CHAPTER FOUR

At Luke’s permission, Magnus, who seemed almost as tall as the ceiling, lumbered forward, his broad shoulders and muscular frame towering over each one of us as he passed.

“Gray,” I said as I shook him slightly. He opened his eyes, which was a relief in and of itself, because it seemed like he was definitely knocking on Heaven’s door. Or Hell’s door—I wasn’t exactly sure where notorious vampires ended up. All I did know was that Gray looked even worse than he had a few seconds ago. His skin was ashen, stretched tightly over the bones of his face, and his eyes were dull and sunken. It was clear that he was barely clinging to life. His lips, cracked and dry, parted slightly as he looked up at Magnus who gazed down at him with no expression on his face.

“Vampire,” Magnus said in a deep voice.

“Vampire?” Mom echoed in the background, apparently just realizing what was going on right in front of her.

“I will now feed you,” Magnus told him as he produced his wrist and shoved it just beneath Gray’s nose. “If you attack me, I shall crush you like bug.”

“Mmm,” Mom purred. “I wish you’d crush me like bug… deep into the mattress.”

God, I didn’t know how much more of this I could take .

Just keep your attention on Gray, I told myself. He’s the only person that matters right now.

And in the recesses of my mind, I hoped Gray wouldn’t turn on us…

It was maybe a second or more that Magnus held his wrist beneath Gray’s nose, but nothing happened. Gray just looked up at Magnus with curiosity in his eyes, like a dog who’d just shat on the floor but didn’t understand why his owner was so mad at him. Magnus frowned and then with a swift, practiced motion, he pulled a random dagger from his belt, the blade catching the dim light, reflecting its cold gleam. Magnus then deftly sliced a precise incision into his forearm, and rich, crimson blood welled up from the cut.

“Magnus, oh, honey!” Mom yelled.

“Oh, shit, I think I’ma pass out,” Rocco cried out.

“The giant’s lost ‘is mind!” Yolanda screamed.

But Magnus wasn’t concerned with any of them. Instead, he held his arm over Gray’s head, allowing the blood to flow freely down his forearm, and onto his fingers. When the first few drops hit Gray’s face, they looked like liquid rubies, and Gray’s fangs lengthened, sticking out from his upper lip. At first, it seemed like Gray was too weak to even taste the drops that landed on his mouth, but as soon as he managed, a flicker of life ignited in his eyes. He opened his mouth wider and more of Magnus’s blood collected on his tongue. As I watched, I could see the life returning to Gray’s face so quickly, it was like watching the scene on fast forward. That was how potently Magnus’s warrior blood affected him. Gray instinctively grasped Magnus’s arm with surprising strength, guiding it closer to his mouth.

“What in the world is going on?” Mom demanded, slamming her palms into the table as she glared at me. “I’m being initiated into this cult, aren’t I? Am I the sexual sacrifice?” Then she looked at Magnus and Gray again and frowned. “Or is it some kind of gay cult?”

“Mom, it’s not… you aren’t—”

She speared me with a very angry expression. “—Katie, how many times have I told you not to open the door for anyone who’s dressed in black and white and carrying a clipboard?”

“I know this must look crazy,” I started to reply, but I couldn’t think of what more to say on the topic. To the untrained eye, the whole scene had to look well beyond crazy. Luckily, I was interrupted when the glare in Mom’s expression was replaced by dawning realization.

“Or is this all just part of the movie?”

“Movie?” I repeated.

She nodded. “And this one’s, what, like a vampire-warrior cult porn?” I just shook my head as my mother began searching the perimeter of the room. “I don’t see any cameras though.”

Deciding I couldn’t deal with her and her completely idiotic questions, I returned my attention to Magnus, whose expression was one of resolution. Meanwhile, Gray’s pallor continued to improve, the paleness replaced by an increasing flush of color. Gray’s grip on Magnus’s arm tightened, and soon I could see a kind of desperation in Gray’s gaze—as if he knew he was on the brink of death, and this was the only way to resuscitate him.

