Dark Illumination

by Hadena James

  “Oh hell,” I said, almost forgetting the most important piece. “He has Goderick Strachan’s mark.”

  “Has it as in he’s a Strachan or has as in he stole it?”

  “I think my sister probably gave it to him before she got locked away. She pulled Eli and I both into a dream. Scary stuff.”

  “That’s a lot of dark magic.”

  “As the great Holmes would say ‘the game is afoot’.” I took a deep breath.

  “What is it?”

  “He is very good at using magic as a weapon. I’m not.”

  “You don’t need to be. You have raw magic, turn the tides on him. As he casts, throw magic his direction. See what happens.”

  “What if it makes his magic stronger?”

  “If he was a true Strachan, I’d give you a different suggestion, but he isn’t. I can’t imagine he can do much with your magic, I imagine it is too powerful for him. He casts into it and whatever spells you’ve been casting are probably what will come out.”

  “He is using Sonnellion’s power as well.”

  “Let the Demons worry about that part. I’m sure Lucifer and Leviathan can handle that. You worry about the Witch. What do you know about him?”

  “He’s tall, wears a wide-brimmed hat with a pointy tip that flops over, he always seems to be in shadow. You can only see his lips under the hat. His magic is blue and I’m pretty sure he is nutty as a fruitcake.”

  “Always in the shadows isn’t easy. It has to be a spell. Page 1043 has a spell on dark illumination. I allows the Witch to either hide in the shadows or use shadows to hide him.”

  “Dark illumination. Interesting. He can conjure. He has a potion he uses for it.”

  “He has to use a potion to conjure?”

  “Well, he is conjuring trolls and dragons.”

  “Don’t matter, you could do it. Page 931 has a spell on how to do it and you don’t need a potion.”

  “Too many pages.” I told him.

  “Pages 17, 574, 931, and 1043. Just be careful if you decide to conjure something. You might let Daniel do that.”

  “Daniel is healed.”

  “How… What… When…”

  “I threw a tantrum, so to speak, and Daniel was in the way. He says the Prophet is a soul and it lodges in the Witchy-center of the brain. Since he’s a Witch, it created a magical rift. He was just waiting to be around me when I went into a power rage. This time he was. I broke the rift or healed the rift or something.”

  “Good girl,” Ezra gave me a look of approval. “You don’t look happy about it.”

  “I am, I really am. I just wish I’d known ten years ago that all I need was to get pissed off to heal him.”

  “You can’t know everything.”

  “But I feel like I should.”

  “That’s just stupid, girl. If you knew everything, you would lead a boring life. There’d be nothing new to learn.”

  Realizing that my spell book was right and smarter than me, didn’t help my confidence much. I sighed again and flipped to page seventeen.

  Once open, the book could still talk, but not as well. It wasn’t just that the cover was down; it was just easier when the cover was closed. I didn’t understand that any better than what I had done to Daniel. In the end, it didn’t seem to matter whether I understood it or not. I needed spells. Spells that I could cast and use. Spells that would help us with this Witch before things got really out of control.

  It took me two more donuts to memorize the spell on page 17. I looked at the spell on 1043 and realized it would be easy. It took me only a couple of seconds to memorize it. 574 was a complete wash though, as was 931. If I could take the book into battle, I might pull off the conjuring spell, but it was unlikely and frankly, I was growing fond of Ezra. No need to see him get his pages torn out and eaten by something.

  There was a knock on my door finally. I sent out magic and found the entire troop there.

  “It’s open!” I yelled, closing the book.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “We are limited in the food department,” Lucifer said as he came through the door carrying bags of things.

  “I know.” I told him.

  “So we got take out from just about everywhere,” Daniel grinned at me. “Except the bowling alley.”

  “There’s Sonic, Chinese, pizza from Casey’s, Hunt Brothers’ pizza, take out from a restaurant called ‘Nita’s’ and some from a restaurant called ‘Raymond’s’.” Anubis entered the room last. His arms were the emptiest, carrying a couple cases of soda, a gallon of milk and a gallon of tea.

