White Witch, Black Curse

I shook my head, trembling. The cold was eddying about my feet, telling me Mia was still sucking in my aura, but at least she wasn't actively taking it. "I'm sorry, Mia," I whispered as Holly started fussing in the open van. "We know it's Remus who's special, not Holly. We know it's a wish that lets him hold her. Ms. Walker doesn't care. She wants your daughter, and she's going to kill you to get her."

Ivy shifted from foot to foot, probably blaming herself. No one moved as the car drove past, two aisles over, headed for the exit. An idle thought drifted through me. Why hadn't I seen anyone come out of the building? Remus, too, wasn't liking it. "Mia…," he prompted, the security light showing his worried features.

Mia watched the car's taillights as they hesitated at the street, then slowly drove away. The banshee brought her attention back to me, her expression shifting to show an inner excitement. "Holly is special," she insisted. "And you're going to make sure I keep my daughter, Rachel Morgan."

"Why would I help you?" I said dryly. "You're a freaking parasite."

"Predator, not parasite, and you need me," she said, reaching out.

"No!" I cried out, backpedaling until I found the car behind me again. Panic grew at the soft pop of a gun, muffled in the snow. "Ivy!" I shouted, then jerked when Mia found my throat again. "What have you done?" I whispered, seeing her inches away.

"Don't move," she demanded, eyes wild. "Or Remus will kill her."

She's alive? I squirmed, and my energy left me. I didn't care. "Ivy," I panted. "I can't see her. Let me see her, you cold bitch!"

Mia's face grew ugly, but from behind her I heard Ivy say, "I'm okay!" followed by a soft "Ow," and then an aggressive "Hurt her, and you'll find yourself worse than dead, human!"

Mia's cold fingers never leaving my throat, she sent her gaze to the van, where Holly was now crying. My heart pounded when her attention returned to me. Hand still around my neck, she reached out, her palm coming for my forehead. "Don't," I pleaded, thinking she was going to kill me. "Please, don't!"

Smiling wickedly, Mia put her cold hand to my cheek in an almost loving gesture. "This is why you're going to help me, witch. This is what I can give you."

Tiny pinpricks exploded in my cheek, and I gasped, stiffening, as I reached for the car behind me. Warmth was spilling into me, familiar and soothing. It was my aura returning, filling the cracks and making me whole. It spilled in with the pain of a healing scab, and my eyes flashed wide as I looked into Mia's clear blue ones. I exhaled, thinking it sounded like a sob, and I held my next breath so I could taste the incoming energy better. She was giving it back. The energy wasn't coming from a ley line—it was coming right from her soul. She was giving me back my life's energy. Why?

The tingles quit with a surprising suddenness, and I realized that I was pressed up against a car in a cold parking lot, a small woman holding me hostage with the power of my soul.

Mia made a fist of her hand and backed up, hunched over and looking tired. "That's what Holly taught me," she said proudly. "Because her father cannot be harmed by a banshee, Holly was born knowing how to push energy into a person, not just take it. I learned by example."

"So?" I said, still not understanding. God, it felt good, and I suddenly realized I could tap a line. Relief spilled into me as I did, taking in a huge amount of ley line force, spindling it in my head. At the end of the lot, a car pulled in, its lights dim in the falling snow. Moving slowly, it crept down the aisles, looking for a space.

"Mia?" Remus called, clearly nervous.

"Be still," the woman said. "I'm impressing upon the witch the reason she's going to convince the FIB to back off." She wore a smile when she turned back to me, but it was the smile of someone who thinks they control you, and my mood hardened. "I've fed extremely well these last few months," Mia said with an unremorseful satisfaction. "Humans are stupid, trusting animals, and if you give a little, they think you love them, and then it's a simple matter of taking what they give you. Natural causes," she said coyly, "heart attack, brain aneurysm, simple fatigue. We have fasted for forty years since the Turn, but Holly will give us back our strength, the cunning to take what we want with impunity instead of this thin tracing the law allows us. Those who protest will be silenced. The I.S. knows it. I'm charging you to impress upon the FIB the error of their thinking."

Behind her, Ivy shook with anger, Remus's hold tight on her. "You monster," she seethed. "You're making them think you love them, then killing them? That's not why I gave you the wish!"