Null Witch: Secondhand Magic #1

by Lori Drake

  He grimaced, glancing toward the door. “Yeah, must have happened while I was out.”

  “How’d you get unbound to start with? And how’d you do that invisibility thing? I couldn’t even see the spell after you cast it.”

  He turned his head, looking over at me with a decidedly smug smile. “What, you think you’re the only witch in the family with talent?”

  “Out with it. You’re the only outlet I have for my rage right now, so you’d do well to distract me.” Not that I hadn’t done a good job of raging all over him already.

  “Fine, fine. I can twist spells. Ones that don’t require active maintenance, anyway. It turns them invisible.”

  My eyebrows went up, and it hurt. I winced and dragged the tips of my fingers down my forehead like I might be able to pull them back down again. “That’s how you became invisible?”

  “No, it’s how the invisibility spell became invisible. Normally it’d only fool mundies. I wasn’t sure if it’d fool the wards at the bank even after it was twisted, but it did. Pretty cool, right?” He grinned.

  “Does Mom know?”

  His grin lingered. “No. I figured it out when I was a kid, and it was too much fun to play with when no one knew.”

  That sounded about right for him. A thought occurred to me. “That’s why you were checking out those coins so carefully. You thought maybe he could do it too.” He nodded reluctantly. I chuckled in spite of myself but hadn’t lost track of the details. “What about the binding?” I paused. “The original one. Mom’s.”

  “Your buddy John took care of that for me.”

  “John Warren?” There went the eyebrows again. I left them alone this time.

  “Yeah. I figured it was a long shot, but I bought him breakfast and explained the situation, and he agreed to do it.”

  “How’d you even…” I groaned when it hit me. “You used my phone again.” A familiar anger was starting to bubble, and I shot him a small glare. “You’d better hope the witch that threw us in here kills you, because if not, I’m going to do it when we get out.”

  Dan put up his hands in a placating gesture. “Hey, hey, I think you’re losing sight of the important thing here.”

  “Really. What is that?”

  “Johnny-boy would totally have breakfast with you on a moment’s notice. I think he’s sweet on you.”

  I threw a pillow at him, wincing as my head rewarded my efforts with a fresh throb of pain. I leaned it against the wall and closed my eyes. “Asshole.”

  “You said that.”

  “It’s worth repeating.”

  He tossed the pillow back to me and it hit me in the chest, giving me a start. I wrapped my arms around it and hugged it against my chest.

  “So, what happened? Did the old guy choke me out?” he asked. “The last thing I remember is his hands around my neck.”

  “Sort of. He tried to suck your magic out. But I put the kibosh on that. You passed out. He smacked me around a little and tried to suck magic out of me.”

  Dan smirked, looking toward the door. “How’d that work out for him?”

  “He definitely got more than he bargained for.”

  “What does that mean?” He narrowed his eyes.

  “C’mere. Give me your hand.”

  I received a wary look, but he scooted closer and placed his hand in mine. His fingers were warm and soft. The memory of John’s work-roughened hands in mine rose unbidden. I shoved it away and closed my eyes. I tried to tap into my power, but it seemed like the binding the witch had placed on Dan was keeping me from drawing on his magic. I wasn’t sure how to make it go the other way.

  “Try to cast a spell,” I said, opening my eyes to watch him.

  “I can’t, I’m—”

  “Just try.”

  He tried, but nothing happened.

  “Worth a shot. I thought maybe we could get around the binding.”

  He gave me a confused look, tightening his grip on my fingers when I tried to release his. “How?”

  “When he used the spell on me, it didn’t work because I’m not a witch. Or, at least not in the way you and the others are. I think he activated my ability, just… in reverse. The magic went through me into him, instead of through me into the ground.”

  Dan’s brows shot up, and he put both of his hands in mine like that might help. “Try it again,” he said, a note of pleading in his voice.

  “I don’t know how to reproduce it on demand. It just happened.”

  “Try it. I didn’t know what you wanted before.”

  We tried for a while, but eventually, I pried my hands away and tucked them under my arms. “Sorry.”

