Rocking Out

by A. A. Albright

  Seeing my eyes on it, he quickly covered it up and said, ‘Hello there, ladies. You might have noticed that the audience is a little bit on the small size. Well, that’s for a very good reason.’

  ‘Yeah, it is for a very good reason,’ said Frenton, wrestling his microphone from Quint. Wow, he sounded like he grew up with a silver chew toy in his mouth. ‘We invited you girls here because you are the finest totty around. We know you’re all fans of the Call of the Wild.’

  ‘Not anymore!’ shouted Melissa.

  Frenton stroked his chin and licked his lips, staring at Melissa. Like sleazy father, like sleazy son. ‘Oh, you are very nice looking. No wonder Mack McAdams wrote Red about you. Well, tonight we’re going to show you that we’re the band you ought to be having fantasies about. Tonight, girls, get ready to become our newest superfans. We’re going to play right up until it’s dusk outside. If you’re lucky, you might even get to see us turn.’

  Behind him, Morris strummed his bass and Prescott hit the drums. Soon, the rest of the band joined in. The lights around us lowered and dry ice swirled, while bright lights focused on the stage. The song they began with was called India. It seemed to be about their gap year, travelling through India and discovering themselves. It was followed by a song called Ain’t Gonna Work in Daddy’s Bank No More. It was about five guys who refused to work for their fathers’ banks anymore, and chose to live their lives as rock musicians instead.

  They were about half way through a song called The Girl from the Wrong Side of the Tracks Gave me Herpes when I heard the double doors behind me slam. I couldn’t say I blamed the patrons of Moony’s for shutting the music out. I’d been thinking about making a trip to the bar so I could get away from the horrific sound.

  Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, Roy the keyboard player pulled off his T-shirt and threw it in my face. As I peeled the sweaty garment off me and threw it to the floor, the music grew louder than ever. The vibration began to shake the whole room – coupled with the way that the dry ice began to swirl in circles, the sensation was sickening. I felt like the whole room was lurching, and my stomach began to lurch right along with it. The lighting began to flash manically, and I was afraid I might throw up.

  ‘I’m feeling a bit green around the gills,’ I whispered to Finn and Melissa. ‘I’m going to take a quick trip to the bar to get a drink – and a break. Want anything?’

  ‘I’d love a lemonade,’ said Melissa. ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Can I have a cola?’ asked Finn.

  I nodded and rushed towards the double doors, feeling clumsy and dizzy on Marion’s long legs. Even her arms were taking some getting used to. I grabbed at the doors, my hand struggling to take hold. I tried again, this time controlling my clumsiness and managing to pull.

  I pulled again, and again. I was just about to panic when, on the third attempt, the doors finally opened. And then, well … then I didn’t just panic. Then I went to a whole new level of worry.

  The song that Alpha were playing finally came to an end, and in the lull I ran to Finn and Melissa and said, ‘Guys – I don’t think we’re in Moony’s anymore.’

  21. Unhappy Reunion

  Melissa, Finn and I stood at the double doors, staring outside. No, we were no longer in Moony’s, but other than that I didn’t have a clue where we were. The bar and the patrons of Moony’s had disappeared, replaced by a dark, lavish dining room with a long table, laden with food and drink.

  ‘Gretel?’ I tapped my ear to check if there was something wrong with my earpiece. If Gretel could still hear us, and see through our eyes, then why wasn’t she saying anything? ‘Gretel? Are you there?’ When no reply came, I turned to the others. ‘Please tell me it’s only my earpiece that’s broken.’

  ‘I don’t think any of our equipment is broken,’ replied Finn, his voice strained with worry. ‘I think it’s blocked.’

  Melissa looked at me, balling her fists and shaking her head. ‘I’ve got no communication, either,’ she said. ‘At first I thought it was just because the music was so loud. Hey, did anyone else feel like the room was lurching and spinning a little while back?’

  ‘Yeah,’ I confirmed. ‘But I was dumb enough to think it was just the vibration and the swirling of the dry ice. I should have known something was up when the lights flashed so brightly.’

