Our World: Worlds of Magic Book Six

By Berlinda Ivin

All of the Howard family are now a part of the Guard. Demons and witches that work together to keep their existence a secret, and to stop the renegade from killing and feeding off humans.

 

The whole family, humans and demons, now have to travel to Australia and work together by using their individual talents to save their own,

• Language: English
• Publisher: Berlinda Ivin Books
• Release date: Feb 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781950981748

Berlinda Ivin

Berlinda was born in Sydney. Her childhood was spent moving around Australia with her family. Most of her adult life she has worked with children, and continued her nomadic lifestyle moving around Australia with her own family. In recent years the family made the Southern end of Central Queensland their home. In one of her many moves a work colleague laughingly suggested that she write about the characters and events that made life so interesting. So, using the personalities of close family, friends and even some of the family pets, and then adding a supernatural spin to the story, the journey that is the Worlds series was born.

Book preview

1977

Melbourne

Elspeth and Bernhard sat in the truck and kept their eyes on the building across the road. It was a four storey brick building that until recently had been a motel. Since it had been sold to the Guardian Corporation the gardens hadn’t been maintained. The grass was now long and the fountain that was in the middle of the garden was no longer running. Humans walked passed and didn’t pay it any attention. This was unusual, because humans always looked and noticed differences.

The family was trying to remain calm and be as inconspicuous as possible while they sat in front of the fish and chip shop. Lillian, Ben and the two girls were in the store getting some dinner for all of them.

Elspeth put the binoculars up to her eyes she could see movement behind the curtains. ‘Can you hear any thoughts from here Bernie?’

Bernhard sat up straighter in his seat and looked over to Elsie, ‘yes, there are many thoughts in the building. The ones I am finding interesting are the ones that are coming from up the top’.

‘Do they have the children?’

Bernhard shook his head, ‘it is not children it is only one child’.

Elspeth turned to him, ‘are you sure? I thought that they saved more than one when they got Michelle and Taylor’.

Bernhard shook his head again, ‘no, it is only one, and that child will not speak to them’.

Ben stepped up to the truck and leant forward with one arm on the door. ‘Do we know whose child it is?’

‘No,’ answered Bernhard.

‘It doesn’t matter whose child it is, he or she is better away from them. The moment they find out that the child’s power is more than theirs they will throw away the key. The Guard doesn’t like it when someone is more powerful than them,’ stated Elspeth angrily.

‘Well Lillian’s going to walk over there and see what she notices. I’ll wait here with the girls while the foods cooking’. Ben tapped a tune on the door and turned back to his little girls.

Lillian stepped down from the gutter in front of them and looked at the traffic that was on the road in front of her. Melbourne’s Nepean highway was always busy so the wait was long. Too long for Lillian, she looked left and right and froze the moving vehicles then walked across the road. When she was on the other side she released the traffic.

Bernhard chuckled, ‘she is not a patient woman’.

Elspeth smiled, ‘I like her for that. Lillian never lets anyone get the better of her’.

A bus slowed down next to them so it could pull in at the bus stop in front of their parked truck. Their vision of the Guard warehouse was temporarily blocked. Elspeth and Bernhard watched the bus’s red taillights glow bright as it pulled into its space.

‘The place is surrounded by some hocus pocus spell so that’s why the humans aren’t paying any attention to it’.

Both Elspeth and Bernhard jumped.

‘You startled us Lillian,’ gasped Elspeth.

Lillian smirked, ‘that’s because I can be all stealth when I need to be, so you two should agree to let me go in and help get the children out’.

‘It will be better for the girls if they are with their mother and father,’ said Bernhard.

‘Plus your hiding abilities are much stronger than ours, so you are better at keeping them safe,’ added Elspeth.

Ben walked out of the fish and chip shop with Michelle and Taylor right behind him. ‘We better get going and lay low, it’ll be dark soon and the vamps will be out’.

Lillian stepped up to the footpath and grabbed each of her daughter’s hands. ‘We’re having fish and chips for dinner and camping in the back of the truck tonight girls,’ she laughed.

Michelle and Taylor jumped for joy.

‘Yay,’ they sang, and raced each other to the car.

The family drove in as close as they could with the truck to the centre of the city and parked near the hospital. When nobody was looking they all jumped in the back and closed and locked the doors.

2012

Chapter One

Michelle

Edinburgh

Going back after a month off was hard, but at least we were definitely rested and much healthier. Tomorrow night James and Suzanne were going back home to see her parents. Samantha and Rodger hadn’t been told that they were going to be grandparents yet. James and Suzanne were flying out at midnight and then twenty minutes later Taylor and Uncle Jones would land. We were going in the night before to spend time with the children before James and Suzanne left for Australia, and were strongly advised to stay at the guest house in Edinburgh. That was our first hint that things weren’t going well, and that we were going back to a lot of work.

We pulled up out the front, behind our brothers and sisters. Maria and Cat had been very quiet in the back seat through the whole trip. My warning that they had to be on their best behaviour, or they’d be in major trouble, may have sunk in.

