Impossible Wish
Feb. 3rd, 2004 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maderrDidn't think I'd ever continue this one, did anyone? I don't think there are many reading it, but for those few who are:
*A small note - I already know about a hundred things I want to do to improve this story, so I'm not doing terribly much to it in regards to the last few chapters. I mean, I'm writing them in the same fashion as Nanowrimo - with little ediitng and all. Hopefully I can make a spanky new & improved version to maybe possibly sell one day. *keeps fingers crossed*
Feel better S!
"Whew! That's exhausting work." Rosemary pulled her hands away, swaying slightly back before Bethany reached out and grabbed her, pulling her forward into a loose embrace.
"You okay, Rose?" Bethany looked down at the top of her friend's head.
Rose looked up and smiled, then slowly pushed away and sat up. "Oh, I'm fine. It's just usually I use a variation of that spell to fix broken glasses and plates and stuff. This is the first time I've actually used it correctly. Kinda tiring is all."
The two brothers spared them only a glance, as with shaky hands Neil reached out to lift a rose shaped jewel from the floor. "It…it shouldn't be this easy…should it?"
"No, but like I said," Rosemary smirked, "He took us for stupid because he was so enthralled with Sheridan." She frowned at the thought of the missing gold haired boy, "Never in a million years would it have occurred to me that the Arden were nephilim…"
Four pairs of eyes turned to glare at the man standing more in the living room than in the hallway. Darrell rose to his feet and moved forward, but a catch at his hand stopped him. Bethany's soothing voice forced him to turn his head, "Not now, Darrell. We have more important matters. Getting this damned thing back is only part of the game."
Darrell glared darkly at the blond man lurking in the doorway, then jerked his hand away and turned back to rejoin the group on the floor. "What now then? I still have no idea what the hell is going on. I'm not going to beat the daylight out of you three - I'm just going to kill you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Neil made a face, "I'm not sure I know what's going, beyond the fact that a creepy ass demon ruined my ear and took away my genie and Sheridan, who apparently is an angel or something." He gazed down at the stone in his hands, eyes shimmering slightly.
"Sounds about right. But I want to know about this genie thing everyone keeps talking about. But later, we don't have time for discussions now." Darrell groaned.
Rosemary ran a hand through her hair, sighing heavily. "Now you're starting to move out of my territory. It's not that hard for a demon to "summon" something to him, though that isn't the right term for it. More like calling it to him, I guess. Like Nomolos did with the pieces before he made a show of destroying the Carnelian."
"What are you saying? We can just summon them back? Doesn’t that seem just a little too easy? Or is it just me?"
"That's just it - it is easy. When you know what you're doing. Like restoring the Carnelian - Nomolos took us for fools. Which you would've been if I hadn't been here." The last statement was made with a snicker and a wink, leading the two men to roll their eyes.
Neil was exasperated, "So how do we do that? And what's to keep the creep from coming back and killing us?"
"Got me."
Neil sent the woman a withering glance, "Thanks so much."
"Neil, calm down. Let's get your ear taken care, we can work out what to do." Bethany took her brother by the arm and dragged him in the direction of the kitchen. She didn't see the panic looked Neil sent the other two, who hurried after them.
"Beth, I'll look after his ear." Darrell wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulder and dragged him away from their sister, "Why don't you and Rose fix us some coffee?"
"But…"
Rose shook her head, "C'mon Beth, there's no way I can manage that evil looking machine you people call a coffee machine. Whatever happened to an on/off switch? That thing has like twelve buttons…" Rosemary dragged her friend away, leaving the brothers to tend to Neil's ear.
The brothers shared a sigh of relief, before Neil glared. "I can't believe you almost let her take care of me."
"Sorry, recent events have slowed my mental processes. Be quiet or I'll call Nurse Doom back over here."
Neil shuddered. "Okay, okay"
Silence stretched between the two brothers, Darrell cleaning and bandaging Neil's ear while the younger man watched the two women bicker cheerfully over what kind of coffee to make. Darrell softly cleared his throat, "So…what's with that guy you were with. Is he the friend Beth mentioned you might have?"
"Kasimir, you mean? Yeah, he's my friend…sort of…" Neil looked warily at his brother.
Darrell sighed, "Why not explain everything to me? Clearly there's something here that the three of you saw fit to leave me out of."
"It's not really his fault, Darrell." Bethany spoke up from the other side of the kitchen, where she and Rosemary were gathering mugs for the coffee. "We'd been trying to find Kasimir for ages. It was a…whim…that led us to give the earring to Neil. Honestly I had no idea everything would go so awry. Let us finish the coffee and then I'll explain everything."
"Fine," Darrell ran a hand through his hair. "But just know that you're all grounded. And no arguing."
"Never mind. You're not grounded. I’m going to kill you." From the end of the table Darrell glared at his siblings and Rosemary, hand tightening on his empty coffee cup.
"I knew he'd take this the wrong way." Bethany looked at her younger brother, who sat straight across from her."
Neil nodded, his expression serious. "There's just no talking to him about these things."
"Oh shut up the both of you." Darrell rose to his feet, glaring at his siblings. "I'm trying to run a business and the lot of you are summoning demons and trying to find magic stones right under my nose."
"You make it sound like we make a habit of it. We've only done it once."
"Yes. But once was enough to cause a loss of faith in my trusted assistant. Once was enough for Neil to make and lose a friend. And once was enough to lose Sheridan to something he had nothing to do with."
"Darrell, we already feel bad enough. Really." Rosemary glared at him, "You're not helping."
