Witchling Wars

by Shawn Knightley

  She went on talking as I looked through the photographs of her previous clients with their hair done for proms and formal events.

  “I’ll tell you, Miss Ashwood, I’m absolutely thrilled you’re going tonight,” she said.

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “Well, we all have to move on at some point. And you’re still so young. You have your whole life ahead of you. Nathaniel is a very good looking man. I’m sure you two will have a wonderful time. And if you two hit it off after I’m done making you look fabulous, you owe me double,” she said with a playful wink in the mirror.

  The god-awful part about living in a small town is that everybody knows everyone else’s business. Except for me. I tried minding my own business unless people came to me for a reading. However, she knew that I was previously married and now I had the lonely status of a widow. If people weren’t giving me condolences, they were telling me how I should take my next step in the world.

  “I’d like the hair and makeup you did on this girl,” I said, pointing to a young woman with a simple braided updo that pinned into an elegant curly bun on the back of her head. Her eyes were dusted in a nice amber color with berry lips. Not too much and not too little.

  “Good choice. Nathaniel will love it,” she said with another wink before taking the portfolio from my hands and placing it back in the drawer. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work as I was left there wondering if Nathaniel had lured her. So many vampires like to lure their victims. To give them thoughts that they never had. Thoughts that weren’t their own. To implant intentions and memories that didn’t exist. It was their way of bringing in their prey. Giving them a reason to come near or to make them believe they were friends or lovers. It was a deceptive, manipulative, and destructive ability vampires used to capture a victim. The sick part was that they didn’t need to use it. Their strength and speed were enough to kill someone. The luring was just for the fun of the hunt.

  Was Nathaniel ever really here? Did he ever even ask Eliza to do my hair and makeup? Or did he see her in town and make her believe that he had? Did he lure her in, give her the memory?

  He couldn’t have done it to me. My magic would have sensed it. Or so I hoped.

  Hours later my hair was washed, trimmed, and styled with about half a gallon of hairspray. Or at least it smelled that way. My makeup was flawless and I was being ushered over to the counter to pay.

  “The spray I put on will keep it from falling as you ride back in this horrible heat,” said Eliza as she took the cash in her hand.

  “As long as it serves a purpose.”

  I thanked her and was off to get the dress, assuming that Nathaniel had probably lured the owner of the shop as well. When I entered to see a woman who seemed to recognize me on sight, I knew that was exactly what happened. He lured the shopkeeper too. I picked out a nice blue dress that I would have assumed was a bit too much for the occasion, but the shopkeeper thought was lovely. She tried giving me a tall pair of heels, but I insisted on the ones with only a small heel. I wasn’t in the mood for breaking an ankle tonight. I was a sneakers girl, through and through. She boxed it all up with tissue covering it and I held it over my handlebars as I rode home with only thirty dollars to spare from the cash Nathaniel gave me and a sneer on my face.

  As I walked back into the house, Nathaniel was still sitting at my reading table. Although, I was almost certain that he had probably followed me around, making sure that I kept true to my word and didn’t try to run.

  “Nathaniel,” I said with a scowl when I entered my house.

  His eyes roamed over to me. I could have sworn that I saw them widen a bit when his eyes took me in. He faltered for the briefest of seconds, as though my new look spooked him more than it pleased him. “Does my appearance meet your standards now?” I sassed him, placing the dress on the table. “Is this dress worthy of your company?”

  He took the lid off and peered inside. “It will do. Now go get dressed. We’ll be leaving soon.”

  “What did you do to Eliza?” I snapped. I couldn’t help myself. The things that came out of my mouth were often more uncontrollable than my magic was at times. Especially when I was stressed.

  “Only what needed to be done.” He shook his head as though the answer was obvious and I shouldn’t bother asking. As though I had no right to question anything that he did. Then he took my arm in his rock solid hand and led me out of my study and into my bedroom. He gave me a light shove inside and grabbed the door handle. “Get dressed. We’re leaving soon.”

