Hunted Witch Agency Box Set 4-5
By Rachel Medhurst
Copyright 2018 © Rachel Medhurst
Please note that the author is English so spelling is in British English.
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CONTENTS
Magically Banished
Magically Blended
Other books by this author
Copyright
Author
Magically Banished
Book 4 in the Hunted Witch Agency Series
By Rachel Medhurst
Copyright 2018 © Rachel Medhurst
Chapter One
“They’re out there,” I whispered as I accidentally stood on Gerard’s foot.
His breath hissed as I muttered an unapologetic apology. It served him right for making me wear my sexy knee-high boots with the pointy heels.
Date night was not going well. In fact, it was our first official date, a week after I’d killed my grandmother and inherited the link to the warlock magic in the earth. And, life had been bloody hectic since.
The dark covered us, but the skin on my arms was tingling. We were hiding in an old shed in a random person’s back garden in the middle of London. On the way home from our lovely meal, I had smelt a dark crawler. Someone had been following us.
Footsteps outside made my insides quiver. They were light, not heavy. A woman, probably, not a man.
“Fuck this,” I told Gerard, shoving the door open.
Dagger extended, I flew out of the shed. “Got you, motherfucker!”
The snarl that came from the young man’s lips made me pause. It was the young teenager who had raided my apartment with his father over a month ago. A warlock. Oh, shit.
“Devon,” Gerard warned me from behind as the young man held up his hands. “Don’t do anything you might regret.”
Pfft. As if I would be careless enough to harm myself when I was hurting him. He might be young and naive, but he was still following me.
A gentle cough made me look into the garden. Light suddenly flared from physical magic. Balls, streams, all sorts of shapes of coloured magic sat in the palms of about ten warlocks. All of them aimed at me, ready to throw if I moved.
Ah, crap. Maybe I should’ve done a little more surveillance before I bombarded the young one.
“Devon Jinx, you’re a threat to our coven. Your grandmother wanted us dead.” An older man stepped forward. “You may have killed her, but you took something that belongs to the whole of the warlock race. Now, you will give it back.”
“Do you think I wanted this? I’ve only just got rid of you…” Frowning, I paused. “Wait… I didn’t mean it like that.”
It was too late. The scowls on their faces turned even more aggressive as Gerard stepped beside me. “Use your witch magic to protect us. Let’s just get out of here.”
About to protest, I took one more glance around us. He was right. It wouldn’t do to fight the warlocks when I had their link to magic. Justina had been researching how to reverse the link back to the tree, but she hadn’t found anything yet.
“Okay,” I said, raising my hands in the air, my dagger loose to show them that I wasn’t a threat. “I’m going to leave. I promise we’re trying to sort out our little problem.”
A magic ball flew past my ear, slamming straight into Gerard’s arm. He cursed as he raised his gun and fired in the air. The warlocks were disorganised, running in different directions. Some were poised to attack, others were leaving.
Whispering a protection spell, I touched Gerard’s arm to include him in the bubble of light. The pure witch magic from the ley lines zipped through me, making me shiver as it settled on my skin. If I flashed us away, Justina would kill me. She wanted us to use our ability to move between places a lot less frequently.
Another ball of fire flew at us. Ducking just in time, I cursed when the heat made my hair move. If the bastards had singed it, I would probably kill them.
Running towards the wooden gate at the back of the garden, I dragged Gerard with me. The warlocks were shouting at each other, their disarray turning into our advantage.
“Wait!” someone shouted.
My legs were suddenly pulled out from under me by something. Smacking onto the cold grass, I exhaled the air from my lungs. My chest was tight as adrenaline flowed through me. Glancing down, I clenched my teeth. The motherfuckers had tied my ankles together with a stream of bright pink magic.
“Devon,” Gerard warned from beside me.
He had been caught too. His squirming reminded me of a worm. Giggles erupted as he tried to pry the magic off, burning himself in the process.
“You’re laughing now?”
As the warlocks approached, I sobered. What would they do to me? I was just a means to an end. In fact, if they tapped into me somehow, they’d have access to an incredible amount of power. My body was used to handling both witch and warlock magic, but I was struggling to contain the amount that wanted to push through me.
“Do something, or they’ll kill you,” Gerard hissed.
Tightening my grip on my dagger, I swiped it down. The blade sliced straight through the magic, releasing me from its grasp.
“Sorry, guys,” I shouted, jumping to my feet. “Not today.”
A deep inhale prepared me for what I was about to do. My feet started tingling as I allowed the link of magic to connect to me, opening myself up to receive it. The feeling had always been calming to me before, but now, the intensity was almost overwhelming. I also felt dirty for using something that wasn’t technically mine.
Earth’s impure magic filled me as they started to lunge. Holding my arms up, I pushed forward, creating a whole wall of physical baby blue magic that zipped with lightning. Shoving it, I released the impressive power towards them. Their eyes widened as it thrust forward and crashed into them, sending them sprawling to the ground.
