Dark Illumination Read online

  The heat exploded into my face. I opened my mouth, but managed to stifle the scream that wanted to escape. Levi grabbed my hand.

  It was a mistake. I felt Levi’s magic surge into me. I felt my own magic surge back. It grabbed hold of both and twisted them together.

  What was left of my eyes, burst in the sockets. I felt gooey wetness weep from the holes. There was another gasp. The pain made it sound far away. I was swimming in pain and darkness.

  About half a second before it happened, my magic had reached its breaking point. The magic surged out of me, rushed through the walls. I could feel every living creature around me. There were mice, cats, dogs, and at the fringe, I could feel Anubis. His curse pushed back, caused my magic to recoil.

  The pain receded. I still couldn’t see. My face was being washed, not just covered with a damp cloth. The fibers scratched my skin. The hands seemed to be shaking a bit as they moved the rough material back and forth.

  “Better or worse?” I finally asked as the scrubber stopped.

  “Worse,” Magnus said.

  “Better,” Levi corrected.

  “She has no eyes. How is that better?”

  “No eyes, no curse.” Levi answered.

  “But she has no eyes,” Magnus countered.

  “But she isn’t only Human, she’s a Demon, they’ll grow back.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Magnus countered again.

  “Pretty sure.” Levi sighed. “If they don’t, I’ll have to answer to Luc and so will you. I think we should be optimistic that they will grow back.”

  “Or we prepare for the worst and flee the country, possibly the universe,” Magnus was smiling now; I could hear it in his voice.

  “I’m sure my eyes will grow back,” I said this with as much assurance as I could. Since I couldn’t feel them growing back yet, there was this tiny voice in the back of my head screaming that I had screwed up big time.

  “I don’t think you should try to heal her,” Magnus said to what I assumed was Levi.

  “If I don’t at least try, she could be blind for a longer time.”

  “And if you go blind in the process?”

  “Well, that will at least prove to Lucifer that we tried to fix the problem.”

  “Levi, Magnus, bickering isn’t going to solve the problem. I’m blind, it’s temporary, I’m sure. Healing is probably risky.”

  “Better to try though, Bren,” Anubis’s voice finally came back into the room. “What if, because it is a magical wound, it doesn’t heal?”

  “Elders heal Witch inflicted wounds all the time.” I reminded him.

  “Yes, but they take longer and something like this, could be permanent.”

  “So, two blind Elders are better than one?” I tried to smile, pretty sure I failed.

  “No, but it is a risk I am willing to take.” Levi suddenly grabbed hold. I felt his magic flow through me, it moved up my arm in warm currents. It felt soft and soothing. All Demon healings did if they were done right. I tried not to fight the sensation. But my instincts were screaming that a blinded Levi was a bigger problem than a blinded Brenna.

  His magic found the damaged eyes. There was an odd furry feeling inside the sockets. I felt my eyes start to grow back.

  There is no way to describe the sensation that your eyes are growing back. There was some pressure. There was a touch of pain. There was an odd, wiggly-worm feeling of something crawling in the sockets. Then they were there. I could feel them. They rolled in the socket. They moved like my eyes. I still couldn’t see out of them though.

  “Well, she looks a little better. Pupils and irises would be good though,” Anubis told Levi.

  “I can only do so much,” Levi answered. “I don’t think I can heal those. I think they will have to come back on their own. Good news, I’m not blind. My eyes feel terrible, like I’ve been sanding them with a metal file, but I can see.”

  “Anything fuzzy or out of focus?” Magnus rejoined the conversation.

  “Everything,” Levi answered. “But even that is getting better. I don’t know why her iris and pupil didn’t return in either eye. Could they still be cursed?”

  “Yes,” Magnus answered. He sighed loudly. “But she may just have to do that on her own.”

  “I see light,” I told them. It wasn’t much light, but it wasn’t the pitch black of earlier.

  “See, improvement already,” Levi sounded cheerful. I thought that was overly optimistic.

  “What now?” I asked.

