by J. P. Sloan
I kind of liked her, to be honest.
The trip was easy to navigate. Nearly nothing ever changed in Delmarva, least of all the highways and byways. I guided Julian through the flat lands of corn fields, soy beans, and commercial chicken operations to the tiny patch of land that housed Annarose and her makeshift animal rescue.
At least, that was what I had expected.
What I hadn’t expected, and what was in fact what greeted my eyes as we pulled up to the front of the property, was a renovated brick-veneered structure with a tiny parking lot at the front.
Julian lingered on the street before turning to me. “Should I park here, or what?”
“I honestly have no idea.”
“You called this person, right? I mean, they know you’re coming?”
“She didn’t have a phone last time I dealt with her.”
Julian sighed. “So, this may be someone completely unrelated, and we just drove an hour and a half for nothing?”
“You’re judging me, aren’t you?”
Julian pulled into the parking lot alongside a Subaru crossover.
“Okay,” I muttered, “hang out here. I’ll see if this is, like, a yoga studio now or something.”
I pulled my aching body out of the Volvo and stepped up the freshly-paved parking lot to the front of what was once a ramshackle clapboard farm house with a creepy-ass goat that used to glare at me from around the corner of the porch.
That was, regrettably, before it was beheaded and used as a curse against my client. But that had largely been an enormous misunderstanding.
I knocked on the door, and the first face I saw was very familiar, and that alone was an enormous relief.
“Mister Lake!” Sarah Camp screeched as she reached out and gave me the fourth painful hug of the day.
“Hey there, Sarah. Okay. Okay!” I eased away, trying without any appreciable amount of success to conceal my physical pain. “How’s tricks?”
She stood with hands on her hips. “Well, I mean. Wow! Dorian effing Lake!”
She actually said “effing.”
“Yep. In the flesh.”
“What’s going on?” she chirped, a blithe smile painting her face.
“Well, actually, funny you should ask.”
“Oh, what am I doing? Come on in!”
I lingered by the door jamb. The last time I’d crossed this threshold, I was jackhammered by a Stregha witch’s inhospitable wardings. It wasn’t an experience I was eager to experience again.
Sarah peered over my shoulder. “Wait, who’s that with you?”
“Oh, him? Nah, don’t worry about him.”
“Oh, come on. Can’t leave him sitting in the car.”
Before I could protest, she whistled with an ear-shattering two-fingered cow call that Julian could have heard if he were still at the tavern in downtown Baltimore. He killed the engine and stepped out.
“Sarah, really,” I groaned. “I’m here to see Annarose.”
Her face fell into a mix of rebuke and disappointment. Looked like I had really stepped into it this time.
“Oh,” she whispered.
“Not that I’m not completely, thoroughly astonished at what you’ve done here,” I attempted. “I mean, what’s going on?”
Her face perked right back up, and she grabbed my arm and jerked me inside. There was no energy wall to speak of, only the baseline threshold of people who actually call a house “home.” Definitely not Annarose’s work, and that bothered me on a profound level.
Julian stepped inside after us, beaming and extending his hand.
“Hello there,” he chimed in a tone I hadn’t heard since the first day I met him at the Club. “Julian Bright.”
“Hi. I’m Sarah.”
I took a quick inventory of the place. It had been completely renovated. Instead of warped floorboards and dusty herbs hung around the kitchen to dry, the space had sheetrock and oriental rugs and fresh coats of paint.
“You’ve done a lot with this place,” I said.
Sarah smiled and took a quick walk around what appeared to be a common-use area with a large television and a game console.
“It’s our home.”
“And by ‘our,’ you mean…?”
Another girl rushed down the new staircase from what was now a second story, halting as she spotted us.
“Oh,” she blurted.
Sarah gestured to her. “Our coven.”
Julian extended a hand to the newcomer as well, but she demurred and slipped around us for the kitchen.
I inspected a bookshelf built into the underside of the stairs. Several books on witchcraft and basic nature worship. Mostly primers, but I recognized more than a couple of the authors.
“You’ve built yourselves an honest-to-Goddess covenstead? Good for you!”
She sighed and nodded. “It’s been work, but we’re making it so far. Lets us share expenses while we study.”
“Nice.”
Julian ran a hand over the leather sofa in front of the television. “You should try this, Dorian. Sharing expenses? Their furniture is much nicer than yours.”
“Not really a group-think kind of guy, Julian.” I turned to Sarah. “But that’s a good point. How did you afford all of this?”
She turned her head and walked toward the back door. “The lawsuit.”
“Lawsuit?”
“Yeah. We used the money to build.”
She opened the back door and led me out to a new multi-level deck with vine-draped arbors and stands for candles. Beyond the deck, nestled in a series of box hedges arranged in a maze, stood a stone-paved circle. It was meticulous and impressive, but my stomach soured as I ruminated over what was missing.
“Sarah? Where are all the animals?”
A voice slithered from the side of the deck, husky, laced in an Old World inflection. “They took them all.”
