Chapter 23

The darkness is coming…the darkness is coming…the darkness is coming…Brooklynn kept repeating that saying in her head, writing down all the possible scenarios that had popped up throughout the United States. There weren't any mutilated cattle, which was a good thing because that was a sign of Demons. They hadn't encountered one of those since Nemesis, who was the closest thing to a Demon. When the lid to her laptop was shut, she looked up at Mark and raised a brow.

"Why did you do that?" It was now nighttime, Claira would be home any minute and dinner hadn't even been thought of. She hadn't eaten lunch either, too consumed with her research. "Why would…you…" She trailed off, looking toward the window and saw it was dark outside, the sun gone. "Oh shit…"

"Yeah, oh shit, Claira tried talking to you when she got home 30 minutes ago."

Mark was half-grinning, this was a side of Brooklynn he hadn't seen in years, so it was… familiar, and brought some weird, nostalgic memories to him. On the other hand, the fact that she had been engrossed this way meant either she was writing or searching for something. Something usually supernatural related. That was bad.

"She's upstairs getting ready for bed, and I have your dinner in the microwave if you're hungry."

He didn't often cook because he did deep-fried or near burnt food. Claira had enjoyed deep fried chicken tonight, along with homemade French fries. Brooklynn didn't have anything against foods like that, but she had also pointed out that clogged arteries were a real thing on that kind of diet. She did have a valid point, he mused begrudgingly.

"What've you been doing all day on there, Brooklynn?" Mark asked quietly, reaching down to take her hands and pulled her up onto her feet. It wasn't surprising when she instantly started dropping, the way she had been sitting. He bet her foot had fallen asleep so he held her up, waiting patiently.

"It's nothing right now…I'm still trying to figure it out."

Had she really been on her laptop for over 12 hours? No wonder her head was killing her and she felt weak from not eating. Notes were scattered among her, some crossed off and some legible, to her at least. Julia had really shaken her up with this darkness and so far, nothing specific had popped up.

"I'm sorry…" She whispered, looking up at her husband and reached up to stroke his face with the back of her hand. "Thank you for taking care of Claira and dinner. I should…go tell her I'm sorry for ignoring her. I didn't mean to."

"Hey Mom, glad to see you're out of the Internet now." Claira laughed, coming down in her pajamas, brushing her hair out. "What were you doing on your laptop? I tried talking to you, but you were so zoned out." Her eyes dropped to all the notes, bending to pick one up and had a really hard time deciphering it. "The darkness is coming? Is that a new book thing? Are you writing again?" Mom had been a bestselling author before she was born, it'd be cool if she did it again.

Trust your instincts, trust yourself. "Julia…" Brooklynn scrubbed a hand down her face and knew she had to tell Mark and Claira about the warning from her sister. There was no hiding it unless she lied and Claira had given her the perfect scapegoat. "The darkness is coming…that's what she told me. I had a dream last night and she managed to reach out to me. With all the spirits I've crossed over in all the years I've been doing this, I've never had one reach out to me through my dreams after they crossed over. I'm thinking it's because she's family and we're bonded by blood." Claira knew all about her Aunt Julia, how she died and her pathetic excuse for grandparents, at least from the Meyers' side. "She told me an evil darkness is coming and I had to prepare, I had to protect my family and the circle would help us. She also told me Bastet was murdered by very dark, sinister magic, but she couldn't tell me any more than that. She's being well taken care of by Julia and Kyle, by the way."

Had Bastet gone to Heaven? That was weird. Yet, it also confirmed what Mark had thought, but hadn't been able to prove. For years, he had always kept an eye on the small numbers of true Witches and Warlocks in their area and most of them seemed to be doing the same thing they were: blending in.

"Fuck all…" Mark slumped down onto the couch, groaning and wondered why now of all times. "She couldn't tell you anything useful other than to watch out?"

Claira shuddered, wrapping her arms around herself. She had her magic Bound and preferred it that way. Her seeing abilities, she ignored any spirit that came her way and usually, it left.

"No. Only to trust my instincts, trust myself and be careful and protect my family. She couldn't tell me anything more than that." Brooklynn sounded just as lost as him, rubbing her temples and took the papers from the couch to go over her notes again. "I can't get her voice out of my head. And I know this darkness has something to do with Bastet's death. It has to be connected somehow, but who the hell is targeting us? Who would do it after 17 years of nothing? It doesn't make sense and all the research I did…I was looking for signs, anything that seemed out of the ordinary that's happened and…nothing."

Their reception would probably wind up being a meeting with the circle to try to find this source of darkness and destroying it. Great.

"So…" Claira cleared her throat awkwardly, trying to forget she had heard any of that. "I'm going to go to bed, pretend I didn't hear that and hope we can keep the weirdness from Seth."

Now they knew. She hadn't told her boyfriend anything about their gifts, or hers, and Mark didn't blame her one bit. To an outsider, they would seem insane. "Night, lil darlin'." He rumbled, waiting until she had kissed her mother and disappeared upstairs before exhaling. "You sure it was Julia, Brooklynn?" Because it wouldn't have been the first time a demon or evil spirit had used the guise of a loved one to screw with her.

"Yes. I was pooled in light with her, a garden of sorts and I know in my heart it was her. Whoever or whatever is doing this – they wouldn't send a warning to me, not if they want to destroy us." Brooklynn didn't know HOW she knew, for a fact, it was Julia, she just did. "I even questioned her about going into the light and she said there are loopholes in death in order to reach loved ones through their dreams." Not in so many words, but Julia had told her how she'd reached out. "I need to eat and then shower and then try to have a good night's sleep. Maybe I can make better sense of this tomorrow or something…" Right now, Brooklynn felt drained in every way and pulled the hairband out of her hair.

