Rich and Scott

Hey guys sorry its been so long! I've been working a lot! And then my computer decided to crash on me and I lost all my files so I had to start this over again. There is a lot of information in this one I'm gonna work on putting some explanations in the next one. Thanks for being patient and remember feedback is always welcome.

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Chapter 10

Rich

When I got up for the day I rolled over and noticed I wasn't I bed alone. I remembered what happened between Scott and I and then remembered what Scott said about Matt having feelings for me. That woke me up, I immediately went down stairs and found Matt sitting in the living room. It looked like he was reading a book but I knew him better than that.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him.

"How we plan on fighting these assholes when we don't even know what's going on with your magic. I mean I thought that Solomon's Line couldn't have familiars. Shifters are beings created from the excess Chaos in the world and your magic is purely Order."

I frowned at his inaccurate explanation of how magic worked. Clearly I still had a lot to teach him.

"Magic is never pure in any shape or fashion. The Magicks we use are what are based in Order or Chaos. But even then they aren't purely anything. Magic always has some of the opposing element it. Those of us in Solomon's Line however don't use Chaos." I explained "in other words we filter it from our spells. But for some reason I'm different. I can use Necromancy, chaotic spells that almost no one has used for a millenia!"

"So you can use the Chaos in the world to protect people," Matt asked aghast. "Why didn't you tell us about this during the war? We wouldn't have lost those kids if you would've used the spells! You wouldn't have had to risk-"

"Because I didn't know," I interrupted. Remembering exactly which battle he was talking about.

We were in a field walking back from the latest mission. There were kids with us they were teenagers and they thought they had what it took to do the spells for fighting. I took them on their first mission and all went according to the plan, until we ran into a bunch of Hunters. While I was fighting a few on my own I heard gunshots, and turned to find that 2 of the kids had been shot. I finished off the rest of the hunters with a huge spell and ran to the kids. When I checked their pulses one was dead and the other was barely alive. Solomon's line can't perform healing magic and the only person in our group who could was in my arms dying. When we buried him his parents said that it was his decision to go with us and didn't blame me or anyone else. We all still blamed ourselves for what happened that day.

"I didn't know that I could use it until I did it by accident One day. I found an old grimoire that belonged to my 1000-years-great grandmother. I came across a spell that seemed powerful and I'm not sure how but I memorized it. Back in college when we were all drunk and walking home from that party at Mickey's when you got into the fight with the guy harassing Toby. Well when you were knocked backwards away from him it was me. Somehow I invoked the Fomorians. A race of people who served Cichol. They were a destructive group who killed for me. I didn't even know there was a way to invoke them until that night when I reread the spell in the grimoire"" I tried explaining.

"I've never heard of them! They can't be Egyptian that makes no sense I've read all the mythos-"

"Are you gonna let me finish, or do I have to keep interrupting you?" I was getting frustrated with my lack of knowledge, and I was taking it out on Matt. "Look on sorry for that I shouldn't have taken out my frustrations on you. But this is important. The Fomorians were a part of the Celtic mythos. There is a lot more to this world that we don't know about! Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Celtic, don't be surprised when Norse myths start mixing in," I told him.

He looked thoughtful for a second before he said, "well I can go Berserk," he said. We both laughed for a few minutes, something we desperately needed. After that we sat in silence for a while.

I got up to go upstairs to my room. I grabbed the Grimoire and took it downstairs with me. I sat on the couch and opened the book.

"That thing smells old as hell. Is that the Grimoire you found," Matt exclaimed

"Yeah, its 10000 years old, so I hope it smells old as hell." I started flipping through the pages one by one, until I found what I was looking for.

"Where did you say you found it again? It has a faint odor to it." Matt wasn't looking at but at the book.

