Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  The gun fired off with a thunderous noise, followed by Isaac screaming. He tried yanking his hands downward, but the restraints over his wrists only grew tighter, giving off an even more powerful blue light as he struggled against them and groaned as the wound healed.

  “Put the next one in his knee,” Nathaniel said to me as he circled around me with his arms crossed over his chest.

  I lifted the gun up again and aimed for Isaac’s leg. The gun went off, splitting his knee in half with a giant hole. This time I worried that the neighbors might hear him screaming. I didn’t need someone walking in to see what was going on and seeing me with a gun raised toward a man tied up by magical constraints. Nathaniel didn’t appear too concerned. And to be fair, most of the cops were probably preoccupied with Samantha’s body having been found.

  “Did you kill those other girls Officer Parker is looking for?” Nathaniel commanded him to respond. “Answer me.”

  Isaac grunted before speaking up. “No.”

  Nathaniel took my arm and raised it once more. “The other knee.”

  I fired once more. I was really rusty, because the bullet didn’t hit the center this time. It caught the side and ripped off his knee cap.

  Good thing I already threw up. Just because I didn’t mind seeing Isaac suffer didn’t mean that I wanted to see blood and guts everywhere. It was bad enough seeing it in my visions as often as I had recently. And yet, a part of me enjoyed it. A sick and twisted part that was furious I had been dragged into this mess. And that Isaac had not only put my life in danger, but Emily’s life as well. An innocent young girl with her whole life ahead of her. I was getting ready to fire into his gut again when Nathaniel stopped me.

  “Don’t lie to me, Isaac,” Nathaniel said from behind me.

  “I’m not lying. I didn’t kill those girls. Tobias wanted me to find out how they died.”

  “He wouldn’t have sent the likes of you to do such a thing. He has me for that.”

  “Tobias doesn’t think of me as lowly as you do. He trusts me to do what others are too stiff to do.”

  Nathaniel smiled. “Oh really? Such as what?”

  Isaac was quiet.

  Nathaniel moved to the side and gave me a small nod of his head, permitting me to fire again. I did so, right in Isaac’s stomach. It took him a full fifteen seconds to heal this time. He writhed around in agony as the restraints binding his wrists denied him any sense of relief.

  “Where did you get the vixra blood?” Nathaniel asked.

  “Tobias gave it to me.”

  That got Nathaniel’s attention. And not in a good way. “Another lie.”

  Nathaniel already expected that Tobias was up to no good. Maybe even that he was distributing the vixra blood. But he had to be sure. He couldn’t just let an accusation like that slide by.

  “He’s not lying,” I said quietly. I didn’t have to touch Isaac to sense he was telling the truth. So often people cloak their lies in what they believe to be true. Their own personal truth. What I always call a rationalization. Because that’s all it usually is. A rationalization for doing something completely immoral. This wasn’t like that. He was telling the truth. He didn’t kill those girls. And Tobias had given him that blood. I didn’t quite understand the connection before, but it finally made sense.

  I edged closer to Isaac, but not close enough for him to kick at me if he felt so inclined.

  “Officer Parker has a pocket watch in his possession. It was found on one of the victims. I had a vision of Tobias giving it to Samantha. Did it pass hands between the victims? Is that how Tobias is distributing the vixra blood? Inside the pocket watch?”

  Isaac raised his head in amusement. “Ah, yes. The stunning little thing went missing, didn’t she?” he smiled. A strange and perverse smile. He was undressing Samantha in his mind without her even being there. “Did they find her yet?”

  “She’s dead,” I said coldly. He didn’t appear phased by it. Quite the contrary. He didn’t seem to care at all about the girl he screwed being found with a chain wrapped around her lifeless body in the middle of a muddy swamp.

  “Such a shame. I could have enjoyed her a great deal more without ever getting bored.”

  I don’t know what sparked it, but I fired every last shot the gun had right into Isaac’s chest. Gunfire echoed through the remaining walls still standing in my house. Isaac gurgled blood from his mouth and only started groaning in pain once his chest was partially healed.

