The Book of Lost Souls (32 page)

Don’t let it get to you
, she thought. She slammed the book shut. Her head began to throb. How long before the books took control?

Ivy shrugged off her book bag. “Maximize!” she held her hand over the canvas until it grew large enough to stuff
The Book of Lost Souls
inside it. Then, she gathered up her book bag and ran down the hallway toward Devlin.

“Find Shayde,” she said. “She’s here, inside one of these rooms.”

Devlin whined.

“Yeah, I know buddy. Both books. It can’t be good. It’ll all work out, somehow. Right now, we’ve got to find Shayde.”

Devlin trotted off down the hall, nose close to the ground. He paused at the next hallway, turned, and waited for Ivy.
 

“Where?” she asked, looking around. The hallway was short, no windows and no closed doors. The only thing around was an open intake vent. “Devlin, she’s behind a closed door. You’ve got to be wrong.”

Devlin turned and disappeared into the large vent. His bark echoed inside.

“I am not going in there. There could be...spiders. Large ones. Or rats the size of rabbits.”

Devlin grumbled in frustration.

“Fine,” she said, climbing into the vent. “But there just better not be any spiders.”

On hands and knees, Ivy followed Devlin’s barks and the sound of his nails against the piping. At least, she hoped those were Devlin’s nails and not the
tap tap tap
of a giant spider. There was a scrambling sound, and then she didn’t hear Devlin any longer.

“Devlin?
Dev
?” she hurried forward, tumbling down the ventilation system face first. After a quick moment of free fall, Ivy landed in a pile of rubble. Roaches ran out beneath the pile of rotting drywall and carpeting.
 

She squealed and got to her feet, dancing around and brushing herself off.
 

“Gerrr,” Devlin said.

“If that’s your version of ewww, then I agree.”
 

Devlin pawed at her leg.
 

Whhhomp!

The sound of the door rocking on its rusty hinges brought Ivy back to the task at hand.
 

“Your magic won’t hold!” cried the Countess from the other side of the door.
 

Ivy didn’t want to say it wasn’t her magic—that it was Daddy Dearest’s magic—and if the Countess thought
this
was something, then just wait until she saw what spell good old Dad had in mind for his daughter’s next act.

Fresh pain and anger rose inside her. After ten years, she thought he’d have something better to say to her, like how wrong he’d been, and that he loved her dearly. He hadn’t even mentioned how she’d grown. Didn’t ask how her mother was holding up. Nothing! Not one fatherly thing. Just
hey,
here’s the counter curse, good luck
.

 
Then, he’d left her. Again.
 

No surprise there.

Whhomp!

Devlin growled and bared his teeth at the bulging door. The doorframe had busted away, and the frail door began to splinter under the Countess’s assault on the other side. With each shove, Ivy could see Báthory’s maniacal grin and her wild eyes. Her nose had quit bleeding, and a line of dried blood remained caked above her lip.

A muffled noise came from behind another pile of trash. Ivy walked around it to find Shayde bound and gagged. Shayde couldn’t change. At least, not the way she’d been tied up. Her arms were duct taped behind her. Her ankles were also bound in duct tape and rope had been looped through the tape at her feet and wrists. The result meant Shayde was bent backward, in an arc. If she tried to change, she’d not only dislocate her shoulder blades, but probably break her legs and her back as well.
 

Ivy fell to her knees beside her friend, ignoring the sound of the door coming off its hinges. With both hands, Ivy grabbed a section of the rope tethering Shayde’s ankles and wrists. She moved it back and forth a few times, then tapped the rope with one finger. The rope continued to apply friction to the tape.
 

“Saw,” Ivy commanded, and the rope began to cut through the tape binding Shayde.

WHHOMP!

The door burst open and the Countess spilled into the room.

Ivy took aim. She just needed a few more seconds. “
REPEL!”

The Countess’s feet went out from under her, partly thanks to Devlin who’d ran behind the Countess’s legs. When the Countess flipped backward over Devlin, his eyes squinted shut as though he thought this might hurt. He whimpered, but shook it off, darting away before the Countess could nab him.
 

Shayde was now free and peeled back the tape covering her mouth.
 

