Spellbound & Hellhounds, page 3
part #1 of Coven Chronicles Series
Her stomach churned in a nauseating fashion with fear as she accepted the fate that was to befall her. Only … it never did. A roar that would put a tiger to shame caused Vanessa to rip her lids open and search the darkness. A torch pushed the black at bay, and the one wielding it was Bobo! One hand clutched the blazing baton while the other was balled into a fist that mercilessly slammed into the boney head of the hellhound and resounded with a sickening crack upon impact.
A yelp snapped through the air as Bobo’s fist connected with the creature and sent it flying into the opposing wall, the dent of its massive body imprinting the cobblestone made Vanessa’s eyes bulge in amazement. Quickly, she snapped her gaze from the crumpled hell-pup to Bobo. Her mouth unhinged, and she drew in breath but couldn’t speak fast enough. Bobo grabbed her wrist and yanked her toward him and, ultimately, toward the exit. “Thank me later,” he hastily sputtered.
As Vanessa and Bobo peeled around the corner, she stole a glance back at the hellhound on the floor. She could see the core flame almost gone, dying, and then it suddenly erupted to life, the fire consuming the coal colored body in a burst of garnet and tangerine flames. The broken bones seemed to mend on the spot and just before the sight was hidden behind the wall, Vanessa saw two more boney heads enter the room near the fallen hellhound and sniff the ground before giving a shrieking howl that carried eerily through the basement.
“Bobo, more of them showed up,” Vanessa warned in a half-whine as she ran behind her pet.
“Why do those foul things have more friends than you?” Bobo groaned.
“I have friends,” she barked back.
“Just because I save your suicidal hide on a regular basis doesn’t mean we can start having luncheons,” Bobo rebutted.
“I wasn’t referring to you,” she snipped.
“Wonderful news. The best I’ve heard all day. Tell you what, let’s get out of here in one piece, and I’ll throw you a party for not considering me as a bosom buddy, and you can invite all your friends to it,” as Bobo spoke, his breath began to sound labored, and he dare not chuckle at his own joke as air was more important than laughter. They flew through the dusty halls with purpose as they tried to find their way to the basement exit.
“Let’s focus on getting out of here!” she yelled as they heard the pounding paws of the hellhounds fast on their heels. The sounds of the beasts tripping over candles and slamming into walls were giving Vanessa the most unnerving distance check. “The purifying room won’t hold them off for long, they’re too powerful to be held back by those wards and spells!” she explained as they ran.
“The door will surely keep them at bay if we can make it there,” her pet reminded her breathlessly.
A snarl too close for comfort startled them both, and Bobo turned to look behind them. Stumbling over his footwork, he fell, and the torch was sent flipping head over end and sliding to a halt a couple of yards out of reach. Vanessa promptly found his backside with her face and groaned as she landed on top of him. The pair both looked up to see the torch in the distance, lighting up the foot of the stairs with its lapping flames.
Talk about stumbling at the finish line…
Vanessa rolled over as she heard the paws slow in their approach. Horrifically, they watched as the luminosity of the dogs dimmed down until it was just night shaded bodies and burning rubicund eyes edging their way towards her and Bobo. Sharp teeth snapped at the air victoriously as they encroached upon their helpless prey.
Chapter 5:
As if fearing for your life wasn’t painful enough, waiting for the hellhounds to descend upon them was a whole new level of excruciating anticipation. As their assailants inched closer, Bobo protectively pulled Vanessa close to his chest in a tight hold, almost constricting air from her burning lungs. He slowly drew his axe from his hip while his eyes stayed transfixed on the imposing threat dead ahead.
“Bobo… I’m so sorry. I never should have dragged you down here,” Vanessa admitted in a child-like whimper.
The ogre only replied by hugging her closer and brandishing the weapon in front of his body, ready to ward off the beasts with it as long as he could.
Leaping with their boney jaws gaping open, the hellhounds pounced at them ready to feast. Vanessa gave a shrill cry and pushed her face into the hulking chest of her pet. Bobo growled and pulled back his axe arm, tension in the length of his appendage building for a blow that would promise a head to roll.
