"What?" she asked, getting up and going red. "I want to help and don’t care how dangerous this is! You shouldn't exclude me just because I'm half human. Now I’m one of you, even if I can’t do all these crazy things like most of you guys.”
I sighed.
"Darling, I love you, and I can’t risk your life. Do you remember Daniel and that bastard McGregor?"
Ella’s face went pale. She chewed on her lip, staring at me, fear in her eyes. Of course, she remembered everything. She hadn't spoken to me for months after she found out that I was paranormal.
“That's the past and now I know what to expect. You guys are going after witches, not vampires, right?"
I couldn't believe she was willing to go with us even after all the crap she had been through. That hopeless feeling in my stomach was making me nauseous.
I looked at Kelsie, who was filing her nails.
“Let's hear the plan first," I said.
"There is something going on with the witches in the factory. Lucinda knows it and I'm sure this has something to do with the coven. I heard there’s a wizard on the production line who acts as a recruiter, possibly for the coven. Normally after their shifts, he talks about the meetings, pretending that he’s interested in dating some of them."
I stared at Kelsie in disbelief, digesting what she said. If she was right, then I finally understood what was happening with the staff, why all the witches were disappearing.
"How long have you known about this?" I asked.
“I've only just found out tonight. I used the toilet downstairs and some vampires were talking about it."
Ella looked baffled, shifting on the sofa next to me. "So, what’s that mean? What are you guys planning to do?" she asked.
"Nothing that you can get involved with. As I said before, even if we go after the witches, it’s way too dangerous."
"Julia, stop telling me what to do."
"Ella, I'm, not—"
"Oh, for Christ’s sake, Julia.” Kel cut me off, raising her voice. “Ella could be useful. We should just get to the factory and see if we can learn the identity of that wizard."
I rubbed my hands together and stared at both of them like they were crazy.
"Something always goes wrong when we do things like that. Remember when we followed Jasper? Some giants, or whatever the hell they were, nearly slashed your throat in that old building," I insisted, flexing my fingers. Energy flew through me. I could feel it in the room, dancing all around us.
Kelsie rolled her eyes like it wasn't a big deal, like every day she was threatened with a knife. I shivered, recalling every single second of that evening. Even then, Jasper attacked me.
"And when do you want to do this?" I asked, hoping that tomorrow she would forget, so I wouldn't have to put her in unnecessary danger.
"Tonight, at twelve. That’s when the main shift is going to end. Besides, things are always freaky after the witching hour."
"All right then. Whose car we are going in?" Ella asked promptly.
"Hold on a minute; we have to discuss this first," I cut her off, annoyed that Kelsie thought bringing Ella was a good idea. Okay, maybe my friend had some magical genes, but she had never exhibited any magical powers. "I really don’t think you should come with us. Think about Kate and my dad. They’re dying. I’ll never forgive myself if anything happened to you."
Ella patted me on the back. “It's my choice. I want to help."
So, it turned out I had nothing to say. Ella insisted on being part of this plan and that was it.
Kelsie mentioned that many paranormals were finishing work at midnight. In the past few weeks the production line had been working for twenty-four hours, but the vampires were covering the night shift. Lucinda was giving them priority. They had their own associations and unions, and they were always complaining that there wasn't enough work for them.
Ella was asking a lot of questions about the coven and the witches; that was worrying me. Nathaniel still hadn’t called. What if someone cast a spell on him and he wasn't even aware of what was happening to him? It was possible. Once Jasper made him forget about me, like I was never part of his life.
"Hey, Julia, wake up. Are you even listening to me?"
Kelsie’s voice brought me back to the room. I shook my head.
"Yes, sorry. I'm here, what’s up?"
She narrowed her eyes.
"I was just telling Ella that we have to be careful. We can’t be seen. They’re necromancy witches, and they use humans and paranormals for their deadly rituals."
I already knew that and that’s why I was worried. What if Ella ended up like Dad or Kate? How would I ever explain something like that to her mother?
We discussed our new plan over a late dinner. I made some quick pasta. I hadn’t eaten anything since early afternoon. The girls were talking, probably trying to distract themselves from everything that was going on and what we had to do tonight. Ella talked about her work in the salon, Kelsie about Michael and her sex life. Thoughts about Jasper floated in my head. It worried me a little that I hadn’t heard from him yet. He should’ve already recovered from his injuries; that was, if I hadn’t killed him. Deep down I was praying that tonight’s plan would bring some sort of results.
"Julia, I think I should drive," Kelsie said, grabbing my keys. My fingers sparkled, and I felt a tingling sensation in my chest. It was strange, for days my power obeyed me and tonight I felt like it wanted to have a mind of its own again.
We left my apartment at half past eleven. I was knackered but awake. Dad had no more than thirteen days to get his soul back, Kate, hmm… maybe a bit less. Tonight, we needed the name of that bitch.
Ella was quiet, and Kelsie looked focused. There was a slim chance that Nathaniel would be inside, but I didn’t want to think about him. He created enough anguish and pain in my life as it was.
