Kimberly said, “Which is why we’re leaving it up to you.”
Monica grinned, “True enough, turned wild or not, you’re still the brainy one.”
Diana blushed at the compliment and teasing, “Thanks sis, are we all ready?”
I looked around, everyone either said yes, or nodded. We moved out the back door.
If the circle was any indication, it was a very complicated spell. It was covered in three rows of circled runes that were tiny, and the circle was large enough to fit all six of us comfortably. It reinforced my earlier thoughts about Diana. I got the idea using her power to carve out a circle would make it fast, her thoughts would become reality etched in stone, but her getting all these right and done in a minute? There were thousands of tiny runes, no doubt in a very specific order, and she hadn’t made one mistake.
Honestly, it was kind of intimidating. I was glad my mate was more of a people person like me. I was also curious what kind of man would measure up to that intelligence, and tame her saucy nature.
Diana said, “Shifters in the middle.”
Tom and I stood in the middle. The four witches stood on the edges of the circle just inside the lines, and in the cardinal directions with Diana to the North as earth, Monica to the East as air, Grace to the South as fire, and Kimberly to the west representing Water. I imagined if Danielle was here she’d be in the west since she naturally had control over water, but Kimberly was standing in that position, while the others were in their natural positions.
I didn’t suppose it mattered all that much, their natural affinities were one thing, but while casting spells, all seven of the witches in the coven could invoke and cast any of the elements. Maybe. Maybe it did enhance the spell, I wasn’t sure. I’d get her to tell me about it sometime. If nothing else, the difficulty of the spell was further outlined by the additional formality of it.
They held hands with the two of us in the middle. Diana would be casting, but all four of them were going to provide magic for the spell.
Latin fell effortlessly from her lips, and I tried not to be tense. I’d have been happier not knowing about that inertia difference crap. Her obvious confidence and poise did make me feel a little better about it, but it wasn’t a short spell and I had far too much time to think about things going wrong. It was over a minute later when she pronounced the last word, and I felt a large surge of magic.
Then the backyard disappeared…
~ Chapter Nine – Kimberly ~
The world jarred back into focus.
I suppressed a startled squeak and put a hand to my chest, as we fell six inches to the ground. No one fell over, but it was a close thing. We were in a meadow of sorts, and there was a large one story building about a hundred yards away. The immediate area looked like rolling hills, wilderness, and trees. This place really was out in the middle of nowhere.
My heart pounded as I glared across the circle.
Diana snickered, and said in mock apology “Sorry, did I forget to mention?”
Clearly, she’d done it on purpose.
Grace sighed, “I suppose there was a reason?”
Diana nodded, “This field isn’t exactly flat, and I didn’t want to appear in the lab’s parking lot. Last thing we needed is someone’s heel appearing in a dirt and grass bump. Monica’s power easily handles that kind of thing, but the spell doesn’t.”
I sighed, “Fine, next time a little warning?”
Diana smiled mirthfully, and said disingenuously, “Why, of course big sis. Promise.”
I sighed, that’s why I hated to be in charge of my sisters. They all knew I was too nice, and would put up with their mischief. In truth, it was kind of funny now that my heart wasn’t trying to pound its way out of my chest.
“Let’s tone it down a little, shall we? We are about to fight demons after all. Malum deprehendere.”
Derek asked, “Anything?”
I shook my head, “We’re a little too far from the building, I should feel them as we get closer. The spell should stay active about twenty minutes, more than long enough. Monica, can you take care of the glamour on the cameras?”
Monica said, “Sure.”
Derek moved close to me as we started toward the building. It was both strange and comforting having his warm bulk towering so close to my side. My heart warmed, was this how the rest of our lives would be? Him right by my side whenever there’s danger, no questions asked, and overly protective. I mean that in a good way.
I looked over and up to his strong jaw, and was glad Danielle wasn’t here to feel the surge of emotions I felt. I pushed it all down, play time was later, tonight, after we finished this and could get back to our lives. Of course, our lives would never get back to the old normal, but this cleanup of the demonic escapees from the night our parents died was hopefully the worst we’d ever face.
Sure, there’d be other demons we went after, but never over a hundred again if we stayed vigilant over the gateway. The even bigger change would be Derek, Kevin, and Tony. My daily life with Sherry and Amber would change drastically, but I knew we wouldn’t grow apart. We’d still be working with each other all day while our men were taking care of their own business.
Still, it would be a lot of changes to get used to. It would take work to adjust to it all, but I already knew it would be worth every drop of sweat and tears.
I felt a little nervous about this last battle with evil, but pushed that down. I was used to deferring to Amber and Sherry, and felt a deep responsibility for keeping my three sisters safe. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling, but I was strong enough to handle it.
