Witch in Danger

by Elle Adams

  I kept my wand close at hand, just in case. I hope the vampires don’t blame me for this situation, too.

  The door opened, and Vincent appeared, his brows rising. “Blair Wilkes. Come to collect your cat?”

  “Sky’s here? I mean—no, I came to speak to you. I assumed you wouldn’t be in the hospital, with things the way they are.”

  “You thought correctly.”

  A black furry body pushed between us, wrapping around the vampire’s legs. “I knew it,” I said to Sky. “Is that where you were last night?”

  “He likes to keep me company,” said Vincent.

  “Do vampires sleep?” I couldn’t help asking. “I mean, the stories say you sleep during the day, but they also say you burst into flames in sunlight and can’t see your reflection in mirrors.”

  “All human myths,” he said. “Some intentionally cultivated by us. We are, however, generally creatures of the night.”

  “Really?” I hadn’t even considered that aspect, since I’d only run into vampires during daylight hours. “You mean to say you wander around outside at night?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  I shook my head. “With monsters on the loose in the woods, and a murderer?”

  “You forget that my kind are generally considered predators.” He said this with a distinct flash of teeth. “We do not, however, trespass on the territory of others. And the forest holds no interest for us.”

  “Keith got bitten in the forest.”

  Something flashed in his eyes. “Yes, he did. We have yet to find the perpetrator.”

  “And… the killer. Did you hear the latest?”

  “The werewolf was killed by the same poison that killed Lord Goddard? Yes.”

  If he hadn’t already, he’d have read it from my thoughts. How easily I forgot. And yet—I’d blocked Lord Anderson.

  “The werewolf was not killed by one of mine,” he said, giving no indication if he’d picked up on my last thought or not. I wished I knew how I’d done it, but I needed to play nice with Vincent if I wanted him to help me and Alissa out.

  “But the police think it was Keith, which is clearly nonsense,” I said to him. “Aren’t you going to talk to the police on his behalf? If his wizard family haven’t?” I assumed they hadn’t, after he’d been forced to leave them to join the vampires.

  His expression turned to cold indifference. “We are not the wolves. We’re not a family unit. We have allies, and friendships, and enemies, but the boy will have to remain in custody until his innocence is determined.”

  I took a step backwards. “Seriously? My best friend is being targeted by association. Is there nothing you can do?”

  “If your friend does nothing foolish, she’s unlikely to end up in the same position as Keith. If anything, it may serve as a reminder.”

  I glanced down at Sky in a plea for help. Instead, the cat circled his legs, not making any effort to move over to me. Traitor.

  “I have no intention of being your enemy, Blair Wilkes,” said Vincent. “I do not know who the killer is. Nor do I know the nature of the beast that hides in the woods, but suffice to say, I have no intention of warring with the werewolves over this. They would do well to remember the peace that’s existed in this town for so long.”

  “The witches said the same,” I said. “Didn’t really get the impression the werewolves cared. They want immediate results, and all we have is endless questions. Why poison?”

  “A simple, quick, clean death,” he said dispassionately. “Immediate, giving no warning. Their mistake was picking a public place for the first murder, unless they wished to draw attention.”

  “What else should they have done?” I queried. “It might have escaped your attention, but your fellow vampires are a tiny bit paranoid about security.”

  “We have reason to be.”

  “You don’t think Lord Goddard and his wards have anything to do with why he was murdered, do you?”

  His still expression didn’t budge an inch. “You went into his house.”

  “You didn’t know.” I frowned. “Really?”

  “I can’t read all of your thoughts at once,” he answered.

  His response came a little too quickly. Wait—had I been I blocking his thoughts, too?

  “You can read my cat’s thoughts,” I said. “Right? You can speak to one another.”

  “I can,” he confirmed. “In a way.”

  “I knew it,” I said. “You telepathically contacted him when Alissa was arrested, didn’t you?”

  “He’s a remarkably intelligent animal,” he said.

  “Where did you two even meet? It’s not like I’ve owned him that long…” Wait a moment. When Sky had first spotted me, I’d been walking past the bookshop… the same bookshop that Vincent himself frequented. “You knew him before. He was at the bookshop when he found me.”

  Vincent inclined his head. Well, that explained a lot. If Vincent and the cat had known one another for a while, perhaps in time, I’d be able to develop the same connection with him. Stranger things had happened.

  “Can you really not tell me anything else about the murder?”

  “I know nothing more than what I have told you, Blair,” he said. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a vampire summit to plan.”

  No lies. He really didn’t know who the killer was, and he had no intention of helping Alissa or Keith.

  I beckoned to Sky. “All right. We’re going home.”

  10

  I walked quickly back to the house, guilt trailing my every step. I’d utterly failed at convincing the elder vampire to intervene. It’d been a long shot anyway. That’s what I got for making assumptions.

  Sky darted ahead of me, emitting a high-pitched yowl, and skidded to a halt in front of the house.

  A large number of flowers were on the doorstep—huge, purple blooms. “What the…?” I looked around in the hope that an explanation would present itself.

  “One of you got an admirer?” asked Flora, the witch who lived in the flat above ours. Alissa and I had never really spoken to her before, but she seemed friendly enough. Blond and perky, she ran the local witches’ gymnasium.

