A-Cup Angst Ch. 15

"I think I have a lead on Mara," he said.

Caitlin saw the spark in his eyes and smiled at it. "I'm coming with you," she said. Before he could protest, she said, "Don't even! I'm going to back you up and help save this girl. If you feel like killing the witch madam and her goons, know that I support that decision one hundred percent. In fact, I'll kill some them myself, I just won't be using my magic to do so directly." Jamie gave her a surprised look. "What? These fuckers are messing with innocent women's minds and pimping them out. They deserve to die."

Jamie held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "If you expect me to talk you out of this..."

"If you just try to talk me out of this," she said, "I will give you those facial shingles. Now, quit fucking around and let's mount up and roll. There's violence to be done!"

They gathered their belongings and left the hotel. Jamie just tossed a handful of bills on the front desk and gathered her passport with telekinesis. They went to his car and he drove them towards that tower. "You do understand that I don't do the whole 'judge, jury and executioner' routine anymore," he asked Caitlin.

"Yeah?"

"Yes," he said. "We are going there strictly to get Mara out. After that, I'm calling the police to handle things. The Carabinieri have shown themselves to be quite capable, once they take your call seriously."

Caitlin shrugged and said, "Hey, it's your call. You're practically one of the locals and this is your show. I'm just here to back you up."

"Good," he said. "I just wanted to clear that up. As soon as we're in the car with Mara, we call in the cavalry and get lost."

"Ok, chief," she said.

He drove them to the tower itself. It was on the top of a rocky hill, overlooking its surroundings. They got out of the car and started to look all around. The view was splendid. Most of the valley was full of vineyards that looked sad covered in snow and icicles. There was a cluster of small houses on one side of the valley and a large, industrial hall on the other. What immediately caught Jamie's eye was the villa on the north side of the valley. It was surrounded by immaculate grounds that were free of snow and something inside him simply told him that that was the place to go.

"There," he said and pointed to the villa. Caitlin sighted along his arm and nodded. They got back into the car and he drove them towards the villa. When they passed a small copse of pines a quarter of a mile from the villa, Caitlin nearly exploded.

"Stop the car," she yelled. "Stop the car! That was our closest cover! You just passed it and exposed us to their view!"

"Relax," he said, "the car's warded."

"Warded," she asked. "Warded by who? How? I didn't ward it! You don't have any magic! They're going to see us coming! Drive past! Drive past!" Jamie stopped the car across the road from the villa's main entrance and parked it. "What the hell are you doing!?"

"I told you, the car's warded against anyone noticing it," he said. Caitlin looked to be on the verge of panic. "We could fuck, right here, right now and no one would pay us any mind. Seriously. Trust me!" He ignored Caitlin's sputtered protests and extended his senses into the villa itself. He couldn't sense anyone in there. After Caitlin calmed down a bit, they watched the place in silence.

"What are we waiting for," she asked.

Jamie shushed her gently and said, "Patience."

After about half an hour passed, they saw a very large figure in coveralls move between the villa and its adjoining garage. It was one of the witch's goons and Jamie pointed him out to Caitlin. "This is the place," he said. "It's got a privacy shield over it."

Caitlin stared at the villa and the goon carrying a gargantuan armload of wood into the villa proper. "I can't feel anything," she said.

"Maybe it's best if you stay here, in the car," he said. She shot him an angry look. "Secure our retreat?"

Caitlin snorted at his peace offering and said, "I'm coming with you."

"Ok," he said. "I'm sorry, I'm just a little nervous. The last girl that came along with me to this bitch's domain turned into a lust monster the instant she crossed the threshold. I don't want that to happen to you, too."

"It can't," she said. "Those girls must have been fed potions and charm magic on a regular basis to achieve such an effect. If she had somehow managed to spell the dorm itself to turn any female inside it into a sex slave, then she'd be affected too. For her to create such a tremendous spell, she'd need some serious mojo. Some very heavy enchantments that were usually powered by human sacrifices. For her to make an exception of herself, to be able to walk inside such a spell's area of effect unaffected? Ho-ho-ho, I don't think that's at all possible but, even if it is, it would require her to wear some pretty heavy jewelry at all times. She'd practically have to be encased in gold! You said you didn't see her wear any jewelry at all, right? No golden bands anywhere?"

