Spellbound Murder Complete Trilogy (Spellbound Murder Box Set Book 1)

by Amanda Booloodian

Emmit noticed her taking a closer look and pulled back.

  She reached out, seeing the red static begin to stretch out. He stepped away before she could touch him.

  “Let’s get to the circle before the magic fails altogether.” Emmit went inside and inspected the room before moving to her workshop.

  The door to the workshop was leaning in place rather than acting like a proper door. Emmit set it out of the way. He didn’t take time to search the workshop. Instead, he went straight for the circle.

  “Will you be able to hold the barrier?” Emmit asked.

  “You need to pass me the necklace first,” Mira reminded him.

  Emmit hesitated, then took off the chain and laid it on the table. Without turning around, he went to the circle.

  “It will need to be strong,” Emmit said, stepping inside. “But if anything approaches, you must drop the circle.”

  Mira leaned against her work table, wondering where she would get the strength to do any magic. Della had had the right idea when she’d suggested a battery of power.

  “This seems to be appropriate,” Emmit said.

  “What does?” Mira asked.

  “The amount of power. It should hold.”

  “I haven’t…” Mira moved forward and put her hand out, trying to get her too-tired brain to figure out what had happened. The magic was rough and unfamiliar. “No, no, no.”

  Emmit turned to her. She saw a shape under the shadows and dark eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” He shifted. “If you want me to go…”

  “Get out of there.” Mira’s mind started to fire in fits and bursts. She ran a hand over the shell, looking for flaws that she might be able to exploit.

  “If you drop—”

  “I didn’t charge this. This isn’t me.”

  Mira knelt down on the floor and examined the base of the circle.

  “Stand back,” Emmit said.

  Mira moved back over to her work table and frantically began pulling out items. There were things that could weaken magic, even after it had been cast. She just hoped like hell that she had something.

  A crackling pop behind her made her turn around. Inside the circle, Emmit appeared to disperse slightly before slamming into the barrier. The magic glowed brighter momentarily, and Emmit fell back. He tried again and again, each time his movements seeming a little less desperate. He was slowing down—worn out.

  When his form sunk to the ground, Mira’s heart began to race. Had he hurt himself? His body didn’t appear solid enough to be harmed.

  “Mira,” Emmit said. “You need to run.”

  “What?” Mira turned back to her workbench and looked for anything that could leech magic off something. Obsidian shards, no. Hematite, maybe.

  “Go to Lance’s or find Gabriel. Whichever, but you have to go now.”

  Moonstone, no. Redwood? Hmm, maybe Redwood. Ammonite would just make it worse.

  “Mira!”

  Mira jumped at the harsh voice. “Shut up, I’m thinking.”

  The red static dispersed more rapidly. “What?” His voice was dark and raspy. The shadows grew darker, but only inside the circle.

  “And you’re scaring no one,” Mira snapped. “I’m working on a way to get you out.”

  “If I save enough energy, I can break through. Go. Now!”

  “You can’t. Each time you hit it, it gets stronger. I don’t know how.”

  “That’s because no witch alive truly knows magic.” John’s voice preceded him down the stairs.

  Mira froze.

  When he stepped into the room, the smell of rotting flesh seemed to build thickly around him.

  “This wasn’t exactly what I expected to catch,” John said. “But having a Harker will definitely do the trick.”

  Emmit banged around his little prison.

  John chuckled.

  “Let him go,” Mira said.

  “In time, perhaps,” John said. “That’s all going to depend on you.”

  “Look, the thing in the city is dead. You don’t have to worry about that anymore. You won’t have to… I mean, it can’t…”

  “I’d like to know how you did that,” John said. “It was a nifty trick.”

  “You don’t need any more witches,” Mira said. “And you certainly don’t need Emmit.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong.” John moved quickly around his prisoner.

  Mira backed away, not letting the man out of her sight, even though the stench made her gag.

  John made a whistling noise. Mira didn’t see anything else around, but she sensed movement outside the room.

  “Your friend here is going to be your incentive. If you don’t willingly turn yourself over, I’ll kill him.”

  Mira glanced at Emmit. The shadows seemed to settle down in the center. After a few moments, he began speaking, but in a language Mira wasn’t familiar with.

  Mira felt a breeze begin to flow through the place.

  John laughed again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out something that looked like a string bracelet with multiple colors. He grabbed one of the threads and pulled. Emmit’s bubble shrunk until it was barely the size of a dog house. There wasn’t much space that wasn’t filled with Emmit’s form.

  John toyed with the thing, and all noise from inside stopped.

  “What did you do?” Mira said.

  “He’s still alive… for the moment. How long that’s true depends on you.”

  Stall, I need to stall until Gabriel gets here. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Quite simply, I want your body.”

  Mira’s nose curled up in disgust and she backed toward the garage.

  “You see,” John said, moving to intercept her, “this one is used up. Thanks to you, there’s no way this one will work out in the real world.”

  “You tried that already,” Mira said. “It doesn’t work.”

  “The issue that we’ve been faced with is that the bodies we’ve tried just don’t want to be cooperative. John invited me in. Now you’re going to do the same.”

