by Debra Dunbar
It was, although I really didn’t want their first task to be as dangerous as this. Before I could tell Jordan about the need to partner one–on–one with a vampire, she continued happily. “Do you think we can finish the other eleven spells by the end of today? It will be great to put this all behind us.”
“I’m afraid it’s going to be a while before we can put this all behind us.” I went on to tell her about the capture of Wilcox, what he revealed, and the meeting with Basteau. By the time I’d finished, Jordan’s shoulders were slumped and her coffee cooled, forgotten in her hand.
“What do you think they’ll do?” Jordan’s voice was barely a whisper. “Kill another bayou forest? Disrupt one of the Bon Nuit rituals? Come after us personally? Are we going to be safe in our own homes, or should I alert the others to put up wards?”
Crap, I hadn’t even thought about the last one. Crimson Moon wouldn’t go that far — to attack people in their own home, would they? I looked around for Irix, relieved to see the black Audi pulling up to the curb. It was silly to worry over a powerful demon, but Basteau seemed pretty knowledgeable about summoning and demonology — far more knowledgeable than I was.
“Ourson offered to partner a vampire with each witch tonight, but I’m beginning to think it might be safer for you all to remain home and take any precautions you need to ensure your safety.”
I could see the struggle in Jordan’s expressive face. It had to hurt her pride to consider this.
“Okay. We’ll help out today, then sit tonight out.”
Part of me wanted to send them home now, but I couldn’t deny her this little thing. After all, this was their city, not mine. I gave Jordan a hug, and she headed off to tell the others about this new development.
“Ready to work, elf–girl?”
Irix’s arm encircled my shoulders, and he bent his head to give me a kiss. My heart lurched at his show of human affection.
“Yes. We’ve got a lot to do, and… .” I halted, frowning at the incubus.
“What’s wrong?”
There was a lot wrong. Not just the meeting with Basteau, either.
“Where did you get all that energy? You’re practically humming with it.”
He shrugged, but I saw tension around his mouth that belied the casual gesture. “Breakfast. I’ve got a big appetite, remember?”
Sexual innuendo, but I wasn’t amused. He’d put himself at risk to gather all this in such a short time. It’s a miracle that angel hadn’t gotten a lock on him with his activity last night and this morning. I caught my breath at the thought that Irix may have been discovered and killed. It would have been all my fault too. My fault for being stupid, and stubborn.
“Here you are warning me to be careful, and you go and do this both last night and this morning? And you’ll be helping me today with the levees? That’s way too much of your energy signature flying around with an angel this close.”
“I haven’t managed to survive two–thousand years by being stupid. I know what I’m doing, little elf–girl. You’ve got enough to obsess about. I’ll be just fine.”
He seemed the usual Irix — carefree and relaxed, but over the last two days I’d somehow gotten the ability to see beyond the mask he wore. He was worried — about me and himself. I couldn’t let this go on.
“You should have realized by now that I freak out about everything — you included. Please promise me you won’t do this again? You need to lay low. Tonight I’ll go out and have sex. You can watch if it will convince you that I can do this on my own.”
He grinned, and this time it was genuine. “You swear on all the souls that you Own?”
“Absolutely.” I linked my arm in his and headed toward the others.
“Well then, I am definitely going to watch.”
* * *
29
We were three spells broken, eight to go when I got the text from Jordan. Rather than have everyone follow me around, risking their lives while I struggled to contain explosions, I’d sent the vampires to check out the areas Mr. Wilcox had listed as having other spell work. Jordan had spent the night creating detection charms for her team of witches and the vampires. They had taken off to check the locations we repaired yesterday.
Kristin found four of your fixes reversed. Spells for damage are back in place. Meet you by the Aquarium.
Twelve more to go instead of eight. I felt exhausted just thinking about it. These assholes were putting stuff back almost as quick as Irix and I were removing it. We needed to stop them sooner rather than later.
Worse, this meant Crimson Moon hadn’t taken Mr. Wilcox’s word for it that he’d checked all the levee spots. We’d been found out. Now they knew what we were up to and that we had their colleague. They’d be even more vigilant about checking their spots and probably speed up the timing of their planned disaster. I looked at the dark grey sky, at the swirl of clouds moving in from the south, and worried. That wasn’t the only thing I worried about. Basteau’s threat still loomed darker than the rain clouds over my mind.
Call everyone in. I’ll be right there.
Irix had been reading over my shoulder. As I typed, he looked around at the joggers, the tourists walking by, at the vagrant woman dozing on the grass beside her shopping cart.
“I don’t know how many are in Crimson Moon,” he said, his voice low, “but there’s a good chance they’ve positioned people to watch the locations during the day.”
“Do you think they’ll attack us?” I had a vision of people shooting me, or trapping Irix in a circle. Or banishing the pair of us to Hel. Worse, images of my friends shot or stabbed were also crowding my mind.
“Not in a busy park like this.” Irix put a hand on my shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “In the lesser populated areas, they might try to stop us.”
Thankfully most of the places Mr. Wilcox had listed were in the city, and even with the threatening clouds, people were still out and about.
