Miss Nobody

Chapter 31

JONNY'S FIANCE

Evening Day 15

"It's about fucking time," Keiran's voice was clear.

I opened my eyes slowly to see him stand from a bed. I glanced around the room. Room 13. Awesome.

A tall, thin woman stepped into my view. The model type I imagined Jonny dating the first time I met him. Oh, no. My heart skipped a beat.

"This is who he's going to war for?" The woman sneered and stood taller. She crossed her arms, tapping her impeccably manicured fingers on her thin arm.

"You saw the videos of the rituals. Her pussy is probably Magic too. Brings all the boys to her yard." Keiran winked at me and picked up a small jewelry box from the table.

"That's not nearly worth this." The woman looked at the box. "You still fucking owe me."

"Whatever." Keiran rolled his eyes.

The woman's hand shot out swiftly and her long stiletto nails dug into Keiran's throat. A trickle of blood ran down his neck.

Keiran's blood had a smoky aftertaste, like ashes on my tongue.

"When I marry Jonny Zantana and take over my father's seat as head of Colmillos Rojos, I will be your Queen. Do not forget that." She released Keiran abruptly and he stumbled to the ground. Rubbing his throat and sputtering.

My wrists were tight behind my back in thin metal, zip ties probably.

"Of course, Maracella, I apologize." He bowed deeply. "I will be forever in your debt." He sauntered out the door with his prize.

The woman spun a laptop on the table to face me. She turned up the volume as the video played. A video of Jonny and myself. We were in my room and we were very naked. The heat rose to my face fast. I hoped my anger and embarrassment weren't too apparent.

"That's my fiance you have halfway down your throat." Maracella seemed oddly calm. She pushed a button on the keyboard and the next video played.

I had the Deputy's ears in my hands and smashed his face against my thigh, disconnecting them from his head. There was a lot of blood. I didn't notice that at the time.

The next video was dark until the candles seemed to light on their own, illuminating the screen. I was crawling around a circle with three men lying in the middle. It was very clear that I was doing some sort of ritual, the bodies in the middle looked like my sacrifices. Keiran never appeared on screen before the camera flickered and distorted. The image returned when masked men, Jonny and his brother, entered the room and ended with me closing the circle.

She turned down the volume but kept the whole thing on repeat and sat in a chair across from me, making herself comfortable. "I see something in you, Ruby. A spark." She leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. She looked me up and down and licked her lips. "You will be an asset to Colmillos Rojos."

She slapped me hard across my face.

My lip split open and I felt it swell. Tasted the metallicness of my blood. The pain turned to pleasure as it sank into my body. The glass vial between my boobs warmed pleasantly.

"There cannot be two Queens." She sat back in her chair and huffed. Her finely manicured edges showed a bit of fraying with her temper.

"I didn't know Jonny had a fiancée."

"Of course not. Men like Jonny don't tell anyone their business."

I had been avoiding the signs of his 'activities' but I knew he was involved with the missing Deputy and after he mentioned his list, his murder list, not to-do list, I knew he had something to do with Mr. Widell's disappearance too. With the black tactical wear and men following him, listening to his commands, I knew Jonny wasn't telling me the truth about who he was, or what he did. "What kind of man is Jonny?" It was time I stopped ignoring the truth of who he was and what he was capable of.

"He's a gangster. A killer. A thief, money launderer, drug dealer, extortionist, trafficker, hired gun, I could go on. His older brothers run one of the bigger gangs on the West Coast. Jonny and Diego's affiliation is growing quicker than my father predicted." She adjusted the giant diamond bracelets on her wrist.

"Martin?" Wild guess.

"The head of the biggest gang." She winked at me and turned her back. She typed on her phone and I studied her while she was distracted.

Maracella was one of the prettiest people I had ever seen in real life. I didn't blame Jonny for being engaged to her. He should have told me though. I never wanted to be his mistress. His secret whore in the woods, in the Laundry Tower, while he married a gorgeous woman like Maracella. The anger tightened my heart and I debated if I even wanted to find a way for him to wake from his Magical...sleep or if he should rot like that for not telling me he was engaged to be married. "Can I get these cuffs off me?" They were making my hands numb and I wanted to wipe away the tears before Maracella noticed.

