Chapter 18: Christmas Eve

Mandie picked up the last of her few belongings off the bad she’d been using and shoved them into a hand woven bag she’d dug out of the dresser. Even with her accounting for Nia’s specialty the girl had still managed to heal faster than scheduled. Instead of heading home in the late afternoon she was now planning for them to leave the Temple almost two hours before noon. It was amazing.

Mandie had stayed up to check on the burns throughout the night, and each time she’d checked they’d improved drastically. That was until they were completely gone at about four in the morning, although the residual magic was still hanging around. At that point she’d decided it would be a good idea to get some rest, but when she looked at where the burns again almost five hours later, even the leftover magic had vanished. Whether it was absorbed by Nia or it had just ran out of power, Mandie didn’t know, and she wasn’t particularly eager to find out.

Besides, that wasn’t something to worry about right now. The more pressing matter was how they would be getting home. Mandie had teleported here because it was one of the few locations she had permanently ingrained in her mind. The only other places like that where the office and her bedroom out at the Society, but she’d left her keys back at Alice’s apartment and there was no way she’d be walking all the way out to Alice’s from the office. She’d honestly just have to hope for the best.

“What’re you thinking about?” The voice asked, shaking Mandie from her thoughts.

She hadn’t realized Nia was up. She finished shoving her belongings in the drawstring bag then pulled it shut and slung it over her shoulder. “You,” she answered truthfully. “Are you ready to leave?”

Nia’s head tilted to one side. “You’re not lying?” She sounded shocked, more shocked than Mandie would’ve expected. Like Mandie had never told her the truth before.

“There’d be no point. Now are you ready to leave?” She asked again.

“Why wouldn’t I be, it’s not like I have any personal belongings. But why are you asking?” She pulled herself up off the makeshift bed on the floor and stretched her left arm over her head.

“Because we’re leaving in about ten minutes.”

Nia’s shoulders tensed up and she stopped before she could stretch out her back. “I thought you said we weren’t leaving till this afternoon.”

“Well yes, but that was back before your burns healed miraculously overnight. Is going back now a problem?” Mandie asked, making it clear she’d hadn’t missed Nia’s over-the-top reaction.

“Well, no, it’s not a problem. I just wanted to have some time to explore this place.”

Mandie almost couldn’t stop herself from laughing. What, was she crazy? There was absolutely now way Mandie would let Nia wander through this place, unsupervised or otherwise. It just wasn’t going to happen. “Yeah no, even if you were still hurt there’s absolutely no chance that I would let you leave this room.”

“But why not?” Nia protested.

Mandie paused for a moment, trying to think of the best way to explain what this place was without really explaining what it was. She was at a loss for words, or, at least a loss for cryptic confusing words. “She this window?” Mandie asked, gesturing to the almost wall long hole in the wall covered by only a thin mesh screen.

Nia looked at the wall, then back at Mandie with the face of a smart-a*s. “No, I missed that,” she sassed instantly.

“Well, if you take another look out that window that you totally missed, you might understand why.” Mandie could show her some pieces of the puzzle, hopefully with that Nia would put together her own incorrect conclusions.

Nia was over at the window quick as a flash. Perhaps it had never occurred to her to actually look at the surrounding area. Although it’s not like Mandie could blame her, if she was sick she wouldn’t really care where she was either.

“Where are we?” Nia asked, unable to drag her eyes away from the view.

“South America.”

“Where in South America, though?” Nia persisted.

“If you think I’m telling you that you’re crazier than I thought you were.” The location was secret, even Mandie couldn’t tell you exactly where it was. It didn’t appear on a map, it didn’t technically exist on their plane of reality, it was just kind of where it was and nowhere else. That was the best answer Mandie could give anyway, and she was the guardian of this temple, the sole inheritor.

“Hmm, maybe I am. Who’s to say really,” Nia turned to her and grinned. “So,” she mused, “What is this place?”

“It’s a temple,” Mandie answered flatly. “A sacred temple that I’m not going to allow to be desecrated by the likes of you,” she finished, maybe that would get her to stop asking questions.

“Please, the amount of natural energy in this place is overwhelming,” she said, holding out her hands like she was feeling out the energy in the air. “My presence vanishes from everything I touch in seconds. So why doesn’t yours?”

