A-Cup Angst Ch. 04

Bringing the cars would be a tactical advantage for them, especially since they already invested so much power into improving them. On the other hand, he wanted to bathe in the blood of those that went after his family, and driving back to their hometown would take two whole days if they drove non-stop, taking the wheel in shifts. He needed to get there and fix things.

The girls added their agreement with Helena's idea of bringing the cars, so Jamie folded. "Alright," he nodded, "we'll drive there. Pack what we'll need, we leave in fifteen minutes, and we'll only stop for bathroom breaks."

Helena heaved a big sigh of relief and then hurried along with the girls to pack some clothes and provisions for the road trip. In less than fifteen minutes, they were dressed, their bags were loaded into the cars and one big cooler, with drinks and ready to eat food, was placed in either car. The cabin was locked and shuttered up. They had paid for the whole summer in advance, and no one would be there until September. Jamie ordered Rose to drive the Subaru and Sandra to drive the BMW. He had Sonya and Helena sit in the back of the Subaru and put them to sleep with his power. He, himself, sat in the back seat of the BMW and scryed to see where his family was. He detected his father at their house and his mother at the county jail. His sister was nowhere to be found.

He sat back and sighed heavily. That confirmed it. Government witches had a hold of his baby sister in some warded location. He sent a text to Cyrus, asking him to find out exactly where his sister had been placed. Then he began thumbing through the volumes of magic the girls had brought with them when they left their home town. He tried to let his instincts guide him through the tomes in his frantic search for some secret combat spell that would allow him to stomp his enemies and burn them to ash. He had no luck. His Jedi-like senses kept quiet and no spell, or written advice, popped out to give him hope. He was going into a den of hungry lions, and he was totally unarmed. All he had was his anger, but anger didn't win battles, weapons did.

He rubbed his tired eyes and sighed in frustration. He needed to cool down and think things through. He needed to come up with a way to defeat all these witches that were lying in wait for him. He needed to do so many things, and he had no idea how he would accomplish any of them. Long after nightfall, they made another bathroom break and he woke Sonya and Helena, instructing them to take over the driving. He went to sleep in the back of the BMW, with the books. Rose and Sandra hugged one another and lightly dozed in the back of the Subaru.

After Jamie was fast asleep, snoring loudly, Helena turned on the walkie-talkie and whispered a hail at Sonya. She received no reply and tried again, whispering a bit louder. After a few more attempts, Sonya finally answered, demanding to know what's up.

"We need to slow down, that's what's up," insisted Helena, in a whisper.

"What do you mean," inquired Sonya. "Is there something wrong with your car?"

"Yes," answered Helena, "yes there is. Pull over!" They stopped their cars, Helena taking extra care to not wake Jamie with any sudden noise or deceleration. She got out and walked over to Sonya who was shining a flashlight at the BMW, trying to determine the cause of the stop. "Stop shining that thing around," hissed Helena, in a loud whisper. "Get over here!" She dragged a confused Sonya away from the cars. "Are the girls still asleep?" When Sonya nodded, she rolled her eyes and went over to the Subaru. She woke the witches up and got them to quietly come out of the car and walk a short distance away.

"What the hell is going on," demanded a bewildered Rose.

"Shush, you," admonished Helena. "You'll wake Jamie. Listen up, we need to stall this little road trip of ours and buy as much time for Jamie as we can."

"Uh, no," countered Sandra. "He wants us to get back home as quickly as we can, so why are you stalling here?" All the girls looked at Helena in an accusatory manner.

"Look," she said, "you all have standing orders to protect him above all else, don't you?" The girls nodded, but remained hostile. "Right now, he's rushing headlong into danger. Potentially mortal danger. Even if he survives, he'll be imprisoned and we'll never see him again."

"You can't know that," protested Sandra.

"Look," Rose stepped to Helena and looked up at her face, "we let you be the leader of our little gang way back when, even if you were the least powerful of us, because you had the cool books and you knew where we could find more. But that was way back then. This is now. We're Jamie's and Jamie wants home as quick as we can. Besides, Sandra's right. You can't possibly know there's danger awaiting him."

"No, I can't," conceded Helena. "But my gut tells me it's so. My family is made up of almost all witches and my mom has probably got them all riled up and wanting blood."

