Morina and the Switching Spell Ch. 19
Chapter 19: The Romanian Bat Pendant.
4 June 1944, Sunday around 1600 hours.
I was sitting on the floor with my back towards the door, holding hands with the Nazi double-agent John Ayresdon. He was about to chant the reversal to the switching spell enabling him to return to his male body and me back into my female form.
He chanted the counter-spell, taking care to substitute the first word, "Lovers" with "Magicals."
"Magicals switched, / In bodies dwell, / Change them back, / Reverse their spell!"
I felt the room get cold and dark as the whirlwind between our bodies kicked up, pulling me sideways inside the enchanted maelstrom. The dizziness and the whirlwind were almost completed when I opened my eyes. There was a brief moment of what looked like double vision as it appeared as though I could see John popping back into his own body. Now my back was towards Olga, and I was about to turn and pounce on her when the front door flew open.
Lee appeared with Amanda emerging from behind him, both with their wands drawn.
John quickly turned around and pointed his wand towards the door.
--"Emortutum!*" Olga chanted behind me.
--"Exarmartus!*" Lee and Amanda chanted
--"Emortutum!" John chanted
--I turned and lunged at Olga.
These all occurred nearly simultaneously.
Olga fell over backwards in the chair with me on top of her. My knees pinned her arms to either side of her head and my crotch was in her face. I grabbed my wand and pulled it from her left hand. Her own wand was on the floor, just a few inches away from her open right hand.
The ruby eyes of her bat pendant had been glowing and quickly faded. I grabbed the silver chain to her pendant with my free hand and yanked it away, breaking it. The pendant flew somewhere behind me.
"Don't move!" I commanded, pointing my wand at her face.
"Mandy!" I heard my brother say in a sob.
I brushed Olga's wand out of reach and turned to see what had happened. Amanda was sprawled on her back on the floor. She wasn't moving and didn't appear to be breathing. Lee was bent over her, holding her head.
"Lee, what happened?" I shouted.
John sprang for Olga's wand, grabbing it, and pointing it at me.
"Emortutum!" he chanted -- the death spell.
Nothing happened. He dropped the wand and lunged at me, knocking me off Olga and sending me crashing against the legs of the table. His hands were at my throat.
"Amovartus!" I gasped, holding my wand against his ribs
Instantly, his entire body froze in position. His hands were still on my neck, but he was no longer able to close his fingers around my airway. I crawled out from underneath him in time to see Olga grab her own wand.
"Amovartus!" I chanted, freezing her in place before she could wield her wand.
Lee was still bent over Amanda's body when I walked over to him. Tears were rolling down his face and onto Amanda's. Her eyes were open and lifeless, and her face had a frozen look of surprise and pain on it. We were in the open doorway, so we pulled her body inside and closed the door. I got dressed and helped Lee move Amanda's body to the bed. That's when I saw Olga's pendant on the floor, still attached to its broken silver chain.
I picked up the pendant and examined it carefully with its ruby red eyes and that black dot of what appeared to be dried blood between the fangs of the bat.
"Lee, look," I said.
Lee turned and looked at the pendant.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Olga's pendant. Look at that black dot, what does this remind you of?" I asked.
"Let me see that," he said.
I handed him the pendant and he examined it closely. He gingerly placed his finger over the black dot.
"Careful! Don't touch it!" I warned.
A red spark shot out beneath Lee's finger followed by a puff of blue smoke and the smell of burning sulfur.
"Fuck!" Lee shouted, pulling his hand back and dropping the pendant on the floor. There was a black burn spot on the tip of Lee's finger where he touched the dried blood.
"Are you alright? What was it?" I asked.
"Dried warlock blood. I guess that old witch's tale was true," he replied.
"Oh my God! Lee look at your finger!" I exclaimed.
"I'm fine, Reena. Just a little burn, that' all," he replied.
"But Lee, if the story of Wallachia is true, that means that you're--" I began.
"Reena, I'm fine. Honest," he said reassuringly.
There was an old witch's tale about Vlad Dracul II, "the Impaler," who at one time was the King of Wallachia, now known as Transylvania, a part of modern-day Romania. He was later fictionalized by Bram Stoker into the vampire Dracula. Stoker's novel was remarkably close in guessing Vlad's supernatural abilities, but the real King Dracul was a warlock, not a vampire.
