Missing powers, p.22
Missing Powers, page 22
Closer. Closer.
Reg could hear Corvin’s blood singing in his veins.
Before he could sense what she was thinking or planning to do, Reg kissed him on the throat.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Reg’s heart was pounding hard. She could feel and smell Corvin’s blood pumping just beneath the surface. It was all she could do to restrain herself from any further action. She knew that one contact would be enough. Corvin had already proven himself susceptible to the siren’s kiss. That one touch of her lips was all that it would take.
But he didn’t know it yet.
He held her against him, expression exultant. “You are mine,” he insisted. “And now your powers are mine too.”
“That’s not what you’re supposed to say,” Reg told him.
He frowned, looking at her. “What?”
“You’re supposed to say, ‘yield to me.’ The rule is you have to get consent before stealing the powers of a conquest.”
He shook his head. “Why would I do that?”
“It’s the rule. You have to get me to say that I yield to you, before you can take my powers.”
“That’s just stupid,” Corvin spat. “I am not human. I don’t have to get consent for anything. I can enter. I can take. I can create and destroy. I don’t follow human rules.”
“You’re in a human body. I think you have to.”
“No. I take what I want.”
“And you want my stupid little human powers? Didn’t you say that they were inconsequential? That they are too small for you to care about?”
“Stuck on this planet with such weak inhabitants, I am forced to build upon what I have. One step and then another. Until I can destroy all of you.”
Reg never could understand the desire to destroy everything. Why did those seeking powers often want to destroy rather than build? Someone with the Witch Doctor’s power could do a lot of good in the world. Once he had had what he needed, he could help others. Change things for the better.
Corvin’s grip around her tightened. “Yield to me.”
He had, apparently, decided to follow the rules to get what he wanted. It would be faster. There would be fewer roadblocks. Reg breathed deeply a couple of times. Even though there was plenty of air, she was starting to get a little light-headed from the pheromones. She gripped Corvin tightly and looked into his eyes, looking for signs that he was succumbing to the trace of her saliva on his throat.
“No.”
“You must!”
Reg smiled and shook her head. “No. It has to be my free will and choice. And you haven’t convinced me yet. Corvin is usually better at this. You are… not very good.”
“I will take what I want—”
Corvin’s body suddenly shifted, and Reg clutched at him, trying to keep him from falling over. Some men were like that. They could barely stay on their feet once they were overcome by the siren’s venom. Lame. It was much easier to direct a man who stayed on his feet than to drag one who was too wobbly even to walk. Reg looked around. Something was missing. She hadn’t thought things through properly before deciding to pit her siren powers against Corvin’s abilities and the Witch Doctor’s powers.
“What is it?” Davyn asked.
“Umm… I need something.”
“What did you do? How did you…?” Davyn stared at Corvin’s blank expression. “What’s wrong with him?”
“It wears off. Don’t worry. But we need to figure out how to get the sah to leave him.”
“What… sah?”
“The Witch Doctor. Horace’s piece. You saw it move from Marian to Corvin?”
Davyn nodded, but it was clear that he didn’t yet understand the full impact of what he had seen. It might take him a while to catch up after being trapped in the void for so long.
“It was the sah that wanted you out of the way. He trapped you in the void so you couldn’t get in the way of his advancement. So he could lead the coven. Maybe steal the powers of everyone in the coven. And then use it as a steppingstone to… whatever the next thing is.”
“Right.”
Reg looked around again. “Is there a pond or something close by?”
Davyn considered. He pointed in one direction. “It’s a few miles away… there is a little creek and a slough. But… he’s not going to be able to walk that far. He can barely stand.”
Reg pointed her nose in the direction of the slough and concentrated. She could detect the scent of the water, very faint, on the breeze. With that smell in her nostrils, she could picture the body of water in her mind. She had two choices. She could transport herself and Corvin there, or…
Calling a body of water from two miles away was harder than making Mike’s ribs appear in her fridge, but when Reg opened her eyes, there it was in front of her. Davyn’s mouth hung open.
“What…?”
Reg dragged Corvin forward. He was compliant, moving with her as she pulled him. She grabbed his shoulder and threw him to the ground, falling to her knees. In a split second, she had an arm around his neck to force his face down into the water.
“What are you doing?” Marian shrieked, finally coming out of her daze. She hurried forward and pulled ineffectually at Reg, trying to stop her from what she had to do.
“Reg,” Davyn spoke urgently, also startled by her plan and the swiftness with which she put it into action. “Reg, you can’t do this. You’ll kill him.”
Reg turned her head toward Davyn, looking at him sidelong. “Do you have a better idea?”
“It’s murder. You can’t.”
“He kidnapped you. Tried to kill you.”
“But… you can’t.”
“Besides, it’s not murder. I’m a siren. Man is my natural prey. As long as I follow the human laws…” She pressed Corvin’s face firmly into the stagnant water and mud. He tried to escape her grasp, but his movements were sluggish. The sedating siren venom was doing its work. “They can’t charge me with anything.”
“You don’t want to do this.”
“Watch—and see—” Reg insisted.
