Arden felt her cheeks blush and looked past Ivan to see Tas and a young Asian woman she'd never met before. "And who's this?"
The little woman smiled and put her thumb to her chest. "I'm Thea." Then her gaze shifted to the very tall and lanky Ivan. "Oh man…that is a nice mix in there. Taiwanese?"
"Japanese," Ivan said and stepped awkwardly out of the way.
Arden looked around. "So you two are—" she pointed at Dáinn and Thea.
"My siblings." Tas said. "Arden and Ivan, please meet my sister and brother. Meet the Dragon of Air, Dáinn, and the Dragon of Water, Thea."
FOURTEEN
Tas made tea for everyone, listening as Arden filled them in on what happened. Ivan stepped into the kitchen to grab Arden a water bottle and Tas reached out to grab his wrist. He looked at her and frowned. "What's wrong?"
"Can you see any Arcane in this apartment?"
"No. It's just like I told those Clerics—" he glanced back at Arden, Thea and Dáinn before he lowered his voice. "And I checked outside. The Clerics are nowhere to be found."
"They wouldn't be. I don't think Dáinn really hurt them as much as removed them. I'm sure they'll remember everything, and if they go spouting off about some invisible force attacking them, well," she shrugged. "I doubt Thorn will believe them." She released his hand and poured the hot water into Sam's favorite ceramic teapot, the one she always kept draining in the sink, she used it so often. Seemed…fitting they use it now.
"You really think Kingsley Thorn is behind this?"
Tas nodded. "What I don't know is why. Why are they after Arcane. Here? In Sam's apartment? She lost her Arcane, before she lost her Witch stuff."
Ivan chewed on his lower lip. She recognized that tell. "Ivan…what is it?"
He nodded her to follow and then held the water bottle to her. "Give me the tea tray, you take this. I've got something to tell all of you."
Stomping and voices proceeded the arrival of two more faces as Kyle and Jack came running up the stairs. Kyle immediately went to his Aunt who lounged on the sofa furthest away, while Jack fixed Dáinn and Thea with a soft growl.
Thea pointed at the floor. "Down puppy."
Arden waved at Jack. "It's okay. These are Tas and Crwys's brother and sister."
That brought Jack and Kyle's attention to focus on the two.
"I'm Dáinn," Dáinn put his hand to his chest. "And this lovely, pixie-like trouble maker is Thea."
Kyle stood and offered Dáinn his hand. "Kyle Kendrick."
They shook hands and then Jack offered his. "Jack Roberts."
After the introductions Tas grabbed a few more cups and gestured for everyone to sit down. "Ivan's got something to tell us."
Once everyone was seated, the tall lanky Cyber Witch relayed what he and Arden had been doing before the Clerics broke into the shop and the apartment. He told them about the successful attempt to hack the Magical Web.
"Ivan," Kyle said in a stern tone. "Do you realize how dangerous that is? Especially doing it on my computer?"
"Calm yourself," Ivan said and held out his hand. "Like I told Arden, I used my own safeties. But all of this started when we tried to find more out about Kingsley Thorn."
"What did you find out, mate?" Dáinn said. "I can see something in your face, and it don't look good."
"It's not. And remember, I'm telling you this from memory." He fished a jump drive from his back pocket. "Everything is on here, as well as a dozen locations on the deep web. So even if something happens to that data, there will be multiple copies."
"It's that important?" Thea asked.
"This is important enough that they sent through some serious shit to protect it." He replaced the thumb drive. "First off, Kingsley Thorn is something of an enigma. He's an Elemental Witch—"
Arden opened her mouth, but Ivan held up his hand. "I know. He's listed as being an Air Witch, I believe."
"So he's like Sam was?" Tas said.
"Not nearly as powerful. Apparently the Elders use some kind of rating system on Witches, separating them out by their Elementals, number of visible manifestations, Gifts, number of Gifts—"
"Yeah we know about that," Kyle said.
Ivan nodded at him. "But there are further steps, used only by some other department or sect or area that calls itself the Anshet."
Kyle said, "It's a word for a Witch's Magical Wand."
"What do these Anshet do?" Tas asked.