Later in the night the traffic eased off. It only took us forty minutes to get to Brunel Industrial Estate. Kelsie drove smoothly through the security gate and we parked in the staff car park.
"And now, we wait," she muttered, giving us an encouraging smile. Twenty minutes later a lot of paranormals started leaving the building. Most of them alone, some in groups. We could all recognise witches from elves or giants from trolls.
I was only paying attention to witches. Kelsie’s plan had a lot of holes. We had no idea who we should follow. After the witching hour the car park was filled with paranormals who were eager to get home.
Kelsie was the only one that sort of knew who to look out for. For about ten minutes she was watching the car park. I spotted a few witches. Most of them had gotten lifts from their husbands, boyfriend or friends.
I didn’t see a group of witches with a man. It looked like tonight was going to be waste of time.
"Right, I think we should come back tomorrow," I said with resignation.
"No, there he is. The prick in the black Porsche." Kelsie pointed out.
CHAPTER 24
MINI SABBATH.
"What? In that fancy car? Are you sure?" I asked, pointing at the wizard who appeared to our right. He was smoking, staring at all the people who were leaving the factory. It looked like he was waiting for someone, leaning against his black Porsche. Kelsie wasn't exaggerating when it came to his looks. He was hot: built like a wrestler, with dark long hair, and dressed in a leather jacket and leather pants.
A few minutes later three women, all witches, walked up to him timidly. They started talking. My internal voice kept insisting that this new theory was making sense. The coven used a wizard to attract the witches to their meetings. Was he only testing them to see how far they would go? Was he only using his good looks to attract new victims for necromantic rituals? I had no idea what to think anymore. I needed get to the bottom of where he was planning to take them.
"Of course, I'm sure. The girls in the ladies’ room described him in great detail. He’s here to recruit. They’re loving the attention. Look." Kelsie pointed at the wo
men. They were obviously smitten with him, especially the two older ones.
An attractive man and some lonely witches. Well, the coven was pushing this further than I expected.
“He's doing a good enough job," I muttered under my breath. Slowly the car park was emptying. Paranormals were leaving, and a few of them were hanging out waiting to be picked up. The witches were still talking to the wizard, who was pointing at his car, gesturing for them to get inside.
A petite witch wasn't too keen on getting into some stranger’s car in the middle of the night. She was shaking her head trying to back away. The others had already made up their mind, because they were shouting at her, trying to convince her to go with them. The wizard smiled, said something and then after a moment, the girl reluctantly agreed. He scored: he had three witches in his car and they had no idea what was going to happen to them.
“They're getting away," Ella said, reminding me that I needed to make a decision.
"We should follow them," Kelsie added promptly. I was reluctant to do anything without a plan, but Kelsie was right. We couldn’t be sure if we’d get another opportunity like this. These witches were in danger.
"All right, let’s do this, but keep your distance. He can’t spot us," I said, remembering all those times when we got ourselves into trouble because of me.
This time my power was on my side and I wasn't dangerous to be around. In the past few weeks, I learned that I could fight. I had to make sure that I kept Ella out of any danger. She was staying in the car the whole time. Kelsie maneuvered the car smoothly in the dying night traffic, keeping up with the Porsche. A few times she had to speed up as the wizard was driving faster than he should’ve been. It looked like he was in a hurry, probably trying to make it on time for the meeting.
Slowly I began losing track of the areas that we were passing, realising that he was heading out of London. I glanced at Ella who had this look of determination on her face. I didn't like it. Kelsie kept muttering some obscenities under her breath when she had to slow down a couple of times.
An hour and a half later, we were still in the car, travelling through the Industrial Park. I was beginning to worry that the wizard in front of us was aware he was being followed and was just driving around.
We lost sense of where we were after some time, surrounded by tall buildings, moving closer to old industrial containers. The car in front of us took a sharp left and a few minutes later Kelsie killed the engine, seeing the Porsche parked a distance away. We were miles away from Croydon in a completely unfamiliar location. The smell of oil and chemicals surrounded me, and my gut told me that I was pushing this too far, that we were getting in too deep and if anything happened, no one would know where we were. When the witches got out of the car, goosebumps shot up all over my arms. This place wasn't completely deserted, there were other cars parked near us, which told me that this wasn't just a random stop.
"What should we do?" Ella whispered.
I swallowed hard, glancing at Kelsie. “I'll call Dannika; she should take over from here."
"What? If any of these witches sense the cops, then that’s it. We’re done," Kelsie said. "We should look around, find out why he brought them here. I think this is your chance, Julia. That bitch might be around here somewhere."
I hesitated again, biting my lip. By the time Dannika arrived, the witches were going to be gone anyway. I had to make another difficult decision.
"Fine, let’s go, but everyone stay close. We don’t know what to expect," I blurted out after checking that we were safe to leave the car. My plan in keeping Ella out of this wasn't working.
What first caught my attention was the silence and an energy that made me a little nauseous. The temperature was below zero and a deep, penetrating chill filled my body. Ella glanced around keeping close to me. On our right there was a large industrial building, on the left a stack of huge containers.
