A Necklace of Water (19 page)

On cue, Petra felt Thais on the front porch, then heard her unlock the door.

“Thais?”

Luc tensed across from her, and Ouida started clearing away their supplies.

“Hi, Petra,” Thais called, sounding tired herself. She came into the kitchen. “Sorry I’m late—did you get my message?”

Petra looked at the lit-up answering machine. “No, I’m sorry—I turned the ringer off. Is everything okay?” It was more than just a casual question.

“Yeah. Hi, Ouida.” Ignoring Luc, Thais reached into her jacket and pulled out a small black kitten, who blinked in the kitchen’s light. “I found him in a gutter by Kevin’s house,” she said. “He didn’t seem to belong to anyone.”

“Poor thing,” said Ouida. She held up the kitten and looked into its small face.

“Mew,” it said.

Thais leaned against the kitchen doorway, looking wiped. “Well, I’m going to go take a shower,” she said.

“Okay,” said Petra. “Come down if you’re hungry.”

“Thanks,” Thais said, turning to go.

Luc was trying not to watch Thais’s every move, but clearly her presence had affected him. He stood up quickly and grabbed his jacket. “I better go,” he muttered. “Thanks, Petra. Thanks, Ouida. I really appreciate it.” He gestured at his face. It hadn’t yet recaptured its perfection, but he definitely looked normal. People wouldn’t stop and point at him at least.

Petra watched him hurry after Thais, heard him murmur something to her. She replied, but Petra couldn’t hear it. She and Ouida exchanged glances. Then Thais went upstairs and Luc let himself out.

He still loved her, Petra mused. Luc, whom she’d known for so long, loved Thais. He’d always been a rake—charming, ruthless, conscienceless. She’d thought he’d given up on trying to seduce either twin, but he seemed to sincerely love Thais; Petra felt it. It made her uneasy. She needed to think about this. She had a lot to think about.

After he left, the two women sat at the kitchen table, watching Q-Tip examine the new kitten. After sniffing him cautiously, Q-Tip put one big white paw on the kitten’s back, pinning him in place for a vigorous, unasked-for washing.

“Thais looked exhausted,” said Ouida. “Not herself, in a way.”

“Yes. She and Clio have both looked like that this past week.”

“What are they doing?”

Petra was thankful for Ouida, a friend who always spoke straight. “I don’t know. They won’t tell me, or they lie.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Wait.”

Ouida nodded thoughtfully. “Are we thinking boys, drugs, sex, worse?”

“Worse.” Petra had thought it over again and again. She’d had time to come to terms with the fact that the twins were possibly getting involved in something big, magickal, and probably dark.

Thais and Clio didn’t know it, but Petra had put sigils on the doorways so she could see who came and went and when. Her next step was to make a pair of gris-gris and sew them into their jackets or purses. They would help her know where they had been.

“Have you tried scrying?” Ouida asked.

Petra flinched, the memory of Melita’s face coming back to her. Not that the image had been far from her mind ever since that moment
she’d first seen her. She still had so many questions, so much she needed to know about where Melita had been, why she was back.

But Melita, of course, had revealed very little in that brief vision.

“Yes,” Petra said aloud, remembering Ouida. “There are times when they’ve blocked me, when I can’t see them.”

“That’s not good.” Ouida took a sip of tea.

“No. But actually—that isn’t all.” Petra looked over at the woman who had been her friend for almost 250 years. She’d been holding the other information inside, trying to process her own reaction first, but she knew she had to tell Ouida before any more time passed. “Melita’s back.”

“Sppfftt!” Ouida sprayed the kitchen table with tea, making Petra jump. She started coughing and trying to suck in air, and Petra patted her back firmly, trying not to smile.

“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” Ouida wheezed when she could speak. “What are you talking about?”

Despite everything, Petra couldn’t help laughing. Blotting up the liquid with a napkin, she said, “Melita contacted me a few days ago. She’s alive—well, we were all pretty sure about that, Now she’s coming to New Orleans. She wants to see me.”