Ivan put his hands on his hips. "The mission statement, if you want to call it that, said something about curating the strongest Witches together to protect the human realm from the other influences. Like the Faeries, the Astrals like the Symbionts…"
"Leviathans, Revenants," Levi said as he came up the steps, dressed in a gray suit and not wearing his shades. Tas was always amazed at how intent his preternatural eyes were.
"You know about this group?" Arden said.
Levi stopped at the top of the steps and nodded to all of them. "I've run into them now and then. They're not fond of my kind. They were the reason Witches and Revenants didn't exactly get along for a while. Because they hunted us down and killed us," Levi said. "They use a form of exorcism that combines up the four Elements."
"He's right," Ivan pointed at Levi. "Which was in the information I gathered. Now, since the truce was called between the Revenants and Witches, the group's pretty much gone underground, but they're still there. And Kingsley Thorn is head of the Anshet."
"I don't like the sound of this," Kyle said in a quiet voice.
"It doesn't get better." Ivan looked at each of them. "They also call themselves Inquisitors. They seek out the thing they believe is dangerous. They were originally behind the whole idea of Warlocking Sam."
Murmurs. Tas and her family knew what Warlocking meant. "They actually did that to her?"
"They did," Ivan said. "Luckily Dryden wasn't a fan of it and pushed to have it reversed. But it was Emily Pearson who wanted it."
"Oh Sweet Lord and Lady," Arden said. "Let me guess. She works for Thorn."
"I know that name," Dáinn snapped his fingers. "In Germany—Frankfurt. They were in that alley behind the bar. Apollo called one of them Emily—"
"Apollo?" Arden said, as others all spoke in unison, calling Crwys by the name they knew him.
Dáinn took a step back. "What the hell? All of youse yanks need to calm your holes down."
Thea was immediately in his face. "You saw him? You know where he is? Mother wants him!"
"I know that," Dáinn pushed her away. "And I spoke to him." He looked a bit uncomfortable with everyone staring at him. "Wot? I can always find him—it's sort of one my specialties. He was in Germany, drinking himself into a pisser. He didn't seem to have much of a reason to live. So I followed him into an alley and these two Witchy blokes showed up. Tall guy, really creepy look'n, and then the shorter, stouter jenny."
"What did they want?" Tas stepped closer to Dáinn.
"I came in a bit late, so I wasn't sure about the top of the conversation. They wanted to talk to him, he didn't want to talk to them. Told them to fuck off, and then they threatened him with one of your bow and arrows, sis." He reached out and nudged Tas.
Arden gasped, and even Levi stepped forward, saying, "Did they shoot it at him?"
"No they didn't. The tall dude kept on about talking. That's how I learned about the kid. They confronted him about it and he denied it. They wanted to dig up his wife's body, which sounded gruesome as hell, and he said no. That's when he left."
Arden put her hand over her face. Tas's shoulders slumped. She couldn't say she was surprised to hear this. She'd suspected something like it. Otherwise Crwys would never, never abandoned his daughter. Not if he knew she survived.
"That makes sense that he doesn't know she lived," Kyle said. "He left with Sam right after it ha
ppened, and he never came back."
"Bullocks," Dáinn started to laugh, then stopped. "You're all shit'n me, right? There's really a baby? Apollo's really got a kid?"
Everyone but Thea nodded.
"Shiiiiit," Dáinn wiped at his face and looked at Tas. "How is that possible? We can't have children, or that's what I was told. I mean I'm happy he's got a tot wondering about on this world but I'd hate to learn I had my own share of wee Dáinns running amuck."
"You can't have children?" Arden said.
"Not that we know about," Tas said, remembering many conversations with Mother about the possibility of children, and being told it wasn't time. She wouldn't have believed the pregnancy herself if she hadn't seen the egg and took care of it until hatching. "Mother had said that a mortals' seed couldn't produce a child."
"But Lethe had children—" Kyle began.
"She had things," Thea spat out. "She stole from many of Mother's children and created…" she just made a face. "And if a male dragon actually impregnated a human woman…"
"The egg's growth would kill her," Arden said. "Like it would have killed Sam if we hadn't of tried to remove it."
