Storm Power (Scarlet Jones Book 2)

by D. N. Hoxa

  “You won’t. These spells are strong. Nobody’s going to find you, and here’s something else to fight with.” She brought me two daggers and a small knife with a crooked blade that wasn’t going to be any good for throwing. I took them anyway, though the daggers were half the size of Butter and Fly, my favorite weapons. I was never going to see them again and that was a shame. But if I could sneak into my apartment, there was a chance I could make new ones, if my trainer Leo didn’t rat me out to the ECU as soon as I went to see him. He had the best contacts, and the smith who’d made my swords was a close friend of his.

  I put the weapons in the back of my waistband. Terribly uncomfortable, since the jeans were already too tight on me.

  “So why didn’t you use these on yourself?” I asked, putting the Pretters in my back pockets. The sneakers would have hidden them better, but my feet needed to be comfortable in case I needed to run.

  “I did. I do, all the time.”

  “But the agents found you…” My voice trailed off as I realized why they had.

  “I used magic to fight off the demons when I got you out of that hospital. I broke the spell stones,” Elisa said, suddenly very pale.

  “I’m ready.” As ready as I was ever going to get. The time had come. It was six-thirty, and I was finally going to find out whether I had any chance at saving those people. Whether the others had managed to get away without getting caught.

  “After you.” Elisa opened the entrance door and waved for me to get out. I didn’t look back at her house—I hadn’t had the nerves to even notice details about it, much less to miss it. When I passed her, I felt the charge of her energy and the Pretters in my back pocket activated, spreading their magic over me.

  Here goes nothing, I said to myself.

  “Where exactly was the abandoned hospital?” I asked Elisa when we walked out. My eyes moved from left to right so fast, I was dizzy. I needed to distract myself before I peed my freaking pants.

  “Why do you want to know?” she said, and her voice was carefree. Relaxed. So far, all I could see were the large trees surrounding the house, but that didn’t mean the ECU soldiers weren’t right behind them.

  “Just curious,” I lied. The hospital was the first place I was going to check for the other witches the demons had taken.

  “Close to Renington Heights in the Bronx. I’m not telling you exactly where.”

  Renington Heights? I had no idea where that was. I was going to need a map.

  For show, I rolled my eyes. “So don’t.” How hard could it be to find an abandoned hospital in that area? An internet search was going to give me my destination, but for now, we were about to walk out the last line of trees. I held my breath and fisted my shaking hands. On the other side, I could hear noise. Children playing, people laughing and shouting. That could be a good sign, but it could also be the ECU wanting me to think that. To lower my defenses.

  Elisa stepped out the woods, which I suspected were protected by her spells, practically invisible to anyone who didn’t know it was there.

  My heart almost gave up on me until I scanned the whole area. The sun fell on my face, just a few minutes away from hiding behind the building to my right. The park in front of me was huge and filled with people, mostly children of all ages. My feet were stuck to the ground and my body refused to move until I was a hundred percent sure that nobody was going to pop up in front of me.

  “Scarlet?” Elisa called. She’d stopped a few feet away when she’d realized that I wasn’t following her. But I couldn’t look at her just yet. I was busy scanning every face in the park. Did the ECU use children as bait or even soldiers? Not that I’d heard of, but with them, there was no guarantee.

  “For fuck’s sake, move it, Dirt!”

  Oh, she hit the biggest, meanest button I didn’t even know I had. The ECU and the demons were wiped from my mind as I strode over to her.

  “Don’t call me Dirt.” My magic moved in waves under my skin, begging to come out and throw her back to the trees if she dared to say it again. I didn’t care that she was stronger than me, or that I had a spell stone I’d break by using my magic—I was not going to allow anyone to call me by that name.

  “Hey, relax,” Elisa said, stepping away from me. “I didn’t mean it as an insult. It’s just what people call you.”

