other witch - complete series, page 75
I knocked on the door and Charlize opened the door with a smile. ‘Hi! What a nice surprise. Come on in.’
Bastion’s jaw tightened. ‘You didn’t ring the Coven and ask Amber to come here?’
‘No.’ Charlize looked at our faces and swore as she connected the dots. We’d been sent here by a third party, which meant a third party knew the location of the safe house. ‘Incoming!’ She hollered a warning to the occupants of the house. ‘Just like we practised! Go, go, go!’
My mum and Meredith ran towards the kitchen, Meredith dragging Ria behind her. ‘I don’t want to hide,’ she complained sulkily. Meredith ignored her and tugged her forwards.
I gaped a little when Fido, Ria’s familiar, hopped onto Lucille’s back and Lucille raced the two of them to the kitchen. In the kitchen was a door to the cellar, which doubled as a safe room.
‘We’ll tell you when it’s all clear,’ Charlize promised.
‘You had better, young lady,’ my mother harped. ‘I am no coward!’
‘Of course not. You’re our last line of defence,’ Charlize said calmly and winked.
Mollified, my mother went down the steps into the hidden bunker with the other two witches and the familiars.
‘Frogmatch!’ I exclaimed as the little imp swung into the kitchen.
‘Ellie! It’s good to be seeing you! It’s been so boring around here. Have you brought us a fight?’
I smiled. ‘It does seem that way, but we’ll see. Maybe we’re all being paranoid.’
Charlize shook her head. ‘It’s not paranoia when—’
‘—they really are out to get you,’ I finished wryly.
‘You got it!’ She looked at Frogmatch. ‘You joining the party?’
‘You bet!’ he grinned, his mouth full of terrifyingly pointy teeth.
Charlize closed and locked the door to the cellar. The clank as it shut felt ominous. ‘Amber, illusion runes and any curses you feel comfortable putting on it, if you please.’
‘Yes,’ I agreed crisply, galvanised into action. I wrenched the tote around my body and pulled out various vials as I dug around for the illusion potion that was left over from when I’d had to pretend to be my mum.
‘Benji!’ I summoned the golem. ‘I need you to imagine a wall here. Just a plain brick wall, the same as this.’ I pointed to the other area of red brick in the kitchen.
‘No problem, Am.’
‘Thank you.’ I started painting the runes on the wall, modifying them from a human depositor to an inanimate one. I wasn’t turning someone into someone else, but something into something else.
When the complex runes were ready, I turned to Benji and painted an uttrycksyn so that the vision in his head would link with the runes I’d painted on the door. Then I painted on protective and defensive runes onto the door that was now hidden by the illusion. I added a layer of scorpion runes; I may be a good witch, but I’d do just about anything to keep my mum safe, not to mention Meredith and Ria.
The ground under my feet trembled, forcing me to pause in my runing.
‘That bloody earth elemental,’ Charlize bitched. ‘He’s not getting away this time. Haiku! With me! Apollinaire, guard the kitchen! Do not leave it!’ A hulking blond man walked in and gave Charlize a nod and a slightly mocking salute.
Haiku and Charlize ran out. They must have distracted the earth elemental because almost immediately the trembling stopped. I hastily finished my runes and activated them, making them invisible at first glance.
I grabbed my potions and shoved them into my tote. ‘Benji? Can you hide in the walls and guard our witches?’ I asked. Not that I didn’t trust Apollinaire, but I didn’t know him from Adam.
Benji’s chest puffed out with pride. ‘Absolutely, Am Bam. I’ll protect your mum with my life. I swear it.’
Impulsively, I touched my hand to my chest and gave him a little bow. When I raised my head, his eyes were wide and full of tears. He bowed back to me then disappeared into the walls.
With Frogmatch on my heels I ran towards the outside door to help Bastion and Oscar with whatever was coming for us.
I was nearly there when I heard Charlize’s agonised scream.
Chapter 31
I raced out, my mind blank with no plan in mind. At the threshold, my mouth dropped open when I saw the beast in front of me.
