“So what are they?” asked Emily, unable to contain her curiosity.
“They’re elemental demons,” Aunt Anastacia replied nonchalantly. “They’re here to even the odds against the Alfred kids, and further ensure this mission’s success.”
Emily liked the sound of that. “How would that work?”
“Simple.” Her aunt held one up. “As soon as your father and Michael are ready to breach, I’ll unleash them and give them one instruction. To destroy all living Alfreds.
“Of course, I doubt they’ll be able to actually kill a warlock, especially those as trained as the Alfreds, but they can give the Alfreds a run for their money. In other words, they should keep the Alfred kids occupied long enough for your father and Michael to get away with the girls.”
“Plus, it will keep me free to burn down the house to its foundation!” Emily added triumphantly.
They all nodded their agreement.
“If the Alfreds don’t have a place to stay in town, maybe they’ll give up and leave,” said Aunt Anastacia hopefully. “That’s good.” She looked around. “Are we ready?”
They all said yes.
As they left the utility area for the anteroom, Michael grabbed the key to Aunt Anastacia’s Beetle, while Aunt Anastacia grabbed something else hanging on the key holder. What she grabbed looked black and sleek. In fact, it was a key fob for a fancy newer vehicle.
Emily frowned. Whatever car the key fob belonged to was going to be a far cry from the Beetle that Michael and Dad were going to drive.
Aunt Anastacia led them through the tunnel into the annular room adjacent to the anteroom. Once they were all there, Aunt Anastacia muttered a few phrases. Emily flinched, expecting some kind of intense blast. But it didn’t happen. There was only an explosion of light and a sensation of weightlessness.
It lasted for a few seconds. When it cleared, they were standing in the living room of the roofless house.
There, Dad handed a walkie-talkie to Aunt Anastacia. They synchronized the equipment so they could communicate with each other.
“I’ll let you know the moment we get into position,” Dad told Aunt Anastacia as they made it out of the building.
Emily detached herself from the group for a moment and walked a bit down the road. The light was bright and stunning. The air was fresh. It looked like a wonderful day. The industrial estate was so immense and dreadfully silent that she felt like her ears were about to implode.
She could also feel the blanket of the spell over the town. It was very thick. And very powerful. It was a wonder they weren’t under its influence. Of course, she knew why. The spell only worked on the completely unsuspecting.
She wasn’t completely unsuspecting. And she hadn’t been when the spell was first cast. The same went for Dad, Michael, Rina, Joanna, and, of course, Aunt Anastacia as well.
Emily knew that finding the nexus and destroying it was the logical play. The ideal thing to do next. But she couldn’t leave her friends. Even though Rina and Joanna had little to contribute to their fight against the Alfreds, still she owed it to them to rescue them.
And while it might be increasingly more difficult to find the nexus and destroy it with the Alfred seniors awake and kicking, it didn’t mean it would be impossible. Plus, she still had the Adoption. She could still transform into a supernatural killing machine. Whatever the case, she needed her friends safe. If not for anything aside from the moral support they supplied.
Aunt Anastacia came up beside her at about the exact same time Emily heard the Beetle roar to life. They stood aside and watched the car drive by. Michael and Dad waved their goodbyes before they shot down the street and disappeared along the left bend.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Aunt Anastacia chided.
Emily bit her lip. “I hope I know what I’m doing, too.”
This drew a glare from Aunt Anastacia, but Emily didn’t turn to meet it. “We can kill two birds with one stone, can’t we?”
“How?”
“When we leave the Alfreds, in theory, the girls will be free, and the castle will be a smouldering ash pile on the ground.”
“True.”
“Why can’t we go after the nexus then?” Emily reasoned. “From what you described, it’s not going to be guarded or anything if the Alfreds are squirming out of their burning house.”
“That might be too much.”
“Look, we don’t need the whole team for this,” Emily pressed. “We just need the locator spell done, and you and I will track down the nexus and destroy it.”
