Night World - Spellbinder Part 20

It's coming out now-toward the boy-"

"I have to go," Thea said. And then she was moving, pus.h.i.+ng her way between Rhys and Old Bob, breaking out of the circle. The beads of the curtain str uck her face, clattering as they fell back behind her.

"Thea, wait a minute!"

"Thea, come back here!"

"Ursula, you go get her-"

The jeep. My backpack's in the jeep. I have to get it first.

The keys to the Lincoln were hanging on a nail by the back door. Thea grab bed them.

She pushed the back door open just as three or four people came hurrying th rough the bead curtain. She slammed the door in their faces.

Get to the car. Fast. Now drive.

She backed out of the alley, tires squealing. She could see light spill as the door to the shop opened, but by then she was turning onto Barren Street.

Eric . . .

She found herself driving at some new level, squeezing through the tail end of yellow lights, recognizing shortcuts in the dark. In just a few minutes s he was at the Night World club with the jack-o'-lanterns on the porch.

There was no place to park the Lincoln. She left it in the middle of the street , with the keys still in the ignition. She pulled the key to the jeep out of he r belt and jumped in.

Hurry. Hurry. She burned rubber again getting the jeep moving.

Hurry. The freeway.

Eric . . .

Just let me get to him. And let it not be too late. That's all I ask, after that I d on't care.

Would you give up everything?

The voice didn't seem like a stranger this time, didn't seem menacing. Just curious. And Thea had an answer.

Yes.

If I can just get there, in time, I can send him away. I can tell him some s tory, make him go somehow. Make him hide. I'll tell the Circle I tricked him or enchanted him into helping; I won't even tell them his name. They can't make me.

Whatever they do to me, he'll be safe. That's all I care about. That's all I'm a sking.

But even that was a lot, and she knew it, so she kept her foot mashed down on the gas pedal. Freeway off ramp. Side road. She drove crazily fast. The pounding inside her head kept saying hurry, hurry, even as she was careenin g off curbs. Desert.

Now the road was bad. It was hard to see; the moon was almost down. The j eep lunged over b.u.mps and lurched into potholes.

Eric, be doing something. Be talking to her, be running. You're so smart, p lease, please, be smart now. Keep her distracted, keep her hair away from y our neck.

How strong was a spirit? Thea didn't know. Please, I see everything so clearl y now. I've been selfish, only thinking of me, what would make me happy. All that "encased in ice" garbage. I should have been dancing in the street. As l ong as Eric is all right, I don't care if he lives on Mars, I don't care if I never see him again. As long as he's well I'm happier than anybody has a rig ht to be.

A jolt rattled her teeth. She was off the road now, driving by landmarks. Th rough forests of dead yuccas that looked like skinny gray Cousin Its.

It's taking so long, it's too long. Hurry. Hurry.

She could see red sandstone in front of her. Pillars in the headlights.

That's it! Go, go!

The jeep rocketed over clumps of blackbrush. She could see fire in the depre ssion between the pillars. She drove straight toward it.

Fire-movement-the top of a silhouette . . .

"Eric!"

She was yelling even as she slammed on the brakes. The jeep ground to a s huddering stop a few inches from a misshapen sandstone tower.

"Eric!" She had the backpack in her hand. She tore the door open and jumpe d out, running.

"Thea! Stay out of here!"

She saw him.

The light of the fire cast an eerie glow onto the already lurid sandstone. Eve rything seemed red, as if this place were bathed in blood. The roar of the jee p's engine and the roar of the fire merged to sound like the flames of h.e.l.l.

But Brie was alive and fighting. Fighting it.

Thea threw herself at it, even as her brain was registering impressions.

A wraith shape that looked at one second like a woman, and the next second l ike tattered clouds. Part of it seemed to be coiled around Eric, and he had both hands at his throat. Bits of the pine-needle amulet Thea had made for him were scattered around his feet. Useless.

"Get away from him! I'm the one who set this up!" Thea screamed. She reached Eric and grabbed wildly at the wraith, at the part of it around his throat. H er hands felt Eric's hands, felt cold air.

"No-Thea, watch out-"

She saw the thing come free of Eric, who staggered. She saw it re-form, gathe r, then dive straight for her.

"Thea!" Eric knocked her sideways. Cold air rushed by.

She and Eric fell in a heap. She gasped "Eric, go," even before she got up. Sh e tried to shove at him, looking around for the wraith. "Go-get out of here! T he jeep's running-get in and just drive. I'll call you later."

"Stay back to back," Eric said breathlessly. "She's incredibly fast." He add ed through his teeth, "You know I'm not leaving."

"This is witch stuff, you jerk!" she snarled, standing back to back. "I don't want you. You'll just get in my way!"

It was a valiant effort. She even managed to inject something like hatred i nto her voice. And Eric wasn't perfect. He turned around, grabbed her by th e shoulder, and yelled, "You know I'm not going, so don't waste any more ti me!"

Then he shoved her sideways again and freezing wind streaked by her cheek , leaving her ear numb.

"Sorry," he said in his normal voice. "You okay?"

Thea spun and looked behind her. The wraith was bobbing there. It was shap ed like a woman made of vapor, with arms and legs only suggested, but with a long tail of hair that whipped around.

