I opened my mouth, but Sebastian beat me to it. "Where is she?" he demanded.
"Who?" You"d think Matyas would know better than to try the innocent act on his father.
Sebastian ground his teeth together angrily, and I wasn"t sure he was going to say anything constructive, so I said, "Your mother." Then, just to be crystal clear, I added, "Tereza."
Matyas quickly looked over his shoulder as if worried she might be hovering there. Then he glanced from Izzy to me, avoiding looking at Sebastian. "Uh . . . I don"t really know. I sort of lost track of her."
"Lost track?" Sebastian sputtered.
"You have a mother living around here?" Izzy asked with a tone that implied she felt she should have heard about this before now, and Matyas was down a couple of relationship points. I smiled.
"Living? I thought your mother was dead," William said, his attention still divided between the conversation and the game. He had the kind of vaguely guilty look of someone who really wanted to take advantage of Matyas "s distraction and change the board.
Meanwhile, Adam Sandler serenaded us with "The Chanukah Song."
"Either way," I said. "Tereza certainly found us."
Matyas"s face tightened for a moment, but then he smiled up at us. "Seriously? She was up and walking? That"s fantastic. Did she say anything?"
She had cursed Sebastian and me. Was this some kind of breakthrough Matyas was hoping for? Actually, she had said, "I curse you." She could have talking to both of us . . . or to me.
"That"s not the point, Matyas," Sebastian said. "Your mother tried to kill me."
Matyas sat up, clearly excited by the news. He wasn"t winning any points with his father, however, whose face grew darker.
"I can"t believe it," Matyas said happily. "You"re suggesting she was strong enough to try to hurt you?"
"You sound a little creepy when you say things like that, honey," Izzy said drily, like she"d talked to him about this sort of thing before.
"I still don"t get how she could do any of it dead," William said, his eyes still on the board.
My phone rang. "Livin" La Vida Loca" again. "Oh, what now?" I was tempted to let it go, but I knew it had to be a wedding thing. What could be going wrong now? I took a few steps away from everyone, even though I could hear Sebastian telling Matyas to cut the c.r.a.p and start telling us what was going on with Tereza.
It was the dress shop. They were calling to confirm that my bridesmaids" dresses were salmon-pink taffeta. "No!" I shouted.
"Silk. Ice blue."
I looked at Izzy. She was meant to be my maid of honor, and I"d picked a color that not only went with the season but that would also complement her skin tone. "The color is really important," I explained, not to mention the fact that the style I"d chosen was a simple sheath that could be reused as a c.o.c.ktail dress. The ones the shop described had a giant b.u.t.t-bow.
I moaned. They could replace them, but it would take time. "How long?"
A couple of weeks, they thought. Maybe. "Maybe?" I repeated, horrified. "My wedding is in two weeks exactly."
They"d do their best. My hand was shaking when I slipped my phone back into my coat pocket. Lilith surged through my veins, a hot pulse at my throat. "All right, I"ve had it," I snapped. Before I knew quite what I was doing, I"d swept Matyas out of his chair. Balling his shirt in my fists, I shoved him hard against the bookcase. "What"s going on? Am I cursed or something? Did your freaky stalker mother hex me?"
I moved so fast that the chair hit the floor two seconds after I heard the air leave Matyas"s lungs.
Did I mention Lilith"s hair trigger?
It was all I could do to keep Lilith from battering Matyas "s head against the shelves. Over the roar of emotion, Sebastian"s voice shouted for me to stand down. Izzy was yelling something too, but it was William"s calm, soothing tones that reached me: ".
. . you are wise, oh G.o.ddess. Matyas is truly an idiot, but I humbly beg you to spare his worthless life."
I took in a breath. I felt Lilith"s anger recede as William continued to purr plat.i.tudes into my ear. Matyas"s eyes bugged out a little less as my grip on his throat loosened.
The funny part in all this was that Matyas outweighed me by at least fifty pounds. He was also nearly six feet tall. When I realized I was standing on tiptoe to hold him up, I uncurled my fingers and lowered myself back down. A blush slid across my cheeks.
William, who had been creeping closer and closer to me, rushed in to support Matyas when I released him. Matyas clutched at his throat and concentrated on breathing. Sebastian"s face was impa.s.sive, but I could tell he was watching Matyas and me with concern. Izzy had stopped yelling, but as she slipped past me to comfort Matyas, she was still muttering about anger-management courses and unmedicated craziness.
