by Jen Kirchner
I untangled myself from Veronica and lurched up from the ground. Veronica snatched the knife and swiped at my ankles. I hopped over her, barely escaping the blade, and fell against the concrete wall. Veronica scrambled to her feet. Furious, she raised the knife above her head, let out a deranged, unintelligible war cry, and charged.
I took off running into the maze of parked cars, with Veronica trying hard to keep up in her stilettos. I led her in a circle around a car and managed to come up from behind. When I tried to grab her, she got a burst of speed and ran into the back of the garage where light was scarce.
I didn't want her sneaking up on me with the knife, so I ran back to the elevators where the immortals were watching the scene with amusement. They were staring intently at the far left corner of the garage where it was too dark for me to see. Their gaze slowly moved toward the center, so I cut out the supernatural plane in that area and rolled it.
I heard a scream and a muffled slam. I started running to where she had landed and saw blue runes appear. I stopped dead in my tracks and ripped them out of the air. Smoke billowed from my body as the runes, now black, slapped against the wall in front of the gathered immortals. I heard gasps and even one frightened shriek.
“A necromancer!”
I was too busy worrying about Veronica to concentrate on them. I glanced at the now-blackened spell I had thrown up on the wall—Veronica was trying to throw something at me again.
“Another hubcap? Are you kidding?”
“It’s a hard spell!”
“Poor thing,” I said. “I'd hate for you to do any actual work.”
“At least I know how to respond to a guy's advances!”
“I’d be happy to set you up with Cody Springer,” I shouted back. “You two would be perfect for each other!”
She stepped into a pool of dim, yellow light. One hand was on her hip. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means he's a moron with money and you're a money-grubbing slut.”
I heard laughter behind me. Veronica’s face flushed to a deep shade of purple that I could see even from so far away.
“You are the worst necromancer ever!” she screamed. “And your new song sucks!”
My mouth fell open. Only my knives can insult me and get away with it! “Oh yeah? How about I give you another beating like the one I gave you the other night?”
I took off into the parking lot toward her. Veronica held her ground for a minute, but when I got near, she turned and sprinted away. We wove through the maze of cars. I took one turn too many and suddenly Veronica was chasing me again. We rounded the sharp corner of a wide, old Jeep, causing Veronica to stumble in her stilettos. I doubled back after her, but by the time I got there, she was already back on her feet and running away.
This was going nowhere. I had to trap Veronica somehow, but as long as she had the knife, I couldn’t get near her. Maybe I just needed a new tactic.
I headed for my car. When I got to the passenger side, I pretended to trip and fall.
“Ow!” I shouted. “My ankle!”
As I had hoped, she came running. I jumped into the car and shut the door behind me. My windows were still down, so I could hear the clumsy clacking of her heels at top speed. I scrambled to the driver's side and jammed my key into the ignition. Veronica plunged headfirst through the passenger window, swiping with her knife.
“I hate you!” she screamed.
“I hate you more!”
I turned the engine over and jammed my fingers on the window buttons, closing the windows as fast as I could. Veronica screamed and backed up, trying to get out before the window closed in on her chest. I grabbed her with one hand, trying to hold her in place. She slashed at me with the knife again, so I pulled her jacket over her head.
That maneuver worked against me. Veronica thrashed around and slipped out of the jacket, throwing me back against the door. I dropped it and grabbed for the only other thing in reach—Veronica’s long, glorious ponytail. Frantic, she jerked her head back repeatedly, each tug getting stronger until she pulled me forward and slammed her head on the ceiling.
“Go ahead!” she screamed. “Kill me like you killed Luucas!”
“Luucas isn’t dead, you idiot!”
She stopped struggling for a moment and looked up at me, breathing hard, her golden locks wrapped around my fist.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately, you’ve got bigger problems than that right now.”
“Like what?”
“Like how Mikelis is going to be here in two minutes, and he hates you even more than I do.”
Her panic renewed. She flailed her arms and bucked violently, trying to free her hair. I jammed my finger down on the window button again and moved my hand further down her ponytail, creating more space between the knife and me.
She slashed at me again and sliced through my sleeve. Her arms slipped out of the window and she started pushing against the door to get free. I reached for the gear stick and put the car in drive. We started to roll forward. She screamed again and slipped away a little more. Now her head was out of the car.
I slammed on the brake and closed the window all the way, trapping her hair. Our eyes locked briefly, then she looked up at her outstretched hair. I knew what she was going to do even before she raised the knife.
“Don’t do it!” I shouted.
I hit the gas, then stomped on the brake, trying to disrupt her movements. Blonde strands fell against the glass. Gas. Brake. Gas. Brake. She was going to be free within seconds. I hit the horn. A blast of sound erupted in the garage and ricocheted from every direction. Gas. Brake. More hair fell against the glass. In a last, desperate attempt to stop her, I waved my hand wildly, cutting out the supernatural plane and rolling it.
I wasn't aiming and I rolled the entire building. Two thin films wavered into my view: one covering the floor and one covering the ceiling. They flipped and collided into one another, causing a sharp pain in my head. Black dots swam across my vision. I heard screams and shouts. The plane snapped back into place. Veronica fell against the car and was free.
