Jocelynn Drake - [Asylum Tales 02] (30 page)

“Oh,” he said, sitting up and looking around again as if taking in his surroundings. “Oh, yes, of course.” He didn’t bother to pull out his wand, but waved his hand over the table. In a second, piles of fluffy pancakes, waffles, sausages, bacon, eggs, and freshly chopped fruit appeared in platters, along with clean plates, flatware, and white linen napkins. My eyes caught on the large silver container in the center surrounded by empty mugs. Coffee. Glorious, wonderful, caffeine-filled coffee.

The kids held back, almost painful looks filling their faces as they gazed at the food. They were afraid to trust Gideon. They might have been able to create the same spell, but they were trying not to use magic for fear of being tracked. I popped a piece of bacon into my mouth before reaching for the coffee. It was like a green light at a racetrack. The kids fell on the table, piling a mountain of food on their plates in an explosion of excited chatter. Even James seemed to come alive with the promise of a warm meal.

Only Étienne held back, watching Gideon through narrowed eyes. I clapped the younger man on the back and smiled. “I know it’s hard to believe, but he is one of the good guys. Eat.” When the boy didn’t move, I turned my back on Gideon and leaned down. “He’s got his own wife and kid to protect,” I whispered for only Étienne to hear. The young man’s eyes widened as he looked up at me. He understood the risk Gideon was taking, the rules he was breaking.

“Oh, Gideon!” Sofie scoffed, jumping into the warlock’s lap. “Pancakes with sugary syrup? You should have made something healthy. These children need oatmeal.”

Gideon stared at Étienne and smiled. “Bridgette loves my chocolate chip pancakes,” he said before dropping a piece of fruit into his mouth. Étienne gave a small nod, a smile toying with the corners of his mouth as he picked up a plate and started filling it.

While the kids scattered around the room, digging into their food and getting lost in happy conversation, I leaned against the wall near Gideon and discussed both William Rosenblum’s attack and Henry Fox’s kidnapping attempt. Apparently, things were deteriorating in the Towers faster than either of us had expected. I needed to get my hands on Reave before they decided to wipe out another city in order to shake up the masses.

Gideon set his empty mug on the table and looked around the room. Kids were lounging on the floor, soft groans of fullness slipping from them as they settled into their own personal food comas. It sounded nice. I had picked a little, but my head ached and I had too much on my mind to try to put food in my stomach.

“I agree that they can’t continue to live like this,” Gideon started, sounding more than a little weary. “But I’m not sure what we can do. We can’t keep coming back here. It may attract attention and these kids need to slip away without notice.”

“They need homes. They need to go to school. They need to be around other people. Normal people with no magic,” I said, pushing off the wall to put my nearly empty mug on the table. Being around nonmagic users would teach them how to blend better. Right now every time they were startled, they grabbed their wands, which only drew attention to them.

“They can’t go home,” Gideon said firmly.

I nodded. “It’s the first place anyone would look. Their families are probably being watched already.”

“I will not endanger
mia famiglia,
” Paola said, lifting her chin, proving that despite the appearance of being in a carb-induced stupor, the kids were intently listening to our conversation. Others nodded at Paola’s statement, looking sad.

“I know,” I murmured, trying to smile at them before looking at Gideon again. “But I was thinking maybe a family or two that you might know could be willing to help.”

Gideon frowned at me. He knew what I was asking. I wanted him to contact other members of his little movement, see if anyone was willing to take the kids in and protect them. “I don’t think anyone I know could take all five.”

“You want to separate us? You can’t separate us!” The cry went up, followed by a dozen others as all the kids were now on their feet and decidedly against being separated.

I held up my hands and silence settled back over the room. “It’s for the best. The Towers are looking for five kids. Not one or two kids in a single household. You’ll be better protected if you’re separated.”

Just as the arguments started again, Étienne said, “He is right.”

They fell silent, but I saw Alice’s hand tighten on James’s. She hadn’t escaped with Étienne. She had gotten out of the New York Tower on her own with her brother. There was something mutinous in her stare. The warm, bubbly girl wielding the baseball bat had melted into a young woman of hardened determination. I had a feeling that she had been willing to follow Étienne because it meant there was someone else to help protect James, but she would run if someone tried to separate her from her younger brother.

I smiled at her and gave a little nod. Some of the tension eased from around her eyes. I’d talk to Gideon. James and Alice needed each other. They had escaped together, been through a similar horror.

“It’s going to take me a little while. I need to talk to some people. They may need to strengthen defenses and such,” Gideon said, seeming to talk more to himself than to me.

“I want them to continue their training,” I added.

