Blood Prophecy: Kallen's Tale (16 page)

Chapter 17

Time stops.  I do not mean
that things move in slow motion.  I mean, things have stopped.  My eyes are
open, no time seems to have passed, but somehow I can sense that something
critical just happened.  With a loud ringing in my ears, everything is the
same, but suddenly different.  The Witches are still in their places.  The
Angel is still in hers.  The one thing that is different?  Xandra has wings. 
Giant white wings.  Angel wings.  All eyes swing to her.  One thing I know for
certain?  My life will never be dull while I am with her.

Her grandfather is the first
to find his voice.  “What is going on?  Where did those wings come from?”

“It doesn’t matter, it’s
just more proof that she’s not meant to be,” the Seductress growls.  She has
fear in her eyes that cannot be covered up with bravado.

“Oh, shut up,” Xandra says. 
I like her power to take away voices when she is not using it on me.  Turning
to Fatin, she says, “You will release my father.”

His confidence from earlier
is shaken but he rallies pretty well.  “I hold the cards here.  I am seconds
away from sending him to the hereafter.”

She rolls her eyes.  “Really? 
Because I’m the only one that can release him from this plane of existence, so
your threat isn’t really a threat.  It’s wishful thinking on your part.”  Okay,
is she making that up or did she just have an epiphany?

Fatin ignores her and begins
to say the exorcism spell.  “Spirit in unrest, soul in pain, come to me, find
peace again.  Leave this world of longing and woe, sorrow filled days no longer
you’ll know…”

“Xandra, make him stop!” her
mother cries.

Xandra waves her off.  “Mom,
trust me.  Nothing’s going to happen.”

Fatin finishes the spell.  “…your
soul I release and you shall rest in peace.” 

Xandra was right, nothing
happened.  Her father is still floating in front of him.  So, he does the
logical thing and begins to say the spell again.  Xandra is apparently not
interested in hearing the encore, so she takes his voice, too.  She is starting
quite the collection.

“I demand to know where
those wings came from!” her grandfather shouts. 

Xandra gives him a smile as
if he just said the cutest thing.  “That’s nice.  Thanks for sharing.”  Then she
turns her back on him.

Surprisingly, the person who
has the most fear in her eyes is her grandmother.  The reason why becomes
apparent when she says, “Xandra, are you…”  Her words trail off.  The thought
that she has passed on did not even occur to me until now.  Please do not
confirm that, I beg silently.

Xandra finishes her
sentence.  “Dead?  Nope.  I’m very much alive.”  Relief shows in the eyes of
everyone on our side.  Disappointment in the rest.  “And as for you?” she says
to her grandmother, “You are not to do anything that will jeopardize your
future.”  I guess grandma’s secret is out of the bag.

“Athear, what is she talking
about?” her grandfather growls.  “Is she threatening you?”

Xandra laughs.  “The only
ones here who are threatening her are you and your disgusting menagerie of
followers.  Though, if we’re all going to be honest,” I she looks each member
of the Witan in the eye, “you are actually the follower, not the followed.  I
suspect your mind hasn’t been your own for a long time.”  There is some slight
shuffling of discomfort among the Witan.

“What nonsense is this?  I’m
King; of course my mind is my own.”

Xandra shakes her head. 
“Think again.  I bet every thought you have feels like it’s been planted by
someone else.”  Did her new wings come with an endless supply of epiphanies?  I
am impressed on many levels.

After a moment, her
grandfather turns to his Witan.  “Is this true?” he asks the skeleton.

“Of course not,” he says
indignantly. 

Xandra laughs again.  She
has a beautiful laugh, even when she is using it to intimidate.  “As if you
could be trusted to tell the truth.  I doubt your twisted little mind even
knows what that is anymore.”

“I’ve heard enough out of
you, little girl,” the skeleton hisses.  Is he part snake?  Is that what is
wrong with his face?  “Say the spell again,” he tells the others.

“It didn’t work the first
time, what makes you think it’s going to work this time?” Xandra asks,
completely unconcerned.

“You are not omnipotent.” 
That is true, she probably should keep that in mind.  “You can be brought down
and we’re going to be the ones to do it.”  I barely stifle a yawn at his boring
threats.

“Okay.  Go ahead then.”  Xandra
says with a wave of her hand.

He looks surprised.  “What?”

Xandra speaks much slower
this time.  Enunciating each word carefully.  There is no holding back a
snicker now.  “O. Kay. Go. A. Head. Then.”

The Witch’s eyes narrow into
slits.  I wonder if he has two sets of eyelids like some amphibians.  “A pair
of demon wings doesn’t scare us.”

