Elemental Flame (2 page)

"
Y
ou're not supposed
to touch it! Not while I'm
in
it!"

"It's not
your
computer—it belongs to Sam and
me
!
I'm
her partner!"

I'd just let myself in the back of my shop when I'd heard shouting from the retail area. Empty and half filled containers of food littered the break room table, along with paper cups. A few of those cups leaked whatever sugary beverage had once been held inside of them all over my nice giant wood table. The sink was filled with pots and pans, and a foul odor, not far off from the scent of Arcane Magic (raw, rotting chicken), greeted me as I neared the mess.

Grey, my wolf familiar, and my mother, followed beside me as I hit the door into the main shop and beheld a scene I think most people would pay to see.

My shop partner and best friend, Kyle Kendrick, and employee, Ivan Westerfield, were wrestling on the floor in the middle of the store. Luckily, none of the display items had been knocked off of their tables. No broken fountains or crystals. To that I could thank the God Mother.

As the two of them rolled precariously close to a stand full of
very
breakable Goddess statues, I called up my Water Elemental, the Undine. She appeared beside me, a beautiful combination of little human and beta fish. With a smirk at each other, we worked to empty all of the bubbling fountains at once, coning the water into a single funnel in the air over the two combatants. Then, with practiced precision, my Undine and I doused the two boys with water, instantly ending the brawl.

"Hey!"

"What the hell?"

My Undine moved to the only bowl of water we didn't empty on the counter near the computer. It was a fish bowl housing Ivan's white goldfish, Isis. The Undine sat on the bowl's rim, splashed the top of the water with her tail, and narrowed her eyes at the boys as they stood. It seemed like an added comedic element to me that she had my face.

Dripping water, the two of them saw the Undine first, then looked at the break in the counter to see me. Their eyes widened and to my surprise, they both smiled.

"Sam!" Ivan raked his long fingers through his thick black hair, revealing his exotic Japanese American heritage. Forever dressed in jeans, hoodies and t-shirts, Ivan was tall, wiry and good looking. He could manipulate the Cyber World with magic. He is, for lack of a better word, a Cyber Witch. "I—we—you've been gone—"

That's when I noticed a bruise starting along Ivan's right cheek.

Kyle is a Hedge Witch. He is unique because he's a guy with this power, as most Hedge Witches are females. Hedge Magic is considered more common. A Hedge Witch manipulates herbs and spells and can literally create magic from the spirits of organic items found around them.

Kyle attempted to fix his clothing before he addressed me. Though he smiled, his movements weren't as cheerful. In fact, having known him as long as I had, I caught the flush against his cheeks and the hunch in his shoulders. Something was wrong. Besides the fight.

"You two want to tell me what's going on? I'm gone
two
days and I come back to find the two of you fighting?
Lady Darksome
—what could the two of you be fighting about?"

Ivan pointed at Kyle, who was still tucking his dark blue shirt into his black slacks. "Ask
him
. He and Jack had a fight last night and he's been snapping at me all day."

"No I haven't." Kyle finally looked at me and I saw blood trickle from his nose. "He's just being over protective of the shop's computer. He's acting like it's his."

I pointed to the two of them. "You hit each other because of the computer?"

They exchanged glances but didn't say anything.

Sam—

"Not now, Mom."

My name's Samantha Hawthorne. I'm a Witch, or more precisely, an Elemental Witch. That means I can access and manipulate the Elements. Earth, Air, Fire, Water and I'm still working with Spirit, which is the culmination of the four. My mother was an Elemental Witch as well, before a Faerie queen turned her into a wolf. She speaks to me in my head.

The shop the boys tried to destroy is
Bell, Book and Candle
. We're located off of Bourbon Street, down from LaFitte's Bar and Tavern in New Orleans, Louisiana. And recently…

…Well I've had a lot of things happen to me. One of which still stings. To relay them as I remember them, I was warlocked, nearly eaten by zombies, bitten by a Lycan, and invaded by Arcane, a highly forbidden magic no Witch is allowed to use. For a while there, the magic even talked to me.

Until I was un-warlocked, or de-warlocked. Whatever you call it. On Valentine's Day, the day I was stood up by the man I planned on professing my love for, the voice went silent. And so did I.

