The goddess appeared, wearing that stupid white dress, her expression drawn, her form translucent. She pointed and I saw Blythe stumbling around in the trees. Exhaustion pulled at my limbs as I walked toward her, so happy to see her alive and well it chased away the sadness of the other girl’s death. Blythe was walking in a circle, mumbling to herself, her new coat streaked with dirt. I touched her shoulder and she jumped and screamed.
“Shh, goddess, you’ve got a set of pipes on you.”
“I’m so sorry! I don’t know what happened, how I got so drunk. I’m not very good with alcohol so I don’t drink much. Once, when I was sixteen, I went to this party at my high school and they’d put all this fruit into a big metal tub and poured some kind of alcohol all over it and it was so good, I ate three peaches. The next thing I remember is throwing up all over Sophie, then having the council do a healing spell because I couldn’t stop throwing up. I puked all over the head wizard. Wait…what about Sophie?” She paused, blinked at me. “Did you see her?”
I’d just remained quiet until she got her story out. It was better that way sometimes and I was too tired to fight it. “We both did. You pointed her out. But I couldn’t get to her.” My phone rang and I dug it out of my pocket and nearly dropped it. My hands were still shaky. “Yeah,” I barked into it.
My brother’s voice dripped pure anger. “Beri, what the hell happened last night? I felt…I don’t know what it was. It was like you were pulling on me. I’ve been calling for hours. Even Elsa is pissed.”
“She should be used to me not answering my phone. And, hey, it’s going to be like that sometimes. I won’t always be able to pick up if I’m in the middle of an investigation.” My head began to throb.
“I get it,” he said. “I do. But this was different. It was this powerful feeling. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it felt like you’d stuck your hands into my chest and were trying to pull out my heart.”
“Ouch. I’m surprised you felt that.” I gripped the phone. Shocked would be a better description. Just how connected were we? “Blythe and I went to the concert. Turns out some kind of creature has the witches in thrall. When they sang, the audience went into a trance. And Castor, when I went into the next dimension, I could see energy being pulled from all of them. Even the forest is drained. I don’t know…it was like the creature pulled powerful magic from the earth and filtered it through the people.”
“So you’re okay?”
“Yeah. Just feel hungover.” I smiled at the worry thickening his voice, though he couldn’t see. “I’m thinking this was some kind of succubus.”
“Hold on, let me see if Dooby might have an idea.”
Castor must have tried to cover the phone with his hand or something because all I heard then were muffled background noises. I watched Blythe mutter and pace. Then she noticed the state of her new coat and frowned, running her hands over it.
Castor came back on. “Dooby says succubi feed off sexual energy.”
“Trust me, there was a lot of that in this crowd. But it was more than that. The witches’ voices did something to the audience or the forest.”
“So what happened to you?” Worry deepened his tone. “I know you were hurt.”
I winced as the pain in my head increased. “I got knocked out. I tried to get to the stage, but together they make some kind of barrier. It’s powerful.” Leaning against a tree, I sighed, so tired I felt it in every part of my body. “Can you and Dooby go through that book and see if you can figure out if there’s more to her story? I’m pretty sure she’s the succubus Nikolos said his jailer was upset about losing. She had to have escaped during the Dweller battle. Phro confirmed she was from the underworld, so she’s probably not a run-of-the-mill succubus. Oh, and she had some sort of golden crown on her head if that helps.”
“We’ll go through Nikolos’s books too.” He was quiet a moment. “Take care, Beri.”
“I will, and thanks. I hope you find the information because there’s not much time. The next concert is tomorrow night.”
Chapter Nine
“Can’t sleep? Me neither. Too bad I don’t have any warm goat’s milk.”
I lifted my face off my pillow enough to glare at Blythe with one eye. “You are officially the queen of non sequiturs.” Of course we couldn’t sleep. But we had to try, despite the fact it was the middle of the day.
Her covers rustled as she propped her head up on one hand. “When I was younger and couldn’t sleep because I missed my mother so much, Sophie would run me a bath and add warm goat’s milk to it. Worked every time.”
