Pogue woke to a commotion downstairs. It took a moment for him to remember where he was and even longer to convince himself to get up. But there was a lot of muffled shouting and banging so he tore himself away from the pillow and headed to the top of the stairs.
Caleb was standing at the bottom of the stairs. "What do you mean gone?" He asked.
Aria walked past, heading to the living room from the kitchen, carrying a very large box. "I mean not there anymore. Disappeared. Absent."
"I know what gone means." Caleb growled. "I meant how."
Pogue slowly walked down the stairs to stand beside Caleb. Aria was pulling all sorts of boxes and books together in the living room. He thought she was doing it fairly casually but when she looked over at them to answer Caleb, Pogue realized her calm was forced and the last thing she felt was casual.
"I don't know how. That's exactly what we asked the staff and they didn't have an answer either."
Very confused and growing uneasy, Pogue asked, "What's gone?"
Aria stopped what she was doing and stood the looked at him. The look on her face, fear, sympathy and hopelessness, didn't make Pogue feel any better.
"Branwen." They all jumped as Nathan came up the last few stairs from the lower level. He looked around at them all standing there before carrying the box he held over to the living room as well. Sitting it down he turned to look at them all again. "Are we not all filled in?"
"How is it that you are so calm and moving so slowly? Isn't this kind of an emergency? Shouldn't we be rushing?" Caleb asked.
"Why? If we don't know where to look we can't get there any faster."
"Then maybe we should get to looking."
"I'm sorry," Pogue said, his head spinning, "But what does this have to do with Branwen?"
"She's the thing we can't find." Nathan said.
"What?" Pogue asked. His head was starting to pound and his stomach felt like it was sailing stormy seas. "What do you mean you can't find Branwen? She's at the hospital in a coma."
"Was at the hospital in a coma. Now, apparently, she is missing. We thought maybe she had woken up and left but no. She is gone, bed and all. We reviewed the surveillance videos and three doctors in masks move her out of the room and then they round a corner but don't show up on the video on the other side. They're just gone."
If he was the hyperventilating type, Pogue would be doing that right now. "How do people just disappear?"
"Magic, obviously." Nathan said, calm as ever. Pogue glared at him until he continued. "Look, it would take too much magic for them to all just disappear together, especially because of the charms I left on Branwen so I would know if she woke up. They keep her grounded. So she would have to be moved manually. They've just cloaked themselves from the cameras. And we know that a nurse checked on her ten minutes before we arrived to find her gone. So they can't be far. I've already contacted the police and they are watching all main roads out of the city."
"So what is all this?" Caleb asked, motioning around the room to all the boxes.
"Supplies." Aria replied, pulling things out of boxes and setting them on the coffee table.
"I'm going to do a trace on Branwen." Nathan said. "I'm sure they're smart enough to try and block me but I'm well versed in magic and very powerful so I'm sure we'll find a way."
Pogue wanted to roll his eyes but his head hurt too much. "What can I do to help?"
Nathan frowned and looked at Aria before looking back at Pogue. "Well I can't use your magic and in an effort to not make you like your power addicted friend over here, it's probably best you don't use it either. I don't want to offend you but until we have a direction it may be best if you just stand back and let us work."
Caleb growled and went back upstairs, clearly still not facing the power addiction comments. Pogue wanted to be offended too but faced with his worry about Branwen and that Nathan really did look sincere, he walked over to the kitchen and lifted himself up onto the counter so he could watch them from a distance.
Over the next few hours, he change positions hundreds of times and started adding pacing in between each change of pose. It was torture. He listened to Aria and Nathan, both very focused and methodical, throw ideas and spells back and forth at each other as they ran through ideas. At the original settlement they had loads of books about spells but they'd never needed to use many of them because their magic was instinctual. Pogue had never really thought about why there would be spells they didn't need to use. Obviously they were from before his ancestors had changed their magic. Back when their magic was the same as the witches before him.
As time passed he could tell Aria and Nathan were getting frustrated and wearing themselves out. Aria obviously wasn't as powerful as Nathan but he seemed to be able to draw from her untapped magic to strengthen his spell. But it was wearing her out even faster. It made Pogue curious about Nathan's earlier comment.
Getting up, he walked across the room and leaned against the couch. "You said before that you couldn't use my magic. Like you're using Aria's. Is that because mine is a different kind? Are they not compatible?"
