Blood of Egypt (Witch Fairy Book 8) (11 page)

Chapter 20

“What the hell just happened?” the agent asks in english after a rant in Arabic.  From Kallen’s facial expression, I definitely do not want it translated.

“I teleported us,” I say.

“I am not an idiot; I see that you have done that.  How did you do it and why do you have wings?”

Eliana’s eyes flutter open and then widen.  “You do have wings.  Are you an Angel?”  She is more amazed than angry.

Time for more explanations.  I hate this.  “I’m part Angel.  My Grandmother is the Angel of Love.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Josh says.  “You are part Angel, part Witch and part Fairy.  Which one of those parts made you torture your husband and Eliana?”

Okay, he’s a little bitter at the moment.  Most people are impressed when they find out that I’m part Angel.  I have the wrong audience for that I guess.

“She was not trying to torture us.  She is simply an extremely powerful being who has difficulty controlling her magic if it is unleashed in too great of a quantity.”  Kallen says rubbing his chest.  It must hurt still from my magic.  I put my hand on his arm again and concentrate for a moment until he feels better. 

Eliana knows what I did.  “Can you do that for me?” she asks.  At least she’s not afraid of my magic now.  I smile and touch her, healing her almost instantly.

“Why were you even using your magic?  Eliana had the situation under control,” Josh says, his anger not diminished even slightly.

“No, I wasn’t,” Eliana says shaking her head.  “Xandra only used her magic when neither I nor Kallen could stop the sand and wind that was going to crush us.  She saved us.”

“You could not stop the magic you created?” Agent Amman asks in surprise.

“In her defense, it was taken out of her control.”  All eyes are on me now.

“What do you mean?” Josh asks.  He looks a tiny bit less hostile now.

“Belial, the Archangel that wants to kill me?  He took control of it.”

Agent Amman is having trouble believing any of this.  “An Archangel wants you dead?  Your tale is becoming more outrageous by the moment.” 

I sigh.  “I know, it sounds crazy, but this is my life in a nutshell.  I’m a mixture of three magical heritages which gives me more magic than even I can control sometimes.  I get wings when I need them and I live in the Fairy realm where I’m a reluctant princess.  I’m married to one of the most powerful full-blooded Fairies around which makes me a pariah to most of the female Fairies who wanted him.  My parents are ghosts and my little brother is part human, part Witch and part Angel.  We have no idea how strong his magic will be one day.  I may or may not be immortal and it’s my job to create harmony in the magical universe.  Sometimes I suck at my job.”  I give Eliana an apologetic look.

I know I’ve finally won Josh over.  It’s hard for him to stay mad at me if Eliana’s not.  There’s still doubt in Agent Amman’s eyes, but it’s fading.  “If you are part Angel, then you should be able to locate my wife and daughter.”

I shake my head sadly.  “I’m afraid I don’t have all the abilities other Angels have.”  At least, I don’t think so.  It very well could be that I simply don’t know how to use the ones I do have.  I should talk to Raziel about that when I get home. 

The disappointment in the agent’s eyes is heartbreaking. “Then the situation seems to me to be hopeless.”

“I don’t accept that,” Eliana says, standing up.

Josh stands up as well and holds his hand out to agent Amman.  Not that he needs the help, but he deftly needs the support at the moment.  The agent rises to his feet slowly and walks to the sunken living room with an air of hopelessness around him.  He sits down on one of the couches and places his elbows on his knees, his hands dangling between.

“Are you positive there is nowhere you can think of where he would be holding your family?  Someplace related to your investigation of him, maybe,” Eliana pushes.

“I have been racking my brain all day.  There is nowhere.”

Kallen helps me up from the foyer floor because I’m always a little awkward with my wings, and we join them in the living room.  Looking up at Kallen, I ask, “Isn’t there some kind of spell or any kind of magic that could help us find these people?”

He shakes his head. “If they were magical beings, we could scry for them.  But, it is not that simple with Cowans.  There is nothing of their being that the magic can latch onto. With a personal effect, a locator spell may be able to get close to the person, but in this large of a city, it is unlikely we will be able to pinpoint their exact position.”

Eliana’s eyes light up.  “But if the spell could get us close, I’m sure I could sense the kidnappers.”

Josh looks hopeful as well. “It’s true; she can sense an evil person from quite a distance.  Especially if their intent is to harm someone she cares about.”

Kallen still looks doubtful.  “The spell would probably only get us within I would say one half to a full mile away.”

Josh looks at Eliana with pride in his eyes.  “She can do it.”

“What do we need for the spell?” I ask.

Kallen considers for a moment.  Turning to me, he says, “I will be upfront with you.  This is a difficult spell to work and can easily go awry.”

