Helpless (Blue Fire Saga) (15 page)

21. REPORTING BACK

S
tefan, Genevieve and Dara made it back to the vampire lair well before dawn. The late hour had allowed them to race across the roadway of the East Haddam Bridge, rather than climbing hidden along the outer girders. The rest of the way was all within the dark woods along the river’s shoreline.

“Say nothing about tonight to anyone,” Stefan instructed his two companions as soon as they entered the caverns. “This is a matter for Ricard, and perhaps the Council.

Genevieve and Dara nodded their agreement and disappeared deeper into the caverns. Stefan knew they kept no secrets from each other, but he was confident they would feel no need to talk to anyone else. He headed directly to Ricard’s chambers.

He found the vampire chieftain in his smaller rear chamber, stretched out upon an ornate four poster bed. Each of the bedposts was etched with incredibly detailed carvings of gargoyles and demons. The bed’s mattress had not survived the long sea voyage to America, but the firm wooden platform was more than comfortable enough for a vampire. Ricard’s eyes were open, but they stared vacantly up at the cavern ceiling in what passed for vampire sleep.

Stefan stood silently in the chamber’s entrance, waiting for Ricard to acknowledge his presence. He did not have long to wait.

Ricard swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. He studied Stefan for a moment.

“You do not look happy,” he said.

“I have failed you, my lord,” Stefan replied, keeping his gaze down toward the floor.

Ricard was clearly surprised. He had not expected to hear such words from his protégé. He lifted Stefan’s chin with his fingers.

“Tell me.”

Stefan began recounting the night’s events, despite the discomfort reliving his defeat brought him.

“I do not understand it,” he said when he was finished. “I could clearly sense Jarubu’s strength. He is powerful, yes, but I am stronger, significantly so. And yet somehow I was not. He seems to possess some hidden reservoir of strength beyond my power to detect.”

Ricard thought for a moment, digesting Stefan’s report. “What about the female?”

“Genevieve and Dara reported the same thing. The woman was unexpectedly strong. She broke free when they both had hold of her. She did not seem to be as powerful as Jarubu, though.”

“This is not good,” Ricard said. He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Two vampires of such power hunting unchecked so near to us can only lead to trouble. They must be stopped. And soon.”

He stood up and began pacing the chamber, thinking.

“Perhaps I should go with you next time,” he said after a few moments, “along with a few other members of the Council.”

Ricard’s words surprised Stefan—such a show of force was unprecedented. Still, he wondered if even that would be enough. He had another idea, a crazy idea. He decided to share it.

“I’m not sure that is wise, my lord. There is more to these two than just their hidden strength. It’s hard to describe, but their vibrations are off.”

Ricard’s brow furrowed. “Off? What do you mean?”

“We could not detect their exact location, even when we were close. We knew they were there somewhere, but their vibrations were vague, as if they had been cloaked in mist and spread upon the wind. That’s the best I can explain it.” Stefan hesitated, but then forced himself to continue. “Forgive me, my lord, but I do not think we should risk you, not when there is so much we do not understand. You are too important to our coven.”

Ricard’s expression grew hard. The thought that there might be a vampire he could not best did not sit well with him. But the vampire lord was wise as well as powerful, and not prone to act rashly.

“You have another idea, then?” he asked.

“I do, my lord.” A plan had been formulating in Stefan’s head the entire journey back, a bold and daring plan. He described it for Ricard. Halfway through, Ricard sat back down on his bed, but remained silent until Stefan had finished.

“Such a thing is unheard of. It has never been done.”

“I know, my lord. That is why I think it can succeed.”

“And you think you can make this happen? Most would say it is crazy—and impossible.”

Stefan allowed himself a small smile. “Part of me thinks it is crazy, too. But I think I can do it. Do I have your permission to try?”

Ricard got up and laid a hand on Stefan’s shoulder. “I am very fond of you, Stefan, and I will miss you if you fail. But yes, you have my permission.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

Stefan turned and started for the doorway.

“Stefan,” Ricard called.

Stefan stopped and turned around.

“Good luck,” Ricard said. “I think you are going to need it.”

22. HIDING OUTSIDE THE BOX

S
unday morning, Leesa woke up early. A glance at her clock showed her it was not yet seven o’clock. She closed her eyes and tried to fall back to sleep, but with no success. After about fifteen minutes she gave up the fight and figured she might as well start her day. She got out of bed and slipped into her most comfortable sweatshirt and sweatpants. For breakfast, she wolfed down some granola cereal mixed with a cup of plain yogurt. After brushing her teeth and washing her face, she decided to do some work on her magic. Dominic had given her permission to do some limited practice on her own with telekinesis, so that’s what she was going to do. She had one goal in mind—to move something without having to see it move immediately before. To her, that would symbolize progress.

She grabbed one of Dominic’s tennis balls and sat down at her desk, carefully balancing the ball as close to the edge of the desk as she could. She used her trigger and concentrated on visualizing the ball rolling off the edge, but it just sat there. She closed her eyes for a few moments and then tried again. The ball still refused to move. Frustrated, she kicked the desk leg with her knee and watched the tennis ball fall to the floor.

She bent and retrieved the ball, placing it back onto the edge of the desk. This time, she had no trouble making it fall. It rolled off the desk and landed in her wastebasket. Her success did not please her, though. She had still needed to see the ball fall before she was able move it with her thoughts.

