A frightened nine-year-old boy… bullies standing over him. He was the first one I helped with sending bees at his attackers…
Another picture on the screen. “This is Mohammad Aziz,” Jack said, “fourteen years old. He went missing Friday morning… “
I saw him, too. Cowering under the abuse of the bullies, looking relieved yet confused when the wasps came to chase his tormentors away…
The third and final picture. “Dylan Hess, ten years old.” Jack said. “Missing since Wednesday… “
A frightened little boy, held down by two bullies… I sent hornets after his attackers…
Dead. They were dead. Those bright little faces, stilled forever. All because I tried to help them! I thought, anguish welling up inside. They were targeted because of their connection to ME! They were placed just outside of our property to taunt us!
That fucking lake. It was to blame, I just knew it! It chose when we left to strike. It did the worst things connected to me during the week of my greatest joys.
I saw purple all around me… purple energy flowing, crackling around me. My rage was making me strong.
“This ends, NOW!” I said, and my voice boomed in the room. Several people were knocked backward as I stalked towards the door.
I could hear voices behind me… begging, pleading with me to stop. I tuned them out, however… I couldn’t get the faces of the children out of my mind!
Anthony, Mohammad, Dylan… I’m sorry! I thought. I am going to avenge you!
I walked through the back doors, and they shattered and disintegrated around me. I strode out onto the patio, and then to the lawn.
All I’ve ever wanted to do is to help people! I thought. I want to bring relief and justice to people! Those children did nothing wrong… they were victims! And they’re dead because of that fucking lake… “
I heard people moving behind me, but I wouldn't let them get close. I put a handout, and twenty feet all around me opened up, my friends held outside.
“You all should wait in the house.” I said to nobody in particular. “I may have to do some disturbing things, and I’d rather you not watch.”
I walked into, and through, the woods until I came to the shores of the lake. I raised my hands and shot a bolt of pure energy into the water.
“Serpent!” my voice boomed. “Show yourself!”
I sounded like I was being piped through a massive sound system. When nothing showed, I sent another bolt of energy into the water.
“Serpent! Show yourself you coward!” I commanded.
The water started to bubble, and I readied my most powerful fire-bolt.
Now I have you!
The surface of the lake erupted upwards, and the serpent from my earlier vision towered over me. It was gray and slimy. It looked like a giant earthworm except for its gray color and five rows of shark-sized teeth in its gaping maw.
“This is for Anthony!" I cried as I let my fire-bolt. fly. It scorched the beast's skin but did little more.
What it did seem to trigger, however, was all of the creatures that had attacked us thus far popping out of the ground. Hellephants, their tusks spitting fire… the giant bats, taking flight… Thagnerian snare-beasts, looking like mini-van sized tarantulas… the mechanized corpses… even the clay and wood ravagers… all appeared and turned towards me.
I didn’t have a chance to react, however, because as soon as the beasties appeared, so did my friends.
Vincent came crashing in, ripping the leg off of a spider and swinging it at the mechanized corpses. Three at a time were smashed with each swing, and he dove into the fight with his spider-leg held high.
Behind him came Raina, floated there by Gaia, who was right behind her. Raina shot electric bolts of green energy at the bats, incinerating one, then two, then three. Gaia sent boulders shooting at the ravagers, breaking them into dried twigs and dust.
Angelique appeared next, picking up a hellephant by it’s flaming tusks and crashing it into another. Trevor came roaring in on a motorcycle, his sister leaping off of the back onto a giant bat, dragging it down and killing it with a knife.
Trevor turned the motorcycle around on the trail and came speeding back. A sword in his right hand, he cut the heads off of several mechanized corpses on each pass.
The Fae sisters appeared behind him, wrapped in dragon skin and jumping in to battle whatever creature was nearest to them.
Suddenly, Katsu and Hatsu were at my side. “The serpent!” Katsu yelled. “It’s acting like a portal, bringing more monsters through. Until we kill it, we can’t end the battle!”