“And what if it’s guarded?”
“With what? Mercenaries or spells?”
“Anything supernatural.”
“Then we pull back.” Emily shrugged. “But what if it’s not?”
Aunt Anastacia heaved a sigh. “I don’t like this. I prefer the whole team.”
“We don’t have the whole team,” Emily groaned. “But we have two of the strongest members of the team. We have maybe an hour or two before the nexus becomes virtually impenetrable. We can take advantage of this.”
Aunt Anastacia didn’t reply.
Emily could see that she was getting through to the woman. So she pressed on. “Look, by tonight, when the Alfreds wake up, we can both be in the safe house with the whole town awake.” She clasped her hands together and squeezed as she spoke. “Or we can be in the safe house, wondering how we’re going to wake the whole town with the Alfred seniors hot on our tails.”
“I don’t know,” Anastacia muttered.
Emily growled.
“I suppose it’s worth a try,” Anastacia submitted. “But the first sign of trouble, we’re pulling out.”
Emily shook her head. “No. The first sign of imminent fatal danger. You don’t expect us to bail if we meet a few supernaturals or mercs.”
“Good point,” said her aunt. “But we’ll need someone to collect the vigilantes. We need them up to date with what’s happening in the town; otherwise, they’ll just hunt us and leave the true culprits.”
“Dad and Michael can get through to Michael’s dad,” continued Emily. “If the girls are with them, they can tell a convincing story.”
“And everything tonight?” asked Aunt Anastacia with disbelief laced into her tone.
“That’s a great way to end the day, isn’t it?” Emily sounded sure of herself. “Everything has to happen tonight.”
Aunt Anastacia nodded. She looked a little more confident in Emily’s plan. Good. “I think it might work.”
“We don’t need to tell the guys now.” Emily lowered her voice. “As soon as they have the girls and are retreating, give them the order to head over to the vigilantes’ headquarters. That’s where Michael’s dad will be. When we destroy the nexus and rescue Joanna’s parents, they can bring the vigilantes up to speed.”
“Then what?” asked Aunt Anastacia. “Obviously, the vigilantes can’t go up against the Alfreds just yet.”
“They’ll come into the safe house,” Emily went on. “By then, Joanna’s parents would be there. We’ll know what connections exist between them and the Alfreds. Also the vigilantes’ top commanders and the chief vigilante will be there as well. We can plan our strategy for ridding this town of the Alfreds and finally putting an end to this Na-Ma threat.” Emily smiled to herself. “All without breaking too much of a sweat, hopefully.”
“Let’s hope it goes that smoothly then.” Aunt Anastacia pursed her lips. She turned to the side of the road and muttered a few phrases. The air by the shoulder of the road crumpled around itself and then broke apart, revealing a Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 AMG.
Emily was dumbfounded, looking at the black beauty. “You’re kidding me, right?” she squealed.
Aunt Anastacia grinned. “I call it the Beast.”
32
They drove in silence for a while. Not because they had nothing to say to each other, but because Emily was so taken by the posh interior of the Mercedes-Benz. Who could blame her?
>
It didn’t connect. Her picture of Aunt Anastacia didn’t match up with what she was seeing. The interior was made of lush red leather upholstery. The seats were ventilated and cooled. There was an array of gadgetry on the dashboard. Even a digital voice that alerted Aunt Anastacia to potential road obstructions and where to make correct turns and all.
What Emily saw didn’t fit with the mental picture she had painted of her aunt over the years. Like, she didn’t really believe that Aunt Anastacia could own a car like this. It was the latest model. All the bells and whistles. When did her aunt become a car buff?
The VW Beetle; now that fit with Emily’s mental picture of her aunt—a wizened woman who wanted little to do with technology and would rather spend time in her library filled with old, musty books. Definitely not the Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 AMG.
More like OMG.
“This should teach you not to judge a book by its cover,” said Aunt Anastacia after a while, apparently reading Emily’s thoughts again. They had hit the main road that passed through most of New Haven. Twenty minutes and they’d come upon another road that led to Main Street.
