I closed my eyes as a wave of sorrow swamped me, only to be followed by the warmth of my brother’s love.
Castor tugged me onto the couch and wrapped both arms around me, forcing me to snuggle back into him. “You need a hug.”
I stiffened. Having a brother was still so new. While I was already crazy about him, I wasn’t used to how touchy-feely he was. Just like Nikolos. At his name, I thought of what I’d just seen. And felt. Squeezing my eyes shut tight, I took a moment, just a moment, to soak up some of my brother’s comfort. “I saw him.”
He didn’t have to ask who. “How?”
“Blythe’s dream spell worked, but not the way it was supposed to. I went to him and he looked so bad. So damned bad. He’s alive and trapped there and he’s being tortured.” I held my breath.
“You’ll get him back. I know it.”
I fought to bring my emotions under control. Breaking down wouldn’t help anyone, let alone Nikolos.
“Beri.” Castor touched my cheek to make me look at him. “You don’t have to do any of this alone. If you haven’t noticed, you’ve got a whole family now.”
“I’m used to doing things on my own. Most of my life I only had Phro and Fred. I don’t even know where Fred is or who he is… The man was with me since birth and now I don’t know why and I don’t know where he went and—” I broke off, tried to swallow the lump in my throat. What was it about my brother that made me just spill my emotions like this? I shuddered, pulled away from him.
“I love you, Beri. I always have.”
“I’m sorry I can’t remember you.”
He sighed. “I’m not. If I have my way, your whole childhood would be wiped from your memories. Since that’s not possible, I’ll just do my best to make sure there are a lot of good ones from here on out.”
“So you plan to live here. Indefinitely. We’ll probably be stuck in Nikolos’s home for a while.”
“Did you think I was going back to Alligator Flag?” He grinned. “Nah. I missed most of your life so far. I don’t want to miss any more. Besides, I have this feeling we’re supposed to be together. I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do. Not yet. I feel kind of useless.”
I frowned at him. “When I get Nikolos back, we’ll figure out what we’re going to do. I can’t really go back to my old life and, well, you do have strength like me. Could help out on my monster runs.” Even as I said it, I knew he needed something other than that. He was a man and proud like any other. I touched his arm. “You’ll figure out what you want to do.”
“I do know I want to stay here. With you and Elsa.”
I grinned. “You know she has this partner who is crazy in love with her, right?”
He leaned back and crossed his arms. “Hey, I didn’t say anything about being in love. But I like her. She’s funny. Sarcastic, like you, but with a gun.” He waggled his copper brows.
Groaning, I stood up. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those guys who likes to look at women with guns.”
All he did was blush.
I cracked up.
He leaned forward, eyed me for a long moment. “Hey, Beri? You do know there are different levels of love. There’s being in love with someone so much you want to crawl into their skin or lie next to them in the dark and breathe in their breaths. There’s the love for family and then there’s another kind. When two people click—when they feel a special bond that’s stronger than mere friendship. You have that with Elsa. She’s very good for you.”
“I know. It’s hard to explain how much I care for her.”
“No, it’s not. You literally fought demons to save her. She would do the same for you.”
She would. So would Castor. I was a lucky woman. “I do need to find Blythe.”
“She was watching a movie in here and suddenly jumped up to say she needed to make something for the trip.”
“She say what?”
“No. There was a lot of banging in the kitchen, then a burning smell like she was soldering something. I do know she rerouted a delivery of woodruff here today from Germany.”
“She’s probably making a safety talisman,” Dooby said as he glided into the room on slippers that matched his slithery robe. He plopped elegantly on the couch and propped his feet on my brother’s thighs. Castor merely chuckled and patted a slipper. Dooby leaned his head back on the cushions and looked up at me. “Woodruff is sometimes made into things for protection.”
