Resurrection (18 page)

“Then we'll know who he is.” Amanda kissed Owen's head. “We'll protect you, baby.” She smiled sweetly at Nicole and added, “And you, Niki. We'll protect you both.”

Nicole felt a rush of shame. Amanda had probably never realized just how much she, Nicole, depended on her. She'd been so caught up in the drama of her own life that she'd needed Amanda to balance her out. Back in high school she'd thought Amanda was boring and uncool, and she had excluded her whenever possible.

“I just had a really bad thought,” Amanda murmured. She nodded in Kari's direction. “Maybe we should send her out, see if anything happens to her.”

“Oh, my God, that's…practical,” Nicole replied, bouncing Owen in her arms. “If anything ever happens to me…” She trailed off as Owen made little gurgling sounds and stared at the door. If anything ever happened to her, she'd come back from hell itself to watch over her child. Come back, or live in it. That was, if her child wasn't there with her. If she hadn't had to send him there herself. She tried not to glance at the scar he now had behind his left ear, but like a magnet it drew her eyes. There were three signs. He had only two. It was going to be okay.

More wards chimed, signaling an unrecognized presence. Richard handed Amanda a scrying stone. He couldn't see the image of their visitor in the piece of crystal, but she could.

She gasped. “It's Anne-Louise Montrachet,” she announced. “With a familiar.”

“Anne-Louise,” Nicole said happily. “I can't believe it.”

Anne-Louise had been their liaison with the Mother Coven, and a dear and loyal friend to them. She had been wounded defending them from Michael Deveraux, and they hadn't seen her since.

Amanda hurried toward the door, but Richard and Tommy blocked her way. “It might be a trap,” Richard said, as he cautiously opened it.

Amanda peered around him. It was Anne-Louise at the gate. She was dressed for winter travel in a long white coat and matching white boots, and in her arms she held a slinky gray feline with large golden-yellow eyes.

“Oh, thank Goddess,” Anne-Louise called.

“Wait!” Amanda warned her. “Nicole has to invite you in.”

“I invite you, Anne-Louise,” Nicole cried. “And your familiar, too.”

“His name is Whisper,” Anne-Louise said as she ran up to the house and practically leaped over the threshold. Her eyes misted at the sight of the twin sisters and their loved ones, and her face softened when Owen cooed at her.

“Precious child,” she said, raising her hand in benediction over him. She paused, as if she wanted to say more—maybe to ask who his father was—but
let it go as she glanced around the castle in amazement, and then turned to a waiting car. “I have a small suitcase.”

“I'll get that,” Richard said, trotting out into the cold as he shut the heavy door behind himself.

“Why are you here?” Amanda asked. “Not that we're not happy to see you, but…”

“I couldn't risk a phone call or an e-mail,” Anne-Louise replied, lowering her voice. She hesitated. “Is this place well warded?”

“Yes,” Nicole assured her. “With our magic, and warlock magic too.”

Anne-Louise paled slightly. Then she nodded. “As a Moore and a Cathers witch, you're afforded excellent protection. But I have terrible news. I performed a series of rituals in search of other members of your family, and I had a vision. Alex Carruthers isn't related to you. He's an imposter. And he has gone into the past, and changed it.”

Amanda glanced at Nicole, then back at Anne-Louise. Nicole was silently shaking her head, as if she didn't want to hear any more.

Anne-Louise came forward and took Amanda's hand, and then Nicole's, whose hand was icy. Nicole swallowed hard. Cradled against Anne-Louise's chest, Whisper stared at the two Cathers witches.

Gone into the past?” Amanda asked.

“Who is he?” Nicole demanded.

“I don't know, but I have my suspicions. Whisper and I have sensed great evil, terrible power…and I think Alex Carruthers may actually be the Duc Laurent de Deveraux, come back from the dead.”

Nicole felt the floor give way. Anne-Louise's hand around hers was firm, strong. Warmth radiated from it to Nicole, and she stood firm.

“Back from the dead. Like her?” Amanda asked, glancing at Kari.

“Oh, child,” Anne-Louise said to Kari as Kari turned toward her. “Powerful magics are at work. I think he plans to reunite the Deveraux family and wage war.”