  “Bryan,” I said. “Alissa’s all-too-persistent ex. Where is Alissa?”

  “She went out.”

  There was only one place she could be—the jail. I’d thought she was the rational one, but maybe neither of us were. If I hadn’t gone after the vampire, I might have been able to stop her from doing something reckless.

  Once again, I hurried towards the police station. Discordant shouts of rage echoed down the road through the partly open door, while two gargoyles stood outside the jail, squashing any notion I had of sneaking a look inside. The police station was packed out with people. From the loudness of their voices, I’d guess werewolves. What was Alissa thinking?

  I pushed the door open, inching my way in behind the nearest group of werewolves. Half the pack filled the room, which, on top of the huge muscled gargoyles, meant there was little space left to breathe. It didn’t help that the werewolves’ high-volume complaints were like standing next to a loudspeaker. I stood on tip-toe, and spotted Alissa pushed to the crowd’s edge. I waved at her frantically.

  Alissa caught my eye and began elbowing her way through the crowd. The werewolves paid her no more attention than if she was a mouse running under their feet. All their attention was on the gargoyles, and from the words I picked out amongst the general yelling, they were immensely displeased with the police taking over the investigation into the death of one of their own pack members.

  “Alissa!” I beckoned her to follow me out the door. “C’mon. You shouldn’t be hanging about here while they’re throwing a collective tantrum.”

  “It’s the body,” she said, ducking outside behind me. “They did a more thorough investigation of… of the werewolf’s body. They found bite marks. Vampire bite marks.”

  “What? I thought the wolf was poisoned.”

  “They’re—�
� She glanced over her shoulder, her expression distraught. “They’re trying to persuade Steve to join their cause and round up every vampire until they find the killer.”

  “So they don’t believe it was Keith?”

  “Alone? No. They think it’s a conspiracy on behalf of the vampires as a collective.”

  I swore. “That’s absurd. I just spoke to Vincent and he doesn’t know who did it. We should go.”

  “And he wasn’t lying?” she asked.

  “Of course not. He’s not interested in declaring war. I’m getting the impression this feud is mostly one-sided.”

  “Did a vampire tell you that?” She glanced over her shoulder at the jail, but no werewolves followed us.

  “Nathan did.” I began to walk back down the road, and to my relief, she followed me. “He’s dealt with both. I guess the werewolves are more hot-tempered, so that’s why.”

  “The vampires are subtler than that,” she said. “But they won’t be when it comes down to blows.”

  “Exactly,” I said. “I get that the werewolves would jump to that conclusion from the bite marks, but Keith himself got bitten by someone acting as a rogue. What if it was the same one?”

  “Right.” Her lips pursed. “It’d make sense, considering both were in the woods. What doesn’t make sense is that both victims were killed by poisoning. Keith wasn’t poisoned.”

  I frowned. “Good point. That’s downright weird. Unless we have three different villains running around. One of them eating people, one of them snacking on them, and another using poison.”

  “Weirder things have happened, but Keith isn’t responsible,” she said firmly. “I told Steve that. I don’t know what more I can do.”

  “Persuade Vincent to step in to defend him?”

  “If you couldn’t convince him, I doubt I could,” she said.

  “He’s not that much of a fan of me.” I dug my hands in my pockets. “He prefers my cat. Unless I blocked him from reading my thoughts, too, but he wouldn’t admit it if I did.”

  “I forgot you said you could do that,” Alissa said. “Which… wow. I can’t blame him for being a little ticked off. I don’t know anyone else who can shut out a vampire.”

  “Just another weird Blair thing. Like having a left-handed wand. I need to tell Madame Grey about that, too, but it’s looking like she’s going to have to intervene in a potential war at any moment now. Do none of the werewolves want a peaceful solution?”

  “Not if the gargoyles rise to their bait,” she said. “The more reasonable ones are getting utterly shouted down. I’m going to call my grandmother and see if she’s available, because at this point, it is her business.”

  We turned into the road leading to our house. “Oh, I should mention,” I said. “I found flowers on our doorstep. I’m guessing someone left them for you.” Nathan would have left a note, and I hadn’t seen one.

  She swore under her breath. “Why? Does he really have to?”

  The house came into view. The flowers had gone… but a body lay beside the doorstep, the flowers clutched in her hands.

  Flora, our neighbour.

  I gasped. “Oh no.”

  Alissa picked up speed, and I ran alongside her, halting breathlessly at the doorstep. “Please say she isn’t dead.”

  Alissa dropped to her knees alongside her and felt for a pulse. “She’s alive.”

  I’d never been so grateful to be best friends with a magical healer. “How—?”

  “I think it was a spell,” whispered Alissa. “The flowers.”

  The huge purple petals had spread over Flora’s body, where she’d dropped them. “A booby trap?”

  “Looks that way.” Alissa pulled out her wand and flicked the flowers’ remains off Flora’s body. Then she muttered a few words, her wand weaving patterns above Flora’s face.

  Flora slowly sat up, a dazed expression on her face. “What…?”