Bending, I cut Gerard’s magic ties and attempted to haul him to his feet. He ended up brushing me off. Apparently, he was better at getting up on his own. I wasn’t surprised, I was almost falling over because of my stupid high heeled boots.
“Do you think they’re okay?” I asked as I followed Gerard out of the garden.
Putting a locking spell on the gate, Gerard turned to me, bent slightly and then swept me over his shoulder. Starting to run, he ignored my protests.
Thumping his back, I uttered the vilest swear words at him. How dare he carry me like a sack of potatoes?
“Why are you carrying me?” I yelled as I jolted around.
A shout from behind made me look up. The warlocks had broken free of the garden and were giving chase.
“Okay, run faster!”
Gerard’s huffing breath alerted me to my weight. I may have been only five foot, but I was powerful stuff. I probably weighed more with all my awesomeness.
Rounding the corner, Gerard ran along the river bank. The lights on the bridges and buildings always calmed me at night. And, yet, here we were, trying to escape the warlocks.
“We have to hide,” I said between bumps. “We can’t lead them back to the agency.”
His footsteps slowed for a second. Ducking into a shadowy area, he whispered an invisibility spell and dropped me to my feet in the most unceremonious way.
“Firstly, I don’t appreciate your man handling. Well, not in that way anyway. I don’t mind it in other circumstances, if you know what I mean.” My wink was probably not visible to him, considering it was extremely dark where we stood.
&nb
sp; His face was in the shadows, so I couldn’t see his reaction. The only sound was his breathing as he tried to get it even again. It was unusual for him not to have something to say about us being attacked by the warlocks. What was he thinking?
Running footsteps passed us, making me cringe back against the wall of the building. The warlocks were so full of adrenaline, they hadn’t noticed us disappear. That was a bonus. My feet were killing me. These boots were not made for fighting.
“You’re not safe here,” Gerard finally said when it grew silent.
Sighing, I took his hand. It might have been a little stupid to go on a date in public when I had the warlocks’ most prized possession. Not that they’d known about the tree or the link before everything had unfolded.
“Let’s go and tell Justina what happened.”
Resignation had taken over. If I wanted to be safe, we had to find a way for me to work without putting everyone else at risk.
His silhouette nodded before he whispered a relocation spell.
Landing in the hallway of the agency, I almost stumbled, yet again. Dropping to the floor, my bum smacked the wood. Untying the boots, I yanked them off. “Sorry, Freaky Mac-good-in-bed, but these will need to stay in the bedroom for when we’re getting freaky-”
“Devon!” His snappy attention-grabber made me freeze.
Ah balls, that meant someone was behind me. Please, if it was my mother, I would cringe all the way to hell and back.
“I knew you’d hooked up.” The chuckle made me smile.
Ah, Kurt was the best one out of everyone to have heard me. Although-
“Was it good?”
Maybe not.
Shaking my head, I grinned to myself as I tugged the other boot off and slowly got to my feet. “Please don’t say anything to anyone,” I implored.
His raised eyebrows, joined with the quirk of his lips, made me roll my eyes. What a stupid thing to ask.
“Kurt, we didn’t just hook up.” Gerard took my hand. Serious Mac-intensity had come out to play. To defend my honour, which was cute. “We’re together. In bed. All the time.”
My mouth dropped open as the men glanced at each before they burst out laughing. Ugh. Why were men so immature when it came to sex?
“No.” Gerard cleared his facial expression. “Kurt, I…”
“It’s okay,” I said, interrupting my man. Yes, my actual man. I was no longer Singleton Mac-lonely. “I don’t care about you laughing. Just, don’t try to get in my bed any time soon.”
The grin was wiped from my face when my father came out from behind Kurt, clearing his throat as he eyed Gerard. Oh my gosh. That was way too embarrassing, even for someone in their mid-twenties.
“You will not joke about my daughter in that way, do you understand?”
My heart swelled as he stared my partner down. Gerard’s cheeks flared red as he dropped his head for a second. He must have suddenly remembered that he was a kickass agent, because his head came back up.
“I’m sorry, Kevin. That was disrespectful.”
Turning to me, he took my hands and looked into my eyes. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I promise never to talk like that about you again.”
Shaking him off, I turned to the others. “Dad, thank you, I appreciate your support. However, let’s just forget about it.”
My cheeks were burning as he came over to us. Taking my hand, he ran his thumb over my knuckles. “I’ve missed so much of your life. I want the best match possible for you.”
The atmosphere grew heavy. Had he seriously just said that Gerard wasn’t good enough in front of him? Wow, that was a kick in the balls. One that I couldn’t ignore.
Taking my hand away from him, I stared up into his brown eyes. He was a powerful warlock who had forgotten who he was. Being in hiding for so long had made him lose himself.
“I know you care about my best interests, but you may have noticed that my judge of character is bloody amazing.” Putting my arm around Gerard’s waist, I laid claim to my man.
My father looked between the pair of us. His brow furrowed, but he didn’t disagree with me. Nodding once, he turned and went up the stairs. His hunched shoulders made me frown. Why did he have a problem with me being with Gerard?
