“Don’t worry about it, Lucille,” Amanda said with a sigh. “They did what they had to do.”
“I disagree,” Lucille snapped. “What did the Order expect you to do? Let your friend turn into a werewolf while you had the means to prevent it?”
“If it had ended with Jessie, they might have put me on probation like they did Kyle and Jonathan. It was the second count of breaking the ban that did me in.”
“Fine. Then let me put it a different way. Were you supposed to let a demon keep your brother’s body while you had the means to do something about it?”
“Apparently,” Amanda answered in a droll tone. “I don’t think they want me setting a precedent or, worse, having the werewolf packs think I’m setting a precedent.”
Lucille shook her head. “I don’t know what angers me more. That they dismissed you for helping your friends or because they needed to make a political statement.”
Amanda shrugged. “Either way, it’s done.”
Lucille was silent for a moment. She was looking back and forth between Kyle and Amanda, chewing her lower lip. For her, it was an unusual show of indecision. “Are you sure moving in together is what you want? It’s not your only option, you know.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Kyle said with a laugh.
“It’s nothing against you, Kyle. The circumstances should not make either of you feel forced into something your relationship isn’t prepared for.”
Amanda stopped packing and looked Lucille in the eye. Lucille had become like a second mother to her over the time Amanda had lived at the farm. Most of the time, Amanda appreciated it. “I know I have other options,” she assured the older woman. “Kyle and I talked it over pretty thoroughly. I’m taking over the second bedroom, so I’ll still have my own space.” She didn’t think Lucille had any business knowing that she probably wouldn’t be sleeping in her new room.
Lucille’s raised eyebrow told Amanda that the woman had reached that conclusion on her own. “Okay, Amanda. If you’re happy, I’m happy.”
The words made Amanda pause and consider. Was she happy?
When the Order canned her, she was surprised to discover more feelings of relief than despair. The Order had always been a means to an end for her, and that end had finally been accomplished. She was going to have to find a new mission for her life without the Order.
Not that her mission to save her brother had gone as she’d hoped. As she’d feared, Reggie never called her that afternoon. When she gave up on waiting and called the hospital to find out for herself when he’d be released, she learned that he’d checked himself out an hour before. A week later, she still hadn’t heard from him.
He probably just needed time to get used to his restored life. At least, that was her hope. She couldn’t accept that he’d abandon her entirely.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a hand on her arm. “You okay?” Kyle asked.
She shook herself and went back to packing. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about Reggie again.”
“Give him time,” Lucille suggested. “He’ll come around.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself. But I’m worried that he hates me now. I never imagined he wouldn’t want his life back. Everything I went through, everything I put us all through, was for nothing. Worse than nothing.”
“You did what you thought was right,” Kyle reassured her. “I’ve been where he was, and I thought you were doing the right thing, too.”
“Thanks, but we both know you warned me that I might be making a mistake. I should have listened.”
“Too late to second-guess yourself now,” Lucille admonished. She looked like she was about to say more, but the ringing of the kitchen telephone interrupted her. The phone in Amanda’s room was on a separate line, so Lucille had to leave them to answer.
“Lucille’s right,” Kyle said, moving close and putting his arms around her. She returned the light embrace. “Reggie might be looking for a new purpose in life and come back to you on his own terms. In the meantime, one good thing did come out of everything we went through.” Then he kissed her.
“True,” she said with a smile. “You’ve been very supportive—even when I was wrong.”
Lucille appeared at the doorway. She was moving slowly with a preoccupied expression. Kyle and Amanda both dropped their arms to their sides. “What is it?” Amanda asked.
At the same time, Kyle jokingly asked “Who died?”
Lucille gave Kyle a sardonic look. “Dr. Rutlinger, actually. He was murdered.”
“Murdered?” Amanda said. “How is that possible?”
Dr. Rutlinger had the speed and strength of a werewolf. Any burglar who attempted to steal from the Foundation would be in for a big surprise. It was unlikely a human could kill a werewolf unless that person was extremely stealthy or armed with a machine gun full of silver bullets. Perhaps he’d been attacked by another werewolf.
“A member of his pack found him in his living room, sitting on the couch.” Lucille explained. “His throat had been cut, nearly severing his head.”
“Grisly,” Kyle said, shuddering.
