by brett hicks
“Should I bother to remind you, you quit the force, and have no protection under law inside coven territory?”
I hissed, “Just get the damn cops, don’t worry about my vampy little ass!”
“Right…” I ended the call and handed the phone back to Sally and she shook her head.
“Might as well keep the damn thing, Ben is totally gonna give the number to Jon now.”
“An even more reason for you to have the damn thing back!”
“Kay, there is something seriously broken with you.”
“Sally, I swear, we can talk about my brooding and anti-social ways later! Get your furry little butt to that damn gate!”
“Um, how exactly are we getting in?”
I smirked and said, “Funny you should mention that. Granny dearest taught me something unique, something only my blood activates.”
Sally nodded and said, “Super-secret hocus-pocus, I approve of this plan!”
Get in the driver’s seat, I am going to the gate, pull up and pick me up once you see the signal. We will make a b-line for my grandma. If anything is happening, then she will be the target.”
Sally started to climb over the middle console and into the driver seat, as I promptly vacated it, stepping onto the concrete.
“Pop the trunk Sal, I gotta grab something.”
She nodded and the trunk came up with a slight thunk sound. I walked over and I folded back the mat and pulled back with my three-and-a-half-foot cold iron and silver katana. It was resting in its polished black liquor wooden sheath. I stroked it like a lover and I swung the strap around my shoulder and the blade rested snugly on my back.
“Oh baby, momma missed you so much!”
Sally rolled her eyes as I passed her and muttered, “Get a damn room you perv.”
“Kay, how will I know the signal?”
I turned and my silver slit eyes glowed with amusement at my best friend.
“If granny was correct, then everyone will know we are here.”
“Kay, that sounds about as bat shit crazy as any plan you have ever cooked up!”
I shrugged and continued to gate, I pulled all my witch magic from the tight hold and I held on it metaphysically. I felt it unfold and stretch around me like massive, icy winds. I plucked a dagger from my right sleeve and slit my right palm and began to mutter the chant.
“Lux, Domina, sunder thy divine protection. By the blood of the first, by the blood of the last, let all that is in my name, that is under my name, be brought to naught! This I command, elements of my ancestors obey! Obey! Release, sunder, shatter, my blood hath laid thee low!”
I flung my slick bloody palm at the gates and it touched the invisible barrier just outside the metal. Then, like haze of red mist, the barrier shattered, like the crashing of glass. All defensive spells were dissolved into the red mists that my blood morphed into. I pushed my magic into it, my blood, my magic, the last McQueen, the one who holds the blood of the first witch, or so granny had claimed. The red haze filled the streets and there was panic and confusion unlit anything the assaults prior could have caused.
Sally pulled up, just as I pushed the silver gates open. I heard the howls of wolves behind me, I turned and I saw the one person I never expected to lay eyes on again, Mr. Early, in all his wolf glory. He had about twenty wolves at his back, all looked at me, waiting to see my intentions.
Sally did not seem surprised to see her dad here, so I could put that connection together easy enough. I quickly rounded the little Civic and I climbed into the passenger side and Sally made for the keep like a bat out of hell.
We descended into the witch community like the riders of the apocalypse from the Bible. The twenty wolves fanned out around us, like protective shell, warding off any lower witches that braved to approach our car.
“Kay, they have a damn wall blocking off the keep!”
A massive earthen barrier had been erected to bar our advance, just as I was about to climb out, I saw a small, blonde figure descend from the sky and her magic shattered the wall like thunder.
Sally slammed the gas and we roared forward, my mother shouted, to us, “Go, get her out of there!”
“So, who called my mom?”
“Not me, pretty sure it wasn’t Bella either.”
“The blood link, she must have felt it too.”
“Guessed blood is always thicker, huh?”
I looked back in the rearview, watching Jean Early snap his teeth down on coven members trying to assault my mother. He was guarding her flank now. They moved in a sync that displayed practice, years of open warfare together. This was a side of each that none of us had ever seen before. We often forgot that our parents were born at the end of the last warring age, that battle was still a part of their daily lives at one point in time.
“Sal, let’s pull the Civic here, so we have a little breathing room between the keep and the car.”
She nodded and turned hard and the car spun to a stop and she pulled up the parking brake. We exploded from the car as the engine died out. Fire blasts shot past my face and I ducked low and I drew my blade and advanced, while I zigzagged up the path to the keep.
Sally leapt onto one of the lower buildings and then into a window of the keep. I followed quickly, hopping onto the building and then launching myself through the window. I came to a rolling crouch inside the hallway of the second floor.
Roaring anger followed, as witches began to charge us.
“Go Kay, I got these chumps, go get grams!”
I did not have time to second guess my best friend’s fighting prowess, she was the heir to her pack, no matter what she said.
Sally did not transform, but I saw her arms grow thick bladed claws and her powerful, wild, and earthy aura shot in all directions. I could feel the thickness of the gravity around her, much like the thick Bella was demonstrating to me. Her dad must have taught her how to fight with her magical aura, all sups had some type of magical aura and the stronger the sup, the stronger the aura.
