Witching Hour

by Bradford Bates

  A well of barely suppressed rage was igniting inside of me. The anger bubbled and seethed until the roaring flames consumed what was left of my heart. Some of that internal fire came from not being able to track down Rebecca, but now the cop behind me was earning a fair share of my ire.

  These small towns were such a joke, and the fact that you were still on a freeway and they dropped the speed limit from seventy-five to thirty-five in the space of a block just didn’t seem right. It was all set up in the hopes that someone wasn’t paying attention and then they could write you up a three hundred dollar ticket before they said good day to you.

  I started to slow the car down and signaled that I was pulling over. The last thing I needed was for this cop to be feeling a little twitchy. My car wasn’t exactly free from contraband, so I had to find a way to make him disappear and quickly. Hopefully, he was just some mundane and not one of those pesky shifters.

  The car drifted to a stop, and I rolled down the window. The cop sure took his time scanning my plates before he got out of his car. I watched in the side mirror as he straightened his uniform and then plopped a ridiculous hat on his head before approaching. What was it with cops and hats anyways? You seriously sat in a car for eighty percent of your day, why did you need a hat?

  “License and registration please,” the officer stated coldly as he peered through my window.

  “Will that really be necessary? I know I was going a little fast, but I have to get home my grandmother is in the hospital.” I tried to put on my best I’m sorry, but I’m in a hurry smile. The cop didn’t buy it, or just didn’t care.

  “If you were going a little slower I probably could have helped you out.” He tapped his pen against his ticket book. “You were doing eighty in a forty mile per hour zone. That’s felony speeding and reckless endangerment. You should be grateful all you’re getting is a ticket. I could bring you in and impound your car.”

  “You could try.” I let a smile spread across my face. What kind of alpha male didn’t enjoy a good challenge?

  “Excuse me, ma’am?” Now the cop sounded nervous.

  I didn’t have time for this. Every minute I spent talking to this officer was a minute my prey got further away. “I really must be going. I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist.”

  The cop reached down to his gun and after a moment of hesitation pulled it free of his holster. He didn’t point it at me which was the only thing that saved his life. Still, an insult like that couldn’t go unpunished. “Officer, there is no need for the weapon. I truly intend on fully complying with all of your orders.”

  “You do?” His confusion had reached new heights.

  “I do.” Oh, the mundanes were too much fun sometimes.

  He put the gun away and rested a hand against the window. I put my hand over his, and before he could pull away, I tightened my grip. It only took a second for the link between our minds to establish itself. Mind magic was a tricky thing, especially if you didn’t want to leave any traces. This spell would need to be perfect, but perfection might as well have been my middle name.

  “I want you to go home. Before you go inside, you’ll erase any evidence of this encounter. Do you understand?”

  “I understand, Mistress.”

  The mistress part was a nice touch that I hadn’t been expecting. It almost made me feel kind of bad for what I was about to do next. So, maybe I didn’t actually feel bad, that was just something I was supposed to feel. I was actually kind of excited to see how this all played out.

  “After you’re done destroying the evidence I want you to go inside your home and murder your entire family.”

  “Please don’t make me do this.” Tears started to stream down his face as he pleaded for his family’s lives.

  So the cop had a little bit of a spine after all, who would have known. I tightened my grip on his hand and leaned out of the window so I could stare directly into his eyes. “Go now, and do as I have commanded.”

  “Yes, Mistress.”

  “That’s a good boy.” I released his hand, feeling better now that the spell had taken hold.

  The cop slid his pen into his shirt and tucked his ticket book into his back pocket before turning to leave. He looked back at the car, shook his head, and then returned to my window. “I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but you’re free to go. Just try and slow it down, ok?”

  “Thank you, officer.” I put the car in gear and pulled back onto the freeway. I couldn’t even remember what this town was called, but Cop Kills Entire Family should make a big enough headline that I could find it later. Just something else I could add to my wall. It was always nice to see my hard work appreciated by others.

  I rolled up my window and cranked up the music. “I’m coming for you, Rebecca, and when I find you, you had better have that damned book.”

  Chapter Five

  Ash

  It surprised me that the daughter of a witch so powerful couldn’t block herself from being tracked, but that was exactly what was happening. I slashed the rat’s throat filling the small golden goblet with blood. I tossed the body in the trash bin. That would be something for the maid to puzzle over in the morning.

  The words for the incantation flew seamlessly from my lips. This sacrifice wouldn’t get me much, but it was enough to get what I needed. Moving to the bed, I unrolled a map of the United States. The map had been tattooed on to living human skin using demon blood mixed with the ink, and then it had been removed from the subject’s back, and a preservation spell was applied to it.

  I hated to admit it, but the skin still felt fleshy under my fingers, and I hated it. If there was a line, I wasn’t willing to cross it was probably making stuff out of human skin, but I wasn’t above using the fruits of others’ labors. Only a fool wouldn’t use all of the resources available to them.