It is said that Vlad impaled hundreds of his enemies on long wooden stakes, causing them to suffer and die painfully hideous deaths. A few of Vlad's victims were warlocks, whose blood he collected and incorporated into protective charms. It was rumored that the charms he made using warlock blood would enable the wearer to attack and overcome the protective pendant charms of other magicals.
That would explain why Olga was able to disable Amanda's protective charm and kill her. But it was also said that the warlock blood on those charms carried a curse, and whoever removed that blood from those charms would die. Fortunately, Lee did not appear to be affected.
Lee looked at Olga's motionless form and pointed his wand at her. "You nasty bitch!" he yelled.
"Lee! Wait!" I cried, knocking his arm down.
"Reena, why did you stop me? That witch needs to die," he said, raising his arm again.
"She does, but not now. We need both of them to confess their crimes to the Coven and Warlock Council. It's up to them to decide their fate. Besides, there's an innocent warlock in the stockade right now and their confessions are his only chance of exoneration," I pled.
He slowly lowered his arm.
"What do we do now?" he asked.
"I'll watch these two and guard Amanda's body. You should go back to the airfield and get a hold of Agatha," I suggested.
"Agatha's not there. She's on her way to London. Amanda told me that when you didn't give the correct response to her question about darts. She knew it wasn't you, so she went to find Agatha. Agatha told Amanda to find me and stop whoever it was in your body from broadcasting the D-Day location to the Nazis while she went back to London to get a few things," Lee explained.
He continued.
"By the time Amanda found me, you, or the person in your body, was no longer in the communications tent, so we decided to come here," he explained.
"How did you get here?" I asked.
"We ran. We got here in time to see the light in the cottage dim. So, we knew he was reversing the switching spell. We waited until the light inside the cabin was restored before opening the door. But I don't understand why Ayresdon's death spell didn't kill you," Lee wondered.
"When I was in John's-- sorry, Lord Ayresdon's body and held captive, I managed to drink the vial of amagae potion I had in my purse. After Ayresdon switched our bodies back, the potion was in his system, not mine. He won't get his powers back for another 23 hours," I explained.
"Reena, you took an awfully big chance," Lee exclaimed.
"We all did," I replied, looking at Amanda's dead body.
"Do you still want me to go back to the airfield?" Lee asked.
"Yes. Ayresdon told me that when he was in my body, he made sure there were witnesses when he divulged the location of D-Day to the Nazis. I'll be arrested as a traitor if I go back. You should take the Rolls back to the airfield, so they don't accuse you of going AWOL. When Agatha gets back from London, send her here. I'll wait for her," I instructed.
I walked Lee to the door and kissed him on the cheek, still salty from his tears. The wind had stopped, and the skies were starting to clear. Without Lord Ayresdon's magic, the weather was returning to normal.
While I waited for Agatha, I covered Amanda's body with the blanket from the bed. I found several coils of rope and bound John and Olga to the two chairs in the cottage, their hands pinned harmlessly at their sides. I enchanted the rope with a spell that would prevent them from getting loose. John was still naked from when we switched bodies.
With both of them thoroughly bound, I unfroze them. I wanted answers.
"John, how were you able to gain access to the Albion Warlock Council if you're German?" I asked.
"Johann," he said derisively.
"What?" I asked.
"Johann. My real name is Johann," he answered.
"Fine. Tell me Johann, how did you get on the Council?" I asked again.
He cleared his throat.
"After the Great War, there were a lot of vacancies, too many warlocks on both sides were killed in the conflict. Life in Germany was hard after the Armistice and the German Warlock Council chose my father and me to go to England to infiltrate the Albion Warlock Council."
He continued.
"When we got to England, my father hid his identity, bought Ayresdon Manor, and soon met Edward VIII. He eventually introduced the King to that American, Wallis Simpson. My father died shortly after that, but I kept things going, even after Edward abdicated the throne," he explained.
"How did that help you get on the Council?"
He sneered at me.
"As I mentioned earlier, the Council had vacancies as well as a few newer and younger members. Many of them seemed quite... lonely, let us say. You see, young men with their horny cocks are even easier to manipulate than young girls' hearts."
I choked back a tear.