The Problem With Witches: An Arcane Shot Series Novel

by Joey W. Hill

Now he realized what Derek had been trying to tell him, why Ben hadn’t gone back down to kill Elagra when he had the chance.

  There would always be Elagras. Loves like his and Marcie’s, they were the fabric that held the line against the Elagras of the world. Crushed them like that wall of water, absorbed the pieces that remained. When he reached the end of this life, he wouldn’t be thinking of what the witch had twisted in him, how she’d hurt him. He’d be thinking of Marcie, the softness of her hair, her smile, her sweet, sweet submission. She was the true miracle, the rare thing in the world.

  He thought of all of them. Matt, his chosen brothers and their wives. Even Raina and Mikhael, Derek and Ruby. Jem, their new son. It was all there, all fucking there. Bigger than Elagra, bigger than anything, and he could gather it in to him, pull his daughter's attention to him, and hold it with that tether. It was the strongest magic of all, the member of the team that never flagged, the weapon that never dulled, as long as you knew how to keep it sharp.

  A grin wreathed his wet face as another shower of water landed on him, but this wasn’t from the surf. This was from a large head, poised just over him, the water dripping off her nose and chin.

  He turned his face up to her. It was the first really close look he’d had, and he saw the beauty of the sparkling eyes, the layered silver and bronze scales on the neck, the dark, dark eyes with absurdly thick lashes.

  There was uncertainty in those eyes, hope, a little bit of fear, a lot of intelligence and worry. He knew those emotions, that mix. He knew what was needed when they came together like that, and now a very smart woman’s voice was in his head.

  “When you’re being really tough and strict with me…that’s when I feel safest.”

  “Enough of this, little girl,” he said, in the most uncompromising Master’s voice he’d ever used. It had a different note to it, but the underlying no-nonsense, I am going to take care of you, no arguments tone was there. “You have to trust me. We're going to get you somewhere better than this.”

  He took a step forward, then another, and extended an arm out to her, palm up, fingers splayed wide. He waited with bated breath to see if she would figure it out, if it would work so he could give Ruby and Ramona some help. When Bonnie dipped her head further, he thought he might have to go with Plan B, which was making an awkward jump to her head and grabbing one of her horns, which likely wouldn’t go over as well. But then, slowly, she lifted her clawed hand. Emulating his gesture, she extended one questing claw, all six of her talons opening to reveal a creased, leathery palm.

  “Smartest kid in the whole damn class,” he said.

  He tried not to think of Matt and Savannah’s toddler, Angelica. Specifically, the way her fist closed around a toy, right before she shook it until its innards rattled. He stepped onto the broad palm, wrapping his hands around one of the curved talons to steady himself. It was the color of rough ivory.

  He was lifted off Ruby’s bed of air, and up closer to Bonnie’s face, way above the water and the buildings.

  The snap of retreating energy that hit his back heel as he took that step told him just how close Ruby had been to the limits of her strength, holding him and the wall at the same time. He risked a glance and saw the reassuring sight of her making an impatient swipe at her bloody nose before she threw her focus behind Ramona’s, toward the wall of water the two women were holding off the docks.

  She called out guttural words, made a sharp movement forward. Ramona advanced with her. However, Ben noticed that Bonnie’s attention had also been caught by what they were doing. With a tilt of her head and wide eyes, she studied the water they were holding back.

  “Oh, hell. Maybe not the best—”

  She leaned forward, her head breaking through the wall of water, horns dripping as she blinked down at the two women. Her other claw lifted, cut through the flow. At first Ben’s gut tightened, thinking she was reaching for one of them, but she just moved that talon back and forth, like a person checking out the flow from a spigot.

  Despite everything else, he couldn’t help the warmth that spread through him. Damn. Curiosity. They’d distracted her from her pain, like using a shiny bauble to draw a crying kid’s attention.

  Ramona beamed up at Bonnie with all the warmth of a sun. She included Ben in that, her gaze sliding over him, standing so comfortably in the grasp of their sea monster, leaning against the fence of her talons, holding onto one for balance.