I turned to find Annarose Rodolfi lounging in a white wicker papasan chair. She wore a thin, dark dress that hung off a shoulder. Most of her hair was pulled up into a chaotic bun with a few strands of jet black ringlets falling alongside her temples. Her eyes were sharp, dark points of vicious will boring a hole through me.
I gave her a smile and actually bowed a little.
Her eyes shifted to Julian. “Who is this?”
“Oh, this is Julian Bright. He’s my business partner.”
“Is he a side-speaking Lodge weasel, like yourself?” she asked with a sharp smirk.
I couldn’t clamp down the laugh that shot out of my throat.
Julian cleared his throat and approached her. “Alas, not yet.”
“So, a student?” she prodded.
“Not as such,” Julian answered. “At the moment, I’m really more of a chauffeur.”
He held out his hand.
She considered it for a moment, then bent her hand into the air. He took it and kissed her knuckles. It was a little slice of baroque theater, but Annarose seemed to appreciate it.
She unfolded her legs and stood up before releasing his hand. Her eyes shifted to the back yard circle as she stepped closer to me.
“They were my babies. But they were suffering.”
I whispered to Julian, “She ran a kind of animal rescue. Got heat from the county for it.”
Annarose stepped beside me, her eyes still gazing into the past, to a time when fences and pens extended down her back acreage to the tree line beyond. Thin, wounded, neglected animals, either healing under her care or enjoying a moment of peaceful dignity before they passed.
“The county sent more letters. Then they came with trucks,” Annarose lamented. “And in a day, they were all gone.”
Sarah chimed in, “So we sued their butts!”
I looked over to Sarah. “You sued the county?”
Sarah clarified, “Well, not the county. The people they hired to transport the horses and sheep. Annarose had me follow them a while. Turned out they sold them to a kill-buyer, which was against their contrac
t with the county. I took photos and brought them to a lawyer.” She held up her phone.
Annarose smiled at Sarah.
“She was my angel.”
Warmth spread through my chest as I observed the thin smile on Annarose’s face. She had been so angry before. So aloof. Apparently, Sarah had an impact. Hell, Annarose even looked younger, somehow… which probably wasn’t due to magic. Probably.
Annarose waved her hand up at the renovated house. “And so we had money, and she asks if we should adopt more animals. I was tempted, but… this had been my task for so long. I felt my time was finished.” She squeezed Sarah’s shoulder. “It was time for new blood.”
I asked, “How many do you have living here?”
Sarah answered, “Almost nine. Most of the rest are at work or school right now. You should see us at night time. Especially at an esbat!”
“Sounds nice, but just at the moment I need to have a word with Annarose.”
Annarose nodded, before shooing Sarah into Julian.
“I believe this man needs a reading,” Annarose declared.
Julian lifted a brow. “I do?”
Annarose waved a stern hand. “We all do, you silly man.”
Sarah grabbed Julian by the arm and tugged him toward the back door. He followed without much complaint. I chose never to attempt a divination on someone I knew personally. It was never my strength, and I couldn’t tell for sure if I was inserting my personal commentary, or if the cards really were coming up Towers.
Annarose moved for the short flight of steps leading to the garden labyrinth and held out her hand. I assumed she was expecting another baroque gesture, so I took her hand.
She sucked in a breath and pulled it away, eyes wide.
“What’s up?” I murmured.
She leaned into me, eyes searching out my face, the space around it and over my head.
“What have you done to yourself?” she whispered.
“I got into a fight. Looks worse than it feels.”
“No,” she chided as she ran a hand along the side of my face and down to my chest. “Here. Something has happened.”
“Oh, yeah. That.”
“You’re hollow.”
“It’s a very long story.”
She shook her head and stepped down to the garden unassisted. “You’re in danger, now. I have seen this before. It’s too easy for an empty shell to become a home to something unwelcome.”
“I know. I’m working on it.” After she shot me a confounded glance, I explained, “My soul isn’t gone. It’s just detached at the moment.”
“Then it’s not lost?”
“Lost… but not, like, lost-lost. Apparently it’s moving across the country inside some kind of vessel.”
“How do you know that?”
I weighed the benefits of full disclosure, and decided against it. “A reliable source.”
She led me into the labyrinth, stepping neatly through the maze. “The girls use this for meditation before ritual. Focuses the mind, clears distraction.”
“Your design?”
“No. The girls researched it.”
“So, it seems retirement agrees with you.”
She squawked. “I am not that old!”
“Well, maybe it’s not the years, but the miles?”
“Not so much older than you, I think.”
I smirked. “Then it’s definitely the miles!”
We reached the center of the circle, and she stepped out onto the flat flagstone pavers running in concentric circles toward the central fire pit settled beneath a dolmen arch.
Annarose turned back to the house. “I’m not as angry, anymore. It’s healthy.”
“I’m glad,” I chimed. “I mean, I’m glad for you.”
She looked over to me with sad eyes. “It was hard-earned.”
I nodded.
“What do you wish to speak of?” she asked with a quick shake of her head.
“Chaos magic. Nihils. How to repair them.”
She cackled. “So, you have lost your soul and now wish to practice Stregheria?”
