by Erin R Flynn
“Whoa, wait, we’re not hunters,” Levi promised, holding his hands up in surrender, but then winced. “Well, we are. We were born of hunters but we don’t hunt witches. We don’t. We don’t believe in it. I mean, some—”
“Only BDE witches, we swear,” Theo cut in. “But we don’t even do that. We don’t want any part of what our families preach or expect.”
“It’s sort of why we ran when we got out of the Army,” Levi muttered, that fear lighting up his aura again.
I studied both of them. “Are you planning to sell my totems?”
They shared a look, but Theo answered. “Hunters don’t do that.”
I snorted. “Oh, children, Mommy and Daddy haven’t told you everything. There are lots of hunters that chose the dark path from their ‘mission’ to steal the magic instead and not caring how it was gotten. They sell totems full of magic on the black market to witches who are just as dark.”
“No, we’ve never done that,” Levi swore, his disgusted tone and aura lighting up with the same, making me believe him. He watched as I snuffed out the fireballs. “Okay, if you could do that even on strong painkillers… How did you get taken?”
I sighed. “I didn’t know who it was or why until they brought me to Larson. I figured it best to let it play out for answers after I was shot with a fucking tranq dart through the open window of my workshop. I didn’t think they’d burn everything.” I let out a growl. “Fuckers. That will take me forever to handle with people watching since everyone knows now.”
“We’ll help if we can,” Theo offered.
I snickered. “Oh, don’t say that to a witch, kiddo. I might be an LLL witch but you should never make a blanket statement like that.”
An LLL witch was one that practiced magic on the basis of Life, Love, and Light.
Whereas BDE witches used Blood, Death, and Evil.
So yeah, I didn’t even blame hunters for hunting them, but they weren’t noble in it or doing it for the good of everyone. No, it was their fucking egos that witches were a perversity that needed to be exterminated, and it was all our fault that the world was going to shit as we fucked with balance.
Right, did we create all pollution too?
“I’ll let you stay, but just so we’re clear, you even go near my totems or where you shouldn’t be, and I’ll light your asses up so there’s nothing but ash.”
“Got it,” Theo muttered, his voice wavering. Yeah, he should worry, because I could absolutely do it. “We swear we don’t believe the hunter doctrine. It’s all radical insanity.”
“Amen, brother,” I snarked as I led them to the side door to the five-car garage. I lost steam by the time we made it from there and into the kitchen. “Shit, I doubt the maid has the guesthouse ready. I’m too tired to figure it out. I’ll give you guest rooms tonight. Do you have bags?”
“I’ll get them,” they said together, acting more like brothers than friends every so often. They must have been friends for a while, and it was sort of endearing, if I was honest. One must have held the door for the other who went for their bags, since they didn’t call me to let them back in, and there was no way I was trusting them with the code.
My phone was sitting on the counter, and I had missed calls from Trey. It was amusing to call him back and hear him apologize. He forgot I needed a ride home and where had those guys gone. I filled him in, smirking when he lectured me that was stupid and dangerous.
“Yes, they saved me from abductors who were planning on killing me, but they’re going to hurt me now that I’m home,” I drawled. “Trey, you told them to stay around for probably weeks and we’re lucky they can even, but you think they deserve a hotel in town when they saved my life?”
“Fine. Yeah, fine. Just be careful.”
“I have a guesthouse,” I reminded him. “What time is the arson guy coming tomorrow?”
“Nine.”
“Got it, thank you. Now go worry about your wife or I’m telling her you’re not behaving.”
He muttered something unflattering under his breath and hung up. Well, that was amusing.
I led the way after I reset the alarm, gesturing to the rooms they could use. “Whichever. They all have their own bathrooms.”
“You really live here all alone?” Theo asked, not sounding like he bought it.
“I do. I have guests now and again that train from me or until I can help them.” I glanced at him over my shoulder. “Several I rescued from hunters that were using them as sex slaves and selling their totems.” They both swallowed loudly, looking disgusted and nauseous at the idea. “Good night, boys.”
“Night,” they said together, my heart aching at how lost they sounded.
As I knew that feeling well.
2
Theo
I slept like a rock on the best bed I’d ever been on. It was plush but firm and just amazing, plus there was a gas fireplace, lounge area complete with TV, and a mini fridge.
Oh, and a swank attached bathroom. It was nicer than any hotel I’d ever stayed in when on leave and going anywhere but near our families.
My alarm went off at eight, since we were hoping to get some answers or at least talk with Briony a bit more before the arson guy came at nine. I took a quick shower, finding anything I didn’t have in the cabinet with the towels.
Wow, she thought of everything, down to different types of deodorant for men or women.
I dressed in my last clean clothes, making a mental note to ask where her laundry was, and headed for the kitchen. I paused by Levi’s room and heard his shower going so he wouldn’t be far behind. He always was harder to wake up.
The kitchen was empty, but there was evidence Briony was already up, and not just from the brewed coffee as that could go on a timer. I smelled breakfast and glanced around, wondering what she made and if she already had cleaned up, since there wasn’t a dish in the sink or anything on the stovetop. The ovens weren’t warm either.
