*This is the eighth Part of Maggie’s Point of View of the latest scheme from Luna and Maggie.

If you’re trying to keep track, the first part was Newfound Depths by Luna,

The Second was Unusual Depths by Maggie.

The Third was Newfound Desires by Luna.

The Fourth was Unusual Desires by Maggie.

The fifth was Newfound Strength by Luna.

The sixth was Unusual Strength by Maggie.

The seventh was Newfound Determination by Luna.

The eighth was Unusual Determination by Maggie.

The ninth was Newfound Dangers by Luna

The tenth was Unusual Dangers by Maggie

The eleventh was Newfound Realities by Luna

The twelfth was Unusual Realities by Maggie

The thirteenth was Newfound Existence by Luna

The fourteenth was Unusual Existence by Maggie

The Fifteenth was Newfound Enemies by Luna.

The Sixteenth was Unusual Enemies by Maggie

The Seventeenth was Newfound Adversaries by Luna.

Now comes Unusual Adversaries from this corner…notice a theme?

For anyone that is trying to catch up late in the game, all of the chapters can be found in the files section in the folder “Newfound and Unusual Series.”

My chapters can also be found on my website under “fiction” then “Unusual Series.” There is a bunch of background role-play stories that explain a lot of the past posted there too though I am still constantly updating it. The site is at: www.oocities.org/margaret_mary69 Oh there is a link to Luna’s sections from the Unusual Series as well as a link to her homepage from my Fiction page.

Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton and the Berkley Publishing Group do not authorize this author. All characters that you recognize belong to Laurell K. Hamilton except for the ones created by the people in this group. This is solely for entertainment purposes.

Rating: PG-13 to be safe for some language

Thanks: To Luna for being an awesome beta, and great friend! *hugs* Also thanks to anyone out there that takes the time to read my humble efforts. I appreciate it!

I hope you’re all enjoying reading this as much as we are writing it.

Hugs!
Maggie

Unusual Adversaries

We all convened in the entertainment room in front of Lija’s giant screen TV. I usually loved to sit in here watching movies on the floor to ceiling screen, curled up on the couch with popcorn and plenty of Pepsi in case Luna came wandering in. It was homey, reassuring. Now, I felt anything but comfortable and popcorn was the furthest thing from my mind. The fact that I was the star of tonight’s main feature on the big screen might have had something do with that fact.

Funny that. I was so not used to being the center of attention and I was a bit worried about how ridiculous I was going to look. I fidgeted in my seat, trying to get more comfortable. Raven, seated at my right, turned to smile at me reassuringly. Noah had curled up against me on my left and reached down to squeeze my hand. I drew comfort from the simple friendly gesture of my ex, allowing his calmness to become my own.

I looked up to see Joshua watching me expectantly. I nodded my head. He put the tape in the VCR, grabbed the remote and came over to sit on the floor in front of Noah and me. Most of the others were curled up near by, though Tara was sitting a bit closer to the screen, with a notepad in hand. Luna had mentioned before that she had a good eye for detail so I asked her to take notes on anything worth remembering that she noticed as we viewed the tape. It would save us from having to go back and re-watch it to catch things. Besides, I think it made her feel useful.

Noah reached down with his free hand and grabbed the remote from Josh. “It’s just a recording Doll,” He whispered in my ear as I watched the screen light up showing the interior of my home.

Jean Claude’s men apparently had arrived at the house before I had. The beginning of the tape was rather mundane. It was nothing more than a tour of the place. You could occasionally see Jamil walk in front of the camera along with a few others I didn’t recognize. They were searching our house. I wasn’t sure for what. They should have known I wasn’t there.

I could feel my blood pressure rising as the tape went on. What they hell were they looking for? Did they think there was some secret lab I had hidden in the place doing testing, or were they looking for evidence of how I had been changed? I became increasingly uncomfortable as another thought occurred to me. What if they were trying to document the layout of the house for a possible later siege, perhaps one when Luna and Elijah were home.

Noah apparently sensing my growing fear reached over and pulled me into his lap, wrapping his arms around me. ‘”Just watch what happens. It’ll be okay.” He whispered though I was fairly sure everyone except Raven could hear him.

I snuggled into his embrace. I didn’t know if it was my fear, Elijah being so far away, Luna being lost, or the bit of beast she had left in me, but I desperately needed the contact of pard. Perhaps it was a little bit of all of it rolled into one. At any rate Josh scooted up on the couch between us and Raven, letting me rest my legs on his knees and even a few of the others moved closer so they were in touching distance of me.

