Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (28 page)

Desmond laughed, delighted at my reaction. He even managed to not crash the vehicle.

“Just because your reactions are faster than a human’s doesn’t mean a car is meant to be driven like this,” I snapped.

“The GL550 is a high-performance luxury SUV,” Desmond responded, still chuckling.

“Sure, like an army tank. It’s not a sports car.”

Desmond looked affronted. Then he grinned and stepped on the gas as if to prove his point. Shapeshifter games. Why did I keep stumbling into them … and why wasn’t I traveling with the witches? Oh, right — because they asked too many questions, thinking I was one of their own so interrogating me wasn’t a breach of etiquette. The shapeshifters weren’t a wordy bunch.

“Shouldn’t your beta be riding in a separate car? You know, in case you kill us all with your insane driving?”

Desmond glanced up at Audrey in the rearview mirror. “Beta-elect,” he said, as if that should answer my question.

The road went down to a single lane and the cliff on the right hand side of the SUV dropped off into inky darkness. Desmond finally slowed, though he still sped on the straightaways or passing lanes. I guessed he’d proven his point and thankfully didn’t actually want to drive us off a cliff.

“So tell me,” Desmond said quietly in the dark between us. “Tell me what you haven’t told the others.”

My stomach bottomed out. I hadn’t been deliberately lying to anyone, but the fact that I was an alchemist was still closely guarded, need-to-know info. Only a handful of people knew … if I didn’t count the dragons.

“I made something,” I said.

“In London?”

“Yes. With the knife that Sienna used to kill Jeremy.”

Desmond twisted his hands, but then deliberately released them when the steering wheel groaned in protest.

“The sorcerers were dying,” I continued, pushing past the fear of telling him, the fear of them all hating me before the night was over. “I might have been able to get Mory free with my knife, but …”

“It would have taken too long,” Kandy said — blunt but kind — from the back seat.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “I took what magic Sienna hadn’t drained from the sorcerer Sayers, combined it with the knife, the residual ritual magic, and mortared it with my own magic … and, honestly, my desperation.”

“Blood magic,” Desmond murmured.

“Undeniably,” I said.

“Feeling at all psychopathic now?” Desmond’s smile was a flash of white teeth in the dark of the car interior.

“Not in general,” I answered, but I couldn’t bring myself to be light about it. “You have to understand, I’m not actually sure what I made. Except it cut through the sorcerer’s magic like butter … and … and …”

“Jade thinks she killed Kett with it,” Kandy said.

“The life debt bond,” Desmond said. “Did the vampire actually step between you and a killing blow?”

“The magic thinks he did,” I whispered. Then I turned to stare out at the dark view and blink my tears away. Silence fell as we all thought about the ramifications of such a knife in Sienna’s hands. Audrey was the only one of the four of us who hadn’t seen my sister in action yet.

“A blood magic-sharpened sacrificial knife,” Desmond said. He glanced up in his rearview mirror. “We’ll just have to take it away from the black witch.”

“Consider it done,” Audrey said, a wolf growl edging her declaration. For someone so put together and prissy, she was also rather toothy. I wouldn’t want to get between her and anything she truly wanted. Hell, I wouldn’t want to be in a room alone with her … she really didn’t like me. Or, rather, she really didn’t like the idea of me with Desmond.

Which brought up a complex problem that I had no brainpower to think over at the moment — namely, that Desmond was alpha of a pack, and therefore no relationship with him would ever go anywhere. I wasn’t pack. I wasn’t a shapeshifter.

“It won’t be easy to get near the black witch,” Kandy said, bringing my thoughts back on point. “Even Jade had a difficult time in London, and you know magic doesn’t effect the alchemist the same way it does the rest of us.”

“Jade was rescuing the fledgling necromancer and defending her fallen companions,” Desmond said evenly. Kandy had been one of those fallen. “Here, she’ll have us all around her, the witches at our backs, and the necromancers to hopefully counter the summoning magic.”

Yeah, all I had to do was get through a horde of demons, overcome Sienna’s defenses, and kill my sister.

Easy as freaking pie.

And I’d always made terrible pie. I brushed off my inadequacy by claiming that there just wasn’t enough chocolate in pie to hold my attention. But I was way beyond denial and disclaimers now.
 

