READ THIS, EVEN IF YOU DON'T TYPICALLY READ MY A/N! SUPER IMPORTANT
I'm baaaaaack! Yeah, I know, I fell off the face of the Earth (it hurt a lot) since I haven't updated in forever! Please read this A/N though since this is THE LAST AUTHOR'S NOTE I WILL EVER POST! Mainly this is because there will only be a couple chapters left of this book. This means that there is the following chapter, one more chapter and TWO epilogues. It'll make sense. I promise. ALSO after the epilogues I will have my DELETED chapters which are filler chapters that I decided to scrap but I want to know what you guys think! If you want the chapter to be part of the real book THEN VOTE OR COMMENT FOR IT. : )
Thank you all for sticking with this story this long and HERE IS YOUR LONG AWAITED CHAPTER!!! (It got deleted off my computer like 3 times and I had like 4 high school crisis moments this week that did not leave me in a state to upload so yeah. Life happened. It always does.) As always this is unedited. I will edit when I'm done. Pinky promise.
Magically yours,
Rosewood7
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That Jobbernowl Romeo
Faye's POV
Melissa's plan was fool proof. Meaning, you'd have to be a fool to fall for it. An utter fool. Luckily, I've been friends with Ryan since pretty much forever and have deducted (probably around the time that he started eating all his apples with a flimsy plastic cafeteria spoon because I said he couldn't) that Ryan has full potential ability to exhibit fool-like behavior.
"So umm..." I say, breaking the awkward silence between me and Melissa. "Again, how are we gonna get into this place?" I ask. Melissa looks at me confused.
"Isn't ringing the doorbell still a valid option?" she asks. I freeze and slowly turn to look at her. She busts out laughing.
"You-your face!" she laughs. I scowl at her. She laughs harder.
"Wizards," I mutter under my breath. She just smiles.
"Back ventilation system," is all she says.
A couple miles ago we passed a sign that read 'Detroit, Michigan.' We've passed into the outskirts of the city by now with abandon building upon boarded up window. We're pretty far out and I look around, raising my eyebrows.
"Wow," I say. "It's almost like he doesn't want anyone to find him." Melissa gives me a flat look.
"No kidding," she says with her voice gushing sarcasm. I actively ignore her and keep looking at the buildings. It's amazing how much barbed fencing and boarded windows there are here.
"That's where we're going," Melissa says a few minutes later. I look where she is gesturing and see a 12 story stone office building with a white stone entrance area and two pillars higher than the rest of the building on either side. It looks like Frankenstein's lab... but stone... and no lightning in the background. There's a tall barbed fence around it and around back I see the tall, untrimmed grass of a field behind it.
"Hold onto something," Melissa tells me. I quickly grab the edge of my seat. Melissa makes a sharp 90° turn after we pass by the building, going down the next alley and crashing through the fence. I hear both of the headlights shatter and the hood dent as we drive through the metal. The car lurches up and down causing both Melissa and me to scream in terror as when Melissa turns the steering wheel, nothing happens. The car surges onward at full force, the grass is long enough to block our view out of the windshield.
"We'regonnadiewe'regonnadiewe'regonnadie!!!!!" Melissa shrieks in fright.
"HOLY MOTHER OF YODA HELP US!" is my similar response to the danger outside. Suddenly the car stops immediately, throwing Melissa and I violently against our seatbelts, leaving sure to be black bruises. I hear the front of the car concaving in against impact.
"What the heck?! Who is that?!" I hear voices shouting from outside. I finally come back to rest on the back of the seat when both me and Melissa's doors were thrown open.
"Faye?!" Rose screams when she opens my door and sees me. Alec stands speechless at Melissa's door, unmoving as both of us recover our breaths. "You were dead!"
"Thanks for the recap," I say impatiently, unbuckling and stepping out of the car. "But is your idiot friend who won't pick up his phone here?"
"He-he went inside," Alec answers in a stunned voice. I love how they both know exactly who I'm talking about the minute I say the word idiot. I groan.
"That jobbernowl," I say, irritated. "Now I have to go in and get him."
"But-but-but," Alec stutters.
"Doesn't matter," Melissa tells him simply. "You two stay here." She gets out of the car, quickly stepping around Alec.
"What? Her? What?" Rose asks.
"This is Beatrice, the second high wizard under Fairchild," I say simply, not stopping to fully take in their baffled expressions.
"WHAT?!" they both shriek.
"Shush. We're outside an oh-so-secret-lair uninvited, aren't we?" I tell them with a silencing look. They both shut up. They look speechless. I guess it is kind of shocking when two people show up, one known to be dead and the other unknown to be a wizard. A day full of surprises I guess! Suddenly I hear a gruff voice sound through the grass.
