One of the biggest perks of John's borrowed apartment was not the criminally large bathtub, the nine-foot ceilings, or even the 400-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets. It was the attic storage space that he'd turned into a relatively safe, certainly out-of-the-way lab in which he did his will workings. Will workings was what he'd called magic spells since he'd first come into his gifts when he was thirteen. It just sounded so much cooler than magic spells.
The lab was basically just a closet, a six-foot by six-foot windowless room tucked away on the very top floor of his apartment building in Greenwich Village. It had one door, which thankfully had a keyed deadbolt, and was last in a line of 12 other similar storage rooms. To access the lab, he rode the elevator to the eighth floor and then walked up another flight of stairs. At the top, there was a door that led to the roof and a door that led to a hallway, off which the storage spaces branched. It wasn't an ideal set-up, especially since someone lived directly beneath the lab, but it was certainly safer than his previous workspace ? a corner of his bedroom in his mother's house in Brooklyn.
As he rode the elevator to the eighth floor this night, John's thoughts turned to the circuitous and serpentine conversation he'd just had with Rhys and Riley. They had attempted to puzzle through the outcome of their visit with Sarah, a psychic who could see past lives. Sarah had told them that they'd known each other since the beginning of time and John and Riley had spent each and every one of their past lives as siblings. That felt right to John; he'd felt a connection with Riley since the first time he'd spoken to her on the phone three weeks ago. But what Sarah had revealed about Rhys hadn't answered any questions, instead it had only raised more. Sarah said that this life was Rhys's first ? he didn't have any accumulated karma; she couldn't see any past life for him. But she had also said that they'd known each other literally forever. None of them could figure out what that meant.
Finally, after hours of talking, Riley had taken Rhys to bed, and John had set out for his attic lab, intending to perform a will working that would hopefully uncover what sort of magic Tiernan FitzWilliam was using against Riley. Just the thought of what that sick fucker was doing to his sister made John want to track him down and empty his .45 into FitzWilliam's face. The stairwell where John and Rhys had confronted FitzWilliam after coming home from Sarah's shop had been absolutely lousy with magic, but John didn't know what kind. The spell used against Riley didn't feel like anything John had encountered before. It felt powerful and complex. John was good but he was scared he wasn't good enough to figure out how to help Riley.
He stepped out of the elevator and then went up the single flight of stairs to the attic. Going down the hallway towards his lab, he let his breathing even out and emptied his mind, just like he'd learned in aikido and meditation classes. As he fit his key into the lock on the door to his lab, he had entered an alpha state and was completely ready to begin the will working. He took down the wards he'd placed on the door to his lab and then carefully swung it open, glancing inside before entering and closing and locking the door behind him.
The lab itself resembled a Buddhist temple: the walls were lined with several layers of rice paper and the floors had been covered with tatami mats. There were three long, low tables and a single kneeling cushion had been placed between the tables. The table directly opposite the door had a small bronze statue of the Buddha, a bonsai Japanese maple tree, a small goldfish in a bowl that was continually refreshed by a table-top fountain, a long skinny wooden box, a small bowl filled with sand, and candle that had been bespelled to burn continually. The table to the right had wooden shelves on it; the shelves were lined with cardboard and wooden boxes that contained the ingredients that John used in his will workings. The table to the left of the door currently held only a cast iron cauldron that sat over a brazier, a silver-bladed knife and a pair of surgical-grade forceps.
John shed his shoes and socks, lining them up neatly next to the door. Then he took off his belt and emptied his pockets of his wallet, some coins and his cell phone, which he turned off. He stuffed these things into one of his shoes before kneeling on the cushion between the tables. He watered the tree and sprinkled some fish food into the goldfish's bowl and then opened the long, skinny box on the table in front of him. He removed three sticks of incense and drove them into the bowl of sand. Then he whispered a Word and a tiny flame appeared at the end of each of the sticks of incense. He blew out the flames and soon the room was filled with a light, pleasant, earthy scent.
He turned to the table on the left and pulled a white linen handkerchief from his pocket. He carefully set it down on the table and opened it with the forceps. The handkerchief contained a business card that Riley said Tiernan had given to her and three of Riley's own hairs, plucked from her head not two hours ago. John took Riley's hairs and set them carefully on a scrap of silk and covered them with a clear quartz crystal. The card he left wrapped in the bit of linen for now.
