“Okay, get closer to the door and lift the camera up so I can see inside.”
Doing as he asked, I slid up beside the door. The glass was only a small cut-out in the centre of the top half. Unclipping the camera from my holster belt, I turned it to face me. I knew what Dave was like. He was protective of me, especially now.
Looking into the camera, I mouthed the words: “Tell me how many, where and what they’re doing. I don’t need to know anything else.”
“I know the drill,” he started in my ear. “Don’t try and tell me what I already know, smartass agent woman.”
“Don’t be a pussy,” I mouthed back.
A small growl rang in my ear. “Okay, I promise not to try and protect you. If you die, don’t come back and haunt me.”
Nodding, I positioned myself so I could hold the small camera in front of the glass. It wasn’t a big piece, so hopefully no one would notice the tiny black lens in the corner of the window.
“Right, there’s one, two, three... six of them. They’re standing in a circle. There are candles with multiple coloured flames.”
That explained the flickering light coming through the window. I had just assumed it was a warlock with magic, but the spell they were casting was causing the fire of the flame to change colour.
“They’re holding hands, creating a ring of protection. Hold me a little higher.”
My hand jerked up, my fingers almost losing grip on the camera. Jake’s breath was hot on my neck where he stood close by, waiting for his orders. My eyes met his, searching into the depths of the wolf’s soul. It was quite incredible how similar his eyes were to his human form.
“There’s someone on the ground in the circle. They’re... that’s interesting, it’s a naked man. He’s... shit, Gemma, he’s bound and struggling. Someone’s approaching him with a knife. You need to get in there.”
Shoving the camera back on my belt at the same time as getting my gun out, I gestured for Jake to follow me. The slight bow of the head told me that he understood. We were going in, guns and teeth blazing.
The door handle twisted easily in my hand. As soon as it was open, I was through, Jake right behind me.
“Freeze, police!” I shouted.
Those that formed the circle held as the man with a knife, who was standing in the centre, jumped onto the man who was writhing on the floor. My gun’s aim found the target of the attacking man’s arm. The chanting echoed in my ear as I pulled the trigger, my heart pounding in my head as I prayed to Mother Earth that the bullet would break through the barrier surrounding them.
His scream notified me that it had. The witches who had been casting the spell suddenly fell silent before one of them broke away, her legs taking her towards the metal sliding door at the end of the building. The others shouted at her as their leader clutched his arm.
Moving closer, I held my gun in front of me as Jake came out from behind me, his teeth bared, his snarl loud. Every one of them started to run, even the leader, who surged to his feet. As soon as he spun to look at me, a gasp left my mouth.
“Shit, that’s Joseph Cambridge.”
Before I could fire my gun a second time, Joseph ran towards the now opening door. Screams erupted as Jake nipped a couple of the fleeing witches. Shooting at Joseph’s extremely quick legs, I just missed him as he shot under the small gap in the rising metal door. Shit!
“Go to the victim,” Dave said in my ear, his voice completely calm and in control. “Jake’s rounding up the others.”
Glancing over, I almost smiled to myself. Three of the witches were huddled in a corner, Jake guarding their exit. The rest of them had escaped with Joseph. The good thing about having Dave as my desk friend meant that the footage was recorded. He would already be running identity analysis on all the people who had been in the room.
I approached the man who was bound in the centre of the circle. I didn’t go straight to him, instead hovering on the outside of the salt boundary. I had no idea what sort of magic or spell they were casting, so I had to be vigilant.
“Please, help me,” the human said, squirming against the floor.
He was naked except for a loincloth, fashioned from a light coloured leather. That was an unusual one.
“Who are you?” I demanded, my gun trained on him, even though he was no threat.
I would keep my guard up until I was safely home again. There was something going on with the ley line, so I couldn’t trust myself to be lax on my own protection.
“My name,” the man stuttered, pressing his back into the ground. “...is Blake.”
“Why is he moving like that?” Dave muttered as if talking to himself.
