Nightwish (An Echoes of Eternity Novel Book 1) (13 page)

“Okay,” said Brandon, stepping away from us. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” He turned to me. “So we’ve got witches and vampires. Any other creatures or monsters out there we need to know about?”

I smiled at Kendall to express my gratitude for her understanding and sympathy then turned to Darius, only to find him looking at Brandon with a quizzical expression. The slightest movement tugged his upper lip in disgust.

“What’s wrong?” I asked Darius, drawn in by his aversion to Brandon.

“Nothing.” The other end of his mouth turned up in distaste before flattening. “Nothing at all.”

I now saw curiosity and…uncertainty in his eyes. I didn’t know what to make of it, but I also knew that he wouldn’t explain whatever disturbed him.

“So how do we help Grams?” asked Kendall.

“I don’t think we can,” I said, wishing I didn’t have to utter those words. “When she appeared last night, she seemed to think that all hope was lost because of the Alzheimer’s.”

“But we can’t just give up,” said Brandon. “We can’t just let Zephora take over.”

I also hated the idea of letting that vicious witch remain inside Grams’s body, of giving others the impression that
Grams
made future decisions of her own volition. But how could I stop her?

“You could kill her,” said Darius.

“This again?  You’re supposed to help and protect her.”

“She’s not your grandmother. She’s not the person who visited you last night. Do you think she’d want another person to walk around in her body?”

I rushed over and shoved him. Darius didn’t even reel on the balls of his feet from the blow, so I pounded a fist against his chest. But even that hadn’t affected him, although it felt like I’d slammed my fist into iron. “How dare you?”

“She’d want this,” said Darius, reaching out and taking hold of my arms. “Look deep inside yourself. Would she be happy with a mind and body that’s no longer recognizable?”

I struggled to escape his grasp, escape his words, and escape from the truth, but his vice-like grip made that impossible.

“She cares for you too much to suggest it,” he said.

The jingle above the shop door dinged, drawing my attention to…Zephora, who led Delphine, Alexis, and Celestina into the shop. My heart lurched at the sight of what should have been Grams, followed by a mother who respected my power but distrusted me, a sister who would enjoy killing me, and a niece that…reminded me of myself at an earlier age.

“Well, hello, darling,” said Zephora with a sunny smile as she and my immediate family stood opposite my friends and I. “You have something I treasure, and I shall not take leave until I possess it!”

CHAPTER TEN

“What do you want?” I asked, glancing from Delphine to Celestina and back again to Zephora, who had inhabited my grandmother’s body. I didn’t trust any of them, and since I couldn’t offer even a respectable fight against their powers, I tensed my arms and thighs to prevent them from quaking and giving away the knowledge that I had no idea how to deal with my family.

Zephora seemed to grasp my uneasiness; her grin became bolder, more arrogant. She set her gaze on Darius. “Well, hello.”

He tried but failed to ignore her gaze. He nodded.

“It has been quite some time, has it not?”

Darius nodded again, this time managing to look elsewhere.

“You look well. Do you…feel well?”

He nodded again, refusing to meet her eye.

“I cannot blame you for attempting to disregard my words, although I do suspect you would think otherwise, given a good enough reason.” She sighed, disappointed, then she looked at me. “We seek
The Book of Souls
.”

“Well go ‘seek’ it somewhere else. I’m busy.”

A patronizing expression took shape on her face. “If you hand over the item in question, we shall take leave, and you shall never again lay eyes upon me.”

“I told you; I don’t know anything about—”

Delphine broke ranks and walked down an aisle, checking out the items on either row.

I doubted that my mother was interested in anything on our shelving units. More likely, she strolled down the aisle to distract me and increase my anxiety. Even though she couldn’t harm me, her strategy worked better than she’d ever know.

“If you do not retrieve it,” Zephora said, “You will leave me no choice but to resort to…less than docile endeavors.” A pleasant smile lit her features. “I prefer not to engage in matters that would put me in direct conflict with my beliefs.”

Alexis chuckled.

Zephora issued a glare that made my sister direct her sarcasm and gaze elsewhere. “Karma is impossible to outrun.” She looked at me again as though prepared to disclose a secret. “I subscribe to Buddhist beliefs.”

“And I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly.” I didn’t trust her claim that she’d rather not get violent. “So where does that leave us?”

Although I had to watch Zephora, I also had to keep an eye on my sister, considering that she’d have no internal conflict jabbing a knife into my heart. When I looked her way, I found her giving Brandon a flirtatious smile. One quick glance at my bandmate revealed that he allowed what hung below his waist to think for him. And judging by the snarl on Kendall’s face, she didn’t appreciate the competition.

