by Martha Carr
“I think it’s time to dance,” Nickie said, grinning up at Chuck. Her boyfriend had already started with his less-than-ideal dance moves, which made her throw her head back and laugh. Then she was moving with him, spinning and stomping around the den. A few others joined in, and John returned to Emily with two beer bottles.
He handed her one and nodded at Nickie and Chuck. “I wanna go to their party.”
Emily laughed. “If we stay here long enough, I think this’ll be their party.” She tipped her beer toward him, he tapped his against it, and they drank. Chuck spun in an awkward circle, flinging his hands in the air, and Emily almost sprayed beer out her nose.
“Come on, Em.” John bobbed his head and moved his body to the rhythm. “I got to dance at a Nickie Hadstrom show with you. You can’t pass up James Brown.”
Emily took a long drink of her beer, raised an eyebrow at him, and moved her feet.
30
There was a lull in sound as the end of the last track faded. The woman who’d gone off into the kitchen to look for food used it as an opportunity to return to the den, blinking furiously and scanning the faces of everyone waiting to dance to the next song.
“Hey, has anyone seen Vanessa?”
Nobody said anything, but several turned and shook their heads.
“I’m just…I haven’t seen her for a while, and I guess she didn’t tell anyone where she was going.”
“I haven’t seen her since we got here,” Chuck offered.
“Okay.” The woman frowned. “I’m sorry, everybody. I just…she doesn’t normally do this, so…” She glanced behind her into the kitchen and slid a hand across her forehead. “She won’t answer her phone, either.”
“I’m sure she’s fine, Beth.” Nathan turned the music down so they could hear better. “I mean, she knows there are a bunch of people having fun in her house. Maybe she just stepped out for a bit to get some air.”
“Yeah.” Beth blinked again and took a deep breath. “That sounds like something she’d do.”
“Yeah. She’ll be back.” Nathan turned up the volume and shuffled toward the center of the den, taking Laura’s hand and spinning her. Laura rolled her eyes, turning slowly with a barely touched beer in her hand, but she smiled.
Nickie grinned at Chuck as he wiggled around in front of her. This guy dances like a toddler. Looks like Emily’s finally enjoying herself. Her sister and John cracked up over something only they could hear. Nickie smiled, and then a sharp, intense pressure flared behind her eyes. Three quick, blaring drumbeats followed. She sucked in a breath. Really? Now?
Swallowing, she lifted her beer bottle at Chuck and wiggled it. “I’m getting another one.”
He nodded and kept dancing, and she headed straight for Laura. The minute Laura saw her, her smile disappeared.
Nathan cocked his head at her. “Everything okay?”
“I’m…not sure.”
Nickie smiled quickly up at the very tall Nathan. “Hey, sorry to cut in. Laura, I’m startin’ to get a—” Another burst of pain flared at her temple, followed by a burst of the Gorafrex’s drums that lasted longer this time. Nickie closed her eyes and pushed through it. “I’m getting’ a headache, I think. Feels like someone’s pounding on my head with a drum.”
“Oh.” Laura glanced at Nathan. “Oh, no. Do you need something for it?”
“Yeah, I could use your help.”
“I’m sure Vanessa has something somewhere.” Nathan spread his arms. “I’ll go look.”
“No, thanks.” Laura patted his arm without looking away from her sister. “Nickie has to take this special kind of migraine medicine. Super hard to find.”
Chuck stepped up behind her and lightly rubbed Nickie’s back. “Super hard to find,” he repeated and nodded at Nathan. “I’ve tried to find it; it’s liking digging for buried treasure.”
Nickie smiled at him. “Sorry, babe. I think I need to—” The drums started up again, this time without the building pressure as a warning. She hunched her shoulders and clenched her eyes shut, trying to breathe through it.
“Woah, it’s that bad, huh?”
“Yeah. They come on fast.” Laura caught Emily’s gaze and waved her over. “Nickie’s got a migraine,” she said when both Emily and John joined them.
“One of the really bad ones?” Emily raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah, Em.” Nickie gritted her teeth. “One of those.”