"Why," asked Rose.

"She's a competent investigator, and so are some of my aunts, uncles and cousins," explained Helena, "and even if they weren't, Section recruits normal investigators to supplement their magicians."

"No," explained Rose, "I meant, why would your family want blood?"

Helena rolled her eyes. "Because," she stopped herself from shouting, "my mom probably figured out that Jamie took us as slaves."

"But he was justified in doing that," protested Rose. "We hurt him first!"

"Yes," Helena agreed, "but my mom and the rest of my family will never agree to that. I don't know what they're thinking, or what they do and do not know, but if they figured out that Jamie owns us all, then they're going to fucking kill him on sight. I can guarantee you that!"

"We won't let them," Sandra insisted, angrily.

"What's with this 'we' shit, blue eyes," Helena asked her. "At last count, only the two of you were witches and your powers combined come up to Jamie's. My family is going to have, like, dozens of experienced and powerful witches lying in wait, with traps in place and who knows what else. All three of you are going to be defeated in no time at all." A pall of dread descended on all the girls as they realized what Helena was saying made sense. "Now, we need to stall this trip as much as we can and the two of you," she gestured at Rose and Sandra, "need to come up with some way to protect Jamie."

"We can't stall this trip," complained Sandra, "Jamie has ordered us to never lie to him."

"I'm not asking you to lie," Helena said, "I'm just asking you to interpret the truth in a way that buys us the most time to think of something, alright?" The girls quietly agreed with what she said and decided to help her keep Jamie out of peril. Sandra used her power to puncture one tire on each car and the four of them took their time breaking out the jacks and spare tires. Well over an hour later, they resumed their drive. Rose and Sandra went back to sleep and Sonya followed Helena's slow pace.

Jamie was angry when he woke up in the morning and found that they had covered less than two hundred miles during the whole night. When they pulled over for a bathroom break, Helena showed him the tires and began tearing up as she told him how scared she was, driving all night in the dark, fearing another tire might puncture and send them all to their deaths. Jamie rolled his eyes and huffed in anger. He was heading off to rescue his family and spill a river of blood, if need be, and his only allies were scared of driving faster than a run. He had been plagued by nightmares the whole night and he had no energy to deal with this crap, so he let the matter drop and ordered them to change drivers. He took the wheel of the BMW X5 and set a fast pace as he drove to the nearest town that would have a tire shop.

They didn't have the appropriate size tires, so he paid for the punctured tires to be mended, while his girls went to a diner for a home-cooked meal. When he joined them, he had the distinct impression they had been conversing discreetly about something and stopped when they saw him enter. He shook his head and dismissed his impression as a result of being too wired to think straight.

Their brief meal was coming to a close when Helena asked, "So, what's our plan of attack, Jamie?"

Jamie stabbed the last of his food around on the plate and muttered, "I don't know, yet," before depositing it in his mouth.

"Well," needled Helena, "shouldn't you have a plan of attack, before you go and, you know, attack?" Jamie glared at her as he chewed, and she shut up.

He held up his phone. "I got another text from Cyrus, just now," he said. "My sister's guardians are Martin and Jessica Johansson. Know them," he asked Helena.

"Yes," she replied, "they're my mom's cousins. They live just three blocks from our house. This is bad news, Jamie. It means my family is against you. They probably know what's happened between us and want your head on a platter."

"How could they know," he asked.

"Well," Helena spoke reluctantly, "I was never privy to their real business, but I imagine, from what I had read of our books, that they can spot the charms we left in the minds of our families back home. They probably spelled them all to tell them everything they can remember of our interactions, and pieced together an idea of our situation."

Rose chimed in with, "I don't think that's the case. We were all very careful not to reveal the true nature of our relationship with you. All they could possibly know is that the five of us have been running around together and might be up to some mischief. I don't think they know everything. Not really."

"Yeah, I wish that were true," said Helena, "but why is Jamie's family the one that's being torn apart? All our families are untouched. My mom knew, for a fact, that you weren't born with magic and if she suspects you might have it now, she wouldn't like it. If she knows the truth about us, she'll have reported it to Section and you'll be executed on sight by their chief enforcers. They have a zero tolerance for slavers."

