“Not his fault there, boss. The signal is down all over the base.” A man’s voice replied.

  The members of the team looked up from the screen to see a short, thin, geeky looking man walking towards them. In his hands was one of the team’s issued tablets.

  “They’ve issued a full alert up there.” He pointed upwards. “Alerts went out to all commands including ours. Orders?”

  Amber stared at the tech specialist who kept her team running. Sheldon was the nickname for Rob White. Nobody called him Rob, not even her. His resemblance to a very popular TV star instantly made everyone think of his nickname. “Why now? This is the first incursion since 1948. Does command know?”

  “ARCANE believes it has something to do with the Sicily operation. Demonic forces were observed using gates of some sort. Both Right and Left believe they came here,” Sheldon replied.

  Amber stared at her team for a split second. “Arm up, full loadout. We’ve no idea how long this will take. Sheldon, follow me. I need to hear the rest of the briefing.”

  Smiling at the chance to kill something Alexander jumped up, “Excellent. Tell me I can bring all my toys?”

  “Full loadout means full loadout. Just try to not blow us all up,” Amber replied. She was moving out at a full trot with Sheldon running behind her.

  Alexander went straight for his quarters. None of the really good stuff was in the armory. Lack of trust was why he’d been kicked out of three other sections in his career.

  “It took everyone by surprise. This is a holiday weekend remember? Over half the crews are off-base. They’re even short of officers up there. So far only the arm has come through, but the surface is swarming with Imps and Cambion Demons,” Sheldon turned his pad so she could see the digital images of the hole.

  Amber glanced at the images and shook her head. Too much to do, too little time. Entering her quarters, she began opening lockers and pulling out equipment. “Sheldon, Rob, you need to go arm up. This will get nasty.”

  Setting his tablet down, the team technical specialist put his arms around her. “Gimme a kiss first.”

  Amber leaned in and kissed him. Inwardly, she sighed. Lasting personal relationships were frowned upon at ARCANE. In war, people die, and ARCANE was always at war. Her relationship with Rob was entirely accidental. At least that is what she told herself.

  Rob pulled away and ran to the door. He was the most vulnerable of the team and needed extra time to armor up.

  Finding her things was easy. Pants, coat, boots, weapons harness, and spelled protection. She’d worn this outfit for so long it was like a second skin to her. Much had changed over the past twenty years. ARCANE had come at just the right time to save both her soul and her sanity. Losing her husband, the man she’d known since pre-school almost destroyed her.

  The catsuit was something Butch had thought up. He’d seen some human movie about bats and told her it was perfect. Amber thought he was crazy to spend so much money on a costume. But over the years she’d come to love it. And not just because the outfit was the last present he’d given her.

  Slipping on her guns, she thought about her life before and the situation that almost got her killed.

  <<< >>>

  “We’re truly sorry for your loss. Kemper was a fine Witch and will be sorely missed by the community.”

  Amber looked up from the table where she sat. Three Elders stood before her. Tears were still running down her face as she stared at them. It had been only an hour, and she mourned the love of her life.

  “With the death of Kemper you must leave the community and never return,” the Carson Family Elder explained.

  “Excuse me?” Amber blinked, a look of surprise on her face.

  Elder Witch Carlene looked Amber in the eye. “This is a Witch community. We allowed you to stay here at the behest of your husband. With his death at the hands of a drunk driver that is now withdrawn. You are to leave the town of Lincoln and never return here.”

  “This is my home. I want you out of it. Now. How dare you tell me on the day of my husband's death to leave town! What sort of monsters are you?” Amber yelled at them.

  “It’s not,” Elder Ivey replied.

  “What?” Amber scowled at the elders. “What is that supposed to mean to me?”

  Ivey waved her hands all around her. “This place is Not Your Home. The Carson family leased it to Kemper for the life of his marriage. You need to go.”

  “I don’t understand. This community is all that I have. My classes, the degree I’ve been working on, what does my teacher have to say about this?” Amber asked.

