Tattoo Read online

  I couldn't decide if he was speaking English or not. The dance committee? My help? A world of yeah right.

  “The dance committee?” I repeated skeptically.

  The principal gave me a look. “Yes,” he said impatiently. “Annabelle Porter distinctly said that your assistance was needed”

  I tried not to look conspicuous and failed miserably. “Oh yeah,” I said, doing my best to cover up the sketchy expression I knew I was sporting. “That committee”

  “Took you long enough,” Zo said when I stepped into the gym three minutes later.

  “This is so much better than class,” Delia said. She sighed. “I'm really going to miss these powers” She changed subjects without so much as skipping a beat. “These are great decorations”

  It was just like Delia to critique the decorations in the middle of what could only be described as an epic battle we were destined to lose.

  Not wanting to look at Annabelle, who I knew could hear my pessimistic thoughts as well as I could, I looked around. The actual dance committee had already decked the gym out with shiny, silver streamers, dark purple accent pieces, and a veritable ton of helium balloons, which would probably sink midway to the floor by the time the dance actually started.

  I could practically hear the music in my head, could see myself dancing with Kane.

  “Your hair. “

  No time to daydream, I reminded myself. Must concentrate on evil fairy. Why was it that whenever I thought of Kane, nothing else seemed to matter?

  “Can we return to the matter at hand?” Annabelle said. “If we want to destroy her, we must consider the nature of our enemy” Annabelle sounded so official that I felt an odd urge to salute her. “We know that she is Sídhe and that, as such, she commands some Sídhe powers”

  “Like sucking souls out of people?” Zo suggested drily.

  A little boy dreaming about Little League, dead in the bathtub.

  “Our powers are Sídhe powers,” Annabelle said, and her soft, authoritative voice broke me from the mental image. “They come from the blood in the tattoos. I think it makes sense to assume that Alecca might be armed with some of the same powers” Moving quickly, Annabelle presented us with a sheet of paper.

  “Our symbols?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Annabelle said. “Like Lionel told us, separately they translate roughly to fire, knowledge, future, and change” Annabelle flipped the paper over and gestured to the symbols drawn on the back. “And here we have two of the combined symbols,” she said. “Life and death” She nodded to a final drawing. “And the combination of the combinations, balance”

  Delia messed with one of her nails as Annabelle prattled on.

  “Balance is composed of life and death. Life, as you can see, is composed of fire and knowledge, and death of future and change” Annabelle paused. “If you think about it, it makes sense” She looked down. “Death is in the future for us all, and it is a change”

  “But you think it might mean something more?” Delia asked.

  “It's just a hypothesis,” Annabelle said, “but I think that maybe death and life refer in fact to Sister Death and Sister Life” She paused. “To Alecca and Adea,” she clarified. Annabelle said their names so easily that I couldn't help but think that she didn't know them, didn't fully realize what was at stake.

  How could she? She hadn't seen what Zo and I had seen the night before. She'd never seen Alecca.

  “So,” Annabelle continued on with her theory, seemingly unaware of my thoughts, “maybe Adea and Alecca have the powers encompassed by their symbols. For death, premonition and transmogrification; for life, pyrokinesis and mind control”

  “Can we just call her Death instead of Alecca?” I found myself asking. “It fits a lot better”

  “What's the point of this?” Zo asked impatiently.

  “The point is that we can't forget that our enemy is an unknown, and that we have to plan to fight against whatever powers she may possess” Annabelle took a deep breath. “We need to cement our plan of action before Alecca finds us”

  “Wouldn't it be better if she found us?” Zo asked. “I mean, if we find her, we're on her turf, but if she finds us”—Zo made a sardonic gesture toward the silver streamers—”if she finds us here, we have more control”

  “Are you suggesting we just stay in one place until she finds us?” Annabelle asked, her voice echoing in the nearly empty gym.

  “Sure,” Zo said.

  “Problem,” I said. “What if she doesn't find us until later?” I looked down at my feet. “What if she finds us after we've lost our powers?” I paused. “Or what if she finds the others first?”

