by C. C. Wood
I tried to lift a hand to rub my forehead, but they refused to cooperate. I looked down and realized that my wrists were tied to one of my kitchen chairs with zip ties.
Everything rushed back to me quickly, burning away the confusion, and I tilted my head back to look into the bright eyes of my best friend, Jonelle.
Only I was almost certain that someone else looked back.
“Victor?” I asked hesitantly.
It was unnerving to see Jonelle throw her head back and laugh, only the voice that came from her throat wasn’t her own.
When she looked back at me, a spark of admiration lit her gaze. “I see you figured it out.”
“When?” I slurred, my tongue still not working properly.
“A little while,” he answered cryptically. “I have to tell you though, I hate being a woman.” Jonelle’s body shuddered. “I don’t see how you stand it.”
My brain was still struggling to reconcile the knowledge that Victor Martin Kincade had taken over the body of my best friend.
I licked my dry lips, trying to generate some moisture in my sticky mouth. “Why?”
Bending over me, Jonelle fisted my hair and pulled my head further back. “To be close to you. Why else?” she asked in that frighteningly deep voice. Victor/Jonelle lifted a glass of water to my lips. “You’ve been out a while. Take a couple of sips of this.”
As I swished the water in my mouth, I wondered how long ‘a while’ was. Was it long enough that Mal would be heading home soon?
My frantic thoughts scrambled. No, he couldn’t come home. He didn’t realize that Victor had possessed Jonelle. He would be in danger.
I finally noticed that I wasn’t in the kitchen. The chair Victor/Jonelle had tied me to was placed in the center of the living room. Facing me were three other chairs from the kitchen. In each one, Victor had secured Stony, Blaine, and Angie.
“What did you do to them?” I asked him, my voice breaking as I spoke.
“Well, I slipped Blaine and Stony a little of that GHB I put in your birthday present. The witch wasn’t drinking her soda so I had to zap her with the same stun gun I used on you,” Victor explained, his tone cheerful.
“My birthday present?” I asked.
“The Scotch,” he explained.
My eyes widened as I stared up at him. “You did that?”
He laughed again and I felt a chill race up my spine because the amusement didn’t reach his eyes. Jonelle’s eyes. They were cold as ice and devoid of soul. I saw not even a sliver of my best friend staring back at me.
Silently, I said a fervent prayer, hoping that Jonelle wasn’t gone for good. If she was, I would be tempted to bring Victor Martin Kincade back from the dead just so I could kill him again.
“I hoped that everyone would drink it and I could take you out of here right under their noses. Also, there was the added bonus of knowing that the whore would see it and remember what happened here before.”
“The whore?” I asked.
Victor/Jonelle waved a hand. “That whore who lived here before. The one I killed in the 80’s.”
I realized that he was talking about Teri. “You mean Teri?” I asked loudly. I didn’t see her in the room, but I was hoping that she would hear her name and come to help me. If she could.
“Yes,” he hissed, his rough voice rolling out of Jonelle’s throat.
A flash of movement caught my eye, but I didn’t dare turn to study it. I hoped it was Teri, but I didn’t want Victor/Jonelle to notice that I was looking at her. I wasn’t sure if he would be able to see her or not.
“Why did you drink the Scotch if you knew it was drugged?” I asked him, remembering what had happened to Jonelle that night.
“Did I drink it?” he asked. His tone was arrogant, even smug.
Suddenly, I understood. “You haven’t been inside Jonelle for that long, have you?”
He shrugged, a masculine gesture that looked out of place on Jonelle’s body. “Maybe.”
“Preston. That night. He was acting strangely. He has EMT training but he didn’t step in to help until the deputies and fire department arrived.”
Victor/Jonelle cocked his head to the side and stared at me in surprise. “Well, well, you’re smarter than I expected.”
I bristled inside at his condescending tone, but buried it. Now was not the time to provoke him. In my peripheral vision I saw Angie’s head roll back and her eyes flutter. She was waking up. For a split second, I saw Teri’s head appear behind her, gaze on me.