Bending into a crouch, I studied the circle. It was a very typical spell casting circle, the salt thick and the candles spaced evenly apart. So, what was making him-?
“Shit, look at his stomach.” Dave’s quick order made my gaze shoot to where the man was resting his hands over his tummy.
The skin stretched and moved beneath his fingers, the grimace on his face showing me how painful it was for him. What the hell was going on? Joseph, the vampire leader of the Paranormals For Freedom movement, had imposed a dire affliction on the poor human.
“It hurts,” Blake moaned, scratching the skin on his chest. “Please make it stop.”
“I’ve seen this.” Dave’s voice rushed in my ear as I swallowed hard.
There wasn’t much I was squeamish about, but the man’s discomfort, and the growing intensity of the churning movement inside him was making my palms sweat.
“What is it? Can we help him?”
“Who are you talking to? Please, just make it stop.”
His voice became even tenser, the pain obviously increasing at the same time as the movement. Whatever was inside him was causing the man to intensify his frantic scratching. Slowly standing up, instinct made me take a step back. My hand went up at the same time the man sat up abruptly. My own barrier spell recited, my energy was able to hook into the candles to give me a more powerful barrier to hold the man inside the circle.
“What are you doing?” Jake asked.
Blinking, I turned to him, quickly covering my eyes when I saw that he was extremely naked.
“Oh really?” Dave exclaimed in my ear. “He always boasts, but bloody hell, he wasn’t lying.”
“And, there I was, thinking you were offended at having to see our wolf in all his glory.”
“Nah,” Jake butted in, obviously guessing what we were talking about. “Dave is just jealous of this jelly.”
“Jelly?” I frowned. “Don’t you mean he’s jelly of your-?” Indicating to that area without even looking at it, I shook my head when he shrugged.
Looking over his shoulder, I nodded. He’d bound the witches with electric cables, their bodies joined and the end plugged into a socket. Wow, the man was a bit of a sadist as well as having the biggest-
“HELP!” Blake’s body fell back to the ground, his voice changing to a deeper pitch as his torso surged up.
Holding the spell, I waited for the inevitable. Our banter about Jake while the poor human struggled in pain made me feel a pang of guilt.
Something clicked in my mind as I watched the movement of Blake’s stomach. The witches had been calling a chant to drain magic, but what if they hadn’t been draining the ley line? What if they’d actually been-?
A ripping sound drew my attention back to Blake. The skin on his stomach was pulling apart, his scream drowned out by the loud roar that rose from within the circle.
“What the fuck?” Jake shouted as a dark shadow darted out of Blake’s body, causing blood to spurt all over the floor.
“It’s a demon,” I said, one hand holding my gun, the other, grasping the handle of my dagger.
The black shadow darted towards us, its ugly red eyes glowing as they fixed on me. Jake whimpered as it crashed into my barrier spell, a screech releasing as my magic burnt it. Yeah, it didn’t like my pure witch magic. What a fucking surprise
!
“The bastards were calling a demon into Joseph Cambridge. They were probably going to use him to get to us.” I glanced at Jake, whose eyes were wide, the pupil’s almost taking over the bright blue of his irises.
“I thought it was impossible to do that?”
Taking a deep breath, I steadied myself. “So did I.”
“Apparently not,” Dave chimed in.
“I’ve got to send it back.” Adrenaline pounded my veins as I spoke.
“Be careful,” Dave whispered. “You might not be strong enough.”
In normal circumstances, I would’ve laughed in his ear. Not today, though. Today, he was right. Not because the ley line didn’t have the power to deal with a demon, but because my body was technically dead.
“Call Devon Jinx and ask her to come and assist me. Alone.”
Dave grunted an affirmation in my ear, followed by the sound of him talking to someone on the phone.
“Who’s Devon Jinx again?” Jake asked as the demon swirled around the circle, looking for a way out, but not daring to touch the walls of the barrier spell.
