House of Slide Hybrid

by Juliann Whicker

  I tried a few chords, exploring the keyboard with my well-trained fingers. I closed my eyes and let the music rise from the majestic instrument. The notes filled the space as the beast responded to my slightest pressure. I played of Lewis, of innocence, of beauty and light, filling the room with swelling chords and trills that flowed through me effortlessly. A tune took shape, a song of Lewis, golden and rich, full of mystery and life.

  I played until my arms and hands grew heavy, feeling full and empty at the same time until my fingers played the last chord and let the sound rise and fall into nothing.

  When I heard chimes, I turned my head and seemed to step into a dream.

  I must have been asleep.

  The room that had been so utterly empty now nearly exploded from holding too many brightly dressed dancers who moved in time to the music. Laughter, shouts and music beat at my ears. I still sat on the bench but now beside me a large band played loud, frantic music in time to twirling, bright dresses where dancers spun across the floor. Even the men wore colors, the mixing hues more dizzying than the flashes of bright tile beneath their shoes.

  They danced with wild abandon that was nothing like Wilds. They spun and shrieked their delight as they moved, somehow not crashing into each other. Their beauty came in their movement, in their energy. They were unutterably beautiful.

  I smelled sandalwood before a handsome brown-haired man bowed over my hand. I could almost feel his cool breath on my skin before he pressed a kiss above my knuckles. I didn’t resist when he pulled me to my feet, so smoothly that I didn’t notice moving. My blue silk dress slid around my ankles, reminding me of cool water.

  I followed the stranger into the dance, mesmerized by something in the way he looked when he moved. I couldn’t resist that energy, the vitality and life of the dance.

  He pulled me into the throng, blending with the stream of chaotic dancers effortlessly. I stumbled over his feet as I moved into the wrong pattern then closed my eyes and leaned against his arms, letting the music, the strings and the brass lead me.

  The sound of laughter, clinking glasses and swirling notes held me as captivated as the arms of my partner. He smiled at me and leaned forward to whisper something in my ear. I frowned as I concentrated on the words. I almost understood him but then someone spoke behind me.

  “May I cut in?” The voice slashed through the music as everyone turned to stare at me and the person behind me. I saw expressions varying from fascination to hatred before I turned my head and looked up into Lewis’ eyes.

  “Lewis, you aren’t dressed for a ball,” I said as I frowned at his wrinkled shirt. His unbrushed hair fell over his face in a messy tangle while his eyes burned into mine with an intensity that made me forget about everything else. For a moment the stranger, my dancing partner’s hands tightened around me, the grip on my wrist painful until Lewis caught my hand in his and pulled me against him.

  I leaned against his chest, soaking in his warmth and light, until the coolness inside of me melted. I swayed in his arms, closing my eyes as the drums beat through me. I waited for him to dance, to take me across the floor with the effortless precision I’d waited for my whole life, but other than his hands tightening around my waist, he didn’t move.

  I opened my eyes and saw Lewis. Everyone else had vanished.

  I looked around, bewildered by the emptiness of the room, the only thing still there, the big, black piano with its open keyboard.

  “I heard you play,” Lewis said, a half smile on his mouth. “What was that?”

  “I don’t know. No, I do know. That song was you. I’ve never played like that. I mean, before I had a soul I played lots of music, but not like that. It’s a beautiful instrument. Where are we?” I looked down at my gray backless gown and began to shiver.

  “It’s called Hallow Hall. I won it in a bad bet I made one time.”

  I swallowed. “The ball I just hallucinated, what was that?” I clung to his arms as my legs wobbled.

  “Lost Souls. You played them into being. I am very happy that you chose a song like that instead of something more tormented.”

  “Are you?” I asked as I started to tremble, barely able to stay on my feet as he walked me towards the piano, taking his time. I didn’t want to go back to the piano, not when it gave substance to song.

  “I didn’t expect you to wake up so soon. I wanted to be there when you awoke. You must be very disoriented.”

