Witch in Charm's Way

by R K Dreaming

My brain was thinking fast, trying to find a way to figure out who the killer was and get them to confess. Taking a break to go to the kitchen was just what I needed. It would buy us extra time.

  But Lorcan shook his head. “We’re not hungry. Jasper said that you guys had something important to talk to us about? What is it?”

  I sighed. I might as well get on with it.

  I picked up a wooden box from the coffee table. I had put the murder weapon into it. Opening the lid, I showed them what was inside.

  Petra leaned in close to look. When she saw what it was, she gasped and gave a cry of disgust and backed away.

  Lorcan and Paolo looked similarly disgusted.

  “What the heck is it?” said Petra.

  “Where did you get it?” said Oberon, his face gone pale and rigid. It was an expression I could not read.

  His eyes were wild though. I knew that he had smelled Lily’s blood on it. He could smell the differences between blood as well as I could, probably much better.

  He was breathing fast, almost hyperventilating, like an angry bull. He couldn’t take his eyes off it, and his hands had bunched into fists. Tightly clenched. Whether from disgust or rage or heartbreak I did not know.

  Or guilt. Please don’t let it be guilt.

  “I think you can guess what it is,” I told them all. “We found it in the castle outhouse. It must have been in the garden when Lily was there. The murderer dropped it.”

  Oberon gave a cry of dismay. Petra reached out to clutch his hand, but he shook her off. He was shaking, unable to take his eyes off the box and the murder weapon.

  “You’re saying that the person who murdered Lily used that to do it?” he said in a wild voice. “That they… They left that in your garden with her body?”

  I nodded. “I’m sorry Oberon. I know it’s upsetting. But…” I sighed deeply. “We wanted to speak to you four before we went to the police. To give you a chance to explain.”

  “Explain?” snapped Lorcan. “Explain what? You think one of us did it, don’t you?”

  He looked furious, and like he was going to charge out of the door. Darn it! I had messed up! And now the others had thrown me filthy looks and had turned to follow him.

  “You all came here tonight, didn’t you?” I said quickly. “Because you four know something. Or one of you does.”

  Lorcan’s hand was already on the door handle, but he hesitated at that, and looked nervously at his friends. From their shocked glances at each other, it looked like they were all wondering if one of them did know something.

  I had got their attention.

  I continued, “We thought that whoever put Lily in the garden must have been trying to frame me, so they must have known about the argument Lily and I had. Only you four knew.”

  “And James, that werewolf!” spat Lorcan.

  “James is gone,” said Allegra. “He left town. I couldn’t find him.”

  Lorcan swore, calling James a nasty word.

  “And someone has alibied James,” I said. “They saw him somewhere else and said it couldn’t have been him.”

  “Who?” demanded Paolo. “Maybe he paid them off!”

  “I can’t tell you who. The point is that it left the four of you. Maybe you guys told someone about the argument I had with Lily? At the very least you four knew about it. And we didn’t want the police to leap to conclusions and point the finger at the wrong person.”

  “Especially you, Oberon,” said Jasper. “You were close to Lily. And you know what people in this town think about vampires. When we found that weapon, I said we should go to the police straight away, but Esme wanted to hear you all out. She didn’t think the police would give you a fair shot at explaining things.”

  “You think it was me?” Oberon said angrily.

  I shook my head. “I hope not. I don’t want it to be you.”

  I hoped that he could see in my eyes that I meant this truthfully.

  “It wasn’t Oberon,” said Petra hotly. “How can you even say that?”

  “But how can you know that, Petra?” I asked. “You said that you and Paolo left Club Nocturne together, and then Lorcan and Oberon left Lily there alone. So you don’t know that it wasn’t Oberon.”

  Petra’s face flushed with anger. “I know it wasn’t Oberon. I’ve known him since we were children. He would never. And if you’re going to accuse just anyone, I’m surprised you didn’t start with Lorcan. Everyone knows that the Westbrims hate the Hardwicks.”

  “That body was found in your garden,” said Paolo, putting his arm around his sister’s shoulder to comfort her. “And you say that murder weapon was found there too. Who’s to say it wasn’t you who did it?”

