The Bonds That Bind, page 2
Everyone else nods in agreement with my confirmation of plans. “Good. Can I eat now?” I ask a little grumpily. Mav places a plate before me and sits down with one of his own.
When his brothers look at him expectantly, he grumbles, “Get your own.”
I stifle a giggle as the boys look offended, but they wind up getting up to serve themselves.
We eat in silence as we all contemplate what we’re going to be doing today.
Chapter Two
CARMELLA
Bohen’s entire posture is that of a man who’s utterly defeated. “I failed you. This is witchcraft 101, and you’re just now learning it.”
I place a comforting hand on Bohen’s chest. I’m happy when it stays there, meaning he allowed me to touch him. As a ghost he has the ability to become corporeal. He even has control over which parts he makes visible. Most of the time though, he’s noncorporeal.
“Bohen, this isn’t your fault. You cannot be expected to remember everything. The fact that I have you training me at all is a blessing. I mean, Mav knows some stuff to help me, but not as much as you do. We can and we will do this together. I should have learned this when I was a child. But the circumstances of my past stopped that from happening.”
He exhales a breath that isn’t needed. It’s a habit, even though he’s been a ghost for just about as long as he was alive. “Thanks, kid. I’m sorry I’m such a downer. I just felt extremely incompetent when the boys knew something we could do, and I didn’t.”
I shake my head at him. “Stop that line of thinking. Seriously. You are far from incompetent. I promise. Now, are you going to watch me perform miracles or are you going to mope around all day?”
He smirks, which is what I wanted. “After you, my lady. Perform away.”
I wink at him. That seems to do the trick since he shakes his head and starts for the stairs. Thank the Goddess.
Once in the attic, or my altar/potions room, I head toward the book, which is on the altar near the back window. There are three windows, one on either side and one in the back. The attic is as large as the house. Half of the room is set up for brewing and storing potions. The entire left wall is divided into supplies to create them and then store them. I haven’t created nearly enough so there are a lot of empty shelves, but as the days go on, I will store more. The other half of the room is for creating and casting spells. I have a couch against the right wall along with a desk which is beneath the window. There are no rugs, and I reinforced the floor to withstand spills of dangerous potions. The spell-casting side has my circle and pentagram in place already, there is no way to destroy them since the tile that was placed there was placed in those shapes when it was installed. Unless the tiles break, the circle and pentagram will never break. Not that I plan to summon demons or anything in my house. But I was told by Bohen that doing it this way will save some time and ensure I don’t mess it up. Not sure how I would mess up a circle or pentagram, but whatever.
The book is surrounded by protection spells to keep anyone who isn’t me from touching it. Well me, and my mate and Bohen. Anyone else needs one of us with them. When I know I’m leaving the house I take it with me by disguising it as a card that fits into my wallet. It means I have it readily accessible at all times.
I open the book and flip through the pages. Bohen comes up behind me. “Stop.”
I do as he says and look up at him. “The reason I didn’t remember that you can ask the book for help is because it doesn’t work for ghosts, so I’ve been out of practice with using that for quite some time.”
I give him my full attention now. I watch him as he leans over the book, with his hands hovering about an inch from touching the pages on either side. “You need to have your hands just like this. One hand just slightly above the paper on both sides. Then, will the book with your magic to help you find what you are looking for as you ask it aloud.”
I move into the position he just had and pushing my power into the palms of my hands, I will it to find the spells to find a lost witch. “Help me locate the spells I seek. Help me discover the spell, To Find a Lost Witch.”
I don’t know if the wording was correct, but the pages turn bright, and I raise my hands a little higher on instinct. Then, the pages start to flip. It goes right to the one we have marked in the book. The one that requires the blood of a relative. “We need the other one. Without blood,” I say to the book, still pushing my power into it.
The pages light up again and start to flip further back, into my father’s part. It stops halfway through. On the page with that spell, is another one, which is why we kept skipping over it. Almost every page has only one spell. This one has three. They’re all small. The first one is to protect the book. If I know I’m going to be away from the book, I can say this spell and the book will become an object I desire it to be. Kind of like my credit card trick. But it prevents anyone from being able to turn it back who isn’t the person to cast the original spell.
Below that is another spell for shielding you, hiding you from sight but not from scent. So that’s a bit tricky if you’re around beings who can smell good. And below that is to find a lost witch.
“Of course,” I say aloud.
Bohen looks over my shoulder. He looks at the book and sees what I see. Then his eyes meet mine, and he has a huge grin on his face. It shows all his perfectly straight teeth. The magnitude of his grin makes me smile just as broadly.
“You did it, Ella.”
“No, we did it.” He keeps his smile as he nods.
“We sure did. Are you ready to tell Mav?”
I shake my head. “Not yet. I want to see if there is a spell in here to detect a magical essence.”
“Right, I forgot about that.” We spend the next twenty minutes searching for a spell to help us.
Chapter Three
MAVERICK
We’re sitting on the couch waiting for Carmella to come down with good or bad news. Gellevel has a piece of land that is just that. Land. Nothing has been built there, and he offered it to us to use.