  I didn't need to elaborate for them to know I was referring to the people from Zo's vision.

  “Okay, new plan,” Zo said immediately. “We find her”

  “Do you have a scrying crystal with you?” Annabelle asked Zo. Zo nodded and lifted Keiri's crystal out of her pocket.

  “Never go anywhere without it,” Zo said.

  “Mark the calendar,” Delia said automatically. “Zo is accessorized”

  Zo made a face at Delia. “Map?” she asked.

  “Map of what?” Annabelle's question was, of course, the epitome of logic. “We don't even know for sure that she's in this world”

  “If I don't have a map, what am I supposed to scry off of?” Zo demanded.

  “Close your eyes” The direction was out of my mouth before I knew I'd given it. “Let images come to you. See the town, the world. See whatever image comes to your mind, and just really look at it”

  As I spoke, my voice took on an almost hypnotic tone, and Zo closed her eyes. The crystal in her hand swung in circles, gently at first and then erratically, darting left and right, front and back at an uneven pace.

  “The ocean,” Zo said, her voice labored and her body tense. “The hotel. Another place … I can't…it's almost there, but”

  The crystal flew out of her hand and shattered against the opposite wall.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I looked around. Except for us and the balloons, the gym was empty.

  “I'm guessing that Death doesn't really like being scried for” Delia's voice was shaky as she tucked a strand of chestnut-colored hair behind her ear.

  “I almost had it,” Zo bit out, opening her eyes. “I could see where she'd been. I could feel where she was, but when it came to actually knowing the answer, actually finding her, I was “

  “Blocked?” Annabelle suggested.

  Zo nodded, her face still dark. “Yeah”

  “Sídhe-blocked,” I said, remembering the term Keiri had used. “Like my dreams and Annabelle's thoughts when she's wearing the magic barrette”

  I felt ridiculous for even using the phrase “magic barrette”

  “You think this is a magic necklace?” Delia asked, fingering the black metal choker she wore around her neck. “I got it at the same booth where you got the tattoos and Annabelle got her barrette”

  “Does it do anything?” I asked lamely.

  “Other than accentuate my chest, not really,” Delia replied, “but the saleswoman said it was retro and cutting, and I have to agree”

  Zo snorted, but the next second, she was diving for her backpack.

  “What?” the rest of us asked at once.

  Zo unzipped the front pocket and took out a small white bag. Gingerly, she opened it and took something into her hands. Opening her fist, she let the dark purple crystal swing down, the nearly invisible cord held in between her middle finger and her thumb.

  “Another scrying crystal,” Zo explained. “I almost forgot I had it, but I bought it at the mall when you guys were buying your”—Zo physically had to force herself to say the word—”accessories”

  “If my barrette and the tattoos are magicked,” Annabelle said evenly, “your crystal may well be also”

  Zo nodded, and closed her eyes. The crystal moved, and soon it was swinging counterclockwise in a triangular moti
on. It whistled through the air, lightly, purposefully, and I found myself watching it.

  “She's near,” Zo said softly. “Not in our world, but in another that runs parallel. She's watching. She's near”

  I watched the crystal dance on the end of the string, and slowly, the sound of Zo's voice faded from my ears. I could feel myself being pulled from reality, and after a moment, all I saw was the crystal, and all I heard was the beating of my own heart, and then there was nothing.

  “I've been waiting for you” Gently, he pulled me toward him. “Shall we dance?”

  Part of me knew it was a dream, knew it couldn't be real, but I didn't care. Here, in this place, he wasn't listening to Alex, wasn't watching her laugh. Her arms weren't around him; his were around me.

  The lights dimmed as his arms encircled my waist, and I rested my head on his shoulders. The music began playing, and we swayed to it.

  “Your hair looks like moonlight”

  My heart pounded viciously against the inside of my rib cage, and I could feel his beating next to mine. His hands played along my arms until his fingertips touched mine. My fingers tingled with his touch, and after a moment, he brought his hands to my cheeks.

