Hex Me, Baby, One More Time: Magic and Mayhem Universe (Hex Drive)

by Renee George

  "She's not?"

  I shook my head as the October air stirred around us, bringing with it the first chill of winter. "She's already here."

  Chapter Eleven

  Howls of laughter, people talking in loud voices to be heard over the crowd, and the dings and whistles of the carnival made the town of Cauldron feel brutally alive at the height of the festival. Games and rides were set up at the fairgrounds, and the scent of funnel cakes, corn dogs, and tart lemonade made me feel sick to my stomach.

  "We have to find my mom and dad." I'd refused to let Cas carry me. I wasn't going to be some damsel in distress. One problem, though. I might not be a damsel, but I'd been hit in the head often enough during the day that I was getting shakier with every step, and my vision had doubled. "You need to go find them without me."

  "I'm not leaving you. Not again." He grabbed me roughly and pressed his face against my chopped-up hair. "You are my mate, Brita. From this moment on, we are a team." He cupped my face and locked his gaze with mine. "Are you with me?"

  I nodded, my mouth dry as I tried to swallow the lump. "I'm with you."

  "Good. Now that we've cleared that up. How about you let me carry you for a little while? You took care of me last night when I was injured. Tonight, it's my turn."

  "Okay."

  He scooped me up quickly and took off in a lope through the crowd and down the fairway to the staging area. "There they are," Cas said.

  Up ahead, I saw double of my mother and my father, my brother, Shyla, and someone Shyla was chatting with. "Who is that?"

  Mom and Dad ran toward us, their shouts of surprise and relief, made my head hurt even more. Mom's healing magic fizzled out when she tried to lay hands on me. "Why isn't it working?" she asked. "Why can't I heal my little girl?"

  "They put the thistle sigil on her," Cas said. "It will have to be removed in the same way you removed mine."

  "I don't want a big chunk of my chest cut out," I said, my speech slurring. "I don't have that much to begin with." I rolled my head sideways and squinted at where my brother had been standing. He and Shyla were gone. "Weird."

  "What's weird?" Dad asked.

  "Lukas and Shyla. Where are they?"

  Mom looked around. "They were just here. Melba arrived a short while ago, and she and Shyla were having a lovely chat."

  "No." The idea of Shyla and my bro with the wicked witch of the west coast cleared the fog in my head. "She's one of them. Melba Abadose is their leader."

  "Yes, dear. She's the Council's leader."

  "No." I needed to be clearer. "She kidnapped me, cut my hair, and was planning to hold me for experiments. She thinks my hair's immunity to magic is some kind of key to taking down the powers that be." I left off the part about Zelda's kids, because, I was afraid what would happen to me if other witches and warlocks wanted in on the action.

  "Melba?" my mom asked. "She wouldn’t do that."

  I understood why Mom was having trouble wrapping her head around the idea that her best friend was a power-hungry bee-otch, but she would have to save her shock and dismay for her therapist. Right now, we need action, not talk.

  "She would. She did," Cas said. "She did this to Brita, and that means she gets no benefit of the doubt and no mercy."

  "Agreed," my father said. Claws had replaced his fingernails. "No one messes with my daughter. Not in my town. Not ever."

  My brother staggered to us, with more than one scorch mark on him. "She took her," he said. "She's gone."

  "Who?"

  "Melba Abadose," I said. "She's got Shy."

  "She told me that she wants Brita, and if Brita turns herself over, she will let Shyla go," Lukas said. "I tried to stop her."

  "We have to tell Monty what's happening," Cas said. "I know you think he's an idiot, but he can help us stop her. He's the most powerful warlock I've seen."

  "What's to stop him from joining his mother?" I shook my head. "What's to say he's not already on her side? Where is he now? No. Don't call him. I'm going to give myself to Melba. I'm going to turn myself over, and she is going to let Shyla go. That's the answer."

  "You can't do that, Brita," my dad said. "I forbid it."

  "She smells like strawberry shortcake," Lukas said.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Shyla." Lukas put his hands to his face. "I never told her, but she smells like strawberry shortcake."