The voices on the tape got a bit louder so I turned back to the screen, wondering what the commotion was. They had found the spare bedroom along with what was left of Luna’s ritual. There was some mumbling disagreement and two of the men left the room.

Jamil’s voice was clear on the tape, “Damn, there is more going on than we thought. If she shows up, let’s see what she’s up to before we make our move.” He pointed at the cameraman. “Byron, be sure to get good shots on this whole room. We’ll let the experts sort out which of these symbols are important.” He turned to leave the room, “I’m going to go help the others search the rest of the bedrooms.”

As Byron apparently moved around the room, you could see what Luna had left of the ritual, the burnt candles, and the blood. A car could be faintly heard pulling up the drive before the bedroom was briefly bathed in light. The camera jerked up as Jamil came running into the room. “She’s here. Hide.” He pointed behind Byron who turned with the camera still rolling to view a pair of sliding closet doors, which he walked towards. It was dark and bare inside. The front door being opened downstairs could be heard followed by brief static as he apparently turned the camera off.

There was an audible click as the camera was apparently turned back on. The picture was fuzzy at first then became clearer. It showed me setting Teddy in the chair in the far corner of the spare room then moving to redraw the smudged lines of the circle. My photographer had a pretty good shot of the scene from his vantage point.

Byron, I think he was one of Jean Claude’s vamps. No wonder I didn’t hear him in the room. It’s not like he had to breath. I shook my head as I focused back on the scene unfolding before me. I was walking around the circle, calling the corners. As I called the last corner there was a loud snap as the center of the circle became much lighter.

There was some sort of foggy haze that was encroaching from the edges of the circle towards the center. What caught my eye about it though was that it seemed to be densest near the ceiling. It was thinner, as if it hasn’t filled in yet near the floor. That didn’t follow any laws of physics I was familiar with and I was a pretty good scientist. What was that stuff? I gasped as I remembered what was going on when that haze appeared. Raven turned to look at me expectantly but I shook my head and went back to watching the tape.

The camera moved from me to the doorway. Jamil was pulling someone out of the room. It appeared to be another vamp but I didn’t know his name. The man seemed to be struggling a bit as if he was listening to another voice. Jamil pulled him out and handed him off to another pair of hands close beside him. He made rolling motions with his hands apparently asking Byron if he was taping this. Byron must have given him a signal because Jamil nodded and backed out of the room.

The room had become brighter during the exchange. As the camera moved back to focus on me, we could see that the entire circle was bathed in light. I turned, looking around the circle, which allowed Byron to focus in on me. My eyes were a swirl of blue and silver with my golden hair gently framing my face. I looked surprised and a bit confused, as the foggy haze seemed to condense in front of me into some vaguely human shape.

I nodded, realizing what point we had most likely reached in the ritual. My suspicions were confirmed when a short time later, I went to take some of the bread and wine from the center of the circle. That was during my conversation with Cara. She had appeared much more solid to me. Apparently spirits were tricky to photograph.

The shape quickly disappeared. Oddly, the unnatural light and mist did not lessen though. If anything it seemed to intensify. I watched myself look at my reflection in the mirror, smile and close my eyes as I reached for the ceremonial dagger with my free hand.

I was in for quite a surprise. Having closed my eyes to focus on searching for Luna, I had missed the show going on around me. As time passed, things began to move around the room. I knew this was when I was metaphysically searching for Luna. I didn’t remember how long it took me to get a fix on her but if the activity in the room was any indication, it was a steady progression to her.

The rate of things flying toward me grew more intense as time went on. A chair, hurled by invisible hands, flew towards the circle. It stopped abruptly outside the circle. The light that bathed my circle of power seemed to act as some sort of protective shield not letting anything through. The vamp from before came running into the room only to fall to the ground as he tried to enter the circle.

Jamil came in and tried to enter my sacred space. I was visible in the foreground raising the blade to cut my hand. He touched the edge of the hazy mist but quickly pulled his hand back as if he had been burned. He pulled the vamp out with him as Byron continued to tape the events.

The camera panned down. We could see my feet floating a couple inches off of the floor as I slowly spun around in a circle. The candles were beginning to rise off the floor as well. My voice was loud in the small room as I called to my sister. “Luna, by blood were you taken from us. By blood I grant you passage back to the place nearest your heart.” The camera jerked up to show me slicing my hand open as I came around to face Byron’s side of the room.

I dropped to the floor as I screamed in pain. The candles fell as well and there was a deafening boom. My hair flew briefly in the sudden wind before all the candles went out. We could vaguely see me looking around the darkened room in the aftermath. The silence was deafening. A few moments later, I turned to run out of the room. There was another loud snap as I left the circle.

