by Celeste Raye
“Why would I do that?”
“Because your Alpha tells you to.”
Dennis had a sour look on his face and Frank knew it was because of what he had just said. He was his younger brother after all, and Dennis really liked to be in charge.
“I don't know what the hell this woman did to you, but there must be gold between her legs.”
“We haven't even got near that far, Dennis. I'm telling you, she’s the one. You don't have to understand that; you just have to follow your Alpha’s directions.”
Dennis agreed, but Frank knew that he wasn't happy about it. Frank didn't care though. If his brother would have told him sooner, he could have stopped her before she got there. Now he didn't know if he would be able to or not. They took off moments later in their shifted forms. Frank was terrified that he would be too late.
A sinking feeling entered his stomach when they got closer, and Frank knew that Connie was not safe. Something was going wrong, very wrong, and she needed him.
Frank moved faster towards Connie, towards the house, praying that he would get there in time. He had to save her from her own kind.
Chapter Fourteen
Connie hadn’t believed Frank when he’d said that Denise was okay. There was some witchy feeling inside of her that told her that something was wrong, so she had not been able to go to sleep. She had played out so many bad scenarios in her head, and she knew that she had to get her friend to safety. Denise was her best friend, and she couldn't let something happen to her. Especially not something that had been brought on because of her. Connie would never be able to forgive herself.
So, she went to check on her. She was worried about what would lurk in her house when she got there, but she just had to make sure that Denise was okay. Denise had already had a rough time the night before, and she felt bad that she had taken off the way she had. A man came into her life, told her that she was in danger, and she had let him whisk her off into the woods. Connie didn't know what she was thinking. It was not like her at all.
When she got to the house, there were no lights on, and that in and of itself was strange. She got her phone out and tried to call Denise. There was no sign that there was anybody in the house, and after she waited for a few minutes for some kind of sign, Connie went towards the house.
Connie had lived there with Denise for a couple of years now, and she had never been so worried to go into her own house before. Her nerves were shattered, and Connie knew that she was going to have to rethink everything. For one reason or another, Connie thought that it was all clear. There were no lights. No sounds, and Connie hadn't picked up on anything, though she still wasn’t sure she could.
When she got to the door, she called Denise’s number again, and from far into the house, she could hear the phone ringing. Connie was sure that Denise had to be in the house because she never went anywhere without her phone. Nobody did.
What troubled her the most, though, was the fact that all the lights were off. If Denise was in there and she was sleeping, she would still have had some on, because Denise always slept with a few the lights on. It had been one of the things that Connie had made fun of her for.
The door was unlocked, and she took care to twist the doorknob as slowly as she possibly could. Connie forgot all about the fact that she had pulled into the driveway and left the lights on the house for a couple of minutes before she got out. If there was anybody in the house, they already knew she was there.
Connie took two steps and stood there frozen in space. She was straining her ears to hear something, and when she didn't, she walked a little deeper into the house. Connie didn't feel like anybody was there with her, but she certainly wasn't going to holler out Denise’s name. Not yet.
Instead, she walked through the living room and then into the dining room before getting to the hallway that had the bedrooms. Denise was nowhere to be found, and she was about to give up when she pushed into her room and saw Denise tied up on the floor. She had something in her mouth.
Every hair on the back of Connie's neck stood up, and she had no idea what she was supposed to think. What she knew, though, deep down inside of her, was the fact that the witch was still there. Frank had been right.
None of that mattered, though. She moved towards Denise and tried to pull the gag out of her mouth.
“Oh my God, Denise, are you okay?”
“Behind you, Connie.”
She turned around quickly and saw movement. She didn't really actually see a person, but something coming towards her in a quick pace. She sent out a fireball like she had before, and like before, Connie didn't have much to do with it. It had just happened.
The fireball brightened up the dark room, and she could see two older women in front of her. Connie had never seen them before, but she knew what they were. They were witches, and like Frank had said, they were not there to be her friend.
“Get out of here! Leave!”
“Now, dear Connie, why would we do that?”
The smaller of the two had a terrible glint in her eyes, and even though her voice was sweet and pliable, it still made Connie shake inside. There was no kindness exuding from her, even if that's the way she was trying to see them. Connie knew better. Connie had been around bad people before, and without even knowing them, she knew that they were bad.
There was a commotion at the front door, and it gave Connie enough time to throw off another fireball. She had to concentrate that time, and it was still only when the smaller witch started reciting a spell that it worked. It seemed like Connie’s powers only worked when she was afraid.
A blue ball was thrown at her, and it hit her square in the chest. It took the breath out of her and threw her back against the wall. It hit her hard, and she was knocked out. All she could remember hearing was the sound of Frank's voice and then the roar of a beast. It didn't take much for Connie to realize that Frank and come to save her again.
Then nothing but darkness.
