Witch-Mage Breaking, page 8
Mia decided to join them for the autopsy since she’d closed her shop for the day and wanted some time to breathe. “Plus, it’d be good to know what the hell is going on anyway,” she clarified.
Inside, they obtained a visitor pass for Mia, which proved easy due to her seat on the Free Witch Council.
When they reached the headquarters’ morgue, Brandon approached them. “Good, you’re here. They’ve wheeled out Adderget’s body for us.”
It was strange to Thea, looking at the shedded skin corpse, knowing Arthur was not inside it anymore.
Brandon wandered toward the table where the attendants had brought the body, and Thea noted the awkwardness in the room. Every note of it sat between herself and Brandon. She tried to ignore it, but it was difficult when Brandon wouldn’t so much as spare a glance in her direction. He had no problem making eye contact with Giselle, though he also avoided meeting Mia’s gaze.
The sight of the huge snake skin lying under fluorescent lights soon overshadowed the tension.
The attendant appeared frazzled, and Thea guessed he had heard what happened. He turned to Giselle and asked in a shaking voice, “Are you going to question him, Miss Belmont? I’m worried about something provoking him and having a snake zombie wandering around.”
Giselle gave him a reassuring smile as she put on gloves. “Don’t worry yourself about it. The body is goin’ to do some talkin’, but it won’t be with his voice. You don’t have to worry about a skin-changer. The man who was inside here ain’t anymore.”
Relieved, the attendant excused himself, telling Giselle to notify him when she finished. He hurried off, and Thea didn’t doubt he wanted the snake corpse out of his morgue as soon as possible.
Thea was inclined to agree. She wrinkled her nose. “Gods, it smells.”
Unfazed by the odor, Giselle stepped toward the table, selecting several tools with which she could open and study the corpse. She’d brought magically-imbued implements with her to test for any remaining magical substances within the body as well as for normal autopsy purposes.
Brandon, Mia, and Thea, still with Kira’s bird form on her shoulder and tucked behind her hair, stood quietly watching. Thea had to remind herself to breathe because watching Giselle had her holding her breath, waiting for what the hedge witch might discover.
Fifteen minutes later, Giselle had not found anything yet, and Thea grew impatient. She leaned sideways toward Brandon, whispering, “I know why you were so short with me the other night, and I’m sorry for hiding something from you. It didn’t seem like the right opportunity to tell you then. We should talk about it when this is over, though.”
Brandon started as if forgetting she was standing there. Since Giselle started working, his gaze had grown distant. He met her eyes. “Look, Thea, I’m sorry for the shit I said—”
She cut him off by laying a hand on his arm. His gaze went to her hand and stuck there, surprise filling his face.
Thea almost rolled her eyes. It wasn’t like she hadn’t touched him before. Everything between them felt tenser than ever. “Forget what you said, Brandon. I only want you to know that I don’t intend to hide anything anymore. I trust you.” She shrugged. “More than anyone else I know. Except for Mia, of course.”
You’re forgetting someone, Kira chirped.
“And Kira.”
The look on Brandon’s face was the opposite of what Thea expected. She had hoped he’d look relieved and agree to talk after. Instead, he seemed positively terrified. What the hell is wrong with him? Thea wondered. Did he want more barriers between them? Why? Did he think he was protecting her? All he’s doing is pissing me off, she thought.
Before Thea could open her mouth to utter another word, Mia spoke up. “Auntie, what’s wrong?”
Thea swiveled to see Giselle holding a trembling hand over the snake’s body. Her eyes were wide. “Somethin’s stuck. Somethin’ mean and low-down nasty,” she murmured.
Before anyone could ask what she meant, she uttered a loud cry. She would have jumped back if not for the sudden lurch of the snake’s skin latching onto her.
Thea surged toward it, face aghast at what she saw. Giselle had managed to cut through the snake’s skin and get inside, but what awaited her was not friendly. Or dead.
