by Jenn Burke
“So you tried to trap me, and then grabbed me at Shawn’s...all so I could do your little ritual for you.”
“No, Wes, don’t.” The words flew from Lexi as though she feared she wouldn’t get them all out. “The crown—it makes the target of the spell immortal. You can’t—we can’t let that—” She cried out as one of the vampires backhanded her across the face.
Frank interrupted my lunge forward and yanked me back to his side. Asshole. I clenched my jaw as Lexi rubbed her cheek and glared at the vampire who hit her. She looked okay—for now. Again I thought about escaping to the otherplane, but that would leave Lexi and Hudson defenseless. I could easily picture Julia threatening them to bring me back to the living plane anyway—that’s why they were here, right? Not so she could get the crown after all, but so she could get me.
I was not a scholar, but I could do some simple math. A demon plus an immortal body equaled a big ol’ shitstorm. Lexi was right—I couldn’t do what Julia asked. Not only was it wrong, there was no guarantee any of us would survive it.
“I see Alexia has done her research. She’s right—the ritual does make the target immortal. Or possibly conveys upon it godhood.” Julia winked. “The text is vague, but between you and me, either result is acceptable.”
Godhood. As in, it could make the demon a god? Granted, I didn’t know the true scope of that, but a god was a god. All powerful. Or at least, way more powerful than any demon had the right to be.
“No.” I wanted it to come out strong and unshakeable, but my voice wavered.
Julia’s smile fell away. “Consider your response carefully, little—”
I cleared my throat and firmed up my voice. “No.”
Julia sighed. “I thought you might say that.”
She held out a hand. One of her vampires stepped forward and placed something in it—
A gun.
Which she raised and fired. Directly into Hudson’s heart.
* * *
We’d talked about how to kill a vampire after our fight with Frank and his band. Hudson had joked about not asking sooner, and I’d smiled, but in reality I hadn’t wanted to know. Shit, I hesitated to kill spiders, and I hated those motherfuckers. Killing a vampire was probably not on my list of things I could ever accomplish. But I grasped that killing one would be harder than a regular human, so we’d discussed it.
“Decapitation, fire.” Hudson ticked off each method on his fingers. “A stake or bullet directly to the heart.”
“The sun?”
He shook his head. “For young vampires, maybe, but it wouldn’t be instant. In direct sunlight, I get a sunburn, a bad one—blisters and all—and it makes me sick. Prolonged exposure can lead to anaphylaxis.”
“So it really is an allergy.”
“Yeah. We don’t burst into flames and it’s not a guaranteed death, it’s just painful as fuck.”
“Should I start carrying a stake?”
“Only if you call him Mr. Pointy.”
I squinted at him. “Did you just make a Buffy reference? Really?”
“What kind of self-respecting vampire would I be if I didn’t watch the Scooby Gang?”
A horrendous sound—loud, screechy, deafening—pulled me out of my memories and back into the real world. I didn’t realize it was me screaming until my throat seized up and the sound stopped.
Hudson was—he was on the floor. Not moving. He’d had no time to say anything—no time to look at me—and now he was—
He was—
Julia calmly stepped over Hudson’s—over his—over Hudson, and placed the barrel of the gun against Lexi’s forehead. Lexi squeezed her eyes shut and cried out as the hot metal seared her skin. Tears cascaded down her cheeks.
Mine were dry. Because I was broken. Seeing Hudson fall, seeing him—fuck, seeing him die broke me. Emotion? Ceased to exist. How could it remain in the face of that?
“Wes, don’t,” Lexi begged, her voice shaking so hard I could barely make out the words. “Don’t do it. It’s not worth it. It’s okay, I promise it’s okay. Please—”
“Five seconds, little ghost. Five seconds to make your decision or your second friend dies.” Julia—Not-Julia—might as well have been discussing a favorite recipe for all the emotion she displayed. “Five, four—”
“I’ll do it,” I gasped.
