Blood Sacrifice

by Maria Lima

  Understanding flooded his eyes as the other shoe dropped. “Keira, that’s why you broke up with me.”

  “Yes,” I said. “I liked you, Carlton. A lot. It’s just that marrying humans is out of the question.”

  “Incompatible?”

  “In many ways, yes.” I wasn’t going to hit him up with the long life thing. He’d had enough shocks for the day. “Look, I know this is a lot to take in, but we realized that there are some things you need to know—as sheriff. As the law.”

  With a quick shake of his head, Sheriff Larsen was back. He’d re-donned his mental armature as the law. I hoped it would help him digest all this new information.

  Adam and I gave him the quick and dirty version, skipping over many of the more esoteric details.

  “Gideon, this brother of yours,” he nodded to Adam, “he’s out to get you?”

  “More or less,” I said. “We don’t know everything, but he’s claimed Challenge, and we’ve essentially broken the Truce by coming back here to Rio Seco. I don’t know if the fire at the strip center was caused by that or if it really was just vandalism, but I’d lay my money on the former. Bea, I’m so sorry,” I said to my best friend. “You know I’ll take care of you.”

  “What can we do to help?” Carlton asked. “My guys are just human. We’re no match for you people.”

  “No, and it would be best if you and your deputies stayed away from the cemetery. There may be dangers there for humans as well as for our kind. You could help us by keeping an eye out,” Adam said. “We are quite restricted during the day. Niko and I must remain out of the daylight. Tucker’s been injured and Keira cannot wander about on her own. I am going to attempt to Call my father; if he can join us, we have more of an ability to work this out without—”Adam’s lips suddenly tightened.

  “Without anyone getting hurt,” I completed. I knew where he’d been going. He was going to say with as few deaths as possible, with as little war as possible. That wasn’t something to share. If we did go full-out Faery war, the humans wouldn’t likely be affected directly. But these tricks, these pranks could very well hurt more people. The pranks existed in the human, mortal world.

  “I’m assuming you’d rather I not share the details with my deputies,” Carlton said.

  “If you would be so kind.” Adam rose, every inch the vampire king, his hand outstretched in a gesture of conciliation. He approached Carlton, who stood and accepted the handshake. “I appreciate your assistance, Sheriff. In light of everything that’s happened.” Adam looked Carlton directly in the eye. “Thank you.”

  Carlton’s gaze wavered. A blink, then a searching look in my direction as he once again donned his Stetson. “We’ll be in touch.” With that, he gave me a small smile, strode over to the door and exited with a quick nod of acknowledgment to both Tucker and Niko. He didn’t slam it shut, which, if it had been me who’d been faced with this kind of revelation, I totally would have done.

  “Well, that went better than I expected.” I let my held breath out with a whoosh. “Kudos to Carlton for tamping down the freak-out.”

  Bea began to giggle. “Did you see his face, m’ija? Priceless.”

  “Indeed.” Adam smiled at us both. “Your sheriff is most certainly one of a kind, love.”

  I reached over and took his hand. “Not my sheriff,” I said in a fond tone. “Not for a long time.”

  “No, not.” Adam raised my hand and kissed it.

  “I took the liberty of calling Dixxi,” Tucker said as he and Niko relaxed and joined Bea on the couch. “She’s on her way to pick up Bea, Noe, Tio, and Tia. She wanted to do it personally, instead of leaving it to a car service.”

  “She’s—oh no,” Bea protested. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Don’t get all stubborn Mexicana on me, girlfriend,” I said. “Bea, you could be in very serious danger. You heard what we told Carlton. We broke Truce. Deliberately. Tucker’s been attacked by fire ants. You’ve lost the café. I don’t want anything else to happen to you. There’s plenty of room at Dixxi’s condo. Go, the four of you can stay there and be out of this mess.”

  Bea’s additional protests subsided. She knew I was right. She’d been through enough with me recently that it wasn’t a fairy tale any longer, but real dirt, grime, and blood. I didn’t want any of the blood to be hers.

  “Fine. I won’t argue, but only because of the baby.”

  “C’mon, little sister,” Tucker joked. “Let’s get you packed.” She nodded and followed him out of the room.

