The Book of Lost Souls (26 page)

“I don’t need glitter or special effects, Ivy. I just need someone who’s
real
.”
 

He spun her around and Ivy felt dizzy with the feelings inside her.
 

“Remember when I asked if you wanted to see real magic,” he whispered into her ear as he cradled her back against him. “This is magic. Us.”

Could anything every feel so frighteningly wonderful? It was like Nick could promise her the world without a saying a word. “You’ve done this before.”

His laughter felt soft against her hair. “No. I might have known what to do with anyone else. But not you. With you, I’m not sure what to do at all. I haven’t a clue if I’m doing any of this right.”

He wasn’t sure if he wasn’t doing anything right? Was he kidding? Her heart fluttered like the rose petals and the crystalline fireflies.

He twirled her so she was facing him again. Nick stopped dancing and Ivy was aware that the music from the trees had stopped even though her heartbeat felt like it was still keeping tune. Why hadn’t it exploded by now?

Run. It’s just demon charm. Don’t fall for him.

She gazed up at him, knowing it was too late. “Do you still want the book?”

He gave her a lazy grin. “Later.”
 

His face was so close and she felt the pull of her lips toward his.
 

I’m in serious trouble here
, she thought, and her very soul wanted to agree.

A hawk screamed overhead and both Ivy and Nick froze, their impending kiss hovering between them. A twig snapped and crows resting in a nearby tree took flight, cackling loudly.

The moment was gone. The bits of glass fell from their twinkling orbit and the rose petals blew on the ground, turning back into dead leaves.

“Quick! Hide!” Ivy said, still feeling breathless.

Nick grabbed a low-lying branch of the Trekking tree and hoisted himself up with ease. “Here!” he called to her.
 

She took his hand and climbed up after him. They scaled higher, taking refuge in a cluster of fall foliage. From their vantage point it should be easy to pick out anyone in the clearing.

A squirrel in one of the neighboring trees chattered angrily. Another twig snapped and voices broke the eerie serenity around them. A flash of crimson appeared below. Nick hunkered down on the branch to get a better look. Ivy held on to the trunk of the tree and knelt lower, peering through the leaves. They’d expected only one person—a man. Below, both Vlad and Countess Báthory strolled into view.

“He must be dealt with,” the Countess said as she took a seat on the fallen log. “After all, we did him a favor with...what was his name? Nash?
Nicely
done, Vlad. I don’t believe I’ve seen an impaling before. How delightful! We must do it again.”

Ivy and Nick exchanged glances. Nick was right. It wasn’t Phoebe. Whoever they were looking for was male. Maybe the mystery man.

Vlad paced beneath them. “And we
will
, my Elizabeth. We will. First, we must find who has the other book. Until then, he remains our master. And I answer to no one!” he finished angrily.

The Countess fanned herself. “And that despicable food he fed us the other night. Pizza is not a proper feast for such royalty as us. We must kill him soon. Besides, I’m tired of coming here to discuss our plans.”

“Patience, my dear. Patience,” Vlad said. “He has charmed his house to listen to what we say while he is at that school.”

Pizza. Irritable. School. Ivy worked with this information. Student, or teacher? For that matter, it could be anyone who worked at Northwick High. Still, it nagged her, like the answer was on the tip of her tongue. Across from her, Nick seemed to be making sense of this bit of information himself.

“Are you sure he didn’t leave it behind in the cemetery?” the Countess asked.

“We’ve looked!” Vlad snapped. “Someone else has it. Someone who’s been to the cemetery since then.”

“Perhaps we should pay another visit to the Harrisons,” the Countess suggested. “He did seem to think it was them. They had been to the cemetery recently to clear an ancestor’s grave. Perhaps we need to be more persuasive.”

Vlad waved her off. “It isn’t the Harrisons. It has something to do with the
other
one, the tall wizard who followed us here the other day.”

Ivy couldn’t stop thinking about the clues. Pizza. She’d been to Saludo’s a few times since the dance. She searched her memory for anyone who stood out. Someone not acting right...someone at the school who seemed nervous or on edge.

Below, the Countess laughed softly. “The
other
wizard? Darling, if he had the other book, he would have tried spells a lot darker than what he used.”
 

