Blood and Spirits: Book 15 of The Witch Fairy Series Read online

  “Tell her to get a move on, it’s almost snack time and Mama Bacon won’t be cooking in a kitchen with a wailing glob,” Taz urges.

  I give him a sour look. “Yes, let’s take care of the problem so it doesn’t interfere with your fifth meal of the day.” The sad thing for his waistline is, Tabitha really does make them a nighttime snack.

  “Fourth,” he sniffs, completely ignoring my sarcasm.

  “I will take the one in the kitchen, you do the one on the terrace,” Tabitha tells Adriel. The two nod at each other and give me, and then Mom, a pointed look. I, apparently, am to stay here with my shell shocked mother.

  When the two are gone, Mom speaks in a voice just above a whisper. Meaning I must strain my poor, overworked ears to hear her. “You promise me that you will let us go before we become those creatures.”

  Startled by her words, I hurry to reassure her again that she has nothing to worry about. “Mom, you are not going to become those things. You and Dad are whole and you’re going to stay that way.” As her words sink farther in, though, I ask tentatively, “Am I keeping you and Dad here against your will?” I always thought they wanted to stay. At least until Zac is grown.

  Her turn to be startled. “What? Of course not,” my mother rushes to say. She moves closer and lays a cold hand on my cheek, “It is a miracle your father and I can still be a part of your life and your brother’s.” Biting her translucent lip, she adds with a glance toward the house, “But if that ever happens…” Her voice trails off.

  Laying a hand over the one that is currently giving me frostbite on my cheek, I reassure her yet again. “I won’t let that happen. You and Dad will be just as you are for as long as you like.”

  The exorcisms must work. After several minutes my ear drums will never forget, there is blessed silence. “Come on,” Taz says to Felix, “maybe she started our snack.” Yes, because that is going to be the first thing on Tabitha’s mind after exorcising a wailing, vengeful spirit. Then again, Tabitha does process her stress by cooking. Taz may be that much closer to what I know will be his fifth meal of the day. Not his fourth. I’ve been counting. I really need to put him on a diet.

  I turn to head back to the house when a familiar voice stops me in my tracks. “I expect you to keep her safe.”

  2 Chapter

  The aforementioned Angel I do not ever want to piss off? Standing right behind me. I turn slowly to face Rashnu. I admit, I did not expect to find worry on her beautiful face. Well, beautiful in this shape. I’ve seen her when she turns into the true Angel of Judgement. She is one scary beast. Literally.

  “Does that mean these things really are targeting Adriel?” I ask.

  Pressing her pink, bow shaped lips together, Rashnu says after a moment, “You know I am not allowed to confirm that.”

  I’ll go ahead and take that as a yes. “Can you at least tell me why they’re targeting her?” I plead. Putting two and two together, I add, “Raziel was taken because he couldn’t be trusted to keep what he knows to himself.”

  “I believe so.”

  Could it be she doesn’t know who took him, either? No, her presence here means she knows what is going on. Her confirmation also means the Seraphim are involved. They are the only ones who can pretty much do as they like without anyone else being able to stop them. I’ve seen what they look like when they become beasts, too. They make Rashnu look like a kitten. “There will be more of them, won’t there.” Ghosts, I mean, not Seraphim. I don’t bother to put an inflection in my statement to make it seem like a question. We both already know the answer. If there weren’t going to be more, Rashnu wouldn’t be here making sure I am ready to protect her favorite Angel of Death.

  Rashnu sighs. “Things would be much simpler if your Angel heritage took precedence over your mortality.” I believe that is a convoluted way of saying none of the Angels can give me any type of useful information because of my pesky freewill as a mortal. Damn freewill. It really is overrated sometimes. Not really.

  I try to frame my next question in a way that will not get her in trouble if she answers without a riddle. “Why would a vengeful spirit attack someone it did not know in life?”

