by Hadena James
“I think not,” I told him.
“You think you and your Overlords are strong enough to stand against us?” He chuckled. “That’s precious.”
“No, that wasn’t my thought. My thought was that you and your coven, isn’t strong enough to stand against us.” I pointed towards a second door. There was a large burly Demon entering the Chamber. His name was Azreal.
“Demon, I recommend you stop,” the leader told Azreal.
“Or what? You’ll turn me to stone like the others?” Azreal threw his head back and laughed. If Demons could be psychotic, Azreal would have been the poster child.
Another Demon pushed from behind Azreal. She grinned at the Witches. It wasn’t a friendly grin, her fangs showed.
Daniel came into the room. The rest of my siblings in tow. Their mates with them. It was becoming a gathering of breeds.
“You seem to have forgotten that I am not just a Demon or a Witch. I’m a lieutenant, I have the Call.”
“Dispatch the Demons,” the leader commanded.
Spells began to fly. They had come prepared for the battle ahead of them. But I knew what their prize was.
Chapter Forty-Three
As they busied themselves trying to turn all the Demons to stone, I moved around the table. I got to my father’s chair. Looking down, it just seemed like a chair.
Except for the latch. There was a small, dark latch on the seat of the chair, hidden by the pillow that he sat on. I clicked the latch. The box fell free.
It wasn’t very big, maybe a foot wide by a foot and a half long by a foot deep. It was made of good solid wood that had darkened with age. There were ornate carvings on it.
There was also another latch. I was sure this one would open the box. I was also sure that I didn’t want to open the box. I had been told it could create anything, even the things of nightmares. I was in no hurry to see what sorts of nightmares would come out of it.
Anubis joined me, “what are you doing?”
His voice came out as a hiss.
“Protecting the box. Help me,” I told him.
He frowned and sighed, “just don’t open it.”
“Uh, yeah,” I handed it to him. “Keep it safe, I have to do something about the Witches. You need to get the hell out of Dodge. All this magic…”
I didn’t finish the sentence; I shoved him towards an exit. The last thing we needed was for them to start trying to break Anubis’s curse. He thought it would kill him and it probably would, but it would take others with it when it did.
A Witch noticed Anubis. He hurled a spell towards him. My protection spell barely beat it there. Anubis now walked in a nimbus of my power, protected from the spells being hurled around the room.
Elijah and Daniel worked together. They were doing some spell hurling of their own. I watched as a spear appeared from thin air and hurled itself towards the Witches. We were immortal, they were not.
It struck one in the shoulder. He went down, the spell over his face fading. I recognized him.
“Wait!” I yelled, trying to be heard over the din of noise and voices.
“We can’t ‘wait’” Ba’al shouted back, his teeth elongating, his claws becoming more pronounced.
“Wound, don’t kill,” I shouted again. A couple of beings turned to look at me for a second.
“This is very bad,” I told the ones that had turned to look.
Since I didn’t have any tricks up my sleeve, but I did have lots of family in the room, I did the only thing I could think of. I threw up some protection rings and then started pushing raw magic into the room.
“Eli, bolt the doors!” I shouted as the magic began to spin and swirl, getting larger.
Eli cast a spell, the doors slammed themselves shut. I heard bolts fall into place. There weren’t any bolts on the chamber doors. Eli was a powerful Witch.
I pushed more magic. Azreal was the first to fall from it. His knees buckled. His eyes widened. He collapsed into a heap, his body jerking.
Another Demon fell. It was working, but it wasn’t going exactly as planned. A Witch managed to turn John the Demon into stone. His body was frozen. I had a brief moment where I worried about what would happen if someone knocked him over.
It was brief because someone then knocked him over. His body hit the ground with a thud and shattered. The shattered stone turned to dust and blew away in a magic wind.
My eyes got wide. I was pretty sure they had just killed him. I didn’t know what to do about it. I threw another spell around my uncles and father. They couldn’t get knocked over and have the same thing happen to them.
“Did they just…” Daniel was looking at me.
“I think so,” I told him.
I took a deep breath, concentrated all my energy and shoved it into the room. The pink sphere of magic quadrupled in size. It slammed into the Coven. They began to gag.
I walked over to them. Closing the distance to within a few feet. I didn’t just force magic into the room this time, I forced it into them.
They fell. They had no choice, their bodies rejecting the sudden surge. They began to heave. Magic spewed from their mouths, ears, and nose.
“Bind them,” I shouted to Eli.
Eli began doing more magic. I could feel it at my back. I walked over to the body of the Witch with the spear still stuck in his shoulder. I withdrew it.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
“Protecting the world,” he told me, his voice ragged.
“We cannot have you dying here,” I put my hands on him. He struggled against me. I was stronger. I began the healing process.
I felt Eli and Daniel’s magic in the wound and drew it out. The wound began to close. His lung refilled with air as the blood drained from it.
When he was healed, I grabbed hold of him, yanking him to his feet. I moved him towards my stone encased family.
“What is your father going to say about this?” I glared at him.
“He’ll be royally pissed.”
“Good choice of words. Now fix it.”
“We weren’t told how to undo it.”
