Spell Break: Part 12

The penultimate episode folks!  The second to last one!

I'm pretty nervous about this one, so be kind.

If you haven't been following along...well, you might as well just wait till Wednesday and read the whole thing.

Enjoy1

12

            Kelly ran, his eyes trained on the low flying Strix, even though it was obvious they were headed for Beans.  His heart was in his throat and fear like he hadn’t felt in a long time flooded his veins.  He stopped short when he reached the edge of the building and then slowly crept forward so he could see in the window.  He was dropping back on old habits, the ones he had used ten years ago when he was on the hunt for a rogue practitioner.  He couldn’t let his emotions get in the way, not when Jason was in danger.  He’d freak the fuck out once he got his man to safety.  As he got to a gap in the curtain and cautiously peered inside he was vaguely aware of Mary’s arrival from the opposite direction and the screech of tires at the curb.  A quick glance let him know that Liam had been alerted as well.  He had no idea what they were dealing with and he was grateful for the backup.

            But one glance inside Beans and Kelly knew the situation wasn’t good. 

            “Fuck,” he bit out.

            “Yep,” Liam agreed from where he was looking over Kelly’s shoulder.

            Kelly didn’t drop his guard as he reached out and yanked the door open, Mary and Liam flanking him.  He wasn’t as scared anymore.  Now that he had a vague idea of what was going on, he was edging into pissed off.  There could only be one of two reasons why Cora was here.  She sat up straighter at their entrance and did a slow clap.

            “Very impressive.  Very rock album cover.”

            “Let him go,” Kelly snarled, seeing that she had his lover wrapped up tight in a binding spell.  But she wasn’t just sitting there like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. 

            Cora gave a dismissive wave.  “I’m not hurting him.  He’s fine.”

            “What do you want?” Kelly ground out, knowing full well the quickest way to end this and get her out of here was to get to the bottom of this.  And he sure as hell wanted her gone and as far away from Jason as he could possibly manage. 

            Cora gave him a fake, pleasant smile before she reached into the bag at her feet.  Kelly tensed, magic at the ready.  But she simply pulled out a sealed, plain manila envelope and tossed it on the table.  Kelly eyed it like it was a rabid animal.  He knew what that was. 

            “You could have just dropped that at the house.”  Kelly fought to keep all emotion off of his face, but inside, his guts were churning.  He made no move to pick it up.

            “You know me.  I’ve always had a flair for the dramatic.”  She pointed to Jason with that smile on her face again and stage whispered, “Case in point.”

            Kelly’s patience was wearing thing.  “You’ve delivered it.  Release Jason and get the fuck out.”

            Her eyes went cold, the smile fell, and her voice dropped.  “You know the rules.  Open it.”

            “I don’t do that anymore,” Kelly said, his voice low and firm.  There was no way in hell he was opening the envelope.  He’d left that part of his life behind.

            Cora laughed and the sound grated.  “You know the Tribunal can conscript you again whenever they want. That was the deal you made when they released you from your contract.  Apparently this is a special case.”

            Kelly’s eyes flicked to Jason.  The man couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, but there was no denying the hurt that filled Jason’s eyes.  Goddamit it all to hell.  Kelly should have known that the one thing he’d kept from his boyfriend would come back to bite him in the ass.  He’d never expected this, not now, but he should have. He knew better.  And now Jason was caught in the middle, held hostage and forced to hear the truth from someone else.  There was no amount of groveling that could get him back in Jason’s good graces now.

            “Open.  It,” Cora snapped, her voice menacing.  Her patience, apparently, was also at an end and Kelly was obviously taking too long.

            He steeled himself before he looked her dead in the eye.  “No.”

            Suddenly a smile broke out over Cora’s face.  To call it evil would have been an understatement.  He’d known she’d always been a little too pleased with schadenfreude but this was a whole new level.  He voice was practically gleeful when she said, “I was so hoping you would say that.”

            “Wait!”

            Everyone turned to face Mary.  Well, except Jason, who couldn’t move, but his eyes rolled in her direction.  She was pale and her hands were shaking.  Her eyes were fixed to the envelope and she took a deep breath before raising her eyes to look directly at Kelly.

            “You have to do it, Kelly.  You know what will happen if you don’t and I can’t, won’t, lose you.  Not like that.”

            Kelly already knew he didn’t have much of a choice, but when his sister put it like that, his heart nearly broke.  He wouldn’t just be affecting his own life anymore.  His sister, the woman who had helped piece him back together, deserved more than that.  And so did Jason.  He had to set his righteousness aside.  For their sake.  Even if he’d probably lose Jason anyway. 

            His mind was made up but still he hesitated a moment longer.  That look on Jason’s face…fuck, why now?  Ten years and he hadn’t heard a word from the Tribunal and they had to come a fuck it up now? 

            Angry, Kelly snatched the envelope from the table and pressed his thumb against the wax seal.  It took a moment for it to recognize his magic.  He hated that part; it meant he was accepting the contract.  There was no getting out of it now.  Once the seal fell away, he ripped open the top and perused the contents, reading carefully.  Somehow, he wasn’t all that surprised by what he saw.  When he saw the signature on the order, he started to understand a bit why it was him that was chosen.  After he felt he knew enough, and could be certain of the truth, he shoved the papers back inside and tucked the whole thing under his arm.

            “I’m sorry to hear about Timmy, Cora,” Kelly said softly.

            Her eyes immediately welled with crocodile tears.  “Rat familiars just don’t live as long as other familiars and I had him for twenty years.  It’s a wonder—“ She cut herself off and Kelly watched the realization dawn on her face.  Then, just as quickly, it was replaced by anger, “They had me deliver my own fucking death warrant?!”

            “Yep,” Kelly said as calmly as possible, his magic at the ready for the moment she bolted.