Mandie kept her face calm, but that didn’t stop her from freaking out internally. Nia was right that her energy vanished from an area the moment she was no longer there, but how the hell had she noticed that Mandie’s didn’t. Spirits and exorcists alike don’t use natural magic, aside from Mandie that was, so there should’ve been no way for Nia to notice that minute difference. Especially since the difference between Mandie’s energy and the Temple’s natural radiance was so minute that even she couldn’t pick out the difference half the time.

“My specialty is magic control,” Mandie responded without hesitation, “having my energy not disappear is what I do.”

“Mm,” Nia looked back out the window, taking in the last of the view, “Maybe.”

Mandie rolled her eyes, she had no clue what Nia was insinuating, but she was certain there was no she knew anything about this place that Mandie didn’t. “Are you ready to go?”

“Me? Always, but where are we going?”

“The hope, is my office, but we’ll see how that works out.” Nia nodded her understanding. Mandie begin building up the magic it would take to teleport both her and Nia, “You sure you’re ready to go?” She asked one final time.

“Ready and rearing captain,” she offered Mandie a mock salute.

Mandie grabbed Nia’s hand, pulled on the last bit of energy she needed from her reserves, though of their location, and they vanished.

***

The moment they appeared at their new location Nia dropped to the ground, breathing heavy. Mandie dropped down beside her and gave her a quick once over, but there was nothing she could do, Nia just needed time to readjust.

“Sorry,” Mandie winced, “I probably should’ve told you how much that would hurt.”

Nia took a few gasping breaths before answering. “No, you’re… you’re good… I-I just.. I just need a few minutes.”

“Alright, you stay right here, I’ll be out in a few seconds.” Nia meekly waved Mandie off then closed her eyes and adjusted to a comfortable position on the ground. Mandie stood and quickly scanned the parking lot below, it only took a few minutes but she spotted Chase’s old, silver camry. She spun back around and knocked on the door to the office.

Chase opened the door only seconds after. “Mandie? I didn’t think you’d be back until- Whoa, what happened to her?”

Madie pushed past him into the front room and found the bag she’d left at Alice’s sitting beside the couch. “Teleportation isn’t for everyone,” she replied as she picked up her bag and dug through it. Phone, check. Keys, check. Medicine box, check. Everything important was there, well, the heating pad wasn’t, but she had plenty of those.

Chase laughed. “Yeah it certainly isn’t. I remember the first time you jumped with me, it was not pretty,” he mused cheerfully.

“Not pretty?” Mandie paused as she pulled her cell phone out of her bag. “You threw up on half of my personal belongings.”

Chase froze, embarrassed. “Well, yes, but I was trying to be a bit more pleasant than bringing up that image again.”

“Yeah, but you weren’t being very pleasant back then were you,” she teased with a grin as she walked towards her bedroom. She heard Chase grumble something behind her, but was too distracted by the notifications on her phone lock screen. Two texts from Alice, one from Gale, seven missed calls from Bea, one missed call from Kauzic. Damn, how had she missed so much in the day and a half she’d been gone.

She came to a stop as she entered her room and unlocked her phone. She opened her texts first, just typical stuff from Alice, nothing exciting. Gale however, was back in Miami. That was good, at least the cousins had remembered to get him to his flight last night. Mandie cleared her call record and tossed her phone into a packed bag she’d left on her bed. She zipped the bag shut and moved back out into the main room.

“Where’s Jackson?” Mandie asked after sensing around the small building.

“He went to go buy some Robitussin, he’s got a head cold again.”

Mandie shrugged. No surprise there, sensory types tend to get sick more often than most others. “When’s your guys’s flight leave?”

“In about three hours, we’re heading out as soon as he gets back from the store.” He eyed her bag, “I’m assuming you’re not coming back?”

“Yeah, I’m heading out to Hal’s as soon as I drop Nia off with Alice, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to swing by the Society before you all get back.”

Chase stood up a little bit straighter and crossed his arms, “You’re going back there.”

He didn’t sound happy, but Mandie didn’t care. This was her job, and honestly she was only popping by to talk with one person. “It’s just a quick trip, I’m only going for an hour at most.”

Chase perked up a little, but still looked pretty pissed. “Oh so you’re just teleporting there and back. Don’t you think you might be pushing yourself a bit too far?”

