by D. N. Hoxa
The woman was crying in silence as she watched the neighbor’s house engulfed in flames.
“We need to leave,” one of the blonde women back said. Caren was her name.
My wolf growled. She sensed it, too. She sensed the magic in that fire. She sensed the danger in the air. It was more a feeling than anything else, but it was there. She was worried—more than worried. She was afraid.
“He’ll find us,” the woman holding the baby in her arms said, her voice breaking.
“He won’t,” one of the men said, putting an arm around the woman’s shoulders. He was probably her husband—the baby’s father. “We’ll be okay.”
“We won’t,” said Aurora. “My brothers, this has gone far enough. That is a warning!” she pointed at the fire still burning the house, far away from them. “We either leave, or we prepare to fight.”
“No!” the brunette said. “No, you can’t fight him. He’ll kill you!” Bringing the baby close to her face, she kissed her a thousand times.
Ban raised his head and howled at the sky, but the people didn’t seem to notice. “The spells are in place. If he attacks, he will be stopped,” the other man said.
“I can redo the spells, just to make sure,” the third blonde woman said—the only witch in the group. Her eyes were full of tears, too.
“If he finds her…if he finds my baby…” The brunette began to shake, her tears falling faster as she held onto her baby.
“He won’t find us,” her husband said. “He won’t find her.”
“But if he does?” It was heartbreaking to hear her. I was crying, too.
“Then I’ve got a plan,” the witch said.
My wolf howled that painful sound. She sniffed the air hard and recognized something different from the fire, from the grass and the trees and the flowers—and her people. She ran toward her family and positioned herself next to her brother, baring her teeth with a loud growl.
He was already there.
14
“Victoria,” someone called. “Victoria, it’s time to go.”
My eyes popped open and I expected to see the fire burning far away, to feel its scent and to feel my wolf’s fear and anger.
But instead, I was just me. And Red was there, too.
I sat up with a jolt, completely disoriented. I was in the hotel room. I wasn’t in the hills with my wolf’s family. Nothing was burning. I was okay.
But what the hell was that? I’d gone twenty-one years with no knowledge about my wolf whatsoever, and now she was choosing to let me see in her mind so suddenly?
Was that even it, or was I just making it all up? Was it all just a dream?
“Hey there, sleeping beauty!”
Amara came out of the bathroom and made me jump again. Putting his hands on my shoulders, Red made me look at him.
“Victoria, what’s wrong?”
I shook my head. “Just…just a dream.” But it wasn’t. I already knew it. It was a memory.
“Well, this is reality, and we need to get the hell out of here,” Amara said, completely unfazed by the fact that I was shaking, but I couldn’t blame her. She’d thought Red was dead, too, and now he was right there with us.
It was dark outside when we made our way out of the hotel and into Amara’s car. She took us to her apartment, which was twenty minutes away, and the safest place she could think of for me. They chatted in the car about everything that had happened, but I couldn’t bring myself to listen. I was still there, on that hilltop, with the fire on one side and the family of seven behind me. I could still see that woman crying and smell that smell my wolf had caught. Who the hell was he? Who could want to hurt a little baby? And when had all of this happened?
Not in the twenty-one years that my wolf was with me, that was for sure, but how far back had that family died? Or survived? Neither of them had thought they would, but my wolf and her brother had been ready to lay down their lives for their family’s. Who had they fought against?
I couldn’t wait to find out, but before my wolf took me to another trip in her memories, we arrived at Amara’s apartment. I texted one of the nurses at the hospital, the one I’d become semi-friends with, to ask about Finn, but all she said was no updates. Finn was still not awake.
Disappointed and completely distracted, I followed Red inside Amara’s apartment. She had that place well protected indeed. Nine spell stones inside the apartment, two in the hallway, and three outside, hidden around the building. Strong blood spells, all of them. I couldn’t be sure, but if I focused and did what Moore taught me to do—separate the layers of the smells—I was pretty sure I’d find that Amara made all those spell stones herself. It took a very powerful witch to make a spell stone. Maybe Amara was stronger than she let on.
The smell of someone else lingered in the brown furniture in the living room, and I did remember Amara telling me that she had a roommate at one point, but whoever she was, she hadn’t been there in at least the last few days. I wasn’t worried, though. Amara wouldn’t have brought us here if she thought it would be dangerous.
She brought us cold bottles of beer when we sat down, but I couldn’t make myself touch mine. My mind was still stuck in that memory, in my wolf and her brother, in those people…the need to know what had happened to them was consuming me.
“It’s good to have you back, Red,” Amara said, clinking her bottle to his. “Really. It’s good to have you both here.” She was in an unusually good mood.
What had Red told her? I couldn’t be sure.
“It’s good to be here,” he said with a grin.
“What exactly did he do to you that you couldn’t heal normally?” Amara continued.
That was a question I wanted to know the answer to, myself.
Red hesitated. “I’m not sure, but I think his spell, for as long as it lasted, sort of produced particles of silver and infused them in my blood.”
