Sunset Coven 15

Isn't she just the cutest!!!!

How ironic that this picture proceeds this chapter. Is that isn't as wrong as it gets.

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Jime had showered in the hotel room before meeting Suri out by Jack. Suri had the trunk open; she leaned on the side of the car. She looked up when Jime appeared before her, her expression thoughtful.

"Jack and I were a long time ago. Really long time ago. More than a blue moon ago," Jime said, not really wanting to get into this conversation but glad Suri hadn't walked around with a bitter expression as she had when she told her about the La Reina thing.

On the contrary, Suri had seemed to find their encounter with Jack highly amusing as she farmed a different section of the field with her eyes locked on Jime and Jack.

Jime wasn't the most forthcoming on the best of days. Suri knew that. So she resigned to let Jime peel back the layers one at a time. Although, ripping them all off at once would get the pain out of the way...if one didn't bleed to death in the process.

"Extremely long time ago," Jime said

"Did you love him?" Suri asked.

Jime's face became impassive. Whether that meant, "yes" or "don't fucking kid yourself," she wasn't sure.

Moments passed by and Jime didn't respond.

"Very well. We'll talk about it later, I guess." She wasn’t happy about dropping the subject though. Suri tapped the interior of the trunk.

Jime slipped inside, tired from all the farming as well as keeping her guard up when Jack was around. She couldn't wait to sleep. Suri shut the trunk before she could say goodnight. Maybe she was pissed again. Oh well! She didn't have time to deal with that. She had to figure out how to shut off those feelings being close to Jack had brought. She sighed and let the darkness close in.

Suri had flashed back to the room to shower. She threw on an oversized t-shirt and hopped in bed when she was through, but she didn't sleep. She couldn't. Her mind was rolling; her body restless, and the pit of her stomach felt like it brew acid. The darkness. Using dark to defeat the wolves back in alien land made her skin feel stretched and tingly. The only time the sensation had abated was when she was in P and S cooking up a brew for Jamie.

Suri rolled over and tossed the comforter on the floor. Not use sitting in the room like a caged chicken, she thought. Magicking a pair of teal leggings and white tank top, she changed clothing and flashed back outside to Jack. She hopped on the hood of car and laid back in what should have been an uncomfortable posting, with her head down by the trunk and her feet up on the roof of the car.

"Numira," she spoke softly. The air around the car shivered with magic, a cloak of invisibility surrounding her and honey-boo. Just remembering that name-spoken pass Jack's lips made her giggle like a schoolyard girl. Like she would know anything about that. She never giggled in a schoolyard. She didn't have friends to laugh with. Everyone either envied or hated her for her power, or they feared her for her power and because her dad was Sage, the black Mage who destroyed half of Europe because he was bored.

Suri magicked a pack of twizzlers next to her. Popping the bag open, she grabbed two of the sticks and stuffed the ends in her mouth while she watched the sun rise on the horizon.

She was stretching her legs while she lay on the car when the air her started to twist. Suri released the leg that she had extended up to her shoulders and started out into the empty road where Jack was parked across from the hotel out of sight of any camera. A moment later, Jack Jammers of the Sinn-Jammers was standing in the once empty road. How had he found them so soon, under and hour of teleporting from him? It took other half a day, if not days to pick up her and Jime's trail.

Jack looked around. Suri knew he didn't see her or the car, but his gaze lingered on her for a moment before looking around again and coming back once more to her.

He inhaled deeply as if sniffing the air for a scent. He wouldn't smell anything, though. Her cloak of invisibility was perfect in every sense. Not only couldn't he see them, he couldn't smell them, hear them, or any of that.

She was about to step out to ask why he was there when she felt a stir. Another twizzler enters her mouth. The air cracks. Toren and his running mate, River, flash next to Jack. Funny, she didn't know Dragons could flash. Also funny that they should show up directly after Jack does.

"Jack," Toren greets

Suri wings her legs off the hood of the car and sits up. She braces her hands on the hood of the trunk between her legs, her fingers gripping the steel so hard she could peel the paint from it. Just looking at him, hearing his voice made the darkness growing in her blood burn.

"Toren," Jack replies and nods at River in acknowledgement. He turned his attention back to where she and Jack sat. "Their trail ends here, if you're looking for the witch," he said.

"Have you checked the hotel," Toren asked.

"No. The trail ends here. Not there."

"There's nothing here but trees and a nice view of the hotel," River stated.

Traitor! The word vibrated through Suri. Kill the traitor, the dark inside her whispered. Her insides raged to hurt him. He hurt you. Physically, she was scarred. They would heal soon leaving no mark behind, but at the moment the scars were there, not just a memory. Mentally, he betrayal hurt more than the scars. Suri didn't trust often. Besides her aunt and parents she didn't trust anyone. And even with them she trusted that they would always treat her like a child. But she wasn't a child. She was a woman, a woman who had been betrayed but that damn dragon standing 25 feet away. Make him suffer.

