by Liz Long
Gary grinned at her, showing off crooked teeth in his bearded face. “He is a nervous little bugger, isn’t he? Said you’d been asking all sorts of fun questions. Told us about your cop friend, too. Marshall, is it?”
“I know you wouldn’t be stupid enough to threaten a cop.” Ruby kept her tone sharp and hoped he got the idea. “As for Darren, you mean you forced him into talking. Your confession style seems more black eyes than truth potions.”
He appraised her with a long look, his crocodile smile growing bigger as he assessed her worth. Uneasiness crept into her belly; they would never let them simply walk out of here. His crooked teeth gave her a flashback of Courtney’s memory and she forced herself to not claw his eyes out.
“So maybe we saw Darren on the sidewalk or something,” Max jumped in. He shrugged. “Look, no matter how you wanna look at it, we’re here now. We want our money and you’re gonna give it back.”
“Are you deaf? I don’t have it,” Cooper repeated.
“Neither did your sister, apparently,” Gary growled.
Cooper snarled at him, moved to attack and Ruby threw her arm out to stop him. “Cooper, no. He’s provoking you.”
“That’s right, love.” Gary nodded at her. “See, Coop, she gets it. I want you to be as pissed off as we’ve been for the last year. Years of hard work went into collecting that money. We were all going to split it; instead you left us with nothing and for what? Because you were mad about having to do bitch work? Because your poor, precious psyche couldn’t handle all that power that comes with dark magic?”
Cooper interrupted him. “You know why I did it. What you were doing was wrong, you were hurting innocent people-”
“You were fine with it until you sobered up long enough to grow a conscience!” Gary’s calm demeanor broke as he shouted at them. “You fucked it up! It was a mistake not to kill you. Since you skipped out, we’ve barely been allowed to live, much less do jobs to make up for it. And our boss, he doesn’t like it when people don’t carry out his orders.”
Gary pushed up his sleeves to show them scars from deep, angry marks that had been gouged into his arms. Ruby noticed Gary was missing a pinky finger on each hand. Max and Alec shifted their feet, their hands still in their pockets, and Ruby felt sure they bore the same scars. They’d been caged up with their employers, tortured for their mistakes, and now that Cooper was back, they’d been released to catch him and make him pay.
Cooper said nothing, only glared at the three men. Gary stared back for a minute, then shrugged as though that were that.
“You don’t want to play nice, that’s fine. I have no problem taking your body back to them. He wants results and if you’re dead, that’s a good first step. We’ll find the money another way. Maybe your pretty friend here can help us locate it.”
Gary grinned at Ruby and she glared back at him, hoped she looked even remotely threatening. Gary only guffawed. “Don’t worry, we have ways to make this work. You’ll help us one way or another.”
Cooper snapped, shoved Ruby out of the way to rush Gary and his backup. Ruby shouted at him, reached into her bag for something, anything, that would get them out of this. Gary’s men moved faster.
Max threw a potion onto the ground; the vial broke and black smoke engulfed them all. Ruby felt blind, couldn’t even see her own hands in front of her face. She coughed, choked on the smoke that went into her mouth and nose. She opened her bag again to dig through the pockets for the protection potion Michael had given her. Then as quickly as it’d taken over, the smoke cleared and Ruby’s breath caught in her throat.
Gary and Alec hovered over Cooper’s body on the ground. Ruby made to run to him, but Max had snuck up behind her. He grabbed both her arms, held her as she screamed for Cooper to wake up.
Gary drew a knife from his belt. “We’ll finish the job this time.”
He crouched down to bring the knife to Cooper’s throat and Ruby shrieked. She pushed out all her energy and the overhead lights cut off, leaving them in the dark. Street light poured into the sides of the garage, giving the area a spooky yellow glow. Gary paused, quirked his head to look at her over his shoulder.
“Is that you, doll? If you wanted to be first, all you had to do was ask.”
