by Claudy Conn
She regarded herself in the long mirror and a shaky laugh escaped her. She looked like the bride of Dracula.
A long black lace veil covered her shining black hair which was piled high at the top of her head. It fell in long curls past the nape of her neck. Her face looked deathly white, amplifying the dark horror she felt.
Her father arrived without speaking to her. He undid the small clip at her hip, which had held the black lace train in place. “It is time,” he said softly as he spread the train behind her.
She stared at him. He was tall and so beautiful. He was her father. She never thought he was capable of this. She couldn’t break the spell. Her mother had always told her that White Magic could defeat dark, but she couldn’t break the compulsion spell. She knew that her father’s coven had taken measures to keep her mother out, but her mother was one of the most powerful white witches that ever existed. Oh Mom, where are you?
Perhaps her mother would save her at the last minute.
Her instincts told her no.
Her mother would not be able to enter without an invitation. Magic would keep her and her coven away.
Her father stood at her side, as she saw a look of triumph on his face. He was looking pleased while she was being tortured.
She made another attempt. “Please, if you love me don’t do this. I know you compelled me. You must have. I would never marry him. I loathe him, and besides…” she thought of Hunter and how she missed him. Hunter who she had discovered was an immortal and a wizard and forever gone from her.
“Besides?” her father frowned.
“Nothing papa, but know this. If you don’t save me from this, I will hate you forever. All the good memories will be destroyed by this last thing you are doing to your daughter. All of this for your selfish gains.”
“You will feel differently very soon. When you are married to a Debbin, and my dark magic mixes with your White Magic, it will create something new. You will see how right I am. I am doing this for you. Your mother is the most powerful white witch alive and even she cannot snatch you away. Doesn’t that tell you something? Had you given in to my genes, X, my child, you would have enjoyed my dark force and you would not now be compelled,” he said and immediately bit his lip as though biting back the words.
What? She could use this new knowledge.
“Never mind,” he answered sharply.
“Are you saying only a white witch can be compelled until she reaches her majority at Samhain?”
“I am not saying anything of the kind. At any rate, you are a white witch and have ignored your dark side,” he answered glibly.
“I will never forgive you,” she said softly. “When Samhain arrives, and I am my own person again I will leave you. I will leave him, and all of this will have been for nothing. I denounce you.”
“It will be too late,” he said softly.
Who was this man, she had called papa? What had he become? Was there no love left in him for her, for her mother? Was it all now just about the power? “You are transparent, my sweet X. You always were. You don’t understand that I am not concerned. Once you are married and a part of my dark coven, you will not wish to return to the simplicity and mundane frailty of White Magic. I shall not lose you.”
“I will never be a part of your coven,” she answered.
Music, hard and dark filtered through as he bent his arm. “It is time.”
* * *
Hunter saw Baudali obviously shaken by the severity of the magic that had been used on him. He smiled as he followed the old wizards’ uneasy steps.
He didn’t know what his woman was, but he damned well meant to find out as soon as he could, after he beat the Dark Magic of Baudali.
“Tis time, old wizard,” Hunter shouted out.
Baudali shakily turned to face Hunter MacTorry. The Dark Wizard was thoroughly dazed as he stood between the fallen bodies and the thunderous sounds of battle in full swing.
Hunter could smell the blood all around and a wave of pity for all the soldiers swept through him.
“You have your mother’s eyes. When I killed your father, she looked at me just as you are looking at me now. You know, I killed him first. I was still hoping she would come with me,” Baudali murmured.
“Why did ye have to enter our lives? Ye are an abomination,” Hunter bellowed. The memory of his fallen parents swept through him like a sharp edged knife.
Baudali shrugged. “I am what I am. Why not call a truce with me and allow me to return to my secret dimension where I shall not ever bother you or yours again?”
Hunter heard the plea in the old man’s voice. He was not the sort that often stood cold against a plea. “Do ye think it is all that simple? Do ye think I will let ye live to fight another day? Think again, old wizard,” Hunter said with a sneer.
“Will you strike me when I am without my usual powers? Three of you against just one old man. Is that fair?” Baudali said.
“`Tis but one now--me. Och aye. It is more than fair. Ye killed m’parents without cause. Without giving them a chance and this is for them.”
Hunter held his sword in place, and with his wand pointed while keeping the Dark Wizard from moving with an electrifying invisible wall that surrounded him.
It was surreal, Hunter thought. Watching young men and boys being killed left and right. Bullets flying, rockets exploding, and cannons blasting through the smoky air.
As he started to put his sword in motion for the Death Blow, the one that would take off the Wizard’s head, something bright and magical interfered and made him blink.
It was Baudali’s twin, Rysdale.
Hunter knew of the white wizard, but had never encountered him before. He was Baudali’s twin, but the two were complete opposites. Rysdale was all white haired, and bright-eyed with a cone hat of blue edged with silver as was his satin robe. His smile was almost angelic.
“I apologize. I would have been here sooner had I known. I did not realize what my brother was about to do until it was nearly too late. I am too late I know, to save your parents, but it appears the fates took care of your brother. It is time I took care of mine. Please, give up on your revenge. Go in peace. You shall not be bothered by him again.”
