To Hex With It Read online

  “What’re you looking at?” asked Alizia, sick of feeling the eyes of the gargoyle Amadeus assigned to watch her in her bedroom. She looked up over the book she was not reading, while sitting up in her bed.

  The gargoyle responded in it’s own ancient and completely unintelligible language. Then it stomped its feet, shaking the room. Alizia had no idea what it said. She had no desire to ever learn gargoyle.

  “I advised you to watch your tone beast. Hurt or not I’m more than capable of reducing you to a pile of smoldering rubble,” warned Alizia. The gargoyle’s stone eye brows turned upwards in a look of concern. They were big, they were strong but they were also dumb and at the end of the day, like any other sane living thing, preferred not to fight.

  Alizia tried to continue pretending to read her book but felt bad. So she put it down. The gargoyle was just doing its job, there was no reason to be so harsh.

  “I’m sorry friend. I didn’t mean to...I’m sorry.”

  The gargoyle began to smile but then it’s face twisted into something else all together. A second later pieces of the stone monster started falling of its body. Within ten seconds it was exactly what Alizia threatened to make it, a pile of smoldering rubble.

  Displacing the gargoyle rubble, the door to Alizia Blackward’s room opened. In walked Deacon Thorne. She had mixed feelings upon seeing him.

  “Deacon? Why did you...it was just an innocent beast.” Alizia felt bad about the gargoyle.

  “The what?” Deacon wasn’t expecting that reaction. The Alizia Blackward he loved was a cold calculating woman who wouldn’t think more of killing a gargoyle then she would a fly. “Anyway, I come with news, good and bad.”

  “Okay...give me the bad first?” Alizia was curious.

  “The inquisitor that Amadeus sent after Heinrich Talon’s spell. I’m fairly certain they found it. He’s having her come over here to hand it over.”

  Alizia Blackward had to take a moment to digest that new development. Part of her hoped the spell wasn’t real and that it was all just legend. Yes, that would mean her dream of a new world would have to be forgotten or at least put on hold. Second, the idea that it was Amadeus Essex who would have it, use it and shape the world that would come out the other side was terrifying.

  “That’s...we can’t let that happen. Can we? But how can we stop him?

  Deacon sat down on the bed next to Alizia. “That’s where the good news come in.”

  After swallowing hard, Alizia asked the only logical next question. “What good news would that be?”

  “This,” Deacon held out his open hand with the Witch Hunter General’s crucifix in his palm.

  “Is that....? Is that what I think it is?”

  Deacon smiled and nodded. “It’s Witch Hunter General Tobias Hunt’s crucifix.”

  Alizia knew exactly what that meant. She was not only a powerful witch but a knowledgeable one. From her time spent in the Talon House libraries she knew the legends of Witch Hunter General Tobias Hunt.

  In the early nineteenth century, a zealot like man of god, Tobias Hunt founded America’s first formal Witch Hunting Organization. Frightened by the influx of immigrants and the magics they brought with them from their homelands, he had a captured witch imbue the cross his mother gave him with protection spells. Those spells made him impervious to magic as long as the cross, the crucifix was in his physical possession.

  “With this you can end Amadeus Essex. After he gets Heinrich’s Spell of course.”

  “Why me?” asked Alizia Blackward. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to kill the crazed Essex. She just never truly trusted Deacon Thorne and his motives. That hadn’t changed.

  “Because he’s obsessed with you. He’s in love with you. That means you can get close enough to kill him, without having to get through his puppets first.”

  Alizia took the crucifix. “Then what?”

  “We take control of the coven. Me and you. And we use the spell, do as we planned before that Essex brat entered the picture. Think about it. We’d take the lead in a new world. And your daughter. Think of Lilith. You don’t want her in Amadeus’s clutches as the world ends. Do you? If he’s gone, she can live with you. You can keep her safe.” Deacon pushed hard. He pushed hard because he was desperate.

  “Okay,” agreed Alizia.

  Deacon smiled from ear to ear. He leaned in and kissed Alizia. She pretended to enjoy it. Any feelings she had for him disappeared after Marcus Blackward, her late husband’s death. But he was safe. His family was powerful. For now, she needed to keep up her charade of reciprocated feelings. Or not.

