The Seven Year Witch: That Old Black Magic, Book 2

by Jodi Redford

  “That’s the thing about humans. They don’t truly want to be saved. Might as well accept it.” The sin tucked the contract away and stood. “Well, Jack ole boy, it’s been a pleasure doing business with you. Just one last thing before I run…” A sneer tilting those fleshy lips, the trucker tipped Jack’s chin up and planted a kiss squarely on his mouth. Straightening, the creature sent her a mocking grin. “No need to be jealous. He’s not nearly as good a kisser as you are, from what Envy’s said.” And with that parting shot, the sin vanished.

  She stared glumly at Jack, who seemed to be completely uninterested in her presence. When he ordered a fresh pitcher of beer and a round of shots, she stood and headed for the exit, a wave of helpless defeat roiling in her stomach. Once outside, she took a deep breath, her determination returning to the forefront. Yes, she’d lost this battle, but it wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. Checking the display on her phone, she quickened her pace. She had less than fifteen minutes before the riverboat left its mooring. Given Seven’s haste in getting that last contract out of the way, she had little doubt that the creature would likely be on that boat.

  And so would she.

  She made it on the ship with mere seconds to spare. While she caught her breath, she strolled the gaming decks, on the lookout for whichever of Seven’s personalities would be prowling for the next victim. The noisy cacophony of the slot machines provided a frenetic soundtrack as she wove through the crowd. She neared the higher-paying slots and spotted a familiar figure. This personality was female, decked head to toe in a champagne silk sheath and cultured pearls. In other words, the trappings of a wealthy socialite. Greed, perhaps?

  Keeping her focus fixed on the sin’s austere ash-blonde bun, Clarissa elbowed past the congested traffic clustered around the Blackjack tables. She reached Greed just as the personality accepted a cocktail from a passing waiter. The creature’s scarlet-painted lips curved in a travesty of a smile. “Persistent little thing, aren’t you?”

  “You have no idea.”

  Greed tipped back its head and laughed, the sound resembling ice cubes clinking in a glass. “I would have thought your tête-à-tête with Gluttony would have cured you of this foolish quest. Your time is limited, Clarissa. Why squander it this way?”

  “If I can stop you from contracting even one soul, it will be worth every second lost.”

  One blood-red nail scratched along the rim of the champagne flute. “You will never be able to stop me. The sooner you accept the reality of that, the better off you’ll be.”

  “What, like Jack? Like them?” She waved her arm, indicating the sea of gamblers surrounding them. “They have no idea the reality you have planned for them. I can’t just stand by and let you dupe them with a few years of whatever bullshit you’ve promised in return for their endless stint in purgatory.”

  “Why?” Greed’s eyes sparkled with an icy malice. “Tell me, sweet Clarissa. Do you think that by saving them you’ll find redemption for your sin? For the pain you brought upon your father seven years ago?”

  The question was like a knife twisting in her soul. It took every ounce of strength she possessed not to let her stare waver from Greed’s. “No. Nothing will redeem that.”

  “Finally you’re speaking some sense.” Carelessly upending the crystal flute on the pull handle of a nearby slot machine, Greed sashayed down the aisle. Lines of irritation bracketed the sin’s mouth when Clarissa fell in step beside the creature. “Your foolishness is really beginning to piss the hell out of me.”

  “I can tell.”

  Greed visually gave her a disdainful sweep. “It’s beyond my comprehension why Envy is so besotted with you. Your puny magic is hardly any match for our abilities.”

  “I don’t need magic to defeat you. Only faith in humankind.”

  A snort fell from Greed. “You might as well sprinkle that belief with pixie dust. They’re both made of the same flimsy illusion. As far as I can tell, you humans are nothing more than hairless apes. Only with less intelligence.” Giving her a dismissive glance, Greed stepped around an enormous slot machine and poofed out of sight.