  I dropped the empty gun. It hit the ground with a loud smack. Nathaniel eyed me as if he hadn’t seen me with clear eyes until that very moment.

  “I have a better idea than shooting this monster,” I said. A bright gold glow tingled and seeped through my fingertips. Isaac’s eyes went wide. There was a touch of fear in them. He knew what it felt like to get hit by my magic. I already knocked him unconscious with it once. I could keep it going long enough to make him suffer. Especially since he couldn’t fight back.

  “Do I have your attention now?” I snarled at him.

  I threw one hand forward and let my magic strike right at his chest where I had just shot him. He was nearly healed. I didn’t give him the pleasure of allowing the wound to recover before my magic erupted inside his chest. He screamed bloody murder. A scream that delighted me more so than I would like to admit. I didn’t like suffering. I didn’t like seeing people in pain. Not even the Congressman as he fell to the ground at the sight of his daughter’s dead body being lifted from the water. But this… watching a vampire who had undoubtedly killed many innocent people over the centuries… I could get used to this in a hurry. And I dare say, enjoy it.

  “How is Tobias using the pocket watch? Why was it found on one of the victims?” I said to him. Calmly. Composed. But with enough venom in my voice to let him know that if he resisted telling me I would have absolutely no qualms about making him suffer even more.

  Isaac sneered at me and curled his lower lip into his mouth, trying to decide what to do. What to say. Choosing his words carefully.

  I didn’t hesitate. I let my magic rip out of me and right into Isaac’s chest. He screamed and lifted his head up to the ceiling. I could see the veins in his neck straining for release from the pain.

  “How is he using the pocket watch?” I commanded he answer me after I let my magic settle back into my palms, still a bit stunned by how my control over it was getting slightly better than it ever had been. I guess I had a lot of practice lately.

  He grunted and finally gave in. “There’s a compartment in the back of it with small pieces of paper stored inside, each with a single droplet of vixra blood on them.”

  “And how do you use that to get vixra magic in your bloodstream?”

  He silently cursed his own weakness. “By placing the paper on your tongue. It dissolves almost immediately.”

  “Why did he give the pocket watch to Samantha?”

  “He gives one to all the girls he uses. They’re his distributors.”

  ‘There’s more than one?’

  I peered over to Nathaniel. He seemed pleased with our progress.

  “There’s one that was on the victim’s body in Sealing,” I said. “Officer Parker has it in his office at the station. Or at least it was. He might have given it back to the evidence department by now. And who knows where the one Samantha had ended up.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Nathaniel. “We will find it. One more thing.” He walked up behind me and lifted my arm straight out in front of me. The way his hand curved around my forearm and directed my hand as if it were his personal weapon sent a shiver down my spine. Not only because his skin was so cold, but because for whatever reason, he was being gentle with me. Nothing like before when he dragged me around by my arm and had a knife to my throat. Something about Nathaniel had changed. And I didn’t need kruxa abilities to sense it. He trusted me. And for reasons that didn’t quite make sense to me, I trusted him. He brought back Emily safe and sound. He had the chance to kill Ma
dison and he didn’t. Above all else, he brought me this gift. The gift of permitting me some vengeance on the man who tried to kill me and Emily. As sick as it was, it filled me with gratitude.

  Gold sparks were erupting from my hand. The reflection of my magic was gleaming in Isaac’s eyes. He watched it with pure fear coursing through him. I was ready to strike when Nathaniel gave me the signal. Isaac knew he better behave and give Nathaniel what he wanted.

  “What else did you tell Tobias?” Nathaniel asked. His voice had taken on the same severity it possessed when we first met. When he first put a knife to my throat and told me to do as he commanded. Only this time, his aggression was aimed for Isaac.

  Isaac struggled a little against the magical restraints that bound him. My magic flickered in my hands, ready to lash out. Isaac wasn’t going to take any chances this time. He caved.

  “That Georgeanna’s alive,” he stammered.

  “I told you Georgeanna is dead, Isaac. Let’s just say Georgeanna’s genes skipped a few generations.”

