“They are not really doing anything, not intentionally, at least. I believe your magic, on top of all the volkaane magic, partially awakened them. Their energy is simply drawing magic in, to no particular purpose. These powers exist in a number of places in the earth. Occasionally, they stir. The results are usually ascribed to earthquakes or volcanoes. Left alone, they return to their slumber.”
“Okay, I guess I understand, sort of. Go on with your plan.”
“Once I find the edge of the zone, I will tell you exactly where it is. I will give you a time when you must bring the box to within a hundred feet of the boundary and release my avatar. I will lead my pursuers near to there, and then the magic of activating the avatar should draw them in, thus weakening their magic.”
“Are you sure they’ll mistake the avatar’s magic for yours?”
Dominic smiled. “There will be no mistake. The magic of the avatar is my magic—and it is active magic. It will be newly released, and therefore a powerful draw to my former brethren. I think they will rush to confront it.”
Leesa nodded in understanding. “And then once their magic is weakened, you will attack from outside the zone with the full force of your magic.”
“Exactly.”
Leesa liked the sound of Dominic’s plan, but then a question popped into her head.
“Are you sure your magic won’t weaken as it crosses into the zone?”
“Pretty sure, yes. I believe the weakening effect is on the owners of magic, not on the magic itself. As long as I remain on the other side, my magic should lose none of its power.”
“The black waziri won’t have a chance, then,” Leesa said confidently. “I’ve felt how severe the diminishing of my magic is, and Rave’s, too. Weakened, they will be no match for you.” She imagined one of Dominic’s yellow-white energy beams disintegrating the black waziri into oblivion and smiled at the image. “There’s just one more thing I don’t understand,” she continued. “You said this would be dangerous for me. I don’t see how. All I have to do is put your box in the right place and then skedaddle away. The black waziri won’t even know it’s there until the avatar is activated. I’ll have plenty of time to get away, won’t I?”
Dominic put his hand on Leesa’s again and gave it a gentle squeeze.
“I think I forgot to mention one thing. You are the one who will have to activate the avatar.”
38. DANGEROUS CHOICES
Leesa blinked, not sure she had heard Dominic correctly.
“What do you mean, I have to activate it?” she asked. “How? Why? I don’t understand.”
Before Dominic could answer, the train pulled into another station and lurched to a stop, the seventh or eighth such stop since they had boarded this train.
“I’ll tell you in a moment,” he said. “But first, it’s time for us to change trains again.”
Leesa didn’t really want to wait for his answer, but she had no choice. The doors slid open and they exited the car. At least they didn’t have to go above ground to make the transfer this time. They simply hurried across a wide, dimly lit platform and boarded an identical looking train getting ready to head in the opposite direction. Once again, they managed to find a seat that afforded them at least a little bit of privacy.
“Now, to answer your question,” Dominic said after they sat back down. “The avatar is activated simply by opening the box, but the box can only be opened by physical contact from me—or from someone to whom I have imparted my magic. Since I cannot enter the zone without weakening my magic, it must be you who opens the box.”
Leesa took a couple of moments to digest what Dominic had just said. As his apprentice, she was the only other person in the world who could open his box and activate the avatar. She was beginning to see the danger in his plan, but without the avatar, there would be no plan.
“How long will I have after opening the box before the black waziri show up?”
Dominic stroked his pointy beard with the fingers of his right hand. “Not long. A matter of minutes, at most. For this to succeed, I will need to be nearby, with our foes close on my tail. The timing must be near perfect.”
“A couple of minutes?” Leesa said, surprised. “I guess that’s not too bad. I should be able to get far enough away in a couple of minutes so they won’t see me.” She stuck out her bad leg. “Even with my limp.”
She could tell by the look on Dominic’s face that she was still missing something. She was almost afraid to ask what it was.
“What?” she asked finally
“I’m afraid you can’t risk running away. Our enemies will sense it and know something is wrong.”
Leesa frowned, more puzzled now than ever. “I don’t understand. How will they sense me? Josef didn’t know I was there, even when I was using my magic against him.”
“Our foes cannot sense your magic. But when you touch the box to open it, you will be marked temporarily by my magic. That is what they will sense, in the same way they are able to sense and follow me.”
Leesa did not like the sound of that at all. It felt like she would be wearing a bull’s-eye on her back saying here I am, come get me.
“What do I do, then?” she asked. “How do I get away?”
“Your only choice is to hide, within a few hundred feet of the avatar at most. The magic emanating from it will be quite strong—much stronger than the magic that will mark you. If you are near enough, our foes are unlikely to notice you. They will be focusing their attention on what they think is me.”
Leesa swallowed hard. She had not expected to be so close to the fight. This was going to be very dangerous indeed. Still, this was their chance to destroy two of their most powerful enemies. She had to remember that, whatever the danger. Her only solace was that she knew Dominic would never ask her to risk this unless he believed she would come through it safely. She had to trust in him.
