Chapter 20

Everyone was still excited about the upcoming move to the O'Connell Realm on Tuesday, the 18th of October, when they resumed work at the printing plant. The excitement was soon replaced by shock.

On Wednesday morning, the 19th, just before 8:30, as everyone was just getting to work, Uncle Will noticed a black Humvee and several black Suburbans pull up across the street from the plant. The hair on the back of his neck stood up in premonition, and he instantly reacted by reciting the spell that activated all of the wards and the defensive shell around the printing plant's building.

The spell also alerted the four of us. We were just starting on our schoolwork together at Sean's house. We all instantly joined hands and started reciting the spell that activated every ward and defensive shell that we had set up, and brought them all to maximum strength.

"Damn, what now?" Sean asked in disgust.

"I'll take Annie and go to the printing plant to check with Uncle Will. You and Sara round up our folks and our Sisters. We'll meet you shortly at our old property. Someone is bound to show up there, too," I told them getting our response organized.

"Our Sisters are going to be real unhappy at having their classes interrupted," Sean said with a grin.

"Tough! This is more important. You might see if Dad can reach the Boston Council. We activated all of their defensive shells and wards too, and they may not have needed them yet," I told him before Annie and I transferred to the printing plant.

There was still some confusion and panic at the plant when we arrived, but Uncle Will was getting it under control.

"There is nothing to worry about," he was telling everyone. "They can't get through the wards or the defensive shell."

"What about our families and our homes?" Denise, the older lady who worked in the herbal store, asked urgently.

"The wards are up on all of your homes and around your properties. They can't get into them," I told them. Everyone turned to look at Annie and me then.

"What's the situation, Uncle Will?" I asked next.

"There is a big black Humvee and a couple of Suburbans parked across the street. I had a really bad feeling when I saw them pull up, and I set the wards and the defensive shell. There are a bunch of men across the street behind them now," Uncle Will told me. He had just finished when the demands began.

"This is the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Investigation. All of you people in that building are under arrest. Come out of there immediately with your hands on your heads. If you fail to come out in five minutes, we will attack the building and drag you out," a voice on a bullhorn demanded in ultimatum.

"Don't pay any attention to them," I told everyone. "They can't get past our wards with anything they have."

"What if they start shooting?" Elysee Watkins asked in fear.

"Elysee, nothing physical can get through our wards, and they don't have anyone powerful enough to make a dent in them Magically," Annie told the young woman that she had spent considerable time working with.

"If you are worried, you can return to your homes through the portals to check on them and your families," I told our employees. "Your family wards are the same as the ones that are on this building and our homes," I reminded them. Several employees quickly went to check on their families, but the Stuart men remained here with determined looks on their faces.

"We're going to see what else is going on," I told Uncle Will when things had quieted down.

"Yes, we'll be fine here," he assured me. As we were leaving, we could hear the threats start on the bullhorn again. Apparently the five minutes were up.

We joined the other members of our family on the grassy field where our parents' property had previously been.

"How are our employees and the printing plant?" Dad asked in concern after we appeared.

"The building and everyone there are fine," I told him. "A few people went to check on their families," I added.

"There were a number of FBPI vehicles and people across the street. They were demanding that our people all come out to be arrested," I told him next.

"Perhaps we should send someone from the family to reassure them," Sean suggested.

"A couple of people!" I suggested.

"Some of our sisters?" Sean suggested then.

"Yes, that might be a good idea," Dad remarked. "Does anyone want to volunteer?"

"We'll go," Tara said, indicating herself, Muriel, and Bill who were all standing together.

"All right. See if you can get them back into their daily routine. That should steady them some," Dad told them.

"You might want to use a 'Noise Spell' to get rid of the annoyance caused by the FBPI," I told them.

"Oh, I don't know. I think we could find something more amusing than that to annoy them with," Muriel said before she giggled. Tara looked at her sister in an exasperated fashion, but Bill was grinning big time.

"Don't do anything to injure them," Dad cautioned them.

"Me? Injure someone?" Muriel asked, innocently. "Of course not! I'll just use a little something to scare the daylights out of them," she finished, and giggled again mischievously before they vanished.

It was right after they left that we heard two gunshots from the end of the road outside our defensive shell and wards. It was followed by a voice on a bullhorn.

"O'Connells, this is the Federal Bureau of Paranormal Investigation. You are all under arrest. Come out with your hands up immediately, or we will use all necessary force to bring you out," we heard the voice say.

To answer them, we leisurely strolled down the path to the end of the road and our defensive shell. The voice repeated their demands again during that time. On approaching the light red defensive shell, we could see two armed black Humvees and there were three black Suburbans behind them. The man with the bullhorn was standing back by the Suburbans. On seeing the man with the bullhorn, Dad began to smile.

"That's Justin!" Dad said in a bemused voice. "It looks like he has sunk to his maximum level of incompetence."

"Justin?" our Moms asked, looking puzzled.

"Yes, you remember him. He was my college roommate before I moved out here. We met him on the evening that we went to that terrible movie."

