Magic & Memory (16 page)

“Weres. Several of them in human form, at least eight that I saw. And they’ve added vampires to the mix too now that it’s dark out, maybe half a dozen or so.”

Lu was still staring at Bryn. “If you can do that,” she said, “just pop out like that, why on Earth did you stay in here when the shaking began?”

“First, because no one is going to chase me out of my home. And second, because Alastair is my friend and I wasn’t going to leave him defenseless.”

“Couldn’t you pop him out too?” Lu asked.

“That’d be damn convenient, but no. It would require more energy than I’m capable of even at the best of times. As it is, with all I’ve been through today I was barely able to bring myself back inside. I probably should have thought that one through a tad before launching myself out there with those blokes.” Bryn smiled then and added, “Philippe would be so upset with me if he’d just witnessed that!”

“Who’s Philippe?” Lu asked, but her question went unanswered as the warlock rose to his feet suddenly and squared his shoulders.

 “My appearance out there ruffled their feathers a bit,” Bryn told them, squinting into the distance as if he could see past the walls of his kitchen. “They must be talking to the warlock child because he’s totally unfocused right now. This might be your best chance to get away, especially after I hit them with all I have left.” He turned his sparkling brown eyes to Alastair, smiling as he said, “Go now. I’ve got your back, mate.”

Alastair was sprinting for the door at the south end of the kitchen, and Lu barely realized what was happening before Joey grabbed her around the waist and pulled her off her feet. She gasped and clung to him as he burst through the doorway after Alastair, the long blade in his right hand close beside her.

          A shockwave so strong it was actually visible rolled past them then, almost toppling Joey, but somehow he remained on his feet. Lu got the sense that it was just the fringe of something much bigger, something that had been aimed at the front of the house, radiating outward from within. Yells of confusion came from beyond the row of barrier houses as everyone out there was sent tumbling.

Bryn really did have their back.

They’d made it about a block when something hurled itself at them with a menacing shriek, moving so fast it was a blur. Lu felt all the muscles in Joey’s back ripple as he spun and lashed out with the blade, a low growl rumbling in his chest. The sword swung in a wide arc, its fluid movement unhindered even as it passed right through whatever had been attacking them.

And then Joey was running again, Lu’s arms and legs wrapped tightly around him. He chuckled a little and said, “It’s a good thing I don’t actually have to breathe.” She realized her arms were wound tightly around his neck and relaxed her grasp slightly. Even if he didn’t need oxygen, his voice had still sounded a little strangled.

“Incoming,” he whispered into her ear as he dropped into a roll on the pavement, his body shielding hers as something leapt over them.

He was back on his feet in an instant. They were in the middle of the road, in a yellow pool of light from an overhead streetlight. And then they weren’t.

Lu gasped as the world swayed wildly around her. She looked down, somehow they were high up. It took her a beat to realize that Joey had leapt onto the streetlight. A hunched figure with a monstrously contorted face and wild red eyes looked up at them, a moment too late as Joey jumped down onto it, slashing the creature’s chest. It screamed, a horrible inhuman sound as it lashed out, its long razor-sharp claws raking across Joey’s arm and down Lu’s thigh.

Lu cried out as her leg stung. She looked around just in time to see Joey’s sword make contact with the creature’s throat, slicing through it effortlessly, detaching its head from its body.

And then the thing was crumbling, breaking apart as it fell. It was so bizarre and horrific that Lu couldn’t look away. Before it hit the pavement it was gone, nothing left of it besides a little dust, already being distributed by the breeze.

Joey exhaled deeply, which was probably force of habit since he didn’t actually breathe.

Just then tires squealed close by, the passenger door swinging open as the black Impala bucked to a halt beside them. Joey threw the sword into the back seat and jumped into the car, still gripping Lu tightly, as Alastair gunned the engine, rocketing forward just as another creature leapt into the road. The body hit with a disgusting thud and rolled over the top of the car.

“She’s bleeding,” Alastair said, shifting gears and never taking his eyes from the road.

Joey nodded. “I know.” And then he added cheerfully, “Hey look, you remember how to drive.”

“It’s like fighting,” said Alastair. “I can do it as long as I don’t think about it.” The car careened around a corner and launched its way up a quiet residential street, leaving Bryn’s hidden house further and further behind them.

“How did all of that not attract the attention of every person in San Francisco?” Lu asked, her voice shaking.

“Bryn’s entire neighborhood is a false reality,” Joey explained. “No one lives in any of the surrounding houses. None of them are real. If you look on a map, those streets don’t even exist. And extending out from there maybe mile in every direction is a distraction spell, making it impossible for humans to notice any supernatural activity going on around them.”

“Nothing bizarre about any of that,” Lu muttered.

She was still straddling Joey, sitting on his lap as she stared intently out the rear windshield, watching for anything pursuing them. Her entire body vibrated with adrenaline, her breathing jagged.

“Hey,” Joey said gently, giving her a hug, “We’re ok now. You can relax.” He rubbed her back soothingly, and she realized that his t-shirt was wadded up in her tightly knotted fists. She forced her hands to unclench, and slid onto the seat between him and Alastair.

“What were those things?” she asked, turning her head to look out the back of the vehicle again.

“Vampires,” said Joey.

She shook her head. “No.
You’re
a vampire. That was something else.” She was still staring distractedly out the rear windshield.

“Lu,” he said gently, “Before any more Q and A, we need to fix you up. You’re injured.”

Lu focused on Joey, knitting her brows together. She noticed the blood on his forearm then and said, “You’re the one that’s hurt. That thing got you with its claws.”

“I know,” he said, his voice calm and level. “He got you too. And it’s more important that we stop your bleeding first, before you go into shock.” He looked down at her leg, and her eyes followed his gaze.

