The Book of Lost Souls (31 page)

Raven came to stand near Ivy. “If you want me, then come get me.”

“Yeah. You’re aging by the minute,” Spike said nervously.

“S
ILENCE!”
The Countess rose to her feet huffing so hard Ivy thought she might pass out. “I’ll not tolerate insults! Kill him, Vlad. I demand it! Impale him where he stands!”

“In due time,” Vlad said, assuredly. “
All
in due time.”

The Countess grew quiet, but her jaw remained set and her breathing was still shallow.

“Where is she? Where’s Shayde?” Nick demanded.

Vlad glanced around in exaggerated fashion. “Here. Somewhere.”

Ivy straightened. “You’re not getting the book until we see her.”

Vlad took hold of the skewer. He rolled it from one hand to the next. “You care to choose between your dog and your friend? Care to watch me run your precious pet through? Give me the book and I’ll open the cage door and free your pet. Refuse, and not only will I kill him and feed him to the rats, but Elizabeth shall still bathe in the blood of your friend, Shayde.”

Ivy, Nick, and Raven exchanged glances.
 

The Countess retrieved her mirror and looked into it, gasping. “A wrinkle! Enough of this! I need one of these girls’ blood.”

“Blood?” Spike said, rather hoarsely. “How about something less severe? Have you tried hemorrhoid cream? Tara’s grandmother swears it reduces puffiness and fine—”

“
GAHHHHH
!”
 

The Countess grabbed a skewer from the table, and ran at Spike. Spike was just standing there, frozen. He must have thought his suggestion was helpful. The Countess clearly didn’t agree.

Bane leaped, grabbing her dress in his teeth. The fabric ripped, but the Countess didn’t seem to care. Her face contorted, she tugged at the hem of her gown, the skewer still raised in the other.

“
Fragment!”
Ivy commanded, aiming for the skewer in the Countess’s hand.
 

The skewer splintered in half. The only problem was that it was still a weapon. Only shorter. Raven’s speed was amazing—in a mere blur, she had tackled Spike, getting him out of harm’s way. Spike had barely righted himself by the time Raven was back on her feet. In a series of flips and kicks, she managed to get several good shots to the Countess’s face.
 

The Countess wiped a finger under her nose and came away with a small trickle of blood. Had she been anyone else—Regular or Kindred, she wouldn’t be standing.

“You little bitch!” the Countess said.

Vlad grabbed the spear from the table and turned toward the cage, spear held high. Devlin howled.
 

“Devlin!” Ivy screamed.

Nick aimed at Devlin’s cage. “Repel!” The cage shot back five feet, nearly toppling Devlin over.

“
Aduro inimicus!”
Ivy shouted at Vlad. A feeling, something akin to a jolt of electricity ran through Ivy. She’d used one of the spells in
The Rise of the Dark Curse
, one meant to incinerate someone to ash. She didn’t care. Vlad was nothing more than a conjured soul. He had tried to kill Devlin. For that alone, he had to die. She could hear the book agreeing with her, praising her for the spell she’d used.

For a brief moment, flames engulfed Vlad. The fire rushed over him in one direction, incinerating his skin down to a bare skull. The flames retreated in the other direction before going out all at once. Bone regrew muscle and flesh in such a rapid rate that at first Ivy wasn’t sure she’d seen a skull there at all. Although the spear he’d held was gone, there was nothing more than soot on Vlad’s cloak. Ivy raised her hand again, trying to muster all the energy in her body for one more spell.
 

Do it! Do it, little one! Show us that you love us!
the book encouraged.

“
ADURO INIMICUS!”
 

Again, the flames washed over Vlad, imploding and going out as soon as they changed direction. His flesh regenerated just as quickly as it had before.

Vlad laughed heartily. “You can’t kill me. And without
The Book of Lost Souls
, you can’t banish me.”

He moved toward her. “But
I
can kill
you
!” He grabbed another skewer, ripping the wriggling rat from it and hurling the animal into the wall.
 

Ivy raised her hand as a shield, but Vlad threw the skewer past her.
 

“Or, maybe one of your friends,” he said.

