Heartless (Blue Fire Saga) (28 page)

“So, I see you brought some friends with you, Leesa. They will be of no help to you—even if they possess magic. I promise you that.”

“They’re not here to help me,” Leesa replied, trying hard to sound calmer than she felt. “They came with me to make sure I arrived here quickly and safely. And to help take my mom and brother away when I’m done with you.”

“Whatever you say,” Rome said, ignoring the implied threat. “Just make sure they stay back, if they value their safety.”

Leesa could not believe how cool and composed the xenorian woman was. She had to know Leesa probably possessed magic—why else would they all be here, after all?—which meant Rome would suspect that Dominic and Rave probably also possessed power of some kind. Yet she did not seem the least bit concerned. Clearly, she did not feel threatened by magic. Leesa hoped it was because of the presence of the two male agents and not due to something her dream had failed to show her about Rome.

Rome moved forward a few steps, closing the distance to Leesa by half.

“I need to touch you, Leesa. It will do you no harm, I promise. It will merely provide me with some information.”

Leesa held her hand out in front of her, signaling Rome to halt.

“Not so fast,” she said. If Rome touched her too soon, Leesa knew her plan could fall apart. She was already a bit concerned about what her dream had shown her, and she didn’t want to add any more uncertainty to this whole gamble. “First, I need to make sure my mom is okay.”

Rome moved to side. “Go ahead,” she said confidently. “Get as close as you wish. We have not harmed her in any way. And as long as you all behave yourselves, she will remain unharmed.”

Leesa wondered if Rome was in some way trying to goad her into action. She stepped slowly forward. This was the place where her dream had begun to become more and more uncertain.

Jones grinned as Leesa approached, obviously as unworried about her magic as Rome seemed to be. His hold on his weapon reflected his lack of concern—his grip seemed loose and careless. Leesa was glad to see that. She did not want her mom getting hurt, even by accident.

She stopped five feet in front of Jones and her mom.

“Are you okay, Mom?”

Judy nodded. “Yes. I’m so sorry I got you into this, sweetheart. I don’t know what they want.”

“That’s okay, Mom. I do.”

Leesa turned to Jones. “Let her go. Do it now and you may leave this place alive.”

Jones’ grin widened. “I have to say, young lady, I admire your spunk. You must have great faith in your magic. Is it truly that strong?”

His tone and his expression showed he did not really care how strong Leesa’s magic might be. Leesa felt a twinge of fear begin to creep up her spine. Had she been wrong about all this? Was some future other than the one she had seen in her dream about to unfold? She hoped not, because she had no backup plan. She forced the fear down. She was not counting on the strength of her magic. If that had been the case, she would have let Dominic try to defeat Jones. His magic was by far the more powerful.

“Not really,” she said. “I’m actually pretty new to all this magical stuff. But I can’t let you threaten my mom. That’s not fair—and it’s certainly not right.”

“Fair and right are concepts that do not apply where our sacred mission is concerned,” Jones said. “We serve the larger good and take a longer view of our work. If a few innocents must suffer—or even perish—so that we can further our mission, then so be it. The sacrifice is well worth it.”

“Or so you delude yourselves,” Dominic said disdainfully from behind Leesa. “As your kind have done for hundreds of years.”

Jones’ eyes flicked toward Dominic. “So, you know about us, then?”

“Unfortunately, yes. You are xenorians.” Dominic spat out the last word as if it tasted foul on his tongue.

Dominic speaking up was not part of Leesa’s plan, nor of her vision, but she thought that the slight distraction might prove useful. Dominic’s knowledge of the xenorians’ history had to mark him as someone of interest to them. They would be wondering who and what he was, and what he might be capable of. She decided to make her move while they were still wondering.

“Last chance,” she said to Jones. “Let my mother go.”

The xenorian’s eyes returned to Leesa. “Let her go, or what, young lady? What will you do?” The challenge in his voice was obvious.

“You really don’t want to know,” Leesa said as coldly as she could. “You will not like it, though. I promise you.”

She wished she could see at least some tiny flicker of doubt on Jones’ face, but she saw none. She breathed in a deep breath. Maybe it was better that he had no doubts, no uncertainty.

“I’m waiting,” Jones said, goading Leesa. “Go ahead. Do your best—or your worst.”