Nathan looked up from the book he was reading and sighed. Not impatiently, but more like his mind had just realized how exhausted it was. Pogue felt slightly bad for interrupting. "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."
Nathan shook his head. "It's just a lot of wear. See, magic is like a… battery. You have to recharge after you've used it. Now in natural cases, it takes time. Over time little percentages of your body's natural energy gets reallocated into recharging your magic. So little you wouldn't notice it. However, when you use large amounts of magic, draining your battery faster, more of your energy goes into the recharge.
"Now there are ways to give your battery a jump-start, so to speak. Things that are high energy, but also produce adrenaline. Exercise, sex… but they can be riskier. If you use more energy but don't produce as much adrenaline, you're just wearing yourself down faster. You're not getting the reward.
"Part of what your coven did was change their magic into a single use battery. Its voltage is much higher. It's a much more powerful battery and doesn't have the same limitations. But it has now combined your magic and your body's resources in one. So there is no way to recharge the battery. With every bit you use, you just become hollower."
It made sense to Pogue. That was exactly how it seemed to be. "So if you tried to use my magic it would drain you the way it drains us?" Was he not willing to age that pretty face of his if it meant finding Branwen?
"No, it would kill me, destroy my magic." At Pogue's stricken expression, Nathan continued. "Okay, to change the metaphor, our magic is like fuel. You run on Gasoline. It's simple for you. You can just run along using your tank of gas up. Despite it being forbidden in your coven, when your father wills you his powers like Caleb's did, it's like you're running on supreme gas. Much better quality but still the one tank of gas and it cost you a hell of a lot more.
"The difference between us is that you put some diesel in your gas tank and you'll keep on running. You could use my magic and it would be the same as your own. But the rest of us. We are diesel trucks. It is hard and dirty sometimes because our magic has more rules, but we get more than one tank. But, the moment you put gasoline in our tank, we're done. Your magic is poison to us."
Now Pogue could correct Nathan's metaphor and poke holes in the things he obviously didn't understand about cars, but he got the point. If Pogue siphoned Nathan's magic it would work the same as his, but Nathan would die if he used Pogue's. Pogue helping magically was out of the question.
"Did I not explain that right?" Nathan asked, obviously seeing the unease on Pogue's face.
Pogue shook his head. "No, I understand. I just thought if you used me, maybe between Aria and I we could use that magic connection thing you talked about." Then maybe that was just a sensor, not a signal. He imagined if there was magical GPS they would have tried that already. Because as much as he didn't like that Nathan also loved Branwen, he had to admit Nathan was doing what he could to find her.
Drawing his mind back to the present, Pogue looked at the glassy expression on Nathan's face. Was he having like a seizure? "Are you okay?" He asked him.
Nathan looked at Aria as she looked up from the book she was reading. "What?" She asked.
"They've blocked everything they can, it seems." Nathan said.
What was he giving up? That was unacceptable. They HAD to find Branwen. But Aria dropped her book and stood up. She looked down at her hand. "But if her mom took her…"
"It's forbidden. Besides, we don't know if we don't try." Nathan said. "And she wouldn't think we could. She would think she is the only one."
A big grin split across Aria's face and she launched herself at Pogue, wrapping her arms around him. "Thank you, you genius boy." She let him go before running into the kitchen.
"What's going on?" Caleb asked, coming to the bottom of the stairs. "I heard a loud thump and… what the hell, Aria?"
Aria came out of the kitchen with a knife and sat down in front of Nathan. Moving things around on the table, Nathan set up a map of Boston and started mumbling over it. He then nodded to Aria and the sliced her hand open like it was nothing before squeezing her hand over the map and dripping her blood directly over the West End.
Both Pogue and Caleb jumped forward but Nathan just help up his hand to stop them and kept mumbling. They slowed but didn't stop until they were standing right beside the table. Pogue was sure Caleb had also only stopped because he looked down and saw the same thing Pogue did.
There, on the map, Aria's blood had formed a line. It started at the exact location of Massachusetts General Hospital and, as more blood dripped from Aria's hand, it spread out like it was following the exact path a car took out of the city. It circled down I-93 all the way around to I-90 and headed west. As it passed I-95 Nathan ran to find a bigger map.