  Taking in a deep breath, I stepped back, too. There was no need for this. No need to lose it. She wasn’t going to push me and I didn’t need to be an asshole about it. “I don’t care what people call us. We’re not Dirts.”

  “So what are you? You have to have a name, don’t you?” Elisa grinned.

  “We’re witches. That’s the only name we need.”

  She laughed. “You get pissed off too easily,” she complained. She was right, but she had no idea about half the things that had happened. Or about my guilt. I started walking again, toward the main road behind the gates of the park. The neighborhood looked so much more alive without the vampires. It would be another few minutes before they could come out. The ECU wasn’t there, either. I watched the cars speeding by but none of them looked suspicious. And there were no demons around that I could see. Nevertheless, I still put a block to my magic, hiding it deep inside me, locking down its doors in a way that nobody could open except me.

  “Thanks for the help,” I said to Elisa when we walked out of the park. She’d given me the means to try my luck, both by telling us to separate, and by making me invisible to demons and the ECU, because whatever spells she’d put on me had worked. Nobody even looked at me twice, though there were a lot of witches and werewolves in the area. “I really do appreciate it.”

  “Thanks for getting me out,” Elisa said, a sad smile spreading her lips.

  “Let’s not go back there again, okay? For both our sakes.”

  She offered me her hand and I shook it. “You’ve got yourself a deal, witch.” She winked. I liked the sound of that much more.

  “Until next time.”

  “Which hopefully won’t be too soon,” she said, walking backwards to the other side of the street. “A couple years, preferably longer.”

  I laughed. “Make that a decade.”

  “Bonam fortunam!” Elisa called, which meant good luck in Latin, the language of our spells. It was a pain to learn a dead language, but all the Spellmakers who wrote the original grimoires came from the ancient Roman civilization, and every other Spellmaker that came after that seemed to take it as a rule that all spells should be created in a dead language.

  I waved at Elisa, wishing her all the luck in the world, too. She deserved it. She’d saved us when she had no reason to, and no matter her background—she’d told us that she was much older than she looked—I believed she was a good person, one I’d like to meet in the future under different circumstances to have a drink at the bar with, or even dinner.

  But the circumstances were what they were now, and they weren’t going to change unless we made them. That was exactly what I was going to try to do. My apartment was in East Harlem, which was an hour away on public transportation, but a bus was my safest bet. Not many paranormals used it, and the humans weren’t going remember me even being there, much less think to report me.

  Stealing a car would also be nice, but I wasn’t on that level yet. My apartment was probably emptied out by the ECU by now. Guarded as well, but I wouldn’t know by how many, or in what way—spells or just people—until I saw it myself. I hid money in the wall of my bathroom, right under the toilet tank when I first reconstructed it. I doubted the ECU found it—it was just cash. Lots of it for emergency cases, such as this. With it, I could buy myself Pretters, weapons, a cheap car to get to the abandoned hospital, and everything else I’d need in the process. Still, to know for sure, I’d need to check. It might be crazy to even consider going back there, but going to the bank would be suicide. I wasn’t going to try and break in, if soldiers flocked the neighborhood—only if I thought I could get in and out without being noticed.

&n
bsp; So I needed to find a bus station real quick. That was my priority.

  Right until I heard a cry from the other side of the road, right where I’d come from.

  My body realized it was Elisa’s voice even before my brain registered it. My instincts came to life and the two daggers were in my hands when I turned around to look, hoping I had misheard, or that I’d heard someone else.

  But I hadn’t. Elisa was at the end of the street, right at the corner. Her arms were raised and she looked terrified. In front of her was a man. I could only see his back but he was big. Tall. And he raised his arms to attack her.

  Four

  Elisa wasn’t defenseless by any means, but I ran to her anyway. Walking away when she was obviously in danger wasn’t going to happen. This could be the ECU, though the guy wasn’t dressed in a uniform, and we just said we weren’t going back in there, didn’t we? I wasn’t letting her down.

