Rule 35, Alpha

-Chapter 19-

Grabbing my bag and pulling it over my shoulders, I lock the door behind me as I leave the house, dropping my keys in my bag as I head towards Butch's 67 impala for any clues. After I reach it I investigate, trying to ignore the smell of death as I look for anything out of place. As I reach in to grab his keys out of the ignition, I notice something sitting on the drivers seat...

A bowl of powder just as black as my nail polish.

Catching a whiff of its scent, I recognize what it is immediately. It's burn powder, you burn it to see and hear a message in its smoke. Taking my lighter, I sit the bowl on the ground and set the contents on fire, backing up as the large plume of smoke billows up.

"Hello little Tempest, I see you've found my message...such a clever girl..."

I narrow my eyes at his smoke reflection, his mocking tone grinding against my already frayed patience.

"Oh don't be such a downer, Tempest...you'll be reunited with your mate soon."

"Just tell me where." I bite out, not in the mood for small talk, and he chuckles.

"There's an abandoned asylum twenty miles from here...I'm sure you'll find your way here."

The smoke disappears along with his voice, and as I stare at the empty bowl it hits me, it's a physical object from the place he's holding Butch. Picking it up, I turn it over to reveal a sigil recently engraved on the bottom. Placing my palm on it, I close my eyes and focus my magic into the spot as I concentrate on my destination....and once the air swirls around me I open my eyes again, taking in the dark atmosphere of the forest that surrounds the decrepit building in the distance.

Lifting the Luna pendant in hand, I press a kiss to it before I begin to carefully make my way to Drayid's hideout, carefully observing the dark witches and cannibal wolves patrolling the perimeter from a distance. After memorizing their movements, I take the black bandanna I packed and tie it behind my head, pulling it over my nose and mouth before taking out one of my sleep powder bombs and making my first move.

Time to go stealth.

I repeat my earlier spell and turn myself transparent, using it to sneak through the small gap between the guards. Crouched in the shadow of a corner, I pull the cork out of the powder bomb and spin it towards the large grouping of wolves and witches, the sudden change in pressure expelling the contents into the air to breathed in by anyone within 10 feet. They begin to drop like flies, the curiosity of the others bringing them close only to drop too.

Good. The more I knock out now, the less I have to fight later.

The concoction they inhaled should keep them out cold for 6 hours, so I creep around the building to find a safe entry point. With any of the doors out of the question for being nailed shut, I look to one of the three stories worth of windows. With the only the assumption that he's likely on the top floor, and the lack of anything to climb up on without making noise, I settle for one of the busted out windows on the bottom floor.

I take one look at the pitch black interior and realize I can't use my flashlight without drawing attention to me. So I revert to magic.

"Serpens oculis meis." I whisper, and my vision becomes equal to Zuzu's. Once I'm sure the room is clear, I climb inside and silently move through the creepy place, careful to avoid stepping on broken shards of glass and running into the rusted out bed frames. I can feel Zuzu shift uncomfortably inside my jacket, he and I both feeling the dark energy that's heavy in this place...thick enough to drown in, or go mad if you let it consume you.