  ‘Either it was a spell,’ Finn mused, pacing the room. ‘Or else it was something even worse. That all-new function room? I’m thinking it was a teleportation device. Just on a larger scale than anything I’ve seen before.’ While he spoke, he was busy waving his phone in the air. ‘No signal. You guys?’

  Even though Melissa and I dutifully checked our phones, I think we both knew that the devices would be useless. Wherever we were – and why ever we were here – we had been completely cut off from communicating with anybody.

  I glanced back at the band. They were playing another song now, and they didn’t seem to notice we had left the function room – but then again, when you’re in the midst of playing a song as awesome as The Witches Love My Wereballs I can see why you might get lost in the wonder of your own creation.

  Frenton stopped singing, but unfortunately the song wasn’t over. He began banging his head to Prescott’s drum solo, while Quint smashed his guitar over his knee and picked up a tambourine, tapping it erratically, with his eyes closed while he wandered around the stage in a daze. Morris and Roy were just swaying to the sounds, saying, ‘Yeah, man,’ every few seconds.

  Melissa gritted her teeth. ‘If those idiots think I’m going to listen to that crap while they take their time murdering me, then they’ve got another think coming.’ She began to march through the doors, but Finn pulled her back. At any other time I might have laughed at someone as small and shy-looking as Lisa daring to stop Melissa.

  ‘Wait,’ said Finn. ‘We need to get our bearings first. We know we don’t have the option to communicate. But what about our magic – do we still have that?’

  All three of us extended our hands and whispered, ‘Solas.’ As three bright balls of light emanated from us, we heaved synchronise sighs of relief.

  ‘Good.’ Finn went on. ‘In that case, one of us needs to travel back to headquarters and tell the others what’s going on. Melissa, you go while Wanda and I keep an eye on Alpha.’

  ‘Why me?’ Melissa demanded. ‘Because I’m not a Wayfarer? Well, maybe I’m not, but I am a Wayfair. I grew up fighting crime, Finn. I might be a barely-employed law clerk right now, but I know how to handle myself.’

  I grasped her hand. ‘We know you do. But please – do this for me. You’ll be able to help the rest of our team to help us.’

  She bit her lower lip and nodded. ‘Okay. I’m going to get a feel for this location first so I’ll know where to take Gretel and the others back to.’ As she closed her eyes in concentration, Melissa’s face fell. ‘There’s a slight problem,’ she said as her eyes flew open. ‘Wanda, I can’t find this place on the inner map. If I can’t tell the others where you guys are, then what’s the point in me leaving?’

  I swallowed down my nerves. Melissa had taught me how to access the inner map. If she said this place wasn’t on it, then I believed her. ‘You have to go, anyway,’ I said. ‘They need to know what’s happening here.’

  Finn nodded. ‘You have to, Melissa. Go. Now.’

  With a look of reluctance, she snapped her fingers – and stayed right in the room. Her green eyes widened. ‘Boundary spell,’ she told us in a panicked voice. ‘I can’t get out.’

  I gritted my teeth. ‘Well that was a dirty rotten trick. Leaving us our magic, but keeping us trapped? Alpha are not playing nice.’

  Melissa glared at the band. ‘If those prats think we’re going down without a fight, then they’re even more deluded than they look.’

  As she tapped her foot angrily against the floor, I found myself growing ever more confused. If Alicia and Caitlyn had been taken here under the same circumstances – with their magic intact –
then how in Hecate’s name was every member of Alpha still in one piece? I could hit them with a death spell from where I stood. I had hundreds, if not thousands, of spells in my arsenal that I could use to fight them off, werewolves or not. Alicia’s power had been average, but Caitlyn definitely could have handled five werewolves by herself.

  I stared around the dining room, taking everything in.

  It was a dark, gothic-looking room, possibly underground given the slightly damp smell and the sound of dripping somewhere in the distance. The only light came from a line of flickering candles in the centre of the dining table. I moved closer, inspecting the offerings. This wasn’t just any food and drink, this was all of our favourite things. There were bottles of cola – which Finn loved to guzzle. There was my own favourite tipple, orange juice. There was apple tart, chocolate cake, black bean burritos and lasagne.

