Fighting Destiny (Central Coven) (38 page)

Dean did not wait idly by and contemplate the healing time of a vampire, like I was doing. He immediately turned his attention to another male, turned in his twenties.  He was large, muscular, and frightening.  It appeared Alexander had been busy creating himself a goon squad. 

The vampire bared his fangs, and turned to face the advancing cougar.  Dean snarled and placed his much larger canines on display.  The guttural growl he released vibrated off of the rocks below.  With a leap, Dean landed on the vamp, and tore open his throat.  Finally, Anita snapped out of her thrall, “Thanks, darling.” 

Two other vampires began to back away, sensing a worse fate faced them.  Anita, in her usual manner, laughed and said, “Man, are you in for it now.”  Wisely, the two vampires blazed off into the trees.  Anita’s image blurred as she chased after them.  Dean climbed into the branches where he had the biggest advantage.

The two escapees didn’t get far before Dean and Anita caught up to them.  They screamed before limbs began flying through the trees.  An arm landed near my feet.  I had to fight my gag reflex, and I used my wand to send it far away. 

Anita ran straight toward the edge of the basin.  She jumped at the very last nanosecond, and appeared to fly through the air.  She landed in a crouch next to Finn and I.  When she stood up, she revealed how much of a mess she was.  She had blood smeared across her cheek, drying in her hair, on her hands, and soaking into her clothes.  She appeared to have bathed in it. Anita spoke, oblivious to her appearance.  “I told Dean to stay up top and cover Grey.  If I stay up there I’ll probably just get in the way.” 

I gawked at her.  “What?” she said.  “Well, you look kinda gross,” I answered.  “Yeah, well this is war.  Not a tea party,” she replied brusquely.  “You’re right. I’m sorry,” I apologized.  “Okay then.  Let’s kick some more ass, so we can get this over with, huh?” Anita suggested.  “Sounds good to me.”

“Anita, how many vampires are left up there?” I asked.  “I don’t know for sure.  I ripped into several.  Of course, if Simone helps them they will be back in fighting shape soon enough.  If she doesn’t, the sunlight will finish the job in the morning. They are mortally wounded.  But, while I was hunting them, I sensed something else out there watching me, waiting.  Chloë, it is scarier than Simone.”

“I know. I feel it too. We need to figure this out now.  We can’t let them know my father is here. If Simone runs, the binding spell could be ruined.  For now we need to do this with out Eli, and get ready to face anything.” I told Anita and Finn.

“What do we need to do?” she asked.  “I don’t have the juice to do this by myself.  There are magical numbers, three, five and seven.  I’m still learning myself, but I know all covens are these sizes.  We are going to cast a modified scribing spell. Only, we don’t know what we are looking for exactly.  That is why I need the two of you.  I need the power boost.”

“What do you need us to do?” Finn asked.  “Once we join hands, you’ll both just know exactly what to do.”  We stepped inside the circle we formed to bind Simone’s powers. It functioned as a giant magical battery.

In the middle we joined hands, forming a smaller inner circle.  A web constructed of glowing silvery magic shot out of the ground and wrapped itself over our bodies.  Together we rose off the ground and slowly began to spin counter clockwise. 

With our combined magic we could sense all of the living beings near us.  I was able to fine-tune our vision to see only magical beings.  I saw Simone running through the trees, laughing as if she didn’t have a worry.  I saw Alexander running with Grey only steps behind him.  Alexander didn’t look nearly as carefree.  I saw Dean chasing down more vampires.

Connected as we were, Anita didn’t need to speak to me telepathically.  She felt worried. She thought all of the vampires were gone.  We could see, a dozen more were waiting, hidden in the hills of the Manashtash.  How could they have evaded us?  Perhaps Anita, Dean, Finn and I yes.  We are young, but with Grey and my father working with us, how could this be? 

I pushed harder, and felt our magic surge.  Finn drew magic from the earth, and all the power of the elements swirled around me. I felt as though I was home for an instant, safe, but only for an instant.  

Suddenly the feeling I was missing something solidified inside me.  I sensed a familiar magical signature, and knowledge slammed into me. God, how had I missed this?  Simone I knew how to fight, but Angeline?  My own sister?