For a moment the eldest DeMarius looked like he wanted to continue being angry, but after a moment he settled on another tired sigh, "True enough. Just - no more summoning demons, okay? You really should have just - never mind. You're right. This isn’t helping. You're all still grounded though."
Bethany rolled her eyes, "So what's the plan then? We've had our coffee, we've been grounded, now we just need to rescue Neil & Kasimir."
"Couldn't we just, you know, summon or call or whatever the earring, and then use Kasimir to wish Sheridan back?" Darrell asked.
"I doubt it. Again with the too easy thing. I know, I know," Neil held up his hands, "It's easy because he doesn't expect it. But surely he's not that careless. He has lived a long time."
"Hmmm…." Rosemary tapped her fingers on the countertop, lost in thought. "I don't know. I just don't. It seems like he's got us well and truly fixed. We can try to summon him again but…I don't think we'd get off so lightly a second time. Twice now an attempt to summon him has failed. I don't want to see the results of number three."
"I second that. So we're back to being utterly clueless."
"Personally I'm willing to try to get the earring back any--" Neil began to speak, but his sentence was cut off as he vanished from his seat.
The other jumped from their seats in shock. Darrell just blinked at where his brother had been. "Did I just miss something?"
"Umm…if you did, we all did." Bethany's voice was shaky.
Rosemary just shook her head, "Neil was our only chance of summoning anyone or anything. Now all we can do is wait and see what happens."
"That won't work! I'm not sitting here while--"
"You can't do anything else." Rosemary interrupted sharply. "The two of you are just like Luc - too human to do much of anything. I'd be willing to bet Nomolos summoned your brother for one reason or another. There's nothing we can do right now. And if I'm not mistaken, we have a very important guest arriving in just a few hours. I doubt any of us will sleep but we should try."
"Forget it. I lost Sheridan, and now my brother vanished mid sentence and you want me to sleep? To hell with that. Goddamn! I hate this." Spinning on his heel, Darrell stalked angrily from the kitchen. "If we can't do anything about Neil - which I refuse to believe - then I'm going to get answers of some sort from someone."
Storming up the stairs and down the long upstairs hallway, Darrell barged into the massive suite that was reserved for his right hand man. In the center of a large feather bed lay Luc, slowly sitting up at the sound of a visitor. "Darrell."
Darrell stopped at the foot of the bed, "Tell me what's going on with you and your son. Hell, your entire family."
"Why should I tell you anything? I've already lost the one thing that mattered to me, you can't do worse." Luc's voice was cold, flat.
Darrell's face paled, he looked vaguely ill. "You…you're not even talking about your son, are you? I…"
"You what?" Luc rose to his feet, blue eyes staring at Darrell briefly before sliding disinterestedly away. "No, I'm not talking about Sheridan. I'm talking about the Star. Without it the Carnelian is useless. I need both to reclaim my glory."
"You…" Darrell clenched and unclenched his fists. "I thought you were a friend…a part of the family…but you never cared did you? And Sheridan - what did he ever do to you? I just can't believe any of this…" His arms shifted to grip the backboard, knuckles white with the force of his hold. "So what have you been, all these years? Just one massive joke?"
"You DeMarius' have always had it too easy. Ornias' death might have been upsetting to him, but I assure you no one in the line suffered. One spoiled brat after another, right down to you and your oh so charming siblings. I don't play lapdog because I like it, I do it because there was no other way to ever locate the Carnelian."
"But why! You, you - all you ever had to do was ask. To say! You know the three of us have always hated everything about our family!"
"You claim that, but when did you ever make an effort to be rid of it? You seem pretty cozy with all your wealth and prosperity, more than happy with the prospect of becoming even wealthier by joining leagues with the Lords. So don't tell me that you hate your family. Besides, angels do not cooperate with demons. The point was to take the stone and get rid of Ornias and his kin, not cooperate with them."
"Get rid of…" Darrell gripped the backboard of the bed even harder, willing himself not to lunge for the other man and beat him senseless. Voice slow and carefully steady, he continued to speak, "Fine. But tell me why you care so little for your son. Sheridan's a good kid."
"He's weak, and he professes to hate the DeMarius family even more than the three of you do. He's done nothing to deserve being told our family secret. Even my wife thought our son lacking strength. I'm the one that worked my entire life to find that stone, to earn the right to wear the Star."
Darrell started to laugh, bitterness lacing the amusement. "Except you can't! You're just like me - too human to handle it. Even if I wanted, I could never be a demon. And as much as you want to be an Angel, you will never be one! You're a human until the day you die."
"To hell with you!" Luc's fists clenched at his side, but he still did not move from the side of the bed. "I was on the right track until that idiot Bethany botched a stupid summoning and my idiot son lost my Star."
"Get out." Darrell shoved away from the bed, willing himself to turn away. "I'll see you're well situated, but if you ever come near Sheridan or the DeMarius again I will kill you." Stalking from the room, he pulled the door shut sharply behind him. He took several shaky breaths, his hand pressed to his forehead as if trying to ward off a headache.
"You didn't hit him. I'm impressed."
He looked up at the sound of his sister's quiet voice, "I wanted to. But I tangled enough with Neil growing up to know better."
"Well I'm glad the two of you learned something." Bethany moved forward to give her brother a hug, relaxing slightly when he returned it. "We'll get them both back, stop worrying so much. Tomorrow morning you'll be playing nice with Xavier Lord and shooting Neil "behave or I'll kill you" glances when Lord isn’t looking.
