Blood, Smoke and Mirrors

by Robyn Bachar

  “You have,” Zach answered. “Is the wine not to your liking?” I glanced down and sniffed at the dark liquid, almost expecting to see an ominous skull and crossbones swirling within the glass. When I couldn’t find anything obviously wrong with it I took a sip-raspberry wine, one of my favorites. “It hasn’t been tampered with.”

  “The wine hasn’t, but I have?”

  “I wouldn’t put it that way, no. It’s actually quite an honor among necromancers.”

  “I’m not a necromancer.”

  Shrugging, he surveyed the selection of strawberries, picked one up and bit into it. “Not bad, you should try one.”

  “Just explain what you did.”

  “We’re attuned to each other now. You can’t use harmful magic against me, but I can’t use it against you either. I can’t force you to do anything, but you can’t keep pushing me away.” With his usual calm, polite air about him he explained the situation while peering down at the tray of berries. “Together, however, we strengthen each other’s abilities. With enough practice one can even tell what the other is thinking or feeling.” Selecting one, he held it out to me and I glared at it, struggling to figure out exactly what he meant. I’d never heard of two people becoming attuned to each other in a magic-type sense.

  “And how is that possible?”

  “I’m afraid to admit that it is necromancy, a rarely used spell. It’s usually a mark of trust between a master necromancer-or vampire as you’re fond of calling them-and his or her favorite apprentice. But that’s not important. What is important is that we share a bond, not unlike the one your guardian so easily tossed aside. I can’t hurt you now, I couldn’t even if I wanted to. You have nothing to fear from me, so there is nothing to prevent us from working together.”

  “And it never occurred to you to ask if I wanted this?”

  “You wouldn’t agree.”

  “Damn straight I wouldn’t agree, you manipulative bastard.” I slammed the wineglass down, and red liquid sloshed over the sides. Furious, I hauled back and slapped him. The blow didn’t faze him, but I suddenly felt pain zing to life across my face, mirroring where I’d just struck him. “What the hell!”

  “I did warn you. Our pain is shared now, and you’d do well to inform your faerie cousins of that,” he said coldly.

  “This isn’t fair.”

  “This is how the game is played, Catherine. A Titania should know that.”

  “It’s not a game-”

  “Yes, it is, and you’d best get used to it. You should be grateful for what I’ve done for you. There are those who wouldn’t be as gentle as I have been, who would’ve capitalized even more on your mistakes.”

  “What mistakes?”

  “For one, Maureen would never have agreed to stay here.”

  “Maureen wouldn’t have left a friend to die,” I protested.

  “Yes, she would have. A Titania is expected to sacrifice her own needs in order to protect her people. You should have left your friend, but you didn’t. You shouldn’t have gotten involved in vampire and shapeshifter politics, yet you have. Your path was decided the moment you let Faust into your apartment.”

  “And what path is that, pray tell?”

  “A greater path than that of Titania. You can be more than a mere go-between for magicians and faeries. You can be a great leader, and change the future of all magicians.”

  “But only if I work with you, right?”

  “I’m the only one who will offer this to you. Duquesne certainly won’t get involved. He’s ignored this problem for far too long.”

  My heart sank. “Lex knows? About the government, and the experiments?” That couldn’t be possible. It was Lex’s job to protect magicians from that sort of thing. Wasn’t it?

  “Of course. As always, the guardians are unwilling to get involved in mortal affairs. Oh, they’ll protect us from each other, but not from the outside world.”

  Resisting the urge to squirm, I decided to move on. “So what happens next?”

  “Tomorrow we’ll attend the gallery event, and then on Sunday you and Mr. MacInnes will leave. After that, I would like you to return, of your own free will.”

  “Uh-huh. Leaving the ‘oh hell no’ of it all aside, my bills are probably piling up-”

  “I’ve already taken care of those. I made sure your payments were made, including your rent.”

  “With what? I barely have anything in my savings.” I blinked at him. Lord and Lady, my account was probably overdrawn by now. There were sure to be many angry messages waiting for me in my voicemail.