She nodded slightly and I felt rough hands behind me, the bands loosened.

I brought my wrists around and rubbed them, trying to casually wipe my eyes without her noticing.

She tossed her phone back in her expensive handbag and lifted out a small, thin book. She handed it to me and sat in the chair across from me.

The red cover was a stiff leather and only held a few pages in between. I opened it. The pages folded out into a larger piece of paper. The entire thing was written in Latin with a drawn figure of a man overlaying the figure of a woman.

Ingredients? Blood. Of course. I peeked at her above the little spell book. I'd much rather have sex with her but I didn't know if Sex Magic could accomplish something like this. "Blood Magic isn't really my forte. So to speak." I let her know.

She shrugged. "Blood Magic, Sex Magic, Demon Magic." She laughed. "Magic is Magic." Her tone left no room for argument so I didn't disagree with her outloud.

Magic was nuanced and each type seemingly divided by sets of rules and prohibitions. We never talked about other types of Magic when I was in my dreams being trained in Sex Magic but the murmurs of the limitations in some of the rituals led some to search for...heavier spells but we weren't permitted to talk about any other types of Magic.

I returned my attention to the unfolded paper in my lap. Directions? Cut yourself...or someone else, say Magic words, hope, and pray you don't fuck it up. I summarized. Blood Magic would, of course, require blood.

"You want to be a man?" I made sure I understood what she was asking of me.

She leaned forward again. "I want the power of a man." She stood up and paced the room. "I want my father to respect me like he does Jonny." She stopped and stared at me. "Even after I marry him, he will still see me as a woman, lesser. I want my father to take me seriously. I want to sit at the table with my uncles."

"But you don't want to actually be a man?" I asked for clarification.

"No. I want to be me." She flipped her long, wavy, brown hair behind her shoulder.

Of course. I should've known that. "This will require the essence of a man, in order to work," I told her.

She nodded behind me and a man stepped into sight.

"I don't mean to be rude but is there no one else you can hire to do this kind of thing for you? I'm just saying, you look like you could afford to hire a professional Witch. Maybe a Shaman?" There were more qualified options. Surely. I could never afford one myself but I knew someone had paid big money to have a curse put on me. An unknown past, people dying around me, falling in love with a soon-to-be-married man. It had to be a very expensive spell.

"You don't think I've tried?" She looked at me like I was dumb. "I've been all over this planet. Most are fake and the real ones..." She trailed off and shook her head. A look of disappointment and disgust flashed briefly over her face before everything smoothed out again. "When I saw your video feed-" She laughed. "-I thought it was fake but Keiran-" She stepped slowly toward me. "Your good friend Keiran told me aallllll about you." She tapped my nose gently with a long polished fingernail. "I bet Jonny doesn't know half the stuff I know about you, Ruby," she whispered and blew me a kiss. She walked away from me a few steps and turned abruptly. "I should feel sorry for you though, with that kind of mother. To take your most valuable possession from you. Like. That." She snapped her fingers loudly. "Makes me glad I killed mine on the way out." She laughed and men laughed behind me.

She opened her hand and out dropped my pendant the homeless woman had given back to me. Maracella spun the jeweled spider on the front and out popped a USB port.

I sucked in my breath. That's why that's important. I mentally kicked myself for not being smarter. The memory of what was on the drive alluded me but I knew it was important.

"Do it and I won't destroy this."

I nodded and stood from the chair.

Maracella nodded and the middle of the room was cleared.

I took the candles from the table and set them up around the circle. This circle had been used so often the candles fit into their grooves of melted wax.

"Lay down in the middle," I instructed Maracella.

She followed my instructions. A giddiness in her step.

I grabbed the box of salt from the table, starting at the North, and went clockwise around the candles and Maracella. I grabbed the box of matches. Three into my mouth soaking them with my saliva. I started in the North. A few choice Latin words to open the circle and start the ritual.