My eyes had avoided looking at Blake, but they went there of their own accord. Cringing, I rubbed my stomach. The human’s eyes were wide open, lifeless. Blood seeped onto the ground around him where his gut had been ripped apart. The demon had killed him outright as he’d escaped the vessel he’d been called into. Without Joseph there to receive him, he was now trapped in my prison.
“She’s the Essex witch who works for the Hunted Witch Agency. She’s also connected to the ley line. I think a bit of back up might be in order, considering I’ve never dealt with a demon before.”
Jake looked down at himself as I stopped talking. The realisation that we might soon have company made him glance at me with raised eyebrows.
“You better go and get your clothes from outside,” I muttered, keeping my gaze on his face.
The smirk of his smile made my cheeks go warm. The man might be a sexy wolf shifter, but he wasn’t my type in the slightest. Even if his tight butt was a little stunning as he walked away, promising to be careful as he went.
“Are you seriously watching the naked man walk away?” Dave huffed in my ear. “When there’s a demon eyeing you within a few yards.”
Keeping my stance still, I glanced to the side, making sure that my gaze didn’t meet that of the demon. I didn’t know much about them considering they’d been trapped in hell for a very long time.
“Is Devon coming?” I asked, unable to contain the shudder that moved through my body.
“Yes, she should be there-”
My cousin appeared right in front of me. I backtracked two steps before I stopped myself. She was a tiny witch with a huge personality. Her black hair was loose around her shoulders as she nodded at me before turning towards the circle.
“Holy shit,” she exclaimed. “I knew you were a bit strange, but calling up demons?”
“Errr...”
“She didn’t summon the demon,” Jake interrupted Devon’s staring.
Although, she was quickly staring at the shifter as he tugged his shirt over his head. The petite woman was pretty, and Jake’s eyes quickly realised that.
“Gem, you didn’t tell me you worked with a Hunky Mac-wolfie.” Her wink went ignored as I turned towards the demon.
It was hovering above Blake’s body, staring at Devon now, its beady red eyes glowing in the dim light of the building. It was good that the bastard thing had taken its attention away from me. It gave me the heebie-jeebies.
“Typical,” Dave said in my ear. “The good looking women always show up when I’m stuck behind this desk.”
Wait. A demon was standing beside us, summoned by the leader of a terrorist group, and all these professionals could think about were the opposite sex. Either I was doing something wrong, or they should all be fired. Now. As their leader, I had to blame myself. The overwhelm of having a demon nearby was making us all flippant. It had to stop.
“Can we please get back to the minor detail of the demon, please? Devon, can you help me send it back?”
Her hand came up as she backed away. My cousin was meant to be a kickass agent from the Hunted Witch Agency. Why was she shying away from a demon? Okay, so I was failing to even look in the direction of our problem because my insides were quivering, but still, she needed to grow some balls.
“Sure,” she muttered, her frown bringing her eyebrows low. “Or, not. I know I’m a little crazy sometimes, but do you really expect me to go near that thing? I... don’t even have my work boots on.”
Huh? Glancing down, I tried not to roll my eyes. She wore a pair of unicorn slippers. Yep, the powerful witch that so many people spoke about was walking around in bright pink slippers.
“Okay,” I said, dismissing her with a wave and turning to the circle. “Leave the adults to do the work, and go back to your My Little Pony film.”
“You can talk.” Her instant reply made me bite my lip. “Your You Know Nothing John Snow T-shirt doesn’t exactly shout kickass ley line protector of the Paranormal MI5.”
Glancing down at my maroon top, I dismissed her jibe. I hadn’t been able to resist getting a printed shirt with the now famous quote. Game of Thrones ruled over unicorns any day, but I wasn’t about to get into a frills verses dark fantasy war. That would be extremely immature, especially when the demon was hovering nearer to my barrier wall, watching us closely. However, my T-shirt was much better than her fluffy slippers. No questions.
“You’re both kickass, you’re both hot, you’re both weird. Now, just send this bastard back to hell so I can go and eat. Shifting makes me hungry.” Jake crossed his thick arms over his chest.
