Helpless (Blue Fire Saga) (26 page)

40. accidents

W
hile Leesa was practicing magic, the storm outside had intensified. The rain was now coming down so hard it exploded back up off the pavement like a thousand miniature fountains. Leesa watched it with Rave and Dominic from the motel room doorway. It was really quite pretty.

“Drive safely,” Rave said.

He risked a quick peck on Leesa’s lips. The familiar thrill shot through her, rendering her momentarily speechless.

“I’ll see you back at campus,” Rave said. He turned and began jogging away.

Leesa watched him as he trotted out alongside the highway, to all appearances just some fool jogger in the rain. The storm didn’t seem to bother him in the least. And why should it, she thought? The rain certainly wouldn’t make him cold, and it probably dried almost as soon as it hit his skin.

She was not quite so fortunate, however. Even the short dash to the Blazer soaked her cap and parka. As soon as she pulled the door closed behind her, she yanked her cap from her head and tossed it onto the back seat. She ran her fingers through her hair, smoothing it. The hat had managed to keep her hair dry, at least. She was glad the car had been parked right outside the door.

She looked over at Dominic. His hair and jacket were already beginning to dry. Leesa started the car and turned the heat up to high. She would have to rely on more ordinary means to dry her coat and jeans, she thought as she pulled the Blazer out of the parking lot.

Before too long, her clothes were dry enough to turn off the heat. She drove carefully, staying five miles below the fifty mile speed limit on the state highway and even further beneath the limit when they reached the interstate. Not every driver was so careful, though. Plenty of cars sped past her, making no accommodations for the rain at all as they sprayed rooster tails up from their rear tires. The Blazer’s wipers barely kept up with the downpour.

She wondered if the rain might change to snow after night fell and the temperature dropped. She hoped not. Even though she’d had so much fun playing in the snow after the last storm, she hated the difficulties the snow caused for Rave. She thought about searching for a forecast on the radio but didn’t want to risk lessening her concentration. Besides, she had a weatherman sitting right next to her.

“Is this rain going to change to snow tonight, mister wizard weatherman?”

Dominic smiled and lowered his window an inch or so. He sniffed the air.

“No snow,” he said after a moment. “The rain will probably stop in three or four hours.”

“That’s good to hear,” Leesa said, returning her full concentration to her driving.

Everything was going along fine until they were about twenty miles across the Connecticut border, when she suddenly saw a parade of red brake lights ahead of them. She eased her foot off the gas and pumped the brakes lightly, bringing the Blazer to a stop in plenty of time.

“There must be an accident up ahead somewhere,” she said, thinking of all the fools who had sped so carelessly past her, too stupid or too cocky to slow down. It would serve some of them right if they smashed themselves up, although she didn’t want anyone to be hurt. A state police car sped past them on the shoulder, lights flashing and siren screaming, confirming Leesa’s speculation.

“I hope it’s not too far ahead,” she said as they inched for-ward one car length at a time, “or we could be stuck in this thing forever.”

Forever turned out to be a little more than an hour, during which they covered a grand total of about ten miles. The cause of the delay was now obvious. Three cars had smashed into each other in the fast lane. One of them had overturned and lay crumpled on its roof. Flashing red and blue lights reflected off the wet pavement and the cars as a small army of police cruisers and emergency vehicles surrounded the crash site. Only one lane of the freeway was open, but once Leesa squeezed past the accident scene traffic opened up completely.

With the delay, she wondered if Rave might beat them home. She doubted it, but it was possible.

They finally arrived back at Weston just before three o’clock. What had taken less than two hours on the trip out had lengthened to more than three hours for the return trip, courtesy of the rain and the accident.

When Leesa eased the Blazer to the curb in front of her dorm, the rain had just about stopped. Dominic’s forecast seemed to be right on the mark. She wondered if someday she would be able to forecast the weather like that. She had no idea what the immediate future held, but she could imagine how different her life would be five or ten years from now—if Dominic’s enemies allowed her to make it that far, of course. She shook the pessimistic thought from her head and climbed out of the Blazer.