The snake’s insides were furling darkness, swarming into a shape that launched from its body. A new snake formed, this one thinner and longer with sharp black spikes springing up along its body. It opened its mouth, eyes burning red and fangs glistening with venom.
“Giselle!” Thea screamed, but the hedge witch could not move away, much as she wanted to. The spiked snake slammed into her hand, fangs digging deep into her flesh.
Giselle’s first cry had been at the sight of the red eyes and the snake’s body coiling around her wrist. Her second cry was an agonized wail. Thea could only imagine the pain of the serpent’s fangs in her hand.
It jerked Giselle forward, bringing her face toward the open cavity in the snake’s corpse.
Mia lunged for her aunt, grabbing her around the waist and attempting to pull her away from the corpse. Thea knew it wouldn’t do much. The creature had an iron grip on Giselle. She hit the creature with a binding spell and watched her magic coil around it. The snake thrashed and, to her great surprise, broke the binding cords.
Shit! This thing was far more powerful than she thought. Why was it harder to deal with now than at the coven estate?
Realization dawned on Thea. Because Arthur was inside it then, and he had some semblance of control. It might have been very little, but his snake form had at least contained an intelligent being. Now, the snake was nothing but foul magic and unfurling darkness. It had no intelligence, only a pure, vicious instinct to attack and kill.
Brandon drew a magically-imbued knife from his side and launched toward the snake. He moved to slash, but the snake threw its body, knocking his arm back. Brandon growled at the pain shooting up his arm.
“Fucking kill it!” Thea screamed, sending her binding magic out once more. She caught onto the thrashing snake, but its power was too great for her to do this on her own.
Kira, a little help here!
But, Thea, the backlash…
Kira!
Kira fed Thea magic, but not to the degree she normally would. The last thing they needed was this magical beast escaping and Thea overwhelming herself at the same time.
Brandon’s face showed great strain. Thea lashed out with her binding magic again at the same time as Brandon cut forward. They timed it right, and it was a good thing they did. Brandon’s blade cut through the snake’s neck. He withdrew it and slashed again. He hacked and hacked until, at last, the snake’s head dropped to the floor, and the body stilled.
“Fucking hell!” Mia gasped, tears streaming down her face as she helped pry the fangs from her aunt’s hand. As strong as she was, Giselle still cried from the pain. “I’ll heal you, don’t worry,” Mia promised.
Brandon and Thea gaped at one another. Brandon’s knife dripped with black blood. They both seemed to be thinking the same thing. What the fuck just happened?
Giselle whimpered something.
“What is it?” Mia asked.
Giselle pointed a trembling finger with her unharmed hand. “It’s still in there!”
Thea’s gaze went to the snake. Several more toothy-headed tendrils erupted from the body. Thea put her shield up in a flash, flaring the magic to cover Brandon, Mia, and Giselle.
At the same time the snake erupted with more bodies, the door to the room opened. The attendant seemed about to say something, but the horrific sight stopped him.
“Shut that door!” Brandon shouted.
It was too late.
The spiked heads surged forward, crashing into the attendant, who dropped to the floor. The snakes fled from the morgue and into the main building. Shit! Thea thought. This was bad, probably the worst experience in a morgue she’d ever had. The corpse from which the smaller snakes erupted went with it. The spiked creatures within alternated between acting as arms and legs to support the dead weight.
Thea knew she should run after it. Brandon was already halfway out the door. She glanced back at Mia.
“Go!” her friend shouted. “I’ll take care of them!” Already, she’d bent over her aunt, who’d slumped to the floor, still in pain, and the unmoving attendant.
Oh God, Thea thought, trying not to lose her shit, I hope he’s not dead. She didn’t waste another second as Brandon called for her. “Thea, help me!”
She took off after him and the snake.
CHAPTER NINE
“A broken heart,
A fraught start.
She rose from rivers and ashes
Tarnished womb, full tomb.
A mountain of fire,
A valley of water.
Her sisters gathered,
thirteen under a full moon,
A blazing sun,
A sky full of stars.
