Shifty Magic (25 page)

"He won't save her," the entity said,
partially closing his eyes and pulling in a full, euphoric breath
as if savoring the scent of freshly baked bread. "I feel the power
of my children's blood running through her. I can feel her dying.
Exquisite." He breathed again and his smile deepened.

His pleasure chilled me to my soul. I pulled
myself back from despair and made myself think about why I'd been
able to go through the barrier coming from the other side. What had
made the difference? Was there something special about the
ridiculous robe Marla had put on me?

"Why are you doing this?" I asked, my mind
frantically churning over every detail and sensation when she'd
thrown me back into the circle. "What do you want?"

Aedodra cocked his head,
his large, non-human eyes studying me. "To win. I warned my brother
that he would not keep me away. He has enjoyed free rein in this
realm long enough." His black eyes bore into mine. "And he will not
have
you
."

Surprise distracted me for a moment. "Why
would he want me? I'm not special. There are billions of us."

"Billions of you? Do you not know what you
are, my sweet niece?"

My head jerked back as if he'd slapped me,
and my stomach knotted with outrage from his strange words. "Don't
call me that," I ground out. "You have no right."

"Your parents didn't tell you?"

A flood of childhood memories soaked with
isolation and lonely despair clattered to be heard. I clenched my
teeth. "There was nothing to tell."

He glided a step closer, his painfully
beautiful face wreathed with sympathy. "Why would they keep your
glorious history from you? You should have been treasured.
Nurtured. Embraced as the wonder that you are."

The little girl deep inside me who had never
understood why her parents had abandoned her cringed with pain.
"Shut up."

He shook his head. "How this world fears the
unknown. It saddens me that my brother has allowed such a
tragedy."

"I said shut up!" I lashed out at him
instinctively, shoving my hands toward him as my hurt turned to
rage and consumed my self-control. The need to hurt him poured
through me and my hands started glowing. Searing white energy
flared around them, spinning and churning like an angry whirlpool.
I stared in shock as my fingers turned opaque.

"Wonderful," Aedodra said, his black eyes
shining with pleasure.

His approval cut through the storm of my
emotions like a knife and a spark of clarity flared in my mind. I
remembered what Marla had said about those who'd died—how they'd
done it themselves, that her guardian had seen to it.

This supposed god was a master at
manipulating people. I shouldn't have let myself forget that.
Clenching my fists, I wrestled down my fury, ashamed that I'd
fallen into his trap so easily. The buzz of power faded, and then
trickled away leaving me light-headed.

"So afraid of what you are," he said. "Pity.
This world has forgotten its truth, and you have forgotten with
it."

"I can't stop it, Addie. She's dying,"
Cooper called behind me, his voice desperate. "In another ten
minutes, it'll be too late."

Aedodra stretched out his hands toward me in
a languid parody of what I had just done. "The final sacrifice," he
said with satisfaction. "Greed, lust, revenge...so delicious."

"I feel none of those things for you," I
spat out.

He laughed, a rich sound that tumbled out of
him and warmed me like hot chocolate on a cold night. For a moment
I thought I loved him. The shock of that lie brought me back to
myself, and I braced my heart against the seduction of his laugh.
There was only one man I thought I could love, and it was not this
creature. And if we were going to get out of this alive, I had to
focus on escape before I became another sacrificial statistic.

Vamp, practitioner, Were and now human. With
my death, the pattern would be complete. Only Aedodra claimed I
wasn't human. It was probably only a trick except...understanding
suddenly washed over me. The final sacrifice wasn't me. It had
never been me. I wasn't anything more than some kind of pseudo-god
snack break. He'd meant to kill Marla all along.

Marla had strong and violent feelings where
betrayal was concerned. I might finally have found the leverage I
needed.

"Everything that matters comes in threes,"
Aedodra mused, his tone thoughtful.

I slid along the edge of the barrier until I
could see Cooper and Marla. She lay on the floor, pale and shaking,
her dress soaked with sweat. Cooper crouched over her, blood
streaming down his face from a cut at his temple. He looked up at
me and I saw the desperation in his eyes.