“You ask too much, for it is not revenge. It is justice,” Hunter said with a dark frown.
“Call it what you will. He is my brother and I do promise you, he will never bother you again. I am not always able to control him, but I have prepared a very potent spell. In the morning he will remember nothing of your parents, your brother, or you. Now, I think you have other matters to deal with…your lady is in trouble.”
Hunter spun around, terror suddenly filling his heart as Rysdale took his brother and vanished. He suddenly didn’t care. All he cared about was getting to Exerilla and that man who reaching out for her.
He ran toward them, but even as he arrived on the scene, he picked up on the scent of the immortal dark warlock. They were gone!
* * *
“Time? It will never be time.” X begged her father. “Papa, let me go. Please. I don’t love him. I love someone else.”
That made her father pause as he grabbed her shoulders. “You love someone else?”
A bright white exploded into the chamber and out of its sparkling center, Rachel Radley stepped in. She was in a silver embroidered satin gown and closed the portal with her wand before she turned on her husband.
She was in agony. Breaking the wards, that had been enacted to keep her out, was tortuously painful. She held her head up high and said, “Darling, don’t do this to our daughter.”
He frowned. “You are in pain. Rachel, you must leave.”
“I cannot. I no longer have the strength to leave. Lift the ward, my love, it is draining me.”
“No, your coven will come through and make a mockery of my lifestyle here. You must find a way to leave.”
She looked into his eyes. “Your eyes are coal black but there is an ember flickering for me. Let it live.�
�� She collapsed in a heap.
“Rachel!” he shouted.
“Mom, Papa, Mom!” Exerilla watched all this and felt something dark inside. Something that had been stirring begin to grow. This is what her father wanted, for the dark in her to live. She beat it down. “Papa, do something!”
Her father picked up her mother and set her on the settee by the window and whispered a spell that ended with the words, be at ease.
“That will help her until after the ceremony. Then I will lift the wards and she will recoup,” he said once again going to his daughter and looking into her eyes, “Put your hand on my arm, and walk beside me. We will make our way down the aisle and you will marry Galen Debbin.”
* * *
A week of searching had not brought Hunter any closer to finding her. His orb would show her face, but the location was untraceable. She was in a room, often crying.
It was driving him mad. Hunter stayed on at Sir Jacob’s using it as a home base as he searched for Exerilla.
Ferrell had stayed on with Wellington after Waterloo. They had won the battle and the War. Napoleon would be exiled.
Swit was gone off to his new life and Sir Jacob was making plans to increase his stables. Lucas Osgood was staying with Jake for a few days more. Both men were forever at the stables, working with the horses and the new trainer Jacob had hired.
Ferrell surprised Hunter at Cressly Towers, shifting in while Hunter was in his room studying the orb. After some brotherly shoulder shaking, Ferrell frowned and asked, “Have ye not found her yet? Certes man! Why not?”
“The orb shows me her face and a room she seems to be locked away in, but it could be anywhere.” He frowned at his brother.
“Here is the thing, Hunter, something about the portal her warlock father used. It had a scent entirely foreign to me. I doona think it was anywhere I have been.”
“What do you mean? Tell me again, what did she say?”
“As I told ye, she called him papa and I got the feeling that he had been searching for her.” Ferrell shook his head. “I have been thinking that the scent I picked up on was the scent of another time. Ye know when we traveled back in time once; we were hit with a terrible smell…sulfur I think. I know you have lived beyond this time, and mayhap she comes from the future.”
Hunter punched his right fist into his left palm. “Damned brilliant brat, I knew there was a reason I needed to keep you alive! That was why she sounded so…different. She was from the future. Hiding from her warlock father here in the past. Aye. Not using her wand because she knew he would be able to trace her if she did. She was afraid of her own father, Ferrell—why? What does he mean to do to her? Och! Bloody hell, Ferrell. She used her wand to save us. She used her wand knowing he would trace its residue to her. I pray I am not too late.” He called for his Orb and this time, he told it to look into the future. It looked into the colonies, and what he saw made him tremble with emotion.
“Her father is a devil…”
* * *
Exerilla and her father stood at the entrance of a long wide room, with windows of stained glass dominating the walls. The scenes depicted in the stain glass made Exerilla cringe.
Exerilla walked beside her father on a long black velvet rug. With every step she tried to break free and run. Nothing happened. In her mind she was breaking free. In reality, she meekly walked beside him.
The room had been filled with black and red flowers. The chairs decorated with black satin ribbons. The guests were no more than twenty, but a coven of male dark warlocks stood staunchly. They were all in black silk suits, looking to her like gangsters from long ago.
The pulpit had a wide arch made up of black and red flowers and there stood Galen Debbin and his best man.
Time to puke, she told herself. No, wait till you get up there and then do it all over him.
Galen Debbin wore a superior smile across his wicked face. He wore a black tuxedo with a red satin shirt and reminded Exerilla of her idea of Lucifer.
She despised Galen. Compulsion, was the only reason she was marrying him.. She continued to walk down the aisle.
