by John Conroe
“Hmm, ye might be dead on, Mary,” Aileen said, looking thoughtful.
“Are you kidding? He looked ready to go to war with the lot of us. Did you see how much power he was holding, and him not so much as breaking a sweat!” Ryanne countered, still not convinced.
“Well, of course, dear. Krista as much as told us he was on guard. Here he discovers four Irish witches in his own backyard. He’d be daft not to be wary. But we dinna threaten him, we let him go his own way. It’s perfect, I tell ye. He’ll have you stuck in his mind, Ry!” Mary said.
“It’s a good damned thing we dinna get in his way! Did you ever feel so much power? Look at that handprint on the metal, will ye?” Gael said, pointing at the dumpster.
“When he first started to draw, it was like there was nothing left if I had wanted some for myself,” Ryanne noted.
“Aye, and here I was thinking Krista had gone a bit soft. If anything, I think she went light on the tellin of it,” Aileen said.
“So where does it leave us?” Gael asked.
“It leaves us looking for an excuse to show up at his home. And that, girls, will be a bit dodgy. If you think he’s skittish, then his aunt will be a much tougher one to convince. So we’ll take our time. Think it through, give him a day to think on sweet Ryanne and such,” Aileen said, ruffling her little sister’s black hair.
“He’s something, isn’t he?” Ryanne asked, a gleam in her eyes.
“Oh, he’s all that and more!” Gael agreed a little enviously as they all headed back to their band equipment.
Chapter 51- Declan
I got home later than I had planned and the light in my aunt’s bedroom window went out as soon as I pulled in, so I left off telling her about my run-in with the Sisters. Instead, I lay awake for hours, wondering how badly I had screwed up. Finally falling asleep somewhere between three and four, I slept like the dead till the morning sun on my face woke me. Or maybe it was the feeling of dread that snapped me awake. Like a crypt full of rotten corpses had just been opened.
Outside my metal pod, Levi’s Jeep was parked next to a sleek Mercedes coupe that I had never laid eyes on before. Nobody was in the living area, so I showered quickly and threw on jeans, t-shirt, and a hoody, all straight from the clean pile in the laundry area. There were fresh muffins on a plate awaiting my attention, so as I crammed my feet into work boots, I gobbled three of them, slathered with jam and honey. Then I went into the restaurant looking for my aunt and Levi, pulled toward the dining room.
I found them in the banquet room, which we use for private parties, and the local Lion’s club uses it for their weekly lunch meetings (Wednesdays, at noon). It holds about six of the big round tables, each capable of holding eight people. Levi, my aunt, and two others—Chris Gordon and his sleepy-looking, but still drop-dead beautiful girlfriend—were at the centermost table. A large, white plastic bucket full of water sat open on the floor next to the table they were using and a wet plastic bag lay empty on a kitchen dish towel, forgotten as they all watched Levi page gingerly through an ancient-looking book that looked like it was warping the very light around it to my Sight. A pot of coffee sat on the table alongside a set of mugs.
“Declan, good to see you again,” Chris said, standing and moving to me before I could take a second step into the room. His grace of movement made me feel uneven and cloddish.
At the table, Tanya reached one slim hand to shake mine and I found myself rushing to keep her from standing. She looked tired.
“Declan, my apologies. I am not what you would call a morning person,” she said, her blue eyes pinning me in place.
“Ah, me either, ma’am,” I replied, shocked all over again at her up-close impact.
She frowned. “You will call me Tanya, no?”
“Yes ma’am, I mean, yes Tanya.”
It was Chris’s turn to frown. “Odd, I just had déjà vu,” he said. “Although in my case, it likely means I’m remembering something real.”
“When we met, I said something similar, my love,” the woman who I had trouble remembering was a vampire said with a sad smile.
“Oh, that must be it,” he said awkwardly. He didn’t remember meeting her? I thought, except it must have shown on my face as he went on to explain.
“As I mentioned before, I got shot in the head. A big chunk of my recent memories got knocked out. Bits and pieces are coming back, but it’s choppy,” he said with a shrug. “I’m working on it.”
The tiredness had disappeared from Tanya’s face as she closely watched her boyfriend. Her expression was a mixture of fierce protectiveness and pride, with a hint of sadness.
I glanced around the floor space, looking for a small horse.
Chris was watching me with a bemused look. “We left ‘Sos on guard duty,” he said.
“Gotcha,” I said, thinking of a giant wolf watching over a small dark-haired girl.
“Ye got in late last night, Declan,” my aunt said from Levi’s side. For his part, my instructor merely raised one hand in greeting, barely looking up from the book he was reading. An open notebook lay next to his right hand, the page filled with neatly written notes.
“That must be the book… the grimoire,” I said, pointing at the vision-twisting thing on the table and changing the topic as fast as humanly possible.
“Yes, the Book of Darkest Sorrow,” Chris replied.
