by Hadena James
“Does he have Witch powers?” I asked.
“No, the Elder body seems to impede it,” Pendragon answered.
“Another psycho Witch,” I sighed and frowned. “There seem to be a lot of those around.”
“All those years being tormented,” Rachel shrugged. “Does that help?”
“Might,” I peered back into the darkened cave. The thought of yet another encounter with Cerebus made my blood run cold. I’d seen him eat Levi. I had no desire to go through the experience myself.
“Bren?” Fenrir said my name, grabbing my attention.
“What?”
“Going in?” He was pointing towards the opening.
“Um, alone?” I asked.
“To begin with, if you aren’t back in ten minutes, the rest of us will come looking for you,” he assured me. I flipped him off and took a step towards the opening.
The air was cooler with a slightly stale odor. Somehow, it was also darker. I took the torch I was carrying and stoked the flames higher with a spell. There was a moment when I wondered why I was carrying a torch instead of a flashlight, but who was I to question the ways of Elders on an Island where I was an outsider?
The cave was large. The ceiling invisible despite the higher flames of the torch. The torch itself, cast eerie shadows on the wall that seemed to dance. There were piles of bones in different places. They had all been scraped to the sides, leaving a clear walking path through the center.
I kept waiting for Cerebus to start charging at me. He didn’t. I had almost convinced myself the Hell Hound was not at home when I stumbled upon him.
Cerebus opened one eye on one head and looked at me. He seemed to think for a minute and then the eye closed again. Snoring was coming from the other two heads. I took a step back, unsure what to do. Did I leave and get the others or wait for them to come in?
I went back out.
“Well?” Anubis asked.
“He’s sleeping, he didn’t seem interested in me.”
“That means he has probably eaten very recently or he thinks you are harmless,” Pendragon offered.
“Oh man,” I groaned. I was pretty sure that meant cutting open the belly of the beast, again. That seemed somehow worse than being eaten by him.
“Come on,” Anubis took hold of my hand and pulled me into the cave again. This time there was more light. It still didn’t reach the ceiling.
A few minutes of walking and our pathetic looking rabble reached the sleeping Hell Hound. My father and uncles seemed to think it was a good sign that Cerebus didn’t seem interested in moving. I thought it was a ploy.
Cerebus, seeing us, opened all his eyes and raised one of his heads. It cocked sideways, stared at us and let out a breath that puffed out his jaws. He flopped his heads back down onto giant paws.
“Well?” Anubis looked at Lucifer.
“Is that all you can say?” I asked him, irritated because I was pretty sure I knew what came next.
He raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t say anything. Instead, he grabbed something from his pocket and tossed it onto Cerebus. The snoring was instant.
“Did you just put him to sleep?” I asked.
“Yes,” Anubis answered.
“You had that all along and sent me in to get eaten anyway?” I tried not to yell at him.
“You wouldn’t have been eaten,” Anubis said to me.
“How do you know, he ate Levi!” I reminded him.
“True, but he won’t eat you,” Anubis answered. He walked around to one of the sides. The other Elders lined up with him. They pushed the massive beast onto his back. He never stopped snoring, even as Lucifer climbed on top of him and slit open his stomach.
I gagged. Rachel grabbed my hand and the urge to vomit passed. I frowned at her. She smiled back. Mammon and Abaddon began searching through the disgusting horror. A partially digested, but still alive dragon fell out. It flopped around, confused by the sudden release. Awkwardly, it walked past us, working its way towards the door. As it passed Azreal, it snapped him up in its powerful jaws and swallowed. We waited. Azreal came out through the dragon’s throat. The dragon fell to the ground.
“So gross,” I turned away.
“That it is,” Pendragon answered.
“You’ve become pretty chatty lately,” I told him.
He shrugged, ending the chatty streak.
“James isn’t here,” Mammon announced.
“That actually doesn’t make me feel any better,” I told my uncle.
“Me either,” Mammon answered.
“Let’s get him put back together and out of here before he wakes up,” Lucifer bellowed.
Azreal and a few other Elders grabbed the dragon. They carried it and stuffed it back into Cerebus. I lost it.
I ran out of the cave and into the woods. The retching brought tears to my eyes. Someone carefully held my hair. When I had finished, I turned and looked into the eyes of a man I didn’t know, but I could guess his identity.
“Screaming might help, but it’s unlikely,” Jack said to me in a sing-song voice.
I didn’t scream, I sent the Call. I wasn’t sure what else to do. It took only a handful of seconds for Sonnellion to burst from the cave. Behind him, my uncles were running just as fast. They all skidded to a stop when they saw me.
“James, let her go,” Mammon told him.
“Or what?” He asked, narrowing his eyes but keeping the lilting sing-song sound in his voice.
“At least he wasn’t eaten by Cerebus,” Beezel said.
“Oh yeah, I’m really grateful for that at the moment,” I said derisively.
“Think positive, James can do all those horrific things and you’ll live,” Beezel responded.
“That is not making me feel any better,” I huffed.
“What would make you feel better?” Mammon asked.