I threw the car into park and opened the door to jump out, but my legs were like jelly. The best I could manage was rolling out onto the cold concrete. I grabbed the car door and hauled myself up. I looked around. Veronica was gone.
EIGHTEEN
I grabbed the keys from the ignition. As I stood up, Mikelis appeared at the end of the ramp and came running toward me. His eyes took in the scene: the group in the hallway, the orange-handled knife on the ground, and the ponytail hanging from my car window.
He came to an abrupt halt. He looked down at the hair, then back at me. The process repeated twice more. He picked up Veronica’s knife. After our tussle, the black writing on the blade was smeared beyond recognition.
“Originally Veronica’s voodoo knife,” I said, “now a voodoo hair styler.”
Mikelis covered his face with one hand and started to shake with laughter. I couldn’t blame him.
“Eliana!”
I turned around and saw my parents’ closest friends, Marcus and Heraclitus, rushing toward me. Marcus, my slender Roman attorney, looked tidy despite having just been woken up, with his short, dark hair looking neat and a blue terry bathrobe that matched his slippers. Heraclitus looked his opposite, round and huggable with unmanageably curly blond hair, a pair of gray sweats, and an oversized green t-shirt that read “Stand back, I’m going to try science!”
“Are you all right?” Marcus asked. “Diaco had just phoned when I heard the commotion. Veronica is a very dangerous voodoo operative.”
“I think you’re giving her too much credit.”
Heraclitus gave me a once-over. “We heard you received a new telepath device.”
“I was going to put it on after I talked to him.”
He fixed me with a stern look that meant “Now.”
I grabbed my purse from under the driver’s seat and slipped the bracelet on. Imm
ediately, I became aware of Dad standing in a clean, sparse kitchenette, next to a nearly-empty coffee maker.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
My apology wasn’t accepted. He started shouting at me. I looked up at Mikelis, whose laughter had subsided somewhat, and unlocked my car so he could get a better look.
“What is that?”
I could only assume Dad was referring to the ponytail caught in my window, but I didn’t get a chance to answer. Everyone’s heads turned in the direction of the ramp. I tracked Luucas moving so fast his signal was skipping on Death Radar. Luucas stopped at the bottom of the ramp, looking furious. When he saw us all standing there staring at him, with Veronica nowhere in sight, he stormed up to me and unloaded his anger.
“I said stay in the car! What part of that was unclear? You could have been killed! And this—” He gestured to the hair, clearly at a loss as to how to punish me for unwanted hair removal. “She loves her hair!”
“She’s going to have to love it from afar,” I said.
Mikelis burst into another fit of laughter.
Through the new telepath, I could see Dad dialing on his cell phone. A few seconds later, my phone started ringing. I grabbed it from my purse and offered it to Luucas.
“It’s for you.”
Luucas took it and walked a few steps away. I explained to Marcus and Heraclitus how Brad and I found Luucas behind the grocery store. They looked furious.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Luucas. Finding Veronica was the priority, and I needed him to do it. And it worked—I followed Veronica here. She’s selling all of Luucas’s voodoo crap to someone who lives in one of your apartments.”
Heraclitus’s bushy brows furrowed even deeper and formed a scary unibrow.
“Surely not!” Marcus said. “Three of Luucas’s conservators live here.”
“Eliana,” Heraclitus said, “accusing a conservator of associating with Ruairí O’Bryne is more serious than you realize.”
I walked to the passenger side where Mikelis was standing, opened the door, and grabbed Veronica’s black coat off of the seat. A cloth bundle bulged in an inside pocket. I grabbed the bundle and unrolled the cloth, revealing the Ker’Mortan Dagger.
Dad shouted in alarm, filling my head with panic. Mikelis smacked my hand and sent the dagger flying away from us. Luucas grabbed the cloth and retrieved the dagger, but kept it covered.
“There’s your proof,” I said, swaying from voodoo-induced nausea.
Heraclitus started casting something at both Mikelis and me. It tingled on my skin and tickled my nose, but it helped.
Mikelis gave Luucas an apologetic look. “Kari may be right.”
Luucas’s eyes flashed a quick expression of offense. “I still say it’s impossible, but I’ll search to erase all doubt.” He pointed at me. “Stay here. Keep your bracelet on and don’t move.”
He walked away, calling out instructions and herding the group back to their apartments, leaving me alone with Mikelis.
“You can’t leave either?” I asked.
“No. Luucas will need me to perform more community service.”
I stared at him for a second, waiting for him to say he was kidding, but he didn’t. “Excuse me?”
He gave me a wry smile. “The castle I blew up belonged to Count Von Stuppe. He was a respected member of the Council.”
My mouth fell open. “But wasn’t he involved with Ruairí and the deaths in your family?”
“Yes, but I took the law into my own hands.” The way he said it gave me the impression that he didn’t take it very seriously. “Community service was the harshest punishment the Council dared to give a trigger-happy necromancer. I don’t care. Luucas can use the help.”
“When does your community service end?”
“When Luucas says so. He’s understaffed and I’m free labor, so probably never.”
