Double Alchemy: Climax (12 page)

Quinn’s face was tight. “The next thing I remember was seeing both of my parents on the floor.” His voice was grim and he held onto Cade’s hands tightly. “They were both dead already, I could see that. Their bodies were contorted and my father had been sick on the floor.”

“Please don’t carry on.” Cade’s voice was agonised. “This isn’t what I wanted.” He wished he’d never started this conversation.

Quinn smiled, his mouth twisted in pain. “I told you before, I don’t have many happy-ever-after stories. Let me finish. It might be good for me to talk about this to you as well. That can be my anniversary present from you.” He heaved a shuddering sigh. “The next thing I knew, someone picked me up and barrelled out of there so fast it was a bit like a dream. A Warlock friend of my father’s had come over to see my folks, seen what had happened and got me out of there. His name was Edward Mistral.”

Quinn’s eyes closed briefly and an expression of pain crossed his face. Cade wondered what darker connection this Warlock had to him.

“Edward saved my life. Apparently I would have been next if he hadn’t gotten to me when he did. He said there were Witchhunters in the apartment. I don’t know how they got in or how no one sensed them. Edward destroyed them both and got me out of there. He called Daniel and his wife Moira, who as you know was my aunt and they came to fetch me. From that time on, I lived with them. Daniel was my surrogate father and Moira was, to all intents and purposes, my mother.”

His voice went quiet. “Moira was killed four years ago by the Witchhunters Alliance. Daniel was devastated as was I. We both threw ourselves into work and fighting the Alliance and until I met you, that was basically all I did.”

He caressed Cade’s fingers gently with his. “Now I have you, and despite everything that’s happened, I’m happy. It
is
our anniversary, Cade, so enough tales now of people dying.”

Cade swallowed uncomfortably. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

Quinn smiled gently. “Yes you did, you sexy little liar. It actually feels good to tell you about it. I haven’t ever had someone I can do that with. It’s been a good thing, I promise. I could get used to this baring of my soul.” He chuckled softly. “And yes, I did have a crush on a boy when I was twelve who didn’t return the favour and it broke my heart. I didn’t have spots. I enjoyed looking down girl’s blouses and checking out boy’s crotches and was nearly expelled from school for being found smoking. Although it wasn’t a cigarette; it was some herbal thing my aunt gave me to cure a sore throat but the teachers were having none of it. Typical adolescent behaviour, perhaps a little more strange than normal, but still just teenage angst.”

Quinn’s face was mischievous. “I went to my senior prom with a girl called Victoria, and I didn’t get leg over like you did with Lurch. I was a perfect gentleman. And of course, you already know about my first sexual encounter so we won’t go into that again.”

Cade chuckled, glad to see Quinn joking again.

“No, we’ll leave that one alone.” He looked around the restaurant. “It’s looking very empty, I think they might be waiting for us to leave. Perhaps we should get home and I can give you your other anniversary present.”

Quinn looked at him with smoky eyes. “I hope that means what I think it means or you’re going to have one very disappointed man on your hands.” He stood up. “I’ll go settle up the bill. You get your jacket and I’ll see you at the desk.”

He leaned down and kissed the top of Cade’s head gently before disappearing to the counter to pay. Later that night they lay in bed together after Quinn had been given his anniversary present. Cade thought drowsily that he’d seemed very pleased with his bondage session and had certainly entered into the spirit of things.

“Are you awake?” Cade nudged his arm gently.

Quinn sighed. “I am now. I
was
just falling asleep.”

Cade pressed into Quinn’s warm body. “Thank you for talking about yourself. It was the best present I could have.”

“It’s a pleasure,” Quinn said sleepily. “I’m trying to be a good boy and keep my promises.”

Cade chuckled throatily. “You’re always such a good boy. I love you—you know that, right?”

Quinn pressed lips to Cade’s hair where it was tucked into the crook of his arm. “I love you too. Now will you please go to sleep? I have to be up early in the morning.”

Cade wrapped an arm across Quinn’s stomach and closed his eyes.

