“Does that mean I now have dark magic in me?”
“Jade, you’ve always been a balance of dark and light because of your parents. It’s probably why the book was able to choose your bloodline to continue on its path of retribution against the Triad.”
“I don’t understand though. If my mother was the one who had the book before me, does that mean one of her parents were of the Triad too?”
“Not necessarily. Your mother was of the Original Coven bloodline and your father of the Triad, making you half of each. Maybe that’s what the book has been waiting for all along.”
“That’s a long time to wait for a person to be born of both dark and light.” We let silence fill the air, both lost in out own thoughts.
I jumped at the sound of the emergency alarm going off. Edge pulled me along down the stairs as Dagger and Jessa were running to the door. It slammed closed behind them and the monitors began going crazy with information. The alarm went off again sending Matheson, Rainy and Julie out the door. Seconds later, the alarm went off yet again and Edge was gone.
“Bastards are up to something, I can just feel it,” Jude grumbled as he switched between three monitors. Details spilled from his lips and I relayed them.
Jude swore under his breath. “You’re going the wrong way…oh shit, four more just showed up.” He grabbed the head set from me and started speaking a warning to Edge. Edge wasn’t replying. “Damn it, answer me. You have four coming in from the east and two more from the North…reply damn it!”
I shot up from my chair and grabbed the little earpiece I’d seen the others shove in their ears and ran for the door. “Going in!” I shouted before the door slammed.
Jude’s voice crackled in my ear. “Edge is going to have both of our asses for this.”
“We’ll worry about that when we get back,” I whispered, as I entered into an alleyway between two brick buildings.
“My super hero,” he chuckled. “Okay, let’s do this,” he said, as he started to bark out orders. “Go right.”
I followed Jude’s directions that led me straight to where Edge was. I stuck to the shadows as I got closer to the group that was closing in on Edge. It looked like he was unaware they were approaching, which was weird because he was standing in the middle of the street facing them. I couldn’t understand why he was just standing there. It made no sense to keep still while you could see the enemy coming for you, unless, of course, he was trying to lure them in.
I connected with the book, ready to back up Edge, even if he hadn’t requested it.
I thought about using a spell to knock them out. The book fluttered open to a stunning spell. I casted it and the two men collapsed to the ground. Edge didn’t move. What was going on?
“Two down,” I whispered, fearful of drawing any unwanted attention my way.
“Copy that. You got three more approaching from a side street to the east. Stay low. I’ll keep you posted.”
“Copy,” I replied.
“They’ve changed course, watch for them across the street. They’re coming fast.” Jude’s warned.
Before I could answer Jude, three men shot out of the darkness and barreled towards Edge.
I thought about their bodies falling into a pit, the pages flipped. I let the spell go and the ground rumbled, sucking two of the three men into the hole I’d created. The third man skirted the pit and kept running towards Edge. The knife he carried was drawn and ready to strike.
I stepped out of the shadows and could see Edge better now. His eyes were darting all over the place, but his body wasn’t moving. I wanted to be there, right in front of him. I wanted my body in front of his to protect him from the bite of the knife that would surely kill him if I couldn’t stop it. The book flipped open and I was gone.
My body slammed into Edge’s, just as the knife-carrying Enforcer was slashing it down at Edge’s chest. I slammed my shield in place and the blade connected with it, sending a shockwave along my body. The shield flickered and I was exposed. The Enforcer smiled wickedly.
“We knew you’d show up eventually,” he leered.
It had been a trap and we’d fallen right in to it. I had to get Edge out of here immediately. I could feel him trying to get into my thoughts, but it was like trying to hear someone talk underwater. Someone had frozen Edge in place. The book fluttered in my mind and a spell to unbind the magic holding him appeared. I cast it, but nothing happened. I tried again and still nothing happened. Why wasn’t it working? My wrist throbbed as the Enforcer rushed at me, grabbing me by the hair. He swung me against a brick wall, my bones crunching from the impact. I needed to get my shield back up, fast.
I felt my energy returning along my skin as the Enforcer went to grab for me again. The book flipped open and I sent the Enforcer tumbling across the street into a dumpster.
My wrist kept throbbing as the book flipped back to the unbinding spell. It wanted blood–my blood to complete the spell. I searched the ground for the knife the Enforcer had dropped. I found it a couple of feet in front of Edge. The blade hissed along my palm in a shallow cut. I grabbed Edge’s arm and cast the spell.
“Jude, I have Edge,” I said, as Edge hauled me against him.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Edge said as he cast a wary look around.
Jude shouted in my ear. “Help is on the way.”
Dagger came barreling out of the same side street I’d used to get here. He slid to a stop in front of us. “Where are they,” he said, looking around for the Enforcers.
“Two are in there,” I said, pointing at the pit. “One there,” I pointed to the dumpster. “And then two over there,” I pointed to the pair I’d stunned.
“That was close, Edge. I didn’t think you’d get them all in time before she showed up.”
“I didn’t get them. Jade did.” Edge jerked his thumb in my direction.
Daggers eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Oh, well, good job, Jade,” he said, before barking out orders to everyone.
