Witch Hunt

by Layla Nash

  “It’s a way of binding someone to an oath or obligation. I’ve bound her life to yours, Evershaw. She must save you from this or risk her own self and power.” The old man folded his hands calmly near his waist, unperturbed as he watched Henry and the rest of the pack stare at him.

  Evershaw frowned. “That doesn’t seem right.”

  “It’s the only way to guarantee she’ll save you, particularly after what happened here.” Smith glanced at his watch. “She will be asleep for maybe twenty minutes, perhaps a little longer, but not by much. I’d advise you put her in a place where she cannot escape.”

  Evershaw held his side and grunted, his vision still a little blurry, and limped toward the door. He didn’t like the idea of the witch being forced to help him, since it would have been better if she did it for the money or just because, but he couldn’t argue with Smith about it. It sounded like it was too late to change the geas thing, so they’d all just have to go with it. He’d try not to get killed by anything else before the witch was freed from the binding. “We’ll see. She won’t escape from the pack house. The sooner we figure out who started this, the better. Todd will be in touch.”

  The old man smiled with half his mouth, exposing suddenly pointy teeth, then retreated into the shadows. “Be careful, wolf. She is more dangerous than perhaps you know.”

  Henry scowled and strode toward the door, the witch still dangling over his shoulder. “She’s heavier than she looks, though, that’s for damn sure. Little thing like her must be all muscle.”

  Evershaw growled as he followed, suddenly uneasy with the thought of another male holding the witch so closely, and when he looked back over his shoulder, Smith had disappeared. He ignored the prickle between his shoulder blades and instead focused on placing his feet with care as he picked his way through the mess of torn and twisted steel that fell as a result of the witch’s curses. She’d been impressive, fighting like that, but it was good news for all of them that she wasn’t great at things on the fly. Smith had explained it had something to do with the type of magic she did, but Evershaw understood about every third word of what sounded like the intro to philosophy class he’d been forced to take in college. Good riddance. All he knew was, unless she had more of those little twists of cloth with her, she wasn’t that dangerous.

  Henry put the witch on the bench seat in the middle of the SUV, about to slide in next to her to keep her upright, but Evershaw growled and the other wolf retreated quickly to take the front passenger seat. Evershaw got in next to the witch, trying to convince himself it was because she held the key to saving his life and not because she looked delicate and small and kicked his protective instincts into overdrive.

  Todd jumped in the driver’s seat, already on the phone with Ruby O’Shea about the coyotes, and Evershaw relaxed, his arm draped across the top of the seat and under the witch’s head. He closed his eyes. He would survive this. He would survive and destroy the guilty parties, and then he’d go ahead and destroy whoever might have been responsible but wasn’t—the coyotes, RedCloud, whomever. They’d all pay.

  It did more to calm his racing heart than anything the witch had done.

  Chapter 9

  Deirdre

  I woke up in pieces and parts, and in sheer frustration for not being able to move. It was like reality faded in and out in flickers and flashes and wouldn’t stay there, no matter how hard I concentrated or how wide I opened my eyes. It felt like one of those magical headaches building behind my eyes, and though I couldn’t sense a curse on me, it practically stank of the ErlKing. Only he could betray so easily and completely.

  Other people moved around me but didn’t respond when I tried to talk or move or curse them, so clearly I wasn’t as successful in reality as I was in my head. Fury bubbled back up in my chest. They’d attacked me and bound my hands, thrown a hood over my head, and dragged me around like I was a sack of potatoes. The indignity of it... And I’d just saved that bastard Evershaw’s life right before he sat up and demanded his pack capture me. Un-fucking-believable.

  “She’s coming around,” someone muttered, and I clenched my jaw to keep from spewing hexes at them when I finally managed to force an eye open and keep it there.

  I tried to convince myself to be quiet and frightened and accommodating, so maybe I could build up some goodwill and convince them that I wasn’t dangerous or likely to escape. I really tried. Mom would have been proud at how hard I tried. Except when I managed to unlock my jaw and get my brain to cooperate as I clawed my way free of paralysis, the first words that came out were, “I’m going to fucking kill all of you. Let me go this second.”