  I dumped the entire goblet of rat blood onto the map and watched in slow fascination as almost all of the liquid was absorbed by the map. A few small spatters around the edges were all that was left. They drew together briefly in the center of the map and then moved across it towards the southwest. I looked at where the blood stopped.

  The next biggest city was Tucson, but wherever she was, I hadn’t heard of it before. Not that it mattered, I wasn’t planning on putting down roots when I got my hands on the grimoire. I had a coven to run. This little trip was costing me dearly in time and face, but I’d make Rebecca pay for that.

  The ink on the map shifted. The first time this had happened, I’d stared at the map in stunned silence. This time I’d been hoping for it but had known not to expect anything from the artifact. I wasn’t sure what drove the map to this second level of tracking, but I was grateful for it when it happened.

  With the map zoomed in not only did I have a city, but I had the cross streets of a location. It was more than I had hoped for with such a weak sacrifice, but now it was time to go. Sleep could wait. I’d be there by morning if I left now. Sleep well Rebecca, in the morning I’ll most likely kill you, and then I’ll haul your head back across the entire length of the states just to show the coven I succeeded.

  <<<>>>

  Seven hours later I was slowing down as I pulled into the outskirts of the city. Maybe city was the wrong word. What did they call insignificant specs on the map, towns? This might not even qualify as that, maybe it was just a village. Either way, it was somewhere I didn’t want to be for long.

  The good news when driving into an area this small was that it didn’t take long to find what you were looking for. It wasn’t as bad as a city made out of eight gas stations, two restaurants, and a couple of hotels, but it was close.

  I pulled into the parking lot and let out a little laugh. Even a craphole like this had a payday loan place. Nothing said you were making a good investment like twenty percent interest compounded weekly. These were rates the mob would have killed to charge, and yet it was all nice and legal. All you needed was a check stub and verification of employment. Maybe th
at was a step up from a title loan? I mean this way you only got taken to collections for defaulting instead of also losing your car in the bargain.

  Still, it wasn’t the check cashing place that really caught my eye it was the other office it was attached to. The place screamed shady in the worst possible way. Was this the place you went when the payday loan palace shut down your dreams. If it was, I might find something that I could use in there.

  I got out of the car and stretched for a bit. Driving for seven hours straight wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. My body was stiff and uncooperative. That wouldn’t work for me if things went sideways inside. Since I had no idea what I was walking into, it paid to be cautious. I kept stretching. I might have looked funny stretching in the parking lot, but a limber witch was an alive witch.

  I’d picked up a friend from the shady shop while I was stretching. Guess he liked the view. But if he wanted to keep all of his teeth that leer he was wearing had better vanish pretty quickly. The man was under six feet tall but had wide shoulders. His flannel shirt was only buttoned at the neck, and he had a white T-shirt on underneath.

  He smiled as I got closer and then called out. “Hey honey, you ever want to put that body to work, you just let me know. I’ve got a million guys that would pay top dollar to give that sweet ass a ride.”

  I didn’t really think through what I was going to do, it just kind of happened on instinct. My hand rose up, and my hair streamed out behind me. It was one of those poses you only see in the Star Battle movies. When they do the close up on the main character’s face, and you can see them struggling with the emotions behind their actions. There wasn’t a whole lot of emotion behind what I did, just ruthless intent.

  The man went flying through the glass door to the office a moment later. I walked through what remained of the shattered glass door, to find a woman kneeling over the unconscious man. When she saw me her hand moved up, and she shot me.

  Well, at least she tried to shoot me. My shields snapped into place before the bullet hit. I had to give the lady credit. She wasn’t deterred by the fact the bullets were ricocheting off my shield, she just kept firing until one of the bullets slammed into her shoulder. She fell to the ground screaming just as a man opened the only door I could see from my vantage point.

  The man didn’t hesitate, he opened fire with an automatic handgun of some kind. It looked like one of those guns from a gangster movie. Lots of firepower quickly but not a whole lot of aiming.

  The bullets continued to bounce off my shield as I walked forward. The gun hit empty, and as he tried to reload it, I let loose with a burst of magic. “Enough!” I didn’t have a lot of time now. If the broken door hadn’t generated enough attention for someone to call the police the barrage of gunfire that had followed surely had.

  I cast the same spell I had used on the first man sending the fat man flying backward into the office. His body made a sick crunching sound when it crashed into his desk. The first man was bleeding profusely, getting thrown through a glass door could have that kind of effect on you. The woman was trying to drag herself away using her one working arm. I wondered if some of the bullets her boss had so callously sprayed around the office had found her body as the perfect resting place.

  It didn’t pay to leave witnesses alive. I cast a ball of fire at the man on the ground as I walked by. He didn’t turn into ash instantly, but he would disappear given time. The woman let out a wail of grief when she saw what I had done. I didn’t know if they were married or just had some kind of attachment, but I didn’t care. She wouldn’t either, in a few moments. I’d be sending her to join him soon enough.

  If she cared about him so much, then it was fitting that they died in the same fashion. A quick spell gathered all the glass shards in the room together and a second cast sent all of the shattered glass slamming into the secretary. She died with a look of horror on her face. I let out a laugh at the expression. I guess it was pretty horrible, wasn’t it?

