Charlie and her father were staring at each other, neither willing to be the first to speak, but finally her father couldn’t stand it and said, “Bet you thought you were safe in this dump. Didn’t think I’d find you here for a while?”
“It doesn’t matter; you can’t touch us,” Charlie said, lifting her chin, her eyes an icy blue.
Deacon smiled at Charlie. “Oh, but you see, that’s not quite true; I can’t touch you, but I can touch her,” he said, jerking his head in Cassie’s direction. “Do you think I’d be stupid enough not to protect my investment? All the time and money I’ve put into her, nursing her back to health, all that time taking her to doctors who I knew wouldn’t find what was wrong with her. Now it’s all going to pay off,” he said, stepping closer to Cassie.
Cassie scrambled out of bed and got behind Charlie, who looked like she was ready to kill her father right there. “I’m not letting you take her,” she said.
“You don’t have any choice; you can’t protect her from me. She’s mine and all the energy she holds,” he said, advancing toward them. Then he stopped, “Of course, there is something you could do to save your sister.”
Charlie stared at him, waiting for him to continue, but he was silent, forcing her to ask, “And what is that?”
“I was going to suck all the energy out of her,” he said, looking over Charlie’s shoulder at her, “suck it out until there was nothing left and leave her for dead. But if you give me your magic, I’ll let her live; heck, I’ll let both of you live. A life without magic won’t be that bad; you’ve got your shifter after all.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Charlie said, backing away from him and reaching up to grab the talisman around her neck.
“That thing isn’t going to help you without your shifter around. He never left your side at the castle, but where is he now?” he asked, a sneer on his face.
“What have you done to him?” Charlie asked, her fingers beginning to glow.
“Nothing yet, but Demetri is just waiting for the chance to take him down, that is, unless you come along with me,” he said, then stepped back from them. “It really shouldn’t be that hard of a decision, Charlie: the life of your sister and the man you love in exchange for your magic.”
Cassie could see that Charlie was thinking about it. “Don’t do it, Charlie, he’s lying,” she said, stepping up beside her.
But Cassie could see that Charlie’s mind was already made up. “I’ll go with you, but you’d better stick to your end of the bargain,” she said.
“Once I have your magic, I don’t really care what happens to you,” Deacon said, but Cassie could see that he was lying.
She tried once more to convince Charlie. “Charlie, he’s lying; he’s going to kill us both.”
Charlie looked at her and said, “It’s going to be fine, Cassie. Take my arm; this may feel a little strange.”
***Daniel***
Daniel shifted uncomfortably on the chair he’d chosen when they’d gotten to the big barn where they’d moved the meeting since so many people had shown up. There must have been twenty people besides the family, and everyone was talking at once, no one able to agree how to go forward from here.
He’d made it abundantly clear that Cassie was not going to be used as bait, that whatever they did to finally rid themselves of Deacon and Demetri would be done without her. He knew that he should be contributing more to the conversation, but all he could think about was Cassie.
Annabelle got up from her chair and said, “Okay, I think that’s enough discussion; it’s time we came up with a plan. There are over forty of us here, both witches and shifters, so it seems to me we should have the advantage. The first thing…”
When Annabelle fell silent in the middle of her sentence, Daniel sat up in his chair and looked at her. Her eyes had a faraway look, and then she shivered. “Deacon’s around here somewhere,” she finally said and started running for the door.
Daniel was on his feet and through the door before she even reached it, Steven on his heels. When they got to the house, they took the stairs two at a time, both feeling the strange energy that filled the air. He ran down the hallway and threw open the bedroom door, his heart sinking when he saw that it was empty.
He turned to Steven, panicked, “They’re gone, he’s taken them somewhere. I never should have left her alone; I should have stayed with her.”
Steven put his hand on Daniel’s shoulder. “Calm down; we have to think logically about this,” he said.
Daniel stared at him open-mouthed. “How can you be so calm?” he finally asked, feeling anger beginning to replace the panic.
“He’s calm because we knew that there was a chance this might happen,” Annabelle said, coming into the bedroom.
Daniel narrowed his eyes at his sister in law. “You used her for bait,” he accused.
His brother Justin stepped up behind Annabelle. “Calm down, Daniel, we didn’t use her as bait, but we knew that Deacon would come after her. I’d hoped that we’d be able to stop him, but we planned for this. You’re just going to have to trust us; we’ll get them back.”
Daniel looked at his oldest brother, a man who’d been through plenty of difficult times in his life and knew that he wouldn’t let him down. “What are we going to do?”
“First, we’re going to look for the message Charlie left me,” Steven said, beginning to slowly walk around the room. “It’s not going to be something obvious, but I know she would have left one.”
Daniel stood in the middle of the room and let his eyes roam around it, looking for anything that was out of place. Then he saw it. “Look, there’s a chocolate chip cookie in the middle of the bed.”
Steven crossed the room smiling. “Charlie knows that’s my favorite,” he said, taking a big bite.
In only seconds, his eyes clouded over, and he sank down onto the bed, then in a strange voice, he said, “They’re at the castle. Deacon is going to take their magic.”