  “Magister Ernest Madhl will respect the decisions of this council, or he too will be on the outside. He was warned by this very council the penalty of teaching … humans,” Elder Carlene looked down at me in disgust.

  “I will appeal to the human authorities. You can’t just throw me out!” Amber replied.

  “What human authorities? This is not Briarwood, human. We don’t keep those beneath us informed of anything. They are lucky to even know of our existence.” Elder Carlene laughed.

  “I need time to call a moving truck and pack the house,” Amber’s mind was going a mile-a-minute with things to do.

  All three elders started to laugh at me. “Pack? Everything here belongs to the Carson family. They only allowed you to live in it.”

  “These are my things! I bought them,” Amber raged.

  “No. The money was your husband’s, and everything he owned or earned belongs to his family. You were informed of this when we allowed you to reside amongst us. It’s time to leave,” the Elder replied.

  Amber felt her palms grow warm and a faint breeze blow through the house. “I will fight you.”

  Elder Carlene chuckled, “If you think we aren’t prepared for your feeble Magicks, human, you really are as ignorant as the Carsons have said. Attack us. Join your husband in death. It matters not to us.”

  Carefully reaching out with her senses, Amber could feel the Magick generated by the three Witches in front of her as well as the full Coven surrounding her house. She dropped her shields and powered down her Magick. “Fine. You win. I’ll leave. One day, you’ll be sorry. Mark my words in this.”

  The Elders all smiled at her rhetoric. “You may take a single bag. The cars in the driveway stay. A car will drop you at the town’s limit.”

  All three Elders turned as one and left the way they came through the open front door. Amber checked with her senses, the Coven was still there.

  When she married Butch, nobody but his family called him Kemper, he’d explained about the town. According to him, they were modernizing. The plan was to reintegrate humans into the town slowly. Starting with her of course. Everyone had been very nice and accommodating. How quickly things change.

  One bag. Did they mean a big bag? Amber stared at the closet in disgust. What was she supposed to take that would last her forever? Throwing clothing on the bed, she started to make up her mind.

  Packing her suitcase, Amber crammed her purse into the top in case they were literal. She hoped they choked on their pride.

  Waiting for her in the driveway was Nancy Sue Madhl, her next door neighbor. “I’m to drive you to the edge of town.”

  Not replying, Amber placed her bag in the back and climbed in after it.

  Nancy Sue licked her lips but didn’t speak right away. She waved her hand closing the car doors.

  “It’s for the best Amber,” Nancy Sue commented as they left the neighborhood.

  “Best for whom? You and the rest of the snobs? Please. Were you ever my friend or was it all an act?” Amber asked.

  “The Council makes the rules. We just follow them,” Nancy Sue replied.

  “Drones. That's what you all are. You blindly follow what they say and have no opinions of your own. I thought you were my friend, but I can see now that everything I believed about Witches before I was married was true. You’re a bunch of egotistical bigots!” Amber fired back.

  “Think what you like. I have as much choice in this as you do.” Nancy Sue pulled the car over by the side of the road. They were more than a hundred yards past the limit line. “This is your stop. May your life be better going forward than it was here.”

  Waving her hand Nancy Sue opened the doors of the sedan and removed Amber and her luggage with Magick. Without a single glance behind her, the woman did a U-turn and returned to town.

  Standing on the side of the road Amber watched her friend of five years drive away. Had her life been one big lie all along? What was she to do now?

  “Would you like a job?”

  The sound of the voice behind her caused Amber to turn, Magick crackling in her palms. “Who are you?”

  “My name is Mr. Right, and I’m the one offering you a place to live and learn. We humans need to stick together,” the man replied.

  That was ten years ago. A lifetime. Amber had taken Mr. Right up on his offer of a ride and a job. Now it was time to pay the bill.

  <<< >>>

  “This is a disaster! More than half of our teams are dead and now this. Who do we have that we can send to California?” Mr. Right asked the video council.