  Rashnu smiles. She knows I am trying to get around the system. Thankfully, she still answers my question. “In rare cases, something can draw it away from its target. Something it may want more than revenge on the soul it was haunting.” Sobering, she continues, “I cannot help you with this but I will be watching. If a situation arises and you need the help of your fellow Angels, you need only ask.”

  As nice as it is she said that, I know from experience that I must exhaust every possible weapon in my arsenal before I can get Angelic assistance. Even then, they may not be able to help me. “Thanks,” I say with a smile. “It’s good to know you have my back.” Rashnu has come through with some pretty helpful information in the past. I am confident she will help as much as she can in this situation. Despite how scared I am of her, I like her.

  Still, her priority is keeping one of her charges safe. “As I said, I expect you to keep Adriel safe. She is too loyal to leave you, even if that means spending her mortal life as a target.” There is no smile on her face now. In her eyes, the beast she can become is staring out at me, letting me know how serious she is.

  Hoping to keep that beast at bay, I assure her, “I will do my best.”

  With a grateful nod, Rashnu leaves and I am no longer in Angel time. My mind is reeling even faster now. Rashnu is worried. Raziel couldn’t be trusted to keep his mouth shut in this situation even though he has done it for millennia. Things are going to get that bad. This is going to suck. Sighing, I trudge back to the house to face the coming disaster.

  I find Adriel, Tabitha and Mom at the kitchen counter. Taz is sitting in a pool of disappointment at Tabitha’s feet. She has not yet turned her stress into a cooking spree. Felix is also at her feet and staring at a spot near the refrigerator. He must be developing Taz’s appetite. That’s okay. He’s too skinny. He could use a few extra pounds.

  “Rashnu says hi,” I tell Adriel. She didn’t actually, but it seems like a good lead in to the conversation.

  “Rashnu visited you?” my Fallen Angel friend says in surprise. “That is not a good sign.”

  “Tell me about it,” I moan as I climb onto a stool. “Apparently, if I don’t keep you safe, I have to answer to her.”

  In a huff, Adriel replies, “I do not need you to take care of me. I am perfectly able to handle whatever is thrown my way.”

  “I think you’re missing the point,” I drawl. “Rashnu would not have come if things weren’t seriously messed up. She wouldn’t confirm it, of course, but there are going to be more attacks.”

  “Did she say why?” Mom asks. Obviously, she is not well versed in Angel communications. They never say why.

  I shake my head. “No, she can’t. She could lose her wings if she gives me too much information. But, she did give me one reason why a vengeful spirit might attack someone it didn’t know in life. It might be after something better than revenge on the soul it’s been haunting.”

  Tabitha snorts. “The whole point of their existence is revenge. What the hell could draw them away from that?”

  I have no freaking idea. I’m not going to say that out loud, though. “Maybe they are transferring their revenge somehow. Maybe it’s even better to take revenge on an Angel of Death than the one they feel wronged them in life.”

  “Technically, that wouldn’t be revenge. It would be aggression,” Taz corrects. I ignore him. This is not the time for semantics even if he does have a point.

  “Lucky me,” Adriel snarks. Sobering, she says, “That only makes sense if they know I am here. If my light isn’t shining through my mortality, what could possibly lead them to me?”

  I shrug. I certainly don’t have the answers. All I have is a heaping pile of questions that fester and grow with each passing moment. Pretty soon, I won’t be able to handle the stench of them. “Maybe there’s a
vengeful spirit grapevine,” I snark.

  “Do you hear yourself speak? If not, I would be happy to repeat all of your dumbass comments so you can hear how stupid they sound.” I swing my foot out toward my obnoxious Familiar, but he can move his fat little body pretty darn fast when he needs to. This was definitely one of those times he needed to.

  “Considering their inability to speak and communicate, that seems unlikely,” Adriel says dryly. Does no one understand sarcasm around here?

  Moving on. “We should probably make a plan since the impression I got is that there will definitely be more.”

  “More what?” Kallen asks as he and Dad come through the kitchen door.

  Mom rushes to Dad and throws her arms around him. “Whoa,” he exclaims, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. At least, that’s what it looks like. I don’t know how much of each other they can feel. “What’s going on?”

