Magie Noire

By Rurouni Star

Chapter Twenty

It was cold.

Very, very cold.

I found myself staggering through snow up to my knees, bracing myself against a howling wind. Grey clouds completely covered the sun, drowning it out to a dim, filtered light — but I still managed to make out Victor's dark form stumbling a few feet in front of me. I clenched my teeth and threw myself toward him, abandoning all pretense of precision or efficiency.

My arms closed around his neck from behind. I tried closing my legs around him too, but my left leg wasn't working. I clawed at his arm, digging the edges of my chewed-down nails into his skin as I reached for the vial of blood.

Victor clearly hadn't expected me to follow him. He gasped and stumbled, tearing at my arms. I realized he was too strong for me to handle in a straightforward manner — so I slapped his bloody, half blown-off ear with my palm. He screamed and dropped to his knees; the vial went tumbling into the snow.

I dropped off his back and fumbled after it. I slammed it into a tall, jagged splinter of ice next to me. The vial shattered in my hand, shards digging into my palm.

Victor's heel caught me just underneath the chin. I saw a burst of stars — but again, I felt no pain. I blinked up at the stormy sky, disoriented and flat on my back.

The wizard tore the ski mask from my face. He laughed, somewhere between crazy and furious, his voice mixing with the howling wind.

"Stupid bitch!" he said. "Look at you! This is what happens when you try to fight what you can't understand!"

I coughed on blood. A few of my teeth had come loose when he'd kicked me in the jaw. I got Monica's blood, I thought dimly. It wasn't everything. Victor was still alive. He might well still make it out of this place, wherever we were, and track her down again somehow. But just for tonight, I'd won.

"Three for three," I choked out at him, grinning madly. "Tic-tac-toe. I win."

"You die," Victor growled out at me. He reached down to haul me up by the collar.

A crackle of electricity surged down his arm. He let me go with a harsh swear.

"What a loser," Bob sighed next to me. "Seriously, kid? I can't help but feel like we could've done better on this one."

I frowned distantly. "Bob," I mumbled. "I told you to stay behind." The words were mostly lost on the wind, but I knew Bob had heard them.

Victor narrowed his eyes at me. He spat on the ground. "Whatever you are," he said. "You're done. I'm going to watch you bleed out, and then I'm going to leave you here for whatever wants to gnaw on your bones."

"Don't worry about him, kid," Bob said quietly. He settled down next to me. The cold ebbed away from my limbs, replaced with a pleasant, tingling warmth. "He's out of juice. That's why he ran in the first place. I don't think he's making it out of here alive."

"Are you doing that?" I asked dimly.

Bob's ghostly hand settled against my head. "Yeah," he said tremulously. "Pain and cold are just electrical impulses. I've blocked 'em both. Normally, it'd be dangerous to do that, but…" He trailed off, and I thought I heard a hitch in his voice.

"...but I'm dying," I whispered.

Bob didn't respond to that one.

It was a terrifying realization. I hadn't expected it to be. It seeped into me slowly, chilling me in a way that had nothing to do with the cold.

I closed my eyes. If I had died in an instant, facing down any of the things I'd tried to fight in the last few days, I knew it would have been a different matter. But lying here in the snow, bleeding out slowly — knowing I was probably far past the point of no return already — was a different matter entirely.

I had to watch it come for me. I had to think about what it meant. The fact that, very soon, I simply wouldn't be.

Death was coming for me, and I couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Kid?" Bob asked. He sounded scared. "Hey, talk to me, would you?"

I blinked quickly. Tears had frozen on my eyelashes, weighing them down.

Victor smiled triumphantly at me. There was a pleasure in his eyes. Most normal people can't understand that pleasure — they don't have the capacity to understand it, don't want to believe that other people could feel it at all. But there are human beings in this world that enjoy suffering, and they don't feel the need to apologize for it.

Victor Sells enjoyed watching me bleed out. That was the kind of man he was.

I decided to take Bob's advice and ignore him. If I only had so much time left, I knew who I'd rather spend it on.

"Hey, Uncle Bob," I said hoarsely. "...what do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire?"

Bob's golden eyes were fixed upon me with a painful clarity. I saw the helplessness in his posture. "I don't… I don't know, kid," he said.

