Dream Magic

by Michelle Mankin

  “Such passion.” The demon’s dark grin widened. “I wish I could say that I didn’t understand it, but oh how I do. She was such a memorable feast the first time I sampled her. Thyme is a delicacy, is she not? I fear I’ve developed a craving for her myself.”

  “If you touched her you’re gonna die!” Billy roared. With a guttural battle cry, he launched himself at Apollyon crashing into the unprepared demon if he were the one with wings. Caution and strategy abandoned, Billy blasted Apollyon with a fierce undercut that lifted his hoofed feet off the ground several inches. The crack of connection as bone met bone echoed off the stone walls like a gunshot inside the chamber.

  Righting himself quickly, Apollyon straightened his spine and shrugged both shoulders as if only amused.

  His nonchalance seemed to enrage Billy. Face twisted, eyes turbulent turquoise, Billy pounded the Progeny with one rapid fire blow after another, his fists pummeling the demon’s midsection like a slab of raw meat. “We know the primordial brought her to you.” His heavy breaths puffed in and out, his punches the exclamation points to his words. “Give her back to me now or I will end you, I swear by the Creator.”

  In response, Apollyon threw back his crimson head back and laughed loudly.

  “Blade!” I shouted, realizing too late what was happening. The incubus demon had grown nearly a foot taller as he gorged himself on Billy’s rage. “Quell your wrath. He feeds upon it.”

  “Pissant piper.” Eyes narrowing, Apollyon flipped his staff end over end with the practiced ease of a Shaolin Monk. Ebony sparks crackled from its length and rained to the ground. He lifted it into the air, brought it back and then slammed it into Billy’s chest with such tremendous force that my brother’s body shuddered as if he had been electrocuted. Another well-placed blow followed on the heels of the first sending Billy backward through the air. He landed in a hard heap on the floor several yards away. The breath expelled from his lungs in a defeated sounding rush. Apollyon advanced as Billy wheezed. Without speaking Shane and I both moved but we were too late to stop the devil from jamming the sharp end of his staff against our brother’s throat. Without oxygen, Billy’s face quickly became ashen. Gloating, Apollyon stomped one cloven hoof on Billy’s chest.

  Wings snapping open, talons extending to lethal length, I went airborne intent on ripping Apollyon’s black heart from his chest but he casually turned his head and stopped me mid-flight with a single command.

  “Stop.”

  I dropped to the ground like a rock. My chin hit the floor first. I saw stars as my body crumpled around me and my brain lunged forward smashing into the front of my skull. Before I could even think about gathering myself again, Apollyon uttered, “Stay,” in a voice that was too compelling to refuse.

  Damn the Progeny and their power of coercion.

  “You, too, Lamar.” Apollyon’s words stopped Shane who had been in the process of attempting to creep closer while the sadistic demon had been distracted. “You are an embarrassment to our kind. If you possessed any intelligence you would embrace your darker side.”

  Sweat trickled down my spine as I fought internally with everything I had seeking to sever Apollyon’s hold. Twisting my gaze toward Shane, I noticed dots of perspiration lining his brow as he apparently attempted to do the same thing.

  “You both have chosen unwisely in allying with the piper,” Apollyon declared, but he was too quick to celebrate. He had underestimated our younger brother.

  Again.

  Billy grabbed the demon’s leg and shoved it away from his chest. Knocked off balance, Apollyon toppled momentarily losing his grip on his staff. It clattered to the limestone floor.

  I felt the Destroyer’s persuasive hold wavering. “Grab the staff!” I shouted at Shane. He was closer to Apollyon than I was. I snapped open my wings determined to help Billy this time.

  “No!” Apollyon snatched his staff away from Shane and lifted it into the air just as Billy came at him again. Billy was terribly outmatched brandishing only the obsidian switchblade I had given him. The two weapons clanged together and sparks arced to the floor, black from Apollyon’s staff and clear blue from Billy’s small blade.

  “What did you do to her?” Billy gritted out, still brazen, his passion fueling his fury though his feet slid backward and his arms trembled. Apollyon pressed his advantage, powerful Progeny pitted against his determined foe. He backed Billy up one step, then two. The skin on Blade’s face turned bright red under the strain.