  Someone snorted. “Yep, she’s awake.”

  I tried to lash out and deck whoever spoke, but my hands were still bound tightly in front of me. It didn’t feel like rope anymore but was softer and stiffer—padded handcuffs.

  When my eyes finally focused on the faces floating in front of me, I found the dark-haired wolf they called Henry and a young woman a few years younger than me. Her eyes held a gold sheen as she blinked at me, and when she smiled, she had a bit of a snaggletooth. “Hey there, witch.”

  I glared, even as part of my brain registered extreme jealousy at her blonde hair and hazel eyes, and wrenched at my wrists and whatever the handcuffs were tied to. “I will fucking curse you people if you don’t let me go.”

  She grinned in delight, looking at Henry as he studied me dubiously, then the girl looked back at me. “Can you really curse people?”

  That took a little wind out of my sails. What the hell was wrong with these people? I tried to move my feet, in the off chance they were free and I could kick them both in the face to make my escape, but they were also restrained. “Are you kidding? Are you seriously asking me that?”

  “Can you seriously do it?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I snapped. “Free my hands and I’ll fucking show you.”

  “Well, that’s not giving us a reason to let you go,” Henry said. He glanced over his shoulder at a door, and I paused in my montage of threats to actually breathe and study the room. It looked like a generic hotel suite, with a combination bedroom and small living area and a kitchenette, all of it clean and new but completely lacking in character or personality. One door led to a bathroom, another to a closet, and the third—the one Henry stared at—had enough locks on it that it had to be the exit.

  The guy tilted his head as he studied me, a very wolfish behavior, and a muscle ticked in his jaw. “Here’s the thing. Smith said he put something on you that binds you to our alpha, so if something happens to him, something happens to you.”

  “A geas? Son of a bitch,” I said, the words escaping in a rush as my vision went completely red and electric. Fucking unbelievable. My aunt had been right. I hated it even more because she’d warned me about the ErlKing’s inevitable betrayal. Of course he screwed me over. Of course he had. Even with the debt between us, he threw me—literally—to the wolves. I lurched up and managed to mostly stand, despite being tied to the chair legs, and tried to rage. “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him. How dare he?”

  “Whoa there, sug,” the girl said. She traded a raised-eyebrow look with Henry as she held up her hands to keep me from pitching face-first into the ground. “Take a deep breath. You look like you’re about to pop a gasket.”

  And again I stared at her, flummoxed. “What’s wrong with you?”

  The snaggletooth reappeared as she grinned. “That’s the million-dollar question, witch. Just do me a favor and sit still for a second. You’re not going anywhere, so there’s no reason to get agitated.”

  Mom would have agreed with her. Henry, at least, looked how I felt—perplexed, off-balance, a little worried. I just stood there, half-hunched over as the chair bit into my back, and scowled at her. “I’m not staying here, that’s for damn sure.”

  “You’re staying here until Evershaw’s healthy,” Henry said. He scratched absently at the five o’clock shadow on his jaw, then sat on the arm of t
he nearby couch. “Guest quarters. It’s nice. You’ll have whatever you need. It’s just until he’s fine, then you’ll be free to go.”

  My legs started to ache from the odd angle and the pins and needles as circulation returned, so I grudgingly sat back down in the chair. The girl kept grinning, so crazy but dazzlingly happy that I wanted to bottle her energy and take it with me, and she held up a glass of water. “Thirsty?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not staying here. I’m not. I did not agree to this. I did what I could, but it’s not on me if that asshole has so many enemies that they can’t figure out who poisoned him. That’s officially not my problem, and right now he should add me to the list of people who would push him in front of a bus if I had the chance. Got it? Kidnapping me is not any way to gain my support.”

  “You have to save him,” Henry said. He certainly had a one-track goddamned mind.

