Chapter 596: Miami
I stepped out into a warm night at the entrance to a busy street. The humid air hit me immediately, moisture standing out on my skin. Jeans were too heavy, my t-shirt the only saving grace. I heard Sassafras hiss, glanced over to watch his fur puff up as Charlotte gently slid him from around her neck and cradled him against her side with one arm, shedding her leather jacket from the other.
"Where are we?" I turned to Demetrius, hoping he'd maintained his sanity long enough to get us through this mess. Instead, I found him hopping up and down, from foot to foot, hands pressed to his mouth as he giggled silently into them.
"Sunshine state," he said.
Florida.
"Looks like Miami." Quaid pulled Mia against him, one arm around her shoulders as she slumped in the heat. "We lived here once, when I was with the Moromonds, a long time ago."
I looked up, up at the building, now familiar, reached for it with my power.
Came up empty. No pun intended.
"The whole building is warded now," I said.
Demetrius stopped his crazy dance and swallowed so hard I heard him.
"That means," I said to the others, "I was right about your magic. You'll be powerless." I met Charlotte's eyes. "All but you, apparently."
She nodded. "The power in the Brotherhood house had no effect on my abilities," she said. "I don't know why."
Demetrius bobbed a nod, making "Ooh! Ooh!" sounds and raising his hand like an eager kid at the front of the class. I sighed. This was going to be a long night.
"Go ahead," I said.
"They made you." Demetrius clapped his hands quickly, a rapid-fire applause. "So you're immune."
Charlotte flinched, scowled so deeply even I was surprised, leaned toward the grinning little man with her wolf distorting her face.
"Liar," she snarled. "We were not made by sorcery. We were born from greater things."
Well, that was interesting. But Demetrius either didn't take the werewarning or didn't care, because he reached out with one finger and touched the tip of her nose. Even made the "boop" noise.
"We really need to talk," he said in his lucid voice before cackling like a crazy person.
"Later," I said, as a pair of pedestrians, replete in walking shorts and really hideous matching shirts, their elderly appearance and large camera marking them as tourists, glanced our way. The woman gasped before hurrying her husband along. I looked around at our little group, Charlotte still in mad-were mode, Demetrius bobbing like a whack-a-mole, Mia's ghostly appearance.
Freak show, coming through.
I led them into the street anyway, through the wandering tourists, to the sound of cars passing, the thrum of music coming somewhere to the right. I smelled the salt tang of the ocean, different than the Pacific, but welcome nonetheless. I knew my family would never be able to move again, not with the Wild Hunt sleeping under the back yard, but I really had to consider a summer place by the sea.
We stopped at the crosswalk to wait for the light amid a small group of pedestrians. Most took a side-step away from us, but a pair of teens in jeans to their knees and sporting headphones in their ears both flashed us a wave, the first one winking at me with a wolf-whistle.
Classy.
Charlotte's snarl sent my suitor back a step, Quaid's looming anger sending him scurrying so fast he ran into his friend and knocked them both off balance.
We really had to get away from the normals before someone did something to get us arrested.
Demetrius took my hand as the light finally shifted and we crossed. I had a sudden understanding of what it would be like to be a mother with a bratty kid. He tugged at me, tried to wander off, poked at other people crossing in the opposite direction, giggling and dancing the whole way. I caught myself rolling my eyes as I met Quaid's and he grinned at me like it was funny.
If we made it out of this, I was making Quaid hold Demetrius's hand on the way back.
The building loomed over us, the entire city crushing down on me, the stars lost in the bright lights from the skyscrapers, the street lights. It felt like another plane, almost like I'd somehow crossed over the veil instead of sliding through it. I didn't mind cities, not really. I'd been to a few. But I'd never spent any amount of time in one on this plane, and now I realized I had no desire to. My magic wanted to go on overload, so many people to shield from. My demon snarled as a guy came close to bumping me, only to come in contact with Charlotte's shoulder.
He scowled at her until she growled back.
Yeah, I really had to get them off the street.
The glass doors beckoned, the interior of the building brightly lit on the other side. I pushed against the heavy metal handle, feeling it give easily, the hiss of escaping air cold on my skin as the air-conditioned interior called me inside.
The moment my feet passed the threshold, my power went dead. Out like a light. I knew it was coming, expected it. And it still drove a giant shard of "hell, no" through me. No demon, no vampire. No Shaylee. No family magic.
The shocked look on Quaid's face, on Mia's, told me I wasn't the only one.
"Deep breaths," I said quietly. "It takes a second for the panic to wear off."
Quaid's chocolate eyes were almost completely black as his pupils flared in response to his anxiety. "This is. Syd. This is..."
"I know." I slid my hand into his while Demetrius, untouched by what was happening to the rest of us, pulled on my other one with little grunting noises. "You can leave. I'll be okay."
He shook his head, squeezing my fingers before letting my hand go, his jaw clenching. "I'm fine," he said. Hugged Mia. "We have a job to do."
Mia shook so violently in his grip I thought she'd break down any second. Maybe explode. Or implode. Or something violent. But, as she stood there, she calmed, clinging to her brother until she nodded once, a sharp gesture, biting her lower lip so hard she had to be drawing blood.
"I have to get my magic back."
One quick look at Sassafras shivering in Charlotte's arms and I knew he was still in.
"So wrong," he said. "Hurry up."
Right. I let Demetrius win, finally, looking up as we entered the large foyer, feeling my feet squeak over the polished floor. A bank of elevator doors stood on the right and another on the left while a bulky desk dominated the middle of the lobby. A man in uniform frowned at us as Demetrius bypassed him.
"Hey," he called out. "This isn't some tourist spot. You need an appointment."
Demetrius didn't even twitch. The man froze, sagged and sank back into his seat. I shivered as we passed, the vacant look on his face making me worry about him.
But I couldn't worry. He wasn't my problem.
We were almost to the elevators on the right when Quaid stopped me with a hand on my arm.
"Is this the best choice?" He glanced at the shining steel doors. "We could get trapped in there."
He was right. But the idea of climbing all the way to the top... I groaned, my legs and butt still tender from the prison tower.
Still.
Demetrius grunted and shrugged, crossing to the back of the lobby and a wide, black painted entry with a stair symbol hanging over it. The door whispered open, a concrete staircase, metal railing leading upward, waiting on the other side.
Climbing, then.
I took the lead, foot taking the first step just as my hand closed reflexively over the crystal in my pocket.
And everything shifted.
They were back, my demon roaring her happiness, Shaylee babbling my name, my vampire hissing and reaching for me. The family magic swirled, wrapped around me while my sorcery opened its dark blossom at the base of everything. The tiny heart of the crystal sang to me as my maji power woke and brought us all together as one.
Whole. I grinned at Quaid before taking the steps two at a time, letting the power I'd woken feed me.
This was what it was supposed to be like.
Time to kick some Brotherhood ass.
***
