Mark of Cain (Immortal Mercenary Book 1)

by Conner Kressley

  “You bitches!” Clint roared and started toward them.

  The rest of his pack moved along with him, also moving in tandem, also connected to each other.

  Clint’s pack had a lot to be angry about. The mental bond between an Alpha and his pack was a sacred thing in wolf culture. Trifling with it was an embarrassment no Alpha would ever take lying down.

  What we were about to see was an epic battle royal; a witch coven and a werewolf pack tearing at each other until only pieces of the strongest survived.

  Where was pay per view when you needed it?

  I stepped backward and grabbed Merry’s hand.

  She had just been dealt a horrible blow herself. Patrick, the one hope she had to save her daughter in this sea of darkness was gone, taking his very usable kidney with him.

  All the hurt, all the lies, all the manipulations, they had all been for nothing. And Merry was starting to feel the effects of that.

  Still, I couldn’t let her wallow in that. Not yet. I knew a thing or two about failing, about feeling less than worthy of the people who surround you.

  And I knew about losing yourself off the deep cliff of despair.

  I had lived through that more times than any person should be expected to, and I had come out the other side.

  I’d make sure Merry came out the other side too. But first, I had to make sure she stayed alive long enough to do it.

  “We’re going,” I said, and pulled her off before she could contest it.

  Andy was right behind me. I could hear his huffs and wheezing as he tried to keep up.

  “I told you cigarettes would be the death of you,” I said, cutting my eyes back at him.

  “After everything we’ve been through lately, cigarettes seem like a better way than most,” he answered.

  “Just keep up, damnit,” I said. “And tell me what the hell was up with what you said back there. How did you know Merry’s birthday was November 17?”

  “Because all of their birthdays are November 17,” Andy answered. “They found another body while you were gone. That’s what had me so frazzled back there at the diner. And then, when we came out of gypsy land-apalooza back there, my phone started blowing up with text messages. It was my partner. Turns out that not only were all six victims born on the same exact day 25 years ago, they were also born at the same hospital. There were a rash of births that night. Seven babies inside of an hour. And my guess is-”

  “Merry’s the only one left,” I finished.

  The world shimmered in front of me and a woman appeared. She wore a long flowing dress and her hair hung in red tendrils.

  “Not so fast,” she said in the same voice they used back at the hotel, the voice that sounded like many voices. “We don’t want you to miss anything.”

  She blew a kiss at us and it magically stopped us in our tracks. She blew another one and it turned us around on our heels.

  I was unable to move as I watched the wolves — still in human form — rush toward the coven.

  For their part, the coven wasn’t even moving. They just stood there, unafraid and unaffected.

  That should have been their first clue.

  The white haired witch raised her hand and then twisted it in the air.

  Every one of the wolves, save Clint himself, pulled to a stop.

  And then every one of their necks snapped.

  I could hear the sickening crunch from there as body after body fell to the wet pavement. And entire pack, an entire generation, cut down in an instant.

  Looked like the battle royal wasn’t so evenly matched after all.

  “Whose power is this?” I asked, still turned away from the witch who trapped us, still stuck in place. “No coven has this sort of power. Not without help.” I swallowed hard and struggled against the magic that bound me. “Who are you working for?”

  “Come and see,” she whispered in her many voices. “She’s been waiting for you.”

  I felt the woman’s hands groping over me, first on my neck and then pulling at my hair.

  “That’ll be enough of that,” another voice, familiar in a completely different way, sounded off. “You’d be wise to take your hands off him now.”

  My eyes, the only part of me that seemed to still be under my control, moved as far as I could make them toward the source of the noise.

  From the corner of my eyes, I saw Mimi off in the distance, standing in front of a running pickup truck with a raincoat on.

  “If I remember correctly,” she said. “He doesn’t care for it when people go messing with his hair.”

  Nope, not Mimi. I could tell from the tone and lilt of the voice coming out of Mimi’s body that she was channeling someone. And not just any someone. At this moment, she was housing the spirit of my ex-wife Pearl.

  Who was also — as it turned out — was the most powerful witch this side of the Mason-Dixon back when she was breathing.

  My guess was, alive or not, she’d still be able to conjure up some of that old mojo.

  At least I hoped as much.

  “Move away from us, spirit whisperer,” the witches said all at once, which was about as creepy as one would imagine. “Leave us to our business or you will incur our wrath.”

  The witches milled about at the corners of my vision. They were getting in place, setting up an attack.

  And, powerful or not, there was no way Pearl could fight off an entire coven in a hijacked body. Especially when that coven was siphoning energy from some mystery benefactor.

  I tried to open my mouth, to scream for Pear to get the hell out of here. The last thing I needed was to witness my ex-wife destroy my ex granddaughter’s body in an attempt to save me; a person she absolutely hated.

  But my mouth wouldn’t move anymore. It seemed the last question I asked would be the last question I was permitted to ask, at least for the time being.

  All I could do was stand here, still and useless, hoping that Pearl’s fate wouldn’t mirror that of the newly deceased werewolf pack.