“So that means we should probably give up on the bayous for now.” I’d hoped to try my hand at doing something to help the cypresses. Their dead silhouettes haunted me, even though I worried there was nothing I could do.
“There’s plenty to do in the city without you trying to resurrect the dead — even plant dead.”
He was right, but it still broke my heart to leave New Orleans without even trying.
Finished, we headed to meet Kristin, Irix weaving the black Audi through the streets to park a block from his house. We walked past Café du Monde, with its seductive smell of frying beignets, and up to the brick–topped seawall that kept the Mississippi River from the city’s historic French Quarter. The red–headed witch sat on a bench overlooking a huge riverboat casino, docked and awaiting passengers. She had a familiar white bag beside her.
“Here. I felt bad about being the bearer of bad news, so I bought you a treat.”
I am so going to miss this city, I thought as I dug a pastry from the bag, spilling white powdered sugar down the front of my borrowed shirt and shorts.
“The homeless lady has been watching me for the last half an hour,” Kristin whispered, busying herself with the bag of beignets. “How do you want to play this?”
“Well, if they’re watching all their locations, then they probably already recognize Irix and me. And now you, too.”
“And probably the rest of us if they were there when we first met this morning,” Kristin interjected. “It’s a good thing we’re all regrouping.”
Once again I thought of Basteau’s threat. “Everyone needs to make sure they stay in the well–populated areas. Tell them to stay aware and take note of anyone paying a lot of attention to them, or who they suspect is watching the area.”
Irix reached over to help himself to a pastry. “Do you want to power through today and fix as much as you can, or spend some time strategizing? You do realize they’re going to reverse as much of your work as they can, and tonight there’s most likely going to be a fight.”
&nbs
p; My heart lurched at his words. Beyond electricity, I had nothing to bring to a fight. I doubted this would be the sort of thing where hair–pulling and scratching would make any difference. Plus, I was worried about my friends. Mr. Wilcox had nearly killed Ourson with a spelled athame. What weapons would the rest of Crimson Moon and this mage have at their disposal? I doubted the scroll and chicken wand we recovered were the extent of their magical items.
And magical items aside, I wasn’t going to rule out that Crimson Moon might use a pistol or a knife in the back to stop us. “Let’s fix as much as we can today to try and get ahead of the game. They can’t repair them all.”
Irix reached out and ran a hand down my shoulder to cup my elbow. “And tonight? The vampires managed to catch the guy last night. I doubt it will be as easy now.”
I bit my lip and gave voice to my thoughts. “I don’t want any of my friends to be hurt or killed. Maybe if we just watch which ones they tamper with and don’t engage them, we can come back tomorrow.”
I knew it was a lie. “We’ll see about that.” They were going to attack us. If it came to a fight I would defend my friends, but the thought of killing set my heart racing. An image flashed before me of my father convulsing on the garage floor. I’d always hoped I wouldn’t have to face that side of my monster again.
“What happens the next day, and the next?” Irix’s hand on my arm was gentle, but his tone had a steely note to it. “This can’t go on forever, Amber. Eventually this is going to turn violent — probably sooner than you think. It’s better that you do it on your own terms.”
Strike first. It was one thing to take a life when I was five years old and didn’t realize the finality of my actions, it was another to stand here and coldly plot an attack on living human beings — people who had wives and children, mothers and brothers, people who felt what they were doing was right, no matter how twisted their logic. People that looked like my high school chemistry teacher. I was facing a hard decision, and there was only one choice I could allow myself to make.
“I‘ll do what needs to be done,” I whispered to him, hoping he’d somehow understand.
“Me too,” Kristin said. “I might be a transplant, but I still consider this my city. I won’t let these people be the cause of widespread death and destruction. I can kill if I have to.”
Easy for someone to say when they’d never done it — never seen the light fade in another’s eyes, hear their screams, smell the burning of their flesh… .
I looked from Irix to Kristin and swallowed hard before nodding. I didn’t want to be this person, but this was about survival, this was a time when I needed to do hard things to protect others.
“I’ll call the vampires, if you call Jordan and the rest of the witches,” I told Kristin. “Ask them if they have anything defensive, like a magical binding spell, or a freeze spell, or something they can use tonight.”
I had no idea if those things were possible, or even if Jordan’s group could create them before tonight. Remembering past conversations with Wiccan friends, I seemed to recall certain spells required specific moon phases and ingredients that might not be available on the fly. This was New Orleans though — home of the occult. If something like this could be purchased, it would be here. And where was Jordan, anyway? She’d told me in her text she’d meet us here.
Kristin nodded and moved off to make her calls while I turned to Irix. “Part of me wants to fix as much as possible, especially with a storm moving up the gulf, but we can’t spread ourselves too thin tonight by watching every single spot. What do you suggest?”
The incubus looked across to the other bank of the Mississippi, the breeze ruffling the dark hair around his face. He looked oddly noble, like a warrior planning a battle strategy — so at odds with the amoral demon that hid beneath the surface.
“They’ll want to engage us. Our activities are going to lessen the impact they want — perhaps even negate it, given time. They’ll want to take us out just as much as we do them. I say let’s fix everything we can — show them just who they’re messing with. We’ll pick a spot that suits us best and do something really flashy there, and then wait. They’ll come.”
