Zin, Zol?
Kandace lowered their knotted hands. Zol and Zin squeezed, letting her know they were good, and with her.
She opened her eyes, seeing a cauldron of sparkling smoke. Whirling, it enveloped them. Yet she could clearly view the sorceresses.
They attempted to fight off what she had brought forth. Their hair had been sucked of all color and looked like piles of straw. Gradually becoming mere dried-out husks, they pitifully writhed on the floor.
Kandace took a step toward the rail. Awestruck by what she witnessed, she muttered, “Special effecty.”
Her statue army encircled the Quevj, making them look like captured prisoners. Her magickally created winds still blew, tossing fiery orange sparks like autumn leaves. The water she’d called forth flowed down the statues, glistening them even more.
“It’s not like I know what to do to next.” Astonished by her own summoning, Kandace stared until her eyes felt dry. “Wow, I think I can stick a fork in…they’re done.”
She bent over the rail, as if more of a view would help her. “What now?”
“Perhaps we should manifest a pitchfork.” Zol joined her at the rail, as did Zin.
“Yes, you could pitchfork them.”
Zin’s utterly serious tone almost caused Kandace to burst into hysterical laughter. She held it together. She was, after all, the witch in charge. Well, sort of. Her Enduoir heritage didn’t seem to be all that helpful now.
“Oh, that’s good. A pitchfork. The Quevj do belong to the un-tender mercies of—”
“Me.”
“Me?” Kandace swivelled her head, searching for the god-like voice that vibrated the wrecked-by-evil warehouse.
“Hades to the rescue, good witch of Enduoir.”
Boom! Boom! Everything felt as if it shook, but didn’t actually move.
“Hades,” she nearly squeaked.
“Yes. Hades has arrived for the Quevj.” Zin and Zol spoke as one.
When they released her hands, Kandace swayed forward, gripping the rail.
Zol clasped her shoulders, turning her so she faced him. He hugged her against his chest, then palmed her head firmly. “Close your eyes, darling.”
Zin wrapped himself around her, as if he shielded her. Kandace had only seconds to wonder why.
Molecules were split asunder.
Or another Big Bang had occurred and they were about to watch the birth of another universe.
Tightening around her like a hungry anaconda, the sound didn’t stop.
Nothing will harm you, Kandy Apple, Zin and Zol mind-spoke. Somehow, their voices were the quiet inside a storm.
Daughter. Kandace heard her Enduoir mother clear as a bell, despite the strange explosion engulfing her.
Mother!
Your magick has triumphed, my beloved. All is well.
Mother, when will I see you?
Soon. However, you must choose…
An odd whine interrupted her mother’s words. Mother, Kandace screamed from her heart. Mother!
No sound.
Kandace felt swallowed by a void, even though Zin and Zol sandwiched her protectively. She trembled as the humming whine diminished and ceased.
“Kandy Apple.”
Zol and Zin’s husky timbre, sought to soothe her. She also heard their promise to care for her.
“Darling,” they chorused tenderly.
Kandace couldn’t deny her feminine juiciness for them, either, even as…oh, Goddess, she wanted to be with her mother.
Feeling weightless, she whispered, “Where are we?”
PART TWO:
OUR DARLING KANDY APPLE
Chapter Twenty-Eight:
Welcome to the Underworld
Zin brushed fiery strands of his Kandy’s hair from her pale cheek. She’d utterly drained herself defeating the thirteen Quevj sorceresses.
“Welcome to the Underworld.”
Hades lavished his resonant tones upon their witch. She lifted her head from Zol’s shoulder slowly, peeking at their creator.
Hades favored her with a magnanimous smile, the one that also let him and Zol know the Underworld had scored a major victory. With so many diabolical entities running rampant on Earth’s surface now, every victory was crucial.
“You must forgive my lack of hospitality. May I address you as Kandace?”
She gave a single nod, but clung to Zol’s chest.
“Dear Kandace, I would offer you sustenance, a gracious and grand feast in your honor. However, it is true, if you partake of food and drink here, it would alter your physiology in ways we cannot have.”
