Ashes to Ashes-Blood Ties 3 (35 page)

Chapter Nineteen: Hocus Pocus

I was still asleep when Nathan burst into the room. So, apparently, was Cyrus. He sat up beside me, glowering and squinting against the illumination from the overhead light. Nathan looked from Cyrus to me, then scowled. "Get up. We've got problems." He slammed the door so hard a light rain of plaster fell from the ceiling.

"Well, that is a somewhat less pleasant wake-up call than I'd hoped for." Cyrus eased from the bed, wincing as he stood. "And I think I'll go back to sleeping on the couch."

"Yeah, and he'll stake you as soon as you fall asleep." My muscles protested as I sat up.

"Oh, it's going to be a long night."

"It was a long day. I'd forgotten how much you snored. And drooled," Cyrus said, casting me a sidelong glare.

"I forgot how much you exaggerated." I rubbed the corner of my mouth anyway, just in case he was right about the drool.

We limped out to the living room. Nathan looked like a man who'd rather be breaking someone's legs with a golf club. It
was
going to be a long night.

"What's going on?" I asked, sitting on the couch. When Cyrus sat beside me, I scooted away.

It didn't go unnoticed, by either of them. Jealousy hit me from both sides of the blood tie, for different reasons, and I had to consciously divert my focus to the task at hand. To my relief, Nathan cut me off from the tie on his end. "I got a call from some Movement vampires in Canada. It seems Max and Bella were in a car accident. Max was okay, but Bella was in bad shape."

"Was?" Cyrus put his hand on my knee. Not possessively, though Nathan would probably see it that way.

I didn't brush it aside. "But they survived the crash?"

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Nathan nodded. "As far as they knew. But they're not there anymore. They killed three Movement doctors and escaped. He left everything behind. Money, car, phone… there's no way to contact him."

"Why would they run from the Movement?" It didn't make any sense. Max was still an active member. He didn't have a mark on his head, like Nathan did. He wasn't even hanging out on the fringe like I was, waiting for someone to get the notion to pick off some nonthreatening vampires.

Nathan considered a moment, then held up his hands "I don't know. They think they had help."

"Help against the Movement? That doesn't sound promising. Who would help them against the Movement?" Cyrus said this without his trademark sarcasm. It was a good thing. Neither Nathan nor I would have appreciated it.

"They could have been kidnapped," I offered helpfully. "Like, maybe somebody took them?"

Nathan shook his head. "Who would be able to get a vampire and a half-crippled, pregnant werewolf out of a warehouse under heavy Movement guard?"

"Someone they trust," Cyrus said quietly, not looking at either of us.

"Excuse me?" Barely leashed rage swam beneath the surface of Nathan's too polite inquiry.

Cyrus looked up, first at him, then me, then back to Nathan. "If someone in the Movement that they trusted helped them, they might not have resisted."

"It's impossible." Nathan stood and turned away, raking a hand over his stubbled jaw. He looked as though he hadn't slept. "No, it's not possible."

"Consider the situation," Cyrus continued calmly. "You said they were heavily guarded. If someone wanted to get in or out, they would have to kill a lot more than three people."

"The only person who could pull it off would have been an assassin," I interjected.

"Someone who could take on three vampires at the same time." Cyrus made an affirmative sound. "And convince your friends to go with them."

"What are you talking about?" Nathan whirled, his face twisted with rage. He stabbed his finger through the air in Cyrus's direction. "First of all, you've never been part of the Movement, so you don't know anything about how we operate."

"I know how we infiltrated and subverted it time and again," Cyrus replied calmly.

"He has a point." Why did I suddenly feel as if we were ganging up on Nathan?

A moment later, I didn't care. Nathan glared at me, his eyes cold. "You certainly wouldn't have any clue about the Movement works. It's a group of vampires loyal to a common ideal. The key word being
loyal
."

The bottom dropped out of my stomach. "What did you say to me?"

"You heard me." Across the blood tie I felt a wave of shame at the way he was acting, but his anger was too great to suppress.

