Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  “Harper,” Nathaniel said my name and snapped me out of my self-induced trance. “I swore to Eli that I would keep you safe. And I will. Whatever it takes. But you must promise me something.”

  I took off my shoes and made myself comfortable on the couch, feeling the whiskey starting to work its own magic on my already jittery nerves. My magic wasn’t tempted to come out to play, so clearly I was starting to handle the stress of it all a bit better. Even so, when a vampire asks you to promise something, there’s good reason to be concerned. I sat back into the couch and prepared for whatever it was he was about to say.

  “I need you to stay here until I get back,” he said.

  ‘What? Is that it?’

  “Where the hell am I supposed to go, Nathaniel? I don’t even know where we are.”

  “I also need you to do as I say. Vampires and kruxa might not exactly be on good terms, but the only way you are going to stay safe is with me. You might not feel that way. It seems counterintuitive given what we both are. But stay here.”

  ‘Well, at least he’s asking me this time and not threatening me or dragging me around by my arm.’

  “How long are you expecting me to stay here?” I asked.

  “Until I can make sure Dilton is safe for you.”

  That didn’t seem like too grand a request. And even I wasn’t sure Dilton was safe for me anymore. I was on the media’s radar, a killer was still at large, Officer Rosenberg was convinced I was a suspect, and now Andrew’s sister was making a case for my involvement in something simply because of the Catach-Brayin brand on my side.

  “The whole thing might disappear if I could prove I don’t have the Catach-Brayin brand,” I said sarcastically. The whiskey’s magic was starting to work a little too well and loosened my tongue even more than I was used to. “I could prove that I don’t have it and therefore remove any suspicion that I might be involved in the murders or that I had anything in common with the victims. Besides, Tobias let the entire coven believe that I’m dead and that he killed me. There’s really no need for me to have it anymore.”

  Nathaniel snickered. “The brand stays.”

  “Why?”

  “In addition to the brand forcing other members of the Catach-Brayin to leave you unharmed should they find you, it allows me to know where you are. How do you think I found Emily in the middle of 19th century Washington D.C.?”

  My eyes widened. “How did you know she had a brand?”

  “I didn’t at first. I thought Tobias’s interest started and ended with Samantha.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I hollered as I stood up from the couch and nearly slammed the empty whiskey glass into the table. “You keep leaving things out. Don’t you think I ought to know something like that?”

  Nathaniel stood up from the couch opposite me, towering over me as he always did. But I wouldn’t be intimidated by him. Not anymore. I refused. Or the whiskey refused.

  “Don’t ask me to trust you when at every turn you give me really good reasons to doubt everything you do,” I said. “And if that is the case, you could have helped me find Emily earlier today. We didn’t have to go to Andrew’s funeral. We could have spent that time looking for her and now she could very well be dead.”

  “You are my concern, as well as Tobias’s concern. Not Emily.”

  “If she dies from this killer getting to her, will she then be your concern?”

  “Harper,” he said my name quietly. “There are bigger forces at play here than just small-town murders. Even if those murders are of daughters to prominent figures. The murder of these young women makes it appear as though Tobias committed the crimes. Or if he didn’t, the Catach-Brayin have lost their ability to control the vampires of the western world. If this is true, the consequences could be devastating.”

  “What do you know?” I demanded. “Damn it, Nathaniel. Just tell me what you know! What consequences?”

  Nathaniel walked over to the coat closet by the door and dressed himself to leave again.

  “When we first met you acted as though you had no idea that Samantha and Emily were branded,” I yelled as I marched toward him.

  “I didn’t.”

  “And you threatened me and my family to get my help.”

  “It was necessary. You would never have trusted me.”

  “You welcomed yourself into my sister’s life.”

  “Things got complicated.”

  “And now,” I said only inches away from him, “you want to leave me branded with the mark of the Catach-Brayin when there’s no reason for me to keep it other than you knowing where I am at all ti-”.

