Sucking in San Francisco (21 page)

“Oh my God, Sebastian. What happened to us?”

“Something that has never happened to me before, ma Cherie.”

“I felt you, inside of me. I…”

“I know dearest, I felt it too,” Bast says. He nuzzles the bite mark sending shockwaves through me. “I’ve never felt anything like it, Lily. You and I were made for each other.”

I pull a handi-wipe out from my bedside drawer and wipe the blood from his chin. Sebastian just sighs.

“Hold me, Sebastian, while I sleep?”

“Always, ma Cherie.”

I slide into slumber in his arms. I wake up to a note lying on the pillow next to me.

Dearest Love,

Thank you for the best night of my life. I wanted to be here when you woke to make the morning even better, but something came up and I felt you would understand my absence. Iris said she must meet with Julian immediately over the texts. They would be attempting another summoning and she needed his help. I felt obliged to go with Julian.

This might be the way to end our involvement with the girls. We had no way to contact Aidan so it is just us. Please do not worry. We will be back before you have time to get dressed. I love you, Cherie.

Yours always and forever,

Sebastian

I can’t believe they were so stupid! Of course this is not a good idea. Male egos! Thinking they could handle it themselves. I get dressed in the first things I find and rush downstairs. Helena paces in the library. Andrew follows behind her in a frenzy trying to calm her down.

“How long have they been gone?” I ask. “How long Helena?”

“Four hours. They only expected to be gone two at the most. Sebastian only wrote the note as an afterthought. He expected to be back to explain in person.”

“Fuck!” My fangs slide out.

“Miss Lily, please we have to do something,” Andrew says.

“Let me think! Aidan should be here soon.”

“Did someone say my name?”

Right on cue, Aidan pops in.

“Aidan, we have a crisis on our hands,” I say turning to his warmth and the promise of all his vital powers.

He notices my fangs and immediately loses his grin.

“What’s going on?”

“Julian and Sebastian have gone to meet Iris and Indio to go over the texts. Iris said it had to be this morning. Sebastian went along, they couldn’t wait for you. They should have been back two hours ago,” I say – my voice shaking.

“Let me go and see what’s happened. Don’t worry, love. I will be right back.”

He gives me a kiss goodbye, fangs and all.

Helena and I can’t relax until Aidan brings them back. Andrew serves us some coffee and we wait and wait and still no Aidan. It isn’t like him to keep us waiting.

“Something’s wrong,” I say. “Aidan wouldn’t take this long.”

“I know. What should we do?” Helena wonders, an edge of steel in her tone.

She’s changed into jeans and a tee shirt.

“I want to go over there and kick some witch ass, but I need you to help me. They are going to use magick and we’ll only have you to battle them. I’ll fight my damnedest, I’ve got a few moves, but I can’t throw hexes.”

“I can do that. Or die trying. I swore I would kill them if they hurt anyone of you and now they have my Jules. They thought Good Queen Bess was a bitch when she was angry, they haven’t met me.”

Sebastian and Julian are in a hitch, to put it mildly. Julian sits inside the witches’ small, decrepit kitchen. His hands keep running across his shaven head while Indio stands over him with a cruel smile on her face and her hands on her hips. Julian translates the texts under some kind of duress, cursing at Indio. He demands to see Sebastian before he continues.

“I am not translating another damn line until I know he is alive. I could snap your insignificant neck in a heartbeat and would happily do it if you weren’t holding him hostage,” Julian says.

“I’ll take you to get a good look, leech. It’s what’s in store for you,” Indio says.

“I do not think so, child.”

“Don’t call me that! I’m not a child!”

“As you wish.”

“Come on, we don’t have all day,” Indio snarls as she grabs Julian’s arm and tries to drag him to the garage. Julian is at least holding his own and his dignity with it.

We enter the garage. Sebastian sits chained in a chair that is bolted into the cement floor. They’ve put a hood on his head and Iris holds a stake to his chest. His shirt is in tatters and he has been cut up. Bruises cover his body and I sense more on his face.

