by Donna Raider
Richie and the twins were always happy to see her. Richie often picked her up to take her to special functions in town. She learned to laugh honestly. Maybe, even to love a little.
##
Leah and Jezebel were in the kitchen preparing dinner while Mika and Richie played horsey with the twins. Jezebel laughed at the faux-horses’ antics as they slid around corners and raced on all fours. Leah noticed a sparkle in her mother’s eyes she had never seen before. Maybe her mother was changing.
“So beautiful,” Jezebel commented more to herself than to her daughter.
“My wife or my children,” Leah smiled knowingly.
“Your wife,” Jezebel nodded.
“She is truly marvelous, Mother,” Leah agreed. “I never knew people like her existed. She has changed my life.”
Leah could feel her mother’s magic and knew it had been returned to her by a being more powerful than Jezebel. She knew her mother had not used her magic so she could keep it hidden. Leah dared to hope that her mother might love her.
Jezebel watched the priest as she scooped the twins up in her arms and carried them to Leah for a kiss. Each child leaned forward and hugged its mother, kissing her on the cheek. Leah hugged and kissed both.
The priest stood still, not moving. Leah raised a questioning eyebrow. “No kiss for the horsey?” Mika grinned, leaning down to her wife. Leah placed her hands on either side of Mika’s face and kissed her soundly.
“Hurry, darling,” Leah muttered, “dinner is almost ready.”
Mika put the twins in their high chairs then she and Richie set the table. Dinner was enjoyable as Richie regaled his parents with stories of Delilah’s mishaps in the science lab.
“Is that why she got a burr haircut and her eyebrows are missing?” Leah laughed.
“Yes,” Richie nodded, laughing as he recalled all the hair on Delilah’s head being singed and smoking.
After dinner, Nana took the twins upstairs for their bath and pajamas. Mika and Leah tucked them in and read a bedtime story to each of them.
Jezebel and Richie were playing scrabble when the couple returned to the family room.
“You are correct, Grandmother,” Richie laughed as he held up the dictionary in a salute.
“Mom, have you ever heard of the word xystus?” Richie grinned as his parents entered the room.
“I don’t think so,” Leah said thoughtfully.
“How about you, Mika? Richie asked.
“Yes,” Mika nodded. “It was a long, open portico we used for exercise in bad weather.”
Jezebel’s head snapped toward the priest and Mika realized she had provided her with much more information than she had intended.
“It’s a Greek word,” Mika informed them. “I was assigned to Greece for many years. That is where I learned the language.”
“Mika has been all over the world for the church,” Leah looked admiringly at her wife.
“Your Greek word just cost me the Scrabble game,” Richie laughed. “Good job, Grandmother. I may have lost the game, but I learned a new word.” He folded the gameboard and boxed the tiles, putting everything in the game closet.
“Have you been to Greece,” Mika asked as she joined her wife on the sofa.
“No, but I do play Scrabble on my iPad,” Jezebel smiled.
Jezebel turned her attention to Leah. “I thought we might have lunch tomorrow,” she smiled coyly, “just the two of us.”
“I can’t, Mother,” Leah frowned. “We relieve the security detail for lunch every day.”
“Exactly, what do you fear?” Jezebel frowned.
“Legion,” the three Crosses answered in unison.
“Legion,” Jezebel snorted. “Surely he is no match for you, dear,” she smiled knowingly at her daughter.
“That is exactly why I can’t leave the twins alone for lunch,” Leah nodded.
“I see,” Jezebel nodded slowly. “Perhaps I could cook dinner for your family. I eat here all the time. It is about time I reciprocated.”
“You don’t have to do that, Mother.” Leah’s smile was wry. “It is no trouble to add one more plate for you.”
“I insist,” Jezebel persisted. “I have a new recipe that feeds more than one person, and I have been dying to try it.”
“The security detail will be here,” Leah said thoughtfully, “I suppose we could dine at your mansion.”
“Friday night, then,” Jezebel suggested. “All three of you.”