"It came from over there!" the man yells.
"Crap." Alec says.
"They found us," Melissa says.
"Dang it!" Rose growls.
"Darn Disheveled Dumbledores," I hiss in frustration.
"Oh gosh it's really her," I hear Alec say under his breath. Are my odd Harry Potter references really all I'm going to be remembered by?! Actually, you know what, I'm okay with that.
The grass to the side of the cars is parted by a pair of hairy, clawed hands that are about the size of my entire face. Holy mother of Yoda. Two ginormous figures step through and I quickly identify their bearded toothy faces as that of werewolves. Particularly terrifying werewolves of that.
"Where does Ryan come across these guys?!" Melissa asks in awe.
"Hey! That's the dead girl!" one of them exclaims, looking to me. Ok, this whole 'dead girl' thing is just not cool anymore.
"I'M NOT FREAKIN' DEAD!" I roar at the man, accidently hurling the hood of Melissa's car at the werewolf, slamming into his face and leaving a face-shaped dent in it. He falls backwards and the hood falls away from him, revealing his black, blue, red and very much swollen face. He stumbles, dizzily, to a standing position.
"Why you little-" he growls at me but before he can finish Alec rushes forward and puts him out with a single, skull cracking punch at the werewolf.
"You're not going to kill my best friend's girlfriend again YOU JOBBERNOWL!" Alec yells. I can't help but stifle a laugh. He called him a jobbernowl...
The other man starts onto Alec from behind but Rose jumps in front of him and throws an uppercut that I wasn't aware she was able to do at the man's jaw. He stumbles back but wastes no time coming back at her with a clawed swipe that sounds like grating steel against her hard skin. She hisses in pain as she falls back, deep, bloodless gashes are left in her arm.
"HEY!" I bark at the man, causing him to turn around. I send a swift kick where it really hurts. He grunts, falling forward to his knees with a pained expression. I know, not classy or anything but it works. Rosaline slams her knee into the back of the pained werewolf's head causing his eyes to roll back before they close and he collapses. Melissa stands opposite of us with a baffled look on her face.
"You guys actually know how to kick butt?" she asks. We all scoff in sync and walk away from the two giant passed out bodies, both Rose and I doing an awesome-feeling hair flip that in reality probably made us look like we have flees. Oh well. It felt cool.
"Rose, your arm!" Alec exclaims, terrified, looking to Rose's wounded arm.
"I'm fine, it's healing already," she assures him. He frowns and protectively takes her arm and pulls her closer to him to examine the damage.
"Well, um," I cough and turn to Melissa. "Are we going to save my stupid boyfriend's sorry butt or what?" Melissa nods.
"Could you too stay here and make sure these two canines don't run in screamin' bloody murder?" she asks Alec and Rose. Rose nods. Alec is still closely examining her cuts and probably trying to recall a way to make them heal faster.
"Venom," I say. Alec looks up at me confused.
"Vamps heal faster when there's fresh venom on their wounds," I explain to him before giving him a military salute and tugging Melissa towards the building. I'm anxious to get inside and make sure Dominico's not already hurt.
Melissa leads me around the building to the back. About 8 stories up I see a shaft leading inside. It's not very big but neither are me and Melissa. Using the window sills as rests on the way up, Melissa and I contort the wind using magic to scale the huge building. I look inside some of the windows but all I see are rooms chalk full of wires and sockets with blinking and flashing lights. The rooms don't have their overhead lights on and give the whole place an eerie feel. I almost scream when I see a pair of glowing purple eyes through one window but am able to control myself. The fairy wasn't even looking my way so we're able to continue up unnoticed. To be honest, fairies scare the Smeagle out of me.
Reaching the ventilation shaft, Melissa compresses the metal to blow it out, sending bolts and metal crashing to the ground.
"Witches first," she says, gesturing inside.
"I'm overwhelmed by your chivalry," I deadpan but do in fact go first. Army. Crawling. Sucks.
First few yards?
Feel awesome.
First 30 yards?
I can do this.
75 yards in?
Fire. Arms. Burn. DEATH.
"We're getting out of here," I announce at yard 134.
"Hallelujah," is Melissa's only reply. The next duct we get to, I use magic to burst open before sliding down, head first. My respect for Santa Clause has increased by about 6000%.
Standing up in the vacant hallway after tumbling 'gracefully' *NOTE EXTREME SARCASM* out of the duct, I see the carpet is completely invisible due to the wires covering it.
