The Return of The Witch

by M. J. Caan

  The Return Of The Witch

  MJ Caan

  Copyright © 2019 by MJ Caan

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  For Brian. The only Totem I need.

  Contents

  An Uninvited Guest For Dinner

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  22. Six Months Later

  About the Author

  An Uninvited Guest For Dinner

  Admittedly, I was terrified.

  It took every ounce of willpower I had not to summon my magic and throw it at the mess in front of me. Honestly, I didn’t know what would happen if I did use magic. I had never tried it in a situation like this before. Resisting the urge, I wiped my brow and leaned in closer to look at the soft white peaks that were rising before me.

  “Allie, are you sure you want to do this?” It was my Aunt Lena leaning in to whisper in my ear. “You have to be careful. One little mistake and it will be all over.”

  “You think I don’t know that? Now back up, you’re too close; you’re making me doubt myself.”

  It was too late to stop now; I was all in.

  I found myself holding my breath as I reached forward and turned off the stand mixer sitting on the kitchen counter. I eased the blade up and out of the bowl, marveling at the perfect stiff peaks of egg whites I had beaten. They clung to the blades with just the right consistency, and the soft yet firm waves inside the bowl looked like silky, frosty peaks that had frozen in time just as they crested.

  Perfect. Now to get them folded into the orange base sauce I had cooked, and into the ramekins without over-mixing them. The thought of ruining this was making me break out in a sweat. Christ, I hadn’t felt this kind of pressure when fighting werewolves and vampires. That was a walk in the park compared to making a perfect orange soufflé with a Grand Marnier topping.

  “Allie, are you sure about this?” Aunt Lena said, wringing her hands. “I mean, it’s not too late to put in a peach pie. I bought a brand new tub of vanilla bean that will be perfect on it.”

  “No, Aunt Lena. This is my first big meal having Hope over since everything with her parents. It has to be perfect. She loves dessert and I intend to blow her out of the water with this one.”

  “Well, I’d say the main course certainly did that,” Aunt Lena replied.

  She was right, of course. For dinner I’d made grilled swordfish with provencal sauce. It was delicious, if I must say so myself. Combined with the grilled asparagus and endive salad with champagne vinaigrette, it had been the best meal I’d ever made, and Hope had been more than just a little impressed. But this would take the evening to a whole new level; this would send her into sensory overdrive.

  If I could get it into the oven and it baked perfectly. Without collapsing. I’d die if it collapsed. And I was pretty sure that no magic spell in the world would fix this if I fucked it up. I could probably fix a fallen angel easier than I could a fallen soufflé.

  Aunt Lena opened the oven door for me and I gingerly placed the mini ramekins into the lower third, praying they would rise just right, and not have burned tops. Exhaling, I turned to high-five my aunt before setting the timer for thirty minutes. Not that I trusted the timer; I would watch these bad boys like a hawk.

  “Shall I offer everyone tea while we wait?” Aunt Lena asked.

  “Thanks, but no. I think this calls for something little more special.” I went to the large refrigerator and retrieved a bottle of pink Prosecco. “Tonight deserves a bit of bubbly, I think.”

  Aunt Lena’s face lit up and she clapped her hands in glee. “Vivian will not approve, but I think you’re right. I’ll get the good glasses.” She set about collecting six champagne glasses and arranging them on a serving tray, while I removed saucers from the cupboards on which to serve the little soufflé when they came out of the oven.

  “What is that I smell?” said Hope, walking into the kitchen.

  “Hey! It’s a surprise! Go back outside. We’ll be out in a few with some drinks before dessert,” I said.

  “Oh, you know I love me some dessert! What is it?” She attempted to peak into the oven, but a single glance from me caused her to throw her arms up in resignation and head back out onto the deck where we the table was set. I could hear laughter through the open French doors that led outside, and for a moment, I almost forgot the world of shit we were all in.

  The tray full of glasses and bottle was a little wobbly in my hands as I made my way outside.

  “Here, let me help,” said Hope, taking some of the glasses and setting them on the outdoor coffee table that was positioned between a sofa and two chairs at one end of the deck.

  “Yes! Champagne!” said my brother Gar, giving a small fist pump.

  “No way,” I said. I nodded at a second bottle on the tray. “That’s for you and Jhamal. Sparkling cider.”

  He fake grumbled, but reached for the glasses nonetheless. He winked at me knowingly. We both knew it wouldn’t be his first sip. I wiped the sweat from my palms on the back of my jeans, hoping no one noticed.

  Hosting a dinner party in the midst of a war against a vampire with an army of werewolves and a Warlock at his disposal might not have been my best idea. But I needed to mend things with Hope. She was my best friend, and because of my actions, her parents had been horribly murdered. Okay, maybe it wasn’t entirely my fault, but I certainly felt guilty.

