Demon's Moon: A Celia Winters Novel Book 2 (5 page)

She should have used a glamour on the front of the store as
soon as the fight started, but she’d been too excited to be in another fight. 
She’d made a mistake, and the assassin hadn’t done it either, crazy or not, the
law applied to him too.  Now they’d have to use a memory spell on the poor detective,
but she didn’t know any.

So she reluctantly woke Ed and explained the whole thing.

Five minutes later the detective left a little confused, but
had no memory of watching her kill someone with impossible strength and speed. 
Not to mention the fireballs.

Ed frowned, “How did you forget?”

She shrugged, “I guess I just assumed he dropped one on his
way in, the other assassins did and weren’t that reckless with the secret. 
Sorry, I’ll be more careful.”

Ed nodded, “It’s been a hard couple of days, we should go
soon and see what the council wants, we’ll want to be back in town early enough
to make the local coven house before dark.”

She sighed, “Any chance we can fit in a run, and by that I
mean go by Joe’s.”

He shrugged, “We’ll see on the way back.  If not… we’ll
figure something out.”

She let Ed use her shower and change into fresh clothes. 
They left Berny in charge of the store, grabbed some lunch, dumped the body,
and then started for the witch’s council over in Charlotte. 

It wasn’t until she walked into the front door of the
council home, and felt like she was stabbed in the head, that she realized Fran
must have taken down the anti-shifter wards at the coven house before she’d
arrived.  She just hadn’t put it together, until she felt the ones here.  She
followed Ed to the same pretentious room in the back where Damon, Bria, and
Sally held court.

She shook her head slightly, and reminded herself they could
be as pretentious as they wanted.

Sally crowed, “So good to see you both alive and well.”

Her distaste for the two faced woman was a lot easier to
cover up this time, she was used to her shifter reactions, though she still
couldn’t lie so she merely nodded her head politely in Sally’s direction.

Bria demanded a verbal report from both of them.  The first
fifteen minutes or so they went over all the assassins from the last day and
few hours, as well as the demon that seemed to be possessing a vampire. 

Bria asked bluntly, “Are we sure it’s Gerald that sent the
demon?  Demons lie after all.”

She blew out a breath, “I suppose the demon could have lied,
but even disregarding its words, and just by the fact it’s going after Elaine
and Cheryl, that seems to make it an obvious conclusion.  Add in the circumstantial
evidence of simultaneous assassins going after the two people that stopped his
enforcers last month… I don’t think there’s much room for doubt.”

Damon frowned, “If his coven really has gone dark, it should
be dealt with.  The mind control was bad enough, but summoning demons… 
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the other N.Y. covens want to mess with
them, and we can’t allow these attacks to go unanswered.  Once the demon is
eliminated, you two need to take a road trip.”

Ed shook his head, “Two of us?  How are we supposed to stop
a whole coven on their home ground where our magic will be minimized?”

Bria growled, “Creatively.  Obviously magic alone will not
suffice.  Use glamour to hide your presence, learn their habits, and kill them
anyway you can before he has a chance to try again when his demon fails.”

Celia thought back to the grenade going through her window,
ideas came to her right away, but of course she couldn’t just buy major
ordinance at the corner market.  The whole idea was crazy wasn’t it?  It had to
be, because for some reason she was excited by the challenge of taking out the evil
coven.  They surely deserved it, for what they were doing.  The problem was, if
they didn’t take them by surprise, they’d be overwhelmed by magic, even if she
could access all of hers, which she couldn’t by a long way.

There was also something that bothered her about it, she
wasn’t sure what though.  Their world had to be self policed, there was no one
else to do it.  It would be justified self defense, wouldn’t it?

Ed frowned and said dubiously, “Assuming we take out the
demon, and somehow miraculously destroy an entire coven.  What about the
assassins?”

Damon waved a hand dismissively, “We don’t know who’s behind
the system, but we’ve run into them before over the years.  If you take out the
one that put up the contract, the assassins will dry up.  I can’t say for sure,
but I think it’s because of the way the system works.  If the hirer is dead,
whoever runs the system can just keep all the money Gerald paid for his or
herself, without sharing with the assassins.  There could be other reasons, but
based on what we’ve seen in the past…”

Both Bria and Sally were nodding in agreement with Damon.

On the way out Ed was shaking his head.

When they were back in the car he said, “This is insane, you
know that right?”

