After discussing with both Lar and Temple about the possibilities of being able to use magic if we drank blood, they said it would be worth a shot. They also warned that it wasn't going to be as easy at it looked and that we'd have to train and practice the focus it took to actually use it properly.
So John and I gagged down a mouthful each and started to see if we could feel for it, the tug on our heart and boost of energy, they described. After drinking a few more mouthfuls and keeping them down, that was the tricky part, we started to feel what they were describing to us.
That was about it. We could feel it but we could not grasp how we were supposed to use it.
"Don't worry mija, mijo. It will take time and lots of practice. Just try focusing on nothing but the tug, once you learn to focus in on it, then you can learn to take control of it." Lar patted our backs.
"So we need to focus like how monks do meditation or when practicing difficult martial art techniques?" inquiring from Lar and Temple, John stood up and stretched his arms out yawning.
"You could say it's something like that..." Temple scratched his head, "But then again it's different cause you are not focusing on an actual physical movement or part of your body. Just keep on trying, it will come eventually. Since you were able to feel it in the first place, now it's just a matter of time before you are able to start using it."
"Do we need to drink it every time we need it? Or just when we have used it?" I wanted to make sure since I only recall seeing them drink it if they've been using the snap ability more frequently or transporting a large amount of items.
"It's good at first to drink some after you use it every time you use it. At least until you learn to gauge how much you use and are able to control the amount used. That will come later. Don't worry, you have two experienced teachers to help you." Temple grinned at John, "I'm available if you need extra lessons or a helping hand though. I don't mind." He winked at him.
"Temple the only 'helping hand' he needs is mine." I wrapped my arm around Johns waist territoriality and raised a brow at Temple.
"Of course, of course.." Temple shrugged unaffected.
"Hey SIN!" Cass called down the stairs and I called back up.
"What Cass?"
"I need you to come up here please." I shrug as John gives me a questioning look and he follows me up as we head up the stairs to see what's up with Cass.
We hear him call out down to us again, "I'm hungry! Do you guys want me to order out? Did anyone balance the check book?"
John and I stop in our tracks and head back down alerting Temple and Lar as we call out to Cass, "We should have enough in the check book! Give us a minute we'll be up and give you our orders!"
Immediately Temple opens up the hidden room where all our extra weapons are. Temple grabs his Katana and tosses me mine. John grabs his M-4 carbine and ammo clips and dump bag and tosses me my .40 as I grab my bracers with my blades clipping them on and pull my straps on with my ammo and dump bag attached. Lar is ready quickly with his blades and is downing a blue bottle and tosses half of it to Temple who catches it flawlessly and finishes it off.
Lar snaps out after lifting two fingers signaling he'll be on the second floor. Temple signals 3 and 1 so he'll be looking out from the third floor and snapping down to one where he's needed. He snaps and disappears.
John and I head up the stairs peaking out through the open crack in the door and notice Cass standing still not far from the basement door. Behind him is someone who has a gun to his head.
Temple snaps behind the gun man slicing his arm holding the gun off and Cass jumps to the side as the gun goes off when his arm hits the ground. He screams in shock and I kick open the door quickly sweeping the field of vision and fire off 2 shots at another gun man by the front door. I clip him as he dodges, diving to the left out of my sight.
"Cass, you alright?" John yells before we stick our heads out.
"Yeah, I'm okay. There's three more, on top of this stupid one armed fuck and the ball less wonder hiding behind the coat closet door!" We step out and scan not seeing anyone.
Cass is on the ground and he's bleeding from his leg.
"CASS!" I yell out see the wound and run over to him and immediate apply pressure to the wound. He grimaces and grabs my hand.
"The bullet when the gun went off.... I think it hit the bone... I don't think I can walk on it right now." He grimaces and takes some deep breaths.
Temple snaps to us holding onto another one of the gunman. "I killed one and Lar killed the other one trying to escape through the kitchen. Are there anymore?"
Lar snapped to us and saw Cass bleeding. "Mijo!" He looked at Cass worry in his eyes.
John made his way to the coat closet and pointed the gun at man in there who held his arms up shrunk down on his knees.
"I got this one." John dragged the one cowering in the coat closet out.
He whimpered crying, "don't kill me..."
"Temple, John take those pieces of shit down to a cell. We need to get Cass some help."
