Spellbound & Hellhounds, page 13
part #1 of Coven Chronicles Series
Leon cracked a smile then. “He should be just as light as a feather then, he has a grin a mile wide!”
Doublechecking what was mentioned, Vanessa noted the perfectly grand and goofy smile that graced Bobo’s mouth, and she burst into laughter. It was a deep laughter that rolled up from the belly and sent zips of energy coursing through her chest. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she noticed that she hadn’t chuckled like that in so long. So long, in fact, that it hurt her throat to be laughing so heartily. But it felt good to just let go and laugh.
… Tally score: Laughing – 3, expected non-laughter – 0.
Chapter 19:
It took every shred of concentration and strength to get Bobo back home. Thanks to the blistering cold, he started to regain some of his senses, although not much, but enough to enable him to walk on his own two feet the rest of the way. Once out of the bitter chill of the streets, they headed upstairs to their apartment, and all of them practically fell in through the front door.
Bobo bee-lined a wobbly path straight to his room and caressed the wood under his enormous paws and kissed the door curtly as he turned the knob. “I wish to retire,” he mentioned before hiccupping, stepping back – whilst attempting to take off his loafers – stumbled on his footing and fell into his room.
“He’s home, I’ve done my job as roommate and owner.”
“One might even claim your job as a friend,” Leon teased.
She gasped playfully. “Never.” She fell back onto the couch, her legs randomly placed upon the cushions and her arms outstretched to the sides. She stared at the familiar ceiling of her home and sighed. “Thanks for your help tonight, Leon.”
Leon approached her side and stood perfectly still as he looked down to Vanessa’s sprawled out form. A long moment passed, and she was starting to feel unnerved under his unwavering stare and silence. Just when she thought he would say nothing, he said, “You’re welcome. I normally would have let you handle it yourself, but you seemed to … not be yourself tonight. So, I figured I would come rescue you.” He crossed the room and sat on the sofa on the opposite side of the living room.
“Gee, thanks, oh great and wonderful Leon. My knight in shining armor! I didn’t realize I needed saving.”
“I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying, Vanessa.” His tone wasn’t mocking or correcting her, it was different. It was a tone she hadn’t heard from him before. That caught her attention, and she turned her head to the side to look Leon in the eyes. Sometimes people say things, and you don’t really need to look at them to get what they are saying. But there are those rare occasions where, when a person speaks, you need to look them in the eyes to really hear them because the tone, the sincerity, the raw emotion is staring back at you from their gaze. “I’m saying, I have always thought of you as a pretty tough girl. You never really relied on anyone. From the first time you set foot into the Coven, you walked with such confidence and you seemed so sure of yourself. You never slumped your shoulders. You never looked down. You walked into the Coven like you owned it,” he laughed lightly and shook his head. “I never looked at you and thought of you as weak.”
All she could do was blink rapidly as she stared at him. Was he playing with her? Where was the punchline? He was going to laugh …
… Any minute now.
But he never did. The more she let it sink in, the more difficult it was to find the words to respond. She could only look at him dumbfounded as she lay there on the couch trying to process that he was being honest with her. Her and Leon had always held this ongoing battle. Always arguing. Always bickering. She never really understood when or why it started, but she didn’t hate the man, just his love for following the rules and the enjoyment chastising her brought him.
For some reason, Leon’s confession made Vanessa tear up once she soaked it all in. She quickly looked away, praying to the goddess that he didn’t notice. If he did, he didn’t make fun of her for it, and he didn’t mention it. “It was all fake,” she finally said. “I was so scared the first time I stepped foot in that place. But I never really had anyone. Growing up in an orphanage was one of the most crowded and lonely experiences of my life. The Coven? It was crowded, sure. But I was finally seen as a somebody. Not just another parentless kid stuffed away in an orphanage.” She felt the first tear betray her, the hot, burning trail it left behind on her skin made her realize just how much she kept to herself, what really ate away at her every day, for years on end. “Even if no one else believed in me, I had made it into the Coven. I had actually achieved my dream. No one, not a single soul, was going to take that away from me.” She smiled then. It contrasted against the slow rolling tears that cascaded down her cheeks as she still tried, to no avail, to hold them back. “That’s probably why I looked so confident. I was going to defend myself with my dying breath. I had earned my right to be there and, in turn, to be proud of myself.”
“Well… I was always impressed with you. Not just because you had come from an orphanage but because you were so different than a lot of the people that wind up joining the Coven. Orphanage or not,” Leon admitted.
She turned to face him and whipped her face with her cloak. “Thanks,” she whispered.
Just then there was a sharp, male scream, and slurred speech that erupted from Bobo’s room. “Away foul beast! I shan’t have you trying to woo me with your vixen tongue and wildling ways,” Bobo’s command thundered out from the confines of his living space and soon after Lyx was seen spiraling out into the hall with the door swiftly slamming in her face. In a huff, the succubus frantically removed the hair that had fallen like a veil in front of her eyes. Once freed of the coal-colored curtain of hair, her amber gaze fixed on the door and then they all heard the lock as it turned over. She sucked at her teeth and flicked her tail while staring at the door like the crude barrier it was.