A chimera. Oh shit – we were in trouble. The chimera was somehow genetically linked to the griffins; because of that, griffins had no immunity to her brand of purple fire, and her scorching burns couldn’t be healed in a shift. That was evident from the blistered forepaw that Charlize was holding tightly to her body. Still in human form, Haiku had run to her side to check the extent of the damage.
The chimera roared and the building shook. She was a tri-beast and had three heads: a lion’s in the centre, a goat’s to the left and a snake’s to the right. Goddess, I hated reptiles. As well as her three hulking heads, she had sharpened cloven hooves and a goat-like body with a lethal scaled tail that Emory would have been proud of.
She turned her heads towards Oscar and let out a burst of flame from her gigantic lion’s maw. I wished Lucy was here to pipe her; perhaps she could have talked sense into the creature. Then again, perhaps not.
‘Fuck!’ Oscar swore. He dived to the ground and most of the flames passed over him, but a few stray ones licked at his shirt and set it on fire.
‘Roll!’ I screamed. As he rolled on the ground, the giant chimera thundered towards him.
Flames extinguished, Oscar got to his feet again. He pulled air around him, his greying hair caught in the blast, then he chucked the ball of air towards the chimera. It hit her full in the chest and she stumbled backwards, screaming in outrage. Her tail whipped around her, trying to strike at Oscar.
Bastion, now in griffin form, plunged towards the striking tail, his talons extended as he rent into the chimera’s flesh. She bellowed again and blew great billows of deadly purple fire towards him. He rolled out of the way of the flames – but only just.
My heart clenched with fear. This was one of the few beasts that offered a true threat to Bastion. I palmed the small vial of final-defence potion that rested permanently in my left pocket. My potion bomb was in my right pocket, and I wouldn’t have wanted to mix those up in the heat of the moment. Left pocket for healing, right pocket for harming.
Frogmatch gave a battle cry and ran into the melee, growing in size as he went. ‘Come and get me, goaty!’ he challenged. The chimera gave another scream of rage and turned her attention to the imp.
He was still not much taller than a metre. ‘Oops,’ Frogmatch muttered. ‘A bit premature, that.’ He threw a bawdy wink at me. ‘It’s the only thing I’m premature in, I promise.’
‘Watch out!’ I shouted at the now medium-sized imp. A ball of flames rolled towards him and my breath caught in my throat as they struck his small red body.
‘Frogmatch!’ I screamed. Bastion dived towards him, but I need not have worried. Frogmatch’s red skin danced with purple flames but they didn’t seem to affect him one whit. He was immune to her fire!
‘Thank the Goddess,’ I murmured in relief, leaning on the doorway.
A voice spoke next to me. ‘You’ll find that the Goddess has very little to do with it,’ my father said drily. It was his voice as Shaun, not as John.
I whirled around but he wasn’t there, not physically. It was another audio-astral projection. I resisted the urge to ask how it was done.
‘Now Amber, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way,’ his voice said calmly.
‘Could you be any more clichéd?’ I huffed at him.
He considered it. ‘I could disfigure my face horribly and laugh like a maniac, if you prefer?’ His tone was humorous.
I folded my arms; I didn’t want to joke with my father whilst his minion was breathing fire at my friends and the man I loved. ‘What do you want?’ I snarled harshly.
‘We need your help, Amber. We need the potion that you concocted for Lucille.’
I knew all about the plight of the evil witches’ familiars and I might even have felt a shred of sympathy; after all, it wasn’t the familiars’ choice to be linked to a witch that had turned down the path of torture and death.
I hardened my heart; they had made their choices, and I wouldn’t do anything to help evil witches that continued to hurt and kill. ‘No,’ I said simply. I wouldn’t help them, even at the expense of their familiars. The familiars were a weak point, one I could use to put pressure on the witches and I wasn’t giving away that advantage.
‘I have another chimera,’ Shaun said calmly. ‘This one’s mate. Oscar and Bastion may survive one, but they definitely won’t survive two. Alternatively, you can come with me and I’ll call off the chimera when we’re a sufficient distance away. Everyone gets to live.’
My heart plummeted. Two chimeras! Goddess, Oscar and Bastion wouldn’t survive that.
