Enchanted Flames: Chapter Five

She smiled at him and gave a small nod. She began rubbing Shadow’s neck for a second time. She’d missed him terribly, they weren’t any horses in Metropolis City, although, they were horse racing events but the horses for those came from Silence along with any other stable between here and the Edgeclife Ocean. She looked over his shoulder at the jumbled lot of people, “What’s all the fuss about?” 1

He looked back at them and scoffed, “They’s mad cause we canceled the show.”2

Casey opened her eyes in shock, “You cancelled the horse show? Why on earth would you do that, that’s Silence’s biggest event next to the fair.”3

He shrugged and stared off into the distance. After a few minutes he turned to look at her, “I know that but I ain’ gettin’ none ah my horses nor anyone else’s ripped apart by them damned creatures roaming these parts, I won’t stand by it.”4

Casey nodded, she now understood why the old woman had called her a money hungered fool. She had thought Casey was coming to protest against his cancelling the show. She looked across at them, half of them, she knew, were just after the million dollar prize and the best studs that Hartcoe had to offer. Every year from as long as she could remember Hartcoe and his family held the biggest horse show known to man, the money prize had started off small of course, but over the years it grew and everyone wanted to be a part of it. From eventing, vaulting and tent pegging to endurance riding, a week full of events, before awarding the stables with the most wins the money prize. Casey had always enjoyed going to the horse show and wouldn’t have minded going this year. 5

Strangely enough, a gruesome picture of a levagne taking a bite out of a horse’s hind leg made her shiver and she pushed the thought from her mind. Realising that she’d put work on the back burner as much as she was trying to convinced herself of otherwise. She stared into the horses black eyes. 6

“I need to go there’s something I need to take care of. I’ll be back for him as soon as I can get the stable finished.” Casey said stepping away from the fence. Jon turned to her and raised a hand motioning for her to come. She walked with him back towards the front of the house. 7

“So when do you need my hands?” Jon asked as he held the door open for her. Making sure she was in properly, he shut the door and rested his hands above the door. Casey shrugged, “You can send them when you’re ready. I’ll leave word with the carpenter if you’re sending them today.”8

“I’s ah heard ya. You be careful out on that road there.”9

Casey nodded before starting the engine. He lifted himself off of the car giving her a crooked smile. She returned the smile briefly before reaching into the passenger seat for her cell phone. After finalizing a few things with the carpenter, she put the vehicle into first gear and started down the drive. 10

It was time she did what she had come home to do.11

_____________________12

He stood on the plot of land between his lair and the tree line that guarded it. He lifted a stone from its position near the trees and placed it in front of him. He repeated the same action with another stone. His eyes darted to his right when he caught something out of the corner of his eye. As of late every small movement he caught at, it was almost as if he was expecting to find an angry mob ready to burn him to the ground. 13

He knew eventually she would come looking for him, he somehow expected that Lionheart would tell her what she needed to know. He was counting on it too because he had devised another plan and for it to work, he needed her to come looking for him. He had moved from his previous location with much ease, but he wanted her to turn up in the small clearing. He was running against chance something he hated to do. Although he had tried his hand at exploring the corners of the gift, he hadn’t achieved the answers he was looking for. Over the years, he had indeed borrowed a few newborns, but merely for observational purposes. He really didn’t care what his blood line did once they didn’t try to oppose him, and none of them ever did. They were too caught up in themselves to worry their heads about the where the why and how of their gifts and those who did know didn’t make it their business to come looking for him to answer their questions. The lack of not having Casey was product of poor planning and ignorance on his part. 14

His brother, moments before he had killed, had warned him that one day he would get what he deserved and when that moment came he would fail when he needed most to succeed. So said so done. He had been so caught up in his own little games while trying his hand at experimenting with the ambient powers that he had forgotten about what his brother had said. That and the very fact that almost two hundred years had gone by and no one even lifted a finger in his direction. And now he was dealing with the consequences, having her brother was more than enough reason for her to come for him. He could easily just give him back, but he didn’t want that. He was going to win this no matter what he had to do.15

He had already taken care of first three stages of his new plan and he was waiting patiently on Casey so that the rest of his plan fell into place. His years of watching and observing were going to cost him now. He didn’t know how long it was going to take before he reaped the rewards of this new plan but he was willing to try absolutely anything. 16

He looked down at the two stones at his feet, sighing to himself, he took a small vial from his waist band. He held it up so that the light from the sun shined through it. Shaking it lightly, he looked at the blue pieces of stone that were inside. The last of the stone that had given him his power, the very thing that had created his beasts and the only thing that could open the portals to the other worlds that existed beyond this human realm.17