  No matter how I tried to spin it to myself, I kept thinking: what would have happened if I had never shown up with Cody at her house that first night? The night he shifted and we were attacked by members of the Order of the Fell. Had I never been at Hope’s house, she would have never been on the Warlock’s radar. And if she hadn’t been on their radar, then maybe her parents would still be alive.

  And our friendship wouldn’t have taken the weird turn it had.

  Harsh words had been spoken and feelings had been hurt. But Hope was more than a friend; she was as much a part of my family as my aunts and Gar. So I had visited her while she was in the hospital under evaluation after the death of her parents. We yelled. We cried. And ultimately, we forgave. Or rather, she forgave. Me? I mostly just groveled and offered words and my heart. In the end it was enough to get her talking to me again. But I knew better than anyone that some wounds can fester long after the skin has healed over them.

  That was why I had demanded that she stay in the guest bedroom until she was ready to start thinking about what to do with her parents’ house. Today was her first day after moving in, so I was determined to make it special. The dinner and the dessert were key comforts we had always bonded over, and the least I could do was make these memorable.

  I hadn’t invited my boyfriend Cody, and he understood why. While he had the best of intentions towards Hope, and I didn’t doubt the love he had for me, he was still a werewolf—and werewolves had killed Hope’s parents. No point in poking that bear again.

  My aunts were onboard with her staying here, and I know Gar had no issues with it either. After what
we had all been through in the last week, we all recognized the importance of family. No more lone wolves; this pack was staying together no matter what was thrown our way.

  The bubbly was exactly what I needed. Light, fruity, and just the right amount of buzz-inducing, without being overpowering. Part of me was still focused on listening for the timer to go off, and it was all I could do to resist going back into the kitchen to peek into the oven and seeing what my little ramekins of goodness were doing.

  “So Allie,” said Gar, “it’s been awfully quiet the last week. Do you think Mallis and company have moved on?”

  The silence that fell over the deck was deafening. I wanted to frown at my brother, but he was looking at me with such earnestness that I felt my heart breaking. Jhamal placed one hand behind Gar’s back and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly; I knew without asking that Gar was afraid for his boyfriend. Jhamal and his aunt had been kidnapped by the Warlock and Mallis to be used as bait—to get to me. By working together, my friends and I had managed to save everyone, but I was sure the thought of what could have happened was still very fresh in Gar’s mind.

  “This is a war, Gar,” I said. “I don’t think they just gathered their troops and went home. Something tells me they’re biding their time.”

  “And what about us?” he replied. “I mean, what about you guys? What are you planning to do to stop him?”

  “Gar,” said Aunt Vivian, “now’s not the time to discuss this.”

  “Well when is?” he replied. “Are we waiting for them to attack again? To kidnap or murder someone else we love?”

  I sensed Hope flinch at that one and I gave Gar a look that shut him down.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, addressing Hope. “I didn’t mean that to come out like it did.”

  “It’s okay, Gar,” Hope said. “I know what you mean. For what it’s worth, Allie, I’d like to know what the next steps are going to be as well. I’ve seen firsthand what these monsters can do…I don’t wish that on anyone. So if you have a plan, we should talk about it.”

  “The last plan I had nearly got us killed,” I said. I slumped down onto the sofa next to Hope and let my head fall lazily onto her shoulder.

  “No,” said Jhamal, “your plan kept my aunt and me from being killed. I saw the ruthlessness that Warlock has. Do you think he’s sitting back on his laurels somewhere waiting for you to make a move? Doubtful. Whatever they were planning, they are moving forward with it. Now.”

  “I hate to say it, but the kid is right,” said Aunt Lena. We all knew she was joking. Out of everyone she had taken an immediate liking to Jhamal and the term “kid” was her way of ribbing him. “The eclipse is less than two weeks away. We still don’t know anything about how the Warlock will go about creating this Leveling spell, let alone how to stop it.”

  I shuddered on the inside at the mention of the spell. The Warlock believed that it was possible, with the right magic, to halt the eclipse, creating a permanent night over the town of Trinity Cove. If he succeeded, his master, the vampire known as Mallis, would have free reign over this town. And since this town was sitting on top of a veritable gold mine of innate magical elements that flowed freely throughout the bedrock, he would be able to unleash a supernatural apocalypse; a new Hell on Earth.

  But that wasn’t going to happen. Not on my watch, at least. As Reliquary, I was able to store vast amounts of magic and use it at my will. Surely there was a way to stop this madness from happening. But right now, I couldn’t think about any of that—the timer in the kitchen had just buzzed, and I jumped up and ran inside.

  The smell in the kitchen was divine, and I knew that as soon as I opened the oven door, the aroma would waft outside and set everyone’s tastebuds on fire. I carefully picked up the baking sheet with the ramekins arrayed on it. The soufflés were golden, high, and light. Perfect set. I couldn’t wait to get them dusted with powdered sugar and covered in orange liqueur topping.

  And, as luck would have it, that was when the warning alarms attached to the wards that protected the house went off.

