A Witch's Path

by N. E. Conneely

  She was too far away for me to see the expression on her face, but her posture didn't change. The fire was doing funny things with her eyes. The way the light was reflected made it look like her eyes were flames.

  The next spell I felt was also partly finished. It was designed to uproot the trees around us. Turning my magic into a knife, I severed the spell from her and guided the energy into the earth.

  Behind that was a spell designed to form a small twister, shredding us with gravel. Again, it was partly cast.

  Taking a mental step back, something didn't add up. She could've completed several of the spells she was casting, but she'd left them unfinished. Examining her more closely, I found three more destructive spells, none of them finished or progressing yet she was still casting.

  Pulling my magic back to my body I studied her. She was hiding something. I extended a tendril of power, trying to find the spell hiding behind the others. There it was, a large spell.

  There was a change in the energy, and the tendril of power I'd extended to investigate touched the spell as she released it. The death spell flew towards Elron.

  Extending a hand, I threw every drop of my power in front of him, frantically shaping it into a reflective shield. If it worked the spell would reverse, and go after the caster. If it failed it would hit Elron and me.

  The spell hit my shield. Layer by layer, the shield was eroded. With wisps of power left in the shield, the death spell reversed, heading for the woman. She fell into flames.

  I sucked in a few breaths, unable to believe I'd saved Elron. I walked over to him, feeling empty. The lack of power in my veins wasn't as frightening as the void in my heart. Elron hadn't moved since Adder tackled him.

  Kneeling next to him, I ignored the rocks digging into my knees. I turned over his arm and set two fingers against his wrist. He was alive.

  Movement near the house attracted my attention. The woman, who should have been dead, was standing up and dusting off her flaming clothes. She looked at me, the flames that had been in her eyes gone, and tossed a book onto the grass. The flames returned, and I realized they weren't a reflection of the fire around her, but something else.

  Between one breath and the next she was gone. I hadn't blinked, or lost track of time. She simply vanished. In the distance a wolf growled, and I hoped it was Liam.

  In my dreams, an elven woman with light hair, and flames in her eyes, had told me to find the book. This woman could have been her twin, and the book she just tossed on the ground was the only interesting book I'd come across lately.

  Picking my way through the remains of the building, I found the book. It was a small, leather bound volume. I couldn't feel spells, but I didn't want to touch it. Looking around, I found a partly burned shirt that felt, to my limited senses, completely normal. It would have to do. Careful not to touch the book with my skin, I wrapped it, and slid it in my pocket.

  I checked on Elron again, only to find he was still unconscious. Figuring next to him was as good as anywhere, I sat down, pushing a few pointy pieces of gravel away from my rump. A red wolf trotted over, its muzzle wet. Eyeing it, I tried to figure out what I'd do if it wanted to hurt me.

  The wolf stopped five feet away, laid down, rested its head on its paws, and heaved a sigh.

  "Liam?" The wolf raised his head and nodded. "Did you kill him?" He nodded again. "Good."

  Liam thumped his tail twice. I guess he thought it was a justified killing too.

  I heard sirens in the distance. Tiffany, or the exploding and flaming house had taken care of summoning the authorities for me. Either way, I figured it was safe enough for me to nap until they arrived.

  A sharp bark interrupted my dozing. I opened my eyes to see Liam standing in front of me, wagging his tail. I blinked a few time. He stepped closer, sniffed me, and shoved his cold nose against my neck.

  "Hey! What was that for?" I twisted around, trying to get the cold wet feeling to go away.

  Liam gave a grumbling sound and backed off.

  "My apologies, I wasn't sure if I should wake you. The wolf made the decision for me. What happened?" Elron asked.

  Turning around, I found him sitting up, using a tree as a back rest. "I'll explain everything later. Are you feeling okay? Adder knocked you out the last time he hit you. You should thank Liam, he saved you."

  Elron looked at Liam and bowed his head. "Thank you. I am indebted to you."

  Liam dipped his head before turning and trotting into the forest.