I did
not
need this potential romantic triangle to unfold right now. “Hey,” I said to Brandon, trying to snap him out of his state of mind. “She can read your mind.”

Brandon grinned and turned his head toward me, but his eyes didn’t follow. They remained on Alexis. “Yeah? What am I thinking right now?”

“Ooh,” Alexis said with a seductive smile on her lips. “You’re a naughty boy, aren’t you? But can you back that up?”

“You
know
I can.”

“But what would your old lady think?” Alexis turned her gaze on Kendall. “Oh, too bad! She doesn’t approve of me.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” said Brandon, neglecting Kendall. “We’re just friends.” Then after a second, he appeared to have momentarily lost his confidence and added, “Best friends, right?” he asked her.

The animosity on Kendall’s face vanished. “Of course.”

Alexis said, “Then you wouldn’t mind if I took him for a test ride?” She shifted her grin to Brandon. “I
love
to ride stick.”

I had no problem allowing their sexual innuendo to take over this situation because I had no idea how to deal with Zephora and Delphine. I needed that time to come up with a plan. But so far, nothing promising had surfaced. And that ratcheted up my anxiety to an even higher degree, which made it even more difficult to hatch a scheme.

“She’s jealous,” said Alexis in an airy sigh. “If you’d like,” she said to Kendall, lifting an inquisitive eyebrow, “you could watch.”

My sister’s perversions sickened me, not because they were directed at my friends, but because Celestina stood at her mother’s side, unable to do anything but listen. Granted, she may not understand the sexual undertones, but if Alexis considered herself a conscientious mother, she wouldn’t have even broached the topic.

When I glanced at Celestina, she’d lowered her head, concentrating on the floor, as though doing everything she could to ignore the conversation.

Her embarrassment brought on a wave of maternal instinct. It also made me want to protect her from the insinuation. Indignation bubbled inside me and rather than lash out at Alexis, who might persuade Celestina to take her side, I said, “Let’s change the subject, okay?”

“An excellent suggestion,” Delphine said, stepping up behind Brandon and Kendall. 

As one, they hitched their shoulders upward as grimaces took shape on their faces.

Delphine had placed a palm on each of their shoulders as she grinned. “Fire,” she said to Brandon, “given your predilection for my daughter.” She looked to Kendall. “And ice, since you disapprove of my daughter’s interest in a man who is not yours.”

Brandon and Kendall shrank down in pain, Brandon’s face turning red as beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, while Kendall crossed arms around her chest, drawing inward as though a blast of arctic air had hit her.

“Stop it,” I shouted, stepping toward them.

Alexis did likewise, ready to intercept my movements, prepared for an imminent attack.

Because I had no idea what powers my sister had, and since my friends suffered because I hadn’t given my family what they wanted, I halted and turned my attention to Zephora. “I’m not lying. I don’t have the grimoire.”

“Then you leave me no choice.”

Darius rushed in front of me, but Zephora extended a hand and waved it to her right.

The motion sent Darius flying ten feet backwards. He crashed into a shelving unit, knocking over a dozen items to the ground.

“Sadly, you are no match for me, Darius.” A faraway look entered her eyes. “But you were…once. Oh, how time changes us.”

His eyes widened with shock. He examined Zephora’s face until he shook his head, disbelief clouding his features. “My God, it’s really you!”

“It is a shame that my one true love betrayed my confidences…and set my body on the pyre.” She let out a regretful sigh. “Love scorns all, does it not?”

I looked from Darius to Zephora, shocked to discover they had once been a couple.
It seemed the bizarre revelations never ended!

Zephora smiled at him. “Now, then,” she said, ignoring Darius and returning her attention to me. “Where did we leave off?” She clasped both hands with a hideous grin. “Now I recall: you have forced me to betray my beliefs.” She stepped toward me and lifted her hand. “I apologize in advance. When I entered your establishment, I had no intention of stripping the flesh from your bones.”

“Wait,” I said, “you can’t expect me to cooperate when Delphine is torturing my friends.”

Zephora gave that a moment of thought. “And why might that be?”

“Because it’s wrong.”

“I fail to comprehend how their suffering affects any bargain we might strike.”

That statement told me everything I needed to know about Zephora. She lacked compassion. She didn’t value friendship. And she knew nothing about loyalty. Given all that, in order to protect my friends, I needed to be direct. “They’re important to me. Please…” I said, which was as far as I’d ever come to begging, “don’t hurt them.”

Zephora tilted her head to the side and analyzed me. “You are weak and undisciplined. A blight on the Sykes-family name. Shame on your grandmother! Has the art of parenting lost relevance in this age? I find it despicable how young ladies cavort about: no respect for their elders, no tact to speak of, and questionable morals at best…when one considers their behavior with the opposite gender.”

