Witch's Blade

by Jenna Wolfhart

  “So, it’s like they’re stateless,” I said.

  “Pretty much.” Dorian nodded.

  “But why launch an attack on Blue Moon Tavern?” Laura asked. “We have absolutely nothing to do with anything.”

  “That, I don’t know.” Dorian shrugged. “Perhaps it had something to do with the presence of the Blood Coven Enforcers. There have been a few fights recently, all directed toward them. Before now, we didn’t think much of it, but there’s clearly something bigger going on than we thought.”

  “Could it have something to do with the smuggling, Ben?” I asked, my eyes zeroed in on his face. His jaw twitched at my words, and he didn’t look up to meet my eyes. Ben definitely knew something, and I could tell now he wasn’t going to talk, regardless of how much I pried.

  “Smuggling?” Dorian shifted toward the council member with an intense gaze that would make any normal man break under the weight of it.

  Ben gave me a look. “That was classified information. I really wish you hadn’t just blurted that out in front of everyone.”

  “I’d hardly call this everyone,” I said, waving at my friends. “Dorian is my partner, and Laura is practically my other partner. She’s been with me on Enforcer business from day one.”

  “Some would say having a Blood Coven member with you on Enforcer business probably wasn’t a wise move,” he said before jerking his chin toward Anastasia. “And let’s not forget about the bloodsucker. The Daywalkers are against us now. We should not be talking about coven business in front of one.”

  “Anastasia isn’t against us,” Laura said. “She’s not going to rat us out to her Clan unless it involves something that’s going to endanger them.”

  “Well, forgive me if I’m not quite as trusting.” Ben’s face clouded over. “It was in bad form to dissolve the truce between us, especially now when Dogaru knows as well as we do that the demon situation is getting increasingly complex.”

  Anastasia narrowed her eyes as her lips parted just enough to show her teeth. Tension rocketed through the room as she shifted closer to Ben. Despite the fact I’d just taken her side, I couldn’t let her harm a mage. She’d proven herself in more ways than one, but she was still Anastasia. And she wasn’t afraid to use violence when she deemed necessary. Hopefully, right now wouldn’t turn out to be one of those times.

  “Listen, warlock,” she hissed. “Your kind were the ones to break the faith between our supernatural races. Not us. And when you’re previous Magister conspired against us, we gave you all another chance. To pay us back for that, mages conspired against us a second time. You are lucky that all Christian did was walk back on the truce. He was well within his rights to respond to murder with more murder.”

  “Well, I think you took care of that well enough yourself,” Ben said, meeting her intense gaze with one of his own. “If it weren’t for you, things wouldn’t be so strained with the Blood Coven right now. Killing Piper did far more harm than good, regardless of your motives.”

  Anastasia stood, her body shaking as she stared down at Ben. Red flickered in her eyes, a sign that she was two seconds away from snapping someone’s neck. “Your beloved blood mages killed dozens of my kin. I killed one.”

  When the splinter coven had attempted to assert control over demons, Anastasia had helped me, Nathan, Laura, and Ben confront them about their actions. As a result, the leader of the group had tried to force those demons to attack us. Somehow, we’d managed to fight back and banish the creatures back into their realm—or so we’d thought. In the end, I thought we were all going to get out unscathed until Anastasia had taken her revenge on the splinter coven’s leader by slicing her throat.

  At the time, I’d been horrified, but I’d come to realize that I’d done something pretty similar myself. Back when I’d first partnered up with Dorian, I’d come face to face with Vincent, the warlock who had been working with Professor Wagner to bind and control demons. I’d killed him, both to protect myself and the rest of the world. While I didn’t condone Anastasia’s actions, I understood where they came from, especially because in her world, revenge was justice. It was her way of righting the wrong that Piper had done when she’d burned down Slayerville, trapping dozens of vampires inside and killing them in the flames. While the Dogaru Clan was able to rebuild the club, they’d never be able to reclaim the lives that were lost.

  “Anastasia,” Laura whispered, grabbing the vampire’s hand.

