Outlaw Magic: An Arcane Angel Adventure

by Lelana Croft

  “Can we find out when he died and how?” I asked, turning my attention back to the computer.

  “It should be pretty easy to find the obituary,” Miles said as he pecked something out on the keyboard. “Here it is…looks like he died of pancreatic cancer in 1972, leaving his fortune to Marilyn. He was some kind of investment banker.”

  I tried to wrap my brain around what was happening.

  “Okay, let’s see if we can sort out what we have so far. We know that the mummy is Marilyn. We know that she used the last name of Roche back in the sixties and married Martin Hastings between 1966 and 1972, when he passed away. How did she get the name Roche? I mean, that's Canon’s name, right? Nothing is mentioned of him in this photo,” I said.

  “Why don’t we see if we can find anything on either Canon or Marilyn Roche? Maybe that will take us further back. Our paper here was started in the 1880s, so if there'd been any news on either of them that was public, it would be in here,” he replied.

  We both began to search the records to see what we could find. There was only one hit.

  “Looks like I’ve found the connection. Canon and Marilyn started Roche Winery together. I can't seem to find anything regarding them being married, but marriage licenses weren’t really required until the 1920s. Before that, it was mostly documents that would be filed with the church. I don’t have access to those unless we know which church, and they let us have access to their records,” Miles explained.

  He printed off the article and handed it to me. The picture, showed Marilyn and Canon standing together next to the new winery sign that displayed that it'd been established in 1959. We now knew that Marilyn and Canon Roche were either married, or pretending to be.

  “So, was she a vampire then? Or some kind of hybrid, like us?” I asked.

  Miles shrugged. “Not sure…I mean, she could be, but from what I know about hybrids when they die, they return to their most dominant form. So a vampire would return to their human form or to dust, but I’ve never heard of a vampire turning into a mummy. Most vampires do go out in some kind of spectacular way, but never like this.”

  I scratched my head as I pondered what it all could mean.

  “Well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take all of this home with me. Maybe I can find something that we aren't catching right now.”

  Miles nodded as I got up and gathered the papers.

  “Thanks for dinner, I really appreciate it,” I said as I made my way toward the door.

  Miles opened the door and walked me outside. He leaned against the corner of the doorway and folded his arms in front of him as I shoved the papers into my bag and hopped on the orange demon.

  “Anytime, and I mean that,” he said as a soft smile lit up his face.

  I didn’t get a chance to make it in the door before my phone dinged. This time, it was Katie asking to come by and talk to me. I was interested in finding out how she’d thought we were related, so I told her to come over.

  “You know he’s falling for you, right? That he’s hopelessly smitten?” Adonis teased as he walked across the back of the couch and perched himself on the arm.

  “I can’t do anything about that, except keep him at arm’s length. I have too many other things to manage right now. And I’ve only been here a week! Nothing can happen in a week,” I said.

  “That’s not true. There are stories all the time about people meeting and falling in love and living happily ever after,” he poked sarcastically.

  “Only in the movies and on TV, or in some kind of messed up romance novel,” I protested.

  I actually think I heard him snort and laugh at my response when we heard Katie’s car pull up in the driveway. I got up and met her on the porch.

  “So, how is mister hot fireman?” I asked.

  I could see her blush as she shook her head and smiled.

  “He’s fine. I mean he’s really fine. And a good kisser,” she giggled as she walked inside.

  “You kissed him?!”

  “Actually, he kissed me. But it was mutual. Wow, just wow,” she said as she pretended to fan herself.

  We walked into the living room and sat down while she told me what’d happened. It wasn’t anything special. He had just walked her to her car and laid one on her. Just like in the romance novels. I giggled at the thought.

  Adonis decided he wanted to be introduced and hopped up on the couch right beside Katie, but when he did that, it startled her and she instinctively shot a small fireball at him. It lit the tip of his tail on fire and he went flying upstairs. I jumped up and followed him into the bathroom where he was hanging his tail in the toilet bowl, a scowl on his face.

