by Amie Gibbons
“Not really, since they were dead, but I’ll take your word for it,” I said.
“I get it,” AB said, rubbing his arm.
“Of course you do,” he said. “You were the one babbling about alternate realities earlier.”
She grinned. “What? Not great pillow talk?”
He took her hand and kissed it. “Is for a smart girl.”
She blushed and I had to smile.
“Anyway,” I said, “we’re sure this wasn’t us? I mean positive?”
“Yes,” Carvi said. “If it were us, it would’ve started in Nashville, not down here. And since this is already up and killing people, I’m guessing it started a while ago.”
“What’s a while?” Quil asked.
Carvi shook his head. “Depends on how big the spell was. If it was something smaller, say bringing someone back from the dead, it could’ve been up to a year ago, slowly gathering power the longer and longer this person was back. If it was something big like ripping through the walls of reality, it could’ve been this morning.”
“And for us to tell, we have to go to whatever level your war room is in?” I asked.
“Different level, but same dimension,” Carvi said, words chosen slow and careful.
“Let me make sure I have this right,” I said. “We have alternate realities, and we can’t get there, but some people in other realities can jump between them. Those are completely separate from anything we got going on here. Okay. Then here, we have different dimensions, like the astral plane and such. And within those are different layers or levels. Do I have that all right?”
“Yes,” Quil said as Carvi nodded.
“Oh good for me,” I said. “I get it. Okay, I totally don’t get it, but I understand the different names.”
“Yes,” Carvi said.
“What do I call this home office dimension?” I asked Carvi.
He grinned.
“I don’t mean whatever name it really has, since you won’t tell me. I just mean, what do I call it so we all know what I’m talkin’ about?”
“You can call it the home office,” he said.
“But that’s just the layer we were in,” I said. “What about the whole thing? What do we call that?”
He shrugged. “You have a point. Let’s call it Asgard for lack of a better term.”
I looked at AB.
“Where the gods live in Norse mythology,” she said. “It’s not where human spirits would go after death though.”
“You’re not Nordic,” I said to Carvi. “You’re Egyptian Jew.”
“And?” he asked. “I can’t tell you the real name. I physically can not. Part of the deal.”
“What deal?”
He just smiled. “Oh lea.”
“Fine,” I said, “we’ll call that dimension Asgard and that level the home office. What level do we need to go to to see what’s going on here? Where you went to balance the energies when you were traveling through time and when you were checking to see if you could save Milo?”
“That would be a level beyond the home office,” Carvi said. “That’s the problem.”
I looked between him and Quil.
Quil pressed his lips together, eyes dancing like he was having an argument with himself.
Or maybe Carvi.
“Guys?” I asked. “Are you two talking right now?”
“Yes,” Quil said.
At the same time, Carvi said, “No.”
I glared at Carvi.
“We have a difference of opinion on this,” Carvi said. “Quil believes it’s too dangerous. When I say a layer beyond the home office, I mean the same thing I do in the astral plane.
“The astral plane connects to the demon dimension, and the more layers you go, the more danger and the more risk of getting lost. This is the same thing. The more layers down you go, the closer you are to what’s on the other side of it, and the more risk of getting lost. Since most humans can’t handle the war room, I would have said all before you, you may not be able to handle the next layer.”
“That makes sense, I think,” I said. “But what’s on the other side of that dimension? Do all the dimensions have something on the other side?”
“Yes!” AB said. “That’s another possibility. One of the connecting sides could be off. Couldn’t it? Could, say, an imbalance on the demon side, leak over to here, to try to keep the balance?”
“Yes,” Carvi said, eyes widening. “That would be bad. Not as bad as if it were another reality, but if one of the other dimensions is off, and it got into one of the buffer dimensions and then into here? That would be almost as difficult to track.”
“What about to fix?” I asked. “Like if it’s the demon dimension, would Karma be able to go there to fix it?”
“No,” Carvi said. “She’d have to go to her counterpart on that side and talk to them. In case you haven’t noticed, diplomacy is not her strong suit.”
I bit my lip.
This was getting complicated.
“So, first things first,” I said. “We have to find where it started. Can you go in and look without me?”
“Yes,” he said, “but I’m not psychic. I can go in and look for imbalances. I may even see where it originated, but to find out more, to see more, what happened, who started it, etcetera… I’d need you.”
“Can we test it without making me go crazy?” I asked.
“No,” the guys said at once.
“Can we make something to protect her?” AB asked.
I looked at her.
She was brilliant!
“Yeah!” I said. “Is there anything we can put on me or over me, to keep the full force of whatever it is from affecting me?”
“I…” Carvi paused. “I honestly don’t know. We could call witches and see if anyone knows anything.”
“So while you check in there, we can do that,” I said. “Okay, break.”
###
“Thanks Sierra,” I said, nodding along as she said her goodbyes. “You too.”
I hung up.