Hades beamed a smile upon her. “Indeed, your bravery and magickal abilities belong to the Upperworld, not here.”
“What did you do with them? The Quevj?” Kandace inched around, facing Hades.
“Ah, yes. Their rude arrogance cannot be abided by those of us who are responsible for, shall I say, keeping control over the most wicked vermin upon Earth.” Hades gestured with his arm, opening a portal window to one of his holding chambers.
A pathetic sight indeed, the sorceresses wiggled like worms as they continued struggling to free themselves from the hook of Kandace’s spell. Zin met Zol’s triumphantly flaring gaze, and they grinned at one another, their human canine teeth bared.
Their witch straightened her spine. “What are you going to do with them?” she asked, her tone spunkier. “And are all the Mt. Olympus gods as tall as you?”
Hades eyes sparked with amusement. “Yes, the other gods and I do splendidly enjoy our larger-than-life stature. The better to impress the Upperworld humans, don’t you believe?”
“Your powers are impressive. You almost blew my eardrums out…bringing us,” Kandace motioned with tentative sweep of her arm, “well, us and the Quevj here.”
“My apology for your distress. The worst of it, as Zolivar and Zindale will tell you, is causing the invisible field, a necessity to fool the electronic grid of the god pretenders.”
“Invisibility is all-important during these times. You are good at it. I didn’t know about you.” Their Kandy halted as if she’d spoken too much. “The Quevj?”
“Ah, yes.” Hades stroked his beard, his gaze the blackest of nights, and Zin knew he reflected on his answer. “A most appropriate question about the fate of your enemy. The punishment hells I shall decree for them. Is that what you would know?”
Hades gave his head a regal shake. “No, not fit for your quite delicate ears, Kandace. Or do you seek an answer about the possibilities of their escape?”
“That would be hell, if they escaped.” Kandy tossed her hair, her confidence rising.
Captivated by the electric strands and the unique glints, Zin mentally panted with passion, as he knew Zol did. In the blazing but dark illumination of their Underworld realm, her mane had been transmuted to crimson, the highlights now a fiery bronze.
“Indeed, I am alchemically constructing an imprisonment which will constantly deplete their sorcery. Kandace, pardon my pause at this moment.”
Zin realized his error, even as he refocused his attention on Hades.
“Zolivar, Zindale.” Hades’ voice rang with authority.
In concert with his brother, Zin straightened.
“Ah, so splendid to my heart.” Persephone’s lilting yet husky voice wrapped around Zin like a hug. “Yes,” she sighed, “so lovely to observe the devotion of my hellhounds for their one witch.”
With a sweep of her gown, Persephone moved beside her husband, and twined her arm with his, her affection obvious. “Do not be so harsh, my love.”
With her countenance benevolent and glistening, Persephone smiled upon them. As Zin had witnessed, it was one she reserved for those she considered family.
“Harsh?” Hades mock-complained dramatically.
“My dearest Hades is too much about his duty at times.”
“Our beloved Earth is riddled with every manner of malevolent, monstrous—”
“True,” Persephone interrupted as she s
troked her husband’s forearm. “Yet love, the light and lightness of love is the hope for us all. Zindale, Zolivar, I see you have chosen well. I offer my welcome to you, Kandace.”
“Thank you. Forgive me, I’m feeling way overwhelmed…” Kandy’s voice trailed away. She stepped back against him and Zol, and they embraced her.
“As I was saying,” Hades pressed a long kiss on his wife’s cheek, “before my Persephone arrived and delightfully stole my thunder, you need not concern yourself, Kandace. The sorceresses will be in the unmerciful hands, or should I say, the most capable claws and talons of my Chimeras.”
Not myth, she telepathed to him and Zol.
No, not myth, darling, they chorused in response. The Chimeras are brethren of a kind. They are fearsome, but a decent sort at the feasts.
“No, not myth. Pardon my eavesdropping, Kandace. However, the sands of time are running out.” Hades arrowed his arm to the side, pointing at his cosmically aligned hourglass. “I must return the three of you before my invisible construct diminishes. Zolivar, Zindale, it will be necessary for you to…”
A whine, loud as the howl of a lonely Cerberus, enveloped them. Again, he and Zol protected their one witch, shielding her from the crushing force of their travel from the Underworld.
