Chapter 102: Kidnapped
There was glass everywhere, crunching under my slippers, sparkling on Meira's bed in the dim glow of her nightlight. A breeze blew in the wide open window, her gauze curtains swaying in the wind. I ran to the gap, looked out, but knew it was foolish. If I couldn't feel her anymore, there was no way I'd be able to spot her.
Unless she was... I flinched from that train of thought. No, she was still alive. Our connection remained. But she wasn't able to contact me any longer. Which meant she was either being warded or she was unconscious.
My fear for her was so strong I just stood there, locked in place, not knowing what to do.
"Syd..." his voice came very soft, low and full of hurt. I spun and went for the bed, falling to my knees next to Sassy. His fur was matted with blood, amber eyes barely glowing.
"Sassy." I sobbed even as I reached for my demon. She didn't fight or hesitate, offering me everything she had. As Sassy spoke, I did my best to heal him of multiple injuries.
"A vampire." It came out in a hiss. "A vampire took her."
That made my mind freeze for a moment. It couldn't be. Sebastian and his blood clan were our allies. Why would they kidnap Meira?
"I tried," he said, voice stronger as he healed. "I tried to protect her but the vampire was too strong." He groaned as he climbed to his feet, shaking his fur so blood drops flew everywhere. "He struck so fast I didn't have time to warn you."
The anguish in his voice calmed me down, oddly. I hugged him as gently as I could. "It's not your fault." I felt Mom's mind slam into me, hitting so hard I squeezed Sassy making both of us gasp.
WHERE IS MEIRA? I could feel Mom coming closer, knew she felt my sister's cry as well. Tires squealed on pavement and a car door slammed. Mom came pounding up the stairs to Meira's room, her eyes blazing fire, power crackling around her like a cloak of blue lightning. "WHO TOOK MY BABY?"
I had a flash to my sister, how scared she was, the nightmares. I knew better. I was so wrapped up in my self pity I failed to warn Mom about what Meira was going through.
"Mom," I said, flinching as I climbed to my feet, glass slicing through my pajama bottoms and into my skin. "It's my fault."
"No, Sydlynn," Sassy said, "it's mine."
Mom shook so violently I thought she'd explode outward in a cascade of power.
"I don't care whose fault it is," she hissed. "I want to know who took my daughter."
"Vampire," we said together.
The roar of desperate fury that came out of my mom was so loud and full of magic it almost knocked me over.
"Miriam," Sassy said with deep regret running through his words, "there's more. I recognized the energy, though it seemed clouded to me."
Meira said the vampire felt familiar to her. My heart clenched as a horrible fear grew inside me.
"Tell me." The whole house trembled with the weight of Mom's desperate wrath.
"It felt like Sebastian."
Gut punch. And what I was afraid he was going to say.
"But why?" I turned to Mom, my mind going right to Cesard. "The blood?"
"Come!" She spun and left, running back down the stairs. I followed her in a hurry, Sassy in my arms, knowing if we didn't make it to the car before she had the engine turned on she would leave us behind.
I was wrong. She paused long enough to hustle my very agitated grandmother out of her room. For once, Gram didn't give her any trouble. As soon as we were in the driveway, she tossed me the keys and climbed in the passenger seat, holding out her arms for the silver Persian.
I gaped at her. Mom never let me drive her car. Yes I just received my license, but her vintage blue Mustang convertible was her pride and joy.
"Sydlynn," she snapped. "Drive."
Gram huddled in the back, humming to herself. I caught sight of her in the rear view mirror. Her washed-out blue eyes were full of tears.
I guess even she was able to understand something horrible happened.
It wasn't the smoothest drive, but I was constantly bombarded with mental questions and magic as my mother summoned the family in no uncertain terms to the coven site out in the middle of nowhere. It was carefully warded to keep normals out and the perfect place to have this particular conversation.
I was just worried where talking about it would go. Mom was still in a rage, but simmering now, absently using stray magic to clear the blood from Sassy's coat. Her hands shook, thoughts so focused as she shot them out to the rest of the coven I was glad not to be on the other end. It had to feel like taking a bullet.
By the time I pulled into the site, it was already filling with cars. Mom didn't even wait for me to come to a complete stop before she lurched out and half-ran to the center of power. She dumped Sassy as she jumped out so I bent and picked him up again, carrying him as I led my grandmother across the grass to the middle of the clearing.
Mom still vibrated, her power so hot no one could reach her. I couldn't raise that kind of anger. I was still in shock, couldn't believe any of this happened. I winced as I stumbled over an uneven patch of ground, and felt fresh blood run down my leg.