She hadn’t even closed the door when she heard a terrific screeching coming from somewhere behind her. She turned to see two cars careening around the corner, racing each other two abreast, completely oblivious to the slippery conditions. More knuckleheads, she thought.

Suddenly, the front of one car clipped the fender of the car closest to her. The next few moments seem to unfold in slow motion. Leesa watched as the driver of the second car slammed on his brakes, but the tires could find no purchase on the slick pavement. She watched the Toyota emblem on the grill grow larger as the car skidded straight toward her. There was no time to move out of the way.

“
Bonduur
,” she shouted, trying to initiate the shield spell.

She thought she heard her incantation echo in the air, but she sensed immediately that the spell had failed. As the car hurtled toward her, she closed her eyes. She heard the terrifying screech of metal ripping into metal as the Toyota struck the Blazer. Her last thought was of Rave.

41. puzzles

T
en miles away, Josef strode through a wooded hillside, his waziri senses guiding him unerringly toward the place where his vampire pets had been destroyed. He had received two more rides in his journey south, including one that took him from just south of Springfield all the way to Hartford. He had walked the rest of the way, in the rain for the last day and a half. He did not mind at all. Indeed, he scarcely noticed that the rain had just stopped.

He was almost there, he knew, so he slowed his pace, not wanting to miss anything. If there was any trace of magic in the area, he would know it.

Finally, he found what he had been seeking—two piles of soggy black ashes, pounded almost flat by the rain, scattered on the ground about twenty feet from each other. Josef stopped and focused on everything his senses could tell him.

The first thing he sensed was vampires, many of them. He sorted through the vibrations and counted five, including his two pets. The pile of ashes to his right was all that was left of Jarubu; Melissa’s ashes were to his right. Next, he detected volkaanes, fewer than the vampires, but more than one. Three, he decided. He did not understand what vampires and volkaanes had been doing together here—perhaps they had come at different times—but he was fairly certain now who had destroyed his vampires. He was a bit surprised. He had not expected that only three volkaanes would be able to defeat his pair of magically enhanced vampires, but the ashes didn’t lie.

He walked a wide circle around the two piles, moving slowly, wanting to check every direction for any other signs before examining the ashes themselves. Despite a thorough search, he found no additional vibrations. No one but volkaanes and vampires had been involved here. The only trace of waziri magic had come from his vampires, courtesy of his own blood.

He crossed to Jarubu’s ashes and knelt beside them. For a moment he did nothing, just soaking up the vibrations from close range. Then he waved his palm slowly above the ashes, carefully scanning for any sign magic might have been involved in Jarubu’s destruction. It had been a week since the black vampire had met his fate, but he knew any traces of magic would linger far longer than that. No amount of rain or wind would wipe the traces away. He detected nothing but the faint remnants of volkaane fire.

Just to be certain, he repeated the procedure over Melissa’s ashes, searching just as carefully. The results were the same. Volkaane fire had destroyed his vampires, and nothing else. He did not begrudge the volkaanes their actions. Their nature was to hunt and slay vampires and that was what they had done. It had been his vampires’ misfortune to encounter them. Still, that they had been bested by only three volkaanes troubled him. Perhaps Jarubu had gotten careless—his haughty, arrogant demeanor would almost guarantee that—and allowed himself and Melissa to be taken by surprise. Volkaanes were incredibly fast. They did not require much of an edge to come out victorious.

Suddenly, Josef’s waziri senses were rocked. He shot to his feet and stared off to the south
.

42. big decisions

L
eesa opened her eyes and stared disbelievingly at the silver Toyota emblem just inches from her legs. Impossibly, the car had stopped on the slick pavement just before it struck her. She remembered shouting “
Bonduur
,” but she knew her spell had failed. Something else had stopped the Toyota.

Tentatively, she reached her finger toward the Toyota’s hood, wanting to touch the metal to assure herself it was real. Her finger stopped an inch short of the grill. She could feel a hard surface, but there was a definite gap between her fingertip and the car. She tried to push her finger forward but could make it go no farther. Looking up at the windshield, she saw a young man behind the wheel. His eyes were lost in a glassy stare and blood oozed from a long gash on his forehead.

