BLOOD MAGIC

by Jennifer Lyon

  Hannah had caught her snooping. She set the iPod down and walked to the door that led to the hallway. The little girl stood there looking smaller and paler than she had before. Gently, Darcy brushed back her bangs. The pink-circle death mark had turned red and was getting darker. “Probably not today, honey. Soon, though. Your brother went to get me something I need.”

  Hannah looked down at the pretty little ballet shoes she wore with her pink-stitched jeans and white top. Then she shifted her huge brown gaze back to Darcy. “Tomorrow, then?”

  “Maybe. I hope so.” What did she say to this child?

  Hannah stared up at her. “Will you read to me?”

  “Uh …”

  Sutton's voice burst into the room. “Darcy, Axel wouldn't like you being up on the main floor of the house.”

  She looked back and saw that he had appeared on the computer screen. Had he been spying on her? Watching her while she looked at Axel's iPod? She hadn't done anything, just looked to see his music. “Axel's not here.” Annoyed, she waved her hand and unplugged the monitor from the computer hard drive.

  Hannah giggled. “Sutton will be mad. He's the boss of all computers.”

  Darcy looked down at the girl and smiled. “The boss of computers?”

  She nodded. “He told me so.”

  “Well, looks like I'm the boss of him, huh?”

  Hannah giggled again and reached for Darcy's hand.

  That small hand in hers twisted Darcy's heart. She followed the little girl into the hallway and asked, “Where are we going?”

  “To play in my room. Do you like books? I love books. I can't really read, not real good like Mommy and Axel. But I can write my name. I can write Axel's name, too. And I know how to call him, too, all by myself. I know the numbers. Do you have a cell phone?”

  Darcy was so amused by the way Hannah's mind worked, she almost missed the question. But she'd learned her lesson the first night when she had been slow to answer. “Axel gave me a cell phone.” They passed the opening to the kitchen on her right. It looked like there were more bedrooms on this side of the hallway. They turned into a room furnished with a twin bed with Hannah's Minnie doll in the center, a child-size plastic kitchen, and books and toys spilling out everywhere.

  “He gives me his phone to call Key. Key's my friend.”

  She looked down at the child. “He is?”

  Hannah nodded. “He's Axel's friend, too, but Axel doesn't draw like me and Key.” She leaned closer to Darcy and whispered, “Axel isn't a very good artist. But don't tell him ‘cause his feelings might get hurt.”

  She nodded solemnly while thinking that no person with a heart could resist this kid. She loved her brother so much she didn't want to hurt his feelings. And Axel? He loved Hannah so much that he'd kidnapped a witch to heal her. And if Darcy failed, Axel would sacrifice his soul to heal her. “I won't say a word.”

  “How can you with Miss Chatterbox? Hannah, did you ask Darcy if she wants to play, or did you just drag her in here?” Eve leaned against the doorjamb watching them.

  “She was standing all alone, Mommy. In Axel's room. I don't want Darcy to be alone.”

  Darcy's throat ached. Eve was raising an exceptional daughter. Darcy had to amend her thought to include Axel, who obviously spent a great deal of time with his little sister. When she lifted her gaze to Eve, she saw how tired the woman looked. She didn't seem mad to find Darcy with Hannah, but Darcy realized she had enough to contend with and didn't want to add to her burden. “I'll go back downstairs now.”

  Eve shook her head. “Stay. I don't like you being down there all by yourself. It's not good for you. I'm going to make an early dinner. Can you keep Hannah entertained?”

  Her kindness touched Darcy. She knew Eve had been a party to Axel kidnapping her, but she wasn't mean. She was a desperate mother. “Uh, sure. But I should be practicing with my powers.”

  “Show me witchcraft! Please!” Hannah squeezed her hand. “Can you make my Minnie dance?” She let go of Darcy's hand and rushed to her bed, scooping up the doll.

  Eve said softly, “Hannah's feeling a little better, but it won't last. Every episode gets longer and worse.”

  Darcy nodded, feeling helpless. She wished Axel would hurry. The tapestry would help her, she was sure of it. “I'll figure out a way, Eve.”

  The woman nodded. “I know you're trying. I'll be in the kitchen.” She turned and left.