Chapter 12

Quinn stood up from his desk and stretched. He’d been busy in his library most of the morning. Daniel and Percy were coming around to give him an update on the research being done at the Reponosium. He locked up and made his way up to the living room. Cade was sitting in the armchair, a
Men’s Health
magazine open in front of him. He grinned up at Quinn.

“Wow, the Kraken comes out of its den. It’s a Saturday morning and you’ve been in your library for the past four hours.” He looked at his watch. “Daniel and Percy will be here any minute. They said they’d be here about midday.”

Quinn nodded as he took an ice-cold beer out of the bar fridge and drank it straight from the bottle thirstily. He wiped his mouth and plonked himself down on the couch, lying with his legs stretched out along the length of the sofa.

“I don’t like meeting Daniel here at the house but I think we managed to make sure things are secure from outside eyes. But I won’t make a habit of it. Percy said he had some more good news and needed Dan here.” He grimaced. “Hell knows we can use something positive. I’m hoping he’s found a way to track down Jeremy Payton. I’m getting a bit twitchy about the fact that he’s been so quiet. At least on the Warlock side. I understand the witches have had a couple of strange deaths and Valensia has her teams on high alert.”

He frowned. “I suppose we should count ourselves lucky there haven’t been any Warlock deaths.” The doorbell rang and Quinn got up to answer it. When he opened the door, Daniel and Percy stood there.

“Come on in.” Quinn waved them into the living room. Quinn handed them both a beer as they sat down and settled himself down again on the couch. “It’s good to see you, Daniel,” he said quietly. “It’s been a little while. How are things at the Alliance and RAW? Is everything still running smoothly?”

Daniel nodded, his sinewy frame getting comfortable in the chair.

“I’m still shuffling roles.” He smiled tiredly and Quinn saw the strain in his mouth and in his eyes.

“Dan, if it’s getting too much, you need to pull out. I know we agreed you could do this but I don’t need you taking any risks. There’s been enough tragedy already. We’ll find another way.”

Daniel shook his head. “I’m fine, honestly, I can do this some more. Believe me, I’ll tell you when my double-agent status gets too much.”

He grinned at Quinn but the Warlock wasn’t quite sure he believed his uncle’s words. He nodded dubiously. “Don’t take chances.” Quinn looked over at Percy. “So, you look as if you’re dying to tell us all your news. Shoot, I’m ready.”

He took another slug of his beer and got comfortable on the couch.

Percy leaned forward in excitement. “Those researchers at the Reponosium are worth their weight in gold and they really appreciated you visiting them to thank them personally. It went down well.”

Quinn smiled. “I saw what you meant about that Stephen Moreson. He was a really strange bird. He didn’t even seem to know I was there, just kept nodding at whatever I said but looked like he’d rather be anywhere else.”

Percy chuckled. “It’s genius, that’s what it is. The man is so clever he has no idea how to interact with actual people. Anyway, the good news is that the stains on the book are definitely blood. They did some radio carbon dating on it and they are in agreement; it definitely could date back to the seventeenth century. We can’t definitively say it’s Hopkins’s, of course, but given the stories, the book, the carbon dating and the fact it’s blood, it all points to a pretty conclusive proof.”

The little group was silent as they digested Percy’s words. A surge of positivity radiated through Quinn’s body. This was indeed very good news.

“And that’s not all they found.” Percy continued his tale with a distinct air of satisfaction. “There’s a text in the Reponosium archives affiliated to the Witchfinder General that actually gives a way to destroy him. It’s not gospel, it was thought of more as urban legend, but given what we know now, I think it’s right.”

Quinn leaned forward, his nostrils flaring and his eyes narrowing, like a fox in a hen house surveying his dinner. “How do we do that?”

“It’s a little complicated so bear with me.” Percy swallowed a gulp of beer as the others watched him intently. Cade shifted in his chair and Daniel grinned at him.

“
Are you all right with all this? We’re not boring you?”

Cade waved his beer bottle. “No, I think it’s fascinating watching you guys piece all these obscure bits together to make sense of it. It’s what I do as an anthropologist, just in a different way.”

Quinn leaned forward, eager to hear the rest of Percy’s story. “Go on, tell us the rest.”

Cade rolled his eyes at Quinn’s impatience as Percy continued his story.

