the energy of it practically vibrating inside me.
“Magnificent,” Silvus said. But then he gripped my hand again, tight. He admired this place like I did, but he respected a level of danger. He looked down me, his face shadowed and heavy-lidded and pale. In that moment I felt like he seemed so different from the rest of the clan—unlike them, he had always been different, laced with magic through his bones and blood, used to a strange life.
He’s beautiful like this, I thought. I feel like I can see the heart of him. It was not the lightest of hearts, but it was powerful, and it was fair.
“Can you find yourself here?” he asked.
“I’ll try.”
“I could…but I thought you might want to do it.”
“You’re right. I do.”
I didn’t expect to enjoy finding my old bones, but it felt like an important journey for me, to pay a visit to all the lives I’d lived before. I had visited Li Mei and Bertie…now I was on the islands I had once called home.
Where am I? I asked the question again, putting my whole soul into the words.
As I concentrated, a light suddenly poured out of one of the bundles. I walked toward it, my hands trembling as I reached for the crumbling wrappings. I knew my bones had rested here for three hundred years, waiting…
I put my hands on the cloth, and a huge black beast suddenly uncoiled itself from the shadows, its head flying toward me, huge fangs bared.
I grabbed the bundle and held it tight, feeling the weight of the rattling objects inside, unwilling to give them up. I felt like I needed to protect the bones and get them back to the real world no matter what, even if I never became a vampire. I had to break this curse and keep Father Joshua from using me. Silvus put himself between me and the creature, which looked like a serpent or dragon—hard to tell in the dark. Liquid black scales gleamed in the dim light and its head stopped just inches from our face, so I could feel the heat of its breath.
“If you take those bones, I’ll have to kill you,” it said, in a low female voice.
“They’re mine,” I said.
“Then tell me your name,” it said.
“Alissa…”
“That’s not the name I seek!” The dragon snapped toward us and now a lot of the bravery went out of me as I ducked, still clutching the bones. I looked for a way out, but the chamber seemed to be all walls, from what I could see. Silvus had the only light, though. He cast a barrier spell to protect me.
The dragon’s head slammed into the barrier but then she breathed on the barrier. It was invisible but now it dissolved like burning paper. Then she grabbed Silvus between her jaws and lifted him up to the high ceiling of the cave.
“Silvus!” I cried. “Please, let him go! These bones are mine.”
Silvus would be badly hurt if she dropped him, and he seemed unsure what to do. The merciless dragon squeezed him between her teeth and he let out a tense cry of pain.
Waldemar appeared next to me. “I see that I will need to stay close to you,” he muttered. “Alissa, tell her your name. This name.” He pointed at the bones.
“I don’t know what it is!”
“Yes, you do,” he said. “Focus.”
His words snapped me back into a moment of calm. “Kawailani… Kawailani!” I shouted at the dragon.
The dragon’s head swept down and put Silvus on his feet. “So it is,” she said, and then she blew her hot breath at us full force so I had to close my eyes. The ground seemed to shift under my feet and I was tumbled back over rocks.
When I opened my eyes, I was flat on my back on the floor of the cave with Rayner looking down at me with worry. I was still clutching the bones.
“I’ve got them,” I said, and Rayner put his hands on the bundle reverently. “Alissa…this is the only life I never could find.”
“Silvus is hurt,” Jie said.
“Oh, I’m fine,” Silvus said, trying to get up but then almost immediately laying back down. “Give me a moment…”
“Silvus—can we get you back to the hotel? You’re bleeding,” Rayner said. “You should have brought me with you.”
“You’re not a warlock, Rayner. This wasn’t your business. No surfing for me, that’s all,” Silvus said. “What a shame. I’ll just have to recuperate on a deck chair with a cocktail and a book for the rest of the week. I’m just glad…Alissa got the bones.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Alissa
“Maybe I’ll get to wrestle a shark…” Thom and Jie’s conversation floated over us from the other side of the small beach shop as I looked over the bikinis. Alice frowned over her options, with bright colors and ruffles in a girls’ size 12. She grabbed a sporty navy one-piece. I was undecided, with lots of cute options around, and in a generally good mood. I got the bones! Me! I was in a cave with a dragon!
And Rayner and Silvus were so pleased and impressed with me the whole way home. I wasn’t used to being praised for action. I was used to humility, respecting the elders, and good cooking being the highest things a girl could aspire to.
This felt a hundred times better.
“Is that a dream of yours?” Jie said to Thom, trying on some sunglasses. He put a huge container of sunscreen on the counter.
“Bucket list,” Thom said. “Wrestle as many large animals as I can.”
“Why?” I giggled.
“Why does Jie want to beat so many Playstation games? I don’t know,” Thom said.
“You better get cracking, because I’ve never seen you wrestle anything besides the neighbors’ dog,” Jie said, as Thom walked over to me and put his hands on my hips.
“That one,” he said, as I was looking at a very skimpy bikini. “It’s Rayner’s birthday.”
“It is? He didn’t say anything about it.”
“He never does,” Thom said. “But I bet he’d still like a present.” He grabbed it off the rack and went toward the one and only dressing room. “C’mere.”
The proprietor said, without looking up from a magazine, “You two can go in there tog
ether but if you’re not out in three minutes I’m throwing the curtain open. Not cleaning up after anybody.”
“Don’t worry, my man. By the way, Jie, I like the shades.”
“I do look pretty cool, right?”
Thom tugged the curtain shut, unclipped the bathing suit, and sniffed the crotch.
I made a weird face.
“Well, we don’t have time to wash it,” he said. “So we don’t want you in something some stranger’s been trying on. Pretty handy skill, ain’t it?”
“I guess that’s a good point.”
He smiled. “You did good today. And you know it, don’t you?”
“I do…”
“You’re a brave one,” he said. “Don’t ever forget it. You’re brave, and you’re powerful, and you can stand up to anyone. You’re going to be strong every step of the way and we’ll get through it.”
“Thanks, Thom. I’m starting to believe it. I just don’t want to get my hopes up, I guess. I’m braced for…something bad.”
“Don’t mourn in advance,” he said. “Believe me, if something goes wrong, you’ll have plenty of time for it then. But I think, before you know it, you’ll have your sisters back at your side.”
I met my reflection in the mirror and I knew instinctively that I was getting stronger, preparing for the fight.
“But I’m still going to have my way with you,” he whispered, unbuttoning my shorts.
“The man said…”
“Oh, not that.” He sighed a little. “Although I would…” He pulled off my clothes and handed me the bikini bottoms to step into. He tied the top behind my back. The scraps of fabric certainly left little to the imagination, but I’d already seen plenty of other girls wearing the same.
“Scandalous,” I murmured, with a little smile. “I think I would have been thrown out of the village if I’d worn this to the swimming hole.”
“How about a little extra something?”
“Huh?”
Thom took a small object almost like a paper clip, but…not really…and reached down the bikini bottoms. His fingers spread my pussy lips and fit the clip around the tender bud. It was a gentle pressure that left me immediately stimulated.
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