Bella Flores Urban Fantasy Collection

by R D Martin

  She’d considered all manner of spells meant to protect the farm, everything from solid barriers to transportation spells. Of all the possibilities considered, none of them included a redirection spell. They were simple and effective little spells that made unwelcome guests leave by redirecting their thoughts to something else. She even had one surrounding her own apartment, though it only kept out vermin.

  Embarrassed, and glad no one was around to see her gaffe, she got out of the car and walked back toward the farmhouse. Ignoring the first barrier, she stepped up to the second. To defeat a redirect spell, she needed to keep her goal so firmly in mind that no other thought could push it out of the way.

  Taking a deep breath, she pictured the conch, concentrating on every rounded curve and jutting angle. She focused on the light pink color of the outside and the smooth pearlescent gleam of its opening as she pictured herself lifting it up to drop in the bag hanging from her shoulder.

  Bella stepped through the pastel barrier and her mind thrummed with images and questions, pushing her to turn away, to find an excuse to be anywhere but here. Clenching her jaw hard enough to crack teeth, she kept moving. More questions, more memories flooded through her mind, questing for just the right reason to leave. Her single determined goal swept aside each thought.

  As fast as the assault on her mind started, the moment she stepped through the opposite side, it stopped. Sweat beaded on her forehead and dripped down her cheeks. Leaning over, she rested her hands on her knees, panting against the effort. Questions still swirled in her mind like the last eddies of water heading down a drain. Memories of her father and images of a woman she’d never met but knew to be her mother mixed with them. A knot formed at the back of her head. Whoever made this spell hadn’t been joking. It was some serious magic.

  Resting a moment longer, she straightened and turned to what she hoped was the last layer of the barrier. Closing her eyes, she opened her inner sight and saw… nothing. Well, not nothing. The barrier was there, but it was almost completely transparent. The surface gleamed and flowed like a soap bubble in a summer sun. Reaching out with her magic, letting it taste the barrier, she got the impression this one wasn’t like the others. It was far more dangerous.

  Probing the edges of it with her magic, she felt the intent of the spell was to stop anyone from stepping through. The power behind it was beyond scary. This was, she imagined, the real protection for the conch. And being almost invisible made examining it close to impossible.

  The buzzing of an insect near her ear broke her concentration for a moment. Waving at it, she swatted the small black and yellow body away. Its angry buzzing cut out as if someone had pressed a mute button as it came in contact with the clear barrier. Its wings stopped buzzing and the small body fell to the ground where, for the first time, she saw a line of insect bodies circling the barrier. Even as she watched, a dragonfly darted through, only to die and crash on the ground beyond.

  Bella shuddered. She’d never had to deal with an insta-kill barrier before, though she’d heard of them. They took enormous power to erect and were kept fed by the lives of the creatures they killed. Thousands of insect carcasses littered the ground and, as her eyes followed the curve of the dome, she could see smaller animals, birds mostly, but there were bones of larger animals too.

  Her eyes dilated and heart raced while her neck broke out in a cold sweat. How was she going to get through this? They designed these spells to kill anything that touched them.

  She watched a fat black fly buzz toward the barrier. The bobbing insect moved as the breeze pushed it but kept its path straight. As it reached the barrier’s edge, Bella held her breath, knowing what was about to happen. The insect buzzed forward, reached the edge of the barrier and passed through, uncaring about its near skirt with death.

  Bella gasped. How had it done it? How had the fly made it through the barrier unharmed? Peering closer, she watched as other insects flew into the barrier and dropped dead to the ground. However, while most of them fell, there were still a few passing through unharmed. But how?

  The thought struck her like lightning from a clear sky. The barrier was impenetrable and anything that touched it died, but maybe it wasn’t solid.

  Casting her magic in as thin a net as possible, she laid it over the dome, covering it from top to bottom. Her trepidation died and excitement surged as she learned she was right. Either the spell was incomplete, or there wasn’t enough death to feed it properly, but whatever the cause, there were several spots where the barrier was completely open.

  Following the edge, she came to the largest opening near the ground, about the size of a toaster. Now that she knew the barrier had openings, she knew she could deal with it. Drawing back her blanket of magic, she concentrated on the edge of the opening. Odd shaped and thinner than a piece of paper, the hole’s edges vibrated with the thrum of the spell.

  Filling the hole with her own magic, she smiled as it jerked open a fraction of an inch. She’d have to thank Cat later for teaching her the spell. As she pressed harder, the hole widened bit by bit until it was large enough to step through if she ducked. Taking extra precaution, she curved the edges of her magic, letting it ride up the edge of the dome to keep herself from touching it by mistake.

  Stepping through, she skirted forward a few steps to put some space between her and the wall of death. As she straightened, she felt the frozen knot in the pit of her stomach loosen a bit. She’d made it through.

  Tying off the spell, she once again opened her inner sight and sighed with relief. No more barriers blocked her way to the farmhouse. Just a short walk remained between her and her goal. Smiling, she basked in the warm sunlight for a moment before moving. She’d show them she was more than ready for this.