  “Great! Now I need to go...I have to wash the maste-, Amadeus’s clothes. Damnit, he’s back in control. That’s okay, everything is going to go on as planned. Just wait here, wait for either the master,” Deacon cringed. “Amadeus to get back. Or the inquisitor which ever one comes first.”

  “Sounds good,” agreed Alizia.

  “Good!” Deacon smiled. He didn’t see Alizia’s hand reaching for the nearby lamp on her nightstand. He didn’t suspect that this woman he loved, didn’t love him back.

  Before he could react, Deacon caught the lamp to his face. It shattered cutting his face and sending him down, off the bed to the floor. Blood ran down his face and the bedroom started to tilt from side-to-side. In his concussed state he saw both of Alizia’s bare feet step off the bed.

  “What’re you....what are you doing?” Deacon tried to crawl away.

  “What am I doing? I’m following the plan. My plan Deacon. Which doesn’t involve being controlled, manipulated or hiding behind any man or woman. Now, thank you for the trinket but I think it’s just going to be here to greet Inquisitor Talon. And you, well...” Alizia lifted the bottom piece of the lamp. It hovered right above Deacon’s head. “You have no part in the future I’m building.”

  ALIZIA WALKED OUT OF her bedroom into the halls of her home with bloody feet. For the first time in a long time it felt like just that, her home. It’d been so long since she felt any semblance of control. But she hadn’t gotten it yet. There were other puppets who needed to be eliminated, not only to get to Amadeus but to protect her position in the new world yet to come.

  There were two very powerful witches in Blackward Manor at the moment, not counting Alizia herself. She needed to find a way to take them out. Normally she wouldn’t stand a chance but this was her home turf, her family’s home turf. Question was, would they cooperate given that she had a hand in Marcus Blackward’s murder.

  Alizia calmly walked outside through the kitchen. Her emergence from her bedroom did not go unnoticed though. Lisabeth Essex followed, careful not to be seen until she wanted to be.

  When she reached the Blackward family cemetery, Alizia stopped at Marcus’s grave. She knelt down and placed her hand on his gravestone. Much to Lisabeth’s surprise, who watched from the kitchen window, the matriarch of the Blackward family started punching the solid stone. One fist after the other, she struck the thick granite until the skin on her knuckles split.

  “Please Marcus. Hear me. I know you’re angry but I need your help. No, our daughter needs your help. Summon the combined spiritual might of your great family. Have them rise to rid this house of intruders most foul. Rid this place of those not named Blackward.” Alizia held her fists out and let the blood trickle off into the dirt.

  Even though it was still early evening, the sky darkened as storm clouds moved in. Alizia smiled, relieved that it appeared Marcus listened to her from the great beyond. She knew she would have to face a reckoning for her sins against him and the magic world but for now, the Blackwards were on her side.

  “Enil drawkcalb eht fo daed esir. Eman eht erahs ton od ohw esoht fo esuoh siht dir dna esir.” Alizia recited the spell and felt the ground beneath her tremble.

  Lisabeth Essex was unsure what was going on. She thought that something was strange, since Deacon had not come out of the bedroom and instead Alizia did. It was strange that she left her bed for the first time i
n weeks to go out to her family cemetery. It was strange that Alizia stood up, turned around and stared directly at her.

  “Oh no,” Lisabeth Essex put the pieces together but far too late. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck and arms stand on end. Suddenly the kitchen got cold. When she turned she saw the spirit of a woman with a noose around her neck. Her eyes, little more than pin points of light in deep black sunken cavities in her face were somehow intense, angry.

  Alizia heard the screams from inside the kitchen. She ignored them and walked around to the front of Blackward Manor. There, two gargoyles stood guard. Seeing that they were beings of pure magic, they sensed the threat far before Lisabeth Essex did.

  Before turning the corner to the front of Blackward Manor, Alizia heard the sounds of fighting. Then she heard the roars of dying beasts. When she did arrive at the front of her home, two dead gargoyles lay in pieces on the front stairs. Standing over them were two of the older Blackwards. One had a sword in their ghostly hands, the other an axe.