“Okay, so let’s go.” Emily nodded at the front door and guided Nickie toward it with a hand on her sister’s back.
“Uh…” John spread his arms. “You need any help, or—”
“Nope. We got it.” Laura nodded and hurried out the door after her sisters.
The three men left at the party without their dates stared at the door none of the Hadstrom sisters had bothered to close behind them.
John cocked his head. “They do that a lot, don’t they?”
Chuck nodded. “Oh, yeah.”
With a frown, Nathan squinted and just said, “Huh.”
The Hadstrom sisters hurried down the neighborhood sidewalk. Emily and Laura walked on either side of Nickie, supporting her as much as they could while trying to be quick. “Still happening?” Emily asked.
“Yeah.” Nickie swallowed. “Off and on. You guys can hear it too, right?”
“It’s getting louder.” Laura stared down the street in the darkness, which was lit only by a few yellow pools from the streetlights. “We’re going in the right direction, at least.”
“Okay, so this has to mean the Gorafrex is here, right?” Emily tightened her grip on Nickie’s arm when her sister stumbled. “Like it maybe has another witch or wizard, or it’s at the energy core. Or both.”
“Right now, I’d say that’s the best assumption.” The ancient, hastily beating drums came again, and Laura cocked her head. “Wait. That sounds like it’s coming from—” She glanced into the street and rolled her eyes. “Again with the manholes?”
“How else do you get underground out here, Laura?” Emily helped Nickie down off the sidewalk, and they hurried toward the manhole cover in the middle of the street.
Laura pointed at the metal disk, her silver ring flashed, and the thing popped out a lot more gracefully than the first time. “That’s an improvement.” She stepped toward the gaping black hole in the asphalt and peered down. Pointing, she dropped an orb of light down into the hole so they could see the bottom. “Faster with a transport bubble.”
“Got it.” Emily flicked her wrist, and a shimmering bubble grew from her ring until it was big enough for all three of them. “Belowground floor.” She smirked, and her sisters stepped in with her.
The bubble popped two seconds later, and they looked up to see the night sky in the open ring above them. “Okay.” Laura looked down both offshoots of the tunnel. “We need to—”
Nickie grunted and doubled over as the Gorafrex’s drumbeat blasted through the tunnel toward them. It echoed from every direction, making it impossible to tell where they needed to go. “Clubhouse,” Emily said, whipping out her keys. She grabbed Nickie’s from her sister’s back pocket and held the coin out for her. “Let’s go.”
All three of them pressed their thumbs against the imprint and disappeared.
Nickie staggered out of their arms in the Clubhouse and went straight to the futon to sit. “Oh, man. It’s so much worse when that stupid thing’s nearby.”
“Yeah, I bet. Better in here, though.” Emily walked across the room to grab the iron orb she’d put on the shelf, then she stopped and gazed around. “Looks like you guys put together a little arsenal before the party.”
“We needed to be ready.” Laura glanced at Nickie, who nodded and rubbed her forehead. Laura joined Emily at the bookshelf. “I think we’re a lot better prepared than last time.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Emily took in the items on the shelf—both of the iron orbs; the iron lance; the Velikan Engineer’s oversized socket wrench; and a pair of fingerless
leather gloves. “What are these?”
“Those are for you.” Laura nodded, and Emily picked the gloves up off the shelf. “Figured you might want your fingers free for spellcasting or…I don’t really know everything about how that works with rings instead of wands, yet.”
“No one’s blaming you for that, Laura.”
“Those gloves are really good, though. I’ve used them to handle a good number of…feisty creatures, I guess. Haven’t gotten bitten yet when I wear these.”
Emily shot her a confused glance. “I’m gonna let that feisty-creature part go for now.” She slipped on the gloves and flexed her fingers. “What about the metal plates in the middle?” Stretching out her hands, she studied the squares of metal attached to each glove’s palm.
“I figured, if you timed it right, a simple binding spell with the iron string thing would give you extra leverage before you throw the slingshot.”
