Spellbound & Hellhounds, page 21
part #1 of Coven Chronicles Series
“Bobo!” Lyx’s voice cracked as she frantically scrambled over to him on all fours and gently tried to pull him back to her, but the giant creature fell backwards from the tug with next to no grace at all. Slamming down onto his back, all the succubus could do was watch in horror as he sprawled out limply in front of her. “No,” she whispered.
Lyx’s hands covered her mouth as she quickly looked him over. Her shaking hands were reaching out to his gaping wounds and stopping suddenly at the charred flesh with a stifled sob. She recoiled her fingertips from the singed edges of the wound that pulsed and quivered as blood quickly rose to fill the shallow hole in his chest. She settled with touching Bobo’s face instead, and she couldn’t control her urge to cry any longer as she saw nothing but pain sweeping over the strong demon’s features. Uncontrollably, she wept as she spoke softly to him, “I don’t know what to do. I…” she started to cry harder, “You foolish beast. Why…. Why?”
The pain on his face melted away long enough for him to produce the most charming smile. “I… I couldn’t stand the thought… of… you… being hurt,” Bobo wheezed and then he struggled for breath before his eyes rolled into the back of his head, the smile faded with his breath, and his body went still.
“Bobo,” Lyx spoke with fear lining her voice as she called out his name, and the panic only picked up as Bobo lay speechless. “Stay with me. Please?... Bobo?” She sniffled and then heard another arcane blast. Instantly, she shielded them with her immense leathery wings as the rubble from the ceiling overhead came raining down on them. From afar, Leon managed to get the Celestial behind a pillar and was calling to Lyx frantically, but she didn’t hear it, and she didn’t care about anything else in that moment. Only the ogre that lay lifeless in her cradling embrace.
As Lyx’s wings lifted from Bobo, they revealed blood red glowing eyes peering out from under the tough and massive wingspan. A snarling maw full of glistening ivory fangs followed by a line of ridged teeth peered out from a livid face bent with every blessing that Hell had to offer. Lyx’s once dainty horns were now massive and twisting off to the side. Her body color had changed, and she was now painted a jet black with molten orange veins webbing all over the visible skin, and her once ebony silken strands were now a dancing uncontrollable mane of blazing fire. Her spiked tail whipped at the floor and easily broke the marble beneath it, shattering it like glass under the force of the tremendous blow.
Relinquishing her loving hold on the mammoth sized beast, she slowly stood up, curled her dagger-like fingers, and letting an ear-splitting scream peal from her lips. Wild red eyes became fixed on her target as Lyx set her heated glare on Dmitri. Flapping her wings, the succubus hurled herself into the air and leaped into the fray like a wild beast.
Meanwhile, Vanessa dodged another blast spiraling out of a High Priests wand as Isolde controlled two blue cloaks with blood magic. Their bodies weren’t as fluid as the others that fought back, and their movements were ridged as they tried to fight off the control that Isolde had on them. But, to their disgust, each time their stuttering movements ended with complying to her magic’s command. She made them fling spells at their comrades as she laughed maniacally. All they could do is hopelessly beg their friends to kill them and save the city.
Arcane blasts and spells that could cripple Vanessa and the others for life were dizzily being shot through the room as she raced over to Bobo. Sliding on the floor she slammed into his massive body and lay her head on his chest to escape a blinding bolt of magic as it flew by, grazing the edge of her ear with sizzling heat. She cried out in pain and quickly snuffed out her whimpers as she tried to listen to Bobo’s heartbeat. Her own heart was hammering away at her breast and it consumed her hearing. She could taste her own pulse on her tongue, and it made it difficult to make out if the ogre had life in him with all the chaos that ensued around them. She was breathing heavily as she frantically tried to find breath or heartbeat from him.
