by Ruby Loren
January felt her skin grow cold. “It hasn’t worked. She’s somehow getting rid of the glamour.”
All she could do was stare, as Leah flicked away the last of the threads. When she opened her eyes, January and Gregory were both staring at her.
Leah smiled at them. “Oops. You weren’t meant to see that,” she said.
Then she ran. She moved so fast that January’s eyes couldn’t follow her.
There was a noise like a small explosion when every single magical trap was triggered, and invisible sharp things flew through the garden. January and Gregory threw themselves flat on the lawn, waiting for everything to be over. After a few moments, January dared to raise her head and discovered she was only a few inches away from poor unfortunate Jasmine. She looked away and used witch sight to check the garden. All that remained of the crisscrossing strands of magic was a pink haze. Leah had caused the magical murder trap to burn itself out.
“So… who’s your friend?” Gregory asked, conversationally. He brushed some damp grass off his chinos. “I noticed you weren’t too thrilled when I mentioned the existence of the supernatural in front of her. I hate to break it to you, but I think she might already know a thing or two.”
16
“Why didn’t the glamour work?” January asked when she and Gregory were a few streets away from Jasmine’s house. They’d decided to leave her body and head behind. Another disappearance from the estate would lead to more suspicion than an actual death. Plus, the police would hopefully be able to work out that Jasmine was the one responsible for Stanley Goode’s death.
January just pitied the poor neighbour who went out to fetch the paper tomorrow morning and came back with post-traumatic stress.
“It could be one of a few things. Either she’s some quirk of nature, like you, or she’s a very powerful witch, who also works as a bounty hunter and has been stringing you along the whole time. Then there’s option number three. Going by the lightning speed with which she left us, she may be immune because she’s a vampire. A better one than I am,” he admitted. “She could be working with the witch who did this. Or, she might be capable of it all on her own.”
“No way. I’ve seen her in the daylight! We have band practice in the early evening. She’s never burst into flames. Also, she’s cool and modern - not stuffy at all.” January wrung her hands, knowing her logic was pretty wobbly.
“I am not stuffy!” Gregory said, smoothing a crease from his trousers. “With regard to your comment about daylight, I said she’s a better vampire than I am. There are only a few vampires older than I, and you know who they are. Everyone else has been killed off.”
“You think she’s one of the Old Ones,” January said, reeling. Leah was just your average gal who played the drums! The drummer had been nervous about confronting a potential murderer and now here they were, hypothesising that she might be one of the oldest living things on the planet.
“Whatever the truth is, she’s more than she’s been pretending to be. My money is either on her being a bounty hunter witch, or one of the ancient vampires,” Gregory concluded. He rubbed his temples, reliving her high speed run. “Upon reflection. I think she’s probably the bounty hunter. Witches can do all kinds of tricks. She must have worked out how to copy our speed. That’s more explicable than a day-walking vampire. ”
January felt all crawly. She’d been spending time with Leah for more than a month and hadn’t realised anything was wrong. Heck, she’d even started to think they might be on their way to becoming friends!
“I can’t believe we’re going to have to get another new drummer!” She muttered.
Gregory threw her an exasperated look.
January discovered she was starting to think a little straighter. Leah must have been watching for the past few days to see if I was going after Gregory, she thought, acknowledging the time they’d spent together, after she’d allegedly been getting the truth out of Cherri. January was even willing to contemplate that Stanley Goode and Jasmine Spencer could have been innocent victims, whom Leah had been playing with all along. This bounty hunter loved her games. The murder of Stanley Goode and the smokescreen distraction in the form of bad attempts to kill Cherri could have been one of many plans she’d had on the go. I wonder what else we’re running headlong into that has already been set in motion, she thought, but knew she probably wouldn’t figure it out until it was too late. Simon’s words about never trusting a witch were brought to mind. The problem was, you didn’t always know who the witches were.
“Urgh, and all the magic was pink. What a stupid colour,” January said, trying to find something to make herself feel a little superior. Black was definitely more badass.
“This feels like just the start,” Gregory said, breaking his silence. “This hunter has been watching and waiting. This is the first real move they’ve made. I doubt they’re going to hold back now. We should all be on our guard. My only query is, why did it take them so long to begin? Why now?” His forehead creased.
January looked away. She was not planning on telling Gregory about the phone call offer. It wouldn’t do any good for either of them.
“I’ve got to tell Ryan,” she said, feeling a cloud of gloom settle over her. He still hadn’t called, texted, or sent her a carrier pigeon, since they’d argued and he’d walked out. January was finally starting to accept that it was probably the end of their relationship. Clearly, Ryan wanted nothing to do with her.
“Why? If he’s chosen to walk out when you need him most, let him stay out. We can watch each others’ backs.” Gregory’s stormy eyes looked at her, seriously.
January wanted to let herself go and sink into them.
She tried to ignore that feeling.