"Frostbite." I shot him a bloody smile.

Bob didn't laugh. But I saw his lips turn ever-so-slightly upward. "I'm gonna miss you, kid," he whispered.

I closed my eyes. "I'm gonna miss you too," I rasped. "But… but thanks for being here. I mean it. I'm glad I'm with you."

The wind's howl picked up. I let myself breathe out slowly. I wasn't cold. I wasn't in pain. There were worse ways to go for sure. I tried so hard to claw back my detachment, to reaffirm my deathwish. I hadn't done so bad for myself, had I? In the end, I'd even won the game.

Bob's helpless misery was catching. I couldn't get away from it. I found myself wanting to tell him it was all going to be all right, even though I knew it wasn't.

"Dear me," said a woman's voice, cutting across the wind with a cold, cruel clarity. "What have we here?"

I slitted my eyes open again.

The howling wasn't just the wind. I saw great, large shadows skulking around us in the snow — hounds with glittering red eyes that looked just a little bit too human. Between them stood a tall, lithe woman, her skin as white as the snow that surrounded her. Her cheekbones were too high, though, and her eyes were a molten gold, slitted like a cat's would be. Her gown was far too thin for the weather, and it glittered with a strange opalescent color. Her ears filed back to gentle points against her head; fiery red curls tumbled just past her hips. I stared at her, unable to speak.

I knew that crimson hair. I had seen it braided around my wrists, binding my hands.

Bob had frozen next to me. He didn't say anything, but I knew somehow that he was very afraid.

Victor turned to eye the woman warily. I saw the lust in his eyes, though. There was something unearthly and enchanting about her. And more — a dark undercurrent to her presence that spoke of old power.

The wizard bowed toward her. "What an honor it is to meet you," he said. "I had no idea I had entered the domain of such a lovely queen."

The woman's eyes glittered. "Oh," she said. "How pleasant. I appreciate a man who errs on the side of politeness. I am not the queen of this realm, mortal. But I do serve Her with distinction." She slid toward him, unfettered by the snow. She traced one long, wicked fingernail down his cheek. "I feel blood on you," she declared. "And power. But it was not your blood that drew my hounds."

Her eyes flickered toward me. I saw her pupils dilate in surprised recognition.

Victor didn't seem to notice. He was utterly intoxicated. "Yes," he said. "Blood and power both. I am lost, my lady, but I would be only too pleased to serve you and to place both at your disposal, if you would only grant me your favor."

The woman's eyes turned back toward him. She smiled suddenly, cruel and pleased. "Oh," she said. "Oh. What a delicious offer." She leaned in toward him, pulling his chin up toward hers with one finger. "I accept."

She pressed her blood red lips to his. Victor moaned in delight, reaching greedily out to pull her closer.

A moment later, he screamed and stumbled back. It sounded wrong, though — and I only realized why as I saw the blood that trickled from his mouth.

The redheaded woman had bitten out his tongue.

She spat his tongue from her mouth, laughing as the blood trickled down her lips. It was a pleasant laugh that tinkled like the peal of bells. "Heel, my hound," she commanded him. "Or I shall next take something you will miss far more."

Victor whimpered, falling to his knees. The hounds growled and snapped at him, as though playing along with their mistress' game.

She turned back toward me, with an interest far too keen to be coincidence. "And how does a mortal woman end up dying in Winter, so far from home?" she asked.

I was too weary to sit up. I shook my head minutely and closed my eyes again. I was warm, and very, very tired.

A cool hand touched my forehead. I felt my pulse slacken. My heartbeat slowed. The woman lifted me easily to a sitting position, with a strength that belied her frame.

"You needn't die," she whispered in my ear. "I can save you yet, my dear."

The words hit me in the gut. I felt an instant reaction, a desperate affirmation. The words yes, yes, I want to live stuck in my throat halfway up. I looked over at Victor, gagging up blood and clutching at his mouth.

There were worse things than death. That, I knew far too well.

"I don't want… that kind of saving," I mumbled.

Bob was staring at her as though she were a shark, come to eat us both. He swallowed hard. "Whatever you do, kid," he said. "Don't talk to me out loud. She's been around the block. She'll know what's going on in a heartbeat."