“Are you insane?” He jerked out of his chair, standing a couple feet away from me. “They left—”

“And they’re still being hunted. They need to be able to defend themselves, as well as have excellent control—the whole reason for being taken to the Towers in the first place.” Gideon’s mouth thinned to a hard line, but he didn’t argue. He knew I was right, but I was asking a lot. The families that took them in would need increased security. Training the kids would demand even more protective spells to cloak the activity.

I shrugged at Gideon. “We could find someplace and meet once or twice a month for a few hours. Just some defensive spells.”

The warlock made a sound of disgust and shook his head as he returned to his seat. “Are you going to be the one to train them?”

My smile slipped. “You think that’s wise?”

“I don’t think any of this is wise, but it needs to be done,” he said. “I’ll get started. If you survive the next few days, I’ll get back to you when something has been decided.”

“Sounds good.” I pushed away from the wall and stood in front of Étienne, who rose from his chair. “Can you keep things under control here for a little while longer?”

He nodded stiffly. “Of course.”

I was impressed with the young man. Not once had he argued about putting the kids in families, or about me stepping in to take control. They may have been his responsibility, but he knew that the group couldn’t continue as they were indefinitely.

“If there’s an emergency, you know where to find me,” I said, a part of me hating to leave them unprotected and vulnerable.

“Yes.”

I extended my hand to him and he shook it.

Gideon shook his hand before we turned toward the door. The warlock paused and looked at me with a frown. “You are going to take care of the other little problem first?”

“Very soon. I’m waiting for some information from a very resourceful hobgoblin.”

He rolled his eyes and left the house without another word. I think Gideon had had all he could stand from me for one morning. Smiling, I turned to find Sofie curled up on Paola’s lap as the girl stroked her fur. Alice was scratching her head.

“Sof, are you staying or going with me?” I asked with a chuckle.

The cat rolled off the girl’s lap and stretched her entire body before walking over to me. Picking her up, I paused at the door and said good-bye to my would-be saviors. I didn’t know if my plan was going to work. I didn’t know if these kids were going to have something that resembled a normal life or if I was putting more people in danger. But they deserved a shot at it. We all deserved a chance at normal.

25

HELL BROKE LOOSE
when I stepped out the door. I didn’t think to scan the area to see if anyone else was about. Gideon had left less than a minute before me, and I was sure it was safe. I could use a thousand excuses like I was exhausted and distracted and worried, but it all came down to the fact that I didn’t check the area before I stepped outside.

As I pulled the door closed behind me, I looked up to see Gideon standing at the edge of the yard talking to a witch and two warlocks in low, tense tones. Of the faces that I could see, no one looked happy. And then they looked up at me, shock filling their expressions. Apparently Gideon hadn’t been telling them that I was inside with the runaways. Of course, I didn’t doubt Gideon for a second. He could act like a bastard at times, but he wouldn’t get rid of me like that. Not when I’d given him so many other opportunities over the years.

Gideon turned sideways to look over his shoulder at me. For a moment he looked sad, but the expression disappeared in a second and the hardness I was accustomed to seeing filled his eyes, wiping his face of any emotion. When he turned back, he was already reaching in his sleeve for his wand. None of the others saw it because all their attention was on me. A bright green flash hit one of the warlocks, throwing him across the street. His limp body bounced on the concrete once before he continued to roll until he hit the curb.

Taking advantage of the distraction, I dropped Sofie as I pulled the door shut and whispered a quick locking spell. I wasn’t sure who I was barring, but I didn’t need the Towers getting into the house and I definitely didn’t need the kids coming out to help. The locking spell wouldn’t keep anyone tied up, but it would buy Gideon and me some time while we dealt with this new problem.

The remaining witch and warlock were getting over their shock when I hit the weed-choked yard in a roll. Jumping back to my feet, I snatched up an old rust-laced shovel that was laying off to the side. The witch was squared off against Gideon in the middle of the empty street, her body partially blocking the unconscious warlock. The remaining warlock was approaching me with his wand drawn.

Holding the shovel in both hands like a bow staff, I smiled at my opponent. “I’m sorry. Were you looking for me?”
Damn, why the hell did I travel without my wand?
This world was getting just too dangerous for an ex-warlock to go about without a little protection.

“Master Fox wants a word with you,” the warlock replied in a heavily accented voice. His accent reminded me of some Brazilians I had met years ago, but his expression didn’t indicate that he wanted to swap stories about his former home.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to decline that honor.”

The warlock nodded with a grunt a second before whipping his wand in my direction. The conversation had given me enough time to summon up the energy for the defensive shield that popped into existence as the blue flash surged toward me. As I had hoped, the fucker had shot a stun spell at me. Fox was still trying to get his hands on my living body. Zombies were a bitch to interrogate.

