Lisa, Ceara, Melody, and Kelly were waiting for me in the underground lot. I wondered at the addition as I got out, but guessed the crazy girl had volunteered. Kelly was quiet for the most part, but not out of shyness as I’d originally thought. The woman’s actions were bold, and spoke for themselves.
I didn’t even get a chance to say hi, as soon as I got close, the ground rumbled and pulled us under.
Lisa frowned, “So what’s the plan if he’s still there. I think it’s a forgone conclusion Kelly and I will be controlled if he tries to.”
I bit my tongue. Telling her to ask me to shield her was definitely over the line of the tenets.
Melody gestured at the stone and asked, “You seem fine this time.”
I shrugged, “I’m angry at that sorcerer, I was on level forty-six in angry birds.”
Melody snorted in disbelief. She was kind of right. I was getting used to travel this way. I didn’t like it, but it didn’t make me break out in a sweat and feel out of sorts this time.
Ceara said, “If the sorcerer is still there, let Melody, Miku and I handle it. You’re here to help with the coven.”
She turned to me, “Will you help with the air sorcerer?”
I nodded, and felt a stab of doubt at the same time. Sophistry? I really wanted to kill the sadistic bastard, and had practically been chomping at the bit for someone to ask for my help. That didn’t seem very neutral to me.
Maybe he’d just try to control all of us when we showed up, which would be an attack and render my worry moot.
“I’ll try and shield his power with everything I have, leave the attacks to Melody, and if he escapes I’ll track him. Lisa, if that happens catch me okay? I’ll lose him if I lie down first. Air may be fast, but I bet spirit is faster when I’m spirit walking.”
It should be, it was damned near immediate when I focused on a specific place, I was just there. Once I felt his aura, I shouldn’t have any trouble following it, as long as he was still in range of my magic when I started that is.
Lisa nodded.
I asked, “Is San Antonio hard to get to underground?”
It’d been way longer than a half minute.
Melody shook her head, “I paused until the planning conversation was done, were just a mile away so be ready.”
She’d barely finished talking, when we rose up in the backyard of another mansion. I wondered if they were all mansions outside of Seattle.
This one was different though, the one in Dallas was colonial, this one was more in the Mediterranean style, it also sported a very large in ground pool, and a large wooden deck. It was two stories, and very spread out, maybe fifteen to twenty thousand square feet at a guess? I was hardly an expert in real estate though.
I also felt twenty-three vampire souls inside, but no sorcerers.
“He’s not here.”
Ceara clenched her jaw, but other than that didn’t comment.
“The coven leader down here is Barbara. She’s another friend, like I said the other day, Texas fairly takes care of itself. She’s a bit younger than Sherry though, not quite a thousand. I spoke to her chief enforcer, Thomas, just last night when they called in an all is well. Obviously, it wasn’t.”
I could tell she didn’t like that.
Ceara added, “Be careful, the sorcerer knows we’re after him now, so don’t be surprised if we’re attacked immediately, in fact I’d be shocked if he didn’t leave those instructions when he left.”
She barely got done talking, when I felt all the vampires come our way at once. They all flowed out the French doors into the back yard, most of them carried weapons. A couple had swords, most of the others had improvised and held kitchen knives, hammers, or some other blunt instrument.
I pulled my sword for defense only, and firmly reminded myself these were victims, not rogues.
Ceara could have taken them all in a moment, but she must have been afraid of using deadly force. She did run forward however, and take on the coven leader Barbara, much in the way she had taken on Sherry.
As for me, I focused on the ones focused on me, and used spirit lightning with the intent to knock them out, not kill.
I managed to take down two, and then they were among us. I used my spirit magic, and ignored my eyes and other senses as I fought them. Most were at my speed as a vampire or faster, but thanks to a hundred years of training, I was able to evade or parry the blows, as I continued to knock them out one at a time.
Lisa wasn’t a slouch in that department either at two hundred and fifty years old, and she held her own.
Still, we were outnumbered, and I had to accept a hit on my left arm with what looked like a chair leg, while I dodged a sword strike, and parried a third attack. Lightning leapt off of my left hand, taking one of the sword wielders down, only for him to be replace by another holding an umbrella.
I’d have laughed, if I wasn’t so pressed. All that had taken place in the first two seconds.
Then the earth rumbled and all the vampires still standing were held and encased in earth that rose up around them.
Melody said, “Sorry that took so long, earth sorceresses aren’t that fast, but we’re well protected.”
I shrugged, and used spirit manipulation to knock the rest out. Lighting might have been faster, but draining their spirits of energy would keep them out longer while both their bodies and souls recovered.
“They’re all out. Is that the whole coven?”
Ceara answered, “Yes, which is odd, they usually have someone at their bar. The sorcerer must have commanded them to all be here to ambush us. Lisa, Kelly, get them all in the coven’s holding cells in the basement.”
Melody asked, “Should I go get Tina?”
Ceara considered that for a moment, and then nodded.
Melody grinned, “Want to come for a ride Miku?”
She giggled at my glare, and then sunk beneath the earth.
