Arc 2 Page 7

  The biggest indication that anybody lived in here at all was the piles of books and papers strewn around, as well as the odd piece of polished stone and a few rows of indoor plants. It looked like an extension of Jasper’s shop in that way, and Jude thought he actually recognized a few of the books, like the large, leather-bound one that lay open in the middle of a cleared area on the floor. The plants under their tubular lights looked normal enough, aside from the five-leaf shape Jude immediately pretended he hadn’t seen.

  The very Witch herself sat on the floor, shuffling her usual deck of cards, but with more of a frenetic energy than usual. On the floor in front of her was a round metal frame, and inside it, large shards of jagged, shattered glass. A broken mirror, with several pieces missing. More cards were spread in front of her, like she was halfway through laying them out, but then started to shuffle in a nervous habit.

  Letizia didn’t look up as Jude, Pixie, and Eva entered, but Jasper gave them all a friendly nod from where he sat in a nearby chair. He said nothing, just held one finger up to his lips. It looked like he had been here a while. Again, Jude frowned slightly as he took in Jasper’s face, and now the rest of him—it was hard to tell by the way he was sitting, but he did indeed look thinner than Jude remembered, and generally more ragged. Anxiety ran through Jude again, but he pushed it down. Not the time or place to check in, he thought—but soon.

  Jude peered at Letizia’s cards. Even if he didn’t know much about tarot, Jude thought the spread looked messy, like she’d laid them down hastily. He couldn’t read many from this angle, except for one that faced him—the Devil. Letizia scooped up the cards, dropping one, and Jude crouched down to pick it up. The Sun, he noted, its golden rays still brightly shining in the low light.

  Now Letizia looked up at him, or rather, at the card in his hand, holding out her own expectantly. She’d removed her usual sunglasses, and now he could clearly see how steadfastly she avoided eye contact.

  “Your door was, uh, open” he said as he handed back the Sun card, half greeting, half apology. “Which I’m guessing was for us?”

  “Are we waiting for anyone?” Eva asked when Letizia didn’t answer. “The girls? Felix?”

  The Witch still didn’t say anything, and wasn’t looking at them anymore, so Jude took another stab. “What is all this?”

  “Letizia, dear?” Jasper called when she didn’t answer that either, and now her head jerked up and she seemed to see them all for the first time. “Are you all right?”

  “Yes,” she said shortly, shaking her head as if to clear it. “Yes, I’m fine now. Thank you for coming. The girls are in their room, recovering from being severed, adjusting, and I didn’t want to press anything more on them than that. It’s getting too complicated already.”

  She spoke faster than she usually did and tended to blurt out her sentences all at once, a far cry from the cool, laid-back witch he knew. Letizia always seemed to have the situation well in hand, but not right now, clearly. It must have been an effort to keep her hands still, because she folded them, bouncing them a little on her crossed legs.

  “Letizia, what’s going on?” Eva asked again in a gentle tone.

  “There’s a center of extremely concentrated magical power not far away,” Letizia said, without preamble. “No, you won’t have seen it, nobody finds it unless they already know where it is, or they’re a witch. That place is very important to me, and to a very powerful vampire named Wicked Gold. He’s Cruce’s old master. And he wants it—more specifically, he wants the magical power I’ve stored inside it.”

  “Did you say…?” Pixie asked in a whisper that made Jude turn to look at him immediately. His voice shook, and while vampires couldn’t really pale or blush in the same way humans did, his eyes were wide and clearly frightened, vertical catlike pupils thinning to slits. “It’s—it’s him? He’s here?”

  “Yes, little friend,” she answered, and Jude remembered her using the same phrase of endearment on Milo. This time, though, her tone was softer, sympathetic, deeply understanding. “Wicked Gold is here. But, remember, so am I.”

  Jude almost asked more—that name rang inside him like a pounded gong, Wicked Gold, those two words had weight, meaning, an energy all of their own. But Pixie looked like he was going to be sick, and Jude couldn’t stand to make that worse. Instead, he put one hand on Pixie’s back and asked something else, just as important but not quite as unnerving. “A center of power?”

