Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 (10 page)

She was pretty sure this would work.  Despite her denial,
she was fairly sure Ed was gone forever, and she was grieving.  She was also
angry.  In a nutshell, she was full of conflicting and contradictory emotions,
she wasn’t sure this would work at all, or that she’d succeed, she could only
try.

A dispersal spell, even at her full power would take her
time, and probably drain her at the same time.  But she knew these wards and
shield better than he did now, thanks to her elemental.  She sent out dispersal
magic, but it was super concentrated into a thin needlelike line.  It didn’t
try and break the whole ward, simply one small wisp of a connection that she’d
targeted.

The ward would still hold her in the cell, not let her
leave, stop her fire, air, and even absorb the strong war magics she’d learned
from her book.  The single thing it wouldn’t stop anymore, thanks to her
precise surgery which probably wasn’t even noticed, was her raw magic.  She
closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then reached up and out into the sky,
slowly stirring together a thunder storm.

She laughed in delight when the first strike of thunder was
heard deep inside her concrete cell, there was no doubt it was working, and she
felt a kind of high from funneling so much magic potential all at once.

She whispered, “Show me where Gerald is.”

The elemental blinked and showed her Gerald sitting in his
study working on something.

She smiled a little giddily, and knew she needed to control
this feeling, be strong against the addiction of so much power and magic in her
hands.  But she would have her revenge first.  She pulled a twister out of the
sky, dropping it right on the house.  It ripped right through the roof, through
the floor below it, and then took a shocked and terrified Gerald up into the
air, into the storm itself.

She giggled and she felt tingles down below.  The rush was
unbelievable, and she could feel Gerald flying around inside the twister, as if
he were sitting in the palm of her hand.  Sure, one or two others were caught in
it too, but that wasn’t the point.  All that mattered was Gerald would pay, pay
for Elaine, and the demon, and the assassins, and Ed’s death.  She growled in
anger, and he would pay now.

She drew lightning from the sky, beckoned it to Gerald’s
body from all around him.  Again and again she struck him, long past any time
he could possibly still be alive.  She giggled, and then broke down in tears. 
Suddenly she was terrified, her emotions were all over the place, and she could
feel the others in the palm of her hand, two lives that didn’t deserve her
uncaring attitude.

The storm was so big now, and she wasn’t sure how long she
could continue to hold onto it.  The return to her senses was because her magic
was running extremely low.  She pulled from it, slowing it down, but it was
fighting back, had a life of its own.  The book had warned her, and she had
lost control anyway, been seduced by the power and the anger and desire for
revenge.  She could have found a safer way to win.

She knew she wasn’t thinking straight, but that was no
excuse and she knew it.  She had an idea that might, just might save those two
people, whoever they were.

She let the thunderstorm go, released it from her control,
and focused all her strength and will on the twister.  She pulled the energy
from that, slowly but firmly, keeping it over Gerald’s yard as it slowly spun
down, the people suspended in it, were still unbelievably alive and slowly
losing altitude as the twister’s power bled away.

She collapsed on her side and wept.  Her power was done, she
couldn’t free herself without rest, and she wasn’t sure anyone could let her
out, for all she knew all the others in the house were now frozen and confused,
unable to serve their now dead master.  She shook her head, and asked her elemental
to get a few seconds of the visual view of each of the people in the house. 
When he got back, she found she was right.

They were like puppets with their strings cut, no more
master.  They’d remain that way until she could get free.  She thought they’d
be okay though, it shouldn’t take more than a few hours, and she could break
free.  She cried while trying to sleep, if she’d had those powers all the time,
she could have killed him from the hotel room, while watching the house through
the enchantment on the window.  Ed would still be alive, she wouldn’t be alone
without Silva.

Then she felt guilty for those thoughts, because it wasn’t
Silva’s fault, if she wanted to play that game, then she should just blame it
all on her mother who bound Silva to begin with and caused Silva’s fear of
magic.  No, there was enough blame to go around, and most of it belonged to
Gerald himself.

She eventually fell asleep, but it took time, and a lot of
tears.

