Gula: The Oswald Witches Read online

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  Editor: 3PEditing Cover Designer: Christy Barron Copyright © 2015 by Mathew Ortiz All Rights Reserved.

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  This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is strictly coincidental. The Licensed Art Material is being used for illustrative purposes only; any person depicted in the Licensed Art Material, is a model.

  Dedication

  To Tim,

  for watching all those creepy ghost shows with me.

  Prologue

  “Alright children, settle down, settle down. Jian, stop texting this instant! You know the rules. No phones in class. Susie, stop fluffing your bangs; they look fine. Rowan, stop hitting Darla, or I’ll hex your arms still. Now, pull up your chairs and form a circle around me. Yes, Piotr sit there. Yes, there, there, yes there. Barza, stop twirling and sit.” Beatrice Oswald-Kenttingham mentally counted to ten. Most days she enjoyed teaching sixth grade at VanDeMiers Academy, but some days it was all she had not to run out screaming into the cold January light.

  The sixteen children from four of the races scattered to obey their teacher in typical eleven-year-old fashion, slow and easily distracted. Most of her class was supernatural. This was one of her most diverse classes in many years. She had four witchlings, four shifters, two dwarves, two elves, one fairy and three humans. No demon children were represented, as demons lived in the skins of adult human victims. If there were any child demons, none had yet to be seen. Elves and fairies tended to school their own children, and most dwarves lived in the mountains of Canada. So having a few from the other races was a treat and an opportunity to exchange cultural ideas.

  But children were children of any race and were a handful on a good day. Finally they settled down, and sixteen faces gazed at her expectantly. Today Beatrice was teaching a lesson in magical history. She decided to discuss the darkest time in the Supernature’s history. Taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she knew she had to tell the story without bias or bigotry. It was for her to tell the truth in a non-judgmental way. No small feat.

  “Okay, class, today I’m going to tell you about the darkest time for the human and supernatural race. The events that led to the near extinction of all four races.”

  “It was all the fault of the demons, elves, and fairies,” Stewart, a human pupil, piped up. Barza, Keeli and Opirikia scowled at him. Barza, who was sitting next to Stewart and was good friends with the human boy, punched him in the arm. “Ow! Mrs. Kenttingham, he hit me!” Stewart wailed, rubbing his arm.

  “Barza, you know the rules. No hitting.” It was hard to admonish Barza. The elfish boy was one of her best students.

  “But Mrs. Kenttingham, it’s not true.” Barza’s huge blue eyes bore into her.

  Opirikia poked him in his side and she whispered, “He is right, Barza.” Opirikia was the only fairy. Petite and slight, she had long, silvery hair that was braided down her thin shoulders. Two pinnacled ears proudly displayed her heritage. Her luminous violet eyes dominated her heart shaped face. Two delicate earrings twinkled from her ears as she tilted her head. Kia, as she preferred to be called, was the only child of a human male and a fairy woman. Her birth was a sign that times were changing. Elves and fairies were members of the Air Clan. Elves were all male, and fairies were all female. The two sexes were also almost completely homosexual. Elves and fairies only mated every five years to procreate. Otherwise, the two groups lived separately. Kia’s mother was one of the few known bisexuals amongst the fairies. Her father and mother lived in Maine apart from the Air Clans and thus, Kia was at VanDeMiers.

  “Yes, Stewart is correct. However, there is more to it than that.” Bea soothed and smoothed out an imaginary wrinkled on her skirt. “As all of you know, in the beginning there was only the human race inhabiting the world. The Other watched for millennia as humans evolved and flourished on the Earth. Then the dark times came. War, famine, pestilence and death—yes, the Four Horsemen—came, and the human race was racing toward darkness and stagnation. The Other saw this, and grief filled Its soul. So to balance the Earth, It created the Supernature. From the first supernatural evolved the four houses: two for the light, and two for the darkness. The four races’ influence stopped the downward spiral, and balance between light and dark was achieved.”