  “Come, we have one more left,” ordered Alizia as she stepped over the rock pile remains of the two guard gargoyles.

  Tabitha Talon was no victim. Ever since she lost one of her eyes there was a viciousness in the elderly woman. When Alizia swung the front doors open to Blackward Manor, the matriarch of the Talon family stood ready in the cavernous marble floored foyer.

  “What have you done with Thorne and Lisabeth?” asked Tabitha Talon, body in position for a fight. She wasn’t the least bit intimidated by the sight of Alizia entering the manor with a group of ghostly armed ancestors behind her. Why would she be? She was the eldest living member of the family that created the Devil’s End Coven. Who was Alizia but a witch from outside the town who married into it? In the scheme of things, she was a nobody.

  “The same thing I’m unfortunately going to have to do to you Tabitha,” answered Alizia. “Or more accurately, what they, are going to do to you. Can’t have powerful pieces like you on the board. Please believe me, it’s nothing personal. But as long as Amadeus still has control of you, you’re a threat.”

  “If it brings you any peace, he won’t be in control when I kill you. Sroom eht fo srood kcalb eht nommus.” Tabitha’s one eye glowed an intense red. The shadows around her and the foyer gathered together and formed into the shape of very large, red eyed, black dogs. In her family’s native Irish tongue she ordered: “Iad a shracadh le sceitheadh!”

  Tabitha Talon’s black dogs barked and rushed forward at Alizia. Though it was certainly difficult, Alizia managed not to panic in the face of being charged by monsters. She knew that she still had the advantage.

  It wasn’t just the ghosts of Blackward's past that gave Alizia an advantage against the very powerful Tabitha Talon. The Blackward Manor itself was fortified with so many ancient protection spells and power bolstering charms that her defeat, no matter how formidable the opponent, was near impossible. In sports, a home field advantage means a lot. In magic it meant everything.

  Alizia calmly walked forward as the ghosts of the Blackwards ran past her towards the black dogs. They engaged in a ferocious fight as the two witches kept their eyes (or in Tabitha’s case, eye) squarely focused on each other. Both of them tried to formulate their next move.

  “Sgnul reh morf ria yrev eht slaets yrc seehsnab eht!” A split second after Tabitha Talon finished reciting the spell, Alizia found it very hard to breath. No, it was impossible for her to breath. She knew what spell had been cast on her.

  The Banshee’s Cry spell literally stole the air from Alizia’s lungs. She fell down to one knee as she struggled in vein to take a breath. There wasn’t enough time to protect herself from the magic assault, the magic knife to the kidneys. Luckily for her, she wasn’t alone. And a spell like that only lasted as long as the caster lived or wanted it to.

  “This all ends now Alizia!” Tabitha made her way over to the suffocating Alizia Blackward. “I admire your bravery taking us and Amadeus on but it was always going to end this wa-”

  Suddenly, in the blink of her one eye, Tabitha Talon was lifted off her feet by her neck. From seemingly thin air, the spirit of Marcus Blackward manifested, his large hand around her throat. She tried to get him off but her hands simply passed right through him.

  From down on the marble floor of the Blackward Manor foyer, on one knee, Alizia heard a loud crack. He saw Tabitha fall down in a lifeless heap in front of her, large hand shaped bruise around her neck. Released from the Banshee’s Cry, she was able to breath again.

  Alizia stood up, still trying to regain the rhythm of breathing. She looked around. The Blackward’s ghost slowly sunk down into the floor, disappearing from view. They needed to return to their graves. Marcus Blackward’s ghost stayed for a little while.

  He had unfinished business with his wife. Alizia looked at Marcus and couldn’t help but cry. Moisture being produced by her eyes and running down her cheeks was an extremely rare occurrence for her. But she couldn’t help it. She was both overjoyed and filled with dread upon seeing him again.

  “I...it’s good seeing you again Marcus.”

  Marcus Blackward’s ghost just stared coldly at his widowed wife.

