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Chapter 1B
Title: “An Extraordinary Girl” Chapter 1B
Author: auntiewrites
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: None
Summary: Family and friends draw closer to help find Ryan, who has battles of her own to face.
Warning: Child abduction, scary situations
Words: 2,615
Disclaimer: This is an original work of fiction. Please do not take or use without permission.
A/N: The next part of the first chapter. I sure hope it makes sense!





Vivi took one look at the over-turned cartons in the road and called an emergency meeting of their nearest and dearest, their own Inner Circle. It consisted of relatives who, like Vivi, did not feel the need to toe the Delgardie line, and those close friends who were aware of their circumstances.

No one questioned the fact that she didn’t call the police. The postal service called the police when their carrier didn’t return, and when customers started calling to complain about missing mail. For Vivi, calling the police would not help. Let the United States Postal Service call the police to find their missing mail carrier. Vivi called her meeting to discuss and decide how to deal with the police when they inevitably came calling. As for the rest, as she very well knew, it was strictly a Family Matter.

“Viviane,” said a deep voice, drawing her attention, and Vivi looked up from her contemplation of their vet’s report on the dogs.

“Uncle Etienne!” she said with relief, getting up to hug her mother’s eldest brother. He had always been an anchor for her, had been the one to first help her break away from the family tradition. He’d helped Vivi’s mother get Vivi out of the rigid roles that had swallowed her sister whole, helped her find the schools, both magical and mundane, that had helped her maintain her independence and led to her finding her current happiness with James Ryan. “Uncle Ten, what are we going to do? We fear the worst!”

“As well you should,” said Etienne gravely. “I found out that she has been looking for our more obscure cousins.”

“What? Why?” Obscurer cousins, Vivi well knew, meant descendants of brothers of Delgardie women. The Delgardie Family was a matriarchy, the family legacy passing from mother to daughter, all bearing the Delgardie name in order to inherit. And in the last three hundred years, all male descendants, who inherited their father’s names and legacies, had been virtually ignored.

Etienne grimaced as he sat down, ruffling Rob’s hair with the boy brought him a cup of coffee made just the way he liked it. “Well, Vivi, it seems she figured out where you were by figuring out where you weren’t, if you get my meaning.”

James frowned mightily. “You mean, she plotted out all the magically null places she could find and…”

“Yes, by process of elimination.” Etienne sighed as he looked at all the faces of the people around the kitchen. “It had to be close enough for James to commute to work easily, but far enough that she wouldn’t easily find you by chance when he left the wards.”

“So… where is Ry?” asked Vivi, though she knew the answer already, however much she dreaded thinking of it.

Etienne turned to face his niece. “Nathalia found a cousin with just enough Delgardie blood to be susceptible to her influence. He was working for the U.S. Postal Service in Llano County. All she had to do was convince him to transfer, which he did three weeks ago, and he was in a perfect position to take over your route last week. Remember the tragic accident that killed your regular carrier?”

How could they forget, thought James bitterly. The smoke from the burning truck could be seen for miles. The unfortunate man had burned to death in his truck after being rear-ended at high speed by a larger truck. The driver of the second vehicle escaped injury and said he’d never seen the flashing light on top of the mail truck, or the hazard lights blinking. “It was awful,” he managed to say calmly. “We’d known him for four years.”

“Convenient, don’t you think?”

James ground his teeth with frustration. “You don’t need to remind us that the Beast’s reach is long, Ten,” he said bitterly. “We know that quite well, especially now.”

“James,” said Etienne softly, “I am not trying to belabor a point. The Beast, as you call her, has gone to considerable length to acquire Ryan.”

“Yes, Uncle,” said another man who looked very like Etienne, except much younger. He looked up from where he was sitting with a worried looking Pip in his lap. “But the question is why? My little Button may be powerful now, but she is not as powerful as she will be when she matures into her full strength! What possible thing could she gain by taking Ry now?”

“That, my dear Julian,” said Etienne, meeting Vivi’s worried eyes, “is what we must determine.”







It was muggy, and her skin felt sweaty. Not that she wasn’t used to heat, but Central Texas was dry for the most part. Uncomfortable, Ryan squirmed and opened her eyes.

“I see you are finally awake,” said a wispy version of the voice she’d been hearing in her mind.