“A sword,” I thought for a moment, “and a chocolate cake donut, with chocolate icing and coconut.” I thought for another moment. “Better add a glass of milk, that much chocolate makes me thirsty.”
“You’re being held by a serial killer and you are thinking about donuts?” Beezel asked.
“Better than thinking about him tearing out my insides.”
“Fine, we’ll get you donut when we get out of here,” Levi’s voice suddenly joined the conversation. “James, you should just let her go, follow Pendragon back to your cell and get on with the week, because this isn’t going to end well for you.”
“Since I hold all the cards,” Jack, aka, James laughed. It was echoed by another, higher pitched, slightly maniacal laugh.
Mad Stephen Nickolai suddenly appeared beside us. I didn’t know from where he had come or what he was doing, I just knew that stuck between the two Jacks did little to change my mood. Mad Stephen continued his laughing. His ears were better, his nose was better and the barking was gone. I supposed that was an improvement for him, but I wasn’t entirely convinced of that either.
“Any one notice the addition of another nutter?” I asked.
“Yes,” Levi told me.
“Do I have a pheromone that is attracting them?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mammon answered.
“Then why the hell did he just appear again, where I am?”
“Maybe it’s love,” James Walters whispered to me.
“Nope and I’m tired of this,” I told him. I called magic and felt it begin to ebb and flow between the two of us. I shoved it into James Walters, he let out a loud scream that nearly deafened me. He also let go. I stopped pushing magic at him and pushed it at Stephen. Stephen began laughing as blood flowed from him. Azreal tackled him, my uncles moved in on James Walters.
“That was very unlike you,” Rachel walked up to me.
“Agreed, but I had a mental image of me superimposed on Cerebus. You know, sliced open, stomach out,” I shook my head.
“And that frightened you enough to do this?” Rachel looked at Stephen. I was beginning to wonde
r if he could do anything other than laugh.
“This wasn’t my intent. My intent was to just shove them back with raw magic. I don’t know exactly why I did this kind of damage,” I gave her a sheepish look.
“Sometimes, you are scary and sometimes, I think we forget that you also get scared,” Rachel put her arm around me.
“Thanks Rach,” I put my arm around her as well.
“Sibling bonding?” Nick asked walking up behind us.
“Something like that, want in?” Rachel asked him.
Nick considered this for a moment. I was betting he was debating if it would make him look like a wimp if he joined in. I was also betting that no one in this group would notice or care. They had bigger issues. I guess he agreed because he finally slid between the two of us.
Mammon was the first to scream. Blood blossomed up from his mouth and nose. His face disintegrated, showing his skull underneath. Abaddon and Levi struggled to maintain control of James Walters. Suddenly, I felt the need for more Demons.
I jumped into the fray. A clawed hand caught hold of my ear and I felt it ripped from its spot. Nick was with me. He had his own hand on James Walters face, shoving his chin up, the bones were cracking in James Walters face from the force. I grabbed hold of his shirt, dug my fingers into and through the material. When my fingers found flesh, I took hold of it and pushed magic. James tried to scream through the force of Nick. Levi had hold of his arm, it came off in his hand.
Stephen’s laughing became faster and higher pitched. The skin under James Walters chin suddenly slipped. Nick’s hand slipped with it. He lost his hold. The smell of decay began to fill the air.
“Get back!” Someone was yelling.
I let go, grabbing Nick as I did. Levi took hold of Mammon and began pulling him away from the rotting figure. Sonnellion was fighting with Stephen. He stopped and looked up at us. Abaddon was already losing his flesh, it sloughed off his arm and fell to the ground.
We’d all been here before. I checked my arms, they still seemed fine. I checked Nick as Rachel came running up. Nick seemed to be fine.
The same could not be said of James Walters. James stood up and more skin fell off. He turned a grisly, gruesome face towards us. The fractures in his jaw and teeth were visible. He no longer had features. I had a flashback to the vision of Sonnellion removing the hood from his face in my parents’ kitchen.
Then he was gone.
Stephen continued to laugh. Rachel and I stared open mouthed at the spot where James Walters had been. Nick grabbed Abaddon and began doing something complicated. Mammon turned to look at us.
“He can’t disappear like that,” Mammon said.
“No, he shouldn’t be able to disappear like that, I’d say he just proved that he could,” I answered.
“Where is he?” Levi asked.
I shrugged and heard someone behind me bellow. I turned to see my father glowing with rage. His horns had flames dancing between them.
However, while it looked like Lucifer, it didn’t feel like him. Rachel grabbed my hand, Nick let go of Abaddon and took a step back. Eli and Samuel came out of the cave. They stopped.
Without thinking, I filled the air with magic and watched as my siblings used it to bind our father.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
My father was staked out on a table. Magic swirled around him. Our magic, the magic of the Strachan Coven held him in place. He bellowed with rage, but couldn’t seem to speak or break the spells that held him.
My mother stood beside Olivia. They were holding hands. Vera was pouring potions on the floor.
An emergency meeting had been called. All the Overlords, plus the Brothers were in the room with us. Vera had been nice enough to let us use her basement and her restraining table.
“He’s possessed,” Mammon said as he entered the room. He was the last to join us. He was still missing parts of his face.