“It’s a job. I’m trying to help some powerful people, who are up against even more powerful people.”
“I hope you collected a deposit, because your customers may not survive this.”
I shoved my hands into my pockets. “That might not be the worst thing in the world, either.”
“Who are these people?” she asked.
“Really shouldn’t say. I mean, I’m not acting like a Priest or a lawyer or anything. But it could be dangerous for you to know.”
Annarose crossed her arms and kicked out her hip, glaring holes through me again. I could feel it palpably in my chest.
“All right, it’s the Presidium.”
Her mouth fell open just a little.
I mumbled, “Right? I’m an idiot.”
“You work for those monsters?” she huffed.
“In a roundabout way. Someone is attacking them, trying to tear them down.”
She scowled. “Good. They should be torn down.”
“I don’t argue that point, but I have people who matter to me, and they need their help.”
“Then you help them, and let the Presidium die.”
I took a breath. “I tried, Annarose. Look, I’m not a friend of the Presidium. But these outsiders are even bigger assholes, and they really have it coming.”
“Tell me about these nihils.”
“They’re casting jinxes at specific locations around D.C., punching nihils into the fabric of Nature. And people. I suspect these locations are important to the Presidium.”
“They must be nodes,” she stated. “Convergences of ley lines. Sources of power.”
“So, say the Presidium set up these nodes to draw their power from the land? That would explain how they source their magic without the use of major deities.”
“A nihil is the reversal of a node. A place not where power erupts, but where it drains. It is effective against all magics, even gods.”
“Sounds dark as shit,” I grumbled. “And clever. First they distract the Presidium with a public spectacle, they remove anyone to whom they could outsource their dirty work, then they pull the plug on their power source. All that’s left is to go for the throat.”
Annarose put a hand on my arm. “If it is so far gone, there may be nothing you can do.”
“I think the Presidium realizes that. They got pantsed, and hard. I think what they’re looking for is retribution.”
“Then stop worrying about healing the Presidium’s ley nodes, and focus on finding and destroying their enemies.”
Here was that Stregha logic. Vengeance at all costs.
And she had reason to want revenge on the Presidium. They’d nearly destroyed her. I wasn’t quite ready to go Corleone on the Presidium just yet.
I lifted a finger. “But, in theory, if one were to repair all of these nihils, the Presidium could get their power back?”
“As distasteful as it is to say it, yes.” She gripped my arm tight. “But you must not do this. They are watching you. And now, they will be watching me.”
“Still have that handler in town? That bartender?”
She shook her head. “She has gone.”
“Your doing?”
Annarose released my arm, and turned away without response, though I caught an air of satisfaction alongside her lips.
“If you restore their power,” she stated, “they will destroy you.”
“They gave me a blank check, Annarose. I can use whatever―”
“Their word means nothing. They are liars, and the second they are done with you, they will eliminate you.”
I shook my head. “They use Netherworkers all the time. It’s not in their interest to take me out.”
“It is not in their interest… until it is. And then what?” She pulled my shoulder around to face her. “You see them as benevolent dictators. But they are still dictators. They reserve the right to end yo
ur life at any moment, and that is a liberty I would not surrender to anyone.”
I pursed my lips. She wasn’t wrong. I had grown so accustomed to accepting the Presidium as a given. The thought of a world without them to keep the peace? It was terrifying, yet exhilarating.
“Why are you so nice to me all of a sudden?” I muttered. “I was convinced you hated my guts.”
She lifted a hand. “I can count on five fingers the people who have shown me kindness in my darker days. My days of hate and shadows. He who accepts me at my worst, deserves my best.” She offered her arm, and as I took it, she guided me back to the maze. “If you choose to heal these nihils, I can help you. But you should make that choice with eyes open.”
“I’m trying my best to keep them open.”
“Then be mindful of the eyes that are upon you. They are watching you. They are manipulating you, pushing you to decisions that benefit only them.”
I shrugged. “They have diviners that I can’t dodge. Not much I can do about that.”
Annarose grumbled. “No divination is needed, when they have someone close to you. Bending your ear. Strumming your heart-strings.”
I released her arm. “What are you talking about?”
She cocked a brow at me.
“You’re talking about a handler,” I deduced. “The Ipsissimus owned up to that.”
“And would he do so if he did not think you would embrace it?”
“I haven’t embraced anything, Annarose. I’m just keeping my head low and trying to finish the job.”
She turned me back to the house and stood at my side.
“As I said,” she replied with a nod to the house. “Keep your eyes open.”
It finally dawned on me that she was trying to tell me something. I spied Sarah and Julian through the glass door. He seemed engrossed in Sarah’s tarot reading, and she seemed oddly flustered.
“You don’t mean…” I shook my head. “That’s not even remotely feasible.”
“Are you so sure?” she countered.
I scowled at Annarose. “Julian is not a Presidium spy. I’m absolutely sure of that.”
She continued winding her way through the maze, adding as she proceeded, “I feel people, Lake. I feel their intentions.”
“Handy.”
“This is why I knew you can be trusted.” She added with a sly smile over her shoulder, “And why I know that I… interest you.”
