White Witch, Black Curse

Ford's gaze was beautiful when he looked at the sleeping little girl. "She absorbs everything before it gets to me," he said, his voice carrying awe. "I don't really need to hold her, just be close. But I'm not going to put her on the floor."

I smiled and tugged the blanket up higher around my shoulders. It was freezing down here. I was glad for Ford, but I was cold, bitterly disillusioned, and aching from a memory I'd thought I wouldn't have to deal with. The last of the FIB guys was leaving, and I gathered myself. "Hey, you probably have a diaper to change, huh?" I said as I got to my feet. Dizzy, I put a hand to the wall to find my balance. My stomach clenched, and I sat back down fast. Mia had stripped my aura again, damn it.

"You want a stretcher?" Ford asked, and after I reluctantly nodded, he went to talk to one of the departing FIB officers. I couldn't make it up the stairs like this, pride be damned.

Slowly the dizziness abated, and I concentrated on breathing as I looked over the room. I wasn't sure how I was going to explain Pierce's clothes. Tom's abduction was going to be even harder. It wasn't like I could pretend he hadn't been here. Both Ford and Mia had seen him. That Al had taken both of them was not going to look good for me at all. Damn it, I am so not going to take the blame for this.

Ford came back as the last FIB agent headed upstairs. Setting Mia's lantern by me, he sank back down with Holly to wait. "This is unbelievable," he said. "I don't know for sure what you're feeling. I can see it in your face, but not feeling it? That's freaky." He dropped his eyes as I noticed they were filling with emotion. "He's not dead anymore, you know."

The shadows shifted as I banked the lantern to focus the light ahead and toward the stairs. "Tom?" I said, glad he couldn't feel my emotions while he was holding Holly. It had to be Tom he was talking about. Kisten was gone, gone, gone, and I'd just relived his death. "I know. Al took him." A pang of fear hit me, fear that if the I.S. knew, they would use it against me.

"Not Tom," Ford said, and my head jerked up. "Tom is dead. I felt him die. I'm talking about Pierce."

Startled, I turned to him. "Al snagged him," I said. "Broke the charm and took him. His clothes were right over there."

Ford's smile widened and he shifted the sleeping child higher. "That wasn't Tom the demon pulled into the ever-after, it was Pierce."

This wasn't making sense, and I just stared at him, hunched in the blue FIB blanket.

"Your potion was targeted to Pierce," Ford explained. "Tom died and Al used your summoning charm to force Pierce into his body. I felt Tom's emotions die. Pierce's emotions took their place, coming from Tom's body. I'd know his thought signature anywhere. He's a unique individual."

I looked to where Pierce's clothes had been, a chill rippling through me as I shivered. "That's black magic," I whispered, hearing it echo in the tunnels behind me, like sin itself. "It was my spell! I didn't know it was black. It was in a university textbook!"

Ford leaned back against the wall, clearly not bothered. "It was your spell, and it was white, but the demon perverted it. He loves you, you know."

"Al?" I yelped, and Ford laughed. Holly smiled in her sleep, and the man's face calmed.

"No, Pierce."

I was dizzy from my outburst, and I looked at the stairway, wishing they would hurry. Kisten had loved me. Pierce was a teen crush. "Pierce doesn't even know me," I said softly, heart aching. "Except for that one night. God, I was eighteen."

Ford shrugged. "It would explain your troubled history with men. You saw what you wanted at eighteen, and no one now is measuring up."

I sighed. I was sitting on my butt on the cold, dusty concrete, waiting for a stretcher, and he was analyzing me. "Ford, I don't love Pierce. It was teenage infatuation. Attraction to a charismatic power. I loved…Kisten."

"I know." His hand touched my shoulder, shocking me. "I'm sorry."

I turned away, forcing my thoughts from Kisten lest I start to cry again. "Pierce had a deal going with Al. Probably about getting a body in return for service." I felt my face scrunch in hopelessness. "And I helped. How nice is that? I don't even know why he did it. He was better off as a ghost." I looked to the stairway. There was the distinct possibility they might forget we were down here.

"I told you why," Ford said, grimacing as he shifted Holly's weight. "He loves you. I guess he figured being a familiar to your demon and having a body was better than being a ghost without one in your graveyard. Give the man a break, Rachel. He's been hanging around your church for almost a year."

A smile threatened, then disappeared. I was cold, dizzy, and numb from thoughts of Kisten. It stank down here, like cold dust. Like Kisten's killer. All I wanted was to go home and take a bath.

"I think they forgot us," I said. "Help me up?"