Even after a two-day cry-fest in a cabin in the woods, courtesy of Kyle's aunt Arden, another Witch, I didn't feel like talking much. Arden was recently elected as High Witch for the area and after learning about my Valentine's Day fiasco, offered me a place to get away and work with my Elementals.

I don't trust her. I don't particularly like her. But I needed to get away and not face the looks from my friends. You know the kind—the
aw, poor Sam
looks. Forget that crap.

But after two days, a lot of crying, a lot of blasting trees and disturbing the area's natural magic, I had to come back. The only way I was going to get over the lying Detective Crwys Holliard was to get busy. Bury myself in my shop and not think about the bastard again.

But Grey and I came home to this? Kyle and Ivan never fought. Not like two girls rolling around on the floor. Though Kyle's obviously broken nose and Ivan's blackening cheek proved they'd at least taken serious, manly swings at one another. "One of you want to take it from the top?"

Sam I think—

I reached down and patted the top of her furry head. "Not now," I hissed.

"He," Ivan gestured at Kyle with a head nod. "Turned off the computer while I was in it."

Even I knew that was a bad idea. When Ivan said he was
in
the computer, that's exactly what he meant. Ivan's magic, though still new and strange to all of us, allowed him to access the Cyber World with his mind. He could access Wi-Fi with a thought, spoof an ID (I just recently learned spoofing meant creating a false identity online), look into security systems through cameras—basically, with the right code he could access any computer or system that used a wireless signal. But to access something that's hardwired, meaning it didn't connect to the web with wireless, he had to go
into
the computer, diving in to take a look instead of the surface examination.

Sam—

After the events of the past two months, Ivan took the computer off wireless and had an actual ISP signed on for a hardwire connection. It was all big words and a lot of tech stuff to me. But he learned as well as I did that if he's in a system and it shuts down, it's possible his cyber self could get stuck inside the Cyber World. We'd seen it happen before and the outcome was a creature I'd had to fight using Arcane. I didn't want to have to take out Ivan, and Ivan was just as terrified of having this happen to him.

So when I turned my attention to Kyle, he spoke up before I could say a word. "I did not shut his computer off! I haven't even been in this room until I walked in and he hit me in the nose," Kyle narrowed his eyes. "So I hit him back."

"I saw you do it!"

"From the other room?" Kyle held up his hands. "You got magic-cams set up now? I wasn't here. I just got here!"

Ivan reared his fist back, intent on hitting Kyle again. This was not like Ivan. Not at all. Whatever happened had scared the crap out of him.

SAM!

Mom's mental shout fried any remaining brain cells I had left. It was like getting caught in the middle of an echo. I slapped my hands to my ears and looked down at her. "WHAT?!"

Aunt Ina is in your office.

I lowered my hands and stared down at Grey. That…of all the things I expected her to say wasn't one of them. "Ina's…here?"

"What?" Ivan and Kyle said in unison.

That
was more like them.

Signaling my Undine to follow, I pivoted and half ran to the back. Taking a left at the break room table, I ran to my office and shoved the door open.

Standing behind my desk was Inamorata Devonshire. She looked exactly like she did the night she tried to kill me, last year on Samhain. Blood trickled down the left side of her lip and when she smiled I could see her teeth. Her long, sharp teeth.

Inamorata had been my mom's best friend, her coven mate and her closest ally against a subrace of Vampires called Leviathans. All Vampires were a combination of a demon and a human, but the combos where the humans invited the demon in to share their lives and their bodies were known as Revenants. These demons bonded with the humans, flesh and blood. One could not live without the other.

Leviathans never asked to be invited in—they took what they wanted and rode the body's soul to prevent them from bonding, which made it easy for them to hop from one body to another. They moved from body to body, taking what they wanted and leaving devastated souls in their wake. One of these creatures, a demon named Dionysus, the one that made the deal with a Faerie queen to get rid of my mother, took Ina's body after the queen transformed my mother. But as payment, the same queen took Ina's soul and locked Dionysus inside of Ina's body where he was trapped until it could find a new soul to take Ina's place.

Ina took my mother's place when she was declared dead in the line of duty and raised me, directed me, took control of my training, and then manipulated me into using Arcane to kill an innocent. Dionysus took that innocent's soul and used it to free himself from the Faerie queen's magic. Dionysus tried to kill me that night, but Crwys and Grey had arrived and saved my life.