Great.  Now I’m super nervous.  I think he’s right, I like it better when he just lets me find out for myself after the fact.  "Maybe you should do it.”

He shakes his head.  “It can only be performed by a Witch.”

There’s more to that sentence than he’s saying out loud.  “Okay, spit it out.”

Kallen tries to look innocent.  “I do not know what you mean.”

I put my hands on my hips.  “I know that tone of voice combined with that look.  You’re not telling me something.  Spit.  It.  Out.”

With a sigh, Kallen says, “A spell of this sort is easily detected.”

“By who?” I ask.

“Locator spells are gray magic due to the fact that most people who are lost do not want to be found by their pursuer.  It will serve as a beacon to practitioners of such magic.”

I don’t get it.  “So?”

“I hate to butt in, but do you think we could move this conversation along?  We’re losing valuable time,” Josh says.  The worry in his eyes takes away any harshness in his words.

With a terse nod, Kallen says, “Practitioners of gray and black magic tend to travel in groups because many spells require more than one Witch to perform them.  When they feel Xandra’s power spread through the city, they will come looking for her.”

I think I’m being obtuse asking this, but I’m going to anyway.  “What for?”

“To attempt to harness your power for themselves.”

Oh, that’s all?  “I’ve gone against Witches before.  I’m pretty sure I can handle them.”

One side of Kallen’s mouth curves up into a wry smile.  “It is not your ability to fight them off, my love, that I am concerned with.  It is their interference with the ultimate goal of the spell.”  My love?  We haven’t used pet names for each other before but I like it.  Though I’m sure this is an inappropriate time to express that.

“You believe they will get in the way?” Josh asks.

Kallen nods.  “I believe they will be an unnecessary hindrance, yes.”

“I’m beginning to think all Witches except my mother are pains in the ass,” I mutter under my breath.  Kallen smirks and I give him a look daring him to say anything.  He’s smart enough to keep his thoughts safely on the inside of his lips.

Agent Amman stands up and with his jaw set firm, he says, “If it will get my family back, I will do whatever needs to be done to deter these Witches.  I can have fifty agents at our disposal in less than an hour.”

I shake my head.  “I don’t think your agents would stand a chance against gray or black Witches.  Innocent people could get hurt.  I appreciate that you want to help, but I think we need to handle them on our own if they show up.”

Kallen turns to Eliana.  “If you have paper and a writing implement, I will make a list of the necessary ingredients.”  Eliana nods and leaves the room through the door opposite the foyer.  She returns in just a moment and hands a pen and pad of paper to him.  Kallen sits down and writes out a fairly long list.

When he’s done, he tears the sheet from the pad and hands it to Agent Amman.  “Do you have the resources to obtain these items?” he asks.

Without replying, Agent Amman takes out his cell phone from the inside of his jacket and presses a button.  His call is answered immediately.  “Jacqueline, I have list of items I need you to obtain.  Your ears only.  I will text you an address and I want these items delivered within the hour.”  He reads list to the person on the other end of the line. “I understand that some of these items will be difficult to find.  I want them here in an hour.”  The agent ends the call and puts the phone back in his pocket.  “You said a personal effect is required.  What did you mean?”

“It will need to be a part of them, such as hair,” says Kallen.

“Do we have time to drive to your house to get what we need?” asks Eliana.

A tiny smile touches agent Amman’s lips.  Taking out his wallet, he says, “My wife is very superstitious.  She insisted that I carry this with me.  The locks from your child’s first haircut are supposed to bring good luck.”  He takes a small plastic bag with a little curl of hair from his wallet.

None of us quite know how to respond to that.  Yes, it is good luck that he has it with him right now, but it certainly didn’t bring him good luck this morning.

He hands the small plastic bag to Kallen.  “Will this be enough?” he asks.  Kallen nods and takes the bag from him.  He sets it down on the table while we wait for the other ingredients. 

“Josh and I will check the artifacts around the house and find a porcelain bowl,” Eliana says.  She and Josh leave the room.  Now all that’s left to do is wait.

Chapter 21

One hour and five minutes later there is a knock on the door.  Agent Amman has spent the last five minutes pacing the floor and has a withering look on his face when he pulls the door open and confronts the person who dared to be five minutes late.  A woman in her late fifties or early sixties breezes into the room as if he had given her the brightest smile.  She has gray hair pulled back into a loose bun, a rather pear-shaped body yet still quite thin, and is wearing a dull gray jacket and skirt that she must have bought when she weighed a few more pounds.  She is carrying two cloth shopping bags which she brings into the living room and sets on the low table between the couches.

“I had to run here and there across the city,” the woman says in heavily accented English. “Why do you need such items?”

I can see the deliberation clearly on agent Amman’s face as he decides whether or not to tell her the truth.  Finally, he says, “They are for a locator spell.”