  ‘That’s my favourite Pinot Noir.’ Melissa pointed to a bottle on the table. ‘What is this? Some weird plan to woo us and try to get us to turn? They think if they ply us with some posh alcohol then we’ll go along with whatever they want?’

  Finn shivered and hugged his cardigan tight around him. ‘If they so much as attempt to bite me, I’ll fight them to the death. They might think they’ve kidnapped some innocent young women, but they’ve kidnapped the wrong people this time.’

  Melissa frowned. ‘But that’s the thing, Finn. They might think that you’re Lisa and that Wanda is Marion, but they know who I am. I haven’t used any spells to disguise my appearance. They know I’m a Wayfair, and that my coven does not take any nonsense. Are Alpha really dumb enough to kidnap a Wayfair?’

  ‘Wait a minute …’ I said, my voice hollow as cold fear rushed through my veins. ‘They do know who we are. All of us. They were never fooled by our doppelganger spells. Otherwise, why would they have our favourite foods on the table instead of Lisa’s and Marion’s?’

  Finn grabbed onto his red curls and groaned. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘They knew blooming well who we were all along.’ He stared into the function room at Alpha. ‘Right – I say we let them play on a little while longer. And while they’re doing that, we can be thinking of a way out of here.’

  He put on his deep-thought face, although it looked a bit strange seeing as it wasn’t his face. While he did that, I wandered around the room. There were no windows, and only one door.

  The door was painted red, and made from an extremely heavy metal. Unsurprisingly, it was locked with a spell so strong that I couldn’t open it. I hit it with one spell after another, but it wouldn’t budge.

  The only place to go was into the function room. With Alpha still lost in their own terrible music, I went back in and studied every nook and cranny. There was no backstage area, not even any toilets. Everywhere I examined, the Insitu boundary spell was just as strong and unbreakable as the spell on the red door.

  The situation made no sense to me. Alpha were werewolves. If they had magic, surely I’d sense it, and no matter how hard I studied them, the only magic I could sense was the magic of their own delusion. Seriously – couldn’t they hear themselves? These guys had no magic, and they had no talent either. There was no way they were doing all of this on their own. So who was helping them?

  I returned to the dining room, determined to have another go at opening the locked door.

  As I walked past Melissa, her eyes were half closed. ‘I’m doing another search on where we are,’ she explained absentmindedly. ‘Trying to access my inner map. Maybe my fear got in the way the first time.’

  ‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘I’ll keep trying this door. And seeing as spells won’t work, I’m thinking brute force might be our only option.’

  As I began to kick at the door, Finn joined me. We kicked, hit and banged things against the lock until we fell to the floor, panting.

  ‘I’d really like a drink right now,’ said Finn. ‘But I’ve been in sióga enclaves enough times to know – if the food looks too good to be true, then stay the heck away from it.’

  He was right. We might not be in a faery enclave right now, but no matter how good that apple tart looked, and no matter how thirsty I was getting, there was no way I was going to taste a thing on that table.

  ‘I’ll keep trying the door,’ Finn said. ‘You should join Melissa. Try to access your map, see if we can figure out where we are.’

  I nodded my agreement, and closed my eyes.

  The inner map was something all empowered witches had access to. It was in all of us, just like our power was. When we concentrated, we could see it in our mind’s eye. It was like a shared database of locations, necessary when we wanted to transport ourselves via finger-click. But all of those coordinates had to get added by someone. So whenever you went to an uncharted place, it was possible to add it to the inner map – thereby increasing our witchy database of coordinates. If you tried to record a location that was already on the map, it would flash red, letting you know it was already recorded.

  I visualized the map, ignoring the lure of the twinkling lights while I concentrated on my current location and tried to add it. There was no red light. Did that mean this room had never been recorded?

  I glanced at Melissa. Her face had paled, and she looked like she might be sick.

  ‘I em … I thought I might access Dark Road, seeing as I couldn’t find our location on my inner map,’ she explained.