  She blinked and glanced down at my friend. Her expression shifted, pure rage replaced by something else. Pain, fear, and a healthy dose of sudden calm. The trembling in her body stilled, and the fire in her eyes slowly eased. Swallowing hard, she settled back onto the floor, though she made sure to keep a large swath of space between her and Ben.

  “You cling to your flickering alliance, but maybe it would be in your best interest to sever ties with the Blood Coven,” Anastasia finally said. “You think they are all that is good in this world, but they are not. You’ve chosen the wrong side.”

  “And what side is right?” Ben asked. “Your side? The Daywalkers? The creatures who crave violence and blood?”

  “Blood mages also crave violence and blood,” Anastasia said with an icy smile. “And once they’re done using you, they’ll burn you alive.”

  Chapter 4

  “Okay, let’s get back to the situation at hand,” Dorian said slowly, his eyes flicking between Anastasia and Ben. Clearly, there were a lot of unresolved issues, but now wasn’t the time to fix them. We were prisoners of a gang of rebel mages, and they were taking us—and the entire building, apparently—to goddess knew where. We needed to figure out a plan and fast. “Ben, you need to tell us what’s going on with the smuggling because it can’t be a coincidence that these rebels showed up at the same time something is supposedly happening here.”

  Ben sighed and closed his eyes. “Alright, I’ll tell you what I can but nothing more. The coven received a tip-off that something was being smuggled through Blue Moon Tavern. Something important and dangerous. They didn’t say who by or how. The Blood Coven wanted to intercept it, and I’m assuming that’s what the rebels were hoping to do as well.”

  “Okay. Now, we’re getting somewhere,” Dorian said with a nod. “Zoe, what can you tell us about this?”

  “Well, I mean, obviously if someone was smuggling something dangerous through Blue Moon Tavern, I would have told you about it already,” I said with a frown.” And I can’t imagine how they would have done it without me noticing. I’ve been here every night this week. The university is on break right now, so the place has been pretty dead. A few vamps have been in, but most of my customers have been human. They drank, they danced, they went home.” I shrugged. “Nothing suspicious at all.”

  Dorian turned back to Ben. “Look, I know you’re trying to keep things confidential, but it would help if you could give some more specifics about the object itself. What were they smuggling?”

  “I can’t tell you,” Ben said with a quick shake of his head. “That would be disobeying orders. And yes, I realize I’ve gone against the council’s orders once, but I can’t do it again. The Magister made that very clear.”

  “Does it really matter what they’re looking for?” Anastasia asked. “We’re already prisoners. Finding the damn thing won’t make a bit of difference.”

  “If it’s dangerous, we need to make sure they don’t get their hands on it,” Dorian said, ever focused on the mission at hand. He was an Enforcer through and through, always more concerned with what the coven needed than his own safety. Most people would be trying to figure out how to get out of here. Not Dorian. “I’m calling the Magister and informing him of our situation. I’m sure once he knows what’s going on, he’ll agree to share the details.”

  Dorian whipped his phone out of his pocket but frowned when he attempted to make the call. Shaking his head, he tossed the phone onto the floor. “No service.”

  Laura and I quickly checked our phones but found the same.
No bars, no nothing. Whatever spell these mages had cast, it had put us somewhere that was fully cut off from the world. The thought made my uneasiness ratchet up another notch. Where the hell were we? And where were they taking us?

  “Anyone know what the deal is with this magic?” I asked, wincing when the floor hit another speed-bump on whatever magical road we were taking. “I had no idea that mages could transport an entire building. Some kind of travel spell is what they called it?”

  “There are two different types of travel spells, though I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them before,” Ben said, looking up to lock eyes with mine. “One allows a mage to move around the world through shadows, but only shadow mages can cast that one.” The meaning in his look suddenly became clear. As a secret shadow mage, I should know these kinds of spells, but I’d only been practicing a handful so far. With the danger in using my magic, I’d wanted to take it slow. “The other travel spell is this one. We’re moving through light waves, and apparently they’ve figured out a way to take entire buildings along with them.”

