Page 69 of Demon Loved
Allegra sat up a little straighter. Most of the time, Brianna found her almost a figure of fun, with her wispy, flyaway buns and layers of long skirts and tops, all of which served to make her look a little like an ambulatory pile of clothes from a thrift store. Now, though, there was almost something stern about the way she lifted her chin, reminding Bree that this woman had been a McAllister elder for more than fifty years, had been alive to work with Angela’s Great-Aunt Ruby during the dark days when the clan had still been involved in a cold war with the Wilcoxes.
Her age and wisdom shouldn’t be discounted, not when she’d seen and experienced so much.
“Tricia and Brianna are right,” she said. “Holding a being as powerful as the Collector indefinitely isn’t a practical solution to our problem. It would be much better to make sure we’re so well protected that he gives up and goes to collect his magical items elsewhere.”
“Well, yes, that would be the best outcome,” Angela agreed. She crossed her legs and wrapped her fingers around her knee, all the while fixing Allegra with a direct stare. “But I thought we were already doing that.”
“No,” Tricia cut in, nodding slightly, as if she’d suddenly understood what Allegra had been getting at. “We’ve been setting the wards and doing what we can on that front, but it clearly hasn’t been enough, not when the Collector’s servant was able to break into your house, even if he wasn’t able to remove the safe with the amulets. That was probably enough to embolden him and make him realize he could be successful if he kept at it. But now we have Brianna.”
Everyone’s gaze fixed on Bree then, and she found herself shifting uncomfortably as she sat on the couch next to Belshegar.
Funny how she was already just fine with thinking of him by his real name.
“Her gift,” Angela said softly. “The way she seems to be able to weave harmonies across dimensions. If she could use that power as we create the wards, their strength will be bound not just to this world, but to many others. I doubt even the Collector or his minions would be able to get past something like that.”
Everyone nodded, although Bree couldn’t help thinking they were placing a lot of trust in something they didn’t even know would work. She’d only used these strange new powers of hers once. How could they all be so sure that they’d activate at the proper time?
But Belshegar seemed to be on board with the idea, because he said, “This is true. The Collector wields powers we don’t entirely understand — mainly because none of us knows exactly which magical items he has in his arsenal — but for now, it does seem as if he’s mostly operating on this plane. By drawing in energies from other dimensions, we should be able to create a barrier that he can’t penetrate.”
“He hasn’t been working entirely on this plane,” Brianna argued as a thought occurred to her. “I mean, unless the place where you spoke with him was somewhere in this world, too.”
Belshegar’s brows drew together, and she could tell he was pondering what she had just said. But then his expression cleared and he replied, “I can’t say for sure. It was a place of mist where there didn’t seem to be any discernible landmarks or anything that might have identified exactly where we were. Of course I assumed we were on the plane where the Council gathers, but it’s entirely possible that we were instead someplace in this world, with the Collector doing everything he could to make me think otherwise.”
Bree thought she could see why that might be possible. Belshegar clearly had his own gifts, but he wasn’t some omnipotent being, couldn’t completely control his environment. Because of that, she supposed the Collector might have been able to trick him into believing they had met in an impossibly alien dimension when in fact they might have been standing on a sound stage in L.A. or something.
“How would we even do something like this?” she asked, and her father sent her a reassuring smile.
“Connor and Angela and we elders will take care of the mechanics,” he told her. “All you’ll have to do is add your power at the right time, and the wards we’ll create will be completely different from what we’ve been using so far. Like Angela said, those protective spells will have energy that extends far beyond this plane, and the Collector will have a much more difficult time getting past them.”
He’d said “difficult,” but not impossible. Since none of them knew what sorts of relics the Collector already had in his possession, it would also be very hard to know for sure whether he had an artifact that could rip through their newly constructed wards like fingernails through parachute silk.
And yet, despite all these worries, Brianna knew this plan was the one that would serve them best. Capturing the Collector might solve their immediate problem, but they were witches and warlocks, not jailers. Holding him indefinitely would only stir up a whole host of other issues.
Much better to create an environment so hostile that he would take his treasure-hunting activities elsewhere.
“All right,” she said, then lifted her chin.
“Just tell me what I need to do.”
20
Belshegar was somewhat relieved to hear that the McAllister elders — and their prima and her consort — intended to lay most of the groundwork for the protection ritual themselves, with no need to involve Brianna.
“We’ll call you in when we need you,” Angela assured Bree, who looked almost disappointed by her comment, as if she’d thought she would be involved in all the planning.
“Your power is still new,” Levi told his daughter. “The best thing you can do is try to be as rested as possible.”
This comment didn’t appear to sit very well with her, since she crossed her arms and gave her father a very direct look. “How am I supposed to rest when I have no idea when this jerk is going to pop up out of nowhere and attack us again?”
To Belshegar’s surprise, Levi chuckled before laying a reassuring hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “I have a feeling he isn’t going to try anything again for a while. Probably, he wasn’t expecting that kind of defense.”
No, most likely not. Belshegar was still somewhat shocked by the way Brianna had gathered all those disparate energies and used them to break the hold the minion’s orb had on him.
And then to destroy the thing utterly, rather than merely render it useless?
He had to admit he still had much to learn about the way magic operated on this plane, but he had to believe such a feat was not something most witches or warlocks could easily manage.
However, he could also tell Brianna was frightened, and no one could blame her for that.