As Gray fed on him, Magnus’s face showed no signs of pain, only a stoic acceptance of the necessary act. His own vitality seemed undiminished by the loss of blood—he just continued to look like the unwavering pillar of strength he always did.

“Is that painful?” I whispered to Luke.

“I’d imagine it must be. ”

“A warrior feels no pain,” the warrior who felt no pain announced. And for all I knew, maybe barbarians from Galaxy 9 were created without pain receptors. At this point, nothing about Magnus would have surprised me.

After another few seconds, Magnus separated himself from Gray by slamming his hand against Gray’s forehead and thrusting Gray’s head back. Gray responded by wiping his lips with his hand. His health definitely appeared much improved, and his presence was suddenly commanding and almost powerful—like it had been when we’d met in the dream world. Gray’s skin, previously ashen and taut, had morphed into a healthy, almost luminescent pallor. And those eyes which had haunted me in many of my dreams now burned brightly, full of a renewed and almost predatory intensity.

“Thank you,” Gray said to Magnus, who then simply thrust out his enormous mitt of a hand and wrapped it around Gray’s throat.

“Magnus!” I yelled.

“Oh, he’s so sexy,” Mom crooned from behind me. “It’s like those male-on-male romance novels I used to read.”

“This is necessary, Kate,” Luke announced as he stood up and I wondered if he and Magnus had had some sort of telepathic conversation, because they seemed to be in cahoots. Luke then walked over to Gray and stood before him, holding up both of his hands like he was preparing to perform a spell.

“Luke, what are you doing?” I demanded while I threw my chair back and followed him.

“As far as I’m concerned, he’s still our enemy,” Luke answered. “So, I’m taking the necessary precautions.”

“An’ that right there’s the way ta show Valerian he ain’t shit!” Rocco called out.

“Who’s Valerian?” Yolanda asked.

“Ah, jeez, ain’t ya been payin’ no attention, fruitcake?”

Before anyone could say another word, the air around Luke began to crackle with what sounded like electric energy. Then, as we watched, the cards of the tarot began to appear around him, each one glowing and spinning gently in a cosmic dance as they swirled and orbited him.

“What the?” Mom started.

The cards continued to float and flutter around Luke, their vivid imagery flickering like the pages of a living book. Luke scanned the cards that swirled around him, his eyes, sharp and focused, as though seeking the one that held the power he required for whatever he was in the process of doing.

With a commanding voice, he began to chant an incantation, his words resonating through the room like a symphony of power. As he spoke, the movement of the cards seemed to speed up, the images on each one glowing even brighter. One card, however, began to shine more brilliantly than the others—once more, it was the card of The Magician.

The Magician card floated forward, its edges shimmering with a golden light. It hovered before Luke, pulsating with an almost sentient energy. He gazed at it with a knowing smile, recognizing the embodiment of his own power and skills. With a dramatic flourish, he drew the card into his hand. The moment his fingers touched it, runes appeared on the card—runes that were glowing fiercely.

Luke turned to face Gray once more, and then extended his hand, the card of The Magician floating above his palm. He seemed to channel the energy from the card, because the runes began to move from the card and hover in the air, their glow intensifying to an almost blinding brilliance. His fingers, slightly splayed, seemed to guide the runes, shaping and molding them as tiny sparks of light arced between his fingertips. As the energy intensified, it cast a glow on Luke’s features, highlighting his resolute gaze and the determined set of his jaw.

I turned to face Gray and found him transfixed by the sight before him, but there was also an undercurrent of fear in his features.

“What are you going to do to him?” I whispered, almost afraid to hear the response.

“I’m going to ensure that he can’t harm you or anyone else,” Luke answered, although he never took his gaze from Gray.

Though the color and vitality had returned to Gray’s face and body, I noticed he made no motion to try to free himself from Magnus’s iron grip around his neck. It was as if he were saying he was fully in agreement with their terms—and he wasn’t going to fight or try to resist them.

Luke, meanwhile, held the glowing runes aloft, his hands steady and sure, ready to direct the potent energy toward its intended purpose—one I still wasn’t sure of.