Even as Bastion was fighting, I saw him turn to check on me as he felt my fear. Seeing nothing and no one around me, he clearly assumed I was scared for him. He sent me a wave of reassurance and turned to battle the chimera again. I watched, heart in my throat, as deadly flame roared past him again. This time it was entirely too close for my liking.
‘If you don’t come with me,’ Shaun said lightly, like we were discussing tea and cake, ‘I’ll tell her to stop playing nicely. You’ll notice that the only one who’s been hurt so far is Charlize. A little warning shot, so they know my chimera is serious. But if I tell her to pull out the stops, that all changes, Amber. I know you’re fond of Bastion, so I’m trying to be nice here.’
‘You’re failing,’ I said bluntly.
He laughed. ‘Maybe so, my dear, maybe so. But whether I’m nice or not, you really don’t have much choice, do you? We both know that you love Bastion. One word from me and we’ll have another chimera here flame-grilling him.’
‘You’re supposed to offer me my heart’s desire,’ I bitched. ‘That’s what the bad guys do. They offer wealth or the power to resurrect a loved one. You’re not doing very well.’
‘You’ve already got your heart’s desire, Amber. My daughter – the Crone! I’m ever so proud.’
‘Fuck off,’ I snarled. ‘You have no right to be proud of me, John.’ Dammit, I hadn’t meant to let his current alias slip out, but my anger at his pride had made it fall from my lips.
There was a pause. ‘Ah,’ he said lightly, as if my knowing his new identity was of no importance. ‘The beans have been spilled, have they? All the more reason to crack on. Tick-tock, Amber. What will you decide? A second chimera coming out to play, or are you coming with me?’
My jaw clenched. I hated the idea of co-operating with him, but I hated the idea of Bastion dying even more. ‘Where do I go?’ I asked tightly.
He didn’t crow in triumph. ‘Into the red car that is idling at the front of the house. Go quickly. We don’t want Bastion noticing you’ve slipped away or I’ll have to distract him.’ The threat was clear. I took a step backwards towards the house.
I heard an angry kraa. I looked up and met Fehu’s eyes. Don’t, I pleaded with him. Don’t tell Bastion I’m going. I have to keep him safe. Don’t tell him I’m leaving or my father will kill him.
Fehu screamed in rage and I felt his anger like a hot blast across my skin. He hated not being able to help us both. Please, I whispered again. He had been Bastion’s familiar for two centuries and mine for a hot minute, so I hoped he would want to protect him a shade more than me. Please, I entreated and felt his assent.
I reached into my left pocket and set my vial of final-defence on the ground. Make sure he gets it. I wasn’t taking something so valuable into the arms of our enemies. On the black market that little vial would go for a hefty seven-figure price tag. I wasn’t giving them revenue to buy more dark objects.
After a moment’s hesitation, I left my athame there, too. My enemies weren’t going to leave me armed, and I didn’t want to give them my family heirloom. I had my potion bomb in my right pocket. Here’s hoping my enemies overlooked it.
Intending to take it off, I touched the pendant around my neck but it wouldn’t budge. No matter how I tugged at it, it wouldn’t lift higher than my eyeline. I guessed it was coming with me.
Above me, Fehu let out another angry kraa. The furious raven turned back to the chimera, flying at her eyes, claws extended. ‘Raven!’ Bastion cried, horrified, ‘Get back!’
Whilst my clever little familiar drew everyone’s focus onto him, I slunk away to my own private doom.
Chapter 32
As promised, the maroon car was outside the safe house with the engine running. I recognised the driver but I kept a closely guarded lid on my anger. If Bastion felt any sort of strong emotion from me he’d come running – chimera or no – and that meant he’d turn his back on the deadly creature. I couldn’t risk that, even with Frogmatch’s helpful immunity coming into play.
I climbed into the back of the car. ‘Hello, Mack,’ I greeted the driver as neutrally as I could manage, as if his treachery were nothing to me. He didn’t deserve for me to waste my emotions on him; he was a pawn, nothing more.
‘Amber,’ he sneered at me. ‘Thank you for co-operating with the plan.’
I wanted to knock the damned smirk off his face. With real effort, I ignored him. ‘So,’ I said calmly as I buckled up my seatbelt – safety is always important, even during a kidnapping – ‘you’re not anti-black magic after all.’