As he lowered his wand, his mind searching for a new spell, I lunged forward and swung the shovel at his head. The asshole raised one arm, deftly blocking the weapon before he swept under it. Moving like flowing water, he spun and kicked out one leg at me. I jerked away at the last second so that the bottom of his shoe scraped lightly across my upper arm.

We both stepped back, taking stock. The warlock grinned at me and shoved his wand back into the holder up his sleeve. Not only was this asshole Brazilian, but he apparently was well versed in something, possibly Brazilian jujitsu. I was fucked because I was a beginner when it came to most fighting styles and he was obviously looking forward to knocking the crap out of me.

The warlock was on me before I could think of a way of dealing with him. He threw an intense combination of punches and kicks in my direction that kept me retreating across the yard if I didn’t want to get my head knocked off. I couldn’t spare a glance in Gideon’s direction, though I was aware of the continuous tingle of magic in the air. He was dealing with the witch and would be forced to keep an eye on the other warlock. All I knew was that the trio couldn’t be permitted to live. If they escaped, Gideon was dead. I was dead. The runaways were dead.

I dodged punches as best I could, and those I couldn’t avoid were at least reduced to glancing blows that would leave me sore later in the day if I survived that long. He was coming at me so fast I couldn’t catch a break to cast an attack spell that would buy me a little breathing room. I waited, just trying to stay on my feet with the shovel handle clenched in my fists. I was praying for an opening.

Unfortunately, the opening came from an angle I wasn’t expecting and didn’t welcome. Brazil pulled back from his last punch, but froze for a second when something off to his left caught his attention. I heard the movement, but I didn’t dare look. Tightly gripping the shovel, I swung it as hard as I could, slamming the metal spade against the side of his head. He went down like a sack of wet noodles.

“Gage! Watch out!” a young girl’s voice shouted. I twisted to see Alice and the other kids racing around the side of the small ramshackle house. They had gone around my locked door.

Time slowed down to a crawl. Alice sharply halted several yards away from me and swung her wand, sending out a bolt of red energy across the yard. A blast of bright white energy was already streaking across the street from the now-conscious warlock. But the white light wasn’t coming at me as it should have been. The energy hit Alice square in the chest and her small, thin body was thrown backward. Her long blond hair flared out from her in a pale cascade before she hit the ground with a lifeless thud.

“No!” I screamed. The warlock should have been aiming for me. He should have attacked me. But instead, he killed a kid.

The world grew dark as I turned to face the warlock who had killed Alice. Energy snapped and crackled like a downed power line. Black clouds churned and lightning jumped across the sky followed by the angry rumble of thunder. I wasn’t conscious of drawing the energy together, but I welcomed it. It danced along my skin while all the fine hairs on my body stood on end. There was so much energy in the air, I felt like I could pull the world apart.

The warlock looked nervously up at the sky and then took a step back as his eyes darted to me. Holding the handle in both hands, I snapped it near the spade over my knee with the help of a little magic. I dropped the metal spade with a thud and then drove the spike through the chest of the warlock I had knocked out only seconds before. He never stirred, never cried out, as I plunged the spike through his heart.

The other bastard snarled something at me, but I couldn’t make it out. Stepping on the dead warlock’s chest, I pulled the spike out and held it in my right hand like a bloody spear.

The warlock hurled a nasty attack spell at me, aiming to rip my flesh off, but I batted it away with a thick wave of energy. At the same time I threw a fireball at him with my left hand. A smile curled on my lips as I watched him predictably raise his hands in the proper countercurse to protect himself. Hefting my spear, I threw it at him with all my strength and the bulk of the energy shifting in the air. The broken handle hit him hard enough to plunge through his chest and throw him backward. The point of the spear slammed into a telephone pole behind him, pinning the bastard to the thick wooden beam.

The man weakly groaned, his hands loosely clasping the spear in the middle of his chest as the last of his life drained out of his body. Blood soaked his clothes and ran like a river down to the sidewalk.

I started to march across the street to make sure this kid-killing fucker died in as much pain as humanly possible, but Gideon stepped in front of me. I tried to shove him away, energy arcing between us. Gideon shoved me back and then backhanded me hard enough to make me stumble.

“Pull yourself together!” he said in a low, harsh voice.

“He killed Alice,” I snarled. Blind with rage and pain, I was ready to take him apart.

“I know, but you need to get a grip. You’ve got enough magic gathered to kill us all.” I rubbed my sore jaw, staring at him through narrowed eyes as his words slowly sank in. “Pull it together, for the kids.”

“The witch?” I asked, trying to breathe around the fury licking at my brain. My tight grip on the magic energy in the air started to loosen. The charge slackened and the air grew less dense as I packed my emotions away in a box in the back of my mind.

