Wanted Witch (Daughter of Darkness Book 1)

by Val O. Morris

  Wanted Witch

  Daughter of Darkness Book One

  Val O. Morris

  Contents

  Welcome!

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Help Wanted Witch Grow!

  Note From the Author

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  WANTED WITCH

  DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS BOOK ONE

  by Val O. Morris

  Copyright 2016 Val O. Morris.

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, events, or locales is purely coincidental. Reproduction in whole or part of this publication without express written consent is strictly prohibited.

  The author greatly appreciates you taking the time to read her work. Please consider leaving a review wherever you bought the book, or telling your friends about it, to help spread the word.

  Cover Design: Lou Harper

  www.valomorris.com

  Wanted Witch

  Daughter of Darkness Book One

  A murder suspect? Well, that sucks.

  My name is Mackenzie Adams and I'm a witch. Excuse me. Mage. The Council hates it when I use that term. I'm a Healer and Lightning Mage, which means I have the ability to cheat death and fry my enemies with a flick of my wrist.

  Feeling the oppression from the Council of Mage and Magical Affairs to use me for my Healer ability, I yearn for independence. Yet even when a detective stops by my video game store late one night and informs me that I'm a suspect of a recent murder, the Council continues to pursue me.

  With the help of my magical gamer friends and hot new boyfriend, I must go undercover to find the mage responsible before another body I'm connected to ends up dead. Not only do I battle external enemies throughout the city of Blackwood, but evidence mounts that necromancy and dark magic are at play.

  It will require all my magic training to stop the unknown foe from killing more innocent people and clear my name before the lure of dark magic grabs me, too.

  If you would like to be notified when the next book in the series is released and get Reborn, the prequel, FREE, please visit: www.valomorris.com/rebornfree.

  This one's for me.

  1

  "It smells like ass in here."

  Spratlin gave me this look that said such things shouldn't come out of a pretty girl's mouth. Well, I ain't your average pretty girl. My name is Mackenzie Adams and I'm a witch. More specifically, I have the unique ability to cheat death, which makes me a Healer. It also makes me unpopular and puts a target on my back.

  "Well, it does," I spat as we crept along the wall of the sewer. Seriously, what in the hell were we doing down here? Oh, right. Looking for low-level demons to use for magic-practicing fodder while we searched for something. As fun as blasting an ugly monstrosity with a well placed bolt of electricity sounded, it honestly sounded more fun to do that from the comfort of my couch with controller in hand and a bottle of tequila at my side--not wading through ankle deep sewage water.

  It hasn't always been like this. I didn't always know that I was a witch. A few months ago, I died. Actually, I've died a few times now. The trick, apparently, is that I can sacrifice myself to save someone who's in immediate mortal danger. Basically, swapping my own life for theirs in a split second. I drown instead of the man I saved. I get hit by the speeding car rather than the little girl. I die in a swirling ball of inferno produced by my now arch nemesis while saving my best friend and at the same time outing myself. So on and so forth. You know, the usual stuff.

  Honestly, it wouldn't be so bad if when I woke up, I wasn't searing in pain from temple to toes. I guess dying could be just as painful as living.

  It was kinda like entering the Konami code and gaining ninety-nine lives. Only... I don't know exactly how many I have. So, you can understand my caution. I don't know when my next sacrifice will be my last.

  Splashing water around the corner made us stop. Spratlin nodded as I took my stance--feet spread apart, right hand up and fingers at the ready, almost like I was about to catch a ball. I felt the electric current course through me like ice in my blood. I just thought the pain from After-Death, as I called it, was rough. This felt like sandpaper coursing through my blood, and then dousing it with alcohol.

  The splashing grew closer. The demon was only a few steps away. The current swelled in my wrist, and a blue light peeked from my palm like a Plasmid from Bioshock. A well-placed Electro Bolt would take out a Level 1 demon with hardly any effort.

  An ugly, spiky-eared slimy demon appeared in front of us. I let go of the Bolt. It shot wide right, only grazing the demon's long ear. Ricocheting back and forth on the sewer walls, the Bolt finally pierced through the demon as it turned to run. Lucky break.

  "Concentrate, Mackenzie. I'd like to not get killed by a stray Bolt."

  I gave him an eat-shit-and-die look.

  "I had to pull a lot of strings to get the Council to agree to let me oversee your training."

  "I don't need any favors." Boy, I was in a pissy mood. I didn't mean to make it tough on Spratlin; he was only trying to help. But I wasn't fond of all the new rules and regulations being thrown at me.

  Exposing myself as a witch thrust me into the limelight of the ruling Council. Put me on its radar. Spratlin tried to explain to me that my actions were now governed by a different set of rules put forth by the great--and I say this with total eye roll--Council of Mage and Magical Affairs. They think I'm special because I have the ability to not only heal myself but outright cheat death. Apparently, that is a rare gift in the wild witchery and wizardry world.