She cried again when she woke up.  This time happy tears,
Silva was back.  She felt the great cat’s concern and love, which was
interesting, because she was technically loving herself.  Silva chuffed at her
in silent laughter in the back of her mind, but didn’t stop sending waves of
caring her way.  Silva didn’t believe Ed was dead either, wouldn’t believe it
until she saw the body.

She got up and approached the ward.  It was still easy with
her once again limited power, she cut at the critical bindings of magic, about
forty of them, and one by one the powerful wards slowly unraveled, like she was
turning keys in a series of locks.  She wasn’t sure she wanted to share this,
she could disassemble any ward like this.  Not in battle, she’d need enough
time to study it after getting the info from her elemental, but still, one more
thing to hide.

She felt guilty about it, but she raided one of the woman’s
closets first.  She wasn’t overly concerned with being naked again, but there
was a time and a place, and clothes were available.

Then she went through the house, floor by floor and room by
room, and ripped apart the control spells on everyone she could find.  The
reactions ranged from shock, anger, and sadness toward being held for so long.  She
was either thanked gratefully, or others shrunk away, and everything in
between.  One person even appeared to be completely catatonic.  It was hard not
to see all their pain, when she could scent all their feelings if she wanted to
or not.

The women had it worse, the men were simply tools, and as
hard as that must be, the women also remembered their bodies being cruelly used
for his pleasure.  They would remember everything.  It wasn’t a happy house,
but she had no guesses about their future.  They might rebuild and come
together in support and share their strength, or they might split and go their
separate ways because of shared shame. 

She knew she should try Ed’s cell number and that if he
didn’t answer, she needed to call the coven, but she was too afraid.  What if
he’s really gone?  She put it off a while longer by cooking them all a large
meal, and encouraging them to eat.  She did too, she knew it would help
everyone get over the shock, as would a hot shower.

Then she stared at the phone a long time, and picked it up. 
Her fingers seemed to dial Ed’s number of their own accord, and then the phone
rang, and rang.  Then it picked up.

“Hello, who is this,” said a gruff voice.

She cleared the lump from her throat, “I’m Celia.  I’m
looking for Ed, the owner of that phone.”

His voice lowered in question, “Are you the really beautiful
woman with the light wavy brown hair that removed that prick’s spell?”

She giggled, “Umm, are you the wolf shifter that used to be
enslaved by Gerald?  Then yes.”

He replied, “We got him here, he’s not doing so well.”

She started to hyperventilate, “Can you.  Can you please. 
Come get me, at Gerald’s place, I killed the bastard by the way, but I need to
get to Ed.”

Silva was whipping her tail sharply in the back of their
mind as she tried to regain her breath.

He said, “I’ll be right there, five minutes.”

She felt guilty rushing out the door, but they’d be alright
now, or they wouldn’t.  Either way it wasn’t up to her, she’d done what she
could.

She jumped in the car as soon as it pulled up, “What
happened?” she demanded.

He took off pretty fast and explained, “We were there last
night, we saw you change and jump in the window, neat trick for a witch,
anyway, your partner Ed, he got hit with a fireball that burned into his chest
and threw him off the roof.  He was alive, but knocked out, and his chest was
on fire.  My friend and I smothered the fire and got him out of there.  But
there isn’t much we can do for him, and so far he’s been fighting just to stay
alive.

“We thought for sure you were dead, what happened?”

She sighed, “I killed him, but not before he knocked me out
with pain, and stuck me in a cell.  He underestimated the damage I could do
from there, and this won’t make sense, but in a way he helped give me the power
that did him in.”

He swallowed and nodded, “I appreciate what you’ve done for
us miss, and so does my pack, but the sooner you can get your fella up and
going, the better it will be for all of us.”

She smiled, “I understand, the wolf pack near me feels much
the same.”

They pulled up and she followed him into a house while
ignoring the looks of suspicion.  As soon as she reached Ed, she cast the
battlefield healing spell, which would hopefully stabilize him.  She had to
stretch it out, but not as much as the last time she’d casted it, and it seemed
to help, his skin regained some pallor, and while the wound in his chest was
still there, it was obviously much better.

She smiled in relief and felt tears in her eyes when she
turned to the wolf, “Thank you, very much.  Do you think you could take us back
to the hotel?”

He frowned, “The hotel?”