“Corvin is your friend.”
“Mmm. Acquaintance,” Reg corrected. “He was trying to charm me. He wanted to consume my powers.”
“I know, but…” Davyn sounded miserable. “The two of you have been closer than I’ve ever known Corvin to be with anyone before. You… understood each other.”
Reg recognized the final struggles of the prey beneath her. Maybe her plan wasn’t going to work after all.
Corvin. Now!
The exchange happened so fast Reg could have missed it. Even expecting it, the sah transferred to her so quickly that she could barely shut the doors of her mind in time. She released Corvin and pushed herself into the void.
It had been easier when Davyn had been there. She’d at least had a reference point. But she had been into the void a few times, so she eventually found her way, slipping through the cracks of the plane she was in, into that netherworld.
So far, so good.
The emptiness of the void, with Davyn no longer there, was terrifying. He must have been out of his mind when he had first woken up there.
Francesca had said that the sah couldn’t come out of the air and enter into a person. Reg hoped that the opposite was not true. Corvin had suggested that the sah he had retrieved from Kareem had simply dispersed into the atmosphere. Harrison had not said that was impossible. She hoped she hadn’t misjudged the situation.
She used all her strength to push the foreign entity out of her head. The Witch Doctor’s sah had willingly left his powers behind in Corvin when it had appeared that Reg was going to kill him. He did not want that piece of himself to die with Corvin. Reg was no longer fighting against the piece of the Witch Doctor’s consciousness and his combined powers, but only against that one small spark.
He left her, escaping into the void. Reg lit the void on fire once more. She surrounded the small spark with walls of fire and then slipped through the cracks back to her own reality. She did what she could to seal those cracks once more, feeding flames in until she could do no more.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
Reg!”
Reg lay on her back on spongy ground, water soaking into her clothing. She stared up at the leaves on the trees and the fluffy white clouds floating in the sky. Everything was quiet and peaceful.
Except for the people around her who wouldn’t shut up and leave her alone.
“Reg, are you okay? She was under for a long time.”
“I think she’s okay. Reg? Can you talk? Can you sit up?”
Reg sat up, but only because hands pulled her up by her arms and stabilized her behind her back. She really would prefer to just lie in the grass for a while.
She saw Corvin in front of her. Squatting or kneeling in front of her so that her eyes were at a level with his. His hair was no longer wet, but stood up in untidy spikes. His face was smudged with mud. But at least he was alive. Reg cleared her throat.
“Hey.”
“Are you okay? Talk to me.”
Reg closed her eyes, wishing she could just go to sleep.
Talking is too hard.
“Okay. What do you need? Is it… gone?”
He’s gone.
“How? Where did he go? You just… were in a trance. We didn’t know if you were still fighting with him. I couldn’t reach you.”
“Give her water,” Davyn suggested. “She’s been working with fire.”
“Do I look like I have water on me?”
Reg opened her eyes and looked at Corvin, laughter bubbling out of her. “Yes!”
Corvin chuckled at this. He smoothed his hands over his messy hair. “Some crazy siren tried to drown me.”
“Normal siren behavior,” Reg told him.
“Well… maybe so, but I can tell you, I’d rather not have to go through that again.”
Reg closed her eyes. She wanted to go back to sleep, but the hands behind her still kept her sitting up.
“There’s water there,” she told Corvin, making a weak gesture toward a six-pack of water bottles beside him.
“I don’t think you want to be drinking the slough water. To be honest, it doesn’t taste that good.” Then Corvin saw the bottled water. His brows came down and he looked back at her. “Where did those come from?”
“Don’t know. Prob’ly the grocery store.”
He removed a bottle from the pack, cracked it open, and handed it to her. After all of her exertions, it felt very heavy. Corvin helped her to lift and steady it. Reg took several swallows before lowering it. She waited for the water to do its work, and looked around. Davyn was the one holding her up, watching her with great concern.
“You were out for a long time,” he explained, when he caught her eyes on him.
“Yeah. Can’t sense time in there. Or time is different.”
“In where, exactly?”
Reg shrugged with one shoulder. “I don’t know… not in this world. In space? Under the earth? Another plane? I don’t get how it works.”
“It wasn’t in a basement or something, then. It was… out there.”
Reg gave a slight nod. “And now, he is trapped there. I hope.”
“How?” Corvin asked. “Do you know a binding spell? It isn’t something I have known you to do before.”
It was interesting to note that he was unsure what she could do or had done before. Corvin had always been so sure of himself before, especially where she was concerned. He had held her powers. He should know her abilities just as well as she did. But maybe there were only certain things that he could take. Not her siren nature. Or maybe he could only know of the powers he had been able to wield during that short time. He had not known when he had held her powers that she could do a call or that she was a siren.
“I used fire.” Reg gave Davyn a smile. “I trapped him inside a cage of fire. I think it will burn for a long time there… there isn’t anything to stop it.”
Davyn shook his head, frowning. “But there is no fuel. Is there?”
“There must be, in order for me to kindle fire there.”
