Author's ramblings:

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There was one time and one time only, when I was happy that I hadn’t married your mother. That was when I met she who would have become my mother-in-law for the first time. Now, where’s that exorcism salt? I might have touched her sleeve…

Uriel King talking to his daughter

Well, at least now we were sure of who our opponents were, not that either my father or I were surprised, since all the evidence had been pointing their way. Still, it was awfully nice of them to give us confirmation of their implication.

I could see my father’s anger in his icy countenance. His jokester’s attitude was entirely gone, leaving behind a regal demeanor greatly ageing his features, golden eyes much too old for the young-looking face.

A low hum vibrated through the hall, as some of his energy circled around me, creating a bubble-like, almost invisible shield, keeping the deadly cold of the cave at bay.

I hastily sent my mind voice through our link, before he squashed them on the spot:

“Father, can you try to make them speak? I’d like to know if they left us ticking time bombs in the wings, or if we can expect more people to come after the imp. An archetype villain monologue would be good at this point.”

“I will try daughter mine, though I want you to prepare a path out of here just in case. Don’t interfere otherwise, just protect yourself.”

The man’s voice, I refused to call him grandfather even in my head, once again rose:

“If you come with us quietly girl, I promise we’ll let the rest of your family go. Otherwise they might never wake up from their nightmares. We’ll even let the pretty boy go without playing with him too much.”

They really had a low opinion of my IQ. As if I’d believe that. They’d be gunning for the others as soon as Uriel and I would be incapacitated.

My father’s voice could have frozen the heart of a volcano when he refused the offer.

“The both of you are warlocks, oath breakers. You feed on broken bonds, all know your word has no value. You shall not have anyone of my family.

I will give you one chance, and one chance only to pass away peacefully. Tell me of all the plans you have concerning my mate and daughters, and I’ll end you quickly. You would not like the other alternatives.”

A seductive smile curled the lips of the petite woman as she looked down on us, her words a sultry half whisper.

“Oh, we have plenty of plans of course, you’ll be seeing them first-hand. I grow tired of this charade though, so you’ll have to excuse my poor manners…”

As she moved her hand in the middle of her speech, the living shadows that had been creeping along the walls screeched, rushing in our direction, featureless maws opened on a jagged black hole.

Uriel was even faster though, cladding himself in the silver fire in a split second while the bubble around me shone bright as a beacon, destroying all the incoming shadows without a trace.

His counter attack rang like a bell, the silver fire expanding, cracking the dark stone under our feet and pushing back the obnoxious duo a dozen feet. Pity it didn’t set them ablaze, the two being quick enough to set a void wall in front of them that swallowed the fire.

The strain for that wall seemed enormous though, as both their hands were trembling, whereas Uriel seemed completely unfazed.

My fire bubble had taken a beating too, almost completely extinguished after that single attack. I called my own fire, mixing it with my father’s to reinforce the bubble. I was the liability here, preventing Uriel from using his full power in fear of hurting me.

Not that he needed it anyway to deal with Bonnie and Clyde, as the two realized when he started advancing on them in slow, measured steps.

Black vines sprouted under his feet, to be immediately incinerated. Shadow bolts were sent towards him, to be deflected with a hand wave. Horrors summoned were just annihilated, illusions ignored, nothing stopping his implacable course.

The couple had been increasingly frantic in their attempts to stop him, until they ultimately snapped. Swiping the dagger from the altar, my grandmother, no, Isabel, planted it in the shadow form lying behind them in a last bid for life.

The hulking thing had been still and silent the whole time, only the shadows covering it giving it an illusion of movement, and surprisingly it still didn’t react to the dagger slicing its flesh.

Uriel accelerated when he saw the move, his blurry form rushing across the expense of Blackstone. He was still too late, their form blinked out of existence, leaving only a pool of bright blood and more shadows in their wake, soon immolated in his fury.

“Abby! Now’s the time for that way out!”

I nodded, willing the path I had imagined to connect with the cave entrance. We ran to it, my father cursing all the way, as the cave started disintegrating with the dreamers gone, avoiding or deflecting the falling rocks the best we could.

We only stopped in the space between dreams as I needed to catch my breath, along with an explanation of what had happened.

“How the hell did they escape?”

“They used the blood of a very powerful creature to crack the dream. I was too confident, I should have just obliterated them on the spot instead of playing cat and mouse. Now we missed a golden opportunity to get rid of them.”

“How long before they can go after us again?”

“Depends how fast they recover. Could be a couple of weeks, or never. The backlash from this method is severe. It should have sucked dry every drop of power they had, on top of making them sick. So we gained breathing room at least, hopefully enough to locate them and finish the job.”

Can't say I didn't feel a warm little trickle of happiness tickling my heart at the thought of the murder duo's suffering. I can be petty like that.

“Ok, I’m good to go now.”

“Abby?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t forget to tell your mother how impressive and breathtaking I was when battling evil.”

