She nodded in respect, “What do you need us to do?”
Damon replied, “Help with the protections for now. The plan is pretty straight forward. We are warding heavily against fire and earth, just in case some are able to resist the change and bring guns, or some kind of incendiary device. Each room with a door or window on the first floor will have a circle of seven. Our goal is to knock out and disable as many as we can, but if death is necessary to stop them we won’t flinch from that. That way we can free some of them from Jake’s control. The main room will have a full circle of thirteen, and be in charge of maintaining the anti-shifter ward, and monitoring the health of the circles. Hopefully just that ward will be powerful enough to knock out all but the most powerful wolves, if we can keep it charged and active.
“You and Ed will have a different mission. We expect Jake and Manny to lead from the rear. We want you two to take them out, they will not be shown mercy like their bamboozled followers. I’d suggest you both take the roof, it should give you an overview of what’s going on and let you locate them, and preferably take them out from a distance. If necessary, you’ll also be able to assist if one area looks to be weakening. Oh, almost forgot. We have new data, right now there are seventy wolves, he’s been pulling in five man teams that were scouting out new targets. Hopefully there won’t be too many more.”
Bria cut in, “We are outnumbered now, but we are familiar with their tactics, and on our home ground. I’m actually more concerned with how the humans will react to what’s going to happen, than I am about the werewolves attacking. However, that doesn’t mean we can relax, Jake is insane, but he’s not stupid, and he knows he has a small chance of his remaining magic being enough to drain the anti-shifter ward. Keep an eye out for new tactics or anything that doesn’t fit what we know of them. It is time for vigilance, but certainly not panic.”
She and Ed nodded, and turned away to find somewhere to help, but she hesitated a second.
She looked up at Bria, “Now is probably not the time, but could I talk to you privately sometime soon?”
She saw Damon look intrigued, and almost flinched at the look of suspicion in Sue’s eyes. She hoped Sue wouldn’t be another paranoid woman thinking she wanted her seat on the council. So much for trust and togetherness.
Bria smiled and stood, “It is busy, but I can spare a few moments. I could use a break anyway.”
She squeezed Ed’s hand, and then followed Bria out the door. Bria didn’t invite small talk so she kept her peace as they walked into the kitchen. Bria poured herself a coffee, and offered a questioning look.
She grinned, “I never turn down coffee.”
After getting her own cup, they walked a little down the hall and into an empty room and sat down on a couch.
Bria said, “I wondered how long you were going to wait before you approached me. I’ve known for a while we had fae blood in common. I also know they don’t ever say anything very useful.”
She laughed, “That’s an understatement, although they are very enlightening compared to questioning an elemental.”
It was Bria’s turn to snicker.
“What can I do for you?”
She wondered for a moment who this person was. Bria wasn’t the hard coven leader right now, and it was throwing her off. She felt more like a friend, or perhaps even family. Bria had never lied to her, and had even been welcoming in the past, but she’d never seen Bria without the stern aura of command before. She decided just to dive in.
“Cilla, my great great grandmother, told me I needed to learn spirit magic, but I don’t have a clue where to even begin. I was hoping you could help point me in the right direction?”
Bria nodded thoughtfully, “I can’t teach you, but I can explain how it works. You’ll have to figure it out on your own from there. Spirit magic is not like witch magic at all, there are no incantations, there is no proscribed path, or even rules. Spirit magic is faith, plus will.”
She shook her head, and undoubtedly looked baffled.
Bria snickered, “Okay. Agent Dina Rodriguez. She had no idea until yesterday she was part fae. She didn’t believe in magic at all. How then was she using spirit magic in her job to tell truth from lies when interrogating witnesses and suspects?”
That was a really good question, and she had no idea what the answer was.
Bria let the silence go on for a moment before continuing.
“Because spirit magic is faith, plus will. She didn’t have to know of, or believe in magic. All she had to do was believe she could discern the truth, and put her will behind it as she questioned suspects. Simple. Your soul is eternal, and the spirit is a part of the soul, it already knows what to do, what it can do. All it needs is your faith, the strong will of your mind, and the small amount of fae blood that forms the conduit between the mind and spirit, the spirit takes it from there.
“I can’t prove any of that, but I have faith it’s true, and my will is strong. So my spirit magic is strong. I can discern lies, walk higher planes, protect myself from antagonistic spirits. Spirit magic is kind of limited, since it can’t effect the physical. But that leaves a lot left. Like how Cilla enraptured all the men, she used her spirit to do it, believed that she was irresistible toward men, and so she was.
“At the very least, you should make sure you can protect yourself when you walk, and search out knowledge or wisdom. Really, all you need to protect yourself from an antagonistic, or even an evil spirit, is to believe you are protected, and will it. Faith and will. Does that help?”
She nodded wordlessly, it sounded deceptively simple, “Yes. Thanks. I know we need to get back to it. I definitely feel a lot better about experimenting with it now.”
Bria said, “Don’t worry about Sue, I’ll convince her you’re not after her job. I’m sorry I didn’t keep a better eye on Sally, I won’t make that mistake again.”
