Chapter 5

As an enticement to visit more often, Charlie's mother switched cars with him before he left. The car he was now driving was smaller, lighter and far more fuel-efficient than the Granada, with cruise control, a working heater and air conditioner, and a CD player. It wasn't new, but it wasn't a rolling pile of crap, either. Amelie seemed pensive as they drove back to the campus.

"So, how did it go?" he asked to break the silence.

"My eyes still hurt." she replied.

"Eh?"

"The test. When I gave her the medallion, it shone with a pure-white light that hurt to look at, but was so beautiful I almost couldn't muster the will to look away."

"Wow." Charlie responded.

"I gave her what her parents thought was a pretty piece of costume jewelry. In reality, it's a charm to protect her from detection by evil beings. The way she clung to the charmed bauble and the testing medallion, I think we can trust her not to take it off willingly." Charlie reached across the gap between the seats and laced his fingers in Amelie's.

"Good thinking." Charlie said. "The last thing we need is to have her kidnapped by a real-life version of Lord Moldyshorts."

"Who?" Amelie asked.

"Voldemort." Charlie responded by way of clarification. When she still looked unenlightened, he added "From Harry Potter?" She rolled her eyes.

"A children's book villain?" she asked. She released his hand, pressing both of hers to her temples and muttering a healing spell he remembered from when she'd gotten rid of his hangover. Charlie knew his comparison was ridiculous, so he couldn't be mad at her. He put the matter out of his mind, for now. There was a highway exit ahead, and he had to be alert for cars heading for the gas station nearby or the overpass just ahead.

Once the little wide spot in the road was behind them, Amelie decided the time had come to reveal the story of her childhood. She'd been a good little girl, happy and helpful, living in the country, before her uncle had come to visit. She'd had no concept of why, but the man had terrified her. Nevertheless, she'd taken his tests and passed them. The soft, red glow given off by the spider medallion when she touched it had pleased him to no end.

When her parents had refused to let him teach her the ways of magic, he'd slain her father with a lightning spell and incinerated her mother with a fire spell. Then, he'd spirited Amelie away to his own home. Ten hellish years of training under a geas had given her the skill and power to overcome him, shattering his geas and ripping through his wards to turn him into a frog so she could feed him to his own pet snake. From then on, she'd taken her training into her own hands, determined that no one would ever take advantage of her again. She'd accumulated a large collection of spellbooks and magical items--rarely with the permission of the former owners--and strove to be the strongest, or at least the strongest she could be with her level of magical ability. She'd sought pleasures of the flesh as well, but none of it made her happy. Until she'd become Charlie's, the closest she'd felt to happiness was a kind of self-satisfied smugness when she defeated a challenger.

Charlie pulled into a rest area, parking the little car and moving to the back seat. Amelie cast a spell to keep the activity inside from being noticed while leaving the vehicle visible (so that no tired trucker would ram into them trying to occupy their spot). She moaned as he undressed her slowly, seductively, his caresses as light as feathers. She came hard as he buried himself to the hilt in her hot snatch. Spurred on by her cries of ecstasy, he drove himself into her again and again, moving in the ways he was coming to know that pleased her most. She came again just as he was getting ready to cum inside her. They lay gasping in the back seat. Amelie whispered sweet endearments and devotions once she caught her breath. Charlie couldn't pretend he wasn't touched.

They dressed as best they could in the confined space of the little car, and Charlie drove them to the next decent-sized town along the highway, where he pulled off and headed for Taco Bell. It wasn't fancy, but it wasn't leftover Thanksgiving sides, either.

Artus and Brutus Myrdhynn waited in respectful silence as Ali Myrdhynn read the scroll they had brought back from the Vatican. His favorite pet, an Arial who had once been a Persian princess named Lal, knelt at his side, her wings folded.

"Good work, you two." he said. "It seems our late, lamented brother was able to take steps to ensure that he would be able to seek out a successor even after his demise. This document records fragments of a spell overheard by the Templar Knight before he got close enough to use his sword, Wizardsbane, to fatal effect."

