by Jamie Hawke
144
On the way back to the house, I opted for riding with Megha on one of her strange creatures, with Yenifer taking up the rear and fighting off the winged beasts they sent to slow us down. Mizoa and Glitonea lingered, scavenging for loot in the form of more magical artifacts, and putting up a fight to mask our escape.
“Hope it was worth it,” Megha said.
Arms wrapped tight around her petite form, the scent of her—like hazelnut coffee, at the moment—strong in my nose, all I could do was agree. We really had no clue how much closer this would take us to finding the other stones or more of my gargoyles’ cursed friends. Since Fatiha had let us in, seemingly with the intention of gambling that she could attack our house in the meantime while all this was going on, I had to wonder what she knew that we didn’t.
I was reminded of a trip I’d taken to visit my cousin near the dunes of the Oregon coast in what seemed like another lifetime, now. His friend had taken me riding nearby while the rest of them went on sand buggies. I was paired with an older girl, as I wasn’t yet able to drive, and as I’d clutched her from behind I had almost fallen and reached out to grab her, accidentally getting a handful of breast. She had laughed it off, but then, later, she’d pulled the bike over in an alley beside a pizza joint and insisted I owed her, that I had to let her grab my cock.
So yeah, that had been my first handjob. An older girl in the alley next to this pizza place, her flinging my cum off her hand when she was done, laughing, and making me promise to never tell the other guys.
Even now, I laughed, remembering that moment and wondering how the hell she considered that could ‘make us even.’ Had she had that in mind from the moment she offered to take me for a ride? Had the other guys suspected that would happen?
“That’s what you think about at a moment like this?” Megha asked, chuckling.
“Oh, shit.” The mental link was still in effect, it seemed.
“Hey, I’m happy to learn about your past, but it’s a weird to experience it as a firsthand memory. Also, did your cock grow since then? Seemed smaller in the memory.”
I felt my cheeks blushing. “Might have? Or might just be that my memory isn’t in sync with how you view me.”
“Interesting issue to dive into, if I had more time here.”
“More time?”
“I’m still not planning on sticking around.” She moved her hands in the flying creature’s head, causing it to dive lower, to get a better look at how close we were. “I’ll most likely leave in the morning, you know.”
“Still saying that?”
“I’m still here, so… yeah.”
“Oh, shit,” I said, and felt it from her at the same time. We had both seen the house, a bubble of magic around it that I knew would keep what was happening secret from non-magic eyes, but not from ours. For us, it was a vision of destruction, walls already crumbling away on one side, where Fatiha and some of her strongest were pressing the attack, my team fighting back.
From where I was sitting, the trip might very well not have been worth it.
We came in hot, landing on the half of the roof that was left and joining Ebrill to fight off the barrage of witches and winged creatures attempting to enter the house. I sent out elemental blasts, lightning and flames mostly, then froze over the opening long enough for me to kneel, hand to the floor, and change the building enough to close the opening. Still, there were at least two dozen of the enemy inside already!
As Kordelia and Shisa fought their way to us, I focused on connecting with the house, then locating each of the invaders. I went full dungeon core mode on the fuckers. First, I rearranged the walls into a maze, closing in some but blocking others off by spells. I targeted coat racks, chairs, and dressers, essentially turning them into an army straight out of Beauty and the Beast, and sent my elemental magic through the walls so that barrages of ice spears and bursts of lightning took the witches unawares.
Some were too strong for my tricks, though. A group of four, likely led by Fatiha, had made it to the inner room that I had set up as a bunker. There wasn’t anything in there that I knew of, though.
Seeing Mizoa and Glitonea incoming, Yenifer already climbing up the side of the roof and tuning to take on a group of flying creatures, I made my decision.
“On me, whoever we can spare,” I said, opening up a way to intercept Fatiha and her crew. Ebrill, Megha, and Steph followed me, along with Shisa, while the others stayed to fight off the continued onslaught.
“What’s going on?” Steph asked.
“Fatiha has some others with her in there, and they’re using magic strong enough to keep me from affecting them from up there.”
“They’re after Gertrude’s research,” Megha noted.
“What research?” I asked. “The most we know of that is whatever was in the box we just took from Fatiha might tell us.”
“She might know something we don’t,” I pointed out. “She was here for a long time, after all. And in with Gertrude, thanks to her magic.”
Figuring that using the halls and stairs would take too long, I made the rest of the way a slide so that we came scooting out just behind one of Fatiha’s witches. The man spun and held out a magic wand, spitting out a slur of chants that resulted in the floor splitting and demonic forms rising to grab us.
Megha countered the spell by landing on one of the demons and taking control with her hands in its head, turning it on its former allies. Ebrill caught me and thrust out her wings to glide down to the now-exposed floor below, while Steph fell two floors but managed to soften her blow with a quick spell.
A woman flew down in a blur of shadow, going for Steph, but I caught her in the back with a blast of lighting. She was flung down the rest of the way, clothes on fire, but quickly put it out and spun to hit me with a curse.