Daniel watched shocked as his brother’s eyes cleared and he became himself again. “We have to get to Germany, and fast,” he said, “I saw a room that looked like a dungeon and Deacon dressed in a black robe messing with some stuff on a table.”
“Did you see Charlie and Cassie?” Annabelle asked.
“No, but I could sense that they were there,” Steven said, getting to his feet. “How are we getting to Germany?”
“I can only take a few people at a time, and that’s going to take a lot of energy; we need some more witches to help,” Annabelle said, heading for the stairs.
Chapter Nineteen
***Cassie***
Cassie was holding onto Charlie’s arm when the room went black and all the air was sucked out, leaving her breathless. She felt the sensation of moving through space, but also felt like she was floating, then for several long seconds, she felt nothing. Closing her eyes, she held on to Charlie tighter until she felt the floor beneath her feet again.
When she opened her eyes, they were standing in the dungeon of the castle, she recognized it from her games of hide-and-seek with her father as a child. But today the room looked much different; there were two big chairs in front of the fireplace, which held a vast fire. A long table in the center of the room held all kinds of weird-looking things, including several dead animals and what looked like a vial of blood.
Her knees began to shake, and it was becoming difficult to breathe. “Cassie, take a deep breath and try to calm down. It’s going to be fine; they’ll find us, I promise. You just have to play along for a little while.”
Cassie looked over at her sister, whose face was calm, her eyes an icy blue. “I’ll try, but I’m terrified,” she said, trying not to cry.
“I want you to think about everything you’ve been through, find some anger inside you Cassie, and feed it, use its power,” Charlie said.
Cassie felt a surge of energy and found that anger, but before she could do what Charlie had said, her father stepped up to them. �
�I worked hard to make this special for you,” he said, gesturing to the chairs. When neither of them moved, he said, “Please, have a seat. I’d rather not waste energy forcing you.”
Charlie glared at him but walked over to the chairs, her body stiff. Cassie followed, then sat down when she did, only to immediately feel the air swirling around her. Suddenly, it felt like she couldn’t breathe and when she tried to get out of the chair, the sensation got stronger.
“Sit still, Cassie; if you don’t move, it will loosen up,” Charlie said, softly.
Cassie closed her eyes, wanting to cry; she felt so lost in this world of magic, a world where she was defenseless. But she knew that Charlie was trying to help, so she stopped struggling and tried to breathe slowly. Little by little, the suffocating feel began to ease, and before long, she was able to breathe normally.
She looked over at Charlie. “What is this?”
“It’s a confinement spell,” Charlie said, “The more you struggle, the tighter it gets. If we sit quietly, it won’t be quite so uncomfortable.”
Cassie tried not to move, but it was hard to sit still. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to stay calm and act like he’s beaten us,” Charlie said, looking over at her. “But what we’re really going to be doing is breaking this spell.”
Cassie shook her head. “I don’t think I can help; I’m not a witch,” she said, feeling even more helpless.
Charlie smiled at her. “That’s where you’re wrong and where Deacon messed up. You’ve got plenty of magic inside you, Cassie. Close your eyes and try to feel it; imagine yourself free of the chair. It doesn’t matter how you get free, just that you’re free.”
Cassie shut her eyes and imagined getting up from the chair and felt the air begin to stir around her. Deep inside her, in a place she didn’t know existed, she felt power beginning to grow, then felt it surging through her blood, and knew that Charlie was right.
But then her father’s voice broke her concentration. “I hope you two are comfortable over there,” he said, looking up from what he was doing. “This might take a while.”
Cassie felt anger surge through her, felt the power inside her growing, but stayed still. “How could you do this?” she asked, then added, “Daniel and Steven will come after us.”
Her father studied her for a moment, then walked over and stood in front of her. “They might, but by the time they do, it’ll be too late. I left them a few surprises; we should have plenty of time to complete our bargain before they get here,” he said, then walked back over to the table.
***Daniel***
Steven, Daniel, Justin, and Annabelle were standing in the computer room, arms linked, but nothing was happening. Annabelle scrunched her face up in frustration. “I can’t transport us from here. Deacon’s put a spell on the house, blocking me.”
“Then we’ll go outside, get away from the house; he couldn’t have put a spell on the outdoors,” Daniel said, heading for the door.
Annabelle was right behind him, “Wait, Daniel, don’t go out there until I make sure it’s safe; we don’t know what might be out there,” she said, then winced when he threw open the door.
Daniel heard Annabelle’s warning a second too late to stop himself from opening the door. Still holding onto it, he turned back to her, but a massive clap of thunder made him look outside again just as a strong gust of wind hit him. The skies, which had been clear and blue just a moments ago had suddenly begun to fill with black clouds.
They rolled in over the mountains, boiling and rolling over one another. He heard Annabelle gasp and call for Joslin as he watched the rain begin to fall; it was gentle at first, but before long it was pouring down in sheets. The wind continued to howl, throwing sheets of rain into his face and blinding him.
When he tried to shut the door, it wouldn’t move, so he stepped out onto the porch and watched the storm. Annabelle and Joslin stepped out of the house and stood next to him. “It’s Deacon’s water demon; he’s out there somewhere waiting for us to step off the porch,” she said, taking Joslin’s hand.
