Huntress, Black Dawn, Witchlight (16 page)

Lily glanced at Azarius.

He shrugged. “Sure, it could be. I told you, it could be either of them. They were both at the station when the flash came and the train stopped.”

“Hmm,” Lily said, a sound like a cat purring to dinner. She moved toward Hugh. He didn’t look away from her, didn’t flinch.

But beside him, Claire gave a convulsive wiggle.

She had been watching everything with a desperate, dazed expression. Jez was sure she didn’t understand a quarter of what was going on. But now she suddenly lost the muddled look. Her dark eyes sparked and she looked like the Claire who’d taunted Jez a hundred times in the hallway back home.

“I don’t know
what
you’re talking about,” she said to Hugh. “You know perfectly well it’s me.” She turned to Lily. “I’m the Wild Power.”

Lily’s mouth tightened. She put her hands on her hips, looking from Hugh to Claire.

Then Jez heard the strangest sound of her life.

It was laughing—a wild and reckless laughing. There was an edge almost like crying to it, but also something that was exhilarated, daredevil, free.

“If you
really
want to know who it is,” Morgead said, “it’s me.”

Lily whirled to glare at him. Jez simply stared, dumbfounded.

She’d never seen him look so handsome—or so mocking. His smile was brilliant and flashing, his dark hair was falling all over his eyes, and his eyes were blazing green emeralds. He was tied up, but he was sitting with his head thrown back like a prince.

Something tore inside Jez.

She didn’t understand why he would do it. He must know he wasn’t saving her. The only people he might possibly save were Hugh and Claire. And why would he care about them?

Besides, it was a futile gesture. He didn’t realize that he
couldn’t
be the Wild Power, that he hadn’t been around when the train stopped.

But—it was such a gallant gesture, too. Probably the most gallant thing Jez had ever seen.

She stared at him, feeling the wetness spill from her eyes again, wishing she were telepathic and could ask him why in the worlds he had done it.

Then his green eyes turned to her, and she heard his mental voice.

There’s just a chance they’ll let one of them go with a beating. Just maybe—as a warning to Circle Daybreak not to mess with
Hunter anymore. Especially if I convince Lily I’ll work with her.

Jez couldn’t answer, but she shook her head very faintly, and looked at him in despair. She knew he could read that. Do you know what they’ll do to
you
? Especially when they find out you’re a fake?

She saw his faint answering smile. He knew.

What difference does it make?
he said in her mind.
You and me—we’re lost anyway. And without you, I don’t care what happens.

Jez couldn’t show any reaction to that at all. Her vision was dimming, and her heart felt as if it were trying to claw itself out of her chest.

Oh, Morgead…

Lily was breathing hard, on the verge of losing control. “If I have to kill all of you—”

“Wait,” Pierce said, his cool voice a striking contrast to Lily’s strained one. “There’s a simple way to find out.” He pointed at Jez. “Stake her.”

Lily glared at him.
“What?”

“She’s never going to tell you anything. She’s expendable. And there’s something you have to understand about the Wild Power.” He moved smoothly to Lily’s side. “I think Morgead was right about one thing. I think the Wild Power isn’t operating consciously at this point. It’s only when the danger is greatest, when there’s no physical way to escape, that the power comes out.”

Lily cast a sideways look at Hugh and Claire, who were sitting tensely, their eyes wide. “You mean
they
may not know which it is?”

“Maybe not. Maybe it’s completely automatic at this point. But there’s one way to find out. They all seem—attached—to the halfbreed. Put her life in danger, and then see which of them can break free and try to save her.”

Lily’s perfect lips slowly curved in a smile. “I knew there was a reason I liked you,” she said.

Then she gestured at the thugs. “Go on, do it.”

Everything was confused for a bit. Not because Jez was struggling. She wasn’t. But Claire was screaming and Hugh and Morgead were shouting, and Lily was laughing. When the worst of the noise died down, Jez found herself on her back. Azarius was standing over her, and he was holding a hammer and stake.

“Isn’t it interesting,” Lily was saying, “that a stake through the heart is the one thing that takes care of humans and vampires equally efficiently?”

“And halfbreeds, too,” Pierce said. They were on either side of Azarius, looking down and laughing.

“Lily, listen.
Listen,
” Morgead said, his voice hoarse and desperate. “You don’t have to do this. I already told you, it’s me. Just wait a minute and
talk
to me—”

“Don’t even bother, human-lover,” Lily said without glancing at him. “If you’re the Wild Power, then save her.”

