Forging Family

by Bob Dattolo

  “You should see her now. The ring I gave her? Yeah…worthless in comparison to what she has now.”

  His face paled, “Jesus…she’s stronger?”

  My smile came in, practically feral looking, “Oh yeah. She has magic now, too. Stronger than anyone from our dozenal. I have only met one other vampire that’s in her category, and he’s thousands of years old and has his own magic. I haven’t met a non-mage vampire that can stand against her if she’s motivated.”

  His smile moved to match mine, “That’s freaking awesome.”

  “I know, right?” His father still looked freaked out, “So…who else?”

  Tom started to speak instead of his father, “Leticia’s a no-go. She’s trying to get into another school. The others pretty much agreed, but Carl’s parents stopped responding a few days ago. Zach’s parents are the same. No updates to any web pages or social media. No responses to email. Nothing like that.”

  My blood ran cold, “How likely is it that they’re just being silent for some reason?”

  His dad shrugged, “It’s a possibility…it’s just that we had a group discussion planned two days ago. Everyone else joined the call. No one has heard from them.”

  I stood. “That’s not good. I need to go visit them. Right now.”

  The finance guy ran back in, holding out a check, “For you!”

  The filled-out check folded and slid into my pocket. “Thank you. I need to go. If anyone comes after you, please reach out to me? Tom, you know how to reach me. I know you haven’t been doing it, but it still works.”

  He nodded, “I can do that. What will you do…”

  A little of me flowed out, “I’ll do whatever I have to. I still consider us friends, and I won’t leave my friends hanging. Now…I need to go. Carl and Zach first. Can you call the others and tell them that I’m going around for payment? Maybe we can cut this short on their sides.”

  Tom nodded, “Yeah? I’ll start calling now. Still a hundred million?”

  “Yes. They can pay more if they want to. They can go on payment plans. Or they can give the ring back. Whatever works better for them.”

  “Okay. Good luck.”

  “Thank you.”

  I closed my eyes and reached out to Carl…only to be bounced back. There’s nothing to connect to. “Jesus…Jesus Christ…”

  Tom stood, “What’s wrong?”

  “Carl…I think he’s dead.”

  Chapter 22

  “What? What are you talking about? How could you know that?” His parents stood as well, with his mother looking scared and confused.

  “I’m trying to connect with him and I can’t.”

  Tom paled, “Can you reach him some other way?”

  I reached out for the ring and felt it. “Dammit. I can feel the ring. Say a prayer or something. This might not be a good thing.”

  I opened a portal…to destruction.

  Tom joined me, staring through the portal, “What the fuck happened here?”

  His mom touched his shoulder, “What is that? What the fuck?”

  “It’s a portal. That’s…possibly Carl’s house. I need to go check on this.”

  I stepped through, leaving them behind. The place smells like death and burned memories. Leaving the portal open, I moved through the wreckage towards the ring, feeling everything around me, driving out nearly a half mile. Nothing living is within the circle. Well, nothing human or supernatural. Plenty of bugs and smaller animals, but that’s it.

  I found Carl beneath a huge chunk of wreckage. Dead. Deader than dead. His body is destroyed by quite a bit. There’s no way I can bring him back…and no soul for me to bring back.

  “What in the name of God is happening here?”

  I expected to find spells in place around him, but there’s nothing. Nothing at all. No magic anywhere in the vicinity, which has to mean that whoever attacked took it with them. No one that could attack like this would leave it behind.

  There’s just the ring. My ring. Probably the reason he’s dead.

  I slipped it off and stared at it. So much death and pain for something so trivial. I get that it’s powerful and all of that, but…killing someone because they have it and I gave it to them? What the hell is wrong with the person that is doing this?

  My debate about looping Mom into things fizzled before I put it into motion. There’s nothing for her to get involved in. Yet.

  My passage back to Tom’s place was met with a freaked out set of parents and a softly crying Tom.

  “He’s dead. They’re all dead. At a guess, anyway.”