  “All because of us.” Piotr smugly smiled at the humans in the room. A wolf shifter, Piotr was overly proud of his race and was a bit of pill.

  “Yeah, yeah, you tell us that all the time, Piotr. You’re such a bung hole,” Chloe said as she rolled her eyes. Tossing her chocolate curls, Chloe glowered at Piotr. If it had been one of the boys who said that to Piotr, a fight after school would most likely happen. However, Piotr was moonstruck over Chloe, so he only blushed and mumbled an apology.

  “Chloe, language,” Bea chided.

  “Sorry, Mrs. Kenttingham.” Chloe turned to Piotr. “Sorry, Piotr.” The apology only made the wolf boy turn redder. One of his friends, Brian, elbowed him and grinned. Piotr grinned back and shoved Brian.

  “Boys, stop,” Bea sighed. “Back to our history. Anyway, the four clans lived separately from the others. They had very little contact with each other, and when they did meet, it was tense, and occasional conflicts arose. Over the centuries, distrust and animosity grew between the clans. Some clans thought the others were sullying themselves by consorting with humans. Some members of the Supernature thought humans were beneath them. Regardless, tension mounted between the clans.”

  Bea stopped and took inventory of her students. All attention was on her. How she told the remainder of their history had to be factual. “The Black Death or The Plague was thought to have come from arid plains of central Asia. In the beginning it was not the virulent disease that fell upon Europe glutting itself on its people. Some Rememberers think it travelled along the Silk Road, reaching the Crimea by 1343. From there, it travelled via merchants to the Mediterranean and Europe. It was then that a group of Demons living in Crimea noticed the disease. They noticed it struck down humans, but none of the Supernature that came in contact with the disease caught it.”

  The students shifted uneasily as the story unfolded. This was the part all supernaturals knew all too well. “Long had the Fire and Air Clans clashed with the Water and Earth Clans, with humans falling as collateral damage during the skirmishes. The head councils of the Air and Fire Clans met in secret to formulate a plan, a plan that would have devastating consequences. Select infected humans were taken captive and sent to a secret group of elvish healers. As you all know, elvish healers are renowned
for their ability to heal with science and magic. Demons provided the victims, and Elves and Fairies experimented on them. They were able to change the disease in a horrible way. They mutated it so that it would strike down supernaturals, namely the people of the Earth and Water Clans, as they were closer to humans than the other two Clans. Folly, because they thought Demons couldn’t catch the disease as they only lived in the skins of humans. The elves and fairies thought themselves immune because they lived in the ether, outside the human plane. They unleashed their version of the Black Plague in Belgium around 1340. It spread like a cancer through Europe, and humans died in the thousands. Conservative estimates say that the Black Death killed thirty to sixty percent of Europe's total population in less than ten years. The Air and Fire Clans were at first pleased with the results. Shifters, witches, dwarves, and their relatives all were becoming ill and dying. The head Demon, Laird Hamilton, was said to laugh as news came of the decimation of the Earth and Water families.”

  Bea stopped, and Kia said in a frightened voice, “Then the first elf died. He had been one of the spies that was watching the witches and others die. Without realizing it, he brought it back to Linadelle.”

  Bea nodded sadly. “Yes, infecting elves and fairies. They forgot in their hubris that all the Supernature came from human stock. Our immunity as mystical people could only protect us for so long. Then the Demons started to die. Their skins got the plague and liquefied around their fiery souls. Soon the Air and Fire Clans were beset with the Black Death. All around, shifters, demon, witches, and all others were dying. Some households all died from the disease. Whole families were wiped out. ”

  “My grandmother said her grandmother and father were the only survivors in their family in Manchester. There were once over two hundred in their wiccan family,” Meagan added bleakly.

