Glamorous: A Grace Bishop Novel (Grace Bishop Novels)

by Denise Bossarte

  “Are you joining in the reading?”

  “Oh, no. What Sophie is doing is real enough, but I don’t believe in relying on hints of the future to dictate how I live my life. Free will and all. I’ll take it as it comes, one day at a time.”

  Grace shook her head at the phone. But she admired DL’s conviction that he didn’t need to know what was coming to live his life the way he wanted.

  “Good luck, Grace. Call me when it’s over.”

  “Will do,” she assured him, turning the key in the ignition and putting the car into drive.

  It was time for her to get back to the house and get everyone on the road.

  Chapter 46

  Nicco ended the call from Anthony, already moving toward the hidden door at the back of his office. Grace expected to meet and kill the Glamour tonight, but she wasn’t sure she would succeed. Nicco didn’t think she had much chance of beating him alone.

  Facing the hidden door, he made a few patterns with his hand and concentrated his will, and the door opened. He stepped into the dark room as the door eased shut behind him. With another motion of his hand, lanterns lining the walls flared to life.

  He hurried to the middle of a room about double the size of his office and knelt in the center of a pentagram that lay within a circle. He slowed his breath and centered his mind. Gathering his will to a single point of focus, he grabbed the rough stone knife lying at his feet.

  A small table in the corner crashed to the ground.

  Nicco jumped to his feet, turning to face the sound. He quickly made the signs for Second Hearing, knowing Gabriella would not leave him in peace until she had her say.

  “Just what do you think you are doing?” Gabriella’s voice rang out in the room. “Niccolo Sidotti, answer me. What are you doing?”

  The intensity of her voice pushed Nicco back a step, the force of it a physical pressure against his body. In response, his heart skipped a beat.

  With an unsteady hand, he activated the spell for Second Sight, bringing Gabriella into her full glory, her eyes piercing him with their anger.

  “I do not have time for your interference, Gabriella.” He turned back to the pentagram and resumed his kneeling position.

  “I heard you talking to Anthony. You are doing something idiotic to go after that girl, aren’t you?”

  Nicco sighed and turned to glare at Gabriella over his shoulders. “Yes, she is in trouble. She has gone to confront the serial killer, and I intend to do whatever I can to help her.”

  Gabriella began to speak, but Nicco held up his hand to interrupt her.

  “I have little time. I did not have the foresight to track down all the places she might go. Most Norms would run in this situation, given the challenges she is facing. But Grace is not a Norm, and she is not running away from anything tonight.”

  “That foolish girl,” Gabriella said, eyes widening.

  “I can track her through the segno di famiglia I gave her. I am lucky she has not taken it off. I sense she is headed north of the city, but I do not have the luxury of chasing after her in a car. I will need my full concentration to track her. And I cannot afford to involve anyone else or put anyone else at risk.”

  “Are you planning to do a summoning?” Gabriella asked. “I do not see that you have made the preparations.”

  “There was no time for me to make preparations to ask for help from a benevolent creature. I do not have the luxury of completing the physical and mental cleansing rituals or attuning to a state of openness and harmony with my powers to summon such a creature. Things are moving too fast.”

  He stared at the knife in his hands. “And I have mixed emotions about the situation. I want to help Grace, but I have less than benign feelings toward the Glamour. Without fully sympathetic intentions, I won’t be able to succeed in the summoning.”

  “So you will take a shortcut.” She gestured to the knife still in his hand. “Resort to Black Magic.”

  “Yes, I am going to use Black Magic.”

  “You are ready to make a sacrifice to bend the creature to your will?” She turned to survey the room.

  “Something like that.”

  Her brow furrowed. “You will need quite a lot of blood to call forth a being that can get you to Grace in time to help and to keep it from escaping into the world and unleashing chaos and destruction.”

  “If I was a weak warlock, I would. But with my strength, only a little blood is required to summon it.” He motioned to his arm.

  Gabriella gasped, reaching out to grab the arm holding the knife. “Niccolo, you cannot!”

  Nicco looked at her, his face hard as stone. “I am strong enough. It will take only a small offering. While I continue to give it my blood, I can easily control it.”

  “But the blood price! If you use a limited amount of blood to harness such a creature, there will be a large blood price to pay before the end of the night. The volume of blood required will be a death sentence if a human must pay it.”

  “I know.” He met her eyes without hesitation. “I am counting on finding a deer or other large mammal in the woods before the sun rises.”

  “But what if you cannot? Using your own blood in the summoning means you are not just risking your life—the price will be your soul.” Gabriella fell by his side, her body shivering.

  “Yes, Gabriella.” His voice was soft as he put down the knife and held his arm as if wrapping it around her shoulders.

  “But I am not willing to take another’s life for this. I alone will bear the risk. I need a creature that can get me to where Grace is as fast as possible. I have to call Glasya-Labolas. He is one of the more powerful and less controllable of the demons, but the one best suited for my needs.”

  Gabriella looked up to him with tear-filled eyes. “You will do this for her? Risk this?”

