Aimless Witch

by Shannon Mayer

  A sound of a foot in the grass turned my face to the left. Tristan stood there, a grimace on his face. “Why is she in on that decision? I’m your second, aren’t I?”

  Richard looked at Tristan, fatigue washing over his features. “Not anymore, you aren’t. Pamela is.”

  Tristan snorted. “I thought you’d say that. She’s going to take this caravan over, with that tiger of hers. You need to put a leash on them both now. Or better yet, get rid of her.”

  “Hey,” Oka grumbled, “what about that tiger of hers?”

  I put a hand on her back. This was not my fight. This was for Richard to deal with.

  “Tristan,” Richard didn’t even bother to stand, “we would have died three times over without all of their help. How is it that you can’t see the truth? She is not our enemy.”

  “She is!” he snapped, and there was a glimmer in his eyes I didn’t like. Like a flicker of blue-green flames. I did not have the magic or the energy to delve him, but . . .

  “I think he’s been spelled,” I said.

  Whoever that witch was, she had some serious pull if she could snag one of our humans at a distance. I wanted to groan at the thought of using my magic, but there was obviously going to be no choice. Which was the point of this . . . holy shit, that was the point of all this.

  The witch was forcing me to drain my own abilities. Well, fuck that shit.

  “She needs to die.” Tristan pulled a handgun from the back of his belt and pointed it at me.

  I lifted an eyebrow, doing my best to stay calm as Oka let out a series of long low growls. “And you expect me to believe there is ammo in there?”

  He cocked the hammer. “You want to take the chance?”

  A shadow moved behind Tristan and an arm snaked around his neck so fast that I was not sure he even realized what happened. He was standing one minute and out cold the next, the gun in his limp hand.

  Mac lowered him to the ground and scooped up the gun, opening the chamber. “Two bullets.”

  Richard and Mac flipped Tristan over and had him tied up in a matter of seconds. “It’s not his fault,” I said.

  “How could he be spelled? Wouldn’t the witch have to touch him?” Oka asked.

  I waited until Mac drew closer. Another time the memory of our kiss would have made me squirm, but we were back to surviving. Something I was very good at.

  “The witch, whoever she is, is targeting us not to kill us, but to force me to drain myself,” I said. “I’m certain. She had to know that Tristan could get close to me and injure or possibly even kill me. Even with a familiar at my side.” Oka and Mac were silent as they looked at me, but I could feel the agreement flowing from both.

  “She’s driving us,” Mac said softly. He drew some lines in the dirt at our feet. Richard joined us. Mac pointed at a few places. “We’re being pushed south. If we move quick enough, we might be able to put the distance between us and her that we need. More than that, we need to buy you time to recuperate.” His eyes lifted to mine and I nodded.

  “How can we move faster?” Richard said. “With so many on foot, it’s hard to go more than a few miles an hour.”

  “Everyone climbed in when the fire was on you,” Mac pointed out.

  “Desperation,” Richard said.

  I stared at the lines Mac had drawn, my mind ticking over the possibilities.

  “We organize better, so we can move faster.”

  “What do you mean?” Richard asked.

  “I mean, people shouldn’t be out walking behind the trucks. Reorganize the supplies, and fit people in the two truck beds. Arm them as best we can and have one on the hood of the cab to scout ahead.”

  Richard shook his head. “The trucks can’t handle the extra weight of everyone for an extended period. We’re already running low on fuel, worse after that run from the fire. I didn’t think the trucks would make it more than ten miles.”

  I looked at Oka and then Mac. They were shaking their heads, but what choice did I have? “You know what, let me take a look at the trucks.”

  “In the morning. After a good sleep,” Oka said.

  “And a full breakfast,” Mac added.

  Two, I had two babysitters now. I smiled. “Exactly what I was going to say.”

  Richard smiled, scratching at his beard. “Sage was never able to get the mix quite right, to keep the trucks working efficiently. Not like Wilma did. She said it was tricky.”