“Step away, Magnus!” Luke yelled and the enormous barbarian released Gray and stepped back from him at the same time that Luke called out a word in a language I didn’t understand. The glowing runes launched themselves forward, wrapping around Gray’s throat, his wrists, and both of his ankles. With the invisible chains of magic binding him, Gray was rendered completely immobile. Luke then thrust one hand forward and in response, Gray was thrown backwards until he crashed against the dining room wall and remained pinned there by the glowing runes.

“You can’t just leave him like that,” I said, shaking my head as I realized Gray had just found himself confined to another prison.

“I can and I will until I believe he’s not a threat,” Luke answered, his jaw tight. As if in response, the glowing runes flashed briefly, as though they were ensuring that the prison would hold.

Luke stepped back, surveying his work with a mixture of what appeared to be satisfaction and grim resolve. The runes hummed softly with residual magic and when Gray attempted to pull against them, they held him easily in place.

I immediately noticed how Gray’s movements, once sluggish and labored, were now much faster and more fluid. As I watched him, he straightened his posture, suddenly standing tall and almost proud .

“It’s going to be okay,” I said to Gray, offering him what little hope I could, because I wasn’t convinced it really would be okay.

Gray, in response, just nodded to me as the ghost of a smile lifted his mouth. His lips, no longer cracked and dry, were now a deep, healthy red, stained slightly by the remnants of Magnus’s blood.

“Do you know who you are?” Luke asked him, grabbing Gray’s attention.

“I only know the name Kate gave me,” Gray answered, returning his eyes to my face. He gave me another little smile then—like the name I’d given him was our little secret. I couldn’t explain why that hint of a smile made butterflies start up in my stomach, but it did.

“Gray?” Luke asked and the man in question simply nodded. “Then you don’t know who you were ?”

“I do not. Nor do I know why I was imprisoned for as long as I was,” Gray started, now directing his attention to Luke. “But I can promise you, I feel no drive or desire to hurt any of you—especially not Kate.” He paused a moment. “She has been a friend to me and the only friend I can remember ever having. ”

I swallowed hard and looked at Luke who didn’t appear convinced by any stretch of the imagination.

“Did you hear what he said, Luke?” I asked, glaring at him.

“I did.”

“And?”

“And he’ll remain where he is until further notice.”

Then Luke turned around and faced Magnus, who had covered his bleeding arm with his hand and returned to his chair at the table. In response, my mother pummeled him with a litany of questions, none of which he answered.

“Mom, why don’t you get Magnus a Band-Aid or something?” I asked, thinking it was a good way to get rid of her for the time being.

“A warrior requires no bandages,” Magnus retorted.

“For the love of God, Magnus, will you just let her tend to you?”

“Yes,” Mom crooned at him. “My baby is hurt so let Mommy make it all better.”

“Mom, can you just… stop talking like that?” I asked, shaking my head.

Magnus frowned at us both, but allowed my mother to lead him out of the dining room once I told her there were Band-Aids and Neosporin in my bathroom.

“So, what happens from here?” I asked Luke.

He shrugged. “I need some time to figure that out. As of yet, I’m uncertain.”

“And in the meantime?”

“Valerian will remain exactly where he is.”

“Can you at least do me the favor of calling him ‘Gray’?” I demanded. “He’s not Valerian and he hasn’t been for a long time.”

Luke inhaled deeply. “Until I’m convinced he’s no longer a threat, he will remain where he is and I’ll refer to him by his true name.”

So, that was that. Luke was going to be stubborn, and it didn’t appear there was anything I could do about it. Well, damn, because from where I was standing, I didn’t know how Gray could prove the truth to Luke— that he wasn’t Valerian any longer.

CHAPTER FIVE

“Does someone want to explain to me what the heck is going on?” Mom called out when she clomped back into the dining room, Magnus trailing close behind her.

I couldn’t help but smile at the two Scooby-Doo Band- Aids on his arm. When I’d made my grocery store trip, the store had been out of the plain ones so Scooby-Doo it was.

