The Bonds of Blood (20 page)

“Are you sure they are dalua?” Jovian
asked.

“Why do you ask?” she wondered aloud,
looking curiously at him.

“Besides the act that all I want to do
is follow them?” he smiled ruefully. “Because some monsters once
thought evil turn out to be benevolent.”

Angelica looked at him
sharply.

“Interesting point you bring up there,
Jovian. There are some people that believe they are not dalua.
There have been travelers that insist the Hobbedy’s Lantern only
tries to show them the way to hidden treasure.”

“And did they ever find it?” Angelica
asked.

“Wouldn’t know,” Grace said. “They were
never heard from again.” Grace was silent for some time and then
pondered aloud, “Once dalua, now benevolent, huh?”

Joya
,
came a voice to Joya’s ears above
the chatter.

“Huh?” Joya said looking
around.

“What, Joya?” Angelica
asked.

“Oh, nothing,” Joya said smiling,
casting her eyes around peering through the night.

“Look, they come closer,” Grace said
pointing off to the right. “Be mindful now, for they will try to
lure you back with them, and they are very persuasive.”

Suddenly Joya saw a flash of Amber,
peaceful as if in death, hanging limply in the air right beside the
road. The flash was so sudden that Joya jumped and shrieked, but
when she looked back the hovering image of her waxen sister was
gone.

“What was it?” Angelica asked, quickly
reaching for her weapon.

“Steady now, child,” Grace said holding
her hand out behind her to still them. “You will not be able to
fight the Hobbedy’s Lantern with weapons.”

“Well then how do you fight them?”
Jovian asked.

“You don’t fight them; you resist
them.” Grace looked around worried. “I should never have brought
you on this late at night.”

“We will be fine,” Angelica
said.

“I hope so,” Grace mumbled.

“I saw Amber,” Joya’s voice finally
came to her. “And I think I heard her voice before, speaking into
my mind. It might not have been her speaking, but I heard someone
calling my name, and then after that I saw a flash of
Amber.”

“Yes, these creatures are vile; do not
fall prey to them. Everyone keep your eyes on the road, pay no
attention to the lanterns. With any luck when they see we are not
interested or taking the bait, they will leave us alone.” But they
felt the tension behind Grace’s words.

“But why did I see Amber?” Joya
insisted, shielding her eyes from the flashing silver orbs now on
either side of the road. Now that they were closer, Joya could tell
the lanterns were about the size of a child’s head. Daisy shied a
little to the side now that the wyrded beings hovered closer to the
road.

“They try to scare you away from the
main road if they can’t lure you away by their mere presence. This
way, when you leave the road, you will become disorientated, and
more often than not take their bait.” They noticed that Grace was
not looking away from the lanterns, but instead straight into them,
as if daring them to act against her.

“I saw a Black Shuck,” Jovian
said.

“What? When? Now?” Grace
asked.

“That is what Angelica supposes scared
my horse on the hunting trip. The tracks I saw then appeared today
on the roadside just past our property when we stopped.” He
squirmed a little under her raptor-like gaze.

“That is impossible,” Grace said
quickly.

“How is it impossible?” Angelica
asked.

“How much do you know about the Black
Shuck, Angelica?” Grace asked, looking back at the lanterns now
infiltrating the safety of the road.

“I know that they are dalua that take
the form of large dogs. But they are not exactly dogs, for their
heads are that of apes, and they have long horns that protrude from
their bottom jaw up along the sides of their heads.”

“Yes, yes,” Grace said waving her hand.
“That is well and good that you know what they look like. But how
much do you actually know of them?”

Angelica did not answer.

“Black Shucks are not just normal dalua
dogs. They are utukku, that is the highest order of dalua. Now,
there have only been a handful of utukku that have been able to
transform into Black Shucks, and they were all Grigori.” Grace
paused to make sure she hadn’t lost them. “When Sylvie LaFaye
destroyed Arael she destroyed the power of all of his fallen angel
followers, his army of Grigori. The only way for there to be a
Black Shuck alive now would be for a Grigori to be back in power.
Seeing how that is impossible, I am sure you did not see a Black
Shuck.”

“But how is that impossible?” Jovian
asked. “Why is it impossible that a Grigori would be back in
power?”

Grace heaved a great sigh. “Look, we
are facing a pretty powerful foe right now; can we concentrate on
that instead of trying to create more?”

They rode for a time in silence,
staring at the road below them as it passed by. The horses had been
fidgeting for a while now, not liking the malevolent creatures
being so close to them and their riders. Angelica was trying to
calm her horse down from a near fright with a Hobbedy’s Lantern
when Grace spoke again.

“Be mindful of your horses; they will
spook easier than we will if the lanterns start showing them
horrors.” They all took this as good advice and started stroking
their horses comfortingly.

Suddenly an audible gasp was heard at
the front of the line. “Did you see that?” Jovian asked sharply,
reining his horse in and stopping so abruptly that Joya and Daisy
almost ran into him and Methos.

“What?” Grace asked.

“Green eyes out there, like orbs. They
were the same eyes I saw when the … thing attacked me.” Grace
frowned, but Joya hardly noticed for she was remembering the green
eyes she had seen in the house which had belonged to the white
man.

“I see nothing, Jovian,” Grace said,
and moved her horse along, encouraging Jovian, rather forcefully,
to do the same thing. They continued to ride, but Jovian felt the
green eyes following him. The eyes kept pace with them along the
side of the road, hunting them, waiting for one of them to make a
mistake so it could pounce.

“Up ahead, we are almost there.” They
all looked through the veil of drifting orbs and could barely make
out the slight glow of light through foggy windows. In just a few
more moments they would be at the farm.

