Mystic Bonds

by C C Solomon

  Mae frowned and looked over to Bill who gave her a sympathetic face. She looked back to Erik. “I-I don’t know,” she whispered, a concern look on her face.

  I hoped we never had to find out.

  Chapter 22

  Several days of normalcy occurred before I was contacted in the middle of teaching a history class to a room of 11- to 13-year-olds.

  The African-American female teacher, who I knew only as Tricia, waved her hand for me to leave the room. I asked the class to quickly read over the rest of the chapter of the history book.

  “I’ll take over your class. You were summoned to the police station by Phillip,” she stated with wide eyes.

  My heart felt like it dropped to my feet. Had he finally found out I used magic too?

  “Did he say why?” I asked.

  Tricia quickly shook her head. “I didn’t talk to him directly, just someone from his staff. He said it was really important, though.”

  I nodded a thanks to her and left the building. The police station was walking distance to the school. About a ten-minute walk. Anxiousness made the walk seem more like thirty minutes.

  Once I got to the prison, an older white woman sitting at the front desk told me to head back to the cell area. She mentioned that was where Phillip and “the others” were, confusing me even more.

  Once I got to the basement cell room, I found my friends, Phillip, Carter, and Seth standing in front of a cell staring at someone. I walked closer, eyebrows furrowed in confusion and looked inside the cell at a man I’d never seen before.

  He was an older white male with thinning gray hair and wire-rimmed glasses.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Phillip smiled at me. “We caught someone who was at the Pittsburg hospital.”

  I walked closer to the cell. “You’re actually from the Pittsburg hospital?” I asked.

  The man, sitting on a bench, hung his head, forearms resting on his knees. He didn’t respond.

  “Answer her,” Phillip commanded, slapping the bars.

  The man nodded his head slowly.

  I looked to Phillip. “How’d you find him?”

  “With the help of a couple of my witches. The trace was very bare so that’s why it took so long. I’m guessing these people have a cloaking spell of some sort. One of the witches did her daily locator spell and got a hit. We found him at the Pittsburg prison. He was picking up something he left behind.”

  I looked back at the man. “Who are you?”

  The prisoner didn’t respond.

  Phillip sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Cabrón, if you don’t answer this woman…” he began.

  The man looked up. “My name is Mark Flint,” he glanced over to Phillip with worried eyes. He was clearly scared of him. What had Phillip done? Mark didn’t look particularly beat up.

  “What did you do at the prison?” I asked. I wasn’t certain I believed this guy was part of the Pittsburg group. He didn’t look even remotely familiar.

  “I was a chemist. I helped make the serum.”

  “What?” Charles thundered. “You’re behind all of this?”

  Mark’s eyes went wide behind his glasses. “No, no, no, no,” he sputtered, sitting upright. “I just make it from the formula I was given. I didn’t invent this. Someone else did. This is bigger than Pittsburg.”

  “I remember David said that. He said there were more places,” I stated.

  Mark nodded, scooting to the edge of the bench. “There are a few camps on the east coast. They’re like the Pittsburg hospital. We house paranormals, take their blood, and make the serum.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then we-we sell the serum to other humans. It’s one of the best things to barter with out there. People want it, to be able to fight you people or take over human towns. A few people think it will aid them in becoming president.”

  “Of course, they do,” Charles muttered.

  “How many camps are there? Who’s the leader of it all?” I asked, a tightness in my chest. The range of this was much more than I could have imagined.

  “You will tell her the truth,” Phillip said, leaning against the bars, a neutral look on his face.

  “We’ve got four camps. Well, three, now that we had to close the Pittsburg camp. One in Long Island, one in Charlotte, and a third in Chicago. David is in charge of it all, if one can be in charge. Every base lead is fighting for control, but David has the most control. Long Island is the largest base but the guy who runs it is an idiot. David controls the scientists who make the serum. The other bases just collected blood and gave out supplies. When David moved our base to another base, he demoted the leader there. He’s probably going to have to kill him because the guy wasn’t too happy about it and might cause trouble,” Mark replied in an agitated voice.

  “David didn’t say he was the leader,” I stated. “Where did you move the Pittsburg base? Where are the other paranormals?”

  “Long Island,” Phillip answered.

  “Okay. Let’s go, then,” Charles said.

  “Let’s go scout it out first. We have to know how many we’re up against,” Erik stated, standing beside me with folded arms.

  Phillip shook his head. “I already have people scouting it out now.”

  “They’re already there?” I asked.

  Phillip nodded.

  “It’s only 11 a.m. How’d they get there so fast? How long have you had this guy? You had to get to Pittsburg, then come back here. Then send people to New York.”

  “I didn’t want to disturb you if we were wrong, so my people teleported there.”

  “What? How?” I asked.

  “A spell. We have a large database here of spells we’ve either found, discovered, or developed and a good number of witches who can make things happen. Teleportation isn’t something every witch can do, it takes a certain magic level. I’m sure you can do it. I’ll teach you the spell but it is very draining.”

  “There are magic levels?” I heard Charles whisper to no one in particular. I had the same question.

