Witchslapped in Westerham

by Dionne Lister

  Holy hell. This was bad. And where was Will?

  I slowed to a walk and coughed. My eyes watered from the smoke. I dragged my black T-shirt over my mouth and nose—I’d changed into black jeans and T-shirt in readiness for our foray to the warehouses later.

  A group of people had formed a circle and were taking turns kicking whoever was on the ground in the middle of it. There was no way that person would survive if this went on much longer. Was it Will? Nausea demanded I vomit in the gutter, but I ignored it. There wasn’t time to freak out now. If I needed to vomit, I’d do it later.

  Someone howled; then another took up the call. I was pretty sure no one was about to turn into a werewolf, but you never knew.

  I reached the group. “Stop. What are you doing? Stop!”

  They ignored me. I bent over, trying to see in between the people. One man growled, another swore, a woman’s voice screamed, “Kill the bastard!”

  I tried to pry a shorter man from the circle, but he didn’t budge, didn’t even turn and look at me. There was no way I was going to achieve anything without magic.

  Someone slammed into me from behind, and I crashed into the guy I’d just tried to pull out of the circle. He flew forward and tripped over whoever was on the ground, then hit the person opposite him in the circle as he went down. I’d managed to stop myself from falling, or he’d stopped me, probably. I turned to see who had tried to push me over, but no one was there. Was it Dana, or had whoever pushed me just moved on to hurt someone else?

  The rest of the people in the circle, distracted by the kerfuffle, broke into three separate groups and started beating the crap out of each other. I knelt carefully next to what I could now see was a man. He wore camouflage—he must be one of the army personnel. Where were his comrades? Surely they wouldn’t leave one of their own to die. Either they were busy fighting for their own lives, or they didn’t realise he’d fallen. I checked for a pulse. His face was bloody, his nose bent to the side. I winced. That must have hurt.

  I felt a faint beat in his neck. Okay, so far so good. He was alive, but where was Will, and who could I get to help me? Oh crap. I felt in my back pocket. My phone was in there. If Dana wasn’t already here, she would surely be here any moment. I turned and looked around. Despite my luck being normally bad, about twenty army personnel were jogging in unison towards us. I stood and called out, waving my arm. “Over here! A fallen soldier. Over here!”

  Two of the men broke away and ran faster, reaching me quickly. They thanked me and took over. Soon the other soldiers arrived and started hitting people to the ground and handcuffing them. I didn’t know if that was their usual protocol, but scary times called for new measures. Whatever it took to survive.

  I stood. Where was Will?

  “I thought I told you to stay home.”

  If it wasn’t for making sure Will was okay, I’d have made my door and been home in an instant. I took a deep breath and turned to face Dana. “You can stick your orders up your a—”

  She pressed her finger against my lips. “Tsk, tsk. Is that any way to speak to the acting chief of the PIB?” Oh crap—the acting chief.

  I wanted to bite her finger off, but I was afraid her blood would poison me. I grabbed her wrist instead and pulled her hand down while I digested this new information. We were in so much trouble.

  I didn’t want to buy into her chatter, but I had to ask. “What happened to Drake?”

  “He must have caught the same thing poor Ma’am caught. I think he even has a worse case of it. Quite ill, I’m afraid.”

  I still had her wrist. Was it the same side as the ring? I risked looking down. It was! Without taking any time to think about it, I pressed my fingers around it and tugged. The metal was so cold it burned, searing my thumb and pointer finger. She snatched her hand away. If she hadn’t, I might have let go anyway. That had bloody hurt. It still stung.

  “I didn’t peg you for a thief, petal. I could have you jailed for that.” For the briefest moment, surprise lit her eyes, but then she was as poker-faced as the best PIB agent, namely Angelica.

  “You have no authority over me. Where’s Will?” I was beyond caring about her threats. She would do what she wanted, whether I disobeyed her or not, and Millicent was safe.

  She smirked. “Wouldn’t you love to know?”

  I narrowed my eyes, anger percolating in my blood, energising me more than even coffee could. “Where is he?”

