by Hadena James
The taste was better than the smell. The sauce was still so hot it burned the roof of my mouth. The cheese seemed to stretch for miles from my lips to the slice of pizza. It was almost literally a slice of heaven, or at least, from heaven.
Chapter Thirteen
We finished eating and the silence began. It stretched to eternity, time itself seemed to slow down. The tension was thick as we waited. The sun began to set.
“We should formulate some kind of plan,” Eli suggested, breaking into the deafening silence.
“A plan. Well, we’ll have to take the Witches and leave the Overlords to deal with the mythics,” I said.
“That isn’t much of a plan.” Eli told me.
“No, I admit, it is lacking, but I’m not sure what to suggest other than that.”
“We’ll need protection,” Anubis offered.
“We can provide that,” Prunella rang a small bell. A group of four men entered the room. They all seemed to be roughly the same age.
Prunella spoke to them quickly in German. The men nodded their agreement and took seats in the room.
“We’ll provide protection spells for the Overlords, if you are capable of protecting yourselves,” the young police officer told me. For the life of me I couldn’t remember his name. I’m not even sure he had bothered to tell me.
“We’ll protect ourselves. Eli, I think you and I might have to break out our special skills. I would prefer not to kill any of the Witches, but we may have to disable them.”
“Agreed,” Eli nodded once.
“Daniel, if we can break their protection shields, rain down the fire. We’ll need it. If we can’t and you find yourself unnecessary against the Witches, help the Overlords.”
“What about me?” Samuel asked.
“I’ll feed you as much magic as I can, use it to cast whatever spells you can dig up. Nick, if we kill any of the mythics, raise them from the dead. That might make them think twice. If you pull up a couple of neighborhood pets in the process, so be it. No raising dead Humans or Witches though.”
“Yeah, got it,” Nick gave a small shudder. We all took a moment to reflect on Sonnellion’s resurrection.
“Ani, any ideas what they will send?”
“No and we haven’t heard about any attacks on the Strachans either. That sort of worries me.”
“You’re right. I’ll call mom,” I dug out my cell phone. Anubis handed me his as I looked at the dead screen.
“Ok, I’ll call mom now,” I dialed the number.
“Ani, is anything wrong?” My mother sounded worried as she answered the phone.
“No, nothing wrong, except I’m not Anubis. My phone is dead. Have you guys been attacked?”
“Yes, several hours ago. It was strange though, they sent ghouls. Your father and uncles quickly went through the entire lot and they went back to wherever they had come from.”
“We think they are pulling out the really bad things on weak houses. Gremlins hit Timov. Simona Illayanevna is among the rogues.”
“That’s not good.”
“No, it isn’t. I don’t know how many Great Houses have Witches involved. At the moment, the only Houses I can rule out are ours and Prunella’s. All of hers are accounted for and when we get through this, she needs to have a face to face with Rachel to rebuild her coven. They’ve only got six members.”
“I guess it is very good that you went to Berlin then,” my mother sounded worried.
“Yeah, they hit it with Witches and griffins. We managed to stave off the first attack. They weren’t prepared, we’re expecting another though.”
“Stay sharp, Brenna. We don’t know what they are after or why they are attacking the Houses.”
“We have a theory. They’re wearing the robes of ‘The Righteous’. Prunella thinks it is another uprising.”
“They should have died out. They were all imprisoned.”
“We’ve had that discussion too. We think they are trying to bring down the Houses to weaken Human faith in Witches and Elders. We also think Jasmine is the reason the group is still growing. She can enter dreams, it makes sense that she is building her own rogue coven outside the prison to do her dirty work. At some point, I think they may turn their attention to the Island.”
“Let me call you back,” my mother hung up.
“Turn their attention to the Island?” Anubis looked thoughtful as he repeated the phrase.
“My mother just hung up on me,” I stared at the dead phone.
“It was something you said,” Ba’al took an audible breath.
“What?” I frowned at him.
“What better way to clean out the Island than to bring creatures over here to be killed. We know the potion works both ways. It can conjure and send them back. They start small; bring down a couple of Houses. Then they start bringing out the big ones, dragons and what not, until we’ve slaughtered most of them. That only leaves Pendragon and Cerebus protecting the Island,” Anubis said.
“They get Jasmine out of prison,” Ba’al looked at Nick.
“Jasmine uses Nick’s powers to resurrect the dead,” I finished his thought.
“Whoa, you think I’m part of the plan?” Nick’s eyes got wide.
“It would make sense,” Anubis told him.
“I don’t like it,” Nick answered, “we need a plan to stop that plan. I didn’t enjoy resurrecting Sonnellion and he turned out to not be so bad. I don’t want to do it again.”
“That’s a lot of open doors,” Gabriel finally turned to look at us.
“What do you mean?” Eli asked.
“Keeping the souls from developing is door number one. Tearing down the Great Houses is door number two. Nick is door number three.”
“How does tearing down the Houses help them?”