I heard her voice and followed the sound of it. I would definitely get lost in the huge mansion at least several times before I got it down.
“That’s the commercial building kit,” she said from a room down the hall. “If you could call me back and let me know if you have any in stock or how long it would take to get it, I would appreciate at it. Thank you.” She sighed and I caught on she was leaving a message. She glanced up just in time for me to reach the door. “Good morning.”
“Morning. I smelled breakfast so I knew you were up.”
“Right, guests need to eat too,” she muttered as she pushed to stand. “Sorry, I jumped right into replacing what I needed after I made extra coffee.”
“It’s fine, I can grab cereal or whatever’s in the fridge.”
She nodded but still stood, looking much better than last night, but still beat to shit. I knew she couldn’t heal herself completely so fast when she’d be talking to the fire department and the cops. But I hated seeing her in that state, obviously in pain. She brought her coffee mug with her and waved me to follow.
She gestured to a door when we walked by it. “Laundry.”
“Right, I was going to ask about that and if I could use it.”
“Go for it, or the guesthouse has it too,” she replied, sounding like she was a thousand miles away.
Levi was in the kitchen when we got there, staring into the fridge with a frown. “There’s no food in here. I mean, like no food in here. Only milks, wine, coffee creamer—”
“Yes, thank you, I know what’s in my fridge,” she drawled. “Look in the freezer or pantry.”
Levi opened the other huge door of the industrial-sized unit and his eyes went wide. “Holy frozen meals, Batman. You’ve got everything in here. Don’t you cook?”
“No, not even remotely,” she chuckled. “I used to pay a personal chef to make and deliver meals but the man was a fucking nag. He was always bitching about how much I ate or forgetting to eat or just—he was a nag. Help yourselves. There’s a lot of fresh everything in
the greenhouse if you’re worried about preservatives overload. I’ll take you out there after the investigator leaves.”
“Yeah, cool, thanks,” I muttered, watching as she sat at the counter with a heavy sigh and turned on her tablet before taking a long chug of coffee. “So, um, what kind of workshop did you have?”
Levi gave her a curious look too as he pulled out a few frozen breakfast bowls for us. Then he nodded to the coffee, as if suggesting I fix us some instead of just standing there staring at her.
Good suggestion.
“A woodshop,” she answered, setting down her tablet and giving us a suspicious look. “So you really didn’t know who I was?”
“No, should we?” Levi asked, glancing at me in confusion before looking at her again.
I shook my head that I didn’t know her either.
“How old are you two?” she asked instead of answering.
“Twenty-two,” I answered.
“Almost twenty-two. I’ve got a few more weeks.”
“Wow, you are babies,” she muttered, looking amused at that. “They still do the hunters home-schooled and remote before dumping them in the military a few years to let the government train them for free, instead of caring enough to teach their kids to kill?”
“Yeah, it goes like that, or it did for us,” I muttered, turning towards the coffee. How we grew up wasn’t one of my favorite topics.
“Wow, you both really have issues with it,” she whispered. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to poke, and I’m trying not to judge you, but it’s hard when I’ve had to defend myself, friends, and my home from hunters many times. I was honestly hoping there weren’t that many of you left.”
I gave her a worried look. “Um, no, there are still… Well, I don’t know about lots but my parents know a few dozen hunter families they talk with regularly. Some have been talking of going after the bloodlines that are turning away from hunting like they’re the new biggest evil.”
She nodded sadly. “And if defecting was an option, more would take it.”
“Yeah, we would,” Levi worried, knowing the risk we took running.
“To answer your question, I’m one of only a few witches that can make totems for magic.”
We shared another look before I replied. “Wait, I thought it was just anything organic, like wood.”
She raised an eyebrow at that. “No, it takes magic to make a totem to store magic. Think of it as a piece of metal versus the USB drive that can accept scores of data. If you just tried to thrust that on any piece of metal, you’d get nowhere—or worse, melt everything down around you. It’s the same with totems.”
“I never heard of that,” I admitted.
The sad smile came back. “Because you didn’t complete your Rumspringa and go back to your community. Just like the Amish send their kids to the big city to give them the choice of seeing what else is out there and making the choice for themselves, you were shown what else is out there during your training and Army education. Well, the Amish don’t kill the ones that don’t return home, but same concept.”
“Shit,” Levi worried, and I felt the same.
“You’re safe here, I promise,” she assured us, smirking at us when we gave her worried looks. “My land is spelled to incapacitate any hunter that steps foot on it. Anyone with witch blood on their hands cannot come here and survive it. So, good thing you’ve not killed a witch.”
“No, but we heard the screams of one being tortured for names of others,” I rasped, my hand shaking as I took mugs out of the cabinet. “Somehow she was able to do magic past the normal protection wards and did a spell to blow the room, herself included.”
“Good girl,” she praised, her tone tight and full of pain. “Everyone breaks, and while people will say anything under torture to make it stop, risking others because you got caught is something those with good hearts can’t stand. If she’d had stronger friends instead of our fucked-up communities, she could tell them names of witches powerful enough to get her out. That’s how I’ve rescued them.”
“They told hunters you were a witch and where to find you?” I asked, my eyes going wide.