  “That’s why you called us here, isn’t it?” said Lorcan with narrowed eyes. “You didn’t want to go to the police because you know that they’ll think it was you. It was you who argued with Lily that night.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” Allegra snapped, her eyes flicking to her wand as if she wished she could pick it up.

  She took a step away from it, as if she was afraid she might be tempted. All the time her eyes stayed on Lorcan, judging his distance from the coffee table and making sure she was no further away from her wand than he was from his.

  “It is not ridiculous,” said Paolo to Allegra. “You know it’s true that Esme might have done it. We heard what happened at the club last night. The police arrested her. She was being violent and whacky. Maybe it was the same the night Lily died too. Maybe Esme was off her head on something too.”

  “She was not being violent,” said Allegra hotly. “Oberon Senior was. The police arrested him too. Are you going to say that he’s guilty too?”

  Petra made a strangled sound in her throat. She looked at Oberon Junior nervously. He was gritting his teeth as if he didn’t trust himself to say anything.

  “And don’t you dare say it was Esme who killed Lily,” continued Allegra hotly. “The police would know that. It’s pathetic to suggest it. Esme didn’t even know Lily. As if she was going to kill her after a stupid little argument that meant nothing! You four have known Lily for months now. It’s far more likely one of you had reason to want her dead.”

  “We should go to the police with that murder weapon right now,” said Oberon quietly.

  “No, Oberon,” said Petra in a small voice.

  “Yes,” he said angrily.

  “No!” she protested, looking at him pleadingly. She reached out to grab his hand and squeeze it. “Come on, Oberon. Stop being in denial. You know who it was.” She looked like she was going to start crying.

  Oberon looked at her sharply. “Shut up,” he said angrily.

  He yanked his hand away from her, and she looked like it had physically hurt her that he didn’t want her to touch him.

  “You know who it was,” she said again, tearfully but even more insistently.

  Oberon shook his head.

  “”It wasn’t him. Don’t you dare say it.”

  “It was,” she said in a small voice. “We all saw him that night. He was at the bar at Club Nocturne watching us. You saw him watching Lily. It was your dad.”

  My mouth dropped open. Allegra, Jasper and I exchanged a glance.

  “It was not my dad,” said Oberon through gritted teeth. “It was not him.”

  “How do you know?” I said quickly to Petra. “How do you know it was Oberon Senior?”

  She didn’t look at me. She was looking at Oberon Junior pleadingly.

  “You know what he was doing,” she said. “We all do. He wanted to make a witch into his sheep. And Lily was the perfect patsy. So star-struck by Brimstone Bay and our lifestyle. She wanted it for herself. Oberon, you know that she was falling under the influence of your dad’s Mesmerism. We all knew it.”

  “Shut up,” he snarled.

  “Just admit it,” she wailed. “It’s not allowed. It’s against the magical laws. The Conclave of Magic would have been furious if they’d found out. Vampires aren’t al
lowed to turn witches or wizards into their sheep. You know that he had already seduced her.”

  “No he had not,” shouted Oberon, finally losing his temper. “Don’t you dare try to blame this on him!”

  “She was sleeping with him!”

  “Just shut up!”

  Looking hurt, Petra reached out to grab his arm, but Oberon pulled away so hard that she went flying backwards.

  Oberon stormed out of the room in a rage, and we heard the door of the castle slam shut shortly afterwards.

  Petra was still lying on the ground where she had fallen, sobbing. She had her face in her hands, and when we tried to help her get up, she kept refusing, slapping our hands away.

  It was only then that I noticed that she had knocked over the box with the murder weapon in it.

  I told her sharply, “Get up!”

  “Leave me alone,” she said tearfully. She refused to move her hands away from her face. Clearly she was ashamed of us seeing her crying.

  “Get up,” I said shrilly. “You’ve knocked the murder weapon over. You’re sitting on it and rubbing off the fingerprints!”