“No. No. No,” she repeated as she moved her long hair from his chest so that her bare ear could have less of a barrier between them. She felt her lip quiver as she heard nothing. She sat up and shook him lightly as if she was trying to wake him from a most inconvenient nap. “Bobo?” She sniffled and sputtered with tears that she swiftly sucked back in and tried to stay strong as she spoke to her pet. “Botobolbilian, you get up right now,” her voice cracked at the end of her demand. Tears stung her eyes. Spells continued to whizz through the enclosed room. “Please. No. I can’t lose you.” She started to cry. “Bobo. Wake up, buddy.” She eyed him over and then the space around them. Leon was in the distance, but the pillars were too far away, and she was sure to get hit before she’d lug the ogre to safety. “Wake up, Bobo!” she shouted and then lay her forehead down on his chest and bawled as she screamed into his chest obdurately, “Get up! Get up! Get up!” She wailed wordlessly and relentlessly into the beast’s singed button up shirt. Her sobbing slowed as she clutched the edges of his jacket in her fists, the final flame of her hope dimming against his unmoving body. “Please?” she whined.
This was the extent of what she had to offer. Panic and giving up. She was so worthless. All her training and studies and hard work ended with her shielding her possibly dead friend from debris with her own fragile body and hoping that the battle between the blue cloaks didn’t get the rest of them all killed. “Bobo, I don’t know what to do,” she hiccupped as she spoke to her silent ogre.
“Vanessa!” Leon yelled, and she turned to face him with tears cascading freely down her face. “Hurry! Get to cover!” he urged her while holding the high one half in his lap.
She looked at the venom hide snake bindings and how their fangs sank in past the cloak and into the soft flesh of the ethereal being. The pain that was evident on the Celestial’s face was clear as day, and she was struggling with trying to free herself. Beads of sweat forming on her brow as she mentally battled with the spells that Isolde and Dmitri had cast upon her. There was no doubt that the being could free herself but not before a higher death toll transpired. Vanessa looked at Leon as he held out a hand to her and motioned for her to come to him. But how could she leave Bobo behind?
There was a howl-like scream, and it tore Vanessa and Leon’s attention from one another to the direction of the room it had been produced from. Their eyes were met with the sight of Lyx as she flew above one of the chamber doors and flung one of the banner poles at Isolde who happily made High Priest Ronan, who she was controlling with blood magic, take the blow for her. The man crumpled and fell back. Frustrated at her missed mark, Lyx screamed up into the ceiling before swiftly twisting her body and flying down in a blinding rage. Her sights set on the crazed Isolde as she laughed and played with the blue cloaks’ lives that she controlled like she was the conductor and the Council members were the orchestra.
Isolde kicked Ronan out of the way with a sneer, but as she looked down to place her soled foot upon him, Lyx took the advantage and zipped behind her. Plucking the blood mage from her safe perch behind the wall of blue cloaks she was controlling, Lyx started to fly high up in the air as Isolde twisted and turned and screamed while wildly flinging spells at the succubus.
Dmitri caught a glimpse of the blood magic fading from some of the Council members and with the lack of enemies in the room, all the able High Priest Council members were coming back to the real threat and aiming their spells for him. He snarled and speedily threw a spell at Lyx, and it ripped through her right wing. Flapping awkwardly, she sputtered through the air and then took a nose dive into the elaborate highbacked chairs that lined the stage. Racing through them, they piled up as they slammed into one another until the succubus’s crash came to a halt. Isolde broke some of her fall but didn’t die. It did, however, knock the rebel blue cloak out.
Sounds of the broken furniture tumbling down the splintered pile of wood could be heard as Lyx emerged gasping for air and groaning in pain from a pile of snapped wooden seats and dust clouds. Dmitri flung another arcane blast at the succubus, and it broke off one of her horns and the force of the blow caused Lyx’s head to thrust into the corner of a chair. Blood poured out from a gash that formed on the side of her skull, splitting open the once unblemished skin. A slow trickle of blood ran down the side of her face before it steadily dripped down onto the heap of broken chairs.
There was nothing Vanessa could do. Nothing. She watched as her friends all got hurt, while others stood on the cusp of death, and others battled fiercely for their lives, she sat weeping in the middle of the room like a little girl with a busted knee. Her hands clung to Bobo’s suit, and she tried to imagine him scolding her for wrinkling the fabric, but he was so still. Just like Lyx was now.
