by S. E. Akers
“Doesn’t she have anything better to do?” I barked.
“Awww, come now, Ms. Wallace,” Silas scolded. “If anything, you should be empathizing with her. She’s had as much of a fruitless summer as you. The poor thing won’t be happy until she gets that play-date she’s craving.” The winds started picking up and then a tremor rocked the foundation from something mighty heavy that had crashed somewhere outside. Silas looked out the window again, sneering. “I’m starting to think all this fuss is about something more than a mere stone — no matter how rare.”
“Why would you think that?” I asked.
“Yours is not the only moonstone in existence,” Silas explained. “She could very easily track down someone else who has one.”
I had to agree with him on that one.
“And besides,” Silas continued, “the determination behind her efforts and the strength of this storm bears the fury of a scorned woman. She’s pooling from some darker magic, rest assured,” he vowed and then headed down the hall.
I trailed his steps in search of some clarification. “From a stone or a spell . . . or like ‘Darklands’ darker?” I questioned.
Silas stepped into the study. “Lorelei comes from some pretty impressive stock. She’s more powerful than even she realizes.” Silas closed his eyes, tilted back his head, and stayed that way for several seconds. His suspicious senses had definitely locked on to something consequential with whatever supernatural radar he was packing. “Yes,” Silas confirmed, his lids stretched wide. “This storm is being spawn from her creature-side.”
“Can she bust through the wards?”
Silas tapped his index finger to his chin. “Hard to say. That would depend on how much dark magic she draws. Hopefully Lorelei’s fears will bring her around to her senses her before she summons enough to break through them.”
“What will happen to her if she does?” I asked.
“The creature will take over and her human-side will cease to exist,” Silas explained. “Lorelei’s eyes would never fall upon her face again. She would only see a monster staring back at her.”
Sea-bitch or not, I knew she didn’t want that. I don’t know how, but my gut burned with certainty.
Silas’ gaze clouded briefly. I’d learned the significance behind this particular expression over the past few weeks: he and Tanner were conversing on their mystical walkie-talkies, or whatever they were using to keep me in the dark.
“Professor Grey needs the sunstone,” Silas remarked. “He wants to know where it is?”
That didn’t give me the warm & fuzzies. “Why does he need it?”
“Most likely to channel some of its Veil magic into his wards to counteract the dark forces feeding hers,” Silas replied.
“He’s worried, isn’t he?”
“Concerned, yes,” Silas confirmed. “So where is it?”
“It’s tucked inside the jewelry box in my room . . . sitting on the dresser,” I added.
“That’s rather obvious,” Silas scoffed.
“Not really,” I huffed. “It’s in one of the secret compartments . . . the one on the left side. Tell him to be careful how he opens it. I don’t want him breaking it. It’s kind of tricky.” The last thing I wanted was to survive another murderous attempt on my life from Lorelei only to have Samuel kill me for breaking something that belonged to his late-wife.
“I will let him know,” Silas assured. “And I’ve pulled the precise way it is to be opened out of your head. I’m only confessing my intrusion because you seem upset. Consider your petals still intact.”
“I’ll let the infraction slide — this time,” I chided.
Silas bowed facetiously. “How big of you.”
The thought of siphoning pure Veil magic from Helio’s sunstone sent me pacing the floor. It was connected to The Veil. Surely it would drain some of the border’s mystical mojo as well.
“Will that work?” I asked nervously.
“Yes, but it will weaken The Veil doing so,” Silas admitted. “The more dark power she uses, the more Veil energy is required to combat it.”
I knew it. “It won’t tear open The Veil, will it?”
“Again, that’s hard to say. It depends on how much of its magic is needed,” Silas replied. “The best case scenario would be that it causes a ripple strong enough to coast a few of those beasts across its borders.”
My eyes flared. “And the worst case?”
“In layman’s terms, the effect would be no different than the pop of one of your pesky buttons or the rip of one of your purple brassieres,” Silas assured. Then the smartass fanned his hands with a wiggle of his fingers and threw in a cheeky “poof” with his lips.
“He can’t do that just to keep Lorelei out!” I blurted.
“Professor Grey will do whatever it takes when his mind is set,” Silas remarked. “Haven’t you figured that out by now?”