“Okay, thanks.” I left them lounging there and walked all over the house looking for Blythe. I found the room she was using—I could tell by the huge freaking yellow bag—but I finally located her in the greenhouse holding the tiny box I’d made. Her spirit guide stood a few feet behind her, silent as always. I shivered, hugged my arms to my chest and wished I’d put on a sweater. And shoes. Blythe had left the door open, so it was freezing in here.
“I took it from Dooby because I don’t think the sprite will like this.” Blythe opened the lid, sniffed it and wrinkled her nose. “It’s like a coffin.”
“Then I did better than I thought. Don’t vampires sleep in coffins?”
She frowned. “In the movies, but not in real life. And why would they? Think about it. You’re basically dead, but it would be sad to be dead, so why sleep in something that’s just a reminder that you’re dead?”
Phro appeared beside me and hopped up on one of the two tables. “Here she goes.”
I stared at Phro, still pissed about her disappearance earlier. “Blythe, it’s a vampire. It’s not alive and did you notice his cape and tuxedo? Trust me, he sleeps in a coffin. It’s like he swallowed the entire old-vampire movie collection when he was turned.”
She set it down and picked up a bigger piece of wood. “I think I could build him a better box, one that would give him room for stuff. Maybe paint it yellow so it’s cheerful.”
Pain throbbed behind my eyes again, so I rubbed my temples and sighed. “I’m sure he’d appreciate your offer of a yellow mini-apartment, but I couldn’t care less about how he feels right now. Just think about how dark a nature vampires have, think about all the little pieces of furniture he had on that table. Think he wants to live in anything yellow?”
“I suppose not. But he’s a sprite too. I met sprites once—at a witches’ summit. They were always flying around me and telling me how pretty I looked in my dresses. They said I looked and smelled like flowers.”
“You do smell like flowers. It’s better than the dirt you said I smelled like.”
Blythe dropped the wood and propped her hands on her hips. “I said you smelled like honeysuckle and clean dirt. There’s a big difference. But lately, you smell kind of—” She broke off and covered her mouth with her hand.
“What? That sprite said the hell dimension. Those dweller demons smelled like vomit. Please tell me I don’t smell like that.”
“Oh no, no. But you do have a little of that ill smell to you. It’s faintly metallic. And it’s stronger than it was earlier today. But the honeysuckle is still there and it’s nice.”
“You don’t have to flatter me, Blythe. I’m a big girl.” I looked at the little box. “As for his new sleeping container, just remember that the vamp virus probably canceled out all that sprite happy.” I leaned my hip against the table, not caring that I’d get dirt on my clothes. I already had it on me. “Your dream spell sent me to Nikolos. I think that’s why the hell dimension smell is stronger.”
Blue eyes went global. “He didn’t come to you?”
I shook my head. “I just woke up with him. Didn’t get to see how to get there or anything. But it’s bad. I don’t want him there any longer, so I’m ready to head out. You can sleep in the car.”
“Take this first.” She handed me a beautiful silver ring with a flat, hammered top. There was a tiny, delicate white petal in the center with something clear over it. “I had to use resin. It’s not as pretty as something I’d normally make, but I didn’t have a lot of time.” She shrugged. “Resin works fast and, this way, I could get the Master of the Woods plant in something permanent. I spelled the rings for extra protection.”
I looked around for ashes, sniffed the air for smoke.
She blushed. “I don’t cause a fire every time I do magic, Beri. And this was a simple wish spell. The magic was in the creation of the rings and in the woodruff.”
“Rings?”
She turned her hand over to show me the identical matching ring on her index finger. “They are for a soldier’s protection.”
“Blythe, we’re going to find a group of witches who sing pretty music. We’re not going to war.”
“You never know. The runes said something different and Sophie’s complete world upheaval has my stomach doing flip-flops.”
I slid the ring onto my finger. “It’s lovely. Thank you.”
This dotty, fire-happy witch had somehow crawled into my world and made a permanent place. She’d become my friend. I didn’t have any of those, so I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I hated wearing rings. It really was pretty though.