  “Yes, my family almost died out. Our family came from Genoese, Italy. By the time the cure was found, only twenty of the four hundred Oswald family, lived. But I digress. As the disease threatened us with extinction, the four houses called a truce and combined their science, magic and knowledge to stop the illness. In the end, a cure was found: a spell that, when uttered, stopped the disease from multiplying and vaccinated the person who spoke it. Sadly, by the time the cure was found, the plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million down to 350 to 375 million in the 14th century. It was the most devastating pandemic in human and supernatural history. Do you know what the spell is, class?”

  “Ring around the Rosie?” Chloe offered. The others nodded.

  “Correct. The spell was manipulated so that it compelled humans to teach it to their children. The song and anyone who sang it or was within earshot was vaccinated. It worked, and the disease waned, but by then the Supernature had been reduced to a hand. Tell me, class, what was the end result of this horrible time?”

  “The Clans declared Cannar Peace Accords, and the Council of the Ages was created to promote inter-house peace and rebuild,” Piotr supplied, and Bea nodded. “Working together as one.”

  “Yes, the lesson here is this: think of the four clans and the human race as fingers on a hand. The Air, Fire, Water and Earth Clans are the fingers. The human race is the thumb. Cut off a finger and the hand still functions. Cut off the thumb and the fingers are nigh near useless. We didn’t realize how important humans were to us until we nearly wiped them out. Without them we would wither and die. We came from them. The cold reality was that if any of the clans or all died off, the humans would persevere.”

  “A hand is not complete without all its parts,” Kia opined.

  “The guiding hand needs all parts to ensure the future,” Piotr added.

  “Correct. And the moral of the story, class?”

  The sixteen preteens all chorused at once. “In unity we live, we grow, we excel. Divided all will fall.”

  “Excellent! Questions?” Sixteen hands shot up. Ohh boy…this was going to be fun. “Okay, Meagan, you first.” For the next hour, Bea answered their questions as best as she could. Her primary goal was to educate. Their past nearly wiped them out, and if it happened again, the Supernature would face sure extinction.

  Chapter 1

  “Stop! Stop! Stop!” Oliver screamed over the roar of the air. He was practicing at his Aunt Mags’s house in the east garden. His aunts Mags and Bea were both testing his control over his World and Mind powers by hurling large boulders of ice at him from thirty feet away. He narrowed his focus, and air screamed around him as he used his aerokinetic power to knock away the chunks of flying ice. It was mid-summer, and having icebergs thrown at you was a trip. He was doing fine, but his sweetly giggling aunt had shattered one particularly large shard of ice, sending frozen daggers at him. He was holding his own until then.

  “Okey dokey.” Cheerfully grinning at him, Bea stopped and large chunks of ice thudded to the ground. Oliver cut his air power off. “You’re getting really good. Your control over air is getting sharp and precise. Very nicely done, considering a few months ago when Mags threw two larger boulders at you and you caved in seconds.”

  “Weenie,” Mags scoffed as she let the stone go.

  “Aw, come on, Aunt Margaret. I just developed that power. It was still new.”

  “True, true. Let’s see, you have Telekinesis and Aerokinesis, both World powers under the subcategory of Evocation. Your Clairvoyance and Divination fall under the Mind powers via Perceptions.”

  “Yep, and I’m comfortable with both Clairvoyance and Divination. The meditation techniques helped me block other people’s thoughts and center myself. And thanks to Divination, I can’t lose my keys anymore, no matter how hard I try.”

  Mags rolled her eyes. “Yes, because that’s what Divination is all about.” Bea only giggled.

  “I also have control over and can speak to the dead under the Body abilities, namely Necromancy. And Healing under Abjuration. Both of which I am proficient in.” A note of pride crept into his voice. He had been working hard to fine tune the six powers since they had developed. Under his aunts’ tutelage, his control grew in leaps and bounds. “So I am officially in the running for the Keepership.”