What kind of electric bill does a place like this have?!
"Like Alicia Keyes said," Melissa says, limply gesturing to her arms. "This girl is on fire." Before I can reply I hear the shot of a gun sound off down a corridor. Fear for Dominico overwhelms my rational thought.
"Like the White Rabbit said," I say to Melissa as I run towards the direction of the sound. "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye! I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!"
Yes. I am awesome enough to sing Alice in Wonderland while running through the halls of a strangely electric evil lair.
You know you're jealous.
"Faye!" I hear Melissa call angrily at my rash behavior. I know, I'm running towards the sound of a gunshot in the headquarters of a guy who hates me (Ryan hates me? *gasp* That traitor. He pinky-promised when we were in kindergarten that we would be best friends forever!!!).
I don't turn around at the sound of Melissa's warnings and instead charge full force towards who-knows-where. All the corridors look identical with wires running down their full length. Some are as big as my arm while others are just plastic-coated fuses. I can't sense where they're running to because every time I try to track the electricity I just get my senses sent everywhere. Like, planet-wide everywhere. He must have used some sort of masking-spell on it.
I hear another shot and my already sprinting pace increases. I feel a yell rip from my throat,
"DOMINICO!"
Dominico's POV
Faye.
That's the only thought that has fully made sense when it crossed my mind for the past two weeks.
Faye.
Now I'm standing in a large, octagon shaped room with a huge tessla coil in the middle listening to her killer rattle off his evil plan.
"I knew you'd come," Ryan sneers at me the moment I step into the 100+ foot ceiling room. I don't give him the satisfaction of a reaction.
"Yes, I'm sure you have this all figured out," I state in an expressionless voice. Ryan frowns at my response.
"You seem amazingly calm for someone of your...circumstance," Ryan says.
"Circumstance? You mean whose girlfriend was murdered?" I question him.
"Murder is a strong word," Ryan states. I notice that his hair is now a strawberry blond instead of the usual pale pink.
"That's why I use it strongly," I deadpan.
"I thought you'd be more emotional," Ryan says, obviously disappointed.
"I think I ran out of emotions," I say simply. It was true, the past two weeks I've been in so much pain that it hurts to even remember it. Reading Faye's 'journal' *cough* diary *cough* on the way up just reopened some of the wounds but it's the first time I've actually smiled since she...
Faye has the most strange mind of anyone I've ever met.
But in that book of mostly nonsense and sketches for NALA that I couldn't even begin to understand one line stood out. It was before our first date and after she was kidnapped. Somewhere in the middle.
'Dominico Redwind is the most idiotic, senseless, numbskull, frustrating, annoying, insane person I've ever met in my entire life. Why do I have to like him so dang much?' Only Faye would admit to liking someone by insulting them repeatedly. Only her.
"Aww... pity. Faye would be so disappointed to come back, only to have you unable to return her feelings, don't you think?" Ryan asks with a coy smile.
"She's not coming back," I say, my voice hard but empty.
"What if I told you she could come back? That she wasn't actually completely dead?" he asks.
"Shut it, Panther. I'm not going to buy into whatever you're saying. You. Killed. Her." I growl at him. He just chuckles.
"Oh but did I really?" he asks. I don't bother messing with his strange mind. I'm just going to end it.
I lash out against him physically, I know that I can't defeat him with magic but Ryan, all truth be told, has bones like toothpicks and just about .009% muscle content. I'm not being arrogant, but I can kick this kid's butt without breaking a sweat. My fist slams into his nose before he can react making a sickening snap resonate off the walls and staining my fist with warm, sticky blood. I'm about to go in again but Ryan sends a wall of coiled wires from the ground to tie down my legs.
Looks like it comes down to magic after all.
"You have no air." I tell Ryan, looking straight into his golden eyes. His bright blue contacts are long gone and he is easily distinguished as one of the three high wizards now. "You have no air," I repeat, lacing my energy into my words with the familiar sensation of pulsing in my throat and tongue. "You. Have. No. Air," I speak slowly. Ryan's eyes go wide before he starts panting for breath, his mind is convinced he is deprived of oxygen. I see his body start to react to the 'loss of air' as Ryan immediately starts gasping and his face goes a sickly shade. I stare heartlessly at my victim.
"You're suffocating. You. HAVE. NO-"
"STOP!" Ryan chokes. The wires at my feet drop as well as my own spell. Ryan gives me a wary look.
"You almost killed me," he says, looking surprised and even a little impressed.
"Close but no cigar," I say in a hostile tone. He chuckles even though I see he hasn't fully recovered his breath.
