Fletcher continues. “Then watching Efa kill you, the blood, your body...”
“Then the way they dragged your body out to show us, when we got there!” Elodie can’t help but sound affronted. The whole charade was over the top and cruel.
The Zeta nearest the window speaks for the first time. “I thought it was rather good. I hoped you would continue to think I was dead. Who figured it out by the way?”
They don’t answer. Neither of them wants Ellis named in this.
“Not that it matters. Either way the plan continues. I suppose now that I’m not in hiding I can enjoy it all a bit more. This, for example, is delightful. You’re sure you don’t want tea?”
They shake their heads. They need to know who the real Zeta is so they can bind her, take her back to the safe house, get some answers from her, find out where the demons and rebels are, and put a stop to this whole drama.
Another Zeta speaks up. “I want a place in the family again. I want Efa to be head witch, not Fletcher or this other girl. I want authority given to the individual species again. I want things back to how they were originally.”
“Why will Efa need to be head witch? If the species are under their own control?”
Zeta by an old heater rolls her eyes. “Such a stickler for details Elodie. If you must know, Efa would be the head witch in control only of the witches. And any of the other species who don’t play the game.”
“Play the game?”
“Insist on being fair to the witches, after all you’ve done.”
Elodie shakes her head, impatient now. “Zeta, this is all bull. I refuse to believe that you started a war, an all out species war, so that autonomy would go back to the individual creatures and Efa would be head witch. You can’t have it all ways. There’s something you’re not telling us.” Sparks fly out of her fingertips and one of the Zetas holds her hands up.
“Stay calm. You’re right. We might want something else, or something more, or maybe we are being duplicitous, but really, you’re in no position to argue or negotiate. You two came here alone, stupid of you, but there we are.”
“We have backup,” Fletcher says, thoroughly fed up of this ridiculousness. One deranged Zeta is bad enough to think about but being faced with multiple versions. He is beyond irritated.
“You mean David and the fairy?” Zeta laughs. They all laugh.
“And Ember.”
“Ah Ember. My favourite of the lot of you. Feisty. Bitchy. No nonsense. Yeah, your backup is no longer backing you up. In fact...” She pauses, looking expectantly at the door.
Ember, David and Vann are pulled into the room. Neither Elodie or Fletcher recognise the people bringing them. They aren’t hurt and they are shoved unceremoniously onto the sofa.
“What...?” Ember looks at all the Zetas with annoyance and confusion colouring her face in equal measure. “Zeta!” Her voice holds a warning, but the Zetas just cackle. She gestures for the men who brought them in to leave, and they do. Now there are ten functioning Zetas, four witches and a fairy in the room.
“Having fun?” One of the Zetas asks, a look of pure joy on her face. “Oh, I’m so glad I’m back from the dead. I would have missed all of these shenanigans if I’d stayed hidden. I’m actually glad that you guys figured it out. I’m alive. I caused all the trouble. I put the hearts in the box – a clever touch, don’t you think?”
None of them answer her. Not only because there are so many of them that it’s confusing, but because of what they are all saying; it’s clear to them that Zeta is absolutely barking mad. They are trying to reason with a crazy person. Her bitterness, her anger over being banished, as she calls it, have obviously addled her brain. This is not the behaviour of a rational person trying to right perceived wrongs. This is an unhinged woman rambling, and taking easily led people on the journey with her.
Ember holds up a hand, glancing between all the different Zetas. “Am I right in thinking this multiplication of yourself, as wonderful as it is to have so many of you, is only so we can’t harm you?”
One of the Zetas nods. “Yes, although I let Fletcher off his first try. I am fond of the boy.”
Ember clocks the bound Zeta with the teapot and nods. “But now there are ten of you – one of you being the true Zeta – and five of us. So if we’re quick, which we can be, we can-”
“Don’t even try it. Yes, now you could attack me and win, but let me tell you one more thing...”