“Oh goddess,” Ouida breathed. “How do you feel about that? I can’t believe it. You must be about to climb the walls.”

“Yes.” Petra smiled wryly. “
Astonishment
is a small, ineffectual word to describe my feelings. I don’t know.” She spread her hands across her lap, trying to find the right words. “Melita is dark,” she said, meeting Ouida’s eyes, seeing agreement there. “I know that. I never wanted to know it back then. Never wanted to believe it. But of course I do now. I’m assuming she’s very dark indeed.”

Ouida looked sympathetic but didn’t deny it. “What … did she want?”

“She wants to see me, says there’s no real reason.”

Ouida looked like she didn’t believe that for a minute. “What are you going to do? Petra—if Melita’s back and Daedalus finds out … If she wants to be part of the Treize for some reason—” Her brown eyes were large with worry.

“Yes,” Petra agreed calmly. “Then we’re fourteen, with the twins. Too many. I know. And there were the unexplained attacks on the twins, which of course I’m still considering. But I just don’t believe those came from Melita. They don’t seem … like her style, if that makes sense.”

Ouida nodded slowly. “She makes lightning and earthquakes—making a planter fall on a teenager would be scut work for her.”

“Yes.” Petra was quiet, thinking. “She’s my daughter,” she said. “The only one who survived. I love her, and I’ll always love her, but …”

“I know,” Ouida said.

R
ichard was buzzing, lit up, as he walked down the street.

Him and Clio. It was unbelievable.

Of course, he hadn’t made it to 257 years old without wising up. He knew this probably didn’t mean anything. Unfortunately. Or maybe fortunately. He didn’t even know what he wanted it to mean. But right now, he felt great, better than great.

Looking up, he noticed he was passing Axelle’s house and decided to drop in for a drink and some distraction.

Axelle buzzed him in. As he approached her front door and felt who was inside, he paused. But the door was opening, and Axelle was waving him in.

“Holy crap, look at you!” she greeted him.

“Hey.” Richard suddenly felt self-conscious. He heard Manon’s voice and wondered how much she’d changed since yesterday.

“Richard, ah,” said Daedalus warmly. He raised a glass of sherry at Richard.

Richard smiled and eased onto a black-and-chrome bar stool, aware that everyone was examining him closely. Jules held up a bottle of whiskey, and Richard nodded. “Thanks.” He took a sip, thinking that he should have just gone home, savored his feelings by himself. This had been a mistake; he didn’t want to be here. One quick drink and he’d go.

Manon looked like a striking, cheerleader-type teenager. “Riche, I can pass as legal to drive. For the first time.” She showed him her official license.

“Clearly there was no street test.”

Manon made a face. “That was a long time ago. I’m taller; I can reach the pedals and steer at the same time now.”

“That’s a blessing. But good for you, Non-non.”

Manon grinned at the use of her pet name. Richard wondered for a moment if Manon questioned at all how it had happened—the two of them, the only members of the Treize to begin aging. If she’d realized that the development was coming from the spell Richard had used the rite to
cast, giving himself and Manon the bodies and faces of adults after all these years.

It didn’t matter, really, if Manon ever knew how. He was just glad for the happiness it gave her.

And it was certainly worth it for him, seeing how Clio looked at him now. That he could finally be a man for her. With her.

“Ahem. We were just talking about the Source,” Daedalus said.

Richard was so sick of the frigging Source he wanted to break his glass. “Really? What about it?”

“I think I can open it,” Daedalus said. “Not with the rite, but with a simpler spell that I’ll write myself. I think it will work if it’s powerful enough. But we’ll need the most powerful members of the Treize.”

“Like me,” said Axelle, with a self-satisfied air.

“Yes,” Daedalus agreed, looking like he was still getting used to the idea. “All of us here, obviously,” he went on diplomatically. “And Petra’s twins.”

Richard’s chest constricted. “Oh, come on,” he said, sounding bored. “Why involve the twins? They’re kids. They’ll just muck everything up as usual.”

