Chapter Twenty-two
Katrielle sat down slowly in the single chair at the round table. The large room was otherwise devoid of furniture, but far from devoid of people. “I mean no offense to you when I say this,” she told the room’s inhabitants. “But William Solan is stronger than any of you. He’s stronger than all of you. If he doesn’t want to be found, I may not be able to find him. And if I do, I might not be able to for long.”
She placed her hands on the completely empty and blank table top and looked up. “This is the most difficult spell I have ever cast.” She glanced from one to the next, meeting each and every pair of eyes. Power stared back at her, power that was ready to be tapped and used. She had a lot of help, and she was going to need it.
They surrounded the table, twelve of the Thirteen Kings, a few very powerful high witches and warlocks, and some of the more frightening members of the fae court, both Seelie and Unseelie. Around the table, they spread in rings of coven heralds, high witches, seers, warlocks, vampires and dragons. Even Bones, the enigmatic “butler” was there. Lord Malek of the Malek Taal among the Unseelie fae was there. Druids, elementals, demons, Akyri, healers, and seers. Every power, both dark and otherwise, had been called upon to assist, and most had answered. The room was teeming with magic vessels at least forty deep.
“Join hands.”
They grasped each other’s hands, none of them hesitating, none of them falling prey to judgment or racism or bigotry. This was too important. The queens of their realms were gone. This was the only way to get them back.
Without being told, they collectively closed their eyes, and Katrielle the ancient Nomad did the same. “Deus noctorum Cronos eternum,” she whispered softly, just under her breath. It wasn’t necessary to shout at Time. Somewhere out there, or possibly somewhere deep inside, there was a way into another word. One of many, many worlds, all pressed up against one another in the cellular fabric that made up the quilt of the multiverse. She had to find the right world amongst those many. And then she had to find a way in. How?
You could not fool Time. There was no trickery. There was no easy way around. There was only one way with Time. So Katrielle planned to do the only thing she could. Assuming she could find it in the first place, she was going to walk right up and knock on the door.
*****
Will looked at Liam, and Liam looked right back. Neither of them wanted to say the First Vampire’s name, and Liam was probably still reeling over the fact that Destiny was a fae. Will for his part didn’t want to give the vampire in his head the pleasure of even mentioning him to Helena in passing. But the girl deserved to know.
“Cain,” the cousins replied as one.
Helena glanced from one of them to the other. Then she looked down at the table top, rested her arms on it, and laced her fingers together. She chewed on her bottom lip for a second, her white teeth teasing it dangerously so that the cousins shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Liam shot Will a quick look and cleared his throat.
She knows how to use those pearly whites, doesn’t she? Cain made a sound of pure longing in Will’s head, and Will’s fist clenched where he hid it in his jacket pocket.
He touched his temple with his other hand and closed his eyes a second. “Helena,” he said, not only to get her attention again but because he loved the way her name sounded on his tongue. It focused him. “We can protect you from him.”
“From Cain,” she said, “as in the First Vampire.”
Damn, my name sounds good coming from that mouth, said Cain.
But Will was struck by the second half of what Helena said, not the first. The First Vampire. He’d said it so many times, heard so many stories, but right now, it sounded like something else to him. It sounded like… the Firstborn.
“The very same,” said Darryl as he approached the table and stood at its end.
Will shook himself out of it and looked up at the warlock, who smiled at him and gestured to the space next to him on the booth bench. “May I?”
Will tried not to roll his eyes. He scooted over, allowing himself to be caged in as Darryl slid in beside him.
“And why the hell would Cain be after me?” Helena asked, hands splayed helplessly. “Same reason as everyone else? He thinks I’m a threat because of my power and wants me dead?”
Every man in the booth straightened and looked at one another. After their exchanged glances, Will cleared his throat. “Not everyone wants you dead, Helena.”
“Yes, some want you very much alive,” added Darryl.
“Why?” she asked pointedly.
Darryl continued, “Well, you see that’s an interesting story – ”
“Darryl,” interrupted Will with a hard look. He could tell Darryl was about to fill her in on the entire shebang, and he wasn’t sure this was the time or place to tell her that she’d been made as nothing more than an objectified gift for the bastard vampire who’d murdered his brother. He wasn’t sure any time or place was right for that.
But Helena wasn’t stupid. What she was was stubborn. “I deserve to know.”