She nodded. “Absolutely. It brought them right here where they dropped from my spell, and after I revived them, I went and rescued the witch.”
“And the hunters?” Levi asked quietly.
“They’re very dead but I didn’t take the magic of the kill. That would make me as bad as them. Mine was in self-defense, as they came here to kill me. They tortured and killed light witches. They deserved it.”
“Yeah, they did,” I agreed.
After she pointed out where the forks were to Levi she nodded to the containers. “I pay for recycling out here, and those can be if you rinse them. Bins are in the garage. The door auto locks, so if you go out, throw the deadbolt so it doesn’t close all the way.”
“Got it.”
After we ate, she checked the clock and said she’d take us on a quick tour. She warned us to stay out of her office, but said anything else on the first floor was fine and there was a lot of it. There was another study besides her office, a library, home theater, huge dining room, and more.
And all of it seemed a bit lonely. It was awesome and everything was well done, but it just seemed… Not cold, but yeah, lonely.
She led us downstairs where the wine cellar, fully loaded gym, indoor pool, sauna, and extra storage were. She stopped by a large metal door that had the same keypad entry as outside but with what looked like a fingerprint and retinal scanner.
“Do not even try to go in here. It’s my other workroom and you are not welcome in there. For the record, assume people don’t know I’m a witch, even if they work for me. Linnie, my housekeeper, thinks this is a fireproof vault for my art collection. She thinks most of what I do is for art.”
She waited until we agreed and led us back upstairs. She grabbed a jacket by the door and noted we weren’t wearing anything other than sweatshirts. She changed course and brought us to the laundry room, showing us a huge closet of extra clothes.
“I keep extras here and there from strays, or a few were accidentally added to orders. They always seem to come in handy, so I never get around to donating any of it.”
“Thanks,” I said as I reached for a winter jacket, Levi echoing me.
We went out to the garage, where she started a wicked four-seater ATV. We got on, and she opened the door just as some vehicles pulled up to the house. She waved for them to follow, and drove along the driveway that went around the side of the garage and deeper into the property.
“Holy fuck,” I whispered as I caught sight of the damage. It wasn’t just some small barn workshop that had been torched, but a several-hundred-square-foot commercial setup.
“Yeah, it’s all gone,” she rasped, shaking her head.
I glanced at her and my breath hitched. Fuck, she was gorgeous. I’d been so shocked and in shock from the moment we’d met her, but now getting a real look at her in the morning sun, she was breathtaking. Her long, thick, deep, dark red hair was pulled up in a messy bun, and her bright cobalt blue eyes shined with emotion that killed me.
She stopped before we hit rubble and looked past where the building had been. I followed her gaze and saw a few dozen burnt trees, some already having fallen over.
“All those trees for nothing. Fuckers,” she grumbled, shutting off the ATV and sliding out.
And that was when it hit me. She didn’t just make the totems, like crafted them—she grew the wood for them. That was the farm. She had a tree farm and apparently greenhouses.
Damn, she was really cool.
I caught Levi’s gaze and realized he’d figured it out too and looked impressed.
She got out and introduced herself to the arson team and the county police, who were handling this side of the crime… Maybe? Hell if I knew.
“I have a few questions as to the sequence of events, if you don’t mind, Ms. Rose,” the officer said with his notepad ready.
; “Of course. I was in my shop, working, and I thought I heard something. Decided to crack a window to listen, but also I was covered in sawdust, so why not let the Wyoming wind do better than a fan to clean up a bit. I had just brushed my hair off my face when I felt something bite me, so my hand was right by the dart and I yanked it out. I didn’t hear it, just felt it, but I guess I didn’t get the full dose.”
“Because you woke back up,” he filled in.
“Yes, and I don’t know how long it normally takes someone to pass out from a dart, but I didn’t right away. I moved away from the window and the van rammed one of the bay doors until it busted in. My vision was a bit blurry, but I picked up some tools and threw them. I don’t think I did anything but I got in a few good hits and kicks. It’s sort of mushy.”
“You saw them set the fire?”
“Yes, one was shouting to burn it all and I smelled gas, heard splashing. Another threw some on the closest trees, saying I broke his nose and he was going to burn my trees because I was a stupid bitch and all of that. So then I was tossed in, but they were careful of my head because I couldn’t sign the papers if not of sound mind. They almost burned us all as they started the fire before moving the van away.”
“Oh, but kidnapping is okay,” I drawled, seething she’d gone through this.
“Yes, clearly they’re smart and moral people,” she chuckled darkly. “I woke… I don’t know how far into the drive. We didn’t drive much longer after so maybe ten minutes? Everything was still mostly blurry and woozy and I’m pretty sure I puked on one of them, but maybe I just felt like I was going to.”
“Nope, you did,” one of the arson guys said. “We took their statements last night and he was very vocal that you puked on him and how much.”
“Well, it was the least I could do in payment for their treatment of me,” she teased. She shrugged as she looked back at the officer. “That’s about it. I got in some good hits when I could focus again, and that’s why they kept dropping me off their shoulders, and I thank them for that today. I had no idea it was Larson until he came into view, gloating like a bad Bond villain.”