Chapter 15

Bright light from the window streaming into the living room aroused me. I opened my eyes and took a moment to let them adjust to the bright light.

I was still lying on Alec's chest, his head just above mine. His arms were wrapped around me. I slowly moved, trying not to wake him. Amon was still at my left; his head slumped on the corner of the couch. His feet were still propped up on the ottoman, as were Alec's.

They both looked young and vulnerable when they were sleeping. Especially Alec. The battle with Lucifer last night had caused little worry-lines to appear on his face. But while he was sleeping, they were gone and invisible. Amon's usual sarcastic expression was gone from his face too. His face was smoothed out to a relaxed expression.

I couldn't see why they didn't sleep up in the bedrooms upstairs, where the bed was more comfortable than the leather couch. The leather couch, though, was comfortable enough to sleep on too.

Along with Alec's chest, the back of my mind pointed out. It was pleasant to sleep on there. It was soft, but not too soft that you would have trouble sleeping one it, just like a good pillow.

I stood up and tried not to make much noise. I made a face at my feet. To me, every step sounded like a large drum being thrummed. I tried to walk silently to the kitchen. Not awakening either of the boys, I knew I did a decent job.

I opened each of the cabinets, looking for the tea. Amon had said there were stored in here. So they had to be in here, somewhere. I opened the last cabinet that needed to be checked. The hinges made a creaking noise as I opened it. I gritted my teeth and looked around for the tea boxes—or anything that said, 'Amon's special tea.' There wasn't anything that marked there was tea in the cabinet.

I felt hands at my shoulders along with a, "Boo!"

I whirled around, bumping into a body. "Alec!" I hissed loudly. "What's wrong with you? You could've just said 'hi.' Or maybe a 'good morning' would've been nice."

His hair was ruffled and was sticking out in all directions. He grinned, "what are you doing?" He held his hand up, "Wait! Let me guess first. You're looking for tea aren't you?" He laughed when he saw my espression; he knew that he was right.

I pouted, "Don't laugh. I didn't get to taste it remember?" His expression darkened, I knew he was remembering the events that had occurred last night. "Do you know where it's kept?" I asked, not letting the conversation to drift away.

"It's over there," said a half-sleepy voice. We turned to Amon. His hair, unlike Alec's, was flattened down on his head. He was pointing to the cabinets built under the island placed in the middle of the kitchen.

He walked to the cabinets and opened one up. He then ducked down to retrieve something, and came back up with a clear ceramic jar. In it were tea bags filled with green powder. "Go get the cups," said Amon.

I went to one of the white cabinets and got three cups, one for each of us. I had discovered where the plates and cups were stored during my unsuccessful search for the tea. I laid them on the black granite counter, next to where the jar of tea. Amon had the kettle in hand and placed it on the stove, heating the water he poured in it moments ago.

I looked at Alec; he was leaning back on the island using his elbows, looking at Amon and I while we whisk around the kitchen. He had also had started whistling with the kettle. He caught me looking at him and stopped to grin at me. "You should help out you know," I said.

"I will. With the drinking," he said.

"Wow, that's so much help you offered. I don't think you'd need to help at all," I replied sarcastically with a roll of my eyes. At Amon's smirk, I propped myself up on the counter next to Alec. I had my back turned on the kitchen window and the jar of tea bags. I was careful not to let it fall.

"You need to brush your hair," suggested Alec.

My hand immediately flew up to my hair. Half of my hair was in curls, like what normally happens when I don't manage it. The ends of the curls were tangled together into knots. I busied myself into trying to untangle them while waiting for the tea. At my annoyance, I made the tangles worse.

I let out a sound of irritation. "Amon, do you have a comb?"

Amon looked at me with an amused expression, along with Alec who was shaking with laughter. "I'll go get it once I finish making the tea."

The kettle stopped whistling at that second. Amon made a move to take it and pour the water into the cup. "Someone put the tea bags into the cups," ordered Amon. He thereon walked away and disappeared.

I looked at Alec, who looked right at me back. "Tea bags," I pointed to the cups.

"You do it," he argued.

I hit him hard on the shoulder and swiftly jumped off of the slippery counter. He made a little grunt of objection. I shot him a sweet and triumphant smile in reply. I walked to where the cups were placed and drew 3 tea bags from the clear jar. I then put the bags and waited for the warm water to turn into a light green color.

"That wasn't that hard was it?" asked Alec.

"No it wasn't. But I bet it was for you because you couldn't even do it," I answered back.

Alec put one of his hands on his face and slowly pulled it down, "I'm still sleepy. Hand me a cup."

I thought about whether splashing the tea at his face, but then quickly decided against it. It would be wasting a cup of perfectly good tea, and I didn't want to do that. I handed him one of the white ceramic cups.