“The documents we found relating to Montague Druitt—you remember he was the man who was thought to have had Matthew Hopkins channelled into him in the nineteenth century? Again, this was said to have happened as a result of a Book of Shadows being found and the spells being performed. For all we know it could be the same book that Quinn now has back in his collection. The chances are very good that this was indeed the case. Well, at the time there was this banishing spell in circulation, to send Hopkins back to his everlasting hell, wherever that was.”

Percy rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “Apparently there’s also a way that Hopkins, once he was in this world, could find himself a more suitable human vessel and actually reincarnate himself physically.”

Quinn gave a hiss of displeasure at these words. “You mean he actually could do that?”

Percy nodded. “If he prepared the ‘human vessel,’ as it was called, using certain herbs and rituals, he could pass into that body. The purification ceremony had to happen on the twentieth of March and exactly forty-nine days later, seven by seven because of the auspiciousness of the number, he could perform the ritual that lets him be reincarnated permanently in a human body. In case you’re all frantically working the math, that’s on May seven.” He looked at the group of people hanging onto his every word. “That’s in just over two weeks’ time,” he said grimly.

Taliesin spoke sharply.

Hellfire, Quinn that leaves us very little time to plan anything. We will have to make haste if we want to defeat this Witchfinder from completing his plan. But I think Percy is right in his findings.

Quinn jumped up and paced around the living room, running his hands through his hair in agitation. “As Taliesin says, that doesn’t leave us much time to stop the bastard! You said we could stop him. How?”

Percy shifted uncomfortably. “This is the part that’s a little unknown, as we can’t find any record of it ever being done. It was all conjecture. Perhaps it happened but it wasn’t documented. But the texts say it is feasible. On the seventh of May, there’s a solar eclipse. We won’t see it here in the Northern Hemisphere, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. There’s a ritual chant that needs to be performed at the time the eclipse is at its maximum which is one twenty-three in the morning. Ideally, for maximum effect, it should be performed in close proximity to all three of them, which could be an additional problem for us. According to the texts, this was done in the nineteenth century to banish Hopkins back to where he came from and is the reason Montague Druitt was found floating in the river. The Consortium at the time then tidied up any loose ends and made it look like a random witch killing. If it was done, it had to have worked, because he wasn’t around any longer until that coven in Suffolk messed with what we think is the same book and opened the door again for him.” He stopped to take a breath and take another drink of his now lukewarm beer. He gulped it down and carried on.

“The only problem is we need something from the prepared human vessel to work with the chant. That, together with the destruction of whatever we get, basically makes the host untenable for Hopkins, forcing him back to where he came from.”

The small party regarded him gloomily.

That is not an insurmountable problem.
Taliesin sounded excited.
We could convene a Withinner’s Circle perhaps?

Quinn nodded in agreement with the voice in his head as he continued his pacing. “Christ, I thought we might be able to do this with just the chant and have nothing more to do with any of those poxy Witchfinders,” he growled. “But that would just be too fucking easy, wouldn’t it? So now we have to find this human receptacle and get something from him to perform the ritual.” He frowned. “Taliesin has said we could convene a Withinner’s Circle, with four of us, then use the book and the blood traces to try to track down exactly where Jeremy Payton is. If he’s currently storing Hopkins, we should be able to find them both and maybe that will lead us to this human”—he waved his hands in frustration—“
container,
and then we can take it from there. We can use Taliesin, Nicholas, Attilius and Rupert. They should make a very strong circle.”

Cade spoke curiously. “I know Nicholas, that’s your Withinner, isn’t it Percy? But who are the other two?”

“Attilius is Magnus’s Withinner, and Rupert is with a man called Justin Leichner. He’s an old friend of mine whom I can trust.”

Quinn turned to Percy. “Do you think you can get hold of Magnus and I’ll call Justin? He’ll be glad to help, if I can track him down. The last time I heard of him he was in the Himalayas somewhere. If we can arrange for them to convene as soon as possible, we can perhaps stop this thing before it happens. We have no other choices, it looks like.”

Percy nodded. “I’ll let Magnus know to be on call and once you’ve found Justin, we can set it up.” He leaned back with a sigh of relief, glad that his tale was over.