Page 10 of Coven

Ember tilted his head as he studied Kana. “I’m going to tell Master Octavius the truth. The culprit has been punished.” He sighed. “As far as I’m concerned Mistress Penelope is the one at fault for her own demise, so I won’t be lying.”

Mika stretched in Kana’s lap, flexing his claws, although he didn’t puncture the skin of Kana’s thighs. He straightened and then hopped onto the table. He looked at Ember, who looked back, neither of them blinking for a long moment in some sort of dominance fight.

I like him, Mika finally said. He is definitely yummy.

No fair! I want to see too, Sora whined, although Kana’s bag didn’t even twitch to give him away.

He doesn’t need to know I have two familiars, Kana replied as sternly as he could.

Ask him about why the werewolves don’t get to roam the grounds, Mika said. I think if we know the answer to that, we’ll know why he’s willing to stretch the truth for you.

“Thank you,” Kana said to Ember. At the same time, he thought to Mika, I’m not going to ask him that! He’s doing us a favor, and I don’t want to antagonize him.

Ask him! Mika insisted. He meowed and stomped one paw on the table. Ask him or I’ll shift forms and ask him myself.

You can’t do that! Kana begged.

Then you ask him!

“Sounds like he wants something,” Ember said.

Kana jumped, looking up from where he had been glaring at Mika and hoping he didn’t look guilty.

“He wants me to ask you something.” Kana trailed off, trying to figure out a polite way to word Mika’s question.

Ember gave Kana another of his barely there smiles. “Ask. I won’t be offended by a question from a cat.”

Mika hissed at him and stomped his foot again. Rude!

“He, er. Well, he wants me to ask why the wolves don’t run around the grounds. Mika says there’s a lot of land out there, but no scent of the wolves using it.”

Ember’s face completely shut down, all traces of humor from a second ago gone in a flash. Mika recoiled, dashing off the table and back into Kana’s lap.

“I’ll take you back to your coworkers now,” Ember said. He stood and waited pointedly for Kana, who lifted Mika onto his shoulder before standing and joining Ember at the door.

They walked down the overly decorated hallway and back into the now empty sitting room. Penelope’s body was gone and the floor where her ashes had flaked was clean. No sign that anyone had used the room recently remained. Ember seemed to reverse the route they'd taken to get here. By the time they reached the front door again, Kana was thoroughly lost. Finally, they reached the door outside, and Kana stepped out first into the cool air of the evening.

“Kana!” Beth called, sounding relieved. “We were so worried!”

One of the vans was gone, but the second was full of members of the crew Kana was friendly with. Only Beth was outside, and she jogged over toward him.

Suddenly, a sound like a bat screeching echoed around them, and a shadowed body dove from the top of the iron gate, heading straight for Beth, fangs first.

Kana didn’t have time to think. Even if his oil protected her neck, it wouldn’t save her from claws or the violent impact. He threw open his channels, drawing power from Mika and Sora, and stomped one foot on the ground.

Four circles of light erupted. The ones that manifested under Kana, Beth, and Ember were simple protection circles: the pentagram with the circle connecting all five points. They glowed softly.

The fourth circle bloomed under the vampire, moving along the pavement as he flew through the air. It started as the same basic circle, but between the pentagram’s lines runes blazed into existence. Big runes for earth and sun nestled on either side of the top point of the star. Below the earth rune in the next open slot Kana wrote the combined runes for apple and mistletoe. Below sun he added the rune for growth. In the final open space at the bottom of the pentagram Kana added the rune for power. He closed the circle and a jet of magic blasted from him.

Light shone within the circle, and the vampire shrieked again. A tree thick with strangling mistletoe erupted upward, shaking the ground and splitting the pavement, and thrusting through the center of the vampire’s chest. The shriek abruptly stopped.

Flakes of ash floated down to the pavement as the light from the circles faded away. Beth peeked out from between upraised arms and then gaped at the tree.

“What happened?” she asked, her voice shaking.

The rush of magic faded away, and Kana’s butt hit the ground when his knees refused to hold him. Mika meowed and climbed into Kana’s lap.

Nice work, Mika said, sounding as tired as Kana felt.

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