“Make one move, Julian, and I stake him,” Iris says.

“I have no intentions of making that necessary, Iris. I merely wanted to ascertain his well being. Sebastian, can you hear me?”

“I can mon frère. How is your work progressing?”

“I am almost done with it.”

“I fear for you when you are done, my good friend.”

“I can hold my own, Sebastian. I am more worried about you.”

“Shut up, get back to work,” Iris yells. There is a frantic note in her voice. Madness and fear.

Indio takes Julian back to continue the translation. I stay with Sebastian.

“You never told me how you found out about the goat’s blood, Iris? I assume that’s what you put into my wine.”

“I found out on Wikipedia,” she shrugs.

Sebastian laughs.

“I will have to have a word with them. How did you keep me from smelling it?” he asks.

“A simple spell, I was pleased it worked so well. The great Sebastian, taken out with a sip of Elderberry wine.”

She gloats, almost high on her power trip. She has an evil smile.

“You know these chains will not hold me.”

“That’s what the stake is for, dear. Unless of course you will reconsider and become Indio’s lover?”

“Never.”

He’s brave, I will concede to that. Djinn have more vulnerability to psychic pain than the physical sort but it must have cost him. I have to admire his courage.

That’s when I try to dematerialize so I can return to the manse and find out I can’t. I try again. Dammit! They must have put a containment spell on the house to keep Julian and Sebastian from being able to leave. I’m caught too!

I know Lilith and Helena will be going out of their minds soon. We need their help. Without reinforcements I need to worry about what Julian is doing. I can’t let them bind me. All hell will break loose then. My power in their hands. How to tell Julian? I return to the kitchen.

“Indio, you won’t get away with this. You love Sebastian, yet you allow your sister to torture him, drink his blood and hold a stake to his heart?” Julian says quietly. He bends over the texts under duress.

“Shut up, Julian, she knows what she’s doing,” Indio hisses. “He’s a vampire, he’ll heal in no time and then he’ll be my own private party.”

“I think not. Sebastian loves Lily. He will never truly belong to you as long as you know that.”

“Shut up!” Indio throws her hands over her ears.

“The other vampires you killed were young, inexperienced. Sebastian and I are older, wiser and quicker. We are not under your spells.”

“Yes, that is an annoying little problem,” Indio confesses. “Enough talking, Julian. Concentrate on your translation. Iris wants this done.”

“And what Iris wants, Iris gets, isn’t that right, Indio? What happens when she decides she wants Sebastian? What will you do then? You know it is only a matter of time. She always is taking things from you isn’t she? She’ll want him for her lover. She has a taste for blood now, Indio. You had better watch out or you might be next.”

“Ugh! Stop that! Just Stop! She won’t take him! She won’t. I’ll make sure.” Julian is getting to her. “She can’t have him, he’s mine!”

Julian works Indio into a frenzy trying to play the sisters against each other. Her actions become more agitated. Wiley vamp. She’s distracted by what’s happening in the garage.

“Get back to the text, Julian, or I swear I will get Iris to stake you.”

“Then where would you be?”

“Dammit, just do what you’re told!”

“As you wish.”

“And stop saying that!” She paces to the doorway, peering around the corner, trying to see what Iris is doing.

I turn into a fly and hover above the paper to get a closer look at what Julian is writing.

“Aidan?” Julian whispers and I fly to his hand.

“This is not a good situation, my friend,” he says in ancient Egyptian.

“What are you saying?” Indio demands suspiciously.

“Nothing, just reading back to myself, Indio. I need to double check. It wouldn’t do to get it wrong. You are much too jumpy,” Julian observes.

Indio frowns - she is jumpy. She’s losing it. Julian says all the right things to push her buttons and get her on edge.

“It sounded like you were casting a spell,” Indio says defensively.

“I know no spells, Indio. That is my lover’s proficiency, not mine.”

