by Vega Lizzie
The minute he opened the door and didn’t react with surprise, Shannon suspected trouble. “I’d like to discuss something with you Darien. Won’t take long.”
“So,” he said, “seems you’re an early riser.” He glanced over at the king-sized bed and Shannon’s heart bounced in her chest as he stood by the high boy dresser, “Can’t say I noticed the pillows.”
“Where is it?” she sighed, now realizing the hotel manager had alerted him to her arrival.
“Where is what?” he responded coolly, “My heart that you stole back in the eighth grade, you mean that? Recovered, and intact, I assure you.”
“Oof, wow,” Shannon said in a huff as her thoughts started to wander, “Some things never change, do they? You are still so full of shit, so full of yourself. We were never a thing.”
“A boy can have his fantasies, right?” he grinned, “no need to be harsh after all these years. If I’m to be honest,”
“So, you have changed,” Shannon shot back instantly. The arch of her eyebrow might have been involuntary.
“Ouch, still that sharp tongue, though,” he smirked, “Kiss the boys and make them cry. Oh, right, not boys anymore.”
“Just stop, Darien, There’s no point to this. Give me back my book and I want specific assurances that you will leave my father alone in Helena. I’d hate to have to track you down and teach you a lesson.”
“Truly, you are no fun, or I guess I just don’t have the right equipment.” He reached up slowly to open the top drawer of the dresser, “let’s just get on with it. I call a verbal truce.”
He reached in and pulled out the fake copy of Shannon’s grimoire. A small black box sat on top of it. As he set it to the side, he casually tossed the grimoire to Shannon. Caught for a moment to catch the suddenly airborne book, she didn’t see him open the lid of the box and take two small black spheres from it.
“Here ya go,” he said loudly, “catch.”
Reacting to the book, she didn’t see him fling the globes at her until it was too late. One struck her left wrist and quickly wrapped around her hand shooting a painful rail of heat up her arm. Her right arm still free, Shannon spun a hastily generated plasma burst only to have the second orb grab and wrap her wrist like the first.
Caught by surprise, Shannon felt both bracelets pop and sent out a set of steel rods that wrapped her fingers. In an instant, her ability to initiate a firing sequence had been neutralized.
With a flip of his wrist, the two bracelets locked together and slammed her to the floor. Writhing in pain and trying to catch her breath, he moved to stand over her, “I gotta say how truly disappointed I am with your performance,” he growled, “gotta say the fantasy has taken a severe hit.”
“Let me go,” Shannon gasped, “what do you want with him anyway?”
“We don’t want him, I assure you. He’s just a pain in the ass and won’t stop digging around. He’s been warned more than enough. He wants the land and what’s underneath it.”
Through the pain radiating up her arms, Shannon watched as he began to pace around her. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll tell him to back off. There’s no oil out there, what’s the point?”
“All those morons were idiots,” Darien continued as he watched Shannon squirm on the floor, “even when I threatened him with their lives, he still didn’t give a shit. It’s not oil anyway. Something much more valuable…far more powerful.”
For a moment Shannon wasn’t listening, she was studying the mechanism that had bonded her hands together. It was as much a technical marvel as an effective deterrent for her to generate energy, “What are these things?” she cried out hoping to shift the conversation, “how did you do that?”
He leaned down to her, now uncomfortably close, “How did you just put a hole in the sheetrock? We’ll have to get that fixed and there’ll be hell to pay if the other guests complain about the noise.” His chuckle was extended and suddenly she felt his hand on her ass, “Let’s put your phone away shall we?” he said in her ear, “wait,” he laughed, “it’s off? That was…actually, that was smart.”
His hand returned after he flung the phone across the room, “wouldn’t want any of your family to get the crazy idea to come and help you.” Her breath caught as he stroked slowly down the back of her thigh, “Darien, please…don’t make this worse than it already is.”