  My teeth chattered in spite of his warm arm around my waist as he took me closer and closer to the piano. It didn’t want me to come. The black beast glowered and hunched deeper in the shadows as I moved closer.

  “What is this place?”

  “Hallow Hall used to be a place of healing. Now it’s swarming with Lost Souls awaiting their master to summon them. You should close the keyboard,” he said, eyebrows narrowing in concern as we neared the waiting beast.

  “I need to touch it?”

  “You opened it. For anyone else to close it would be very difficult, and we’re running low as it is.”

  “Running low, on what?” I asked, squirming as I neared the piano, feeling wave after wave of discomfort.

  “Jackson is still passed out, your mother and Grim left to recuperate at Slide, and me, well, I could use a long walk in the woods before I start crying.”

  He smiled slightly, but I began noticing other things about him than that he wasn’t wearing a suit. His bloodshot eyes above dark circles looked haunted, his face pale and sweating. His jaw clenched and unclenched as he tried to smile, to not upset me more than I already was.

  I nodded and focused on the piano. I could do this. I could shut and lock the piano. I dropped his hand and leaned forward and try to close the lid of the keyboard. I strained, pulling as hard as I could as I struggled in my weakened condition until with a crash that I felt through my bones, the board shut. I turned the key with trembling fingers then collapsed on the bench.

  Lewis dropped on the seat beside me, gripping my hand in his while I stared around us at the empty ballroom that had been so full of Lost Souls a moment before. I closed my eyes, trying to see with my soul, whether they were really gone, but all I saw was the back of my eyelids.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, cupping my face with his hand until I opened my eyes and looked at him. He looked like an angel, all gold and red with his eyes glowing, making my heart beat faster.

  “I’ve been worse,” I said, relaxing against his hand. “Why did you bring me here? It doesn’t seem like a very good place for anyone with Wild blood.”

  “Maybe I shouldn’t have, but I didn’t know what else to do. You were dying.”

  “I think I died,” I whispered while my heart thumped unnaturally fast in my chest. “I saw everyone’s souls when I left my body, but I didn’t stay gone.” My voice sounded strangely empty.

  He squeezed my hand. “I brought you here to help the tattoos take, to keep you from dying. Staying alive is not the same as being fine, but you do seem well.” He smiled, sort of. His face was so white, bloodless, and his hand where he held mine trembled.

  “This place sucks,” Jackson said from the doorway. I turned to look at him, to see him even more sick looking than Lewis.

  “What happened to you?” I asked. Where had they been when I was searching the house?

  Jackson took his time swallowing, like he was trying to keep something down. “Nothing worth mentioning other than having Lost Souls playing with my brains while your Intended sucked the life out of me. Not that he didn’t do the same thing to himself, but still. No one asked me whether or not I wanted to lose ten years so you could get runes.”

  “Jackson,” Lewis began, quietly, but Jackson ignored him.

  “Was this Devlin’s idea? Does he want everyone half dead or only his relatives? I did not sign up for this.” Jackson shuddered and put a hand over his eyes. “They’re still here. I can feel them.”

  “No,” I said as I stood up, pulling Lewis with me. He leaned hea
vily against me for a moment before he straightened. “I put them back in the piano. Don’t play it, by the way.”

  He laughed, a horrible sound that filled the room. The scary thing was when the room responded. Jackson’s echo rose higher and higher, sounding like the shouts of an angry mob.

  We all held very still until the sound faded away.

  Something knocked me sideways until I dropped Lewis’s hand. I stumbled towards Jackson. Behind me I heard a thump. When I turned, I saw Lewis sprawled on the floor, the tile twisting and shifting around him. He looked up at me and for a moment his eyes glowed bright gold and he smiled, a smile I’d never seen before, a smile that showed fearlessness to the point of insanity.

  “Are you okay?” Jackson asked him, taking one step into the room before he froze then quickly stepped back into the doorway. “I hate to state the obvious, but we’ve got to get out of here.”

  I took a step to Lewis and something knocked me spinning back towards Jackson.

  “Go, Dariana,” Lewis said, his voice a dangerous growl as he climbed to his feet. He grinned at me, his white teeth terrifying and predatory.

  I shook my head and braced myself so that the next time something hit me I didn’t move.

  “They aren’t taking my dance partner,” I said with my own shaky smile. “We are going leave here together.”

  I held my hand out to him, waiting with perfect confidence in our ability to accomplish any impossible thing as long as we were together.

  Lewis stood for a moment, staring at me as though he’d never seen me before.

  “Come on,” Jackson urged as I waited until Lewis moved suddenly, a blur of motion and energy, dodging around the invisible dancers until his hand found mine and we spun and tripped across the floor.

  I laughed, gazing up at Lewis as we spun, caught in an invisible dance that we didn’t need music to follow. The unseen battering stopped as suddenly as it had begun. We danced, the only music the sound of our breathing and our hearts, pounding steadily until we reached the hall where Jackson waited.

  He pulled us out of the room, scowling at us, like we should both be thoroughly ashamed of our behavior. He looked terrible, exhausted and older than he had been the last time I’d seen him as he slammed the doors behind us.

  “Jackson, are you okay?” I asked as I touched his face, carefully.

  Jackson shrugged off my hand.

  “I’m great. We all look amazing. We should do this again sometime.”

  “What happened?” I asked, holding onto Lewis while he wrapped his arms around me, burying his face in my hair like Jackson didn’t exist.

  “Five inches,” Jackson answered. “And we’re still here. Why are we still here?”

  “After you passed out, I brought your mother, Grim, and Jackson to this place,” Lewis answered me, ignoring Jackson. “The mosaics are like runes, only permanent, deeper. This place was used for healing,” Lewis murmured nuzzling my hair. “This house used to be one of the great Hallow Halls, the owner a famous healer. It makes most Wilds crazy, dizzy, sick. We’ll all go mad if we stay here too long.”

  “We’ve already been here too long,” Jackson protested, but his voice seemed to come from far away.

  “The mosaics in the healing room where we took you are laid out in a pattern that draws strength and energy from one of several places on the edge of the room, one of where your cousin Jackson became unconscious.”

  “Unconscious people make crappy chaperones,” Jackson complained. “Why do I even bother?”

  Lewis pulled back far enough that I could see the half smile and auburn hair fallen over his forehead in a mess while he stared into my eyes. “Don’t worry, Jackson. If I’m going to take advantage of Dari, I won’t do it here.”

  My stomach tightened and my knees got wobbly, but in a good way, not in an, ‘I’m going to die’ way.

  “This place is an abomination. We need to leave before I decide sanity is overrated. Dari, it’s awesome that you’re practically recovered. That usually takes more than a couple days, but what good is having runes if you’re a total nutjob?”

  Lewis frowned at me before he turned to Jackson, still holding tightly to my hand. “I appreciate your service. You are welcome to leave with my thanks.”

  “And Dari can stay here with you?” Jackson crossed his arms over his shirt that he’d managed to keep less wrinkled than Lewis’s.

  I saw Lewis’s jaw clench before he relaxed and shook his head. “No. No one is going to stay here. Let’s go.”

  We began walking down a long corridor that seemed to stretch out to infinity.

  “How did you get this charming cottage,” Jackson asked, his voice strained.

  “I won it in a bet.”

  “You got screwed,” Jackson said, lurching to the side until he came up against the wall where he stood breathing heavily until he straightened up, balancing more carefully.

  He really wasn’t okay. Lewis wasn’t doing that much better. Actually out of all of us, I seemed to be in the best shape, which made sense if Lewis had shifted Jackson’s energy into me. I shivered, repulsed at the idea of draining someone else just so that I could have runes.

  We walked out, slowly, carefully, each of us taking a deep breath when we’d crossed the cavernous main hall and stepped out into the bitter cold. Lewis dropped my hand and closed the door, locking it with a golden key that matched the one for the piano.