‘Jack, you’ve been humming for a while now, is it private or do you want to tell me what’s on your mind,’ I asked.

Jack turned to me, ‘this is the last time I’m going to be able to spend some time with the boys, by the time James and Suzanne get back the girls will be a long way into their pregnancies, and their priorities are going to be different. So, I was hoping to take them to the pub, you know do some male bonding stuff’.

‘And that’s what you’ve been humming about?’ I smiled.

‘Well, do you think they’ll want to?’

I leant over and kissed him, ‘I know that they’ll want to, Jack. Just don’t come back shot, bitten, bruised or with any broken bones, and look after my children’.

He put his hand at the back of my neck and responded to my kiss, I loved the kissing.

Tony thumped on the car door, ‘c’mon newlyweds get out of the car’.

‘A month wasn’t long enough,’ whispered Jack quietly.

‘We’re only here until we have finished our meeting with the Elders, then we can go back home,’ I smiled. ‘That’s only in three days’ time’.

Cat stepped between the seats rubbing his head on both of our chins, purring.

Jonathon and Tony started rocking the car.

‘C’mon you two get out,’ yelled Tony.

‘Your brothers,’ I groaned.

Jack grinned, ‘don’t forget that they’re your brothers now too’.

James and Dillon were eager to go to the pub, they all were. Our two brothers, Dad, Pops, and our two sons were all going, so with seven of them they shouldn’t get into too much trouble. They were going to the local human pub to play darts and have a couple of games of billiards. We had unpacked and Maria and Cat were running around the house sniffing everywhere.

I had a nice night with the girls, they had all made a lot of friends and loved their jobs and the training that they were doing. Nick was working in the kitchen at the warehouse, and really enjoyed the cooking. I still didn’t understand her love of cooking? It was something that I had always hated as a human.

It’s been interesting training with Nick,’ said Sally. ‘Our magic is so different to hers, we really only give her ideas and time. The rest is done by her’.

Nick showed us how she could move items around the kitchen, a coffee cup went to the kettle and just with her thoughts she was able to turn the kettle on and get the milk out of the fridge to sit it on the bench with the cup. ‘I think I’ve mastered moving small things, I just think about what I want and where I want it to go to and it happens’.

‘That was great Nikki,’ I smiled.

‘Yeah, we’re working on moving heavier things. What I can do is good, but it won’t protect me if I’m in trouble. I want to learn how to defend myself. If I’m attacked I don’t want to make them a cup of coffee’.

‘Just keep practicing,’ I smiled. ‘Maybe when you start to move heavier things, they’ll become weapons themselves’.

Kylie showed us photos of all the baby furniture that Mum and Dad had bought for them. We weren’t allowed to go into Pops place to look for ourselves, so this was the best she could do. When Dillon and Kylie tried to talk them out of it Dad just stopped them in mid conversation, ‘you are making us Great Grandparents to this baby, so that gives us the right to buy what we want, and I don’t care what argument you come up with, we are ignoring it’.

I was a bit jealous. As the baby’s grandmother, I should be able to buy them something big and help set up the room. I suppose the baby would need clothes and other necessities though, so we could do that. Kylie was working two days a week now for John, our family lawyer and accountant, she absolutely loved it. The best thing about this job was that she would be able to continue it after the baby was born.

Suzanne enjoyed working with Mum and Dad in the hospital, her new talent of feeling injuries was becoming stronger, she was becoming a real asset to the hospital staff. I was really happy that she was enjoying the work. I’d been disappointed for her when she’d deferred her University studies because of the threat of the renegade. At least with the support of the Guard and the safety they provided, she was able to still learn, which is what she always wanted. When they got back from Australia, Mum was planning on taking them shopping for baby gear as well. I was hoping that I would be there with them for that.

They all went to bed, leaving Mum, my sisters and I to sit and watch television.

‘You know the boys are going to be loud and wake the girls up when they get back,’ said Tania. ‘There’s a late night football game on. Manchester United is playing, and you can guarantee that if Jonathon remembers he’ll sit here to watch it and shout at the television’.

‘He won’t be alone,’ said Mum. ‘All of them will be yelling’.

I smiled, ‘I think I can fix that problem, we’ll see what they’re like when they come home’.

‘What are you going to do,’ asked Charmaine with an evil grin on her face.

I started humming again and wrote my idea down on the paper, making sure I didn’t look at it.

Tania ripped up the paper, grinning madly.

She was right, they were loud. Dad, Pops, and the boys looked fine. The three brothers didn’t, my sisters and I received sloppy wet kisses, before they took over the remote and watched their football game. Thankfully they all grabbed large cups of feed and water instead of more alcohol. We went to the kitchen, followed by Dad and Pops, and left them with their football. The yelling that should have been busting our ear drums was muted.

Dad stared at the open door, ‘are you doing this Michelle?’

I got up from the table and nodded my response, ‘does anybody need a snack or a cuppa?’

Six hands went up for a cup of tea. Dad was still staring at the open door then he started laughing. I looked over James was standing there leaning against air, his face squished up as if he had his face pressed against glass.

