Authors: Sydney Bristow
Nolan scoffed. “The witches in your line had been adding entries to the book for centuries, so why wouldn’t they explain how they captured Zephora’s soul in the box?” He shook his head, dissatisfied. “We’re missing something.”
“We’re not, okay?” shouted Celestina, pressing herself between the front seats. “Why don’t you believe me? Do you think I’m lying? Do you think I’m just an idiot? What’s your fucking problem?”
“Hey!” I shouted, unsurprised by her anger, but startled that she’d cursed. “That language? Not here, Celestina.” I glared at her in the rearview mirror. “Not with me. Not ever. You understand?”
She looked off to the right behind her, unwilling to hear me set the tone for our relationship.
“Hey,” I shouted once more. “Do you understand?’”
With baited breath, still with her head in the other direction, she nodded.
As much as I hated to hear my niece disrespect me, I also knew teenagers tested boundaries but actually needed them. Therefore, I didn’t say another word about her outburst and allowed her to save face. Regarding her assertion that no information existed in
The Book of Souls
about how to banish Zephora’s soul back into the box, I believed that Celestina told the truth.
“What now?” asked Nolan. “We’re no better off now than when we took off from Celestina’s house.”
“You’re right,” I admitted. “We can’t keep running. I’ve got to end this.” Now on the north side of Chicago, I pulled onto West Addison Avenue, heading toward Cumberland. I could take that street toward the expressway, but Alexis would remain on my tail until I ran out of gas. To escape that predicament without ending up dead, intuition told me to get off the road sooner rather than later. Not only that, but I’d need to face my sister alone. If Zephora remained at her side, I’d be unable to defeat both at the same time. As that thought formed, my niece’s accusations punctured my mind. How could I avoid the preordained?
“I’m getting out,” I told Nolan. “Drive Celestina somewhere safe. Protect her. Don’t let them try to control her.”
“Where are you going?” he asked with a sidelong gaze, revealing that he didn’t want me to leave.
“My sister and Zephora want to kill me. I’ve got to face them.”
“Are you nuts?” he asked, incredulous. He sat upright and turned to face me, intensity burning bright in his eyes. “There’s gotta be another way.”
The cushions popped in the backseat as Celestina edged closer to the front seat. “No, I’m coming with you.”
As I passed Plainfield Street, I said to Nolan, “Drive away, get some gas, and look for my next text message.” I met Celestina’s gaze. “If I can’t make your mom see reason, then…” I didn’t have an alternate plan. Pretty pathetic! “Once I lose them, we’ll try to set your mom straight.” She met my stare with indignation. I tried not to let her anger disrupt my thoughts, but they did. I felt a connection with her that went beyond explanation, and it would never change. I just hoped she’d give me the benefit of the doubt that I fought alongside her and not against her.
As I came upon Panama Street, I screeched to a stop, jumped out, and said to Nolan, who jumped into the driver’s seat, “Wait for my text.” I considered popping the trunk and removing the Soul Sword, but I didn’t for a few reasons. First, it would give Alexis a chance to reach the car. She might drive right into me, pinning my body between my car and hers. I didn’t put too much faith in the scenario, but given Alexis’s ever-fluctuating demeanor, I couldn’t rule it out. Second, I planned to run and hide, only to take Alexis by surprise a short time later. If I had the sword, I wouldn’t be able to run quickly enough to put enough distance between us because it would be incredibly difficult to run while carrying a large sword. Finally, if a resident saw me running down a sidewalk or through the alley carrying a sword, that person would call the cops.
Therefore, I hurried around the hood and took off down Panama Street, hoping to run through some yards, and allow my physical endurance to put some distance between Alexis and Zephora. With a glance over my shoulder, I spotted Alexis running after me, hot on my trail. It seemed I’d underestimated her stamina. I’d forgotten that she’d spent plenty of time at the gym. I hoped I could put enough space between us to set my plan into action. Despite that, I suspected my scheme fit my imagination better than actuality.
I pushed my legs hard, racing along single-story homes built of brick until I cut a left through a sidewalk halfway down the street, hoping the change in direction would slow down my sister. No such luck. Despite her dependence upon alcohol, she had spent so much time in the gym perfecting her body tone for her job at the strip club that she’d probably not even raised her heartbeat since she’d left her vehicle.
Regardless, I hadn’t seen Zephora following us, so I had to assume she’d continued after Nolan. However, because she had limited experience driving in the 21
st
Century, and since she’d only driven once after arriving from beyond the veil since her last incarnation in the Roaring Twenties, I suspected she’d soon give up and drive through the neighborhood in hopes of picking up Alexis.
If I guessed right, I’d only be facing Alexis, which based on Celestina’s visions might not end as I’d hoped.
