“What?” By then, Rebecca was pushing the door to exit the building, the little girl close behind her.
With her small, steady voice, Crystal said, “Before she did what she did? Before she died? My Mimi set me free.”
October 20th, 2000
11:58 A.M.
Babysitting witches wasn’t Dylan’s idea of a good time. When their time off was interrupted the day before, the werewolf hunter had hoped the mission assigned would be related to hunting werewolves. Instead, he'd first been sent to Texas to investigate deaths, and now this morning his job had been to collect the women who'd survived the attack to The Twelve Covens and keep them safe. If that wasn’t bad enough, he hadn’t had much time alone with Rebecca, either. She was more than his partner, and he admitted he enjoyed spending time with her even if they weren't killing beasts together. Now that Rebecca was changing - more and more she seemed to want to act on her own without asking for his permission or opinion - he looked for opportunities to be alone with her. Now that she'd volunteered to bring the oldest witch alive back to the Crimson Building without giving it a second thought, she'd left him behind. She hadn't even thought to ask him if it was okay to go. If he'd thought about it first, he wouldn’t be stuck inside a boring building with the witches and… well, and Will.
Yes, he'd ended in the same room with the stinky, annoying, goody-two-shoes, Will. He knew the werewolf was harmless, but he couldn’t stand him. Nor could he understand why Rebecca seemed to be so drawn to him. They were "friends", she said. She claimed there was nothing romantic going on, but Dylan often wondered, and he didn’t like it one bit.
Since Will lived at the agency - polluting the air, he might add - Rebecca spent an abnormal amount of time with him.
The logical side of Dylan told him he shouldn’t worry. It also told him the best way to fix it was to get to know Will. Become friends with him. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Too bad his new human emotions, the ones he rediscovered since Rebecca became his partner, hated that rational idea. Deep down he didn’t care how much Rebecca claimed Will was like her little brother, why would she want to spend any time with him? Little brother, my ass, Dylan thought, that beast is old enough to be her grandfather.
Regardless of his feelings, Dylan did nothing to stop her from seeing him - except maybe complain a little. He knew she wasn’t his property (even when he’d found her, turned her, trained her, and even grown to love her) and she was free to do what she willed. Still, he couldn’t help but think how different things would’ve been if William Woods hadn’t come into their lives when he had.
The witches had all gone into high alert when they realized one of their own was missing. Since they stepped into the Crimson Building, the five surviving witches had stayed together. They had been arguing about the unfairness of their customs and how they'd been stripped of their powers when they had been young - and with reason. They’d questioned Victoria, their leader, about her deceit and how they could have saved many lives if she'd returned their powers to them when the massacre began.
The two elders, Carolina and Daisy, had been leading the questioning of Victoria while Will listened with interest sitting with the wounded Evelyn - who Dylan was sure was turning into a werewolf - when they suddenly realized Lily had disappeared.
They seemed to think the worst, running out of the conference room to look for her; all the time reminding the staff who had stayed in the building for lunchtime, of their presence.
When the witches opened the conference room’s door to exit, the scent of heated food permeated the air around Dylan, making his mouth water. It was lunchtime, and he was hungry. He needed to feed. Not that it mattered at the moment, the problem at hand was to find the missing girl and that was high priority.
“What’s going on?” Jake came out of his office, looking worried.
“One is missing,” Dylan stated.
Jake stared at him in disbelief. “You’ve lost one, already?”
Narrowing his eyes at his suggestion, Dylan said, “I didn’t see you raise a finger, either, so don’t start.”
“Well, no one’s opened that conference room’s door,” Jake said, as a matter of fact.
“How do you know?”
“Because I told my secretary to let me know if something happened in there, which she did, just now when you all came out.”
Sometimes, Jake was annoying when he thought everything that came out of his mouth was wonderful. It happened frequently. “Whatever,” Dylan pretended what he said wasn’t important. “Help find her.”
“Yes, sir!” Jake replied at the order, making fun with an overenthusiastic tone.
Victoria and Daisy were visiting every office, making sure not to miss anything, but when Carolina came out of the restrooms, their hopes fell. “She isn’t there.”
“Maybe someone took her,” suggested Daisy.
“The killer, she must’ve taken her,” Victoria added.
“Or she is the killer,” suggested Dylan.
The three women and Jake turned to look at him in disbelief.
“The killer is a teleporter, Mr. Torrence,” Victoria corrected him, doing her best to sound calm during their crisis. “Lily is only an empath.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Right then, a cloaked figure appeared in the middle of the offices. The black hood covered part of her face as it always did, her white-handle knife in her right hand. Automatically, Dylan took his gun from its holster, pointing it at the woman responsible for killing dozens of witches.
Around them, the few humans and vampires who’d remained in the building left their lunches on their desks to witness what was happening. “Stand back!” Dylan ordered.
“You!” Victoria gasped, pointing an accusing finger at the mystery figure in anger. “Who are you?” Both Carolina and Daisy had to hold the Head Witch back. “How dare you come here!? How did you find us?”
Dylan knew how.
He could smell it in her perfume, the scent of her hair. He could smell it in her blood. Jake wasn’t the only one who was right, except when Dylan was right, it often had something to do with trouble.
