by Geof Johnson
“I don’t care if people see the doorway. This is too important.”
“But it might cause so much chaos and confusion that it’ll slow us down. Think about it, Jamie. People will freak out when they see it. What if they call security?”
“Take her to Keeva,” Mrs. Malley said. “At the clinic. She can put Melanie’s body in a state and bring it to a stop. The bleeding will cease for a short while.”
“Then you can take her to the hospital if you want.” Momma Sue nodded firmly. “I agree with Bella. Keeva is Melanie’s best chance.”
Jamie stood with his mouth open and one finger raised, ready to make a doorway to somewhere, anywhere. He wasn’t sure what the best choice was, but the palpable sense of urgency was overwhelming. He turned to Bryce and said, “What do think? Clinic or hospital? Better hurry, though.”
Bryce held Jamie’s gaze for a couple of seconds, then he dipped his chin once. “Clinic. Right now.”
Jamie formed the portal in record time and opened it while Bryce lifted Melanie from the floor. Carl said, “We’ll stay here with Cage. Come back for us after you take care of Melanie.”
“We should go with them, too,” Momma Sue said. “Me and Bella and Fred, in case we’re needed. The rest of you should wait with Carl.”
Jamie led the way for Bryce as he carried Melanie through to the front of the clinic, and the others followed. Then Jamie held the door to the building open and they rushed inside.
Bryce nearly bumped into Keeva as he ran into the main room with Melanie in his arms. Jamie, Fred, and the two old witches were close on his heels. “We need your help,” Bryce blurted out. “Melanie’s been shot.”
Keeva took a quick look at Melanie, and she turned and shouted, “Dr. Burke. We have an emergency.”
Dr. Burke hurried from the back room, putting her glasses on as she came. “What is it?”
Fred quickly explained the situation, then the two women from the clinic had Jamie move the examination table to the center of the room. Bryce laid Melanie on it. Keeva eyed Melanie’s wound for a moment before resting her hands on Melanie’s abdomen, eyes closed and brow furrowed deeply.
No one moved or even breathed while they watched the young healer. After what seemed like an eternity, Keeva opened her eyes and said, “I can help her. I must still her body, first.” She touched the fingertips of one hand to Melanie’s forehead and whispered something, and Melanie’s skin began to turn gray, starting at her face and spreading downward until it covered her completely.
“Is it supposed to do that?” Bryce said. “She looks like she’s dead.”
Keeva turned to him and gave him a reassuring look. “I have put her in a state. She can survive this way for about ten minutes before the bleeding resumes. That will give me enough time to heal her.”
“Can you do that? Shouldn’t we take her to a hospital instead?” He looked at Dr. Burke, who shook her head and said, “If Keeva thinks she can do it, I say we should let her try. We still might have enough time to take Melanie to the hospital if she fails.”
“Fails?” Bryce’s voice grew strident. “She can’t fail!”
Keeva’s eyes were confident. “I believe I can heal her, but she will require more blood. Dr. Burke can take care of that.”
“I can give her a transfusion,” Dr. Burke said. “We have enough on hand, but I’ll need to start it as soon as Keeva finishes.”
“So what should we do?” Bryce glanced at the others for help, until Fred gently put her hand on his shoulder and said, “It’s your decision, Bryce, and I know you’ll make the right one. But do it now.”
Bryce stared at Melanie’s unconscious form and swallowed hard, one hand opening and closing at his side. “Okay.” He nodded firmly. “Heal her, Keeva. Please.”
“I think the bullet is still inside her,” Jamie said.
“We need to remove that, first,” Keeva said. “Jamie, will you do that with your magic?”
“I’ll try.”
Dr. Burke held a kidney-shaped surgical pan close to the table. “Put it in here, if you can.”
Jamie stepped to Melanie and placed his hands on her body, then focused his will and sent it inside her. “Ugh,” he said when he sensed the carnage the bullet had caused, tissue torn apart in a ragged tunnel that led upward through her abdomen. He sent his mind deeper until he found the slug, wedged against the back of her rib cage. He gripped it with his magic and translocated into the pan, where it landed with a metallic thunk.