Xandra turns to me in
curiosity.  “Do demons have wings?”

I shake my head.  “No, they
do not.”  They are actually Angels who have been stripped of their wings.

“That’s what I thought.” 
Turning back to Louhi, she says, “Could you please keep your insults to things
that really exist instead of making crap up?”  I laugh out loud at that.

Wow, he’s really pissed
now.  Between gritted teeth, he says to the others, “Say the spell again.”

“Now hold up one minute,”
Xandra says in mock concern.  “I want to give you guys a sporting chance.” 
What the hell?

“We have all the advantage we
need.”

“Oh, it’s so cute how you
get so mean and tough when you’re angry.”  She looks like she actually wants to
pinch his cheek like she would a baby.  If she does, she is not touching me
with that hand until she sterilizes it.

“Xandra, be careful,” her
mother warns.  I forgot her parents have not seen her in all out magic mode.  There
is no stopping her when she is on a roll like this.

To my surprise, she says, “Fine.”
 To the Witan, she says, “Tell you what.  I’m going to make this fair.  It’ll
just be me and the eight of you.  I won’t ask for help from anyone else.”  Okay,
now even I think she is going too far.

“Why would you do such a
thing?” the Seductress asks.

She shrugs.  “It’s not them
that you want, it’s me.  I don’t want them to get hurt in the crossfire.”

Her magic is affecting her
brain now.  “Xandra, I will not leave you to fight them alone.” 

Her response is a smile.  A
genuine smile, at least.  “I know it’ll be hard for you, but it’s for the
best.  I need to do this alone.”

“Xandra, this is suicide,” her
mother cries.  “We are all going to fight right along next to you.”

“Mom, please.”  It is more
of a statement than it is a plea.  I have a bad feeling about this.

“No, we are staying right
here with you.” 

As soon as Xandra closes her
eyes and begins to pull magic, I know what she is thinking.  I do not even get
her name out before I am being forcibly compelled back to the house.  Along
with her mother, her father, her aunt, her brother, and her grandmother.

“Xandra, don’t do this.  You
don’t have to do this alone.”  This is a plea, not a statement.  I need to try
to protect her.

“But I do,” she whispers.  In
less than a minute, we are all back inside the house.  Which is now surrounded
by a magical cinderblock wall.  We can throw as much magic as we want at it,
but I know in my heart that we will not be able to break through it.  All we
can do is watch as Xandra takes on all of the Witches at once.  Just like her
mother and I warned her would happen the first morning I woke up here.

Chapter 18

It is driving all of us
insane that we cannot hear what is going on.  Right now, it appears all they
are doing is talking.  Out of pure frustration, I start throwing magic at
Xandra’s wall.  Maybe if I annoy her enough, she will take it down.  I know.  I
am kidding myself.  When her mind is set to something, she is going to do it
that way, and everyone else’s opinions be damned.  If I did not love her so
much, I would hate her right now.  I start pacing the room, thinking of ways to
get back at her for this.  Providing she survives.  No, I have more faith in
her than that.  She will win this battle.  Still pisses me off that I am not at
her side, though.

 A gasp draws my attention
back to the window.  “She is taking off her amulets and charms,” her mother
says.

I sigh.  “If it makes you
feel better, she does not need them.”

She turns to me.  “How do
you know that?”

“Her magic is too powerful
for them to work on her.  Remember the Fairy repellent necklace you gave her? 
The one that she could wear without any harm to herself?”  She nods slowly. 
“All of the amulets, talismans and charms you made for her were for your peace
of mind, not her safety.”

“She knew this when we were
making them?”

I shrug.  And then sigh. 
“No, I do not believe so.  But, I did.  I would have told you but it only would
have made you worry more.”  She wants to hate me at the moment, I can tell. 

“The Witches are talking
altogether again!” Zac yells.  He has made a smooth transition from kidnapping
victim to commentator of the action.  He is my favorite person in their family
at the moment.  I may love Xandra, but I do not like her much right now.

We all watch the Witches’
mouths move.  Xandra seems fine when they’re done.  Now, Xandra is smiling as a
few more words are spoken between them.  In a flash, the skeleton guy is on his
knees trying to pull out the last remnants of his hair.  I am pretty sure he is
in pain.  I am beginning to enjoy the show, now.  After a couple of minutes,
Xandra must pull back her magic because he falls forward into the snow.  He has
murder in his eyes when he looks up at her.

The little rotund Witch is
speaking now.  What did he do again?  Oh yeah, he can plant emotions.  I can
see now why he needs to do that to get a date.  He is a horrid little man.  I
am starting to feel guilty that I teased Xandra for being so affected by their
ugliness.

