The Nephilim Legacy Boxset, page 24
Raphael called the investigators and, exchanging a few lines with them, he hung up the phone. “I’ll go and talk to Albert and Nadine. Do you want to accompany me or would you prefer to talk to your skull instead?”
I suppressed a chuckle at his “your skull” line and contemplated the options. He wouldn’t need me with him; from the looks of it, he knew these mercenaries, so it was best if I conversed with Leia.
“I’ll go home,” I said and he gave me a peck on the lips, his mouth lingering a second longer on mine. I was wondering whether or not to grab him and make out in front of the Magic Council’s headquarters when he abruptly pulled away with a low grunt, slipping a small item into my hands. I eyed it with curiosity and recognized a teleportation charm.
“But before we can teleport, it’s best to cast an invisibility spell. We don’t want to make the news’ headlines,” he said and a sparkling blue-purple mist enveloped us, condensing. I could imagine the panic humans would experience if they saw us teleport in the middle of downtown San Francisco. The spell felt warm against my skin and a sense of sluggishness spread into my veins.
“Greet Leia for me. I’ll call you when I’m done. I might need a bit longer, as I need to take back my motorcycle from Daniel’s place,” Raphael said as the shimmering cloud of runic symbols grabbed him. I nodded and threw my charm on the ground. A similar but smaller shimmering cloud appeared and took me by the waist.
***
This time the charm spat me out directly in our basement, not in the living room. I attributed it to the fact that I'd been thinking about and visualizing the basement as the teleportation charm had taken me, indulging in my impatience to talk to Leia the skull, ASAP. I made a mental note to ask Raphael how they got these teleportation charms. If my sister could make or prepare them, our online business venture would shoot to the moon. Since the end of the magical plague, our purchases had risen, but not sufficiently enough to support us alone. I had a considerable sum of money earned from accomplishing Mission Fallen Conspiracy, but I didn’t intend to spend the cash on trivial things like groceries; maybe I had to invest it in something, like my own business, or start a project? I hadn’t yet decided on what I wanted to do with it. The hanging threat of Drogo had paralyzed my mind, and I was in a constant survival mode.
The familiar stiff and damp air of the basement greeted me, assaulting my senses, and I immediately flicked on the light bulb as I waved my hand. I walked past the dusty, six-foot high shelves of books and stopped in front of the shabby table proudly standing in the middle of the magical lab. I removed the square cloth and underneath a snow-white glowing skull shone, its glow blinding me for a second as it always did. The taste of raspberries and wild fruits reached my senses, reminding me I hadn’t eaten anything since our lunch in Three Ravens and a Bird. I chanted the access mantra and the skull came to life, igniting the air with her fiery-red empty eye sockets.
“Good afternoon, Aiyana Shamsiel Carter,” Leia said cheerfully, her jaw clapping as she spoke. “How was your day? Had fun with your suitor, Archangel Raphael?”
I wrinkled my nose at the word “suitor.” Leia the skull was a godsend, but her language was super stiff and formal, and she always called me by my full legal name whenever I summoned her. Of course she would use a word such as a suitor, it fitted her ancient timeline. She originated from Atlantis, though I was sure the people there hadn’t spoken English. But she had a penchant for archaic words.
“Huh? Did you draw information about me and Raphael from the Akashic Records? I thought you consulted them only for important stuff.” The Akashic Records were sorta the universe’s accurate database, which Leia had access to.
“The archangel is very important, more than my mistress can imagine. Of course, I consulted planet Earth’s virtual records about you and that boy.” This time she couldn’t hide the smile that burned on her mouth.
“Ha! I got you. You’ve always dismissed my inquiries about boys, but now you’re poking into my love life. How come?”
“Does Mistress love this archangel?” She swiftly evaded my question. Damn, she was sly!
“Okay, please stop with mistressing me, and second, I never said we were dating or anything.”
“But you alluded to it,” she objected.