They all nod, allowing her to talk, but gearing up for an attack if they don’t like what she says. Ember is right. If they all attack quickly, taking two Zetas each, odds are that they’ll bind her before she can stop them. The tables have turned.
“I just don’t want you to be hasty.”
“We won’t be. We want you, we want you under our influence, in our space, so we can end this.”
The Zetas laugh again, unnerving everyone in the room.
“Just chill. So, I have you lot here, and I’m playing with you a little bit, I admit.”
“Playing?”
“Wasting time, keeping you occupied.”
“Why?”
The tension grows and Zeta glances at the door once again.
This time when it opens Jane and Max are brought in. They both look frightened and Jane cries out when she sees David.
Zeta crows. “Waiting for these two.”
“Jane?”
“Ellis had a vision. She saw Ember get snatched.”
“I did get snatched, but-”
“Those visions are handy. Not an exact science, I’ll grant you, but I hoped Ellis would get the message. I made sure Ember was caught, but given enough time to panic, send out some sort of witch signals, silently screaming for help. Of course, it’s a siren to Ellis. She told Jane, Jane left the girls and ran here. On a rescue mission. A pointless rescue mission.”
She grins. They all grin. The result is terrifying. “You aren’t in any danger. Not immediate danger. You haven’t been the whole time you’ve been here...” She trails off, unable to keep the grin off her face. “Who is the most important person in all of this? Who do we want to keep safe?” The Zetas laugh and Fletcher answers, feeling sick.
“Ellis. Zeta, you better not have done anything. If you harm her, if you hurt her-”
“What? What will you do to me? While the demons roam? While I’m the only one who knows where Ellis is?”
“Ellis is safe,” Jane interrupts. “She’s with the girls. They’re in the safe house. They promised they wouldn’t set foot outside.”
“Ah, but what if they don’t have to set foot outside? What if someone could set foot inside?”
“They can’t. It’s too safe.”
Zeta shrugs and examines her nails. They are all sure of the protections surrounding the safe house, and yet a prickle of unease passes between them all, making hair stand up on end and skin break out in goose bumps.
There’s a knock at the door and a man pokes his head in and nods at Zeta. He doesn’t say a word but the smile that covers her face is unholy. It’s ghoulish to see.
She looks at them all in turn, and then her gaze rests on Fletcher. “How many vampires have you met, Fletcher?”
He shrugs, confused at the turn the conversation has taken.
“Take a guess. John, so one. Two? Tens? Hundreds? I’ll tell you something they all have in common. They can be the most charming, relentless species. You’re all right. The girls promised not to leave the safe house, but John won’t ever give up. If he can’t do something this way, he’ll do it that way. If he cannot charm, he’ll trick. And well, let’s just say, it seems, somehow, with the help of my little friend who just gave me the nod to say it was done – oh and who can do a mean impression of you, Jane, by the way, – in the end, they were more than happy to invite him in.”
Ellis
There is silence after Jane and Max rush off. Sally is pale and sick-looking and I feel sorry for her. That thing where you hate someone for no good reason,
though I had good reason – remember the Fletcher snogging memory she smugly sent my way – anyway, now I feel bad.
I hate that. It’s like someone is mean, mean, mean, and then when you bite back they look at you like you just tried to kill a puppy.
The twins have the same expressions as Sally. Sick, panicked, frightened.
We aren’t a happy bunch.
The safe house is completely empty, except for us; the first time we were here there were a bunch of workers at the other end of the building, gathering intel on all this witch war business.
Now we know that Zeta is to blame for it all, I guess there’s nothing else to do until we have her in our clutches, so to speak.
Hopefully Jane and Max will find Ember, and hopefully, Fletcher and his mum will have Zeta in their control.
And hopefully they’ll all be here soon.
I hate being separate from them all. I hate us all being apart.
But I hate being apart from Fletcher the most.
