The man in the suit tries to be a little more covert when he starts mumbling a spell by turning his head. Either he has the mentality of an ostrich or he thinks we’re really, really stupid. Either way, he suddenly finds himself dangling from his fancy shoes. I’m not sure what he’s saying in Arabic, but I am pretty sure it’s not a spell.
The woman’s magic must be the strongest because with just one or two uttered words, a spell that I’m pretty sure would knock agent Amman out, at least that’s what it tastes like, flies towards him. That’s the closest thing to describing what it’s like to recognize other magical beings that I can think of. I thought Kallen was just being annoying when he said that when we first met, but it’s really true.
Without lowering the man in the suit even a centimeter, I throw up a wall of magic in front of the agent, preventing her spell from getting anywhere near him. “You know, I have to say that this is fun and all showing you how much more magic we have than you, but we’re actually in the middle of something. So we would really appreciate it if you would just go away.”
To emphasize my words, Eliana sends several more bolts of lightning zapping at the ground near their feet, causing to them to dance and the one hanging upside down to cover his face and hair simultaneously. With the amount of grease in his hair, that’s probably a really good idea.
Witches aren’t as good as Fairies at sensing magic from other beings or from each other. That’s how we know before the trio even stops muttering oaths about the lightning that there are more Witches coming up from behind us. I don’t think they’re together; I think this is a new group. Man these Witches are fast. What were they doing, just sitting around their houses waiting to feel some other Witch’s magic in the area? I think they need to get better lives.
Not wanting the trio to feel like they’re the only Witches being picked on, I throw up another wall of magic to prevent the Witches behind us from getting any closer. Being the helpful person, Eliana creates a line of flames rushing towards them, just to add to the effect. I think she and I make a good team.
I turn to look at the newcomers and find two women who look enough like each other to assume that they’re mother and daughter. They both have long black hair, dark brown skin and eyes the color of amber. Their eyes are in such contrast with the color of their skin, it makes them seem eerie. They have beautiful Indian bone structure, but overall, they’re still eerie to me.
“We have simply come to pay our respects to a practitioner with so much power,” the mother says. “We would like to offer our allegiance.”
I scrunch up my nose and pretend to think about it, then say, “Pretty maxed out on allegiance right now, but maybe if you come back later we can try to make some room.” Unfortunately I think my sarcasm may be lost on them considering the questioning look they’re both giving me. “That means go away, we’re not interested. Besides, you don’t even know us; how stupid are you to swear allegiance to people you don’t even know? We could be out hunting Witches and killing them and I bet you’d feel pretty stupid swearing your allegiance to us as you’re dying.”
The older woman’s brow creases and her eyes narrow. “You are here to hunt Witches?” I feel power building up around her. I think she may have cream pants over there beat in the magic department.
I shake my head in frustration. “Maybe I wasn’t clear enough. Go. A. Way.”
The woman’s daughter turns to her, “Mama, what are you doing?”
“She’s trying to get herself seriously hurt is what she’s doing,” I mutter under my breath. Loudly enough for everyone to hear me. I guess it wasn’t really under my breath.
Eliana’s frustration level is reaching mine. “You need to do as my friend asks,” she practically growls and her eyes are sparking. Wow, she’s pretty kick ass when she’s in essence mode.
Not wanting to hog all the ‘chasing annoying Witches away’ fun, I drop the magical wall in front of the mother/daughter combo. “They’re all yours,” I tell Eliana with an evil little smile. Okay, maybe I’m more than a little annoyed. We have things to do, dammit.
“Thank you,” Eliana says with her own little evil smile. Yup, we’re a good team. “This is your last warning,” she says to the Witches.
The mother Witch begins to chant and the small line of flames that Eliana had sent towards them begins to flicker. Oh, she probably shouldn’t have done that. Eliana is super annoyed now.
Increasing the magical fuel creating the fire, it becomes a wall of flames burning so hot, we can feel it where we’re standing. The flames continue to grow as they surround the little Witch family. In the sky, a rain cloud is forming directly above the Witches. Eliana’s like me, the more pissed off she is, the better control she has over her powers. A sudden torrent of rain and wind dumps on the two women inside their fiery cell. I assume this is to keep them from burning. Eliana’s so thoughtful. The flames don’t diminish at all as the water hits. Impressive control Eliana has over her magic. I wish I was at her level. My magic can be showy, but this is art. The women don’t know what to be more frightened of, the fierce typhoon beating at them or the fire threatening to consume them. They are both on their knees with their hands on their heads, trying to shield themselves from the elements.
“This is not helping us find my family,” Agent Amman growls, reminding both Eliana and me that we’re not on an outing to upstage Witch magic.
Immediately, Eliana pulls her magic back. The Witches are left soaking wet, their colorful saris dripping puddles onto the sidewalk. “Leave.” Eliana tells them. Panic is written all over the daughter’s face, but malice has taken root on her mother’s. Something tells me she’s going to spend long hours awake at night dreaming up some kind of revenge spell. Yippee, something to look forward to. Regardless, both women turn and leave without another word.
