Anna McCloud
"It's our only option and, by god, the only reason why this council even exists in the first place. Does it suck? Majorly. But there is no other way. We can't stem the tide. We don't have the strength. Someone has to bleed and it is up to us to decide who bites the dusts." His pale, flabby jowls quivered in the light of an elaborate chandelier when he rewarded himself for his elaborate speech with a honey baked date. God, how I hated warlocks. Lazy, good for nothing parasites…
"Spoken like the coward you are," my grandfather hissed. "Rot in hell, Ebenezer. What makes you think you have the right…"
"Because my family is about ten times larger than yours," the fat stain retorted smugly, "which means I only need two more votes. And I don't need yours, James. You've become a defunct relict without ever realising. Don't push me or I'll petition to have your family pay the blood price." I felt the colour drain from my face as he reached for another date. "I'm sure your granddaughter's magic would buy us some time, at least if we throw in her little harem as well. They've become powerful. And beautiful, I might add." I had to swallow down the rising bile when his droopy eyes roamed over my body brazenly. A decade ago he wouldn't have dared… but that had been then. Times had changed. Now…
We were but a few faces amongst the crowd. Lost and forlorn in the suffocating swamp of bribes and favours. My family and my friends… we didn't even fill a tenth of the opulent hall and they made us feel it every second of every day. The lofty conference room near the banks of the Yellow River accommodated every major bloodline and once upon a time our words… my words had held weight. Once upon a time all I would have had to do was utter a single name and the madness would have passed like a bad dream. Even now…
Lucifer had taught us much and my coven couldn't be challenged by any one of theirs. Which was the only reason why we hadn't been silenced, yet. We were simply too strong to be ignored. With one exception. At the head of the centre table a stunning, ethereal woman absently sipped her tea, her expression hidden behind a cascading waterfall of red, flowing tresses. She sat there like a queen, her outline glowing in the soft moonlight that filtered through the high windows.
She had been the first, the only warning we had received. A burst of light and fire that had come through the gate before the shadows had followed. Now every dusk brought new nightmares to our world and the only way to quell the flood was to close the gate they were crawling through. But the power needed had to come from somewhere…
"Your choice," the despicable man continued, "your blood… our blood or the blood of uncounted, nameless… peasants. It's not really much of a choice, is it? Not even for you, James." My grandfather's hands trembled in his lap, but his voice remained calm.
"Don't fool yourself," he spat. "I don't fear you. I…" and then he froze. So did everyone else. Even the phoenix in our midst set down her cup with a sharp, ceramic clank as his phone suddenly buzzed merrily in the heavy silence. "The number of the beast," I thought absentmindedly. How had the old geezer gotten his phone in here? Mobiles weren't allowed. A rule we all followed religiously. No need for our little conspiratorial meetings to be broadcasted to a wider audience… namely the rest of humanity.
Stone faced he ignored the incensed, murderous stares and focused on the displayed number. "Yes," he answered the call curtly. Then he smiled. "Now, we can't have that. I'll open a window," he chuckled in the ominous silence and ended the call.
"What…," Ebenezer began, but was cut off by a quiet, dangerously soft voice:
"Explain yourself. Immediately." It was the first time Madame Feng had spoken, but to my utmost terror my grandfather ignored her, rose from his chair and marched straight to the closest window.
"I'd rather not," he said nonchalantly and placed his hand on the reinforced glass. A moment later it exploded outwards. A shower of broken diamonds sparkled in the night for the fraction of a second before they tumbled out of sight, right alongside our chances of escaping this place unscathed. I drew in a sharp breath and my heartbeat sped up. What was he thinking? We were as good as… why weren't the dancing silver specks of reflected moonlight on the floor vanishing?
From the corner of my eye I saw people jump to their feet, enraged by my grandfather's actions, I heard their half stuttered accusations and I felt their swelling magic, but I only had eyes for the spreading sea of silver nobody seemed to care about. Could it be? And then I smelled it. Ozone and power and… anger. My eyes darted to my right where Nancy was already half way out of her seat, but when I met her gaze a shy smile spread across her face and she settled back down. There was a storm coming, but I wasn't afraid. No wonder the old man had opened a window.