Byron followed slowly behind, stopping long enough to try to get a shot of the darkened remnants of the ritual. As he stepped out of the room, there was a figure in the hallway. My muffled screech could be heard from Luna’s bedroom as Byron walked toward the door. There was a brief shot of my struggling body in Jamil’s arms as he asked, “Did we get it all on tape.” The video went black.

We all sat there in silence looking at the darkened screen for a few minutes. I don’t know who was the most shocked, Luna’s army or myself. Looking over at Raven, I was pretty sure it wasn’t her. Nothing seemed to surprise her and I was beginning to wonder about that. Where did she really fit in, with all this? Was she just a good contact person for metaphysical resources or was she sent here for a reason?

As if she could read my thoughts, she was the first to speak up, “To whom much is given, much is expected Margaret. I don’t think any of your friends here will doubt your ability to pull this off now. If I were Jean Claude, I would be a bit concerned as well.” She winked at me.

Josh whistled. “Man, why is Luna so concerned about us protecting you when you can do that? You should be protecting us or something.”

I pulled myself away from Noah to stand, “Because Josh, I don’t know how I did that. I didn’t even know that I DID do it at the time. Doesn’t say much for my control, now does it? Besides, I don’t know how much of that power came from me, and how much of it was just someone else’s power being focused through me.”

“Don’t lie to yourself, Maggie.” I turned to look at Raven. “Cara told you that it was YOUR power.”

”Who the hell are you anyway? What are you?” I screamed at the woman in front of me.

“Maggie…” Noah began but I waved for him to stop.

“I know. I’m sorry Raven. I shouldn’t take my frustration out on you. Please make yourself at home. I just need some time alone to think.” I headed for the door tears in my eyes. I heard footsteps as someone moved to follow me. Without turning back, I sighed trying to keep my voice even. “I said alone. Don’t worry. I won’t go far.”

I headed down the hall and out the back patio door. I sat down on the deck looking at the late afternoon sun and trying to come to terms with what I knew, both about myself and about what I had to do to get Luna back. Neither idea was an easy to prospect to face but as a friend once told me, nothing worth having is ever easy. I watched the sun setting below the line of trees in front of me before I headed back inside.

Walking into the kitchen, a take out box with my name on it was setting on the counter. I opened it to find Weiner Schnitzel, red cabbage and spaetzel with mushroom gravy. There was a piece of homemade apple strudel on the side. I looked up to see Noah enter the room. “I went into town with Raven so she could get a few more ritual things you might need and some clothes.“

I looked up at him in surprise. He explained, “We were talking after you went outside. There is safety in numbers. If anyone can connect Raven to us, it would be better that she was here and protected until we get this mess straightened out. Tara is helping her get settled into one of the guest rooms upstairs. We grabbed some food for everyone on the way back. I remembered how hard it is to get you to eat when you’re upset so I thought your favorite dishes from Café Berlin might tempt you.” He pointed at the box.

I blushed, “Actually now that you mention it, I’m starving. Must be whatever Luna did…”

I stopped, choked up. He closed the distance to hug me, “You’ll get her back. I know you will. Now be a good kitten and eat.” He put the box in my hands and left the room.

I smiled and shook my head. Noah could be seven kinds of annoying but there was no doubting he cared. I sat down and began to eat. They must have just gotten back as the food was still a bit warm. The food didn’t last long. I was hungry and it was good.

I had finished my meal and had just gotten a glass of ice water from the fridge when the phone rang. Walking over to it, I checked the caller ID. It was from Jean Claude’s lair. I thought about letting the machine pick up or having one of the guys answer for me, but if it was indeed Jean Claude, I didn’t want to appear weak.

Setting my water glass down, I picked up the phone and in my most professional, unaffected voice answered, “This is Haven. You’ve reached Maggie. How can I help you?”

I could hear Jean Claude chuckling on the other end of the line and it sent shivers down my spine. “Margaret, are you moonlighting as a receptionist? I clearly had no idea you had so MANY talents I might use.”

The veiled threat in that was hard to miss and managed to piss me off. “Jean Claude, what do you want now? I’m busy so make it fast.”

The line was silent for a moment. I had apparently shocked the Master. When he spoke, his voice was clipped, making his accent ever more pronounced. “Very well Doctor. What I want it is for you to come back to the Lair so that I may be assured you are safe. We have quite a few things to discuss not the least of which is the mess you left of your lab when you decided to decline my hospitality.”

