by Sean Stone
“I nearly got her,” said Clara, rounding on James. If he’d let her finish her attack then Eloise would be dead and her plan thwarted.
“You nearly got killed,” he replied. “If I’d left you even a second longer that bullet would have torn through your back and hit your heart.” He’d been lucky to get to her in time. If his own healing had taken even a second longer she’d be dead.
“Thank you,” she muttered, not sounding at all thankful. James thought it amusing that he used to fancy her. She was almost half his age but still… the heart wants what it wants. Not that it was his heart that wanted her. He’d been thinking with his dick and nothing else. She was young, hot and had a great body. Now he wouldn’t dream of touching her. Something in him had changed. Despite having been taken in by Nick Blackwood and a group of super-villains, he’d actually grown a sense of morals.
“Can someone actually tell me exactly what happened?” Dean demanded in frustration. “I need more than Eloise is back. I don’t even know who Eloise is for crying out loud.” And so James and Clara told him everything that had happened and everything they’d learned. Needless to say, he was no more pleased when he knew the full gravity of the situation.
“We need to get the hell out of here then,” he said. The thought had occurred to Clara too. Right before she’d dismissed it. Running away was not in her nature.
“And leave everyone else to die?” she asked. “Could you live with that?”
“I don’t owe these people anything,” he said. “Besides, they’ve got magic and super powers. They’re perfectly able to look after themselves.”
“Magic won’t help them now,” James interjected. Not that he wanted to take Clara’s side. He was all for leaving town — the sooner the better.
“I still don’t see what we can do,” grumbled Dean.
“My dad’s gathering the Coven. They’ll know what to do,” said Clara confidently. James did not share her confidence. He’d watched Arthur blunder blindly from plan to plan, each one failing. If he had to pick one word to describe Arthur Winters it would be incompetent. But he did not say that to Clara. Right now she needed to hang on to the small hope that she could actually beat Eloise and her army. He had to admit, there was a slither of hope for them. When the sorcerers had been cursed they’d had no magic at all and still managed to overcome the odds and defeat the council.
When they arrived at the Winters’ house, they all got out of the car and headed up the garden path. James noticed how his son silently followed Clara as if he was one of SIT. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it. He wasn’t sure how he felt about anything. There was a slight bit of jealousy. Dean had been accepted by Clara in a way that James never would be. Dean had a place and James had none. The council didn’t want him and Nick no longer needed him. He’d helped Clara out today, but he knew that he had no place inside that house. That was a step too far even for him.
“I’ll see you back at home,” he told Dean at the garden gate.
“What? Don’t be stupid, come in,” said Dean, turning back. Clara looked round but then hurried inside the house with Kegan, not wanting to get involved.
“I can’t go in there, Dean. I spent years tormenting Arthur and threatening his family. I murdered his dad. I killed several Coven sorcerers. I have no place in there,” he explained.
“You helped us today. You saved Clara,” Dean said, as if that made everything fine.
“That doesn’t even begin to even the scales. Arthur would try to kill me on sight. Last time I saw him he had me locked in his basement.”
“Dad, this is your chance to be one of the good guys. Come in and show them all what I already know. That you are a decent man,” pleaded Dean. James knew that Dean needed this more to show him that James was decent. But he just couldn’t do it.
“Look at me, son. I’m filled with dark magic. Magic stolen from that Coven. I’m not one of the good guys.” And without another word he teleported away.
There were only nine people left in the coven. Arthur was sitting in his sitting room with all nine of them thinking about how it was an improvement on the four he’d started out with at the beginning of this year. If only he hadn’t been dead when the coven had been at full strength under Adam’s dynasty. Adam. There was a sore spot. The former dynast who’d turned his back on the Coven so he could keep all the dark magic he’d gained from Henry Montford. Adam, the friend Arthur had failed. But he didn’t want to think about that right now. There were more pressing matters to attend to.