Why did everyone like to tease me so much about that? I hadn’t even complained this time…
Chapter Seventeen
I felt the aura and spike of air magic, a moment before he appeared a hundred feet in the air. I immediately wondered if that was his range, but I supposed it didn’t matter. That wasn’t how I measured power anyway, and I could see the aura of his power like Melody’s, or Ceara’s, or Kelly’s for that matter.
By that it was immediately apparent he was stronger than I was, but not by a large margin.
“God, I thought that bitch would never leave. I was getting bored watching.”
I narrowed my eyes, “I’d have felt you if you were that close.”
He laughed in amusement, “Remote viewing honey, I’d tell you to google it, but I’m afraid that won’t be happening. My pets have to earn…”
I sent spirit his way, and encased him in it, cutting off his puerile speech and his connection to the air around him. It was also my hope to stop him from taking any of our minds, which was obviously his plan with Melody gone. I dropped my own shield, and put everything I had into it.
He started to drop like a stone as his power was cut off, but he broke it with a flash of intense concentration, and he looked pissed off as he recovered. There was a loud boom immediately after, and a plume of concrete dust, and I looked over to see Ceara a bloody mess, her body was actually indented into the concrete. She was still alive, but unconscious and out of the fight.
I hadn’t even seen her attack him, or him defend. But she must have jumped for him, and hit a shield of air that bounced her back.
I raised my shield around myself again as I saw his eyes narrow, that obviously wasn’t going to work, but I had nothing else to try.
“You’ll pay for that, and I’m going to enjoy it.”
I froze as the magic of air speared not only my mind, but Kelly’s and Lisa’s as well. Not a large margin or not, his power went through mine like a hot knife through butter.
His power clamped down on my mind, I couldn’t move at all, and the sadistic b
astard let me watch while he set compulsions and rules. I was completely helpless.
He scowled and looked north.
“Hurry, grab your queen and follow me as fast as you can.”
I guessed that meant Melody was on her way back with Tina already, and he wasn’t quite ready to kill any of us yet. The bastard was still having fun, and from the memories I had of what he thought of as fun, I wished in that moment I could kill myself, before I was forced to touch him.
I tried to fight, but my body betrayed me as I ran over, grabbed a bloody Ceara and threw her over my shoulder, and then ran as fast as I could. I was the slowest one, since Lisa and Kelly were both way over fifty vampire years, and so my top speed set the pace for us all. That didn’t mean slow though, we’d be many miles away before melody got back.
I smiled at what that meant, and then flinched inside and cursed myself for thinking of it.
Chris said in a sly tone, “Really? That bitch will be able to read your very footsteps from the ground. In that case, I better carry us all.”
I felt his power reach out and surround all of us. We rose up off the ground, and fled the area like the wind. I completely changed my mind, at these speeds I liked Melody’s way of travel much better.
I was my own worst enemy, every time I thought of a way out, he crushed the option. I thought of using mind speech when we arrived where we were going, and he placed a compulsion not to ever use mind speech.
I thought of the iPhone in my pocket, and he destroyed it. I even thought of mutually assisted suicide, and he refused us the option to hurt each other. How could I possibly beat a being that could read and twist my every thought?
I was pretty sure we were in Mexico when we finally stopped and landed. There was a very large hacienda, and men poured out with guns. A moment later, they pointed the guns at each other and pulled the triggers.
“Humans are so annoying,” Chris said almost as an aside, “Still, this seemed like a nice place to stop, so we could play.”
He reached out casually and I shrunk back inside my mind as he grabbed my nipple, and twisted it harshly. Tears formed in my eyes, as I couldn’t move away, or even flinch.
I felt a large impotent rage rise up in me at what he was doing. Not just because of the violation in itself, but because no man but my mate had ever touched me there. He’d stolen something precious from me, and by the glint in his eyes he was about to steal a whole lot more.
He said to Lisa and Kelly, “You two, watch us.”
He turned back to me, “I like an audience, it makes it more fun, now strip bitch, and then beg me for it. I told you that you’d pay for what you did, and it’s time to pay up.”
There was nothing I could do but what he asked. I was horrified as I reached my hands to pull off my shirt. He completely owned my mind and body.
A flash of a thought came, and then I saw his eyes widen.
This time, I was faster, and before he could forbid it of me, I spirit walked and my body fell to the ground next to Ceara’s. The bastard owned my body and mind, but not my soul, and I was a spirit sorceress. If I hadn’t been so freaked out, I’d have thought of doing that earlier. Although, my body was helpless right then, and he could kill it with a thought, then where would I be?
Maybe it was better that I hadn’t thought of it earlier, I might have thought it through first, and he’d have just placed a compulsion. But in that moment when I’d reached for my shirt, I’d been desperate, and I’d rather die that lay with that piece of shit.
I put all my power behind it, and blasted him with spirit lightning. My body was completely vulnerable right now, but my spirit was completely immune from anything the sadistic bastard could do. I was willing to die if I had to.
He’d been confident we were under his control, and he was safe. His shields hadn’t slipped completely, he had more discipline than that, but they weren’t quite as well formed with his concentration not on them. His magic swirled around him protectively, but there were gaps for me to slip my power through, like a crowbar my spirit lightning battered and spread that gap.
