by D. Levesque
“Lumina Tua Moli Framan.”
Once I reach the stairs, I look again and see Silvana pop around the corner quickly and make a throwing motion with her hands. The fireball, which is now the size of a soccer ball, streaks away from her so fast it leaves an afterimage. Then there is a scream of pain, which is cut off abruptly. I would say she got one of them and burned him alive so fast that he couldn’t scream anymore.
Hearing the clatter of Johanne going up the metal stairs reminds me that I am supposed to be climbing as well. Following her, we go right up until we hit the third-floor landing. Turning to look down, I see Silvana pull her head back quickly before gunshots ring out, and the wall next to her head explodes with flying rock chips. Johanne has her gun out next to me, and is aiming it at Silvana. What the fuck is she doing, I am about to scream, but then she yells down.
“Go!”
Just then, Silvana turns around and sprints across the distance from the corner of the building to the bottom of the stairs and goes up them faster than a damn fucking squirrel. Just as she is halfway there, a gunshot rings out from Johanne’s gun. Looking at the corner, I see she got one thug. He is now lying on the ground, with a bullet through his head, although there is barely any of his head left, only blood and brain matter. His partner is around the corner and is trying to drag the body behind the wall, but Johanne shoots him dead center in his hand, which causes him to scream and push himself away from his now-dead partner to safety.
Then Silvana is with us, panting from the exertion she just did to get up here in record time. Suddenly, two other large men come around the corner and start shooting at us with assault rifles this time. Johanne pulls both Silvana and I back just in time, as the bullets hit around us, hitting the stairs and the wall just above us.
“Come on! Not far now,” she screams at the two of us.
We both decide this is a superb idea, and we start running behind her, keeping low so we don’t get hit. Just then, we hit a door, and Johanne just shoots the door handle off without bothering to check if it’s open. Might have been a smart move, as I am the last one, and I feel a bullet graze my upper shoulder just as my body clears the door frame.
“Fucking hell!” I scream in pain, falling over in the hallway.
“No time! Pain later,” Johanne screams at me, grabbing my arm, as Silvana grabs the other, and they start to drag me. I can hear Johanne whispering under her breath.
“312, 312, where the fuck are you?” she says as she looks at the door numbers we pass. “In here!” she finally says, stopping at the door that shows a small copper plate with the numbers 312.
Pulling off the little plaque in question, Johanne pulls out a flat key, puts the plate, which I now notice is slightly tacky, back and inserts the key into the door, and unlocks it. Opening the door, she all but shoves Silvana and me in. I fall onto the floor, writhing in pain. Fuck if that is a graze, I wouldn’t want to see what actually getting shot feels like, I think to myself!
Silvana is the one who closes the door and locks it. Then she turns to me and puts her hands over my shoulder.
“Mel al bah mae deou.”
I then feel a healing energy flowing from her to me, and the pain in my shoulder fades away. After about thirty seconds of her saying those words over and over, she stops.
“It’s the best I can do. I don’t have the power or strength you seem to have for healing, Brandon. But it was only a graze, though you will have a slight scar as it nicked off some skin,” she tells me with a slight smile. I can tell she is exhausted, as she is slow in her motions. Damn, I guess all those fireballs, and now this healing is taking a lot from her.
Looking up at Johanne to see how she is, I see her standing in the middle of the room, looking around in wonder. Not sure what she sees, I look around too, but all I see is a drab single room apartment. There is a small kitchenette to the right. With a single bed, a couch, and a television. All stuffed into this one room. The floor is laminate that has seen better times. It’s yellowed with age, so I can’t even tell what the original color was.
Not sure what she is seeing, I turn to ask Silvana, but she is in the same state. She is staring around the room with a stunned expression on her face. What the fuck are they looking at? Looking around again, I try to decipher what is so amazing about this room. I don’t get it. This place is clean, but it’s still a dive. Just then, we hear noises from outside. Then I hear a big voice yell.
