Gypsy Witch

by David Delaney

  "A spell for school?" Lucy scoffed.

  Jimmy was trapped. Lucy was going to say it; she was going to out him. He slipped his hand into the pocket where Officer Melendez's gun sat heavy against his thigh. His fingers stroked the cold metal.

  Lucy continued in her mocking tone. "Why would every chick on campus go bat-shit crazy over a spell for school? No, our dear friend Jimmy bought a love spell. And, unfortunately for the rest of us, he actually found somebody with the ability to pull it off."

  It felt like Jimmy's head would explode. He almost pulled the gun out; it would be so easy – a bullet for Lucy, a bullet for Maddie, and a final bullet for himself. But Jimmy didn't want to die, and he understood with perfect clarity that his only chance for survival was Lucy.

  Jimmy had to content himself with a whispered, "Bitch."

  "A love spell?" said Maddie. "You tried to . . . fool women into liking you? That's gross."

  "It's not like that—" Jimmy had to try to make Maddie understand.

  "Really?" Maddie said, hands on hips. "What's it like then?"

  "Uh, this is all entertaining and all, but we seriously need to leave," said Lucy.

  "I just wanted . . . I thought . . . I'm a sophomore and . . . they told me it was safe and that . . ." Jimmy was jabbering. His brain was stuck in a loop. "It wasn't supposed to affect everybody—"

  "No?" said Maddie. "Who was it supposed to . . ."

  Jimmy could see the realization dawn on Maddie's face.

  "That's why you showed up at the dance tonight, isn't it?" asked Maddie. "Your . . . love spell," Maddie sneered. "It went wrong, and you showed up, to . . . what? Why did you come here tonight?"

  "I just wanted to make sure you were safe. Dahlia and Tinkerbelle—"

  "You wanted to make sure I was safe?" Maddie said, clearly not believing a word Jimmy had uttered. "You tried to mind control me, you sick bastard!"

  A glass shattering crash from the front of the building got everyone's attention.

  "We are out of time! Follow me!" Lucy commanded.

  Maddie followed after Lucy without even a second look back at Jimmy. After a moment, with no other option, Jimmy followed after both of them. Lucy led them deeper into the building.

  "Any idea where another exit might be?" Lucy asked Maddie.

  "Down this hall and to the left."

  At the exit, Lucy went out first to see if it was clear. Jimmy and Maddie watched her through the glass.

  Jimmy snuck a look at Maddie with his peripheral vision. "It wasn't supposed to be like mind control," Jimmy began.

  "No? Just a little psychotic obsession, is that all?" Maddie snapped back.

  "I just wanted to have coffee—"

  "Did ever think of asking me, like a normal person?"

  "Like you would have said yes," Jimmy said dismissively.

  "I was nice to you Jimmy, I treated you like a person—"

  "Sure, just not a person worthy enough to have coffee with."

  "You do not get to make this about me," said Maddie. "This whole twisted thing is on you. And I guess we'll never know what I would have said if you'd asked me—"

  "Please," Jimmy interrupted. "You're just like all the rest of them . . . I would never be considered more than a friend by you or anyone. You'll never know how soul crushing it is . . . so I tried a solution outside the box—"

  "Outside the box?" She stared at Jimmy with pity. "People have been hurt Jimmy, maybe even killed. Do you not understand that?"

  "It's not my fault!" Jimmy screamed liked a madman.

  Maddie took a step back, fear in her eyes.

  The door in front of them rattled. They looked up. Lucy had tossed another kinetic spell to get their attention. She was waving for them to join her, which they quickly did.

  "I think if we run, fast, we can get around this building. You guys will be able to get off campus. The minute you do, you need to find a working phone and call this number." Lucy handed Maddie a card. "And, needless to say, you need to avoid people," Lucy eyed Jimmy, "because you'll just cause more trouble if you're spotted."

  "There he is!" a voice screamed.

  "Crap," said Lucy.

  A small group of cos-players were running toward them. Jimmy watched, intrigued, as Lucy sheathed her daggers in what looked like a custom rig strapped to her back underneath her jacket.

