Alexis snapped her fingers at her daughter. “Come on, we’re going.”
Celestina pushed off the ground and stood on trembling legs that threatened to falter.
I stepped forward to steady her, but Alexis must have anticipated that because she swung her head back at me, lips curled like a vicious dog, eager to pounce on an enemy.
Alexis pressed her daughter against her, accepting her weight, so that Celestina wouldn’t have to walk under her own power. A few seconds later, they exited the shop.
Delphine stood up, looking as refreshed as if she’d just awoken from a long, peaceful sleep. She whirled around and faced Darius. With a wave of her hand, the cement clinging to his frame turned into a liquid and receded, trickling downwards, leaving behind only specks of concrete in the folds of his pants, until it once more solidified with the floor.
Delphine examined his gaze, staring intently for a few seconds. Then a warm smile emerged. “Will you be joining us?”
Darius studied her expression for a long moment. An ebullient smile burst forth on his face. “You’re back?” he asked, mystified.
“Yes.” Her sweet, innocent smile widened.
“It’s been far too long.” Then he scowled at me as he strode toward Delphine. “We should eliminate them immediately.”
Delphine placed a hand on his shoulder then gently set him on a path to the doorway. “Please assist Alexis and attend to Celestina. I will be along in a few moments.” She turned to us, and her pretty smile transformed into a deranged grin.
Something about Delphine seemed odd. Of course, returning from the dead could have that effect. Then again, I didn’t feel any different. Regardless, I couldn’t identify what felt wrong about Delphine.
“Hello, my darling!” Delphine said.
Those three words made my heart pound.
Zephora? It couldn’t be!
“It is a pleasure to see you again,” she said. “I must express my gratitude for removing your mother from this body, so I could take her place.” Her grin stretched wide as she looked at me. “You have quite a penchant for dispatching family members.”
Grams had referred to the grimoire as a “guide,” and because she said the owner could question it, my family and I had assumed a mystical force would respond by scrawling answers inside a book.
“I notice your confusion,” Zephora said with a condescending smile. “Please allow me to assist.”
Brandon stared at her with deep concentration.
Zephora glared at him. “Do not attempt it, young man!”
“Hey,” he said, looking confounded. “My telepathic powers…they don’t work on her.”
“I am the first in our line.” She raised her chin high. “Do you think your feeble ability to borrow power could possibly affect me?” She chuckled and placed her attention on me. “I have waited over three centuries to return and reclaim what is rightfully mine. You see, the item inside the box was my soul. Before burning at the stake, I crafted a spell that allowed it to remain in this dimension.”
“You cheated death?”
“No, I perished. But I went to neither heaven nor hell. I remained behind as a specter.”
“You’ve been a ghost…all this time?”
“After I was burned at the stake during the Witch Trials, my daughter captured my soul. With the exception of three brief periods during the past three centuries, my family has kept it from me. Until now, that is.”
Although her soul remained behind, did she retain all of her power and abilities? If she had, wouldn’t she have followed up on Darius’s suggestion by eliminating my friends and me? On second thought, I recalled that she would need three days to merge with Delphine’s body. Besides, I suspected that having jumped into Grams’s body yesterday and Delphine’s body today left her exhausted, further depleting her power. In that instance, no matter how many abilities she could call upon, they might be useless until she regained her strength.
And because I had tapped out my own power source, I couldn’t mount an offensive attack. I looked at the Soul Sword and then looked up at Zephora. I lunged forward, hoping to stab her in the heart.
Zephora disappeared…and reappeared seven feet behind the spot she inhabited only a moment ago. “My, oh, my. The bloodlust inside you is insatiable!” Far from drained, the smile on her face divulged that she could teleport at will without using much effort. I presumed that occurred because she was shifting her own weight and placing it elsewhere…rather than pushing energy outward and maintaining that same momentum for an extended period of time, which would be necessary if she planned to use magical abilities to kill Kendall, Brandon, and I.
In that instance, no matter how many times I attempted to attack her, Zephora would somehow teleport to a different location. Rather than focus on my inability to end her life, I set my thoughts in a different direction. At least now, I understood why Grams hadn’t given the box to Celestina: my niece was too innocent and naive to keep it safe. Delphine or Alexis might have tricked her into giving it to them.
“The box never held The Book of Souls. It just held…your soul. That’s why you communicated with Delphine: to convince her to unleash your soul!”
“The Book of Souls was nothing more than a myth! I created that tale before I died because witches are superstitious and they hold tight to tradition. More than that, they are terrified of losing their powers. I knew that at some point in the future an ignorant, yet ambitious member of our line would seek me out from beyond the veil. Once that occurred, I would persuade her that opening the box would release one-third of my powers. And that is why I have returned at least once each of the last four centuries: witches are obsessed with acquiring more power. You see, I required either a willing participant like your mother, or an incapacitated one, like your grandmother, in order to return. In addition, I needed that individual to stand within three feet of the box; otherwise, I could neither enter nor exit it.”
“Sort of like a genie,” Brandon said with a nervous grin.
I ignored him. “How did you get Grams to let you out?”
“While suffering from her illness, she unknowingly opened the box—”
“And you popped out,” Brandon said. “If that’s not a genie, I don’t know what is.” His anxious smile widened. “Come on: you give three questions, and you get three answers? Sort of like asking for three wishes.” He turned to Kendall. “Am I right?”
“I owe my rebirth to you,” Zephora said to me, disregarding Brandon. “Without you, I never would have returned to this plane of existence.” She balled up her hands and held them behind her back as she circled Kendall, Brandon, and I. “Therefore, please accept my gratitude.”
That explanation disheartened me. I glanced up at the flames, still confused why they hadn’t emitted smoke or caused damage.