“No, Wes,” Lexi moaned, sagging.
Julia handed the gun off to one of her vampires. He kept it trained on Lexi, which was all the incentive I needed. I couldn’t be the noble person concerned about the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. Not when my best friend—the great-granddaughter of the woman who saved me—would die if I refused. That was unacceptable. I owed her family too much. Losing Hudson was a raw, open wound that was still mostly numb because it...it couldn’t be real. It couldn’t. If Lexi were laid out on the ground beside him, their pools of blood comingling...
I bent at the waist and retched.
Frank swore under his breath and when I was done, guided me away from the mess and into the center of the pentagram delineated on the floor in tile. My hands wanted to shake, but I wouldn’t let them. I couldn’t fail Lexi. Not like I’d failed Hudson.
Julia placed the Crown of Osiris in my hands.
“What do I do with it? Wear it?”
“You’ll look quite fetching in it,” Julia said, and giggled.
Giggled.
As though she hadn’t just killed Hudson—the man who might have been mine again if we’d had more time. I believed we’d have all the time in the world this time around, since we were both on the same side of the immortality table. Or mostly, anyway. I didn’t think our time together would be numbered in days. Hours.
I had to concentrate on breathing for a few moments, reminding my lungs that yes, they could expand and contract. I was still alive.
I put the crown on my head and ignored the snorts of amusement from the vampires surrounding us. “Now what?”
Julia arranged herself to stand on the opposite side of the circle, though still within its boundaries. “Now, access your magic and think of me.”
Both of those things were easier said than done. Shock and brokenness kept me removed from my power, and I didn’t want to think about Julia. I wanted to think about anything but.
As I stared at her, trying to do what she said, she nodded to the vampire with the gun aimed at Lexi. “Shoot her arm.”
Oh fuck. “No! I can—I can do this.” My words tumbled together, but my investment must have been clear, since Julia waved the vampire off.
“Wes,” Lexi whined.
I ignored her and closed my eyes.
I would do this. I would connect with my magic and allow the crown to funnel it—or whatever it needed to do—at Julia. Because Lexi deserved to live. She deserved a good life, a happy, complete, extraordinary life. I hadn’t been much help to the generations that had preceded her—friendly with them, yes, but Lexi was the Aster I’d connected with. She was one of my people, and I would do anything—anything—for her.
Even unleash an immortal demon on the world.
Because we could find some way to stop Julia after. I truly believed that. And if we couldn’t, I would run as fast and as far with Lexi as we needed to. We’d escape the danger. Us and Evan. We’d all run, and we’d be safe. And maybe that made me a bad person, but I didn’t care. I needed my people with me, or else what was the fucking point of this existence?
If Hudson was dead, and Lexi and Evan were gone too—why even bother?
God—I had to do this.
My magic sparked and the crown grabbed it, yanking it to the forefront of my existence, beyond my exhaustion, burnout and self-preservation protections, until power filled me. It was funny—I normally didn’t think of it, but Julia was right. I was magical. When I felt this connection, this rush,
I usually didn’t dwell on it. I acted, using it to step into the otherplane, or haunt someone, or whatever else I needed to do.
I opened my eyes and focused my intent on Not-Julia. The magic leached from me, through the artifact, and out toward her. Would it drain me until I was little more than a husk? I hadn’t thought to ask.
Honestly, if it saved Lexi, I didn’t care.
The magic slammed into Julia. She staggered, falling back a step, then gasped in delight and lifted her head and hands in supplication. “Perfect! Yes... I can feel it. Yes!”
The fact that Julia sounded as though she was getting close to an orgasm was a bit distracting, but the magic and the crown were doing their own thing at this point. I had no more control over it than I did the rising of the sun or the setting of the moon. I was merely the energy source, and the crown the conduit. With every moment that passed, Julia’s presence expanded, growing stronger, larger, even if her physical body remained the same. She dominated the room, filling it with a miasma of dark, horrible power, and in the back of my mind, I asked whatever gods might be watching for forgiveness. Because I knew that this had been the wrong choice—even if it was the only one I could make.
