Kim Harrison - The Witch with No Name

“It’s God’s will they die!” the zealot was screaming, a harsh contrast to Nina’s powerful anguish. “It’s penance for the atrocities they have perpetrated! Let them be judged!”

Jenks’s dust was a beacon as he hovered over me, looking for the easiest path to the curb. “Ah, Rache? Is that your mom?”

Oh God. I shoved someone, trying to see. My fear redoubled as I spotted her standing on a planter, hand in a fist as she shouted and gestured, calling someone a prejudiced prick and religious hypocrite zealot all in one breath. She looked fantastic in her outrage, and I almost lost sight of her when the crowd shifted. “Mom!” I shouted, then grunted when I got an elbow in the gut from some faceless woman. “Mom!”

She heard me. Somehow she heard me over the noise and confusion. She turned, her face still alight with the fire of battling injustice. Clearly this was where I’d gotten it from, and without even a glance at the stage, she fought her way off the planter and to me.

“Mom, what are you doing here?” I said when she finally got close.

“Oh, you ruined your funeral!” she moaned, giving me a quick hug.

She was okay, and I hugged her back. “Mom. We have to get out of here,” I said, not believing she was worried about my funeral.

“No matter,” she said, beaming as she shoved someone to get a smidgen more room. “The band crapped out on me anyway. Isn’t it a marvelous day for a protest?”

Wincing, I held her shoulder so no one would force us apart. Marvelous wasn’t exactly the word I’d use. Nina was on the bullhorn again. Some were listening raptly, others—mostly human by the look of it—were booing. I could tell who were the living vampires not only because of the way they reacted to Nina but because they looked terrified. It was starting to slide from a mob to a riot. “Jenks? Find Ivy. My car is on Vine.”

He darted off, making me envy his wings. My heart pounded. “Mom, we have to go.”

But she was watching the stage as Nina exclaimed, “If there’s one thing the living have learned, it’s that what you want most will kill you. It’s our time to protect them. We can’t allow the elves to bring back their souls!”

My mom wiped an eye. “It reminds me of the Turn,” she said, smiling. “But it smells a hell of a lot better. No one decaying in the alleys.”

I elbowed someone out of the way so we could start for the street. “Mom, where’s Donald?”

“He went to get me a coffee. It takes him a while. People recognize him, and he always stops and talks. It’s a pain in the ass sometimes.”

Visions of tomorrow’s headlines began swimming before me. Stomach tight, I began to inch her to the curb. She jerked me to a stop with a hug. “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. I’ve been watching Nina, and I think she’s perfect for Ivy. It wouldn’t take much to change your funeral into a wedding for them.”

“Mom!” I said as I disentangled myself. “We have to get out of here!”

“I’m just saying she’s smart, attractive, and has more determination than you. Look at her. Magnificent! She’s so entrenched in her belief. It makes me want to protect the beastly things myself.”

“We have to go,” I said again, then jumped when my phone vibrated.

“Go!” she exclaimed, face flushed and eager. “It’s just getting started!”

She turned to the stage, arm pumping in the air as I let go of her to fish my phone out. It was Trent, but I’d never be able to hear him. Just glad he was alive, I flipped the phone open. “Trent? You okay?” I shouted, hand over one ear as the zealot with the mic pointed at the TV and proclaimed that now they would know the true purity of the soul.

Clearly something had shifted at the dewar, and I turned to the TV, showing the riverfront with lots of blond men and women coming out of the stadium now instead of one or two as before.

“Rachel?” Trent’s voice came, tiny and small. “I’m fine. Where are you?”

“I’m looking for Ivy. I’m at the square with my mom and Jenks!” I shouted. On the screen, a reporter I recognized elbowed a CNN reporter out of the way to get in front of Landon. “Nina’s rallying the vampires to stop the elves from returning the undead souls. Trent, you have to get out of there.”

“I’m going right now,” Trent said, but I never would’ve understood it if I hadn’t heard him whisper in my ear before. “You have to leave the square. Now!”

But the reporter had gotten Landon to stop, and the crowd quieted enough to hear her say, “Sa’han Landon, Sa’han Landon, can you comment on the sudden disappearance of the undead souls with the rising sun? Have the elves agreed on a course of action to bring them back?”

Her voice was echoing between the buildings, and the sound of the crowd diminished even more, punctuated by the occasional shout.

“Rache?”

I dropped my head, trying to hear Trent. “I can’t leave without Ivy. Trent, I’m looking at Landon on TV. He’s going to make a statement.”

“Damn it, Rachel, get out of there!” he shouted. “It’s about to get ugly!”

I tugged at my mom with my free hand, but no one was moving anymore, all eyes fixed on the screen as Landon raised his hands at the mics shoved at him. Behind him, people were leaving the arena with the quickness of rats fleeing a foundering ship. “Wait, I want to hear this,” my mom said.

“It has been determined that the sudden absence of souls this morning was caused by the demons, not a failure in our original spell,” Landon said, his benign young smile both practiced and convincing.

“You liar!” I shouted up at the screen. “It was your lame-ass spell that failed!”

People turned to me, and I scowled as Jenks’s dust suddenly wreathed me.

“Rachel?” came Trent’s voice, tiny from the phone in my hand. “Listen. To. Me. Get out of there! For God’s sake, get out now!”

Jenks landed on my shoulder, his wings cold against me. “Ivy’s coming. Don’t move.”

But moving was the last thing on my mind as Landon spoke. “We’ve decided on a course of action, one that not only will bring the souls of the undead back and lock them to this reality, but one that will also facilitate a smoother reunion with their original bodies and rid us of the demons now among us.”

“You son of a bastard,” I whispered. I stared up at the screen, almost oblivious to the new space around me and that the nearest people were whispering. “He’s lying!” I shouted, and from the stage I could hear more voices raised in anger. “The demons didn’t do it! It’s the dewar elves with their sloppy spell casting. They’re trying to kill the undead!”

“Ah, Rache?” Jenks said from my shoulder, too cold to fly well, but I stood there and fumed. Had they forgotten the chaos of when the masters were sleeping just three months ago? Their fear of the night?

“I would implore everyone,” Landon was saying, “especially the living vampires, to find it in themselves to not take their anger out on the demons. We will resolve the issue in due course in a safe and efficient manner.”

My jaw clenched. “You’re saying that because it’s only demon magic that can fix the souls permanently, and you need them! You want the vampires dead!”

“Rache!” Jenks shouted, and I jumped when he pinched my ear. Blinking, I saw the new eight feet of space between me and everyone else. My mom stood at my shoulder, and I could hear Ivy fighting her way to get to me. My phone dangled in my hand, and Trent’s voice desperately shouted at me to leave, to get out.

I didn’t think it was going to be that easy anymore.

“You see the lies!” the zealot on the stage shouted, and I spun to see he had the stage all to himself. “She is a demon!”