“Of course you do,” said Darryl with a placating smile. “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted….” He leaned forward, lacing his fingers on the table just as Helena had. “You are in fact not who or even what you believe yourself to be, Helena Dawn. What you are is a prophesied creation with magical powers to spare, otherwise known as the Promised One. And you were specially designed as a gift for Cain, the First Vampire.”
The Firstborn.
Silence fell over the booth. In fact, silence seemed to permeate much of Lucky’s bar just then, and Will glanced up to find a few of the fae employees glancing their way. Lucky himself didn’t look happy. He looked worried. The air in the room was changing.
Charging up.
Helena, on the other hand, simply looked confused and disbelieving. “Say what, now?”
Laughter in Will’s head. She’ll never believe you, Will. Why don’t we just go ahead and show her? Let me talk to her and I’ll prove every word.
Never, Will informed him shortly. He would have thought Cain had learned as much the last time he’d tried. You may as well get the fuck out of my head and brain-jack someone else.
“I realize it’s a lot to take in,” Will said out loud, pointedly ignoring Cain’s mounting anger.
“But it’s the truth,” finished Liam. “You can’t even die. Tall, dead and douchebag here has killed you thirteen times, and you just keep coming right back, appearing as you are now.”
Helena looked at Darryl and her eyes widened. “My God. You really do have an agenda.”
Darryl beamed. “Agenda, yes. God, no… unless you would like me to be yours.” He leaned forward and his voice lowered intimately. “I promise to do a lot better job than the current almighties.”
Helena narrowed her gaze. She almost smiled – almost. “Uh-huh,” she said, nodding the way a teacher would when she knows a student is telling her a story.
“What reason would we have for lying to you?” asked Will.
“Oh, I can think of a few,” she said easily. “For instance, it’s a hell of a lot easier to steal someone’s powers when they trust everything you do to them.” Now she looked at Will pointedly. “Such as drink the beer you’ve put some kind of potion into.”
Will went completely still.
Oh, snap! said Cain.
Liam swore softly under his breath.
“You… noticed that,” said Will.
Helena gave him a fallen expression. “Will, I’m a warden. Of course I noticed it.” Then she paused and added, “Frankly, I’m surprised neither of you boys noticed the iron powder and colloidal silver and gold in your beers.”
Liam’s brows hit his hairline, and Darryl outright laughed. Will was momentarily stunned. And then he was just plain impressed. “Colloidal silver and gold,” he said aloud with a shake of his head. He and his cousin had been using iron powder for a while to flesh out fae when they felt they needed to, but neither of them had thought of gold and silver for other paranormal creatures. “Why didn’t we ever think of that?” he asked his cousin.
“Because we’re not the badasses we thought we were.”
“Maybe not,” said Helena. “But if I’m being completely honest with myself, I have to admit that if you’d wanted to do away with my powers, or with me in general, you’d have done so sooner. Like when you were in my car. Invisible.”
She said it in such a way that made Will feel even lower about himself. Liam did too, obviously, because he squirmed some more and looked around a lot.
“How long were you watching me?” she asked. “Were you in my garage too?”
Neither Liam nor Darryl seemed to want to answer that, so Will finally bit the bullet. “Yes.”
“I see.” She leaned back in the booth and sighed. “Well you could have ended me there too. Or siphoned off my powers while I was using them. Or something.” She shook her head as a sign that she really had no idea, then stared at the table top. “Am I really… just a present for an evil vampire?”
Not just any evil vampire, baby girl, interjected Cain.
Will straightened a little in his booth seat and pinned her with a hard look. “First off, the words evil and vampire are not necessarily mutually exclusive.” Because of Cain, vampires had been behaving badly for millennia. “And secondly, you’re not just anything, Helena. And you know it. Cain is after you, yes. And yes, it’s because he thinks you belong to him. But that’s a tiny piece of what you are, and I’m not going to let it happen.” He glanced over at Liam, and Liam gave him a single nod. “We’re not going to let it happen.”
Helena eyed him for a long, distinctly uncomfortable time. He grew very warm under that searching gaze.
“And how exactly do you plan to stop him?”
“That potion you noticed?” said Darryl, “that was part of it.”
Will asked, “You didn’t actually drink any of it, did you?”
She shook her head.
“Then it’s a bloody good job I made more than one,” said Darryl.
Absolutely none of them were surprised by that.
