Chapter 4

 

Leira sat quietly on the bathroom floor—it was the safest place for her to practice, given the abundance of water and the lack of flammable items. She’d moved the towels well away as an extra precaution. The tiles were cold under her butt. She’d been sitting here for half an hour with the unlit candle. She was running out of time if she wanted to get this done before she had to get to university. While she could light a candle safely, if she saw something that shocked her… Well, she didn’t want a repeat of the crisps incident.

Saba would’ve happily done a reading for her if she’d asked, but Leira wanted to do this herself, and she didn’t want anyone else to know. She didn’t want Saba to know if everything had gone wrong. And if it had, how was she going to fix it?

She didn’t know that either.

Which was why she hadn’t lit the candle yet.

Sitting here wasn’t going to change anything. Maybe nothing had changed and it would all be okay, but she didn’t believe that for a heartbeat. Last night every time she’d looked at him she could feel the tracks changing direction, derailing the future she’d been expecting.

She shook out her hands. Maybe she was being overly dramatic, after all, if it was one of those meant to be things, why hadn’t she felt more than a tingle? All she’d gotten—once she’d gotten over the shock—was the same tingle she got when seeing any hot guy.

A smile formed. Julian was hot, and not just because his magic was fire. And they had agreed to get together to talk magic. And he’d offered to let her read his dead mother’s diaries, which was probably a great way to kill any mood.

There’d been no mood in the car, but there had been an undercurrent of something. She didn’t know what it was or how to deal with it, or him. She’d expected fireworks and…and something more. She wasn’t sure he’d felt anything for her except pity, because she couldn’t control her magic, and then embarrassment because it was pretty damn clear that everyone in the room thought they needed smooshing together. Saba had promised not to interfere, but that had been before, when the vision was still true.

Now it wasn’t. They had met and she needed to find out what had changed.

She drew in a breath and then exhaled.

In her mind she saw a circle form around her, in her next breath it became real. She waited another couple of heartbeats before visualizing the flame. If she was lighting a candle for the oil burner, she didn’t bother with the ritual, but this was about her future. She could’ve used a match and not worried about the magic, but she refused to use matches and lighters. She had to be able to do this.

Leira pictured the flame in her mind, then pushed it out of her. The candle lit with a spark and a crackle. She leaned forward and rested her hands on her chin so she could stare into its blue center. As she did, the flame expanded. The blue becoming a ball three inches in diameter.

Her concentration remained steady. How many exercises had she done just on focusing without even using fire? She’d lost count. She could do this without burning off her eyebrows now.

The blue started swirling as though filled with currents.

Show me the path I am on.

She expected to see the train, Julian—he had a name now—and herself giving lectures. Her future still steady even if she didn’t know how to get there. She’d met him; all they had to do was fall in love. When she thought of him, that feeling was there even though when she was with him it wasn’t. Was she getting herself muddled by constantly checking and imagining? No, she knew the difference between the present and the future.

This time Julian didn’t appear in the flame. The currents grew darker as though made of thick oily smoke. No, it was smoke. And flames. Her future was nothing but smoke and flames.

No!

She gasped and dropped the circle, batting the ball of fire away. It bounced off the wall and into the two inches of water she’d put in the bath in case of emergency, where it then fizzled and went out.

Her heart beat fast. That didn’t make sense. Just because her initial meeting with Julian had gone wrong didn’t mean her whole life was going to go up in smoke.

Did it?

Fire was her element. What was she going to do, spontaneously combust?

A nervous laugh slipped past her lips.

She must have projected her own feelings about the situation. Saba was better at this than she was. Saba was better at everything, except school grades. That had been the one place she had bested Saba. Leira had worked hard to be good at something.

What if Saba saw exactly what she had seen? What did it mean?

It couldn’t be death. There were other paths. There were always other paths. She knew that. All that she had been shown was the path she was currently on.

Right. She could fix this. She calmed herself. She just had to find a new path.

The trouble was, how would she know if she was on the same path or changing direction? She couldn’t check every decision that she made and sometimes it was the smallest thing that could create the needed ripple.

Last night had been more than a ripple.

Her phone buzzed from the kitchen. Saba had already called her twice this morning, Leira had ignored both. She’d better respond to this one or her sister would send out a search party. Slowly she got up. She left the candle there for tonight, when she’d check again. It would be nice to be able to hold the fire in her hands and be able to scry at the same time instead of needing a candle to hold the flame for her.

The message wasn’t from Saba. It was from Julian. Her breath caught.

Hi, it’s Julian. Did you want to go to Leighton Beach on Sunday? Ten?

What was the right answer?

* * * *

Julian had kept his promise to Emily, even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. She’d downloaded a movie and was dimming the lights and trying to make this get-together more date-like.