"Brush," said Amon. He tossed it high in the air, expecting me to catch it. It landed on the floor with a thud. "You were supposed to catch that," he pointed out.

"The floor did it for her," said Alec. He walked to the spot where the brush was and handed it to me.

"Thank you," I said. I took a minute to finish my tea. It gave my stomach a warm feeling. After finishing the tea, I rushed and said, "Do you have a mirror?"

"Bathroom's by the front door," replied Amon to my agitation.

I nodded and ran to where he said the bathroom would be. The bathroom was in a decent size. I took a glance at my reflection in the mirror. My hair was a mess. It looked like as if I had been running a balloon over it. It was sticking up in all directions and was very very tangled. Knowing that a simple hair brush would solve this problem, I ran out of the bathroom and went upstairs.

Normally, I wouldn't have cared what I looked like. But a couple of fights and meeting the King of Hell really does something horrid to your appearance.

"Where are you going?" asked Alec from the bottom of the stairs.

I pointed up and continued to climb the rest of the remaining stairs. Alec looked after me with a puzzled look. I ignored him and searched for a full bathroom. I needed a good shower. At the first door I opened, revealed a bedroom.

Clothes were strewn everywhere. I knew at that point that it was Amon's room. Items from shiny silver belts, to pointed shoes were placed there. Shoes. I remembered that I was barefoot and had no shoes. My boots had disappeared. I looked around, hoping that it would be in here somewhere. Much to my disappointment, it wasn't in here.

I briskly closed the door and continued to search for a bathroom. The second door I opened luckily revealed a full bathroom. I let out a relieved sound, and proceeded to take a shower. I turned on the shower full blast and stripped off my clothes.

The brush got stuck in my hair on the first stroke. I hissed out a non lady-like word. I let the brush dangle in my long tangled hair and ignored it, saving the problem for later.

I imagined a nice pile of new clothes to wear. In my hands was a pair of jeans, a cropped blue t-shirt, and a fitting leather jacket. I quickly put them over my undergarments and examined myself in the mirror. I looked close enough to decent. All I needed was to fix my hair.

I tried pulling at the brush, but it only made it worse. Afterwards, I tried to slowly untangle each hair in the brush—but that was too much for my patience. I decided that I would have to go downstairs and get help from the two boys.

I walked to the door, pausing to look behind me to see if I had left anything. My blue dress was in the litter bin. After I stripped it off minutes ago, I noticed that there were little rips here and there. It was clean, but was not in a good condition to wear again. So, in result, I had tossed it in the litter bin.

The door closed behind me with a click. I ran downstairs with the brush still tangled in my hair.

"Took a shower, huh? Couldn't take the sight of your hair?" joked Amon.

"There's a brush stuck in your hair," noted Alec.

"Wow guys. Thanks for all of the compliments," I said sarcastically. They grinned at me in reply.

"I reckon you came down here because you wanted us to take out the brush?" asked Amon.

I nodded, "A spell would be very helpful. I don't trust you boys to untangle my hair from the brush by using your hands."

Amon smiled. While Alec said, "You," he pointed at me, "are smart."

"So Amon," I said impatiently. "Snap your fingers and get this stupid brush out of my hair! Oh! And I hope you have another spell to fix my hair completely."

At that, Amon obediently snapped his fingers. I felt my hair fly at all directions. When it settled down, I felt that my hair was lighter and flatter seconds ago.

"Wow," said Alec. "You're a good hair stylist. I think you should fix your hair now."

Amon dismissed the thought, "Enough about hair. What are we going to do today?"

At that say, I felt a little punch in my stomach. "The book!" I exclaimed. "Alec! Where's the book? And the Mirror! Where are they Alec?" I asked, my voice rising a few octaves.

He looked at me with a thoughtful expression and said, "It's in the purple room."

I dashed upstairs and found the items next to the cup I had drank out of a day before. I let out a relieved breath and ran back downstairs—almost tripping—the two items in hand.

"God," I said breathlessly. "I can't believe I forgot about them." I made a small, leather, black backpack in my hand materialize. I put the items in the bag and put a protective spell on them.

Amon looked at me with surprise, "How did you do that?"

"Do what?" I asked.

"The way you made your backpack materialize," Amon replied.

"I don't know," I said. "Coach taught me. Simple magic isn't it?"

"I've never seen any type of magic like that," said Amon shaking his head.

"Oh," I said.

"Maybe you just know how to do a different type of magic than Alice," Alec suggested to Amon. He shrugged in reply.

"Amon," I said. "Do you know how to read Greek?"

"Ancient?" he asked.

I opened the book. There were swirls and symbols I couldn't understand, but knew they were letters. "Ancient." I agreed.

Amon held his hand out, and I gave the book to him. He looked t the language, his eyebrows scrunching up. "Yeah. I can read this."

"Yay!" I said happily. "Can you translate the whole book?"