  Then the chaos witch called out something and Ruby nodded. The two witches channeled the water left and right, coordinating. The water flowed off Bonnie’s talons, the wave dissipating back into the river, until that invisible shield that had held it back could be dissolved as well.

  Ruby caught Ben’s eye, made a gesture. Yeah, they weren’t done. It was time to start the next part, where they’d need the greatest distraction level of all. The cocoon.

  He gripped the taloned finger harder, stroked it, a caress that drew Bonnie’s attention to him again, though reluctantly, since she was still intrigued by what Ruby and Ramona were doing. He wondered if they made ADHD drugs in dosages that would have to be transported in a tanker truck.

  “How much can I love you?” Ben continued. “Enough to take you to a fast food restaurant when you want to eat pre-packaged food. My love is wider and longer than this river. Than your memory, or mine, or the memory of everyone who’s ever lived.”

  A rainbow of thread drifted over Bonnie’s head. At least that was what it looked like. He could imagine Ramona casting it from one side, Ruby reeling it in from the other, then he saw more strands drifting over Bonnie. The blanket analogy hadn’t been as far off base as he’d initially thought. Those strands were being woven above, below and beside the gigantic creature, as they slowly brought it down, like a blanket over a baby in her crib.

  He saw Ruby make another gesture toward him and interpreted it easily enough. He needed to start moving back, out of range, so he wasn’t caught in the same net. He was pretty sure that meant she’d re-cast his platform so he wouldn’t back off into space and smack down into the water about two hundred feet below, but there was only way to find out.

  Even so, he was reluctant to leave Bonnie, no matter that they were doing everything possible to keep her safe. But he began to retreat, moving between the claws, Fortunately, he discovered the salt spray from the water sluicing off Bonnie had left a kind of fuzzy limning on the re-cast platform, showing him the outline.

  But the second he stepped onto it, Bonnie’s demeanor changed. Her back straightened, the giant head came up on the thick stalk of her neck, and the teeth bared. Ben dropped to his stomach as she tossed her head around, nearly whacking him off into the water like a T-ball. She wasn’t attacking him. She was snapping at the tendrils of energy.

  Ramona shouted something to Ruby and the threads lifted high in the air, like a magic carpet fluttering on the wind, taking it a safe distance away. The force and speed at which they did it knocked Ruby back as if she’d been picked up and thrown by an explosion, but she knew how to land, too, tucking herself into a ball. Even so, Ben winced as she slammed into the wall of the rooftop entrance to the shopping center.

  Before Ramona could go to her, Ruby was on her feet, obviously cursing a blue streak. She met Ben’s eyes, and mouthed the word he fully expected to hear.

  “Again.”

  They tried twice more, Ruby bringing the platform so close to Bonnie he could put his hand on her, calm her down. They’d bring the colorful blanket near, slowly drawing him back out of range.

  Each time it was the same. Except with each attempt she was starting to get more pissed, so that Ruby and Ramona had to divide their attention between that and the rising water level again.

  The passage of time was bringing back his own frustrations and worry, even though he knew that wasn’t helping things. But since Raina hadn’t shown up to reinforce Ruby and Ramona, that meant the fight with Elagra was still happening or…something he wasn’t going to fucking think a
bout.

  He had to believe the former, which meant that them getting Bonnie out of here was the key to all of it. But the plan as originally formulated wasn’t going to work.

  They needed to—

  Shit.

  He hadn’t ducked fast enough this time. Bonnie, still aggravated by the latest attempt, had shifted unexpectedly. Her shoulder shoved through the energy creating the platform and slammed into Ben. He tumbled off, fell about ten feet and landed against her side. The only thing that kept him from falling further was grabbing onto a protrusion of bone shaped like a shark’s fin.

  Crazily, he remembered the mud creature he’d created, the stick he’d stuck in just that spot. He’d imagined his monster having protrusions of bone like spiked weapons, probably inspired by that bony, round-backed dinosaur whose name he couldn’t begin to remember.

