by Paul Ruditis
With neither Romeo nor Juliet in the archives, Phoebe had no way to contact the couple to see if they had anything to do with it. She was hoping that Coop might have better luck on his end, while she focused on the mortal element of the proceedings.
Several couples were still blissfully in love—or at least hadn’t started divorce proceedings—but Phoebe didn’t know where to begin with them. If someone or something was behind this, those couples would need to be protected. Things were moving fast, if this morning’s couple was any indication. Phoebe and Coop hadn’t even had time to speak with them before she was overwhelmed.
Maybe it was time to call in reinforcements. The bonus of having such a large family was that they had many resources at their disposal. Too bad her sisters were focused on another issue at the moment.
“We’ve got a problem,” Mika said as she barreled into Phoebe’s office carrying her laptop.
Phoebe didn’t look up. “I know. You were right about the couples from the photo op. I’m on it. How many times do we have to have this conversation?”
Mika put the laptop down on the desk and opened it, turning the screen toward Phoebe. “That’s not the problem. Well it is. But it just got bigger.”
Phoebe didn’t need to ask what the publicist was talking about. It was right there in big, bold letters: BAY MIRROR’S LOVE GURU KILLS THE LOVE SHE CREATES.
“Well that’s just rude,” Phoebe said. It also showed a stunning lack of creativity. She could come up with a half dozen quality puns on her own just sitting there staring at the headline.
“Phoebe! This is serious!” Mika said. “You didn’t listen to me this morning. Hear me now.”
“Isn’t this that website that’s always trashing the Mirror because the blogger guy that runs it insists that print media is dead?”
“It might get picked up by legitimate news sources,” Mika said.
Phoebe chuckled. “Anyone that picks up this story will not be a legitimate news source.”
“Phoebe, you care about your readers, right?”
“I do.”
“This article is making them into the punch line of a joke,” Mika said. “It’s using them to make you the joke. Are you going to stop it or what?”
“I’m working on stopping it,” Phoebe assured her. “I just have to figure out how.”
“I know how.”
Phoebe waited for Mika to fill in the blanks. The fact that Mika was being so slow to finish her thought raised Phoebe’s suspicions. She was not going to like whatever the publicist was about to suggest.
“An interview,” Mika said.
“With the couples?” Phoebe asked. “You said that earlier. I don’t want to exploit them while they’re going through serious issues.”
“Not with the couples,” Mika said. “With you.”
“I don’t see what an interview in The Bay Mirror will do for me that I can’t do on my own with my column.”
“Not with the paper,” Mika said. “With the blogger.”
“No.”
“Phoebe.”
“No!” Phoebe insisted. “I am not going to legitimize this guy’s story by responding to it. I’m going to figure out what’s going on with these couples and I’m going to fix it. That’s what I do. It’s what I’m good at. So, Mika, if you don’t mind, I’ve got to get to work.”
Phoebe grabbed her bag and stood to emphasize her commitment to finding some answers. The archives had told her everything they could about the couples, which wasn’t much at all. She didn’t know where she was going as she brushed past Mika and left her office, but there weren’t any answers for her at the paper. Since Coop was off at Cupid headquarters, it was time for Phoebe to consult her own supernatural resources as well.
Chapter 9
“…Around the world, but please don’t hex us. Connect this portal with the Nexus.” Paige grabbed the handle of the magical door in the attic and concentrated on her destination. Usually when she opened it the endless main hall of Magic School greeted her. This time she wished for something a little different. She was almost afraid to open the door for fear of what could be on the other side. The Nexus of the All was some serious magic.
“How is it we’ve been coming up with these spells all these years and we still haven’t gotten any better with our rhymes?” Piper asked from her perch behind the Book of Shadows.
“The demons that make up our usual audience aren’t very discerning. And they’re usually dead by the time we get to the end.” Paige held her breath and yanked open the door hoping to find Prue on the other side, but only seeing darkness.
“Did it work?” Piper asked as she came over to join her sister.
“Can’t tell.” Paige leaned as close to the portal as she felt comfortable doing until she knew what waited on the other side. It wasn’t total blackness in there, but it was very hard to see. One thing was certain: it wasn’t Prue’s castle.
“Careful,” Piper warned.
Paige pulled her phone out of her pocket and turned on the flashlight app, shining it into the portal. The darkness gave way to a familiar image. It was the basement of the Manor. “Guess I should have specified which Nexus.”
“Close the door,” Piper said. “We haven’t cleaned down there in forever. I don’t want to look at that mess.”
Paige did as instructed. She was frustrated but not surprised that she wasn’t having any luck. She’d been working on the portal since she had gotten back from visiting Henry. He hadn’t heard about any other statues suddenly turning up around town, but he promised to check with his usual connections.
The good thing about her husband being a parole officer was that she not only had his police contacts at her disposal, but his former criminal ones as well. Henry’s parolees were fairly tuned in to the word on the street and had proven useful resources in the past. Not that she expected them to be of much value with their current magical issue, but she never knew where help would come from.