  Nathaniel took me by the shoulders and shoved me against the wall. For a split second, I thought I had gone too far. Pushed back too much. Vampires are still vampires. They still feed on blood. They still have an insatiable hunger inside of them that can lead them to do the most reckless things imaginable. I wondered if Nathaniel would treat me as he did before. Would he shove a knife to my throat again? Knick the skin? Taste my blood to prove to me how serious he was?

  He didn’t do either of those things. He stared deep into my eyes with more intensity than I had ever seen previously. And more frustration. I was silent. Too afraid to speak. My magic swirled in my hands, ready to defend me once more. He slowly moved his hands down to mine and closed his fingers around them, covering my magic and silently ordering me not to let it out. Not to be afraid.

  Then he lowered his forehead to rest on mine. The gesture was so shocking that it almost felt compassionate. Intimate. His lips came down to less than an inch of mine, and for some reason that I couldn’t quite understand, I wanted him to close that small gap between us. To lay his lips on mine.

  Then Caleb’s face came rushing into my thoughts, a ghost that was always in the back of my mind, reminding me that I was wounded. That I might always be wounded.

  I turned away. He didn’t want me. He wanted someone else. Someone he lost. Someone I could probably never replace. Nor could he replace Caleb.

  “I’m not Georgeanna,” I said softly. “I know you loved her, but I’m not her.”

  He stiffened and backed away, refusing to let go of my hands. “There are many things you don’t know, Harper. Things I can’t tell you. Things that have been shared with me only because Eli trusts me. I have good reasons for keeping the brand on your side.”

  He had reasons for keeping the brand on me? What does that mean?

  “How can I keep myself safe if I don’t know what you’re trying to protect me from?” I asked. It must have been the right question because his eyes fell away from mine. The man who stared at me so intensely suddenly couldn’t look at me.

  “Stay here for now,” he said. “Rest. I will fix things in Dilton so you’ll be safe there, but it will take me some time.”

  “How long?”

  “A day or so. There’s food in the house for you to eat and a bedroom toward the back end. I can’t protect you outside of this house right now. And I intend to fix that. Promise me, Harper. Promise me that you’ll do as I say.”

  The icy temperature radiating from his palms made me start to shiver.

  Now it was my turn to let my eyes fall. I looked toward the floor, feeling utterly defeated. He wasn’t exactly giving me a choice in the matter. He brought me here and didn’t even tell me where we were. Even if I wanted to get away, where would I go?

  “I promise,” I said quietly.

  “Stay here. I’ll be back as soon as I can be.”

  Before I could mutter one more word of protest, he was out the door. I saw the bright light of the vixra tunnel being opened as Nathaniel took a single step inside. It closed in on itself and he was gone.

  Chapter 10

  I spent the next forty minutes being the nosiest girl in the entire world. I went through the whole house and learned as much as I could. If this was Nathaniel’s home, it would tell me a few things about him. Although, the one thing I wanted it to give away it didn’t. I pulled
out my cell phone to see that I had no bars and no service. The GPS couldn’t tell me where I was either. All I had to go on was a forest outside and mountains in the distance. Which could have been anywhere in the country with a scenic view. Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, West Virginia, or even Canada for god’s sake.

  That only left one thing for me to do. Take a peek around.

  Nathaniel was a man of more casual tastes than Tobias. But with comforts only modernity could provide. I poured myself another couple shots of Southern Comfort, officially deciding that it was the only way I was going to relax that evening. I walked around with it in my hand, nursing it a couple sips at a time. The high wooden beams above me were beautiful, giving the house a nice touch of the old world. There were nice paintings of various landscapes hung on the walls. A few that I suspected were originals by artists long since gone from this world. His bedroom was cleaner than my entire house. Everything was in its place and neatly tucked away. The shower was a waterfall style with expensive tiles. His living room was styled with a stone fireplace and various deer and elk antlers hanging from above. And a bear skin rug was tucked underneath the table between two brown leather couches.