  “Dead? His family?” His crying intensified.

  “I sensed 17 bodies in the wreckage.”

  He nodded slowly, “There were 17 in his circle…”

  I held up the ring, “They’re dead. Because of me. Because of this!” I clenched my fist and pulled at my magic, swamping the room and letting it flow into visibility in black and red flames as I concentrated on my fist, driving it in and in, feeling the metal of the ring compress in my hand as I put everything into it…until it shattered, sending a shockwave of magic into the room before I could stop it.

  Tom and his parents were blown backwards into the couch, leaving them staring at me in shock as I opened my hand and let the dust from the destroyed ring flutter to the ground.

  “Now I’m angry.”

  I left the magic out as I opened a second portal to Zach’s location.

  As I expected, he’s dead…more dead.

  This time I destroyed the ring before passing back through to Tom’s. “I’m heading to Nick’s next. Call Sarah and Steph, please. And…please contact me if something happens. Tom can do it…don’t forget.”

  I opened another portal before they answered and stepped through, letting it close behind me. Nick’s alive, from what I can feel, and I want to meet with him quickly. This is garbage…I want this stopped.

  I contacted Christine as I approached the mage’s house. They were in the middle of training, and I told her what’s happening. Mr. Reynolds and Stacey, too. I explained the situation and then told them about hiding and creating the separation. The rings they have are payment and there’s nothing due back to me. I’m hoping that works to move them into their own category.

  Mr. Reynolds agreed to set up their protections after they move.

  Good. I’m crossing my fingers that they’re safe.

  Nick’s house is big, but not huge. He answered the door, looking shocked to see me.

  “Jesus, Ceri? What are you doing here?”

  An adult moved up behind him, “Nick? Who is this?” The guy’s much larger and far more muscular. Slightly more powerful, too, at least by what I’m feeling right now. My power, on the other hand, is stretching far and wide, feeling everything. There is a decent cross-section of dead beneath our feet to provide some protection in case we’re attacked while I’m here.

  “I’m Ceri. From school.”

  He nodded, looking me up and down, “You don’t look like much.”

  My humanity fled without me even trying, leaving me wondering what he tastes like, “Looks can be deceiving.”

  His magic trembled and pulled inward, creating a protective spell around the house. I didn’t bother showing him exactly how little it would do against me. “Why are you here?”

  “I was coming around for payment for the rings. Someone has tried to kill me…Carl and Zach are dead. I just left their places. Dead and burned. Gone. Whoever attacked destroyed their souls, too.”

  Nick dropped to his knees, while his father made massive fists, “You endanger our son and then you come here? Is that it?!”

  I didn’t smile, “Me endanger him? No. Someone else is after me. I didn’t do anything.”

  He stepped up to the barrier, “Get out of here before I deal with you.”

  “I’m here for payment on the ring. I’m not leaving without it.”

  Nick looked up, “We can’t afford…we can’t afford 100 million. I’m sorry.�
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  I looked down at my friend, “Can you afford a payment plan?”

  He shrugged, then shook his head, “I doubt it. It’s been costing my parents nearly everything to send me to school. They’ve had a bunch of business setbacks…”

  His father called more magic, “Get out. Now.”

  He stared at my finger as I raised it and slowly moved it forward, pulling my own power and driving it into my finger. “Yoink!” I poked the barrier and sucked at it, draining the magic away and loading it inside. “Don’t threaten me.”

  He staggered back and fell to his butt, staring at me in shock, “How…how did you do that?! That’s my strongest barrier!”

  I stepped through the door, not quite towering over him, “If that’s the case, you need to get back to school or something. Nick can do a better shield than that.” I didn’t let him answer, “Now…you can’t afford the ring?”

  His head shake was very nearly instinctual, “No…not at all. We’re getting a solid return on our businesses, but it’s funneling back in. We had paid for the four years at Lledrith before everything went to hell…”

  “I can accept payments. A hundred grand a year for a thousand years?”