Leah nodded hesitantly.
##
“Mom, the coach is making us stay late for practice tonight,” Richie began talking as soon as his mother answered the phone. “Please tell Grandmother I’m sorry.”
“Oh, Richie,” Leah sighed. “She will be disappointed. As am I.”
“I have to stay, Mom,” Richie said sadly. “I am the quarterback. Our district game is tomorrow night and Coach wants us to add a new play to our passing game. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, dear,” Leah assured him. “Please try to get home as early as possible. I will feel better if you are with the twins.”
Richie grinned. He liked that his mother depended on him to take care of Sara and Adam. “I will. Love you, Mom.”
“Love you, too, dear.”
“So, just you and me walking into the lion’s den,” Mika teased as she pulled her wife onto her lap.
“We do have an hour and a half before we have to be at mother’s home,” Leah teased Mika’s lips with hers.
“Umm, and with Richie gone, there’s no one sleeping in the room next to ours,” Mika kissed behind her ear and down her neck. “I’ve missed those sounds you make.”
##
They arrived at Jezebel’s right on time. Jezebel opened the door releasing the delicious smell of home cooking.
“Something smells wonderful,” the priest smiled as she presented her mother-in-law with two bottles of wine. “Red and white, we weren’t certain which would go with your dinner, so we brought both.”
“Thank you, dear,” Jezebel tiptoed to kiss her daughter-in-law’s cheek. “The red will be perfect for tonight.”
The dinner conversation was enjoyable, and the meal was excellent.
“Let’s retire to the drawing room,” Jezebel suggested as she led the way to a pleasant room where sherry was waiting. “I want to hear about the shipyard and how everything is progressing.” She motioned for Leah and Mika to sit on the sofa, as she served the sherry.
Leah explained to her mother some of the difficulties they were having with the shipyard construction. Jezebel made a few suggestions that sounded useful.
Jezebel refilled their sherry glasses as they continued to visit.
“This is excellent, Mother,” Leah sipped her second glass of sherry. Mika nodded her agreement.
“I am so glad you like it,” Jezebel smiled. “I made it myself.”
##
Leah woke to darkness and silence. It took her a few minutes to realize she had no idea where she was. Her first thought was of Mika then her babies.
She tried to stand and realized she was shackled to a cement wall. “Mother,” she hissed as she pulled at the chains.
“Mom! Mom! Are you here?” The frantic sound of Richie’s voice told her something was wrong.
The beautiful witch instantly escaped the shackles and transported to her son. “Richie, are you okay?”
“Yes,” the young man sobbed, “but the twins and Mika are missing.”
“Where’s Jezebel?” Leah growled.
“She’s gone, too,” Richie cried. “What happened?”
Leah looked at the clock on Jezebel’s mantel. It was after midnight.
“Apparently Jezebel drugged us and took the twins and Mika,” Leah looked around the room. “I was shackled to the wall in her cellar. I have been out for over three hours.”
“What can we do?” Richie was frantic.
“Call Samson and have them meet you at our home.” Leah directed. “Wait there unti
l you hear from me.”
Invisibly willing herself to her wife’s side, Leah was aghast at the scene she instantly became a part of. Mika was down on one knee. Jezebel and Legion were circling her like a pair of hyenas. They were taunting her, tossing fireballs at her back. Mika wasn’t fighting back. She was bent over as if injured. Leah moved to the front of her wife and gasped as she realized Mika was shielding the twins with her body.
Mika sensed her wife’s presence immediately. About time , she thought.
Fury was not an emotion one would ever want to elicit from the wicked queen, but Legion and Jezebel were about to feel the full brunt of her rage. She knew she couldn’t fight with all her ability if she had to worry about her husband and her babies. She transported Mika and the twins to the mansion then made her presence known to the two emissaries of evil.
“Leah,” Jezebel gasped.
Before either Jezebel or Legion knew what was happening, the Queen transported all three of them to the planet where Mika had taught her to fight.