‘Mum, let me out please, I want to go to bed, I don’t like soccer’.

Suzanne came down the stairs yawning and rubbing her eyes, ‘oh my poor baby,’ she giggled, ‘has your mummy locked you in?’

‘Yeah,’ he mumbled, ‘can you ask her to let me out?’

I let James out, and put the screen back up. Nobody else in the room had noticed they were too busy yelling at the game.

Dad walked over and felt the door way, ‘is this what you used against Wilhelm?’

I shrugged, ‘it’s similar. I used to use this when the boys were younger and I sent them to their room, it was the only way I could keep them in when I grounded them’.

Dad came and sat back down, but he kept looking at the doorway.

Tony got up next, he had an empty cup in his hand, and was watching the television yelling at it and not looking where he was going. Charmaine went into hysterics when Tony bounced back. Tony was stunned, but he had another go at it and got the same result.

‘Old girl!’ yelled Dillon, ‘let him out or he’ll end up with brain damage if he keeps landing on his bum’.

This caused a bit of a ruckus in there, they all started play fighting.

Mum was muttering about how ridiculous and foolish men were, ‘more than one male in a room and they become idiots regardless of what species they are’.

Dad shook his head and laughed, ‘we could have used that when they were all yearlings’.

Jonathon was up and running his hand around the edges of the doorway, and looking at Tania, ‘can we come out please honey, we’ll be quiet, I promise’.

Tania shook her head, no, and came back into the kitchen, smiling.

I stood up, ‘I’m going to bed now I’ll see you all in the morning’.

‘Aren’t you going to let them out?’ asked Pops.

I shook my head, ‘I won’t have to, my magic doesn’t seem to last as long as it used to’.

Dad was up in a flash and checking me over. Sometimes it was a real hassle having a doctor for a father in law.

‘When did this start Michelle?’

‘Ever since we spent all that time in the ward and I didn’t sleep, it has been getting better though Dad and I have been practicing every day. So, please don’t make it more than it is, ‘I argued’.

He reluctantly gave in. ‘Well you’re healthy, anyway,’ he mumbled.

Jack winked at me through the doorway, my clever little witch you know we will get you back for this. He stood up and came to the doorway, ‘aren’t you going to let me out so I can come to bed with you?’

I turned around and blew him a kiss. ‘You just said that you were going to get me back, and you want me to let you free? I’m not that silly’.

He came up to bed two hours later, laying against my back, kissing my bare shoulder, with his hand on my hip playfully growling at me, Your magic lasted a bit longer than I expected love. But now this demon has come to get his revenge on the evil witch who locked him up.

My body reacted instantly, I rolled over to face him and looked into his eyes, and just how does the evil demon think he’s going to get the good witch for locking him up? Hasn’t he learnt by now that she fights back?

He pulled me in close kissing me, with his hands roaming. First of all, I’m going to…

There was no way this good witch was going to win against the evil demon he did not play fair at all. I couldn’t fight back if I tried, or wanted to.

We took James and Suzanne to the airport in a van just in case Taylor and Jones’s flight was late and we ended up having to drive in the daylight.

Suzanne’s parents were in Adelaide at the moment and still travelling around Australia. They were all meeting there, and then James and Suzanne were going to be travelling with them up to Brisbane to my parents place. It was the first time that we had met Liz and Kevin the lamiahaem assigned to them for protection. They were both tall with fair skin. Liz’s hair was light coloured, where Kevin’s was darker. They looked very fit and strong, and obviously very devoted to each other. Jack and I both liked them instantly. They left us while we went to have a coffee with our children.

‘So what do you know about Liz and Kevin?’ I asked.

‘They were in their late twenties when they were changed. They were household staff for a lamiahaem family, the surgeons? They were changed unwillingly and escaped their prison to find the Guard. Apparently Kevin is still classed as a surgeon demon and Liz is a dragger,’ said Suzanne, who was just as confused as I was.

Jack smiled at our confusion, ‘this was all before my time, but apparently the surgeon family just changed people because they were trying to build their army to defeat the Guard. So a surgeon demon is a lamiahaem that has no natural talents, and a dragger is a lamiahaem that has the ability to drag things to them’.

‘I still have a lot to learn, don’t I?’ I stated.

Jack nodded, smiling and held my hand, ‘yes you do, but if it makes it any easier I’m still learning new things too, don’t forget I’m only one hundred and thirty four’.

James grinned at him, ‘you do know how wacked that sounds, don’t you?’

We sat with them until their flight was ready and watched them fly off. They’d only be gone for two months, but I still didn’t want them to go. I suppose it didn’t help that I was jealous, I would love to be going back home, maybe Jack and I should have gone over as their protection.

Jack had his arm around my shoulder, ‘I take it you’re homesick?’

I smiled up at him, ‘Scotland is a beautiful place Jack, and I like it here, but I’ll always be an Australian’.