She nodded, “I can keep the norms from noticing, but more
important all my healing herbs are in the duffel bag in our room, the spell I
used is okay to start, but he’ll need real poultices and healing brews.”

She tilted her head a little and smiled, “Plus, it would get
us out of your house, I can’t thank you enough.  I know I helped you first, but
for shifters to protect a witch… just thank you.”

He looked awkward, “Don’t go crying now, I’ll take you to
the hotel, which one is it?”

She picked Ed up carefully, surprising the wolf with her
strength, and carried him to the car.  She sat in the back and laid his head on
her lap and held him steady during the drive.

He looked at her suspiciously, “You ain’t a witch with a
change spell.  You’re that shifter witch we heard about.”

She nodded, “I am, but we were only here to deal with that
asshole Gerald, we’re heading back to Charlotte as soon as Ed’s up and about I
imagine.”

He shrugged, “Stay until you need to go, you’ve done
everyone here a service, including the witches under his evil spells.”

She nodded and the silence on the rest of the ride was
comfortable, if a little wary.  She had a feeling she made him nervous.  Right
before she got out, she dropped a glamour on Ed and carried him up to their
room.  She pulled his keycard out and swiped, and was careful not to bang him
when they went into the room.  She put him down on the bed, and grabbed her
duffle bag. 

She mixed up the poultice while pouring magic into it, and
then touched up the wound, the wolves had done a good job keeping it clean.

She applied the poultice and bandage, and then went back to
work.  Her emotions were a little frazzled, but she was focused on what she was
doing, and could make healing potions in her sleep.

She had to improvise to make a potion without a kitchen. 
She put the little four cup coffee carafe on top of her mortar and create a
small fire under it.  She had to constantly concentrate on that as she poured
magic into the ingredients as she cut them up fine, mixed them, and dumped them
in the now simmering water.

She stirred with air while maintaining the fire, she’d been maintaining
a constant three on the magic scale the whole time, and Silva was only a little
nervous.  She sent loving and calming thoughts to her other half as she cut off
the magic.  Once it cooled, she could strain it and give it to Ed.

She really didn’t want to talk to anyone, not until she was
sure he was okay, so she pulled out her laptop and typed up a report of the
last few days, minus their sex life, and sent it to the council.  She also sent
an edited version to Berny and Fran, so they’d know she would be back soon.

When she checked it was cooled, so she finished the potion,
and managed to get him to drink some while barely conscious.  She was exhausted
by then, so she lay down next to Ed very carefully, and worked on getting to sleep. 
She was still a little worried, but overall thought he’d make it, so there were
no tears at all this time, just weariness, and a little sadness at all they had
found and been forced to do in Albany.

She was also glad she was more stubborn, and stronger as a
shifter.  Clearly, she didn’t have what she needed to control the temptation of
her weather power without it.  She knew she’d be ready, when the time came and
Silva could tolerate it, she wouldn’t ever get that drunk on power again. 
Never again would she get so carried away that other lives in the balance would
have no meaning to her.  Now that Ed seemed okay, she finally admitted to
herself, just how much she’d scared herself when she was glory drunk on her own
power and that evil bastard’s death, which was a whole lot.

Her eyes snapped open when she felt Ed’s touch.  She smiled
at the look in his eyes of relief, he’d obviously believed the worse of her as
well.  The clock showed it was almost four in the morning, she’d slept for
close to twelve hours.

“You feeling any better?  I need to change the poultice, and
give you another potion.”

Ed tried to roll closer against her, but that made him
grimace in pain.

“Better, but apparently I’d better not move like that
again.  What happened?”

She stretched over him and gave him a soft kiss, and his
light hug felt too weak.  She rolled out of bed and carefully changed his
poultice and bandage as she told him what happened, careful to edit out the
part about her split personality, and her moment of crazy.

His chest looked to be getting better quickly, just not as
fast as she’d like.  She wanted to get out of this town and thought they could
probably get out of here tomorrow morning if she drove.

She called down for a carafe of coffee, since she was using
the four cup glass carafe to brew another potion and needed a cup of coffee
bad.  As long as she had them on the phone, she ordered enough breakfast for
four as well.