  Bonnie’s head swung around to him, all fifteen eyes lighting on him. For a second, he was face to flaring nostril. Her fang pressed against his flailing feet, giving him a purchase point. Or a starting point for her to draw him into her maw like a spaghetti noodle.

  No, she wasn’t harming him. If he hadn’t lost his mind to false hope, it appeared she’d gone still, specifically to give him a second to steady himself.

  He put his hand beside the nostril, observing his entire head could probably fit in there. It was uncanny, how much she felt like the earth and stick creature he’d made so long ago. It had come to life, just as he’d hoped for it to do. Becoming something he never could have imagined.

  Deep in that dark and hopeless place, he’d created a ray of light, with a spark of child’s imagination and a sliver of hope and perseverance. A belief that something different lay ahead.

  “I have to go with her,” he shouted. The sound didn’t seem to bother her, but again, with her size, he probably sounded like Horton Hears a Who, the little “We are here’s.” When the hell had he read that book? Maybe he’d seen it on TV at some point.

  He managed to look over his shoulder, shout it a couple times until the two witches got the gist of it. Bonnie opened her mouth, wide, and a long, low note came from it. She was tired of this. She was hungry. She was scared. She didn’t want to be here anymore.

  “I know, baby,” he said, stroking her nose, as wide a sweep as he could manage. “Daddy’s going to take care of it, right damn now.”

  Ruby and Ramona were looking at one another, saying something, but there was no time for debate. Two swipes of her tail had swamped the riverfront all the way past the casino. If she kept stomping around, that fault line, ley line, whatever they hell they called it, could set off a full earthquake.

  “Fuck it,” he muttered. “I need to go with her. We’ll figure out the rest. Let me go with her.”

  He pointed upward, in the general direction of the blanket of energy, and made a sharp, insistent movement. Put it over us and let’s get it done.

  The mental struggle he saw between the two women told him his return trip, wherever they were taking her, wasn’t guaranteed, best case scenario. Worst case, they weren’t sure he would survive the trip. Maybe the magic was only configured for her.

  If there was one thing he had learned growing up on the streets, second guessing and “what-if-ing” yourself was the one sure way to die. He powered through on guts and a lot of street smarts, and hoped for the best. Or he didn’t hope at all. He just saw where he wanted to go and how best to get there, and then fired the starting gun. If he’d ever found himself on the other side of the dirt when all was said and done, it would have been what it was. Glory hallelujah and let’s all raise a drink in memory of the daft bastard.

  Ultimately, this choice was him, or a lot of people here getting hurt. Including Bonnie. It was the only choice they had that made any sense.

  Apparently Ruby and Ramona had come to the same conclusion, because he saw Ruby nod, meet his gaze. Then her attention lifted and she and Ramona started chanting.

  “Okay, Bonnie,” he said. “Okay, let’s do this together. Hey.”

  He hoisted himself up another spike, so he could lay both hands on her snout. She tilted her head this way and that, considering him from different angles. He rubbed both his hands around her nostril, then up higher, inching his way up, stroking. Marcie said he had strong hands, hands that always made her feel safe, cherished when he caressed her, stroked her. The first time she’d said it, inside he’d reacted like a school kid, as if he’d received the best compliment anyone had ever received. The thing was, he still felt that way.

  I love you, brat. If this doesn’t work out, well…you know that.

  As he told Bonnie how he’d climb the tallest tree to show her how much she was loved, or jump the widest river, or swim down to the deepest part of the ocean…all the superlatives, he wasn’t talking just to her. And even though they’d just met, it didn’t feel that way. That connection between them was over thirty years old, wasn’t it? Hell, for all he knew, he’d stayed in New Orleans because she’d been sleeping and growing beneath the Mississippi. He’d had plenty of chances to leave, find other streets to scour for marks.

  He’d never admitted it to anyone, but when Jonas Kensington sent him to college up in New England, gave him that law education, Ben had been so antsy to return to NOLA that he came back anytime he could, even if he could only make the long drive for a weekend.