Keeping his grip on Judy’s arm, he edged away from her, purposefully providing Leesa with a clearer target. The prongs of his weapon moved away from Judy’s skin.

Leesa held back a smile. This, at least, was something she had seen in her dream. She just hoped what happened next followed her vision as closely. This was the moment of no return. Stepping forward, she laid her hand lightly upon Jones’ shoulder.

Judy and Bradley watched her with puzzled expressions, wondering what she was up to. Rave and Dominic looked on with concerned interest, wanting to intervene, but obeying Leesa’s instructions not to interfere. Smith and Rome watched with confident half-smiles upon their faces.

“I warned you,” Leesa said to Jones. “I’m sorry, but you’ve left me no choice.”

She sucked in a deep breath and began channeling her magic into Jones, beginning with her simple heat spell. As soon as Jones felt the magic begin to enter his body, he let go of Judy and grabbed Leesa’s forearm tightly. He began absorbing her magic, just as he done with the vampire a week before, just as he had done many times over the years. His mouth curved into a wide grin as Leesa’s magic flowed into him. The magic did not feel all that powerful, but the feeling of taking it for his own was still invigorating, intoxicating. He lived for that feeling.

When Jones grabbed her arm, Leesa picked up the pace, picturing as many spells as she could. She imagined moving Jones with her thoughts, and she mouthed the words for her illumination spell, her levitation spell, even her plant growth and air shield spells. The spells didn’t really matter—if the xenorian started floating upward or if leaves or branches suddenly started sprouting from his arms, so what? She just wanted to make sure Jones absorbed as much of her magic as possible. She did not know exactly how his ability worked, so she was taking no chances. She gave him everything.

She watched as Jones’ expression slowly changed from confidence and pleasure to surprise and shock, and then to fear. What he was beginning to sense had never happened to him before. Over countless years, he had absorbed the powers of vampires, witches, werewolves and wizards—but never before had he encountered anything like this. He tried to tear his hand from Leesa’s arm, but the magic linked them together far too tightly. To make certain they stayed connected, Leesa clamped her hand over his. Jones’ body began to shake violently as her magic continued to pour into him, and then his knees buckled. Leesa let go of his hand as he collapsed to the ground. His body gave one last spastic shake, and then he was dead. Leesa’s own legs felt a little weak now that it was done.

Rome’s mouth hung open as she stared down at her fallen comrade.

“How… what…what did you do?”

Leesa walked slowly over to Rome. “You said earlier that you wanted to touch me. Go ahead. Do it now and you will see the answer.”

Rome backed up a step, shaking her head. Leesa saw fear in her eyes.

“I won’t hurt you,” she promised. “Your friend died from absorbing my magic. You have no such power.” She turned to Smith and fixed him with a hard stare. “But you do. So let go of my brother or suffer your friend’s fate.”

Smith hesitated for just a moment before releasing his hold on Bradley. Bradley immediately crossed to his mother and put his arm around her shoulders. Rave and Dominic moved up on either side of them. Rave handed Bradley a length of rope and then gestured toward Smith.

“Tie him up,” Rave instructed. “We can’t chance using magic to hold him here, but rope should do the trick well enough. If he tries to resist, your sister will take care of him, like she did the other one.”

Smith needed no second warning. He offered no resistance as Bradley began tying the agent’s hands behind his back and then moved down to his ankles, binding them together. Tied like that, the xenorian could stand, but he could not go anywhere, except in short, shuffling steps.

“What about her?” Bradley asked Leesa, indicating Rome when he had finished with Smith.

Leesa shook her head. “Leave her be. She can’t run. Rave would catch her before she got two steps.”

Leesa turned back to Rome and held out her hand. “C’mon. Aren’t you curious? I told you, I won’t hurt you.”

Rome took a deep breath and stepped forward. “It works better if I hold both sides of your head.” She held out her hands. Leesa nodded and Rome gently grasped Leesa’s head.

Rome’s eyes slowly grew wide as the sensations flowed into her.

“Wizard,” she said softly, more to herself than anyone else. “Though the wizard essence is off somehow. And volkaane…and
grafhym
…and vampire …and witch.” Her tone grew more incredulous with each word.

