half-lich 02 - void weaver (14 page)

“You can’t make me do this.”

“If you don’t do this we both die, and God only knows how many others will too. We have a responsibility, Isaac—to our House, and to the world.”

Isaac’s doubts laced their boots and grabbed their guns, ready to war with his conviction, but he stood upright and Jim stood with him.

“Do it,” Jim said, “Don’t fear the Void. Tame it. Master it. And then you come back and you kill Nyx before she gets what she wants—whatever that is.”

Isaac nodded. “I will see you again,” he said.

“I know, but it won’t be in this world and that’s okay. I’ve done what I was meant to do. I’ll contain the explosion as much as I can.”

“Jim…”

“Don’t worry about me, Isaac. Mercury will come down to take me to see Vicky soon.”

Isaac clenched his jaw tightly and turned to face the portal. He was shaking, still, and he could feel his heart pumping in his neck, but there was nothing left to do now. He had opened a door to the Void, and the door demanded its travelers.

The Good Doctor glided into line beside Isaac, and together they walked toward the yawning, crackling portal. Once they were through and into the dark beyond, Isaac turned around in time to see Jim looking in from the still open portal. Jim raised a hand and smiled, but then the earth rumbled, and the world began to fall around him.

CHAPTER 13

Sanctuary

The spotted leopard was sucking Cameron’s hand—not just licking it, but literally suckling it. Alice considered herself a cat person now, just as she had her entire life. She had rescued Elvira from the cat shelter. That this timed nicely with her breakup with Isaac was neither here nor there. The point was, she wanted the company of a cat so much she made a conscious effort to go out and adopt one.

But
this
? This was a whole lot of ‘cat’.

She had never seen a leopard up close, nor had she ever been in the presence of a fully grown adult Bengal tiger or a jet-black panther. At least, not without the comfort of a TV screen between herself and the animal. She didn’t believe in zoos and, as such, had never been to the one next to the abandoned fairground in Harrison Park. Yet here she was, sitting on a stone block surrounded by big, dangerous looking cats with nothing to keep them from coming up to her and biting her face.

Nothing except Cameron.

The first thing he had done after stepping through the chain-link fence was grab Alice by the shoulders and stare into her eyes.

“What are you doing?” she had asked, but he hadn’t replied. Instead the amulet sitting beneath his shirt had flashed bright gold for an instant.

“Making sure the cats don’t kill you,” he had said, and then he settled down on the grass and let the cats come to him. He knew them by name. The tiger’s name was Nuala, the leopard—who he told her was still a cub, despite its size—was called Kirk, and the panther, a female, was Selene, named after—

“The moon goddess, I know,” Alice said from a distance.

“That’s right,” Cameron said. “There are more of them, but I guess they’re asleep.”

“More cats? How many do you have?”

“Fifty-seven, and that’s not counting the domestics. We get loads of strays around here—ouch, careful now.”

“Maybe you should take your hand out of its mouth.”

“I know what I’m doing. He’s just
teething and his teeth are just extra sharp right now.”

Nuala seemed happy to strut around, brushing her hindquarters against the back of Cameron’s head from time to time, occasionally wandering close enough to Alice to get a whiff of her before retreating to a relatively safe distance. As if she was the one worried about being safe. The panther, however, didn’t move from its perch on a low hanging branch. Her tail swished gently from side to side, almost lazily, and with her head rested on her paws she watched… almost intelligently.

“So, are you their keeper or something?” Alice asked.

“I’m an animal behavior psychologist.”

“Get out.”

“No, I’m serious. I’m also a qualified veterinarian. Wouldn’t think so with this goofy face of mine, huh?”

“I learned a long time ago never to judge anything or anyone at face value; you never know what’s underneath. It is pretty surprising, though. Of all the things I thought I would be doing tonight, hanging out at a big cat sanctuary wasn’t one of them.”

Cameron removed his hand from Kirk’s mouth and it came away soppy and wet, but when he pulled himself to his feet he seemed to be able to do it without wincing or groaning. He stretched, scratched the back of Kirk’s head, and came over to where Alice was sitting. The tiger and the leopard followed, and Alice felt her hackles rise.

