Witching Hour

by Bradford Bates

  The only car heading in our direction was a black Lincoln Town Car. It was the kind of thing that you could hire to drive you around at an affordable rate. Just the kind of thing I would expect from someone too self-important to drive themselves.

  The car pulled off on the opposite side of the road. Two women got out of the vehicle, and then the car made a hasty U-turn and bolted back in the direction of Portland. The two women stood there sizing us up. It was the first time I laid eyes on Ash, and she didn’t disappoint.

  Her flaming red hair billowed out behind her in the constant breeze. She was wearing a massive fur coat over an emerald green pantsuit which matched the color of her eyes. While her eyes were green, they almost seemed to be on fire, like she could barely contain the inferno roaring inside of her. In short, she was beautiful and scary as hell.

  “Rebecca dear, why don’t you save us all a little time, and just give up?” Ash called across the street.

  “I’ve made my choice!” Jinx shouted back. “I’m not going to die without putting up a fight.”

  “Ah, just like your mother. It didn’t work out too well for her.”

  I’d had enough of this talk. Neither of our positions was going to change. “You made a mistake in coming here. This is my city, and you aren’t welcome in it.”

  Ash seemed to notice me for the first time. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to size me up. I was an unknown, a wildcard, and hopefully just the ace in the hole that we needed to come out of this on top.

  “I’ll give you one chance to walk away, my business is with Rebecca alone.”

  “You made it my business when your presence here threatened this city and the good people living in it.” I pointed at Ash. “I’ll offer you the same choice. Walk away, and I’ll forget this ever happened.”

  “Then it seems we are at an impasse. I never much cared for those.” Two fireballs appeared in Ash’s hands, and she threw one of them at me.

  Apparently, having a pissed off pixie throwing rocks at you all night was just the kind of training you needed when it came to blocking magical attacks. The two fireballs turned to ice as I smothered her magic with my own. The chunks of ice fell to the ground ten feet in front of me and shattered. Ice skittered across the ground and stopped as it hit the toes of my boots.

  If there was one thing I knew, it was that fire and ice didn’t like each other much. Water was an element that I was comfortable with. The snow and today's weather made this a rich environment to pull power and resources from and at the same time made it less than ideal for Ashlyn and Sasha.

  That was the last time I got to think about anything as the battle roared to life around me. Ash had really screwed up only bringing Sasha with her. To be fair she didn’t know about me, but she should have.

  Sasha sent a wave of fire my way, and I froze it in place. It almost looked like someone had created a flaming sculpture out of Ice. Probably would have won a few first place trophies if it had been sculpted. Well, that and we’d have to be in a crappy Hallmark Christmas movie.

  The witch pushed hard against my magic and the ice melted into water before she staggered backward, her magic spent. I gathered all of the water and doused her with it before calling on a spell I had only seen once before.

  During the city’s Christmas tree raising ceremony something happened to the tree when we tried to get it into the stand. Long story short, everything worked out, but I always wondered how it had happened. I’d figured it out eventually, and I used that knowledge now.

  Roots burst forth from the ground and started to wrap around Sasha. She called on her magic, but the water and cold had affected her. It was easy enough for me to quench any of the fires she tried to conjure, and eventually, my roots pulled her to the ground and held her there.

  Now I could finally help Jinx with Ash. I looked over, and the road was scorched with fire. A few huge pillars of flame shot into the sky as Jinx redirected one of Ash’s attacks. Jinx countered with a few fireballs of her own, but Ash seemed to absorb them. Jinx’s fire was actually making her stronger.

  “Stop!” I shouted hoping Jinx could hear me above the roaring flames that Ash kept hurling in her direction.

  “Not exactly an option right now,” Jinx replied quickly. The strain of deflecting Ash’s constant attacks was evident in her voice.

  Sasha was out of the fight, but Ash was still very much in it. There had to be something I could do to slow her down. “Any ideas, Gramps?”