"Blood magic can only be blocked by blood magic." Aria told them as Nathan cleaned up Aria's blood and laid the map of the eastern states out on the table. "Branwen's mother would have to use blood magic to block us from finding her with blood magic and it is forbidden to use unless it's the only option and approved by the head coven council. They would never approve it because they don't think anyone but her mother would be able to use it."
Aria squeezed her hand over the new map while Nathan whispered his spells again and they all watched as the blood rushed through its pattern again, heading up I-90 and then slowing to a crawl as it neared Syracuse.
"But I thought you two weren't actually related." Caleb said gruffly. Pogue knew it was bitter concern but didn't say anything.
"We aren't. But when Branwen and I were kids we made a blood pact. It is the most basic blood magic there is. It was our little rebellion. We cut our hands and shared our blood. A lot of people do it out of sentimentality when they're kids but when you're magical it actually is a spell. It means our blood is connected. It's not the same as being blood related but it's as close and you can get to it."
"So why don't you feel the tingle sensation when you touch Caleb?" Pogue asked, now thinking of that tingle as a bad omen he should have ran from.
"Because it's too diluted. I have barely any trace in my blood. It's just enough to perform a spell like this. But Branwen's is in every fiber of her being. Every cell of her body has its imprint. Even hers is diluted. That's why it's only a tingle. A few generations ago and it probably would have burned to touch each other."
"Trust me… it still burns." Pogue mumbled. He half expected Aria to comment on it but she was frowning at the map. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"The route it's taking, it doesn't make sense. It should have changed over to I-84."
"Maybe they think that I-90 will have less traffic. Or they think we might be following them and they want to throw us off their trail." Nathan started packing up different items from around the room into one bag and then disappeared down the stairs.
Giving one last sigh at the map and wrapping up her hand, Aria got up and headed for the stairs. "Where are you going?" Caleb asked.
Aria stopped a couple steps up to look at them. "To pack. Nathan and I will go after her."
She said it so simply. As if it was both obvious and the only answer. Pogue understood completely. Caleb, however, in his clearly irritated and frustrated state, was still struggling. "But what about your classes? What if it's a trap?"
She shrugged. "My classes mean nothing without her. I am so ahead in my assignments and reading that the likelihood of them not letting me make up whatever I miss is fairly low. I can email my advisor and explain I have a family emergency and send in anything important via email. As for it being a trap, well, I guess I will deal with that when it happens. Either way, I'm going after her."
"I'm coming with you." Pogue said without even realizing he said it. He knew he meant it though. Everything with Branwen was so up in the air that he needed to sort this out before anything between them could be decided. Plus, he had promised her it would all be okay and he couldn't make sure that happened if he wasn't there.
Aria looked like she had been slapped. "You can't come. You're a Son of Ipswich."
She said it so matter-of-fact-ly. As if that was the end of the argument. Pogue stood his ground. "I don't care. I'm coming."
She stepped back down a step and faced him fully. "You don't get it; you can't be there. You are forbidden to be anywhere near it and can be punished by death. Not to mention that if they don't know already, Nathan and I would be killed for commiserating with you. You would be signing all of our death warrants."
"This persecution of my coven for what our ancestors did needs to stop. We are not them and yet we are the ones being punished."
Crossing her arms, Aria raised a brow and nodded towards Caleb. "They are going to take one look at him and believe you deserve to be punished if you don't have the discipline to not use your powers."
Caleb went to speak but Pogue cut him off. "Nobody said he was coming."
Again, Caleb opened his mouth but Aria beat him to it. "Be serious. He may be addicted to his powers but he is still both your coven head and practically your brother. He loves you. He wouldn't let you just take off towards almost certain death and not be there for you."
Pogue thought it odd that Aria didn't say a single thing about Caleb in relation to herself. He felt bad for his best friend that things were so clearly rocky. However, using her own concept against her, Pogue said, "Well, I may not be Branwen's boyfriend but I love her and I'm not letting her get attacked, kidnapped and persecuted without doing whatever I can to rescue, defend or sacrifice for her." With that he walked past her up the stairs to make sure all his stuff was still packed together.
They were all fairly quiet as they drove. It had been a long evening already and now here they were, driving through the night, trying to catch up. Nathan had performed a spell to discourage cops from pulling them over but it drained him a lot more the faster he went so he wasn't being too reckless.
