In the Midst of the Light
Twenty-Eight
PART FIVE
The Warlock
Zombie and I come into the meeting room at home, both of us donning our robes and masks. I wave my hand, sending a message to the coven to come to the room. Before Valerio can do anything against us, I need to send him into a panicked frenzy. I need to keep him busy, distracted, so I can set things into motion.
The bottom of my robe rustles from the wind as the coven comes into the room. When Josie makes her appearance, I force myself to look away from her. We still haven't talked, and right now definitely isn't the right time.
"Everyone sit down," I instruct. When everyone is in their spots, I ask, "How many of you know about the Guild Leaders?" Each member looks around to another member, and then most of them nod their heads. Good, they at least know of them. "Well, family, they have learned of our bombs." The coven gasps. "There is a young woman among them named Aemilia. She has the ability to see into the future, and she just recently found her mate. Her mating allowed her ability to become stronger. She saw Spencer discussing where to place the bomb in Las Vegas, and actually tried to stop it. The new Guild Leader, Valerio, is hell bent on stopping us from our way of life. I promise all of you, I will not let that happen. I will not kill the Guild Leaders, at least not yet, but we do need to throw them into chaos."
I take a deep breath and look at Spencer. "You're going to kidnap Valerio's mate, Lexie. I will cast a spell to make her go on one of her runs in the forest, and along her trail, you will use Josie's powder on her."
Spencer cocks his head to one side. "Warlock, may I ask a question?"
I nod my head.
"How do you know all this?"
I take a deep breath, look at Zombie, and he nods his head to me. We have to tell them. Keeping them in the dark about who we are now will only get them killed.
I work my neck, popping it, and then curl my fingers. My mask and robes disappear, and for the first time, the bulk of the coven is seeing me. Zombie is right though; keeping this from the coven won't do them any good. If my brothers and sister have any chance of surviving what is to come, they need to know everything.
The room falls silent as Zombie also discards his costume. I lift my chin, and say, "My name is R.C. Heteria. I am Cauis and Esmerelda's youngest son." I look at Zombie, not letting the coven's reaction to the news derail me, and continue, "Zombie is Logan Cicero, Septimus and Aquila's only child."
"He's not their only child," Alec says.
Zombie laughs at him. "If I have a brother or sister, I'm pretty sure I would know about it."
Alec pales, and then slowly stands from his chair, holding his hands up. "You had a brother," Alec tells him, refusing to back down.
The way his brown eyes looks between the two of us makes me wonder though. He combs his hand through his shaggy brown hair as he swallows. I look to Zombie at the same time he looks at me. I raise an eyebrow at him, and I see him try to figure out if Alec is telling him the truth or not. I've never heard of Zombie having a sibling, even a dead one.
Zombie snaps his head back to Alec, and growls, "Come with me," before curling his fingers, taking him and Alec out of the room.
Glad I didn't need him for anything. I only have one question for Alec though. If I, nor Zombie, knew of this possible sibling, then how the fuck does he know?
I swallow, and slowly turn my head to look at Josie. Her round face looks uncomfortable about something. I keep turning my head, wanting to actually see the coven's reaction to the news of who Zombie and I really are. Surprisingly, none of them look angry, nor disgusted. Most of them looked shocked, but not as much as I thought they would be.
Did Josie tell them? No. It's not possible. She took the blood oath, and I told her not to tell them. There's no way she was able to tell them. So why is there not a stronger reaction than this?
"Does anyone have any questions for me?" I ask the coven as I sweep my eyes over them.
Adrian looks to his left to Tonny, and then back to me. "Warlock," he begins, seeming scared of me, "you say you are a Heteria, and yet you broke away from them, why?"
I stand up straight, and answer honestly, "Zombie's father is missing a part of his soul. Zombie and I started looking into black magic as a way to piece it back together." I shrug. "Both of us were consumed by the magic before we even really knew what was happening. I may be a Heteria, but I am nothing like them."
Tonny lifts one of his fingers, and asks, "Did you figure out how to correct Zombie's father's soul?"
I smile a little, and respond, "Yes, we did." I look over the coven again, and when no one asks anymore questions, I look at Spencer. "Are you ready to take Lexie?"
Spencer clears his throat, stands up, and dips his head to me. "Yes, Warlock." He lifts his head. "I am ready."
I know it's not the blood oath making the coven still follow me. There's something else here, but now isn't the time to figure it out.