  “Lightwaves,” Dorian said with a nod. “So, these are Sun Coven members.”

  “Former,” Ben said. “They don’t like to pledge allegiance to any one coven these days. Some nonsense about combining forces to take down the power structures we have in place. Stick it to the man.”

  “I thought sun mages liked to keep to themselves. Peace-loving and all that,” I said. Back during the demon war, sun mages had joined with us to fight against the monstrous creatures, but they’d refused to join the alliance when we won. They claimed a desire to stay neutral, but I’d never understood what they were staying neutral from. They’d already fought by our sides. Why not pledge to do so again?

  A scowl crossed Ben’s usually relaxed expression. “Peace-loving to their detriment. They can only stay out of things for so long before they’ll have to get involved. Did you know they refuse to help us now? Even after we had demons swarming through the Boston streets?”

  Dorian cleared his throat. “Regardless, the point is that yes, Zoe. Sun Coven members are peace-loving. However, these rebels have forsaken their coven, so I wouldn’t expect them to be anything like a regular sun mage.”

  “Alright, enough chatting,” Ben said, suddenly standing from the floor. “We need to take back control of the bar and steer it back home. They may have won the first round, but there are five of us, including Anastasia, and there were only about six or seven of them. If we take them by surprise, then there’s no reason we can’t win.”

  “Unless they’ve already gotten ahold of whatever thing they’re looking for,” Laura said.

  “Trust me. They haven’t,” Ben said. “Now, Dorian and I will lead the front assault while Laura takes the rear to find our weapons. Once we have those back in our grasp, we can go after the rebels with all the strength of our magic. Anastasia, you can do whatever it is that vampires do, but please try not to kill anyone.”

  “What about me?” I asked with a frown. “I’ve got a lot of good spells—”

  “No,” both Dorian and Ben announced in unison. Dorian shot me an apologetic smile, but Ben continued to barrel onward. “We want to avoid them seeing your powers. Instead, after you use your lock pick tool to get the door open, you’ll create a diversion so that we can take them by surprise. Maybe act like you’re going to jump out of a door or window to stop the spell.”

  “Wait, I can do that?” I asked. “In that case, I can just go out the back door here and stop this now.”

  “While that would be noble of you, you can’t,” Ben said. “It would stop the building from going any further, but it would also kill you in the process.”

  “Noted.” I nodded. “Definitely going with the diversion option then.”

  With a deep breath, I eased open the stock room door and slithered into the bar. The rebels were all clustered around the jukebox in deep conversation, and my movements didn’t catch their gazes. Now would be the perfect time for us to launch our attack. No need for a diversion. Not when they were this focused on each other instead of us. But their words made me pause before I gave the signal to the others.

  “Honestly, Ryker. You’ve totally fucked up here,” Gigi said. All the rebels had discarded their masks, and this woman was the very definition of a Sun Coven member. Long, flowing blonde hair with the lightest of eyes, and constellations of freckles covering her skin. “Your intel was way wrong about the weapon.”

  Weapon? Frowning, I glanced at the stock room door. No wonder Ben was keeping his mouth shut. If a weapon was involved, it could mean serious trouble. But, I couldn’t help but think, how the hell had a weapon ended up in Blue Moon Tavern of all places? Like I’d told everyone repeatedly, I’d been here almost non-stop this week. I would have noticed if someone had snuck a magical bomb into my bar.

  “My source is reliable,” Ryker insisted. “He said the weapon would be here, so we just need to keep looking.”

  “Did your source also mention those Blood Enforcers? Or how about the fact a vampire would be lurking around?”

  “My source isn’t psychic. There was no way to know when the Enforcers would get wind of it. And the presence of vampires here is pretty common knowledge. I’d say we got lucky that there was only one, and it’s the girl who has a soft spot for Zoe’s friend.”

  “We need that weapon, Ryker,” Gigi said. “It’s the only way we can launch our attack against the covens. Without it, we don’t stand a chance.”