  I felt the brush against my skin. It was like someone had just taken a hairbrush out of the freezer and applied it to my scalp. The soufflés deflated like Tom Brady’s football when I dropped them on the island.

  “Damnit!” I said as I ran out onto the deck. Aunt Lena and Aunt Vivian, the only others in the house that could have felt the warning, were already looking out over the deck railing.

  “What is it? What’s going on?” asked Hope, moving away from the three of us. Fear played across her features. She had been around the occult long enough to know when something was about to go down.

  “Something just set the wards off,” said Aunt Vivian, not taking her eyes off the tree line at the back of our property.

  We looked out over the backyard, focusing on the wooded area behind the house. It was getting dark, making it hard to see what exactly was out there.

  “Hope, take Gar back into the house,” I said. I summoned a small bit of magic and held it at the ready. Judging from the buzz in the air, my aunts were doing the same.

  Before Hope—or more likely Gar—could protest, I felt it again. Only this time, the hit on the wards was harder and far more deliberate. It'd definitely come from the back perimeter.

  “Got it,” said Aunt Lena. “I recognize that creatures bio-signature.”

  “Indeed,” replied Aunt Vivian, glancing over at me. “Vampire.”

  1

  “Stay here and protect Gar and Hope,” I said to my aunts. “Jhamal, you’re with me.”

  Jhamal nodded, and in the blink of eye he shifted into his lion form. The deck boards creaked under his weight as he padded over to stand next to me. I wrapped a bunch of his golden mane in my hand as he leapt over the railing. In midair I swung my leg over his back so that when he made contact with the ground I was sitting astride him. Together, we moved down the steep slope of the backyard towards the line of trees.

  “Can you see him?” I asked.

  Jhamal only nodded his large head as he walked purposefully towards a shadowy figure standing behind a massive pine tree. The thought of approaching a vampire after having gone through what I had only a week earlier caused my magic to flare protectively around us. I reached out with my mind, probing for more signatures that might tell me how many vampires there actually were. But his was the only ping I received from my mystical sonar.

  Only one vamp. For some reason, that made the bloodsucker even scarier.

  “I am alone,” came a voice from behind the branches of the tree. Jhamal stopped about twenty feet away, and waited.

  “Come out where we can see you,” I said. There was some rustling of the branches, but no real movement. “Fine.” I cast a ball of magical light into the air above the tree and willed it to luminesce outward. The vampire held up one arm to shield his eyes from the light and stepped forward, away from the shadows.

  “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” it said. “My name is Elion and I am not here to fight.”

  He stood away from the trees, stopping mere inches from the invisible ward that snaked around our property. The blue light from my magic illuminated him clearly and allowed me to make out most of his features. He was startlingly pale, with neatly-cropped dark hair atop a thin, angular face dominated by black eyes. Not just the pupils, or even the irises were black—the entire orbital structure was black, with tiny flecks of molten gold that danced in the darkness. He was slender of build, dressed in well-fitting jeans and a long-sleeved, light blue t-shirt. The shirt was stained with dark patches splattered across the chest and down the entire right arm.

  Jhamal growled menacingly at the vampire—I didn’t need him to tell me that the creature was covered in blood. Throwing one leg over Jhamal’s back I slipped down off the great lion and walked over to the vampire. I stopped just before I reached the ward. To my magically-enhanced senses, it looked like a glowing blue wall with sparks of lightning spiderwebbing throughout. I trusted that the
vampire would not be able to reach—or more importantly, bite—through.

  Sensing Jhamal’s discomfort, I waved reassuringly at him. Nonetheless, part of me was pleased to see the tension in the Lion-Shifter’s body; he was prepared to attack at the first sign of any aggression from the creature that stood before us. The vampire looked over at Jhamal, taking in his massive form with those emotionless black eyes.

  I sent a thread of magic through the ward and wrapped it around the vampire, probing for anything that might be…off. Not that I knew quite what to look for—just the fact that he was a vampire was enough to give me a serious case of the willies. But I figured that maybe my magic would pick up on any weird mystical weapons he might be hiding, or any truly evil intentions. Satisfied, I addressed him in the most non-shaky voice I could muster.

  “What are you doing here?”

  He took a deep breath, which surprised me. I didn’t think vamps breathed, being dead and all.

  “I need your… help.” His voice was deep, but strained, his wording uneven.

  Despite myself, I burst out laughing. “My help? How stupid does your master think I am?”

  “I have no master, young witch.” What I said must have sparked something in him; his eyes seemed to blaze a little more to life, and a hardness crept into his voice that caused a chill to race up my spine. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…put you off. But no one commands me.”

  “Tell you what. I’ll give you one minute to say whatever it is you need to say, and if I’m not satisfied with it you’re going to fry.. What do you think about that?” I hoped my bravado was enough to scare him off. Truth was, I still didn’t know how to kill a vampire. But I was the only thing standing between this one and my family, so if it came down to it, I would light his ass up like a Christmas tree. I summoned fire and held it at the ready in the back of my mind.