by SL Perrine
“Probably a little of everything to bind anything otherworldly then?” Ravana asked.
Gianna shrugged. “I guess? These were my mothers. I have all the ingredients-”
“Written down at home.” Ravana interrupts. “Right. Mo, get its legs.” Ravana directs as Massimo and Mila appear.
“Ravana, turn your body so I can see the manacles with the camera,” Delia’s voice abruptly came across the comm.
“Delia, are you monitoring this feed live?” Ravana asks incredulously.
“Sorry, Ms. Moon. I know we’ve talked about this before, but I was too excited to see what was happening.”
“We’ll discuss this later,” Ravana said icily as she maneuvered so the body cam would pick up a view of the manacles.
The comm is silent for a minute, and the group continues the struggle with the barathrum while they wait for Delia to find the solution they need.
“Anytime, Delia,” Ravana says with annoyance coloring her voice.
“Wha- Sorry, boss. I was reading.” Delia replied. “Here we are! Gianna, repeat these words aloud. Binzha moshta gul.”
Gianna repeats the words aloud, her voice in her Yeti form turning the syllables into a guttural tongue. The manacles fall from Anthony’s wrist, and Ravana snatches them up before they hit the ground. She slaps the end over the existing wrist of the barathrum and uses the chain to pull the arm behind the constructs back. Grabbing the spectral arm causes her to scream in pain, but she grits her teeth and forces it behind the creatures back. The barathrum redoubles its efforts to escape.
“Mo.” Ravana hisses while continuing to pit her strength against barathrum.
Massimo lets go of the constructs legs and grabs the arm with Ravana. He grunts in pain but refuses to allow anything more escape his mouth. Together, they force the arm to the center of the barathrums back where Gianna grabs the remaining clasp and closes it around the spectral wrist. The effect is instantaneous. The barathrum goes limp and becomes immobile.
“Now, Anthony,” Ravana orders weakly.
The dagger materializes in Anthony’s hand once again, and he drives the knife through what was once Matteo’s back and into its heart. Screaming, the barathrum arches his back so hard that bones pop, snap, and break along the spine. A glow emanates from the ruby in the pommel of the dagger so bright that everyone in the room looks away with their eyes closed. When it subsides, there is no life left in the construct. Anthony jerks the dagger out of the body of Matteo and rolls to collapse on his back. Everyone else follows his example.
As they all labor to catch their breath and recuperate, Anthony and Gianna slowly transform back to their human forms. Ravana is the first to start laughing, and the action is infectious. Anthony pulls Gianna to him and kisses her passionately for a moment. They all laugh, shake hands or slap each other in camaraderie for a moment until Mila’s querulous voice interrupts the moment.
“Um… Mom, Jax, pretty vampire people?”
“Yes, Piccolo?” Gianna asks.
“Is it okay that the book on the altar is turning into a scary lady?”
Chapter 28
All heads in the room swivel to the altar to see the book reconstituting into the form of a naked woman. Blood covers the upper half of the woman as she grows out of the pages while the book shrinks in size beneath her. As her legs begin to appear, Ravana and Massimo leap to their feet and start to rush the altar. The woman’s eyes flash, and the vampires go to their knees in a pose of obeisance.
“Do you forget that you are to kneel in the presence of your mother, my children?” she asks as the last of the book morphs into a perfect female form. “And my dear pets,” she intones as she examines her body. “Your human forms are so... vile.” She snaps her fingers transforming Gianna and Anthony back into Yetis. She walks off the altar as if invisible stairs were in place to allow such an action. When her feet are firmly on the floor, she looks around at those of The Order. “You should all be kneeling.”
The woman’s eyes flash again, and every member of The Order goes to their knees. Only Mila remains standing, although she continues to be immobile. She crosses the room to Anthony and runs her hands over Anthony’s bloody fur. “My poor guardian. You’re injured,” she intones sadly as she continues to caress Anthony’s fur. Where her hands pass, the blood and wounds disappear. When Anthony has healed, she turns her attention to Gianna. “What have we here?”
She walks circles around Gianna’s form before coming to a stop in front of her. She raises Gianna’s chin and looks into her eyes. “I had wondered what happened to the other pack. I see my Alpha has found a worthy mate in your line. Such a beautiful creature you are!” She bends at the waist and rests her ear against Gianna’s stomach for a moment, and a content smile creases her face. Standing erect, she looks into Gianna’s eyes lovingly. “What a fertile specimen you are. Your offspring will be majestic.” She heals Gianna before wandering over to Mila.
