The Battered Lamp Ch. 09

It was all metal, its fur, its claws, even its tongue, transformed into dull, gray iron. An augmentation. "Shit." He leaped to the side, metal claws raking the ground and sending up clods of dirt.

A naked, pale-skinned woman strode behind it, joining Sable, and added her voice to the spell controlling the Maniae. The chorus of hate grew louder. Kyle couldn't worry about that now. He slashed a hurried blow at the beast, his sword clanged harmlessly off its iron hide.

"Oh, fuck!" He dived out of another claw swipe.

Fatima lunged in, her yari's blade blazing red-hot. Sparks burst, the beast howled and spun. She raised her yari's haft, catching the metal bear's swipe. But she was light, barely a hundred pounds, and she couldn't stand against a regular bear's swipe, let alone one made of metal. She flew back and landed in a ball on the ground.

The metal bear charged after Fatima as she stood up. He reached into the earth through his katana, finding another boulder. The boulder erupted from the ground in the bear's path. Metal crashed into stone. The bear plowed through it, chunks of rock bursting in a cloud of flying debris around the charging beast.

Wind rushed by Kyle, lifting Fatima into the air. She spun over the hurtling metallic hulk. It crashed into a pine tree. Wood snapped, the tree toppling over with a heavy thud. Fatima landed next to him, grinning. The bear thrashed around, looking, then turned and saw them.

It roared its frustration.

Kyle's mind raced, struggling to come up with a plan. Sticking boulders in its path won't do anything. The bear leaped over the rubble left by the pulverized boulder. An idea popped into his head. Would that work?

"Fuck it." Kyle reached through Earthbones into the ground, willing it to split open.

The ground groaned in protest, shaking. Trees rustled. The earth opened up before the charging hulk, a great rent. The bear bellowed, dirt furrowing as it locked its forepaws and tried to stop its momentum. It couldn't. The metallic monster was swallowed by the crack, crashing down into the earth. It snarled, clawing at the hard soil and rocks, struggling to climb up the rent.

He sealed it shut.

"RAGE! RAGE!"

The elemental was struggling. Karrie Robertson, naked, her ebony skin hard to see in the darkness, had joined the other two witches. Kyle sat next to Karrie in Chemistry and she was in his Math class. The three witches were sending their voices at the elemental, rousing the spirit to new violence. Christy was losing, but she kept chanting, sweat beading her forehead as she strained to pacify the spirit. Kyle's heart was stirred at the sight of her.

"We have to help her," Kyle said. "We need to take out the witches so she can put it to sleep."

"Yeah," Fatima nodded. The metallic bear seemed to have knocked some of the enthusiasm out of her. "I'll take the Black girl."

Kyle nodded. "On three?"

"Three," she roared and charged before he was ready.

"Damn it."

He chased after his sister, leaping over a rent of disturbed soil. One of the witches, Lorrie Gore, turned, her brown hair swirling about her naked shoulders. She pointed at them, opening her mouth. "Oh, Hecate, defend your--"

A green arrow feathered her throat. Lorrie looked so young as astonishment painted her face, then she collapsed to the ground. Karrie saw Fatima's charge at the last second, her dark eyes gaping in horror. Fatima didn't seem to hesitate, and rammed her yari into the Black witch's guts.

Sable was too focused on keeping the elemental under control to realize what was happening. Kyle swallowed. He couldn't kill her. She was practically helpless. So he hit her with the hilt of his katana in the face. Her nose broke, she stumbled back, then collapsed into an unconscious heap.

"Rage!"

"Sleep," Christy yelled.

"rage..."

"Your rage is spent. Sleep, Maniae."

"ra..."

The hulking spirit became still, then red light pulsed upon its skin, glowing brighter and brighter until the entire clearing before the cabin was filled with a harsh, crimson light. One last, hissing cry, then it contracted. A single, red gem glinted on the ground.

Christy exhaled, then stumbled, her shoulders slumping as she trembled. A look of amazement crossed her face and her lips wordlessly moved. Kyle thought she whispered, "I did it."

Britney groaned nearby, climbing painfully to her feet. She saw the unconscious Sable, and hissed at her, angry as a storming sea. She retrieved her fallen katar and stalked towards the witch. Her green eyes glowed in the dark, reflecting murder.

"No," Kyle stated.

She froze, then gave him a nod.

Fatima's eyes were fixed on Karrie's corpse. "It was so easy," she muttered. "I didn't even think."

"C'mon, Fatima," Kyle whispered, touching her arm. "Aaliyah needs us."

She shook herself, then looked at the cabin. "Bansai!" she cried out, and charged in through the open door like a Samurai, headless of danger.

Kyle followed, Britney at his heels. His sister leaped the porch steps and dashed through the open door. He took the stairs in one step. Through the door he could see Aaliyah huddled in a glowing circle. A young woman with long, black hair stood at the circle, eyes closed, and chanting.

The biology professor, Ms. Franklin, strode forward. She was naked and beautiful. Her gorgeous, fiery hair fell in curtains about her round breasts. Her green eyes flashed, her lush lips moved, and she pointed at his charging sister. "Hecate, send this girl into an everlasting nightmare."

Fatima dropped like a marionette's whose strings had been cut, landing hard on the wooden floor, bouncing, and rolling to a rest on her back at the professor's feet, her yari clattering to the floor beside her.

Kyle went cold inside, his emotions wiped away. He was stone. Hard, unfeeling, unmoving stone. He raised his sword. Ms. Franklin had killed his sister, one of his wives, and the witch would die. He was vaguely aware of Rashawn Underhill chanting a spell beside the professor. Britney leaped past him at the witch, katar flashing like sunlight on a rippling lake, striking straight for the coffee-skinned witch's heart.