Monica started to chant under her breath when we got a little closer, and released the spell into the camera on the outside of the building. It should automatically spread out to the entire system, at least we wouldn’t have to worry about being recorded or seen after the fact. That was rather important, because I was sure the FBI would be all over what happened here. The government tended to frown on security breaches in labs that had deadly diseases stored.
We started to walk around the building toward the front.
“I feel all five, as we guessed, four are near the entrance, the fifth seems to be a level or two underground. The one below ground is also the one with magic.”
We came around the building, and I felt a little relief, there were only a few cars in the parking lot. It was a bit later in the evening, and most of the workers were safely at home. If I’d have known that earlier, I’d have sent Monica with the other team. Somehow, I doubted the army base would be as deserted. We might not even need her compulsion ability, and there were spells for taking recent memories if it was needed.
We looked into the lobby through the glass walls as we headed for the door. My stomach sunk, as the security guard looked at us, and then smirked as he picked up his radio and spoke into it.
“So much for surprise,” I noted, “He’s possessed, the other three are probably in the security office. They’re close by, together, and it’s just off the left side of the lobby behind the desk.”
I could even make out the doorframe from here. The security station was chest height and ran across most of the lobby, with a wall behind it, and that door to the left. The right side next to the security station was a small hallway that led to the back of the building, an emergency stairwell, and a bank of elevators.
The first floor was obviously just the security station, security operations room, and behind that down the short hallway we could all see, was probably just desks and offices. I imagined the diseases were all in the sublevels behind airlock doors and decontamination systems. We got to the door, which had an intercom to request access. I didn’t imagine the security guard would let us in if I hit it, but then that wasn’t a problem at all.
“Grace?”
Grace smiled grimly and intoned, “Recludo,” and the badge swipe light turned from red to green. She opened it and was across the room in a flash. The surprise on the security guard’s face was price
less, I’d never seen a demon surprised before. Did he think we’d be stopped by a locked door? Or was it Grace’s speed?
By the time we all piled into the lobby, Grace had already laid him out on the ground, unconscious. I wrapped a shield around the escaping dark entity and looked toward the office door which remained closed. The demon shrieked in anger, but we ignored it.
Grace said, “No gun.”
Monica said, “They probably hijacked a person in a car, drove here, and then disembodied to take over the security workers in here. That would be easier than getting in here while possessing people that didn’t belong. The drivers would have woken up confused, and then eventually drove off.”
“The office.”
There was another security badge entry on that door.
Monica said, “Recludo,” and blew the door open with a forceful push of air, which kept going and bowled over the three men.
Derek, Grace, and Tom ran into the room, and slowly choked them out, while Diana cast banishment. Just about the time the demons started to leave the three bodies, she tossed the spell inside the small room.
I couldn’t help the smirk on my face, as I looked over at the shielded demon who was glaring at me, and with a thought I sent my shield, demon and all, into the room. It’s screams changed from rage to pain as the spell ripped them apart.
Four down, one to go.
Grace said, “Downstairs?”
“Not just yet. I imagine the demon is panicking, there’s no way for it to get past us.”
I couldn’t use two powers at once, so it was only now that I could heal, which was the reason for the delay. I bent down and felt my magic rise and fill me, and then it flowed into the security guard and repaired the damage of the possessing demon. Then I got up and repeated the process for the three guards in the security operations room.
I felt a surge of worry for the people the demons had hijacked to get here. I couldn’t save everyone, and they’d probably be okay, just sick for a few weeks as their bodies recovered. These four men would be fine though, better than fine. One of them had cancer. Had being the key word, not anymore. His doctors would be a little confused soon.
I was thoughtful as we walked out and over to the elevators. The demon was directly underneath, on the second or third sublevel, depending on how deeply it went down for each floor.
Monica asked, “What’s the plan?”
“He’s waiting in the elevator bank hallway, that tells me we barely got here in time. I think he’s waiting for what we do. If we take the stairs, he’ll jump on an elevator, or vice versa.”
Diana said, “I’m not Danielle, but I bet I could figure out how to lock down the elevators.”
I smiled, despite her genius, Danielle was the one that knew computers and technology best.
“I thought of that, but he has magic, I doubt a lockout would stop him anymore than it would stop one of us. We’ll have to split up. Tom, Diana, and Monica, you three stay up here and stop him if he eludes us. One of you cast detect evil to keep track of things. Derek and Grace, we’re taking the stairs.”
Monica murmured, “Malum deprehendere.”
The last thing we needed to do was get on an elevator with a magic casting demon below us. I could think of several spells that would stop the elevator, or even drop it down the shaft. Things I’d never do, but it was evil. Plus, we were trying to kill it.
I unlocked the stairwell door with Recludo, and things changed quickly as we headed down the stairs.
“He’s running, but it isn’t right, he went way too fast. He’s out of range.”
Damn it, were we going to lose that one too? I supposed I couldn’t blame him for running, he was a dead demon and knew it, if he’d stayed in the person he’d possessed. I ran down the stairs faster and burst out into the hallway.