Julie hauled up the Enforcer on the ground and wove a spell around him. His body curled in on itself leaving a husk that turned to ash. I didn’t want to think about where he went, or what had just happened to him. Matheson went to handle the two in the pit. I kept my back to him after witnessing what Julie had just done.
“I’ll grab this one in the dumpster and then we can go,” Dagger said.
Edge hugged me tight. “We will talk about you putting yourself in danger for me later, but for right now, I’m just going to breathe a sigh of relief that you recklessly did come and save my ass. That was a close one. They spelled me and made it look like they were surrounding me. I heard them say they were waiting for you to show up.”
“How were they able to bind you like that?” I asked.
“They had someone on the inside already, so they didn’t show up on the radar when we started watching the movement,” Jude said in my ear. I’d forgotten he was still linked to us. “Good job, Jade. You’re making one kick ass super hero.”
“That’s me, the Lethal Librarian,” I said, chuckling at his bark of laughter. I couldn’t help the rush of relief that we were all okay.
“Tomorrow we’re going to train on that book. I don’t know what happened, but you had full control. It was amazing to watch you wield the spells you did, and with such control. Very sexy,” Edge whispered in my ear.
“Oh gag…can you two play kissy face when all of us aren’t listening,” Jude blurted.
“Ready to head back?” Dagger said as he carried the body he dug out of the dumpster.
“What are you going to do with him?” I asked.
“Toss him in the woods, I guess. You stunned him, so the spell will only unbind by blood or the spell caster. I’m assuming you don’t want to unbind him?” Dagger questioned.
I didn’t feel right leaving him bound. He might be a cruel man out to destroy people’s lives for others, but I wasn’t. I let my mind flip to the unbinding spell. “Hold him. I’m going
to unbind him and then try and wipe his memory,” I told Dagger.
“Good luck, you’ll probably fry his brain,” Dagger said with a half shrug.
I let the spell go and the Enforcer started struggling to get away from Dagger. Edge grabbed his other arm. With his feet off the ground, he had nowhere to go.
“Try to keep it to just him please,” Dagger said, with a grimace.
The pages flipped to the spell I wanted and I could tell that the spell wouldn’t be the right one. I wanted to erase us from his mind, maybe even the last couple of years, not his entire life. I thought again about a partial memory removal.
A whirlwind of air shoved me to the ground as the Enforcer called the elements forward to stop me from completing the spell. My cheek bounced off the pavement and rattled my brain. Before I pull myself up on shaky legs to try again, the Enforcer’s body hit the ground and didn’t move.
“Put him back in the dumpster,” Edge growled.
Dagger hefted the limp body over his shoulder and tossed him. Fire danced on Edge’s finger tips. When he released it, it exploded inside the dumpster. We turned away as the contents began to smoke, sending a foul stench in the air.
“Let’s go home,” he said, latching a hold of my hand and pulling me away from the grisly scene.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I’d witnessed the death of a man and I wasn’t sure how to process it. I’d tried to keep that from happening by unbinding him so that I could take away a few memories. It would have been so simple had I been able to carry out the spell before he turned on me.
Everyone was going to be taking turns to work with me. I needed to know how to cast spells back to back with no interruption. A smooth transition from one to the next, as Edge had said.
I would be training with Rainy this morning and had made it down to the beach before her, giving me a little solitude before the long day of magic. I stood still, letting the foamy surf run over my feet, the sand sucking me down with each wave.
I’d put my own schedule together for training. Edge tried to talk me out of it but I insisted that I could handle it. I needed to be able to handle it. He reluctantly agreed to let me try – as long as I kept my promise to stop when I reached the limit of my endurance. Edge had been furious that the Enforcer had slammed me to the ground. But really, had I been faster using my magic, he wouldn’t have been able to do that. I argued that point with him which was probably the reason why he didn’t protest harder about my training.
Knowing that the strain of training would be hard on all of us, Edge had Jude send out a message to the Covens. He wanted them to know that they needed to step up their own guard. We weren’t going to be able to intercept all the Triad attacks. We’d help where we could, but we weren’t going to be split again. It was too risky right now.
“Good morning,” Rainy said as she strolled up with a steaming mug and handed it to me. I peered inside it relieved to find coffee instead of some herbal cocktail she’d brewed.
“It’s so beautiful out here,” she said, inhaling the salty air.
“Yeah, it is,” I said, tipping my coffee cup to my lips.
“So what do you want to work on?” she asked.
“I need to be able to do back to back spells. Can you help me focus on that, maybe start with a string of smaller ones and then build the difficulty from there?” I asked.
“Okay, that sounds easy enough.”
“Try pushing a burst of air and add water to it,” Rainy said as she stood beside me. I called for the elements like she had said and the wind burst forward. Then I called for the briny water to follow. “Good, now combine the energy. Make it deliver a blow that the enemy isn’t expecting.”
I merged the elements and a ball of energy formed in my hand. I slung it at the makeshift target Rainy had set up. When the spell hit it exploded and took out the tree it was attached to. Jagged splinters of wood littered the beach.
“Good job!” she cheered behind me. Rainy was the best one to explain the way the elements worked together. No one could come close to her explanations on how to put such complex elemental spells together.