He was about to uncork the vial when a small framed human crept up towards him. 18

“Sire, you wanted to know when she made a move to get the boy.” 19

He looked up at the human, if he didn’t have control over them he would’ve mistaken this human before him to be an actual human being. She was dressed in a pair of jeans, a red blouse and a pair of five inch stiletto heels. The consequences of leaving them with half of their conscious, he thought rolling his eyes. He didn’t mind, after all he needed to have them blend in with the rest of the fashion conscious world and if they insisted upon dressing this way, he had absolutely no problem with it. 20

“Has she actually spoken to him yet?” he asked knowing how incoherent they tended to be. 21

“No, when I left she was talking to his manager but I did happen to over hear them talking about how long to let him go.”22

“Very well, you may go.” He said waving her off. 23

“Sire you also wanted to know when the Other awakened.” 24

He looked up at her, and cocked his head to a side wondering if she was trying to anger him, but when he realized she was not he nodded. He’d just killed two birds with one stone and he liked the way things were going. He watched as she walked off back into the house. Glancing back at the vial, he grinned, things were falling together well.25

Casey stood outside the small café, she’d just spent a great deal of money and she didn’t even by anything.26

The disadvantages of wanting something done your way, she thought rolling her eyes. She looked up when the bell above the door rang to stare into dirty blonde hair of a male that was almost a little taller than she was. He was dusting his hands in a towel while removing the apron he had on. He stared down the right end of the street before looking in her direction. A frown settled across his face, shaking his head he turned and stalked back inside. Casey sighed, before sinking her hands into the pockets of her trench coat. She leaned against the glass window and crossed her feet. No sooner had she done so when the bell above the door rang again and two angered voices came out yelling.27

“I said you’re taking the rest of the bloody day off. Had I known about yer damned head you wouldn’t even be in my store.” said a dark haired middle aged man to the same blonde headed male that was outside only a moment ago. The blonde haired male glared across at Casey before letting go of the door, causing it to slam in the man’s face, “You just can’t leave well enough alone can you.”28

Casey shrugged, “Not really. I keep pushing till I get what I want.”29

“That’s going to kill you one day,” he uttered with a sneer before walking in the opposite direction. 30

“Do you always turn a blind eye to help?” Casey asked from her position but loud enough for him to hear. He stopped and turned on his heel, “Who’s helping me? You?” 31

He pointed towards the café, “You just cost me my job, now tell me how I’m supposed to help my sister through college. Not everyone can afford to up and leave, take on the big city and not give a damn about what happens at home ya know.”32

Casey grunted and rolled her eyes but said nothing. 33

He started to walk away again, shaking his head as he did so. Halfway down the street he stopped and looked behind him. He raised a brow when couldn’t find her. 34

The nerve of the woman, cost me my job and now nowhere to be found, he threw his hands up in the air and stalked off again. He must have really hit a nerve, she hadn’t even responded to his last comment. He hadn’t meant to make it sound the way he had but it just came out. She pissed him off and when his head got hot, he didn’t have much control over his tongue after that. Not that it bothered him. He ran a hand through his hair while trying to think of a way to get his job back. 35

Eric threw a folder across the desk, he was growing tired of having to be in the office every day. He much rather preferred to be in the kitchen of the pub. But with his mother sick, there was nothing he could do. He could only pray that she got better. It was hell having to run both a pub and the real estate office especially when neither sibling wanted to hire staff. Although they alternated days in the office and worked side by side at night it was beginning to have a wearying effect on him. 36

Midnight Fox had been in the family for as many generations as he dared to remember. When he was younger he had hated the idea of having to stay in Silence to run the pub but after many eventful evenings in the pub with his grandmother he no longer felt that way. And the small age of twelve he’d developed a strong attachment to the kitchen and never wanted to leave it. 37

Taking a sip of his bottled water, he thanked his grandmother for all that she had given him before she left them. A frown crept across his forehead as he remembered how soon after her death his father had followed. Dying in his sleep not more than a week after. The grief had been too much and he’d buried himself in that kitchen, night and day, hadn’t looked out to even see the time of day. He remembered enlightening his brother’s ear with a few choice words after he had attempted to get him to leave the pub. He had walked out into the pub to reshelf the wine glasses on the well, while still cursing Ethan and stared straight into the brown eyes of Casey Callahan. 38

She had come into the pub to pick up the case of beer her father had ordered the week in front and he just stood there and watched in astonishment as his brother had offered to carry the case home for her. He had spent the rest of the day sulking and in a jealous fit. He didn’t know why but something about her had appealed to him, and now that his brother had begun to make advances towards her, he would never know what it was. He had been wiping the countertop for the hundredth time when the door opened at the noise of the town entered the empty pub. Eric looked up at his brother’s bloodied white shirt and his hand over his nose. For the brief second that their eyes met, Eric had known what had transpired but instead of feeling sorry for him and feeling of relief washed over him and he couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear. 39

