“Let’s go to work, Selkirks,” the older brother said. The ensuing battle was short and ended badly for the Tainted.
“What, did you guys wait so you could get here in the actual ‘nick of time’?” Cadell asked, allowing Evelyn to lower him to the floor and lean him against a wall.
“You must have been doing pretty well until they started using your ribs for soccer practice,” the lean, saber wielding brother joked. “I hope your new girlfriend is a good enough lay to be worth the beating you took,” he added, pointing at Evelyn with his sword.
“Evelyn,” Cadell said, his eyes narrowing. “This is my brother Christian. Don’t mind him. He’s not really a dick, he just acts like one. The brooding, sullen one is Cai; he’s the eldest brother.” Cadell added. “Cai, where’s Eve?” The eldest Selkirk brother knelt and cupped the back of Cadell’s head gently. “Eve is fine. Helen is with her and they should be on their way up. You’re a mess, though. What were you thinking, knot-head? You should have called us earlier. And why didn’t you call on Uriel’s power?”
Cadell shifted painfully against the wall. “First, I wasn’t sure I would need your help. Doctor Carver only mentioned that she was being stalked by Tainteds. She didn’t mention a small army of them. Secondly, I call on Uriel’s power to save others. Not to save myself.”
“But you were saving someone else. You were buying time for Aunt Eve and me to get away,” Evelyn insisted.
“You would have been out of danger if you’d done what you were told. Besides, I wasn’t sure what channeling Uriel’s power would do to you if you were close by. After what happened when we showed you our auras tonight, I was afraid I’d hurt you. The power spike might have been too much for you.”
“I’m not important,” a voice from a few feet away said. “The pretty lady wouldn’t possibly want to know my name.”
Cadell chuckled, then winced in pain as his injured ribs objected to his mirth. He gestured toward the stocky, dark-haired Selkirk brother. “Evelyn, the brother
desperately crying out for attention is Callum.”
Callum flourished his two-handed sword like it weighed nothing before executing a deliberately exaggerated bow from the waist. “At your service, my lady,” he said. “As long as you don’t get me beat up like baby brother here,” he added with a grin.
“He needs a hospital,” Evelyn said, drawing a hand down Cadell’s face.
“No hospitals for us, dear,” Eve said as she came out of the stairwell alongside a young, petite girl with long red hair.
The girl wordlessly nudged Evelyn away from Cadell and knelt beside him. She threw her pony-tail over her shoulder as she gently probed his wounds with delicate fingers. From the pocket of her knee-length leather coat, she produced a small plastic bottle and popped the top off with a thumb. “Drink this,” she told him.
Cadell obeyed and a few seconds later he was able to stand with minimal assistance. He turned fond eyes toward the girl. “Evelyn,” he said, with an affectionate arm around the girl’s shoulders, “This is Helen Abrami-Selkirk.
She’s our adopted sister. Helen, this Evelyn Corey.” Helen frowned and her nose crinkled as she removed Cadell’s hand and stepped out of his embrace.
“Helen, can you clean this mess up?” Cai asked, using his sword to make a sweeping gesture at the corpses and blood scattered about the hallway. “We should get going,” he added.
Helen whispered an incantation and the air seemed suddenly hot and dry. The bodies of the Tainteds and the pools of blood on the floor disappeared with a shimmer akin to waves of heat radiating from an asphalt road. The air then became abruptly cold, as though Helen’s magic had sent the warmth away with the bodies.
“What about Mister Corey?” Cadell asked, casting a puzzled glance at the clearly-irritated Helen.
“When Eve called, I sent your buddy McLaren over to the Homeward. Colm will meet him there and they’ll bring Mister Randal to the house,” Cai replied. “And we need to get you home. Mom’s concoction aside, you look like shit.”
“How did you get here so quickly?” Evelyn asked, stepping closer to Cadell.
“Teleporting,” Cai answered.
Evelyn’s eyebrow took on a Spock-like arch again. “You mean like, ‘beam me up, Scotty?”
“More like Bewitched than Star Trek,” Christian said. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”
Evelyn ignored him. “Is that how we’re getting to your place?” she asked, unable to hide her trepidation. “Relax, pretty lady,” Callum assured her. “I don’t think Mom would use another ‘porting spell tonight. We’ll all have to pile into Cadell’s Escalade.”