“Oh, this is nothing bad, Shannon. Bad would be me flying back home and burning down your father’s restaurant with your mother and father in it. Bad would be me, say catching Maggie out on an evening walk and letting my imagination run a little wild on her.” He snickered, “better yet, maybe I take the hot young librarian for a test drive.”
“Stop, Darian, I’m sorry,” Shannon whimpered, “I’ll back off. I’ll get him to do whatever it is you want.”
“I misspoke earlier,” he interrupted suddenly, “Really bad, you know, so I know you’re paying attention, would be to come back to the big city and one by one, eliminate your little magic family. Seems like a simple thing given how easily I brought you to your knees.”
“Is that it?” Shannon asked, “after all these years, you want me on my knees? I…uh no…you son of a bitch.” With all her energy, she tried to rear back and call forth her robe. She would show him the power of the Ivory Witch and break this control he had over her. With a surge of adrenaline, she bore down on her restraints.
For a second it was silent, all she could feel was a surge in her heartrate, then the noise came. Static, a burst of electromagnetic energy so strong it blocked out her conscious thought. Turning her head, she saw him standing at her side, but his face had changed and kept changing as if someone had begun to scribble around his head in black and white crayons.
His hand clamped down on the back of her neck and drove her face into the carpet. She screamed in reaction as the sizzling charge scalded the back of her neck.
“You think you have power?” he yelled over the heavy crackle of static charge, “You think the Ivory Witch and all her little pathetic play pals can override the power that we have? You were the smart one in junior high, Shannie. You must have peaked then.”
“What are you,” Shannon cried out, “Who are you?” The sound of her voice felt small against the hissing of his display, “Are you Conclave?” She tried to turn to look at him, but the static only mushroomed in volume. For a second it enveloped his entire form, arms and legs hidden by a pulsating blanket of electricity. Only his face remained and suddenly that disappeared into an almost canine looking face with a black howling hole of a mouth.
“Do I look like Conclave?” the image bellowed at her, “do I look like that much of an amateur to you?”
Overwhelmed by the sudden thundering volume in the hotel room, Shannon thoughts went to the neighboring rooms of the hotel. If someone heard, if someone would only respond. She tried to pull back from him to get up on her knees, but it was as if she had been drained of every ounce of her energy. All she could do was scream.
“Silence,” he thundered, striking her across the shoulders, forcing her to one knee. Wobbling, trying to stand and fighting against the wires that held her fingers, she was powerless.
In a surge of light, he snapped back to his human form and grabbed the room phone in his hand, “Seal the floor,” he commanded into the phone, “I want the freight elevator up here now.” Slamming the phone to the receiver, it bounced off to hang off the nightstand. He grabbed her by her hair, “Get up. We’re going for a short ride.”
“Darien,” she croaked, “don’t…don’t do this. We can…work.”
He put her roughly up against the wall as he opened the room door. With a quick check to the hallway, he dragged her to the far bank of elevators. With the throbbing pain in her hands, it was all she could do to stand, let alone walk.
“Scream again,” he hissed in her ear, “and you’ll take the express route to the basement, minus the elevator.”
The ride down felt like forever and as the doors opened, he pus
hed her toward a service door in the darkest corner of the hotel basement. Shannon had tried to watch the numbers on the panel as they came down. She knew they were close to street level as steam pipes and electrical conduits were the only fixtures in the poorly lit space.
They came to a metal door with a faded warning sign riveted to it. “You can spend some time in here. I might…and I might not, tell someone to come and let you out after a day or two. During that time, give some thought about all the ways you can convince your father to-” He paused with a grin and Shannon panicked, “I won’t tell anyone that this happened. Your secret is safe.”
To Shannon, her words sounded correct as she said them, but he heard them in a different tone and laughed in her face, “That’s the point, I won’t need to be a secret much longer. He will see that we are made into leaders. I will rule over the land that you have hidden from us. You left home,” he said, “you missed out on what could have been. That said, you’ll miss out on what is coming. He will rule vastly different new world.”