He stood up and walked toward her, brandished the knife like a baton in his fingers. Max’s hands gripped her arms, held her in place. Gary stood face to face with her, ran the tip of the knife almost lovingly from her jawline to collarbone. She winced when he stopped, stuck her with the sharp tip. Alec, still hovering over Cooper’s still form on the ground, watched with rapt interest.
“Don’t worry, blue eyes, I won’t kill you. We’ll probably have our way with you before taking you back to the others, just so we’re clear.” Ruby thought of the most disrespectful thing she could do and spat in his face. Taken aback, Gary wiped at his face with a growl.
“Your mistake. Maybe you need a scar to match your boyfriend.”
Ruby saw Cooper stir behind them. He began to shake his head, regain his senses. She stuck her chin out at Gary, thought of anything to distract him. “You can’t have my heart.”
Gary gave her a puzzled look before a grin replaced it. “I don’t want your heart. I want to hear you scream.”
Gary dug the knife into her skin more and she cried out in pain. Ruby saw the murderous look on Cooper’s face, the vein that throbbed in his forehead as his green eyes darkened, turned almost black.
Cooper flung his arm outward and Alec went flying backwards. He zoomed fifty feet in the air, landed head first on a car windshield. Glass crunched underneath him and he didn’t move. Gary turned around to look at Cooper; Max dropped Ruby in surprise and she stomped on his foot. He howled when her heel made contact and she gasped for air, tried to control the oncoming panic, as she reached for anything inside her bag. Gary whirled around to look at Cooper, began to run at him with his knife drawn. Cooper threw his own potion vial down at Gary’s feet and Ruby backed away from all of them as they watched Cooper’s magic work.
A purple sheen hissed upwards to the dark witch, slithered into his mouth and nose, clouded his eyes and face. He began to cough and grabbed at his throat in a panicked gesture. After a few seconds, he calmed down, sucked in air on his own and almost appeared normal.
He raised his knife, a smirk clear on his face. “That it? Stupid boy. You wait ’til I tell X about this. You’re both dead.”
Then his smile died as his eyes glanced over Cooper’s shoulder. Whatever caught Gary’s attention made him freeze mid-step, took his entire focus off of them and onto some mysterious invisible being. His face turned white, the absolute fear obvious in his eyes. Gary screamed, spun around and bolted, his terrified shouts echoing off the walls.
Cooper staggered to his feet. “Been a while since I used that much power. Good to know I still got it.”
Ruby gasped in relief, giving Cooper an amazed look. “What on earth did you do to him?”
“Devil’s curse,” Cooper replied with a small grin. “Sounds like dark stuff, I know, but it’s actually an old one from my dad’s book. That asshole won’t think straight for at least half an hour.”
“I didn’t know you could move things, throw people.”
“Side effect of the dark magic. Dark witches can channel their energy into telepathy if they’re pissed off enough.”
“You’re no dark witch.”
“No, but he is,” Cooper said, nodding his head at the last enemy standing.
Max, who’d been unable to look away at Gary’s unfortunate demise, refocused his attention, turned to glare at Ruby. He stepped towards her and she stuck her arm in her bag, her fingers closing around Michael’s vial. Without a second thought she chucked it at his feet. The bottle broke with a loud pop and red smoke burst out, clouding over him. When the dust cleared, he lay dead on the ground, blood on the corner of his mouth. Ruby and Cooper both gaped at him; protection spells didn’t kill attackers. Several seconds ticked by before Ruby r
ealized someone would see them.
“Let’s get the hell out of here.” Ruby grabbed his hand and ran for her car. She didn’t bother with sympathy over the men lying here in the dark. Killer X could come take their hearts for all she cared.
CHAPTER TWENTY
They spent the next hour holed up in the apartment. Ruby sucked at the wound on her thumb where she’d pricked it to provide extra protection for the now four-and-counting spells on her door.
“Like hell they’re getting in here,” Cooper growled. He smeared his own blood on the door. Ruby winced at the mess of red on white and told herself it’d be over soon. She sighed and went to sit on the couch with Aziza.