“It is her,” Dylan said, stating the obvious.
“What?”
“Lily.”
A broad smile appeared on the killer’s face - a familiar smile. The witch took her hood off dramatically to reveal her identity. “Yes, Ms. Palmer. Me.”
“No…” Victoria almost fainted at the realization, the other two witches caught her when she lost her footing. “It-it can’t be.”
“Why?” asked Lily, almost upset at the suggestion. “Why can’t it be me? Because I’m a weakling who can only tell if people are telling the truth? You yourself didn’t tell the truth. No one does. Even if an empath can’t read an empath, I still know when you lie. Some power your great nullifier chose for me. Empath. What a joke!”
Dylan’s gun still aimed at her. He wished he had Rebecca beside him now. Why had she left? Was she all right? Had she encountered this lunatic woman when she'd gone to find Emilia Black?
“Why are you doing this, Lily?” It was Carolina who asked the question this time. She, who had known Lily since she'd joined the Coven. “You’re not a killer.”
“Why? I think you’re most curious to know how, not why,” Lily replied. “Oh, and I am a killer because you made me a killer.” She was pointing at the Head Witch. “You, who decide the fate of hundreds of women in America. You, who seem to believe you deserve to choose which of our abilities we get to keep. You take away our power and you weaken us. And what do you do with what’s left? You help these evil vermin in their stupid quest to eradicate all werewolves.” Her finger shifted to point at Dylan when she said those words. “You have no idea what your precious vampires actually are, do you? You have no idea what they really do. They hide behind their human facades, but they're even worse than any werewolf they’ve killed.”
“Lily, what are you talking about,” the Hea
d Witch pleaded. “Please, this doesn’t make sense. You aren’t making any sense. Please, stop to think about what you're doing.”
“Shut up!” Lily raised one arm waving it horizontally. On the other side of the room, Victoria went flying to a wall, falling on the floor hurting her ankle from the impact.
“Victoria!” Both Carolina and Daisy screamed.
Dylan didn’t want to wait any longer. Pulling the trigger, he aimed at the young witch’s leg, meaning to hurt, not kill. They heard the loud sound of the gunshot, but the bullet that flew out of the gun magically froze in mid-air. Lily held up her palm, having stopped the bullet with her mind.
The bullet fell on the carpeted floor after she released it, harmless.
“Is that all you’ve got, Agent Torrence?”
The vampire felt the gun fly away from his hand and out the window, shattering the glass as it disappeared from view. It didn't matter, that wasn’t the only weapon Dylan had. With his fangs long and his red eyes, the vampire prepared to attack. Growling, he meant to tackle the witch before she realized what was happening. He would’ve been successful if Lily hadn’t pulled a protective shield around her. It was like hitting a brick wall. Falling to the ground by her feet, Dylan felt an invisible force lift him up in mid-air, pressing his every muscle and crushing his every bone. Screaming in pain, he was let go just seconds away from blacking out.
When Lily released him, Dylan couldn’t feel his body anymore. He would heal, he knew that, but how long would it take? What could stop this murdering witch from getting rid of everyone in the building? And Becca, where was Rebecca?
“Seriously, is that all you’ve got, agent Torrence?” Lily sneered, towering over him as he lay defenseless by her feet.
“What do you want, Lily?” Carolina asked, breaking the moment between Lily and the werewolf hunter.
“What do I want?” Lily jerked her head in her direction. “I want all vampires to die, of course. I want every creature who helps them to die, too.”
“Why?”
“You couldn’t possibly begin to understand,” Lily replied. “If only you knew what I know.”
“Then, tell us, Lily, please,” asked Daisy, who was on the floor, Victoria’s head on her lap. “We want to help you. We want to understand you. We want all of this to stop.”
Ignoring the deleter, Lily took something out of her cloak. It wasn’t a knife, it was a phone. A phone Dylan recognized. Rebecca’s phone. Oh no, not Rebecca… Panic filled him, but as much as he wanted to spring into action, he couldn’t move. With his bones crushed, his body was in bad condition and it would take more time than usual to recover from the attack.
“Recognize this, don’t you?” The evil witch turned to him with her air of superiority; Rebecca’s phone back inside her cloak. She then turned back to the rest of the witches. “Emilia Black is dead, by the way. So much for getting your powers back,” she smiled, triumphant. “I didn’t kill her, in case you were wondering. I was too late. Couldn’t absorb her power. A shame, really. I would have wanted to taste her magic.”
“Lily, what have you done?” Carolina demanded. “Have you gone insane?”
“Tell you what,” Lily began, pretending Caroline hadn’t said a word. “Tell me where the vampire agency is and I will spare you three. I would say I’d spare Evelyn back there, too, but agent Torrence and I both know she is beyond help.” They all turned to look at each other in despair. “Don’t we, Dylan?”
“You're crazy,” Daisy muttered.
“Well?” Lily demanded. “Where is it?”
“We will never tell you,” Victoria whispered from the floor. “Never. That agency is protected by many years of magic. It will be protected decades after we are all dead, do you understand?”