  “Now, you sleep. We’ll go after the troll, see what we can find. Levi will stay with you. If we need a healer, we’ll have one close.”

  “Great, I get to be bored and blind.” I gave a sigh. “At least I’m off stake-out duty for the day.”

  “Silver linings and unicorns,” Levi giggled at me.

  “I like silver linings, but I’ve never met a unicorn.”

  “You’d like them.” Anubis answered. I heard the door shut.

  “Who left?” I asked.

  “Anubis and Magnus. Just you and me, niece. Go to sleep.”

  “That sounds like an order.”

  “It is, you have much to do, but you need to rest first.”

  Chapter Five

  I was awake, but refusing to open my eyes. My motel room was a bustle with activity. Everyone seemed to be inside of it, including my Uncle Levi. Obviously, he had not left after the healing.

  Some part of me was slightly afraid to open my eyes. Would I see only shades of light or would I be able to see more? If it was only shades of light, was that because I was still healing?

  Opening my eyes would answer at least one of these questions, yet, I was still hesitant. This was one of those critical moments. My life could change forever and for me, forever was a very long time.

  “Just open them already,” Gabriel chided me. I wasn’t sure what I had done to give myself away. Possibly just a change in my breathing was all that was needed.

  I gave in and opened my eyes. For the first couple of seconds, there was just light. Slowly shapes began to form, definition between light and shadow appeared. Someone swam into view. I couldn’t make out the features, but I knew by the coloring, that it was Levi.

  “Well?” He asked, moving in closer.

  “Well, I’m not blind, but I think I need glasses.” I told him.

  “Ridiculous, Demons don’t need glasses, your eyes just need a little more healing time,” Levi chided me.

  “Come, eat,” Ba’al instructed.

  I did as he said and took a plate of food that was handed to me. I lifted the plate to my nose and sniffed. The smells were overwhelming at first, mixing together, giving no clear definition of what it was. Suddenly, the acrid smell of mustard jumped out at me. The vinegary smell of pickles followed. The sting of onion. I smiled at the odd-colored shape, recognizing the smell of a cheeseburger finally. It took two tries to get my hands around it.

  Eating without properly seeing is an interesting ordeal. I moved the shape to my mouth several times and missed the gaping hole. My depth perception was impacted as well as my regular vision.

  Eventually though, I managed to get the cheeseburger down. This was followed up with mozzarella sticks, handed to me one at a time. I ate those with as much grace as I could muster. I liked mozzarella sticks, but with my depth perception off and my vision lacking, it was trying. At least the cheeseburger had been large enough that I didn’t have to have accurate aim to hit my mouth. The sticks were different, either they went into my mouth or they hit my face. Occasionally, there were giggles from the men at the table. I did my best to ignore them.

  Food in me, I was ready for something. I would have gone with revenge, but that wasn’t accurate. I had no desire to curse the Witch that had done this to me. But I might try electrocuting them just a bit to show them how much it hurt.

  “What now?” I asked the closest form.

  “You get to go back to bed,” Anubis’s voice answered. “We get to go hun
ting.”

  “Well that sucks,” I moaned softly.

  “Yes, yes it does, but a damaged Demon is not helpful. Besides, we are short one car because someone urinated in my front seat.”

  “Sorry, the troll was a bit unexpected and I really did need to pee.”

  “Unbelievable.” Anubis’s voice was agitated and slightly desperate. That one word said it all.

  “In so many ways,” I tried to smile at him.

  “What would you prefer?” Gabriel interrupted us.

  “I don’t know, but I know how to trace the Witch that did this, I’ve seen their magic.”

  “Is that what we were running after?” Fenrir’s voice finally joined the conversation.

  “Yes, the Witch was controlling the troll somehow. I don’t know how much control it had, but the troll had a blue nimbus around it. More interestingly though, the troll had a blue string of magic trailing off from it. I was following that trail of magic when I was slammed with that spell and curse.”

