Page 18 of Dark Stars
In his arms, Alejo sobbed quietly, stillunconscious, pressing his face into the hollow of Bobby's throat,tears falling hot on his skin. "Help me."
Chapter Seven
Bobby dusted a soft kiss to Alejo's templeand then heaved to his feet and fled the office back into the restof the school. When he found a door that was definitely not aclassroom, he used the barest hint of arcana to unlock it andhastened into what proved to be, as hoped, a storage closet.
He closed and locked the door, then droppeddown behind a stack of boxes filled with cleaning supplies and heldAlejo close, pulling his face to rest in the hollow of Bobby'sthroat to further muffle any sounds he might make.
The back of Alejo's neck was hot, nearlyburning. The protection his parents had placed was failing, forreasons Bobby couldn't ascertain quite yet. He listened, barelybreathing, to the noise in the office down the hall.
Mindless chatter, bitching and moaning. Abrief argument. Nothing useful, alas. No, wait. Something about ameeting at midnight in the auditorium. Even 'he' was going to bethere. So they definitely used the school as some sort of base ofoperations, or at least a meeting point.
Several endless minutes later, they finallyleft again. Fuck. Thank the primordial dark he hadn't used hispowers.
He waited several more minutes just to besafe, then hauled to his feet again, holding Alejo close. He washot all over now, sweaty and flushed, whimpering and crying asBobby carried him out of the building and to his truck.
Once they were on their way, Bobby punched aspeed dial on his phone and pressed it to his ear.
"What's up?" Harold asked.
"I need you here, and possibly your belovedas well. Something's wrong with Alejandro, but if I investigate myway, I'll show my hand to whatever relative of mine they'reworshipping here."
"Where are you staying?"
"The Sunrise Hotel at the edge of town.Rooms 236 and 237."
"Be there shortly."
Harold hung up, and Bobby tossed his phoneon the bench seat next to Alejo as he focused on driving.Thankfully, their luck held, and he managed to get them up to hisroom without trouble. He settled Alejo on his bed, removing hisshoes and jacket so he'd be a bit more comfortable. Next he made acold compress. Alejo whimpered in his sleep, eyes flutteringbriefly, and when his hand flailed Bobby caught it and held fast,which seemed to settle him again.
The jewel in his pendant thrummed as thenecklaces he'd given Jones and Harold called out to it. Bobbypulled it out, running his thumb over the blue-green jewel in thecenter, pulled from the debris of a dead star and hand-polished bya creature who'd died more eons ago than could be counted. It wassurrounded by tiny pearls made from his own mother, darker ones setin the dark, burnished metal setting that held everything.
Moments later, a soft blue-green glow filledthe farthest corner of the room, and then Harold and Jones stoodthere.
"Demon," Jones hissed. "I cansmellit."
"Feel it," Harold said, immediately crossingthe room and climbing onto the bed. He gently flipped Alejo overwith Bobby's help, and rested a hand gently on the back hisneck—then jerked it away swearing. "That's bruja arcana, andsomething else…vodun. That's not terribly common in the States, anda combination of the two is straight up rare. Haven't seen it forsome time. Interesting arcana legacy. How'd he get tangled up witha demon?"
Bobby moved so Jones could have his spot. "Idon't know. He refused to tell me everything, and while we weresearching the high school for clues, he collapsed. His parents laidthe protections, but clearly the demon is wearing them down. Theysent him literally across the country to be safe, but their effortsjust aren't enough. I can fix it, easily, but not without showingmyself to whichever relative is destroying this town forfunsies."
"Let's get a better picture of what we'reworking with," Harold said. He hovered his hand over the marks,murmured soft words of arcana, then slung his hand at a blankstretch of wall—where the marks appeared as though they had beenprojected.
"Damn show off," Jones muttered.
Bobby's mouth twitched briefly. Movingcloser to the wall, he touched the mark, then started separatingthe protections from the demonic mark they were caging.
When he'd finished, they all stood in grimsilence.
"Leviathan," Harold finally said, voiceflat. "Somebody summoned fuckingLeviathan."
"Oh, it's worse than that," Jones said, moreCarpathian Mountain in his accent than Georgia now. He pointed tothe four corners of the mark, each one looking almost like fancygold filagree, but blood red in color. "These mean he's been…forlack of a better term,engagedto Leviathan. Poor kid is arunaway bride."
Bobby snarled, the entire room tremblingfrom it, his eyes glowing the yellow-green of fireflies at dusk."Over my dead body. Alejo would never do this to himself."
"Where's his phone?" Harold asked.
Fishing the phone out of Alejo's pocket, hetossed it to Harold. Frowning, Harold held it over Alejo's face tounlock it, then scrolled through it before finally choosingsomething and wandering off into the adjoining room to talk.
Bobby frowned after him. "He's not seriouslycalling Alejo's family?"
