Night World - Spellbinder Part 12

"She denied it, so they tortured her. Listen: 'Being a little stretched on the rack, she screamed ceaselessly that she was not a witch, but being more tightly stretched, said that it was true.' "

"And then they tortured her family," Dani said, her finger skimming the lines. "Oh, Isis, look at this. She had a ten-year-old brother named Clement a nd a six-year-old sister named Lucienne. They tortured them both."

"And burned them." Thea had begun to tremble involuntarily. The room wasn't cold, but she had a feeling like ice deep inside her. "Look. 'The children having been promised the mercy of being strangled before burning, but the executioner not having been paid, they were committed alive to the flames .

..'." She couldn't finish.

" '. . . before the eyes of their sister,' " Dani whispered. She was shaking, too, and huddling close to Thea. "How could they do that?"

"I don't know," Thea said flatly.

"I mean, no wonder Night World laws are so strict. No wonder we have to kee p ourselves a secret-look at what they do to us when they find out." Thea swallowed-she didn't want to think about Night World rules. "And then they burned Suzanne," she said quietly, keeping her eyes on the book. " 'Being consigned to the fire, she uttered several exclamations, crying out upon re venge.' "

"I would too," Dani said, her soft voice threaded with steel. "I'd come back and kill them."

She stopped and she and Thea looked at each other.

"And maybe that's just what she did," Thea said slowly. "Only she couldn't get to her torturers. But she found something that looked similar-a repro duction torture chamber. And there was Kevin, doing something to a witch d ummy-hanging it, maybe. Maybe treating it in some way that reminded her of . . ." Thea nodded toward the book. "Anyway, doing something that made he r lose it."

"And kill him. By strangling him-what she'd been accused of doing. Thea?

" Dani grimaced, then went on. "When you saw Kevin's body-was there anyt hing around his neck?"

Thea stared at the window curtains, trying to remember. That awful bloated fa ce ... the protruding tongue . . . and dark bruises on the throat.

"No," she said softly. "There were marks-but whatever strangled him was go ne."

"She took it with her." Dani shivered, then put both hands on the book. "Or m aybe not. Look, Thea, this may make a great bonfire story, but, really, it's all speculation.''

Thea was staring at the yellowed page beneath Dani's fingers. "I don't think so," she said quietly. "See this symbol by Suzanne Blanchet's name? I recogni ze it. I saw it for just a second-on the amulet in the fire." "You're sure?"

Thea looked away. "Yeah. It's her, Dani. And it's my fault. I let her out . .

. and now she's killing people. Because of me, somebody's dead."

It was only when she said it that the full realization hit-as if forming the words had somehow made it true. Kevin was dead. He wasn't going to school anymore, he wasn't going to get a chance to repair his Porsche. He wouldn't e ver smile at a girl again. He'd lost everything a person had to lose.

"And I just-I just feel so bad," Thea said. The ache in her throat rose up in a sort of spasm, as if she were going to be sick. But what came out was tears. Dani held her while she sobbed. And at last, when Thea was crying mo re quietly, she said, "You didn't know. You didn't mean to do anything bad.

You were just playing around and it went wrong. You didn't know."

"It doesn't matter." Thea wiped her face on her sleeve, sitting up. The ache in her chest was duller now, and she was slowly realizing that something else was there, something that felt hot and bright. A need to act.

"It doesn't matter," she said again. "I still made it happen. But I'll tell you one thing-I'm not going to let it keep happening. I've got to stop her. Which means I've got to send her back."

"I'm with you there," Dani said, her small jaw set in determination. "But ho w?"

Thea stared at the wall a moment, then said, "I have an idea."

CHAPTER 10.

Gran told me that the only person who can send a spirit back is the one who c alled it up," Thea said. "But the problem is that you have to be able to see the spirit, you have to be close to it. Then you can do the sending-back spel l."

"Okay," Dani said, nodding. "But-"

"Wait, I'm getting to it." Thea got up and began to pace the few steps betwe en her bed and Blaise's. She spoke slowly at first, then more rapidly. "What I'm thinking is that this can't be the first time this has happened. Someti me, somewhere, somehow, some witch must have called up a spirit and let it g et away. And then had to go out and get hold of it again."