  Just as I crossed the road, she turned around and began to run, turning the corner and disappearing from my sight. What the hell? Why was she running? She was a good fighter, I’d seen it with my own eyes. It had taken a shifted werewolf to take her out, and that was after a night of hunting and fighting demons.

  No matter the reason, I ran like my hair was on fire. The man was running after her, too, and though I couldn’t see her, I could see him. The people looked at us like we’d lost our minds when we passed them, pushing them to the side when they didn’t move on their own, and I even knocked a teenage boy to the ground accidentally. Sorry wasn’t going to mean anything to him, so I didn’t bother to lose my focus on the man running after Elisa. They turned left and ran so fast, I was having trouble breathing. So much for training for two years. I couldn’t even run fast enough!

  When I made it to the next block, my heart sank. I couldn’t see Elisa, or the man that was after her. Nobody was running in the street. Cursing under my breath, I scanned the people, both humans and paranormals, until I saw a face that looked…out of place. I hadn’t seen the man’s face before, but I was willing to bet this was the one who was chasing after Elisa. He’d stopped in the middle of the road, not minding the cars passing by and honking. He had his head raised and looked around the buildings as if he could see right through them, a very peculiar expression on his face. I hid the daggers behind my back fast, and proceeded to walk down the street at a normal pace. Getting close to him without alerting him was my best bet. I doubted he’d seen Elisa and I together, otherwise he’d have recognized me. Instead, he just looked right through me, and his expression didn’t change until I was ten feet away from him.

  Then, he froze for a second, and spun around to the building on his left. Without giving me a chance to blink, he took off running toward it, and disappeared inside. There was no time to check for different entrances. Catching him by surprise was going to make sure I had the upper hand, which I needed because I had no idea who this guy was and what he could do, but chances were he’d spotted Elisa somehow, and she could die before I found the back door.

  The building was empty, save for a woman and her little boy walking down the stairs. Humans. They watched me rush up the marble stairs with the daggers in hand, and they fell against the wall, terrified. I didn’t worry. They’d forget all about me soon.

  The hallway on the first floor was empty. Four doors were shut and I heard no noise coming from behind any of them. The second floor was the same, and the third.

  On the forth, I began to hear voices, but they weren’t coming from the apartments. They were coming from above. Elisa was on the roof.

  The way to get there was through the emergency stairs only. The broken lock of the door was hanging out of the hole, scorched. The door was half open. Orange light streamed through it, blinding me for a moment. I had to squat behind it, then carefully take a peek just so I could see what was there.

  The man was standing not five feet from the door. I couldn’t see Elisa, but he was looking east, so I figured that’s where she’d be. There was no reason to think he knew I was there. The rooftop ledge was close enough to him that I could blow him off it with a single charge of my magic.

  “Don’t do this, Elisa,” the man said. Definitely not a soldier. Could be one of Finn’s agents, sent to take her in just like last time.

  But his voice was so soft. He wasn’t angry—on the contrary. He was pleading with Elisa. It occurred to me that I could have misunderstood the whole situation. Maybe Elisa had run away to take him up there for a talk.

  If that was the case, I was nasty eavesdropper. Shoot.

  “Stay away from me, David. I won’t tell you twice.”

  Phew. Elisa sounded pissed off. Very pissed off.

  The man—David—took a step forward. “I need you to come with me. No joke this time.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you! You can’t make me. You have to leave, right now!”

  “Elisa, she’s gone,” David whispered.

  “What?”

  Another step forward. “She’d gone, damn it.” He sounded heartbroken.

  A second of silence stretched into eternity. I felt like I was watching a soap opera and even my heart had stopped beating while I waited for Elisa’s reaction. Was she going to laugh? Scream? Cry?

  “No, she’s not.”

  Plot twist! Totally not what I was expecting.

  “Are you…” David seemed stunned, too. He couldn’t even finish his sentence.

  “Yes, David. She’s still here.” If I weren’t mistaken, Elisa didn’t like this very much.

