Mathieu

by Irene Ferris

  “As my daughter.” The man snapped back. “She’s different.”

  “Damaged beyond mortal knowledge, her mind broken, her very soul torn and bleeding. Not so very different.” Mathieu spread his hands. “Bearing foul power and remembering where every bit and piece came from, still hearing every scream and sob, still tasting the iron and blood and smoke on the back of her tongue. You have done a cruelty far worse than even Gadreel could have ever conceived.” Mathieu shook his head as he looked away. “I did not think such a thing was possible.”

  “Bullshit.” Hugh stood and spoke, biting each word off precisely as he looked down at Mathieu. “Powerful, beautiful and immortal, bound to a purpose. I did her a favor.”

  “A favor?” Mathieu repeated softly as he turned to go back to the window. “God save us from your favors, Hugh Devalle. I shudder to think what you would do to one you hate.”

  “Step into a circle around me and you’d find out pretty quickly.” Hugh snarled. “I don’t even know why you’d care. When we get her, we don’t have any need for you. You can go off and fade away to nothing and we won’t care. You can stay on that mountain until the end of time. Just hold up your end of the bargain.”

  Mathieu twisted back to face Hugh, his eyes glittering. The room suddenly grew dark. “Unlike you, I am not willing to trade another’s soul for personal benefit. I am not willing to benefit from another’s pain and I am certainly not willing to have any part in any scheme that does.” With each word the room grew colder and colder, frost tracing intricate patterns on the inside of the windowpanes.

  “Mathieu.” Marcus spoke the name sharply, his breath steaming in the air.

  Mathieu started at the sound of his name. The room lightened and warmed almost immediately. “My apologies,” he muttered to Marcus before turning his back on Hugh and walking back to look out the window.

  Carol cleared her throat and spoke quietly. “Hugh, did your daughter know about this? Was she part of this plan?”

  “Of course not.” Mathieu answered for him from the window, not even turning to face the room. “The creature would have picked it up from her mind the moment it bound her. They know everything their Familiars know. Every thought, every fear, every moment of shame. It makes tormenting their slaves so much easier.” There was an emotion in his voice Jenn had never heard before. She leaned over to look at his face but he only turned away. “It’s almost impossible to hide anything from one of them.”

  Hugh’s eyes slid to the brightly colored carpet by his feet as he sat down again. After a moment he shrugged. “I couldn’t tell her anything.”

  “So you basically sacrificed your innocent daughter to this thing so that if we were able to destroy it, it would give your daughter all its energies and knowledge. I just want to be sure I have this whole thing right.” Marcus’ voice was tired.

  “The ends justify the means.” Hugh said. “It’s simple enough. Your circle summons it back. That,” he said with a jerk of his head towards Mathieu, “destroys it. I get my daughter back and the Foundation gets more power than they’ve been able to accumulate in centuries in one fell swoop.”

  “You get her back completely nutso insane, dude.” Dwayne spoke for the first time. “I had a little glance at what goes on over there and there’s no way anyone can come back from that and not be completely bonkers.” He glanced over at Mathieu’s back. “No offense, little bro’.” Mathieu shrugged, not answering.

  “Dwayne’s right, Hugh. She’s not going to the same when she comes back.” Carol said quietly.

  “You think I don’t know that?” Hugh’s voice sounded pained for the first time. “But I’ve done my research, Carol. All they need is an anchor, a focus—some stability. I’ve got the glyphs and diagrams right here in my pocket. That’s why I have to be the one to bind her. I can bind her with love and keep her steady.”

  “There is no such binding.” Mathieu turned back from the window to regard Hugh with new suspicion. “They’ve been trying that for as long as they’ve been coming to our world and it’s never succeeded.”

  Hugh’s lip curled and his voice took on a superior tone. “Of course it didn’t work for them. They don’t feel love. But if my calculations are right, we—a human--I--can use that power to bind Amanda. She loves me.”

  “So you think.” Mathieu sighed. “I would not swear to her still being able to feel such a thing if I were you.”