  Hannah walked up holding Minnie out. “Can you?”

  “Make her dance?” Darcy asked. “We won't know until we try. But you have to get back. Go sit on the bed, okay?” She didn't want the girl too close in case her powers got out of control.

  Hannah climbed up on the bed and sat back against her pillows.

  Darcy turned her thoughts inward, thinking of the color of each of the first four chakras: red, orange, yellow, and green. That dizzying elevator-drop feeling whooshed through her and all four chakras opened.

  It was getting easier each time.

  She concentrated on the air, using it to pull the Minnie doll to a standing position.

  “You're doing it! She's going to dance!” Hannah clapped her hands.

  Memories of her childhood flowed through her, of playing like this with the voices, and how they would help her make her dolls move around. Darcy hadn't had any real powers then, but the voices had filtered their massive power through her.

  The memory surprised her enough that she lost her connection to her chakras and Minnie collapsed onto the bed. She had talked to the Ancestors! Who else could it have been?

  “No. Minnie get up!” Hannah pleaded.

  She'd let the memory interfere with her magic, just as Carla had warned her. She had to control her emotions. Using her power, she brought Minnie back to her feet, then started manipulating the air to make her dance.

  While Hannah chatted and clapped, Darcy just let the memories roll over her while keeping her focus on her powers. Memories of the voices playing with her, teaching her, until her dad walked in and caught her.

  Minnie stumbled as Darcy remembered her father's fury. The horrible lonely darkness of the closet closing in on her. Her fear, sure that her parents would stop loving her because something was wrong with her.

  “You need more practice,” Hannah said.

  Darcy shoved out the memory and instead, she thought briefly of the hawk who came to her and made her safe. Her powers came back to her control and she got Minnie dancing again, then she added two of Hannah's stuffed bears. It was like juggling, only much cooler!

  Ten minutes later, they were both giggling. She'd never have thought her powers could bring her happiness. Finally, she put all the bears down and sent Minnie back to Hannah. The little girl had twin spots of color in her cheeks from laughing, but the color made the rest of her face look even paler. “Tired?”

  Hannah nodded. “My head hurts.”

  “Do you want me to get your mom?”

  Hannah scooted over and patted the bed.

  Darcy sat down, stretching her legs out alongside Hannah's shorter ones.

  The child snuggled up to her side. “Can I tell you something?”

  She tensed as a dark, slithering feeling circled around her stomach. Was Hannah projecting it to her? She forced out the cheerful word, “Sure.”

  “The shadows come at night.” Her voice trembled.

  Darcy wrapped her arm around the little girl and hugged her. This scared the holy shit out of her, so it had to be beyond terrifying to Hannah. “Oh, baby. It's just nightmares.”

  Hannah shook her head. “They are going to swallow me!”

  “No, they won't. I won't let them.” Somehow, she'd stop this hideous death curse. She was a witch, damn it. She had powers.

  “My head hurts,” Hannah said again.

  She put her hand on Hannah's warm forehead. This time, her first four chakras opened with just a thought.

  Darcy closed her eyes, concentrating. She wanted to focus narrowly, just draw out th
e pain and illness. She figured that must be the dark, slithering feeling she'd gotten when Hannah asked if she could tell Darcy something. She just had to look for that. She couldn't break the curse with low magic, but she could try to ease the symptoms a bit.

  Waves of feelings came at her: Hannah's love for her mom, Axel, and those other men who must be Axel's friends, she guessed. Hannah's love for Minnie. How much Hannah liked swinging, TV shows, and Axel twirling her in circles. Her favorite books. Drawing. She loved drawing and there …

  Something dark and painful.

  Darcy thought of separating threads and looked for that one dark one. When she had a fix on it, she started imagining pulling.

  Her core vibrated.

  “Hot,” Hannah said.

  Okay, she needed to do more. While pulling that out, the headachy dark thread, she sent back gentle cooling energy, like an easy flowing stream. A few seconds later, she said, “Better?”

  Axel's voice boomed into the room. “What are you doing?”