I hoped that Teri was removing Angie’s restraints. I would need all the help I could get.
Victor/Jonelle stepped back from me, his head turning toward the trio behind him.
Desperate to distract him, I blurted, “How many women did you kill before you died?”
Jonelle’s hair flowed as he turned to face me once again, a cocky smile on his lips. The longer I looked at him, the more of Victor’s features I could see. An opaque cloak surrounded Jonelle, in the shape of Victor Kincade. It was a strange sight. I wondered how I hadn’t noticed it before. Or maybe it was because Victor was no longer trying to conceal himself.
“What an interesting question,” he muttered. He appeared to consider his answer for a moment before he replied, “Ten. And I was never caught or even suspected.”
Intent on keeping his attention focused on me, I replied, “That’s not entirely true. What about the woman in Fort Worth. I found an article naming you as a person of interest in her death.”
He scowled at me, his face solidifying in front of Jonelle’s features for a split second. “They never proved anything and it was only a matter of time before they left me alone.”
He took a deep breath and I watched in sick fascination as his face seemed to fade more into Jonelle’s features. His eyes cut to me. “Your friend is stronger than I gave her credit for.” He smirked. “Then again, I didn’t know she was a witch when I picked out this meat suit. Still, she’s no match for me.” A brief flash of pain crossed his face before he laughed. “Oh, the little witch didn’t like that at all.”
Something inside me relaxed. Jonelle was still inside her body, fighting back against Victor’s intrusion. He hadn’t been able to kill her.
Another quick movement behind him caught my attention, but I forced myself to keep my eyes on his face. Angie had woken up completely. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I was certain.
A hand clamped on Jonelle’s wrist and she whirled, revealing Angie standing behind her, Teri floating nearby.
“I command you to release this woman,” she demanded. Her voice was deep, echoing with power. I felt it sliding along my skin, tiny shocks of magic nipping at my flesh. The weight of it made me want to cringe. “Show me your true form!” Angie cried.
I felt a tug on my ankles and looked down to see Teri cutting the zip ties with a pair of scissors. How she managed to hold them for so long, I didn’t know. As soon as my legs were free, she quickly moved to my wrists. Just like that, I was no longer bound.
I jumped to my feet, struggling to keep upright when my legs began to tingle and burn as the blood rushed through them. I must have been unconscious in that position for a long time.
Angie’s other hand reached out and wrapped around my wrist. Without taking her eyes from Jonelle’s form, she said, “I’m sorry, Zoe.”
Before I could ask her why she was apologizing, I felt a sharp tug inside me, then a huge pull, as if I were standing within a vacuum, only instead of tearing at my skin, it ripped apart my soul.
I cried out, but managed to keep my feet.
“Release your hold on the woman!” Angie’s voice rose and the power whipping through the room lashed at my hair and clothes. This time I felt the wind that first whispered before it gained strength. I knew from talking to Angie earlier that it was a witchwind, a physical manifestation that accompanied the use of a witch’s powers. “Show me your true form!”
With a shriek that threatened to pierce my eardrums, Vi
ctor’s transparent shape peeled away from Jonelle’s body. She collapsed to her knees, but Angie’s grip on her wrist kept her from falling to the floor completely.
I watched in horror as Victor morphed into the same black, man-sized creature he’d been the night we summoned him the first time, his glacial blue eyes staring at Angie with hatred and rage.
Another hard yank seemed to tear another piece of my soul from my body and I screamed this time. Jonelle echoed me, though her voice was significantly weaker. The wind around us intensified into a howl. I felt as though I were standing beneath a hurricane, buffeted by power and witchwind that threatened to tear my body apart, along with my soul.
“By the power of one, I banish you from this earth, Victor Martin Kincade. In the name of the Goddess, I command you to leave this plane and never return.” Angie’s voice was pure power now, thunderous and full of magic.