  Isaac snickered. “Well, that explains it, doesn’t it? That’s why you’re protecting her. That’s why you didn’t kill her. You have a soft spot for the woman who-”

  “What else did you tell Tobias?” Nathaniel hollered, pushing my arm a couple inches closer to Isaac and letting him know that he better answer quickly.

  “Only the truth. That you’ve gone soft. You disobeyed his orders when you refused to kill her. You threatened another Catach-Brayin who was trying to do his will. And that you were trying to prevent me from doing my job helping his little toys distribute the vixra blood.”

  I could sense the rage building up inside Nathaniel. Isaac had given the coven master of the Catach-Brayin good reason to doubt his loyalty. It was safe to assume that Nathaniel’s life was in as much danger as mine now.

  “Distributing it to who?” Nathaniel asked.

  Isaac was silent. Refusing to speak and no longer trying to struggle.

  “Distributing it to who, Isaac? Answer me!”

  My magic erupted from my hand. I had never seen it so charged. Even when I was fighting for my life when Isaac attacked me and Emily. Sparks flew throughout the room. Isaac was in so much pain that he couldn’t scream. There was an energy coursing through the room that made my shirt push back against my body. Almost like I had created my own wind. A storm inside my bedroom that wanted release.

  “Gain control,” Nathaniel whispered in my ear.

  I struggled to close my palm and force my magic back inside my hand. Isaac slumped forward as soon as my magic backed away from him and retreated inside me. I took a few deep breaths then pulled it back a few more inches. Then a few more, until it was finally back inside my palm. I was tempted to slump over the same way Isaac had. Exhaustion threatened to overtake my entire body. I had never run a marathon in my life but I imagined that this was how it would feel afterward. Like I had been hit by a truck, and yet still euphoric from having accomplished what I always thought was impossible. I was in control of my magic. At least for the moment. And I hoped that Nathaniel got some of the answers he was looking for, because I wasn’t sure that I had the energy to keep tormenting Isaac like this. I was drained.

  Nathaniel walked over to Isaac and placed his face in both hands, forcing his eyes up to him as they struggled to stay open.

  “Who is Tobias distributing the vixra blood to?” he ordered him to answer.

  Isaac looked like someone had repeatedly punched him in the face over and over again. His eyes darted from right to left, then left to right, desperately trying to see beyond blurred vision. Knowing someone was there but too dazed and confused to make them out. Maybe I didn’t have control. Maybe I exerted too much and he wouldn’t be able to give Nathaniel the answer he wanted.

  “Anyone capable of fighting,” Isaac whispered.

  “Fighting for what?”

  “For Tobias. He wants the strong among the coven even stronger.”

  “Why?”

  Isaac laughed. At least he had enough energy to see humor in all of this.

  ‘Way to keep enthusiasm up during what should be a demoralizing experience, asshole.’

  “I swore an oath to Tobias. Not you,” Isaac hissed. “There are some secrets even those directly beside him in all things aren’t privy to.” Isaac smiled up at Nathaniel, refusing to give him any more answers and enjoying the frustration crossing Nathaniel’s face.

  “Don’t forget that being so close to Tobias gives me privileges you will never know. Privileges such as deciding who among us is worthy of Tobias’s most inner circle, and who isn’t. Cross me further and I will make sure you lose your place.”

  “I doubt you’ll be in Tobias’s inner circle much longer. Not after I told him this little bitch scarred you.”

  Nathaniel’s eyes went cold. Unfeeling. Dangerous.

  Isaac wasn’t laughing anymore.

  Nathaniel reached just below his chin and ripped Isaac’s head right off his shoulders, throwing it to the side where it smacked against the wall to my bathroom with a thud before falling to the ground. I nearly fell over at the sight of it rolling back on my bedroom floor and coming right in my direction.

  I dodged out of the way and nearly let out a yelp. When I glanced up again, Nathaniel was taking a small device out of his breast pocket and retracting the blue magical cord he used to restrain Isaac back into a small ornate box. One I had little doubt was provided to him by Eli.