“Possessed by what though?” Pendragon asked.
“That is a good question,” Mammon responded, but offered no answer.
“And what happened to Jack the Ripper?” I asked, reminding them of the disappearing serial killer.
“Could it be James Walters?” Mammon asked.
“No,” my mother answered. “It has to be a soul, but it wouldn’t be his soul and it wouldn’t explain what happened to his body.”
“I have a thought,” I looked at the floor.
“Well?” Anubis looked at me.
“Find something new to say,” I told him irritably.
“You have been rather agitated today,” Fenrir grabbed hold of me and pulled me close to him.
“And you did push magic out that you normally don’t use,” Rachel gave me a look.
“You think I’m also possessed?” I asked skeptically.
“Possessed? No, working on being possessed is a possibility.”
“My soul is not stronger than Lucifer’s. If something bad enough to possess him was also working on me, I’d fall pretty quickly.”
“That’s true, but what if whatever is possessing Lucifer is trying to possess you with something else?” Eli asked.
“All those bodies and they possess Lucifer? I find that hard to believe,” Levi answered.
“Could that be why he is glowing and bellowing with rage?” Mammon turned to my mother.
“I suppose, I’ve never seen anything possess anyone before.”
“I have,” Vera stood up.
“Does it look like this?” Rachel asked.
“James Walters fell pretty quickly, but the other, he didn’t go quietly and it wasn’t the result of a double soul spell.”
“Don’t leave us in the dark,” I snapped at her.
“Chill,” Fenrir was still holding onto my arm, his fingers digging into the flesh, drawing blood.
“It was a resurrection spell,” Vera told us. “Veronique convinced a Witch to try to resurrect the soul of Sonnellion into the body of a volunteer.”
“It didn’t work,” Sonnellion told her.
“No, it didn’t. The Witch brought the wrong soul through. The volunteer died and I have no idea what happened to the soul, but they writhed in pain and bellowed like this when it happened.”
“You can’t resurrect the dead into the living when a soul is present,” Rachel said.
“Can’t? That’s a relative term, with enough magic, you can do anything.”
“No one has that kind of magic,” Rachel answered.
“Pendragon does,” Vera looked at the Overlord, “or rather, did.”
“Damn, I hate when Brenna’s right,” Eli slammed his fist onto a counter with enough force to shatter the wood. His arms started glowing, there was a moment of terror on his face; then he sank into a heap on the floor and began bellowing like Lucifer.
Daniel stepped forward and put a hand on Eli. The bellowing stopped. Daniel kept his hand on Eli and turned to Vishnu.
“Read his mind,” Daniel commanded.
Vishnu stood for a moment, frozen on the spot. He gave me a sideways glance then put his hands on Eli. His body was forcibly thrown from the Demon, breaking the connection and sending Vishnu slamming into the wall of the basement.
“What the hell was that?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know,” Daniel said. He removed his hand from Eli. Eli began bellowing again.
“You said you had a theory?” Anubis shouted over Eli and Lucifer.
“Magnus,” the name was becoming synonymous with evil incarnate in my mind, “inside the Box.” Another item I was beginning to fear.
“But that’s impossible!” Rachel argued.
“Dear, there are about four hundred Witches on this Island that would disagree with you. The impossible simply doesn’t exist,” Vera told her.
“Maybe we should dig up the box,” Mammon suggested.
“The floor isn’t marked, you’ll have to dig up the entire Council Chamber,” I reminded him.
“Then we dig up the entire Council Chamber. If yo
u are correct in thinking this has something to do with Magnus and Pandora’s Box, then maybe it’s time we check Magnus and Pandora’s Box,” Anubis told me.
I jerked my arm from Fenrir’s grasp. He narrowed his eyes at me. For a second, nothing happened, then he rapidly began shifting. His clothes fell into tatters onto the floor, goo mixed with it. In a matter of seconds, Fenrir was in full wolf form. He pounced on me, shoving me to the ground. I went to do something, but Levi appeared in my field of vision. He handed me a donut.
“Stay, it’s better that way,” he said as he handed me a glass of milk. “I don’t know if they are trying to possess you or not, but you are acting strange.”
“In other words, if you move, Fen is going to rip your throat out with his teeth. If you do anything to him, I’ll rip it out myself,” Anubis told me.
With that stern warning, a donut and a glass of milk, the Brothers and the Overlords, minus Fenrir, left the basement. I was guessing they were headed to my house. I was also guessing that I was probably right.
“I’m not going to explode or anything,” I told the giant wolf, holding me down. He growled at me.
“I can’t eat my donut or drink my milk with you on my chest and I did survive my encounter with the serial killer. I was promised the milk and donuts.”
“Let her up, Fenrir, we’ll be careful,” my mother told him.
I sat down in a chair. Milk in one hand, donut in the other, I consoled my insulted ego with the comfort food. One would think that if someone were trying to possess me, I would know it.
“What do we do about dad?” Rachel asked.
“I don’t know,” my mother shrugged. “And if all of you fall victim to it…”
She didn’t finish the sentence. There was no need. All of us could figure out what she was not saying.