“Give it a rest for today,” Piper said as she returned to the Book. “We need to figure out who turned the congressman to stone before it happens to someone else.”
Paige closed the door. “That’s going to be a little difficult since we have absolutely nothing to work with so far.”
“And yet, I’ve already got a partial list of suspects.” Piper held up the notepad she’d been jotting information down on while Paige worked. The page was filled with more cross-outs than words, but it was a starting point.
As Paige joined her sister by the Book of Shadows, Cole and Leo materialized in front of them. “Success,” Leo said. “We dropped off a fairy, dwarf, and leprechaun with Prue.”
“That’s a pretty loose definition of success,” Paige replied. “And it sounds like the beginning of a very bad joke.”
“Leprechauns can be kind of annoying,” Cole said. “I never really dealt with them much before.”
“Consider yourself lucky,” Paige said. “No pun intended.”
“Thanks, honey,” Piper gave her husband a hug. “But somehow I doubt that’s the kind of company Prue was hoping for.”
“They’re working on combining their magic into an all-purpose potion,” Leo explained. “Then she can send them home. How’s the research going?”
Piper held up her scratch pad as example. “Could use a little help. Think you can swing over to Magic School?”
“Consider it done,” Leo said as he made his way to the portal.
“Leo, wait!” Paige called out as he opened the door and stepped into the darkness, resulting in a loud crashing sound that caused everyone in the attic to cringe and Cole to look confused.
“Umm…” Leo’s voice came out of the darkness. “Why am I in the basement?”
“What is this joyousness on my tongue?” Medusa asked as she enjoyed the sharp and sweet flavors blending in her mouth
. She and her sisters sat around a small metal table outside a shop on a busy thoroughfare. The people passing by were dressed in all manner of strange outfits. Some wore conservative clothing that covered their entire bodies, while others were in garish fabrics that barely covered parts of the body best left to the imagination.
“It’s peanut butter and chocolate!” Euryale held out a small plastic tub filled with a golden liquid. “Here! Dip it in caramel. That makes it even better!”
Medusa did as her sister instructed and popped what was left of the small cup of chocolate in her mouth. “Thank you,” she said as she chewed. Euryale was right. It was a taste combination unlike any she had experienced before.
Medusa had learned of chocolate when she shared in her sisters’ visions of the eras she’d missed while during her deep slumber of death. She knew much about this modern world now, things that she had never dreamed before. But understanding the concept of chocolate and eating it were two entirely different experiences.
“If you like sweets we’ll have to get you one of those ice blended coffees later. They’re like ice cream with a jolt of caffeine!” Euryale said.
“Ice cream? Caffeine?” Medusa searched her new memories until she located images that matched the words. Neither item looked particularly interesting to her in her mind’s eye, but she trusted that Euryale knew of what she spoke. She had been right so far with the candy she’d insisted Medusa try as soon as they materialized in this amazing city so far away from their homeland of Greece.
“There will be time to experience all kinds of new sensations,” Stheno assured her. “For now I’d like to begin work on our plan of revenge.”
“On Perseus and Athena?” Medusa perked up at the thought. She would love to make her tormentors pay for their misdeeds. Turning them to stone wasn’t even the beginning of what she dreamed to do with them.
“Lost to the obscurity of history,” Stheno assured her. “They can’t harm you any longer.”
“Poseidon too?” Medusa asked. She hated him most of all, and yet part of her still felt the sting of conflicting emotions for the god she’d once loved and who had violated her in the most horrific way.
“Poseidon too,” Euryale replied.
The sense of relief was a weight off Medusa that outweighed any other emotion. It cleared her mind to realize that she had survived them all. She had nothing more to fear. “Then I have no need for revenge. I have returned to my life. A new life. A better life. I get to experience all of these exciting times while they are long gone. That is the best vengeance I can imagine.”
Stheno took her sister’s hand across the small table. “Oh, but there are so many more opportunities in this future time. Chances for us to protect the innocent, those who were betrayed like yourself. To punish those who would do others harm.”
“Is that why we’re here?” Medusa asked as she allowed Stheno to gently pull her up from her seat so they could stroll along the busy streets of this metropolis. “What did you call this place?”
Euryale followed, throwing their trash in a round metal receptacle outside the establishment where they had purchased the joyous chocolate. “San Francisco! A city named for a holy man. In a land we never dreamed existed during our earliest days on the planet.”
San Francisco. It was such a strange place with modern conveniences the likes of which Medusa had never even imagined. She was having trouble taking it all in. Chocolate and peanut butter were only two of the amazing things she had experienced since they appeared.
Mechanical vehicles of various sizes and colors clogged the streets around them with bells and horns and roaring noises unlike any she had ever heard before. People pushed past her on the sidewalks staring at small devices in their hands as they walked, barely raising their eyes to see what was in front of them. Some were having one-sided conversations with unseen companions, often with odd buttons clipped into their ears.