“Ryan turned her head and swallowed hard. The woman was ancient, her time-ravaged face lined with bitterness and disappointments. Malice glittered in eyes as dark as Ryan’s own, and thin fingers twitched on an ivory-topped cane. Ryan was not an easily frightened child, but fear surged through her entire body at the sight of this woman’s face. This… this was pure evil. She was pure, unadulterated evil, and Ryan could feel it emanating off of her as if it were a chill fog floating from her body to touch Ry’s skin, and it made her go very still and quiet in her mind, like a mouse when it sees a snake.

The woman’s mouth curved in a grotesque parody of a smile. “You don’t have to be afraid of me, chere,” she said with amusement. “For now, you’re safe. However, if you don’t do as you’re told, I will have to punish you.”

Something in Ryan flared in protest. Who was this person, and what right did she have to even think she could lay one finger on Ryan?

“As head of the Delgardie family, chere, I have every right to, as you say, lay one finger on you.” The woman leaned forward, dark eyes gleaming as they examined Ryan minutely, the way Mama stared into her microscope sometimes when she was particularly fascinated by her research. “Hmmmmm… you’re a pretty child,” the woman said, eyes moving over her face, down her shoulder and then taking in her small hands, the slender clever fingers and the little butterfly ring Rob had given her only last week. “Of course, Viviane is very pretty, so it would be expected that any daughter she bore would be pretty as well.”

“Who are you?” Ryan whispered. Her throat hurt, and she winced.

The old woman smirked. “Can it be that your mother never told you? Has Viviane neglected her duty in raising a daughter to Delgardie? Has she never explained about our heritage, our proud traditions?”

Ryan stiffened at the implied insult. Viviane, neglecting her duty? Ryan was only four years old, but she’d already had family duty drilled into her skull from her earliest memories. So she struggled until she was sitting up to glare at the woman, proud even through her terror, and said quietly, “I come from a long line of strong, stubborn, very independent women. I know who I am, and where I came from.”

“I see,” the woman said, lips curling with cruel amusement. “Then how is it, chere, that you don’t know who I am?”

Small hands curled into fists, Ryan finally let herself realize the truth, the truth she’d been holding back, knowing she would start trembling in earnest now, because she truly was a mouse, and this woman, this woman was worse than the worst snake that ever lived. But she’d been taught since infancy to face the truth, face it and accept it. “You are my many times great aunt, Nathalia Delgardie,” she said quietly. It wasn’t a question.

“A very bright child, indeed,” breathed Nathalia, stunned at the child’s courage. She could practically taste the little girl’s fear, but there was such determination in her eyes, so rare in one so young, and it called to her. “Such a clever girl. And surely, such a clever girl would know her place, is it not so?” She reached with trembling fingers to touch the bright hair, so eager to establish the bond that had been denied four years ago by the selfishness of her vessel. Louis had displayed unexpected strength when it came down to it, denying her the chance to touch-bond this child and make her more pliant, more obedient to Nathalia’s purposes. Perhaps it had been a mistake to chose Viviane’s brother for such a mission. She dismissed it from her mind. Louis had long been punished for his foolishness, and she would enforce the lesson more fully with every year. She smiled as the child drew back, eyes wide with fear. An instinctive reaction, one the child would have to grow out of, and so, to enforce the lesson, she reached to clamp a hand firmly over the child’s shoulder.

Ryan was only aware that Nathalia’s hand was coming to grab her, and she instinctively flinched away. There was a flash of light, she heard Nathalia scream, and looked up to see her clutching a smoking hand to her chest as she glared at Ryan. “You! You little … you will pay for that, you little demon!”

“I… what did I do?” Ryan scooted away from the awful woman, curling in a ball on the edge of her bed.

Nathalia’s eyes narrowed, already calculating how to use this. “You think you can escape my touch forever, chere? You think I will let you defy me, and leave your mother unpunished?” She leaned close, but not too close. “Mark my words, Siddhartha. You will drop your barriers, and you will accept my touch. You will declare to the family that you wish me to raise you in a manner befitting the Delgardie Heir and… when the time comes, when you come of age, you will come to me willingly, and let me take all your power into myself.”

“No!” Ryan shouted, angry and frightened. “I won’t let you! And don’t call me that! My name is Ryan! Ryan Delgardie!”