“Shoot the doors down, find them, or our asses are dead.”
“Oh shit, ladies, I don’t know what the fuck you are staring at so lovingly, but we need to get the fuck out of here,” I say hurriedly to both of them.
That catches their attention. They both look down at me with a frown, but then Silvana’s face clears up.
“It’s all right. We are safe here. They won’t ever find us here,” she says confidently.
“And how do you know that?” I ask, unsure how she thinks big men with guns who seem to be going door to door won’t find us.
“Because I have no idea how, but we are inside the strongest Protection Circle I have ever seen,” she says in awe, looking around again.
What the fuck is a Protection Circle, I think to myself.
Chapter Eight
“Where the fuck did they go? We saw them come in here, and we have someone at the front entrance,” says a deep, grating voice.
“Don’t know, sir. We checked all the doors, and there is no one left alive, and we didn’t find them,” says another one.
“They can’t have gone far, for Fucksakes,” says the deep voice again, and then there is a crash on the wall. I am assuming it’s coming from him hitting it with his hand or fist.
“How is that possible?” I whisper to the girls.
“No need to whisper. We could yell, and they would not hear us,” Silvana says, but I can hear the awe in her voice.
“So what the hell is this Protection Circle?” I ask her in a soft voice, still unsure.
“It’s a circle that protects, dumbass,” Johanne says with a sneer. Seriously she is pissing me off. What is wrong with her? I mean, I get it. I drugged her. But at the time, she was a damn wolf! Tired of her shit, I growl at her, but what comes out is more of a heavy growl that an animal, well a wolf, would make. And somehow it feels like my hackles are up.
“Will you fuck off and stop pissing me off,” I growl at her.
Just then, I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look over, and it’s Silvana’s.
“Leave her alone, Brandon. I can answer your question,” she says softly with a smile, motioning me to the two-seater sofa. Looking over, Johanna has a confused look on her face, but is staring at the ground.
Once I am sitting down, I turn slightly sideways to look at Silvana.
“So, a Protection Circle is not technically a circle, as this one encompasses the room itself. It’s a magical area that is protected by what we call wards that can do unique things. The basic ones will make someone ignore the area. Some will scare someone away, making them fear others. Stronger ones will protect from detection, and others will even cause physical pain if someone comes in.” Here she stops and looks around in awe again, at what, I still have no idea.
“But this one is different. I am sure you have seen the looks on both of us,” and here she points to herself and Johanne, who is now sitting on the bed looking at me oddly. Shit, she is probably trying to figure out a way to pay me back for that comment I made earlier. “This one has so many wards and is so complex that I cannot even see them all. I can see wards like those I mentioned, but I also see anti-scrying, healing, confusing, and some I honestly cannot even guess at. Brandon, even we Elves do not have wards this complex. I cannot even imagine who did this! We are safe here.”
“But so what do we do? We just wait until they leave?” I ask her.
“No,” Johanne interjects quietly. I look over, and she has her head down and is not looking at us. Johanne then raises her head and looks at me with a sligh
t smile. You know she looks cute when she isn’t cussing at me or shitting on me. “I was only told to get you into this apartment, and all would be fine,” she continues, now unsure of her actions.
“So, is someone supposed to come to get him?” Silvana asks her.
“I honestly don’t know,” she says slowly.
“How did this person contact you to do what you are doing? To get Brandon and bring him here?” Silvana asks, pointedly now.
“Hmm, I’d rather not say,” she says, now looking back down at the floor. I can tell she is agitated.
“I would rather know, thank you. You just made us run here, and now we are stuck in an apartment building in downtown Orlando. I don’t know about you, but I would like to know who the owner of this apartment is,” Silvana says, crossing her arms angrily.
“I didn’t ask you to come, Elfy!” Johanne retorts back angrily.
“Whoa!” I say, holding my hand up before Silvana can answer back. “Honestly, I also would not mind knowing who sent you since it’s kind of changing my life,” I tell her with a soft smile.