We are going to have to put up a large tent and enchant it to be larger inside so that the entire wiccan community will be able to fit beneath it.
I say we will be ready with our site in two days. But we need longer for the devices that Syravel is going to create for the meeting.
“I think about a week from now, we should have everything ready. A week is generous, too. You know I work fast.”
I nod at Syravel’s words. “You’re not wrong. Is Cerreth going to assist you?”
The two share a look. “It’s probably best. He’s helped me on many projects, and I don’t think Carmella has had any experience in doing anything like this.”
“You don’t say!” I say, deadpan to Syravel. “She used to work as a waitress. Then as a clerk at the bank. How often do you think she had time to play around with building random gadgets?”
Syravel rolls his eyes. “Please. I didn’t say it because of where she worked. I said it because she doesn’t strike me as the gadget-creating type. Like you. You can work them just fine, but when it comes to how to build them, you’re lost entirely.”
Sighing, I move from my relaxed pose to placing my elbows on my knees. “Yeah, whatever.”
“Uh oh. That didn’t sound like it was a very nice yeah whatever. Which one of them is getting on your nerves?” I turn to find a grinning Carmella and very happy looking Bohen.
I get to my feet quickly. “You found it?”
“We did. We have both Lost Witch spells now as well as the one to detect the magical core of the witch who enters our meeting.”
My brothers all grin in satisfaction. I beam down at my mate. “I knew you could do it.”
“I know,” she says in return. She turns her gaze to the others. “Bohen is going to stay with you two while we go check out this land. He’s seen the spell. He can help you with the mechanics. We’ll be back soon.”
All of these pieces are lining up so perfectly.
“We have the chopper available. Just have to drive to the hangar,” Gellevel says.
Carmella purses her lips. She didn’t like the flight back home. She blames it on me as the pilot, even though all of my brothers have tried to convince her I’m one of the best pilots our community has.
Cerreth’s phone chimes. He frowns as he pulls it out. “Fuck. The council needs me.”
Syravel grimaces as well. “Me, too, if the vibration in my pocket is any indication.” He pulls out his phone as well and confirms it with a snarl.
“We’ll be gone for three days.”
“Okay. Well, take Bohen with you. He can help you with the spell and then you have him to help with the construction while you guys are busy.”
Bohen smiles broadly. “Heck yeah. I haven’t helped build anything since college.”
“That’s a long time, old man,” I say to him.
He laughs. “It was. But you’re older than I was when I died, so who’s really the old one?”
“Touché,” I say, with a grin.
Carm shakes her head at us. “Just let us know when you’re coming back,” she says to them.
“Of course. Come here, give us some love before we leave.”
“Really, Sear?” she asks. But she’s grinning despite her words.
“Duh. I won’t get to see my sister for three whole days.”
She strolls over and hugs them all, including her uncle. “Keep me updated. Texts every day.” She looks at Bohen. “I have the spell to call a meeting if finding them through the other one fails.”
Bohen nods. “I know.”
“We’ll have the meeting in a week. Bohen doesn’t sleep. If you need to work longer hours to get it done, so be it. When we get back from looking at the site, I’ll try the spell. Then let you know if it worked or not.”
“A week.” Syravel nods. We can do that. It will be tight with us having to go in for three days. But we can make it work. Just push the meeting for a later time.”
“It will be at midnight. That’s the latest I can make it.” Carm suggests.
“Perfect. We’ll try to work fast, but perfection takes time. It’s why I was born late.”
Gellevel whacks Syravel on the back of the head, while Carmella giggles at his remark.
Thirty minutes later we are at the piece of land that Gellevel owns. He has yet to place anything on this particular piece of land. He purchased it and has left it. He didn’t say as much, but I think he wants this to be the site for a home with his mate, if he finds one, or his life partner if he chooses one.
“Wow, this is beautiful,” Carmella notes. We’re on the mountain. There’s a little stream a good hundred feet to the left, and when you look out over the edge, you see nothing but the endless beauty of nature. There aren’t many buildings this way, and if there are, the treetops are covering them. “Why haven’t you put anything here yet?”
Gellevel shrugs. “It doesn’t quite seem right to build in this. Even with the snow, the scene is beautiful. I’ve come here to camp a few times to get away from everyone else.”
Carmella smirks. “I can see why you need to. You’re all a handful when you’re together.”
Gellevel laughs. “Funny. But you seem to cause a lot of trouble with us.”
She shrugs. “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.”
“Yeah. Yeah.” He turns, looking out at the land before him. “So up there we can place the tent. We can enchant it to be warm and to be larger to fit everyone. The elves have a simple spell for both of those, I’m sure you can find one in your book, too.”
She nods. “Probably.” She walks to the area my brother indicated. “So the scanner, will that be outside of the tent, ensuring everyone is scanned before entering?”
“I think we can have a separate room. Like the Council hall has that antechamber before the actual meeting hall,” I say. “This way, you will be able to stay warm as well. We can also seal the tent so no one can get in through the unguarded sides.”
“That’s a good idea. I hadn’t thought about that.”