Ed frowned, “I don’t remember much after you dove through
the window, just that I couldn’t get a clean shot, and then my chest was on
fire and I seemed to be falling.”

She replied, “That’s what the wolves told me.  They grabbed
you and kept you safe at their pack house until I escaped and called your
phone.  I’m glad I freed them instead of… or you’d…” she trailed off, not
wanting to say it out loud.

She went into the bathroom and grabbed a wash cloth, and
then soaked it in warm soapy water and cleaned up Ed’s face, neck, and hands. 
She helped him to the bathroom, before she took a quick shower herself.  She
felt better in clean and fresh clothes but was feeling a little manic.  She
drained the cooled potion and made Ed drink it down.  She turned on the
television and she was feeling jumpy from all the extra energy.  She didn’t
want to leave him alone to go running though, just in case.

Plus, coffee and food were on the way.

There was a knock on the door and she opened it up.  She
could smell the eggs and the bacon, and the lovely scent of fresh brewed
coffee, the stuff of life.  When the man wheeled the tray in, she also scented
shifter.  She tensed and took a deeper inhalation, and found that the coffee…
smelled a little off somehow.  She didn’t scent any weapons though; gun oil had
a very distinct scent.

Was it just a rogue shifter that honestly worked for the
hotel, or an assassin with poisoned coffee?  Is nothing sacred?

She knew the thought was absurd, of course coffee wasn’t
sacred, but damn it.

She asked casually while her muscles coiled for action, “So,
is the food poisoned too?  Or just the coffee?”

The shifters eyes went wide, and he ran for the door.  That
confused her for a moment, what kind of shifter ran from a fight?  She hit him
in the back with a stun spell, then wrapped an electric cord around his neck
three times and tied his arms behind his back, it would strangle him if he
tried to shift.

His license said he was from Tennessee, so not a current
employee of this hotel.

“Why did you run?”

He glared, “We were warned not to try and take the two of
you in a straight fight.”

She nodded, he’d said the truth.

She frowned, “When were you contacted?”

He didn’t answer so she started to go through his phone but
it didn’t help.

She asked again while pulling the cord a little tighter.

He gasped a bit, and she let up, “Fine, about twenty four
hours ago.”

That’s what she wanted to hear, he was part of wave three,
just a latecomer.  For a minute she’d thought it wasn’t over yet.  She snapped
his neck and looked down at him for a very long time, angry.  What were these
people turning her into?  When this started she’d have never considered
torturing an assassin for information, now… she hadn’t even thought it through,
she’d just done it.

Sure, self defense, but she was afraid she was growing cold
inside.  She put a glamour over the body and ran it down to the white van, and
dropped it in the back.  She noticed the last assassin was getting a little
ripe, but the glamour on the van would keep people from noticing.  She didn’t
want to leave Ed for long.

By the time she got back upstairs, the eggs were cold and
rubbery.  Damn.  At least the carafe wasn’t filled with potion anymore, she
washed it out and brewed a few cups before rejoining Ed on the bed and tried to
enjoy her cold breakfast.  At least the bacon was crispy.  She was ready to hit
the road, she wanted to go home.

Ed drifted in and out of sleep all morning as his body
healed at an accelerated rate due to the magic.  She was going a little stir
crazy when there was a knock on the door.  She jumped up off the bed and then
tried to relax.  Assassins didn’t normally knock… well, except for that last
one.  She crept toward the door with her body low trying to catch a scent, when
she did it surprised her.

She opened the door, mumbled a greeting, and invited them
inside.

It was Bria, along with two older witches she’d never seen
before.  What was the witch doing here?

Bria said, “I’m glad you two are alive, I didn’t expect… how
is Ed doing?”

She replied, “He’ll be fine, I figure we’ll be on the road
by tomorrow morning sometime.  I just don’t want to leave him here by himself. 
We had another assassin a little while ago, and the bodies are piling up in the
van.”

One of the others pulled out a phone, and gave orders to
disappear the bodies.

Bria gestured, “These are two coven heads of local covens. 
While you were acting to draw his eyes away from the locals, Damon and I have
been working with them to arrange an attack to stop Gerald.  It looks like we
weren’t needed after all.”

