Age of Aquarius

by Tawdra Kandle

  “Did you sleep?” she asked immediately, peering into my face as though the answer to her question lay there. I tried to remember that she’d spent centuries essentially alone, having sacrificed her right to be with her own beloved family when she had given her life for them by becoming a vampire. She looked at me as a surrogate granddaughter of sorts, and although I was still cautious with her, I allowed her to fuss over me . . . within reason.

  “I did. We got a couple of hours of rest.” I paused before adding, “This room is beautiful, Veronica. Thank you for making it perfect for us.”

  She beamed. “I hoped it would be, and I’m glad you like it.” She looked as though she might have said more before giving her head a little shake. “I’m sorry to interrupt you now, but I’ve just gotten word via my secure network that your necroloquitar has arrived in the city. I’d like to send a group in to retrieve her.”

  I sighed and rolled my shoulders. “We were just about to have our meeting and lay out the plan. But it’s probably a better idea to wait until Julia’s here, too, anyway. All right, let’s send Rafe and Lucas out to bring her in. Oh, and maybe Nell would go, too, just to provide some protection if they need it.”

  “Good thinking.” Veronica nodded. “I have a brand-new car that’s registered to one of my dummy corporations in the garage, so they can take that. I don’t think anyone wants to try to maneuver that goliath RV around the sharp turns and hills of San Francisco. Julia’s waiting at a bar in Haight-Ashbury.”

  “All right. Will you give them the information they need and ask them to head out? If they don’t hit too much traffic, we could still gather tonight, so I can at least introduce the basics of the plan.”

  “Of course.” Veronica patted my cheek. “I’ll take care of it, darling.”

  Seamus closed the door behind her retreating back. “A little reprieve, then. Is this the last of our noble band?”

  “It should be. Marica and Nicoleta are here, and the rest of us traveled together. Oh, there’s Joss . . . we need to reconstitute her, or whatever it is they’d like to call it. I think Lucas says we’ll bring forth her essence from its containment.” I snorted. “I shouldn’t have sent Nell with the boys, I guess. We need her power to make Joss viable here.”

  “What about the other witch? The one who brought her husband and her mother-in-law?” Seamus cocked his head.

  “Tasmyn?” I hesitated. “I’m not sure. She has the power to do it, but she’s so timid about using it. When I spoke to her in King about joining us, she told me that she’d been keeping up with her training, working with Aline—she’s part of one of the gifted families in King, and she uses her empathy in her job as a therapist. And yes, I checked with Aline, and she assured me that Tasmyn would be an asset. But . . . I don’t know. Maybe it’s being around Nell and Rafe again that’s making her more afraid of accessing the power. But she’s got to figure out a way around it, or she won’t be able to help to us at all.”

  “It could be that asking her to help with this Joss business is exactly what she might need to help her boost that confidence. It’s not a dangerous spell, is it? I’d have her give it a go.”

  “You might have something there.” I was beginning to discover an additional benefit to having a partner—I wasn’t quite ready to call Seamus my boyfriend yet, though he was undoubtedly that. Having another brain at my disposal gave me another point of view and helped me to think beyond my own limited scope.

  “Look at that. I seem to have found a little value for myself.” He was grinning mischievously, but I wondered if there weren’t some underlying truth beneath the tease.

  “Seamus, you are invaluable to me.” I wrapped one arm around his waist and cupped his cheek with my other hand. “Never think otherwise. And it’s not only for your grand ideas. You make me a better person, and you bring me . . .” I searched for the right word. “Peace. And some measure of joy, too, even under the worst circumstances.”

  He searched my eyes, both of us silent in this moment. When he bent to kiss me, I could feel the cloud of love surrounding both of us.

  “That is perhaps the most wonderful thing you could say to me just now, darlin’.” He pulled back, his teasing grin in place again. “And now let’s go reconstitute this ghost.”

  Sionnach

  “Can you explain to me exactly what’s going on now?” I flopped back into the deep-cushioned sofa and pulled up my legs to tuck them under me. “I thought we were meeting so her royal highness could lay out the grand master plan.” I shot Daeglan a saucy glance. “At least, I think that was what was on my camp itinerary for now.”