  She wasn’t ready for this, Bella thought as her fist slammed into the thug's stomach. A lightning bolt of pain shot up her arm, and she gave a small whimper as her fingers numbed. The entertained guffaw behind her pierced through the veil of pain, reminding her there were still two others to deal with.

  Lashing out with her uninjured hand, she slapped the man in front of her, putting as much momentum behind her swing as she could. She might as well have slapped the side of a wall. The man’s crooked tooth grin widened as he rubbed his cheek. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought he was enjoying it.

  “Come on, Charlie,” said a voice behind her. “Just take the bag already.” The deep southern drawl of the man made his words sound a little garbled in her ears.

  “Nah, Jesse. I say we stay and have a little fun with this girl. She a fighter.”

  As if to prove his words, he raised his arm and backhanded her across the face, spinning her around and knocking her to the ground.

  Rolling to her right, ignoring the ringing in her ears and the stabbing pain of the conch stabbing into her back, Bella raised her palms at Charlie and willed fire into existence. A stream of blue-white flame shot from her hands toward her attacker.

  In less than a second, the roiling stream of magic splashed against his chest, spreading out to cover his entire torso and spill down the front of his jeans. She expected screaming and thrashing, but all she got was laughter.

  Bella stopped the magic powering the spell, letting the fire die away, and she watched in horror as Charlie threw his head back and laughed.

  “That was a good one,” the man said, turning to his companions. “’Bout made me piss myself.” He gave his friends a moment to chuckle at the witty remark before turning back to her. “Now, little Witch. Y’all already tried that one on Gerald, and it didn’t work no better. How about handin’ over that bag and maybe we’ll only hurt you a little? Wadda ya say?”

  She’d worked hard getting the conch out of the farmhouse. She hadn’t taken their offer the first time, and she wasn’t about to take it this time.

  Concentrating, she shouted a word that could only be heard and forgotten, as if that was all the answer she needed. A bright arc of electricity flew toward Charlie
, only to change direction inches from his face and charge one of her other attackers. This one, Jesse, didn’t even flinch as it approached. The electricity came no closer to him than it had his companion before arcing away again toward their third companion, with the same result.

  It was as though the magic couldn’t decide who to attack. Round and round it went, jumping from one man to another, never quite touching. Fingers of electrical energy split off, plunging into the ground and nearby trees with popping sounds like fireworks. Wherever they plunged, dirt and bark exploded, leaving small craters behind as it broke apart.

  As the last feeble spark of electricity leaped away from the farthest man, it turned in midair and slammed into her car, rocking it with the impact. The car’s horn blared, and headlights flashed. Windshield wipers attempted to slide across the dry glass before screeching to a halt. The car gave one final shudder before everything stopped moving except for the small green tree hanging from the rearview.

  All three men, breaking out in peals of laughter, turned toward each other as if sharing a private joke.

  Towering over her with crooked teeth gleaming in the sunlight, Charlie pulled back his leg and lashed out, slamming it into her side.

  “You must be one dumb Witch,” he said as she huddled against the agonizing pain. “As long as we got protection from La Nuit, ain’t nothin’ you can do.”

  Bella, huddled in pain, could do nothing to stop the thug reaching down and tugging on the strap around her shoulder, each jerk sending broken shards of pain coursing through her abused body. By the third tug, her limp body screaming in anguish, blackness formed around the edges of her vision. She knew she would not be conscious much longer.

  Desperate, she imagined a candle and, just as she had attempted hundreds of times before, tried to feed it every emotion and sensation she had. The thugs’ laughter became a background noise and the yanking on her body became a shrinking annoyance. Everything fed into the flame and as though the world came into focus for the first time, she could see the flow of magic through and around her. Every current and eddy of the energy was open to her, ready to jump at her command.

  Turning her attention toward her attackers, she saw the magic flowing around them, a dull purple overlay like a second skin. Reaching out with both her mind and her hand, she grasped at the purple coat and tore it away with all the strength she could command.

  In the back of her mind, pressed so far down she barely noticed it, a visceral scream raged against what she was doing and the jerking at her shoulder stopped. She didn’t care about the source of the scream, but used it to fuel her actions and pulled all the harder.

  Opening her eyes, she watched the second companion, Jesse, fall to his knees, throw his head back in a wordless howl and claw at his eyes. Bloody rivulets streamed down his cheeks to darken his shirt. Both of his companions turned to stare at him in shock.

  “Jesse? What—” started one, frozen in horror at his friend.

  The other companion, Charlie, was smarter. Turning his back to his wounded friend, he resumed his attack, dropping to his knees and slamming his fist into the side of her head.

  Stars exploded in her vision, shattering the internal peace she’d created like a broken mirror. A second impact and her world turned upside down, causing her stomach to flip-flop as her mind spun with the speed of a stock car. Her consciousness narrowed to a single point of light in an infinite field of darkness. When the third strike landed, bouncing her head on the ground, even that point disappeared.

  5

  Dabbing at the bruise swelling her eye shut, Bella winced at the needles of pain shooting through her. The field of bruises and cuts staring back at her from the mirror was enough to give her nightmares. As bad as it looked, her face was in better shape now than when she’d woken in the hospital.

