Blood of the Sorceress (21 page)

Ahh, there they were.

For the second day in a row he’d left the car parked out of sight, just around the bend from Havenwood’s long drive, where he could stand and watch through the trees to see if anyone was coming.

Now his patience had paid off. And none too soon, either. Lilia and her demon lover were on their way even now.

But his time was at hand. The man who was, as far as he could tell, the family guru was pushing a baby stroller along the driveway. He, too, wore robes, but not makeshift ones like Sindar’s own, pieced together from swatches of fabric, but real robes, white and red. Beneath them he was barefoot. He had dark skin, weathered but not lined, and hair the length of his torso, all twisted and matted in what the old priest’s brain told him were called dreadlocks.
Dread
was a good word for them. His beard was just as long and just as tangled. Dark brown, with white tufts here and there.

Sindar hoped the man wouldn’t turn the stroller around at the end of the drive and head back the way he had come.
Turn left at the end instead. Come toward me, just a little bit. Just until you’re out of sight of the house.

The guru stopped at the end of the drive, tipping his head as if he’d heard something. And then he turned in the direction of the man who’d just summoned him. He must be in tune with the more subtle forces, Sindar thought as he waved a hand in the air. The guru continued toward him, still pushing the stroller.

When they reached the car, Sindar smiled—beamed, really. “I’m sorry to disturb you on your stroll, friend, but I find I’m in need of assistance.”

“If the problem is a mechanical one, I’m afraid I’ll be of little help. But you’re not far from real aid. You can walk back with me if you like.”

“Oh, I think I can take the car that far. Can I give you two a lift?” He opened one of the rear doors as he spoke.

The guru frowned, glancing inside. “It’s not far,” he said. “I wouldn’t want to leave the stroller behind.”

“We can put it in the trunk. It folds up, doesn’t it?”

“You don’t have a car seat.”

Sindar could see the suspicion forming in the man’s eyes as he began to turn around.

“Wait!” Sindar smiled to ease the power of the command. “Wait. At least let me get a glimpse at the little angel, hmm?”

Sindar could see that the other man didn’t like it. He would have to be quick or risk losing them. As he leaned over, reaching as if to move the blanket aside, he grabbed the pink-clad infant. Startled, the baby began to wail, and the guru leapt to her defense.

“What do you think you’re—”

“Stay back.” Just that quickly, Sindar had a knife in his free hand, holding the screaming infant anchored to his chest with the other arm. “Stay back or she dies.”

The guru held up both hands, his dark brown eyes wide. “Don’t harm the child, I beg of you. Whatever you want, I’ll get for you. Anything, just don’t—”

“What I want is the witch’s child.” Still brandishing the knife, Sindar leaned toward the car and dropped the baby on the floor in the back, where she continued to bawl.

“No.” The guru’s eyes were on the infant. “No, please, not like that. It’s not safe.”

“I won’t harm her—providing she shuts up within a reasonable amount of time. She’s only the means to an end for me.” He slammed the door on the screaming baby and opened the driver’s door.

“Take me, as well, then!” the guru shouted. And he opened the rear door and dove into the car beside the child, quickly gathering her into his arms.

Miraculously, she quieted.

Sindar nodded as he slid behind the wheel. “All right, then. That seems like a very good idea, in fact.” He slammed his own door shut and started to drive.

* * *

Indy had just gotten off the phone with Lilia and had delivered the biggest part of her news to Lena, who was now staring at her as if she had lobsters crawling out of her ears.

“She’s bringing Demetrius here?” Magdalena stood in the middle of her living room, at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May fourth, staring at Indy as if she’d lost her mind. “What the hell do you mean, she’s bringing him here?”

“Easy, Lena,” Indy said, trying too soothe her sister by clasping her shoulders, but Lena had fire in her eyes that matched her hair.

“I’m not going to take anything easy,” she said, shaking Indira’s hands away.

“Fine, be difficult then.” Indy flung out a hand, knocking her sister onto her ass in the nearest chair without even touching her. “But you are going to listen.”

Lena surged to her feet, but Indy shoved her right back again, still hands-free. “Sometimes I hate your guts,” Lena muttered.

