Witch's Sorrow: A Witch Detective Urban Fantasy (Alice Skye Series Book 1)

by Taylor Aston White

  A hand came down to clutch her shoulder, fingers pinching painfully. Alice turned, raising her elbow high enough she hit it straight into Cole’s throat. He snarled, clutching his neck as he choked and gasped for breath.

  Not caring about his damaged windpipe she stepped back onto the drive, not stopping until she was at the end of the row of cars. Hands shaking she crouched down, her own breath coming in pants as she tried to control her emotions.

  Sam wasn’t there.

  Then where was he? Why would the paper show this address?

  “That was mean.” Cole coughed as he walked up beside her, his voice slightly strained.

  “You shouldn’t have touched me.” She straightened, her gaze taking in the grassy areas that surrounded the house before disappearing into forest. “Where’s your wife?”

  “She’s not allowed to leave our house.” He coughed again, spitting onto the dirt floor.

  “What’s happened?” She nodded towards the house when she faced him, noting that his beard was shorter than last time.

  “Rex is being punished. He never was good at taking my advice.”

  “Punished?”

  “He’s a fool, one that will eventually learn.”

  Alice watched his eyes. “What is he being punished for?”

  “That is for him to tell, for him to decide.” Cole looked towards the house as a wolf howled. “He just needed a little push.”

  Stupid lion, speaking in riddles.

  “I need to speak to Rex, we need to get out a search party for Sam.”

  “Well isn’t it your lucky day, he’s walking over.” With a sarcastic bow, Cole moved towards the house, passing Rex as he stormed towards her.

  “You don’t understand what’s happening.” He shot the words like bullets. “You have no idea what’s going on.”

  “Rex I need help with Sam, he’s been taken...”

  “You just don’t get it do you?” he shouted, eyes ablaze and angry. She had never seen him so angry. “You were supposed to help me, supposed to keep them away. My mate, this supposedly powerful witch...”

  “Mate? Rex, what are you on about?”

  Rex continued, almost in delirium. “They were wrong. You can’t help.” His voice broke, pain radiating from every word. “I didn’t know what to do. They’re my pack, my family.”

  “Rex, I…”

  “You smell like them.” His voice dropped, his wolf close to the surface.

  Slowly he reached across the small space between them, closing his hand delicately on her throat, his thumb stroking gently across her skin.

  “I’m sorry for everything.” His hand began to tighten as he wrapped his other hand around her hair.

  “REX?” She pulled away, her skull screaming as she felt the hair pulled straight from her scalp. She stared at the blonde strands clutched in his closed fist.

  “I have no choice. They’re giving me no choice.”

  “Choice? Rex, what are you talking about?” She eyed him carefully, her heart in her throat. He was a shifter, stronger and faster than her, an Alpha even more so. She was trained to track down his kind, yet she felt a slow terror ache her bones. She had never gone against someone with eyes that held the edge of sanity.

  She needed to calm him down.

  “Rex. REX, look at me.” She kept eye contact, the beast within him unable to look away. “We can get through this, I can help if we talk about it.” She slowly edged away, stopping when she noticed him tense.

  “You can’t help.” His voice was no longer his own.

  “Of course I can, I’m the big bad witch remember? You said so yourself.” She swallowed to help her dry throat. “What was Cole talking about?”

  “They’re coming for them, for everybody.”

  “Who is?”

  “I...”

  The wind erupted around her, throwing her hair into her face and breaking the eye contact. She scrambled back, but not fast enough. All the air in her lungs was knocked out as she was crushed to the ground, Rex straddling her hips.

  “Rex,” she croaked. Pinned to the earth.

  “I’m sorry.” With one hand he held her down, with the other he reached into his back pocket.

  Shit. Shit. Shit.

  Lifting up her knee she kicked up, connecting to his groin with enough impact for him to be thrown back. With all her anger she released an arcane blast, a wall of flame against Rex’s unprotected face.

