Witch's Curse (The Bone Coven Chronicles Book 1)

by Jenna Wolfhart

  “Do you feel that?” I asked in a whisper.

  Dorian sent me a frown before shaking his head. “Feel what?”

  “You know, your sixth sense.” I fought the urge to reach up and trace my fingers along the back of his neck, across the spot where the feeling felt the most intense. “Grams calls it our intuition. I don’t know if there’s a real term for it or not.”

  “Intuition? Nope, don’t have anything like that. Maybe it’s a Bennett thing.”

  Or maybe it was a Shadow thing. I was beginning to realize just how little I truly knew about the various covens and which powers each had. All this time, Grams had been giving me tidbits of information, just enough to help me get by. But how much of it related to witches overall and how much of it would turn out to be specific to shadow mages only? The truth was, there was no way for me to know unless I studied up.

  “That must be it,” I said before tapping the spot that prickled. “It’s this sensation I get in the back of my neck that warns me. A hunch. An alarm. It tells me to turn around and get the hell away from this place.”

  “You get this feeling a lot?” Dorian asked as he pulled his dagger from his sheath.

  I nodded. “It does a pretty good job of warning me about danger. And it’s certainly never been wrong.”

  “And you’re sure you want to go through with this?” he asked. “From the sounds of your…intuition thing, we could be walking into some sort of trap.”

  “You’re right. We could be. And to be honest, we’re probably going to have to put up a fight at some point. But I need the bastard’s blood.” I pulled out my own dagger and gripped it tight. “I’m not going down without a fight.”

  Chapter 24

  Dorian shot me a flicker of a smile before his face settled into a serious expression. “Okay, let’s do this. Just remember to stay quiet, stick to the shadows, and make sure you keep your weapon drawn.”

  As we inched our way closer to the building, Dorian pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and drew a Blast rune on his palm. When we were only feet from the door, he turned and tossed the chalk my way, looking at me expectantly from the deepening shadows. The chalk felt heavy in my hands. Wrong. Too much like a beacon signaling exactly what I was.

  “Go on,” he said in a voice almost too low for me to hear. “We can’t go in unprepared.”

  Quickly, I turned my back on him and fiddled with the chalk before shoving it into my pocket. A bone rune wouldn’t help me now. I was better off with my blade and my mind, plus the lock pick tool my dad gave me so many years before.

  “What’s that?” Dorian asked, casting a glance over his broad shoulder when I moved past him toward the door.

  “Lock picks,” I said, using one to jimmy the knob. The lock popped, and I smiled, pushing the door open. Sometimes you don’t need magic to work a trick or two.

  “Why do I feel like I don’t want to know how you ended up being a master at picking locks?” He followed me inside the quiet house and pushed the door shut. I held my breath and waited. Even though this place was still as a crypt, fear pounded through me, making my skin jump to a beat I couldn’t hear. I didn’t want to think about what might happen if I was right, if somehow we’d stepped into a trap.

  After a moment, when silence still reigned, my shoulders relaxed just a fraction of an inch.

  “My dad taught me,” I whispered, moving quickly down the short hallway past a set of curving stairs. “He had a knack for breaking and entering.”

  “Is that why he went to prison? He broke into someone’s place?” Dorian asked.

  I paused inside a very bare living room with a ratty couch and flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. Hmm. No other furniture decorated the room. No toys were scattered about. No pictures hung on the walls. That was strange and totally at odds with what I expected from a house full of family.

  “More like, he broke into a lot of someones’ places.” I peered down the hallway past Dorian. “Nothing is in this room. There’s a few more doors down the hall.”

  I made my way over to the first door, opened it, and found a messy closet full of clothes, a deflated basketball, and grungy pillows.

  “Here we go. This is an office.” Dorian poked his head out from behind another door.