Her small vulnerable voice reached for them once time locked itself into place.
“Zin, Zol.” She quivered, fragile and slight against him.
Zin slid his hand into her hair, capturing the back of her head. He held her tight to his chest as Zol strode a distance from them. Taking stock of the sorcery-ravaged warehouse, his brother also scouted for signs of trouble.
“Necessary for you to? What did Hades mean?” she asked, soft as a breeze.
“We will turn back the hands of time. Tick the clock backwards.” Zin bantered to lighten her mood.
“Ticktock, ticktock,” she murmured. “How far back?”
“It will appear as though nothing supernatural occurred here.”
“Good idea, I don’t think I have enough magick left inside me to…to right…I mean, to restore the whole warehouse.” She raised her head, and Zin fell head-over-heels into her luminous purple eyes.
“Kandy, my darling witch, just hang on. We’re going for a blast-into-the-past ride. Zol is linking to the Greater Vibration, investigating which coordinates to use. “
“Greater Vibration?”
“The seventh dimensional map of our universe, or the organizing mind of the Divine.”
“Okay,” she softly drawled, “that makes sense to the metaphysical part of me. It reminds me of the All-seeing Eye. Or everything is recorded like a vid or a movie by the Divine Eye. Then it’s possible to rewind.”
“Rewind back to a precise moment in the movie.”
“Yes. The good part.”
“Like this.” Zin lightly tugged her hair, and sealed her lips with his. Their passionate kiss consumed him the same way streaming lava consumed whatever lay in its path.
“The kiss scene,” she murmured, once their lips eased apart.
“The kiss scene,” he repeated like a pup in love. “Yes, my witch, however, the movie remains eternally in existence.”
“And every version of the movie.”
“Yes, Kandy darling. Like a remake.”
She slipped her hand up his chest, cupping the back of his neck. The daintiness of her touch kept Zin bewitched and carnally blazing. Zol mind-spoke twice before Zin fully heard him.
I’ve found the coordinates. Get ready to phase outside.
As if on cue, emergency vehicles wailed.
“The cavalry’s here.” Kandace pivoted toward Zol. “What now, H hounds?”
“Freeze frame.” He and Zol snapped their fingers in the style of Cary Grant.
The sirens stopped.
“Let’s pop out of here, darling.” Zol strode beside Kandace.
Zin locked his arm around her and she looped her arm around both of them. Together, he and Zol raised the frequency until the bee-like buzzing began. Then they zoomed through the ether.
“Flash and almost whiplash. You two are so talented,” their witch uttered, once the three of them stood gazing at the charred and dramatically tilting warehouse.
“Our triad rules,” he and Zol responded as one.
“Our force is tectonic fury now, darling, with our triad,” Zin added.
“Ooooh, tectonic fury, I like that.” She took a step, but kept her hold on them. “Ghoulish. The building looks totally melted. Sooo too bad we can’t turn it into a spooktacular haunted house. I bet it would be a freaking gold mine.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine:
Mummies of a Sort
Zol met Zin’s gaze, and they cocked their heads in puzzlement.
“Wacky sarcasm,” their Kandy Apple explained. “You know, for stress relief.”
“Of course, our human natures are lacking.”
Zol pivoted, scanning to make certain their time-freeze net remained operational. The few people who hadn’t run from the scene were curled into fetal positions, and either stared sightlessly or hid their faces.
“Four police cruisers, two ambulances, and three fire engines,” Zin reported.
“Tick-tock, how far back?” Kandace asked.
“To speak the precise moment would weaken the energy pattern. However, darling, the coordinate point is before your sister is kidnapped.” Zol faced the warehouse again, preparing to realign time.
“Will she remember?”
“Yes.” Zin heard her ambivalent concern, as Zol did. “What has occurred will not be forgotten because it is a shared experience.”
“Time to turn back the hands of time.” Zol cycloned his force, and synced with Zin’s inferno-spinning power.