  “Feeling better?” Levi asked me.

  “Yeah, I think I am, Ezra and I have been figuring out spells.”

  “Any luck?” Eli asked, suddenly very interested in what I had to say.

  “Well, yes and no. Ezra doesn’t think we need a spell, just a well timed push of magic. For lack of a better way to explain, he thinks my magic will out-perform the magic of our psycho Witch.”

  “You mean, he thinks that if the Witch casts a spell while you are shoving magic into the air, when the spell hits your magic, your magic will make it do whatever it wants and the spell will dissipate.” Eli responded.

  “That is exactly what I think,” Ezra said from the bed.

  “It might work,” Livi agreed. “However, it’s going to have to be some serious magic.”

  “Well, we got enough Witches here to do some serious magic. Someone memorize the spells on 574 and 931. Brenna can’t seem to wrap her mind around them.” Ezra instructed.

  Eli picked up the book while Ba’al handed me a plate of food. I had a cheeseburger, cheddar bites, General Tao’s Chicken, a roast beef sandwich on rye, corn, green beans and mashed potatoes. I looked at it for a second.

  “I just ate an entire box of donuts,” I told him.

  “Find room for that too then,” he answered.

  “Great.” I started shoving food into me.

  Magic is energy. Energy requires food and sleep. I didn’t get enough of either. Thank god for donuts and soda. They were my main calorie source on hunts.

  “No pizza?” I asked as I watched my father shove a slice of supreme into his mouth.

  “Here,” Gabriel tossed a piece of cheese pizza onto my plate. Damn, now I would have to eat that too.

  “She isn’t mom,” Eli took the slice of pizza from my plate and gobbled it down as he looked through spell book.

  “I’d recommend she stop taking top, but that limits the options,” Livi gave a small giggle.

  “I’m trying to eat,” I gave her a look.

  “What? Have you tried missionary with a Demon? Especially a full blooded one? They weigh a ton!” Livi giggled again.

  “Enough of that,” Lucifer smiled at her. “Don’t gross everyone out while trying to eat. We have much to do tonight.”

  “What is the plan tonight?” I asked.

  “Five Demon-Witches, nine full blooded Demons, a Vampire or two, two Lycans, two Gargoyles and an Angel should sort him out,” Gabriel answered.

  “Oh no,” I groaned before I could stop it.

  “Yes, all the Brothers will be here. Should be here any moment. Marcus and Alex are coming. Jonathan is going to try to get here. We are going to force him to come to us.” Anubis informed me.

  “Why do we need to invade this small town?” I frowned, ignoring the food on my plate or the plate in my hands.

  “Because it isn’t just a Hunt anymore. The troll was one thing, but two trolls and a dragon. That is a matter of public safety. What would have happened if the dragon had gone amok?” Lucifer asked.

  “I see your point; I’m just not sure that descending en masse upon the town is the way to go about it.” I countered.

  “Better suggestion?” Anubis asked.

  “Not really.” I sighed again. My appetite was gone. I put my plate on the table.

  “Buck up, Bren,” Ba’al said to me. “We might be able to do this without you getting blinded again.�
��

  “Do we have an actual plan?” I asked.

  “We think he will come to you. We think there is something about you that has his attention,” Ba’al answered and looked at Eli.

  “Well, we think it is Sonnellion’s magic that draws him to you.” Eli gave me a sheepish look.

  “Ok, why?”

  “Because you have both used it. One for good, one for bad, and Sonnellion is your uncle. You share a bit of DNA,” Eli gave me a look.

  “My eyes,” I remembered the dream.

  “Yes,” Levi finally answered. “Sonnellion had irises that were darker than his pupil. We’d never seen the genetic anomaly again until you were born.”

  “He mentioned that,” I said absently. “When I dreamed of him. He mentioned my eyes.”

