Chapter 71: Calling The Coven
Sweat beaded and pooled under my clothes in the sauna of the kitchen. We'd gathered a crowd, the room tingling with an overcharge of hovering magic. Well over fifty witches packed themselves into the good-sized room with spill over into the hallway, a mix of emotions flickering past me and sometimes through me as even they, accomplished as the coven members were, lost threads of power. I flinched from the air magic, trying to keep my grounding in earth, but that just made the heat worse.
These were not the witches of my birthday, the calm and black robed family prepared for Beltane night. No, these were terrified and furious witches, most still in robes and slippers, pajamas and nighties, with pale frightened faces and sleep deprivation to feed their panic.
One of our own was taken. Now no one felt safe.
James Crossman huddled near the perimeter, his five-month-old daughter Eliza clutched to his chest. It broke my heart when I realized it was his wife Sandra who was taken. Their little girl needed her mother back.
That was where mine came in. She stood in the middle of it all, as calm and poised as ever. Oh, and me. Not like I counted. I knew she just had me there next to her so no one would make comments about the séance.
I'd never live it down. Never.
I caught Quaid's quiet entry just as Mom turned to Erica. He slid into the back of the crowd and watched me with an unreadable expression.
"Summon the others." Erica nodded to Mom and drew a breath. When she let it out, a small ball of blue light formed between her hands, growing in size until it was about as big as a basketball. It shimmered and eddied like a storm under glass but held its shape.
Linking spheres always gave me the creeps.
"Connection made," Erica said.
"We are here," came the voices of the rest of the family, warped and wavering inside the energy channel. They sounded like a really freaky alien movie.
Thus, the creeps.
"One of our witches was taken tonight," Mom said, voice low but so full of power it carried with no problem. "Sandra Crossman, mother, wife and friend. The creature targeted a young woman we were guarding and attacked."
James' tears fell onto his daughter's sleeping face.
"We know this already, Miriam." Celeste and her big mouth. Her braid was undone for the first time since I'd known her. Her hair fell almost to her knees and looked like it belonged on a horse.
"We all shared the vision," someone said from the sphere. I always found it hard to figure out who was speaking through the thing.
"Some more powerfully than others," Mom said. "And it's important we all understand exactly what we are facing."
That shut them up. Damn, she was good.
"What you didn't see," she said, "was what followed." She turned to me. "Syd? Would you link us, please?"
She was kidding. She had to be. Me? My demon snarled at me and I shuddered just a little. Okay, so I was a coward. I'd been this close to hacking my guts up and didn't like the idea of doing it for real.
Excuses, excuses. There was more to it than that and I was willing to admit it. I drew a breath and opened up. I hated this part. Hated. It was way less like I tied everyone together and more like they invaded my most personal space.
They joined me in a rush, my cramping middle rejecting so much force at once but it eased as the last of them climbed on board. I led them through the events of the evening, starting when I jumped from bed and met my mother. They followed along as we raced down the stairs to Ethpeal's door. Stumbled into the basement right beside us and chased the creature through Gram's magic. Together we relived the force of my grandmother's power and the recoil of the attack by the creature.
When they left me, I was shaking and bruised on the inside all over again but my supper was still in my stomach so I counted it a win. Mom grasped my hand and squeezed it.
"It has been feeding from life energy," Mom said as the coven absorbed what happened, "and grows stronger. There is a familiar feeling to its magic, but we had so little time..." She trailed off, frowning, before resuming her calm expression. "Now that it has a witch's magic to consume, its power will grow even more."
"You couldn't stop it," Celeste said, face so pale her freckles stood out in sharp contrast, "even without our power to feed it. What is this thing?"
Everyone talked at once, their fear and stress weighing down the air in the room. I felt like they were pushing down on me, all their energy forcing me almost to my knees.
"And why," Celeste went on, her eyes on James and Eliza, "was Sandra, a new mother, called on to guard the latent girl?" The baby chose that moment to wake, probably because of the pressure of all the magic in the room. She wailed her anguish out for a long moment and no one said a word.
Mom snapped, "It was Sandra's choice." James nodded slowly and even Celeste had to let it go. "We will defeat this thing." They all stared at their leader. "We are of greater numbers. And our attempt was done from a distance without support. And my mother," she hesitated before going on, "isn't as strong as she was."
Was crazy, she meant. We all knew it. And understood.
"You're thinking if we can corner it, we stand a better chance?" Erica grasped Mom's offer of hope and sent it out to the rest of the family. I could have hugged her.
"Exactly," Mom said. "But we need to work as a whole." She looked up over the back of the crowd of witches and I spotted two familiar faces I was very happy to see. "Frank? Sunny?"
There were no grumbles, at least. Not a word of protest as the vampires made their way forward. Although there were a few witches who cringed from their undead touch, for the most part the mood was curious.
Uncle Frank nodded to Mom and then to me. The fact he didn't wink made me worry.
"We think we know why the energy you felt is familiar," he said. "We felt it, too. Beltane night, when Sunny and I chased the creature."
"How did it get away from you?" I wanted to slap the sarcasm out of Celeste but Uncle Frank let it go.
"We don't know," he said, glancing at Sunny.
"We came very close," she said, "and then it just vanished." Her beautiful face showed her concern. "But we can tell you one thing for certain. Whatever that creature is, it carries the blood of a vampire."
I was so shocked I know my mouth hung open. I barely heard the roar of anger and protest from the family. It was like they suddenly had someone to blame and Celeste grabbed the bit of control from them and beat the two vampires with it like a stick.