I hadn't seen Ina since then, but I'd always felt she was near, and her name continues to crop up. She was like an old ghost I couldn't shake.

And now she stood in my office.

I put my hand to the back of my jeans. I didn't have my pistols. But I did have something I knew would kill her.

Arcane.

"Samantha, dear," Ina said and put her hands on the back of my desk chair. "Here you are. Oh, I heard about what happened with your boyfriend.
Tsk, tsk
. So sad. He left you all alone. That's what you hate the most, isn't it? Being alone? Your mother's just a dumb animal, incapable of truly remembering more than an animal can. Your father and stepmother are dead. And now that big, strong boyfriend is gone. Everyone leaves you, don't they? Because you deserve to be alone. You're an abomination!"

The Undine on my shoulder broadcasted her concern and her disagreement with the turn my thoughts took. I dismissed her, with thanks, and held out my hand as I summoned the Arcane Power. The smell filled the tiny room. The lights overhead blinked as my hands ignited with red sparkling fire.

I was going to put her down.

No! Sam don't!

"Stay back, Mom."

Listen to me!

I raised my hand as the visage of Ina threw back her head and laughed.

That's not Ina! Ina doesn't know I'm a wolf!

I hesitated. Grey was right. Even I didn't find out about Grey until after I was warlocked. But if this wasn't Ina laughing at me, taunting me…who was it? Or worse,
what
was it?

"Sam!" Kyle said behind me and put his hand on my shoulder. "It's a Boggart!"

M
y Earth Elemental
appeared in front of me, a short female Gnome with an axe and an attitude. My Undine reappeared. My Air Elemental, the Sylph, appeared in the air to my left and my Fire Elemental, my little Salamander, poofed in front of my face. It shook its head and pointed at my hands.

I looked down at the sparkling fire and doused it immediately. I was going to have a headache later for pulling that kind of power and not using it. My Salamander nodded and turned to face Ina.

But Ina wasn't there anymore. I turned as something very solid brushed against my legs and pushed me against the doorframe. Whatever it was shoved Kyle backwards and turned over a chair.

Kyle righted himself and held out his hands. They were tattooed with the hermetic symbols for Air and Water. His right glowed yellow for Air and his left blue for Water. "Ivan, lock the doors!"

I heard the slam of something in the back as Ivan used his magic to engage the electronic lock. That would lock both the front and the back.

Moving with Kyle, we covered the break room, looking for an invisible creature. My Elementals were out looking as well, and I called up my
dex
. This spell was something I put together through the years to make a database of different races, since it was my job as a God Mother's child to send them back to where they belonged.

I called it a
dex
because it reminded me of a Pokédex. I held out my arms as I went through the spell. Four pentagrams came forward, each the color of an Element as they spun around the room, searching for something out of the ordinary.

My Undine did a somersault in the air when the four pentagrams came together to form a whole and became white. In the center I could see the image of a small, hunched form at the foot of the stairs leading up to my apartment. I had a door at the top of the stairs but it was also warded like Fort Knox. Apparently, the little guy couldn't go up and Ivan had locked all the exits.

The
dex
reported Boggart, just as Kyle said.

"How did you know that's what it was?"

Kyle smiled as he peered through the center of the pentagram to get a location. "Because we were living our worst fears. Ivan's terrified of dying inside of the computer, you're afraid of being alone, and I'm afraid of fighting with Jack," he winked at me. "I got this."

I dismissed the pentagram. Yeah, he did. Though I wasn't all that happy with him knowing I didn't want to be alone. I thought that was my little secret.

Kyle rubbed his hands together and the two colors mingled to form a green sphere about the size of a baseball. Then he said a few words under his breath and threw the ball. It hit the little monster right where it hid. The worst, Goddess awful screaming started and all of my Elementals fled in discomfort. I sent them all a thank you as Ivan came through the break room door and watched as the ball of green light moved, rolled and bounced, and then finally came to rest between the kitchen and the table.

"That is nasty," Ivan pointed as he approached. "What the hell is it?"

Kyle's magic had made the creature visible again, and this time it wasn't taking on the form of anyone's nightmare. It was short, with wart covered green skin, a large bulbous nose, bug eyes and what looked like straw for hair.

