Sunset Coven 7

Mah. Didn't add very much to the overall story line. At least I don't think I have. I've decided to wait before I bring in the other character I said I would introduce.

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Suri slowly blinked opened her eyes. Her vision was blurred. She couldn’t see more than a few inches in front of her, but the pain that rippled through her body made her incapable of much movement. She had no clue how much time had passed from the Tavern to now. All she could recall was Toren screaming her name and then the building exploded. Before that she received an address from the Oracle of His address that was up for expiration in 48 hours. Just how much time did she have left?

Her fingers twitch. A good sign. Mobility was what she needed right now, but the pain. So much pain. Dragon fire, no doubt the cause of the explosion, left burns far worst than any ol’ average fire. It was much hotter and laced with magic. It could take months upon months for the wounds to heal properly. But she didn’t have months. She only had 48 hours. No. Less than that. Maybe.

Her fingers twitched again. Soul and grass beneath her hands. Suri dug her fingertips into the ground. It wasn’t much and they didn’t go in deep, but she knew enough about earth magic to make the trick work. Barely able to move her lips, she mumbled inaudible, a mantra of sorts. Her words were intelligible, but that made no difference. What felt like hours passed, but realistically may have only been minutes, with her mumbling. Mumbling and plotting.

She’d kill him. She didn’t take death likely, wasn’t the type of witch or person who could take another life without it weighing heavily on her conscious, but boy oh boy she was going to kill him. Stupid Dragon. Back at the Tavern, she decided to let him live. Her unbalanced attraction to him making her do something that shouldn’t have been done. She should have sacrificed his dragon along with the wolves. It was the least she could have done. After all. He did hand her over to the mutts. But nooo, she decided to let him live. No use letting those glorious scales of his go to waste, right? WRONG!

Her fingertips tingled, a slow draw of power and energy building. She would recover, find him, and make him suffer every ounce of pain she felt ten fold. Her plot of pain and torture hesitated. Did he escape? She never broke the circle, so he was stuck inside when the building went up like a bomb. He wouldn’t die, unlike the wolves who just had been torn into half, he was immortal. It would take more then an explosion to kill him. But he had been at the heart of it. Hadn’t he? Or did he manage to escape before raining bricks onto the street? Oh, who cared. She’d kill him.

As more energy and power gathered at her fingers, it started to spread. Ice water dousing the fire in her veins. The pain didn’t go away, not really, but her strength rose. Her words were no longer inaudible. Softly she spoke, calling the earth to meet her where it ended and she began. It would be some time still, but she could feel her limbs loosen, strength. Good. More. More energy and then she was going hunting. Jime wasn’t the only one with prey now.

The locket became oddly cool against her skin.

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Jime kicked a crumbled brick with the toe of her boot as she surveyed what was left of the Tavern. Merely a wall. No one could clearly say what had transpired inside, and aside from the scarce few mortals who where within the building, the causalities were few and none. The mortals were the mystery. There had been no witnesses of mortals in the Underground. The world were separate. Always.

Her top priority was finding Suri. From the moment she first awaken in the trunk of Jack, she had an urging nag at the back of her had that her niece was in trouble. Finding Suri's trail had been easy thanks to Toren. With her indisposed in the car, and with the lizard tagging along, the fastest way to travel outside of teleporting would be through the Underground. The portals that connected in that city reached all corners of the world. From the underground, she planned to ask around to see which way they went. Jime just didn't expect to find half a block blown away.

From the small flames and bluish smoke that still rose from the piles of rubble, she knew what had sparked the explosion. Dragon flame in conjunction with gas. An insane amount of gas to cause so much destruction.

Lucy, the brownie bar girl who had been on duty, said that the little witch walked in with the dragon lord. The place had been full of lykae when they arrived. They moved to one of the dimmer corners, and that’s all she paid attention to. She hadn’t stared because she didn’t want to bring unnecessary attention to herself. Lykae aren’t the friendliest bunch, especially to the lower caste. She couldn’t explain how the explosion happened. One moment she was standing at the bar pouring drinks, and then...nothing. That was all she remembered.

Jime knew of only few people who could find out. Her best bet was James, the human male who knew far more than he should be allowed to live for. Giving the brick one last kick, Jime flashed to New York City.


Like every other occasion she met James, she found the thirty-six year old planted in his basement testing radio waves. Searching for aliens he says, always pushing his Clark Kent glasses onto the bridge of his nose.

Jime had first encounter the mortal over a decade ago when he was being snacked out by a just-made vampire. She never involved herself in others feeding, but James had a young child with him at the time. While the newbie drained him, his eyes had been on the child, hunger blazing in them. And children were off limits in her book.

"Human," Jime said to get James attention away from the radio and on her.
His eyes widened then narrowed. An automatic wary response since his first brush with her kind. The boy was a sensitive, a human able to sense unnatural and paranormal beings. Such creatures were more human than lore and completely rare. Most were smart enough to keep such information from everyone. Mortal and immortal alike. Jime he tolerated because she had saved him and his younger sister. The key word was tolerated. Not trusted.
"I have a request."
"I expect payment," he responded, his fingers still fidgeting with the radio knobs.
"You expect nothing."
James didn't challenge her, just rolled the chair he was in wall and pressed a button that opened a wall length computer panel. Jime handed him a slip of paper that Lucy gave her with the security camera database code or whatever. It was just a long list of numbers Jime couldn't figure out. The security system wasn’t stored inside the Tavern, but on a larger databased connected to the web. James punched away for a few moments. The wall of screens blanked then showed screens of recording. "What time are you looking for?"