  Panic momentarily getting the best of her, Clarissa whipped her head around, trying to see where the sin might have gone. She stumbled sideways, banging into a token machine. Ignoring the burst of pain in her elbow, she hurried out onto the main thoroughfare. She spied a flash of champagne silk ascending the adjacent stairway. Dodging the steady flow of pedestrian traffic, she dashed after Greed. She reached the ship’s upper level just as the sin disappeared into the lounge area. Her heart still banging from her mad chase, Clarissa tailed the creature to a booth where a young male sat. Greed paused for a moment and looked over her shoulder, her jeering smile indicating that she’d been aware of Clarissa’s pursuit all along. More than likely the sin relished the thought of rubbing a fresh conquest in Clarissa’s face.

  Clarissa steeled her spine. Game on, bitch.

  Greed slid onto the bench beside the man. Hell, if you could call him that. He barely looked old enough to vote. The kid sent Clarissa a perplexed glance as she ducked into the booth on the other side of him.

  “Tanner, prompt as always.” Greed’s fingertips trailed up along the young man’s bare arm and snuck beneath the sleeve of his T-shirt in a flirtatious way that gave Clarissa the creeps.

  The kid shivered, leading Clarissa to believe that he felt a similar sensation. He swallowed, his wide-eyed gaze still pinned on her. “A-are you one of them too?”

  “Good goddess, no,” she quickly reassured him while Greed’s chilling laugh floated around them. “I’m here to stop you from making a terrible mistake.”

  A frown tweaked between his dark blond eyebrows. “You are? Why?”

  “Because sweet Clarissa here envisions herself the savior of mankind. Amusing, isn’t it?”

  Tuning out Greed’s sarcastic barb, Clarissa leaned closer to Tanner. “Can I ask why you’re doing this?”

  His gaze dropped to the table, and a ruddy flush crept across his cheeks. “I don’t have any choice. My ma and I have been living on the streets for the past ten years. I—I just want her to have a good life with nice things for once. Not whatever we can scrape out of the dumpsters.”

  The deep shame thickening his voice filled her with sadness and empathy. But mixed in with those two emotions was an even stronger one—fury at the despicable proof of Seven’s heartlessness for preying on this family’s misery. The creature was a monster, in every sense of the word.

  She continued staring at the top of Tanner’s bent head, a plan formulating. “There is another choice. I’m the mistress of a coven outside the city limits. You and your mother can come live with us. For as long as you want.”

  An angry hiss came from Greed as Tanner lifted his head and gaped at Clarissa. “You would do that for us? Why? You don’t even know me.”

  “You’re willing to sell your soul to give your mother a better life. That tells me all I need to know.”

  Greed’s face turning a livid red, the creature slammed its palms on the table, shaking it violently. “Don’t listen to her. She can’t offer you the things I can. Untold riches. A life of luxury such as you and your mother have never known.”

  “It’s true. The coven isn’t wealthy. But we will gladly take you in and never expect anything from you in return.”

  Tanner’s gaze swiveled between her and Greed for a long moment. Finally he gulped and returned his attention to Clarissa and nodded. “I—I accept your offer.”

  An almost demonic growl rumbled from Greed as the sin shot to its feet. Eyes blazing with malevolence lasered into Clarissa. “Nobody messes with my contracts. Nobody.” A waft of that strange saline-spiked air blew across the booth and the sin disappeared.

  “Ar-are you in trouble now?” Tanner stammered.

  Probably. “No.” She reached for a nearby beverage napkin. “I’m going to write down the address for the coven house. You and your mother are welcome to come whenever. But I h
ave to ask you a favor.”

  A look of weary resignation crossed Tanner’s youthful face, and she tucked the address into his hand. “It’s not what you think. I meant it when I said this invitation comes with no strings attached. But I need you to tell no one about this meeting.”

  He watched her quietly for a second, those soulful eyes filled with the weight of the world. “You made a deal too, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “What for?”

  She gave him an answer that she knew he would well understand. “I wanted to give my father a better life.”

  By the time the ship docked, it was well past five. Still riding a high from her victory over Greed, she drove back into the entertainment district and tried her luck at a couple of the nightclubs. When that didn’t pan out, she dug in her purse for the directions to the sex club. Less than ten minutes later, she pulled into the parking structure for The Velvet Cuff. Praying she didn’t look as out of place as she felt, she beeped the alarm on the Miata and took the rear alley to the club’s hidden entrance.