My legs started to shake and my vision grew dim. My well of magic was almost gone. Another few breaths and—and that would be it. I might not die immediately, but without the magic that had kept me alive for eighty-five years, I would die. I sucked in a breath that rattled in my chest. Julia cried out in triumph—
Two hands suddenly covered her ears, twisted her head and pulled. Her body dropped to the floor. Sans her head.
I barely had time to register that Evan was holding Julia’s head—fuck, that was gross—before the magic rebounded on me. Everything that had been sucked out of me slammed back, bringing with it the spell that had been working to transform Julia. I crumpled to the floor. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t move. All I could do was endure and try to tuck everything back where it was supposed to be. A tiny kernel of power, always there, always burning, but unobtrusive.
It was harder than it should have been.
The sounds of fighting rang around me. Grunts of exertion. Flesh thudding into flesh. Flesh tearing. Orders of where to shoot—head, heart—followed by more than one gunshot. Cries of pain and disbelief. Evan’s voice calling out. Lexi’s. And then...silence.
I didn’t know if the fight had ended or if I had.
“Wes!” Lexi dropped to the floor beside me and cradled my head. “Oh god, Wes, come on.”
The white that filled my vision slipped away and I sucked in a coughing, gasping breath. Lexi held me, speaking in a low, comforting voice, and even though I couldn’t quite follow all the words, I got the gist of it—I was here, she was here, we were alive.
“Hudson?” I managed.
She bit her lip and looked away.
I scrambled upward but I couldn’t quite reach my feet. Lexi hauled me the rest of the way up and we staggered over to the other side of the circle. Evan sat with his head in his hands, hunched over like he was trying to make himself as small as possible—if he didn’t exist, then this scene wouldn’t, either. God—he’d just killed someone. The implications of that pinged against my brain, but I didn’t have the capacity to deal with it right now. Kat Li stood over Hudson, pale and trembling just enough to illustrate that beneath her professional exterior, she was shaken. I didn’t even know why—how—
The envelope with her number on it in Hudson’s kitchen. Evan must have found it and called her for backup after I left. I couldn’t even imagine what he’d told her to get her to accompany him on her own.
“I have to call—call it in,” she said.
Lexi was shaking her head even before the detective finished speaking. “And tell them what? That a band of vampires headed by a demon kidnapped us and killed—” Her voice failed her.
“How is this even real?” Kat swiped a shaky hand over her forehead. Specks of blood dotted her suit and skin, illustrating that the fight I’d missed had been intense and close-quarters. “Vampires? Demons?” Her voice turned pleading. “I hit my head, right? This is a dream? A nightmare?”
“No dream, Kat,” I said wearily.
“I—I don’t—” Kat broke off, and I thought for a moment she was searching for words to put this experience into terms she could understand. But then her eyes grew wide and her mouth opened into a round O, and she gasped for breath.
I took a tentative step forward. “Detective? Kat?”
Her eyes found mine. Terror filled them, and I knew.
“Oh, no you don’t, you son of a bitch.”
The epithet hadn’t even left my mouth before I was in the otherplane and staring at the black cloud of Not-Julia surrounding Kat’s form. The demon’s presence that had once been overwhelming and terrifying in the otherplane no longer filled me with dread and horror. Maybe because we’d beaten it once, or maybe because it no longer had the power to dominate the room. Tendrils of energy—evil—extended into Kat’s eyes, nose, mouth and ears. But only tendrils. It was trying to insert itself in Kat’s body, but it was having to force its way in, little by little, and Kat would probably die of suffocation before the damned thing finished.
Without thinking, I rushed forward and grabbed it. I half expected my arms to pass through it, but like the ghosts I’d encountered on the otherplane, it had mass here. It struggled in my arms, wailing and crying like a wounded animal, but surprisingly I had the strength to hold on to it. It would not hurt the living plane any more. I refused to allow it.