“You’re supposed to. I’m your sister.” Indy turned. “I’ll make some of Mom’s tea. Chamomile, I think. Maybe with some valerian mixed in.” She glanced back at her furious sister. “And maybe a Xanax,” she added. “It’ll just have time to kick in before they get here from the airport.”

Her sister scowled at her. Indy scowled back. “Where’s Ellie?” she asked.

“Bahru took her for a walk,” Magdalena said. “It’s such a nice day. And since I’m sending her and my husband away first thing tomorrow morning, thanks to that pain-in-the-ass Demetrius and his stupid Beltane deadline, Bahru wanted one last walk.”

Indy’s gaze shifted toward the window, but Bahru and the baby were not in sight. Selma was on a cruise with her witchy friends Betty and Jean. And Lena had convinced Ryan to take Ellie away, too. She’d found a father-daughter retreat designed to encourage a more powerful bond and had nudged her husband to attend, using the old “Mommy needs a break” excuse, which he’d bought, hook, line and sinker. The truth, of course, was that they were trying to get their families out of harm’s way before Beltane, as Lilia had warned them to do. Beltane was near. It was already Friday afternoon. Beltane would arrive on Saturday morning at 9:05 a.m.

Tomas had seen through Indy’s attempts to send him out of town and was refusing to go anywhere. And frankly, Indy was glad.

She pulled out her cell phone and tapped “Home” in the directory. Tomas answered on the first ring, and as always her heart turned into a pathetic puddle of pudding at the sound of his sexy voice. “Where are you guys?” she asked.

“Doing what you asked us to, of course. Erecting a Maypole in the clearing near the lake for Beltane. Even though Ryan’s spending most of his time complaining that he won’t be here to dance around it with his wife.”

Indy smiled. “Tell him he can dance with Lena when he gets back. Beltane celebrations can last for days. Did you remember the ribbons?”

“Alternating red and white. Got it. What’s up, hon?”

“Bahru and the baby went for a walk. I need you to go get them and bring them back here, okay?”

His tone grew worried. “Something’s wrong.”

“Maybe. Do it quick, all right? I’ll fill you in when you get here.”

“On the way, babe.” He was hollering for Ryan before the connection was broken.

Indy looked up and her eyes were immediately held hostage by her sister’s, but she broke the gaze when the teapot started to whistle. “I’ll get that.”

“Hang on, sis. Tell me what’s going on. Tell me
now,
” Lena said. “We haven’t heard from Lilia for a couple of days, and now she not only called, she’s on her way here. Something happened, didn’t it?”

Indy nodded, cleared her throat. “Lilia and Demetrius found Father Dom. Apparently he tracked Demetrius down at his playboy pad in Sedona and convinced him to let him hide out in the attic. He’s been playing the priestly confessor and trying to undermine Lil’s mission this whole time.” She walked into the kitchen as she spoke, made their tea and added cream and sugar to her own cup.

“And Demetrius didn’t know who he was?”

Indy shook her head. “When Dom realized he was going to fail, he burned the place down with them in it—but they’re both fine.” She added that last bit fast, before Lena could panic.

“Why would he do that?” Lena asked. “Unless he doesn’t realize they’re immortal.”

“Temporarily immortal,” Indy said, carrying her teacup to the front door and opening it. “It’s a nice day. Let’s sit on the porch for a while.”

Lena followed her outside. “If Demetrius doesn’t accept the rest of his soul by Beltane, they both die,” she said, as if trying to work through the whole thing out loud. “So I guess Father Dom knows that somehow? And that’s why he wants to convince Demetrius not to take it back.” She held her cup in her hands, blowing on the surface to cool it off.

“It wasn’t Father Dom,” Indy said.

Lena frowned, lifting her gaze. “But you just said—”

“Lilia saw him running from the mansion after he’d torched it. Got a good look, she said. And she has no doubt. The person occupying Father Dom’s formerly comatose bod is Sindar.”

Lena dropped her teacup. It hit the floor at her feet and shattered. She didn’t even jump when the hot liquid spattered her legs. “How?” she whispered.

It was at that moment that Ryan’s big black pickup truck skidded to a stop in the driveway, sending up a dust cloud. Lena noticed the baby’s stroller in the back as Tomas and Ryan dove out of the front. She shot to her feet, sensing disaster. Both sisters raced off the front porch, Lena going straight to Ryan, clasping the front of his shirt and searching his face.

