Gypsy Witch: A Paragon Society Novel (Book 2)

by David Delaney

  Some kind of kinetic spell, Jimmy thought.

  Lucy, not to be outdone, was tossing fireball after fireball at Tinkerbelle.

  Jimmy noticed that an invisible shield protected both women; neither of them had sustained a direct hit yet.

  It was a magic Battle Royale.

  Jimmy couldn't believe how cool this was. He wanted to stay and watch, but just in case Lucy lost the fight, he wanted a head start on Tinkerbelle. He looked back one more time before running into the building. Lucy had pulled two wicked-looking daggers from beneath her jacket, and was advancing on Tinkerbelle, who was still flailing her arms, sending whips of jagged light at Lucy.

  Once inside, Jimmy realized they were in one of the science buildings. They found an open classroom and hid in it. The sound from the battle on the quad was clear, even through the brick walls.

  "I don't understand," said Maddie. "That woman was shooting fireballs from her hands. You saw it, right?"

  Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, I saw it."

  "We have to be hallucinating. That's the only explanation. You know, maybe terrorists poisoned the city's drinking water . . . there has to be a rational—"

  "It's not terrorists, and it's not drugs or mass hypnosis," said Jimmy. He was finally going to be able to talk to someone about this. Maybe Maddie would be as excited about the potential possibilities as he was. How could she not be after what they had just witnessed?

  "You know what's happening, don't you? Maddie asked. "That woman, you know who she is?"

  "Well, not exactly," Jimmy began.

  "What do you mean, not exactly? Either you know her or you don't." Maddie sounded like she was going to lose it.

  "I just met her tonight, a couple of hours ago."

  "How can she do what she's doing? The fireballs, Jimmy . . . how?"

  Jimmy took a deep breath and simply said, "Magic."

  CHAPTER 16

  The scattering of imps lying around the portal rose shakily to their feet. They were emboldened by the presence of the trolls and started firing their laser-eye mojo at me. It was distracting as hell. All three trolls had survived their initial charge, they had hit me simultaneously, like multiple pile drivers. I'd sent two sliding across the asphalt with swipes from my claws, but the third had rammed headfirst into my chest. I'm not going to lie; it had hurt and knocked the wind out of me. The hit had sent me careening into a brand new Honda. I hoped the owner had insurance because the car was totaled. The trolls had retreated a few paces. They were yipping at each other; I didn't speak troll, but it was obvious they were planning the next attack.

  I pushed myself free of the wrecked car. I'd had enough of this nonsense.

  I opened my mouth and let loose with my loudest roar yet. The imps were affected, dropping once again where they stood. A few of them poofed into ash, my howl apparently melting their brains. The trolls, however, shrugged it off.

  What?

  I roared again.

  Nothing.

  I zeroed in on the troll closest to me, focusing on its ears, and sure enough, I could see the problem. The trolls had a built-in defense mechanism against my sonic-blast of a roar – a small flap of skin that sealed the ear canal. Fantastic.

  I guess I was going to have to do this the hard way.

  The trolls spread out once again. Why switch up the attack formation when it had worked so well the first time? I knew I didn't have the fighting skills to win with finesse. I was going to have to overwhelm them with pure berserker rage, relying on the fact that, in bear-form, I was basically a tank.

  I shifted into bear-form and roared a challenge. I don't think I intimidated the troll's one bit, but roaring was one my favorite things to do and it made me feel better.

  I promised myself that if I made it through the night in one piece, I would ask Lucy to double my training sessions, pushing as hard as needed to become the death-dealing machine I knew my beast-form was capable of. Maybe I should sign up for extra martial arts training – Krav Maga? Or even better, whatever it was that Bruce Lee had been an expert in. That guy had been a total bad ass.

  Two of the trolls pulled off the perfect feint – maybe they were smarter than I thought. I had turned toward them, expecting them to leap at me. Instead, the troll to my right sprang, jaws wide, saliva dripping from its razor-sharp teeth.

  The troll never got close. A flashing blur of inky blackness tackled the thing in midair. The troll – and whatever had attacked it – rolled off in a jumble of growls, gouging claws, and gnashing teeth.