“I don’t need a bath. I’m just worried about falling asleep. I don’t want to go back to the hell dimension where Nikolos is, and yet I do so badly I’m keeping myself awake.”
“I could make you a dream pillow,” she said through a wide yawn. “I have patchouli and catnip in my bag.”
What a mix. “No patchouli. That shit stinks. And not now, Blythe. We need to recover from whatever that music or that woman on the stage did to us. I still feel really weak and I hate that.” I closed my eyes. “I don’t want to go to the hell dimension in this state because I have a feeling Nikolos is going to be worse and I won’t be able to fight him.”
Blythe’s sigh was loud. “I’ll make you a dream pillow tomorrow. I need softer materials anyway. I can use linden blossoms or even marjoram instead of the patchouli.”
My eyes popped back open as I remembered something important. “Did you call Rory while I was in the shower to see if they know where we can get medieval costumes?” The bouncers, witches and wizards had seen me last night. If I was going to get anywhere near that stage, I’d have to blend. “Remind me that we need to pick up earplugs too.”
“Rory said that Tea Bag is good at finding things and will get costumes for each of us.”
“Good. Hopefully Dooby and Castor will figure out what we’re up against and how to get to her. Oh, did the vamp tell you where he was hiding out?”
“No, but he did say he wouldn’t leave.”
I blew out a long breath, hating this weird exhaustion that stemmed from being someone’s food. Or filter for her food, I didn’t know which. “I have got to sleep so I’m ready to face your Sophie too.”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“She’s your mentor, isn’t she?”
“She’s also like my parent. I just told you about the goat’s milk. She did a lot of things like that. I love her.”
I sat up, smoothed the covers over my lap. “I can’t think of one reason why she’d spend your entire life teaching you to suppress your true magic. Then she just let you out there in the world. If you’d had the right teaching, you’d have known how to call that fire elemental and how to control it. There’s no way your Sophie didn’t know you have fire magic as well as earth. Hell, Blythe, you’re a fantastic healer too. Think what you could do by now if she hadn’t made you believe all you were good enough for is running a magic shop and putting together small earth spells.”
Her lips twisted. Blythe scratched her nose. She’d added a pink heart ring on her finger next to the pentagram. “I can’t help but love her, Beri. She took me in. She’s the closest thing I have to family.” She suddenly smiled, big eyes all liquid, even from across the room. “Well, she was. Now I have you and Castor, and maybe even Elsa.”
The corner of my mouth turned up. I thought about how many times I’d caught Blythe cuddled up to my brother. “Yeah, I guess you do.”
She scrambled from the bed and ran across the room to dig through her bag before pulling out a baggie with brown herbs. “Let’s just slide this marjoram into your pillow. It should block your dreams.”
“Thanks.” Luckily, it worked.
Four hours of sleep wasn’t nearly enough, but I felt better as we walked to Perk and Work. Blythe looked fantastic in her jeans and pink sweater, like she’d slept twice the amount of time she had.
“Rory said they even found something that will fit you.”
Blythe stepped onto the sidewalk and frowned at a black husk of a bush—one she’d set on fire during my fight with the Kuru-Pira. “He also said it was badass.”
“Great,” I muttered as I tugged open the door to the fake cyber cafe. A wave of pepperoni and cheese odors hit me and my stomach growled. Loudly. Blythe and I had managed to sleep until four, and even though we’d stopped for food on our way back to the motel this morning, I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. The kids had covered one entire table with at least six boxes of pizza.
Rory looked up from his laptop and grinned. “Have a slice! And wait until you see what we found for you.”
“Oh my goodness!” Blythe dropped her bag and rushed across the room to stroke her hands down a yellow dress. I hoped that one was hers. Because of the color, yeah, but mostly because of the length. It would reach my knees and I doubted medieval women went for the shorter skirts. But it was a gorgeous vision in crushed lemon velvet with a red satin inset. The sleeves were lined with the red and had lace crisscrossing the upper sleeves while the lower parts were open so they’d drape around her wrists.
