Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  “Nathaniel Stapleton,” he said as we approached the two men at the doors in fine suits. “I’m on the preferred guest list with a plus one.”

  “Yes, Mr. Stapleton,” said the doorman looking at his list of guests. “I see you right here. Welcome and enjoy your evening.”

  I could hear the gentle melody of Rachmaninoff playing from inside. I had a soft spot for classical. I tried letting the music soften my mood as I gently urged my magic to stay the hell where it belonged. Hidden.

  “The preferred guest list?” I mumbled.

  “How else do you expect to gain an audience with the Congressman?”

  “He doesn’t greet everyone at his own parties?”

  “Hardly. He thinks himself above small talk.”

  “So you’re acquainted?”

  He scoffed. “I make it my responsibility to be acquainted with those who could be useful to me. Even kruxa.”

  I let out a sigh. At least he didn’t call me ‘little kruxa’ this time.

  People were staring at me as we walked inside. Nathaniel wrapped my hand around his arm so it was looped in his. I cringed at the thought that if anyone recognized me from town, they would think I moved on from Caleb a little too fast. But I had no choice at this point. As much as I didn’t like it, he was preventing my magic from stirring up again by clenching onto my hand as I made a tight fist with my other one.

  ‘So much for the cousin excuse. He won’t let me have my hand back with my magic on edge like this.’

  I could hear my heels echo as we walked up the grand staircase. Looking back down I saw that the Congressman probably spent all his money from lobbyists on making his home into a proper palace. Not a dime was wasted on anything of mediocre quality.

  ‘This is where Emily lives? Why didn’t she have her father get her a driver to and from school? She obviously didn’t have to take the bus all those years.’

  There wasn’t a single face that I recognized. Thank god! And yet, given that it was a small town, I found that rather disturbing. These must have been people who flew in just to see the Congressman. People who didn’t see money as a hindrance toward getting what they wanted.

  My magic burned inside my skin, begging for release. Nathaniel must have sensed it because he held my hand that much tighter inside his arm.

  ‘Aha! That explains it.’

  There were vampires here. Quite a few of them. I could finally sense their sinister presence. Nathaniel’s presence was subtle when gran appeared to me. The vampires here were obviously not as adept at hiding their presence from witchlings. Which made me think Nathaniel had a great deal of practice. Not a comforting thought. But even more uncomfortable was the thought that the Congressman invited them into his house. The home where his daughters lived. Where they ate. Where they slept. Was he a lunatic as well as a narcissist?

  ‘Irresponsible arrogant dirtbag nutcase.’

  Nathaniel nodded to a few of them as we walked by. He was obviously acquainted with some of them.

  “You brought me into a lion’s den,” I blurted out. “They could smell my kruxa blood at any moment.”

  “Hush,” he said. “Most vampires here are too young to know what a kruxa smells like with most of your lot gone. Besides, no one is going to question the company I keep.”

  “Why is that?”

  Then it hit me. Nathaniel was someone. That’s why he could get an audience with the Congressman. That’s why the vampires here nodded at him with obvious respect.

  “How far down are you from your coven master?” I asked, catching onto what was going on. “What’s your status exactly?”

  “I’m his right hand. I do what he commands and take care of his needs.”

  My heart nearly fell from my chest and onto the floor, shattering on the expensive slate floors. I was being ordered about by a high ranking vampire directly beneath one of the most powerful coven masters in the entire country. Maybe even the entire Western world. Now my magic was really on high alert, wanting to protect me. Wanting to be let free. I could feel a ball of light curling in my palm. I closed it and took a few deep breaths.

  Nathaniel brought me over to the bar in the far corner of the room and handed me a glass of white wine. “For your nerves,” he said.

  I took it without letting go of his other hand and guzzled down half the glass in one giant gulp.

  “Get ready,” he said, waving his hand to someone behind me. “Here comes the Congressman.”