I collapsed. The burden was too great.  I heard the voice carry down from the top of the bluff.  “What is the matter little sister? Can’t handle being bested by the one who is supposed to be weaker, less powerful?  Do you know how annoying it has been to take care of my replacement?  Well no more.  If mother won’t give me the
Council
I’m going to take it.  As if her precious Chloë could stop me!” Angeline shouted.

My mind rapidly re-evaluated our situation. Angeline wouldn’t have an army without Simone. We needed to turn them on each other.  But Angeline was a witch, not as easy to fight as a necromancer.  Her father was a second rate wizard that my mother left centuries before meeting my father.  I think Angeline never got over the fact that I was born more powerful than she could ever hope to be.  It was time to show her how much more.

Anita was nudging me with her shoe trying to rouse me.  I opened my eyes, and stood up carefully.  “Who is that?  She looks a lot like your mom,” Anita said in a whisper.  I guess they didn’t hear what I heard.  She must have shouted at me telepathically.  “That is my sister, Angeline,” I answered simply.

“I don’t understand.  I thought you were closer to your sister than your mother.  Didn’t she raise you?” Finn asked.  “Yes.  I’m confused too.  The Angeline I knew was gentle, funny, unconcerned and untouched by the politics of the supernatural world.  She is a wife and a mother.  I guess, she didn’t escape being a Du Lac after all.”

“Can you do this?  Fight your own sister?” Anita asked worriedly.  “She isn’t leaving me a choice is she?  Angeline betrayed me, attacked the people I love.  That backstabber is going to pay for this.  It’s time she learned, I give better than I get.”  Anita smiled a frightening, sharp, smile with her fangs fully extended.  “I believe you. I don’t think I have ever seen your eyes that shade of grass green.” 

The ground began to rumble under our feet. The basalt wall behind us began to crumble and slide.  “Finn what are you doing?” I asked nervously.  I examined the cliffs.  It looked like we were about to be buried under tons of volcanic rock. 

“C’mon, that isn’t me.  This is sloppy. I’m still learning, but I’m better than this,” he answered.  “Okay, you’re right, I’m sorry.” I looked around at our location at the bottom of the basin.  “We are sitting ducks down here, we have to move,” I panicked.

“Trust yourself,” the wind whispered.  My confidence grew, and I realized it was my father.  I took a deep breath, and grabbed Finn and Anita’s hands.  “Finn can you hide us in a fog?” I asked.  “No problem.  Thick fog coming up.”

Finn’s eyes paled to a light, almost white, blue.  At the same time a thin mist began to gather around his feet.  His eyes brightened marginally, and the fog thickened. He dropped our hands, exhaled sharply and pushed his arms out forcefully in front of him.  The action sent a wall of opaque fog filling the basin and tumbling into the tree line on the cliffs above us.

I turned to Anita, and held out my hand with a closed fist.  I opened it to reveal a flickering green spark.  Anita nodded; closed her brown eyes firmly, scrunching her brows in concentration, and re-opened them to reveal burning bronze.  In her hand she held a matching bronze spark.

We smashed our hands together, and an explosion of awareness rushed through all of us.  As the only descendent of an original supernatural, I was not only a witch. I had the powers of a necromancer, and the bloodlines of shape shifters.  I could use my origins to connect all of us together in a spell.  Vampires were a creation of necromancers, but I was too new to using these powers, so I couldn’t link to Grey, but Anita could. 

When our magical sparks, the symbol of our supernatural essence, combined our coven became one living being.  All of our senses were connected together. There were cool effects that made it easier to see each other from far away.  Grey’s black eyes glowed like polished onyx, like they were lit from behind.  Dean’s cougar eyes glowed a fierce yellow-green.  The most important result was Finn could attack, and not hurt our two members on top of the cliff.

Finn reached out to Anita and I. He bowed his head in concentration.  We began to spin, slowly at first, and then nauseatingly fast.  It was all I could do to maintain my grasp on his hand.  Finn continued to concentrate, while we rose into the air, spinning in a magical tornado.  All of our magic wove together flashing and flickering, creating a dizzying display of flashing lights.  I tried to shove it into Finn, to increase his abilities, but the harder I tried the brighter and faster the lights became.

