“Are you going to fill me in, or just let me sit here twiddling the wood away?” he replied.
“All right, this is what I was thinking, and if you don’t like it just tell me. I was thinking that since Cass was able to glamour herself, that I should go back and do the same to myself, to make sure that my past self stops Jenna’s education. I can tell myself that under no circumstances is she to be taught and then make myself not remember I was there.”
Michael completely shot her down. “That’s not going to work. First off, you know how that Council meeting went, you would have to give a good reason why she shouldn’t be taught, and you don’t have a good reason to give. You can’t tell them the truth, because you’re past self won’t remember the truth, and even if you allow yourself to keep that knowledge, you can’t tell the Council. Secondly, Cass is our leader. The main reason everyone voted for her is because she is our leader. So try again.”
“So I speak to someone with more standing than I in the Council?”
“Exactly who on the Council are you strong enough to mesmerize?”
“I could seriously do without your sarcasm right now, Michael. If you’re going to help, then help, and if you’re not, go find something to do and let me think”
Michael jumped up and pulled her into his arms, holding her close, he brought his face down to kiss her. His lips were warm and inviting. Angry as she was, she melted in his embrace.
“Exactly who on the Council are you strong enough to mesmerize?”
Liz gasped. “You! I can tell you. You will listen to me and you would help. Oh Michael, that’s brilliant. I knew there was a reason I loved you.”
***
While Michael and Liz were figuring out a plan, Athena and Gregorio attended to Angie. Encased in their room, at the bottom level of the castle, the three stood staring at each other in silence. Weary, Athena sighed and told her daughter to take a seat.
Angie was certain that none of them would have ever believed the freakish old man after the stunt he pulled at the campfire, but she knew something bad was going on. She felt Jenna restlessly roll over in her sleep. Angie felt an urge to run from the room, afraid Jenna would wake from her sleep and find herself alone. She could feel Jenna all the time now. The bond they shared was almost as strong as the connection she held with her mother. Jenna was more like her own child than the child of another.
Athena watched her daughters face, saw a look of distress cross over it, and then it was gone. “What’s wrong my love?”
“It’s nothing, Jenna rolled over in her sleep. I was just making sure she wouldn’t wake up afraid and alone.”
Athena looked pointedly at Gregorio, his face still a mask of unconcern, then returned her gaze to Angie. “I must show you something, my love. You probably won’t like it, none of us do, but it is something you must see.” Seating herself beside her daughter, she took her face in her hands, looked into her eye’s, and entered her mind.
At first, Athena drifted around inside her child’s head, not wanting to let the beast that had partially settled there, know it had been found out.
Angie waited patiently for her mother to begin showing her something. It was taking too long. What was her mother doing in there? Angie reached out and tried to enter Athena’s mind as well. It was like running into a steel door. She could see nothing, everything was black and empty.
Suddenly, she felt Jenna wake and heard her scream. She tried to get up and rush to the screaming child, but her mother held her tightly. In seconds, Angie felt Gregorio’s massive hands on her shoulders, pushing her down. She kicked and screamed, trying to shove them away. In her mind she could feel her mother’s will moving around, looking here and there for something. Jenna’s scream transformed from fear into rage. Angie could feel the child thrashing in her bed. Words spilled from Jenna’s mouth, in a voice that was not her own. Just like that day at the farmhouse that had scared them enough to make them run into the daylight.
Angie felt her body grow strong, as if the strength of several vampires had poured into her. Fighting as hard as she could, she still could not break the grip that Athena and Gregorio had on her. Terrified now, she tried to close her mind to her mother and throw her out. Athena was too powerful; her grip on Angie’s mind was absolute. Invisible claws seemed to scrape inside her head, tearing at her brain. The pain became unbearable, it was searing hot, then there was nothing. No Jenna. No Athena. Just darkness and peace.