  I readied myself with a deep breath before turning around. The Congressman was walking directly toward us with his eyes locked on Nathaniel. I had seen him before while he drove around town in one of his fancy cars, but never this up close and personal. He had black hair and pale green eyes like his daughter. Only his were weathered with age. But his forehead had no wrinkles at all. Definite botox job. I had no idea what kind of worries kept a Congressman up at night, but by the looks of it, it certainly wasn’t money. And if he did have other worries that required botox, he didn’t show them.

  “Mr. Stapleton, so glad you could make it,” said Congressman Larsen, extending his hand out to Nathaniel who took it immediately. I could see the Congressman flinch slightly at the strength of his grip.

  Did the Congressman know that his house was swarming with vampires? Well, swarming was probably too strong of a word. But there were enough for me to notice. And I’m not exactly an expert. They can blend in just fine with humanity. It wasn’t like in ridiculous Hollywood movies where they had visible fangs, skin that looked like they fell in a bag of flour and veins popping out of their foreheads. Only a person who knew of their existence could see the subtle differences. Or a witchling with magic running through their veins. There was their cold skin, their strength, and of course the lack of a pulse. But one had to be near them or at least touching them to notice such things. Talk about a great way to remain undetected throughout the centuries. Anyone foolish enough to get that close without being lured didn’t survive long unless the vampire wasn’t particularly hungry. Or in Nathaniel’s case, particularly useful to them.

  “I wouldn’t miss it, Congressman,” said Nathaniel. “May I introduce Harper Ashwood?” he said without letting go of my hand. Given that the other was occupied with a glass of wine, I couldn’t reach out to shake the Congressman’s hand to sense for very much. Which was probably for the best. I was still trying to contain my magic. For now, it looked like I had a particularly bright glass of gold white wine from my magic peering through the glass flute in my hand. I needed to keep it that way.

  “It’s a pleasure, Miss Ash-,” he paused for a moment, only to blink a few times as he examined me a bit closer. “Williams.”

  He knew me? As Caleb’s wife no less.

  He grinned from ear to ear and suddenly I knew it wasn’t a good thing that he knew me. “Yes, I’ve heard of you. You’re that little fortune teller that my daughter visits on occasion.”

  ‘What is it with men calling me little lately? I mean, I know I’m not exactly tall, but for god’s sake.’

  I took a sip of wine to collect my thoughts before speaking.

  Nathaniel jerked my arm to tell me to speak up and he was getting impatient.

  “I don’t call myself that, sir,” I said. I set down the glass on the table behind me and tried my best to make good eye contact. To see if I could sense anything. But not much was coming up except the distraction of my own magic. It was tingling worse and worse as the minutes went by, telling me to run. Telling me to get away as fast as possible. My captor would never give me such relief. That much I knew.

  “No, don’t sell yourself short, my dear,” he said smiling. “My daughter must be quite taken with your, um, skills granted how often she visits you.”

  I highly doubted that Emily told him where she went given that she rarely ever spoke. I already gathered she and her father weren’t close from our readings. Far from it. I don’t think she even really loved him. She acknowledged him as an authority figure. That was ab
out it. And even that was starting to wear off.

  “Samantha, come here,” said the Congressman as he turned to the left.

  I caught a glimpse of Samantha only ten feet away. Nathaniel’s ice cold grip tightened even more, telling me that this was it. He wanted me to sense something. Something that not even I was aware of. Something I couldn’t force. What would Nathaniel do to me if I came up dry? If nothing happened? The fear of what he might do to Madison or her daughters struck me yet again, making my magic even more difficult to contain.

  Samantha walked over to us with an air of arrogance in each step. Yep. She was the same Samantha from high school. She recognized me the second her eyes spotted me. Only there was a look of confusion on her face. Whether it was my very presence among such people that confused her or the fancy dress, heels, and hairstyle, I wasn’t sure. Maybe all the above? She was clearly a little curious about me being there. Little did she know that I was too.

  “Yes, daddy?” she said.

  ‘Daddy? Yuck. How old are you? Twelve?’