  “I’ve done it before,” I said. “Back in the beginning.” I didn’t want to tell him I was one of the first to figure out that mixing magic with the remaining fuel made it last longer. Look at me—saving the caravan and the environment one tank at a time.

  Of course, that would mean using the magic that did whatever the fuck it wanted. I sighed. For all I knew, I would end up blowing the tanks. But they were right, I would deal with it in the morning.

  “It would be nice to have someone scouting ahead of us,” Mac said.

  I turned my face to him. “Yeah, but how do we do that?”

  He smiled and winked at me. “I have a couple bikes just south of here. We can use those. I can get them in the morning.”

  “That seems convenient,” I said. “I mean, you just happen to have some bikes?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve learned to stash things around my territory at intervals. Even if I don’t have much fuel for them. If we were farther to the north, I’ve got an ATV stashed.” He shrugged. “I like to have options.”

  “After breakfast, then,” I said.

  Oka snickered. “Yeah, after breakfast, bear.”

  He leaned down and tweaked her one ear between two fingers and she took a swing at him. Playing, they were playing. I shook my head and stood, lifting Oka to my shoulder. “I’ll fill up the trucks first. In the morning, I’ll go with Mac to get his bikes.”

  Richard’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. One, for the two of you to be out on your own when you think you are being targeted.” Damn, he had good hearing. “And two, it leaves the caravan completely unprotected.”

  Double damn. I was so tired I wasn’t thinking straight. “Good points. Change of plans then. Mac, will you take one of the other men with you to get the bikes?”

  Mac nodded. “Sure. Thing is, they need fuel. They’ll have to be walked back here. And I’m afraid it’s a bit of a hike, easily three hours at a walk.”

  I sighed. “Of course it is.”

  I thought for a moment. What we needed was another shifter like Mac who could move faster and not run out of energy.

  He picked up on my thoughts. “There is a pack of shifters not far from here. Last time I came through, anyway. A hodgepodge mix. Want me to see if I can find them?”

  “Are they safe?”

  He shrugged. “Safe as any shifters. But if you mean will they come and attack the caravan? No. They aren’t that kind. They stick to their own.”

  “Okay. Yes, do that. How far is it?”

  “Maybe three hours for me to run and find one of the shifters. Less than an hour on the return trip with the bikes. If I carry a jerry can, that will be enough to get us back to the caravan.” The glint in his eyes told me he was looking forward to the rush of being back on a bike. Or maybe I was picking up on it from our bond.

  The plan probably had holes in it. I just couldn’t see them. “Oka, what do you think?”

  “That we don’t have a lot of choice. Whatever the storm is, it’s coming faster now. I feel like . . . this is the final quiet before it crashes over us.”

  “Agreed,” I said softly. “Mac, I’ll get you that fuel, and you leave now. The sooner you’re back, the better.”

  “What’s the rush, Pamela?” Richard asked.

  I debated telling him the truth and then just spit it out. He needed to know.

  “Wilma told Sage a storm was coming. I have been shown similar things the last few days. Until the storm breaks, we won’t know what we’re facing, not really,” I said. Richard’s fa
ce was a mask, his emotions covered in part by that big beard of his. “The sooner we get the caravan to the Haven, the better.”

  Richard stood. “I don’t disagree with going faster. The sooner we get to the Haven, the sooner we can enjoy some peace.”

  Assuming the Haven was a real place, assuming it was within reach at all. But I kept that thought to myself.

  Mac and Oka picked up on my thoughts, though. How could they not?

  Richard frowned as if he heard my unspoken words anyway. “Get some rest tonight. You need it.” He turned and went to the Humvee, sitting in the front seat and leaning back. Chris’s hand snaked up and landed on his shoulder.

  At least they had each other.

  “The fuel, are you sure you want to do that tonight?” Oka asked. “After how the magic behaved earlier, I’m wondering if you should.”

  Mac walked with us as we headed to the back of the truck that carried the jerry cans. “If we get hit suddenly, I’ll be too busy defending and wrestling with it to be able to fuel the trucks, and if we stop moving, we’ll all die.”