We moved quietly towards the place where the witches disappeared with the wizard, hiding behind one of the containers. Kelsie took the lead, stripped off all her clothes, and transformed into a rat. She wanted to look around to make sure it was safe to cross further down.
Ella kept staring at the space from which Kel vanished. I shook her a little, asking if she was all right to carry on. She insisted that she was.
After ten minutes Kelsie returned, letting us know that we were all clear to carry on. My magic had already been awakened, rushing throughout my body. It was just the case of pushing the right energies through and maintaining intensity of the deadly spells.
"I hear voices a few hundred meters away from here. They use this place for their meetings," she explained. "There are at least a dozen witches out there."
I took a few deep breaths, calculating our next move. If these were the witches from the new coven, we’d just struck gold, but at the same time this whole operation seemed risky. We snuck out a hundred meters further down from Kelsie. Adrenaline started flowing through my veins, magic advanced, soaking the chilled air.
Every time we crept further into the industrial estate we hid behind a new container.
Kelsie gave us a sign to hold on, as we all heard the voices surrounding us.
"Josie, I told you this was a bad idea. I heard rumours they’re killing people here," a voice said. It was a woman, possibly a witch.
"Nonsense, they’re just playing with spells. Roger’s so hot, I don’t care how long we’re going to be here, as long he gives me his number," another woman said, sounding excited.
A third voice chuckled. "Yeah, he’s a dreamer. Did you see the way he was looking at me?"
"He might be good looking, but it’s strange that he invited us here in the middle of the night. There are a dozen witches out here and that amount of magic in one place can be dangerous."
"Donna, don’t be a wimp. We’ll listen to what they have to say, do some hocus pocus and be on our way."
"Ladies, we’re starting in five minutes."
It was the fourth male voice. Kelsie and I exchanged startled looks, aware that something important was just about to happen. I knew that the guy must have been Roger, the wizard we saw in the car park.
"This is exciting, much better than the book club I went to the other night." Another woman giggled.
"It must be some sort of meeting where they introduce new members, right? Why would these women be here otherwise?" I whispered to Kelsie, confused and afraid about who we were dealing with.
"No idea, but let’s see if we can get closer to listen in," she said.
Ella nodded and the three of us ran through the plain yard towards another container. As we crept closer Kelsie pointed out that one of the metal boxes was open. We slid inside, aware that now we could see what was happening on the other side.
Inside it was dark, but through a wide gap I saw the entire gathering of witches. There were at least a hundred or more of them, all females. Now and again there were one or two wizards, standing in the circle. Two witches had their backs to us: both very tall with long blonde hair and scrawny legs. They barely wore anything and, considering how cold it was, I was shivering just staring at their exposed skin.
The buzzing in my ears didn't want to go away. I felt hot and cold at the same time, hearing Ella’s irregular breaths. The smell of burning wood wafted through the air, and the magic kept me on my toes, soaking and vibrating the atmosphere around us.
"Thank you all for coming here tonight on such short notice. Welcome to the new witches. It’s my pleasure to see all your faces."
The first witch spoke. She was loud and confident with an accent I couldn’t detect.
I looked around the crowd and spotted the girl from the car park glancing around. She didn’t look particularly happy being in the crowd.
"I arrived in London a couple of months ago, hearing that many witches were unhappy and lost. It was clear to me that many of you felt exploited by your association, many of you didn’t have any life goals. I do understand that most of you att
end Sabbaths, but I want to bring something entirely new and fresh to London."
Someone shouted something funny and the witch laughed. I didn’t know what was going on with my magic, but the vibration in the air caused an eruption of sweat to run down my back.
"Tonight, I want to tell you a bit more about the coven that I created. Our meetings always take place after the witching hour and always away from humans. We are witches and wizards. Our blood is much more precious than the blood of other creatures. If you’re willing to learn, my sisters, then I can show you enormous power, magic that can bring back the energy of the dead; energy that can make you all immortal!"
My heart gave me a giant smack in my chest and I felt Kelsie moving nervously next to me. I heard gasps in the crowd. Some witches were nodding. Others were looking around, a bit less impressed.
The blond witch from the car park looked scared; she paled and whispered something to the girl who was sitting next to her.
"Now," said one of the witches from the new coven moving a bit forward. "This opportunity is very special and only for the witches who are willing to open their minds and souls. Some say this magic is forbidden, illegal, but we should be able to use it. After all, witches and wizards are special."
I was out of breath, but we had to stay here until the very end. I noticed I didn’t have any reception on my phone, so even if we wanted to call the police we were stuck.
"Necromancy. We use it and we are proud of it. There are going to be sacrifices, souls of humans and paranormals who are too narrow-minded to see the real world…"
Shaun was right all along. This bitch was looking for followers; she wanted to teach others to use magic that wasn't accessible to ordinary paranormals. She was the one who I’d been looking for, the one who could save Dad and Kate.
Witch's Promise : The Witching Hour Series Book 4 Page 17