"What is it wearing?" Kyle asked.

I squatted down by the other side of the table and looked through to get a better view. "Looks like the plastic bag for frozen peas." It rolled around like an armadillo tipped onto its back a few times before it finally righted itself on legs that looked like elephant feet. It had eyes like a slow loris, and it rubbed its cheeks with its meaty fingers, three on each hand, before it looked under the table and through the chair legs at me. I waited for it to say something, but it didn't.

I straightened up and walked around the other side of the table until I was standing opposite Kyle, with the Boggart between us. Ivan peered over Kyle's shoulder and made another face.

"Say something," Kyle finally blurted out.

But the Boggart shook his head, crossed his short arms over his chest and squatted down.

"You think he's waiting for an attorney?" Ivan said.

"No. He's just doing what Boggarts do. So," I grinned at him and then chuckled. "I'll do what I do." I chuckled again, taking in his appearance, comparing him to an oversized toadstool.

Kyle and Ivan caught on and laughed. Boggarts hate to be made fun of. They hate laughter, humor, anything that puts a smile on someone's face. And it can't be a fake laugh. It has to be a hearty, solid laugh. Something that comes from that place of joy that Boggarts just didn't seem to possess.

Even if one of us wasn't feeling it, there was enough happy in the sound of our laughter to cause the little creep pain. It put its hands to its ears and moaned before it rolled over on its side and started yelling out. "Stop that infernal noise! I'll talk!"

I stopped laughing, but it was a little harder for Kyle and Ivan. Ivan pointed at the little monster as it kicked its elephant legs in the air. It was kind of amusing. Too bad I was the one that wasn't feeling the happy. Happy was a foreign emotion to me. Happy left town. And took joy and excitement with him.

I poked the Boggart with my boot. "Spill it. Why are you in my shop? How did you get past our wards? And how the hell did you get to this world?" I assumed he came through a Cairn somewhere, a halfway place between our world and that of
Alfheim
. Cairns were traditionally built out of simple objects, like a ring of toadstools or stacked stones, but I'd seen one in the shape of a sewer grate, as well as a door at the bottom of a pond.

It righted itself again and lowered its arms as it wobbled like a Weeble to face me. It had to throw its head way back to look up at me. To my surprise, it bowed. "My dear Sorceress, this humble Boggart is Cordelia Happenstance, resident of the realm of the Summer Queen."

Cordelia?

This is a
girl
?

And…from Tzariene's court?

And then,
crap…more Faeries
.

I looked at Ivan and Kyle who shared my surprise. Well okay. Go with it. Looking back down, I nodded. "Okay. That's nice, Cordy, but you haven't answered my questions."

She came out of her bow and opened her mouth, then closed it. Then, "I'm afraid I forgot them."

That was another thing about Boggarts. Not a lot of RAM memory on board. They had memories like sieves, except when it came to a purpose. If you give a Boggart a job to do, they do it. It might take them a hundred years, but they wouldn't forget that purpose. I put my hands on my hips. "Why are you in my shop?"

Cordy looked thoughtful, then she snapped her thick fingers. The sound they made was like a deep thud. "Because I smelled the magic of home. So I followed it here. And you," she said as she took a step closer and inhaled. "You smell just like the Queen."

Oh. Great. She was talking about the reek of Arcane. Apparently it smells good to denizens of
Alfheim
? "Okay Cordy. Keep going. You smelled home."

"Yes, yes. And I was hoping to find home. But there is no Cairn here."

"So you just fell into old patterns?" Kyle said and Cordy wobbled back and forth as she turned to face him. "You saw three victims to feed off their nightmares?"

"Oh no, no. Not so much like that. It's a defense," she pulled on her fingers. "You scared Cordelia."

"Hey, eyes back to me," I said and waited for her to wobble back around. "You want to go back home. Why did you come through a Cairn in the first place?" I narrowed my eyes. "You did come
through
a Cairn, right?"

"Yes, yes I did. It was some time ago, I believe. Time is so fast here, isn't it? It tick-tocks differently. But there was lots of shouting and running, so Cordelia followed along," she shook her head and looked upset. "Such sadness. Lots of the shouters perished. Turned to ash they did. But Cordelia didn't. Touched the ground and did not die." Cordy put her arms behind her. "But Cordelia doesn't like this world and wishes to go home. Cordelia is pretty sure her mother is missing her."