  “Why did you do that?” I asked him weakly. It had been a long day. A day of small victories and a great loss. I could feel the strength holding me up starting to give way to complete and total exhaustion. And disgust for the head now trapped under my mattress frame after it hit my dresser and rolled to the bed.

  “Because he made my coven-master doubt my loyalty and accused me of being scarred. I worked for over a century to gain Tobias’s good favor only to have it potentially ruined by a lowly henchman.”

  I didn’t want to even think about the sort of things Nathaniel had to do in order to gain favor with Tobias. It couldn’t have been anything good.

  “It does create one complication though,” he said as he straightened the cuffs of his long sleeves. There was something in the way that he moved to straighten his disheveled clothes. Something that made him appear classy, superior, and intimidating. I didn’t want to be afraid of Nathaniel anymore. Especially after Eli told me he wouldn’t harm me. And yet, his way of remaining composed after gruesomely ripping Isaac’s head away from his shoulders didn’t inspire me to feel the least bit comfortable. Not to mention that I knew his reasoning was only a half truth. Nathaniel might have been furious over Isaac telling such lies to his coven master but that wasn’t the entire reason why he killed him. Isaac put my life in danger, even after I had been branded with the Catach-Brayin symbol. He told Tobias that I was living. He accused Nathaniel of being marked by me. And he assumed I was one of my ancestors. Someone that wasn’t supposed to be alive. And I sensed, someone the Catach-Brayin wanted dead many years ago.

  I didn’t need to ask Nathaniel to know that my life would soon be swarming with vampires who would be desperate to kill me just to gain favor with the leader of the Catach-Brayin.

  “What complication?” I asked Nathaniel, not entirely sure I wanted an answer.

  ‘Oh lord. What is he going to ask me to do?’

  “Tobias will want reassurance that I haven’t been scarred. He’ll also need to know why I kept you alive for as long as I have. And I must do everything I can to prevent him from finding out that I know he’s distributing the vixra blood.”

  I prepared myself for what he was about to say. Not an easy task given the strength in my limbs was progressively fading. I had outdone myself with my magic.

  “You’ll have to go to Washington, D.C. That’s where the inner circle of the Catach-Brayin live. There you’ll meet Tobias Vallas and prove to him that not only have I not been scarred by you but that keeping you alive is a worthwhile
endeavor.”

  I never traveled over the years. I never had the keen interest to see huge cities or explore outside of a one hundred mile radius of Dilton. There was the honeymoon Caleb and I took to Savannah, but that was it. And now my first trip across the country would be to meet one of the most powerful vampires in the world. In a city I had only ever seen through a vixra tunnel in a time that wasn’t my own.

  Gran was right. A tempest was coming.

  No, it was already here. The havoc it would wreak was only just beginning. I grew up with a constant unsettled feeling inside of me. A feeling that told me danger would find me if I strayed too far from Dilton. As it turned out, I didn’t need to leave for danger to find me. My life would never be the same.

  THE END OF BOOK ONE

  GRIM DEFEAT

  BOOK II

  Chapter 1

  Sleep? Ha! That’s something I used to do. Something that was a luxury. Something that would take me away to a world where I might see Caleb again and get a few hours away from the harsh reality where he didn’t exist anymore. Where I could relax. Where I could wake up and get angry at whoever threatened to intrude on my quiet time. In other words, something that I was severely lacking over the last week ever since Madison set me up to help out Officer Parker with cold cases. Ever since Nathaniel welcomed himself into my house with the threat of a knife to my throat.

  I tossed and turned in my bed for hours until I finally lifted my hand up from under the sheets. My heart was hammering under my chest. I could hear blood coursing up my neck and into my ears. That’s how loud it was. And how uneasy I was.

  Nathaniel informed me only hours ago that I would have no other choice but to present myself to the coven master of the Catach-Brayin, Tobias Vallas. I would have to provide my eyewitness account that Nathaniel had no choice but to murder Tobias’s henchman, Isaac.