When she came to, she was in the car, and they were driving down the highway. She did not recognize anything around her, most likely because it was dark. Connie looked to the back and found that Denise was there in the back seat. She looked okay, scared, but okay, and Connie breathed a sigh of relief.
“You’re okay.”
Denise smiled, but it was not a very big one. Denise was freaking out, and Connie knew exactly what that was like. She was freaked out as well, had been for a couple of days now.
“It’s good to see you with us, Connie.”
“Where are we going?”
“Back to my place, so we can keep you two safe. I can’t believe you left.”
Connie checked Denise again, and saw that she was fast asleep from exhaustion.
“You lied to me about Denise.”
Frank started to say that he didn’t, she could see the protest on his lips, but then he stopped.
“I just didn’t want you going after her and something happening.”
Connie knew that he said it like it was her fault, but she wasn’t going to take the blame.
“Are you seriously blaming this on me?”
He agreed that he was, and Connie didn't have a comeback.
“Thank you for coming to save me again. I don't know what I would do without you.”
“You don't have to worry about that anymore, Connie.”
Connie could feel Denise looking at her from the back seat, and she did not meet her gaze because there was no explanation for what was going on. Denise had seen too much, and she knew that they had a long conversation ahead of them.
“Where are we going?”
“Back to the house. This time, hopefully, you won't try to sneak off and start a war with two witches that are a hell of a lot stronger than you are.”
Connie told Frank that she wasn't going anywhere. She was worried about Denise finding out what she already knew. Denise already looked like she had had enough excitement for the day.
“Should we tell her?”
“I think she knows enough. I had to shift in front of her to get the witches away from you. They were doing some kind of spell, and I think they were trying to take your soul. Do you know why they would want to do that?”
Connie just shook her head and shrugged a little bit. She had no idea and said as much.
“I don't know, maybe I will think about it later. My head is killing me right now, and it's hard to think straight with everything whirling away in there. Nothing surprises me anymore. Soul-sucking witches, check.”
The hard look on his face softened and he patted her hand and told her that they would be back home in a few minutes. Connie wanted to correct him. It wasn't her home, but for some reason, she liked the sound of it. She wanted to feel like she belonged somewhere because at the moment, she didn't. She didn't feel like she belonged anywhere. Her family might not be her family, and if they were, they had some major secrets.
Connie had tried to call her mother, but no one had answered. She didn't even know exactly what she was going to say to them, but knew that something had to be said.
One way or another, Connie was going to figure it all out. But right now, all she wanted to do was sleep.
Chapter Fifteen
Frank took the two women back up to the house, and by that time, it was almost three o'clock in the morning, and he was thankful for that. At least he didn't have to explain what was going on. It was bad enough to bring a witch into his house, but people were definitely going to freak out when they realized that he had brought a human in as well. Humans were off-limits and they did not belong in their world. Frank knew that he had to keep Denise with him, though, if he wanted Connie to stay close.
When he got the two women up to a bedroom, he went back downstairs, and sure enough, Dennis was waiting for him.
“Tell me you did not just bring a human into this house?”
“I had to, Dennis. And to be honest, I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm already healing, but when you were checking the yard, those witches hit me with something, and my chest hurts. It’s been a rough night.”
“Witches? More of them? Now they are multiplying?”
“Someone is after Connie, and I’m not sure why. They were waiting at her house earlier; that's why I brought her here to begin with. She took off because she wanted to save her friend, or I guess at least make sure she was alright. She wasn't, and the two witches were waiting for Connie when she got back. They were soul-sucking her when I walked in.”
“Wow.”
“I know. I don't know what's going on, but I know that I have to protect her. You don't have to understand this, nobody has to understand it, but this is the way it is. No one is to touch either one of those women. No one is to say anything to them. Just let them be, until I figure out what to do next. You like Dahlia, now that you got to know her.”
“Dahlia is the exception. You're putting us in danger with your little witch fling.”
“You don't think much of me then, do you, Dennis? If I thought in any way shape or form that it was going to be a problem, then I would have never brought them here. We are strong, and they need help, and we're here to help them. I don't know how yet, Dennis, but this is what we're supposed to do. You’re just going to have to trust me.”
Dennis snorted and then scoffed. It was clear how he felt about the whole situation, but Frank didn't want to hear it. He was the Alpha for a reason, and he wasn't going to have anybody go against him.
Frank left his brother in the living room and took a long shower. He checked on the girls before he went to bed himself. He was relieved to see them sleeping, and he closed the door gently behind him. Frank had no idea what he had gotten himself into but he couldn't help but feel like he was doing the right thing. This had to be right, or why would he feel this way about her?
Linda and Marl, were no worse for wear. The shifter had taken them by surprise and left a few cuts and scrapes as he threw them across the house, but they had healed themselves in minutes.
“I told you that your daughter wasn’t going to be as easy to soul-suck as you thought she would be.”