From behind them a voice quickly bellowed out, piercing through the howling hounds, “In prayer to the goddess, I ask for power, in prayer to the spirits, I ask for protection, bless them with a barrier from evil!”
Golden light twinkled overhead as a dome appeared and slammed down around the ogre and Hunter. Smashing against the glittering barrier, the hellhounds came to a halt as the magic popped and sizzled with each impact the creatures made. Zaps of protective magic held the creatures in suspended animation before flinging them to the ground below. The pain it had caused sent them yelping back down through the basement halls.
Bobo and Vanessa were firmly hugging each other, as they had expected to be consumed by ravenous demon dogs and were now stunned in a silent stupor. They gradually averted their gaze from the withdrawing pups and looked to the stairwell behind them. There stood the well-known Coven member Leon, poised with a talisman spell in his hand and two fingers raised to his forehead. His eyes narrowed in on the hellhounds as they stumbled over one another in their fast-paced retreat.
Once the man was sure that the threat was gone, he rose to his full height and glowered down to Vanessa, who instantly flashed a toothy grin at the man. “Oh, hi, Leon,” Vanessa nervously giggled.
“F-fancy meeting you here, good fellow,” Bobo stumbled, trying to remain calm and refined, but failing.
Leon was a Spellweaver, the Coven rank that Vanessa was striving so hard to achieve. Under most common circumstances, it was rather pleasant to know Leon. However, Vanessa rarely ever met him under common circumstances. Thusly leaving their level of friendship in a stagnant pool that neighbored the sea of chastising and placed under the skies of rank looming. As she chewed nervously at her bottom lip, he remained glowering over her like she was a petulant child. Which, of course, she was… to some degree, but it certainly didn’t make her feel like she wanted to go out of her way to be nice to him, and it most definitely put a strain on his own social acceptance of her.
To make matters worse, he wasn’t just a rank higher than Vanessa, he also had a few years in his ranking and hardly a year older than her! Hex, the man was a shoe in the door of a promotion to Summoner status.
She hung her head in shame as he continued to list all the things she had done wrong as they promptly made way for the exit and bolted the door shut behind them before heading outside to contact the Coven about the unfortunate, horrible find in the boiler room of the academy. Paying more attention to how she was going to dig herself out of trouble this time than his growing list of her wrongdoings, Vanessa dragged her feet as they headed out to the main entrance.
It wouldn’t have been such a horrible fate if the man didn’t look dashing even on a bad day and had a set of dreamy eyes that put Aeristria’s magnificent crystal blue Lake Lorvo to shame. Long, sandy strands of hair dangled just past his shoulders and made the blue of his eyes painfully bluer. His thin, athletic build could often be seen pressing through the button up shirts and made most of the girls, and a few of the guys, go a bit dreamy eyed upon introduction. At an even six feet, he – like Bobo – towered over poor Vanessa. Attractive? More like salt in an open wound. The goddess had to love how she made him, because he was honestly perfection manifest. But the real rotten cherry on top of it all was his smooth-as-silk, deep voice. It rode on the cusp of too deep and just perfect. And he was a well-respected member of the Coven. Hex it all, it just wasn’t fair!
“Blast it all, Vanessa. I had the High Priest Council contact me with your whereabouts because you hadn’t checked in with them yet. You are so well-known for your ability to get into trouble that they didn’t even bother trying to contact you and went straight to me to hunt you down,” Leon griped.
“Oh, come on. I wasn’t gone that long…” she huffed.
“That’s my point!” Leon yelled, exasperated. “Could
you at least attempt to stay out of trouble? Just once?” he pleaded.
Her retort was silence and a long, hard eye roll that ended with them outside the entrance to the main building, and Leon pointing at the ground before him. “Don’t move from that spot. I’m going to contact the Coven,” he informed before pulling out a small crystal orb and walking a few steps away to make the call. His glare peering over his shoulder in a paranoid fashion.
“Oh, go make the call. There is no way I can get into trouble just standing here,” she muttered.