  I followed him inside and scanned the cluttered room. Papers were piled on every surface of an old mahogany desk, and boxes of books were stacked in every corner. Envelopes and papers were scattered across the floor, slowing my movements as I edged toward the desk. A computer monitor sat in the midst of the jumbled papers, its screensaver scrawling images of fish and bubbles across it.

  I eased into the leather chair as quietly as possible. Dorian leaned his face over my shoulder while I brought the screen to life. I tried not to pay attention to how close his cheek was, and how I could almost feel his skin brushing against mine. If I moved my head just a fraction of an inch to the right, our faces would press together and our lips would meet.

  “Time to fire things up,” Dorian said, his breath blowing hot on my ear. I shivered, despite myself, as tingles raced along my neck.

  “Fire things up?” I asked in a breathless whisper as my heart thumped so hard that I was certain he could hear it. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  A beat passed. “Fire up the computer to see what you can find. What else would I mean?”

  “Nothing,” I said quickly, thankful for the dim lighting in the office. My cheeks were so hot, they had to be at least ten shades too red. “I’m just a little on edge is all.”

  “How’s that sixth sense of yours doing?” He tapped the back of my neck. “Things still feel wrong?”

  To be honest, it was difficult to tell with the way my pulse raced and my knee jiggled, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. Usually, it was impossible for me to miss the subtle signs. A tension in my body. A slight buzzing in my ear. A prickle on the back of my neck. But all of those were happening now for reasons that had nothing to do with murderous warlocks.

  It had to do with the fact that Dorian’s mouth had moved an inch closer to my ear. His lips practically whispered against my hair, making the drumbeat in my chest intensify.

  “Yep.” My throat felt tight. “The feeling is definitely still there.”

  “Zoe,” he said, his voice turning serious. Or, rather, more serious than usual. “Can I ask you a question?”

  I shifted to the side so that our eyes met. “Sure. Just be quick. We’re in a crazy warlock’s house, don’t forget.”

  My attempt to make light of the situation was met with nothing more than a darker gaze. Clearly, whatever sense of humor Dorian had, he’d left back in his basement apartment along with his stash of blood bags.

  “You said you feel your intuition every time you’re in a bad situation.” His hand found my shoulder, and his fingers grazed the edge of my shirt. Shivers burst along my collarbone, and my legs clenched tight. I didn’t dare to breathe. “So, I can’t help but ask. How do you feel when you’re with me?”

  I opened my mouth, and then shut it. How the hell could I answer that honestly? I wasn’t even sure I completely understood how I felt around this man. Excitement, unease, a little bit of fear, intrigue…and more than a hint of attraction. All of it wrapped up into one steaming pile of emotion that left me practically trembling in the leather chair.

  “I…” I heard my breath catch when he licked his lips. My entire body felt on edge. We were in a dark room. Alone. With nothing between us but an inch of electric air. His blood still stained my tongue. His intoxicating magic swirled through my veins. And something dark and dangerous shuddered in his eyes, pulling me deep into his gaze like a storm-tossed sea. And I definitely didn’t have a life raft.

  “Do you feel your intuition?” he asked in a low growl, his fingers trailing across my collarbone before resting on the back of my neck. “Here? The sensation that tells you to get as far away from me as you can.”

  “That’s where I feel it, yes,” I said in a wh
isper. “But it’s never warned me about your presence before. There’s no…alarm bells. Nothing telling me to run.”

  “Oh, is that so?” His lips quirked, and he leaned just the slightest bit closer. “I guess that means I’m not dangerous after all.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.” I let out a tense laugh and pressed my back tighter against the chair, half to get away from him and half to hold myself steady. “You seem pretty dangerous. My magic just might not recognize your particular brand of danger.”

  “My particular brand, eh?” His mouth split into a smile, revealing bright white teeth, two of which were on the pointy end of the spectrum. “So, your magic reads only a danger to your life and not necessarily a danger to…other parts of you.”