To them the world is broken and healed,
A coven first and last, bound and sealed.”
—Alia Fiorina, a Member of Ambrosius’ Mage Circle, Witch Song
Despite dragging the dead weight of Adderget’s snake form, the creature moved remarkably fast as it tore through the coroner’s office.
Brandon charged after it, heart pounding and mind racing. The darkness lurching from the snake’s corpse was the same substance he’d seen at the hedge witch community center. It was corporeal darkness, unintelligent but with a sharp instinct to attack and kill. The predator looked a lot harder to take down in the form of several spiked serpents than it had as a monstrous tree.
Brandon wanted to tell Thea these things, but he didn’t have time for many words as they raced through the office. At one point, the serpent got far enough ahead that Brandon lost sight of it. “Shit!”
Thea caught up to him and kept pace at his side, her expression pulled and focused. Her shield flared around her, reaching out to him. Brandon’s skin warmed at the feeling of her magic encasing him in a bubble. He was thankful to have her here, especially since he did not think he could take the creature down on his own. The tree had been one thing. This was another.
Brandon had his knives drawn, but he wasn’t sure they would be enough. He had barely managed to cut the snake wrapped around Giselle’s hand, and it had grown back immediately after. Whatever this thing might be, it was much stronger than the last version of the darkness he had faced.
“We need to shine light on it,” he told Thea. The dull fluorescent lights of the office weren’t enough. Too bad they didn’t have spotlights on hand like they did at the hedge witch community center.
Finally, he caught sight of the creature again. It hovered in a hallway, darkness wafting off it in smoky shadows and dripping ooze. It appeared to be deciding which office it should lurch into. It seemed to think it had enough time to stop and snack on an unfortunate worker.
Screams from nearby offices sounded out, followed by doors slamming. Another slam shook the halls, this time from the creature smashing its body against a door. Brandon gaped, aghast at the damage. Another crash and the creature would be in.
“Stop it, you fucker!” Thea shouted. The creature whirled but didn’t have time to react before she hit it with a blast of light. It reeled but did not scream and disintegrate as the monstrous tree had.
Brandon’s heart dropped like a stone. Light did not affect this creature like it had the last one. Again, he realized how much more potent this one was. Fucking hell. What are we supposed to do?
Thea cried out as several spiked tentacles surged toward her, trying to wrap around her body. Brandon wasn’t having it. He struck with his knives, cutting one, two, three limbs. He watched in horror as they grew back. At least he had bought Thea time to defend herself. She lashed out with coils of her bright magic. Either the creature did not think it could win, or it grew bored because it turned and charged down the hallway.
Again, it got far enough out of sight that they lost view. When they found it, the creature was attempting to reach through an office window to devour a woman frozen in fear. Before it could smash the glass, Thea hit it with a second blast of light.
The creature turned once more, seeming more annoyed than desiring to eat her. It lurched forward, looming taller. Then, as Brandon thought it would swallow Thea in one gulp before he could do a damn thing, it swiveled and exploded through the front door, out onto the street.
Oh, shit, Brandon thought.
However, the creature did not get far before it encountered another obstacle in the form of a six-foot-two, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound former Marine. Jax didn’t miss a beat when the dark presence surged from the building, nearly knocking him over.
It lurched toward him, one of its many mouths open to take a bite of the big man. Jax caught the creature’s mouth and pushed back, forcing its jaw open with his hands. He cried out with the strain of the creature’s strength and the puncture of its venomous fangs in his fingers.
“Back, you fucker!” he shouted. The creature thrashed, but Jax held on. What proceeded was a rough grappling match that rendered Brandon motionless. He stood by, gaping.
“Do something!” Jax bellowed.
Thea hit the creature with binding magic. The bright white cords wrapped around the snake’s corpse, tightening as Jax managed to pin the thing to the ground. Brandon rushed forward, knives still drawn and glowing with sigils that would cut through flesh and magic.