“Are you sure about that? I’m willing to wager next month’s rent on your ability to do so,” Bobo snickered.
Vanessa ignored her pet and tried to focus on the call Leon was making. She could barely see the glass sphere softly glow as the call was made. Bewildered after his frantic spiel mentioning hellhounds, the Coven immediately patched him through directly to the High Priest Council. Their cross faces stared out from the crystal orb at the Spellweaver. Leon spoke in a hushed and quick fashion, debriefing them before requesting more Spellweavers to assist him in a sweep of the basement level of the building and giving them the dreaded news of the hellhounds personally.
While Leon chatted away, Vanessa leaned against the railing of the steps at the peak and looked down to the crowds of people collecting and swiftly shuffling away from the scene like calm waves that would wash upon the shores of the beach, lapping on the edge of land before receding to its home.
Bobo sighed loud enough to catch her attention. “I need to mark this day on a calendar,” the ogre gasped, suddenly realizing something.
“Why is that?” Vanessa asked, looking up to him with a puzzled look.
“Because, you apologized to me,” he remarked with a wide, toothy grin.
Instantly, Vanessa’s face warped into regret, and she huffed as she shook her head. “I did not. Besides, even if I did, you hugged me,” she said with a twisted chortle and a mock grin plastered to her face.
Bobo instantly coughed, choking on nothing as he nervously looked around him. “How preposterous. I did nothing of the sort. I was merely holding you close to use as a meat shield from those brutes’ attacks,” he said as he straightened the cuffs of his jacket and the collar of his – now soot blotched and dilapidated – button up shirt.
Vanessa rolled her eyes hard and kept the wicked grin on her lips as she said, “Whatever you say, Bobo.”
“Vixen,” he hissed back at her. They both turned their back on one another. She went on to busy herself with dusting off while Bobo reached for today’s most recent reading material.
Moments passed and the two stood on opposite ends of Raen while they waited for Leon to be done with his call. Leon walked back over to them, slipping the tennis ball sized crystal orb into his pocket pouch that was dangling from his belt. “Well, we are going to finish up here with a sweep of the boiler room, as soon as backup arrives, and then we have to go back to the Coven to make a report before those blasted blue cloaks want to have a private audience with the three of us,” he said with a tired gaze.
Bobo peered over his shoulder as he slid the ribbon back into the book and sealed it shut. “I take it we will be part of the venturing crew?” He didn’t sound delighted at the idea in the slightest.
“Afraid so, big guy. We should keep an eye peeled for the team. They should be arriving shortly. I want to get this over with as soon as possible. I didn’t expect to be doing this with my afternoon,” Leon sighed.
“Aye. Me too. Me too.” Bobo joined in on the sighing.
“Hey, I didn’t want to be—” the two instantly glared at her, daring her to deny her desire to do anything dangerous or risky, and she pursed her lips to one side and crossed her arms over her chest. Staring at anything but the two leering gazes of those in company, she pouted at being cut off with the synchronizing glares. Her foot found a stray piece of rubble, and she kicked it down the steps, the stone bouncing chaotically all the way down before the quiet took over once more.
Barely an hour passed before the Spellweaver squad had shown up on the scene and started to speak with Leon about the tasks needing to be taken care of and what sort of matters had already taken place. Vanessa couldn’t really say much, being a low-level Hunter within the Coven ranks. She was the furthest down the chain of command and had to sit patiently and prettily until they started to line up to make way down to the boiler room in an orderly fashion.
Vanessa was far from a happy Hunter when they finally started to head back into the building. For one, this had been her case and now she had to diligently follow Leon’s orders simply because he was a higher ranked Coven member on the scene. Not to mention, she really wasn’t keen on traipsing through the hellhound riddled halls. A swarm of Coven members in tow, or not.