Had all my magic gone through, he’d be dead already, his soul separated from his body.
As it was, he dropped to the ground and screamed as my power tried to rip the soul from his body. It looked very painful.
I smiled with hatred, and pushed my magic harder.
My spirit lightning tortured him for long seconds, and he couldn’t quite concentrate enough to focus and fix his shield, to close up the gaps, which yawned wider and wider, until with a blast of lightning his soul separated from his body.
I gripped it in my power, and froze.
I think in that moment, I finally understood how my uncle could have torn that soul into strips, but I took a long deep breath, and if I’d been in my body, I was sure I’d be crying, in anger and relief.
“Better luck in the next life Chris, make sure you do better, because I’ll know your soul when next we meet. If I don’t like what I see…” I trailed off menacingly.
I regretted the words almost immediately though, it was a bluff. Unless he attacked me in his next life, I wouldn’t be able to do any such thing. It wasn’t all a bluff though, I would recognize him, on the off chance we ever ran into one another again.
With a burst of power, I released his memories from his former lives, and kicked him into the spirit world. I didn’t want him in this one a second longer, I still wanted to tear him to pieces. Plus, I really didn’t want to know what the rest of his lives were like.
I was still for at least a minute, as I accepted the fact it was really over. Mostly.
Crap, I couldn’t get back in my body. My body was still under compulsion, and the thought of stripping my clothes off and begging the bastard’s corpse to take me was too horrifying to contemplate. I was still a bit wigged out, and relieved at the same time, so it took me a moment to figure out what to do. In hindsight, it was obvious, outside my body the moratorium on mind speech didn’t exist.
Of course, Melody was too far away. I could use mind speech to anyone within my power, which was a mile away from me at most, with the exception of Jared. I paused for a moment, I didn’t really want to explain to Jared what almost just happened, but I was also very wary of leaving my body unattended to talk to anyone else directly.
“Jared, can you call Melody to come pick us up? Please? Were at… crap, hold on.”
I moved inside the hacienda, and figured out the address from some mail and sent it to him, along with Melody’s number.
Jared asked, “What happened?”
I frowned, “I’ll explain later, we got separated. I’m safe, just stranded.”
I felt a little guilty, I wouldn’t hide it from him, but I was still freaking out a little too much to want to fight with him about being in danger right now. I went back outside to talk to Lisa and Kelly.
“Lisa, Kelly, Melody is on the way, she’ll take us back, and Tina will get rid of these compulsions for us. Just relax. I’m going to stay as a spirit for now, so I can talk. At least he hadn’t erased any of our memories yet.”
I looked down at Ceara, and wished I could feed her soul to increase her healing. Yet, she was healing incredibly fast, I’d be surprised if she wasn’t fully healed an hour from now. Older vampires were like that.
I felt… amazingly relieved, as Melody came to pick us up. The earth sorceress looked reassured to see us all in one piece, although she did take a moment to check on Ceara’s unconscious form.
She stood back up, and looked around at the dead humans, before she looked down at Chris’s body in disgust. She waved her hand, and the earth swallowed up Chris’s dead body, and then she took the four of down into the soil, five including herself. As a spirit, I had to actually fly to keep up with my body…
Chapter Eighteen
Tina took care of the three of us first, and I waited until the last moment to get back in my body. I timed it well enough that I didn’t even have the opportunity to strip
my shirt before Tina’s spell stripped those compulsions. I felt bad for Lisa and Kelly who didn’t have the same option, and were stuck as statues until they were released.
Both Lisa and Kelly hugged me tightly, once they were freed. I was near tears, and knew they were as well. A part of me still couldn’t believe it was over, and although I had gotten off lighter than many others, I felt violated, and unsafe, so clung to them as well.
What confused me the most, was I wanted Jared badly, but at the same time the idea of telling him about any of what happened shamed me. I needed to pull myself together first, or at least as much as possible.
By the time the three of us were stripped of all compulsions, Ceara had woken up.
Ceara asked, “What happened?”
I was embarrassed at how easily he’d overcome us, and felt ashamed at how he’d handled and touched me, but I didn’t leave anything out, as I described what happened to Lisa, Kelly, and I after she’d gotten knocked out.
Ceara looked thoughtful, “I don’t think he set any compulsions on me.”
I shivered as the answer for that slipped effortlessly to mind, “He’d have wanted you conscious again first, a part of his thrill was making our consciousness watch helplessly while he turned us into puppets. Doing it while you were knocked out wouldn’t have appealed to him at all.”
Ceara nodded in understanding.
“Enough about him, he’s dead. Let’s get the coven fixed up, and if there’s anything else I want to know, not included in the reports I mean, I’ll ask.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that…
It took us about three hours this time. There were three less vampires in this coven, and we were a little more efficient now. I really hadn’t come to terms yet with what happened. I’d avoided rape, and even torture, but the helplessness of being in his grip, and the anticipation of what had been coming was definitely bad enough.
Lisa and Kelly were very close to me through those three hours, and I imagined they were going through something very similar, perhaps even worse. At least I’d found a way to fight back, and win.
Sorcerous Rogue: Spirit Sorceress: Book 3 Page 9