Dáinn rubbed his stubbled chin. "Let's get back to the Anshet. These two people I saw are part of it."
"Yes," Ivan said. "They've been finding threats and illuminating them for over three hundred years. Might correspond to the Burning Time. But what caught my attention were the two names I found in a progress report. Circe, and Blackwood."
Arden, Kyle and Levi perked up.
"Progress report?" Arden said and sat up on the couch. "Does Thorn have something to do with them?"
"He's the one in charge of…and I don't think I really understand this…extracting their Arcane."
Arden stood up and put her hand on Dáinn who moved to her side. She took a few steps toward Ivan. "Extracting it?"
"Yes ma'am. Once a Witch is infected with Arcane, it was up to the Anshet to extract it. Like cutting out the cancer. The thing is, as you and I and all of us know, is that once it's there, it's there. It becomes a part of the Witch. Dryden was the one that actually prevented Sam from being turned over to these people, or she'd have ended up like Circe."
“So, what about this Blackwood?” Thea asked.
Arden answered. “I don’t recall Blackwood ever really possessing Arcane. He’d been possessed by a Leviathan, by Dionysus. He was taken to Alfheim for punishment for what he did to the Boggarts and he was killed. Dionysus removed his body.” She looked at Ivan. "You said ended up like Circe," she searched his face. "Tell me, Ivan."
"I can't ma'am," he looked down at her. "I couldn't bring myself to read it."
Levi had his hands on his hips too. "Ivan, did you find out why they would attempt extracting Arcane? It's like you just said, you can't take it out."
"You can. There are two ways." He licked his lips. "One is by the God Mother's will. She can remove Arcane if she wishes. Painlessly. Which we've seen when Sam lost her power. The other way is a method perfected by Thorn after a lot of experimentation. With a strong five Element configuration, there is a way for him to extract it and infuse something with the Arcane."
"Infuse something," Thea narrowed her eyes. "You mean like enchant something with it? Like a book or a rock?"
"Yeah," Ivan said. "Thorn's been using a pendant, a fluorite crystal."
"I've seen that crystal around his neck," Arden said. "He's got it on a silver chain. I thought that thing seemed a bit bright. Kind of thought it was battery powered like some Halloween jewelry."
"But why?" Levi held out his hand. "I'm going to assume that Circe is dead because of this…spell or whatever it is that Thorn does. Why keep Arcane inside this stone and actually wear it?"
"I'm thinking the bastard is trying to channel it," Kyle said. "He's using it. He doesn't have Arcane, but he has all the same qualifications that Sam had, but he wasn't as powerful."
"Sam also had Spirit," Jack said. Everyone looked at him. He'd been very quiet. "Thorn doesn’t. You have to have all five to wield it."
Tas noticed Ivan looking over everyone's head. She saw he was focused in the direction of Sam's bedroom.
"That might be why he was so interested in her," Kyle said. "Why he didn't believe her when she said she'd lost her power."
Ivan stepped around them and headed to the back room. Tas moved behind him as the others discussed Thorn's probable motive. Something had his attention and it was important enough to pull him away. He opened Sam's door and stepped inside. Tas stood in the doorway and watched. The room was lit only by the street light coming in through the windows. The sheers were dusty and needed to be taken down and washed. The floor was also covered in a thin layer of dust and the bed wasn't made. It was exactly how she and Crwys had left it.
Ivan sat on the edge of the bed and opened the top drawer of Sam's nightstand. He pulled out a shredded paperback, a few wrist bangles and a brush. Then he reached in and pushed down before he retrieved a thin piece of wood.
Tas came further into the room. "Was that…is that a false bottom?"
"Yeah it is. Never knew it existed. And I bought this for her." He reached in then gave a short laugh. When he pulled out a tiny leather pouch, Tas looked at him quizzically. "I made this nearly a year ago, just after the original disappeared in Sam’s Dad’s house. Sam created a unicorn out of Arcane for me to use. But I still had the memory of the book in here,” he pointed to his head. “So I finally dumped it all out and made this.” Ivan opened it and pulled out a small Hello Kitty thumb drive.