  "How close are the police?" I remembered hearing sirens before I fell asleep.

  "They should arrive shortly. The sirens quieted shortly before Liam awakened you. I believe they stopped at the end of the driveway."

  "Oh." This was it, I'd be on my way to jail soon. I couldn't even count the number of laws I'd broken. If I was going to jail, there were things I wanted to say first. "Elron, I care about you too. I'm sorry I didn't trust you enough to invite you along. Um, if the offer is still open after this, I'll ask you for help next time."

  He arched an eyebrow. "Next time? You are planning another event?"

  "No, why would I do that? Contrary to appearances, this isn't my idea of a good time." I was still sitting in the same spot I'd been in when Liam shoved his nose against my neck. It wasn't a comfortable spot, gravel roads never were, but I was too tired to move.

  "I did not intend to ruffle your feathers. Please accept my apologies, Michelle, I like you. My feelings on that matter have not changed. When things settle down it would be my pleasure to have you over for dinner. And, I will gladly rush to your aid in the future."

  I blushed. "Thank you."

  Liam stomped out of the woods. "If you lovebirds are done we need to talk."

  "We do?" I asked.

  "Michelle, I think he is right," Elron said.

  Clearly my brain wasn't working. Sure, a lot had happened, but did we need to talk about it? As long as Amber and Tiffany were safe we'd won. Liam should get bonus points for killing Adder. All things considered, we'd done fairly well. Sure the strange woman had gotten away, but I had the book.

  "Our stories aren't going to match. There are too many of us, and none of us saw all the action," Liam said.

  Thinking out loud I said, "That could work in our favor though. If we each tell what we know the police will get as clear of a picture as anyone." Not that it would be that clear of a picture. The pieces didn't fit together perfectly. "If we're lucky, we did enough good and scrambled the rest of it enough that none of us will be charged with a crime."

  Elron snorted.

  "What?"

  "You are never that lucky."

  "There has to be a first time."

  Clearing his throat, Liam interrupted, "When the officers make it down here, I'll show them Adder's body. Lass, you'll have to explain the death spell."

  "What death spell?" Elron asked.

  "Not important," I snapped.

  Liam eyed the two of us. "She saved your life, elf. The woman cast a death spell on you. Michelle blocked the spell."

  "Why did you have to bring that up?"

  "Would you have told him, lass?"

  I looked at my feet and the two men looked at me. There was nothing I could say. Liam was right, I wouldn't have told Elron. Our feelings were so new. Elron was old fashioned in many ways. He might believe that if someone saved your life you were in their debt and must repay them with equal service. It would break my heart to have him help me out of obligation. If we went down that path, I doubted he would consider us even, though he'd saved my life too. He would say that I would have found a way out of the other situations, but he wouldn't have been able to defeat a spell.

  The three of us were saved from the uncomfortable silence by a rumbling engine, gravel crunching, and light filtering through the trees. The flashing red and blue lights gave away its identity before it came around the corner. I didn't bother to get out of the road. They would stop to talk to us regardless, and I was too tired to move.


  As soon as the car stopped, the passenger door opened and a man got out, gun in hand. "Identify yourselves, put your hands in the air and get on your knees."

  Liam, the only one of us standing, sank to his knees, hands over his head. Elron dropped his elbows to his knees, palms facing the officer.

  "Can we do the identity check, and hands in the air without getting any more bruises from the rocks? It's been an exhausting evening." I stuck my hands up. "I'm Michelle Oaks."

  The man behind the car door sniffed. "Witch. You're the one who tamed the dinosaur."

  "Yes, sir." That's me, dino-girl.

  "I am Liam O'Neil, alpha of the Chattahoochee pack."

  The officer didn't say anything.

  "Elron, elf, tired, sore, and bleeding." Proof that he was irritating to everyone, not just me.

  "Paramedics will be here as soon as we clear the area. Do you know where Adder is?"

  Liam jerked his head to the side. "About a hundred feet that way. He isn't going anywhere."