The buildings around her were larger than any temples she had ever visited during her previous life. Even that monstrosity of the Parthenon could not match them in size or grandeur. She enjoyed the fact that these towering structures were so much more impressive than the Temple of Athena. It was just one more way that she felt she had won out over that shrew of a goddess.
“You are partially correct,” Stheno said. “We have come to San Francisco to seek vengeance on the oppressors. But that is an evil that happens the world over. No, we have come here specifically because this is the home of the Charmed Ones.”
Medusa perked up at the title. “Charmed Ones?”
“Protectors of the innocent, like us,” Stheno said. “Very powerful witches. We tapped into their powers to bring you to life. Until you are back at full strength we will be at our strongest in the city that is their base of operations. But I see no reason for that to stop our plan. We’ve already put it in motion.”
Medusa adjusted the dark glasses that covered her cursed eyes. They were uncomfortable and it was taking far too long for her to become accustomed to them. But that was nothing compared to the discomfort Medusa felt about the plan that Stheno spoke of. “Can’t vengeance wait? I’d like the chance to experience this modern world first. At least have some more chocolate.”
Stheno wrapped an arm around her sister’s shoulder. “Yes, sister dear. Vengeance can wait, but the women of this period cannot. Oppression still rages on. You saw it in the images we shared with you. Things have gotten better since our time. Far better. But not good enough. Women continue to be treated as an inferior class. Witches are still forced into hiding. We waited thousands of years until the magic would allow us to reunite. I do not want to waste another moment.”
Medusa sighed. Stheno had not softened in all that time. She was still as bull-headed as Taurus and just as dangerous. But she had managed the impossible and returned Medusa to the living. For that, she would always be grateful. She would also feel indebted to her big sister. Medusa adjusted her glasses again. “Tell me about this man you spoke of earlier.”
Stheno smiled. Her demeanor immediately shifted. This was the playful girl Medusa remembered from their childhood. It was a shame the joyousness came from such a dark place.
“He owns that massive tower across the street,” Stheno said with a nod toward the hulking glass and steel structure. “Along with a quarter of the city. He is singularly responsible for many of the jobs in San Francisco and around the world.”
“An estate owner?” Medusa asked.
“He does own a lot of property,” Euryale noted. “But that’s not his primary source of income. They call him a media mogul. He oversees a vast empire that provides news and entertainment to the masses.”
“And this is bad for women?” Medusa asked. “It’s bad for witches?”
“His entertainment programming routinely degrades women,” Stheno explained. “His news focuses on stories that hold us back. Make us look lesser to men. But it is worse within his organization for the people working for him. No woman holds an executive position in his company. Even in the highest roles, they are paid less than their male counterparts. His treatment of any minority in his organization is archaic by today’s standards.”
“And for this he deserves to be punished?” Medusa asked.
“For this he deserves to be made an example of,” Stheno said. “We need to make a statement. We are the stronger sex in this time. We have the power to lead. And it is time that we showed it.”
Medusa wanted to argue the point, but she had seen what Stheno spoke of herself. It was in the images her sisters had implanted in her head when they provided a history of the world in the time that she has been gone. Yes, civilizations had advanced in many wonderful ways in that time. Things were so much better than they had been in her day. But even with that evolution, the small-minded still existed. If she could contribute to protecting even one person from the hell she had experienced in her first life
, then Stheno was right. They had to do something.
“Come,” Stheno said as they crossed the street. “The oppressor awaits.”
Chapter 10
“There.” Stheno pointed to a man exiting the glass tower testament of his insecurity. “Vaughn Ramsey. Vainglorious ruler of a media empire and cruel oppressor of women.”
Euryale pressed her palm to her forehead and sighed. “You’d think after all this time on this planet, she’d be more down with modern colloquialisms.”
Medusa wasn’t entirely sure what either of her sisters was saying, but her eyes followed in the direction Stheno pointed. A tall man with graying hair and a casual attitude exited the building. She assumed that was the focus of their mission. Nothing about his appearance indicated that he was the cruel oppressor Stheno claimed, but Poseidon gave off a refined and elegant air, too, and he had turned out to be a monster, at least figuratively.
The man walked alone, which surprised Medusa. She’d never known an aristocrat to travel without servants. In their time, it was a sign of prosperity to be surrounded by as many people as possible. This not only looked impressive, but helped stave off assassination attempts. Unless, of course, the assassin was in one’s personal staff, which was just as likely as not.
Stheno had explained that this was his tradition: an afternoon assignation. It apparently was no secret, yet Mr. Ramsey wasn’t likely to bring along company. Once a week at this time he left his office to take a short walk to a nearby residential building. A woman waited there for him, one of many that he kept on the side, while his news network news railed against the destruction of family values.
Stheno was first on the move as the media mogul turned the corner and continued on his way to his destination.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Medusa focused on the crowded streets full of potential witnesses as she and Euryale followed. “Out in public? In the middle of the day?”