  “If you remember, I did promise to reimburse you and your friend for the time you’ve both spent here, because it is my fault that you’re losing wages by being my guests. I wanted to pay your debt off entirely, but I had a feeling you wouldn’t thank me for that.”

  I nodded in response. The man was right-I probably would have told him off for interfering with my responsibilities.

  “Oh. I still need to leave to be proclaimed Titania, they’ll be waiting for me,” I pointed out.

  “This is true. When you’re finished with that, will you come back?” Gently he stroked the back of my hand, his gaze imploring.

  “No. I can’t operate as Titania in a no-faerie zone.”

  “I own other buildings, you can live anywhere you want. A house in the suburbs, a condo on the lakefront, wherever suits you most.”

  “You can’t buy my loyalty, Harrison. Look, I was seriously considering working with you, but now I don’t know. I won’t be pushed around like one of your minions. I need to go back to my room.” My head hurt, and I needed space.

  “All right.” He reluctantly nodded. “Let’s go then.”

  Walking around the bar, he took my arm and escorted me to the elevator. The ride up was short and silent. When we finally reached the door to my suite there was an awkward pause-I could tell Zach was considering kissing me good night as he’d become accustomed to doing. Instead, he looked at me with a terrible sadness in those striking green eyes, then opened the door for me. Without a word I walked into my room, and listened as the door shut behind me and the lock clicked into place.

  Deciding on a drink, I headed immediately to the bar and poured a tumbler full of Irish cream-some people drink it by the shot, I prefer it by the glass, with a few ice cubes for elegant presentation. I took a long gulp and closed my eyes, trying to sort through the mess of thoughts flying through my head. Did Zach honestly expect me to come back to him? Even more frightening, was there a possibility I would? No, surely not. No, you’ll just go home to your tiny apartment and live the rest of your wretched life with only a series of housecats for companions.

  But I didn’t have to live alone, I had a soul mate, one who’d been envisioning a happily ever after in our future until the faeries scared him away from it. Lex was out there somewhere, waiting for me, and from what he’d said in the last dream it sounded as though he’d decided to become Oberon. Once Zach let me go, I’d be free to run into Lex’s arms and ride off into the sunset. All I had to do was be patient. Maybe Harrison’s spell would wear off eventually…

  I heard the door open and the sound of approaching footsteps behind me. Without opening my eyes I sighed wearily. “I so do not want to continue this conversation.”

  Before I could turn around my head was slammed forward, colliding hard with the top of the bar. An instant migraine exploded behind my forehead and then I was dragged backwards by my hair.

  “I’ll make this quick then,” Lovely Laura growled at me. The room spun and tilted crazily around me, and as I struggled to stand the vampire grabbed for my throat. Her pale eyes almost glowed with hatred and her sharp nails dug into my skin. Terrified, I tried to break her grip, but she was too fast. Drawing her hand back, she tore deep slashes into my throat, producing a huge spray of blood. I grabbed at the wounds, hoping to hold together what was left, then Laura struck me hard and I sailed backwards. I’d have a spectacular black eye from it if I lived
.

  As I hit the floor with a bone-jarring thud, I thrust my shields out with all the control I could manage. The energy sparked, fizzled, and then faded as Laura kicked me in the stomach, and the breath rushed out of me in a guttural whoosh. I struggled to steady myself and try again, but everything was too scattered and hazy in my mind to attempt any magic, even something as simple as my shields.

  “I don’t know what he sees in you.” Jamming the pointed toe of her high-heeled shoe beneath my chin, she turned my head from side to side. “You’re homely, overweight, badly dressed. Ungrateful. Unworthy. Dorian should have drowned you at birth like a mongrel pup.” Moving her foot, she stabbed my stomach with the sharp heel of her shoe, puncturing who knows what internal organs in the process.

  “Fuck you,” was the only stinging retort I managed. It was much too difficult to talk and I knew that was a bad sign. The wounds refused to heal, resisting my weak attempt to close them. Warm, slick blood gushed over my hands-I didn’t have long left, and Laura was going to waste the last moments of my life with some bitchy speech.