Right. I cut myself on the glass in Meira's room. Whatever.
No one approached Mom, not even Erica, or Celeste, which surprised me. I figured the tall, severe witch would take this opportunity to challenge Mom all over again. Celeste was the one who opposed the coalition with the vampires in the first place, putting the family in jeopardy to do it. This would be a prime chance for her to drive another wedge of angst between her followers and Mom.
Despite the woman's silence, I resented how she stood there, stroking her waist-length brown braid with her man hands and staring at my mother.
If it won through Mom's rage, I never knew it. It wasn't long before the coven assembled, the field packed with family, all horrified and afraid of what happened.
I felt Erica slide up next to me, her arm going around me as Mom finally snapped out of her silence and addressed us.
"Tonight a vampire broke through the wards of my home and stole my youngest daughter." They already knew, but they still swayed as one at the news. Little Eliza, the Crossman's six-month-old daughter, started to cry.
Very fitting. I wondered even as the others recovered why Mom didn't mention Sebastian.
"What are your plans, coven leader?" Celeste finally spoke up. I felt Erica tense and knew she was as worried as me.
"I am going to find and bring my daughter back." Mom's voice was a guttural growl, full of power. The blue glow around her flickered with green and red and pure white. All of the magic she won defeating Batsheva Moromond, from Sidhe, to demon and vampire too, surged to life as her rage threatened to consume her.
I could feel her right there on the edge. Mom had never been pushed so far before. Even when the Moromonds forced her hand and made her give up her magic, she ensured Meira and I would be safe no matter what.
I found myself moving forward, leaving Erica behind, even as my love for my mother surged around me like an open flame.
She felt it touch her power, spun on me as though I were some attacker. But when her eyes met mine, I saw her anguish surged far stronger than her fury and that was what drove her to near insanity.
I was shocked when my grandmother tottered past me, her wrinkled old hands reaching out. She passed through the curtain of my mother's magic as if it weren't even there and took my mother's hands.
"Miriam," Gram said. "It's going to be all right, dear."
I have no idea if my grandmother was having a moment of lucidity or if she somehow just knew the right thing to say, but the moment she spoke the tension around Mom shattered. I staggered as her power released, feeling the wave of it pass over me and through me. I felt her pain as if it was my own, her anger and feelings of betrayal.
I heard the coven sigh around me and knew she shared it with them, too.
Mom was herself again. She hugged her own mother who cackled at her and did a little dance in her flowing white nightgown. I reached out and took Gram's hands, gently leading her away.
"Miriam," Celeste started, but she didn't finish.
"There is only one way to find out the truth of this," Mom said. Her voice still crackled, but she was at least thinking now, rather than reacting. We all felt her power build and heard her thoughts as she lashed out.
Frank, she sent, a javelin of command. Come.
Uncle Frank. Of course. At least he would be neutral. There was no way he would be involved in something that would harm Meira or the coven. Though from the look on Celeste's face she disagreed.
No big shocker there.
I felt him react, the ricochet of his shock.
On my way.
His dark shape fluttered to the ground within moments, forming once again into my boyishly handsome uncle. He looked dazed, confused as he spun around, realizing the entire coven was gathered, facing my mother in clear shock.
"Miriam," he said. "What's going on?"
Mom totally lost it. I hardly blame her, but here was her brother, someone she was used to, a follower of the one who allegedly took my sister. I got it. I just didn't like it much.
"Where is she?" Mom surged toward Uncle Frank, her hands on fire with blue power, her face twisted in anger. "Where is Meira?"
Uncle Frank fell back, mouth gaping open so I could see the points of his canines. He rarely showed them, even when he smiled, but it was impossible to hide them now.
"Miriam," he stammered her name. "What are you talking about?"
I heard more flutters, saw shapes land among us. Sebastian's people, had to be. Anastasia, the second of the clan, came to a soft landing beside Frank. I couldn't stand the arrogant blonde vampire, but I had other things to worry about.
Like Mom turning on Anastasia with her hands raised, power poised to strike.
"Where did he take my daughter, vampire?"
Anastasia's magic surged around her, the pure white of it making her glow like a small star.
"Whatever are you talking about?" The blonde had no problem showing us her vampire side. Or her contempt.
Mom wasn't in the mood. Her power wrapped around Anastasia's throat while the other vampires surged forward. Uncle Frank held them back, him and the combined power of the coven ready to tear them apart if they threatened Mom.
Things were rapidly getting out of hand.
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