  “What did I do to her?” The demon grew another foot in height. His chest expanded. “A better question is what did she do to me?” He certainly had never gotten over the scar Thyme had given him. His black eyes were as dark as his obsidian staff. He withdrew it so suddenly Billy stumbled. Before he could reposition Apollyon slammed the butt end of his staff into Billy’s hand knocking the switchblade from his grip. The ruler of the In Between took advantage immediately pinning Billy to a nearby column with the length of his staff under Billy’s chin. He lifted it higher and Billy’s feet came off the ground. Struggling for air, Billy’s face turned a disturbing shade of purple. He slid a hand into his pocket, but I was afraid it was too late. Without breath he couldn’t blow into his harmonica to summon the spirits to our aid.

  “These skirmishes between us grow tedious, Piper.” The demon sounded bored but he had diminished in size. It was obvious battling all of us had sapped him. Even a Progeny had limits. “Give me the harmonica.”

  “Take it if you want it,” Billy gritted out the challenge, his hand stilling above his pocket.

  “Clever ruse,” Apollyon purred. “But I know better. You must give it to me willingly. I would be knocked on my ass like Six if I tried to take it from you by force.” His gaze narrowed. “I don’t know why the night god’s talisman seems to think you are its proper master, but it matters not since it won’t be yours much longer. You fell into my trap so easily, Blade. And brought with you such interesting bonus prizes.” He grinned but then his head snapped as the door to his throne room suddenly slammed open.

  Expecting to see a legion of vampires and gargoyles responding to their master’s psychic call, I was surprised that there was only one.

  Bacchus.

  “What have you done with my daughter, Polly?” The god of wine’s usually serene muddy water eyes were dark violet beams.

  “Which one? You have so many.” Apollyon stalled but I was relieved to I discover that I was able to move one arm then a leg as Apollyon’s control over me weakened. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

  “You know very well who I mean, spawn of Hades.” Arla’s eyes flared as he regarded Billy who looked about ready to succumb from lack of oxygen. “Release the Piper,” Arla ordered his voice becoming as smoothly tempting as the richest wine.

  “Your sweet talk doesn’t work on me.” Apollyon’s thick lips curled. “And you have no authority here. Begone.”

  Billy’s eyes closed and his head lulled over.

  “I would think twice before I murdered any more immortals if I were you.” Arla stalked steadily closer. “Your father would not be happy to know that you are continuing to cause trouble. He might find someone else to take your seat on the Council, no?”

  “You are a Light Immortal. You have no idea what makes my father happy.” His black eyes sparked with a dark flame. “I would worry about my own father if I were you. Last I heard you weren’t even his favorite anymore. A made immortal not fit to grace the Council. Undeserving and utterly useless. And a drunk too. “Arla flinched. “How dare you enter my chambers and falsely accuse me? Where is your evidence of these ‘murders’? Where are your witnesses?”

  My eyes widened as the threads of Apollyon’s wicked web came together. I had assumed Laveau had disappeared of her own volition to avoid punishment when the truth about the pendant she had helped Apollyon create had become known. But perhaps I had been mistaken. Had the Prince of Darkness gotten rid of her preemptively because she knew too much? He had a new spe
ll caster now. Maybe Laveau wasn’t indispensable as I had supposed. With Laveau and Thyme out of the equation there would be no more witnesses left except for Shane, and he had fallen beneath Apollyon’s blade before Thyme had been murdered. Apollyon was a masterful liar. He would convince the Council that he had no prior knowledge about the pendant’s nature and thus no culpability.

  “Thyme.” Billy exhaled her name and went completely limp drawing everyone’s attention as his body slid to the floor. Arla crossed the room, a purple staff with a jagged thistle materializing within his grip. He slammed it down hard knocking Apollyon’s own weapon loose. In a shower of purple sparks the black staff skidded several paces away.

  The incubus demon howled as blood poured out of a deep gash in his arm. On the floor, Billy stirred gasping for air.

  I had never imagined Bacchus as a force to be reckoned with. I resolved never to underestimate the god of wine again.