Jones and Taylor’s flight was running late. Jack and I sat and waited patiently, I leant my back against his chest with his arm around my shoulder. I closed my eyes and while I silently hummed, I ‘tuned in’ to Taylor to see what they had been up to. I hadn’t checked in lately, it didn’t take long. I went through the last two months of her life as quickly as I could. Taylor and I had control of the speed that we witnessed each other’s lives through, if you went through them really quick, it almost gave you some privacy. It was like watching a movie in super-fast forward. I got all the way to where they were now sitting on the plane. My sister and I had always liked having this connection, but now we both had lives that we really wanted to keep private. I had hoped once that the venom that was injected into me when I was first changed would destroy this ability. I even waited for as long as I possibly could when I was a new yearling, before I ‘tuned in’, but it didn’t work. I started getting the familiar headaches, and they continued to get worse until I had to check in with her. We both knew when the other was checking in, it’s hard to explain how we knew, but we did.

‘So, has your sister been up to much lately?’ asked Jack.

I shrugged, ‘the usual honeymoon stuff. Taylor and Mum have emptied her house and my old place right out, they’ve even got tenants in them’.

Jack kissed my neck, ‘do you remember our honeymoon? You were still human too,’ he murmured.

I turned to face him swinging my legs over his, ‘of course I remember’.

‘No work, carefree, spending all of our time together, alone,’ he continued.

I leant in and kissed him, ‘it was one of the best two weeks of my human existence’.

‘When we’re on top of the renegade a bit and we’re not needed as much, how would you like to move to Canada?’

I looked up at him, ‘what’s in Canada?’

‘We have some land there, and we’ve all got our own cabins. I didn’t like it last time because I didn’t like living by myself, so I spent my entire time cabin hopping. Things would be different now though can you imagine living totally on our own? With our family close enough to visit but not live with’.

I sighed quietly, it sounded ideal.

Finally Taylor and Jones landed. They both looked so happy and so in love.

We went down to get their bags while Uncle Jones was telling us everything that they had been doing. He obviously loved Australia too. Jack gave Uncle Jones the keys.

I looked quizzically at Jack.

Taylor hasn’t let him behind the wheel while they were away, apparently she doesn’t like the way he drives.

I put my head down to hide my smile. That sounds like my sister.

We all walked out slowly to the van, talking about what we’d been up to. Jack was holding my hand, and Jones had his arm around Taylor’s waist. We’d had to park on the top level of the car park, and down the back, so it was quite a way. In one of the levels there was a car revving its engines and playing rap music as loud as the stereo would go. The echoing of it around the cement pillars of the carpark hurt our ears. Uncle Jones, Jack and I were having a lot of trouble from the noise. It was causing a lot of pain. I had never noticed before that rap music had a high pitched whine to it. The noise got louder, and was coming closer, my head was vibrating, and my teeth felt as if they were rattling. Taylor had to help the three of us into the elevator so we could get to the top level. The elevator doors closed and the noise was muted.

‘Was it the music that did that to you,’ asked Taylor.

The three of us nodded painfully.

‘It was more the ricochet between the columns,’ answered Jones.

‘Where is the van parked?’ asked Taylor.

I opened and closed my mouth to try and stop the ringing. ‘Over in the far corner’.

The elevator doors opened and the loud music from the car attacked our ears again. It was coming up the ramp and getting closer. Jack and I leant against each other as we staggered to the van. Taylor did all she could to guide the three of us. She took the keys off Jones, who had his head lowered with his hands covering his ears, so she unlocked the doors and then helped him in the car. I was struggling with the handle of the sliding door. Jack stepped in front of me and opened it. The music stopped, now there was no noise at all and we were all left with a loud ringing in our ears, it was so painful. I stood there and shook my head trying to clear it.

Somebody yelled out loudly, ‘Michelle, Michelle Carter’.

I turned to look towards the voice. The car was now right behind our parked van. I felt a pushing, stabbing in my side and another in the middle of my chest that was forceful enough to push me back a step. There was a flash of light that blinded me. The car revved loudly, reversed and took off with the music blaring again. The pain in my ears was instant, it had me totally confused. I heard Taylor scream, and then Jack had me in his arms dragging me into the van. The engine started and we were driving fast. Taylor was beside me with Jack, and Uncle Jones was now driving.

‘You gave up the keys,’ I smiled. I looked at Jack and seen that he looked worried. He was reaching behind me breaking something and then he did the same to my front. In his hands there were small shafts of wood with feathers on some of them.

‘What are they?’ I asked.

‘Arrow bits,’ answered Jack gruffly. He took his shirt off and held it to my chest, looked into my eyes then down at my chest.

‘Taylor, ring Simon,’ shouted Uncle Jones. ‘Tell him what happened, and write this number down, it’s the number plate of that car’.

‘You know that will be useless, it’ll be stolen,’ said Jack loudly. He was still holding his shirt to my chest and looking in my eyes. ‘Hold on love, we’ll get you to the hospital’.

I could hear Taylor talking on the phone, and she was confirming what Jack had just said, we were going to the hospital. Taylor had taken her jacket off and was pressing it to my back. It was only then that I realised that I’d really been hurt.