Nodding, Mark guided her into the kitchen, letting go of her hand, when he was certain she wasn't going to fall on her backside from pins and needles in her feet. He went over to the microwave and started it, heating up her meal. Everything was cleaned up once he and Claira finished with dinner and the kitchen was almost done. Mark had quite a productive, not a stressful, day unlike her.

"Come here." He pulled her into his arms, resting his head on top of hers. "We'll be fine, darlin'. In a few days, you'll be able to fill the others in and we'll all sort this out."

"It just sucks. Nothing has happened to us in 17 years, now all of a sudden we're being targeted. It doesn't make sense. Why wait all this time? Why wait until after we finally get married and have a party planned with our friends?"

Brooklynn didn't want to ruin Claira's Spring Break with supernatural issues, but they couldn't ignore this either. Bastet died for a reason…and they had to find out why. They had to put a stop to whatever darkness Julia had warned her about before it was too late.

"I'm sorry, Mark…nothing can ever be easy when it comes to me…"

"Why is it about you? Could be about Claira, or me. You just happen to be the only person that'll actually talk back when the spirits come." Mark pointed out reasonably. "And evil doesn't give a flying fuck about ruining your life, it… wants too. It wants to kill all those happy moments," Lord knew they just had a major one. "Well… at least we know it's coming."

What if it was already here though? What if Julia's warning had come too late, but none of them knew it? Bastet being murdered via magic explained his awakening.

"You're right…it could be about you since Bastet was your Familiar…"

That was very unsettling to Brooklynn as she snuggled further against him, sighing when the microwave went off. Truthfully, she wasn't hungry, but if she didn't eat, she'd wind up getting sick from malnutrition and that wasn't an option. Reluctantly, she pulled away from him and sat down at the table, not surprised when he joined her.

"Can you think of anyone from your past that would want to harm you or make you suffer?"

Mark had been all over, traveling as a nomad for a lot of years, so Brooklynn figured he'd made some enemies for life. He wasn't the easiest person to get along with, especially since, back then, Taker ran rampant. Those were the years before Brooklynn met him, however.

"Me?" Mark looked way too innocent and then he shrugged. "Me, personally, no. Never made an 'enemy' who'd come hunting me down anyway, usually settled my issues. Undertaker, on the other hand, probably made more than his fair share." He'd be able to find out by sorting through those memories, but preferred keeping those years locked in a metal box, at the bottom of his mental well. Taker had not been a kind person. I could write you a list. "Want me to make a list, darlin'?"

"How would you be able to make me a list if it's shit HE has done?" Brooklynn looked confused, leaning back in the chair and folded her arms in front of her chest. "I was under the impression, whenever HE had control, you were…asleep or dormant. That's what you told me anyway." It was weird having a husband, who had a split personality. That was the only way to describe Mark and Him. "Do you have memories of when HE had full control?" She took another bite of food, seeing the hesitation on Mark's face. "What is it, Mark?"

Sure, tell her all about your little room in the bottom of your mental well, where you like to keep all that shit locked away. Tell her you LIED to her about us. Split personality wasn't wrong, but unlike most cases, he and Mark did remember what the other had done, or could, if they wanted to sort through all of it. Kind of what he had been doing since being freed, processing everything over the past 17 years. "It was a joke, darlin', mostly. I could probably find out… if he made any enemies, I'm kind of a stand out guy."

"You really do have an oddball sense of humor, big man. Do whatever you want, if you think it'll help, it can't hurt to have a list and maybe we can find a way to narrow it down." Brooklynn doubted it, but they wouldn't know unless they tried.

She finished eating, feeling better and headed out of the kitchen upstairs to take a much-needed relaxing shower. Mark followed, joining her and Brooklynn had to wonder if she would dream of his counterpart again. Undertaker…if she could somehow dream of him again, maybe he would be able to tell her something that would lead them in the right direction. Maybe he would know something about the darkness. What the hell was she thinking? Undertaker was gone, as far as she knew, and had probably died with Bastet. If that was the case, then why would she dream about him and why did those dreams feel so damn real?

Mark had already made a decision. Tomorrow, he'd go to the library, Their library, and see what he could find. What did happen when a Familiar died? As far as Mark knew, he was a very rare case when it came to using a Familiar to bind a… psyche, a personality. He didn't know how it worked, he just knew he had been able to do it. Before Bastet, and learning along with her that she could keep his darker half at bay, he had lived in fear of the times when Taker would take over. He never knew where he went, it just felt like sleeping, and he'd 'wake up' in a disaster, with no recollection of how much time had elapsed or what he had done.

As they lay in bed together that night, Brooklynn stared up at the ceiling with a million thoughts running through her mind. Claira would be anxious about this trip now that she'd brought up this darkness and she felt guilty for doing it. Maybe she should've used the scapegoat Claira gave her, regarding her writing, but that would be lying to her own daughter. Brooklynn didn't want to hide the truth from Claira and especially Mark. If this darkness was truly a threat, he was their best chance of surviving due to him being a pure Warlock. His powers were dark, however, not light and she wasn't sure how battling darkness with darkness would work. Mickie would probably be the ace in the hole in this battle, whatever it was or whoever it was. Her light magic had sliced through Nemesis's darkness and saved her, along with combining her strength with Mark.

Frowning, Brooklynn had been looking forward to celebrating her and Mark finally getting married with their close friends – their circle – their family. Julia's warning couldn't have come at a worse time and that made the situation even direr since her and Mark JUST got married. The timing was too perfect, too coincidental…17 years there was nothing and now suddenly, there was this huge threat Julia deemed the darkness. Feeling Mark's arms wrap around her waist to pull her close to him, spooning against her, Brooklynn eventually felt her eyelids droop, though she tried keeping them open; sleep won out as she plummeted into unknown darkness.