  He sat down on the top step, shoeless, without a coat, and I dropped down beside him. Jackson managed to stay standing as he leaned heavily against the wrought iron railing. I tucked my feet into the ugliest gown known to man, aware that Lewis wasn’t the only one without shoes.

  “So, what now?” I asked, staring at his feet, bare, soft and delicate looking with white skin that had a few lines of faded scars.

  “Jackson will take you home,” Lewis said, pulling a car key out of his pocket then tossing it to my cousin.

  “What about you?” I stared at him, gauging the color in his face, whether it was any better than before.

  “Your Intended can take care of himself, Dari,” Jackson interrupted, tugging on my arm. He seemed much better simply being out of the house. Lewis didn’t seem to be recovering quite so quickly.

  “Don’t push me, Jackson,” I said, as the weight of everything built up around me. I’d gotten tattoos, or started anyway, and I’d died. Something had brought me back, maybe the runes in the tattoo parlor, maybe something else I didn’t know about. Lewis had done some complicated healing thing that he’d only been able to do by sacrificing my relatives and himself.

  “Lewis, do you want to come home with me? You’re not wearing any shoes.”

  “They’re in the house,” he said with a shrug and a slight smile before he glanced away, studying the snow with a frown.

  “Why don’t you come with us? We’ll buy you some new shoes, or I’m sure someone has some in your size. I don’t want to leave you here.”

  He laughed, took my hand and pressed a firm kiss to my knuckles that sent a shock of warmth up my arm.

  “I have things to do, Dariana. I have duties as your Intended that I can’t put off until tomorrow. I’ll call you.”

  “That’s what you said last time,” I said but didn’t object when Jackson pulled me down the steps.

  “Come on, Dari. We are leaving before your toes fall off. It’s been a time,” he said nodding to Lewis as he dragged me down the stairs. I barely kept my feet. We were halfway down the long stone steps before I turned to look back at Lewis.

  He watched me, a strange sad look on his face before he smiled and lifted a hand in farewell.

  “Be careful,” I said, not sure what else I could say with Jackson right there. I wanted to run up and kiss him, but he’d told me to go and the longer I stood there, the longer he would sit and watch me.

  “Lewis?”

  He stood, slowly and came down the steps until he wrapped his arms around me. “Next time will be better, I promis
e,” he whispered then lowered his lips to mine.

  “Five inches,” Jackson complained, but I barely heard him over the thumping of my heart.

  When the kiss ended, I squeezed him tight, memorizing the feel of him before I let go and turned away, quickly so that I wouldn’t change my mind.

  I walked down the steps and pushed through the iron gate.

  “That house is not good for him,” Jackson said as we walked toward the car that hardly looked like Lewis’s with its three inches of white powder. I nodded as I looked at the iced over sidewalk beneath my bare feet. I didn’t feel the cold anymore. My feet must have gone numb. I got into the car like a zombie not paying any attention to Jackson as he scraped off the snow then drove me away from the Hollow house. At the last second I looked back, but there was no sign of Lewis on the front steps and the towering Victorian monstrosity seemed to laugh at me.

  Lewis was all right, I told myself. He’d chosen to take me to the Hollow House and do whatever he’d done to keep me alive. It wasn’t my fault that he suffered for me. It wasn’t like I’d asked him to come to the gallery and take a knife through the chest for me. I wasn’t the one who kept hurting Lewis.

  I dropped my head to my trembling hands. What would happen to him the next time I almost died?

  Chapter 13

  When I got home, I went to bed and didn’t really wake up for four days. When I woke up, my dad brought me a tray and it almost seemed like old times, back in the woods with him.

  “How are you feeling?” he asked in his smooth, compelling voice.

  I shrugged. “I’m tired,” I muttered as I pushed the beautiful bright vegetables around on the tray.

  “Lewis has called every day morning and evening at eight o’clock, a.m. and p.m. respectively. Your mother appreciates his precision.”

  I nodded but couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to think about anything, not when I was still so tired.

  “All right,” he said with a slight frown as he smoothed my hair and took my tray. “Rest. Take as long as you need.”