Cai let his sword fade from existence, then put
Cadell’s right arm over his shoulder. “Let’s get going before anyone finds us here.”
“I’ll go ahead and handle the security guard,” Eve said.
Evelyn was about to take Cadell’s other arm but Helen edged in ahead of her. She shot Evelyn a fierce, possessive look and moved with Cadell and Cai toward the stairway. Evelyn chuckled and fell into step into step beside
Callum. “Cadell’s clueless, isn’t he?” she asked.
Callum grinned. “About Helen’s massive and prolonged crush on him?” he confirmed, “Yep, baby brother’s deaf, dumb and blind as a bat when it comes to that. Helen keeps hoping, though.”
Evelyn shook her head. “It couldn’t be more obvious,” she proclaimed.
Callum held the stairway door open for her. “To us it’s obvious. To Cadell, Helen is the little girl who came to live with us when she was six. For him, Helen is firmly in the ‘sister’ category and he just doesn’t see her any other way.”
“Unbelievable,” Evelyn said, laughing.
“What?” Callum asked.
Evelyn was still chuckling. “It’s just that for a family of demon fighters who are actually blessed by an angel, the problem of an unreturned crush seems almost ridiculously normal.”
“The Selkirks are normal,” Callum said, grinning.
“It’s just that the abnormal is normal for us.”
Chapter Three
The Selkirk home was located in Brighton, near Rogers Park. It was a three-floor brick building with a long central section connected to two distinct wings and a wrought-iron fence surrounding it. It sat on a nicely landscaped one and half acre lot. A roofed porch enclosed the front hardwood double doors and was lit by two stained-glass-enclosed high-wattage bulbs on either side. Although large, it was not particularly imposing. Two chimneys, one on each end of the rectangular dwelling, showed the promise of warmth and shelter much as any other home did.
“Do you guys think your house is big enough?” Evelyn remarked, peering at the home from the SUV’s window.
“It used to be a private Catholic school for boys,” Callum said. “The school’s headmaster lived here along with his family. It also housed thirty students. There used to be two other dorms and an actual school building on the grounds. The school closed in the forties and our great-grandfather bought the property. It’s been the Selkirks’ abode ever since.”
Cai parked the SUV in the attached four-car garage and used the remote control to bring the steel door back down. While Helen and Callum helped Cadell out of the back seat, Christian secured the door by screwing four bolts, each one inch in diameter, into steel-lined holes that extended three inches into the door’s frame. He then locked the door securely to the floor with a fist-sized padlock. Cai used a key to unlock the door that that led from the garage into a small mudroom that led in turn into the house’s kitchen. They were met by two large German Shepherds that blocked their path out of the kitchen. The dogs eyed Eve and Evelyn warily and growled.
“Knock it off, knuckleheads,” Cai said, petting one of the dogs with each hand. “They’re okay,” he added, indicating the two women with his thumb. The dogs seemed to accept this and moved to paw Cadell gently and lick his hands, whimpering sympathy for his injuries.
Callum
pointed to the two canines. “Evelyn, Eve, meet Leonidas and Themistocles, you can call them Leo and Theo. They’re in charge of security around here,” he added as the dogs expressed concern for Cadell.
Next a somewhat older woman appeared at the kitchen’s threshold. Her hair was raven-black but streaked with gray. A button nose contrasted with her face’s high, angled cheekbones. She wore a simple gray housedress and canvas walking shoes. Behind her, a man with two prosthetic legs stood, supporting himself on metal crutches. His hair was an almost-brunette brown and his angular face was partially covered in a neatly-trimmed scruff of a beard. “Take him to his room and get him into bed,” the woman commanded.
Cai looked at Cadell. “I don’t know if he can make it up the stairs, Mom,” he replied. “He’s been cut with black steel blades, so he’s not healing as fast as he normally would.”
The woman nodded. “Get him onto the living room sofa, then.”