“Yes, we like each other, but…” I recalled our lunch and how Neil had interrupted our intimate moment. I banished the memory of his hot fingers on my waist and thighs, the burning desire I'd experienced in that restaurant. I had to cut to the chase and ask the skull the important questions. “Umm, Leia, there’s something I need to ask you and—”
“I don’t know if you’ll marry this archangel. Please, do not ask me such things,” she said, indignation burning in her voice.
How dared she? She’d brought him up and she wouldn’t even discuss my possible future with him? But marry him? I barely knew the guy! I stifled a rebuke or a snarky comeback and said, “No, I’m not going to ask you about him. I trust fate in love matters. Now look, there’s trouble in the Magic Council. Two of their senior members, Landon and Simon, have disappeared. The council's alpha shifter, Neil Murdoch, claims you can see where the missing shifters are. Is it true?”
The atmosphere in the basement changed in a heartbeat. The amused, light-hearted vibe of Leia evaporated faster than a dog could swallow a steak thrown in the air. “Two Magic Council shifters disappeared? When?”
“Yesterday. Neil said someone attacked him too, probably a group of supernaturals. He even claimed the same people might try to steal you.”
Leia snorted out, her jaw bones clenching as she pressed them tightly. “They had better try their utmost, because I shan’t give up without a good fight.”
“Okay, I believe you, but please tell me about those shifters. We need to find them and bring them home safe.”
Leia gave a loud sigh. “The Magic Council… you mention this governing body again. I don’t like them. I always see dark shadows crawling on their walls. Now more than ever. Beware of this place and the people there. Dark souls are lurking in those places.”
“Fates, could you be more elusive? You sound like a Shakespearean drama character.” As soon as the words escaped my lips, I regretted them. Leia kept silent but I could feel her silent indignation even behind her bare bones. I added, “Your advice sounds very good, but my job is to help Neil Murdoch. What can you see about his shifter colleagues?”
Leia heaved a deep sigh, and I could almost read her thoughts: okay, you owe me this one, girl. Her eye sockets gleamed in brighter colors, and she drawled the words, “They are taken, away. I see… greenery, trees, blood, rocks.” She gasped and added, barely audible, “Dark, creepy forces. Fear and horror reign over their world. Agh, I see horrible things. Nooo!” She shrieked while she described what she was seeing. Her knowledge came straight from the records of Mother Earth. I never truly understood her super gift, but it had come from the lost civilization of Atlantis, and that in my mind explained why it felt so strange and alien to me.
“Who took the shifters? Are they alive? How can I reach them?”
Leia’s color intensified and she confessed, “I cannot access that information. I’m sorry, Aiya.”
“You can’t?” I asked in utter disbelief. It was the first time she hadn't been able to tell me important information I desperately needed.
“It’s very unusual. Something or rather someone else’s dark magic is blocking me. No, it’s sorcery, definitely sorcery.”
My mouth gaped open and for a moment I didn’t know how to respond to her reply. If what she'd shared with me was true, and I didn’t doubt it was, why the hell did Neil want to take the skull himself? Maybe he didn’t know someone else was blocking her abilities? Maybe it was the same people who'd tried to kidnap him and were behind his shifters’ disappearances? So many questions, so little clarity. “Are these shifters alive? Can you at least check that?”
“Barely alive but still breathing, yes.”
This didn’t sound promising or encouraging. We obviously had little time to find them. A new question popped up in my consciousness. “Is Neil Murdoch, the chief of the Magic Council, endangered?”
“Hmm, this is tricky,” Leia drawled the words as she was charging information from the source. “I see dark shadows crawling around him, but he is not hurt. Agh, they again slapped at me.” The air sizzled and a glowing flame burst out, then snapped shut at her, fizzling with a low sound.
“Leia, are you alright?” I asked, drawing near her. Her skull was intact yet I'd witnessed how someone had tried to hurt her, or at least obstruct her from receiving information.
“Yes, Aiya, I am fine,” she said as she flicked to life again, slowly but steadily. “But I suggest not to try to gather information about these dark forces. When you track such shadowy entities, you reveal yourself to them. They are dangerous—we ought to be careful. Take care of yourself and be alert for sudden changes and surprises.”