Nathalia laughed, amused in spite of her fury. “So, they did not tell you? It is your name, Siddhartha, as registered with the family.” She smiled, even as she cradled her burned hand. “I chose it for you, as I’ve chosen the names of all female children born in this family for the last three hundred years. Of course, your parents managed to defy me by inserting your damnable father’s name into it, but it is of no importance. It changes nothing, despite their foolish hopes. Siddhartha Limue Anathalia du Boissey Ryan Delgardie. Siddhartha, because you, chere, you are my accomplished goal.” She stood slowly, eyes fastened on Ryan as she scooted slowly back on the bed, as far from Nathalia as she could get. “The strongest witch born in this family in over a century, and you, chere, you are the key to my continued hold over this family.”

“No!” whimpered Ryan, scrabbling back as Nathalia leaned ever closer. Danger, danger and death if this woman touched her, death for herself, death for her parents, her brothers… “No, no, no…”

“Yes,” said Nathalia, kneeling on the bed, her ancient bones creaking, her wild disarray of iron grey curls falling over her wizened face, a face Ryan tried not to look at as it loomed over her. “Yes, you see it, don’t you? When you are of age, when the full strength of your powers begins to flow into you, but you are still too inexperienced to resist me…” then Nathalia was crying out, shrieking with pain as the energy field that had protected Ryan from her touch only moments ago flared anew, and she was staggering back, throwing up her own shields to keep from being consumed. She whirled to glare at the frightened little girl. “Make no mistake, Siddhartha! You will drop those shields and accept me! You will do it, or I will have it beaten into you!” She strode to the door of the airless little room, stopping at the door. “I give you four hours to think it over.” Then the door slammed shut behind her, the ominous thud of a bolt being thrown filling the small space.

Ryan waited then threw herself down on the bed to sob bitterly. Mama!! Mama!! she screamed at the top of voice and mind. Mama!! Daddy!! Robbie!! Pip!!! Mama, FIND ME, FIND ME, FIND ME…






Vivi sat up suddenly from where she’d been nodding over a map of the route the mail truck was known to have taken when it left their property. She heard it again, Ryan’s voice, faint but there, crying out over and over, find me, find, me, find me…

“Oh, sweetie!” she said, leaping to her feet, her eyes slightly unfocused. “Oh, Button, Mama’s here!”

Julian had leaped to his feet as well, rushing to take her hands. “I hear her! I hear her voice!”

“Me, too, Mom!” said Rob, and even Pip lifted his head, eyes still heavy with sleep from the nap he’d been taking.

“She’s so loud!” he said, though he was not really complaining.

Vivi turned to her brother. “Oh, find James, find him and…”

But James was already bursting into the kitchen, eyes wide. “I hear her! I hear Ryan, do you…?”

“Hell,” said a big man sitting at the table with photographs of the mail carrier in his hand. “I don’t have y’all’s talent, but even I can hear her!” He rubbed his forehead for a moment, smiling ruefully. “Sorta makes your bell ring, don’t it?”

James smiled at his ranch foreman gratefully. “It’s because you’ve been around her since she was a baby, Luke,” he said, grabbing a bottle of ibuprofen and handing it to the man, who took it gratefully. “The fact that you treat her like one of your own sort of increases the rapport.”

“I figured,” said Luke as he shook three tablets out into his flat palm. “So… what’s the plan?”

Julian sighed. “Well, we know she’s alive, conscious, and able to use her mental voice.” He looked at his sister. “We can start trying to pinpoint her location.”

“Jules,” she said urgently, her hands on the table, only long years of discipline keeping her from clutching at it. “Jules, can you…?”

He sat down on the sofa in family area of the big kitchen and relaxed, closing his eyes to shut out all exterior stimuli, forcing his body to relax and sink into the big, soft cushions, loosening joint by joint, muscle by muscle, taking slow, easy breaths and letting go… letting go… letting go...

He moved through the darkness and light, focusing on the small desperate voice that called out, so frightened, so alone… find me, find me, somebody find me, so scared, I’m so scared, Mama, Daddy, find me, please, find me…
Opening his senses, he reached toward her as if swimming through murky water, listening as her voice grew clearer, and clearer, until suddenly, she loomed in his eyes, sitting in dimness, pale, frightened, her hands stretched toward him, crying out to him as she lunged to him. Uncle Jules!

He looked around the room, staring at the familiar woodwork before he was abruptly forced away, and threw up his hands before the malevolent eyes of Nathalia could pierce him. He fled, keeping the knowledge he had gained as a tight little nugget deeply buried, and he opened his eyes, gasping in shock as he shouted, “Les Ambries! She’s at Les Ambries!”