  The fat man in the office was coming around. I pulled out a dagger as I walked towards him. He was going to talk before I left. Pain proved to be a wonderful motivator especially when the person being tortured was of low moral fortitude. They’d give anyone up if it saved their own ass. Nothing would save him now, but he didn’t have to know that.

  “I’m going to ask you a question, and I expect an honest answer. If I doubt your sincerity in any way, well, let’s just say it’s going to hurt.”

  “Screw you!” he gasped, using the desk to pull himself to his feet.

  “Not exactly the kind of helpful answer I was looking for.” Darting forward I shifted the blade in my hand before slamming it into the side of his left knee. He crumpled to the floor before roaring in pain. “Now that the will you ever walk again question has been answered, I need you to tell me where Rebecca is.”

  “Who?”

  “You know who I’m talking about. Five-five, black hair, slightly Asian looking features. Something someone of your standards would probably call a totally bangable hottie.” After a quick glance around the office, I rolled my eyes. “Not that you see a lot of those in here.”

  “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”

  Oh, he knew all right. He just didn’t want to tell me. He started trying to pull himself up again using the desk as leverage to ease the burden of his one working leg. With one bad leg, he couldn’t watch me and struggle at the same time. That was a big mistake.

  I slammed the knife down impaling his hand and pinning it to the desk. When he screamed he lost balance on his one good leg and fell to the ground. His hand ripped free of the knife. “That’s going to leave a mark.” I couldn’t help but laugh as he continued to scream clutching his hand to his chest.

  The fat man regained enough composure to mutter, “Come a little closer, bitch, and I’ll give you a mark of your own.”

  “Big words for a man that can’t get off the ground.” I knelt down and got right in his face. “You will tell me what I want to know.” Laying a hand on his forehead, I continued to talk. “I can make it all go away, all of the pain, all of your agony. All you have to do is tell me where she went.”

  The spell took effect, and I could see the relief on his face. Now I could take his pain away or let it all rush back in instantly. Choices, oh the glorious choices. It didn’t take long before he finally broke.

  “I don’t know where she went.” He looked into my eyes his expression pleading. “I swear.”

  “But you do know something, don’t you.” I let a little bit of the pain creep back in.

  “I do, but you have to promise to leave and never come back.”

  “Done. After today I promise that you will never see me again. There is nothing that would bring me greater pleasure than never having to come back to this cesspool of a town again.” I eased his pain levels down until he couldn’t feel a thing. His face relaxed, and he started breathing easier. He might not be able to feel the pain, but he was still losing a lot of blood. If he didn’t bleed out first the poison on my dagger would finish the job.

  “I made her a new ID.” He looked down at his ruined body. “Should have known it wasn’t worth it. She was too desperate. Desperation is normally a good thing in my line of work, but only just a hint of it. When they’re too desperate, you end up like this.” He waved the ruined remains of his hand through the air splashing my boots with blood and forcing me to take a step back to avoid more of it.

  I didn’t care about this drivel, I needed to know who she was. “Her name, now!” I let some of the pain flood back in.

  “Jinx. Her name is Jinx Har…” He started coughing.

  “No!” I was so close, and now he was nothing but a worthless corpse. I pushed him over and let out a scream of fury. Would this girl never stop vexing me? She was the bane of my existence. If she would only die, everything that I wanted would be mine.

  I felt it more than I saw it when the flames erupted from me. I was going to have to remember that for
later. The entire office was on fire now. I made my way out of the building and shoved my way through the growing crowd outside. It was time to go.

  At least this trip hadn’t been entirely useless. I had more than I did when I started, I had a name. There couldn’t be too many Jinxes out there. I’d have to put some of the coven’s resources to use, but with enough money, you could find anyone, even if you only had the first name.

  I pulled out of the parking lot as the fire truck pulled in. You haven’t escaped yet, little rabbit. I’ll catch you eventually, and then the secrets of your family’s grimoire will be mine. That would have to wait. I’ve got a coven to run after all, and with a name, our mundane assets will be able to track her as soon as she used that new ID.

  Chapter Six

  Jinx, One Month Later

  California had been nice. They were still doing a lot of recovery work there after the demon war. It was crazy to think of what this state might have become if the economic progress of this area hadn’t slowed to a crawl. It was hard to raise real-estate prices when people were worried a giant hole might open up again and start spewing demons out like Old Faithful shot water into the sky.

  The same things could be said about Nevada and Oregon. They were close enough to feel some of the fallout, but not so close people fled in droves during the demon war. I’d had enough of the dessert, so Nevada was out. That meant Oregon was the place to be.

  I’d spent less than a week in Bend before deciding to see what life was like on the other side of the mountains. The college towns seemed like a safe place to land. Blending in there would be easy. I was the right age to fit in, but I wasn’t so sure I was ready to form any relationships yet. There was still a chance Ash could find me, I just couldn’t risk it.