Chapter 5
Leia the skull’s advice rang reminiscent of the witch’s tarot reading prediction and I nodded absentmindedly in confirmation. This was the beginning of the dramatic, sudden change she'd foreseen the other night. I didn’t intend to take chances with these evil forces and decided to take care not only of myself, but of Leia as well. Maybe Neil was right to worry about my skull’s safety? But I still didn’t feel like giving her to him.
I left the basement and went back to our living room. I needed Dara, and searched for my sister, calling her name, but no one responded. I went to her separate room and after knocking a few times, no reply came either. I figured she was out of the house. I rang her number and she belatedly answered me.
“Aiya, what’s the matter? Is there a problem?”
“I need you, sis. Can you come and set protective spells for our house?”
“Ugh, now? I’m with Marcus at an exhibition—”
I didn’t let her finish. “It’s important. Someone might attack Leia the skull, and even us. Come immediately. You can meet Marc later.” I hung up the phone and hoped Dara would be wise enough to listen to me at least about this warning if not about my ex.
Shortly after my talk with her, Raphael called me, asking where I was. I told him I was home, and he teleported shortly.
“How did it go with the investigators?” I asked him as he stepped onto the floor from the glowing magical cloud. The cloud dispersed with a hissing sound, and he sauntered to me.
“They told me everything they’ve discovered, which, unfortunately, isn’t much.” He grimaced as he joined me, sliding onto the couch. He crossed his legs, one on top of the other, and continued, “The shifters left their homes as usual, around 8:30 as Neil told us. Their cars are intact, found on different places on the road toward the Magic Council’s headquarters, not far away from their homes. The investigators suspect someone had attacked them while they were driving in their cars.”
“Like Neil Murdoch?” I asked.
He nodded, darkness and anxiety palpable in the air between us. “They couldn’t track them down. Nadine, who’s a half fae, has some psychic abilities and saw dark shadows abducting the shifters.”
I nearly choked when I heard “shadows.” “You don’t say! Leia the skull told me the same! Well, not literally, but she saw dark shadows, too.”
“Did she see where they are?”
“She tried, but these dark forces stopped her.”
“Same as Nadine.”
“Damn it! We have a pattern here.”
“Oh, hell, we sure do,” Raphael agreed. “And Neil won’t be happy that your skull can’t help us tracking his shifters. The old fool was counting so much on the skull’s clairvoyance, it’s unbelievable. Do you know he called me twice already to ask about our progress?”
“Really? He’s so impatient,” I noted, partly surprised. A shifter of his stature was supposed to be not visibly worried or at least try harder to conceal it. But maybe I was missing something. An idea formed in my mind and I shared it with Raphael. “I have this nagging feeling Neil’s hiding something from us. I believe it’s related to his missing shifters.”
Raphael’s forehead creased. “What do you mean?”
“The question we need to ask ourselves is, why did these shifters disappear? Who benefits from it?”
He reflected on my musings and agreed with my train of thought. Sadly, he didn’t have an answer, and neither did I. Holy cow, we were stuck! Attempt at playing investigators—epic fail.
Raphael ended up dialing Neil; in his words, he had to deliver the bad news to the chief that Leia couldn’t see who took his council members or where they were kept. I didn’t want to guess how Neil took the news, but the convo was short and minimal. Once Raphael finished, I turned to him.
“Now, what can we do? Any ideas?” The idea of calling Durga or the council was on my lips, but I didn’t bring it up. He knew them better than me, since he was an honorable member of that council.
He furrowed his brows and, pondering hard, he finally said, “I think Loki can help us.”
I nearly choked. “What? That rascal? You can’t mean it.”
A wan smile flickered on his lips. “You still don’t like him, do you?”
I shrugged and he argued, “He can help us a great deal. Remember the hellhounds we fought near Drogo’s castle? He can give them commands, tasking them to find the shifters’ traces. At least, we can try with his magic.”