The moment the thumb drive came away from the pouch she sensed it. It sparkled red and permeated the room. An item infused with something she knew all too well.
Arcane.
Everyone noticed and faced him as he walked out of Sam's bedroom with Tas right behind him.
"What is that?" Thea pointed to the thumb drive as Ivan sat on a couch and set the drive on the coffee table. He held his hands over it, his eyes bright green, then red as the color sparkled and traveled down his arms and into the drive. What looked like glittering circuits formed a rectangle, maybe 17 inches wide, 12 inches high and 6 inches thick. The sparkling red moved back and forth as if stitching something together. Soon it became apparent a large, weathered book was forming and Arden put her fingers to her lips when it was done, and she recognized it.
Ivan looked down at the book and smiled with red rimmed eyes amid the gasps and shocked faces. "The Malleus Maleficarum. The unabridged digital version. My…personal copy, you might say."
FIFTEEN
Crwys back flapped his wings to land on the cliff where he'd put his loves to rest. Before his great taloned feet touched the ground he saw the disturbance. The torn up earth, the cracks around the grassy area where something as large and heavy as himself had stood. He transformed back to a man, not caring about clothing, and ran to Sam's grave. Rage burned inside of him as his internal furnace ignited and his eyes blazed amber and red.
Those bastards. They'd found her resting place. He didn't know how, but they'd done it while he was in the Eye gathering his strength. They'd come to him to exhume her and when he said no, they'd done it anyway.
But they'd had a Dragon's help.
He knelt down beside the strewn dirt and pushed his hand into it, trying to divine which one of his siblings had done this. But of course, as always, he couldn't tell. Whoever did this had made sure to hide themselves.
But how…
HOW?!
How had they known this was the place? Had they followed him here? There were only two people who knew where he'd put them all to rest, in the place where he'd once lived in a castle on the hill. Long gone. Long destroyed by his own hand in a fit of rage.
Ashur and—
Dáinn. Dáinn had known of this place. It was his brother who had helped him build it. It was he who had helped him bury his first love. It was that bastard that showed up in Frankfurt, just before those Clerics had. And then he'd asked if there was a
child.
Crwys threw back his head and screamed, releasing the spell and transforming again in a ball of fire. Rage, anger, fury all tangled in his center as he thought about his own brother, helping those bastards dig up his beloved. His Samantha. The mother of his child.
His child.
Why were they looking for evidence of a child? No one knew…not even him, before the end. Except for Arden—the one he couldn't look at. The one he couldn't forgive for not telling him. He blamed Arden more than he blamed anyone else. She'd known. Tasoula was also guilty. Kyle. Maybe even Ivan. They'd all betrayed him, and his wife and child. No one had told him…
And yet he knew in the end, the lack of attention he'd paid her, his diving so hard into his job with little thought to how she was feeling, left her alone. Alone and unprotected. A mere mortal, no longer a witch.
And so he blamed himself most of all.
But now he had somewhere to aim that rage. At the Clerics. And their puppet. It was time to find Dáinn and find out where he'd taken Sam's body.
And God Mother forgive him if he killed Dáinn before he got those answers. And if this happened, there was a church in New Orleans where the Clerics hid in their dark chambers. And he planned on igniting a little light.
I'm not sure how long I flew, or stumbled, or crash landed. It was too hard to focus. So many voices, images, dreams…just so many dreams. Daydreams, future dreams, sleeping dreams, broken dreams, hopeful dreams and even nightmares. The nightmares were the worst… I found myself caught up in horrors only the imagination could dream up. And I would wake to find I was in the air, or had crashed into a mountain, or even worse, a house.
The house brought me back to reality for a time as I searched the rubble for the family. It was a nice house on the side of a mountain. Nice car. No bodies. I'd landed on an empty house. Maybe a vacation home. I looked around at where I was…and it looked like West Virginia. I wasn't sure because even if I tried to think or make use of my thoughts, the dreams intruded again.
Stop…stop…STOP!!
Elemental Dreams: An Urban Fantasy Series (The Eldritch Files Book 9) Page 10