Hatsu raised her hands, and bright white light shot out, hitting the giant serpent-worm. Katsu did the same thing, and the serpent roared.
I looked around, still feeling incredibly powerful. I looked at my friends fighting and realized that this was only one battle. There was a war coming, and people may die.
I should end this I thought. The lake! It should provide a solid magickal link to whoever’s behind this!
I moved away from the main battle around the lake. When I stood on the other side, I started gathering my power.
I can’t complete the five elements I thought, So I’ll draw on my rage and anger. They’ve made me strong enough to call forth the creature, and now they can help me end this!
The ball of energy was… cloudy. Murky. But powerful. Yes… oh, SO powerful! I prepared to send it through the lake to the lake’s owner.
“Stop!”
I turned around, and Angelique stood there, her eyes wide.
“I have to stop this!” I cried to her, the sound of the rolling energy I had raised echoing through the trees like a mighty wind.
“You can’t send the curse through the earth!” She called back. “Your energy is too unfocused. You could kill a lot more than who sent the lake… if it even reaches them.”
“But Anthony… Mohammad… Dylan!” I said, tears in my eyes. “I have to avenge them!”
“And you will!” Angelique called. “But not this way. Send that curse through the earth, and you could kill millions of Anthonys, or Mohammads, or Dylans!”
“Annabelle, listen to her.” Gaia said, stepping out of the forest.
“She knows what she’s talking about.” Vincent added, appearing behind her.
My hands dropped, and the energy ball dissipated. Tears rolled down my face as my lovers rushed towards me, embracing me from all sides.
“I love you… all of you.” I sobbed.
"We love you, too." Gaia said. Vincent and Angelique nodded and hugged me tighter.
“Let’s finish this lake monster.” Angelique said.
“How?” I asked.
“Let’s try to unify the elements within you again.” Angelique suggested.
I centered myself, and connected to the four classical elements: air, fire, water, and earth. I then reached out with my soul to connect to spirit.
“I can feel it… it’s there.” I said. “But I can’t… quite… reach it!”
“Let us help.” Gaia said. “Just remain open.”
“Okay.” I said, closing my eyes again.
I saw myself surrounded by each person’s unique energy. They swirled around me like wisps of smoke.
“I love you, Annabelle." Gaia said, and I saw a bright red trail of light snake from her spirit to mine. It warmed me and brought the power of spirit into sharper focus.
“I love you, Annabelle.” Vincent said, and a red stream of energy shot from him to me. The scene cleared still.
I felt Angelique kiss me on the cheek. “I love you, Annabelle.”
I saw and felt her red love energy fill my spirit. Suddenly, the element of spirit appeared like a bolt of pure purple energy, wrapping around the other four elements and integrating them into a cohesive whole. I felt the combined energy filling me, filling my spirit. My friends let go, and I felt myself rise up and float over the dark, murky lake.
Hatsu and Katsu were holding their own against the
Llamhigyn Y Dwr, but they couldn't deliver the finishing blow. I floated over, light streaming from my eyes and hands, and seized the serpent around its tail.
“I think it's time for you to go." I said and sent my energy streaming into the beast. It wailed once, twice, and then dissolved into powder.
Around us, the remaining monsters also turned to dust.
It was over.
* * *
“So you seriously used the severed leg of one of the spiders as a weapon?”Trevor said. “That is extremely badass!”
We were gathered in the pub room, everyone starting out with a drink to celebrate our win. While Trevor enjoyed the Guinness we had on tap, the rest of us turned to weed pretty quickly.
“No, that was awesome.” Raina said, taking a hit. “What was badass was Angelique ripping two legs off and using them like nunchucks!"
“Good one!” Evelyn said, smiling and lifting her beer with one hand and her joint with the other. “Here here!”
Angelique grinned. “They come off so easily, how could I resist?”