  Inside the cavernous building, exposed industrial pipes overhead and brick walls painted black created a mysterious atmosphere. The throbbing electro-beat of the techno music piped through the veritable maze of rooms only added to the mystique.

  “What is your fantasy, my lady?”

  She turned and eyed the tall, overly muscular guy who was flicking a crop against his palm and staring at her with a tad too much interest. Um, not you. “I’m here to meet a friend.” She gave him her most threatening look, and he shrugged before strolling away.

  Shaking off the willies, she walked down the central hallway, peering within the various rooms. Some of the activities she witnessed were quite shocking, and she could feel her face growing hotter and hotter. Public floggings. Public sex and orgies. In one room, a nude man was bent over a chair on a raised dais, his ass getting fucked by one man and his cock sucked by yet another while an appreciative audience watched.

  She moved on and came to a room that seemed to be far less popular than the others. In fact, there were only two people inside—a man and a woman. The interior of the space was so dimly lit, she could only make out the couple’s silhouette. But there was something disturbingly familiar about the man. Something about the way his hands roved over the woman’s curves as he slowly stripped her from her dress.

  An awful, sickening suspicion crawled inside her. Feeling as if she were about to be an eyewitness to something akin to a horrible car wreck—but unable to look away—she stepped into the room. She could make out the glint of those predatory amber eyes watching her every move, even while those hands, ones that had charted every inch of her body, molded over the other woman’s full breasts. Her brain refused to believe what she was seeing.

  He wouldn’t do this. Not after everything—

  Hoots of laughter floated from the corner, and she whirled to find the portly trucker—Gluttony—leaning against the wall.

  “Bravo, my dear. You almost even had me fooled.”

  Confused, she turned as Logan walked into her field of vision. But as he came closer, his irises elongated, shimmering to black. She blinked, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. “How…?”

  “Lust has an additional perk that the rest of us, alas, do not possess. The ability to become the deepest craving it sees within another. Pretty convenient, no?”

  The fake Logan backed her against the wall, its hands curving around her waist. She tensed as the sin nuzzled her, its hot breath steaming her neck. Just as she was about to shove at the creature’s chest, a heavy weight slammed into it, knocking the sin on its ass. Eyes flashing fire, Envy crouched over Lust. The two sins snarled and hissed at each other. The woman—who had stayed in the shadows—strode forward, revealing herself. Greed. The personality shot its two comrades a disdainful sneer. “You both are pathetic. Get up.”

  Clarissa stood mute, trying to unravel the twisted tangle of her jumbled thoughts. Other than her dream, she’d never seen Seven’s personalities in the same room together. How was the creature able to fracture itself like this?

  An even more troubling realization sprang to life. Seven could be in multiple places at once. She could not. While she was saving one person’s soul, six more could be signing away the rights to theirs.

  No wonder Seven was convinced it couldn’t be stopped.

  While Lust and Envy stood, Greed stepped in front of Clarissa. “You broke the rules tonight, sweets. That’s going to cost you.”

  Clarissa’s heart thundered at the unmistakable threat lurking in the sin’s hostile gaze. “I never promised that I wouldn’t try to save anyone else, just myself.”

  “And you think that suffices as coming willingly?”

  “I am coming to you without a fight. That doesn’t mean it applies to the others.”

  An evil growl came from Greed before the creature struck Clarissa across the cheek. “I should rip that delicate skin from your face.”

  A wicked rasp snaked from Envy. “Touch her again and I’ll boil your innards in oil.”

  Greed bared its teeth. “I’d like to see you try it.”

  Feeling like she was a spectator trapped in the middle of some psychotic Freudian meltdown, Clarissa gaped at the feuding personalities. It didn’t seem to matter—or occur—to Seven that it was basically having one big hissy fit with itself.