Josh and Raven walked into the kitchen with Noah close behind as I responded. “Don’t you mean so that you may be assured of YOUR safety? I don’t think it s a good idea for me to stay at the Lair right now but thanks for the offer. I’ll clean my lab when I feel up to coming in.”

“You have to understand things from my position. It will make me look weak if I let you go free after attacking my Pomme de Sang.”

I grinned though I knew he couldn’t see it. “Not as weak as you will look if it becomes common knowledge that I escaped from the heart of your Lair right under the nose of not only you, but the Ulfric as well as several of your people. I know you’re aware of what I can do now. I haven’t resigned my position as your scientist but considering my recent bout of… bed rest some time off to recuperate is in order I think. In the mean time, I suggest your best cover story is that considering the incident with Jason was obviously not done intentionally, we had a chat and you decided to let me go home until things could be sorted out.”

His voice was cold on the phone, “Very well. You may stay where you are for now but this conversation is not over. I will be in touch.”

The trio looked at me expectantly as I hung up the phone. “I think I bought us some time. Jean Claude said I could stay where I was.”

I grinned as Raven took my hand. “Well, since you are obviously feeling better about your power, how about we go upstairs and I show you what I’ve come up with as far as spells to bring Luna home.”

I nodded my assent and we headed back up to the scene of the crime as it were, leaving the boys behind. The room had been cleaned and fresh candles lain out in a circle. There were fresh flowers at the heart of the circle along with Luna’s Teddy. I walked across the lines of the circle into the center of the room. I looked back at Raven when I felt nothing.

She explained. “I cleaned up your last spell for you and un-invoked the circle. It’s a metaphysically blank slate until you start the next spell to bring Luna home.”

I picked up Teddy to hug him, looking around the room. “I thought you said it was my psychic karma to take care of this all.”

She walked into the circle and hugged me, “Yes it is but I was reminded that mine is to help you.” I looked at her confused as she stepped back and brushed the hair away from my face. “There is no time to explain now. You are the one with the power. It’s your call that Luna will answer, but I will help you all I can. Let’s go sit down and I’ll go over the spell with you.”

We went into Luna’s bedroom. I curled up on the bed still hugging Teddy, while Raven went over the spell with me. It was a portal spell we were going to do. It would give Luna a safe avenue of passage from wherever she was back to me. She explained that given my nature and powers, the actual portal should not be that difficult. However there were two major obstacles. One, once the portal was opened on my end, it needed to be recognized as such by Luna on the other end for her to take the leap of faith to jump through it. Second, we needed to make sure that only Luna came through the portal and not anything else we’d have to find a way to send back. Thirdly and most importantly, I had to know what dimension Luna had skipped into or I wouldn’t be able to secure a portal between worlds for her to come through.

Over the next few days, Raven planned to help me start learning to better control my powers while she walked me through the logistics of portal spells. I need to be confident of the spell and my ability to wield it in order to make it work. It HAD to work; too much was riding on it for it not to. Tara was making a list of what she saw me do in the video so we would know what to focus our efforts on. Josh, Noah and the others would be helping learn to manage my enhanced senses and strength better. I was already beginning to get used to them, toning some of the more prevalent ones down, but I still needed a bit of help.

My job, besides learning how to control lycan-like senses and strength, as well as my power as a Gate and memorizing spells, was to figure out what dimension Luna needed a pass back from. Sure, I could do all this. At least I hoped I could.

Hugging Teddy tight, I looked around the room trying to get some clue as to where Luna might be. I looked from her full wall poster of Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, over to her poster of Vin Diesel in some sci-fi flick she had tried to get me to watch. I walked over to sit at her desk, pushing things around as if the scattered papers lying there held the answer. My hand ran across her collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel DVDs. What I wouldn’t give to have her back here demanding we watch the silly vampires that turn to dust just one more time.

Where would she have gone? Remembering my contact with her during the spell, I know she was in some sort of hell dimension when I first found her. At least that’s what I would describe it as. Yet, the most recent brief contacts I had from her hadn’t felt the same. She was someplace else. Raven had said my first spell might have caused her to move dimensions but to where?

I tapped my fingers on her desk as I thought out loud. “In the spell I had given her passage to the place closest to her heart. Would she have known to reach out to those that were truly closest to her heart and reached for home, or would she have grabbed at the thing nearest her heart at the moment, her most recent obsession?" Looking from the posters to the DVDS to the huge collection of books in the corner, I grinned. Running down the hallway I yelled for Raven, “If Luna is playing hide and seek, I have some ideas of where to look!”