  “You're beautiful”

  “No,” I said, staring back into his eyes. “You are”

  He laughed then. “You surprise me,” he said. “Everything about you surprises me”

  I could feel his breath on my face, and it made my skin heat up.

  “Your eyes surprise me every time I look into them and they're looking back at me” He brought his hands gently to the side of my face. “Your mouth surprises me, because you always seem to smile more with one half than with the other, like part of you knows a funny secret that none of the rest of us, not even your other half can guess”

  He brushed a finger over my lips, and I sucked in a breath. This was so right. It all felt so right.

  “You surprise me, Bailey Morgan,” he said. We swayed to the music, and the tune filled my head. This was so right, and I wanted it with all of my being. Wanted him.

  “Do you want me?” he asked me softly. He brought his lips to mine, holding back from kissing me by just a fraction of an inch. “Because I want you”

  I wanted him. Wanted him.

  I moved forward, caught up in the moment and the music and his lips and mine. “I've wanted this for so long,” I murmured.

  Want. Want. Want.

  “I know” He moved his lips toward mine, closing the gap between them in what seemed like slow motion. “I've always known you”

  It was perfect, and as his lips closed over mine, I lost track of everything except for the kiss, and the music swelled around me.

  Come. Come. Come.

  It was so warm, so right, that for a moment, I wanted to stay there, with him, forever, and then his words caught up with me.

  I know you. I've always known you.

  I pulled away from him and for the first time realized that even as we kissed, he was humming. I was humming. There was no music playing. We were dancing to the sound of our own humming.

  Come. Come. Come.

  I know you. I've always known you.

  What had Keiri said about the trio? “They were to know human life, to know humans, and through their knowledge, the power inherent in all life was to return to the Sídhe”

  “I know you. I've always known you. Don't you want me, Bailey?” Kane asked, but looking at him, I knew that they weren't Kane's words, that he wasn't real. “Isn't this what you wanted?”

  Want. Want…

  I shook my head, taking a step back.

  “I want you” His voice was soft and low, and so, so sweet.

  “Stop it,” I said, pushing him away. “Just stop it”

  This wasn't real. None of this was real. Biting back tears, I pushed the sound of the song out of my head. “Stop it”

  “Bailey, I don't understand” Kane looked at me, longing and hurt on his face, and, oh, I wanted him. Wanted him, but it wasn't him.

  None of this was real.

  “This is what you want, what you've always wanted,” the creature with Kane's face, his voice, said, and I understood why Alecca would choose a high school dance for her hunting grounds. Somehow, she preyed on desires, and everyone in high school wanted something. Even me.

  My eyes stung with tears. Oh, I wanted it even now, but

  it wasn't real. “No!” I found myself ^yelling. “I don't want it. I don't want any of it, not from you. Not ever”

  “Bailey—”

  “Stop saying my name. Stop using his voice” A single tear streamed down my face, and as it fell off my cheek and onto the floor below, I felt the music's hold on me tremble. “I don't want it, Alecca”

  The moment the name left my lips, the world around me crumbled into a different scene. I wasn't standing in the gym, and Kane wasn't standing with me. There were no streamers or balloons. I wasn't beautiful.

  “Bailey. OMG, Bailey. We thought you were a goner”

  I turned at the sound of Delia's voice.

  “Your eyes glazed over, Bay, and you just kept staring, and when you started humming “ Zo trailed off and stuffed her hands in her pockets.

  “You couldn't hear us” Annabelle's voice was soft as she surveyed our surroundings. “One minute you were there, and the next you were gone”

  “Like Amber” Zo's voice was hard. “Like the boy”

  “I “ How was I supposed to explain what had happened? All I knew was that my daydream had been something far more serious and that if I'd held on to Kane's kiss, if I'd let myself want it all for a moment longer, the desire would have swallowed me whole.

  “Where are we?” Zo changed the subject. I could have hugged her for it.

  I looked around. “We're standing on the Seal,” I said softly. I'd stood here before, been here before in my dreams, but now I wasn't dreaming, and I wasn't alone.

