The Carver's Magic

by B. L. Brooklyn

  “You belong to me?” I repeated carefully. “But do I belong to you?”

  She looked away from me.

  “Cory,” I warned her. Cory looked around and I knew the moment she saw the door. I felt a spike of relief. I narrowed my eyes at her, “You’re not leaving until you undo this.”

  She swallowed. Her emotions were swirling. She pulled the necklace from her neck, breaking it. Holding it out to me she said, “I’ll let you know when I find the potion.”

  I narrowed my eyes, not taking the coin back. “If you think you can run away from me, think again.” She was solid once more, completely in control of every emotion. I couldn’t feel anything but I could see she was biding her time. Plotting.

  Cory turned, right before the door flung open to a very pissed off brunette. Cory threw the coin out the front door. I held out my hand stopping the coin from going far, it floated back via my magic. Her nose flared and her lips flattened, “I don’t need another leash. There is nowhere to go that you couldn’t find me, Shane. I’m bound to you.”

  Considering this was all new I didn’t know that, but I also didn’t like how she was acting as if she was ending things between us. Damn this was getting complicated.

  “You’re what?” Beth hissed.

  I rolled my eyes before I looked at the other Carver, then back at Cory. I wasn’t going to stay and talk this out with Beth. I couldn’t care less about Beth and how she felt about our situation. In fact, she had a lot more to consider now that her sister was possibly a fairy outlaw.

  I teleported to my car, which was hidden at the beginning of the ten-mile dirt road that led to the fairy gate.

  CHAPTER NINE

  BETH

  I folded my arms looking at Cory. “I’m going to give you a chance to explain. But I’ll be honest, I don’t think there’s much that will change my mind. But you should try, because I really, really want to teleport you to a science hut in Antarctica right now.”

  Cory’s eyes followed something behind me for a moment, and then I heard the front door shut. I didn’t care to look back around, I wasn’t going to do anything to change topics.

  I messed up last night by yelling first when I should have listened, but I was scared, pissed, and ready to take on the entire Magical Council after I found out that the same blood-sucker who broke into our house, took her from work.

  That vampire burglar was going to get fire slapped next time I saw her. I looked forward to a hand print welt on her face.

  When Cory looked back at me her eyes were guarded, or at least I thought they were. She shook her head and I saw them glisten. Tears? Not fair. She wiped away a small tear and whispered, “I went.”

  “I guessed,” I was keeping my voice low.

  She slapped her thigh, “I found a potion to stop that guy. It worked.” She rolled her eyes, “Kind of.”

  I headed to the kitchen. She might need a drink. Actually, I needed a large glass of fizzy Coke and a seat. Cory followed me to the kitchen table. I pulled out a mug and raised my eyebrows.

  “Lemon grass,” she whispered.

  I tapped her mug and it filled with lemon grass jasmine tea. I pulled out a red can of the delicious liquid and popped the top. “You used the bonding potion?” I had read about it once, but I had forgotten about it until I heard Shane say he was bound to my sister.

  She nodded solemnly, “Yeah.”

  “Did you tell him what you were doing before you did it?” I waited for her to shake her head before I took a long sip from the cold drink, “And now, you’re going to unbind yourself from him.”

  She took a sip of tea, “I am pretty sure he thinks he’s bound to me, too.”

  “Is he?” I took another long sip.

  “No.” Her melancholy tone said more than the word. I knew all too well how it felt to like when someone didn’t like you back. “He’s a Carver, he chooses who he’s bound to.”

  My anger was satisfied. I really didn’t want my sister bound to that jerk-face, but seeing her face, I felt sorry for her. She was staring at nothing, numbingly sipping her tea. I sat next to her in silence until she finished her tea. I offered to fill it up, but she declined and left for her room.

  She probably just needs some time to work through it. I hoped she had a short-term heart break. Mine seemed to be a long term curse.

  * * *

  Cory didn’t come out for dinner, not that I expected her to. I had just turned off the TV when I saw a human figure walk across the front window. I couldn’t hear anything so whoever it was, was light footed. I pushed at my fire bringing it to my fingertips.