  I leaned forward, and even though he was six feet away, the wolf still edged back a touch. “You can’t make me do magic, friend. You can’t make me do anything. So no, I don’t have to save him.”

  “But Smith said—“

  “I don’t give a fuck what that sorry old bastard said.” I fumed, gritting my teeth, and wiggled my fingers to try and get feeling back. Even with the padded handcuffs, it still wasn’t much better than the ropes. “I’m not going to do it, so you might as well let me go.”

  “We can’t,” the girl said. She patted my shoulder as she bounced to her feet and disappeared into the kitchenette area off to my left and behind me, and things rattled around as she searched for something. “That’s just how it is, tutz. I’m Mercy, by the way. Your new best friend.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  Henry shook his head and rolled his eyes, and I wondered whether having Mercy there was supposed to reassure me or frustrate the fuck out of me until I gave up and cooperated just so she wouldn’t be flitting and fluttering around me at all hours. She popped back up in front of me with a cup of coffee, hazel eyes bright. “I’m your new pack buddy. Everyone gets one when they join the pack. I’m kind of like your sponsor. We’re going to hang out, and Todd will be by in a bit to explain things to you. Coffee?”

  And still I stared at her. The girl was from another planet entirely. “Caffeine is not the problem here.”

  Henry ran a hand through his shaggy hair, still looking a little too wolf-like for comfort. “The faster Evershaw gets cured, the faster you’ll get out of here. Because as stubborn as you look, he’s more. He’s a lot more.”

  “He’s the stubbornest asshole in the entire city, and this state, and probably the whole damn country,” Mercy said, though she said it at a whisper and sneaked a glance at the door to make sure no one came through and heard her. “You won’t talk your way out of this.”

  “And Smith gave him something to make sure you couldn’t break out of the house,” Henry added.

  I wondered how much grinding it would take to actually break my teeth off, because it felt like my molars were about to disintegrate with the amount of clenching I was doing just in the few minutes since they’d been talking. Maybe Estelle and the rest of the coven would notice I was missing and would search for me. I hadn’t left any clues to where I was going, but they could scry for me and find me if they really wanted to.

  Not that they were likely to try after that little episode at the last coven meeting.

  My resolve started to crumble as I thought of my cat, alone in the house, maybe wondering why I hadn’t come back to feed him. I tried to remember how much food was in his bowl and whether I’d shut the door to the pantry where I kept his food, since he tended to chew through the bag whenever he wanted. It made my chest hurt to think of Cricket there by himself.

  Mercy’s lips compressed in a thin line and she crouched in front of me, resting the coffee cup on my knee. “Look, Deirdre. We need Evershaw to be better, okay? He’s the alpha and without him the pack doesn’t exist. I don’t know what you’ve heard about us, but we’re kind of a bunch of misfits. Evershaw brought us together and made us a family. We need him. Yes, he’s an asshole, but he’s our asshole. Please. Please help him.”

  I frowned as I looked at her, and something in my chest uncoiled. She really meant it. She believed the pack needed Evershaw to survive, and there were any number of individuals prepared to confront a hostile witch and capture her in the midst of a magical battle to save his life. It almost made a knot form in my throat, since there wasn’t anyone who would have fought for me the same way if I’d been poisoned and needed someone to heal me.

  Maybe Cricket. He’d stand up to a whole wolf pack to protect me, that much I knew for sure.

  The door to the outside opened and closed, and the dark-haired guy who looked a little like Evershaw appeared, arms folded over his chest. “So you’re awake.”

  It just reignited some of the anger deep in the pit of my stomach. “Mercy was just trying to convince me to fix your pal.”

  “What will it take to convince you?”

  “Untie my hands and I’ll tell you.” I glared at him in challenge.

  He didn’t blink. “Fine. Henry, let her go.”

  All three of us looked at him like he’d lost his mind for sure. It took the wind out of my sails a bit more, since I had no idea what to do if they released me. My planning stopped at a couple of threats and just refusing to cooperate.