‘Jack, I’m alright, I don’t feel any pain,’ I assured him.

Jack moved closer to me and held me tighter they were both trying to stop the bleeding.

I couldn’t believe it. We’d been here for one night, and we were on our way back to the hospital, again. We hadn’t even had our meeting with the Elders. Jack and Taylor were both holding their shirts and jackets to my wounds that were starting to hurt. The person on at the guardhouse was warned that we were coming and we were sent straight through. We were directed out to the back of the building. Jones parked the van and raced around to help Jack with me.

‘I’m fine Jack, I can walk really.’

I was trying to assure him, but he still picked me up and carried me inside. When Jack picked me up the pain got worse, going straight to my legs. I was taken to the treatment room, and sat on a bed. The other beds in the room were empty. Pops was already there, and so was Quan.

Jack sat beside me, ‘Dad’s on his way love, he won’t be long’.

I smiled at him, ‘Jack, if I stay still it really isn’t causing me that much pain’.

Jones gave them a full description of the car, including the number plate, and he even knew how many were in the car. I was amazed that he had seen that much in such a short space of time. I couldn’t even remember how many people had been in the car.

‘There were two,’ answered Jack quietly moving my hair behind my ears, and kissing my forehead.

Jack stood and faced Pops, ‘they called Michelle by name, they specifically called for Michelle Howard, somebody knew exactly where she would be and they went for her’.

Quan left to get in touch with the people who were already out searching so he could give them the details. Jack was more than angry that I had been hurt he was furious, but he was doing alright, he was just pacing the room.

‘Jack, do you want to go and look for them with the Guard?’ I asked.

He stopped and looked at me, ‘why would you think that love?’

‘Because you’re pacing the room like a caged lion,’ I answered smiling.

He stopped and sat next to me, carefully holding my hand, ‘how much pain are you in?’

‘I told you before, I’m alright, it stings a bit, but if I don’t move too much it’s fine. I’ve had worse Jack’.

Jones and Taylor were standing at the end of the bed with Pops on one side and Jack sitting on the opposite side on the bed. Taylor looked scared, and she probably regretted coming back to this. I knew I was.

‘It will hurt Michelle, when Simon pulls out the remaining shaft that is still in there, it will really hurt,’ warned Pops.

‘Great, here I was thinking that this wasn’t too bad,’ I moaned.

The bleeding had stopped, and the front of my shirt was covered in blood from my chest right down to the front of my jeans. A nurse came in with a long hospital gown that opened at the front, and that I was to change into. Jones and Pops walked out so I could get changed. Taylor and Jack stayed to help me undress. Jack undid the buttons on my shirt and very carefully ripped the rest of it off me straight down the seams. I sighed I had really liked that shirt too.

‘We’ll get you another one,’ he whispered angrily.

I put my arms over his shoulders as Taylor stepped behind and carefully undid my bra and took it off. I held my breath when she did that, the movement more than stung, it sent a jolt straight through my whole body. They were looking at my wounds I didn’t want to look because I figured I’d freak out if I did.

‘Are you alright Jack?’ I asked. I could feel the anger pulsing off him.

He nodded, ‘you should be worrying about you, not me’.

I’m just glad it was me and not Taylor or Uncle Jones, I stated. This would’ve killed them.

He kissed my forehead then slowly stood me up so he and Taylor could take my jeans off. That movement of the pulling and yanking really hurt, even though I barely moved, it hurt. I sat straight up against the bedhead, and Jack covered me with a sheet. He sat and held my hand, while I kept very still. We were waiting for Dad to come while the other two came back in.

We heard everybody arriving through the back door, all eleven of them at once. Mum and my sisters were the first ones in. They cried loudly when they saw me. I’d never heard my sisters cry like that before, only my mother in law, whenever any of us had been hurt. They were held by their husbands, it was good that nobody else was sharing the room with me. Dillon had his arm around Kylie comforting her, Taylor held Nicole. Everyone started asking questions at once. Jones put his hand up and told them everything that had happened. Pops calmed everyone by saying that there were already people out looking for the car. Dillon, Jonathon and Tony wanted to go at once and help search.

Jack stopped them before they even walked out the door, ‘Dillon, you are not going, the people who shot your mother called her name specifically’. He looked at the three children, ‘the three of you are not to go anywhere unless somebody is with you at all times’.

There was no arguing with Jack’s tone of voice, they didn’t even try.

Nick was quietly crying, ‘Mum are you alright?’ she asked.

‘I’m fine if I don’t move,’ I assured her.

Dad and Mum sent them all out of the room so they could fix me up. I lay down, very carefully. Jack opened the front of my gown but thankfully left me with some dignity by keeping my breasts covered. Mum went out and got some blood and some form of sedative, her weeping was over, and she was now the professional perfect nurse. They hooked the IV up and Dad injected the sedative into it. As soon as Dad touched the remaining shaft I could feel it. It grated me from the inside, like pulling a wet rubber band through your fingers. I put a pillow over my face, I knew if I yelled out it would only make it worse for the kids.