Quickly, Athena ran to the door and retrieved Minerva. The old woman was to take both of them to Italy. Back to the place of Athena’s birth. There was a sparsely populated island, just off the coast, where Athena kept a small cottage. She had taken Angie there after her transformation. Athena loved quiet seclusion it offered. Hopefully, Angie would be far enough away from the Citadel for Athena to finish the process of clearing her mind. She reached down and easily lifted the girl into her arms, nodded to Minerva, and a few seconds later, when the portal was created, took her beloved child and left.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Medicine Is Supposed To Taste Bad
Jenna threw her baby doll across the room and stomped her foot. It skittered across the floor under a chair. Mommy was gone, daddy was gone, and Angie was gone. Everyone had gone off and left her! Minerva was there with her, but she wasn’t sure she liked the old lady. She was nice, in a crazy grandma sort of way, but she wanted Liz, and they told her Liz was busy. Liz was never too busy for her. Never. And the old lady kept looking at her funny, like she was trying to see through her or something.
Minerva had come in the night and told her that everyone was off on that stupid “war” business and couldn’t come right now. Why was her Angie off on stupid war business, anyhow? Angie was her guardian and protector; she said she would always be with her! Jenna stared out the window glowering and stomped her foot again. “I want Angie!” she bellowed for the umpteenth time.
“I already told you child, she can’t come today, you must be patient. I think you have become spoiled with all of this attention you’ve been getting, but believe it or not, these castle walls don’t revolve around you.” Minerva answered, obviously frustrated with the girl.
Jenna turned and glared at the woman. “You are trying to keep everyone away from me! You hate me!” she cried. Then sobbing she ran and threw herself on the bed. Minerva shook her head and continued rocking in the old rocking chair. Babysitting for a petulant child, would be hard on any one-hundred-year-old woman, babysitting for a demon possessed child, that you happened to love, and needed to help, that would not shut up, was impossible.
She checked her watch again. She had been watching the hands slowly click into place for hours now, waiting for Michael to relieve her. Every so often, she felt the thing within Jenna try to probe her mind. The minute she felt the mental nudge she would think nothing but happy thoughts, roast chicken and snow peas, flowers in a meadow, her darling Liz as a baby. Then the child would quiet for a while as if pondering what she had seen, until the fit pitching started all over. Glancing at her watch again, she saw that she still had two hours before Michael‘s scheduled arrival. Sighing, she walked over to Jenna and said, “Why don’t we color a picture, hmmm? That will make the time go faster for you. In two hours you are getting to go on a fun and important field trip!”
“I don’t wanna go on no stupid field trip! I want Angie!” she stubbornly replied.
“But darling, they are going to teach you some new magic. Magic that you don’t know yet. Something that will help us win the war. Don’t you want to learn some new magic?” Minerva coaxed.
New magic? Jenna liked to learn magic. She thought about it for a few seconds, smiled sweetly, deliberately walked over to her small coloring table, sat down, and quietly began to draw. After a few minutes, Jenna looked up, “Granny lady? I‘m hungry. Can I have some cookies?”
Although she had eaten just an hour before, Minerva decided that it would be best not to send t
he now delinquent child back into a foul mood. She went out into the hall, leaving the door open, and asked the waiting Callista to fetch them some cookies and milk.
When she returned to the room, less than a minute later, Jenna was missing. Minerva was frantic, she had not taken her eyes off the child for more than just a few seconds, but somehow the girl had just disappeared. She had no idea whether she had created a portal and jumped, or just slipped out of the room. Minerva was certain that the child couldn’t have gotten past them in the hall without being seen, but sensed no remnant of portal magic in the room either. She called out, “Child there are cookies and milk coming. Don’t you want some? Jenna? Jenna, it’s not nice to hide from old ladies, it hurts old ladies to have to bend over and crawl around on floors.” She was about to leave the room and go find help, when Michael appeared at the doorway.
“What’s going on in here?” he asked with a smile.
“I think we have lost our little girl.” Minerva answered with a serious face and a wink.