Hmm, this didn’t sound like a bad idea. I was about to ask when we could execute this plan when the rumble of an engine cut the evening air. Next, the sound of high heels tapping on the sidewalk echoed, growing louder up to our porch and as they stopped, Dara burst inside the house.
“Aiya, is everything… Agh, Raphael!? Hi,” she greeted him awkwardly, giving me a weird look.
“Thank you for coming so fast, sis. We need to secure the place. Can you think of the best protective wards against intruders? We need them,” I said as I stood up and came over her. She’d taken off her coat and was currently taking off her shoes.
“Can you two first explain what the hell is going on?” Her voice pitched higher, a note of annoyance lacing her words.
“Someone has abducted two senior Magic Council shifters. We’re also afraid the culprits might try stealing the special skull Aiya has,” Raphael said, forestalling me.
Dara gaped at him and raised her finger threateningly. “Hold on! I need to ask some follow-up questions, but I got your point. Going to prepare a protective spell from herbal potions.” She went to the magical lab where she stored her herbs, potions, and everything else too, but remembering something she returned. “You can put a magical ward in here, right? Come, do it for us and for your girlfriend.” She patted him on the chest and didn’t miss throwing a mischievous glance at me, then went down the stairs, heading for the basement.
I waited for her to descend and not hear me, and turned to Raphael. “She has a point.”
“Yeah, but protective wards aren't much use. Yes, sometimes they can help, but also cause a lot of mess, too. The choice is yours, though.”
This caught me off guard. We’d been taught back at the Academy that protective wards were primarily a good thing. Our teachers had taught us how to place basic protective spells, but then again, the forces we were now up against didn’t seem basic at all. Not when these forces abducted high profile council members or blocked Leia the skull from obtaining information about them. No, this wasn’t amateurs’ work, we were against cold-blooded professionals. I’d add psychopaths, too.
“What’s wrong? You never tried such a thing yourself, right?” Raphael drew nearer me and as he lifted my chin with his warm fingers, he half-whispered tenderly, “I’ll show you. I’m calling Loki and after that I can help you cast the best protective ward on your home.” He dropped a kiss on my lips and made a step away from me. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number, most probably the trickster god. Raphael greeted Loki as he picked up the phone and had explained the situation briefly to him when Dara waltzed in from the basement, carrying two large cardboard boxes in her hands and a dusty old book clutched over them.
“Aiya, will you help me? Here, place them in the kitchen. I’m coming to prepare the potion.” She thrust the dusty old tome into my hands and one of the boxes. The smell of weeds, herbs, and trees assaulted my nose, my senses getting lighter. “What are we fighting against, do you know?”
“We’re not sure what these dark forces are. Something like shadows.”
“Ghosts, then?” my sister asked, wrinkling her brows.
I bolted to the kitchen and unloaded the stuff, Dara following close behind. “Something like that, but more on the demoniacal side, I guess.”
“Wicked, girl! It’s difficult to protect against something when you don’t know what it is, you know?” She took out the contents from the cardboard boxes, saying their names out loud: “Sagewood, lavender, vanilla, silver dust, moon dust, crystal quartz, sandalwood...”
I nodded silently at every name she mentioned. I took the quartz in my hands, just a very small pink-orange stone. What did she intend to do with it?
“Okay, here’s what I can do. An advanced protective spell. I know it from Grandma, so hopefully it’ll work against these motherfuckers.” She took the silver dust, moon dust, sagewood, and the quartz stone and placed them aside. She chose a big pot and heated the oven as she instructed me to melt these ingredients with my elemental magic. “You need to turn them to dust, but don’t burn them, just reduce them to their smallest molecular components.”
Since when did my sister speak like a biologist or chemist? Nevertheless, I nodded. We’d done this before as I’d assisted her in preparing some of our healing and immune potions. I took the quartz I was so attracted to, summoned a medium sized fireball in the other palm, and carefully drew the flame toward the soft stone, the fire swallowing it.