Without half of them here we are out of the loop. We’re in the dark. The girls are moping, frightened half to death, and I can’t blame them, but I feel antsy. I wish we could go outside; I know we can’t, and we wouldn’t be so dull after last time, but I hate being cooped up.
I begin to pace the room, the whole of the upstairs, past the computers, all on, all making that quiet hum. I walk around and around in circles. The girls glare at me whenever I’m down their end, so I stay up the other end. Around and around the bank of computers and desks.
At least the wave of sadness vanished along with my vision. That’s a good thing. I won’t miss visions if I’m made back into a normal girl. Witches can make chocolate out of thin air, so however unlikely they seem to think it is that they can undo this magic that made me head witch, it can’t be impossible.
I quietly conjure up a little bit of chocolate and eat it. All of a sudden, I’m starving. I conjure up some more of it, my favourite type, and sit at one of the desks eating by myself.
Flashback to college.
Then I read the reports in front of me. None of them make much sense to me, and none of them seem that important.
Then there’s a knock at the door.
My head snaps up, reports and chocolate forgotten.
I rush to the other end of the room, to the girls and they look like I feel. Cornered. And panicky.
“Don’t answer it,” Thea hisses.
“I wasn’t going to.”
I certainly wasn’t going to.
“Who could it be?”
“Maybe someone from the shop?”
“They can’t get through the protections, though.”
“Only a witch could.”
We know that’s true, from all we’ve been told, but none of us makes a move to open the door.
“So it has to be a witch?” Talia says. “Let them in.”
“Who is it?” Thea asks, voice shaky.
Are we being stupid? We know this is a hub of intelligence gathering, as well as the safe house. It stands to reason other witches would be coming and going. And only witches can get past the protections.
“Demons got past the protections at our house.”
“Because Zeta helped them.”
We are silent and scared. There’s another knock and we all jump. “It’s Jason. I work here. I’m one of the tech workers.”
We shrug. Could be true, could be a trap.
They look to me, weirdly, as if hoping a helpful vision will come along and show us what to do next.
It doesn’t.
Of course.
I have no idea.
“Guys, this isn’t funny.” Jason sounds like a stand up witch. Like a good guy. He works here, or so he says. Would anyone else know that any work gets done here, tech work, as he called it?
“Guys?” He’s not angry, just confused. He sounds plaintive, and unsure. Like he doesn’t know what to do next.
“Isn’t there like a password, or a secret magic word that only witches know? If they want to come in, they say the word?”
“No – everyone knows each other.”
“Well we don’t.”
“We’ve never been here alone before.”
“So do we let him in?”
“No.” From Talia.
“Yes.” From Thea.
Helpful.
We pause, it’s gone quiet. Has he gone?
I try reasoning with the girls. “If he comes back, we just don’t let him in. If he really works here everyone will understand why we didn’t let him in. But if we let him in and he kills us all, then it’s too late.”
That makes perfect sense to me.
I can see them contemplate my words, mentally shrug. “He must be a witch to get past the protections,” Thea says.
“I’m sure I’ve heard of a Jason who works here. Young guy, blonde hair,” Sally says.
“He can’t be here to kill us, he’s gone – and he wasn’t angry or rude.” Talia finishes off the round of non-logic from the three witches.
I shrug. He’s not knocking anymore – I assume he’s gone – which means I don’t have to argue with these three. I know they are only saying they’d let him in because I’m saying I wouldn’t. That’s how much they hate me – they’d risk death just to contradict me.
I need chocolate!
I sidle back to the computers, the uninteresting reports, more chocolate and I add a little pizza to go with it. It’s ages since we all ate and I’m ridiculously hungry. And fed up. And lonely.
I can see the girls chattering, heads close together; they’re not in fine form after what happened with the demons, but they are still close. Even if they liked me, I’d still feel left out – they have that sort of friendship; it goes back too long. And the twins have the twin thing – that indescribable bond. Maybe it’s better that I’m completely frozen out.