The memory made the corner of his lip rise with a smile as he turned to look out the office window. The smile vanished and he stared across the street with a deep frown. There she was, the woman that had been occupying his thought. She was standing across the street leaning against the glass of the printery. 40

Had she been there all this time? He thought. No when he had shown his last client out, he hadn’t seen her. An urge to call out to her formed in his throat but he swallowed it back down and did nothing but stare at her. He didn’t know what to do when it came to her. She had told him that she was tele-. He couldn’t even bring himself to say the word, but she had demonstrated hadn’t she not? He glanced across at the black leather j jacket that hung on the coat rack at the door. Or was that a mere mind game she sought to play out on him. Seven years could change a person, he knew that but could it change a person so much. It was almost as if he didn’t know her, and if it weren’t for the way she talked and walked, he would have believed he didn’t. 41

He wanted with the part that still loved her to believe every word that she had said but the part that was still so very unsure of how she felt held him back. He knew she still had feelings for him, that was evident in eyes the first day they met since her return and the short kiss they had shared next to the river.42

He sighed and took another sip of his water willing the memories they shared to bury themselves back into the hole they’d been dragged out of. He didn’t know if how he felt would be enough to break the time gap between them and he was even more unsure about what she wanted. They hadn’t spoken a word to each other since that night in the play park. The reason for that had been mostly on his part, he had avoided her every chance he got. When she did come into the pub, the only communication between the two of them had been a nod. And she had been sufficed to raise nothing more than an eye brow in response. 43

He had healed herself, the how was too difficult for him to understand. He knew the only way to get the answers he needed was to talk with her and he hadn’t mustered the courage to do that as yet. But he would soon, he drowned the contents of the water bottle as a deeper frown came across his face, she had come back to town for a reason. He knew this because in the seven years she had been away not even her family was a good enough reason to bring her back. 44

He watched as she started talking to dirty haired blonde that had walked up. Before he could stop it, his jealousy had surfaced and he was looking at the two of them through eyes of rage. 45

Watching her walk away, he unclenched the bottle that now lay mangled in the palm of his hand. Glancing around the room, he grabbed his keys and jacket and stalked out the store. Barely remembering to switch the sign to close as he walked out. 46

“He didn’t fire you ya know, I just paid him what he claimed you made an hour plus interest.” He heard a voice say as he stopped to let a car pass. He looked behind him, she was propping against the corner like she’d been waiting for him for hours. This woman seemed to be everywhere lately and he didn’t know why. She’d shown up at the hospital and told him she needed to talk to him urgently and after a month of not seeing nor hearing from her, he had figured she had just floated away. He should have known that was not case but somehow he had just wanted her to go away like the rest of his problems. 47

When she’d shown up at his workplace asking for a couple minutes of his time, he had brushed her off and given her the cold shoulder. He hadn’t seen her for at least an hour or two after that. When Mack told him there was someone waiting to see him, he’d figured it was his sister, she did have a habit of showing up at that time anyway. He looked up at her while throwing his hands in the air, “What do you want from me, huh?”48

“I already told you, I just want to talk to you.” 49

He waved at the open space between them, “You have the floor madam speaker.” 50

She shook her head, “Here is not the place to do this.”51

He placed his hands on his hips, “Then where do you suppose we do this?”52

“Look I know you’re pissed and I haven’t exactly been open with you but I have my reasons, and could you please stop drawing attention to us.” She responded nodding to a group of people who were standing across the street. He glared at her before looking over his shoulder. He opened his mouth to tell her he really didn’t care but she was walking slowly down the street away from him. She only looked back momentarily to give him a nod, indicating he should follow. 53

He exhaled and shook his head, she was beginning to get under his skin and that was not something he enjoyed. He followed the tall slender movements of her body as she sauntered down the street. Cursing himself under his breath, he jogged after her slowing to a walk when he got close enough to her. He grabbed onto her arm. 54

“Not here.” She said through clenched teeth. He released her arm and raised his hands defensively. After the first few strides, he found it almost impossible to keep up with her. He knew she had long legs but didn’t know they packed such a stride. 55

