Meredith landed neatly on the balls of her feet, fingertips brushing the floor, looking up and around warily for anything that might be dangerous and in the vicinity. It had been a good several months since she'd last broken into a place and stalked around it like a commando, but she still remembered most of the old tricks. And she'd had good teachers, too.
Once inside, she took a few moments to marvel at the amount of effort and patience that had gone into the making of the house/machine. She hadn't even seen the zodiac room and already she was impressed. The walls had to be made of some sort of thick, shatter-proof glass, probably the kind of glass that resisted incredible amounts of force. In addition to that, they had been written upon with what she deciphered as a Latin warding spell, a protection against... most likely the spirits he would use to power the Eye. Meredith shivered, reminded of what she had come here to do.
She could feel the spirits moving all around her. Some of the pain and rage inside them made her want to be sick; others she could more easily shut out as noisy and forceful wind against the glass of a particularly rickety house. It didn't matter anyway; she'd been doing this for so long she'd almost forgotten what it was like to be normal.
The library, or the zodiac room, or his sanctum sanctorium had to be around here somewhere. She tiptoed through the halls with the greatest of care, half aware that she could be trapped anywhere at any given moment. The whole house must have been constructed to be modular, almost like a computer game.
Well, at least she was good at those kinds of games.
Raised voices. She could hear raised voices, could even track where they were coming from, for the most part. She followed the sound.
"... ALL YOUR FAULT!" she heard, and winced. She knew that voice.
More angry voices. Meredith slipped one hand behind her back, under her short leather jacket, and to the hilt of her knife. Just in case.
"You know, of all the people I expected to see here, I can't imagine why I didn't think of you."
Everyone stared at her. The young man who had been to the shop was there, looking sweaty and panic-stricken and about to fly apart at any given moment. There was another man, who looked much the same, only twenty to thirty years older. There was a woman, somewhere between the two ages. And SHE was there, too.
"YOU!"
"Of course," Meredith said calmly, not letting go of the knife. "What did you expect?"
"Who?" said the older man.
"What?" said the other woman.
"Whaaa..." said the young man, and promptly curled up into a ball in the corner. She remembered that he was a psychic of some kind, and winced. This house had to be sheer hell on him.
"You're not supposed to be here..." she actually looked nervous.
"Of course I'm supposed to be here, Kalina," Meredith narrowed her eyes... was there something else going on with her? "You know that. There's demon-summoning and goddess knows what else going on, and the world's not ready for that kind of thing. So we have to clean up the mess."
Kalina blanched slightly. Just a twinge, but Meredith caught it. Whatever was going on, the other girl knew more than she was telling. And if the last circumstances of their meeting were anything to go by, she was probably involved. "Right. Well, I told them about the Ocularis... and the ghosts and everything. We were working on a way to stop it..."
Meredith shrugged. "Simple enough. Destroy the machine."
A look of panic crossed Kalina's face.
"No... that won't stop the process, it'll be stuck, the doorway half open..." the words tumbled over each other like water falling. Meredith wished Laurel or Amber would get there... it would be nice to have someone who wasn't panicking to talk to. It was making her start to go a little crazy herself.
"It might, but chances are that it won't. These sorts of things, left unpowered, will fade and die on their own. And then we have to destroy all copies of the instructions..."
Kalina opened her mouth and closed it several times, then nodded tightly. "I'll go search the house."
She left. Meredith relaxed only when she couldn't hear the other woman's footsteps anymore, and took her hand off of her knife. No one seemed to notice. Meredith muttered something in French before pulling a thermos out of her duffel bag and taking a long swig straight from the bottle.
"Well, that was tense. Anyone want some hot... well, lukewarm tea?"
They all stared at her as if she'd gone insane.
"Tea. Chamomile. Does anyone want some? We have a little time before someone starts trying to activate the machine."
"Does it have alcohol in it?" the psychic spoke up. She racked her brain trying to remember his name.
"No. You don't get alcohol, you look like you're in a bad enough state without it. If you get inebriated you won't be able to control your powers, and I don't think I have to tell you what THAT will get you in a place like this," Meredith glared, and he blanched, probably at the thought of being drunk in this house of horrors. She tossed him the thermos. "Just drink the tea, it's soothing enough without anything else."
"Who are you, again?" the older man said, seeming to try and reconcile everything that had happened tonight. She figured him for a mundane, someone who had never seen or heard anything out of the ordinary till tonight.