  Letizia nodded. “It’s like a battery, a lightning rod, a huge receptacle of magical energy, and whoever manages to unlock it will receive all the power it’s absorbed over one hundred and fifty years. I need to stop that from happening.”

  “What kind of power, exactly?” Eva asked. “What does it do?”

  “Whatever the one who holds it wants,” Letizia intoned. “Magic in its raw, wild state is neither good nor evil, it is a neutral party, it does what it’s told, as long as you’re strong enough to command it. It’s a tool, a means to an end, not the end itself. Some people simply should not ever lay hands on such means.”

  “So magic doesn’t kill people, people kill people?” Eva said with a shaky smile Letizia did not return, or comment upon.

  “And I take it you want this power?” Jude prodded. Maybe one thing here could make some sense.

  “No, I want Wicked Gold not to have it,” she said firmly. “I don’t care if the power is mine, but he cannot get his hands on it. I don’t think I need to tell you why.”

  “I mean, I’d appreciate knowing why,” Eva said, echoing Jude’s thoughts.

  “I—it’s—” Letizia dropped her cards and made a helpless gesture with her hands. “Hard to explain. It’s just a very valuable source of energy that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.”

  “You never mentioned anything about this before,” Jude said, watching her carefully. “And if it was so important, I’d think it would have come up.”

  Letizia opened her mouth but paused. A bright, synthesized melody started to play, something familiar that Jude didn’t place immediately. She pulled out a cell phone from one pocket, a perfectly ordinary-looking, modern smartphone in a shiny black case, and glared at the screen. She stabbed one black-nailed finger at it, and it went silent.

  The Witch looked back up at Jude and hesitated. Once the irritation from the phone call faded from her face, she looked frightened in a way he had never seen before.

  “The center has been building power for one hundred and fifty years and is very nearly at its peak—but at the same time now it feels… like it’s decaying. That’s the best I can describe it. It’s weakening, destabilizing. I don’t know if something specific is draining it, like malevolent vampires trying to leech it, or if even the most powerful spells break down after a century or so. But it is, and so are the defenses around it. Unless the power is drained at its apex—in two days, at midnight—the entire spell is going to collapse, and Wicked Gold can’t have that. And neither can I.”

  She stopped, looking anxious as if they might all refuse, and Jasper threw her a bone. “It does sound like the sort of thing we should try to prevent. This fellow seems dangerous enough without a surplus of magic.”

  “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?” Eva asked, watching Letizia with a thoughtful expression. “This sounds personal. A lot more so than just some magical power.”

  Letizia just nodded, but met none of their eyes. She resumed shuffling. “Yes it is. I wish I could tell you everything, but some things—some deals, some bargains—have power even over a witch. All I can do is ask that you help me, even if you don’t know the full picture. I promise to keep you as safe as I possibly can. And I’m—”

  Letizia stopped as her phone began to ring again. Rolling her eyes, she turned it off completely, but this time Jude recognized the music. Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor; the eerie strains of ‘Lacrimosa’ echoed across his memory. The last time he’d heard it, he’d been a teenager at a particularly somber mass. A
funeral? Probably a funeral. Who chose that mournful ode to exquisite pain for their custom ringtone? Despite being both a vampire and a witch, Letizia had never struck him as being quite that… goth, as Pixie would helpfully say, under happier circumstances.

  “Ignore that,” Letizia said with a fangy sneer. “I certainly wish I could.”

  “Well, you know I’d help you however I could, but none of us are witches,” Eva cut in, throwing a suspicious glance at Letizia’s phone, but not pressing further. She half-turned toward Jasper. “Even you, unless you’ve gotten in a lot deeper than you’ve ever told me.”

  “I’m afraid not,” he said, with a noticeably strained-sounding laugh. “And I do hope that won’t be a problem, Letizia?”

  “No, not at all,” Letizia said, sounding genuinely relieved that they were even considering it. “The magic is all mine; I only need your help in the preparation. The apex is in two days, and I won’t be ready for at least one. Actually, I doubt I’ll ever be truly ready. This is… bigger than I am. It’s circles upon circles. History repeating itself. A circle of bones. A circle of friends. Siphoning the magic away before Wicked Gold can take it.”