“Is Justina around?” Gerard asked Kurt. “We need to talk to her.”
Kurt pointed towards the library. Although it was late, Justina was a workaholic. She couldn’t shut off her mind until everything had been done for the day.
“Do you need me?” Kurt asked.
Gerard glanced at me before he replied an affirmative. We had to tell them both about the warlock situation. It was a team decision that had to be made.
Going into the library, Gerard led the way. Kurt put a hand on my shoulder just as we were about to enter. “Don’t worry about your father. He’s probably just concerned about you in general. I’m sure it’s nothing personal with Gerard.”
Squeezing his fingers, I thanked him for the support. At least he knew what Gerard and I had been through.
“I thought you were on a date?” Justina said as we approached her desk.
Her blonde hair was pulled into a tiny ponytail as she closed her laptop. She had black circles under her eyes from lack of sleep. The paperwork associated with my grandmother had taken it out of her. After years of searching, she had finally achieved her goal. I did wonder if it was taking time for her to get used to the idea of moving on.
Holding my boots up to show her the mud on them, I grinned. “Had a little run in with the warlocks.”
Justina sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her stomach. The exhale of her breath told me all I needed to know. She was about to say exactly what Gerard thought.
“I have a new case in Edinburgh, if you’re interested.”
Okay, maybe that wasn’t what I’d been expecting. I’d been preparing myself to be told that I had to stay out of the field until we’d sorted our warlock problem.
“Yes, I’m interested. Wait…” I glanced at Kurt when he snorted. “… What’s the mission?”
A smile came to Justina’s lips as she glanced at her partner. The softening of her jaw and eyes showed how much she cared about him. They weren’t very affectionate in public, but it was obvious that they were mad about each other. Would Gerard look at me that way in the future? Even when I’d driven him mad?
We had been careful to try and keep our romance under wraps, but Kurt had a certain knack for sniffing these things out.
“You’ll be briefed on the case when you get to Edinburgh. I don’t want you distracted while you’re travelling. You need to be on full alert, looking out for warlocks. They’ll keep coming for you the whole time that you’re the main source of connection to their magic.” She frowned when I ducked my head. I was already sick of being hunted. Again.
“We’ll find a way to disconnect you soon, I promise. In the meantime, there’s a Celtic seer in the city. You’ll stay with her. I want you to talk to her about your predicament. Hopefully, she’ll be able to help.”
Justina had already planned our little excursion to another city. Butterflies flipped in my stomach at the thought of going on a romantic break with Gerard. Not that it would be romantic, considering we would be working. However, Scotland had always been on my bucket list. And, it wouldn’t hurt that my hunky partner would be by my side while we explored.
“Gerard?” My tentative question was met with a frown.
“Yes?”
Biting my lip, I looked into his eyes. “Are you coming with me?”
Amusement blossomed on his face as he glanced at the others. “That goes without saying.”
The doubt that had formed in my mind vanished. He’d been slightly distant since the warlocks attacked. My insecure little brain had assumed that he was backing away. How silly of me to be so… well, me.
“Great,” I almost shouted as excitement rushed through me. “When do we go?”
Kurt stepped forward and handed us an envelope
each. “We guessed you might run into trouble at some point so we decided to pre-empt it. It didn’t work, considering the warlocks just found you, but you leave tonight.”
Chapter Two
“This place stinks,” I muttered as I walked into the lobby.
Justina had sent us to a B&B. I’d imagined a gorgeous little cosy place in the middle of Edinburgh. Instead, we were standing in the dusty hallway of a townhouse that was painted blue on the outside.
“Devon, she’s a seer. She can probably hear you, or at least predict what you’re saying.”
Goosebumps raised on my arms as an elderly lady came shuffling into the small area. The walls were painted with old-fashioned Fleur de lieu on a bright red background. Cobwebs hung in the corners, begging me to brush them away. Almost tempted to cast a spell to clean the place, I had to grip my hands together to stop myself.
“You must be the agents I’ve been expecting. I’ve been told that you need to go undercover, so you’ll be sharing a room.” She winked as she indicated that we should follow her up the stairs. Her thick Scottish accent reminded me slightly of Jamie Fraser from one of the best book series ever written. Although, she wasn’t a hunky Scotsman.
A giggle escaped me as Gerard tried not to grin. Pink blossomed on his cheeks as the old lady peered over her shoulder at him continuously. He had a new admirer.
“The house is free for you to roam. Except for the top floor. That’s where I live. You may come and visit me soon, we have many things to discuss. In fact, once you’re settled, I’d like you to come and have some tea and cake with me.”
Chewing my bottom lip, I watched as the old lady took her time getting up the stairs. She was slightly taller than me with long white hair. Her eyes were huge, the blue of the iris twinkling every time she made eye contact with my boyfriend. It looked like I would have competition.
“Oh, I forgot, my name is Mary. I’m the seer that your boss told you about.”
Hunted Witch Agency Box Set Books 4-5 (Hunted Witch Agency Set Book 2) Page 1