"From the way Neil was talking about this Kasimir, I may not have to threaten him into behaving." Pulling away, Darrell ran a hand over his face. "Of course, now it occurs to me that having thrown Luc out, I don't know what to do about Sheridan. I don't want him to go…assuming we get him back."
"We'll get him back!" Bethany snapped, "Pessimism doesn't help at all. Even now Rose is looking through those ridiculous books of ours for some sort of solution. So just be more positive, okay?"
"Yes, mother. I'm sorry - chalk it up to stress."
"I guess that makes sense. How about some more coffee and a really early breakfast? I'm sure the three of us can figure out something after we've had a bit of rest and some food."
"Coffee sounds good."
"Urgh…" Neil shook his head, silently ordering his head to stop spinning, "What in the world…" Gradually his eyes cleared, and he found himself looking into a very familiar face. "Kasimir!" Shock drove him to throw his arms around the frowning genie, pulling him into a tight embrace. "I thought you were gone! What are you doing here?"
Kasimir gently shoved the man back, his dark cheeks red. "It's not why I'm here, idiot. It's why you're here. Try asking that."
"Huh? Oh. Right." Neil flushed in embarrassment and looked away, taking in his surroundings. They were in a large bedroom, the furnishings of dark brown wood and covered in midnight blue fabrics. The bed was closed off by long, heavy curtains and took up the middle of the room, raised on a dais to make it look even larger. Weak light poured in from high skylights and several small candelabra. A wide set of double doors took up the wall opposite the bed, and to Neil they seemed to be firmly and securely shut. They stood near the bed, just out of the line of site of the doorway. "What's going on anyway…Sheridan! Are you okay?" Dropping to his knees, Neil looked anxiously over the blonde man he'd finally noticed sitting tiredly on the floor. You have the earring! Where's the demon?"
"Someone needs to calm down," Kasimir said in a dry voice.
Neil jerked his head up, "Someone need to tell me just what the hell is going on here."
"Not much, really." Kasimir shrugged.
"That's so informative. Clearly you're back to your normal, obnoxious, stubborn self. I guess that's a good thing." He turned his attention back to Sheridan, "Are you okay? Sheridan?"
Sheridan waved him off, slowly climbing to his own feet. "I'm…fine. Don't worry about it. It's my fault I'm in this fix anyway."
Neil looked abashed, "No, it's not. It's my fault - my family's fault anyway. I'm really sorry you got dragged into this Sheri-"
"Shut up both of you. Anymore apologizing and we'll miss our chance to get away."
"Yeah. Definitely back to normal. Mind telling me where that attitude problem of yours goes when Mr. Creepy walks in the room."
Kasimir hissed, standing nose to nose with the annoyed Neil, "You'll get a chance to find out if you keep asking stupid questions. Or did you not figure out that you're in the middle of Nomolos' palace? In his bedroom to be exact. We don't have time for your questions."
"Then try giving me some answers, how about? Instead of bitching like you always do."
A weak laugh sounded from beside them, "You two sound like a married couple. We're in the middle of a sorry nightmare and you're bickering about the dumbest things. Can we please get this show on the road? I’m tired of it. I don't want to be an angel; I don't want to be a demonic slave. I just want to go home." His laughter had turned into near sobbing.
Neil and Kasimir both stopped, immediately looking contrite. Neil shook his head, as if to clear it. "Just tell me what's going on. I can't do anything if I don't know what's going on. How in the world did you get Kasimir?
"Nomolos was right about being gone too long. We arrived here - but in the main courtyard - and pandemonium erupted. This whole thing is just - I don't know what, but it's something. Nomolos is off right now trying to restore order."
"And he just left you all alone? After that huge fuss he made about you?" Neil asked.
"No, he didn't 'just leave me alone.' He handed the earring and me to a servant, with instructions to put me here in his room and make sure I didn't go anywhere. At least it was something like that, because the servant hauled me here and locked me up. But they weren't speaking English, so he could have said anything."
"You're remarkably calm about all this."
Sheridan only looked more tired than ever, "Yeah well, the past several days have been interesting to say the least. It's starting to get normal. Besides, the minute I get back I'm going to go somewhere and pretend all of this never happened until I believe it."
"Try to hurry up the story telling. I would prefer to not be stuck here any longer than necessary. Better yet, let's do spells now, stories later. Hmm?"
"Who exactly is the servant and master here, brat?"
"You're neither, so stay out of it."
Neil glared. Kasimir glared back.
Sheridan glared at them both, "I'm the master right now, as odd as that sounds to my ears. But Kasimir is right; we need to hurry this up. Kasimir - do you think it's safe?"
The genie shrugged, "As safe as anything else. If things were urgent enough that he just handed you over to a servant, chances are he put the Star away as well. Whatever's going on, he didn't think you could help yet. Nothing to lose but our lives by trying, and it's better than servitude, right?"
"You're so optimistic it's inspiring." Neil's glare hadn't lessoned in heat.
"Hey, this was all my idea. If you don't like, we'll figure out something else."
"Shut up! You two can mock fight on a date later, but don't do it now! Kasimir - I wish I had the Star."
Kasimir's eyes flared briefly as he chanted a short spell. Seconds later the Star hovered in the air before them, the brilliant colors still muted by Nomolos' spell. "Quickly now, Neil."
"What?" Neil just stood in confusion.
Kasimir motioned impatiently, "Just listen to me. Nomolos said you're mostly demon. That means you can break the spell on this thing."
Nomolos stared at the diadem, then up at the intent genie. "Yeah, except that I don't know how. But maybe that's a minor detail."
"It is, actually. So shut up. Put your hands over it. Now.”