  Jude suddenly didn’t quite feel entirely present.

  His head spun as he tried to decide whether all this was real or a very real-seeming dream. There was something about those words. A center of power, secret and vital and sacred.

  The feeling of vibration was back, but instead of a gong this felt like a bell, high and clear, a signal of importance instead of warning.

  Jude’s entire brain felt filled with the sound of crashing waves, and he could almost smell the wet, salt-tinged scent of the sea.

  But he didn’t know how to say any of this, didn’t know what it meant or why, so he blinked hard and rubbed at his eyes until he felt grounded again. There was enough strangeness afoot without his own brain getting in on the action.

  “That all sounds extremely dangerous. Seems a lot to ask of us non-witches,” Jude said instead. He gave Pixie another glance and found him just as blank-faced as before. With an uncomfortable pang of worry, Jude realized that ever since she’d mentioned Wicked Gold, he’d hardly said a word. “Risking our lives for some unknown quantity.”

  “You won’t be risking your lives,” Letizia said quickly. “You should never have to be near the place. And no fighting necessary, I hope. Do you remember the caves under the mall, where we fought Cruce? That’s where I need to cast my spell. That place holds enough power still that if I can tap into it, I won’t need to touch the center itself.” She hesitated, looking embarrassed. “But I do need your help. I know that I haven’t given you many details to work with, so the real question is, do you trust me?”

  “I do,” Eva said immediately.

  “I’m with you,” Jasper said as well. Jude noticed that it wasn’t a direct answer to the question, but Jasper’s presence alone said more than he generally did in words.

  When Jude didn’t answer right away, Eva gave him an expectant, eyebrow-raised look. Sea birds called out faintly in his head, though the room remained still and silent.

  “Fine,” he said, after a glance at Pixie, who nodded. He was still silent, which was enough to make Jude worry, but also enough to convince him this was the right decision. Anything that struck a blow against one of Pixie’s nightmares was good enough for him.

  “Thank you,” the Witch said, clearly relieved and maybe a little surprised. “I have some preparation to do in advance, and I may need help in procuring certain ingredients—nothing illegal, and nothing dangerous,” she promised before Jude could object. “If all goes well, the spell should be ready soon, and even if all doesn’t go well, it must be activated two nights from now. Midnight, exactly.”

  “What exactly do you need?” Jude asked cautiously.

  “Earth, gathered at high noon,” Letizia said, voice dropping and sounding suddenly faraway, as if she were reciting a memorized poem, half-asleep. “Drenched with unbleeding blood spilled at midnight.”

  The witch then turned to Jude and looked him directly in the eyes for the first time, and he felt something like an electric shock. Usually hidden behind her dark glasses, Letizia’s eyes were dark, almost black, and Jude had the sudden feeling that she saw much more of him than he did of her.

  His stomach turned over and he wavered on his feet, feeling like he was caught in an overpowering ocean wave. Eyes like that. He’d seen eyes like that before, striking and mystifying and unforgettable. He’d never seen the ocean in person, but he had seen it—and when he’d stood on the rocky shore, he hadn’t been alone.

  “From you, the hope of a dream seen with eyes wide open.”

  Something about that made Jude shudder. The only ‘dream’ in his head was the one he felt caught in right now, the things he’d seen when his heart had stopped beating. Had his eyes been open then? Was that such a thing to hope for?

  Letizia released Jude from the hold of her stare and, as he reeled, turned to Pixie. She fixed her gaze on him with the same fiery intensity, and continued.

  “From you, a dream of rose-tinted happiness.”

  Then, to Jasper, who met her eyes calmly, as if he’d expected something like this.

  “A sign of a promise kept, a symbol of intention, everlasting and yet reborn.”

  Letizia stopped turning, blinked a few times, and her face became pensive, attention shifting inward instead of out at them. “And from myself... the sign of a promise broken, promised to be mended.”

