Life’s a Witch

by Skyler Andra

Tor threw the first punch, cracking Devon in the nose, making him stumble into the punk behind him. Blood poured out of his nose, down his fingers, and onto his prison shirt. At first, he blinked, stunned someone dared hit him.

  Dammit, Tor. Always quick to fucking anger. The guy couldn’t control himself. If we lost points for this, I’d break his nose.

  I stepped between Tor and the rest of them with my palms face up. Maybe they’d see reason. But Baldy shoved me aside and grabbed Tor’s arm and twisted it back while skeleton-face got a punch in to his gut. Tor kicked skeleton-face in the balls, sending him reeling into the wall. Tor twisted free of Baldy and smacked his palm into his nose, with a loud crack.

  Pascal backed away from the fight. He didn’t like confrontation. This place was too much for him. He struck his tuning forks to create calming tones, not that it would work against the magic dampeners.

  Raze stood calm and stoic. He’d only fight to defend himself.

  Me, I had to stop this before it went to far. Skeleton-face cracked Tor’s back with a fist. Tor spun and elbowed him in the cheek. I yanked them both apart and shoved them backwards. They both panted and glared at each other like bulls on a standoff.

  Pascal hunched his back and kept clanging his forks making a strange sound that went from high and tinny to low and deep. Magic zapped and sizzled on the wall. The electrical charge crackled and discharged like static electricity. I glanced up at the flickering lights. Not unusual in this place. But when the power in the walls and the hum of the dampeners went out, I knew something was up.

  Arsonist flicked his flame on, charging his hands with fire. “Well, well, well.”

  Fuck. Here we go.

  I activated my pale blue veil energy shield and held it firm in front of my chest. The first blast deflected into the wall behind me and chunks of stone exploded from the intense heat. The rest hit the wall to my right, smashing a watcher.

  Fuck. My body numbed. I was gonna pay for that. Killing a gargoyle came with some serious time.

  Devon fired at the back of my knee, and I grunted, stumbling forward.

  Throughout all this, Raze stood firm his gaze ahead of us. Sometimes he tuned out and meditated, talking to the star walkers as he called them. When Devon interrupted him with a shove to the chest, Raze’s top lip peeled back, his eyes flashing with deadly fierceness. Raze picked up Devon and threw him like a battering ram into the wall. Devon’s skull crashed into the wall, breaking the stone. If he were a normal human, it would have killed him. But members of the Shadows and Guardians were bestowed with inhuman strength and healing factors to enable us to combat the gantii. Devon climbed up from the floor, shaking his head, his eyes promising Raze revenge.

  Raze and I were the only ones in my team without magical gifts. But he had supernatural senses: smell, eyesight, hearing, and the guy healed faster than all of us. Still among all the chaos, he caught Devon’s attack, repelling a blow with his shield, that battered the punk into the debris.

  Alarms began wailing and flashing red lights activated in the halls, dimming the standard illumination. CCTV cameras trained in on us recording everything. Tricks to break up fights when we couldn’t see as well. Pity it didn’t work. We were used to hunting supernatural creatures off world and a little darkness never bothered us. If anything, it set off our animalistic sides.

  Fuck. This was probably going to get us each another two years on our sentences. We’d damaged two watchers in the fight.

  Sentries, armed with taser-tipped batons, rushed into the room.

  “Ceasefire,” one shouted.

  Arsonist let off a discharge at them that made their weapons zap with even more power. They’d cranked up the voltage. I braced for pain. This was gonna hurt.

  “Stand fucking down,” I shouted at my team.

  None of them listened. So I ran up to Tor, grabbed Skeleton-face in a headlock, choking him, hoping he’d lose consciousness to end this before we got electrified and thrown in the hole along with Devon’s brother. After a few seconds of struggle, Skeleton-face went down.

  Arsonist and Devon weren’t going to be as easy. They both pounded Raze with blasts that pushed him back, making him madder, and he charged forward in between firing to slam Arsonist into the wall.

  Pascal flung Devon backwards with sound wave, and he crashed into the sentries advancing on us.