  Lucy pointed her hands at the oncoming women.

  "You're not going to hurt them, are you?" asked Maddie.

  "No," Lucy assured her. "That's what's making this hard. I'm doing my best to minimize injuries."

  Jimmy observed closely. Lucy didn't say any magic words, and nothing shot out of her hands, but the women were hit with a blast of air. Jimmy could see their hair and costumes blowing in what seemed to be a super strong wind. The women grabbed at one another, trying to stay on their feet, but that just sped along the inevitable. The group fell to the ground in a pile of arms and legs.

  "Jimmy, step away from the whore. I don't want to hurt you, sweetie," a calm voice called out.

  Tinkerbelle stepped through the door of the building they had just vacated. She looked horrible. Her shirt was in tatters, barely clinging to her chest. Her leggings weren't much better, with long tears in multiple spots, and she was bleeding freely from several cuts and scrapes. Her eyes were still solid black, and it looked like the skin around her hairline was starting to change.

  Scales.

  Tinkerbelle's pretty olive skin was slowly transforming into what looked like iguana skin.

  Lucy swiftly shifted her focus from the women to Tinkerbelle. "Get behind me," she ordered Jimmy and Maddie.

  "I thought you took care of her?" Jimmy squeaked.

  "I slowed her down, but she was using the bewitched women as human shields. There was only so much I could do," said Lucy.

  "Yes, your feelings for the cattle is how I will defeat you," Tinkerbelle said, shooting a jet a green flame at the group of women Lucy had dropped with her wind spell. The effect was immediate. The green fire splashed like liquid over the women and set them all on fire.

  "No!" Maddie screamed.

  The women writhed in agony; their mouths open in silent screams. Jimmy was once again both horrified and fascinated by the power of the magic. The green flames slithered around the women, like coiling snakes. He was pretty certain that they couldn't make any noise because the green flames would rush into their open mouths every time they opened them to scream.

  Lucy ran toward the women, hands out in front of her. Jimmy didn't know what she could possibly do to save them. Tinkerbelle bellowed in triumph and sent a spell directly at Lucy.

  It must have been one of the kinetic kinds of spells, because when it hit, Lucy simply exploded. There was no blood. No little bits of Lucy floated through the air. No scorch marks marred the ground. Lucy was just gone.

  Jimmy turned to Tinkerbelle, sure that he was about to personally learn what happened when you pissed off a witch.

  Tinkerbelle was staring at the spot where Lucy disappeared, a deep frown on her face. "That doesn't seem right . . ." she said.

  Tinkerbelle's eyes went wide in surprise when Lucy's twin blades erupted from her chest. Lucy stood behind the taller woman, and Jimmy thought she was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen. She was fury and justice personified. Lucy twisted the blades, braced a foot against Tinkerbelle's butt, and yanked the blades free with a grunt.

  Tinkerbelle reached a hand out longingly toward Jimmy. And then she fell over dead.

  The green flames winked out the second Tinkerbelle's heart stopped beating, but they had done their damage. Some of the women were still alive, and now that the flames had been snuffed out, they started wailing in pain.

  Jimmy didn't want to get any closer to the dying women. From where he stood, he could see exposed muscle and bone. It looked like the fire had dissolved more than it had burned. The air was full of acrid smoke that had an undercurrent of sweet fragrance.

  Jimmy gagg
ed.

  Maddie pushed past Jimmy and ran, sobbing, to the smoking pile of bodies.

  "Maddie, you can't help them." Jimmy called after her. "Let Lucy put them out of their misery."

  But Maddie wasn't listening.

  Maddie was glowing.

  Jimmy rubbed his eyes, to make sure he was seeing clearly.

  Yes, Maddie was actually glowing.

  He looked over at Lucy to make sure she wasn't casting some kind of spell.

  Nope.

  Lucy stood motionless, transfixed by what was occurring before them.

  As the glow around Maddie increased, she spread her arms wide. It looked to Jimmy like she was pulling some sort of invisible energy directly from the air. The women before Maddie had stopped screaming, and Jimmy had to squint through the brightness of the glow to see what was happening. The women were being healed! Where there had been red, oozing muscle, there was now fresh unblemished skin.

