Chapter 72: Seeking Truth
The house was quiet and empty at last. Some of the family lingered, most to offer Mom support, which was nice. I wondered about the rest of them but let it go, especially when several of them escorted the distraught James and his back-to-sleeping daughter home.
You'd think they would have learned their lesson already and just freaking trust her judgment. It made me furious.
Quaid was one of the last to go. He waited until Erica hugged Mom to approach us. Erica smiled first at him then at me and left.
I hated the assumption in her eyes.
"I wanted to say I was sorry."
He wasn't talking to me. That would have produced an instant aneurysm.
Quaid was looking right at my mother.
She didn't say anything, just leaned forward and hugged him. He hugged her back, no reservations. When she pushed him away again, she held onto the leather of his sleeves in both hands and smiled up at him.
"You're getting taller," she said. Leave it to Mom to break out a space of normal when the whole world was falling apart. Just for once I wished she'd not try to protect us so much.
Until Quaid blushed. I thought I might die after all. Just from the sheer wonder of it.
"The séance..." He sighed. "Syd tried to stop it, but I figured..."
"It wasn't your fault," I said. "I knew about Pain's power. I should have said something."
"You tried," he turned to me. "I wouldn't listen."
Mom's laughter stopped us both.
"Are you two done?"
Wow, so weird. Did Quaid and I just get along?
From the sparkle in Mom's eyes, she was getting a real kick out of it. As long as she didn't get any more arranged marriage ideas like last time, I could live with it.
"Lesson learned," she said to Quaid. "And I'll tell you what I told Syd. If you hadn't been there and she attempted what she did, she and her whole family would be gone."
He nodded once. "I keep screwing up."
She really laughed this time, her hands on his cheeks as she kissed his forehead, pulling him down so she could reach.
"You're doing fine." She let him go. "Get some rest, Quaid. And stop blaming yourself for your parents' misdeeds. You are nothing like them."
He stared at her for a long moment, as if he wanted to say something more. Instead, he bobbed his head and left.
I wanted to go after him. There was something important going on in him. I could feel the shift. Why hadn't I noticed before? But Mom's arm went around my shoulders and she hugged me.
"Let him go," she said. "He'll come to you when he's ready."
I really needed to sever the link.
Mom retreated to the basement to talk to Dad. I wanted to go with her, but knew she needed some private time. My demon father was a busy guy doing all his seventh plane lord stuff he was into and she didn't get to talk to him very often. And as much as I loved my father, I knew her love for him took precedence.
I checked in on Meira, sleeping safe and sound. Sassy's golden eyes winked at me from her pillow so I knew she was well protected. I was glad Mom put her back to bed before the others arrived. My sister was a powerful witch herself already, but she was still only nine. It was a lot of crap to process for a little girl.
My own bed felt cold and scary and I lay awake for a long time before sleep lost patience and knocked me out.
I woke to drizzle and worry. Mom wasn't home. I knew it because I felt for her the moment I woke up. My explorations for her turned up nothing so either she was shielding or was too far away for my mind to reach.
Most likely the former.
I did my best to replicate Mom's pancakes for my sister before helping Meira get on the bus. She never said a word about the night before, was just her happy-go-lucky self and I wondered if Mom or Sassy tampered with her.
Gram wasn't much better. She accepted her breakfast with her usually childlike enthusiasm and all attempts to reach her sane self failed. A part of me worried the stress of the night before may have driven her even further into her little world of crazy.
With that on my mind along with everything else, I slouched my way to school. At least it was Friday. Wow, had a whole week passed since the party? It felt like last night and yet it could have been forever ago. Time's weird like that.
I caught up with Alison at her locker, but from the look on her face she still wasn't in the talking mood. Didn't mean I wasn't about to try.
"So super freaky last night, huh?"
It was quite possibly the worst thing I could have said. Her eyes welled up and she ran to the bathroom, sobbing.
Some friend. Rather than torture her further, I just went to class. Maybe I should have followed but I figured at the rate I was going I would only make things worse.