Jack held my hand and continued to reassure me with words. I squeezed his hand and wiggled my toes, anything rather than scream. It hurt like hell though. When the first one came out I could feel the bleeding start again, Mum put pressure on it. Then they went to the one in my side and repeated the process. I heard the distressed thoughts going through Jacks head, I didn’t scream out loud, but Jack could hear me screaming in my head. Finally the sedative was doing its job, the pain began to dull, and I was starting to feel very sleepy. I faintly heard Dad tell Jack where he had to bite me, I felt Jack’s venom go in I felt him kiss me, and then nothing.

Chapter Two

Jack

Anger

When my brothers arrived at the hospital and said that they wanted to go and hunt for the shooters, so did I. I couldn’t though, not straight away, I needed to inject Michelle with my venom. I refused to allow anybody else’s to be used on my wife.

I waited for the sedative she had been given to take effect, and then kissed her before going to the children. ‘I want you to stay here with your mother, I don’t think she’ll wake but if she does I want her to know that you are safe and are you here’.

I knew that Dillon would argue with me.

‘Jack, I may be useful, what if I sit in the car and listen for them I may be able to help that way’.

It was a good idea, but one we would use in the future, not now. I didn’t want to alarm Kylie so I directed my thoughts to him. Don’t forget Dillon you have a baby on the way, and you are of no use to Kylie or your child if you end up in the bed beside your mother. If you had received those injuries you would have been killed instantly, and your child would be without a father. You will get your time.

Dillon put his arm around Kylie and thankfully didn’t argue with me about it. My dad called them into the room with their Mum. I stood back and watched them go back inside.

My brothers and sisters were waiting for me. Sally and Sonja were coming as well, and we also had changeling twins with us that had changed into dogs, two red setters. Neal and Neville were friends of Dillon’s. Tania had asked for the pieces of arrow shaft that I had broken off Michelle. She was trying to get an image off the pieces.

‘All I can smell is Michelle’s blood,’ she said tearfully.

Looking at those shafts, all I could see was Michelle’s blood. It stirred my fury even more.

Jonathon had already found out from the other Guard where the car had been abandoned, so we used one of the vans and headed straight for it. It had been discarded at the University of Edinburgh car park. It was only three in the morning so the car park was empty. The Guards that had been here previously had gone right through it, so all we could smell was them. We all sniffed around as best we could. Finally Charmaine found a strong scent on the floor of the drivers’ side. Tania sniffed and got as much of it that she could, then she sat in the van and meditated, her eyes rolled back in her head and she closed her eyes.

I walked around the car park trying to calm myself, to pass the time I tuned into Michelle, she was still heavily sedated. There were no dreams just her body repairing itself. I could feel the burning of my venom doing its job. She was going to need a lot more.

‘I’ve got something,’ yelled Tania. ‘We need to go to the cemetery, Rest Haven Cemetery, on the south side. I can see a grave site marked Harrison they went down there’.

We were off in a hurry. Jonathon was driving he would make it there in record time.

‘They’re demon hunters, they shot her for money,’ said Tania. ‘Why would they try to take someone’s life for money, I don’t understand that. We’re not the monsters, they are. Even vampires only kill for food, not for money’.

I could feel myself losing it. I just wanted to get my hands on them. I’d take my anger out on them so that they would regret attacking my wife for cash.

‘Why are the renegade using demon hunters?’ wondered Tony. ‘Demon hunters are human’.

There was obviously a lot that we didn’t know. What had been going on over the last month while we were recuperating?

The large iron cemetery gate was locked. The changelings changed back into human form. Tony almost threw Sally, Sonja and the twins over when he was helping them climb the gate, while Charmaine did her best on the other side to catch them without hurting them. The men changed back into dogs and easily picked up the scent, we went straight to the grave site it was on the edge of the cemetery and close to the road. We looked around for the opening, the dogs found it easily. Now that they had pointed it out, it was obvious that the top had been slid aside recently. Jonathon lifted the cement lid as quietly as he could, when our eyes adjusted to the dark we saw the ladder that led down to a tunnel.

Tania moved back and closed her eyes, ‘it leads to a house’.

‘House near a cemetery?’ said Jonathon. ‘This has to be the house that the sister’s friend Pete was talking about, the house where Willy was staying?’ Jonathon was nervous, ‘there are only five of us, two witches and two changelings. We’re going to have to case the house out first, before we go in. If this is the house that Pete was talking about, there’s a chance that it will be full of renegade’.

‘Don’t forget that they are without their magical leaders. So most of them may have gotten scared and scattered,’ I said.

We were going to need the van to take the demon hunters back to the Guard. After I was through with them they could take what was left. It was decided that Sally and Sonja would go back to the van and wait for us to call them to tell them the address we were at, and what we were up against. Then they would ring for extra help. Charmaine and Tony went to help them over the front gate.