“We need to address this… problem,” I said to Luke as I motioned with a nod towards my mother.

Luke expelled a long sigh and then nodded back at me as he cleared his throat and whispered, “I’ll take care of it.” Then he returned to the table, and I followed him, taking a seat just beside him. When Luke faced my mother, he gave her a warm smile, like he was preparing to try to sell her a new vacuum cleaner. “Nancy?”

She looked at him and frowned, crossing her arms over her boobs—which looked like they were in the process of jumping out of her leather corset. “What’s your name again?”

“Luke.”

“And how do you know my daughter again?”

“That’s not important at the moment, Mom,” I answered as I swiveled around to face her. “Please take a seat and listen to what Luke has to say.”

She exhaled like we were putting her out and then wobbled in her ridiculous stilettos, before taking Magnus’s arm (the uninjured one) and allowing him to lead her back to the table. Once she took her seat and Magnus sat down in the one beside her, she returned her attention to Luke.

“Okay, start explaining,” she said before eyeing him narrowly. “Are you the director of my daughter’s porn movies or what?”

“Mom!” I yelled at her. “For the last time, there are no porn movies!”

“That ain’t what I heard,” Rocco interjected, but I ignored him.

“There’s no sex dungeon, and there’re no porn movies!” I continued to yell, truly and fully fed up. Actually, I was beyond fed up. “I’m a writer of fantasy novels, as you’ve known for years now!”

“Fantasy novels,” Mom repeated, frowning. “I thought you wrote historical romances?”

Okay, well that much had changed recently but I wasn’t about to tackle that subject right now—not when there were much more important topics to discuss. For instance, how I could erase my mother’s memories of everything that had just happened in the last few hours.

“Nancy,” Luke started, pulling her attention back to him as he reached inside his coat pocket and produced his deck of tarot cards .

“I don’t want a tarot reading,” Mom argued. “I want to know what is going on in this crazy house!”

“I will answer all your questions, Nancy,” Luke continued as he spread the cards out before her, all of them face up. When he found the particular card he was looking for, in this case, The Moon, he picked it up and held it in front of her face. “But first, I want you to look at this card and don’t look away, okay?”

“Lou,” she started, shaking her head with a frown.

“Luke,” he corrected her.

“Luke,” she said in her most sultry tone. “As I told you before, I don’t need to know my future.” Then she studied him more pointedly. “Or are you trying to find out if you’re going to be one of my leading men?” At that, my stomach nearly flopped. God, did this woman have no shame?

“Let’s find out, shall we, Nancy?” Luke continued with a smile as he then motioned to the card in his hand. “This is the card of The Moon.”

“Yes, I see that,” Mom answered and did a rendition with her fingers of ‘let’s get on with it’ .

“This card is associated with illusions, the subconscious, and the hidden aspects of the mind.”

The card was beautiful and it featured a full moon illuminating a dark sky, casting a silver glow over two towers, a body of water, and the path winding between the towers. In the foreground, a wolf and a dog howled at the moon, and a crayfish was emerging from the water.

Luke held the card a little higher and Mom’s eyes followed it. As she studied the card, it began to glow with an ethereal light that started with the card, but soon began enveloping the whole room in a silvery luminescence.

Mom, meanwhile, wore this weird smirk as she stared at the card intently, like she was playing the ‘no blinking’ game. Meanwhile, the light from The Moon card continued to expand, until the brightest portion moved off the card and centered itself on Luke.

“Now, Nancy, I want you to shift your attention from the card to my eyes,” Luke instructed her. “And look into my eyes just as deeply as you were looking at the card.”

“As nice as you are to look at, why are we staring at each other?” Mom asked, shaking her head. “I thought you were going to answer my questions?”

“Just pay attention to my eyes, okay, Nancy?” Luke asked as he leaned into her even closer. “That’s all I need you to do at the moment.”

“Why would I do that?”

“Mom!” I yelled.

“Fine! Jeez-Louise! I just want to make sure I’m going to get an explanation.”