He laughed. ‘Where better to hide than as a fanatic of the weak little white witches?’ he chortled.
He was right. Even after Tristan had been revealed as an evil witch, I still hadn’t looked twice at Mack. I’d hated him, thought he was a prick, but I hadn’t thought he was evil. He’d played the role so well. With hindsight, I should have looked harder at him after Tristan’s attack. Hindsight is such a smug bitch.
I folded my arms like I was in a snit. He seemed to be in the mood to lord it over me and that meant I could use his ego to do some information gathering. ‘Did you serve Hilary as well as Tristan?’
‘Oh yes,’ he confirmed. ‘I truly was fond of her. My anger at her death was not faked, I assure you. I really did enjoy slamming you into that dank jail cell. I would have thrown a few jabs into your ribs, but your father was clear that would not be tolerated.’ He met my eyes in the rear-view mirror. ‘More’s the pity.’
‘I doubt he was happy with the whole thing,’ I blustered.
‘He had no issues with Tristan’s plan. He wanted to put pressure on you. You don’t know Daddy Dearest at all,’ he taunted.
He wasn’t wrong there, but I knew a little about John and a little about Shaun. There was bound to be a bit of truth in the memories that I had of the latter, though I was conscious that as a child I hadn’t had an impartial view of my father. My memories may have been distorted or affected by my childish admiration of the man; children are rarely discerning judges of character. Regardless, I knew the man more than Mack thought I did, and I fully intended to use that to my advantage.
Mack continued, ‘We’re far enough away now that we don’t need to worry about the griffin. Drink this.’ He chucked a small potion vial at me.
I studied it, stalling for time. I unstoppered the vial and gave it a cautious sniff, dipped my little finger into it and tasted it. It was definitely a sedative potion, a strong one. The amount in the vial would put me out for a couple of hours at least. I dithered, not wanting to be unconscious at Mack’s mercy.
I looked up as I heard a click and stared down the barrel of a gun.
‘Drink it.’ All traces of humour had gone from his voice. ‘Or I’ll start putting holes in you.’
I believed him. I was all out of options. With a grimace, I drank. I unwound the window and tossed the empty vial out of the window before the sedation could take hold of me.
Mack laughed aloud. ‘Leaving breadcrumbs, Gretel? Don’t worry, little girl, the griffin will find you. We’ll make sure of that.’ He winked at me in the rear-view mirror.
Despair rose in me just as the world slid away.
Chapter 33
I sat up and touched a hand gingerly to my aching head. It was pounding and I was more than a little woozy.
‘Mack gave you too much potion.’ Shaun sounded annoyed. ‘I’ll speak to him about that.’ His voice was heavy with threat.
I ignored him; I didn’t give a hoot what he did to Mack. I reached into the pockets of my skirts but wasn’t surprised when my hands encountered nothing more than lint. They weren’t stupid enough to leave me armed with a potion bomb. More’s the pity.
I sat up. ‘What should I call you?’ I asked my father. ‘Shaun or John?’
‘Dad,’ he growled.
‘That’s what I call Oscar,’ I said deliberately. It was easier to think of him as John because he was wearing John’s face, speaking with John’s voice. That had been his name to me for over a decade. It also helped me separate him in my head from anything paternal – but I couldn’t afford to do that. He was my father; he was Shaun.
His top lip curled in a snarl when I spoke of Oscar. ‘I should have hit him harder,’ he muttered.
I stilled. ‘That was you? During the elemental attack?’
‘Obviously,’ he drawled. ‘How did you think he got hurt?’
‘By the car when we slammed into it.’
‘That was unfortunate.’ Shaun frowned. ‘You weren’t supposed to get hurt. Unity were supposed to scare you a little, that was all.’ He sighed. ‘Never trust hired help.’
‘I would have expected your advice to simply be “never trust”.’
He smiled humourlessly. ‘If your associates fear you enough then you can trust them plenty.’
‘And did you fear the last leader of the evil Coven before you took over?’ I asked pointedly.
His smile widened. ‘No. And what makes you think I harmed him? Maybe he died of natural causes.’