“That must have been painful,” Amara said, taking the words right out of my mouth. I could almost picture Red fighting against his own body, and I wasn’t even there to help. God, was I glad that he was okay now.
“It was. It took seventeen blood transfusions to get me up on my feet,” Red said reluctantly.
“Who did it? Who helped you?” I asked. I didn’t know him well, but other than the witch friend with whom he’d built the safe house in that forest, Red hadn’t mentioned anybody else.
“Just a guy who owed me a favor,” he said.
I almost rolled my eyes and intended to keep pushing until he told me, but Amara had other ideas.
“Okay, now that that’s behind us, and we know why that asshole wants the ten enchanted items, we really need to do something about it—and Nadia thinks she knows where he’s going to look for it.”
When I looked at Red, his eyes were already on me. He was waiting for my reaction, just like I was waiting for his. But what did they want me to say? I had no idea what the hell was going on most of the time, and yes, I knew exactly what I wanted, which was a first, but that didn’t mean I was ready to do something about it.
“We can still leave,” Red said when I refused to say anything for a long moment.
“Leave, where?” Amara asked, but Red didn’t answer her.
“It’s not too late.” But why did it feel like it was?
“He’s got your sister, Victoria,” Amara said. “Sooner or later, she’s going to die doing his dirty work, and you know it.”
Izzy, dead. It was an unimaginable thought. What would my mother do?
“She chose to work for him. She knew very well what she was getting herself into,” Red said.
“People make mistakes all the time, and they don’t see them until it’s too late,” said Amara with a shrug.
Was that what this was? Had Izzy simply made a mistake when she decided to go back to Haworth? A mistake wasn’t worth a life.
“Victoria, what are you thinking?” Red asked me, but I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know how.
“
What about you?” Amara asked him. “I thought this was what you came back for. For Haworth.”
But Red shook his head. “I came to warn you two to stay away from him,” he said. “And I came for Victoria.”
“So, what, you’re just going to leave again? Disappear and never come back?” Amara laughed dryly.
Red didn’t answer. He just looked at me.
So many contradicting thoughts in my mind. I wanted to save my sister with or without her consent. I wanted that monster dead, but how could I hope to do anything against him when all he’d have to do was spell me when he saw me, and I’d be gone? And Red and Amara…how much more damage could that man do to them?
Unfortunately for me, it all came down to one simple question:
Would I be able to live with myself if I walked away from this?
Maybe.
But it would be a very miserable and lonely life. I’d messed things up with the woman who raised me, but I still hoped that I’d get a chance to make it up to her. One day soon. If I walked away again, I could kiss that hope goodbye. I knew exactly what came with running away. I’d done it once and had merely existed for five years, having to fool myself into thinking that I was okay every day. I regretted leaving the first time, but I wouldn’t forgive myself if I left a second.
It didn’t matter whether I thought I was ready or not. Something needed to be done, and if the government and the packs and the witch covens couldn’t find Haworth, and I couldn’t help them directly, I could find him myself. That, at least, I was good at.
Amara and Red kept silent as they waited for me to make up my mind. It wasn’t fair to drag them by the nostrils like this. Amara had already made her decision, but Red…if I went after Haworth, he was going to be there, too. He’d escaped with his life the first time, but there was no telling what would happen the second. I didn’t want to think about the why he’d decide to stay or leave. I just knew that I had to give him an option.
Gathering the courage to speak took longer than was necessary, but when I spoke, my voice didn’t waver.
“I’m going after Haworth,” I said, and though she tried to hide it, Amara’s cheeks flushed bright red with excitement. “But you don’t have to,” I said to Red. “This is no longer your fight. You got back what he took from you. Your business with him is done.”
He stared at me without even blinking for the longest second.
“What happens if he wins?” he then asked me.
I had no answer to give him, so I gave him a question instead.
“What happens if he loses?”
The possibilities were far from equal, but we had a chance, too, no matter how small.
“If he loses, the world will never know his name. If he wins and actually manages to possess people…I’m afraid, we’re all as good as dead, anyway,” Amara answered reluctantly. “So, what do you say, vamp?”
But Red’s mind was already made up. I knew it, and I hated myself for it. I hated myself for being happy that he’d chosen to stay and fight a battle that wasn’t his.
“I say we’re about to make the worst mistake of our lives,” Red finally said. “And we better prepare like we’re up against an army.”
Amara was happy with that answer, but I wasn’t. At least not all of me.
“Say we somehow manage to find and kill Haworth. What would happen next? Do you think that guy he works with will come after us?” I asked, and Red shivered visibly. I’d never seen him more scared of anything before in my life.
“What, the Antichrist?” Amara laughed. “C’mon, man! That’s got to be a myth.”
“It’s not a myth,” Red said, shaking his head. “And yes, there’s a good chance that he’ll come after us, in which case, we can assume our lives have already ended.”
“Oh, come on! You don’t believe that, do you? The Antichrist?” Amara laughed some more.
