The Witches of Ravenrook 04

"Unless she was a Theran, you Nut," Regina grumbled. "You did know she was a Theran, didn't you?"

"Well...not initially," Shelby looked embarrassed. "She deceived us to her true nature so our deception toward her made more sense. When she tried to make contact beyond the tomb, we realized our mistake."

"Since you clearly didn't let her go, what did the thirteen of you do?" I glared at Shelby.

"We couldn't kill her – that would have been unjust...so we tapped into her spiritual form and siphoned off her healing powers into the Six," Shelby related. "That would keep her weak and we didn't think giving the Six back their forms would disrupt things that much."

"And the past year when the Six haven't been around in their crypt to be regenerated, where do you think all that siphoned energy has gone?" I drilled the question home.

"I don't know," joked Regina. "I'd find some jack-ass of a half-Theran just wandering around campus and put some subliminal suggestions into his head before he was lured to – say London, where two Therans just happen to be hanging around."

"So she's here to release the 13th Witch? Or kill her?" Spring posed to the rest of us.

"She'd have to break the seal," Shelby volunteered, "and that wouldn't be easy."

"What are we talking about? An old scroll, a coven...what?" I asked.

"There is a thirteenth century enchanted German chisel and hammer that can open most tombs," Twilight offered.

"Osteophyte's Tombs and Wards might have something," Regina put out there.

"Well, how did the six of you defeat the similar design," I queried.

"We drew on the residual energy of you to complete ourselves. Once our bodies were complete we dismantled the wards from within," Eden answered with a grin.

"Then she should finds out where the tomb is and finds a way to help her dig out," I suggested. "After all, if she brought a library or a ton of luggage, you eight could find it and she had to know seven of you would be here – Regina being the added complication. "I suggest Spring, Autumn and I keep an eye on her, Shelby, Midnight and Twilight figure out how she is planning to break the Abenaki out and Eden, Paradise, and Regina go through her room and the places she spends time."

"So you are now in charge?" Spring challenged me.

"If it means I'm putting our mutual existence ahead of my individual desire to survive – then yes, I'm the leader," I narrowed my eyes as I stared at Spring. I could sense Autumn bristling as well, but the other four were abnormally calm.

"That's right," snorted Regina, "It isn't like you Six want to kill me or Shelby here – oh wait, you do."

"Fine," grumbled Spring, "but when the time comes we will finish off the Theran." All would have gone off like gangbusters if Everest had been at all in a hurry – she wasn't.

***

The next night, after study hall, Everest and I found time to talk to one another.

"How's Lord Harper?" I inquired about her Father.

"He is well within his own space and mind, Richard," she snorted playfully. There was a pregnant pause.

"Is there another Lady Marlowe – as in your Mother?" I pressed on.

"Yes and no," Everest was leading me outside. "You see, my birth was a contract between my Father and the woman who birthed me. Father delivered up some bit of obscure lore that only he had to her family and they gave him the offspring of their joining – very business-like."

"That sounds a bit sad actually," I countered. "I didn't know my Mother for long but she was in my life. The same goes for my Father."

"Oh, we Therans are all about gaining favors and then collecting on them," Everest informed me. "Land, possessions and money don't mean much for us. Acquiring such things is too easy – a decade or two of work at most before return to our real pursuits – power."

"And here I thought you came here to visit me," I joked. Neither one of us thought that.

"It is not a task easy to judge the morals on, Richard," Everest sighed. "Some of the debts we collect on are the wrongs done to our houses and we pursue those just as vigorously as boons."

"Don't make it one of my ladies," I stated firmly. I was the monster after all and these maidens were my treasure hoard.

"It is not that simply," Ms. Marlowe replied. "Some people owe debts and some people have done bad things that need to be addressed."

"Everest, do you have any respect for me whatsoever?" I queried

"Yes, you have an army of deathless followers who course through your body, psyche and soul," Everest described, "but your power comes from the cusp of Oblivion and that is where I was born. No Richard, you hold no particular fear for me or any true Theran."

"Have you ever considered that Mom left us because she discovered the monsters within us," I postulated, "or that she found the Monster in Dad and he killed her."

"That's not very likely," Everest was a bit condescending.

