“The question you asked and the manner at which you had asked it clearly tell me that you think that my cousin’s a witch,” April strongly made note of in an offended tone. “So you think that Ellen isn’t good enough for your son?”
“Ellen is the girl-next-door type and I can’t think of a better girl for my son to date,” Kristen quickly defended.
“But you think that Ellen is a witch,” April pointed out.
“Witch—as in hocus pocus; not as in she is a malicious or hateful person,” Kristen clarified. April shot Kristen a confused look that Kristen didn’t notice. “In fact, she is a very caring person, and as for her being a witch… a sorceress actually—now that I’m thinking about it—she would rank with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North.”
“Are you calling her a witch or a sorceress because she bought a magic kit from the hobby shop today?” April questioned.
“No, and I’ve obviously said too much,” Kristen said before gesturing down the hall towards the elevators. “So I’m going to get going.”
“You can’t honestly think that I’m going to allow you to drop this before you explain yourself,” April retorted before Kristen could step away.
“I am definitely not the right person to be explaining this to you,” Kristen insisted.
“Try,” April demanded.
Kristen stared worriedly into April’s eyes. When Kristen determined that April was serious, she sighed and said in a defeated tone, “Fine. Before I do, how are you related to Ellen?”
“My dad and Ellen’s mom are brother and sister,” April shared.
“Which I should’ve found that out before I had opened my big mouth,” Kristen said in a self-scolding manner. April just gave her an inquisitive look. Kristen took a deep breath before continuing with, “Anyway, I should start by saying that if any animal gets within so many feet of Ellen, Ellen will attract it…”
“I heard about Ellen’s charming effects on the animals,” April quickly informed. “My grandma… which is Ellen’s grandma as well, knew Ellen’s other grandparents while growing-up, so I know that Ellen gets her charming-the-animal attribute from her Grandpa Alex—Ellen’s dad’s dad.”
“Oh, that attribute goes back much farther than Alexander Anderson,” Kristen claimed.
“What do you mean?” April asked in a confused tone.
Kristen again took a breath before telling April every detail that she knew of Ellen.
Without interrupting, April listened to what Kristen had to say. When Kristen was done, April nodded her head while saying, “What you told me is fascinating to say the least. But you can’t honestly believe that Ellen and Ellen’s relatives on her dad’s side are descendants of Merlin.”
“That’s just it, it’s not a belief, it’s a fact,” Kristen replied. “Ellen has diaries of her ancestors that are called Legacy volumes. Those Legacy volumes span centuries, and they’ll prove who she is. In any case, you need to speak with Ellen about it.”
April pursed her lips for a moment before nodding and saying, “Alright. I’ll take this conversation to Ellen.”
“Let her know that I didn’t mean to out her,” Kristen requested. April slightly hesitated before nodding. “Anyway, I need to get to the psychiatric department.”
April nodded with a polite grin before she and Kristen went their respective ways.
As April was rounding the corner of the hall, she and Mr. O’Brien had to abruptly stop to keep from colliding into each other.
“Mr. O’Brien?” April uttered in a surprised tone. “Did something else happen?”
“Nothing happened,” Mr. O’Brien assured her. “I came to visit Anthony before he passes.” He then offered to shake April’s hand. “It’s good to see you again, Dr. Robinson.”
“It’s good to see you,” April said while shaking Mr. O’Brien’s hand. “And in good health.” April suddenly saw that Mr. O’Brien appeared as though he was concentrating on a thought. “Mr. O’Brien?”
Mr. O’Brien stared indifferently at April for a brief moment before saying, “As you suspected, I’m a psychic, and your cousin—the one you were recently discussing with a nurse—is in the middle of ‘Quentin’s Salvage Yard’ while waiting for something.”
April gave him a curious look before asking, “What is she waiting for?”
Mr. O’Brien shook his head before saying, “I can’t see what she’s waiting for. I don’t believe it’s anything good though.”