“Hmmm, let me think,” Michael said walking around the room looking, “If I were a smart little girl, where would I be?”
Then they both heard a tiny giggle come from underneath the large bed. Minerva sighed with relief and Michael shrugged and laughed, giving Minerva a wink.
Michael continued the game with the girl, looking all around the room under toys and behind dressers, then in the closet, speaking the whole time. “Would I be in the closet if I were a smart little girl? Hmm…no not there. Would I be under a tricycle if I were a smart little girl? Nope not there.” After looking and naming off several odd and impossible locations for the child to be hiding, he finally asked, “Would I be under a lampshade if I were Jenna?”
The giggle turned into a full-blown laugh. Jenna’s tiny voice called out from under the bed, “I can’t fit in a lamp shade silly! I‘m too big.” She crawled out from under the bed, very proud of herself. “You’re not very good at hide and seek, Michael.”
Jenna laughed as Michael swept her into his arms, gave her a big hug, and sat her on his shoulders.
When Callista came in with the milk and cookies, Jenna insisted that they must have a tea party. Although Michael could not partake in the festivities, he was required to stay. Happily clad in her frilly dress up clothes, she smiled and laughed as if nothing more than an ordinary child. Minerva, Michael, and Callista, all wearing Jenna’s big floppy hats and garish scarves, sat at the small table playing her game. They talked and laughed as the old witches told Jenna funny stories about their childhood.
Michael kept a smile on his face and laughed with the rest, even joining in the tales sometimes, but all the while, he felt Jenna’s mental nudge, trying to enter his mind, trying to gain control. She had chosen her new protector…Michael. Exactly as planned.
After the tea party, Michael gave Minerva a slight nod and told her that he would stay with Jenna until the time for her field trip came. Minerva smiled back, knowing that their plan was working, kissed the child on the head and left with Callista. Glancing at his watch, he noticed the time for their departure was near, so he enticed Jenna to sit on his lap, and he read her a story.
As Michael read, he rocked, and before long Jenna was fast asleep in his arms. He sat in the quiet looking down at the young girl that they had all grown to love. Worry lined his face. While she slept, he could feel the demon trying to enter his mind. Even when her own mind was unaware, the powerful thing inside her was assiduously at work.
The time had finally come to leave. Michael stood with the still sleeping Jenna, while Minerva quickly opened a portal. The three of them first jumped to the camp below the Citadel to retrieve Brogan. Soon after, Brogan created a portal of his own, and they jumped with him to the location he’d selected for the task ahead.
***
Angie was waking at the cottage. Standing on the beach in the dark, watching the black waves roll on shore, Athena felt her coming to. The stars glimmered like distant flickers of candlelight. The moon, only a fingernail moon, still gave off a dazzling glow that made the sand on the beach look as if it were made of fairy dust instead of sand. Athena loved this place, but after tonight, she didn’t know if she would ever be able to come here again. Slowly, she returned to the cottage, hating the task ahead, but knowing that it was necessary.
She entered silently and looked around, basking in the glow of the homey feel that she might never feel again. Angie, nearly awake, stirred on the brown leather couch.
“Mother?” Angie croaked.
Sighing in resignation, she went to her beloved and only child, praying to the God she knew could not hear her, that the girl would not die. With a tenderness that only a mother can give, she took Angie’s face in her hands, and entered her mind.
The moment her mother entered her mind, pain ripped through her body. There was no pause or feeling of disconnection, just white-hot pain. Angie screamed out in agony while her mother continued probing. Her body writhed from the torment that her ragged spirit suffered in the battle for her will. The demon refused to release her. It had to be burned away and the pain of its going was fierce.
For what seemed like hours, she probed the darkest, deepest, recesses of her daughter’s mind. Finding pieces of its control here and there, hidden so deeply that one, not as strong as Athena, might never have found them all. The thing had so insidiously cocooned itself in Angie’s mind that even some of the girl’s memories had been changed. It had almost taken her completely. Even Athena’s life would have been forfeit, had she openly come against Jenna. On and on Athena probed, burning each part of it out of the girls mind and spirit, all the while her child screamed.