  His gaze dropped to my chest, and I fought the urge to scrabble back. What was he doing? And why the hell didn’t I want to stop whatever was happening here? All this time, there had been an electric tension between us, but it had been hidden in the shadows, neither one of us daring to acknowledge that it was there. But now, he was jumping right into the shadows before pulling this feeling out for both of us to stare right in the face. Here. Now. In the middle of breaking into our enemy’s home. And yet, I was powerless to stop this, whatever this was.

  “Dorian.” The word got caught in my throat, my cheeks full of furious fire. This was wrong. And like he said, it was dangerous. He was a vampire, even if a cursed one. His blood held so much power that I could barely think straight. There was no telling what would happen to me if I gave into this feeling and explored his mouth with mine. I knew, logically, that he couldn’t turn me into what he was, but I still feared it all the same.

  My eyelids fluttered shut, and I parted my lips. Kiss me, I thought. Kiss me hard.

  He blinked, pulling back and putting a gulf of cold air between our bodies. His expression went hard and his body went tight with a different kind of tension than before. It was as if he’d thrown down a wall over his emotions in the blink of an eye, and it left my addled brain reeling in confusion.

  “I’m sorry,” he said in a gruff voice, gritting his teeth and turning away. “It’s the blood. It linked us in a way I wasn’t expecting, and I let it get to my head. I shouldn’t have let things go so far.”

  Right. The magic. I blew out a heavy breath and tried to rein in my disappointment. “Oh. The blood. Of course. Good thing it will wear off soon, huh?”

  “Good thing.” He stalked across the room. “Until then, I think it’s best if I put some space between us before something worse happens.”

  Irritation flickered through me, an emotion I wasn’t sure was my own or his. “Yeah, wouldn’t want that. Can’t think of anything more terrible than hooking up with a vampire.”

  He flinched, and I could tell I’d hit him right where it hurt. But he was the one who had just rejected me when I was only two seconds away from tasting his lips. Good. I was glad my words hit home. I didn’t want him, and he didn’t want me, and that was that.

  So, why did I feel like shit?

  With a flick of his wrist, he gestured at the computer screen. “Just get on with it, Zoe. We don’t have much more time. If we stay here too long, we could get caught.”

  He was right, though things had been suspiciously easy so far. We’d snuck into a family’s home, and we hadn’t heard a peep, even though we’d been furiously whispering ever since we walked through the door. Not to mention the shabby furniture, the complete lack of decorations, and an emptiness that permeated throughout the entire house. It certainly didn’t feel like anyone lived here, let alone a family with kids. There should be evidence of them everywhere, and yet there was none.

  The back of my neck prickled yet again. Another warning. Dorian and I had walked into something, and it wasn’t what either of us thought. Of that, I was sure. With a frown, I jiggled the mouse and watched as the monitor came to life again.

  For a moment, the room was silent and still while my eyes scanned across the icons on the desktop. Nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at me. I moved the cursor to click on a folder when a harsh, bitter wind swept into the room, chilling me to my core. The floor began to shake and rattle, and Dorian’s flashlight flickered off, plunging us into total darkness.

  “Demons,” he whispered. “They’re here.”

  Chapter 25

  My hands trembled as I slowly stood from the chair and erased the distance between me and Dorian. And not just because his body radiated with strength and power as he flexed his hands. If demons were here, we needed our powers combined. Those beasts don’t mess around. If we weren’t careful, our souls would be consumed until we took our very last breath.

  “Are you sure its demons?” I asked in a whisper when another blast of icy air stormed through the room. It had been a long time since I’d come face-to-face with a demon, and those circumstances had been a lot different than this. I’d known what I was walking into, and I’d approached the cemetery with a calm determination that made the demon cower back into its realm.

  If this was a demon, it certainly wasn’t cowering.

  “I know demons,” Dorian said quietly. “This one is different than the others I’ve encountered though. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something is off.”

  “Off?” I looked up at him sharply. “What do you mean by off?”