He tipped her back and moved her hands to where she could see them. The metal rods that protruded from the bracelets had bent her fingers back, ‘They’ll keep bending for a while. That should keep you entertained until it hurts too much.” She felt his hands on her backside again as he slipped her phone back into her pocket, “Case you want to call your dad to say goodbye. Good luck trying to reach it.”
He opened the thick door and Shannon could smell the cold decay of the room.
“Yeah, that’s rank. They do an inspection once a month or so,” he chuckled, “Come to think of it, it was last week, so…whatever. Seeya Tomboy. It coulda been something.”
With a hard shove, Shannon went stumbling into the long room. As the door slammed and locked behind her, she looked around in the space lit only by a series of dim bulkhead lamps. Tubing and conduit ran along one wall and a series of thick pipes ran from one end to the other. It was cold and wet, and Shannon dropped to her knees too exhausted and hurting to cry anymore.
Just then the wires constraining her finger contracted shooting a fresh wave of pain up her arms. Her eyes adjusting to the gloom, she stood to move to a dusty support beam that ran the length of the space. She laid down and closed her eyes. “A few minutes,” she said into the darkness, “I’ll rest my eyes for a few minutes, then…”
Chapter 26
The exchange of hugs and pleasantries was brief once Tess and Liam saw the urgency in Terra’s face. Olivia just sat at the kitchen island, stone faced and clutching her phone in her hands.
“What’s happening,” Tess asked her immediately, “Ollie, what have you seen?”
“That’s just it,” the girl answered tearfully, her chin trembling, “It’s s-stopped…a while ago. My dreams are mostly normal stuff now.” She held up her phone to them, “Then this happened. Mom’s in trouble.”
Alarmed at the disclosure, Liam stood back up, “Where is she? We should-” Terra caught his arm, “We will. But there’s something you need to see.” She looked at Tess, “Both of you. I have no idea what this is.”
“Call Angela,” he suggested.
“Call Colin, or…” Tess quickly added, “call everybody.”
“No,” Terra only shook her head, “This stays within our immediate family. Definitely not Colin or Angela, at least not yet.” She sighed heavily, “I think Shannon has started something and it’s either suddenly out of her control or,” she glanced sharply at Olivia, “or there’s another angle. We want you both to see something.”
As Olivia set her phone on the counter, Terra pulled hers from her pocket and did the same. Olivia’s voice was shaky, “We had a little incident here last night. Karly was over for dinner and homework…we didn’t get that far.”
Liam’s brow was on overtime as he pulled a bar stool next to Tess, “I uh, think I can speak for both of us for the adoption. I’m-”
“We’re honored,” Tess interrupted, but her brief grin faded as Olivia’s tears spilled down her cheeks, “but what about Eliza and Issac?”
“They’ll be over shortly. We wanted for you to see this first.” Terra tipped her phone at them, “You’ve both had more extensive, more…” Now Terra’s eyes brimmed.
“Darker,” Tess assisted, “Farther out in the other worlds.”
“Terra wants Angela and Colin out of this,” Olivia sniffled, “Seems they’re only helpful when it’s handy for them.” She took a deep breath, “I sorta checked out at dinner last night. It was Karly’s idea to film what happened with her phone.”
“Well, that was a good idea,” Liam said quietly, “She’s perceptive that way.”
Oliva nodded, “Oh you just wait. As far as the family thing goes, she wants to be your little sister. I hear that, like once a week now.”
Despite the tension, Tess chuckled, “Well, that’s differ-” Terra quickly cleared her throat.
“-safe,” Tess finished. “Let’s see what you’ve got here.”
“The conversation during dinner sorta came to a halt last night,” Terra began, “Ollie reached across the island for another helping and she froze.”
“Gets weird after that cuz I don’t remember a thing. This is a forward from Karly’s phone. Terra has another view.”
“Mine is shakier,” Terra confessed, “this scared the crap out of me until I saw Karly. It was weird.”
“She was calm, wasn’t she?” Liam asked, “I’ve never seen anyone so hyperaware of her surroundings.”
“Listen for her in the video,” Terra said quietly, “as I don’t think her vocabulary normally includes Latin. There’s a lot going on and then it ends.”
“Sorta made a mess of dinner,” Olivia said glumly, “Now I’m hoping the dreams start up again. The Ivory Witch doesn’t just disappear.”
Tess caught a glance from Terra, “Let’s watch hers’ first,” she said as she put her hand softly on Olivia’s shoulder, “Let’s help find your mom.” Her head jerked back to the computer screen as Terra’s shrieking voice could be heard, “what is happening?”
Terra pointed to the tiny screen, “I’m freaked out, but I shut up after a minute.” On the screen, Olivia’s right arm was thrust across the counter. Her fingers were just short of the end of the spoon in the casserole dish. “I thought she was grabbing for the spoon.”
Terra’s hand came into view as she slid the glass dish closer to Ollie’s clutching fingers, but the young girl swept it aside effortlessly and it slid across the island top.
“Let the food fight begin,” Olivia said in a disgusted tone, “this just pisses me off.”
“Listen for Karly,” Terra said, ignoring Olivia’s outburst, “It’s really quiet.”
After the clatter of the glass dish on the floor, Karyl’s soft voice surfaced, “She’s reaching for something.”
“Can you see it?” Terra said, quietly repeating her words captured on the phone.
“Look at her hand,” Liam pointed to the screen, then zeroed in on Olivia’s wrist, “look at the tension in her fingers. What is she doing?”
The phone angle shifted abruptly as it panned up to Olivia’s face. Laying down on the quartz top, her face was turned to the camera. Olivia’s eyes were rolled back and only the whites were visible. The phone jerked accompanied by a corresponding shriek from Terra.
“I’m, of course, losing my shit at this point.” Terra confessed, “but listen. Karly has her phone going now.”
In the video, Karly’s voice was calm and measured. “Terra, she’s okay,” they heard, “she’s not choking.” Liam gasped as Karly’s hand went to Olivia’s shoulder, “she’s not in pain.”
“Jesus Christ,” Liam exclaimed, “We gotta talk to her…and soon.”
Olivia only rolled her eyes, “oh, just you wait, it gets way weirder.”
A solid rap on the loft door scared the hell out of Tess. “Fuck,” she shuddered, spinning on her chair. For once, Olivia didn’t scold her, “That’ll be Eliza.”
Pausing t
he playback, Terra sprang for the door. As Eliza hurried in, Issac and Marcus followed close behind.
“Any word?” Marcus asked as he came in, “her phone still isn’t pinging back.”
Bringing them up to speed, they made room along the counter as Marcus brought out his laptop and synched the phone to his files. “This will give us a better view and I can clean up the sound a little.”
Uploaded and playing, Eliza stood in the middle as the initial section played. Once again, Liam commented on the position of Olivia’s hand, “She’s reaching for something.”
Terra cleared her throat, “Watch this.” There was a muffled whump, then a hiss from the speakers as the camera jerked away from Olivia and went to the ceiling. A bright red orb, seemingly triggered from the dark magic sensors hovered in the center of the ceiling.”
“I didn’t do it,” Olivia volunteered, “and I didn’t do the next bunch either.” A ripping sound was heard as the phone camera caught three glowing green orbs entering from the living room.
“Duck down,” they heard from a calmer Terra and suddenly the computer screen blurred as a black scaled column entered the frame. “I called up my serpent,” Terra shrugged, “I should have done my shield.”
“Nothing happens,” Olivia said, almost bored at this point, then she sighed, “sorry, I get that you’re scared for me.”
“They just hovered,” Terra whispered, “That’s when I began to wonder. Watch Karly.”
With one eye on the orbiting sentinels, she crouched briefly, but soon rose and leaned next to Olivia, still frozen and grasping on the counter. The shift in the camera allowed for an extended look at Ollie’s face. The irises on her eyes were still unable to be seen.
“Freeze that,” Eliza blurted, causing Tess to swear again. This time Olivia snickered. “Screenshot it.” Eliza continued, then, “Keep going.”