The Fallen One (Sons of the Dark Mother, Book One) (26 page)

Justice was talking to them,
telling them what the Queen of Darkness had to say to them, when he
suddenly turned and peered out into the blackness of the night.
Dracon had done so too.

Jes stood immediately, trying to
figure out what had alarmed them. The night had taken on a
deafening silence.

The forest always warned of those
who would hunt. It warned them now, as if the animals living
there—waited. Watching to see what would happen—when the predator
found its prey.

The armies surrounding them took on
a defensive formation. This only further alarmed Jes. They had
thought of the possibilities of a fight—had even prepared for the
possibility. But she didn’t know if she was ready to take on
paranormal beings in hand-to-hand combat yet.

She stiffened her spine—and her
resolve.

She was ready—and she was able.
Those who taught her had said as much. She just had to believe—to
feel the readiness within herself.

Mira was muttering something under
her breath. She raised her hands and lit up the night sky—and that
was when they saw them.

They came swooping in like
large-winged bats—much bigger than any bat, yet not quite the size
of a man. They were like shadows, swooping through the night. And
like the shadow, they seemed to appear and disappear with little
movement—or effort.

Jes scanned the tree lines
surrounding them. She felt for the knife on her hip. She had taken
to wearing a curved dagger like the one Mira wore. It was her
sister who had gifted her with it when she had arrived. They had
placed a protection spell on it: a spell written by Mira when she
had taken her first trek into the Land of the Fae looking for
Xavier Dubioux.

The Bat Things were
everywhere.

A chill snaked its way up Jes’s
spine. How could the armies fight a shadow?

They pressed in—just outside the
strike of the armies, who now surrounded the women. And then, as
quickly as they had appeared—they were gone.

The leader of the Dracasians
laughed. His laughter sent another chill snaking down Jes’s
spine.

He stood and walked before
Justice—and Dracon without fear.

“
Now,” he said.
“
You begin to
understand
.” And with that he and all his
men turned and melted into the night.

Justice turned and looked at
Dracon, and Jes followed his gaze.

The ancient vamp was watching the
woods where his enemy had disappeared, his eyes dark with the
bloodlust pouring through his veins, his body taut with heightened
anticipation, which had also brought out his fangs—and Jes
knew….

The time for peaceful conversations
was at an end.

And in its place—was
war.

Chapter
Twenty-Seven

Power of Three

The sisters worked together
to figure out the spell in the Book of Shadows.
They were trying to work with the old spell that talked about the
bat-like beings, trying to work out the spell to help the guards to
deal with them.

To do this, they had decided to
call on the wisdom of Morrigan.

Dara had mentioned that Bat Things
were immune to garlic and, in fact, very little would affect them.
However, if the guards were able to stake them, their bodies would
die—much like the vampires.

But they—the sisters—needed to
weaken the creatures, first, to allow the guards to get close
enough to do that—and like many spirit-based beings, their spirit
would not die; and the problem was they were still plenty
dangerous
without
their bodies.

Still, they wouldn’t be nearly as
powerful in spirit form.

None of it was encouraging to Jes,
and frankly it gave her the creeps. Both she and Mira were
intrigued by the depth of Dara’s understanding of these beings—and
the level of her training as a Jaguar Witch.

She was almost able to teach Mira
as much as Mira was able to teach her: Jes was the only one that
didn’t know much about being a witch—though she was learning
quickly. Dara had been the one to tell her that one day she would
be more powerful than both Dara and Mira combined.

Jes doubted it, but it was nice of
Dara to say. Still, she wasn’t concerned with being powerful, just
keeping them all safe. Though she would be very happy if these two
would reveal her true name to her, because thus far the sisters had
refused, stating that they would have Amar to deal with if they
should do so.

They reinforced the spell of
protection around the manor using dragon’s blood, along with some
other things—like crystals that they had programmed with their
intent—and they had placed several small smoky crystals into the
potion, chanting beneath their breath as they worked.

The three sisters clasped one
another’s hands, leaving Jes’s right hand free to stir. Once more,
they stood in the center of the circle. A statue of the Goddess
Morrigan sat on the table. They had a feather for air, a candle for
fire, a shell for water, and dirt for earth on the altar before
them.

Jes continued to stir as the three
sisters began to chant.

We call the ancient ones of
old,

Those who have gone before
us.

We call the power to help us
now,

As we walk our path as Jaguar
witches.

Lady bless us, protect us
now,

Masters show us the
way.

Light our path so we may
know,

The song of the
ancients.

As we speak these words of
protection,

We bring the power of
three.

Maiden, Mother, Crone of
old,

As we will it—so mote it
be.

Jes stirred in
¼ cup of Myrrh to aid in
meditation
,
¼ cup
of Mugwort to aid psychic powers and prophetic dreaming, and
a
teaspoon each of
honey
and
olive
oil
. She used these because they had come
to her in a trance, so she had looked them up. She had found they
were excellent herbs for inducing trance.
They simmered the mixture and put it into a tiny
container.