  Heart hammering hard in my chest, I eased back into the stock room. Dorian and Laura frowned from where they perched on either side of the door.

  “What’s going on?” my partner asked. “Why didn’t you create the diversion?”

  “Well, I overheard their conversation and thought you all might want to know what they said.” I levelled my gaze at Ben. “They said they were looking for a weapon. Is that true, Ben?”

  With a sigh, he nodded and closed his eyes. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag. At least you didn’t hear it from me.”

  “Mind telling us what it does?” Dorian asked as he edged toward Ben. “I understand and respect your determination to keep classified matters private, but we need to know what this weapon does, Ben. Especially if you’re still convinced it’s somewhere in this bar.”

  Ben hesitated but then let out a long and tired sigh. “You three are always getting me into some difficult situations, aren’t you? Well, I hate to tell you, but I have no idea what the weapon does, just that it’s dangerous and shouldn’t fall into enemy hands. After today, I’d definitely consider the rebels our enemies.”

  “Well, they haven’t found it, and the Blood Coven Enforcers didn’t find it either,” I said. “Maybe it isn’t here. Who told you it was?”

  “Belzus.”

  I almost choked as my eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “Belzus told you there was a weapon being smuggled through Blue Moon Tavern?”

  “After that unfortunate incident when we falsely charged him with murder, we extended an olive branch to the fae. Somehow, one thing led to another, and he’s been providing us with intel here and there in order to help us track down Wagner. So far, everything he’s given us has proven to be true.”

  “This is the fae we’re talking about,” Dorian said with a frown. “I’m surprised the council would agree to work with them again.”

  “Belzus will have ulterior motives,” I said. Out of everyone here, I should know. Years before, I’d been an unmarked witch and blissfully unaware that there was anything even remotely off about my magic. Sure, I’d felt the pull of darkness and shadows deep within my gut, but I had thought it was normal. Something every living person—mage or not—felt from time to time. At the time, I’d dipped my toes into being a mage for hire—someone who banished demons for cash, though half the time there weren’t any demons to take down.

  To make a long story short, Belzus ended up hiring me to banish a demon from a crypt in his cemetery. Ever since it had h
appened, I’d had a niggling feeling in my gut I couldn’t shake. There was no way to prove it, of course, but I was certain that there’d been more to the whole thing than what was merely on the page.

  For whatever reason, I had the feeling that Belzus had somehow put that demon in his crypt on purpose. Just so he could hire me and force me to use my powers with enough intensity to trigger my coven mark. After all, he’d been the one to tell me how to conceal it from the world. Now, I had a fake mark on top of the real one to disguise the truth, and if it weren’t for him, it wouldn’t be there.

  He’d orchestrated everything. Why? I had no idea.

  So, to hear that he’d been helping the coven track down this mysterious weapon? It did nothing to soothe my unease. If Belzus was involved, there was no telling what was truly going on here.

  “The council is aware of the risks involved, but fae cannot lie,” Ben said. “If Belzus said the weapon would be here, then it must be here somewhere.”

  “They can’t lie, but they can certainly twist the truth,” I said. “What exactly did he say? In his own words.”

  Ben’s eyes sparked as he levelled his gaze with me. “He said, ‘Blue Moon Tavern is being used to smuggle dangerous weapons for the enemy. If they fall into the wrong hands, the demon war will be the least of your worries. I recommend keeping your eye on Zoe Bennett. She’s not as innocent as she seems.’”

  Irritation stormed through me, and I fisted my hands by my sides. “That’s absolute horse-shit, and you know it. Why would I be smuggling weapons? Is this why I’ve been sidelined all these months? Because you think I’m trying to supply weapons to the enemy?”

  Ben’s face was a mask of calm as he listened to me rage on, and when he finally answered, his voice betrayed no emotion. “I’ll admit, that was definitely part of it. We cannot trust someone to actively work on cases when they’re also suspected of weapons smuggling.”