  “I’m not sure, but this is almost certainly what set your crazy radar off.” He tapped the sheath strapped to my back and handed me a piece of chalk. “Get ready to banish. I’ll do the same. Together, we should be able to get rid of this beast.”

  Now, Banish was a rune I could most certainly cast. It wasn’t specific to a coven, so all mages were able to wield its power. Unfortunately, we needed to find the rune drawn by whoever had summoned the demon from its realm. It was impossible for one to end up here on its own, so there had to be one somewhere nearby. If we didn’t cross it out, the banishment wouldn’t stick.

  And I couldn’t find it.

  “Okay, but we may have a slight problem, Dorian. There’s no summoning rune, at least not one that I can see.”

  “That’s impossible.” He shifted from my side to scan the floor. As soon as he moved, the temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees. Shivering, I followed his lead, scouring the floor for the telltale sign of chalk on wood.

  Glancing at Dorian, I noticed that he seemed immune to the bitter air. What did it feel like to be a vampire? I couldn’t help but wonder. Did he experience pain the same way that humans did? Did he even experience emotions? Or was he cursed to live out his days numb and unfeeling?

  Dorian stopped short when a high-pitched tone stormed through the room. Gritting my teeth, I clung to my dagger and braced myself against the sound. It was all I could do not to fall on my knees and slam my hands over my ears. It was if the noise was inside of my skull, scratching at my brain and making my thoughts lose control.

  “To me,” Dorian said, jerking his head for me to join him. In an instant, I was by his side, and his rough hand enveloped mine. He was cold to the touch but solid and comforting. Strong. It was hard to imagine anything going wrong with Dorian by my side.

  “What do we do? How do we banish a demon if we can’t find the rune that summoned it here?” I whispered, blinking my eyes at the growing wind. All around us, papers spun through the air, smacking hard against the walls. The computer monitor clattered to the ground, and electricity sizzled as it began to burn.

  “Draw the banishing rune as usual,” he said in a tone of voice that came across sure and confident, though I had a sneaking suspicion he was making this up as we went along. This was the first time he was encountering a demon without a rune, same as me. He couldn’t have seen this before. Mostly because, well…it was impossible.

  “But how will the spell work if we can’t cancel out the summoning rune?” My teeth chattered around my words. “That’s just how it works…right?”

  “Usually.” He squeezed my hand tight. “Brace yourself. We
have no idea how powerful this demon is.”

  With a nod, I held my breath, waiting for the demon to show itself.

  And show itself it did. Its black twisting form slid from the shadows, rising above us at an impossible height. And it wasn’t alone. Four winged creatures followed just behind, spreading around us like a circle of shifting madness. They were the shape of humans, only much larger, with wings on their backs and darkness as their skin. It was hard to look at them straight on. Something about the way they moved made my entire body ache.

  I glanced at Dorian. Our eyes met, and understanding passed through our bond. A new kind of power surged through me, raced down my arm, and pooled where our hands met. My hair billowed around my cheeks, and Dorian’s dark strands swirled like they were caught in a blender.

  The demons rose higher off the ground, wind streaming out of their open mouths. Wintry air gushed toward us and slammed into my burning cheeks. A trash can tumbled to the floor, papers streaming over the hardwood and joining the roar of the growing fire.

  “Now!” Dorian yelled.

  I dropped to my knees, drawing the rune on the hardwood floor. The power continued to flow through me, lighting up my every cell. This wasn’t bone magic, or shadow, or blood, or sun. It was the purest kind there was, and it flowed through every mage in the world.

  The demons screamed, their voices piercing my mind. My chalk snapped as I dug it into the floor, my hand trembling with every sweeping curve. I was too slow. I was flagging. Dorian’s rune was complete when I was merely half-way through. Tears stung my eyes as I tried to force my hand to continue, but the demon’s noise cut through my thoughts.

  It hurt. So much. And my hand just wouldn’t respond.