  Finn turned on his high heels and stared at us. ‘Dark Road?’ he said with a rasping, shocked voice. ‘So you think this is …’

  None of us needed him to finish that sentence. We were all coming to the same horrific conclusion. There were places you could travel to that weren’t on the inner map. Places which powerful vampires could travel to, using their own version of the inner map – a travel network that they called Dark Road. We’d only recently learned that the network existed. And we’d learned about it because my ex-boyfriend and his fellow assassins used it regularly.

  Finn and I couldn’t access Dark Road, but Melissa could. Her vampire ancestry was generations back, but her power was strong. And the only vampires with equally strong power … well, they were people I wished I never had to see again.

  Despite the fact that we were in explaining the obvious territory by now, Melissa nodded bleakly. ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I do think. This was never about Alpha versus the Call of the Wild. This was about the Dark Team all along.’

  I took a closer look at the table, and then my stomach lurched even more than it had when we were transported here. There, in the very centre of the table, was a bottle of Château Toff de Toff.

  Melissa saw what I was staring at and clapped a hand to her mouth. ‘You don’t think …? No. Gabriel couldn’t have escaped from Witchfield. Could he? We would have heard. Wouldn’t we?’

  ‘Unfortunately, Gabriel has not escaped,’ said a voice I recognised.

  I hadn’t heard the red door open, but it was open now. Sven the Speedster stood in the doorframe, smiling at all three of us. Sven was many things – a sportsman, a vampire-witch hybrid, and a member of the Dark Team. But right now? Right now he was just a smug criminal, and I really wanted to wipe that smile off his face.

  ‘Oh, but I should probably add something to that,’ he continued. ‘No, Gabriel has not escaped – yet. But if the three of you know what’s good for you, then he’ll be escaping tonight.’ He focused his smile on me. ‘And when he does, Wanda, you and he will be having a very unhappy reunion.’

  22. Last Meal

  Turns out, the three of us didn’t know what was good for us. Which was why Melissa, Finn and I all hit Sven with a freezing spell. It was a moment that even Finn’s mother, Mizz Plimpton, would have been proud of. You would think we had practised it. We were so in sync it was shocking, the three of us quickly extending our hands and shouting, ‘Conáil!’ in unison.

  Yeah, it really was an awesome moment – or it would have been, had it actually worked.

  We looked at one another in confusion as Sven k
ept right on walking into the room. I had felt the magic, zipping down my arm and out of my body. It was probably the strongest spell I’d ever performed. So what went wrong?

  ‘You’re wondering what went wrong?’ Sven questioned with his smuggest smile yet. ‘Yes, well, I was hardly going to let you do to me what you did to my unfortunate comrades, now was I, Miss Wayfair? I’ve protected myself against all forms of magic this evening. And it’s a protection spell that even you won’t get through.’

  By now, you know me well enough to realise that I was definitely going to take that as a challenge. I tried spell after spell – freezing him, burning him, making him hover, turning him into a frog (yeah, that really is a thing that witches can do). But despite the fact that my magic was most definitely not on the fritz, Sven still stood before me in all his unsportsmanlike glory, unaffected by anything I did.

  Melissa and Finn were doing just as I was, but eventually all three of us stopped. We had to, so we could take a breath. Melissa pulled a bottle of water from her bag and passed it around. ‘Why let us keep our magic, then?’ she asked Sven, panting.

  He gave us a nonchalant shrug. ‘Poor Wanda’s lost her magic in far too many sticky situations in the past. I thought it might be time to change it up. And I do like to see how hard you all try. You just keep on and on, refusing to accept the obvious, like the little engines that can’t.’

  He was wrong. Even if I wanted to keep sending spells chugging towards him, I needed a moment to recuperate. I’d given him everything I had, and I was sure Melissa and Finn had done the same. Whatever protection he’d used, it was strong. Stronger than the spell-repelling uniforms we wore as Wayfarers.

  ‘Okay.’ I held my hands up. ‘I give up. You’ve got me, Sven. You’ve got all of us. Trapped in here between an ugly gothic dining room and the most terrible band in the world. So while we’re here, tell me – how are you? Long time no see, eh? You’ve been making some new friends since last we met. Werewolf friends, no less. Doesn’t really go hand-in-hand with the werewolf-hunting Dark Team I know and loathe.’