Quil’s call was finished faster than mine and he shrugged. AB was talking it over with Natalia, who’d been watching the perimeter this whole time.
“Sierra doesn’t know anything that could protect a human mind in the other layers,” I said. “She said she didn’t even know what Carvi was talking about when he was talking about the home office. I’m getting the impression most people don’t really get to know about that level of stuff. Do you?”
“I know of it,” Quil said. “But I am not in the know. I know about the different levels and dimensions, but I can not begin to guess, well, I have a guess, about what the home office is. About who Carvi works for. Though I have a hard time believing it.”
“What? And why?”
“I don’t want to say anything in case I’m wrong,” he said. “Or in case I’m right.”
“Quilllllll,” I said. “Come on, don’t make me bribe you.”
I gave him my biggest eyes and he smiled, grabbing my chair and pulling me closer to him.
I inched into his lap and wrapped my arms around his neck, meeting his eyes.
“You are very persuasive when you want to be, sweets,” he said, nuzzling my neck.
“What’s your guess?” I asked.
“I’m wondering if Carvi is working for angels, or even for God.”
I jerked back.
He couldn’t be serious.
Carvi was… well, Carvi! He wasn’t exactly an angel.
But then again, how would I know?
“You think that’s the bigger picture he’s talkin’ about?” I asked.
Quil rested his forehead against mine. “Carvi plays on a level we do not. I do not. You may be able to.”
“I don’t understand that.”
“If I went into the first layer he was telling me about, that home office, I would be insane. You weren’t.”
“Quil, I don’t know what that means.”
“It means,
you are far more than any of us first thought.”
“Am I descended from something big and powerful, like a god?”
“Maybe,” he said. “If I had to guess, I’d say yes. Except your family doesn’t have the gifts you do. Even if they were not as powerful because you got the power through a fluke of genetics, they’d still have some magic. And…”
He looked at me.
I swear there was pity in his eyes.
“What?” I asked.
“Sweets, I think you should talk to your parents, after this is all over.”
I pulled back. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He shook his head. “I have a question. I have a guess as to the answer. I can’t tell you. If I’m right, it’s not my place. If I’m wrong, it will hurt you for no reason.”
What the crap?
“I’m getting really sick of people speaking in riddles!” I scrambled off his lap, falling into the table and pushing off it to my feet. “No!” I said as he opened his mouth. “Just tell me.”
“Hey.” AB opened the door and it slammed a second later.
“Okay,” she said, walking into view. “Natalia says it’s possible, but it’d be some serious magic, like we’d have to pour in a ton of energy and balance the forces kind of magic. We’ll need a good spell, which she said she can get for us, most likely, and we’d need something big to power it. Something Carvi would probably be able to do, but he’d have to balance the forces too, which I’m hoping he could, but this would all take a lot.”
“We brought those people back on Halloween,” Quil said. “I’m sure Carvi can manage this. Thank you, AB. We’ll tell Natalia thank you too.”
“Oh, no you don’t,” I said. “Finish what you were saying.”
I propped my hands on my hips and stared him down.
“Did I interrupt something?” AB asked.
“No,” Quil said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Oh dear,” AB said. “I’m staying out of it.”
She held up her hands and walked to the living room where Carvi’s body lay on the couch.
“Any idea how long this will take him?” she asked.
“Time passes slower there, so not long,” I said. “He should be back any minute.”
I turned back to Quil. “What were you saying?”
He shook his head. “I’m probably wrong.”
“Then what does it hurt to tell me?”
“Sweets.”
“No! Don’t sweets me! Everyone keeps talking in riddles, and I’m getting sick of it. Quil, just talk to me.”
He met my eyes.
His shone with pain.
“What?” I asked.
“When I met your parents the first time, there was a lot going on,” he said. “I wasn’t paying attention. But now… I would like to get a better handle on your parents because I think they may have done something. More specifically, that your mother may have.”
“Done something? I don’t understand.”
“If you have powers, at the level you do, and they don’t, and your siblings, extended family, everyone you’re related to, doesn’t, I’m wondering if your…” He licked his lips. “I’m wondering if your father isn’t your father. It’s happened many times in the past, it’s how creatures like Carvi come about, and it would explain a lot.”
Chapter seven
“You think… you think my dad isn’t my dad! Of course he is! I have his eyes.”
Quil held up his hands. “That’s why I didn’t want to say anything. If I’m wrong, then I am disparaging your mother for no reason. If I’m right, then that would be for your parents to tell you.”
I shook my head.
“No way, no. Mama wouldn’t cheat.”
Quil sighed and held up his hands. “This is why I shouldn’t have said anything.”
I glared.
He was darn right he shouldn’t have.
Except, I hadn’t been giving him a choice.