“Great, just great and I am so holding you until your father arrives.”
The young man looked at me, his eyes wide. He muttered something and tried to twist away from me. Even without the flesh on the hand, it didn’t hurt and he wasn’t getting away from me.
Magnus walked over, “oh god lord.”
“My thoughts exactly,” I agreed.
“What the hell were you all thinking?” Magnus turned on the other Witches. “Do you know who this is? Why would you recruit him for this coven?”
I slowly turned to look at Magnus. He should be screaming about an inquiry and punishments. Not scolding them like naughty children for selecting their coven members.
“Sorry, Bren,” he slammed magic into me. I felt myself come off my feet. The hand holding my prisoner opened. He fell to the ground. I hit the chamber wall. More flesh receding from my body.
Anubis was brought back into the room. He was in magical chains. Magnus took the box from him.
Magnus brought the box over to me. He knelt down and looked into my eyes.
“I don’t hate you, quite the opposite, but I have to do, what I have to do. I don’t give a shit about Jasmine or the others. But these Elders, all these Elders, have been giving Witches a hard time for eons. It’s time to show them what we can really do.”
He hit me with more magic. I fought against the darkness and lost.
Chapter Forty-Four
I was still on the Chamber floor when I awoke. My uncles and father were moving very slowly. My siblings were moving very slowly. The Overlords were moving very slowly. We all seemed to have been turned into 1000 year old tortoises.
“Everyone alive?” I asked, trying to get a grip on what had happened.
“Define alive,” Eli groaned.
“All the important bits are still working and you aren’t dead.”
“Then
I think so.” Eli rolled over onto his stomach and tried to stand, “but I’m pretty sure I’m made of rubber.”
“Did anyone see that coming?” Ba’al asked.
“No, not in the least.” I told him. “Is Kagutsuchi still here?”
“Yes and unconscious.” Gabriel answered.
“Then maybe we got the wrong guy. He may hate me for being a half-breed, but it may not be him that is the actual bad guy. He might just be a jerk.” I tried to stand and found my legs still wouldn’t hold me.
“What the hell did they do to us? I feel awful.” Berith asked.
“I don’t know, but I have every intention of asking as I kick Magnus’s ass.”
“Magnus of all people,” Lucifer sighed. “Thought he was our friend.”
“Beings suck,” I finally got my footing and with the help of the wall, stood up. “On the flip side, I finally get everything. Magnus didn’t just heal my curse from the eyeball thing, he inserted another. That’s why it hurt so much. That’s why the skull fracture healed, but everything after his visit didn’t.”
“How does one Coven get all of us?” Daniel asked.
“Planning,” Anubis answered. “Anything we can do about these chains? I have souls to drink.”
“You are not going to go soul-drinking,” I tried to cast a spell and couldn’t.
“Well damn. Eli, can you do any magic?”
“No, if I could, I’d be standing by now.”
“Daniel?”
“None,” Daniel answered.
“Well this just keeps getting better and better.”
“You said that earlier.” Anubis commented.
“It’s either that or get incredibly pissed off and do something I’ll regret later. You realize they are using the son of the Russian Premier, right?”
“I didn’t know he was a Witch.”
“Me either, but it appears he is. That would be the twerp you guys hit with the spear,” I told Eli.
“No one can do magic?”
“I don’t even feel like I have any,” Samuel finally spoke.
“Nor do I,” I admitted.
“We have to do something, they have Pandora’s box,” Fenrir reminded us.
“But what? I don’t know what to do to combat Pandora’s box, especially since I don’t seem to have any magic. At the moment, I’m thinking the best thing I can do is bury myself in the ground and wait for a different century to appear.”
“One problem at a time.” Lucifer was finally standing. “I saw what they did to John.”
“My cousin is mate-less and pregnant,” I remembered.
“Yes, yes she is,” my father walked over to Eli and helped him up.
“You really think it killed him?” Anubis asked.
“Yeah,” I looked at my father and uncles. Tears sprung into my eyes.
“Oh god, my head,” Kagutsuchi moaned.
“Did you know about Magnus and the Witches?” I stormed over to him.
“No,” he looked at me. “What did Magnus do?”
“He took Pandora’s box.” I told him.
“Oh god,” Kagutsuchi’s eyes widened.
“Wasn’t that your plan?” I asked.
“No, I didn’t come for the box. I came for a vial of Gargoyle blood that is kept hidden in the chamber.
“You were going to kill me using Gargoyle blood?” My frown deepened.
“No, I was going to give it to Jasmine. She invades my dreams. Tells me to do things. I’m at my wits end with it. I don’t want a Witch in my head.”
“What?” I was pretty sure if I frowned any harder, my face would break.
“Your psycho sister needs to die. I may not like you all that much, but she is evil, pure and simple.”
“So you came here to steal gargoyle blood to kill my sister.” I shook my head.
“There is a vial here that is so distilled and mixed, it is safe. It doesn’t kill the Gargoyles, just the beings that get dosed with it. I was going to get the vial, take it to the prison and poison Jasmine with it. I haven’t slept in three months because of her.”
“So why did you let us lecture you?”
