Embracing Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 3)

by Debbie Cassidy

  “Please don’t be shy, Timothy.”

  A body rose up out of the crowd, a stocky balding man. Beside him, his wife tugged at his sleeve.

  “It’s all right, Janice. He will come to no harm,” Banner said. “Timothy, you have been ostracized by your peers for your looks all your life. You have been passed up for promotion due to your age. Your brother was killed five years ago in a hate crime. The only light in your life is your family and you worry about how dangerous your world is becoming. All the monsters that roam the streets camouflaged as humans. You worry that your daughter will become a victim to these monsters, like your sister, who a year ago was mauled to death by yaksha.”

  Timothy’s body trembled.

  “What would you give to make the world a better place, Timothy? What would you give to have peace? To wipe out the monsters and start afresh.”

  “Anything,” Timothy said. “I’d give anything.”

  Banner smiled. “All I ask for is your trust. This is the Arc. Here you will be safe from the purge to come. For there will be a purge. A judgment day. And all those that fail will perish. You have been chosen, lifted up from the despair and cradled in my warm embrace.”

  Banner began to glow.

  “Look into the light and see your future.” He opened his arms, his robe fanning out like angel wings. “Look into my heart and see my love for humanity.”

  It was growing brighter by the second, stinging my eyes and making it almost impossible to keep them open. Mira growled low and threatening in her throat. And then the light embraced the room, sweeping over us and touching us with its alien heat. My breath caught as it pushed into my skin, gripping my head and sliding over my scalp like a swimming cap. The pressure tightened and a scream clawed its way up my throat.

  “Those that submit will remain,” Banner said. “Those that fight will perish. Let me help you. Let me in.”

  Oh, God. What was he doing? This wasn’t Banner. This was something else—something that had crawled into our world from a crack in the fabric of our universe. It had Banner’s body, his dying body, which was now filled with glorious light that simply wanted to heal me. To embrace me.

  Was that so bad?

  I let go.

  14

  “Carmella. Wake the fuck up.”

  Fingers bit into my shoulders as I was shaken roughly into wakefulness. Mira’s concerned face swept over me.

  We’d been in the auditorium and then they’d been Banner and the light, after that... “What happened?”

  Mira sat back on the bed. A bed in a cozy room for two, with flowery curtains and a bookcase lined with volumes.

  “What the heck happened?”

  “That thing is not Banner,” Mira said. “It did something to everyone. You all blacked out, so I pretended to be unconscious too. Then a bunch of people woke up a minute later and started panicking, and a troop of people dressed in brown robes swept in and manhandled them out the room. The rest of us were carried out. They brought us here and left.”

  “You’re right. That thing isn’t Banner. There’s something wearing his body like a pretty skin.”

  “The creature from the other dimension?”

  “It has to be. Maybe it doesn’t have its own form, or maybe it can’t exist without a host. We need to find out.”

  Mira gestured to the door. “The door isn’t locked. I suspect whatever he did to us was supposed to render us compliant.”

  I swung my legs off the bed and headed for the door. Pulling it open cautiously I peeked outside. There was a corridor, bare and nondescript with tube lights fixed to the wall. Several doors lined the opposite wall. One of the doors opened and a man stepped out followed by a young boy and a woman.

  He saw me and smiled widely before raising his hand. “Praise be to a new future,” he said.

  Shit. Um. “Praise be?”

  “You heard the bell for morning fast too? We are on our way. Feel free to join us.”

  Why the heck was he talking in that weird way? “Sure. I mean. We would be delighted.” I stepped out and Mira followed.

  The woman’s eyes scanned the space behind us. “Your husband is not with you?” She beamed. “You must be so proud he was chosen.”

  “Chosen?”

  A flash of unease flittered across her face, and her lips tightened. “You do not know what chosen is?”

  Mira pinched the back of my arm.

  “Of course, I know, and I am truly grateful for the bounty.”