  I thought I had warded my house against all super natural, but Shane was able to teleport in without a problem. I ran the words again in my head, wondering how he broke through the spell, but I couldn’t think of anything. Now that there was possibly a prowler outside I needed to find a real ward to secure the house.

  I heard something ticking by the front door. I shielded the inside of the house against a possible bomb, or whatever was ticking on the other side of the door. A moment later I heard the door snap unlocked. Crap!

  I grabbed the door handle and let my fire run through it melting it closed. I herd someone say, “Ouch,” on the other side. I didn’t know how many people where around the house and I wasn’t leaving Cory upstairs unprotected. And I wasn’t going to fight anyone out in the open. I was already on the Magical Council’s radar.

  A thought entered my mind and I teleported to Cory’s room quickly. Instead of landing in her room I was at her door. I tried to open it but the door was locked. My magic didn’t open it and I was irritated and impressed at the same time.

  I bang on the door. A moment later she opened the door, red eyed. I grabbed her hand and teleported us to one of our vacation spots. At the moment this was the safest place I could think of.

  Cory looked around and nodded, “I don’t think this is going to help.”

  I questioned her, “Help what?”

  She walked slowly to her room, “To cheer me up.”

  Hey if that’s what she thought, that’s fine. I walked around our wood cabin and checked the doors and windows. Then I pulled out a glass and filled it with water. I drained half of it and tapped the top, filling it with fizzy Coke. I took a sip and poured the rest out. I wondered if their drink was magically copyrighted.

  * * *

  The next day I was gathering a few necessities at the small town’s mom and pop store, when I saw a creepy chick, with short blonde hair and crazy orange eye shadow and matching lipstick, eyeing me from the door. She waved at me before she left me with a crawling sensation in my belly.

  I checked out and walked behind the store to teleport to the cabin. I popped into the kitchen and saw the place had been ransacked. The table, chairs, drawers, and shelves were in a mangled mess. Pieces of furniture were spread all over the floor. Dropping the bags, I ran to Cory’s room. The door was off the hinges. I grabbed the doorframe as my stomach free-fell straight to the souls of my feet.

  She was gone. Her bed was gone. And there were various odd-shaped broken bottles scattered on the floor.

  One Mississippi. (Inhale)

  Two Mississippi. (Exhale)

  Three Mississippi. (Inhale)

  She’s really gone.

  Someone is going to die.

  I let my fire fill me until it suffocates me. Who would have my sister? If I teleport to her, it could be an ambush, so I had to think carefully and teleport to who had kidnapped her. I picture the vampire bitch in my mind and teleport. She’s the first on my list of people who might have her. She took her once already.

  I land in a small, rain-soaked alleyway. It’s drizzling and the air is humid, making me feel more uncomfortable. It smells like ocean and mildew mixed with a musky something that was tickling my nose. On both sides of the alleyway were hand-made cardboard and tin houses. Some houses had tin roofs, others had tarps. At the end of the alley I saw
the toothy leach leaned over a young man, no older than twenty. He was limp and I supposed he was dead or about to be if I didn’t do something.

  One more reason to take her out. I held in my fire, patiently stalking my prey. Lifting my index finger, I crooked it and knocked it on the hollow streetlight twice.

  With unnatural speed the black lady was facing me, white eyes, and fangs stained with the blood from her victim. She ran her tongue over her red stained lips. “They must have gotten her,” she smiled as she talked.

  I was momentarily conflicted. If I kill her now I would miss out on the information about the who took my sister and why. The desire to see her shrivel up to ash had its emotional satisfaction pounded in my head. My fire very much liked that idea. Or I could try and get the information out of her, although that could take hours maybe. I had never interrogated anyone before.

  Decision made. I let my fire slowly slither up my throat and exhaled it out slowly. The fire slowly slid out of my mouth, like a snake, its small red fire scaly beads slithered around my neck and down my body heading straight for the vampire.

  The vampire snickered, “You don’t scare me, Carver.” She watched the snake-like fire move towards her with amusement. Then as an after thought, she said, “I should thank you for challenging me. Now I get to kill you with no reprisal.”

  She crouched, hissing as her fangs elongate even more. The vampire blurred in my direction, I blinked waiting for a hit, but the fire on the ground exploded, shaking the ground and blowing the makeshift houses to splinters.

  I looked around. Debris and ash chunks flip flopped in the air, falling with the rain. I brushed off my pants before teleporting to the next person on my list. The blonde chick with the ugly orange eye shadow. I don’t know why she gave me the creeps but she just did. And if she had anything to do with my sister’s disappearance, I planned on thinking of a very good punishment. My fire was out for vengeance.

  I felt high on my own power as I teleported, keeping the creepy chick clear in my thoughts. I landed in an old campground. The ugly orange lipstick wearing chick sitting on a white, plastic chair picking at her fingernails.

  I whistled.

  She looked up and squinted as if she didn’t know what she was looking at. Then she cursed and started running as if her life depended on it. My gut was right. Something was wrong with this chick because she acted as if she knew exactly who I was. And the fact that she was running from me alluded to a nefarious motive.

  I pulled the fire to my palm and threw the ball in her direction, giving it a small lead. She screamed as the fireball missed her, she kept running toward the forest. I teleported closer to her and knocked her into a large, Sears Tower-sized tree. I grabbed her uncombed hair and kicked behind her knee letting her fall, “You have two seconds to tell me why you took my sister.”

  She scrambled out of my reach looking wide eye at me, “Shit, you’re a fire Carver? You’re her aren’t you? Don’t kill me, please. We have been looking for you.” She licked her lips and looked around her as if anyone could help her.

  I pressed my lips together keeping my rage in check, for the most part. I stopped before her and flicked my fingers letting my fire scales land perfectly in her mangy hair.

  “No STOP!” She shook out her head patting it quickly. “I’ll take you to her! Just let me go. I swear!”

  Not bad for my first interrogation. I pulled on her hair to stand her up, “I have a special link to my sister. I know she’s alive. I want her back now.”

  The girl’s scared expression melted away as her eyes began to glow orange, accompanied with a wicked smile. “Richard. Say hi to the halfling’s adopted sister.” I turned quickly to see a tall man, with short, dirty blond hair and aqua blue eyes. He looked a hell of a lot like Shane.

  “I’m impressed with your abilities, Beth. I can see why you are a perfect Carver for my son.”

  I ground my teeth. The Carvers. I thought I got away from them. I even did a special spell so that my parents couldn’t find me, and if they so happened to pass by me they wouldn’t recognize me.

  “Why don’t you let Fennel go and we can talk like adults,” Richard said in a smooth voice as his eyes returned to normal, but I wasn’t an idiot. He was dangerous and his calculating eyes were sparkling. He was smiling on the inside.

  I dropped my hold on the ugly, orange-eyed Carver with a horribly embarrassing name. She stumbled, catching herself with her hands. I choose not to kick her back down because I am being the bigger person.

  “Bitch,” she coughed.

  My foot perfectly connected with her hip. She slid several feet into another mammoth-sized tree. The old man tilted his head as if to ask if that was necessary.

  The answer? Yes.

  “Is this when you tell me you didn’t know you took my sister? Is this when you placate me? Or is this where you give me a sentimental story about the Carver’s War?” I blinked slowly, looking a combination of bored and ready to strike.

  “Just like my son,” he curled his hand into a fist. It was the only thing that alerted me to his feelings. “You don’t understand how important it is to stop this war. You don’t understand the genocide on our kind.”

  Okay so he was going to go with the sales pitch.

  I clicked in my mouth, “I’ll tell you what I told my parents. This is my life.”

  “Said the spoiled brat,” said a boy with dark, messy hair, and a scar on the right side of his face. He was resting against a tree with a white ear bud in one ear while the other hung freely.

  “Who are you? Nutmeg?” I asked.

  His screwed up face didn’t like my question, “You’re so selfish that you can’t see how much our kind is being exterminated one at a time. You’re too high and mighty to even consider it. That’s a spoiled brat. One who had a sweet life growing up and still has one. I, for one, wouldn’t expect much from someone like you.”

  “Brad.” Richard’s warning fell on deaf ears.

  Brad the Jerk pushed off the tree and I saw for the first time at least ten other people, surrounding us. “Must be nice to be so powerful that the Magic Council has ordered all supernatural to leave you alone. If you were like us, you would see what being a Carver is really like.”

  Yeah right. Like I got a free pass.

  I didn’t like this jerk. Another girl stepped up. She was wearing tight red pants and a white tank top. On her wrist was the beginning of a tornado tattoo that stopped at her shoulder. Around it were several outlined houses with a series of numbers inside of each one. There was only one that looked like a trailer house. Ah the irony was not lost on me. I squelched a smirk. She folded her arms and said, “The prophecy is wasted on someone like you, fairy lover.”

  “Oh, like you’re any better Isla. How long have you kept your little wolf boy on a leash?” Another guy said, with dark olive skin, shoulder length black hair and a longer nose, with a set of blue eyes Mother Earth would be jealous of.

  A gust of wind blew past me, towards the handsome Carver. His eyes glowed towards the trailer trash Carver seconds before was flung back, hitting the gigantic tree behind me.

  The earth shook and I held out my arms to steady myself.

  “That is my last warning,” Richard looked at trailer trash Isla and pretty boy. “You two better learn to get along or I’m going to let you both go and see how you fare on your own.”

  It shocked me to see the fear in their eyes. They were afraid of living on their own? Was this a cult of some sort?

  Richard looked back at me, “You will have to excuse Isla and Amir. They aren’t used to guests.”

  I couldn’t keep in my arrogant huff, “They’re Carvers.” No excuse needed.

  All of their eyes locked on Richard as if I just insulted him, “You don’t know a thing about them little girl. I’d watch how you talk about your own kind.” He had widened his stance taking up more space. His arms on his hips made him look bigger and it did absolutely
nothing to intimidate me.

  “You may run this lunatic’s camp, but you don’t scare me, and since you are stupid enough to take my sister from me you must have a few screws loose.”

  The group of Carvers seemed to encroach on Richard and I. I scanned their eyes. I dare them to try something. Mentally I was crossing my fingers, Make a move kiddos. Trailer trash Carver made the first move. I teleported behind her kicking her in the back of the knees causing her to land on her hands as she rolled over and shot out air in my direction. I teleported again next to her, dropping a small fireball in her hair. She screamed and the air around started swirling. It was no longer just coming from her, it was as if she was calling on all the air around her.

  Interesting.

  I dropped little fingernail sized fire scales over her bright red pants. She screamed that I was ruining her new pants. I felt like I was doing her a favor, they looked horrible on her.

  I began to feel all the air around us swirl. I looked up and saw a funnel coming straight at me. The wind was so strong I felt myself being sucked towards the funnel. As I was being lifted into the air I noticed there was no one else around in the clearing. They must be watching from a distance. I was being smacked with debris that the tornado was pulling up along with myself. I grabbed a small pebble. Palmed it, letting my fire heat it. I threw it as hard as I could at trailer trash. Damn, she moved.

  She flipped backwards in the gymnastics kind of way. Gusts were swirling crap all around me so I shouldn’t have been surprised when a large tree smacked me from behind. Holding my head with one hand and grabbing for another rock, I warmed it with fire and this time added my magic. I told it to find the one in my mind. Then I threw it, barley escaping another tree.

  The next second I was falling. It happened so fast I almost didn’t catch myself. I hit the ground hard. I was blasted back once more with a gush of wind but it had an extra element to it. It zinged inside of me. I pushed off the floor, quickly looking around for the girl who needed a serious make over. I looked for movement but she was nowhere. Then I saw a lump in the middle of the clearing.