  As it turned out, neither were we.

  “Such a pity. I do detest bloodshed”

  I whirled around to face the speaker, but before I could, I felt an invisible force lash out at me, and like a whip of fire across my entire body, it threw me to the floor.

  “Okay, fairy,” Zo said evenly. “Now it's on”

  “Big words from such a small mortal” Alecca's voice was painfully sweet. “Would you like to be bigger, little one?” Alecca smiled an awful smile, her bloodred lips curving beautifully on her ivory face. “No … I know what you want, Zoe-Claire”

  We knew her name, and she knew ours. I had a feeling that whatever advantage calling her by name had won me, it was over now. We were on even footing, and on her turf.

  “You want your mother,” Alecca said, and her words hit me hard. Looking over, I knew they hit Zo harder. “You want her to see you and your dad, to see that you don't need her, but sweetling, you do, and I think you know that, don't you?”

  “Don't talk about her mother,” Annabelle said through clenched teeth.

  “Do you think I lie, Annabelle? Yes, I know your name, too, child. I know you all. I know what you feel. I know what you think. I know what you want, and I can give it to you” She took a step forward. I tried to clamber to my feet, but found myself pushed back down by the force of Alecca's gaze.

  “Do you know what I'm thinking now?” Annabelle asked, never backing down. “You don't”

  Alecca said nothing, but I couldn't help but glance at the barrette in Annabelle's hair.

  I caught Annabelle's gaze out of the corner of my eye, and she nodded slightly. Trying my best to remember the tentative plan of attack she'd outlined earlier, I threw my entire self into creating flame.

  My skin itched with the burning sensation in my blood, as emotion coursed through my body. She'd taken so much. She'd ripped the soul from the body of a child. She'd killed him, and she planned to kill more. She'd do anything to get her revenge. She'd taken Kane from me, from that sacred crush place in the back of my mind and the front of my heart.
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br />   She was insulting my friends.

  The heat built up inside my body. It pumped through my veins and fought against my skin.

  I looked at Alecca standing there with her blue eyes and rose red grin, and I stopped holding the power back. I let every emotion, every worry, every bit of heat in my body flow from my hands, and fire leaped from my palm to her body.

  The floor in front of her burst into flame, and I could feel the earth shifting beneath me, the Seal splintering as the ground shuddered.

  “Zo, weakness,” Annabelle called out. “Quickly”

  Zo closed her eyes, her hand still clenched over the crystal she'd used to divine Alecca's presence.

  “Weakness is mortal,” Alecca said, stepping through the flames. “I am not”

  “Whatever her weakness is,” Zo hissed under her breath, “Bailey's standing on it”

  The Seal.

  My concentration wavered, and so did the fire. I bit my bottom lip and sent another wave of heat toward Alecca as she approached me and the Seal. With a casual flick of her hand, she sent a stream of brilliant blue-green flame flying right back at me.

  “What is the expression you mortals use?” she asked, her red lips curving into a smirk. “Fighting fire with fire?”

  Burning heat surrounded me, separating me from my friends with a wall of angry blood green flames.

  Pyrokinesis. She had pyrokinesis? So much for Annabelle's theory.

  “I could have given you your heart's desire, could have given you all you've ever wanted” Alecca stepped through the fire. “It was beautiful, what I offered you. And what did I ask in return?” She shrugged. “Your life, your soul, your power: such a small price for a moment of true happiness”

  I snorted, because as long as I was snorting, I wasn't, technically, quaking in my boots. “That's your master plan?” I asked. “Give people what they think they want and while they're all wrapped up in it, you take their souls?”

  “I weave,” Alecca said simply. “We are not so different, you and I. I do what I was born to do” Her eyes flashed. “I weave your lives, and if you get caught in a web of desires, a web of hopes and dreams and all else you mortals coddle in your heart of hearts “ She sneered at this last expression. “Is it truly my fault for spinning the web? Or is it yours, for giving it to me to spin?”