Worthless. Leon was wrong. She wasn’t strong, she was WEAK!
She was flooded with memories of being taunted and teased. They slipped in-between the sheets of her mind like cackling ghosts baring the painful moments that she had long since buried deep within her past. Hurtful words from those that didn’t see her as anything but a screwup and trouble maker invaded her thoughts. It descended upon her like a thick cruel fog.
Like it was happening all over again, she could hear whispers from peers and people that she didn’t know harshly judging her. Soft mocking laughter that haunted her. Watchful and judgmental eyes following her every movement. All of them weighing down upon her like rocks tied to her body as she tried to swim to the surface of her own self-doubt. The crippling depression sunk in past blood and bone and started to make a nest inside of her heart. Deep seeded darkness rose up to snuff out the light of hope that she had slowly built over the years with hard work and devotion.
Breathe. She could just breathe if she reached the surface. But every faded fit of laughter at her own expense, every set of eyes ever cast on her with a judgmental glimmer, and every derogatory remark directed at her that swelled within her memories drug her deeper into the unforgiving murky waters of insecurity.
But through the mist of doubt and self-loathing came a wind. It held perfumes of promise and hope, and she felt the fog part and give way to warmer words and fonder remembrances. “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. I never looked at you and thought of you as weak.” She could see Leon’s serious gaze just like she did when he admitted those words to her. Still, it wasn’t enough. For all the confidence that he thought she had, Vanessa couldn’t help but be hesitant of herself and her abilities again. The onyx clouds of doubt crept through her, inching its way through her being to lay claim to any morsels of happiness that she might have. “He was just being nice to me,” she whispered it out loud to herself.
The voices in her head had other things for her to hear… “You’re strong. The strongest witch I know.”
“I’m not strong enough!” She mentally yelled at herself.
The next memory grabbed hold of her and jerked her back to her senses. “You summoned me!” That memory hurled her right back into reality.
She looked down to Bobo’s restful face as she remembered his words. “Not even trying or paying attention, this little witch with a whole lot of sass and one nasty temper, summoned me… you are what most envy, Vanessa. You have what others crave. Power.” … “Use it.” Sunshine broke through the daunting spiritual storm clouds. Bobo was right. Leon was right. She wiped her nose on her sleeve and looked around herself and then up to Dmitri trying to fight back the horde of blue cloaks and then at the all those that were wounded and writhing on the floor.
A spell. A spell was a collection of agents combined to create… she paused as she heard a whisper in her ear, “A spell is created by magic that flows through all things. All things have magic, daughter of Saellah. Rise up and know your glory.”
Magic.
Magic wasn’t dust or weapon or artifact. Those were just amplifiers. Vanessa stared down at her hands as this realization hit her, and she felt something inside her click. Like a lock buried deep within forgotten corners of her being was finally fitted with a key, the bindings on her soul were set free.
Magic… magic was… everywhere!
She started to stand still looking at her hands as a pulsing heat rose under the skin, they started to glow like small light barriers were surrounding them. They glittered like gold in the sun and they throbbed, and with each beat the surrounding light grew in size. As she rose from the ground she felt like she had opened a floodgate to her mind. It all made perfect sense now.
The power flowed like a current of warmth and prickles that traveled up her arms, over her shoulders, sliding across every inch of skin as it overtook her form until she felt this immense surge of light, electric stings covering her body. Her hands, everything, it was all glowing like she was a walking golden statue. In her gut, she felt this power like a seed that sprouted up from the ground and was now blooming like a magnificent flower under the vibrant spill of a morning’s first rays of illumination. It erupted all around her in a flash of yellow light, and the warmth that engulfed her was bordering hot.
She spoke, and her voice was calm and echoed as if she were everywhere in the room all at once. “Come to me.” But the words in her mind that she reached out with were different, they were older and something she had never heard before. The bodies of the injured all gravitated and floated over to her, sliding swiftly into the dome of light that surrounded her.