Clara walked into the room looking dishevelled with Dean Tenson and Kegan Wilson at her back. He had not met them properly but he’d seen them about and heard of them through Clara. They’d stood with her when she’d faced Nickolas Blackwood. For that they had Arthur’s respect. Their entrance caused the room to break into twittering.
“Oh my God!” Bianca exclaimed as Clara’s appearance. “What happened to you?”
“There was a bit of scuffle with Eloise,” said Clara.
“Eloise Cultrum?” said Arthur, standing up in shock. He hadn’t expected that name to come up.
“I thought she was dead?” said Toni, equally horrified.
“Sadly not,” said Clara and then she proceeded to tell everyone what had happened. They all listened intently.
“I’ve got a question,” said Tina. Arthur was not familiar with Tina but he had known her father. He’d been an outspoken and aggressive man and it looked like his daughter had inherited those traits. “What is he doing here?” she pointed unashamedly at Dean.
“He’s here to help,” Clara replied coldly, glaring angrily at Tina.
“He’s a Tenson. His family can’t be trusted,” said Tina.
“Dean stood against Nick Blackwood with me and risked his life. Which is more than any of you did,” she snarled, daring them to challenge her.
“And that is good enough for me,” said Arthur. Tina fell silent and looked away. The word of the dynast was law. They may have tested Adam’s authority, but nobody would dare do so to a Winters. “The crimes of James Tenson are his alone and not his son’s. Treat him with the respect he deserves.”
“My dad helped today too. He saved Clara’s life,” said Dean. Arthur looked at him, not sure what to say. He looked at Clara who nodded that it was true. Whilst Arthur was thankful for it, it hardly made up for the years of torture he’d inflicted on Arthur’s family. He’d vouch for Dean, but James was another matter entirely.
“I’m grateful for that,” said Arthur and then turned back to the Coven. “We need to decide what to do about Eloise.”
“De ja vu,” said Marlon. “When history repeats should we not do what saved us last time and leave?”
“I was only a child when the curse came,” said Toni. “My magic hadn’t even come through and I’d already lost it. My parents were among those who chose to flee. They were alive but they weren’t happy. They regretted leaving every day of their lives. They lived without magic for the rest of their days.”
“That isn’t a risk this time,” said Marlon. “We still have our magic. Shouldn’t we leave before that changes?”
“We can’t leave,” said Clara. The soldiers have the entire town blocked off. We can’t fight them with magic so we have no way of fighting through them. We can’t sneak past them. We have to stay.”
“But we can’t fight them,” Tina protested.
“She’s right. What do you want us to do, lay down and die?” demanded Laurie. Another Coven member Arthur had not met before.
“Nobody is suggesting that we lay down and die,” said Arthur. “We cannot fight them with magic, but we are not the only people in this town. We have potential allies. Clara, you said you got the Pack and the Clan to ally with you before. Can you do it again?”
“I can try. Kegan can go to the Pack, can’t you?” said Clara.
“Sure. Dana runs things now, I’m sure she’ll help,” said Kegan.
“Richie hasn’t been seen for a while
but I’ll head to his club tonight and see if he’s about. We had a rapport so if anyone can persuade him to help it’s me,” she said. Arthur didn’t think much persuasion would be needed. Under the circumstances, it was in everyone’s interests to stand together.
“Is there anyone else we can ask to help us?” he asked, hoping to get as much help as possible.
“An inside man would be good,” said Dean.
“Bradley used to be on our side,” said Clara. “If we could contact him he might be able to feed us information. He didn’t look like he was willingly helping Eloise.”
“I can provide a way to contact Bradley. We’ll sort that whilst we wait for sundown. We need to put together a way to communicate with one another. I know how to do that.”
“Let’s get to work then,” said Clara.”
Chapter 7
“Why do you need so many?” asked a perplexed Arthur as he looked down at the pile of compact mirrors which Bianca had retrieved from her room. One was surely enough? Two if you needed a spare, but there was at least fifteen on the table before him. One of them seemed to be made of purple glitter and was so shiny that Arthur couldn’t look at it for long without it hurting his eyes.