Snarls and roars could be felt, not just heard, windows shattered around her under the strain form the vibrations.
Show off!
I dashed up the stairs and rounded the corridors, I made for the only logical place to look for my grandmother, her study. I ducked and a watery tendril sloshed into the wall, where my head had been.
Up ahead, in the hall, I could see Jaden launching some type of white watery substance at the darkening living water barrier. The magic collided and the thud sound of the impact nearly knocked me off my feet. It did knock the witch off his feet, who had attacked me. I had no time to take prisoners, I swiped my blade across his throat, without breaking stride.
“Stop her!” Jaden yelled and half a dozen of her cronies fanned out in front of her.
“Move, I will not warn anyone twice!” I hissed and I twisted and leapt to the side, just as fire, earth and water magics sailed past my previous spot. The magics all landed, with corrosive effects, sizzling and charring the stone. My eyes widened a fraction, this was nothing natural. Earth magic could never become corrosive. Water and fire, possibly, but all of them? Something was off.
I pushed forward and sent icy blades ahead of me and the fire Witch created a massive circle of flame in front of them. I pushed my aura out, and she struggled to stand under my oppressive aura. I knew well the feeling of trying to use magic and withstand an aura of overwhelming power. I pushed on her more, focusing the onslaught to the fire witch. I dodged the attacks of the other two and I shot several icy blades off at them, just to keep them ducking.
I waited, then I saw her drop to one knee, I faded from sight, blurring in my considerable speed. I reappeared with my blade coated with her blood. I spun and kicked the earth witch in his massive, chubby jaw with my right heel. I spun the blade in an arc, amputating the left hand of the water witch. The other three rose to attack me, but I pushed on them with the arctic winds of my magic and I felt the lances of ice shoot from the floor, impaling al
l the remaining witches.
Jaden had pushed, slamming one last assault on the barrier, just as my chilly magic had left her without aid. The now acrid, stagnant waters, once so beautiful, full of living magic, now vaporized. Joan was on the other side of the open door, drained to the red, clearly, she had channeled everything into holding this assault back for as long as she could.
“You’re too late little leech. Now, at least I get two, for the price of one.”
Her eyes glowed red, all green had been burned from them. Her pupils looked white, with the blood red in the center. Her blue veins shown, sticking out in her visible skin. It was all too obvious, to all who could see this scene unfolding now, she was the sorcerer. She was also the one who had been killing the witches.
She chuckled, it sounded shrill, her voice hoarse and coarse.
“Oh, look out, the monkey is thinking!”
She shot out a flood of white liquid, it was about to impact with my grandma, I began to dash forward, but I was cut off.
My mom held both her hands up, a water shield blocking the assault just short of my grandmother.
“Get her out of here! Mom! Please get my daughter out of here! She has no idea how to fight this girl yet!”
“Jenny…”
“Go, please, get Kayla out of here! She is far too important to die here!”
“No, mom!”
I shot lacy lances forward, but they did not reach Jaden. It was like something around her warped the very air. The icy daggers soon dissolved sort of their query. Jaden pushed more, pressing her white, watery onslaught against my mother and I saw burn marks pock marking her skin now, burning anywhere that they landed.
“Kayla, run!”
I felt hot hands wrap around me, I tried to struggle, but the person in question was exceptionally powerful. I knew the scent, Jean, Sally’s dad.
“I have her Jen, I will see her safely out of here, that is the very least I could do for you.”
She turned, looking into my eyes and her stormy eyes shown with pride, the kind only a loving mother could show.
“You are our future, Kayla, I am so very proud of you, and of Sally too!”
“Mom!” I shrieked like a banshee, Jean pulled me tight to his chest. I kicked and screamed, and I shouted to my mother. He leapt out of a shattered stone wall, down into the market place.
“Here, prick her with this, it will make her sleep for now. She will only get herself killed, if we let her stay awake.”
I felt a prick and I faded in moments, something magical, something my grandmother must have brewed herself. I blacked out to the roars and screams of the battle raging in the keep.
Sixteen:
I shot up screaming at the top of my lungs. My mother’s burning features flashing before my eyes. I reached out, as if I could pull her to me. I felt hot masculine hands pull me tight to a thickly built chest. The scent hit me, and I realized I was no longer at the coven.
Jon stroked his hand through my long, thick blonde hair and murmured soothingly into my ear. “Chérie, you’re ok, you’re safe.”
I don’t want to be safe! I want my mom!
Sally burst through the door, and she stopped growling abruptly, once she saw that nothing was threatening me.
“Kay, hon, you’re in the swamplands outside the city, this is one of Bella’s properties. No one knows about it, well, besides us.”
Joan stepped in the door and slunk past Sally and she sat at the edge of the bed. She was shamefaced, red eyed and completely shattered.