Briefly, they stopped just in front of the boiler room door. Leon turned to face the Coven members. “All right, everyone, be on your guard. This is a high ranked assignment. We have a confirmed hellhound pack reported, and you need to be prepared for a lot of unknowns. What we do know is they can eat flame, so try to use light magic, and stay away from torches if you can. They travel in packs; if you see one then, rest assured, there are more in the area. They can be harmed by barrier and protective spells, but long-lasting damage has not yet been confirmed. For now, keep in mind that we may have to bind them and bring them in to a holding cell. In the meantime, buddy up into groups of three and let’s sweep the area diligently and thoroughly.” He motioned over his head for everyone to get closer. “Let’s go, light spells up and barrier spells at the ready!” Leon tugged the door open and a gush of cold, stale air rushed through the hall and crashed over everyone with the dying aroma of brimstone.
Ominous much?
Vanessa had been there before and now she feared going back to it. Bobo looked over to her and coughed into his fist before nudging her with his elbow, causing her to shudder, and she broke away from the black hole that mocked her from the bottom of those stairs. She managed to catch a small smile on Bobo’s lips before he turned away.
“Are you ready?” Leon asked in a low voice to Vanessa as the light spells ignited in a wave behind her like a massive pool of candles being lit in a darkened room.
Vanessa searched the bright lights and then looked at Leon with a smile that split her face in two. “I was born ready,” she said, and her own light spell was created before she hastily brushed past Leon and descended the steps into the boiler room with false confidence.
Bobo cleared his throat into his massive paw and leaned over to the Spellweaver as he spoke in a hushed tone, “You should stay close to that one. If that girl was born ready, I was born an incubus.”
For a moment, Leon’s eyes widened and then his brow bent in confusion. His gaze followed the line of the massive door and fixed on the mauve robes of the Hunter in question. Nodding once, he wordlessly stated he’d keep watch of her. Then, he too descended into the depths of the academy’s underbelly. The pool of Coven members following after their fearless leader.
Chapter 6:
Shuffling footwork consumed the halls and once empty rooms down below, as spills of light radiated into every nook and cranny and eradicated the darkness with a spell all its own. Carefully placed steps took the Coven members deeper into the boiler room and eventually down the hall that held the lavender and the white candles. It wasn’t until they reached the summoning room that the muted murmurs of the group came to an abrupt hush.
It was around this time that Vanessa started to get twitchy. Every awkward placement of steps or occasional stumble over an unlit piece of raised or off kilter concrete slab by one of the many Coven members would cause her to jerk her gaze in every direction. Frantically inspecting the source of the sounds like she was a mouse trying to cross a field guarded by an army of hungry owls. She placed a hand over the scald marks that traced her arms under her garbs as the memory of the burning sensation flooded her mind.
Leon came to her side and put a hand on her shoulder and when she jolted from the touch, he dug his fingers into her clothing, biting into the skin below. It didn’t hurt, but it did tear her wild eyes from the darkened hall and made her swiftly turn her gaze to him. His eyes held a softness to them like a worried expression that was hidden behind his usual cold and confident appearance.
“Keep behind me, we need the experienced spell casters in the lead,” he said and put enough pressure on her shoulder to keep her in place, not hurt, but the pressure was like a boulder to Vanessa. Perhaps it was because of the sting that came with his words. She wasn’t weak. How dare he tell her to stay back! She scowled at the back of his head as he motioned for a few of the more skilled Spellweavers to come to the front with him, and the rest of the Coven members followed thereafter.
“Jerk,” Vanessa grumbled. “Keep behind me,” she mocked him in a low tone and sucked at her teeth before kicking a nearby candle and sending it rolling into the wall.
She intersected her arms over her chest with a huff and meandered over to the back of the group leading the way through the halls that went deeper into the boiler room. Just because she couldn’t be at the front of the group didn’t mean she was going to be the little-depressed-witch-caboose at the back of the scouting crowd.
Vanessa squared her shoulders and tried to hide her deep sulk as she squeezed into the crowd when they went further into the boiler room. The air started to smell like mildew, and it lost the remaining tints of freshness that lingered from the previous floor. Harsh undertones of burnt trash filled the stale air; the remaining foul scents were more than likely caused by the pack of hellhounds that had dove deep into the musty, dark confines of the academy’s underbelly.