  “Don’t move too fast,” Alissa said quickly. “I think you were attacked. Did you pick up the flowers?”

  She nodded, her eyes wide, frightened. “Yes. There was a spell… I think it knocked me out.”

  “I know of that spell,” Alissa said, in her calm nurse’s voice. “It won’t cause you long-term damage. Just take it easy for a while, okay?”

  The flowers hadn’t been meant for Flora—but did they mean Bryan had tried to attack one of us?

  Flora dipped her head. “I will. I’m going to go and lie down for a bit.”

  “Let me know if you need anything,” Alissa called after her. She looked down at the flowers, biting her lip. “Were they just there on the doorstep?”

  I nodded. “I planned to pick them up, but when I heard you were at the jail, I panicked and left her to take care of them. If I’d touched them…”

  “I think it’s a safe bet one of us was the target,” she said, her hands fisting at her sides. “The house is warded, and so is our flat. The person who left them there didn’t get inside, at least. We need to report this.”

  “What—back to the police station again? Why not call them?”

  “They never answer the phone,” she said. “Doubt they can hear it over all those werewolves, besides.”

  “Precisely what I was thinking. Maybe we should bring Madame Grey, so they clear off? I don’t want the whole world to know we’re on the killer’s hit list.”

  My blood chilled. A close call—yet the attack hadn’t been fatal. And how in the world were we supposed to get past the howling werewolves and the griping gargoyles to ask for help?

  As we’d both expected, the way into the police station was still blocked by werewolves. I doubted Steve would ever have let anyone else in town hang around making a nuisance of themselves for longer than five minutes. Even my interrogation hadn’t lasted that long.

  Alissa and I managed to squeeze through the doors and past grumbling werewolves to the reception desk, where the stocky female gargoyle receptionist was crammed into a narrow office chair.

  “You again?” she said. “Didn’t I already tell you to leave?”

  “We need to report an attack,” I said, but werewolf yowls swallowed my voice.

  I spotted Steve in the doorway to the room where they’d had the first body. I guessed every werewolf remotely related to the victim had shown up to check the reports were true. And probably to accuse every vampire who’d ever annoyed them.

  “Excuse me?” Alissa shouted to him, with Madame Grey-style steeliness. “I’m here to report an attempt on my life.”

  Steve cocked his head. “You’re what?”

  “Someone just left an illegal magical trap on my doorstep,” Alissa said, in the same loud, clear voice. “I’d like to file a report.”

  “Get in line,” he growled.

  “You’ve been talking to the same people for hours,” she said. “According to the laws of the council, on Madame Grey’s orders, you’re not supposed to show bias to one group over another.”

  Several of the werewolves dropped their voices, muttering amongst themselves.

  Steve shoved his way towards us. “Talk to Clare, my receptionist. And get out.”

  I’d never seen Alissa come close to losing her temper before, but I wouldn’t have been surprised to see smoke pouring out of her ears. She stormed back to the reception desk. “This is ridiculous. He locked up Keith with no evidence but can’t spare five minutes to listen to me?”

  The female gargoyle got to her feet, nearly tipping the desk onto us. “Tell me. Or tell nobody.”

  Alissa said through gritted teeth, “Someone sent a booby-trapped spell to our flat disguised as a bouquet of flowers. It nearly killed our neighbour.”

  “Obviously, it’s your vampire friend,” she said.

  “He can’t send explosives from jail, even if he’s responsible,” she pointed out. “Which he isn’t.”

  “He had an accomplice.”

  We might as well have had an argument with the wall. It’d have been a million times more fulfill
ing, too.

  “He’s not the killer,” I said. “Or maybe he is, but he can’t be the one who sent the flowers. That happened after he’d already been locked in jail.”

  “And I’ll call in Madame Grey,” Alissa added. “Council meeting or not, if someone targets one of her granddaughters, heads will roll. Even if they’re made of stone.”

  I kind of wanted to applaud her for that line, but that would not endear us any more to Clare the gargoyle receptionist. She looked at us like we’d just announced we were planning to host a friendly football game between the vampires and the werewolves. “Feel free to ask her,” she said, in grating tones. “We will send someone around to check your property shortly.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” said Alissa.

  Nothing to do but stick to our word, and release the wolves. I mean, Madame Grey. If she hadn’t already been to the police station, she was presumably planning to march in with a plan.

  “That was pretty amazing,” I said to Alissa, as we walked towards the witches’ main headquarters.

  “I’ve been saving it up ever since she first handcuffed me at the hospital,” she said.

  “She did it? Not Steve?”

  “They have a pack mentality. No wonder they get on so well with the werewolves.” She sighed. “Do you want to hold the fort while I tell Madame Grey? Because I wasn’t exaggerating the heads will roll part. She’ll clear out the whole house and probably assign us armed security.” There was a pause. “Actually, you know, that might work out in your favour.”

  “Pfft. Nathan is too busy hunting for monsters in the woods,” I said. “Besides, I don’t think the person who left the flowers wanted to kill us. Just scare us, maybe.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “The house is protected, which is probably why the spell didn’t end up inside. It was triggered to go off when someone picked it up at the entrance. Where’s Sky, anyway?”