"I think you already know, Samantha. I know Cromwell is looking for me. And I know he approached you to find this." She reached into her robes and retrieved a small, golden Codex. To most, it looked like papyrus wrapped around a golden shaft with blunted ends to keep the paper in place.
To me it looked as red as a ruby and sparkled just as bright. She had in her hand the one thing standing between me lifting the warlocking.
I reached out for it and she pulled it away. "Oh no, no, no. Ina said you're not allowed to have it."
That stopped me. "You've talked to Ina?"
"Of course. She translated the scroll before she gave it to me."
Lady Darksome! "Circe, do you or don't you have the missing pack members here? A boy and a girl?"
"Interesting change of subject, Samantha. My request stays the same. Only, you can't have the girl."
"The boy?"
"You'll have to catch him. All my transmogrify attempts failed, except for two. One of which you just destroyed, and the other," she said as she raised her shoulders and sighed. "I haven't been able to get him back yet."
"Get him back?" Kyle blurted out. "You mean there really is a monster out there?"
"There's always a monster running around out there," Circe directed her attention at me. "The decision is yours. Come with me and they all live. Or don't and everyone dies."
The door to the house opened and another tall young lady ran out. She wore a similar black dress and brandished a big knife.
Circe looked irritated when she looked at the girl. "Why are you interrupting me?"
"My Lady!" The girl was out of breath and I noticed several cuts on her arms, as well as her face. Her hair was also mussed. "The potion's not working on any of them!"
Oh no. She gave all three of them one of her potions. All I could think about was Crwys being torn apart as some potion turned him into half a wolf.
Wait…she just said it wasn't working on any of them.
Circe lowered her arms. "That can't be right!"
"Nothing's happening. My Lady—"
Circe struck the girl hard across the face. She fell to the asphalt in a heap. "And you left them alone?"
Uh oh.
I looked around the neighborhood at the houses. If Bastien was out of that house, I was pretty sure he was going to call the Aces if Jack hadn't already. As for Levi and Crwys? I wasn't sure what the hell they'd do. Given Levi had been in the sun all day and was probably hungry, and when Crwys got mad he set people on fire, I figured we should be ready for anything.
Circe pointed at me. "You can have the rest, but the girl and her baby are mine!"
I shook my head. This woman was certifiably bat-shit crazy.
The front doors on all the houses on the street flung open at once. Black robed figures came running out of each front door, six doors in all. It looked like black ants marching out of holes in the walls, only sped up. These guys were running.
Kyle ducked behind the Jeep again and I heard his snap and the tiny cry of a Salamander ready for war. The sound tore at my heart as I missed my own Salamander. All of my Elementals. I just wasn't whole without them. A miasma of colorful pentagrams filled the air around us, creating a sphere that encased Kyle, Jack, the Jeep and I. Whatever these things were that were coming out of the houses, they were completely robed, hooded and gloved. From what I could see through the rainbow of pentagrams there wasn't a single piece of flesh visible on any of them.
"Sam! I need power!"
"You sure?" I had my weapons out, safeties off and pointed at the sky. "You want that taint?"
"Just juice the ward."
I was going to oblige him when one of the robed things broke through the pentagram on my right. I fired once at it and the bullet slammed into its head. It vanished and the bullet hit the asphalt with a ping.
-You'll need more to defeat these creatures.-
I ignored the voice and shot at another one as it broke through close to Kyle.
"Sam!"
"Hold on!" But I couldn't concentrate on sending any kind of power into the shield while I was shooting at black robed zombie things. My bullets were making them disappear, but they were still coming out of the doors. I needed to know what they were in order to actually fight them.
"Sam!"
That wasn't Kyle that time. I shot another black robed dude. "Crwys? You okay?"
It was a few seconds before he answered. He was somewhere outside the sphere in the dark. I could hear him but I couldn't see him. "I will be. What do you need me to do?"
I hit two more. I was going to run out of bullets. "I need you to get rid of these things before they get inside the pentagrams. I need a minute."