He roared, fighting the storm that swirled around him. Flashes of light, like the sparks that often danced in Angie’s eyes, filled the room and the very earth beneath my home seemed to rumble.
“Never!” he snarled. “She is mine and when I’m done with her, I’ll do the same to you. You’ll scream. You’ll beg me to kill you, bitch.”
He fought harder, gaining two steps toward us, leaning into the wind that seemed to shove against him.
I felt the pull again and realized that it was Angie. Angie was using my power, and Jonelle’s, to boost her own. To fight Victor.
With that knowledge, I stopped fighting the pain, working with the draw of Angie’s hand on my wrist.
I felt the tremble in her hand against my skin and realized that even with the added strength of my power, and Jonelle’s, she was weakening.
“By the power of two, I banish you from the earth, Victor Martin Kincade. In the name of the Goddess, I command you leave this plane and never return!” she cried again.
Still, Victor advanced, a smile spreading across his face as he gained another step toward us, revealing sharp, pointed teeth. “You’re too weak, witch. You cannot hold me and cast the spell at the same time.”
Suddenly, Teri appeared behind him, wrapping her arms around his chest and clinging to his back. She yanked him back two steps.
“Finish the spell!” she screamed. “I can hold him.”
“Teri, no!” I reached my free hand toward her. Wherever Victor was going, it wouldn’t be pretty. I didn’t want her trapped there.
Angie, however, didn’t hesitate. “I’m sorry, Teri,” I heard her murmur just above the shrieking of the wind.
“By the power of three, I banish you from the earth, Victor Martin Kincade. In the name of the Goddess, I command you to leave this plane and never return!”
I felt the spell snap shut, trapping both Victor and Teri in its clutches. With everything I had, I reached toward Teri, desperate to save her from the hell I knew Victor would face.
But it was too late.
In a brilliant flash of white light and a rolling boom of thunder, the spell took effect and they were gone.
Chapter
I passed out not long after that. It was no dainty fainting spell, where I swooned gracefully.
No, I’m pretty sure I went down like a hundred year old redwood.
Someone gently tapping my cheeks woke me and I cringed back, trying to avoid the touch. It was too reminiscent of what had just happened with Victor and it terrified me to think I might still be in his clutches.
“Zoe, please wake up, darlin’.”
Oh, I liked that. Darlin’. It sounded especially nice in Mal’s low drawl.
Mal.
My eyes popped open and I winced for a different reason. My head was killing me.
I lifted a hand and rubbed my forehead. “Owwww,” I groaned. A good-sized knot swelled beneath my fingers.
When I tried to sit up, Mal’s gentle hands kept me prone. “Thank God. I was worried you were never going to wake up.”
“That’s my fault,” a hoarse voice admitted.
Slowly, I turned my head and stared at Angie.
She smiled ruefully. “I took quite a bit of power from her, and from Jonelle, in order to send that demon bastard back to where he came from. She hit her head when she went down.”
Well, that explained the lump.
“Jonelle!” I tried to sit up again, but Mal kept his hand on my chest, holding me down.
“She’s fine. She came around a few minutes ago. She’s still loopy as hell, but she’s fine.”
“Did you just call my best friend loopy?” I asked him, feeling slightly indignant on her behalf.
He stared at me in confusion for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. “That’s not how I meant it. She’s still disoriented from fainting.”
“It’s not fainting if you fall hard enough to break your head,” I argued. “I passed out.”
Mal’s smile widened. “Whatever you say.”
“I don’t see what’s so funny,” I grumped.
“Nothing’s funny. This is bone-deep relief. You scared the hell out of me,” Mal replied.
“Oh.” I lifted a hand and cupped his cheek. “Is he really gone?”
Mal looked over to Angie and I followed his gaze.
“He’s gone,” she reassured me. “I’m sorry that I had to pull on your power like that, but there was no time to explain and it was the only way I would be strong enough to pull off that banishing spell.”
