by Melody Raven
“Well, you’re assuming something pretty important there.”
“What’s that?”
“That when the town disappeared, the people didn’t go right along with it.”
Sam averted her eyes as Bastian took off his pants. She probably didn’t need to, considering he didn’t seem the slightest bit modest. Well, considering how ripped he was, she could see why he wouldn’t worry about who saw him mostly naked. But that didn’t change the ingrained habits. She hadn’t been living the decadent lifestyle of her mother and sister the past few years. Except for Jackson and Derek, her experience with men was sorely limited. And even if she was supposed to be one of the most powerful witches now, that didn’t mean she would stop blushing when a hot guy got mostly naked.
“Boxers too?” he asked.
“No!” she said a bit too quickly. “Um, no, boxers are fine. You could really be fully clothed if you wanted to be, but then you’d be in soaking wet clothes.”
“Whatever works for you then.”
“We’re going to give it a shot. Since you’re not a witch, this might work differently for you.”
“As long as it doesn’t kill me.”
Well, it shouldn’t. But magic was never easy to predict, and she’d be lying if she said death wasn’t a risk. But it was kind of like flying in a plane. Was there a chance of death? Yes. But it was very unlikely. “I’m more worried that it’s not going to do anything. If you were human, this would be pointless. But since the mind control thing and the fact that Claudia brought you back, there might be enough residual magic floating around for the potion to take hold.” The full moon potion had worked on Derek when he was human, but that was made especially for a human to drink. She didn’t know enough about potions to think of what she could do to make this work better for Bastian. Hell, she didn’t know enough about Bastian.
“Tell me about the mind control,” she said suddenly.
“What do you want to know?”
“How? Was it just a thing you could do after Claudia brought you back?”
“No. She wanted me to be able to pass as a sentry when it became apparent that I was going to be sticking around for a while. She couldn’t make me a full witch, but she was able to give me at least that power. Combined with my inability to die and strength, I can pass in witch circles without problems.”
“Wait, go back. Inability to die?”
“To some extent.”
“Please tell me the exact extent.”
“I don’t age. I’ve been shot in the head and had no effect. Stabbed in the heart. Darkness tried to infect me. But I’m still here. I’ve never been burned or decapitated and don’t plan to test those boundaries.”
“You said something to Derek about this, didn’t you? That he’d be immortal now?”
“No way to be sure until the theory is tested, but it’s a good bet that if he was brought back from the dead, he’s going to have these safeguards. Time will tell.”
Sam put a hand on her hip and considered that. She’d been so lost in worrying about this new Derek that she’d never considered the benefits. He was stronger. Maybe immortal. She was now in the line of power, so that would put a much bigger target on her back and on the backs of the people she loved.
How scared had she been before about the danger she was putting him in just by loving him? And now she wouldn’t have to worry.
“It’s okay,” said Bastian.
She blinked in confusion. “What’s okay?”
“It’s okay to be happy about it. You didn’t kill him. Might as well reap the benefits.”
She thought about that as Bastian turned on the faucet to add some hot water to the now cooled liquid in the tub. Could Derek’s loss be her gain? He might never have a normal life now, but there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t leave Derek and protect him any longer—as if he would even let her.
So now they could be together. Really be together as equals. She’d never really seen them on unequal footing, but they had been from such different backgrounds that the idea of a future had seemed so unattainable. Now he was kind of stuck with her.
“What do we do now?” asked Bastian, pulling Sam from her thoughts.
“Um, I’m going to pour the potion in, then you get in and submerge yourself completely. Then when you get out of the water, you should be in a trancelike state. When you go under, focus on what you want to find. Think about your death. Think about where you could’ve been. When I came back, everything was very monotone and I wandered around the city until something out of the ordinary stopped me. In my case, the spell of the building Heather was hiding out in was crumbling and it led me right to it.”
“I can’t really wander around the country forever until we find a place that this spell may or may not help me remember.”
“No, but you can wander around the east wing master suite, looking at maps of all fifty states that I’ve put up.”
“You didn’t want help?”
“I didn’t want you to become biased in any way. The first time you see it, I want you to be under the influence. I’m going to grab the potion. It should have cooled off enough by now.”
The large pot was heavy, but she didn’t ask for help as she made her way back to the bathroom. Bastian was going to need to get his head in the right mindset for this to work. She tipped the pot quickly, making sure none of the contents spilled onto the floor. The dark liquid pooled into the clear water and immediately took over, dyeing the water a dark purple/black mixture.
“That smells horrible.” He leaned over the tub.
She really wished she could tell him it wasn’t that bad, but she didn’t want to give him any obvious lies. “You’ll be out soon,” she said weakly. “It’s ready whenever you are, so take your time.”
Bastian, unsurprisingly, didn’t take any time. He immediately sat in the tub, his knees sticking up and out of the water because the tub wasn’t quite big enough for his body. But his knees were less important than his head getting under. “How long should I go down for?” he asked.
“As long as you can. I didn’t even realize the spell had taken hold when I got out of the water, so don’t wait for anything to hit you. Whatever happens will happen.”