She was, undoubtedly, and she knew it. But things needed to be done, and she was the one who needed to do them. “I am, and that’s why I’m going to Hal’s instead of staying here.”

“Oh, yeah,” Chase raised his hands in sarcastic defence, “Because going to a haunted mansion is so much better.”

Mandie didn’t need to take this, and she wasn’t going to. “There’s nothing paranormal going on there right now,” she pulled her keys out of her bag and headed towards the front door. “I’ll see you after Christmas.”

“Oh wait, one last thing,” he called before she could get the door open.

“What is it?”

“Someone named Billie stopped by here yesterday morning, said she knew you. I told her you were out of town and told me to tell you to call her when you get back, she said you had her number or something,” Chase finished like he wasn’t quite sure.

“Billie? What did she look like?” Mandie thought she knew who had stopped by, she just hoped she was wrong.

“Um, kinda tall, pale skin, red hair-”

Mandie didn’t need him to finish, she knew exactly who had come by. “S**t, alright. Thanks for telling me, have a good trip.” She turned opened the door and walked out, only briefly hearing Chase tell her to have a good trip too before the door closed behind her.

Nia was sitting up against the wall, her breathing was back to normal. She looked like she was about to say something, then paused and raised an eyebrow after actually looking at Mandie. “What’s the bag for?”

“Well, like most people I have plans for Christmas that don’t involve dealing with pesky ghosts,” she replied, nodding her head in the direction of the car and nudging Nia to follow her.

Nia nodded her understanding as she pulled herself off the ground and followed Mandie out into the parking lot. “I can relate. I would love to not have to deal with pesky spirits either, unfortunately someone has their Shiki in my apartment.”

Mandie laughed as she unlocked the car and threw her bags in the trunk. “Yeah, and that’s exactly where they’re going to stay.”

Nia grumbled and hopped into the passenger seat.

***

Alice’s eyes still felt strained from the day before, but there wasn’t really anything she was able to do about it. She’d slept, she’d eaten, she’d rested her eyes instead of reading or watching tv, but nothing had helped. Maybe nothing would help? What if she went blind?

That wasn’t logical, but what if she did? No, she needed something else to focus on, something other than her current problem. She threw herself up from where she lay on the couch and brought her legs up so she was sitting cross-legged on top of the doughy cushion that sunk pleasantly under her weight. If nothing would help how it felt, why didn’t she try to figure out exactly what it was?

There wouldn’t be any harm is seeing exactly what it was she could see, was there? Maybe she had gained some cool power that allowed her to see spirits and such, Mandie had said that there were specific types of exorcists who specialized in seeing ghosts. Even if she was a Summoner, there was nothing saying she couldn’t be great at seeing ghosts too. Or, at least she didn’t think there was anything saying she couldn’t. She didn’t really know.

Oh well, it would be better to try and fail than not try at all. Besides, Nia had said there were some small spirits hanging around the apartment. Maybe she could see those? Although, she hadn’t seen anything that suggested ghosts since she had gained this newfound vision. She paused for a moment to think it out. Maybe seeing ghosts was kinda like summoning ghosts? They’re always there but without a little bit of magic they’re weren’t going to be visible to the naked eye.

It was worth a shot. And if she was relating seeing them to Summoning Nia, she might as well go all the way. She’d learned how to focus magic in her hands, so she could probably figure out how to focus magic in her eyes too. Alice closed her eyes and focused, willing her latent energy to build up in the new location. She waited for a few seconds, giving it some time to work.

Nothing. Her magic wasn’t moving towards her eyes at all. If anything, she felt like it was being sluggish moving anywhere. She tried to focus it in her hands, but had the same problem. Maybe that was to be expected, after all, Nia wasn’t around. And supposedly her magic and Nia’s were linked together. Maybe there was something between the two of them that made it so Alice couldn’t use her powers if Nia wasn’t there?

That sounded dumb. But who knew? Alice certainly didn’t, Mandie would though. Alice pulled out her phone from her pocket and stared at the blank screen. She had considered calling Mandie almost a hundred times in the past two days, even though she knew it wouldn’t have done any good. Chase had Mandie’s phone, and no matter how much Alice hoped that Mandie had gone to pick it up at some point there was just no way of knowing.