"What is our next move, Master Ali Myrdhynn?" Artus asked, his blue-black hair falling in his eyes as he bowed. Brutus Myrdhynn didn't have Artus' problem, because he simply had no hair. The unusual manner of his gifts' awakening had left him bald from his head to his feet.

"I will retrieve Tashi Myrdhynn's grimoire and commune with his spirit to seek his counsel."

"Pardon my intrusion, Masters, but I'm afraid that may be a bit difficult." said a voice from the darkness. Ali Myrdhynn gestured, and a light shone on the Head Librarian. "Tashi Myrdhynn's grimoire has disappeared, I'm afraid, along with an apprentice who was arranging books at the time." He approached the Circle and held up a parchment bearing the seal of one of the investigator-mages who handled such problems as disappearing books and personnel. The parchment floated from the Librarian's hand and into Ali Myrdhynn's. The leader of the Order broke the seal and read the contents of the parchment.

"Thank you, Librarian." he said after a time. "It seems Tashi Myrdhynn has taken things into his own proverbial hands."

"What shall we do, then?" asked Artus again.

"Artus, locate the sword, Wizardsbane. There are still those within the Catholic Church who see it as their duty to annihilate all users of magic, no matter how they use it. Brutus, go to the scene of the disappearance and track the destination for the transportation spell that was used. You should be able to pick up the trail from there."

"At once, Ali Myrdhynn." the two said in unison, bowing. The two Myrdhynns disappeared without preamble, and the Librarian vanished with a quiet spell, leaving Ali Myrdhynn alone with Lal, who looked up at her Master for instructions. He bade her rise, and she did, stretching her lithe and sensuous body and following him through a rift he made, pure-white wings ruffling slightly as they trailed behind her.

"Dude, you traded up!" Steve said in greeting as Charlie and Amelie got out of the car. He noticed his roommate had someone with him--a curvy Latin lady with a look in her eyes when she looked at Steve that reminded him of Amelie.

"You gonna introduce me to your friend there?"

"Oh, my bad, dude. This is Claudia." Claudia shook Charlie's hand and returned to clinging to Steve.

"Steve, have you been messing with Amelie's magical artifacts?"

"I've already scolded him." Amelie said. She looked at Claudia. "Has he been taking care of you over Thanksgiving break, Officer?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes. But it's just Claudia now. I lost my job as a police officer because I couldn't bear to be away from Master long enough to go to work." she said. Amelie glared daggers at Steve.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's chill. I'll figure it out."

"All I can say is you better." Charlie replied, pulling his covered canvas out of the trunk. "I don't know if I'll be able to restrain Amelie if you screw it up." Hidden by the canvas, he winked at Amelie, who took it as her cue to glare even more balefully at Steve, who gulped. Charlie slammed the trunk with his foot--a maneuver he'd practiced often enough with the Granada.

"So, are we gonna storm the dorm en masse?" asked a familiar voice. Charlie turned, angling the canvas until he could see Chelsea approaching.

"Actually, we were thinking of a combination diversion and stealth attack." Charlie replied with a smile. Chelsea smiled and kissed him behind the canvas. Amelie cast her invisibility spell over the women and herself, and Steve did a silly tap-dance on the way up the stairs to disguise the sound of the extra feet.

"Nice work, Happy Feet." Chelsea joked when Amelie dismissed the spell in the dorm room. She gave him a sisterly peck on the cheek, to which Claudia responded by becoming even more clingy. "Jealous much?"

"We'll leave you two to work it out." Charlie said, looping his arms in Amelie's and Chelsea's. They walked through the closet, and found that they were not alone.

Iset Myrdhynn lay face-down on the floor. Behind her, holding the grimoire of Tashi Myrdhynn, was a girl in livery who appeared to be around eighteen. In a flat, monotone voice, she chanted a spell from the book. She pointed at Amelie. Charlie moved himself between the two sorceresses as a golden beam was unleashed from the mysterious girl's finger. Predictably, the spell bounced, striking its caster instead of its intended target. The girl flopped to the floor like a puppet with her strings cut.