  “So, you can follow the magic?” Anubis asked, his interest suddenly peaked.

  “Um, not really, but it can’t hide from me either. Not anymore. Once you’ve seen a person’s magic, you can always see it. Better yet, they hit me with a spell and a curse. Their magic is a part of me now.”

  “Stop talking in Witch code.” Levi sighed.

  “Ok, it’s no different than what I do every day. Every day, I wake up and feel Anubis’s magic, Gabriel’s magic. When a Witch willingly shares magic with another Witch, like casting a spell on them, for a while, I can feel that magic. Even as I sit here on this bed, I can feel that magic. I can’t see it, but I can feel it. I might be able to lead us to the Witch. Then again, it might not. Sometimes, it’s a crap shoot, but it’s better than sitting here with our fingers up our…”

  “You are in no condition to be out in public.” Anubis scolded me.

  “Why? Am I horribly disfigured?”

  “Well, you have eyeballs again,” Levi was trying not to laugh. I could hear it in his voice.

  “But?”

  “But they have no color. There is a hint of pupil and your eyelids look like they went through a deep fryer.”

  “My eyelids were damaged?” I reached up to touch them. They existed; I could feel them with my fingers. They felt crispy.

  “Damaged is a good word for it.” Levi was still smirking. I didn’t need to see to know it.

  “Then there is your hair. It is still standing on end. Occasionally, you have bolts of electricity that shoot out between your horns. Your eyes are not the only thing that got fried.”

  “There’s more?”

  “Your nose is mostly gone,” Anubis told me rather flatly.

  “How much damage did I sustain exactly?”

  “Have you ever seen the movie ‘The ‘Burbs’ with Tom Hanks?”

  “Hasn’t everyone?”

  “You know the part at the end when Art shuts off the power by electrocuting himself and his fingernails turn black, his hair is standing on end and his fillings are hot?”

  “Yes.”

  “You look worse than that.”

  “Oh good.” I sighed. “Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse.”

  “It could be worse, you could have no lips.” Gabriel chimed in.

  “At least I have lips.” I pointed my face to the ceiling.

  “I did what I could. Most of the injuries wouldn’t heal.” Levi told me, the smirk finally gone from his voice.

  “I understand, Witch magic is an interesting thing when performed on Elders.” I sighed and closed my crispy eyelids.

  They still shut out the light. I needed a moment or two to think. The magic was still fresh in my mind. I could still feel it coursing through me. I needed to do something about it. But Anubis was right, if I looked like an extra from “Night of the Living Dead”, I probably shouldn’t be out in public.

  “Magnus still around?” I finally asked.

  “No, he had to go back; he was in a meeting when we called him to fix you.”

  “Damn,” I thought for another moment. “We need a Witch and a powerful one. My mother is out. Daniel is out. Magnus is out. Who does that leave?”

  “One of your siblings?” Levi offered.

  “Oh hell, someone dial Eli’s number, let me talk to him.”

  Chapter Six

  “Hello?” Eli’s voice picked up on the second ring.

  “Hey Eli, how’s it going?”

  “You sound weird, Bren. What’s up?”

  “Promise not to call our parents or any of our other siblings?”

  “No.”

  “Then I can’t tell you. Are you busy?”

  “I’m at work.”

  “Do they really need you today?”

  “They really need me every day. What’s up?”

  “Again, you have to promise not to tell mom or dad or our siblings.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we don’t want either of our parents freaking out. Mom’s pregnant and dad will have hysterics with her.”

  “That bad?”

  “Probably worse.”

  “Ok, I promise not to tell our parents but I can’t say the same about our siblings. If I tell them, I will make them promise not to tell our parents.”

  “Great. Give me your word?” A Witch giving their word creates its own magical spell. Break it and bad things usually happen.

  There was a long pause followed by a heavy sigh, “I give you my word.”

  “I’m mostly blind, I’ve been electrocuted and everyone, including Uncle Levi, is telling me that I look like hell. But Magnus had to go back to his meeting and I need a powerful Witch that I can trust.”