  I could visualize Nathaniel possibly building this house himself over a century ago and adding modifications as technology improved. He didn’t allow vampirism to slow down his need for a solid base to come home to.

  One item stuck out to me. One that was tucked away in a drawer inside his bedroom. Yes, yes, I know! I could give Andrew some serious competition for being nosy. With him gone I could probably take the gold medal without any stiff competition. But I was curious. I was in a place that wasn’t mine. I knew next to nothing about Nathaniel while he seemed to know so much about me along with my family’s bloodline. And I needed to know him better.

  The one item that stuck out to me was a pocket watch. One that was very different from the one Tobias handed out to his little human minions. It was silver, not gold. And not quite as intricate as the ones Tobias had. The inside looked a bit worn. Yellow at the edges of the face and decorated with Roman numeral numbers. And it didn’t tick. Had Nathaniel forgotten about it?

  I felt around the backside for an opening like the others had. To my surprise, there was one. But the inside didn’t reveal vixra blood. It revealed a portrait of a young red-haired woman. One that I didn’t expect to see peering back at me. It could only have been one woman. Because she looked exactly like me, only with hair styled up in a curly bun and a bodice that didn’t suit this time period.

  It was Georgeanna.

  I didn’t need to guess about whatever similarities Georgeanna and I shared anymore. We were practically identical twins.

  I set the pocket watch back in its proper place in the drawer and shut it with a heavy heart. Everything I suspected had just been confirmed.

  ‘Nathaniel doesn’t give a crap about me. He just sees Georgeanna.’

  I shook my head.

  ‘What am I doing thinking like that anyway. Caleb has only been gone a matter of months. Damn Nathaniel for making me vulnerable like this.’

  Nathaniel was a vampire. My kind was repulsed by their mere existence. The luxra and vixra were generally displeased with my lot. Unless I were to mark Nathaniel, nothing was ever going to happen. And even that was unlikely given I would have noticed by now. From what gran told me marking was a very disruptive process. It made a kruxa devoted beyond anything humans ever experience. And I certainly didn’t feel devoted to Nathaniel. Drawn? Maybe a bit. But devoted? Not a chance.

  I walked out of the bedroom and shut the door in my own frustration, guzzling down the final sip of whiskey and setting the glass on the kitchen counter. Then I walked over to my bag to see what I could look through to entertain myself in gran’s grimoire until Nathaniel got back.

  Eli’s notebook was on top.

  ‘Eli! I totally forgot to write to Eli in his notebook.’

  Leave it to me to be a disappointment when witchling royalty asked me to do something.

  I took it into my hands and searched everywhere for a pen. I found an old fountain pen in a room I could only assume was Nathaniel’s study, decorated with a large dark brown maple desk. I sat in his leather-bound chair in front of it and opened Eli’s notebook to the first page. How was I even supposed to describe everything that had happened since Eli was sitting in Madison’s kitchen?

  “Eli,” I wrote. “This is Harper Ashwood. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but Officer Parker is dead. Nathaniel and I think he might have been addicted to vixra blood.”

  The ink on the page started to move, then it evaporated into the air directly above the page. My eyes darted from left to right, wondering what the hell had just happened. And how it just happened. Was the book defective? Or was that the magic behind it? Regardless, I’d never seen anything like it. The notebook practically rejected what I wrote and threw it right out like I had written a bunch of dirty words.

  The ink slowly started to form again on the page and new words appeared. Eli was writing back!

  “Miss Ashwood, I had the misfortune of hearing about Officer Parker’s untimely death, and the incriminating incident at his funeral. Has Nathaniel been able to guarantee your safety?”

  Why was everyone so worried about me being safe? Was it the prophecy thing that Nathaniel had spoken of? Would it be out of line for me to ask Eli about it? Part of me thought I had the right to know. The other part told me in a very loud and direct voice not to barge into vixra business. That it wasn’t my place and I was way beyond my depth.