“Okay,” April began in a skeptical tone. “Do you know what the nurse and I were discussing? About my cousin?”
Mr. O’Brien slightly hesitated before nodding and saying, “The nurse told you the truth. Your cousin is a sorceress. She’s not evil though.”
“Wow,” April said in an astonished manner. “And you don’t know what my cousin is waiting for inside ‘Quentin’s Salvage Yard’?”
“I didn’t see or sense what she’s waiting for, but I did get the sense of an ‘O. K. Corral’ atmosphere around her.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” April took note of. “Thanks for the information. And I’ll see you later.”
“Bye,” Mr. O’Brien said.
April nodded before stepping away.
At the salvage yard, Ellen was once again pacing around. Her attention was then suddenly drawn to a section of the yard when electrical arcing, accompanied by the sound of something hard was slowly splitting, was heard.
When Ellen looked, a cartoon looking fight cloud had formed at ground level that was six feet tall and four feet wide.
Without hesitation, Ellen recited the incantation to draw in electricity from the area light.
Ellen was only midway through the spell when Garrett—the thirty-something-year-old wizard from New Orleans—stepped out from the cloud. The cloud dissipated quickly.
Garrett had a grin across his face, but when Ellen began drawing in electricity from the area light, his expression turned into a curious one.
The salvage yard darkened to almost nothing, and once a glowing halo was seen around Ellen, Ellen shot a powerful bolt of electricity towards Garrett. The light in the yard returned to normal.
Garrett remained where he was, and when the bolt was six inches from him, the bolt impacted an invisible shell that surrounded him. The shell lit up like a low wattage light bulb as it absorbed the strike, and after the invisible shell had returned to normal, Garrett’s grin returned.
As Garrett stepped towards Ellen by a few steps, he said, “A very interesting opening move. And before I retaliate…” Garrett stopped talking and turned his head as if he had sense something behind him. Garrett faced Ellen before continuing. “I expected that you wouldn’t be alone, but to bring an entire coven with you was something that I hadn’t expected. “ Garrett then spoke louder. “So everyone can come out now!”
“No!” Ellen uttered. “Stay out of sight!”
“Quiet!” Garrett ordered while shooting a magical strike at her with only a yellowish flash of his eyes.
Ellen could see the translucent distortion wave of the magical strike rippling quickly through the air towards her, and before she could even respond to it, it was six feet from her face.
Without hesitation, Ellen uttered the command phrase that gave her superhuman speed, and to Ellen’s perspective, the magical strike—now one foot from her face—slowed down to a speed where Ellen could jerk her head to the side in time for the magical strike to soar past her ear by two inches.
As Ellen was still moving at a superhuman speed, Ellen scanned the area around Garrett. She spotted a small stack of unused concrete blocks not far from him.
Suddenly everything returned to its normal speed, and Ellen winced from the pain that shot through her head and the sting of the friction burn on her face.
Ellen ignored the pain as best as she could and quickly uttered the two command phrases that would throw one of the concrete blocks at Garrett. As the concrete block went flying towards Garrett, Ellen quickly repeated the tw
o command phrases again and sent another concrete block flying his way.
Garrett turned towards the flying concrete blocks, and before they could hit him, he blew them to bits, one after the other, with simple hand gestures. The dust and small pieces showered his invisible shell.
Trevor stood upright while reciting a spell. The spell was almost identical to the one that Ellen had just used to draw in electricity, and after he said it in its entirety, a whoosh of flame came up from his toes and a fireball shot out from his fingertips.
The fireball impacted Garrett’s invisible shell from the side while causing his invisible shell to light up again as it did before.
Garrett was left untouched by the fireball and he jerked towards Trevor to retaliate, but before he could do so, Ellen said the first command phrase for the blow-back spell.
As with Cory earlier that day, Garrett was forcibly swatted back several feet into the air and crashed hard into a pile of stacked cars that was stacked ten feet high. Garrett hit the stacked cars near the top and he had caused the stack to sway slightly as he fell nine feet to the ground.