“Where’s Ellie? Ryan, where’s the baby?”

His stricken expression said it all, but his words, hoarse and choked, confirmed it. “I don’t know, honey. We found the stroller on the side of the road. Bahru and Ellie were nowhere in sight.”

12

“O
h, no,” Lilia whispered as Demetrius pulled the rented Jeep Wrangler to a stop. The century-old farmhouse where Lena and Ryan lived had been freshly painted, and the vineyards around it were in the process of being newly planted. A state police car and a sheriff’s SUV sat in the driveway, lights flashing, doors standing open.

It was an hour before sunset, and the temperatures there were far different from an early May evening in Arizona. It was cool. Almost cold. The air was damp on her skin as she got out of the car, sensing all sorts of discord in the air and hurrying up the front steps, her heart in her throat.

She walked in without knocking, leaving the door wide open behind her, and was dumbstruck by the tableau before her. Her sister Magdalena was sobbing and barely able to stand upright as Ryan held her, his face pale, his eyes devastated. Indy was pacing like a caged tiger, while Tomas stood listening intently to one of the cops, a man far too young, Lilia thought, for the sheriff’s badge pinned to his shirt.

“What’s going on?”

Lena looked up at her, her eyes so puffy and red she seemed to have aged ten years overnight. “He took her. He took Ellie!”

The room seemed to waver in and out of focus. Lilia didn’t have to ask who. But it didn’t make sense. Little Ellie? “But...but...”

Demetrius laid a strong hand on her shoulder, but only for a moment, because Magdalena tore free of her husband’s gentle embrace and flew at him, hitting him like a battering ram, driving him right back out the door onto the front porch and shrieking like a banshee the entire time. “This is your fault, you bastard! I’ll kill you for this. I’ll kill you!”

“Lena!”

Demetrius sent Lilia a quelling look that seemed to say
Let her be,
as Magdalena pummeled his chest, driving him backward across the porch. He let her keep hitting him until she’d spent herself, and then he put his hands on her shoulders and held her gently. Lilia saw his lips moving, knew he was whispering something, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Then Ryan was there, pulling Lena gently away. Before she let him take her back inside she lifted her head, looked Demetrius in the eyes. “It’s you he wants,” she whispered.

“I know,” he said.

The young sheriff and the state police officer were looking at them oddly. “Bad blood between those two,” Tomas said. “It’s a family thing, you know how it is. It goes back a ways. A long ways.”

The sheriff, whose name badge said “William Tucker,” shrugged and looked down at his notepad. “So you say you’re sure this Father Dominick is the one who snatched the baby?”

“We’re sure,” Ryan said. “He’s the only one who would have reason.”

“That reason being...?”

Ryan looked blankly to Tomas for help, and Tomas took the hint. “I was once a priest. His protégé,” he said, not bothering with the details. They didn’t matter anyway. “He blames my wife for luring me away from the church, and he’s trying to hurt her by taking the baby he knows she loves more than life from the woman he knows she loves like a sister.”

“That’s a bit of a leap, don’t you think?” asked the state trooper.

“He’s sick,” Tomas went on. “Just awakened from a six-month coma, checked himself out of the hospital—”

Stepping back into the house now that Lena had given up trying to kill him with her bare hands, Demetrius picked up from there. “Then tracked their other...friend—” he nodded toward Lilia “—to my home in Arizona and burned it to the ground with us inside,” he said. “We saw him running away from the scene. There’s no question.”

“Good God, and you say this guy’s a feeble old man? And a priest, for God’s sake?” Sheriff Tucker asked.

“Maybe he’s on something,” suggested the trooper. “Meth. PCP. Maybe bath salts.” The sheriff nodded his agreement with the theory, and the trooper went on. “Was anyone hurt in the fire?” he asked.

Demetrius nodded. “A friend and employee was killed, a kid still in his twenties. And my best friend in the world remains in serious condition. You can verify all of this with the Sedona Police Department, or just call Ned Nelson. I have his private number.”

“
The
Ned Nelson?” asked the trooper.

Demetrius nodded, and the cops looked impressed.

Lena turned her face into Ryan’s shirt and muttered, “Make them leave now. We have to go after Ellie.”

He nodded, cradling her head. “I’d feel better if you were out looking for our daughter,” he told the police. “We’ve been over everything twice.”

