“So she can run off and find yet more people to get underfoot?”
“Look, Bessie, it’s just this. Why would I lay the dispersal so you can use a vampire army to do whatever, and you can do whatever you want to my friends and associates here?”
Mary laughed. Bessie shushed her.
“Is this the bit where I tell you all my evil plans?” she said. “Very well, it will probably serve to settle your mind. We started a security company. Now we have workers who are perfectly obedient and don’t require salaries. The money we make will fund our own personal research projects, a little more floor space on campus, and our own institute here for occult studies. It became clear to us that we simply could not get by on the resources the university provides, not for our cover careers, let alone our sorcery. So there you are. Finish your occult PhD, and we might even consider you for membership. Once you are done, you can all go. You can even take your pet with you -- I understand how the young do form these attachments. Our evil plan is nothing more sinister than to seize the resources we were promised upon being granted tenure. Taking nothing more than what is ours, than what we need to do our research properly. It is all for the greater good, you must agree.”
Under the manic gleam of her stare, Sean decided not to argue any further, except, “Okay, but Rhea goes with me.”
* * * * *
The floor of the loft was unfinished chipboard, smooth and blank. Sean asked for and was supplied with blueprints for the house and the property, tacks, markers, and a couple of reference books for the glyphs. He chewed the nub of his thumbnail, wondering what the hell they were doing with Thane down in the kitchen. With the command amulet on him, he might not be able to defend himself at all. The irony of Sean’s fears was not lost on him. Perhaps the elder thought the same about me. Just how many times can I let the poor man be passed from master to master? How can I be sure the best one to hold him is me?
Mary watched over him and Rhea grimly. Rhea sat back up against the corner of the cramped room, untied but with her duct tape gag left on.
“Don’t touch that,” Mary said, hefting the heavy Taser in her hand. “This is kit for the new security guards. Pull the little trigger, and wire shoots out and gives you one hell of an electric shock. Very painful, I’m told, but not fatal. So there’s no reason for me not do it, just for the hell of it. So you keep the gag on and don’t do anything, and you --” She waved the broad barrel at Sean. “-- get going, and hope I don’t decide to try it out on you. I’ve got no reason not to.”
Sean was tapping in tacks to lay the pattern, one he was improvising desperately as he went. “I imagine it would be debilitating enough that I couldn’t draw the glyphs correctly, and then you could go and explain to Herr Bessie why she doesn’t get her dispersal spell by nine.”
Mary huffed, but her lack of reply seemed like a concession. Sean got to work, there hardly seeming to be enough time to carry out such a complex preparation. Especially as he was trying to conceal a second working within it.
He kept thinking of the vampires down in the basement. He couldn’t let them be taken as slaves. Thane had made him realize that everything he thought he knew about vampires was just rumor and prejudice. He just couldn’t let Bessie get away with this. Gradually his mind slipped into the old patterns where words were gone, just shapes and patterns reaching out in all directions, passing through the two dimensions of the loft floor. He felt the matter of belief fold and flex under his will even before the diagramming gave it proper shape. Something to make people disregard the house, believe it was gone. But he left a few open connections so that the energy drawn into the pattern would be released rather than stored and put to use. Just minor differences.
Mary kept leaning over, pressing her fingers to the threads to ken what he was doing. She looked grudgingly satisfied, but Sean was pretty sure she was bluffing; the working was complex enough to go over her head. After a while, Bessie came up to check on him, even crouching to carefully inspect his work, apparently satisfied by what she saw. Only after she had gone did he make another series of adjustments.
It was dawn when he made the moves that, like the crucial folds in complex origami, gave the spell its basic form. From there it was only a matter of systematic detail and repetition. Effectively the house was dying in the minds of all who were capable of thinking about it or looking at it. Although similar to the old spell he had created, its scope was far broader, reaching if it must around the globe to all human minds. The increase in scope was not particularly difficult, as people at greater distances were also proportionately less likely to concern themselves with a specific address half a world away. Sealing the extent of the spell, fixing its form, he felt the energy of his body escaping through the fingertips he pressed to the complex strung and drawn mandala. But he wasn’t sure it had worked until the final twist and knot.