  “Where’s Fray Antonio?” Niko asked. “He wasn’t in his room when I checked earlier.”

  “Praying, evidently,” I said. “Bea loaned him her car so he could go to the chapel.” At Niko’s startled look, I explained. “No, not the one at the Rose Inn. There’s a non-denominational chapel over near the marina. It’s not too far from here. I expect he wanted to pray before we go back to the cemetery today.”

  “I expect so,” Niko murmured. “When are you going back?”

  “As soon as Bea gets off safely,” I said. “When is Dixxi expected?”

  “Very soon,” Niko replied. “Tucker called her about an hour ago.”

  “It takes at least three hours to get here from where she is,” I said.

  “She was already on her way,” Niko said. “She’d meant to come yesterday to check on Bea, but got caught up in some lab test or something.”

  “Good news. She’ll take care of Bea and I’ll feel a hell of a lot better.”

  “Adam, you still wish to Call your father?” Niko asked. “Do you think that’s wise?”

  “I believe it’s necessary, Niko. Wise? Perhaps not.”

  “Not a lot of what we’ve done in the past few days would rank up there as ‘wise,’” I said. “We’re stumbling around, tripping over jinxes and traps like the Scooby Gang. Only it’s real magick and not some guy in a ghost suit.” As Adam made to reproach me, I continued. “No, it’s not as if we could have done anything differently, other than stay at the Rose Inn with our heads buried in ancient books like so many ostriches. I’m completely sure now that Gideon meant us to be afraid of breaking Truce while he diddled about here, doing whatever it is he’s doing. He’s set traps, to be sure, but so far, they’ve not been fatal. I don’t think he wants to kill anyone—yet.”

  “Yet?” Adam prompted.

  “Yeah, I got to thinking about this while you were explaining the situation to Carlton. Gideon’s at least as powerful as I am, in raw strength at least, right?”

  Two heads nodded.

  “I’m probably better trained, at least in the Kelly Talents. The arson was nothing but child’s play, a trick I would expect from a pwca or a cluracan. It’s minor—all flash and distraction—nothing of major consequence. The Challenge itself and whatever’s going on with the souls of the dead, the wide-open Portal to Faery? That’s the trouble. The real question is… who’s the man behind the curtain and what is he really up to?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  “The unexamined faith is not worth having.”

  —D. Elton Trueblood

  “Damn it.” I toed the body gingerly. “That’s the third one.” Shading my eyes, I examined the ground around us, looked to the horizon. “This is so not good.”

  “That’s an understatement.” Tucker’s mouth was set in a grim line. “Three deer, two cows, countless rabbits. At least one javelina. That’s too many to be dying simply of thirst. Both the main watering tanks should still be close to full. We’ve only been gone a couple of days. They can’t have dried up this quickly. Niko checked them the night before the Reception.”

  “Question number two is why on earth did the animals wander this far out from their regular watering holes? There’s nothing here but the cemetery. This is pretty unusual.” I nudged at the dead deer again. Its body had already begun to bloat in the noonday sun.

  “More dark magick?” Tucker ventured.

  “Probably.” Great. Something else to worr
y about. I felt as if I was deep in the middle of a coming apocalypse or Biblical plague, though instead of the Four Horsemen, or locusts and famine, we got fire ants and actual fire.

  Earlier, we’d packed Bea and her family off with Dixxi, with assurances that I’d keep both the women posted as to what was happening. Without Bea knowing it, I also had phoned Ciprian, my eldest brother and Kelly clan financial whiz, to arrange some monetary relief for Bea. She wasn’t poor, but she operated her small business on a fairly tight margin and would need some cash to live for a while. I knew she would refuse a direct offer from me, but I trusted Ciprian to get it done and to override any of her objections. He could help her speed up the insurance paperwork for the café, too.

  I pulled my new phone out of my back pocket. Thank goodness for Dixxi, who’d stopped by a phone store in Cedar Park on the way and picked up a new one for me. “Adam, we’ve got more dead livestock,” I said, giving him the rundown. “I think Tucker and I should go and check the water tanks.”