Time in the underground city ran differently from the mortal world. Pinpointing an exact time was difficult and almost impossible. "Last 12 hours." James sped through the last 12 hours of recording. It took 7 minutes of fast forwarding for Suri and Toren to pop up on the screen. "There!" Jime watched as one of the mutts cuffed Suri and Toren pushed her over to them. “Is there audio?”
“No.”

Jime felt her fangs lengthen. The mutts dragged Suri into the corner, but not after a few well place punches she’s sure her sobrina handled with merely a grunt and laugh, and what looked like a warning coming from Toren. Hours seemed to eclipse with her changed to the pipe. Toren continued to steal glances to where she was, as if he warring with himself over something. Filthy blood traitor. None of the guys seemed to notice Suri free herself until it was too late. “That idiot. What the hell is she doing?” Jime hissed at the screen. That would explain where the mortals came from.

Jime wanted to punch the screen. Instead, once the clip finished, with the Toren bellowing and the explosion, she flashed outside onto the warm Manhattan street. She screeched, loud, long. “Toren! Warlord of the dragon clan. Find me before I find you. If you make me search for you, I’ll wipe out your entire nest in the process.” She let her voice pulsate and echo out. The words would travel until they found him, and could only be heard by the intended precipitant, so none of the humans around would hear. Stupid niece. Blood traitor dragon. Fucking mutts. She’d killed them all. That’s if she didn’t kill the people who crossed the street to avoid the insane looking woman who just materialized out of nowhere and screamed first. She waved a hand and wipe their memories. She turned and headed down the street.

"Jimena!"
Jime froze mid-step. Great. This was just what she needed to make a hellish day worst. She spun around to face her unwanted guest. "Sage."
"Where is my daughter?" Sage's voice was deep and booming, the type of voice that cowered many men and demanded absolute obedience. "Where is Suri?"

Jime heaved. She had no time to deal with her younger brother. Of course he would find out about the explosion at the Tavern and that his daughter was there. He had his little network of spies out collecting data. Information is money. And it was only a matter of time before word reached him and he came to make a personal visit. Something they kept to a minimum.

“What a lovely surprise. How are you?” Jime said.
“Enough of your insolence. Answer me.”
Jime wagged a finger. “Didn’t your mother ever teach you to respect your elders?”
“She must have skipped that lesson when she forgot to teach you responsibility,” he barked. “Suri?”
The quickest and easiest way to deal with an angry black mage is to tell the truth. Knock him off his feet. She shrugged. “No clue. She ditched me for the Toren while I was down. You know who Toren is right? The Dragon Warlord.” She flicked her hair over her should. “I went after them the moment I woke, but by then they were gone and so was the Tavern. So your guess as to where your daughter is is as good a mine. Or bad as mine. Take your pick.”
“Enough!” Lightening crackled.
Jime rolled her eyes. His little display of lost control wasn’t impressive. Sage was over one hundred years younger than her. She had been there during his impulsive control days. She watched him become a black mage in his quest for power. It was boring to her now.
He pointed a shaky finger at her. “This is your fault. You lead her away with your stories of quest and travel. Your irresponsibility.”
“Oh, puh-lease.” Jime’s anger rocketed and with the rise of her anger the shadows that surrounded them danced, enveloping her feet, cloaking her. “Don’t blame me for your failure as a father to love your child. That’s why she ran off and you know it. Your constant pressure for her to succeed at everything, to be perfect always, number one at all is what’s driven her away from you and into the stronghold of the lore. Now if you really want your daughter back, you’ll toss some powder, shift some tea leaves, and tell me where to find that fucking dragon.”


Some help Sage had been, refusing to tell her anything that would result with Suri returning back to her. She’d find Suri herself. It wouldn’t be hard. Suri had left the keys in Jack, which she grabbed when she had awaken. Flashing back to the car, she opened the door and started it. She rolled down the windows and let the wind whip through her hair, carrying the worry she wouldn’t show, out into the breeze. As she banged a sharp left around the road she caught a whiff of something that made her bring the car to a screeching halt along the shoulder. “Suri!”

She inhaled deeply, wondering if it was just Suri’s scent embedded into the car interior. No. The scent was too strong. She cut Jack off and stepped out of the car, inhaling deeply. The scent came from the east, within the woods. Raced into the trees at whiplash pace, dodging trees, fallen branches, and all other obstacles that should have been impossible to do. Funny, she thought. Feels like the ground is shifting under my feet.

She ran deeper into the dark forest, her eyes glowing as they adjusted to her surroundings until she came to a stop at a mound. It wasn’t her imagination. The ground was indeed pulsing, magic gathering in one location. Suri laid at the heart of it. Stupid niece. She walked over to the center and dropped down next to her. “Sobrina!”

Suri opened her eyes. With sore muscles, but mobile muscles, she raised her hands and touched the right one with her left finger. An address appeared on her palm. “I found him.”