  With a cry of alarm, she rose to her feet and looked in dismay beneath her. It was too late. The back of her skirt had stains of dried up blood on it. The handle of the weapon had been polished clean.

  “Oh no,” she gasped out, looking like she was going to start crying again.

  “You’ve destroyed the evidence,” I said to her angrily. “Who’s going to believe your story about Oberon Senior now?”

  I picked the weapon up carefully to put it back in its box, but I knew it was done. The prints were gone.

  “I didn’t mean to do it,” she wailed.

  “You have to go to Agent Constantine with what you know,” I said urgently. “You have to give him your statements. Because I assume that you didn’t mention anything to them about Oberon Senior already. Otherwise the police would have arrested him before now or at least taken him in for questioning. They certainly wouldn’t have let him go last night.”

  “I can’t,” she said. “I won’t. Oberon is our friend. We can’t send his dad to jail. And anyway, would you tell on Oberon Senior like that? He’s deadly. I’m scared of him. I won’t do it.”

  “You might as well do it, because Agent Constantine is only going to find out anyway,” I said.

  “Then let him find out!” she cried out.

  She turned like she was going to run out of the room after Oberon Junior.

  Jasper blocked her way. He went to the door and shut it firmly.

  “You can’t stop us from leaving,” said Lorcan angrily.

  He and Paolo looked like they would force their way out if they had to.

  “I’m not trying to stop you from leaving,” said Jasper calmly. “You don’t want anyone to overhear what you were saying, do you?”

  “We are leaving,” said Lorcan stubbornly. “Petra doesn’t have anything else to say.”

  “You can’t leave,” I said to Petra quickly. “You need to help yourself Petra. You’ve wiped the prints off the evidence. We have to hand the weapon in to Agent Constantine. How are we going to explain to him what you did? He’ll think it was deliberate.”

  She looked helplessly at her brother and at Lorcan. “It wasn’t deliberate! Lorcan and Paolo saw. It was an accident!”

  “That’s not what Agent Constantine will think,” Allegra said.

  Jasper nodded. “You’re not thinking straight, Petra. None of you are. You’ll have to go to the police with this sooner or later. The longer you leave it, the more they’ll think you have something to hide.”

  “And anyway,” I added, “why do you think Jasper and Allegra and I went to Club Nocturne last night? We went there to ask questions. People told us that they saw Oberon Senior dancing with Lily at the club that night. So you won’t the only witness who saw him with her. Others did too.”

  Petra stared at us.

  Allegra and Jasper shot quick questioning glances at me, but kept their faces carefully blank. Nobody had told us about Lily and Oberon Senior dancing. I had just made it up.

  Lorcan and Paolo were shaking their heads.

  But Petra was nodding. “They did?” she said in a small voice.

  I scoffed, “Oh come on! You must have seen them dancing too! You said that you saw Oberon Senior at the bar?”

  “No,” said Lorcan, his brow furrowed.

  But Petra inhaled a shaky breath. “It’s true. I did see them dancing. I just didn’t want to say in front of Oberon Junior because his feelings are already hurt. He’s been in denial about his dad and Lily all along, but it’s been going on for weeks now.”

  “What song were they dancing to?” I asked.

  She looked confused.

  “Agent Constantine is going to ask you that,” I said.

  She furrowed her brow. “I don’t remember.”

  “Because it didn’t happen,” I said.

  She looked astonished. “What?”

  I nodded. “It didn’t happen. Nobody told us that Lily danced with Oberon Senior. I totally made it up. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Agent Constantine would have questioned all of the staff at the club about it already, and the regular punters. If they had been dancing, he would have known right? So you’ve just lied. You said that Oberon Senior and Lily were dancing, when they weren’t. Why did you lie?”

  Petra gulped. Her eyes opened wide. “But… But…”

  Her eyes flicked from me to her brother and then back to me again. Colour flooded into her cheeks. She had been caught in a lie and she knew it.

  “No,” she said in a small voice, denying the lie.

  “Yes,” Jasper insisted. “Nobody told us about Oberon Senior and Lily. It looks like you guys are the only ones who know about that. So how are you going to prove that it’s true?”