“On the Mother Coven?” Amanda asked. Nicole was chilled to the bone.

Anne-Louise shook her head. “On the world.” She gazed around at the castle walls, then at the girls. “On anyone who stands against him. He wants to marshal all the forces of darkness and pit them against us, and humanity.”

“Holly,” Nicole breathed.

“We've been searching for her,” Anne-Louise said. So far, we've been unsuccessful.”

“Oh, God,” Nicole breathed. “What if he's killed her?”

“I don't think he has. Yet,” she said. “Michael Deveraux drove your cousin out of her mind. She
became possessed by demons, and he used her against you, until the exorcism. But a warlock as powerful as Laurent de Deveraux would be fully capable of doing it again—on a much more intense level.”

“Is that what you meant about changing the past?” Amanda asked.

“I'm not sure what I mean,” Anne-Louise said. “But things are not as they should be. Whisper appeared to tell me. We're living in a world that has been altered.”

They looked at one another in horror. Just then Richard came back into the castle carrying a small white suitcase.

“What did I miss?” he asked.

“Oh, Daddy,” Nicole cried, “it's…it's wrong. Something's wrong.” Tears slid down Nicole's face. It never ended. They would never be safe. What kind of world had she brought her baby into?

“What do you mean?” Richard asked. He turned to Anne-Louise. “What's going on?”

“As you know, Philippe left you because he received a psychic plea for help from Pablo. Our paths crossed in Mumbai.”

“Philippe. Is he coming too?” Nicole asked, wishing with all her being.

“India?” Richard asked. “What on earth—”

“A swami warned me that some kind of balance had been damaged. He mentioned the Temple of the
Sun. I thought he was speaking of Machu Picchu, in Peru. But we pointed out that it's called the Pyramid of the Sun. The Temple of the Sun is a term used in Zoroastrian magics.”

“Zoro-what?” Tommy asked, putting his arms around Amanda. She laid her head on his shoulder. As if sensing that Nicole needed comfort too, Richard put his arm around her shoulder.

“Zoroastrianism is a faith, a magical system,” Anne-Louise explained. “Many believe that the Three Wise Men in the biblical story of the Christ's nativity were Zoroastrian sorcerers. Wizards. And they were astrologers, which is why they were aware of the star in the east.”

“Cologne,” Nicole said softly. As the others looked at her, she said, “Their bones are kept in a big gold box in the cathedral there.”

“All three of them? It must be a big box,” Tommy said.

“We of the Mother Coven believe there may have been more than three sorcerers who went to visit the Christ,” Anne-Louise continued. She looked tired and frightened. “It is traditional to assume there were only three, as there were only three gifts mentioned in the story—gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But there could easily have been more, and more gifts as well. Magical offerings are occult. Hidden.”

Tommy grimaced. “I wonder where Duc Laurent's bones are hidden. Maybe if we destroy them, or put a hex on them…”

Then Whisper spoke. “It's too late. The past has been altered, and unless he is stopped, he will win.”

Everyone stared at the cat. Nicole said, “Who are you?”

“I am a messenger of the Goddess,” Whisper announced. “I, too, seek Holly Cathers, who sacrificed the familiar Hecate.” Whisper looked at Nicole's zombie-cat. “Alas, handmaiden.”

Hecate growled low in her throat, and silence fell over the room.

“You won't hurt Holly,” Amanda said to Whisper. “We won't let you.”

“She and I will deal with each other on another occasion,” Whisper replied. “I seek her power. Time has been altered. She must help me set it to rights.”

“She's with Duc Laurent. Two others are with her too,” Amanda continued, quaking.

“The Christian witches Pablo and Armand,” Whisper said, dipping her head. “I know.”

“We have to save them,” Amanda insisted.

“Or stop them,” Richard added, “if he's bewitched them.”

Everyone fell silent. It was too terrible to contemplate.

“What about Jer and Eli?” Tommy asked. “Have you seen them?”

“Not Jer, but I have seen Eli.”

At that Anne-Louise stopped talking and averted her eyes.

There's more bad news,
Nicole thought, feeling her stomach clench.

“Have a seat and I'll get you some hot tea,” Richard said in the silence.

