by Kari Thomas
When the bear stopped moving she naively thought her plan had worked.
“Come on, little girlie-bear,” one of the men coaxed. “We promised you a miracle and we aim to deliver. But you have to come with us. Come on…”
The bear hesitated, its fur bristling with obvious nervousness. One of the men began cursing her animal stubbornness, muttering vile words under his breath and Kira was almost glad she couldn’t hear them. The other man, after telling his cohort-in-crime to shut his mouth, reached carefully into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small vial. Kira was surprised she could see the iridescent blue liquid shining in the bright sunlight. He gently pulled the stopper off the vial and wedged the flacon between two rocks, obviously set there for that purpose.
She noticed the smell the exact moment the bear did. The men backed away, staying out of range of the powerful potion, their noses covered by thick masks. Kira choked back a cry, recognizing the sweet, cloying smell of a dangerous potent.
Valerian flowers.
And...something else...
While the bear was enticed by the too-sweet smell, Kira reached out with her senses and found that an additional ingredient had been mixed in the sweet smelling, all enticing, herb mixture. A hypnotizing spell had been placed within the potion, giving it further, more powerful, connotations. Too close for safety, but unwilling to leave her friend to her fate, Kira realized, in one brief, shocked moment, that the spell was trying to entrap her as well.
It was incredibly powerful.
No! I’m stronger than this. I can block it. I have to stop these men before the bear gets any closer. She clutched her garnet power stone and prayed to the Goddess for strength. Her power instantly flamed to life within her and she softly chanted a repelling spell:
Powers that be, hear my call
Halt these deeds, stop our fall
Make this scent smell of weeds
Repel this evil, keep me free
This is my will, so mote it be.
Immediately the fogginess of the potion’s spell cleared from her mind but the bear wasn’t so lucky. Kira watched in dismay as the animal slowly, unsteadily, walked toward the waiting men. She couldn’t just stand there and let them take her!
Frantic, she searched for a solution.
If she used a spell, she risked exposing herself to their wrath. And there was no telling why they were so determined to capture the bear in the first place, which made them even more dangerous. Pondering her options while watching the bear move closer and closer, she came to a conclusion. It was the only logical thing to do. She would continue to follow them at a discreet distance and wait for a chance to set the bear free.
But fate had other plans.
Once the men had loaded the groggy, but willing, bear into the van, Kira turned around and retraced her steps to the car as quickly as possible. She was in such a hurry she didn’t watch the path, keeping an eye on the slow moving men instead. The dry tree branch she accidentally stepped on snapped like a loud firecracker going off. Before she had time to escape, the men had snatched her up in burly arms. Kira struggled with her captors. Kicking, scratching, even biting, but it was no use.
Within minutes they had her thrown inside the van beside the bear.
She pushed her hair out of her eyes and looked at the bear sitting sedately across from her on the van’s floor. Her brown eyes were glazed and her rotund body swayed in a sleepy tandem with their jostling ride. The potion had done its job.
“Poor thing,” she whispered. “But don’t worry. I’ll figure out a way to get us out of this mess.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Somehow. I promise.” She struggled with the uncertainty of what might happen and forced herself to breathe calmly and center her thoughts. She would have to think clearly in order to get them out of this sticky situation.
Where were they being taken? And why?
Who are they? Kira wondered. And how did they get our van?
Clutching tightly to her power stone, she centered her thoughts. She envisioned an invisible, calming wind sweeping through her, washing her fears and doubts away. She was going to have to use her power to fight them when the time came. There was no other way around it. She didn’t have any other weapons. Goddess, help me.
She just hoped she remembered how, hoped she could recall the correct chants and spells. That last disastrous moment in time, when she’d failed to protect her loved ones, came rushing back and Kira shuddered with the force of the memory. I have to be strong this time. I can’t let fear rule me. Goddess, guide me.
The van slowed then stopped. Kira’s heart jumped. Unable to see out the covered windows of the van during the nerve-wracking ride, she wasn’t sure where they were now. She heard the sound of a garage door opening, then closing as the van pulled in. She braced herself, mentally preparing a repelling spell for the moment the men opened the van doors. Then, while the men were knocked off their feet, she’d throw a freezing spell.
Taking a deep breath, she crouched, poised, ready to attack.
She never got the chance.
As the doors were slowly opened, the last person on earth she expected to be standing outside, immediately stopped her canting with a cold voice of steel, “Don’t bother, Kira. Your spell won’t work.”
She plopped back on her butt with a thump of shocked amazement.
Uncle Warren!
Getting to her feet, she stumbled out of the van. She lost her balance, falling to her knees. When she shakily stood up, she looked into the stony glare of her uncle’s dark blue eyes. She rubbed a hand over her eyes as she tried to fit all the pieces of the baffling puzzle into some type of rational order.
Because this made no sense, no matter which way she looked at it.
“Uncle Warren? What are you doing here?”
He frowned at her, disgust tingeing his tone. “You just had to be nosey, didn’t you? I hadn’t planned on bringing you into this until much later. Now I see that I no longer have any choice. Do you ever do what you are supposed to?”