I pulled it away from Kat and it howled, its struggles more vehement. Still I held on. It needed to go back where it came from, but how? How was I going to do that? I swept my gaze around the room—and saw it.
The Crown of Osiris. It had fallen off my head when the magic had rebounded on me and sat innocuously in the middle of the tiled pentagram. It looked almost like a piece of a costume—except in the otherplane, it thrummed with power. The air around it was wavy, as though it was a highway baked in the summer sun. It was a conduit, that much I’d already determined. It had sucked energy—magic—through me into the living plane. Could I use it to direct the demon back into its own plane?
Worth a shot. I didn’t know how else I would access the planes beyond this one.
I focused on the crown and opened my connection to my magic. It was easier here—the living plane resisted magic, I realized, but the otherplane had nothing but magic. The crown flared to life, waking up, and I tried to configure its...frequency, for the want of a better word, to do what I needed it to do. It wasn’t easy—the crown wanted to pour the magic into the living plane. That’s what it had been intended to do—siphon magic from a being like me so that a witch, or witches, could do things they shouldn’t be able to do. Like make someone immortal.
With a grunt, I pulled the magic backward, reversing the flow. The crown resisted, but after a tense moment, the magic trickled back toward me. Then rushed. I dodged the stream and watched as it thundered through the otherplane, punching a hole into the plane’s fabric of existence. Darkness lived beyond that breach—darkness I didn’t want to investigate too closely.
Now came the trick—getting Not-Julia into the stream without being pulled in myself. I edged forward, my arms extended, as the demon writhed and squirmed. One of its tendrils got caught in the stream, and the sudden yank jerked me off balance.
But something caught me. Held me steady.
I glanced over my shoulder.
“I’ve got you,” Hudson said.
He—he was here. Completely here.
Fuck.
Swallowing hard, I nodded and took one more step forward. I thrust the demon into the stream of magic and it was swept away, its howls reaching deafening levels—until it slipped past the breach. Then all was silent except for the rushing magic.
A single thoug
ht was all it took to direct the stream back into the living plane. I was getting better at manipulating the crown, but damned if it would be a skill I’d use again. Once the magic balance felt even, I broke the crown’s connection to the energy. The crown glowed for a moment more, and then became shapeless, melting into the tiles. I guess I’d used it too much.
Oops. Sorry not sorry.
That dealt with, I turned to Hudson. Ghost Hudson. My breath caught in my throat. He looked so...so normal. Big, healthy body, sparkling golden-brown eyes, his mostly silver hair glinting. Tentatively, I stepped forward, my hand outstretched. I cupped his stubble-laden cheek, reveling in the texture against my skin, and my heart ached when he leaned into my touch and closed his eyes.
“Hudson,” I breathed.
His eyes opened. “I love you. I never stopped loving you.”
I tried to keep it together. This was his goodbye. The reason he’d been lingering on this plane. Just like Amrita, he’d needed to complete something before he could move on.
I wasn’t going to make it harder for him to do so.
“I love you too,” I whispered.
Hudson leaned toward me and I lifted my face to him. He kissed my forehead, my eyes, the tip of my nose, and then when I gasped out a sob, his lips brushed mine, his tongue slipping into my mouth to dance one last dance. I squeezed my eyes shut even harder and poured everything I had, everything I was, into this kiss. Our last kiss.
We drew back at the same time, and I couldn’t look at him anymore. I turned away and my eyes latched on to the blurry, living figures I’d left to fight the demon. They remained near Hudson’s body, which was a mass of shadows on the floor.
A mass of shadows.
If Hudson were dead, I’d be able to see his body as clearly as I saw all the other inanimate objects. “You’re not dead,” I breathed.
“What?”
There was no time to answer Ghost Hudson’s confused question. I raced over to the group, emerging from the otherplane between one step and the next.