  After a tense stare down with Envy, Greed returned its focus to Clarissa. Another sin materialized next to Greed, this one male and bristling with arrogance and an overabundance of…pride? “If it were up to me, I’d say to hell with your soul and simply kill you, after forcing you to watch us destroy everyone that means anything to you.”

  A youth sporting too many tattoos and piercings skulked from the shadows and cracked its knuckles. At least the personality’s T-shirt proclaimed its sin. Wrath. “I say we do it anyway. It’d be the most fun I’ve had since inciting that riot in Tiananmen Square.”

  “Watch your mouth, you stupid punk,” Envy spat. “You don’t call the shots here.”

  “You’re just jealous because you’re not as badass as me.” Wrath flexed its nearly nonexistent biceps.

  A slovenly dressed figure appeared next to Gluttony. Clarissa presumed it must be Sloth, since that was the only sin left. Apparently finding it too much effort to stand, the creature slouched on the edge of the dais and waved a hand listlessly in Clarissa’s direction. “This is all cutting into my precious nap time, so I’ll get right to the point. If you don’t stop butting into our business, everything Pride promised will come true. By the time we’re done with your loved ones, they’ll beg us to end their pathetic, miserable lives. But that’ll just be the beginning. A soul’s suffering can be eternal.”

  A shiver that almost resembled ecstasy shook Lust. Clarissa’s stomach churned at the sin’s obvious pleasure over the prospect of another’s agony.

  “So what’s it going to be, sweet Clarissa?” Venom practically dripped from Greed’s voice. “Hinder our business transactions and face our wrath?”

  The tattooed youth gave a jeering laugh at the inside joke.

  Helpless defeat settled on Clarissa like a three-ton elephant. There was nothing she could do. Like Willa said, she couldn’t save any of them. Not without condemning those she held dearest to a terrible existence.

  The fact that she even had to make this choice elicited a greasy queasiness in her stomach. Would she spend the remainder of her days in Seven’s hellish lair, picturing the face of every person she might have helped? Even that didn’t seem like fitting enough punishment.

  She swallowed against the bitter remorse clogging her esophagus. “Fine. I accept your terms. No more interventions.” As the goddess was her witness, she would find a way to make Seven suffer for the atrocities it’d committed, both past, present and future. Even if doing so earned her a dip in that lake of death.

  As if sensing her inner determination, all seven sins chuckled. Envy closed the distance
between them and stroked her cheek, that covetous gleam shining from its soulless eyes. “We’re going to have so much fun together, sweet Clarissa. Just you wait.”

  Her anger like a raging beast within her, she watched as one by one the sins faded away, until finally she was the only one left in the room. She didn’t know how long she stood there, staring sightlessly at the opposite wall as another layer of her soul slowly withered and died. What was the importance of time anyway, when you faced a lifetime of purgatory for your sins?

  Chapter Sixteen

  The prospect of locking herself in her bedroom all day was a heady temptation. Particularly since the sun shining through the windows felt like a cruel joke compared to the bleak emptiness that sat heavy in her chest. But that would just be one more victory for Seven—the utter demoralization of her soul, even before the son of a bitch claimed ownership of it.

  Leaving Izzy to chew contentedly on one of the throw pillows, she went to her closet and deliberately chose the sunniest outfit she could find. Okay, so maybe the tie-dye purple tank top and jean capris didn’t exactly scream cheery smiling unicorns and happy joy joy, but it was pretty much as chipper as her wardrobe selections got.

  After running a comb through her hair, she headed downstairs with Izzy. The puppy spotted Floyd scratching himself outside the kitchen and scampered down the hall. Floyd, obviously anticipating a full-on attack from chewing puppy teeth, let out a terrified woof and dashed off, Izzy hot on his heels. A moment later, a loud bang sounded. At first she assumed it was caused by Floyd colliding with something, such as a wall. But then an unmistakable volley of curses streamed through the kitchen’s entrance.

  “Oh good goddess, now what?” Steeling herself for the worst, she hurried forward. She barreled into the kitchen and gaped at the enormous orange object lodged in the center of the prep island. Whatever the thing was, it weighed enough to have buckled the metal countertop.