  “You should call on your spirit animal,” Gramps sagely replied.

  “Goddamn it, Gramps. I don’t have a spirit animal.”

  “Oh, well then I guess you better use what you do have.”

  That wasn’t exactly the kind of help that I needed right now. Gramps didn’t care if Jinx bit the big one, only if I did. That meant he was using this as another training exercise. We were going to have words when all of this was over. If he weren't careful, I’d make him start wearing clothes whether he wanted to or not.

  Jinx was doing her damnedest to hold off Ash, but she wouldn’t be able to do it forever, at least not alone. What did we have around here that we could use? The water I had soaked Sasha with was gone, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t make more. Sasha was still struggling on the ground off the side of the road. I didn’t care so much about her as the crusty remains of December’s snow storms that littered that side of the road.

  So, I did the only thing I could think of. I summoned my mediocre fireball and tossed it at Ash’s feet.

  Ash gave me a vicious smile. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

  “Oh, I plan to.” I kept tossing fireballs in her direction. Ash only laughed as she dodged them and continued to harass Jinx. She must have thought I was the worst witch in the world.

  “I was kind of expecting a little more from you,” Jinx replied. A sheen of sweat had formed on her brow, and her arms were shaking from the strain of redirecting the flames Ash sent at her constantly.

  Ash had gone back to ignoring me which was exactly what I wanted. I focused on the spell and waited for it to take a hold. “Just wait for it,” I muttered knowing full well Jinx couldn’t hear me.

  The water I’d created started to pool around Ash’s feet. She looked at me a flicker of fear in her eyes just as the spell took hold. The water rose from the ground in one smooth motion, covered her with a sheet of ice, and then froze completely solid. Ash fell over in a heap but didn’t shatter into a million pieces like I hoped. I guess that kind of stuff only happened in the movies.

  Granted, it was probably hard to breathe in there. Being trapped in solid ice would have that kind of effect on your lungs; it wasn’t like this was Carbonite. Not that she could do anything about it right now. I really wanted Jinx to be able to deliver the final blow.

  Police sirens sounded behind us. Sheriff Stevens would be here soon. If we wanted to end this without any hassle from law enforcement, it had to be now. Jinx obviously had the same idea. She pulled a dagger from somewhere. The blade almost seemed to shimmer as it rose above her head. I watched in fascination as the blade started to come down, and then Sasha slammed into her.

  Sasha took the brunt of Ash’s newest attack. Her back exploded in a ball of flame. The flames ate hungrily through whatever shield she had conjured. It smelled like cooking pork as I extinguished the flames. Sasha hadn’t been on fire long, but it was long enough. Jinx was holding her in her arms, tears streaming down her face.

  Ash let out a scream of rage, but there was no way she was as pissed off as I was. I was too angry to talk, and she wasn’t worth the breath. The snow on our side of the road had been hardened into ice. Probably from the salt they mixed in when they plowed the roads. The salt melted some of the snow, but that meant it also refroze into huge chunks of ice at night.

  With a thought, I shattered the ice from inside and then bound the ice to the fabric of Ash’s coat. At least she went all natural with her fur. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have worked. T
he jagged razor sharp chunks of ice flew in her direction.

  Ash raised one arm and then spun in a quick circle. Flames covered her from head to toe and then with one last wicked laugh she was gone. I knew that it wouldn’t be the last time we saw her, but she was gone for now.

  Jinx cradled Sasha in her arms. Tears openly streaming down her face “Why?” Jinx asked her.

  “I owed you one,” Sasha whispered as her eyes fluttered closed for the last time.

  Screeching tires pulled all of us out of our thoughts. Sheriff Stevens got out of his squad car and ran forward. “What in the hell happened here?”

  “Powerline accident,” I said smoothly. It was better for everyone if word of this was kept to a minimum.

  “And her?” The sheriff pointed at Sasha’s body.

