Burning Midnight

by Erzabet Bishop

  “It was really pretty but it kind of gave me the creeps.”

  “In what way?”

  “Well. It was weird. She couldn't stop staring at it. I didn't want to.”

  Diana paused, waving her hand over the top of the candle and lighting it without stopping. “What did she say?

  “She said it was like looking at the thing you want most.”

  Diana reached for a smudge stick of sage and a box of matches. “Okay. Thank you Celine.”

  “What is it?”

  “Don’t you mean, what more?” She arched an eyebrow at him and continued fussing with the items on the table. “I need an item of Gabby’s.”

  Shit. Why hadn’t he thought to bring one?

  “Send me a copy of that picture.”

  “Why?”

  “So I can forward it out to the pack. There are things happening all over town. And they need to know what’s out there. And to stay away.”

  “Okay. Here.” Diana pressed a couple of buttons and his phone buzzed.

  “Thank you.” He busied himself forwarding the text to the pack with a message to avoid and to alert him if they came across either the amulet and to make them aware Gabby was missing.

  The pack would come through. If there was anything out there, they would do their best to stop it. But they would need his help. And he felt foolish standing by some sort of candle ritual. He just hadn’t tracked the right places yet was all.

  The teen rummaged through her pack, giving up with a slump. But then she touched her ears and grinned.

  “I have something.” She reached for the earrings in her ears, pulling them out, replacing the backs onto the studs and placing them in Diana’s palm. “She let me borrow them a couple days ago.” Her cheeks flushed and she looked away.

  “Okay,” Diana said. “That should do it.”

  “Now what?”

  Diana met his gaze. “Now I scry and try to find your daughter.”

  ***

  “Sit.” She pointed at the chairs around the small table and tried to ignore the flickering glances of unease between her teenage apprentice and the Alpha wolf.

  Her insides ran hot being in his presence and she tried to shake off the inconvenient attraction, but no matter how much her head protested, there was something inside of her that didn’t want to listen.

  She held out her hand to Celine and the girl took it. The other she offered to Aristide. His warm fingers slid around hers and she shivered, imagining those hands and what they could do to her body. Heat crept up the back of her neck and as if he could read her gaze, he smiled that devastating smile.

  Goddess but she just really wanted to kiss him. To run her fingers along the tribal tattoo that was uniquely his along the muscles of his upper arm. Every member of his pack had one, including Gabby, although hers was much, much smaller.

  That was why they were here. Gabby. Not for her to undress Aristide with her eyes when she was about to go out with another man.

  “Okay. I want you all to focus on Gabby.”

  Diana held the earrings in her hand and thought about the enigmatic young girl.

  The images came to her slowly. Fascination with the amulet in her hand. A flash of something powerful and then a numbness that threatened to topple her out of her chair. Walking. There was a sense of movement for a long distance and the earthy scent of the woods. As images coalesced, Diana paused, her mouth falling open in surprise.

  She knew this place. The woods, the isolated house in the middle of nowhere. It belonged to her best friend Joanna.

  But as soon as the images solidified, they stilled, the scrying session falling flat. At this point it didn’t matter. Diana knew two things. Where Gabby was and, if she wasn’t mistaken, who was behind her disappearance. The only question in her mind was why.

  Chapter Five

  Rand left the confines of the limo and stepped up to the front door of Moon Called. Diana had said to meet her here. That she had business to finish up first.

  As did he. Tonight’s earlier conversation with his caretaker weighed on him. Something was amiss. The cursed heirloom missing, fights breaking out. Missing vampires. But he had to have tonight. To see Diana. And then he could deal with whatever else came his way.

  In the car a text had flashed across his phone.

  Can you come? I need to see you. Something has come up.

  He texted her back.

  I’m on my way.

  He barely waited for the driver to stop before he was out the door and marching across the sidewalk.

  Chimes jingling, he entered the shop and immediately drew back. Diana sat at a small table holding hands what appeared to be a young witch and the Alpha from the local wolf pack.

  “What is he doing here?”

  He didn’t even bother to disguise his disgust. This was her business? Tonight of all nights?

  “What are you doing here?” The Alpha stood, his nostrils flaring, eyes shining bright with the moon.

  “Stop it both of you. I had a date with Rand tonight if it's anyone's business.”

  “A date?” The girl and the wolf said it simultaneously, incredulous looks going to both him and Diana.

  “Had,” Diana clarified. “One of my girls is missing.”

  It took him a minute to get past the word had.

  “Please. Explain.” The worry in her eyes troubled him. He could help. If she would only let him.

  He had people who could find out what was going on behind the scenes, and before he’d left for his brief respite of an evening, he’d dispatched them with orders to keep him updated on the comings and goings about town. The fact that he hadn’t heard as much as a phone call or annoying text concerned him greatly.

  “When?”

  “We don’t know. She just wasn’t there…”The teenage girls spoke up and immediately shifted her eyes toward the floor.

  “And who is this?”

  Diana came forward and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for coming.” Her gaze lingered on his lips and he felt his cock thicken at her touch. How would the wolf react, he wondered, if he pinned her to the wall and kissed her properly.