  “No one. You told me yourself to keep the Magical Division out of the loop. Agatha and her team are finishing up their current assignment. Do you want her in California? By the time they get there, Charleston could be in play you know,” FBI Director Madeline Mills stated.

  “Theta Section is on location and fully staffed. US Military Command swears to me they can contain the threat, but we’re not completely convinced yet. Is this connected to the Strega?” Mr. Right asked the screens in front of him.

  Madeline flipped through a pad of paper in front of her, “Team Wood is in the air and en route to South Carolina as you requested. Pending receipt of their after-action report, I can say that the Strega don’t exist as a power in our world any longer. There is evidence that while the Strega may have raised the Demons, they lost control. Only Demons were at the monastery. All the humans were dead.”

  “Dead? But if they raised the…” Mr. Right paused. He frowned then looked up at the monitor. “Charleston?”

  “Yes. That’s what the Bs and I think. We suspected they captured Camilla in Maine, but what if we were wrong about that? If she’s helping them… It’s going to be bad, Thomas. Very bad. That woman has no respect for human life,” Madeline replied.

  “Put everyone we have available on it. We must know what Camilla’s plans are and how she was able to raise so many Demons. There must be a way of controlling them. Are you able to contact Marcella Blackmore and have her listen to you?” Mr. Right asked.

  Madeline sighed, “Her ties to the Council are a problem if we are asking for help. They are the ones that made the rule after all.”

  “Rules can be broken. Her daughter is the instigator here. We might need a way to stop her. Killing her doesn’t seem to work all that well. Make the call,” Mr. Right replied.

  “Thomas…” Madeline trailed off when Mr. Right held up his hand.

  “I’ve told you before, that name has no meaning for me anymore. Mr. Right is who I am now,” he answered.

  “Fine. Whatever you want. The paranormals didn’t want in on this fight, remember? And we aren’t supposed to even know about the Council. The boys in Washington sure don’t.” Madeline replied.

  “This is their mess, to begin with. Ignore Washington. They can’t keep secrets and leak like a sieve. If you have to bring ARCANE into the light, do it. We cannot hide the presence of Mages at the incursion sites. The media will find us out quickly. There are contingency plans in place, regardless. Make the call,” Mr. Right disconnected Madeline’s screen. Looking at his assistant he pointed. “Get me the President.”

  <<< >>>

  “Damn that man,” Madeline looked away from the darkened screen on her desk. “He just doesn’t listen.”

  “He does a good job though. It could have been yours,” Beatrice reminded her boss.

  Madeline barked out a laugh, “Yeah, right. That would have been a disaster. He’s the right man, no pun intended. Calling Marcella though… I don’t want to go through life looking over my furry shoulders for cats.”

  Both Betsy and Beatrice started laughing this time. Betsy waved her hand at Madeline, “She wouldn’t do that to you.”

  “No, she’d just make you think you were a mouse. Marcella is a leader, not a killer. Now Agatha might, if you pissed her off,” Beatrice remarked. She had a pretty good handle on that Witch.

  “Ugh. Agatha. I still have to tell her that Camilla might be behind all of this. Should I tell Marcella?” Madeline asked.

  “You have to. It’s your job. Plus if we really want the World Species Council’s help, we need to tell them the truth. They don’t like it when we lie, not ever,” Betsy replied.

  Madeline waved at the phone in front of her. “Make it so Number One.”

  Beatrice snorted and leaned over to one side silently laughing. Betsy dialed the phone with one hand and gave her boss the middle finger with her other. “Line one on your phone.”

  Picking up the receiver and pressing the button, Madeline listened. Ring, ring, ring, ring, “Hello?”

  “Mrs. Blackmore? My name is Madeline Mills. You might not remember me, but I run the FBI Academy?” The Director asked.

  Marcella’s voice was soft and gentle like a friendly grandmother, but Madeline knew she could be harsh and terrifying if she needed to be. “I do remember you, Director Mills. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  “I’m in possession of some information that is most troubling. Are you aware of the incursion in Sicily?” Madeline asked.