  "You really are an idiot." I made Cas put me down, and I hugged my stupid brother. "We're going to get her back, and you will tell her. Okay. We're going to get her back."

  He hugged me back. "I can't live in a world where she doesn't exist, sis. I just can't."

  I felt the same way. "You won't have to because we are going to get her back."

  Mom's phone rang. She answered with an angry, "You bitch."

  I grabbed the phone from her. "When do you want to meet for the exchange?"

  "No!" Mom and Dad said simultaneously.

  "In one hour," she said, her voice just as calm as she'd been when she'd held me captive. "Three miles out of town. There's a cabin that I've rented. Come alone, or your friend will suffer the consequences."

  I handed the phone back to Mom. "We have sixty minutes to get this tattoo off and get me healed so I can kill a witch." I met Cas's gaze. "You have to let me do this."

  Cas and I had fought all the way to the firehouse. My mom and dad fought with me there. And my brother was the only one with any real conflict about whether I should go or not. I can't believe he had the mating scent for Shyla but had never acted on it. If I got out of this mess, I planned to give him ten kinds of poxes, and I wouldn't take them back until he apologized to her one hundred times for each pox.

  Mom numbed me with xylocaine, a lot of it, before she began cutting on my chest. Cas squeezed my hand and kept me distracted from the awfulness. And during all this, Dad went to my place and picked up Simon for me. I couldn't go. Not without saying goodbye. And when all the healing and arguments were over, Cas put an earbud in my ear and gave me a tracker to swallow.

  "I have to go," I told him. "I only have twenty minutes to get there."

  "I need you to come back to me," he said.

  "I'm going to do my best."

  "We will be ready and waiting for a signal from you. He tapped his own earbud. Get Shyla clear and bring us in. If she tries to transport with you, that tracker it satellite-based, and I will find you anywhere in the world. There is no place she can take you that I won't find you."

  "As long as I don't poop it out, you mean."

  He smiled. "As long as you don't poop it out."

  I rose up on my tippy toes as he pressed his forehead to mine. "Then you better find me in the next day or so, because I'm pretty regular."

  "Your sexy talk can use a little work." He lips brushed mine in a soft kiss. I slid my arms up to his chest and crossed my hands behind his neck and pulled him down for more. His tongue brushed the slit of my mouth and wound its way inside as the kiss deepened. He wrapped me his arms, his hands roaming my back as we devoured each other in need and desperation. I moaned when his lips nipped across the sensitive skin of my neck."

  "No time," I panted.

  He kissed me one last time. "When this is over, I plan to spend a lifetime exploring every inch of you."

  "It's a deal."

  My mom and dad, who had apparently been watching from the door, were both making "ew" faces.

  Dad said, "I'll never make out with your mother in front of you again if you promise to never do that in front of me again."

  Mom shook her head. "I make no such promise." They both looked worried and scared. "You ready?"

  "Yes. I'm ready now."

  The sharp scent of pine mixed with the pungent aroma of moss soured my stomach as I drove down the gravel road using the directions Melba had texted. It was dark out, and the thick, lush leaves in the trees overhead blocked out the streaming moonlight. I parked at the end of the long driveway as soon as I could see lights from the cabi
n. I walked up slowly.

  "Can you hear me, Cas?"

  "I can," he said.

  "I...I want you to know that I have loved you since I was fourteen years old. Since the first time I met you."

  "It's nice to know that someone as ugly as I am can find love with a beautiful, bold, and--"

  "Bald," I added. "Well, almost bald."

  "You have a sexy head."

  "I bet you say that to all the girls," I said. The banter took the edge of my nerves as I approached the cabin. "I see movement."

  The front door opened, and Melba stepped out onto the porch with Shyla in her clutches.

  Her body let up with green and orange as she sent her magic out into the night. After a few seconds, she seemed confused, satisfied. "You came alone," she said.

  "As we agreed. Now, send Shyla home." I held my phone up. "Once I get a text that she's safe, I'll hand myself over to you."

  "You know I can get her back if don't keep your end of the bargain. But if I bring her back, I will kill her. Do we understand each other?"