“Hangry,” Devon corrected him. “Shifting makes you hangry.”
I was still kinda reeling at the comment about me being hot. Well, he had said both of us, but there had never been a time in my life when anyone had called me hot. I didn’t know whether to be offended, or a little pleased. The thud of the demon thrusting himself against my wall made me reverse away from him. The bastard had screamed quieter this time, so he’d been anticipating the pain. Shit, he wanted to get out. My veins pumped adrenaline as the others held up their hands. Yeah, they could see how pissed the demon was getting too. It was time to get back to business.
“Let’s do this.” Taking my hand, Devon tugged me closer to the barrier. “Erm...”
Glancing up at me, she shrugged. “As much as I hate to admit it, I have no idea how to send this ugly creature back to hell. However...” She held up a finger when I went to tell her that I too had no idea how to deal with a demon. “...my team did send an evil soul back to hell when I was otherwise engaged.”
“So, get them here,” Jake snapped. “That dude is looking more and more agitated.”
Ah, yes, the demon was now swaying back and forth. What was he doing? The longer I was in his presence, the more my muscles started to quake.
“Dave is contacting your team, aren’t you Dave?” I spoke for my desk friend who grunted a reply before going offline.
We stood for a moment, silent as we watched the black shadow of the demon. It was incredible to see a creature from the real underworld. However, goose bumps erupted over my skin at the implications. If a vampire and a bunch of bent witches could summon a demon above ground, we were pretty much fucked.
“Ah,” Devon exclaimed as several witches appeared next to her. “Here you are.”
Her team consisted of Gerard, Kurt and Justina. Four of the best agents in the field. I had worked with them on several occasions and found them pleasant enough. Each one of them greeted me before talking amongst themselves. Finally turning to me, Devon came closer.
“If you don’t mind, we’d like to do this by ourselves. You can stay and watch to make sure it works, but we work best as a foursome.”
Nodding, I quickly backed away. Jake moved with me to stand at a distance.
“You weren’t going to argue with that, I notice,” he
said, rubbing his hand over his jaw as he stretched it.
I’d heard that it was a painful experience to shift from a human into a wolf. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain associated with bones breaking and skin stretching. The thought sent a shiver down my back as the team from the Hunted Witch Agency started to move around the circle so they were evenly spaced out.
“Does it hurt?” I whispered, quite happy to let the others take over our demon problem.
Jake’s gaze came away from the others and connected to mine. He searched my face, looking to see if I was asking a genuine question. Yes, it was unlike me to be interested in my team, but you know, I was trying to be a better leader and all that.
“Yes, it hurts a lot, but the pain wears off after a couple of hours.”
Smiling to myself when his stomach rumbled audibly, I closed my eyes briefly and conjured a spell to create a burger out of thin air. The bag appeared in my hand, the smell instantly hitting my nose.
“What...?” Jake muttered.
Pushing the bag into his hand, I told him to go outside and eat. He screwed up his nostrils before grabbing the food. About to leave, he spun back, wrapped his arms around me in a quick squeeze and then left us to deal with his hunger.
“Gemma,” Devon shouted suddenly.
Turning to them, I went still as my gaze landed on the demon. The team had begun chanting, but I’d been distracted by Jake. The flames on the pillar candles rose high in the air. Their magic combined would be enough to send the demon back to hell.
Devon had called out to me because the black shadow with bright red eyes was thrusting against the barrier, its hisses growing louder as it burnt itself. It didn’t care, it was trying to get out. Its direction was aimed towards me, its eyes glued to my chest. My chest?
“He’s eyeing your dagger,” Dave said. “I wonder why?”
The others had fortified my barrier spell, but the demon wasn’t budging. Its anger seeped into the room, the emotion soaking into everyone’s pores. My skin started to tingle, the heat of the ley line beneath me making the bottom of my feet tender. What was happening?
Spells & Death Page 11