She raised an eyebrow, “You don’t miss much do you. How do you know that though? I mean, that I’m not after her job.”
Bria laughed, “Nice try. I know you don’t care about the power, or want the responsibility. It’s also a shame because I’m not going to give you a choice.”
She frowned, “You lost me.”
Bria rolled her eyes, “You won’t be taking Sue’s position because I plan to mentor you to take mine.”
She felt a little lost. The conversation was taking an unexpected turn, to say the least.
Bria’s eyes hardened, “You have a responsibility. You are a witch, a steward of your power, a protector of those weaker than you. When you finally take care of your power problem, which I dare to say will be very soon, the only witch that can challenge you in the Charlotte area is me. Damon and Sue are strong, but even combined they couldn’t take either of us. Even now, with your power crippled, you have done astonishing things.”
Now her head was spinning, she thought she’d hidden her power issues well. She had no idea how transparent she was.
Bria snorted, apparently reading her easily, “Damon and Sue have no idea, neither does anyone else you haven’t told. You can’t hide from me, no more than I could hide what I was from you. I’m just older, wiser, and more experienced with seeing the truth and the magic of spirit. Don’t worry, I’m only sixty-two. I have another forty plus years in me easily, assuming I don’t die. I know you aren’t ready yet. For that matter, the shifters aren’t ready yet either.”
She should have stayed in bed this morning.
Bria sighed, “You will be ready when it is time. Relax, I won’t force you, I won’t have to. You’ll never crave the power, but leadership and pursuing knowledge is in your nature.”
Bria added with a touch of humor, “Now get to work. If you don’t want the job you’ll have to ensure I live a long, healthy, and safe life.”
Bria winked and got up, leaving her mind in tatters as her coven leader left the room. She’d always been wary of Bria, but now somehow the old witch was her mentor, and had named her successor. She di
dn’t know what to do with that, except of course, that she wouldn’t breathe a word of it to anyone.
Chapter 15
Celia pulled herself together with the help of her new best friend, denial. That future was far away anyway. Either it would happen, or not. She focused on helping out where she could, she was still very powerful, even at a five on her internal scale she had more power than most witches, and having fire as an affinity made for very strong fire wards, especially when braided with her affinity for air. The wards could starve the fire, as well as ward it. Even normal fire had a hard time being destructive in her store and home after all.
She also had other advantages and would be a fool not to use them. She had her air elemental monitor in a two-mile radius from the coven house. Not to collect data, the elemental would simply warn her when a large group of shifters showed up, and indicate the direction. She kind of had the feeling it would be all directions, but that remained to be seen.
Still, something was making her uneasy, she just didn’t know what yet.
The FBI agents did show up, along with an older agent who she assumed must be the special agent in charge, or whatever they called it. She wasn’t sure. She didn’t have to deal with that though, the coven leaders were with them and she was happy to stay out of it this time, if she could. The press had gotten closer, they were only a half block away, with their cameras pointed at them.
She really hoped they went away, werewolves during the full moon were territorial and overcome by hunting instincts. Strong willed ones could resist hunting a human of course, but some couldn’t in those once a moon circumstances, much less the fifty nut bags that were about to assault a coven in their stronghold.
She mentally corrected herself, seventy plus nut bags. Suddenly that felt like an awful lot.
By six, the mansion had more magic protecting it than Hogwarts, and she was starving when they finally broke for dinner. The plan was to rest, and relax afterwards until the sun went down and they were attacked.
She got some food and sat by Berny, Ed, Mia, Fran, Damon, Steph, and Dina Rodriguez outside on the lawn. There weren’t enough tables for all the people in the Charlotte coven, much less for the thirty odd from the Rock Hill coven and other guests.
Steph was the only one she didn’t know well. She’d been at the club that night when her friend Cinna started shit for her being half shifter. Since then Steph had been tentatively cordial. She’d decided Steph wasn’t bad, she’d just had a really bad taste in friends, and no backbone to stand up for herself. Hopefully that would change, Steph was still a teenager.
Fran said, “You look worried.”
She shrugged and started speaking from the knot in her gut. Not really sure what she was going to say until it came out, “I’ve been thinking. It should be a piece of cake, if the main circle can hold the anti-shifter ward it should take down thousands of shifters, under a hundred will be a yawn fest. Even if we have to chase down Jake, Manny, and their guards afterwards. Even if he escaped, without a witch he can’t rebuild his forces.”
Dina snorted, “So why are you worried?”
“Because Jake isn’t stupid. Insane, psychotic, but not stupid. He’s murderous, not suicidal. We have to be missing something.”
Damon asked, “Like what?”
She replied cautiously, “I don’t know, but when we revealed ourselves to humans we changed the future. We knew they were attacking here, we knew we would win, we knew the humans would find out and turn on us, destroy us, because that brutality would be all they would see of us. Not our family, loyalty, love, and nurturing.
“Outing ourselves should stop that last part, but doesn’t that mean that the change we made could have changed all of what we knew? Our intent was to show the humans all of who we are, not just the bad, but that doesn’t mean that is the only thing we affected. Which of course, includes where Jake will attack.”
