Sunset Coven 19

It's 2am and I'm starving. Nope. Not edited.

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The window cracked, the mirror shattered, and Jack, Jime, and mustang Jack all flew backwards by the sheer force of power, more like distress, of the high pitched wail that ripped from Suri’s throat. “Numira. Daboor,” she spoke frantically. An invisiblity shield pulsed around her. The wall Jack, the car, destroyed when he flew into the house repaired, the shattered remains rising from the floor fitting together like a puzzle. She sighed. Suri had never been more humiliated and embarrassed in her life. “Un!” She tensed as a pain ripped through her abdomen. A whimper escaped and she buckled down for round two. That’s it. She was never touching another item from McDonalds again. Those golden arches did not lead to heave, that was for certain.

With nothing left in her to empty, she hoped, Suri stripped, wrapped a towel around her, and turned the shower on. It’d been over a day but she had yet to clean Toren’s blood and scaled from her skin and clothes. She didn’t want to. Not really. Yes, she wanted to clean once more, but leaving herself covered in his flesh was her punishment for playing with the dark. It would be a lie if she said she didn’t enjoy it, hadn’t reveled in it. Opposite of her normal behavior, the darkness was wild, hot, and alive. That was why she felt the need to punish herself. She enjoyed it too much at the cost of Toren’s beautiful and treacherous scales. At that rate, she’d end up like her dad.

Looking at her reflection in the ever steaming mirror, Suri shook her head. Now that was just going over hoard. She and her dad shared the same eye color, same hair color, but other than that, their similarities ended. She was small and slim just like her mother. She braided her hair just like he mother. But one thing Suri lack from both parents was their anger. At least she thought she did, but what she did to the dragon Warlord was an act committed out of pure anger. He gave her over to the enemy, and then he gave her his scales.