  “Seamus said that the last team member we were expecting made it to San Francisco, and Rafe, Lucas and Nell drove into the city to retrieve her. We can’t have the meeting until the gang’s all assembled, so they’re trying to bring this ghost out of her box, as I understand it.”

  The woman sitting on my other side, whose name I thought was Jackie, shifted to face us. “That’s right. The ghost is Joss, and she used to be an agent for Carruthers. Well, when she was alive, I mean. She was killed in the line of duty by Mallory Jones, who is one of the most powerful Hive agents—that we know of, at least. Rafe was with Joss at the time.” Jackie lowered her voice. “She and Rafe were a couple, and it nearly killed him, too, when she died.”

  “So the chick buys it, and she still comes back to work for Cathryn? Damn. I knew the lady was intense, but I figured being dead would get you off the hook with Carruthers.” I had grudgingly accepted Cathryn’s apology, because it was good for solidarity and team building and all that shit. But I still didn’t trust her, and I didn’t like her, either.

  “Joss was gone for a long time, but then last fall, we performed a ritual that was supposed to let us talk to another dead Carruthers agent. Her name was Delia, and after she died—of natural causes, by the way—it came out that she’d been working for the Hive, too. Cathryn thought she’d have more information for us, so we all gathered at the condo where she used to live. Julia, the necroloquitar who they’re picking up in the city, came down to help us with it, too. But something went wrong, and Joss came over instead of Delia.” Jackie paused before adding, “Delia did come, too, but not the same way Joss did. She possessed me.”

  “No shit!” I looked at her with admiration. “What was that like?”

  “It was one of the most horrible experiences of my life.” Jackie shuddered. “She didn’t want to leave, and her screams when she was pulled out of me still give me nightmares.”

  “Ewww. That sucks.” I didn’t want to think about it.

  “It did. But anyway, Joss hung around even after we got rid of Delia, and she’s been helping Cathryn and the others do research and come up with the plans to destroy the Hive. Apparently, Cathryn felt it was very important for her to be here with us for the battle—she kept saying Joss had a role to play—so Zoe and Nell concocted a way to bring her with us. She’d been attached to the condo and hadn’t been able to leave it, but they somehow reassigned her attachment to be more portable.” She pointed to the other side of the large room, where Cathryn was conferring with the woman who’d helped us stave off the attack on the road.

  “That’s Tasmyn.” Jackie pointed to her. “She’s married to Michael, the guy who was hurt on our way here. She used to date Rafe, too—”

  “Seriously?” I raised my eyebrows. “That dude gets around, huh? He’s with the other witch now, isn’t he?”

  “Nell, yes. She’s definitely the one for him. Lucas and I know them pretty well, and they . . . well, they just work. But there’s a ton of history between Tasmyn, Rafe and Nell. I only know a little of it.”

  “How’s . . . Michael? He looked like he got hit pretty badly.” The whole attack had shaken me up. I wasn’t a stranger to mixing it up now and then, when a job called for it, but fighting off bad guys who were actually trying to kill us all—that was when the shit got real.

  Daeglan shrugged. “Cill says he’s stable, and h
e was able to work on him a little more once we got here. Easier to do what he must when the environment isn’t bumping around, you know. But Cillian also said he was afraid there was some damage that might be beyond his abilities. For now, they’re keeping him in a sort of coma, just to be sure he’s quiet and pain-free.”

  Jackie frowned. “I can’t imagine how Tasmyn is dealing with it. They’ve been with each other since they were teenagers, and when you see them together, you know Michael is her life.”

  “Is she—that Tasmyn—can she free the ghost?” I’d felt her power once she’d really let go, and it had been more than a little overwhelming. But she’d also had a hard time getting started.

  “I think so. I guess we’ll see.”

  Cathryn and Tasmyn came closer to us, and I saw that from Tasmyn’s fingers dangled a silver chain with a small box pendant at the end. The short older woman with the rainbow-colored hair—her name was Zoe, I thought—joined them.