  Then he shut the door and I was left once again with only my nerves and an uneasy stomach. I hadn’t eaten much. But granted I might lose whatever was inside my stomach from the nervous knots curling around in my chest I figured it was for the best that it remained empty.

  I slipped into the dress and shoes then took one final look in the mirror. It was probably the best I had looked since my wedding day. Only I couldn’t afford the fancy hair and makeup job on my wedding day. I had done it all myself. I didn’t look bad. Far from it. But I was downright common compared to Samantha Larsen. She would overshadow me with ease.

  I shook my head. It wasn’t like me to think such thoughts. I wasn’t competitive like that. And I sure didn’t care what some snotty ex-cheerleader like Samantha Larsen thought of me.

  ‘What in the hell?’

  I stomped out of my room and back into the hall where Nathaniel was waiting with his arms crossed leaning against the wall.

  “Don’t do that!” I hollered.

  “Do what?” he asked as though it was amusing to him.

  “Don’t lure me. Don’t put thoughts in my head that aren’t mine.”

  He grinned from ear to ear. “Most girls like to look better than all the others at a party.”

  “I don’t give a shit about this stupid party. I want to find out whatever it is you want to know and get you out of my life!”

  Wrong thing to say.

  He walked over to me in only a few steps and pinned me back against the wall. His icy cold skin sent goosebumps up my arms, forcing even the smallest hairs to stand on end.

  “Nothing would please me more, little kruxa. I would rather deal with the luxra or vixra over the likes of you. At least they have some control over their magic. They don’t put everyone else around them at risk. But beggars can’t be choosers. You’re stuck with me.”

  His words stung me. More so than I wanted to admit. Kruxa weren’t well respected in the witchling world. We were one grade above vampires. The luxra were of a higher caliber. Rarer and more respected. And the vixra were practically the aristocracy. The kruxa were known as the reckless ones. The witches that got themselves killed due to foolishness. I’d never met a luxra or a vixra. And that was more than likely due to the fact that they stayed away from my lot. We were dirty to them. Perhaps even a bit dangerous.

  “Then why didn’t you ask one of them to do your dirty work for you?” I asked.

  “Because Officer Parker called you. He wanted your help. He wanted your skills. And it’s beyond my position in my coven to go looking for a luxra or a vixra to help me without my coven master’s consent. They have bigger problems on their hands than a series of small-town murders.”

  “But you do? You consider small-town murders your problem? Or is it your coven master that’s so interested in them?”

  He was so close that I could feel his abs through his shirt. They were rock solid. Much like his toned arms. And his skin radiated a chill that seeped straight through me. With eyes like his, he could disarm any woman with the toughest of barriers. He didn’t need to lure them. Eliza wasn’t wrong when she called him a stunner. But if she knew what he was she might think differently.

  My magic was stirring inside me, warning me that there was a danger. I could feel my forearms starting to get hot. It wanted release. It wanted to protect me.

  “Put that away right now,” he snarled as if I were carrying a loaded gun. And in truth, I kinda was. My
magic making an appearance would probably cause the same amount of panic at a private gathering as a gun going off.

  I closed my eyes and focused as hard as I could, telling myself it was alright. That I would live to see the next day. That Nathaniel needed me and he more than likely wouldn’t hurt me. At least not yet. My magic slowly dissipated and seeped back inside my body, leaving me feeling slightly drained from the effort.

  “No wonder there are so few kruxa left,” he hissed. “You panic at the slightest of threats.”

  “Then don’t give me a reason to panic.”

  He backed off and let me go. I felt for my wrists where his hands had been, wondering if they might bruise. My shivers spread from my arms down to my legs. Goosebumps overtook my skin. As dangerous as Nathaniel was, I knew I was about to deal with a different sort of enemy. Wolves.

  No. Not those kinds of wolves. The human kind. Politicians. There would be several of them at Congressman Larsen’s home tonight.