I ran alongside a sidewalk on the right side of the house until I came upon a small rectangular patch of grass after which lay a garage. I passed it up, burst through an open gate and whipped it shut to put even more time and distance between Alexis and I, before emerging into an alley. Rather than stand there and consider which direction I should go, I darted to the right.
Not hearing Alexis approach the gate behind me, I ran alongside two more garage doors before hanging a left. I unlatched the lock on an eight-foot tall wooden gate, and entered the backyard.
A dog barked about fifty yards ahead, but rather than deal with the beast, I stuck my shoes into the solid grey fence to my right and jumped it with ease. I entered a different yard that had contained a wooden fence on the other side of the yard. It appeared the owner had just begun transitioning from a metal fence to a wooden one. Beyond the in-ground pool straight ahead in their backyard, I heard another rumbling groan from the throat of yet one more dog. How many residents left their dogs outside this late at night? This area was far from a high crime neighborhood. Regardless, the beasts hadn’t raced after the unseen racket, revealing at least two owners had tethered their dog leashes to their homes, preventing them from cutting loose and roaming the yard at will.
Rather than contemplate the issue, since I couldn’t do anything about it, I crept alongside the garage, trying to remain as silent as possible. After all, because one dog had already begun barking, he might wake up its owners (and neighbors), not to mention aggravate the canine in this yard.
Judging by a quick glimpse and the sound of the mutt, I pegged him as a German shepherd. They were a determined and tenacious breed. Since the animal had a full-throated bark, the dog was probably in his prime: too quick to outrun and too robust to defeat without a weapon. Although he’d raised his neck, he still lay on the ground. Why hadn’t he gotten to his feet? Maybe he had poor vision?
Given the time of night and that only a few lampposts stretched across the alley, which might allow me to use the darkness to hide from the German shepherd and Alexis, I pressed my spine against the garage’s brick siding and remained silent, even going so far as to not breathe more than necessary. I slid my back alongside the surface, hoping not to brush my feet against the grass, much less branches or leaves.
After two steps, however, my foot slid across a branch that scraped against the garage.
The chain collar on the German shepherd rattled. His toenails slashed against the wooden deck up ahead as he got up on all fours to scan the perimeter.
I didn’t need to poke my head in his direction to know he’d sensed a disturbance in my direction. I took even breaths in order to make the least amount of noise as possible.
The dog next door either heard the clamor or sensed the German shepherd’s alertness because it let out a half-bark, unsure whether whatever made noise nearby deserved a full-throated acknowledgement.
Cursing my bad luck, I tilted my head to the right, listening for any indication Alexis had cut the distance between us. I didn’t hear a thing, probably because she’d also heard the dogs and didn’t want to trigger their suspicion and encourage them to hurry in her direction.
The humid yet somewhat cool air sifted around me, ensuring that all of the running I’d done resulted in my sending plumes of moisture out of my mouth every time I exhaled. I measured my breaths, trying to reduce the amount of visibility that each gasp might send forth.
Neither dog made another sound, but I presumed they still surveyed the area for any sound or movement.
From behind me, I heard pebbles skid across the pavement. Alexis had arrived.
If I moved forward, the German shepherd would hunt me down. If I turned back toward the alley, my sister would confront me. I couldn’t head to my right because it featured a seven-foot tall wooden fence, and I couldn’t scale it because the fence was smooth and didn’t have any footholds in order for me to push off on and enter the next yard. I could run to my left and jump the metal fence before the German shepherd tracked me down, but I’d still need to face the dog next door that wasn’t tied up would no doubt have tracked my progress, giving him enough time to meet me once I landed into his yard.
I’d boxed myself in.
With Alexis closing in and the hounds on high alert, I was short of breath despite having stood in place for the last twenty seconds. I leaned against the garage wall…only to discover that ridges molded against my spine. I half-turned around, eager to find out why ridges pressed into my back.
Behind me, a thick, vertical wire-mesh trellis reached from the top to the bottom of the wall, where a plethora of plants reached up to the top of the rectangular flat surface garage that extended twelve feet in the air. Without a second thought, I spun around silently, plugged a foot into an open spot of the trellis and pulled myself up. I wavered for a moment, sending my heartbeat thundering in my chest, but I’d managed to snag hold of the wooden shakes on the roof, allowing me to maintain my balance.
While tempted to examine the area for some way to propel myself on top of the garage, I negated the possibility because the lamppost didn’t shine light on this area, making it difficult to determine if there were any aspects of the roof to clutch onto in order to pull myself up. Besides, doing so would allow uncertainty to take hold of my mind, resulting in making too much noise and freezing in place, and falling to the ground. Soon afterwards, the German shepherd would bark like crazy and Alexis would pounce on me.
