O’Melissokomos
The Bee Keeper

Only Skin Deep 11

by dymondbolt

Read previous part

Carl pulled The Book out of his desk and laid it on top. Carl and Vince put their right hands over their hearts and their left hands on The BOOK and told LEO, "In the Name of the Light, We bid thee Open. Vox LEO Magi."

The Book said as he opened, "In the Name of the Light, I reveal myself. How may I be of service?"

Vince looked at Carl for a moment and then said, "LEO, we need to know what we're up against before we invite any more people into our coven. I tell them,' We will fight evil ' ; but I don't think any of us has encountered real evil. At least not in magical form."

The Book glowed brighter as LEO said, "But you have, and you fought valiantly. I don't think he ever once thought that medications would vanquish him. But you did it."

Vince frowned, lost in memory for a second and then asked, "Parson?!"

LEO said, "Yes. A psychotic serial killer who had tricked so many people, medical professionals included. A demon inside a man's body. And you drove it out of him."

Vince was still frowning as he said, "I nearly killed him. He was going through doctors like popcorn. Each one tried something different from the last doctor. And each one ended up quitting, or transferring to a different hospital. One had himself committed."

LEO told him, "But you saw Parson for what he truly was."

Vince said, "I saw he was a monster. I just didn't think 'demon' at the time."

Carl asked, "How did you succeed."

Vince said, "I didn't get near him. I was truly afraid of what he was doing to very competent people. But I was in charge of tailoring his Meds to fit what the doctors wanted. They were so distracted by the guy, they just said ' You've done a fine job in the other wards. You decide what will work best.', " Vince shook his head remembering.

Vince said, "No doctor ever likes someone else deciding things about his patient. When you have a dispute over a certain drug, you have to fight tooth and nail for what you think is right for the patient. Not one doctor ever said one thing or another about what I was doing."

Carl said, "What did you do?"

Vince got a smirk on his face as he said, "Bounced him through every drug I could think of and then took him off cold turkey as I put him on another. Nothing to endanger his life, though I was close once or twice; but each one had a different side effect. His perception would vary wildly and his ability to communicate deteriorated. I don't think the demon liked that at all. He stopped talking after a while. And the glint in his eyes died. When I got certified to practice on my own, I let the next guy know about 'Rotating' Parson's meds and I left. I knew the evil was gone but I didn't want to take a chance."

LEO said, "Not a conventional method for casting out of demons, but effective."

Vince said, "Was that an example of the form of evil we will be fighting?"

LEO said, "A very mild form. The lawyer for your uncle is also your lawyer."

Vince said, "Philip Carson. He's been the family attorney for years."

LEO said, "Thursday the Body runes will be cast and secure. Friday you intend to bring in four more into our coven. Friday the three lovers will honor their love for each other. I felt something the other day when Selah was connecting with the Earth. She holds the key to completion of a thirteen coven."

Carl rubbed the shining page that LEO' was open to and said, "LEO, Pull it together. I lost track of where your thoughts were going after asking about Philip Carson."

LEO said, "I'm sorry. The line of reasoning goes like this. Phil was the one who received requests for help from those people who couldn't make things right with science and logic. A haunting, a possession, a force of nature twisted in pain, a sacred place desecrated by an evil spirit. Phil had people who looked for those reports of something gone wrong that normal people couldn't fix. He passed them on to Brian and Olaf, and they took care of them ."

LEO said, "But until Vince is finished with this set of tattoos, you all are open to being harmed if only one of you are. After Thursday you will all be able to lend each other strength, energy, Hope and Love. After Thursday you will all be able to protect the others. That form of protection is best brought about through the proper amount of members in our coven. That will come about through the three lovers joining and Vince's sister and niece. But that will be only twelve. I have a feeling Selah will be finding the thirteenth member ."

Vince said, "Well that's good. I've always trusted her judgment."

He smiled at Carl. Carl frowned his question for a second Then he remembered overhearing Vince tell Selah his thanks for sending him to Carl. Carl smiled his 'I Love You, too' at Vince

Vince looked down at LEO and said, "What I'm curious about now is what LEO needs to tell Carl and I. LEO, what do you mean by 'Set' of tattoos?"

LEO sighed and the pages started flipping and The Book went flat like someone pushed it that way onto the desktop.

LEO said, "After the coven is formed, Vince with Carls assistance can open up more abilities with a set of tattoos on both of you. These pages spell out what you two would have to put up with for forty eight hours. Greg and Kern would be doing the tattooing."

Vince and Carl looked at the pages describing the performance of another Tattoo Spell. Carl and Vince got to the part about a size change.

Vince said, "What?!"

Carl said, "Big, BiG, BIG! Woof!" then shook his head in disbelief.

Vince asked, "This is temporary, right?"

The Book said, "Yes. The intent is for you to place concentrated spell runes inside the runes you will complete this Thursday. So the easiest way is to enlarge the Mage getting the tattoos. Tattoo him where you need them and then shrink the body back down to the desired height. Net result; the body spells that shrink with the body become very concentrated."

Vince checked something twice. He pointed to the text as he asked LEO, "Does this say what I think it says?"

LEO's light dimmed for a second and then just the border around the written words were shining. The words written on the page Vince and Carl just read, started to glow and flickering flames seemed to rise off of them and then die out just as quickly. They seemed to ignite/extinguish in the direction a finger would go if it was pointing at the words as they were read. The glow flames paused at the spot in the text where Vince was pointing, then widened out for a moment and then went shooting along to the end of the page.