I bit back my instinctive question, but he answered it anyway. "She's a faerie. An old, mean one. Mortals call her the Leanansidhe. If she figures out I'm here, her and her queen will tear me to shreds."

A new and unexpected panic hit me at that. I'd been scared of my own death… but the idea of Bob dying was terrifying. For a second, I couldn't bring myself to speak at all, afraid that I might somehow give him away.

The Leanansidhe smiled, showing off her very white, faintly pointed teeth. Blood still colored her incisors where she'd bitten off Victor's tongue. "Oh, my darling," she cooed soothingly. "I wouldn't do that to you. Arrogant men are easy to find. But strong and clever women…" She sighed, deeply pleased. "What it must have taken, for you to hunt down a wizard with no power of your own! No… there are much better places for you than among the dogs."

I shivered, even though I couldn't feel the cold. If I agreed to serve this creature, this thing, I doubted she'd be sending me out to get her morning lattes at Starbucks.

My body trembled. I fought back the rising tide of desperation. Like magic, I knew this woman could cure me. She could turn back the darkness that crept in at the edges of my soul, even now.

Like magic. Just like magic. The image of those two dead bodies in the hotel room came back to me — a stark reminder of the sort of magic she was probably talking about. I felt the oily residue of Victor's insatiable lust on my skin. I remembered the Sight of Marcone, watching me pass with his mostly hollowed-out soul.

There were worse things than death.

"Hard pass," I rasped. It was the hardest thing I'd ever done. "But I appreciate the offer."

The faerie narrowed her eyes at me. I knew there was familiarity there, hiding behind her eyes. It killed me that I didn't know why… but she clearly expected that I shouldn't recognize her in turn. If I started asking questions, that might lead me down a path that ended with Bob getting revealed. Since I was about to kick the bucket anyway, I figured I could live my last few moments burning with curiosity.

"You are dying," she emphasized to me, as though I might not have heard her properly. "I can save you. Do you not wish to live?"

I blinked quickly, but I couldn't dislodge the frost from my eyelashes. "I'm gonna be honest," I managed. "I was feeling a little indifferent on that point for most of today. I'm leaning a little more toward yes than I was earlier… but not at the cost of turning into Victor over there."

The Leanansidhe hissed out her breath in frustration. I wasn't sure why, exactly. In spite of everything she'd said, I was no particular prize. With billions of humans on the planet, I figured she could easily find another woman with a badge and a bad sense of self-preservation.

"You haven't even heard my terms yet, mortal," she told me coldly. "I do not want your servitude. In exchange for saving your life, I shall ask only one favor, to be repaid at a later date." She glanced toward Victor, still cringing back from the hounds in the snow, clutching at his bleeding mouth. "I am no healer, of course. I shall have to give you his life. But he did promise me blood and power, and I feel it only fair that I accept his offering."

I shuddered at that. A favor to a wicked faerie in return for sucking down Victor's life force sounded pretty gross, all told. I wasn't sure the Leanansidhe had a great understanding of how to appeal to people who weren't dressed all in black and covered in dark magic.

I opened my mouth to refuse again… but pain blossomed in my jaw, sharp and hard, and I gasped for breath, unable to speak.

"What are you doing, kid?" Bob demanded. There was a desperation in his voice. "You don't have to die! It's just a favor — we can deal with that!" His voice rose to a strangely hysterical pitch. "You don't have to die!"

I couldn't answer him directly. The Leanansidhe was looking at me expectantly, and I could now feel every inch of my broken jaw. I let my head fall back, reaching for my mouth with a sob.

The pain vanished as abruptly as it had come. Bob leaned over me, taking me by the shoulders. His eyes glowed that strange, firefly orange-gold. "Kid, please," he begged me. "Please don't say no. Third time's the charm. If you turn her down again, that's it."

I looked him in the eyes, helpless. I didn't know how to explain it all to him. I didn't have the words to tell him what it meant to become a monster, just to save myself.

Bob choked. "Kid," he said. "You owe me a favor. I'm calling it in. Next thing outta your mouth has to be some form of yes, or else you never meant it."

I stared at him. I did, I thought. I said that to him.