“No Witches to oppose them and nature abhors a vacuum. The recreation of new Great Houses would be hastened. Most likely, the Lesser Witches start bloodlines. Or the Great House left-overs do. Either way, that’s a lot of new bloodlines. There would be a period where the soul was vulnerable,” Prunella told me.
“How many Houses would have to fall for this to be hastened?” My stomach suddenly knotted.
“All of them,” she told me.
My mind had an image of John the Demon turning to dust. They knew how to kill us. Magnus had figured it out for them.
Chapter Fourteen
“Ok, supposing that you guys are right and this is a multi-front, multi-purpose attack system, how do we prepare for it?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Anubis answered, “this isn’t like fighting a war with multiple fronts, it is guerrilla warfare. Guerrilla warfare is effective for a reason. It is hard to plan and prepare how to counter it.”
“Then maybe we need to do some guerrilla warfare of our own. We know that they have a safe haven somewhere in the city. We also know that they are sucking in creatures from the Island. We can work with that.”
“How?” Gabriel asked.
“Spies,” I responded.
“You are going to send someone there to watch and warn us before something comes through?” Ba’al frowned at me.
“No, we already have spies there. We use the chimeras,” I said.
“Gregorian is a telepath,” Anubis said the last with feeling.
“Yes, yes he is. I only need to think about him to hear his voice in my head. I’m sure if you listened, you could do the same. I say we use the chimeras to our advantage. They can watch for anything odd happening and tell us about them,” I said.
“Contact him,” Anubis nodded his head at me.
I closed my eyes and thought about Gregorian. His voice floated to me.
“Demon?”
“Gregorian. How is the family?”
“Fine.”
“Good. Gregorian, we need help. Will you and the others patrol the Island, report back anything weird going on?”
“Like animals disappearing?”
“Exactly like that.”
“Oh, that’s bad. Thank you, Gregorian. Let me know if anything else disappears.”
“Demon, I have more.”
“What Gregorian?”
“There are things coming through portals. We can’t read their auras because of magic. They herd the animals through the portal using magic.”
“Do you know where the portal is?”
“Yes.”
“Watch it Gregorian, watch and see what comes and goes through it.”
“Demon, they herd everything they can find through it. They left the unicorns and flying horses. They took griffins earlier, but they all came back. Not all the others are returning though.”
“What else have they taken?”
“Trolls, titans, and hydras.”
“How many of these portals are there?”
“There were ten, now just two.”
“Gregorian, can you enter one of the portals? I promise you will be returned to the Island just as quickly as possible.”
“Yes Demon.”
“Gregorian, what do you see?”
“A city.”
“Do you know what city?”
“No, Humans are screaming at me.”
“Is the portal still visible?”
“Yes, I go back through.”
“Thank you, Gregorian.”
“I go through the other now.”
“What do you see?”
“A different city. No Humans.”
“Is it daylight or dark?”
“Dark.”
“Do you see any buildings?”
“Yes, but Gregorian can’t read the signs.”
“Was it daylight in the other city?”
“Yes.”
“Do you see anything other than buildings?”
“I see a large fountain.”
“What is on the fountain?”
“There is a statue of Poseidon and I see a tall building that looks like it has a ball on top.”
“Oh boy. Gregorian. Stay there.”
“Ok.”
I opened my eyes. The others were staring at me intently.
“I think Gregorian is in Alexanderplatz, he sees a fountain with Poseidon in it and a tall building with a ball on top. I don’t remember a lot about this city, but I have a picture of me standing next to the fountain in Alexanderplatz and you can see Fernsehrturm from there.”
“It’s a couple of miles from here,” Prunella told me.
“I know. What’s more distressing is that there is a second portal that opens onto a city that isn’t dark. Meaning it’s either somewhere in the US or it’s Australia.”
“Sydney hasn’t been hit yet,” Fenrir told me.
“I know and Gregorian says that beings came to the Island through these portals and herded animals by magic into them. Hydras, trolls, titans and minotaurs to be exact. I don’t like any of those items. They seem to be leaving unicorns, winged horses, chimeras and sprites alone.”
“What about Cerebus?” Anubis asked.
“I think Gregorian would have mentioned if the hell-hound was gone.”
“Are you sure?” Anubis asked.
“Pretty sure. Do we go to Alexanderplatz?”
“No, you stay here, we will go to Alexanderplatz,” Anubis stood up. “We’ll have Gregorian report when we reach there.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why?” Ba’al asked.
“A House divided,” I reminded him.
“You think it’s a trick?”
“No, a ploy to bring out part of us. They left the portals open for a reason. Gregorian said there were ten originally. Ten Great Houses, ten portals, now there are two. If we go with the theory that the other is open to Sydney. They may have intended for us to find the portals.”
“How would they know we would search for them?” Ba’al asked.
“I don’t think they intended us to search for them. But if unicorns and winged horses began wondering around the city, we would probably go to investigate.”
“Are the unicorns and winged horses near the portals?” Anubis asked.
“That I don’t know,” I closed my eyes again.
“Gregorian?” I thought his name.
“Yes, Demon.”