After walking through back alleys and side streets she finally came to a stop outside an old abandoned building on the far end of town. He watched as she dug deep into her coat pocket in search of something. When she couldn’t find it in her coat pockets, she flung the end of the coat away from her so she could reach into her left back pocket. He stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed the gun in her back. He saw her sigh but she didn’t turn to look at him. “Would you come along please?” she asked pulling a bunch of keys from her pocket. He continued hesitantly, keeping a fair amount of steps behind her. He didn’t know what to expect so he was preparing himself for the worst. Not that he would stand a chance against a woman with a gun. A black Escalade popped into view just as they rounded the back of the old apartment. She disabled the alarm and unlocked the door with a push of a button. Walking around to the passenger side, she removed the gun from her back and placed it in the glove compartment before tip-toeing up and hitting the set on and turning the volume up to all. 56

He covered his ears, “Woman are you crazy?” 57

She shut the door and the noise lessoned a little but it was still deafening. She walked back over to him, “Crazy is an understatement, but that’s so we don’t get over heard.”58

He looked around taking in his environment before staring back at her, “Who is going to overhear us? We are standing in an unoccupied lot.”59

She waved her hand in front of her, “You don’t have to yell I can hear very well and so can the levagne if you don’t watch your voice level.”60

He was going to respond but left his mouth hanging open. He ran a hand through his hair, “That’s what all of this is about? Those stupid animals that…that torture and take as they please.”61

“Partially, yes.” She responded glancing over her shoulder and then his. He looked away from her to his reflection in the car. 62

“Okay, Ash, I’m going to need you to tell me exactly what happened out on the camp site.”63

He shrugged but didn’t move his eyes from the car, “What’s there to tell? We had gone camping, I knew about the levagne and I admit it was a stupid idea, I can say that now but I thought it was best. My mother died a couple months ago, and I just wanted my sister to get over it. So Jason and I planned the trip. Rumor had it, they were afraid of fire, so I took watch until about a couple hours before dawn and left Jason to watch till dawn. It couldn’t have been an hour after dawn I was down in the river and I heard Vicky scream, time I get to her side, they’ve up and got him.”64

He mimicked a small explosion, “I left him there only ten minutes before and next thing I know I’m running through the woods shirtless, after a levagne. I started to lose him a good ways in then I’m attacked from behind by one of them. I was almost a goner but then that damn thing got attacked by its own kind.” 65

That brought Casey’s head up. She’d been listening to his every word but still trying to make sure that the music was loud enough to confuse the levagne’s hearing. He had just given her the greatest detail of his entire trip, “Say what?” 66

“I thought you could hear me?” he yelled. She glared at him causing her right eye to twitch a little. 67

“I can hear you but I just want to make sure I heard you right.” Casey replied pushing her snide remark aside. 68

“He came in from the side and took him out. Killed the bastard. Then took off.” He stated simply before mumbling something. Casey raised a brow, “What’s wrong with you now?”69

“What makes you think there’s something wrong with me?” he asked finally looking at her. 70

“Because there’s something you’re not telling me and it’s getting to you.” Casey said looking into his eyes. Before she had a chance to do anything he walked away, “What difference does it make to you? And why are you so interested?”71

“Neither of which have anything to do with you.” Casey said. 72

“So what,” he said turning around and facing her, “I’m just supposed to tell you what you want to know and you get what you want while I’m stuck in the shadows as to what the hell is going on?”73

When he looked up at her again, Casey saw it, she didn’t need to enter his mind. She would know that look in anyone’s eyes especially those that had an up close with a levagne. That you’re probably not going to believe me, cause I think I’m going crazy look. 74

“What did it say to you?” Casey asked him quietly but loud enough for him to hear. He cocked his head to a side and just stared at her in disbelieve. She motioned for him to hurry up and tell her but he just kept staring at her.75

“No, I’m not going to think you’re crazy but if you don’t tell me I’ll make you go crazy.” Casey said reading his thoughts. She hated to do it because she saw it as an invasion to one’s privacy but when it came down to this and they weren’t voluntarily giving her what she needed, she had no choice but to go in. “He just told me to run before it was too late for me also.” Ash said. She stared off into the old apartment for what seemed to be forever. She hadn’t realised that he was standing in front of her waving his hands in her face. She was still trying to piece together why Aiden had tried to kill the boy before her. Nibbling on the inside of her cheek, she looked back at him. He heaved a sigh of relief, “It’s about damn time. Do you know how long I’ve been trying to get your attention? Where did you just go and why are you so interested in what happened out there. Isn’t that Barrows’ job?”76

“Slow down cowboy, I’ll answer you one at a time but let me give you a lift home. There’s one more question I need to ask you?”77

“What’s that?” he asked relieved that he was finally going to get some sort of answers. She opened the car door finally turning off the noisy set. She motioned for him to get in before she rolled the back windows up. Once he was seated inside with the door shut, she looked across at him, “Who is your father?”78