He frowned thoughtfully for a moment as he sorted through the spells in his head, trying to pinpoint one that would be the most helpful. Finally deciding on a basic detection working, one he could modify if necessary, John turned back to the shelves that held his ingredients and picked through them, selecting only the most powerful things he needed. He turned back to the cauldron and set aside the small pile of herbs and metal filings. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, falling even deeper into an alpha state.
He used the forceps to remove the business card, taking extreme care not to touch it with his fingers. The card had some sort of spell on it, one that probably amplified whatever magic Tiernan had used against Riley. He set it down on the table and stabbed it through with the silver-bladed knife. As soon as the knife pierced the cardstock, there was a purple spark and the hairs on the back of John's neck stood straight up. He shuddered slightly ? whatever Tiernan had done to the card was scary-powerful.
Taking another deep breath to settle himself, John whispered the same Word that had lit the incense sticks, this time directing it at the candles in the brazier beneath the cauldron. Flames sprang to life and the cauldron slowly began to warm up. As it did, John began chanting a string of Chinese words under his breath. He picked up pinches of the herbs and metal filings and sprinkled them into the cauldron, the heat from the candles making things hiss and spit and spark.
He unpinned the card from the table and picked it up with the forceps. He closed his eyes as he summoned his will and sent it directly into the cauldron. He dropped the card into the cauldron, his chanting reaching a fever pitch as he forced his will to discover what sort of spell was on the card and on his sister. There was a brilliant explosion and John panicked, unable to breath suddenly as the room was turned into a vacuum. He dropped the forceps and stumbled to his feet, gasping for air as he stripped the wards from the door and yanked it open. He stepped out into the hallway, bent at the waist and taking in huge lungsful of air. Sickly purple and grey smoke slowly wafted out of the open door and John turned to look at it, squinting a little. He thought he saw figures in the smoke, horses and dogs and mounted men. Then he blinked and the scene disappeared, returning to amorphous smoke.
?Holy crap,? he whispered. He straightened and took another deep breath, trying to return to his previous peaceful state. It took a little work, but he managed to calm himself enough to re-enter the lab. He closed and locked the door behind him and put up the wards again. Shaking his head a little, he returned to his work table. The cauldron had been split in two and there was a blackened scorch mark on the table. The business card and his ingredients had been reduced to a small pile of ashes. ?Well, shit,? he muttered. Whatever sort of spell FitzWilliam had used on the card and on Riley was stronger than anything he'd ever encountered. He couldn't figure out what it was and he certainly couldn't create a counter-spell. The best thing he could do for Riley at this point was to put an umbrella protective spell over her and hope that it would at least lessen the effect of FitzWilliam's spell.
He cleaned up the broken cauldron, pile of ashes and scorch mark as well as he could and then returned to his shelves of supplies. He took down a large wooden box and set it on the work table behind him. Then he rifled through his supplies, selecting bits and pieces of things he instinctively knew Riley would love ? lavender, jasmine, chocolate, rose petals, a bit of frankincense, a tuft of black cat fur, a tiny peridot stone and a piece of bark from a sakura tree along Kyoto's Philosopher's Path. He piled these ingredients next to the wooden box and then picked up the silver-bladed knife.
He closed his eyes and sunk down into an alpha state again and began focusing his will on Riley. He opened his eyes and began chanting, this time in Japanese, and picked up the three hairs from under the crystal. He took the knife and split each hair in two, before returning them to the scrap of silk. He added the other ingredients and then tied the little bundle closed with a bit of purple ribbon. Still chanting, he opened the wooden box and placed the bundle in it, alongside four other similar objects ? an orange one that was for his mother, green for Rhys, yellow for Gina and brown for Joey. He closed the box and set it back on top of the shelves. Then he cleaned up his work table, making sure that he hadn't left behind any of Riley's hair.
He gathered his things from next to the door and stripped down the wards. He left the lab, locking the door behind him and replaced the wards. He descended the stairs and then rode the elevator down to the fifth floor. Padding barefoot along the hallway to his apartment's door, he listened at it for a moment and then opened it. It was silent inside and he smiled softly. Riley and Rhys were sleeping, which meant he could get some sleep as well. He took a quick shower and then slipped into bed, falling asleep almost instantly. He'd have to deliver bad news in the morning and he absolutely hated doing that.