"You mean to tell us," she said, shoulders thrown back, looking like a self-righteous Valkyrie, "your kind is responsible?" She spun on Mom. "And you've allowed them to stay here? Among us? Feeding it information for all we know."
Mom let them rant and yell for a bit, but her eyes never left Celeste.
"Where is Sandra, foul ones?" Did that ugly so-and-so really just call my uncle and his girlfriend names? Really? I didn't get a chance to let my fury get me into trouble. As usual, my mother had it handled.
"That will be enough," Mom said.
It was like a faucet turning off. How did she do that? Everyone returned their attention to her, but the anger still rippled around the room in waves. I was so proud of Uncle Frank and Sunny. They just stood there and took it.
"There is more to this creature than vampire blood," Mom said. "Much more. For those of you who had a strong touch of it, you know it's true. It seems to have multiple sources of power at its disposal."
"We know it has undead power," Uncle Frank said. "And I'm pretty sure it has coven magic in it, too."
"I felt no such thing." Celeste drew herself up as if the very idea was an insult.
"I did." Mom looked around the group. "I know I'm not the only one. The touch may have been foreign but the feeling was similar enough for me to make that conclusion." A few witches were nodding with her. "Perhaps time has lent it enough distance from our magic it was able to disguise that part of its makeup."
"Anything else?" Uncle Frank turned to Mom. "Your Sidhe magic pick up anything it knows?"
Mom seemed to struggle with her answer. "I just don't know," she finally said. "I've fully integrated it, but still so new... perhaps."
It made no sense. "So this thing is part vampire, part witch, part Sidhe... how is that possible?"
"Sebastian is still researching," Sunny said. "Our clan leader will let us know when he uncovers anything."
"What about the Council?" Celeste wasn't giving ground this time. Any weapon she had on hand she used, like she was determined to bring my mother down. "They need to be informed. They can send Enforcers to save us."
A wave of relief rammed against me and I struggled not to sway from it. She was right, though, wasn't she? Where were the Council Enforcers?
"I have made multiple attempts to contact them," Mom said. "I have as yet to receive an answer." Her eyes flickered to me and I felt, for just a moment, her frustration like a blow to my heart. She shut it off quickly but I knew then how worried she was. Minding their own business or not, the Council should have shown some interest by now. If they ever intended to.
That shut up even Celeste.
"That is a question and a conversation for another time," Mom went on. "Right now, we need to take definitive action. The creature must be hunted and, if necessary, killed."
I felt what she didn't say. No way in hell did Miriam Hayle need anyone to save her.
"If necessary?" Celeste's hair bristled around her like a weapon.
"We are very strong," Mom said, ignoring her. "More powerful than ever. But I worry even our strength may not be enough. We need backup."
I almost giggled, the stress making me giddy. Mom was watching cop shows again.
"There's a coven two states west," Erica said. "The Sovinion family."
Mom smiled at her friend. "I was thinking of fighting fire with fire." She turned to Uncle Frank and Sunny. "You made me an offer earlier. I'd like you to repeat your offer to the family."
Uncle Frank looked like she asked him to go out in the daytime just to see what would happen, but Sunny nodded and smiled, canines carefully hidden.
"We are as horrified by this creature's attacks as you are and wish to offer our support." She turned back to Mom. "I am willing to speak to the leader of our blood clan about forming a coalition to destroy it."
No one said a word. Not even Celeste. At least, not for as long as it took for the shock to wear off.
Then all hell broke loose.
It took me longer than the others to recover, partly because I was already wrung out from the night's activities and partly because I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Mom couldn't be serious! Vampires and witches working together? Don't get me wrong, I loved Uncle Frank and Sunny. But there was simply no precedent for a full-scale joining of witch and vampire power. None. Not that we were enemies, per se. But vampires had their own way of doing things and were even less inclined to play nice with others.
On our side, there was the whole aversion to blood. Any hint of blood magic made witches nervous. Everyone knew vampires were magic, and had no access to negative power that way, but it still fed the prejudice running between the two powers. And, naturally, being the ego driven undead they were, vampires tended to take such beliefs as a personal affront.
Mom let them run on again. When I felt the easing of their energy, I finally understood her strategy and my estimation of my mother ratcheted up about a thousand points.
She was letting them wear themselves out, to air their arguments to themselves until they were in a corner. Then, and only then, she was there to speak up and offer them a solution.
Brilliant.
She must have been following my thought process. I forgot we were still linked, she and I. Mom caught my eye and held it for a moment, face as calm as ever.
Then, she winked.
I filed her little lesson away in my bag of tricks for later. How cool was that?
When the moment came, she didn't fight for their focus. She just reached out with her power and took it.
"I accept the offer," she said to Sunny with a gracious bow of her head. "It is in all our interest to have this creature eliminated. For, if it is indeed tied to vampire magic as well as witch magic, it puts us all in danger of attention from the normals."
Celeste looked rebellious, but everyone else seemed to have settled down.
"I speak for the Blood Clan DeWinter," Sunny returned Mom's nod. "I shall inform our leader, Sebastian, that you wish to meet and discuss a coalition."
Neither vampire said another word. They simply turned and headed for the exit.
The witches in the way scrambled to make a path for them. With a creak of the screen door, they were gone.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Miriam." Celeste's scowl preceded her out, though she had a little more trouble making her way through the now chattering crowd.
"Me too," Mom whispered beside me. I squeezed her hand and she smiled a little.
Me three.
***