  “You’re fine. We’re okay. Just going on a little trip. Getting away from this place. It’s a little crazy here right now. Be much better where you can spread your wings without knocking everything over.” She hadn’t unfurled them yet, but there they were, tight against her body. He’d love to see her fly.

  “A bull really doesn’t want to be in china shop.”

  Bonnie had quieted and kept blinking at him, so he took that as a good sign. He had both hands on the section of her nose just beneath the eyes. He noted she didn’t blink them all in sync, but seemed to blink in threes.

  He felt the warmth as the blanket descended. The colors, streaming like an aurora, filled the night sky right around them. “Wow,” he breathed. He gestured, drawing her gaze to it. “Look at that. Feel how warm that is.” The blanket settled onto her shoulders and back, started to draw forward. She twitched, glanced at it, but now that it had made contact, Ben knew she had to feel the same infusion of calming energy in it he did. Motherly.

  Every kid gravitated toward that feeling, whether real or feigned—Elagra was proof of that. But even if they never found it outside the womb as a kid, the desire for it stayed there, planted deep. When they felt the real deal as he felt it now, inside them, all around them, it awoke the soul-deep memory anew.

  It was the first kind of love anyone experienced.

  He suspected Ruby’s bond with her infant son helped give the magic that extra wattage. If her love for Jem contained even a tenth of what Ben was feeling from this magic, he knew she didn’t have anything to worry about. That kid would eventually laugh for her, smile for her. Because if Ben had had a mother who loved him like that, he would have gone around with a stupid-assed grin on his face his whole damn life.

  He also felt Ramona’s contribution to it. She was like a whole chaotic mess of motherly, sisterly, nurturing earth energy. If Jon and Rachel had her over for dinner, the concentration of crunchy granola feel-good would sprout a new Garden of Eden around the house.

  He could hear the sound of the water, Bonnie’s breathing, the wind. Other sounds, distant booms, disturbing cries cut short, a rushing sound like gouts of flames. If anyone on the periphery stumbled on a hole in that illusion shielding that Ruby and Derek had put in place, able to see not just the effects of wind and water, but the magic going on, he could only imagine what they’d think about the current scene on the New Orleans waterfront.

  He wanted to find Marcie one last time, see her, but he knew he couldn’t look away, couldn’t chance losing that connection with Bonnie. But it was okay. Marcie had broken open that locked place inside him that he’d built to keep himself
safe from Elagra and a bunch of other nightmares. Marcie knew everything that was there and still knew she could need him, rely on him. He was her Master, would always be her Master. She also knew he needed her in a way so desperate and deep, no way he wouldn’t find her again, no matter how far he was taken from her side.

  “Let’s do this,” he told Bonnie, as the waterfront disappeared and the world became just a rainbow of colors around them. They were rising, as if they were in a hot air balloon. He shifted to sit on a protrusion of horn, gripping the one just above it with both hands. He patted her side as she made a questioning croon. “Yeah, we’re okay. Just a roller coaster ride, little girl. You’re going to love it, I promise. At the end of this rainbow ride, there’s a much better world. All for you.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  As Marcie well knew from her police training, when her life was on the line, she wasn’t supposed to mess around with trying to shoot someone in the leg, a much more difficult and unpredictable outcome that could get innocent bystanders killed. She was trained to go for center mass, the kill shot.

  She suspected that was what Raina had done. In a nuclear explosion kind of way, not having the handy and neater use of a firearm.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she’d seen Raina reach the opposite end of the warehouse, brace herself, shout the command to Marcie. Right after she’d let loose whatever she was hurling this way.

  It all happened in a matter of seconds. The spell struck Elagra, caught the magic she’d been trying to toss at Marcie, and locked up with it. Marcie could see the two forces pitted against one another, but in the end, Raina’s was stronger.

  Elagra shimmered. Marcie had a weird thought about holograms and wondered if Elagra was really there. But she was. Her existence wavered, and then it was as if it started to come apart. A brief indrawn breath where her eyes went wide, almost like a frightened child’s, her breath choking in her throat. Her hand reached out, helpless, flailing. Marcie, instinctively reacting to anything in distress, almost reached for it.