"Sorry... my name's Meredith Kane. I ... well, I don't exactly do this for a living, he..." she gestured at the young man, feeling awkward.
"Dennis..." He was holding the thermos up between his hands and knees, but at least he was looking calmer. "Dennis Rafkin."
"Dennis... visited me at work today... actually it's because of him that I'm here. I read tarot cards for a living, and they suggested that ... something particularly dire was going to happen."
Dennis nodded wordlessly and sunk even lower, a look of abject misery on his face. Meredith winced inside. He must have seen something too, she thought. Probably worse than what she had, because his visions would be ones unadulterated by the tarot cards or tea leaves, or whatever.
"You read... and you saw something was going to happen, so ... how did you know to come here?"
She shrugged. "I knew Cyrus... a little, anyway. A lot more by reputation. He wasn't exactly the most savory of sorcerers, and we always figured that if something was going to happen in this area, it was going to come from him. Unfortunately, I guess we were right?"
"We?"
"Oh... my friends... well, my two sisters.... kind of sisters... umm... coven-mates, I guess you'd call us. And me."
The woman stared at Meredith with eyes gone wide, almost bugging completely out of her head. "Coven... did you say coven?"
She couldn't help it. She put on the most disingenuous, innocent look she could muster. "Of course. Didn't I mention? We're witches."
Dennis just groaned and covered his face with his hands.
Elsewhere in the house, Amber made an entrance not so quiet as Meredith's. She'd had to scramble fast, climbing up the walls and taking advantage of an opening between the steel panels before it snapped shut. She didn't have the luxury of making an easy landing, and ended up falling hard on her side. Amber bit her lip and tried not to black out. She lay there for a while, breathing slowly and evenly, making sure her body had not taken too much damage and concentrating to heal the bruises and torn muscles she could sense were there. One of the advantages to being a witch, she thought ruefully, was that you could heal just about any kind of wound... with a little divine help. After several long minutes she pushed herself slowly to her feet. Hopefully Merry would have better luck, wherever she had gotten in. At least she had gotten a head start.
The gun in the small of her back made her freeze and hold her hands up in the universal gesture of 'don't hurt me.' "Hello?" she ventured, trying to keep her voice from quavering.
"With one of you already here, I figured the rest of you wouldn't be far behind..." a familiar, loathed voice came floating over her shoulder. Amber squinched her eyes shut.
This was going to suck.
Once inside, she took a few moments to marvel at the amount of effort and patience that had gone into the making of the house/machine. She hadn't even seen the zodiac room and already she was impressed. The walls had to be made of some sort of thick, shatter-proof glass, probably the kind of glass that resisted incredible amounts of force. In addition to that, they had been written upon with what she deciphered as a Latin warding spell, a protection against... most likely the spirits he would use to power the Eye. Meredith shivered, reminded of what she had come here to do.
She could feel the spirits moving all around her. Some of the pain and rage inside them made her want to be sick; others she could more easily shut out as noisy and forceful wind against the glass of a particularly rickety house. It didn't matter anyway; she'd been doing this for so long she'd almost forgotten what it was like to be normal.
The library, or the zodiac room, or his sanctum sanctorium had to be around here somewhere. She tiptoed through the halls with the greatest of care, half aware that she could be trapped anywhere at any given moment. The whole house must have been constructed to be modular, almost like a computer game.
Well, at least she was good at those kinds of games.
Raised voices. She could hear raised voices, could even track where they were coming from, for the most part. She followed the sound.
"... ALL YOUR FAULT!" she heard, and winced. She knew that voice.
More angry voices. Meredith slipped one hand behind her back, under her short leather jacket, and to the hilt of her knife. Just in case.
"You know, of all the people I expected to see here, I can't imagine why I didn't think of you."
Everyone stared at her. The young man who had been to the shop was there, looking sweaty and panic-stricken and about to fly apart at any given moment. There was another man, who looked much the same, only twenty to thirty years older. There was a woman, somewhere between the two ages. And SHE was there, too.
"YOU!"
"Of course," Meredith said calmly, not letting go of the knife. "What did you expect?"
"Who?" said the older man.
"What?" said the other woman.
"Whaaa..." said the young man, and promptly curled up into a ball in the corner. She remembered that he was a psychic of some kind, and winced. This house had to be sheer hell on him.
"You're not supposed to be here..." she actually looked nervous.