  “We’re going to help Joss to manifest here,” Cathryn announced. “Tasmyn will supply the bulk of the power for the spell, Zoe will do the actual incantation, and the rest of us will be here in support.” She gripped the younger woman’s arm in what looked like encouragement. “Ready, Tas?”

  She nodded. “As I’ll ever be, I guess.” She rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, as though she was preparing to run a race. “Let’s do it.”

  The room fell silent. Seamus came over to stand next to Daeglan and me, and it felt as though we were all holding our collective breath.

  Zoe began to chant in a language that I didn’t understand, though I was pretty sure it was related to Gaelic, as it had the same rhythm and accent as some of the things I’d heard from Daeglan.

  Tasmyn stretched out her arm, and the pendant that hung between her fingers began to swing slightly. The chain trembled, and I sensed something squirming within the tiny box.

  “Sionnach.” Cathryn crouched near me and spoke so quietly that I had to lean forward to hear her. “I might need you to help Tasmyn. She might need her energy . . . supplemented.”

  “I can’t do that,” I hissed. “I don’t have that kind of power, and you know it. I shift. I can manifest in dreams, and I can create illusions. Spin fantasies.”

  “You can generate lightning with your hands. That denotes a deep power source.”

  Daeglan’s brow knit together. “You can do that? You never told me.”

  I rolled my eyes. God save me from boyfriends and ex-employers. “I don’t do it often, because it knocks me out for a while. It’s a last-resort deal.” Turning back to Cathryn, I added, “I can hold her hand, but I’m telling you, it’s not going to help her.”

  “Let me do it.” The Romanian witch approached us, her dark eyes bright and focused on Tasmyn. “You know that our powers are complementary. We’ve worked together in the past.”

  Cathryn hesitated, and I understood why. I’d heard the story about this one, and I knew why she was trailed by a woman who looked like her, even though she was considerably younger. Marica Lacusta was powerful, yes, but she was also mentally unhinged. Her cousin was here to make sure she was contained.

  “All right, but don’t shake her. Don’t say anything. Just boost her if she needs it.”

  Before the older woman could do it, though, a loud crack filled the air, and I winced, hunching my shoulders up to my ears. The room went dark for a split second, as though the world and time itself had paused. When the lights returned, a woman with red hair and a decidedly transparent form stood in front of us.

  “You did it.” Cathryn rose to her feet again and grasped Tasmyn’s hands. “I knew you could. Well done.” She turned around to face the newcomer. “Jocelyn? Are you all right?”

  The redhead glanced around the room. “I’m good, thanks. Nice to be someplace other than the condo.” She frowned. “Where’s Rafe? And Nell?”

  “They’ve gone to bring in Julia, our necroloquitar. You remember her, of course.”

  “Yeah.” Joss’s gaze lingered on Daeglan and Seamus. “I see the Irish contingent made it. And this must be the fox.” She waved at me. “I’d shake your hand, but you know . . . non-corporeal and all.”

  “No problem. Nice to meet you. I’m Sionnach.”

  Cathryn introduced Joss around the room. Next to me, Jackie sighed. “Well, that went better than it might have. Once they bring in Julia, everyone’ll be here except the elusive vessel.”

  I’d heard of this person when Daeglan had explained the Hive, the wrongly-timed ritual back in 1967 and what we were trying to stop now. Cathryn knew that we were looking for a young woman who possessed both the ability to make the Hive’s ritual a success, and conversely, the power to destroy them all. But to the frustration of all involved, it seemed that every road leading to this vessel was a dead end.

  “Can we be successful without her?” I wondered aloud. Daeglan scowled, but I knew he was irked at the situation, not at me.

  Jackie shook her head. “I don’t know about that. But I know that Cathryn always has contingency plans, so she’s definitely got a back-up this time. All we can do is hope that the Hive has had as much trouble finding this girl as we have.”

  Heels clicked on the hardwood floor as Veronica entered from the doorway on the far side of the room. Even from this distance, I could see that her face was drawn and her eyes were clouded with worry.

  “Cathryn.” She gripped her granddaughter’s arm. “I was just in communication with our contact here. Something’s gone terribly wrong.”

