by Lil Hamilton
“It is ambience,” she said with a laugh.
Liz began her report to Hanson and he latched himself to his Blackberry to start the coordination of attacks. I sat down beside Chera as she texted on her iPhone. “Talking to Viv?”
“Yeah, she’s disappointed she’s going to miss the fun. But she’s doing her best on the misdirection side of things. I think she just wants to piss off Vincent for his role in it. And Liona too, for not even telling us what was going down. The Hag is out for blood and we could have known way earlier.”
“She said she just wanted to ensure I was punished. That she knew I would help out and she knew I would be punished for it, and she’s right.”
“True. But she sent a demon after you. Not herself, the coven did, so not her directly, so not by her hand, but you could have died. If there is any way that you may die by someone else’s hands, she will take advantage of it. Believe me, Ray. My instincts in this matter are freaking dead on.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. You ready to go?”
“Sure,” she said, firing off one more text and then getting up. “Lets’ do this thing.”
Mary, Chera and I crammed into the Mini and were off to scope out a very prosperous coven, which meant not getting too close to it. Mary gave me directions to the location on the south side of the city. I drove around the block and eventually found a parking spot on the next block.
Now that we were in the vicinity I could tell which house we were looking for. Several of the homes were lit up with wards and shields, but in an obvious ‘don’t come close’ kinda way. Only one had a great deal of wards carefully constructed to seem as though it had only a few and actually made me tempted to disregard it. Being as my mind worked the way it did, I noted the external influence the house created to be ignored and forgotten, while at the same time not letting that influence get a hold in my conscious mind. Like looking through double mental vision.
“That was the house?”
“Yeah,” Chera said, from the back seat. She would be the least likely to be influenced by the wards themselves. No matter if the wards screamed at her not to remember it, she would be able to feel the energy, feel the people inside and not be able to deny it even if she wanted to.
“Huh.”
“What did you expect? An office? They are mercenaries not accountants,” Mary said.
“Still, a coven should have some sort of isolated location to do their mojo. Or given this one‘s tendencies to flaunt power, a big old mansion. Some creepy place with like loads of bats. With creepy relics and cobwebs. Set the mood. You witches are way bland these days.”
“The idea for a coven like this is to blend. It is not as though normal business practice is kidnaping other witches. They don’t need a business or a front. They just need a spot to do ritual work. The blacks might not play by the rules, but they don’t want to attract too much Inter heat. Course, this area is full of their witches, mixed in with humans,” Mary said.
“Blend, eh? Why bother? This whole section to the city is populated with witches. They ought to set the standard, not try and look mundane. Get out of the closet and wear a pointed hat already.”
Chera snickered and Mary glared at me. I shrugged.
I was familiar with the area a little, since it was very close to where the vampire territory began. I wondered if the reason Nihilo was pushing for territory was because they were getting squeezed between the Whites on one side, the vamps to the north and other hostile black to the south. Maybe they wanted to claim some of the grey territory or increase their street cred with the demon attacks, but the definitely wanted to keep the claim in Gutters their own. Either way, when word got out, this nice little area would be a war zone.
“I wish Hanson had pointed this out. They must have other holdings in the city and I can’t imagine Lily is being held here. Not with so many potential witnesses around. My witness could have been wrong.”
“You underestimate the awesome ability for people to ignore other people. Especially in middle class areas. They don’t want to cause problems. Live and let live. With a buffering shield, these witches could make a lot of noise and no one would notice. More like, neighbors would notice the traffic of so many people living there,” Mary said.
“Yeah, well, with black witches as their neighbors I imagine they are even more inclined to ignore anything unusual. Damn smart thing to do,” I said. “All right girls, let’s take a closer look. See if we sense Lily or Eadon in there.”
“They will have people watching,” Chera said. Her voice was hushed as though she suspected she could be overheard. Her tone held a load of anxiety and tension. It was not fear, as the look in her pale eyes was one of anticipation. Likely, it was more to do with her keen sensitivity to the currents of magic. In some ways she reminded me of an earth demon, with their keen senses. Like them Chera could sense and track the trail magic left behind. She could feel the vibes of energy around her so well she could tell the type of ward without being able to see it. Like an earth demon she could gain information just from touch if an object had been in contact with strong emotions or had been around someone for a long time. She didn’t have any of the other abilities to affect their environment, but she also didn’t have the shields. She was always on and couldn’t turn down the volume of her abilities.
I blinked when I realized I was staring at Chera for a long moment without speaking. The more time that passed the less I knew what to do with her. My pity would be pointless. What I now knew about her past didn’t change who she was or her future.
“Really? Cause that would be the smart thing to do. If I got you right, half the neighborhood will be watching. We’ll simply make sure what they see is a young couple and their feisty teenager. It is a… bubble glamour. I’m not influencing them, but they will see the illusion and they will feel like we are powerless humans, because beneath the bubble glamour will be a spell buffering.”
Mary might not care if I did influencing magic, since she was Coven, but you never could tell since she was also Inter. Bit of a moral conflict there.