"All right!" Making a face, Neil put his hands over the dull diadem. He jumped slightly when Kasimir's hands covered his own.
The genie looked at him, "Just concentrate would you? On seeing it bright and sparkling?"
Neil cut him off, "I know this part. It's how we fixed the Carnelian."
Kasimir was incredulous, "You fixed it? How did you do that?"
Neil smirked, "No time for questions, we have to hurry."
"Shut up and concentrate." Kasimir didn't give him a chance to reply, beginning to murmur another spell beneath his breath.
Neil hissed as the spell began to work, slight pain running through his hands and fingers as he and Kasimir worked to break whatever spell Nomolos had cast. Gritting his teeth Neil focused as hard as he could, blocking out the increasing pain out as best he could.
With a sudden flare of light and one last wave of pain, the spell came to an abrupt end. A brief cry escaped Neil's throat at the last flash of pain, and he pulled his hands away when Kasimir moved his own. "What the hell was that?"
"You're a demon. He's an angel. The two don't generally mix, so of course it was going to hurt." Kasimir waved the once again shimmering diadem toward Sheridan, who had already lost most of his weakness and exhaustion.
"Just don't touch it, Sheridan."
The blonde man nodded, "I know. Believe me, I have no desire to be anything but a normal human again. So how do we do the next step?"
"I'm failing to see why you can't just wish the two of you out, instead of wishing me in."
Sheridan waved a hand to cut of Kasimir before another fight could start, "It only worked on you because Nomolos was right about you being so powerful. I don't know how to teleport, and Kasimir isn't powerful enough to overcome the preventative spells. We need Kasimir to get us home, but he has to be stronger. I'm the only one that can make him stronger, but we need you to do it."
"I'm really going to have to demand an explanation for this one."
Kasimir tensed suddenly, any arguments he'd been ready to start falling away to an awkward silence. Folding his arms protectively across his chest, he ducked his head and waited for Sheridan to speak.
Neil stared at the genie in befuddlement, but Sheridan began to speak before he could ask any questions. "Neil, what we want to do is change what Kasimir is bound to."
"Come again?" the red head asked.
"I mean he's bound to this earring." Sheridan flicked the black diamond hanging from his ear. "Do you know how all of this works? Never mind, we don't have time to explain. But - we're going to bind him to you instead, okay?"
"WHAT?"
"Shut up! Just take the earring, okay?" So saying, Sheridan removed the earring from his own ear. Kasimir vanished, leaving Neil and Sheridan alone.
Sheridan looked at Neil, expression serious. "When I tell you to, use your…demonic powers or whatever…to destroy that earring."
"No! That would kill him!"
"No, it won't. I know what to do, just trust me okay? I'm going to attach Kasimir to you, rather than to the earring. Being bound to a demon rather than an inanimate object will make him more powerful. But first I have to destroy the original vessel."
"New cake pan…never even thought…" Neil muttered to himself, though worry still clouded his features. He took a deep breath, "Okay. Tell me when - I think I can break it." Clutching the earring tightly in one fist, Neil concentrated on seeing the earring in pieces when Sheridan nodded to him. Recalling the reconstruction of the Carnelian, he focused on the opposite, willing the black diamond in his hand to shatter.
A small yelp echoed in the room when it worked, but Neil didn't have a chance to focus on the pain before he was flooded with a blinding white light. He felt a sort of tugging in his mind, like someone was shifting around the pieces in his head to clear space for more stuff. The strange sensation settled a moment later, leaving Neil with a pounding headache and a wave of all too familiar dizziness. The light slowly faded, revealing that once again three people occupied the bedroom.
Neil stared at Kasimir, who refused to look at him. But Sheridan immediately cut off any chance to ask questions, "Get us out of here, now!"
Shaking his head, completely lost, Neil never the less complied, "Kasimir, take us back to the mansion."
The three vanished.
Startled screams were all Neil heard as they reappeared in a familiar kitchen. Pressing a hand to his head to will away the lingering headache, he smirked weakly at the three sitting at the kitchen table. But his brother and the two women were already on their feet, crossing the kitchen toward the last three people they had expected to see. "You could have waited…to have breakfast…" He never got a chance to finish what he wanted to say as a familiar dizziness washed over him and he stumbled where he stood. "Kasi…" Falling unconscious, he didn't see the genie catch him.
Darrell paused with his hands on Sheridan's shoulders, expression a mixture of relief and annoyance. "He really needs to stop doing that. There's enough going on without his melodramatic fainting spells."
"He'll be okay in a few minutes." Kasimir said shortly. With Rosemary and Bethany's assistance he carefully laid Neil on the floor. He moved to stand, but remained sitting at Bethany's silent command to not move.
"Good, but remind me to beat him when he wakes up. Are you okay Sheridan?" The eldest DeMarius peered intently at the shorter man in front of him. "What happened? How did you get back? Where's that damned demon?"
"Where's my Star?" Luc snapped from the kitchen's hallway entrance.
In regards to my other stories, I'm working on it. Both Rainbow and Treasure are being stubborn and fighting with me. But I'm really, really hoping to have them up by Friday or Saturday.
*A small note - I already know about a hundred things I want to do to improve this story, so I'm not doing terribly much to it in regards to the last few chapters. I mean, I'm writing them in the same fashion as Nanowrimo - with little ediitng and all. Hopefully I can make a spanky new & improved version to maybe possibly sell one day. *keeps fingers crossed*
Feel better S!
Chapter Twenty-Three
"Whew! That's exhausting work." Rosemary pulled her hands away, swaying slightly back before Bethany reached out and grabbed her, pulling her forward into a loose embrace.