She looks at me oddly at first, without answering. Getting up, she heads towards the window and looks outside. She stands there for a good solid minute, but honestly, I don’t think she really sees the outside view. Finally, she comes back and sits on the bed and takes a deep breath, like what she is about to say might upset us somehow.
“I was told to come to find Brandon through a dream,” she says and cringes, waiting for us to yell or scream at her, I guess.
I look at Silvana to see her reaction, but it’s not what I expect. Instead of mockery or ridicule or even disbelief, I see a thoughtful look on her face. Getting up from the sofa, she heads over and sits down next to Johanne. Johanne doesn’t move, but her head is still down.
“Is the voice you spoke to female, with a sultry, smoky voice that makes it hard for you to refuse her command?” Silvana asks quietly. What the fuck is she talking about? Voices in the head? That got a reaction out of Johanne because her head jerks up in surprise, and she looks at Silvana in shock.
“Yes!” she cries.
“Then it seems that Brandon has the same benefactor contacting two of us to make sure we get him out. In my dreams, I was told to get him and bring him to the Underworld if I had to. And it seems you were told about this amazing place,” she waves her hand around. “To keep him safe. Now the question is, what do we do? I was told once I got him to somewhere safe, they would reveal things.”
“I was told the same thing, but I don’t know what we need to do now,” Johanne says in frustration. “I got the fuck, I mean, him here. But after that, I was told to wait,” she says, looking at me to call her out for almost calling me a fucker. Instead, I decided to keep my mouth shut.
“And as I said I would, I keep my promises,” says a voice from the front door to the apartment.
Both women turn in shock at the voice, but as for me, it’s like an electric shock goes through my body. Without even noticing, I stand up and face the woman at the door. She was tall, even taller than me, and I wasn't short at 6 foot 4. She stood easily two inches taller than me. She was also very slim but graceful. She had long blond hair that reached down to her waist, but she was wearing it parted on both sides of her head, with bands of leather. She was a very beautiful woman, and you couldn't peg her age. Her presence, though, was very regal. She looked ageless, really.
“Who are you?” yells Johanne with her gun already out and pointed at our uninvited guest.
“Speak, or I shall kill you now!” yells Silvana with flames in her hands, about ready to throw them at her.
The woman looks at both of the girls with a gentle smile, but then speaks in a commanding voice that even I can feel the effects of, yet somehow I am able to throw it off. “Put your weapons away and sit down.” Just like that, Silvana’s flame goes out, and Johanne’s gun is put away, and both of them are again sitting on the bed, with shocked looks on their faces.
As for me, I am still looking at this woman in utter shock. I blurt the first thing that comes to mind.
“Mom?” I ask, confused and scared since my mother and father died in a fire over 11 years ago when I was in my twenties.
“Mom?!” both Silvana and Johanne yell at me in shock.
“Hello, Brandon, love. It’s been a long time,” says the woman who looks like my mother. She closes the door, but before she does, she tells someone outside. “We are not to be disturbed.”
Closing the door, she walks up to me. I am still standing there in total shock, just trying to process this. My mother, who died in a fire, is standing in front of me, alive. My brain right now isn’t even functioning correctly. She walks up to me till she is staring straight into my eyes. Few women could do that, but she was definitely one of them. I can see that she has aged some, but gracefully.
“Kiddo, I missed you,” she says with a gentle smile on her face, and she reaches up and touches my face. Well, I think stupidly, she isn’t a ghost. I can feel the warmth from her hand. I don’t know how, but somehow I can smell that this is my mother.
“But how?” I croak out, confused.
“Wish I could tell you the complete story right now, but I can’t Brandon. It will need to wait. The first thing we need to do is get out of here before they send reinforcements,” she growls that last part, and it makes my own hairs on the back of my neck raise up in fear.
Just who the fuck is my mom, or what? She seems to have the same power I do with words. But she tried it earlier on me, and while I felt the compulsion, I was able to fight it pretty quickly. Just what the fucking hell is going on here. She is still looking at me, and she smiles.
