8 Gone is the Witch (4 page)

I remembered looking through the glass there one cold night in March after Travis Webber died. The Stalker took him first, slicing his body open on the steps of the research center
to harvest his liver. We watched the tragic event unfold in a thought-form manifestation so real it made grown men cry.

“Hey, look at this.”

Carlos directed our attention to a full-length mirror he found mounted behind the door.

“I don’t remember that,”
said Tony. “Was that always there?”

“
Don’t know,” I said. “I don’t remember it, either.”

Dominic pointed to my EMF meter. “
Geez, look at that thing. It’s reading off the charts.”

I held the meter higher.
“This is a hot spot. I’ve never seen vector readings so strong before.”

Tony
asked, “So, what do we do now?”

“We shut the portal down,” Dominic replied. “That’s what we do.”

“No. We can’t. Leona will never find her way back if we do that.”

“Leona’s
never going to find her way back here.”

“
We can’t just leave her.”

“
Well, we can’t very well go in and get her, now can we?”

Tony wasn’t buying
it. “We have to do something. Lilith, what do you think? Is there any way that I can go through the portal to get Leona myself?”

I shook my
head doubtfully. “I don’t know.”

“
Doctor Lowell went in and came back out, so why can’t I?”

Dominic
grabbed his arm. “Tony, you can’t. You don’t know what’s on the other side.”

“
I have to try. We’re talking about Leona. She’s completely helpless out there.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Carlos.

Dominic’s
grip loosened. Tony smiled at Carlos. “Thank you, Carlos.”

“
If you go, I go,” I said.

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“No
. You’re not going.”

“Am too.”

Tony really tried to put his foot down on that one, but he never had a chance. “If I say you’re not going, then you’re––”

“
Going. It’s final.”

“
It’s not final.”

“
It’s not your call. If I don’t go, you don’t go.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I won’t tell you how to do it.”

“Lilith
––”

“Tony, it’s decided.”

“I shall go as well,” Ursula said.

“You will not
,” Dominic insisted. “I forbid you.”

Ursula’s eyes f
ound mine. A year ago, before she and Dominic married, I would have stepped in and fought Ursula’s battles. Now I felt it was time she stood up for herself. I turned my eyes down and away, breaking a connection I thought would cripple her resolve.

It didn’t
. Turns out, the girl has spunk. I can’t say if it was because or in spite of my neutrality that she responded as she did, but I couldn’t have been more proud. She turned to Dominic, who visually shrank from her advance, and when she opened her mouth to speak, I felt as if she had finally come of age.

“Thou art my husband
, aye,” she said to Dominic, “but not my keeper.” She pointed a stiff finger as if scolding him. “True, my love for thee doth rule what breath I take, what thought I hold when none but thee art with me and when not. What voice I have I shall not squander, lest I forsake my rights what till now hath deemed equal in thine eyes and mine.”

“But Ursula, I think––”

“Nay, methinks not. Thou hath decided for me without consent my future for last and nevermore. Be it so true my love for you, I shan’t deny, but for trust, thou wilt spare me and see what will of mine doth give me strength.”

Tony, Carlos
, and I stood speechless. Dominic shut up, too, especially when after finishing, Ursula reeled back, folded her arms at her breasts, pitched her weight onto one hip, tossed her hair off her shoulder with a sassy flip and said, “Capisch?”

I thought
I would die laughing, and might have if only Dominic hadn’t gotten all teary-eyed and sappy on us. It was still funny as hell, but I do have some restraint.

H
e appeared touched and visibly shaken. Perhaps the thought of Ursula finding her own voice and standing up to his authority made him realize that she could do as she wished, come and go as she pleased. No longer slaved to the seventeenth century, shackled to the whims of a male dominated world, Ursula had proclaimed her emancipation.

Still, as proud as that made me, I
felt I couldn’t allow her to embark on such a dangerous endeavor. I went to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “You can’t go, hon.”

“See!” said Dominic. “Listen to her.”

“Shut up,” I said, pointing at him. “This isn’t about you.” I nudged Ursula away from the group, back to one of the windows overlooking the parking lot.

“Ursula.” I
hushed my voice so that the others couldn’t hear. “You know how long I’ve been waiting for this moment, to see you come of age? I mean, I’ve known you since you were just a box of bones. Look at you now.” I splayed my hands in a sweeping gesture. “You’re gorgeous, smart and sexy. You have your entire life ahead of you. Me?” I pressed my hand to my chest. “Well, I’m gorgeous smart and sexy, too, but I’m old. I’ve done the rite of passage thing I don’t know how many times. I probably won’t get to do it again. If I go and never come back, then that’s all right. I’ve made my mark.”

“But––”

“But nothing, you have so much life ahead of you: your life with Dominic.” I rubbed her belly lightly. “Life with a house full of beautiful children that I know you will have someday. You can’t risk throwing all that away. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”

She
looked at me and smiled. “Aye, thou art saying ye hath never taken chances when young and in first prime.”

“Well, no
. I wouldn’t say that, exactly. I mean when I was young….” I scoffed at the stream of memories that raced through my mind, memories of foolish things I did in much younger days when caution was something one threw to the wind.

“Ursula, I’m not saying I didn’t take chances when I was younger. I did. I took a lot of really stupid chances and––”

“And did that not help shape the woman thou art today?”

“Of course
, it did but––”

“
But thou hath regrets?”