She just wanted to know what was causing her weird vision and if Nia was alright. Even though she felt like she would know if something bad had happened with Nia, she had absolutely no idea what was going on with her eyes. The boys had told her that anchoring spiritual powers sometimes unlocked latent abilities that otherwise may have never shown up. So, did that mean that this was just an ability that she had somehow inherited? And if so, did that mean she’d be able to control it, to turn it off and on at will? That would be good, especially if she was ever going to go out in pu-

Alice stopped. Nia was back. She didn’t know how she knew, but she could just tell that Nia was close by. Real close by. There was a knock at the door, and Alice was off the couch in an instant, rushing to see who it was. She didn’t even look through the peephole before throwing the door open, she already knew who it was.

And low and behold, there she was. Nia was standing just past Mandie on the other side of the entrance. She looked completely fine, like nothing bad had happened almost two days ago that had resulted in Mandie taking her away. She had the same mischievous eyes, same half cocked grin, long black hair, and radiant skin. Actually, did her skin look a bit darker? Alice got rid of that thought the moment it entered her head, she must’ve  just imagining it. She hadn’t seen Nia for about a day and a half, there was no way she could be tanner than when she left.

“You’re back.” Sounded lame sure, but that was all she could manage to say before she realised that both the people in front of her were also glowing. Mandie was a shade of grey, like almost everyone else, but there were weird sparks of green in her aura. Nia on the other hand, she was different, and if Alice didn’t know any better, she might’ve been scared.

Nia’s aura was dark, almost as black as the man she’d seen in the store the other day, but apart from that it was weird. Mandie had sparks of green in her aura, Nia seemed to have streaks of blue in her’s, although Alice couldn’t quite tell is she was seeing black or a dark navy blue. Alice’s eyes began to sting again. She hadn’t even realized they had stopped, but now it was really noticeable.

“Yeah, turns out Nia’s got one hell of a healing rate,” Mandie replied smoothly, glancing back at the spirit.

“Yeah, turns out ghosts are real good at healing problems that affect them spiritually. Who knew,” Nia tacked on sarcastically before she slipped past Alice and began digging around in the kitchen.

Alice watched her for a minute then, assuming she was searching for food, turned back to Mandie. “So… what exactly happened?” She’s been asking herself that question ever since she’d found Nia awake on the couch, but she knew she’d never figure it out without Mandie’s help.

“It’s a bit hard to explain, especially to a novice like you, but basically Cana digging around in her memories triggered a chain reaction where her physical body thought that all those things, whatever they were, were really happening, and so it started reacting the way it would in real life,” Mandie explained with such ease that Alice couldn’t even begin to imagine what she had left out that would make that explanation harder to understand. Though she didn’t doubt for a second that there was much more to the puzzle that she wouldn’t understand.

“Oh,” Alice was at a loss for words. She still didn’t really know how to talk about all this ghost and spirit stuff. “That’s certainly bad.”

Mandie gave short laugh and nodded slightly. “Yeah, yeah it is.”

“So, she’s fine now, right?” Mandie had said Cana was dangerous, that she could’ve done unimaginable things to Nia while they were alone. Nia felt fine to Alice, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that first black aura had caused. And now with Nia having almost the same aura, she didn’t know what to think.

“Yeah, she should be completely fine. Her magic still needs time to realign itself, but that’ll happen naturally. I’d give it a day or two before her magic sorts itself out, so that will go for you too.” Well that confirmed that Alice’s and Nia’s magic was tied, no wonder it had been on the fritz.

“But uh, definitely let me know if you think anything is wrong,” Mandie added.

“I totally will.” Alice smiled, wondering if a dark aura counted as something wrong. For all she knew Nia’s aura had always looked this colour, he just hadn’t been able to see it before. Nia had been pretty nice before, maybe a bit of a sarcastic a*****e, but that didn’t make her a bad person. It was probably fine. No need to worry, for now at least.

“Speaking of anything wrong,” Mandie interrupted Alice’s thoughts, “Is there anything you want to tell me?”

Well that didn’t sound good. There was something that Alice wanted to tell her, more like ask her, but that didn’t change that Mandie’s segway was super creepy and off putting. She hesitated for a moment, before realising that this may be her only chance to ask for a while, a couple days at least.

“Uh, yeah. I wanted to ask you about some things.”

“Well that’s certainly good, because your eyes are glowing,” Mandie replied as nonchalant as usual.