“…Really? It’s no wonder you’re still sleeping in the guestroom if that’s how you’ve been trying to woo her. You might want to try a romantic dinner or a flower bouquet instead of a bloodbath.”

“I shall yield to your wisdom in modern matters of the heart my dear daughter. Please guide me well!”

“Like hell I will. Not going to step there, ever, old man.”

We got to the entrance of the dream while bickering, my father stopping me before we got out.

“I won’t try to stop you from following, since you would ignore me, and it would just make you more reckless, but please stay behind me. And try not to set me aflame, I’d appreciate it.”

I turned my head, sticking my nose in the air in utter contempt of his words. As if I’d do that. Ok, there had been that accident involving a pixie related break in my focus and the sleeve of his shirt, but that had been at least three days ago. I had progressed since, really!

The crackling of electricity could be heard in the street behind the house as we came back to the real world, along with some strange ululating yells, albeit nobody was coming out of the neighborhood houses, and no light shone from any windows outside. Not a single pixie was in sight too, which was even weirder.

I checked the clock as we rushed through the house, confirming Uriel’s words. What had been hours in dreams were barely a few minutes in the real world.

Outside a full blown battle was raging, between Storm on one side, and more of the shadow things on the other, although those were much bigger than the ones we had fought in the dream.

He was sending balls of lightning in the pulsing mass, tearing great swaths of the creatures apart as more lightning arcs cloaked his form, preventing the shadows from touching him. More creatures kept swarming from all directions though, keeping the fight as a stalemate for the moment, although it would obviously be his win as soon as they’d be run out of reinforcements.

They could not leave him there without getting destroyed as soon as he’d get free, and he could not stop destroying them there without giving them free rein to enter the house.

Time to slip in my favorite role then, the little grain of sand that everyone loves! Or not, depending on which side you’re on.

As Uriel engaged more incoming shadows, I called my scarlet fire, throwing handful of the stuff towards the shades. There must have been something they really didn’t like in it, since the mere touch of it was enough to wrap a shadow in a writhing red cocoon, incinerating in seconds.

A wicked smile crossed my lips when I saw that. If they reacted that way to a single fireball, what would they do with a few dozen needles?

I changed my song on the spot, splitting my fire in as many tiny flames as I could control safely, elongating them to stabilize their flight.

Seeing my actions, a whole patch of the shadow mass rushed me, trying to kill me before I could launch my needles, only to get stopped by the lightning whip Storm sent between us.

It only gave them pause for a few seconds, just enough for me to complete my song, then enjoy the tiny red meteors streaking through the night.

Storm came next to me as we watched them burn, tearing a hole in an escapee, soon followed by Uriel.

“Do we have marshmallows in the house?”

“You and Kate ate the last ones yesterday. We could go for a barbecue though, there are merguez in the fridge.”

He squeezed an errant flame before it could set fire to a plane tree.

“They won’t burn long enough for a barbecue, sadly.”

We stayed until the last shade was completely burned, not leaving anything to chance. As the last one disappeared, some changes occurred in the neighborhood, many houses lighting up, as if it had been awakened from a long sleep.

We filed back into our home when we saw that, not wanting to be singled out as the strange people more than we already were. We still had a rune to find anyway.

“So daughter mine, do you have something, anything, coming from the murder couple? It can be as innocuous as a candy wrap, or as conspicuous as a three headed totem. The item is just the medium, the rune can be easily hidden from common sight.”

I didn’t have to think long about this, truly I could only see one item fitting the parameters.

I opened the drawer under the TV, retrieving my notes on the abduction matter. I had taken to file everything that had even a remote possibility of being linked to it, just to be sure we wouldn’t miss a clue.

Flipping the pages, I took the small engraved card that I had stuck at the end of the notebook. The number on it had only connected to a call center, but I had kept it nonetheless. The cloying smell that had been sticking to the back of my nose seemed more intense in the proximity of the card.

“Could this be it? It was left in the mail box when Richard Martin came to extend his invitation.”

Uriel took the card from my hand encasing it in one of his fire bubbles. Dark miasma rose from the harmless looking item, forming tentacles to lash at the sphere, without any success.

“That’s the thing yes. A combination of a sleep rune and a hypnotic smell. Add a dreamwalker to the mix, and you’ve got a cunning trick, even if unreliable once discovered. It’s a good thing Storm was immune to the smell, and you could fight the dream with your own abilities, or it might have worked.

I’ll talk with the pixies; we’ll add some wards for those types of runes and a couple others. It will not happen again.”

He closed his hand, the card turning to dust in his grip.

A minute after it did, angry little halos streaked from the portal under the lilac tree, searching for the cause of their unwanted nap.

“I’ll let you guys placate the pixies, I’ll take care of Mom and Kate.”

“I can take care of Maggs.”

“You speak pixie Father, I don’t.”

A dejected sigh was his only answer, before he trundled to the garden.