Ethan’s movement was sluggish as he moved closer to the table and smashed everything on it. Josh’s lips moved fervently as he performed several reversal spells, but it didn’t stop whatever was going on. The fractured pieces of stone glowed on the table. The snakes went wild; their bodies moving in short spastic jolts for several moments before all movement came to a stop. They lay motionless on the table.
We started CPR on the faes, although there was no evidence that they had a chance of being saved. But we couldn’t stop rotating between the four of them, compressing their chests, trying to push life back into them as we delivered rescue breaths.
After ten minutes, we stopped and stood in the middle of the room, looking around it at the dead bodies that surrounded us. The bile stuck at the back of my throat. The thick pulses of magic clouded the room and the smell of death was a noxious odor that tainted the room.
Ethan finally said, “Josh, leave the bodies as is, but you will need to remove all evidence that we were here.”
Josh didn’t move very quickly, still staring at the dead bodies surrounding us, a somber look on his face.
“Josh!” Ethan snapped. “Get it together.”
He nodded, withdrawn, and his hands waved over the room. Sparkles of blue illuminated and he looked at each place they were. He whispered a spell with a quick flick of his hands and they disappeared, our existence and prints vanished from the premises. Done with such ease, it was apparent he had done it many times before.
CHAPTER 19
The drive back to the hotel was a solemn silence with poorly concealed grief. Neither Ethan nor Josh would look at me the entire drive. The moment Ethan parked, they both got out as though they were expecting the car to catch on fire. But they weren’t running from a pending danger. Or maybe they were—me.
I couldn’t stay in my room, and the walk down the busy street was a welcome and needed escape. The smell of wet asphalt from a recent rain shower helped cleanse the memory of faes’ lifeless bodies. Guilt wrenched at me, and the faster I walked, the more the memory sharpened, a surreal replay in my head. The curse couldn’t be broken and anyone that tried would suffer the same fate as the faes. I would die if I came close to the Aufero, a protected object that I was responsible for protecting. When I didn’t think about the string of events, things didn’t seem like such a mess—but it was a mess.
I focused on the dewy fragrance of rain, ignoring the distraction of perfume and asphalt that also wafted through the air. The clicking of shoes on the busy street was another distraction I welcomed. Passing several restaurants, nothing interested me. I finally stopped at a pizzeria. I started off watching a man pressing out the dough to make another pizza, but my focus quickly went to the rich, decadent red velvet cake on the counter. It was going to be dinner.
The restaurant was nearly empty. I was about to take a seat near the door when I saw Ethan and Josh sitting in a booth at the far end. I started to turn around and leave. I guess we all had the same idea: solitude. Josh beckoned me over, and the thought of leaving anyway crossed my mind several times.
Josh was stuffing a slice in his mouth as though he expected it to sprout wings and fly away. By the time I was at the table, he had started on another slice. It was safe to assume that he had buried his sorrow in pot cookies. Ethan hadn’t touched the pizza on his plate. Instead, he was sipping on a mug of beer. Each time he swallowed, he grimaced. He’d never struck me as a beer drinker. Scotch was always his drink of choice.
“Have a seat,” Josh said, chomping on his third slice as he slid over to make room for me.
Ethan’s lips pressed into a tight line and he stared at me in silence. Between devouring the pizza and chugging down his beer, Josh managed to ask me if I had gotten their message. Too busy trying to distract myself, I had forgotten to look at my phone. There were two text messages from him telling me that our flight was at eight the next morning.
Ethan remained quiet the whole time. Occasionally I could feel his eyes on me, deep and penetrating, as he took more drinks from his mug and then finally a few bites of his pizza. He finished up his beer, tossed his napkin in his plate, laid out some money on the table and slid out of the booth without saying a word.
“Are you going back to the hotel?” Josh asked.
Ethan shrugged. “I just need to get out of here,” he admitted as he frowned in my direction as he left.
“You know how he is, don’t take it personally,” Josh said mildly, but I could tell he was holding back a snarky comment.
How could I not take it personally? Because of me, four faes that had nothing to do with this situation were dead.
We settled into awkward silences that were occasionally broken by clumsy small talk. Eventually Josh put our attempts out of their misery and excused himself to leave. I stayed. The music was nice and I needed the distraction.
When the server returned to the table, I was glad no one I knew was around when I ordered a half of a red velvet cake. I ignored the sympathetic smile that said “Cake will not make it better.”
I devoured the dessert and needed to leave before I ordered the other half while I tried to wait out the rain. It had been coming down pretty hard for half an hour, but I was too restless to stay. With my head down, I walked through the streets still busy with people leaving the subway. The rain splashed off the pavement, and my clothes and hair matted to my skin. I could hear the footsteps around me, most of them a steady pattern that remained consistent, but then I heard steps close behind me. The sloshing steps hastened whenever I picked up my pace. Pulling my purse close to me, my hand balled, ready to strike if necessary. The burst of magic whipped against my back and things happened too quickly for me to react. The arm banded around my waist as he pulled me into him. The crowd disappeared.