"I'm sure that's true. But so what?"

"So if we could find a record of how she did it-how she tracked the spirit d own-we might be in business."

Dani was getting excited. "Yeah-and it wouldn't even have to be a case of a s ummoned spirit. I mean, some spirits just won't go to the other side at all a fter they've died, right? Maybe there's a record about how one of them got se nt across the veil."

"Or a story. Or a poem. Anything that would give us a clue about how to get them to stay in the same room with you while you do the spell." Thea stopp ed and grinned at Dani. "And if there's one thing Gran has lots of, it's re cords and stories and poems. There are hundreds of books in the workshop."

Dani jumped up, dark eyes snapping. "I'll call my mom and tell her I'm stayi ng over tonight. Then- we find it."

After Dani called her mother, Thea called Eric to make sure he was okay. Now that she knew there was a demented spirit on the loose she was worried about him.

"You're sure you're all right?" he said. "I mean, I still feel awful about tak ing you to that place. I wanted-well, I'd like it if we could see each other w ithout something terrible happening."

Thea felt as if someone had squeezed her heart. "Me, too."

"Maybe we could do something tomorrow. If you're up to it."

"That would be good." She didn't dare to keep talking to him with Dani aroun d. It would be too easy for anyone listening to guess her feelings.

The first thing Thea noticed in the workshop was that Blaise had taken her n ew project with her.

She must be close to finishing it.

"I'll start here," Dani said, standing in front of a large bookcase. "Some of th ese look really old."

Thea picked another case. There were books of every kind: leather-bound, paper-bound, cloth-bound, suede-bound, unbound. Some were printed, some were handwritten, some were illuminated. Some were in languages Thea di dn't know.

The first shelf yielded nothing except an interesting spell t.i.tled "how to ma ke an elixir of abhorrence, which works quite as well, or perhaps a little wo rse than the traditional Elixirs of Loathing or Detestation, and is less deli cate and expensive than the Elixir of Odium used by royals and members of the n.o.bility, and will also keep extremely well for a very long time."

Hmm ...

Thea put that book aside. She'd looked through another half a shelf when Dan i said, "Hey, I found your family tree."

Thea scooted over. "Yeah, that's the one Gran keeps. It doesn't go anywhere near back to h.e.l.lewise." She laughed.

"Who's this guy?" Dani put her finger on a name. " 'Hunter Redfern.' I thou ght the Redferns were that hotshot vampire family."

"Lamia family. I mean, there's a difference, you know. Someone who's made into a vampire can't have kids."

"But what's the lamia guy doing in your family tree?"

"He's the one who did a kinship ceremony with Maeve Harman, back in the s ixteen hundreds. She was the leader of the Harmans then. See? And we're a ll descended from their daughter Roseclear."

"She did it with a vampire? Creepy."

Thea smiled. "She did it to stop their families from fighting-they had a fe ud going on. And so now all of us modern Harmans have a little vampire bloo d."

"I'll remember to watch out if you start looking at my throat." Dani traced a finger down the tree. "It looks like you and Blaise are the last of the female Harmans."

"Yeah, we're it. The last Hearth-Women."

"That's a big responsibility."

It was almost exactly what Gran had said. Thea suddenly felt uncomfortable with family trees. "Yeah. Um, I guess we'd better keep reading."

It was several hours later when Dani said quietly, "I've got it."

"What?" Thea went to sit by her. The book on Dani's knees was bound in gre en with a crescent moon and three stars on the front-a Night World symbol for witches.

"It's a book of humorous stories, but they're supposed to be true. This one is about a guy named Walstan Harman back in seventeen seventy. He died, bu t he didn't cross over. He just hung around town playing jokes on everybody -appearing at night with his head under his arm and stuff like that. He nev er stayed in one place long enough for them to catch him, though."

"So how did they track him down?"

Dani flashed a triumphant smile. "They didn't. They lured him in.''

Light dawned for Thea. "Of course-I'm so stupid. But how?"

Dani's slender finger swept down the page. "Well, first they waited till Sa mhain, so the veil between the worlds would be thinnest. Then Nicholas Harm an had this big feast prepared, this huge table piled up with Walstan's favorite food." Dani made a face.