“I was so close,” she seethed.
Leon chuckled and held his stomach, “You’re going to give that poor ogre a heart attack one of these days, Lyx.”
“Or an aneurism,” Vanessa added under her breath.
“I’m just trying to make him see that I’m the best thing for him,” she said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder and sashaying down the hall to Vanessa’s room. “I need a nap,” she said with a yawn.
Leon cozied into the couch across from Vanessa. “For a guy that had a nap already, I’m still pretty tired.” He yawned as well and crossed his arms over his chest and started to close his eyes.
“It’s been a rather long day,” Vanessa agreed feeling sleep tug at her lids without relent. She too yawned and turned over onto her side as she drifted into a light slumber. Home safe and sound and warm, it was hard not to sink into the cushions and give into the sleep she so desperately needed.
When Vanessa woke up, she noticed that everything in the home seemed a touch darker. It had been quite late in the afternoon when they all passed out. Now the sun was starting to set, casting shadows of the neighboring buildings through her windows. The inked replicas of the surrounding city stretched out through her apartment and inched across the carpet with every moment that ticked by. Spreading out on the couch, she wiggled her fingers and toes and cracked her back before she slowly sat up. The home was quiet. Everyone must still be asleep. She looked over to Leon who was passed out and hugging a throw pillow. Her eyes followed the sunset hues that splashed against her apartment walls and fixed on the window across the room as her mind mischievously wandered.
Now would be the perfect time to slip out. No one would stop her, and no one would be any wiser. But leaving the home without her staff and a few extra powders would be silly, if not downright stupid. Sneaking around the apartment, Vanessa gathered a few things and double checked her satchels and person and headed out the door before anyone could bring a halt to her plans.
She took the stairs down instead of waiting for the flat. Less chance of being caught that way. Racing down the stairwell, she hurried for the exit and then trekked through the less traveled areas – at least the ones with the minimal amounts of snow – and headed right for the academy.
Whatever they were trying to hide, the academy, the blue cloaks, whoever, she was going to find it even if she died trying.
… And she reserved herself to the fact that that just might be what would be written upon her headstone if things went south tonight.
Chapter 20:
The storm clouds circled around the clocktower of the academy. Yellow rope and caution signs littered the busted portion of the building. They had marked off the area and were already starting to form the framework for them to start rebuilding the academy’s walls. Most of the rubble and debris had been cleared away after Vanessa and the other Coven members had left the sight a couple days ago. The school made sure to keep all students safe, while making sure that the incident, and the wreckage it had left behind, didn’t disrupt classes any further than it had already.
A gust of snow filled air made Vanessa’s cape billow in the wind and sent strands of hair that weren’t confined by her hood fluttering about her face. There was no way in hellfire that she was turning back now. Something wasn’t right about this whole thing, and she’d never forgive herself if someone got hurt because she didn’t at least try to find some shred of evidence that the hellhounds had moved on or found out what secrets were being hidden away in the depths of the tunnels.
As she stood there on the sidewalk staring at the building that seemed to now hold an ominous aura to it, she noted the full moon attempting to shine through the swirling deep charcoal snow clouds and the yellow glowing clock tower that was now strumming eerily that the hour was seven o’clock. The final chimes were accompanied by heavy footfalls crunching through the snow-covered sidewalk behind her.
“I thought I’d find you here,” Bobo’s voice was calm and low. She figured that there might have been a thread of heat to it, but there wasn’t.
“Did you come to take me back?” she asked him while staring at the academy.
“Nope,” he replied simply.
Astonished, Vanessa turned gradually to face him. “Really?”
Bobo, in turn, faced her and replied, “Really.” They held each other’s gaze for a long while. “You might get into trouble a lot, and I will forever complain about it. But, Vanessa, your heart has never been in a bad place. Everything you try to do is to either better yourself or save others from possible torment. If you feel that strongly about it, I’m going to be right there at your side when you walk into that building.”
A warm smile slowly built over the hard line of Vanessa’s lips. “You are honestly the best pet any witch or wizard could ask for.”
He straightened up and squared his shoulders. “Of course, I am.” She laughed through her nose at him. “Now, let’s get on with this.”
“Right.”
Clutching her staff a little tighter and fidgeting with the amulet around her neck, she mentally prepared herself to take the first step forward. Each soft sinking step into the mounds of collected snowflakes sounded so loud with how quiet the world had become. The plastic that was stapled to the wooden beams where they were rebuilding the walls flapped in the growing wind. To say she wasn’t scared would have been a lie. She was terrified. Over and over she remembered the horror that had transpired down in the basement, and she couldn’t help but physically shake. She could blame the cold if Bobo asked, but she knew the truth. Bobo probably did too. But appearances must be kept.
The front doors were locked with giant iron chains and multiple locks, some of them spelled. That was the first sign that something on campus wasn’t quite right, as if the other hints leading up to Vanessa feeling the need to come back here weren’t enough. She and Bobo slipped behind the sheet of plastic on the side of the building and retraced the steps to the boiler room door that they had taken only days ago. There was yellow rope and caution signs, but no real way to keep anyone out. Vanessa looked over her shoulder to Bobo who shared her furrowed brow at the sight before them.