  “I never meant to, I’m sorry. I regret it every second, every day, my part in your death. I just wish...it was far from perfect between us. I don’t know if I ever truly loved you, or you me but you deserved better. If for no other reason than you gave me our Lilith. Everything I’ve done and will do is for her. And I believe that you saved me because you know that.” Alizia stood inches away from Marcus’ ghost.

  “If you don’t save her, I promise Alizia, that I will torment you in this life and the next.” Marcus Blackward’s deep voice echoed, almost boomed in the cavernous foyer.

  “I understand. And I will, no matter what.”

  Marcus Blackward’s ghost started to sink into the floor. “There will be judgment, either way dear wife.”

  “I know....I know. But I have to die first.”

  CHAPTER 8: MUCH NEEDED ASSISTANCE

  Please let him be okay. Please let him be okay. Please! All Lilith Blackward could think of while descending the stairs/ladder of the Los Angeles based watch tower. She was referring to Sir Kain who fell off just minutes before her fight with Inquisitor Talon.

  Lilith looked down, she was almost there. She could see Aunt Rose and Eve standing around Sir Kain, though they were no bigger than action figures from that height. She climbed down as fast as she could.

  The second her feet touched solid ground again, Lilith ran over to Aunt Rose, Eve and Sir Kain. Sir Kain lay, eyes closed in a relatively shallow hole he created upon hitting the ground. There was a crack in his living stone body, starting from his face and spread to his hands and she assumed, the rest of his body.

  “No! Sir Kain!” Lilith pushed her way past Aunt Rose and Eve, then fell down next to Sir Kain. She tried to shake him awake. “Wake up! Don’t you dare die on me! What kind of knight dies when their charge still needs protecting !? Huh!? What kind of knight would that make you!?”

  Aunt Rose put her hand on Lilith’s trembling shoulder. “It’s okay dear. He’s gone. Be happy for him. An honorable death, that’s all a man like him wanted, protecting someone he loved.”

  When Sir Kain groaned it caught all three by surprise. All but Eve who knew damn well he was still alive. She could smell it. But she didn’t want to interrupt her friends, seemed like they were having a moment.

  “You're alive!?” Aunt Rose was both extremely happy and surprised. Sir Kain took a heck of a fall. She reasonably assumed that even a being made of living stone couldn’t survive.

  “Arrrggghhhh,” Sir Kain sat up, hand on his back. “That really hurt. And I am a good, chivalrous knight. A gentleman, thank you very much Ms. Blackward.”

  “You son of a-” Lilith slapped Sir Kain and immediately regretted it. Her hand throbbed but she still hugged him anyway. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again! You hear me! Never!”

&nbs
p; “Yes m’am,” agreed Sir Kain with a smile.

  “What happened up there?” asked Aunt Rose after the joy of discovering Sir Kain survived subsided. The four of them sat on the same hill as the Hollywood sign.

  “Hard to explain. But the long and short of it is that the Inquisitor got away with Heinrich Talon’s spell,” answered Lilith.

  “Another damn inquisitor?” Aunt Rose wasn’t thrilled to hear the news. Though she in no way blamed her niece.

  “Yup. She was a feisty one too, slippery as well. I almost had her but she managed to slip away.”

  “You almost beat an inquisitor?” Sir Kain was a little concerned. He remembered what happened back in Basil Augustine’s house, when Lilith lost control. They never really addressed what happened there with everything else going on.

  “The key word there is ‘almost’. She is probably well on her way to Amadeus. Soon as he gets that spell-”

  “He’ll cast it and this world into a frozen hell,” Aunt Rose looked out over Los Angeles, a yellowish orange evening sky slowly darkened.

  “Do you smell that?” asked Eve. Everyone ignored her, as they often did. Most of the time they were right to do so.

  “We can’t let that happen. Otherwise, all of this, from that first case with the Cold Dawn on would’ve been for nothing.” Lilith also looked out on the City of Angels. She couldn’t imagine it and the rest of the world covered in snow and deadly cold.

  “Then what are we waiting for dear?”

  “Wait, before we go. I need to know something.” Sir Kain didn’t look forward to the question he felt like he had to ask. “How...how were you able to fight on equal terms with an inquisitor?”