When the stacked cars swayed towards Garrett, Ellen uttered the two command phrases again to throw an object, but this time, she mentally made the top car to drop towards Garrett.
Garrett had gotten up onto his knees, although Garrett’s invisible shell had prevented his knees from touching the ground by six inches, and when he saw the car falling towards him, he made a hand gesture that sent the car flying swiftly towards Ellen.
Ellen once again uttered the command phrase that gave her superhuman speed, and to Ellen’s perspective, the car soared towards her at a slow pace.
Without rushing, Ellen moved out of the car’s path, and when time returned to normal, the car flew past where Ellen had been standing and plowed into the junk cars that were several feet away.
During the sounds of breaking glass and crunching metal, Garrett stood upright, and once it was quiet again, Garrett informed, “I can withstand, absorb or deflect anything that you and your hiding coven can throw at me.”
“Your battery won’t last long,” Ellen presumed as Garrett glanced towards Trevor. “Your force-field will drop and you won’t be able to withstand, absorb or deflect anything.”
“My force-field will last much longer than your Speedy Gonzales imitations,” Garrett assured Ellen.
“We’ll see,” Ellen retorted.
“You and your coven can’t win.”
Ellen ignored what Garrett had said and magically threw three more concrete blocks at him, one after the other.
Trevor magically threw five moderately size car parts at Garrett as well.
Garrett quickly blew up the concrete blocks, one after the other, with simple hand gestures, and as before, the dust and small pieces showered his invisible shell.
The two car parts that Garrett saw coming were quickly deflected while the other three bounced off Garrett’s invisible shell without effecting Garrett.
Garrett briefly glanced towards Trevor as the last car part clang to the ground. As he faced Ellen again, he said, “You know, I wouldn’t even be here if you weren’t spying on my business.”
“If killing innocent people is your business, then you need a new vocation,” Ellen retorted. “And I wasn’t spying on you; you just happened to show up in one of my dreams recently, and while I was trying to remember the details of my dream character’s face, you and your victim had flashed through my head during your human sacrifice.”
“Then I might be to blame for this… this stand-off,” Garrett confessed. Ellen shot him a curious look. “I had cast a spell that supposed to incite dreams. The intended dreamer of my dream was my cowardly brother. The dream was my way of telling him that I was coming for him. In any case, I can’t allow you…” Garrett slightly paused while gesturing towards Trevor. “Him or the rest of your coven to live.”
“Yeah, well, I hope you don’t mind us fighting to stay alive,” Ellen quipped.
“Actually, I would be a little disappointed if you didn’t fight back—like now, in fact. I’m disappointed that your…” Garrett stopped talking and appeared as if he was counting to himself. “That your other eleven coven members are refusing to show themselves. I don’t care about the five dogs that you have hiding about.”
“It appears that the element of surprise has been lost,” Blaire said while coming out of hiding.
In different parts of the yard, Harris, Jessica, Karla, Sadie, Devon, Galvin, Winona, Cory, Riley and Brad came out of hiding one by one as well. Garrett looked into their faces as they each came out.
Wesley whispered to Melanie below human hearing, “Ellen doesn’t want us to come out of hiding.”
“Alright,” Melanie whispered back, also below human hearing.
“I can hear and distinguish heartbeats in case any of you were wondering how I knew your numbers,” Garrett shared.
“Fascinating,” Galvin uttered in an unimpressed tone.
“We clearly outnumber you, so if you surrender now, we can come up with an alternative punishment than death for you,” Trevor bluffed.
Garrett amusingly laughed before rhetorically asking, “Do you know the difference between me and all of you?” Garrett’s eyes flashed, followed by Ellen and the others grabbing their throats and struggling to breathe from an invisible chokehold. “I don’t need to speak when using witchcraft.”
In lightning speed, Wesley came out of hiding, ran towards Garrett at his fastest speed, and rammed shoulder first into Garrett’s six-inch thick invisible shell near the chest.