When the mirror fogged completed, Suri used a finger to write an incantation onto the glass. The spell worked swarmed into a circle as the mirror grew black. The glass vibrated. And again.
“Suri. Baby!” her mother’s face filled the screen.
“Hi mom.”
“Where are you? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?” Angelica asked.
“I think I have an idea.”
“Baby, come home. Now.”
Suri shook her head. She missed her mom. She really did, and this was the first time she’d seen her mother since she stole away in the night with Jime over a year again. Worrying her parent’s wasn’t something she was proud of, but damn it, she was no longer a child. She could not tuck her head and head home just to please mommy and daddy. Not anymore. “I can’t,” she said. “I won’t. Not yet anyway. There’s something I must do. I’m worried about pahwah,” she referred to Jime in her mother’s native tongue Paiute.
“What’s wrong with her?”
“She’s sun obsessed.”
Angelica frowned. “I don’t think I want you hanging around a sun obsessed vampire.”
“And living at home with a black mage in safe?” Suri chuckled dryly. “Sorry mom, but no.”
The infamous anger seeped into her mom’s eye. “I will not argue with you, daughter of mine.”
“Neither will I.”
“I’ve heard rumors about you that I don’t like. You will come home.”
“Eventually.”
“NOW!”
Suri shook her head again. “Can’t do it.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Doesn’t make a difference. I said I would help her and I’ve never backed broken my word before. You know how dangerous it is for a witch when she breaks her word.”
At that, Angelica’s anger deflated. It was then Suri noticed how tired her mother looked. Her eyes were more slanted than usual. The warm tanned glow of her skin ashen. “Are the nightmares back?” she asked concerned.
Angelica nodded.
“Will something happen to daddy? Do you need me?”
“Something has already began to happen. Your father will lose the darkness. I see it in my dreams.”
“That’s good right?”
“No, baby, it’s not. Because it’s wrapping around you. Suri, please, come home.”
“I will mother. Eventually. I just wanted to talk to you. You go rest now. I’ll send a slumber spell to you in your sleep.”
“Suri,” Angelica said before her daughter could end connection. “There’s something else in my dreams about you that worries me.”
“And that is?”
Angelica hestitated.
“Mom! Tell me. If it’s something bad, I can protect myself better if I know what to look for.”
“Fire. It’s fire. You’re surrounded by fire.” And for a witch, fire was synonymous with death. Angelica’s lip tighten, her eyes narrowed. “Your father has returned.”
Suri heard her mother mumble “worthless.”
“I must go,” she said.
“No, wait--” Angelica started to speak but Suri ended the connection and scattered the magic. Sage would be able to trace her call if she was connected. Angelica was a seer and didn’t have that kind of power. Her magic was in her dreams, her fortunes, and communications with the spirits when they felt like making contact. A dark mage could easily trace a simple video call through a mirror. Mirror’s amplified their gifts. She waited a few moments to see if scattering the magic had prevented her dad from finding her. The mirror remained just that, a simple mirror. Suri twisted her hair up into a know, dropped the towel, and stepped into the hot shower letting the water beat again her injured back.

~~~~

Jime pushed herself off the floor with a groan. When Suri’s scream sent them flying, she smacked into Jack, the car, before awkwardly landing on Jack, the man. And what a man he was. Not too slim, not to big. Sold. Just the way she liked her men. Also, the way she remembered him from way back when. Her fingers had glifed over his chest with a familiarity. Her lips against his was a homecoming she didn’t know she was looking for. But she’d have to deal with Jack later, after she finished spanking her niece.

On her feet, she walked across the dinning room and living room, that’s how far back they flew, to the bathroom door. Five feet from it, she stopped. She too another step but moved no further.
“It’s that shield again. I can feel the same magic from the hotel.”
“Suri!” Jime yelled at the shield. Suri was invisible to them, but they weren’t invisible to her. For all she knew, Suri could be standing front in front of them. “Let us in.”
Jack placed a hand on her should. “Uh...maybe we should wait until she’d finished doing whatever.”
Jime shrugged his hand off her shoulder. “You stood in the King’s court after a bloodlust and you’re nervous about a barely immortal witch on the toilet? Unbelievable. You really just lost what few cool points you just gained.”
“I’m not nervous,” Jack sounded put off, “But your niece is in a volatile mood, and if she shoots me with some spirited arrow like she did her mate, I can’t promise not to kill her. Those things hurt.” He rubbed his shoulder to dislodge a ghost pain.
“Shut up. She’s not going to shoot you.” Jime paused. “I think. And she’s not that dragon’s mate.”

Jack didn’t respond to that. He arched a brow and shook his head. If Jime didn’t know, prehaps Suri didn’t tell her or there was the possibility Suri didn’t know. His vote was on the latter and suddenly he wasn’t so sure allying with the dragon was a smart idea.

Jime huffed. She walked back across the room and sat on the hood on honey-poo. “She’ll come out eventually. If not and she teleports away, I can trace her energy or honey-poo can find her again. Although after what he just did, throwing me into a occupied bathroom and all, I don’t think I want anything to do with this mustang for a while. And by a while I mean about an hour.”
he growled at her. “First of all, it’s honey-BOO and he’s a she.”
“What was that?”
“What”