A random female customer hooted out a "You go, girl." But when I turned around to see who said it, everyone suddenly found newspapers and lattes endlessly fascinating.
With an apologetic shrug, I smiled weakly. This sort of thing had been happening a lot more than I liked since Lilith and I bonded.
At first, I"d imagined the change in my relationship with Lilith as entirely positive. I mean, I found I could tap into Lilith"s magic instantly. My spells kicked a.s.s now. Plus her physical strength was available upon request, which came in very handy that time the delivery guy dumped all the stock for my store at the wrong loading dock. I"d found too that I was much less afraid of really losing control. Used to be, if I accidentally triggered Lilith"s wrath, I could wake up to find myself with bodies to bury, literally. Now I was conscious during the outbursts, and she was easier to rein in . . . at least so far.
But the outbursts, while no longer the nuclear option, were a whole h.e.l.l of a lot more frequent. It was crazy-making, Izzy was right. It unnerved me how unpredictable I was becoming. Matyas had gotten hurt. Only thanks to sheer willpower was he not more damaged.
"I"m sorry," I said.
Matyas looked up at my words. Wounded pride burned in his eyes.
"It"s okay," William said. "We all know how Lilith is, right, guys?"
Izzy didn"t look so sure. Matyas"s jaw twitched. Sebastian, however, came to stand beside me. "Of course we do," he said.
He took me under his arm and swept me over to the plastic water cooler that hung over the edge of the bar. The dispenser made a loud glug-glug as he pressed down on the spigot. I gratefully accepted the cool gla.s.s he handed me. "I"m sorry. I can"t control it." I looked over my shoulder to where Izzy was fussing over Matyas. Noticing my inquiring glance, Matyas glared at me. "He hates me."
Sebastian stroked my hair. "He always has, my darling. Anyway, Matyas is just p.i.s.sed right now because he had his a.s.s handed to him by a five-foot-tall, perky Goth."
I laughed a little at that image, but my smile quickly faded. "I didn"t mean to hurt him."
"Everyone knows that," Sebastian said kindly. "Even Matyas."
"He"s going to have bruises."
"Not for very long. He"s a dhampyr; he heals fast."
I nodded, but I didn"t feel comforted.
We"d perched on the tall stools near the bar. I could hear the others starting to talk, though I couldn"t make out any individual words over "Santa, Baby," which played on the speakers. "What happened to the dresses?" Sebastian asked.
"The order is completely screwed up. They got pink taffeta."
Sebastian made a face to show his opinion of that. I couldn"t have agreed more. We laughed, even though my stomach lurched at the thought of the disaster my wedding was turning into.
The door opened to a couple of UW students with books under their arms. As they picked seats and shrugged out of their parkas, Izzy came back around the counter to take their orders.
"Matyas is p.r.i.c.kly," Sebastian said, watching as Izzy made small talk about finals and cold weather with the students. "But you"ll make things up with Izzy."
"I hope so," I said, but just then Izzy saw me out of the corner of her eye and gave me a soft "we"re okay" smile.
"See," Sebastian said. Letting his hands slide from my hair to my shoulders, he gave me a soft ma.s.sage. It felt really great, and I could feel Lilith relaxing as well.
William came up beside us and plunked himself down on one of the stools. "Hey," he said to me. "Thanks for ruining my game.
I was totally getting the smack-down."
"Yeah, I saw that," I said with a smile.
Sebastian craned his neck around. "Where"s Matyas? Isn"t he going to join us?"
"He"s sulking," William supplied. "Sore loser, as always."
"He never did tell us where his mother is," Sebastian said grumpily.
"That"s because I don"t know," Matyas said, coming to sit beside me on the other side of the water cooler. "And I don"t sulk."
"You totally sulk, man," William said with a teasing snort from where he sat on the other side of Sebastian.
"I find it difficult to believe you don"t know where your mother is," Sebastian said, giving Matyas a glare. "It"s not like you." To not hover over her like a mother hen, he clearly implied. I had to agree. Matyas did have that whole attachment issue with Tereza.
"I don"t have her tagged with a GPS collar for chrissakes," Matyas said.
I cringed and seriously considered ducking. Sebastian had a very old-fashioned sense when it came to swearing. He wasn"t a prude. Not in the least. He said s.h.i.t and f.u.c.k and some of the even nastier words from time to time as the situation demanded, but he didn"t really approve of taking the Lord"s name in vain. This was never a problem between us, because, well, I wasn"t Christian. Not only did he respect that it didn"t have the same impact coming from a nonbeliever, but I purposefully avoided mentioning a certain son of a carpenter when I was mad. If I was going to take a lord"s name in vain, it"d be my own.