The word "slaver" gripped Jamie's insides in waves of nausea. He gaped at her in shock as he stammered, "I only did what's... I mean, this is preposterous! You girls hanged yourselves, and, and, I..."

Helena gave him a reassuring hug and said, "I know Jamie. We all do. But here's the thing; if they don't know the truth, if all they have is suspicions, then there could be just a few members of my extended family, baiting you to come home so they can capture you and find out the truth."

"I'm as good as dead if that happens," complained an ashen-faced Jamie.

"We need to find out," declared Sandra. "We need to do some reconnaissance, before we go in, guns blazing." The girls agreed with her and Jamie lowered his face to his hands. He groaned in frustration.

Finally, he wiped his face with his hand. His features were set in a grimace of rage. "Wait for me at the cars," he instructed. "I need to go for a walk." He strolled all over the one-horse town, desperate for an idea or some insight. Nothing feasible came to mind. In desperation, he went into the only jewelry store in town and bought some jewelry. He decided to try and make some kind of ward that would make him resistant to the magic of others, if that was at all possible. He didn't know what he was doing, but he knew he had to think of something and fast.

They drove out of the town and into a nearby forest. They parked by a large, untouched meadow. He sat down, cross-legged, and invited Rose and Sandra to join him. They sat down in a circle, knees touching, in the shadow of a large oak tree. Sonya and Helena were to stand watch over them. Jamie felt decidedly silly, sitting on the ground in the middle of nowhere, with no clue as to what he was doing, but he had to try. He was desperate for some kind of advantage against Section and its agents.

He was going to let his instincts guide him. He tied the auras of his witches to his, and linked up their magics, just like they did when they cast their wards. He ordered them to follow his lead, wherever it might take them. They complied and he felt their minds open up to him, awaiting any input. He sat in the same position and let his need and rage guide him until he lost all track of time and space. His brain began shutting out all the input from his senses, and he found himself in a completely unknown place. He could touch nothing, see nothing and hear nothing. The only thought that came to him was that he was inside himself. In a deep and hidden place, he thought the question of how to gain more power. He answered his own, wordless question, with an image of a pair of drawings.

Jamie went from the deep place inside himself and ventured into the girls that were sitting with him. He became one with their minds, and their minds thought his thoughts. He resisted the idea of explaining things and just projected the image of the drawings. He shaped the magics of all three of them in the exact same way and he reached into one of his pockets with Sandra's hand and retrieved a gold ring. Acting on subconscious instinct, Jamie held out his ring finger, and Sandra's hand slipped the ring on. A pair of tiny, intricate drawings inscribed themselves on opposite sides of the inside of the ring. All the power the three of them had, went out and joined with those drawings. An incredible rush of jumbled sensations overwhelmed the three witches. Their power faded, severing the link between them, and they fell back to breathe deep and cough.

Helena and Sonya stood over the trio. Jamie was the first to catch his breath and ask, "How long were we out?" He felt like his magic was gone. It wasn't like the old days, when he didn't know how to use it, it was like it was all drained from him. He felt, more than knew, that it would come back to him after a good night's rest.

Helena checked her wristwatch and said, "Five and a half minutes."

"What," asked Jamie in disbelief. "Are you sure?!" When Helena and Sonya both nodded and showed him their watches, he was stunned. It had felt like he was casting for hours. If they had told him it had been five hours, he'd believe them. If they told him it was five and a half days, he'd agree, right off the bat. "Five and a half minutes," he whispered incredulously. Rose and Sandra sat up and looked at him in awe. "Are you two all right?"

They nodded with goofy smiles and Rose said, "More than alright. You just possessed us! I've never even read about anything like that before!"

Jamie's brow drew down incredulously. "I didn't... possess you, I," Jamie's protest trailed off.

"Yeah, you did," said a dopey-grinned Sandra. "And it was awesome!" Rose giggled in agreement. "You drained us of all our power. What did you do with it?"

"Wait a minute, he possessed you," asked Helena.