Fatiha suddenly appeared in front of me and gripped my shirt. “Where is it? Where is the damned stone?”
“You’re asking me?” I pulled back, amazed to see that, for some reason, she truly believed we had it. One thing was for sure—she wasn’t about to get it. “Fuck off.”
In a rage, she sent a series of blasts through me that I hadn’t been able to prepare for. My skin felt like it was melting. My insides curled up, caving in on themselves, and my balls drew up into my body and shriveled.
Fuck, that was a shitty feeling. One I was all too glad to have stopped as Mizoa and Glitonea grabbed hold of the witch from behind, their magic set to counteract hers, while Ebrill started healing me, so that my mind finally got enough of a grip to look at my defenses and reactivate them.
I fell away, coughing, and reached down to ensure that my balls were still there. To my relief, they were. Something about being a man—life and death is one thing, but the risk of losing anything down there seems incomprehensible.
Another attack hit in spite of the help, but this time I had my hands on the roof and was ready, calling on the power of the building and the runes within. A loud creaking sounded as the walls started shimmering and shifting, and then, to my horror, Fatiha’s power overcame mine and that of the house.
She fell to her knees under the assault that Mizoa and Glitonea launched at her, but even amid her screams and curses I could still hear her laughs and shouts of “Give it to me!” before she let out a final scream and vanished in a flash of zipping light that resulted in an explosion at the base of the house, where the runes had been.
I say ‘had been,’ because in that moment I felt them leave, felt the stones they had been carved into explode outward. The house collapsed and fell in on itself. I tried to counter it, to support the house or pull it back together, but nothing worked. We started to fall, but the gargoyles were quick to act, grabbing those of us who needed help and leaping. Mizoa and Glitonea followed, sending spells back in search of Fatiha as they rose into the night sky.
“Gone,” Mizoa said, floating down to me as we stood there watching the house collapse and burst into flames.
Gli
tonea hovered above us, still, her runes flashing and some going out. It seemed that at some point she had connected herself to the house, and had been feeding on the power from the runes in the basement. She finally sank down beside us and nodded. The rest of the team was there, watching. The red and orange of the flames reflected in their eyes, casting a gentle glow on their skin and deep shadows on their curves.
I stared at the house, unable to believe what had happened. It was gone, this time. For real… dead. Gertrude had died early on and that had affected me, but I hadn’t really known her very well. The house, on the other hand, had started to feel like a true friend, as odd as that might sound.
“Come on,” Ebrill said, taking me, flapping her wings to get me away from that spot. “We shouldn’t linger here.”
“What… I can’t…”
“Where do we go?” Megha asked, Riland and Shisa charging up next to us at that moment.
“The senator’s place,” I said. “Whatever issue I’m dealing with, it’s time we dealt with it.”
Some of them didn’t know what I was talking about, and the ones who did must’ve known it was the right choice. We were off, leaving the devastation behind us, still not fully sure what Fatiha had been after. If it had been there, it was now long gone.
145
“Thank God you’re safe,” Galahad said, rushing forward to meet us as we arrived at the senator’s house. Our new, and only, house.
“That’s nice of you,” I said, ready to tear into him, to demand answers. But to my surprise, he ran up to Aerona and embraced her before stepping back and looking her over.
“You’re not hurt?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No, why?”
“What’s going on?” I interjected.
Aerona looked at me with bewilderment. “Wish I knew.”
“It’s you she was after,” Galahad explained. “All of this tonight was to get Aerona.”
“She knows, then?” Glitonea said, and scrunched her nose. “Damn.”
“Sorry, but… what?” I looked around, trying to figure out who knew what. “Someone please explain.”
“As apparently Glitonea has also figured out, one of the stones is, essentially… Aerona.” Galahad cleared his throat, shrugged my way, and said, “The gold stone. I’ve been doing my research, trying to make up for our little spat before. And, well… Mizoa?”
“I didn’t realize,” Mizoa replied, “but it makes sense.”
“Really?” I turned to Aerona, waiting for an explanation.
“That’s what the dream is,” she said, slowly as the realization hit her. “I keep seeing myself in the water, moving toward something glowing—a golden light. When I reach out to touch it, everything flashes and I wake up.”
“Yes,” Galahad said, stepping toward her again. “You absorbed the power of the stone.”
“Hold on.” I moved into his path. “This is… we have a lot to unpack.”
Galahad nodded. The interns and guards shifted anxiously.
“This is kind of huge,” Ebrill said, taking Aerona’s hand. “If we have one of the stones, it means we can find the others. Or, have a better chance, anyway—like a magnet for magic, right?”
“That’s correct,” Mizoa said, grinning. “Aerona was the closest we came, but we figured she had been taken in a trap or something. I never thought for a moment that she had actually absorbed the stone. Become one with it.”
“Excuse me…” I was raising my voice, without intending to. “…but I really need to know what is going on here. Earlier today, I found out that the Order—or more—is made up of these orcs and Drow and other races. Or is it species? What the fuck is that all about? What else is going on that I’m in the dark about? Don’t you think it’s time you gave me the full picture?”