"Where can we take him?" Lar asked me and I wondered myself trying to think. He needs an x-ray at least and possibly even surgery.
"My phone." Cass asks for his phone and Lar snaps it to him.
"Elena? I need your help, can you come over? I'll explain it to you when you get here but it's important. I can have Lar snap you if that's alright?" He looks at Lar and nods to him.
Elena... Natalia's sister, how could she help?
Lar is gone and back as soon as Cass hangs up with Elena. Upon seeing Cass wounded on the floor she cries out in shocked surprise and falls to her knees next to him.
"Cass, amore mio! What has happened?" She looks around and notices the dead man with out an arm and her eyes widen farther.
Quickly I explain about the bullet wound and that he'll need at least x-ray's and most likely surgery if the bullet shattered his bone. She nods and turns to me, "Where is Temple?"
Lar disappears and a minute later Temple arrives.
"Temple can Cass drink the elixir and it work safely on him?" Elena asked.
Temple hesitates thinking before scratching his head.
"I'm not sure, and even if it does, we won't have time to test to see how long it will last. So I'll have to send you enough to fill your purse and hope it's enough while you are waiting. He'll still have problems with identification documents at a hospital though."
Elena looks at Cass who nods to her.
"Here Temple," she reaches into her purse and grabs a photo out to hand to him, "this is my cousin, I have all the identification papers with me as well. We were going to let John use it as a last resort...." Her voice trailed off looking at Cass.
"Don't worry, John will not care as long as Cass is taken care of." I reassure her.
Temple takes the photo and holds it up.
"Then I'll get started on making this and hope it works and long enough he's not drinking a bottle every 15 minutes. That'll be awkward on an operating table." He said before disappearing.
Cass was looking pale and was sweating pretty bad. "Cass are you feeling lightheaded or dizzy?" I checked his pulse which was high but not not racing.
"It fucking hurts like hell, but no." He gripped Elena's hand breathing rapidly with his face puckered in pain.
Lar and John are just coming up from the basement and I quickly told John to go get the first aid kit.
He ran off to the kitchen as Lar drained a small blue bottle and helped us move Cass to the chaise lounge against the wall nearby. Cass whimpered in holding his cries of pain as his leg was forced to move when he was placed on the sofa.
"....snap?" Cass said weakly as sweat now dripped off of his head.
"I'm sorry Cass, it could have hurt you more to use the magic to move you." Lar looked guilty at Cass in pain as John came jogging back with my large first aid chest.
He opened it up and immediately handed me square gauze pads. "Thanks, I need some of the gauze roll, the splint sticks give me four, and that stretch bandage too." I nodded to the items in the chest.
"Also Elena, you're closer to them, that blue and orange bottle?" She touches it with her free hand, "Yes, that one, open it up and give Cass, three of those pills." She opens and Cass looks at me with a pained scowl.
"Sin, it's ibuprofen." He grunts out.
"Yes it is. I have to make this look like a home job, with some one who may have first aid training but no experience. I need you to take them and brace yourself because I've got to wrap this with a splint. It's not going to be pleasant. I'm not intentionally trying to hurt though, love."
"Just do it." Cass said quickly swallowing the pills and bracing himself for the pain about to come.
I added more gauze then necessary and I wrapped the roll of gauze loosely around the squares. The splints being put in place and wrapped with the stretch bandage was where Cass lost his resolve and began to cry in pain as I had to apply pressure to make sure it stayed in place.
He panted and tried to not cry out but it was too much for him. He yelled out looked even more pale and weaker than before. It tore at my heart.
"Done." I raised my hands from his legs and gave John a concerned look. "I'm going to see if Temple is almost finished." I got up and went downstairs, John on my heals.
"Mary?" The concern in Johns voice was all too apparent as he grabbed my hand.
"I think his bone is most likely shattered....he may end up with a limp and a rod and pins in his leg. Possibly even crippled. Who were those guys and why were they here?" I made my way to Temples lab and Temple looked up at me still concocting the Elixir.
"It takes longer for me to make some for humans. I have to make sure it's safe for him to drink. I'm going as fast as I can." He said a little irritated.
"I'll reimburse you for the ingredients you are using Temple. Do we know who those men are? They didn't seem to be able to put up much of a fight." I said sitting down by him.
