Blood and Fire

by Ally Shields

  “Your point?”

  “Just saying. Seems odd. I smell a story.”

  She tried laughing it off. “I think your human nose is steering you wrong. There’s no story. A couple of kids were scaring each other in a dark cave.”

  “Uh-huh. Have you checked it out yet? I noticed the police barricades. Seems like they don’t want anyone around there.”

  “I think the reason for the precaution is obvious. Think of the problems we’d have if your media friends started running all over vampire territory.” She gave a half laugh. “Ryan’s already gone into hiding to avoid the microphones.”

  “They’re not my media friends, just pushy competition, but Lt. Foster’s attitude doesn’t surprise me. He’s not very tolerant of the press.”

  Which was true, as Eddie had reason to know. He and Ryan had butted heads before. It didn’t help that Eddie had once been jailed as a murder suspect when he’d lied to the cops over a vampire killing. At best, the two men had a conditional liking for one another. Conditional upon Eddie not currently printing anything the police didn’t want to read.

  She wound up the conversation by pleading a stack of unfinished reports and grimaced as she disconnected. Eddie and Ryan were sure to be at it again. It wouldn’t take Eddie long to run down the two kids. The rest of the press, with nothing more exciting to report, would be all over the story too. Yet another reason to get into the caves today before she had to fight her way through cameras and microphones.

  With that thought in mind, she made certain to be sitting in the first-floor recreation room of Andreas’s home when he appeared shortly after three o’clock. One good thing about vampires: she didn’t need to announce herself. He already knew she was there.

  “Waiting for me? An unexpected pleasure.” He gave her a quizzical look. “Ah, of course, the trip to the caverns. I did not realize you were so eager to get inside. Has something else happened?”

  “Eddie’s heard about the ghost sighting. I’d like to get into the caves before we’ve got a bunch of gawkers.”

  “This is certainly not welcome news.” He raked a hand through hair that was still wet from his shower. His black T-shirt and jeans indicated he’d already remembered her request. “The dwarves won’t let them in, but it is a hassle, and we will need to increase our vigilance. We sealed another surface entrance, and I would like to seal the one the boys found too, when you have finished with it.”

  “I guess that depends on what we find. Can you go now?” She stood and waved two flashlights at him. “I’m ready.” Even a vampire’s vision could use a little help in the total blackness of a cave.

  * * *

  Ari flipped the flashlight on before stepping through the cave entrance. Immediately inside, a middle-aged dwarf wearing blue jeans and a blue and yellow flannel shirt challenged them. He stood in the path, scowling, his short stubby legs planted in a firm stance, an axe over one shoulder, a wooden club resting on the other. Upper arm and chest muscles bulged under his flannel shirt, his whole body tense until Ari and Andreas identified themselves.

  “I recognize you now.” The dwarf’s scowl faded. “Nobody else has been around, so I was just doing a little reading.” He walked toward a small lawn chair with a lantern and book laying beside it. He dropped his weapons and grabbed the book, revealing the cover of the latest spy thriller. “It helps pass the time.”

  Leaving him to his own pursuits, they continued on the trail Ari had taken before. They walked down around a sharp bend, edged past the drop off, and took two more turns.

  “This is where I started back.” She played the light over the rock path ahead. “It looks like the boys went this way.” She pointed to a chalk arrow on the wall.

  “Hmm, yes. I can see that.”

  His voice sounded odd, and Ari would have turned her flashlight to see his face if it wouldn’t have blinded him. “Something wrong?”

  “I am not sure. Let us continue. I will take the lead from here.” Without hesitation he strode down the path with the confidence of someone familiar with his surroundings. Ari hurried to stay with him, her light often shining across his back.

  “I take it you know where you’re going,” she said when he didn’t waver from his fast pace.

  “I thought that was why you brought me.”

  “That’s true. And I like looking at your ass.”

  Andreas’s magic flared around her, as his low chuckle echoed. “Keep talking like that, and our search will be short.”

