Council of Magic

by J. L. Hendricks

  “Go ahead. You’re right, we do need him.” Damien stood his ground next to me and didn’t leave to join the fray.

  I focused on my hand, and a ball of fire the size of a baseball appeared. I was close enough to throw it. I just hoped I didn’t hit Paco.

  “Paco! Heads up!” I yelled before throwing the ball of fire at his werewolf.

  He looked at me with wide eyes and dropped his hold on the beast at the last second possible. My magic hit the werewolf in the face, and it fell to the ground, writhing in pain as it howled.

  I ran to it with Damien close on my heals and prepared another ball. This time it was electrical in nature. The size was a bit larger than the last. My body still felt like it was holding too much power. If I didn’t start expelling some of it, I thought I might explode.

  Once I was a few feet away I lobbed the largest ball I had created to date at the chest of the animal on the ground. My ears hurt from the high-pitched squelch it released before dying.

  “I’m not taking any chances.” Paco pulled a sword off his pack and cut the head off the monster.

  “Why didn’t you use that to begin with?” I asked while trying to keep from getting sick from all of the blood around me.

  “Where’s the sport in it? Why did you come in at the last minute and steal my kill? I was suffocating it. A few more minutes, and it would have been dead.” Paco cleaned the blood off his sword on the hairy body of the beast.

  “We need your help. Look.” I pointed to the majority of the fight between all of our warriors and the vamps.

  They outnumbered us. We had over one hundred and twenty warriors between all of the packs the vampires appeared to outnumber us.

  “Yes, I see your point. Alright, you’re forgiven. When this is all over, I want to see some demonstrations on what you can do with those mage balls. I’ve never seen them in action before.” He ran to join the carnage.

  “Damien, you ready?” I ran to join in as well. Damien stayed by my side. I knew he would.

  I saw two vamps attacking one of Paco’s pack members, and I prepared my next ball. It was a fireball the size of a softball. Finally! I threw it at the back of a vamp, and it went up in smoke in less than a few seconds.

  “Yes! That’s what I saw in my vision.” I ran to get a better angle on the other vamp who had its teeth sunk into the neck of the wolf shifter.

  I created a ball of electricity and threw it at the back of the vamp, only because I couldn’t get a good angle on its front. The warrior it was biting was doing its best to fight back. He punched the vamp in the side and stomach as I neared. He saw me and moved his hands as his eyes widened in horror.

  Someone tried to grab me from behind and was thrown back. I felt the magic surrounding me activate and smelled burnt skin. Someone was going to be missing his hands.

  Damien grunted, and from the corner of my eye, I saw him fighting someone else.

  I released my electrical ball in the back of the vamp I was originally targeting and heard it cry out in pain. At least it released its victim’s neck. The wolf shifter could take it from there.

  When I turned to see Damien fighting, I was horrified to see the vamp had Damian in a chokehold similar to what Paco had done earlier with the werewolf. I called up two softball sized fireballs in my hands.

  “Let him go now!” I saw red in my vision and threw one ball at the vamp’s face and watched as he let go of Damien. Then I immediately threw the next at his chest, and he went up in flames before turning to a pile of ash.

  “Are you okay?” I wrapped my arms around Damien and held him while he got his breath.

  “Yes, you can release me now. Thank you.” Damien coughed and took a step away from me.

  “Behind you!” I yelled as I prepared another fireball.

  Damien ducked, and I threw it at the attacking vampire. He went up in smoke like the others before turning to dust.

  “Where’s Jose and Luke? Please tell me they are still alive?” I scanned the field looking for two of our closest friends.

  In my dream, Rico was doing more than holding his own. He was one of the fiercest warriors I had ever seen. While I cared very much for him, something inside me said he was just fine. On the other hand, something inside warned me to look out for Jose.

  Maybe it was because of my dream, I wasn’t sure. I only knew I had to find both of them and make sure they were alright.

