Capturing the Last Welsh Witch

by J. M. Davies

  “Are you all right?”

  Ella blinked and crossed her arms over her chest. She lifted her gaze and stared at Ben Steel. The size and power that emanated from him alone should intimidate her but she was way beyond that. If he wanted her, there was good reason; either way, maybe it was better to be on the inside watching rather than being hunted for a change.

  “What’s the sign-on bonus?”

  The Silver Fox, her new nickname for her boss, smirked as he felt inside his jacket, removed a checkbook and pen, and promptly filled out a check.

  Ella’s heart churned. Was she really going to do this? She had never worked as part of a team; she only ever worked alone. She pulled on her lower lips as another thought entered her brain.

  He extended his hand and passed her over the slim piece of paper.

  “What about Drayton? Does he know about this?” She waved the check in the breeze before she even glanced at it. When she did, boy oh boy, the staggering number of zeroes made it impossible for her to stop smiling.

  “If you agree, you will leave in the next twenty-four hours. I will give you instructions as to where you need to go. Your contact with be Jake Meadows. I think you know him as the Gateway? He’ll bring you in. And no, Drayton doesn’t know yet but he will. I do not foresee any issues, but I need to know right now if that will be a problem for you because if it is, the deal is off the table. I do not need romantic liaisons between team members, do you understand, Masters? It makes everything complicated and I don’t like it when it gets complicated.”

  He was straight to the point, and she liked that about him. If he had any clue about their sexual relationship, he didn’t bat an eyelid. Perhaps he was another man who believed that sex was simply sex. Anyway, it brought her right back to the problem she faced: namely, Marcus. What if she couldn’t handle being around him? What if he was with another woman? How would she feel? Could they keep things simple and work together? Her head spun with all her worries.

  “You need to complete a series of training. I know you’re fit and strong. I’ve heard the story of the young recruit at the hotel, but you had the element of surprise in that situation. I need you to be war-worthy, ready for anything, and that takes training. Lots of training. You may wish you had never started by the time I’ve finished with you but you will become a member of an elite squad that will not only be men but women as well. Any good with languages? I hear you have some medical training.”

  The world spun precariously. Lots of training. The only training she had really undertaken had been self-defense with Aidan. She was strong but war strong? Maybe this wasn’t for her. As if he knew she was torn, he spoke.

  “Meet with the team, Ella. Whatever you decide at the end of the training, that check is for keeps. If you decide to bail, you keep it, but you will have to go into a legitimate witness protection program and I cannot guarantee where that will be. You have to understand you’re known to several worldwide security agencies and one or another of them will pick you up, or worse, the Elusti will hunt you down. I don’t know everything about your past but one way or another, it will catch up with you. You either choose to work for me or for some unknown. This will never end, you know that.”

  He was giving her a choice but not much of one. The spinning sensation settled. Ella made her choice and she would deal with the repercussions, come what may. After pocketing the check in her back pocket, she lifted her hand and gave him a firm shake.

  ****

  Making the decision to accept Ben Steel’s very generous offer was, in hindsight, made very glibly. Facing not only Marcus but all his men filled her with a sickening dread but she had absolutely no idea as to how she would even survive the training. She swallowed down all her thoughts and fears, telling herself that whatever she faced, this was professional, this was business, this wasn’t going to be personal and she wasn’t going to be one of those women who cried in front of men. No, she didn’t want to be seen as the weaker sex; she wanted to be treated by them as an equal and she would focus on doing her best to prove that to them. Ella wanted to show them that as a woman, she was as capable as they were. Steel had said the six-week training would be based upon and be very similar to the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, which was much longer at six months but they simply didn’t have the time. It would be grueling and intense. The training would be comprised of men and women and a strict regimen would be enforced at all times. If she passed the physical fitness, she would then proceed to incorporate other aspects like weapons, linguistics, and intelligence.

  Steel had left her as soon as they shook hands, saying that she would hear from him very soon. No sooner had she folded her easel and gathered her paints into her arms than another human scent wafted around her, and a familiar man walked into view. Wow that was quick! Jake Meadows strode over. She stood, unmoving, as he helped to pick up the drying canvas off the ground, studied it intently and then gazed at the view before he swung back to look at her.

  “You have a very good eye, Ella. It’s quite breathtaking. You certainly are a woman with many talents.”

  There may have been a little edge to his voice but the fact that he didn’t simply launch into anything that involved Marcus was slightly comforting. He was trying to find neutral territory. Deciding to keep Marcus out of the conversation was probably better for both of them.

  “I didn’t expect you so soon. I’m not even packed.”

  Jake nodded and removed the easel from her hand. “Come on. I’ve been here watching you for weeks, Ella. You didn’t even notice me. You don’t have much to pack, that I know because I’ve been in your house. I could go on about security or the lack of it, but it’s a moot point. We’re leaving. And let’s just clear the air before we head off. Like I said before, Drayton is family. I would do anything for him. He’s one of the good guys. We were in the SEALs together and if you pass this training, you’ll be part of that family and I will be there for you. We all back each other up. We work as a team. Of course, I’m not sure you’ll even pass the training because the way I look at it, working as a team will push you to the ultimate limit—you don’t trust anyone, which may have worked for you before, but it sure as hell won’t now.”