  “I didn’t figure you girls would take too kindly to reason. You don’t exactly have the best of reputations on the other side. Though, for that matter, neither does the woman you’re working for. That’s why I brought these.”

  She pulled a string of pearls from her bag.

  Pearls for Pearl. They looked ordinary, but they were anything but. Even I could feel the magic pouring off them in sheets.

  The witches — every one of them — darted toward Pearl like she was about to pull the pin out of a grenade and they had to stop her at all cost.

  She held an end of the string in either hand, pulling it until it formed a taut, straight line. Then she lifted it to her face.

  “Acante!” she yelled, and again I could feel the magic. It too was taut. It too was straight. And it drove into the lunar coven like an eighteen wheeler blazing through a yellow light during rush hour.

  The lunar coven were knocked off their feet, flying backward and slamming hard against wet pavement.

  “Decentase!” Pearl yelled, pulling the pearls even tighter in her hands.

  I felt the magic holding me in place falter and then crumble completely away.

  I dropped to my knees, but regained my composure quickly.

  I was still dizzy. My blood levels were still low, and I was weak enough to be able to sleep on top of a moving truck should the opportunity present itself.

  But I couldn’t sleep, not with these witches still after us.

  “Escadata!” Pearl yelled even louder this time. The string was a mere suggestion across her face now, pulled so tightly that Pearl’s hands were nearly touching.

  I rushed toward her, hoping to lend a helping hand.

  Turned out that wasn’t exactly what she was looking for because, the instant she saw me coming, she hissed. “Get the hell out of here! What are you doing?”

  I skidded to a stop, but it was too late.

  Pearl’s attention had only been turned for an instant, but it seemed
that was enough.

  The white haired witch was on her now, energy flowing through her and into Pearl.

  A swirl of magic, so vile and violent that it turned my stomach, drilled into Pearl.

  I leapt toward the white haired witch, ready to level a fist or foot at her; anything to free Pearl (and Mimi’s body) from this mystical onslaught.

  I never liked hitting women. Even for the world’s first murderer, it seemed tacky and almost always unnecessary.

  But I also didn’t like women hurting the women I loved. So this time, I would make an exception.

  My conscious wouldn’t be tested today though. The energy that was flowing ferociously into Pearl turned tail and struck me hard.

  I went flying backward, slamming forcefully against the damp pavement.

  My arm snapped as I landed, and I winced in pain. That alone was going to be a bitch to heal, and I doubted it was the last injury I was going to leave this place with.

  I looked up just in time to see the magic surge back toward Pearl. It snapped her string of pearls, sending the enchanted things spilling to the ground.

  The white haired witch raised her hand, sending Pearl flying backward into a parked car.

  “No!” I screamed, watching Mimi’s body contort as it hit against the glass and metal.

  The white haired witch settled over me, her blue eyes crackling with energy and peering deep into my soul.

  “You’re coming with us,” she said in her creepy layered voice. “Take the girl as well.”

  “Leave her alone,” I said through gritted teeth, lying on the pavement.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” the white haired witch said. “She was born for this. You both were.”

  She contorted her hand in a strange position and I could feel energy pooling around me, lifting me off the ground.

  I struggled against it uselessly, as I rose higher and higher.

  “Stop fighting this,” the white haired witch said. “She’s waiting for you. She wants to see you.”

  “Who the fuck are you tal-”

  A whirl of white fur and fangs sped across my line of sight.

  It collided with the white haired witch in a mess of white on white.

  I fell back to the ground as she lost focus, slamming against the pavement again and re-injuring my already busted up arm.

  It took me a minute to realize what was going on.

  It was Clint, in his wolf form, in his Alpha form. And he was going to town on this bitch.

  His teeth dug into her arm and she screamed in pain. It was the first sign of weakness I had seen in her, aside from her hauling ass at the sight of Gabriel.

  It wasn’t to last though, She moved her hand and he lifted into the air as well, floating around yipping at her with his tail hanging low between his legs.

  He jerked around but it was useless. He just floated there like some detached astronaut about to be lost to the vastness of space.

  She turned back to me, her face bloodied and her eyes set even firmer somehow.

  “Playtime is over. She’ll be wai-”

  But before she could finish that sentence, her body began to glow with energy.

  The look on her face told the story. This wasn’t her doing. Something had hijacked her power and was using it against her. And luckily, I knew exactly what that something was.

  “Sevenfold, bitch,” I muttered, wincing in pain.

  Her eyes grew wide as the energy — so much energy — amassed inside of her.

  Her arm snapped backward so far that it nearly pulled clear off her shoulder.

  She fell to her knees, screaming in agony as the energy grew brighter and brighter.

  I crawled away from her, pulling back as far as I could with my one remaining good arm.

  I could barely looked at her anymore. She was a mess of bright red energy, a sun in the darkness of this parking lot.

  She screamed one last time.

  And then she exploded.

  All that she was, now lay strewn across the parking lot; blood, guts, and white hair dye was all that was left of her. That and a magical residue that I’m sure I’d be able to feel here in fifty years’ time.

  Andy was over me now, pulling me upright and brushing pebbles off my back.