  “Then help me find her. Elisa, this has gone far enough. You’re coming with me,” David said. He sounded much more energetic now. Whoever they were talking about, she apparently meant a great deal to him.

  “Take one more step and I’ll kill you, I swear it.”

  So I hadn’t misunderstood a single thing. Raising my daggers again, I unlocked my magic and goosebumps covered my arms when I felt it under my skin. Elisa needed me, and I was going to make sure this guy never laid his hands on her.

  “Don’t make me do this,” he spit angrily. “You know I will.”

  “May the best fighter win,” Elisa whispered.

  It was time for me to make an appearance. She wanted him dead, and he wanted her to go with him. A strong wind was all it was going to take. Drawing in air, I emptied my mind and jumped to my feet, kicking the door back.

  I stepped onto the rooftop just as the sun retreated behind our side of the world. An orange kind of darkness enveloped us. David turned to look at me, confused as hell, but not afraid. Not even a little bit, which in return, scared me.

  “Who are you?” the man said, his brows narrowed as he took all of me in. The daggers didn’t seem to intimidate him, not in the least. Holy cow, who had I gone up against here?

  “Your worst nightmare.”

  Ugh. What the hell is the matter with me?

  But David didn’t look surprised. He looked annoyed. My specialty, ladies and gentlemen. If you ever need somebody annoyed, give me a fucking call.

  It was times like this that I was glad my magic worked with no spells. He had to waste precious seconds to chant, while all I had to do was unleash my magic.

  “Scarlet, no!” Elisa called, but it was too late. The daggers hit the floor and my magic blasted from my fingers, hitting David square in the chest in a split second. He tumbled back a few steps, the heels of his feet touching the ledge, but it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t done yet. Killing him wasn’t something I’d be able to do, I realized. If he fell down the four story building, he’d still be alive, I had no doubt about it. He didn’t have time to take a breath before the second wave of wind hit him in the face. David definitely didn’t see any of this coming—or that he’d be falling down to the ground while I watched—annoyed.

  “What the hell, Scarlet?” Elisa said with a loud sigh, slamming her hands to her thighs.

  I ran to the ledge to see David sprawled on the ground, but she grabbed my arm and spun me around. “Ru
n,” she said, and before I knew it, she ran to the other side of the roof, and jumped.

  “No!” I shouted. Was she crazy? Was she trying to hurt herself? Heart in my throat, I ran to the edge, sure that I’d see her sprawled on the ground, too!

  But she wasn’t. The building next door was a floor lower than the rooftop, an easy jump. Elisa was running to the other side of it fast, not even bothering to check if I was following. I ran back and grabbed my daggers—for now, they were the only weapons I had—and I jumped over the ledge myself. Rolling on the new rooftop, I made it to my feet and took off after Elisa with all my strength. I was still tired from running from the ECU, right after everything they’d done to me, but I wasn’t stopping now. Elisa jumped over this rooftop as well. The one next to it went way lower than the first, but if she could make it, I could, too.

  This time, when I tried to roll on the ground then rise to my feet in one motion, I failed miserably and fell on my face. Breathing heavily, I checked my body to see if I was hurt. Luckily, there was no wound or broken bones. I had no idea where she was taking me, or how far she wanted to go still, but if we didn’t stop soon, I was going to pass out.

  ***

  Elisa took us to a laundry store. If I hadn’t seen her slip in there, I’d have never guessed where she stopped, but I was far from knowing this girl. The store was empty, save for the receptionist, a human girl with her nose stuck to the screen of her phone. She didn’t bother to even look up when we walked in. Elisa was in front of the third chrome-colored machine in the second row, reaching for something deep inside it.

  “What are you doing?” I said, still racing to catch my breath. The receptionist wasn’t paying any attention, but the doors were made of glass and everybody could see us—including David, if he passed that way.

  “Just a sec,” Elisa said, and a few later, she took four Pretters out of the washing machine, shocking me.

  “Where did you—”