She snorted, “Do you have any tanks or RPGs in your back
pocket?”

He actually cracked a smile, “Sorry, all out.”

She shook her head, “How do they expect us to do this then?”

He frowned in thought, “I’m not sure, maybe we could ask
Joe, we’ve got plenty of daylight left for you to get a run in.”

“Joe?”

He shrugged, “Shifters have taken out whole covens before,
during the war.  And all their magic is internal, so… there has to be a way.”

She sighed, “What aren’t you telling me?”

He glanced over at her and seemed to make a decision, “The
Charlotte coven is pretty split over you, bitterly so in a few cases.  I think
this is a way for them to throw two problems at each other, no matter what
happens… mutual destruction, us dying, or them dying, they win.”

She shivered, “But what about you?”

Ed laughed, “The answer to that should be obvious, I’m
rather firmly in your corner.”

She whispered guiltily, “Oh.  Has that caused you a lot of
problems?”

He shook his head stubbornly, “Doesn’t matter.  It’s just
stupid prejudice, anyone that took the time to… never mind.”

She could see it, especially when Sally’s happiness they
were alive had clearly been a lie.  Sally and her granddaughter Cinna, in
addition to others Celia didn’t know, would love it if she… went away.  Damon
and Ed were clearly on her side, and Bria… well Bria could go either way.  Bria
didn’t exactly like her, but the blunt councilor clearly thought they could
actually pull it all off as well.

Excitement at the idea or not, she was well aware it was
practically a suicidal mission if anything went wrong, and things go wrong all
the time…

Silva ran through the woods alone feeling free for the first
time in days.  Besides not changing since the full moon, being with Ed
constantly, even if she liked him well enough, had begun to wear on her
nerves. 

Joe had convinced Ed that she was safe here, their border
hadn’t been crossed and no assassin would be stupid enough to start a war with
a bear clan when they could just wait for their targets to leave his territory.

Celia sat in the passenger seat of her mind and half her
attention was enjoying Silva’s playful mood, the run, and the surrounding
forest and life.  The other half was mulling over Ed.  The discussion on the
ride here had made it clear to her that Ed admired her and still wanted more. 
She also couldn’t help but notice her feelings toward him where changing.

She’d always seen him as a coworker, or friend from work. 
But now… she was starting to have softer feelings toward him.  It was hard not
to, when he showed his worry and regard, their connection was deepening
spending so much time together.  She still liked Paul, and missed him even. 
But… he wasn’t here, and without his presence around she didn’t burn for him
anymore.

Yet, it was clear from their talks of a tiger shifter’s
nature… those feelings would come back quickly when he came around again.  She
knew she was over thinking it, she couldn’t wait for him forever, or become a
nun every time he left town.  Still, she didn’t think she was ready for
anything yet, but that was changing.

She suddenly saw another air elemental out of the corner of
her eye, keeping pace with them.

She sent a thought at it, “
Can you hear me?
”

It seemed to spin, like a whirlwind as it kept up, she could
feel Silva’s curiosity match her own.

It replied in kind and again, its mind voice was multi-tonal,
“
Yes daughter of magic.  We hear you.”

She knew she needed to be careful with it, elementals
shouldn’t be trifled with, but she thought a few judicious questions wouldn’t
go amiss… she hoped.

She sent, “
I’m a witch, why can I see you?”

The mind tone was amused, “
Because, you are a daughter of
magic.”

She asked, “
What is a daughter of magic?
”

It told her she was… which was frustrating circular logic.

She snorted internally, right, alien mindset witches can’t
understand.  The reply was clearly meant and she could tell the elemental
thought it was a clear answer.  She thought for a bit, but doubted she’d get a
better answer for that question.

She tried something different, “
Why can’t I look directly
at you?
”

It spun and twirled, “
Forbidden by mistress, no challenge
allowed.”

She thought about that for a minute.

“
Staring directly at you is a challenge?
”

It assented with surprise, as if she was slow or stupid.

“
Who is your mistress?
”

It replied, “
The daughter of magic that commands us.
”

She growled inside her mind, since she had no control over
her body right now.  Someone was spying on her?  She didn’t bother asking the
blasted thing who, no doubt it would reply with the daughter of magic that
commands them, or mistress. 

“
Why warn me of the attack by the assassin?”

It whirled faster,
“Mistress want.”