I curl my fingers, taking myself and Spencer to my office. I wave my hand once we're inside, putting everything I will need for my spell on the desk. First, I have to make Lexie want to go for a run. With how much sex her and Valerio have, I know she hasn't been on one of her runs for a while. I need to make it powerful enough that she'll actually go. In my opinion, Lexie isn't a powerful witch, but I'll also have to make her senses dull when she gets closer to Spencer. If she has all of her strength, she could put up a fight. Better to have her incapacitated right away.
"This is will a complex, powerful, spell," I explain to Spencer as I begin mixing everything. "You will have a very small window of time to take her, but it's vital that you do take her."
"Am I supposed to bring her back here?"
I nod my head. "I will have Tonny and Josie set up a room for her and completely seal her in." Once my spell is ready, I wave my hand, manifesting a mask and robe into Spencer's arms. "Wear these," I tell him. I put my hand on his shoulder, close my eyes, and envision Lexie's running trail. I push the images onto Spencer, and ask, "See that tree? I want you to hide directly behind it."
"Yes, Master Warlock," he replies as I take my hand off of him and open my eyes.
I nod my head again, and tell him, "Get in position."
Valerio's magic has gotten stronger; that's the only explanation for how he was able to get to Lexie before Spencer could take her. Even though Spencer wasn't able to take her, the attempt alone has had the desired effect. Valerio is in full panic mode, along with the whole family. It's satisfying to see them all running around like the world is ending. It reminds me a lot of the news clips right after one of the coven's bombs.
Fear.
Panic.
Confusion.
It fuels me further now.
I'm not even mad at Spencer for being captured. The look in the families' eyes quells all anger I may have felt towards my Third for the lack of strength. I did find it comical that none of them could figure out how I was able to get into the room. I barely had to fight against Aemilia's seal to get in. My magic is so much stronger than theirs, and even with Aquila constantly telling Valerio it is, he's not listening.
Valerio ordered that a new barrier be put up, but what he doesn't know is that I slipped drops of each coven member's blood into it. No one can keep us out, and that's exactly how I need it. To keep Valerio on his toes, the coven needs full access to this mansion at all times.
When the new barrier is sealed around the immediate property, I turn, along with Dad, and everyone starts walking over to where Valerio and Lexie are standing by the back gate. With how powerful Valerio has become with his magic, probably unknowingly, he could have had this barrier up faster than the whole family combined.
Lazy prick.
"I want everyone in pairs until we know for sure if that barrier will hold," Valerio tells us as we come closer. The barrier will hold, you idiot, but it won't keep out who you're wanting. "The odds that it won't are high, so everyone needs to keep their guard up." Maybe you guys should have already had your guard up? How has no one seriously noticed I'm the thing they're so scared of? Valerio looks directly at me, and I swallow, wondering if he somehow heard my thoughts. "You, me, Aemilia, Lexie and Brianna are going to figure out how The Warlock got into that room."
Uh, because I'm using black magic against Aemilia's natural magic?
"He's using black magic," Aquila emphasizes, again, as she takes a step forwards. Maybe Valerio should listen to her instead of thinking he knows everything? "It's consumed him," that it has, "and he has a coven he can channel." Which I do all the time. "Black magic in itself is more powerful than our own."
Listen to her, then maybe you'll actually get somewhere.
An arrogant looks comes over Valerio's face as he stands up straighter. "I won't run and hide from him just because he might be stronger than me." I am stronger than you. "The five of us will figure out how he got inside, and take steps to insure it doesn't happen again. Until then, everyone keep your heads up and eyes open."
With the coven's blood in the new barrier, it really won't matter how vigilant the pack is.
Valerio steps forwards, keeping a hold on Lexie, and nods his head to me. I suppress my sigh, curl my fingers, and take him, myself, Lexie, Aemilia and Brianna to the cabin. Now, I have to pretend that I have no idea how I did the things I did.
It feels like hours pass, when in all reality it could only be a few minutes. Do you know how exhausting it is to act dumb? To make sure every line on your face is exactly where it should be?
It's hell.
At least not everyone is looking at me anymore now though. Lexie and Brianna have taken Mom and Hope's spell books from the main house, and are currently looking through them to find some type of answer. They won't find anything in them though. I highly doubt anyone in the family has came across someone like me, so it's not like they'll know how to handle the situation. With Lexie being the one to spearhead that research, I know I'm safe over here on the couch.
"What if we use blood on the shield?" I ask, breaking the thick silence. I can't tell Valerio certain things, but maybe if he feels 'safe', he will back down just a little? Valerio cocks his head to one side arrogantly, so I explain, "If we use the pack's blood on the barrier, it will make it stronger, impenetrable pretty much." Minus the coven since their blood is already in it. "I know it doesn't solve how he got into the room, but it will at least give us more protection against another direct intrusion."