  Nick, slowly, “That won’t create the break needed if someone’s really coming after you. Not at all.”

  “Dammit…”

  He slid the ring off and held it out. “I’m sorry…”

  Taking the ring, I stared at it for a minute, “You don’t have to be sorry. Whoever is doing this needs to be sorry. And very, very dead. When this is dealt with, I’ll be back and this will be yours again. Please reach out to me if anyone shows up for you. You know how to reach me. I can be here in seconds. Literally. Don’t lock me out. Please.”

  He nodded, “I’ll try.”

  I hugged him, “Until this is over, we’re not friends. Stay safe. Good luck in school. I’ll be back when we can be friends again.”

  I didn’t wait for a response as I slipped through a portal to my room and dropped off the ring and the check. I have more to do here, and I’m not looking forward to it. At all.

  Sarah was waiting on her front porch when I arrived. A couple that smelled like her stood behind her. Parents?

  She nodded at my arrival, “Tom called. He told us what’s happening.”

  I had pulled my magic back at the house, so it wasn’t being pushed now. “Yeah…”

  “Are you going to be able to stop whoever is doing this?”

  “I need to find them. They’re powerful as hell, but I have my mom and someone new to help me.”

  “Someone new?”

  “Yeah…just…someone. They’ll help.”

  She nodded, “And you’re here for payment?”

  “Yeah. The hope is that it’ll push whoever is after me off. People seem to think that will work.”

  “It might. Supernaturals are weird. They think nothing of going after family and friends, but if there’s enough of a gap, they turn into customers even if you’re still friends. I can’t say I get it.”

  “If you don’t get it, I sure as hell don’t get it.”

  She held out a check, “A hundred million?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Tom said he paid 250 million?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You don’t want that from us?”

  “I don’t want payment at all. His parents thought it might be a better way to prove that we’re not connected.”

  “Yeah, it would be. We just can’t afford it.”

  “Would it help any to pay more?”

  She shrugged, “We can’t afford it. At all. This is stripping things bare.”

  I smiled at that, “In that case, what if you had a payment plan?”

  Her father stepped forward, “What do you mean?”

  Looking to him, I nodded at the check, “Let’s say you had a payment plan set up. Does that create the separation needed?”

  He frowned, “Yes? I’m just not sure how that will help?”

  “What if you paid the same thing that Tom is paying? But at 2.5 million a year for 100 years? That way you can save the money now and it’ll take 40 years to pay off the 100 million you’re willing to give me right now? That’ll save your money in the short-term? Besides, I can make it interest free with no prepayment penalty.”

  His smile came in slowly, “We can do that.”

  I was gone a few minutes later, first payment of 2.5 million dollars in my pocket. Not in cash, thankfully. That’d be messed up. I didn’t bother heading through home with that payment. I should, since it’s a fortune, but it doesn’t seem worthwhile. Frankly, I’d be so okay with them just keeping the rings and saying they paid. I don’t need the money. Mom doesn’t need the money. Then again, my new sister could use the money. That’s a thought. I could direct this all to her.

  I…I have a sister.

  Granted, I had 14 brothers and sisters before this, but this one feels real. She feels like an actual sister to me. That shouldn’t be possible, yet here we are. I’m not sure if it’s the goddess angle or from the connecting we did while talking, but it’s there. That’s so weird. It makes me wonder if I would have had the same type of feeling with my birth family if our parents weren’t outright evil. You’d think, I just don’t know.

  It almost feels like this family is the one that was set out for me at the beginning of time and I’m just falling into it now. That’s…pretty neat. I’d still rather have everyone else be alive. That should go without saying. It’s just too bad that I couldn’t bring them back. Soul destroying spells…what the hell is wrong with you people?

  My short reverie ended as I stepped through to Steph’s house, catching the tail end of a group of people rushing it. It’s mixed between shifted people and non-shifted, and, unless I’m mistaken, they smell like mixed shifters. It doesn’t seem to be a homogenous group.

