“Huh?” Bramble blinked at me. “I thought you were a Magiguard. Shouldn’t you know this shit?”
We stepped out into the night air. “I thought I did, but then I saw Dottie take Wren through a wall with her.”
“Feck.” Bramble looked thoughtful. “Maybe the elder witch ghosts are special. I dunno. Regular ghosts can’t do that shit.”
Our boots crunched on the gravel as we walked across the drive and past the fountain. “Yeah, I know. Not all ghosts can influence matter around them either, not without drawing energy from the living.”
“Grimswood is a hotspot of power, though,” Bramble said. “The ghosts that live here have access to it.”
“Like a convergence of ley lines?” I grinned. “Yeah, Anna mentioned that. I should have thought of it.”
“It’s a lot to take in, trust me. I’ve lived here all my life, and I still struggle understanding how it all works.”
We were on a gravel path bordered by trees that blocked out the starlight. Shadows stretched out before us, waiting to be trampled on.
“How far is this atrium?”
“You can see the top of it there.” Bramble pointed at a star hanging low.
Not a star, but the reflection of moonlight on glass. The path curved to the left, and the massive building came into view. The atrium was red brick and glass panes that winked pitch black in the night. A glass roof rose to a peak, pointing to the stars. A gazebo draped in ivy sat to the left of the atrium.
Bramble made a beeline for it, and I trailed after her, my gaze drifting to the atrium doors.
“Come sit,” she said.
I joined her, making sure I had a view of the exit to the atrium. “What time do they patrol?”
“Usually around nine pm.” She studied her nails. “They’ll be out soon.”
A quick glance at my watch showed it to be ten to nine. I looked up to find Bramble watching me with a sly smile.
“What?”
“So, you and Leif got on well,” she said. “I saw you sharing food and laughing.”
Oh, that. “He’s a cool guy.”
“Yeah, Leif is solid. So’s Rune. Torsten, not so much. Torsten, you need to be wary of. The fecker’s insane.”
“So I’ve been warned.”
“You’ll be okay,” she said. “Charlotte told me what she said to you. She said you looked freaked out.”
“Yeah? Well, I was.”
“Why?” She looked genuinely confused. “The guys will take care of you. They’ll never hurt ya.”
“Until they go off and fuck other women for procreation purposes.”
“It’s just sex,” Bramble said. “It’s the way it’s always been. Everyone understands that.”
“Why not just turkey baster it, huh?”
She stared at me, wide-eyed and uncomprehending.
Seriously. “Artificial insemination? No sex required.”
“Dire wolves can only procreate via intent, and sperm has no intent. The act needs to be in the flesh with the male driving the intent.” She thrust her hips to demonstrate.
“I couldn’t deal with that. If I loved a guy, I couldn’t be okay with him having sex with someone else.”
“But you’d expect them to be okay with you having sex with all of them if that was an option?”
“Honestly, no. I mean, I’m more of a one-man woman.”
“Then you need to adjust your expectations, luv. Being mated to three wolves won’t allow for that world view.”
We sat in silence for a long beat. “I dunno, Bramble. Even if I got over the procreation thing, knowing that they’d leave me once a new anchor took over—”
“We don’t know that!” Bramble snapped. “They love her.”
Of course, she was protective over Charlotte. But I didn’t have time for delusional shit. “They love her because of the bond, because it makes them see her as a mate, and when that’s gone—”
“They’ll realize they love her anyway.” Bramble glared at me.
Fuck it. I wasn’t about to argue with her on this one.
The doors to the atrium opened, and several figures spilled out.
“They’re here,” Bramble said without even turning around.
I moved to intercept the witches, and a flash of blue light cut past me, hit the ground, and lit up the night. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust, and when they did, I was surrounded by The Elites, with Sloane in front of me.
Brie stood to my right, fingers crackling with blue energy.
“Did no one teach you not to sneak up on a witch, cupcake?” Sloane asked.
“If I was sneaking up on you, you’d have no idea I was here.”
