Council of Magic

by J. L. Hendricks

  Indie narrowed her eyes at Joseph. “You aren’t pulling my leg?”

  “No. I’m telling you the truth.” Joseph then went into the history and reasons why the witches wanted us to be their middle man.

  Both Sam and Indie had vacant expressions when Joseph finished.

  Reality began to sink in, and Sam came back to us. “Does this mean we’re going to be smack dab in the middle of the fighting?”

  “What she said.” Indie pointed to Sam. “You know the vamps will eventually find out. We can take our secrets to the grave, but they’ll find out, in the end.”

  “I tend to agree with Indie. Is there a way to charm our store and apartment so Vamps can’t get in?” I had thought of finding ways to protect us from vampires before but now it seemed imperative.

  “There is a way. We’ll have to get the witches to do it. It’s a combination of a glamour and a protection spell. It isn’t something easily created. It usually takes a few witches performing the spell together.” Joseph rubbed his neck.

  “What? Is it really expensive? Wouldn’t they do it just to protect their supply?” Jenna could negotiate this one with Rebecca.

  “They might be willing since you’ll hold so much inventory. I’ll ask Mikael or Joanna tomorrow. Does this mean you’re going to agree?” The wince on Joseph’s face told me he hadn’t expected us to accept.

  “What’s wrong? You don’t want us to agree?” Indie asked.

  “Well, it will put you in danger. Although, you’ll also meet the humans who hunt vamps, and others who break the rules. That alone might be worth it. They might be helpful once the war comes. Rico isn’t supposed to interact with them. So maybe this is the answer to everyone’s issues?” Joseph got up and paced the living room.

  His phone dinged, and he pulled it out of his back pocket. “Sorry, I have to leave. Rico needs me back at the compound. The only reason he wasn’t with us today is because he was called out of town on business. He’s back now and wants to know what happened.” Joseph looked back over his shoulder and smiled at Indie before walking out the door.

  “So, we’re doing this?” I wanted to make sure they were all in on it. If one of them said no, we wouldn’t do it.

  “Yes.” Indie easily agreed.

  “You know I’m all for it.” Jenna didn’t surprise me.

  Now for Sam. She might not want to do it.

  “I’m in too.” Sam nodded.

  “Are you sure? You can say no.” I wasn’t going to push any of them into this.

  “I’m sure. Thanks for checking. I think this is the best way to help the humans while fighting the vamps.”

  “Indie? Do you want to contact Joseph and ask him what our next steps should be?” We needed to get this place protected first, but I was confident the council would agree. If for no other reason than to protect their property.

  4

  Joseph

  “I can’t believe you let them accept this dangerous assignment! Why would you do something so stupid?” Steam was practically rising from Rico’s head.

  Joanna and Mikael had just left Rico’s place after he swore an oath to protect their secret. His eyes were flashing between the gold of his wolf and his normal blue eyes. Rico was having a tough time keeping in his human form. He continued to blur, and parts of his body shifted while other parts were still human. If he could just calm down, he would stay human.

  “Rico, I didn’t allow them to accept the witches’ offer. They did it all on their own. When have you known The Dolls to do anything we told them? No matter what I said, they were taking this assignment. You know this as well as I do.” I couldn’t remember them doing anything I told them to do.

  On occasion they did listen to Rico, but it was rare.

  “Boss, this is actually a good thing. Their store and apartment will be protected from vampires now. Even if an acolyte makes it past the protection spell, the girls can take care of themselves. Plus, they have access to some of the most powerful protective spells. Think about it.” Damien was doing his best to put a positive spin on the situation.

  Our beta was right. The girls had so much more protection now than they ever had. We didn’t have to send as many wolves anymore to keep an eye on them. It just might help solve several problems. There are usually two to three wolves within a five block radius of The Voodoo Doll House. I doubt the girls knew how much protection they really had. We could use those bodies elsewhere, if the girls really could protect themselves.

  “Fine. But I don’t like it. Something tells me they are going to attract more attention than they need. I doubt we can get away with removing any of their protection detail. We’ll probably need to increase it during the day. At least, until I feel confident they’ll be fine.” Rico stormed off before Damien or I could answer.

  I was sure Rico would come around, eventually. He needed to see The Dolls were grown women who could protect themselves so much better than any other mundane. Shoot, they could protect each other better now than when we met them all those months ago.

  This was going to be a good thing for all of us.

  5

  Kat

  “Will you need to come by and strengthen the protection spells? Or will they keep going?” I knew some spells worked a long time, and others were short term. I just didn’t know how to tell the difference.

  “We made this a strong spell. It should last up to two years. It’s something similar to the active amulets you wear on your wrist and around your neck. Things could happen to break the spell down, but it would take something like a hurricane to break them, or a very strong witch who wasn’t aligned with the witch’s council.” Mikael had brought three other witches with him.

  One I knew, Aleric. He had been the one to give us our charms and amulets when we fought the vampires not too long ago. The other two were new to me. Both were women in their late thirties. They weren’t mean to us, but they weren’t very happy to be here either.