"Yet the trail ends here," Jack repeated.

Toren found that odd. That the trail stopped there with no energy left to trace, means that Suri and Jime were there. He let his eyes glow and used the sight of the dragon to scan their surroundings. River did the same thing.

"I don't see anything," River said.

Toren almost laughed. "You wouldn't," he said. Not unless she wanted them to see. He turned to River. "Pull out your locket."

River pulled the necklace from under his shirt. Toren took the locket into his hand and blew on it.

The locket around Suri’s neck grew hot. She growled, a low menacing sound of a beast. That douche bag could track her threw the locket. She had a feeling it worked that way when Jack said a lizard told him where they were, but she couldn’t be certain.

Toren dropped the necklace from his hand and looked where Jack at been looking. How Jack was able to locate them without a trail was another story. “She—“

“Lunpe,” Suri mumbled darkly from her spot perched on the trunk of the car.

Toren flew back like he did when Jime tossed him earlier. He landed hard on the ground on his back. He shook his hard to dislodge the shock and looked up. River and Jack both stared at him, a confused expression on their faces. Pushing up, he stood up only to be hit from the side and flew back again.

“Dadoe. Luet. Kimel. Kimel, kimel, KIMEL!” Suri threw spell after spell after angry spell at Toren, hitting him from all angles until his clothing was tattered. But the dragon was strong. He always got up without taking too much damage, and that only made the darkness in her scream. “Ku tet new a le eck zinha,” she said. She didn’t look down as a bow, glowing bright with spirit energy materialized in her left hand, a spirit bow in her right.

Toren stood tall, looking in her direction.

“My Lord,” River rushed over to his leader when it seemed like the attack at stopped. Jack walked over as well. Having an alliance meant that he would join Toren and River in battle if the dragon warlord was to ask for his help. But he didn’t think that was necessary at the moment. What? The witch was only a baby. To fight against her would be like—

Suri fired the arrow. The attacks had pushed Toren further away from the car then he stood before, but that was okay. The spirit bow wasn’t of this plane. The untrained eye couldn’t see it. That’s why none of them saw the bright neon blue arrow until it struck its target in the center of his chest. Toren dropped to his knees upon impact, a hole gaping in his chest, his blood running out.

The darkness inside her clapped with glee. More. Make him suffer more. With a simple wave of her hand, she shattered the invisibility cloak.

River reached for Toren but stopped when the wind suddenly shifted and howled. He looked up at the once empty spot a few feet away to see Suri sitting on the trunk of a car looking like the devil herself. Her eyes were dark, her expression pure murder. He went to stand in front of his lord, ready to fight and protect, destroy. He reached for his waist—

“Freeze,” she said, and they all froze movement, his body locked. Though their bodies couldn’t move their minds were still aware.

She hopped off the car, her eyes only on Toren, and stalked forward so slowly like a cheetah hunting. She waved her hand and Toren groaned as she released the freeze from him and him alone. She wanted him alive and kicking as she tortured him. Ten feet away, she pointed at him and beckoned her finger. Toren rose off the ground into the air like someone stepping on a rake until he stood straight, his feet a foot off the ground. She glared up at him. Steam flowed from his nostrils. “Veroppi.” He grunt, his face twisting in pain his blood turned to acid in his face. But after a few second of coping, or maybe just to bother he, he smirked.

“Is that all you got?” he taunted, blood spilling out from his mouth.

The darkness raged, begging her to send him to Hecate. She obliged.

Suri placed her hand on his chest over the wound leaking blood. She looked him square in those crystal clear beautiful eyes of his as she said, “Hecate. Feed.”

Toren gasped and grunted, but he wouldn’t cry out. His soul felt like it was being twist and torn, the blood in his veins destroying him from the inside out, but he wouldn’t cry out. Let her take her revenge if it pleased if, but for the love of god, if she doesn’t, “stop…calling dark magic,” be hit out, angry with her for doing so.

Granted, her sudden use of dark magic may be his fault. May. If he hadn’t turned her over to the wolves, she wouldn’t have committed that ritual. He had no doubt that she hadn’t used it before. If so, she wouldn’t have spared the human side of the wolves. And yes, it was his fire that blew the building apart which killed the wolves. So, maybe he was to blame for using the mage powers. But that doesn’t mean she needed to keep doing so. Did she even know how dangerous it was to call the dark magic?

And, if the marks on her back looked anything like the scars visible on her shoulders then…why hadn’t she healed? She was immortal. She should have heeled. She’s a witch after all, Jime vampire had said, and witches could be killed by fire.

From the corner of his eye he saw River breaking free of the spell. So did she. Her gaze shifted from him momentarily to River. “Leave,” she said, her voice low. She flicked her wrist, but instead of attack River, she transported them to a new location.

River watched as Toren and Suri vanished, the spell she casted breaking once she left. A tiny clink sound was all that was left of those two as the locket Toren gave to her sat on the cold ground. He turned to Jack who was stretching his muscles. Jack walked over to the car but came up short just out of its reach, unable to get through whatever charm had been placed on it. “Dammit!”