  Nell

  “Have you ever been to San Francisco?” The lights of passing cars flickered over his face as Lucas glanced back at me from his shotgun seat.

  I shook my head. “No. I didn’t travel much growing up, since my mother’s family was firmly rooted in King, and my father forgot about my existence after a certain point in time.”

  “Nell.” Rafe was distracted, focused on maneuvering the sleek silver sports car through the narrow streets of the city, but I heard the vague note of exasperation in his tone. In the past year or so, at Rafe’s urging, I’d made a half-hearted effort to mend bridges with my father. It was hard, because I knew that I’d never be the daughter he wanted me to be. I was too much like my mother, too much the witch, for his comfort. When he looked at me, all he saw was the destruction and damage I’d wrought. I imagined, too, that I reminded him of my mother and the disastrous marriage that had produced me.

  Lucas tactfully changed the subject. “How about you, Rafe?”

  He coughed. “Yeah, I’ve been here before.”

  I smirked, safe in the dark of the backseat where he couldn’t see me. “Was that during your own personal summer of love?” The fact that my boyfriend had been a huge man-skank before we were together was a never-ending source of amusement to me, and I didn’t plan on forgetting that, ever.

  “No.” He had the gall to sound insulted, and I bit back a laugh. “If you remember, I used to live in California. We were only about an hour from San Francisco, so we used to drive up fairly frequently.”

  “Ah.” Lucas nodded. “I came here once for a conference. I fell in love with it. I think San Francisco and New Orleans are the most international cities we have in this country.”

  “You’re probably right,” Rafe agreed. “And they’re the most diverse, too, culturally. Of course, tons of extraordinaries live in both of them.”

  “Yeah.” Lucas peered out his window. “Can you imagine what it was like to be here back in the day? In the sixties? To hear Veronica tell it, she was in with all the people who were important during that time. I’d love to see half the stuff she talks about it.”

  “You should talk to Seamus. He’s the time-jumper, right?” Rafe made a sharp turn, and I grabbed the seat in front of me to keep from sliding across the seat.

  “Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair,” I murmured. Lucas shot me a smile over his shoulder.

  “I know. I’m a hopeless romantic, right? I had a frie
nd who was at Woodstock, and when I used to go on about how I wished I’d been born then, he’d say it was nothing but drugs, mud and people hooking up with strangers.”

  “There’s the bar.” Rafe slowed the car. “Now to find parking, which might be a bigger battle than saving the world.”

  I unbuckled my seatbelt. “Just let me out, and I’ll get her. You go around the block, and we’ll wait inside until I see the car. If you slow down a little, we’ll jump in and take off.”

  Rafe frowned. “By yourself? Maybe Lucas should go with you.”

  “Seriously, Rafe?” I sighed. “You think I’m not a match by myself for anything out there? Lucas should stay with you.”

  “But—”

  I opened the door and slid out into the night, the noise of the city immediately filling my head. “Around the block. Don’t be a sexist jerk, Rafe. You know I can take care of myself and anything else that happens to come along.” Slamming the door, I pounded once on the roof, signaling him to move.

  A couple stood just outside the entrance to the bar, their arms wrapped around each other. I scanned them quickly, checking for powers that they might be trying to hide, but I didn’t pick up anything before I slipped inside.

  The bar was dark, and there was loud music playing. A few people danced on the tiny dance floor, and the tables and chairs were filled. A pall of smoke filled the air, mingling with the smell of beer and liquor.

  “Hey, lady.” A small arm snaked around my waist. “You know, you’re not usually my type, but I’m in the mood for a little experimentation tonight, and I think you might be just who I’m looking for.”

  I recognized Julia’s teasing voice before I even turned around. She was younger than me by a few years, but she more than made up for her youth with spunk and sass. Rafe and I had worked a few jobs with her, and I’d always liked and respected the necroloquitar.

  “I bet I am just who you’re looking for,” I flirted back. We didn’t want to raise any attention in here, and two girls meeting up to get to know each other better wouldn’t be out of the ordinary at all. “And if you want even more fun, I have a couple of guys waiting in a car. We could do some real damage.”