Of Witches and Warlocks: The Complete Series

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

It was the middle of the night when the sound of a soft knock filled the air, waking us.

"Yeah," Vance spoke groggily, untangling himself from me and sitting up as the door opened. "Come in."

"Hey, sorry to bother you," Brad's voice spoke in the darkness.

"You aren't," Vance replied, flipping on the lamp. "What's up?"

"Shelly had another vision and wants to talk to you both."

"Okay. We'll be right down," I said. "Is she with Grandma?"

"She's in my room. No one else knows. She's been sleeping with me ever since she started having her visions. It scares her to be alone when they happen."

"You don't need to explain," Vance said, getting out of the bed at the same time as me. "Do you need us to wake the others?"

"No, she says this is for the two of you exclusively."

I combed through my tangled hair before reaching over and intertwining my fingers with Vance's, as we followed Brad down the stairs into the basement.

Shelly was sitting on the bed with her arms wrapped around her knees when we entered, but she quickly scooted against the headboard and motioned for us to join her.

"I know what you're doing," she said once we were settled.

"What do you mean?" I asked, puzzled.

"I know the two of you have decided to go on the offensive—you're going after Damien and Sean."

Vance sighed. "It seems the wisest course of action, unless you have a new direction to point us to."

"No. I don't really, but I do have some new information for you."

"Okay. Let's here it."

"Damien is furious that Portia was able to get Krista out of there. He's taken precautions against that happening again, and he's placed crystals in various places around the mansion and the property. They won't allow her to use her jinn powers which would trap you both."

"So we need to have an escape route planned then," I added.

Shelly nodded. "According to my vision there are areas where the crystals aren't as strong, but Damien has also heavily warded the property so he will be aware of any unexpected arrivals. He's not taking any chances here. He's determined to get what he's after and to keep you from thwarting his plans."

"Which is what exactly?" Vance ran a hand through his hair in a frustrated fashion. "How can we stop him if we don't know what the heck he's trying to do?"

"I'm trying to help the best I can, Vance," Shelly replied. "I don't know what else to do. Sometimes my visions are very limited."

He touched her arm. "I'm not complaining against you, Shelly. I appreciate all you've done. I'm just annoyed with the whole situation and the lack of information in general."

"Is there anything else you can tell us?" I interrupted. "Anything at all? I don't care how mundane it seemed."

Shelly took a deep breath. "When my vision started I could see the property like I was hovering over it. It was nearly dark, and everything was laid out like it was on a grid of some sort. I could see the placement of the crystals and wards because they all glowed with a blue light. I remember thinking it looked like something from a Mission Impossible movie."