  “We are. Nasty mess that is. I know you aren’t calling about Agatha. She and her team are in Jackson, Tennessee today. I just got off the phone with her, actually. I’m not good at beating around the bush, Director. Just cut to the chase, please,” Marcella replied.

  “Fine. While I’m one of the FBI’s Directors, I also work for a much more secret organization whose sole purpose is to protect humanity. You may not know who I work for, but we know who you work for. The laws in place need to change. It was the Strega who raised these Demons, and it should be members of your community who stop them. Forcing regular humans to do the job you should be doing is reprehensible. The attack has now spread to the continental United States and is directly your fault. We have proof that one of your daughters either assisted or performed the rituals herself for the Strega,” Madeline explained.

  “Out of the darkness and into the light. ARCANE shows itself at long last.” The soft voice of an aged Grandmother was gone. This was the voice of a leader and a mildly pissed off Witch. “We don’t take threats lightly Director. I knew many of your founding Mages. Who do you think supplied them with training texts in 1948? I’ve even been to Indian Springs a time or two. Not as it is now, though. The rules are there for a reason. We cannot afford another Purge. Not even a Demonic one. Find the Prince or the Duke, and end this yourself.”

  “So quick to shift the blame and not even a mention of your daughter Camilla. Don’t you want to know where she is?” Madeline asked.

  “She’s dead. No living person, especially a barely-trained Witch, could have survived that fireball explosion. Only the divine can do that. And if this is about Teegan, she is right here beside me in Maine.” Marcella replied.

  “I have a stack of recent pictures on the desk in front of me. But forget those. Are you going to help us against the Demons or not?” Director Mills asked.

  “Not. Go back to your school, Director. Forget about ARCANE. I gave you Agatha, she should be enough for anything you come across. Goodbye,” Marcella disconnected the phone on her end.

  “Damn. I had hoped she might talk to us. Mr. Right was correct. We did need to try. Pass along all new and important information to Anastasia. She will be our briefer. If Charleston falls apart, tell her to give it all to Agatha.” Madeline shook her head and gave directions to her assistants.

  Chapter 3

  Molten metal bubbled and boiled as it poured into what everyone called The Hole. Like the crack of doom, it loomed over everything on the base. It was the reason for the military’s existence here at Conception Base.

  “Is it closed?” Private Bakes asked.

  “Not hardly, the higher-ups tried something like this in the 1950s. It didn’t hold. There wasn’t even a Demon invasion at the time,” Lieutenant Blue explained.

  A look of consternation crossed Bake’s face, “how is that even possible?”

  “Some Magickal BS. The Mages all have a theory about it,” he said.

  Bakes didn’t react, but Blue noticed, anyway.

  “Someone’s been speaking out of turn I see. Yes, we have Mages. If you’re unlucky, you might even meet one. The Holy See, the Vatican, is supposed to have one of these beneath it. That’s only a rumor mind you, but it makes sense that a Christian order would build a temple over a Pagan one. Especially one with a portal in it,” Blue commented. “Those Mages we aren’t talking about say the Vatican one doesn’t lead to Hell.”

  “Where does it go then?” Bakes asked.

  Blue shook his head. “No idea. If I were home in Missouri, I would say it goes to St. Peters.”

  Bakes looked at him frowning, “Where?”

  “St. Peters, Missouri. Something about how the town is laid out along the river and interstates. Every road in the county seems to take you there. It’s a joke my wife and I tell each other.” Blue pointed towards the monitors. “Within the hour that seal will fail. We need to check the status of our guns and prepare Gamma Section.”

  Lieutenant Blue looked at Bakes. “Don’t get too comfortable. When the breakthrough happens, I’m sending you to Gamma as a messenger. I don’t expect comms to last. Major Dawn can give you more instructions and find a place for you.”

  Bakes looked up at him in alarm, “But…?”

  “No. My team works well together. While helpful, you might disrupt that. There is no final option here. Best you not be here.” Lieutenant Blue laid his hand on her arm. “Trust me.”

 

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