She arched a brow. “I know why you’re here, but no. You’re not coming with.”
“Why not?”
“Because I say so.”
“Because you say so, or because Anna says so?”
The clench of her jaw told me I’d hit the nail on the head. “What happened to showing me why I was giving up my right to live dick?”
Her mouth twitched. “Another time.”
“Like when I’m already anchor?” I walked toward her. “Look, danger isn’t going anywhere. If The Order wants to attack me, they’ll do it whether I’m tucked up on the grounds or not. I mean, they kinda already proved that earlier.”
She looked away as if considering my words.
Time to hammer the nail in. “I figure I’m safest with you.”
She locked eyes with me. “You’re good, cupcake, and you’re also right.”
“Sloane?” Brie sounded worried.
“She comes with,” Sloane snapped. “She needs to see.”
“I’m coming too,” Bramble said.
Sloane rolled her eyes. “Of course you are.”
The roar of an engine filled the night air, and then a four by four skidded to a halt behind Sloane.
“Get in,” she said. “Let’s go bag us some revenants.”
Chapter Seventeen
The Elite’s ride was a seven-seater with plenty of room for the six of us, but it didn’t feel that way squished between Brie and the other Elite witch, Jessie. Bramble sat behind us, and Sloane maneuvered the car with the witch called Poppy beside her.
She drove with expert ease, one hand on the wheel, blue eyes flicking to mine in the rearview every so often.
Eye contact lasted less than a second, but damn, was it intense. I got the impression that was Sloane all over. Intense and full-on, the kind of woman who believed if something was worth doing, it was worth doing well.
We drove down empty back roads for a bit, then onto the main road flanked by countryside.
This was where the varga had attacked. Were they still out there? A shudder skittered over my skin. We hit an incline then drove down toward the twinkling lights of a town.
“Leyton in all its glory,” Brie said from beside me. “It’s small, but it’s ours.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, we keep it safe,” Brie said. “Revenants love Leyton, and so do malignant spirits. We’ve had to call in Reaper assistance on more than one occasion.”
Figured. Most spirits headed to Soul Savers in Necro City to be registered, but malignant spirits avoided being registered because they didn’t want to be reaped.
Sloane eased up on the gas as we drove into town.
I caught her eye in the mirror. “It’s probably a good idea to tell me what a revenant is.”
“You’ll see soon enough,” she said. “Once you’ve seen it, I’ll explain.”
The houses morphed into larger buildings—businesses and community centers, restaurants, and bars.
“I fucking love Saturday nights,” Bramble said.
“We’re not drinking,” Brie said with a grin.
“Aw, feck, what?” Bramble groaned. “It’s the only reason I tagged along.”
“Fuck, Brie,” Jessie said. “Looks like our drunken escapades are no longer secret.”
; “Were they ever?” Bramble asked.
Sloane’s eyes crinkled in a smile. “Maybe a couple of drinks if we bag a revenant.”
“Whoo!” Bramble hooted.
“You drink?” Sloane said to me in the mirror.
“Yeah, I drink.”
“I’ll buy you one. You’ll need it to steady your nerves afterward.”
She had no idea the shit I’d seen, but I smiled sweetly at her and even added a simper. “Thank you.”
We pulled up at the curb outside a bar called Orion. Doors opened then slammed as we got out.
“We have a deal with the owner,” Sloane said, strapping on her weapons holster. “We keep the place clear of revenants and other supernatural threats, and the owner lets us drink and party for free.”
“And we do love to party,” Brie said with a wicked grin.
She wasn’t as robustly built as Sloane, but there was power in her compact frame, enough to have carried Bramble all the way to the cabin earlier. Her wispy, blonde elfin haircut and the rings in her nose and ears gave her more of a feminine look. Jessie was the darkest of the four, with tanned skin and short curly chestnut hair, and then there was Poppy, with her bubblegum tresses and neck tattoo. These women were strong, powerful witches, and being surrounded by them was like standing in the path of an electric storm.