  “Good thing you’re not me, then. She’s my daughter, she loves me. She’ll always love her daddy, just like some part of what you were will always love yours.”

  Mathieu’s eyes went cold. “You know nothing of what I do or do not feel or for whom or what I would feel. You know nothing about me. Do not presume to cross that line with me again, Hugh DeValle.”

  Hugh faltered for the first time but then kept going, his voice taking on a wheedling tone. “You have the strength to destroy Gaap. It was weak, nearly dissipated when I moved Amanda here. It can’t possibly be stronger than you. She won’t be as far gone as you were, either.”

  “I can’t destroy it.” Mathieu said quietly.

  Hugh stood up and roared. “Don’t you even start playing those games with me, you little shit.”

  Mathieu pushed off from the window and walked forward, speaking in a flat tone. “I do not play games. It benefits me not at all.” He came again to stand before Hugh and somehow managed to look down his nose, yet up at the taller man. “Instead, let me start by listing but a few of the ways you’ve miscalculated in your scheme.”

  He held up a finger. “One. I am quite sure that you do not realize that the only way I was able to destroy Gadreel was because I was bound to him and he to me. I suspect that he forgot I was there because I had hidden myself from him for so long. I took him in a moment of inattention.” He paused. “I calculate that it took almost eight hundred years for him to slip.”

  Hugh sputtered angrily as Mathieu held up a second finger. “Two. Time flows differently between here and There. Your daughter has already experienced what will seem to be years of torment at the hands of a creature that literally lives for the sole purpose of causing fear, humiliation and pain. Her pain is its bread and meat.”

  “Three.” Mathieu held up another finger, this time placing his hand so close to Hugh’s face the man leaned backwards and away. “While the creature was weak when you gave it your daughter, it most assuredly is not by any means weak now. It will have increased its power a hundredfold by binding her, and it is simple for it to travel forth and spread misery and gather strength.”

  “Mathieu, focus.” Marcus unfolded from where he’d been sitting. “I hear what you’re saying about what went wrong. I understand that and I know you’re angry. We’re all angry. But we need to go forward from here, not look backwards. What do you suggest we do?”

  “What do I suggest?” Mathieu repeated the words numbly before jerking his head towards the woods. “Use William Ludlow’s legacy and activate that spell. Destroy that creature before it can do any more harm to anyone else.”

  Marcus went still. Dwayne spoke from the couch. “But wouldn’t that kill Manders too?”

  Mathieu tensed. His eyes glittered with unshed tears. “It would be a mercy.” He spat the words out at Hugh. “If only someone had done so for me in my hour of need.”

  “We can’t do that.” Jenn came to stand next to him and raised her hands as if to touch him. Mathieu visibly cringed away from her before she remembered and awkwardly folded them in front of her chest. “She’s an innocent victim, Mathieu. She didn’t do this. It wasn’t her fault.”

  “Innocent victim?” Mathieu regarded her coldly. “And what was I, I wonder? What did I do to bring such a fate upon myself? What did I do to deserve the loss of all the possibilities that my life held? What did I do to deserve losing you?”

  Jenn flinched at his anger. “You didn’t do anything. It wasn’t your fault either. Bad things happen and we can’t…” She stuttered to a halt and looked over at h
er husband.

  Marcus leaned forward and put his hand on her shoulder before speaking softly. “If we’d been there, if we’d known, we would have moved heaven and earth and There to get you back. Whatever it took, we’d do it because it would be the right thing to do. We weren’t there, and I’m so sorry. But I can’t change the past. If I could, I would. All I can tell you is that we wouldn’t have left you, and by the same rights, we can’t leave her.”

  The room was silent again as Mathieu stared at them both. His expression didn’t change but his eyes slowly warmed before he nodded stiffly. “Because it would be the right thing to do.” He wrapped his arms around himself as he walked slowly back to the window. “Because it would be the right thing to do,” he repeated as he shook his head slowly at his own reflection. With a deep breath he turned around, still hugging himself. “Very well. Since it is the right thing to do, what do you suggest?”