Ivy and Nick turned as Raven dropped to the floor. She hadn’t seen it coming—she was far too intent on the Countess and her back had been turned. Bane raced over to her, whining and licking her face. Ivy ran to Raven’s side.
 

Raven managed to raise her head. “Pull it out! Pull it out!”

Ivy took hold of the wooden spear and tried not to think about what she was doing. She gave it a hard tug, pulling the stick from Raven’s back.
 

Raven turned her head to Bane. “I’ll be fine. It didn’t go all the way through. Give me a minute.” She leaned back into Ivy. “Or maybe three.”

Devlin barked from the other side of the room. Spike had managed to slip over and was trying to free him.

“Stand aside,” Nick called to Spike. Spike stepped back, shielding his face. Nick hurled a ball of red light across the room, hitting the lock. It flipped over and popped open, then fell to the floor, freeing Devlin.

Vlad sneered, striking out with his boot as Devlin raced across the floor toward Ivy. She met his Beezlepup kisses with open arms and then hugged him tightly, covering his soft, furry head with kisses of her own.
 

The Countess laughed maniacally. She gathered her dress in her hands and ran across the factory floor. “How heartwarming. Stay with your mutt, or try and stop me before I kill Mistress Shayde. Care to play a game? I’ll even count to a hundred. Or not.” She raced up a set of metal stairs, her laughter echoing off the metal.
 

Nick nodded to Ivy. “It’s either you or me. Shayde’s best hope is someone with spells.”

Bane growled, signaling he disagreed.

“I need you here,” Nick told Bane. “It’s you, me, and Spike. And someone’s got to keep Raven safe until she recovers.”

Ivy didn’t wait to see if Bane stayed or was behind her. She took off after the Countess with Devlin on her heels.

The railing shifted uneasily. Ivy caught a glimpse of the Countess running toward a gutted hallway. Devlin raced ahead and Ivy followed. The hallway was dark and Ivy had to use the flashlight to see where they were going. Shadows danced off the decaying walls.
 

“Shayde!” Ivy called out. “Shayde? Where are you?”

Devlin growled, the hackles rising on his neck. Ivy stopped and bent slightly to pat him. Devlin stared down a corridor to her right.
 

“Well,” came the Countess’s distant voice from someone down the corridor. “There’s no one down
this
hallway.”

Even though the Countess was somewhere up ahead, Devlin’s attention remained on the corridor to the right.
 

“Is someone in there?” she asked him.

Devlin bared his teeth.
 

“Stay! Watch.” Ivy made a V with her fingers and pointed to her eyes, then back to Devlin, indicating he should stay on guard.

Devlin sat and looked up at her with uncertainty.
 

“It’ll be okay,” she said, not really sure it
was
okay. “If you hear anything, bark.” Ivy walked off into the corridor alone. Someone was here, she could sense it. It was like yesterday at the woods.
 

“Shayde?”

After several steps, she doubted it was Shayde. Had the ties binding Mr. Evans been tight enough?
 

Dim light shone at the end of the hall from another hole in the ceiling. Ivy’s blood grew colder as she took a few more tentative steps.
 

Almost there, almost there
.
 

She could see a doorway at the end, just to the left.

Turn around. Shayde isn’t here. You’re wasting time.

The thought was overwhelming. Yet, going back required turning her back on whoever or whatever was down here. Ivy began her retreat, keeping her back to the wall. Devlin was still waiting for her in the open hallway. At the darkened end of the hallway, something hit the floor with a loud thud. She jumped and let out a little scream. She whirled around, sure it was Mr. Evans or maybe that the Countess had found a way to circle around.
 

It wasn’t a person at all. It was a book.

Devlin barked, worriedly.

“Stay!” She warned him.
 

The book was one of the largest she’d ever seen. It was leathery and black with a blood-red gem in the center of it like the eye of a dragon. It wasn’t just
a
book. Ivy knew it was
the
book.
 

“It’s okay,” she said to Devlin in a shaky voice. “I’ll be right back.”

She eased her way back to the end of the hallway and knelt. The book’s cover rose and fell.
 

It was
breathing
.
 