"You okay, Rose?" Bethany looked down at the top of her friend's head.
Rose looked up and smiled, then slowly pushed away and sat up. "Oh, I'm fine. It's just usually I use a variation of that spell to fix broken glasses and plates and stuff. This is the first time I've actually used it correctly. Kinda tiring is all."
The two brothers spared them only a glance, as with shaky hands Neil reached out to lift a rose shaped jewel from the floor. "It…it shouldn't be this easy…should it?"
"No, but like I said," Rosemary smirked, "He took us for stupid because he was so enthralled with Sheridan." She frowned at the thought of the missing gold haired boy, "Never in a million years would it have occurred to me that the Arden were nephilim…"
Four pairs of eyes turned to glare at the man standing more in the living room than in the hallway. Darrell rose to his feet and moved forward, but a catch at his hand stopped him. Bethany's soothing voice forced him to turn his head, "Not now, Darrell. We have more important matters. Getting this damned thing back is only part of the game."
Darrell glared darkly at the blond man lurking in the doorway, then jerked his hand away and turned back to rejoin the group on the floor. "What now then? I still have no idea what the hell is going on. I'm not going to beat the daylight out of you three - I'm just going to kill you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Neil made a face, "I'm not sure I know what's going, beyond the fact that a creepy ass demon ruined my ear and took away my genie and Sheridan, who apparently is an angel or something." He gazed down at the stone in his hands, eyes shimmering slightly.
"Sounds about right. But I want to know about this genie thing everyone keeps talking about. But later, we don't have time for discussions now." Darrell groaned.
Rosemary ran a hand through her hair, sighing heavily. "Now you're starting to move out of my territory. It's not that hard for a demon to "summon" something to him, though that isn't the right term for it. More like calling it to him, I guess. Like Nomolos did with the pieces before he made a show of destroying the Carnelian."
"What are you saying? We can just summon them back? Doesn’t that seem just a little too easy? Or is it just me?"
"That's just it - it is easy. When you know what you're doing. Like restoring the Carnelian - Nomolos took us for fools. Which you would've been if I hadn't been here." The last statement was made with a snicker and a wink, leading the two men to roll their eyes.
Neil was exasperated, "So how do we do that? And what's to keep the creep from coming back and killing us?"
"Got me."
Neil sent the woman a withering glance, "Thanks so much."
"Neil, calm down. Let's get your ear taken care, we can work out what to do." Bethany took her brother by the arm and dragged him in the direction of the kitchen. She didn't see the panic looked Neil sent the other two, who hurried after them.
"Beth, I'll look after his ear." Darrell wrapped an arm around his brother's shoulder and dragged him away from their sister, "Why don't you and Rose fix us some coffee?"
"But…"
Rose shook her head, "C'mon Beth, there's no way I can manage that evil looking machine you people call a coffee machine. Whatever happened to an on/off switch? That thing has like twelve buttons…" Rosemary dragged her friend away, leaving the brothers to tend to Neil's ear.
The brothers shared a sigh of relief, before Neil glared. "I can't believe you almost let her take care of me."
"Sorry, recent events have slowed my mental processes. Be quiet or I'll call Nurse Doom back over here."
Neil shuddered. "Okay, okay"
Silence stretched between the two brothers, Darrell cleaning and bandaging Neil's ear while the younger man watched the two women bicker cheerfully over what kind of coffee to make. Darrell softly cleared his throat, "So…what's with that guy you were with. Is he the friend Beth mentioned you might have?"
"Kasimir, you mean? Yeah, he's my friend…sort of…" Neil looked warily at his brother.
Darrell sighed, "Why not explain everything to me? Clearly there's something here that the three of you saw fit to leave me out of."
"It's not really his fault, Darrell." Bethany spoke up from the other side of the kitchen, where she and Rosemary were gathering mugs for the coffee. "We'd been trying to find Kasimir for ages. It was a…whim…that led us to give the earring to Neil. Honestly I had no idea everything would go so awry. Let us finish the coffee and then I'll explain everything."
"Fine," Darrell ran a hand through his hair. "But just know that you're all grounded. And no arguing."
"Never mind. You're not grounded. I’m going to kill you." From the end of the table Darrell glared at his siblings and Rosemary, hand tightening on his empty coffee cup.
"I knew he'd take this the wrong way." Bethany looked at her younger brother, who sat straight across from her."
Neil nodded, his expression serious. "There's just no talking to him about these things."
"Oh shut up the both of you." Darrell rose to his feet, glaring at his siblings. "I'm trying to run a business and the lot of you are summoning demons and trying to find magic stones right under my nose."
"You make it sound like we make a habit of it. We've only done it once."
"Yes. But once was enough to cause a loss of faith in my trusted assistant. Once was enough for Neil to make and lose a friend. And once was enough to lose Sheridan to something he had nothing to do with."
"Darrell, we already feel bad enough. Really." Rosemary glared at him, "You're not helping."
For a moment the eldest DeMarius looked like he wanted to continue being angry, but after a moment he settled on another tired sigh, "True enough. Just - no more summoning demons, okay? You really should have just - never mind. You're right. This isn’t helping. You're all still grounded though."
Bethany rolled her eyes, "So what's the plan then? We've had our coffee, we've been grounded, now we just need to rescue Neil & Kasimir."
"Couldn't we just, you know, summon or call or whatever the earring, and then use Kasimir to wish Sheridan back?" Darrell asked.
"I doubt it. Again with the too easy thing. I know, I know," Neil held up his hands, "It's easy because he doesn't expect it. But surely he's not that careless. He has lived a long time."