  “Look!” Damien pointed to the other side of the field. My concerns were warranted. Both Luke and Jose were attempting to fight off four vampires between the two of them.

  “Come on!” I yelled as I ran toward them calling up two more fireballs in both of my hands. I hadn’t done this in practice. It was only something I had seen in my vision. Could it be the stress and adrenaline flowing through me allowed me to realize my potential? Either way, I was thankful for whatever it was.

  Before we got close enough, one of the vamps had Jose in his jaws.

  I screamed at the top of my lungs, “NO!” Then kicked up my speed to something I had never been able to do before. I threw both fireballs at the back of the vamp who had his fangs on my friend’s neck. The vamp didn’t even go up in smoke, he just turned to ash the second my magic hit him.

  Jose fell to the ground, and the other vampire next to him kicked his body, just like in my dream. He proceeded to help his buddies to try and kill Luke.

  Luke was holding his own, but with a third vampire, I wasn’t sure how long he would last.

  I called up two more fireballs and threw them both at the vampire closest to me. He went up in ash just like the other one did. Damien jumped on the back of the vampire closest to him and wrenched its neck.

  Luke was on the ground wrestling with the third vamp. He was on top and the vampire on his back. I could tell Luke was weakening because the vampire pulled his hands out of Luke’s grasp and flipped them around. Now the vamp was on top.

  I got there just in time to keep him from sinking his fangs into my friend. My hand flew in between Luke’s neck and the vampire’s face. I shoved my fireball into the attacker’s eyes and his body went up flames.

  Since he was on top of Luke, I worried for his safety. I reached over and pulled the vampire off of Luke before the fire spread to my friend. The vamp exploded while still in my hands.

  It shocked me, and I let out a startled cry. I pulled my hands up to my face to examine them but there was nothing wrong. They looked normal. I could have sworn they were covered in fire from touching the vampire.

  Was I immune to my own fire?

  Luke was still laying on the ground gasping for air. At least he was still alive.

  Jose was on the ground, but he didn’t appear to be breathing. I ran to him and dropped to my knees. I felt for a pulse. It was faint. His neck was covered in blood and part of it had been ripped away.

  I wasn’t a doctor. The best I could do was bandage up small cuts and scrapes. The kind of stuff you never bothered a doctor to do. Whenever stitches were needed, we always went to the hospital. I had no clue what to do for Jose.

  His chest was moving up and down very slowly.

  “Damien, stop messing with the vamp and get over here! I need your help.” I called out.

  “A little help would be great,” Damien called.

  I looked up and saw the vampire fighting back against Damien and his punches. They seemed evenly matched.

  My hand automatically came up with a fireball. “Duck!” I yelled just before I threw it at the spot where Damien was standing.

  He ducked, and the vampire also moved. I only got his shoulder.

  “Stay still!” I yelled when I stood up and created two fireballs in my hands.

  “Damien get over here and look at Jose. I’ll take care of this blood-sucker.” I threw one ball at the vampire who ducked to his left, and I immediately threw the next and targeted his stomach. The second fireball got his chest, and he caught on fire before exploding into a pile of dust.

  I looked around
the field and most of the vampires had been killed. There were too many wolf shifters on the ground. I only hoped they weren’t all dead.

  I felt a new presence entering the field. They weren’t vampires. I couldn’t smell the stench of death. This new scent was sweet, almost too sickly sweet.

  Witches?

  “Damien, I thought the witch’s council said they weren’t going to help us?” I scanned the area until I found the first body entering the field.

  It was Jeeves, followed by Marco and a dozen other men and women I didn’t recognize. They joined in the battle and threw spells at the vampires.

  I stood there with my mouth open and couldn’t believe my eyes. They were killing the vamps about as quickly as what I did. When they joined the fight there couldn’t have been more than twenty vampires left.

  Between the remaining wolf shifter warriors and the newly arrived witches, the vamps were extinguished faster than I could recall.