"Oh yes!" Mother Margie said, remembering. "The one with the possessive girlfriend. You remember him, don't you, Katie?"

"Mister smooth and cool?" Mother Katie asked in a puzzled voice. "The one who thought he was a big ladies' man?"

"Yes, that was Justin! I washed out his mouth with a soap solution later when he spoke disparagingly about the two of you," Dad told them. This was all news to the rest of us. (See Magic Ink for all of the details of these incidents)

"Really? You never told us!" Mother Margie said.

"It didn't seem important at the time," Dad told her, dismissing the incident.

Those outside our defensive shell could see us approaching through it and the glamour, but the inconsistency didn't register with them. The man with the bullhorn approached the two Humvees.

"Well Justin, it looks like you have finally found your maximum level of incompetence," Dad told the man with the bullhorn.

"Incompetence, Farm-boy? You and your family are the ones under arrest. Your gig here is over. All of you will be going to prison for a long time, and I'll be the one with the last laugh. How does that make me incompetent?" he demanded, surlily.

"You always did have trouble seeing the obvious, Justin. You are assuming that we will surrender. We have no intention of doing that, and you can't get through this defensive shell or these wards."

"We can starve you out! We're the Government and have all the time in the world," Justin blustered snottily.

"I don't think that you do," Dad told him. "Today is the 19th of October. Tomorrow is the 20th and the first anniversary of your organization. I think you are trying for a big push to justify your existence. So far, all your people have managed to do is arrest some minor Magic practitioners, and you haven't even annoyed the major players in the field. I don't think you have any time at all," Dad finished with a big smile. Justin on the other side of the defensive shell didn't look happy with that statement at all. Shortly, however, he began to smile again.

"I believe you have underestimated our capabilities," Justin said, and turned to call to a woman in one of the SUVs. A fairly tall, thin, older woman, who could have been pretty when younger, exited the vehicle. Time had not been kind to her appearance and the long black dress that she wore didn't help either, nor did the glamour that we could easily see through. She approached closer to the defensive shell, but stopped well short of it and Justin.

"Well, well!" Dad said in surprise. "If it isn't Marguerite Mayfair come to visit after all of these years."

"YOU!!" Marguerite hissed in anger on recognizing Mark. "You killed my niece!" she spat accusingly.

"NO, I warned La Marais that if she ever did anything against me, my wives, or my family that the spell would be turned against her, and she would be the one to suffer," Dad told her patiently. "She tried again after a year or so, and her spell backfired just as I said it would.

"Also," Dad continued, "someone more powerful than she was helped her lay the trap and cast the glamour that she was using.

"It was someone from her family," Dad continued, accusingly.

"Was it you, Marguerite?" he demanded, angrily.

"You ... you would accuse me!?" Marguerite demanded in indignation, while not denying the accusation.

"Enough of this!" Justin barked unhappily. "Do what we are paying you for, Witch. Get rid of these blocks and make these people surrender," he demanded in a rage. Marguerite gave him a look that said she thought he was the scum of the Earth, but advanced closer to the defensive shell and us.

She stopped just in front of the first Humvee, said something under her breath and cast a hand full of powder at the defensive shell. The powder sparkled in the air, contacted the shell, and went up in a puff of smoke. Marguerite Mayfair looked very unhappy at these happenings.

"Something is wrong!" she said to Justin behind her. "I thought that for just an instant I saw two images as the powder touched their shell. It should have removed any glamour and the shell as well!"

"Well it didn't!!" Justin barked, even more unhappy and angry. "Get rid of those thing and get us inside, or else!" he demanded in a loud and threatening voice.

"Don't bark at me, or I'll turn you into the dog that you are," Marguerite hissed in anger before she drew herself up in righteous indignation.

"Now, now, Justin! Don't anger the paid help," Dad teased with a smile, and then laughed.

Marguerite glared at us with scorn, and then tried an enchantment that required a different powder, and she traced a sign in the air also. The wards in the shell sparked mildly when the spell and the powder hit them, but nothing was disturbed, and I placed a hand on the shell to check the continuity of the wards there. They were fine. It had no more effect on them than a fly would have had hitting a two foot thick brick wall. The effect on Marguerite was much more profound.

"YOU!!" Marguerite hisses, seething. "You aren't strong enough to have created anything that could resist that spell. No one is strong enough to create something that could resist that spell."

"I didn't create these wards or this defensive shell," Dad told her and paused for effect. "My children did."

"WHAT!!?" Marguerite demanded in a rage. "Those puny looking brats with you, or was it those scrawny girls behind them?"

"All of them are Senior Masters, even the youngest, and they are all much more powerful than I am," Dad assured her with a proud parental smile.

"NO, never! The young never have that kind of power. It must be accumulated with age," she insisted in a scream, and was now shaking with rage. She turned then, retracing her path back to the Suburbans, and screamed to someone or something still in the second one in a strange language. Six creatures emerged from the Suburban.

They were strange looking and more closely resembled stone figures than people. As they emerged, each one grew in size and bulk until they were over twelve feet tall and appeared to be animated stone block creatures.