  “Somewhere you’ll never find him, at least for now.” She put her hand around my throat and squeezed hard enough to make it uncomfortable. I grabbed her wrist, but she was too strong, surprising since she was so slim, but she was probably trained in hand-to-hand combat. Why didn’t I think of these things before I antagonised evil people? “You think you’re so clever, getting Millicent out of my way, but now I have William. Anymore interfering, and I’ll kill him.”

  My eyes widened. “But you love him… or at least what passes for love in your psychotic mind. You wouldn’t.”

  She smiled, and the pleasure in her eyes chilled my blood, making me shiver. “Nothing and nobody gets in my way when I want something. I would have killed you by now, but it’s not allowed… yet.” Her smile mutated into a snarl.

  What did she mean by that? And if she wasn’t allowed to kill me, how was she allowed to kill William?

  Her gaze zoned out as if she were listening to someone else. Then she refocused her cruel stare on me. “William is merely a tool, and I will kill him and deliver his body to you as punishment.”

  I tried to put on a poker face, willed my feelings to stay in the back of my mind, but it was a skill at which I sorely lacked. She laughed.

  “You’ve been warned. Now go home. If I see you out of the house again, you’ll be responsible for William’s death. Do you understand?”

  I squeezed her wrist harder, trying to remove it. She probably hadn’t zapped me again because I had the return-to-sender spell up. I drew on my power and looked at her with my third eye. She had that spell up as well, so she shouldn’t have been afraid of my spell—I was weaker than her. And strangely, her aura was the colour of tarnished copper—still glowing, even pretty, but darker. And she didn’t radiate heat. A fog of frigid air flowed off her, as if she were a block of dry ice. It made me think of the typical roiling vapour that movies always had coming out of black cauldrons. If she didn’t have her hand around my throat, I might have laughed.

  “Do. You. Understand?” she asked through gritted teeth, her fingers squeezing harder.

  I struggled to take a breath, then released her wrist and tried to force the fingers of both my hands under her hand, to pry it off. But she was too strong. I wanted to punch her in the face, but instead, I nodded. Man, it galled me to do that, but to get rid of her for good, we had to play the long game. I was pretty sure that punching her would just lead to more pain, and it would likely be mine.

  “Say it!”

  My voice was uneven as I fought the lack of air and the pressure around my neck. “I understand.”

  “Good, petal. Now go home. Oh, and when you get there, you can tell Angelica that next time she comes in, she’s fired for attempting to undermine her superiors. I run the PIB now. Everyone answers to me. Time to go, petal. I’ll count it down for you.” She snatched her hand from around my neck, and I stumbled forward. “Five… four…”

  I ground my back teeth together and made my doorway.

  “Three… two…”

  I stepped through, fists clenched.

  But we weren’t done.

  No. Freaking. Way.

  Chapter 13

  I stepped out of Angelica’s reception room and locked the door. I turned to walk back to the TV room and find Olivia, but she was running towards me. Then she was in front of me, gripping my arms. “Lily! Are you okay? Oh my God, what were you thinking? We’ve been so worried about you.” I looked over her shoulder. Shaking his head, James stood in the doorway to the sitting room.

  “I’m fin
e. Hang on a sec.” I turned my phone off and made a bubble of silence. “I had my phone with me, idiot that I am, and Dana found me. I couldn’t see Will anywhere. Dana says she has him somewhere we’ll never find him, and that if I leave the house again, she’ll kill him.”

  Olivia dropped her hands from my arms. “She would never kill him. She loves him… doesn’t she?”

  “No. She was just using him. It seems to be how she operates.”

  “And he knows all that.” James folded his arms. “Come in here, ladies. There are a few things we need to discuss.” He turned and led the way.

  Huh? Was this about to get interesting? We filed in. Olivia sat next to Angelica, who was already seated on the Chesterfield facing me, and James sat on the other one. I sat next to him.

  “So.” I turned to face James. “You said he already knows. Does he love her, or have the past few weeks been an act?” As much as I didn’t want to want Will, I couldn’t help it. Was I about to get the answer I’d been desperate for since Witchface had arrived?

  “Of course they’ve been an act. But as much as he tried to protect himself from her persuasion, he’s under her control now. I didn’t realise what was happening until you told me.”