  “Yes, he has,” I wrote. “I also believe Emily Larsen, the daughter of Congressman Carlton Larsen, is in danger. She was showing symptoms of being on vixra blood as well. Also, Nathaniel was put on trial by the Catach-Brayin for murdering Isaac after he tried to kill me twice. Tobias let him off and allowed the other vampires in the coven to believe that I’m dead. Which makes me safer, I guess.”

  “It does,” he responded almost instantly as the ink shifted form in a cloud of smoke above the page, then drifted back down to form new words. “Did Tobias reveal anything useful?”

  “He said he didn’t commit the murders. And that he wanted to know who did. He also said I should accept Nathaniel’s help just like you did.”

  Eli didn’t write back right away. I could sense he was trying to decide what that meant. Was it a dead end?

  “And the vixra tunnels? Why are they being misused?” he asked.

  “I’m still not sure. But I think that might have come down to Isaac. I think he was the primary one misusing them. I don’t know that for certain, but Tobias seemed a little irritated with his behavior. He even implied that if Isaac was dead, he might have brought it on himself. After he made Nathaniel pay for having killed him, of course. He made a spectacle of punishing him in front of everyone by forcing him to feed on me and pretend as though I was dead.”

  Another hesitation. I knew he was writing once the ink swirled away and evaporated once more. This felt like a sophisticated form of witchling texting. But one without a trail for someone to find our messages to one another.

  I was a bit jealous. The vixra had spells and incantations I could only ever dream about. And I was just getting a taste of them.

  “It was a smart thing to do. I know you must have suffered, but it was brief considering the Catach-Brayin won’t hunt you now.”

  I prepared to set the pen back down on the paper. Then I stopped, allowing the pen to hover over the page. The uncertainty of what was the usual protocol or best practice with a vixra wasn’t exactly my specialty. Eli was the first one I ever met. And all gran had really insinuated when she talked about them was that they were our superiors. They were to be respected. And they weren’t above showing lowly kruxa like myself their place if they stepped out of line. But then again, Eli was asking me to put myself at risk. He asked me to trust a blood-thirsty vampire. Maybe it wasn’t beyond my depth of prod him a little bit.

  “Do the other v
ixra know about me?” I asked.

  The words evaporated from the page and the ink turned into what looked like steam from dry ice hovering over the parchment. Then it settled back down quicker than I expected. My shoulders tensed, preparing for what could be an answer I wasn’t quite ready for.

  “Only me. Most vixra don’t take an interest in human affairs anymore unless our lives are directly involved.”

  I let out a deep breath. “So they haven’t been watching the TV? They haven’t seen my face?”

  There was a hesitation on his end yet again. “No, not that I’m aware of. We’ll cross that bridge if and when we come to it. Did Nathaniel explain anything further regarding your resemblance to Georgeanna?”

  Did he mean some strange prophecy that would make me an even bigger target than I already was? Yeah. He finally explained that small detail. But I didn’t know how much he was probably leaving out.

  “A little,” I replied.

  “I see,” he wrote. “If your identity does become more common knowledge among the vixra, we’ll have to come up with another plan. For the time being, try to keep a low profile and do what Nathaniel says. He will keep you safe as more details unfold. I must be going now. Thank you for the update.”

  Nathaniel said to do as he says. So did Tobias. Even Eli! Who next? Would Madison be on the phone to tell me to follow orders? I slammed the notebook shut, got up from Nathaniel’s large leather study chair and shoved the notebook back into my pile of belongings. I searched through them until I found gran’s grimoire. The only notebook remaining with a few of the potions she knew and the tidbits of knowledge she thought were safe to put in writing to pass down to me.

  I flipped through it but didn’t see anything in her small fancy cursive handwriting about Georgeanna Carson. Maybe she knew but didn’t consider it safe to write it down? Too much risk of it being found by someone who wasn’t a witchling perhaps?