Blood of Egypt (Witch Fairy Book 8) (12 page)

Chapter 22

“I believe it does,” Kallen says, slightly out of breath from the impact.

“Are you okay?” I ask him, rising to my feet.

“I believe I may have a broken rib or two,” he says, walking a little hunched towards the gazebo steps.

I look around at the others who are also slowly picking themselves up off the ground. “Is anyone else hurt?” I ask.

“I may have a concussion,” Josh says rubbing the back of his head.

“I’ll fix that,” Eliana tells them and she wraps her arms around him.  A small windstorm starts around them as she holds him close.  I can feel her magic healing him.

The agent is kneeling next to Jacqueline.  “Are you able to stand?” he asks her.

She looks pale as she says, “My hip does not seem to want to move.”

Great, now I’m breaking old ladies’ hips.  Not exactly on everyone’s list of things to do on their honeymoon.  I give Kallen an apologetic look, because I’m going to make him wait a moment before I heal him, and kneel down next to Agent Amman, who is hovering over Jacqueline. “This might hurt for a moment,” I tell her as I lay my hand on her hip.

“What are you about to do?” She asks in her heavy accent as she pushes my hand away. “You are a practitioner of dark magic.  I do not want you to heal me with it.”

What?!  What is she talking about?  Then it dawns on me that she might think that because I just performed a gray magic spell.  Some would say there’s no such thing as gray magic; that there’s only black or white magic.  Obviously this woman knows little bit more than Agent Amman had given her credit for when it comes to magic.  Even he is looking down at her in surprise.

“I don’t usually perform magic like this,” I say defensively.  For some reason, it’s important to me that she understands this.  Perhaps it’s the evil eye she’s giving me that might not have magic behind it but it’s still a little spooky, like she can see right through me.  “I only did this spell to help Agent Amman.”

Jacqueline looks up at him.  “Is this true?” She asks.

Agent Amman looks from me to Jacqueline and then back to me before answering.  “I have only just met her, but I believe she is telling the truth,” he says and the look in his eye tells me that he’d better be right or he will find a way to hurt me.

Wow, this is a tough crowd.  Ignoring her objections, I place my hand on Jacqueline’s hip again and send magic forth and begin to heal her, watching her face grimace in pain as the bone and soft tissue knit back together.  I’m pretty sure she’s cursing me and my future children at this point.  Fortunately it only takes about two minutes to heal her, hopefully not enough time for her to curse my future grandchildren as well.

Satisfied that she’s healed, I stand up and turn back to Kallen.  He’s sitting on the gazebo steps still holding his side and gasping for breath in way that tells me that one of his ribs may have punctured his lung.  I probably should’ve healed him first.

I sit down next to him and pull him into my arms.  As quickly as I can, I heal him.  I hate watching him in pain through the process, but I’m so relieved when I know that his body is once again strong and healthy.

“Thank you,” he says with lips that are still a little blue from lack of oxygen.  He uses them to kiss my cheek and I smile up at him.

“What now?” I ask.

He smiles. “Once the spell locates the area she’s in, you will be compelled to travel in that certain direction.  We will follow to where the spell guides you and hopefully that will be close enough for Eliana to work her magic.”

While he’s speaking, I start to feel my magic, for lack of a better word, touch things.  I feel it spreading out from the house, through traffic, around buildings, across the Nile and through the city.  Then I feel its pull.  Kallen is right; I am literally compelled to follow my magic.  Almost as if in a dream, I start walking.  I walk through the house and out onto the street and keep going, oblivious to what anyone else is doing. 

“Xandra,” Kallen says grabbing my arm, “wait for Josh to get the car.”

That means that I would have to stop following my magic; how can he expect me to do that before I’ve found what I’m looking for?  In the back of my mind, I know how crazy that sounds, but I feel helpless against the power of my own magic.  I cannot stop until I find what I’ve lost.  Even if, technically, I wasn’t the one who lost it.

“I’ll get the car and catch up with you guys,” Josh says.  It must be apparent to the rest of them, as well, that I’m not going to stop because Eliana and Agent Amman have both caught up with us now.

It just takes a minute for Josh to pull up next to us in the Land Rover.  Kallen opens the front passenger door for me and I climb in, impatient to be moving again.  Kallen encourages me to move over and then climbs in beside me.  I glower at him, then Eliana and Agent Amman for taking so long to get into the back seat and close the doors.  Before they’re even buckled, I’m pointing in a certain direction and ordering Josh to drive that way.

We do this for the next twenty minutes weaving in and out of cars in different areas of the city, both old and new.  But no matter how far we go, it never seems far enough. Frustration is growing inside me because I have not found what I’m looking for.  I am so on edge that the tone of my voice is getting sharper and shorter as I shout out directions.  Fortunately, Josh is laid back enough to ignore it.  I should take lessons from him on that; it’s a handy personality trait to have when magic is involved.

Then it stops.  The magic stops pulling me, but my mind still doesn’t feel clear.  As a matter of fact, it feels murkier than ever.  It’s like I’m trying to swim through a river of mud.  I know there must be another side, but I can’t get there by sight; I can only keep swimming and hope that I eventually reach it. 