Everyone laughed, and then Evelyn spoke up. “Hey Angelique, I didn’t get the chance to mention it before, but I love your hair!”
There were murmurs of agreement all around. “So how did it happen?” Jack asked.
So Angelique and I, together, explained both what happened Saturday night, as well as our guess as to how the change in her hair came to be. When we were done, Vincent was grinning.
“So you think my theory was correct, huh?” he said to Angelique.
“Looks like it.” she replied.
“So,” I said, my suspicions aroused, “you two discussed what might happen if Angelique and I fucked before we did?”
“Okay, one hundred percent disclosure.” Vincent said. “Angelique and I… through a prophecy from a very dear friend… kind of knew that you’d wind up with both of us this time around.”
“Really?” I said, amused.
“I believe that her exact words,” Angelique added, “were ‘you have patiently taken your turns loving her throughout the millennia, but this time neither will have to wait long’.”
“That is too bloody clear and unambiguous to be a prophecy.” Trevor insisted, punctuating his words with his freshly emptied beer mug. “Most prophets try to be fucking poets, and they wind up being as easy to understand as Charlie Brown’s teachers!”
“You guys have Charlie Brown specials in England?” Jack asked.
“Well we have the fucking internet.” Trevor countered.
“Good point.” Jack replied.
We celebrated well into the night. I was again sitting between Gaia and Vincent, with Angelique standing behind me. Spirits were high, and I wound up taking turns making out with Gaia, Vincent, and Angelique, with Vincent and Gaia turning to each other when I was distracted by Angelique. After one such session, Jack had to shake his head.
“You know,” he said, mock annoyance in his voice, “it would be so nice if this was happening with anyone other than someone I see as a sister. Part of me wants to be turned on, while the bigger part is disgusted with the first part.”
“Get used to it.” Gaia said, grinning. “Annabelle told me to ‘make myself at home’, so I’m going to. In our realm, making out with your romantic partners is considered good manners.”
“And it doesn’t matter… “ Darla said.
“If you’re in public or not… “ added Drucilla.
"Because love, in all of its forms, is beautiful!" Cordelia finished.
“That… “ Raina said, looking at the Fae sisters, “… is almost becoming cute. Please stop.”
Everyone had a laugh at that. After a while, the conversation turned back to the battle.
“I was pretty busy, catching any beastie that made it out of the woods.” Tiffany said, her voice slightly dulled by the celebration. “I can only imagine what it was like in the thick of things.”
“Yeah, the view on the video monitors was pretty intense.” Jack said.
“I kinda had fun with it.” Raina said next. “I mean, thanks to Gaia… “
“You’re welcome.” Gaia said with a bow of her head.
“… and her dragon skin armor that we’re all wearing as underwear these days,” Raina continued, “it was like a big… video game. Point and shoot.”
“Yeah, well you weren’t wrestling with a giant uncircumcised penis with teeth!” Katsu said, waving her joint as she spoke. “That was more of a workout.”
“But not out of our abilities.” Hatsu added.
“I liked going all ‘Demon Knight’ with the motorcycle.” Trevor said. “Reminds me of that time in Afghanistan that we tried to get that Phonetician fertility statue back from that warlord near Kandahar, and we wound up on horseback… “
Trevor wound up entertaining us for quite a while with tales of his exploits, but eventually, I felt restless.
“Want to catch some air?” I said, leaning in towards Gaia’s ear.
“Sounds good to me.” she replied.
We said our good-nights and got up to go. I had to give one more kiss to Vincent and Angelique before I went, and my other friends 'oohed' in good-natured ribbing.
Outside, I could feel dawn approaching. The sky hadn’t gotten any brighter, but I could sense the shift in energies from night to day. Gaia and I walked lazily, hand in hand, through the gathering dew on the grass surrounding the mansion. I could see the energy of life all around me in the darkness, and eventually, we found ourselves walking through the woods.
“It’s kind of nice, not needing a flashlight.” I said, grinning.