  “Please tell me you left Zac at the palace,” Mom says instead of filling him in on why she is clinging to him like a spider monkey.

  This, of course, increases his worry. “Yes, he asked if he could stay and play a few more games with Dagda before bedtime. The palace carriage will bring him home later.”

  Shaking her head vigorously, Mom turns her eyes toward Kallen. “Send a message that they should keep him for the night.” I find it strange that she will let Dagda and Tana spend time with Zac, yet she still has trouble saying their names.

  “Of course,” Kallen says, sending the mental message without demanding more details. He knows I will fill him in the first chance I get.

  Dad is not so patient. “Julienne, tell me what is going on.”

  In a rush of almost unintelligible words, Mom does. She ends with, “He can’t see them, Jim. He can’t see what we could become.”

  Obviously, my assurances that they will never end up like vengeful spirits fell on deaf ears. Dad raises his brows in my direction and I shake my head. Never going to happen, I mouth, hoping he is better at reading lips than I am. He nods slightly in relief. He can read lips better than I can and at least he believes me.

  “You said there will be more of them,” Kallen interjects, remembering what I was saying when they came in.

  “It was strongly suggested by Rashnu that there would be, but she didn’t actually say the words,” I admit. My gorgeous husbands mutters some choice words of his own about Angels and their cryptic ways under his breath. He ignores the glare he gets from Adriel.

  As if on cue, a wailing starts from a far corner of the house. This spirit must be too far gone to understand the value of surprise when it comes to attacking random people. Or, not so random people since it heads straight for Adriel.

  Several flavors of magic create a wall around the Fallen Angel, including her own. The spirit hits it and the wailing stops. That’s a nice change. A spirit that knows when it is beaten. Unfortunately, I spoke too soon. It was just taking a breath, apparently. Not that spirits need to do that. The wailing commences again and this time it is so ear splitting that I really do feel a trickle of blood flow from my ear. Everyone, even Mom and Dad, are pressing their palms against their ears, and their faces are twisted in pain.

  Fed up, I am going to put a stop to this once and for all. The wailing. I don’t know what I can do about the vengeful spirits yet. We need to figure out why they are attacking before we can figure out how to stop them. But, the wailing, that I can take care of right now. Pulling magic, I let a spell form in my mind then speak it aloud. “Caught in the midst of misery and pain, these woeful spirits less than sane, express with their voice their rage and intent, seeking to consume us in their torment. No longer will their cries be heard, in this house their voices blurred. No longer will we hear the outcries of those destined to be exorcised.” Maybe not my most poignant spell, but my ears hurt, dammit.

  Silence. Blessed, blessed silence reigns throughout the house. Maybe a bit too quiet. “You guys can still speak, right?” I ask, hoping I didn’t overreach with my magic in my hurry to end the wailing.

  Kallen chuckles. “Yes, my love, we can still speak.” Sobering, he adds, “We should let Dagda know what is happening. I am certain he is already wondering about my message.”

  A plea from my mother to keep her son with him? Yeah, he’s wondering. “He’s probably already on his way.” My biological father is getting pretty good at detecting my endless supply of crises.

  “You said there will be more,” Dad reminds me, getting us back on track. “Do you know where they are coming from?”

  When no one answers, I fill the void with words. Whether they hold true or not we’ll see. “I assume from around here. Unless vengeful spirits can jump realms,” I say pointedly to Adriel. She is the best informed of the lot of us. She should be fielding the questions and I’m getting annoyed that she’s not.

  “It may be possible for them to jump realms,” Adriel says.

  “May be possible?” I say when she doesn’t continue.

  Sighing, she explains, “There is no rule book. Usually, these things haunt whoever wronged them and eventually wither away. When there is no more consciousness left, the remains of the soul make their way to us and are stored in the Shadow world. They do not make it a habit of seeking other targets.” Adriel is getting more frustrated as she speaks. “I have no idea why they have decided to target me. Or how they got here. Or where they came from.” The last words are spoken through teeth gritted so tightly, I’m surprised she can express enough air between them to make her words audible.