  “Well, I can’t thank you enough,” I replied, truly grateful.

  “Right, so your people give us the coordinates to the Long Island prison and we go back to Hagerstown and mobilize. And I’m sure the government town in New York will help us,” Erik stated.

  “We don’t need them,” Seth said. He’d been quiet up until now, leaning against a wall near the exit.

  “We?”

  Seth nodded. “Yeah, we’ll help. We’ve got to support our kind.”

  “We appreciate the help,” I said, looking over to Phillip, “But Hagerstown is coming too. They loss people to this group and they have an interest in not letting this type of situation go unchecked. It’s how they instill faith and support for the new government.”

  “And this whole town is not going to fight with us. Hagerstown has soldiers,” Erik added.

  “Although you have gifts, you can’t forget that these humans are enhanced with that paranormal potion,” Phillip reminded him, voice even. “So, it’s going to be more difficult than you may think.”

  “Which we can fight as well, because we have a weapon for that,” Seth replied with his cocky smile. We all stared at him. “Come on... I know you want to ask,” Seth said in a sing-song voice.

  “Ask what? I am lost,” Felix whispered to Charles, visibly frustrated.

  “Dear God, what is the secret weapon?” Faith asked, shaking her head.

  Seth clapped his hands and then pointed at her with both hands. “Glad you aren’t afraid to ask. Farrah, is it?”

  What could only be described as fire rimmed her eyes. “Faith,” she said through gritted teeth. I wasn’t sure if she was smiling or snarling but it didn’t look nice.

  “Faith! How appropriate. Anyway, we knew about this potion before you guys told us. We’ve run into some of this David asshole’s customers. We’ve seen these enhanced humans in action. Some of them come from your own friendly gove
rnment towns. They’ve been doing this for a year, maybe two. This operation could spread wider than we think. Could be the whole country, maybe the world. You force a tech mage or witch to get you access to a plane or teleport you or you just use a ship and the world becomes a smaller place again. A place that humans can run and ruin.”

  “Hagerstown didn’t know about this, they’re good people,” Faith countered, face in a confused frown.

  Phillip shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t, which then also means the government isn’t as together as you’d like to believe. Not all of them are playing by the same rules. Anyway, we decided to fight fire with fire and had our good doctor Bill develop several antidotes. They will, in short, prevent the potions from ever working again, no matter how much they drink. It’s not a one size fits all but the blood potions that the humans take aren’t either. Certain blood from certain creatures give certain effects. Of course, we haven’t encountered every type of paranormal out there but we have many here and the elixirs can, at the very least, temporarily affect the enhanced humans.”

  “And we put the potions in syringes or syringe guns for up close battles,” Carter added, standing beside Seth. “It just has to get in their system like a vaccine.”

  “Easier said than done,” Erik stated.

  Carter nodded. “I was a chemist before all of this and I’ve been working with Bill to try to find different ways that are less up close and personal to get the antidote to work. And there’s something else to consider.” He looked to Phillip, who nodded.

  He had to get permission to share information? Phillip had some kind of control over people.

  “If you get stuck, it will mute your powers for a while. Not permanently, but it can last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, depending on your power level and the type of potion you were stuck with.”

  “They had a similar serum in the prison. That’s how our powers were muted and we couldn’t fight back. We’d get stuck every other day to make sure it didn’t wear off. I’m sure they have it in weapon form as well, so we have to be careful of more than friendly fire,” I pointed out.

  “From what I’m hearing, it sounds like this trip’s going to be dangerous,” Felix surmised. “Can we have brunch before we go? I fight best on a full stomach.”

  By the end of our meeting, we’d heard from the scouters sent to New York. They’d determined that between the community and the prison, there were over one thousand people there. Around two hundred of which were prisoners. We decided to set off in three hours. Felix got his brunch wish, Erik was to fill in Hagerstown by email and make sure they were mobilized, and we agreed to teleport there. Seth went to ready the Silver Spring fighters. Carter and some of my group went to prep antidotes. We left Mark in his cell for a later determination.

  Finally, we were going to get our friends.

  Chapter 23

  Teleporting felt like one of those amusement park rides where you were shot up into the air and dropped back down. People used to actually wait in lines and pay money to have their insides feel like they were tumbling all around and here I was, doing it for free. I preferred tea cup rides. No stomach-churning moves or soul-snatching drops. Just nice, breezy fun. I knew that I would be taking a car out of New York if, no, when, I survived. They told us we would get used to teleporting, but I wasn’t convinced.

  We were tossed about five miles away from the prison in an abandoned cul-de-sac far away from the nearest community connected to the prison. Perhaps “tossed” was too strong a word. I did land on my feet but my insides certainly felt tossed around and I shamefully retched up what little food I’d eaten that morning. I wasn’t the only one so affected, and Charles comically threatened to sue. Who, we would never know.

  The Hagerstown soldiers were less than an hour out when we arrived and the Silver Spring fighters had set up base in a few of the houses.

  We attacked in groups. I was left as one of the last waves, along with Lisa, Felix, and Charles. I didn’t like the waiting. I was ready to fight. And fighting came soon enough.