  “My daughter,” Arla reminded Apollyon, the jagged crest of his staff like a broken beer bottle against the ruler of the In Between’s neck. “Where is she?”

  “I have no idea.” The demon licked his thick lips as if testing the air for emotions he could use to increase his strength. “She was here, certainly but after I told her that I wasn’t interested in rekindling our romance she left in a huff.”

  “You son of a bitch!” Billy croaked hoarsely. He staggered to his feet. My limbs working again, I moved to stand beside him.

  “Remain calm this time,” I reminded him. “Apollyon is goading you again on purpose. Let Arla handle this.”

  “C’est ça, couillon.” You are a fool. Bacchus dug the thistle top further into Apollyon’s flesh and a trickle of dark blood dripped from the demon’s neck. “I suggest you reconsider your reply or I just might go ahead and separate your foolish head from your worthless body.”

  The demon’s eyes flared. “That’s the only answer you’re going to get, false Progeny.” He crooked a finger toward the spell caster.

  Too late I remembered the woman who had remained completely silent watching the events unfold. She spoke a single arcane word and the candlelit sconces exploded. The room was plunged into total blackness, a conjured darkness that my night vision could not penetrate. By the time that the eldritch spell had dissipated, Apollyon and his arcanist were gone.

  I rushed straight up the stairs to her apartment, my chest tightening just thinking about all that had happened and the grim news I had come to share.

  “How does he fare?” I asked Arla as he opened the door to let me in. Before I had left Billy had been pacing the apartment, so agitated that we had considered sedating him.

  “He’s not good.” He stepped out of the way and gestured to the living room where Billy sat in a chair in the corner, his body hunched over his knees, a blanket around his shoulders, shivering. His unfocused feverish eyes met mine.

  “What did Samuel say?” He tried to push out of the chair. The blanket slid away. His arms quivered.

  I crossed to him. “Sit,” I insisted, and he collapsed backward.

  “Shit,” he breathed. The flicker of hope in his eyes extinguished. Folding my wings tighter to my shoulders, I pulled up a chair and took a seat opposite him. “Don’t try to spare my feelings, brother. Tell it to me straight.”

  “That’s what I plan to do, but I would prefer to do the telling only once.” I glanced around the room. “Where is Shane?” He too was a target. We all were since we had confronted Apollyon as a group. Staying together was critical now.

  “He went back to the Desolate Lands. He’s goan to try to track the primordial.”

  “Even with his demon sense of smell it is doubtful that he will be able to find the creature. And it is even more unlikely that the primordial will have any information we can use.” I exhaled heavily as Arla took a seat on the sofa. We exchanged a disheartened glance. I don’t think he had any idea what I was about to share. But he knew Apollyon well enough to expect the worse. I fixed my gaze on Billy placing a steadying hand on his shoulder. His skin felt feverish to my touch. But even in his weakened condition I wasn’t going to soften the truth. I would omit nothing, the way I would have wanted it if it had been me in his place. “Apollyon’s new spell caster has transformed Thyme.”

  “Transformed her?” Billy asked. “What does that mean?”

  I rubbed a talon carefully across my lips. “I do not understand the process all that well myself. I just know that not many would dare to attempt it. It is a complicated spell. The ingredients are difficult to secure. And it is forbidden.” I lifted my eyes meeting Billy’s desperate ones, but I stayed the course and didn’t parse my words. “Transforming involves turning someone into something else. It changes the DNA at the cellular level with unpredictable results.”

  “No,” Billy croaked the denial. His voice was as hoarse as when Apollyon had hung him on his staff. He closed his eyes. When he reopened them he was paler than before. “Can it be reversed?”

  “I believe so. Thyme is strong. If anyone can recover from such an insult it is she.”

  Billy nodded. “So we find her and switch her back.” He was decisive and determined like our father.

  “Yes. In theory.”

  “Samuel doan know where she is, non?”

  “No he doesn’t.”

  “Aborder” Fuck. Arla cursed in Cajun.

  Billy made a low sound of protest. “But we will find her. We won’t give up. Someone must have seen something. Right?”