“Indeed,” Emily agreed. “But, how though? Are you even into cars?”
“Not really.” Aunt Anastacia shrugged. She looked weird holding the space-age steering wheel while wearing a red robe that was reminiscent of the Renaissance era.
“So, of course, I have expenses just like every other person,” Aunt Anastacia said. “That basically means I have to earn a living. So I offer my—erm—supernatural services to the rich.”
“What kind of services?” Emily raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, you know.” Anastacia waved a hand. “Talking to the dead, encounters, that sort of thing. The one who brought me this car was a rich business tycoon from Houston. He’d heard of my services from another client and contracted me.”
“What could he have wanted so badly that he was willing to part with a hundred-thousand-dollar car?”
Aunt Anastacia threw Emily a morbid look. “Salvation from cancer.”
The car turned into Dodge Square Avenue. They were getting closer to the castle. Ten minutes, and they’d be on Main Street. Aunt Anastacia planned to park the car just at the mouth of Main Street, where she would activate the vehicle’s supernatural protection system. Then they would walk the rest of the distance to the mansion. From then on, Aunt Anastacia would release the elementals, while Emily would release all hell.
“So you can heal all forms of diseases?” Emily returned to the subject.
“Well, that’s the thing.” Anastacia paused. “Healing is impossible.”
“So how did you heal that man?”
“First off, the man wasn’t too far along. He was Stage One. I couldn’t have helped him if he were, say, Stage Three or Four. Because what I basically did was stimulate his body’s immune system to fight off the cancer. More like super-charged it to accomplish what the body naturally has the power to do.”
“I see,” Emily said, even though she didn’t.
“So in the end, the man healed himself. I just showed his cells how and gave them the tools they needed.”
Emily looked at the road. Now Aunt Anastacia was being modest. Emily decided she wasn’t going to take the bait, so they wouldn’t spend the next five or so minutes debating about her aunt’s moral obligations.
“What you did,” Aunt Anastacia said, just as they were coming up on Main Street. Her eyes were peeled out on the sunny road. “When you healed your father—that was pure, complete healing.”
“But you just said healing someone was impossible,” Emily asked, confused.
“Yes,” Aunt Anastacia said. “But you did it nonetheless. I suppose there are some theories in magic you’re now upending.”
They drove down the street for about a minute before the mansion loomed out of the horizon. It stood on the right side of the road. Portions of its southeastern end were charred, but otherwise, it was still standing.
There was not a soul in sight. In fact, Emily hadn’t seen a soul since they left the safe house. Aunt Anastacia had said the spell hanging on the town could be used to control the populace. She said that right now, the order being issued from the spell was for people to remain inside—whether in their homes, workplaces, malls—wherever they were when the spell had been cast. That was how they knew that Michael’s father was probably going to be at the vigilantes’ headquarters.
Aunt Anastacia parked adjacent to the castle, but three houses down. From their vantage point, they could see people moving about. Emily counted five or so security men, who appeared to be very conscious and sentient. They looked alert, too, surveying everywhere in the air and around. Their guns were also odd-looking.
“What’s that?” asked Emily, motioning to the special, space-age weapon the nearest guard at the gate held.
“It’s a tranquilizer gun,” answered Aunt Anastacia. “They might not be able to use magic on you, but that doesn’t mean they can’t tranquilize you.”
Emily swallowed hard. She hadn’t considered that. “Who do you think these men are?”
“Maybe werewolves? I know the Alfreds have some supernaturals loyal to their cause.”
“Only a few, I hope,” Emily muttered.
Aunt Anastacia scoffed. “They have an army—made up of both living and undead. Werewolves. Fae. Zombies. Vamps—including the one who turned their horrid little girl.”
At that statement, Emily’s head whipped toward her aunt so fast it was a blur. “Wait, what?” She knew her aunt must be talking about Alice.