"Whoa!" Chelsea exclaimed. "How'd you do that?"

"Hostile magic doesn't work on me." Charlie said. "It just bounces off. Amelie, see to Iset Myrdhynn, would you?" Amelie knelt beside the fallen Myrdhynn, examining her carefully. Charlie took the grimoire from the other female's limp fingers, looking at the open page to see if he could glean any clues to the purpose of the spell that he'd bounced back.

There was a presence about the grimoire that made Charlie feel like Gandalf regarding the One Ring on the floor of Bilbo's house. The spell on the open page was in Greek, and there didn't seem to be a translation or explanation in English--or even Olde English.

"It seems like she tried to make Iset Myrdhynn hers like I am yours, Master." Amelie said. "I can transfer ownership to you, but there's a trap-charm woven in, and trying to set her free would be fatal to both of us."

"Go ahead and transfer, then." Charlie said, glaring down at the prone sorceress. "If she can't be free, then the least we can do is make sure she has a Master we can trust." The spell was brief, and then Amelie was on her feet. "Here. What's this spell do?" She took the book from him, going pale for a moment.

"The spell irretrievably erases the victim's knowledge of past and self and makes them into a total slave." Amelie said. "Thank you for saving me from it, Master. I can't bear the thought of being enslaved to anyone but you." She seemed about to continue, but regarded the grimoire strangely, as if it had sprouted a face or something. "Strange. I thought I felt something..."

"Like the book was watching you?"

"Yes. A presence..." Amelie said.

"Seal it up just to be safe." Charlie said, and he knelt down beside the fallen Myrdhynn. "Sanna? Sanna, wake up, please."

"Uhnn..." she responded groggily, forcing herself up to a kneeling position before she opened her eyes. "Master! I love you so much! I ... don't remember trying to avenge myself upon you, but I must have."

"No. Someone else activated all that stuff I left in your head and tried to bind you to themselves instead. Amelie transferred ownership to me because of the trap-charm that would have made any attempt to set you free fatal to both of you."

"Oh." Sanna said. "I'm sorry, I don't remember. I ... Kamilah!" The Myrdhynn put her fingers at the girl's pulse-point. "Kamilah, are you all right?"

"Was that her name?" Charlie asked.

"Yes, Master." Sanna responded. Amelie screamed. Charlie whirled to his feet, finding a big, hairless man standing over Amelie, reaching down to pick up the book.

"Brutus Myrdhynn?" Sanna asked. The big man brought the book to Charlie, holding it out like an offering.

"The book will harm no one else as long as you don't send it away again." the man said. "Tashi Myrdhynn was always less than subtle."

"What about them?" Charlie asked.

"I'm not sure what part the Librarian's apprentice is to play. You'll have to figure that out for yourself. And only a Myrdhynn can break the trap-charm keeping you from freeing Iset Myrdhynn."

"So, you can break it then?"

"Apparently, you are meant to do it yourself, when you are ready." Brutus said. "You have the perfect teacher right there." He indicated Sanna with his chin. Charlie took the book from the big Myrdhynn's fingers. "Farewell, Charles Lobo. Farewell, Sister Iset." With that, he walked out through a portal of his own making, which closed politely behind him.

"I don't want any more trouble out of you." Charlie said to the book. More than just a vague presence, he now felt a kind of dry amusement emanating from the haunted spellbook.

The universe lurched.

He was being chased through a shadowed wood. The witch-hunter, though weighted down by his sword and armor, was tireless. A sticky resin, the mixture of certain sacred herbs mixed with dogwood sap and the ashes of a vampire felled by sunlight, coated his face and robes and prevented him from moving through portals or using other transportation spells. He reflected on how much nicer the Christians had been before Constantine's time as he hopped across the river on some rocks that jutted above the water. One of them wobbled under his boots, but he managed to make it to shore without incident. He ran upstream. He heard the witch-hunter fall into the river behind him, buying him time. He paused to catch his breath, knowing the hopelessness of his situation.