  “A tragic accident.” It was kind of tragic when you thought about the whole story. These two had been friends, and then enemies. With her death, they became friends again. It was heartbreaking and beautiful in its symmetry.

  “I don’t know, Zoey. This is something a few words can’t cover up. I mean that’s a dead body over there.”

  Jinx rose from where she had been sitting. She laid her friend gently on the ground folding Sasha’s arms gently over her chest. From this angle, you couldn’t tell that she was dead. It almost looked as if she were sleeping. Jinx said some words and moved her hands over the body.

  At first, it didn’t look like anything happened and then blue flames seemed to burst out of Sasha consuming her entire body in seconds.

  Jinx bent down and scooped up a few of the ashes and placed them in a glass vial before tucking the vial away in one of her pockets. “Sleep well, dear friend. You have been returned to the flame. Such is the circle of our lives.” She walked past us and climbed into the Jeep. She bent over, and I could see the Jeep shaking as she cried.

  “What body, Sheriff?” The remaining ashes started to float away on the wind.

  The sheriff was focused on the spot where Sasha had been moments before. His hand was rubbing hard against the stubble on his chin. He was trying to find a way to justify this to himself. It wasn’t easy for a man sworn to protect the law to overlook things like murder.

  “Just tell me this is over,” the sheriff grumbled.

  “I can’t do that, Sheriff.” As much as I wanted to tell him that this was over, it wasn’t, not by a long shot. The sheriff deserved the truth. Our relationship had always been based on me being honest with him, even when he didn’t like what I had to say.

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “You better get out of here before people start talking again.”

  “Thank you, Joel.” I didn’t use his first name often, but I needed the sheriff to know how much I appreciated this.

  “Just hurry before I change my mind.”

  I gave him one last glance and ran to the Jeep. It never paid to look a gift horse in the mouth too closely. If things like this kept happening and the sheriff kept sending reports to his buddy in the FBI, it might not be long before they showed up. That was the last thing any of us wanted.

  All I wanted was to get home and take a hot bath, but that would have to wait until Jinx was taken care of. She shouldn’t be alone right now. I put the Jeep into gear and started us rolling back to the shop. We would find a way to get through this together. Next time Ash showed up I vowed to be better prepared. Gramps was going to have to step up his game with how hard I was going to be training.

  My necklace gave a little shake. “Yeah, yeah. You’ll get your damned cocoa, you pesky flying rodent.” I loved the guy, but when it came to sugar and bargains struck, he had a one track mind.

  We rolled back into town doing the speed limit. More than a few people waved in our direction looking pleased. The longer they could go on living life, not worrying about the things in our world that wanted to harm them the better. One thing I learned about human nature through the years was, ignorance is bliss. I hoped to keep my city blissful for as long as possible.

  Author’s Note - Bradford Bates

  T. S. Paul and I started talking about doing this series back in the early part of the year. Somewhere in there I got tangled up in one of my own books, and let’s just say it took me a while to iron that book out.

  Here we are in December, and the novella just came out. It was a damn good feeling knowing that our joint venture is underway and the first story was pretty darn awesome. At least I hope you thought it was. If you did liked the intro to Zoey Green’s life, the first full-length novel The Wild Hunt should be out later this month.

  So our venture into co-authorship is in full swing. T.S. and I will be working our tails off to get this series off the ground. It’s an exciting time, and with Christmas just around the corner, I couldn’t be happier. Now here is my chance to thank a few of the people that make all of this possible.

  I have to start off by thanking my wife. She spends hours editing my books, and that’s after she comes home from working a full-time job. The woman is simply amazing. One of these days I hope to pay her back by bringing her home from the day job. We’ll get there I promise.

  Next, I have to give a special shout-out to T.S. himself and his wonderful wife. I got to meet them at a writer’s conference recently, and they couldn’t be better people. It’s always nice when you meet someone in person that you met online, and they are the exact same if not better in real life.