Dominic came rushing around the front of the Blazer. He gently grabbed Leesa’s upper arm.

“Are you all right?” he asked, his voice vibrating with concern.

Leesa looked down at the Toyota’s grill again. It was still only three inches from her body. The crumpled front fender had crunched the side of the Blazer, but miraculously had not touched her.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said, her brow and eyes wrinkled with puzzlement. “I don’t understand why, but I’m fine. There’s no way the car could have stopped in time.”

She looked at Dominic and then pushed her finger toward the Toyota one more time. Once again, it stopped an inch short. Understanding flooded through her.

“It was you,” she said. “You used the shield spell to save me.”

Dominic nodded. “It was the only way.”

“I heard my spell echo, but I thought my ears were playing tricks on me.”

Suddenly, the engine of the Toyota kicked over and the car began backing away. The young driver had apparently regained some of his senses. When he had backed up about five feet, he put the car in gear and zoomed away. Leesa guessed he had probably been drinking and wasn’t about to stay around to suffer the consequences of his actions. She instinctively memorized the Toyota’s license plate number but realized she could never use it. They had never registered the Blazer—there was no way they could file any kind of report.

“That young fool has no idea what he has just set in motion,” Dominic said as he watched the Toyota drive away.

It took Leesa a moment to understand what Dominic meant, but then it hit her.

“You used your magic! The black waziri can find you now.”

Dominic nodded. “Yes. And Josef is not far away.”

“We have to get out of here, then.” Leesa turned toward the Blazer and noted the damage. The rear side panel was crushed against the tire, which had flattened. The car did not look remotely close to drivable.

“Can you fix it?” she asked. “With your magic?”

Dominic’s lips curved into a wry grin. He shook his head.

“I have no spells for fixing cars. The last time I used my magic, cars didn’t even exist.”

“Then we have to get a taxi, or take the bus. Anything.”

Dominic shook his head again. “It won’t matter. Now that I’ve used my magic, Josef can track me. Magic lingers even after it is done. No matter where I go, I will leave a trail behind me. No, I’m afraid fleeing is not the answer.”

“What then?”

Dominic guided Leesa around the Blazer and toward the entrance to her dorm.

“It is time for me to confront Josef,” he said. “The Fates have seemingly decreed it. I knew this day must come eventually.”

Leesa did not like what she was hearing. “Yes, but you meant to have me there to help you. That’s been your plan all along. I don’t know nearly enough yet to be of any use.”

“That’s why you will be staying here,” Dominic said.

“What?” Leesa asked, confused. “Where will you be going?”

“I cannot allow Josef to find me here, where there are so many people around. He will not care how many innocent people he hurts. His only thought will be to destroy me. I must find him first and fight him where no one else will be hurt.”

Leesa struggled to put all the pieces together. “You can find him? It’s been at least a week since Josef used his magic, and you said he was more than a hundred miles away.”

“I know where he was headed—to the place where Rave and Stefan destroyed the vampires. From there, he will come here, for me. I will go that place. If I do not meet him on the way, I’ll await him there. He will come. There is no doubt of it.”

“But can you defeat him?” Leesa asked, remembering Dominic’s stories. “You said the reason the black waziri defeated the rest of you was because of their black magic.”

“I do not know,” Dominic replied honestly. “But I no longer have a choice. The time for hiding is over.”

“Can’t you wait for Rave? He would help you, I know he would.” She hated the thought of sending Rave into danger, but all their futures were at stake now.

“There is no time. I must leave now.” Dominic put his hands on Leesa shoulders and stared into her eyes. “If I do not return, continue practicing your magic. Over time, other skills will come to you, like the dreams and the telekinesis did even before I met you. You will learn to master them eventually. I have faith in you.”

Leesa could not even begin to imagine learning to master her magic without Dominic to train her. She could not lose him, not now, not ever. She made a decision.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.