Captive (6 page)

"But you
have
to go," Laurel said, dismayed, and Diana said, "It's the most fun-really, Cassie. Look, let's go to my house right now and talk about guys you can ask."

"No, I've got to go straight home," Cassie said quickly. She had to go home because she had to look for the skull. Faye's words had been ringing in the back of her mind all day, and now they drowned out Diana's voice. All
the time you need
-
until Saturday.
"Please just drop me off at my house."

In silence that was bewildered and a little hurt, Diana complied.

All that week, Cassie looked for the skull.

She looked on the beach where her initiation had been held, where stumps of candles and pools of melted wax could still be seen half buried in the sand. She looked on the beach below Diana's house, among the eelgrass and driftwood. She looked up and down the bluffs, walking on the dunes each afternoon and evening. It made sense that Diana would have marked the place somehow, but with what kind of mark? Any bit of flotsam or jetsam on the sand could be it.

As each day went by she got more and more worried. She'd been so sure she could find it; it was just a matter of looking. But now it seemed she'd looked at every inch of beach for miles, and all she'd found was sea wrack and a few old beer bottles.

On Saturday morning she stepped out of the front door to see a bright-red car circling in the cul-de-sac a little past her grandmother's house. There was no building at the very point of the headland where the road dead-ended, but the car was circling there. As Cassie stood in the doorway, it turned and cruised slowly by her house. It was Faye's Corvette ZR1, and Faye was in it, one languid arm drooping out of the window.

As she went by Cassie, Faye raised her hand and held up one finger, its long nail gleaming even redder than the car's paint job. Then she turned and mouthed a single word at Cassie.

Sunset.

She went cruising on without a backward look. Cassie stared after her.

Cassie knew what she meant. By sunset, either Cassie brought the skull to Faye, or Faye told Diana.

I
have
to find it, Cassie thought. I don't care if I have to sift through every square inch of sand from here to the mainland. I have to
find
it.

But that day was just like the others. She crawled on her knees over the beach near the initiation site, getting sand inside her jeans, in her shoes. She found nothing.

The ocean rolled and roared beside her, the smell of salt and decaying seaweed filled her nostrils. As the sun slipped farther and farther down in the west, the crescent moon over the ocean glowed brighter. Cassie was exhausted and terrified, and she was giving up hope.

Then, as the sky was darkening, she saw the ring of stones.

She'd passed by them a dozen times before. They were bonfire stones, stained black with charcoal. But what were they doing so close to the waterline? At high tide, Cassie thought, they'd be covered. She knelt beside them and touched the sand in their center.

Moist.

With fingers that trembled slightly, she dug there. Dug deeper and deeper until her fingertips touched something hard.

She dug around it, feeling the curve of its shape, until she had loosened enough sand to lift it out. It was shockingly heavy and covered with a thin white cloth. Cassie didn't need to remove the cloth to know what it was.

She felt like hugging it.

She'd done it! She'd found the skull, and now she could take it to Faye. . . .

The feeling of triumph died inside her. Faye. Could she really take the skull to Faye?

All the time she'd been looking for it,
finding
it hadn't been real to her. She hadn't thought further than simply getting her hands on it.

Now that she was actually holding it, now that the possibility was before her . . . she couldn't do it.

The thought of those hooded golden eyes examining it, of those fingers with their long red nails gripping it, made Cassie feel sick. An image flitted through her mind, of a golden-eyed falcon with its talons extended. A bird of prey.

She couldn't go through with it.

But then what about Diana? Cassie's head bent in exhaustion, in defeat. She didn't know what to do about Diana. She didn't know how to solve anything. All she knew was that she couldn't hand the skull over to Faye.

There was a throat-clearing sound behind her.

"I knew you could do it," Faye said in her husky voice as Cassie, still on her knees, spun around to look. "I had complete faith in you, Cassie. And now my faith is justified."

"How did you know?" Cassie was on her feet. "How did you know where I was?"

Faye smiled. "I told you I have friends who see a lot. One of them just brought me the news."

"It doesn't matter," Cassie said, forcibly calming herself. "You can't have it, Faye."