"Why? Because when you ran away and crossed over to Oblivion's edge – you ran straight into us? It is where you are born, but it is where my ancestors exist every day," I explained.

"Enchanting idea and if I was twenty, I would be worried – but I'm not Richard. I'm far past twenty but since you have such a strong chivalrous and romantic streak, I'll allow you to protect one of your ladies; one I won't touch," Lady Everest bargained. That was a hellish proposition for me; Eden who might bare my child some day and Regina who was all alone in the world.

"I won't put one above the others," I responded.

"Ah, now true leadership is being able to make the hard choices in difficult times," Marlowe tsked me.

"No, true leadership is finding a way to save them all," I glared.

"Very well Richard, I'll spare you because I like you and you intrigue me but I'm going to get rid of the rest," Everest smiled. "It is what needs to be done and while you have an inflated sense of your own capabilities, you are not powerless in the world. This will be a fun game."

"Please don't force me into a position where it is you or one of my Witch's lives at stake," I sighed. "I really like you."

"Thank you for that," Everest smiled. "I can tell you value their lives dearly."

"They need it more than normal people," I countered.

"We will see what you can do when I come for all of you," she answered with a slight nod.

"We'll be ready," I gave a curt nod. We weren't.

(Two Months Later)

Alyssa Monroe was finishing giving Eden an injection of one of the popular fertility cocktails. The drugs had been cloaked in a protective charm that would stop her body from rejecting the foreign substance.

"I keep telling you I'm not a paramedic, much less a doctor," Alyssa reminded us – as she juggled the serum bottle and the needle with her own telekinetic incantation from her book.

Sure she could only cast spells from her book, while the book was in her possession. Compared to a real witch, she wasn't much, but she'd thrown her sharp mind and imagination to mastering as many manifestations as possible. She'd also worked as the island's electrician, our personal obstetrician, and honed her FBI Agent/Monster Hunter skills.

"I doubt anyone will report you, Ms. Monroe," I suggested.

"I doubt anyone can report you," Eden corrected. "Our condition does that much for you."

"Twilight and Shelby worked out the Rote for the medicine," Monroe smirked, "and I'm sure Richard is pumping you full of...well pumping you full."

"Don't get above yourself Human," Paradise growled. "You help us but we are not creatures who enjoy being mocked."

"Sorry about that, I keep forgetting you ladies aren't human," Alyssa rolled her eyes. She also kept her pistol close by.

"Richard, Mr. Wendell is probably waiting on you. You have your dress rehearsal this afternoon and tonight is the big night," FBI-Girl reminded me of practice for the play. Playing to character; I was the Devil in deed if not in name for the production. We were doing the George Miller version of the Witches of Eastwick and to complicate matters, Lady Everest was my Alexa, Sally Fabian was Jane, and Regina was Sukie.

Our romantic scenes had either an air of hilarity about them or comedic tragedy. I had not 'hooked up' with Sally since the night she had helped the Six in trying to kill me but we'd kept talking. I'd accidently walked in on her having sex a few times. I wasn't sure how often it was truly accidental. Unfortunately for her efforts, I was busy keeping the Six carnally amused.

I felt the play was beyond adequate for our school. Mr. Wendell had a wicked wit and a clever way of working wonderful special effects with mechanical ingenuity. The actors had a faded sense of raw violence to their production that was a holdover of the Six's reign but it had diminished over the months and gave peripheral characters a greater energy.

The greatest thing was how well Mr. Wendell directed the production. If any angry impulses threatened him he didn't show it – that should have been our greatest clue that something was fucked up. Mr. Wendell glided through our seas of depression and despair with hardly gaff or down moment.

In our defense, he was human; just a strange branch of humanity that was aware of the arcane and was capable of taking up arms against it. Ross Wendell was a witch-hunter and a damn good one. Worse, he had been informed of the eight. Worse yet, he had suborned one of our number to his side. Worst of all...

The last scene was done and my face, up on a projection screen, faded to black as the 'witches' banished me from my conversation with my children. There was the applause, the cast coming out and doing a final bow then tending to the debris of the show. The Six gathered near the dressing room where they always gathered.

Regina and Lady Everest where with me in the changing room where I was wiping the make-up off. Regina had begged for a little 'deposit' before the show as a precaution. She was licking her lips as she came up to me. Her touch was like fire as I went from standing, to my knees and finally onto my face – totally paralyzed by my own energy.

"Hush now Richard," Everest breathed into my ear. "This will simply close your portal for a few hours at which point we'll reexamine your position here in this school and in the greater world." A cold bolt slammed through my heart. At the edge of my hearing I heard Twilight scream and the strumming of running feet.

One voice, Paradise's I thought, attempted a casting only to be countered by the louder, shriller voice of Lady Marlowe. A third voice, definitely Twilight, howled a curse and Regina screamed in pain. There was a powerful thump then nothing.

"The ladies think you'll stay in place but I'd like to make sure," Ross stated matter of factly.

He'd shown me his crossbow on occasion but I'd never thought how much one of those damn bolts would hurt. I got that painful less four times – through each shoulder and above each knee, pinning me to the floor and my face in the dust. Away from me, toward the Six, the voices of Shelby, Regina, and Everest were chanting what I recalled to be a levitation charm.

The voices faded away and the silence of all things nearby grew out of all proportions to my location. A few voices were still in the auditorium but I couldn't call out. The helplessness of my situation grew inside of me and that was part of the flaw in the plan because it would have taken a far greater Mistress of the Arcane Arts to really shut down my connection to my ancestors and the rest of my death curse.

The well-prepared dart Everest had pierced my soul with metaphysically narrowed the contribution my ancestors could make to me to just one. Beyond the wall, my guardian spirits were in turmoil; on my side their carefully crafted power was dissipating. Two things happened together, messing up my perception of either event.

"Regina said you would be in trouble," Alyssa hissed into my ear as she wrenched up the bolt on my left shoulder. I was vaguely aware of the pain of the act because on the other side, a choice had been made – or forced. As the second shoulder bolt was worked loose, hate and evil washed over me. Unadulterated, the Bastard had come through; the being responsible for all my family's ills.

My legs thrust up, tearing flesh on the thigh free in blood chunks. The will driving me didn't care for physical infirmity or discomfort. I rose up to a crouching position with a terribly wary Alyssa regarding me.

"Richard?" she whispered. I nodded because speech was too much to expect of me.

"They are heading out the back way," Alyssa continued. She placed the wrench in her tool box and double-checked her pistol before leading me out. As I padded off after her, my scents of my hell-beast nature. I recognized two scents – Regina who had my seed still powering her and Eden who was engrossed in my aura.

We caught them as they exited the rear gardens and passed into the graveyard.

"We should wait for Regina to make her move," Alyssa hissed. I choked down a feral growl and my desire to kill anyone I identified as an enemy. What she wanted made sense because we couldn't enter the crypt until Shelby unlocked the protective wards.

The Bastard wanted to attack but he felt my desperate need to know what Everest and Mr. Wendell had planned. Watching Regina and Shelby was also unsettling but somehow I knew why – Regina was the consummate survivor. The doors swung open ending my dimly thought-out revelry.

A few second later, Alyssa motioned me to follow. I had a low to the ground gait, circling around with stronger bounds while Monroe took the straight approach. No scent or sound revealed to us anyone's lingering presence and the sound of the surf booming below drew us down.

"Help me get the bodies in the sarcophagi, Ms. Ravenrook," Ross ordered with a steady voice.

"We need the Grimoire too," Everest requested politely.

"Move the bodies – give you the book – I already gave you the sword; how about I get paid first?" Regina challenged.

"Oh yes," Everest's tone turned hard as stone, "you joined us so you could kill Shelby and take her power. All you had to do was lie and betray your only real friend, Richard."

We were at the entrance to the cavern. The Six were laid out just outside the circle created by the six burial tombs, their bodies encrusted with salt and flickering items of what I thought was consecrated silver.

Ross faced Regina down the length of an encased Witch.

"Well," Shelby said somewhat sadly, "Ross was sent by my coven to put the Witches back after Richard failed. Everest needs your soul to pry the Shaman out of her crypt." Regina looked back and forth between Ross, who had a grim look to him, and Everest, who looked like she was the Mistress of events.

"Shelby, you are an idiot," Regina turned on her fellow fledgling arcanist, "they need the soul of a White Witch to finish sealing in the Six and you are the only one here tonight." The reality came crashing in for Shelby along with a sharp, curved knife that Everest punched between her shoulder blades and out the base of her throat.

Blood fountained out of Shelby's mouth and slumped to her knees. Everest grabbed Shelby's hair and uses it to gently guide her to the floor of the cave.

"Don't try and die too quickly, Shelby. I need you," Everest purred to her. Now that was what I called a casual disregard for human life.

At the same moment as the knife blow pierced Shelby, Ross had dipped down to the far side of the salt coffin and pulled out a whip and a knife.

"Help me!" Regina called out desperately.

"Girl, you've run through all your allies," Ross snapped, apparently annoyed at the disruption to his business-like procedure.

The whip lashed out and encircled her throat. Where the leather touched Regina's flesh, it burned and blistered – salt; his whip was soaked in pure salt. Regina was screaming, her hands smoking from trying to unravel the weapon around her windpipe.

"Let's go," Alyssa hissed then she broke from cover. "Back the fuck up, both of you!" she screamed at Everest and Ross.

Ross spun the whip around, flipping Regina to the ground. Marlowe waved her hand over her face but that was more than enough movement for Alyssa. She put three bullets into Everest, knocking her down. I charged Ross, he lashed out with his whip but I caught it around the arm. The sight and scent of my own flesh burning meant nothing.

Behind me, a massively unfair duel was going on between Everest and Alyssa. One blow of rock shrapnel crumbled Alyssa's occult protection. The next had Alyssa give out a bitter cry as she fell down. The gun had negligible effect against Everest's armor. In seconds she was stalking toward her fallen opponent.

I yanked Ross toward me, he intended to stab my abdomen with his knife and we locked grips with barely a wound. He grunted with the exertion as I began to push him back.

"This one is still too strong, Lady Marlowe," he called out. My response was to bite his shoulder and by that I mean, my teeth tore through his shirt, skin and muscle straight down to the bone.

Ross twisted in my grip and broke free. His left arm was torn up sluggish but his right dropped the whip, snatched up a vial from his face and through it at my face. The mercury splashed over my cheek but missed the eyes. He backpedalled and the Bastard pursued right up until I felt my soul being blasted out of my body, causing me to collapse on the ground.

The problem with the hand-canon Everest shot me with was that it was a weapon called a Soul Caliber and it could blow the soul out of a person for a period of time. It didn't actually kill you. My/Her problem was that left only one soul in my body – The Bastard's and all restraint I'd been showing up until then was about four feet away my physical form.

To her credit, Marlowe knew she fucked up when the creature that had been me flew at her. Her blade and armor stood her well. Closer to my soul I sensed two forms struggling before one made a final effort then burned down. I figured that Ross had finished off Regina. I could feel my own flesh beginning to fail and the Bastard with it.

"Stay down Richard," Everest said with some compassion. My soul snapped back to my body to hear those words. I had one option left and everything told me it was a dangerous one.

"Leave and I won't kill you, Lady Everest Marlow," I croaked through a battered vocal cords.

"You can't hurt –"she started to say before I vomited on her with every bit of bile me and my first Vandemeyer ancestor had. Her armor and sword melted underneath the corruption and her screams were the last thing I heard and saw.

(Sometime Later)

My sensation that my ancestors were around me once more was the first thing that came to my cloudy mind. The next thing was the unique and familiar scent of Eden's hair. I opened my eyes and looked up at her face.

"Eden, are you okay?" I rasped – vomiting the filth of existence was hard on the pipes. "All of you?"

Her worried face went from fragile grin to a full-blown smile.

"Yes...if there is a 'we' then we are fine," she laughed. "He's awake," she announced to the cavern.

"It is about time," Paradise called out.

"Regina?" I worried. "Alyssa?"

"They both are fine," Eden related. "After Regina killed the witch-hunter with his own knife, she produced an antidote she's prepared once she knew how he planned to entomb us in salt. She doused Midnight before that Theran bitched recovered enough to blast her to unconsciousness."

"By the time Midnight recovered, Shelby was dead and the 7th tomb had been emptied," Eden answered. "The other two sets of twins are out hunting for them. We stayed to make sure you and Alyssa were okay."

"I'm alive," groaned Regina as she weaved her way toward me. "I feel like I have a rhino running around my head."