  Chapter 27

  “That’s insane,” Mira said. “You’re insane.”

  She backed up to the open doorway. There was no way she was going to run and leave Emmit behind, but John didn’t know that. She needed to do whatever she could to stall for time.

  When she stood in the door frame, something in the garage growled. She turned around and stepped backwards, not wanting whatever it was to attack her from behind.

  Nothing moved into the room. When she turned back to John, he was right next to her. He grabbed her hand.

  Pain shot through her arm setting off echoes of pain radiating through her. John, taken by surprise, let go and stood back.

  Mira fell to the ground, clutching her burned hand.

  “You’ve damaged your body,” John said with a sneer. “Stupid witch. It doesn’t matter. We can work with that. Get up.”

  Mira’s vision blurred from exhaustion, pain, and fear.

  John kicked her, not hard, but enough to make sure she knew he was there. “Get up!”

  Slowly and painfully, Mira got to her feet. He doesn’t want to damage the body any more than it already is. Is there a way to use that to my advantage?

  The only advantage Mira could see would only make things worse. She’d had enough pain for a lifetime, so she certainly wasn’t going to inflict any more on herself.

  At least not without a good reason.

  “Why do you need me?” Mira asked, panting between words.

  “This brain worked for a while. But let’s face it, this body was human to start with. A few flashes of insight are nothing compared to what I’ll be able to do using you.”

  “Why would I help you in any way? You’ll just kill Emmit if I’m gone. And Gabriel’s going to come and kill you.”

  “Gabriel has promised to protect that body,” John said. “Letting him and Harker fight it out is just going to add to the fun.”

  Mira wearily sm
irked at John. “That wore off. That promise doesn’t work anymore.”

  “Is that what you think? This is going to be even more enjoyable than I thought. You make the switch, Emmit and Gabriel live. Unless one of them kills the other.”

  “And my friends and family?” Mira asked, wondering where the hell Gabriel was.

  “Safe.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because I don’t care enough to do anything. In a witch’s body, I’ll be able to do my own magic again. Witches today can’t do crap. Even you. But with me using you, I’ll be revered among your kind. We will be revered.”

  “You’ve said that before, that witches today don’t know magic.”

  “You tie everything to yourself. Even your magic circle.” John gestured to the shadowy form of Emmit. “If I hurt your circle, I hurt you. It’s weak.”

  Of course all your spells are tied to yourself. “So you’re going to do, what? Show witches how it’s done so they’ll like you?”

  “No. I’ll show witches how to be great again. Then we’ll take our rightful lead in the world.”

  “You want to expose witches? No one’s going to let you get away with that.”

  “And you don’t have to worry about what happens.”

  “Why do—”

  “Enough!” John yelled. “You, for him. It’s time to decide.”

  “You can’t have me.”

  John pulled on the string that made Emmit’s cell smaller. “You’re sure?”

  If what he said is right, then that string was tied to Jean. She had to have been the one to create it.

  “Stop!” Mira yelled.

  Jean made all his spells.

  John grinned. “Second thoughts?”

  Jean had bonded to Mira with blood as part of the ritual. All three of them had.

  “Let him go first.” Maybe she had something to work with, since she had their blood. Mira wrapped her arms around herself and gripped down on the cut on her side.

  “That’s not the way this works.”

  “How does this work?” Mira turned away slightly and worked her hand under her bandage enough to wipe the blood across her hand. This action would have been so much easier if she knew where Jean had cut her.

  “You relax, and invite me in.”

  She shifted and gripped her arms. Pain radiated across her burns, and she had to bite back a gasp when new waves of pain arrived. “How can I relax? There’s no way to relax here.”

  “You’ll have to,” John snapped.

  “And you are already in a body. I can’t invite a body into mine.” What else did she have?

  “Stupid witch. I’ll leave once you’ve given me permission.”

  “And if I take it back?” She had Spark.

  John seemed to hesitate. “Once you’ve given me leave, it won’t matter. We will seal the deal in blood.”

  Mira turned completely away. “I’ll need something.” She rubbed her hands together, now sure that she had Jean’s blood along with Gabriel’s and Emmit’s on her hands.

  Spark was in her pocket. Now she had to figure out what the hell she could do with it.

  “I’ve grown weary of this,” John said. “I’ll kill this one and bring the angel in. Maybe I can pluck his feathers out one at a time until you agree.”

  The only power he had was what he held in his hands. It was the power that could take away Emmit’s life, but he had to have a chance to use it.

  Could he even kill Emmit? Mira put that idea out of her head. It was a dangerous guessing game that she didn’t have the brain power to play.

  What would Gabriel do if he was here?

  “You can’t have Gabriel, we just left him.” Gabriel’s feathers were also in her pocket. How could she have forgotten about them?

  “I assure you, he is under my control.”

  Gabriel would have pulled out his sword and taken John down.

  Mira hung her head. “You’ve given me no choice.” The quiver in her voice was real. The blood of four people was on her hands, and she only had permission to use her own.