"That's where you're wrong. I
do
have it. I'm stronger than you are, Cassie," Faye said. And as she stood there on a little dune above Cassie, tall and stunning in black pants and a loose-knit scarlet top, Cassie knew it was true. "I'm taking the skull now. You can run to Diana if you want, but you'll be too late."

Cassie stared at her a long minute, breathing quickly. Then she said, "No. I'm coming with you."

"What?"

"I'm coming with you." In contrast to Faye, Cassie was small. And she was dirty and disheveled, with sand in every crease of her clothes and under her fingernails, but she was relentless. "You said you only wanted the skull to 'look at it for a while.' That was the reason I agreed to get it for you. Well, now I've found it, but I'm not going to leave you alone with it. I'm going with you. I want to watch."

Faye's black eyebrows, curved like a raven's wings, lifted higher. "So voyeurism's your idea of fun."

"No, it's yours-or your
friends',
rather," Cassie said.

Faye chuckled. "You're not such a spineless mouse after all, are you?" she said. "All right; come. You might find it's more fun to join in than to watch, anyway."

Faye shut the bedroom door behind Cassie. Then she went and took something out of the closet. It was a comforter, not rose-patterned like the one on the bed, but red satin.

"My spare," Faye said, with an arch smile. "For special occasions." She shook it out over the bed, then went around the room lighting candles that gave off pungent, heady scents. Then she opened a velvet-lined box.

Cassie stared. Inside was a jumble of loose stones, some polished, some uncut. They were dark green and amethyst, black, sulfur-yellow, pale pink and cloudy orange.

"Find the red ones," Faye said.

Cassie's fingers were itching to get into them anyway. She began to sort through the rainbow clutter.

"Those garnets are good," Faye said, approving some burgundy-colored stones. "And carnelians, too, if they're not too orange. Now let me see: fire opal for passion, red jasper for stability. And one black onyx for surrendering to your shadow self." She smiled strangely at Cassie, who stiffened.

Undisturbed, Faye arranged the stones in a circle on the comforter. Then she turned off the lamp and the room was lit only by the candles.

"Now," Faye said, "for our guest."

Cassie thought that was an odd way to put it, and there was a sinking in her stomach as Faye opened the backpack. She'd promised herself that she would keep Faye from doing anything too terrible with the skull-but how?

"Just what are you planning to do with it?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Just scrying," murmured Faye, but she wasn't paying much attention to Cassie. She was gazing down as she slowly peeled the wet, sandy white cloth away to reveal the glittering dome of the crystal skull. As Cassie watched, Faye lifted the skull up to eye level, cradling it in red-tipped fingers. Reflections of the candle flames danced in the depths of the crystal.

"Ah," said Faye. "Hello there." She was gazing into the empty eyesockets as if looking at a lover. She bent forward and lightly kissed the grinning quartz teeth.

Then she put the skull in the center of the ring of gems.

Cassie swallowed. The sinking feeling was getting worse and worse; she felt sicker and sicker. "Faye, shouldn't you have a ring of candles, too? What if-"

"Don't be silly. Nothing's going to happen. I just want to see what this fellow's all about," Faye murmured.

Cassie didn't believe it.

"Faye . . ." She was starting to panic. This was a bad idea, this had always been a bad idea. She wasn't strong enough to stop Faye from anything. She didn't even know what Faye was doing.

"Faye, don't you need to prepare-" "Be quiet," Faye said sharply. She was hovering over the skull, gazing down into it, half reclining on the bed.

It was all happening too fast. And it wasn't safe. Cassie felt sure of that now. She could feel a darkness welling up inside the skull. "Faye, what are you doing with it?"

More darkness, rising up like the sea. How could Faye be this powerful, to raise it from the skull so quickly? And all by herself, without a coven to back her up?

The star ruby at Faye's throat winked, and for the first time Cassie noticed matching gems on Faye's fingers. All these red stones-to heighten the energy of the ritual? To enhance the power of the witch-or the skull?

"Faye!"

"Shut up!" said Faye. She leaned farther over the skull, lips parted, her breath coming quickly. Cassie could almost see the darkness in the skull, swirling, rising like smoke.