  By the time my group arrived at the prison, there was no surprise and we were falling straight into the battle.

  The prison was actually a small liberal arts college and we headed to the dorms where we learned the captured were being held. Most of the fighting was in the other areas of the campus. While we focused on freeing people, the other groups would be fighting off in the distance and, hopefully, distracting the community from what we were doing.

  Clearing the area of the guards wasn’t as traumatic as I thought it would be. I was able to take out guards without killing them by utilizing a paralyzing spell. Of course, that would make them prisoners and Silver Spring was more into the take-no-prisoners business. Hagerstown, however, was willing to handle those enemies left surviving.

  “I don’t see Jared,” Charles shouted amongst the chaos. “I don’t see any of our friends!”

  He was right. I hadn’t seen them either. “Maybe they aren’t in the dorms.”

  Lisa ran up to us. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  “Lisa, can you help the folks who aren’t fighters get out of the campus and to safety?”

  Before she could answer, the sound of gunshots rang in the air. Several prison guards, positioned down the hall to our right, were shooting at us. Two paranormals fell to the floor, hit. Lisa threw out her hands wide and a barrage of bullets bounced off the invisible wall of the protective shield she created; surrounding us from the right.

  Charles spun his index finger in a circle and the fallen bullets rose and zoomed back at the prison guards. They attempted to dodge the oncoming bullets but were not fast enough. The guards were hit and killed.

  “Don’t shoot!” cried a guard walking around the corner. He was a black man with long dreadlocks.

  “Reggie!” I shouted.

  He frowned. “Amina?” he questioned with confused eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “We’re freeing those we left behind.”

  He nodded, looking around. “Right.”

  Charles stood next to me. “Who is this dude?” he questioned.

  “He helped me escape the prison. He’s a good guy,” I explained before turning back to Reggie. “Are you going to help us?”

  Reggie nodded. “Of course, I will. Whatever you need from me.”

  “Good. There’s a place for you back in the government town, I’m sure of it.”

  Reggie shook his head quickly. “I’ll do what I can here, but I think it’s best I just go on my own way after we get everyone safely out. I don’t need to remind these people of what they’ve been through.”

  I sighed. “Are you sure I can’t change your mind on that?”

  Reggie gave me a sad smile. “You’re a good person, Amina. I’m glad you got out and could help these people. The world needs more good folks like you.”

  I walked over and gave him a tight hug. “If you ever need to reach me, here’s my email address,” I stated. I whispered a basic conjuring spell and a slip of paper with my email address appeared in my hand.

  Reggie looked at it with wide eyes before taking the paper and putting it in his pocket. He gave a nod and then turned to the huddled paranormals, who were looking at us with fear and confusion. “I’ll help get you guys out.”

  I looked to Lisa. “Lisa, please go with them. Can you keep your protection shield up while moving?” I asked.

  She nodded. “Yes, I’ve been practicing with my magic. I can teleport too,” she replied, before turning and beginning her teleportation of children and elderly paranormals. “Lock hands everyone. I’ll see how many of you I can get out in one go.”

  “Take the children first,” Reggie stated. “I’ll guard the others until you return.”

  Lisa nodded and disappeared with a collection of children.

  “Amina? Charles?” came a familiar voice.

  I spun around and spotted Chelsea coming down the hall with a few other freed paranormals. I rushed over to h
er and we embraced in a tight hug.

  “I’m so happy you’re okay!” I cried, pulling back from the hug.

  She nodded, a look of relief on her face. “Did you do this? Did you bring people to help us?” Chelsea asked, tears threatening to fall down her pale cheeks.

  I nodded. “Charles and I.”

  Charles appeared to my right and rushed to hug Chelsea.

  “I didn’t think we’d see you again,” she said in a choked voice.

  “I’m so sorry we left you behind,” I said, grabbing her hand.

  Chelsea quickly shook her head. Her frizzy reddish-blond curls framed her face almost like a lion’s mane. It was long and tangled and for the first time, I noticed her clothes were dirty along with her face and hands. She looked even skinner than the last time I’d seen her. It was clear they were punishing her for our escape. Guilt stabbed me even more.

  “No, I understand. You probably wouldn’t have made it out if you came looking for me. I’m just so grateful you came back. And with reinforcements. I thought when we moved it was over for us.”

  “Do you know where Jared is?” Charles asked.

  Chelsea looked over to him, her eyes suddenly filled with sadness. She shook her head. “He didn’t make it. They… They killed him. When you escaped, he was murdered as punishment for trying to get out and to set an example for us to stay in line. They were saying if we escaped or tried to escape, then someone close to us and left behind would be killed.”

  I put a hand to my mouth and shook my head. I felt like I was gutted. I pictured Jared’s jolly face in my head. His laughter when he told inappropriate tales of his life in the Pre-world with groupies, his scowling at the injustices around him, and most importantly, his selflessness on the day that Charles and I escaped. I would never be able to repay him now. We had to free everyone. His life would not go in vain.

  “I’m sorry, Amina,” Reggie whispered. “I tried to get him to reconsider killing him.”

  I shook my head. “You could only do so much without getting implicated.”