Chapter 11

The following characters appear in this chapter:

Mother Susemihl

Old woman, Witch, 5’-2’’ tall, 75 years old or more, wrinkled skin, gray hair, black eyes

Carry and Casey

Dallas’ Daughters, 5’-7’’ tall, 125 pounds, 20 years of age, 34C-22-34, alabaster skin, medium length lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, already Dragons

Eilean and Evelyn

Doreen’s Daughters, 5’-7’’ tall, 127 pounds, 20 years old, 34C-22-34, alabaster skin, medium length lustrous black hair, violet eyes, some freckles, already Dragons

Myles still has the Narrative

Following breakfast the next morning, Maddy had some news for us. Viv and I had gotten up somewhat later than she and Kennith had.

“I called Dr. Graham’s office but don’t have very good news. It seems that the doctor is very busy this time of year. Apparently, a lot of Magic users and Witches got pregnant this fall, and she is quite busy. I couldn’t get an appointment until ten days from today,” Maddy told us.

“That’s alright. I only got pregnant a couple of days ago. I’ll be fine for another ten days or more. What about morning sickness though? My mother told me that she had a very bad case of morning sickness, and it lasted close to two months,” Viv told Maddy who just smiled at her.

“There is a quick and easy cure for morning sickness once it starts, and it can possibly even be used before it starts,” she told Viv.

“Really! What is it? It isn’t complicated, is it?” she asked.

“No, dear. It’s extremely simple and natural. Well, it is natural if you are a Dragon. You just need to remain in your Dragon form for three or four days once morning sickness starts,” Maddy told her to a shocked look from Viv.

“All day!” she asked, somewhat shocked.

“No, just six or eight hours a day for three days or so,” Maddy reassured her.

“But what can I do for all of that time?” Viv asked.

“In your case, study. You still have book 5 to go over, and we can start you on some of the medical books that we have reproduced or even the study of Witchcraft,” Maddy told her. This seemed to satisfy Viv.

“In the meantime, you and Myles can be married. Dallas or Doreen can take you to the county building for that. We’ll have a party following that in the Nest. It’s the only place large enough for the Clan to gather in that we have. Nicolae and Sara had a party there after they were married,” Maddy told us. She was all smiles after telling us this.

“When would you like to be married?” followed that.

“Whenever it would be convenient,” I told her after looking over at Viv for an okay. That was when I remembered I didn’t have a ring for her.

“Well, after I get a ring set for her that is,” I amended. Viv was smiling on hearing that.

“Don’t worry about that. We have many jewelers as customers. I’ll check with Ken and see who he recommends. We could transfer you there this afternoon, if that’s alright,” Maddy told me.

“I’ll need to draw some money out of the bank first,” I told her but wasn’t sure if my bank had an office here.

“Don’t worry about that for now. You can put it on our account and straighten out the money later,” she told me before going to call her Husband.

It was shortly after this when Doreen appeared in the kitchen. Maddy had just gotten off the phone.

“There’s something that we forgot yesterday,” she told us on appearing. I wondered what she meant, and it took several seconds to realize what it was.

“Yes, we did,” I agreed.

“What was it?” Maddy asked. “And was it important?”

“Yes, it is,” I told her. “When we discussed why Doreen was visiting me, we realized that both of us had paid the Demons for the same information. I used a Demon named John, and you apparently used one named Bob. If that wasn’t enough, we learned from those we had captured that two short homeless men were the ones who outed me to Tony Tuminelli and stole his money before disappearing,” I told her.

“Yes, Keith suspects that they were the minor Demons who did the actual work in Chicago, and they decided to make a little extra money with the information they had developed,” Doreen added. Maddy didn’t look very happy on hearing this.

“We’ll need to visit the minor Demons and have a little talk with Bob and this John. Several of us should go, in our Dragon form, of course,” she told us.

“I’ll go,” Doreen volunteered, immediately. “I’ve always wanted to deal with those little bastards,” she added.

“Alright,” Maddy agreed. “We’ll need to include Myles, as he is the one most affected and he also paid one of them. Then you and me, but who else? We need at least one more,” she added.

“Maybe Nicolae. I’m sure a six-hundred-year-old Dragon will know how to deal with them,” Doreen told her Mother.

“Maybe,” her Mother told her. “But after the two of them get married,” she added.

That same morning in Chicago, three of the four sent to deal with the ‘Fixer’ went to see Tony at his apartment. Wenzel had gone to report the loss of the drone to his boss. They had all arrived in town late last night. It had taken them all of the previous day to make the trip as they had stopped several times to drink enough to continue the trip. They hadn’t wanted to face Tony or Bender.

Arriving back in Chicago at eleven last night, they had continued to drink until two in the morning before going to get some sleep. They were all still hungover at noontime the next day when they met to go to Tony’s apartment and face his wrath. Tony was initially glad to see them, even in the condition they were in. That didn’t last long, however.

“You guys look a little under the weather. From a bit too much celebrating a successful trip perhaps,” he said on seeing their condition.

“Ah ... no, Tony. It ... it wasn’t a successful trip,” Polack told him defensively.

“What?” Tony shouted in surprise. “What the hell do you mean?”

“We shouldn’t have gone down there, Tony,” Duszanski told him, while holding his aching head after Tony’s roar.

“He’s right, Tony. You don’t want to fuck with that guy,” Zelinka told him as he shuddered remembering the look of the Demon’s eyes on him. Tony had turned red in anger by now.

“You look just like those Demons now, Tony,” Polack told him seeing his complexion. “Just taller,” he added.