  “And you are crass as well,” she added with another stomp. “What a fool, to think you able to lead. You’re too weak for greatness. He’ll be much better off without you.”

  The vampire stomped on me again and I fought the urge to giggle madly at the image of Lovely Laura and her “killer” heels. Ugh, death by bad pun, how cliché. Closing my eyes, I waited for the end, but to my surprise I heard a startled shout from the direction of the door. I dragged my eyes open again to see a Harrison-shaped blur streak toward her, grab her and throw her against the nearest wall with a resounding crack of broken drywall.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he shouted.

  “I’m altering your plan.”

  “Why, you think you can take her place?”

  “She won’t have you,” Laura hissed in reply. “I won’t let her.”

  Gee, hell really doth have no fury like a woman scorned. My eyes fluttered shut because I no longer had the strength to keep them open. I would’ve found the exchange much more interesting if I hadn’t been bleeding out.

  “Get out! Now!”

  “No. I made you. I know what’s best for you. She’s too much like her mother, she won’t be corrupted. That girl will never obey you. It’s best to get rid of her now and make a clean break.” Laura made me sound like some sort of untrainable puppy that needed to be put down, and I really wanted to light her on fire. Repeatedly. Instead I just gurgled piteously from the pain.

  Next I heard a slap followed by an outraged gasp. “How dare you interfere,” Harrison growled.

  “Someone has to-you don’t have even a fraction of my experience. I’m looking out for your best interests.”

  “No, you’re looking out for your best interests.”

  “I made you,” she repeated, her voice raising a screeching octave.

  “But you can’t control me.”

  For a brief moment I thought I caught a whiff of burning flesh through the stench of blood, but I couldn’t be sure if it was my own imagination picturing Lovely Laura wreathed in flames. The smell was followed by a few gasping noises that sounded like they came from a female source. Good for Zach, I hope he snapped her skinny, pale neck.

  Footsteps, a door slammed, and then Harrison hovered over me. He looked like hell-he had wounds that mirrored mine, but less severe. Zach murmured reassuringly, and though the words were beginning to sound fuzzy and incoherent I could hear ten shades of worry in his voice. He drew my hands away from my throat and started to heal the slashes with a wave of tingling, stinging magic. Unfortunately the pain didn’t subside one bit, and the relentless press of unconsciousness crowded my thoughts. As my mind began to drift, I realized Zach was right-I really could sense his emotions. Staticky and faint, like being able to hear a distant radio station when the conditions were just right. Despite the angry words he’d exchanged with Laura I knew he was afraid, deeply terribly afraid.

  “Catherine, look at me,” he ordered, and I struggled to meet his gaze. Zach looked grim as he stared down at me, and I knew that couldn’t be good. “I need you to drink.” I frowned, confused, and watched in pained silence as he unbuttoned the cuff of his sleeve and rolled it up. The vampire raised his wrist to his mouth and bit through the skin. He moved to hold his wound against my lips and I tried to turn away. “Catherine, you have to drink, you’ll die if you don’t. The blood won’t turn you, it won’t hurt you, it will just help me heal you.”

  I had to believe him-I didn’t have a choice. Death wasn’t exactly an option I was open to, especially when I was so close to regaining my freedom, so I drank. The blood burned, feeling as though it seared a path of scar tissue down my throat as I swallowed. I’d never experienced anything like it. The sensation was like trying to describe how a nightmare would taste, or what flavor death might have. My body tried to reject the invader, and my limbs flailed and thrashed as though suffering a seizure. Zach pinned me down and held me still as best he could, continuing to pour the poison into me. I had no idea how it could be helping, it felt as though the blood was killing me faster.