  “Didn’t the two of you go to school together? Maybe she can tell if you and Brian will give me plenty of strong grandsons in the future,” he teased her. Although, from her expression, I could clearly tell that she wasn’t amused. Her smile was as fake and my confidence in the small heels Nathaniel purchased for me.

  She sneered in my general direction. “We didn’t run in the same circles. And I don’t need a fortune teller to prove that Brian and I will have plenty of children. It’s nice to see you again though, Harper.” She feigned another smile and I feigned one right back. Only this time, I had my hand free and I reached out to shake hers. It was my only hope of getting anything. A sense for what Nathaniel wanted to know so I could hopefully get rid of him.

  She reluctantly let me shake her hand then pulled it back to her side. Nothing. I sensed nothing. The only thing I saw was the obscenely large rock on her finger.

  ‘What the hell? That usually works so well for me. Even when I don’t want it to. Shit, shit, shit!’

  Samantha’s eyes went glassy. The air around me turned thick and the room darkened. Samantha’s lifeless left hand glistened in the dim light from the diamond weighing it down. Brian, whoever he was, obviously came with plenty of money attached. Much to her father’s approval, I imagined. I wouldn’t be surprised if he set up the match. But that wasn’t what really drew in my attention. It was her skin. It was rotting before my eyes. Shriveling up and turning white. I could see the blue of her veins peering through her skin as though it was nothing more than a thin sheet of white paper. It was stained with spots of mud and dripping wet. One of the droplets fell to the floor with a loud splash. The floor was covered in a thick layer of disgusting water, wafting back and forth and hiding her feet from view. The skin through her black tights was equally wretched as if she had been rotting in the water for at least a few days.

  I blinked only to have reality snap back right before my eyes. The Congressman and his daughter were staring at me with bewildered faces.

  “What’s wrong with you?” Samantha asked.

  “N-nothing. I was just admiring your engagement ring,” I said, recovering as fast as I could. My odd moment didn’t go unnoticed by Nathaniel either.

  Samantha seemed to accept that answer and brought her hand up to admire her ring. It had to be at least a six-carat diamond. “Thank you. He really is a wonderful man.” Her eyes drifted over to a tall gentleman standing over by the bar.

  “My associate, Brian,” said the Congressman. “He truly has such determination and talent. I could see him running for office one day.”

  “Especially with your guidance, Congressman,” said Nathaniel, buttering him up. “On that note, I have some business to discuss with you. Might I steal you away on the balcony for a moment.”

  “Certainly,” said the Congressman.

  “Excuse us, my dear,” said Nathaniel just before letting go of my hand.

  ‘My dear? Who the hell does he think he is? Now these people are definitely going to think-’

  “So…” Samantha interrupted my thoughts as she took a step closer to me. “You snagged that one, did you?” The way she spoke made it sound as though she was jealous. She eyed Nathaniel and he followed her father outside, not caring in the slightest that her fiancé was in the same room and could see her eyes admiring another man. “The black wore thin awfully fast, didn’t it? But who could possibly blame you with a man like that.”

  Utter bitch. She clearly hadn’t changed. And she clearly knew what happened to Caleb.

  I held my right hand tight in a fist to help me keep my magic at bay. I managed to somehow direct it back into my body, but it was still there. Lurking. I wondered for a moment if it would help me throw her to the back of the room if I decided to punch her.

  ‘No. Don’t think like that. Just walk away.’

  For all I knew, I had foreseen the coming future. Samantha’s future. And it didn’t look pretty. I had no reason to envy her. Not her money. Not her ridiculously expensive ring. Not even her future marriage to a man who would drag her ass back to the D.C. high life where she belonged. If my vision was even moderately accurate, she might not live to see her own wedding. Meaning Nathaniel was on the right track when he told me to sense whatever I could about her. And Emily had a right to be worried.

  Was Samantha involved in something? Something over her head? Or worse, was her father up to no good? Something that would get his daughter killed? Either way, Nathaniel was about to have his suspicions confirmed.

  “Excuse me,” I said, as I walked away and over to the bar. “Where’s the restroom?”