The crucial difference: the spell drew its power not from practically all the earth, but only from any magic worker who dwelt inside it. It was pulling on him now; the others must be feeling it, too. In effect, the house was a magical vampire. Mary shivered, pulling her jacket over her. Then there was a clatter on the stairs.
Bessie burst in, stepping aside to let Thane enter. “Seize him,” she said.
Thane stepped up quite dispassionately and grabbed Sean by the arm. But somehow Sean knew he was trying to fight it. His whole body was bulging with muscles that seemed to be fighting against themselves.
“You cannot believe this is a sensible plan,” Bessie snapped. “I need only kick aside this pattern, delay my other plans for a day or two. But I suggest you fix this so it doesn’t drain us. Do it now. Thane, give him some motivation.”
Sean had no choice but to gamble that the Drull binding was still somehow in force. Thane reached for his throat. “No, don’t,” Sean croaked. “You have to stop them, Thane. Get Bessie and Mary out of this room.” And partway through the motion, Thane’s expression softened and he turned. In lightning-fast motions, he reached both Mary and Bessie and flung them out the hatch to clatter down into the living room. It was fortunate enough that they went in that order, as Mary’s ample frame broke Bessie’s fall, albeit with a loud ‘ooph’. Thane slammed shut the hatch and closed the lock.
“Thane?”
“At your service,” the vampire replied with a grin. “So hang in there; you’re doing great. Now, what’s the plan? What was the crazy granny talking about?”
Bessie’s voice came dimly up through the floor. “Open this door!”
And Sean watched in horror as Thane jerked to obey. It seemed their commands and his binding were both still effective. He leapt at Thane, fumbling and finding the string of the sorcerers’ amulet. Rhea leapt to help them, but the latch was drawn back and the hatch starting to open as he dragged the amulet off and threw it aside.
“Shut it, shut the door!” he yelled.
Pinching a couple of fingers, they all pushed together and got it closed again. A whoosh hit the door, and a sound of burning. One of Bessie’s followers’ elemental magics, no doubt, but that one wasn’t going to do the trick. The spell was a significant one, and releasing the power it gathered rather than energizing the pattern, it would be effectively insatiable. Drawing on half a dozen practitioners, it would exhaust them very quickly. And Sean hadn’t been feeling too good to begin with.
With a sigh, Sean sank to his knees. Rhea ripped off her tape gag with an emphatic expletive.
“Sean, what the hell is going on? What’s wrong?” she said, kneeling by him.
Thane stayed braced across the hatch. “What’s going on, Sean?” he echoed. “What are you doing, and how can we help?” He reached out one hand to Sean, but Sean didn’t have the strength to take it.
“They wanted a spell to make the house vanish,” he explained wearily. “I gave them that, but with a little vampire-inspired twist.” He laughed quietly.
There was frantic conversation downstairs. “It will get you before it gets us!” Bes
sie shouted up at him as the others pounded on the door and tried to break through the ceiling. Looking up, he saw a sprinkler system in the eves. All she had to do was realize that, use her lackey’s fiery ability or just a handy lighter to set them off, and smudge the working.
Sean closed his eyes and prayed for panic to blind them. It was surely beginning to swamp his own mind.
Thane leaned over him. “That thing you made on the floor, what is it doing?”
“It’s drawing power from all the practitioners on the property and releasing it.”
“And when it’s released all the power?”
“We die.”
Thane looked over the pattern at him, his face creased into a sudden frown. “I can fight them. I can beat them,” he said. “I can’t let this thing get you as well as them.” He was clearly within a moment of stepping forward and ripping up the pattern.