∞

We’d caught the seven o’clock ferry, which docked at 8:45 p.m. in Nanaimo, from which it was a three-hour drive to Tofino. The dashboard clock was glowing 11:07 p.m. when we hit the junction of Highway 4 and had to either turn north or south. Ucluelet was eight kilometers to the south and Tofino was thirty-three kilometers to the north. Yeah, I was good at reading big green highway signs, even when they were only illuminated by headlights. The concern was we didn’t know exactly where the demon rising had taken place in 1778. So even if Sienna had a couple of days lead time on us, I hoped she’d gotten hung up on this point too.

Desmond pulled over when we reached the junction. As we waited for everyone else to catch up, I climbed out of the SUV and took a few steps away to see if I could sense any of Sienna’s magic ahead of us. Any glimmer to let me know which way we should turn.

I clutched my sheathed katana in my left hand, not bothering to strap it in place across my back, but ready to draw. I was careful to not step out of the wide beam of the SUV’s headlights. Knowing me, I’d slip on the road base at the edge of the highway, twist my ankle, and tumble into the dark woods that spread out on either side of us.

Desmond stayed in the SUV. His stern face was frequently lit up as text messages came in on his phone. Audrey and Kandy slipped off into the forest in opposite directions. Twisted ankles weren’t high on their list of concerns. I guessed they were scouting, but — by the taste of their magic — they didn’t go far.

The first two vehicles to join us were the remainder of the shapeshifters. Other than Lara, I didn’t recognize a single other person among them and they didn’t approach me for introductions.

The witches, necromancers, and skinwalkers arrived in tandem.

Car doors slammed and gravel crunched, but no voices cut through the darkness. My mother crossed out of the night, passing Desmond’s SUV to join me in the wide beams of the headlights. By this light, her hair was a fiery red rather than its usual strawberry blond.

“Anything, my Jade?” she asked.

I shook my head. She nodded, her arms crossed against a chill I didn’t feel, and turned to climb into the passenger seat of Desmond’s SUV.

Danica appeared and offered me a sad smile as she climbed into the seat behind Scarlett. Then Rebecca, moving silently along the paved road, climbed in behind Desmond after the necromancer.

I inhaled and willed the peaceful evening to settle around me, just for a moment more.

Scarlett, clearly lit by the interior cab light, looked up at me expectantly. The blue of her witch magic rimmed her eyes. Desmond followed her gaze. None of the four Adept in the SUV spoke to each other. They were waiting on me.
 

My mother had convened a war council on the side of a highway in the deep of the night — and I somehow, someway was their key weapon.

I sighed. Then returned to the SUV.

“First, the witches will join Olive at her home in Ucluelet,” Scarlett said as I crammed myself in the back seat behind her, forcing Danica to scoot to the middle. “We will cast a seek spell for Sienna with the hairbrush Jade retrieved.”

I’d successfully used the residual magic in the hair from this brush to find Sienna over six months ago in Vancouver. She’d been in a protection circle next to Rusty’s half-eaten body.

“Her magic is radically different now,” I said. A seek spell, even one powered by seven witches, was 90 percent guaranteed to fail.

Scarlett nodded and then continued, “Rebecca will continue through to Tofino and approach the elder of the local band to see if he or the other elders might know of the location of the demon rising in 1778.”

“The government and the residential schools erased much of our history when they tried to destroy the First Nations way of life,” Rebecca said. “I don’t know how much the Tla-o-qui-aht have retained of their history or their connection to the earth, but I will ask.”

Yeah, no one in the SUV was going to bitch about the band’s ability or inability to help us. Whether or not they could help didn’t rank very high against the list of atrocities committed in the name of reformation, education, and religion — also know as a greedy-ass land grab by an invading force.

“The necromancers will try to determine if there is any unusual spectral activity in the area,” Danica said. “Once we have a better understanding of the situation, we will be able to formulate a response.” She didn’t elaborate further and that was fine by me. I didn’t know what was involved in necromancy, but I was satisfied with that blank spot in my education.

“Jade?” Scarlett prompted. I guess it was my time to share.

