by Kristie Cook
The other witch read the writing and broke into laughter, as well.
“Those Amadis witches ... are inviting ... us ... to their party?” Kath gasped between hoots. “What ... the hell?”
Inga straightened up and tried to control her giggles as she shook her head with befuddlement. “No idea.” Her turquoise eyes widened and a glint of mischief passed through them. “We should go, though.”
“Seriously? Can you say boring?”
“I bet it won’t be. Not if we make it exciting.”
Kath bolted upright in her seat. “Oh, I like your thinking! Unless ... do you think it’s a trap?”
Inga tapped the invitation against her lips as she considered this. “It could be, but I doubt it. Knowing them, they probably invited a bunch of Normans, too, so they wouldn’t dare blow their cover. But we’ll let our vamp nest know, just in case.”
“What if they attack the party?”
Inga shrugged then grinned evilly. “What if they do? That will just make it all the more interesting for us.”
Chapter 3
“You’ve been awfully quiet,” Christina observed as she and Kate finished decorating the room for the New Year’s Eve party. With a little bit of magic, they hadn’t taken long to finish, leaving them plenty of time to go home and get ready. “The party will be great. You aren’t nervous, are you?”
Kate flicked her hand to hang the last streamer. “I wasn’t until you decided to invite the Daemoni witches. What were we thinking, anyway?”
Christina looped her arm around her roommate’s and pulled her toward the door. Their jobs here were done. “We were thinking about being better Amadis. It was brave of us to invite them. We could have new converts by the time the clock strikes midnight.”
“Or we could have a lot of dead guests.”
“They wouldn’t!”
Kate tilted her head to peer at her roommate as if she were stupid. “They’re Daemoni. Why wouldn’t they?”
“Well ...” Christina sputtered. “Because ... they have all kinds of opportunities every day, right? So why would the party be any different? I honestly don’t think they’re like that. They’re trying to fit into the Norman world, so maybe they despise being Daemoni.”
“Or maybe you’re being a little too optimistic,” Kate muttered.
The girls stepped outside and immediately tugged their coats tighter around themselves as the icy outdoor air blasted into them. They walked across campus in silence, their bodies bent slightly against the wind. Most students were still home for the semester break, so hardly anyone walked the grounds, making the campus feel a bit like a ghost town.
“They probably won’t even show,” Christina said once they were on their street. “As cold as it is, we’ll be lucky if anyone shows.”
“Maybe we should alert our local vamp nest just in case they do come,” Kate suggested.
They paused at the front door to their apartment building.
“No,” Christina said as she tugged the door open and held it for Kate. “We resolved to be brave, right? To not rely on the vamps to protect us all the time. Besides, we’ll be fine. I’m sure of it.”
“I changed my mind,” Kate said. She stopped on the fifth step and looked over her shoulder, down at her roomie. “You’re not overly optimistic. You’re freakin’ naive!”
Christina rolled her eyes, but as she climbed the stairs to their third-floor apartment, she couldn’t help but wonder if Kate had a point. Maybe she’d had a little too much bravado when she sent the invitation. Maybe inviting Daemoni to their party wasn’t such a great idea. Actually, the more she thought about it, the more she realized just how stupid the idea was. Memories from the fight on Captiva Island right before Thanksgiving flashed through her mind. She’d been visiting friends when all hell broke loose—literally. Those Daemoni had been fierce. Relentless. Merciless. How could she be stupid enough to believe the witches who went to school here were any better?
Except they weren’t relentless or fierce. Christina knew there was a Daemoni vamp nest in the area, Were packs on the outskirts, and a witch coven on the other side of the city. She’d heard stories and rumors about attacks. But the university campus had remained relatively safe—no worse than any other school the size of theirs. She’d never heard of anything extremely unusual that could indicate a Daemoni attack. Normans usually chalked such occurrences up to animal attacks, suicides, runaways, and other logical explanations that their minds could accept, but Christina hadn’t even heard of any of those on or near campus. She had to believe that these two witches may have been born Daemoni, but weren’t truly evil. And she could even hope they might want to change their allegiances.
She’d nearly had herself convinced that she’d been right about inviting them by the time the party started. And at first, she and Kate seemed to have had nothing to worry about. The Daemoni witches were no-shows. They likely had better plans than spending New Year’s Eve at a Norman party hosted by Amadis on school property. Both girls relaxed and began to enjoy the festivities, dancing, eating and drinking, and chatting with classmates.
It wasn’t until ten minutes before midnight when chaos began.
* * *
“Why don’t we go inside?” Kath asked Inga as they huddled outside a window of the student union.
“We will. But this is more fun right now,” Inga said. “Watch.”
She peered through the window at the party inside, murmured a silent spell, and flicked her hand. All of the soda cans throughout the room exploded, spraying sticky, carbonated liquid like fountains. Kath laughed, then waved her own hand in the air. Every unused chair in the room fell on its back, creating quite a clatter. Everyone inside froze. A couple of Norman girls shrieked. Inga made the lights flash several times before blacking them out for good. More Normans screamed.
The Amadis witches—one with long, dirty-blonde hair and the other with shorter, light brown hair—stood on the dance floor, their eyes searching for the culprits.