  Nathaniel was clearly busy with the Congressman on the balcony. His eyes were full of intensity when he looked at me. Quite frankly, I suspected he was that way with everyone he ran into. But the way he was glaring at the Congressman had an even greater level of tension. If not an air of suspicion. A suspicion that would make even the strongest of men uneasy. If there was one quality to vampires that gave them away, it was the creepy factor.

  “Up that small flight of stairs to the corner,” said the bartender. “It’s the third door on the left in the hallway.”

  “Thanks.”

  I walked up the stairs and down a hallway with carpeting that looked more expensive than my house. Even the door handle to the bathroom looked a bit excessive. Once I was inside and turned on the light, I felt a pang of envy. This was either Emily’s bathroom or Samantha’s. It was luxurious. A large jacuzzi tub, granite counter tops, and crown molding on the walls. Even a waterfall shower head.

  I sat on the toilet with the lid down and opened up my right palm. My magic was only a mere glimmer now. I closed my eyes and focused as hard as I could, pushing it back in with each steady breath.

  ‘I can’t handle this. I can’t be around all these stuffy people.’

  Did Nathaniel even realize what he was doing to me? It wasn’t just that he took an introverted kruxa who was already a bag of nerves around strangers and placed her in an uncomfortable, if not unsafe, environment. He put me at risk in front of a bunch of vampires that didn’t know some of the kruxa still exist. And if they did, they would kill me in a heartbeat.

  Speaking of hearts, mine was hammering in my chest. My magic was pumping through my veins, telling me to get out of there. But I couldn’t. I wasn’t about to test if Nathaniel would be true to his word and harm Madison or her girls.

  If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s Hollywood TV shows and movies that turn vampires into sex-objects. If the women that vampires lured in had any idea what they were beforehand, they would run for the hills. And if they didn’t run, let’s just say evolution would be spared their genetics being carried on to the next generation. Nathaniel was terrifying. Muscular, tall, and handsome. But also completely terrifying. Samantha could have him if she wanted him for all I cared. Hell, if my vision had any sort of accuracy, maybe that was how she would go out. Getting too hot and heavy for a dange
rous vampire.

  Once I had my magic under control and calmed my nerves as best as I could, or maybe that was the wine finally starting to work its own magic, I got up from the toilet lid and walked over to the door to leave. I heard a muffled groan from behind the other door leading to one of the bedrooms. Call it curiosity, but at first, I thought maybe one of the vampires was daring to attack someone in the Congressman’s house. I opened the bedroom door just to peek inside. To see if I needed to warn Nathaniel that his kind was starting to feed on guests and potentially reveal themselves. I wasn’t quite prepared for what I witnessed. Samantha was pinned up against the wall by one of the vampires I saw making eye contact with Nathaniel downstairs only moments earlier. I was ready to scream. Ready to holler at him to let her go. Until I heard Samantha moan and saw her leg curl up around his. He wasn’t hurting her. Far from it.

  “You sure?” he murmured in her ear. “With your father right downstairs? Someone could walk in.”

  “Then you better make me come fast,” she mumbled with a wicked grin on her face right before he shoved his mouth on hers.

  ‘Yeah, definitely not something I want to witness.’

  He was pulling her dress up to her waist just as I shut the door as quietly as I possibly could. But not before I saw a black mark on Samantha’s ribcage just under her right arm, almost like a tattoo. It was a shape I recognized. One that gran had drawn for me so I would know what it looked like. So I would know a threat when I saw it in the future. It was the symbol of the Catach-Brayin. A woven Celtic knot over a shield. A mark they used on humans that knew about the existence of vampires. Humans that did their bidding. If they ever failed the coven master, the symbol would burn straight into their flesh and eventually their lungs until they were dead. They were slaves to the Catach-Brayin, only most of them didn’t know it. Some even did their bidding willingly, believing they might be given immortality if they served them well. I highly doubted Samantha knew what that brand would do to her if she stepped out of line. She wasn’t the brightest girl in school. Certainly one of the most popular and beautiful, but below average intelligence. Or in this case, common sense.