“Yeah.” The woman waved her hand nonchalantly. “Alice isn’t the youngest Alfred sibling even though she looks twelve.”
“I had figured that much out for myself already.” Emily flipped her braid over her shoulder. “So are they all hundred-year-old vampires then or what?”
Anastacia shook her head. “Just her. And she’s not that old. Maybe in her late twenties now. But she is evil to the core.”
“No kidding.”
“She was already a powerful witch, even at a young age,” Anastacia continued. “Maybe even more so than her parents. But that wasn’t enough. She wanted the heightened strength, agility, and physical regeneration that comes with being a vampire. Plus—obviously—immortality.”
Emily grimaced.
Anastacia gripped the steering wheel harder. “On top of all that, supernatural powers are accelerated when one becomes a vamp. She was so power-hungry she convinced her parents’ most powerful vampire associate to turn her. He initially refused, because she was too young, so she slit her throat in front of him.”
“Oh, my God!”
“Yeah. She’s insane. But clever. She knew that would not only trigger his bloodlust, but also put him in a predicament. He had to turn her right then and there or she would bleed out and die within moments. Then her parents would have him staked.”
With her mouth hanging open, Emily tried to process that horrific story. “How do you know all this?” she finally asked after she found her voice.
“I’ve traded info with a few of their vampire associates.” Aunt Anastacia looked over both her shoulders before cracking open her car door. “Now let’s go.”
Typical Anastacia. Pragmatic to a fault.
When none of the guards were looking their way, they alighted from the car and ran to the back of it, ducking down behind the trunk.
“Are you ready?” Anastacia checked in with her niece.
Emily could feel anxiety coursing through her blood. This wasn’t what she hoped to experience in that moment. She hoped, by that point, the fire demon would be ready to blast out of its cage and scream fire.
As Emily thought about her answer, Aunt Anastacia opened the trunk slowly and pulled out the two jars. They had already started jiggling, ready to be unearthed.
“Emily?” Aunt Anastacia sounded wary.
Tell her you’re ready, Selena prompted.
“I’m ready!” Emily hoped she sound
ed eager, even though she was squirming in terror. Where was all her anger when she needed it?
Aunt Anastacia didn’t look convinced by Emily’s response. Before she could frame words, she got distracted by the comms in her ears. She slanted her head a bit to the right and placed her fingers in that ear.
“Okay . . . ,” she said after a moment.
Pause.
“Yes, we’re in position,” Aunt Anastacia announced. “We can see the house. There are a few guards—probably supernaturals—outside, guarding the building. It’s safe to say that there might be more than a few down there.”
Another pause.
“We’ll start right away,” Aunt Anastacia said. “Hopefully, the noise we make and destruction we wreak will draw most of the fire power to us.”
Another pause.
“When you hear the loud explosion, know that we have engaged,” Aunt Anastacia finished. “Godspeed and see you soon.”
Ending the conversation with Dad, Aunt Anastacia fixed a serious gaze on Emily. “Now or never. Where’s all that rage?”
That was all Emily needed to flip that switch. The fire demon seemed to have awoken, because she felt an inhuman surge of rage within her. Without thinking, she jumped to her feet and took off in the direction of the castle’s front gate, screaming at the top of her lungs.
This drew the attention of three guards who were near the gates. Before they could react, Emily had picked up enough speed to leap into the air, shifting flawlessly within seconds. Five yards off the ground, and the fire demon came to the fore with a blast of blinding orange light.
With Zee at the helm, The Owl climbed to about ten feet and then unleashed a terrible flow of lava. The three guards in the line of fire were destroyed instantly. The fire splashed to the ground and spread like—well—wildfire.
Darts flew past The Owl—from where, Emily wasn’t sure—but, luckily, none made contact. Zee belched another flood of fire. This time it was directed to the knot of guards on the front porch pointing tranquilizer guns at them.
Controlled by a Fire Demon: The Owl Shifter Chronicles Book Two Page 17