  According to the staff, an old couple came across her car and, thinking she might be having some trouble, stopped to help. Walking around the car to find her passed out on the ground had given the old woman the fright of her life. They thought she was dead until she moaned.

  After that, everything was a blur of images. She didn’t remember the ambulance showing up, nor did she remember the ride to the hospital. There was an image of a man wearing a light blue uniform, though she didn’t know if he was a paramedic or a doctor. There were lights flashing overhead at one point, and she knew she was in a building.

  She remembered muffled voices, as though people were trying to speak to her through water, and an incessant beeping that bored through her head with every loud chirp. She tried to tell them about it but couldn’t do more than moan. When she finally regained consciousness, enough to talk at any rate, she thought she’d gone blind until a nurse told her the swelling in her face was keeping her eyes closed.

  After that, it was a flurry of questions, broken by long periods of sleep. Doctors wanted to know her medical history, and police wanted to know about the attack. All of them wanted to know if she had any family they should contact and what she was doing in the middle of nowhere in the first place. The only thing saving her from lying to the police was the report of the tow company stating her vehicle’s electric system had fried.

  Three days later, against the advice of her doctors, she checked herself out of the hospital. Dressed in a set of scrubs, her clothes having been cut off her, she stumbled out of the hospital, ignoring the curious stares of people passing by. She’d been told the name of the town, but since she had no interest in staying long, she hadn’t taken the time to remember it. Before leaving, however, she did ask where the nearest hotel was.

  Turning left, she marched past manicured greenery and onto the public sidewalk. Each step elicited a groan as lightning bolts of pain ran up her legs and lodged themselves in her hips. Four blocks then turn left, another block, and she’d be in front of the only bed-and-breakfast in town. She’d called ahead to make sure they had a room available.

  Tripping on the edge of an unleveled bit of concrete, sending her entire body into a spasm of racking pain as she hit the ground, she almost considered going back to her hospital room. Pushing herself up, trying and failing to keep the pain to a minimum, she continued her journey. As tempting as the hospital room was, she needed privacy and hospital staff were too likely to walk in at any time. Besides, there would definitely be questions if they came to check in on her and her body was completely healed overnight.

  Staring at her reflection, she decided to give it one more day before reaching out to Gar. Or, for that matter, to William. And that was the crux of the situation.

  After waking from the first use of healing spells, ordering enough food to her room to feed an army, she’d had nothing but her situation to think of. If she spelled out to William, he’d see the mess she was in and might be tempted to leave the jungle to come to her. It was an appealing thought at first. She missed him and really wanted nothing more than to be in his arms, safe from the world. On the other hand, if he left, he would be disappointing his uncle, and she ran the chance of him resenting her for it later.

  As for Gar, the decision was even harder. He’d told her she wasn’t ready for the job, insisting she needed more training before going into the field. She’d begged him to let her go, and he’d relented, giving her an easy job.

  A wry smile played across her lips. If this was an easy job, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what a hard one was.

  That being the case, however, she was at an impasse. It was an easy collection job, and she’d botched it. She hadn’t been prepared for it, either magically or physically. How was she going to explain that she’d lost the artifact, or rather had it stolen from her, on such an easy job? They’d never trust her enough to let her into the field again, and she’d never be more than a delivery girl.

  Flopping down on the bed, she picked up the plastic bag the hospital used to store her possessions and dumped it out beside her. Her phone was working, thank the gods for small favors, but she’d missed so many texts from Karina it
would take her hours to go through them. She loved her friend, but the woman was obsessed with keeping in touch at every odd moment. There were times she was glad for it, but this wasn’t one of them.

  Her ID was still there, as well as the only credit card she had in her possession. Grimacing at that, she felt the knot in her stomach tighten a bit more. This failed job had cost way more than anyone planned. She’d asked Gar about the car rental before leaving, only to have him laugh at her before passing her the black card. He’d assured her there was no credit limit and she could use it for anything she needed. His lilting voice took on a more sinister note when he said she’d better bring back receipts. She shuddered, hoping she wouldn’t have to pay back all the money spent.

  The last item on the bed wasn’t hers at all. Shaped like the French fleur-de-lis, the object was obviously a pendant, broken or torn from a necklace. The pendant was plated in gold, and someone had taken the time to inscribe it with minute detail. Looking at it closely, she could see people gathered as if at a party, surrounding a larger figure wearing a long-nosed jester’s mask and a cap with bells on the end. The weight of it surprised her as well. Though it wasn’t solid gold, it felt as if it should be.

  Tossing it down, she moaned before falling back on the bed herself. How had she gotten herself in this position in the first place? Had she broken some cosmic rule? Was this karma catching up to her for something she’d done in a past life?

  The phone buzzed on the bed next to her and, as if pulling itself toward her with its own magical force, she picked it up, almost dropping it again when she saw it was Karina on the other line. The woman would keep calling and texting until Bella answered. Time to pull the Band-Aid off, she thought as she slid her thumb across the glass screen.