Molly and I were like that when we were together. We didn’t try to leave other people out, but we went back so far, we barely had to use words to get our points across. We could make a face or raise an eyebrow or nudge each other and we knew what the other one meant. We had so many in jokes and short cuts in how we spoke to each other, nobody would ever keep up.
I miss her. I wonder if Fletcher will let me see her again. It was enough in one way to know she was safe, but in another way anything less than a proper catch up over some pizza and chocolate – our favourite snacks – was never going to cut it. And I’ll never have that with her again.
Life is cruel.
And we all make it harder for ourselves by holding onto grudges. I feel suddenly filled with a sort of benign happiness and I head back down to the girls, boxes of pizza in my hands. I’ll be nice, I’ll show them that I can be the better person. Despite feeling completely out of their little circle, I will extend the hand of pizza and friendship.
“Anybody hungry?” I feel like a dick, despite it being my idea to be all friendly and nice, when they all look blankly at me.
Thea is the first to answer, holding out a hand, almost reluctantly. Relax, I’m not trying to poison you – it’s pretty good for imagined pizza. “Thanks.”
She opens the lid, frowns, just a little bit then adds some mushrooms. I feel chuffed that she took it from me and chuffed that she’s customising it. It’s like she’s accepted my pizza; she’s accepted me – God, I’m sad and pathetic. But I love this witch thing.
Talia takes the next box and Sally is stuck with the third. She doesn’t even say thanks, but she does add pepperoni before taking a bite. She smiles – I think. I can never quite tell.
There’s a knock at the door. Again. “Guys, it’s Jason. The others are back, so you can let me in.”
“They’re all with you?” Thea jumps up, Sally too.
“Mum, dad?”
Jane calls out. “We’re safe. Let us in.”
The mood lifts and the pizza suddenly makes it feel like we’re at a party. Jason knew we were nervous about letting him in, so he waited an
d now the others have come back. Which means Fletcher is safe.
Relief and excitement give me butterflies as Sally undoes the magical protections and opens the door with some flourish, really, and says “Come in!”
But it’s not anyone we recognise standing here. At least not anyone I recognise.
Jason – or the man who says he’s called Jason – slips his foot inside, so we can’t shut the door. And Jane – it isn’t Jane – morphs into a man and gives Jason a pat on the back. “Done?”
Jason nods. “Thanks mate. I forget how handy you shifters can be.”
The shifter, Jane impersonator leaves and Jason grins. “Sorry, girls, but you wouldn’t let me in. Rightly so, sensible. But – Sally is it? You gave me the warmest welcome just now, and of course, something every vampire needs: an invitation.”
12
Fletcher cannot speak; he’s choking on his anger. They are all angry, shouting at the Zetas, desperate for her to tell them it’s not true. But the peals of laughter tell them the awful truth.
“John? John has Ellis? Why, what will he do with her?” Fletcher is stumbling over his words; panic makes him hard to understand. “Mum!”
One of the Zetas actually snorts with laughter at this. “Mum? What can your mummy do for you, Fletcher-boy? John is at the safe house. Or the not-so-safe-house as you might want to start calling it.”
Elodie gives her a withering glare. “How can we trust what you’re saying?”
Zeta sighs. They all sigh. None of them answers, though, and Fletcher jumps up with a shout. “Screw this!” He uses his magic quickly and binds three of the Zetas before Ember and his mum catch up with what he’s doing and bind the rest.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
Fletcher points at the nearest Zeta. “She thinks she’s so clever but she’s not. If she has Ellis, we take her. One of these is the right one. We’ll go back to the safe house and if Ellis isn’t there, we keep Zeta. We exchange one for the other. I can’t imagine why anyone would want her, but I’m guessing John loves her, if he’s stuck with her all this time. And I want Ellis back. Let’s go. Now.”
The Accidental Invitation (The Chronicles of the Accidental Witch Book 2) Page 11
