Kennedy suppressed the spell she had ready to blast the invaders in her home. The fastest way to end up in the clink was to blast an agent of The Authority. “I hope there is a good reason for this intrusion. As Hooper informed you, I’m alone and getting ready for bed.”
Decker strolled over to the black hoodie she left draped over the chair. He stroked his fingertips over the cloth. “You just come in?”
He played with her. The video remained out there for anyone to find. “You know I did. Is there a point?”
The agent slapped his hands on the back of the chair. Hooper crouched low, knuckles resting on the tabletop. His eyes glowed a sickly green in the light of the magical fire.
“Nasty business out there tonight. You know who we’re after. Tell me where the boy is, and I’ll make sure your name stays out of it.”
The Goblin never carried a poker face, his eyes bugged out at the offer.
Kennedy never believed an offer too good to be true.
“We should throw this witch into the deepest hole and let her rot there until the end of time,” Hooper growled.
“Wow… don’t hold back, Goblin, tell me what you really think. Good thing for me, you aren’t allowed to make decisions, or I’d be in real trouble.” Kennedy winked at the little man and watched as his cheeks turned a darker shade of green.
The creature lunged and caught Kennedy by surprise. Out of reaction, she threw up a shield, but Decker reached out and, with an impressive display of speed for an old man, grabbed the scruff of his partner’s neck. Stopping the attack before it started.
“Now you’re playing good cop, violent cop?” Kennedy dropped the shield in an attempt to deescalate the situation.
Decker twisted his wrist and brought himself face to face with his partner. “Take a break. I want you to cool off—outside.”
The little green man fought with the hand on his neck. “It is against the rules for you to be alone with this bitch. She might cast a spell on you.”
“It is also against the rules to attack a suspect and force them to cast on an agent… Take a break, and I won’t report you.” Decker never flinched while making the threat. If it was an act, he deserved an Emmy for the performance.
Hooper went slack, relented, and finally nodded. He headed straight for the stairs once Decker helped show him the way. Alone, the old man came back to the table and placed a picture of Tom in front of Kennedy. “We need this guy and what he took. It’s important. I’m too close to retirement for this shit. Just give him up, and I won’t take you in.”
“I don’t know where the guy is. He ditched me… I don’t know what stuff you’re talking about… What do you want with him for, anyway? Why is he so important?”
“You know I can’t tell you what he took… You and I, we’ve always had an understanding… to not screw each other… This is about the safety of the peace. You know that is all I care about.” Decker picked up the photo and put it back in his overcoat. “I’m not sure, maybe nothing, maybe the end of the world as we know it. I know everyone, every syndicate in the city, searches for him and the stuff that went missing tonight. Someone announced to the world they had a magic weapon and weren’t afraid to use it. Anyone near when they surface will…
“Listen, soon as things heat up, I might not have any way to help you. For old time’s sake, give him up, and I will keep you out of it.”
“I don’t know where he is. Last I saw him, he ditched me near the Commons. He is probably still in the city.”
Decker lowered his eyelids. For the first time, he looked older to Kennedy than he really was. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”
Kennedy was certain the old man didn’t believe her, but she was not ready to turn her soul over to the man just yet. “Sorry, I don’t know where he is.” In a way, she told the truth, or at least a partial truth.
With a flick of his wrist, he pulled a card from his overcoat pocket. “Listen, this is important. If he contacts you, or you learn anything, you need to call me. That has my cell number on it. Don’t call The Authority direct. Call me. I can’t help you if The Authority finds out…”
His words struck her to the core. There was a tone in his voice she had never heard in the decades they knew each other. She drifted her finger over the card, searching for a reading of his intentions. She found none. Better safe than sorry, she stuffed the card in her back pocket.
Decker strolled towards the spiral staircase that led to the surface. “Take care of yourself. Remember, not all Goblins work for The Authority…” And with that, he was gone. A strange warning, maybe the old man knew more than he told her. The scent of the agents drifted away. Kennedy knew she was alone in the tree.
Her eyes drifted over the roots that made up the ceiling, and she let out a deep breath. “Mother, damn it all.” She hated taking the goddess’s name in vain, but she didn’t want to admit the need to find Tom and help the pain get off the streets until they could find out what the hell stormed towards the city. She knew she should find him but… did she really want to?
Chapter 6:
The thought of heading back out into the storm turned her heart cold. To put herself at risk for a stranger did little to motivate her into action. Besides, Tom made it clear he didn’t want her help. “Why should I stick my neck out for a strange man from away?” she grumbled to herself.
A soft breath of air passed through the main room. “If it was one of the coven, would you help the young man?” Marylynn’s disembodied voice drifted through the space. Her body still not to be seen.
Kennedy spun around, searching for the source of the voice. “Where are you?”
The voice became louder and more distinct, growing stronger with each word. “Trapped… Look in the cauldron.”
She moved to the black iron pot that hung near the fire. The surface of the clear liquid inside reflected Kennedy’s face and showed the much older Marylynn staring back at her. “What is going on?”