“What are you talking about?” She glanced at the men as they dragged the bear out of the van, thumping her paws on the cold concrete as if she were a rug with no feelings. Do I really want to know? This can’t be good. Where’s Lena?
“I can see your thoughts racing,” Warren Douglas murmured, “but it won’t do you any good. Your powers aren’t strong enough to challenge me. You don’t have any defenses here so you might as well stop resisting and give in, play your part.”
“Why would I want to ‘challenge’ you? And give in? Give in to what?” Kira glanced around, trying to figure out where she was.
It looked like the Douglas garage and, since the garage sat behind the house and connecting shop, surely someone would hear her if she screamed. At least Lena would wonder, wouldn’t she? But then what? Would Lena help her against her own father? Was she involved in whatever was going on? And where was Lena? Her questions caused her mind to whirl, and a headache to form behind her eyes.
Her uncle had always been a quiet man, never confrontational. Kira didn’t remember what had happened to his wife. It had been all ‘hush hush’ when she was younger, and she had never asked Lena, respecting her privacy. As a male witch he had used his knowledge of healing to benefit those in need when she had been younger…or at least she thought he had.
She never remembered her parents saying anything against him. What had changed him…to this dark personage? There was an air about him that was more than just disturbing…it was dangerous. Kira felt the threatening blackness radiate off him in waves and her bewilderment intensified.
“Take her downstairs,” Warren brusquely instructed the returning men before he glowered at Kira. “Be smart. Don’t fight me on this. I’ll explain everything when the time is right.” She knew she didn’t have any choice but to obey him, at least for the time being, and reluctantly allowed the men to roughly push her down a flight of stairs leading to the basement. She didn’t have to wonder long where they’d
planned on keeping her as she walked into the room and had a moment to look around.
She would have never suspected that there was first-class, fully outfitted laboratory under the garage! And she seriously doubted that Lena even knew about it, since she had complained about the lack of space in the tiny kitchenette off the shop, where she mixed most of her merchandise. Her gaze flew around the large room, taking in the tables, bookshelves, cages, lab desks, and various chemicals stored on shelves or lying on tables. Kira blinked, shock racing through her as her eyes flew back to the dankest corner of the room, to the stacks of meshed enclosures, varied in size and strength.
Cages!
In the largest one, placed in the middle of the room, sat the dozing bear.
Oh, Goddess!
She hurried over to the cage, then threw a glare over her shoulder at Warren. “Why are you doing this?”
Warren walked over to a table and lifted a pair of gloves. Slowly he put them on before turning to face Kira. He chuckled softly. “Where do I even begin the story?”
Kira couldn’t help it. She was so angry, and completely mystified, that she couldn’t stop the sarcasm. “At the beginning would be nice.” Whatever you’re up to, I have to stop you. She didn’t dare let herself think there was a possibility she might not be strong enough to stop him.
Warren slowly paced around the room. “Hmm. You were…lets see…you were about eighteen, when we took that last trip into the bayou, weren’t you?”
Kira slumped to the floor beside the bear’s cage. How could he be so cruel to bring that that up? And why now?
Warren didn’t wait for her answer but continued, as though reciting a speech he’d long ago perfected. “I’d waited for that day all my life. I’d have never gone into that smelly swamp if I hadn’t had a vision. It told me what I needed to do to obtain my heart’s desire.”
She mentally counted to ten, trying desperately to calm her racing heart, afraid of what she would hear. “What sort of vision?”
“The kind that shared what Fate had in store for me.” Warren chuckled, his thoughts seeming to stray for a few moments before he continued, “I knew my destiny awaited me somewhere in that swamp. I just didn’t know its source. It was planned. I had been instructed not to interfere when the panthers attacked. I had been shown what needed to be done so that the power would come to me. Be mine, and mine alone.”
Kira gasped, almost choking on the pain clutching at her heart. “You …knew… those panthers would attack? I don’t understand. Why didn’t you do something? Warn Mother and Father? How could you not do something? How could you allow them to die? Shey to die? She was an innocent. And what power are you talking about? What insanity do you have planned?”
“It wasn’t meant for me to interfere,” Warren explained, excusing himself from any responsibility. “It was their time. Your parents would have tried to stop me, and that would have been unacceptable. Shey…well, Shey wasn’t important enough to my plan. She was too young to be of any usefulness and was dispensable. You and Sonia were supposed to die as well. That was an unfortunate error on my part.”
Rage drowned out any fear and Kira stood, shaky and unsteady, on her feet. “You purposely left us there to be killed? That was your plan?” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It couldn’t be true! “Tell me you’re lying,” she beseeched hoarsely. “Tell me you just panicked and fled in fear.” Hysteria threatened and she pushed it back, knowing she needed to concentrate. She reached down, deep inside herself, and pulled her power to her. She needed to stop this madman…who was her uncle. “Tell me!”
Instead of answering, Warren instantly raised his hands. Pointing them toward her, he spat out a restraining spell:
Bind her powers, black over white
Give to me, take what is her might
Restrain her strength, dark powers hear me
This is my will, so mote it be.
Kira screamed as agony immediately buffeted her body. A web of dark power surrounded her and drained her energy, stole her purpose, momentarily bound her powers. She fell to the floor, a defeated ball of pain, weaker than she’d ever felt before.