  “Follow me,” said Nathaniel as he walked outside and into the grass behind my house in the backyard.

  I closed the back door behind me and watched him as he stood in the center of the backyard and outstretched his hand to me. I was reluctant to take it.

  “Come now, little kruxa,” he teased. “We have a party to go to. And do try to act as though my presence doesn’t disturb you. I’m your date tonight.”

  I took a step back into the door. “There’s no way I’m introducing you as my date. Caleb hasn’t even been buried a year.”

  “So now you’re worried about your reputation?”

  I didn’t move. This was one battle in a series of battles I figured he and I would have through the course of the night. But it was one I was determined to win.

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said. “You can introduce me as your cousin.”

  I gave a sigh and walked down the back steps, my new heels clacking on the wood as I walked. He took my hand with such tenderness. Only a minute before he had threateningly pinned me up against the wall. Earlier he had nicked my throat with his knife. Eliza managed to conceal it was a little makeup but the mark was still visible. Now he took my hand like he was asking for my trust. I could see my arm shaking as I extended it to him.

  “Calm down, little kruxa,” he whispered as he took his other hand and brought it under my chin, forcing my eyes to reluctantly meet his yet again. Dear God, they were so blue. “Do as I say and before you know it you’ll be back safe in your bed.”

  He took me into his arms and wrapped them tight around me. Meaning he crushed me like two boulders latching onto me and refusing to let go. Only the boulders were his arms. Everything around us went bright. I shut my eyes to block out the light. We were moving. I don’t know how but we were moving. Through a tunnel no less. The sides were dark and sloped off into a staggeringly high cliff to either side of us. I let out a scream. It echoed all around us. I had the sensation of falling just before my feet touched the ground again. If it hadn’t been for Nathaniel’s arms around my backside, I would have fallen straight to the ground.

  Not that it helped. I shoved him away and fell down immediately when he let go. My hands reached the ground just as bile started burning its way up my throat and out of my mouth.

  ‘Yeah. Definitely glad I chose not to eat.’

  Only a little came up, thank god, but that didn’t stop me from staring daggers up at Nathaniel, who was looking slightly more remorseful than amused.

  “So that was your first time traveling through the vixra tunnels, I take it?”

  ‘Vixra tunnels?’

  “The vixra witchlings created them over a century ago for ease of travel. They can cast a spell that opens up tunnels to get from one place to another in a matter of seconds.”

  Figures. Spellcasting was limited for the kruxa. We could brew the occasional potion, have visions, and project the magic in our veins outside our bodies, but spellcasting was for witches of a higher caliber. No wands for us either. We didn’t have enough power to channel our magic into them. The little spellcasting the kruxa could do was a lost knowledge. Lost during the purges of kruxa in medieval Europe. And he knew that. He could easily have driven me here. But no. He had to showcase once again that he knew how low caste I was.

  ‘You’re no better than me, asshole. I may be ignorant of many things, but the luxra and vixra think even less of you than they do me.’

  I didn’t want to help him. I wanted to go home. I wanted to get rid of him. I also wanted to stare into his icy blue eyes. There was something behind them. A mystery that begged to be solved. Questions that wanted to be answered. Like why he looked at me with disgust one minute and curiosity the next. Or was that him luring me? Keeping me interested?

  “How the hell do you have access to them?” I muttered.

  He shrugged. “I know a vixra who doesn’t consider me quite as unsettling as most of your lot do. He permits me to use the tunnels.”

  He was friendly with a vixra? Great. I didn’t even have my slightly higher grade of witchling blood to hang over his head.

  He grabbed me from under my armpits and pulled me up. “The nausea will disappear in a minute or so. Good news is it only makes you nauseous the first few times you use the tunnels.”

  ‘Great. So I can expect that later tonight as well when I go home. If I live through the night.’

  “Come now, little kruxa,” he chided me as he pulled me along. “Let’s find you a mint. We can’t have you smelling like human vomit when you meet the Congressman.”