“No. I have
no regrets. I mean, I might have done some things differently had I known then what I know now, but I have no regrets about doing them.”

“I see, yet thou doth preach
to me, do as I say not as I do.”

“I’m not preaching. I’m simply offering advice borne of
experiences a hundred and seventy-five years in the making.”

“And what of thee,
sister? Would thou hath listened to the voice of experience all of seventy-five and one hundred years ago?”

“Me?” I laughed openly at that. Tony and the boys turned to look at us. Only then did I realize that the
y were in their own little huddle. Probably Tony and Carlos were coaching Dominic on how to put his foot down in handling Ursula.

“No,
” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t suppose I would have listened to anyone then, no more so than I would listen to anyone now.”

“Especially Master Tony.”

“Yes, especially Tony. I think I’d go to the Eighth Sphere even if I didn’t want to go if he told me I couldn’t.”

“
`Tis my point is all.”

“A
h, yes, point taken then. My, but you are your maker’s twin, aren’t you?”

“Thou should know.”

“Hmm…You sure you want to do this? It could get mighty ugly.”

She raised her chin, exposing
scars from the rope that encircled her neck so many years ago. “Aye, methinks I know ugly.”

I suddenly felt very humbled in her presence
, forgetting the ugliness she had experienced firsthand, and yet she barely speaks of it. I draped my arm around her shoulder and started her back across the room. “Yes,” I said to her, my voice thinned to a whisper. “I guess you do.”

The boys saw us coming and broke up their huddle. I could tell from their barreled chests and stiff lips that they were going to tell us a thing or two
about obedience. I shut them down with a snap.

“Save it. It’s done.”

“Oh? Well, good,” said Tony, and the relief on his face told me how poorly he knew me after all our years together. “I’m glad we were able to square that away without arguing over it.”

“Me, too
. Ursula’s going.”

“What?”

“Tony!” Dominic pushed Carlos aside and pulled Tony back by the shirtsleeve. “You told me not to worry. You said you’d charm her.”

“You what?” I said.

“Lilith.” Tony shrugged off Dominic’s grip. “I didn’t say that, exactly. What I said was––”

“He said he’d charm you.” Dominic wasn’t giving up. “He said to leave it to him and he’d get you to convince Ursula to change her mind.”

“You said that, Tony?”

“He’s taking it out of context. I
told him––”

“
Doesn’t matter. Listen, we’re running out of time. We don’t know how long the vector points will stay aligned. We need to come up with a plan, now.”

“No,” said
Dominic. “I’m not letting Ursula––”

“It is done!” Ursula shouted.

Until then, I had never heard her vocalize anything so loudly. We all turned to her; our mouths gaped in collective gasps.

“What did you say?” Dominic asked, as
if needing to make sure he heard Ursula say it and not me.

“It is done
,” she repeated. “I shall go to the Eighth Sphere. I have decided. Thou may protest, as is thy right. Ye may pinch a finch and––”

“
Pitch a fit,” I corrected.

She looked at me queerly, her brows crowded in contemplation until the light bulb went on in her head. “
Aye.” She smiled and nodded. “Pitch a fit. It makes sense now.” She returned to Dominic. “Ye may pitch a fit and stomp thy feet, but beware and be light afoot lest thou doth tread where thou wish not to go.”

Dominic took Ursula’s hand. “I don’t mean to tell you what to do. I’m simply trying to protect you. I’m afraid if I let you go, I’ll lose you
. I’ll never see you again, and I can’t bear that thought.”

“`Tis a quandary then, is it not?”

“How do you mean?”

“
`Tis better yes, to let me go and keep my heart, than keep me here and lose it?”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“You can’t,” said Tony.

“What do you mean, I can’t?”

“We need someone to stay here to keep tabs on the situation.”

“Keep tabs? What’s there to tab? This is a deserted old building slated for demolition.”

“Tony’s right,” I said. “We need you here to monitor the conversion zone. To facilitate a trans-dimensional passage, I’m going to have to set up a portal departure point. That will help hold the zone steady, but it won’t necessarily keep it from moving. If that happens, you’ll have to reset the anchor points and reestablish the portal or we’ll never get back.”

Tony added, “It’s a big job, Dominic. I wouldn’t trust it to anyone else but you.”

“You mean it?” He seemed totally taken in by Tony’s bullshit.

“Of course
, I mean it.” Man, he almost had me believing it, too. “You know how to read the EMF meter. You understood everything Lilith explained. Yours is the most important job of all.”

“It is?”

“Sure. You don’t think Carlos could do it, do you?”

Carlos shook his head. “Seriously, it’s all Greek to me
, bro. Ringlets, matrix? Sounds like something you find at the bottom of a cereal box.”

Dominic’s
little pigeon chest swelled with pride. “All right then. I’ll do it.”

“
Great,” I said. “Now then, we’re going to need some dynamite.”

“What!” The exclamation came from all three
of the boys. It’s curious to note, however, that whereas Tony and Carlos seemed surprised by my statement, Dominic appeared excited.

“I can get some dynamite,” he said.

“You can?”

“
Sure. I told you that a buddy of mine works for Williams and Sons, the company contracted to raze this building. He can get me some. He owes me a big favor. How much do you need?”

“A lot
.”

“Lilith.” Tony gave me one of his looks. “What do we need dynamite for?”