"I've got the stuff," Thea muttered to Eric. Admit- ting she knew he'd never leave. "But it'll take a few minutes to do the spell . We'll have to keep out of-" She was watching the las.h.i.+ng tail, but she wasn 't fast enough. There was a sound-something between the snap of a whip and th e crackle of electricity- and the tail flashed out. It was around her neck.

At first it just felt cold. Insubstantial but icy, like a scarf of subzero wind.

But then the wraith gave a jerk and it tightened and it did have substance. It felt like metal, like a pipe full of supercooled liquid, like the tentacle of so me alien creature with ice for blood. It was choking her.

She couldn't breathe and she couldn't get her fingers under it. It squeezed tig hter, hurting her. She could feel her eyes start to bulge.

"Look at me!" Eric yelled. He had a stick that was blazing at one end and he was dancing up and down like a crazy person on the other side of the fire.

"Look! Suzanne! I'm going to get your little sister!" He poked the burning s tick at the dummy Lucienne, not at the wood piled around her, but at the act ual doll."There! There! How do you like that?" He jabbed at the doll. A ring of fire blossomed in the black clothes. "Confess you're a witch!"

Thea felt something slide away and her neck was free.

She tried to shout a warning to Eric, but all that came out was a croak. He was already diving to one side anyway. That must be what he's been doing all this time.

Dodging.

"Eric, keep it up!"

"Okay, but work fast!" He threw himself the other way.

She forced herself to turn her attention from him. Her backpack was at the edge of the circle where she'd dropped it. She grabbed it and dumped the co ntents out on the ground.

She had to do this right and she had to do it faster than she'd ever worked a s pell before.

Oak and ash. She threw them on the central fire, then scooted toward it, dra gging the other materials close with a sweep of her arm.

She ripped open a plastic bag and grabbed the qua.s.sia chips. They were light , and she had to thrust her hand into the flames to make sure they actually went in the fire. Blessed thistle was powder; she threw it. Mandrake root wa s solid, she threw it, too.

She had just grabbed the ounce vial when Eric shouted, "Thea, duck."

She didn't look up to see what she was ducking. She fell flat instantly. It sav ed her. Icy wind blew her hair almost into the fire.

"Suzanne!" Eric was yelling. "I've got your brother! Look!"

There were fires at all three stakes now, and Eric was das.h.i.+ng between them, poking at one figure after another.

Thea pulled the plastic cap off the vial with her teeth. She shook it into the fire, her hand in the flames again. One, two, three.

The fire roared up, louder than ever, and pure blue. Thea fell back from it.

"Suzanne! Over here!" Eric's voice was faint beyond the roar.

Tears were running down Thea's face, her nose and eyes stinging from the acr id smell. She fumbled for the last object necessary for the sending-back ...

the bag of residue from the bronze bowl. She took a handful in her left han d and dropped it between two charcoaled logs at the edge of the fire.

Then she stood up-and saw that Eric was in trouble.

He'd lost his burning stick. The wraith had him by the throat and it was w hirling him around, changing shape every second. His mouth was open, but T hea couldn't hear any sound.

"May I be given the Power of the Words of Hecate"

She screamed it, into the roaring fire, toward the wheeling, changing spirit s hape.And the words came, rolling off her tongue with a power of their own: "From the heart of the flame ... I send you back! Through the narrow path ..

. I send you back!"

She put all her own power into the words, too, screaming them with an author ity that she'd never felt in herself before. Because the wraith was fighting . It didn't want to go anywhere.

"To the airy void ... I send you back! Through the mist of years ... I send yo u back!"

Eric staggered, was jerked sideways. He seemed to be lifted off his feet by t he wraith.

"To beyond the veil... I send you back! Go speedily, conveniently, and with out delay!"

Eric's feet were kicking in the air. This is how Kevin died, Thea realized su ddenly and with absolute certainty.

She found herself yelling words she'd never heard before. "By the power of Earth and Air and Water! By the power of Fire on this night of Hecate! By my own power as a daughter of h.e.l.lewise! Go speedily, conveniently and wi thout delay, you b.i.t.c.h!"

She had no idea where that came from. But the next instant Eric fell. The w raith had dropped him.

It shot toward Thea-but then it stopped as if it had slammed into an invisible brick wall. It was directly over the fire.

Caught.

The blue flames were belching smoke-but sideways. Thea could see the wraith dearly above them. And for the first time, it didn't look like a cloud sha pe. It looked like a woman.

A girl. Older than Thea, but still in her teens. With long dark hair that floa ted around her and a pale face and huge sad eyes. Her lips were parted as if s he were trying to speak.

Thea stared. She heard herself whisper, "Suzanne . . ."

The girl held out a pale hand toward her. But at the same moment the fire fla red up again. It seemed to turn the girl's hair to fire, too. Dark fire was b urning all around her and there was an expression of infinite sadness on her face. Thea reached out a hand instinctively- The fire roared- And there was a flash like lightning.

Suzanne had been drawn to the heart of the flame. And now the lightning fo rmed a cone: the narrow path.

Plastic bags and other debris whipped around the circle as if caught in a whi rlwind.

Suzanne and the cone of white lightning disappeared into each other.

To the airy void. Through the mist of years.The fire flared up above Thea's head, and then sank down. The blue seemed to fall to the bottom. The flames turned yellow, like ordinary fire.

It was as if a curtain had been drawn.

To beyond the veil.