“Hey, I really like that name. Slingshot. Might use it.”
Laura chuckled wryly. “Do what feels right, I guess.”
Emily looked at her and smiled softly. “Thanks, Laura. You put some thought into these.”
“I’m sorry, Em. About what I said this morning.”
“Apology accepted.” Emily gave her a thumbs-up and laughed at her bare thumb poking up out of the leather glove.
Nickie stood from the futon, took a deep breath, and bent beside it to open her guitar case on the low coffee table. “I’m glad you guys got that over with. Now I really think we should get back out there and do what we came to do. My brains are fed up with being bashed around inside my head.”
Emily grabbed the iron sphere from the shelf and paused. “You goin’ with lance or socket wrench?”
Laura’s hand shot out for the lance, and she lifted it out in front of her before setting the butt of it onto the ground. “Iron. Putting that thing back in its prison comes first, right? I’ll take our shot at that before anything else.”
“Okee dokee.” Emily walked back toward the center of the Clubhouse and stared at Nickie. “Nice setup. But…you think goin’ into this thing with your Strat and a portable amp is the best choice for a Gorafrex fight?”
Nickie stood and straightened her shoulders, then grabbed the handle on the top of the miniature amplifier. “I’ve been practicing.”
“Right, but—”
“A different kind of magic.” Nickie winked at her, and Laura stepped up to join them.
Em grinned. “Queen, right?”
Nickie winked. “Bad joke, I know.”
“All right…” Laura stood in the middle of the three. “Out of the Clubhouse, then another transport bubble. I’ll take care of that one. Make sure you visualize the energy core, but it has to be the one under the street in the neighborhood. Got it?”
“Yep.”
“Ready to go.”
Laura nodded. “Let’s go do our thing, then.” They thumbed the coins on their keyrings and disappeared.
The moment they returned to the tunnel, still lit by Laura’s glowing light, the Gorafrex’s drums hit them. Nickie gasped and shut her eyes. The opalescent transport bubble bloomed on Laura’s ring, grew in front of them, and both Nickie’s sisters helped her gently inside. “Think of the core,” Laura shouted.
Then they were gone.
31
The minute the bubble popped, they found themselves in a half-lit chamber identical to the one where they’d found the first energy core; only, this one had two other women in it, and one of them had a murdering, bodiless being inside of her.
The resounding silence when the Gorafrex’s drumbeat cut out was deafening. The woman who’d accosted Emily, the one with matted brown hair and the tattered dress, whipped her head toward them. “I cannot be stopped,” she hissed.
In front of her, the Gorafrex’s next victim knelt between her and the energy core. Her head was thrown back, eyes wide, mouth open as she breathed heavily but seemed frozen. A strangled moan escaped her, but that was it.
Emily glanced at Laura and mouthed, ‘Vanessa.’
Nickie set the amp on the stone floor and switched it on. She gripped her pick and faced the Gorafrex inside the human woman. “Wanna bet?” She strummed the first chord, and her sisters jumped away from the amp as sound exploded through the chamber.
The possessed woman hissed and focused her attention on Vanessa. Rapid drumming picked up once more as the Gorafrex raised its host’s hand. At the same time, Nickie launched into the chord progression of the lullaby their dad sung every night until they told him they were too old for lullabies.
For a second, the Gorafrex didn’t notice, then the drums faded and the host swiveled her head to glare at Nickie. “You’ve played that song before.” The woman’s voice echoed in the chamber almost as loud as the quick, embellished notes from Nickie’s Strat. “It almost ruined you.” The Gorafrex cocked its head and sniffed at the air. “You would risk the same again, now that I know your scent?”
Nickie kept playing, staring at the woman harboring the murderous creature. She struck another chord, much louder this time, and when she started the lullaby over, her fingers flew.
Laura glanced at Emily and dipped her head, indicating the other side of the chamber. Her sister nodded and started circling around the Gorafrex, whose head kept twitching as it studied the witch playing the oldest, most dangerous spell it knew.