“Your magic always brings out the crazy ones,” Kallen says with a grin. I glare up at him, but he doesn’t care.
“What about them?” Josh asks, pointing with his thumb at the other Witches.
I don’t think they have any fight left in them at all at this point. Both Eliana and I drop our magic that’s holding them in place. With one big combined glare, especially nasty from the guy who fell on his head, they scramble into their car and suit guy squeals the tires in his haste to get away.
“Well, that was fun,” Josh says. I’m pretty sure he’s being facetious.
Chapter 23
Turning to Eliana, Josh says, “Can you sense anything?” Back to the business we came for.
The rest of us become still around her, even though we’re standing in the middle of the road, giving Eliana the chance to reach out with her magical senses for any sign that we may be close. A little crinkle forms on her brow as she desperately searches for any clue. After a moment, she gets a gleam in her eye and it’s her turn to start walking in a certain direction, leaving the rest of us to follow behind.
Which makes it a hundred times more annoying that a red shiny sports car is suddenly bearing down on us with obvious intentions of spreading our dead carcasses all over the road. Did I mention Witches can be a pain in the ass? Did they really think if they were driving fast enough, we wouldn’t be able to sense them this time? Yeah, they probably did. Idiots.
“I got this,” I say to Eliana when she turns around, obviously ready to react to the Witches. “You keep doing your thing.” She gives me a slight nod and turns around, continuing to walk in her original direction.
I have a couple of choices here. One, I could put up a magical wall that their car would ram into, and since it’s a sports car, it probably wouldn’t hold up very well and neither would the Witches inside it. They are really pissing me off, but that probably doesn’t justify homicide. So, I go with plan two. I’ve never tried anything like this before, but I’m pretty sure my magic will hold up. Just in case, I’d better make sure I’m close enough to everyone to be able to teleport if necessary.
Instead of the wall, I create a ramp ma
de of magic. The ramp starts near enough to us for me to be able to see the psychotic leer on the woman’s face as she is telling the driver, the guy in the suit, to keep going. If they can’t join us, kill us I guess is their motto. My God, I was ignorant when I lived in Colorado. I had no idea how many homicidal people were in the world. I probably should have watched the news more.
“Xandra, my love, what are you doing?” Kallen asks.
Yeah, I do like that whole ‘my love’ thing. I smile at him, but that doesn’t take the worry off his face. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt them.”
“It is not them I am concerned about currently,” Kallen says between gritted teeth. I believe it is taking a lot of effort on his part to remain calm. Makes sense, since there is a car speeding at us.
“Just watch,” I say.
The red car gets within feet of us and I believe I actually see a tiny bit of remorse in the eyes of the driver and even the woman giving the orders. I’m guessing she probably didn’t think that they would actually be able to get away with this. It was probably just another test of our magic to see if there was any way for them to control us or get around our magical abilities. The remorse is replaced by surprise and then fear as their car is suddenly almost vertical to the ground as it climbs the steep slope of the ramp I created. Just as the driver lets off the gas and reacts to the situation, the ramp flattens out and the car is propelled forward with my magic. It is flying into the air without the benefit of wings.
“Um, how is this not going to hurt them?” Josh asks.
Instead of replying, I create a giant mattress of air where I’m pretty sure the car is going to land. My calculations must be off slightly, because when the car lands on it the back wheels don’t quite make it. They catch on the mattress and stop the car with a lurch, causing the airbags inside to deploy. Eh, they probably would’ve deployed at impact anyway. The car slides off the mattress until the back end touches the ground and it’s totally vertical. It stays in that position, its wheels still rotating, because I’m keeping it from tipping over, though I’m pretty sure the car is totaled now. Too bad, I think it’s a Ferrari.
Josh looks at Kallen, “And I thought I had my hands fall,” he says.
“You have no idea,” Kallen replies. I glare at them both, but all I get is grins in return.
The Witches scramble to get their doors open and begin to fall out of the car. The woman in cream colored pants falls on her butt on the dirty road that’s a little wet from Eliana’s storm. When she stands up, her butt’s so dirty it looks like she has bowel issues. When her hands feel the mud on her butt, she tries to look over her shoulder at it and ends up spinning in circles three times like a dog chasing its tail until she has to accept the fact that her neck isn’t long enough.
“It doesn’t look that bad,” I shout. I’m a terrible liar and my giggle probably doesn’t help so I might deserve the glare she sends me. From now on, she’ll probably think twice before wearing cream colored pants to a Witch fight.
Her whole face is twisted in a malicious rage as she stomps towards us. It’s awkward because one of her heels broke off when she fell, so she has a serious limp. Not the most intimidating angry stomping I’ve ever seen.