"Oh, yeah," affirmed Rose. "And it was amazing! It was like we became you. We felt all of your feelings, we thought your thoughts, it was spectacular. You know, I'm beginning to get this whole Jedi, use-the-Force, feel-it-in-your-gut, don't-mind-the-old-books, thing." Sandra nodded along. "But seriously, what did you do with all our magic. I'm so drained, I couldn't so much as light a cigarette right now."

Jamie had no idea himself, until his attention was drawn to the ring on his ring finger. Two thin, ethereal tendrils of pure sorcerous power snaked out of the drawings on the inside of the ring and extended to just beside him. His gaze followed them and he beheld a Jamie-shaped ethereal figure made of pure sorcery, floating right next to him. All Jamie understood of magic told him this stunning display of sorcerous power hovering next to him should dissipate into nothingness without a body and soul to maintain it. Yet, the Jamie-shaped thing just hung there peacefully. It smiled at him, wearing his own face and smile, and he grinned back. It possessed the same beauty and perfection as did all the wards Jamie and the girls cast on their talismans and cars. The Jamie next to him communicated in images and thoughts and Jamie immediately understood.

"Ok," he spoke to the girls, "I know what I did with all our magic. I invested it in a pair of drawings that are on the inside of this ring. The drawings shaped it into a sort of sorcerous spirit that is me, but not me, at the same time. It's like a stored spell slot in the Dungeons & Dragons games." Sandra and Rose, now familiar with every concept he was familiar with, nodded sagely, while Helena just regarded him with a look that screamed "What the fuck is he on about?!"

"I get it," said Rose. "It's like you stored all the power we had on this day, so you can use it instantly at a later moment of your choosing. How much power can you store like that?"

Jamie regarded the unseen spirit next to him for a long time, before replying, "Well, this is something completely new, so I'm not certain. I do know that I can't do this on my own. This," he faltered for words, "spirit Jamie can only be made by someone who is wielding male and female magic at the same time, so I can only do this when I'm linked up with the two of you, like we just were. And no, I don't think that either of you can store spirit Roses or Sandras. The male and female power have to be of equal strength, like they are when I'm on one side of the equation, and the two of you are on the other."

"So," asked Rose, "How many can you store in the ring?"

Jamie cleared his mind and let his instincts and the spirit next to him guide his conscious mind to the answers. "Five pairs of drawings can be inscribed, next to one another, on the inside of the ring," he slowly said.

"What about the outside," asked Sandra.

"Eh," he grunted, "I'd rather not inscribe the drawings on the outside. I'd prefer to keep this to myself, as a secret weapon. Don't want anyone to copy it just yet. But I get your meaning, I could just fit six pairs of drawings on the outside."

"Okay," said Helena happily, "so you get five stored spells per ring, ten rings on your fingers, woo-hoo! Wholesale ass kicking on command! Am I right, or what?"

Jamie shook his head uncertainly, before he started talking, "No. No, the spirits remain stable only for as long as they are connected to my heartbeat. I can only store them in a ring that I keep on my ring finger, cause there are blood vessels that run straight to the heart from there. If I was to ever remove the ring from my finger, or my heart stopped beating for more than a few seconds, the spirit would dissipate instantly, and all the power invested would go to waste."

"Can't you just put more than one ring on your finger, or a very wide ring that could be inscribed with, like, a hundred drawings in several rows," asked Helena.

Jamie shook his head no, after much internal deliberation. "The drawings have to be arranged in one, single circle around my finger," he said. "One physical circle that acts as an anchor for the self-looping power."

"So if you had thicker fingers, you could wield more power," asked Helena. "Seems like a gyp. Can't you make the drawings even smaller?"

"No, dude, they're complicated enough as they are" complained Jamie, shaking his head. "I just created something new and unprecedented! I almost literally pulled it out of my ass and this is the respect I get?"

Helena laughed. "Well, shit," she jokingly complained, "here I thought you'd become all-powerful, or something, and now you say there are all these limits. You do know how to disappoint a girl." Jamie chuckled. "How soon before you can store another spirit, or spell, or whatever?"

"Oh," groaned Jamie as he stood up, "At least another full day. This was exhausting. Also, I don't feel like it's just a spell I've stored. It's like there's a whole warlock just waiting to be unleashed at my command, and in any way I'd need it to be. It just feels awesome." He helped Rose and Sandra to their feet.