  “Of course we will not give up,” I assured him. “Samuel might not know where they took her after the transformation or what she has become. But he knows she is not within the castle anymore. I only spoke with him briefly. I did not want his absence to arouse suspicion. I need him to remain, to be our eyes and ears. He did give me this. It was all that remained in the last place that she was seen.” From the inside pocket of my flight jacket pocket I withdrew a short tuft of black fur and offered it to Billy.

  He shuddered as he touched it, his eyes filling and I knew.

  “Then it is from her?” I asked him for confirmation, dread chilling my bones to the marrow.

  “Yes,” he breathed crushing the strands of soft hair in his tight grasp. “I can sense her now. It’s difficult to explain.” His eyes turned unfocused. “Her thoughts. She was frightened when this was done to her.” He swallowed. “Now she is cold…confused.” He closed both hands into fists and dropped his head onto them.

  “Can you communicate with her?”

  “No.” Billy groaned. “I’m trying, but it’s like she has withdrawn into a shell.” He remained in his chair but his frame went visibly stiff. “Thyme. Ty, boo. Please, baby. Let me in.” I leaned forward. Arla did, too. Seconds ticked by that felt like minutes. When he lifted his head, his gaze was wild.

  “What did she say?”

  He shook his head. A strangled sound escaped his lips.

  “Blade.” I stood grasping Billy firmly by the shoulders. “Focus. What did she say? What did you see? Everything is important at this point. Everything is a possible clue.”

  “She hurts.”

  “Fils de putain.” Filthy son of a bitch.

  I swallowed. “And…”

  “She wants to die.” His eyes filled. “I told her she couldn’t.” He hit me with his raw gaze. “I saw flashes, Morpheus. Her with Apollyon. What he did to her. The humiliation. The pain. Her shame.” He pulled in shaky breath.

  “Maybe what you saw was from the past.” Creator, I hoped it was. With every fiber of my being, I prayed that he hadn’t raped her again.

  “But it wasn’t Laveau with her. It was the woman in the red robe.”

  Silence crashed over us. I felt like I was drowning in dark water, my lungs filling with the acrid taste of my failure. The same emotion darkened Billy’s eyes.

  “You tell my daughter to stay alive,” Arla declared fiercely. “You tell her we are coming for her. You tell her…” He trailed off and his voice was softer when he
continued. “Tell her that you love her Billy. That you always will. She knows how you feel about her. Tell her to remember that.”

  Billy nodded, closing his eyes again. “She has gone to sleep,” he announced a few seconds later.

  “Did she listen? Did you get through to her?”

  “I think so, Morpheus.” He sighed. “I hope so. Her thoughts are strange. I don’t know how to explain it.” He looked frustrated and more on edge than I had ever seen him.

  “Ok, Billy. It’s ok. We’ll get her back.” I sank into my chair. “Did you get any sense where she is?”

  “I saw only clouds in a night sky over a great expanse of water. Before the connection broke, I heard a soft sound…like purring.”

  “She is a feline,” Arla guessed.

  “I believe so.” I nodded once. “This tuft matches that of a small creature. I believe Apollyon may have wanted her in a form that would be easy to transport and conceal.” Apollyon was the devil indeed. Transformation was a cruel thing to do. I would not have wished it on my worst enemy. Yet he did it to dear sweet Thyme. For that he would pay with his life. If it didn’t happen at Billy’s hands, then it would happen by mine.

  “Can you find her in the dreamscape?” Billy asked softly breaking through my murderous thoughts.

  I shook my head. “There are billions of dreamers within the scape. Sentient beings I can trace. The thoughts of animals are simple and small. And not knowing for sure what she is…” I trailed off. It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack.

  Billy made a distressed sound low in his throat.

  “You two are connected,” I stated firmly. “We can use that to find her.” But we needed to act fast because as she suffered he would suffer, and if she lost her sanity or sense of self so too would he. His condition would serve as our barometer to gauge hers.

  “Does Samuel know who might have taken her away?”

  “He suspects. One of the gargoyles is missing. He and I believe he made off with her.” I leaned forward again and clasped Billy’s shoulder trying to pretend that I didn’t see the wet sheen of his eyes. “Blade, do not despair. She is not dead. We will find her. I promise you.”