“And dark it is. Much of this reads like a slaughterhouse manual. But I found a reference to dopplegangers. The author calls them dopplegheists and has a whole section on them,” Levi said.
“Yes, that’s what I’m interested in,” Chris said, excited, moving to look over Levi’s shoulder. My aunt stood and came around to me.
“Declan, this book is like a beacon,” she began.
I interrupted, nodding my head. “I think it woke me up when you opened the pail. Is that salt water?” I asked.
“Yes, it is. But Declan, you felt the book?” Tanya asked, concerned.
“Yeah, still do. Like a rotten pile of roadkill,” I said with a grimace.
“Will others feel it?” she asked my aunt.
“Possibly. It’s very powerful. Our Rowan—” she pointed out toward the main widow that faced the tree, “—will block some of it, but unless it’s encased in the wood or in yer bucket of sea water, it’s gonna radiate some. There are none of our kind around.”
Except for the Sisters Eire in Burlington! I thought to myself, a wave of guilt flowing over me.
“Well, despite our best efforts, there’s always a chance that we were tracked here,” Chris said.
“Some of your fellows are rather adamant in their admiration for that book.”
“This book has been avidly sought after by at least seven non-witch supernatural groups and countless Circles for the last three hundred or so years. I’ve been hearing about it for weeks now among collectors,” Levi said.
“Well, we did mention there was danger involved, and we did agree to pay you extra for hazardous duty,” Tanya said, sounding like a lawyer.
“Ms. Demidova, this is me home! The center of our little two-person Circle, eh, Declan?” Aunt Ash began, looking at me for a nod, which I gave. “I’ve kept our heads below the radar for all of Declan’s life, but that cat’s been out of the bag since the AIR folks came through. So while I would not invite trouble, I think we can more than handle ourselves!”
“A two-person Circle? I don’t know much, if anything, about witchcraft, but is that even a thing?” Chris asked.
“Not normally, no. But then, we’re not normal witches, now are we? I’m not me sister, but by any other measure, I stack up well. Declan by his ownself is the equivalent of any four or five ordinary witches, maybe more.”
“You say that’s unusual, right? That much power in a male? But in my limited memories of witches, I’ve seen a male throw balls of fire and another control a tractor-trailer. How is that possible?” Chris asked.
“Well, impossible is an ugly word, ‘specially amo
ng the supernaturals. But to answer yer question, there have been more males of almost normal witch power in this latest generation. I’m guessing they were both young men?”
Chris nodded.
“Were they also accompanied by the other witches of their Circle?” my aunt asked.
“Yes, another ten, I think.”
“Well, witches in a circle can link and lend power to one another. Generally it’s to the leader, which mostly men are not, ye see. But tell me now, would this have happened down toward the South, would it?”
“Yes,” he answered. “How did you know?”
“There is a Circle down that away that is reported to be run by a male of most unusual strength. But it’s like comparing a goat to a quarter horse. Declan could probably match or exceed what he was tossing about without a circle lending him Craft. I shudder to think what my lad would do with other witches feeding him, eh Declan?” she said with a smile.
I shuddered as well. I’ve had some close calls right here on this property while learning to control my abilities. If our insurance company ever had even an inkling of how many times the restaurant almost burned down, we’d never get coverage.
“So you’re not overly worried about us being attacked?” Tanya asked.
“Sending regular spells and such against us, here, within the influence of that tree, would be useless. Both me sister and I spent years building up the defenses of this area and that tree. It’s what’s kept us hidden all these years, ye see. We’ve fed the natural protection of the Rowan, and it has in turn provided a shield. What does Rory call it?” my aunt asked me.
“A force field, Aunt Ash. Like from Star Trek,” I answered. She could never remember that term.
“Aye, that’s it. A regular force field it is!” she said. “But it’ll take time for Levi to translate the spells you’re interested in and he has to get it just right, then I have to gather the materials and prepare everything. When everything is ready, we’ll do the spell, if you still want to, but I imagine it’ll be after the dinner crowd is gone.”
“You’re gonna need a focus item; two actually. Linked items that mirror each other,” Levi said, looking up from his work. “Without those, we can’t do anything.”
Chris exchanged a look with Tanya, then reached up to his neck and pulled a silver necklace into view. It had interlocking links that looked like drops of silver water, leading to a big black gem that sucked in light and twisted my vision so hard, I almost puked.
“Good God Almighty, what the devil is that thing?” my aunt asked, looking just as shaken as I felt.
“It’s a God Tear.”
“Well, tis power beyond any I’ve ever seen, but it’s only one,” Aunt Ash said.
He took it off and held the gem in both hands. “Barbiel mentioned I would need to do this,” he said aside to Tanya, who nodded. Levi sucked a quick breath at the name.