"So," Ivan began. "You joined a flash mob and ended up here?"

It was a simple way to put it, but I doubted the Boggart would get the vernacular.

She looked back at Ivan and nodded. "Cordelia is wishing for home. But doesn't know where the Cairn is."

"How did you get in here?" Kyle asked. "I didn't feel anything on the wards. Did you?" He looked at me.

I shook my head. "Nope. Spill it, Cordy."

Cordy's large, luminous eyes looked up at me. Charm wasn't really one of a Boggart's selling points. Mostly because of the whole worst nightmare thing. And I wasn't about to trust this one. "I don't know. Cordelia just walked through," she moved her shoulders up and down. "It tickled."

Stepping through a spelled protection ward wasn't supposed to tickle. I looked at Kyle who slowly shook his head. "I don't know, Sam. Maybe the ward didn't see the thing as dangerous?"

"I'd disagree with that," Ivan worked his jaw back and forth and held his chin. "You hit harder than I thought you would."

Kyle snorted. "Cordelia, how many of you came through this Cairn?"

"Lots and lots," she said as she wobbled around to face him and flapped her arms. "Mostly us Boggarts."

Oh. Great. Just…great. There's an open Cairn out there and wee Fae are coming through. I was starting to hate anything that dealt with Faeries. I say seal the realm and shut it off from everything else as far as I was concerned. I'd lost my patience these past few months, and Crwys's dumping me just…set that cherry on top.

"And you don't know where the Cairn is?" Ivan said.

Cordy shook her head.

"Why was everyone yelling and heading to the Cairn?" Kyle asked.

It was a good question. A solid one. But I was tired from driving. I wanted to go upstairs to my apartment, change into comfy clothing and watch bad TV for the rest of the day. Maybe Netflix had something I could binge on. And Chinese food. I wanted something from Moon Wok.

But first I needed to find this damn Cairn and close it up so more of these little creepy things didn't come through. The last thing the people of New Orleans needed was to be overrun by their worst fears. Especially right before Mardi Gras. I could only give an inward groan when thinking about how many Cordy's
lots and lots
amounted to.

I raised my right arm up over my head, and lowered my left one down in front of me in the opposite direction. Time to banish the little monster.

"Cordelia isn't sure. Much happening at the Obsidian Palace. Much, much. Summer Queen is not happy."

I moved my right hand to the right in an arc as I moved my left hand up in an arc. White and blue light trailed behind as I cut a Circle in the air.

"You don't know why she wasn't happy?" Ivan said.

"Cordelia doesn't know. But the others whispered of a bad man in the palace. Dark times. Fire. Lots of fire. The Queen tell us all to flee."

My arms met their opposite starting points, completing the Circle. I made a banishing pentagram with my right hand inside the Circle. It stayed as well and I raised my arms.

"She told you to go through the Cairn?" Kyle asked.

"Queen is not happy. Obsidian is too powerful. She—"

"I am a child of the Wandering Wide. I call upon the gates of future and past and cast you back into the world you hold so dear," I held out my hands.
"So mote it be!"

There was a slight pop in the air. The pentagram vanished, and so did Cordelia.

My fingers tingled. It'd been a while since I used that spell, and it felt odd.

"What did you do that for?" Kyle practically yelled at me.

I turned and grabbed my overnight bag I'd set down on the kitchen floor. "She wanted to go home. I sent her home." Hefting the bag on my shoulder, I turned and faced the two of them. Both of them had some seriously angry looks on their faces. "What?"

"She was telling us why she left
Alfheim
. There's something happening there," Ivan tilted his head to his shoulder.

"So?" I narrowed my eyes. "I don't give a crap about
Alfheim
. Or any other world out there. Right now, our world has an open Cairn nearby and there are Boggarts coming through it. I suggest we get our shit together, go find it and knock it down."

"Ah…
ma petite
, such language. Your little trip did not soften your anger," said a voice from behind me. It was deep and rich with a smooth Acadian accent.

chérie
. I have come in the nick of time, no?>

I sighed and turned to face one of the most beautiful red headed men I'd ever known. Bastien Dante LeBlanc, Alpha of the Aces pack.

Great, just what my day needed. A Lycan.