"Of course I'm supposed to be here, Kalina," Meredith narrowed her eyes... was there something else going on with her? "You know that. There's demon-summoning and goddess knows what else going on, and the world's not ready for that kind of thing. So we have to clean up the mess."
Kalina blanched slightly. Just a twinge, but Meredith caught it. Whatever was going on, the other girl knew more than she was telling. And if the last circumstances of their meeting were anything to go by, she was probably involved. "Right. Well, I told them about the Ocularis... and the ghosts and everything. We were working on a way to stop it..."
Meredith shrugged. "Simple enough. Destroy the machine."
A look of panic crossed Kalina's face.
"No... that won't stop the process, it'll be stuck, the doorway half open..." the words tumbled over each other like water falling. Meredith wished Laurel or Amber would get there... it would be nice to have someone who wasn't panicking to talk to. It was making her start to go a little crazy herself.
"It might, but chances are that it won't. These sorts of things, left unpowered, will fade and die on their own. And then we have to destroy all copies of the instructions..."
Kalina opened her mouth and closed it several times, then nodded tightly. "I'll go search the house."
She left. Meredith relaxed only when she couldn't hear the other woman's footsteps anymore, and took her hand off of her knife. No one seemed to notice. Meredith muttered something in French before pulling a thermos out of her duffel bag and taking a long swig straight from the bottle.
"Well, that was tense. Anyone want some hot... well, lukewarm tea?"
They all stared at her as if she'd gone insane.
"Tea. Chamomile. Does anyone want some? We have a little time before someone starts trying to activate the machine."
"Does it have alcohol in it?" the psychic spoke up. She racked her brain trying to remember his name.
"No. You don't get alcohol, you look like you're in a bad enough state without it. If you get inebriated you won't be able to control your powers, and I don't think I have to tell you what THAT will get you in a place like this," Meredith glared, and he blanched, probably at the thought of being drunk in this house of horrors. She tossed him the thermos. "Just drink the tea, it's soothing enough without anything else."
"Who are you, again?" the older man said, seeming to try and reconcile everything that had happened tonight. She figured him for a mundane, someone who had never seen or heard anything out of the ordinary till tonight.
"Sorry... my name's Meredith Kane. I ... well, I don't exactly do this for a living, he..." she gestured at the young man, feeling awkward.
"Dennis..." He was holding the thermos up between his hands and knees, but at least he was looking calmer. "Dennis Rafkin."
"Dennis... visited me at work today... actually it's because of him that I'm here. I read tarot cards for a living, and they suggested that ... something particularly dire was going to happen."
Dennis nodded wordlessly and sunk even lower, a look of abject misery on his face. Meredith winced inside. He must have seen something too, she thought. Probably worse than what she had, because his visions would be ones unadulterated by the tarot cards or tea leaves, or whatever.
"You read... and you saw something was going to happen, so ... how did you know to come here?"
She shrugged. "I knew Cyrus... a little, anyway. A lot more by reputation. He wasn't exactly the most savory of sorcerers, and we always figured that if something was going to happen in this area, it was going to come from him. Unfortunately, I guess we were right?"
"We?"
"Oh... my friends... well, my two sisters.... kind of sisters... umm... coven-mates, I guess you'd call us. And me."
The woman stared at Meredith with eyes gone wide, almost bugging completely out of her head. "Coven... did you say coven?"
She couldn't help it. She put on the most disingenuous, innocent look she could muster. "Of course. Didn't I mention? We're witches."
Dennis just groaned and covered his face with his hands.
Elsewhere in the house, Amber made an entrance not so quiet as Meredith's. She'd had to scramble fast, climbing up the walls and taking advantage of an opening between the steel panels before it snapped shut. She didn't have the luxury of making an easy landing, and ended up falling hard on her side. Amber bit her lip and tried not to black out. She lay there for a while, breathing slowly and evenly, making sure her body had not taken too much damage and concentrating to heal the bruises and torn muscles she could sense were there. One of the advantages to being a witch, she thought ruefully, was that you could heal just about any kind of wound... with a little divine help. After several long minutes she pushed herself slowly to her feet. Hopefully Merry would have better luck, wherever she had gotten in. At least she had gotten a head start.
The gun in the small of her back made her freeze and hold her hands up in the universal gesture of 'don't hurt me.' "Hello?" she ventured, trying to keep her voice from quavering.
"With one of you already here, I figured the rest of you wouldn't be far behind..." a familiar, loathed voice came floating over her shoulder. Amber squinched her eyes shut.
This was going to suck.