As she reached into the wastebasket for the ball, she flashed back to the basket flying across the room a few months before when she had kicked at it and missed. Leaving the ball inside the basket, she picked whole thing up from the floor and set it on top of her desk. She thought perhaps if she tried to move something she had once moved without even trying she might be more successful.

She carefully balanced the basket on the edge of the desk. It took her several moments to get it just the way she wanted, but at last she was ready. She went swiftly through her routine again and then focused on the basket, trying to picture it falling to the floor. To her surprise, the basket tipped over and fell.

She let out a whoop. She had done it, finally!

Grabbing the basket, she balanced it on the edge of her dresser this time. Once again, she sent it tumbling off the edge. She was elated. Now to try something else.

She limped over to her mini fridge and pulled out a can of Red Bull, the other item she had apparently moved back before she even knew what was happening. Taking it to her desk, she balanced it on the edge, half on and half off.

When she tried to move it, nothing happened. She tried again, focusing as hard as she could, but the can stubbornly remained in place. Dejected, she picked up the can and moved it away from the edge. While she pondered what was wrong, she didn’t want it falling of its own accord and giving her the visual she was trying to avoid.

Two possibilities came to her. First, unlike the basket, which she had clearly seen flying across the room a few months before, she had never actually seen the can move. She thought she might have somehow caused it to move a few inches one night when she was studying for midterms, but she had never been sure. Indeed, until she met Dominic, she had never been absolutely sure she had moved the basket without actually kicking it. Still, she had a visual of the basket moving, but no visual of the Red Bull.

The other possibility was that the full can of Red Bull was simply too heavy. The liquid inside gave it a pretty solid center of gravity. Perhaps the weight was just too much for her nascent abilities.

Either way, she was disappointed. She had thought she’d been on a roll, moving the basket without a preceding visual, but if she had been, it had come to a grinding halt.

On a roll
, she thought. What a good idea that was.

She grabbed the Red Bull and laid it on its side, positioning it as close to the edge of her desk as she could. Rolling the can should be much easier than toppling it when it was standing up.

And it was. She had barely started focusing on the can before it rolled off the edge and crashed to the floor. Just to be sure it hadn’t been an accident she did it a second time.

Feeling a little bit cocky now, she stood the can up and tried to move it. Nothing happened. She tried again, with the same result.

She refused to let it discourage her. She had definitely made progress today, all on her own. She couldn’t wait to discuss what she had done with Dominic to get his feedback.

Dominic picked her up at the curb again at ten o’clock. As always, she climbed behind the wheel.

“Where to today?” she asked after buckling her seat belt and adjusting the rearview mirror.

“Head out to the 84,” Dominic said. “West.”

“Okay,” Leesa said. “That’s easy enough.”

This was the same way they’d gone for their first road trip. She wondered if they were going to New York again. If they were, she was pretty sure it would be somewhere new. She doubted the ever cautious Dominic would pick the same place twice.

While they drove, she told Dominic about her morning exploits with telekinesis.

“That was very clever of you,” he said, “to try the basket and the Red Bull. Moving something without having seen it move immediately before is a nice step forward.”

“Thanks. I was pretty proud of myself when I thought of it.” She looked at Dominic and grinned. “And even prouder when it actually worked.”

Dominic smiled in return.

“I don’t want you doing this too often on your own, though,” he said. “It’s too risky to keep using active magic around your home, even in such small doses. When you get back to your room, stand a can of Red Bull on your desk and knock it over by kicking the desk. But don’t try to move it with your mind after you knock it over. Bring the can with you on our next trip and we’ll work on it then.”

“Okay,” Leesa said. She understood what Dominic was trying to do. In addition to being cautious, he wanted her to get a visual of her goal, but not one that immediately preceded her attempts.

They drove west on Interstate 84 until they reached Danbury, where Dominic told her to exit onto Route 7 North. They followed the highway for just a few miles before Dominic had her pull into an empty parking lot. The lot fronted a small, closed up store with a black and white For Lease sign hanging in a dirty window. Leesa smiled. They weren’t likely to have any company here.

“This is the second time we’ve come west,” she said after she had parked and turned off the motor. “How come we haven’t gone east or south yet?”

“Put yourself in the minds of our enemies,” Dominic said. “If you detected someone using magic in New Haven, Waterbury, Springfield and Providence, where would you search for them?”

Leesa pictured a map in her head. The cities Dominic had listed were pretty scattered—they didn’t seem to form any sort of trail that she could see. Instead, they formed a kind of crude box. After a moment it came to her. The box image did it. Lacking anything else to go on, she would look inside the box.

“I’d look around Hartford.”

Dominic smiled. “Why?”

“Because it’s in the center of the cities you mentioned. If someone didn’t want to use magic where they lived, they would travel elsewhere to do it, like we do. The most logical place to look would be somewhere in the middle of the places where they were detected.”

“Very good. So if we were to go south and east as well as north and west, we would be drawing a box for our enemies.” Dominic pushed his door open. “I do not think we have done anything they can detect yet, but it doesn’t hurt to be careful.”

Leesa opened her door and stepped down out of the Blazer. Dominic seemed to think of everything. He had a way of making her feel very safe—but at the same time, he never let her forget the danger they faced. She smiled. The wizard had had over a hundred years on the run to get good at hiding, for which she was very grateful.