He wasn’t in the mood. He was tired and he’d spent most of today thinking about the meeting last night and Leira. She had been shocked to see him, as though she’d known him, and yet they hadn’t met before last night—he didn’t count seeing her as a baby. He knew he’d seen her as a baby because there were pictures of the Ryder boys with the Venn girls. Leira must have been very young, only months old. The two families had been close until the previous tomb watcher had retired and Archie, Leira’s mum, had taken over. Archie had packed up her two little kids and human husband and taken off around the world. Julian knew about the tombs of the Keepers of the Law, ancient Albanex who had been buried millennia ago. They weren’t a myth, but he didn’t know where they were. He wasn’t sure his brother was up for the job of guarding them.

“Stop being so glum.” Emily put her hand on his leg. “Was catching up with your father that bad?”

“Just some family stuff.” He wasn’t going to say any more than that. Couldn’t.

“Like what? You hardly talk about your family.” She leaned in closer as if expecting to hear a secret.

She was always asking, digging for more than he wanted to share. “You don’t talk about yours either.”

“It’s just me and Mom. Nothing to say.”

He shrugged. “Same.”

“So…” She stared. “You have no plans to take me to a family dinner?”

Julian blinked and stared at her. “You’re on a travel visa. We’d agreed this was a short-term, good time.”

She looked away and crossed her arms. “Fine. I get it. I’m not good enough, Doctor Ryder.”

Julian drew in a breath, considered arguing, and then thought better of it. He really didn’t care. “Let’s just watch the movie, okay?”

Then in the two hours that took, maybe he’d come up with a way to end it. He should have ended it three weeks ago when she’d first started angling to meet his father and expecting more from him. He liked her and she was fun, but something had changed and he couldn’t put his finger on it.

He didn’t like that. What they had wasn’t fun anymore.

“Can you make popcorn and put the icing sugar on it?” She smiled, but there was still ice in her eyes.

He was comfy and he didn’t want to get up. He didn’t want to listen to her sigh and put on a pout either. “Sure.”

In the kitchen he put the bag of popcorn in the microwave, then grabbed a cider out of the fridge. He started drinking while he waited.

He didn’t need a reason to end it. He could just end it if it wasn’t working, and to be honest he wasn’t sure it had ever really worked outside of the bedroom. There was no point in hanging on to it when it was clearly not making either of them happy anymore. She could move on and find some other guy to date for her last couple of months in Australia.

She was pretty, with her short dark hair, but nothing like the Albah woman he’d end up settling for so he could do his bit for the gene pool.

Stud bull for the highest bidder.

Leira had understood that. She hadn’t even put a move on or made a suggestion the way he’d expected her to. That had only served to make him more curious. He smiled as he took a sip. He was looking forward to seeing her over the weekend to talk magic, assuming she replied and agreed, but he hoped she would. He hadn’t been able to talk magic with any girlfriend. The alcohol slid through him, warming him.

The popcorn started going off like gunfire. Another minute then it would be done. He could’ve gone back out there instead of waiting by the microwave and drinking alone. When he’d first met Emily, he’d have wasted the three minutes kissing her. He took another deep drink.

There was a part of him that wished he’d never left Sydney. He’d spend the last twelve years living there—in part to get away from his father. Six months ago the pull to come home had gotten stronger and he hadn’t been able to ignore it the way he had previously done. He should’ve tried harder.

The microwave beeped.

He put the half-empty cider down and tipped the hot popcorn into a bowl. He glanced at the pantry, then at the popcorn. It was butter flavored and he couldn’t be bothered getting out the icing sugar and sifting it for her. This would have to do. Cider in one hand and popcorn in the other, he went back to the lounge room.

Emily was holding his phone.

“What are you doing?”

She startled. “Your phone beeped. You got a message from a Leira?”

His eyes narrowed. She had never been interested in his messages before. But then he didn’t usually get messages from other women unless they were colleagues.

Julian put the popcorn down and reclaimed his phone. He glanced at the message and smiled and immediately felt brighter as if some problem had been solved. Then he put the phone in his pocket and looked at Emily.

Emily was watching him, her face pulled into a scowl as though she was jealous. “Who is she?”

His smile faded and the stress was back. “A family friend.”

“Oh, so she was there last night?”

He gave Emily a cool glance. “We’re going through some of my mother’s things if that’s okay? I wasn’t aware I needed your permission to get on with my life.”

Her mouth opened, but then she wisely chose to press play.

She didn’t mention the lack of icing sugar on the popcorn. There was no amount of sugar that could sweeten what had soured between them.

He made sure to keep his distance. If he had the talent of knowing like the women, he’d have read his own future to see what the hell was going on.

Maybe he didn’t need to. Relationships that started hot often burned out just as fast. He didn’t like to linger in the ashes. He nodded off, some sequel to a novel turned into a movie. He woke up just before the credits. When they started rolling, he went to hit pause and get this over with.

She put her hand over his. “Sometimes there’s a bonus scene.”

“No, Emily there isn’t. This is the end.”

* * * *

It was the call from her mother Emily had been dreading. Every week her mother would ring to ask how it was going. For the last couple of weeks, they’d been able to talk about the Albanex and the cult. This week there was nothing new in the papers about the vampire cult or its missing leader. Officially the police were still looking for him and the cult had been broken up.