But Matyas was Catholic like his father.
Sebastian"s teeth were clenched, and I could see the tips of fangs. That boy knew all the b.u.t.tons to push with his father.
I decided to intercede. "I think you at least owe us some kind of explanation. I mean, the last time any of us knew about it, Tereza was still out . . . well, out cold, as it were."
"Dead," William offered.
"Trapped," Matyas clarified.
"Whatever," I said. "The point is, she wasn"t up and walking around."
"She got better," Matyas said.
William laughed. We all looked at him blankly. "That"s the line from Monty Python-the "Bring Out Your Dead" skit? Or was it the witch one? Anyway, you remember. . . . Uh." He looked sheepish when we all continued to stare at him. "Sorry, dudes, it"s just kind of surreal all this casual talk of animated corpses and whatnot."
I turned back to Matyas, who was getting a gla.s.s of water for himself.
Izzy had finished with the customers and came over to where we were all seated at the far end of the bar. "Who"s got a casual corpse?" she asked, setting down two cups of black coffee-one for Matyas, the other for Sebastian. "Yours are coming," she told William and me. We both preferred, as Izzy mockingly called them, "froufrou" lattes.
"Matyas was going to explain to us how his mother recovered from being dead, " Sebastian said, handing over a twenty to cover all our drinks. "Weren"t you, son?" Oooh, "son." Sebastian only ever used that particular designation when he was p.i.s.sed off.
David Bowie and Bing Crosby softly sang "Little Drummer Boy" as we waited to see what Matyas would say.
"You"re not going to be happy," Matyas said.
I glanced over at Sebastian, flashing him the try-to-be-supportive eyebrow. "He knows about the exorcism," I told Matyas.
"And you"re right, I"m not happy about it," Sebastian said, taking a sip from the cup.
"It worked," Matyas said.
"How does an exorcism work on a dead lady?" William wondered. Izzy set frothy drinks in front of William and me. I got a honey latte and William a soy mocha with sprinkles.
"Apparently, the pope drove my evil out of her," Sebastian said. "Do you know how irritated that makes me? The sitting pope!
I totally supported the wrong faction if his magic is stronger than mine."
I exchanged a do-you-know-what-he"s-talking-about glance with William, but he shrugged. Matyas and Izzy looked just as lost.
"There was the whole Avignon schism?" He started, then shrugged. "Never mind."
I slurped the foam from the top of the coffee. It had just a hint of sweetness. "But you told me about the exorcism months ago,"
I said to Matyas. "She waited until now-right before my wedding-to show up and start laying claim to Sebastian?"
"I might have actually mentioned the wedding," Matyas mumbled into his cup.
Sebastian roared, "You what?!"
"She"d been so listless before. I needed to put some fire in her belly," Matyas said defensively. Despite his bold tone, he sat up straighter and eyed the door, as though making sure he had a clear escape route in case Sebastian pounced.
Sebastian, meanwhile, clenched his hands around his coffee cup so hard I was afraid it might break. "So you mentioned our wedding. I knew you were against it, but I never thought you"d use your mother this way. Hasn"t she suffered enough?"
Matyas stiffened. "What would you know about her suffering? You"ve been trying to deny her existence for the past hundred fifty years."
"That"s unfair," I said.
"The h.e.l.l it is," Matyas snarled. "He shoved her underground time and time again." Turning his anger back at Sebastian, he said, "You"ve been buried alive. Tell me it was "peaceful." "
Sebastian always claimed that Tereza rested better underground. I"d always been a bit dubious, myself. But Sebastian was a lot closer to dead than I was. What did I know about it?
"When was Sebastian buried?" William whispered to Izzy. She raised her eyebrow as if to say it was news to her as well. I made a mental note to fill them in on the whole thing later.
"That"s not the same," Sebastian said after a grim, considering silence. "The last time I was buried, it was against my will. I was transfixed by a wooden stake."
"I remember," Matyas said in a tone that dripped with and -you-should-be-more-grateful-I-dug-you-out-and-offered-my- blood.
Speaking of which . . . "Is Tereza a vampire now?" I asked. Because how much would it suck to have a vampire, zombie, and Gypsy witch all rolled into one after us?
Matyas"s jaw twitched. He didn"t meet my gaze.
"Oh great G.o.ddess, she is, isn"t she?"