He nodded and without any other hesitation, he pushed under. Sam shifted her head and looked over him. He wasn’t completely submerged because of his long legs, but it would have to be good enough. The water was so dark that she couldn’t even completely see his face. Just the barest outline under the water.
The surface was calm, not even a ripple. A few of the more solid ingredients, herbs and such, skimmed the surface. It almost looked like a spa treatment, but Sam knew from experience that there was nothing relaxing about this.
A second later, he sat up, pushing the water out of his face and blinking a few times.
“Hey, how did it go?”
He looked around the bathroom and his eyes didn’t linger on her. He frowned as he pushed up farther. The black boxers were still opaque, but the outline of the important bits was more than evident. Sam quickly turned around to give him a bit of privacy. Suddenly she remembered that she’d done this in front of Derek. Sure, they’d slept together already, but she hadn’t remembered that at the time.
And there she’d been dripping wet, in nothing but her underwear. Nice move, Harris. She wanted to ask Bastian whether he was okay, but obviously the spell had worked on some level because he wasn’t paying attention to her. If she talked to him too much, she could pull him out before he got to the maps, making all of this useless.
He stepped out of the tub and walked for the towel rack, grabbing one of the hunter-green fluffy towels, and wiped at his hair and face as he padded out of the bathroom, still dripping. Sam followed. When he got to the hallway, he turned in the wrong direction. She gently took his arm and guided him to the east wing. She’d set up the maps in a room close to the bathroom they were using but far enough away that he wouldn’t see what she was do
ing. He didn’t fight her as they made their way through the house. His eyes bounced off everything with a mixture of fear and trepidation, and she wondered what he was seeing. She’d ask him later, but who knew whether he’d tell her?
Now that Claudia wasn’t ordering his silence anymore, he was much more open about his past. But she had a feeling there were plenty of skeletons in his closet that he’d like to remain buried.
They reached the bedroom and Sam guided him just inside and shut the door. She’d put up maps of every one of the fifty states. Claudia had never been one to travel, one of her stranger qualities. She had the world at her fingertips, but New York had always been her spot. At least as far as Sam knew. But she was beginning to understand there were things about Claudia that she never could’ve imagined.
Bastian stopped in the middle of the room and spun in a little circle until he’d done a full three-sixty. Then he stopped and just stood there, not moving even an inch. She tried to tell what map was directly in front of him, but his eyes didn’t seem to be focusing on anything. Just staring straight ahead, with a blank expression.
Shit. She let out a deep sigh. It had been worth a try, she supposed. Just because this spell didn’t work, that didn’t mean no spell would work. Maybe she could—
“Ahhhhh!” Bastian screamed as he ran for the wall in front of him and slammed his fist into the map.
Sam’s eyes widened and she fell back as Bastian started to punch the wall over and over again. She didn’t want to get in his way, but then she realized that he’d hit the wall so hard that his knuckles were bleeding. With each blow, the map was smeared with red, and soon it was coming free from the push pins she’d stuck into the drywall. And then he was just hitting the empty wall as the map fluttered to the ground.
“Bastian,” she said carefully as she approached, not getting through to him at all. She repeated his name a few more times, getting louder with each one, but he didn’t register her words.
She put a hand on his shoulder to pull him away, but her frustration must’ve boiled through because she could feel the power ripple through her arm and shoot right into him. He flew across the room and slammed into the bedpost so hard that the antique wood cracked. As Bastian hit the floor, little splinters fell around him.
Sam gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She stared in horror at her friend who she’d hurt before she ran to his side. “Oh my God, Bastian. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
He let out a long groan before he blinked his eyes open and immediately closed them again. “Ugh, what happened?”
“Umm....” She debated lying for a second but struck the thought out of her mind. She needed Bastian to trust her, and she would need to earn that trust. “You were hurting yourself. I tried to stop you and, uh, stopped you too well. Are you okay? You hit that post really hard.”
He pushed into a sitting position and rolled his neck back and forth. “I’ll be fine. I remember the map. It was... upsetting. But at least it worked, right?”
She left his side long enough to pick up the blood-smeared piece of paper that showed the state of North Carolina. But the blood smears were settled over one location. “Yeah. I’d say it worked.”
“North Carolina.” Derek hung up the phone.
Parker nodded as she started to type into the computer. The department had access to some high-tech stuff, but some interactive Internet maps, combined with the files on Claudia Harris, who had a long history with the department thanks to, strangely enough, her charitable donations, was enough to narrow it down.
“Is everyone okay over there?” Parker started to zoom in.
“Couldn’t tell,” he said briskly, not wanting to talk about how Sam was at the moment.
“The spelly thing worked, so that’s good news.”
“Probably.”
Parker tightened her lips as she started to scan through the map, looking at the various towns. She’d find one of interest, and then Derek would do an Internet search on the towns, verifying that they were still an active location. Bastian had narrowed down the spot, but it was still a large area to go through. Derek knew that the town had been erased, but there were thousands of towns in the area Bastian had marked off with his blood.