“Well, whatever you’re doing, stop it.”

“Do you want me to do this correctly?”

“Just hurry up.”

“As you wish.”

“Ahhh, stop saying that!”

I’m busy reading Julian’s translations. He has done an accurate job, leaving me no wiggle room. It is gut wrenching seeing your name in a summoning. My mind expands and goes into overdrive. I begin speaking to Julian, using his own voice and the same dialect of Egyptian he has used. Julian plays along and Indio is clueless. He makes a few corrections and sits back. He sighs.

“What is it?” Indio asks.

“I’m finished,” Julian says.

“Excellent! Iris, he’s done,” she shouts.

“Bring him down here, Indio. Don’t forget the text,” Iris shouts back.

Indio, Julian and I make our way down to the garage. I ride along as a tick on Indio’s leg. I figure I can at least bite her if I can’t vaporize her. The corrections will only give me a fifty-fifty chance at being able to kill them. It’s the only chance I am going to get though. The witches have drawn a large pentagram on the floor. Iris has taken off Sebastian’s hood so he can watch the proceedings. As I surmised, his face is covered in bruises and scrapes. She has really worked him over. Worse, he seems as weak as a kitten.

“Now, you both are going to take another sip of our special wine to make sure you are incapacitated while we work our summoning,” Iris says.

Damn the unholy harpy.

Indio pulls Sebastian’s head back and makes him take a drink of the wine and goat blood mixture out of a cheap plastic cup, while Iris keeps the stake at his heart. His eyes roll into the back of his head and he starts to tremble. Soon he is slack-faced and looks dead. Julian is paler than usual, but he takes the cup and has the foresight to sit down. He takes his drink like a man. The concoction has the same effect on him. They both look near death’s door. It is not for the weak of heart. Indio keeps wiping Sebastian’s hair off his forehead.

“Stop fussing, Indio, he’ll be fine. He was the last time wasn’t he?”

“Yes, he just looks dead. I can’t stand to see him like this.”

“If this summoning goes as planned we can turn him into your lover and you will never have to see him like this again. I may take Julian. He is rather handsome and his knowledge would make me very powerful even without the Jinni,” Iris says.

“Julian kept saying Sebastian would never really be mine because he loves that slut Lily.”

“Do you want me to stake him,” Iris asks with a gleam in her eye.

“NO! I just wondered if he was right. Will the jinni be able to make him mine or not?”

“The jinni can fix everything. He’s all powerful, just wait sister. All our dreams are about to come true.”

“Let’s get on with it then,” Indio says.

Not if I can help it. Oh Lilith, where are you, love?

Indio begins lighting candles and setting herbs around the pentagram and saying cleansing spells.

I still haven’t found a way to warn Lilith and Helena about what is happening. The gods be with us.

Helena and I take Julian’s Mercedes and drive like we have the fires of hell at our backs. The witches’ house is falling apart, the porch sags and paint is peeling off the exterior. If you have a vampire’s sight you can see it radiates pulses of magick, the heaviest light emanates from their garage. That has to be where they’re holding Sebastian and Julian. I don’t know if Aidan has manifested yet or if he’s still in hiding. Whichever, it has to be bad.

“Okay, Lily. How do you want to handle this?” Helena asks me.

She’s fought her share of battles so I’m counting on her for guidance as well as guile.

“I want to bust down the door, but I’m sure there are spells on it. Can you disable them?” I ask Helena.

“I don’t think it will be anything special. They’re too cocky.”

“Okay.”

We get out of the car and climb their rickety, health code violating stairs. I am so pissed and worried I don’t have time to be scared. Which is a good thing. If I have to admit how scared I am, there won’t be enough handi-wipes in the world to calm me down.

Helena is busy casting and the house glimmers from time to time. There are a lot of spells on it. Finally she is done and she nods at me.

“On three. One, two, three!”