  He was clearly disappointed, but waved the apology off and stood, walking over to a wooden chair that sat against the wall under one of the windows. Dan climbed up onto the chair and looked out the window.

  “See anything?”

  “Snow.” He reached up to fiddle with the window. “I don’t think it opens, and it’s warded so I doubt we can smash it.”

  “Doesn’t look big enough to climb out of anyway. Is there anything we can use for a weapon? Maybe we can get the drop on him when he comes back to… do whatever it is he intends to do with us.”

  Dan hopped down and started to search the room. He didn’t get very far before the door opened forcefully.

  “You,” our captor said, his less-than-imposing frame not quite filling the doorway. He pointed at me. “Get up, and come with me.”

  “No way.” Dan stepped between me and the older witch. “It’s power you want, right? Take mine, and let her go.”

  His chivalrous display surprised me, to say the least. I couldn’t help but wonder what his angle was, because Dan didn’t have a self-sacrificing bone in his body. Or did he? If the last fifteen minutes had taught me anything, it was that I didn’t know my baby brother as well as I’d thought.

  The older man paused, fixing my brother with a calculating stare. The next thing I knew, a casual display of power sent Dan flying. He slammed into a chest of drawers with a clatter and thud and hit the ground on his hands and knees. It happened so fast, I’d barely even seen the spell. That was scary, I’ll admit. Even during the duel upstairs earlier, the magic hadn’t been flying quite that fast.

  I sat up abruptly, holding up both hands. “Whoa there, take it easy. I’m coming.” I scooted toward the edge of the bed, moving a little gingerly on account of the throbbing in my skull.

  Dan wasn’t down for the count. I could see him moving, pushing himself up, a split lip dripping blood down his chin. “Em, no…” he said, imploring me with his eyes to stay back.

  “It’s okay. It’s not like he can burn me out, right? Can’t take what I don’t have.” I settled my eyes on the witch in the doorway and kept them there, the wary glance of a weaker animal to an alpha. I hated myself for it. I wanted to be stronger. Surer. He didn’t look angry, or even aggressive. Somehow, it made him seem even more dangerous. Unpredictable.

  “Where are we going?” I asked, moving gingerly across the room.

  “Not far.” He stepped out of the doorway so I could exit the room. When I did, he closed the door firmly on Dan’s continued protestations and locked it. The silence in the hall once the door shut was absolute. I couldn’t even hear Dan pounding on the door, though it shook in its frame as he did.

  “Do I even want to know why you have a guest room in your basement that only locks on the outside?” My snark was a front, a shield, a warm blanket to wrap around myself as if it could insulate me from chilly gusts of nervous anxiety.

  He didn’t answer, but a magical glow sprung to life around him. I flinched back, fetching up against the wall beside the door.

  “What are you doing? What do you want from me?” Even as I spoke the words, I knew what he wanted. Power. He’d been draining witches of it all over town. He’d tried to take my brother’s, and then he found me. Chances were he didn’t even know what I was or how my ability worked—hell, I barely understood
it myself. But he’d found exactly what he wanted. Power. I just didn’t know what he intended to do with it.

  “I’m sorry.” He grabbed my wrist. I tried to pull away, but his fingers were like a goddamn vise. “I hope this doesn’t hurt too much.”

  “It’s not too late. Just let us go, we won’t tell any—” I didn’t get any further, because he did that thing again. This time I saw the spell come together, lines of power twisting in the air a moment before they plunged into my chest.

  I’m not sure how long I stood there while he sucked power through me, but by the time he was done, I knew what a narrow straw felt like when a thick milkshake was forced through it. I fell to my knees when he released me, unable to remain upright. He held something in his hand, something that dangled, swayed and crackled with lingering mystical energy. He’d been feeding the power he drew through me into it, somehow.

  “What… is that?” I could barely speak the words. I was panting, sweating and shivering all at once. Like I’d just run a marathon in below-freezing weather or had mind-blowing sex. I think I would’ve preferred either, even the marathon, to what had actually happened.

