The barrier fell, the weather slammed into us, and I blacked out completely.
Chapter Two
There was nothing for I don’t know how long. My body was done, bruised and battered from the hailstones, tired beyond anything I’d ever felt before.
A voice singing was what I woke to, and for just a moment, I could believe that I was somewhere safe. Maybe at home with the family I’d made myself leave behind.
I sat up, groaning as rocks dug into my butt. “Oka?”
“I’m here,” she murmured. A soft nose nudged against my outstretched hand.
The first thing besides the dark I noticed was the quiet. There was no storm, no rumbling of the ground breaking into shards.
“Am I dead?” I felt a little stupid asking the question, but this amount of quiet was not what I expected.
Oka laughed, and a paw settled onto my hand. “No. You aren’t dead. Right after you passed out, a big truck rolled up. We didn’t even hear it over the storm. They tossed us in the back along with Macy.”
Trapped, we were trapped. My heart rate shot through the roof, but then I realized we were on hard ground, not the metal of a truck bed. “How long have I been out?”
“A full day,” Macy said, answering before Oka could. I turned to her voice and finally my eyes fully adjusted; I could see her crouched in the front of a tent flap. She crawled in with me. “This family saw us and scooped us up. They don’t have much, but they are good people.”
I bent at the waist reaching for my toes. “That’s some kind of luck we have.”
Macy sat beside me. “Yeah, that was what I thought too. Here, are you hungry?” She shoved something into my hand. An apple by the feel of it, a little on the dried side. I took it and bit into the shriveled flesh. Good enough for me.
I ate the apple, core and all, and had to stop from licking my fingers. God only knew how dirty they were. I crawled out of the tent and pushed to my feet. The sky above us still rolled with black clouds, but here and there, breaks showed a brilliant flash of stars. Brilliant to me, anyway, as it told me more than anyone else could have.
Oka sat beside me. “I think it’s almost over. The breaking, that is.”
I nodded but said nothing. I had a feeling that while the breaking was nearly over, this mess I’d helped to create was only just beginning. There would be no happy endings here.
“Ah, there you are,” a new voice called out to me. Male. But not deep, more of a tenor.
I turned to him as he held up a lit lantern. I shaded my eyes. “Hello. Thank you for helping us.”
My manners had been drilled into me as a child, and I wasn’t about to start slacking now.
He grinned. “Well, me and Susy, we saw you two huddled under the hailstones and we couldn’t just leave you there. I’m Hank.”
I held my hand out and we shook. Hank had a farmer’s hands, rough and weathered, and I realized his face was not much better. He might have been younger than I initially thought.
“We’re planning on moving along at a slow pace. See who we can pick up as we go, who we can help. You interested in joining us?” He glanced down at Oka. “You can even bring your cat there.”
Warmth spread through my chest. The humans were not lost. There were still kind ones in this world yet. “Yes, and I can help too. Is anyone sick or injured?”
Oka dug a claw into my leg. “You are too weak, Pamela. You need to eat properly, or rest more.”
I bent down and scooped her up, then turned to Hank. “I can help.”
“Are you a nurse?” His brows furrowed. “You ain’t old enough to be a doc.”
I made myself smile. “There is more to this world than humans. You’ve surely seen that?”
He paled a little under the warm light of the lantern. “You’re one of those supes?”
“I’m a witch, yes.” I held my hand up and called on the fire element in me so a flame danced over my palm. “I’m a healer, Hank. I can help.”
He looked at the fire a good long time before he lifted his eyes to mine. “You don’t mean harm, then? There’s been a few . . . others . . . that were not nice.”
I lowered my hand. “I was trained to help those who need it. And I believe in that with all my heart. I could never live with myself if I turned my back on those I could actually help.” Hank took a step closer, surprising me, and stared down at me. Not in an aggressive way, but as if he were trying to figure out if I was being honest. I held his gaze. “Hank. If someone is hurt, please let me help them. If you change your mind, Oka and I will go.”
He squinted one eye and then slowly nodded. “I believe you. Come on this way. Susy has a baby in her belly and she’s been getting pains.”
I stumbled a step and Oka snorted. “Now you’ve stepped in it. Healer you might be; midwife you are not, my friend.”
Oka was right, and she was wrong. I could keep Susy from bleeding out. I could heal any wounds she might have from giving birth. But I couldn’t actually assist.
I looked around as he led me a short distance to an oversized pickup truck with huge tires and a camper-like back end built out of plywood.
The ground was openly smoking in places and I couldn’t see a stitch of anything living in any direction, plant or animal. That was a bad sign.
We were going to starve to death. Oka shivered, picking up my fear. “I can find us more rats.”
“Susy, I got the young girl with us. She’s a healer.” Hank opened the homemade door of the truck bed and I peered in. The woman on the bed didn’t look much older than me, the lights around her making her seem even younger if possible. Or maybe it was the way her eyes found mine, wide and terrified.
“It’s my first baby,” Susy whispered.
What came next was one of the longest nights of my life. I kept the pain at bay for Susy, working my magic through her body, easing the hurt where I could, and checking her to see if she was bleeding out.