  “Honestly, Mikael. I don’t know why you bother with these girls. We all know you love their music, but they don’t deserve our protections,” one of the women, Roxanne, said.

  “Oh, come now. These are the girls who went up against the rogue vamps during the hurricane. You should show them some respect. They earned this protection. The council has ordered it, and you must abide by our ruling.” Mikael was serious when he told us not all of his coven would know about our deal.

  I just thought he would bring witches to protect us who were in the know. It was strange he brought these two. As long as the spell held I wouldn’t complain. They were actually better than Rebecca.

  “Ladies, our work here is done. Should you need anything else, please contact Aleric. He will be your contact going forward with the council.” Mikael winked at me again before smiling at my sisters.

  When he walked out the door with the rest of the witches, we all sighed in relief.

  “So, we’re protected from vampires now? This is sooooo cool!” Sam was elated, as was I.

  It only took Aleric two hours to come back with a truck full of spells, charms, and amulets.

  “Where are you planning on keeping these? I hope it’s somewhere out of sight?” Aleric carefully set one box on our counter.

  “Yes, it should be. We have a small store room in the back where I have put up a locked cabinet. As long as you don’t bring us too much, we should be able to store it all just fine.” I brought Aleric to our little room in the back of the store.

  “Would you like some tea?” It also doubled as our break room and had a small kitchenette, just big enough to make tea and microwave meals.

  “Iced tea would be great. There are a lot of boxes to bring in. Are any of your sisters around? It would go faster with help.”

  “Indie is upstairs. I’ll ask her to come help.” I called up the stairs for Indie, and she came down with Joseph in tow.

  “Hi. I didn’t realize you were here.” I never heard Joseph knock on our door upstairs.

 
; “I came in right after Aleric walked in your shop. We were planning on coming down here when you called up the stairs.” Joseph waved to me and nodded to his friend.

  “Perfect timing. I could use some help carrying in the boxes from my truck.” Aleric gulped the tea I handed to him.

  “Can I get some tea? It’s already getting sticky outside.” Joseph licked his lips and stared at the tall glass of ice-cold tea in Aleric’s hand.

  “You are always welcome to whatever is in our fridge. I’ll get you a glass.” Indie pulled a glass down from the little cupboard and poured him some tea.

  “Thanks, just what I needed.” Joseph winked at Indie after he downed his glass of tea and then walked out behind Aleric.

  “Kat, can we have a serious discussion?” Indie bit the inside of her lip and furrowed her brows.

  “Sure. What’s up?”

  “You know my track record with men. I’ve been spending a lot of time with Joseph…and…well. I’m sure you’ve noticed we are more than friends. Do you think it’s possible for me to have an adult relationship with Joseph? The kind where I don’t make a voodoo doll of him and torture him once we break up?”

  I couldn’t help myself, I began laughing. Before I could answer Indie, Joseph and Aleric came back inside each carrying a box.

  “You can just put them down over here by the chairs. Indie and I can put them away once we know what all we have.” I motioned to the spot I wanted them to start stacking the boxes.

  “What was so funny?” Joseph asked as he looked between Indie and me.

  “Oh, nothing.” I really didn’t want Joseph to know what we were discussing; it could really embarrass poor Indie.

  “Girl stuff?” Joseph asked.

  “Yup, so get back to work and stop your slacking!” I lightly pushed on Joseph’s back to get them out of the room.

  Once they were both gone I turned to Indie. “Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to laugh. I do think you’re ready for this relationship. I know he is. Just remember who he is and how much we rely on him and Rico’s pack.” I tried to give her an encouraging smile, but it was hard since she wouldn’t look at me.

  Indie sighed. “Yeah. Which is why I’m having a hard time making my decision to just go with it. You know I always just go with it and rarely think about consequences. If only there was a way to make sure I didn’t turn all high school on him if we break up. Actually, I hope we never break up.”

  “Marriage? Do you think you’re ready for that commitment?” I knew she was ready for a grown-up man, but marriage? She’s a bit young. We all were too young for the “M” word.

  “I don’t think I’m there yet. Maybe in a couple of years. I do think he might be the one, down the road, of course.” Indie took a box cutter and began opening the top box.

  I took a quick peek into the store to make sure no one was in there. “I think you should follow your heart. You’re ready for a real relationship. Just don’t move too fast. Take it slow, and you should be just fine.”

  “You’re right. I always move too fast. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I always crash and burn within a few months.” She nodded her head and started to pull out the items from the boxes.

  “Wow. They put everything in baggies and marked what they were. So organized.” Indie held up a bag of yellow, charmed rocks.

  “Sweet. This will make it much easier for us to organize the shelves. Do we alphabetize by type of spell or charm? Just by name?” I hadn’t given much thought to how we should organize everything.

  “By type. I think it will be easier to have all of the bracelets in one place, all of the rocks in another, and so on. What do you think?” Indie had already started to put the various colored rocks on the top shelf.

  Those rocks were spelled to perform specific functions. They were separated by color. The pink ones were one of my favorites. They could create a force field and hold anything, or anyone, in place for up to a couple of minutes. All depending on who cast the spell and how strong the witch was.