Before she could think of any other questions to clarify
that, the thing disappeared with in a swirl of air and floating sparkling
motes.  What did the mistress want?  It to warn her, wanted her for something,
or… she didn’t know.  It would’ve probably been worthless to ask anyway, the
things were nothing if not cryptic.

She used the rest of the run to practice magic.  She could
almost make a respectable ball of fire now, and her air punch would probably
knock down a human, but a shifter or warded witch would just laugh at the
attempt.  She gave it a rest though when Silva started to get really nervous
when she hit a three on their internal one to ten scale, once too often. 

It would take a long time, and if she pushed too hard they
would wind up taking a step back.  She’d done that once and it took them days
to reclaim where they had been.  They were making some progress, the
determination they both held to succeed was getting stronger, and Silva was
less ashamed of her fear the more she conquered it.

Still, they’d a long way to go…

Joe and Ed were sitting at the kitchen table talking when
she walked in from the run.  She wasn’t sure where everyone else was, and was a
little disappointed she wouldn’t get to chat with Kelly and Lily, or see Rose.

Ed looked up and shook his head at her.

Joe catching that explained, “There isn’t much we can do to
help.  There were rumors during the war of a shifter group that had military
contacts.  If the stories are to be believed, they took out covens mostly by
using C-4, rockets, and then cleaned up with assault rifles.  If such a group
existed, I never met them, and it certainly wasn’t the norm during the war. 
The humans are way too smart not to notice something like that going on for too
long.

“Shifters normally only took out the unwary, and hounded
covens shortly before moving on.  I wish I could help, the coven in Albany
sounds like a nightmare that needs to be put down, but I can’t help you.  You
could try something like an IED, but chances are you’d alert the authorities if
you bought what you needed in quantities large enough.”

She sighed, “Thanks Joe, I appreciate the thought anyway,
we’ll figure something out.  Where is everyone else?”

“Oh, Lily took our daughter and granddaughter over to the
wolf pack this morning.  To meet the new wolf shifters, apparently that all
went well in their first meeting this morning.  It’s good that they are adding
to the pack after last month’s fiasco.”

She nodded in agreement.  They chatted a bit more, but
didn’t really come up with anything that seemed realistic, so she and Ed
decided to head back to the store before it got too late and the lost the
sunlight.

It was close to four when they got back to the store.  When
Dan picked Berny up she was surprised to see he was also dropping off Mia since
they planned to close at seven and get to the coven house by nightfall.  She
let Mia run the front while she packaged up the day’s internet orders,
hopefully UPS would be by at seven, or they’d have to drop the packages off at
a collection center on the way.

She looked up and bit her lip.

“Ed, I need a few minutes upstairs, think it’s okay if…”

He didn’t look excited about it, but he nodded slowly,
“Sure, I’ll be down here with Mia.  Don’t take too long though.”

She would go as fast as she could, she didn’t want Ed, and
Mia dealing with an attack without her.  Not that they were helpless but… she’d
feel guilty if anything happened, but she needed a moment to decompress alone,
and she also wanted to look up what her family books had on elementals.  She
also wanted the time to pack a small bag with a couple of changes of clothes
and a few other necessities, just in case.

When she got upstairs she took a deep breath and tried to
relax.  She’d noticed over the last few hours that Ed… looked at her a lot. 
She wondered if that was a new thing, or if she was just becoming more aware of
it because of her own shifting focus.  He wasn’t creepy about it, but she got
the idea he always knew where she was the room, and wasn’t sure what to do or
think about it.

She got out her books and started thumbing through them
until she found what she was looking for, and started to read.  There were a
lot of warnings and the book wasn’t specific on how any of it was done, it was
more of a list of reasons why not to summon or deal with elementals than
instructions on how.  But she was fine with that, as it was exactly what she
needed.

The book likened dealing with elementals to restraining and
commanding nature itself, which was in the end entirely impossibly.  It might
work a few times, but she compared it to sailing a boat into a storm, she might
live the first time, or even the tenth time, but nature was capricious and
eventually… sunken boat.

It wasn’t the same at all, compared to controlling fire or
air like she could.  Dealing with elementals was more like controlling the
nature behind fire and air, the spirit of it.  A witch willing to take that
risk would need to build a containment circle, and summon the elemental. 
Included in the circle, were the spells so the witch could see the elemental,
otherwise he or she would be blind to it.