The lab was basically just a closet, a six-foot by six-foot windowless room tucked away on the very top floor of his apartment building in Greenwich Village. It had one door, which thankfully had a keyed deadbolt, and was last in a line of 12 other similar storage rooms. To access the lab, he rode the elevator to the eighth floor and then walked up another flight of stairs. At the top, there was a door that led to the roof and a door that led to a hallway, off which the storage spaces branched. It wasn't an ideal set-up, especially since someone lived directly beneath the lab, but it was certainly safer than his previous workspace ? a corner of his bedroom in his mother's house in Brooklyn.
As he rode the elevator to the eighth floor this night, John's thoughts turned to the circuitous and serpentine conversation he'd just had with Rhys and Riley. They had attempted to puzzle through the outcome of their visit with Sarah, a psychic who could see past lives. Sarah had told them that they'd known each other since the beginning of time and John and Riley had spent each and every one of their past lives as siblings. That felt right to John; he'd felt a connection with Riley since the first time he'd spoken to her on the phone three weeks ago. But what Sarah had revealed about Rhys hadn't answered any questions, instead it had only raised more. Sarah said that this life was Rhys's first ? he didn't have any accumulated karma; she couldn't see any past life for him. But she had also said that they'd known each other literally forever. None of them could figure out what that meant.
Finally, after hours of talking, Riley had taken Rhys to bed, and John had set out for his attic lab, intending to perform a will working that would hopefully uncover what sort of magic Tiernan FitzWilliam was using against Riley. Just the thought of what that sick fucker was doing to his sister made John want to track him down and empty his .45 into FitzWilliam's face. The stairwell where John and Rhys had confronted FitzWilliam after coming home from Sarah's shop had been absolutely lousy with magic, but John didn't know what kind. The spell used against Riley didn't feel like anything John had encountered before. It felt powerful and complex. John was good but he was scared he wasn't good enough to figure out how to help Riley.
He stepped out of the elevator and then went up the single flight of stairs to the attic. Going down the hallway towards his lab, he let his breathing even out and emptied his mind, just like he'd learned in aikido and meditation classes. As he fit his key into the lock on the door to his lab, he had entered an alpha state and was completely ready to begin the will working. He took down the wards he'd placed on the door to his lab and then carefully swung it open, glancing inside before entering and closing and locking the door behind him.
The lab itself resembled a Buddhist temple: the walls were lined with several layers of rice paper and the floors had been covered with tatami mats. There were three long, low tables and a single kneeling cushion had been placed between the tables. The table directly opposite the door had a small bronze statue of the Buddha, a bonsai Japanese maple tree, a small goldfish in a bowl that was continually refreshed by a table-top fountain, a long skinny wooden box, a small bowl filled with sand, and candle that had been bespelled to burn continually. The table to the right had wooden shelves on it; the shelves were lined with cardboard and wooden boxes that contained the ingredients that John used in his will workings. The table to the left of the door currently held only a cast iron cauldron that sat over a brazier, a silver-bladed knife and a pair of surgical-grade forceps.
John shed his shoes and socks, lining them up neatly next to the door. Then he took off his belt and emptied his pockets of his wallet, some coins and his cell phone, which he turned off. He stuffed these things into one of his shoes before kneeling on the cushion between the tables. He watered the tree and sprinkled some fish food into the goldfish's bowl and then opened the long, skinny box on the table in front of him. He removed three sticks of incense and drove them into the bowl of sand. Then he whispered a Word and a tiny flame appeared at the end of each of the sticks of incense. He blew out the flames and soon the room was filled with a light, pleasant, earthy scent.
He turned to the table on the left and pulled a white linen handkerchief from his pocket. He carefully set it down on the table and opened it with the forceps. The handkerchief contained a business card that Riley said Tiernan had given to her and three of Riley's own hairs, plucked from her head not two hours ago. John took Riley's hairs and set them carefully on a scrap of silk and covered them with a clear quartz crystal. The card he left wrapped in the bit of linen for now.