“We’ve got every resource already on it, sir,” said the trooper. “The New York State Troopers, the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Department, along with the sheriff’s departments from every nearby county, Cayuga, Cortland, Tioga, Chemung, Schuyler and Seneca. And we alerted the Ithaca PD first thing, in case he heads that way. An Amber Alert has gone out, as well.”

“In fact,” Sheriff Tucker put in, “we’re about the only two cops not out looking for her. And we’re headed that way next. We’ll find your baby, folks. This guy’s crazy, yes, but at least he’s not a pedophile.”

Lena released a horrified gasp, and the trooper elbowed the young sheriff, then tried to say something helpful. “Your friend, this—” he consulted his notepad “—Bay-roo—”

“Bahru,” Indy corrected.

“You say you believe he’s with the baby?”

Ryan nodded firmly. “He never would have let anyone take Ellie, except over his dead body. And since we didn’t find that, I’m convinced he’s with her. Wherever she is.” His voice broke at the end.

“That should give you comfort,” Sheriff Tucker said. “At least she’s with someone familiar.”

“Yes, and from your description, he’s going to be easy to spot. The guy stands out, you know?” The trooper flipped his notebook shut. “You’ll want to call the press, get them to let you make an on-air appeal. Start recruiting locals to help in the search.”

“Right,” said the sheriff. “My department will start organizing that at first light, downtown at the Milbury Town Hall.”

“Call everyone you know, and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well.” The trooper handed Lena a card he’d fished from his wallet while speaking. “They can be a huge help at a time like this.”

“We’re very sorry for your trouble, folks,” Sheriff Tucker said. “I promise you, we are going to do everything in our power to bring your baby home safe.”

“And we’ll do everything in ours,” Indy said softly. And there was blood in her eyes.

As soon as the door closed on the cops, Lilia yanked her pendulum from around her neck and raced for the kitchen table. “Map!” she said, snapping her fingers repeatedly.

“Right here.” Indira snatched a street atlas from a shelf and opened it to the page that included Havenwood, then slapped it onto the table. Magdalena leaned closer as Lilia held up the pendulum. It was hard for her to keep it still, because her hands were shaking.

“I’m the one with the supercharged scrying skills, sister. Let me.” Magdalena held out her hand.

“I figured you’d be too distracted.” But Lilia handed her the pendulum.

“What the hell does Sindar want with my baby?” Lena whispered, dangling the stone over the map with surprising stillness.

“I don’t know,” Lilia said. She tried to quell the horror of knowing that the man who had had the three of them brutally murdered now had his filthy, bloodstained hands on Eleanora. She could only imagine how much worse the knowledge felt to Magdalena. They had to get the baby back—and soon.

“I think we need a bigger map,” Indira said with a nod at the pendulum, which wasn’t even wiggling.

“Sweet Mother, how far can he have gone?” Lena asked. “It’s only been...” She looked at the clock. “Over an hour. It’s been over an hour.” The pendulum fell from her hand, and she sank toward the floor. Lilia scrambled to grab her, but Ryan beat her to it.

“I’m calling Doc. She needs something,” Indira said.

“I won’t take it. I want to be awake and alert enough to kill that bastard when we find him.”

Demetrius met Lilia’s eyes, and she knew he was recalling their recent conversation in which he’d said that he wanted to kill Sindar for murdering Sid and nearly killing Gus. She’d talked him down. Explained that death wasn’t really a punishment. But she wasn’t even trying now. Not this time. Death could be paradise with whipped cream on top for all she cared. If she got the chance to kill Sindar, she was damn well going to send him there.

* * *

Demetrius observed the pain in the eyes of the three women, especially the mother of the missing child, with a mixture of wonder, fear and something that felt like sympathy. The idea that he could ever find himself willing to ask for the ability to feel that much pain was almost unimaginable to him. The thought of never being able to feel it, however, was just as unimaginable. And the guilt...God, the guilt over the soulless monster he had been, a being intent on taking this very same infant from its mother, thinking to somehow expel it from its body and take that body over as his own...how could he? How could he ever have been that vile creature?