  Ari grinned. Since they were climbing rapidly upward, she saved her breath for mastering the path. The floor leveled, and the tunnel opened into a massive cavern as long as a football field, much of it marked by hundreds of jagged protrusions and massive formations.

  “We call it the Chamber of Ages.”

  “Wow.” Ari’s flashlight revealed eerie forms reaching up from the damp floor and dripping down from the ceiling. Some looked like people, soldiers standing at attention or graceful dancers. In other directions the water droplets sparkled like lights revealing an alien landscape.

  Skirting around one of the larger stalactites, Ari spied three openings large enough for a child or adult to pass. She hesitated a moment, then reacting to a pull from her magic, she turned and pointed at the one on the right. “Where does this go?” She started toward the tunnel.

  “Just keep going.” Andreas was close behind her.

  No sooner had he spoken than Ari stifled a startled yelp and leaped backward.

  “What the hell?” Andreas grabbed her before they both went down. But his words weren’t directed at Ari. He stared past her at the misty apparition blocking their path. The thing hovered a foot above the path, misty, swirling, and twisting. Ari righted herself and took a step forward. The ghostly form reacted to her approach by growing cloudy, denser, spreading higher and wider. A loud moaning echoed from the walls. Goosebumps rose on Ari’s arms, even though she’d already realized it wasn’t real.

  “It’s a magical spell.” She pulled open the small pouch of spells and potions she kept tied to her waist. “Let’s try a little dispersing powder.” She tossed a pinch of blue dust. The apparition shrieked, dissipated for an instant, then reformed. “Well, damn. More powerful than I anticipated.” She held out a hand in front of her and stepped forward again. Her fingers sparked as she touched an invisible wall. She patted up and down the surface. “It’s an energy barrier.” She turned to Andreas. “I can get rid of it, but I’ll have to invoke a counterspell.”

  “Can I knock it down or run through it?”

  “No, these barriers grow stronger under physical attack. Any idea what it’s protecting?”

  “The magical chamber on the other side, I assume.”

  “What kind of magic? Crystals? What?”

  “Much more. A magical source that you need to see for yourself.”

  “Well, that won’t happen until we get rid of this damned ghost.” She sat down on the tunnel floor, propped up her flashlight, and started digging in her pouch, pulling out packets and spreading them around her. She finally found a tiny notebook and pencil. “Always more secrets,” she muttered under her breath. “You guys make the CIA seem downright talkative.”

  “I assume you’re talking about me.” Andreas’s voice held a shimmer of amusement. “I cannot possibly tell you everything I have learned in two hundred years, Arianna. Until now I found no need to reveal this particular secret.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Vampire business again. You know how sick I get of hearing that?”

  He laughed, but leaned forward as she began to scribble in the notebook. “What are you doing?”

  “Writing a spell. The strongest ones need special wording. It’ll take me a few minutes.”

  “Then perhaps I have time to check out the other entrance you think Barron used. I want to see if he was also coming here.”

  “Sure. If I finish first. I’ll wait for you.”

  * * *

  When Andreas returned, Ari had already f
inished her spell and was leaning against a rocky formation in the Chamber of Ages.

  He held out an extra flashlight and pickaxe. “I found these dropped inside the other entrance. Someone had indeed been inside, and he wasn’t alone. Two scents and tracks going both directions. One of them returned a second time.”

  Ari took the tools and set them on a ledge. “I’ll take these to Ryan when we leave. If Barron’s crew can identify them, we’ll know he was one set of tracks, and then we can concentrate on figuring out who was with him.”

  “And why they were here. I still don’t know what these intruders want. I have seen nothing that could be carried away, no treasure to sell. Nor can I comprehend how anyone would know that Spirit Cave exists.”

  “Spirit Cave. Is that what’s down this tunnel?” She gently shook a small packet in her hand. “Since I’m eager to see it, let’s get rid of our ghost.”