  “Back on your feet, sentries,” someone roared from the opposite end of the hall.

  Fuck. Vartros, the warden. Standing with a young woman, slim, glasses over her bright blue eyes, dark brown hair streaked with orange that looked like little flickers of fire. Cute. She gave me that sexy librarian vibe and I wanted to take her into an aisle in the library and show her a good time.

  She stood in front of the warden and deflected an explosion. It burst into flames against the wall. Palms glowing with an unusual orange light, she moved forward.

  The warden seized her arm and lifted his comms bracelet. “Get a riot team down here. Activate the magic dampeners.”

  The woman threw the warden aside and blocked another blow. Fearless, she charged into the fray, kicking aside Arsonist with impressive skill. Next, she unleashed a cord of ethereal veil energy, hooking it around Baldy’s throat, dragging him back. He scratched, unable to get free. He roared at her second blow that brought him to his knees.

  This chick was cool.

  Riot sentries swarmed around Vartros with clear shields, protected with runes to repel magical assaults.

  When Arsonist realized he was the last man standing, he glanced at the recovering sentries, who had shoved Devon off them, at the unconscious Skeleton--face beside him, and Baldy getting his ass kicked by a girl. He sneered and prepared his worst.

  Fuck, don’t do it man. You’re just making this worse for yourself.

  Half the Guardians came from broken homes, had chips on their shoulders, damaged pasts, insecurities up to their eyeballs and that made for pure chaos in this place. The poor headmaster had any number of headaches to deal with on a daily basis. My team was probably the most drama and incident free. That was why we topped the reduction tally and were destined to get out of here in less than three years if we kept up at our current rate.

  Arsonist turned away from the sentries, setting his gaze on me. His eyes burned with hatred.

  I swung my shield in his direction. Let’s end this, bitch.

  An orange projectile flew past me, hitting him and dissolving his arm into a skin colored vapor.

  “Hah!” Tor shouted to my left.

  The girl came to stand in front of me, arms raised, ready for battle. Who was this chick and what the hell did she do to his arm?

  Arsonist’s full fury targeted her. His wrath transformed into a large, dark red ball of light that would kill her if she didn’t manage to get out of the way.

  My amulet crackled as its power died. “Fuck.” Security had deactivated it to stop us from retaliating and end the fight. Now, I had no way of protecting her.

  I shouted at her, but she didn’t move. Brave chick charged up for another defensive round, but her magic spluttered, courtesy of the magic repellant rippling through the air. Arsonist charged at her with a tiny flame on his finger. Time slowed as I dashed toward her, tackling her with all my weight, rolling with her on the floor, ending up on top of her.

  Behind us, Arsonist screamed, “Get the fuck off me,” and I looked up, catching him thrashing as the sentries pinned him down and cuffed him. They dragged him away kicking and screaming.

  But my attention remained on the woman Gorgeous blue eyes. Chest heaving, I liked the feel of her breasts against me. The vein in her throat pumped fast as she studied my face, hands exploring my arms, groping my muscles. I glanced down at her, wondering what the hell she was doing.

  “Not injured. But very strong.” She kept squeezing my arms. “How many times a day do you work out?”

  Her squeezing my damned muscles got me excited and I felt my big guy stir. Fuck. I pushed off her and g
rabbed her hand and jerked her to her feet. She made an oof noise as if she hadn’t been expecting that.

  “Who the hell are you?” I asked.

  “Your new teammate.” Her reply sent ice shards through my veins.

  No fucking way. We didn’t need another member on our team. Not after Jaz, my best mate, died. The thought of replacing him felt like a knife slashed at my insides. No way in hell was I going through that again. Period.

  Before I got a chance to tell her to go to hell, a sentry clasped my wrist, twisted it behind my back. “What do you want me to do with these four, Vartros?”

  The warden examined all the damage. “What started it this time, Knoxe?”

  “Those fuckwits asked for it.” Damn Tor, opening his mouth when he shouldn’t.

  I silenced him with a glare. “Let me handle this, Tor.”

  Last thing we needed was a hot-headed idiot who thought he was a superhero putting us on the wrong side of the warden. We needed every point we could get and no one who ended up in the hole got to keep their points.

