The Fall of Witchcraft

by Claudia Silva

  “Where have you been these last few days, Aggie,” Felicia spat. “The witches are gone, except for these three-”

  “Four,” corrected Jake.

  It only made Felicia snort in amusement. “You know pretty damn well that woman is no longer just a woman.” She pointed at Evelyn, still asleep on Will's lap a few feet away.

  “Are you sure?” added Fabian. “With the werewolf in here, it’s hard to tell.”

  “I wish he had left sooner,” sneered August, in displeasure, knowing Will could hear them with or without a heightened sense of hearing. “Now we’re stuck with him.”

  Jake knew he had to stop this banter, especially with Will so close. “Focus, guys. Our problem is the civilians. Look at them.” He was right, and as the others turned to look at what the humans were doing, they found them together, in pairs or triads sobbing or talking about how they were confused and trapped and afraid. Jake didn’t doubt they could even become violent towards them if they felt they needed to defend themselves from the “monsters” when they realized what they were. Thanks to Dylan, they now had every reason to be suspicious.

  “I’ve always said they needed to know,” protested August.

  “No,” the other three said in unison, all trying to keep their voices down.

  “That always makes matters worse,” said Felicia. “We heard you talked to the deleter, Jake. That should help.”

  “She needs them each in a separate room,” Jake nodded. He knew they all had the ability to hear the conversation, but wanted to make sure they had paid attention.

  Clearly, not everyone had. Fabian said, “She’s going to erase their memories?”

  “Yes,” said Jake. “We just need to make them go where we need them to go.” They all looked bewildered, as if he was asking the impossible. “Start with your secretaries, then move onto the others.”

  “And you?”

  “I’ll take Denise to my office,” Jake told August, “Then I will carry Dylan here, out of sight, and wait for his body to be done healing. Do we have a plan?”

  They all looked annoyed, but knew they had no other choice but to agree.

  “Wait, there isn’t a bomb, is there?” asked Felicia before they dispersed.

  “I have no idea,” Jake confessed. “But since we’re trapped here, I see no way to stop someone from activating one.”

  “We should get everyone else out of the building, then,” suggested Felicia. “Those who can, on the other floors, I mean.”

  “She’s right,” agreed Fabian.

  “Can you take care of that without creating a panic?” Jake asked them.

  “You take care of the werewolves and the witches and we’ll see to that,” Felicia said, her hand on Jake’s shoulder. “As long as we have each other’s backs like we usually do, we should be fine.”

  Jake liked hearing that. He liked hearing they were still a team, they still cared for each other. How could Liliana Porter condemn them when they weren't a danger to anyone? How had she gotten such a twisted picture of what a vampire was?

  “And Lucius?” asked Fabian. “Someone ought to call him, as well.”

  “I can do that,” Felicia said.

  “All right,” August announced, “Let’s get to work.”

  October 20th, 2000

  12:06 P.M.

  Rebecca walked as fast as she could out the apartment building guiding Crystal behind her. Maybe the little girl wasn’t that young, but she was still just a child. Rebecca had worked with young girls when she'd taught dance in her hometown. She wasn’t a mother herself, but she knew how they thought. From her experience, Crystal must be a girl between ten and twelve years of age. She was short and the dress she wore made her look younger, but Rebecca knew better. She was quick to note she had the perfect body for dance; with a long neck and graceful arms; in different circumstances, she would've been a great student.

  Crystal looked too calm and content to be someone who'd just lost her entire family and was now with some stranger she'd never seen in her life. Rebecca wasn't sure if she knew what she was, but she had the feeling her great-great-grandmother may have mentioned a thing or two about the existence of vampires before she died. Behind her, Crystal looked more than happy to follow Rebecca wherever she was taking her, she even smiled when she saw her black car parked on the side of the street.

  “Is that your car?” she asked, sounding excited.