I closed my eyes for a moment and then expanded my outer aura, into, literally a bubble around us all. As long as they stayed within it. Then I focused on Mary and Chera until I had the illusion I wished to project on the visual field. Muttering a more complex string of trigger words, I let that image soak through my aura and then I began to swirl the energy, so it was not connected to me and we had a walled glamour. The buffering shield was one of creating static within the dome I had created. In order to sense the essence of someone, you needed to be able to read their energy, which could not be done through a field of static. That came from my demon side, not that I would admit it.
“All right, good to go,” I said opening the door. “Just stay within a six foot radius of me.”
“Damn, sometimes you give me such magic envy it hurts,” Mary said.
“Yep, my magical balls are bigger than yours,” I said strutting like a cocky gang banger. Fact was I worked long and hard to perfect certain illusion spells, as in my line of work sometimes it paid to be hidden. I had also been spinning the spell since I knew we were coming. Witches were often impressed I could spin out a spell with just a trigger word and didn’t get we still have to do the spell, just not all at once. Plus I wasn’t adverse to amulets either, which basically functioned like a witch amulet, holding an incomplete spell but I had to use raw stones and gems as a base. Today I just had on a necklace with a diamond and a ruby. The ruby contained a hard wall of flame spell that blasted outwards in a circle and was a sort of last minute defense, since while the gem held the spell; I was the one that fueled it. The diamond was a strong defensive all around shield, also quite complex, but for a short duration would be able to shield all of us while we counter attacked. My mojo was not all on the fly after all. Some greater spells were too complex to string together on the fly. Opponents rarely gave me the time.
As we walked down the street we studied our target build
ing openly, since my full functioning illusions were chatting and meandering in a normal manner. Someone might think such a detailed illusion would take time to perfect, to get that sense of realness a static image would not have, and that was very true. It was all in the details. I had several carefully constructed illusions I used often enough they took little effort to enforce, as long as I paid attention. When I used them on myself I tended to prep it into a carrying stone, since if I were trying to be discrete I might need to do or focus on more than one thing at a time. Holding a spell while doing something else wasn’t always an option.
The beige colored house had a double garage and two unremarkable cars were parked in the front. As we approached I had the distinct feeling we were being watched. At least one witch would be on surveillance at all times.
“Well?” I asked.
“You’re the fae,” Mary said.
“And I’m spinning a nice illusion and buffering our presence.”
“Not so uber strong after all,” Mary said with a chuckle. “The place has a sophisticated ward. One to appear unnoticeable, so people will not be drawn to look at it or remember it. The house is further warded with sound muffling and guard wards. The guard ward is a good one. If we try and enter without permission it will likely kill a person. Electric shock I suspect. I think it is malleable and will shift according to threat level.”
I nodded. It was a coven after all. They had ways of maintaining strong wards, for a threat from rivals. I couldn’t rule out wards against demons and fae, but usually they were just an add on. A sort of just in case scenario. No ward was unbreakable though. Given enough time and enough effort any witch worth her special herbs could do the trick, assuming the one who created the ward didn’t compensate for the assault. I just had a different arsenal.
The serene, but too quiet, residential area was making me uncomfortable. It didn’t jive with the feel of all that energy fuelled into the wards. A lot of energy was condensed into the neighborhood, rubbing wards and running currents. With Myra on the loose and obviously looking for an excuse to kill me I had to wonder if there was more I wasn’t seeing. While Mary might be impressed with my little bubble illusion she didn’t understand how pure fae with thousands of years’ worth of skill could make mine look crude and unskilled. There were certain fae establishments throughout the world that only the fae could see at all. Entire buildings shrouded in illusions that not only made them appear different or not there, but also influenced people to not notice or care. I might not be as easily fooled by such things, but I could be if I didn’t pay attention to the small details that would give such illusions away. I didn’t have the time to do the real surveillance and planning a job like this should have. Not with Eadon at the beck and call of this coven. Not when at any moment someone could take Lily into Faerie and out of reach. A black coven on its own could be volatile, aggressive and extremely dangerous with destructive spells. Add in the potential Faerie influence and we were on a tight deadline with elements in play that didn’t work to our advantage.
“The two houses alongside it are also part of the coven as a whole,” Mary added.
“Lovely. We will have to get them taken care of first, all quiet like.”
Being paranoid I kept a close eye on my illusion and a watched for any spells flying our way. If anyone even suspected there was an illusion they would let fly a whole bunch of Reveals and Dispels at me. Although, even the best witch only had so much they could do on a moments notice. Of course, I had never gone after a coven House before either. They might be loaded to the rafters with charms and enchanted artefacts. Most Blacks were loaded on the amulet side of things, so that didn’t bode well, but at least they were generally low on the charm, defensive side of things. They just didn’t put the time and effort the Whites did to learning the fine Craft of defensive wards and protective spells. I had fought black witches who had been loaded up with amulets of varying sizes. Often they had coin sized ones, with holes in the middle that they would stitch to their clothing, which was quite the fashion statement. They made it an obvious statement too. But, I had fought one such witch once, who practically clanged when she walked with them, and blasted me to hell and back. Yet her shielding had been rudimentary and designed to protect her from physical magical assault only. Obviously she had a weakness in the mental magical arena and normally, had she the knowledge and skill; she would have designed a protective charm to defend herself against such assault since she couldn’t do so quickly enough herself in a battle situation. As it was, I knocked her out with a simple sleep spell. Likely that is why I had been able to knock out the other Nihilo coven witches with a paralysis spell, a spell not design to harm, but to contain, and therefore had not ignited their charms either. I found most black witches had a weakness against mental assaults and spells that were not directly aggressive, just as White witches were weak against brutally aggressive spells.