“Fae vision is a less powerful form of what you’ve been seeing.” Gaia replied. “So we’ve never needed flashlights.”
“I wish I could see it just as well in the daylight,” I said, “the energy.”
“It’s possible.” Gaia said. “Want me to teach you?”
“That would be glorious!” I replied enthusiastically.
We came upon the mysterious lake that had occupied so many of our thoughts over the past year. It hadn't disappeared when the giant worm did and seemed to be permanent. It was no longer a portal, however, just an ordinary lake.
All of the shadows surrounding it were gone.
“They really had us going, thinking that the monsters were being either teleported or airlifted in,” Gaia said, shaking her head, “when this thing was acting like a portal all along! It wasn’t the literal manifestation spot, so we never traced it back.”
“Whoever’s behind this, they’re smart.” I replied.
The sky was rapidly growing to be a brighter blue every minute at that point. I saw a mist begin to rise from the water, creeping through the tall reeds and grass at the lake’s shore.
At that point, I didn't want to talk about portals, or enemies, or anything like that. I turned towards my green-skinned lover and took her in my arms.
“You know,” I said, looking lovingly into her eyes, “I never dreamed that feeling stir crazy could turn out so well. The only reason that I went to the Twilight Fae realm was to get out of the house.”
“I wanted to come to you so many times,” Gaia said, “but I was counseled to be patient. Now I realize that we met at the right time… that you weren’t ready to deal with our past until now.”
“I want to explore the lives we’ve lived together,” I said, “but not now. I just want to focus on the beautiful present right in front of me.”
We kissed, and eased ourselves down onto the earth.
* * *
“So,” I said, lighting a joint and handing it to Jack, “I’m surprised you’re up.”
He took it from me as I lit another. “Yeah, well after you and Gaia went off to roll around in the dirt, it gave Katsu ideas.” he said. “So she brought me back to our room and fucked the high right out of me. She’s asleep, and I’ll smoke a couple of these and then probably collapse.”
Jack eased back in his patio seat as he exhaled. I sat next to hi
m, having stopped off there when Gaia and I came back from the woods.
“Look at you, in a stable relationship.” I said, playfully punching his shoulder. “All you needed to do was to date an older woman.”
“And look at you, in three stable relationships!” he teased back. “Four, if you count the thing with you, Vincent, and Gaia together as its own thing."
“I have no idea.” I said, hitting my joint. “I was barely used to being in one relationship, let alone multiples.” I exhaled. “I still have a lot of social conditioning to overcome before it stops feeling weird.”
“My girlfriend cleans my room naked, and it’s not to turn me on.” Jack said, holding in a hit. He exhaled and continued. “You want social conditioning to get over, it’s shit like that!”
“And she’s five thousand years old.” I added.
“Your Fae girlfriend is older.” Jack shot back.
“Fair point.” I took a hit and exhaled, watching the smoke drift away on the wind.
“Jesus, if Drew could see us now!” Jack exclaimed, smiling.
I grinned back. I hadn't thought about our old chess club friend in a long time, his family having moved to California in our Sophomore year. He shared our love of all things science fiction and had helped us build a three-dimensional chess set like they had in Star Trek. He was also a big horror and fantasy fan, and if the universe made sense it would have been him who was involved with vampires, Fae, and the like.
“If any of our extended high school crowd could see us now!" I replied. "You're dating a five-thousand-year-old Japanese Witch… "
“… and you're dating a four hundred and twenty-year-old vampire, a sixteen hundred-year-old vampire, and a damn near ten thousand-year-old Fae woman… " he continued.
“… to say nothing about the fact that we live in a mansion,” I finished.
“I guess my old youth pastor was right.” Jack said. “He said that I’d wind up as a Satanic communist, and I’m dating a Witch and living in a commune, so… close enough!”
We laughed, and things felt just a little less strange for a moment.
The Witch: Book Two of The Sorceress Saga Page 40