Chapter 781: Center
They were waiting for me at the stronghold, my faithful ones. Gram took Demetrius's hand as he joined the others, facing me. I dug my fingers into Galleytrot's fur, the big dog sinking to his haunches beside me while I addressed them.
"I know I won't be able to convince any of you to stay behind," I said. Silence and grim expressions. Answered that question. My heart swelled with love and eagerness as I went on. "Okay then. Listen up. Charlotte, you're with Galleytrot." She'd been with me the night we tracked Rosetta and her Chosen and with her keen nose tied to his, I knew we'd find our target that much faster. "Sass, you stay with me." Amber fire flared in his eyes. "Demetrius, if you could handle any stray sorcery and intimidate your old followers, that would rock."
He gave me a thumbs up, so odd to see him make such a normal gesture.
"Shenka, you and Gram clean up the mess I make, capiche?"
Because once I found the Chosen and the dark maji, I was going to make a mess.
Oh boy, was I.
Mom hurried toward us down the corridor, Trill trailing with her head down. I almost forgot my request for my mother to find the Zornov maji and grabbed Trill's arm, shook her a little. Caught the tiny rebellion in her eyes as she met mine.
Grinned at her.
I'm sorry, I sent. Thank you.
She stilled, shivered inside with sorrow, nodded.
"The dark maji," I said.
Trill cracked her knuckles. "Don't worry," she said. "I don't even need the boys anymore."
Her brothers. Where were her brothers? Didn't matter.
"Stay close," I said. "And shield. If they fight back, there will be a lot of flying debris."
"And people," Shenka said. Like flying people were a given.
Loved. Her. So. Much.
Alison hovered on the edge of the group, hugging herself, looking lost. I held my hand out to her and she came to my side, took my fingers in hers.
"Rosetta is yours," I said. "At least, until I need her."
Alison bobbed a nod. "I won't let you down," she said.
Only then did I realize Max disappeared. I'd lost track of him when I'd taken a shower. He hadn't come with us to the stronghold.
His part was done, I could only guess. And actually sent thanks to him for his help, no matter what happened between us before.
Emotion almost overwhelmed me as I spun and faced the tear in the veil, felt Ahbi's need to hug me.
"Let's go get my son," I said.
Galleytrot chuffed deeply as the stronghold reached for me.
I wish you only the best of luck, Light One, he sent.
Thank you. And tore the veil. Stepped through.
To Harvard. Mom's room.
The empty cradle.
It was the first time I saw it since-
Breathe, Syd. Gabriel is alive.
Galleytrot snuffled it. Shook his big head with a sneeze. "I have the traitor's scent," he said.
Maurice. "Ameline?"
"She has no scent," Charlotte growled. "Remember? But I don't think she was here." She snuffled as Galleytrot followed her to the back of the room. Pressed against the wall with one hand.
And the wall parted.
Stupid secret passages pissed me off.
"The horrible little man who works for your mother went through here." Thunder rolled in Galleytrot's voice as he refused to say Maurice's name.
With Gabriel?
I followed, we all did, down the narrow passage, to a service elevator off the kitchen.
Outside into the trees behind Massachusetts Hall.
Around the building and into the Yard. Harvard was quiet, new students preparing for their first day just beginning to arrive. We stopped in the grassy center of the university while Galleytrot scented the air and Charlotte growled.
"Close," the dog said. My werefriend nodded. Pointed.
Off campus. Even as Maurice's babbling suddenly made total sense.
I kept my peace as we walked, an odd bunch, across Massachusetts Avenue and to Holyoke. Stood in the dark of a broken street lamp and stared at the narrow steps leading to a dark door and the climbing rise of a brick building.
One I knew very well. Had been forced to invade during my first year at Harvard.
Sassafras snarled as he slunk to my side, staring at the quiet building on the other side of the street. We'd stood here before, he and I. With Sunny and Uncle Frank. He swatted the air in the general direction. "Why am I not surprised?"
Yeah, me either. "The Star Club." Maurice wasn't babbling. Find the rose, he said. And the star. "Close and already tainted," I said. By Ameline, the very bitch, the basement bleeding that night so long ago. The night she turned my old friend Simon, when she did her best to kill me with her creation power. Killed the young witch, Darin Mavore, used his blood to feed her power. So long ago, and yet, the memory was sharp edged and painful. I lost Rupe that night, too. And Alison had begun her long journey into evil only the battle at the stronghold freed her from.
Idiot.
Why didn't I think to check?
No beatings, my vampire sent.
Right.
Focus on Gabriel.
I knew it wouldn't do to draw attention to us out in the open, where normals could watch. Still, it was the hardest thing I'd done since forcing myself to stay not to blast the front door off from right here and shake the place to see what kind of creepy crawlers fell out.
Temper, temper.
Instead, I strode across the street, my legs stretching out into a giant power walk, ignoring the tooting of a driver's horn as I stepped out in front of him, eyes, magic and soul locked solely and 100% on the door.