  Shyla stumbled forward, her eyes were glassy and unfocused. "What did you do to her?"

  "A simple befuddlement potion," Melba said. "It will wear off in time."

  "What are you waiting for?"

  Melba smiled. "This." She pushed Shyla down the front steps, and while I watched my tumbling friend, Melba transported to me and reached out to grab me. I gave a startled yelp and staggered back.

  "Death is too good for you," I said. "But still, I hope you die horribly in a vortex of dull but pointy knives."

  Melba laughed. "The potion I made worked. I'm immune!"

  She gathered a mosaic of magic around herself, readying for an attack. "Tell Mom, now," I said. "Now, now."

  Mom appeared next to Shyla, she held Simon under her arm, she let my familiar go and gave me a quick wary glance before putting her hand on my best friend and transporting her to safety.

  "Clear, clear," I said twice.

  "Who are you talking to?" Melba asked. She looked around. "Where's your friend?"

  "I'm right here," Simon said as he leaped from her feet to her head. "Run, Brita!" he shouted as Melba grappled with him.

  "Get her!" the witch screeched.

  Several men and women in red robes ran in my direction. I turned toward the woods, hot-footing it to the trees for cover. This had been part of the plan, but I hadn't expected Melba to have her coven of black mages with her.

  "Didn't you say the coven had been taken into custody?" I yelled while jumping over fallen logs and avoiding sinkholes. I'd grown up in these woods, and while they weren't in town, they were still my father's territory. A miscalculation on Melba's part.

  "Keep going," Cas said. "You're almost out of the woods."

  “Don’t run, Brita,” an eerie, deep, and scary voice called out, seemingly from all around me. The weight of the words pressed down on me, and I fought the urge to curl in a ball and cower. “You must stop,” it commanded. “Stop.” Without the sigil, I was no longer immune to Melba's power, and Goddess on steroids, the woman, was loaded with it.

  "I'm not going to make it," I said. "I have to transport."

  "Find a place to hide."

  Up ahead, there was a thicket of brambles off the left with a small foxhole. I dove into the twisted bough of vines, the reedy limbs scraping at my face and arms. I hoped like hell I wouldn’t surprise a family of critters. Fighting an angry momma on top of an angry power-hungry witch would suck bananas. Luckily, the cubby was clear with a small tunnel-like opening at the back. I crawled like my life depended on it, worried that I wasn’t exaggerating the direness of my situation. I was quick and clever, but Melba could make quick work of me if she wanted. I didn’t really believe she was trying to kill me, but that didn't mean she wouldn't make me pay with pain. Lots and lots of pain.

  The bramble lit up. Harsh shadows from the tangled arms cast harsh crisscrossing stripes across me. I shrieked as the vines split apart, smoke and ash falling all around me. Melba floated above me, her eyes bright with energy.

  She shook her head, her voice amplified to fill the space. She smiled, her eyes narrowing on me. "I told you I'd find you."

  Chapter Twelve

  Throat clutching fear wrapped me so tight I couldn't breathe. I'd never felt so frightened in all my life as I did at this moment. Melba Abadose shouldn't have this much magic, she was my mother's age, after all.

  "You've been experimenting on other witches," I said, as the revelation hit me. "I'm not the first."

  "Correct." She spread her arms, electricity crackling the air around her. "But you are my best find yet. And, I didn't even have to look for you. Your mother was kind enough to give me all the information about you that I could ever need." Her red hair floated out from her head and reminded me of blood and death.

  "You're a doctor. Like my mom." Witches weren't the only one who lived by the creed of "first do no harm."

  "I'm coming, Princess," Cas said. "Keep her talking. You're doing great."

  I didn't feel relieved. He had to have heard me. Melba was beyond our ability to take out. "Don't," I said, talking to Cas, not the witch. "It's not worth it."

  "You're everything, Princess. Hang in there."

  Painful screams, explosions, and chaos happened next in the surrounding woods. "Cas?"

  "We're kicking ass, babe. Hang in there. The cavalry is coming. I'm going radio silent, but I'll be there."

  "Wait!"