"Who knew that losing your girlfriend could leave you like this? It's amazing really. You know you would have never even come close to killing anyone before she left," Ryan says.
"She didn't 'leave' you took her!" I growl back, angry beyond words. My calm reserve is falling but I can't do a thing to keep it strong. I lunge at Ryan again.
He tries to dodge this time but I catch the collar of his shirt and aim another punch at his eye, sufficiently blackening it. He yelps before I'm thrown back by a strong gust of hurricane-level wind and fly up against the wall with a bang.
"You're going to pay for that," Ryan vows, gently brushing his already bruising eye.
"Give me your worst." I growl in reply. His eyes narrow at me. I can see the need for keeping me alive because 'I'm stupid enough to be recruited to his team of diabolical-ness' battling against the need for revenge in his eyes.
"Fine," he says, deciding in an instant. Suddenly two metal panels fling out of the walls and rush at me. I roll to the side to avoid them just in time to not be impaled. They hit the wall behind me with crashes that sound freakishly like gunshots.
"IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!" I yell at the wizard. Sending magic energy to try to confuse him and throw of his aim. Ryan wobbles a bit, slightly dizzy but keeps his glare trained on me.
"SAY YOUR LAST PRAYERS, DOMINICO REDWIND!" he yells back at me, enraged. The wires from the ground are cackling with electric sparks now and they reach up to grab me. I step on the ones I can with my thick-soled boots and send more magic to try to throw off Ryan. I sense his attention on me waver for a second to something else. I turn around just in time to see the two metal panels back again and flying towards my waist. I jump out of the way, causing the panels to fly past me, taking out some wires on the way past and crash into the wall opposite of me. I fall into a mess of the cackling wires. Electricity shoots through my entire body and I feel my muscles clenching and unclenching on their own, like I'm being possessed. I let out a yelp as I jump to my feet away from the wires but something catches my shoe and I'm forced to my knees.
"DOMINICO!" I hear my name yelled. My mind completely turns away from the pain I'm in and focuses on the voice. I see Ryan turn too towards the doorway from where it came from. For the first time I hear the fast paced footsteps racing towards us. My eyes widen in shock at the figure in the doorway. Long brown hair, dull grey-blue eyes to match her clothes, heart-shaped face, average height... everything I've missed for the past two weeks.
"Faye," I breath. She looks me in the eyes and I see a look of relief cross her face. I open my mouth to say something but I'm interrupted.
"Faye!" this time the voice isn't mine but it's not Panther's either. Now it's Ryan's turn to be stunned.
"Melissa," he says, surprise evident in his voice. Finally he's not using that cocky, arrogant sneer. "What are you doing here?"
Melissa ignores him.
"What's the point of sneaking in if you're going to run around screaming once you're inside?!" she angrily scolds Faye.
"I heard gunshots! I thought he," she jabs her thumb at me, "was jobbernowl enough to get lead in his skull!"
"You're alive," is all I can say as I stare at her in wonder. Who cares if she just called me an idiot and used an extremely weird terminology to describe getting shot? SHE'S ALIVE! "H-How?" I stutter, moving towards her. I'm afraid that if I touch her, she'll disappear again. Faye turns and shoots a hateful glare at Ryan.
"That psyco-maniac poisoned me," she growls, no doubt mentally murdering Ryan. "The 'Christmas present' I got. It put me to sleep. I wasn't really dead."
"It was a good plan though," Melissa admits. "Even Fairchild was fooled." Good? It was an AWFUL plan! Wait a second-
"How do YOU know about Lady Fairchild?" Ryan asks, voicing my thoughts.
"She's been your babysitter, Ding Dong." Faye answers through gritted teeth. "This is Beatrice, second high wizard under Fairchild.
Mind. Blown.
Ryan freezes like ice but I use the chance to close the gap between me and Faye. I hadn't notice that she'd been inching closer to me too this whole time until I see the distance between her and Melissa. Only yards away from her, I see her eyes shift to meet mine. I can't hold back any longer. I turn and wrap my arms around her.
I'm hugging her.
I never thought I'd be able to do this again.
"I missed you. I missed you so much," I mumble into her hair.
"I was so worried about you," I hear her admit as she tightens her grip on my neck. I pull back to see her face but before I can say anything more, I'm interrupted by a dramatic slow clap.
"Aww... touching." Ryan coos. I begrudgingly pull away from Faye to face the wizard. Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, a blast of dagger sharp and powerful air sends Ryan's head knocking against the wall.
"Could your Juliet do that" Faye growls at him through gritted teeth. Ryan's mouth is in an 'o' before he quickly composes himself.