  “You can’t prove that it’s true, can you?” said Allegra. “Because if he’d been seducing Lily, Oberon Senior would have hidden it carefully. After all, he knows that the entire community would have turned against him. He would have been careful about something like that.”

  “Leave my sister alone!” said Paolo.

  “You’re twisting things up,” snapped Lorcan. “You’re confusing her!”

  I ignored them and kept looking at Petra. “If Lily had begun to fall under the influence of his Mesmerism, Oberon Senior would have been even more careful. Because it would have been a huge win for him, wouldn’t it? I bet he’s waited centuries to get a witch to fall under his Mesmerism. Everyone knows vampires crave magic. He would have cherished Lily, and been desperate to make her his own. He would never have killed her. She would have been too precious to him.”

  Even as I said it, I realised this was true. My heart sank. I might be repulsed by Oberon Senior, but I knew that by my own logic it couldn’t have been him.

  If only it could have been him, the horrid man!

  Petra bit her lip. She looked like she was collapsing under the weight of our arguments. She sat down on the couch with a thump. She looked defeated.

  “It was Oberon!” she wailed. “Oberon Junior.”

  Her brother sat down next to her and put his arm around her. His face had turned pale and he looked defeated too. He nodded.

  “It was Oberon,” he repeated.

  “Damn it!” Lorcan snapped, looking accusingly at the other two.

  Paolo shrugged at Lorcan a bit resentfully.

  Lorcan was still standing up. His hands had gathered into fists. He looked furious about the trick we had just played on Petra. He was gritting his teeth.

  Petra raised her face from her hands and gave Lorcan a pleading look.

  He nodded grudgingly.

  “Oberon didn’t mean to do it,” he said in a quiet voice, like it hurt to betray his closest friend.

  My lip curled. I glared at him.

  “There’s no point looking at me like that,” he said. “I know that you’d prefer if it had been me. But it wasn’t. It was Obe
ron.”

  “Why?” I demanded. “Why would he have done it? He loved Lily!”

  Lorcan nodded. “He did love Lily. He loved her a lot. Even though he knew what his dad was doing with her. Even though he knew that she was messing him around all the time, he still loved her.

  “It was that security guard’s fault,” said Paolo. “Willie The Shank.” His mouth twisted in disgust.

  “We were partying up on the rooftop at the construction site,” said Lorcan. “We went there all the time to chill out after the club got a bit too much. And sometimes we’d see Willie there. Willie was such a loser. He was always trying to seduce the girls at the club and bring them up to the roof to have a private party, if you know what I mean.”

  “And he had his eyes on Lily,” said Paolo. “He fancied her. Everyone did.”

  “As if she would ever have gone with a creep like him!” said Petra. She angrily wiped her tears away. “He was always trying it on with her, and with me. Yuck! But he especially had the hots for Lily. She was so gorgeous.”

  “We all had the hots for Lily,” said Paolo.

  His sister shot him an angry look

  He shrugged. “It’s true. Even me.”

  “What happened?” Allegra asked. She shot me an apologetic look. She knew that I hadn’t wanted it to be Oberon Junior.

  “Willie The Shank followed us to the rooftop. He came over and started flirting with Lily,” said Lorcan. “And Oberon got angry.”

  “He was right to get angry,” said Petra hotly. “Willie was an incubus. And we all knew when he started using his Allure on Lily. It was disgusting. She didn’t want it!”

  If Willie used his Allure like that, it meant he didn’t play by the rules. It made him more likely to be a dangerous incubus.

  “That wasn’t cool,” said Paolo, looking sour.

  “He used his Allure on her!” Petra repeated, as if she still couldn’t believe it. “The creep!” she added in fury.

  I could understand her anger. I would have been disgusted and furious if any incubus had done that to me.

  Lorcan was nodding in agreement, his mouth twisted as if just the memory of it tasted filthy.

  “Oberon got mad. We all did.” Lorcan sighed. “But Oberon especially. You know how he felt about Lily. The moment he caught on that Willie was using his Allure, he punched him. They got into a fight.”