“They know we’re here,” Kath said.
“Well ... they invited us, didn’t they?” Inga asked. “Their mistake.”
“And our bonus,” said a female voice from behind them.
Kath spun, her heart leaping into her throat. Two of the vampires from the nest they helped stood behind them. Jewels, tall and dark-headed, and Mindy, with short blond hair, also peeked into the window.
“No,” Kath whispered. “You guys can’t be here.”
“Why not?” asked Jewels.
“You’ll ruin our cover,” Inga pointed out.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have told us about it,” Mindy said. She grinned. Her fangs were already completely out. Kath and Inga remembered bringing her to the nest last New Year’s Day after finding her at a party she had no business being at. They’d always wondered if the girl would make it as a Daemoni vamp, but the answer now seemed to be clear. “It’s my vamp birthday, and I want to celebrate. This looks perfect.”
“No!” Inga said, and she blasted a spell at them to ward them off. “We’ll keep you out if we have to.”
Jewels, who’d flown into a bush ten yards away, jumped to her feet and sauntered back over to them, her eyes flashing angry red. “That’s not a good idea, little witch. You know what you’re supposed to do. Now get out of our way.”
Three more vampires emerged from the shadows surrounding them. A clock in the distance began to chime in the New Year. Kath and Inga exchanged a look.
This wasn’t exactly what they’d had planned. They’d hoped to cause a little of their own mayhem and to put those two Amadis bitches in their place. But who were they to argue with the vamps? If they wanted to be real Daemoni—the best damn Daemoni they could be—unleashing vampires on the Amadis party couldn’t have been more ideal. They’d start the New Year, and their Resolutions, with a bang.
Chapter 4
Inga and Kath led the way, blasting the doors to the party room open. Normans screamed again. A pink
light shot across the room, but Inga raised her hand and blocked the spell. The Amadis witches were ready for a fight. Maybe this had been a trap after all. Letting the vamps in wasn’t such a bad idea.
When the vampires tried to attack the Normans, though, they bounced off invisible bubbles surrounding the humans. The witches had shielded them. Inga and Kath shot spells at their Amadis counterparts, and pink and purple lights returned in answer. One blasted into Kath and her curly brown hair went up in flames. A twist of her hand put the fire out but not before it had singed most of her hair.
“Take care of them!” Inga yelled at Jewels, Mindy, and the other vampires.
“They’re shielded,” Jewels hissed back. “You take care of that, and we’ll gladly do our thing.”
The Normans all huddled in a corner, their eyes wide, the smell of fear pouring off of them, making the vampires even hungrier. The two Amadis witches stood in front of the Normans in fighting stances. They weren’t warlocks, but they obviously weren’t going to back down. They really were ready to fight.
Inga and Kath weren’t warlocks, either. They’d never really had to fight the Amadis before. Nobody had ever tried to stop their magical antics, so they weren’t quite prepared for this. But the vampires were growing angry and excited. Inga could imagine the saliva dripping from their fangs. She and Kath had to do something, or the vamps could easily come after them. The bloodsuckers weren’t exactly creatures that could be easily controlled or dominated.
Kath grasped Inga’s hand and tightened her grip. “We’re the best damn Daemoni we can be. We can do this!”
Inga nodded, and they pooled their power together, preparing to unleash a nasty string of spells on the Amadis and the Normans they protected.
* * *
“Are we going to have mercy on them?” Kate asked when she and Christina saw the two Daemoni witches before them revving up their powers.
“Screw that!” Christina said. “We’re going to fight!”
She pushed her hand out and threw a spell at the witches, not waiting to be attacked first. Pink and purple lights zinged across the room, clashing with blue and yellow from the Daemoni witches. Sparks exploded in the air. A blue light soared at Christina. She ducked and rolled, came up on one knee and shot her own spell. Yellow and blue entwined together now and zoomed for Kate. Both Amadis witches deflected it. The spell ricocheted and blasted out a window. The glass shattered, Normans screamed from behind them, and a gust of freezing wind blew in.
The vampires apparently thought this was their sign to attack, but Christina and Kate kept their shields around the Normans. How were they ever going to get them out of this? How stupid to invite evil into their lives like this! Christina vowed to protect the Normans at all costs. That was their number one job.
The vampires encircled them, threatening them, but as long as they kept up the shields, they’d be okay. The Daemoni witches moved in closer. Since they couldn’t break the protective bubbles around the Amadis and the Normans, they decided to destroy everything else in sight. Tables and chairs exploded into nothing but splinters of wood. More windows blew out. The very carpet under their feet waved and rolled, knocking the Normans off their feet.
“We need to get them out of here,” Christina whispered to Kate, indicating the Normans.
Kate looked at her with a brow raised. “Got any ideas how?”
Christina shook her head, but then an idea occurred to her. “Turn their spells on the vampires. That’s how I beat the wizard in Florida—I turned his spells back on him. We can do this!”
They both inhaled a breath and nodded, then focused on the yellow and blue lights flying through the air. Pink and purple intercepted them. The lights exploded in mid-air and more sparks rained down. The Daemoni spells bounced back to the vampires, blasting them in the heads and chests, causing chunks of stony flesh to break and shatter.