"That is enough!" Cyrus shot to his feet, and for a moment I thought he would try something stupid, like punching Nathan. Instead, he swallowed audibly, unclenched his fists and spoke in a calmer tone. "We are not in an ideal situation. I will seek to rectify that as soon as I can get my house back from my formerly human former girlfriend. But we have larger problems at hand than the issue of your romance with Carrie." My heart ached at his words. I did love Cyrus, now that I was morally free to do so. But I

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loved Nathan, as well, and I hated causing him pain after all he'd been through for me. Cyrus shot me a cold look.
You'll never know what you want. Now is not the time
. Nathan looked from Cyrus to me and sighed. "What's our next step, then, oh wise one?" Thankfully, Cyrus let the jibe slide. "We go back to our only source of information. My father."

"Oh yes. Your father. The one who controlled you for how many centuries? Let me drive you right over there." Nathan laughed.

"Nathan!" I clutched my head, unable to bear another moment of this pointless bickering.

"Max and Bella are clearly in danger. We need to find out where they are, so we can keep the Soul Eater from getting his hands on the baby. We know him well enough to know whatever he wants with it probably isn't good. And what he'd do to Bella and Max wouldn't be good, either. Can we all at least agree on that?"

"Of course we can," Nathan grumbled. "But I' in sick of sitting around talking about it. We've been stuck here for days just reading and researching and waiting, while they're off getting killed."

"That was what we agreed on." But I could definitely sympathize. I'd felt helpless for the past few days, as well. It was hard, after being so active in our past dramas, to be a bit player in this one. "We don't have anything else to go on. We don't know where the Soul Eater is. We don't know where Max and Bella are. All we can do is wait."

"You're half-right." Nathan looked as tired as he sounded. "I know where Jacob—" He stopped himself, grimacing. "I know where the Soul Eater is. He's coming back. For Dahlia."

Her name forced my hands into fists. Jealousy and anger burned through me. Yes, I was still jealous of her, after all this time. "Fine. I'll go and find out what we need to know."

"Are you insane?" Cyrus actually laughed at me. "My father will kill you. Dahlia will kill you before he gets the chance."

I shook my head. "Clarence will help me. He talks a tough game, but he hates vampires. He'll do anything to get them out of the house."

"He can't help you, Carrie. As long as my father's name is on the deed, Clarence can't do anything that will directly harm him. He—"

"Comes with the house, I know, Cyrus," I interrupted. "But I have to try. I'm the only one who isn't blood tied to him, vampirewise or through genetics."

"Absolutely not!" Nathan shook his head vehemently. "It's ridiculous and dangerous." I tossed up my hands, though I knew I didn't sound one hundred percent reasonable. "We have a chance here to do something. I'm the only one in this room who hasn't been manipulated or enslaved by the Soul Eater. We think he wants Bella, for the baby. So, why don't we do more? Why don't we go over there, to the mansion, and find out what he's up to? Why don't we do something—"

"Something suicidal!"

"But
something
!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. "I'm sorry if I can't think of exactly what you want to do, but we have to do something!"

Nathan's hands clenched to fists at his sides. "You're sorry? Since when do you care about what I want?"

I drew a deep breath, willing myself to calm down. It took great effort. "You're right. I've never done anything with your best interests at heart. I never traded your life for mine. I

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never risked myself to protect your son. Never let your dead wife's soul invade my body to free you from an evil spell."

"Not without throwing the facts back at me over and over," he snapped. "If you want to go get yourself killed, fine."

"Who says we're going to get ourselves killed?" Cyrus asked, leaning to pick up Dahlia's grimoire from the table. "I'm sure she has something in here we can
use
as protection." Nathan regarded him for a moment with icy contempt. He softened a bit as he took the book from him. "These spells are far too advanced for a beginner. There's no way you'll pull it off."

"What about you?" Cyrus demanded. "You own that shop downstairs. Do you mean to tell me you don't know any… hocus-pokery ?"