I couldn’t let him do it. Lorelei and I were going to cross paths eventually. Why not today? A little tussle to go with the stormy wave I was riding might very well be the doctor-ordered prescription my hormones needed.
A shrill whistle of wind blared through the room with the roar of a freight train. My ears tracked its source to the fireplace.
“I’ll need to close the damper to completely seal off the house for the spell Professor Grey will be using. And, you will have to be the one who calls upon its magic.”
“Wait!” I said. “Don’t close that yet!” I edged inside the massive hearth and eyed the damper with the illuminating aid of my golden topaz ring. The opening looked big enough.
“Professor Grey needs the entire house locked down to fortify the wards,” Silas reiterated. “The windows and doors are already secured. Now, if you will kindly step aside. Those tootsies of hers will be hitting land in about seven minutes.”
I grabbed his arm. “I only need three,” I said, imploring his agreement. I could tell Silas was standing there extracting my thoughts from the way his eyes were expanding with the swell of a sponge.
He pulled out his pocket watch and gave its face a tap. “The clock is ticking, Ms. Wallace,” Silas smirked. “Chop, chop.”
My top-teeth bit into my bottom lip eagerly. “Just keep him from getting that sunstone,” I yelled back as I buzzed towards the doorway. “And don’t tell him anything! He’ll probably try knocking me out with layria bark.”
I barreled down the steps invisibly and was stepping inside the weapons vault within fifteen seconds flat. I grabbed a leather haversack and started collecting what I needed. Though the items on my shopping list were modest in numbers, the devices themselves were all the heavy ammunition a gal needed to send a vindictive little mermaid into a fish-frenzied tailspin.
I shouldered the bag, draping it around my frame, and then raced back up the stairs. “Where’s Tanner?” I breathed out as soon as I hit the study.
“Downstairs,” Silas replied. “He’s looking for you. I told him that I wasn’t sure where you were.”
“I thought you ‘didn’t lie’?” I posed.
“Technically it wasn’t a lie,” he insisted. “And correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe present company calls it ‘omitting’. Apparently there is a difference — a very Grey one at that.”
Now there was something we finally agreed on. The Amethyst Talisman’s ears must have been burning because he immediately sent me a telepathic order.
I turned to Silas. “Tanner wants me to come down to my room. You have to go and distract him,” I pleaded.
Silas rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he agreed. “So what plan has the young mastermind hatched that’s forcing me to disregard my employer’s wishes, pray tell?”
“Make her mad,” I said. “Force her to dip into a little more of her darker-side, but just enough to scare her. If she truly doesn’t want to turn into a monster permanently, she’ll stop pulling power from The Darklands.”
“And you think you can do that with a simple bolt?” Silas posed doubtfully.
“Nope.” I reached into the haversack and pulled out the holstered kukri, displaying it in the air proudly. “I’m gonna do it with this.”
Silas nodded to my choice of skin-melting blades. “You are aware that she’s one of the few supernaturals that can regenerate what you hack off, though the Veil magic that device possesses will definitely slow down the progress.”
“Then I’d better make it count.” It had been a while since I’d whacked off one of her tentacles. And I was in a ripe mood to take a stab at nailing Lucky Number Four. It’ll be just like I’ve un-shoed a horse… Surely there had to be some sort of honorable-mention trophy if I could pull that out of my butt.
“How are you going to get down there undetected?” Silas inquired.
“Who says I’m going down there?” I flashed the pair of celestite spectacles I’d snagged and then pulled out the platinum gauntlets tucked inside the bag.
Silas shook his head, clearly aware of what I was about to do, but still leery. “Well on the bright-side, the only thing more difficult would be trying to pin her with an arrow.”
Strangely enough, there was something calming about the house steward’s inability to abstain from passive cracks during situations when one’s morale needed a boost.
An amused sigh shot out my mouth. “I bet you’re a regular rip-roaring riot at funerals too.”
“If this plan doesn’t work, your otherworldly spirit may be granted the opportunity of finding that out,” he smirked.
I threw up my hand. “It’ll work,” I assured. At least that’s what I was hoping. But regardless of his flippant cracks, I was simply grateful by the fact that he was giving me an honest chance and free-reign to succeed or fail. An ice storm would hit hell before Tanner would do the same — especially without him holding the little girl’s hand.