Kyle had hard eyes only for his former professor.

"Hecate, protect your servant!"

His sword flashed.

"Strike down my enemy--"

Her words died. Her head separated from her body. She remained upright for a moment, before she collapsed into a crumpled heap. As dead as his sister.

"Kyle," moaned Aaliyah, looking up at him. The silver light glowing in a circle was attacking her, reaching out with tiny, silver tendrils that kept trying to attach to her body.

The chanting witch with dark hair blinked her eyes, and her words caught in her throat. Britney stood at his side, growling, the Black witch's blood staining her katar. The silver light around Aaliyah vanished.

"You came for me," his Genie wife whispered.

"Please," the witch--Phillipa Stoddard--begged, a pendant made of jade hanging between her naked breasts. "Please don't kill me."

"Kyle," Britney purred, her voice thick and husky. "Let me take this one. I will interrogate her and keep her out of mischief. We need to learn all we can about this coven."

Kyle glanced at his best friend. She actually sounded...horny. He always thought she was asexual. He had never seen her show any interest in men or women. Well, the naked witch was very attractive, with nice, round breasts and dusky, olive skin. He vaguely remembered that Phillipa was half-Korean.

"Yeah, she's all yours."

Aaliyah struggled to rise. He was at her side and hugged her in a crushing embrace. Fatima was dead, but Aaliyah lived. It didn't seem fair to lose the one to save the other. He wanted to cry, but he still felt dead inside, his soul petrified.

"What happened to Fatima?" Fumi asked.

He glanced at his Japanese love. She knelt next to Fatima's corpse. His sister looked so peaceful, like she only slept. Fumi shook her gently, an envelope clutched in her hand.

"Ms. Franklin killed her," Kyle said, his voice empty, dead.

"No," Fumi objected. "She's just unconscious."

Life exploded inside him, hope spreading green across dead soil. "What?"

"Celestite cast a nightmare spell," whispered the captured witch.

"Who?" Kyle asked.

"Ms. Franklin," Phillipa answered. "We all went by the color of our auras. I'm Jade, she's Celestite, and that's..." she swallowed, glancing at the corpse of Rashawn Underhill. She had been the fastest runner in his class. "That was Garnet."

"How do you break this nightmare spell?" Kyle demanded of the witch.

"Only Celestite could..."

"So she'll sleep for how long?"

"Forever."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Christy had tears in her eyes as she started her car. I'll probably never see him again.

"Have faith," Iris whispered.

Her guide and companion appeared in a burst of rainbow light. Ishtar had sent her own daughter to lead Christy on her journey of redemption. It was the only way to break Hecate's hold on her and to be free. Helping to rescue Aaliyah was merely the first step.

"He won't want me back."

The spirit reached out, touching her hand. "Love is very powerful. It can do great harm or great good."

"That's so true," Christy muttered, looking at the wreckage in front of the cabin.

She turned her car around, driving across the bridge. Fumi had her letter. It would explain her feelings to Kyle. She needed to get moving before Hecate's daughter caught up. Erinyes was close; she could almost hear the spirit's skittering legs.

"Where to, Iris?"

"Mount Shasta."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Celestite's crystal died. The raven familiar cawed.

Irritation flickered inside him. She had been one of his most promising witches, building that delightful coven of hers. None of his other followers had ever shown such initiative. Pity she had been so stupid and rash. He would have to find out exactly how Kyle Unmei had defeated her. The youth was far more formidable than he had assumed.

Two other crystal's glowed on his desk--Shadow and the Vicar--the other members of his coven. He would need to move more carefully against this youth. Ms. Franklin had been far too direct and she had paid for that mistake. But he was patient. He had hunted for the Djinn and her battered lamp for eight hundred and fifty-four years. In the end, the Djinn's powers would be his, along with whatever powerful talismans Kyle and his compatriots must possess.

Then he would have the power to challenge his Goddess and cast her down.

His phone rang.

"Hello," he answered, sounding pleasant, slipping into his mask.

"Hi, Dean Burke," the woman answered. He smiled. Celestite was dead, but there were always other pawns to be used. "I'm free this Friday."

"Great," he answered. "And call me Stanley, Faiza. If I'm taking you to dinner, you should be able to call me by my first name."

Her laughter was rich. "I guess so. It seems a little..."

"Weird?"

"Yeah." She paused, then added. "I guess, I'm a little nervous. I haven't been on a date in years. Not since my husband..."

"I understand. If you don't want to..."

"No, no!" She sounded eager. Good. She had been widowed for years, denying herself pleasure for her child's sake. She was ripe to be plucked by him and turned into a knife to stick at her son's throat. "I need to move on. I loved my husband, but he would want me to be happy."

"And your daughter Fatima won't mind? Or Kyle? I know you've practically raised him."

She sighed. "I don't know. Kyle's acting so weird lately. I'm going to kill him when he gets home. He stole my car and the front door has been kicked in. His concubines are not telling me where he went. And I don't even know what happened to my front front door. Alexina, one of his concubines, claims they were horsing around. I don't know what I should do with him. He's married to my daughter, so I can't just kick him out. She'll go with him..."

"And you don't want your daughter to be homeless."

"Yeah."

"Sorry to hear that. I'm sure it will all get better."

"Maybe," she said, sounding wistful. "So what time should I be ready?"

"I'll pick you up around seven?"

"Sounds good, Dean Bu...I mean, Stanley."

To be continued...