If She's Wicked

by Amelia Hutchins

  “They will want to know where she is,” a young female said. Witchling markings covered her arms as she exhaled, sending her secrets into the world of the living by way of fog that would go to whoever she wished.

  “She is different, can you feel that?” The male voice echoed as he reached out, touching my arm, which caused the flesh to react and break out in goosebumps. “She is magic in human form. I see why they want her.”

  “They’re selfish; she has pain in her eyes. She doesn’t deserve to die for what she is. Wild beauty mixed with the magic of an entire race. They will die if she rises. It is foolish to meddle in the lives of those who have suffered as she has.”

  “And why is that, Katria?” he asked.

  “Because she’s learned how to survive,” she smiled sadly as she touched my hair. “Those who survive merely on instinct are more dangerous since they don’t survive because they need to, they do it to make those who have harmed them pay in blood. She is part of the Dagda, reborn in another form.”

  “Evil was released into this world to save those of pure heart. It wouldn’t be the first time the Knights used evil to right the wrongs of the past. This though, this one is going to let something else into this world. Something that no one can stop,” the male muttered. “I think she hears us.”

  “Impossible, no one crosses the veil and lives.”

  “Oh, I can hear you. You can tell whoever wants me to come and get me.” I smiled as they vanished, the other souls following their lead as they sensed the intrusion.

  What else could go wrong today? I turned, staring at Fred’s body as it continually ran into the side of the outlet. I poked around in my bag as he ran into the shopping carts, tripped over bodies, and crawled around on the trash-covered ground before I remembered that I’d used the lighter fluid on the other demons. Exhaling, I withdrew the daggers before I pulled the backpack on and started the process of destroying his body again. It was becoming therapeutic. Once I had finished, I used hand sanitizer to wash off my hands.

  Slipping inside, I inhaled the ghastly scent of the bodies and moved to where Fred had been left, opening the cooler lid to smile down at him.

  “Miss me?” I asked.

  “I was afraid that someone had finally figured out how to kill you, mistress.”

  “You stink.” I turned to the ice maker, pulling out the ice as I proceeded to dump Fred’s water into the bucket and add new ice into the cooler.

  “You were gone a long time.”

  “I had things to do, I told you that,” I explained.

  “You were hurt?” he countered.

  “I was,” I replied.

  “Good, because leaving me here to float in a cooler is an entirely new low for you, female.”

  “I like mistress better.”

  “Woman, female, unwanted spawn of the devil himself,” he hissed as he pouted.

  “Aww, did you just call me an angel?”

  “No, no, I did not! I would never refer to you as an angel. You have darkness in your eyes; I know, because if I had my sexual organs, I’d stroke them as I stared into that alluring abyss of pain that shines from within you.”

  “You have pretty eyes too, Fred.”

  There was a noise outside the door, and I paused what I was doing. My hand pushed the cooler closed, draping a blanket over it as I turned, looking around for a weapon and finding none. Shit. I grabbed a bar of soap, and when the Knight opened the door, I chucked it at him. I knelt down, grabbing more that I pelted him with as he watched me through the visor of his helmet.

  “Are you fucking throwing soap at me?” Callaghan’s deep voice asked as his head tilted.

  I stood, taking in his full armor and white cloak with the familiar red Templar cross down the back. Swallowing hard, I backed up, noting there was no exit, nowhere to run from him. Fred spoke, his words muffled by the cooler, and Callaghan’s head moved towards him.

  “Don’t you fucking touch him! You back off now!” I screamed as power tore through the room. The walls began to shake and tremble as everything inside of me snapped. It hit me so hard that I didn’t have an outlet or a target, and I held no control over it. “He’s my friend! You get away from him right now!”

  Callaghan stepped back, his hands lifted in surrender as he watched me. The air was thick with magic, evil, dark magic that pulsed through me raw and unchecked as I stepped forward, growling, I pushed everything into the magic, sending him shooting backwards as I lifted my hands.

  “No one fucks with Fred!”

  “You tell him, mistress,” Fred muttered from inside the covered cooler.

  I turned, staring at the cooler as the buzzing in my ears became unbearable. I stumbled back, dropping to my knees as I brought my hand up to wipe away whatever was dripping from my face. Staring down at my hand, I winced at the crimson stain that marred my flesh. Stars ignited behind my eyes, and I fell forward as everything went black.

  Chapter 20

  My entire head felt like it had been bounced off the concrete a few times, and then had been run over by a truck. I pushed away from the cold, wet thing that touched my face and winced as I found a hand attached to it. Cold sweat clung to my clothes as I swallowed bile that threatened to explode from my lips. It touched me again, and I stared up into the greenest eyes I’d ever seen before. I watched him with curiosity until it dawned on me that they were in my space, in my hideout with me. My eyes immediately moved to where Fred had gone silent, his cooler hidden beneath the blanket I’d placed over him. Some resemblance of calmness filled me until I pushed that incessant hand away from me again.