I motioned to the man who had volunteered himself and had him step inside the salt circle with Maracella. The knife on the table was the same one I pulled from my side before summoning a Demon for Keiran, the one I tossed to Diego. How did Maracella get this knife? Maybe it was left and Keiran grabbed it before disappearing. That solution satisfied me and I grabbed it from the table to hold it against Maracella's security guard's palm across the salt line. I stayed on the outside of the circle. "Do you give your male essence freely so that Maracella may inhabit it?"

He nodded.

"You have to say it out loud," Maracella yelled at him.

"Ye...ye...yes," he stammered.

I sliced into his palm. The blood quickly pooled in his cupped hand. I tipped it over and it poured onto the North of the salt circle.

Maracella arched her back. "I can feel it already." She moaned.

I pulled the man to the South end of the circle and asked him again, "do you give your male essence freely so that Maracella may inhabit it?"

The man stammered again, "ye...yes."

I pressed the knife deeper into his palm drawing more blood. I tipped it over the salt circle and we moved to the East of the circle and repeated the process.

The man was pale from the loss of his blood but still on his feet, thank goodness, how I was going to move a giant man around the circle, without entering it no less, was beyond me. Did he know this would kill him? That was between him and Maracella. I hoped she had his full consent but from the look in his eyes, I doubted it.

This would not go well for Maracella if she hadn't. People liked to fuck around with Magic but didn't realize without actual consent the Magic would be corrupted. It would skew the intent. It always, eventually, twisted back on the practitioner.

People like Maracella and Keiran didn't understand that just because they made me do the ritual, they still received the repercussions. They thought they were smart and found a way to get around the punishment they would receive for misusing Magic. It didn't work that way. Eventually, it would come back to them. It was their energy that powered the spell. I was just a tool. Like the salt or the matches.

I finished the ritual and blew out a match.

Everything went dark.

The putrid smell of rotten eggs filled the room. Demon. One of Maracella's guards retched in the corner.

Maracella's screams echoed throughout the room.

The Demon's bone-vibrating laughter brought me to my knees. I pricked my finger quickly drawing a small dot of blood. Trading a taste of my blood for some relief from its onslaught. The bone vibrating stopped and I could think again. This was not Demon Magic so why did a Demon show up? At least it was stuck in the circle with Maracella.

Poor Maracella.

The Demon appeared human. Devilishly handsome, as expected from one who could change their own appearance. He sneered at an unconscious Maracella at his feet. And then he noticed me. He charged.

I stood still, knowing my circle would hold him and that Demons fed off of fear. Me being afraid would only make him stronger. The invisible energy barrier that created my circle stopped the Demon from exiting. He smiled at me from inside the salt line.

"Why are you here?"

He straightened an already perfect suit. "You summoned me." He sneered.

"I did not."

"You really are a stupid Witch." He poked at the barrier. "When you open your circle, I will always come." He said with a smile. He caught my eyes and stared into them. He was in my head, scanning through my memories like fingertips riffling the pages of a book. He paused on my memories at the brothel before pulling away. "You don't remember, do you?" He laughed.

I stepped back and tried to concentrate on steadying my breathing.

"No wonder you didn't banish me when I almost killed you. You don't know how." He laughed again. "You shouldn't be summoning Demons if you don't know how to get rid of us." He tskd.

"It's not like I had a choice," I mumbled. Keiran had made me summon the damned thing.

"You always say that."

Always? Like he knew me.

He smiled broadly. "Who do you think it was that taught you a drop of blood would end the pain of being near a Demon? Who showed you to suck on the matches, imbuing them with your Magic essence? A shortcut if you will." He shrank back away from the salt line. "I will be punished for my information. You owe me. Lower the circle girl. NOW." He sank to his knees, his face twisted like he was in pain. "Do it before..." He disappeared.

My heart thudded loudly in my chest. I had to lower the circle or the spell wouldn't be completed. Maracella still held my necklace in her hand.

I knelt and said, "It is done." I blew out a few of the candles near me and moved the salt to one side creating a little opening. I crossed the closed circle and retrieved my necklace from an unconscious Maracella.