“Okay,” she said. “Show me how to open the box.”
39. HEADING HOME
Leesa’s brain was a jumble of thoughts and emotions as she rode the train back toward New Haven. Unlike her earlier ride into the city, she paid little attention to the scenery flashing by her window. She had way too much on her mind right now.
An hour or so ago, she and Dominic had changed subway trains one more time, ending up in Penn Station instead of Grand Central to avoid any chance of backtracking and running into his pursuers. While not as impressive and ornate as Grand Central, Penn Station was even busier and more crowded. On the final train, Dominic had showed her how to open the box to activate his avatar. It was amazingly simple. All she had to do was place her finger on the silver square and send any kind of magic into it. She could use the illumination spell, the energy beam, even the plant growing spell. Anything would do. Since the vibrations of her magic were the same as Dominic’s, the box would open to the magic and the avatar would be activated. Even with her magic in its weakened state, she knew she could easily manage that. It was what would happen afterward that worried her.
When the box opened, a life-size copy of Dominic would appear, identical to him in virtually every respect. Over a period of time, he had told her, she might be able to discern enough differences in its speech and behavior to distinguish the avatar from the real thing, but their enemies would not have nearly the time to do so. They would detect the magic immediately and believe they had caught up to him at last. She would have only minutes, at best, to hide herself well enough to avoid their notice.
Timing was going to be critical.
So that she and Dominic could coordinate their movements, she had purchased a pre-paid cell phone for him from a small shop in the terminal, registering it her name. She programmed it with her number and showed him how to use it. Since he had never used a cell phone before, she made him call her twice even though they were sitting next to each other. They needed to be certain he could use the phone quickly and without any mistakes.
This was the second “burner” phone she had purchased i
n the last week or so—she hoped her name wasn’t going to show up in some terrorist or drug dealer database. The thought made her smile. She would gladly risk buying a third phone if she could only figure out some way Rave could use it. Of course, she knew that wasn’t going to happen. She wished she had a way to contact Rave and let him know what was going on. She didn’t expect him to join her—indeed, with his weakened fire she wouldn’t want him there—but she felt he should know what she and Dominic were planning. She supposed she could contact him again through Max, but using her aunt and uncle’s dog to telepathically send anything more than simple messages was risky. She didn’t want to take the chance that Rave might think she needed him and come running. There was no part for him in Dominic’s plan, only unnecessary risk. No, she decided, she would not be talking to Max until this was over.
In addition to buying the phone, she had also rented a car for Dominic. He was going to need to travel fast enough and in varying directions so he could stay ahead of his pursuers, all the while moving east at a slow enough rate so he would sense the boundary of the area of weakened magic when he approached it. A car was by far the best way for him to do it. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to drive the car since it was in her name, but since he didn’t even have a driver’s license, breaking that small regulation was no big deal. She just hoped he didn’t make any driving mistakes that would get him pulled over by the police. If he did, he would need to use magic to get himself out of it, which would have the black waziri upon him sooner than he was ready.
When she got back to New Haven, she was going to rent herself a car as well, so she would be ready whenever he called her. Dominic had said that he doubted it would be tomorrow, since he would be zigzagging his way north and east, but that it could easily be Wednesday. She needed to be ready at a moment’s notice, so she planned carry the box with her wherever she went and never to be too far from her car.
She hoped her credit card company wasn’t going to flag her for renting two cars on the same day. She knew from lots of books and movies that it was usually the little things that tripped people up. Getting the cars in two different states might help.
Either way, there was nothing to be done about it. They both needed cars and there was no way Dominic could have rented one himself. Among all the risks she would be taking, this was definitely one of the smaller ones, for sure.
She opened her purse on her lap and looked down at the beautiful ivory and silver box she had stashed inside. She would have liked to hold it, but didn’t want to risk accidently sending any magic into it and activating the avatar by mistake. Not only would she have difficulty explaining the sudden appearance of a full-grown man next to her, but the black waziri would sense Dominic’s magic and be after her immediately. That would be the end of their plan and probably the end of her as well, so instead she contented herself with gazing at the box while it remained inside her bag. It was hard to imagine something so small and so beautiful was going to be the key to all their fates.
40. DILEMNA
Tuesday morning, the witch Jenna paced back and forth across the wooden floor of the living room in her small, secluded home. All her life, she’d had a thirst for gathering knowledge of all kinds, a quest made easier by her shape-shifting abilities, which allowed her to observe things unnoticed, and by her ability to put herself into other people’s minds, which allowed her to learn things even without being physically present. Most of the time, she simply filed the information away in her head, never using it for any specific purpose.
Sometimes, though, her accumulated knowledge proved valuable, like when she had followed Leesa home and later used the information to visit her and ask whether her magic had also been weakened. That had proved useful indeed, taking a load off Jenna’s mind by reassuring her that the weakening was not an attack directed at her. It was a perfect example of how you never knew what information might one day prove useful.
