Twenty-Five
Saben recognised the place instantly.
She couldn't recollect how they had got there so fast, scenery passed in a blur, the city had turned to a rural blanket and then to the familiar path of Providence Drive that lead to the house of Baba Lucine.
The sweet scent of night blooming jasmine still wafted through the nearby cedar wood and brought with it the phantoms of suppressed memories. Her lip began to tremble as she was quietly transported back to her childhood.
The vampire child Iris was staring at the house with her face pressed to the car window, her eyes were large and liquid, lips parted as the car pulled into the drive.
Saben got out of the car slowly, planting her feet on the cracked and mossy drive.
"It was a perfect little operation, I think." Iris sighed. "Shame it had to end like it did."
Saben followed the girl inside, Iris made no sound as she crawled over the wreck of the front door, over the debris, creeping vines that had infiltrated the hall, ivy and moss making themselves home on the inside of the building as if the earth itself were claiming the structure.
Saben shuddered as the breath of the house welcomed her home. She turned in circles to take in the dark, dank innards. Familiar sights now watery and faded beneath the ebb of time. She could almost hear the screaming and laughter of children.
Iris turned to her then. "Used to pick the abandoned ones, you know? They make for the most compliant meals."
Saben felt sick because she understood what Iris meant.
"Come see, there's something else up there." Iris pointed to the floor above.
Saben swallowed a lump in her throat and followed her up the rickety staircase. She could see her old room through the slim cracks of the door. She flushed at the memory of Danny Somtow and his questing fingers slithering between the sheets, beneath her nightgown...
"In there." Iris prompted and she moved smoothly into what used to be Baba Lucine's bedroom. She opened the double doors and the rancid stench made her instantly double over and press hands over her mouth to save her senses from the onslaught.
She opened her eyes, squinting through tears, feeling dizzy from the sickly rotting smell. She found a corpulent figure nailed to the wall. Its skin was a putrid shade of green, hanging in thick folds. The hair on its scalp was brittle and sparse and she could make out the thin lipped death grin, shrivelled prunes where the eyes would have been, its nose disintegrated leaving only the nostril hollows in the skull.
Baba Lucine's limbs had been nailed to the wall with thick, vicious iron nails.
"A child escaped once but once was enough." Iris continued as if the corpse was not there at all.
That child was Saben of course. The sinking feeling of betrayal, the decimation of all the tender feelings she had had for her Baba slowly melted into an acute sadness.
She was alive only because Abberline had let her run and she had been running ever since. She curled her hands into fists letting her nails bite deep into the flesh of her palm. One day she would have to stop running.
"The Master didn't like that. He doesn't like to lose, you know? So he closed it down."
"Why are you showing me this?" She asked, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
"Because you belong to him." Iris said as if it were that simple.
"I belong to no one." Saben replied in an unconvincing whisper and thoughts of Abberline immediately came to mind. Say it.
Iris laughed. Shook her head as if she were sorry for Saben's lack of understanding. "It's important to remember where you've come from."
Saben looked back at Baba Lucine's bloated, bloodless body.
"I do have one talent." Iris smiled. "I can bid the dead to talk, would you like to see the old bitch talk?"
Saben shook her head vaguely.
Iris raised a hand and Saben could almost taste the magic, the heat rush from her palm and fall across the corpse. "Fama."
Baba Lucine's body shuddered at the word, folds of skin shivering and then a great and terrible breath rasped past its lips.
Saben grasped Iris' arm. "What are you doing?"
"Watch and listen." Iris smiled with her sharp teeth, eyes on Baba Lucine, beads of sweat breaking out on her brow.
Baba's voice rose, her dry throat working in horrible spasms, the tone like an aged man, garbled and desperate and barely making sense at all. "It's all your fucking fault you worthless piece of trash. Should never have bargained for you. Should never have bought you. Should never have-"
"Enough." Iris hissed her body trembling ever so slightly.
The corpse slumped forward and was still and dead.
"It's time to go." Iris said.
"Where?" She asked distractedly, her whole being focused on the dead body that was for a moment not dead at all. She wanted to stay in the fetid room with the rotting body of Baba Lucine, she wanted Baba to talk and talk and talk…
Baba Lucine was the only mother Saben ever knew.
"It's almost time." Iris said already walking away. "You'll see."
*
There was a charred black stain and smoky smell where Buddy Shenker had been standing.