“My daughter shouldn't even know she's a witch. And I didn't say that we were going to come here to soul-suck her. We were just supposed to take some of her power to tide us over.”
“Once our sisters started to die, the spell that you put in place on Connie started to fade. It's a good thing, too, because if not, we would not have found her. And if we don't find a witch to siphon off of soon, we are going to turn into dust, and you know it. We should have sucked some of the kids before we left.”
“We didn't leave, Marl, we were attacked. We were kicked out of our own home, and now we have nowhere to go.”
Marl was trying to see the brighter side of things, but Linda was having trouble doing so. Linda was another one who had decided that she wanted to keep her daughter a secret from her other sisters. She actually thought that she would be able to keep Connie away from everything, but that had not been the case at all. But Marl always seemed to get what she needed. Now she was convinced that she needed Linda’s daughter to stay young a little bit longer, and Linda was having a hard time with that.
“We are Stein witches, Linda. We can go wherever we want to, and you shouldn't forget that. I know that the loss at the orphanage was rough, it was certainly unexpected, but we will make it through. Do you remember what we did before the orphanage was in place?”
Linda couldn’t say that she liked that existence very much. It had not been the peaceful way that they had been living lately. She did not like to hurt children, but Linda had long since gotten used to the idea that some of them had to be sacrificed. If not, she would have to die, and Linda wasn't ready for that yet.
Linda had been very close to Justin. She had raised him since he was a child, and since she couldn't raise her own child, Linda had been very attached to Justin. Then Justin had attacked them with his little witch girlfriend, and now her sister was on a warpath. Linda wanted to turn her away from Connie, but she knew that just like with Justin, her sister would never listen. They were the last of the Stein witches, and she wasn't ready to walk away from that yet.
“It is all going to be okay tomorrow. We should just wait a little bit longer, and I'm sure she'll come back.”
“There is no way that I'm waiting here. For whatever reason, your daughter has hooked up with a bunch of shifters, and this breed of animals is a lot stronger than the rest of them. I haven't seen such an aggressive attack in a very long time. If I didn't know any better, I would think that that shifter had a thing for your daughter. Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”
Linda agreed with her sister’s thoughts, but she didn't want anything to happen to her daughter, even if that meant that she would get older than she already was. It wasn't like they were going to disappear tomorrow. They would have time, probably many years ahead of them now even if the aging process had begun again. Linda was starting to believe that she had lived long enough.
She also knew that there was no way that she could tell Marl that. Her sister had been sucking children dry for centuries, and she wasn't going to stop now. Marl didn't even like to have a gray hair or a wrinkle, let alone all the other things that would come with it. As much as Linda wanted to believe that her sister would do the right thing, she knew she wouldn't.
Linda agreed that they were going to leave the house and find another way to get to Connie. Linda was quick to say something about a hotel.
“We don't have money for a hotel.”
“Sure, we do, Marl. All we have to do is do a little mesmerizing spell, and that'll be that. I'm sure we can stay there as long as we need to.”
Marl didn't want to hear it. She did not want to stay in a hotel. She wanted to go back home to the orphanage where she had been most of her life, but she knew that she couldn't do that. At the moment, she was in the wind just like Linda was.
“I am not tired, Linda. I am ready to feed. I can feel th
e age coming up on me, and I just won't do it. Let's go suck a few humans dry before we find accommodations.”
Linda was horrified at the idea of it. But she was more horrified at the idea of her sister coming at her. Marl was always the strongest one because she was the oldest. It was easier for her just to go along with it.
Linda knew when the time came, she was going to have to go against her sister, but not today. Not tonight.
Chapter Sixteen
Connie was not feeling well when they got back to Frank’s house. She was glad that Denise was okay, save for being scared out of her mind.
At least Denise wasn’t hurt. Connie could not say the same thing for herself. She had been hit with a ball of magic, and it hurt. Every part of her hurt, and she wished then that she would be able to heal fast like Frank.
She got out of the shower, and Denise was waiting for her. She was still upset, understandably, and again, she wanted to pepper her friend with all of these questions. The only problem was that Connie didn’t know how to answer all of them.
“Where are we?”
“Frank’s house. He said we can stay as long as we want.”
“What about work?”
Connie giggled for a moment and shrugged. “You know, I haven’t even thought about the law office. I guess I am fired.”
“I can’t get fired.”
“Well, for now, we don’t need you going back to the house. Those witches could still be there, and we don’t want to go against them again. They are way too strong. My whole body hurts right now, and I’m a witch. If they would have done the same to you, Denise, I don’t think you would have made it.”
The thought saddened Connie, and she was trying to figure out how she would go on without her friend.
“So, I am just supposed to wait here?”
Connie hadn’t gotten that far. “Yeah, I guess so. We need to figure out what’s going on. That’s all I know.”