Garrett flew back several feet into the air, and losing his chokehold on the others.
Wesley came to a halt has he watched Garrett fly back. Everyone, except for Wesley and Melanie, dropped to his or her knees, coughing and gasping for air.
Garrett hit the ground, and as he got up onto his knees, he uttered, “Vampire! I thought I sensed you and one other. Vampires helping witches and wizards is ridiculous, so I dismissed my feeling…”
Just as Garrett went to get up from his knees, Winona noticed that Garrett’s knees had never touched the ground, but his feet do.
Jessica was the closest one to Winona, and Winona quickly grabbed her attention before telling her, “His feet will touch the ground when his knees and other body parts won’t.” Jessica gave Winona a curious look. “I think his feet are vulnerable. Tell the others.”
Jessica nodded in an understanding manner before she went to stand.
“I can kill you, vampire, with just a thought—kill you so much easier than I could kill these witches and wizards,” Garrett continued.
Once back on their feet, their attention was suddenly drawn to Jessica as Jessica was drawing in electricity from the area light.
“This again?” Garrett rhetorically questioned in a tiresome tone. “I thought we had established that your electrical bolts have no effect on me.”
Jessica ignored Garrett, and when a glowing halo was formed, she shot a powerful electrical bolt at the ground between his feet.
Garrett, while noticed by the others, clenched his teeth and endured the pain that shot through his body. When it was over, Garrett shot her a grin and said, “Nice try, but as you can see, it didn’t work.”
“Then we’ll try again,” Ellen uttered before saying the command phrase to activate the whirlwind, and then the command phrase to activate the illusion spell. Garrett put up his hand to block his face from the dust and small debris that were being kicked up, as did Ellen’s group. “Let’s see if a lightning bolt—” As Ellen was imagining lightning, she emphasized, “—or multiple lightning bolts have any effect on your feet and legs.”
Harris took Ellen’s words as a cue to throw another electrical discharge at Garrett’s feet. As Harris recited the spell, Jessica followed along and recited the spell again.
Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin each recited the spell for the fireball.
As Ellen held Garrett’s attention with her whi
rlwind and illusion, Harris fired an electrical bolt at Garrett’s feet first followed by Jessica.
Blaire, Trevor, Devon and Galvin shot their fireball respectively within seconds apart from each other.
The combine strikes blew out a small crater beneath Garrett’s feet, and the gravel-size loose rocks and debris that were created were picked up by Ellen’s whirlwind.
Before the rocks and debris could hit anyone, Garrett shouted out, “Enough!”
The whirlwind immediately died out and the rocks and debris that it held rained down.
With an infuriated expression on his face, Garrett stepped out of the newly formed eighteen-inch crater. His pants from his shin to his shoes, and along with his shoes, were dusty from the recent strikes.
Ellen saw the dust on Garrett’s lower leg and shoes, and while trying to hold back her grin, she again uttered the command phrase for creating illusions.
From five directions, convincing images of Rottweilers came out from underneath and from around the junk cars, and dashed towards Garrett.
Wesley wasn’t sure what to do, so he backed up to the junk cars. Melanie didn’t know what to do either and she just watched the battle from her hiding place.
Garrett turned towards the false images and threw magical strikes towards the illusions. Ellen—while not really knowing what Garrett’s strikes were supposed to do—created illusions of the dogs disintegrating; however, for every one Rottweiler that had disintegrated, two more convincing images came out from underneath the junk cars.
The others realized what Ellen was doing and uttered their command phrases to create convincing images of attacking Rottweilers of their own.
After a short time, Garrett realized what was happening and shot the group an annoyed look.
When Ellen saw that Garrett had given up on fighting the illusions, she mentally gave the Rottweilers the order to attack Garrett’s ankles.
The closest of the five Rottweilers to Garrett got within six feet of him before he realized—either by sensing something or by hearing something—that there were real Rottweilers among the illusions of Rottweilers.
Phoenix and the Dark Star Page 36