  Mac nodded and pulled the cans down for me. He cracked one and gave it a sniff. “Yeah, that other witch was off in her ratios. It smells like rotting cheese.”

  The alcohol/magic mix wasn’t hard really. Even an amateur witch could’ve done it.

  “Here we go,” I whispered to myself as I brought the magic up to my fingertips. Just a little, I didn’t need a lot for this, but even so it bucked against me. With teeth gritted and sweat already pouring down the sides of my face, I started.

  Using the fuel already in the cans, I stripped the magic within and replaced it with my own.

  It took me about three seconds to get the mix right, swirling the magic in, sniffing it every twenty seconds to make sure it held. Tangy, yes, rotten cheese, no.

  Mac took the full can and fueled up the first truck. We repeated the process three more times, fueling the trucks, and me taking a break in between.

  Even so, I was covered in that tangy smell by the end as it stuck to my glistening skin. I’d never be free of it now that I was responsible for keeping the trucks running.

  Fear laced my heart, though. This was good, but by far the hardest I’d ever had to work for such a small amount of magic. My whole life, my magic had come to me with ease, like second nature. This was like pulling teeth with slippery pliers.

  If I hadn’t been broken by my lack of magic before, having to fight for this little bit was curing me of any pride I might have had left.

  “You stink,” Oka said.

  Mac leaned in and kissed me on the cheek as he scooped up the last jerry can. “I kind of like it.”

  Oka’s shock couldn’t have been more like a bolt of lightning. Of course, she didn’t know that Mac had kissed me earlier.

  He shifted into his bear form and picked up the jerry can by its handle. There were no more goodbyes as he took off at a run, his bright white fur marking him even at a distance.

  “He kissed you?” Oka yelled at me. “How could you not tell me? I thought you were waiting for Alex?”

  I covered my eyes with one hand. “He caught me off guard. And . . . maybe Alex isn’t coming for me. Maybe he’s . . . gone. Back to Rylee. Or . . .” I cleared my throat. “I like Mac. I think he’s a good match for me. For both of us.”

  “I like him too,” Oka said. “I just don’t want you to get hurt is all.”

  “Me either.” We walked back to the tent I’d woken in. The rest of the camp was sleeping except for three sentries. Richard was upping his game, and that was good.

  I tossed back the cover on the tent and flopped down on the half-filled air mattress. Even that felt like sleeping on a cloud compared to the hard ground.

  Oka hopped up behind me and quickly burrowed under the sleeping bag.

  We’d gone south a bit, and it didn’t feel like there was quite the bite in the air that there was before. But, that could also be because we were sheltered more than I had been in years. I was so used to sleeping under the stars, this protection felt foreign to me. I snuggled down into the sleeping bag, not bothering to get undressed. Everything was already dirty, with the exception of my boots.

  As I settled in, listening to Oka’s steady breathing, sleep came for me hard, fast and restless. Through all my dreams, I ran from something, fear driving me.

  A scaly hand swiped at me constantly, and I barely managed to stay out of reach of the claw tips. Flames cornered me, and there was nothing I could do to escape as they ate at my clothes and hair. Wolves snapped at my feet, snatching at my limbs every time their jaws slammed shut.

  The zombies were the worst. They claimed me just before sunrise. The worst, because the zombie that came for me was Macey, and she was relentless.

  “You let me diiiiiiiiiiiieeeee,” she moaned. “My death is your fault.”

  She dogged me for days in that dream. I cut off her arms and legs, sobbing as I did so, and they’d regrow. I just couldn’t bring myself to behead her again. I begged her to return to her body, for her soul to come back. But she wouldn’t listen. Her desire to kill me was too overwhelming.

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’m not strong enough to save you!” I fell to my knees in front of her sobbing. “I’m so sorry, Macey.”

  There was the crux of it. I wasn’t strong enough. And whoever the witch was who chased the caravan, she wanted the kids and she knew I couldn’t stop her.

  Macey swayed in front of me and then slowly she transformed, covered in shimmering green scales, that I thought I knew, but was sure I’d never seen before.