I nodded. “I understood what you were doing after a couple of minutes. I tried to relax and let you take what you needed.”
“That was the only reason we won,” Angie admitted weakly.
“Okay, you all can talk about this later,” Mal insisted. “You all need a trip to the ER to get checked out.”
I groaned, but didn’t argue.
However, Angie had a different idea. “I’m absolutely f—”
“Don’t argue with Mal,” I interrupted, closing my eyes for a second. Oh, that helped my headache. “All three of him are right.”
“Zoe, you need to open your eyes,” Mal demanded.
I tried to lift a hand to tell him to give me a minute, but the darkness behind my eyelids was so nice, I just let myself sink into it.
The next time I awoke, I was in the hospital. I was grateful that the lights in my room were turned down low. There was a hush in the air that told me it was after midnight.
I shifted in the bed, trying to ease the ache in my skull, and my hand brushed something soft. I looked down and saw that Mal’s dark head was resting on the pale pink blanket draped over my bed, his face turned away from me.
I ran my fingers through it, enjoying the texture.
Mal moved, lifting up and facing me. “Thank God you’re awake,” he whispered.
“Have I been out long?”
“A few hours. The doctor said you probably have a concussion and something about exhaustion, but he wouldn’t tell me much since I’m not family.”
“Did you call my parents?” I asked. My mother would have a fit if she found out I’d been taken to the hospital and no one called her.
Mal nodded. “They’re getting some coffee downstairs.”
I relaxed against the bed with a sigh. “How are Jonelle and Angie?”
“Better than you,” Mal replied. “Neither of them hit their heads when they passed out. Jonelle took Angie back to her house and they’re both resting. She didn’t want to leave but the doctor threatened to have her admitted if she didn’t. You, on the other hand, have a nasty concussion from bouncing your forehead off the hardwood floor in your living room.”
“Great,” I muttered. “What about Stony and Blaine?”
“They’re being kept overnight for observation, but they should be fine as well.”
“Thank God.” I leaned my head back on my pillow and looked up at the ceiling. “I think…” I trailed off when my throat grew tight.
“Think what?”
“I think Teri’s gone,” I whispered. “She grabbed Victor wh
ile Angie was performing the banishing spell and she wouldn’t let go. When the spell was done, she wasn’t there anymore. I couldn’t see or feel her.”
Mal took my hand, lacing our fingers together. “I’m sorry, Zoe. Do you think there’s a chance you can find her like you did before?”
“I don’t know. I doubt it if she was dragged down into Hell with Victor.”
Whatever Mal was about to say to that would have to wait because the door to my room swung open and my parents walked inside.
“You’re awake!”
I winced at my mother’s loud tone as she rushed to my bedside. “Not so loud please. I have a headache to rival a frat boy’s after Greek Week.”
Mal chuckled beneath his breath at that, but neither of my parents seemed to get the humor.
Being a good man, Mal stepped back so my mother and father could fuss over me quietly.
As I met his eyes and allowed my mouth to curve into a small smile, I hoped with every fiber of my being that the nightmare was over.
Chapter
Three Days Later
I watched Mal moving around my living room with frustration. Since I’d been released from the hospital two days ago, he’d refused to let me get up from the sofa except to eat meals, shower, and sleep.
As much as I appreciated his obvious concern, the man was driving me bonkers.
“I’m not an invalid,” I explained slowly. “My head doesn’t hurt anymore and my vision is fine.”
“The doctor said—”
“I know what the damn doctor said,” I snapped. Immediately, I felt like crap for speaking harshly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Look, I won’t read a book or open my laptop,” I relented, “But I want to get up and move a little.”
My irritability extended beyond Mal’s protectiveness. It also had to do with the fact that he was no longer sleeping in my bed, which meant I wasn’t sleeping well. Over the last two weeks, I’d become addicted to having his weight pressed against my back or sprawling over his chest.