Nickie stepped forward, and the Gorafrex roared. “No!” The possessed woman lunged at the kneeling Vanessa—suspended helplessly by the creature’s magic—and raised her hand. The drumming started up again.
Yet, Nickie didn’t react to the sound. She didn’t hear it at all as she played the one song her ancestors had utilized to lock the vicious being away ages ago.
The woman’s eyes flashed a brilliant silver, and Vanessa screamed. From the center of the redheaded witch’s chest rose a thin silver filament. It wavered in the air for a second, then elongated and grew, reaching toward the ancient energy core.
“Emily!” Laura shouted.
The youngest Hadstrom sister already had the same thought. She pressed the small round circle in the iron orb and grabbed the released chain with her other hand. A copper light flashed below her glove, binding the thread there, and she hurled the orb at the woman drawing Vanessa’s lifeforce out of her and into the energy core.
The odd weapon did exactly as she’d practiced. A blast of magic propelled it in the blink of an eye. It wrapped around the host’s neck, eliciting a sharp choke, then spun round and round, pinning the woman’s arms to her sides in crisscrossing silver lines.
The host threw her head back and roared. The chamber around them trembled with the sound, fueled by Nickie’s constant music. The minute the iron orb stopped, Emily gave it a quick tug and pulled it taut. “Oh, my god, I did it. Laura, I think now’s your—”
A growling, rumbling chuckle rose from the host’s throat, like a thousand voices in one. “You try so hard,” the ancient voice seethed; it didn’t belong to the human anymore.
“Wait.” Laura stared at the glowing silver filaments rising from Vanessa’s chest. Dozens of them darted this way and that, growing longer, reaching outward toward the core’s clear cylinder. “We’re missing something. It’s about to power the thing anyway.” She glanced at Emily. “We have to stop that,” she shouted, pointing at Vanessa’s lifeforce magic being drawn out of her.
“What?”
“We don’t have all the—”
A blinding flash flared from where the first tendril of magic touched the energy core. The chamber trembled, and the Gorafrex cackled with its thousand ancient voices.
Laura whipped out her keys and thumbed the coin. The moment she appeared in the Clubhouse, she dropped the lance—useless when they didn’t have everything they needed—and leapt toward the bookshelf. She grabbed the Velika and nearly dropped it, but she tightened her even as she thumped the coin again and reappeared in the chamber. Without missing a beat, she stormed the energy co
re, swung the wrench with all the strength she had, and brought it cracking up into the closest part of the cylinder.
The force of that blow vibrated up her arms and into her shoulders, but she kept her grip on the wrench. The energy core spit a violent spray of green sparks, hissing and spewing, and the ancient blue magic shot up the cylinder in crackling streaks. An actual crack ran up the side of the clear structure, and the whole thing started to crumble.
The magic draining out of Vanessa’s chest slithered back into her just as the first shower of shattered energy core rained down. Some silver threads had already entered the cylinder, though, and appeared to activate some part of it. A high-pitched whine rose from the base set into the chamber floor, and a blue light flashed from it, strobing faster and faster.
The Gorafrex growled and writhed within the Emily’s silvery net. The chamber shook, and the woman host’s flailing snapped the iron thread from its place inside the orb. The orb fell to the ground with a metallic ring and rolled behind the shattered energy core.
“No, no, no!” Emily couldn’t pull her end of the iron thread fast enough to draw it tight, and the Gorafrex shook its host’s body and slipped free of the thin chain binding.
The creature stepped out of the looped pile at its feet and hissed at the witches. “Never again,” it spat.
The drums rattled, and a shimmering aura like some swirling, gelatinous thing grew around the woman’s body. A second later, the Gorafrex shot up out of its human host and hurtled across the cavern. Nickie’s music cut out with a grating shriek, and the aura of glowing energy darted over her head and into the tunnel beyond.
The human it had inhabited for at least the last five days—who would wake up soon only to find that the tiny, pea-sized brain at the top of her spine had now awakened her to the most powerful magic of any being on this giant ship they called Earth—slumped to the floor and lay still. Vanessa did the same right after her.