  “Yes,” Rebecca said. Stopping in front of the car, she looked around trying to find a way to contact the agency now that her phone was gone. She had to tell them about Lily, about uncovering the secret behind the Twelve Coven Massacre. “All right, I’m going to ask you to wait in the car, Crystal.”

  “Crys,” the girl corrected her. “Everybody calls me Crys. Like short for Christina or Christopher, but you spell it differently. It’s Crys with a 'y'.”

  Rebecca stared at her in disbelief. No matter what the urgency was, no matter what the girl had just witnessed, she had other things on her mind.

  “Well, Crys, would you stay in the car for me? I need to find a phone to-”

  “There,” Crystal raised her index finger to point behind Rebecca. Turning around, she saw where the girl was pointing at. The public phone was barely standing, but it was there. “You can call your friends. Just make a collect call.”

  That last thing amused Rebecca, making her smile. She didn’t need to make a collect call, but she didn’t want to waste time explaining this to Crystal. She didn’t want to tell her the story when she had once, not too long ago, been forced out of a flying airplane. She didn’t want to go into detail and explain she and a werewolf had walked for miles before finding a bar in the middle of nowhere. And she certainly didn’t want to tell her she'd been all covered in werewolf blood when the police arrived or why the bar began a brawl after the werewolf tried to ask for a phone.

  There wasn’t time for that.

  “Will you stay in the car?” she asked Crystal again. “Please?”

  The girl nodded and complied. Rebecca locked her in and ran to the payphone. She had learned the number to dial in case of emergencies; a number she meant to use now. A woman answered on the other end, saying: “Truman Bakery, treats for all occasions, how may I help you?”

  “I would like to order a red velvet cake, please,” she said.

  “I see. And is it a rush order?”

  “Very much so, it’s for my uncle.”

  She'd found it funny when she learned the words to say to get a direct line to the agency from anywhere in the world. Now, she was grateful the words existed, and that she remembered to use them.

  “This is Josh.” Agent Josh Watters, the most important human who worked at the agency answered the phone.

  “It’s Rebecca Sawyer,” she said.

  “Agent Sawyer.” Josh’s tone of voice changed. Perhaps he inferred what the call was about because he said, “Do you need the director?”

  “Yes, please.”

  “Hold.”

  It didn’t take but a few seconds before Lucius, the director of the vampire agency, was on the other end. “Agent Sawyer? What news?”

  “Sir, I know who the traitor is. I know the identity of the witch who's been killing the other witches.”

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s a young witch, maybe in her late twenties. Her name is Lily, er, Liliana Porter. She is one of the surviving witches Dylan and I drove to the Crimson Building.”

  There was a silence. “Are you certain?”

  “Yes, sir. I saw her. I saw her when I went looking for the nullifier.”

  “The nullifier?”

  “Yes, sir, it’s a witch who can-”

  “I know Emilia Black, agent Sawyer,” pointed out Lucius.

  “Well, she’s dead.”

  There was a pause again.

  “Is agent Torrence with you?” the director asked.

  “No, he’s in the Crimson Building, he-”

  “Give me a moment,”
Lucius stopped her mid-sentence. Rebecca heard Josh enter the office on the other end of the line. She heard him when he said, They're trapped, sir. Agent Torrence is down.

  It all happened so fast.

  “What?” Rebecca almost shouted. What did Josh mean? Agent Torrence is down? That couldn’t be.

  Josh wasn’t done with his report, He’s healing from serious wounds and everybody on the eighth floor is magically trapped there.

  The next thing Rebecca heard was the director, “Go to the Crimson Building, agent Sawyer.” After that, he hung up.

  “Wait!” she called to a dead line. “Sir?” He was gone. The director was gone. Serious wounds? And what about Will? Rebecca needed to go back to the Crimson Building. There wasn’t another minute to waste. Running back to the car, she unlocked it and got inside.

  “Are we going to the Crimson Building, miss?” It was Crystal. In her panic, Rebecca had forgotten she had a passenger waiting in the car.