  A shout as he covered his skin, protecting his eyes from the sudden heat. With all her strength she pushed against him, hard enough she was able to wiggle out and half crawl away. He snarled, patting out the small flames from his hair as she gained her feet and ran straight into the protection of the wooded area surrounding the pack’s land.

  A chorus of howls erupted around her, a discord of noise from behind. Not daring to look back she continued running, dodging trees and jumping over roots and debris, trusting her reflexes to stop her falling. Alice reached for her back, searching for her blade that wasn’t there, having given it to Rex earlier.

  “Fuck.” She stopped, her lungs burning. She quickly reached her back pocket and grabbed her phone, careful of the broken glass. “Fuck.” She leant against a moss-covered tree, the howls getting closer. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

  She scrolled through her phone, the screen flickering before going black.

  “Great, just fucking great.”

  A crunch to her left. A woman stood at the edge of the trees, her nails darkening, elongating and becoming razor sharp as she watched. “There you are,” she whispered, her eyes glittering with excitement. “I’ve been looking for you.” Without another word she launched herself across the clearing, her shifter speed carrying her almost effortlessly over the ground.

  “ARMA!” Alice shouted as the woman closed in, the aegis of aura popping into existence just in time. She bounced off the circle and crashed into a tree, on her feet a second later.

  The aegis flickered, disappearing then reforming.

  “Shit.”

  Alice grabbed at her throat, the crystal pendant no longer there. It must have fallen off when she fought with Rex. The dome flickered again, taking all of her concentration to keep it formed without its anchor point.

  The woman circled the dome, her skin darkening with her anger, teeth growing in her mouth.

  Wiping the sweat from her face she ignored the pain shooting through her skull, taking everything to keep the shield formed. The aegis shimmered, the woman launching herself across the space as it went down.

  A scream filled the woods.

  Alice gasped, her arms completely covered in blue flames licked with emerald. The woman rolled around the ground, trying to put the fire out from her clothes, patting them with her bare hands, skin blistering as it started to consume her.

  Alice blinked, blood rushing in her ears, something warm dripping down her face as copper coated her tongue. Wiping her face with her sleeve she saw red, blood dripping from her nose.

  Arms grabbed her from behind, crushing her against a wide chest she recognised.

  A short, sharp pain in her side.

  Warmth grew from her abdomen, bubbling through her bloodstream.

  Cotton at the back of her throat.

  “I’m sorry it has to be this way.”

  She looked up at Rex, her legs giving out.

  Her tongue felt heavy in her mouth, unable to form any words. She couldn’t feel herself collapse, her knees hitting the earth with a thump. Her head rolled as she turned to stare into his eyes, blue spheres heavy with regret.

  Chapter 31

  Head heavy, Alice groaned as she opened her eyes, shutting them quickly when the lights above burned. Squinting until her eyes adjusted to the bright light she looked up, noticing that her wrists were manacled together, linked with a chain attached to the ceiling. She stared at it for a few seconds, tugging her wrists gently to the sound of the chain rattling.

  “Fuck,” she exhaled, keeping her voice low.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” The light was coming from a single point in the ceiling, a spotlight aimed at her alone. Beyond the light she saw nothing, darkness being kept at bay from the single bulb.

  Panic grew as she tried desperately to tug at the chains, testing their strength until the pain became too much. Lead in her stomach she lurched forward, nausea rising to the point bile choked her throat.

  “You’ll dislocate your shoulder if you lean anymore,” a voice calmly uttered through the darkness.

  Alice froze, straining to hear something other than the rattle of the chain and the blood pumping through her skull.

  “Hello?” She tugged more desperately. “Rex?” she whispered hesitantly, shrinking back against the brick wall.

  “Why would you call for him?” A quiet monotone replied. “He betrayed you.”

  Alice strained to hear where the voice was coming from, panic peaking when she finally saw something at the corner of her eye. Turning she watched as a figure walked into the circle of light, her veins turning to ice when she recognised the dark cloak.

  “You’re not real.”

  “You look like her,” her imaginary phantom replied, voice soft, almost detached.

  “You’re not real,” Alice cried once again.

  “Real?” The phantom pondered it for a second. “Am I real?”