“I will tell you this; that while I am a Werewolf like you, I don’t have the power you do. But come, we have a ride waiting for us. I already have lookouts posted, and we are good, but we need to hurry. Once we are in the vehicle, I will explain more,” my mom says urgently. Grabbing my hand, she starts to pull me towards the door but then stops. Looking around me, she looks at Silvana and Johanne, and in that voice again says, “Come, you two are required still. You have not fulfilled your obligations.”
That causes both of them to shake their heads as if they were freed of something, and they both get up shakily. My mom, still holding my hand, heads outside the door. Once I get there, I see there is a huge black man in a tight-fitting suit. But Jesus, he is tall! He is a head taller than my mom!
“Trent, lead the way, tell the forward team we are on our way down,” she says to him.
“Yes, madam,” he says, then he lifts his hand to his mouth and talks into it. “Alpha team coming down. Prepare departure.”
What the fuck is happening here, I think, confused. My mom is back, she has a small army at her beck and call, and now I have this massive 6 foot 8 linebacker protecting my mom? Looking back at the two girls, with my mom still holding my hand and dragging me, I see they are just as confused as I am. Shrugging my shoulders at them, I only weakly smile at them and mouth, “No fucking clue.”
Just then, we hit the stairs and are heading back down the way we first came. I see two black minivans with the backside doors open in the alleyway behind the building. At one of them, there are two guys dressed in an odd uniform. It’s all black, but it looks like a one-piece jumper. But the weapons they are holding, those I know. They are holding Heckler & Koch guns. I can see the way they are pointing them that they are watching everywhere. Mom drags me to one where two of them are holding the doors open.
She gets in, and with little choice, I am pulled in with her. The seats, though, are configured differently than I expected. Where normally seats would face forward, the far back seats face ahead, but the middle seats face inward—an odd choice. But once I am in, I can see the convenience of it. My mom and I are now facing Silvana and Johanne. Trent has gotten into the front seat. Once the door is closed, the two security details run to the other vehicle and get in, followed by the rest of their counterparts, who haven’t
stopped looking around. What the FUCK, just who is my mom?
Once the vans are on their way, mom turns and looks at the two girls speculatively. She is tapping her finger on her chin. An old habit that I remember mom used to do when she was having an internal dialogue with herself, and not always good. Oh shit.
“Mom, they are cool,” I blurt out.
Turning to me, she appraises me as well. I feel like a kid again, and I did something wrong. After a minute of just looking into my eyes, she nods and turns back to the girls.
“You will both be required for the battle that is coming, and I will need both of your services,” she says to the girls.
They both look at each other, as if maybe the other might know what is going on, but when they see each other’s confused looks, they turn back around. And not surprisingly, it’s Johanne who asks the obvious question.
“Just who the bloody fuck are you,” she asks pointedly.
“Oh, I like her Brandon, she has spunk,” my mom says, tapping my leg like I picked her. But before Johanne can retort, my mom continues, “I am, as you have no doubt ascertained, Brandon’s mother. I am Lianne MacDermott, though I now go as Lianne Quinn, which is my true name,” she tells them both with a warm smile.
“Mom,” I start, but then shake my head, trying to get my thoughts in order. “What the hell is going on! You and dad are supposed to have died in the house fire 11 years ago. I mean, they found the bodies! I had to identify them for fuck sakes!”
“Don’t swear at your mother, dear,” she reproaches. “Now, you are correct, they burned the house. It was actually bombed, to be exact. But since you were almost 21 years of age, your father and I decided to make it look like we had died to keep you safe. Where do I even start? Silvana will understand more than you and Johanne, but like their Underworld is not actually in the ground, underground. It’s more like a different Realm. Well, where I am from is another Realm as well. And there was a war going on, and they sent someone to kill me. In the process, they failed, but we made it look like it worked. But we also threw them a false trail for you, making them think you were not our true son,” my mother says.