  Vartros jerked his head. Permission to speak.

  “Devon and his crew started this shit with my team.” I was calm, cool, boiling on the inside, but placid on the outside.

  The warden pinched his fingers and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t need this shit right now. I’ve got enough to deal with.”

  Vartros grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off to the side. “You know better than this.”

  Of course I did. But I had reputation and honor to defend. “I did what I had to do.”

  “At the cost of your team?” The warden pinched his forehead. “Dammit, Knoxe, you’re one of the smartest men I have. Don’t throw this down the toilet for points with Devon.”

  “You won’t have any more trouble from me or my team.”

  Vartros gave me a sharp look. “I’m sorry, Knoxe, but I can’t just throw Devon’s crew in the hole. You and your team are as culpable.”

  I bent my head, tucking my hands behind my back, gritting my teeth. “I understand.”

  “What about the girl?”

  “It’s her first offence, and she was defending me.” The warden turned to the sentries. “Put them in the hole to cool off.”

  Chapter 6

  Astra

  The things I got myself into. Trouble magnet. That was me. But soon I wouldn’t have to worry about all this madness. Two weeks. Tops. I checked the appeal application on the clipboard for the fifth time, making sure I’d filled in every box. All I had to do was sign. My stomach contracted as I scribbled my signature. Surely, the Guild would see reason. Surely.

  Dear God get me out of here. There was no way I was staying here. No more forty eight hours of solitary confinement. No more firefights. No more prison and criminals.

  I slid the clipboard under the glass screen and picked up the leather-bound books I’d set aside on the counter. “All finished, Gloria.”

  The crystal lamps overhead flickered, faded in and out, then went black for a few seconds. Oh shit, a bad sign. I was suspicious like that. Long ago, my aunt had taught me to read the signs. Lights flickering, unidentifiable knocks on walls or doors, the feeling of a hand in her hair. All signs from spirits, she’d say. Crap. I crossed my fingers. Hopefully, this was a good sign instead. I needed all the luck I could get if I was going to have my sentence overturned and my membership reestablished in the Shadows. Or at least my sentence shortened to a year or something more reasonable.

  “Damn lamps need a recharge.” Gloria, the warden’s PA, grabbed a broomstick from the corner by her desk and thumped the wall, as if that might help. Instead, one of the crystals fell out of its casing, and smashed on the ground.

  I jerked and squeezed the book to my chest.

  “Damn maintenance crew. And damned inmates.” She eyed me with a solid glare. “All these fights. Never time enough for peace so we can get normal maintenance work done.”

  Fights. Plural. Great. I mentally prepared myself. Next time, I’d have to stay out of it. I didn’t want anything jeopardizing my appeal.

  Gloria, in her 1950’s style black polka dot dress, glanced over her red, pointy, similar era glasses and took my application. Something about the way her lips pursed, almost in a sympathetic way, shrunk my faith in my appeal. My stomach turned.

  “Good luck, honey.” Her bleak tone confirmed my fears.

  “Thanks.” I gave her a solemn smile and walked away, clutching the borrowed library book tighter.

  My appeal couldn’t fail. I had to get the hell out. I didn’t belong here. This place was going to be the death of me.

  Stay positive Astra. I heard my mom’s chipper voice in my head. She always tried to stay upbeat for me when the bullies picked on me at school. Her lopsided smile flashed in my mind. Oh, that smile. Once, it gave me comfort and solace, now, it made my heart ache to think of her. I hated being so far away from her and my sister, and not being able to do anything for them. I had to win my appeal for them.

  Tears blurred my vision.

  I didn’t raise you to sit around and cry, my mom used to say after Samantha Jayne picked on me. No. I raised a strong girl. A brave girl. My girl’s going to show Samantha that her words don’t matter.

  My mom would grab the walking cane, take me to the park, tiring herself in the process. She was never the kind of woman to let her stroke drag her into pity and oh-woe-is-me. If she were here, she’d give me that look, the one that said, keep going; no matter what.