“Heal…” The words were so simple. But meanings were so deep. She could hear the word whispered over and over in her mind, but it wasn’t the word as she knew it. It was ancient and thick with smoky accents she had not heard before. But, just hearing the word made her body tingle, and a rush of unseen air flowed throughout the dome surrounding her. Picking up in speed and momentum as she reached her hands out and thought, Heal, in that ancient unheard tongue. Immediately, the power erupted from her like the first spew of lava from a volcano.
Bobo’s wounds sizzled as the skin remade itself anew. The singed flesh disappeared and slowly became colorful and free of blood. The pole that was sticking out of Ronan’s chest gradually rose up and inch by inch sliding out until it fell with a loud metallic ping to the floor, and the blood that poured out halted in its fountain-like flow. Shortly after it stopped, the hole of the wound commenced healing at a pace your eyes could not keep up with. Then, Lyx began to slowly return to normal, her skin starting to become that lovely shade of lavender and her head wound bubbled as the injury dissipated right before everyone’s eyes. Her broken horn became mended and once more were the small, dainty horns that Vanessa had always seen and known the succubus by.
The Celestial’s pain-stricken features had eased in discomfort, and Vanessa reached down and grabbed one of the venom hide binding snakes, the spell-snake wriggling madly in her grasp before the form seized and instantly fell into a pile of dust in Vanessa’s hand. She touched the head of the second and its mouth lifted from the Celestial, and the divine being grabbed its neck and squeezed until it blew up like a balloon and then burst becoming black liquid in the Celestial’s palm.
As soon as the bindings were removed, Vanessa’s golden light faded, and she slumped to the floor, but inches from her head hitting the ground, Leon was there and cradling her in his arms as he dragged her into his embrace. “What in the name of magic did you just pull off, Vanessa?” But he got no reply as Vanessa drifted off into a forced sleep.
Free of her bindings, the divine one raised her hand and shot three white orbs of power at Dmitri with an irritated yell. “Shield your eyes or be blinded!” she growled her advice before dropping her cloak and slamming three more massive white orbs into Dmitri, who was still stumbling and attempting to regain his composure from the first volley of spells the Celestial had thrown at him. Upon impact, he flew back and while in mid-air the high one sputtered out a spell, and the same snakes that he had spelled her with shot through the space between them and slithered up his body and sunk their fangs into his neck. The same was thrusted at the knocked-out Isolde who, even in her unconscious state, screamed out in pain as the fangs bore deep into her shoulder.
The heavenly creature approached the fallen Dmitri and stood over his body with confusion and hurt and anger all displayed across her usual calm, kind features. Her blinding, imperious light beat down upon his incapacitated body.
“Why?” she asked in a less than comforting tone.
“Because. Filth like that has no family ties. The Coven is dwindling in numbers and the gifted are less and less each year. Yet, trash like that orphaned girl has power that some of us didn’t even have at the start. It’s not right. We would have made a better Coven, a better world, if you hadn’t interfered.”
“You risked your brothers, your seat of power, your people… for what? So, a girl that doesn’t know who her family is wouldn’t be part of the Coven?”
“You’ll never understand. Your kind only understands logic and love and faith. But we see things differently. If she has no family, we don’t have a source of where her power came from. Don’t you see? The magic of this land is fading. We need stronger members to keep the flow of magic from dying.”
“Why should that matter?”
“Because we fear the unknown, High One. We would rather try to recreate it to understand it than let it be.”
“You disappoint me…” She turned her back to him and spoke over her shoulder to the paralyzed Dmitri, “She could have taught you so much, but you feared it because you thought her lesser than you. What a foolish man you are. You risked everything and, in turn, lost it all for ignorant reasons,” she spoke lowly and when she turned she found Mia, shielding her eyes as best she could while obediently holding out the cloak for the Celestial. “Thank you, Mia,” she said sweetly as she accepted the cloak.