“Yours is behind it,” Rory mumbled around the huge bite of pizza he’d shoved into his mouth. “Sarah tried to jack it.”
“Did not,” Sarah snapped. She never took her eyes from her computer screen. “I just wanted to try it on.”
“Thing draped her head to foot. Was funny. She looked like a sprite.” Rory’s green eyes sparkled and it wasn’t my imagination that they lingered on Sarah with more than just friendship. Then his grin faded and I knew he’d remembered Fenris.
Guess Blythe had as well because she turned to me. “Oh, speaking of sprites, I found ours. He was sleeping in the little box. I don’t even know how he got into the motel room, but I packed him in one of the drawers. I left the latch open.”
“You have a sprite?” Sarah looked up, scowled. “In a box, in a drawer? Why would you do that? Don’t you know they hate being enclosed and in the dark?”
I smirked. “We’ll let you meet him tonight. You’ll understand. He can only come out at night.”
“That’s not true. Sprites aren’t tied to light or dark, they just are.”
I managed not to roll my eyes, but it was hard. Instead, I helped myself to some pizza. They had more than just the pepperoni I’d smelled and my smile widened in appreciation when I spotted black olives and mushrooms. I eat meat, love meat, but give me a veggie pizza anytime. “Ooh, green peppers too. Heaven.”
One bite of the pizza and my eyes flew open in surprise before I closed them to better focus on the taste.
“Another of my uncles owns the pizza shop,” Rory said. “He uses this special cheese and a homemade sauce.”
“I could eat this every single day.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes we do. I never order the veggie pizza, but my uncle sends it along with the rest. Guess he hopes I’ll eat it. Sarah likes it okay, but it’s usually Brock who eats it.”
“He’s the one who made coffee before, right? With the really big shoulders?” I took another bite, enjoyed the chewy cheese.
Rory nodded. “He doesn’t eat meat.”
“Then maybe your uncle sends the veggie for him.”
“Nah, he eats it because we mostly don’t. His favorite is the cheese and broccoli pizza.” He shuddered and reached out to get another piece of the pepperoni. “That one is in the box at the bottom. You’re welcome to it too.”
Broccoli pizza made me want to hurl. “Thanks for this, by the way. I’ll chip in.” I ate two more pieces before I finally got up to inspect my costume for the concert. It was wrapped in a dry cleaner bag with a big red rooster on it. Odd mascot for a cleaners.
When I pulled the thin fabric off, I couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped my mouth.
Blythe squealed. “Oh, Beri, that is going to look so good on you!”
It wasn’t a skirt. Not entirely. There were slim black velvet pants that didn’t have anything special about them other than the wonderful length. The top of the outfit was something else. Soft black velvet with corset style lacing in the back. There was a central panel of burgundy taffeta underneath the silk cords. The front had antique-silver hooks and the sleeves were fitted with sections that would come together around my thumb and third finger. At the elbow, black velvet fell open to drape the sleeves. The attached hood, also in velvet, had a thin silk lining of burgundy to match the panel on the back. The bottom of the shirt would drape over the sides of my hips.
“Did you rent this?” I glanced over my shoulder at Sarah.
She shook her head. “We had to buy them, but the store owner gave me a trade-out.”
“What kind of trade-out?” The girl was seriously pretty—the bleached, spiky hair suited her elfish features and made her brown eyes look huge and dark.
She looked up at me, frowned. “Not that kind. Ew. He needs some computer security stuff done. I’m kind of known for that stuff around here.”
“We all do computer work in town. She makes more than the rest of us,” Rory added.
“I’ll pay for these. No arguments. You can charge him for your work.” I touched the fabric, stunned over how much I wanted to put it on. Right then.
“The hood is called a Scottish widow. I thought it would help with your…” She waived her hand at my hat. “Though if I had hair like yours, I wouldn’t hide it.”
