Stolen Soul

-- London - Present Day --

Maddison Chambers linked her arm through her mother’s as they left the grave yard after burying her Grandmother.

“Are you okay mum?”, she asked and her mother, Marianne nodded, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“I’ll be fine…..don’t you be worrying about me, you have enough to think about now”.

Maddison forced a smile as she thought about what lay ahead for her now that her Grandmother had gone and left her place within the Shadow Bane Enclave all ready to be filled by Maddison who was next in line.

Maddison came from a long line of Witches and Warlocks who had been vampire tracking for generations and the thought that she was now representing her family along with her mother was somewhat daunting and she just hoped that she was up to the job.

She was classed as an Ice Enchantress and was able to conjure a wall of ice and freeze any visible water but as of yet neither of those talents had been called upon.

As they headed for the car they were approached by Michael Warden who was a Werewolf and was to be Maddison’s bodyguard.

“I am sorry for your loss, Lucinda meant a great deal to all of us”, Michael said and Marianne nodded.

“Thank you”.

As Marianne slid into the car, Michael touched Maddison’s arm.

“Are you ready for your first meeting this evening?”, he asked and she nodded.

“As ready as I’ll ever be”, she replied, trying to appear confident and Michael smiled but it did not reach his eyes.

He had been Maddison’s Grandmother’s protector for many years and they had worked well as a team but somehow he was not getting the feeling that he and Maddison would have the same kind of relationship.

“I will see you this evening then”, he said and she nodded as she got into the car beside her mother and he closed the door for her.

--

A few hours later, Maddison entered the three-storey Victorian house where the weekly sect meetings were held with some trepidation.

“You are late”, a voice said from the top of the stairs and Maddison looked up at Michael then back down at her wrist to check her watch.

“I am?”, she queried, her eyes widening as she took in the time.

“Oh God, I am”, she murmured with some disdain as she hurried up the stairs toward her bodyguard.

“I don’t know how this could have happened….I left with plenty of time to spare”, she hastily explained but Michael merely stared at her disapprovingly.

“Is my mother here?”, she asked, trying to ignore his look and Michael nodded.

“Everyone is here apart from you”, he told her and Maddison groaned inwardly.

She entered the large room in front of Michael, her steps faltering as the group of seated people all looked at her and Michael had to nudge her forward to get her to move.

“In light of the fact that you have buried your grandmother today Miss Chambers, we will overlook your tardiness this once”, the Head Warlock whose name was David said and Maddison glanced at her mother before saying,

“Thank you…..I really did not intend to be late….”.

“Well, you are here now…shall we begin?”, David said, indicating that she and Michael should take their seats.

“Now we were just about to assign a watcher to this new vampire who has appeared on the board”, said David. “He’s become quite reckless and he is an ancient, he’s been a vampire for more then two hundred years. He will be very dangerous, confrontation is to be avoided”.

“He is being assigned to you Maddison, don’t disappoint us”, said Miram the Head Witch.

‘Great, she’s going to get herself into a lot of trouble’, grumbled Michael to himself.

“Marcus Baker is the vampire’s name but we don’t have any identification on him as of yet. He’s been a little careless lately, feeding in fairly open public places. There may not be a need to do anything about him because the other vampires may do it for us. He’s creating an exposure risk telling people about what he is”, said David.

“I don’t think this is something we have heard of before, also what we have been able to learn of this particular vampire, is that he was born in England and the circumstances of his death were rather peculiar”, said Lorraine, the High Druidess in Earth Magic.

“Peculiar, how?” asked Maddison.

“We don’t actually know, all that has been found out about it was that his death was, ‘not normal’”, said Lorraine.

‘Great, this is going to be difficult’, thought Maddison.

“Michael, could you please show Maddison where all of the resources are”, said David and to Maddison he added, “You will be working on this case from now on, this will be your first charge. If you can handle this well, more responsibilities will be handed to you”.

Michael showed Maddison where the Enclave archives were, dating back as far as the beginning of the 16th century.

“Wow, there is a lot in here” said Maddison.

“Yes, be careful with it, most of this stuff is very fragile”, said Michael as he walked behind her.

Maddison sat down at the archive computer and typed in Marcus Baker and thought to herself ‘Oh god.. this is going to take awhile’ as 17,000 results came up on the screen.