All the blue cloaks divided in the room. Some went to the Celestial, others went to aid fallen blue cloaks, and others went to mend Lyx, Leon, Bobo, and Vanessa. But, of all of them, the only one that needed any aid was Vanessa. However, no spell could fix what her body needed. She was drained. All the spell casting took its toll on the poor girl, and her body forced itself into a deep, deep sleep.
Lyx’s hands covered her mouth as she quickly looked him over. Her shaking hands were reaching out to his gaping wounds and stopping suddenly at the charred flesh with a stifled sob. She recoiled her fingertips from the singed edges of the wound that pulsed and quivered as blood quickly rose to fill the shallow hole in his chest. She settled with touching Bobo’s face instead, and she couldn’t control her urge to cry any longer as she saw nothing but pain sweeping over the strong demon’s features. Uncontrollably, she wept as she spoke softly to him, “I don’t know what to do. I…” she started to cry harder, “You foolish beast. Why…. Why?”
The pain on his face melted away long enough for him to produce the most charming smile. “I… I couldn’t stand the thought… of… you… being hurt,” Bobo wheezed and then he struggled for breath before his eyes rolled into the back of his head, the smile faded with his breath, and his body went still.
“Bobo,” Lyx spoke with fear lining her voice as she called out his name, and the panic only picked up as Bobo lay speechless. “Stay with me. Please?... Bobo?” She sniffled and then heard another arcane blast. Instantly, she shielded them with her immense leathery wings as the rubble from the ceiling overhead came raining down on them. From afar, Leon managed to get the Celestial behind a pillar and was calling to Lyx frantically, but she didn’t hear it, and she didn’t care about anything else in that moment. Only the ogre that lay lifeless in her cradling embrace.
As Lyx’s wings lifted from Bobo, they revealed blood red glowing eyes peering out from under the tough and massive wingspan. A snarling maw full of glistening ivory fangs followed by a line of ridged teeth peered out from a livid face bent with every blessing that Hell had to offer. Lyx’s once dainty horns were now massive and twisting off to the side. Her body color had changed, and she was now painted a jet black with molten orange veins webbing all over the visible skin, and her once ebony silken strands were now a dancing uncontrollable mane of blazing fire. Her spiked tail whipped at the floor and easily broke the marble beneath it, shattering it like glass under the force of the tremendous blow.
Relinquishing her loving hold on the mammoth sized beast, she slowly stood up, curled her dagger-like fingers, and letting an ear-splitting scream peal from her lips. Wild red eyes became fixed on her target as Lyx set her heated glare on Dmitri. Flapping her wings, the succubus hurled herself into the air and leaped into the fray like a wild beast.
Meanwhile, Vanessa dodged another blast spiraling out of a High Priests wand as Isolde controlled two blue cloaks with blood magic. Their bodies weren’t as fluid as the others that fought back, and their movements were ridged as they tried to fight off the control that Isolde had on them. But, to their disgust, each time their stuttering movements ended with complying to her magic’s command. She made them fling spells at their comrades as she laughed maniacally. All they could do is hopelessly beg their friends to kill them and save the city.
Arcane blasts and spells that could cripple Vanessa and the others for life were dizzily being shot through the room as she raced over to Bobo. Sliding on the floor she slammed into his massive body and lay her head on his chest to escape a blinding bolt of magic as it flew by, grazing the edge of her ear with sizzling heat. She cried out in pain and quickly snuffed out her whimpers as she tried to listen to Bobo’s heartbeat. Her own heart was hammering away at her breast and it consumed her hearing. She could taste her own pulse on her tongue, and it made it difficult to make out if the ogre had life in him with all the chaos that ensued around them. She was breathing heavily as she frantically tried to find breath or heartbeat from him.