“I’m not sure, but the Sylvans came earlier. They are upset and violent. Rather than be taken, I escaped, and I think they trapped me in here… I can’t seem to break free from this pot.”
“Why would they come here? Why did you feel the need to escape? Can you tell me what is going on?” Kennedy never cried much, but to see her mentor’s refection in the cauldron, to learn she was trapped in a state of in-between, became too much for her to bear.
“Now is not the time to become emotional. You are going to need to be strong. You need to find this Tom and keep him safe. You need to protect him and the coven.”
“If the Elves attacked here in our sanctuary… are the wards against evil still up? Is the tree in danger?” A new worry tore into her heart. If she lost the tree and the coven’s home, Kennedy doubted she would be able to find the strength to continue. The great oak was much more than their home, it was one of the witch’s sources of power.
“The Elves certainly hold a different agenda than we do. That does not make them inherently evil. Misguided, perhaps but not necessarily inherently evil.”
“They trapped your soul in… a giant pot.”
“And they could have killed me or turned my mind to jelly. Don’t assume the Sylvans cherish life and freedom the same way we do. I believe they work for the good of all.”
“At the expense of the individual.”
“I’m sorry, but now is not the time to debate the ethics of the Sylvans and moral relativity. You need to find that human witch and hide him until we can figure out what is happening.” Marylynn’s voice grew stern.
Kennedy’s tears dripped into the kettle. “I don’t know where he is…” Her voice cracked. “Where is Johan?”
“We don’t have time for you to break down. Johan has not returned. He has not been seen for several days.”
“I…” Kennedy couldn’t find the words.
“Some things happen for no reason, other times everything is interconnected. Now is the time you need to discover which is which. You
need to become the witch you need to be.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I know, I was never the person to give rousing speeches to steel the hearts of others. That’s not my style. Listen, the Elves trapped me in here. You need to figure this out if I am to have any hope of escape. I wish I could tell you more, but I don’t know anything. They burst in here looking for a relic. They think an outcast has it. I was alone and ported out, and they trapped me in this pot before I made good my escape.”
Kennedy nodded. She always knew the other witches in the coven were not perfect, but she assumed they had their act together more than this. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ball of twine. “I think I know what to do. You stay here…” She regretted her words before they finished leaving her mouth. “Sorry…”
“Where do you think I was going to go?”
“I said I was sorry.” Desperate to help her mentor, she whispered a single word into the ball of twine, “Seek.” The twine bat took shape and fluttered away up the staircase.
She knew it was still snowing outside. Her hoodie wouldn’t be enough to keep her warm in these frigid temperatures. She ran to her room and grabbed a huge puffy down parka. If she was going outside to play, she knew she’d better dress for the occasion.
She stopped at the top of the stairs. Events were spiraling out of control. If she could not get some reasonable answers that allowed her to get ahead of events, the future might be dark indeed.
Chapter 7:
On the surface, the snow blanketed the woods. The only sound the night made was the hush of the snow falling. It was peaceful.
The bat made of twine disappeared into the night. Kennedy half-expected her covenmates to have returned by now, but it looked like she was alone on this adventure.
She knew the direction Tom had headed; she should be able to pick up his trail on the sidewalk. With no clue of his intended destination and the snow working hard to cover his tracks, she needed to hurry.
Never a trusting person, she cast a concealment spell to hide her passage through the snow-covered forest and took off. The silence of the woods didn’t surprise her, she had been in a whiteout before. The fresh snow made everything smell the way it looked: clean. It would be near impossible for anyone to sneak up on her. She was alone in the woods, and for the time being, she found a comforting peace in the solitude.
The trip to the sidewalk was a relatively short one. The old oak tree was one of many that dotted the wild space. The tree was old when the Europeans arrived on the shore of what would become Massachusetts and eventually the United States.
There, as she expected, was a single set of tracks cutting through the ankle-deep snow. As she feared, the snow had already started covering the trail. She followed the trail for less than a hundred feet before it ended. Disappeared would be a better word. The snow had not covered the prints that remained; it was like something picked Tom up from the face of the earth and carried him away.
The bat made of twine returned to land on her shoulder. “Where is he?” Kennedy asked.
The connection between a witch and her creations was always a strange bond, with little understanding even among witches. She knew the trail had gone cold, not that the bat told her in so many words, but she knew. The bat had searched ahead and conducted a circular search pattern trying to reacquire the target, but Tom had vanished.
So focused on the conundrum of the missing male, Kennedy stiffened when the hair on the back of her neck stood on end and a new scent drifted past her in the falling snow. The strong aroma of animal musk reached her. Out of instinct, she turned to the woods at her side, expecting the attack to come from the concealment of the trees.
The attack that came from the recessed entrance of a block of apartments across the street took her by surprise. The force of the blow knocked the wind out of her. She flew out of control into the forest, landing in a lump in the brush off the now-deserted road. Some animal attacked her, and with no wind in her lungs, there was little she could cast to defend herself. She used one of the few spells that had no verbal components. Blue flame sprung from her fingertips. Much like a pilot light on a gas stove, it provided limited light but could be increased exponentially in size. Kennedy doubted it would keep a devoted attacker at bay, but she had to hope for the best. It wasn’t in her nature to give up.