  Melba's expression grew smug. "You hear that. That's my coven decimating everyone you love." She tisked. "It didn't have to be this way, Brita. If you would have just--"

  "Willingly volunteered to be your lab rat? No, thanks. And the fact that you think your guys are winning out there just goes to show how arrogant you are. We are winning," I shouted defiantly, "And I will die before I let you take me." I stared at the thick brambles surrounding me and gathered red magic to my hands.

  "You're as clueless as your mother. You can't harm me, child. What don't you understand about that?"

  "I can't hurt you, but that doesn't mean you can't burn." I threw a bomb of fire at the branches directly below the witch's feet. The flames shot up and caught on her clothes. She shrieked and threw herself back as she plummeted to the ground, unable to hold her magic and put out the fire at the same time.

  A giant black wolf dove into the brambles with me as the fire licked up around us. His green gaze prompted me to action. I grabbed him around the neck and snapped my fingers, and we were outside the ring. The wolf knocked me down as magic zapped past my head. Melba had managed to get back on her feet, and she was not going to be satisfied until she had what she wanted.

  "You won't trick me again, clever Brita," she said. "You can't defeat me."

  "I wasn't trying to defeat you," I told her. "I was just trying to buy time."

  She narrowed her gaze at me. "Buy time for what?"

  "For me," a blonde woman wearing a sequined off-the-shoulder blouse, parachute pants, and a pair of red high heels, completely inappropriate for a war, but who was I to judge, said as she apparated next to the Council witch. "Hello, Melba."

  "Carol," Melba said. "How did you find me?"

  "That's Baba Yaga to you," the blonde said. "As to how..."

  A man transported to Baba Yaga's side. "Mother," he said to Melba. He slapped cuffs around her hands with the speed and deftness of a Shifter.

  "Monty! But I'm your mother. How could you turn on me?"

  "You are a traitor, Melba Montrose, and I'm ashamed to carry your last name." Twenty guys in black suits, wearing black glasses, and all with identical haircuts, reminding me of that Matrix movie villain, stood in a circle around Melba.

  "Take her," Baba Yaga said. "And take any of her coven still alive. They have a lot to answer for."

  "Watch out, for her. She's immune to magic but can still use it." I gulped when Baba Yaga turned a baleful stare at me. "I...she made a potion from my hair and drank it."


  "First," Baba Yaga said, "that's gross. And second," she screwed up her finger and rotated it until she created a small ball of bright green magic and flung it at Melba. The wicked witch yelped as the ball zapped her ass. "She's immune to your magic, not all magic."

  "Ha!" I glared at Melba. "It turns out you really are a dumbass."

  Baba Yaga's minions took Melba away. After, the blonde witch said, "We have some things to discuss."

  My voice squeaked. "We do?"

  The wolf beside me growled.

  "Calm down, Cassel Connor. I have no intention to harm your mate."

  Hearing her call me Cassel's mate sent a little thrill through me. "Then what do we need to discuss."

  "I want to offer you a job. Monty's team has a few openings."

  "But what about the man I cursed to death?"

  She squinted at me. "Everyone always seems to forget that the rule of three doesn't apply in self-defense. You are a very talented witch." She touched my choppy hair. "Powerful. I could use someone like you to bring down more people like Melba. What do you say? After all, your mate still has five years on his contract for employment. This way you could stay together."

  I looked down at Cas. He nudged his nose under my hand and pressed his side against me. "I..."

  "Just think about it." She winked. "I'll leave the two of you to discuss. Come on, Monty. Let's get this mess cleaned up."

  When we were alone, Cas transformed into his very naked and sexy self. He pulled me into his arms and kissed me hard. "You scared the shit out of me."

  "Just think, if I take Baba Yaga up on her offer, I can scare the shit out of you every day."

  "You're going to turn me into an old man before my time."

  "Har har." I ran my hand over his chest. The wound was almost healed. "Five more years. What would you have done if Baba Yaga hadn't offered me a job? Would you have left me?"

  "Never," he said. "I left you when I was a love-sick teenager because I didn't know better. I'm not making that mistake again." He ran his hands over my shoulders, down my arms, until he got to the bottom of my shirt.