“Shouldn’t they have locked this?” she whispered.
“Oh, yeah. And spelled it and warded it. Not just a few signs and some rope,” he replied.
She looked back to the boiler room door. “And the easy entrance from the lack of walls … It’s like they didn’t want it to be locked.”
“Like they wanted to be able to get in and out without fuss or detection,” he added.
Their eyes met, and they knew that whoever was causing all of this was still making trips down there. Meaning many things. 1.) Someone has visited since the incident. 2.) The culprit doesn’t have any intentions of stopping. 3.) And – the one that Vanessa feared most of all – the person or persons could be down there right now.
Both nodded at one another and Bobo withdrew his battle axe while Vanessa readied her staff. She concentrated enough to make the tip of her weapon have a soft yellow glow, just a low enough spell that she could maintain it for a long period of time, yet, if they were attacked, she would have the harder part of the counterattack spell ready on her staff.
There was a moment in time where they just stood there, preparing to go into darkness or battle. She pursed her lips to the side and seemed to be in deep thought. “Hold on,” she whispered and dug around her pockets. Eventually, she stopped and nodded to Bobo. Stepping forward, the ogre watched as Vanessa poured a small vial over the seam of the door. “This way, if anyone tries to come in after us, we won’t be caught by surprise.”
“Marvelous, I really don’t want to be caught by whoever is conjuring feral demons,” he admitted and then opened the door slowly.
Creak… The high-pitched whine of the door sent Vanessa’s heartbeat to a frantic pace, and she swallowed hard as her eyes cast down into the black abyss of the basement level. Was it that dark the last time? She nervously checked the front doors to the academy just a few feet away and noted the now even darker skies. Last time it wasn’t night in the middle of an oncoming snowstorm.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled out a bit of gold dust and whispered to it. Tinkerbell’s spirit jingled and rose above her head and then floated a few feet ahead of her and Bobo.
“Going to turn on the lights?” Bobo whispered.
“No. Going to have to go in with just a little illumination. If someone is down here, I don’t want to give them any more of a warning that we are heading their way.”
He nodded, approving of her methods. “Wise choice.”
A quick smile and then a soft exhale before Vanessa finally gained the courage to descend into the nightmare below. On one hand she hoped to find adventure and answers, on the other she hoped that all her gut feelings that were keeping her up at night were wrong, so terribly wrong, because it wouldn’t just mean that the academy was comprised with corrupted board members, it would mean that the blue cloaks and Coven were somehow tied in on all of this as well.
She wasn’t sure that she could handle that if it came to pass. The Coven was, in her eyes, the epitome of truth and justice. Corruption couldn’t touch it. It was immune … wasn’t it? A naive thought, but everyone has one. The Coven being pure and untouchable to dishonesty and black magics was hers.
As she went down, she tried to rid the negative thoughts from her mind. It didn’t help much, for every bend of the wood sounded like shrieks of a banshee and every soft tiptoe thundered in her ears like a giant’s footsteps. Her poor heart couldn’t handle much more of this.
Once at the foot of the stairs, she turned her staff to each side, using the illumination of the premade attack spell in combination with Tinkerbell’s spirit to light the surrounding area. All seemed clear, and she gave Bobo a signal indicating that there didn’t appear to be any foes around.
After a quick nod, Bobo was behind her, and a step to the side, with his battleax gripped in both of his hands he turned his gaze to Vanessa and motioned with his head for her to go ahead and he’d follow. If anything came out to attack her, he’d step in front of her and deliver a powerful blow with his blade.
They checked the main area around the steps and then proceeded toward the hall that lead to the summoning room. Slowly, they made their way to the white hall. She could smell the lavender through the musty scent of the basement. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell, but the memories that it stirred up left her stomach feeling a touch sour. Vanessa steadied her hand and focused on breathing for a moment. The light spell dimmed from her rattled concentration and then resumed the brighter glow that it had previously.
The candles lining the walls seemed to be almost untouched. Outside of the black wicks showing that they had been used at some point, there was no dried wax drippings or pools of wax around the collected candles. Just almost pristine white candles, unlit and lining up and down both sides of the narrow passage toward the room with the summoning circle.
Her heartbeat was thundering like the hooves of wild unicorns within her chest. The silence that filled the air around her made it all the more eerie to her. One step further into the closed hall. She felt her hands start to shake again. Steady your breathing. Another step further in, the dirt under her boots crunching into the cement floors. Her heart picked up in tempo, and she thought that she couldn’t swallow, her throat felt so tight. Again, she had to focus on the spell or she’d lose the light. One moment the hall was silent, the next it was filled with soft whispers. Words from voices not of this realm echoed around her.
May the light be with you.
Be brave, daughter of Saellah.
The power is in you.
Defeat the darkness.
Daughter of Saellah, push back the evil!
Vanessa froze in place just as the last whisper was called out, louder than the rest, and the white candles all erupted to life with flames. Bobo stopped a few steps behind her and blinked at his master. She slowly turned to face him and tried to not shiver in fear. “Bobo… please tell me that you heard that.”