"Hmmm…." Rosemary tapped her fingers on the countertop, lost in thought. "I don't know. I just don't. It seems like he's got us well and truly fixed. We can try to summon him again but…I don't think we'd get off so lightly a second time. Twice now an attempt to summon him has failed. I don't want to see the results of number three."
"I second that. So we're back to being utterly clueless."
"Personally I'm willing to try to get the earring back any--" Neil began to speak, but his sentence was cut off as he vanished from his seat.
The other jumped from their seats in shock. Darrell just blinked at where his brother had been. "Did I just miss something?"
"Umm…if you did, we all did." Bethany's voice was shaky.
Rosemary just shook her head, "Neil was our only chance of summoning anyone or anything. Now all we can do is wait and see what happens."
"That won't work! I'm not sitting here while--"
"You can't do anything else." Rosemary interrupted sharply. "The two of you are just like Luc - too human to do much of anything. I'd be willing to bet Nomolos summoned your brother for one reason or another. There's nothing we can do right now. And if I'm not mistaken, we have a very important guest arriving in just a few hours. I doubt any of us will sleep but we should try."
"Forget it. I lost Sheridan, and now my brother vanished mid sentence and you want me to sleep? To hell with that. Goddamn! I hate this." Spinning on his heel, Darrell stalked angrily from the kitchen. "If we can't do anything about Neil - which I refuse to believe - then I'm going to get answers of some sort from someone."
Storming up the stairs and down the long upstairs hallway, Darrell barged into the massive suite that was reserved for his right hand man. In the center of a large feather bed lay Luc, slowly sitting up at the sound of a visitor. "Darrell."
Darrell stopped at the foot of the bed, "Tell me what's going on with you and your son. Hell, your entire family."
"Why should I tell you anything? I've already lost the one thing that mattered to me, you can't do worse." Luc's voice was cold, flat.
Darrell's face paled, he looked vaguely ill. "You…you're not even talking about your son, are you? I…"
"You what?" Luc rose to his feet, blue eyes staring at Darrell briefly before sliding disinterestedly away. "No, I'm not talking about Sheridan. I'm talking about the Star. Without it the Carnelian is useless. I need both to reclaim my glory."
"You…" Darrell clenched and unclenched his fists. "I thought you were a friend…a part of the family…but you never cared did you? And Sheridan - what did he ever do to you? I just can't believe any of this…" His arms shifted to grip the backboard, knuckles white with the force of his hold. "So what have you been, all these years? Just one massive joke?"
"You DeMarius' have always had it too easy. Ornias' death might have been upsetting to him, but I assure you no one in the line suffered. One spoiled brat after another, right down to you and your oh so charming siblings. I don't play lapdog because I like it, I do it because there was no other way to ever locate the Carnelian."
"But why! You, you - all you ever had to do was ask. To say! You know the three of us have always hated everything about our family!"
"You claim that, but when did you ever make an effort to be rid of it? You seem pretty cozy with all your wealth and prosperity, more than happy with the prospect of becoming even wealthier by joining leagues with the Lords. So don't tell me that you hate your family. Besides, angels do not cooperate with demons. The point was to take the stone and get rid of Ornias and his kin, not cooperate with them."
"Get rid of…" Darrell gripped the backboard of the bed even harder, willing himself not to lunge for the other man and beat him senseless. Voice slow and carefully steady, he continued to speak, "Fine. But tell me why you care so little for your son. Sheridan's a good kid."
"He's weak, and he professes to hate the DeMarius family even more than the three of you do. He's done nothing to deserve being told our family secret. Even my wife thought our son lacking strength. I'm the one that worked my entire life to find that stone, to earn the right to wear the Star."
Darrell started to laugh, bitterness lacing the amusement. "Except you can't! You're just like me - too human to handle it. Even if I wanted, I could never be a demon. And as much as you want to be an Angel, you will never be one! You're a human until the day you die."
"To hell with you!" Luc's fists clenched at his side, but he still did not move from the side of the bed. "I was on the right track until that idiot Bethany botched a stupid summoning and my idiot son lost my Star."
"Get out." Darrell shoved away from the bed, willing himself to turn away. "I'll see you're well situated, but if you ever come near Sheridan or the DeMarius again I will kill you." Stalking from the room, he pulled the door shut sharply behind him. He took several shaky breaths, his hand pressed to his forehead as if trying to ward off a headache.
"You didn't hit him. I'm impressed."
He looked up at the sound of his sister's quiet voice, "I wanted to. But I tangled enough with Neil growing up to know better."
"Well I'm glad the two of you learned something." Bethany moved forward to give her brother a hug, relaxing slightly when he returned it. "We'll get them both back, stop worrying so much. Tomorrow morning you'll be playing nice with Xavier Lord and shooting Neil "behave or I'll kill you" glances when Lord isn’t looking.
"From the way Neil was talking about this Kasimir, I may not have to threaten him into behaving." Pulling away, Darrell ran a hand over his face. "Of course, now it occurs to me that having thrown Luc out, I don't know what to do about Sheridan. I don't want him to go…assuming we get him back."
"We'll get him back!" Bethany snapped, "Pessimism doesn't help at all. Even now Rose is looking through those ridiculous books of ours for some sort of solution. So just be more positive, okay?"
"Yes, mother. I'm sorry - chalk it up to stress."
"I guess that makes sense. How about some more coffee and a really early breakfast? I'm sure the three of us can figure out something after we've had a bit of rest and some food."
"Coffee sounds good."
