Callie - An Enchantress Novel - Book 1

Chapter 36

Callie had been using the sofa for target practice in the back yard for a couple of weeks. The goo that used to be the Master vampire of Munich had long since hardened and flaked off. Anything that remained was now a charred scar on the cotton floral-print upholstery.

Calling for small pebbles from the rock garden off to the left, Callie propelled them at high-speed towards it. The velocity of the stones increased as she practised until the last one embedded itself in the foam of the back cushion. When she was done with them, she floated them back to the gravel patch. Fireballs were next - just little ones that she made dance to and fro using her hand gestures. She spun them in arcs before sending them off to hit one of the many large printed flowers.

Sidney joined her and stood to one side. "You're getting better with your control," she said, startling Callie into missing the sofa altogether and scorching the grass. "Can you make them any bigger and still keep control?"

Callie formed a small orb of yellow flame just beyond her reach and gently fed more energy in to it. It gradually changed through a kaleidoscope of oranges, reds, purples, and blues until it finally stabilized in an ultra white glowing miniature sun - so bright Sidney had to step back from the heat and shield her eyes. Callie used a finger from each of her hands, gesturing left and right. It began to sway in rhythm with her movements. Her right hand circled anti-clockwise and her left clockwise alternately. The orb danced in a figure of eight. Next, she splayed all her fingers wide so the orb grew in size.

After sending it on a low tour around the garden, she stopped it in front of them. With a flick of her wrist, it shot straight for the sofa where it ignited with a loud roar. Instantaneous flames fought for oxygen, drawing their hair forward with the updraft as air rushed to fuel the flame. Choking grey smoke spiralled up in the air. Callie called for water from the overhead clouds and sent a downpour so heavy it extinguished the flames in seconds. It also soaked both of them to the skin.

"I said bigger, not nuclear," Sidney complained while wringing the water from her top. "I just put this on too, now I'll have to change again before we go out."

"I'm sure Brian wouldn't mind if you went out in a bin bag," Callie joked, just managing to duck the towel sailing for her head. "Talk of the devil," she added as Brian joined them. "Where are you two heading tonight?"

"There's a new club opened in Seven Tower City a couple of weeks ago. Prowler's is apparently the place to be," Brian replied. "Want to come with us?" he asked as an afterthought.

Callie leaned in close to him to speak in mock confidentiality. "I think Sidney wants you all to herself."

"If that were the case we'd be staying in. Again," Sidney butted in with a flirtatious tilt of her eyebrows.

"TMI!" Callie laughed with her hands covering her ears. "Nah, thanks anyway. We could do with a quiet night. Besides, Lucien's finished translating the symbols, and I need to get some reading done. Sam has a couple of stories that he wants to look into as well. You two go have fun."

It took Sidney only fifteen minutes to change and dry her hair. Her hips swayed provocatively as she made her way to open the front door when the taxi sounded its horn. She had changed into a tight, long-sleeved, white dress that finished mid-thigh. She wore no tights and no panty line was visible. Brian ogled the never-ending length of her legs, emphasised by the five-inch white platform heels as he followed closely behind.

"Mind you don't trip over your tongue there, Brian," Sam hollered after them, chuckling as Brian gave him a one finger salute in reply.

He wound his arm around Callie's waist and led her back inside once the taxi had driven off. "Would you mind joining me in my study? I'd like your opinion on something," he said, all traces of his former good humour gone.

"Sure, what's up?"

"There have been a couple of reports of missing people in the city area."

"Nothing overly strange about that, it's a big city and people go missing all the time."

"The difference with these people is that they are all local supernatural; vamps, shifters, witches and the like. There's no trace of them. It's like they've just vanished of the face of the Earth." He brought her attention to the city map he had stuck to the wall in his study. "Each of the red dots represents the spot a shifter was taken; blue vampires; green witches; yellow is fairies, trolls, leprechauns and other species."

The map had numerous random sticky dots scattered around the metre square sheet of paper. There were more blue dots than any other colour.

"I thought you said a couple? There must be over twenty here." She observed. "How long has this been going on?"

"The first report was filed two weeks ago. A couple of days after Demetrious' visit. It's escalated this week, with two every night and then these three in the space of an hour last night." He pointed out two green and one yellow dot. "The first of last nights was a twenty-four-year-old leprechaun with no magical ability. His blood was too diluted with humans to be able to grant wishes and he vanished after he walked his girlfriend home at around 1am."

"Was?"

"What remained of his body was found by a man walking his dog on the beach a few hours ago. The second and third were mother and daughter, witches of the Fairhill coven. They left the hen party they were attending shortly before 2am and never arrived home. The husband raised the alarm when neither answered their phones."

"Do any of them have anything in common apart from the supernatural thing?" Callie mused, studying the map and trying to form a pattern among the dots. Apart from the fact that they were all fairly close to the city centre, she could see nothing.

"None that we know of." He moved away to flop down in his reclining office chair, his arm thrown over his eyes. "The leprechaun is the only body to turn up so far. We don't even know if the others are still alive."

"So the dots are what, the last place they were seen? Any street camera footage to show where they went?"

"Strangely, all the city centre cameras showed only blank footage for several minutes after the time the victims were last seen. It leads me to the conclusion that they were abducted by a being of magical ability." He reached forward and drew her on to his lap so he could snuggle into her back with a fierce hug. "I honestly don't know where to start looking. We can't involve the human police, it would draw to much attention and everyone involved in the network has reached a dead end."

"The numbers written on the dots, is that the time they went missing?"

"Yes, all between midnight and I think the latest was around 4am."

"Why would people be in the city centre until 4am? Surely everywhere would be closed by then?" Callie thought aloud.

"We could always go and find out," Sam suggested. "Though I'd be more comfortable with more than just two of us. Some of the missing witches were pretty powerful. It'd be a good idea to have backup."

"You want to call Sidney and Brian? Have them meet us there?"

"Leave it until closer to the time we're leaving. Let them have a little fun. Speaking of fun, I can think of a great way to pass the time," he suggested, demonstrating by running his hand up her jean-clad leg to the junction of her thighs.

"You, Mr. Morrow, are insatiable." She giggled.

At 12.45am, Sam's phone rang with a panicked Brian on the other end. "Sam, she's gone! You have to help me look for her. We were having a great time and were about to leave, but I ducked into the loo. When I came out, she was gone. The doorman said she staggered up the road, but we both know you guys can't get drunk. I've looked everywhere and I can't find her. There's something wrong!"

"Where are you? We're on our way."

"In the city centre. At that new club, Prowlers. Please hurry!"