“Okay,” Brie said. “Standard protocol. We go in, we split up, and we keep comms open. Once we have a sighting, we converge, remove, and eliminate. Bramble, you’ll come with me.”
“Cupcake, you stick with me,” Sloane said.
I probably should pull her up on the use of the nickname, but she’d been using it for a while without my objecting, so it felt weird making a fuss now, besides… I kinda liked it. No one had ever called me a cupcake. I was more an apple turnover, tart and spicy, with the flaky pastry that always made a mess.
“Humans won’t look twice at us once we’re inside,” Sloane said. “They’ll see us and forget us. We’re ghosts while we’re in there, and so are you, as long as you stay close.”
We headed toward the club, past the queue of humans, who glared daggers at us for skipping the line, and past the bouncer, who stepped back to admit us.
Yeah, The Elites were known here.
“Don’t lose me,” Sloane threw over her shoulder.
Then the music spilled over us, around us, loud enough to make my teeth vibrate. We stepped through an arch into a huge, open-plan space with a circular dance floor heaving with humans, bopping and writhing. Staircases led up to a balcony and probably more dance spaces. Several bars were dotted about, jutting up as thick pillars here and there on the dancefloor.
Having bars on the dance floor wasn’t the best logistical idea, in my opinion, but whatever.
Bramble and Brie peeled off to the left while Jessie and Poppy dove into the throng of dancers. Sloane led me toward the steps to the balcony above.
I hurried so I was abreast of her. “It would help if I knew what I was looking for.”
She threw a wry smile my way. “Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it. It’s not easy to describe.”
“Are they ghosts?”
“No, these fuckers are something else.”
The space above the balcony was more intimate, with booths for the humans to snuggle up in. There was a small dance floor at the back and a bar beside it. What was it with this place and sticking bars right by the space twirling humans would be?
Sloane was on high alert, neck swiveling side to side as she scanned faces. People looked up at us, but their gazes slipped away like water off a ducks’ back. We were truly invisible to them. Some kind of enchantment, no doubt.
My gaze drifted over booths to the bar and then the dance floor, where a group of women were strutting their stuff to a track I hadn’t heard yet. Nothing interesting there. I was about to look away when the wall behind the women bulged. Black pores appeared on its surface, and red shit seeped out of them, hovering in the air and pooling into a huge red globule that looked like blood. The women threw back their heads, swishing their hair and swinging their hips, oblivious to the thing right behind them.
“Sloane!” I grabbed her arm.
“I see it.”
It moved toward the group and began to circle them.
“That’s a revenant?”
“Wait for it…” she said.
The blob expanded and bulged, sprouting limbs, a body, and a face, smooth and eyeless with a wet yawning mouth. It hovered closer to the women.
“Well?” I looked at Sloane. “What do we do?”
“We wait for it to pick its prey.”
Had I heard her right? “We what?”
The thing stopped by a woman with blonde hair and a red smile, then it lunged. The woman jerked, but the motion could have been mistaken for a dance move. She stopped dancing and said something to her friends. They nodded, and she peeled away and headed for the restroom.
Sloane hit her comm. “Sector two. Balcony level. Restroom.”
She was already headed after the woman, and I had to jog to keep up with her stride. She pushed open the doors to the washroom. The lights flickered ominously. Perfectly creepy.
Sloane pressed a finger to her lips in warning as we took the short corridor leading to the main washroom. She slowed and peered around the corner, then jerked back with a nod.
The door swung open behind us and the other Elites entered. The lights flickered again as Sloane turned to her team and held up three fingers, two fingers, one.
They charged past me, following Sloane into the main restroom.
Bramble and I made up the rear. I froze as my brain short-circuited on what I was seeing. The woman was pinned to the tiles by a naked, crimson figure that looked like a man…a skinless man with red shit pouring out of his back. Tendrils waved in the air like viscous ribbons. Every muscle and sinew was on display, its body pressed to the woman’s, hand gripping her head as it kissed her.