“Wait, my eyes are what?” Alice filled with panic. Glowing? Had she said glowing? Or had Alice misheard her? If her eyes were glowing could everyone see them? Had they been glowing yesterday? Had anyone seen them?

“They’re glowing,” she said again. Then backed up apologetically as she realized Alice was freaking out. “Or, at least they’re glowing to me. Sorry, I should’ve been more specific about that.”

Alice placed and hand on her chest and sighed. “Holy s**t man, you gave me a heart attack.”

“Good. So what’s going on with them?”

Alice paused. She didn’t know where to start. She didn’t know how to explain. She’d been focused on this so intently since it started happening yet she had no way to go about explaining how it felt or what she was seeing. “It’s a bit… complicated.”

Mandie crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame, “Try me.”

Alice shrugged. What could it hurt. Even if her explanation was a mess, anything would be better than bottling it all up on the inside. “It’s like I can see these auras around people, but I’m not quite sure what they are or what they mean.”

“Auras?” A look of recognition flashed across Mandie’s eyes, then was covered by confusion so quickly Alice wasn’t sure if she had imagined it or not. “Why do you say that?” She asked.

“They vary from person to person, but they’re all generally on the same colour scheme. I just figured ‘aura’ was the best word I had to describe them, though they could mean something else. I just don’t know,” Alice admitted.

“What colour scheme to they follow?”

“Like, every shade between black and white.”

“What about mine? Is it different at all?”

“Yeah, actually. Yours has bits of green in it. Why?” Alice figured that Mandie knew a lot, but that questions had seemed to be a little bit too specific to be coincidental or by chance.

Mandie’s watch beeped before she could answer. She silenced it and looked at the time. “It’s just a hunch, I’ll need to look into it more. But I need to leave now or else I’m going to be late. You’ll call me if anything happens, right?”

“Right,” Alice answered automatically.

“Even if you think it’s nothing or it has to do with your eyes, call me.”

“I will.”

“Alright, have a good Christmas, and I’ll contact you when I’ve got another job.”

With that, Mandie began to move past Billie’s door towards the stairs that lead down to the parking lot below. Having nothing left to say, Alice closed and locked the door, and turned to see Nia chowing down on the box of Cocoa Pebbles.

“So wait, what’s going on with your eyes?” Nia asked, clearly too distracted by the box of cereal to have paid attention to what Alice had told Mandie. That seemed to be a common theme.

***

The moment one door closed another opened. Mandie paused at the top of the stairs. This was definitely one conversation she had been hoping to avoid in person, or at all if she was being honest with herself. She could feel the unpleasant energy seeping out of the open door behind her.

“We need to talk,” the smoky voice growled.

Mandie turned away from the stairs to face the opening, and was unsurprised by the red haired, green eyed figure standing there waiting for her. She wore a familiar expression, one Mandie had seen countless times back when they were still partners, back before Bea had split herself from the Society and gone into hiding. The set lips, cold eyes, and lowered eyebrows. That was the face she had always had when she knew something and someone wasn’t being completely honest with her.

Mandie had seen it a million times before, but she’d never expected to see it aimed at herself. She’d never hid anything before, she wouldn’t hide anything now.

“Why yes, I believe we do.”

***

Nia was sitting on the kitchen counter watching Alice prepare dinner, thinking of something, anything, she could say. Don’t get her wrong, her spiritual vision was very good, being a spirit and all it was definitely one of the benefits. But auras around people? Let her restate that, auras around people that only fell between the colour spectrum of white to black? That just didn’t make sense.

There was grey, sure, but that was just the be all end all for anyone who doesn’t have spiritual powers. That’s how it was. Exorcists glowed golden, Purisons were a brilliant blue, Mandie was whatever the hell she was, and everyone else was grey. End of discussion. But oh no, now Alice was saying that there was white and black? And different shades of grey? Nia wasn’t sure she believed it.

“You don’t believe me, do you?”

“I never said that,” Nia responded quickly, too quickly. She needed to make sure not to do that.

“You haven’t said anything,” Alice retorted as she reached down to put a tray of Pillsbury biscuits in the oven. She closed the door and set the timer for twelve minutes.

“I’m not gonna say I don’t believe you, I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense.”

“Oh yeah.” Alice crossed her arms in defence, “Well, why doesn’t it?”