  Finally he removed his wrist and smoothed the fingers of his other hand over the torn skin, closing the wound. Then he pressed his hands against each of the puncture wounds caused by Laura’s heel, one after the other. The pain was phenomenal, unimaginable, a spear of agony that sprung from my core out to my skin. I didn’t remember it hurting that badly when she’d caused them in the first place. I screamed loud and long, the sound filling the room until I sank into the blessed oblivion of unconsciousness as my newfound talent for fainting finally resulted in something good.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The soft, rapid clicking of a keyboard woke me, and I dragged my eyes open to stare at an unfamiliar ceiling. By now I was getting used to the running theme of fainting and waking up in an unexpected place. I’d gone through most of my life without fainting a single time, and yet somehow during the past few weeks I’d developed the constitution of a Victorian heroine suffering from the consumption. If I survived this whole ordeal, I was joining a gym and toughening myself up. And quitting smoking. Again. For real this time.

  Lifting my head, I studied the room. Yup, definitely not my suite, or my apartment, and also not Castle Silverleaf, though the bed was nearly as large. The place was the definition of master bedroom-it was probably larger than my entire apartment. Antique wooden furniture decorated the space, and a familiar vampire hunched over a laptop in an easy chair across the room, a stack of newspapers on the table next to him. Though Zach’s hair was a bit mussed and the top buttons of his dress shirt were undone, it reminded me of when I’d arrived at his office here in the tower because he had the same intent expression as he studied whatever important work was plastered on the screen. The sight was somewhat of a relief. It was less embarrassing to wake up in Zach’s bed when he was fully clothed on the other side of the room, engrossed in some business dealing. Curious, I glanced down at myself, easing the covers aside to discover that I was wearing a set of boring cotton print pajamas I’d ordered from one of the catalogues. While it was a little mortifying that he’d probably dressed me, I was pretty positive he’d behaved himself.

  Sensing my movement, Zach looked up from his laptop, seeming surprised. “You’re awake,” he said, setting his work aside. “How do you feel?”

  “Like I got stomped on,” I replied, my voice rough and gravelly. Everything ached, thankfully not as terribly as it ought to considering how close to death I’d been. Crossing the room, he picked up a heavy earthenware mug from the bedside table and moved to help me sit up.

  “Here, drink this.”

  “No more blood,” I protested in a piteous whine.

  “No more blood, it’s herbal tea. I added a potion to it that will help ease the pain and regain your strength more quickly.”

  I nodded my thanks and took the mug, holding it with both hands as I sipped at it. The liquid was dark and l
ukewarm, and it smelled faintly of mint. If there was a potion stirred into it I couldn’t smell it, but then again alchemy is the most difficult magic for me to detect. Potions tend to smell like their ingredients, or whatever they’re added to.

  “You were an alchemist?” I’d figured him for a sorcerer, since so many necromancers start out that way.

  “Yes. I’m the first magician in the Harrison family.” He smiled dryly. “It was a bit of a surprise for my father.”

  I looked down at the tea and froze. Zach was an alchemist. “You put potions in my food, didn’t you? To do the spell that bound us together.”

  “Part of it,” he admitted. “Your weakness for sweets was very helpful. As was the fact that you’re a heavy sleeper.”

  “You son of a-”

  “Catherine, if I hadn’t cast the spell, you would be dead right now. I wouldn’t have known Laura attacked you until your body was found in the morning. Would that be better?”

  “No.” He had a point, as much as it pissed me off to admit it. “Thank you. For saving me, I mean. How did you do it, I’m not-I mean, I’m still…?”

  “Alive? Yes, you are. It takes more than that to become a necromancer, and a lot more to become a master. You should get used to the terminology, by the way. Many of the elder masters consider being called vampire a grave insult, and they don’t deal well with being insulted.”

  “Uh-huh. Why did I have to drink from you?” I wrinkled my nose at the very idea of it. Yuck.

  “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t heal you without it. Usually to heal a wound, like a bite for example, we use the magic within the person’s own blood to do it. You’d lost so much blood that you didn’t have the strength to repair that much damage. I had to give you mine so I would have something to work with. It won’t happen again, I’ll make sure you stay safe.”

  “Really. Did Lovely Laura suffer some sort of unfortunate accident while I was asleep?”

  “No, she didn’t, but she’s not getting anywhere near you again.”