Defying Magick: an Urban Fantasy Novel (The Witch Blood Chronicles Book 2)

by Debbie Cassidy

  She growled in exasperation, tugging at her pants. “Shoddy, discount lingerie. You know what? I’m just gonna take them off. Fuck it.” She headed back to the bathroom.

  A knock at the door signaled the arrival of another guest. Henna stood on the doorstep, bottle of tequila in her hands, and Honey stood behind her with a box of donuts held out like a peace offering. The girls traipsed in, and before I could close the door, Victor made it to the top of the stairs followed closely by Banner. Melody and I’d made enough of a case to get the Rakshasa released. They’d been literal puppets under Shukra’s control and the IEPEU had agreed to drop the charges.

  The gang was here. It was time to get the party started.

  Okay so it wasn’t a party, more of a noisy get together with food and copious amounts of alcohol. Banner flirted with Honey, but soon cottoned on that she only had eyes for Victor, who only had eyes for the floor. Shit. We really hadn’t had a chance to discuss the whole, hey-so-you-tried-to-kill-me thing. Well, no time like the present.

  “Victor, can you give me a hand in the kitchen?” Right, so it was barely a couple of meters from the dining area, but still.

  Victor joined me behind the counter but didn’t look me in the eye.

  I ducked my head to try and capture his gaze. “How have you been?”

  He snorted. “Wracked with guilt. You?”

  “Tired, to be honest. Life of a superhero sucks.”

  He chuckled. “How can you be so okay with this?”

  “With what?”

  He looked up, locking gazes with me. “I tried to kill you.”

  “Okay. True. But … you didn’t. Plus, you were under evil Shukra’s control, and even though you weren’t entirely yourself you tried to protect me by hiding me in the apartments under Soho.”

  He looked away. “Urvashi said the same thing. She came to see me at the kitchen. But I should have gone for help sooner. Told someone about the blackouts. Something. It could all have been avoided.”

  “Or Shukra would have replaced you with another rakshasa who wouldn’t have given a fuck about me and killed me.”

  His head whipped round, his attention back on me.

  “So, you see, you kinda saved my life.”

  He offered me a wry smile. “No, Carmella. You saved your own life. You knit yourself back together using your power.”

  “Power I would never have discovered if I hadn’t been on the brink—” I waved a hand in the air, cutting myself off. “You know what, we could do this all day but it doesn’t change the fact that you are my friend and there is nothing to forgive.” I shoved a drink into his hand. “Now go eat, drink, and be merry, and for goodness sake flirt with the hot yaksha before she gets a complex.”

  He finally cracked a genuine smile and rejoined the others at the table.

  Henna held up a carrier bag. “Hunter, chop up the lime while you’re there.” She passed the bag to Banner who brought it over.

  Shot glasses were arranged on the table.

  Banner grabbed a knife. In the glare of the overhead light his skin looked pale and drawn. Were those dark circles under his eyes?

  “What?” he asked. “Wait, I know. You’ve finally succumbed to my manly beauty.”

  I couldn’t exactly tell him he looked ill now, could I? “You wish.”

  He pouted and handed me the knife. “Hey, what are you up to tomorrow evening?”

  “No plans, why?”

  “Pizza and a movie at mine?” He rolled his eyes. “Hannah is out of town and so I’m fending for myself, plus, the house is kinda creepy without her. I could grab a date and do the whole Casanova thing, but to be honest I’m not in the mood.”

  Was this a ploy to get me alone? Was he still hoping we’d be more than friends? There was nothing in his expression or in his eyes to suggest such a thing, and no warning from my gut.

  “Did you just admit that you need me to come over to hold your hand while your housekeeper’s away?”

  He grinned sheepishly. “If you tell anyone, I’ll turn you into a toad.”

  I snorted. “Sure, I’ll come babysit.”

  “I’ll pick you up at six then?”

  “Awesome.” I began to slice. “Grab me a bowl, would you?”

  “Where?” He started opening cupboards.

  “Forgotten already?” I glanced over my shoulder. “The cupboard above the—” pain sliced through my finger. “Fuck.”