Zephora caught my interest. She gestured to the flames. They disappeared. She flicked a wrist at the walls, and they vanished.
We now stood in the gravel on a street corner. Vehicles sped by on either side of the street, while passerby strolled along the opposite sidewalk.
“What…where…?” I looked to Kendall and Brandon, and based on their bewildered expressions, they, too, couldn’t understand what had happened.
Zephora slanted her head to the side as though finding my ignorance cute. “You thought this building existed?” She chuckled without humor. “Your grandmother crafted a magical construct, nothing more.”
“But I opened and closed the door. I turned on the lights, the computer, the—”
“All one big illusion that rendered everything inside it invisible to those without magical abilities.”
I’d always wondered why Grams never had any customers. At least now, I had an answer. I turned toward where the weapons still resided in the secret chamber.
Catching my gaze, Zephora gestured toward them. “In the seventeenth century, I enchanted each of them with the sole purpose of eliminating those with supernatural powers.” She of
fered a slight smile. “My offspring created every supernatural being that now walks the planet.” She looked at Brandon. “One of your family members must have hexed a distant relative of yours. In that instance, powers are passed down through the blood, although they skip every third generation.” She returned her attention to me. “Witches in our line have stored those weapons in the event that paranormal creatures once more walked the Earth.”
Talk about weapons reminded me of the Soul Sword…and Mephisto’s interest in it. I couldn’t disregard his appearance so close on the heels of Zephora’s arrival, and I figured that, in one way or another, they knew each other. “Maybe I’ll talk with Mephisto about all this and see what he has to say.”
The obnoxious, self-satisfied grin on Zephora’s face flattened. But a second later, the corners of her mouth turned upwards again. “I would be very careful around him.”
I enjoyed seeing fear flicker on her face, however momentary. Nonetheless, I trusted her advice, because even though I knew nothing about Mephisto, I suspected that whatever he wanted, he always acted with his best interests in mind. In that regard, he and Zephora had a lot in common. But could I trust him as an ally? The future only knew.
“Congratulations, Serena,” Zephora said, her smile growing. “No one in our family has ever managed to break one of my spells. Until tonight.”
I shook my head, confounded by her logic.
“You murdered your mother. The line is broken. Only Alexis and Celestina remain. Now, no other witch shall spring forth from our line. Even I am prohibited from changing that.” She shrugged with false modesty. “My spells are quite potent. I never considered the need for a failsafe on that particular incantation. I never considered a daughter would be so heartless to kill her mother.”
The daughter shall replace the mother. In this instance, Alexis replaced Delphine.
I didn’t want her words to sink in, so I redirected my thoughts. “You’re saying that, even if Alexis, my niece or I have children, they won’t have supernatural abilities?”
“That is correct.”
So far, I had considered my abilities as more of a hindrance than a benefit. However, the consequences of my actions hit me with full force. “But that also means—”
“You’ve triggered an unintended consequence: all of the paranormal creatures in existence now have full use of their powers, and demons can enter this dimension unhindered.”
“And they can leave Chicago?”
“Not quite. I lent the impression that if three consecutive generations of firstborn witches were no longer in existence, all supernatural entities could travel the planet. I only did so because I cherish family, and I wanted our line to flourish. In order for paranormal creatures to be free, every witch, with the exception of me, must perish.” She tilted her head to the side, appearing demure. “I suppose I will be required to speed up the timetable on that eventuality soon enough.” She smiled broadly. “Please accept my apologies in advance. It is nothing personal.”
“How can you say that?” asked Brandon. “She’s your great-great-great-great—”
“Yeah,” Kendall said, cutting him off. “If you love your family so much—”
“No one lives forever,” Zephora said with a shrug. “Besides, I did not create that spell, although I never corrected my progeny when they reached the wrong conclusion.” She looked on either side of her with distaste. “I am still astounded by the filth that exists during this century. And it is much too loud.” She watched the cars with disgust. “The environment is rather foul.” She met my gaze. “How can you bear such squalor?”
“You plan on ending my life, do you not?” Zephora asked. “My darling, your bloodlust is unquenchable!”
“Well,” Zephora said and let out a heavy sigh. “My work here is complete.”
“Only because you can’t kill us.”
“Indeed. But my powers will soon return.” Her creepy grin protruded. “Enjoy the rest of your evening.” Then she walked away and joined Darius in the passenger seat of his Ford Fusion before he drove away.
While I’d managed to prevent the spread of witchcraft, thereby allowing supernatural creatures to regain their powers, it was now my responsibility to prevent them from increasing their numbers and spreading their ranks. I could only hope my third ability, whatever that might be, would help me fulfill my duties. I glanced at Kendall and Brandon, and both of them looked as spooked as I felt.
I grew strength from the notion that three witches in our line had each trapped Zephora’s soul in the box that Kendall now held. I didn’t know how they managed that feat, but if I wanted to send Zephora back behind the veil, with no chance of a return ticket, I had plenty of work ahead of me…and only three days before Zephora reacquired her abilities.
In the meantime, I suspected that she’d send Darius after me with the intent to kill. And something told me that, far from the gentleman vampire who drove a Ford Focus and didn’t have a sense of humor, the Darius who would soon hunt me down was the most powerful vampire in history and the psychotic killer who wouldn’t rest until his lover ruled the world.
I could only pray that I’d survive that showdown.
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Also by Sydney Bristow
Urban Fantasy
Silverthorn
Historical Thrillers
The Flame of Eternity
Soul of the Wind
Lost in the Shadows
Streets of Broken Hearts
The City of Broken Shoulders
Contemporary Romance
One Step Away
One Last Promise
One More Chance
www.sydneybristowauthor.com
Nightwish (An Echoes of Eternity Novel Book 1) Page 27