  Marcus squeezed Jenn’s shoulder before leaning forward. “I was kind of hoping you’d be able to come up with something, actually.”

  Chapter Thirty - Three

  Mathieu regarded the pile of letters on the kitchen table while the others ate. It was a tense meal, every person quiet and guarded.

  His skin crawled with the undercurrents of anger and fear in the room, but he held the darkness tightly coiled within. He had no desire of a repeat of last night’s fiasco, and further, no desire to show weakness in front of Hugh DeValle.

  Carol had offered him food again, and he’d politely refused again. He’d accepted the cup of coffee Marcus had made him, but used it mostly to warm his hands.

  Carol sat on his right, picking listlessly at her food. After a few minutes of this, she sighed and pushed away her plate. She leaned back in her chair and openly studied Mathieu for several long minutes.

  After a while, she leaned forward and softly whispered, “He’s wrong, you know.”

  Mathieu turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

  “Hugh. He’s wrong.” She smiled sadly. “You’re not just some echo of what you were. You’re just as real as any of us. Don’t let that bastard make you think that you aren’t.”

  Swallowing around a painful lump in his throat, Mathieu nodded.

  “I mean it.” Carol dropped her voice lower so that he had to lean closer to her to hear. “He just tells himself things like that so he doesn’t have to worry about the moral implications of doing what he wants. People who look for excuses listen to him and feel better about what they do, too. He does it all the time, trust me.”

  “I see.” And he did. The lines in her face were from both laughter and tears. “What lies did he tell about you?”

  She winced, her face tightening for a second before she regained control. “You’ve got a good eye for the details, don’t you?” She laughed softly to herself. “Who said what isn’t important anymore. I don’t think it ever was, really. It didn’t change the truth of the matter in any small way.”

  Mathieu considered this and then nodded slowly. He turned the coffee mug around in his hands, watching the cream and coffee slosh against the sides.

  “And this symbol brings in the influence of Venus, subverts it to Jupiter and ties the feelings in the bindee’s heart to the binder’s mind.” Hugh had unfolded a large piece of paper at the end of the table and was showing Marcus and Jenn the fruits of his research.

  Jenn nodded politely at Hugh and glanced over at her husband. Marcus looked vaguely nauseated. She reached over and gently folded her hand over his, threading her fingers between his and squeezing as Hugh continued, “You’ll have to help me with this, Jenn. You love her as much as I do and it takes two to do this right.”

  “I don’t know…” Jenn hesitated and Marcus cut her off.

  “You’re talking slavery, you know.” His voice was cold. “You want to bind a living, breathing person to an eternity of servitude with no choices, no free will, nothing. You don’t do that to people.”

  Hugh snarled, “You didn’t have a problem with the concept when you first met that one.” He gestured down the table in Mathieu’s direction.

  Marcus blanched. “That was before I knew we were dealing with a person. My perspective changed with the facts.”

  Hugh leaned forward and tapped the table. “The facts didn’t change, your interpretation of them did. You’re humanizing these creatures—they’re not people. They need the stability of a binding to keep them sane. It’s a kindness.”

  “A kindness. To enslave them? To enslave your own daughter?” Marcus paused and then asked, “Haven’t they suffered enough already?”

  “Suffering is a matter of perspective. If you tell them they’re happy, they’re happy. That’s the beauty of a compulsion.”

  “It’s disgusting. I won’t be part of it.” Marcus pushed the food around on his plate, not eating. “You don’t do that to people.”

  “Well, since I’m not asking you to be part of it, I’m good with that.” Hugh shifted his attention back to Jenn. “But I am asking for your help.”

  Jenn glanced over to Marcus, who wouldn’t meet her eyes. “I don’t know… I’m kind of with Marcus on this. I don’t think I could do something like that to another person.”

  “In a perfect world her mother would be here to help me but…” He shrugged as Jenn nodded.

  “I know. I miss her too.” Jenn shook her head. “But why do you need me?”

  “We need at least two because of the power drain, the emotional attachments. There’s also the need for control. There are lots of reasons, all of them equally important.”