“I’ll dowse,” I answered. “For Sienna and Blackwell’s book.” And the sacrificial knife, I didn’t add. The SUV was getting stuffy with magic and my head was already aching.

“The shapeshifters will back the alchemist,” Desmond declared.

“I can’t accurately dowse when surrounded by too many Adept.”

“We will determine the space you need and move forward from there,” Desmond said. I wasn’t entirely sure we were talking about dowsing any more. “We will continue to keep in contact by text message.”

“When magic starts being thrown around in large enough quantities the cell phones won’t be reliable,” I said.

“By then we will be making a stand together, my Jade,” Scarlett said. “Because none of us will attempt to confront Sienna alone.”

My mother twisted around in her seat and held my gaze until I nodded my agreement. Then she exited the vehicle, quickly followed by Danica and Rebecca. None of us, it seemed, were comfortable in each other’s company for very long.

Desmond turned around to stare at me.

“What?” I snapped.

“You will not attempt to go off alone, dowser.”

“I already agreed.”

“Did you?” he drawled. “Or did you just lie to your mother?” He tilted his head as if scenting the air, as if he’d smelled me lying. Freaking shapeshifters.

I glared at him.

He grinned back. It wasn’t a nice smile.

I looked away. “Fine. Kandy can come with me. I know her magic well-enough.”

He snorted with satisfaction. Then he said, “As well as you know mine?”

And, we were back to flirting … hell, maybe the dominance games were all part of the mating dance for him as well.

“Well, I haven’t licked the inside of her mouth, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Desmond chuckled. The doors opened and the SUV shifted as Audrey climbed in the front passenger seat and Kandy climbed in beside me.

“What’s up?” Kandy asked.

“Desmond’s getting off on the idea of you and me in bed together,” I answered. My voice dripped with as much derision as I could muster.

“Who wouldn’t?” Kandy said.

“What?” Audrey screeched.

Desmond laughed louder at that and Kandy joined him. Audrey glared at me in the rearview mirror. The green of her werewolf magic ghosted over her eyes.

Still laughing, Desmond put the SUV in gear, pulled onto the highway, and turned toward Tofino.

I wanted to laugh too, but I couldn’t find the capacity to do so.

∞

I was numb — though maybe ‘mentally drained’ was a more accurate description — as I stepped out of the SUV in the first parking lot we came to off the main road. Highway 4 cut through Pacific Rim National Park on the way to the town of Tofino.

This time, I slung the katana across my back and cinched it too tightly in place. At least this pinch of pain registered, if only fleetingly.

The park was a well-maintained collection of beaches and hiking trails and lookout points. Long Beach was the most likely location for a demon summoning, just due to its size. At least, I hoped we’d started looking in the right place, because farther north along the beach the homes and hotels started right at the edge of the park and extended all the way into Tofino. Even in November, Tofino was a popular tourist destination — a world-class beach resort. And, being a Remembrance Day long weekend, I imagined the hotels and B&Bs were very full.
 

The Wickaninnish Inn was one of those hotels, and one of my fav places to stay when I could afford it. They had these thick white cotton sheets, heated bathroom floors, and tubs overlooking the crashing surf. And the food was great. They even made the strawberry jam they served in the morning with their fresh croissants.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of those trips.

As planned, the skinwalkers left us when we pulled into the parking lot, heading farther into Tofino to the native reservation. The witches had turned into Ucluelet at the junction to meet at the home of a witch by the name of Olive. That way, they’d have an established witches’ circle with which to cast the seek spell. They would be at half-coven strength tonight, and that was a lot of firepower for a simple spell. They’d know right away if it worked or not.

The necromancers had followed us into the parking lot, and began setting up some sort of spell of their own to communicate with any of the local ghosts who might be interested in chatting. Yeah, creepy, but it was a fantastic idea.
 

I was just fine with walking away from all that, heading through the woods and onto the gray sand beach.

Desmond and the other thirteen shapeshifters intended to follow Kandy and me by scent, staying back far enough to not overwhelm my dowser senses. Half of them were stripping out of their clothing as I was heading through the trees. Actually, I tripped over a log looking back to see if I could catch a glimpse of Desmond’s ass. Unfortunately, he seemed to be keeping his clothes on.