On the screen of his mind, he watched the sequence of events rush backward. Each frame of time merged into the next rapidly. In contrast, the three of them slowly rotated.
Once they reached their original position, the final frames flashed, and a burst of bright white light surrounded them. After several heartbeats, Zol heard Kandace whoosh out a breath.
“Freaky intense, H hounds. It’s like it was before. The warehouse.”
“Over here. Quick.” Pivoting, Zin led them behind an industrial trash bin, an ideal place to observe without being seen.
“What now?” Kandace asked in a hushed tone. She let go of their hands and stood on tiptoe, peeking over the top.
“Crime prevention.” Zol lifted her higher, his hands more than spanning her dainty waist.
“Crime prevention, how?” She gripped his forearms, her touch a caress.
“We impersonate McGruff, the Crime Dog,” Zin dry-as-a-martini replied.
“Take a bite out of crime,” Zol rasped near her ear.
“Oh, so funny, hellhounds. You don’t even look like that weirdo cartoon dog, McGruff. Ruff, ruff,” she sassily murmured.
“We did purchase similar trench coats.” Zin moved closer beside them.
“I think I need a trench coat. I’m beginning to feel chilly.” She shivered slightly. “Goddess, I should have put on some shoes.”
“Igniting now, darling.” Zol positioned Kandy against his side and Zin wrapped his hands around their witch’s little feet.
“Oooh, all that erupting warmth. Don’t stop.”
“Never,” Zin softly growled. “We promise to erupt as the occasion arises.”
“Arises. Oh, good one. You two do rise to the sexual occasion.” She paused, and Zol felt her thoughts shift. “Question, hot-as-Hades’ hellhounds, how do we stop the future from happening again?”
“We don’t, Kandy love. The timeline has been altered.” Zol trained his gaze on a limousine that sped toward the warehouse’s office entrance.
“Weirdness, this time-altering thing,” she murmured.
“The sorceresses are imprisoned in the Underworld. Nigel won’t have his allies this go around,” Zin assured her.
For several seconds, Zol locked his gaze with
Zin, and they communed on their next action.
“Will it mess anything up if I summon a pair of shoes and more clothes? I am only half-dressed. Oh, wait.” She pointed. “Look!”
Zol followed her finger. Nigel and two of his thugs exited the limousine. Their posture was all bad-guy business as they strode toward the warehouse, then entered.
“Alarm system.” He and Zin spoke together.
“Good idea. I assume you can trigger it, my superhero hellhounds.”
“Yes.” Feeling his woman’s energy depletion, Zol bathed her in more his warmth. “It is merely a matter of using our mind energy to spark the correct connection.”
“Too bad my magick isn’t online yet, I could—”
“No,” Zin sternly interrupted. “Don’t even consider it. Overuse could harm you, darling.”
“Oooh, so masterful.” Kandace wiggled, a little tease, and Zol lost his concentration for an instant. “Hey, why not kill two criminal birds with one stone? We could trigger the Hendersons’ alarm at the same time. Maybe, the cops would find evidence and the whole operation would be exposed.”
“The Hendersons’ have several high-ranking officers in their pocket.” Zol whispered in her ear.
“Kandy love, Zol and I have not been given the nod to bring down the Hendersons, yet.”
“Yet.”
Zol felt their witch’s frustration as if a bonfire flared around him. However, he owned no time to reply. The right moment had arrived. He nodded to Zin as he covered Kandace’s ears.
They linked completely, setting off the warehouse’s alarm systems. One alerted a private company. The other one pierced the air, the screech like an infuriated banshee.
In moments, four of Nigel’s gorilla-sized henchman burst outside, one hand on their shoulder-holstered guns. Zol ducked out of sight, holding onto Kandace while Zin kept watch.
“No,” she hissed angrily. “I want to see.”
“We’re about to depart, darling. As soon as—”
“They have our body heat images,” Zin warned. He moved from behind the trash bin and casually raised his hands. “Gentlemen,” he called out, “I come in peace.”
“Is he making the Spock finger thing?” His Kandy strained to see what was happening.
Kougar, Savanna - Kandy Apple and Her Hellhounds (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 16