The Elder Witches

by R.E. Packer

  Chapter 27

  I had to try to warn Gwen and Maeve. I edged as closed as I dared to the hallway. Bullets still hit the doorframe where we hid.

  “They’re using the serum,” I yelled cupping my hands around my mouth to be heard over the sound of the fighting that still took place down the hall. I had no idea if they could hear me or not, but it did give away our position to every were-agent who didn’t already know where we were.

  James somehow managed to make the lynx give me a reproachful look before laying his head back on the cool floor to rest.

  To my surprise, Maeve had heard me.

  “No shit!” she yelled back.

  James seemed to smile, his scary lynx smile, then grimaced in pain from the effort.

  He still had a nasty looking gash on his neck, and he was healing too slowly for us to try to get away. We were safe for the moment in the recessed doorway, but surely the agents would be on us in no time. There were men between us and the witches, but the route behind us was clear, James saw to that. If we could somehow get around the corner we might be able to slip away.

  Peering out, I saw why the agents hadn’t started to close in on us yet. Magic in the form of fire, ice, and wind assaulted any man that tried to break from cover.

  I tried again to jump, concentrating on the short distance past the agents to where Gwen and Maeve stood. There was no tingle of magic at all. In the adrenaline rush I had forgotten the manacles still on my wrists.

  “James, can you cut through the shackles on my wrists?” I asked. His eyes were heavily lidded, the flow of blood had stopped but he still had open wounds causing him pain at every move.

  He grunted.

  I held my hands out, putting my wrists next to his big paws, hoping the growly grunt was an affirmative. He extended his claws and carefully sliced at the bracelet, then again, finally slicing through it without so much as breaking the skin on my wrists. The second bracelet he got off in one swipe. Then he rolled back onto his side resting his head on the cool floor.

  With the magic diffusing cuffs off, I put my hand on James and tried to jump to where the witches were still fighting for their lives. Nothing happened. I concentrated, and tried to gather magic. The now familiar feeling of magic filling me up never came.

  “I still can’t jump,” I told James, biting back my panic.

  He growled and looked down the hall that was clear a moment ago. More soldiers came around the corner. Behind them in the shadows stood a man. The one who had been with them when they had taken me. The wizard.

  Looking at him with my sight, I could see the magic flowing out of him. Runes lit up the hallway, pulsing with energy as they delivered whatever magic he was sending toward us. The runes traveled all the way past were Gwen had taken cover.

  Not far away, a ball of flame immediately followed by what looked like a giant icicle, rocketed toward where an agent who was crouching down.

  The only way to get to Gwen and Maeve was past the agents on one side of us, or circling around past the agents on the other side of us. There had to be at least a dozen agents keeping the witches busy and probably twice that in the other direction, not to mention the wizard. James had recovered enough that his eyes were alert as he came to the same conclusion.

  There were too many agents, and they darted from cover to cover, making their way toward us. James got to his feet, unsteadily, just before three agents, showing more werewolf features than I’d previously seen, shot into view. Guns raised, they didn’t waste any time as they opened fire on us. Snapping my arm out I put up a shield in front of James, mostly out of reflex. Darts shot out of the machine guns at both of us, not just a few but dozens of them. The darts shattered on impact, falling to the ground without doing any damage.

  When I created the shield it had been a single-minded act to protect James. As a result, I didn’t have the conscious thought to make sure it spanned high enough for myself. Three inch darts penetrated my neck and face. I could feel the darts delivering the serum into me, entering my bloodstream. I tried to pull them out with my free hand, more darts sinking into the back of my hand, before I finally extended the shield higher. At first I felt a tingling all over my body, but then a heat building inside me began to rise. Within seconds I was dripping sweat.

  James made a whining noise as he watched me closely.

  The burning became white hot in my blood and I held the shield as long as I could, until the serum burned so badly inside of me that I couldn’t concentrate any longer.

  Not able to think of anything but what felt like acid coursing through me I finally fell to my knees. Grabbing my head, the acrid smell of blood and serum saturating the air making me want to vomit, my heartbeat thundered in my ear and I could vaguely see that I had missed a few darts that were still stuck in the back of my hand and arm.

  I didn’t care. It felt like my head was going to explode any second. The pressure was greater than anything I’d ever felt. I heard screaming that wouldn’t stop. It kept going on and on. He was yelling the same thing over and over again— ‘No no no’. Why didn’t somebody stop that I thought numbly. It wasn’t until I gasped for breath that I realized it was me who was screaming.

  When I opened my eyes I found that I had somehow fallen into the hallway. I was in plain view of all the agents now. I saw Gwen drop her shield as a horror struck look filled her face. Her great savior still wailed like a tortured soul, not even able to save himself.

  Her look was matched by mine as an agent immediately leapt forward and shooting her with multiple small darts. She was so distracted she didn’t block any of the darts that now emptied black liquid into her. A vision of how Marianna died managed to penetrate my serum fogged head, her face wrinkled and dehydrated, like a mummy.

  I watched as Gwen’s skin turned from it’s normal peaches-and-cream color to a jaundiced sickly pallor, before a hand grabbed her by the collar, pulling her out of sight.

  The burning in my head had spread to my body now, every nerve ending felt like it was on fire. But all I could think about was how the one person in my life that cared the most for me, who had tried to help me and protect me was now going to die as surely as her mother had.

  If only I hadn’t argued with her this morning before I left— hadn’t been irrational and had listened for once, then just maybe we wouldn’t be here. My stubbornness wouldn’t have led me to the office, into their waiting trap.

  I managed to get to my feet trying, running toward Gwen as best I could, which was more of an awkward lurching motion, my arms not pumping as much as swinging from my shoulders. The motion would have looked more at home on a zombie shambling toward more brains.

  The were-agents were much faster than I had anticipated, or I was going much slower than it felt. An agent turned and easily clotheslined me before I could duck. I took most of the blow to my chest, the wind knocked out of me as I landed hard on my back. I tried to get up but a clawed hand was already pulling me toward him, digging into my skin, and wrapping an arm around my neck from behind.

  “Give it up, or this one dies!” he shouted toward the women.

  Maeve peered around the corner, her eyes wet, before ducking back out of sight.

  “Come out, hands raised, or this one becomes the next casualty,” the agent yelled again.

  A figure stepped out, eyes ablaze now, looking angrier than I’d ever seen her. Gwen held a shield so powerful I was sure even the were-agents could see it. She was holding her stomach where the darts had hit her, a blue light shown though the fingers of her hand. She took a deep breath, then pulled her hand away and stood up straighter.

  “Let him go,” she said, her voice slightly raspy. Using my sight I could see she was radiating magic in all directions. It was coming off of her in waves. The staff she had been holding had been replaced by the sword.

  “I don’t think so,“ the agent said in a mocking voice. “You’ll either give up or we’ll see what regular bullets do to him. Or maybe my kni
fe.”

  I felt the gun pressed into the small of my back as a strange sensation filled every part of my brain. Suddenly my sight magnified, bringing everything around me into far greater detail. I shook my head trying to adjust my vision, but when I closed my eyes I heard a deafening buzzing noise from the micro camera hidden in the wall at least 10 yards away. The heartbeat of the man-beast behind me thundered in my ears, and many more beating hearts were scattered around in front of and behind me. I fought to keep from losing my lunch as my brain processed my enhanced senses.