  It slowly glided towards her, almost painfully as the black cloak swished gently. A pale hand emerged from the sleeve, boney with dark veins pulsating underneath paper-thin skin.

  “I don’t even know if I am real anymore.” It pulled off its hood, pale skin stretched across a slim face.

  “Have you found her?” another voice joined in, one that was familiar.

  “Alice,” her brother called “Alice. It’s me. It’s Kyle. Come out from where you are hiding.”

  The monster continued to check the bushes and flowerbeds, searching for her.

  “She’s not here,” the monster growled. “I was promised the girl.”

  “Shut up,” her brother whispered back. “Alice.” He raised his voice. “You know how mum doesn’t like you playing out here in the dark.”

  A click as he turned on a torch, the light landing on his shoes for a moment, dark red stains marking the pristine white trainers.

  “Alice,” he called once again, his voice scared.

  Blinking suddenly through wet eyes Alice stared at what was once her brother, his features the same as the gangly fourteen-year-old too skinny for his frame, except he had grown into his shoulders. His cheeks were hollow, dark messy stubble speckled across his jaw as emerald eyes, the same as hers, as their mother’s, stared at her blankly.

  “Kyle?” Alice choked out, tears pouring down her face.

  “Why are you crying?” he asked, confusion swirling in his eyes. His hand raised to touch her face, the skin ice cold.

  “Why are you doing this?” She tried to shrink back, her head hitting brick. “I don’t understand.”

  “I thought you were dead.” His other hand came up to hold her face, his breath just as cold as he moved forward. “Then I saw you, igniting the dragon, saving that woman.” His gaze searched for something, she wasn’t sure what.

  “Fuck this,” the monster stormed into the kitchen, returning moments later with her mum screaming, dragged her by her hair as she flailed wildly.

  “Mummy,” Alice squealed, covering the noise at the last minute, as if she could stop the sound carrying. Light landed just a foot from where she was crouched, huddled by the bark.

  “What are you doing?” Kyle shouted as the monster grabbed their mother’s hair, wrapping it around his fist as she fought the bonds holding her.

  “Please. Please,” she begged. “Why?”

  “NO, STOP!” Kyle grabbed the monster’s arm.

  “I knew this was a mistake.” The monster pushed Kyle back effortlessly, turning to lift him by the throat with one arm. “Fucking kid.” He flung Kyle away as if he were nothing.

  Alice closed her eyes, hands shaking as she hid behind the tree. Screams echoed until they suddenly stopped.

  She tried to control her tears, her sight watery as she struggled to see in the dark.

  “Alice…”

  She felt her heart beat in her chest, the sobs coming stronger as she struggled to control them.

  “Alice…”

  The monster slowly approached the tree, whispering over and over.

  “Alice… Alice, come here little girl.” Heavy legs beside the fern. “There you are,” a growl as an arm reached down to grab her.

  With a cry Alice absently grabbed a rock, throwing it with as much force as she could. The sharp edge hit the monster with a squishy noise, hard enough that he shrieked, grabbing his face as a pale liquid dripped down his skin.

  “Mummy?” she sobbed, running across the garden to the curses of the monster. “Mum? Kyle?”

  Her nightdress danced in the cold wind, trying to trip her up as she knelt beside her mother, Kyle nowhere in sight.

  “Mum?” she whispered, her knees warm in the dirt. She patted her mother’s hair, her face hidden beneath it. “Mummy, it’s okay, I got him. Look… Mummy?”

  She lifted up her mother’s long blonde hair, confused by the sea of red decorating the front of her mother’s nightgown.

  A sharp pain along her scalp. “Alice,” Kyle wrapped more hair around his fingers. “Don’t go away again.”

  Go away?

  Alice felt the nausea growing.

  “KYLE!” a smoky voice growled, hidden behind the light. “Control yourself.”

  Kyle’s eyes swam with black, pupils dilating as his mouth turned into a grimace.

  “If you ignore him,” he spoke against her cheek. “He will go away.”

  “KYLE!”

