I’d been trying to keep out of human law enforcement and not get involved, I had enough problems trying to help police the supernaturals in the Chicago area.
But again, they tried to kill me.
I turned to the goon and forced him to meet my eyes, and mesmerized him, mesmerizing was a good compromise, and sometimes a necessary evil to keep the secret of the supernatural world. I still wasn’t comfortable using it, and I hoped I never would be. Still, compulsion could make someone forget or force them to do something, but mind control was on a completely different level, where I could permanently change not only memories, but thought processes, the core of who they were.
“You will forget I was here, and you will forget I exist. If you see a report on the news about the amazing psychic Ben Edwards, you will laugh at it because I’m obviously a fake, and all those believers are simply gullible morons. I’m no threat to your boss’s enterprises or anyone you know. As soon as I finish and leave this room, you will forget I was even here. You will ignore anything said or seen from now until after I leave the room.”
The goon’s eyes went blank.
I turned back to the boss, his eyes were wide with fear. I’d done the goon first on purpose, I’d wanted him to know what was coming, and I wanted him to realize he’d have no memory of anything, and that he will soon have no idea the FBI would be coming to arrest him. Perhaps that was petty, but then this guy sold human beings, I wanted to see him sweat a little.
I mesmerized the boss and said just about the same thing, and his eyes glazed over. Last but not least I got back on his laptop, and turned off the camera and mic he had in here. He kept about a day and a half of audio and video, just in case he ever wanted to blackmail one of his associates. I also deleted the last ten minutes. Satisfied I had everything done, and that they wouldn’t be coming after me again, I pulled in the magic from the air around me and after checking, moved to the pack’s backyard.
I supposed it was my backyard now too…
A short time later the pack came back from their run, and I had a story to tell. I didn’t have to worry about turning my eyes away from the other women in the pack when they shifted, because I couldn’t keep them off of Sierra if I tried. She winked at me and took her time with getting the red sundress with a yellow flower design back on. The rest of the day actually turned out to be peaceful.
I enjoyed lunch with the pack, my new family, in-laws? Whatever else they were, they were family now. It was a good day, and I managed to get to know them all a little better. When Sierra and I turned in that night, in a bed and room I’d never slept in before, I realized the truth was it already felt like home, simply because she was in my arms. She was home now, and it was just that simple.
Chapter 14
Sunday, June 5th, 2016, 7:33 AM
Breakfast was a startling event for me. I was used to a little more peace before my morning coffee. When Sierra and I went downstairs the dining room table was already piled with bacon, sausage, plates of eggs, ham, and mountains of toast. There were a number of good morning grunts as Derik, Clint, Katie, and Gerald didn’t pause from their eating efforts to even say hello.
I’d have been a little concerned as the rest of the pack came down behind us, the way they were chowing down and all, they were silent but for the din of the plates, silverware, and the sounds of voracious eating was remarkably disturbing. But I could feel their welcome through the ally bond which made the single minded ferocity of eating their meal seem not quite as… odd. I didn’t see coffee so we moved past the table and into the kitchen and I grabbed a couple of empty cups.
Selene and Suzy seemed to be cooking up the last few plates of food. A whole box of eggs that had come with six dozen sat empty on the counter, along with several empty wrappers of one pound packages of bacon, and a number of similarly empty sausage boxes. The pack food bill much be astronomical.
“Good morning.”
Selene and Suzy murmured a good morning back as I poured a couple of coffees and handed one to Sierra.
Selene asked, “I couldn’t help but notice there was no sound from your room last night, does that mean we don’t need to get a witch in?”
I shrugged, “That’s fine, I can only block out sound when I’m here, but I won’t need to when I’m not so… no reason to bother with it I think.”
She nodded, “Better go in there, if you’re too slow you won’t eat in this house.”
I laughed and walked back to the dining room, not entirely sure if she was joking around or not. I noticed Todd was finally back, and wondered how his date went with Aiya, but wouldn’t ask. We moved around the table to two empty seats and sat down. I looked around and realized they were seated in the pack’s hierarchy of power, me being the exception of course, they’d left an extra seat next to the third chair for me as Sierra’s mate.
Sierra and I sat, and dug in. I wound up grabbing the toast and making egg, sausage, and bacon sandwiches. I might have to start working out outside of walking if they fed me this well, of course, I could maintain my body weight and musculature with power, but that seemed entirely too lazy of me.
Eventually the tide of werewolf hunger receded, and the grunts were replaced by actual words.
Katie said, “So Gerald finally agreed, Clint and I are going this morning.”
Gerald snorted, “It was either that or listen to you complain all day yesterday.”
“So the four of us?”
Katie nodded cheerfully, “Otherwise there won’t be enough to go around.”
I got the impression she loved a good fight, which wasn’t a surprise after she volunteered to be bait last time. Clint was obviously over his head, but just as obviously happy to be there based on the look of affection and excitement they shared.
Clint asked, “Do we have a plan, or?”
Sierra replied, “Not yet, Ben knows where they are, but Tara will have a better idea of what protections and spells we’ll be up against.”