“No! Thane, the weapons they have can certainly kill me and probably you. And even if we get away, there are the others in the basement, left at their mercy. Trust me, this can work. They’re academic sorcerers, middle-class and used to comfort. They’ll cave long before the draining is actually dangerous. We have time. The bluff will work.”
A gunshot rang out, and then another, but there must have been some solid rafters under the chipboard. It was quieter beneath them after that. There were faint sounds, curses and footsteps at the front of the house. Thane stepped away from the hatch; he seemed to waver, stepping over to Sean. The ordinary touch of his hand, falling on Sean’s shoulder, gave Sean immense strength.
In a strange vivid flash, he remembered what Thane had said after the elder had attacked him in the apartment. Loving someone deeply gives you courage. It was Lao Tzu; he’d heard it once, way back as a bored undergrad in a philosophy class, but now he heard it clearly in his mind. Not just the part, but the line that came before it: Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength.
Sean’s vision was fogging, but he found it was not difficult to stand and walk over to the pattern.
“Make sure they’re off the property. Outside the gate,” he said. “Please, Thane. All of them must be outside the property line.”
“If this thing is going to hurt you, I’m going to break it,” Thane said tersely.
“No, make sure they’re off, and I can fix it. I have ... a little time yet.” He turned to Thane and smiled. He felt a strange, still feeling deep inside. “I know my limits. But I also know my strengths. I’m fine. A few more minutes will be no problem.”
Thane took him at his word, flinging open the hatch and trotting swiftly down into and across the now empty room below.
Sean found the loose thread with a trembling hand. He leaned forward on his hands and knees and held the thread next to the pin, waiting. There was a shout and a scuffle, but he couldn’t tell if it was far off, or just being drowned out by the buzzing in his ears. He waited, and waited.
Rhea peered out the hatch, watching for Thane’s return. “Hang in there,” she said. Then a relieved, “Here he comes.”
Finally Thane vaulted up next to him, “I threw the last one over the fence myself. It was still dark enough to get a good loft on the bitch. Do it. For God’s sake, shut this thing down.”
“Not shut it down, just fix it. That’s why they had to be outside.” He tied off the knot that released the power, then the one that drew specifically on denizens of the property. Within a few moments, the draw faded to a much lower level and spread out to pull from the ambient energy of the region, reversing the funnel effect.
“She Tasered me,” Thane said with annoyance, shaking out his arms and hands. But he didn’t seem hurt, just annoyed.
“Now we see how well this works,” Sean said.
Thane had to help him get to his feet and all but carried him down from the loft. His cool touch was like an anchor in a world that barely seemed real anymore. From the great big second-story window in the room below, they could see the party of sorcerers standing on the pavement across the road, looking about with consternation. They started to wander along the street, craning their heads and arguing amongst themselves. But it did seem that from their point of view, the house had disappeared.
“They’ll probably work a way around it in time,” Sean said, leaning on Thane for support. “But until then, we have a bulkhead. And I have a basement full of vampires. I suppose I had better decide what to do about that.” Figures. In trying to get rid of one vampire, I end up with a dozen more.
“I think you should talk to them,” Thane said. “Now that those sorcerers are pissed off, you’re going to need allies.” He kept his arm protectively about Sean, as if unwilling to let him go. Sean was in no mood to complain about that; he could barely keep his feet. But Thane was right -- the vampires needed to be dealt with. And then there was the matter of the accord leaving not only him but also Laura as vulnerable solitary practitioners.
It was a peculiar little convocation. The vampires milled around in the basement as he addressed them from the stairs, explaining the situation.
Partway through, the elder cut across him. “Someone seize this mewling witch. He has made a perfect lair for our use.”
The tall, gaunt young man stepped towards him, and some of the others glared. But Sean fancied it was not just Thane by his side that made the man hesitate.
The girl stepped forward and spoke. “This witch warned us that the elder was placing us in danger,” she said, looking around at the others. “You all heard me, as his lieutenant, question the wisdom of coming to this place.”