  How did Gabriel call the sword to him? Mira wished she could believe that Gabriel’s sword would come to her aide, but she knew that was his. But, with his blood and feathers, along with the power of Spark and the other blood…

  “Come here and we can finish this.”

  “At least I know you’ll end up with bad karma. You may have a hard time staying alive long enough to enjoy being me.”

  John’s cackled. “Where do you think that came from? I can push it off to someone else once I join with you.”

  Mira turned and gaped at him. “You did this?”

  “It had to go somewhere.”

  Someone had done this to her once before. Pushed their karma off on her until it had almost been enough to kill her. How could she not recognize it when the same thing was happening again?

  “Jean cast this spell for you?” Mira asked, her anger rising enough to combat her fear.

  “She’s been useful, but now I won’t need her.”

  A few seconds would be all she had. With Jean’s blood, she could cancel the spells, right? It was so tricky with the woman being a hedge witch—Mira didn’t have much experience with them.

  “It’s time,” John said.

  “Can I say goodbye?” Mira asked, gesturing to the clouded circle.

  Mira had nothing to power a spell, or even a spell negation, but she held items that were power in their own right. Perhaps a transfer of power would work better.

  “You’ve wasted enough time,” John snapped.

  Ignoring him, Mira walked around the circle, brushing a hand against it, fingers trailing as she did. John noticed the gesture, but with any luck, he didn’t spot the hint of blood added to the enclosure.

  Looking meek as she approached might be difficult—Mira seethed beneath the surface. Her fear was still real, so letting that show would hopefully be good enough.

  John looked like he was going to start yelling, but when she turned toward him, his demeanor turned smug.

  The smug look helped.

  “We swear on blood—yours, not mine—to seal the pact,” John said.

  Mira walked up slowly, her bloody hand extended. John had the strands that controlled Emmit’s prison in one hand, and he extended the other.

  Mira balled up her fist and with every ounce of her strength she brought her arm around and caught John across the face with her elbow, then brought up her knee. John looked shocked more than hurt by her attack.

  Her knee to the groin did nothing. A hazy thought of dead body and dead nerves flitted through Mira’s mind. To add more strength to the attack she grabbed her arm and swung the around again catching him hard.

  John reeled.

  Mira grabbed the strands of cotton from his hand as snarls and growls erupted from the stairs and garage simultaneously.

  “You bitch!” John yelled.

  Mira ignored him. Not paying attention to the sound of talons on concrete was harder.

  Mira scrambled back, then grabbed Emmit’s necklace from her workbench.

  “Bring her down!” John’s rage hung heavy on the words.

  Heart racing, Mira jumped behind the enclosure, buying herself seconds. On the concrete, in blood, she hastily scrawled three symbols. Necklace and strings in hand, she slapped them on Emmit’s prison and wrote one final symbol. That of reversal.

  Emmit’s cage sizzled and bulged.

  Mira screamed when she felt something grip her leg. She dropped everything and scrambled in her pocket as something started to drag her away.

  As Emmit’s bubble burst, Mira grabbed the little copper wire. Spark sprang to life and worked its way around the room like a ball of lightning.

  The creature that had her by the leg clamped down harder for just a moment before going limp.

  Shadows filled the room, and the eerie glow of the Ether winked out

  The shrill screams that followed in the darkness
would haunt Mira. Emmit’s voice held more than enough menace to cause any sane person to bolt. He began yelling in the unfamiliar language that she had heard before.

  The perverse thrill of beating up John was falling away. With the last vestiges of her strength, she pushed herself into a corner of the room. As she reached the spot her panicked spell casting and fear caught up with her, leaving her muscles slack and useless.

  Mira was fairly certain that more creatures were coming into the room, but the darkness was absolute, so she couldn’t be sure. When she tried to pull her knees up to make herself less prone, her body was uncooperative, even when a fierce curse close to her caused her blood to run cold.

  Since there was no difference in what she saw with her eyes opened or closed, she closed them and tried to block out sounds. The shrieks and growls were cut off one by one, but mixed in between she could hear bones break along unnatural, wet tearing noises.

  Time was hard to track in the Ether. She could have been there for minutes or hours.

  A subtle shift in the atmosphere told her the room was emptying. She heard a voice outside in the distance. Mentally, she cringed at the idea that John may have gotten away.

  When a hand touched her face, she jolted back, smacking her head on the wall.

  Emmit was crouched down next to her, his face a tight, angry knot. It took her a moment to realize that he looked like his real-world self again. The chain was once again around his neck.

  “You’re okay?” Mira asked.

  “It got a little tight,” he admitted.

  Mira smiled wearily. “Well, I wanted to see how far your immortality could be pushed.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Not much further, in all honesty.”

  “It’s good to know you have your limits.” Mira’s nose curled up as the stink of the scene began to sink into her awareness. She tried to look around Emmit, but he blocked the way, not letting her see anything.

  “We should go upstairs,” Emmit said, looking her up and down. He shifted to examine her leg, ripping back her jeans to expose the wound.

  Mira could hear him suck in air. He pulled off strips of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it tightly around her leg quickly, saying nothing. She winced as he tightened the knot.

  He looked weary and worried, something Mira was unaccustomed to.