  Kyle ripped away, nails clawing at his own face.

  “WHAT?” he shouted towards the voice.

  “Walk her down, the preparation has been finished.”

  Kyle turned back, eyes completely encased in black. “This way.”

  “What? Kyle STOP!” Her chains went taut as he started to drag her from the room. “PLEASE.” He didn’t respond, pulling her chain with agitation. “You don’t have to do this.”

  A heinous putrid smell polluted the air, leaving her gagging as she struggled against the chains. Steel cells lined the hallway beyond the light, groans and whimpers leaking through the bars. One cell held a group of people, their clothes ripped, soaked in blood and their own urine. Scars decorated their skin in a disorganised pattern, white lines along their arms, legs and backs. They all scattered as Kyle dragged Alice through the hallway, their black eyes all rimmed with red, all open, terrified as their tongue-less mouths were agape in fear.

  “Where’s Sam?” she cried, her neck stretching as she searched into every cell.

  “Who?”

  The next cell held a naked man, his head sunk into his chest as his arms were locked into the wall, almost embedded into the brick. Black veins pulsated under his pale skin, matching the beat of his sluggish heart.

  “That isn’t Sam,” she whispered to herself in relief.

  Then where was he?

  Tiles ran along the floor and partially up the wall, what once could have been white was a dirty brown, flaking like rust from the blood moulded into the surface.

  “Why him?” Kyle growled, the softness of his voice edged with anger.

  “What?” Alice snarled back, feeling her chi fill with her fire as she continued to fight the chains dragging her across the tile.

  “The Alpha.” He watched her from the corner of his eye. “He’s wrong. Too weak,” he said with disapproving tone. “He betrayed you.”

  “Yeah well, people betraying me seems to be a habit.” She kicked out at his legs in frustration.

  He stopped walking, impatient.

  “You need to stop that.” He angrily yanked the chains. The wolf in the corner snarled, making Kyle’s head whip around with a sneer. “SHUT UP!” He stormed to the c
ell, smacking the metal with his palm.

  Alice froze, realising he dropped the chain in his distraction.

  Quietly, she started to pull it toward her, hesitating when a voice behind whispered in a weak voice.

  “Ple… ase…” a woman’s voice quivered. “Please, help me.”

  Alice turned to face a naked woman with dirty brown hair, her skin a sickly grey patterned with yellow bruises. One eye was swollen shut, blood stained down her face like tears. A pile of cloth lay to her right, a makeshift bed made from the scraps. A tray rested by the bars with a grey lumpy substance in a wooden bowl, green mould fluffy on top, flies buzzing around it greedily. Red smears decorated the walls, a series of parallel lines covering most of the wall space.

  “Get the keys.” She licked her lips nervously, the skin cracking open painfully.

  Alice quickly checked Kyle, who was still distracted by the aggressive wolf. “Where?” Alice gently whispered back.

  “Over there.” The woman stretched her arm through the bars of her cell, the skin stretched tight to the bone. “He has it.” She waved a hand toward Kyle frantically. “HE HAS IT!” she wailed.

  “Shhhhh.” Alice grabbed the woman’s outstretched hand. “Shhh.” She tried to calm her.

  “He has it. He has it.” Delirium took hold as the woman continued to chant. “He has it. He has it.” She started to giggle hysterically. “HE HAS IT!”

  “Alice come here, she’s dangerous.” Kyle grabbed Alice’s shoulders, pulling her away from the woman who was now rocking, clawed hands trying to strike out.

  Alice screamed as she was pulled, rocking her elbow back and hitting him in the stomach before twisting out of his grasp.

  “Oomfff.” He bent at the waist.

  Breathing heavily, she gathered her chi, holding her flame in both hands. About to throw the fire she stopped, watching his eyes fight to become green.

  “Kyle?” her voice tremored. “What happened to you?”

  “Run.” He dry heaved before screaming in pain, nails clawing at his own eyes. He bolted forward, grabbing the chain in his hand and yanking her off her feet. “Bad Alice.” He pulled the chain with force, his eyes once again black.