"Remind me not to underestimate you, Faye," he grins devilishly. One of the wires on the ground lashes out and cracks like a whip against Ryan's leg.
"I'll find ways to jog your memory," she promises. Ryan scowls at her calm and quick reply.
"You don't know who you're messing with," Ryan says darkly. Faye, me and Melissa share a look.
"Demented freak and co.?" Melissa tries. Ryan glares and I can feel the air turning cold. I don't know if the temperature change is on purpose or not but he doesn't seem particularly pleased with us.
"Is this a child's game to you?" he demands.
"Is this a Shakespeare play to you?" Faye counters.
"Give it up, Ryan," I tell him, most- no some- of my bloodlust gone. "You can't win this. You're outnumbered." I try to get him to see sense. Cue laugh track.
"Oh well, I see you're right. I surrender. Tow me away to Lady Scare-the-Child so I can rot in her maze. A crime like this is probably only punishable by a year in Scary Gandalf Mode," Ryan says sarcastically. Faye snickers.
"Scary Gandalf Mode..." I hear her say quietly. I give her a now-is-a-bad-time look. You know, being inside the stronghold of a mentally unstable wizard and all...
"Ryan," Melissa- or Beatrice's- voice snaps all our heads in her direction. "You have to see that your 'plot' or whatever is going to hurt millions. Can't you at least see why we want to stop it?" her voice is sweet and caring like the tone she normally uses around Ryan.
"Ah, 'Beatrice,' so nice of you to point that out. But wouldn't you like to hear my so-called 'plot' first?" he asks.
"No!" Faye bursts out. We all turn to her surprised at her quick reaction. She clears her throat, blushing slightly at the sudden spotlight. "It's just, sorry but, your monologues are really, really, REALLY boring," she states. Ryan blinks and looks sort of shocked and really, really, REALLY offended.
"They're not...boring," he says, looking genuinely hurt.
"I'd rather listen to Mr. Chronicle's English grammar lectures," Ryan flinches.
"And I'm the evil one," he mutters, glaring at Faye.
"Monotone voice, cheesy lines, weak points, morbid themes, poor organization, obviously practiced in front of a mirror-" Faye counts off on her fingers.
"ALRIGHT! I GET IT!" he bursts out. He glares at Faye. "I should have listened when they said not to go against your childhood friend. Never ends well," he mutters.
"You never do listen do you?" Faye asks. "Like the time that I told you NOT TO BE EVIL!" she scolds him.
"I don't ever recall you saying that," Ryan sniffs.
"When we were five I did!" she argues.
"I DON'T REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE FIVE!!!"
"NEITHER DO I BUT YOU DON'T KNOW I DIDN'T SAY THAT!" she argues back.
"Faye, never be my lawyer," Melissa says. Faye sticks her tongue out at her.
"Classy, Faye," Melissa and Ryan both say. I look between them.
"You two really do make a good couple," I note. Everyone turns to glare at me so I quickly change the subject.
"RYAN'S PLOT! Let's all hear about that!" I say. Ryan's eyes brighten a bit then his eyes go darker and his face becomes serious. Faye was right- he does practice this in front of the mirror.
"As you know, W-members' powers are static based. The trigger in their minds causes induction to whatever element they can control. Element, in this sense being animate and inanimate objects of course," Ryan says.
"Oh, you've upgraded from English to Science. Gosh Ryan, and here I thought you never paid attention in class," Faye says, already looking board. Ryan shoots her a hateful look before continuing.
"The Earth's core is essentially an over-sized magnet and also very conductive of static charges. In fact, Nikola Tessla in the 1800s, a wizard, mind you, attempted to use the core as a giant conductor to give the world an unlimited power source everywhere using W-members' powers." Ryan opens his arms to gesture to the wired laboratory surrounding him. "I'm essentially doing the same thing except instead of transferring power, I'm giving W-members control- well partial control- to do whatever they want with it right then and there," Ryan says proudly. My mind was lost at '1800s' but Faye and Melissa just stare at him in shock. I think I missed something.
"YOU'RE GOING TO TRIGGER EVERYONE'S POWER! INNOCENT BYSTANDERS COULD GET HURT! EVERYONE WILL BE EXPOSED!" Faye yells at Ryan. That right there is a much shorter and simpler summary in my book.
"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Melissa yells at him. Ryan just smiles and walks to the machine behind him. Opening up what looks like an electrical box I see the lights blinking and numbers scrolling jibberish on the inside.
"Actually, Beatrice, I can. As you can see here, it's all gone exactly according to plan," Ryan sneers.