“I’ve got to let him know - especially if you think this is just the start. It’s like you said… I think from now on the hunter will do all they can to end it. We’re getting too close to finding out the truth. Perhaps we already have their identity… depending on who Leah really is. All we can do is weather the storm and hope we get a chance to strike back. I have another lesson with Tor Bennett soon.” She didn’t add that she was dreading meeting the witch, now that she’d inadvertently undone one of his major spell workings. She wasn’t sure how angry Tor would be when he found out his son was back to being a human, full-time.
“We need to find your drummer friend and figure out what her part to play in all of this is. Find Leah and we may just see that our problems go away,” Gregory said.
January nodded. It was great in theory, but in reality, they had the same number of leads on Leah as they did on the Old Ones - zero.
“I’ve got to tell Ryan. What happened tonight demonstrates that this bounty hunter isn’t picky about who gets in the way of their target. I do not want anyone else to die because of me.”
Gregory shrugged. “It’s your funeral. Don’t forget to tell him you’ve already let another man move in with you. A man whom I haven’t been consulted about, and - as far as I know - isn’t paying rent.”
January smiled at Gregory. “I thought you said we were past all of the formalities?”
January pulled up outside The Wild Woods bar early the next morning. Her eyes were already tired from constantly checking her surroundings using witch sight, but she couldn’t afford to miss a thing. She’d even started jumping every time she saw something pink.
Her breath clouded in the icy, early March air. She slammed her car door, and saw Ryan walk out of the bar carrying a rubbish sack. At least I know he’s in, she thought and decided there was no time like the present for getting this over with.
Ryan looked surprised when he saw her walking across the car park. January tried to ignore the way it made her heart sink.
“Hi, Ryan, I need to talk to you about something that happened last night,” she said, looking him straight in the eye for the first sentence and saying it all in her most businesslike voice.
“Bad news? I’ve got some, too,” he said. There was an awk
ward pause where they both hovered in the car park. “Come in. I’ll make us some coffee and we can talk. About what happened last night,” he hastily added.
January got the message loud and clear – they were not going to be discussing anything personal today.
“I didn’t see that coming,” Ryan said when January had finished telling him about how Leah had shrugged off the glamour and made a run for it. “She seemed so normal!”
“I suppose that fact alone should have rung the alarm bells,” January said, dryly. “The bottom line of is, look out for traps because there are probably going to be a lot. Don’t hang around me, if you can help it.” She didn’t know why she was saying this to Ryan. It was all too clear that he wasn’t going to be hanging around anywhere near where she was.
“I’ll let the pack know,” he said and then bit his lip hard enough that it turned white. “Sorry to add to what’s on your plate right now, but I’d better share my bad news. The wolves came back to the bar and made a formal challenge for pack leadership. Dominic London is the man they’ve chosen to lead them- that’s the reason for all the turmoil. This new faction led by this guy, Dominic, has taken over. Now he wants to do his best to put things back to the way they were in Witchwood, before Luke came along.”
January sipped her latte, thoughtfully. She half-wished she could just hand it all over to him and wish him the best of luck, but she knew it wouldn’t work out for the rest of her pack. Dominic would disband the other animals and keep the pack, a pack of wolves. January was fine with that, but she knew that the shifters who relied on the bar and the support of the pack would not be okay. They needed to stay together.
“At least with a proper challenge out there, they might stop bothering the bar,” she said, trying to look on the bright side.
“You’re okay with fighting him?” Ryan asked, looking surprised.
January finished her coffee. “Sure I am! I could do with a good fight.”
Ryan looked more surprised by the second.
January sighed. He’d forgotten where she’d come from. She’d enjoyed being a vampire-killing bounty hunter. The only reason she’d been hesitant to rush into conflict recently, was because she’d feared the whole pack might be dragged into a war with the wolves. But a challenge was one on one. This was personal.
“I thought you might want me to do it for you,” Ryan said.
January realised he was actually offended. “I am the pack leader. I’m taking responsibility. Isn’t that what you’ve wanted all along?” She couldn’t resist adding, knowing she sounded just as bitter as she felt.
“I wanted a lot of things to happen that haven’t worked out the way I hoped that they would,” Ryan said.
It felt like he’d stabbed her in the chest. It sounded as though he was telling her he’d been wrong to say she should lead the pack. January gritted her teeth. She was going to prove otherwise.
“I want to be more involved in the bar. You said yourself that it’s really important to get things up and running. Give me the financials. I’ll settle any debts that are left and then we can see about opening properly and thinking about the marketing side of things.”
She knew it was presumptuous to join in during the final furlong, but she wanted to show Ryan that she cared just as much as he did about the fate of the pack. She was going to have to cut her hours at the tearooms to make it happen, but so be it. It wasn’t as if she needed the money, anyway.
“Isn’t that a bit of a risk? You’re talking about there being traps wherever you go and telling people to avoid being near you, and now you want to spend more time in a place full of shifters. Isn’t that a bit… selfish?” Ryan’s expression was cool but January could see how white his knuckles were, wrapped around his mug.
“What do you think I should do? Go out into the woods and live in a stick hut until this goes away? I’m getting involved and that’s final,” January said, raising an eyebrow at Ryan.