He wished Sam had given him more details, but he agreed that time was of the essence. He would see her soon enough, he told himself.
“What do you think about Dante?” asked Parker suddenly.
Derek frowned. He wasn’t sure where the hell that came from. “I don’t like him all that much, but he’s been helpful so far. Why?”
“I just don’t get him. I don’t trust people I don’t understand.”
“Welcome to the wonderful world of magic,” he deadpanned. Parker was probably like him. As a seasoned detective, understanding people and what made them tick was integral to their jobs. But motivations were blurred and muddled when magic was involved. It made everything take on a whole new dimension. Which made it even better that Voss knew about the magic too. At least the three of them could work together on these more... complicated cases now.
“It’s not just magic. It’s him. Sam is doing all this because her family is intricately connected. Claire is involved because of her weird powers. Bastian because he was involved with Claudia. He’s the only piece I don’t understand.”
“Because he loves Claire.”
She looked over her shoulder at Derek. “He just met her.”
He shrugged. He couldn’t argue that it was weird. He’d thought Claire was way too young and impressionable when she started hanging around Dante. Even though she’d been living on her own for years and had been through more than he could even imagine, she was still only eighteen years old. And with her small frame and blonde hair, she looked younger. He had saved her from Tommy Collins, and from that moment on, he’d felt a lot of responsibility for her. And part of that responsibility wanted him to keep her as far away from Dante as possible.
But... Dante had proved helpful. More than that, he was willing to put his ass on the line to keep Claire safe, which was exactly what Derek needed from him. So his feelings on the witch were rather moot as long as he kept useful and didn’t hurt Claire in any way, shape, or form.
“Why? You spent a bit of time with him lately. Did he do anything to get you suspicious?”
“Oh, no,” she said quickly. “I just don’t know anything about him. Except how dangerous he is, which is kind of unnerving that he can just mind whammy me anytime he wants.”
“Sam is working on that.”
“Working on making him less powerful?”
“No, on you. When I first got involved with Sam, she gave me a charm, this little turtle thing, that kept me protected from mind control. Claudia made it for her years ago. Now that Sam is theoretically as strong as Claudia, she should be able to make charms like that now. She just needs to figure out how.”
“What do turtles have to do with mind control?”
He let out a bit of laughter. “Nothing as far as I know. That’s just the charm that Sam picked out when she was a kid. I’m guessing you can pick out whatever you want.”
“Hmm.... Good to know.”
“Did Dante do anything to you?” he asked again. There had to be some reason she was asking the questions.
“Nothing major. He asked me a question and made me give him an honest answer.”
Derek slammed his fist on the desk. “He did what?”
“Don’t worry, I already punched him. He apologized and I think it was sincere, but who knows when he’ll decide he needs honesty out of me again? And I’m sure there are more Dantes out there in the world.”
“Too many,” he muttered. He hated to be prejudiced against Sam’s people, but it was hard not to be. Individually, witches could be reasonable and likable, Sam being the perfect example. But it was the ones he didn’t know who made it hard to sleep at night. Hell, it was Claudia who had caused his death. She was kind of one of the good guys. He ran a hand over his eyes.
“Let’s keep going. What’s the next town?”
“It’s... hold on.” Parker clicked the mouse a few times. “Check this out.” She pointed to a spot on the screen.
Derek leaned forward and squinted. “What is that?”
“It looks like a road.” She hit the zoom once more, only to get an error message. “There’s no street view.” She turned to Derek and raised an eyebrow. “A town with no name. No images of anything around it.... Suspicious, right?”
“Could be a glitch.”
“Fine. I’ll go try to wrangle up some old maps. The library will open in a bit and I’ll pull some of the historic ones. Hopefully the magic won’t retroactively wipe out all mentions everywhere. Then we can see what was there in, say, the fifties and what’s there now.”
“That works. What time do you want to go?”
“I want to go at nine a.m., right when it opens. You go home and get some sleep.”
He clenched his jaw. “I told you I’m—”
“If you say you’re fine, I’m going to tase you.”
“That seems a bit counterproductive to your objective of keeping me safe.”
“Yeah, but it would make me feel better.”
Knowing her, it probably would. But the library was hardly a dangerous place, and this really was a one-person job. There was no reason to piss off Parker by going with her. Sleep wouldn’t be the worst thing to do, even if he doubted he’d get any. “Fine. I’m going to clear off my emails and calls and then I’ll go back to my place.”
She tilted her head and glared at him. “You know, I hate being all motherly since I’m a woman in the department, but for fuck’s sake, Derek. You were just dead. Get the calls taken care of, but go the fuck home and get some fucking sleep.”
“I can honestly say you don’t sound like my mother.”
“Damn straight. But you better do what I say.”
Far be it for him to argue. “Yes ma’am.”
It was too late. Scratch that. It was too early. Derek had to go two blocks down before he actually found a spot to park the Crown Vic. As soon as he threw it in park, the exhaustion took over. He had been fine as long as he was going hard, but it had been too long since he’d slept. Maybe just a few hours and he’d be back to normal.