“No. No. No,” she repeated as she moved her long hair from his chest so that her bare ear could have less of a barrier between them. She felt her lip quiver as she heard nothing. She sat up and shook him lightly as if she was trying to wake him from a most inconvenient nap. “Bobo?” She sniffled and sputtered with tears that she swiftly sucked back in and tried to stay strong as she spoke to her pet. “Botobolbilian, you get up right now,” her voice cracked at the end of her demand. Tears stung her eyes. Spells continued to whizz through the enclosed room. “Please. No. I can’t lose you.” She started to cry. “Bobo. Wake up, buddy.” She eyed him over and then the space around them. Leon was in the distance, but the pillars were too far away, and she was sure to get hit before she’d lug the ogre to safety. “Wake up, Bobo!” she shouted and then lay her forehead down on his chest and bawled as she screamed into his chest obdurately, “Get up! Get up! Get up!” She wailed wordlessly and relentlessly into the beast’s singed button up shirt. Her sobbing slowed as she clutched the edges of his jacket in her fists, the final flame of her hope dimming against his unmoving body. “Please?” she whined.
This was the extent of what she had to offer. Panic and giving up. She was so worthless. All her training and studies and hard work ended with her shielding her possibly dead friend from debris with her own fragile body and hoping that the battle between the blue cloaks didn’t get the rest of them all killed. “Bobo, I don’t know what to do,” she hiccupped as she spoke to her silent ogre.
“Vanessa!” Leon yelled, and she turned to face him with tears cascading freely down her face. “Hurry! Get to cover!” he urged her while holding the high one half in his lap.
She looked at the venom hide snake bindings and how their fangs sank in past the cloak and into the soft flesh of the ethereal being. The pain that was evident on the Celestial’s face was clear as day, and she was struggling with trying to free herself. Beads of sweat forming on her brow as she mentally battled with the spells that Isolde and Dmitri had cast upon her. There was no doubt that the being could free herself but not before a higher death toll transpired. Vanessa looked at Leon as he held out a hand to her and motioned for her to come to him. But how could she leave Bobo behind?
There was a howl-like scream, and it tore Vanessa and Leon’s attention from one another to the direction of the room it had been produced from. Their eyes were met with the sight of Lyx as she flew above one of the chamber doors and flung one of the banner poles at Isolde who happily made High Priest Ronan, who she was controlling with blood magic, take the blow for her. The man crumpled and fell back. Frustrated at her missed mark, Lyx screamed up into the ceiling before swiftly twisting her body and flying down in a blinding rage. Her sights set on the crazed Isolde as she laughed and played with the blue cloaks’ lives that she controlled like she was the conductor and the Council members were the orchestra.
Isolde kicked Ronan out of the way with a sneer, but as she looked down to place her soled foot upon him, Lyx took the advantage and zipped behind her. Plucking the blood mage from her safe perch behind the wall of blue cloaks she was controlling, Lyx started to fly high up in the air as Isolde twisted and turned and screamed while wildly flinging spells at the succubus.
Dmitri caught a glimpse of the blood magic fading from some of the Council members and with the lack of enemies in the room, all the able High Priest Council members were coming back to the real threat and aiming their spells for him. He snarled and speedily threw a spell at Lyx, and it ripped through her right wing. Flapping awkwardly, she sputtered through the air and then took a nose dive into the elaborate highbacked chairs that lined the stage. Racing through them, they piled up as they slammed into one another until the succubus’s crash came to a halt. Isolde broke some of her fall but didn’t die. It did, however, knock the rebel blue cloak out.
Sounds of the broken furniture tumbling down the splintered pile of wood could be heard as Lyx emerged gasping for air and groaning in pain from a pile of snapped wooden seats and dust clouds. Dmitri flung another arcane blast at the succubus, and it broke off one of her horns and the force of the blow caused Lyx’s head to thrust into the corner of a chair. Blood poured out from a gash that formed on the side of her skull, splitting open the once unblemished skin. A slow trickle of blood ran down the side of her face before it steadily dripped down onto the heap of broken chairs.
There was nothing Vanessa could do. Nothing. She watched as her friends all got hurt, while others stood on the cusp of death, and others battled fiercely for their lives, she sat weeping in the middle of the room like a little girl with a busted knee. Her hands clung to Bobo’s suit, and she tried to imagine him scolding her for wrinkling the fabric, but he was so still. Just like Lyx was now.
Worthless. Leon was wrong. She wasn’t strong, she was WEAK!