  Too much? Obviously not, because they were both grinning now. The little boy looked dazed, his mouth slightly parted as if about to drool. But the couple seemed unconcerned. Other doors were opening now, and more families joined us and we were swept up in the tide as they moved as one toward their destination.

  Mira slipped her hand into mine, and I suspected it wasn’t because she was playing at being a child. This was creepy, and frightening, and thank god she was here with me. But where was Aaron? And what did being chosen mean?

  We walked down several corridors, all as non-descript as the rest. It was almost as if the people were being guided by a beacon that Mira and I weren’t privy to. And then we were stepping through an arch into a huge dining room. Tables had been laid with a variety of foods, and the families moved off as if guided to take their places.

  Shit, shit. How would we know where to sit?

  Mira’s squeezed my hand in warning because most everyone was now seated except us. And there, to our right was a table set for two. Fixing a joyful expression on my face I glided toward it, tugging Mira along.

  There was bread, butter, broth and a jug of water. A simple affair, yet no one was tucking in. A loud crackle filled the air and Banner’s voice soon followed.

  “You are worthy. The future is brightest with you in it. Together we will build a new world once the old has been purged.”

  A door to the left opened and a line of males dressed in brown robes filed in. Mira gripped my thigh under the table. Her eyes darted to the line-up. I saw him a second later. Aaron’s face was impassive, his eyes hard as he marched between his new comrades. They bee-lined to the long table at the head of the room and took their seats.

  “My eyes are always watching,” Banner’s voice said. “My hands always ready to assist. The brown robes are your friends. Go to them with your concerns and your troubles and your concerns and troubles will find me. Enjoy your meal.”

  There was a beat of silence and then the room broke into a pleasant hum of conversation as everyone began to eat.

  “Mira picked up a hunk of bread and began to butter it. “They got to Aaron. I don’t understand how.”

  I did. “He’s human. Pure human and we’re not. The chip inside us may mute our abilities but it doesn’t change our genetic makeup. I think that’s what helped us to resist whatever this creature is doing.” I followed Mira’s lead and took some bread.

  “But if he took supernaturals too, how is he controlling them?” Mira asked.

  We hadn’t seen any supernaturals but that didn’t mean they weren’t here somewhere. And if the creature in Banner’s skin could control them, then why not us?

  “You’re a hybrid,” Mira said. “And I’m from another dimension. Maybe that messes with his mojo.”

  It was the only viable explanation. But it didn’t solve our problem. The thing had Aaron in its clutches. “We have to find a way to snap him out of it.”

  “No,” Mira said. “We stick to the mission and we do recon. If we go for Aaron, we risk being detected.”

  Damn, she was right, but Aaron was my friend. I couldn’t leave him here to be this thing’s puppet. “We do recon, but when the IEPEU come, we take Aaron with us.”

  “Undoubtedly.”

  We faked small talk and quickly ate our meals. It was clear that whatever the other dimensional creature had done to these people had somehow connected them to it on some level. It was able to guide them and give them instruction. We were the outsiders, pretending to be
part of the group, and if we were going to remain undetected until help arrived we needed to play the game. It was only a matter of time before the creature figured out we were faking, right now it was probably spreading itself pretty thin holding onto the minds of all these people, but it if was as powerful as I suspected, it would seek out the cuckoos in its nest eventually.

  ◆◆◆

  Back in our room I breathed a sigh of relief. Damn, it was hard faking being brainwashed.

  Mira flopped on the bed. “How long before the IEPEU find us?”

  To be honest, I was beginning to worry about that. We’d been here for a good few hours, and according to Mira, I’d been unconscious for at least three, so where the heck was the cavalry?

  Mira sat up suddenly, her eyes wide. “What if the trackers are damaged?”

  “No. Then the muting chips would be damaged too. And if that was the case then we’d know about it.”

  She sagged. “All right. Good. We wait for people to get settled, and then we go snooping.”