“So, Chera,” I said as we slowly passed on by the house. “Is our little mark in residence?”
Chera was hugging herself as if cold, but the night was actually quite balmy. “Yeah, she’s there. So is the demon. And he’s pissed.”
“Rights he should be,” I said with a shrug, as we turned around the block. “It is risky to keep him in the physical realm, instead of calling him if needed. Which, with his name, they can. Instead they keep him here, where if they don’t use explicit commands he can break through the compulsion. If that happens nothing will stop him from a rampage. Lan prepped a demon containment kit just in case. Eadon will not be able to tell friend from foe if he breaks free from his binding while in a full rage. If we get to him before that he should still be in his right mind.”
“I don’t think he is thinking clearly enough to weasel out of a contract,” Chera said.
“The young. They get caught up in it all. Any aged demon would know their captors only live a finite time. And even in that time, there are many opportunities to mess up. In my cousin’s case, he knows we’re looking for his woman and he knows we will be aware of his situation. He knows, rationally, his family will never stop looking for him. Demon kin stop at nothing to find their blood when they are bound.”
“His mate has been brutalized, in front of him, to taunt him. Tortured to give his true name up,” Mary said.
“I’m aware of that. Although likely she was tortured to lure him in. Eventually in her agony she would have inadvertently called out to him. He would have known her location then and wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from charging in.”
Mary stopped and glared at me. “Are you honestly that cold, Ray? Did you not understand what I said? Every moment she is in there she endures hell.”
I narrowed my eyes and leaned inward until my face was a foot from hers. I looked her over carefully, from the furrowed brow, the icy glare in her blue eyes and her thinned lips. “I understand,” I said, emphasizing each word. After what I knew of the hell Chera had endured. Knowing my own experiences in life and seeing others endure more than this human could comprehend, I was not in the mood for her criticism of my lack of proper reaction. “More than you do. I also know it would be better to not think about her pain and rather on getting her out of there. Never tell me what I do not understand, human. Your race doesn’t hold the market on brutality.”
Mary’s eyes widened slightly with a little fear. I took a deep breath and moved back slightly. Then rolled my shoulders until they relaxed. “Shall we then?”
I led the way back to the car, as they lagging behind. I heard Chera murmuring something to Mary and winced. When I had first rescued Chera she had stayed with me for a few nights. Apparently she had some disturbing nightmares. My nightmares. She would not stay over again, which was for the best. I didn’t want people seeing my history. Besides the girl had enough nightmares of her own without me adding to the load.
It was flipping stupid, as idiotic as poking a troll with a twig, to be messing with the Queen and her twisted games. I suppose I hated the fact
she used this realm as a playground. My job, in her mind, was literally to put a pleasant, obliging face to the fae race. My actively doing my job only made it seem more real for everyone. To the Queen my authenticity only enhanced the image she wanted to project. It would never occur to her that I wanted to keep the fae in line and I didn’t like any race taking away the will and rights of the weak and defenceless. It made me feel good, that at least in Haven, I could enforce some order. I wasn’t an idiot though. It made me feel good personally to take down anyone that broke the Accords and made my job satisfying, but in the overall scheme of things I did very little. I was only one person and when it came to it my power was not equal to those of the high court, or high demons.
Chera got into the back seat but Mary stopped me from getting in. She looked a little flushed. “I apologize. I didn’t think. I know you enough to know you have intense emotions and sometimes you express them. Those times I feel comfortable around you because I can feel the humanity in you, which is stupid I know, because you’re not human. But, the Seelie they just are so empty of them, you know? So your stoic expression back there caught me off guard. I thought you were unfeeling instead of just hiding it to get the job done.”
“I’ll tell you a secret. The Seelie have all the emotions you do. Their brain just does not work the same way. You feel an emotion and it is flooded through your body, you respond physically to it, and you have some sort of expression for it. The Seelie feel it but it bypasses the body and is segmented to a section of the brain. They can choose to react to it, such as when you see some Seelie expressing joy and such, but generally they choose not to. But, even if they do not show it physically, they do feel it mentally, and brain chemistry is still the same.”
“Oh,” she said. “So, like, the ultimate poker face ever.”
“Exactly. So you can still get to them, but you just won’t know it. It’s very frustrating sometimes. You have to learn their tells. I was taught to be the same way, but my demon blood is feistier, so more just… comes out. And I go with that.”