  “Nice friend, you’ve got there,” he mumbled as I put my hand across my mouth, trying not to bust out laughing.

  “What’s so funny? Now I have fried hair and toilet water on my tail. I don’t see that as funny,” he grumbled as I went over and turned the sink on, offering to wash it for him.

  He rolled his eyes and jumped up on the basin, making a point to let the wet, soggy tail slap my arm before it went into the sink.

  “Hey! It wasn’t me who did this. You need to be careful who you surprise,” I said while I was trying not to laugh. The more I tried not to laugh, the harder it became and eventually, both of us were laughing hysterically as I used some soap to clean the toilet water out of his tail.

  When I finished, I took a towel and dried as much as I could.

  “There, how’s that?” I asked.

  He sniffed it and looked up at me, “Much better, thank you. I’ll take it from here. I think I'll just go outside for a while, if you don’t mind.”

  I nodded and opened the door to the deck to let him out, then went back downstairs where Katie was still sitting, looking worried.

  “Oh goodness, Scarlett, I’m so sorry! Ever since the fire yesterday, I’ve been a little jumpy. Is he okay?”

  “Yeah, he’s fine. Just irritated mostly. Anyway, back to Ray. So, you like him?”

  “I do. But I don’t want to jump into anything to quick, ya know? I’ve done that before and it's always worked out badly. I want to take my time and get to know him before I get too deep into anything,” she said, leaning back into the couch and clutching her spell book.

  “Totally understand and it’s the best way to do this. Nothing good comes from jumping into a relationship too soon. Trust me, I'm the expert on this one. So, what makes you think we’re related?” I asked. I really wanted to find out what she had.

  She opened up her book to a specific page and handed it to me.

  “Read this passage here.”

  How is it that this happened? I’ve lost my sister because of my love for Sebastian. She won’t speak to me and is off to live her new life with Adimus. I pray, my child, that you can forgive me for breaking up our family. Sebastian has made my life a living hell, but I can't seem to let him go. Even now, he haunts my dreams.

  “That doesn’t mean it was my mother. It could’ve been someone else,” I said, hoping beyond hope that it was.

  “Maybe, but we need to find out for sure. Somehow there is a connection here. I can feel it. Even this house. Something is familiar to me. I mean, I've always lived here in Ste. Geneva, but never in this house. But this house feels like it is connected to me somehow. I’ve sensed it ever since I can remember,” Katie said, as she stood up and looked around like she was getting a feel for the place.

  “My father would know. I’ll call him in the morning and find out what the scoop is. It’s a little late tonight and I don't want to get into a heavy conversation right before I try to sleep. As it is, I’ll probably be up all night, trying to figure this out. Are you going to be at Elemental tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, but only for a while in the morning. The adjuster will be coming by to give me his estimate on the damage and let me know if I'll be getting a check or not.”

  “I hope so. That would be horrible if you’d paid for insurance and then couldn’t use it,” I rep
lied.

  “Yeah, I know. Hey, after I’m done if you aren’t working, I can come back by and maybe you can help me practice some of my fire power?”

  Katie’s eyes lit up at the idea of being able to learn to control her powers better, and I wanted to see what else she could do anyway.

  “Sure! I’ll text you to make sure I’m not working. I had three come through today so as long as I’m not working, that’ll be fun.”

  Katie grabbed her things and took off, noticing Adonis sitting at the top of the stairs. She scrunched up her face and softly waved to the cat. “I’m sorry, kitty. I didn’t mean to fry your tail.”

  I held back a giggle as I looked up at Adonis and winked, and he quickly turned his head and looked up at the ceiling, pretending that we weren’t even there.

  Locking the door behind her, I made my way upstairs.

  “That was rude. She was trying to apologize. She didn’t mean it,” I scolded.

  “I know. But we cats have a reputation to keep up. I wouldn’t want you to think I was going soft or anything.”