“Gross,” Fred said. “It’s bloody.”
“But it is out of her body,” Keeva said. “Now I will need the help of another witch, the strongest amongst you, to join her magic with mine.”
“Why not all of us?” Fred said.
“This spell will only work when two are joined.”
“That would be Momma Sue or Mrs. Malley.” Fred turned and looked at the two old witches, but both of them shook their heads. Fred frowned in disbelief. “You’re not going to help her?”
“No, child,” Momma Sue said. “We are not the strongest.” She smiled softly. “You are.”
“What? There’s no way. One of you is.”
“No,” Mrs. Malley said. “We are older and know much more, but your power surpasses ours.”
“But….” Fred blinked hard as she looked at the women, who still shook their heads.
Keeva said urgently, “Help me, Fred. Now. We should hurry.” She gestured to the other side of the table and after a moment’s hesitation, Fred moved there, opposite the dark-haired healer.
“I’ll prepare for the blood transfusion while you do your thing,” Dr. Burke said. “Does anyone know her blood type?”
“AB positive,” Bryce said. “We donated blood together once.”
Fred stood next to Melanie and stared blankly at Keeva. “What do I do? Do I let my magic flow into yours, like when we made the potion for Stacey?”
Keeva nodded and extended her hands toward Fred, palms down, and Fred reached out with hers. They entwined their fingers, and then lowered them together onto Melanie’s still, gray body. They closed their eyes.
Jamie held his breath as he waited, and he was sure everyone else did, too. There was no sound or movement. Nothing happened initially, until a thin ray of pure white light burst outward from the wound in Melanie’s abdomen. Jamie gasped. The beam widened and sharpened in intensity, and Jamie leaned closer to watch. “Whoa,” he whispered.
The skin around the bloody hole began to grow inward and pull together, and the escaping light gradually became blocked as the opening closed completely.
Her belly glowed at the point of the injury, as if she were lit from inside, and the magical blush spread outward in all directions, the gray pallor turning golden and gleaming, even visible under her clothes, until it swept over every part of her. It became brighter still, and incandescent flashes flared from her body like a sparkler on the Fourth of July. She became so dazzling that Jamie had to squint to withstand the awesome sight.
Just when he was about to look away, the glow subsided. Keeva released Fred and stepped back, both of them gasping for breath and their shoulders slumping.
Melanie appeared pink and vital again.
Dr. Burke pushed the I.V. rack to the table and said, “It’s my turn, now,” and she swabbed Melanie’s arm and inserted the needle for the blood transfusion, then taped it into place.
Bryce looked dumbfounded. “Is she…is she okay?”
“She is healed,” Keeva pronounced. “Fred and I were able to repair all of the internal damage. We just need to wash off the dried blood, and she will be presentable.”
Bryce flashed a relieved smile. “Can I do it? I want to. Please?”
“Of course,” Dr. Burke said. “There are some sterile sponges in the cabinet by the sink, and bottles of clean water.”
“What happens now, Dr. Burke?” Jamie said.
“I’d like her to stay with us overnight for observation, though that’s just a precautio
n. I’m sure she’s okay, if Keeva says so.”
“Can I stay with her?” Bryce asked. “You have a cot, don’t you?”
“That would be fine. I guess I need to make sure we have enough food for breakfast, though. Melanie will be hungry when she wakes up.”
“We’ll bring you some food if you don’t have enough,” Fred said.
Jamie felt good all over, thankful and happy, and his face pulled into an awkward grin. “Wow.” Then he took Fred’s hand and squeezed it. “Good work, you guys.”
“That’s what us witches are good for.” Fred wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and then smiled. “But we’d better be getting back to the monastery soon. We still have to figure out what to do with Phillip Cage.”
* * *
Jamie, Fred, Momma Sue, and Mrs. Malley returned to the monastery to find everyone still waiting in the storage room, and Jamie quickly related how Keeva and Fred had saved Melanie.