Don't look at it! Don't give it any more power! the voice in her head cried. Cassie stared instead at Faye, urgently.

"Faye, whatever you're doing-it's not what you think! It's not safe!"

"Leave me alone!"

Swirling, rising, higher and higher. The darkness had been thin and transparent at first, but now it was thick and oily. Cassie wouldn't look at it, but she could feel it. It was almost at the top of the skull, uncoiling, wheeling.

"Faye, look out!"

The black-haired girl was directly over the skull, directly in the way of the rising dark. Cassie grabbed her, pulling at her.

But Faye was strong. Snarling something incoherent, she tried to shake Cassie off. Cassie threw one glance at the skull. It seemed to be grinning wildly at her, the smoke corkscrewing inside it.

"Faye," she screamed, and wrenched at the other girl's shoulders.

They both fell backward. At the same instant, out of the corner of her eye, Cassie saw the darkness break free.

"You stupid outsider," Faye screeched, twisting away from Cassie. "It was just getting started-now you've ruined everything!"

Cassie lay on her back, gasping. Then she pointed shakily, sitting up.

"That's what I ruined," she said, her voice soft from lack of breath, and from fear. Faye looked up at the ceiling, at the dark, charred circle on the white plaster.

"It was coming right at you," Cassie said, too unnerved to yell, or even to be angry. "Didn't you
see
it?"

Faye just looked at her, black lashes heavy over speculative golden eyes. Then she looked at the skull.

Cassie leaned over and covered the skull with the cloth.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm taking it back," Cassie said, still breathless. "Diana was right.
1
was right, if I'd listened to myself. It's too dangerous to handle."

She expected Faye to explode, possibly even to fight her. But Faye looked up at the stain on the ceiling and said musingly, "I think it's just a matter of more protection. If we could capture that energy-channel it. . ."

"You're crazy," Cassie told her bluntly. "And," she added, "our deal is finished. I did what you asked: I brought you the skull. You used it and you almost got killed. So now it's over."

Faye's lazy expression disappeared. "Oh, no, Cassie," she said. The hint of a smile curved her lips, but her eyes were predatory. Ruthless. "It's only starting. Don't you see?" She began to laugh. "You're more my captive now than ever. It's not just Adam anymore-now I can tell Diana about
this.
How do you think the Princess of Purity is going to feel when she finds out her 'little sister' stole the skull? And then brought it to
me
to use?" Faye laughed harder, seeming delighted. "Oh, Cassie, you should see your face."

Cassie felt as if she were smothering. What Faye said was true. If Diana found out that Cassie had dug up the skull-that Cassie had lied to her-that the whole story last Sunday about being too scared to go home had been a trick . . .

Just as it had the last time she'd stood in this room, Cassie felt her spirit, her will, draining away. She was more trapped than ever. She was lost.

"You take the skull back now," Faye said, as if it had been entirely her idea. "And later- well, I'll think of something else I want from you. In the meanwhile, you just keep yourself available."

I hate you, Cassie thought with impotent rage. But Faye was ignoring Cassie completely, bending to pick up the bristling kittens, one gray and one orange, which had crawled out from under the dust ruffle. The vampire kittens, Cassie remembered distractedly-the ones with a taste for human blood. Apparently even
they
hadn't liked this business with the skull.

"What about that?" Cassie said, pointing at the dark stain on Faye's ceiling. "Don't you feel at all responsible about letting it loose? It could be out killing somebody-"

"I doubt it," Faye said, and shrugged negligently. "But we'll just have to wait and see, I suppose." She stroked the orange kitten and its fur began to lie flat again.

Cassie could only stare at her, tears rising to her eyes. She'd thought she could control Faye, but she'd been wrong. And right now the new dark energy could be doing anything, and she was helpless to stop it.

You could tell Diana, an inner voice, the core voice, whispered, but Cassie didn't even pretend to listen. She could never tell Diana now; that chance was over. Things had gone far too far with Faye.

"Cassie, are you nervous about something?" Laurel had paused with the white-handled knife in her hand.