Cooper put away all the materials, even locked up Ruby’s armoire for her and left the key on her nightstand. He joined her on the couch, pulled her legs over his lap and leaned in to kiss her on the temple.
“I don’t even want to talk about what happened,” Ruby said in a defeated tone.
“Okay,” Cooper agreed with a shrug. “I do feel compelled to ask though, where did you get a protection spell like that? You’ve never struck me as the type to make a spell to kill on contact.”
She shifted uncomfortably, adjusted Aziza’s position on her lap as she looked down and considered her response. She could feel Cooper’s eyes on her as he waited for an answer. She decided to tell the truth.
“The coven made it for me. I got it from Michael earlier; he called while I was at the store getting shampoo and I ran by there for only a minute. He said it was a protection spell.” She had to force her face into a blank expression, bite her tongue to keep from spilling X’s stalkerish phone call.
Cooper’s face blanked for a second at the mention of her interaction with Michael. Then it cleared as he gave her a concerned look. “That’s a hell of a protection spell. Looks like Rebecca is adding a little more zing to the group.”
“You think she ruined it?”
“I think she wants to ruin your life and if you used that on someone, you could be arrested for possible murder. Good luck explaining magic to a jury, but still. All she’d need to do is throw in a few herbs when Michael’s got his back turned; I doubt anyone else would realize what she did.”
Ruby sighed, cursed Rebecca in her head for what might be the billionth time. “I killed a guy tonight. That’s not something I ever thought I’d do.”
“Max was not a nice guy. All he cared about was money and mayhem. You saved our lives in self-defense, against dark witches no less. And once Gary stops seeing a giant devil monster, he’ll regroup and come after me again.”
“You mean after us.”
Cooper took a deep breath, avoiding her eyes as he spoke. “I was thinking we could ask Marshall to come stay with you or camp outside your place or something. I should leave, get them to chase me somewhere else.”
“What?” Ruby heard the hurt in her voice and his right shoulder twitched up in an apologetic way.
“You’re in plenty of danger as it is. I don’t want my past coming back to get you, too.”
“No.”
He looked up at her with surprise on his face. “No?”
“No,” Ruby repeated, her voice clear and strong. “You’re not leaving. We know they’re involved with the murders. If you leave, they’ll come after me to get to you. We’re in this together and I don’t want Ben Marshall staying in my apartment if a witch attacks. I want Cooper Wilson.”
Even as he gave her an incredulous look, a hint of a smile crossed his face. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure I’ve never wanted anything more.” Ruby bit her lip and looked down in her lap. Her statement meant more than just Cooper staying there for her protection. After this was over, if it ever did end, she still wanted him to stay. She didn’t want to bring the matter up now; they would cross that bridge when they got to it.
Cooper nodded. “Okay. I’m not going anywhere, then.”
“Good.”
He pulled her in to him, put his arms around her as she laid her head on his chest. They sat there for a few minutes in silence, Ruby considering the last few hours.
“Did you hear him? “Wait ’til I tell X?” How do we stop them?”
“I don’t know if we can.”
Ruby’s heart cracked a little at how defeated Cooper sounded. A surge of anger went through her at the evening’s events.
“I’m sick of feeling scared,” she said. She felt Cooper nod against her head in agreement. “We need to be on the offensive. Be prepared for any gangsters or killers that get impatient.”
“What’s your plan?”
“I don’t know yet,” she admitted. She closed her eyes, taking in the warmth that radiated off his body and breathing deep his cologne. Neither of them spoke for a while until Ruby broke the silence.
“Now what?”
Cooper played with a piece of her hair. “I say we turn on the TV and forget it happened, at least for tonight.”
“I’m not at all opposed to that idea, but good luck getting my mind off that.”
“I could think of a few ways to keep your mind occupied. Weren’t we talking about a second dessert?”
He flashed a devilish grin and despite the circumstances, Ruby’s stomach gave an excited little flip as he leaned in to kiss her. Then her phone rang, the shrill sound making her jump a little. Cooper was unfazed.
“Don’t answer it,” Cooper whispered to her, his soft lips grazing hers.