Pain stopped me outside English. I took a step back from her, a thrill of fear making me cold. Normally she was flawless, from her perfect Goth makeup to her polished black boots. This Pain looked unkempt, like she'd rolled out of bed and not looked in the mirror. Her hair formed a tangled mess, a far call from her typical sleek shiny look. Mascara and eye shadow drooped, chunks of black dotting her cheekbones. Even her clothes looked slept in and after a moment I realized she hadn't changed since yesterday.
"I had a dream." Her nails bit into my arm, whisper harsh in my ear. "About the spirit. Syd, it was horrible."
I didn't know what to say. But she wasn't interested in hearing me, I don't think.
"You don't get it," she said. "I loved it."
Uh-oh. Intervention time.
"What was it about?" If she saw what I'd been seeing, what the whole family was dreaming about, she was still in serious danger.
"I was the master," she said, pupils swelling. I panicked and dove into her mind, fearing the worst but to my relief she felt clean, as though the creature failed to make its mark on her.
Or chose not to.
"Syd, what happened last night?" Were those tears? In Pain's eyes? The Queen of Darkness falling apart? It was going to be one of those days.
"It's okay," I said. "You were a little freaky. Like in a trance."
She nodded slowly. "The spirit."
What was I supposed to tell her? Nothing. I stayed quiet.
"I want the dream to come back." Her lower lip trembled. "I was powerful, Syd. But weak at the same time." Her teeth slid over the remains of her lipstick. "I'd been in pain for so long... trapped. Underground." Fat tears slid down her cheeks and dripped from her jaw line. "I don't understand."
I needed to get her to my mother. Now.
No such luck. Blood appeared out of nowhere and took her arm.
"It's okay," he said to me. "She's fine. Just, you know. She gets like this after."
I shook my head. "She needs help."
Pain backed off, flushing, angry. "Don't say that." It was like a part of her snapped back into place. "Don't ever say that."
She stormed off. Blood paused long enough to shrug apologetically.
"She's been down this road," he said. "Therapists pretty much her whole life. She hates it when people call her crazy."
He left me there in utter shock. And with clarity I didn't have before. Of course people thought she was nuts. The walled-off power wouldn't be denied forever. I for one knew it first hand. And if bits and pieces were winning through like mine, she'd have gone through hell and back trying to explain what she experienced when it happened.
Class was a total wash. I couldn't stop thinking about Pain. Was it possible the walls built around her were weakening? That the creature had some sort of hold on her I didn't sense? By the time the bell rang I was a mess and ran to find her.
Only to run into chaos outside her last class. Blood grabbed me and held me back, shaking his head, so sad I wanted to hug him, but I was too worried about Pain.
Who was screaming at the top of her lungs in the middle of the empty classroom.
Two teachers tried to restrain her. I heard shouting and looked up the hall. Mrs. Hammond ran toward us through the crowd of kids, pushing people out of her way.
"Constance, baby," she hurtled into the room and skidded to a halt. "Honey, it's okay."
"No, it's NOT!" Pain spun on her mother. "You won't LISTEN to me. He's HERE and he's going to kill us ALL."
I shouted for Mom but didn't get through. Damn it. Damn it! I tried to pull free of Blood, but he wouldn't let me go and they were dragging Pain away. I reached for her. She saw me there, lunged and took my hand. I felt a thrill pass through us and she smiled and calmed so suddenly it was like the crazy faucet shut off.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I can go now."
The two teachers released her. I was furious one of them was Ms. Fiat. I wanted to slap her hands away from my friend, but I didn't need to. Mrs. Hammond slid her arm through Pain's and smiled at her daughter like nothing happened.
"Let's go home, honey."
"Okay, Momma." Pain smiled at me again before her mother led her away through the rapidly dissipating crowd of kids.
I spun on Blood to chew him out, but he was already gone, slipped away. Alison stood nearby, but left as I approached her so I let her go.
What a disaster. I felt terrible and considered cutting the rest of the day to go to Pain's place but didn't. For all I knew, if I tried to help I'd just make things worse.