“Deacon’s way of slowing us down,” Daniel said mesmerized by the storm. “What are we going to do? We can’t fight that.”
“We’ve beaten it before; we’ll just have to beat it again,” Annabelle said, then turned to her twin. “Joslin, you know what we have to do.”
Joslin nodded at her, took Annabelle’s hand, and together they stepped out into the storm. Daniel looked at his brothers, wondering how they could let the women they loved step right into the path of danger, but he could see that both Justin and Jake were tense, ready to spring at any moment.
There was another loud clap of thunder, and a wall of water began to form in the front yard. Then a gust of wind started it spinning, and suddenly they were looking at a tornado of water, but Annabelle and Joslin stood their ground. Daniel’s body was tingling, ready to fight, but he held back knowing this wasn’t his fight, that he was no match for the demon in front of them.
As he watched, eyes appeared in the heart of the swirling water, then a face so evil it almost made his heart stop. The demon leered at them, then two spirals of water formed at its sides, and in only seconds, a human-like figure could clearly be seen in the swirling water.
It raised one of its arms and flung a bolt of lightning at Annabelle and Joslin who had been standing, eyes closed, reciting a banishing spell. Screaming, the demon raised its other arm to strike again, but Justin and Jake reached out and pulled them back on the porch, and the demon lowered his arm.
Joslin looked at Annabelle and said, “Well, that’s new.”
Jake groaned and said, “You’re not going back out there.”
“I’m with Jake,” Justin said.
Annabelle was silent for a minute, then said, “What we need is a diversion and a different spell. I thought maybe we could just banish it since Deacon wasn’t here, but it’s going to be a little harder.”
“Can you do it?” Daniel asked, desperate to get to Cassie.
“Oh, we can do it, but we need to get the demon focused on something else,” she said, then looked at Daniel. “Get the shifters; tell them it’s show time.”
***Cassie***
Cassie watched as her father worked at the table, afraid to move, afraid to look at Charlie. When she finally snuck a look at her, Charlie’s face was relaxed, her eyes closed as if she were taking a nap. Charlie’s eyes came open, and she whispered, “Concentrate on breaking that spell, Cassie; we need to be free when they come to rescue us.”
She closed her eyes and did as Charlie said, and soon she felt the air around her begin to stir. “It’s working,” she whispered, but try as she might, she couldn’t get any further than that.
Disappointed, she opened her eyes and said, “I can’t do it; it feels like something is blocking me, like I’m not strong enough to push through.”
“It’s about finding a way in,” Charlie tried to explain, “looking for a weakness. I can’t explain any better than that, but if you trust your instincts, the magic will do the work for you.” When Cassie looked like she didn’t believe her, she said, “It’s inside you, Cassie, you just have to believe.”
Charlie’s last words must have been a little too loud because Deacon looked up and said, “Are you two plotting against me over there? I can’t have that.”
He walked over to them carrying a box. “I wasn’t going to show this to you until later, but since you seem bored, I’ll let you have a sneak peek,” he said, slicing the tape open on the box with more flourish than necessary.
When he’d removed all the packing material, he lifted a goblet out of the box. It was covered in jewels and sparkled in the firelight. “I found this little treasure on the black market; it has a very historical but bloody past, and I thought it would be perfect for this special occasion. Don’t ever say I didn’t give you the best.”
Deacon turned to walk away, the goblet firmly in his hands, but then stopped and came bac
k. He stopped in front of Charlie. “I don’t think your little talisman is going to do you any good now,” he said, ripping it off her neck and dropping it into the goblet.
Charlie fought back for the first time. “Give that back,” she yelled at him.
Deacon held up the goblet; the stones that had been dull only minutes before were now glistening and throbbing with a strange light. “I don’t think so; you see, the goblet seems to like your little trinket. I’m going to let it keep it.”
***Daniel***
Daniel stood on the porch, poised to shift at Annabelle’s signal; all around him, the other shifters of the valley had gathered to do the same. When her arm came down, he let the power flow through him and shifted, then darted off the porch and stood boldly in front of the demon. The other shifters fanned out behind him. This was the distraction the witches needed to cast their spell.
The first bolt of lightning hit between his front feet, and he took off for the trees, dodging the next two bolts by a few feet each, then began weaving through the trees on the edge of the property. He knew this land like the back of his hand, could have navigated it with his eyes closed, so it was easy to lead the demon on a chase that only frustrated it and made it scream.
But as he was dodging the demon, pulling it further and further into the forest, the witches had gathered in the yard. Standing in a circle in the rain, they joined hands and raised them to the sky and chanted the words of the spell over and over. Enraged, the demon began flinging bolts of lightning so fast, Daniel could barely escape.
Instantly the rest of the pack appeared out of the trees, advancing on the demon in a circle, their teeth bared. Momentarily surprised, the demon paused and looked around it, then laughed.
In a strange warbling voice, it said, “You think shifters can defeat me; this should be fun.”
Daniel (Fairplay Shifters Series Book 6) Page 12