The baby girl came with the light of the day as the sun broke through the storm clouds. I stumbled out and Oka grinned up at me. “You have a good heart, Pamela. It’s one of the things I love about you. But it’s also one of the things that is going to get you into trouble.”
I leaned down, and she rose onto her back feet to butt her head against my hand, then she wrapped her paws around my wrist and I lifted her into my arms. “You might be right. But I learned from the best to follow my heart.”
She snorted but said nothing else.
The next few days were rough. We moved as quickly as we could, but the road we were on was broken in many places and we had to backtrack more than a few times. I figured out how to extend our fuel reserves by mixing the gasoline and diesel with magic, extending its life, and ours.
During our rest breaks, Oka and I struck out into the forest looking for food. Something that seemed to no longer exist.
With each day that passed, I could see the strain on Hank and Susy. Fear for their child. Fear for each other. Fear for me and Macy, even. They were the adults, and they seemed to think it was their job to look after all of us.
I’d done this.
My belly rolled constantly so when the meager food shares were offered, I took only a portion of my ration. I couldn’t bear to take more. To eat their food when I was the cause of their suffering.
The fourth morning, Oka and I went out into what I was considering now as the badlands to see if we could find anything.
Oka trotted along at my side, her ears swiveling this way and that. “You need to eat, Pam. You can’t keep doing this. You aren’t helping them by being weak as a newborn kitten. I should know.”
I closed my eyes for a brief second and swayed before I took my next few steps. “I know. I just . . . I need to know that I’m doing something for them. I can’t create food. I can’t even catch anything because there is nothing left to catch.”
As we spoke a strange trilling cut through the air. A bird, by the sound of it, only it was no bird I’d ever heard sing befo
re. “What the hell is that?” I turned to my right where the sound seemed to be coming from. A large crack in the ground wafted steam as so many of them did. I crept closer, the wind whipping my cloak out behind me.
Oka peered over the edge of the hole. The trilling came again as a flock of brightly colored birds burst out of the ground. Oka screeched and flailed, falling backward as I shot a hand into the sky, using my connection to air to pull down a half dozen of the birds.
Birds meant food.
Food meant I was helping.
I’d say we ate well that night, but the little birds didn’t have much meat on them. Still, the fear faded from Hank and Susy, and Macy started telling raunchy jokes that had us cracking up.
For the first time in I couldn’t remember how long, I felt like I was doing something good. Something right. The darkness in me slept, and I left it there, not prodding at it.
The next few days, more of those strange, brightly colored birds appeared. And then other creatures, tiny lizards that shouldn’t have existed in our world. They looked like little dinosaurs and they were fast—far harder to catch than the birds.
Hunger was our constant companion.
But we weren’t starving anymore, so I made myself count that as a win.
Susy walked beside me on the fifth or sixth day, the baby girl—Sunshine—wrapped to her chest as we looked for food. We’d set up camp and it looked like we’d stay where we were for a few days. Susy smiled. “A hot shower. What I wouldn’t give for one.”
Macy sighed. “Cheesecake.”
I groaned. “No, don’t talk about food. Please.”
They both laughed. Susy smiled at me. “How about a mattress with a down duvet?”
“Oh yeah,” Oka moaned from my shoulder. I poked her in the hip.
“You sleep on me, cat. What are you complaining about?”
“You’re all bones,” she grumbled. She wasn’t wrong there. Amazing what just a couple short weeks of no consistent food could do to the body.
Susy and Macy didn’t so much as bat an eye. They’d quickly gotten used to my discussions with Oka. Which was strange and wonderful. Maybe this new world wasn’t all bad.
We didn’t find anything new but managed to grab a couple of the brightly colored birds again. Two weren’t enough for even one person, but at least they were something.
We made our way back to where we’d set up camp. There was a stranger there, a man I didn’t recognize. He spoke to Hank who was nodding quickly. “Of course. Stay with us. The more people we have together, the better.”
The man’s shoulders straightened. “I don’t know about that. Too many people can be a problem too.”
Hank laughed. “Well, as you can see, there aren’t exactly a lot of people left.”
He introduced his wife, Macy, me and Oka. I didn’t speak to the new man, just watched him watching us. He was tall, in his late thirties, dark-haired, and built strong as if he’d been living this life long before the world came apart. In fact, his clothing was damn near clean, not ripped at all, and there wasn’t a stitch of soot on him.
He watched the women like we were commodities. I frowned. “And your name?”
The new guy smiled, but it was tight and didn’t reach his eyes. “Stefan.”
Oka gave a low growl from my shoulder. “I don’t like him.”
Neither did I. But I had no real reason, just a general dislike that I had learned to follow.
Stefan slid off his jacket and under it he was loaded to the hilt. On first glance, I saw four handguns, two knives, and a belt of ammo. It was only then that I saw the weapons at his feet.
I shot a look to Hank and shook my head. This was not a good idea.
But Hank ignored me. I took a few steps back, dragging Macy with me. “What is it?” she asked when we were twenty feet back.
Oka snorted. “Not subtle, Pam.”
“He’s trouble. Keep your distance from him,” I said softly.