"They are at this moment just punks, street thugs,... hoping to make a quick buck robbing houses. Thinking they were tough because they had some guns. Mary, they're clean, no trackers, no chips, no advanced tech other than their phones. They even had their wallets with their IDS in them! They had some drugs on them too but not enough to be suspicious of anything except being high when they decided to go rob someone." John informed me.
"Everyday criminals were able to get in here?" I looked bewildered at him. How the hell could that be?
"Sin, don't worry about paying me for the materials for this. You and Cass have taken care of me financially for a while. Now, both of you out, I need to concentrate. It'll hopefully only take me another half an hour to finish this up. The amount of time it last varies per person on how much of their looks are changing to begin with and you two talking is not helping me." Temple grunts out pointing at the door.
"Thank you Temple." I say nodding in understanding he's feeling under pressure for Cass's safety while taking on this disguise.
John and I leave his lab and head to the cells. I pause and ask John to go upstairs and tell them Temple said half an hour hopefully. Taking off upstairs, John goes as I, I head for the cells with those thugs.
I walk in the hall and can hear them. They're talking trying to figure out a way to get out and Graves laughs at them.
"You two dumb fucks have no idea how much you fucked up breaking into this house do you?" Graves mockingly says from cell sitting back on his bench seat looking at them.
"What do know old man? What the fuck is this place? Who are those crazy fucks upstairs?" The man Temple caught trying to escape through the kitchen yells at Graves.
Graves looks indignant at being called an old man, "Look here you little fucking punks, I've got more combat and training years under my belt then you two punks have been alive. I've been here for MONTHS. You're not going anywhere and you'll probably get your bodies drained dry of blood and your bodies burned." He sneered at them.
"As for who those 'crazy fucks' as you so elegantly put it," I hear the disgust in his voice dripping with awe at their idiocy, "they are your new damn personal hell attendants." He laughed at the shock that started to show up in their eyes.
John comes through the door behind me and I hold up my finger to my mouth silencing him as I listen.
"What ever old man you're just trying to scare us, they will probably hold us hostage for ransom or something."
Graves scoffed, "You two are in for a surprise then if that's what you really think." He chuckles brazenly and shouts, "SO I FELT THE AIR DRAFT THROUGH THE DOOR TWICE! IS THAT YOU SIN? JOHN? I SEEM TO HAVE FINALLY GOTTEN SOME COMPANY IN HERE!"
John and I share a look and shake our heads, only to walk around the corner and see the two guys, one near the cell door, the other cowering in the corner. We look through the plexiglass and rebar enforced 'windows' that look into each cell.
"Graves." I say greeting him while rolling my eyes and look exclusively at the two who broke into the house.
"Sin." The sarcasm and mirth that filled that single word had John giving Graves the crazy eye.
"Who are you and why did you break into this home?" I asked crossing my arms over my chest.
"Fuck you lady. Let us out!" I look at John and roll my eyes. I look at the time on my watch and look at the other one in the corner. He's balling his eyes out and I notice he looks pretty young. I lean over to John and ask for their wallets so I can see their IDS.
"You speak English pretty good for a criminal living in Italy." I mention taking the wallets from John and look inside. "Mr. Marco Ricci." I smile up at this asshole in front of me.
"Yeah I spent my time in college in the states, what of it?" He shrugs still sneering at us.
"What about you over there?" I ask suggesting to the one over in the corner, looking at the other wallet. "Mr. Michael Ricci?" I pause looking at the DOB. He's just barely 18, but his ID is American, and upon opening his wallet further I find a temporary passport replacement paper for lost and stolen passports.
"You're related to each other? Any one else you're related to then upstairs?" I ask.
"Fuck you bitch!" Marco shouts through the cell door.
I look at my watch again. "I guess we can talk later then once you've had time to cool down. I don't need to find out right this minute. WE have plenty of time to get the truth from you..... Right GRAVES?" I smile his way and blow him a kiss and Graves flips me off. John looks at the cells and shakes his head and follows me up.
"Mary.... What if they're just regular street criminals? So what if they're family? That kid just turned 18 a few months ago. He might have been dragged along with these older ones. What will we do with him?" John tugs on my arm.
"I don't know right now John. After Cass is back home from the hospital I'll make that choice." I pull away and go upstairs. I was still trying to figure out how they got inside the house without any of us knowing. Especially Cass.
We were going to have to get to the root of this problem, soon.