LEO said, "The part saying 'The Prime Magus deciding on what tattoo goes on to the Secundus Mage', and that 'A shared dream proves it's worth'?"

Vince smiled and looked up at Carl as he said, "Yeah LEO, I thought that's what it said. Like that Dragon drawing."

Carl finished for him with, "With the runes of fire in a ball around him."

Vince stepped closer and they kissed for a little while. A contented little moan comes from the desk. LEO's pages were shining a bit brighter.

Carl said, "LEO are you alright?"

The Book said, "OH, better than alright. When I was human I didn't understand the phrase ' Bask in their glow.' But when you two kiss, I can feel the Love and the way you both start thinking about what you can do to make the other one happy. That kind of attitude recharges my battery every time."

The pages went back to 'Normal' Glow

Vince looked into Carl's eye's and smiled for a second and then frowned. He didn't like his conclusion but he couldn't lie to the one he loved.

Vince said, "Carl. I can see now that love can make you blind or sweep you up in the glory of it. And Love can remind you just how important your loved ones are. I've put my friends, family, and my lover at risk, these past few days. I shouldn't be finding out these things only after something potentially fatal comes up. I've let myself bask in the glow of your love, and I never want to get out from underneath that light. But now I realize I have to do the work needed to protect you and all the Guardians of the Light. So for the next few days, I've got to start reading LEO from one end to another. I wanted to let you know, so you don't think I'm turning away from you. I've got to do this because I don't think I can handle losing you to some magical something, that I could have prevented if I had just done some reading. OK?"

Carl grinned a lopsided grin and said, "My love, you're being silly. We have true love. We're the aching/joyous reality that fairytales can only hint at. The only time you would ever turn away from me would be when you lead me to something even better than I ever had before. I love you Vincent. Forever and a day."

Vince pulled Carl into a bear hug and said, "I love you, Carl. My true love." They just held each other as tight as they could.

LEO couldn't help himself and after awhile he said, "Thus doubt is banished and Love is triumphant."

Vince and Carl chuckled and parted. Vince said, "I've got some reading to do."

Carl said, "And I have some tattooing to do out front. But It wouldn't hurt if I come in every once in a while and rub your back or read along with you, or just hold you; would it? Cause the the whole world seems right when I just hold you."

Vince reached over and gave Carl a simple sweet kiss and said, "My love, those things you do would only help. And the whole world IS right, when you hold me."

They kissed again and in parting Carl gave Vince a wink that said ' Love, Love, Love'. Vince gave Carl a wink that was chock ful o' love too. Carl went out front.

Vince turned to the book and sat down in Carl's big chair. He said, "OK, LEO. Let's start from the beginning."

LEO flipped his pages to the page just after the Guardians Page. LEO said, "The first Guardians Of The Light pooled their knowledge and decided to share spells their particular Magus line or family had kept secret for hundreds of years. This was a new way of thinking for the older magi. Sharing, in the past, put each magi involved, into great risk. But with the advent of the Age of Reason and the rediscovery of science to help describe the universe; the Magi were afraid of being discovered by well meaning people . So they devised ways to deflect the rational mind from seeing what the Magi could do. This brought on a need for the Magi to be responsible for the magical side of the world. Many solitary Magi formed covens to protect and guide the people in their area. But the individual covens refrained from contacting each other, though they became aware of the work certain covens did. All of the covens discovered by our coven were seen to be working for the Light. Over the five hundred and fifty six years as this book, our coven only made contact and stayed in contact with three other covens. With each of these covens the contact was lost when they had their Rebirth."

Vince said, "Rebirth? Is that what we are for our coven?"

LEO said, "Exactly. Brian and Olaf should have performed a rebirth a few years ago. But Olaf knew you would be the one to bring it to it's proper level, so they waited until you graduated High School. When they found out you were going to go to college for psychiatry they decided to wait for you to graduate. But Olaf died in two thousand and one. They just didn't foresee the evil spirit that inhabited a young girl being so powerful. It would have killed the girl as it was being exorcised. Olaf couldn't accept that. Others had died from that evil entity. Olaf felt he could keep from being consumed spiritually by the creature, though his life force would need to be given to the girl for her to survive. It was the hardest thing in his life for Brian to let him go. He knew Olaf had succeeded in destroying the evil spirit, but in so doing Olaf was beyond the point where Brian could bring him back to life. Olaf's sorrow at losing so many men to the Imbalance was a determining factor in his demise."

Vince said, "But I could have been certified a year and a half ago. Why didn't uncle Brian say something to me then?"

LEO said, "Fear. He was afraid he somehow was the reason the other men met with an untimely end. Olaf and I tried to convince him it was a matter of a Balance in Nature, and not him personally. And after Olaf died, he just wouldn't take the chance it would endanger your life."

Carl walked back in and said, "So here we are with two more days of tattooing Vince's first set of tattoos, and we only have seven of the thirteen people we need in our coven. We have five people lined up and we still need the final thirteenth. I sure hope Selah comes through."

Vince said, "It's funny, but now I feel like she and Abe are going to surprise all of us."

Read next part

Well it took long enough. I hope you liked this part. Please send feedback.

So whaddya think? Type in the code
Reset code