  “If the tanks are dry, there’s little you can do about it this moment, Keira.” Niko’s voice cut in. “We fill them with the water truck, water pumped from our well. If those troughs are empty, the well might be drying up, too. Besides, you don’t know how to operate the truck.”

  “I can try,” I said, too stubborn to give up. These were Adam’s rescue animals that were dying along with the native fauna. He’d spent hundreds of thousands of dollars buying the stock from defunct ranches and giving them a home here at the Wild Moon.

  “Explore the cemetery first,” Adam suggested, getting back on the phone. “Then, yes, if you wish, check the north tank. It’s the larger of the two. Holds more than four hundred gallons. Tucker, you know where it is?”

  “I do,” Tucker replied. “I’m with you, Adam. We get stuff done here, then check. The priest’s all set up again, by the way. We dropped him off at the entrance a bit ago. He’s doing his thing.”

  “He told us it wouldn’t take too long today,” I said. “He basically needs to say some prayers and then walk around sprinkling holy water. Once he’s done, Tucker and I will go back in. See what we find. I’m not planning to poke anymore tombstones.” Or anything else that smacked of magick, either. This was a low-key mission. Recon, then get the hell out.

  “Good. Get in, check the door, get out,” Adam agreed. “Call me as soon as you know something?”

  “Will do.” I ended the call and stuffed the phone back into my pocket. “It’s been half an hour,” I said. “Shall we at least go to the gate? Antonio said it wouldn’t take him more than forty-five minutes to finish the re-consecration ritual.”

  Tucker nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

  We trudged through what was left of the dry grass, our boots making crunching noises as we walked. So little vegetation grew out here anyway, among the cactus, mesquite, and live oak, even in lush times, there was no more than spotty ground coverage. Now, it was as if we’d entered a desert; even the cacti were wilting.

  Tucker kicked at a clump of what was once a tall stand of pampas grass, now only brittle blades, broken and bent in the searing sun. “Do you think his ritual will work?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  Tucker shrugged and tucked his hands into his shorts pockets. “He has no magick. I’m not really sure how this whole consecration thing works without magick.”

  “Huh. I guess I never really thought about it,” I said. “But you’ve got a point. I’ve not got a clue either.”

  “Faith.” I jumped as Antonio’s voice answered my brother’s question.

  “How do you do that?” I asked, grumpy at once again being startled by this priest.

  Antonio chuckled. “Do what?”

  “Walk so quietly.”

  “Years of practice.”

  “You done?” Tucker asked.

  “I am,” he said. “The ritual is finished. The ground is now consecrated.”

  “How do you know exactly?” I had to ask. Tucker’s question had opened a well of doubt in me. “How can I check?”

  Antonio eyed me as if I’d grown a second head. “It is done. The ritual is specific and precise. I completed my task.”

  “And therefore the cemetery is re-consecrated, just like that?” I snapped my fingers. “Sorry, but there’s no way for me to test this theory of yours?” I wanted to know for sure. We couldn’t operate on just his word for it. Not now, not when perhaps even our lives were at stake.

  “Doubting Thomases, the both of you.” The old man mumbled as he walked away from us. “Though, I would like to return a little later and pray some more. The souls buried here are restless. There has been an unnatural darkness on this land. I’d hoped that the prayers and holy water would rid the ground of its taint, but that does not appear to be the case.” He turned to face us. “Go, do what you must to shut your Faery door, then let us leave this place for now. When you are done with this thing, I come back and offer more prayers.” He looked past me, at the cemetery gate, but not focused, his gaze distant as if contemplating the universe. “All gods require offerings.”

  I stared at him, waiting for an explanation. When none came, I shrugged. “Whatever flips your tortilla,” I said. “C’mon, Tucker. Let’s get going.”

  We made the trek to the overhang. In the harsh glare of the afternoon sun, the cemetery looked peaceful, at rest. No sign of any malevolent energy greeted us as we approached our new, more clever way onto the grounds. Instead of taking the direct route, through the various rows of markers, Tucker and I had decided ahead of time that we were going to be a bit more cautious this time and use the overhang as our entry point. “Minimizing risks,” he’d called it. “Brilliant idea,” I’d corrected. Why we hadn’t thought of this last night, I don’t know. But then again, we’d not expected an attack… at least not by insects.