Surprisingly, Pogue had offered to drive. Nathan pointed out that he was the only one in the car not nursing injuries so it was probably better the rest of them get some sleep so they could take over when they were feeling better. He knew he would tire soon and he didn't want them to be pushing themselves any more than they could.
Be it because they were fighting as a team now or just because they were too busy to fight each other, Nathan and Pogue were getting along fairly well. They would never truly be friends, being in love with the same girl and all, but they had things in common other than Branwen and that gave them enough to talk about whenever Pogue wasn't asleep.
Caleb still seemed to be in silent denial, blocking everything out unless it directly involved him or he had something to say. Nathan felt bad for him. Pride was a hard thing to overcome. Nathan had experience in that area. Probably not as much as he should have but he had some. Caleb needed to find something worth giving up his pride for. Nathan thought it might be Aria but that seemed to be imploding. Whatever it was, hopefully it would come along soon because Caleb didn't look like he could carry on much further without it being unalterable.
As the sky began to lighten, they stopped in Scranton to stretch their legs and grab some food and drinks. It was there that their hastily planned rescue took a turn.
The guys had been waiting by the car when Aria ran over from the gas station bathroom, cradling her hand. Immediately Nathan knew something had changed. He met her half way across the parking lot, the others following behind him. "What's wrong?"
"Something didn't feel right." Aria said. "I knew something was off so I bought a map and did the spell again."
Shit. He should have known she was taking too long. She was a quick study. She must have been paying more attention to him that he gave her credit for if she was able to perform it. "Kudos on pulling off the spell."
Aria rolled her eyes. "I didn't get it perfect but enough to know we were wrong."
"Wrong?" Pogue asked, looking from Nathan to Aria. "Wrong about what?"
"I don't think they're heading to Kansas." Aria replied.
"Kansas?" Caleb questioned.
Aria nodded. "The head council is in the middle of the country to have easy access to all other covens. They are just outside Council Grove, Kansas."
Yeah, Nathan always found that amusing. "Why don't you think they're headed there?"
"They should have headed south just before Cleveland but they continued across, heading further west. They're just west of Toledo."
Nathan cursed under his breath and began to pace. Why would they take her further west? Were they taking her to a different coven? Nathan didn't remember all the coven council locations.
"Nathan?" He turned to look at Aria; her face was a mixture of confusion, suspicion and anger. When she focused back on him she narrowed her eyes. "Didn't your friend outside the hospital say he lived in Montana?"
His friend? Nathan thought back to yesterday. So much had happened since then. "Kieran? What does that have to do with anything?"
Aria went to put her hands on her hips and flinched, cradling her hand again before looking at him directly. "Your old friend shows up suddenly after not seeing him for ages. He happens to be sitting suspiciously outside the hospital Branwen is in and then she goes missing. He wasn't out there anymore when we came back out. He never said why he was at the hospital. He just said he was in town on business, as a personal security consultant and that most of the time he was in Montana."
"That doesn't mean he was kidnapping Branwen." Nathan made the comment but he had to admit that Kieran had dodged the question about why he was at the hospital and had been both evasive and polite. Usually he was far more sarcastic and crass.
"Then call him." Aria said, pushing the subject further.
"I don't have his number. I gave him my card."
Aria shook her head. "I'm telling you, Nathan, it doesn't feel right. He just happens to be standing outside the hospital? For all we know he could have been there to stall us. Are you going to try and tell me that 'Personal Security Consultant' doesn't sound like it could easily be a pretty way of saying people pay him to obtain people and hold or transport them?"
He hated that what she said made complete sense. They were talking about one of his closest friends from his childhood. Sure, they weren't super close now, but Kieran kidnapping Branwen? He knew her. Had been friends with her. Why would he kidnap her and take her back to Montana?
It didn't make sense but the more Nathan thought about it the more he felt that even without knowing the why, it was definitely something Nathan could picture Kieran doing. He always fancied himself a more rugged and Irish version of James Bond, the dumbass.
Well, if it was true, then Kieran had slipped up by telling Nathan he lived in Montana. And now Nathan would track him to his doorstep to get Branwen back.
Tossing the keys at Pogue, Nathan walked back to the car. "I need to get some rest. We'll do the spell again in Toledo."
So they piled back into the car and headed back onto the highway.
A/N: Hello everyone. I know it's been a very long time since I updated. I did promise this story wasn't over yet though. I love this story and its characters so I promise I won't abandon it. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter.