If I thought watching them bloody witches flirt with Fin had been bad enough when I had been cloak and infatuated with him then seeing them all over my Michael made me see red. Red as in their blood splattered across the walls in a display worthy of drawing mother's admiration. It was only Michael's hand firmly on my waist that held me in check.
I held on to my temper but only because I didn't want to draw on mother's wrath. She wouldn't be happy to know that Michael had moved in with me. That the devil's spawn had shacked up with an angel. It didn't do her image much good at all.
So I bit my lip and gripped my itching hands into fists as I waited sombrely for my wishlist of supplies to be compiled by one not so old hag.
"I don't think we have any slugworns," called out Ennette the buxom red head from over by an assortment of jars filled with what looked like slugs of every kind.
"Well is there an alternative," I asked through gritted teeth as one of the covent sisters moved slyly to all but drape herself over my Michael.
"Hmm," said Ennette tapping one long glossy nail to her pouty lower lip. "You could try earthbalms instead. They don't quite have the same consistency but it will work much the same," she continued definitely. I nodded my head agreeably. Then turned to look at the mounting pile of supplies. I hadn't yet covered any discussion over payments. And while Michael may have a stash of his own funds hidden somewhere it would not be in a currency suited for Earth.
I shifted away from Michael's comforting closeness to catch the eye of the wizened old bat who owned this joint.
"I'd like a private word," I said simply then moved to follow her into a tiny room in tje back.
"I sense a power in you that was not there before," she said questioningly. I nodded my head glad she was already on the first page of what I wanted to relate.
"I have...," I started tentatively before surging ahead recklessly. "I have the power of the devil."
She stared at me expressionlessly then took a step back. It was not a boast that could be made lightly for the repercussions from mother would be hauntingly horrorfying.
"You do not lie," she stated more factually then naught. Then with utter reverence like that I have never known but had seen bestowed upon mother many times, the witch bowed before me.
"I am your humble servant my lady. I am yours to command," she said.
What the fuck?
Was she pranking me? The complete change in attitude completely bowled me over. Then I realised why she was being so differential. It had always been mother who commanded the witches because they dark arts tapped into her surplus powers. Powers she left unwound on purpose. Power streams that could be tapped into by anyone practicing the arts. I had heard the story from mother herself on how she founded the sisterhood in vengence to pay men for their miss deeds.
A story as old as time. One filled with rape and abuse and all too often than not murder and mayhem too. It was at the Stonehenge then at the pyramids of Egypt then at other places around the world that plea for vengence over shadowed cries for mercy and forgiveness. The women had suffered and suffered brutally. They wanted nothing more than the ammunition to bring about the same suffering onto mankind.
So mother the ever benevolent saw an opportunity to harness corrupted souls a lot quicker before even death was upon them. Mother always been greedy. So she encouraged that greed among others. A greed for power. She opened up a line of power to those who embraced her. For those who offered up generations of their lines to her. The accursed witches were born.
Using spells and offerings they accessed mother's powers and cursed the very lands they walked upon.
Now here I was seeking their methods to tap into my own powers. Powers I already wielded. Powers I should be able to dominate and control on my own without the use of petty spells and castings. I just needed to be shown how. So that I didn't destroy most of the world while I went about the learning.
"I need you to teach me to access my powers and control it," I said finally to the old hag.
I watched her eyes lit up in excitement of the potential she would hold in her hands. It was not an offer to be refused and she didn't.
"You need only to command me, my lady. I am yours," she said. Just like that switching her alliegence from mother to me. I hated to be the one to have to tell her that she was already too late. She had forsaken herself to mother long ago. There was really nothing she could offer me but training.
But I kept my counsel and simply nodded my head. I left her there then eyes glittering with countless nefarious schemes. And I went to join Michael.