"You're my host right now," he said. "If you die, I've got nowhere to go. Even if the witch over there doesn't end me, I'm still stuck in the middle of Winter, where they don't like me very much." His fingers dug into my shoulders. "I wasn't gonna tell you before. Seemed like a downer way to go out. But she's offering a way out. If you won't take it for you, take it for me, kid."

I swallowed hard.

I didn't want to indebt myself to that thing. I knew, deep down in my soul, that it was an awful, terrible idea. But I felt Bob's presence buzzing just beneath my skin, alive. The image I had dreamed up for him in my head stood before me, with features just close enough to my father's that I felt my throat lock up.

I was the one who'd asked him to come with me. I was the one who'd jumped in after Victor. Every step of the way so far, Bob had done nothing but help me, even when it was deeply inadvisable. Maybe that was a function of how he worked, what he had to do because I had his skull. But even after I'd given that to Waldo, the spirit had followed me here, knowing what it might cost him.

Bob was the closest thing left I had to family. I couldn't let him die.

I blinked back tears… and nodded, ever-so-slightly. The Leanansidhe smiled, pleased — and, I thought, a little bit relieved?

Bob sighed in relief. "Okay," he said. "Okay." A low, buzzing panic just beneath my skin gave way, as he rubbed at his face. "We're good. We can work with this. We can get you home." He took in a deep, shuddering breath. "You're in a corner, but that doesn't mean we have to let her take you for all you're worth, kid. Now, repeat after me, exactly like I say it."

I listened to him speak. I took a breath, and started talking. "On a few conditions," I said.

The Leanansidhe frowned at that. "Conditions," she repeated, disbelieving.

"Yeah," I said hoarsely. "Take 'em or leave 'em. I figure I haven't got much time left, though, so it'll have to be a quick decision."

The faerie narrowed her eyes.

"One: you heal me back to perfect health — no more, no less. You don't make any other alterations to my mind, body, or spirit." I took in another shuddering breath, while Bob repeated the next part a few times, very carefully. "Two: you open the Way back home for me, and you do everything in your power to make sure I get there as safely and quickly as possible, without using your power on me directly."

The Leanansidhe's delicate eyebrows crept upward. I wondered for just a second whether she was going to turn me down out of sheer anger. But I hoped I hadn't imagined that relief in her eyes. She wanted me to take this deal, for reasons she wasn't going to fess up to. If that was the case, I could push the envelope at least a little bit further.

"Three: you don't use your debt to spy on me and you don't seek me out in any way until you're ready to call in your favor. When you do call it in, I have the right to refuse, in which case the original contract becomes null and void."

I had to resist the urge to glance toward Bob at that. It sounded an awful lot like a death clause.

The faerie drew herself up sharply, hissing in her breath. "Anything else?" she demanded.

I gave a long pause. My vision was starting to go black at the edges. Bob probably could have kept going, but I realized I wasn't going to last that long. "No," I said wearily. "That's it." I felt my eyes glaze over. My heart was getting weak.

The Leanansidhe hissed in annoyance. "Yes," she said. "Yes, I agree."

She leaned down to press her lips to my forehead. Victor's blood left a red mark there, in the shape of her perfect lips.

I heard him scream again, even without a tongue. It was a horrible, strangled noise. It went on… and on.

I closed my eyes against it, sickened. Cold power misted along my body, burrowing deep into my flesh. Slowly, I felt things begin to knit, one-by-one. The place in my leg, where one of Helen Beckitt's bullets had torn my femoral artery. The fracture in my jaw and the cuts in my mouth, from when Victor had kicked me. The burn along my wrist, where my mother's bracelet had melted into my skin. Even the various aches and pains and gashes I'd gotten from the last few days, when I'd tangled with the demon and the scorpion.

"I am really glad you're not feeling any of this," Bob muttered. He sounded as shaken as I felt.

The screaming faded away. When I opened my eyes, I was perfectly hale and healthy — I had more energy, more awareness than I had felt in years.

Victor Sells sprawled along the bloody snow, his face tormented in agony. I knew he was a swiftly-cooling corpse.

"Well then," said the Leanansidhe sharply. "As quickly as I am able, you said. Let us not tarry, mortal child."

She raked those sharpened nails along the air before us…

...and I found myself standing in the middle of a burning building.