Toren collapsed onto a cold stone floor. Where he was, he didn’t know. He pushed up on his hands but the pain seared through him and he almost fell again. He was almost on his knees when Suri’s foot connected with his back and she pushed him back down. “Naydok.” His body locked, a sensation different from when she had froze them, but the motionlessness just the same. He felt himself raising again the same way as well.

She shifted in front of him. “Liar,” she called him.

“I,” his voice small but strong, “never lied to you.”

She slapped him like a woman scorned. “Liar. You betrayed me.”

“Yes.”

She slapped him again, his face turning from the force of the hit. Whoever said witches weren’t much stronger than mortals were the real liars. Her slaps were as strong as River’s punches. Or maybe it was his currently weak state of being that made it feel that way.

“You seduced me, followed me like a lost puppy, spouting your nonsense, and then you fed me to wolves. WOLVES!” She slapped him twice.

He turned his head, a slow progress, until he faced her. “Exactly, which pa-part of that are you upset about?”

Her jaw clenched, but she didn’t hit him again. “You scarred me. Left me damaged.” She fisted his shirt and snatched it from his body. Circling him slowly, a single lazy finger trailing across his torso in the process, she stood behind him. “It’s only fair I do the same thing to you,” she stroke his back, running that solo finger from the top of his back down to the hem of his jeans. “Awake!”

This time, Toren cried out as his scales grew onto his back without his call, forced. When she called the Hecate, it might have felt as if his soul was being torn apart, but now his skin was being torn apart…literally.

The change last for close to five minutes, painful the entire time. Had he called his true form, they would have grown instantly, in a matter of seconds, painless as can be. But he hadn’t called.

Suri allowed him a few deep breaths. She balled her hands into fist, a small material instrument suddenly in her palm. “Better?” she asked when his breathing was no longer ragged. “How about now?” With the little tweezers in her hand, she snatched one of the scales from his flesh. He roared a loud painful sound. Good thing no one was around for miles and miles. He could scream all he wanted. In fact, she wanted him to scream. The darkness wanted him to scream.

“How many scales does it take to until I have a kilogram,” she mocked the tootsie roll pop commercial tune. She peered around him and smiled a dark bitter smile. “Let’s find out.” Pluck. “A one.” Pluck. “A two.” Pluck. “A three.” She peered around into his face again. “Doesn’t weight a kilogram yet. I suggest we keep going until we find out.” So she plucked and snatched and pulled at his scales tossing them over her shoulder after each one, and he grunted, cringed, and groaned with each one.

“You know the worst part about it all?” she said what were probably hours later after removing more than half the scales from his back. “It’s not the burns or the fact that I had to call on Hecate.” Pluck. “I trusted you.” Pluck. “That’s the worst part.” Why had she even trusted him? She asked herself.

Because he had been nice? He made her laugh? Because of the kiss they shared that was so hot it scorched just thinking about it? No. It wasn’t any of that, though his kiss wasn’t bad. She wouldn’t admit to anyone that she went to sleep thinking about it every night. At least she did until The Tavern. No. It was because he showed interest in her. Not her powers or what she could do for him, what he could use her for. He showed interest in just her. Just Suri. It was the first time anyone had showed interest in just Suri.

Her parents love her. She knew that, but with them it was always about being the best. Her classmates, the ones who didn’t envy or fear her, only wanted her to help them with assignments. Her teachers were only interest in having the chance to say they were her teacher. With Toren, it had been just about her. Well, if that’s what showing interest in her lead to, being chained to a gas line, beat, and bullied by a pack of wolves, she didn’t want it.

“Suri!”

“Lunpe,” she called out and tossed the scale over her shoulder. She turned around to find out who the intruder was and how sorry they would be.

Jime had been knocked off her feet by the unexpected spell. She pushed herself up onto her feet almost as soon as her back hit the floor. She looked her niece, her poor baby niece who looked more like a mad woman covered in blood ready to attack than the sweet, innocent little girl was really was.

She was about to cross the room when thunder crackled, inside the room, and Zeus stood between them.

“Well, well, well,” his voice vibrated off the walls. “Aren’t you chicky's on a roll?” The scales that once littered the floor disappeared. “One kilogram. Taken.” He vanished.

“Suri stop,” Jime said the moment he was gone. She wasn’t concerned with him at the moment. Right now, her focus was getting Suri to stop. Yes, she wanted to see the dragon suffer for what he did to her, but she would rather Suri make him suffer when she wasn’t being tempted by darkness.

Suri raised her hand to cast another spell.

“Suri!” Jime voiced.

The hand froze midair and Suri shook her head like a wet puppy. The darkness in her eyes began to fade. Suri looked at her then turned to look at what was once Toren’s back. The tweezers fell from her fingers. She looked back at Jime, back at Toren, then at Jime again and shook her head before vanishing.