“No,” I sighed, “you’re right. I asked. I pushed. I’m just really hoping you’re wrong. My mama… she’s better than that. And I feel like my daddy’s. He, if anything, I’d guess I was his favorite. Probably because I came along after he’d already retired from the military, so he was around a lot more for me growing up. He was a consultant and settled in one area instead of moving around and being deployed overseas. What if Mama had a moment of weakness when he was deployed? No, wait, he was done before I was even conceived. So no.”
“You’re psychic, Ariana,” Carvi said from the living room.
“Welcome back,” I said. “I know I’m psychic. So?”
“So you could see if your mom cheated,” he said.
“Ohhhhh,” I said. “Good point.”
“But this is all stuff you’ll have to deal with later,” Carvi said, walking up to the table. “You can deal with all this after we save Alabama.”
“What did you see?” I asked.
He sighed. “I saw that I’m not going to be able to see this without your help.” He patted his pocket like he was considering the cigarettes, sighed and dropped his hand.
“I can’t see what’s going on,” he said. “I can see the imbalance. I can see it didn’t start today, but it wasn’t that long ago. That’s all. I think if we could get you in there that you could, but I don’t know if we can. What did you find?”
AB told him about Natalia’s contact and how we were going to get the spell from them, but we’d need his energy.
“That’s going to take a lot of feeding, and this place isn’t Nashville. This is Small City, USA, and I’m not sure I can pull enough from it. It’s nice, but it doesn’t vibrate like Nashville does.”
“We are still planning on going to Miami, though, right?” I asked. “I’m already missing the rally. Why don’t we do that tonight? We’ll go there, I’ll do my thing with the phone and stuff to find who sent the call, and you can gather energy while I do. You get it from your city, your people, your playthings, whatever, and I’ll get visions. We’ll find the person who put out the hit and take them out, and you’ll have enough energy to do the spell; by then Natalia should have the spell from her contacts, and we can go from there.”
The guys shared a look.
“Sounds good,” Quil said. “We’ll go now.”
“Okay,” I said. “I just have to check on my parents. Make sure the rally’s going well, and nobody attacked them.”
I almost said yet, but kept it in.
There was no yet. They were under protection, and I wasn’t there, meaning the people hunting me were probably looking for me.
Except they weren’t stupid. And the best way to drive me outta hiding would be to kidnap someone in my family and offer to trade them for me.
###
We drove to the airport we’d flown in to, and I called my parents on the way.
Mama answered and confirmed all was going well. She was sorry I couldn’t make it, but she understood.
I wanted to ask her about what Quil’d said so bad.
But that wasn’t something you asked your mama over the phone. And, even if she had cheated, would she admit it? After all these years? After I was so obviously my father’s daughter even if I wasn’t his by blood?
No way. I felt like his. He was my daddy, he loved me so much, there was no way I was some kind of affair child. For one, somehow, I figured he’d have known if I were.
And I just couldn’t see Mama cheating.
My parents weren’t like that. They were still so in love even after almost forty years.
We hung up after I told her we were heading to Miami and she said be careful.
I seriously almost asked her.
I put the phone in my purse and looked at Carvi.
“What?” he asked.
“I can’t stop wondering if I’m somehow not my dad’s,” I said.
“Get a vision while we’re flying,” Carvi said.
“I already tried while I was on the phone,�
�� I said. “I couldn’t get anything. Maybe I don’t want to?”
“Or something could be blocking you,” Quil said. “I don’t mean your subconscious. I mean, if there was a spell put around it, to protect it from anyone seeing it. Or, it could be there’s nothing to see and you’re a fluke of power. If magic only came through blood, how would humans sometimes randomly have it? You could be a fluke.”
“I could be,” I said as the limo pulled into the little airport’s parking lot in front of the hanger.
We hopped out and I looked around. “For some reason,” I said, “I was thinking Natalia would go with us.”
“She’s keeping an eye on your family, and tracking down the spell,” Carvi said. “I told her I want that by the time we get back.”
“How long you think this’ll take?” I asked as I grabbed the overnight bag I’d thrown together in like two minutes.
Carvi shook his head. “I can’t say. If the person knows how to cover their trail, it could take a while. It could take us traveling into deeper layers of the astral plane like on Halloween. We have to find the trail first. And then we still have to find the person in real life and get to them. And make them drop it.”
I flinched as his voice took on a harsh tone.
I knew what he meant when he said stuff like that.
Made me happy he was on my side.
At least, I was pretty sure he was on my side.
“Carvi,” I asked as we walked up the steps onto the nice little private plane. “What are you?”
He grinned. “You already know what I am. I’m a half demon who was turned into a vamp, and who’s had a long time to build up power. You’re really asking what I am, as in my job title, and who I work for.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“I can’t tell you.”
“What about your job description? Just tell me that.”
He stared me in the eyes. “My job here is to be a foot soldier and guardian. Satisfied?”
“Not even close,” I said as I flopped down on the long couch.
If we were going to be staying up to deal with all this, I was grabbing a nap.