Nia shrugged. She didn’t have a good explanation. Actually, she just didn’t feel like explaining it. Besides, it was pretty complicated and, while she had full faith in Alice’s comprehension abilities, she wasn’t even sure she’d be able to do a good enough job explaining it in the first place.

“There’s gotta be something that makes you say it doesn’t ‘make sense’.” Alice said, using actual air quotes before she turned around to dig through her fridge.

“I’ve just never heard of vision like that before.” She didn’t think she had at least, she would’ve remembered something that bizarre. “Besides, you said Mandie’s aura looked a little green, right?”

“Yeah,” Alice replied distractedly, not looking up as she pulled a huge container of premade mashed potatoes out of the fridge.

“So maybe you’re vision actually is just like normal things, it’s just you can’t really see colours yet so it all just looks like light?” Nia suggested, doubted even herself as she said it.

Alice removed the lid to the mashed potatoes and shoved it in the microwave as she turned to look at Nia. “You don’t sound very sure of yourself.”

She threw up her hands in confusion, “I don’t know man. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

“Well you are missing a lot of your memories, and Mandie didn’t seem to be too freak about it. So maybe it is a common thing and you just forgot about it.”

“Dude, I am a literal magic spirit being. I think I know my things.”

“So what are you saying? I’m a freak?” Alice asked, her voice dropping dangerously low.

Nia shifted nervously and slipped her hands under her legs. “Not at all, if anything it just means your special.” Maybe not special in the best way, but most special spiritualists weren’t in the best way. More often than not they created more problems for themselves than anything else ever did, and it wasn’t rare for them to get taken advantage of. No wonder Mandie hadn’t told the Society.

Alice’s features relaxed and she took a step back. “Oh.”

Nia wasn’t exactly sure what made her say that. It was true that Alice’s power did seem to be weird, but there were no other difference that set her apart from what a normal Summoner should be. Although, if Mandie was right, then Alice wasn’t a Summoner at all. In which case, Nia was the problem, and Mandie would deal with her eventually.

Nia shivered then shook away the feeling of impending doom she had created for herself. Now wasn’t the time to think about that. “So what time is everyone coming over?”

Before Alice could reply there was a knock at the door.

“Now apparently,” she smiled.

“I can see that.” Nia hopped off the counter and went over to answer the door, still amazed at how she was holding a physical form. It’d been about two days since Alice had Summoned her back at the Bellingham Reserve, and she hadn’t poofed once. She’d maintained a physical form the entire time she was with Cana and Mandie; and it hadn’t faltered either. It probably wasn’t a good thing, but Nia wasn’t going to question it.

She opened the door and came face to face with Teresa, who was holding an outrageously decorated winter holiday themed plastic container.

Teresa held it up as the door opened. “Mom made whoopie pies and let me tell you, they are the greatest thing on the planet.”

“What flavour are they?” Nia asked, sliding into the corner of the doorframe to give Teresa enough room to squeeze past her into the kitchen.

“Tiramisu,” she announced triumphantly as she walked into the kitchen and set them on the counter. “And in case you’re wondering, I had absolutely no part in making them.”

“That’s fantastic, we all know what happened last time,” Alice teased as the moved to pull the biscuits out of the oven before the timer went off. She reached the oven just as the timer reached the final few seconds, and switched it off before it could make a sound. Then swooped down to grab the perfectly golden pastries out of the oven.

“What happened last time?” Nia asked in an effort to distract Alice from seeing her grab one of the biscuits off of the hot stone they had been baked on. It didn’t work. Alice slapped her hand away and moved the stone to the other side of the stove, away from Nia.

“I don’t really want to get into it, but there were several wrong ingredients involved and quite a bit of food poisoning,” Alice mused with a smile, like she was remembering some hilarious event from so long ago that the only thing that mattered now was how funny it was.

“Hey, it wasn’t that bad!” Teresa protested, trying her hardest not to burst out laughing.

“Not that bad?” Alice asked with a deadpan expression. “It was the entirety of our sophomore English class and almost fifty percent of the teachers. Including the principle!”

Teresa was quiet for a moment as Nia was trying picture exactly what had happened. It wasn’t a pretty picture.

Teresa rocked on her heels, “I will admit, mistakes were made.”

“Clearly,” Nia teased, trying again for one of the biscuits. Alice caught her with a stern glance, then handed her a bag of salad, a bowl, and a few other salad necessities.