“I’m so sorry, I never meant for her to come, I wanted you to help me escape, not to cause Jenny to…”
I fought past the terror and the paralysis of my fear and grief. I had to ask, I had to hear it in words.
“…Is she..”
Joan closed her blue eyes and I saw tears begin down her cheeks, clearly not for the first time today.
“…I…yes…Jenny is dead.”
I felt my world shatter again, felt the floor fall form beneath me and I buried myself into Jon’s chest. I would never have let myself become so weak, so vulnerable, but I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t function.
Bella stepped in and sat a large pitcher of blood down on the night table, next to the bed I was in. She looked sad, very sad for an ancient.
“Your mother, Jenny, was the finest woman I have ever known. It may mean nothing to you right now, but you have us, you have every one of us. I swear to you, I will not abandon you child.”
I want my mom, my mom, my mom!
I was about to smack the blood away, the reminder of everything that made me such a vile and complete freak show. The reason that bitch could get so close to my grandma, was because of this damn blood coursing through my veins! The reason that my mother had to throw herself between that magic and us, was because I was not a full witch! The very fears that weakened our rule of the coven was this damn blood, my blood—my need for blood!
Bella caught my hand gingerly and shook her head.
“Eat sweetheart, gain your strength, you shall need it in the days to come!”
Jon spoke lowly and said, “Jenny would kick my ass if you starved yourself chérie.”
I leaned back into his massive chest and I breathed in his deeply masculine scent and I used his shirt to wipe my eyes dry, like my own personal towel.
He snorted a tiny laugh and said, “That’s my vindictive Kayla, I knew you were still in there somewhere!”
I felt my stomach heat up, hearing him call me ‘his Kayla.’ I leaned back into Jon, I was too drained, too sad to be brave. I needed him, needed his warmth, needed something to anchor me to life.
“Child, you don’t want to have another fight with your vampire half do you?”
Bella asked from the doorway now. I sighed deeply and Sally must have known I had caved, she poured a tall glass full of the thick, dark crimson liquid.
“Drink up, I know my girl is hungry.”
Her voice was soothing, sweet, every bit sweeter, spunky bestie. Sally was always at my side, always watching my back, even if I was a leech.
“If you drink some of your lunch, then I will make sure everyone gives you some breathing room. If you try to knock it over again, I will go get my rolled-up newspaper!”
She sounded serious, considering she probably did not want a repeat of yesterday, I guess I could not blame her. I knew I would force feed her, if I ever had to. I took the glass from Sally, grudgingly and I pulled away from the warmth of Jon’s chest, just long enough to gulp down the blood. It was richer, much stronger than anything I had ever tasted, full of power. I felt like I had gotten a four-shot espresso jolt.
Sally took the glass and sat it out of my reach, ever the distrustful she-wolf, but she knew me too damn well. Jon was also correct, I am damn vindictive. Under any other circumstances, everyone, including myself, would have been amused at all the preventative measures against Kayla tantrums.
“Jon, just keep her away from her food, unless she is actually going to eat it.”
I felt him nod to my saucy best friend and she retreated from the room without another word, very un-Sally like. She was missing the chance of a life time to tease me into an early grave.
Slowly, everyone filed out of the room, leaving me alone with Jon. I leaned back into his chest and said nothing for a long time. He just held me, stroking my hair and comforting me.
“Did anyone find her…” My voice broke before I could finish, but Jon nodded.
“I ordered SWAT in, just so that I could retrieve her. That landed me with a suspension, since they were all trying to tie off the murders, trying to lay the blame on the powerful and dead Jenny. I kinda slugged the chief for that decision.”
I looked up at Jon and my red rimmed grey eyes shone with surprise in them.
“Why…”
He looked into my eyes with his soulful Cajun eyes and nearly looked hurt at the question.
“Because she was a remarkable, honest, caring woman. Because sh
e is the mother of the girl I love!”
I shook at his confession. My body felt hot, like I had been left in the oven too long. My stomach was doing back flips and my brain seemed to have vacated the scene.
“Chérie, when you were attacked and then left the force, my life felt hollow. I couldn’t figure out how to function properly without you. Your radiance and your brilliance, light my entire world. I have known you were something, someone special, since the first moment I met you. I had to know you, the pull of gravity was beyond anything I could ever out run.”
My breath hitched, my heart leapt into my throat and I should push him away, but I couldn’t. No rational immortal would ever encourage this! Jon leaned down very slowly, telegraphic his intent, I leaned up and captured his lips. Like the action oriented girl, I am, I could not just wait and let it happen, I had to instigate.
I felt his tongue slip in and the kiss deepened and I made a small noise, feeling about ten months of tension boiling over. Jon pulled me tighter against him, we were practically molded against each other and I felt like my body was going to explode from the sensations. I had spent nearly nineteen years avoiding all contact with men. I felt like everything was faded from my mind, if only for a little while.
“Chérie, I should stop, you might regret this later.”
A stray tear rolled down my cheek and I slowly shook my head.