Michael chuckled to himself as he saw Maddison slump into the chair in frustration.

“It would be better if you specified it more. His name is quite common”, said Michael.

“Do I look like I need your help?”, asked Maddison as she spun the chair around.

“Yes”, Michael replied.

Maddison grumbled to herself as she faced the computer again.

“Only trying to help, you’ll be here all night doing that”, said Michael.

“I don’t need your help” said Maddison as she continued trying to sift through the mountain of data.

“Alright, whatever you say”, said Michael as he turned and left the room, leaving Maddison frustrated at the computer.

Maddison was becoming more and more frustrated with the search as her best friend, 2nd Grade Water Enchantress Sarah, entered the room.

“What are you so agitated over?” she asked.

“This damn search its driving me nuts I have to find information on this 18th or 17th century vampire and there’s nothing before 1800!”, exclaimed Maddison.

“Didn’t Michael show you how to use this?” asked Sarah.

“No, he walked out on me”, said Maddison, not being entirely truthful about her dismissal of her bodyguard.

“That’s totally typical of him, he probably wouldn’t know anyway as he’s hopeless around technology”, said Sarah. “Here type in a more refined time frame”, and she reached over and added 1600-1800 on the computer.

“Oh god I’ve been here for two hours..”, said Maddison disbelievingly as the search turned up 270 results.

After scanning through the new results she came across some interesting things.

One was titled “Mysterious Ghost Like Creatures Scaring Local Villages”. Another was titled “Grand Inquisitor Found Dead In Forest”. After reviewing the date on the articles of 1647, she thought,

‘This actually looks promising’.

She walked through the musty aisles filled with ancient books and newspaper prints, until she came to the oldest shelves in the archives. She carefully pulled out a stack of ancient newspapers that had what she was looking for on them. She read the one that proclaimed the bizarre death of the Inquisitor.

“Grand Inquisitor Thalmos dispatched a group of inquisitors guarded by a attachment of the Inquisitorial Squad, lead by Field Marshal Marcus Baker. They entered the forests surrounding the villages near Paris. Officer Bourgeois was the only survivor of the expedition, when the sun rose the village guards made a gruesome discovery. The bodies of the soldiers and inquisitors lay in a heap, in the middle of a clearing with their throats ripped out. Each had two distinct puncture marks that looked distinctly like bite marks. Field Marshal Baker however was missing, with only a pool of blood around a nearby tree”.

‘This looks very promising’ thought Maddison.

She was about to move away when a very old, battered looking book suddenly shot off the shelving in front of her and landed at her feet.

Maddison looked around her to see if someone was playing a trick on her with her being the ‘newbie’ but there was no-one around.

Frowning she bent and picked up the large, dusty book and moved toward a nearby desk.

As she put it down it opened by itself and she gasped as she was presented with an intricate drawing of what appeared to be a white witch taking the soul of a soldier, but the witch was not all she appeared to be.

As Maddison studied the drawing more carefully she saw that the witch had fangs and that her face, instead of being calm and angelic was contorted with rage and anger and Maddison’s frown deepened as she looked to the next page and began to read the text.

It basically explained how a pure white witch had been killed by villagers in the year of 1647 but the villagers had not performed the death ritual correctly and she had been banished into the underworld with the power to steal the soul of one worthy soldier and make him immortal…..damning him to a life of service to the witch and of darkness and solitude.

It was written that if the whereabouts of the soldier’s soul could be found then it could be restored to him and life would be his once again but that it would take a direct descendant of the white witch to perform the said task.

“Great….so I need to figure out who is the direct descendent of our guy’s maker”, Maddison muttered to herself.

A crash startled her and she dropped the book onto the ground and suddenly the chambers plunged into darkness as a ghostly apparition formed in front of her. Maddison’s eyes widened as the ghostly shape formed into an angelic looking woman.

“You are the one my dear, I have been waiting for centuries, your touch on the book has activated the enchantment I put on it so long ago. You are destined to help Marcus Baker return his soul to his body”.

“Me?”, Maddison replied, surprise clear in her tone and the spirit nodded.

“I cannot tell you more at this time….I am sorry……but please, choose your actions carefully and do not stray from your protector”.

Maddison nodded as the spirit began to dematerialise.

“Oh boy”, she muttered.