  “Have you tested any of this?” Marcus’ voice was tight, almost strangled but Hugh chose not to notice.

  “Of course not. There’s only one other thing in the world in our reach that this could work on and that one isn’t likely to step foot in any circle we put down.” Hugh looked meaningfully down the table and locked eyes with Mathieu. “That said, I am confident if we do this correctly it will work on Amanda.”

  Mathieu looked away first, back down into the swirling liquid in his mug. He lifted the cup to his lips and drank, for the first time analyzing the mechanics behind the act. The liquid went past his lips into his mouth. He could feel the warmth, taste the sweetness and bitterness, feel the smoothness of the cream against his tongue. Then he swallowed and he could feel the warmth go down. And from there? Where? Was there any place else?

  He was still lost in thought, pondering that question when Jenn spoke his name. “Mathieu?”

  “Hmm?” He looked up and realized that everyone was staring at him. “Yes?”

  “We were just talking about what to do now.” Jenn half-shrugged. “You know, to bring Amanda back.”

  “Oh.” He carefully placed the mug back on the table. “And?”

  “And? And?” Hugh sputtered the words. “And what?”

  “My exact question to you.” Mathieu answered sharply. “Not that I would believe any answer you gave, mind you.”

  Marcus held a hand up and asked quietly, “Can we stop this crap now? It isn’t helping anything.” He still looked ill.

  Hugh settled back in his chair and crossed his arms. He nodded stiffly and looked at the wall behind Mathieu’s head.

  Mathieu looked at the table and traced the wood grain with his finger. “I would have one question answered before we start, Hugh. I read the spell your predecessor used to bind the creature to this house and found one detail rather perplexing, to the point that I need to know what happened. The spell bound the creature here and blocked it from There, as you well know.” Mathieu looked up and back down the table at the silver-haired man. “Where did its Familiar go? Was it freed? Was it destroyed? What happened to that poor soul?”

  Hugh’s face went blanker, if that was possible. “I don’t know anything about that. I wasn’t there.” He still stared at the wall.

  Mathieu nodded. “It was ripped from the creature. I know that much. I don’t know what happened to it after that. I was hoping that perhaps w
e could use that spell again, but I would not take the risk without knowing more.”

  Marcus nodded. “We could still try it.” His voice became more enthusiastic. “We know it’ll work on Gaap. It’s worked before.”

  “We don’t know if it’ll destroy your friend.” Mathieu said quietly. “I’m sure the preservation of the Familiar was the last thing on William Ludlow’s mind and I don’t know if your friend would be strong enough to shield herself.” He thought for a moment and then spoke again. “Perhaps also the creature would be on guard against that spell. Used once, it would be a surprise. Used again, maybe not. I don’t know.”

  “Maybe we can negotiate with it. Give it something it wants in exchange for Amanda?” Susan said quietly.

  “You don’t negotiate with these things. You know that as well as I do.” Hugh looked at her with a look of contempt. “You trap them, you bind them or you destroy them.”

  “I would have to agree with Hugh, revolting as that concept may be,” Mathieu said. “Everything comes down to power with them. And it seems with your kind as well.” He chose not to meet Hugh’s angry gaze and continued on. “In order to make a trade, you’d have to have something of such value that it would be willing to give up a bound Familiar.”

  “Like what?” Susan asked.

  “I don’t know.” Mathieu looked around the table and then back down at his mug. “They put a lot of effort into making one of us able to hold their power and memories. They wouldn’t give that up very easily.”

  “Can we trick it, maybe?” Eddie said. “Lure it here and somehow trap it? Get it to trade its freedom for Manders?”

  “Isn’t that what you tried with Gadreel? Not the trading, but the trapping? We all know how well that ended.” Mathieu never lifted his eyes from his mug as he spoke.

  “It ended pretty well because of you.” Eddie leaned forward and put his hand on the table next to Mathieu’s. “Because of you I’m still alive. I’m not going to forget that any time soon. I owe you one.”