Stating the obvious seemed to be gelling her concerns, and other possibilities opened up to her.
Damon shook his head, “But he’s still gathering, they are just short of eighty, and are obviously planning an attack.”
She nodded in agreement, “But will they attack here? We outed ourselves, what’s to stop Jake from making a change as well. If he knows we are unassailable to him, forewarned and armed, and he still wants us destroyed, what better way than attacking humans to make them turn against all of us? Probably not as satisfying, but he would still see us dead. I’m probably wrong, and being paranoid.”
Dina grunted, “It’s a good plan actually, and would probably work. I hope the terrorist isn’t as diabolical as you are,” she added with a hint of irony laced in her voice.
She added another possibility, “Maybe it’s not even that, maybe he’ll attack somewhere else in an attempt to force us to meet him on a battlefield of his choosing, where the house’s protections won’t be a part of the equation. Were-wolf speed, strength and teethe, verse magic with our weaker personal wards, it would be a completely different fight.”
Berny said, “You’re such a downer Celia, stop it.”
Mia snickered.
Damon and Fran looked disturbed. Her comments made too much sense. The problem was there was no predicting insane.
She sighed, and mentally ordered her air elemental to watch Jake, and to give her a conversation update when she mentally called. It would only take a second for the elemental to arrive, dump the information in her brain, and go back. Using it for a perimeter watchdog had been a mistake, she needed to use it as a spy. Hopefully she was just wrong, and Jake’s overly large pack would strike here…
Over the next couple of hours, she received eight updates. She tried to relax, but what she heard through her elemental was only the preparations, not where they would be attacking. It wasn’t until the ninth update, that she learned what their new plans were. She really hated being right. She sought out Bria, with the others in her wake.
Bria looked up and seemed to steel herself, “What is it?”
Without preamble she reported, “They are on the move. They are moving seventy wolves to the high school a couple of miles south from here, to wait on the field. Ten wolves are going to go around the perimeter of the school, slaughtering everyone in the houses except for one witness to call the police.
“The plan is to either force us out so we face them without the house protections, that’s what he really wants. The or part, is he believes if we don’t respond, and let the human authorities try to engage, that the humans will turn against us for not trying to protect them from our criminals.”
Bria let out a breath, “I see. Recommendations?”
She smiled, “They are at least an hour away, we can be there in ten minutes even walking, we should set traps, mostly earth I would say since they’ll be kind enough to stand still in a field waiting for us. What I haven’t figured out is how to intercept the smaller team. There is no specified first house in their plans, and they’ll be split into five two man teams. Interestingly enough, Manny will be on one of those teams, while Jake is at the field.”
Normally werewolves move way to fast on the hunt, and an earth witch wouldn’t be able to ensnare them and pull them down into the earth with their magic. But perhaps if they are just waiting there, and not moving it will work. At the very least they’d get some of them, perhaps most of them. It will also help that the witches will be below the ground, so they can’t be scented. Well, if they go for her idea anyway.
Damon nodded, “Okay, let’s take fifteen minutes to plan this out, that still will give us plenty of time to get there first. Out in the yard, everyone.”
So they did.
Silva sat regally waiting for things to get started. The coven leaders did accept Celia’s plan, all of the earth witches, twelve, surrounded the high school football field, underneath the ground. Ed was in charge of that group. Berny was also an earth witch, so neither could be with her for this fight. There were thirty more witches two blocks away, ready to close
the distance once things got started. Hopefully they were far enough away the werewolves wouldn’t pick up the scents.
She, Mia, Fran, Karina, Elaine, Mira, and Shannon were on the other team. She wasn’t so sure about Karina’s stability, but the woman had been adamant that she deserved her revenge for what they put her through. In the end she had no choice but the acquiesce. She was on this team because Manny was on the enemy’s ten-man team, and that’s who she really wanted to kill. The one that had abused her.
Sure or not, she was rooting for the woman to rip off Manny’s balls and make him regret his mother ever spread her legs before he died.
The plan for them was pretty simple. She had the air elemental moving back and forth every few seconds watching the packs movements. Their hope was to intercept all ten before they’d split up into two man teams, but after they split off from the main group. The timing was going to be tight. They didn’t want any humans to die, but they did want the main group in position for the ambush before any fighting started. Otherwise their surprise attack would be ruined. If that happened it happened, she wasn’t willing to sacrifice humans to preserve their plan. Even that was a risk, how many more would be hurt if the ambush failed?
She was already shifted, there would be no chances given, no risks taken by trying to simply apprehend them. The waiting finally came to an end. The last view flashed to her showed ten huge wolves breaking off. She growled low in her chest and when the next view flashed she was able to figure out their new direction and started heading that way.
Silva sent, “Witches are so loud, they might as well blow whistles. ”
She giggled in the back of their mind, she was whisper silent but Silva was right. The witches following her were clomping along. Still, they couldn’t slow down, they had to intervene before the enemy reached the first house and started to split off into two man teams. They were lucky they hadn’t already done so. Probably because wolves were social animals, they were pack, it made sense they wouldn’t split until necessary. They also weren’t prepared for a reverse ambush.
Shifter's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 3 Page 11