“The twins are very, very strong,” Daedalus said. “Together, the two of them are probably as strong as the rest of us put together. We need them. All we have to do is convince them, and that won’t be hard.”

“Would this be dangerous?” Jules’s voice was quiet and measured.

“No.” Daedalus sounded more sure than he looked.

“I’m in,” said Manon.

“Why?” Richard asked. “What’s the point? Isn’t it kind of moot now?”

“No.” Daedalus’s eyes flashed. “I need the Source. I need its power to re-create the rite.”

Because you’re getting weaker all the time and you don’t want to die
, Richard thought.
Why can’t you let it all rest
?

“Well, whatever,” he said casually, setting down his glass. “Let me know when it is, and I’ll help. That is, if I’m strong enough for you.” He made a sardonic face at Daedalus, and Daedalus rolled his eyes.

“Of course,” the older man said.

“I’ll let myself out,” said Richard.

His bed had no Clio in it. Richard dropped to his single mattress on the floor, pushing aside the bunched covers. He lay on his back, one arm under his head, and started thinking things through.

When Luc came home half an hour later, Richard feigned sleep and wished he’d shut his bedroom door earlier.

“I know you’re not asleep,” Luc said from his doorway. He was holding a po’boy, taking bites off one end while trying to keep the drippy parts contained in its wrapper.

“Pretend I am,” said Richard.

“I guess if you’re asleep, you’re not hungry,” said Luc, shaking a paper bag.

Richard propped himself on his elbows.

“Roast beef,” Luc clarified. “Dressed, tiny bit of gravy. Don’t say I never gave you anything,” he added dryly, heading into the kitchen.

“Damn,” said Richard, getting up and following him. He sat across from Luc at their small metal table and unwrapped the wax paper. The French bread was already getting soggy with gravy. He took a big bite and savored it. “This is perfect. I wish your face had gotten messed up a century ago. It’s made you so thoughtful.”

“Screw you,” said Luc, eating his own sandwich.

Richard thought of Clio, pulling him to her in the dark garden, kissing him, her skin hot under his hands, and very carefully didn’t meet Luc’s eyes.

“You missed the powwow at Axelle’s,” he said. “Daedalus, Jules, Axelle, Manon. They have a harebrained scheme to open the Source to boost everyone’s power. And then, I guess, to redo the rite
again
. And they want to use the twins’ power.”

“Hmm.”

Richard glanced at Luc out of the corner of his eye and saw that in fact his face really did look much better. Clearly Petra had been working her usual miracles.

“He should leave the girls alone,” Richard said, watching for Luc’s reaction. “They’re young and don’t know anything.”

“Hmm.”

Was Luc still pissed about what Clio had said, about sleeping with Richard? No—he hadn’t even believed her. Probably. And no one knew about tonight except him and Clio.

“As annoying as the girls are, we don’t want them in Daedalus’s clutches,” Richard pressed on.

“No,” Luc agreed, chewing.

This was weird. Something was going on with Luc, and Richard didn’t know what.

Which was not good.

O
n Friday, things seemed oddly normal. Nan looked better, and when she got a call to go to a case, she felt up to it. She kissed us both good-bye and warned us to be careful and to take our jackets, like we were little kids.

“What are you doing today?” Thais asked me, pouring herself a cup of coffee. She’d been asleep when I’d gotten home last night. I was glad, because I didn’t want to blurt anything out—not until I knew how I felt. Did I love Richard? Were we a couple? Had it been just a onetime fluke? Did he actually care about me? Now that he’d gotten what he wanted, was he going to drop me like a hot coal?

He wasn’t the only one who’d wanted it. I admitted that to myself. I’d wanted him too, so badly. Then having him, actually having sex with him, had blown my mind. I turned away so Thais wouldn’t see my secret smile. My emotions were wrecked; I was confused and worried and anxious, not only about Daedalus but about everything else in my life—Nan, Thais, Luc, me. I shouldn’t even have been capable of smiling at this point. But when I thought about Richard, being joined with him, kissing him, the way we felt together, how intense and incredible and even—yeah, sweet, it had been, I couldn’t help smiling.