“Don’t any of you do anything!” Jez yelled. “Not
anything,
do you understand?”

She was yelling it mainly at Claire—or was she?

Suddenly Jez felt strangely uncertain.

Her heart was beating very quickly, and her mind was racing even faster. Fragments of thought were glittering through her consciousness, like bits of melody almost too faint to catch. It was as if all the prophecies she’d heard about the Wild Powers were echoing, ricocheting around her brain at insane speed. And there was something about them, something that was bothering her. Something that made her wonder…

Could it be that Claire
wasn’t
the Wild Power? Jez had assumed she was—but was it possible that she’d been wrong?

Hugh had been on the platform, too, watching the train approach. Hugh had reason to be upset at having to watch Jez die. He cared about her. Jez knew that now. And Hugh was seventeen.

Could Hugh be the Wild Power?

He hadn’t been in the Marina district—but he lived in the Bay Area; there was no reason he couldn’t have been watching the fire just as she and Claire had.

But there was still something nagging at her. The prophecies…‘two eyes are watching’…‘Four of blue fire, power in their blood….’

Lily was speaking. Jez heard her as if from a great distance.

“Do it. Right beside the heart first.”

Azarius positioned the stake. He raised the hammer.

Morgead screamed,
“Jez!”

Jez shouted, “None of you do anything—”

And then the hammer came down and the universe exploded in red agony.

J
ez heard herself scream, but only faintly.

There was a roaring in her ears as if the BART train was coming at her again. And a pain that engulfed her whole body, sending agonized spasms through her limbs. It centered in her chest, though, where something white-hot was lodged inside her, crushing her lung and dislodging her internal organs and burning right beside her heart.

She’d been staked.

What she had done so often to others had been done to her.

She hadn’t realized anything could hurt like this. She was glad none of her victims had lived long to keep suffering.

The wood of the stake was poisoning her heart, she knew. Even if it were removed, she would die.

No vampire could survive contact between living wood and its undead heart.

Still, she would live for a little while—in unimaginable agony as the poison ate through her.

A voice was screaming in her mind.
JezJezJezJez
…Over and over, incoherently.

Morgead, she thought. And she hoped he wasn’t feeling any of what she was feeling through the silver cord that connected them.

Hugh and Claire were sobbing. Jez wished they wouldn’t. They had to stay calm; to think of a way to save themselves.

Because she couldn’t help them anymore.

Over the sobbing she heard a shrill and angry voice. Lily.

“What is wrong with you?” Lily was saying. “Don’t you see what’s happening to her? Don’t you
want
to save her?”

Through the red haze that filled Jez’s vision, she felt dim approval. They were doing what she’d told them. Whichever of them was the Wild Power was suppressing it.

Good. That was what mattered. Although she couldn’t really remember why any longer….

Suddenly a face broke through the red haze. It was Lily, bending over her.

“Don’t
you
understand?” Lily yelled. “You can stop this right now. I’ll have him kill you cleanly—all the pain will be over. All you have to do is tell me who it is.”

Jez smiled at her faintly. She couldn’t breathe to answer, and she didn’t want to try.

Would you believe that I don’t know? she thought. No, I don’t think you would….

The pain was getting less by itself. It was as if Jez was moving farther and farther away from it.

“How can you be so
stupid
?” Lily was screaming. Her face was twisted, and to Jez’s vision, floating in a scarlet mist. She looked like a monster. Then she turned and seemed to be screaming at someone else. “All right. Get the other vampire down here, too. Morgead.” She was looking at Jez again. “We’ll just have to stake your friends one after another until the Wild Power decides to reveal itself.”

No.
No…

Suddenly everything was much clearer around Jez. She could see the room again, and she could feel her own body. There was still the roaring in her ears, but she could hear Claire’s sobs over it.

No. Lily couldn’t mean it. This couldn’t be happening….

But it was. They were shoving Morgead down on the floor beside her, and Claire and Hugh beyond him. The thugs with spears were getting into position.

No. No.
This can’t happen.

Jez wanted to scream at them, to tell the Wild Power to do something, because everything was lost now anyway. But she didn’t have air to scream. And she felt so adrift and confused anyway…. Her universe had become disjointed. Her thoughts seemed to be unraveling at all once, past memories combining
with flashing sensory impressions from the present, and with strange new ideas….

If it was involuntary, why didn’t the Wild Power work magic more often? Unless there was some other requirement….

I can’t let this happen.

The dampness of blood spreading around her heart….

Claire’s nails digging into her arms.