Assuming it was done correctly, and the elemental couldn’t
break out and kill the witch for their trouble, because it would try to do
exactly that, there would be a challenge when the witch and elemental
looked
at each other.

The challenge was not a physical contest as she had been
thinking that afternoon in the woods, but rather it was more a battle of wills. 
If the witch won this battle of wills, he or she would be able to give the
element a task to perform, either a single act or the gaining of knowledge.  If
the witch failed, there were cases where they went insane, or even died without
a mark on them, as if the elemental scrambled their mind and memories.

There was a further risk, once the witch won a task or
information, he or she had to word the request very exactly.  The elemental was
alien in mind, so nothing could be assumed at all in the request.  Badly worded
requests had led to some serious repercussions in the past. 

She put down the book and shivered.  Despite all these risks,
there were elementals following her around, that had a mistress, and that she
could see without the aide of magic.  It both piqued her curiosity, and scared
her a little.  Maybe she should have asked Joe if shifters can see elementals,
it was possible she supposed.  She didn’t see any other possibility but…

She was thoughtful as she put her books back, when she
suddenly heard a crash downstairs.  She cursed heartily under her breath as she
raced down the stairs.  She pulled up short when she saw a mess in the back
room and a sheepish look on Ed’s face.

She frowned as she fought down the adrenaline, “What
happened?”

Ed waved helplessly, “I was trying a new spell, guess I
should have umm…”

She snickered, which turned into full blown laughter, and
started to help him straighten up.

“What does it do… or supposed to do?”

He blushed, “I’m trying to work out a spell that acts like telekinesis,
thought it might come in handy when we fight the demon since regular spells and
elemental abilities don’t work at all.  The table was supposed to rise gently…
but it jumped and shook violently, it was like an earthquake.”

She couldn’t help it, the mirth came back and she burst into
giggles.  He looked hurt but she waved that away in apology.

She smiled brightly “Sorry, I’m just relieved.  When I heard
the noise, I thought it was another assassin.”

Their gazes caught and she froze at what she saw in his
eyes.  He hadn’t given up on her at all, she’d just chosen to believe that when
she didn’t return his interest.  That plus his tendency to be annoyed all the
time, she just hadn’t seen it.  Not until this moment anyway.  She blushed when
neither of them spoke for a very long moment, and she couldn’t seem to look
away.

He was attractive, she’d always thought so since the first
day he walked in the store that first time.  In her mind she always thought the
sparks between her and Paul meant she liked him more, but as time went by these
last few days without Paul around she was starting to change that belief. 

Her and Paul’s intense attraction was more about both of
them being tiger shifters, and the chemistry was off the scale, but that had
nothing to do with caring about him, it was merely animal magnetism.  Which was
perfect for a one night stand, or a doomed relationship with a long honeymoon
phase, but past that?

What she felt growing between her and Ed was much more
natural, she was attracted, but didn’t feel overwhelmed by it, and it seemed to
grow as they spent time together.  She wanted… but could control herself, and
the connection seemed to be deeper in nature.  She was still conflicted, was
she trying to talk herself into it, or out of it… or what?

She retreated internally, and felt a little frustrated with
herself and her body, which still eluded her understanding.  It almost felt
like puberty all over again, having to deal with new feelings, much deeper and
earthy with her new nature, along with everything else that had changed in her
life it was overwhelming.

Her voice came out a little breathy, “Be right back, forgot
to take my bag down in the excitement.”

He nodded but didn’t look away, his eyes were intense.

She cleared her throat and finally turned away, and went
upstairs to get the bag she’d gotten ready.

Mia frowned, “But I can stay and lock up at nine.  Why close
early?  Neither the demon nor the assassins are after me.  Hell, I’ll probably
be safer here once you and Ed are gone.”

She looked at Mia thoughtfully, she was just as stubborn as
Berny now that they knew each other better, but there was no way she was going
to allow it.

“No, what happens if the demon decides you’d make a good
hostage?  Or maybe just a good juicy snack before he attacks the coven house
again.  Who knows what the assassins might do, they could use you as bait.  No,
the store closes and you’re coming with us.”

Mia rolled her eyes, but nodded agreement.

It was ten to seven when the back door banged, and they
closed up the store just as soon as UPS drove off with the packages.  She
admitted to herself Mia was probably right, but any risk was too much risk in
her opinion, so they all piled into Ed’s car and headed toward the coven house.