“What the hell is this about Demons?” Lou asked before Tony could explode again.

“That fucking guy somehow captured all four of us after the bomb blew up the drone. He had Demons with him,” Duszanski blurted out before realizing what he had just said. “Oh shit!” followed that.

“What the hell are you fucking assholes talking about?” Tony demanded, still in a rage.

“Start at the beginning. You aren’t making any sense,” Lou told them in a more reasonable voice. “Start before you arrived at the house,” he added. Polack started with unpacking the drone and went right up to after the bomb had exploded on being released by the drone.

“The next thing that we knew, we were sitting on benches in an empty warehouse. There was enough light to see the four short creatures and the guy facing us. We couldn’t get up or move. There was a hard looking woman in the background,” Polack told him.

“How the hell did you get there, and where was it?” Tony demanded.

“We have no idea. One minute we were standing on the road outside the house watching parts of the drone fall and the next we were in this warehouse sitting on these benches,” Polack told him.

“But it was the creatures,” Zelinka said interrupting him. “They were under five feet tall, had red skin and horns! They were dressed like gangsters from the Prohibition era, like you see in the old gangster movies like ‘The Untouchables’ or the Cagney movies on late night TV. They all had Tommy guns,” he continued.

“But it was their eyes,” Duszanski told him and shuddered again. “They were cold and piercing. It was like they could see right into your soul and knew everything you had ever done. They didn’t talk though. The guy did all of the talking,” he finished.

“Duszanski’s right. Those eyes could see everything, and it was like they pinned you up against the wall with them. They were that strong,” Polack agreed.

“What the hell did this guy Graham look like?” Tony screamed at them, tired of all of the distractions.

“He wasn’t Graham. He said we had attacked the wrong house. That it was the house of a friend of his. He was about average height, about mid-thirties, and rather ordinary looking,” Polack told him.

“He cast a spell on us, and we had to answer his questions. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t keep quiet. And those fucking Demons kept looking at us accusingly the whole time,” he continued.

“He questioned each of us separately. I could see that the others were asleep or passed out or something when he questioned me,” Zelinka added.

“Then what happened?” Lou asked, prodding them when they had said nothing more for a short time.

“We woke up early yesterday morning before sunrise. We were standing in a parking lot somewhere in Cleveland. Our vehicles were there behind us. The ‘Fixer’ was standing in front of us, but he only had two of the Demons with him. He told us to get out of Tennessee and go back to Chicago, He said to tell you that he would be coming after you ... at some time,” Polack told him.

“Yeah, he said that you would have to pay for the drone first,” Zelinka added before Tony turned an outraged face to him.

“Get out ... get the fuck out you worthless fucking bastards before I shoot all of you,” he screamed at them. The three of them didn’t lose any time leaving.

“Calm down, Tony,” Lou told his boss after the others were gone.

“We should check on their story, especially the part about this Demon thing,” Lou told him after a short time. Tony was still upset but had calmed down a bit.

“How can we check? Who would we ask?” he asked after pouring himself a drink.

“We get someone who knows about Magic and ask them,” Lou told him

“But who?”

“There is an old Witch who knows a lot about Magic. I think I can get her to come up here and talk to us. She’ll want to be paid though, and trying to stiff her is a very bad idea,” Lou told him after a short time.

“Go ahead, we need to know what the hell happened,” a cooler Tony told him. Lou made a call to someone, and an hour plus later, one of Tony’s men appeared with an old looking crone of a woman.

“Here she is, Lou, but she ain’t happy at all,” the guy told him before quickly leaving.

“What do you want Tony Tuminelli that you would get an old woman out of her bed at this time of the day?” she demanded after moving over in front of Tony.

“This is Mother Susemihl, Tony. She is the one I told you about,” Lou informed him. “She usually works nights,” he added.

The woman before him was old being easily seventy-five or more. She was short at 5’-2’’ or so with wrinkled skin, gray hair and black eyes. She was dressed in a long one-piece dress that covered her from her neck to just above the floor. It had long sleeves that revealed only her hands. She wore a large head scarf that was tied under her prominent chin and spread out over her shoulders. She spoke with a definite accent.

“I want to know about Magic and Demons,” Tony told her.

“What about Demons? They are not ones that people like you should have any contact with. They will lie, trick you, and steal your money or other valuables,” she told him immediately picking up on the mention of Demons.

“Some of my men ran into Demons on a job. They didn’t finish what they were sent to do. What can I do about them?” Tony demanded.

“Describe these Demons or whatever they were,” she told him.

“They were short. Had red skin and horns. They were dressed like gangsters from the 1920s and 30s. They had Tommy guns,” Lou told her. The old woman hissed as she drew air in between her teeth.

“Yes,” she said slowly. “Demons but not your ordinary or minor Demons. They are bad enough. What you have described are Major Demons. No one here or elsewhere summons them or deals with them. They are much too strong. Even one of them is more than all of the Magic users in Chicago would want to deal with collectively,” she told them.

“They claim that the man they were sent after had four of them with him,” Lou told her.

On hearing this, the old woman backed up, hissed again, and drew a sign in the air while mumbling something in a strange language. A ward appeared around her, but the others couldn’t see or sense it having no Magic or a Talent.

“Do not tell me his name or where he is. If he had four Major Demons with him, he is much too powerful to have anything to do with him. Do not go near him or come to his attention, as he is much too powerful for any number of Magic users to challenge him let alone those with no Magic. If he is after you for something, move to another country far away and hide. Even then his Demons may be able to find you. This person is much too dangerous for anyone but perhaps a Dragon to go after them,” she told them.