“That’s what I’m here for, babe, to be the brains.”
She snorts. “You keep telling yourself that.” She stalks back closer to us. “So, which one of us has a tent large enough to help with this?”
“Mom and Dad,” Gellevel and I respond in unison.
“They got that large one to divide us up as kids, but to also keep us in the same tent. We can use one of the dividers to use as the inner door. Then use the spells to do the rest,” I say.
“Okay. Let’s get out of here. I’m freezing.” I grin at Carmella’s words.
“Fine by me.”
Chapter Four
UNKNOWN
I pace the small space before me and the desk of the room I’m in. It’s been too fucking long and we still have no answers. We can’t find the damn witch, and her victory over the elven council is widely spoken about.
“Do you have answers for me yet?” I demand of my youngest brother. The one who’s best at getting in and out of computers and deleting any trace of him being there.
He shakes his head. “No. They’ve done well hiding their tracks as well.”
I blow out a frustrated breath, causing my hair on my forehead to blow around. I swipe it back, annoyed with the length but not in the mood to cut it off.
“How the hell do we find her? She’s one fucking witch.” My teeth grind together with the force I’m using to clench my jaw. She’s humiliated me and my family, and we’re stuck living like peasants when we’re anything but.
My middle brother cringes. “We can go back to The Diner and see if anyone has seen or spoken to her since she killed Father?”
I growl at him. “Go to the one place they are likely to go looking for us? Fuck that. I don’t have a death wish. Do you?”
He shakes his head and holds his hands up to me in placation to calm me. “Who says they know we exist? We’ve gotten rid of everything that ties us to our father. There is nothing that they can find on us. Anywhere.”
I contemplate his words. “Okay. Maybe you have a good idea. But what if she’s there with her mate?”
“Chances are she will always be with him. We can take on one elf.”
I snort. “Not along with the most powerful witch to live in centuries. That’s suicide.” I hate admitting that. My family believed that eliminating her family line would make our line the most powerful. But each family has a witch like the Bennet witch who killed my father. And even though I know it’s not likely, we still killed off the Bennets and Bishops with the belief that our family will be the most powerful. Now I just want that bitch dead for taking my father from me.
“Well then, we let them go.”
Huffing, I lean against the desk. “I like that plan even less. But I don’t want to die because we were reckless.”
“Send me,” the youngest says. “I’ll go in, smooth talk the employees, and bring back what I know. Like you said, they won’t know that we’re around. I’m positive I’ve taken care of everything.”
I agree, so I wave my hand at him. He packs up and books it out of the room faster than a cat escaping a bath.
I turn to my other brother. “I want answers. You better find them.”
He runs out of the room as well. Just as fast as our spineless younger brother.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one who was blessed with Father’s mind and anger. The others don’t seem too keen on taking out the bitch. But that’s all I want. She killed my father. She’ll pay for such a crime.
I move to sit at the desk. This room we are in is barely a room. It’s like an extra-large utility closet. There’s enough space for the desk, with barely any room on either side for me to fit around back. Then the two chairs before it, allowing my brothers to sit.
The walls are all bare. We’re in hiding just to be sure they didn’t track us, so this isn’t what we are used to. My father was wealthy. He worked for men who make that bitch look like a harmless kitten.
But this rat hole we wound up in is a far cry from our normal standards. I get disgusted looking at it. But we have nowhere else to go. We have one bedroom, with two beds and a cot.
How the mighty have fallen.
I shove the papers and laptop off the top of my desk in anger. Placing my palms on the surface, I glare at the door, as if I can see the witch on the other side.
“I will find you, and you will die at my hand,” I promise her. I know she can’t hear me, but it makes me feel better as if speaking those words aloud solidifies the threat somehow.
Now to wait for my idiotic brothers.
My father’s witch assistant, Alita, comes to me. “Sir, have you found her?” she asks.
I study the witch. She’s fidgeting. “What is it?” I demand.
Her spine goes straight, and she looks me dead in the eye. “I know where she is, and I will never give up her location. Her mother’s spell worked. She was saved from your father’s tirade and has lived long enough to come into her magic and find her soulmate. This is your destruction. The Black name will be wiped from this planet. Just as you have tried to do to my niece’s family. I’ve finished what I was put on this earth f—” Her words are cut off as I shove my dagger into her chest. An evil smirk plays along her lips before she falls to her death, her magic, finding a home within me, nestled next to the other stolen magic I’ve procured. It’s a black magic spell that my family stole from another coven. A coven who told us that we were never to perform such a spell. But thanks to them, we have the original spell and have destroyed all other copies. When we steal a witch’s magic, it becomes our own. But we can only use it a few times. Once it’s used, it’s gone. So I store it, waiting for the right time to use it. And I’m hoping I get to use it on that bitch.
So the witch thinks she’s won. Fuck that. I’ll show these witches who the fuck the most powerful one is, even if it takes everything I have within me. That stupid witch isn’t going to best me. I’ll kill her if it’s the last thing I do. A venomous sneer crosses my lips as I picture gutting her and ripping her magic from her body before her soul leaves its corpse.