“Does it matter?” Galahad asked.
“The… fuck? Does it matter?” I stormed over to him, finger on his chest. “I might be the youngest here, I might be a straight out of high school prick, but I know enough to know that yes, it matters. It matters because Fatiha’s showing me visions about thousands of their dead. Hundreds of thousands, maybe. Because this group comes to me without attacking, simply revealing themselves—why? I’ll tell you why. It’s because, for some reason, they believe I might be their guy, the guy who can make a difference. To change the way it was, to make a new way.”
“That’s preposterous—”
“They’re fucking right!” I was getting really worked up now, though I hadn’t meant to. “Tell me. Explain to me right now why they’re our enemy. Go on.”
“Because…” Galahad looked around for help.
“In my day, they allied with the enemy,” Ebrill stated. “But… that doesn’t mean they’re all bad.”
“No, it doesn’t.” I turned to the others, then back to Galahad. “This might be some corny bullshit, or it might be me at the height of my wisdom, I don’t know. All I know is what I saw. And I know that Fatiha is evil as shit now, but maybe she started in the right place. Maybe we can take what she started with, mold it in the right direction.”
“And her?” Steph asked.
“Her?” I laughed. “Oh, she has to die.”
“Good, because yeah, she definitely needs to die.”
A couple of laughs.
“We can give her the chance to change, tell her we’re willing to listen, but… at this point, I’d say she’s crossed over.” I shook my head, trying to imagine a scenario where she could continue to exist in our world. The image didn’t come easy. “Maybe if we took all her magic, put her in a prison…”
“She might as well be dead. I’m pretty sure she will see it that way.”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
“And Moronoe?” Galahad asked. “You want to go changing the way things are, don’t forget that she’s part of the equation.”
“Now that we kind of have one of the stones,” Mizoa interjected, “and know we do, the minute we start looking for others they’ll come after us.”
“Like they did with the house,” Ebrill added.
I cursed, folded my arms, and eyed Galahad. “So, we’re on the same page? Can I trust you to reach out to the Order, to let them know being different doesn’t automatically make them our enemies?”
“I will do so, and you can,” he replied, although uncertainty was still clear in his eyes. The fact that he was willing to take the chance, though, because I asked him to, made all the difference.
“Good. The rest of us… I think we need to set the bait.”
“Meaning?” Riland asked.
“Begin to look for the next stone, but really… to get this war out in the open.”
Everyone was silent, taking this in.
“So, this is it?” Ebrill asked. “If we make this move, this is the final showdown?”
“I’d like to think so,” I replied. Turning to Mizoa, I added, “I assume you know how to continue the search, now that you know we have one of the stones?”
She nodded, eyeing Aerona with a new fascination. “Where?”
“Where what?”
“This battle… where do we want it?” She gestured around. “Not here, surely. Too many casualties.”
My mind started working. If I were to have the ultimate battle, not so far from where we were, where would it be? With a smile, I said, “Get to the cars.”
146
“You’re sure about this?” Ebrill asked, looking out at the battlefield where we were going to setup. The fields where many men had died before. Gettysburg. “We won’t have time to do this and drive back.”
“This is the final battle,” I countered. She was right, we wouldn’t have time to do battle and drive the hour and a half or so back to Washington, D.C. But, it wouldn’t be necessary. “If they don’t stop us, we simply go for the next stone. They try to stop us, we have our fight, and it’s over.”
“Hopefully.”
“It had better work,” Aerona interjected. She opened the door to
the van and stepped out.
“Fine, maybe part of this was that I’ve always wanted to see Gettysburg,” I admitted, and Steph glanced over and chuckled as she started to follow Aerona out. She knew it was true—something I had mentioned a few times before I had headed out to D.C, before all the magic had started. Gettysburg, the White House, and the Atlantic Ocean. Those had been the three things at the top of my wish list.
Since I was growing up fast, Gettysburg made more sense for now.
“I have a feeling this won’t be exactly like the tours,” Steph said, then took the final step out of the van and motioned for me to follow.
With a nod to admit she was almost certainly right, I followed. Stepping out onto a ledge that overlooked the battlefield at night was a truly unique experience. Dark fields, more stars above than I had ever seen in my life. Someday, I would return to see this place in the light of day, to read the plaques and find out what had happened and where. That is, if we didn’t totally destroy the place that night.
A tree in the distance had one of its main branches broken off. It was just hanging there, and I imagined a cannon shot tearing through it as men charged past, muskets at the ready. I closed my eyes and could almost hear their battle cries.
“Why here?” Kordelia asked.
I opened my eyes and smiled. “One of the most significant battles in the Civil War was fought here. A war that, among other things, helped free the slaves.”
“Isn’t that a bit on the nose?” She smirked.
“If you’re insinuating that I see myself as a General Lee or—”
“I don’t know who that is, and right now, I don’t care.” She indicated Mizoa and Aerona, already working their way to a high point along the hills near the field. “We have work to do.”
“Then why make the comment at all?”
“To have some fun.” She winked, walking on ahead.
