Chapter Six
The atmosphere in the SUV was very tense.
“So, what did you all do to piss her off? You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”
Vic growled, “I had a chance to win.”
I snorted, “Maybe, but you knew he’d kill you if you didn’t.”
Abby shook her head, “Now we’re all marked for death.”
“That didn’t answer the question.”
Abby snorted, “Does it matter?”
I frowned, “It does, because I still haven’t decided if I’m staying to help you kill those fuckers before they can kill us, or just leaving on the first bus out. You lied to me.”
Adele might’ve been queen bitch of the crap pile here in Chicago, but she had no reach, not like the council would. She was still a third-class citizen, if the one at the top.
I added, “You’d have let it happen, let him be murdered to save your own asses.”
Abby flinched.
Vic growled, “I told them not to risk themselves.”
John said, “Vic lost his temper over Mirabel. He almost killed Jacob four weeks ago, just a few days after Mirabel’s murder. Jacob would’ve died, if Cerise hadn’t interfered. The last three weeks including tonight they’ve been trying to kill him in the ring, but he won the last two fights to preserve his life. I tried to warn you this was a possibility.”
I frowned, “Why not come after him, like you expect them to come after us now. Conversely, why not just give it a go again next week?”
Abby said, “I don’t understand the vicious sadistic bitch enough to answer that question. Maybe because we embarrassed her in front of high supernatural society, and she wanted to make an example of him in front of that same society, which would only work in the ring. Now you stopped her design, in front of everyone, that escalates the matter. You didn’t just disrespect one of her people, you frustrated her plan.”
“Alright, I can buy that. So, what happens next?”
Abby frowned, “You’re staying?”
I shrugged, “Why not? You’re not all that bad.”
Vic snorted.
John asked, “Your mother?”
Oh, I’d been hoping he forgot about that, in the excitement.
“She more than dabbled in the left-hand path. She was obsessed with power, and she got caught summoning demons by the council.”
Abby turned and looked at me, “You?”
I shrugged, “I won’t say I never used questionable magic, but never the truly dark stuff, and never solely for my own power. I haven’t used any left-hand magic in just over four years.”
Vic asked, “What did you do?”
I frowned.
Vic threw my words back at me, “We haven’t decided if we’re going to let you stand with us yet, or not.”
I sighed, “Fine. I healed a cancer once. I also paid off debts of the dying, as my part of the bargain in a willing soul binding, or three. I’ve never used magic to kill with one exception, and I’ve never used blood or death sacrifice.”
Abby looked at me with shock, “Soul binding?”
“Willing,” I said defensively, “And limited in duration, they’ll move on when I do. I’m an enchanter, but I’m fairly weak in magic with both my fae and witch side. Without them I never could’ve built my own mound, personal pocket dimensions take too much power to create and maintain. They thought a few hundred years of service was worth not leaving crippling depts to their children, assuming I live that long. I also relieved their symptoms to live out their remaining lives with their loved ones, away from the hospital and yet even more expenses. They died naturally.”
Yeah, it was definitely borderline magic. But what was a few hundred years of service after death, next to an eternity of reward. Something for something, and their souls weren’t damned in the bargain.
“Three?” John asked.
I nodded slowly, “Yes. One binds the entrance, my bag, the other two maintain my mound and keep it organized. I don’t see a reason I’d do it again, more power is an illusion my mother fell into. I’m not sweetness and light, but I avoid that path in most things.”
Abby said, “So, you’d do it again.”
“To save a life I cared about, but like I said, not at the expense of someone else’s life, even a stranger’s. I won’t touch that magic, nor would I deal with demons. There are worse things, than death, but a little cursed potion, to save a loved one from cancer. I wouldn’t even blink.”
It was a risk to tell them all that, but not nearly as big a risk as the one secret I had left. The third race and what made up half my being.
“So, do I get to buy it in your company, or not.”
Vic snorted.
Abby sighed, “The left-hand path is addictive, and corrupting, but I don’t sense corruption in you yet. I’m a little surprised you want to.”
That was true, and I wasn’t about to explain why I wasn’t corrupted, and never would be.
I bit my lip, “I’m not suicidal. I don’t plan on dying, and Adele pissed me off. The world could do with not having those four psychopaths in it. It’s a risk, but everything in life is.”
Abby said, “I expect they’ll attack at dawn’s light. Before all the humans show up for secrecy’s sake, but after John is out for the day. After killing us, they’ll just pull him out into the daylight.”
“If they attack while we’re sleeping, they can put him down before we can get to him. Same thing, really.”
Abby shook her head, “It won’t be like a cage fight, no rules. John is fast, and he has a silver sword.”
“Maybe, but Vic is practically helpless right now, he’ll be full of magic by dawn. A vampire with a silver sword isn’t much of a threat to a fire witch either, not if she sees him coming.”
That would make a difference for the three shifters, but he’d still go down fast under a fire witch’s power.
“I need your blood.”
John smirked, and looked at me in the rearview mirror, “Isn’t that my line?”
I laughed.
Abby narrowed her eyes at me, “Why?”