Three long gashes ran the length of her right thigh, and blood poured out between the sliced denim. Joey’s hand was clamped firmly at the top of her leg, acting as a tourniquet. She blinked dazedly at the wounds. “But I don’t feel it.”

“It’s probably all the adrenaline,” Joey told her. “Look, I need to do something kind of personal to you. Unless you feel more comfortable with Allie doing it.”

“Doing what?” Alastair asked, weaving the car smoothly around a slow-moving pickup truck.

“We need to stop Lu’s bleeding, and the quickest way to do that is to lick the wound,” Joey said matter-of-factly. “And we need to do it fast before she loses too much blood.”

“Gross,” said Lu.

“Go ahead,” Alastair told Joey, “Before she passes out. I really can’t pull over anywhere.”

Lu crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow at Joey. “I know your saliva heals, but can’t you just spit on it or something?”

He frowned and asked, “Isn’t that
more
disgusting than me licking it?”

“It’s gross either way,” she told him. Then she sighed. “Fine. Whatever. Get it over with.”

Joey slipped down onto the floor at Lu’s feet, then lowered his blonde head to her leg. She felt the long, slow brush of his tongue against her skin. “If you enjoy this, I’m going to hurt you,” she told the back of his head.

He smiled at that, then ran his tongue down each of the gashes, slowly, deliberately. When he went for another pass, he let go of the spot he was squeezing on her upper thigh and folded his hands chastely in his lap. Again his tongue ran the length of her exposed skin. And just like that, the bleeding stopped.

Joey returned to the seat beside her after a minute. He licked his lips then, despite himself.

“You enjoyed it,” she scowled.

“Only a little.”

“I told you not to.”

“It’s not my fault that you taste good,” he told her.

She pointed at his bleeding forearm. “Aren’t you going to fix yourself?”

“In a minute,” Joey said.

“Why in a minute?”

He smiled broadly. “Because I’m still savoring the taste.”

That earned him a punch in the shoulder.

“Ow! Hey! That’s the thanks I get for preventing you from bleeding out.”

Lu sighed dramatically and he said, “Ok, ok.” He raised his arm to his mouth then and quickly and efficiently ran his tongue over the scratches. She made a disgusted sound and he said, “What?”

“That’s not how you licked me. You totally enjoyed it. On purpose.”

“At the risk of getting socked by you again, I will just say that I definitely gave you the right nickname.” Joey smiled pleasantly at her.

“Why is that, exactly?”

“Because you taste really sweet, Cupcake,” Joey said, then pretended to cower behind his raised hands.

“Ew!” Lu attempted to turn her back to him in the crowded front seat.

She studied Alastair’s profile, his dark eyes reflecting the lights of the traffic around them. “How did it go for you back there?” she asked him. “Any problems?”

He shrugged. “I managed to make it to the car without killing anything.”

 “Do you think Bryn’s ok?” Lu asked.

Alastair stretched out a long leg and reached into the pocket of his jeans. He retrieved a small red cell phone and handed it to her. “Here, call him and let’s find out.”

“Where’d this come from?”

“Bryn gave me the phone this evening when you were changing. All his numbers are programmed into it,” Alastair told her.

Lu pressed speed dial one, and the warlock answered on the first ring. “Alastair,” he said, his concern coming clearly through the phone line. “You all alright, mate?”

“It’s Lu, and we’re all fine,” she told him. “How about you?”

“All’s just peachy here, love,” he said, injecting a little enthusiasm into his voice. “As predicted, the baddies cleared out as soon as you lot took off. I’m not sure which way they were headed, everyone just sort of scattered after you left. I lost track of that warlock child almost immediately.” Lu could hear Bryn taking several swallows of something, and guessed it was whiskey.

“Let me talk to him,” Alastair said, and Lu handed over the phone.

“Thank you again, Bryn,” he said. “For everything. And I’m so sorry about the damage to your home.”

“
Ach
, it’s nothing. Couple days and it’ll all be good as new.”

“I’ll be in touch soon,” Alastair told him. “If you need anything, please call us.”

“You just take care of yourself, Allie and don’t worry about yours truly. I’ll talk to you soon, mate.”

After they disconnected and Alastair slid the phone back into his pocket, Joey asked lightly, “So what’s the plan now, boss?”

“Now,” Alastair said, “I’m going to go see Augustine.”

“That’s hilarious, dude,” said Joey. “But really. Where are we headed?”

          “To see Augustine,” Alastair repeated.

Joey sighed. “If you really wanted to see Augustine, all you’d have had to do was go out in front of Bryn’s house while it was being bombarded. I’m sure he was behind that.”

“He wasn’t there,” Alastair said.

“How do you know?” Joey asked.

“Because I would have felt him if he was.”

Joey shook his head. “No, dude, you aren’t connected to him the way other vampires are with their makers.”

“I wasn’t before. Or at least I assume I wasn’t,” Alastair said calmly. “But now I actually hear him very clearly.”

Joey stared at him. “Since when?”

Alastair said, “Since this afternoon. I think Bryn accidentally opened up some sort of connection to my maker when he was trying to remove that spell. It was unintelligible at first, almost like static, but it’s just kept getting stronger over the last couple hours, as if a radio dial were slowly being tuned to a channel.”

“God I hope it isn’t a two-way thing,” Joey said, his body tense, “because if he suddenly feels you too, he’ll be able to find you.” 

“He won’t have to find me, because I’m going to find him.” Alastair’s voice was steady, resolute.

“Give me the phone, Alastair.” Joey’s voice rose slightly.

“Why?”

“Because I need to call Bryn and tell him to fix this. I don’t know what he did, but if a channel was opened to Augustine, something seriously got screwed up.”