  Bea wagged a finger at him. “Not officially yet. You must present those powers to the Council of the Ages. If satisfied, they will let you compete for the Keepership against all contenders. You have six powers, the bare minimum. If any other witch can display more powers, you will lose any chance. No new powers have developed, have they?”

  Oliver frowned. “No. They came so fast and furious and now…zippo.”

  Mags came over to him and rested her hand on his shoulder. “Give it time. You can never tell when new ones will emerge.”

  “Aunt Mags, the Ascension is getting close. What if I don’t develop—”

  “Hush. You will.” He noticed she didn’t correct him when he called her Mags. “Let’s get some lunch. Grace is home, and I’m sure my daughter will be glad to see you. I’m also sure I’ve done something she will feel the need to lecture me about.”

  Oliver and Bea both snickered. Aunt Mags was constantly doing or saying something inappropriate, and Grace was always admonishing her or apologizing for her mother. Oliver wouldn’t dare say that the two were exactly the same. Both were imperious, mule-headed, bossy fussbudgets. He loved them, but if he said that, he wouldn’t have any balls left. “Sure,” was all he allowed himself to say.

  “What’s so funny, Oliver?” Mags asked as they leisurely strolled back to Blackmoor House. It stood stately in the distance, a large, white Victorian structure. Over forty rooms, it was smaller than Oswald House but just as old. Margaret was given the house on the eve of her first marriage by a dowager aunt. That was the marriage to her first husband, Curtis Miller. That marriage lasted four years and produced Mags’ daughter Grace. Next came her two-year marriage to Gregory’s father, a model named Alistair Dennison. Her last marriage lasted eight years, to Christophe Therray. In Christophe, Mags seemed to find happiness. Fate it would seem didn�
�t want her happy, and Christope died of a massive heart attack, widowing Aunt Mags.

  Most women would have curled up and died from the compounded heartache and grief she had experience over the years. Not his Aunt Mags. She became a successful advertising executive, a career she gave up to become Keeper pro tem upon Oliver’s mother’s death. She survived the divorces and the death of Christophe, and she still managed to raise her children. She ruled the Earth Clans with an iron fist. None dared cross his aunt, for her anger was terrifying to behold. He smiled as he thought to himself, just ask Master Nguyen. The Master of the Library of the Dead had made the mistake of getting on her bad side. When the dust settled, he was still healing from broken bones, and all the employees at the Library flinched when someone said the name Margaret Oswald.

  Bea gestured, and the back door swung open. The three strolled into the kitchen and Mags’ cook, Katy, set out coffee and cake for them. Each found a chair around the kitchen table and settled in. Katy wove in between them, pouring coffee and serving cake.

  “Thank you, Katy,” Mags said, not even looking at her.

  Bea and Oliver thanked Katy, and for a few moments things were quiet as they ate. Oliver stared at his aunts and smiled. Mags was an imperious blonde, tall, thin, and icy. Bea was short, plump, and motherly with light brown hair. Only those beautiful blue eyes gave them away as sisters.

  “How is Duncan doing?” Bea asked.

  Oliver’s heart clutched in his chest. Duncan! “Not good. He’s still losing weight. Not eating. I’m afraid…” His voice trailed off, unable to continue.

  Oliver cringed. The image of the demon assaulting his brother and his screams would haunt him until the day he died. Duncan had been going to the S and M club, The River Styx, for months. He was involved with a Dominant demon named Cimcoe, who everyone thought was working for the High Demoness Katherine Laks. He really was working for the creature that was killing members of the Supernature, and when Duncan found out the ghost that had been haunting his dreams was his bondmate, he went to break things off with Cimcoe. The demon wasn’t about to let Duncan go. He had orders to kill Duncan and to make it look like an accident during a rough round of sex. Cimcoe must have seen his chance slipping away, as he beat Duncan unconscious and proceeded to rape him. In the middle of it all, Ezekiel, a ghost and Duncan’s bondmate, found him and rescued him by managing to kill the attacking demon.