When they got back the seven of us went down the ladder the dogs jumped down and Jonathon put the cover back on the grave. The tunnel had dirt walls, and there was no light anywhere. The dogs put their noses to the ground and sniffed. We walked for a long time I could hear cars on the road above us and then music and sounds that could have come from a nightclub. It was followed by the smell of fresh baked bread, and then there was nothing except the smell of soil and a faint sound of running water. Eventually we came to a door. I put my ear to it but I couldn’t hear anything on the other side, and there were no thoughts. We needed to be careful. I couldn’t put my brothers and sisters lives at risk because I wanted revenge. I turned around to watch while Tania was ‘looking’ to see what she could find. She gave us the all clear and we opened the door, we looked to be in the city drainage tunnels. We didn’t use these in Edinburgh because there was no need to. All of the Guard’s properties were connected by their own tunnels, even the terrace houses. The dogs went to work and found the scent, they stopped at a wall, but there wasn’t any door here at all. We could all smell though that the scent stopped here. Tony went up the closest man hole and looked around, he rang the witches to tell them where we were and they drove around and joined us in the tunnel.

Sally and Sonja ran their hands over the wall.

‘It is witchcraft, I can feel it,’ said Sonja. ‘Only a witch could open this door, there isn’t any other warning signal against it or anything it’s just hidden by witchcraft’.

‘Now, I’m confused,’ said Tony. ‘How did the demon hunters get through this, if you need magic to get through it?’

‘Tania you should be able to see what’s on the other side,’ suggested Sally. ‘Jack, can you hear anybody there?’

I listened, but I couldn’t hear anything, no thoughts at all, Tania looked, she could only see a small hallway and another ladder. We were right in front of the house that Tania had seen. We decided to split up. The dogs would wait out the front of the house in case anybody tried to escape out the front door. Tania and Jonathon would go up the ladder into what Tania believed was the basement. Sally and Sonja would wait out the back of the house and Tony, Charmaine and I would climb the outside of the building and break in through the second storey.

We wouldn’t be able to give each other signals, so it would all be done on time, we gave ourselves ten minutes. Sally waved her hands in front of the wall and muttered something under her breath. I couldn’t understand what language it was. The wall started to vibrate slightly and the bricks turned in on themselves. Jonathon and Tania walked through and the wall closed up, we had ten minutes from now.

We ran to the manhole cover, Charmaine was the first one up, followed by Tony. She kept watch while I picked the dogs up by the scruff of the neck and passed them to her husband. Sally and Sonja quickly followed and then me. We were all in our positions with minutes to spare. Hiding in the dark waiting for the exact moment to break in and destroy the demon hunters was frustrating as hell.

It was an old wooden house with paint peeling in places. It needed a lot of repairs, the downpipes were broken away from the walls and there were cracks in the back windows. The yard around me was overgrown with long grass, and if there had ever been a garden it was long gone now, the place was a dump. It couldn’t be the same place that Pete had spoken about. According to him the house that Willy had stayed in was spotless.

Tony signalled to me and we started scaling the walls up to the roof. I listened to the thoughts in the house, there were five people in one room on the second floor, they were arguing about the payment. I couldn’t pick up anybody else in the house. Tony and Charmaine were listening with their ears, and using hand signals they confirmed what I had just heard.

Tania and Jonathon had come up through the basement and were climbing the stairs. They were almost at the top when an alarm of bells went off. They were no louder than a bedside clock, but it was enough to alert the people inside that someone was there.

We didn’t bother being quiet then, we just smashed through the windows. Four humans ran out of a door and headed for the stairs, my brothers and sisters had them in an instant it was no competition for them. They took them down to the van, the witches had already rung the Guard and another van was on its way.

I listened for the fifth person he was hiding in the room, he was hoping that we would just leave and not look for anyone else. I headed for the room and looked in. In the corner was a vampire with long white hair and a white handle bar moustache, he was wearing a white mask with a red rose on its left cheek. I remembered the little boy Tony who had been turned by the renegade and then left alone when his gift had disappeared. He had been found by the Guard after feeding off, and killing, his human family. This was the same vampire that had turned him, the one that believed that vampire were the ultimate species.

He growled at me, ‘filthy lamiahaem, I’m not afraid of you’.

In his hand was a photo of Michelle and the moment the arrows had entered her body with me behind her trying to catch her. He saw me look at the photo, so he looked at it and then looked at me.

‘So how is the little wife is she going to make it,’ he sneered. ‘Is the filthy bitch alright?’ he shouted.

That was it, that was all I needed, I snapped. Vampires are so much stronger than us in a fight but this one didn’t stand a chance. I was on him without even realising it. The speed of my attack took him by surprise he was on the ground with me straddling him. He growled at me, and tried to bite me. I punched him and broke his teeth and fangs. I punched him in the face, over and over again, left, right, left, right. I felt his jaw break, and then his cheek, but it wasn’t enough. I broke his nose, his eye sockets, and fractured his skull, but still I hit him. I put every bit of strength and hate I had behind every punch. Visions of Michelle’s body when they had beaten her came to me, the welts and bruises left on her were still fresh in my memory. The porcelain mask that was on his face had smashed, pieces of it embedded in his skin, but still I hit him. Thoughts of how five human children could no longer live a normal life came to me and I hit him harder. There wasn’t any bone in his face or bit of skull that wasn’t broken now. It was like punching papier Mache, soft wet papier Mache that changed shape every time I hit him, but still I hit him.