Warren laughed ruefully. “Not my best incantation to date but I had to be quick. I could tell you were about to retaliate. Foolish little girl, do you really think you can outsmart me? I am so much more than you know.”
She struggled to breathe. She concentrated on easing her discomfort, alleviating the pain spreading through her limbs. She didn’t stop to guard her words as she blurted, “I’ll do more than just retaliate when I’m free. You’ll pay for the misery you’ve caused me, the harm to my family. I’ll destroy you. There is nowhere you can hide,” she threatened. “Make no mistake, Warren. You will pay for what you’ve done.”
“Stop being so melodramatic, Kira. It’s a useless waste of energy. And you don’t have much left right now, do you? But that’s not good. No. Not good at all. Hmm…you see…I need your strength. Or at least the strength of your powers. So be a good girl and don’t provoke me into doing something we will be both regret.”
“You can weaken me,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “but you can’t take my powers. You’re not strong enough to take what I’m not willing to give. Whatever plans you have for me, whatever you need me for…well, you know I won’t cooperate!
Warren’s expression changed instantly from mildly amused to cold anger. “Ah, but you are wrong…so very wrong. I think you will help me, Kira. Actually I’m counting on that generous, loving heart of yours to bend to my will, to offer me whatever I desire. Because you know, as I do, that you’ll willingly sacrifice yourself before you would allow me to sacrifice someone else in your place. Someone who is perhaps not as powerful, but who might do in a pinch.”
He had to mean Lena! His own daughter! He’d use her if he couldn’t force Kira to do what he wanted! How far had this once good man fallen? What, or who, had twisted him, placed him on this path to perdition?
Warren nodded his head, glad that his oh-so-innocent niece was not quite as stupid as he initially thought. “Yes. Lena. I’d planned on using her, but then you came to stay. That changed things, and has actually worked out for the best. You’re stronger, far more powerful, containing the necessary energy-force to fulfill my goals. My daughter doesn’t quite have the skills that you were blessed with at birth, those which have been ingrained into you by centuries of blood.” He walked over to stand above her, towering in his black intent.
“But make no mistake, Kira. If you push me, refuse to help me get what I want, then I will have no choice but to use Lena. And I’d really hate to do that. It wouldn’t be good for any of us…you would lose a friend, and I a daughter. I am pretty certain she wouldn’t survive.”
Chapter Fifteen
Kira was shocked to her core.
She had never seen this side of Warren, had no clue that her uncle had turned manic. It seemed unbelievable that no one had ever noticed. With his parting cryptic words, he had stomped out of the basement, slamming the heavy door behind him. She was left sitting on the cold, cement floor, behind a bolt-locked door that effectively made her his prisoner. Alone in a madman’s basement lab, with no company other than a softly snoring bear. She thought about calling out for help but realized that her uncle had probably soundproofed the room.
It was pretty obvious he wouldn’t want anyone poking their noses around, getting curious about any of his experiments.
His experiments.
Just the thought of what he’d been doing, or intended to do, made her stomach queasy. He’d released her from his debilitating spell but the aftereffects had left her nauseous, too weak to gather her power. She puzzled over her options, thought about potential spells, but nothing seemed a good idea At least not at that moment. She hoped that he’d be gone for a while, that she would have some time until he returned, and she prayed it would be enough.
How in the world could she get out of here and warn Lena? What did Warren have planned
for the bear…and for her? What was this Power he was so determinedly seeking? What did he think it would bring him other than grief?
Her parents had warned them over and over about the repercussions of doing evil versus good. The ramifications were never pretty, and were often dangerous.
And someone always got hurt in the process.
So many questions! And no seemingly simple answers. Warren had promised to tell her everything when he returned but Kira wasn’t so sure she trusted him to tell her the truth, or at least not the whole truth.
What was he involved in that went back as far as that terrible day? Her fuming anger at his cowardly actions flared anew. She still couldn’t believe that he’d done nothing to save them!
He had brought death and destruction down on their heads for what…more power? Why?
He was family! Welcomed in their house and hearts. If he had only gone to her parents and asked…before it had gotten so out of hand…They could have counseled him…put him back on the right path. What use was that type of power when it was necessary to sacrifice innocent lives to obtain it?
Her thoughts drifted back to that horrible day.
She’d been in shock from the loss of blood, and the horror of what had happened. When she had woken up in the hospital she couldn’t remember how she had got there. Her parents and Shey were dead, and Sonia was being treated for shock and loss of blood. Her mind had protected her, blocking the majority of the painful details. She’d had to rely on her uncle’s recounting of the tragic event for further facts. Now it seemed those facts were skewed in Warren’s favor.
He had explained that he’d managed to save her and Sonia, get them out of the swamp. But she had never questioned how…never asked his part in what happened. She’d always assumed he had been too far away when the attack occurred. But, now, his revelation made her wonder.
It wasn’t meant for me to interfere. What had he meant by that? Kira rubbed at her aching temples. Some morsel of information lurked in the back of her memory and she knew it had something to do with what Warren had said. But … what?