We laughed and looked down at the elevators, where Luucas was gathered with three conservators. They were all watching us. Luucas beckoned in our direction, then called for Mikelis.
“Time to go to work,” he said, and walked away.
I grabbed Veronica’s keys from where they had fallen and decided I had time to investigate her car. I got as far as opening the front door and ducking inside before I heard my name.
I stood up. The group was still at the elevator and they were all looking at me.
“Will you come here for a second?” Luucas called.
I shut the door and walked down. Luucas introduced me as Kari, then introduced the three conservators. The short, Asian female was named Lumi. Her smile had warmth. When she said hello, I recognized her as the one who liked our new song. The second conservator was a stocky male with mousy, brown hair named Henri. He was the youngest of the three conservators by far and had very little personality that I could discern. When we shook hands, he seemed conflicted about meeting me. The third conservator was a tall guy with very tan skin and short, black hair. When we shook hands, he looked as if he feared contracting a disease. His name read Thaonawyuthe on his magical fingerprint, but Luucas introduced him as Thaon.
“You already knew our names,” Thaon snipped.
“I exercise something called manners. You should look into it.”
Mikelis grinned.
Luucas ignored us and continued. “There’s concern about something you did earlier. Veronica tried to throw something at you, and you did something odd with her spell that told you what she was trying to throw. Can you explain that?”
“Oh, sure. A spell is three layers of information sandwiched together. I just pull the layers apart so I can tinker around inside.”
“You what?” Dad asked.
“I’ll show you. Cast a spell.”
Luucas whispered a short command, and I pulled the runes out of the air. The spell was so basic that I didn’t need to separate the layers.
“I don’t know what it does because I can’t read a raw power. There are too many to memorize. But I can read the targets easily—it’s aimed at that door.” I pointed to the fire escape across from the elevator. “There’s a time placed inside the spell; that’s probably a duration. My guess is a short burst attack.”
“You can tell all that just by looking at it?” Mikelis asked.
“Sure. Can’t you?”
He didn’t answer.
“Stand back, please, Eliana.”
Dad started to cast a spell through me, causing a choking cloud of black smoke to swirl from my head to my toes. Black smears, like snakes, shot out from under my feet. I watched them swarm the area around me, then settle beneath the nearby fire door. The floor groaned.
“What is she doing?” Thaon demanded.
“She isn’t,” Luucas answered. “That’s Diaco Rendon. He watches her through a telepathic device on her wrist.”
Thaon had no snappy comeback for that.
I asked Dad, “Was I right?”
“Yes. One more please.”
I turned back to Luucas. “One more—and make it good this time.”
He paused, as if trying to think up something that would stump me. He muttered a strange chant. I had never heard anything like it before. Rather than words, they were simple grunts and guttural sounds. When the runes completed, I ripped it out of the air and threw it against the wall. I stared at it for a second. What I saw made me laugh.
“What is this?” I asked.
Thaon rolled his eyes. “She does not know the Yeng Fuling spell.”
“The what?”
His tone was sharp and full of offense. “Yeng Fuling created that spell.”
Puzzled, I took a few steps back to give myself some room, then I commanded the spell to separate. Three lines of black runes hovered in the air before me. Mikelis’s eyes widened. Dad choked on his coffee.
I rearranged the layers and pulled the name panel to the front. “There are three names in this spell. The first is the creator, the second is the necromancer who made later changes to the sp
ell, and the third is Luucas, because he cast the spell.” I shook my head at Thaon. “I’m sorry, but there’s no Yeng Fuling here.”
Thaon stuck his chin in the air. “Yeng Fuling was a very powerful mage. No one has been able to set off the spell since she died.”
“Let me guess; whoever can cast it is crowned king of the mountain?” Everyone except Thaon laughed. “I hate to break it to you, but unless you have a time machine, this spell is never going to work.”
“And why is that?”
I moved the layers around again. At the end of the exception panel was a long series of hashes and dots. I pointed to it.
“The Floor has a very basic numeral system. You can tell the numbers apart from the power symbols because they’re just hashes and dots. These marks at the end are an expiration date. The spell ceased to be operable 5,243 years ago.”
“Why would someone do that?” Lumi asked.
I shrugged. “So no one could use it anymore, I guess.”
I studied the exception panel for another minute. The parameters listed made me very nervous. The spell’s range was set for an enormous area, and it wasn’t picky about its targets. Whatever the power did, it did to everything in its path.
“Does anyone know what this spell does?” I asked.
“No one does,” Luucas said. “There are stories, but they could be exaggerated.”
“And yet everyone keeps trying to set it off?” I pointed at the runes hovering before me. “This is the most irresponsible spell I’ve ever seen.”
Thaon sneered. “So fix it, if you think you can.”
At the moment, I was prepared to do anything that would wipe that stupid look off his face. “Give me a target.”
He smiled and pointed to a blue Range Rover that few immortals would spend the money to buy. “Use my car. I also own the Honda next to it. You may target both with your spell.”
I removed the expiration date and pulled the symbols from Thaon’s two cars into the spell. The conservators jumped in alarm when the symbols floated through the air. Mikelis rubbed his jaw thoughtfully, but didn’t comment.