Just as she had with Gianna, she walks in circles around Mila touching and caressing the child gently. “You are not of his seed, but you are of his heart.” She kisses Mila on the forehead. “I look forward to your becoming.”
“My becoming?” Mila asks.
The woman’s head jerks back. “My, but you are a strong one! Nothing and no one will silence you in this world, will they my pet?” It was more a statement than a question.
“I’m not your pet.” Mila spits.
“Oh, but you are. Your mother hasn’t educated you of your place of honor in my life? In my temple?”
“Lady, I don’t know who the heck you are,” Mila rails.
The woman steps away from Mila and looks between Gianna and Anthony for several moments. Finally, she closes her eyes and is silent for a long time. When she opens her eyes, her face is a mask of pain and anguish. “The world has changed.” Her tear-filled eyes flit around repeatedly from Ravana, Massimo, Gianna, and Anthony. “My poor children. Lost. My beautiful Yeti’s; how few you are now,” she cries. She crosses the room to Ravana and Massimo. She caresses Ravana’s blood red locks.
“Such a beautiful specimen of your kind, squandering the gifts I bestowed upon the ancients to propagate your species.” She leaned down and kissed Ravana full on the lips and cupped her cheeks in her palms. “You should be a queen, my lovely, feeding on the feeble cattle He created.”
The woman stood erect and looked around once again. “I have work to do. Too long have I remained imprisoned, but no more. We will restore the world to its rightful order.” The woman turned and walked away and slowly began to dematerialize. Her voice sounded around the chamber as the last of her disappeared. “We will meet again, Ravana of my moon; and my pets, my Alpha, his mate, and his offspring, will restore my temple in the Himalayans to its former glory.”
The enchantment covering the room vanished, and everyone fell to the floor, exhausted from straining against Her power. For long moments they lay. When everyone began to get to their feet, Mila was the first to speak.
“What just happened, and who was that woman?”
“Our mother,” Ravana replied as she approached the altar. Her eyes swept the surface, and she realized that when she killed Giovanni, and his body fell upon the altar, his blood had soaked into the book. Ravana pressed the button on her comm. “Delia, did you get all that?” When no answer came, she waited a moment and tried again. “Delia?” Another moment passed, and Ravana snatched the comm from her neck and threw it on the floor. “Of course, she chooses that moment to follow direction.”
“What’s going on, luv?” Massimo asked as he and the others joined Ravana at the altar.
“I’m taking a wild guess here, but I think Giovanni completed the ritual. All he needed to do was sacrifice Mila for her blood, but we interrupted. When I took Gio’s head, his body fell upon the altar, and his blood was obviously strong enough to resurrect this crazy bitch.”
“So, you don’t believe all this ‘I’m your mother, you’re my pets’ insanity?” Anthony asked.
“Well, it sure isn’t anything I know about in my family tree,” Ravana states. “Not that there isn’t some shred of truth to what she’s saying, but it will take some time to research.”
“I know someone we can talk to about it real soon,” Massimo grumbles.
Ravana gives Massimo a glare and is about to say something biting but changes her mind and softens. “Maybe you’re right. We can also see what Delia can dig up.”
“Get Penelope on researching goddesses of Eurasian origin, since we have a starting point with the Himalayas,” Anthony says. “She’s a whiz with that shit.”
“I’m sorry, Anthony. I know you two were close. I should have told you sooner, but Penelope…”
“Who’s Penelope?” Massimo asks, and a look of realization falls over Anthony.
“I get it. Par for the course. Maybe someday you can tell me what happened. Right now, I just want to take my girls out of here.”
“Of course,” Ravana gives her team instructions to cleanse the area and bag up any evidence to return with them to the west coast before she pulls a phone out of her pocket and begins making calls. Anthony gathers Mila and Gianna into his arms, smothering them with hugs, kisses, and questions about their welfare. Mila eventually pushes out of his grasp and addresses her mother.
“What did the crazy, scary lady mean when she said, your offspring will be majestic?”
Massimo peeks his head in between Gianna and her daughter, “since the divorce has been finalized, you might as well tell them.” He laughs and walks away as Ravana swats at him.