  “Yes, well, we think that is why our psycho Witch keeps blinding you,” Levi said. “Sonnellion had a special ability. His eyes could bleed fire.”

  “Mine don’t,” I pointed out.

  “True, but why take the chance?” Levi asked.

  “They never have.” I reminded him.

  “Just because the bunch of us knows this, doesn’t mean he doesn’t and frankly, if he is conjuring Sonnellion, I can see Sonnellion telling him about his special eyes and linking them to yours.”

  “How do you bleed fire from your eyes?” I shook my head at the thought.

  “When he cried, his tears would cause whatever they landed on to burst into flames.” Lucifer looked down from me.

  “If his eyes got injured, the blood would mix with that special fluid and droplets of fire would run down his face. Not sure why.” Levi told me.

  “The rest of you have any interesting things you can do?” I asked Levi.

  “We all do,” Levi looked at me, like I should have known.

  “Humph, guess I have some more to learn.” I frowned again. “So, what’s the plan?”

  “We use you as bait, send you into town, he’ll seek you out. The rest of us will attack once he has shown up. I’m sure he will conjure something bad to help, probably try to blind you again.”

  “Great,” I stopped frowning. “I saw him earlier. When I had my rage outburst, I saw a ball of blue magic that I recognized as his. I don’t know where he was or why.”

  “He corners you, we spring a trap, so to speak, and we all engage. But we are in disagreement about the where.” Anubis told me.

  “Why?”

  “Some think the center of town is better; some think the outer area would be better.” He answered.

  “Might as well do it in the center of town, at least the insurance will pay them for whatever damage gets done.”

  “You don’t like the plan, do you?”

  “On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a zero. It doesn’t sound much like a plan.”

  “Hard to plan around you,” Lucifer looked up at me. “We expect him to play by the rules. You on the other hand, you are a wild card. We can plan all we want, but the truth is, it could all go to hell in less than a second if you get a wild hair.”

  “When do we leave?”

  “Now sounds like a good idea,” Mammon’s voice came into the room. “We have all assembled.”

  “Okie dokie, off we go,” I stood up and walked from the room.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I literally stood on Main Street and waited. The streets had been cleared. They were empty on this October evening. It was a Friday night and it seemed that the entire town had rolled up carpet and gone away for the weekend.

  They might have. I didn’t know what my uncles, my father, my siblings or the Overlords in my life had been up to in the hours I had been alone. Now I only appeared to be alone.

  Hidden in the darkness somewhere, was a lynch mob of Elders. I couldn’t hear them. I couldn’t see them. I just knew they were there.

  I walked in a small circle, retracing my steps. I had been here for almost an hour. No Witch, nothing to alleviate the boredom that was sinking in. This was as boring as a stake-out. The only difference was no food, no drinks and I didn’t need to pee.

  “Why are you here?” The voice suddenly floated to me.

  Despite the fact that it was evening, lights were on everywhere. There were street lamps and window displays. There was also a full moon.

  Yet the man with the wide-brimmed hat remained in shadow. Only his lips were visible from under the hat. I thought about the spell for illuminating his figure, but decided it could wait.

  “Why are you here?” I countered after a few minutes.

  “Touché,” he answered. “You keep breaking that curse, why?”

  “I like to see. Besides, I’m never really blind, I can always see magic.”

  “You see magic?” He tilted his head, but the shadows didn’t tilt with it. They kept his face hidden.

  “You don’t? How odd, all Witches can see magic. Guess you just don’t know what you are looking for. I can see that you have been tapping into a great deal of magic that isn’t your own. I see my uncle’s magic. And if I’m not mistaken, a touch of my sister’s.” There was a spider web-thin filament of magic that was darker pink than my own. It belonged to Jasmine.

  “You see a lot, maybe too much,” he started to cast the spell. I poured magic into the air between us, filling the space until little wisps of pink began to float away with the breeze.

  The curse hit the magic and imploded. The blue mixed with my own and suddenly, Sonnellion, in Demon form stood next to us. That was unexpected.