  Maddie was healing them all.

  Maddie could do magic.

  It didn't take long, maybe a minute, and all the women were whole and perfect and alive again.

  "She isn't a mage," Lucy said in wonder. "She's a healer."

  The glow winked out. Maddie let out a sigh and collapsed.

  CHAPTER 18

  In my human form, the trolls were able to inflict rapid damage, their teeth and claws ripping through my softer man flesh.

  I heard Elyse cry out, worried.

  The trolls probably thought, as much as trolls could think, that they had the advantage and that I would quickly succumb to their savage onslaught.

  They were wrong.

  I am Ollphiest.

  And even though they hurt like hell, the wounds they were inflicting were far from fatal. Plus, Elyse was here, so I didn't have time to play with the trolls anymore. I had serious girlfriend reunion business to get to.

  I shifted into beast-form, and after implementing some MMA wrestling moves I had picked up from too much late night TV, I was able worm my way off my back and pin both trolls to the ground. I had their heads mashed to the ground, one under each hand.

  I heard a chuff, and I risked a quick glance up. Elyse had shifted back to her panther form, obviously ready to assist. I growled and shook my scary bear-man head. I twisted my hands, making sure my claws ripped open gashes along the heads of the trolls. One of them howled when it lost an eye to the claw of my pinky-finger. Hands repositioned, I grabbed the trolls by their thick, sinewy necks and stood up, raising them out in front of me, one in each hand.

  I roared triumphantly in their faces.

  Stupid Orson.

  I realized a second too late that I had probably just blown out Elyse's eardrums. I looked over to check on her, worried that I had dazed her with my sonic-shriek. Elyse was back in human form, a finger firmly placed in each ear. She winked at me and gave me a thumbs up.

  I chuffed.

  "Hey, dork, are you going to play with your new friends all night?" Elyse asked. "Because I'm pretty sure another one of those hell sphincters opened up over that way." She gestured behind me.

  The trolls were struggling in vain against my iron grip. Their legs scrabbled at the air in front of them, trying to reach my body. I growled at them one more time and then began to bash them together, like a crazy guy playing the cymbals in a monster orchestra. The trolls shrieked and yelped in pain, but I didn't stop bashing until their bones had turned to mush and they were dead. I tossed their limp corpses to the side and turned to the woman who had me, heart and soul.

  Elyse pointed to the fragmented portal over my shoulder. "Why don't you finish closing that before anything else jumps out at us?"

  It took me less than a minute to shred the last of the magic fibers holding the portal open.

  "And now, I think, that way," said Elyse, pointing.

  She was correct. There was another portal open and it was close by. Could she sense them also?

  I took a step in her direction.

  "I think we need to take care of that first," she said.

  I ignored her, stalking toward her, chuffing my displeasure.

  Elyse backed up out of my reach, shaking a finger at me. "Work before pleasure Mr. Reid," she said, laughing.

  I growled when she shifted, turned, and ran into the night. I shifted into bear-form, and loped after her. Running at top shifter speed, we located the last portal quickly. It was in a quad area surrounded by buildings, close to the dead center of campus, and for some reason there was a ton more imps around this particular portal. The imps weren't hopping and skipping around though. Instead, they were swaying before the portal in complete silence.

  Something was wrong.

  I slowed and chuffed at Elyse. She skidded to a stop, her large panther eyes looked at me quizzically. Something had my Ollphiest hackles up.

  The imps scattered from their strange formation, and a huge flying lizard-man – seriously, it had big leathery bat-wings – flew out from the portal.

  The thing was human-shaped – except for the wings of course – it had the requisite two arms and two legs, but it was covered head to toe in scales that looked tough as plate armor, and last but certainly not least, it had a long-ass barbed tail. The magic spectrum was telling me the thing was a blood mage. It had the telltale red-and-black greasy aura, but the transformation into a flying-hell-demon was so complete that I was having some serious doubts.

  Elyse gave a low hiss. It seemed that this kind of creature was new to her as well.