On my left I could feel Anita’s nausea. She was as sick as I was. On my right I felt Finn’s concentration and confidence.  He squeezed our hands and we both closed our eyes at the same time.  Then I saw what he was doing.  On the cliff, boulders hurdled through the air, and trees bent clawing and thrashing at Angeline, Simone and their vampire army. 

Simone screamed an ear-piercing shriek. I could feel them guarding something.   I opened my senses further, and became flooded with power from very mature powerful supernaturals.  I knew then she had no intention of surrendering.  I also knew we had no choice, except complete victory.  The balance between the natural and supernatural world was in jeopardy.  There wouldn’t be a compromise to end this battle.

I could feel Angeline become aware of my intrusion into their activities.  I quickly snapped my mind shut.  The fog Finn created began to twist and turn in different animate shapes. Simone finally made her move, and she tapped into our magic to do it.

Suddenly Dean, Finn and Anita screeched in agony.  It happened so quickly we fell hard to the ground.  Spirits of all types materialized out of the rapidly disappearing fog.  They gathered what substance was left over from the mist to form their own spectral bodies.

The cacophony of sounds buzzed like angry hornets, dozens of radios, and an angry mob all chattering simultaneously.  The sound grew gradually louder, until the wailing was intense and ear shattering.  Finn and Anita writhed on the ground, barely conscious. 

Anita’s nose began to bleed, and a tiny trickle of blood started to come out of Finn’s left ear.  Their bodies began to convulse, as the spirits slid over their bodies, and wrapped around their limbs.  They moaned, continuing to suffer, despite being unconscious. 

All of a sudden Finn drew a ragged breathe of air.  He forced his eyes open, and clumsily lifted himself off of the ground.  The howling intensified, as ghosts raced past us in a chaotic display of unrest and torment.

Weak, and struggling to remain conscious, Finn lifted his head and stared at me with his deep blue eyes.  His face was smeared with dirt from his fall to the ground, and burned by the late night frost.  His muscles quaked with exhaustion.  Still, he was determined to persevere. 

Finn shouted at the swarming phantoms, “We are not your enemies!  The necromancer lied to you. Listen to me, as protectors of the afterlife pay close attention to what you see here tonight.  If I were an enemy of the world you loved, the world that you swore to protect for the generations you left behind, would I do this?”  Finn finished speaking and placed his hands on the ground, to healing the damage the battle caused to the land. 

Tiny buds of grass pushed themselves out of the semi-frozen ground.  A warm breeze tossed around the scent of wild flowers.  The sound of bugs and birds chirping whispered in the background. 

The growing grass spread out to a thick carpet underneath Anita.  A ring of tiny white and yellow flowers encircled her.  She was encapsulated in unseasonable spring warmth, in the middle of November.  She regained consciousness, and quickly realized what Finn was doing to please the spirits.

“I was once like you,” Anita began.  “Or at least I thought that I was.  I was a teenage girl, with normal teenage worries.  Midterms, boy problems, curfew, graduation, college deadlines.  You know normal, every day, boring problems.  I had no idea my father was a wizard.  I was concerned about my salvation. I went to church, most Sundays.  Until, I went to a party with my best friend. I met that monster up there, Alexander, and he changed me into…well…it took me a long time to come to terms with being part-vampire.  Thank God for Grey.  I would never have been able to deal with this on my own.  And, thank all of you for protecting the after life.  Even if I can never go there, I’m glad it is going to be protected for my mother.  You will keep her safe for me,” Anita said with a single tear trailing down her cheek. 

Anita’s speech, and Finn’s display swayed the spirits to see the truth. They bowed solemnly to me, and they walked into the gateway.  The ghost of a little girl, dressed in the traveling clothes of the old West, walked up to Anita.  She reached out her tiny hand and wiped away Anita’s tear.  Then she grabbed her mother’s hand, but before joining the other’s in the afterlife, she turned once more and said, “Don’t worry.  See we are all back together eventually, one way or another.”  The girl looked up to her mother, who nodded in approval, and they both disappeared.