Finally, she let go of Leesa’s head. “No wonder Jones is dead. He could not possibly absorb all those different kinds of magic at once.” She looked up into Leesa’s face. “But how is it possible? How can one person be all of that?”

Leesa smiled, thankful for once for her long history.

“I’m not,” she said. “Yet I have all of those inside me.” She smiled. “You might say I’m a regular United Nations of magic. I
am
a wizard, thanks to Dominic, who chose to impart his powers to a female rather than to a male as is customary, in an effort to protect me from his enemies. The
grafhym
came from my mom, who was pregnant with me when she was bitten, and the vampire from being bitten by one who wanted to make me his consort. Stefan stopped his bite when he tasted the
grafhym
taint in my blood, but clearly I absorbed at least a bit of his vampire essence.” She unconsciously rubbed her neck with her fingers, feeling the tiny scars left behind by Stefan’s fangs. “The witch part came most recently, from a witch who secretly used her powers to infiltrate my mind.”

Leesa moved over and took Rave’s hand. “As for the volkaane part, Rave’s magical heat has been inside me more times than I can count. His fire almost killed me once when we were kissing—I imagine that one time alone left quite a bit of volkaane essence inside me.”

“But how could you have known that Jones would not be able to absorb your magic and use it against you?” Rome asked.

“I wasn’t completely positive about that, but I saw it in a dream. For better or worse, many of my dreams are pretty accurate. I put my trust and my hope in this one.”

Rome sighed. “Poor Jones. He never had a chance.”

“I warned him,” Leesa said. “More than once. I didn’t want to kill him, but he left me no choice.”

She turned to her mom and brother, who were staring at her in disbelief at what they had just heard. Both had known about her bargain with Stefan, and Bradley had known that Rave was a volkaane, but that was all. The rest had come as a total shock to them. Neither one had any idea that Leesa was a wizard or that Jenna even existed. Her mom looked particularly concerned, and Leesa didn’t blame her. Her kids had suffered enough at the hands of supernatural creatures. Leesa was not about to leave her mom and brother with the burden of all that knowledge, especially since the danger from the Necromancer and the black waziri was still out there, nor was she going to let Rome and Smith depart knowing everything they now knew.

She let go of Rave’s hand and pulled her cell from her pocket. She pressed a memory button and waited while the phone rang. When the person on the other end picked up, Leesa spoke a single word: “Now.”

They waited several minutes, which Leesa mostly spent hugging her mom and her brother. Finally, they heard a fluttering of wings above them and looked up to see a large brown and white owl alight on a branch fifteen feet above the ground. The owl spent a moment surveying the scene below, making sure it was safe, and then flew down to the ground just inside the tree line. As soon as it landed, a silver flash enveloped the owl, beginning at its head and moving quickly down to its talons. A few seconds later, Jenna was standing in the owl’s place. She walked toward Leesa.

Bradley and Judy looked on in stunned disbelief at the witch’s sudden, miraculous appearance, while Smith and Rome barely raised their eyebrows, having dealt with witches before. All of them wondered what Jenna was doing here.

Leesa gave Jenna a quick hug.

“Thanks for coming. You know what to do.”

Jenna nodded. “Indeed I do.”

Rave and Dominic backed away, while Leesa crossed closer to Smith.

“No funny stuff,” she warned him. “She’s not going to hurt you, I promise. I’ll be watching. At the first sign you’re trying to absorb any of her magic, I’ll add mine to it and that will be the end for you. Understand?”

Smith glanced down at Jones’ lifeless body, sprawled upon the ground. He nodded that he understood. The solemn look on his face reinforced that he understood quite clearly.

Leesa backed off a few steps and then gave Jenna a single nod.

Jenna closed her eyes for a moment, gathering her spell. Casting it upon four different people at once was complicated, and she wanted to make sure she made no mistakes. When she was ready, she opened her eyes and began to make a series of intricate patterns in the air in front of her with her hands.

The eyes of her four subjects began to glass over and their faces grew slack. Jenna continued with her spell for several minutes, following the instructions Leesa had given her via phone earlier that day. While Jenna was busy with her spell, Rave dragged Jones’ body into the trees and used his volkaane fire to reduce it to ashes, which he then scattered with his feet. When he was done, no visible trace of the xenorian remained.