I assume this means that we are somewhat close to agent Amman’s family, but I have no idea how close.  Hopefully within Eliana’s range of sensing evil.

“Why have we stopped?” Agent Amman asks.  “Are they near?”

I wish I had a better answer for him but I don’t.  “I don’t know.”

“Then the spell has not worked?”  To hear the anguish in this distinguished man’s voice is heart wrenching.

“We must be close,” Kallen says.  “As I explained earlier, it is simply that the spell cannot pinpoint an exact location.”

“Eliana, are you able to sense anything?” Josh asks.

Eliana already has her eyes closed and is concentrating, trying to pick up whatever signal she feels when evil is around her.  I really hope we are close enough for her to feel it.  When her eyes snap open and she turns her head to look out the left side Land Rover, all of our hopes rise in anticipation of finding agent Amman’s family.

Looking out the same side of the Land Rover, I see a car approaching.  We’re in an unquestionably poor area of Cairo with overcrowded tenements and litter strewn over the roads and walkways. There are not many vehicles, but the ones here barely seem drivable.  That is why it so noticeable when the sleek red sports car drives towards us.  It obviously doesn’t belong.

“Are those the kidnappers?” Josh asks.

Eliana does not respond.  She opens the door and steps out of the vehicle, making the rest of us scramble to follow.  The red car is stopped and its occupants are also getting out.  There are two men and a woman.  One man is dressed in a dark blue western suit with slicked black hair that is pasted to his scalp with oil and black shoes that gleam as much as his hair. The other man is wearing a hegab, a traditional Islam headscarf, but under that he is wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Both men looked to be in their early thirties. The woman looks younger, probably mid-to-late twenties.  Her clothing may be a little less modest than most women here that I’ve seen, but she is stylish in her loose fitting, cream colored dress pants and peach colored silk blouse that is sheer enough to give a pretty good picture of what’s underneath.  Around her neck and wrists are strands of gold and her diamond earrings can be seen through her light brown hair.  They catch the light, making it seem as if she has an aura around her.  The three begin to walk along the broken sidewalk toward us.

“Why are you here?” Eliana asks the trio.  Straight to the point, just like me.  I like her.

“This power that I feel in the air, it does not come from you.” Obviously the woman isn’t much for idle chat either.

“Why do you care?” Josh asks.  I’m sure he knows why the trio cares, but he’s just trying to annoy them.  Maybe it’ll get them to go away.  I doubt it.

“It comes from her,” the man wearing the hegab says, his finger pointing at me.  His English is even more heavily accented then Jacqueline’s.  They must be pretty good Witches to be able to sense the origin of my magic.

I try to look innocent, but I don’t think they’re buying it.  Ignoring Eliana now, they start walking again, but also like me, Eliana doesn’t like to be ignored.  A sudden windstorm blows them back almost all the way to their car and a bolt of lightning strikes the ground dangerously close to their feet.  It was a small bolt of lightning, just meant to scare them.  But still, it was a bolt of lightning.  She definitely has style.

The man in the hegab begins to mutter something under his breath and from what I know about Witches, that’s never a good sign.  I’m guessing Kallen agrees with me as sudden rush of magic flies towards the man who finds himself gagged with a sock and what looks like duct tape.  I’m pretty sure they don’t have duct tape in the fairy realm. Kallen must have gotten that idea from our house in Colorado.  For the man’s sake, I hope Kallen chose to put a clean sock in his mouth.  I surreptitiously look at Kallen’s feet to try to see if he’s suddenly missing a sock.  I can’t tell.

Under the corner of my eye I see Josh smirk, but Agent Amman is not amused at all. Pulling his badge from his jacket, he walks towards the trio who no longer look as cocky or self-assured as they once did.  “You are interfering with government business,” Agent Amman informs them in a voice that says ‘I would like nothing better than to throw you in jail and take out every annoyance I have ever felt in my entire life on you.’

I’m not sure what kind of reputation the Egyptian government has, but there are now three sets of brown eyes looking very wary of the agent.  “I did not know magic had become the business of the government,” the woman says, brushing a minuscule amount of dirt off her cream colored pants.  I’m guessing she’s the type that cares a lot about her appearance.  Probably not her biggest concern right now.

The man in the suit tries to be a little more covert when he starts mumbling a spell by turning his head.  Either he has the mentality of an ostrich or he thinks we’re really, really stupid.  Either way, he suddenly finds himself dangling from his fancy shoes.  I’m not sure what he’s saying in Arabic, but I am pretty sure it’s not a spell.

The woman’s magic must be the strongest because with just one or two uttered words, a spell that I’m pretty sure would knock agent Amman out, at least that’s what it tastes like, flies towards him.  That’s the closest thing to describing what it’s like to recognize other magical beings that I can think of.  I thought Kallen was just being annoying when he said that when we first met, but it’s really true.

Without lowering the man in the suit even a centimeter, I throw up a wall of magic in front of the agent, preventing her spell from getting anywhere near him.  “You know, I have to say that this is fun and all showing you how much more magic we have than you, but we’re actually in the middle of something.  So we would really appreciate it if you would just go away.”