“I thought he was cute. In a rugged old man way, of course.” Macy grinned at me, but I did not smile back, and her face fell. “Okay, fine, I’ll stay away from him.”
If only our life would have been as simple as staying away from Stefan, then we would have been fine. But it wasn’t.
And we weren’t fine, not even close.
Chapter Three
Four days passed in relative quiet. Stefan made himself very useful, making sure there was plenty of wood, water, and even food to a degree. He couldn’t catch the colorful little birds like I could, but I wasn’t about to tell him how I did it. No matter how many times he asked.
“Seriously,” he said from across the campfire. “How are you doing it?”
I shrugged and looked away from him. “Luck, I guess.”
He frowned. “I doubt that.”
Hank, Susy, and Macy had agreed with me not to tell Stefan about my abilities. At least, not right away.
Hank cleared his throat. “We’re almost out of fuel.”
My jaw dropped as I stared at him. “What?”
He nodded. “We need to stay here until we know for sure what direction we’re going. Stefan said he knew some people back the way he’d come. They should be along soon.”
People. What kind of people? I whipped my head around to look at Stefan who had a grin plastered on his face. A shit-eating grin, as my mentor would have said. A chill rippled down my back.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” I asked.
“You let the grown-ups talk, little Pammy. Go play with your cat and make a necklace with feathers or something,” Stefan said.
Both my brows shot up, and the darkness in me rose so fast, I couldn’t stop it. I stood and pointed a finger at Stefan. With bands of air, I pinned his arms to his sides and lifted him above the flames.
He was quiet and then he started shouting, so I stuffed his mouth full of air to block the noise. “Stefan, perhaps you’d like to reconsider how you treat me?” He glared at me, his light green eyes almost sparking with the anger that rolled off him. “Do not fuck with me, Stefan. These people here are my family and I will protect them.”
I released him as suddenly as I’d grabbed him, and he hit the ground hard, rolled to the side and came up with a gun pointed at me. Oka snarled, and Hank stood, both hands outstretched as if he could calm the situation.
“You’re one of them supes,” Stefan growled. “You all should be dead.”
I wasn’t concerned. Guns didn’t work around supernaturals. Something in our energy threw off serious vibrations that made the bullets and mechanisms do seriously wonky things. They didn’t shoot straight, in other words.
Before I could say anything else, he squeezed the trigger.
I might as well have been punched in the shoulder by a giant with a club. I was flung backward, shock slowing my mind more than the pain that bloomed, spreading through my body.
Shot. I’d been shot?
The rules of this world have changed, little witch.
That voice was one I’d heard before, the Mother Goddess, and she’d never led me wrong.
I hit the ground hard, and rolled, up on my feet, my good hand outstretched as I knocked Stefan to the ground. Warmth poured down my arm, though to be fair, I could only feel it once it touched my fingers. The rest of my arm was numb.
I was going to teach that bastard a lesson he would never forget. That was my thought.
That was not what happened.
A blast of wind slammed into me, spun me around and then pinned me to the ground. I struggled against it, fighting the bands, thinking at first that Stefan was an elemental.
I struggled to breathe through the maelstrom, and my vision began to dance and trip into the black of unconsciousness.
Oka roared from somewhere that seemed far away from me. I stared up at the sky and struggled to breathe, fighting for every breath as I worked my magic to free myself from the bonds on me.
Only there was no way to free them.
“Hello, daug
hter of Raven,” a voice said softly, which was so strange that I could hear it over the wind.
The hold on my head loosened and I was able to look to one side, then the other. Five people came toward me. I knew what they were, if not who.
Five elementals, representing five elements. Earth, wind, fire, water, and spirit.
“What do you want?” I asked, fighting not to panic.
I was Raven’s daughter, that was true; and he was, to say the least, reviled for his machinations. There was no doubt in my mind that I was in serious trouble.
The fire elemental stepped forward, her red hair and deep orange-gold eyes marking her as clearly as any stamp. “Well, we want much. But are given little. It is your fault our sanctuaries are broken, but we are forbidden to kill you.”
I swallowed or tried to—she wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know.
Her smile was fierce as she stared at me, like the face of a wolf on the hunt. “You have power as a half-breed that should not be yours, but ours. We are here to take back that which is owed to us. It is the least you can do.”
From her hand dangled a bracelet wrought of silver with a deep red gem that pulsed in the center. She bent and clamped it around my left wrist.
I tried to wiggle away. But there was nothing I could do against this much power. Witch I was, but elementals far outranked me in strength and magic. Especially this many.
Each of the others came forward one at a time, saying much the same thing.
“You owe me. Us.”
“We take what is by rights ours.”
On my left wrist went a bracelet from the water elemental and the air elemental, and on my right, a bracelet each from the earth elemental and the spirit elemental.
As each bracelet clamped onto my arm, the panic in me increased. I couldn’t touch my magic, but I chose to believe it was because of those in front of me, and not the bands they’d put on my arms.
“Now,” the fire elemental said, still smiling, “you will have only your mother’s power as a witch. Pitiful, now that I see the magic in you. All your abilities were powered by your elemental magic. Magic that should never have gone to you.”
Aimless Witch (Questing Witch Series Book 1) Page 2