"Will do."
Almost immediately, I saw a few of them flame out of existence. I had no idea who else could see that, but I didn't care. I tossed my guns into the back of my Jeep and conjured the dex. This time I focused on the black robes. What I got back was…odd.
"Sam?" That was Kyle this time.
I looked at him. Kyle was standing in the center of the pentagram sphere, holding the incense in one hand and the lit candle in the other. He was acting as a grounding line and feeding power directly from the Earth to the wards. But that wasn't going to last forever. The power running through Kyle was going to burn him up. Jack stood beside Kyle, looking at the Hedge Witch as if he were a super hero. "Kyle, these things are registering as something weird."
"Tell me!"
"The dex is saying smoke, but it's also got all four Elements and a bit of the fifth."
Kyle looked at me. "Illusion. But it's being siphoned off the people in the houses. She's using an old Ceremonial trick. Arden calls it smoke and mirrors."
I saw a few more of the black robes poof off in flame. "But Crwys is able to ignite them."
"Yeah, I see that. But he needs to stop. He's also igniting innocent people's dreams."
"Seriously?"
Kyle took in a deep breath. He was starting to shake as he held the sphere around us. "She's using the dreams and essence of the neighbors, and every time he ignites one he's probably killing brain cells in whomever's head that particular robed guy came from. She's the one controlling the shapes and directing them, but they're giving her the power. One of the Magician's best tricks is illusion."
"So how do I stop them?"
"You can't, but I can. You're going to have to take my place."
Uh. What?
He gestured me to him with a nod. "Hold up your hands and use that magic of yours to form a sphere around us. Just close your eyes and trace the same outline, same pattern. If you waver and make a gap, one of them can get in and Crwys won't be able to make it burn."
No pressure there. I stood behind him and held out my hands to match his. Then I cupped my hand beneath his so that he could slip his hand away and I'd still be holding the candle. Then we did the same thing with the incense, but before he stepped away, I closed my eyes and called up the power like I would normally. It came fast and with a presence this time, making the mark on my chest burn.
"That's it! Just keep it there. Give me a minute."
I opened my eyes to see the pentagrams had all turned a sparkling red. All of them. I could feel the sphere as it curved over us and then sliced into the ground beneath us. I poured power into it as the robes beat against the edges of the Arcane power.
I noticed something else.
Every time they struck the sphere, they grew a little. Some were bigger than others. And growing. "Uh…Kyle?"
"I know. I see what's happening. They're feeding off it now. Just…hang on."
I glanced back to see he'd dumped everything out of his bag into the back of my Jeep. He set up a small cauldron, poured sand out of a bag into it and then set in three briquettes. I heard someone scream and then the baying of wolves.
The Aces had arrived.
Kyle dumped a whole bag of something onto the briquettes. I was about to tell him he hadn't lit them when he stepped back,
grabbed a small mirror out of his bag and then pointed at the cauldron. The briquettes ignited and the incense heaped on top exploded.
Suddenly, the mirror in his hand was multiplied by a hundred if not more. In front of every black robe a mirror appeared. The robe screamed and vanished. I watched as they vanished in batches through the smoke created from the exploding incense.
Sensing no more attacks on the sphere, I let it go and the thing disappeared in a huge cloud of sparkling red glitter. I still held the incense and candle in my hands and turned to give Kyle a thumbs up. That's when something very heavy and moving very fast knocked me on my ass. I went tumbling ass over head and came up on my front. Something grabbed me at my hips, hauled me up and threw me down again. I bit my lip and my tongue as my chin struck the sidewalk. The thing picked me up and threw me into the wrought iron fence of the neighbor's yard. My head slammed backwards against the poles and I saw stars as I slipped down and rolled back onto the sidewalk.
I could see Kyle grabbing my guns from the back of the Jeep right as brilliant warmth injected itself between me and whatever it was that was beating the shit out of me.