"He played you, Marla!" I shouted to her.
"He never meant to give you power, not permanently. You're the last
sacrifice. The final key to getting what he wants."

"My brother and sister have waited a long
time for a creation such as you." Aedodra gazed at me, a cruel
smile on his lips. "Which is why I will particularly enjoy
consuming you."

Marla's back bowed as another wave of pain
hit her. Moaning, she turned her head and looked at me. The terror
on her face made me almost feel sorry for her.

"Do you hear him?" I called to her. "He
doesn't value you. He never did. He wants me. You're nothing to
him. He's only using you." I held her gaze and knew she didn't
believe me. Her adoration of him had overtaken her too completely.
I had to get past that, show her that I understood what it meant to
be betrayed. I needed her to know that I was telling the truth.

I struggled to loosen my grip on my own
fears—the certain knowledge that we wouldn't be able to stop this
ancient god from destroying us, the deep emptiness I carried in my
heart because I'd never know who I was or where I came from, even
my terror over my feelings for Cooper rushed up, choking me as they
revealed themselves to Marla. "Help me get free. Tell me how to
drop the enclosure spell."

"...No," she croaked.

I should have realized that nobler
sentiments wouldn't appeal to her. I had to speak to her in a way
she'd understand. "Give me a chance to avenge you," I said.

She closed her eyes and shook her head.

Aedodra's laugh rang out again. "Misplaced
devotion is the sweetest nectar of all." His laugh died away and he
narrowed his dark eyes at me. "Enough games."

Leaning toward me, his face hardened with
concentration. I felt a tug inside of my chest as if he'd grabbed
hold of something deeper than even my physical heart; something
beyond flesh and blood. He pulled again. I gasped and dropped to my
knees.

A sphere of pure, white light bulged from
the center of my chest. I stared at it in horror as Cooper shouted
my name, panic in his voice.

There was no physical pain, yet I fell
forward, catching myself on my hands, my breath coming in gasps as
the beat of my heart stuttered. A sensation worse than physical
pain pressed down on me.

Aches and pains I was used to, and I'd
learned to deal with them. But not this. Not the grief, despair and
disappointment of a thousand lifetimes. The weight of that burden
smothered me, and I knew I was lost. I had no defense against
them.

I didn't understand what
was happening. I didn't know what Aedodra was pulling out of me.
Maybe it was my soul. Maybe the essence of who I was or my life
force. I had no idea. I only knew that somehow it was
me
.

I couldn't let him do this. If I lost
myself, understanding who I was and where I came from would never
be mine.

My strength gave out, and I fell onto my
back. My body grew heavy, seeming to sink in around me as if I were
already dead. As I watched the light lifting out of me, my memories
thinned and began to seep away. Fear choked me, and I struggled to
hold on to my life, to remember everything that showed who I was—my
coffee cup collection, Wizard, my few friends, even the smile of
the old man that I always spoke to at the sandwich shop down the
street when I could afford a treat...and most of all Cooper.

There was so much I wanted to tell him that
I'd never had the courage to say. I ached for those lost moments
now. He needed to know. He deserved to know how much he was
beginning to mean to me.

A spark of warmth flared in the center of my
chest and the sphere snagged, clinging to me like a soap bubble.
Aedodra staggered and the despair gripping me faltered. His brow
drew down.

I felt his push of effort, like he was
trying to draw from a siphon that was being squeezed off. I felt
the sensation of it intuitively, reminding me of the vamp at
Morrocroft struggling to swallow my blood as I compressed his
throat.

Aedodra was the same as a vampire, only he
didn't stop at his victims' physical life. He took it all—their
memories, their soul, everything that made them who they were.

No one had that right. I was a sovereign
being. Maybe not special, but always sacredly unique.

I might not know anything about my family,
but I was still me. I might be abrasive, stubborn and cynical, but
I was all mine. I wasn't perfect, and I mattered.

By God, no egocentric moron was going to
take that away from me.