Folded onto the ground, I tried to hold onto the food I had just eaten as everything spun around. I grabbed my head, staring down a pair of battered loafers. Wedged between two buildings in an alleyway, I tried to devise an escape route. Winter always considered hitting a man in his private area beneath her; I didn’t hold such beliefs. That was my go-to tactic. Yes, I was skilled enough to protect myself, but why make things harder than they had to be? It was crass and using an unfair advantage, but I wasn’t above using it. But Samuel stayed too far away for a good kneeing in the groin. When I stood, he handed me my purse. “You are not alone often, are you?” Samuel said.
“Good thing, I can only imagine how many times I would be abducted if I were.”
I went into a defensive stance. He held up his hands and stepped back. “I don’t plan to harm you,” he said. His deep, sand-colored gaze appraised me for a long time.
“Then drop those,” I said, jerking my head toward the translucent barriers that blocked me on the left and right.
He nodded once and they fell. The quiet was uncomfortable, and the thick waves of magic that reverberated off him were like I imagined how it would feel being near a tornado. It felt like Josh’s on overdrive. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, because it was bringing back the memories of Marcia submerging me in her pool as I fought for air.
“I want the books,” he finally said.
“I want to have peppermint bark chocolate available all year round. I guess we can only keep hoping, right?”
He smiled, genuinely. It was odd; I expected him to be a lot more menacing. He kept a fair amount of distance between us, but the smell of tobacco drifted off him.
“What do you know of me?” he asked.
Dammit, I didn’t know there was going to be a quiz. But I didn’t need to think long; everything came out so quickly it was like I had a dossier on him. “You are strong. Based on how I feel around you, perhaps the strongest witch I’ve met. Marcia doesn’t consider you dangerous enough to kill, because she would have done it when she had the chance. I assume she will want you as an ally, which makes me believe you can be reasoned with and/or bribed.” I waited for him to add something, but he remained silent
. The deep inquiring gaze remained on me and the subtle curl of his lips made it hard not to relax. I should have been more afraid. But his mannerisms didn’t evoke an instinctive urge to protect myself.
“Go on, please. I am sure there is a great deal more.”
I wanted to say that it seemed like Sebastian and Ethan really hated him. But that wasn’t really true. They didn’t hate him; there was a level of apprehension, and if I didn’t know better, I might have called it fear. “The Creed kicked you out, but I don’t know why. Those animals weren’t anything you can find at your neighborhood pet store. They look like a product of elven magic, which means someone is afraid of you or you were owed a lot of favors.”
“I find working off fear to be counterproductive. People seek to conquer fear. Those that like you deal with you more amicably, show compassion and camaraderie when necessary.”
“Unfortunately, you are very powerful. People will fear you because of that.”
“True. Is there more?”
“Isn’t that enough? On paper you don’t seem like a very nice person.”
His features were pleasant enough. If I weren’t standing with him in a dark alley with strong magic teeming in the air, a constant reminder of how dangerous he could be, I wouldn’t have been apprehensive at all. The gentleness of his smile seemed to reflect mildly in his eyes as well.
“On paper you come off worse as well,” he said. “You’re a Moura Encantada who doesn’t have her protective object. A werewolf that has the distinct feel of dark magic on her. I wonder how you’ve managed that. And Marcia is very vocal about telling people that you came to her home to kill her. Of course, she conveniently leaves out the reason. Should I judge you by what I know of you, or how I feel standing in front of you?” he asked.
Well, I liked how I sounded on paper—I came off like a real badass. He stepped closer, and I changed my stance. He didn’t seem threatening, but it was never a good idea to underestimate how dangerous a person could be. Was this going to escalate to violence? Clutching my purse closer to me and shifting my weight to my back leg, I was positioned perfectly for a front kick that would send him far enough to get away. His movements were lithe, controlled, and it was evident that he could handle himself in a fight if he needed to. His build was sturdy, and although I might have been stronger than he was, he had a magical advantage. As the distance between us closed, I wasn’t thinking about a fight. I was considering what it would be like to possess his magic. Each step closer, the desire increased.
I hated that if I had a knife I would have tried to find out. A whip of the blade, an exchange of blood, a quick chant and I could have it. The thought consumed me and I nearly forgot that he was so close. Would I be able to control it or would magic that strong be too much for me? Would I submit to it before ever gaining true control? What happens in a case like that, rampant uncontrolled magic uncontrolled by its possessor? What type of chaos could it bring? Josh always rationed what he gave, and still at times I found myself in need of his help to control it.
Samuel was oblivious to the nefarious thoughts that plagued my mind because if he weren’t, he wouldn’t have stood as close. I glanced at the broken glass that glittered against the ground, and thought for a mere second how it could be used like a knife. I tossed the idea aside and focused on him.