  “This is Celine who is going home now. Aren't you?”

  “Yes ma'am.” The girl stood and ambled over to retrieve a bag from the floor.

  Diana moved from his arms and reached for her phone and began typing.

  “I'm texting my sister so, you better go home. No funny business. I mean it. Message me when you get there.”

  “I want to help.”

  Diana’s gaze softened. “I know you do. But it's too dangerous honey. I'll let you know what I find out in the morning. Okay? Just go home and get some sleep.”

  “I will have my driver take her.”

  “Thank you, Rand. I’m sure Celine would enjoy a ride in a limo. But only home. Nowhere else.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Rand watched the teen go and followed her outside. She looked a bit like Diana with her dark hair and fine bone structure. But that was where the similarities ended. Now that he was with her, he was struck by the need to keep her safe and in light of the new threats popping up all over town, he didn’t relish the idea of her wandering the streets, no matter the reason.

  His driver cocked an eyebrow when he opened the door and the young witch climbed inside.

  “Take her home, Thibedeaux. No other stops please.”

  “As you wish, sir.”

  With a nod, he closed the door and pounded twice on the roof of the car and watched it glide from the curb into traffic and vanish from sight. How simple things looked from here. How civilized. It was a shame one needed only to step inside to know the barrier to the unseen world was only an illusion.

  He returned to the inside of the shop to find Diana removing the candle and bowl from the table and sweeping the salt from the surface.

  “Do you have a picture of this girl? I can forward it to my operatives. The search will be all the more rapid.”

&n
bsp; “Yes. Here.” Diana forwarded him the picture and he gazed at it with disbelief.

  “How did you get this piece?” He demanded.

  “One of the girls took it in a few days ago. Do you know anything about it?” Aristide responded and Rand detected the hint of censure in his tone.

  Well then. The wolf wasn’t far off the mark.

  He took a breath and ground the words out between his teeth. “I do. It went missing from one of my vault. We found our caretaker dead inside, the case empty beside him.”

  “Oh my God.” Diana reacted, leaning back against the table.

  “I understand it some sort of catalyst for war between our people.” There was a suspicious line at the corner of the wolf’s mouth.

  Ah. So he thought this was his doing.

  “My people have not been the cause of these skirmishes.”

  “How do I know that?” Suspicion darkened the other man’s face.

  “Because there would be no gain.” He responded quietly. “Vampires and wolves have a treaty. A hard fought one. I have no wish to subjugate you. But what of your people?”

  Aristide considered him. “Neither of us is responsible for this.”

  “The wolf is right.” He gave at the other man with grudging respect. “Legend has it, a witch greedy for power used it to drive us into a centuries long war.”

  “My grandfather knew it.”

  “My predecessor did also. He warned me of it when he left. It was supposed to have been locked in a spell proof case activated only with a special key. Only few members of my household had access to it. But when they found the caretaker dead he had the keys in his hands.”

  Diana interjected. “Why would he open the case?”

  “None of us knows the answer to that question save of the dead man.” He replied grimly. “I have half a mind to find a necromancer to drag it out of him, but we have more pressing matters to attend to. If this thing is loose that may explain some of what's been happening.”

  He knew it in his bones. And the fact that the weakness came from his own household sliced him to the core. A missing child was nothing he would wish on anyone. His own sister had been taken when he was but a youngling and he could still hear her screams echoing in the night.

  But this was no time for old ghosts. He had live ones that needed slaying. The warrior in him relished the thought of battle, tired of trying to play the part of the sophisticated gentleman, he was more like the wolf standing across from him than the other man knew.

  Like it as not, the two could have perhaps have been friends had they met under less stressful circumstances.

  He glanced up from his musings and found the wolf regarding him.

  “That may have some truth.”

  “What did you see in your vision?”

  “I saw face I hadn't thought to see in a long time.” Diana rubbed a chill from her arms and pushed up from the table. “Let's just say I had a wild girlhood some people I wouldn't necessarily call friends.”

  “Go on.”

  She shook her head, the tensing in her jaw revealing her frustration. “No time. We have to move. I saw Gabby in the woods. She was with a host of others and there was a sense that she was wandering, even searching for something but couldn't find it. Her heart's desire.”

  A sick sensation slid through his gut.

  “That is part of its legend. The necklace seduces you. Makes you see the thing you want most, then traps your soul.”

  “I don't know. When I saw a picture of it I thought the same. But there was something that I didn't quite catch. But none of that matters. We just need to find out where Gabby is and figure out the rest.”

  “Now what?” Aristide moved toward Diana, his eyes flickering between her and Rand.

  Diana smiled grimly. “Now you follow me into the dark and pray I know where I'm going.”

  Chapter Six

  Diana ran. The murky shadows of the darkened alleyways and side streets closing in on her. One by one the hazy light of the street lamps winked out, leaving her in darkness. The vision had showed her the way, but only in part. The rest she had to rely on from memory. And all she had in that department was the half-baked remembrances of a teenage witch.

