CH8 Soul, Familiar Bond

My last week had been ****. Constantly fighting to control my qi was mentally exhausting to the ****. I wanted to quit, but I needed more power. So, I put a restriction on myself. I vowed not to take it off, and my own power backed my decision. My qi would shock me if I tried to take off the glove. The shocks would grow worse the more I tried to take off the glove. My contract lasted a week, and it was sleepless ****. It wasn't until day 6 that my resistance became somewhat passive. My sleep schedule finally became something more than power naps. I just had to do the same thing with the rest of my body.

The glove remained on my hand; it couldn't move or even disrupt my qi anymore. While I could slap another glove on, I had other plans. I've been using the dentist's computer to track down pedophiles to experiment on. With little to no direction to go on, I had **** but to use trial and error. This pedophile was named Francis Dobberman, age 48, and very interested in young boys.

He wanted to meet me behind the McDonalds down the road. "Cinder, I need you." Then, with a flame, an enormous phoenix appeared. With two passion fruit clutched in one of her talons.

"Are you hungry? I was just grabbing a snack in Brazil when I felt you call?" Cinder said and tossed me one of the fruits.

"I'm surprised they don't know your true nature. Jim is all over the internet shouting in forums about the evil of phoenixes. But, of course, most people just think he's another crazy guy on the internet." I said and took a bite of the fruit.

A troubling thought occurred to me. "How did you hear me all the way in Brazil?" I asked.

"Is Jim going to be ok? I've cried as much as I could over his wound, but it heals slowly." Cinder said.

"I asked you a question. Jim's wound is low on my priority list compared to your ability to hear what I say from half the world away." I said.

Cinder trilled a sad song. "I didn't do anything, but I know why I can hear you. Don't be mad; I had no control over it." Cinder said.

I groaned. "Please don't say soul bond. I don't even believe in souls, much less a bond between them." I said.

She fluffed up and feathers and flapped her wings. "That's only in fantasy romance. What we have is perfectly logical and explainable." Cinder said.

"Logical and explainable; if you say magic, I'm going to beam you," I said.

"Magic, I mean, it's because we are both magical." She covered her head with her feathers. "Please don't beam me. I don't want to go through an early burning." Cinder said.

I let the qi at the end of my finger dissipate. "Why does that allow you to hear me when I call you?" I asked dangerously.

"It's a magical bond." Cinder said lamely.

"This is just a soul bond with different flavor text," I said.

"No, this is perfectly natural and recorded in wizard and phoenix history. I've read about it myself, and there are warnings signs." Cinder said.

"Like how every time I get out of the shower, you flame in with a warm towel. You're always flying in with food when I get hungry." I said.

"Yes, that's the reason. It's because we're forming a familiar bond. I'm a phoenix; why would I want to see you step out of the shower or share food with you. Besides, the only way for a familiar bond to form is if it's mutual." Cinder added.

"Is that why I woke up last night with your butt in my face?" I asked.

"You looked cold, and your face was exposed. Humans are known to catch chills." Cinder said.

I shook my head and started getting dressed. Despite our earlier conversation, Cinder leaped on the bedpost to get a better look at me. I dressed in a tight buttoned-up shirt and some daisy dukes.

"You're wearing that in public. Everyone will see your legs. I don't understand why you're even going out with this guy. What can he offer you that I can't?" Cinder asked.

"An open mind to shape like clay that I don't care about breaking. He won't be missed, and who knows, maybe I can make him into something worth a damn." I said.

"You sound like my sister Ash. She's always trying to change her mate, but Igor is a free bird." Cinder said.

"I hope I didn't kill them." A week ago, I was furious, but now that anger has cooled, and I've thought about the problem. "I've decided that the phoenixes will work off their sins instead of facing extinction. You're lucky I have more important things to do than genocide. Jim is too fucked in the head to even think about bringing war to the phoenixes. So, if the cancer plan works, your kind will get off the hook with a light punishment." I said.

"No, I think that's a bad idea. If my kind isn't punished in some way, then they will eat wizard brains in secret." Cinder said.

"Very well then I will punish and forgive them. Their sins will be burned away through me, but the wizards aren't blameless. If they weren't weak, they wouldn't have fallen for this take over in the first place." I said.

Cinder began to drone-like; she was reading her essay in front of a class. "From Sumeria to Egypt and the Aztecs, we have taken over magical societies. We feed at the height of their power for a brief time before moving on to another. Grindelwald had the elder wand, and Dumbledore only his ideals. He made a deal he didn't quite understand with a devil guised in reputation as a savior. Fawkes was not the only phoenix working behind the scenes. The takeover of magical Britain had been planned for centuries in advance. No other wizarding society we've taken had been this advanced before. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was the perfect tool to convince the world that Grindelwald's aims were to take over the world. Grindelwald was mad in the end after all spouting nonsense about a great cabal of brain-eating phoenixes." Cinder said.

"After all, it was the Batarians who are actually behind all of this. That proves that Grindelwald was quite mad." I said.

"I don't feel right about blaming our sins on another race lightyears away. Don't you think it's like saying the devil made us do it?" Cinder said.

"I don't have time for feelings. Wizards need a devil to blame this on, and making it a distant one helps me." I said.