  Henry cleared his throat a couple of times, moving forward like his body wanted to obey but his better sense intended to prevail. “Sir, uh, she’s still kind of... combative. Are you sure we should...?”

  “Do it.” Todd never looked away from me. “What will it take, witch? Save Evershaw and we’ll pay any price you ask.”

  I held my breath as Mercy took the key from Henry and released my hands, then took a pocket knife to cut through the ropes around my ankles and the chair legs. I rubbed my wrists and the tender flesh where the ropes and cuffs had chafed when I struggled to escape.

  I pushed to my feet and took a deep breath, flexing my magic just a bit to get a sense of how Smith bound me. The magic spiraled out and out and out and then—smack into a wall. I grunted and braced myself on the back of the chair, gritting my teeth as I scowled at the mystified wolves. “I want Smith here to account for this bullshit. I did him a favor by assisting Evershaw, and this is how I’m repaid?”

  “There were no other options,” Todd said. The similarity of his features with Evershaw’s made me want to punch him. Maybe hex him afterward for good measure. There were some transitive properties in magic, so maybe hexing Todd would eventually hex Evershaw. “We didn’t have a choice. So you can sit in here and be pissed off, and you’ll be here forever. I know my cousin better than anyone else in the world, Deirdre, and he won’t give up and let you go.”

  My teeth bared as I lurched forward. “I don’t fucking care—“

  “And we’re under orders,” Todd said. He didn’t even blink, though Henry and Mercy both jumped forward to grab my arms and keep me from tackling the grown-ass man in front of me. “We have binding orders to keep you here until he’s healed. We can’t violate those orders any more than you can go against whatever magical trick Smith did to you. So we’re all stuck on the same sinking boat in a river of shit. You can either be pissed about it and drown, or you can grab a bucket and help us out.”

  I didn’t want to like him. But he had the calm self-possession and certainty that I missed so often in the people around me. It was hard to imagine Palmer or any of the witches with the unblinking confidence that the wolf showed. And it sounded like Todd Evershaw spent a great deal of his time apologizing for his alpha or at least placating the people Evershaw pissed off, so I couldn’t blame him for the alpha’s dickishness. “And what if I can’t help him?”

  “You can,” Todd said. “Smith was confident of that. So are we. We’re also investigating the source of the poison, but it will help us immensely if you can tell us more about the poison so we can refine where and how we solve th
is.”

  “And I will tell you I don’t know,” I said, folding my arms over my chest after I shot a dirty look at my two captors and they released me. “It would make it much easier if you could tell me how he was poisoned and where the toxins came from. It appears we may be at an impasse.”

  Todd checked his watch. “You’d be surprised, witch. Henry and Mercy will accompany you on a tour around the packhouse and the warehouse to see if you can figure out where the poison came from.”

  “How the hell am I supposed to do that?”

  “I’ve been told you’ve got magic,” Todd said, completely deadpan.

  My eyes narrowed as I scowled at him, and Mercy giggled. I managed to restrain myself from throwing a curse at him. “It doesn’t work like that, asshole.”

  Todd smiled with half his mouth and retreated toward the door. “You’ll figure it out. Henry, a word.”

  The other wolf followed him into the hallway and left me under Mercy’s bouncy scrutiny. She sidled closer and practically breathed on the back of my neck. “Can you do magic now? What does it look like? Does it have a smell? If I wanted to do magic, could I learn? Are witches all female or can there be male witches? Do you call them warlocks?”

  She went on, not even pausing to breathe, and I took a very deep breath. I’d never had much patience, and something told me the next few days would seriously test what little I did have.

  Chapter 10

  Deirdre

  I was up most of the night, plotting and testing the limits of Smith’s geas, after Mercy and Henry escorted me back to my guest quarters. The packhouse was battered but comfortable, and had an air around it of lived-in familiarity and relaxation. They hadn’t changed anything about it to impress me, and certainly hadn’t bothered to pick up dirty laundry around the massive laundry room in the basement.