by Sean Stone
“She likes it, loves it. She was born here and says that it’s where we belong,” Elizabeth said, nodding profusely.
“Is she good to you, Elizabeth?” he asked. He didn’t know how to ease his way into it and decided that he might as well cut to the chase.
“Of course, she’s my mum,” Elizabeth said quickly, her face turned a bright red. “She can be a bit forceful but she’d never hurt me.”
“Forceful how?” he said gently.
“She likes me to be a certain way. She doesn’t like me to mix with the wrong people.”
“Who are the wrong people?”
“Everyone,” she said and uttered a tiny laugh. “Everyone I’ve tried to make friends with she’s sent away, or stopped me from seeing them.”
“How does she stop you?” the girl was nineteen, an adult, how was Genevieve controlling her?
“Magic. She seals me in the house.”
“And your magic isn’t strong enough to break hers?” Adam said, pulling his best sympathetic face.
“She…” Elizabeth began but then stopped herself, her eyes widened as if she was shocked by what she almost said.
“What is it?”
“I can’t. I’m sorry Mr Kent, but I can’t say anything else,” she said shaking her head from side to side.
“You can, it’s fine, you can trust me. What does she do?”
“No, she’s forbidden me to speak about it.” Elizabeth’s face was fearful. Genevieve had the poor girl terrified.
“Elizabeth, I’m not going until you’ve told me,” Adam assured her. “I can help you.”
“I can’t, you can’t,” she said forcefully, more forcefully than Adam thought she was capable of. “She’s forbidden me.”
“As your dynast I order you to tell me,” Adam said. He didn’t like resorting to that but he needed to get what he came for before Genevieve came back.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened again and he could see the inner turmoil he’d put her through. She didn’t know who to obey: her mother or her dynast.
“Alright,” she said at last. “But you have to keep it a secret.”
“What is it?” Adam said, making sure not to agree to anything.
“My magic is bound to her. She channels it into her own when she needs to, so if I try to use it against her she just blocks it. She keeps me weak, too weak to fight my way out of this house,” Elizabeth explained.
Adam sat slack-jawed, not sure what to say. The hypocritical old bat was using the dynast ritual on her own daughter and she dared to criticise him for suggesting using it on the coven. It wasn’t just hypocritical, it was inexcusable. It was against coven law for any member to channel another’s power without consent and never permanently. It was the nail in Genevieve’s coffin that Adam had been looking for. She was well and truly finished.
“This is…” he didn’t know what to say, it was too much of a shock. He was both horrified and excited. “It’s completely disallowed. I have to put a stop to this.”
“What? No, you promised,” Elizabeth said frantically. Tears sprang to her eyes.
“I didn’t promise. I’m sorry, but I can’t let this continue.” Adam stood up.
“You don’t understand, she’ll take my powers completely if she finds out I told,” she said, grabbing hold of his trousers, begging him not to do anything.
“If she does that then she’ll be a warlock and under coven law she’ll be put to death,” Adam said. It was another archaic coven law but one that Adam stood firmly behind. A coven was a place of trust, it was a family, and for one member to steal the power from another was deplorable.
“You can’t kill her!” Elizabeth shrieked. Her grip on his trousers tightened. Thankfully he was wearing a belt otherwise, she might have inadvertently pulled them down.
“I don’t want to,” Adam said, although a part of him did. He took her wrists and gently pulled her off of his trousers. “But if she does that I’ll have no choice. Come with me now and I’ll protect you.”
“I can’t leave; the house is sealed.”
“Then I’ll break the seal.”
“You think you can undo her spell? You aren’t powerful enough,” Elizabeth said with a hint of haughtiness that was so like her mother. She was right. Adam wished he’d brought Toni, maybe the two of them together could have broken the seal, although he doubted it.
“Listen, Elizabeth, I will help you. I’m going to call the coven together and I promise not to say anything until everyone is in the same room, including you and your mum. That way you will be protected. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” she said resignedly. There was no relief in her expression though and Adam felt terribly sorry for her.
“I promise I will help you,” he said one last time before leaving and then he hurried off to find Toni. It was time to end their Genevieve problem for good.
*
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
James pulled himself up off the floor and faced his opponent again. His body was battered and bruised from his training so far. It had only been two days since he’d completed the warlock ritual and his training had been intense. Kristen was his mentor but other members of the Thirteen tutored him as well. Lucian, the vampire, was responsible for teaching him combat. James had had good combat training during his employment for the council, he’d learned several different martial arts, but none of them helped in a fight against Lucian. James’ lycanthropy granted him increased speed and strength but Lucian’s was double that at least. Every move James used was countered by Lucian and one way or another James always ended up on his back.
Kristen had been teaching James how to master his powers — although he still thought of them as Holly’s powers — with the assistance of other disciples. The others would be James’ opponent in duels whilst she shouted instructions at him from the edge of the room. There were no theory lessons or easing into things, she just threw him into a full on duel with the only rule that nobody was allowed to leave any permanent damage. She believed that that was the quickest way he would learn. He hated to admit it but he agreed, many people never achieved their full potential unless forced, and sitting in a classroom being taught the theory of magic was not going to give him mastery over stolen powers, he had to take control via a hands-on approach. He’d tried using Holly’s powers when he’d been alone in his room but he couldn’t achieve anything, as soon as he’d been attacked in the first duel his powers had pretty much surfaced on their own.
