Witches, Warlocks and Soulswords ch 4/?

Amanda tried to focus on what Kurt was saying. Really, she did. But all she could think about was killing whoever was causing her this pain. Maybe she’d pull his arms off. Or his legs. Poke out his eyes. Rip out each nose hair with little tweezers and--

“’Manda? You feeling all right?”

Amanda looked up at Kurt, smiling slightly. What had he been saying? “Oh, I’m fine. Please, continue.”

Kurt eyed her, worried, then went back to the original subject--Pete Wisdom. “So you got nothing, he’s made no phone calls and his only e-mail said “call off the dogs.” I guess we should start there. Anyone have a clue as to what they might’ve been talking about?”

“Who signed it? Maybe we should start there,” Brian suggested, sipping at hot chocolate. He would’ve preferred coffee, but all they had was Moira’s stuff and he didn’t feel like being sick.

Kurt picked the printout of the e-mail. “whichesFR.FA@ir.is.edu.com.” Kurt smiled. “Don’t you just love those long addresses?” he asked dryly.

“I ken ‘EDU’ means it comes from a school, so maybe we should start ther’,” Moira said, wrapping a shawl tighter across her shoulders.

Kurt sighed and nodded. “Not much else in the name tells us about the school, though,” he said sadly. He shook his head and set the paper down, stretched, then smiled at everyone else and said “Well, then. Shall we?” then trotted off to go find out what he could about this address, everyone else following his lead.

***

Kitty woke up slowly, her head pounding like it never had before. Not even that night she and the others had gotten really drunk. She blinked. Others? Did she see a blue, furry mutant in her mind’s eye?

“David?” she asked, sitting up as her hair fell over her shoulder. “Did I know someone blue and furry??”

David came out of the bathroom, drying his hands on a towel. “Why, yes at one point, darling. Why?”

Kitty frowned.

“Not all mutants are bad,” David said with a smile. He sat down on the couch beside her, kissing her forehead. “You, however, are very, very bad.”

She laughed and sent her elbow into his ribs. “Stop it. You’re embarrassing me.” She straightened, pushing the tall man away so that she could stand up. “I’ve been thinking,” she paused.

“Yes?” David prompted. He knew what she was going to say. He’d helped program it into her mind.

“I think that since I rarely ever see you anymore . . . well, maybe I should come work here.” She stood by his desk, playing with the pencils in a cup.

David frowned and walked over to her, taking them away. Everything was just as he liked it. “Well, it could be dangerous.” He pulled her around until she faced him, then tilted her chin up. “Besides, what would you do?”

A defiant spark entered her eyes at his patronizing tone. “I’m a mutant. I could be a security guard, or a bodyguard or--”

David laughed, throwing his head back. “You’re right, darling,” he said at last, “You could be quite good at working here.” He smiled down at her, then turned suddenly serious. “But you’d have to deal with mutants like the one that attacked you all the time--are you sure you could do that?”

She shrugged out of his grip, walking toward the windows. “Piece of cake.”

“Could you listen to interrogations without feelings?”

Kitty put her hands up on the glass, looking down at the trees below. “Sure. Heck, I could even interrogate people myself.”

Behind her, David smiled. “I do believe you could.”

Kitty glanced up just as he turned away, hiding the suddenly lethal grin. She frowned into the glass, wondering if the reflection had just been odd. It must have. Her fiancee--he wouldn’t--he--she shook her head. What was she thinking? It must be that horrible mutant’s power still having an effect on her.

***

“This was one hell of a great rescue, Petey,” Rick groaned from his spot on the wall. “Just peachy.”

“Shuddup y’no good half-breed,” Pete snapped, already worried about Kitty in the clutches of that madman, and not needing to listen to any annoying names like “Petey.” He pulled at the collar around his neck, wondering if they ever thought to pad these things. Probably not. And now it was all sweaty and itchy too. “Hey,” he said to Rick, “Yer not wearin’ a collar. Why don’t you just bust us out of here? Yer mum’s always sayin’ y’ve got this great power an’ all.” He rolled his eyes. “God knows you’ve got Romany thinkin’ yer somethin’ wonderful.”

The boy grimaced with sudden pain, then slowly relaxed again. “Because, you idiotic yak herder, I’m busy.”

“With what? Sweatin’?” Pete snapped back.

“See that sword?”

Pete eyed the floating thing. “What about it?”

“That’s a soulsword.” At Pete’s blank look, Rick elaborated. “It can hurt people. Bad. The wearer goes insane--evilly so. It attaches itself to someone--usually female--then rots them from the inside out, creating the perfect demon sorceress.”

“So why do you have it?” Pete asked, looking at the thing warily.

“Shuddup, I’m not done.”

Pete sighed loudly and started looking for a cigarette.

“The only people who can keep this sword without harm are people who are naturally rotted already--Belasco--”

“Who?” Pete asked, interrupting.

Rick glared at him. “Think of him as a real-life devil, okay? Belasco, Gods in general because they have enough power, a very few witches.”

Pete looked up. “Like yer mum?”

Rick shook his head. “Mom? No, mom couldn’t do it for very long without going more corrupt then she is already.”

Pete grinned at the apt description of Rick’s mother.

“Now shut up and listen. The last wearer died. Belasco started looking for the sword. With this weapon he would be virtually unstoppable, and the only way to keep him from this sword is if it has a wearer--and as soon as he finds and kills the wearer, we’re in big trouble. The last wearer died. A new wearer got it. She gave it up to a sorceress who gave it up to a witch who Belasco found. Before he could snatch it, mom sent me to do so. With me so far?”

Pete nodded slowly, his cigarette forgotten.

“Okay. I took it. I got caught by Black Air. They wanted me to lure mom here, and to lure Belasco here. They think they can hold him. Right. Anyway, the only way I have of keeping Belasco from getting here is by keeping the sword in neither this dimension nor that dimension.”

“Wait!” Pete hollered, holding up his unchained hand. “What do you mean?”

Rick glared at him--which really was a formidable sight since one eye glowed bright red. “It’s between dimensions--B*E*T*W*E*E*N D*I*M*E*N*S*I*O*N*S. Not in this one, not in that one. Got it now??”

Pete glared back, unscared of his younger cousin. “Yeah, I got it wiseass. Go on.”

“Okay. This means that Belasco can’t sense it because it’s neither here nor there. But it takes all the power I’ve ever felt to keep it there. Mom can’t track us because she’s no doubt practically incapacitated due to the pull I’m creating on the energy field that all witches use. The stronger the witch, the more heavily they rely on the field. So, in effect, I can’t do anything because my power’s tied up with this, mom can’t do anything because she may be in a coma at this point, and if I don’t stop this energy drain soon I’m gonna burn out.”

Pete frowned again. “Burn out how? Burn out as in out of power?”

Rick turned his head again, and Pete watched the corded muscles stand out in his neck with the effort. “No, dipstick. I’m going to die.”

***

Amanda looked down at her mother as the woman slowly awoke, wondering what had happened.

“Hello, sweetheart,” the old woman said, at last opening her eyes and looking her daughter in the face. “Where am I?”

Amanda smiled ruefully. “You’re on Muir Isle. Excalibur’s base. Rahne found you dying among the rocks.”

Margali sighed and closed her eyes again. “I was attacked. Some idiotic child wanted the soul sword and couldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

Amanda just watched her mother. Margali had taken the sword, briefly, then tried to help raise a demon once she had it. Somehow, Amanda wasn’t sad it had been taken from her. She hoped that the absence of the weapon would bring her mother back to how she remembered her.

“I was already traveling down the winding way and didn’t have enough power to teach that arrogance pup manners. What he lacked in technique he more then made up for in strength,” Margali said bitterly. She wanted her sword back. She was supposed to be able to stay at the top of the winding way with it--and be amongst the strongest witches ever. Damn Season and her wretched children. “Where are the others?” she asked after a minute, noticing that the place was unusually quiet.

“They got a break finally in trying to find Pete and Kitty, and took the Midnight Runner to try and track down a school.”

Margali smiled and patted Amanda’s hand. “How nice. You and Kurt still being heroes. Everyone else has doctors, I get real heroes.”

Amanda laughed and bent to kiss her mother’s forehead, then left the room in search of food.

***

“I don’t see an island, Megan,” Kurt said again, re-checking the instruments before glancing out the window of the jet.

“It’s supposed to be there!” she cried, knowing she felt something with her powers. Rahne took the map from her and looked at it for a bit, then nodded.

“Aye. It should be ther’. Nae?”

“Nae,” Brian mimicked irritably from the co-pilot’s seat. “There is absolutely nothing out there.”

“Maybe we should land and ask the locals?” Megan suggested tentatively.

Kurt and Brian exchanged looks. Why hadn’t they thought of that?

***

“Ach, the only island ‘round these parts be th’ old Fall island. They say tis haunted,” said the hefty innkeeper as he shook his head. “Ye dinnae be wantin’ tae go ther’.”

Kurt looked at Brian, and he nodded. “Knowing Pete, that’s probably right where we want to go,” Brian said to the man.

He shrugged, then led them outside to some small boats. “Iffin ye really be wantin’ tae get ther’ ye c’n rent th’ boats. But A’ll need doun payment first.”

Kurt sighed and pulled out his wallet and daytimer from the inside pocket of his bomber jacket. “How much?”

***

After half an hour of haggling, another two of getting lost and an obscene amount of money, the mists across the water suddenly parted and there appeared an island.

“I know we flew over here,” Nightcrawler growled, his normally long temper frayed. “And I don’t see a dock.”

“Well, whether ther’s a dock or nae, ther’s somethin’ in th’ water,” Rahne said anxiously, peering over the edge of the small boat.

“Nonsense,” Brian snapped, “You’re seeing things.”

“I think she’s right, Brian,” Megan said in a trembling voice. “I do believe there is something in the water.”

Brian was just about to retort when there was the sound of a water fall, and the next thing they knew a long neck with a many toothed mouth on an ugly face rose up above them.

“Oh, nien,” Kurt groaned as he stared a fairly good resemblance to the Loch Ness monster in the face. “Why today?”

*************

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Season, Rick and Frost are copyright 1998 to Jenna B. McDonald

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