"Which happened to be mince pie made with bear meat and pumpkin, with a c ornmeal crust. They have a recipe for it here, too. Gah."

"Never mind that. Did it work?"

"Apparently. They set up the table with the pies in an empty room, then they cast a circle around it.

Old Walstan was attracted to the food-I guess he just couldn't resist taking a look, even if he couldn't eat it. And when he came down to check it out, th ey opened the door and nabbed him."

" 'Sent him speedily and conveniently through the narrow path to the airy void,' " Thea read over Dani's shoulder. The story sounded genuine-only someone who'd actually seen a summoning or a sending-back would know thos e words.

"So now we know how to do it," Dani said. "We wait until Halloween and the n we lure her. We just have to find something she likes-"

"Or . . . something she hates," Thea broke in as an idea struck her. They stared at each other. "Like what she saw at the old gym," Dani breathed. "Something that reminded her of what they did to her."

"Yes, except . . ." Thea stopped. Her mind was rating on, but she didn't wa nt to share her thoughts with Dani. Except that the humans might already be doing something oh ? Halloween, something that would attract Suzanne. If t he police opened the old gym, the Halloween party would be an incredibly st rong lure. All those horror booths . . .

So if I wanted to draw her somewhere else, I'd need to be doing something even worse, something that would remind her even more of what happened t o her. And I'd need bait, somebody she'd want to kill. A human. Somebody who'd work with me, who'd be willing . . .

Not Eric.

Her thoughts came up short as she realized where they were leading. She fo und that her hands were icy cold and her heart was pounding slowly.

No. Not Eric, no matter what. Not even to save lives.

She pushed the thought from her mind. Of course there was some other way, a nd she'd find it. There was time. ...

"Thea? You still with me?" Dani was watching her.

"I was just trying to figure it all out." Thea forced herself to speak calmly, to focus on Dani. "Urn, listen, there's one good thing I just thought of-we m ay have a little time. If Suzanne is still watching the old gym, it could work for us. As long as the gym is closed up, people won't go in there, and she wo n't be able to get anybody."

"I hope so," Dani said. "I mean, I understand why she's upset, but n.o.body deserves to die the way Kevin did. Not even a human."

Late that night, while Dani was breathing peacefully in Blaise's bed, Thea l ay and stared at the faint glow above the window curtains.

It wasn't just visions of Kevin. Her mind kept returning to what Dani and Gr an had said about her responsibility.

Even if I send Suzanne back, even if Gran gets well, even if I manage to keep Blaise from killing Eric . . . where am I?

I'm a renegade witch. And there's no future for Eric and me . . . unless we run away. But that would mean him leaving his family forever-and us be ing hunted wherever we went. And me betraying the Hearth-Women and the Ni ght World.

One last thought glimmered before she could force her mind into blankness.

There's no way everybody is going to come out of this happy.

The next morning Thea was late for school. And she had a hard time tracking down Blaise-it wasn't until lunchtime that she and Dani found the Circle M idnight witches in the front courtyard.

"Please let us see it," Selene was saying as Thea and Dani walked up. "Just one peek. Please?"

"I want to do a trial run first," Blaise said, looking very pleased with hersel f. She took a drink of iced tea, ignoring Thea and Dani.

"How's Gran?" Thea broke in without preamble.Blaise turned. "Better, no thanks to you. Why didn't you call this morning?"

"I overslept." After terrible nightmares about strangled people.

"We were up late last night," Dani said. "It's not Thea's fault."

"Your grandma's really doing well," Vivienne said kindly. "She just needs t o rest for a while-Mom'll probably keep her at our place for a couple of da ys. Sleep heals, you know."

Thea felt a tiny breath of relief, like a spring breeze. If Gran was getting better she had one less thing to worry about. "Thanks, Viv. Please thank your mom, too."

Blaise raised her eyebrows and made a tiny sound like "Hmf." Then she tapped her chin with one long nail. "A trial run . . ." she said again, gazing far away.

She was dressed unusually, in a bronze silk jacket with a high collar that w as zipped up to her chin. Thea had a sudden sinking feeling.

"What are you trying out?" Dani asked.