  I hoped none of them escaped. Best case scenario, we killed the wanna-be king and all of his followers. Worst case, he wouldn’t be able to mount another attack for a very long time. I was hoping for the best case.

  “Kat, do you have any healing skills?” Damien got my attention, and I turned back to Jose.

  “No, or if I do I don’t know how to access it yet. Do any of the witches here have healing powers?” I hoped Damien knew everyone’s powers.

  “I think a few of them do. Ask Jeeves.” Damien nodded his head toward my friend while he held his hands on Jose’s neck, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

  “Jeeves!” I yelled out and waved him over.

  “Do you have healing magic? Or anyone else? Jose needs help now, or he’s going to die.” I blurted out when Jeeves was in hearing distance.

  Marco was right behind him and headed toward us. “I do. We all do, except for Jeeves.”

  Marco knelt down next to Jose and ran his hands along my friend’s neck. “Take your hand away, Damien.”

  Damien did as instructed, and I watched in fascination as Jose’s neck began to stitch itself back together again.

  Once Marco was finished Jose’s eyes fluttered open. “I’m not dead?”

  I almost laughed as my body released all of its tension. I had thought for sure he was dead, especially after watching him die in my nightmare. “Thank goodness! You sound like you will be alright.” I looked to Marco. “He’ll be fine, right?”

  “Yes. He’s going to need a lot of rest as he rebuilds his own store of blood. If you have any blood which matches his, I highly recommend a transfusion today when you get him back to the compound. It will help him heal faster.” Marco stood up and whispered an incantation, and all of the blood on his clothes disappeared.

  “Thank you! I’m shocked you’re here. Does Rebecca know?” She had repeatedly denied the request for help from Rico. How did they end up here? And why were they late?

  “She does know. She ordered us not to come. Rebecca even went so far as to try and lock us in the council chambers. Luckily, Jeeves here didn’t agree with Rebecca. The house answers to him above all others.” Marco looked fondly at the council’s butler.

  “That is what took us so long. I am sorry we couldn’t have been here sooner. It looked as though you had things under control. If we hadn’t made it, you still would have won.” Marco surveyed the field and nodded while rubbing his chin.

  “True. Although, Jose would have died if you hadn’t arrived when you did. Who knows who else would have died from their injuries. We are very thankful you decided to go against Rebecca.” Rico joined us and patted Marco on the shoulder.

  Men, why couldn’t they just hug like women do?

  “Jeeves and Marco, thank you both so much!” I hugged them both and finally decided Marco wasn’t so bad after all.

  “How is everyone else doing? Please tell me we didn’t lose very many?” I bit my lip waiting to hear how awful it was.

  “Each pack has casualties. We need to wait and see what the healers can do before we count our dead. Marco, can you come and see to some more injured?” Rico motioned to the north side of the field where Paco was standing over some of his guys and one woman.

  “Of course. Kat, we’ll chat later?” Marco bowed his head and followed Rico.

  “Jeeves, how is it you were able to override Rebecca’s lock?” I asked.

  Marco had said something about the house responding to Jeeves.

  “As the butler, the house is controlled ultimately by me. All of the defensive and offensive spells are mine. The cloaking spells and transportation, all me. I am tied to it almost as though we were one entity instead of two.”

  “Rebecca, as the head of the council, has some control over the house and can order doors to be magically locked. No one can override her, except me. When she locked the members who wanted to help inside the council chambers, I waited for her to head into another room. I locked her in the room, and then ordered the council chamber doors open.” Jeeves shrugged as though what he did was nothing.

  The man was much stronger than I realized.

  “Thank you. How much trouble will you be in?” If he controlled the house, Rebecca couldn’t do too much to him, could she?

  “I will be tied to the house for awhile. She can’t do anything more than ground me, so to speak. Anything more severe would require council approval. She won’t get enough votes. Not when several of the witches here are on the council or are relatives of council members.” Jeeves was lucky.