  “How do you know about the Crimson Building?” Rebecca stopped to ask.

  “My Mimi,” Crystal stated. “She said we were all in danger and she said you would help me save the people trapped in the Crimson Building. Is that where we’re going?”

  Rebecca didn’t know what to think. How was it possible this little girl could know more than she did? Perhaps next time she should ask her first. It would save her time. Crystal seemed to know more than any of them.

  Turning on the engine, Rebecca asked, “What else do you know?”

  “I know you’re a vampire,” stated Crystal. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Rebecca answered without hesitation.

  “But, I shouldn’t be afraid, right?” Crystal prompted.

  “No, you shouldn’t be afraid,” Rebecca said. “Believe it or not, we’re the good guys.”

  “Oh, I believe you, Ms. Sawyer,” the girl said softly, turning to look out the window. “I believe you.”

  October 20th, 2000

  12:11 P.M.

  Dylan tried to open his eyes, but even his eyelids hurt.

  He remembered everything that happened. He remembered he couldn't do anything at all to stop Liliana Porter from destroying his body. He remembered how naïve and harmless she’d seemed moments before and he felt stupid for misjudging her. He felt stupid for being afraid. How could he not see it? Why had his suspicions come so late?

  Young Lily had looked like she couldn’t hurt a fly. She never did anything out of the ordinary, anything to draw suspicion. She hadn’t asked strange questions, nor had she wondered where the agency was when the witches found out they were being taken to the Crimson Building, instead. It'd been the others who’d sounded suspicious while Lily'd looked like a scared young woman trying to stay alive.

  She turned out to be the complete opposite.

  One thing Dylan could say in her favor - she was a good actress.

  Throughout his life, he’d met and worked with many witches, but none had ever harmed him. None had ever tried to prove they could beat him in combat. No. Witches were there to help vampires in their hunt for werewolves, nothing more. They had always been there to erase people’s minds, to find out information, to create diversions. Their involvement, while important, never put them in direct contact with any vampire. He'd never considered them a threat to his kind. Dylan wondered what Liliana thought she knew about them to condemn them as she did. As far as he was concerned, all vampire activity was transparent. They had internal controls that worked and none of the vampires he knew wanted to hurt the weak. They were careful. Respectful.

  For the first time, Dylan felt the power the witches wielded; the power they controlled. For the first time, he saw that power unleashed and used to hurt instead of to protect. They were dangerous. He’d been wrong in judging Victoria when she revealed they stripped witches of all their powers, leaving them with only one to control. He shouldn’t have been so quick to judge. That law had been put in place for a reason. There was no doubt in his mind witches in the past had needed to control humans who had access to too much power. They needed to be regulated because they were dangerous.

  Dangerous... like vampires were dangerous? Vampires also had extraordinary abilities that turned them into powerful weapons. The agency worked hard to make sure it controlled their members and all the other vampires living around the country in secret. No matter how they sugar-coated it, the fact remained - they were dangerous. Dylan was dangerous, too. Perhaps in a way, Lily was right; there were things human beings didn’t know about vampires, like what happened if a human who didn't have the genetic make-up to become a vampire had access to vampire blood. The result was something not even the vampire agency had been able to control.

  There was a reason Lucius not only needed werewolf hunters; he'd created the vampire hunter division, as well. Just like werewolves, vampires could go rampant, crazed with power and hunger. The Children, which was how they called those humans who went through an incomplete transformation, were the most dangerous of all. Not everyone had the potential to become a vampire like he was. The Children often had to be stopped - and ultimately killed - if they turned to the dark side. It was the law. The vampires Will faced in New York decades ago had been Children. They were still there. The children were a lot like roaches; they defied extinction.

  He felt something vibrating next to him. Or, on top of him. He couldn’t be sure.

  His phone. Someone was calling him.

  Becca?

  He was lying on the floor, the last of his bones setting back into place. It still took him a while before he could sit up. When he was ready to move, the first thing he did was to take his phone out of his jacket’s pocket. There were two missed calls from the same unknown number. He could read the digits on the cracked screen.