I snorted, despite the tension in the air. Both men glared at me. Nathan shook his head. "I don't actually practice witchcraft. I'm only in the New Age business to take advantage of the rampant consumerism." I looked at the book in Nathan's hands as though it were a deadly viper. "Well, what could it hurt? I mean, we've looked through it. She has all sorts of things we could try."

"Hexes, counterhexes, invisibility spells." Cyrus rattled off the list. "That last isn't a bad idea. I know she had one."

"Invisibility spells are rarely literal,," Nathan protested.

"Often, they're just to help keep a low profile."

Cyrus stepped forward and took the book back, flipping pages with a frown. "Ah!" He jabbed his finger at the top of one page and held it up so we could see "Invisibility Spell (Literally)" scribbled across the top.

There was a long moment where no one spoke. I have no doubt we were all considering the implications. It would take a lot of nerve to try and sneak into a witch's house cloaked by an invisibility spell, if it even worked. It would be dangerous. Of course, no more dangerous than what I'd already done. "I'll do it." . They looked at me as if I'd suggested I would make the Statue of Liberty disappear.

"How?" Nathan folded his arms across his chest as if daring me to prove him wrong. "Do you even know the basics of spell work?"

"No," I reluctantly admitted. "But I did participate in the ritual to get you back from the scary side. And I used to play that light-as-a-feather game at slumber parties." Nathan actually smiled a little at that. "I quiver in fear."

"From what I understand, our options are fairly limited. We can either charge in, guns blazing, so to speak, or try and sneak in to gather the information and then go rescue your friends." Cyrus tapped the book. "I think we should try the one where my father doesn't kill us all, and we have a chance to save their lives as well." Nathan watched us, his expression tight. "What about me?"

"What about you?" Cyrus asked offhandedly.

He rolled his eyes. "I have a blood tie to your father, you stupid bastard! He'll know we're coming!"

"There's no need for name calling," I interrupted. "You've closed him off for years. He won't suspect anything."

"That's not true," Cyrus said quietly. "Nathan's absolutely right." I turned to Cyrus. "So, it's just you and me, then?"

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"The hell it is!" Nathan roared. "I'm not letting you go in there with him!"

"If she can't go with me, she has to go alone. You've already made it clear you don't like that option, either." Cyrus sighed. "Neither do I. But it is our best option."

"Cyrus—" I began, but he cut me off.

"I'm still susceptible to him" He looked down, as if ashamed. "He's a very… charismatic man."

"She managed to fight off your charms for a while, anyway. Maybe she has a chance against him." Nathan sounded resigned and very, very unhappy. "I've got to go downstairs and open the shop. If you promise not to be trouble, the two of you can come down and help me find the ingredients for these spells. Carrie, you'll have to practice." He sounded like a music instructor. Practice! As if I could practice for something so dangerous. In fact, the less I thought about it, the less likely it would be that I would back out.

"Fine. You two see what you can do. I'll rejoin you shortly." Cyrus issued his proclamation with the air of someone who knew exactly how to order people around.

"What are you going to do? Wish us luck?" I planted my hands on my hips.

"No, I'm going to take a shower. Unlike others in this apartment, I don't let personal hygiene fall by the wayside when catastrophe strikes." He nodded to Nathan and me and disappeared down the hallway.

Nathan said very little as we walked down to the shop. He unlocked the door, and I stepped inside and waited for him to turn on the lights. I never touched the switches behind the counter. They always gave me static shocks.

The banks of fluorescents clicked and buzzed, illuminating the store from the back to the front. I blinked against the changing light and headed toward the counter. On the floor behind the glass display cases containing gaudy pentacles and ridiculously expensive crystal wands, I spied a sleeping bag. Nathan stooped down and began rolling it up. I watched for a moment, until he glanced up and asked, "Well, are you going to give that spell a look?"

"You've been sleeping
here
?" I winced, imagining what the hard wooden floor would have done to my back had I been in his place.

He zipped the sleeping bag with great purpose. "It's not permanent. I'm not going to just hand my apartment over to you."

"I would never ask you to." My fingers flexed on the edge of the countertop. "I never asked you to."