  She handed her flashlight to Andreas, opened the packet to pour a handful of multicolored crystals like bath salts into her palm, and gestured for him to walk with her into the tunnel.

  The apparition appeared immediately, its incorporeal image barring their path. Ari bowed her head to the four winds, closed her eyes, and began the words of the spell:

  Formed from air to guard this path, let me pass or feel my wrath;

  Return now to sun and light, leave this place without a fight;

  Goddess, hear and grant my plea; so mote it be.

  When she had repeated the chant three times, she tossed the crystals. The barrier sparked and sizzled. The apparition dissolved into swirls, circling around and around into a tighter spiral. It made one last swoop, causing Ari to duck, then vanished in a silent flash of light.

  “Nicely done.” Andreas’s voice broke into that sense of isolation Ari felt every time she did a complex spell. He took her hand in his. “Now, let me show you the most fascinating mystery in the caverns.”

  Chapter Six

  Ari crouched to follow Andreas through a small opening and halted immediately when the air sparked. They had breached an energy barrier, causing her witch magic to surge then settle to sing in harmony with an unknown source. The hum sent tingles up her arms, across her back, and down her legs. Earth magic, formed by natural forces. She inched forward, dropped a couple of feet into a twenty-by-twenty-foot chamber on the other side, and swept her light over the rocky interior. Despite the obvious magical power around her, her first look revealed nothing out of the ordinary. More open and less humid than the outer chamber behind them, this cave owed its formation more to upheaval than erosion. Niches and crevices riddled the fractured surfaces, and rock debris, both large and small, littered the cave floor. The center of the room—empty as far as she could see—pulsed with energy.

  “Turn off your flashlight, Arianna.”

  The moment the light went out, she gasped. Ley lines. Not one but two. Running about six inches above the surface, the magical markers gleamed a greenish white, like glow sticks in the dark. “A vortex,” she breathed. “And a powerful one. This is a ley tunnel.”

  Even if she hadn’t felt the power, the color alone designated a magical intersection strong enough to form a whirlpool of time and dimensions.

  “By the Goddess, Andreas. Do you know what you have here?”

  Such conjunctions were rare concentrations of power. It explained the energy barrier at the cave opening. Power creating power. The vortex was hiding, protecting itself.

  Out of respect, she stepped over the glowing lines, careful to avoid even the slightest interference with the telluric connection. The earth currents, or ley lines, ran between earth’s vortexes of power, uniting such places as Stonehenge with the pyramids of Egypt or the Black Hills with Machu Picchu.

  “Have you plotted where each of the lines goes?” she whispered. Even that small sound seemed inappropriate in such a sacred place.

  “Only minimal work. One of them connects with Mesa Verde in Colorado.” Andreas also kept his voice low and his eyes focused on the vortex as if compelled by its magic. “The other may point toward Rome. They have not been fully charted.”

  She leaned forward to peer at his face. “Do you realize the significance of having two lines meet like this?” Since few people outside the practice of sorcery understood ley line magic, she went on to explain without waiting for an answer. “They form a vortex. A huge source of power and a gateway to other dimensions, other times. This one could be misused for good or evil and should be guarded 24/7. It could be a world changer.” He frowned, and she said impatiently, “It’s a big deal. Things might try to come through from other places, other centuries, or even different dimensions. Evil things—like demons or hellhounds.”

  “I do not doubt you. Only wondering why I had not heard this before.”

  She returned to the opening where they’d entered, using her flashlight to examine the walls. She noticed tool marks from forced entry, worn smooth by time, but still noticeable. “Who opened the chamber? How long have you known about it?”

  Andreas held up his hands. “Not my fault. This happened long before any of Daron’s people arrived. Perhaps Zylla can tell you. She lived in the caverns before a vampire court was established in Riverdale.”