“Well, they’re not all mine,” said Bianca with a coy smile.
“No, those two are mine,” said Clara, pointing. “I wondered where they went.”
“I may have borrowed them,” replied Bianca.
“Right, well, now I’m going to borrow them all if that’s alright?” said Arthur.
“Sure, but what for?” said Bianca.
“With no working phone lines we need a way to communicate. I can spell these mirrors and give one to each of us and the other coven members so we can stay in touch,” he explained. The coven was still waiting in the sitting room whilst Arthur, Clara and Bianca sorted this out.
“Nifty,” said Clara.
“Yes, but there is a limit. There are too many of us for me to set up all the mirrors to connect to each other so I’m going to have to link them all to one master mirror,” he said.
“So, if I wanted to talk to say Toni…”
“You’d have to contact the master mirror and have that person relay the message on,” Arthur explained. “Obviously as coven dynast I’ll be holding the master mirror.”
He laid fourteen mirrors in a circle and then put his mirror in the centre. Holding his hand over the centre mirror he began to channel power into it, sending it flowing out to the circle of mirrors.
“What exactly are you doing?” Clara asked. Arthur snapped his eyes open and looked at her.
“Of course!” he said at once. With everything that was going on he’d forgotten that there was so much about magic that Clara still didn’t know and it was his duty to teach her. “I’m not used to having a student around. Here give me your hand.” She held out her hand which he took in his own and held over the centre mirror. “I’m going to restart the spell. Feel my magic working through you. It will seem odd at first, but trust me, this is the best way to learn spells like this.”
Clara nodded and then waited for him to resume spelling the mirrors. She knew at once that he had begun. She could feel a warmth flowing through her hand, radiating downwards onto the mirror. She could feel it spreading across the whole circle, tingling and buzzing as it went. Then like a switch being flicked she understood the spell. She couldn’t explain it, but she knew how to replicate her dad’s work. It was as if she’d always known. This way of learning was so much easier than how Jamal had taught her, but she supposed that you couldn’t really teach a curse by casting it through a person unless you wanted to curse them too.
When the spell was finished, Arthur released Clara’s hand and raised his eyebrows questioningly. “Did you pick it up?”
“Yes,” she nodded excitedly. “How though? I don’t understand.”
“The easiest way to learn a spell is to have it cast through you. That’s how I was taught. It’s how I would’ve taught you if…” he couldn’t finish the sentence. Circumstances had robbed him of an experience with his daughter which he would now never be able to have. Not fully. His dad had told him that one of the happiest times of his life had been teaching Arthur to use magic. Arthur would never have that. Instead Jamal Rasul had taken the responsibility and he’d done a poor job of it to say the least. That was the problem with warlocks. They weren’t natural sorcerers so they didn’t know the true ways of the craft.
“There are so many spells you can teach me now, Dad. I can’t wait to learn them,” she said and Arthur smiled.
“There’s fifteen mirrors here,” said Bianca, her brow furrowed. “There are only fourteen people in this house.”
“Very astute,” said Arthur. He grabbed a mirror and passed it Clara. “If you can win Bradley to our side then give him that. He’ll be able to feed us information twenty-four hours a day.”
After an afternoon planning, Dean had been given the not so easy task of getting the mirror to Bradley and persuading him to help them out by spying on Eloise. It was not a job he’d wanted, but the others were busy with their own tasks. Kegan had gone to persuade the wolves to ally against Eloise and Clara had gone to parlay with the vampires. Arthur was at home trying to find a way to negate the effects of iron. Dean was starting to ask himself why he was hanging about. He had no vested interests in the survival of Cedarstone and yet here he was putting his neck on the line. Clara had made an excellent point when she’d said that Cedarstone was just step one. If Eloise was successful here then she’d take her operation to a nationwide scale, and then… Well that didn’t bear thinking about. Dean had been a hunter of the supernatural before coming to Cedarstone, but he only hunted the bad ones. What Eloise was doing was genocide.