He nodded slowly. “Well… I guess. Sometimes it’s best not to question the possibility of what you have already seen or done…”
Corvin offered Reg the water again, and she took a few more swallows. “You made the Witch Doctor’s sah kindle a fire there earlier? Why? For yourself or for Davyn?”
“Both of us. I figured… we needed something to give us more strength. I had already tried to get Davyn out on my own, and I couldn’t.” She had another sip of the water. “I was worried you were going to give me away.”
“I wouldn’t say anything.”
“But you were thinking it.”
He nodded, conceding this point. Reg leaned forward, testing her strength. She could sit up on her own as long as she braced her elbows against her knees for support. Davyn stayed in position for a moment, making sure she wasn’t going to collapse again, then circled around her to crouch down beside Corvin so that she could see them both. Reg looked around and spotted Marian, sitting on the altar stone, her head in her hands. Violets grew thickly around the stone.
“Is she okay? Marian?”
Marian looked up momentarily. Her face was streaked with tears. She looked tired and haggard. Being possessed by the sah or the stress of the events that had followed had worn her out.
“I just want to go home,” Marian said. She rubbed her eyes. “I don’t understand this. What just happened?”
Reg tried to figure out how to tell it all to Marian succinctly. Marian didn’t look like she could handle too much detail. “We just… were trying to free Davyn from where he was being held.”
“But you drowned him,” Marian looked at Corvin. “Why were you trying to drown him?”
“Uh…” Reg’s cheeks heated. There was no point in trying not to blush. That never worked. “It was the only way I could think of to get the sah to leave him. If he thought that Corvin was going to die, he would want to get out. I don’t really know how it all works, but I figured if the host died, the sah would too. Or at least, he would have to go somewhere else.” Reg glanced at Corvin, apologetic. “I didn’t think anything else would make him leave you again. Not when you held all of his powers.”
“Probably the right call,” Corvin admitted. “But I can’t say I’m happy with putting the theory into practice.”
“Are you happy he’s not in your head anymore?”
“Well… yes. Although the feeling that I had when he was there was…” He searched for words. Reg could sense the emotions he was projecting, but also had a hard time saying what it was. He hadn’t been happy. In fact, he had been very angry and irritable when the sah had been in him.
“Powerful?” she suggested.
“Yes… I suppose. Confident, maybe? We go through this life always wondering about our choices. Whether we did the right thing. Questioning our successes and blaming ourselves for our failures. But with him in my head, there was none of that. Just… strength and confidence. Not confidence that I was making the right choice, but… that anything I did was right.”
Marian looked at Corvin with wide eyes. “Yes,” she agreed. “I’ve never felt that way before.”
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Davyn sat on the garden bench with Reg. The sun shone brightly through the trees and it was warm and pleasant. Reg listened to the sound of the tiny waterfall that dribbled into the goldfish pond. It was soothing. She liked to be close to water, even if it was just a little pool.
Davyn didn’t have much to say. Reg supposed he was still trying to process what had happened to him. It would have to be pretty traumatic to be kidnapped and bound like that, held in nothingness for days.
“I can’t believe it was five days,” Davyn said. “It didn’t seem like that long. I don’t know what I thought… maybe a day, or a night. It was so dark and empty; there was nothing to mark the passage of time.”
“I know,” Reg agreed. “Every time I went into it, it took much longer than I thought. Maybe they just operate on a different time scale. You know, an hour there is a day here, or something like that.”
“Maybe. I appreciate everything you did. I don’t think I can express that enough. You did something I don’t think anyone else could have done.”
Reg shrugged. “There aren’t a lot of firecasters around here. I just… did what I could. I didn’t think I did that great a job. And it took so long. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get you out in time.” Reg’s throat constricted and hot tears prickled in her eyes. She did her best to push away the unwelcome burst of emotion. Everything was fine. She didn’t have to worry about how things might have turned out, because they hadn’t. She had helped Davyn to escape his prison. End of story.
“You did do a great job. You should be proud of yourself.”
Reg shrugged it off. There were footsteps on the path, and Reg looked up to see Julian approaching. “Oh. Hi.”
Davyn stood up. He gave Julian a quick bro hug, slapping him on the back. His face was pink.
“Ready to go home?” Julian asked.
“Yes. I think I’m still catching up on my sleep.” He gave a little laugh. “You wouldn’t think that it would take so much energy, doing nothing for that length of time…”
“You have been through an ordeal,” Julian responded, shaking his head. “There’s nothing weak about needing to recover from what you have been through.”
Davyn shrugged. He gave Reg a little wave. “We’ll get back together for some more instruction once I’m feeling back to myself.”
Reg was relieved about that. She had been a little worried that he would be embarrassed about her saving him or say that she was ahead of him in her abilities and he couldn’t mentor her anymore. She was glad that he was still planning to continue the sessions.
“Okay. Thanks. Feel better soon.”
He nodded and left with Julian. Reg remained sitting on the bench, looking at the beautiful blooms and lush greens of the garden, listening to the tinkling of the running water. It was a lovely little oasis there, a place she found herself more and more inclined to go to sit and think or just relax for a while. She had never been much of an outdoors person.