  I tracked the thing as it soared over our heads. It had amazing speed and even better agility. It made one more sweeping turn over the quad and then landed a few yards away from us, screaming defiantly. The gamer in me instantly categorized the fiend standing before me – it was the final boss, the man behind the curtain, the one responsible for the portals, the imps, and the trolls.

  Well, there was no reason to waste time. I tensed, preparing to leap. Then the thing spoke.

  "Ah, the shifter has found a playmate. How nice."

  Its voice was like gravel in a blender, and each word ended in a sort of hiss, but it was speaking English, so I had no problem understanding it. My beast-form didn't come with a handy-dandy voice option, and so I couldn't respond with a cool, snappy, sarcastic remark. Instead, I whipped my hand out to the side and snagged an imp that had gotten a little too close and slowly squished it in my claw, never dropping my eyes from the winged a-hole.

  It laughed.

  "Such bravado," it said, mockingly. "We'll see how long that lasts when I tear your cat friend in half."

  I leapt.

  I was going to gouge its black mocking eyes from its skull.

  One beat of its wings and it sailed backward, landing lightly just out of reach.

  "Tsk, tsk, such anger," it said.

  Okay, so the wings gave it amazing dodge ability. I was going to need a different plan than just tackle and shred. Behind me, the imps started screeching in pain. Elyse had made the right play and was ripping them apart. No imps, and the portal would become unstable, making it much easier to close, thereby trapping the flying iguana here with us. I couldn't use my sonic-shriek to stun the thing, because that would also affect Elyse. I made a mental note to look into panther sized earplugs, or maybe something a bit more magical, to help protect Elyse and other allies when they were fighting by my side. Not being able to use my full abilities was a handicap I didn't want to repeat.

  The blood mage wasn't happy that his imp minions were dropping like flies. Using his wings to spring up and over my head, he flipped in the air and sent a massive kinetic spell at Elyse. Luckily, his flamboyant, showboat move alerted Elyse and she sprinted for safety. She almost made it, but the spell caught her back legs and sent her tumbling across the grass with a grunt of pain. The blood mage immediately sailed higher into the air, laughing.

  I roared, hoping that Elyse's distance would minimize the stun effect. The blood mage went rigid, his wings collapsed against his back, and he
dropped like a stone. He was able to use a spell to stop his fall right before taking a header into the ground.

  The blood mage wasn't laughing anymore. He was suddenly all business. He jumped to his nasty demon feet, waving his hands at his head. I saw a flare of energy in the magic spectrum, but no visible spell manifested.

  Huh?

  Oh well.

  I sprinted, full speed, toward the blood mage. I roared again, hoping to drop the barb-tailed freak.

  And nothing happened.

  The blood mage laughed again. It was really starting to piss me off. I realized he must have spelled his ears with a protective ward. I was surprised something that simple had worked against me. One more thing I would need to follow up on if and when tonight ever ended.

  There are two things faster than me running at shifter speed – light and magic. Two fireballs blazed to life in the clawed hands of the monster I was rushing toward. The blood mage flicked them at me and the fireballs zoomed straight for my head.

  I didn't slow down. I tucked my head and ran through them. The fire rippled around my body and then harmlessly fizzled out. I wouldn't have thought that the blood mage's ugly lizard face could show emotion, but I was delighted to see a look of shock pass over its nasty, scaly mug.

  That's right, you bastard. Your magic doesn't work on me.

  The blood mage pushed off the ground, wings beating frantically. It was moving fast and would once again be out of my reach within seconds. I channeled my inner LeBron James and launched myself into the air. The blood mage's feet had been transformed, just like the rest of its body, and not only did each toe end in a wicked looking a talon, but a sixth talon hooked out of its heel. This heel talon proved to be the blood mage's undoing. I got my thumb and two fingers around the tip of this hard, pointy protrusion, and that was all I needed. I locked my fingers around the talon in a death grip and dragged the flying monster down toward me.

  The blood mage put up a fight, its leathery wings straining against my extra weight. The two of us sort of hovered there in the air, a nightmare vision come to life. I performed a three-finger pull-up and swung my other hand up, sinking the claws into the blood mage's calf.