Cage was awake, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, his hands bound behind him and his ankles lashed together with restraining straps. Carl and John Paul stood on either side of him with their shotguns ready. Cage’s eyes were narrow and hard, and his mouth was twisted into a half-smile, as if he were still in control. Jamie gestured toward him and said, “When did he wake up?”
“A little while ago,” Eric said. “He’s not talking, though. He’s determined not to cooperate.”
Momma Sue crossed her arms and gave him a level-eyed look. “He’ll talk plenty when me and Bella are through with him.”
Cage scowled. “Don’t count on it.”
Momma Sue stepped closer and leaned over him. “I can get you to do anything I want, little man.”
Cage’s confidence seemed to waver as the voodoo queen stood before him. He sniffed and turned to the three witches, Dumitra, Celestina, and Timea, who waited nearby, sitting together on a wooden crate. “You weren’t much help. Why didn’t you see them coming?”
“We did,” Dumitra said.
Cage wrinkled his brow. “You speak English?”
Dumitra grinned but didn’t answer.
“And you didn’t tell me we were going to be attacked?” He spat, “Traitors.”
Dumitra looked into all the faces around her and said in broken English, “We know someone come soon…someone to help…we help, too.” She raised her hands and wiggled her fingers. “We hex everyone. Make them fight and…and go away.”
“She’s telling the truth,” Nova said. “I can really sense it right now. The feeling is strong.”
“That was good thinking, Dumitra,” Fred said. “That really helped us a lot. But why did you do it?”
“For freedom.” She said it earnestly, and the other two witches seemed to comprehend and nodded with her.
Momma Sue’s face softened and she said, “I understand. I was so wrong about you. I’m sorry.”
“Is okay,” Dumitra said. “We understand, too.”
Cage lowered his eyes and took a slow breath through his nose, then looked up at Jamie. “How did you do that stuff? You were flying, and I shot at you, but the bullets bounced off like you had a force field. Witches can’t do that.”
“It was magic,” Jamie said without further explanation.
Cage grunted and stared at Jamie, then glanced around the room. “All of you got it?”
“Nope,” Fred said. “A lot of us do, though.”
“Which ones?”
“You don’t need to know that,” Terry said.
Cage glared her for a moment and sneered. “I know who you are, Terry Voss, and your idiot partner, Eric Stenner. You’re CIA agents, part of the X-Files unit.” He laughed harshly. “X-Files. Couple of losers.”
“Well,” Eric said with a cruel smile, “we caught your sorry ass. What does that make you?”
“Won’t matter. I got connections.”
“Really? Why don’t you tell us who they are?”
Cage grunted again and stared at the floor. “You’ll never know. I’m trained to withstand torture, so don’t waste your time.”
“Bella,” Momma Sue said, “Why don’t you loosen his tongue?”
“I would be happy to.” Mrs. Malley reached into her leather bag and pulled out a small glass bottle.
“Is that the truth potion you gave to Duane Gundy?” Carl asked.
“Yes. I thought we might need it tonight.”
“That stuff works great. Gundy is still confessing, last I heard, even though he’s been in prison for six months.”
Cage gave his head a firm shake. “You can’t make me take that.”
“Sure we can.” Momma Sue stepped close to him, waved a hand in front of his face, and muttered something. His features slackened, and his eyes turned glassy.
“He’s all yours, Bella.” Momma Sue moved aside, and Mrs. Malley opened the bottle, pulled down Cage’s bottom lip, and poured several drops of the clear liquid into his mouth. “That should do it,” she said.
Momma Sue muttered something else, and Cage’s eyes refocused. She turned to Eric and said, “Ask him anything you want. He’ll tell you everything. He’ll do it for the rest of his life, I believe.”
Eric moved a step closer to Cage. “We think you were working for the North Koreans and that they were using you to start a war between Israel and Iran. Is that true?”
“Yes.”
“You seemed to have some inside knowledge about our previous attempts to apprehend you. Did you get that from your witches or from someone at the agency?”
“The agency, most of the time. I got a friend there.”
“Who?”
“Bill Talmadge.”