The power he’d stolen was strong and there was a lot of it. He could literally feel it coursing through his body like a white hot fire, burning to be freed. Accessing it was not a problem, making it do what he wanted was. The problem was it just felt like it didn’t belong in him. It felt alien, like an intruder. In his efforts to become human he had become more supernatural than he’d ever imagined he would be. He was now both werewolf and warlock; what would Dean think of him if he knew?
“Again!” Kristen barked and James stepped forward, back into the red circle that had been drawn on the wooden floor of the vast room, to serve as a fighting ring.
Julian stood perfectly still, staring blankly at James with his huge dark eyes. Julian was the oldest looking of the disciples. He had a square head with blonde-white hair and wrinkled, slightly sagging skin. But like the other disciples, he was immortal and his true age was unknown to James. James wondered when Nick was going to make him immortal as well, and whether or not he wanted the gift. Everybody else just assumed he did, but James was unsure. If he couldn’t repair things with Dean, then the last thing he wanted was to live forever without his son. But Kristen had said that the disciples didn’t have full immortality, they could still be killed if they were careless. James had only been offered a place amongst them because one of them had been killed when he went travelling with Nick.
“Pay attention!” Kristen shouted, and James returned his focus to Julian.
Julian’s aged face gave away nothing, no clue as to what he wa
s going to this time. James stared back at his opponent and waited. Kristen had told him never to make the first move unless he was certain it would pay off, and when facing an opponent whom you knew outmatched you it would almost certainly not pay off. So, he waited for Julian to move first. Julian it seemed was waiting for him. They waited for a long time. James knew that he was doing the right thing otherwise Kristen would have shouted at him by now; instead she stood silently somewhere out of sight. Julian flicked his wrist in a single snappy movement, the rest of his arm stayed perfectly still and if James hadn’t been paying attention he would have missed it. He saw a tiny dart of green light shoot towards him. James’ mind froze and he quickly side-stepped out of the way. The green dart hit the bookcase behind him and several books tumbled onto the floor.
“Use your power!” Kristen shouted. Lucien had told James never to rely on one skill, that he should use whatever he could to win a fight, but that rule did not apply in Kristen’s lessons. In her lessons, he was to use only the skills she told him to. She’d taught him some basic combat spells. There were words for each spell, but she wanted him to perform them silently. She said that only children used verbal spells. Once a sorcerer could master magic within their own head they could modify spells as they saw fit and even create their own. Magic was fluid and could be moulded to suit one’s purposes.
Julian did not wait about, he turned to face James and before he’d finished turning he’d already sent two more darts of green light at him. James spun out of the way of one and held his hand up to deflect the other using the deflection spell he’d been taught. It took a lot of willpower to resist saying the word, but he knew that Kristen would blast him with a spell of her own if he spoke. He felt a force leave his hand which the second green dart hit and then bounced back. It shot back at Julian who caught it in his hand and reabsorbed it.
“Only an idiot could get hurt by their own magic,” Kristen said. James had seen an entire coven have their own magic used against them for thirty years, but he knew not to try starting a conversation midst duel. He’d done that yesterday and had ended up with a horribly burnt neck. Luckily Julian was able to heal it for him. It turned out that only the sorcerer who cast a curse could heal it, or a sorcerer of greater power. Several of the Thirteen claimed they could have healed Julian’s curse but none of them wanted to attempt it, they said it would have been bad form. Kristen told him that even a sorcerer of greater power would probably not be able to heal the curse fully, so it was best to let the caster do it.
Julian brought his arm up ready to strike again and James flicked his own handout, once again thinking about the spell he wanted to use. Dozens of tiny red darts flew at Julian who waved his hand lazily and knocked them all to the floor where they disintegrated.
“Concentrate!” Kristen yelled.
James hadn’t given the move much thought which was how Julian had so easily disarmed it. Even if he had been concentrating Julian would probably still have blocked it.
“Think about the effect you want the attack to have and then project it,” said Kristen. “Forget the spells,” Kristen said that spells limited sorcerers’ abilities and the only way to truly master magic was to bend it to one’s will. Create one’s own spells constantly rather than using ones already created.
James imagined Julian being hit by some great invisible force. Holding onto that thought James spread his fingers and pushed his right hand forward aggressively, crying out as he did. There was loud booming sound as the power left his body and then the force hit James hard. He flew back through the air and smashed into the bookcase. He heard the wood crack and felt his spine crunch. He crashed onto the unwelcoming floor and several torn book pages flapped down on top of him, followed by a section of the bookshelf. He heard Julian give a single laugh.
“That’ll do,” Kristen said and Julian left the room. He drifted rather than walked as if he was floating across the floor.
James rolled over, wincing in pain and pulled himself to his feet. He’d lost count of how many times he’d had to pick himself up that day. Kristen offered no help. The pain in his back was already starting to subside, nothing was broken.