I couldn't help it, but while the leading magicians of our little community prepared to subdue us I picked up a silver spoon and checked my reflection. Should've used more makeup. The bags under my eyes were far too prominent, but at least I had put some thought into my getup. Not that it mattered, but still…
A deep, reverberating hum silenced the rising tide in the hall. With a flourish Madame Feng came to her feet, arm extended, her slender fingers turned into golden talons, her glowing hair smouldering with crimson flames. Then they petered out and every nimbus of magic in the room vanished in a storm of gold and silver light. I blinked, tears streamed down my cheeks and I felt my bones vibrate as a deep, otherworldly growl silenced us all, followed by the bone wrenching cracks of splintering mahogany and crumbling marble.
When my vision cleared I doubted my senses for a few, disoriented seconds. Amongst the rubble of priceless jade sculptures, broken tiles and annihilated tables a beautiful, slender dragon towered above the terrified, quivering bundles of flesh that had thought themselves atop the world not even ten seconds ago. The smell of molten metal permeated the dusty air, but the silence was complete except for the beast's bellowing breaths. Silver and golden sparks flowed from its nostrils and danced along its regal body every time it exhaled, a wordless warning that our magic wouldn't amount to much.
A dragon… an honest to god dragon! No, a dragoness. As much I could tell, but as soon as my gaze roamed along her sinewy coils, armoured with gold and sparkling, silver crystals, my breath caught in my throat. She wasn't alone. Behind her neck someone else sat rigidly, their face hidden underneath a hood of swirling shadows. Scared and quivering my… colleagues hardly managed to look into the huge, blazing eyes that hovered far above them, but the towering embodiment of strength wasn't the source of the pressure that had squashed their magic like a storm blowing out a candle. The clean, bright moonlight reflected off her silver tails and without a conscious thought I dropped to my knees. "Welcome back," I whispered and in response a faint, silver light ignited underneath the roiling darkness that obscured her face. Then she moved.
Streams of starlight, beautiful and ethereal, erupted from her back and with the whispers of the past come back to life she rose into the air like a living, breathing dream. Her feet made barely a sound when they touched the floor and with a flick of her hand the shadows receded from her face. I gasped and I wasn't the only one. Even the snarling mountain of molten gold and precious crystals seemed to fade as the light from her eyes illuminated the room and when she spoke her voice silenced the rustling winds outside:
"Oh my, when the fox's away, the rats will play. Did you really think I wouldn't return?" She slowly turned on the spot, her gaze darting from the disheveled, trembling occupants of the centre table at the dragoness' feet to the rigid, gaping mages on the outskirts. A disdainful smirk tugged on the corners of her luscious lips, but before she could utter another word a bang, loud enough to make my teeth ache, thundered through the room.
Her head jerked back and the smallest wisp of smoke rose from her forehead. Panicked I looked around only to see old Ebenezer clutching a massive 45, the barrel still pointed at his target. His eyes widened in triumph, but I could only pity the fool. In the early days we had tried blowing Lucifer up in a mineshaft with enough TnT to level a mountain. Suffice it to say that we, in contrast to him, hadn't escaped unscathed. I still had to deal with an ingrained aversion to steps and heavy water buckets bordering on phobia.
I expected her to raise her head, point at him and make him kneel, maybe with a few light effects thrown in for good measure, but what I didn't expect was a flurry of gold and silver, a sickening, wet crunch, as if a watermelon had fallen from a height, and a shower of warm, sticky blood that gently poured over everyone close by. The smell of copper assaulted me as I wiped the smear from my eyes, only to pale a heartbeat later when my vision had cleared. The angel hadn't moved, but the dragoness had and apparently she was neither very forgiving nor overly loquacious.
Not even a body's length away massive jaws ground poor Ebenezer's torso to a pulp. Blood, crushed bones and dark, wrangled organs seeped from between her pearly white teeth and the repulsive smell of bile and opened intestines made me wretch. His legs fell to the side almost gracefully, like a macabre puppet with its strings cut, while the rest of him tainted the dark, glimmering marble red. Apathetically I realised that the beast didn't swallow. After chewing thoroughly she allowed the disgusting soup to drip from her scaly lips and when she had turned the last bits of him into porridge she even spat a mushy, wet heap onto the floor.
"Glad that's been resolved," the angel chuckled coldly as she wiped away the burn marks on her forehead. There wasn't even a scar left. "Anyone else interested in making us vacate the premises forcefully? No? Well then, there's much…" as you might imagine, my colleagues hadn't taken the gruesome scene in stride and proceeded to react in the most human way possible. Faced with truly hellish odds they chose to panic, loudly and messily, a good handful rushing to the exit, barred by a solid double door. With their magic they could open it easily enough, but unfortunately there was already someone waiting on the other side. Two someones to be precise.