It didn’t take us long to get on the road. I called Elsa’s phone and left a message, telling her I’d printed out our route and left it on the dresser in the room she was using. She had been working long hours to make up for the time the dweller demon had put her into a coma. Dooby promised to keep working on the book and fast, and Castor promised to keep an eye on him. I could tell my brother wasn’t happy about being left behind.
I didn’t know what to do with the vamp, so I packed him into my overnight bag.
Six hours into the trip, I was ready to strangle Blythe. She put some sort of pine-scented crap in the vehicle and whatever it was messed with my nose so much I had to pull over once because I couldn’t stop sneezing. She tossed the little baggie of pine in a trash can at a gas station. Then she spent the first three hours telling me the meaning of every color, every candle, and I now knew more than I ever wanted to know about her past boyfriends and their prowess in bed. She’d completely embraced the girl’s road trip and when she finally nodded off, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Then she woke up and turned green.
“Oh no, not cool,” I said. “Please tell me you aren’t turning colors for the reason I think you are.” The midday sun speared my eyeballs as we topped a hill. I rummaged around on my seat, feeling for my cheap sunglasses. I always bought them cheap because I had a habit of sitting on them. Putting them anywhere else didn’t help either because they always ended up under my butt.
A long, pitiful moan poured out of Blythe. “The spell isn’t working,” she mumbled, wrapping her arms around her middle and curling up in the front seat.
“Spell? Goddess, Blythe, have we covered this subject enough by now or what? We’re only about an hour from the concert spot.”
She only made a whimpering noise, grabbed her stomach.
“Seriously, what spell? Because if you set any fires in Nikolos’s home that I don’t know about, so help me…”
Her answer was to jerk up off the seat and puke all over the floor.
“Shit, Blythe! What have you been eating?”
“Not shit,” she mumbled, gagging again.
Cursing, I pulled Nikolos’s T-shirt up over my nose and looked for an exit off the highway. I had to let go of the material to roll the window down, but thankfully, cold air rushed in to freshen the Jeep. Blythe proceeded to shiver.
I had no idea where we were, but I pulled off the highway and hunted down a car wash. There were no town markers, nothing to tell me where we were, and the road off the highway was unlike any exit I’d ever taken. Narrow and heavily wooded on the sides, it held sharp curves, had no side roads and went on for a good twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes of Blythe groaning and dry heaving.
All I knew is we were somewhere near the Talladega National Forest. Or maybe in it. There were certainly a lot of chestnut oaks and loblolly pines. When the trees abruptly stopped, I caught sight of a familiar figure. I hit the brakes, my eyes narrowing to try and see him better. Shock and a sudden deep, cutting pain in my chest nearly sent me off the road.
“Fred?” I whispered, before jamming my foot down on the gas to get to that shimmering, blurry form in front of a tiny car wash next to an equally small motel.
But he wasn’t there.
Breathing hard, I looked everywhere, taking in the strip mall with four shops and the thick woods surrounding this minuscule grouping of buildings.
I must have imagined him, or maybe I missed him so much I’d dreamed him up. I was tired. So tired.
Briefly closing my eyes, I worked to get my emotions back under control, then glanced at Blythe. She wouldn’t be traveling in the car anymore today. She’d curled her small form in a ball on the seat beside me. I reached out and patted her curls. “You should have told me you get carsick. I would have made more stops.” My voice sounded like I’d been sucking on rusty nails. I cleared my throat.
“I thought it would be okay. I mixed two spells. Two charm bags. One with marjoram and dried violets, and one with pine.”
“And you had to toss the pine.”
“Apparently, that one works better. The pine was really fresh.” She made one of those dry-heaving noises.
Blythe sounded so pitiful I couldn’t gripe anymore. At least she’d tried to prevent this from happening. Who knew I had an allergy to certain pines? I parked my Jeep in one of the car wash bays and turned to stare at her. Pale, shaking and still faintly green, Blythe would be traveling no more today. I eyed the cheap-looking motel. “We’re less than an hour from our destination, so I’m going to go ahead and check us in there so you can sleep this off.”