I focused deep inside myself to the place
where that truth had exploded and felt the last faint touch of my
essence. Maybe it was all an illusion, maybe I was going to die
anyway, but it didn't matter. I would go down fighting.

I found the place where the light clung and
focused on it. As I did, the warm, living light intensified and
peace spread through my chest. I released my self-doubts and
welcomed that peace.

A grimace of pain tightened across Aedodra's
face and his hands fell to his side. With a cry, he clutched his
stomach and doubled over.

A burst of energy slammed back into my being
and soared through my body. A cascade of pins-and-needles
sensations swept over every inch of me. I clenched my teeth against
the discomfort and welcomed it, too.

"Marla's dead!" Cooper shouted.

The Indonesian god looked up at me and our
gazes locked. Fathomless eyes that had seen the birth of countless
solar systems, witnessed billions of civilizations and species
springing to life only to die as others took their place, and
orchestrated eons of suffering stared triumphantly into mine.

And then Aedodra disappeared.

* * *

I kicked at the barrier and my foot kept going, slamming my
heel into the rocky floor. "Ow," I muttered. When Marla died, so
did her magic. I was free.

Cooper dropped to his knees next to me on
the edge of the circle and scooped me into his lap. I wrapped my
arms around his waist and buried my face against the strong, solid
warmth of him. The comforting scent of woods and starry nights
surrounded me, and I felt tears thickening in my throat. We'd done
it. Our world was safe. We were safe.

"Wow," he said, cupping his hand around the
back of my head and pressing my cheek tighter to his heart. "Was I
hallucinating or was that guy in a diaper?"

A tired laugh broke from me. "You know gods.
Always behind the times where fashion's concerned."

Cooper kissed the top of my head. "You
okay?"

"Is he really gone, do you think?" I
asked.

"Should be. She died at 10:57 AM."

I pulled back and looked at him curiously.
"And that matters because?"

"After he came to, Falcon was frantic to
discover the power location where you'd been taken, so he ran some
more calculations. When he filtered the prophecy using numerology,
he realized it definitely pointed to the Summer Solstice of this
year. The reference to doors being opened matched the exact time
the last sacrifice had to happen in order to keep the entity in our
dimension. 11:11 to be precise."

Concern knotted up under my ribs. "Is Falcon
okay?"

"More pissed off than anything, but he's
processing it."

"And it's really over? We kept Aedodra from
manifesting?"

"Not we. You." He wrapped his arms around me
and hugged me like his life depended on it.

After a few moments indulging in the
luxurious novelty of feeling safe and protected, I wedged some
space between us and slid off of his lap. "This choir boy getup is
starting to itch. I'm getting my clothes."

I knew I was avoiding telling him that he
was getting to me, but I couldn't help it. Acknowledging that I was
coming to care about him was still terrifyingly new. I needed time
to get used to it.

Scrambling up, I padded over to the duffle
bag, giving Marla's body a wide birth. Her hunger for revenge and
dominating others had made her vulnerable to Aedodra's
manipulation. I didn't feel sorry for her because of it, and I
couldn't feel sad that she'd died. But I'd seen too much death in
too short a time to not feel a little sick over it.

I made a quick check of my gun and laid it
aside along with my knives. Taking the empty vials of vamp blood
out of the bag, I dug past Marla's clothes and found mine at the
bottom sitting on top of my boots. She'd been organized, I'd give
her that.

Turning my back to Cooper, I slipped my
jeans on under the robe. "How did you find me? And how did you know
about Falcon?"

"After you left the station, I decided to
check the bar one more time," Cooper said, "on the slim chance that
we'd missed someone who might have seen Sean leaving alone like the
real Kathy claimed."

"When did you figure out the switch?" I
picked up my tank top and turned to see where Cooper was. He stood
at the far end of the cave and was finishing keying in something on
his iC.

"Not long after that," he said, giving his
attention to the glyphs on the back wall, "and if you don't quit
interrupting me, I'll stop pretending to be a gentleman and turn
around."