“You will,” I answered, and Mom seemed content with that, because she returned her attention to Luke’s eyes. He reached out then and with a smile, took her hands in his, holding her fingers lightly as he continued to stare at her, and she stared back at him. The light of his body began to shift—moving down his arms, to his hands, and then to his fingertips.

After another few seconds, Mom started to look more and more like a deer caught in headlights, her body language shifting from alert to relaxed. After another few seconds, Luke leaned in further, his gaze intense yet gentle, his eyes still locked on hers. The light in his fingertips began to travel to hers and fairly soon, she, too, was enveloped in the cocoon of light, both of them glowing brightly.

I glanced over at Magnus, who appeared relaxed, resting his head on the back of his chair with his mouth hanging open. After another second or more, I was pretty sure he was sound asleep. Hmm, maybe feeding Gray had taken its toll out of the big ape.

“Don’t look away, Nancy,” Luke murmured in a smooth, soothing tone, each word carefully enunciated to enhance its calming effect. His voice was steady and rhythmic, and I could see Mom’s breathing beginning to slow down. Her eyes, initially wide and curious, began to soften and glaze over, and I was pretty sure she was succumbing to Luke’s hypnotic trance. The tension in her shoulders eased, and when Luke released her hands, she dropped them on the table, leaving them wide open and relaxed.

Magnus, meanwhile, had started snoring. But going back to what was happening directly in front of me, Luke maintained unwavering eye contact with my mother, his expression both serene and reassuring.

“Feel yourself becoming more and more relaxed,” he said, his voice a gentle, persuasive whisper. “Let go of all your thoughts and just focus on my eyes, Nancy. Nothing else matters.”

“Okay,” she said as she gazed deeper into his eyes, and her body appeared to go a little limp, sagging as if it were heavy, sinking further into the chair. The glow surrounding them was just as intense as it had been.

Luke continued to speak, his deep tone weaving a tapestry of calm and suggestion. “You are safe, Nancy, you’re at peace,” he intoned. “Let yourself drift, let go completely and allow only my words to sink into your subconscious mind.”

My mother’s face now reflected a serene, almost blissful expression. There was a strange, vacant smile on her mouth and her eyelids fluttered slightly, teetering on the edge of closure, but they remained fixed on his eyes. She looked like she was drugged or drunk and I started to worry whether she’d ever be the same again. But I trusted Luke and, what was more, I trusted that if Mom was going to end up a vegetable or something, he would have warned me ahead of time.

“None of what happened earlier—including all the things you saw in the basement—none of that is important right now, Nancy,” Luke continued. “All that is important is the connection between you and me.”

“Connection,” Mom repeated and then she released this weird giggle .

“Yes, connection, Nancy—a connection between the two of us,” Luke whispered.

Almost immediately, there was a jolt to the glowing circle that enveloped them and the vacant expression in Mom’s eyes passed, her left eyebrow suddenly arching up.

“Getting fresh with me, huh?” she teased, giving him a sly grin that seemed to bust the relaxed mood like a needle to a balloon.

“Um,” I started, turning to face Luke. At the expression of surprise in his gaze, I started to get a little worried.

As to Mom, she was batting her lashes up at Luke and didn’t appear to be concerned in the least that her lover was sitting right next to her, snoring away. No—at this moment, she appeared to only have eyes for Luke. I was fairly sure that wasn’t part of Luke’s plan, which then begged the question: what was happening? The circle of light continued to waver, making little zipping sounds as it blinked in and out of focus.

“Just look deeply into my eyes, Nancy,” Luke repeated.

“If I focus on your eyes anymore, Louie-Lou, I’m going to get a headache,” she answered with another giggle.

Luke appeared perplexed and a little annoyed and I started to wonder whether or not this was going to work. Was it possible that my mother was irritating enough that magic wouldn’t work on her? Was that even a thing?

“And if you’re hoping for something between us,” Mom continued in her high-pitched, nasally voice, “I’ll need to check with Magnus to see if he’s open to a triad.” How in the world was it possible that my mother was this horny? At age seventy-five?! “You know, ‘cause I met him first.”