She was flooded with memories of being taunted and teased. They slipped in-between the sheets of her mind like cackling ghosts baring the painful moments that she had long since buried deep within her past. Hurtful words from those that didn’t see her as anything but a screwup and trouble maker invaded her thoughts. It descended upon her like a thick cruel fog.
Like it was happening all over again, she could hear whispers from peers and people that she didn’t know harshly judging her. Soft mocking laughter that haunted her. Watchful and judgmental eyes following her every movement. All of them weighing down upon her like rocks tied to her body as she tried to swim to the surface of her own self-doubt. The crippling depression sunk in past blood and bone and started to make a nest inside of her heart. Deep seeded darkness rose up to snuff out the light of hope that she had slowly built over the years with hard work and devotion.
Breathe. She could just breathe if she reached the surface. But every faded fit of laughter at her own expense, every set of eyes ever cast on her with a judgmental glimmer, and every derogatory remark directed at her that swelled within her memories drug her deeper into the unforgiving murky waters of insecurity.
But through the mist of doubt and self-loathing came a wind. It held perfumes of promise and hope, and she felt the fog part and give way to warmer words and fonder remembrances. “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. I never looked at you and thought of you as weak.” She could see Leon’s serious gaze just like she did when he admitted those words to her. Still, it wasn’t enough. For all the confidence that he thought she had, Vanessa couldn’t help but be hesitant of herself and her abilities again. The onyx clouds of doubt crept through her, inching its way through her being to lay claim to any morsels of happiness that she might have. “He was just being nice to me,” she whispered it out loud to herself.
The voices in her head had other things for her to hear… “You’re strong. The strongest witch I know.”
“I’m not strong enough!” She mentally yelled at herself.
The next memory grabbed hold of her and jerked her back to her senses. “You summoned me!” That memory hurled her right back into reality.
She looked down to Bobo’s restful face as she remembered his words. “Not even trying or paying attention, this little witch with a whole lot of sass and one nasty temper, summoned me… you are what most envy, Vanessa. You have what others crave. Power.” … “Use it.” Sunshine broke through the daunting spiritual storm clouds. Bobo was right. Leon was right. She wiped her nose on her sleeve and looked around herself and then up to Dmitri trying to fight back the horde of blue cloaks and then at the all those that were wounded and writhing on the floor.
A spell. A spell was a collection of agents combined to create… she paused as she heard a whisper in her ear, “A spell is created by magic that flows through all things. All things have magic, daughter of Saellah. Rise up and know your glory.”
Magic.
Magic wasn’t dust or weapon or artifact. Those were just amplifiers. Vanessa stared down at her hands as this realization hit her, and she felt something inside her click. Like a lock buried deep within forgotten corners of her being was finally fitted with a key, the bindings on her soul were set free.
Magic… magic was… everywhere!
She started to stand still looking at her hands as a pulsing heat rose under the skin, they started to glow like small light barriers were surrounding them. They glittered like gold in the sun and they throbbed, and with each beat the surrounding light grew in size. As she rose from the ground she felt like she had opened a floodgate to her mind. It all made perfect sense now.
The power flowed like a current of warmth and prickles that traveled up her arms, over her shoulders, sliding across every inch of skin as it overtook her form until she felt this immense surge of light, electric stings covering her body. Her hands, everything, it was all glowing like she was a walking golden statue. In her gut, she felt this power like a seed that sprouted up from the ground and was now blooming like a magnificent flower under the vibrant spill of a morning’s first rays of illumination. It erupted all around her in a flash of yellow light, and the warmth that engulfed her was bordering hot.
She spoke, and her voice was calm and echoed as if she were everywhere in the room all at once. “Come to me.” But the words in her mind that she reached out with were different, they were older and something she had never heard before. The bodies of the injured all gravitated and floated over to her, sliding swiftly into the dome of light that surrounded her.