Tony and Jonathon come into the room, they looked at the vampire.

‘Jack, he’s not going anywhere,’ said Jonathon. ‘You’ve got him you can stop’.

I didn’t want to stop, I could hear the Guard reinforcements come up the stairs. Jonathon and Tony grabbed me by the arms and pulled me off him. I pulled against them I just wanted to finish the job. The Guard walked in, they had long wooden stakes in their hands and they looked at the vampire.

‘Just bring the body bag, manacles and a head bag. We won’t get any trouble out of this one,’ one of them yelled to his colleague.

The other Guard came in and looked at what I had done, ‘we’re going to have to wait for a few months before we can question him, it’ll probably take that long for his injuries to start to heal. We’ll still need the body bag though the suns up and we don’t want him to burn just yet’.

He put the manacles and head bag on the vampire then put his body into the body bag. A third Guard came in and saw the photo. He picked it up, looked at it, and looked at me, and then gave the photo to Tony. As he walked past me he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.

‘Hey guess what,’ he shouted. ‘We’ll be back in time for breakfast and Nikki’s put something new on the menu’.

I should have felt guilty about what I had done, even though he was a renegade he was still a person. I didn’t feel guilty though, I felt better than I had in a while, I was sick of them. I wanted them out of our lives. I looked down the front of me, there was blood everywhere and my hands were bloodied and bruised.

‘Can we go back to the house so I can change before I go back to the hospital?’ I asked.

Jonathon nodded, ‘yeah, that would be a good idea, I think’.

We went back to the house, while the changelings went back with the Guard. We all showered, I went into Michelle’s and my room and got changed. I sat on the bed and put the pillow to my face I could still smell her scent. I put the pillow back and turned around, and both of my sisters were there.

‘Are you alright Jack?’ asked Charmaine.

I nodded, ‘yeah, I just want to get to the hospital’.

‘Well we’re ready to go when you are,’ responded Tania.

We walked down the stairs.

‘Dad just rung,’ said Tony. ‘News travels fast, he already knows that you turned that vampires head to mush, he just wanted to make sure you’re not a total basket case’.

‘What did you tell him?’ I asked.

‘I told him you were off your rocker of course, so he’s waiting to speak to you’.

I groaned, ‘you know he’s going to be asking me hundreds of questions now’.

Tony nodded smiling.

Jonathon smirked and responded, ‘well Tony just for that you get to fill in all of the reports on this one for the Guard, and don’t forget that photo you have’.

Tony stopped smiling, he ran up the stairs to get the photo he had forgotten, and grumbled all the way back about Jonathon not being his boss just because he was the oldest.

Chapter Three

Nick

Out of my head

They’d moved Mum up to the ward. Dillon was sitting on the end of one of the empty beds, Kylie was lying down asleep, and I was sitting beside Mum. She was going to be alright I knew that, but looking at her lying there, not moving was upsetting. If she’d still been human there would be heart monitors beeping away, but, as a lamiahaem there wasn’t anything but an IV hooked up to her that fed her the human blood that she needed as well as Jack’s venom in her to fix her injuries.

If she’d still been human, she’d be dead.

I looked up at Dillon and mumbled to him, ‘keep out of my head’.

Dillon grinned at me, ‘that’s hard to do when we’re having the same thoughts’.

I mentally picked up a spare pillow and hit him over the head with it.

‘You are getting better Nick,’ he laughed.

Pops came in with a television on a trolley. ‘Just in case you get bored,’ he said.

Granddad was right behind him with a bag of books, so it looked like we were going to be here for a while.

I liked living at Pops place, he was always there he’d even had a go at cooking for us a few times. It had been amusing to watch, he hadn’t eaten human food, ‘since the caveman days’. I’d love to know how old he was, but he refused to say.

The only problem with living there was how hard it made it for me to meet men. As soon as they realised that my great grandfather was Elder Thomas, they politely left. Tyrone was the only one who seemed to like me for me. I just wished he hadn’t had those thoughts. I knew I wasn’t gay, even Sally and Sonja had said that I wasn’t when I spoke to them about things. I liked men and eventually I knew that I would have sex with somebody. But why did they have to look at you and wonder what you would be like and if you’d be just as good as their previous conquests? And why did they have to have those thoughts so early in a relationship?

There was that one bloke though, he’d been coming into the canteen a bit lately and would always take the time to talk to me. Every time I had seen him I couldn’t help but smile. I found myself looking for him every day. The only thoughts that I had heard from him was how nervous he was to ask me out for a coffee. Eventually he did ask, and the date was perfect, he was perfect.

‘Has anyone rung Nan and Poppy in Brisbane?’ asked Dillon, looking at me strangely. He’d obviously been in my head again.

Granddad nodded,