Vlad stopped pacing directly beneath them. He rubbed his chin.

Ivy shifted on her branch. There were
two
wizards. And the one who had
The Book of Lost Souls
was at the school. Her mind went through a list of possibilities. Lately, only one wizard had been so bad tempered—the same one who had bought four pizzas just the other night—and they weren’t for the other teachers. Nick looked at her. Was he thinking the same thing? Why hadn’t she noticed it before? She recalled the look she’d gotten in the principle’s office. Still, it was so hard to believe. As teachers went, he was usually so meek, so mild-mannered. So...nerdy.

There was a flash of silver light below. The Countess held up a mirror, turning her face left and right. Her hand paused over one cheek. She let out a gasp. “A wrinkle! I need the blood of another girl. Quickly!”

“You shall have as many as you like,” Vlad said. “But first, I must have the book. Then, our master must die.”

The Countess laid the mirror down on her lap. “The book! Then death to him! Death to Mr.—”

“Evans!” Ivy and Nick both whispered precisely at the same time they heard the Countess and Vlad speak the name of Northwick High’s geekiest science teacher.

There was a moment of silence as Vlad and the Countess stared at each other. Then they looked up. Nick placed a finger over his lips, a pointless gesture since Ivy had already stopped breathing, fearful that the tiniest amount of breath might be heard rustling a dried leaf.

There was a flash of silver again as the Countess adjusted her mirror. The Countess looked up once more and grinned. It was the most horrible grin Ivy had ever seen.

“There,” the Countess said. “Do what you want with him. The girl is mine.”

CHAPTER 29

Vlad removed something from a pouch at his waist.
 

The Countess rose to her feet and stood beside him. She smiled up at Ivy. “Won’t you come down, my young lovely?”

“Nah. I’m good,” Ivy eeked out. She mouthed to Nick, “What do we do?”

Nick didn’t look like he had any more ideas than Ivy did. “I’m working on it,” he said.

“They’ll come down,” Vlad assured the Countess. He struck a match and placed it in a pile of dry leaves at the base of the tree.
 

The flames lapped at the leaves and spread up the trunk. The Trekking tree swatted at the flames with a few branches while taking aim at Vlad and the Countess with others. The swinging limbs knocked the Countess to the ground and Vlad helped her to her feet.
 

Nick cast a spell at the flames, snuffing them out.
 

The victory was temporary. Vlad stuffed a wad of discarded paper into a bottle. He lit the paper and flung the bottle into the Trekking tree. Flames raced up the trunk, catching dried leaves on fire. Frantically, Ivy and Nick cast one spell after another to douse the fire.
 

The Trekking tree, which had other ideas, had had enough. It uprooted itself and shuffled over. Ivy toppled forward, breaking a small branch. Another bottle hit the tree, the flames racing through the dry, brittle leaves. Branches began to beat at Ivy and Nick. The tree probably figured the only way to stop Vlad’s fiery assault was to rid itself of the two things he wanted.

The flames were too close and the smoke grew thick. “We can’t stay up here,” Nick said as he extinguished more flames.
 

Vlad and the Countess circled below, grinning triumphantly.
 

Ivy and Nick extinguished more flames as they climbed down. Ivy paused when she was just out of Vlad’s reach. “
Repel!”
 

The effort knocked Vlad back a mere foot or two. Nick’s spell had managed to do about the same to the Countess.

Ivy hurled another spell, giving it everything she had. “
REPEL!”

Vlad staggered backward, but remained on his feet.

“Why isn’t it working?” she asked Nick.
 

The Trekking tree shuffled another few feet and turned, tilting its branches downward. Branches beat at them, tossing them both from the tree.

“
Ow!”
Ivy exclaimed as she hit the ground. The Countess was on her, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her to her feet. Ivy felt her knees want to collapse. The Countess planned on killing her and bathing in her blood as she had Angela’s.

“Go on,” the Countess dared Nick who was taking aim at her. “Your spell will do little, and I’ll be forced to rip her hair out.”
 

Vlad grabbed a long spear from behind the fallen log and rammed it into the ground with very little effort. Then, Vlad eyed Nick with a cold and soulless stare.