“Ah.” That is all the woman says.  Then she sits in a chair by the fireplace and places her hands in her lap as if waiting patiently for a bus.

“Your services are no longer needed, Jacqueline,” agent Amman says rather tersely.

“I am not running around like a crazy woman and then not witness the reason for my insanity,” Jacqueline says, just as tersely. I suspect these two often have conversations like this.

I look up at Kallen who is standing next to me by the window with a questioning look.  He shrugs his shoulders as if to say ‘what’s one more person?’ I guess he’s right.

“Where should we do this?” Eliana asks.

“Outside the best,” Kallen replies.

“There’s a gazebo out back in the garden,” Josh says.

Kallen nods. “That will work fine.”

Without another word, Agent Amman picks up the cloth bags and follows Eliana and Josh to the back of the house and out through a sliding glass door that leads to the garden.  Kallen and I follow with Jacqueline right behind us.

The garden is beautiful.  I’m assuming many of the flowers are native to Africa because the only ones I recognize are the roses, which are all white and perfect.  There are more beautiful flowers everywhere in shades of white, purple and blue set against a background of green leaves, stems and vines.

The gazebo is not very large so there isn’t room for all of us to crowd in.  Everyone else stands outside, leaning in to watch Kallen set up the items I will need for the spell.  He carefully places the blue candles so they are positioned in the North, East, South and West directions.  Eliana places the porcelain bowl that she found in the center of the gazebo and I sit down in front of it.  When everything is set, Kallen hands me the paper he wrote the spell on.

I read the spell over in my mind again before I start.  Kallen emphasizes again how powerful this spell will be and how precisely it needs to be performed.  So now, of course, I am really nervous.  I close my eyes and take a few calming breaths before I begin.  Opening my eyes, I’m ready to begin the spell.  I reach for the gold candle and place it in the porcelain bowl.  I take a pinch of blue orris, a pinch of ground corn, several leaves from a willow tree, a tiny bit of St. John’s wort, and some pansy petals and place them in the bowl around the candle.  How does Kallen remember the ingredients to all these spells that he can’t even perform?  He’s told me before that Fairies like to be knowledgeable of the magic of other beings, but he must have a photographic memory or something because I would never remember all of this.

I light the gold candle and begin to speak, “From these gifts of the goddess and with her sanction, I seek the power of divination.  Heart pure, intentions sincere, let me see now what is unclear.  My desire confessed of knowledge suppressed to be harnessed by the psychic power of the flax and bound together with Golden wax.”

I pick up the Golden candle and raise it over my head.  I’m supposed to light it with magic, but Kallen and I agreed that it would probably be best if I did not do that; we don’t want the whole garden to start on fire.  So Eliana offered her assistance with this. The wick of the candle ignites and I keep it raised above me for a moment until I’m sure that some wax has melted, and then I bring it back down to the bowl and dribble wax onto the mixture I’ve placed inside it.

Next, I take garlic and peel away individual cloves until I have six of them and place those in the bowl.  Picking up a pinecone from a larch tree, I do my best to crush it in my hand and let the pieces fall into the bowl.  I take a leaf from an Aspen tree, hold it above the bowl and let it gently flitter down.  How in the world did Jacqueline find this stuff in Cairo in an hour?  She’s amazing.  I suppose that’s why Agent Amman has her working for him.

The last ingredient I put into the bowl is the lock of hair from agent Amman’s daughter. “Taken before its natural time, return to me what is mine.  With its absence my heart stolen, my spirit darkened, my soul blackened.  Unforgivable is this theft which has left my spirit, my soul, my heart bereft.”  I drop the Golden candle back into the bowl being careful not to extinguish the flame, which starts pieces of the pinecone and leaves on fire, safely contained inside the bowl.

I’m going to need Eliana’s help with this next part as well, again so that I don’t start the entire garden on fire. “Our sacred spell crafted, our quest untainted,” obviously this spell was written for several Witches to perform, especially at the end when the magic is needed.  Kallen didn’t change the words so I guess I’m using the ‘Royal we’ as I perform it.  “Our magic now we do send forth, to the East, to the West, to the South, to the North.” As I say each direction, Eliana lights the candles in that position.

I’m about to think yet again how unimpressive Witch magic is, because there isn’t an immediately seen effect, until a blast of magic comes out of the bowl with a sonic boom, knocking me flat on the gazebo floor and everyone else to the ground.  Unfortunately, my head lands on the blue candle behind me, starting my hair on fire, which I quickly put out, but not before the smell of burning hair fills the air.  Great, now I’m deaf and balding.

Turning my head to where Kallen is picking himself up off the ground, holding his ribs, I say, “I guess this means it worked.”