Innocent As Charged (Completed)

Chapter 38

"How do you banish her?" Isaac inquires.

"Get enough witches and do a teleportation spell which send her straight back to where she came from. The only problem is it may take a while for us to collect our forces because the spell requires a large amount of skill and if too few witches perform the spell then they will all die and that is something I'd prefer to avoid." She gives us a grim smile.

"Furthermore, we all need to know what her cell looks like so that we know where to send her. This means that I'm going to have to call in a couple of favours from some vampires to persuade them to authorise communication with Lord Hades to convince him to allow us to teleport her there; he controls all teleportation travel into Tartarus. If we try to teleport her without his permission, then she will stay here and will be free to wreak havoc on our world."

Gillian pauses to collect her thoughts and sip a glass of water while we patiently wait.

"Of course we will need you and your pack's help; the teleportation spell is complex and we are vulnerable to physical attacks while preparing it. If just one of us loses focus or is killed (something extremely unlikely), then the spell will fail and we will have to restart. This is where you come in: we need to you to protect us from Apate's attacks while we cast the spell. She is not a killer by nature, but has no qualms with doing everything up to that."

"We can do that," Isaac affirms.

"A brief warning: she can change your perception of others quite easily if she so wishes. You must make sure that you are attacking her not us as she may make us appear to be her."

Unbidden, my mind flicks back to Carrie, and something clicks.

"Apate was the one who hired Carrie! She fits her description - she's been against us from the start," I blurt out.

Matthew swears under his breath, both him and Isaac realising the implications of what I'm saying.

"I thought you said Apate isn't a killer, Gillian," my mate says, confused.

"She just refuses to risk dirtying her hands. If she knows she can get away with it, she will get others to do it for her."

"But if she was so desperate to kill Luna Isobel, why didn't she free Carrie? She most likely wouldn't have been caught if she did," Matthew asks, his eyes starting to glow yellow at mention of the child-like vampire.

"Step back Keir," Isaac growls, knowing the danger if he's released, and to our collective relief, he obeys, Matthew relaxing, the danger having passed.

"Apate is very careful. She's a fugitive so she can't risk being caught," Gillian suggests in answer to Matthew's question. "Freeing Carrie would most likely have meant that she would have been discovered. The gods' servants are hunting for her and she knows it."

"The gods' servants? Like who?" I question.

"The remaining furies, harpies, hunter organisations, many others as well I'm sure." Gillian frowns. "If you come across any of them, do your best to help them. They are not very ... forgiving of lies."

"Wonderful," Matthew mutters sarcastically. "Anything else we should know?"

"No," Gillian replies, wrapping up the conversation at last.