“Since you appear to have some free time, mix this up for me,” she smiled her warning.

Not needing to be told twice, Nia set to work pouring the bag of various green leaves into the bowl, then adding in some craisins, croutons, and candied almonds and mixing it all together. She wasn’t really a huge fan of salad, but even she had to admit that it looked pretty good for only taking up about a minute of time.

Nia sat, admiring her work for a brief moment, but was interrupted as Alice grabbed the bowl away and dumped in some chopped up carrots and cucumbers. She mixed it up again, then placed it on the table just in time to move back to the microwave before the timer went off for the mashed potatoes.

“How in gods name are you so efficient?” Nia asked, mesmerized from watching Alice move around the kitchen with flawless ease.

“Practice,” Alice replied without thought as she mixed up the potatoes and poured them into a fancier, more holiday themed bowl. As she set them on the table there was another knock at the door. “Teresa?” Alice asked.

Teresa saluted, “On it.” She hopped of of the counter where she had been sitting next to her whoopie pies and went to open the door.

Nia turned to look who had come over and froze. This couldn’t be right. It just could be. She would’ve sensed it, right? There was no way she would’ve missed this much magic but, here it was. And she still couldn’t sense it, even though it was right in front of her.

“Teresa, glad to see you again,” the smoky voice lilted through the air.

Nia would know that voice anywhere. She hadn’t actually seen her the last time she’d been over, but there was no doubt in her mind, it was Billie. Billie, the person who apparently had enough spiritual energy to rivaled any regular first class exorcist. Holy s**t. DId Alice know? She had to know. But, she hadn’t said anything… There was no time to think about that. Not now that everything made sense. The Shiki, the seals all over the apartment. They belonged to her.

Billie handed the tinfoil covered platter she was holding to Teresa and looked around the room. Her eyes stopped on Nia, “Who’s this?”

Nia’s stomach dropped, she felt like she was falling.  Her mind went blank, she had no quick retort, no silver lies. She was stranded, fumbling for even the smallest word. Not like it would help anyway. Billie knew, she had to. There was no way she saw anything but a ghost standing in front of her.

Luckily, Teresa didn’t even miss a beat after Billie asked her question. “This is my cousin Nia, she was up visiting for the holidays. I hope it’s not a problem that I invited her over?” Teresa lied with a speed even Nia was impressed by.

“Really?” Billie’s eyes didn’t move, “Is that so.”

“Yeah,” Alice added, fairly adept at lying as well, not that it did any good. “I said it was fine for her to come over, you know, the more the merrier and all.”

Billie shrugged and smiled at the other two girls. Nia hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath until Billie’s eyes had moved off of her. But she had been, and now she was holding back coughing up a storm to catch her breath again.

“As long as it’s allright with her parents it’s fine with me,” Billie said.

Teresa laughed, “It’s completely fine. Hanukkah ended like two weeks ago. Beside, we’re here to celebrate the season of being with family and friends, not that whole totally inaccurate religious thing.”

Billie nodded, “You’ve got a point. Anyway, what else needs done before dinner?”

“Umm,” Alice looked around the kitchen, noting the plate Billie had brought, Teresa’s whoopie pies, and the three sides she had made with Nia’s help. “No, I think we’re just about ready. I just need to go get the tablecloth out of the closet.”

“I can get it,” Nia offered as smoothly as she could manage. She’d do anything to get out of the room. She could only guess what would happen if she was ever somehow left alone with Billie, but she was not going to let that happen.

“Oh awesome. It’s just in the closet by my room, should be close to the top,” Alice said as she began to move the biscuits off of the sone and onto a semi-fancy platter.

Nia slipped out of the room and headed for the closet. It wasn’t much distance, but she already felt much better, much more like herself. Her head was clearing up and she wasn’t as panicked. She could finally think, although she had no idea why she had completely frozen when Billie had walked in. That had never happened before. Unless, somehow, Billie had managed to intimidate her? But that had never happened before either.

Nia racked her mind for answers as she opened the closet and began to dig around the upper shelves. She was shocked by how many towels, blankets, and spare pillows Alice had managed to shove up into the top of closet, but even so, it didn’t take her long to find the tablecloth they were looking for.