            “The rat bastards!” she spat and jumped up.

            Cora shot a preemptive strike but Kelly’s shield was in place and it bounced off.  Nola hissed, truly pissed off that anyone would try to attack Kelly.  He didn’t have time to reassure her.  Instead, he silently pushed the idea that hiding would be prudent.  She knew the drill, she’d been with him before, and she jumped off his shoulders and streaked under the table.  He saw her jump into Jason’s lap in his peripheral vision but he kept his attention on Cora.  He’d have to trust Liam and Mary to keep Jason and Nola safe. They knew not to interfere.

            The fire shot from Kelly’s hands without much thought on his part.  It was his standby, an old favorite, and it worked well for him.  Cora’s clothes caught almost instantly and she didn’t bother trying to put it out.  Kelly kept the fire burning even as he reached out with one hand to seal the doors and window.  Cora couldn’t escape out the front.  She had to try to make her way out the back door and, in order to get there, she’d have to go through Kelly.  Just what he wanted.

            She gave a furious, wordless scream and charged toward him.  She made quite a sight, her clothes burning but her skin untouched.  Her gray streak of magic soared in an arc to land a solid blow on his shoulder, immediately making the whole area numb.  Sneaky bitch.  That was a pretty powerful spell and hard to master.  It didn’t slow Kelly as much as she would have liked, though.  Kelly raised his good arm and brought it down in a slashing motion.  His purple magic was a site to behold and it slashed down her body and thousands of tiny cuts opened on her skin.  She screamed again, the rage apparent, and took a second to heal herself. 

            Huh.  That was fast.

            They traded magical blows, the gray and purple colliding and making a hell of a racket and a great big mess.  The bruises forming on Kelly’s arms were spectacular.  And he was tiring.  But he couldn’t allow this to end with Cora alive.  He had to think of something to bring her down. Magically, they were evenly matched.  He needed the upper hand.

            A wash of gray flew passed him to the left and suddenly Jason’s body went rigid.  He still hadn’t been able to move, but now he was tense, his eyes pleading as bits of pink were slowly swirling into the gray cloud that surrounded him.  She was siphoning his magic!

            Apparently, what Kelly needed to get the better of her was unmitigated rage.  How dare she touch Jason?!  She wanted to make this personal?  Kelly suddenly had no problem with that.  He went after her bodily, taking her slight form to the floor.  She was quick to escape his hold.  She had martial arts training.  But Kelly had studied krav maga and he knew tricks she couldn’t even begin to dream of.  The struggle was intense and for a few seconds, Kelly thought Cora would manage to get free.  But with a heave, a twist, and a kidney punch, he had her pinned to the floor.  His hand on her heart, he poured magic down the contact point until her heart stopped beating.  Long minutes later, he stood.  He swiped the sweat from his face with hand.  His knees were shaking. 

            But it was over. 

            Kelly managed to walk back to the table where his lover, sister and closest friend were huddled by sheer determination.  He felt sick to his stomach but he had to check on Jason.  He had to know this hadn’t been too much. He reached out for his beautiful lover, wanting to drag him close and hold him tight.  But Jason flinched from his touch and Kelly dropped his hand, his heart breaking.  That was that then.

            “She held me hostage,” Jason said, his voice devoid of emotion.

            “She did,” Kelly agreed softly.

            “She did horrible things and sucked the life from her familiar,” Jason murmured, his tone the same.

            “She did,” Kelly agreed once again.

            “You killed her,” Jason’s voice broke and he started shaking.  Kelly wanted to reach out to him but Jason curled in on himself, pulling up his knees, his feet on the seat of the chair, and wrapped his arms around his jean clad legs.  Kelly forced his tears down.

            “I did.”

            For several long, tense moments, no one said a word.  No one moved.  The Mary looked up at Kelly with such a look of disgust on her face that Kelly actually winced.  She leaned close to Jason and murmured something in his ear that was too soft for Kelly to hear.  He watched helplessly as Jason unwound himself and stood, let himself be tucked into Mary’s side, and let her lead him from the café.  They went out the back door, Henry and Strix following behind, so as to avoid the dead body in the middle of the café floor.  Kelly pressed a hand to his stomach and told himself he could vomit as soon as he got home.  When he was in his sanctuary, then he could fall apart.

            “What I want to know,” Liam began conversationally like there wasn’t a dead woman lying on the floor and the love of Kelly’s life hadn’t just walked out on him, “is why you?”

            Kelly shook his head.  That wasn’t the question.  “I know why me.  Morgan signed the order.  What I want to know is why now?  She’s planning something.”

            Liam nodded like that made perfect sense.  “You still trust her?”

            “Absolutely and completely,” Kelly answered without even the tiniest bit of hesitation. 

            Liam nodded again. “I’ll clean up.  You get out of here.  Go check on Jason.”

            His heart was bleeding.  That’s what it felt like.  It had been one thing too many for Jason to handle.  Kelly absently rubbed at his chest.  “You saw him.  He doesn’t want me to touch him.  He doesn’t want me anywhere near him.”

            “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t need you.  I can’t believe you just let him walk out of here.”

            “Don’t,” Kelly’s voice was full of warning.

            Liam just rolled his eyes.  “I’ll clean up,” he repeated and made a shooing gesture.

            Kelly went. He didn’t have the stomach to deal with it, not after losing Jason.  He was exhausted, physically, mentally, emotionally.  He’d let his second in command deal with this. 

            Nola trailed along behind him, yowling, until he stopped long enough to let her climb up and settle on his shoulders.  She wanted to go to Jason.  She thought they should be with him.  But Kelly knew that what Jason had just witnessed, what he experienced, had been intense.  And it had been too much.  He knew that he’d lost Jason.  And it was his own damn fault. 

 

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