And we both kick the door. It bursts into splinters. Someone screams and someone else lets loose a guttural growl. Without wasting time, we rush in. There are dishes lying all over the place, clothes heaped on every surface. Their magik is a thick stench. Iris and Indio run, struggling to get past each other, up out of a doorway into the kitchen.

“You!” Indio shouts.

“You seem surprised, bitch,” I say.

“If it isn’t the great Helena,” Iris says. “I’m looking forward to this.”

“Not as much as I’m looking forward to ripping your head off, Iris,” Helena says calmly.

“Tsk, tsk, no hard feelings for Julian. I was thinking of keeping him for my lover,” Iris taunts throwing a hex at Helena.

“Go ahead and try it, witch,” Helena says blocking the hex and hurling a spell back.

“Your jinni won’t help you, Iris, because you will be dead before you can summon him,” I say.

Iris looks truly surprised now. Ha! Helena throws a hex at them and I run at Indio.

Helena and Iris are creating a firestorm of magik. Curses blast back and forth vibrating the walls. Smoke starts to fill the room making it difficult for the duelers to see each other.

Indio fires a spell at me and I have to dodge. I go for her again and run into a small flame. Vampires are incredibly flammable. It lights my arm on fire and I have to stop, drop and roll to put it out. Indio is on top of me, furious and pulling my hair. She whispers something and I shriek as my legs burst out in boils. I roll around with her pulling my hair, blood running down my face where she’s pulled out some scalp. It stings my eyes and blurs my vision. I feel a lump in my pocket. It’s my backup hand sanitizer. I never go anywhere without it. I maneuver my fingers into my pocket and flip the lid off it. I back her off, twist around and squirt it into her eyes.

She immediately lets go and starts shrieking and rubbing at her eyes. God bless good hygiene. I grab her by the neck and pull her up close.

“Ahhh, so this is how it ends for you, Indio. Shall I just break your neck or do you want me to drain you?” I say between my fangs.

“Lily, you don’t have to kill me, please, anything. Iris made me go after Sebastian. I have nothing against vampires. Maybe you could make me one of you. I could be a vampire,” she begs with running, red and raw eyes.

“Liar. You’re dangerous as a human. Do you really think I would allow you to become sneaking, conniving, killing, and immortal? You’re insane.”

I can’t stand the thought of her tainted witch blood. I take her head in my hands and give it a clean, quick twist. We all hear the bone breaking crack and it brings Iris and Helena to a stop. I let Indio fall to the floor as Iris looks at me dumbfounded. Helena takes advantage of this to pounce on Iris and grab her by the hair, pulling her head back, exposing her neck. As Indio dies so do her spells. My legs itch as the skin heals and becomes free from pain.

“What have you done with Julian and Sebastian?” Helena hisses.

“Fuck you! You bitch, Lily. You killed my sister.”

“The same is waiting for you, Iris,” Helena whispers in her ear. “So why don’t you tell us what you’ve done.”

Aidan pops into the room.

“Nooooo… So close… Do my bidding djinn. Kill these two vampires,” Iris orders.

“He’s
our
friend, Iris. He has been our friend all along,” I say.

“I knew you couldn’t be that lucky. You dumb bitch!” Iris screams as she struggles against Helena’s death grip.

In a blur Helena strikes. She drains her in no time and then twists her neck for good measure. I think she is mad enough to twist it off, like she had promised, but she is too much of a lady. She lets the body fall to the ground where it lays at her feet. Iris and Indio are no more. We look at each other with renewed fire. We must find Sebastian and Julian, God only knows what sight awaits us.

Aidan leads us downstairs.

I smell blood in the house. Blood and the thick tangle of magik and sweat. We run down to the garage and stop short in horror. Julian and Sebastian are motionless and appear dead. Sebastian is beaten and bleeding. Aidan stands over Sebastian blasting his chains off. Incense still scents the air. The smell is cloyingly sweet in contrast to the horrific scene before us.

Aidan looks at me and says, “It’s about time you got here, love. I almost lost my day job.”