“Dead,” Gideon replied, motioning toward the bloody heap in the middle of the street. “You okay?”

I nodded, looking anywhere but at him. Standing in the middle of the street on that early morning, I understood for the first time why the Towers forbid warlocks and witches from marrying and having children. It wasn’t because they were afraid of them being distracted from their studies or some elitist idea of sullying themselves. It was simply too dangerous for us to form emotional attachments. We were brought to the Towers to learn control, but in a moment of rage and pain, all that control was thrown out the window and we became a deadly force of nature.

I couldn’t bear the idea of a child being killed by a warlock, especially a child I knew and respected. Yet standing there, struggling to bury the horror, I had a feeling that if it had been Trixie or Bronx instead of Alice, Gideon would not have been able to stop me without killing me.

“How’d they find us?” I asked, trying to push my thoughts to more important matters.

“They said something about blood.”

My head snapped up to look at Gideon. “Mine? I thought I—”

“No, one of the dead warlocks guarding you,” he said, cutting me off. “I think one of the kids stepped in the blood and tracked it here. They followed the trail.”

I cursed in a low voice, squeezing my eyes shut. I hadn’t thought of that. I should have thought of that. Should have thought of some protection spells to hide the kids better. Should have done something . . . more.

Turning, we walked over to where the kids were standing in a small semicircle. Paola was pressed against Étienne, softly sobbing, while Tony stood on the other side of his friend as silent tears slid down his dark brown cheeks. James was on his knees beside his sister, holding her hand in both of his, staring blindly. He wasn’t crying, but it would come as the numbness wore off.

As we drew close, Étienne glared at us and raised his wand. “He led them to us.” Paola raised a haunted expression to me, filled with fear that more fighting and dying would come. Tony looked as if he was about to shatter before my eyes, his mind unable to accept that I might have betrayed him through Gideon.

“No!” I said sharply as I stepped in front of Gideon. “They followed the blood on the baseball bat.” I wasn’t sure if that was it, but I didn’t want to risk any of them looking at their shoes, wondering if they had brought the attackers and Alice’s death.

Étienne’s face twisted in pain and confusion as he turned over the idea. “But—”

“Gideon risked his life to protect you. He risked his family to protect you. He didn’t betray us.”

The anger drained from their expressions to be replaced with pain. I stepped over and gently grabbed Paola’s elbow, pulling her away from Étienne. She looked at me with wide, sad eyes. “I need you to help James. Please.”

She nodded woodenly and moved over to the little boy’s side. Very carefully, she pulled him away from his dead sister and into her arms. He stood with his face buried in her side, his breathing growing heavy as the first sobs started to hit him.

Gideon swept in and knelt where James had been, spreading his black cloak on the ground. He gathered up the girl and lovingly laid her on the material. Folding her arms on her stomach, he wrapped her up in the cloak. I looked away when I saw the tears streaking down his pale cheeks, knowing he was thinking of his own daughter.

Turning my attention to Étienne, I cleared my throat so I could speak past the lump. “We need to get out of here. Do you know of another safe place to hide?”

“Yes.”

“Go inside now. Get everything you need and then leave out the back door. When you’re sure you’re safely hidden, send a message to me at my parlor,” I instructed in a hard, even voice, hoping the tone was drilling into his head past the pain and self-doubts.

“Yes, but . . .” His words immediately drifted off as he motioned toward Gideon; the warlock lifted the body in his arms.

“Gideon will see that she gets a proper burial. You need to get these kids to safety. It might be a little while, but eventually the Towers are going to come investigate this fight. You need to be gone.”

Étienne nodded and then quickly urged the others back into the house. They wordlessly followed his orders and I was grateful for that. I turned to find Gideon standing a couple feet away, the cloak-enshrouded Alice held in his arms with the same gentleness he would show any sleeping child. Tears still streaked his cheeks, but there was a coldness to his eyes that made me glad that he was on my side.

“We will end this,” he said in a low voice, and then he disappeared.

A chill swept over me as I stood there alone in the silence. I had a feeling that the
this
that Gideon was referring to was the Towers’ reign of terror. I hoped he was right, but I was afraid that we wouldn’t live to see the fruits of our labors.

A soft meow drew my attention to the ground to find Sofie stepping out of some thick bushes near the front porch. I had completely forgotten that she had been in my arms as I left the house. I couldn’t blame her for hiding, as there wasn’t much she could have done in that fight besides die. As I bent down toward the ground, she ran over to me and let me gather her up in my arms.

We stood guard at the side of the dilapidated old house as the kids gathered their meager belongings. I rubbed Sofie’s head, but she never purred. I stared off into space, concentrating on using a quiet spell that tracked all magic in the area, but no other witches or warlocks appeared.