***
Unconscious, exhausted from the torturous expulsion, Angie sprawled on the couch limp and doll like. Athena left her daughter’s side and went back to the beach to harden her mind and spirit for the next round of battle with the evil that had corrupted her daughter.
As suspected, the sound of the waves no longer drew her. The sand was just sand. Just tiny particles of rock that held no magic or beauty for her now. Athena, spirit wounded and heart full of sorrow, called out to Gregorio. They had been close from the moment they had met. Good trustworthy friends were hard to find, no matter what your species. Since the ordeal at the fortress, they had grown closer. Their friendship, after all these long years, had blossomed into something more. Humans called it love. Vampires, not being naturally loving and kind, had little use for mortal love. They thrived on the connection and the few true friendships they could maintain. Love or not, she needed him. She needed him now more than she ever had in her lifetime. Her spirit ached with torment, knowing the anguish she must continue to inflict on her daughter. Grief overwhelmed her, and then she felt his gentle touch in her mind.
“What’s happening? Are you all right?” He asked.
“I need you! I cannot do this alone, I am too weak.”
“You are not weak, you are strong. Do not lose your confidence now; you will need that, and much more, before this is over.” Gregorio answered.
“Her pain is too great. I cannot do this thing.”
“I can have Minerva or one of the others bring me. I am not needed here at the moment.” Gregorio’s concern was great; Athena was always calm and collected. For her to be so unsettled was disturbing.
“I am being foolish. Of course, you are needed there. We are all tasked with difficult things at this time. Stay, I will do what must be done.”
“You are never foolish, you are always stalwart and steady. I will have someone stand ready and should you have need of me, I will come.” Gregorio replied.
Athena picked herself up off the sand, where she had fallen in her grief, and plodded back to the house, steeling herself for yet another round of torturing her daughter.
***
They were in a wet, musty, cavern. Michael could see no entrance or exit. While he held the sleeping child, Brogan and Minerva built a fire. After hurri
edly making the necessary preparations, Brogan told Minerva to leave. A mortal could not be anywhere near this particular ceremony. Before it could be killed, the demon must first be cast out, when that happened it would immediately look for another host. Knowing that she must, Minerva nodded to both of the men, and then left.
The fire grew strong, lighting up the cave. Around the walls, hung torches set in wrought iron fastenings, and in the center stood a great stone table. There were large shelves spaced around the walls, some holding many books, while others held large glass containers full of herbs and what not. Jenna stirred and awoke, before Michael could inquire as to the contents of the containers.
Jenna looked around, and then glared at Michael with malice and hatred. She shoved against his chest and in a strange voice, “Put me down!” Michael placed her on the ground in front of him.
Jenna laughed at the withered old man and spoke again, “What are you doing old man? I do not know you, yet you seem to know me.”
Brogan guffawed, and said, “Be that as it may, there’s things what needs set right, ya got no call to be in that lil girl, beast, and I mean to see ya git out!”
The thing inside Jenna laughed maniacally then, so full of arrogance that it wouldn’t consider that Brogan would be able to part it from the child. “You have no power over me. You are not even a priest. Not that one could help the child now.” It hissed.
“Be that as it may, you’re gonna git out of that girl. She ain’t meant for you, not one iota, and you knows that.” Brogan coolly replied.
Michael watched while Brogan continued working with different contents from the many containers on the shelves. The demons words had no affect on Brogan. When he finished, he nodded to Michael, who picked the child up, brought her to the stone table, and sat her down.
Jenna looked into Michael’s eyes.
Once again, he felt the evil inside probing, trying to infiltrate his defenses.
Her lips pouted as she cast her eyes on the druid. “I thought you loved me, Michael? I thought you were like Daddy! I thought you would never let anyone hurt me?” As she spoke, two small tears trickled down her cherub face, glittering like jewels in the firelight.