Only the door. What came after... I'd think about it when Gabriel was safe.
By the time I took the flight of six steps to the top, I was running, leaping up them two at a time, a small ball of focused power hovering in front of me. The last time I was here, I did blow the door off. But this time I had more finesse.
The lock slagged under the pressure of my power, swung inward as if possessed as my vampire blasted it with spirit magic. The moment I crossed the threshold into the dark hall I felt him.
Felt.
My.
Son.
And almost lost it.
Charlotte and Galleytrot pushed past me, sniffing and searching, my werefriend's low growl a warning. I wasn't listening, too tied into the deliciously sweet feeling of my baby. He was here.
Was, being the operative word.
I realized his touch, though present, was too faint for him to still be in residence about a heartbeat before the door at the end of the hall-the one leading to the basement-burst open and a flood of people rushed through.
And Rosetta led them. Her face had aged, her small, round body now hunched and twisted, but her power blazed strong. Fed by the blood magic around her.
Not fresh, at least. But these dark maji-for it had to be them-used creation power recently. Did they somehow know we were coming? Didn't matter.
I'd crush them all even if they spilled blood recently.
I took one second to reinforce the shields around my friends before opening up to my maji power and blasting them with the full force of my magic.
They flew back as a unit, lifting from the ground, Rosetta's mouth open in a black hole of shock as an iridescent fireball took her full in the chest. The house protested, groaning when my power hit the wall, crushing the dark maji, pinning Rosetta to their writhing mass.
I stormed down the hall, hand in a claw before me, stopping inches from her face with my fingertips pressed into her chest.
"I want my son," I snarled. "You have exactly five seconds of life left. Use them wisely." I repeated my performance with her as I'd done with Maurice, my power engulfing her heart, squeezing. She coughed for air until I let her go. "Tell me where she took Gabriel."
He was here. Must have been brought here that first night. Maurice delivered him to Rosetta, to the dark maji. And Ameline...
She had to have taken him from there. But where?
"WHERE." I crushed her further, hearing bones crack and snap beneath her, the cries and screams of the others. Pushed harder, wet popping sounds rupturing who knew what.
Still. Didn't. Care.
Rosetta shook her head, dark eyes huge.
Gasped out, "Never."
Dead. She was dead.
Until a hand settled on my shoulder. Drew me back. And Demetrius smiled at me.
At Rosetta.
She quivered in my grasp, tears falling from her eyes as she fought to reach for him. "Master," she croaked with the limited air I allowed her.
"Rosetta," he said, cherub face and huge blue eyes just as I remembered. Making me shiver when I thought of who he used to be. Who the Brotherhood made him. "We need the boy. She's played you false. You must tell me." He touched her cheek. "Where is he?"
She groaned, sagged but didn't respond.
"Mistress," she finally said.
And gasped a scream as her gaze settled on Alison.
Who smiled back at her, waved and tossed her blonde ponytail. Drifted close, her skin fading from solid to ghostly as she passed her fingers through Rosetta's cheek.
The horror on the woman's face should have been filmed for a Hollywood blockbuster. Already a superstitious woman, I could only imagine what she was thinking, seeing Alison's ghost up close and personal. I think she would have broken as Maurice did, right then and there, if Alison hadn't reformed to solid and snapped her fingers under Rosetta's nose.
"The baby," she said in a voice filled with arrogance. "Now."
Rosetta blubbered as I eased up a little, let her breathe. "We need him," she wailed.
Need.
Wait.
What?
"Damn it." I kicked at a stray shoe one of the maji lost in the blast, dropping all of them, into a weeping, suffering heap. A few tried to crawl away, only to be rounded up by Trill as Shenka guarded the door. "She doesn't do anything without a reason."
Sassafras pawed my leg. "Syd, I assumed she took him to hurt you."
Okay, I wasn't the only one. "So did I." Demetrius bent over Rosetta who lay, one hand over her face, gasping and wailing. "But Ameline always has a plan." I kicked the weeping woman firmly in the leg, made her jump. She looked up a moment before trying to cover her eyes again. "What does she want with Gabriel?"
Fear, deep and vibrating, woke inside me all over again. If she took him to use him for something... did that mean she was going to kill him after all?
Of course my mind went there. Where else would it go?
Doom and disaster were my two best buds, yup yup.
Rosetta's evil returned in a slow wave over her face, her hate for me as crisp and sharp as it had always been. "We will rule all through his gift," she said. "The Gateway will lead us to our salvation."
What the hell did that mean?
Rosetta's madness crackled around her as she cackled a laugh.
"It is foretold," she said, jabbing at me with one finger. "It is his fate."
Oh. Hell. No.
I jerked open the veil without thought, and dove through, leaving the others to clean up.
Because this was something I had to do myself.
Fate was about to get her damned ass kicked.
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