At least it was the one she assumed they were looking for. It was green and red plaid and had white snowflake designs all over it, and she didn’t see any others fabrics that looked like they would be tablecloths as well. That had to be it. Nia pulled it from it’s spot on top of a pile of dish towels and spun around and she closed the closet door.

She froze again. Billie was leaning against the doorframe that lead to Alice’s room, the seals around the entrance ignoring her completely, looking at Nia. Nia instinctively took a step back as she looked around the room, Alice and Teresa were both still in the kitchen. S**t. Nia didn’t know what to do, to say, to anything. She just stood there, looking back at the spiritualist as the seconds ticked by in the background.

Billie smiled, and finally spoke after what had seemed like ages. “You are interesting.”

Nia moved to take another step back, but found her back against the closet door. There was nothing she could do. “What makes you say that?”

“Nothing really, just something Mandie told me to look at.”

The moment that name left Billie’s mouth, Nia felt threatened, and she had not idea why. She settled into a fighting stance.

“What’s the problem,” Billie probed, “Feeling threatened?” Her magic expanded around her, reaching out across the room towards Nia.

Nia could do nothing but watch helplessly as the energy surrounded her. She couldn’t sense anything. Unlike other magic, this seemed to be completely invisible. All she could do was dodge whatever came directly at her, but even then, none of it went for her.

It was a scare tactic, and it was working.

“Very much so,” Nia growled through gritted teeth.

The magic shot back towards Billie, surrounding her in a daunting cloud of raw power. The spiritualist smiled, “Good, just remember that feeling when you’re thinking of doing anything even remotely life threatening, and we shouldn’t have any problems.”

Billie turned and left without another word, leaving Nia to regain her composure. Nia took in deep breaths, slowing her heart and suppressing the magic that was beginning to boil within her. What was she going to do. She couldn’t control the future, and now she had two incredibly dangerous people threatening to kill her if she ever did anything to hurt Alice.

Nia looked at her hands and sighed. The day she lost control, she was a dead man.

***

“You’re sending me?” Sebastian clarified.

Silas looked up from the paper on his desk, his chilling eyes settling on the figure before him. “Of course, you have the most experience in this field if I’m not mistaken.”

Sebastian felt a shiver run down his spine, but suppressed his urge to move. It was true. He did have the most experience, and even if he didn’t, his eyes would give him advantages that no one else had. But there were too many things at stake if he left now. “What about Kauzic?”

Silas waved his hand absentmindedly as he returned his gaze to the paper. “Someone else can watch his movements for a few days. It shouldn’t take you more than a day to complete your assignment.”

“But if I leave now, he will know something is happening,” Sebastian countered calmly.

Silas chucked, “If your reports are accurate, Kauzic already knows something is happening. That’s why I need you on this, for all we know he could be sending his dog in a desperate attempt to get her before we do.”

Sebastian winced at the words. So that was why Silas had chosen him. He’d been the only one able to seemingly slip past that man without detection. If anything, Silas was sending him in an attempt to seal her right out from under him, not prevent the opposite from happening. “You’re only sending me because Kauzic is sending Caden.”

“Allegedly sending Caden, Yes. That won’t be a problem for you, will it?”

“Not at all,” Sebastian forced himself to smile and keep his voice calm. “He’ll be no problem for me to take care of. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

Silas folded the paper her had been reading and slid it under a book on his desk. “I heard from an unreliable source that he got orders to head out to Washington on the evening of the twenty-sixth.” An icy smile spread across Silas’s lips, “So you’re going to leave on that morning.”

Sebastian took a deep breath and exhaled heavily through his nose. He couldn’t argue, this was his mission now, he had to use it to his advantage. Even if that meant coming face to face with Caden in a place where he would have absolutely no protection. “Yes sir.”

Silas smiled again, proud of the amount of control he had on the current situation. He looked over the exorcist one last time then rummaged through his drawers and pulled out a small file of papers that Sebastian could only assume were the plane tickets. “Don’t be late to your flight, keep in constant contact,” he ordered.

Sebastian nodded, took the tickets, and left the room, quickly heading back towards his quarters. The moment the door closed behind him he dropped his composure. With this trip everything could come to an end, or it would all come tumbling down around him and the last six years of his life would turn out to be a complete waste. He looked at the tickets. They would either bring him victory or death, and there was no way of knowing which would come from abandoning his previous plan.

Author's Note

newest chapter, still a draft