“Our boss?” Eric exchanged glances with Terry. “How did you get him to turn?”
“Money, you moron. He’s got two kids in grad school, and he’ll never be able to retire on the CIA’s pension, so he was looking to feather his nest with some extra cash.”
“Damn,” Terry said. “That’s big news. That’s going to shake things up at the agency.”
Eric crossed his arms. “Do you know why Talmadge put us on this assignment?”
“Because he thinks you’re losers. He wanted someone to help him look like he was trying to stop me, but he didn’t want someone who was competent enough to accomplish the mission. It was all a charade.”
Eric and Terry looked at each other for a long moment, their expressions angry.
Jamie said to the two agents, “But Talmadge misjudged, you. You did the job when no one else could have.”
“Not without your help,” Terry said glumly. “We didn’t do much of anything.”
“You planned almost everything and took care of a lot of stuff we never could’ve anticipated,” Jamie said. “Maybe it was a group effort, but you two guys led it.”
“I thought you did a great job tonight,” Carl said, “and I’ve been on a lot of raids.”
“I think you did a great job on everything,” John Paul added, “not just this raid.” Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the room.
Eric gazed at the far wall with his lips squeezed into his mouth. “Well, I guess we did get the job done.” He turned to Terry and said, “Now we have to figure out how to get him back to the States without anybody knowing about the magic.” Eric looked back at Cage, who was staring at his, still seated on the floor. “Did Talmadge have anybody else at the agency working for him?”
“No,” Cage said without raising his head. “Just him.”
“Good. Then we can call for CIA transport and wait for them here. If anybody asks how we got here in the first place, we can say we came in on foot. That’ll look legit enough.”
“Why stay here?” Jamie said. “I can make a doorway to anyplace you want. Surely you and Terry can come up with a believable story as to how you got there.”
“Let’s take Cage to Langley Air Force base,” Terry said. “We can call headquarters from there and say we brought Cage in secretly because we knew we had a mole and we had t
o be careful.”
“If we do that,” Eric said, “I should definitely call headquarters first and have Talmadge taken into custody.” Then he frowned. “But Cage knows about everybody’s magic now. How are we going to keep him from divulging that?”
Mrs. Malley pulled another bottle from her bag. “With my forget potion.”
“But we need him to confess. How will he do that if his memory is wiped?”
“It can erase as many or as few days as you wish. One day should be sufficient, don’t you think? He will forget completely about us and about how you got him back to the authorities.” She handed Eric the bottle and said. “Give him about three drops once you are home.”
Eric eyed the bottle in his hand and wrinkled his brow. “What if he won’t take it? He could make a big scene at the Air Force base and cause problems for us. We can’t give it to him now because it’s too soon.”
Momma Sue reached into her own bag and pulled out a thin metal bracelet. She bent over Cage and snapped it around his wrist. “Do not take this off, tin soldier.” He stared at it warily, and Momma Sue turned back to Eric. “That’s a compliance bracelet. He’ll keep it on and do anything you want. He’ll sing the National Anthem naked on top of the Washington Monument, if you like.”
Eric laughed. “Uh, that won’t be necessary. But I would like to get back to Langley right away, if you don’t mind.”
“I guess that’s my cue to make a doorway.” Jamie scratched his chin and pinched up his mouth. “Let’s see…Air Force base, right?”
“Yes, please.”
“Where at? Needs to be inconspicuous.”
“Hold on.” Terry pulled out her phone and tapped the screen. “I’ll show you. I know just the place.”
* * *
Fred leaned her head on Jamie’s shoulder and sighed, sitting on the sofa in his parents’ family room. “How much longer are we going to stay here? It’s late. Must be after one o’clock.”
Jamie glanced at the ceiling and said, “I just want to make sure my parents are okay. It worries me when they go to bed mad at each other.”
“Your mom was pretty ticked at your dad. She was mad at you, too.”
“I guess it was dumb having both of us go to the monastery, but Eric felt like we needed my dad on the mission.” He exhaled heavily. “Hope Mom forgives him soon.”