Not really, but I'll let you believe that if it means you'll give me a little bit of breathing room to figure this out from my side.
"Don't you think he would just use his powers to get around it?"
I want to roll my eyes. "That's the point of the blood," you dipshit. "We use a drop from each member of the pack, making it so only we can come in and out of it."
Valerio looks to Aemilia for an answer, but she's useless to anyone right now. I know she's using all her new abilities to try and find me, but she will die before my blocking spell breaks.
The second Lexie gets Valerio to agree to trying a new barrier spell, and they leave to go collect everyone's blood, I instantly get another large desire to create a bomb. Where are these urges coming from? How is it that no bomb, doesn't matter how big, isn't enough? Do I need to just go absolutely crazy and kill as many humans as the coven can get their hands on? With everything the coven and I are about to go through to ward off Valerio, I really don't have time to make another bomb. But I know this feeling all to well now.
I have no choice; other than to make a new bomb. But, this bomb need to be worth it so I can focus. I need death on my hands, so the bomb doesn't necessarily have to be large, although it will be. More important than how big the bomb will be, is where will the bomb be placed? Somewhere there is an overpopulation perhaps?
I stand from the couch, walk over to the table, rip out a piece of paper from one of the spell books, and begin creating the barrier Valerio wanted. Without him knowing, I'm going to make sure the one that's up now stays up. I was barely able to get a small portion of all the coven member's blood before Valerio finally realized that I had came to get Spencer. I know I won't have the time needed to go home, collect it again, and get back here before Valerio shows up again.
As I finish writing out the new spell, my mind goes right back to figuring out where to put the next bomb. Maybe this urge isn't going away because the bombs aren't killing enough people?
"Guys," Aemilia whispers. I turn around, and see she's slowly getting up from the couch. "Guys!"
Keegan stands from his spot on the couch and puts both his hands on her shoulders as he leans forwards, and then asks, "What, Aemilia? What is it?"
I can't see her with how Keegan is standing in front of her, so I move to stand at the side of the couch. Her face is pale. What did she see?
"Death," she whispers, her eyes locked on Keegan's. She swallows, and says louder, "The Warlock, he's planning another attack."
"Where?" I ask. I'm not worried about her seeing me, but maybe she can tell me a good place for the bomb.
She looks over to me, shrugs and shakes her head. "I have no clue yet. He hasn't made up his mind."
"Then how do you know it's one of his bombs?" Brianna asks as she comes to stand beside me.
Aemilia growls at her, and yells as the air starts to stir, "I'm tell you, The Warlock is planning another attack. He hasn't made his mind up on where yet, but he's thinking about it."
She's watching me closely. She's trying to find me with everything she has inside of her. I've never seen her try to figure something out so hard before. I need to watch every single thing I do, everything I say, even closer than what I already have been. With Aemilia being so focused, anything could tip her off now.
I glance to Valerio, and then ask, "Are you seeing the cities he's thinking about?" I don't even know where I want it to be, but maybe future me has already told Spencer something. I will need to block Spencer's futures too, but for now, leaving his open to her might help me out.
Aemilia looks at me sadly, nods her head, and replies, "It's a toss up between Shanghai and Cairo."
Thank you, sister. Truly, thank you.
Valerio and Lexie left early this morning for Shanghai, giving me time to collect the humans needed for a bomb of this size. I need this bomb to be the biggest yet if I have any chance of this feeling going away. I don't understand where it's coming from either. Each bomb has taken countless lives, so why do I feel like it's not enough?
I solve problems though. It's what I'm good at, and I have no doubt that I will figure this one out too. First thing I have to do to even try and solve it though is to create this bomb.
Thirty-four couples are unconsciously levitated into the ritual room by the coven. That should do it, right? If this doesn't, then I will have no option other than to tell Zombie and the coven about my urges growing stronger. I hate that I feel like I'm losing control a little bit, but this growing dark desire is eating away at me.
I smile at the coven as they bring the couples further into the room. "Excellent work everyone!" I look at Josie. "Your powder really is a marvel."
She blushes a little as she drops her head to look at the floor. I guess I lost that battle. I talked to her first. As she lifts her head, she says, "Thank you, Master Warlock. Are you ready to begin?"
I take a deep breath, glance to Zombie, and then nod my head. "Let's have some fun, shall we?"
Zombie waves his hand, manifesting a long, deep, troth beneath the feet of all thirty-four husbands. I wave my own hand, discarding them of their clothes. I make my way over to the table, and then start passing out knives to each member.
"Don't worry about accidentally killing the husbands before it's too soon this time," I tell my coven as we all file into line. "Every ounce of their blood will be drained this time, and used for our bomb."