  Angels of Death can certainly get cranky. I’ll put it down to lingering brain freeze. “Okay, you don’t know and we don’t know. The Angels aren’t going to help us. The vengeful spirits can’t help us. How do we find out?” I am asking the room in general, not just Adriel.

  “The archives are always a possibility,” Kallen suggests. He does not sound hopeful.

  If an Angel of Death who has been around for too many millennia than is polite for me to ask her about doesn’t know, I doubt there is something in the library under the palace. You never know, though. “We should ask the scribe to start looking,” I say with as much hope in my voice as Kallen had.

  “In the meantime, you guys scoot into the other room so I can get rid of this one,” Tabitha says.

  “You will not hurt us with an exorcism,” Dad tries to reassure her. Tabitha shoos us out anyway. She’s taking no chances. Mom is eager to not be in the same room while it happens, anyway, so it’s worth it to walk into the large living room to make her feel better.

  Curling my legs underneath me, I sit on one of the overstuffed coaches in an attempt to make myself more comfortable. I’ve decided to feign relaxation. Maybe if I’m less high strung, there will be less drama in my life. This thought sent out to the universe is immediately countered by a shout from Tabitha. “Kallen, come here!” she calls, a note of panic in her voice. Tabitha never panics.

  “Stay here,” I tell Mom and Dad as I uncurl my legs and run after Kallen to the kitchen. Adriel is close on my heels. Actually, she’s in better shape than I am and she beats me there. I really need to join Kallen on a few of his runs.

  When we reach the kitchen, we find Tabitha standing in front of the vengeful spirit reciting the exorcism spell, a note of desperation in her voice. “Spirit in unrest, soul in pain, come to me, find peace again. Leave this world of longing and woe, sorrow filled days no longer you’ll know, your soul I release and you shall rest in peace.” When she is finished, I expect the thing to disappear. I assume she did, too. It doesn’t.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  Tabitha turns to me with a combination of fear and annoyance on her face. “It will not disappear, as you can very well see.” I can very well see that, but she knows what I meant. I bite my tongue not to snark back at her and make things worse.

  Frowning, Kallen asks, “Do you want me to try?”

  “Yes,” Tabitha admits. “I think there may be something wrong with my magic.”


  “Wrong?” I ask. “What do you mean?”

  She shrugs in discomfort. “It does not feel like it has its usual…oomph,” she explains.

  Concerned, but wanting to take care of the spirit before the conversation goes any further, Kallen turns to the thing and repeats the same spell Tabitha used. “Spirit in unrest, soul in pain, come to me, find peace again. Leave this world of longing and woe, sorrow filled days no longer you’ll know, your soul I release and you shall rest in peace.” The vengeful spirit disappears, presumably moving on to the Angel of Death on duty who will move it to the Shadow realm.

  Now that is taken care of, we turn our attention back to Tabitha. She is scowling at the spot the vengeful spirit was inhabiting. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

  “Do you feel ill?” Kallen asks.

  Laying a hand to the back of her own forehead, Tabitha takes a minute to consider. “I do not have a fever. No more aches or pains than usual for my old body. No sneezing or sniffling.” She shrugs. “I feel fine.”

  “Maybe it was a fluke,” I suggest.

  “There is something unnatural going on here,” Adriel adds. “Perhaps it simply requires more magic than you have to exorcise these spirits.” She didn’t say it meanly. She is simply stating a fact.

  Tabitha realizes this. “Perhaps,” she sighs. She shakes her head. “Certainly a blow to my ancient ego.”

  Kallen wraps an arm around her shoulder. “As long as you keep feeding me the way you do, I will exorcise any spirit that comes along.”

  Tabitha slaps at his arm. “Show off,” she mutters. But, she moves to the cupboards and begins taking out the fixings for popcorn, one of his favorite snacks. Here comes the stress cooking. And it will be delicious.