  I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I spun and caught another troll mid leap. I swatted at it with one massive paw, knocking it off balance so that its attack turned into more of a glancing blow.

  The third troll didn't wait for an invitation to the party. It came in low and fast, its claws grasping for my neck. I reared up on my back legs and the troll collided with my torso. Even though it had missed my throat, the troll dug all four of its nasty claws into me, clinging to me. I was snout to snout with the slobbering, creature; it immediately started snapping at me, trying to bite me. Well, two could play that game. I opened my massive jaws and started to snap back. We must have looked like we were dancing as we shuffled around the parking lot, growling and biting at one another.

  I could feel the troll frantically tearing at me with its back legs, but it wasn't having much luck with my tough bear hide.

  Playtime was over.

  I made sure the troll was positioned as correctly as I could get it and dropped forward with every ounce of force I could muster. The troll was crushed between the ground and my massive body. The force of the impact cracked the asphalt beneath us. I heard a satisfying crunch, and the troll howled in pain. I bounced on the thing a couple of times, receiving pleasure from the crunching sound of bones breaking and grinding together.

  In my enjoyment, I forgot that the troll still had a buddy in the fight.

  The other troll landed on my back and sank its teeth into base of my skull, and this time the thing drew blood. The bite wasn't deep, but I could feel blood trickle out of the wound and soak into the surrounding fur.

  I shifted to beast-form with the thing still on my back. The instantaneous change in my body mass caused the troll to lose its hold on me and drop to the ground. I whipped a kick out, my clawed toes mashing into the thing's face. Troll blood – it's blue, by the way – sprayed out of the gash I had opened up across its face.

  Some of the more durable imps had recovered from my last shriek attack and were shooting that green eye junk at me again. The troll, blood dripping from its face, backed away, keeping its beady little eyes locked on me. Its buddy, had recovered from my using its body as a trampoline. It was moving slower, favoring its left front leg, but it was still very much in the fight. Lucy had told me trolls were hard to kill, and since she wasn't here to burn them, I was just going to have to keep attacking until they were dead.

  I eyed the portal. It was looking ragged, but still open, but luckily nothing else had come out of it – yet. I could hear the third troll, and whatever had jumped it, still in a savage fight a few car rows away. The two trolls in front of me yipped at each other in that weird troll language, and then the bleeding troll leapt onto the roof of a nearby car. It hissed at me and I growled back, keeping its friend in my line of sight. The bleeding troll jumped to another car, revealing a very simple plan: spread out far enough that I couldn't keep them both in my field of vision. I couldn't allow that to happen.

  I stayed in beast-form. I was going to need the shredding power of my claws. I made a quick assessment of my enemies; the limping troll seemed like the better target—

  From beyond the cars the third troll let out a death rattle.

  Wow. I hoped whatever had killed it was on my side, or I was in trouble.

  A growling-hiss of triumph roared into the night.

  The sound sent a shiver through my body.

  It couldn't be?

  I turned, trying in vain to see
around the cars in front of me.

  I knew that growl-hiss, but it made no sense—

  Then, an auburn-haired vision popped up from behind an SUV four rows over, her eyes blazing, her hair blowing in the wind.

  "I'm gone for a month and come back to find you up to your eyeballs in trolls? You're such a dork." Elyse smirked.

  I shifted back to human form without even thinking about it, my body reacted on instinct, with no regard to the imminent threat of death.

  "Elyse!"

  The trolls that I'd turned my back on crashed into me, one taking out my legs, the other slamming into my back, and I folded like an accordion.

  CHAPTER 17

  The noise from the fight outside sounded to Jimmy like one of the battle scenes from Lord of the Rings: continuous thundering explosions and lots of screaming. Apparently, the mob of crazy women had overcome their initial fear of Lucy and her fireballs and was helping Tinkerbelle in her attack.

  Maddie ignored the chaos and stared at Jimmy, obviously waiting for more.

  Jimmy shrugged.

  Maddie laughed. It was a high, nervous laugh.

  "I'm totally serious," said Jimmy.

  "Magic?" Maddie repeated.