Chapter Twenty-Four
"Urgh…" Neil shook his head, silently ordering his head to stop spinning, "What in the world…" Gradually his eyes cleared, and he found himself looking into a very familiar face. "Kasimir!" Shock drove him to throw his arms around the frowning genie, pulling him into a tight embrace. "I thought you were gone! What are you doing here?"
Kasimir gently shoved the man back, his dark cheeks red. "It's not why I'm here, idiot. It's why you're here. Try asking that."
"Huh? Oh. Right." Neil flushed in embarrassment and looked away, taking in his surroundings. They were in a large bedroom, the furnishings of dark brown wood and covered in midnight blue fabrics. The bed was closed off by long, heavy curtains and took up the middle of the room, raised on a dais to make it look even larger. Weak light poured in from high skylights and several small candelabra. A wide set of double doors took up the wall opposite the bed, and to Neil they seemed to be firmly and securely shut. They stood near the bed, just out of the line of site of the doorway. "What's going on anyway…Sheridan! Are you okay?" Dropping to his knees, Neil looked anxiously over the blonde man he'd finally noticed sitting tiredly on the floor. You have the earring! Where's the demon?"
"Someone needs to calm down," Kasimir said in a dry voice.
Neil jerked his head up, "Someone need to tell me just what the hell is going on here."
"Not much, really." Kasimir shrugged.
"That's so informative. Clearly you're back to your normal, obnoxious, stubborn self. I guess that's a good thing." He turned his attention back to Sheridan, "Are you okay? Sheridan?"
Sheridan waved him off, slowly climbing to his own feet. "I'm…fine. Don't worry about it. It's my fault I'm in this fix anyway."
Neil looked abashed, "No, it's not. It's my fault - my family's fault anyway. I'm really sorry you got dragged into this Sheri-"
"Shut up both of you. Anymore apologizing and we'll miss our chance to get away."
"Yeah. Definitely back to normal. Mind telling me where that attitude problem of yours goes when Mr. Creepy walks in the room."
Kasimir hissed, standing nose to nose with the annoyed Neil, "You'll get a chance to find out if you keep asking stupid questions. Or did you not figure out that you're in the middle of Nomolos' palace? In his bedroom to be exact. We don't have time for your questions."
"Then try giving me some answers, how about? Instead of bitching like you always do."
A weak laugh sounded from beside them, "You two sound like a married couple. We're in the middle of a sorry nightmare and you're bickering about the dumbest things. Can we please get this show on the road? I’m tired of it. I don't want to be an angel; I don't want to be a demonic slave. I just want to go home." His laughter had turned into near sobbing.
Neil and Kasimir both stopped, immediately looking contrite. Neil shook his head, as if to clear it. "Just tell me what's going on. I can't do anything if I don't know what's going on. How in the world did you get Kasimir?
"Nomolos was right about being gone too long. We arrived here - but in the main courtyard - and pandemonium erupted. This whole thing is just - I don't know what, but it's something. Nomolos is off right now trying to restore order."
"And he just left you all alone? After that huge fuss he made about you?" Neil asked.
"No, he didn't 'just leave me alone.' He handed the earring and me to a servant, with instructions to put me here in his room and make sure I didn't go anywhere. At least it was something like that, because the servant hauled me here and locked me up. But they weren't speaking English, so he could have said anything."
"You're remarkably calm about all this."
Sheridan only looked more tired than ever, "Yeah well, the past several days have been interesting to say the least. It's starting to get normal. Besides, the minute I get back I'm going to go somewhere and pretend all of this never happened until I believe it."
"Try to hurry up the story telling. I would prefer to not be stuck here any longer than necessary. Better yet, let's do spells now, stories later. Hmm?"
"Who exactly is the servant and master here, brat?"
"You're neither, so stay out of it."
Neil glared. Kasimir glared back.
Sheridan glared at them both, "I'm the master right now, as odd as that sounds to my ears. But Kasimir is right; we need to hurry this up. Kasimir - do you think it's safe?"
The genie shrugged, "As safe as anything else. If things were urgent enough that he just handed you over to a servant, chances are he put the Star away as well. Whatever's going on, he didn't think you could help yet. Nothing to lose but our lives by trying, and it's better than servitude, right?"
"You're so optimistic it's inspiring." Neil's glare hadn't lessoned in heat.
"Hey, this was all my idea. If you don't like, we'll figure out something else."
"Shut up! You two can mock fight on a date later, but don't do it now! Kasimir - I wish I had the Star."
Kasimir's eyes flared briefly as he chanted a short spell. Seconds later the Star hovered in the air before them, the brilliant colors still muted by Nomolos' spell. "Quickly now, Neil."
"What?" Neil just stood in confusion.
Kasimir motioned impatiently, "Just listen to me. Nomolos said you're mostly demon. That means you can break the spell on this thing."
Nomolos stared at the diadem, then up at the intent genie. "Yeah, except that I don't know how. But maybe that's a minor detail."
"It is, actually. So shut up. Put your hands over it. Now.”
"All right!" Making a face, Neil put his hands over the dull diadem. He jumped slightly when Kasimir's hands covered his own.
The genie looked at him, "Just concentrate would you? On seeing it bright and sparkling?"
Neil cut him off, "I know this part. It's how we fixed the Carnelian."
Kasimir was incredulous, "You fixed it? How did you do that?"
Neil smirked, "No time for questions, we have to hurry."
"Shut up and concentrate." Kasimir didn't give him a chance to reply, beginning to murmur another spell beneath his breath.