For a long time, Lily simply stared at her. There was hatred, anger, and disappointment behind her eyes. Whatever had brought her to do what she'd done had broken her soul. “Suit yourself, Ms. Palmer. And I wish that was enough, but the location of the vampire agency is what I'm looking for and I usually get what I want. So, this is what we'll do.” Before saying any more, she raised both hands moving them in a circular motion. “There. I have created a magical field,” she explained. “Now that you won’t be able to get out of this building, I can tell you we'll activate a bomb in a place you won’t be able to reach. If you wish to save everyone here, you will tell me the location of the vampire agency. You may as well call your director to let him know his precious Dylan Torrence is in the building with you. Tell him he may heal from any physical harm I punish him with, but he won’t come back from an exploding building.”
“Lily, wait,” Carolina began.
“I'm not done speaking,” she shrieked, sending Carolina back with a telekinetic blow. “I'll come back in half an hour to see if you have an answer for me, and I'll kill Daisy if you don’t tell me what I want to hear. After that, I swear I’ll come back every half hour, Ms. Palmer. I’ll come back until even you are dead and then… then the building will blow up with everyone on this floor in it. Think about it. How much are you willing to sacrifice for the location of a nest of vampires?”
After showing them a wicked smile, Lily disappeared.
October 20th, 2000
12:05 P.M.
There was an unspoken fear in the room, a shared panic. Jake looked around at the blank faces of his employees. One by one they turned to look at the lawyers with fear and distrust. For once, he questioned if he should’ve kept them in the dark. He wondered if they should’ve told them the truth the moment they took the job. No. That was also a bad idea. It was better like this. If that lunatic hadn’t shown up, they would have lived their lives in ignorance and bliss.
Besides, not all was lost. They still had a deleter in the room. Daisy Hart. She could still work her magic.
Behind him, he heard a woman cry. It was Denise, his personal assistant. He heard the others whisper as they tried to console her. Then someone screamed. Jake turned around to find Dylan’s body convulsing when his bones began to snap back together on their own. It looked unreal and unnatural, and frankly, very scary. He needed to do something.
“It’s all right,” he said to the room, hoping to make it all better with some reassuring words. “You’re safe.” Except, he knew it was a lie. Perhaps they were safe from the vampires in the room, but not from the bomb the witch had threatened them with.
All the while, Dylan’s body kept repairing itself in the middle of the office.
“I need to get out of here.” Matt, one of the paralegals, was running to the elevator; several people followed him: Kate, the receptionist, and Kim, another assistant, among them. They clicked the button desperately, but when the elevator doors opened, there was an invisible barrier blocking the way. “What’s this?” Matt shrieked, his hands touched a wall he couldn’t see.
“We can’t get out,” Jake informed him. Fabian, another of the vampires who practiced law at the firm, approached Jake. They exchanged looks and somehow the message was clear. Nodding, Jake walked to the deleter. “Ms. Hart. It would help us greatly if you could help these people.”
She was shaking her head from side to side before he finished the sentence. “Mr. Anders, even if I tried, they would still be trapped inside this building with the lot of us. Even if I could erase all memory of what happened, they would still be here, with a bomb, inside a magical field they can’t escape.”
“Better to be afraid of magic than be afraid of us, Ms. Hart.” He added, “You know how humans react to vampires. They fear us just because we’re vampires.”
She offered a smile. “They have reason to fear.”
Jake frowned. He didn't expect that answered from the old deleter. He knew he was harmless, just like many other vampires were harmless. He had helped relocate many himself throughout the years and he knew they tried to live normal lives; even if that meant living in fear of being discovered. These vampires feared humanity more than humanity feared them. They were afraid of damag
ing someone’s trust in them or their feelings for them. Yet, there was no other way for them to live. Why couldn’t everyone understand the real threat were the werewolves?
“Please, Ms. Hart.”
For a moment the witch stared at the confused humans around her. She sighed at last, changing her mind. “It would be better if they are each in a different room. I need to be near each of them when I erase their memories of the past few minutes and I need to do it one by one, this way my work will be cleaner and more precise. When they have all forgotten, you will need to create a story that explains why they can’t leave this floor. They will still have questions. They may still feel afraid.”
“I’ll do my best,” Jake said. A snapping bone made them both turn toward Dylan’s body. “My colleagues will help you with whatever you need. In the meantime, I will take Dylan to the conference room. It’d be best if they don’t see him like this after you've done your magic.”
The woman seemed to give a glance around the room in understanding. “How many are we talking about? How many civilians?”
Jake turned to look at the crowd. Each of the vampire’s personal secretaries always had lunch at their desks, which made four. Matt and Sean, the paralegals and Kate, the receptionist, were also there. “Seven,” he announced.
“Very well.”
Before moving Dylan, Jake gathered the civilians away from the elevator. He then asked August, Fabian, and Felicia to the conference room to explain what he needed to happen. He'd known the three vampires for decades. As a matter of fact, they started at the firm before Jake decided to study law. The three of them had been in the firm even before Herman Harrison, the founder, retired. Felicia was the first lawyer Harrison had hired, an oddity back then that a woman was allowed to learn law.
“What's going on, Jake?” asked August.
The Fall of Witchcraft Page 15