  “You all right?” he asked.

  “My arm’s broken and my head’s spinning, but I’ll live… obviously.” I looked around. “What about the rest of you?”

  Pearl was standing upright now, her hair a mess and her face gaunt and pale.

  And her eyes, they were Mimi’s eyes again.

  Clint had both landed safely on the ground and taken human form again; something accented by the fact that he was still stark naked.

  And Merry.

  …Where was Merry?

  “What about the rest of you?” I repeated, suddenly diving into panic mode.

  “Uncle C, don’t lose your cool.”

  “Where is she, Andy?” I asked, grabbing his collar. “Where is she?”

  “They took her, Uncle C. I tried to stop them, but I-I couldn’t.”

  Something came over me, a rumbling in my stomach. I didn’t recognize it at first. And then I leaned forward and threw up all over the parking lot.

  “What the hell?” Andy asked, looking at me like I had just taken flight or something. “I thought you didn’t get sick. I thought that was part of the deal.”

  “It is,” I answered, wiping grossness from the corners of my mouth. “I don’t get sick. I haven’t been sick since…”

  A memory — one of literally countless — flashed through my mind.

  “Crap,” I muttered.

  “What is it?” Andy asked.

  “I know,” I said. “I know who we’re dealing with.”

  27

  “Well?” Andy asked, looking at me without even a hint of patience in his eyes. “You said you know who we’re dealing with. Who the hell are they?”

  “Witches,” I answered, catching my breath.

  “Seriously?” he asked, narrowing his lips. “You’re coming at me with witches? I know they’re witches, Uncle C.”

  “I’m going to have to agree,” Clint said, walking up to me bare ass naked with the sort of confidence that you could only find from shifters who were used to going au natural. “It’s not very climactic.”

  “They’re not just any witches,” I said, walking toward Mimi.

  The others followed me as I neared her.

  My former adoptive granddaughter leaned against the hood of the running truck she had brought. Her expression was equal parts pain, exhaustion, and regret.

  It was clear that, whatever Pearl did to convince her to come here, wasn’t agreeing with her anymore.

  “You okay?” I asked, cupping her shoulder with my hand.

  “Fine,” she answered, shrugging away from me and scowling. “Nothing a fifth of whiskey won’t fix.”

  “That’s my girl,” I muttered.

  “Don’t,” she warned sharply.

  “So?” Andy asked. “The witches?”

  “Right,” I answered, turning back toward him and bristling at Mimi’s coldness. Was she ever going to forgive me? “It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with them. Just over twenty-five years ago, I came across a particularly nasty coven. They started zeroing in on me. I ignored it at first. It was far from the first time some supernatural whoever wanted to use me for one thing or another. But none of them ever had the balls to come at me directly. The sevenfold curse made sure of that.”

  “And, the witches we’re dealing with now?” Andy asked. “Big balls?”

  “Massive,” I answered. “They came at me with spells, started draining off my life force. Made me sick as a dog. They’d attack, taking bit of my hair and whatnot. I tracked them to a dense patch of woods up in the Northeast. I was on my own then. It was after… what happened to your father.” I swallowed hard. “Anyway, I got trapped in a well. They were doing some major league incantation. It probably would have w
orked too, if I hadn’t have tricked one of the younger witches into saying my name.”

  “And you never figured out what the spell was meant for?” Andy asked. “No,” I answered. “I figured it didn’t matter. I stopped it. So who cared what it was for?”

  “You didn’t stop it,” Mimi said flatly. “At least that’s what grandma said.”

  “All due respect, sweetheart. But your grandmother is wrong.” I shook my head. “I dismantled that coven after that, took it apart from the ground up.”

  “They just made you think you did,” Mimi said. “And, even if you had, it wouldn’t have mattered. The spell wasn’t about you, at least, not yet.” She sighed hard, reading my confused expression. “Look. It’s hard to explain.”

  “Then get Pearl back out here, because I need one of you to be clear.”

  “Don’t you think I tried that?!” she asked, snapping at me. “She won’t come out. She says the power she channeled was too strong, and that if she didn’t give my body time to rest, that I’d probably be a vegetable by the morning.”

  I shuddered. The idea of Mimi being hurt, especially being hurt in an attempt to help me, was about as welcome in my head as a stray razor blade in your underwear.

  “She’s right,” I answered. “You should rest. You should go home. Just-just try to explain to me what you know and get on your way.”

  “You think that’s how this is going to work?” Mimi balked. “I didn’t get pulled out of my sleep to miss a double shift just so you could tell me to be a good little girl and run along. I don’t run, Car-Callum,” she corrected herself. “There’s stuff to do and people to save. Grandma made sure I was well aware of that before she took me over. Seven people, seven little babies got tied to you that night twenty-five years ago. Their life force is tied to yours, and killing them-”

  “Kills me?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  “No,” Mimi answered. “I don’t think it’s that simple. If the seven people tied to you die, I don’t think you do. At least, not automatically. If I understood grandma correctly, it just means that you can die. It means that the curse that our Lord and Maker laid on you all those years ago is gone.”