“And please be advised of one thing, Ms. Wallace . . . If that carving instrument doesn’t find its way back to its place in the weapons vault, I’ll have to sedate Professor Grey simply to give you a running start, understood?”
My eyes tightened confidently. “That won’t be necessary,” I assured and then stepped into the hearth. I’ll beat a path back to West Virginia first. Without a precious second to lose, I sprang up and snatched hold of the lip around the damper. Once I’d cleared the hatch, I crossed my fingers and gave myself a boost up the masonry tunnel with a swift burst of air. I breathed a sigh of relief after landing butt-first on the roof and then finding myself snuggly velcroed to the shingles, grateful that their grit had kept me from sliding right off.
The warm salty winds were whipping the air with the force of a violent Nor’easter, tossing everything in its howling path with angry heaves. I rocked around as I struggled to balance myself. Now I was starting to wonder if my plan would actually work with all this turbulence. Though the kukri wasn’t a true boomerang, the crook of its blade could prove it to be rebounding enough — but only with some help guiding its course. That was going to be the hard part. I just hoped I didn’t pop my eyes out of their sockets in the process of rallying enough “oomph” to fight off her windy wrath trying to get the job done.
I peered into the fading darkness and searched the murky water with a meticulous sweep. She had to be out there somewhere within the depths ready to make her rise. Soon my eyes spotted something iridescent floating atop the surface several miles out. The bluish-green mass was swiftly coursing towards the shore. I didn’t need any guesses about what the mystical anomaly could be. It was unmistakably Lorelei, opting for a grand and glowing entrance to kick-off her latest moonstone campaign.
I whipped on the celestite spectacles and adjusted my eyes with a few squints. The sharpness of the Veil-crafted device’s scope granted their beholder the luxury of two crucial things: the clarity to see past the blackest darkness, as well as an up-close & personal view. All you had to do was allow the two milky-blue crystals access to your mind and convey what you wanted it to home in on, and then wal-lah — magical long-range binoculars with the added bonus of crystal-clear night vision. Of course I wouldn’t need the latter for too much longer, not with the break of dawn only minutes away.
The glowing mass had almost reached the rocks dappling the shoreline. With her landfall less than a minute away, I readied the kukri cautiously and prayed I got a free pass for the flames I was about to fan. I could see some awfully stinging payback on my horizon if the cosmos felt I was out of line the least little bit — even if it took the shape of a never-healing paper-cut. But to be fair, the half-Talisman / half-creature was the one bringing the heat in the first place. A grin stretched across my face thinking about Beatrix and the code she’d lived by straight up to her dying day: don’t start none, won’t be none. And in this case, my fallen mentor’s words told no lies. I just hoped karma saw it that way too.
Suddenly a powerful wave crashed against a large cluster of rocks. I trailed the spray into the air and then followed its showery return down to the water. And there she was, Lorelei and her half-tentacle figure clinging to the craggy formation. I couldn’t help noticing her choice of favors that she’d brought to the party — a golden trident slithering with gilded creatures that held a blinding aquamarine stone set in its center. Needless to say, each of the intimidating spear’s three pointy tines looked wicked-lethal. If I wasn’t game enough to stop her before, I sure was at the sight of that thing.
I’ll gut her like a fish before she even thinks about sticking me with that stolen supernatural pitchfork, I affirmed with a stony nod.
I kept a close eye on her as I pulled the gauntlets out of the haversack and slipped them on my hands. As tempting as all those slithery appendages looked, waiting until her legs had fully formed now seemed like the best bet. Whether it made her mad enough to go full-monster or not, I seriously doubted her hide would resort to crawling a path to Tanner’s front doorstep.
Let’s see how much butt she can kick with that big stick of hers having to hop on one foot…
A magnificent white beam streaked down from the moon, bathing her in its light. Lorelei’s form started transforming immediately, and the sight was undeniably mesmerizing. Her body shimmered with glittery sparks while all of her tentacles fused themselves together to form two human legs. My determination started to surge when my stare locked on the one she was stretching out on the rocks. Seeing that target propped there so perfectly couldn’t have made me spring into action any quicker if it had been a glaring red flag.