“It glows, Sarah.” Rory’s fingers flew across his keyboard, his gaze locked on whatever caused bright reflections in his eyes. “Hard for Beri to blend in with what she does.”
Blythe looked at me, lifted her eyebrow in a perfect parody of Phro. I turned, eyed Rory, crossed my arms. “What do you mean what I do?”
He nodded at Sarah and she got up and walked into the back room just as she had the last time I was here. She came back out pretty fast and handed me a folder. I opened it, shock slamming into my chest when I saw the first picture. It was kind of blurry, but there was no mistaking me, or the dweller demon I was fighting. Someone in the hospital the day I’d fought my first one had been well enough to take a picture with their phone.
I held my breath, plopped my butt onto the seat behind me and spread out the other items in the folder. There were printouts from blogs. One had an image of me lugging a huge animal carrier. The blogger had written I worked for the animal control department. I remembered that run. I had told people that story because it gave me an excuse to trap this awful creature called a splinter cat who’d been following me for weeks. Its main food was bees so I became its best friend, but it also liked to ram its head into trees. I hadn’t slept for a week because of all the night ramming, so I’d trapped the thing. But my hat had come off and whoever took the picture had caught my hair glowing in the sun.
There were two more pictures. One caught me walking out of the ocean in my plain black bathing suit, my arms raised to slick my wet hair back. That one made me blush, so I shoved it to the bottom. The last one had caught me on a stakeout. In my old Chevy—the truck I’d had before I bought the Jeep.
My blood ran cold.
“Who took these? I don’t understand.”
The front door opened, sending in a blast of cold air. Brock and Tea Bag and the brunette girl who’d first seen the Kuru-Pira came in. Brock nodded at Blythe and me before heading to the food. He opened the only box that had been shut and promptly swallowed down half a broccoli pizza. I couldn’t help but grimace. I like broccoli a lot—just not on my junk food. The other two kids each grabbed a slice and plopped in front of computers.
Looking at Rory, I held up the image of me fighting the demon. “Explain how you have these.”
“Remember how I told you this used to be a cafe but now it’s just a hangout?”
I nodded.
“We stopped opening to the public because we started up a network. For the Preserve.”
“What network and I remember your uncle mentioning the Preserve. What is it?”
Rory pulled out the chair next to his and pa
tted it. “Might as well sit down and prepare to be awed.”
I grabbed one more slice of pizza, because I was still feeling kind of hollow from the concert, and sat next to him. “Awe me.”
“So, we”—he waved his hand around the room—“noticed strange news clippings popping up then disappearing right after all those people woke up from the SS. You remember the Somatic Slumber, don’t you? Dumbest name for a coma ever, but you know about that, right?”
I glanced at Blythe over my shoulder. Like it was a time I’d ever forget. These kids would probably love to hear what I knew about the Somatic Slumber. That’s what the news called the comas that people went into before I fought the Dweller on the Threshold. He’d been sending demons from his hell dimension through those people. I still had nightmares about them because Elsa had been in one of the comas.
Rory opened a file on his computer and pointed. “There was a Bigfoot sighting here. The next day, the story was gone. Within days, we came across six more breaking-news pieces that all came down in under twenty-four hours.”
“Why is this a big deal? Sounds normal to me.”
“It’s the coming down parts that bother us. I mean, who cares about a silly Bigfoot sighting, right? When I tried to pull up the cache, there was nothing. Luckily, Sarah had copied the entire file and saved it. She does that. She also prints out everything and puts them in file cabinets in the back. She’s got a thing about organization.”
“Comes in handy, doesn’t it?” snapped Sarah.
“Do you have a picture of the Bigfoot?” I asked.
He scrolled.
I squinted at the grainy image. “Looks like a monkey.”
“See this?” Rory pointed.
Horror froze my lungs when I saw its hand was wrapped around a leg. A human leg. One that looked small in comparison and one that wasn’t attached to a body.
Blood of an Ancient: A Beri O'Dell Book, Book 2 Page 13
