Ch. 5: The Council

Carmen pov.

The room I walked into was beautiful and artfully decorated. There was a couch in the center and a bed in the corner. A desk was also there and a TV was on the opposite side of the bed.

They treated prisoners well here. I snorted into the empty space.

I wonder what they will do to us. I sighed at the thought of having old people scrutinizing me.

Unable to sit and calmly wait for a formal meeting and a chance to prove myself trustworthy or whatever, I glanced out the window.

I was on the first floor of the castle-like structure. What a great place to put a prisoner. I could easily escape now, if I had my bearings.

I strained my neck to look up the castle wall to see how many stories there were.

I gasped. Wow, now that dawn was upon us, I could see the many stories. Around fifteen. The castle looked like something out of a story book. It was very impressive.

Focusing my attention on the town surrounding the council, I gasped.

I was floating through the town, in my own physical form, and no one noticed.

I frantically shook my head, wanting to get in my own body. Then I was back.

I had just seen the market in the town while lounging in this room. Maddie must have obviously drugged me on the trip here. But it was very real.

I really had to learn more about this power, but with no other queen of darkness to help, and hopefully no ancient people still here today that were there during the time when our own goddess walked the earth, who could be of guidance but the goddess herself?

From what I've heard, no one had my powers. The blue flame that comes when I'm in danger is the only power I thought I had. Even that isn't reliable. It isn't strong enough and it doesn't come right on time, before the incident happens.

And now, with that strange floating through the streets thing, I know I really need guidance. For now, I would just have to help myself.

It was definitely frightening not being in my own body, but I tried to the thing again all the same.

I looked out the window again and thought about the streets where the market was busy.

A sudden whoosh of air, and then I was traveling through the streets. Now that I was more prepared, it was actually fun going around being 'invisible.'

I spotted a young beggar child with grime all over his face walking through the market with an upset face.

I wanted to comfort the child and ask him what's wrong. Then I was suddenly in his body, feeling everything he was feeling.

I, or the boy, was hungry and recently he lost his parents. I saw the whole world in his perspective. This was such a chilling experience; my power was so strong, that I wanted to get out.

That's exactly what happened. It's good to know that I can control my powers. Even so, I was still disappointed this was all I had.

The powers are great, but they aren't strong enough. And just two? Shouldn't I be very powerful and be able to do some stuff with my powers?

I demanded the power to take me back to my body, but then I told it to go back.

I went around looking for a food stand, and to my delight it had tasty meat. Since the man was busy with the customer, and I was invisible, I grabbed a barbecued chicken, already wrapped, and took it to the beggar boy. He really wasn't a beggar, but I didn't have his name. It's really stupid that I went inside his mind, even learned he was not a vamp, and didn't even think about looking around for his name.

I didn't want him to be scared of a floating chicken, lol, so I dropped the chicken by his side when he wasn't looking.

The boy jumped, but I saw his worry disappear as he looked around, wanting to thank whoever was gracious enough to give him a fully cooked chicken.

Seeing no one, he opened the container and dug into a chicken leg. Smiling to myself, I willed my soul to return to my body.

That was a good thing to, because the next instant, a woman with blazing red hair and a frown upon her delicate face walked into my room.

She stared at me for a second and then motioned for me to follow her. I was out of options, so I did.

"Hello, my name is Carmen," I said, and she stopped her walk to turn around.

"We all know who you are," she said coldly and began walking. Well, this isn't going well. We continued our walk in silence.

The hallway finally led somewhere, and I looked at the golden doors before me.

The woman finally looked back to make sure I was there. Satisfied, she opened the door and walked in. I guess that means follow her.

I blinked at the sudden light of the enormous room. They would be much better off opening the windows, letting in the morning light.

As my eyes adjusted, I grew wary. There were five young women sitting in the center u-shaped table, and rectangular tables surrounding the table was filled with other important looking people.

The empty seat in the u-shaped table was filled when my escort sat in it. With a start, I realized that this was the council room, and there was the council sitting behind that table.

The woman in the center stood, and she addressed everyone in the crowd with a strong voice, "Good morning to you all, and thank you for coming to this rather urgent and inconvenient," she looked at me when she said this and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes, because I could feel pure power radiating from her in threatening tides, "meeting. It has come to my attention by Madison Claude that we have a predicament to take care of." She finishes, for now, making a dramatic entrance for people to talk about what could possibly be the predicament. Already, people were eyeing me with suspicion.

Of course, the mentioning of Maddie's name left me looking around the room for her. Twice, my eyes led me to Seth. His face stayed impassive, and I grew worried. What will happen to me?

I knew what I had to do. I would send my soul looking for Maddie. My soul might leave, but from my earlier experiments with the strange power, I noticed that if I saw what was happening around my body, I could still control it. Which is good, because I don't want to randomly fall on the feet of the council.

I willed my spirit to leave my body to search for Maddie, and soon I was free and flying near the ceiling looking for the devil. I looked back at the council, and they were busy talking in hushed tones of how to tell the group of the arrival of a Queen of Darkness that is a vamp-tracker hybrid. Hilarious!

I noticed their leader, I think, looking at my body and in the direction of my soul. I froze, and she joined the council in their conversation, still glancing up often in my direction as I continued to search for Maddie.

Soon, I found her and learned she was located closest to the council in one of the rectangular desks. It's good to know where your enemy is at all times.

I willed my soul to go back in my body, and it complied.