  “What have you gotten into?”

  “Troll hunting and Witch hunting.”

  “I’ve never seen a troll.”

  “I hadn’t either. I peed my pants; literally, although I’m sure it is Anubis’s fault. He fed me gobs of soda and gave me no bathroom for an eight hour stake out. So, I’m glad we were in his car.”

  “That is,” he paused again. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

  “Say nothing, just smile when you see him. So, want to lend a hand? I think I need some Witch magic. Demon healers are great, unless they are healing magical wounds inflicted by dark magic.”

  “You want me to concoct a spell to heal you?”

  “That would be nice. Spell, potion, whatever you can come up with on the fly.”

  “Potions aren’t really my thing. Healing spells either, but I can give it a shot. How long before you need it?”

  “You have until you get here. Would you prefer Ba’al or Gabriel to come get you?”

  “I can’t just drive?”

  “You could, but it would be faster if you flew.”

  “How urgent is this?”

  “I still have the Witch’s magic coursing through me. I can feel it. If I can feel it, I can trace it. So, the sooner the better, I don’t know how long it will last. There is a chance that healing will make it go away, but that is something I will deal with when it happens.”

  “Bren,” he gave another long pause. I knew what he was going to ask, but I waited.

  “Bren, was this just a spell?”

  “Well, the electrocution was just a spell. The blindness was a curse. I think Magnus broke the curse for me, but he didn’t heal the magical wounds. Levi tried and couldn’t. So, I need a Witch to do it.” It was my turn for a pause.

  “What?” He asked.

  “Oh, you know Magnus, very powerful, very good at what he does, but he isn’t really the curse breaker that our family is…”

  “You think there might be curse remnants?”

  “The thought was crossing my mind. Might be why the healing is so slow and why Levi couldn’t do anything for me.”

  “Shit Brenna, that’s forbidden magic.”

  “I know. The Witch that did it didn’t seem to care though. Our Witch is casting some very dark
magic and it has the oddest signature color I have ever seen.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s blue, but it isn’t blue. There is something else in it. I thought at first it was just an odd shade of blue, but the more I think about it, the more I think it wasn’t just their magic. I think they leeched magic from somewhere and that somewhere has left its mark on the Witch. I think they have been leeching a lot of it.”

  “You leech a lot of it, but it doesn’t affect the color of your magic?”

  “I didn’t know you could see the color of my magic.”

  “It’s pinkish.”

  “Yours is maroon.”

  “I know.” There was another pause.

  “Brenna, I have to ask, how bad is it?”

  “Me, the situation, the magic involved or the Witch?”

  “Yes.”

  “Me, I don’t know, I’m going off what they tell me. They think I look like Frankenstein’s Monster still in progress. The situation is bad, but not yet dire. The troll hasn’t eaten a being yet, just livestock. The magic, well, that is a horse of a different color. You’d have to see it to understand. The Witch is bad, very bad. We are talking about someone who has gone completely over. Dark magic may be the only thing they cast anymore. I think Anubis might be able to help us there, if I can get him vamped out.”

  “Tell me about the magic you saw? I need details.”

  “At first, it was just cerulean blue. Nothing special, haven’t seen it before, but then I realized that it wasn’t. It was a midnight blue with a sickly yellow in it. If I’m right, I’ve seen the yellow before.”

  “What does that mean? Where have you seen it before?”

  “It means that I’m not the only one that can use dead Elder magic. I believe the yellow is the same shade as the magic I used to heal Gabriel. I think it belongs to Sonnellion. To use it, the Witch would have had to conjure him, completely, like I did. Conjure him and store up his magic. Eli, there is no record of any being doing that, ever, until I did it. Dad carries a hint of it; it is why his magic is black. He carries hints of all the magic from all those he has executed as Overlord. Sonnellion’s is a sickly yellow-green and it is powerful, very powerful, even dead it is really powerful. I have no idea how it is as strong as it is and can’t imagine what it was like when he was alive.”