  Chapter 6

  Apparently, being a vampire means you have special skills involving breaking into cars. Or at least that was the impression I was under as Nathaniel went hunting for a mint piece of gum. He found one in the center console of a Volvo and handed it to me. I chewed on it for about thirty seconds then spit it into the grass, much to Nathaniel’s disgust.

  ‘Well, excuse me, Mr. Blood-Sucking Beast. Does my lack of southern manners repulse you? Good!’

  “We’re among high society now, little kruxa. You can’t spit your waste in the grass,” he sneered at me.

  “I already threw up in the grass. I don’t think they’re gonna care about some gum. Besides, I doubt these people are the type that mow their own la-” I didn’t manage to get the entire sentence out. He led me toward a walkway leading to the Congressman Carlton Larsen’s house. I always knew he lived in the more expensive part of town. Usually people interested in buying properties in our peaceful and quiet corner of the country. But I had never seen his house before that evening. I never even had enough of an interest to go driving in the more expensive part of town given that most of it was a gated community. To say his house was enormous would be an understatement. At least in my estimation. I hadn’t seen too many mansions in my lifetime, but this certainly qualified according to my standards.

  The exterior was stunning. It looked like a proper plantation with swooping trees and the smell of magnolia everywhere. The Congressman was clearly going for a southern colonial type of style.

  “What?” said Nathaniel. “Never seen such finery, have you?”

  “No,” I said quietly.

  Then Nathaniel did something that just about made me leap out of my skin. Not that it took much. He grabbed my hand. Okay, grabbed is too harsh of a word. He took my hand. He held it. And just as I was starting to worry that he was getting a little too chummy, he followed it with yet another put-down.

  “If your magic gets out of control, little kruxa, channel it into me. I’ll remind you to keep it hidden,” he said with enough snark to make me properly angry. As if I wasn’t already.

  I didn’t care how many people were walking in behind us. I pulled him over to the side and shook my hand free of his. My skin felt as though I had been touching a bunch of ice cubes.

  “That’s enough,” I snarled. “You’ve done a wonderful job of making me feel inadequate right before having me do something that isn’t exactly easy. I don’t even know w
hat I’m supposed to be looking for. I don’t do parties. I don’t do social gatherings with the rich. And I certainly don’t get involved in other people’s business unless they ask me to. Even during my readings, I keep certain details to myself. So enough with the insults if you want me to actually be successful tonight. I need to be focused.”

  He didn’t seem irritated with me. Quite the opposite. He was impressed. I guess he didn’t expect the ‘little kruxa’ to come with a bite of her own.

  He smirked at me and then held out his hand again, expecting me to take it. “No,” I said. “I don’t want people thinking we’re together.”

  “It’s for your sake. Look at your hands,” he said.

  I gasped in horror and hid my hands between the two of us. There was a twinge of glow to them. My magic was already on high alert, letting me know that something was wrong. Before I would have thought it was just him setting it off, but there was something else. Something nearby. Maybe a person that meant harm, or I was about to get a vision. Either way, it wasn’t the time or place.”

  “Take my hand,” he insisted.

  I did so. This time I was prepared for the icy chill from his skin.

  “Head up and walk with confidence. Behave as though you belong here and no one will know the difference.”

  “Except for those who know me. Small town, remember?”

  He squeezed my hand tight. “Just do as I tell you. Sense anything you can.”

  His words didn’t sound encouraging. Quite the opposite. They sounded threatening. They directly translated to ‘get the job done or else.’

  ‘Stay there,’ I silently scolded my magic back into my body. It wouldn’t leave me alone! And not just because I had a vampire escorting me to an upscale evening party. My magic was warning me that this would be no regular elitist showcase of ego and power.

  We walked up the stone staircase to the front doors of the mansion. They were so tall that I caught myself staring up at the top of the lighting setup on the front walkway. It scaled the entire outer ceiling.