The need to get away rolled me over onto my side as I tried to see what was happening. I could make out a hazy Crwys, his arms out at his sides and his hands on fire, as he wrestled with what looked like Big Foot. The thing towered over Crwys, and I saw something else I'd never seen before.
Blood. Crwys wasn't wearing his jacket, just a t-shirt. The scarlet blood stuck out against the white cotton as it trickled down Crwys's back and over his arms. I cried out when I realized the thing had taken a chunk out of his neck. I thought I saw bone but I couldn't be sure. They came together again and this time Crwys ignited the monster's fur.
Kyle came from the right side where my Jeep was parked and raised both of the guns, aiming at the creature. Good. The spells on them would make sure he hit that son of a bitch.
But Jack suddenly came up and grabbed the guns out of his hand. One of them fired but I didn't know where the bullet went.
"No! You can't shoot him!"
Crwys cried out in pain as the thing lifted him up and bit into his side. I could hear the rip and tear of bone and flesh as the monster ripped out a chunk and pushed Crwys past me to the fence. I screamed for him and tried to tell Kyle to shoot it.
Another blur of fur appeared, this one not as big but deep, deep red. Bastien wasn't a full wolf, but more of some half-formed wolf-man, and managed to wrap his arms around the monster as it tried to get to Crwys. I yelled again, or I thought I did, as I watched Bastien pick the monster up and toss him away. With a yellow fiery look at me, the big red wolf-man lunged after the monster.
I moved, a little, enough to see Crwys's boots to my right. They weren't moving. He wasn't moving. I turned to tell Kyle to call for an ambulance.
But Kyle wasn't there. Neither was Jack.
My guns lay on the asphalt by the back of my Jeep.
And as the night came in like a descending angel, I heard the scream of something dying.
FIFTEEN
Everything hurt.
It hurt to breathe, to move, to swallow and to think. I was one big bruise.
"Shugah, you need to open those eyes up. We got a lot to do today."
And somehow my aunt had become some southern-speaking woman. Wait, that wasn't Ina's voice. I knew that voice. And I groaned out loud when I opened my eyes to see Arden Vervain staring down at me. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face in a smart ponytail and her usual smirk had been replaced by thin lips. "Finally. You do realize you've been asleep for nine hours?"
Nine hours?!
I sat up fast, and went back down just as fast as the room and bed spun underneath me. I actually moaned my head hurt so badly. After several minutes of deep breathing, I took a longer look at where I was. It was a bed, but it wasn't a hospital bed and it wasn't my bed. This one had a gold canopy hanging over me, with a large gold tassel in the center. I turned my head, slowly, and looked around the room. It looked like a bordello, with burgundy walls, white and gold Victorian furniture and a three-panel mirror on the far side of the bed. The sheets were soft—had to be four-hundred thread count. And I was wearing—
What the hell was I wearing?
It was white and soft and covered most of me. This time when I tried to sit up, Arden leaned forward and put a hand between my shoulder blades to push me forward and prop me up. Once the room stopped spinning I looked at her. "Nine hours?"
"Mmhm. I'm afraid the girls and I arrived about ten minutes too late."
"You arrived too late? How did you know—" And then I remembered Kyle's text message. "He texted you."
"Yes, he did. And it was a good thing. You have no idea what you're up against with Circe."
"She doesn't scare me."
Arden sat back and I was able to support myself sitting up.
I was covered in bandages as well as bruises. "Wait…you were calling me. What did you want?"
Arden's expression shifted a few times, from what I interpreted as surprise, then sadness and then resignation. "It was nothing. Nothing you really could have helped me with. It's all taken care of now."
Her words stuck with me because they were beyond ominous. I figured she'd already made the deal with Brendi to deliver me. I just had to get the hell out of here and be on my guard until I did.
My head really hurt. I put a hand to the back of it and felt something crusty.