I stopped reading for a second and thought about it. "I was going through boxed in the attic of that old house my parents and I used to live in. I don't remember why, I just felt like I should be doing it. I found this book and opened it and felt a presence around me," I said. I remembered everything that happened around this book with crystalline clarity. "So I took the book to my parents and asked them about it but all they could read was the name on the cover. When they tried to read the spells they got confused, and said it was in a language they couldn't understand. We took it to people who practice magic and even a few linguistic anthropologists that my father knew. No one recognized it, but I could read it just fine. When I first tried reading it to my parents they couldn't understand it and their ears started bleeding. We stopped trying and I put the book in my room and didn't touch it again until i came out to them and they kicked me out"

I felt Matt shift closer to me. I looked up and saw him wrinkle his nose. His eyes widened and he slammed the book closed in my lap.

"What was that all about," I asked him. I looked up at him as saw that his eyes were a fluorescent green, Matt had blue eyes that changed to a brownish amber color when he shifted.

I moved away from him, instinct taking over. I got up and started to run but then remembered that shifters were more like the animals they shifted into. Its because of the Chaos inside of them. A wolf would probably chase me. So I stayed where I was and stared the person in front of me down.

"What's going on? Who the hell are you and what did you do with Matt!" I questioned it.

"You don't know me but you hold my grimoire," the thing in front of me said. "With this wolf's sense of smell I can tell that you use magic of Order, the stench of it surrounds us," it licked Matt's lips and looked into my eyes as if it could see down to the depths of my soul.

"You have another scent about you though. You can use my magic. The magic of the dead, Necromancy. You must be the man the Druid told me about. How long has it been since I left this plane?"

"Are you Gertrude," I asked. It had to be that was who this grimoire belonged to, it was the only thing that made sense. But if it wasn't her then who was it and why was her name in it?

"Yes I am Gertrude, I was never given a last name. My parents were killed during the war, and I didn't want to take your grandfather's last name because I had people after me and I didn't want him harmed" she said. "But I need to know how you came into contact with that book. And what spells have you cast from it? There is some very dangerous material in there."

I explained how I was going through the boxes in the attic of the old house my parents lived in and everything that happened afterwards.

"Well if they couldn't use necromancy that makes sense considering this is escration the language of the dead. Only necromancers and the dead can speak and understand it," Gertrude explained. "What I don't understand is why a witch of Solomon would be the new Necromancer, or why the world needs one now."

The look on Matt's face looked thoughtful, and I thought about everything I knew about necromancers, which wasn't much.

"Kid, I don't know what is going on that the world is in need of a Necromancer but there is much that needs to be explained to you and everyone involved. There is a spell in the book called Invocation of Pneuma. It's a Greek spell but the way to use it is there. Whatever you have started needs to be finished quickly or else you will have a huge war on your hands and you don't want something like that trust me." She said, "don't worry about the side effects of using the spell they aren't real they're there to scare people away from using it just to do it. Can the spell and you will be able to call upon me at anytime." Matt's head turned and she said, "I must go, they're searching for me. Cast the spell and call upon me when you are all together. Goodbye Richard." And with that Matt's eyes turned back to their normal blue.

"What happened? Why do I feel like I just had something big in my skull? And what is that God awful smell?" Matt exclaimed.

"I don't know the answers to any of those questions. But trust me when I say, I will get them.

Chapter 11

Scott

I left the yard early because of the dinner I had planned with Rich and his friends. Even under the circumstances when I thought of him I couldn't help but smile and feel giddy inside. As I headed home I got the feeling that something big was happening. As soon as I got home I ran to Rich's house and knocked on the door.

There were footsteps inside and I smelled Rich coming closer but there was someone with him. Someone old as hell, someone I hadn't ever met before but they smelled familiar.

As Rich opened the door I thought my nose must be playing tricks on me because he was standing there alone.

I quickly scented the air and realized that were the other person should've been standing was just an empty spot.

"I'll explain later," Rich said. "But right now you need to get your house ready Toby and the others will be here in a few hours. But knowing Toby it's gonna be more like 1 hour maybe less... we will be over as soon as everyone's settled in."

He gave me a quick kiss and a smile and then closed the door.

I sent him a text as I walked across the street, asking how many people were coming. He sent back that I needed to cook for 8 people and myself.

What was so important that he didn't even have time to say "hi" to me? I thought to myself.