  I blinked at her, and she laughed as long red hair fluttered behind her.

  I startled awake but could still hear the laugh echoing in the back of my mind, and it sent goose bumps running up my arms, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

  “What?” Oka came to attention as suddenly as I did.

  “I don’t know. But I think we have to move,” I said.

  Oka nodded. “Well, then let’s go.”

  I rolled up the sleeping bag and deflated the air mattress, rolling that into a tight bundle. The sun was rising in the east as I folded the tent down as small as I could make it and jammed it into the little pouch that was staked near the flap of the tent.

  I drew a slow breath and reached for my connection to Mac. I realized now that was some of my restlessness the night before.

  I was worried about him.

  “Nice to know you care,” Mac said as he leaned against one of the trucks. Two bikes stood beside him.

  I looked around. “The shifter you borrowed?”

  “Hawk. He’s taken off already.” Mac frowned and through our bond I picked up a thread of unease.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Something with the pack is off . . . they are different than the last time I dealt with them.” He ran a hand through his bangs, knocking them out of his eyes. “It’s probably nothing.”

  Richard waved us over to the main fire before we could continue the conversation. The entire caravan was there, eating breakfast. My stomach rumbled, and I followed the smell of meat and warm fresh bread, a bloody delicacy at this point. I slid in and grabbed two plates, filled them and handed one to Mac without a word. The other I held up so Oka could take a mouthful of the still-hot rabbit.

  Richard lifted a hand. “We are going to move today. Pamela has filled the fuel tanks. There will be no walking.” He quickly divided up the trucks and what went where. The three kids, Richard, Chris, and the nurse Nathanda would ride in the Humvee. The supplies would all be moved to the slowest of the three vehicles and would have Tristan tied up in the back with a guard and a single driver. The remaining members of the caravan would ride in the final truck.

  “Mac, Oka, and I will ride in the back with Tristan,” I said suddenly. I wanted to see if I could get any information out of him about the witch who chased us. Who chased me.

  Richard nodded. “Let’s move, people.”

&
nbsp; The humans scattered, hurrying to their tents. I filled my plate a second time, ignoring the looks I got from a couple of the men. The food went down fast, and I followed it with a cup of cold water.

  “You okay, Pam?” Mac asked. I didn’t have a great answer for that question.

  “Yeah, just . . . jittery,” I said.

  “It will be okay. The pack said if we stayed east, the road smooths out, no dead ground, nothing too ugly for a hundred miles.”

  That sounded almost too good to be true. “They don’t mind us going through their territory?”

  He shook his head. “No, I spoke with the Alpha. She said it was fine.”

  Oh, how those words would come to haunt us.

  Chapter Twenty

  It took less than an hour to pack the caravan, and even with that short time, I was sure we were going to get hit hard with something else. What would it be this time? More zombies? The werewolves again? I cringed thinking of the options this world could offer in terms of terror.

  We put the second bike into the back of one of the trucks. No point using it until we had to; wasting fuel was not something we needed.

  There were nineteen in the caravan, and if we wanted to keep that number high, we had to get moving.

  For the most part, everyone smiled at me as they passed, and a few even clapped me on the back, or reached out to shake my hand. They wanted me here. They even shook hands with Mac. They wanted us both. Now that Tristan was bound, all the hate talk about supernaturals had died down.

  Richard checked the suspension on the truck with the majority of the people where the second bike was. “We need to space this out more. Let’s pull the bike down and get someone else to ride it.”

  “Pamela will,” Mac said. A smile pulled at the corner of his mouth and he tipped his head in my direction.

  Oka spluttered. “I’m sorry, I must’ve misunderstood you. Did you just say we were riding the second bike?”

  Mac grinned at her. “I did. It’ll be fun. You’ll see.”

  “No, I most certainly will not see. We’re not riding one of those death traps,” she insisted. The pickups fired up, and as the drivers gave them a bit of gas, waking them up, they were louder than normal, as if they had more energy than all of us combined. At least I knew the mixture was good.