  A radio squawked inside the car, and I heard a low voice. A moment later the officer put the gun in his holster, and came around the door. His movement was both sharp and fluid. I knew without asking that he was a vampire. The driver, a brawny block of a man, got out of the car too.

  The two of them looked at the three of us before the vampire addressed Elron. "I don't smell much blood. Would you be able to join us?"

  Elron gave a long drawn out groan, but made it to his feet. He hobbled over, settling next to me with another theatrical grunt.

  The vampire continued talking, "I'm Officer John Becker. This is my partner, Officer Gudger. We are going to have a nice, calm conversation."

  I nodded, wanting it to go quickly so I could get somewhere warm, with a less pointy seat.

  "Ms. Oaks, how did you get here?"

  "Tiffany and I drove over to see if we could find our friend, Amber. On the way over I called Liam, because I didn't have much experience dealing with werewolves."

  Officer Becker nodded, turning his attention to Liam. "And what's your story?"

  "I came to help her out, in case Adder was less than hospitable. Turns out Adder doesn't like visitors." He skipped over the killing Adder and becoming alpha part, but I had a feeling the police would come back to that.

  "Elron?" The vampire prodded.

  "I followed Tiffany and Michelle here. I had a feeling trouble would find them."

  "How did the house explode?" Officer Gudger asked in a deep voice.

  "Wish I knew. I'm getting tired of being around explosions." If I kept this up, I was going to need to marry a medical practitioner to keep me healthy.

  "Mr. O'Neil, could you show me the remains?" Officer Gudger asked.

  "Yes."

  Officer Becker moved to the truck, pulled out a small bag, and handed it to Officer Gudger.

  "No funny business." Gudger pulled a handful of glow sticks out of the bag, and cracked them.

  "Officer, my Ma taught me better than to mess with a bear." Liam led the officer off the road.

  "Enough lip, more walking," the werebear grumbled, more amused than irritated.

  "You two, is there anything else I need to be aware of?"

  "A woman was here, an elf by the look of her, but she could cast. She disappeared," I answered.

  "Please explain what you mean by disappeared."

  "I don't know. She was here and then she wasn't. To the best of my knowledge, Liam, Elron, and I are the only ones here."

  Becker nodded sharply before turning to meet a car that had pulled in behind his. He spoke to the new officers, and two of them split off to follow the trail Gudger had marked with the glow sticks. The two remaining officers got into the driver's seats of the two cars.

  The vampire came back to us. "I'll walk you to the paramedics."

  We walked around the two cars, which continued down the driveway. They must have been going to check out the house, and had taken the cars because it was a single lane road. This way the road was clear for other vehicles. Twice we had to step off the road, once for a fire truck and once for a police car.

  I could hear the commotion at the end of the driveway long before we broke through the trees. Between the headlights and the flashing lights on the police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks, the place was blinding. Everything was in harsh light or deep shadows.

  Officer Becker was taking us to an ambulance, when I spotted Tiffany and Amber. They were sitting at the back of the second ambulance. Amber was wrapped in a blanket, with bandages on her feet. Tiffany had part of her blanket draped over Amber, and was doing her best to keep her warm.

  I looked at them longingly, wanting to race over and check on them. They looked healthy, but I wanted to hear the words and give them hugs. After seeing the woman vanish in front of me, I didn't trust my eyes. Instead, I followed the police officer to our ambulance, which was separated from Amber and Tiffany by a police cruiser.

  A man and a woman jumped out of the back of the ambulance.

  "Two more?" The man asked.

  "Yes, please tend to them."

  The woman came over to me. "Hi, I'm Martha. Why don't you sit down over here, and tell me what happened."

  Before I knew what was going on, I was sitting on the bumper with a blanket around my shoulders, and a bottle of water in my hands. She chattered at me while she blinded me with a pen light and looked over my visible body parts.

  "Does anything hurt?"

  I wanted to say my rump and knees from spending so much time on the rocks, but that wasn't what she needed to know. "No, nothing hurts."

  "How did you get dirty?"

  "I fell in the creek."