  “What?”

  “I cut my finger.”

  Banner grabbed a wad of kitchen towel and wrapped it around my bleeding appendage.

  “You okay?” Honey asked.

  “Will be in a moment. It’ll heal.”

  “She’s a bleeder, that one,” Henna said to Victor.

  Victor’s face paled, and Urvashi snorted.

  “Too soon?” I asked Victor.

  He shook his head in despair and the tension was defused.

  Banner released the pressure on my finger and removed the paper towel.

  I wiggled my hand. “See, all healed.” Grabbing the non-bloody limes, I joined the others at the table.

  “So what did the High Witch want?” Urvashi asked.

  Oh, yeah, I’d started to tell her but had been interrupted by her pants.

  “The High Witch was in touch?” Banner asked.

  “Yeah. She wants me to help her catch Karen. They figured out some way to trace her and she wanted me on standby to help send the Daayan back.”

  Banner’s lips tightened. “The Daayan desperately needs to go back. Poor Karen. I can’t even imagine what she’s going through with that thing inside her.”

  He didn’t know what the Daayan really was, or why she’d been able to possess a witch.

  “We should play a drinking game,” Urvashi said.

  Henna downed another shot. “I don’t need a game to get me drinking.” She winked.

  A breeze blew through the room, and a chill caressed the back of my neck.

  Paimon?

  Honey’s gaze was fixed over my shoulder. “Um, you have a guest.”

  I inhaled and exhaled through my nose. “Excuse me, guys.” I pushed my chair back and turned to face Paimon.

  “Carmella, may we speak in private?”

  I walked past him and swept an arm toward the bathroom. “Step into my office.”

  I shut the door behind us and leaned against it—heart pounding to be this close to him again. “What can I do for you?”

  His gaze flicked to my wrist and a small smile tugged on his lips. “You have it on again.”

  “For now. Look, Paimon, I have guests so …”

  “Yes. Of course. The orb the IEPEU handed over has been examined and there are only two djinn souls contained within. If this Shukra was collecting the souls to create this amrit he speaks off but no amrit was located, then where are the rest of the souls?”

  “Oh, shit.”

  “The families of the missing djinn are waiting for their loved one’s souls to be released into their care so final rites can be performed. Amon and I have managed to stall, but the council is pressing for answers. I won’t be able to stall for much longer. I need answers, or else I need the rest of those souls.”

  “I’ve had a bad feeling about this since we found Shukra’s dead body. There are too many holes in this wrap-up, and this is another one to add to the list. I also have a bad feeling that we may not be getting the answers anytime soon.”

  “The deal was that you deliver to us the kidnapper and either our missing djinn or an answer as to what became of them. We have only two souls and the fate of the other twenty are unaccounted for. If you’d found this amrit then that may have been answer enough.”

  Oh fuck.

  “I will stall for as long as I can, but Carmella, even I have my limitations. There are members of the council, factions of djinn, itching to move into this realm. They want to expand and claim territory and turn your world into an extension of our own. Any excuse to reopen talks of invasion w
ould be welcome.”

  His cerulean eyes were tight with concern, his expression strained, and I ached to smooth away the worry lines on his forehead. As if sensing my thoughts and desires, he took a step closer, slipping into my personal space.

  My blood fizzed. “How’s Alara?”

  He closed his eyes and took a step back. “She is well. Thank you.”

  I pressed my lips together. “Great. You should go. I’ll let Parker know what you found and we’ll get on it.” I nodded curtly.

  He tried to lock gazes with me, but I fixed my attention on the rim of the bathroom sink.

  I caught movement in the periphery of my vision. His hand coming up to caress my face.

  “Carmella, I—”

  “Should go. You should go now.” I met his gaze steadily. “I’ll let you know what we find.”

  He reined it in, taking his cue from me. “Thank you.”

  Was he thanking me for looking into things, or for preventing him from losing himself again? He smiled tenderly and then he was gone.

  A rap on the door. “Carmella, your phone is buzzing,” Urvashi said.