I nodded, “They’re in their coven house north of Indianapolis. I don’t know much more than that though. I used fire magic to trace them, which means I can’t pick out thoughts, intentions, or protections. We’ll come up with something when we get to Tara’s, but whatever it is, we need to hold back until we break their protections. A fast surprise attack won’t work. It’ll be pretty dangerous as well even then, they could have inactive spell traps lying in wait as well as inactive wards to weaken enemies just waiting to be powered. Add in eight witches backed into a corner throwing personal spells and using their best enchanted items and it’s sure to be a fun time.”
Katie snickered, “That does sound fun, if slightly insane.”
I nodded. Wolves would hold a speed and strength advantage, and if they got their hands on the witches physically it would be all but over. The trick would be getting them safely in range.
Derik asked curiously, “I’m surprised you haven’t mentioned sparing any of them, isn’t it just Cyndy who is obsessed with draining and killing Tara?”
I sighed, “I’m not all that happy with the need, but it’s different than last time. Carrie, Todd, and Darren were good people under the iron control of a bad alpha, and forced against their will. While not all the witches in the coven started out bad, they’ve been shaped and remade into Cyndy’s image. They aren’t under a spell anymore, as spells were used to change them.
“Some of them weren’t bad people when they started out, but now they all enjoy the power that comes from sacrifice and dark magic. Beyond what Cindy did to the coven, dark magic tends to change the practitioner as well. They are… twisted, sadistic, dare I say evil, and can’t be freed from it. If we killed just Cyndy, they might or might not come after us, but they’d definitely go on killing innocents and draining any other loner witches they could find, and I’m not prepared to let that happen.”
Derik grunted, “Fair enough, and it will be less dangerous that way. No holding back.”
Carrie was frowning, “I though
t magic was magic. Not inherently evil or good.”
I smiled, “That’s entirely the truth, there is no evil magic, just dark spells. It isn’t the magic that twists the caster, or what makes it dark magic, it’s the application or spell. If you drain a person’s life and power, it gives you that power but also changes you.”
That didn’t really apply to me, since I’d just taken knowledge from Jaben, not power or life. But things like mind control, I objected to them morally, not because it would damage me. Well, not physically anyway, it would change who I am though, I swore I’d never do that again. A mesmerizing compulsion was bad enough, but sometimes I wouldn’t get a choice in that one.
I was glad no one questioned the knowledge I seemed to have, that I didn’t a few days ago. I’d learned a lot about light and dark magic from the grimoires I’d absorbed into my mind, all from the point of view of light witches of course, not all of it had been magic, some of it had been insights and instructions from powerful light magic coven leaders. I wasn’t exactly going out of my way to keep secrets, but I also didn’t want to be the one responsible for the secrets of the powers of an air sorcerer to become common knowledge.
I hoped my trust in Tara wasn’t misplaced, or I’d have every witch in the world after me for knowledge. The gift had felt right though, and if nothing else she would hide it simply because she didn’t want others learning of her new magical trove and trying to take it from her. Secrecy truly was the best defense for both of us.
Breakfast wound down and broke up. I went back upstairs and finished getting ready. I was in a pair of jeans and t-shirt this time, no need for business casual on a witch hunt. Sierra was dressed in a dark blue curve hugging sundress, and open toe sandals. I couldn’t help but stare for a moment at her curves and beautiful face, and her wavy chestnut hair was getting longer as well, almost down past her shoulder blades now. Her gorgeous brown eyes were glowing under my gaze. The more time we spent together, and the closer we got, the more beautiful she seemed to become to me.
Sierra smiled and swayed over to me, “See something you like?”
I nodded, “You make it hard to focus at times love.”
She grinned, “Mission accomplished, just make sure you’re focused later.”
I winked, “I’ll do my best.”
I knew we needed to go, but I took a minute to kiss her rather thoroughly, and based on the hungry and sexy look in her eyes I’d done a good job of it. She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the door, and muttered something about incentive to get back in one piece, but I didn’t catch all of it. Still, it was gratifying to know I had a similar effect on her.
There were people in the store, and I thought it would be rude to appear without notice in her work room, so I brought us all to my office, after checking that no one was in the area, and had the magic take us there. I couldn’t afford to get sloppy, using air to travel was becoming second nature, it would be too easy to not take it seriously and slip up in the age of cell phone and security camera’s.
It didn’t take long for the four of us to reach Tara’s shop and she came out to greet us. She was back in a dress this time, elegant and flowing with her long red hair coifed on her head. Her green eyes were hard as granite and she was obviously ready and more than willing to kick some tail. She waved us into the back, and we followed her silently.
She smiled after shutting the door, “Welcome, and thanks again for the help.”
Tara was looking right at me when she said the word thanks, and I felt a sense of relief that she was going to be subtle about the whole book thing. She turned and grabbed three black collars off the table, and explained what they were as she handed them to Clint, Katie, and Sierra.
“These are personal wards, I put them on a collar, and you can see the material will stretch when you shift. I’d advise you to not depend on them, in fact, pretend you aren’t even wearing them. A witch has to constantly channel energy into wards when they are attacked, something you can’t do. So they’re good to absorb a spell, maybe two, before they fail. Still, it’s a just in case, try to avoid all magic anyway, and don’t even think of trying to charge through it.”