  I flopped across the bed and pulled out my phone. It was not so late that I couldn’t call my father, but I just didn’t know if I wanted to get into a conversation with him right now. I also knew that if I didn’t ask, it would probably eat at me all night and I’d be up wondering anyway, so I decided to go ahead and give him a call. I figured if he answered, then I should ask, but if he didn’t, I’d just wait.

  I stared hopelessly at the phone, trying to decide.

  “You know, it’ll eat at you if you don’t just get it over with,” Adonis said as he hopped up onto the bed beside me.

  He was right and I knew it. I pull up my father’s number and hit talk to dial him.

  “Hi, kiddo. How are you?” his soft fatherly voice asked.

  “Doing okay, actually. A lot better than I thought I would…” I stumbled on my words, trying to figure out just how to ask what I wanted to know. “Did mom have a sister?”

  There. It was out. I hated blurting it out like that, but if I didn’t just ask it I’d be on for an hour, trying to just get the question out. There was a long pause and I heard him take a deep breath.

  “Yes, she did. I take it, you’ve met Katie?”

  Chapter 23

  I was dumbfounded once again. This day was turning out with all kinds of revelations.

  “Wait…What? …yeah, how do you know about Katie?”

  Another long pause.

  “Do you want the short-condensed version or the long explanation that tells you everything you want to know?”

  “Short version first. If I have questions, I’ll ask,” I replied. I didn’t want this to be too long and I wanted to know as much as I could right away.

  “I met your mother when she and Chloe were still talking to each other. They were both pretty young, but Chloe had a bit of a wild streak. She used to dabble in witchcraft, which didn't please their mother. Chloe started hanging out with a guy named Sebastian and it bothered your mother because Sebastian was a troublemaker.”

  So far, everything he was saying made perfect sense to me.

  He continued, “Chloe was at that age where she was trying to spread her wings and find her place, but the hold that Sebastian had on Chloe was too strong. Eventually, Sebastian created enough of a wedge between them, that your mom told Chloe to leave and never come back. But Chloe did come back after their mother had died. They tried to reconcile, and they both lived in that same house that you’re in right now. But it was obvious that Sebastian still had his claws in Chloe. Since Chloe was the oldest, she basically kicked your mother out of the house and I took her in. We were on the verge of marrying anyway, so it wasn’t that big of a deal to me, but it hurt your mother terribly.”

  I tried to absorb everything he was telling me. It was a bit overwhelming.

  “So, did mom and Chloe ever reconcile before she died?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. And I think Chloe felt really bad about it. She tried contacting me once a long time ago, but I was just beginning my apprenticeship with The High Council and couldn't allow anything to distract me.”

  “I remember…” I said, my voice trailing off.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you as much as I should have been. And I'm sorry I didn’t tell you about this sooner. When the council decided to ban you from the city, I told them that I had a place there for you, knowing that you might find out the truth. I figured when that time came, you’d be ready to hear it,” he said, his tone solemn.

  “Did you ever find out what happened to Chloe?” I asked.

  “Only after your mom was turned to an angel. She learned that Chloe had been run out of town for witchcraft and had been pregnant. The man who was the father was terrified of Sebastian, so Chloe made a deal with him. She told Jerrod Raven that if he would take their daughter and not share that she was the mother, that she would keep the secret from Sebastian forever.”

  “Oh…wow. That’s heavy…I mean, did Sebastian threaten Chloe because she was pregnant?”

  “I don’t think Sebastian ever found out. If he did, she never told him who the father was or who the child was, because Sebastian never bothered anyone else in the family after that.”

  “How could he not have known she was pregnant all that time? I mean, it’s not like you can hide it…” I asked.

  “Sebastian doesn’t think about time like humans do. Once you become immortal time isn’t a factor, so Sebastian would come and go into people's lives and be gone for two years at a time, before showing up one day and expecting you to be available to him. That’s the kind of hold he had on Chloe. So during the time he was away, she’d met Jerrod.”