  "What about the scrapes?"

  "Hard to say. Those could be from the woods, the scuffle with Adder, or the house exploding."

  "Any other injuries?"

  I shook my head. She stepped away to talk to the ever present Officer Becker. Elron's EMT joined Martha and Officer Becker, leaving us alone.

  Elron scooted over until he was next to me. Grateful for the support, I leaned against him.

  "You have some explaining to do." I spoke softly.

  "As do you."

  "Can we explain later? I think we are going to spend the rest of the night explaining."

  "As the lady wishes."

  Leaning against him, I tried to sort my thoughts and emotions, but I couldn't hold on to them. The events were clear enough, but it felt distant, like I'd been an observer rather than a participant. Maybe the emotions and events would reconnect later, but for now I let it go and drifted.

  Eventually, Officer Becker came over. "It's time to go."

  I didn't need to ask where. This was the part where we got questioned about every detail of the evening. Elron and I ended up in the back of the car with Becker and Gudger riding shotgun.

  At the police station, techs pulled me into a room. My clothes were bagged, my nails were scraped, and my injuries catalogued. They were smart enough to listen to me and bag the book without removing it from the cloth. I almost felt sorry for the poor person who got stuck doing this to Elron.

  After they were done, I was given some sweats to wear. I gratefully pulled on the pants and shirt, glad to be clothed and warming up.

  Becker took me to another room, and I sat in an uncomfortable chair, with a microphone pointed at me and a camera recording every moment. Before long, Det. Wells came in, hair sticking up at odd angles, and clothes rumpled.

  I should've been surprised to see him, but I wasn't. Or maybe my surprise was used up.

  Wells took the seat across from me, dropping a pen, pad of paper, and a slim file on the table.

  "Ms. Oaks, I wish I could say it was a pleasure."

  I didn't say anything.

  He continued talking, "You know what happens now. I ask question, you answer them, and maybe we can all go home and get some sleep."

  "Do you really think that's going to happen?" I could be wrong, but I had a feel
ing I was headed for booking.

  "I would like it to go that way."

  "I will tell you everything if you get the book out of evidence and into my hands." He didn't have any reason to agree, but I needed that book. The more the events ran through my mind, the more I was convinced that it was the book referenced in my dream.

  Wells leaned forward, catching my eyes. "If you tell me everything I'll see what I can do for you about that book."

  He shifted back in his seat, and for a moment one hand had six tentacles instead of fingers. My eyes returned to his face, and he slowly blinked one eye, a move that the camera would see as an eye irritation. I knew better. This man was on my side.

  With the glimpse of his fingers I felt hope. Deep down, I knew it was going to work out.

  I started at the beginning, the very beginning. I detailed every pertinent event of this evening. His expression didn't change when I explained my first phone call with Liam, or the subsequent conversation with Tiffany. He didn't twitch when I informed him of the second phone call. He might as well have been a statue for all the emotion he showed when I went through the events. I finished my explanation with Officers Becker and Gudger arriving.

  By the end of the story, I was proud of myself. The only thing I'd left out was the dream, but that wasn't his business anyway.

  He took a moment to think, and then the questions started. We rehashed everything that happened at Adder's house. This time he took notes, often asking me to pause while he got something on paper.

  Then he asked one more question, one I hadn't expected.

  "Ms. Oaks, was this worth it?"

  "I think so. Amber is home. Adder won't hurt anyone anymore, and I may have a clue as to who is causing so much trouble in this town." It was worth it, even if I spent years behind bars.

  Wells studied me. I didn't bother trying to determine his thoughts. I was too tired to care about my own thoughts. After minutes of silence he spoke.

  "I believe this is a rather obvious extension of your duties relating to the suicides, which have been reclassified as murders. Since your actions, and that of your companions, were in service to this town, we are considering your actions an extension of your contract. As far as the department is concerned all of you, with the exception of Amber, were acting as independent contractors, confidential informants, deputized civilians, whatever it takes to make this go away and further the investigation into the murders."