  “What do you think we should do with the red ones? Since they explode, should we put them in a strong box or something? Maybe even a locked safe? You know, just to be extra cautious?” With a red bag in hand, Indie looked to me and the flimsy storage cabinet.

  The cabinet had a lock on it, but it would be easy to break. If the cabinet fell over…well…I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near this place. Maybe a locked safe was a great idea for the really dangerous stuff.

  “I’ll get Damien to see about getting us a safe. I think we should put the dangerous spells and charms in there. Just as a precaution. I wouldn’t want to blow up the block, if a fight broke out and the cabinet was knocked down.” Wide-eyed, I looked around the store room/break room and wondered what I had gotten us into.

  6

  Kat

  It was a couple of days later and I was watching the store by myself. Jenna was due to assist shortly.

  The bell above the door rang, signaling someone was entering. I turned around from the shelf I was restocking to see a new customer. We normally didn’t get too many customers right after the store opened. It was typically a great time to restock, since most evenings were busy with people stopping in on their way home from work.

  “Good morning. How may I help you?” I smiled at the young man who looked more like an MMA fighter than a touristy, voodoo shop patron.

  The guy had tattoos all over his arms and a couple of tentacles snaked up his neck from under the collar of his black t-shirt. He must have been in his early twenties and had a hard look about him. We didn’t usually see men of his type in here. He was tough looking, he shouldn’t need anything our shop offered.

  “Yes, I’m here for a special order.” He looked around the store before heading my way.

  I had made my way to the sales counter and waited for him to finish looking.

  Once he stood in front of me, I asked, “I don’t know of any special orders waiting for pick up. What did you order?”

  He took one step closer to my counter and smiled down at me. The guy was well over six feet tall. “I’m one of the special customers from the witches. They usually sell me those charmed rocks. You know, the red ones that explode, and the yellow ones which can throw a man across the room.”

  I blinked. If he was in the book of customers, I would have remembered this guy. He wasn’t on the up and up. “I’m sorry, I think you might have the wrong store. We don’t sell anything to truly harm people. Well, the voodoo dolls could do some harm, but not like an exploding rock.” My lips parted and my eyes widened in an effort to look totally innocent and clueless.

  “I’m on the list. Derek Smith. Check it. I normally get my supplies from the council, they said to come here now.” The man in front of me wasn’t Derek Smith.

  I had memorized the book since there weren’t too many people in it. Derek Smith was blonde and looked more like a fae lord than an MMA warrior.

  Aleric warned us about this. When he dropped off the supplies the other day, he also gave us a one inch binder with a picture and history of each person they had authorized us to sell to. He said if someone pretending to be on the list comes in, we should call him right away and get a photo.

  “Hmm, let me check with my sister. I don’t know anything about this.” I pulled out my phone from my back pocket and held it in front of me so I could snap a picture.

  I could only hope he didn’t know I was taking his pic. I texted it to Aleric and immediately received a reply.

  “DON’T sell him a thing! I repeat, DO NOT SELL TO HIM! Be right there.”

  “Nope, Jenna doesn’t know anything. Sometimes she sells weird stuff. Let me try another sister.” I forwarded Aleric’s message to Rico.

  “What should I do? Beat him up? Or let him go?”

  I kinda wanted to try the pink spell on him. How long would these spells last? I got the impression they were made by more powerful witches than the ones who made our charms a couple weeks back.

&nb
sp; “Let him go if you can. If he won’t leave, do what you must. Protect yourself.”

  I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already close by, or one of his pack was near. They were always watching us. I doubted they knew we knew. My sisters and I decided to leave it alone when we figured out they were always around us. Jenna usually found ways to get herself in trouble, so I figured it would be safer to let the pack hide in the shadows.

  “Hmm. Looks like no one knows anything about your order. Are you sure you placed it with us? Because we don’t do those type of spells. Who did you order from? Was it here in person? Or over the phone?” I furrowed my brow and tapped a pen to my chin.

  I was really trying to play this up and keep him distracted as long as possible.

  “I placed my order with the witch’s council. They told me to come here and pick it up.” The guy claiming to be Derek looked over his shoulder and back at me.

  “Hmm, we don’t work with the witch’s council. I think you might have the wrong shop. I could help you with some voodoo dolls or love potions, if you have need?” I wiggled my brows and smiled at him like I would any customer.

  “No, I want the real stuff. Not the fake stuff you have on your shelves. I know you sell the real stuff to hunters and other paranormal creatures. Now sell me the spells!” His voice kept getting louder and louder.

  He took another look over his shoulder before hopping the counter. I turned the stone on one of my bracelets as I backed away from the counter. This particular charm should protect me against humans. At least, I thought he was human.

  The guy attempted to grab my shoulders with both of his hands and was immediately knocked back against the counter. His back bent at an odd angle, and I worried he might have broken it. When his head hit the counter, it sounded like a watermelon dropping two stories and cracking open. His body fell to the ground, and I jumped even further away.