“Are the winged horses and unicorns near the portals?”
“Yes, as are gremlins. They are attracted by the magic.”
“Gremlins? They haven’t been ushered through the portal?”
“No, they just go through them.”
“Go back through, Gregorian. Keep your family safe. I think a battle may be coming your way.”
“Call if you need me Demon.”
“Thank you, Gregorian.”
I opened my eyes back up. The others were again staring at me intently. I frowned at them.
“What? What did he say?” Eli asked, nearly jumping out of his skin.
“The gremlins weren’t herded through, they wandered through on their own. That means something else was supposed to attack St. Petersburg.”
“That’s why she seemed so surprised about the gremlins comment,” Daniel said.
“I think so, so what was supposed to go through to St. Petersburg?”
“Something much worse than gremlins,” Fenrir offered.
“How many different species are on the Island?”
“A couple of hundred. But about half are like gremlins and griffins. Not much good in a fight,” Ba’al answered
“And the other half?” I asked suspiciously.
“More like dragons and wyverns. Thankfully, there is only one Cerebus,” Anubis answered.
“The Witches couldn’t control Cerebus,” I pointed out.
“No, but if they left a portal open, he could wander through,” Gabriel pointed out.
“That doesn’t really help us. What was supposed to slip through and hit St. Petersburg? And what do we do about the portal?” Eli asked.
“I don’t know the answers to any of that. If Simona Illayanevna was trying to crush her own house in the initial wave of attacks, it could have been anything. By the fact that the news isn’t screaming about any more mythics in St. Petersburg, we can go with the theory that it failed, at least for now. The portal will have to be closed, by us, but I‘m not sure how to go about it yet. It seems like the perfect time and place for a trap.”
“Minotaurs are bad. Titans are much worse. Trolls we can handle. And hydras are just...” Ba’al shrugged.
“What’s worse, a hydra or a dragon?”
“They are equally bad. The difference is there aren’t very many hydras, maybe two dozen. There are far more dragons. My main concern at the moment is the minotaurs and titans. Minotaurs running amok is very bad for everyone female. However, if they have a task, like they do when they escort Cerebus, it won’t be as bad. So, let’s hope they are meant to control the titans,” Anubis took in a breath and held it.
“Titans were not covered in the book.” I told him.
“That’s because we try to forget they exist. There are twelve of them. All immortal and yes, they are the basis for the Greek mythos of the same name. They’ve been kept in a cave on the Island with dragon guards for a very long time. Mainly because they really like death and destruction, they feed off of it. They are the results of hybrid breeding. It took us ages to figure out what was creating them. We finally did, but by then there were twelve,” Anubis exhaled loudly.
“Ok, what created them?” I asked.
“Satyrs,” Ba’al said the word like it was bitter.
“Evolution doesn’t always follow a straight line. It becomes worse when intelligent beings get in the mix,” Gabriel frowned at me.
“What do satyrs have to do with titans?” I frowned back.
“Satyrs and Centaurs are of the same stock. We group them together, like we do the Fey. Satyrs found a way to create a creature that looked Human but was anything but. They did this by splicing DNA tog
ether. The results were the twelve titans. They have dragon genes and Human genes and Satyr genes and minotaur genes and...”
“I get the picture,” I interrupted Anubis.
“Yes well, they also have genes from Cerebus,” Anubis finished.
“Why would an Elder do something like that?”
“Because we all suffer from moments of madness,” Gabriel said defensively.
“However, titans, like Cerebus, do not have logical thinking skills. So when they are out, they are out with keepers. In the past, we have let them out every 20 years or so in the presence of lots of Elders and usually a few dragons on leashes,” Anubis said, “I don’t know what they will do in the cities.”
“Eat people, tear up buildings, bring chaos, destruction and mayhem wherever they go,” Ba’al answered.
“Most likely,” Fenrir agreed.
“How many creatures on the Island are Elder made?” Eli asked.
“Titans are the only ones. We banned genetic experimentation after we discovered them. However, in rare cases, we’ll find natural hybrids. We try to exterminate them when we find them. A few have slipped through the cracks though,” Ba’al answered.
“Name an example?” I narrowed my eyes at them.
“Sirens are the results of harpies breeding with minotaurs,” Anubis answered.
“Ok,” I turned and looked back out the window.
There was something about the city that called to me. It was more than just a vague memory from my past. Berlin was beautiful. If I’d had the time, I would have dragged Daniel and Nick to all the great tourist attractions.
“Earth to Brenna,” Fenrir gently touched my shoulder.
“Sorry, I was reveling in a memory that I’m not sure is mine,” I admitted.
“Whose would it be?” Fenrir asked.
“I don’t know; someone who loves this city.”
“Probably mine,” Anubis sighed and joined me at the window, “I love this place. Its beauty and history and language have always called to me. Despite everything that happens to it, it is always born again, always a place of beauty and majesty.”
“I can see that,” I put my hand on his.
“Enough of the past for now. We should tend to the present,” he shook off whatever he was feeling. I felt my own nostalgia disappear.