  Darcy snapped open her eyes. He strode into the room and she jumped to her feet. “You're bleeding!” It looked like he'd tangled with barbed wire or a bear. Long scratches ran up and down his arms, his shirt was torn, spotted with dark wet splotches, and his face had a cut that stretched from his eye to his mouth.

  “Damned cat,” he muttered.

  “Damned cat,” Hannah said with a giggle.

  Eve walked into the room. “Hannah.”

  “Sorry.”

  Eve scooped Hannah up, paused by Axel, and said, “You okay?”

  “I'm fine.”

  She lingered for a second, then left with Hannah.

  Darcy gawked at Axel. “What cat? At my apartment? I don't have a cat.” He looked more like he'd tangled with a mountain lion than a house cat.

  He wiped the weeping cut across his face with the back of his hand. “That cat from the tapestry.”

  Frowning, she said, “It scratched you? Where is it?” The tapestry had never done anything like that. She reached out to touch the deep scratches. “I can try to heal—”

  “No. Forget the cuts.” He latched onto her arm, leading her out the door of the room. “The tapestry is still at your apartment.”

  He led her out of Hannah's room, through the hallway and the kitchen, toward the front door. She struggled to mentally catch up. “You couldn't get it? You're taking me home? To my apartment?” Her blood started to pump with excitement. She would get outside, breathe in fresh air, see her apartment. For just a little while, she'd be free.

  He took her out the front door. “I couldn't get it without damaging it.”

  The air smelled wonderful and a rush of pleasure filled her from being outside. Once they got to his truck, he took her around the passenger side, then stopped.

  “Your bio-mom must have put a spell on the tapestry to protect you. It won't let anyone else move it.”

  Her bio-mom had cared enough to do that? A spark of warmth spilled into her blood. Maybe there was a place that Darcy belonged. She wanted the tapestry to heal Hannah, but maybe it would lead her to her biological mom. Maybe the woman who had given birth to her wanted to see her. She realized Axel was still staring at her, not moving. “What?”

  His green eyes hardened. “I'm taking you because I have no choice, you need that tapestry. It's dangerous. Rogues could be anywhere. If they shield their presence, I might smell them, or I might not until it's too late.”

  She could feel his anxiety. “Okay.”

  “Don't screw with me, Darcy. No funny-shit witchcraft. No games with your cousin. He's there at the apartment, I'll explain on the way. But know this, if it comes to it, I will bring you back with me by force.”

  Something thick filled her throat. She'd thought … what? That they were friends? That she mattered somehow? That he could trust her to do all she could for Hannah?

  “Joe!” Darcy spotted her cousin in her apartment and rushed past her comforter, which was spread on the floor in a heap, to him. Tears clogged her throat and made her nose run. Seeing him brought all her emotions to the surface.

  Several feet away from Joe, she slowed to a stop. She was a witch. There was no denying now that she didn't belong with the black-haired, blue-eyed Irish MacAlis-ters. What if Joe rejected her? “Joe, I—” Her voice cracked.

  His dark blue eyes crackled with fierce emotion. Joe took a large step, reached out, and hauled her up against his chest. She inhaled his rich leather-and-sage scent.

  “Jesus, Darcy.” His large hand covered the back of her head. “You're all the family I've got. Don't ever scare me like that again.”

  She wrapped her arms around him. “You have a witch for a cousin, isn't that going to taint the family name?” She couldn't help it, it was so ridiculous. So unbelievable. For twenty-six years, she'd tried to fit in, to make herself normal enough to fit in. But in the end, it wasn't ever going to happen.

  Joe wrapped his hand around her hair to tilt her head back and look down into her face. “You didn't ever shame the family name. Your dad did with his drinking binges and shameful treatment of you. You saved the funeral home the old bastard drowned in debt.”

  She became aware of Axel's stare on her, and of Morgan, but she couldn't help saying, “And yet he put it in his will that I was to sign over my half of the business when you came home from the service.”

  “Oh, no,” Joe said, letting her go. “You aren't saddling me with that. You're going to come back to work as soon as it's safe for you.”