I really, really needed to talk to my mother.
That had me wondering through Chemistry who put Pain's wards up in the first place. She must have a witch in her family, and a pretty strong one, to do that kind of work. And why didn't whoever it was just strip her power and leave it at that? Why let her keep it, but never access it? I wasn't so lucky. For some reason my demon refused to co-operate. But Pain's power wasn't so strong and the destruction of magic pathways was done to witches as part of our legal system all the time.
Or was her power small? The thought brought me up short. I had no idea what stirred behind those walls in her mind. And she managed to break free of them the night before, even if it was just a little bit. Maybe it meant she was way stronger than I gave her credit for.
Which made her a prime target for the creature if it knew what I did. And it had been in her head so there was no doubt that was the case.
I took a second in a closed bathroom stall to reach for Mom and touched on Erica's mind instead.
She's busy, Syd. Can I help?
Crap. Well, Erica was better than nothing. And I knew she'd pass the message on.
I told her everything, flashed in words and images. It only took a minute.
Got it. I'll tell her and we'll see what we can do.
Thanks, Erica. What should I do?
Nothing. Leave it to us. Have to go. Bye!
Typical. Maybe my mother was treating me more like an adult these days but her preppy best friend and second still acted like I was a kid.
The bathroom was empty when I left the stall and the hallways quiet. I missed the bell and was late to class.
Again.
Two reprimands and a detention slip later and the day was over. I felt like I'd been worked over by a really nasty guy with bad karmic BO and a sadistic sense of humor. None of my friends seemed interested in talking to me and Brad was still on the missing list. I slouched my way back out the way I came six hours earlier.
It was only by chance I glanced up from my steady stare at the ground in front of me and saw Quaid standing next to his motorcycle. Not so unusual. And not what caught my attention so harshly I came to an abrupt halt with my mouth hanging open.
Demitrius Strong stood next to him.
It took a moment to get my feet moving, but I finally did. All my emotions from the day built up into a furious head of steam fed by my demon as I marched toward the Chosen member like a juggernaut of doom. Before I could reach them, Demitrius smiled at me and waved before moving off at the sedate pace of his. By the time I reached Quaid's side, the small man was nowhere in sight.
Which meant my anger was about to go to waste.
Over my demon's dead body. All the nice and happy feelings I'd had for Quaid the night before were a faded memory burned away by her anger. She turned it on the nearest target. As far as she was concerned, if she couldn't have what she wanted from him romantically, she'd take it out of his hide. And I wasn't about to stop her.
"You shouldn't be talking to him." I just resisted punching him in the chest. Just.
"Why's that?" Quaid leaned back against his bike, his smirk lighting up my anger in twenty shades of red. He was back to his old self too, looked like.
"Do you have any idea who he is?" I vibrated with emotion. I knew I was making a scene and didn't care. "His kind burns witches. Burns them. At the stake."
Quaid actually glanced around with a concerned look on his face. A passing pack of girls giggled and ogled him, so they hadn't heard.
"You might want to keep it down," he said.
He was right. I hated that.
"Did he give you anything?" I would burn it up like my mother did. Maybe it would ease my rage.
"I wouldn't take it." He crossed his arms over his chest, chocolate eyes judging me. "Unlike someone I know."
That was so it. "Piss off," I snarled.
"You're the one accusing me," he snapped back, in my face so fast my demon almost recoiled. But she welcomed the challenge. Problem was, her feelings were quicksilver and the old lusty ones were trying to win again.
What was her problem, anyway?
"Just stay away from that guy," I said.
"Says who?" He was getting mad himself. Quaid never showed anger. At least, not at me.
"Says my mother." Wow. I sounded powerful. And slapped me in the face so hard my anger deflated. Really? My mother? That was the best I could-
"That's the best you can do?" He spun and climbed on his bike, reaching for his helmet. "Grow the hell up, Syd."
He roared off and I let him, but my demon was still hot so I detoured just before my house and spent ten minutes kicking the crap out of an oak tree.
Poor tree.
Poor me.
***