  Ella listened to his speech and marched up to his side, pulling the easel out from his hands. She was ready to take him down. Her anger skyrocketed when she realized he’d been inside her makeshift home and looked through her belongings.

  “I don’t need you to carry my stuff. How dare you follow me and invade my privacy, you jerk.”

  “Honey, you don’t get to have privacy when you’ve been on America’s Most Wanted. Drayton tagged you the first chance he got and switched the bug on after that sexy romp with my pal Stevens, who will never live that shit down. Gotta say, you have spunk, Ella Masters, but I wouldn’t like to be you when Drayton catches up with you and he will. Like I said, you need to be able to work as a team and even if you don’t need me to help you carry your blasted easel, it will make you move faster, hence we will make it back to the cottage quicker. Why do you insist on struggling?”

  Ella was focused on the words that involved Marcus tagging her. How the hell had he managed that? She scratched her head. And using what as a bugging device? The only thing in her possession that she wore all the time was her amulet. She removed the bracelet. Jake stopped and watched her.

  “Shit.”

  She ignored him but held the intricate bracelet between her hands. She studied it carefully. The top looked untouched as the stones twinkled and shone, all except one that looked duller than the others. She pressed it and it moved, dislodging itself from its position. She held up the tiny glass bead and scratched the surface to reveal a tracking device, which she threw to the ground and smashed with the heel of her boot before replacing the bracelet on her wrist.

  “Thanks, teammate. I’m learning things already. I won’t be caught out again, believe you me, and if you think I’m not a team player, well, maybe you’re right. I don�
�t trust people. I have good reason not to. Give me a reason to change, but until then, all I can promise is that I will do my best to help my team survive because I’m a survivor and I will do whatever it takes.”

  Jake stared at her, unblinking and cursing under his breath. “I can deal with that. Are you going to tell Drayton?”

  She left the coastal path behind her and in an odd way was eager and excited about her next step, although a reunion with Marcus might cause some problems she’d rather not think about at the moment. Sighing, she glanced over at Jake, who was taller than her and walked at her side.

  “What’s to tell? I have one request before we leave.”

  Jake caught up to her, removed the canvas from under her arm and grabbed the easel.

  “What request?”

  “We need to go to church first.”

  Jake’s eyebrows arched at her reply but without saying a word, he nodded. An hour later, they stood in the small church of St. Agnes in the tiny village of Twi. The brisk wind of the coast was absent and stillness lingered in the empty and silent graveyard. Many deserted headstones lay eroded through time and the elements of nature. The ancient yew trees shaded and protected the abandoned resting places of dozens of men, women, and children; some names were clearly visible, others broken and the words once lovingly carved washed away by time. Ella knew immediately where the final resting place for Gwendolyn Smythe lay. After her death, her remaining family, who had never believed she was a witch, petitioned for her to be laid to rest in the grounds on the local parish church but the vicar refused, saying it would be unholy.

  Years later, when the witch trials were denounced as nothing more than an excuse to murder innocents, the descendants petitioned again and removed the remains to inside the grounds of the church in the far corner in the shade by the biggest and oldest yew tree. Ella planned to use some of the money from Steel to replace the headstone with a large granite one that would stand for the rest of time. There were no other gravestones out there of her other lives, at least none she had discovered.

  Gwendolyn called to her, and she felt the pull from the middle of her stomach, leading her to the corner. This was not her first or second visit to the cemetery and each time, Gwendolyn spoke and comforted her. Approaching the steel-gray mottled and eroded headstone always brought her to her knees, and she dropped into the wet earth. Jake stood directly behind her, leaned over and touched her shoulder. He crouched low.

  “Are you all right? Whose grave is this?”

  She didn’t answer but dipped her head low and smoothed her hand over the curved top of the headstone. There were no chiseled flowers or ivy adorning the front, no symbols to honor her love of healing or belief in God. The stone lay bare except for her name and a date that screamed of murder and misjudgment. This was where her first life ended at the hand of people who were swept up by the hysteria and gossip that branded her an evil witch capable of murder and bewitching others. Tears fell. They always did as the noose tightened around her neck and she watched the screaming crowd of delighted onlookers, not one of them stopping to save her. The tears splashed on her cheeks, and she let them.

  Let it go. The past is the past. Live on for us all, Ella. We live on in you.

  “I will.”

  This was the last time she would visit, or maybe she would come once more when the new headstone was in place. She touched the top of the stone and made a sign of the cross over her chest before she stood.

  “Why are we here?”

  “I’m just saying good-bye.”