Holding the gem hidden and cupped in his hands, Chris closed his eyes and concentrated. I felt a force build, a power I’d never encountered before, something that made my teeth ache and the back of my neck tense up. My Sight showed violet light bending around his hands, growing so bright I had to close my eyes and turn my head. There was a pop, like air pressure suddenly changing and when I looked back at him, he was pulling his hands and two identical necklaces apart, each with a gem that looked exactly half the size of the original. The chain pulled apart into two as if it was two strands of silver licorice. He held one in each hand. “How about these?”
My aunt was silent, her eyes wide, as she first inspected the twin necklaces without touching them and then leaned over Levi’s shoulder to study his notes. She looked back up at the gleaming strands of silver and black, frowning. I recognized that expression as the one I mentally called her Professor Magic look.
“They have so much power on their own, I kinna tell what effect it will have upon the finished spell,” she said grudgingly. “Me guess is it will supercharge the whole thing, but I need to read it through when Levi is finished, which will be a while, by the looks of things.”
“Yeah, I’m only a quarter done, if that,” Levi muttered, tearing his eyes from the necklaces and bending back to his work. Tanya closed her eyes and leaned back, features tired. Maybe she felt my gaze because she suddenly opened them and pinned me with her blue eyes. People always mention how blue my eyes are, but the vividness of hers was unmatched—except maybe by the brilliant violet of her boyfriend’s.
“As I mentioned, I’m not normally up this early,” she said to me with a smile. Idiot, she’s a vampire, they don’t do daylight, right? I thought.
“Tanya is resistant to the sun, but it leaves her sleepy,” Chris explained.
“If you would prefer to rest while we grind through this translation, dear, I’m sure me nephew would be happy to show you to our living quarters. The sofa is a right wonder.”
“I can vouch for that!” Levi said. He’d spent many a night on that same couch.
“Go ahead, dear. Nothing exciting will be happening for a bit,” Aunt Ash said.
Tanya considered that for a moment then, with a quick glance at Chris, nodded. “Sure, why not? Lead on, Declan,” she said in her velvety voice.
Suddenly nervous, I turned and opened the banquet room door, almost knocking over the waitress, Emilee, who was looking hopefully into the room, carrying a full pot of coffee. Waitress reflexes took over and she automatically stepped out of the way.
Her expression fell in on itself in disappointment when she saw it was only me, but then her eyes got huge when Tanya came through after me and even larger when Chris came after her.
Ah, that’s it. Hoping for a glimpse of the purple-eyed guy huh? I gave her a smirk as I realized the reason for her attentive service. Time to play.
“Ah, Chris, are you hungry by any chance? Emilee would probably be glad to get you some breakfast, right Em?”
The poor girl could only nod, her cheeks flushing red.
“Oh, you know, that would be great! I’m actually starving!” Chris said, his face lighting up like it was Christmas morning.
Tanya chuckled. “You’re always starving, dear one.”
“What do you recommend, Declan?” he asked me, waving away his girlfriend’s comment.
“Woodsman’s Special is my favorite, but only if you like eggs, toast, hash browns, bacon, and pancakes,” I said.
“That sounds awesome! Can I get three of those?”
“Ah, Chris, each one is three eggs and four pancakes with four strips of bacon, four pieces of toast and a pile of hash browns?”
He considered this information, then nodded. “Good point, make it four! Thanks so much… ah… Emilee, was it?”
He was three feet away, looking her straight in the eyes, and I think she came a hair’s breadth from passing out.
I took pity. “Em, we’ll be in the living quarters. Bring it on in when it’s ready, please,” I said, snapping her trance and getting a shaky nod in response.
Tanya was amused as I led them out of the restaurant, where curious gazes from customers and staff followed us. “He has that effect on women.”
“Well, excuse me for saying it, Tanya, but I’m pretty certain that you have the same effect on men,” I said, instantly regretting my big mouth.
Chris laughed. “I wholeheartedly agree, Declan!”
Chapter 52 -- Declan
I gave them the grand tour and, after Tanya asked where my room was, I showed them the container room, as well. They both spotted my mom’s photo and commented on the resemblance.
“I lost my whole family when I was eight. My grandfather raised me,” Chris said, staring at the photo. “A demon in a human skin killed them with an axe.”
“I don’t know who killed my mom, but it was likely someone from her home town,” I said.
“What about your father?” Tanya asked, watching me carefully. I think I may have flinched a bit.
“Mom was raped. I don’t know anything about my father othe
r than he was from Croatia and he should probably die.”
They both looked at me, startled by my words, but they didn’t say anything else.
We went back into the main family quarters where Emilee was slowly setting the food out. I mean, it was obvious she was dragging butt, waiting to get a glimpse of Chris. Tanya just smirked at her boyfriend, then stretched out on the couch, crossing her ankles and putting her arms behind her head. Her eyes closed and she just went quiet. I couldn’t tell if she was even breathing.
