Spellbound

Chapter 3

A/N: This story is just rolling off my finger tips right now :D I'm feeling really good about it. Before I continue on though, I'd like to thank renowned supernatural novelists Kim Harrison and Kelly Armstrong for fueling my imagination, revealing the spirit of the supernatural world to be more than hollywood, popculture ideas. I'd also like to thank the two of them for helping my develop a writing style that suited who I was, mixing the fun and fantastic world of the Hollows series with the realistic world of the Women of the Otherworld series. Lastly and most importantly, I'd like to thank my readers for putting up with my short and boring second chapter while I brought another character into the folds.

p.s. Sorry this took so long, I almost got done and then realized that I had written it in third person instead of first. My bad. So I had to rewrite it. Oh and I decided on two types of magics/uses. One is ceremony and one it casting. Ceremony uses... well ceremonies like you saw in the first chapter. Castings are verbal spells that can be targeted specifically, or just sent out.

--Chapter 3--

(Corinne)

"HE'S GONE!!!"

I screamed at everything and nothing. I was blind with rage, frustration, and fear. I wanted to lash out and hit walls. I wanted to go find something fragile to break or smash. I didn't. Instead I slammed my palms down on either side of my kitchen sink, willing the anger, frustration, and fear to rush out of my palms and soak into the countertop. I push and strained, trying to make it go away. I couldn't do it. I whipped my head up to look out the window, trying to visualize the path that he took into the woods. The bulkhead door was right below me so it figures that he'd take the shortest path to the woods. I noticed a trail of mud coming from the enterance to the bulkead door, looking like he had fallen and then ran off.

My gaze found its way back to the bulkhead door. It was one of my strongest barrier castings, designed to keep him in, and let only me come and go. I noticed that it was still intact. He couldn't have been hiding in there either, seeing as theres nothing to hide with. No wait, there's footsteps coming out of the barrier and heading into the woods. Of course he's not there anymore.

"Grr!" I growled at myself.

I thought back to performing the ceremony. I had done it right to the letter.

Using a blackout casting, I knocked him out. A transport casting brought us here to the house. A levitation casting helped me move him downstairs. I had to get him into the chair myself though. Good thing he wasn't a big guy, 5'9" and 150 odd pounds. A binding casting to restrain him and tie him to the chair. A pentegram with him at the center, to focus the spell on him. A chalk circle to encompass the five points, containing the spell. Five white candles at each of the points to ward off outside influences. I chanted the incantation. Finally the blood.

I felt my blood rush to my face and heat scour up the front of my body and I remembered the last part of the spell. Ian sitting there in the chair, unconscious and vulnerable had left me feeling uncomfortably excited. My hips sway slightly as I slowly walked toward his limp form with a predatory grace. Blood flooded my face and heat crawled up the front of my body, leaving my heart pounding rapidly. I could barely focus on the spell as I sat down on his lap, straddling him. I could feel his body heat rising up through my black jeans. I draped one of my arms over his shoulder and brough my other hand up to my mouth. I quickly bit the tip of my index finger, drawing a few drops of blood. I pulled his mouth open with my thumb and let my blood drop onto his tongue. I slowly pulled my finger out of his mouth, accidently dropping a splash on his bottom lip. I leaned in slowly and gave him a gentle kiss, cleaning the blood of his lip and finishing the spell. He was mine.

My thoughts seemed to linger on that one moment, and a dreamy lassitude started to fall over me. It was as if I bespelled my self, kissing him while he was unconscious...

"Focus!" I commanded myself.

I calmed down enough to remember my spelling books laying open on the kitchen table. I strode over to them, first looking at the barrier spell, analyzing it for any loopholes it might have. No luck. I didn't find anything among the how to cast and the list of various uses. I moved on to the ancient and arcane spell book laying next to it, open to the spell that I had performed on Ian. There was little information there, other than the how to perform and  general description of the spell. I looked back and forth between the two books, trying to figure out the way that he got out. Frustrated, I stood up straight running my hands through my short straight hair. Thats when I noticed it, the faint line of warning at the very bottom of the page from the spell I used on Ian. It read: This spell will tune your gaurdian's aura to yours. Any castings, specifically barriers and wards, will have little to no affect on your gaurdian.

I went back to my casting book and looked through the pages, scanning for a communication spell. Because Ian now had my aura, I wouldn't have to target this spell to him. I could just reach out with my mind and.

"CRAP!"

Either the spell wasn't connecting, or he was ignoring me unintentionally, not knowing what was going on.I wanted to tear my hair out. I wanted to do this. I wanted to break that. I wasn't going to. I paused for a moment to let the situation soak in. Ian was loose out there. He has no idea what was going on. He's in trouble.