“You’re doing really well, Jade. That wasn’t an easy spell to complete.” She beamed.
“Hey, Rainy, what is the correct term for us?” I asked. I couldn’t help but feel a little ignorant on the subject. I guess technically we’d be considered witches, but didn’t witches usually have spells that rhymed and required herbs and such to complete them?
“We stray from calling ourselves witches,” Rainy said, chuckling. “Sorry, you’re kind of projecting your thoughts.”
“Oh, sorry. I’m just trying to make sense of all this. It’s a little surreal, ya know? So what do we call ourselves?”
“I guess you could call us spell casters. The term witch isn’t really used too much these days. Kind of went out when they began killing off our Coven members in Salem. I forgot you still have so much to learn. Things you should have been shown regardless of the situation. Jessa and I used our magic around you but failed to show you our ways. In doing so, we also failed to keep up with our own way of life. I sure hope the Goddess is forgiving, because we all have a lot of making up to do,” Rainy said.
“Here come Jessa and Dagger. Guess its defensive training now.” I waved in their direction.
Rainy smirked. “You got this. I’ll just keep watch from the safety of the house.”
“Ready for this?” Jessa asked as she strode up to me.
I flashed my teeth at her. “Bring it.”
“The both of you are crazy. You know that…right?” Dagger said, backing up to put some distance between us.
I thought about finding a spell that would protect them from this practice run and the book flipped, revealing a spell that would double up their shield.
“I need to do something before we start.” I walked up to Jessa and placed my hand on her arm as I cast the spell. Her skin took on a shiny coating before the spell was complete.
Dagger watched in curiosity. “What’s that you’re doing?”
“Giving her an added layer of protection and you’re next. I don’t want either one of you hurt when we use the book’s spells,” I explained. I’d thought of it last night. It worried me to use defensive spells against my friends. The book eased my worry by showing me how to better protect them. I just hoped it worked.
“If it makes you feel better, then go ahead,” he replied.
I repeated the spell and Dagger smirked. “It feels like a rubbery coating on my skin, but it doesn’t slow any of my movements down. We may need to use this one when we go against the Triad. I wonder how long it will last.”
“Not sure, let’s try it out and see.” I backed up, putting a good amount of distance between us.
“Shield up, Jade,” Dagger called out.
I pulled my shield around me and added the extra layer of protection. I was ready to learn how to use my defense spells back to back and bring in the elements to help in the in between spells.
Jessa’s ball of fire rushed at me. I called the air first to push it back, and then called the water behind it. The fire hissed and popped as it went out.
Dagger shot out a bolt of lightning. My shield wavered before I could redirect the lightning away from me. The extra shield hissed and popped, but held.
They were relentless, throwing spells at me; both trying to see where my weakness lay, but I’d find a spell in the book and fight back.
When we were done for the afternoon, all three of us were a big sweaty mess of sand and salt.
“Geez, call a freaking rainstorm or something. This damn heat is brutal,” Jessa said on a whine.
The book pages flipped as I sought out the storm she’d requested. The sky darkened. Clouds brewed above us. Wind pushed at our heated skin causing goose bumps to rise along my body. The rain started falling softly washing away the sand and sweat.
I threw out my arms and let the water slide over me. I opened my mouth to capture the
cool drops.
Heat lightning raced across the sky like bony fingers. Thunder rumbled in the distance. It was oddly comforting.
“Wow, I feel so much better. Want to keep going?” she asked.
“You two can. I told Jude I’d be back by now.” Dagger swept Jessa up in his arms and planted a swift kiss on her lips. She smiled as he winked at her before walking away.
It was cute seeing Jessa flustered by someone like Dagger. She deserved to be happy and Dagger put a silly smile on her face that I’d never seen before.
“Goddess, I love that man.” Her voice was breathy.
She shook her head and turned back to me. “Sorry. Okay, I’m ready. How about we see how far we can go with these shields? You and I both know the guys won’t let us do it while they’re here.”
She was right. There was no way Edge or Dagger would ever let us do that with them around. “Safe word?” I asked.
“Pepperoni,” she called out as she put space between us.
I screwed my face up. “Really?”
“What? I’m freakin’ hungry. This takes a lot outta ya,” she said before lobbing a ball of fire at me again.
I laughed as I pushed it away with a thin sheet of water. Back and forth we went. Every so often some of the energy would slip by and hit the shield. I could feel it slowly weakening as it wavered but never failed completely. It was amazing and I knew that before anyone else set foot out of this house again on an emergency call I would be adding this to their own shield.
“Come on, you’re not even putting forth any real effort now!” Jessa shouted. “I know you have better spells than that,” she shouted over the wind.
I was getting tired. My energy level was dwindling. “I’m done for now.”
“Really? Okay, me too. I just didn’t want to be the first one to give up,” she laughed as she tossed her arm over my shoulder.
“You have some really cool spells to work with, Jade. I like that you can pull the ground from under my feet. This extra shield is bad-ass, by the way. I know you’re taking it easy though. A spell book that powerful should have some really dangerous spells.”
Casted (Casted series) Page 25