She bristled, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

Bria raised an eyebrow, “Because, if you were captured we
didn’t want either of you to know.  I expected you two would be distracting and
whittling away at the coven from a distance, not performing suicidal attacks. 
We were hoping for that much as a distraction and for you two to stay alive,
but we had to keep our actual plan a secret, in case you were captured, which
you were.”

She suppressed the growl rising to her throat and merely nodded
shortly.

Bria added, “We were pleasantly surprised you managed to not
only stop him, but rescue most of the coven under his thumb.  We stopped by for
two reasons, first to make sure you two didn’t need help with anything before
you left tomorrow.  Do you?”

She shook her head, “I don’t think so, no.  Thank you,” she
added grudgingly.

Bria actually smiled, “It’s not all bad, you’re still
breathing after all, which brings me to the second part.  We did an exhaustive
search of Gerald’s study, and destroyed his demonic spell books, but there is
one thing we didn’t find.  There was nothing in his computer to indicate he’d
been in touch with the assassins.”

She frowned and shook her head in disbelief, “But… the
attacks started the same time…”

Bria stare turned hard, “Yes, we believe whoever did it
sensed the trouble coming for you, and chose that time to act in order to muddy
the waters.  I’m glad you haven’t left him alone, because we are fairly sure
the assassination attempts are not at an end.”

She shook her head, “But… they didn’t restart until we got
here, until after Gerald knew we were here.”

Bria raised an eyebrow eloquently and waited for her to
figure it out.

“Crap.  It was also right after we called in our arrival in
Albany along with the hotel we’re staying at.  Are you saying it’s…”

Bria finished for her in an angry voice, “Someone from
either the Charlotte or Rock hill covens.  Someone is targeting their own
enforcers and protection due to… hate or fear, I don’t know.  We have no idea
who it is either.  I chose to stay here and make sure we have an understanding
with the covens up here, Damon and Sally are back home looking into it.”

She felt her eyes water a little but stopped her tears with
a surge of anger.  She could hardly credit it, but Bria seemed so sure, and she
wasn’t lying.  Bria wasn’t kittens and rainbows, but she’d never once lied to
Celia, so she trusted her.

“What should we do?”

Bria shrugged, “Be cautious until we find them.  You and Ed
will have to stick together a while longer.  You look like you’re going to explode,
why don’t you go to the weight room and I’ll visit with Ed for an hour or so.”

Relief shot through her body, and she nodded.  She gave the
two local witches a nod of thanks and went down to the hotel weight room.  She
chose an elliptical, put it on the hardest settings, and worked as hard as she
could for an hour straight.  All the while she tried to think of who would want
to kill her.  She knew some of them were uncomfortable around her, but nothing
solid came to mind.

She also decided she needed one of these machines for home,
for nights she couldn’t get away to run. 

Bria and the other two witches left when she came back
upstairs.  She was no closer to solving the assassin question, but she did feel
a hundred percent better.  Ed was awake when she got out of the shower and
stayed awake long enough to share lunch.  She knew he needed the calories to
replace what was being burned off by the fast healing of the magic.

That afternoon while she changed his poultice again and gave
him a potion, he looked at her like a man about to start an argument.

“We should go, I never told anyone where we stopped in
Pennsylvania, so we’d be safer if we left now and we rested there.”

She considered that, he was much better now.  The wound was
only skin deep at this point, and some skin was even starting to grow over it. 
Mostly he’d just be extremely tired, but she could drive.

“Alright, we’ll do it your way, but you need to put the seat
back, and I’ll be driving slow, we don’t want to put too much pressure on it,
or pull apart what’s healing.”

He agreed quickly enough.  She wasn’t fooled, he was more
worried about her than he was worried about himself.  He hated the idea he
couldn’t help if another assassin showed up.  She packed up the room and loaded
up the van which was now corpse free thanks to the locals.  She used the self
checkout rather than talk to anyone, what the manager didn’t know he couldn’t
reveal, and hit the road.

She was both filled with worry about what awaited them back
home, but she was also relieved to finally put Albany and the whole Gerald
thing behind them.  Ed tried to stay awake, but the magical healing was just
too demanding, so she mostly drove with her own thoughts going in circles.

And of course, she had Silva for company…