The woman’s arms spread wide, hands starfished, legs kicking as if desperate to break into a run. But the revenant held fast, its body heaving as it… What the fuck was it doing?
The Elites fanned out behind it and began to chant, low and urgent. The air grew thick and began to vibrate with energy. I took an involuntary step forward, but Bramble gripped my shoulder and tugged me back.
Shit, it was hypnotic. Powerful. Whatever they were doing was magnetic. The creature, the revenant, must have felt it too because it tore its mouth from the woman’s and twisted its head 180 degrees to look at the witches with its dark socket eyes. It had slits for a nose, and its mouth was a sloppy maw, dripping with blood.
An unfinished face.
It made a strangled sound of distress, and the witches chanted louder, closing in on it. Its jaw unhinged and a blast of energy shot out, propelling the witches back. Sloane hit the wall, and Brie ended up with her ass in the sink, but they didn’t stop chanting and closed in on the revenant once again.
It shrank back and wrapped its hand around the human’s throat. The threat was clear—come any closer, and I snap her neck.
I looked to Sloane, expecting to see doubt, but there was a smirk on her lips, and it hit me that her mouth wasn’t moving with the chant anymore; none of their mouths were, but the chant was in the air, an independent entity, swelling and filling the room.
Sloane flicked her wrist, and the revenant’s hand bent back with a snap. It wailed, and, once again, the witches were thrown back.
It detached itself from the human and clambered for the window high up in the wall.
Brie shot a blue bolt of power at it, forcing it to alter trajectory. It clambered onto the ceiling, hanging upside down. Its body swelled, head growing, mouth widening. And then it launched itself at the witches.
They leaped back in unison to avoid its strike before converging around it. The chanting rose and the air crackled. Tentacles sprouted out of the revenant, whipping out to slap at the witches. Sloane leaped over one, Brie ducked,
but Jessie was hit, knocked back into a stall. The chanting ebbed, and the thing swelled, barbs popping up on the tentacles that whipped and slashed at the witches.
Sloane looked at the stall Jessie had disappeared into, and for the first time since I’d met her, there was a flash of panic on her face.
The chanting dropped in volume and the crackle in the air diminished. They were down a witch.
Brie made a dash, trying to get past the revenant to the stall, but a tentacle cut across her path, forcing her back.
Fuck.
Bramble tightened her grip on my shoulder.
I turned to her. “I’m gonna jump.”
Her eyes narrowed, mouth tightening, and then she nodded. “Go. I’ll cover you when you come out with her.”
I focused on the stall and made the shift, materializing next to Jessie’s unconscious form. She was lodged, ass in the toilet, head slumped forward. Blood smeared the ceramic cistern. Shit.
“Jessie?” I tilted her head back and patted her cheeks hard enough to sting. “Jessie, wake the fuck up.”
She groaned, eyes fluttering open to blearily fix on me.
“There you are. Come on, the others need you.”
The chanting was a low hum now, and the whizz of power and the slash and thud of barbed tentacles on tile told me the thing was gaining the upper hand.
“Wha?” Jessie shook her head then cried out in pain, hand going to the back of her skull. “Fuck.”
“You with me? You need to chant.”
Her eyes went wide as she came fully to. “Fuck.”
She grabbed my shoulders, using me to dislodge her ass from the toilet, ready to fling herself into the washroom.
I grabbed her top and yanked her back just in time to avoid the slice of a barbed tentacle. It slammed into the ground at the threshold of the stall.
“Start chanting!”
“I need to get closer to the others for it to work,” Jessie said.
The tentacle whizzed across the entrance and hit the ground again, spraying slivers of tile into the air. It was followed by another tentacle too fast for us to get past. Fuck.
It was keeping us in here. Blocked us off from the others. I had to jump again, but with the thing out there with its tentacles all over the place, there was no way to be sure I wouldn’t materialize in the path of a barb. Fuck.
Witch Unexpected: The Thirteenth Sign Book 1 Page 14