“You’re fighting it,” she said, staring at him with disdain. “You’re fighting against your own power. That’s why you can’t control it.”
“I’m trying to control it,” James said. He rubbed the base of his spine where it hurt the most.
“Half of you is, but the other half is rejecting the magic. Unless you embrace it and accept it as part of you, you’ll never be able to control it and things like this will keep happening.”
James didn’t know what to say, she was right and he knew it. He was rejecting the power because he didn’t think it belonged inside him. In fact, he knew it didn’t, it belonged in Holly.
“I know how it feels. I rejected my first power as well. It felt like there was something dirty inside me, something I had to scrub out,” Kristen confessed.
“Why did you take it then?” James asked. It was unlike her to tell him anything about her, usually, she was a firmly closed book.
“This isn’t a date James; we’re not sharing stories about our pasts. It doesn’t matter why I took the power or why it felt that way, all that matters is how I fixed it,” she said.
“And how did you fix it?”
“Nick tried to teach me control, as I’m teaching you and when that failed he sent me out to take more power. I stole more and more power and sacrificed more and more sorcerers until I got used to the feeling of all that magic inside me until it felt natural like it was supposed to be there.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to do that again,” he said at once. It was horrible enough the first time. Not so much the stealing of power but the sacrifice part. He could kill a person with relative ease, but sacrificing them was a completely different matter. And then there was that other feeling; the one that truly scared him.
“Then get control and do it fast, because if Nick finds out you’re rejecting the power he might doubt your commitment and believe me you do not want that. Now, come one, Nick’s called a meeting,” she said.
The meeting was in Nick’s study. James hadn’t been in the room since Nick had offered him a place with the Thirteen. The only change was that the great wooden trunk which had been against the wall was now in the centre of the room. Nick was perched on the edge of his desk and the disciples were standing around the edge of the room forming a circle. They were all there, even Jamal who stood to Nick’s right. James was only familiar with Kristen, Lucian and Julian, the rest he knew by name and that was all. Kristen crossed the room and took the place on Nick’s left forcing Peter to move over. She beckoned James and he crossed the room to stand next to her. Jamal watched every step he took, examining him with silent curiosity.
“Since our reunion in this town we’ve all been working hard toward a common goal,” Nick said. “Many of you have wondered what that goal is and now I’m ready to tell you.”
“It’s not just that I’m wondering about, I want to know what happened here to get you trapped for fifty years,” Elias said, his American accent sounding unfamiliar to James’ ears. A couple of others mumbled their support.
“You’d be an idiot not to wonder. I’ll start from the beginning. Some of you already know why I came to Cedarstone fifty-four years ago,” Nick said. “I came here in pursuit of our ultimate goal, which I won’t verbalise just yet. Our newcomer isn’t ready.” He looked at James briefly. Kristen had told them that the ultimate goal was what had convinced most of the disciples to join the Thirteen. She hadn’t told James what it was because Nick had forbidden it. It didn’t matter so much, James had his own ultimate goal — to be free of lycanthropy.
“Our ultimate goal requires two things,” Nick continued. “One — power, which you already know about, it’s what we’ve been accumulating for centuries. The second thing is an elixir. The elixir that Kayla used to make me immortal.”
“Who’s Kay
la?” James whispered to Kristen.
“The woman who made him immortal,” Kristen said, repeating Nick’s words.
“Yes, but I mean who is she?”
“A very powerful woman,” Kristen hissed and James knew not to ask another question.
“Kayla is the only person who has this elixir, she keeps it in her home. As you know, the place she calls home is hidden from those she does not wish to find it. To find her, to find the place where she lives, would take an extraordinary amount of power. I was planning on using a ritual to find the place. Whilst preparing for the ritual I upset the coven and the clan, and they allied to stop me. I was surprised by that, considering how much they hated each other. I mean honestly, who hasn’t met Richard Morgan and come away hating the man?” The room filled with laughter. James had never worked with Richard Morgan, by the time James had become liaison Richard was already a prisoner and Victor Redmane was the acting high elder of the clan. Victor was an annoying enough person to work with, so dreary and sullen, James couldn’t imagine anybody being worse.
“They put together a plan and led me into a trap. It was a well thought out plan but they weren’t powerful enough to finish the task. I would have killed them had Kayla not arrived.” Nick’s expression turned grim and his tone darkened. “I thought she was going to help me, I thought she’d come to save me as she should’ve done. But no. She betrayed me and left me trapped in an agonising state for 54 years,” his tone grew more and more vicious as he spoke. He took a deep breath and when he spoke again he was calmer. “I should have told you where I was going, then you might have been able to find me. I commend your efforts, though, Jamal managed to track me to this town, if not the bunker I was imprisoned in.”
“If I’d had my powers I would have found you in seconds,” Jamal said confidently.
“I know that you would,” Nick said and the two of them shared a look. James still couldn’t believe that one of the Thirteen had been in town for eight years and nobody knew. James had worked with Jamal on a couple of occasions and never got any vibes that he was one of the bad guys. But then James had been a bad guy himself, still was in fact.