“Heal…” The words were so simple. But meanings were so deep. She could hear the word whispered over and over in her mind, but it wasn’t the word as she knew it. It was ancient and thick with smoky accents she had not heard before. But, just hearing the word made her body tingle, and a rush of unseen air flowed throughout the dome surrounding her. Picking up in speed and momentum as she reached her hands out and thought, Heal, in that ancient unheard tongue. Immediately, the power erupted from her like the first spew of lava from a volcano.
Bobo’s wounds sizzled as the skin remade itself anew. The singed flesh disappeared and slowly became colorful and free of blood. The pole that was sticking out of Ronan’s chest gradually rose up and inch by inch sliding out until it fell with a loud metallic ping to the floor, and the blood that poured out halted in its fountain-like flow. Shortly after it stopped, the hole of the wound commenced healing at a pace your eyes could not keep up with. Then, Lyx began to slowly return to normal, her skin starting to become that lovely shade of lavender and her head wound bubbled as the injury dissipated right before everyone’s eyes. Her broken horn became mended and once more were the small, dainty horns that Vanessa had always seen and known the succubus by.
The Celestial’s pain-stricken features had eased in discomfort, and Vanessa reached down and grabbed one of the venom hide binding snakes, the spell-snake wriggling madly in her grasp before the form seized and instantly fell into a pile of dust in Vanessa’s hand. She touched the head of the second and its mouth lifted from the Celestial, and the divine being grabbed its neck and squeezed until it blew up like a balloon and then burst becoming black liquid in the Celestial’s palm.
As soon as the bindings were removed, Vanessa’s golden light faded, and she slumped to the floor, but inches from her head hitting the ground, Leon was there and cradling her in his arms as he dragged her into his embrace. “What in the name of magic did you just pull off, Vanessa?” But he got no reply as Vanessa drifted off into a forced sleep.
Free of her bindings, the divine one raised her hand and shot three white orbs of power at Dmitri with an irritated yell. “Shield your eyes or be blinded!” she growled her advice before dropping her cloak and slamming three more massive white orbs into Dmitri, who was still stumbling and attempting to regain his composure from the first volley of spells the Celestial had thrown at him. Upon impact, he flew back and while in mid-air the high one sputtered out a spell, and the same snakes that he had spelled her with shot through the space between them and slithered up his body and sunk their fangs into his neck. The same was thrusted at the knocked-out Isolde who, even in her unconscious state, screamed out in pain as the fangs bore deep into her shoulder.
The heavenly creature approached the fallen Dmitri and stood over his body with confusion and hurt and anger all displayed across her usual calm, kind features. Her blinding, imperious light beat down upon his incapacitated body.
“Why?” she asked in a less than comforting tone.
“Because. Filth like that has no family ties. The Coven is dwindling in numbers and the gifted are less and less each year. Yet, trash like that orphaned girl has power that some of us didn’t even have at the start. It’s not right. We would have made a better Coven, a better world, if you hadn’t interfered.”
“You risked your brothers, your seat of power, your people… for what? So, a girl that doesn’t know who her family is wouldn’t be part of the Coven?”
“You’ll never understand. Your kind only understands logic and love and faith. But we see things differently. If she has no family, we don’t have a source of where her power came from. Don’t you see? The magic of this land is fading. We need stronger members to keep the flow of magic from dying.”
“Why should that matter?”
“Because we fear the unknown, High One. We would rather try to recreate it to understand it than let it be.”
“You disappoint me…” She turned her back to him and spoke over her shoulder to the paralyzed Dmitri, “She could have taught you so much, but you feared it because you thought her lesser than you. What a foolish man you are. You risked everything and, in turn, lost it all for ignorant reasons,” she spoke lowly and when she turned she found Mia, shielding her eyes as best she could while obediently holding out the cloak for the Celestial. “Thank you, Mia,” she said sweetly as she accepted the cloak.
All the blue cloaks divided in the room. Some went to the Celestial, others went to aid fallen blue cloaks, and others went to mend Lyx, Leon, Bobo, and Vanessa. But, of all of them, the only one that needed any aid was Vanessa. However, no spell could fix what her body needed. She was drained. All the spell casting took its toll on the poor girl, and her body forced itself into a deep, deep sleep.