"Nope," he said. "None. And she wasn't wearing anything that she could conceal jewelry with."

"Well, then, there you go," she said. "Your fears are completely unfounded. I'm not going to change as soon as I step across that threshold. Now, what's the plan?"

"It's simple," he said. "We have no concealment between here and the front door, so we get out of the car, run across the front lawn to the door, I open it and we rush in to search for Mara. We stay as quiet as we can for as long as we can, but once they sound the alarm, we fight our way in and out. With Mara in tow!"

"So, we're basically winging it?"

"Yup," he said. "Ready?"

"Ready," she said and winked with a smile.

They rushed out of the car and jogged across the road. As soon as Caitlin entered the grounds proper, her mind vanished from Jamie's senses. Jamie followed a few steps behind her, since his side of the car had been facing away from the villa. When he crossed the line of the grounds, he nearly doubled over in shock as his senses could now sweep the grounds. Caitlin's mind was gone. She was a creature of lust and desire, dashing towards the house to offer up her body and services. Jamie nearly tripped on his own feet. He roused himself and seized Caitlin telekinetically. She squealed loudly and giggled as he raised her in the air and then floated her back towards the road. As soon as he moved her out of the grounds, her mind snapped back to what it was. He set her down on the snowy ground and ran to her.

"Are you ok," he asked.

"What happened," she asked. "How did I get turned around like this?"

"You changed as soon as you crossed into the villa grounds," he said. "Can't you remember?"

"No," she said, alarmed, "what happened? How long was I out?"

"Never mind that," he said and seized her by the arm. He gave her a gentle push towards the X5. "You need to get in the car and stay there. I've got to do this alone!" He could only hope that they had remained unseen so far, even though they had been standing out in the open for half a minute now. He was beginning to feel weary and weak. "You need to go..." His weariness was starting to overwhelm him. "And I need..." Darkness was descending upon his eyes, making it hard for him to focus and see. "I need to..." The last thing he heard was the soft thump of Caitlin falling unconscious at his feet. Then he fell asleep. He didn't even register his own fall.

He dreamed that a profound darkness enveloped him and then clutched him with numerous talons. The talons ripped his skin off, but he didn't hurt. He felt no pain from being peeled like a potato. As his skin was removed, a new him emerged. He was made of fire and heat and the darkness burned away in an agony that made him smile.

He woke up still wearing that smile. It froze on his face as he blinked his eyes open and saw a smiling face above himself. It was the face of Sylvie, supervampire extraordinaire in service to the french Directorate. She was smiling and Jamie could only hope that he had experienced a false awakening and was just in another level of his nightmare.

"Good morning, Bludgeoner," she said. Her accent was thick and Jamie realized that she actually spoke English.

Jamie swallowed repeatedly. His throat was dry and he was shivering all over. His heart was pounding madly. He tried to talk, but couldn't manage more than a croak.

"This was quite a surprise for me," she said in fluent and hardly accentuated Italian. "Getting you delivered all gift-wrapped after an anonymous call. I can only imagine how shocking this awakening is for you."

She spoke in English, saying, "Your face is, how you say it, priceless!"

"I see that you have been quite busy since we saw each other last," she said, reverting again to flawless Italian. "You've managed to rejuvenate yourself and undo your punishment. That's quite impressive. We've received your vampire, thank you very much for her, but we are a bit angry that you hurt our agents." She leaned in closer to him and her wavy hair fell forward to frame her pretty face. It nearly fell down to Jamie's face.

"It's a shame the Directorate is such a stickler for the law," she said, wistfully. "For instance, you cannot be prosecuted for assaulting the agents we had sent after your charmed belongings because they had been on a secret mission. A mission that never happened and therefore, they never got attacked by a lesser vampire under your control. How lucky for you. I also can't undo your rejuvenation, either. No legal grounds for it. Isn't that just awful? You get away with flaunting the law and perverting the course of justice."

Jamie couldn't get a read of the vampire's mind, he couldn't even sense her presence right above his face, but he was certain that he wasn't dreaming anymore. This was real. His worst fear had come to life and crouched above him. Something in the tone of her voice told him that there was a big "but" coming along.