“Screw this!” a blond female said as a piece of her shoulder was blasted away. “I’m out of here!”
“You two will pay for this,” said another female, dark haired, to the Daemoni witches. She held a piece of her nose in her hand. “Wait for me, Minz!”
The vampires began to run. Soon only the witches remained. Their eyes grew wide as Christina and Kate advanced on them. They shot feeble spells, but Christina easily parried them, causing more explosions of light and sparks. Christina and Kate joined hands, mimicking the move the other two had done earlier to combine their powers. The Daemoni witches looked at each other and shook their heads.
“Should we show mercy now?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know that they deserve it,” Christina said. “Unless ... do you two want to convert?”
The witches both scrunched their faces. “Hell, no!” they said in unison.
Christina scrutinized the Daemoni witches in front of her. She’d been wrong about them. She knew now they worked with their own local vamp nest. She wondered how many Normans they’d taken from campus, either to turn or even to feed. She didn’t know what she should do at the moment, and, apparently, Kate wasn’t quite sure either. Amadis were supposed to show mercy, but what harm would they be allowing if they let these two go?
She sauntered closer to the two witches. “We have to have mercy.”
“And that will be your downfall,” spat one of the Daemoni, the one with the blond hair and freaky turquoise eyes.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Kate said. “We’ll be watching you closely from now on.”
“That’s right,” Christina added. “One wrong move, and we won’t be so nice next time.”
“For now, you better take the chance we’re giving you.”
The two Amadis witches raised their hands at their enemies. With another exchanged glance, the Daemoni disappeared.
Christina blew out a breath of relief. She’d done it! She’d stood up to the Daemoni again. She’d taken a huge risk, yes, but that was part of being an Amadis soldier.
“It’ll take time, but we’ll get this warrior thing down,” she said to Kate.
Kate bumped her with her shoulder. “Nicely done.”
“Yeah, that was awesome!” yelled one of the Norman guys.
The witches hadn’t noticed until now that the Normans had all come out from the corner where they’d been huddled together.
“Nice show,” said another girl, clapping her hands together. “I’ve never seen indoor fireworks like that.”
The others broke into applause, too. Christina and Kate stared at the partygoers for a long moment, not believing what they saw. They weren’t scared anymore. They didn’t even realize their lives had been in danger. They thought the fight had been a performance!
“Um ... Happy New Year?” Christina said.
“Happy New Year!” Everyone yelled.
Christina and Kate weren’t sure what the New Year would bring now, but they did know one thing for certain: They’d better get to work on those resolutions right away if tonight was any indication of the coming year.
FERVOR
This next tale introduces a couple of new characters and also brings in some you’ve already met. With a conflict between brain and heart, a dash of faerie mischief, and a masquerade ball like nothing in the earthly realm, this little story is loosely based on a love story familiar to all little girls. I hope you enjoy it as much I loved writing it. This story has nothing to do with the main series, but who knows … maybe we’ll see Jessie and Jack again in the future.
Chapter 1
Being a were-panther is pretty cool ... except when you’re in love with a werewolf.
That was the story of Jessie’s life. At least, her more recent life, since the day some werewolves found her starving in the Georgia woods six months ago. The Daemoni were-panther who had bitten her and caused her change had disappeared long before, leaving her to die at the ripe old age of nineteen. Lucky for her, Sundae’s pack took her in and converted her to Amadis. She had a job at Sundae’s bar and a place to live, and although she’d never re
ally be part of the pack, she had friends. Or, at least, people who knew and accepted exactly what she was and still let her hang around. Life was better than it’d been a year ago and she’d be forever indebted to Sundae, but it was still far from perfect. Especially when she could never have the only guy who’d ever made her knees tremble and her stomach turn flips.
“Hey, Jack, what are your plans for tonight?” asked Gray, one of the pack members and Sundae’s younger brother. He sat at the bar with his new girlfriend, Rissa, who also worked there now. Jessie envied their relationship, but as soon as her mind would wish a wolf had bitten her instead of a panther so she could be a member of the pack, she’d shudder and gag at the thought of being a dog.
Her ears perked up to hear Jack’s answer. Of course, her ears always turned to him when he was in the room so she wouldn’t miss a word. His voice alone sent pleasurable shivers up her spine. Looking at him didn’t hurt either, with his dark hair and contrasting blue eyes.
“I don’t know yet,” Jack answered as he eyed the cue ball on the pool table while leaning on his stick, looking like a model posing in a tight black t-shirt and jeans. Jessie’s gaze lingered on his hands—big yet steady and talented. She knew this because he did most of the pack’s tattoos. “I haven’t heard of any parties this year. Guess everyone has other plans for New Year’s Eve.”
“Did you get the invite to the big ball?” Gray asked.
Jack chuckled. “I guess there’s that party. What’s up with that anyway? Who does balls these days?”
“Well ...” Rissa started, and Jessie giggled, knowing where the only other female’s mind had gone—straight into the gutter. They were often worse than the guys. That’s what she liked about Rissa and Sundae. No girly pretensions about them.