“Relax, they like you,” he said.

“You say that confidently,” Alice said.

“That’s because I am confident. If they didn’t like you, you would know. Stretch out your hand.”

Alice looked at Cameron and then looked at the steadily advancing tiger with its golden eyes, its big pink nose, and its powerful muscles. A long tongue slipped out of its mouth and it licked its own lips. She could almost hear it thinking
dinner time
, but she sucked it up and extended her hand. Nuala approached, sniffed the hand, and then nuzzled it with her cheek. Alice felt each and every last bristle and whisker as the tiger gave her hand a gesture of peace and welcome, and Alice relaxed. Kirk arrived soon after and started to lick her fingers.

“See?” Cameron said.

“They’re beautiful, really,” she said, “Once you get past how damn big they are. You get to do this every day?”

“I do.”

“It couldn’t have been something you decided you wanted to do as a kid, right?”

“It’s more complicated than that. A lot of these animals have gone through some kind of trauma. Some of them needed rehabilitation.”

“Oh shit…”

“We have another couple of vets on staff, and a team of cleaners and groomers and other professionals.”

“What do you do when they’re all better? Where do they go?”

“All of these animals were born in captivity. They don’t know what it’s like in the wild, so we can’t send them anywhere.”

“So you keep them here?”

“That’s the idea. They get to live out their lives somewhere comfortable, free from poachers and people who want to stuff them in zoos. Some of them will go on to have cubs, and if they do then we’ll raise them too. We own a whole lot of land out here; all we’re waiting on are more funds so that we can build a bigger natural reserve and let them roam more freely.”

Kirk bit Alice’s finger and she winced, but the pain was gone almost instantly.

“I have to ask,” Alice said, “Do the cats have magical powers? Are they the ones that healed you?”

“My magic is what healed me. It’s just easy to use here—the sanctuary is like a conductor for it. The magic runs everywhere, freely.”

“Like the cats.”

Cameron knelt and rubbed Nuala’s cheeks, then patted her on the neck. “Now that we’re here,” he said, “We should probably talk about what’s happened tonight.”

Alice nodded. “It would be stupid not to, right?”

“What happened to those people, exactly?”

“Nyx happened. She took their souls and made the world forget they ever existed.”

“How is she even able to do that? That’s insanely powerful magic.”

“We aren’t dealing with a mage, or a human, or some other run-of-the-mill supernatural. Nyx is a thing in a league of her own. In the stories, she’s the god of night: wife of Erebus, the god of darkness, and daughter of Chaos—the creator of everything.”

“The Greek gods?”

“Maybe we aren’t dealing with the literal Greek gods—most likely it’s just a creature that identifies with this particular part of human mythology. But her power is godlike, make no mistake. I’ve witnessed it first-hand. I know what it’s like to be on both spectrums of the soul-stealing thing.”

“Both spectrums?” Cameron asked, an eyebrow cocked.

Shit
, she thought, realizing she hadn’t told him much—or
anything
—about her own powers yet. “Forget I said anything. Let’s just focus on Nyx.”

The look in Cameron’s gray eyes suggested he wasn’t going to leave this alone, but he dropped it for now. “I can see why the magistrate is keeping Isaac close,” Cameron said.

“What do you mean?”

“Hasn’t Isaac ever told you? The first magistrate that ever took form happened in the cradle of civilization—in ancient Rome. Everything they believe, the work they do, the gods they worship, it’s all Roman. Jupiter, Mars, Pluto; they each have a great House named after them, and even though mages of each House do magic in different ways, they all agree on the same thing—the Romans and their gods are the mothers and fathers of modern magic.”

“So if Isaac goes before them talking about Nyx…”

“They’re gonna wave him off at best because they don’t want to have their beliefs challenged. Nyx was a construct of the Greeks, not the Romans, and Isaac made it look like he had dealt with the real deal.”