But now, for the first time she could remember, her quest to collect knowledge had resulted in a definite problem for her. She had learned about something she wasn’t supposed to know, and now she had to decide, what, if anything, to do with the information. She wished she had never heard about the thing—because now she felt compelled to try to help—but heard of it she had. As much as she might wish to, there was no way she could unring that bell.
Try as she might, she could think of no easy answer—hence the pacing. She had started shortly before dawn, to the light of a single candle on a corner table. Her home was awash in daylight now. Twin bands of light slanted in through a pair of east-facing windows, illuminating floating motes in the air like they were remnants of a shower of faerie dust. Glancing toward the corner of the room, she saw the candle had burned more than halfway down. She aimed her pacing in that direction and blew out the candle.
She returned to her pacing. Slowly, an idea began to take shape in her head. At first, the thought seemed totally impractical and she was tempted to reject it out of hand, but since she was having so little luck with any other ideas, she decided to let the seed grow and take form, waiting to see how it might blossom. As it continued grow more clear and complete, she realized how dangerous such a plan could be. But she could also see that maybe—just maybe—it might actually work.
She crossed to the window and stopped her pacing, leaning her forehead against the glass and gazing out into the woods that surrounded her home. A few birds flitted from branch to branch among the trees, but otherwise everything was peaceful and still, exactly the way she liked her life to be. If she decided to put her plan into motion, she knew her life was unlikely to stay that way.
She sighed. Perhaps she should at least find out if the help she would need would be forthcoming. If it wasn’t, then the decision would be made for her. She almost hoped it came to that.
She grabbed her coat and headed out the door to begin the three mile walk into town. She wished she could fly, but of course she could not. So walking it had to be, until she reached town and could hire a taxi to take her the rest of the way.
41. RESTLESS
Deep in the vampire caverns, Kristi was growing increasingly uneasy. She did not like the feeling and had no idea where it came from. The strange sensation was difficult to describe—it felt almost like someone had attached strings to her body and was gently pulling on them, making it hard for her to sit still. What made it doubly unsettling was that this anxiety was the complete opposite of how she had felt since her transformation had become complete. Ever since Marcio had turned her and managed to get her accepted by the coven, she had been happy and relaxed. She loved being with Marcio, and her vampire lover seemed to enjoy her company just as much. It had taken her a little while to get over the drinking of human blood to complete her transformation, but all that was behind her now and she had no desire at all to taste any more.
One of the first things she had noticed since becoming a vampire—after the incredible sharpening of her senses—was how much patience she now possessed. She had always been a bit anxious and high-strung, particularly when she was away at school, but since the turning she had enjoyed an incredible sense of calm and peace. She supposed it must have something to do with being immortal. When you had all eternity stretching out before you, being relaxed and patient was certainly a virtue.
So why was she feeling so restless all of a sudden?
Marcio walked over behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, squeezing them gently.
Kristi sighed. “Mmmmm…that feels good.” She twisted her neck around and smiled at him.
“You seem troubled,” Marcio said. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure. For some reason, I can’t get comfortable. It’s like there’s something I have to do, but I don’t know what it is.” Kristi turned to face Marcio. “Does that make sense?”
Marcio’s expression became thoughtful. “Does it feel like something is pulling at you?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly how it feels. How did you know?” Kr
isti frowned. “It’s not a need for more blood, is it?”
“No, I do not think so. Blood thirst is unmistakable. You would know it, for certain.”
“Then what is it? You described it so well—like something is pulling at me.”
“Something…or someone,” Marcio said. “I felt something similar the day I found you. I’ve always wondered what guided me to you, out there in the woods.”
“I thought you just stumbled across me. Like it was fate.” Kristi grabbed both his hands. “A wonderful, beautiful fate.”
Marcio squeezed her hands gently and smiled. “It was wonderful, yes. But I’m beginning to think it was something more than fate.”
Kristi pictured the silver-haired woman who had leaned over her and promised to help—Jenna, that was her name. She had asked Kristi if she wanted to die or to become a vampire. Somehow, Jenna must have brought Marcio to the place in the woods were Kristi had lain helpless. Marcio didn’t seem to know that, though. Why not, she wondered? She had assumed he knew about the role Jenna had played, or else she would have told him. Or would she? As soon as she thought about sharing it with him, something inside her told her not to. She didn’t understand it. It was like she was under a spell or something.
She looked up into Marcio’s handsome face. He was watching her closely.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
Kristi wanted to tell him exactly what she was thinking, but found she could not.
“I’m not sure,” she said instead. “It’s all very confusing.” That was as close as she could get to telling him the truth.
Suddenly, the feeling of unease that had been creeping over her changed. It grew much stronger and more defined. She knew what she had to do now.
“I need to go out,” she said. “Will you come with me?”
Marcio stared into her eyes for a few seconds. “Of course. We cannot go far, though. Otherwise we need permission…and a third to accompany us.”
Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) Page 21