Complying, Callum and Helen helped Cadell into the house’s main living area and eased him onto a leather sofa that sat at near a very large fireplace. He melted into the sofa cushions and closed his eyes. His mother began assessing his injuries and after a few moments, stood. “So, Cadell Uriah Selkirk, how did you get yourself into such a sorry state?”
Cadell chuckled and then winced in pain. “Same old stuff, mom,” he said, smiling.
“He took on sixteen armed Tainteds,” Cai said, as though he was telling on his brother for stealing a cookie.
The Selkirk matriarch knelt beside Cadell. “Cadell, you’re a Seventh, but you are not indestructible.”
“In little brother’s defense,” Christian said, throwing another cedar log on the fire, “He got almost all of them before we got there, and without calling on the Angel’s power. Even I was almost impressed.” His mother looked at Christian and glared her disapproval as only a mother could.
“He did it for us,” Evelyn said. “He distracted the Tainteds so Aunt Eve and I could get away.” Mother Selkirk turned and gave Evelyn an assessing scan from head to toe. “I’m Evelyn Corey,” Evelyn said, extending her hand.
After several tense moments the older woman spoke and took Evelyn’s hand. “I’m Astrid Selkirk,” she said. “This is my son, Clive,” she added, gesturing toward the man with the crutches. He passed one crutch from his right hand to his left and extended that hand. “Hi,” he greeted her.
“Evelyn helped me back there, mom,” Cadell said as Helen began removing his shirt so that she could better tend his wounds. “She killed at least two of the Tainted, maybe three of them. If she hadn’t have come back to help me, you’d be yelling at Cai for letting me die.”
“She killed two in the stairway, too,” Eve added proudly. She then turned to Astrid. “It’s good to see you again, Astrid. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in this house.”
“You were always welcome here, Eve,” Astrid said, taking Eve’s hands in hers. “Although from what you told me on the phone, we have a very bad situation to deal with. Especially since Evelyn is untrained and a Seventh, no less.” She gave Evelyn another appraising look. “So this secret niece of yours is a demon killer, is she?” She asked with sly half grin.
“It seems so,” Eve said, smiling at her niece.
“Where did you learn to fight like that, dear?” she asked. Evelyn shrugged her shoulders. “I was stationed in Tel Aviv as an exchange officer with the Israeli Air Force for a year,” she explained. “I studied Krav Maga for ten hours a week. The school I went to was run by an ex-IDF commando and he also taught knife fighting. I found another Krav Maga school in Philadelphia when I got home.”
She moved closer to Cadell. “By the way, I love this knife. Can I keep It?” she asked grinning and brandishing the fighting blade.
Cadell laughed and winced again. “Hell, no!” he declared. “That’s a custom-made Randall Model Fourteen. It cost me over six hundred dollars and I was on a waiting list for three months. It took mom almost a month to carve the runes on it. Get your own.”
“You know,” Christian said, pointing at the knife in Evelyn’s hand, “Shane will never forgive you for carrying a blade that he didn’t make.”
“What can I say?” Cadell replied. “My platoon sergeant had one in Afghanistan and I liked the way it felt in my hand. Besides, I couldn’t flash around rune blades when I was in the Corps. I didn’t have mom carve the runes on the Randall until I got home.”
“Enough of that,” Eve said. “Have you heard from my brother?”
“He’s on his way here with Colm and Cadell’s friend, Joshua.” Astrid said.
“As soon as he’s here, we need to go after my scroll,” Eve urged.
“I don’t know,” Cai countered. “If they don’t have Mister Corey, then they don’t know where your scroll is yet. We have time to plan. I don’t want to just blunder into battle and hope for the best.”
“Yeah, look where that got our little brother,”
Christian chided.
Eve shook her head. “They may not know where my scroll is, but they have its companion scroll. The scrolls are each supercharged with magic and they were created by Solomon, the greatest magical practitioner that ever lived. The scrolls are linked by that magic. A Nephilim or Grigori could use one scroll to locate the other. We can’t wait.” “She’s right, Cai,” Cadell said.
Astrid turned toward Eve. “The box your scroll is in is warded, I assume,” she said.
Eve nodded. “The property that it’s on is, too,” she confirmed.
“Then that should buy us a couple of hours.” Astrid said. “Cadell needs to heal.”
“Who cast the wards?” Clive asked from his place in one of the five easy chairs spaced about the room. “My brother, Randal,” Eve replied.
“Then they should hold for a while,” Clive assured everyone. “Mister Randal might be the best of the Blessed Mages. I think that it’s a good idea to get some more information and gather our strength,” he recommended.
“That’s what we’ll do,” Cai said. “Helen, get Cadell back into shape. There were eighteen Tainteds at the university tonight. Whatever sent them must have known that Doctor Carver was involved with the Hidden and the Blessed or they wouldn’t have sent so many. They may have even known that Cadell was going to be there. My guess is that when we do go after Ms. Corey’s scroll, the Tainteds will be there in force. We may even run into a Nephilim or Grigori. I’ll need Cadell in fighting shape.”
“We should go now,” Eve protested. “We don’t
know how long the wards around the scroll will hold.”
“We wait until Cadell’s back in form,” Cai said, meeting Eve’s stare with one of his own.
“But…” Eve began.
“Ms. Corey,” Cai said, raising his voice and stepping toward her. “The decision is made.”
“But it’s wrong,” Eve insisted. “You’re…”
“Eve,” A male voice said from the room’s doorway. Everyone turned to see Brandell Selkirk. He walked with an iron-handled cane but stood straight. Only a wisp of gray hair remained on an otherwise bald head. He wore loose-fitting leisure pants, a t-shirt and a long-sleeved flannel shirt. Were it not for his commanding countenance, he would seem to be an ordinary retired gentleman, but there was a power that came with his mere presence, a strength that radiated off him like a fire’s heat.
“Cai has made his decision, and that’s the way it’s going to be,” Brandell admonished. “You don’t have to like it, but Cai is the eldest son of fighting age. With his father gone and me retired, he leads this family. It is the way of things in the Blessed. You know this.”
Eve opened her mouth then closed it without speaking. “It’s good to see you again, Bran,” she said after a few moments.
“It's good to see you, too,” Brandell agreed. “I’m
Brandell Selkirk, by the way,” he said, offering a hand to Evelyn.
She accepted the handshake. “Nice to meet you, sir.”
“Just
call me Bran,” he told her. “Now let’s all sit down and you can tell us about all of the dangerous toys that Solomon seems to have left laying around. Or the rest of us will sit while Cadell lies there,” the elder Selkirk said. “Boy, you look like you’re two hours dead.” He moved to the sofa, bent at the waist slightly, and touched Cadell’s shoulder.
Cadell grinned at the old man. “They got me, grandpa. But they didn’t get me good,” he insisted. Brandell chuckled. “It looks like they got you pretty good to me,” he said.
“And that’s what he looks like after one of mom’s tinctures,” said Christian, who had occupied one of the easy chairs that complimented the two leather sofas. “He’ll be alright in a few hours,” Helen declared, applying a greenish-colored paste to one of Cadell’s cuts.
“If he rests.” she added, glaring admonishment at Cadell.
“What?” he asked. “I’m resting.”
“I know you, Cadell Selkirk,” Helen retorted. “The second I turn my back, you’ll try to move around and you’ll try to convince everyone that you’re ready to fight again.” “Trust me,” Cadell assured her. “It hurts just breathing. I’m not going anywhere, little sister.”
Helen frowned again when Cadell referred to her as his ‘sister’ but relented in her admonishment. “I’m going to make a poultice for your ribs,” she informed him. “Don’t you move.” She turned to the other people in the room. “If you all need to make plans, make them somewhere else. He won’t really rest if you talk here.” Every one present, including Astrid and Brandell, suppressed chuckles and replied together with various variations of ‘yes, ma’am’.” Helen left to fetch the poultice.
“Why can’t you just give him another one of those potion things? What did you call them, tinctures?” Evelyn asked, looking on Cadell with gentle, concerned eyes. “Because I enhance the herbs in the tinctures with magic,” Astrid said. “And magic doesn’t change the laws of nature, it just sort finds the loopholes in them. The tinctures speed up a person’s natural ability to heal but don’t actually heal the wounds themselves. That means that the sudden burst of healing is a shock to the system and makes it dangerous for anyone to take more than one or two in a day.”
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