Rolling onto her back, she prepared for the next attack. She realized her attacker was a Lycan before it stepped into view. How it changed into a beast with no full moon was beyond her comprehension. There, between two leafless oak trees, stood a two-legged wolf at least seven feet tall.
The creature stood rigid. Spittle sprayed from the beast’s maw when the snarls began, yet it didn’t attack. Kennedy was no herbalist, like the twins, but she figured out she lay in a patch of wolfsbane. As long as she didn’t move, the beast should not enter this part of the forest.
She remembered when Dani had planted patches of different herbs deep in the forest surrounding the coven’s tree. Kennedy didn’t understand the need to spread out the plants. She always contended it would be more efficient to plant a normal garden, not spread the patches out, making it harder to harvest.
Dani said, “It is better this way. Who knows, this might save your life one day.”
Kennedy remembered her friends fondly and hoped the twins were both safe. Kennedy needed to fix this somehow.
Safe for the moment, by concentrating, she was able to fill her lungs with air. Once she did, her voice returned. She could have killed the beast man, but something was amiss. Lycans left the populated areas long ago. They preferred the countryside of the western part of the state, or perhaps New Hampshire or Maine. To find one this close to the city would be like finding a Kraken in Spot Pond. It just wouldn’t fit.
Stranger still, around the beast’s neck hung what looked like a slave collar. Kennedy was no expert on the Lycans. What she did know… as a race, they remained fiercely independent loners. When they shifted, everything they wore shredded, leaving only their fur-covered bodies.
Kennedy stepped closer, the flame from her fingertips allowed enough light to confirm her suspicions. This man was nude, save the fur that covered him, and the collar around his neck smelled of magic. The fire stayed burning from her left hand, but with her right, she pointed her index finger at the creature and, with precision, shot a bolt of energy at the monster’s throat—and the collar.
The scream of pain forced Kennedy to her knees as the beast was lifted off his feet, blasted back from the force of the attack. The screams stopped. She didn’t think the spell cast would have the effect it did. She only wanted to remove the collar from the man. Logic dictated that if the beast was controlled or forced into the change, the collar should have something to do with it. Removing the collar should have the desired effect, and the beast should shift back into his human form.
There were too many variables, and Kennedy didn’t trust her theory enough to leave the safety of her small patch of wolfsbane.
She stood and crept her way to the edge of the garden. “Are you still alive?” she called off into the direction the wolf flew.
Her only answer was a growl, but this was more human-like, definitely not an animal. More like someone in great pain.
“That hurt…” There came some undescribed curses from the brush, but the voice was that of a human.
“Can I come help?” Kennedy asked.
“NO!” the voice shouted back, then followed up with a calmer reply, “I don’t have any clothes on… I’d rather you not see me like this.”
“You will freeze to death if you don’t dress soon.”
From behind a thinly snow-covered bush, the nude man spoke. A young man—Kennedy guessed he was easily under twenty, he seemed like he barely needed to shave—stood in the shadows cast from the blue flame she held high from her fingertip.
He spoke with such a shy voice. “I think I would rather die than be seen like this.”
It was har
d to say, but the male blushed at his predicament. Kennedy was surprised. Not what she expected a wolfman to look like at all. If anything, the slender young man would be thought of as nerdy, perhaps even a wimp. Not the beast she expected the human form of a Lycan to look like. “You got a name?” Kennedy asked.
“Yeah, sure… Randell… sorry, about the whole attacking-you thing. I wasn’t myself?” Randell shrugged and shivered at the same time.
“You’re going to freeze out here…”
“I don’t think I have far to go… Where is here?” The young man scanned the indistinguishable woods.
“Medford… you from one of the schools?”
Randell hesitated before answering, “Yeah, one near here.”
“Listen, across the street, in the strip mall, there is a green box people throw clothes in for the homeless. It isn’t far. You should be able to find something there warm to wear.”
“Thanks… for freeing me from that collar.” He turned to leave but stopped short. “And for not killing me. I owe you one.”
“Do you know who sent you? Who collared you?” Kennedy asked.
“No, sorry… When I’m in animal form I remember little. I think it is a defense to keep me from remembering what I do while shifted.” He picked his way through the snow-covered forest, cursing softly each time he stepped on something sharp.
Kennedy wasn’t surprised the young man didn’t add “who he killed” while shifted. He didn’t look much older than her, maybe he was eighteen, maybe twenty or so. Maybe a college student from the look of him. If that was so, how did he end up in a control collar? How could he be a teen wolf in college?
Once the young man left her alone in the forest, she padded her way from where she stood to the imprint his body made when he landed headfirst into the snow. She found what she searched for. The control collar she blasted off the Lycan’s neck. Before she even inspected the magic ruins etched into the leather and metal collar, the hollow pit in her stomach grew. The elvish runes were unmistakable.
Kennedy Awakens Page 6