  So that was my plan. I sniffed, wiped away the tears, and took a deep breath. Three squeezes of my hands calmed me, before I pushed forward. On to my next application for the day.

  I rubbed my face from temple to chin and pulled on my pink headphones to listen to my romance audiobook, Cocky Alpha’s Play Thing. It was the only thing that had taken my mind off being in this place. Tray and Fin were arguing, she slapped him, he caught her wrist, and the passion flared. They flew into each other’s arms for the third sexy time this book.

  Sigh. My heart fluttered. God, I loved this stuff. Couldn’t get enough of it.

  While the narrator sensually droned in my ear, I removed the map from my pocket, laying flat on the book cover, studying it. The warden had my new team put in the hole for two weeks. I might be good with a textbook but maps confused the heck out of me. Several times I spun the thing trying to get orientated.

  Three nights ago, I couldn’t sleep, and had stayed up to study Guardians rules and regulations. Guess what I found? A loophole to bail out my team for a small price. Old school rules from the fifties that hadn’t been changed. Somehow I’d stupidly convinced myself that such an act would build rapport with my team. Hell, if I was going to have to spend the next twenty-five years with them, I wanted to make the best of the time, and it wouldn’t hurt to have someone who had my back.

  On the way to The Hole, I passed two female inmates, huddled in a dark corner, where more crystals flickered. They whispered something and exchanged items. They turned to stare at me, one giving me the serious evil eye, the other a heavy once over, that slow up and down examination accompanied by a lick of her lips.

  Nothing to see here.

  I hurried, took a right turn, then a left, finally reaching two sentries posted outside a thick, metal door with a wheel on it, that reminded me of submarine access. This was the spot. I pulled off my headphones.

  “Is this The Hole?” I asked the sentries.

  “Yep.” One glanced down at me. He towered over me, but they all did. Wasn’t hard to tower over five-foot-three. “No visitors allowed.”

  “I’m not a visitor.” I straightened and stood taller. “I’m here to bail my team out.”

  The other guard snorted. “Only the warden can do that. Get out of here.”

  Time to throw the rulebook in his face. I lifted the library book and waved it in front of him. “Not according to rule 5.4.2 of the Guardian Code Book established 1952 by the High Council of the Guild of Guardians.”

 
; He brushed it aside. “Let her in. Let Brian deal with her.”

  I stepped aside as he twisted the wheel and unlock the door, and the latch inside clunked. Inside, I approached the counter, explaining everything to the officer inside.

  He didn’t give a fuck about my story or the rules. “Sign here.” He jabbed the six-page document he slid underneath the glass screen separating us. Glass covered in grime, dust… and was that blood?

  I wanted out in the field, away from this overwhelming and dangerous place, and I needed my new team for that.

  “What’s all this?” I flicked through the pages of numbered paragraphs of legal mumbo jumbo that made my eyes ache.

  “A consent form.” The officer placed a half-chewed pen on the counter in front of the screen.

  Consent form, my ass. More like a contract full of words designed to confuse. My momma didn’t raise a dummy and no way would I sign my soul over to the devil. My father worked in insurance for forty years, and he’d taught me never to sign anything unless I knew it well enough to explain it to someone else.

  I wandered away from the counter, leaned against the wall, scanning the legalese in the document. Alarm bells tolled in my head. The applicant takes responsibility for a good behavior bond. I didn’t even know these guys. I wasn’t in a position to vouch for them, let alone assure they wouldn’t offend again. They were involved in a fight when I went to meet them for crying out loud! Silver Blazes, what was I doing? Going mad, that was what.

  Another sentence made my eyes widen. The applicant forfeits one hundred credits in exchange for early release of inmate from the hole. I swallowed hard.

  “Fuck! This better be worth it.” Slowly, I read the rest of the form, signing and dating at the bottom, then handed it back to the officer.

  Eyebrows pressed down hard, his fingers trailed down every page, checking that I’d completed them. He stared down his nose at me and frowned. “Miss. Nomical, you understand that by releasing your team, you’ll be forfeiting two-hundred credits and absorbing their two months combined

  Punishment?”