  I was grateful he had recruited such powerful witches to help.

  “Thank you! I can’t say it enough. If there is anything I can ever do to repay you, let me know.” I hugged him again.

  “We all came because it was the right thing to do. Rebecca has lost sight of what’s right and wrong. She was once a wonderful leader and had so much promise. She is hurting inside. I think your return had opened up some serious wounds which were only held together with bandages.” Jeeves sighed and looked out onto the battlefield. His eyes glazed over like he was remembering something and not really present.

  “Luke!” Remembering my friend, I turned to where he’d been left on the ground. The spot was empty.

  “Did anyone see Luke? What happened to him?” I looked around the field until I spotted his brown hair all messed up with globs of blood.

  He was helping the injured to get up and walk to where the witches set up a sort of triage space. I hope he had been looked at too.

  We spent the rest of the night ensuring everyone was treated before we all headed our separate ways.

  “Marco, you are all welcome to join us back at the compound for tea, or whatever it is you drink. Once everyone is healed, we will have a celebration, and you are all invited.” Rico really seemed sincere.

  I never thought I would see him wanting to have witches around.

  “Thank you, you are very kind. We must be returning to our homes. Everyone who knew what we were up to will be worried about us. Please let me know when you have your party, and I would be honored to join you.” Marco slapped Rico’s shoulder three times.

  It was the kind of slap men did to show their appreciation. It reminded me of the man-hug three slaps.

  When we returned to the compound, I wanted nothing more than to sleep.

  “Damien, how long before we can go home and sleep?” I was barely awake.

  The only explanation was I was in an adrenaline crash. Instead of the typical caffeine crash most people experience around two or three in the afternoon, I was crashing from all of the adrenaline running through my body. Or possibly all of the magic use.

  “Soon. I want to make sure all of the injured get home before we head off. Are you alright? You don’t look so good. Take a seat.” Damien led me to one of the many sofas in the main building.

  I sat down and laid my head back as blackness surrounded me.

  24

  Kat

  When I woke up, I was in my bed at Damien’s house, and it was light out. I
got up and opened the curtains. The sun had just risen. For only getting a few hours of sleep, I felt pretty good.

  I was still in my clothes from last night’s fight. So I changed into yoga pants and a t-shirt. The house was quiet. I didn’t want to wake Damien, but I was starving. No lights were on in the house yet. Quietly, I made my way to the kitchen.

  Once in the room, I flipped on the light switch and went to the fridge to see what I could make for breakfast. I heard feet padding along the carpet in the hallway and turned expecting to see Damien.

  “You’re awake! Thank goodness!” It was Jenna.

  “When did you get here? It’s still not safe to travel in the middle of the night! I’m not sure we got all of the rogues and their werewolves.” I set down the gallon of orange juice on the counter and reached into the cabinet for a glass.

  “Do you want one?” I held up my glass.

  “Sure. I’ll make you breakfast. You must be starved. And I didn’t travel here in the middle of the night. I came out in the middle of the day. Two days ago. You’ve been asleep for four days.” Jenna looked at me and narrowed her eyes.

  “Wait, I’ve been out for four days? What happened? I wasn’t injured.” At least, I didn’t remember receiving an injury.

  “You used too much magic. When you didn’t wake up after a day Damien called Marco to check on you, and he told me as well. I insisted on coming out and staying with you until you woke up.” Jenna had a similar experience when she used too much magic. It made sense. Aleric said the magic takes a toll on us. I’m sure I used way too much magic in the fight.

  “Thanks, Jenna. Did Marco say anything else?” I wondered how Jeeves was.

  “Just you would sleep for up to a week, depending on how much magic you used. Four days isn’t too bad. Damien told me about all of the mage balls you created. I knew you would be a fierce warrior in your own right.” Jenna pulled out eggs, bacon, and frozen hash browns.