This wasn’t going fast enough. Ivy yanked a couple hairs from Shayde’s head.

“
Oww!”
Shayde complained.

Ivy ripped out a few strands of her own hair.

“This isn’t going to work,” Ivy said.

“What isn’t going to work?” Shayde asked.

“I need some of Bane’s hair,” Ivy replied. She’d have to start the spell and hope she could come up with something.

Devlin bounced up and down and barked at the Countess’s feet. He dashed in to nip at her heels. She went to kick him and Ivy issued another repelling spell. This time, the Countess stayed upright, although she did stagger back a foot or two.
 

Every little bit helps,
Ivy thought.
 

Ivy slid the book bag to the floor and removed
The Book of Lost Souls
. The book instantly flew open to the page for the counter curse.

The Countess pushed aside some of the debris on the trash pile and lunged for Ivy. Shayde and Devlin were on her in an instant, giving Ivy time to roll out of the way. She stretched out her hand, reaching for
The Book of Lost Souls
. It slid across the floor toward her.

Ivy heard the sound of shredding fabric and looked up to see Devlin tear off a large piece of the Countess’s dress. He brought the material to Ivy.

The Countess’s eyes found Ivy and the book. For a moment, her eyes went blank, then she grinned.
 

“
MINE!”
the Countess cried. “You have them! And now they’ll be
mine!”

Shayde hit the Countess in her midsection with a board from the trash pile. She didn’t even flinch.

Ivy understood what Devlin had done—the piece of dress material had a tuft of Bane’s hair on it. She grabbed them, divided up the hairs, stuffing the extras into her jeans pocket. Then she dropped the rest onto the page. The strands of hair transformed into their plant namesakes. The leaves shriveled, which left just the stems. Each stem swirled into words—the deed she’d have to perform as part of banishing the Countess. The damn book wanted its pound of flesh and she was hardly in a position to refuse.

Shoving the thought from her mind, Ivy concentrated on getting the last ingredient—blood from the Blood Countess herself. She shuddered.
 

“Muridae,” Ivy chanted. “Muridae, epulor inimicus.”

The sound of tiny nails scratching at the walls grew almost deafening. Ivy placed her hands over her ears.

The Countess narrowed her eyes at Ivy. “What trickery is this? It will not work!” She stepped forward just as a swarm of rats ran over her shoes. They climbed up her dress thirty, maybe forty of them at a time. The Countess swatted at them and they bit at her hands, drawing blood.
 

“Ivy, what are you doing?” Shayde asked.

“What I have to,” Ivy replied.

Shayde nodded without taking her horrified eyes off the hundreds of rats that now nearly covered Countess Elizabeth Báthory. Rats chewed on her ears, her lips, her nose.

The Countess’s screams were a mixture of anger and pain. She tore a few of the rodents from her bodice.
 

“Retrieve,” Ivy said quietly. Reluctant to give up the feast, the rats slid backward across the floor. She picked them up, one by one, wiping their tiny paws and their mouths with her fingers.
 

As she set each rat free, it ran back to join the others. The Countess was bleeding, but no sooner did the rats bite off a small bit of flesh then the Countess regenerated. Still, it was a horrible sight. The Countess teetered on her feet, the weight of squirming rats too heavy for her.
 

“Ivy,” Shayde began to protest.
 

“Shhh! Don’t say it,” Ivy said, her voice quivering. She swiped her bloodied hand onto the pages of the book.

The Countess was screaming now, flailing her hands against the army of rats. Her skin had stopped regenerating, and worse, it was decaying before Ivy’s eyes.
 

“Ivy,” Shayde called out behind her.
 

Ivy didn’t answer. She wanted to tell Shayde to be quiet. She could hear the rats better if Shayde didn’t interrupt. She had to take another look. It repulsed her, but she was unable to stop herself. The Countess fell to the floor, moans erupting from her as the rats continued feeding on her disintegrating flesh.

A large black rat shoved a smaller rat out of its way, perching itself on the Countess’s right cheek. The rat’s whiskers twitched in tune with its nose a few times before the rat settled in, biting deeply into the Countess’s blankly staring eye.