  I opened the door and grabbed it from her. “Hi.”

  “Miss Hunter,” the High Witch said. “It’s time.”

  20

  “So we need to look into this,” I said to Melody on the phone after filling her in on Paimon’s visit. “Maybe search Shukra’s place again. Those souls have to be somewhere. If not, then the djinn may still be alive.”

  “I’ll get down there first thing in the morning,” Melody said. “And Carmella, we need to wrap up this Yamduth case too. We need to find out who’s responsible for the hit. Murdoch is getting antsy that his perfect record will be tarnished.”

  I was on the tip of my tongue to tell her what we’d found out about the dragon bones, Shukra, and the vault, but I’d made Henna a promise to hold off until we’d tied up the loose ends—until we’d figured out where the yaksha souls, he’d apparently harvested, were and what his motive for still wanting me dead was.

  “I’m working on it. I’ll meet you at Shukra’s in the morning.” I clattered down the steps from my flat. The High Witch had asked me to meet her at the Piccadilly Circus Underground station in half an hour. Naturally the gang had wanted to come, but there was nothing they could do to help. This was a two man job. Locate and banish. Hopefully I’d be back in time to join the party.

  Hopefully.

  I hit the pavement just as the headlights of a car swept across the back of the bakery. It came to a halt. The lights died and a door slammed. A figure came racing toward me. A familiar face, a much loved grin, and then I was swept off my feet and into a bear hug worthy of a bear.

  “Babe,” Aaron rocked me from side to side then popped me back on my feet.

  “You made it.” I couldn’t believe he was actually here.

  “I said I would. Had to steal a car, but.” He shrugged.

  “Whose is it?”

  “Loki’s”

  “No!” Loki was, well, he’d been my first mega crush. An independent witch from another reality, he’d helped us to stop the void and been recruited by the IEPEU alongside Aaron. It had been a long time since I’d seen that charismatic man.

  “Where are you off to?” Aaron asked.

  Oh shit. How to explain this? “To meet the Mayfair High Witch at the Piccadilly Circus Underground station so we can corner a witch possessed by a vengeful spirit from another dimension and send it back.”

  Aaron blinked down at me. “Okay. Let’s go.” He strode toward his car.

  I loved that it was so easy with Aaron. “You don’t need to come. The High Witch and I can manage.”

  “I’m sure you can, but it doesn’t hurt to have a little back up. He gave me his signature dimpled grin, and man was I a sucker for that grin. I could never say no to Aaron.

  “Fine.”

  Aaron opened the passenger door to the car. A very expensive car by the looks of it. I slid onto the plush leather and the door closed smoothly. Wow, leg room galore. Aaron jumped in and the engine purred, like literally purred to life.

  “Loki is gonna kill you.”

  Aaron smiled. “He’ll never know.”

  Then we were off, sailing down the street into the city night.

  _____

  Grimy posters decorated the cracked tiled walls, and the stench of urine drifted up to meet us as we descended into the underground. I’d dressed in boots, jeans and a black T-shirt for this adventure. Aaron was sleek and panther-like in his dark clothing. Together we blended into the night. He probably had a dagger or two strapped to his person. Maybe a gun? The guy rarely went anywhere without a mini arsenal. His hair was slicked back from his forehead, making him look older, and right now he had that focused, on-the-look-out-for-trouble glint in his eye. It was his assassin-mode face, although he wasn’t an assassin any longer—he was IEPEU.

  The turnstiles were practically hanging off their moorings. Aaron leapt over and reached across to give me a hand, with an impish grin I vaulted across to land at his side. Asura power came with strength and agility.

  “Show off,” Aaron said. “Come on. Where did she say she’d meet you?”

  “Just here, by the barriers.” Further steps awaited beyond to take us down into the bowels of a travel system very few sane people employed. “They should never have reopened these.”

  “I know. They’re a death trap.”

  “So where have you been? Where is this new branch of IEPEU?”

  His eyes did the shifty thing they do when he was mentally sifting through information. He was deciding what he could tell me.