“Just in case I’m wrong, and you’re right. Going to make a night potion.”
They didn’t last long. There was no permanent cure for the sun’s effects on a vampire. Thirty minutes tops, but I could make five or six of them in a single batch. It would let a vampire act in daylight, and even stand in the sunlight, free from its burning effects. It also prevented the sleep of the dead thing they had going when the sun peaked over the horizon. It was a major potion, so I needed his blood to tailor it to him, and they would only work for him.
John put his arm behind him faster than I could blink, which made me chuckle. I pulled a lancelet out of the bag, and I got a few drops from his thumb.
Then I held my bag and whispered a name under my breath, which took me into my mound. I didn’t have a choice, the night potion took almost a full week to brew. There wasn’t enough time… unless I made it in my mound were time was… fluid.
The sun shone overhead, and I stood at the beginning of a dirt path. To my left was a full field herb garden with sped up time to grow herbs quickly, to my right stood a small building that did the exact opposite, slowed time to a point that time hardly passed at all. If I went in there, centuries could pass in the real world before I came back out. It was my storage, for potions and ingredients so they wouldn’t go bad, and I depended on my bound souls to store and retrieve from it, as they were free from the modified flows of time in this place.
The path continued forward for a bit, to another small building, which was an alchemist’s dream. Time was variable in that building, either normal matching the world, or I could speed it up like the field. In short, I could speed it up enough that it’d take me five minutes out in the real world even though I’d spend an actual week brewing the potions.
Two of my souls were in a state of unconsciousness of sorts. They were nothing but batteries of magic power for me
, at their request when I’d given them the choice. For them, the three centuries would be but a blink of their eyes, before moving on to their reward, or their next life. None of the souls I’d bound to the enchantments were headed for hell.
The third was standing right in front of me. Five foot six, my height, with red hair and brown eyes. She was adorable with a smattering of freckles on her nose, and she had a lithely graceful body. She was in her eighties when I made the deal, but her ghost looked about my age. She was the one that would plant and reap the crops, maintain the storage room, hand me what I wanted when I concentrated on it, and also guarded the entrance to my mound.
“Hi, Muriel.”
Muriel shook her head, “Was it a good idea telling them the truth?”
She worried about me, sometimes. When I’d said willing soul binding, I wasn’t joking. I dared to name her friend. She was surer about me than I was about myself at times, that I hadn’t crossed the line.
“I guess I’ll find out later, after the battle, they might send me away.”
Muriel sighed, “Right, after you save their asses. Send them in here if you have to, and I’ll set them straight. What do you need?”
I grinned as I fired off the necessary ingredients as she walked beside me. She had them gathered from the timeless storage building and in the alchemy building on the prep table before we arrived. I didn’t even see her move from my side, she was a soul, and not bound by physical laws.
In a lot of ways, you could even say she was the goddess of my realm. She was practically all powerful within the confines of my relatively small mound.
Which was a good thing, otherwise I’d have to wait when I wanted something from the outside, instead of it appearing immediately in my hand. Especially when it came to my tranquilizer pistols, and in reloading them in the middle of a fight.
She was also bound to protect and serve me. But, if anyone ever managed to violate my mound, they wouldn’t survive very long. Or they would, a whole lifetime perhaps, in the amount of real time it would take them to walk a single step in the real world.
It’d be a long boring seven days. I couldn’t leave the building at all, but it’d be worth it if we could have a silver sword wielding vampire on our side during the fight. Assuming I was wrong, and Adele came after daybreak, but something told me she’d come sooner, while it was still dark. It’d still be worth the effort, since he’d have the potions for future daytime problems. One guarantee in the supernatural world was there was always another danger to face.
My point was, before I got off track, was that Muriel’s company would make the time pass less painfully. That, and I’d spend some time studying the family grimoire. There was just as much right-hand lore in it as left hand, my family history was a little dark in truth, but I focused on the good magic.
The only other things in my mound was a small cottage with an attached treasury. I didn’t use it often, but it’d come in handy once or twice. If for nothing else than a quick shower when I was travelling and didn’t want to stop at a motel.
I got started on the potion, which was as always rather Zen as I subtly fed the potion magic and ingredients, at the proper times. When it felt right, using the recipe as a general guide and not the end all and be all of things.
Seven days was a long time, long enough to second guess my decision to stand with my new group. A group I’d known for less than twenty-four hours, against a powerful and sadistic group. No doubt they weren’t perfect, could even be selfish assholes at times, but who wasn’t? They seemed better than most to me, at any rate.
Long enough of a time for my anger at Adele to cool. The bitch needed killing, but it hadn’t been my problem until I’d made it mine. They’d also deceived me, or at least hid the full truth, but I got the idea they’d been trying to protect me from the truth. Otherwise I’d have agonized over it, knowing Vic would die if he lost the fight.
They’d been trying to keep me out of it.
I didn’t change my mind though. I wasn’t selfless, but I also wasn’t a coward and would fight for a place in this group. Even if I could find a better group of supernaturals on the edges of society, chances were that they’d all have different levels of drama and skeletons in the closet. I had to make a stand somewhere.
