Allie relaxed even more, glad that Sam was distracted from pressing about possible motives and also that he seemed to understand the urgency. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Good. We’re on the same page at least,” Sam said, but his banter was a shadow of its usual self. He sounded distracted and in the background she could hear him writing, the pen moving furiously across paper. “If it’s alright with you I’d like to come out tomorrow, to your house that is, and take a look around. There may be traces of residual magic that will tell me something.”
Allie hesitated for an instant, knowing that Jess and Bleidd – especially Jess – wouldn’t like it and that it would mean she’d have to tell them she’d talked to Sam. On the other hand, she’d have to tell them eventually anyway and since this was Sam’s specialty he might have more luck tracking whoever was doing this than any of them had been having so far. “Okay. Would 6 o’clock tomorrow night work for you?”
“I can make it work,” Sam said. “I’ll see you then.”
Allie clicked the phone shut and tossed it back to Jason who was sitting in the passenger seat, then slid into the car, pushing the bag of graveyard dirt aside. He waited for a minute as she got situated, clipped her seat belt, and started the car, before he lost his patience. “So? What did he say?”
“That he’ll open a case on it,” Allie said, pulling carefully out into traffic. “And he’s going to come to the house tomorrow night and check things out.”
“That’ll be interesting.”
“You have no idea,” Allie said, wincing as she started thinking of the best way to break the news of the impending visit to Jess…
************************
Bleidd stood still in the darkness at the edge of the yard, his senses extended, waiting for any disturbance, no matter how slight. Since Allie had done the reversal everything had been eerily quiet. There had been no new notes, no indications of more hexing. Allie had been doubling down on her human folk magic protections around the house and using the method her friend had taught her to check for an active curse on the people living there and Bleidd had done what he could with his own magics to shore up the wards. He doubted it was their efforts that were creating the lull though and found himself bracing for the next round of attacks, reminded of past engagements in battle long ago. He had little doubt their enemy was merely re-grouping and seeking a better strategy now that the first attempt had been rebuffed.
Allie and Jason were out at the moment running an errand, she had said, for a spell ingredient. Jess was in the house with Jason’s lover, surreptitiously keeping an eye on the human as Tony cooked dinner. Bleidd had never cared enough to get to know Jason’s friend well, but he had to admit that the attention Tony was giving to Jason since the accident was nice to see. Tonight for example Tony had shown up to check on Jason and when he found out that Jason was out helping Allie he had insisted on staying and cooking so that Jason wouldn’t need to worry about it when he arrived home. Of course Bleidd thought wryly if any of the rest of us could be bothered to make the effort of cooking anything that requires more than boiling water Jason might not always be stuck with the chore…or perhaps he would. He does seem to genuinely enjoy it.
His eyes scanned the darkness, but there was nothing, not even the presence of the Kelpie, to break the calm of the twilight. Well our enemy may be quiet now but soon enough they will act again. And we must be ready. Since Jess found out that we are quite limited by the Law in regards to any offensive action against a human, even under these circumstances, we will have to be very careful and very clever. Involving the human police may be an unavoidable eventuality, although I dislike the idea of trying to get them to understand the nuances of this situation. Of course, there’s nothing limiting what we can do defensively and a good tactician can create a defense that is more effective than any offense might be, but still there are too many ways for this situation to end badly for all of us.
He had been making use of the time waiting for the next volley by taking Amelia’s words to heart and trying to use his own skill to see or feel the psychic bond which joined him to Allie. It had not been easy and at first seemed futile, but when he had stopped trying to see the connection which joined Allie and himself and instead tried to perceive the one that connected Allie and Jess he had had a breakthrough. By carefully checking while they slept – the best time to observe them together when they were still and quiet without them knowing – he had been able to see that when they were close their auras, the energetic fields of life energy which surrounded both of them, merged into a single field encompassing both. Once he knew what to look for he was able to see the same effect in his own aura when he was next to her as well. It was obvious, in retrospect, that this joining of energy was part of the way that Allie drew on their emotions and why physical contact both strengthened her ability to pull from them and allowed them to share some of her gift of empathy. It also explained why she could draw the most power from sexual energy, which by its nature generated life energy.
He had also realized why the Bahvanshee were so feared and dangerous, because if this bond had not been forged in love, and was not filtered through Allie’s human empathy so that she was pulling energy from their emotions and not directly from their life force, she could quite easily kill both of them. As it was he found himself suddenly grateful that even when she was pushed to her own breaking point and used her gift against him in anger the worst she did was flatten him beneath a crushing load of emotions he didn’t want to feel. Clearly any other Bahvanshee in the same position would have drained him dry of his life energy and left him a lifeless husk on the floor.