She read the title, written in gold.
 

The Book of Lost Souls
.

It flipped open and Ivy nearly shrieked. Pages turned, leisurely at first, becoming a blur as they turned faster and faster. It stopped abruptly three quarters of the way through the book. She couldn’t believe what she was reading—the counter curse to banish lost souls. She was so mesmerized by what she read, that it took the sound of footfall and movement from the shadows to draw her attention away from the page.

Slowly, her eyes traveled along the stained and dirty floor caked with years of scum and who knew what, stopping when she saw a pair of men’s black dress shoes, perfectly polished. Her eyes continued upward, over the dark slacks and long, expensive-looking black overcoat.
 

This was who had been following her. The mystery wizard, the one who had positioned
Magic for the Garden
and
The Rise of the Dark Curse
in the graveyard for her to find. She wasn’t sure how her mother’s gardening book fit into all this, but it did. Then, he’d helped her in the woods. He was the one who had thrown stones at Vlad and the Countess. He’d been the one to disintegrate the boards on the bridge. He’d ransacked Mr. Evan’s house and taken
The Book of Lost Souls
. The only question left was what he wanted with her.

 
Ivy looked up to see the mystery man’s face and stared, bewildered, into grey eyes that were so much like her own—her father’s.

CHAPTER 34

After all this time, all the years she’d spent imagining him coming back, all the nights she lay sleepless in bed, thinking of what to say to him, Ivy was utterly speechless.
 

How often she had wanted to tell him how badly he’d hurt them, to tell him how many nights she’d awoken to her mother crying in the other room. She wanted to know how he could leave his family—those he’d sworn to love above everything else. How could he have held his daughter in his arms that day so long ago and profess she and her mother meant the world to him, and then simply walk out of their lives?
 

If only her words could be weapons against him, inflicting the pain he deserved.

Rage boiled inside her and yet her tongue remained silent. It was the shock of seeing him
here
, of all places. Her own father was the mystery man she and her friends had talked about.

They stared at each other for a long moment. She saw something in his expression—anguish? Did it hurt to look at her? Was it so awful?

“Shayde is okay,” he said softly. “I’ve charmed the room she’s being held in. The doors will hold until you get there. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. She was awake, and she’d see me. That can’t happen. Not yet. So, the rest is up to you, Ivy. Read the spell. I’ll be close.”

Ivy glanced down at the page.
 

The counter curse required four ingredients: the plants ivy, Wolfsbane, and Nightshade, and the blood from Vlad and the Countess. The blood might be one thing—she’d already seen that the dead and damned were capable of bleeding. The question was, where was she going to get plants inside the ruined textile mill?
 

“Where—” Ivy looked up to ask him, but he was gone. Just like that day in the cemetery when he’d left the books for her to find before vanishing into thin air. He’d left her clues all along. He’d shown himself to Spike of all people. And, Spike had told her where to find him. Except, she’d found Vlad and the Countess instead. Of course, that had led her to Mr. Evans.
 

And, Spike still had a note from her father. One Spike couldn’t give her until it was time.
 

“N
ow
would be a good time,” she whispered, but the words seemed louder than she’d intended. She read the spell’s ingredients again. Besides them, what else was she missing?
 

The answer was in one of the books. Just not in either of Skinner’s books. Her father had left her more clues in the form of little penciled-in stars inside
Magic for the Garden
: ivy, Nightshade, and Wolfsbane. She didn’t
need
the plant versions.
 

From inside her book bag, the voices started up again.

She sees! Little one sees! Use the ingredients wisely. Yesssss... do use them wisely. Then, come to us. Come to our side...

Words swam into view beneath the ingredients and Ivy felt her stomach rebel. The rest of the counter curse was horrible. And, even if she succeeded in doing the atrocities the book required, there was a warning Ivy wasn’t sure she wanted to ignore. She hadn’t been very good at paying attention to warnings so far. Unfortunately, this one didn’t tell her of a way
out
of the consequences.
 

She tentatively touched the book, expecting something to reach out from it and grab her. It didn’t. Instead, it felt cool and smooth against her fingertips. Like the skin of a large snake.