"Stop that," Arden said and pulled my hand back. "You used to have six stitches back there, and two over your eye. But they mysteriously healed in the span of several hours. You've also got one hell of a concussion. I bet you don't even remember me coming in here, interrupting my night just to make sure you woke up every hour, do you? You also have this pesky fever that won't break."
I could feel the fever. I could also sense the door I'd shut against the pack's link was battered now and staying shut by sheer will. I didn't have much longer before the transformation would start. "I had stitches and they healed?" How was that possible?
"Yes. I'm willing to bet it's got something to do with that wolf bite on your shoulder."
Crap. She saw that. "Please tell me you weren't the one to stitch me up."
"Two of the best surgeons in New Orleans and a nurse are part of my coven, Samantha. They took care of you. Now, about that bite—"
"No. Not talking about that right now. But thank you for the care. Where's Kyle?" If he was here, we both needed to get out. Now. Before I became Faerie fodder.
Something in Arden's face worried me. It was probably the pinch between her brows. "Sam—"
"Arden," I matched her tone. "Where is Kyle?"
"We're not sure. We think Circe might have taken Kyle and his new beau. I ah…I haven't been able to find him. I can't even scry for him. It keeps coming up blank."
I felt as if someone had knocked the wind out of me. She took Kyle? I pushed myself up further and looked around. "Where are my clothes?"
"I'm afraid they're ruined."
"Then get out of my way. I'll go dressed in this nightgown to find Kyle if I have to."
That's when I discovered just how strong Arden really was. She was a petite woman with slight shoulders and I assumed barely weighed a hundred and ten pounds dripping wet. This tiny woman grabbed my upper arm, squeezed hard, which got my attention and woman-handled me back down onto the bed. When she let go there was a tiny red handprint on my upper arm. Looked like a hobbit tried to take me down.
Then she put a long, blue-lacquered finger in my face. "You need to stop and listen to me for once, Samantha Hawthorne. Kyle is my nephew. My kin. And even I'm not dumb enough to go charging out there into the world with no intel or plan. I want him back, and trust me, the last person in the world I would ever want to have any of my family in her possession is Olivia Graham."
Something in Arden's voice frightened me. Not like a quick scare, but a deep, anxious fear. "How do you know her?"
My hos
t sat back down on the bed beside me and clasped her hands together. "Olivia is the poster child for Arcane possession, Sam. She was an Elemental Witch, just like you. Just like your mother. And she was one of the most powerful in the country. She knew your mother, which is how she knew Inamorata."
I swallowed but didn't say anything.
"Olivia fell in love about the same time your mother met George. Her love was also Cowen, but accepting of what she was. He supported her, helped build her business of body oils and she opened several chain stores along the west coast. Quite successful. I won't mention the name because it's not important. But in the middle of that success, her husband strayed from her. I don't think it was because he didn't love her, but because she put so much energy into her stores and making money that she neglected him. So he found someone new and fell in love again. Only this was a Cowen and not a Witch.
"I don't know how Olivia found out about the relationship. What I do know about is the aftermath. About the time your mother disappeared is when I got the news about Olivia. She'd been arrested in connection with the disappearance of a young school teacher in California. There was a trial, but Olivia was acquitted because there just wasn't any real physical evidence linking her to the young woman's disappearance other than cat hairs they found in Olivia's home. The defense argued Olivia's husband was in a known affair with this young teacher and she had been in their house several times so the hairs could have been transferred.
"And then they started looking at the ex-husband after Olivia divorced him. I thought it was weird they waited to charge him with her disappearance a day after the divorce was final. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. And Olivia…" Arden shrugged. "She never recovered from that. She sold the business, moved back to Louisiana and bought the house near Ina's. Olivia had a big dog at the time. It went with her everywhere and obeyed her every word, even when she taught it to kill."
"Did she have something to do with that girl's disappearance?"
Arden focused on me. "Sam, the dog was the girl. She's successfully transmogrified that girl into an obedient dog and she'd used Arcane to do it."
Elemental Moon: The Eldritch Files, Book Three Page 10