  I let out the breath I’d been holding. It didn’t mean he wanted to date me, but at least there was a chance. He didn’t love that scheming, evil witch.

  Angelica removed invisible fluff from her black PIB trousers. “She does it so gradually; you don’t hear or see it coming. Like that frog in the boiling water analogy, although it’s not true. Unfortunately, we’re not frogs, and Dana is more subtle than hot water.”

  “I’m also supposed to pass on a message to you, Ma’am.” I used her PIB title because she was the boss there as far as I was concerned. “She said you’re fired—”

  Olivia’s abrupt intake of breath matched Angelica’s face. Although Angelica’s expression was there and gone so quickly that if I’d blinked, I would have missed it. Her face relaxed, but her eyes told a different story. Fury pulsed in her eyes, coiled and ready to strike. I couldn’t wait until she unleashed it all over Dana’s smug self.

  “She also said that everyone at the PIB answers to her now. She’s sidelined Drake with whatever you had, although I think he’s in worse condition, and I imagine no one is helping him.” How would Angelica play this? Would she let him perish as his brain lost all semblance of self under Dana’s relentless stripping away of his beliefs, thoughts, and desires? The war that waged in his mind would burn him out if it went on long enough, if Angelica’s ordeal was anything to go by.

  Or would she try and save him?

  I wasn’t against saving him, but I’d rather save Will first, and Beren, although I didn’t know how entrenched she was in his brain. Maybe she’d only done enough to sway him to her side. Although, I doubted it. Beren was kind, but he wasn’t stupid or naïve.

  “She’s out of control,” said James. “Unfortunately, we can’t deal with her until we’ve got enough evidence on Gabriel. If Angelica can beat her to the punch, it will infuriate her, maybe get her to make a mistake. Taking her down will take some planning. I have no doubt she has the full support of everyone at the PIB. We’re going to have to figure out a way to render her mind control useless.”

  “I tried to take the ring off her tonight, and she didn’t like it. I’m pretty sure that’s the device she’s using. It was freezing to the point of burning my fingers.” I held my hand up. The top pads of my thumb and pointer finger were crimson, and a blister had formed on my finger.

  James grabbed my hand and inspected my digits closely. “That looks painful. I think it’s safe to assume that’s what she’s using to channel and silence her magic. Hold on for a sec, Lil.” He gently touched his fingers to the burnt spots. Warmth spread from his fingers to mine, and the painful throb faded away to nothing. He released my fingers. They were back to normal—no redness and no blisters.

  “Thank you.” I smiled.

  “It’s what big brothers do.” He winked.

  “I want a big brother,” said Olivia.

  I laughed. “You can borrow mine if you want. That’s okay; isn’t it, James?”

  “Ha, totally.”

  Olivia’s expression turned serious, her brows drawing down. “How’s Beren doing with all of this?”

  In the chaos, I’d forgotten she liked him. Not that she’d ever been upfront about it, but I could tell—the same way she could tell I was into Will before I’d admitted it.

  Angelica answered. “The last time I saw him, he was well enough. I think this whole thing has confused him. Things are hazy from the last week or so, but some moments have stuck with me. Drake had ordered everyone out to help manage the chaos, and then Dana spoke up and said, no, it’s not necessary. Beren’s confusion was on his face. He was going to say something, but then he shut his mouth and nodded slowly, as if he were just realising, yes, that was the best way. And instead of arguing, I was thinking it made sense for us to not get involved, leave the non-witches to themselves. The fact that we’re supposed to protect them from witch crime didn’t even cross my mind. She has control over him, but not to the same degree as she had over me, or Drake.”

  James twisted his wedding ring around his finger. “Even with that device she has, she’s spreading herself thin. She wouldn’t be able to have the same strength of influence with everyone. She may even just focus it when she needs someone to make a decision in her favour.”

  I slid to the edge of the seat and sat up straighter. “So, first thing is to go to the warehouse tonight and gather more evidence. Then we come back here and figure out our next move.” I looked at Angelica. “Did you find anything helpful today in terms of Gabriel’s motivation?”

  She smiled. “Oh, yes. All four people we interviewed from his school days were non-witches. They admitted he was teased mercilessly. Everyone thought he was crazy because he kept bragging that he was a witch, which, of course, is a big no-no.”