Neil hissed as the spell began to work, slight pain running through his hands and fingers as he and Kasimir worked to break whatever spell Nomolos had cast. Gritting his teeth Neil focused as hard as he could, blocking out the increasing pain out as best he could.
With a sudden flare of light and one last wave of pain, the spell came to an abrupt end. A brief cry escaped Neil's throat at the last flash of pain, and he pulled his hands away when Kasimir moved his own. "What the hell was that?"
"You're a demon. He's an angel. The two don't generally mix, so of course it was going to hurt." Kasimir waved the once again shimmering diadem toward Sheridan, who had already lost most of his weakness and exhaustion.
"Just don't touch it, Sheridan."
The blonde man nodded, "I know. Believe me, I have no desire to be anything but a normal human again. So how do we do the next step?"
"I'm failing to see why you can't just wish the two of you out, instead of wishing me in."
Sheridan waved a hand to cut of Kasimir before another fight could start, "It only worked on you because Nomolos was right about you being so powerful. I don't know how to teleport, and Kasimir isn't powerful enough to overcome the preventative spells. We need Kasimir to get us home, but he has to be stronger. I'm the only one that can make him stronger, but we need you to do it."
"I'm really going to have to demand an explanation for this one."
Kasimir tensed suddenly, any arguments he'd been ready to start falling away to an awkward silence. Folding his arms protectively across his chest, he ducked his head and waited for Sheridan to speak.
Neil stared at the genie in befuddlement, but Sheridan began to speak before he could ask any questions. "Neil, what we want to do is change what Kasimir is bound to."
"Come again?" the red head asked.
"I mean he's bound to this earring." Sheridan flicked the black diamond hanging from his ear. "Do you know how all of this works? Never mind, we don't have time to explain. But - we're going to bind him to you instead, okay?"
"WHAT?"
"Shut up! Just take the earring, okay?" So saying, Sheridan removed the earring from his own ear. Kasimir vanished, leaving Neil and Sheridan alone.
Sheridan looked at Neil, expression serious. "When I tell you to, use your…demonic powers or whatever…to destroy that earring."
"No! That would kill him!"
"No, it won't. I know what to do, just trust me okay? I'm going to attach Kasimir to you, rather than to the earring. Being bound to a demon rather than an inanimate object will make him more powerful. But first I have to destroy the original vessel."
"New cake pan…never even thought…" Neil muttered to himself, though worry still clouded his features. He took a deep breath, "Okay. Tell me when - I think I can break it." Clutching the earring tightly in one fist, Neil concentrated on seeing the earring in pieces when Sheridan nodded to him. Recalling the reconstruction of the Carnelian, he focused on the opposite, willing the black diamond in his hand to shatter.
A small yelp echoed in the room when it worked, but Neil didn't have a chance to focus on the pain before he was flooded with a blinding white light. He felt a sort of tugging in his mind, like someone was shifting around the pieces in his head to clear space for more stuff. The strange sensation settled a moment later, leaving Neil with a pounding headache and a wave of all too familiar dizziness. The light slowly faded, revealing that once again three people occupied the bedroom.
Neil stared at Kasimir, who refused to look at him. But Sheridan immediately cut off any chance to ask questions, "Get us out of here, now!"
Shaking his head, completely lost, Neil never the less complied, "Kasimir, take us back to the mansion."
The three vanished.
Startled screams were all Neil heard as they reappeared in a familiar kitchen. Pressing a hand to his head to will away the lingering headache, he smirked weakly at the three sitting at the kitchen table. But his brother and the two women were already on their feet, crossing the kitchen toward the last three people they had expected to see. "You could have waited…to have breakfast…" He never got a chance to finish what he wanted to say as a familiar dizziness washed over him and he stumbled where he stood. "Kasi…" Falling unconscious, he didn't see the genie catch him.
Darrell paused with his hands on Sheridan's shoulders, expression a mixture of relief and annoyance. "He really needs to stop doing that. There's enough going on without his melodramatic fainting spells."
"He'll be okay in a few minutes." Kasimir said shortly. With Rosemary and Bethany's assistance he carefully laid Neil on the floor. He moved to stand, but remained sitting at Bethany's silent command to not move.
"Good, but remind me to beat him when he wakes up. Are you okay Sheridan?" The eldest DeMarius peered intently at the shorter man in front of him. "What happened? How did you get back? Where's that damned demon?"
"Where's my Star?" Luc snapped from the kitchen's hallway entrance.
In regards to my other stories, I'm working on it. Both Rainbow and Treasure are being stubborn and fighting with me. But I'm really, really hoping to have them up by Friday or Saturday.
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Date: 2004-02-04 04:19 pm (UTC)As for Rainbow and Treasure (my other two faves) take your time. Granted I'm gettin a bit impatient and I want more ^_^ but I can wait if you need planin time.
God I love your stories. If you ever print any of them you better tell me so I can buy two copies. One to read and one to beg you to sign. ^___^
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Date: 2004-02-04 04:23 pm (UTC)hee. You always fluster me - I'm so happy you liked! I still think the whole story needs revamped, but I'm glad the general idea is still solid.
I am sorry it's taking so long. I think by now I feel suitably guilty that I might actually get something done.
*meep* It's a good thing I've got people that don't like my stories, otherwise comments like this would have me walking on air 24/7. *hugs* you're too awesome. And I'm totally going to work ten times harder on getting stuff printed now.
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Date: 2004-02-04 11:08 pm (UTC)Really? Yayness! But really I'd rather you do it on your time that way you don't feel like you have to finish it and then end up rushing through.
::hugs back:: Yay printed-ness!