“What’s in it?” she asked.
Will and Liam exchanged glances. “We don’t know,” said Will. It was partly true. He only knew it had werewolf spit in it.
“Ask rigor mortis over here,” said Liam.
Darryl gave Liam a withering look and sighed. “Honestly sweetheart, you don’t want to know. The usual unpleasant things that go into a potion. But don’t worry. I made it tasteless.”
Tasteless is one way to describe it, said Cain.
Will’s fist clenched tighter. He was really getting tired of sharing his brain cells with the son of a bitch. No offense to the Storyteller.
“Helena, you need to trust us. Will you drink the potion?” Liam asked.
Will’s gut clenched. He wasn’t so sure he wanted her to drink it. He wasn’t so sure he wanted to continue with any more of the spell at all – well, except for the kiss, that was.
Helena licked her full, flushed lips. Cain made his lecherous presence known again.
“If I drink the potion, it will protect me from Cain?”
The table went quiet – and once more, the room seemed to follow suit, hushing just enough to be noticeable. Will decided not to look up. He didn’t think he could handle Lucky’s accusing glare just then.
“Sort of,” said Liam.
“And no,” added Darryl. “It’s only part two of a four-part spell.”
Helena’s lips parted. Her brow furrowed, and she sat up straighter. “Part two. You mean you’ve already cast part one on me?”
Will cleared his throat and looked at the table top. It had suddenly become very interesting. No one said anything. Helena made a slightly bewildered sound, and Cain gave a reprimanding tsk-tsk in Will’s head. She’ll never trust you now, Slate.
“Well what the hell are part three and four?” she demanded, her voice a little louder now. She was edging closer to a loss of patience. Will was impressed she hadn’t lost it sooner.
Not that anyone was going to divulge the answer to this last question anyway, but they were saved from having to when a loud knock came at the door to Lucky’s bar.
It was strange – someone knocking on a bar door. And it wasn’t a normal knock, either. It was loud. Like the gavel of a dark robed judge in a hollowed-out courtroom. Three hard raps echoed throughout the space, and every patron in the joint went quiet.
Will’s hand went for the gun at his back. “Darryl, let me out,” he whispered, his eyes zeroing in on the door. Something bad was on the other side of that barrier. Darryl must have agreed because he stood, allowing Will to slide out of the booth and get to his feet. Liam rose at the same time, and Will noticed he too had pulled his weapon.
“What the hell is that?” Liam asked.
“It’s trouble,” said Lucky, who had somehow appeared beside them. Will looked down at the small man, then back up at the door, then around at the other bar inhabitants. He was beginning to realize most of the people in the bar were not patrons, but fae who worked with Lucky – the vast majority of them were scooting toward the back door, or pulling weapons from hidden places in their clothing.
He recognized a few of the weapons, such as a Scottish dirk, a crossbow. No doubt all of the weapons were be-spelled with some kind of magic.
“Yae need tae leave, and leave now, Helena,” said Lucky. He turned and nodded at Helena, who had also exited the booth and drawn her gun, this time the .357 that Liam had taken from the box in her car. She held it down, but ready, in a strong and sure grip.
Helena met the leprechaun’s gaze and must have understood his meaning, because she nodded. “Guys,” she said, looking up at them, “we have to teleport out of here.” Her teeth were clenched in utter frustration and more than an ounce of anger. “Without Angel.”
Clearly she didn’t want to leave her newly refurbished car behind.
Liam took a step back and turned to face her fully. “You serious? Whatever’s out there is that bad?”
“Unfortunately,” said Lucky.
As if to emphasize the mood inside, the ominous knock came again, reverberating through the bar with terrible foreboding. This time, the walls shook with the sound, and the gold horseshoe above the door dropped heavily to the floor, putting a dent in the hardwood.
“Okay that’s it. No more time to lose.” Helena turned to face the others. “It’ll be easier the closer we are. I… haven’t transported a loose group of people before. I usually do an object with everything inside. So… I don’t know. Hold hands or something.”
Will and Liam looked at each other uncomfortably. Then Liam rolled his eyes and grabbed Will’s hand. They were less willing to hold Darryl’s but Darryl smiled and took Helena’s hand, and Will found himself reaching out and taking Darryl’s upper arm. In a tight grip.
His look when he met Darryl’s gaze was one of warning.
And then Helena was casting her spell.