When I got inside I took a shower. While I was washing my body the only thing I could think about was Rich. What was he doing that was so important? I got out of The shower and started cooking.

As I was putting the casserole in the oven I heard a knock on my door so I went to Answer it and found Rich, Matt, Toby and several other people I didn't know.

"Hey Rich," I said, I couldn't keep the huge smile from spreading across my face. As I have him a hug. "Matt, Toby, I greeted each of them shaking their hands as I did so. "Come on in! You can introduce me when everyone is comfortable."

As everyone filed in I noticed a couple of them give me looks out of the corners of their eyes. I knew they were birds I client place the type just by smell though.

When everyone was inside they introduced themselves.

"I guess I'll start," one of them said. He was a talk dark haired man with a slim build, he smelled faintly of snakes and spiders so I guessed he was a vampire. "I'm Dimitri Utkin, and As you have probably guessed I am a vampire. Before you ask me I am over a century old," he said. From the way he introduced himself I could tell he'd been through this many times. I shook his hand and we moved to the next person. One of the blonde bird shifters who had been giving me weird looks throughout Dimitri's introduction.

He had was a small person and I don't mean just stature. He was tiny. "I'm Bryan, a hawk shifter, and this is my mate, Jessica, she is a hawk shifter as well." He looked like he was trying to stare me down. As if he was daring me to say something degrading. Cats and birds are rivals in the shifter world but I personally had no problem with them.

I said, "look, I don't have any problems with the ornithic shifters, they haven't done anything to me except judge me by the animal I carry inside me."

By the looks they gave me I could tell that they didn't trust any cats, but had respect for some. I had just made that list. Bryan put his hand out, and we shook hands.

"If what you say is true, then we will do our best not to slight you in any way," Bryan wasn't smiling but I was guessing this was gonna be the best i would get from him.

Jessica didn't try to shake my hand, but it was common in most ornithic cultures for the man to speak for both himself and his mate.

Next was a tall man, with a bit of a gut. "I'm Tony, a witch from the the Line of Saul. My magic isn't as strong as Rich's but the magic I use rivals his in its effectiveness." Tony had black hair and dark brown eyes that made me think Mexican. The man to his left smelled like Tony and like a Wolf so I assumed he was either Tony's lover, familiar or both.

He smiled and put his hand out, "I'm Byron a werewolf and Tony's familiar. I can't do much in the way of magic, but I can fight if I need to." Byron was a little bit shorter than me with a strong grip. To tell the truth he looked like a gym rat, he had huge arms and legs that just screamed 'I go to the gym everyday!' he had dark hair and dark blue eyes. His face was small and handsome in its own way. He could be a very attractive man.

I looked over at Rich hoping the next two were as quick and easy as Dimitri was.

A short stout woman was next in line. Blonde hair blue eyes she seemed very WASP to me. "I'm Anastasia, human. I'm the weapons expert for the team. You ever fired a gun?"

"Yes ma'am I have I actually own a few. A Mossberg .12 gauge, an AR 15 that I've converted to full auto and I have my glock," I explained. "I have experience with more but I don't own anything else."

She looked pleased with what I said. "Good that means I don't have to teach you. You me and Dimitri are gonna have a chat on guns later."

"Finally, last but definitely not least, I'm Fredo, I'm a Naga and I'll be in charge of the tech you take on your missions," the last person said. He was definitely a tech specialist. Nerdy but with the muscle tone that comes from going to the gym and lifting regularly. I could tell that he was into some form of martial arts by the way he held himself.

"You're a Naga! Like a real life Immortal creature!" I said incredulously. "My mom always told me stories about how A Haha saved her life once, but I didn't think there were anymore on this side of the world."

"Is your mother's name Cynthia?"

"Yeah, she said a Haha saved her from going over a waterfall when she was running from a group of wolf shifters." I explained.

"That was me. Tell her I say "hi" next time you talk to her." Fredo said.

"That's everyone," Toby said. "We each had as the people who were mainly on the ground fighting. We didn't want to bring anyone else but some more people might come so be prepared."