“That’s a good word for it,” Lucille agreed. “The Selkirk Pack is livid and demanding answers. Given recent events, you two should expect to be questioned by an Order investigator.”
“Do you know when it happened?” Amanda asked.
“No. The call was from a friend in Paranormal Investigations who wanted to give me a heads-up. She was repeating scuttlebutt and didn’t have access to the case file.”
“Probably within the past twelve hours,” Kyle guessed. “I’m betting he didn’t show up at his clinic today and someone went up there to check on him.”
“Sounds reasonable,” Lucille said. “Well, I’m going to make some lunch. We can expect an investigator to show up at any time, and who knows when you’ll get a chance to eat.”
Typical Lucille, Amanda thought. Mother hen to the end.
“Thanks, Lucille,” Amanda said as the woman departed.
She lowered her voice after her friend and mentor had descended the stairs. “Not just anyone could get the drop on Dr. Rutlinger in his own living room.”
Kyle followed her lead and lowered his voice as well. “Agreed. It was probably someone he knew.”
“Someone who could match a werewolf’s strength and reflexes,” Amanda added.
Kyle nodded. “Yeah, like another werewolf.”
“Or someone like you,” Amanda said pointedly.
“I’m not worried,” he said with a dismissive wave. “We’ve been here with Lucille for the past day, and before that, we were sitting in front of an Order tribunal.”
“It’s not your alibi I’m thinking about.”
Kyle’s eyes went distant as he considered her implication. “Reggie? Why would he have a grudge against Dr. Rutlinger?”
Amanda shook her head. “Maybe not specifically Dr. Rutlinger …”
Kyle’s brow furrowed. “You think he’s after the entire Selkirk Pack?”
“For starters.”
“That’s crazy,” Kyle scoffed. “One man, even one who’s a physical match for them, couldn’t expect to take all the werewolves out.”
“Think about what he told us,” Amanda insisted. She was becoming more sure of her theory with every moment. “It bothered him that every werewolf represents another human spirit stuck in the abyss just like he was. He told me I should have destroyed his body instead of bringing him back to it.”
“Oh, wow.”
“Yeah. Wow. And the Order knows about him. They weren’t happy when they found out he skipped out of the hospital. Like you, his strength and speed make him a paranormal being, and they want to keep tabs on him.”
Amanda waited quietly while Kyle stood with a distant look in his eyes, digesting her theory. Inside that nerdy brain of his, he’d be tearing it apart, putting it back together fifteen different ways, and following additional ramifications to entirely new conclusions. She
’d learned to let the wheels grind through their full cycle without interruption.
“We have to find him and fast,” Kyle finally stated. “If you’re right and he kills again, all hell will break loose. The werewolves will hunt him and hold the Order responsible for doing the same. They’ll also hold you responsible for unleashing a serial killer.” Kyle squinted and shook his head. She could tell that something didn’t add up for him.
“What?” Amanda prompted.
“Assuming we aren’t making all this up, how can he possibly expect to get away with it? Without a lupusdaemon’s innate magic, he can’t heal like the werewolves can. If any of them catch up to him, he’d never survive.”
“You did.”
“Once,” he said, holding up a finger for emphasis. “And it almost went the other way. I wouldn’t want to rely on that kind of luck.”
“Maybe he doesn’t intend to survive. Every werewolf he takes out is one more spirit freed. If he dies fighting his jihad, he gets what he wanted all along.”
“He’ll free his own spirit,” Kyle said softly.
Amanda nodded. “Win, win.”
Kyle shuddered and then blew out a breath. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. We don’t know that any of this speculation is true.”
“Okay. What are we supposed to do? Wait for another werewolf to turn up dead?”
“Point taken. Well, now that the dust has settled, I’m sure you want to find Reggie anyway. And no one will be suspicious about you searching for your missing brother. Who knows? Maybe we’ll find him selling beads on the boardwalk in some seaside town, and all this speculation will have been the product of our imaginations.”
“Selling beads on the boardwalk?” Amanda said with a lift of her eyebrow.
“Sure, why not?”
Amanda took Kyle’s arm and steered him toward the doorway. “Come on, Mr. Imagination. Let’s take Lucille’s advice and get something to eat before the investigator arrives.”