I steadied myself as I rose to my feet, preparing to hurl the kukri with all of my might and calibrating how much strength was needed to backup the gust that would sail the blade to its mark. The petering wards weren’t a factor, seeing how they were pretty close to completely shot. My major concern was getting the kukri to round a path straight back to me. Well that, and making sure a spinning blade wouldn’t slice through a set of magical platinum gloves. A pair of red palms bleeding out was the last thing I needed coloring my rosy-hued day.
With my insides bellowing their cries for my weapon’s release, I drew back my arm and hurled the kukri. It cut through the turbulent air with the seamless grace of an unyielding circular saw, whirling fast and furiously. And to my surprise (and relief), the direction of its guide couldn’t have been more flawless considering the battering winds trying to knock it off course. The blade was just about to reach her right thigh when Lorelei bent down abruptly to snatch some seaweed tangled around her leg — the exact moment when I’d forced the kukri into making its critical turn.
Dammit, I raged while I focused on rounding the blade back to me. With the glare of the metal headed my way, I threw up my arm and braced for its impact. A chilling scream abruptly pierced the darkness and ultimately distracted my track. I ended up ducking for cover with a dive over the edge of the roof at the last second to get out of the kukri’s wildly uncertain path. I looked back to spy the lower tip of its handle sticking out of the chimney, tightly wedged between the stones. With Tanner’s precious weapon now saf
ely returned, I shifted my focus back down to the rocks.
I spotted Lorelei’s legs first thing, both intact and unscathed. My stare ascended her human frame to find her arms were still there as well, unfortunately. They were up by the side of her head, wrestling away her lengthy strands as they whipped in the wind. Then all of a sudden I noticed streaks running down her arm—streaks that were noticeably wet and a heck of a lot redder than the natural color of her hair. I sucked in so much air at the sight of blood pouring out of the top of her head that my lungs dove straight into my gut. I scrambled over to the blade and yanked it out of the chimney. The charred smell struck my nostrils immediately. Oh, I’d hit her all right, but I hadn’t come close to scoring a limb. I removed as much of the burning patch of flesh and long red locks off the blade as I could. I looked back down to see Lorelei trembling and patting her exposed, severed-off scalp. My mouth fell open, led by the tug of my buckling stomach. Chopping off a limb was one thing, but I’d just committed what amounted to a dude kicking a fellow bro in the crotch — the queen mother of girly no-no’s heralded as reprehensible across the globe.
All the color drained from my face as I eyed the freakish-looking toupee. Mission accomplished, I predicted. All I could think about was that if the shoe were on the other foot, I would be lookin’ for some seriously savage-payback right about now.
My skin started prickling immediately, which directed my stare back to Lorelei. She was staring dead at me, seething. Those darting red laser beams of hers didn’t need the help of any binoculars, not with the dawn having officially broken and a bright ray glinting off the blade I was holding like a sunny spotlight. And knowing what lay in my other hand was all the confirmation her foaming mouth needed. Our next fight was swinging straight-up medieval, no two ways about it.
Suddenly billowy black clouds started swarming the sky from all directions, darkening everything in their path. What sun had been shining moments ago was now being choked by the hold of their escalating fury. Her mangled remains fell from my limp grasp when I got a good look at the rising ocean waters. A tsunami had formed off in the distance and was now racing for the shore. Then all of a sudden Lorelei’s skin began changing. I’d seen it turn a rotting driftwood color after I’d blasted her with Gallia’s diamond in the cenote down in Mexico, but this time was different. The surface of her skin was much darker, almost tarry, and was sprouting patches of scales. Her body was shifting out of its human form and into the creature that lay hidden inside her. The red light igniting her eyes paled into an eerie yellow hue, and then their round retinas stretched into snake-like slits. Her body seemed to be growing larger too, convulsing uncontrollably as it started to shoot out freakish-looking appendages in all directions. It wasn’t until two sail-like fins had jutted out of her arms that she realized what was truly happening to her. She threw down her trident and started patting her face with her freshly-formed claws. Seeing her altered appearance was repulsive enough; I couldn’t imagine how shocked she must have felt actually going through a disfiguring transformation like that. Damiec’s gargoyle mug was nothing compared to the elongated head and hideous features that were trying to devour and claim every trace of her beautiful human form.