  "I'm not crazy," Jimmy assured her. "How else can you explain what you just saw with your own eyes?" Jimmy pointed to a window. "Those aren't sound effects. There's a magic brawl taking place right outside this building.

  "Well, I'm not very impressed with magic if it causes riots," Maddie snorted, pulling out her cell phone.

  Sometimes Jimmy wasn't the best at reading social cues, but he understood Maddie loud and clear. She didn't believe him, and even more, it seemed like she was making fun of him.

  Jimmy looked down at her phone. "Who do you think you're going to call?"

  "The police, of course," said Maddie. "We need more help. That woman had some kind of flamethrower or something, and someone blew up a police car."

  "Blew up a . . ." Jimmy couldn't believe that Maddie was in total denial. "She didn't have a flamethrower. It was magic. And how about that crazy mob of women?"

  "Clearly, it's some kind of terrorist attack," Maddie said authoritatively. "They've done something . . . drugs, probably . . . maybe in the drinking water, like I said, or maybe it's even airborne . . . but they're causing everyone to hallucinate, or go temporarily crazy."

  "Then why weren't we affected?" Jimmy asked, trying to reason with her.

  "I don't know. I'm not an expert on drugs or terrorist attacks." Maddie shook her phone. "Something's wrong with this. It can't be the battery. I had a full charge."

  "It's the magic. It can knock out electronics," Jimmy explained.

  "Stop it!" Maddie snapped. "Just stop it. More police, and the FBI, and maybe even the army, are going to show up and everything is going be okay—"

  An intense green glow lit up the windows, followed by a concussive wave that rattled the building. What kind of fire burns green?

  "That was an explosion, Jimmy. An explosion!" Maddie jumped to her feet.

  "Where are you going?" Jimmy grabbed Maddie's hand, but she yanked it away from him.

  "My friends are out there, people that I care about!" Maddie strode toward the door.

  "You can't go back out there! It's too dangerous," insisted Jimmy, trying to block her way.

  "You can hide in here if you want, but I'm going to help my friends."

  "Lucy said to stay in here—"

  "Damn it, Jimmy!" Maddie yelled, turning on him and shoving him in the chest. "Who is she? What's going on? I know you know something. Tell me, or I'm going out there."

  Jimmy's closed his eyes. If he couldn't see the disastrous turn his life had taken, then maybe it would go away. He didn't want Maddie to put herself in danger, but how could he possibly explain the past twenty-four hours? Jimmy could feel Maddie staring at him. He wouldn't meet her eyes, and before he realized what he was saying, he mumbled, "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

  Maddie sucked in a breath.

  Jimmy peeked at her; Maddie's eyes were narrowed at him.

  Idiot.

  Maddie asked her next question in a slow, deliberate tone. "What do you mean? Did you have something to do with this?"

  Jimmy remained silent. How was he supposed to answer her? The truth wasn't even an option. Maybe he could give her just enough truth, leaving himself out of the story as much as possible, to placate her enough that she wouldn't do anything nuts.

  "My Biochem lab partner – her name is Dahlia – wait, you know her, she was in the car accident with you."

  "Dahlia is involved in this somehow?"

  Jimmy continued, "Yes, and she knows this woman, Tinkerbelle—"

  "Tinkerbelle? What the hell are you talking about?" Maddie asked, sounding confused and angry.

  "It'll all make sense, just hear me out . . . I promise," pleaded Jimmy. "That other woman out there, the one who attacked Lucy—"

  "The one with the weird eyes?"

  "Yes. That's Tinkerbelle and . . . well, she's a witch—"

  "Jimmy," Maddie warned.

  "No, really, I swear! She calls herself the Gypsy Witch and . . . she really can do magic. Like, real magic."

  Maddie rolled her eyes.

  Jimmy continued, ignoring Maddie, "I know. It's nuts. But I've seen what she can do with my own eyes. You know me: I'm a man of logic and science. I'm as skeptical as they come, and Maddie, I'm telling you the things I've seen. Well, all I can say is that the laws of science can't explain it."

