Your Job Bites!

Chapter 31 16th century eugenics

"The Key to the trap. It's a girl."

"Wait, what now?" Sandra sat back.

"Barbie!" John warned again this time grabbing her arm.

"In for a penny in for a pound, John. I'll tell them anything they ask if it will save lives." Barbie shook his hand off and looked around the table.

"It's a Spell. It's complicated and I don't really understand it, but there is a ring around the entrance to the trap. It's made from blood."

"Eww." Sandra wrinkled her nose.

"Wait, if we are going to discuss the particulars of this spell I want some one who understands here." Mrs. Meyers held up her hand and then got up and went into the living room.

"Hello, Gloria," Elizabeth smiled welcomingly at the short, red haired girl as she followed Mrs. Meyers into the room. Her freckles were more prevalent in the harsh light from the dining room chandelier. She was quiet and honest. It was her that had seen Justin following Whitney the first time she had been attacked and it was her whom helped Unkhabami with her Ritual to find Whitney when she had been kidnapped by Justin.

Gloria nodded and glanced around the room her eyes staying on John for a few seconds longer than anyone else.

"Please, sit." Mrs. Meyers gestured to the empty chairs as she returned to her own. "Please continue."

"I was saying that there is a binding circle around the entrance to Apep's prison. It's made from the blood of the Key."

Gloria nodded her understanding although she had a repulsed look on her face.

"You said the Key was a girl!" Whitney accused.

"Yes, but don't worry, she's alive." Barbie held her hand up trying to stop Whitney from jumping to the wrong idea.

"At least she was when we left." John mumbled.

"Apep can't cross the threshold of the prison as long as the Key is alive." Barbie explained.

"How long has Apep been imprisoned?" Gloria asked watching them carefully.

"This last time we caught him it was in 1794." John replied.

"Wasn't that when the French Revolution was?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes, like I said Apep likes to cause chaos." Barbie nodded.

"So how did you manage to keep him in prison from then 'til now? If you have to have a Key's blood to lock the entrance, did you just keep finding new Keys?" Thomas asked.

"It wouldn't work like that." Gloria shook her head. "The Spell is more complicated than that, isn't it?" She looked to Barbie.

"Yes, only the blood that was in the original binding will hold the Spell. If you try to replace it the trap will open, unless you can re-bind it faster than Apep can get out." Barbie replied. "And I don't think that's possible. I know he hovers at the entrance waiting." She shuddered.

"Then how have you maintained the lock for over two hundred years?" Whitney asked.

John and Barbie exchanged a look then Barbie answered hesitantly. "We made sure the blood line continued."

"Huh?" Whitney looked around the table seeking help understanding.

"The only way to do that is to carefully breed your Key." Mrs. Meyers said. Her voice was dangerously quiet.

"You set up a eugenics program!" Thomas blurted in surprise.

"Sorry still not getting it." Whitney shook her head.

"They pick and choose who they wanted to breed together so they could get the offspring they wanted that had the right amount of genetics from the original key in order to keep the Key pure enough to hold the trap shut." Gloria sighed.

"Oh. Eww." Whitney exclaimed when she finally got it. "You guys suck!"

"How can you do that to someone?" Elizabeth stared right at John. "How can you take away someone's future like that and force them to follow your little breeding plan?"

"We were trying to protect the world!" John snapped. From that moment on, the room dissolved into chaos, arguing over the rights of the Key and what the lengths are that are acceptable to go to to keep the world safe.

"The reasons why are not an issue!" Barbie slammed her hands down on the table silencing the room. "We must protect her NOW! Apep must not be allowed to enter the world again."

"I agree." Mrs. Meyers said surprising everyone.

"That's why we need Ravilla." Barbie added.

"Madraeus is already after Cecelia. Why come all this way to ask him to fight her?" Whitney asked.

"Because she is getting close and we need him now. He is running around trying to find out what she is doing. We can supply a short cut and take him straight to the source."

"If you want to short cut why not just go straight to him? Why come to us?" Gloria asked.

"Because they know that he will kill them before they have a chance to ask." Thomas said dryly.

"Exactly." John smiled a nasty smile. Whitney watched him closely. There was something off about him but she didn't know what. Maybe it was just that he was a crazy conspiracy, secret society guy, but she doubted it.

"That's why we need you," Barbie looked at Whitney.

"ME?" Whitney squeaked.