  I’d also like to thank the Ds and Kat. You three are awesome. Without your feedback and editing, I know that the book wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is right now.

  I’d like to recognize my parents for being so supportive. Not everyone would tell their son to follow his dreams to write when he was leaving a well-paying job as a licensed broker. They did, and so far it’s been the best two years of my life. I can’t say how much it means to me that I have both of you in my corner.

  Finally, I need to thank my four furry companions. They keep me sane when I’m trapped in my chair writing the words. They remind me to get up, get out, and take some joy out of the day. I love you guys!

  If you haven’t had enough of me yet, well then, you made it to the special section of the book where I thank you, the reader. Thank you so much for taking a chance on Witching Hour. I hope you liked it and are looking forward to reading more about Zoey. Enjoy the holidays.

  Author Introduction – Bradford Bates

  Bradford Bates is a full-time author, husband to an incredible wife, and father to three furry rescue dogs. He lives in sunny Phoenix Arizona, trying not to melt in the oppressive heat of the summer. When he isn't busy writing the next book, you can find him playing video games, and watching scary movies.

  Ascendancy Legacy

  The Arena

  Jar of Souls

  Guardian of the Grove

  Demon Stone

  The Rising Darkness

  Redemption

  Ascendancy Origins

  Rise of the Fallen

  Butcher of the Bay

  Night of the Demon

  The Bozley Green Chronicles

  Possessed

  The Galactic Outlaws

  Forced Compliance

  Genetic Purge

  Smuggler’s Legacy

  Fortune Hunters

  Star Talon

  Lost Signal

  A Galactic Outlaws Story

  The Marchenko Incident

  Smuggler for Hire

  Origin Ice

  Fallen Empire: Reapers of Justice

  Shadow of the Empire

  The Federal Witch Universe

  Witching Hour

  The Wild Hunt

  Anthologies

  The Happy Pumpkin

  (Short Story in Tales from the Pumpkin Patch)

  A Very Tricky Christmas

  (Short Story in Reindeer Don’t Fly)

  http://www.bradfordbates.com/books/

  https://www.facebook.com/bradfordbatesauthor/

  https://t
witter.com/Freetheblizz

  Author’s Note - T S Paul

  I hope you enjoyed the latest selection in the Federal Witch Universe. Bradford and I brainstormed the basic character and how the story would flow and change. The alternate world that Jinx resides in is rich and full of potential. So much fun for a writer in the Federal Witch Universe.

  This book is the beginning of a brand new chapter that looks to be an excellent parallel to that of Agatha and Fergus. For now they will not meet but will exist in the same time and country.

  Be sure to check out my website and Facebook page for more information, snippets, and contests.

  Sneak Peak!

  Coming up in Book 7 - Agatha returns to fight an old foe and secrets from her past return to haunt her.

  Author Introduction – T S Paul

  I’m now into my second year as a published author. With over 25 works under my belt already my pace is relentless. Writing was never a goal of mine growing up. I really did fall into this accidentally. My wife and family knew of my love of books and urged me to try writing. It wasn’t until an author i befriended gave me a short push off a long pier that i really gave it a go. And what a go that was!

  Athena Lee and Agatha Blackmore have given way to over 50 short stories. I write a lot. The future is in books and I’m in it for the long haul. Keep your eyes peeled for new and exciting things coming from me this year. Don’t forget to check the Blog every week for a new Wilson or Fergus story.

  I welcome comments and questions on my blog. Follow me on Facebook or visit my Amazon author page. I have an author page with BookBub too.

  I’m excited, are you?

  The Federal Witch

  Born a Witch Drafted by the FBI! - Now Available in Audio!

  Conjuring Quantico - Now Available in Audio!

  Magical Probi - Now Available in Audio!

  Special Agent in Charge - Now Available in Audio!

  Witness Enchantment

  Night of the Unicorn

  Invisible Elder

  Blood on the Moon - TBD