Seeing the women hurting hurt
him.
And he was afraid of that, because it might mean the missing part of his soul was starting to seep back into him a little bit at a time. He didn’t recall feeling this sort of empathy for anyone before, hurting because they hurt. Not in this lifetime, at least. So that must be the explanation. He was changing, the remainder of his soul finding its way back to him, even though he hadn’t asked, as Lilia said he must. If that happened, there would be no going back. No more powers.

Hell, he needed his powers now more than ever. He needed them to help get the child away from Sindar, back into the loving arms of her parents, where she belonged.

He needed his powers to put a smile back on the face of his beautiful Lilia.

And he needed them, too, to rid the world of Sindar and his evil, once and for all.

* * *

Bahru held Ellie close to him, walking along in front of the man he knew was not Father Dom but someone—no, some
thing
—else, something evil, wearing the old priest’s former body and stretching it out of proportion. Bahru had never met the old priest, Tomas’s former mentor, but he’d seen photographs, and had heard Tomas and Indira tell stories of the good priest gone bad. Those stories had troubled him greatly, because he knew the true power of the forces working against them. He knew, because he, too, considered himself a holy man. And he, too, had fallen prey to the spell of darkness.

It was Ryan, who’d never liked or trusted him, who’d saved him. Saved them all. And Bahru would spend the rest of his life trying to make up for his own role in the near disaster.

Besides, little Ellie had won his heart. She was special. She was his life’s calling. He’d known that the first time he’d looked into her newborn eyes.

“It’ll be all right, little one,” he whispered, holding her close, letting her tug his beard as much as she liked. Not even three months old yet. And already a beauty, with bright knowing eyes of chocolate-bar brown. She smiled and burbled at the sound of his voice. The man behind them gave him a shove to get him moving faster, and Bahru picked up the pace. So far he’d offered nothing but compliance. He didn’t want to give the lunatic reason to send him away—or kill him—leaving Ellie all alone.

They’d exited the car and entered what had at first appeared to be a cave in the side of a mountain. He’d quickly realized that it was man-made, perfectly arched overhead, lined in brick. The railroad track that remained in places showed him what it was. A tunnel through the mountain, long since abandoned and left to fall into disrepair. It didn’t feel safe, and it was damp, dripping. Their footsteps echoed in the emptiness.

“Stop,” said the priest.

Bahru watched the man move past him and over to one side of the tunnel, where a metal door was built into the brick. He opened it and beckoned Bahru closer. “This way. Hurry.” He flicked a switch, and lights came on beyond the door.

Nodding, Bahru obeyed, and he was soon carrying the baby down a flight of steel stairs that creaked and groaned and rattled under his feet. Their green paint had mostly flecked off, and rust was feeding on them. They shuddered with every step, and he clung to the baby with one arm, gripping the rail with his free hand and praying the stairway would hold out.

“It’s fine. They won’t give way. Go down.”

“Yes, sir. I’m going.” He tried to hurry enough to please his captor while moving slowly enough to keep the baby safe, and blessedly soon they were at the bottom, standing in a huge concrete room. There were twin pillars every twenty feet or so, with arched concrete supports on top, holding up the mountain above. There were swirls in the footers, grooves in the pillars. They’d been made in an era long past, when things were built to be beautiful as well as functional.

“What is this place?” Bahru asked.

“It’s where I’m going to keep you and, soon, the witch until I can end all this, once and for all, at the moment of Beltane.” The man nodded at a deep niche in one wall. “That’s where you’re to stay. There are shelves, with some blankets stacked up on them. Keep the child quiet, or you will have outlived your usefulness to me, Bahru.”

“Babies cry from time to time. It’s their nature. But I’ll do the best I can.” Bahru moved quickly to the “room” and found the shelves lined with canned food, and plastic bags of salt and sugar that looked to belong to an era long gone by.

The place must have been some sort of bomb shelter, forgotten and abandoned to time, he realized. He located the blankets, also plastic-wrapped and therefore clean, or so he hoped. Then, even better, he noticed a cot, folded in half and standing against the back wall. The mattress was ancient, but there was nothing nesting in it that he could see. Anchoring the baby on one hip, he managed to unfold the thing and spread several blankets on top. He laid Ellie down on the mattress and sat on the floor close beside her.

Something metallic scraped loudly behind him, and he turned to see a barred door sliding closed. It hit with a bang that startled the infant. She went stiff and wide-eyed, then began to wail.