“When there’s no physical way to escape…”

Power in the blood.

Claire on the floor there. Screaming and screaming…

Something building inside her, hotter than the stake.

Morgead beside her whispering, “Jez, I love you.”

Pierce with the stake over him. Morgead looking up unafraid….

Hotter than the heart of a star.

Hugh in the distance saying almost quietly, “Goddess of Life, receive us; guide us to the other world….”

Hotter than the sun and colder and bluer than the moon, like fire that burned and froze and crackled like lightning all at once. Something that filled her with an energy that was past rage and past love and past all controlling and that she recognized in her soul even though she’d never consciously felt it before. It was swelling Jez to bursting, a pure and terrible flame that was never meant to be unleashed like this….

“Do it!” Lily shouted.

And Jez let it free.

It came roaring out from her in a silent explosion. Blue fire that streamed from her body and blasted in all directions, but especially up. It came out and out and out, engulfing everything, flowing from her in a neverending torrent. Like a solar flare that didn’t stop.

It was all she could see. Blue flames, streaked with blue-white lightning that crackled almost soundlessly. Just like the fire that had cocooned her on the BART tracks.

Except that now she could tell where it was coming from, even if she couldn’t direct it. She knew how to let it out, now, but once out it did what it wanted.

And it wasn’t meant to be used this way. That was the only thing she knew clearly about it. She’d been letting it slip out when she was desperately upset—when she was worried for someone’s life, and she knew that she couldn’t do anything else to save them. That was forgivable, because it had been unconscious.

This wasn’t. She was probably violating some law of the universe or something. The blue fire was only meant to be used in the last battle, when the darkness came and the Four were called to stand against it.

I suppose that means I should try to stop now, Jez thought.

She wasn’t sure how to do it. She guessed that she needed to call it back, somehow, to draw it down into her body again.

Maybe if I sort of tug….

She did—something. A gathering-up with her mind. It was harder than letting the fire go had been, but it worked. She could feel it returning, flooding back inside her, as if she were sucking it in….

And then it was gone, and Jez could see the world again. Could see what it had done.

The house had disappeared.

Or most of it, anyway. There was about a foot and a half of ragged wall left all around, with charred insulation spilling out. Blue energy like electricity ran along the edges here and there, fizzing.

Other than that, no house. Not even chunks of wreckage lying around. There were fine bits of debris floating down, making the sunlight hazy, but that was all.

It got…vaporized, Jez thought, searching for the right word.

No Lily. No Azarius. No Pierce. And none of the ugly thugs.

Goddess, Jez thought. I didn’t mean to do that. I only wanted to stop them from hurting Morgead and Claire and Hugh….

What about them?
she thought in a sudden panic. She turned her head, painfully.

They were there. And alive. They were even stirring. The cords they’d been tied with were lying on the carpet, sizzling with that same blue energy.

It’s so weird to have a carpet without a house to go with it, Jez thought fuzzily.

She was going away again. And that was too bad, but at least it didn’t hurt anymore. The pain was gone completely, replaced by a warm and sleepy feeling—and the sensation of gently floating outward.

Her eyelids felt heavy.

“Jez? Jez!”

It was a husky whisper. Jez opened her eyes to see Morgead’s face.

He was crying. Oh, dear, that was bad. Jez hadn’t seen him cry since…when was it? Sometime when they’d been little kids….

Jez, can you hear me?
Now he was talking in her mind.

Jez blinked again, and tried to think of something comforting to say to him.

“I feel warm,” she whispered.

“No, you don’t!” He said it almost in a growl. Then he looked behind him, and Jez saw Hugh and Claire crawling up. They were all shining with golden light.

“You’re so pretty,” she told them. “Like angels.”

“This isn’t the time for your weird humor!” Morgead shouted.

“Stop it! Don’t yell at her!” That was Claire. Claire was crying, too, lovely tears that shone as they fell. She reached out and took Jez’s hand, and that was nice, although Jez couldn’t exactly feel it. She could see it.

“She’s going to be all right,” Morgead was snarling. “She’s lost blood, but she’ll be okay.”

Someone was stroking Jez’s hair off her face. She felt that; it was pleasant. She frowned slowly at Morgead, because there was something important to tell him, and talking was difficult.

“Tell Hugh…” she whispered.

“Tell Hugh your freaking self! He’s right here! And you’re not going anywhere.”

Jez blinked with the difficulty changing focus. Yes, there was Hugh. He was the one stroking her hair.

“Hugh…the prophecy. I figured out what the two eyes watching were. They’re the sun and the moon—get it? Two eyes…for somebody who belongs to both worlds.”