Mira took out three
Candles
:
one for
the Goddess, which was red, one for sisters, which was yellow, and
one for the spirits and ancients, which was
white
. Dara took
three stones, large enough to stack them with the largest on
the bottom and the smallest on top.
They
would
meditate for the next three nights
on the symbols to go beneath the stones.

They began the main part
of the spell in the hours just past the dark moon, calling those
who would assist them as t
hey began to
chant:

Sweet Mother of the scared
Moon

Just as you are
round

I call your moonbeams as a
boon

To see this Circle
sound!

They called out to
Morrigan:

Ancient Goddess of the
night

We invoke you, hear our
plea!

We ask that you attend
this rite

To bring old knowledge to
be

To sing the old
songs

The words which hold the
key!

They called the Quarters
chanting as they lit the candles in each direction.

We
call the East to bring the light
of
the rising Sun!
We
call the South to bring the knowledge
that our will is done!
We
call the West to bring the wisdom
of other days gone by!
We
call the North that we may
sit
be
tween the
earth and sky!

And then they began to
chant:

Great Mother whose heart
beats

Below me

Great Father Sky
above

May we have the grace to
know

When we’ve been shown
great love!

After meditating for some
time, Mira
picked up the large stone to
write the first symbol, knowing that they would know the
order.
Dara p
icked up the second stone, writing the symbol she had seen in
meditation on the bottom and then stacked it on the first, and
finally
Jes p
icked up the third stone, and wrote her symbol on the bottom,
and stacked it on the second.

Again they began to
chant:

As the stones know to
lie

Within the arms of
time

As they hold the ancient
knowledge

Between your world and
mine.

Now we stand between the
worlds

And know the way each
lays.

So, from this day we will
remember

The old songs from the
pyramids they gave.

As our ancestors brought
the knowledge

And the people soon
forgot

We remember within the
void

That silence brings the
drop.

Watch the rain, dear
child,
they heard within their
minds.
As each drop brings the new,
they become part of the old.

“
Thank you, Mother
,”
they said,
“
Blessed Be
!”

They thanked the four
directions for their knowledge and wisdom within the circle and
closed the circle, then Jes and Mira ate to help ground themselves.
Dara no longer ate human food.

They laid around for more
than an hour after that, the three of them each caught up in their
own thoughts, each personally affected by the ritual they had just
performed.

After a time, Dara got up,
once more, to go. It would soon become daylight. It was time for
her to return to Dracon.

Mira watched her for a long
moment. “I wish I could understand what it is you see in him.” She
shook her head at the warning in Dara’s eyes. “No. I’m not being
facetious. I really want to understand.”

Dara watched her for a long
moment. She seemed to gauge the sincerity of the Mira’s
question.

Jes was forever surprised
by Mira’s complete lack of fear with Dara. Jes wasn’t put off by
their older sister; she just had an innate respect for the level of
power she felt within her.

Finally, Dara answered
Mira saying, “Isn’t that the way of it?” she reproached quietly
“That we are constantly trying to understand the motives of the
women around us? And don’t we, so often, find ourselves
judging
those motives
—and finding each other lacking—convincing ourselves that we
would be so much stronger, so much wiser—so much better than that.
Telling ourselves that we would never allow ourselves to be
affected by whoever her man might be, or that we would never allow
ourselves to be affected by whatever her situation may be.” She
shook her head. “We are all so
very
arrogant,” she said in a near whisper. “Because
the truth is, we’ll never really know exactly
how
we’ll respond, until we’re faced
with our own mortality—our own weaknesses—our own deep love for
that one man who will affect us so deeply that we’ll throw away
everything—for him.” She stepped close to her sister now. “You know
the one.” She took her hand and placed it over her heart. “He is
the one who can raise us up—or break us.” There were tears in her
eyes. “And when that happens—we can be sure there is someone
else—who is watching us—and judging us for our weakness—in loving
him so much.”

There were tears, now, in
Mira’s eyes too. “So true,” she agreed in a whisper. “And I will
only understand, on some level, anyway, in my own deep love for—my
own man.”

Dara wrinkled her nose, and
Jes knew what was coming and grinned.

“
Or
men
—as it were—depending on which
past life our sister here is living in at the moment—and for which
lover.” She laughed.

Mira laughed out loud. “Oh,
unfair, cheeky sister.”

Jes laughed. “Ahhh…,” she
nearly sighed, “but I am only just
beginning
to learn about my own
strengths—and weaknesses—when it comes to love. I think we should
count our blessings when we happen to fall in love with the
right man.
The
wrong—wrong man—we’d simply walk away from. But—the right
wrong man
….” She sighed.
“Well, I’d hate to find out about my
weaknesses
then.”

Dara nodded. “Exactly. And
only when you’ve actually met him will you know—exactly what you’ll
do, or what fire you’ll be willing to walk through to walk even a
mile—by his side.”