  “It’s coastal,” he said.

  “That’s it? That’s all you can tell me?”

  He winced. “Have I told you I love you?”

  Aaron, seriously? How can you have a relationship or a life when everything you do is classified?”

  His expression sobered, his eyes darkening. “You can’t.”

  “So why do it?”

  His lips thinned. “Because somebody has to.” He clasped his hands together. “Look, Carmella, like my daddy once said, with great power comes great responsibility.”

  “Your daddy said that?”

  “Ahuh.”

  “Are you sure it wasn’t Spiderman’s uncle?”

  He gave me a faux puzzled look. “Hang on...I may be getting confused here.”

  A scream echoed up the steps.

  Aaron’s body tensed. “This place is crawling with Vamps. It could be a trap, a way to lure us down there. They probably smell the blood coursing through our veins.”

  “Or it could be someone in need of help.”

  His lips curved in his signature roguish smile. “Fancy taking your asura powers for a spin?”

  Did I just.

  Another scream bounced its way up the steps. Fuck it. I broke into a run, Aaron hot on my heels. Further into the depths of the underground we went: flickering anaemic lights, patches of absolute darkness, and that god awful stench of waste. How the fuck could the vamps stand it down here with their super senses. The whoosh and clatter of a train carried through the brickwork as it made its departure, and then we were hitting the dead escalators and delving even further into the complex. Another scream drifted up to greet us.

  Someone was having a party, and not the kind with candy and streamers.

  “Please, please, don’t. We’ve changed our minds. Here take your money.”

  We hit the bottom of the escalators and the tunnel ahead came into view. A group of vamps had a woman and her teenage son surrounded. Five on two, so not cool. Five vamps against two humans? Triple uncool.

  “Oi, back off.” Aaron said striding forward.

  The vamps turned to face us, and a third figure came into a view. It was a barely conscious male, laying on the floor with a needle and blood bag still attached to his jugular.

  What the fuck?

  “Please, you have to help him.” The woman implored us.r />
  The boy had to be no older than fourteen or fifteen, and he was skin and bones. The vamps wouldn’t be getting much out of him. It looked like the dude on the floor was the dad, selling his blood for cash to feed his family.

  “Look, take the bag and go,” Aaron said calmly. “Fair deal and all that.”

  The man on the ground moaned.

  “Fuck you,” one of the vamps said. “This is our territory. You stay, you pay. You pass through, you pay. You set foot in it you motherfucking pay.”

  I joined Aaron, leaning in to stage whisper. “Someone’s been watching too many gangster movies.”

  “Bitch.” The vamp said.

  I pressed my hand to my heart. “Wow, how original. I’m impressed.”

  Vamps were fast and their fangs were sharp, but their bodies were dead and in a constant state of decomposition, so a hard enough swing with a bat and their heads popped off. Shame I hadn’t thought to bring one with me. Ooo, or a Sun shot. The IEPEU had a bunch of those beauties—they gave of electromagnetic radiation that mimicked the sun’s rays. Instant poof. It was all right though, because with my new found asura strength I should be able to just yank his head off.

  I cocked my head. “Can I have the mouthy one?”

  “Be my guest,” Aaron said.

  We advanced, and the Vamp reached into the voluminous folds of his tacky trench and pulled out a fucking gun

  The others followed suit.

  Well, that changed the game. Aaron’s fingers twitched to draw his weapon, but with five guns trained on us it was a bad move.

  “You, silver head, come over here.” Mouthy vamp jerked his head in my direction. “Get that tight ass over here.”

  “You gonna suck on her Brendan, are ya?” One of his weasel faced compadres asked.

  Seriously, they got to pick and choose their skins, so I could only assume it had been slender pickings at the morgue that day. Brendan, the obvious ring leader, grinned, showcasing receding gums. He obviously hadn’t been taking great care of his meat suit.

  “Fuck yeah, I’m gonna suck on her, straight from the motherfucking vein.”

  “Aw, man. If Garnet finds out we’re dead,” one of the guys in the shadows said.