“The Day World and the Night World,” Hugh said softly. “You got it, Jez. That was so smart.”

“And blood,” Jez whispered. “‘Power in the blood’—that’s why I couldn’t do it anytime I wanted. Blood has to flow before you can let out the power. The first two times Claire was scratching me. And this time…” Her voice died off, but it wasn’t important. Everybody could see the blood this time, she knew.

Hugh’s voice was thick. “That was smart, too, Jez. You figured it out. And you saved us. You did everything just right.”

“No…because there’s only going to be three Wild Powers now….”

“No, there
aren’t,
” Morgead raged. “Listen to me, Jez. There’s no reason for you to die—”

Jez couldn’t manage a smile anymore, or a sentence. But she whispered gently, “Wood…poison.”

“No, it isn’t! Not to humans. And you’re half human, Jez. You’re vampire enough to survive something that would kill a human, but you’re human enough not to be poisoned by wood.”

Jez knew better. She couldn’t see much anymore. Only Morgead, and he was getting indistinct. It wasn’t that the world was dimming, though—it was getting brighter. Everything was golden and shining.

Four less one and darkness triumphs,
Jez thought. I’m so sorry about that. I hope they can manage it somehow. It would be so sad for everything human to be lost. There’s so much good in the world, and so much to love….

She couldn’t even see Morgead now. Only gold. But she could hear. She could hear Claire whispering to her in a voice broken by tears, and feel wetness dropping on her face.

“I love you, Jez. You’re the best cousin anybody could ever have.”

And Hugh. He was crying, too. “Jez, I’m so proud to be your friend….”

And then, through the mist and the gold and the warmth and peace, came a voice that wasn’t gentle at all. That was roaring in sheer outrage and fury.

“DON’T YOU DARE DIE ON ME, JEZEBEL! DON’T YOU DARE! Or I’ll follow you to the next world and KILL you.”

Suddenly, in the pretty gold mist, she could see something else. The only thing in the universe that wasn’t golden.

It was a silver cord.

“You come back and you do it right now,”
Morgead bellowed in her ears and in her mind.
“Right now! Do you hear me?”

The peace was shattered. Nothing seemed quite so warm and wonderful anymore, and she knew that once Morgead got into one of his Excited States, he wouldn’t stop yelling until he got what he wanted.

And there was the cord right in front of her. It was strong, and she could feel that the other end was somewhere in Morgead’s heart, and that he was trying to drag her back to him.

All right. Maybe if I just grab on….

Somehow, she was holding on to it, and bit by bit, pulling herself back. And then the golden light was fading and she was inside a body that hurt and Morgead was holding her and kissing her and crying all at the same time.

Claire’s voice came from beyond him. “She’s breathing again! She’s breathing!”

“I love you, you stupid human,” Morgead gasped against Jez’s cheek. “I can’t live without you. Don’t you know that?”

Jez whispered, “I told you never to call me Jezebel.”

Then she fainted.

“Time for a nice bath,” the nurse said. “And then we can have a visitor.”

Jez eyed her narrowly. The woman was kind, but she had some mania for sponge baths, and she was always putting strange-smelling ingredients in the water. Which was actually not that surprising since she was a witch.

“Skip the bath,” Jez said. “Let the visitor in.”

“Now, now,” the witch said, shaking a finger and advancing with the sponge.

Jez sighed. Being a Wild Power in a Circle Daybreak sanctuary meant that she could have pretty much anything she wanted—except that everyone was still treating her like a little kid. Especially the nurses, who spoiled her and flattered her, but talked to her as if she were about three.

Still, she was glad to let the Circle take care of some things. Keeping her relatives safe, for instance. Although she was almost fully recovered, thanks to a strong constitution and a lot of healing spells from the witches, she wasn’t up to that yet. Uncle Bracken and the entire Goddard family needed constant protection, since Hunter Redfern and the Night World Council were all undoubtedly after them by now.

The Circle had imported some experts from back East to take care of it. A rival vampire hunter, of all things, named Rashel something. Plus her soulmate, a vampire-turned-Daybreaker called Quinn.

At least they were competent. They’d gotten Jez’s uncle
Bracken, as well as the remnants of the gang out of San Francisco, a city that was going to be bad for their health for a while. Morgead was trying to get the gang to join Circle Daybreak for their own good, and he said that Raven, at least, was showing some interest. Val and Thistle were being stubborn, but that was hardly surprising. What was important was that they were alive.