"I don't have the legal authority to drain another thirty years from you and restore your punishment because you did that on american soil," she said and laughed a small, bitter laugh. "The only way I'd have the authority to restore your penalty was if one of the mercenaries you had drained to restore your youth had been a french citizen."

She looked away and made a face like she was deep in thought. Jamie shut his eyes. He just knew what was coming.

"Oh," she exclaimed and made a face like she had just remembered something important. She looked back down at him. "Wait! I just remembered! One of them was a french citizen!" She barked a glad laugh. "I get to restore your punishment, Bludgeoner. Look at me!" Jamie squeezed his fists. Despite actually being laid out on the ground, he wasn't going to just take this lying down. "You will open your eyes and look at me!" He drew a deep breath and burst into action. He sent out a blast of telekinetic energy at the vampire, intending to shove her as far away from himself as he could.

Sylvie went flying like a piece of paper on a stiff breeze. Jamie righted himself, blinked, and realized he lost sight of her. He took quick stock of himself and his surroundings. He saw that he was in a field. The Sun was low on the horizon, telling him that he had been out for either four hours or a full day and four hours, but he also recognized the possibility that it could have been even longer than that. The ground was cold and frozen, but had no snow upon it. That told him he probably wasn't in Tuscany anymore. He looked around for any trace of the vampire, but couldn't spot her. He couldn't sense her mind's presence at all and he had no idea where she actually was. He was very unnerved by his total inability to sense her mind.

He heard her giggle from above. He lifted his gaze and saw her hovering above him. He tried to sweep her from the sky with the Force, but she dodged his swipe with inhuman speed. She swooped low and rushed down at him. The wind rushed out of his lungs with a loud, "ooomph" as he was knocked flat on his ass. She screamed like a banshee from somewhere next to him. Jamie struggled to catch his breath and roll into a defensive crouch. When he finally succeeded, he saw Sylvie kneeling a few yards away from him and looking at her hands in shock. She looked up and their eyes met. He saw his death in her big, brown orbs. He didn't have the time to blink, or the chance to be afraid as she closed the distance instantly. She put her hands upon him and shrieked out a scream, the agony of which made Jamie's heart stop.

She flew away from him as fast as she had flown at him and Jamie looked down at himself in confusion. As he drew a deep breath, he smelled the stench of burning flesh. Before he could look down to see where she had burned him, he heard her scream in agony again. She sounded like death dying. It made him want to crap himself in blind fear. As his eyes caught up with her, he saw that her hands were rapidly healing from massive burns. Her sleeves were smoldering.

He couldn't understand how she had caught fire. The hatred in her eyes was very easy to understand, however. She stood up and cast against him. A flame made out of the darkest of blacks flew at him. Jamie didn't even have time to try and dodge the spell before it fizzled out harmlessly. Sylvie looked as shocked as he did at that development. She tried another casting and nothing at all happened.

Jamie took the chance to stand up. He had no idea what was wrong with the vampire and he had no desire to stick around and find out. He wanted to get as far away as possible. Sylvie roared in wrath as she pointed her finger at a rock on the ground next to him. The rock shot up to strike Jamie, but it lost momentum at almost the same instant and fell harmlessly next to Jamie.

Sylvie looked completely bewildered. Jamie felt exactly as she looked. A lesser rift suddenly appeared between them, making them both blink in surprise and step back from it. Visible inside the lesser rift was the face of an middle-aged, Arabic gentleman. He nodded his head at Jamie and then the rift flipped around to face Sylvie. Jamie watched as the face of a young, black man showed up next to the Arab's face. Text began to scroll up on the remaining third of the rift. It was in French and Jamie couldn't quite make out what was written there.

Sylvie angrily responded in French to whatever was written there and she started to behave more and more angrily towards the floating faces between them. The faces in the rift remained calm and more and more text scrolled by in French. Finally, Sylvie settled for glaring through the rift at Jamie. He gulped at the intense hatred in her eyes. Without a word, she took off and disappeared into the dusky sky. A supersonic boom was soon heard.