Anne-Louise took off her coat and chose a seat. The others sat down too and there was a stillness, a heaviness in the air that had nothing to do with what Anne-Louise had said and everything to do with what she hadn't said.

Richard handed her some tea, and she sipped it for a moment before putting it aside and clearing her throat. “In Mumbai, Philippe and I ran into Eli. There was a fight. Both of them fell into a lake…and they didn't come out.”

Nicole stared at Anne-Louise. “What do you mean, they didn't come out?”

Amanda burst into tears. Tommy and Richard looked stricken.

“What do you mean?” Nicole shouted.

Owen wailed.

“I think they both drowned,” Anne-Louise said with pity in her eyes.

“That stupid curse,” Tommy said.

Those beloved of a Cahors died by drowning. Nicole shuddered, and when Richard grabbed Owen out of her arms, she didn't object. Philippe and Eli. Dead. James. Dead. And still she felt deep inside of her that Owen's father was coming for him.

“Help me,” she whispered, going boneless, falling, as everything dissolved into a scream.

A few minutes later she awoke on the couch. Anxious faces slid into her view.

Owen, I want you out of this,
Nicole thought, despairing.
I don't want you to have anything to do with this. I'll take you away.
But she knew she couldn't.

Philippe and Eli dead. She wanted to cry, to scream, to blame someone, anyone, and lock herself in her room. But she knew she couldn't do that, either.

She knew exactly what she had to do. She sat up slowly and cleared her throat. “We need to talk about the prophecy,” she said, looking at Amanda. “We have to tell Anne-Louise about Owen.”

Amanda heaved a sigh. “I've been waiting for you to say that, Niki. I didn't think it was my place.”

“What about Owen?” Richard planted himself between his grandson and Anne-Louise.

“Save the world,” Kari murmured. “Save.”

Amanda moved from the protective circle of Tommy's arms and held up her and Nicole's scarred
palms. The two thirds of the lily they formed with Holly's palm glowed very slightly.

“Yes,” Nicole choked out. She was in agony. Every fiber of her being shouted at her to protect her child at all costs.

All costs.

But she couldn't.

“We have to tell you this so we can save the world.” She swallowed hard. “My son was brought into this world to destroy it.”

Then she told them everything—or at least, everything she knew.

Because, as Anne-Louise had said, the ways of the occult were hidden.

Mumbai: Eli and Philippe

I'm alive,
Eli thought.
But I drowned….

And then he remembered: beneath the water, losing consciousness, and there had been a flash of light, and a woman with long flowing hair had reached out and touched his hand. A woman who had risen from the depths of the lake and saved him.

He sat up with a groan and opened his eyes. There were white sheets pulled around a hospital bed…and Philippe was sitting nearby on a rickety wooden chair, watching him closely.

Eli gritted his teeth. “There was a lady in the
lake…” He thought about what he was saying. It sounded like something out of a fairy tale.

Philippe nodded slowly. “I think it was your mother, Sasha Deveraux.”

Eli blinked. “My mother is trapped back in the Dark Ages—in the time of Isabeau and Jean.”

“She seems to have found a way back.” Philippe shrugged like the Frenchman he was.

“Where is she?” Eli demanded.

Philippe shook his head. “I don't know. I saw her grab you before I lost consciousness. Then I woke up here a while ago, and made them bring me to you.”

A while ago
. Philippe could have killed him while he was sleeping. The thought put Eli into an even darker mood. A part of him wanted to strike now, when the witch wasn't expecting it and would be less able to protect himself.

He shook his head. As much as he wanted Philippe dead, things had changed.

“Where are we?”

“It's a hospital.”

They exchanged looks. Philippe seemed to be waiting for something.

“I'm betting witch and warlock conjuring magic together can be awesome,” Eli said.

“Or an abomination,” Philippe replied steadily.

“To find Nicole, and my mother.”

“Oui.”
Philippe held out his hand.

Eli frowned. And then he took it. “Let's agree to kill each other once this is all over.”

“Agreed.” Philippe's eyes flashed; so male witches weren't so different from warlocks after all.

“Good. Now let's get to work,” Eli said.

Outside Mumbai:
Holly, Alex, Pablo, Armand, and the Temple of the Air