As soon as he stops
speaking.  Xandra’s wings spread out and then cocoon around her.  I believe
they have caused some sort of ricochet thing.  The Witch falls to the ground
and even from here we can see the drool falling from his mouth.

“Eew,” Zac says, scrunching
his face in disgust.  “That is so gross.”

“I agree,” his father says. 
The two are a matched set.  Zac is going to grow up to look exactly like him. 

I try not to look at the
Witch drooling and crying in the snow and focus on Xandra.  “Oh man,” Zac says,
“He just wet his pants.”  Of course my eyes have to check things out to see if
that’s true.  It is.  I try harder to focus on Xandra.

I am starting to get the
idea that Xandra is having them all take turns.  First they do something, then
it is her turn.  She has actually found a way to fight them one at a time as
she had originally said she would.  I really have to learn to trust her.

The Seductress is up next. 
Xandra walks to her and the Witch is scared, but she holds her ground.  Like
that will help.  I really wish I could hear what is being said. 

“I think she is doing a
spell,” the Angel says proudly.  I think I am the only one still pissed at
Xandra, now.

Whatever spell she just said
was a good one.  The Seductress stretches her arms wide and throws back her
head.  She is trying to scream, but Xandra must not have given her her voice
back, because with the amount of pain it looks like she is in, we would have
heard that scream. 

One of the other Witches
rushes to her and catches her before she falls to the ground.  Another opens
one of the car doors and they work together to lay the Seductress inside.  I
have a strong feeling her Seductress days are over.  The Angel must be thinking
the same thing because a satisfied smile has spread across her face.

A Witch who has tried to
stay away from the action as much as possible finally steps forward. 
Considering her lack of bravery thus far, I am assuming she is the practioner
of Sympathetic magic.  That is confirmed when pulls another doll of poor
quality from her coat pocket.  She begins chanting something or other.  When
she is done, something happens that freezes all six of us to our spot.  Xandra
is doubled over like she is in pain, and she is walking towards the Witch. 
Now, all of us who can are bombarding Xandra’s wall with magic.  But, it does
not budge.  Even in this weakened state, she is stronger than all of us
combined.

Unless, of course, her state
is not weakened.  And she thought it would be funny to give us all heart
attacks.  When she reaches the Witch, she stands up and snatches the doll out
of her hand.  She had not been mesmerized by the spell.  Nor was she in pain. 
I am not amused at all.  I am back to being pissed at her now.

“That was funny,” Zac says. 
He is surprised when five sets of adult eyes look at him as if he said
something crazy.  He turns back towards the window and does not say anything
else about it.  Smart kid.

He is not quiet for long,
though.  “Whoa.  Did you see that?  Xandra can fly.”  Sure enough, she uses her
wings to fly over the cars, back to her original spot.

It is Xandra’s turn again. 
As much as I do not want to watch, I cannot help it.  No matter how mad I am at
her, I want to watch these Witches pay for what they have done.

She turns to the skeleton
guy.  He must be her next victim.  He looks like he is halfway to the grave
already.  I wonder what she will do to him short of killing him?

We are all lined up in the
window, now.  The skeleton’s thin excuses for lips have curdled like old milk
as he looks at Xandra.  He truly is a thing of nightmares.  The Witch is
holding his head in his hands, now.  He is obviously in pain, but he looks
determined, as well.  I wonder what Xandra is doing to him. 

The Angel helps me out with
that.  “She is setting them free.  All those poor souls are free, again.”  She
has a tear in her eye as she smiles proudly at Xandra.

I think she is right and he
is not at all happy about it.  He looks like he wants to rip Xandra apart with
his bare hands.  He turns to his comrades for help, but they are looking
anywhere but at him.

Whatever Xandra just said to
them has them all scared.  It is their turn, but no one seems to be taking it. 
Xandra is wearing her impatient face on, now.  That is not going to bode well
for them.

Turning to her grandfather,
she says something.  His wife gasps at the window when a metamorphosis occurs. 
It is like several layers of gauze have just been removed from his eyes and he
can finally see again.  Even from here, we can see that his eyes are clearer,
his posture has straightened.  Xandra must have lifted the spell the others had
him under. 

Turning to his Witan, he
lays into them.  When he is done, his gaze returns to Xandra.  I bet he is
trying to suck up to her.  She does not seem to be buying it.  Good for her.

It appears that the Witan
have decided to stand down.  Which means Xandra will do them no more harm. 
What a shame, there is so much more that they deserve.

Xandra speaks to each of
them in turn.  And each one in turn is horrified when she is done.  None more
so than the King of them all.  True to form, Xandra does not care.