He frowned thoughtfully for a moment as he sorted through the spells in his head, trying to pinpoint one that would be the most helpful. Finally deciding on a basic detection working, one he could modify if necessary, John turned back to the shelves that held his ingredients and picked through them, selecting only the most powerful things he needed. He turned back to the cauldron and set aside the small pile of herbs and metal filings. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, falling even deeper into an alpha state.
He used the forceps to remove the business card, taking extreme care not to touch it with his fingers. The card had some sort of spell on it, one that probably amplified whatever magic Tiernan had used against Riley. He set it down on the table and stabbed it through with the silver-bladed knife. As soon as the knife pierced the cardstock, there was a purple spark and the hairs on the back of John's neck stood straight up. He shuddered slightly ? whatever Tiernan had done to the card was scary-powerful.
Taking another deep breath to settle himself, John whispered the same Word that had lit the incense sticks, this time directing it at the candles in the brazier beneath the cauldron. Flames sprang to life and the cauldron slowly began to warm up. As it did, John began chanting a string of Chinese words under his breath. He picked up pinches of the herbs and metal filings and sprinkled them into the cauldron, the heat from the candles making things hiss and spit and spark.
He unpinned the card from the table and picked it up with the forceps. He closed his eyes as he summoned his will and sent it directly into the cauldron. He dropped the card into the cauldron, his chanting reaching a fever pitch as he forced his will to discover what sort of spell was on the card and on his sister. There was a brilliant explosion and John panicked, unable to breath suddenly as the room was turned into a vacuum. He dropped the forceps and stumbled to his feet, gasping for air as he stripped the wards from the door and yanked it open. He stepped out into the hallway, bent at the waist and taking in huge lungsful of air. Sickly purple and grey smoke slowly wafted out of the open door and John turned to look at it, squinting a little. He thought he saw figures in the smoke, horses and dogs and mounted men. Then he blinked and the scene disappeared, returning to amorphous smoke.
?Holy crap,? he whispered. He straightened and took another deep breath, trying to return to his previous peaceful state. It took a little work, but he managed to calm himself enough to re-enter the lab. He closed and locked the door behind him and put up the wards again. Shaking his head a little, he returned to his work table. The cauldron had been split in two and there was a blackened scorch mark on the table. The business card and his ingredients had been reduced to a small pile of ashes. ?Well, shit,? he muttered. Whatever sort of spell FitzWilliam had used on the card and on Riley was stronger than anything he'd ever encountered. He couldn't figure out what it was and he certainly couldn't create a counter-spell. The best thing he could do for Riley at this point was to put an umbrella protective spell over her and hope that it would at least lessen the effect of FitzWilliam's spell.
He cleaned up the broken cauldron, pile of ashes and scorch mark as well as he could and then returned to his shelves of supplies. He took down a large wooden box and set it on the work table behind him. Then he rifled through his supplies, selecting bits and pieces of things he instinctively knew Riley would love ? lavender, jasmine, chocolate, rose petals, a bit of frankincense, a tuft of black cat fur, a tiny peridot stone and a piece of bark from a sakura tree along Kyoto's Philosopher's Path. He piled these ingredients next to the wooden box and then picked up the silver-bladed knife.
He closed his eyes and sunk down into an alpha state again and began focusing his will on Riley. He opened his eyes and began chanting, this time in Japanese, and picked up the three hairs from under the crystal. He took the knife and split each hair in two, before returning them to the scrap of silk. He added the other ingredients and then tied the little bundle closed with a bit of purple ribbon. Still chanting, he opened the wooden box and placed the bundle in it, alongside four other similar objects ? an orange one that was for his mother, green for Rhys, yellow for Gina and brown for Joey. He closed the box and set it back on top of the shelves. Then he cleaned up his work table, making sure that he hadn't left behind any of Riley's hair.
He gathered his things from next to the door and stripped down the wards. He left the lab, locking the door behind him and replaced the wards. He descended the stairs and then rode the elevator down to the fifth floor. Padding barefoot along the hallway to his apartment's door, he listened at it for a moment and then opened it. It was silent inside and he smiled softly. Riley and Rhys were sleeping, which meant he could get some sleep as well. He took a quick shower and then slipped into bed, falling asleep almost instantly. He'd have to deliver bad news in the morning and he absolutely hated doing that.