There was a man in a white lab coat, in his fifties with gray hair and mustache. He looked confused, but his eyes cleared and narrowed at us.
“Who are you? How did you get in here?”
The man pulled out a cell phone, and Grace said, “Stupefaciunt.”
He froze in mid-movement, totally stunned.
I had a bad feeling, and went over and touched his arm. My healing power rose within me, filled me with peace, and then flowed into the researcher. Despite my magic, I shivered as my magic attacked and destroyed the deadly infection growing inside of him.
“The demon didn’t just give up, he purposefully infected this man before leaving the body and running. Maybe he thought the doctor would walk out of here in confused ignorance, and start infecting the population.”
I searched his body, and found a damp spot in his pocket, and the broken glass of a small vial.
I also felt my magic cleaning my own body of infection, and turned worried eyes onto Derek and Grace. I could heal them all day long, but I wasn’t sure how to cleanse the air. Was this level’s air circulation independent, or could the three upstairs be infected too. I had no idea how to purify the air itself, my power didn’t work that way. I healed people and creatures, and only by touch.
I felt panic rising in my chest, I didn’t have a clue what to do. Had I already let the disease out, when I opened the stairwell door? I grabbed the cell phone out of the man’s hand, and then woke him up. He jumped. Damn, this would have been easier if I’d taken Monica with me, but I needed information only he had.
I smiled, “Hello again. Remain calm and no one gets hurt.”
The man scowled at me in confusion.
“I know this makes no sense right now, but we need your advice. There’s a broken vial in your pocket, can you tell me what was in it, and if it’s airborne?”
He growled, “That’s ridiculous, I was just…” he trailed off as his eyes filled with confusion, “What the hell happened?”
Grace said, “You were possessed by a demon. Now answer her question.”
He reached into his lab coat, and his eyes widened as he pulled out several pieces of a vial. He stared at it like it was a live snake, and I could see the panic on his face.
“We’re all dead, it’s airborne, and highly contagious.”
I nodded, “Alright, what about everyone else? We opened the stairwell door after the vial was broken to find you here.”
He shook his head, “Every sublevel has its own air circulation and vents. As long as no one else goes in the stairwell for fifteen minutes any virus in there will expire. The virus is airborne, but it dies quickly without a host, it still takes near contact with an infected individual to transfer. I need my phone, we need to activate containment protocols. We’re all dead in eight hours, but our bodies will keep the virus alive even after that.”
I felt a huge surge of relief, “Fifteen minutes?”
He nodded, “Give or take a minute or two, given the humidity and heat of the environment.”
Good, I needed to call the others before they… my thought cut off and I sighed. Too late, the stairwell door opened and Diana, Monica, and Tom walked into the hallway.
Diana smirked, “We caught the bastard, Monica felt him run for it and we ran after it. It came up out of the ground in the parking lot. Turned out one of those few cars weren’t empty, he had the getaway driver spelled unconscious and waiting for them. I imagine the other four would have rode bodiless. Anyway, he’s toast.”
Well, that was a relief, I’d worried another one of the demons would have escaped us. The high probability the leader and most powerful demon had escaped us already was enough, I didn’t want to let any others go.
I hoped my sisters and the rest of the pack were having similar luck on the base. Our primary mission was a success with them all dead, now all we had to do was clean up the mess.
Diana tilted her head and looked at the doctor, as if finally noticing him.
“Well, welcome to our outbreak,” I said with false enthusiasm.
Monica groaned.
I laughed, “It’s fine though. Doctor, can the disease survive in the remnants o
f that vial, or our clothes?”
He shook his head, “No, not long term. Honestly, I don’t see what’s so funny about dying in pain while our organs liquefy, and who are you people.”
Well, at least one good thing would happen with them all down here.
“Monica?”
Monica smiled, “Doctor, just relax, and cooperate with us, we’re going to take care of everything.”
I said, “Take off that lab coat, and put the vial pieces back into the pocket.”
It might not carry the infection, but it was proof that something had happened, better there was no proof at all that a vial broke, since he wouldn’t remember any of this later. The doctor removed the lab coat, and I took it and handed it over to Grace.
She grinned, and turned it all to ash with a flash of intense fire. The scent of burned fabric filled the hallway, but it would fade. Of course, that wouldn’t fix everything. The next time all the disease vials were inventoried all hell would break loose, and there’d be a major investigation.
“Everyone hold hands,” I explained further for the benefit of the new arrivals, “We need to stay disease free for about fifteen minutes, and that will stop any spread. It can’t survive outside of us for longer than that, and it won’t get in any of us with my magic inside us all. If the doctor told the truth, we should be free to leave at that point.”
Diana said, “Will you know when it’s enough?”
Guardian Healer Page 8