Gianna looks at the floor sheepishly, and a hand unconsciously moves to cover her stomach. “Anthony, I’m pregnant.”
Anthony stares in silence, stupefied, but Mila asks, “Mamma, are you saying you and Jax-”
“Shush, for a minute,” Gianna admonishes. She looks at Anthony. “Anthony, say something. Please?”
Anthony grabs Gianna and pulls her firmly against him while planting a passionate, long-lasting kiss on Gianna’s lips.
“You guys are having children, not puppies, right?” Massimo asks with a grin as he wanders by again.
Anthony and Gianna crack up laughing, and Gianna takes a swipe at Massimo, but he leans just out of her reach, so she misses. “Get outta here, Assimo.”
The vampire gives an exaggerated bow and swaggers off to help care for the wounded in the Order.
“So, I’m going to have a little brother or sister?” Mila asks excitedly.
Gianna kneels, so she’s at eye level with her daughter. “I think, perhaps, two. Would you like that, Piccolo?”
“Are you kidding? I can’t wait to teach them magic!”
“Could you kids maybe go over pleasantries once we get you home? Someone, check on Stanford!” Ravana continues barking orders to her team. Bodies in black Kevlar move in and out the room picking up anything that might be worth checking over and placing them into bags and cases Gianna had no idea they’d brought with them.
“What about this?” Anthony points to the daggered body.
“Well, the body shouldn’t pose a threat,” Delia bounds up to Anthony’s side. “Though the dagger on the other hand.” She nods to one of the men who walk in carrying a medium sized case. He places it on what’s left of the stone altar with a thud and Delia opens the lock with a skeleton key.
“This is lined with lead.” She reaches over and pulls the dagger from Matteo’s lifeless corpse, which seems to be rapidly decomposing. Placing the blade in the case, Delia secures the lock. Then secures the key to her wrist with a locking cuff. “We’ll place it in the armory back at base. It’ll be well protected.”
“Sounds good to me. I don’t want that thing anywhere near my family.” Anthony picks up Mila and lays a hand on Gianna’s back. “Ready to go home?”
“Oh, well. Home might be a loose description of the place. It’s a wreck.”
“So, it’ll give us a chance to remodel.”
“What about papa?”
Gianna leans into her daughter. “Mila, your father is…”
“No, mamma. I know he’s gone. He was going to hurt me. I know it couldn’t be helped. He would have hurt all of us. I’m sad, but that’s not what I meant.”
“What then, Piccolo?”
“Well, he lived there, and now he’s gone. The place is so divided. What if we just get something else? Buy a new house.”
“I knew I loved you for a reason.” Anthony nuzzles her in his arms.
“You know there are some nice houses in Seattle,” Ravana added.
“I don’t think we’re ready for relocating that far, but maybe a visit,” Anthony tells her.
“Just know you’re welcome anytime. I have plenty of room.”
“That’s enough, Red. We should be getting back. We have our own mess to take care of. A certain Ancient One running amuck in your building.” Massimo interjects.
Ravana and Massimo say their farewells. They pack the black SUVs up with all the debris, the team from the Order, and leave Anthony and Gianna a car to get home with.
“The first order of business,” Gianna looks at Anthony from the passenger seat, “a burger and fries.”
Anthony grabs her hand, “One for each baby?”
“How’d you guess…”
About the Authors
Chad and Shannon met in 2011 in the land of Evony while milling around the courtyard of their King’s castle, waiting for the attack to commence on an enemy clan. As Shannon sharpened her sword, they struck up a conversation and quickly learned they shared the same interests. They fought side by side for the better part of a year as they waged war on enemy after enemy. When they were not engaged in mercenary work, they wrote. Completing their first novels within two months of the other, they continued to write and encourage the other over the next few years.
In January of 2018, Chad asked Shannon to be his author wife and Shannon accepted. Two months later, the two of them welcomed a bouncing baby book into their lives. They named their endeavor of love, Tundra Witch. Yes, it was a strange name, but one they felt suited its personality. All too soon, Tundra Witch grew up and joined the real world where the young book spread joy to the masses. Proud of their wondrous achievement together, Shannon and Chad began talks of sibling books for Tundra Witch. At present, the two are currently in the conception phase of the process and look forward to increasing their little book family together in 2019.
https://www.facebook.com/authorchad/
https://www.slperrine.com