“The books that your pack has should not be in their possession,” he said.
“Let me take a wild guess: you think you should have them?”
“No, they should be destroyed. Some things are too evil to exist. Those books are such things.”
“They can’t be destroyed.”
“Did Sebastian or Ethan tell you that?”
“No one had to tell me. I saw it with my own eyes. They tried to destroy one of them by burning it. It used magic to save itself from destruction.”
He nodded slowly. When he reached, I suspected, to brush the damp hair that kept matting over my eyes, I blocked his hand. “Don’t.”
“Sorry. I can’t see your eyes. I need to see them,” he said.
I raked my hands through my hair, pushing it back and away from my face.
“The spells in the books are strong, and yes, I want them, but not for what you think. I want to help.”
“Help do what?”
The rain stopped and he seemed pleased. Pulling out a package of cigarettes from his pocket, he lit one and took two long draws before offering me one.
I frowned at it. “No thanks, my lungs and I have a deal. If I don’t try to poison them, then they soldier on whenever I decide to go for a jog. We get each other.”
He took another long pull, then exhaled slowly before tossing the cigarette to the ground and smashing it with his foot. “There are things in this world that shouldn’t exist. Whoever thought it was a good idea to have the books, but never use the spells in them, was a fool.”
“So you think it’s okay to just do a spell and kill all the were-animals, vampires, elves and fae?”
“Those aren’t the only ones in there. There are spells to release the beast; to make you and your kind whole. The same for the elves, fae, and I do believe witches as well.”
“And the vampires, what happens to them?”
“They will return to what they were,” he said.
“They were dead. Before they were changed into vampires, they were dead.”
He pulled out another cigarette and had it lit before I could make a snide comment about my lungs. “I think that it is a small casualty of the situation.”
“Why are you coming to me?”
“You are a Moura Encantada, one of the few people that can read the spells in the book. I’ve heard there are others, but I think you would be the best for the job.”
“So in this little dossier that you have created about me, is there something in there about me being gullible and stupid? Because obviously you seem to think I am. I don’t consider myself some type of god and will not behave as one. Who are we to decide that were-animals and vampires shouldn’t exist? Or that the faes, elves and witches should be stripped of their magic?”
Each time he spoke, I expected his voice to be rough and disconcerting, but it retained its mild timbre. “You can’t be happy living like this. Pulled into a world where monsters lurk, thrive, and vie for the position of lead monster. It is chaotic and unchecked. Magic and anomalies of nature that can only be managed through drastic means, magic, and even death. Yes, you can try to live a normal life, but once a month you are reminded that you aren’t normal. You are one of those monsters, a creature of circumstance. You deserve to be relieved of that burden. They all deserve to be relieved of the burden.”
“Says the guy that used magic to abduct me.”
“You are right. I include the witches, elves and faes among the monsters as well, just to a lesser extent,” he offered.
I wished I had an impassioned rebuttal, but I didn’t. For a fraction of a moment I considered what he had said. Life without the existence of the otherworld didn’t seem like a bad thing.
“Even if you can release me from this curse of lycanthropy, I am still a Moura Encantada; I will never have a normal life.”
There was an odd delight that pranced over his gaze and lingered for a long time. “Without an otherworld, the objects do not need to be protected, because there is nothing to be destroyed. Humans wouldn’t be able to use them, because they only work with magic.”
We didn’t speak for a while and the silence didn’t seem to bother him. “So you are just an altruistic stranger that wants to save the faes, elves, and were-animals by giving them a normal life.”
He took another long draw from the cigarette. “Not at all. I see them as all monsters, creatures that shouldn’t exist. They are intrinsically amoral, but only because the things that dwell in them seek a level of satisfaction only gained through power.”
I listened to his gentle, compelling words of truth. He wasn’t a knight in shining armor, but rather a mercenary with an altr
uistic agenda. But his logic was flawed. The magic didn’t make people monsters or create their desire for power; in the real world they would not behave any differently.
“‘Help me get rid of the monsters’ – that was you?”
He nodded. “I used a glamour of the image that seemed to have intrigued you the most, then I took you out of the bar, just for a moment.”
That is why I had felt so queasy. Traveling, magical transportation, was something that only some vampires could do, and higher-level witches. It was often draining on them, which made me wonder how strong Samuel must be to be able to do it three times after performing a glamour.
“What if I decide not to help you?”
He shrugged. “Then you are free to leave. If you like, I can take you to the hotel.”
“I want to leave.”
He stepped closer, I guess to touch me, so we could travel to the hotel.
“No, I will walk.”
He nodded, slowly taking another pull from the cigarette.
I had only taken a few steps when he spoke. “Be careful. My intention is to release the were-animals from their animal half. Marcia’s goal is to destroy them. She knows that you are a Moura Encantada and I am sure she is getting her affairs in order to have you help perform the spell.”
“I will not help her either.”
Midnight Falls (Sky Brooks Series Book 3) Page 31