  “First rule of witch club….” I giggled, and James grinned.

  Angelica raised her brow, then continued, “He stopped short of doing magic, except for one unexplained case of two of the bullies coming down with a full-body rash of unknown origin for two days. Apparently the children scratched until they bled. We interviewed his sole friend from high school who admitted even he found him weird. He also used to threaten to destroy Westerham and the people who were so cruel to him when he left school. I’d say that’s his motivation.”

  Inside me, a flutter of sympathy took off, but it was quickly smacked down by the cat’s paw of consequences—he knew bragging about his origins was forbidden, yet he did it anyway, and it was probably to show off. Not that I condoned any kind of bullying, but surely he knew he was courting trouble by declaring he was a witch? I mean, that was the whole reason we kept it a secret—because of persecution. It would be awesome if the world wasn’t that way, if differences were accepted and celebrated. Imagine what the good witches could do if non-witches appreciated us? We could make their lives so much easier.

  My mouth dropped open. Could Beren cure cancer? Imagine all the people he could save, all the children. Mind. Blown. Maybe we should work towards coming out to the world.

  “Lily. Earth to Lily. Come in, Lily.” James was waving his hand in front of my face.

  “Oh, sorry.” I gave him a sheepish grin. “You know how I am….”

  James shook his head and sighed. “Yes, unfortunately, we do.”

  “Hey!” I play-punched him in the arm.

  “Okay, children, back to work.” One corner of Angelica’s mouth was turned up just enough to take the firmness out of her words.

  James reached into a black bag at his feet. How had I not noticed it before? I wasn’t very observant. He pulled out two bulky, black phone-looking things with thick aerials. I laughed. “Are those walkie-talkies?” Mum and Dad had given us cheap ones when we were kids, and we used to play spies. Those were the days, when it was only make-be
lieve.

  “Yes, dear sister, they are. We’ll have one, but try not to use it when we’re sneaking around. It’s more for an emergency situation to contact Olivia, who is going to be our base manager.” He handed her one and smiled, then handed me the other.

  “I get to help? Wow, thanks!” Olivia grinned and inspected her gadget.

  “If things go pear-shaped and we can’t get out for whatever reason, call Olivia. She’s going to call my mate who’s a sergeant in the army, and he’ll get some guys down there. He’s a non-witch who knows about us. Two of his team also know about us, and the rest—well, we’ll just wipe their memories if it comes to that. I’ve warned him that I may need assistance later, but I haven’t given him any details, for obvious reasons.” He showed me what buttons to press to call Olivia. Then he got up and sat next to Olivia to show her. He then pulled out a piece of paper. “If we call and ask you to get help, use your mobile phone to call my friend on this number. Tell him your name is Susan Smith, and he’ll know it’s about me. Give him these coordinates.” James pointed to a spot on the paper. “Got it?”

  She nodded. “Yep. All good.” Olivia looked at me and gave me an oh-my-God-this-is-awesome look. I grinned. When she passed her exams and joined the police and PIB, she’d be working with James more often. That was, if we won. If we lost, there was no way Olivia would want to work with the PIB, and what about Angelica and James? Surely they’d lose their jobs, not to mention, there’s no way they’d compromise their principals and work for a lying, law-breaking psychopath. Gee, there was more on the line than I’d figured. I didn’t care if I didn’t work for them since I was only a contractor, but for everyone else in my life, it was their livelihoods, their passion.

  I stood, handed Olivia my phone, and magicked my camera into my hand. “Are we ready?”

  Everyone stood. “Good luck, guys. You got this.” Olivia looked at each of us in turn.

  Angelica turned to me. “I’m sending you the coordinates. I snuck by earlier and set a temporary doorway position that will last for forty-eight hours. It comes out in the complex next door, at the side of the building where there is no light and no surveillance camera. When you come out, just follow me. James will go first, and we’ll wait sixty seconds for him to make sure there is no one inside our target building and disarm the security cameras and alarm. If there is someone there, he’ll contact us on the walkie-talkie. We have plans for either scenario, so just follow my lead with as little talk as possible. Got it?”