  She knew the boys were coming, but she’d insisted on going on foot. It was the only way. Physical memory. And besides, Rand had sent his car away with Celine and she walked to work, her house only a few streets over from the shop.

  “Damn it Rand. Aristide, where are you?”

  A noise skittered behind her and she shot forward, her feet almost giving out from underneath her as she navigated the damp cobblestones and finally stumbled out of the alley onto the natural terrain of the woods.

  Here it was. The path she had been looking for.

  She and Joanna had come this way many times on the way to her house after classes to study. Only school work hadn’t been the only thing on the other girl’s mind. Her mother’s spell books had.

  She’d seen a glimpse of Joanna in her vision but she couldn’t be sure if she was remembering something from long ago or seeing something involving Gabby.

  Ugh.

  Divination was so frustrating. She much preferred the simple spell casting and curse lifting she practiced now. But back then…back then she’d embraced Joanna’s wild ways and the idea that a spell book was merely a playground for her own amusement.

  Until she fucked up and her parents died.

  She never told her sister the truth and she never would. Sarah had been out with friends when she and Joanna had tried an inferno spell, accidentally igniting the curtains in her room on fire.

  “Stupid girl. Your mess. You clean it up.” And Joanna had left her there, flames licking up all around her with barely enough presence to leap from the open window before the entire house was engulfed in flames, her parents inside, asleep.

  She’d never spoken to the other girl again.

  Her grandmother had taken her and Sarah in. She should have been grateful, but her own self-loathing was written in slashes along the surface of her skin. And then one day her grandmother had caught her, blade in hand.

  “Stop.”

  The command had been instantaneous, and her hand had halted in midair. Laced with magic, her grandmother’s voice was silk, edged with steel.

  “I don’t care what it is you think you’ve done, girl. I won’t have you doing this to yourself.” She’d taken Diana by the upper arms and shook her until the blade clattered to the ground and the pent up tears she’d held in for so long started to fall.

  It all came out. The games. The spells. Joanna. The fire. She couldn’t look at her grandmother for fear of what she would see behind her piercing blue eyes. But then her grandmother had lifted her chin, forcing her to meet her gaze.

  “I forgive you. And I knew before you ever said anything. It was just a matter of how long you were going to take before you admitted it. To me and to yourself.”

  Diana had stared at her, stunned.

  “But Sarah…”

  “Never needs to know.”

  “But…”

  “No.” Her grandmother shook her head. “You come from a long line of strong women. Witches who sometimes have to find themselves, even in the brambles.”

  “How can I ever make this right?”

  Her grandmother had grown still, her gaze sharp and penetrating. “You save them. The weak ones that stray. Some people can learn to live in this world with perfect understanding. Always making the right choices and things unfold for them. Like a flower.”

  “I’m no one’s flower.”

  “No. You’re not,” her grandmother agreed, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “But like you, there are others who find out about life through hardship and trials. Those are the ones who make it when things turn difficult. Love is a choice, girl. And you need to choose wisely.”

  Her grandmother’s voice echoed in her head, and she unconsciously traced the lines imbedded along her wrists. Usual
ly hidden with bangles and bracelets, tonight she’d removed them.

  For clarity. Magic had been a drug to get high with. And when it crashed, it almost burned her to the ground, the same as her parents.

  Pain let her know that she was alive and she needed to embrace it. She was here to help Gabby. Even if it meant she had to face her old demons. There was wisdom in the scars that held her together and she needed it now, more than ever.

  Magic was afoot. She could sense it like a hunger, and before she could let her better half stop her, she opened up and let the beast take a bite, luring her in closer. And she stumbled, feeling the wards at the edge of Joanna’s property close around her.

  Goddess. Where were the boys?

  The quiet of the woods was deceptive. Dank smells of old vegetation and mildew filled her nostrils, as did the scent of old blood. Missing were the sounds of animals in the night or the screech of a night bird. All was silent and that was her second indicator that something was off.

  Ancient trees with long dangling clumps of gray, springy moss drifted down, shifting in the light evening breeze. The moon shown down between the trees and she proceeded, her clothes sticky with sweat. Her stomach clenched at a whispered sound some distance away and she straightened up, readying herself for whatever was coming her way.

  It wasn’t much farther to the house if memory served. Just another short stretch of a walk. Her legs shook but she pressed on, annoyed that the men hadn’t caught up to her yet.

  Then movement from the corner of her eye stopped her and a familiar form stepped out from behind a tree.

  “Diana. I see you've come to join me.”

  It was Joanna, and right behind her a legion of zombified shifters and vamps. Now she just had to find Gabby and not get killed in the process.

  Chapter Seven

  “How the fuck did we lose her?” Aristide raised his face to the sky, reaching out for Diana’s scent.

  “You don’t have the mate connection.”

  “Of course not. She says she’s dating you.” He scowled, stalking deeper into the woods.

  “If she would have just waited until we conferred with our people, this wouldn’t have happened.” Rand stalked ahead, twigs snapping beneath his feet.