However, just when they thought they
were safe was when the Hobbedy’s Lanterns decided they were tiring
of this stalemate.

Evidently Daisy had seen something in
the road that no amount of forced soothing from Joya could ease her
mind. Already tense from the obscene wyrd of the lanterns all
around, Daisy reared and threw Joya from her back to land painfully
on the stones below.

Daisy had not made it far from the road
when Jovian gave chase. It seemed as though he had been
anticipating something like this and was ready to react to the
problem.

Methos tore through the lanterns as if
he was unaware of their presence, Jovian pressing his chest down
tightly to the horse’s neck. It only took a few quick strides for
Jovian’s large stallion to catch up to the petite Daisy, and Jovian
turned back to the road, the mare’s reins in a tight grip, fighting
the horse to come back to the road.

However, the Hobbedy’s Lanterns had
reacted nearly as fast as Jovian had, and were now swarming him so
thickly that none of his companions could see him or the horses.
The light of the orbs was no longer peaceful silver like the moon,
but instead an angry blood red, pulsing like a malign heart, intent
on making Jovian their prey.

“What is happening?” Angelica asked
apprehensively, Jesse dancing in the middle of the road, mirroring
her unease.

“I can’t see anything,” Grace said,
squinting.

Joya
, the familiar voice of the book called to her as she stood,
brushing dirt from her skirts.
Use my
powers to help your brother regain the road.

“How can I?” Joya asked. “You are still
in my pack.”

“Joya?” Angelica asked concerned, but
Joya ignored her.

You can still reach my
power; remember how I felt in your hands? Imagine holding me. Go
ahead,
the voice urged,
close your eyes, and feel me in your hands.

Joya closed her eyes and forced the
image of the cold book lying in her hands. To help the imagery she
held her hands out before her, as if she were physically grasping
the book. A gasp came to her lips as she felt something heavy
filling the palms of her hands with a cold weight.

The power seemed to waken from a long
sleep in which it had been gathering strength, waiting for the time
that it would be of use again. Joya felt the power slither up her
spine and imagined what it had looked like in the mirror back at
the plantation. She could feel the silver light pulsing up through
her to where it stopped at the base of her neck.

Power trickled down her arms, burning
like hot needles prickling her flesh, and she heard a gasp from
behind her as she felt the power coalesce in her hands.

Finally Joya opened her eyes and stared
at her hands, which glowed with a soft white light. Now she could
see more, as if the power had given her fresh eyes.

The lanterns were not just glowing red
orbs, but with each orb Joya now saw a shadowed, willowy creature.
The dalua all turned pointed heads to look at her, their black
diamond-shaped eyes staring at her with cold animosity. They smiled
at her, a mere parting of thin lips revealed rows upon rows of
dagger-sharp teeth that receded all the way back into their
dripping maws. All around them seemed to radiate a cold energy.
Thin, skeletal hands held the lanterns high, giving the appearance
of floating orbs.

In fact, Joya was now sure that if she
was not able to see the energy of the Hobbedy dalua aura, she would
still not be able to see their forms.

They turned their bodies toward her, as
if they were about to launch themselves at her, and Joya realized
they looked obscenely like human skeletons, only sharper,
wythe-like, with two rows of horns on their skulls. Their arms were
long, like apes, and the one arm not holding the lantern nearly
dragged on the ground next to their elongated feet.

“You will leave him alone,” Joya said,
and she recognized something in her voice that had not been there
before: authority. Joya Neferis’ voice was now positively humming
with power.

The Hobbedy’s Lanterns drifted closer
to her, and she spoke again.

“It’s not wise to test the mercy of
Joya Neferis, for you will find none here.” The Lanterns hesitated,
and then began drifting closer to her once again.

Finally she held up her hands and let
the energy loose.

A bolt of energy, much like a beam of
lightning, shot from her hands, completely enveloping the
lanterns.

Angelica and Grace had to cover their
eyes as Joya began glowing with an intensity like the bolts
shooting from her hands. Jesse reared, and only through extreme
luck was Angelica able to keep him under control.

Before long Joya was engulfed in a ball
of light that stretched up as tall as she was, and arched out
lances of pristine light at the malicious red orbs.

When the darkness of night intruded
back on their vision, it left them all blinded for a time. After
Angelica was able to see again, she noticed that Jovian was now
making his way back to the road with Daisy in tow.

Well
done
, the voice congratulated
her.

Joya realized that she had not killed
the Hobbedy’s Lanterns, but instead merely driven them off, for far
off in the distance she was able to see them bobbing around, once
more resembling silver lightening bugs. This time, however, after
seeing what they looked like up close, Joya had no desire to follow
them at all. The scare had cured her from ever falling prey to the
trick of the Hobbedy’s Lanterns again.

Angelica and Grace both looked at Joya
with an astonishment she had never seen before. Weakly she climbed
back up on Daisy and joined the rest of them, which now included an
awestruck Jovian.

“Joya,” Angelica gasped, touching her
sister’s arm, and instantly pulling her hand back when she felt a
zap.

“You glowed,” Jovian
breathed.

Joya smiled weakly. Before, when she
was in the hall with the man, it had been easy to dismiss her power
as a dream, but now that it had happened among others it was hard
to deny what had happened to her, or better yet, through
her.

The rest of the trip to old man
Becket’s house was a blur for Joya. She could only vaguely recall
Grace talking to the cantankerous old man that told her they could
sleep in the barn before closing the door sharply. Joya was not
sure if he normally acted so grumpily, but before long she was
drifting off into a much needed sleep with the height of the
evening still on her mind.