Nick slammed another repelling spell into Vlad, the spell having even less effect this time.
 

“Why aren’t our spells working?” Ivy cried out to Nick.
 

“Your magic isn’t working because we’re growing stronger everyday. We’re black magic, my sweet. Conjured from the spells written by a highly practiced black magic sorceress.” The Countess put a finger to her cheek. “Although, I must admit, we did come across one wizard who tried to banish us. Very strong, very old magic from the sting of it. I must say, it was rather unpleasant.”

“Without
The Book of Lost Souls
he can’t send us back.” Vlad explained. “And when we find the book’s mate, we’re
never
going back. We’ll be able to do a little magic of our own.”

Another flock of crows scattered from a nearby tree, flapping their wings and sending out startled warnings. Both Vlad and the Countess turned to see a sable-colored wolf sail over the fallen log. The wolf landed within a few feet of them, snarling and yet careful to keep distance.

Shayde’s diversion was enough to make the Countess release her hold on Ivy.
 

Nick grabbed Ivy’s arm. “Run!”

They turned and fled the clearing, Shayde raced alongside them. They ran upstream, Vlad and the Countess right behind them.

“Faster,” Nick called to Ivy.

“It’s the curse,” Ivy huffed as she picked up the pace. “It’s like they’re super villains!”

Ivy didn’t dare look back again. Standing their ground wouldn’t work. Whatever spells Ivy and Nick had would do little to thwart their attackers, and other than a Repelling spell, she’d never learned much defensive magic. Living in a town like Northwick, there wasn’t a lot of use for it. She could use a spell from
The Rise of the Dark Curse
, but which one? Even so, she doubted she’d be quick enough.
 

The bridge Nick had mentioned was just ahead. If they could get to their cars, they could get away. She had to think of something to buy some time. Ivy took aim at a fallen branch. “
Propel!”

Without looking behind her, it was hard to tell if the branch had hit either Vlad or the Countess.
 

Rocks, some rather hefty, lifted from the riverbank and flew through the air toward Vlad and the Countess. Nick was good—she’d never seen him cast a spell or say a single word.

“Gah!” came the pained Countess’ cry. Vlad’s curses were enough to tell Ivy the rocks were working.
 

Shayde made it to the bridge first. Nick and Ivy made it right behind her and followed as fast as they could. Vlad and the Countess were still further back.
 

The planks ahead on the bridge shifted and began to buckle. Shayde ran faster, and was now nearly across the bridge. With each step Ivy and Nick took, the boards beneath them fell away to the rushing water below. They didn’t stop running full-tilt until they reached the other side and reunited with Shayde.

Only then did Ivy slow enough to see what had happened. Vlad and the Countess were clinging to the rails of the bridge and sounding none too happy about it.
 

Nick and Ivy followed Shayde through the woods at a jog, eager to make it back to the park before Vlad and the Countess could figure out a way to follow them. With any luck, they wouldn’t find the fallen log for a few hours.
 

When they reached their cars, Nick cast a spell that opened the doors to Ivy’s VW Bug.

“I’ll call you when I get home,” Nick said.
 

“You can’t mention I was out here,” Ivy said. “Even though Mr. Evans has
The Book of Lost Souls
, the Council can’t know I’ve got Skinner’s other book. Give me a chance to get rid of it first.”

“Waiting isn’t a good idea,” Nick said.

Ivy reached for his hand. “Please. Just a few hours. Besides, I don’t think Vlad and the Countess are exactly on good terms with Mr. Evans. They’re not likely to tell him we saw them.”

Nick squeezed her hand and sighed. “Why are you so stubborn?” He pulled away and chirped the alarm to his own car. “I’m going to regret this, but okay. I’ll call you. Now, go. I’m not leaving until you do.”

Shayde hopped into the passenger side and Nick closed the door behind her, then he ushered Ivy to the driver’s side.
 

“By the way,” Nick said. “I left you something. You’ll see. When you get home.”

Her heart fluttered, excited at the thought of a surprise.
 

“Now, go.” He closed her door and trotted over to the Mustang.

Ivy twirled a finger at her window and it slid down. She leaned her head out. “Hey, what you did back there with the rock throwing was quick thinking. The collapsing boards were a bit scary, though.”