  “I have to. I have waited this long to find her, Gabriella, since my apprenticeship when I first carved her image. I will not lose my chance, even if it means going against Viora. Even if it means risking my soul. My soul is already lost if I lose her.”

  Gabriella searched his face before nodding. She wiped her tears away and rose.

  “But your love for the girl won’t help you, Niccolo. Viora’s spell won’t let you summon any demon.”

  Nicco stared up at her, mouth agape, realization slowly dawning on him. He had been so focused on finding a way to get to Grace, to help her, he never considered that none his plans would matter.

  “No,” he said, his eyes lowering to the knife and the runes drawn on the floor. The rage began to burn in his chest making it hard for him to breathe.

  “But her spell cannot stop me,” Gabriella said softly.

  Nicco’s eyes jerked from the ground to search her face.

  “What do you mean?” he demanded.

  “I cannot summon the demon for you. That requires being present on the physical plane.”

  At her words, the hope Nicco had felt building began to dissolve.

  “However, I can take on the effects of Viora’s spell for you,” she clarified.

  “What does that mean? ‘Take on the effects’?” he asked, suspicion thick in his tone.

  “I mean that I can draw the effects of Viora’s spell to me temporarily to allow you to complete the summonings. I can’t break her spell permanently, but I can redirect it to allow you to do what you need to do.”

  “How is that possible?”

  “I have always been one of the most powerful witches in our Family,” she said proudly. “Even if I am not present in the physical realm, my magic is powerful enough to impact another’s magic here.”

  “You have never done this before,” he said, staring at her intently. “Why not?”

  She remained quiet, waiting for him to come up with the answer himself.

  “Because of the consequences,” he whispered after a moment.

  Chapter 47

  “What will happen to you if you do this?” Nicco’s heart filled with dread as he
waited for her answer.

  She met his eyes without flinching. “I am not quite sure,” she admitted. “But the chances are good that I would be expelled from this plane.”

  “But that would be like dying a second time!” Nicco jumped back to his feet.

  Gabriella raised her hand to quiet him.

  “Niccolo, I have been on this plane for hundreds of years. I knew at some point I would need to transition, to continue my life’s journey beyond this place. I have been patiently waiting for that time to arrive. It appears that this might be the moment.”

  Nicco shook his head in denial.

  “You have a choice, Niccolo,” she chided him. “You can keep me with you on this plane and sacrifice the girl. Or you can let me finish my time here with you and do what you can to save her. Which will it be?”

  Nicco clenched his teeth, struggling to find a way out of making a choice between the woman he had loved his whole life and just found, and the mentor who had been his constant companion and supporter all these years.

  There was no choice. He was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for Grace. He had to honor Gabriella’s willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for him.

  “I accept your offer.”

  Gabriella gave him a gentle smile of approval.

  “Then why are you standing here wasting precious time?” she said. “Let me check your runes to make sure you haven’t missed anything.”

  Nicco smiled wanly at her. Gabriella—always the teacher. He was confident she wouldn’t find any fault in his work as she moved around the pentagram and the enclosing circle.

  “This is all well and good, but you have left out several important runes.”

  “Where?” Nicco’s eyes narrowed as he moved closer to the circle to get a better view of the floor. “Which ones? All the required runes are present.”

  “For someone who likes to skirt the rules, you are being too conventional here. You are doing this for the sake of the girl, so you should include runes showing your emotions for her as well. That will make the spell stronger.”

  Nicco rubbed the back of his neck and blinked rapidly.

  “Come, come, Niccolo. You just said that you are willing to risk your soul for this girl. You should have no hesitation in putting runes for that in the spell.”

  Nicco knelt down beside the circle. He pulled a piece of white chalk from his shirt pocket. He quickly drew a shield and spear for the Protector rune and two overlapping hearts for the Heart Connection rune, calling their names as he completed each one.

  He looked up at Gabriella, who nodded her encouragement and motioned for him to continue.

  Nicco raised his eyebrows at her. After a brief hesitation, he added a heart with a key inscribed at its center. “Heart’s Desire,” he said in a firm voice, before placing the chalk back in his pocket.

  “Good, very good.” Gabriella looked over the entire set of runes and nodded once. With that, she withdrew to stand in the corner of the room and began to speak the spell to take on the effects of Viora’s compulsion.

  Once she finished, he picked up the knife, and in one quick motion, he ran the edge of the blade over the meat of his forearm in a long but shallow gash, allowing the blood to flow but avoiding major arteries.

  He heard Gabriella gasp and turned to see her clutching her chest in pain. When she noticed his hesitation she glared at him to continue.

  He hardened himself, then drew the symbols of Opening and Holding around the knife wound, activating them with his will. The wound would not close until he was at his destination.

  Nicco let the blood run down his arm and drew out the symbol of Calling onto the floor with the drops. He moved with deliberate care despite his anxiety to get to Grace, knowing a mistake here could mean his death. He accompanied the movement of his bloodied hand with a chant. The blood, his will, the symbol, and the chant would be the powerful combination necessary to call forth the creature and place it under his power. He fought back the surge of vertigo that came with working such a powerful spell, concentrating harder on his chanting.