“I’ll be too weak to do much at the actual battle.” So would he. It made me feel guilty to know my abstinence had drained him, weakened him. If he was hurt, if any of us was hurt, it would be my fault. “I’m a pretty decent shot, so maybe I can get a gun. Or if I can find enough sexual partners I can use electricity.”
“I don’t want you to fight. Your job is to fix as much of these magical faults as possible, then stay safe.”
His words … stung.
“Amber, I haven’t been able to persuade you to have sex with anyone but me, your vow a few moments ago aside. I know I’m not going to sway you into actions that most likely will kill a human being.” He caressed my arm as if he understood and forgave me my inability to come to terms with the demon inside me. “I’ll fight in your stead.”
A vision of him dead and bleeding on the top of the seawall rocked me. I could never stand by while my friends died before my eyes. I could never stay safe and watch him die.
“I’ll fight. And I’ll do whatever I need to prepare for it. Women, married people, guys with sandals and socks.”
He didn’t even crack a smile. “I’d rather you stay safe. It’s okay, Amber. You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes, I do. How am I going to live for ten–thousand years knowing that I hid while those I cared about died? That I could have made a difference and chose not to?”
“You’d rather live with the guilt that you tied unwilling humans to you? That you killed?”
His voice was as soft and gentle as his hand on my arm.
“Yes. I’ll live with that guilt. These people are relying on me to help them. A whole city of people, their livelihoods as well as their lives, rest in our hands. My ethics are fucked either way. I’m choosing the path I’ll best be able to live with — the one that will let me sleep at night.”
His eyes met mine, warm with a note of concern. I thought he was about to say something, but a shout from Kristin took our attention.
“Guys! Jordan isn’t answering her phone or texts.”
* * *
30
We were all clustered in Irix’s house. The faint scent of opium lingered from the night before, but no one remarked on it. We were all too concerned about Jordan. Irix leaned against the leather–inlaid hunt table, arms crossed as he watched us with hooded eyes. I wished he’d take control of this. I hadn’t the foggiest idea what to do. All I could think of was Jordan’s burgundy hair in the sunshine as we broke the spells along the levee. She was smart, cautious, a skilled witch. Where was she?
The front door slammed, and footsteps sounded in the hallway. “Not at her house,” Ourson announced almost before he’d turned the corner to enter the living room. “Nothing to indicate a struggle.”
“This isn’t like her,” Stu insisted. “She’d have checked in by now, even if her phone died.”
What should I do? I looked at Irix imploringly, but he refused to rescue me.
“We’ve got a list with the names of some of their members,” Ourson said. “They take one of ours, we take five of theirs. Maybe even that Basteau guy.”
We already had one of theirs, and I doubted Basteau was defenseless against vampires or demons. There wasn’t enough proof that Crimson Moon was to blame for Kristin’s disappearance to go to the police. I doubted they’d take a vague threat from a man at a cemetery to be substantial evidence of foul play or intent to harm.
“What if they kill her in retaliation?” Kristin’s sunburned face was pinched with fear.
They all turned to me for guidance, and I scrambled to come up with a plan.
“They haven’t contacted us yet to make any demands. Let’s continue to break the spells on the levee until they do. We’ll stick together so they won’t be able to take anyone else.”
The demand came late
afternoon. We’d just finished with the last of the spells on the levee when I got a text from Jordan’s phone. My initial excitement fell abruptly as I saw the message. We were to cease all magical activity on the levees and bayous, and let Mr. Wilcox go. I was instructed to banish the two demons to Hel in Mr. Wilcox’s presence. If he returned and reported this was done, they would release Jordan unharmed. If not, she would be killed.
Odd. They seemed to think I was one of the Wiccans and not one of the demons. That gave me hope that Jordan was okay and had some kind of plan in place.
“I don’t know how to banish demons,” Kristin said, tears in her eyes. “I explored some other paths in my past, but I’ve been Wiccan for years now. I’ve never summoned a demon before. We don’t do that sort of thing.”
Evie and Stu both nodded, adding that none of the now twenty defected members of Bon Nuit knew anything about summoning or banishing demons.
“Why did they send this to me?” I mused. “Why not send it to Bev or Jason? They’re the leaders of Bon Nuit, and as far as they know, the coven is the one doing this.”
Stu looked thoughtful. “It’s late. I wonder if they sent it to Bev and she told them to stuff it. Jordan may have convinced them that you were a witch with enough power in the coven to put together a coup over this.”
“If so, maybe we can fake it,” Evie interjected. “Somehow lie that you both were banished and that Bon Nuit has backed off.”
It was a good idea, but as much as Mr. Wilcox seemed to appreciate my intervening on his behalf with the vampires, I couldn’t trust him to lie to his own order about our banishment. I turned to Irix and saw the scroll in his waistband. It only transported one to Hel, but maybe we could work some kind of sleight of hand and make them think we were banished.
“Kristin can you make up a fake ritual? Maybe with enough smoke and mirrors, they’ll think both of us were truly banished. People believe that David Copperfield and Criss Angel guy. No reason Mr. Wilcox won’t believe us if we plan it right.”