However, before he could reach the creature, Jax howled. The binding cords Thea had placed around the monster burst. The snake with many heads lurched up, spinning fast enough to knock Brandon and Jax off their feet. Thea would have gone down, too, if it wasn’t for her shield.
Though the magical beast had quickly learned why Jax wasn’t food, it got away. It surged into the street. Several cars screeched to a halt. Horns blared. As if that would do anything to stop the creature!
Brandon got to his feet. Thea was already at Jax’s side, administering healing magic to where the snake had bitten his hand. “After it!” Brandon shouted. In horror, they watched as the corporeal darkness made a beeline to a building down the street from the coroner’s office. It took Brandon a second to register that the monster was headed directly for Washington High School, where it would no doubt find several teenagers for lunch.
While Brandon wasn’t exactly looking forward to being shot by a school security officer or traumatizing some kids, he didn’t imagine the ravenous beast that escaped the morgue was likely to be any less traumatizing. So he headed off with Jax and Thea in tow.
When they reached the building, they found an easy entrance thanks to the creature crashing through a brick wall into a classroom. The trio followed, and Brandon quickly registered the twenty screaming teenagers fleeing toward one corner of the room while the creature of darkness ravaged their classroom.
Tables and chairs went flying. The teacher quaked under her desk. Before the darkness could choose one of the students for lunch, Thea’s blast of magic sent it into the wall. It plunged through the doorway, breaking glass as it surged down the hallway.
Brandon ignored the incessant screaming and pursued. This is a fucking mess, he thought as his boots pounded the floor. They only had to follow the sounds of screaming to know where the spiked serpent had gone. It led them through hallways full of kids and school staff.
“Out of the way!” Jax boomed, drawing two pistols. Brandon did not know whether the bullets would do anything against the creature of darkness. It wasn’t like Jax could find out. With everyone crowding the hallways in terror, he couldn’t get in a clear shot.
Thea’s shield was still up, but with the risk of hitting a staff member or student, she didn’t dare strike the creature again. “Move!” she cried over the crowd. It only made things worse. Everyone screamed and ran in all directions.
The frenzy caught the trio in the center of the hallway, unable to move. Meanwhile, the spiked monster got farther away from them. Brandon realized the only reason it did not stop to eat anyone on the way was because of them.
It’s afraid of us.
At least they had that going for them.
It didn’t help matters that the school security officers were in as much of a frenzy as the students they were supposed to protect. Brandon nearly caught a bullet to the chest and was saved by Thea’s quick work covering him in her shield.
“Don’t shoot!” Jax boomed.
Quaking, the officer lowered his gun, seeming to understand they were not mass shooters but trying to save the students’ asses. The appearance of a man holding two glowing knives and a girl who was clearly a witch put things into a new perspective.
“Help us!” Brandon shouted. “We need to get that fucking thing out of here!”
Or kill it. That would be much better. Right now, he was more concerned with clearing it from the building, maybe cornering it far from the densely populated areas. Brandon would chase it clear out of the city if he had to.
Shaking, the officer followed them down the hallway, then veered left toward where they heard more screaming. Brandon almost collided with a trembling old woman lunging from a classroom and making for an exit. “Where did it go?” he demanded.
She pointed a shaking finger down the hallway. “Bi-biology lab!”
Brandon raced on, aware of Thea, Jax, and the officer on his heels.
When they burst into the lab, they found it a wreck. Glass cases were broken. Tables and chairs were splintered. The creature had somehow managed to knock down the whiteboard. No students or teachers were in the room, however.
The looming darkness, desperate for sustenance, veered toward whatever was alive in the room, devouring every creature, living or dead, that it set its burning red eyes upon. Brandon looked on in horror as it consumed every turtle, fish, and guinea pig.
Even with so little to eat, the creature grew larger much quicker. Brandon’s eyes widened. Thea had described Adderget’s snake form increasing in size as she fought it. It wasn’t that he hadn’t believed her before, but seeing it happen fully convinced him.