  Ugh. There. Had to get my eyes unstuck from the massive eye roll.

  Healers only came around once every few hundred generations. It was entirely possible for a witch to go their whole lives without knowing one.

  It was a double edged sword. On one hand, it made me very popular. And on the other? Very un-popular.

  Yay for me.

  "I should be stocking new games." My store, A to Zee's Games, had only been opened for a month. I had to sign in blood and offer up my first born to get it going, but everyone kept telling me how great it will be in the end. Anything to stay out of zombie corporate America. Okay, that definitely deserved an eye roll.

  My jackass ex-boss fired me for basically doing my job. As I walked out, I told him to go fuck himself. And now he gets to do my job. Sometimes life is sweet.

  "I promise I'll help you when we're done," Spratlin said as we continued to make our way down a tunnel. At least we were out of the shit water.

  "I'm not putting you on the payroll," I teased.

  "I'll think of some way you can repay me." He was beginning to catch on that I liked it when he flashed his pearly whites.

  I had only recently met Spratlin James. Oddly enough, we met at Level Up--my biggest competition in town. Even though I wasn't interested in dating at that time, he was too cute for even me to turn down. Our first date was to the Inferno, the local arcade, and when we left, he witnessed my death while saving a little girl from a speeding car.

&
nbsp; When he didn't run away screaming, I thought maybe there was something to him that was special. Don't let my bickering with him fool you. I do think he's special, I just don't want to be traipsing around a sewer system practicing magic on gross demons because it's what I'm supposed to do.

  Okay, I seriously need to stop the snarky eye rolling. Can you tell I have issues with authority? My mother always said I did. My newfound abilities did have their perks. It was just that I didn't like being told I now have to report to a group of witches once a month and go through the official training. The only club I like being a part of is my gaming clan. And we get to together a helluva lot more than once a month.

  Speaking of, I pulled out my phone and set a reminder to talk to Jeremy about 'game night' at the store.

  "Put that away," Spratlin hissed when I bumped into him.

  "What? I'm running a business here."

  "You're gonna run into the business end of a demon if you don't watch where you're going."

  "Really?" I stifled a laugh. "That's all ya got?"

  His turn to give me the eat-shit-and-die look. "Official training is not the time to be playing on your phone."

  I glared up at him. "Look, Dad, the Council is just gonna have to accept that I have a life outside of their little club."

  "Coven."

  "Whatever. And if they don't like it, they can kiss my a-."

  "Shhh," he held up a finger. "I hear crying."

  "Yeah, it's my soul crying for release."

  "No, I'm serious." He turned back around and picked up the pace as we continued down a narrow corridor. "Stay quiet."

  "Yeah, there's an idea."

  The sigh he let out told me he was as frustrated with me as I was with my training. I didn't mean to take it out on him. It was true that we tend to hurt those closest to us. I knew it wasn't Spratlin's fault, and he did say he was trying to make it easier on me by being my Magic Mentor. Yes, that was actually what they called it. No eye roll needed.

  I was frustrated because everything was changing at once. Suddenly, I had no job, yet I had nine lives, figuratively, then I signed my life away to open my own business, and now I was in training to quote, 'better understand and control my magical powers'. It was a lot to take in.

  We came to a small crack in the wall. A passage just big enough to slide through if we stayed prone against it. Cool air escaped from the crack and the crying was a little more clear. Spratlin jerked his head toward the crack, as if I didn't already know that was where we were headed.

  We soon stepped out of the narrow passage and into a small empty room. There was another opening against the far wall. As we approached, the most foul funk of blood and torture overtook our senses. It made the sewer smell like grandma's cooking by comparison. Gagging, it took every ounce of control not to spill my guts. Literally.

  Spratlin waved his fingers under my nose. "Better?"

  Ahh, the smell of fresh cut strawberries. See? Magic did have its perks. I wondered what else he could do with those fingers. Whoa! I do not know where that came from. Now was certainly not the time to be thinking about that.

  Having not seen the next room until now, blood and torture was an eerily accurate description. Illuminated by candlelight, dark dried blood stained the walls leaving behind the remnants of the innocent lives that it likely belonged to. Bones, both tiny and human-sized lay scattered around the corners of the room. On one end was an altar. Various papers were discarded on top of it.

  "This is not good," muttered Spratlin. The worried look on his face concerned me.

  "Do I even want to know what this place is?"

  "No. Keep your guard up."

  Another good idea. He was full of them today.

  "What exactly are we supposed to be looking for?"

  "The Council said that I'd know it when I found it."

  Great. Always wanted to go on a wild goose chase. My hand lazily flipped through the book that was open on the altar. Upon a closer look, I saw that it was in a language I didn't understand, but the demonic-looking symbols piqued my interest. I closed the book. The title jumped out at me. "Necromancy? What kind of spells are your friends casting?"

  "Hmm?" He took the book from me. "This isn't anything from our coven or the Council."

