by Sean Stone
When he turned he saw that Olivia was not with him. Dreading where she might have wandered off to he went searching. He found her in the first room her checked — their former room.
“Is that…” She was looking down at the mutilated corpse on the floor.
“Set,” Nick confirmed. “Do you think I was wrong to kill him?” he asked. He stepped over the rubble of bricks from where he had smashed trough the wall on his last visit and sat down on the edge of the bed.
“Kayla forgave Set for every wrong he committed her. She even gave him a home and a second chance,” she said thoughtfully.
“And he betrayed her again,” Nick reminded her.
“Yes. He lived for revenge.” Olivia sat down on the bed next to Nick and placed a hand over his. The warmth was beautiful and his heart sped up. It was like he was a young man all over again. “Set always wanted to let Apophis out so he could kill him. Kayla said that Apophis was the embodiment of evil.” Olivia looked right into Nick’s eyes and he saw how frightened she was of the stories she’d been told of Apophis. “Imagine if Set had let him out and then failed to kill him. Think of the things he would have done. I think… I think you were right to kill Set. He’d had enough chances to become good. He was a danger to the whole world.” Her words were music to Nicks ears. A small smile grew on his face and she laughed.
“What?” he asked.
“That face. You look like the innocent boy who came out of the Black Wood.” She leaned in and kissed him. Finally, they were getting to the place they was supposed to be. Finally, they were experiencing the togetherness Nick had craved for six-hundred-years. But then… Nick drew back as a thought occurred to him. He wondered how many chances he’d get to be good before she decided the world was better off without him. It was a question he dared not verbalise.
“We should get back and find Kayla,” he said.
“There’s one more thing I want to do first,” she said. “I want to go down to the village. I know I won’t know anybody there, but I wonder how much it might have changed. Will my old house still be there?” she said excitedly. Nick had not visited the village last time he’d been here, it had nothing to offer him.
They walked down to the village reminiscing along the way. They’d made the journey so many times in their youth.
When they arrived they both stopped in their tracks. They were faced with a sight neither had been expecting. The village was gone. It hadn’t been deconstructed it had been obliterated. The ground that had once held the little island community was now black and charred. Small piles of rubble sat where buildings used to be. Charred remains were scattered about, left where they’d dropped. Someone had incinerated everybody here.
“Who would do this?” Olivia asked in a hoarse voice. Nick was relieved that she hadn’t accused him.
“I don’t know,” he replied. He stepped forward into the former village and reached out with his magic. “Someone powerful did this. I can feel their magic still on the air.” The magical signature would linger for a long time before it finally faded away.
“Whoever did this… they deserve the same fate as Set,” Olivia whispered.
Nick couldn’t agree more.
Back at home Nick stood before his dining table, a map of the town laid before him and Kayla’s hairbrush hovering above it. Olivia was standing opposite him. She’d been silent all the way home, shaken by the brutality of the decimated village in Elysium. Nick knew that beneath her sorrow was a fury just jumping at the chance to be freed. He smiled inside knowing that she wasn’t going to stand in the way of what needed to be done anymore. Enemies could once again be killed without reprimand. Seeing Set had made her understand that not everybody could be spared. Some people just had to die. A reality Nick had learned many many years ago.
He pushed his magic into the hairbrush and began the spell. The brush began to rotate over the map as it glowed orange. Olivia watched intently. Nick felt his spell spread across the map as it searched for Kayla. There was something wrong. Something blocking the spell. He’d expected that. Whoever had taken Kayla was trying to cloak her location. He pushed against the block and found it to be surprisingly strong. He pushed harder.
“Is there a problem?” Olivia asked, an eyebrow raised. His struggle must have been showing on his face.
“A little resistance. No problem,” he replied. He doubled his efforts in one burst of magic and Olivia jumped back as the hairbrush burst into flames. The ashes fell onto the map and as they landed it too burst into flames. Nick was almost surprised that he’d lost the battle, but then he realised that he hadn’t. Only one point on the map was on fire. Nick smiled at his own foolishness. As if there was a spell he couldn’t beat. A wave of his hand extinguished the fire and he drew closer to look at where his adoptive-mother was being held.
“Interesting,” he muttered to himself.
“What? Where is she?” asked Olivia.
“Montford Manor. An abandoned house.”
“Who would have left her there?”
“My thoughts precisely. Come on, let’s go.” He held out his hand to teleport them both there.
“Let’s walk. I think it could be nice,” she said.
“As you wish,” he replied and headed for the door.
The street was quiet. These days the whole town was quiet. Since the quarantine nobody felt like going out anymore, other than to be evacuated. They got no farther than the bottom of the road when Nick heard shouting and suddenly dozens of soldiers were running towards them. He stood still, amused as they surrounded the two of them, rifles aimed steady. Nick looked around at the twenty rifle barrels pointing their way. Did they ever learn?
“We don’t want to fight,” Olivia said calmly.
“On the contrary—” Nick didn’t get to finish. Two shots were fired. One hit Olivia in the chest and took her straight down. Nick turned to her in horror knowing at once that the bullet was iron. The second bullet found his chest. He felt the hideous coldness of the iron, but his power burned it up within seconds. “Iron doesn’t affect me quite the same as it does the average sorcerer,” he muttered. He held his palm over Olivia and sucked the bullet right out of her. She’d be healed in a second or two.
“Take him down!” A female voice yelled.
“Don’t bother,” he muttered and waved his hand. Every soldier froze. He looked into the terrified face of the nearest soldier who was trying with all his strength to move. Beads of sweat rolled down his forehead. “Why don’t you change targets?” he suggested and waved his hand again. Each soldier turned slowly to their left so their rifles were aimed at their fellow comrades. Nick was amused at the effort they put into fighting him. Futile. “I’m going to send a very clear message to your employer.”
“No you’re not,” Olivia said, now back on her feet. A patch of blood now on her white shirt. Her face was stoney.
“And why’s that?” he asked. He turned to his partner, but did not release the spell.
“I thought we agreed that you’d stop killing?”
“That’s funny, because I thought we’d agreed that some people needed to be killed,” he retorted.
“In extremely exceptional cases and this isn’t one of them.”
Nick opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of a suitable response. “You are ridiculous!” he screamed. “These people are here to kill us! They shot you!”
“That doesn’t mean we have to stoop to their level. They are not the villains in this scenario, they’re just following orders,” Olivia said sternly.
“So they should be forgiven? Can you hear yourself?”
“They should be given a chance to redeem themselves. Like I’m giving you the chance to redeem yourself.”
“Oh,” Nick said, taking a step away from her. “So if I kill them I fail? And then what? You’ll leave me? Or will you try to kill me?”
“Nickolas…” she said in shock. “I would never try to kill you. How could you even think that?”
“Everybody betrays me in the end. They all turn on me. Why should you be any different?”
“I have never turned on you. What you thought I did never happened. Or have you forgotten that? Nickolas, if you just stopped yourself from doing the wrong things people wouldn’t turn on you. You frighten them. Show them you don’t need to be feared. Show them you have the capacity for good.”
“I do have the capacity for good,” he said forcefully.
“I know. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it as the motive behind every despicable deed you’ve done throughout the years. But you need to let other people see it too.”
“They’ll think I’m weak,” he protested. The soldiers were starting to shake as they fought against his magic.
“They’ll think you’re a good man,” Olivia said gently. She closed the gap between them and placed her hand on his cheek. “Be my Black Wood Boy. Please.”
Nick exhaled slowly and with it he sent out a new spell. Each of the soldiers collapsed as one and remained unconscious on the floor. “They’ll wake up in an hour with a nasty headache. But they’ll be alive,” he said and then stepped over the nearest body.
Montford Manor was quiet. Too quiet. Nick knew that the house was supposed to be haunted and the silence of its spirits was disquieting. He said none of this to Olivia. They hadn’t spoken since the soldier incident. Neither of them knew what to say.
They searched the house in silence. There were no signs of anybody living there. The dust in most rooms was unsettled. Nick was almost ready to admit that he’d got the spell wrong when he came across a door that seemed different to all the others he’d seen. It had a power emanating from it. A closer inspection revealed that it was sealed with magic and more magic than anybody in town was capable of. There was somebody new in Cedarstone. Nick touched the door and undid the spell. It wasn’t easy and he knew it was the same person who’d tried to cloak Kayla. The magic was familiar in more ways than one, but Nick couldn’t put his finger on where he’d felt it before. As he descended into the basement he could feel their presence all around him. They’d been casting all sorts of magic down here and Nick knew what they’d been trying to do. In the centre of the room was Kayla, just as Nick had last seen her. Solidified and grey, an expression of extreme sadness on her face, one hand raised where she’d been touching his cheek. Whoever had taken her had been trying relentlessly to undo Nick’s curse. Their efforts were pointless, only the person who cast a curse this powerful would be able to undo it.
“Oh Nickolas, you did this?” Olivia said, looking at Nick with disdain. She’d loved Kayla almost as much as Nick had at one point.
“She had it coming,” he mumbled feebly. He looked around, but there was nothing else in the basement.
“Perhaps,” Olivia said, though she clearly disagreed. “But she’s still your mother. Free her and let’s go.”
Nick walked up to Kayla and placed his hand on her forehead. He felt that foreign magic again and had a thought. “No.” He withdrew his hand and stepped back.
“What?”
“We need to know who did this.”
“Why?”
“Can you feel the magic? Does it feel familiar to you?” he asked but she looked back at him blankly. “I felt it in Elysium. Whoever brought her here also destroyed your village.”
“That’s not…” she went to argue, but Nick could see the anger beneath her features.
“Yes it is,” he said quickly. He was certain of this. “I’m not freeing her yet. Not until I know who’s responsible. And what they want with her.” He held out his hand and conjured a black circle of glass. He pushed it again the nearest wall and then watched as it blended in with the brick, unseeable to any who didn’t know it was there. “We’ll be able to watch this room now. When the culprit returns we’ll see them.”
“And then they can pay for what they’ve done,” Olivia said darkly.
“Indeed,” replied Nick. “Let’s go,“ he said and they both teleported from the house.
As soon as they were gone Apophis threw off his invisibility spell. He placed his hand over the watching device that had been placed on the wall. A simple spell tampered with its abilities and rendered Apophis invisible to any watchers. Then he turned back to Kayla and approached. “Your own son did this to you, Kayla? How very interesting. I do hope he changes his mind about releasing you, though. Because if not we both know there’ll only be one way of breaking this curse and I think you’ve had enough heartache.”
Chapter 13
Arthur was back in his study with Clara. Both of them had arrived home safely the night before and both had been blown away by the others’ stories. It seemed they’d both had an eventful evening, though Arthur thought Clara’s trumped his significantly. Clara wanted to discuss their next move. Dean and Kegan were present, but the rest of the coven were at their own homes. Marlon and Toni had wanted to come, but Arthur had told them not to. With the soldiers looking for the Winters House it would only take one slip up to reveal it. The fewer people coming and going the better.
“We need the vampires on side as soon as possible. We can’t afford to wait,” said Clara as she paced the length of the study. Arthur had spent hours doing the same thing in the past.
“That’s true but we can’t afford to rush,” said Arthur. “We need a fool proof plan because one wrong step and we’re all dead.”
“And it will be death by vampire, not soldiers,” said Dean.
“But we don’t have time to dither over the details,” protested Clara.
“Well we’re not rushing in,” said Arthur sternly. There would be no argument on this. What she called dithering he called caution.
“What if we didn’t need the vampires?” asked Kegan thoughtfully.
“We do need them. There’s no other way of defeating Eloise,” said Dean.
“There is if we do it werewolf style,” said Kegan. “In the Pack if someone had issue with another they’d challenge them to single combat. Winner takes all.”
Arthur smiled sympathetically. “That’s not going to work with Eloise. She won’t agree to single combat and Pack rules don’t apply outside the Pack.”
“Or inside the Pack anymore,” added Dean. Every pair of eyes fell on him. “Too soon?”
“Just a little,” snapped Clara. “Kegan has a point, though. We don’t need to challenge her to single combat. If we can get her to meet us then we can take her out. With her gone the soldiers will have no orders to follow. If she’s the one behind all this then when she dies the plan’s off.”
“But she’s a part of MI5 and they answer to the Home Secretary. So surely these orders have come from the big chief,” said Dean.
“Dean’s probably right,” said Arthur. “Not to mention what would happen if we did take out Eloise. If Sidney was Plan A and Eloise is Plan B then I dread to think what Plan C is.”
“It can’t get worse than genocide,” said Clara. “But if we kill Eloise then we’ll buy ourselves some time. The attacks will stop whilst they figure out how to react.”
“Alright, then you need to arrange a meeting with Eloise,” said Arthur.
“You’re not going to help?” said Clara, looking confused.
“Eloise won’t meet with me. I’m the Coven dynast and she won’t negotiate with the Coven. But you’re an MI5 agent. She’ll be intrigued enough to meet you. Even if it’s only to take you prisoner. Besides, I need to deal with Adam.”
“But I’m your daughter,” Clara said. Surely that would make Eloise just as wary of her.
“And that will get her attention. She’ll want to take you prisoner to force me to surrender to her. Don’t worry, though, I’ll be there for the meeting as well as the rest of the Coven. I’d never let you walk into this alone.”
Clara nodded. “Alright, I’ll sort out a meeting with her.”
“Good. And Clara, do not meet her without me and the Coven. Hopefully, by the time I’ve dealt with Adam we’ll have one more person on ou
r side.”
Arthur left the study and headed for the basement. As he trod the old wooden stairs he thought back to when all this began. He’d held James in this basement for a time. Arthur had been too scared to visit James and Nick had dealt with him. This time Arthur wasn’t gone to hide from his problems, he was going to face them head on. The longer he left Adam festering the worse the problem would become. Plus, there was a more pressing matter that Arthur needed to discuss with him, although a discussion was unlikely, this was more an opportunity to get information. He reached the bottom of the steps and stopped. His stomach knotted at the sight of his former friend. He was slouched against the far wall, his wrists bound in chains and his head slumped forward as if he was sleeping, but Arthur knew that he was not.
“I’m sorry to have to do this to you, Adam,” said Arthur. He took a few steps forwards, but stopped a fair distance from him.
“Don’t lie. I did the same thing to you. This is revenge. Admit that you like it,” Adam said viciously. There wasn’t a trace of the old Adam in his voice.
“Why would I like this?”
“You took everything else from me. Why not take my freedom?”
“Adam if you could hear yourself—”
“I can hear myself as plainly as I can hear you!” he bellowed, looking up for the first time. His eyes were bloodshot and furious, his lips drawn back in a snarl. “You pretend to be so apologetic, so sorry of everything. Well, you can’t bullshit me, Arthur. Why are you down here? What do you want?”