Jezebel hurled a fireball at her daughter, only to find it sailing back at her, larger and faster. As the old witch dodged the fire, Leah froze her.
Legion manifested a rock monster, ten feet tall. Leah melted it before it could take a step.
Jezebel broke the spell her daughter had cast on her and hurled fireballs one after the other. Leah easily deflected them.
Leah called a raging wind to blow both Legion and Jezebel against the flint walls of the mountain. Both howled in fury as their bodies were crushed against the surface of the cold, hard rock. Bones protruded through their skin.
Leah realized that without the priest, she couldn’t strip her adversaries of their powers. Everything she threw at them, they countered. Just as she was able to thwart everything they tried to do to her.
Jezebel was astounded that her daughter was so strong, so invincible. Perhaps I have chosen the wrong side , the old witch thought.
The battle raged across the desolate planet. As Leah began to tire, her attackers began to work more efficiently as a team. Suddenly, without warning, Jezebel and Legion transported themselves onto her, wrapping their arms and legs around her.
Legion jumped onto her back. He wrapped his legs around her waist and got a choke hold on her neck. Jezebel clung to her front, pressing her oppressive body against the twins. Leah could feel she was falling but couldn’t tell to where.
The stench of Sulphur and brimstone filled her nostrils as she realized they had transported her to the entrance of hell.
“Now we are battling in our territory,” Jezebel leered, releasing her.
“Yes, My Queen,” Legion screeched as he shoved Leah forward calling on a dark demon to attack her.
Leah ducked as the demon sailed past her and disintegrated it.
Jezebel rained fire down on her. Leah surrounded herself with a protective shield she knew wouldn’t hold for long.
Calling on the elements, Leah created a tornado that swept up Jezebel and Legion. It whirled and slammed the pair against everything Leah could find, finally slamming both into the ground with such force, their backs broke.
Jezebel and Legion cursed and wailed, promising Leah a slow and agonizing death.
While Jezebel and Legion were clawing at the ground, struggling to stand, Leah materialized over them. She dropped a huge blade to the hard ground forming a guillotine. She severed the heads of Jezebel and Legion.
She had won. She dropped to her knees and cried. They had won. She had to get back to Mika and her children.
She watched in horror as Jezebel’s head moved to the top of Legion’s shoulders and Legion’s head joined with Jezebel’s body. The body’s stood, grotesquely twisted with bones protruding from the flesh in several places. The living dead , Leah thought.
Without moving a muscle, Leah turned them both to stone and placed them at the gates of hell, but her victory was short lived.
CHAPTER 20 - Burning My Way through Hell
“Well, now that you have done away with your pesky wife and my inept, idiotic servants,” M grinned mischievously, “why don’t you and I get down to some serious negotiating?”
Leah turned with him, watching him slowly move around her as if stalking her. She noticed that they were standing on an island in a sea of fire and brimstone. “What could you possibly have that I would want?” she snarled.
“My, aren’t we uppity,” he snorted. “If it weren’t for that annoying priest, you would have been mine eight years ago.”
Leah arched her eyebrow as if he were insane.
“Remember the night the priest walked into the diner?” M continued. “You were about to destroy the entire town and everyone in it, including yourself. Pretty evil stuff,” he grinned. “She snatched you from my grasp, and the Vile One had worked so hard to get you right where we wanted you.”
“Why? Why me? Her question was almost a sob.
“Why you?” M narrowed his eyes; fire burned in them. “Don’t play with me, Your Majesty. You know how magnificent you are. Your beauty transcends the puny earth you insist on inhabiting.”
“There are many beautiful women on earth,” she countered.
“Ah, yes!” He nodded in agreement. “But none are as evil as you were. It is your former evil actions that bring us to the negotiating table today. You knew what you were doing when you signed the contract with the Vile One. Before the priest, you were depraved and very powerful. You have grown more powerful with each passing day. Unfortunately, you have also grown more virtuous.”
“You haven’t provided me with a true answer,” she pushed. “The universe has several depraved and powerful witches. Why me?”