  Hmm. The vampire wise woman again. A definite priority. Ari returned her gaze to the ley lines. What would a human treasure hunter want with a ley tunnel? He wouldn’t have the innate power to use its magic. For travel or anything else. And who put the ghost spell in the path? Why all the sudden interest in this magical spot? Why now? Ari’s imagination created all kinds of disturbing answers. From unauthorized time travel—with the devastating potential to rewrite history and thereby change the present and future—to an end-of-the-world invasion by demon hordes. The possibilities were terrifying.

  “I need to report this to the Magic Council and put it under council protection.”

  “No. You will not reveal its existence.”

  She spun to look at him. “You can’t mean that.”

  “I not only mean it, but as the prince of Riverdale, I forbid you to reveal its presence.” He drew his brows into unyielding lines. “You are standing in vampire territory. The secret is ours. You would not have learned of the magical chamber if I had not brought you here.” He smoothed his features. “We will protect its secrets.”

  “Like you’ve done so far? How many have already found it, Andreas? Barron and the spellmaker, at least. It’s not a secret anymore.”

  “It can be again. Now that you have told me the extent of its power, our court will guard it from misuse. The treasure hunter is already dead. Whoever conjured the ghost spell must have done so to prevent knowledge of the cave from spreading. We will find and insure his silence. As for Spirit Cave itself, the entrances will be sealed and a permanent guard station established in the Chamber of Ages.” His black eyes glittered. “This is our territory. You have no jurisdiction beyond crimes committed here. No authority to reveal our secrets. I will not argue with you, Arianna. Spirit Cave is ours to protect.”

  She glared at him but was more startled than angry. She’d never seen Andreas so intractable. Even at his most arrogant, he was always approachable. You didn’t become a prince of the vampires unless you were capable of strong command, but he’d never refused to listen to her side. Was there a more sinister reason he was so uncompromising?

  “Did vampires kill Jase Barron?”

  “No. I would have told you.” He narrowed his eyes to slits in the dim side-glow of her flashlight. “But if we had known he might reveal our secret, ways to silence him would have been considered.”

  Ari drew a sharp breath. “Is that meant to be a threat against me?”

  “What?” Andreas blinked in apparent confusion. “No. Never. Mio Dio, Arianna. Surely you do not think I would harm you.” He grabbed her arms, his black gaze demanding. “Do you?”

  “No, I guess not, but you’re not being very reasonable about this.”

  “We protect our own. That includes
our territory. I promise you we will take appropriate actions to protect the vortex.” He moved one hand to her chin. “Before we leave here, I need your promise.”

  “I can’t keep secrets from the Magic Council.” Ari pulled away. “You have no right to ask me to. Would you expect this of anyone else? Or is it because I slept with you?”

  Andreas went still.

  Aw, hell. What had she done? She shouldn’t have brought this down to a personal level. Yet it felt as if he was asking her to choose between him and her job. She hadn’t expected that. Now, she didn’t know how to get them out of this hole.

  “Forget I said that,” she mumbled. When the silence continued to grow, she stepped away from him and began to circle the room, looking behind boulders, down crevices.

  “What are you doing?” he finally asked.

  “Looking for an Indian artifact. That’s what Barron’s lawyers said he was after. As a human, he wouldn’t be able to see or feel the ley lines, so maybe he didn’t even know they were here. I wonder which treasure the ghost conjurer was protecting.” She threw Andreas a suspicious glance. “Do you know where the artifact is? Is that another secret you’re keeping?”

  Andreas leaned against the chamber entrance. “I already told you I was not aware of anything valuable.”

  “Yeah, but you neglected to mention the ley lines too.”

  She continued to inspect the room. Andreas watched as she crouched to stick her hand in a small opening. When she peeked up at him, his arms were crossed over his chest. Not a good sign. Standing at the chamber opening, he effectively blocked the exit.

  “Are you intending to hold me hostage, Prince Andreas? Until I agree to your majesty’s wishes?”

  “Tempting idea.” His tone was dry. “I will take it under consideration, but I would much rather have your voluntary compliance.”

  She pulled her hand out of the empty hole and stood. “You’re very serious about this, aren’t you?”