  My pulse fluttered in anxiety. This would have been so much easier with Aaron as a guide. This was his forte, but we didn’t have him to help us. We were on our own.

  I parked my butt. “Okay, so we wait.”

  The minutes crawled by. There was no way to tell the actual time because my analogue watch had stopped. Instead, I counted seconds in my head.

  An hour went by before Mira slipped from the bed and walked over to the door. “I think we should go now.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  She shrugged. “Gut feeling.”

  “We need to take note of all the turns we take. All the corridors look the same.”

  Mira grinned. “Don’t worry about that. I have an excellent sense of direction. I never get lost.”

  “Even with your powers muted?”

  “It isn’t a power, it’s instinct. And you can’t mute instinct”

  She led the way, her pigtails swaying as she walked. There would be no cover story if we were caught. Everyone was in their room which meant those were the rules. If a brown robe spotted us, the jig would be up.

  “We came to a set of steps which lead us onto a floor with slightly wider corridors. It was shrouded in gloom. Once again there were no windows. It was impossible to tell where we were. Disorientating and suffocating.

  Mira stopped and glanced at the floor. Carpeted, unlike the floor we’d been housed on. Her eyes glinted in the darkness. We were getting somewhere. And then the sound of voices drifted down the corridor. A voice I recognized.

  Banner.

  Mira stepped back until she was pressed to the wall and then began to creep forward. We stopped outside a slightly ajar door—enough for us to hear what was going on.

  “...summoned you here to join me on this glorious venture,” Banner said.

  “This is not our way, Malachi. We are observers. We do not intervene,” a feminine voice said.

  “Really, Yule? Don’t think we’re not all aware of your little excursions and experiments with the humans.”

  “I collect data and I return the humans to their homes. I do not intervene in their fate,” Yule said.

  “Yule is right,” another voice spoke up. “You are breaking the rules of our kind. Release these minds and return with us.”

  “Is this how you all feel?” Malachi, the entity inside Banner said.

  All? How many of them were in the room? Dammit, what I’d give to be a fly on the wall.

  Mira shuffled forward a little and peered in. I resisted the urge to pull her back, spooking her could result in our discovery. She slid back and held up both her hands, fingers splayed.

  Ten? There were ten beings in there.

  “You have all watched humanity grow and, like me, you find them fascinating. They are creatures of great potential. If only they didn’t succumb to greed and ambition, this world could be glorious. A place of peace and harmony and advancement, if only they put aside their bias and prejudice to work together.”

  “And you think you can make his happen?” Yule asked “By taking over their minds and forcing them to do your bidding?” Her tone was calm, even and nonjudgmental. “None of this is real. The humans here are the same as they’ve always been, the only thing that has changed is your voice inside their heads.”

  “And after some time that voice will become their conscious,” Malachi said. “At that time, they will no longer require my guidance.”

  “This is my fault,” Yule said. “I should have stopped you from answering their plea over a century ago. You revealed yourself to the human scientists and you gave them power. Power that was too advanced for their kind. Even when they failed the test we ordered you to put to them, you still gave them the gift.”

  “Thirteen souls was a small sacrifice for the enlightenment of a whole race,” Malachi said.

  “A single life should have been too high a price,” Yule countered. “You should have rejected their plea based on their willingness to give up their own. And yet you handed them the reins to one of your constructs.”

  “They were to use it to enlighten their whole race. Thirteen souls was a small price to pay for enlightenment and the fact they recognized this gave me hope.”

  “But they did not enlighten their whole race, did they? They bound only their blood lines to the skein, and so those thirteen souls were a sacrifice for their own greed. The rest of humanity has no access to your gift.”

  Malachi was silent for a long time. “Yes. Maybe I misjudged the scientists. They claimed the skein for themselves, but they did good work with the power it afforded them. And a pact is a pact.”

  “Yes. That is true.”