  Finishing with the spell, he slipped back from the symbol he had drawn. He carefully crossed outside the circle and the pentagram to the unmarked stone floor.

  He turned to look for Gabriella in the corner, but she was gone.

  Clamping down on his rising sorrow at her loss, he returned his focus to the markings at his feet. He held his breath until a dark line appeared in the air above the symbol of Calling. Then, an enormous clawed hand and the tip of a gigantic wing emerged from the darkness.

  Chapter 48

  As Grace drove up to the lake house, the motion sensor on the light pole in the driveway activated, adding its glow to the early evening sunlight. She saw no other vehicles in the area. But that didn’t mean the Glamour hadn’t parked at another location near the lake and walked in from there. He could already be here waiting for her, and based on his personality, she would lay odds he was down at the dock already.

  “I want you all to stay here in the car until I’ve checked things out. I’ll tell you once it’s okay to manifest and come down to the dock,” Grace instructed them.

  They agreed. No one wanted to use the crystals too early and miss the chance to confront the Glamour.

  “Sure thing, Gracie. We’ll be waiting here until you give us the okay,” Danny assured her.

  Grace got out of the car, searching the surrounding woods for signs of the Glamour. She adjusted the holster inside her jeans on her right side, making sure the Glock was loose and ready to draw. She was carrying it in a concealed fashion as she didn’t want to provoke the Glamour before she got her questions answered.

  Grace had replaced the barrel of the pistol with a backup before coming to the lake house. When she first started as a rookie cop, one of Billy’s uncles had recommended she pick up a few extra barrels at a gun show. He had told her it was a precaution, but not one ever discussed in public. It had made Grace uneasy to follow his advice, but now she was happy she had. It would make it impossible to connect her gun to whatever happened tonight. And she wouldn’t have to get rid of her pistol, only the barrel.

  Grace eased forward while searching the surrounding area, making her way down the railroad ties that made a walking path to the boat dock. The sun would set in an hour, and the lake was already taking on a colorful, warm glow. With night approaching, the woods were darkening, and the dock was partly in shadow.

  As she reached the edge of the ramp leading to the covered boat house, a second motion sensor activated. A sulfurous yellow light bathed the ramp and the house, casting her shadow off to the side and onto the lake. Grace was expecting the light to kick on as she approached. But she was still a bit surprised when a figure stepped out of the boat house shadows and into the light.

  It was the Glamour. He had been standing there, unmoving, long enough for the motion sensitive light to turn off. He hadn’t ambushed her when she walked out to the boat house, hadn’t stepped in behind her to cut off her retreat. His initial lack of aggression was something she should look to manipulate.

  “Miss Bishop. I’m finally getting to meet the infamous Aperto Rotto that has everyone talking.”

  “I’m not the only Paranorm that has everyone talking.” Grace strained to see his eyes, to find out which personality she was dealing with right then.

  The light from the lamp was casting shadows across his face, and she couldn’t make out his eye color. She either needed to be closer to him or wait until he moved and the shadows shifted. She decided waiting was the better choice.

  “Ah, yes,” he said, taking her comment as a compliment. “I gained quite a bit of notoriety these past few weeks with all the attention you and your friends have been giving me.”

  Notoriety was one way to put it…, if you were a whacked out sicko. But not the point Grace was making.

  “Who are you?” Grace asked him, impatience winning out over prudence.

  “Who am I?” He looked pleased
at the question. “Isn’t that the question we’re all searching to answer, Miss Bishop? ‘Who am I?’ Do you know who you are?”

  Grace wasn’t surprised she didn’t get a direct response from the man. She was starting to guess which personality she was talking with already. She was hoping to get some answers to who this man was, and the Glamour wanted to play another game with her instead. She decided to go along to find out where this would take them.

  “I’m starting to find out who I am, what I’m capable of myself,” Grace admitted.

  “Such a shock, I’m sure. Becoming an Aperto Rotto. Finding out the world is not as you thought it was, eh?”

  “You could say that. But what I was asking is which one are you, which personality?”

  “Clever girl.” Venom leaked into his voice as the jovial tone drained away. “Too, too clever,” he repeated almost to himself.

  A cold finger ran down Grace’s spine at his response. Here was the not-too-stable personality she had expected to be talking with tonight.

  “And how did you figure it out, hmm? No one ever discovered me. Robyn—sweet, gentle, accommodating Robyn—is the one they all see. The one they all interact with daily. They never know I’m behind the scenes directing him, misleading and manipulating them. Even Robyn thinks I’m a real person outside of him, not a separate personality. To him, I’m ‘Gustav’ and as physically separate from him as you are.”

  Grace decided not to offer a response to the rhetorical question. Hoping Gustav would continue to talk about himself, which he did.

  “But you, little Aperto Rotto. You come along and figure out I exist, with minimal help from the other Paranorms.”

  Gustav paced back and forth within the few feet available on the ramp, his brown eyes finally becoming visible under the light.

  All at once, he stopped his pacing, turning to smile at her. “Of course. I knew the whispers that you’re a psychometrist were true! And when I left the warehouse in such a hurry, I abandoned my tools. You read one of my knives, didn’t you?”