  “Looks pretty quiet down there,” I said as I hung my head over the edge. “No signs of footprints.”

  “Wards?” Tucker scooted up on his belly next to me. The overhang was fairly solid, though without rain, who knew just how crumbly the dirt beneath us was. I wasn’t about to take any unneeded chances.

  I shut my eyes and extended one hand above my head, focusing on the ground about twenty feet below us. Starting at La Angel, who still stood as proud guardian in front of the cave mouth—the cave that guarded the entrance to Faery—I felt around for any wards, any signs whatsoever. A slow hum filled the air as I worked, my energies in tune with me and with my environment. This is how it was supposed to happen, not like last night. No darkness rose, no signs of anything there other than the distinct taste of Underhill.

  “The door’s still open,” I said quietly. “Though there does seem to be some sort of energy around it, it doesn’t feel like a ward.”

  “Early warning system?”

  I shook my head. “Not really. Leakage, maybe? From Faery? It’s got the flavor of Below. Sidhe, light. No dark at all.”

  “Keira, I’m not sure we should go down there. What if it is some other sort of trap? Do you think you can close the door from up here?”

  I opened my eyes and rolled to my back, my palm automatically shielding my eyes from the sun. “Maybe. We need to walk in a circle,” I mused. “Perhaps this can be done above it as well as next to it. I mean, technically, the door is an energy barrier from the Between. It doesn’t actually exist physically. I suppose it couldn’t hurt to try. If it doesn’t work, then we’ll go to plan B.”

  “Plan B being we go down to the cave mouth and try there.”

  “Yup.”

  “Then shall we?”

  “Let’s shall.”

  I stood and brushed off the dirt and pieces of dry grass that had stuck to my skin. I opened the rucksack I’d brought with me and took out the newly sharpened knife. It wasn’t a ritual athamé, but would do in a pinch. I’d scrubbed and cleaned it with salt and silk and water as best as possible before we’d left the house. “Tucker, could you stand about ten or twelve feet to o
ne side, please?” My brother nodded and stepped back.

  Using the knife, I cut into the dry ground, tearing through a few roots still gamely gripping tight to the parched dirt. “Yr wyf yn cau’r drws. I close the door.” I chanted as I continued to cut the intricate pattern in a counterclockwise circle. Ogham runes, the sigils of closing that Adam had drilled me in. “Gofynnaf i’r drws i gau.” The knife twirled in my hand, as if I were an expert. I knew better. Once the spell had begun, it only needed me to help hold it. “Caewch y drws. Close door. Open to none but blood.” With the final rune line drawn, I took the knife and pierced my hand, letting droplets of my blood fall onto the four cardinal points of the sigil. “Close. Mae’r gwaed yn ei gorchmynion.” The blood commands it. I sank to my knees as a bright pulse of energy flooded the air. I bathed in it, reveled in it. It was blood calling to blood. “Keira Kelly, daughter of Huw, bonded to Aeddan ap Drystan. My blood commands the door be shut. Only blood can open it.” I wrestled with the raw power shining through me. It wasn’t mine, at least, not just mine. The open door responded and combined Faery magicks poured out, a beacon of power and light, encapsulating me in its embrace. Forcing myself to focus, I grasped it, controlled it, bent it to my will.

  “Close now,” I commanded. “Close.” With supreme effort, I forced it down, braided its strands, surrounded the door and pulled.

  It pushed back.

  A deep, nearly subsonic thrum pounded through the ground upward, slamming me back to thump against Tucker. We fell, entangled together, our bodies crashing through dirt, rocks, and dead grass, the ground itself falling with us, light and energy surrounding us.

  A whoosh.

  Silence.

  Stillness.

  A complete lack of any sensory input.

  A snap of something breaking beneath me. A twig? Sharp points of pain on my back, my arm. A heavy weight of another against me.

  “Ow?” My voice disappeared into the empty dark. My mouth felt swollen, mushy as if full of something and I couldn’t speak clearly.