Kyle’s stomach growled right on cue. He rubbed his hand on his abdomen. “I think that was an agreement. We’d better eat up. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
Amanda squeezed his hand with hers in acknowledgment.
Kyle was right that she wanted to find her brother. She couldn’t help but feel that he owed her an explanation for disappearing even if he probably didn’t see it that way. His sudden disappearance was what fed all of this ominous theorizing.
Of course, they might have it all wrong, but Amanda was pretty sure of one thing: when they found Reggie, he wouldn’t be selling beads on the boardwalk.
Thank You for Reading
Thank you for dedicating some of your reading time to Demon Witch. I hope you enjoyed the adventures of Kyle and Amanda and that you look forward to more tales of the Ternion Order.
If you would like to be notified by email when I release a new book, please subscribe to the New Releases list at my blog: www.DanielRMarvello.com/releases. I only use the list for release announcements, and you may unsubscribe at any time.
I know that not everyone likes to write book reviews, but if you are willing to spare the time to write a sentence or two about what you thought of Demon Witch, I encourage you to post a review at your favorite book vendor site or recommend the story to your social networking friends.
I love hearing from fans. If you would like to share your thoughts with me privately, you can reach me through the contact page on my blog: DanielRMarvello.com/contact. I look forward to meeting you.
Happy reading,
Daniel R. Marvello
Dedication
Demon Witch is dedicated to my lovely and talented wife.
She is the real magic in my life.
Acknowledgments
My thanks go out to my readers and my family for supporting my writing career. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Thanks also to my beta readers, who helped me make Demon Witch a better book than it would have been without their feedback. I sincerely appreciate their time and effort:
Susan Daffron (author of the Alpine Grove Romantic Comedies and Jennings & O’Shea mysteries)
Becca Mills (author of the Emanations series)
Nancy Brashear (contributing author of the Grimm & Grimmer Volume Two anthology)
Paul Sheriff (author of the PDSA programming series).
Ken Rahmoeller
Cynthia Daffron
Melanie Griffin
About the Author
Daniel R. Marvello writes fantasy adventure stories from his log home on forty acres of forest and meadow in the North Idaho panhandle. The scenic beauty of his surroundings inspired the settings for the Vaetra Chronicles and Ternion Order book series. Daniel shares his home with his loving wife of 20 years and several wonderful animals.
Visit Daniel’s blog at: www.DanielRMarvello.com
Books by Daniel R. Marvello
The Vaetra Chronicles
swords & sorcery adventure
Vaetra Unveiled
Vaetra Untrained
Vaetra Unleashed
The Ternion Order
contemporary fantasy adventure
First Moon
Demon Witch
Book 3 - Coming Soon!
The Western Geomancer
western fantasy adventure
Geomancer's Bargain
Get book release notices by email:
www.DanielRMarvello.com/releases
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Synopsis
Chapter 1 - Leap of Fate
Chapter 2 - Amber Eyes
Chapter 3 - Dominance
Chapter 4 - Gathering
Chapter 5 - Desecration
Chapter 6 - Connections
Chapter 7 - Contingency
Chapter 8 - Protective Custody
Chapter 9 - Loyalty
Chapter 10 - Pyrotechnics
Chapter 11 - Teamwork
Chapter 12 - Private Eye
Chapter 13 - Evidence
Chapter 14 - Gone Girl
Chapter 15 - Catch of the Day
Chapter 16 - Purged
Chapter 17 - Fair Warning
Chapter 18 - Under Observation
Chapter 19 - Overwhelmed
Chapter 20 - Aftermath
Chapter 21 - Wrath
Chapter 22 - Strike Force
Chapter 23 - Helpless
Chapter 24 - Wards
Chapter 25 - Human Shield
Chapter 26 - Collateral Damage
Chapter 27 - Despair
Chapter 28 - Hostile Takeover
Chapter 29 - Volunteers
Chapter 30 - Window of Opportunity
Chapter 31 - Foreboding
Chapter 32 - Skyler's Plea
Chapter 33 - Access
Chapter 34 - Exorcism Interruptus
Chapter 35 - Careful Wishing
Thank You for Reading
Dedication & Acknowledgments
About the Author
Books by Daniel R. Marvello
Demon Witch (The Ternion Order Book 2) Page 26