“Focus please, Nancy,” Luke urged her, his voice gentle but firm. He then reached out and took her hands in his once more and the circle of light blipped a few more times before it grew even brighter.

“You sure are determined, aren’t you, Lou-Lou?” Mom asked with that weird giggle again.

“Focus only on me, Nancy.”

Her flirtatious smile was still in full effect. “Oh, I am, big boy.”

I cringed and couldn’t even imagine what poor Luke must have been going through.

“Focus harder by not talking,” he continued, a frown marring his lips and there was a tightness in his eyes that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Just look into my eyes and listen to my words, Nancy.”

“I’m— ”

“—and don’t talk.” She just nodded and started to get that dazed expression in her eyes again—like she’d had one too many wine coolers. “Everything you believe you witnessed in the basement didn’t actually happen—there is no dungeon—.”

“—my daughter has a sex dungeon.”

“No, there is no sex dungeon and there aren’t any porn movies. There is no basement in this castle at all and there is no vampire. There was never a man strung up by an IV and there is no magic. There is only reality as you have always known it. That’s all there is, Nancy.”

When I looked at my mother, I noticed that the dumb, vacant expression that had been there earlier was now completely missing. Instead, there was slight confusion in her eyes—confusion that quickly gave way to annoyance.

“You can try to convince me all you want, Lou-Lou, but I was there, and I saw that sex dungeon with my own eyes!”

Luke frowned, now becoming clearly frustrated. He took a deep breath and then leaned in closer to her, his voice gentle but insistent. “Nancy, focus only on me and clear your mind of any thoughts, please. ”

“Oh, honey, that’s much easier said than done.”

“You can do it. I believe in you.”

“And I believe in you, handsome Lou-Lou.”

“Just focus on me—nothing else matters. Just my voice.”

She started to nod and then appeared to be in the process of zoning out again, her pupils completely dilating. Apparently, that was a good thing, because the tightness around Luke’s eyes began to calm.

“Nancy, everything that happened to you, everything you witnessed in the last couple of hours—none of it was real,” he continued, his voice soothing, soft and deep. “It was all just a dream.”

My mother nodded but then winced almost immediately, suddenly rubbing her temples like she was trying to massage away an ache.

“My head hurts,” she grumbled.

“It’s okay, Nancy,” Luke intoned, nodding gently as he tightened his fingers around her own. “The pain will go away soon. Just trust my voice and understand that nothing you witnessed will bother you any longer. You’ll believe everything you saw here was nothing more than a dream, just a fabrication from your mind.”

“Fabrication,” she repeated in a soft and faraway voice.

Luke nodded. “Yes, and soon you’ll find yourself back in your own bed, thinking you just woke up from a strange dream. Just a dream, Nancy. And you won’t think about it ever again.” He paused. “There is no dungeon. There is no Valerian. There is no talking, shrunken head. There is no talking goat. There is no magic. Everything you encounter from here on out is nothing out of the ordinary—you won’t be surprised by anything you experience. Instead, you will view everything as commonplace, ordinary, unsurprising, and uninteresting.”

For a moment, Mom’s expression seemed content—like she was at peace with everything Luke was saying. Then there was a slight furrow to her brow and the circle of light started to blink again, growing brighter, then dimmer. The slight furrow on Mom’s face then turned into a full frown, and she appeared completely confused. Her pupils were still dilated though, and I could only hope Luke hadn’t just lobotomized her.

Actually, I thought to myself, maybe a lobotomy wasn’t the worst thing in the world …

Luke paused, studying her face, before asking softly, “Nancy, how’s your head?”

As if he’d thrown her light switch on, her eyes snapped open, and the frown suddenly turned into a broad grin. “I haven’t had any complaints, Lou-Lou.”

With that, the circle of light completely disappeared, and Luke shook his head, dropping her hands. Then he turned to face me with a shrug like we both were shit outta luck.

Son of a…