Red was dead serious. He watched her but was never tempted to even smile. I had to admit, the idea of someone called the Antichrist existing out there was a bit funny, but knowing Red, I believed it. He would never joke about this kind of thing.
“Laugh all you like, but you’ll meet him if we kill Haworth,” he said, and he sounded very sad about it, too.
“Let’s just worry about Haworth for now,” Amara said, still giggling. “According to Nadia, he’s going to Atlantic City to find the last item. She doesn’t know what it is yet, but he’s leaving in four days.”
“Four days?” Red said, taken aback.
“Yes, exactly.”
“What the hell can we do in four days?” Suddenly panicked, Red left the beer bottle on the table and stood up.
Four days. It was very little time to prepare. But maybe that was for the best? The more time we spent wondering about what was going to happen, the surer we’d be that we would fail.
“We’ll prepare,” Amara said. “All we need’s a little money. We can buy everything we need in a day.”
“Victoria doesn’t even know how to shoot a gun yet!” Red complained.
“She doesn’t need guns. She has the Reaper String, and if that’s not enough, she can shift into a wolf,” Amara argued.
“Actually, I think the Reaper String prevents my wolf from coming out and taking over.” I’d witnessed it when I first met Haworth, and he tried to force me to shift with his spell. The Reaper had burned my skin and hadn’t let the wolf come out.
I'd confirmed it when Haworth attacked Finn’s headquarters. I’d wanted to shift, but I couldn’t—and it had all come down to the burning on my hand caused by the Reaper String.
“Oh?” Amara said, raising a brow in question.
“I’m not sure about anything yet, but according to Finn’s tests, I’m a Green witch, and my wolf isn’t really a wolf. She’s just a manifestation of my magic, and when I’m using magic—someone else’s magic—through the Reaper String, I’m fueling the Reaper and somehow blocking my wolf from coming out. It’s why Haworth couldn’t get me to shift at his house.”
For a second, there was silence in the apartment.
“That’s a good thing,” Red said. “That’s a very good thing.”
“How is that a good thing?” It’s true I wanted so desperately to be in control of my body at all times, or rather not to lose control of it whenever my wolf felt like taking over, but in a fight, my wolf was my biggest strength. The Reaper String helped, but it was nothing compared to her. “I need both. I need to postpone shifting as long as I can, but there will probably come the time when I’ll need to shift. To get away.” To survive.
“So throw it,” Amara said with a shrug. “Use the Reaper for as long as you need to, and throw it when you want to shift.”
“Except she can’t just shift whenever she wants to,” Red reminded the both of us. “Her wolf decides that.”
Ugh. Such an ass.
“She’s not going to just let me die.” I mumbled the words because I wasn’t sure. I already knew that my wolf didn’t want me anywhere near Haworth. At the first chance she got, she was going to try to stop me, just like she had in Staten Island. But why did the Reaper String not stop her then?
It was all too confusing. I had no hope of ever figuring any of this out. Even now, as my wolf watched and listened to our conversation in silence, I could feel her determination, and frankly, I was a bit offended, though I had no right to be. She didn’t trust me, didn’t think I could do this. She was sure that Haworth would kill me as soon as I was in front of him, which was probably what would happen, but still. If I didn’t learn to control her, to hold her back and bring her forward whenever I needed her, my chances of finding and killing Haworth would become even slimmer.
“You don’t know that,” Red said. “You need time to learn to control her, and four days is not enough.”
“Well, you better find a way to do it because after he has all ten items we’re not going to be able to go near him again,” said Amara.
Sitting back down on the sofa, Red sighed
and looked at the ceiling, as if he was searching for an answer there.
“Maybe I can’t learn to control my wolf in four days, but I can learn how to use the Reaper String, can’t I?” I said. “I mean, Haworth’s a witch. His defense is his magic. If I manage to turn it against him, what more can he do?”
“About a thousand different things? He has people, a lot of people working for him, willing to stab you in the chest or shoot you in the head, or grab the Reaper from your hands long enough for him to spell you,” Red said.
“Jeez! Thanks, Mr. Dead Guy,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“He’s right,” Amara said. “But we’ll be there, too. We’ll take care of his people.”
Meaning, they’d let me handle Haworth. A thousand needles pricked my skin everywhere at once. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but she really seemed to believe that I could actually do something against that guy.
“You think it’s going to be easy. It’s not going to be easy,” said Red, shaking his head.
“But it isn’t impossible. At least not yet.” Not while Haworth was still searching for his items.
“I’ve got a plan, and if you could manage to put aside your negativity for just a few minutes, I can explain it to you,” Amara said.
Red wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy. But we stayed and we listened to Amara, and for each other’s sake, we pretended we didn’t want to run away screaming every second of that night.
15
For three days we trained. At first, I caught only two out of ten of the spells Amara threw at me, but then, on the second day, my arm and hand seemed to have gotten used to the idea of throwing the Reaper String. It helped that I spent every second playing with it, despite my wolf’s feelings, even when we weren’t training. By the third day, I caught each and every one of Amara’s spells and threw them back at her in record time—three point fifty-three seconds.