He’d told her himself she could depose him of his manager’s position if she so wished. She wasn’t going to go that far, but she did want to do this and start to show her pack she was with them. She was determined that the wolves would find only loyalty when they came for their challenge.
“Tell Dominic London that I accept the challenge. We’ll do it at the next full moon meet.”
“Tell him yourself. He’s here,” Ryan said, sliding off his bar stool with catlike grace, before disappearing into the storeroom.
January turned around in time to see the door of the bar open. A towering mountain of a man walked in.
17
“Oh, fudge,” January muttered when the huge man started walking towards her. He had to be six foot eight at the very least. She composed her face and stood up from the barstool, drawing herself up to her full five foot eight.
It didn’t feel like enough.
“Dominic London, I’ve just been hearing about you,” she said with a warm smile. It sounded like she was running an interview.
“January Chevalier, I’m sick to my back teeth of hearing about you.”
January dropped the smile in a heartbeat. So they weren’t going to bandy about false pleasantries.
“How terribly boring for you,” she said with a straight face. “I’m guessing you’ve come here to see if your challenge has been accepted. It has. We can go against each other at the next full moon in Witchwood Forest clearing, if that suits you?”
Dominic scraped a hand across his buzz cut. January had always thought that Ryan looked like a tough cookie, but this man made him look like he should be wearing a tutu.
“I don’t like Witchwood Forest,” the big bad wolf said.
January blinked. “Tough. You’re the challenger. I make the rules. Just out of interest, if you don’t like the forest, where are you going to go if you happen to win the pack leadership?”
Dominic’s beady mud coloured eyes gave her a look as hard as marbles. “I don’t like the forest, because you’re in it.”
“Oh. Glad we cleared that up.”
Dominic crossed his arms and stood in solemn silence, fixing her with an unswerving stare.
January suddenly found she was having a hard time not laughing. “So, it’s a date then?” She prompted.
Dominic’s perma-frown deepened. “It’s a fight at the full moon - not a date. People say you cheat and use magic. Try any of that stuff on me and you’ll regret it.”
January crossed her own arms. “Show me the rule that says I can’t do whatever I like when I fight you. Your wolves lost their leadership to Luke. Then I came along and beat him. Think about that. Well… at least give it your best shot.” This is so much fun! January thought, delighted by the tough talk. Being mean was kind of great when you got into it.
“They didn’t have me back then.” Dominic gave her one last stare, before he turned around and strode back out of the bar. The effect was ruined a little when the door got stuck, halfway open, and he had to squeeze himself through the small gap - but it was still rather intimidating.
The bar evidently needed some more renovation.
January grinned. “Some fun at last!”
Ryan emerged from the store room, looking a little green. “You really are a psycho, you know?” He said, but January thought he sounded impressed.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover. It’s what’s inside that counts,” she told him. She knew retribution and a love for living in the moment of a fight was what lurked inside of her. Plus, she had a lot of frustration to work off… Dominic wasn’t going to know what had hit him.
“Aren’t you afraid of losing? I’ve heard things about this guy, Dominic. He’s apparently never lost a fight in his life. He moves around packs, challenging for leadership and winning it. Then he gets bored and moves onto the next pack. I assume he’s come here for a new challenge.”
January shrugged. After meeting Dominic, she could believe all that about him. It was clear he didn’t have much going for him other than his streng
th, size, and a ton of aggression.
“I’m going to use magic against him. Or at least, pretend that’s what I’m doing. I think that will really wind him up.”
“You want to wind him up?”
“Sure! The more riled up he is, the more likely he is to make a mistake. I can’t win a fight the way the wolves do. I’ve got this far by not playing by anyone’s rules. I’m not about to change tactics now.”
Ryan looked far more relieved.
January couldn’t help but grin. “What? Did you really think I was going to play fair and give him a straight fight? I know when I’m outmatched. Dominic said I was a cheater, and he’s right. I’m definitely going to cheat. Well - it would be cheating if there were any rules. Isn’t it lucky that there aren’t?” She narrowed her eyes at Ryan. “There aren’t any rules, are there?” He’d know if there were.
“No… just that both parties have to agree what they’re fighting for and that yielding must be taken as a defeat – no unnecessary killing, although, to be honest, that’s taken more as a guideline. Oh, and no one else can get involved once you start fighting. This is between you and him.”
January nodded, pleased that there was nothing to forbid any of what she had planned. “Urgh, great. I have a whole day of work and then have to face the music with Tor Bennett tonight,” she said, completely forgetting that she and Ryan weren’t on ‘tell me about your day’ terms anymore.
“Good luck with that,” Ryan said, pointedly polishing the bar with a rag.
January shot an unimpressed look at his downturned head, but then decided some things were better left – for now.
Tor had instructed her to meet him at the end of terrace house for this lesson. January could only assume that it was because they were going to be doing actual magic – stuff that might attract attention if they started practicing it in the middle of a pub. She was secretly hoping that whatever they did today might give her an edge when it came to fighting Dominic. She’d love to see the expression on the face of the big werewolf if she could turn him into a frog, or turn his fur pink. The second one might not win her the fight, but it would sure make her smile.