"All their blood?" Jessie asks, seeming uneasy about it.
I smile at her as I nod my head. "Yes, Jessie, all of their blood." I look away from the Philippian with black hair, and explain to everyone, "This bomb will be placed in a very populated country. Although we are using more than twice our normal amount of sacrifices, I feel we are ready to take things to the next level." I look directly at Josie. With Valerio starting his hunt, I want to be with her without playing games anymore, but how do we get back to that? She thankfully averts her eyes, so I'm able to continue, "If done correctly, this bomb could be the biggest one in history."
I take a step up to the first husband, and make a deep cut into his midsection before continuing down the line of men suspended in the air. The first man's intestines fall out of him, making me smile. I catch Zombie looking at me curiously, but he quickly looks away from me to cut into the first husband.
Once every husband has been drained, and the wedding rings added to the troth of blood, I wave my hand, lifting the troth. I curl my fingers towards a large mahogany box that I found in the cabin, making it slide across the floor, and then position the box at one end of the troth. I raise my left hand slightly, tipping the troth. The sound of all that blood splattering inside the box brings a large smile to my face again.
I turn to the coven, who are all staring at me. Zombie clears his throat as he takes a step away from the coven, and asks me, "Are you okay, Warlock?"
My smile grows, but my I feel my eyebrows knot together. "Of course, Zombie," I reply. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Zombie glances over his shoulder to Josie, and I see them exchange a look. Josie slightly shrugs and ticks her head to one side before looking back to me. Zombie turns his head back around, and the fake smile on his face doesn't sit well with me. Knowing Zombie his entire life, I know there's something he's not saying.
"What?" I demand from him as I take a step forwards.
Zombie takes a deep breath, looks at Josie again, and then back to me. His shoulders slump, and then he reaches into his back pocket for something. "Josie and I found something a few weeks ago," he tells me as he unfolds a wad of papers. "I didn't know if it was true, and neither did anyone else in the coven," he continues as he takes a step towards me. "But, I think it might be true now."
My eyebrows scrunch together as I look behind him to Josie. "What?"
He hands me the stack of papers, and begins telling me a tale. "About a hundred years before your Mom was born, there was this warlock that turned to black magic. His name was Rullus. From what Josie found on him, he had the same character traits as you. He had an accelerated growth, he started using black magic for a good reason, he was shunned by his family, and when he started using black magic, he too had an almost uncontrollable desire to kill as many people as possible. He also created a coven of witches and warlocks who practiced black magic."
I read the papers in my hands, not really reading them, and then look at Josie. She's chewing on her bottom lip while she looks at the floor. "What else?" I ask her, but Zombie answers.
"He killed nearly half the population-"
"Not you!" I snap at him as I continue to look at Josie.
She slowly lifts her head, and we stare at each other for a moment before she takes a deep breath. "When you told me your name," she begins, "I did some digging. For the son of Esmerelda Blasio herself to turn to black magic, it made me remember something I read when I was a kid. It took me a while, but I found it. I shared my theory with Zombie, Alec, Tonny, and Jessie. And, well, I guess now I have to tell you too." She clears her throat, bites on her bottom lip, shuffles on her feet, and then squares her shoulders. "When Rullus got older, and he knew he would die soon, he took his magic, along with his coven's, and sealed it inside a black diamond. He sealed it with his blood, and cast a spell on it so that only his rightful heir could harness those powers." She takes another deep breath, and finishes, "I traced his family line, and you are his rightful heir."
My eyes nearly come out of their sockets as my head snaps back down to the papers in my hands. "Me?" I whisper, unsure if I believe any of this.
"Where would you like this bomb to be placed?" Spencer suddenly asks as he finishes sealing the large box.
Shanghai? Or Cairo? Both locations would feel the impact greatly. Both locations would see a death toll the likes of which the world has ever seen. Where do I want to truly make my mark? Where would Rullus put one if he had the choice?
I twist my right wrist, still holding onto the papers, and I look at my watch. Valerio and Lexie should be meeting with Alpha Chen any second now. With the Guild Leaders in Shanghai, putting the bomb in Cairo makes more sense. Aemilia, however, will see Spencer going to Cairo. Will she have enough time to warn Valerio though? I need to put a block on Spencer's futures, but I also need to know exactly how strong Aemilia's gift has become. I could always ask as her brother, although I feel like she might become suspicious if I were to ask.
I clear my throat as I lift my head again. "Cairo," I answer him, and then look back to Josie. "Find out where this diamond is."
Thanks for reading!
~Stefanie