  She walked away and allowed herself to glance over her shoulder once, knowing that Gwendolyn would be standing under the yew to watch her depart. She waved, and the ghost waved back before it vanished.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Ella lay on the small cot with the thinnest mattress she had ever slept on in her plum camisole and black cargo pants, waiting for the sun to rise. For weeks now, her routine was emblazoned on her brain: sleep for a few hours but be ready as often her trainer would wake the dorm up with early-morning drills and if you weren’t ready in two minutes, there were severe penalties, like missing food or having to clean the men’s restrooms, and even though the food tasted like cardboard, it lined her stomach. Steel hadn’t mentioned the sleeping arrangements or the fact that the food at the secret camp somewhere in deepest Maine was disgusting.

  Since being escorted by Jake the Big Mouth—as she renamed him back in the States—she had been holed up in the middle of a dense forest of evergreen trees surrounded by a wide crystal lake with barely any decent facilities for weeks in freezing temperatures in December. Christmas had come and gone by in a blur. Everything she ate had the same bitter taste and made her stomach queasy but she pushed on. Her muscles in the beginning rebelled, stinging and aching with pain, but after a while, the endurance paid off and she was able to power through even as others collapsed. In fact, by week two, if the training commander Hawk said they needed to do fifty pushups, she pushed herself to do fifty-five. Her adrenaline for pushing herself to the maximum to achieve her goal fed her as nothing else was. Ella was never a big girl, not even in the breast department but since she’d been training and taking into account the mornings in which she emptied her stomach completely, she’d lost several pounds but her arm muscles were more defined and toned. She figured the vomiting was due to the lousy diet. She was getting good at sneaking the protein bars from the makeshift kitchen; they were the only snacks she could eat that stayed down, that and her incredible thirst for milk. She drank it by the gallon.

  The shrill noise of the whistle had her leaping up out of bed and she quickly dashed out of the long, narrow dorm room that held ten other women. She was one of the smallest but not the youngest; there was a girl who was just twenty-one and had a talent for moving objects by thought alone. It had taken Ella twenty-four hours to realize the recruits that Steel was bringing together were not your average private soldiers and some weren’t even human. The smell was an eclectic mix of races and supernatural forces; it was odd that no one addressed or talked about that fact. Instead, everyone focused on getting stronger and reaching the end of the training, apart from those who quit.

  Since joining the room, she had formed a bond with the young slim girl with long auburn hair always tied back in a ponytail. She was in the bunk next to her. The girl had the most striking emerald eyes and although her features were delicate, she was a strong opponent in combat. Because of the similar heights, Ella had been placed opposite her and at first the temptation to go easy on the young girl was overpowering. But as she let her take the upper hand in some vital moves, she realized the girl wasn’t giving an inch. Her name was Isabella, Bella for short, and she couldn’t help feeling a sense of connection when she was around. She hoped later at dinner time that she would get the chance to talk to her privately, if their training finished at a civilized time—which was unlikely. Most evenings, by the time training finished and everyone sat for dinner, exhaustion kicked in. Most left the table and by the time they reached the dorm, undressed, and showered, they were asleep inside of minutes.

  Today, after their twenty-mile hike carrying a load on their back that weighed around fifty pounds, they were told there would be a swimming exercise in the lake. For Ella, the hike wasn’t an issue; she was happy with that and knew she wouldn’t have a problem but the swimming brought her out in a cold sweat. Memories of the past and the drowning on the ducking stool, the burn of her lungs and gasping for air as all hers was squeezed out almost made her throw up again as she took the stairs two at a time to stand in the front row and faced Hawk, who blew the whistle again. She quickly glanced around and every one of the recruits was present.

  A collective sighed buzzed around her. She smiled and nodded at Bella.

  “Well, ladies, you’re into week four. Only two more to go, which means you’re more than halfway. As a celebration, we’ve turned this exercise into a competition. We’re putting you into pairs and you will work together t
o find your specific color flag at a set location, retrieve it and return to base camp. The first pair to collect the flag will be rewarded by being excused from the swimming exercise for this afternoon.”

  His words were like music to her ears and she chewed on her lip, determined that she and whoever she was partnered with would win, even if she had to bring the heavens down to get them to the destination. She jumped up and down on her feet, gearing herself up for the long trek and stretched her muscles as the trainer called out the names of the teams. Hearing Bella’s name, she instantly froze, waiting to hear her name next but Adelle was called. Damn. Ella’s name was next and she was partnered with the tall and well-endowed Kelly. She smiled at the woman, who was about the same age as her but she didn’t reciprocate. This was going to be interesting.

  As the group divided into the five teams, they were each handed a backpack with their load, which also contained water. They were given a map and a compass. Each map showed the team where their flag was located, so all they had to do was navigate their way to the x that marked the spot on their map. The hike was a round trip of over thirty miles, longer than Ella had imagined but the sun was just rising and the forecast for the day was a frigid thirty-five, which, for December was about average but at least there wasn’t snow.

  “You any good with maps?” Kelly still didn’t smile, rather frowned and pouted, but as Ella tentatively smiled at her, she decided any ill-at-ease sensations she was catching best be buried because to win this, they needed to work together.