  "Okay. Let's say I accept what you're telling me. I'm not saying I do, but for the sake of argument: how did we get here?" Maddie gestured to the classroom and to the mayhem outside. "You've mentioned Dahlia and Tinkerbelle, but what about this Lucy person and why does she know my name?"

  This is where Jimmy had to watch his words. "Lucy is . . . she's another witch—"

  Maddie let out an exasperated breath.

  "Seriously, she is," Jimmy insisted. "And not only that, she's like a rival of Tinkerbelle's. And Tinkerbelle, with Dahlia's help, did something that pissed Lucy off—"

  "Wait. Are you trying to tell me that this is some kind of . . . what? Freaky supernatural gang fight?" Maddie scoffed. "Two witch covens going at it? Because this is reality Jimmy. Things like that don't happen."

  "If our phones were working, I could show you Tinkerbelle's website," Jimmy insisted. "Where she has spells for sale. It's like an Amazon for magic. She takes credit cards and PayPal. She even offered me a two-for-one special—"

  Oops.

  Maddie went very still. "What do you mean, she offered you a two-for-one special? Did you pay for a spell? Is that why everyone seems to go insane around you? What did you do, Jimmy?"

  Jimmy began talking fast, trying to salvage the situation. "Okay, yes. I bought a spell, but everything that's happening is not my fault. Dahlia said—"

  "Stop," Maddie demanded. "What kind of spell?"

  Uh-oh.

  "I bet I know." Maddie shook her head, disgusted.

  At that moment, Jimmy wanted nothing more than for the floor to open up and swallow him.

  Maddie stared at him, with pity in her eyes. "You bought a spell hoping to gain an edge with school, didn't you?"

  Jimmy let out a gasping laugh; he clamped his hands over his mouth to stop himself from sounding like a maniac. Maddie had provided him with the perfect out. He didn't care if she thought he had turned to magic for help with his class load. As relief washed over him, Jimmy had a crazy thought: what if this whole debacle actually helped break the ice with Maddie? He could totally imagine asking her for coffee in a few days – after the weirdness of the night was behind them – to talk about college life and the pressure to do well.

  "That's it, isn't it? Why, Jimmy? You're one of the smartest guys I know. Why would you ever consider a magic spell?"

  Maddie considered him one of the smartest guys she knew. She actually thought about him. Maybe the love spell and its not-optima
l repercussions would turn out to be worth it after all? Maddie was looking at him, waiting for a reply. Jimmy didn't trust himself to speak, so he gave her a one-shoulder shrug, doing his best to look sufficiently contrite.

  Yet another explosion shook the building. This time, several of the classroom windows shattered from the force. The shouting and general sounds of chaos increased in volume. Something had happened that had the mob jubilant.

  Jubilant rioters couldn't be a good thing.

  "You know, we may need to get out here," Jimmy said, worried now. "There are chemicals in this building that don't react well to fire."

  As if on cue, the door to the classroom slammed open. Lucy stood there, a lethal looking dagger gripped in each hand. She had a cut along one cheek, and small tendrils of smoke wafted off her jacket. "We need to move. Now," she said.

  "What happened? Where's Tink—" Jimmy began.

  "No questions." Lucy glanced over her shoulder into the hall behind her. "Out! Now!" Lucy waved her hand in Jimmy and Maddie's direction, and an invisible force nudged them from behind.

  Maddie let out a yelp, and Jimmy tripped over his own feet trying to dance away from what he thought was an attack.

  "It's not safe here anymore," Lucy said to Maddie. "I've only bought us seconds. Please come with me. I'm on your side."

  Maddie nodded. "Okay. Come on, Jimmy."

  Lucy clucked her tongue. "I don't care if Jimbo comes or not. It's you I'm worried about." An evil grin spread her face. "Maybe we should toss Jimbo to the mob? They would stop getting in my way, and it would serve him right."

  Jimmy stared at Lucy. He knew she wasn't joking; he could feel the fear rising in him like bile.

  "What? You can't do that," said Maddie indignantly. "My mind is still trying to wrap itself around all of this . . . magic nonsense . . . but just because he was stressed about his course work and bought a supposed spell—"

  "Oh, ho, ho," Lucy blurted out. "What lies has old Jimbo been spinning?"