Katie growled, “We got the point, take no chances, thank you.”
Tara nodded slightly, and then turned to me, “Are you sure they’re at the coven house?”
I tried to relax, it still wasn’t easy for me to do the subtler magic that fire sorcery was capable of. I was more powerful in air, but I’d been an idiot to completely ignore fire for so long. I found the emotional connection, it just felt like the right one, there were literally thousands of connections off of everyone in the room. I followed it back.
“Yes, I just checked again.”
Tara sighed, “That’s going to make things harder. This is just tentative, so anyone can object if they want when I’m finished, but I do have a plan of sorts. Okay, when we show up we need to take down the active protections from outside. Then I need everyone to protect me while I cast a spell that will… ward their traps. In other words, I’ll surround all their inactive traps with my own magic so they can’t be activated. At that point, they’ll sense what I did immediately and try and dispel it. At the same time, as soon as my spell is successful, we rush the house.
“Hopefully at least half the coven will already be involved in a spell to clear my magic, and we can rush the house. It will be my and Ben’s job to try and counter their personal magic and any devices they are wielding, and it will be yours to close in. A witch’s ward won’t stop physical attacks, but they could have a personal trap ward, say anyone that physically touches them will get electrocuted.”
Clint snorted, “That sounds just peachy.”
Tara nodded and smirked, “That’s what the personal wards I made for you are for. It should deflect that magic, assuming they even have it, and let you take them down easy. But only if it’s still active when you reach them. I expect though that once their down to their personal wards and magic Ben and I will be able to take down a few while disrupting their magic.”
I interjected, “I can also shield them a bit, as long as they don’t get too far from me, two hundred feet or so.”
Katie frowned, “It’s a well thought out plan, and thank you for the magic, but it seems rather complicated. I’ve seen Ben torch things, once the wards are down, can’t he just set the house on fire? We can pick them off as they run out.”
Tara shook her head, “Ben can use fire and air against the witches, and even against the active protective wards when we begin the attack. But the house itself has… inactive wards that an earthquake, or fire, or water would activate. The more fire, the more fireproof the house would become. Worse, he’d be breaking the spell I cast over the house to prevent those wards and many other traps from working.
“He might be able to overload those wards, eventually, but it would be like a bomb going off, a mushroom cloud right outside of Minneapolis wouldn’t be subtle at all, and we’d all wind up dead.”
Sierra asked curiously, “How do you know they have those?”
Tara frowned, “I grew up there, that’s the same coven house they had when they killed my mother, and I fled from before I turned sixteen.”
She turned around and grabbed a basic floor plan, and pointed to a large room in the back.
“This is where they’ll most likely be, it’s the ritual room where their power is the strongest. Any other ideas?” Tara added wryly, “I’m a store owner, and a relatively peaceful witch. I’ve never planned an assault before, I just happen to know the layout, the magic, and the enemy.”
Clint grunted, “It’s a good enough plan to start with. Just remember the battle never goes to plan, be ready for the unexpected, and if you think the enemy will do one of three things, they’ll always choose the fourth option. I think we’re about as ready as we’ll get.”
I nodded, “There are some woods behind the house, I’ll take us there, are we ready?”
They all nodded, and I took a d
eep breath. I called on air to take us all there…
Chapter 15
Sunday, June 5th, 2016, 9:33 AM
Some plans go awry a little bit into a mission, some actually go to plan for the most part with a hiccup or two. In this case, the plans were shot as soon as we arrived in the small wooded area behind the house. With air being blocked, and only fire to lead me here, we were completely unprepared for what awaited us, I certainly didn’t see any of it coming.
I had a couple of seconds to look around before it all went to crap. The house was about two hundred feet away, my sphere of air magic just reached the edge of the wards which I couldn’t see past. The sun was behind some clouds, and the light was fairly dim because of that despite the hour. The house itself was a bright yellow color, which tickled my sense of irony.
Seconds after we arrived however, the clouds in the sky started to congeal, and formed a storm. I could feel the magic of it at work, the water, fire, and air magic combining. What I couldn’t feel was the earth magic that was causing the ground to start rumbling, and which called lightning from the sky. The three werewolves stripped quickly and changed, I was about to start hitting the house wards with a mix of fire and air magic to bring it down, when the ground below us exploded, throwing us all in random directions. Whatever it was, it must have been all earth magic, because I hadn’t felt it coming at all.
I chose to go straight up, and the air shield I’d placed around the wolves seemed to keep them safe as they went flying. Tara looked a little dizzy when she stood up, but otherwise was unharmed as well. In the meantime, where we had been standing, there was now a creature made of earth the size of a large gorilla. It was disturbing because I couldn’t feel it at all.
I mean, I could feel the shape of it, it was in my sphere of air now, but I couldn’t feel a lick of the magic that animated it. It was pure earth magic. I nailed it with fire and air magic, sending a firestorm of power in a line of fire and air that supported each other. I also fed the heat and light back into it, so it looked more like a spear of darkness. It impacted the creature and took an arm off, along with most of its shoulder.
Sorcerer: Witch's Woes: Power of Air (Book 3) Page 10