Again I caught myself thinking something utterly absurd: a vampire. That thing must be a vampire. Good thing I didn't have too much garlic. In my defence I was slightly rattled.
For a moment I saw wings, white and crimson, fangs and a flurry of motion, I heard the deceivingly soft thuds of bodies hitting stone, I felt the flickering nimbus of varying spells before they were snuffed out, but then a cool, slender hand cupped my chin and I felt my gaze inexorably drawn to the divine face above me. "You haven't changed. Hello, Anna. It's been too long."
I opened my mouth, but I couldn't form a single syllable. I could only gape at her, even when her wings gently pulled me to my feet and a soft smile spread across her face. "Nothing to say," she inquired quietly, her eyes sparkling with the same depths, the same amount of fury and mercy I had lost myself to before. "Or would you like to stare a while longer?"
"Neither have you," I finally breathed, while the entire room sank into chaos. Not that I cared. "We've missed you." As if a spell had been broken weapons suddenly appeared, mages, old and young, scrambled to their feet and screams, some enraged, some terrified, thundered against my ears. But magic there was none. Lucifer's hold hadn't wavered the entire time.
"Sorry," the angel murmured as her fluffy ears twitched in annoyance. Cute, I thought and bit my lip. What was wrong with me? "We've got to stop them before they manage to kill themselves. As much as I loathe the idea we still need them. Most, at least. We can catch up later." She turned away and a flurry of soft silver and harsh light obscured my vision. Even the cacophonous sounds that had claimed the room grew quieter until I heard the whisper of cotton and silk over marble. A moment later my grandfather and the rest of my coven stumbled to a halt close by, the glowing tentacles of light that had pushed them towards me slithered back through the iridescent wall that kept us isolated and silence settled in, broken only by the familiar hiss of reality yielding to transcendent might.
Surrounded by a maelstrom of power we hadn't felt in years, amidst the ruins of a crumbling order that would probably never be the same again, a new, entirely inappropriate sound made me flinch. My grandfather was laughing softly, his gaze glued to the glowing walls around us. When he felt our eyes on him he shrugged and whistled through his teeth like a man several decades younger. "I think she doesn't remember the last time we met. What a relief. For a moment she had me worried there, especially when she suddenly grabbed me." I blinked and then I chuckled while the knot of fear I had carried with me for days on end slowly unwound in my chest. It might have seemed cruel, considering a good chunk of our fellow practitioners were most likely pleading for their lives just about, but for one, they wouldn't be missed by anyone, most of them at least, and two, Lucifer had always had a temper, but I didn't think they were in any real danger. Provided they were clever enough to not shoot her again.
"Your fault," I replied through my widening grin, "you shouldn't have assumed he was my boyfriend only because I brought him home. A bit of wishful thinking on your part?" He shrugged.
"Ah well, between the seven of you you might have a chance this time around. Another day, another dollar, isn't it?"
"It doesn't sound like you care much about your life's work being flushed down the gutter by an angel right about now, do you, old man," Nancy asked, even though she was smiling as well. The prospective outcome of today had been much more gloomy a few minutes ago, at least for us. Not to mention that we had been waiting for this moment for years. Even though I had pictured it slightly differently in my mind. Not necessarily the violence, that sort of came with the territory, but I had hoped that I wouldn't have to be saved again as a first order of business. The angel probably thought we hadn't learned a thing while she had been away.
"I obviously didn't do a particularly good job, now, did I? Otherwise it wouldn't have come to… this. He left us one task, one, and I even managed to fuck that up."
"That's not your fault," Cecilia interjected. "The gate couldn't have opened on its own. Someone meddled and I think she knows. Right now I wouldn't want to be the one responsible."
"How did you figure," I asked and turned to her. She still looked like an adolescent, even though she was the oldest of us, and with her eyes wide open, the crackling light reflected in them like a myriad of stars, she almost seemed like a child. "Why didn't you say anything before?"
"What would have been the point? We couldn't have done anything, could we? Ever since the goddamned bird has fluttered into our lives everything has gone to shit, hasn't it? As far as I'm concerned we simply tried to survive. Not anymore, though."
"No, not anymore," my grandfather added pensively. "Do you think she'll kill them?"
"Not if they leave me a choice. Of course I can hear you. Pray tell, what has the phoenix done?"