He’d chosen to wait until Bradley came home. There was no way he was going to get into the town hall, not after Clara and his dad’s little escapade earlier. Bradley would eventually come home and Dean would be able to talk to him whilst the soldiers weren’t present. After two hours of waiting, Dean was starting to give up hope. Maybe Bradley was going to be living in the town hall for the foreseeable future. It was probably easier to stay in one fortified location rather than trying to defend several.
A car came down the road slowly and turned onto Bradley’s drive. Dean was dismayed to see that a military jeep was right behind it. The jeep parked at the end of Bradley’s driveway, blocking his car in and when he emerged from his car, four soldiers hopped out and followed him up to his house. He slipped his key into the door and opened it. “You’re not coming in my house,” he said roughly, turning back to the soldiers.
“Miss Cultrum instructed us to keep you safe,” said one of the soldiers. Dean noticed him raise his rifle slightly in threat. Bradley noticed too.
“Are you going to shoot me? I don’t think Eloise wants that so lower your gun.” The soldier did so, albeit reluctantly. “You can keep me safe from out there.” He stepped into his house and slammed the door in the soldier’s face.
“Get around there,” the soldier growled to two his minions. They stormed round to guard the back of the house whilst the other two stayed front. “I can’t wait till we’re done here. What a shit assignment, guarding a mayor.”
“Won’t be long now and he’ll probably get the chop with the rest of the freaks,” said the other.
For twenty minutes Dean watched the house. The soldiers did not move once. That was good. They never left the doors they guarded because they didn’t think they needed to watch anywhere else, but that left the sides of the house completely unguarded. Dean crept out of his car and then slunk over to the neighbouring house, making sure he stayed out of the soldiers’ sight. There’d been no activity in the neighbouring house all evening so he knew that nobody was home. Keeping his head below the bushes that separated the two gardens he crept down to the halfway point and then peeked over. As he suspected there was nobody in sight. He forced himself into the bush, aware that his expensive leather jacket was getting a
ttacked by thorns.
“What was that?” one of the soldiers said. Dean couldn’t tell whether it came from the front or the back of the house. He stayed perfectly still, squatting in the bush, hoping they didn’t come to investigate.
“What?” said another.
“I heard bushes rustling.”
“Probably just a fox.”
“We should check. Just in case.”
“Just in case what? Nobody would come for this guy. Even the people who know what’s going on wouldn’t come here. They’d go for Eloise.”
“You mean Miss Cultrum,” the first speaker said. He was obviously terrified of his boss.
“Whatever. You wanna check out the noise, be my guest.”
Silence followed and after a minute Dean assumed that nobody was coming. He eased his way out of the bush and then tip-toed over to the house. There was a draining pipe running right up by an open window which suited Dean’s plan perfectly. It was too quiet to start climbing now though. He needed some noise to cover his ascent. He looked about him but could see nothing and he didn’t think that throwing a rock in the opposite direction would provide a good enough distraction. It was only then that he realised how bloody stupid he’d been. This job would be so much easier if he just had his dad teleport him in. He pulled out his phone, but as soon as he looked at the screen he saw that there was no signal. Resisting the urge to throw it at the wall he slipped it back inside his jacket and looked once again at the draining pipe. It was the only option, unless he wanted to try and take out four armed soldiers. He grabbed the pipe and pressed one foot against the wall. As he levered himself up, his left hand slipped and the sharp brick sliced his palm open. He hissed as quietly as he was able and brought his bloody hand up to his face. The cut was deeper than he liked. It would need to be stitched.
Dean turned away from the wall, shaking his hand to try and alleviate the pain and he nearly screamed when he saw James standing directly behind him.
“You fuck!” he whispered.