Rage manifested inside me, but I squashed it, refusing to let Zephora know that she’d gotten under my skin. “Weak? In terms of magic? Yes. Undisciplined? Far from it. For the record, my
mother
disowned me as a child.
That
is weak.
Tha
t is…sad.” I set my gaze on Delphine. “You weren’t strong enough to deal with a strong-willed child.” I motioned toward my sister. “But you had no problem with her because she’ll do anything you say. She’s a follower.
She’s
the weak one.” I set my gaze on Zephora again. “So if you want to work this out, you’ll have to go through me. Leave my friends out of it.”

“Yeah,” Brandon said in a tight voice, while a rivulet of sweat dripped down his right temple.

“Shut your trap, boy!” Delphine clamped down on his shoulder again, ready to burn him from the inside out.

Thankfully, Kendall didn’t try a futile attempt to stop Zephora. My eyes flickered to Alexis’s, and I recoiled at her broad smile. How had she grown up to be so cruel? What type of upbringing did she have? Those thoughts made me turn my attention to Celestina.

She held my gaze before glancing at the ground a couple feet behind Darius. Then she met my eyes once more. Whatever she saw there must have held great importance, since she risked tipping off her mother and grandmother, so I didn’t want to look in that exact spot and give others any reason to do likewise.

Sliding a glance ahead and behind me, I realized that everyone in the room had ceded involvement in this dispute to Zephora and me. I hoped that meant no one else would get hurt.

“Wait,” I said, holding up one hand, my voice halting Zephora. “I’m not lying.” I stepped off to the side, toward the object Celestina wanted me to see. “I don’t know where the grimoire is.” I kept moving, using my peripheral vision to determine if Zephora approached me. She hadn’t. “But even if I did, I…wouldn’t let you have it.”

“Rubbish!” she shrieked. Then she raced toward me, defying age, as she pushed her legs hard, closing in on me quickly.

I spun around, toward the spot Celestina had identified, and saw…a familiar-looking rusty, iron broadsword lying on the floor. Energy swelled inside me as I scuttled toward it. Sensing Zephora only inches behind me, I slid to the ground and snatched up the sword.

I wrapped my hand around the handle. My hand
recognized
the smooth leather surface, and an electrical current shot up my arm. Within a fraction of a second, blistering heat traveled into my shoulders and spread across my chest, sending shocks of strength throughout my veins.

My right arm shook, rattling the sword, which from the bottom and moving upwards transformed from a dull blade into a razor-edged sword, void of dirt and smears. It now appeared polished. Just as the sword finished its miraculous transformation, filling me with the courage in my heart that until now I’d failed to call upon, I swung toward my attacker.

Zephora’s eyes went wide as she stopped short, the tip of my blade half an inch under her chin. The slightest movement on either of our parts would result in slicing a huge gash into Grams’s chin.

“I applaud your athleticism,” Zephora said as smile formed and disappeared a second later. “Are you without virtue?” She looked into my eyes. “Do you truly intend to send your grandmother to the grave?”

While I stared at Zephora, images of Grams flashed through my mind; watching her clap her hands while I rode a
My Little Pony
bicycle toward her for the first time, recalling the soft brush of her palm as it slid across my forehead while I lay on the couch beside her, coughing and sniffling from a cold, seeing her cheering me on while in the stands during my martial arts tournaments. Each of those memories and more bombarded my brain, making it impossible to move, much less prevent my eyes from glistening with tears.

“A wise decision,” said Zephora.

“Bullshit,” said another voice that sounded suspiciously like…Grams.

The voice came from my left. Without acknowledging the apparition that no doubt appeared a few feet away, I wanted to burst into tears because she’d visited to give me guidance, as she’d done my whole life.

“I’m nothing like that evil hag,” Grams said. “And neither are you.”

Zephora took in an even breath. “Lorraine has joined us.” Her eyes went side-to-side, up and down. “I sense your presence. You only have that ability because you extracted the essence of that gift from me. You are not welcome here!”

Everyone but Celestina and I stared at Zephora as if she’d lost her mind.

That diverted my attention. It also had the added effect of drying the moisture in my eyes, allowing me to see clearly again.

“That sword is your birthright,” Grams said. “It’s an extension of your soul. It will give you strength when you feel weak. Decisiveness when you’re uncertain. It will ensure that you follow your heart. Always.”

Without looking at the sword, I recognized that Grams spoke the truth. In fact, I recalled the strength that entered my body when using this weapon while sparring with Master Nakamura. We’d practiced for an entire year, mixing martial arts and sword-work. While I hadn’t given any thought to the sword at that time, muscle memory now allowed me to pick up right where I left off. I stared at Zephora, more certain now than ever that I couldn’t plunge a sword into her body.