  A very small wall of people was up at the house, with Steph front and center. She radiated power as she spread her arms, readying for the attack. Not that she’s the only one. There were only five people behind her, but they were ready to bring some pain.

  It seems warranted, given the situation.

  I sent a wash of power out, creating a barrier in front of the charging shifters, and they crashed to a halt just about 20 feet away from Steph and her family. Is it wrong of me that I laughed at their screams of frustration, confusion, and from bones breaking?

  I hit a portal, coming out in front of them. My large friend’s mouth fell open at my appearance. “Hey there! I thought I’d stop in. I hope I didn’t just break up a reunion of some type? They seemed pretty hostile.”

  Steph’s large, but a truly massive guy came up behind the shocked girl, “Who are you, human!” The guy has a good, commanding voice. Too bad he’s like 30 or 40 percent weaker than my friend is right now.

  I gave him a finger wave, “Hey. I’m Ceri.” I nodded behind me at the now terrified shifters that have realized they’re trapped in a box of magic. “Did I just mess up something that wasn’t what it appeared? Or were they really attacking you guys?”

  Steph shook herself and then launched from where she had taken her stand, grabbing me up in a hug. Her grip’s pretty good, but not nearly as good as Mom’s is. Or Melissa’s, now that I think about it. That’s funny, most fey aren’t as strong as she is, which probably means that her goddess nature was showing through before her birthday. She’s stroooong, which is pretty cool.

  “Oh my God, why are you here?!?” She sounded like a heavy mix of thankful, confused, and fearful.

  I pulled back, keeping her hand in mine, “You didn’t get a call?”

  She shook her head, “No? We’ve been out here expecting to be attacked. Things haven’t…haven’t been going well.”

  I studied the much larger group again, then shrugged, “Yeah…I’m seeing that. I’ve visited pretty much everyone but you and Leticia so far. It’s…not good. Mom, Stacey from the dozenal above ours, and I were almost killed in an attack
. It took more than a week for me to heal enough to be able to do much magic again. I’m going around to try and get payment for the rings. It seems that whoever is after me is going after the others. Rachel is living with me now, so she should be protected. At least somewhat. Christine has an apprenticeship, so I’m hoping she’s okay. Paul, Tom, and Sarah paid for their rings. Nick gave his back.” I fell silent, swallowing hard.

  She picked up my hesitance, “What about Carl? Zach?”

  It took a bit for me to be able to look up at her, “Dead. Someone attacked. Killed them. Destroyed their souls. Burned everything. They’re gone.”

  Her face fell. “What the fuck. All because of the rings?”

  “Pretty much. At least we think so. We’re not sure if there’s a real tie-in, but it seems stupid to think that there isn’t.”

  The massive guy came to tower over my huge friend, showing me that he’s at least 6’11”, if not 7 feet tall. He growled, making my chest rumble, “Who are you! Are you here to attack us as well?!”

  Steph got a little white in the face as she took a half step back, “Dad? This is Ceri. She’s the one I told you about. With the huge challenge at school? She made me my ring.”

  His demeanor didn’t change, “Do you mean the ring that has invited our friends to come here and attempt to attack us today?”

  I turned back to the group of people, “Are you saying that they’re friends?”

  I managed to hear, “Don’t you turn your back on me!” I just didn’t get to turn before something hit me in the back of the head and propelled me forward. The lack of pain and the grinding click as I tumbled and the shattered bones as I hit the barrier of my own spell registered as tiny things as I floated away, seeing the light of the world fade as color disappeared.

  Are you kidding me? Are. You. Kidding. Me!

  That bastard just killed me? Hit me in the back of the head and killed me?!?

  I don’t think so. I don’t freaking think so!

  Magic fluttered through me, and I did what I did before, raising myself as I grabbed for the sickle with my mind. My body made a sickening crunching sort of sound as I healed in a rush and then stood, wrapped in my robes of power.