“I was powerless to say anything or do anything that I wanted. It was like…”
“Oh hell, that’s why they are feeding off Sonnellion’s power. They cast a puppet spell on him. None of them were strong enough to do it without using other magic, but since Magnus doesn’t power share well, they found an alternative using the Strachan Mark and Sonnellion.”
“Tell me you’re kidding,” Samuel said.
“I wish I was. I don’t think I am though. That explains why when I saw Kagutsuchi getting sick, I saw Sonnellion’s magic.”
“He has to be stopped,” my mother’s voice joined us.
“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“Poison from the tree makes the apples bad,” she shrugged as if that explained things.
My brother Daniel jumped in, “what?” I was grateful he had asked instead of me.
“Magnus is the Witch Premier. He is the one that is supposed to stand in judgment of the rest of the Witches. He falls and all of Witchkind falls with him, at least, temporarily. When I lost my magic an hour or so ago, I realized Magnus had been casting some very dark magic indeed. So I came looking for all of you.”
“You found us. Explain the loss of magic thing?” I said.
“When the one who stands in judgment starts casting more dark magic than other magic, all the Witches on the planet start to lose their magic. It’s a failsafe. When Magnus is replaced by someone who is capable of taking his place, the magic will return to us.”
“His coven seems to have magic,” I retorted.
“All dark magic,” my mother sighed and looked at me. “Magnus, of all people. I wouldn’t have guessed that in a million years, if not longer.”
“You mean the only magic we can cast will be dark magic?” Eli groaned.
“No, it means we are pretty much powerless. We haven’t cast enough dark magic in the last seven centuries to be able to keep our powers now.”
“Great, just great. We don’t have any good Witches with power. Magnus has Pandora’s Box and we haven’t a clue what he intends to do with it.” I stomped my foot.
“And he was going on about Elders being the root of all Witch evil,” Eli added.
“Can anyone say ‘crazy’?” Levi asked.
“Oh and he’s now found a way to kill an immortal.” Daniel chimed in.
“Who’d he kill?” My mother suddenly looked very worried. She scanned the room.
“He turned the Demons into stone. John fell over and broke. The stone shattered into pieces and then melted to dust. The dust flew away. Since it hasn’t come back, we’re guessing he’s really dead.”
“Damn,” it was my mother’s turn to stomp her foot. “I guess it’s a good thing the Strachan line isn’t just Witches anymore.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked her.
“You’re a Demon too or did you forget?” She asked.
“Yes, but I don’t have many harmful Demon powers.” I reminded her.
“But you have one.” She gave me a look. I had a brief memory of Cerebus bleeding and shivered.
“I can do that to the Hell Hound, possibly a dragon or wyvern. I couldn’t do it to a being. There’s too much and I can’t control how much I give. Magnus could end up exploding for all I know.”
“It isn’t the best alternative,” my mother admitted, “but it’s an alternative.”
“Great, I’ll keep it very very very far in the back of my mind and pray to everything good and divine that we don’t have to resort to it, because if we do…” I shrugged.
“You aren’t sure you can do it.” My father finished it for me.
“That would be correct. I was raised to appreciate life, not take it. It’s innate. Hell, it’s in my DNA, as a Demon, I’m a healer, not a killer.”
“There might be other alternatives,” Daniel spok
e up.
“Like what?” I asked, grasping for anything.
“Well, we all have some kind of power that isn’t necessarily Demon in nature, but is Elder in nature.”
“What are you talking about?” My mother frowned at him.
“We’re like the Brother’s. They have magic that isn’t Demon, but is Elder. Brenna can inflict the wounds she has healed. I can make it rain fire. I’m not sure about my siblings, but I’m sure they can do something.”
Eli hung his head, “I have one, but like Brenna, I’d rather not use it.”
“What is it, Eli?” Levi asked.
“I can call blood to me. Brenna can inflict the wounds she’s healed on others. I can just make them spontaneously start bleeding. Once it starts to flow, it flows to me; I can take it in and use the magic from it.”
“Wow, that’s as creepy as mine,” I told him. “I’d rather we not do that either. Raining fire might work though. Samuel?”
“Mine would be unhelpful.”
“Ok, but what is it?”
“I make Elders more fertile. When I’m around, female Elders that are mated, are a lot more likely to ovulate and get pregnant. Hence why you think it’s contagious. It isn’t, we were all together the night that all three women in our family became pregnant. Remember the party?”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” I let out a whistle. “Cool, but you’re right, it’s unhelpful.”
Olivia turned pale, “mine might be helpful. I can control animals.”
“Like all animals?” I raised an eyebrow.
“No, only real ones, none of the immortal ones or magical ones. But give me a tiger and I can get it to selectively attack things.”
“Wish I had that,” Nick frowned. “The only thing I can do is raise the dead.”
“Necromancy?” I frowned back.
“No, they aren’t zombies. I don’t know what you would call them. It’s only happened with animals, but I brought back a dog we had that died a few years ago. Took me forever to get him back in the ground. They don’t eat like Zombies. They don’t act like zombies. They just sort of follow me around. I’ve never done it with a being, but animals…”