Amon looked at me in astonishment, "The whole book?"

I nodded, "It's not that big…" It wasn't, it was about 1 inch thick. But I understood that it would take an abundance of time to translate it. "Don't you have a spell?"

Amon shook his head, "No. And I don't think there will be."

"That's where you're wrong," I said half a smile on my face. "Can you teach me how to read in Ancient Greek?"

Amon looked at me, "No. It takes years to understand."

I grinned, "That's what Coach said. But it only took me a day or two to learn magic itself."

Amon shook his said once again, "You can't learn it in 2 minutes."

"Yes I can," I said. "Do I have permission to…reach inside your mind?"

Amon raised his eyebrows, "How can you do that exactly?"

"She's a mind reader," explained Alec.

"Yup, but I can't read yours. Probably because—"

"You have something wrong in your brain," implied Alec.

"Noo," I said, "probably because you're an Augur. So, can I reach inside your mind?"

"You make it sound dreadful," said Amon. "Go ahead." I was about to close my eyes when Amon said, "Don't fool around my brain. My thoughts and memories are off limits," he said. Alec had the corners of his mouth upturned.

"Okay...then just think about the language. Then I'll get it much quicker," I said.

I then closed my eyes and went into Amon's mind. It took longer than what I thought it would take to get his thoughts. But eventually they flooded into my mind.

The language wasn't that hard to understand. It was similar to the gods' language, which was easier to understand than Russian. Russian was the hardest language I had ever tried to learn.

I opened my eyes and grinned at Amon who had an uncertain look on his face. I said, "Το έμαθα!" To ématha! I learned it!

"Αυτό είναι Ελληνική," repied Amon. Af̱tó eínai Elli̱nikí̱. That's Greek.

"ξέρω," I said with a smile. xéro̱. I know. I took the book from Alec—who had somehow gotten it—and opened it. Instead of scribbles and swirls, I actually now see words and sentences.

After the first few pages I flipped to, I flipped to a page that revealed what the book contains. I realized that the book contained spells that were used for witchcraft. There were sections about demonology and necromancy. Beyond that, there were sections about what supplies are to use. And In the back of the book, what types of runes and sigils mean.

I turned to the back of the book, curious what types of symbols that portrayed demonology and necromancy. Illustrated there were many emblems of Lucifer and other symbols with descriptions placed under them. My eyes skimmed through the symbols quickly, afraid that one might fry my eyes.

One caught my eyes; it was the same symbol that was in the living room. Under it was the description:

Means the name of Satan; Lucifer. Usually a symbol for power and dark magic. Once drawn, it can never be disposed.

I made a face. It seemed like the book was taunting me. "It says that the symbol can never be disposed of," I said to Amon.

"What can't be disposed? What symbol? What is that even about?" asked Amon.

"Yeah," agreed Alec. "You've been staring at that book for about…5 minutes."

"It's a book about 'The Arts of Demonology and Necromancy,'" I said reading the title of the book.

"Why would you need that?" asked Alec.

"I don't know," I replied. "A man in Egypt—"

"You've been to Egypt?" asked Alec offhandedly.

I nodded, "I don't know why I would need this. I mean, do I look like a person who would be interested in…" I flipped to a random page that then exposed a spell about—"Raising a newly born hippocerf." I thought for a moment, "What's a hippocerf?" That actually sounds interesting."

Amon made a face, "Hippocerfs are half horse and half deer. You don't want to be near one, ever."

"Why would you be near one? They don't—"

"Yes they do," said Amon. "I encountered one in the woods before. As I said, you do not want to be near one." He paused for a moment, "Can I see that?"

I nodded and handed him the book. He took a look at it and flipped to a specific page. One that I couldn't see because Alec was blocking my view.

After skimming his eyes through it—from what I observed—he started mumbling. His eyes turned glassy as he grew louder and louder. Amon slowly walked away from us, walking towards the living room. I recognized where he was heading to—to the sigil of Lucifer.

I stuck my arm out to pull and stop him. Only to be burned by his temperature. "Alec," I said, "Don't touch him. He's burning."

Alec appeared at my side, carefully examining my hand for any damages. He took a sharp inhale. I discovered that the skin at my hands were peeling. Under it, I could see my flesh red, torn, and bleeding. I gritted my teeth at the pain I felt. "Alec, stop Amon. This is nothing," I leaned away from him. "Go," I urged.

Alec abandoned my side silently and went after Amon—who was close to the sigil of Lucifer. Not wanting to be a hindrance, I dealt with the pain in my hand and went after the two. I found Amon inside the sigil and Alec standing a little away from him. They were both looking at a burning object.

…

Have a guess what that burning object might be?

Chapter 16 will be uploaded in a short time.
A week at the most.

Oh!
Merry (belated) Christmas!
~Kat

…
12/26/12