  “Ahoy, hoy,” I said to Sonnellion.

  “Interesting greeting, niece.”

  “I was caught off guard, would you like me to try again?” I asked him.

  “No, that seems fine,” his face turned to me. “You conjured me, what would you like?”

  “It was an accident, I want nothing from you,” I informed him.

  “You conjured me by accident, again?” He smiled. “Formidable.”

  “Feel free to go back to the ethereal,” I told him.

  “But of course,” Sonnellion faded away, taking the last bits of magic with him.

  “How did you do that?” The Witch asked.

  “It isn’t hard. Powerful Witch with a Demon bloodline that includes Sonnellion, occasionally, my magic just conjures him when it hasn’t got a real purpose. You shoved magic into my unformed spell and he was here.”

  “I can conjure him as well.” The Witch told me.

  “I know, but you can’t do what I can do.” I teased him. “You see, next to me, you are just performing parlor tricks. That potion you carry around is the real magic. It is of my bloodline, might have a bit of my magic in it even.”

  “I have my own powers,” he said angrily.

  “I’m sure you do, but they are nothing but a nuisance to me. Just like that curse, I filled the air with magic, your curse hit it and I’m not blind. As a matter of fact, I feel fine. Didn’t even require much magic.”

  I was pretty sure teasing a psychopath was a bad thing, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself. For the moment, I had the upper hand. And that was without the others standing next to me. I felt as confident as I sounded.

  “Let's see how you handle this then,” he pulled out a bottle of potion.

  “Uh, no,” I cast the illumination spell. Darkness overtook all of us. It was so dark, I expected Cerebus to suddenly appear next to me.

  It didn’t. There was a slight movement in the dark, then another. The dark was still as thick as ever, but I was starting to be able to see in it. The Witch was fumbling in the dark, trying to make it light again. Something was moving next to him.

  It was his shadow, but it was moving independently of him. I looked at my own shadow and saw it was moving independently of me. Perhaps I should have read a bit more on that spell page.

  “What is this?” The Witch finally asked.

  “It is called Dark Illumination.” I told him.

  “What is the point of it?” He asked.

  “I don’t know, a
crazy Witch whose soul is trapped in my spell book gave it to me.” There was more movement. My eyes darted to it.

  “There is something in here with us,” the Witch told me.

  “Yes, I think so as well.” I told the Witch.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know,” I took a deep breath. “Something bad, I imagine.”

  “Impossible, you wouldn’t taint your soul with dark magic.”

  “Not knowingly, but unknowingly,” I gave him a smile. It was him, the shadows and me. Everything else was pitch black.

  I finally realized what the moving shadows were. They kept outsiders at bay. It was just the two of us. For a moment, I was mad at Ezra for taking me away from my safety net. The anger brought a stir of magic from me. That had been his plan all along. The others might have been winging it, but Ezra knew me well enough. It served as a protection spell in this case, for both the Witch and my family.

  “You have my sword,” I reminded him.

  “Yes,” he pulled it from under his coat.

  “I’ll have it back now.”

  “Not hardly.”

  “You can’t conjure in this dark and that sword is heavy, so heavy, in your hands. You might as well give up, give me the sword and we can move on to the next phase of both our lives.”

  “It is heavy. But you know why I wanted this sword? I can kill you with it. And now that you have trapped us both in this impenetrable dark…” he spread his arms wide.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I hadn’t considered that in my analysis of the situation. He was right, my family was safe, but I was trapped by the darkness with a psycho Witch. Even worse, he knew it.

  I tried not to let it show on my face. The sudden feeling of loneliness was overwhelming. I felt my confidence falter just a bit.

  “Didn’t think of that, Brenna?” It was his turn to taunt.

  “Yes, I did.” I lied through my teeth. No reason to give him any ammunition against me.

  “What is your plan now?” He asked, resting the sword against his leg.

  “I never plan.” I told him. “Better to play it by ear.”