  Sadness crept in like a silent fog. She clutched her hands together and got control of herself. Funeral Director mode, Joe called it. Quietly, she said, “It's never going to be safe, Joe. All the paperwork is in my office. The mortuary is yours, you're on all the bank accounts …”

  “Damn it, Darcy, I'm not—”

  She met his gaze. “Then sell it. If you don't want it, sell it. Take the money and do something you want to do. It's time you and I stopped living for our dead fathers.” Both their dads had owned the funeral home. Joe's dad had died suddenly when Joe was in his early teens. Then Darcy's dad had tried to make Joe his son, his “blood” he'd say, the one who would follow in the family footsteps. The pressure had caused Joe to blow town for the military, hoping to make his mark on the world.

  Instead, he'd come back marked in a way Darcy couldn't see but that she could feel.

  “Screw them,” Joe said. “It's you I'm worried about. We'll find a way to keep you safe and—”

  She shook her head. “Don't you see? All the witches are in hiding. The rogue witch hunters are intent on killing every one of us.” A moan caused Darcy to step back from Joe and turn to Morgan. She sat on the end of the couch, holding her head. Damn it, Axel had told her about Morgan on the way over. Another incredible thing to digest: Morgan Reed had married a rogue witch hunter. “Morgan.” Darcy reached out and put her hand on Morgan's shoulder.

  She looked up at Darcy. “I came home because I was scared, and I kept having blackouts. My husband said I was crazy and tried to commit me.”

  “I might know someone who can help you. I'll check.” Carla treated brain-damage victims with her hypnosis practice. But the fact that she was a witch was Darcy's secret for now. She'd talk to Carla first. She turned to Morgan. “Where are you staying?”

  Joe said, “With me. I went to her apartment the morning after you went missing to see if she knew anything. She tried to remember what she had to tell you and got sick. Then I saw the marks on her stomach.” His jaw bulged with rage.

  Joe cared about Morgan. She looked into his eyes and saw something that shocked her. A purpose. Determination. For Morgan. It was happening too fast and for the wrong reasons.

  Axel cut into the moment.

  “We need to hurry. Grab the tapestry, it's there under the comforter.”

  In spite of his obvious tension, he'd given her a few minutes with Joe. Axel was more complex than she'd given him credit for. She let go of Morgan and walked toward the t
apestry. Axel got there ahead of her and yanked off the comforter. Darcy looked back at the sick woman. “I'll call you, Morgan, as soon as I—”

  A loud hiss filled the apartment.

  Darcy jumped back and looked down. “Holy cow!” She walked the last couple of steps to the tapestry, which was laying faceup. The auburn cat on the silver box, the one she'd seen a million times in her life, stood arched and ready to attack. It glared at Axel. “I've never seen it move before. It looks real!”

  The cat whipped its head around and looked at her.

  “Hi?” she tried.

  The cat sat down and went back to being inanimate. But the threads shimmered. Were the spells in that silver box that the cat seemed to be protecting?

  She looked at the other three in the room. “What now?”

  Axel said, “Pick it up. Carefully.”

  She knelt down, picked up the edges of the frame, and stood up with no problem. No hissing, no scratching. The tapestry was the same as it had always been. She needed to take it back to Axel's house and figure out how to get the spells out. “Joe, I'll call you about Morgan.” She moved toward Axel standing at the door.

  Joe cut her off by stepping between her and Axel. “Darcy, tell me where you are going. I need to know you're safe.”

  She knew Axel would blow a gasket if she told him the location of Axel's house, so all she said was, “I'm safe. He keeps me locked on a level belowground where no one will find me.”

  “Belowground … like a dungeon?” His face turned red. “Jesus Christ, Darcy, you're terrified of being locked up!” Joe whirled around.

  Axel was already there, glaring at both of them. “We don't have time for this.”

  Darcy grabbed Joe's arm. “I'm fine, I swear! It was only the first night that he locked me in!” She could feel his anger rolling off him. She shouldn't have told him about being locked up.

  Joe didn't move. “This is how you treat the woman trying to save your sister's life?”

  Axel's expression was hard and tired. “I'm trying to keep her alive. Don't get in my way, MacAlister.” He moved around Joe and picked her up before she could open her mouth. “Hang on to the tapestry.” He strode to the door so quickly, a breeze brushed her face.