“I told you, didn’t I?” Sean said, seizing the opening she was giving him. “You are following the wrong leader. He makes bad decisions and does little more than benefit from the effort of others. You can do better than that ...”
“My name is Scarlet.”
“Suits you.”
The girl smiled. The elder stepped forward, but she turned on him even before Thane started to move forward.
“Brown, Shill, we are done, I think, with the elder. Hold on to him.”
The elder’s face creased with anger, and combined with the memory of his attack, it made Sean step back. But it seemed the girl had some influence; her two cronies, the tall man and the big punk, seized him.
“Put him out,” she said.
And despite his protests and threats, they took him out of the house. Trailing up the stairs, the entire company saw him put out onto the street with a shove.
The girl turned to Sean. “The era of our so-called elder is over, and ours begins. This is the age of Scarlet, and I will count the house as yours and you our nominal leader, in return for the use of this house. It is a unique resource only to the extent that you are.”
“I was not planning on using the house indefinitely. It does not belong to me. Nor do I see how I can lead vampires.”
She laughed. “Come on. If nobody else can find the place, it’s clearly yours. And by its nature, it’s a place of safety as we, all of us, age and become more susceptible to the daylight. They will follow me; I will follow you. It is necessary to give us a leader who will think, who will give these people a way to live rather than just someone who gets off on having followers. Who can use the magic that we have seen can so easily enslave us. I’ve been thinking about this, and it is the only way to make this work, to keep my -- our -- people safe.”
Sean leaned upon the windowsill. “I will not be part of crime,” he said. “Your people harming others. Even theft. Although the house belongs to the university properly, really. But a little hypocrisy must be accepted in any leader, I suppose.”
His head was spinning, but all through it Thane stayed by his side, a solid, supportive presence.
“You provide the house, and I will make sure the cats are kept under control,” Scarlet promised without apparent reservations. “I am acting as your kingmaker for the very reason that you will provide a steadying influence, a more normal life.”
She was too damned overconfident. Tha
ne leaned in, perhaps sensing how Sean rejected this idea out of hand. “Consider the offer seriously, Sean. The vampires can be a power base, a group to protect you against being dropped from the accord. If they accept this woman as the new elder, they will obey her. If she will follow you, she will enforce your methods and morality throughout the group. They can, between them, support the cost of the house, protect it and you.”
Thane’s eyes flicked from Sean to Scarlet. “I know her,” he said. “She has been angling partly for the elder’s favor and partly for his position for years. And she is very capable, for all that she is young. The two of you together could achieve a great deal. And if she double-crossed you, she would have to deal with me.” That last a promise of his own, delivered more to Scarlet than Sean.
Sean looked between them, and in the great living room, the other vampires, young men for the most part, looked on. Some men have greatness thrust upon them. Well, what could he do but try and make it work? These were Thane’s people, and regardless of that, they were clearly people -- ones who some kind of magic-worker had cruelly manipulated.
“They’d work?” Sean said of them. “Contribute, I don’t know, rent, and protect everyone in the house from any threat?”
“It is the lair for all of us, your house, and my people. Together,” Scarlet said. She still looked like a pretty hostile young woman, but maybe that was just her habitual expression. It was not truly in Sean’s heart to trust her yet, but she was certainly the enemy of his enemy. Sean felt a weak wash of panic; he was wading in cultural mores he did not understand. But he looked to Thane and saw encouragement, support, faith -- a different kind of promise. Standing straight again, he faced her.
“That white-haired bitch tried to make us slaves,” Scarlet pressed, and for the first time he saw that she clearly wanted, needed, his cooperation, for whatever reason. That much seemed sincere. “And now she’s after you. That’s a beginning. We’ve each got half the solution -- the house, the people. We can make it work. You’ve got the magic; we’ve got the muscle.”
The Wicca-Man: Tongue-Tied Page 9