I nodded and looked at Rich then, he was muttering something under his breath. The more I concentrated on him, the more I could hear.

It sounded like some language made up by teenagers who wanted to talk without being understood, but somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it wasn't.

Then I heard it loud and clear, I knew I wasn't meant to understand it. Hearing it made my teeth ache and I knew what it was. Escration, the language of the dead.

"I call upon the ancestor who knows. I call upon The Necromancer before me," I translated. Everyone looked at me, from most it wasn't s friendly look but Matt and Toby looked at me with some curiosity, like I had sprouted a second head and they wanted to study it.

"I call upon you Gertrude. Come to us, show yourself and tell us what we need to know!" As the last word left my mouth I felt the spell complete itself. I felt the Circle close around us all in my living room and I knew without a doubt that something was coming from another plain of existence.

I just didn't know who.

Rich

As Scott and I finished the spell I closed the Circle of Power in my mind. I didn't need anything else coming from that place. Gertrude was in front of me, standing tall and proud. Everyone looked at the spot where she stood and I knew that no one apart from Scott and I could see her.

"I will make myself visible to the rest in a minute i know they can sense me, but only you and your familiar can see me now, Richard," Gertrude said.

Scott said "who are you? And how did you materialize here in my house?"

"I was The Necromancer when the world needed one, it's been one thousand years since then but apparently the you need one now. My name is Gertrude, I am Richard's Great Grandmother one hundred generations back," she explained. "As for how I got into your house when a necromancer and their familiar come together to perform a spell of death nothing is impossible. Even the dead showing themselves in a room warded against such things; as I can feel this one is." As she said it she became more solid and then everyone in the room could see and hear her.

She was an old wizened thing, her skin was wrinkled and there were plenty of liver spots. She wore a black cloak and a cape made of what looked like feathers.

When I looked closer I noticed odd things about her. Her hair was pitch black the color of the dark before the light was brought into existence. Her skin the paleness of the full moon. And her eyes had three different colors. The warm yet pale color of skin while blood still flows underneath, the pale grey color when there is no blood flowing because the heart hasn't beat for a long time, and the dark grey of desiccation, the color after the body has been buried and decayed for years.

The name spilled from my lips before I could stop it, "Morrigan."

Gertrude looked at me and there was a curiosity in her eyes now. "No one has called me by that name in over 1500 years. How did you know that was once my name?"

"I've studied ancient Mythos to gain a better understanding of my magic. The Celtic people once worshiped the Sidhe as Gods and Goddesses. You were The Morrigan, Goddess of death and Rebirth you never had a Sidhe husband because you are your own balance." I said rattling off information from my research on the subject. "The Sidhe were immortal how did you end up on the Other Plane?"

"I was once The Morrigan, but I don't use that name anymore," a look of sorrow passed over her face for a second then it was gone. "Whatever you have started you must finish quickly, or there will be War."

"Well seeing how we don't know how to finish what we started short of going to the Hunters and somehow convincing them we aren't anything preternatural, we don't know how to do that," Scott said.

"Kill them all, that is the only way or a necromancer would never have been born." Gertrude said.

We all just gaped at her. The thought of killing a Hunter family was preposterous! Everyone knew that the other families would hunt you down and kill you if you even tried.

"H-how do you propose we do that," Dimitri asked. "I don't know if there were Hunters a thousand years ago, and I know they never hunted anyone in fairie. There is a curse that come with killing them when they have done nothing to you or yours."

Gertrude looked at him then, as if seeing him for the first time.

"How old are you vampire? Only those who have tried to kill they fey, on purpose or by accident know of the wild hunt and the mark placed upon you," she said.

"I have been a vampire for nine hundred years and I have known many of the Sidhe. Nodens was a great friend and I grieve for him everyday. We fought in many wars together. He died in battle about four hundred years ago," Dimitri said. Defiance was plain upon his face but his eyes were sad.

Gertrude must have seen it too because her face softened and she said, "Nodens was one of the greatest warriors among us. His death is a surprise and a great sadness. Was he at least among his dogs when he died."