  Again, he didn’t answer. Instead, he unlocked the door and dragged me by one arm to heave me back inside. I hit the floor with both knees and barely caught myself on shaking arms.

  “Emily!” Dan rushed to my aid. “What’d you do to her, you sick fuck?”

  “I’m sorry,” the witch said. He even sounded sincere.

  With my face buried in Dan’s shoulder, I heard the door shut and the telltale click of the lock.

  “Are you okay?” Dan rubbed my back and rocked me slowly. “Shit, what did he do?”

  It took me a few moments to summon the strength to answer. “He had some kind of talisman. A necklace, I think. He drew a shit ton of power through me and fed it to it. I don’t know why.”

  “A necklace?” I could practically hear his ears perking. “What kind of necklace? What did it look like?”

  I groaned and shook my head slowly. “I dunno, I was too busy being a straw.”

  Dan eyed me with obvious concern for my mental health. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  I couldn’t have agreed more.

  Chapter 32

  The next time Mr. Magic-Sucker opened the door, we were ready for him. We’d positioned ourselves beside the door, as flat against the wall as possible. I held my breath for good measure. When the witch stepped into the seemingly empty room to look for his captives, carrying a tray with a plate of sandwiches and two bottles of water, Dan clocked him upside the head with the lamp from the bedside table. The pottery shattered on impact with our captor’s skull, but it had the intended effect. The older man dropped like a sack of bricks.

  “Wow, it actually worked.” Dan tossed the remains of the lamp aside.

  I rolled the man onto his side and checked for a pulse. It thrummed steady and strong under my fingers.

  Dan grabbed my arm and towed me toward the door. “We need to get the hell out of here before he wakes up. Come on!”

  I went with him, reassured that the witch was still alive. He may have been an unethical asshole, but I didn’t want to do prison time as an accomplice. Granted, we would’ve had a good case for self-defense.

  We made it up the basement stairs and spilled out into the kitchen without incident. We were halfway across the kitchen when a child’s cry of distress reached my ears. I put on the brakes, but Dan kept going, dragging me by the hand.

  “Dan! Wait!”

  “It’s a trap!”

  “It could be, but what if he’s got another captive?”

  That stalled him. He eyed me uncertainly, then shook his head. “We get out, we call the cops. Let them be the heroes.”

  I let Dan pull me toward the door, but I’ll be damned if that kid’s cry didn’t stick with me. My hand to god, I felt my ovaries clench. I was on the verge of insisting we search the house, but it turned out to be unnecessary. A mundie girl stood in the mouth of the hall outside. She couldn’t have been more than six, and despite the fact that the sun was still up she wore a frilly pink nightgown and looked like she’d just rolled out of bed.

  “Who are you?” the child asked, lifting a small fist to scrub at one eye. A teddy bear dangled from that fist, clutched tightly.

  Dan stared at her as if he’d never seen a child before, leaving me to pick up the slack.

  “I’m Emily, and this is Dan. What’s your name?”

  “Alice.”

  I offered her my most friendly nurse smile and bent down to her level. “Where’s your mommy, Alice?”

  Alice gazed at me with solemn blue eyes. “Mommy’s with the angels.” A smile blossomed on her face. “Are you the angel that’s come to make me better?”

  Puzzled, I looked her over with a clinical eye. Alice was a little on the skinny side, but she looked healthy. In my line of work, though, I knew appearances could be deceiving. “No, sweetie, I’m not an angel.”

  Dan leaned over and whispered, “Is that the talisman?”

  It took me a moment to figure out what he was talking about, but there it was. Hanging around the little girl’s neck on a golden chain, nestled in the satiny fabric covering her narrow chest, was the piece of jewelry that our captor had super-charged. I couldn’t sense its power in the slightest; it could’ve been any random piece of jewelry.

  I reached for it instinctively, wondering why the girl was wearing it.

  Alice recoiled as if my fingers had sprouted claws, slapping her hand over the talisman. “Mine!” she growled, a sudden fierce glint in her eyes.