Therefore, rather than contemplate how I might shove myself up to the roof of the garage, I simply vaulted forward, slid my right hand across the wooden roof, grasped onto a sturdy piece, and pulled myself up an inch or two. But the piece of roofing couldn’t handle that much weight, so I thrust my hand forward in hopes of locating something that might stabilize my weight. My hand fell free, and my body slid down.
If I continued to spill downwards, I’d fall off the trellis and slam into the concrete below. I extended my hand one more time and my palm clutched onto a long, steel rod. Clutching onto it sent my body swinging from side-to-side. Rather than worrying that I might not be able to hold on long enough to regain my balance, I tugged on the rod, pulling myself upwards. My knees banged into the trellis, and a jarring, metallic thump vibrated against the garage wall.
The German shepherd let out a string of barks, which encouraged his canine neighbor to do the same. In the alley, Alexis’s shoes slipped across a patch of pebbles as she no doubt came to a stop.
I used all my strength and balance and then hoisted myself upwards. I plugged a knee onto the roof and pitched myself on top of the garage. I hit the surface with a thump.
The sound drew fierce barking from the German shepherd and his buddy next door. Maybe their volume drowned out any sounds I might have heard from Alexis if she scurried ever closer to the garage. Surely, she heard my body flop onto the roof of the garage. I splayed my body against the roof and caught my breath to prevent anyone from seeing me, if they hadn’t already. I pulled out my cell phone, set it to vibrate, and texted Nolan with my location in hopes that he might circle around in order to pick me up…if I could find a way out of this mess.
In between the uproar the dogs created, I heard rocks scratch against the pavement in the alley, only it came from further back than where I’d heard Alexis. I examined the alley.
Far off to the right, Zephora made her way in my direction, glancing left and right with every step. Although she could no doubt pinpoint Alexis’s position, she couldn’t do likewise with me since Celestina had used an incantation to conceal my location. Unfortunately, the spell also prohibited my niece from finding me. I hoped Nolan had no difficulty navigating his way through the dark streets.
When the dogs stopped barking in order to find out if an unseen trespasser loitered nearby, I turned around, having steadied my breathing, and glanced over the side, only to notice that Alexis had jumped the fence and had entered the yard.
At the front of the house, a light flickered to life. The whoosh of a door opened, and slippers swept across wooden steps before stopping beside the barking German shepherd.
I laid my chest flat on the roof. A hollow thump down below and to my right made it clear that Alexis had pressed her back against the garage.
“What’s wrong?” a timid female voice asked the dog about forty yards ahead. “Is someone out here with you?” While those questions elicited a cacophony of noise from her dog, I didn’t hear slippers shuffle against the ground.
In hopes of disclosing my sister’s hiding place to frighten the owner, whereby she might call the police, which might persuade Alexis and Zephora to leave, I swung my body around, stretched out across the roof. I hung my head and arms over the garage.
Alexis heard me move because she looked up, shocked to find me above her.
I smiled down at her, extended my arms, and called upon the energy around me in hopes of delivering an energy blast at her….only to discover nothing had happened. Startled, knowing my sister could run away at any moment, I doubled my efforts and still, they failed me.
Below, my sister smirked, but she didn’t move, aware that the homeowner might see her.
How had my abilities floundered? It only occurred earlier because Zephora had removed them. I concentrated on sending twin bolts of fire at my sister, but once again, nothing happened.
Alexis’s smile broadened, as though aware I’d lost my paranormal abilities.
Then I recalled how Zephora had slung a pulse of energy that hit my back before I’d splayed out across the hood of my car. The energy had drained from my body. Somehow, Zephora must have stolen my gifts. Dammit! I needed to formulate a new plan of attack.
Knowing Alexis wouldn’t dare disclose her position now and risk having the homeowner dart back into the house to call the cops, I swerved back to the roof and considered my options. I could stay up here and wait for Celestina and Nolan to arrive. Would they be able to defeat Zephora and Alexis?
Obviously, Nolan had shown some abilities that had surprised me, and like my niece, he seemed to access new gifts as each day passed, but he had little experience using them. He relied more on instinct than on knowledge. Despite that, would he have enough confidence in his abilities to fight Zephora? More to the point, could he defeat her? I doubted it. When it came to Celestina, would she throw down against her mother? No way! She’d made it clear less than half an hour ago. As much as I wanted to count on Nolan and Celestina, I couldn’t. Contacting Kendall and Brandon would also prove fruitless, since they were at least thirty minutes away, and not nearly as powerful as the allies I had in closer proximity.
It seemed I might soon battle Alexis and Zephora…without any magical abilities to rely upon. For the first time since I’d learned that I was a witch and faced skilled adversaries, I didn’t know what to do.