  My eyebrows raised at his confidence. "What makes you so sure?"

  The crying was much closer. A black drape hung behind us dividing the room, or hiding something, which was probably more the case since the crying was coming from that direction. I threw caution to the wind and yanked back the curtain. Sometimes I hated when I was right.

  "Oh, God." My hand covered my mouth.

  A twisted, guttural sounding voice replied, "Nooo. No God here."

  Behind the black curtain was a disgusting-looking demon that made my insides twist when it spoke.

  "At long last, we meet, Lady Mackenzie." And then it ran off dragging a small boy behind him.

  "After him!"

  As we ran through the corridors of the never-ending sewer, seriously, where the hell were we? Wait, bad choice of words.

  "Lady Mackenzie?" I repeated as I huffed after Spratlin and the demon. "How the hell did he know my name?

  "This is so not good."

  Now he officially had me worried. "Why? What's wrong?"

  "That was no low-level demon."

  "How do you know?"

  "Because low-levels only grunt. They can't speak."

  "Well, since it can, let's catch it and ask it what's going on."

  "Probably not a good idea. Ya know, the whole habitual liars and being minions of hell thing."

  The boy cried out again. We fled through the passage that the demon ran through. We chased after the crying sound as fast as we could, splashing through more tunnels. At the first fork, we made a hard right. The cries continued to echo. I silently hoped our ears weren't playing tricks on us.

  We entered into this huge underground cavern. "There he is!" The demon was several yards in front of us and was now carrying the boy in its arms.

  "When I stun him, grab the boy!"

  Spratlin always had a plan, and whether I liked it or not, I could not disobey his orders or the Council would have my head. And maybe even his. And his was too cute to lose. We were gaining distance on the demon. Finally, we rounded a corner, and the demon was holding the boy up in the air with one hand and fire formed in the other.

  Spratlin doused the demon with a blast of Aqua Beam.

  The demon dropped the boy, and he scrambled away.

  Spratlin continued to blast the demon with a steady stream of water, but the demon was able to make ground towards the boy.

  The little boy ran into a corner of the cave.

  My eyes grew wide. There was nothing to protect him if the demon got off a shot.

  "Fuuuuuck!" I whined. I knew where this was going. Straight to Sacrifice City. Not nearly as fun as Paradise City.

  The demon used his magic to fight back.

  Spratlin pushed harder. "I can't hold him forever!"

  I bolted for the boy. I knew what I had to do, and I wasn't about to disappoint that little boy's family.

  Spratlin's Aqua Beam was weakening. The moment the Aqua Beam disappeared, the demon shot a spray of Fireballs at the boy.

  "Now, Mackenzie!" Spratlin yelled.

  My legs were about to give out, but it only took another second before I grabbed the boy and shielded him from the blast.

  I said a silent prayer as the Fireballs pounded my back.

  2

  My video game store was located in the heart of town square, and the next day, Spratlin and I went there to stock shelves. I was happy to be back in my element and not in the sewers chasing demonic creatures.

  "Here, let me," Spratlin said as he picked up a big heavy box and carried it to the area behind the cash register.

  Normally, I would've balked. I don't like other people doing things for me that I was perfectly capable of doing myself. However, after a death and rebi
rth, my body rejects almost every ounce of movement. My muscles felt like they were being stretched by a thousand minions of hell and the soreness was worse than a trip to the gym after a long winter's break.

  And, too, because Spratlin owed me one for lying to me.

  As I bent over to grab a few games to stock the shelves, a jolt of pain coursed through my legs and back. Just breathe, I reminded myself as I cursed that damn gift once again. Sometimes we receive gifts we didn't ask for. Unfortunately, the gift of Healer wasn't one I could return, receipt or no.

  Spratlin must've noticed me flinching because he asked, "Do you want me to get Jeremy? This'll go much faster."

  I shook my head. No, I did not want him to get Jeremy; I wanted Spratlin to pay for lying to me. "No, he's been working his ass off while I've been doing my training. I gave him the night off."

  "That was thoughtful of you." He smiled and continued, "I was hoping it was because you wanted to spend the night alone with me."

  Yes, because stocking shelves was so romantic. "Oh, I do, but only to punish you with carrying heavy boxes." I knew they weren't that heavy even for me, and especially not for him, but that wasn't the point.

  "Punish me? What'd I do?"

  Holding a handful of the most popular new game, I glared at him. "You know why."

  "For not telling you we'd be training in the sewers?"

  Wow, sometimes guys really were clueless. "You tricked me. You knew damn well that was a rescue mission."

  "I don't understand. You knew it was training."

  "Yeah, training. What the hell gives you or the Council the right to send me on a sacrificial mission without consulting me first? Let me rephrase that. A suicide mission." Because that's ultimately what the Council planned for me to do. Sacrifice my ass.

  "It's not like that."

  "Then, please. Enlighten me because I feel like I'm being groomed to be the Council's lackey."