leavin’ his little shindig. If he doesn’t screw around, then we should have it within the hour.”
“What’ll you do once you get it?” I queried, though I was pretty sure I already knew the answer.
“Check his work schedule against the presumed time of the abduction,” he detailed. “Plus, see if anything matches up with the info from the Seattle PD. If he’s got half a brain though, I’m sure he’s usin’ an alias.”
“And if it looks like he’s the one?” I pressed.
“Then we get the warrant and go kick his fuckin’ door down.”
“I’m going with you,” I declared flatly.
“Wait a minute, I don’t know about that…”
Coming quickly up from the couch, Felicity joined his protest, “What do you mean you’re going with him?”
“I mean exactly what I said. I’m going along.”
Our two guests fidgeted nervously in their seats but remained silent. If either of them had an opinion on the subject, it appeared that it wasn’t going to be voiced in the immediate future. Having anticipated the objection, I steadfastly held Ben’s gaze and allowed myself to relax. I knew it was going to take more than just words to convince him.
“Listen, Row,” Ben put on his best sympathetic cop voice and began his explanation. “I realize you’ve been involved in this thing almost from the beginning, and without you, I don’t know if we’d have gotten as far as we have-at least not this fast-but, servin’ a warrant is a lot different than goin’ over a crime scene. Besides, I still hafta figure out how I’m gonna explain you to the Feebs.”
“Listen to Ben, Rowan,” Felicity agreed. “It’s too dangerous.”
“She’s right man,” he added. “What if this asshole has a gun or somethin’? I don’t need to worry about you gettin’ hurt.”
While the two of them were pleading their case, I was focusing my internal energies. My unwavering stare never left Ben’s own, and as they remained locked, I set mystical wheels into motion.
“I don’t need to worry about you either,” I told him in a tranquil, even voice.
“Whaddaya mean?” Ben blinked and looked over at my wife with a questioning glance. “What’s he talkin’ about, Felicity?” His gaze almost immediately returned to mine, drawn back by an unseen force. “It’s my job. I’m trained for it, you ain’t.”
“You’re trained to deal with normal criminals,” I maintained in the same even tone. “This one definitely isn’t normal. We still don’t know what he’s capable of.”
“We know he’s capable of torturin’ and killin’ four women-maybe five if you count Seattle. Plus kidnapping.” He shot back, but his eyes stayed locked with mine. “So I think we pretty much have the bases covered there.”
“That’s not what I mean, Ben. I’m talking about The Craft, or even more likely, ritual magick. He hasn’t played any of those cards yet. Not for real.”
I felt Felicity ease away from me as she realized what I was doing. To her, and anyone in the room other than Ben Storm for that matter, my speech probably sounded like a dull monotone. To my protesting friend, nothing would have changed. In his mind, we were simply carrying on a conversation through which he would explain to me the reasons I wouldn’t be joining him. He had no idea that in a way, he was being hypnotized. He was experiencing the true meaning of being bewitched.
“That stuff again?” he asked. “Look, you’ve made a believer outta me with some of this… You know, like the dreams and all that, but gimme a break. What’s he gonna do? Shoot fire out of his eyes or somethin’?” He chuckled lightly. “Even better, turn us all into frogs and make his getaway? Come on Rowan, get serious…”
“I never said anything like that,” I returned. “And I am serious.”
“What then?” he demanded. “What’s he gonna do?”
“I can’t say for sure, but I know there are any number of things that he might be able to do. I doubt you’d believe me if I told you what they were.”
We had been down this path before. I knew for a fact he wouldn’t believe me. The only way I was going to prove my point was with a demonstration, and as much as I hated to do so, that was exactly what I had been preparing. Through the practiced use of both my voice and my eyes, in the past few moments I had set the stage. I had transfixed him on an ethereal level. Within the next few seconds, I would use the power of suggestion coupled with just a dash of the supernatural to put on the show.
“Yeah, I thought so. Look, I appreciate your concern and all, but I gotta draw the line somewhere. Since I’m the one with the badge, I’m goin’ and you’re stayin’.”
Ben moved past me as he made the declaration. I waited until he reached the front door before I released the compact ball of energy I had formed inside my mind. It sailed invisibly along a crackling ethereal arc and enveloped my friend with a light aura of static. Its earthly manifestation came with a familiar electric snap when he reached for the doorknob. The only thing that remained for me to do was make a suggestion.
“If that’s the way you feel, okay,” I called after him. “By the way, what’s that crawling on your arm?”
Ben looked down at his sleeve absently, and his eyes suddenly grew wide in horror. His face began to pale as he slapped at his arm and let out a surprised yelp. The rest of us in the room saw nothing. Only I knew what he was witnessing, and that was only because I had been the one to create the illusion. An illusion that took advantage of my friend’s irrational fear of spiders and was done in the name of making my point.
“Jeezus!” he shouted aloud as he whipped about, quickly slipping himself out of his sport coat and shaking it violently. “Holy fuckin’ shit! How the hell did that goddamn thing get on me?!”
“Calm down, Ben,” Felicity told him. “It’s gone.”
She was correct. In truth, it had never actually been there. What he had seen had only been in his head, and that spectre could last no more than a few brief seconds. It was definitely gone.
“Whaddaya mean gone?” he shouted, still slapping his jacket against the door. “Did you see that fuckin’ thing? It was huge! It was a goddamn tarantula!”
“She’s right, Ben, it was never even there,” I expounded. “It was just a glamour.”
“There’s nothin’ glamorous about it!” he shot back, still visibly shaken but starting to calm. “It’s a friggin’ spider.”
“No, Ben,” Felicity corrected, “a glamour, not glamorous. It was an illusion. A phantom image. All courtesy of your best friend here.”
“Whoa, cool,” R.J.’s voice came from behind us, followed by Cally sternly shushing him.
“You mean like it was a spell or somethin’?” he asked as he gingerly inspected his jacket, holding it at arms length.
“You could call it something like that,” I explained. “It’s really just some basic hypnosis, the power of suggestion, and admittedly a little psychic energy thrown in for good measure. Sorry, but I figured you’d be a little more receptive to the idea if you experienced it first hand.”
“You’re tryin’ to tell me that this asshole might be able to do somethin’ like that?” He was carefully slipping his sport coat back onto his large frame, still appearing somewhat uneasy and keeping an eye out for the imagined spider.
“Maybe. Maybe not. I just don’t know.”
“So what if he can? What’re you gonna do about it?” he queried.
“Catch it before it happens. Try to block it. Warn you,” I outlined. “I don’t know. In any event, I’ll be much better prepared to recognize a glamour than you will.”
“Well, as long as I ignore spiders crawling on me, I should be okay,” he protested.
“He would most likely do something worse. Remember, I just scared the hell out of you, and I’m your best friend. Like I said, I used only a small”-I laid heavy emphasis on the word small-“amount of the psychic energy I could muster. I doubt he’ll be anywhere near as nice.”
“Is he shittin’ me?” Ben asked Felicity seriously.
“As much as I wish he was,” she frowned, “no. He’s telling you the truth.”
“Lovely. You know I oughta kick your ass for that stunt,” Ben told me with a slight grin then glanced back to my wife as if for approval.
“Hey, it’s between you two.” She held up her hands in a mock leave-me-out-of-it gesture and then suddenly grew earnest. “Do me a favor, Ben. If you’re going to take him with you, this time don’t bring him home with any stitches.”