  Blinking, I quickly withdrew my hand. “It’s okay, Alice, I won’t take it from you. I just wanted to look. It’s very pretty.”

  Alice took another distrustful step back. Light began to peek out between her fingers, which curled around the amulet a moment later. Her fist began to glow, radiating magical energy. She screwed up her face and bellowed. “Daddy!”

  Dan grabbed my arm. “Time to go.”

  I let him tow me toward the door, but kept my eyes glued on Alice. The magical energy spread down her arm and across her shoulders. Astonished, I tripped over my own feet and went sprawling. Pain radiated up the knee and arm I landed on, but I managed to jerk my head back and avoided making chin contact with the tile floor. Dan scrambled to help me up.

  “Daddy!” Alice screamed at the top of her lungs. “What did you do to my daddy?”

  My heart raced. I limped for the door, afraid to look back. I could sense the power behind me without looking. It sang to me, a beacon of warmth and light at my back. Curiosity got the better of me. While Dan threw open the locks, I looked back. Alice had followed us. Her entire small body radiated light. If I hadn’t known better, I would’ve thought she was a witch. What was the amulet doing?

  Alice dropped her bear and brought her hands up, touching a fingertip to a thumb and walking her hands up in the air as if she were singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider song. Dan tugged on my arm, but all I could do was stare as magic danced between Alice’s fingertips. Her thin blond hair lifted at the sides as the air around her took on a static charge. It was so much power for one small body. Too much, I feared.

  I shook off Dan’s hand and took a step toward Alice. “Hey, Alice. Take a deep breath for me, okay? We’re not here to hurt you or your daddy.”

  “Em, don’t!” Dan called after me.

  Alice drew her hands apart. The lines of her spell hovered in the air between them like fine spun gold. I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that I needed to calm her down before she harmed herself. Or us.

  “Where’s my daddy?” Alice asked, her eyes boring into mine.

  “He’s downstairs, uh, sleeping.”

  Alice didn’t buy it. She narrowed her eyes, then brought her hands together with a tiny clap. As she did, the spell shrunk into a concentrated ball of energy and shot toward me. Dan shoved me aside. I hit the wall hard, rattling the picture frames, but Dan went flying bac
kward as the magical bolt struck him dead center. He hit the wall beside the open door and slumped to the floor, inches from freedom but unconscious.

  I lunged for Alice and caught her small wrists before she could do any more damage, hoping that she needed her hands for spell casting. That was how witches learned as children, with gestures, but as they got older they usually grew beyond needing them. Had the witch taught his daughter—a mundie who had no scrap of magic in her that I could detect—to use the magic stored in the amulet? I had no idea that was even possible.

  Alice screamed and thrashed in my grasp, radiating magical energy at an alarming rate. I took a deep breath and opened myself to it, embracing my newfound gift. Heat slid into my hands and up my arms as the magic flooded my body. I let it come, let it slide through my torso, down my legs, and into the floor.

  The glow around Alice dimmed, and the corresponding flow of magic coursing through me weakened. I siphoned the magic off until all that was left was a faint glow around the talisman. Alice’s struggles had weakened by then, and I released one of her hands to grab the talisman, snapping the slender golden chain around the girl’s throat and yanking the object of power away.

  Alice went quiet, and her eyes turned vacant. Her knees buckled. She hung from my one-handed grip until I released her, then dropped to her knees and slumped forward. Confused, I caught her and eased her down onto the tile.

  “Alice?” I patted her cheek, but she lay there staring up at nothing, completely unresponsive. I checked her pulse and watched the slow rise and fall of her chest. She was alive but catatonic. Tori’s face flickered in my mind, the similarities in their conditions difficult to ignore. I looked from the amulet in my hand to Alice’s pale, expressionless face and back again as the pieces finally started clicking into place.

  “Get away from her!” Our captor’s voice boomed as he thundered across the tile toward me, glowing with magical power.

  I slapped the amulet against Alice’s chest, knowing there was a little bit of juice left in it.

  The child’s lashes fluttered, and she stirred beneath my hand. “Daddy?”