Hey all! Annabelle here with the next chapter of HFHM!
Can you believe I've been writing this story for a year now? I'm still in disbelief, and it's so awesome to open up the Works page here on Lit and be able to see how many people have read and enjoyed this story of mine.
With this chapter, I am gearing up for the grand finale of part 2. If you are just joining us, you should really start with Ch. 13 (or better yet, Ch. 1!). This story is written in chapters, and I promise you that you will be lost if you start here.
I just want to remind my readers at Literotica that your support means the world to me. I've gotten some fantastic comments and notes from you of late, and while this month has been a slump for me (writer's block), a few of your emails have jolted me out of my funk and gotten me to sit back down at the computer and just write.
If you enjoy this, don't forget to leave some stars, a kind comment, or send me a note. I may not respond, but I do read all of them!
Without further ado, let us return to the Radley house to see what everyone else has been up to.
The Coming Storm
Kali's fists clenched and unclenched in the back of the town car. Daryl was kneeling on the floor in front of her, contemplating the large patch of skin that had been blasted off the side of her ribs. He gave it a gentle tug, making Kali wince.
"You always impress me," Daryl said, pulling a scalpel from the small kit on the floor. "Anyone else would have passed out from the pain."
"I don't feel pain." Her eyes bulged from her head, many of the veins burst from the lightning blast. Daryl used the scalpel to make a large cut across her torso, removing the ruined flesh. "Just anger."
"If anger keeps you from throwing up in my car, then so be it." He tossed the scrap of skin in a bag. "I'm going to have to regrow it. I'm afraid you're gonna be mismatched for a while."
"The new skin will fade eventually," she said. Daryl touched the edge of her wound with his wand, muttering under his tongue. Her tattered flesh scarred over, then grew. Daryl directed the growth with his wand, careful not to let any of the edges get away from him. The skin there would be extra sensitive for some time, and would be a lighter color than the rest of her for at least a couple of months. "For one who specializes in death, you are very good at fixing that which lives."
"My mentor told me once that to truly understand how a thing works, you must take it apart first." A slight grin crossed his lips. "Did you know she created the Black Plague? Did it on a whim. Took a healing spell from the old world and reversed some of its components. Figured you could speed up decay rather than defeat it."
"And whatever happened to this mentor of yours?"
Daryl laughed. "Burned at the stake. She got cocky around the wrong people and a paladin of the church got his hands on her as a result. Holy fire burned her into ash, and they mixed her remains into a concrete block which they buried beneath a church, just in case." Daryl scrutinized a gash by her hip. "Let's get those pants off of you."
Kali obliged, sliding out of her clothes. The town car stank of sulfur, the result of so much burnt hair on her body. The wound on her hip widened, revealing muscle tissue and a small patch of bone.
"You have no idea how grateful I am that you don't bleed like the others." He pulled a set of surgical wands out of his pocket. Digging through them, he picked an appropriately thin one and went to work stitching her muscle back together over her leg.
"Leave no trace," she said, watching him work miracles with his wand. Her magic was enough to sustain her, and she would eventually heal on her own without him. However, he could do in minutes what it would take her days or weeks to do. "Main ingredient of the most powerful hexes is a piece of the victim, and I am nobody's victim."
"I don't think that's true today. Explain to me one more time how this happened?"
"I almost broke the Geas." Kali scowled at the memory. "At least, I almost broke another layer of it. It was a crucial moment, and they distracted me."
"By turning the sprinklers on you?"
"I don't know how they did it. But I bet the nymph was involved." She wiggled her fingers. "If I get in there first, I might tear her face off with my bare hands."
"What a waste of a perfectly good nymph." Daryl halted the growth with the tap of his wand, the gap in her skin almost half an inch across. Using his fingers, he pushed the wound closed. Her skin looked like a burning fuse, the wound cauterizing and healing within a couple of seconds. "Tell you what, I'll trade you something in exchange for the nymph. If, that is, you beat me to the prize."
"We'll see." Kali lifted her arm, feeling the new skin stretch a little. "I need your phone."
"What's wrong with yours?"
In response, Kali pulled it from the pocket of her pants and threw it at Daryl's feet. The metal frame had been melted, the screen shattered.
"Damn." Daryl pulled out his phone and handed it over. "Who are you so eager to call?"
Kali ignored him, looking at the screen. "You have several missed calls from Sebastien."
"Yeah, he's pissed. Something about his homunculus won't reform, and this is all our fault somehow."
"We were supposed to work together," Kali said, dialing the number from memory. "Maybe that should be the way we do this from now on."
"You all got a turn," Daryl said. "It's only fair that I see what my doe-eyed meat puppet can accomplish. If she fails, then we put our heads together."
Kali held the phone to her ear, her breath hitching in her throat when the phone was answered. His presence washed over the interior of the car, even from so many miles away. Daryl shivered, realizing who it was she had reached.
"She's here," Kali said. "The succubus is in the house with the others."
Daryl stopped what he was doing, watching Kali. Kali listened to the silence on the other end of the phone.
"I am coming." The phone disconnected, and she handed it back to Daryl.
"What did he say?"
"He is coming." Kali let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. "Here. To the house."
"Shit." Daryl looked at the phone. "And you're sure? The succubus is here, you saw her?"