Or… I’d never stop running.
This seemed like as good a place as any, if they accepted me.
Chapter Seven
The SUV was a little over halfway to the ranch when I popped back into my seat. The potion had taken me seven days, but only five minutes in the real world. The other twenty or so had been me taking a twenty-minute shower in my cottage. I’d also changed, and had on a pair of black yoga pants, my shiny leather black boots, and a mid-thigh long burgundy light sweater dress, that would’ve been scandalous without the tights.
I reached forward and handed the six night-potions in a small cardboard box to Abby.
“That was quick.”
I shrugged, “Like any fae mound, time is malleable. It took me about a week, it’s one of the most advanced potions I know.”
And it was, it wasn’t often vampires ran around in daylight, and I’d just handed her about thirty thousand dollars’ worth of potion on the black market.
Vic grunted.
I smiled at him, “Do you do anything but grunt?”
He grunted, and his lips twitched.
I asked, “So… what did you decide while I was in there.”
Abby flushed guiltily, like it was a surprise they’d been talking about me while I was gone?
“We’ll fight with you at our backs, and when it’s over we won’t ask you to leave. If nothing else, we owe you the full two weeks before making a permanent decision on your welcome. We’re pleased of course, that Vic is still alive, but even if we win it could cause complications.”
I nodded, “Someone will have to take over for Adele, or the council will come sniffing around because they’d lose out on their weekly bribe. I’d suggest a joint effort, you and the other three leaders don’t seem like sadistic controlling assholes, so it might work best to all have an equal stake in it. Split the costs and take equally. I’d also suggest Stan as our face to the council, it might not be a good idea for them to find out we’re working in concert.”
Abby raised an eyebrow.
I grinned, “I’ve had seven days to think about all the what ifs.”
John snickered, drawing a look from Abby.
Abby said, “Why Stan?”
“Fae. The council is made up of Nephilim, witches, shifters, and vampires. Technically the fae too, but the fae tend to stick to their mound and avoid entanglements unless it crosses their interests. I think they’d deal better with a fae, than with one of their social rejects. They’re already used to a certain distance there, and they’d more likely subconsciously see him as somewhat of an equal instead of the dirt beneath their feet. At least, he should handle the bribes, and dealings with Serin.
“On the local fae mound side, they won’t care about an illegal fight club either way, so they won’t get involved.”
John chuckled, “She’s right, Abby. You’re also well liked enough by the others that they might listen to suggestions in that direction, should we survive. Sally’s enough of a manipulative schemer that I’m sure she can take over the contacts and arrangement part of things.”
We could probably abandon the whole thing, and deal with the council backlash, but there were positives to it. The shifters buildup of violent instincts was just one of them, Vic would be more balanced with a challenge fight once a week. Of much lesser importance, we’d make more money on potion sales, and we’d have a commonality with the other three groups which will help keep the peace.
It was what it was.
Abby said, “I’ll reach out, if we win. If we don’t, it doesn’t matter.”
Yeah, time would tell.
The bed in my room was comfortable and warm, but I tossed and turned. It wasn’t fear exactly that was keeping me
up, though that was there too, I’d also really expected her to hit sooner. Adele and Cerise hadn’t struck me as the patient type. There was also the matter of those four annihilating two other groups without taking losses.
A defending witch usually had the advantage, they were at home, and a witch’s home was warded with their magic and other protections. So, how did they do it?
On the other hand, Abby was a powerful air witch, and they usually sensed the future much better than earth witches, who were more anchored to the here and now. In short, it was much more likely her guesses about the future were right than mine were. That didn’t prevent me from tossing and turning though.
To be fair, I’d gotten a lot of sleep in my alchemy lab, over the last week subjectively to me of brewing. That could be a part of it too. Regardless, it was close to four-thirty in the morning.
The rest of the car ride home that night, we’d discussed tactics and who would handle who. The most important thing was keeping John away from Adele. A vampire wouldn’t have a wheat straw’s chance in a grassfire against a fire witch. The other was getting out of the house and engaging before they could burn through the wards, or the house would become our tomb and a trap as she set it on fire.
My mind kept skipping back to the annihilated two other groups part, and that Adele was a left-hand path practitioner. Not a light dabbler like me, who had used it for good. Or at worst in a balanced way that hadn’t harmed others, but like my mother, or grandmother for that matter. Would it be four on four, or would Adele summon a demon? She was certainly petty and sadistic enough given all I’d seen and heard.
Demons also didn’t do well in the bright light of the sun. They wouldn’t go up in flames like a vampire, but they were definitely weaker.
That’s why I’d expected her to attack at night, but as time dragged and nothing happened, I doubted my conclusions. On the other hand, summoning a demon wasn’t like ordering for pizza, it took time and effort for a witch, especially if they wanted to live over it and not lose their soul. Which really, is why I expected it to happen any second now, it’d been a few hours since we left the city. There was only a little over an hour before the crack of dawn as well, though full dawn was two hours away.
Hexes and Hellfire: Kyra Bell: Book One Page 5