Emily knew that the creature was either dust or underground waiting to rise again.

She answered and made sure she was smiling so her mother could hear it in her voice.

“Hi, Mom.” She poked around the freezer until she found what was left of the strawberry ice cream. It was that or frozen pizza for dinner and the ice cream had won.

“How’s it going, Emily? The Guardians are worried that it is taking you rather a long time to make this kill.”

Emily poured the chocolate topping directly into the tub. She wasn’t going to admit that her target, Julian Ryder, had dumped her. No warning and no reason. He’d ended it without even asking what she wanted. Leira probably had something to do with it. She doubted that Leira was his mother’s sister, or even old. She was probably a pretty blond Albah.

“They are shortsighted, Mom. Julian has a father and brother living here. We can take them all out.”

“You only need one kill, Em.”

She knew that. She tapped the spoon on the topping to see if it had set. It cracked. Excellent. “If I kill him, the others will vanish.” Like rats fleeing a sinking ship. “You always said target the men.”

“You have always been ambitious.”

Emily’s smile became natural instead of forced. Her mother had always pushed her to go that extra step. But her mother was right. This kill was taking too long. She could’ve killed him several times over by know and yet she hadn’t.

She’d gotten to know him and he wasn’t evil and undead, at least not yet. He was an asshole, though. But one couldn’t kill every ex-boyfriend no matter how tempting. Was he healing humans now to make up for the damage he’d do later when he became undead? Did monsters get guilty consciences?

“I put the tracking app on his phone tonight. That will speed things up.” She’d also seen that Leira and he were planning to get together on Sunday. He may not be a vampire yet, but he was still the dickhead who had dumped her and moved on when he’d had the next woman lined up. Hell, Leira probably wasn’t even Albah. She was probably a nurse from the hospital.

That certainly explained why he hadn’t been wanting to catch up with her much; he’d been busy sticking his tongue down someone else’s throat. She drove the spoon into the ice cream and bent the handle.

“Do not take on three without backup.”

“I won’t. I’m not stupid.” She’d learn where they lived and worked and then pick them off one by one. That would be fun. She’d make him wish that he’d been nicer to her.

“Why don’t I come over?”

“Mom, I got this.” She had to do this on her own. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t become a full Guardian of Adam and she’d be relegated to paperwork or sword sharpening or some other menial job. As her mother often reminded her, she came from a long line of Guardians of Adam. It was their job to protect the humans from the silver scourge that was the Albah.

However, when she’d once asked what the Albah were exactly, the only answer was that they were precursors to vampires. Humans couldn’t become undead. Only the Albah could. Must be a faulty gene or something because they all looked freakishly similar. Blond haired, blue eyed, with odd ears and toes. Those characteristics did make them easy to hunt.

Only once she was a full member would she get to learn the truth about the Albah and the Albanex.

“I worry.” This from the woman who had taught her how to throw knives. Her mother was only worried that someone would question her training methods. Just once it would be nice to be loved without having to earn it.

“How goes the U.S. branch?” She hadn’t been home in months. Ever since she’d been told she had to go to Australia to hunt down an Albah. No one got to make their first kill in their own backyard. Part of the test was getting away with it. A couple hundred years ago, claiming to have killed a witch had been enough of a defense. Now human laws protected the monsters too.

“There is another Albanex. They have broken the treaty,” her mother said.

“So the death doesn’t have to look accidental?”

Her mother made a small noise. “It is easier if it does look accidental as the cops ask less questions. We cannot have a war with the Albah when the humans don’t know what they are.”

When her mother spoke, it was as if she wasn’t human sometimes. “If we know, Mom, others can learn.”

Telling the world about the creatures might be a good thing. The humans would lift their pitchforks and wipe them out. One only had to look at the news to see that intolerance was at an all-time high. Hysteria had never been easier to create, thanks to social media.

“No, the Guardians have voted against using technology. We must stick to the old ways.”

Emily rolled her eyes and shoveled in a mouthful of ice cream. Chocolate and ice cream really did help to heal the wounds left after a breakup. Maybe the old ways were effective, but the tracking app on Julian’s phone was far more efficient than trying to follow him or staking out his flat.

“Well, let me knew what happens with your Albanex, and I’ll let you know when there is a funeral.” Why would the Albah start turning undead again? She had pieced together a little knowledge and she knew that there had been no Albanex in two hundred years.

It didn’t make sense, unless they had discovered the Guardians had never stopped hunting them, only that they had gotten better at covering it up. Perhaps they were creating an undead army to hunt the Guardians.

The idea was chilling.

The ice cream became a rock in her gut. She dumped the rest in the trash, her appetite gone. She wanted to get on a plane back home and get her trident tattoo filled in. Then her mother would have to be proud of her. And love her.

Julian might be helping people, but she would be saving lives by killing him.

And it wouldn’t be quick because he’d had the nerve to dump her first.