He glared at her. She could hear the flames in his eyes crackling. He studied her. He knew there was more at play here than just a priest and a witch. He knew he was meddling in something he should stay out of, but his desire for her outweighed everything else.
“I love you,” he said simply.
Her head jerked as if he had slapped her.
“I want you to bear my children.” He hissed. “Not the spawn of some lowly priest.”
“I would rather die,” she growled. “I would die before I would break my wedding vows.” Her emotions caused the flames of hell to rise and cinders to billow and circle her like a funnel.
“Humm, and what about the priest’s children that you are now carrying. “Should they die with you?” M grinned maliciously.
Her eyes darted around, quickly assessing her situation. “Ah, I have found your weakness,” he chuckled. “Let’s be honest. You know I can’t kill you. You’re immortal, but your children are not. The truth is I can only have you if you come to me willingly.”
“That will never happen,” she smiled sardonically.
“Oh, but do hear me out, beautiful one,” he laughed knowingly. “My offer might appeal to you.”
“I doubt it,” she hissed.
“I and all of my minions will leave your family alone for all eternity: your husband, Sara, Adam, and Richie will forever be safe from me and my kind.” He smiled as he saw the look of relief in her eyes.
“In exchange for what?” she growled.
“You come to me of your own free will. You will be my queen and sit at my side ruling the underworld. “You and I will raise the babies you are now carrying. “I promise I will be a good husband and father.”
“And if I refuse?” she said quietly.
“You will spend eternity alone,” a bestial sound escaped his throat. “I will destroy the priest, all your children and the children you are carrying. You will be left to wander the earth searching for the love you have had with the priest, but you won’t find it.”
“What do you want me to do?” she sounded defeated.
He held his hand out to her. “Simply take my hand, dear.”
“What is your name? If I am to take a husband, I should know his name. Are you the devil?” She eyed him warily.
“Mephistopheles,” his v
oice echoed off the mountains surrounding them.
“You give me your word, those I love will forever be free of you and your kind,” she reiterated his promise. “That you will not harm my wife.”
“I promise,” he smiled. Holding out his hand, he stepped toward her. “Just take my hand of your own free will and we will be bound for all eternity.”
She bowed her head and prayed one last prayer before stretching out her hand and stepping to him.
“NO!” A scream that shook heaven and hell and everything in between filled the air around them. Mika flew like a kamikaze dive bomber into Mephistopheles, driving him backward, away from Leah, before he could touch her hand. Mika held onto the demon as they plunged into the leaping fires of hell. Leah suddenly found herself standing in the great room of her mansion, surrounded by her family. Everyone was there. Everyone but her wife. She tried to make mental contact with Mika. There was no response.
She screamed in agony as she realized Mika had made the same sacrifice she had been willing to make. She tried to transport back to her and couldn’t. She tried to reach Mika with telepathy and couldn’t. Leah fell to her knees, curling into the fetal position, ignoring the hands that were reaching out to her, trying to sooth her. The keening sound that escaped from her lips terrified everyone.
##
She had no idea how long she had been in her present state. Hours, days, weeks, time stood still. She vaguely remembered her son’s strong arms carrying her to her bedroom. The bedroom she shared with her wife. Where was Mika?
Mika was gone. She had fulfilled the contract Leah had foolishly signed. Mephistopheles had taken Mika. Leah had no desire to live without Mika. She slipped in and out of consciousness, dreaming of her time with Mika, screaming as she watched her plunge into hell with Mephistopheles, trading her soul for Leah and the children.
Leah didn’t care. She wanted to die. Sleep was the best. Mika came to her in dreams. Her smiling face, her gentle touch, her lips on Leah’s: all agonizing memories. The horror of facing each new day without Mika was more than she could bear. The two children she carried would never play horsey with Mommy.
“She should be in the hospital,” Dr. Strand’s face faded in and out of Leah’s consciousness. “We have to do something quickly, or she is going to lose the babies. If we don’t put her on life support, she will die.”