“You are not the only one who can do entertaining magic,” Kallen says, finally getting into the spirit of things. Out of thin air, a towel is created. Then, as if invisible hands are controlling it, it twists and snaps. It hits one of the guys in the butt. His yell makes the woman turn around to glare at him. The same towel zooms behind her and hits her in the butt, too. Oh, I bet that stung. I’ve seen Kallen and Kegan do this and they both end up with some pretty good sized welts. I doubt Kallen’s doing it that hard, though. He’s trying to get rid of them, not really hurt them.
The woman is on her angry march again, so two towels now appear behind her and she gets it in each cheek. Not the ones on her face. To be fair, Kallen does the same to her two friends. Not as willing as her to continue an angry vendetta while having towels snapped at their butts, the two men rush to grab the female Witch’s arms and they drag her down the street. Her poopy looking pants are still the occasional victim of a towel snapping if she turns around, until they all disappear from sight.
“Nice!” I wrap my arms around Kallen’s neck and pull him down for a kiss. “I like it when you help,” I murmur against his lips.
“That was hilarious,” Josh says, shaking his head. “At least you two have style.”
“Eliana believes it is this way,” Agent Amman says, dragging us away from playing with the Witches. Instantly, the three of us sober and remember why we’re here. To find his wife and daughter, alive.
Chapter 24
For such a largely populated city, I’m not sure how we found an area this deserted. We’ve hardly seen anyone around, if you don’t count the annoying Witches who stopped by. It’s getting dark, so many people are probably home eating dinner, but still.
Eliana is focused as she guides us to an alley no wider than three feet. We walk single file for about twenty feet until she stops at the end and turns around to give us the ‘finger to the lips’ shush sign, I suppose to keep any of us from asking if we’re there yet. She points towards a guy standing with his back to us smoking a cigarette. He’s wearing a thobe, the long dress-like robe that many Islamic men wear, and his head is covered. Over his shoulder, he has a gun strap with a very large gun hanging at his side. I have no idea what kind it is, but all I really need to know is that it’s loaded. I suspect that he can have it up and aimed in a heartbeat. Good thing he’s not expecting a sneak attack from the alley or that may have already happened. Which makes him a pretty terrible guard, I guess. He should be watching every possible way to the door he’s guarding instead of being oblivious and enjoying a smoke.
The door is attached to an apartment building that’s connected to other apartment buildings. They’re only five or six stories tall and are pretty run down. The other side of the street is the same. We can see lights on in different buildings and the street is empty of any other people. I guess if armed guys on the street are common enough for this one to stand out in the open, I’d probably stay in my apartment at night, too. That is, if I didn’t have magic.
Agent Amman taps Eliana on the shoulder and when she turns, he motions for her to follow him back through the alley. The rest of us follow as quietly as possible. The guy with the gun never even turns our way. Idiot. I hope he’s not getting paid much.
When we’re far enough away for Agent Amman to feel comfortable enough to speak in whispers, he says, “It is imperative that I make sure my wife and daughter are in there. If I don’t, and we enter the building with guns and magic, they will be killed as soon as word is sent that we are here.”
“What do you want to do?” Josh asks. I think we all know the answer to that already. He’s just making the agent say it out loud.
“I must allow them to take me.”
“If you are out of our sight, it will make it that much more difficult to protect you and your family,” Kallen says, stating what’s on all of our minds. Boy, I am definitely not living up to my promise that we’d put more romance in our honeymoon.
“Someone has to go with you,” Eliana says. “I’ll go.”
Agent Amman puts his hand to his temple and sighs heavily. “I cannot bring a teenage girl with me; they would know something is wrong.”
Good point. You never see a cop walk in with a teenage girl, or boy for that matter, in the movies. I guess that leaves me out as well. Hey, I wonder what movies are playing. It’d be fun to bring Kallen to see a movie. Focus, Xandra.
As my mind is going off on a tangent, Kallen changes his clothes, much to the surprise of Agent Amman. He is suddenly in a suit that is almost an exact replica of the agent’s. Damn, he looks good in a suit. I think I’ll have him put that on later so I can take it off. Focus, focus, focus.
“Will I do?” Kallen asks.
This could work. “He speaks flue
nt Arabic,” I say. “And he uses Fairy magic, which means he doesn’t have to say spells for something to happen.”
There’s a struggle going on in Agent Amman’s mind. Obviously, he doesn’t want to put someone he just met in danger. Also, he knows Eliana and he trusts her. He has no idea if he can trust Kallen. On the other hand, if he goes in alone he’s probably going to die whether his family is here or not. Out of all of us, Kallen looks the oldest. It would be easy to believe he’s a young agent.
Finally, his desire to stay alive overrides his qualms. “Do not speak to them. I will handle the situation; you will be silent. And do not use any magic unless absolutely necessary,” Agent Amman says gruffly.
“Wait a minute,” I say as a little detail that seems to have slipped all of our minds suddenly pops into mine. “Why don’t you have agents waiting as back up or at least have a partner here to help you? This doesn’t seem like the kind of thing someone like you would take on by yourself when there’s so much at risk.”
Blood of Egypt (Witch Fairy Book 8) Page 10