"Now you didn't have to go and do that." Celsia smiled to disguise the small twinge of fear the fluttered through her stomach.
Blaise Harman stood like a vengeful goddess, her fingers ignited with orange witch fire, surrounded in the perfume of singed flesh. Celsia could see the ghostly vistas of the great wars where the spell casters rose against the great nation of skin walkers.
The adrenaline of having exorcised her Power was slowly streaming away in a cool, tasteless wind that ruffled Celsia's hair throwing strands into her eyes.
"These things have consequences." Celsia continued. "Prices to pay."
Blaise turned to the vampire, her eyes as bright and hard as discs of silver. "If you don't want to end up like that animal you better-."
Celsia laughed. "I'm not afraid of you witch. If anything happens to me, there is no telling what can happen to Saben or your little Danny boy. You might want to remember that next time you threaten me with..." She wiggled her fingertips to signify her magic.
Blaise flushed red, storms rolled through her eyes and her lips pursed. She raised a finger pointing at Celsia's cold expression, a spark of red lightning illuminated her fingertips. "You will help me find them."
"I suppose that would be sensible but the one person I could depend upon to find anything is, well, as you know." Celsia's hand flew carelessly toward the black mark that had once been Shen.
Blaise's eyes moved to the sight of it and Celsia saw the first flicker of weakness cross the witch's features. Blaise Harman was no killer, Celsia could already see the subtle lines of guilt thread through the witch's conscience. What Blaise had invoked from her own bare hands to eradicate the werewolf in a glorious burst of flame was no small trifle. It suggested that the Day were far more dangerous than the Night anticipated.
Celsia moved with impressive speed taking Blaise by the throat, she pressed her lips to the woman's ear to speak. "To me, my dear, you are just meat, not even of the Night, just like that filthy half breed child you're so eager to call your own."
Blaise mouth trembled though she did not speak at first because she had had such thoughts once too. Her cheeks burnt with shame as she finally understood Thea's words all those years ago. It's a lie, a racist lie. I hope you feel ashamed of yourself.
"If you believe that then why are you looking for Saben Frost?"
Celsia's mouth was cold on her skin and she suppressed a shiver. "Ah, Saben. Sabey. She's just so precious, isn't she? A special one. If things had gone to plan she should have disappeared a long time ago."
"If you hate her so much, why-"
"Because it's my duty." Celsia's grip relaxed on Blaise's throat to stroke the soft creamy pale skin. "You know about that, don't you? Isn't that why you're here?"
"I'm here because I love my son."
"Don't you mean 'her son', sweetheart?"
"We could work this out together."
Celsia's hand drifted from her neck to Blaise's collarbone and felt the pause in her breath. Celsia's body shook as she laughed. "Now that would be interesting, you promise not to kill me and I'll promise not to kill you. What could we possibly have to work out?"
"We could help each other."
"What makes you think I even need you to find her?"
"If anything happens to me, the whole of Circle Daybreak will come looking for me."
"I suppose that may be true, but it would only make life terribly exciting."
"Isn't there even a shred of compassion left in you, vampire?"
"Compassion? Compassion belongs to the mortal and the young." Celsia laughed. "And I haven't been human for a very long time."
"If you help me get Daniel then I'll help you get rid of Saben Frost."
Celsia went silent. The air in the room seemed to go cold until Blaise could see her breath cloud before her eyes. "That's what you want, isn't it? Beneath it all? You want rid of her but you can't risk being implicated in her death. I could do it. I can make it look like an accident, just-" She was whispering ecstatically. "We'll just call a truce and work this thing out."
Celsia released her and Blaise stumbled forward, hands flying to her throat trying to dampen the sensation of the vampire's icy touch.
"Keep talking, witch." Celsia said, a keen smile twisted her lips.
*
Saben was on her knees without having any recollection of getting there. She could not help herself, but could not even think about standing in his presence.
He glowed as if lit by the very light of heaven. His copper hair haloed his head like flame and his deep dark eyes bore into her being, scouring her very soul and every pore was willingly open to him. He was a living god, Ra, Apollo, Sol Invictus and she was his devoted disciple.
"Welcome." Mezereon's voice boomed, moving outside and inside her very being and her soul gladly sung to the chorus of his voice.
Iris small cold hand found the crown of Saben's head. "Welcome home, sister."