She had a hard time focusing when he was this close to her. Her voice came out in a breathy whisper. “It might be important.”
He paused to consider it. “In that case, I’ll give you fifteen seconds.”
She grabbed her phone and answered, immediately regretting the decision when the voice at the other end sounded.
“Hey, it’s me,” Michael said.
“What can I help you with?” Ruby asked. She hoped he could hear the frostiness in her tone over the line.
“Ruby, please, I…I need your help,” Michael said.
Ruby blinked in surprise. Michael was not a man who stammered or asked others for help. Even over the phone, Ruby could hear the worry in his voice.
“What, another one of Queen Rebecca’s spells backfire?” She rolled her eyes to Cooper, who didn’t bother hiding a smirk, his fingers busy tracing slow circles on her knee.
“She’s gone. I think,” Michael sucked in a deep breath before he continued, “I think he has her.”
“He who?” Ruby said absentmindedly, her attention floating to Cooper’s hands that were now sneaking up her leg.
“Him, Ruby. The killer or dark witch or whatever.”
“You think the murderer took Rebecca?” Ruby repeated in shock. Her jaw dropped and Cooper’s hand stopped on her thigh as he stared at her.
“I, um, I don’t know for sure,” Michael replied. “I went to the gym after you left. She called and she’s supposed to be here, but there’s blood in the kitchen and—”
“Oh, shit. Are you at your place?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll call you back.” Ruby abruptly hung up on Michael, tossing her phone on the coffee table with a clatter. She repeated the conversation back to Cooper.
“Why would he take Rebecca when all he’s done is stalk you?” Cooper asked.
Ruby shrugged. “I guess because he thinks I’ll come save her, take her place or something.”
A chuckle escaped him. “That must be the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard all week.”
She stared at her phone on the table, considered her options. Rebecca’s heart was going to get cut out soon if she didn’t do something. She heaved a large sigh. “Dammit.”
“What dammit?” he asked.
Ignoring him, she went to her room and returned after she’d slipped on her shoes. The smile on Cooper’s face died as she put her jacket on and slung her bag over a shoulder.
“Uh, what are you doing?”
“Going to save that dumbass witch.”
; “What?” He stood and strode over to her in a heartbeat, his eyebrows nearly touching his hairline in surprise. “You’re kidding.”
She looked up at him. “I’m not. I can’t let her die for me.”
“After everything she’s done, you’re going to risk your life for her?” He shook his head. “No way. I won’t let you.”
“Let’s go ahead and skip the part where I tell you that there’s no “letting” me do anything.”
He took half a second to give her an exasperated look before arguing again. “Even if he does have her, that’s like offering yourself up on a silver platter. He might kill her anyway.”
“Maybe, but I don’t want her blood on my hands. Much as I despise her, I don’t want her dead because of me. Knowing my luck she’d come back to haunt me forever.”
“Unless he kills you, too,” he protested.
“I have to help her, Coop.”
Cooper looked at her, perhaps more serious than she’d ever seen him, even after the last several days. Those mesmerizing green eyes looked deep into her blue ones and for a second, her resolve wavered. She swallowed hard and set her jaw, tried to look determined. After another moment, Cooper groaned and reached for his leather jacket on the wall.
“You’re not going alone.” He adjusted the collar of his coat, giving her a dark look. “Better stock up on some tricks though. We’ll need to distract this bastard until I can take him down.”
“Already taken care of,” she said, patting her messenger bag. Inside the deep pockets were a handful of different potions that, while not as powerful as the coven’s botched protection spell, would hopefully give them enough time to get Rebecca out of that psycho’s grasp.
As they exited her building, Ruby realized that the nightmare might end tonight. The only true question now was the end result.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ruby and Cooper pulled up to Michael’s building, parking her car on the corner. They went up to the entrance and Ruby buzzed for Michael to let them in. Rather than let her right up, however, silence greeted them. They saw the elevator lights click as Michael came down to let her in face to face. Panic seized Ruby as she realized Michael would do anything he could to annoy Cooper, including...