  “Nothing for me to do?” Eva asked in a level voice that sounded like it was fighting valiantly to remain so.

  “You’re doing something right now,” Letizia said.

  “Okay,” Eva acquiesced, but she obviously wasn’t completely satisfied. “So then can you give us some... specifics on any of that? Any clues at all?”

  Letizia shook her head. “Only that the spell must be performed at midnight, exactly. We have a very small window of success. But other than that, no. There aren’t any real rules for this, no matter what you may think. Just do your best to find objects that may work and bring them to me—I’ll know if they’re right.”

  “That first one,” Jude said, finding his voice surprisingly raspy; his throat had closed a bit with anxiety or whatever it was he’d been overwhelmed with. Recognition? He cleared his throat and tried again. “The thing about earth at noon and midnight and unbleeding blood…”

  “Unbleeding blood spilled seems like a cryptic way to say ‘a vampire slain,’” Jasper said thoughtfully.

  “You’re correct,” Letizia nodded. “If there’s anything vampires like, it’s drama—self included. Cruce was indeed slain at midnight.”

  “And I know where,” Jude said, softly, without quite deciding on the words, or to speak them. “I’ve seen it. I’ve been there before.”

  He was suddenly extremely aware of everyone’s eyes on him. Again, one pair in particular. “Where have you been?” Letizia asked, just as quietly. It sounded like she may already know the answer.

  “This center of power. The place all of this is happening—it’s a stone circle, isn’t it?” Jude asked, though there was no doubt in his mind. “Huge stones—more like crystals. Black crystals, pointing up at the sky. When I was there… when I saw it, it was by the ocean. But it’s not there anymore, is it?”

  “Not an ocean… a sea,” the Witch said. “And no, it’s much closer nearby now. When were you there?”

  “It was a dream,” he said, brow furrowing as his head began to ache. The ground felt uneven now, like sand shifting under his feet. “Five—over five years ago. The night that…” he patted his thigh with one hand, the leg that ended in a prosthetic. “This happened. And Felix. That night. When I… when I died.”

  “And when you saw the circle,” Letizia continued, words slow and careful, staring at him unblinking once more. “Were you alone?”

  “No,” Jude said without question. “There was someone there. In the water—but it looked like
they’d been burned. I tried to help them. They asked me…” His voice cracked; suddenly his throat felt uncomfortably dry. He licked his lips, but it didn’t help much. “They asked me ‘is he all right?’ I didn’t know what that meant. I still don’t. But that dream—I remember it like it just happened. Like it’s still happening now. It just feels important, that’s all.”

  He looked down at his arms, unsurprised to see every hair standing on end in response to the wave of shivers that had swept through him from the first spark of recognition. He could imagine the concern on Jasper and Eva’s face; they’d heard all this before, hadn’t known what to say then, and probably wouldn’t now. Pixie, he hadn’t told yet. But Pixie seemed to have his own problems at the moment, and Jude could only hope his own hadn’t made them worse.

  “And that is why you are the one to bring me the earth from the circle. You were there. You saw it. That was no dream. You were in exactly the right place, at the right time—as you are now.” Letizia said firmly, as if trying to impress every word into Jude’s heart. But then her shoulders sagged, like she was weighed down by crushing fatigue. “And that is all I have today. That is all I can tell you, or do until I have your gifts to work with.”

  “Well, guess I’ll help Jude grab the dirt,” Eva said, and the lightness after the tense exchange only sounded slightly forced. “Because I really doubt it’s as simple as it sounds.”

  Letizia actually smiled. “Magic rarely is.”

  The quiet was almost comfortable, at least between the two of them. Jude still felt half-dreaming, half-awake, and Pixie remained silent and much too still. Jude wondered if he was hearing any of this at all. Then Letiza’s phone rang again.

  “Wasn’t that turned off?” Jude asked, puzzled.

  “Yes.”

  “If it’s broken, can’t you just magic it quiet?”

  “It’s not broken,” Letizia said shortly. “It’s working exactly as intended, and will continue to, as long as the man on the other end wants to get ahold of me. But I can do this.”