She heard her mother’s voice in her head and remembered that her mother had arrived, hoping to save her. Her mother was lying in pain upstairs. She had to break free and go to her so they could get out of here together, but her steps brought her closer to Galen.
Her father had compelled her to forget her mother’s plight; to walk away, but she remembered. She had to help her mother. White light exploded right before her eyes!
A tall, absolutely breathtakingly handsome immortal stepped out of that light and blue eyes glared at her father, before he turned to stroke her face.
Hunter. She felt herself come alive. “Hunter! Hunter! Oh Hunter…” she whispered and reached for him.
Her father threw her behind him and bellowed, “How dare you. Get out of here!”
She saw Hunter surrounded by half a dozen dark warlocks Their wands all pointed at the man she loved.
He struggled, but the force of their combined magic kept him from breaking free. He said, “Exerilla, lass ye can break it. Ye can break from the spell…for me.”
He was zapped to his knees by six wands as she screamed. It was as though everything had become too much. Her mother in pain, her father ignoring her as an individual, and her big handsome love being brought low because of her. “NOOO,” wrenched out from her gut, as that black power she had forever kept in check…broke out.
“You will ignore him and walk past him to marry Galen,” her father said. He stared into her eyes, compelling her as no other had the power to do.
“NOOOO,” she screamed. She couldn’t move. It was as though she was stuck in limbo.
Hunter called to her. “Lass, m’own true love. Coom to me. Doona let them do this to ye--to us.” Then he gave a heart-wrenching call., “EXERILLA!”
Her heart beat out his name. Her mind showed her a memory of them making love, rolling around with laughter. Suddenly she found herself and ousted her father’s will. With her wand in hand, she struck at the warlocks holding her beloved down. This time it was dark magic beating them to the floor.
“HUNTER!” she called as she ran to him.
Warlocks from all around started toward them.
“No one touches my daughter!” her father commanded.
She used the advantage and holding onto Hunter cried, “My mother!”
Hunter managed to defeat two warlocks who obeyed by not attacking her, but attempted to attack him. He had them down and beheaded in a matter of seconds. This caused some of the warlocks to hesitate and wonder just who this newcomer was.
Galen bellowed. “Get him…and bring her to me!”
A fight ensued and magic swirled. Dark against light, but Hunter and Exerilla had the advantage.
Both were touched with dark magic inside of them, but they had something else…they had love. It didn’t take them long to get clear of the fight.
Exerilla zapped Galen, and with her wand pointed at his heart said, “Never look my way. Never say my name. We are done.”
Hunter grinned and added as he pointed his sword at the hapless warlock, “I thought she expressed that nicely, doona ye think so?”
“Hunter, my mom,” she said turning back to him. “My mom!”
He took her hand and used the portal rather than bother running up the stairs. Hunter scooped up X’s semi conscious mother and said, “Where to love?”
“Home…”
~ Epilogue ~
SO MUCH HAPPENED all at once that Exerilla, looking back on that day, was always filled with elation and sorrow.
The man of her dreams had found and saved her. Without him, she did not believe she could have broken the compulsion spell.
On that same day, she had denounced her father. He had turned into a stranger right before her eyes. He allowed her mother to suffer for his own selfish needs as he tried to force her to marry a man she despised.
She had refused to see hi
m, even though he had made many attempts to seek her out.
Her mother had even spoken for him, telling her, “Exerilla, he is broken. Something happened that day that got through to him.”
“No, he is just trying to win you back. I saw evil in him, Mom.”
Hunter never intruded on their conversations about her father. He was strong, he was there for her and he listened to her rant about her father. He never agreed or disagreed, but now he cleared his throat and said, “I think yer mother is in the right of it, lass.”
She loved his voice, the sound of his Scottish burr weaving its delectable way through her mind, making her stop and look into his blue eyes.
That day, yer father was the devil I believed him to be.” He inclined his head, “Sorry I am to say that to ye, but, I saw that in him. But something changed. He followed us to the chamber yer mother was in and when he saw me pick her up, when he realized, another man was cooming to her rescue, he broke…wide open, and I think, some of yer light swept into him.”
She looked at Hunter as she clasped and unclasped her hands, “He is dark. How can he ever regain what he was?”
Hunter grabbed her hands and held them hidden in his as he kissed her fingers, “He is the father that loved and raised ye. He is the father that stood with ye for twenty-one years. Aye, he made a terrible mistake, he went into another world and came out thinking off balance, but he loves ye…and doona say ye doona love him,” Hunter said softly.
She turned to her mother who closed her eyes and said, “Exerilla, you don’t have to make any final decisions. Do you? Take it, little by little and we’ll see what comes.”
“How can you forgive him, after he left you lying there, knowing you were in pain?” Exerilla was incredulous.
“He did what he could. Once I crossed the wards, there was nothing he could do until I left the property. Dark as he was, he shouldn’t have cared, but he did. He enacted a spell to ease my pain.”
“That’s not enough! He should have taken you off the grounds, he should have…” Exerilla cried and she withdrew her hands from Hunter and shook her fist in the air.