This insight had given him an epiphany about how he, as a mage, could use the bond for his own benefit, because once he understood something of the nature of the bond and how she drew on the energy he could begin to see how he could do the same thing. Instead of passively using the energy for healing though as she did he could, he thought, use it to power his magic much as the ambient energy of Fairy could be used. Knowing this he had carefully watched Allie and Jess that morning at breakfast and noted how even when they were apart their auras still remained connected, the point of their joining thinning out into what looked like an almost transparent thread of energy extended between them. Having seen that, he could look between himself and Allie and see the same thing, and somewhat to his surprise he noted a similar thread between himself and Jess. That had made him wonder if the bond between Jess and himself was dependent on Allie, or now that it was in place if existed separate from her, but that was something to contemplate later. For the moment it was enough to know that their bond was something that existed as part of the very energetic field which was part of their life force; he doubted greatly that it could be severed except through death. And that too was valuable to know. It gave him a sense of confidence that even if Allie wanted to break the bond between them, as she sometimes mentioned doing, she would be unable to.
As the night grew thicker around him he took a deep breath and sought out the threads of energy that connected him to Allie and Jess. He could see them as a faint iridescent shimmering in the air, stretched out from the middle of his torso in the respective directions the other two were currently in; towards the house for Jess and towards town for Allie who had not yet come home. This provided another epiphany as Bleidd realized being able to see the connections also allowed him to tell, roughly at least, where each of the other two were, something which had the potential to be extremely useful. He understood then what Amelia had meant when she’d said he’d be able to use the bond to locate his bondmates. He filed that information away for later consideration and focused himself on slowly and carefully drawing energy through the connections. He did not want to risk pulling too quickly or too much and alarming either Allie or Jess so he allowed the energy to flow into him almost passively. The increased energy was slight but it was perceptible and a smile stretched across his face as he grew more certain that this would indeed w
ork. It was merely a matter of refining the procedure to be sure he couldn’t hurt either of the others when he used it, but in that moment as the energy slowly filled him he felt like he was standing in the fully magical atmosphere of Fairy, not the watered down energy of the Bordertown.
Oh yes Bleidd thought still grinning as he flexed his fingers in the air and wove a complex enchantment, a true shielding spell that would deflect even a physical object harmlessly into the ground, something that normally could not be sustained outside Fairy This has great potential indeed.
************************
Allie waited until the dishes from dinner had been cleared away and Jason and Tony had retreated to the den to watch a movie to broach the subject of Sam coming over. She cleared her throat loudly, purposely ignoring Jess who was lounging in one of the kitchen chairs, and focusing on Bleidd standing at the sink. “So I took Rose’s advice and collected some graveyard dirt to mix with mullein and patchouli. Once it’s blended and charged it should make a very effective protective powder.”
“That’s good,” Bleidd agreed. He seemed to be in a much better mood tonight, and Allie licked her lips nervously, tempted to avoid ruining that.
Instead she pushed forward. “Yes, I think so. I want to have things as secure as possible before Hannah moves in tomorrow.”
“You really like this woman, don’t you?” Bleidd said, sounding amused. He was finishing up washing the last of the dinner dishes, his back to her, but she could read his emotions easily without any effort.
“I do,” Allie agreed. “I can’t explain it. There’s just something about her. Her presence is very soothing. You met her too, in the clinic, what did you think of her?”
Bleidd wiped his hands on a dish towel before turning slowly towards her. He didn’t answer immediately, instead leaning back against the counter and giving her a thoughtful look. “Well…in truth…I don’t remember her very well.”
“Don’t you?” Allie said, cocking her head in surprise.
His look was patronizing enough to make her frown before he even answered. “I was rather distracted at the time Allie. Under the circumstances I was far more concerned with your health than with getting to know your nurse.”
She made a face at him in response and Jess laughed then said. “Well I am looking forward to meeting her. I trust your judgment my heart and if you like her so well I have little doubt that she will fit in here. And I know having another roommate will ease your mind.”
“It will,” Allie said carefully. “the truth is…I know, really, with both of you here, together we can manage everything. With the bills I mean.” She ignored both of their shocked expressions at this sudden reversal of an opinion she’d clung to for months and pushed on. “But so much has changed, keeps changing. And I guess I’m just having trouble letting go of the way things have been for the last ten years. And even with the…the baby…even if we use the spare upstairs room for the baby’s room, we’d still have an empty room. Bleidd’s old room. And it just feels too weird to me, the empty space.”
There was a moment of stunned silence as Bleidd and Jess exchanged looks, both caught off guard by her sudden openness. Finally, his voice uncertain, Bleidd said, “I thought Hannah was moving into your old room upstairs.”
“I showed her both, mine and yours,” Allie said softly, nervous as she tried to find a balance between including them but still being the one in charge of the house. “She liked yours better, and I think she liked the idea of being down here away from everyone else. So she’s taking that one. Which got me thinking. And I talked to Shawn, since his room is right next to ours, and asked if he’d consider switching to my old room. And he’s actually really excited about the idea because its bigger and has better light. And…and I thought, maybe we could put a door in between our room and his old one, and make it like a real nursery.”
She looked at each of them, biting her lip, suddenly worried that she should have talked to them first, but the idea had just come to her after Hannah had chosen Bleidd’s old room and she’d been so excited she’d gone right to Shawn. Jess leaned over his fingers gentle on her shoulder. “I think this is an excellent idea my heart.”