  Dylan returned the phone to his pocket and looked around. Where was he? It took him a few seconds to recognize the conference room where they'd taken the witches earlier that day.

  The unpleasant scent of werewolf ever present.

  “How are you feeling?” The question came from Will. The young looking werewolf sat on the sofa, the changing Evelyn's head resting on his lap.

  “I’ve seen better days,” Dylan confessed standing up with a grunt.

  “I bet you have,” Will said off-handedly. “Ready for your next problem of the day?”

  “No.” Rolling his neck from one side to the other, he made sure all of his parts had gotten back to the right place. “I think I have enough problems for today, thanks.”

  “Well, I’d say this one should be pretty much at the top of the list.”

  Dylan raised one eyebrow. “You mean, higher than the fact they trapped us in a building with a bomb?”

  “There isn’t a bomb,” Will said.

  “Maybe not yet.”

  “True,” considered Will. “Look, I understand we are in a horrible predicament. Trust me, I wish I’d stay in bed today. Or to have rescheduled with the lawyer when Rebecca canceled on me this morning. Or maybe I should have left when I saw you come in with all these witches.”

  “Your point?”

  “I didn’t,” shrugged Will.

  Dylan said, “And now you’re going to tell me the woman next to you is already.a werewolf, aren’t you?”

  “A female werewolf with a full moon rising in about eight hours.”

  That caught Dylan by surprise. Why he didn’t follow moon patterns was beyond him. It was what he did for a living, he hunted werewolves. Why had he never been interested in the changing phases of the moon? The change dramatically affected werewolves, which meant it dramatically affected his job. Maybe it was because the phase of the moon didn’t affect the outcome of his mission; he’d never thought it important. It was irrelevant to know that kind of information.

  “Well, kill her,” Dylan blurted out. “I won’t judge.”

  Will looked appalled, “Kill her? Me? Are you insane?”

  “I am. I am insane,” he agreed. “I'm talking to a werew
olf, after all, aren’t I?”

  Will decided to ignore his sarcasm. They both knew there was an elephant in the room neither of them dared touch. “I can’t kill her. You do it. It’s your job, isn’t it? A werewolf hunter?”

  “Are you sure you want to remind me of my profession right now?” scoffed Dylan.

  “Seriously, Dylan, I can’t kill this woman.”

  “Someone will have to kill her,” Dylan stated.

  “Maybe the bomb will kill her.”

  “You just said there isn’t a bomb.”

  For the first time, Will seemed to hesitate. There couldn't be a more cruel coincidence. “Wait, I think one is about to be activated.”

  Dylan's first reaction was to laugh. Then he stopped, focused his listening as much as he could and... he heard it. A click, a timer starting. Below them, someone had just planted a bomb. Right at that moment.

  “Great. This just became more real,” he announced. “We have to get everyone out of the building and that'll create a panic.”

  “All but us,” muttered Will.

  Dylan ignored his self-pity. They needed to do something, not cry over it. They needed to save all who could be saved. That was the priority now.

  “Dylan?” Jake opened the door and peeked inside. “Thank God you’re better. We need you out here. Come on.”

  Jake's interruption had been God sent. Before leaving, Dylan turned to Will. “Look, you are in charge of that werewolf. If she begins to shift, kill her. Or she’ll attack us all and you’ll be responsible for any casualties. Understand?”

  He left Will looking like he’d just seen a ghost. And maybe he had.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Bomb

  October 20th, 2000

  12:17 P.M.

  “A bomb was just activated,” Dylan was saying as he walked next to Jake to his office.

  “So, it’s here.” Jake didn’t sound surprised, but he still didn’t take the news well.

  “You knew?”

  “We thought if there wasn’t one there would be one soon. Lily doesn't look like a woman who would try to fool us with something like that.” They closed the door to Jake's office, sitting down to talk.