  “I kept my end of the bargain.”

  “But you broke our laws by setting foot into their dimension. You broke our laws by laying with one of them, and you break our laws now by attempting to affect change on this reality. You fed from the sacrifices, and I believe it turned you, created a yearning to experience life, to be human. You are slipping, Malachi. You are not thinking with your higher mind, but with the baser minds you have allowed to corrupt you.”

  “No, that’s not true. I want to make this reality better. To turn it into a paradise. I’m sick of watching humanity tear itself to shreds, all the while knowing we could save them. All we need do is intervene. This one time.”

  Another voice spoke up. “Your argument is compelling, Malachi. I have too had these same thoughts. You have my support.”

  “And mine.”

  “Mine also.”

  “Wait. What are you saying?” Yule said. “This breaks every ancient law.”

  “Maybe it is time we rewrote the laws. We are higher beings, we have knowledge and power and yet we hover on the outskirts watching humanity struggle. In every reality it is the same. Greed, ambition, prejudice. They are their own worst enemy. Malachi is right, we can be the voice inside their heads, and after some time they will no longer need us.”

  “We force them to walk the path,” another voice said. “And soon, that path will become the only path.”

  “But then they will not be human,” Yule said. “You speak of taking away their free will. Something gifted to them by their maker.”

  “Which maker?” Malachi said. “The one who abdicated his responsibilities for greener pastures and left bumbling gods in his wake? That maker?”

  Murmurs filled the room but Yule’s voice rose above them. “If you stop a wolf from hunting it is no longer a wolf. By taking away their free will you take away their humanity.”

  “No. I enlighten them. Once they have accepted the truth, they will be free to continue in the glorious path of salvation.”

  Once again murmurs of agreement. He was winning them over, all except Yule who was trying to speak over the others, her voice becoming lost in the hubbub.

  “Join me in the purge,” Malachi said. “I have selected the finest hosts as your anchors to this realm.”

  “And how long will they anchor us?�
� a male voice asked.

  “Long enough for you to procreate and produce the perfect hosts for your essence.”

  “As you did so long ago?” Yule said. “I see you found your perfect host.”

  Malachi was silent for a long beat. “I would have found it sooner had I not been evicted from this dimension. That is a score I have yet to settle.”

  “Careful brother, is that vengeance in your tone? Maybe it is not you influencing the humans, but they who are corrupting your equilibrium.”

  The sound of muted boot falls filtered down the corridor. Mira backed up from the door, grabbed my arm and ran. We hurtled toward the steps down to our level, but the clatter of boots coming up them forced us to back up. We were trapped. Mira yanked me into the nearest room and shut the door. It was pitch black and the scent of antiseptic and almonds hung heavy in the air.

  Mira pressed her ear to the door.

  The hairs on the back of my neck stood to attention and my scalp pricked with awareness. There was something in the room with us. Something alive.

  Mira stiffened. “What is it?” she whispered.

  I had to know. Reaching out I ran my hand over the wall by the door until I found a dimmer switch. With a click, I set the room alight. Mira’s gasp was almost too loud in the echoing silence and I bit back a yelp of my own.

  I’d been right. We weren’t alone. Row upon row of yaksha lined the room, all in various stages of beast. What the fuck was going on? The door fell open at our backs and Mira bundled me back out into the corridor, down the stairs and into the relative safety of our room.

  We stood there, chests heaving as the adrenaline dispersed.

  I dropped onto the edge of the bed. “An army. He’s building an army. That’s why he took the yaksha. That’s what he wants the supernaturals for.” It all fit. “This has to be something to do with the purge he was talking about.”

  “What is he?” Mira paced our room hands on hips.

  “A cosmic god. The stuff he said about the scientists and the thirteen sac—” the words stuck in my throat as the witch’s oath was activated. “Just trust me. He’s a cosmic god. Banner made a deal with him—eternal life in exchange for a ton of souls.”