“I can’t believe that,” Alice said, and she noticed her hands were starting to shake. “How could a so-called enlightened society dismiss someone’s claim because they used a name that didn’t fit with their idea of mythology?”

“I don’t know if that’s the only reason, but I’m almost sure it plays a part.”

There was a lull in the conversation. In it, Alice heard the steady hiss of the wind between tree leaves and the chirp of crickets. High above, the sky was starting to darken further, growing thick with dark clouds.

“What do you think has happened to Isaac?” she finally asked.

“I don’t know. He will have gone to trial and they would have made a verdict to accept his side of the story and help, or…”

“Or what?”

“At best they strip him of his titles. At worst, exile.”

“Exile? That’s insane. How can they possibly enforce that? They can’t just override human law.”

“They can, and they will. But I don’t think it’s come to that. Isaac is a clever guy. He wouldn’t let them just walk all over him. Plus, he has friends.”

“I have to help him…”

“I can’t let that happen,” he said, his voice a firm slap to the face. “Isaac made me promise to keep you away from other mages, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“I can’t sit here doing nothing.”

“You can, and you will. Besides, we have other things to worry about; like the trap we were lured into.”

Alice didn’t want to think about that now. She wanted to think about Isaac, wanted to help him, and had begun to fantasize about breaking into whatever jail cell they were keeping him in and busting him out. Alice didn’t need powers; all she needed was a good plan. The common denominator which seemed to follow every magic ward she had ever heard of was that they only affected mages.

She wasn’t a mage—she was Half-Lich, and that had to count for something.

“Alice,” Cameron said, snapping her train of thought off like a brittle twig. “Think,” he said, “There was something the man at the diner said.”

“You mean Doug?”

“Right. He was the one who told us Raegan lived with her mother.”

“Did he? He might have.”

“But, after what you’ve told me, how would he know she lived with her mother—”

“—if Nyx had already stolen her mother’s soul…”

Alice stood bolt upright and her back stiffened.
Girl lives with her mom
, that’s what Doug had said back at the diner when he handed them the address.
Girl lives with her mom.
Cameron was right. There was no way he could have known that unless Raegan’s mom was still alive during their conversation, and judging by the way they had found the house, that was basically impossible.

“Son of a bitch,” Alice said, “It was him. We were going to go there anyway, but he made it easy for us to find it because he wanted us to go there.”

“You don’t think he… was Nyx… do you?”

“No. Even with my powers as muted as they are, I think I would have sensed her presence.”

“So, who do you think he is?”

“I don’t know. He’s working with her, though, so we must assume there are more like him; more people working for her.”

More people who have joined her forces
, Alice thought.

Cameron nodded and looked around. “We can stay here for now,” he said, “This place is safe. Maybe in the morning we’ll hear something about Isaac, one way or the other.”

“Morning?” Alice asked, “We’re staying until morning?”

“Unless you have a better idea—one that doesn’t involve us shooting out of this sanctuary on my bike and racing into the unknown. We need a plan. We need to regroup. We also need some rest. This is the best place to do all those things.”

Alice sighed, accepting defeat. “Alright,” she said, “We’ll do it your way.”

“C’mon this way,” he said, “I’ll show you where I sleep when I stay here—and then you can tell me more about these powers you don’t have. You said something earlier that piqued my interest, and if you’re going to sleep under my roof, I expect to be paid.”

“What happened to the good old days when a girl could wiggle out of a bind by tricking a man into thinking he had a shot at sleeping with her?”

“We grew up.”

“I guess it had to happen
sometime
.”

Cameron opened the door to a small building off to the side of the main enclosure—though still within view of the Harley and the main gate—and Alice stepped inside with a smirk on her face. It was barely more than a studio apartment, but it had a bathroom, a bed, and a comfortable looking sofa as well as a small kitchenette.

Sleep came easily after a while, despite Alice having no idea where Isaac was or how he was doing. She hoped he was safe, wherever he was, and hated that she couldn’t help him. More than once this feeling of powerlessness had threatened to move her to tears, but she had fought them back. Tears wouldn’t help anyone.