Bleidd was watching her closely. His emotions were as uncertain as her own, and she felt her stomach clenching until he said, “Can I knock the hole in the wall?”
She giggled before she could stop herself, and he flashed a wide smile. She felt that unspoken tension between them slipping away and she wanted to cry from the sheer relief of being rid of it. Instead she joked back, “Hmmm, I don’t know if letting you loose in the house with a sledgehammer is a good idea. We just need one door not a full demolition.”
He smiled again, “Why stop at a door? Why not take down the whole wall?”
“See that’s the attitude that makes me say no to you having a sledgehammer.”
They both laughed then and even Jess smiled, perhaps sensing the shift between them. Bleidd walked over and sat down at the table with them, sighing slightly. “Pity. It would have been interesting.”
“Speaking of interesting…”Allie said seizing on the very weak segue before she lost her nerve. “Ummm. Well, with Hannah moving in and all this hexing going on…Jason suggested I should call Sam, the, ummm, police mage, so I did.”
The two elves exchanged a look then turned back to her, tilting their heads in identical expressions of interest. She shifted nervously under the scrutiny but Jess was clearly waiting to hear the rest of what she had to say before letting himself react. She pushed forward once more. “I mean I know I’d mentioned it before and you both thought it was a bad idea, and things have been quiet, but Jason had a good point that its really better to let the police handle this…and I don’t want either one of you to get arrested….So ummm Sam’s coming here tomorrow to see if he can pick up the person’s trail and if he can find them he said he thinks what they’re doing might be a felony which would mean jail time.”
Bleidd took a deep breath, and she could sense him trying to hold his temper. “What, exactly, did you tell him?”
“Well, I may have led him to believe that I was the one mainly being hexed – which is true in the strictest sense since I’m the one being affected the most – and that I’ve been hurt several times. Oh, also I did mention that I was pregnant,” she said, her eyes flicking nervously between them. Jess had still not said or done anything. She felt panic twisting in her gut at the realization that they’d be perfectly in the right to be angry with her after she went out and did exactly what they’d decided not to do. But in the moment it had seemed like the smart decision, not only to solve the larger problem but to protect the two of them. Now though as she looked from one blank face to the other she was terrified that she’d badly overstepped herself; she knew full well how angry she’d be if the situation was reversed.
After a minute Bleidd leaned back in his chair, his expression thawing into thoughtful surprise. “That’s brilliant. I wouldn’t have even thought…but this way…yes. Yes, and he may have more luck tracking this than we have had, although I think at this point should anything else occur I will be able to follow the traces back.”
Allie relaxed at this unexpected endorsement, and turned to Jess. He was staring at the wall, looking equally thoughtful. When he spoke his voice was pensive. “I will not pretend that it pleases me to think of that man coming here or in any of us trusting our safety to him. But…I suppose his involvement was inevitable. And if he can put an end to this threat than I can tolerate his presence. Briefly.”
Allie smiled at him, relieved that he wasn’t going to dig his heels in about keeping the police out of things. The more she’d thought about what Jason had said, and about Bleidd and Jess’s reluctance to involve the police, the more nervous she’d gotten that the two of them had come up with a plan to deal with the situation that they didn’t want her to know about. And as much as she wanted the hexing stopped she also didn’t want to lose sight of the fact that it was just hexing
, it wasn’t worth murdering anyone over.
She reached over and squeezed Jess’s hand. Bleidd reached out and stroked her shoulder, something between a caress and a pat, and she found herself irrelevantly reminded of how tactile elves were as she repressed the desire to pull away and get some breathing room. Oh boy she thought to herself even as she turned to smile at him I have got to snap out of this unfocused thing. It’s getting annoying to find myself with all these mental non-sequiturs floating around….
“Are you going to bed?” Bleidd asked her his voice half reproving, half hopeful.
She felt a stab of guilt, knowing her answer would disappoint him. “Not just yet. I haven’t spent much time with Jason since the crash – well, I mean obviously not he’s been staying with Tony a lot – and we hung out a little bit after work and I promised him I’d watch this movie with them. But I wanted to talk to you guys first.”
“I appreciate the warning that the mage is coming here,” Jess said drily and she was certain he wasn’t fooled by her roundabout way of breaking the news. She felt herself blushing and he grinned. “I’m not upset my heart, truly. But if you feel badly about it you can make it up to me later.”
“Or,” Bleidd interjected, “Next time you could just discuss it with us before you act on the impulse. Although I assume you felt that asking forgiveness would be easier than asking permission.”
She blushed harder, knowing he was right but hating the very idea of having to ask permission before doing anything. She stood up, putting a bit of physical space between them. Ugh she though trying to keep her face still this relationship stuff should be simpler. We love each other, we’re happy together, it shouldn’t all be a tangle of how much to say and what decisions to include everyone in. I feel like I’m drowning. Aloud she went with the more diplomatic, “This relationship stuff is still new. I guess it’s a work in progress, learning how it all works, but we’re trying right?”
Heart of Thorns: a Between the Worlds novel Page 21