She tapped the mustang. “That crashing through the wall and ejecting us like I’m some WW2 fighter pilot?” She pinned him with a glare. “Exactly what did you do to this car Jack. You treat it the same way you treated those skii’s of yours you lost when you lost your godho--” she gasped and how fast he moved, at his hand being around her neck, at how close his lips were to her.
“Jimena. Jimena,” he whispered, trailing one finger across her jaw. “Some things are better left unsaid.”

For a moment, she remembered why so many, mortal and immortal alike, feared Jack Jammers of the Sinn-Jammers. Only a brief moment. She whipped her head back and smacked it again his in the ultimate head butt. No one put their hands on her neck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A sense of total despair and embarrassment tore through him, yanking him from a deep healing slumber. Toren’s eyes snapped open. Though he could not see his reflection, he knew they glowed. Using his elbows, he pushed his front off the bed.

A hand closed over his neck forcing his front down to the bed. That hand was too small to be Rivers, too soft to be male. He swore in the language of the old ones.
“Explain to me why I come in here to find my Prosecutor Princess DVD you stole from me but instead find my little brother spread out across his bed like a skinned fish, because your lackey won’t talk.”

Toren pushed again her hand. Despite her strength, she pinned him with care to avoid his injury which made it easy to slip from her hold and sit up, legs crossed.
“I’m waiting.” She crossed her arms, smashing the over sized gray sweatshirt that exposed one shoulder against her chest.
“What does your shirt say?” He hadn’t had a chance to take a good look at what the bold black letters said, but his eyes spotted one word.
When she didn’t respond, River spoke from his position in the corner of the room. “I’m going to make you fuck my body.”
Joslyn blew steam from her nose in his direction. “Be a good lackey and shut up.”
Even if he was 527 years old, which gave him a lot of time to get around the world, and even if Joslyn was pushing 650 but still looked 19 in her black leggings, ballet flats, sweatshirt, and hair cut in a fashion that belonged in a Korean boy band, he didn’t want to think of anyone fucking her body. If the rumors were true, they were, Jos has had many bodied. She lied to lure her pray with her innocent appeal. Unless the more mature and experienced attituded worked in her favor. Her ability to adapt and get the job done was why she was his left hand, third in the nest. She would bully him all day but if that didn’t work she’d...”Stop pouting,” he said to her.
Her breathing became choppy, her gold eyes bright with tears. “Tell me what happened. Why are you hurt?”
She sound liked she would cry. Scary part was, she would. “That doesn’t work on me, Jos. Hasn’t for centuries.”
“I just want to know what happened to my baby brother.”
He looked at River who looked like he just swallowed a dozen raw eggs at Joslyn’s “I’m really a loving sister” act.
She caught his glance. “You’re lackey knows, but you won’t even tell me?”
“I tripped. Fell down a mountain side. Skinned my back.” He shrugged a shoulder and winced. It would take time for damage of this size to heal. The salt made the process slower.
She turned to River. “Where you there?”
“Yep.”
“Then why aren’t you injured? I keep you around to protect him, lackey.”
“He didn’t trip. And you don’t keep him around. I do.”
The territorial battle over him had been waged between the two since he arrived. River snorted. He stayed because the nest welcomed him, was good for him and too him. When his own people wanted to kill him, they welcomed him with opened arms. That’s why he stayed. Besides. Watching those two argue and fight was hilarious.

Joslyn’s attention shifted back to her brother. “You yelled just before you woke up. Nightmare?”
He recalled the flash of intense emotions that weren’t his and tasted of Suri. “Something like that.”
She looked him over again, er eyes locking on his neck. “Where’s your necklace?” She fingered her own.
Again, he looked at River.
“On the bedside table.” River had picked it off the ground when Suri flashed away with Toren leaving it behind.
All eyes went to the table. Empty.
“Where’s your necklace?” she asked again.
“I put it on the table,” River repeated.
“So, it was on the table and now not on the table.” She dropped the loving sister act. Her eyes brightened. “Where’s your necklace little brother?”
His eyes gave River a silent comment to keep quiet. Only River had the ability to trace him through the necklace. Joslyn could trace River and everyone else in the best, but that didn’t benefit her seeing as River was right beside her.

Receiving no answer, she turned fully to River. “Okay. I’m being kept out of something and you’re going to tell me now, River, since he won’t talk. Someone better explain to me why he,” she pointed at Toren, “was last seen at the Tavern right before it blew up, why it blew it, why Amor and his lover came looking for you two after that, what the hell happened to his scales, and where’s that necklace before shit goes to hell in a hand basket.”

And her ability to switch personalities so quickly, Toren thought, was why she wasn’t his second. Joslyn was bipolar. If you let her explain it she’d say something like, “I’ve been around for over 600 years. It gets boring just being myself. So I created an alter ego. A couple dozen of them.” She’d shrug and say, “Works in my favor. No one wants to cross one dragon let alone one dragon who rolls thirty-six deep.”  

But at least that answered one question. Amor did show up.

River shifted and propped one foot up against the wall. “It all started at Jack’s bar.” And then, the lackey began to snitch.