Shayde grabbed the strap of Ivy’s book bag, breaking Ivy’s trance. Ivy whirled around, furious. “Don’t touch it! No one touches them except for
ME!”

Ivy stopped herself from adding,
they’re mine
. Thankfully, whatever hold the books had a moment ago began to fade and Ivy did her best to hold on to the person she still believed she was.
 

Shayde stepped back. “I get what you did, Ivy. I really do. And thanks. But,
both
books? Where did you find it, anyway?”

“Let’s go,” Ivy said, gathering
The Book of Lost Souls
and stuffing it back into the book bag.
 

Shayde nodded and ran for the door with Devlin right behind her.

Yelling, crashing, and small explosions caught their attention, saving Ivy from explaining about her father.
 

“I should have known you weren’t alone,” Shayde said, setting off in the direction of the noise. “My brother’s here, isn’t he?”

Ivy and Devlin raced after Shayde. “And Nick, Raven, and Spike,” Ivy added.
 

They found their way through the dank and dimly lit hallways. Ivy was thankful for Shayde’s perfect sense of smell and hunting ability. Shayde made it to the factory floor first. In Ivy’s absence, a full-on battle had ensued. Nick was busy hurling anything and everything at Vlad. Nick dodged a spear Vlad threw at him. The wooden spears were all gone, probably no more than ash at Vlad’s feet, thanks to Nick’s spells. Now, Vlad held an iron one instead.

“Retrieve!” Nick called out, aiming at the spear. Vlad’s hand wavered, but the spear still firmly remained in his grasp.
 

Raven was back in action, although not with her former speed. She had squared off with the newcomer to the scene. Somehow, Mr. Evans had gotten free. Ivy had little doubt that the Countess had something to do with it.
 

She may not have been as quick, but Raven was holding her own at avoiding the spells Mr. Evans cast at her. With cat-like grace, Raven performed an airborne flip and twist, not only dodging a spell, but managing to make contact to Mr. Evan’s chest with her boot heel and knock him to the ground.

Bane had grabbed hold of Vlad, sinking his teeth deep into Vlad’s leg. Vlad snarled, then caught sight of Ivy and his sister. Vlad struck Bane across his head. Bane yelped, then attacked Vlad again.
 

Shayde searched for a weapon of some sort, settling on a splintered piece of lumber. She went to join her brother in his fight.
 

Ivy walked onto the factory floor. This was it. All she had to do was repeat the counter curse.

And then we can be with you forever!
Said the whispering voices from within the books.
 

She sat the book bag on the floor, knelt next to it and removed
The Book of Lost Souls
. Then, she hesitated. She would not be with it forever. She’d resist it if was the last thing she ever did. The book’s smooth, cool surface beckoned her...

I won’t give in!

“The book! She has the book!” Mr. Evans shouted from across the room. He shot a bolt of lightning at her just as Nick’s own spell knocked Mr. Evans off his feet. The bolt had missed her and blasted the pole behind her, weakening the metal walkway above. It shifted and groaned and a small mountain of rusted metal and dirt floated down upon them like bloodstained ash.

Vlad, who had his arm raised, spear in hand, stopped and turned away from Nick. In fact, everyone’s attention seemed to fall on her. Ivy flipped the book open. Tendrils of black smoke escaped from the pages. Inside, spiders spun webs around letters and hideously disfigured people stared back at her. Other, even more inhuman things bubbled beneath the page’s surface. Trembling, Ivy reached out to touch the page. At the last minute, she withdrew her hand.

“IVY!” Spike shouted.

Spike slid toward her like he was skidding into home plate. He snatched up the book bag and used it as a shield against one of Mr. Evan’s spells. The result ripped apart her book bag and sent Spike sprawling to the ground, unconscious.
 

Leave him!
the voices inside the book demanded.

She was aware of the fight continuing around her, and that Devlin had come to sit next to her. Not too close, which was good. She didn’t want anyone near her, near the books. It was for their own good, she reasoned. Nothing more.

Ivy stared at Spike for a moment. He was breathing, so he’d live.
 

He’s expendable, inconsequential
, echoed a voice in her head.

Yes! Yes! Expendable!
The books whispered.
 

Without another thought, Ivy returned her attention to the book.

CHAPTER 35