Jamie wiped the sweat from his brow and nearly collapsed in relief. Despite the cold, he had been sweating bullets from encountering her. He didn't know if she was really gone. All he knew was that he was still alive. When he straightened back up, the rift was right in front of him, like a giant plasma screen. The lesser rift was perfectly harmless, just a way to share images between two locations, but Jamie took a startled step backwards, all the same.

The Arab in the rift smiled happily. The young black man next to him was replaced by a person that was completely covered with a purple headdress. Only her eyes were visible. On the left third of the rift, words started to slowly scroll. They read, "Mister Jacobs, I am Ahmed ibn Rashid Al Mahud and I am deeply honored to finally meet you."

Jamie's brow raised in surprise. He had no idea what to make of this situation. "Yeah, uh, glad to meet you, too," he said to himself. He felt up his pockets, trying to find his phone. It wasn't in his pocket. Neither were his wallet and keys.

New words scrolled up the rift, reading, "Glad does not begin to cover my feelings towards you, Mister Jacobs. I, my family, and many families worldwide owe you the biggest debt of thanks."

Jamie blinked in surprise. "Can you hear me," he asked.

Ahmed smiled and shook his head. Text appeared, reading, "No, but my associate is a very adept lip reader of the English language." Ahmed nodded at the purple garbed woman next to him. He then gestured at the floating letters that read, "And this is a simple enough illusion."

Jamie nodded and then got to the point. "Where did the vampire go," he asked.

Ahmed waved a dismissive hand and said, "She will never bother you again, Mister Jacobs. Let me assure you of that. She is gone away and she will stay away from you from now on."

"I'm, I'm very grateful for that," Jamie said, confused. "But why would she leave me alone? And what happened here, just now? How did I get here? Where am I?"

Ahmed's image in the rift raised both hands and the text read, "Slowly, please, Mister Jacobs. Those are too many questions for my interpreter. And for me, also. First, let me express my gratitude for saving my niece and nephew in Mogadishu. I had been under the thumb of the Syndicate, much like Laura Rossi. We, whose loved ones had been taken by the Syndicate, had tried to get organized and fight back to free our relatives, but we couldn't do it. All it took was for the Syndicate to kill a few hostages and all our efforts would be for naught. Everyone would be discouraged from any further resistance."

Jamie rolled his eyes. He needed to find out where he was and what happened, not read a tale of woe and sorrow. The Syndicate was over and done for. He had seen to it himself. Mara and Caitlin were in trouble right now. Only one question took precedence over that. "Why did the vampire get burned when she touched me," he asked.

Ahmed on the rift paused and Jamie could see the woman's face mask puff out as she spoke. Ahmed nodded and text started scrolling, reading, "We have reformed our society of late, at the behest of Laura Rossi, only this time, our agenda was clear and our membership united. We all pledged to cast protective charms upon your person each and every day of your life in thanks for saving our loved ones and delivering us from the clutches of the Syndicate."

Jamie's jaw dropped in shock. "What? How?"

More text scrolled up the rift, reading, "Laura sent each and every chapter of our society across the globe a small lock of your hair and we use those to cast the protective charms upon you." Jamie thought back to when she had insisted she cut his hair. He couldn't believe she had set up a secret society with the purpose of casting protective spells on him. "At any given moment, you are covered with the protective blood magic of hundreds of grateful casters from all over the world, Mister Jacobs. The Law of Numbers, the most fundamental law of magic, is on your side. I cannot even conceive of Mistress Sylvie ever eating enough magicians to increase her count to be able to overcome our protection."

Jamie roused himself and said, "Listen, Ahmed, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm warded against blood magic." Jamie pulled out his warded, silver and leather dog tags and showed them to the face in the rift.

Text appeared that read, "Against harmful and tracking blood magic, yes. No one can defend against that which is freely given to benefit them."

"Thank you," was all Jamie could say in response. He was too shocked by this development to say anything else.

Ahmed smiled a warm, broad smile and text appeared that read, "No, no! Thank you, Mister Jacobs!"

"Can you tell me where I am," Jamie asked.

Ahmed shook his head and the text read, "Alas, no. Your wards prevent us from tracking you, just like they would prevent anyone else tracking you. I cannot trace this rift, either. Casting it blindly and untraceably was a requirement for sending it to your location. I have no way of knowing where you are, but my guess would be that you are somewhere in France."