  “I see. And that was the short version?” I laughed nervously.

  “Not really, but you asked questions and I answered,” he laughed.

  All the new information was swirling around in my head. How was I gonna tell Katie about all of this? More importantly, should I tell my father about Sebastian being able to get into the house? I wasn't so sure now. He might decide to move me somewhere else and I didn’t want that. I decided to see what alternatives I had.

  I yawned loudly.

  “You sound like you need some sleep,” he suggested.

  “Yeah, I think I’m gonna crash. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  “Good night, Scarlett.”

  The phone went off.

  If this wasn’t the most convoluted mess, I didn’t know what was. I felt like I’d been dropped into some kind of hillbilly reunion, where everyone was related to everyone else. I'd thought I was an only child with no other family connections, other than my father. Knowing that Katie was actually my cousin, made me feel like there was someone else in the world that I could relate to.

  “Did you find the answers you were looking for?” Adonis asked as he strolled inside from off the deck.

  “I guess so. I’m not sure how much I should tell Katie, though. She might be really upset to learn what I just did.”

  “The truth is always the best place to start. You can’t mess up the truth. Don’t try to sugar coat it, just tell her the facts. She's a big girl. She can handle it,” he preached.

  “You know? You’re pretty smart for a cat,” I poked.

  He gave me a side-eyed look and then rolled over and showed his belly, his head upside down on the bed and looked at me.

  “Smart and adorable,” he mewed.

  I just shook my head and got up to get out of my clothes, slipping into my pjs and under the covers.

  Sleep was going to be hard to come by tonight for sure.

  The text from Hobbs said there was nothing for me to do today, and that he’d text me if someone came in that needed to be done. I was good with that because I really just wanted to go through all of the papers I'd printed off, to see if I could learn more about Marilyn and Canon. I thought about what my father had said and how Sebastian would come into people’s lives and then be gone f
or several years at a time. Maybe that’s what had happened with Marilyn and Canon? Maybe Canon had come and gone into Marilyn's? But how and why did they connect to begin with?

  At this point, I still hadn’t figured out how she’d died, after she’d been alive for so long.

  The scent of coffee pulled me out of bed and downstairs, as I thanked whoever it was that’d come up with a coffee pot on a timer. It was so nice to have it brewed by the time I was up.

  I grabbed my cup and Adonis, a saucer, and made our beverages before padding over to the couch and fingering through the printouts I had. I was beginning to feel anxious about telling Katie all that I'd learned, regarding her mother. She wasn’t frail by any means, but I just wasn’t sure how she was going to take it.

  I picked up the article that had the picture of Marilyn and Canon and something caught my eye. She was wearing some kind of necklace with a medallion on it that I thought I'd seen before.

  I quickly grabbed the book from the library that had a bunch of old photos in it from the past. Quickly flipping through, I checked every photo. I got to a section that talked about the growth of Ste. Geneva and that was where it was. There was a photo of several men all lined up, wearing suits of the period, and each of them wearing a pin on their lapel. The photo was a bit blurry and was in black and white, but I could see the design. It was the same medallion, only smaller. I read the caption:

  This is a rare photo from a group of men that formed The Aegis Council. They are standing in front of one of their newly built banks. Many of the buildings that stand today were originally built from the group who liked their privacy and to remain anonymous, but who gave a lot of money to causes in the settlement.

  I stared heavily at the little pin and then began to look across the men’s stern faces. All of them had beards and mustaches, which had been the fashion at that time. I froze when I got to the last man in the row. It was Canon, I was sure of it. I looked hard at the photo in the book, and then back at the photo he'd taken with Marilyn. It was him. The only difference was the beard, but he hadn’t aged a day. I wondered if he’d been a vampire when the older photo had been taken or if he’d still been human at that point. The only way I'd find out, would be if I had the chance to do a full memory walk inside of Marilyn’s mind.