  I knew this guy. He was one of Callaghan’s men; Uther, that was his name. Sir Uther Mackinnon, one of the few men who Callaghan had brought with him on missions. I pushed his hand away again as I started to sit up, only for him to push me back down gently. My gaze swung to the hallway as coughing sounded, and I stared at the other Knights who were too large to stand in it, and yet had crowded into the hallway all the same. I swallowed hard as I lowered my stare to where Callaghan’s body remained on the floor, lifeless.

  “What happened?” I uttered thickly past the dryness of my mouth.

  He smirked, pulling his canteen out as he held my head up, forcing the water over my parched lips and tongue. Uther didn’t speak right away as he watched me drink his blasted holy water until I coughed from taking too much. I rubbed my temples, and I was finally allowed to sit up, which showed them the stickiness of my white shirt and lack of bra beneath it. His eyes slid down to my hardened nipples as a frown tugged on his lips.

  “I’m guessing you used the magic of the cauldron by accident and it kicked that skinny little ass of yours,” he chuckled as he stood up, pulling his gaze back to mine.

  The Knights wore full Templar Knight Armor, their swords strapped against their waists in their scabbards as if they’d stepped out of medieval times and into ours. My eyes settled on the crimson cross as one of the Knights turned in the hallway, bending down to hoist the corpse over his shoulder as he removed it.

  “I did that?” I asked, noting I had no memory of it. The only thing I remembered was the anger, the need to protect the only friend I had—everything else was blackened out of the memory. “I didn’t mean to,” I whispered as I brought my hand up to my forehead, watching the others as they stared me down.

  “That would make one time of killing him an accident,” Uther huffed as he leaned against the wall, staring at me like he couldn’t figure me out. I was in full glamour again, hidden beneath the blonde façade of the lady I’d envied as a teenager. Somehow, it felt as if all of the Knights could see through my guise. “It really gets annoying when you kill him, and then we get to stand around and wait for him to return to us.”

  “If he would just stay away, we wouldn’t have this problem, now would we?” I argued as I pulled the drenched shirt away from my flesh and
continued to glare back at him. “It’s not like I’m the one chasing his ass down, now, is it?”

  “You were created to save us, little monster. They promised us that you’d be pure of heart and soul. A beauty unmatched by any other creature,” he hissed as he watched me. “You were supposed to be docile, gentle, and unable to tap into that power that created you, and yet I’m willing to bet my balls that you just used it to kill Mason. That was the fear that controlled the vote of the Order when we voted to take you from the druids. You’re unpredictable. Unsafe to those around you, created from the greatest evil this world has ever known,” he droned on, watching me as if he expected me to wield that power to fry his ass. It was tempting, but I’d only used it a few times before, and it scared the shit out of me. I’d pushed it behind that wall I refused to examine too much.

  I smiled as I stared up at him, moving closer to where he stood, and I inhaled deeply. “I’m aware of what I am. I don’t believe it would have mattered how unpredictable I was either, not really. I may have been an unknown, but what the druids did to me, well, no child deserved that. And the Knights, with their white capes and code of valor, well, you were no better than they were. You abandoned me like I was nothing but trash, leaving me to be abused at the hands of those bastards. You and your kind created me, in case you forgot that tidbit. I never wished to be born, Sir Uther. I never wanted to be of this world. I was never asked to play a part in this, and yet I was dropped from my mother’s womb and left on the floor to die. I am evil, of that, you can be sure, I do not pretend otherwise. Pray to your weak God that I do not wield this power inside of me often, for I may enjoy it. You and your kind do not deserve to be saved. You left me to suffer, to survive in a world that constantly reminded me that I am nothing, that I am unwanted and unloved. They told me that my differences didn’t make me special; that they made me nothing more than a monster. I was a child!” I hissed through tears as I stared at him, so angry that I felt my heart palpitating like thunder against my ribcage. “Do not expect me to come willingly to save you and yours, for they left me to die on the cold floor like the animal they said I was. No, no, the animals were given mercy, were they not; a quick death, so that they did not suffer. I wasn’t given that, I was just tortured endlessly, abused, and beaten if the mood struck their fancy. You never cared about me, so why should I care about you? You do not tell someone that they are a monster, and then expect them not to become one,” I laughed as my tongue slipped between my teeth, and I watched the anger play out across his features. “That is my only warning to you. Now get out, and stay away from me.”

  “And you think anyone cares about your woes, girl? You had a rough go of it, Erie. We all know that, but who the fuck do you think was there to help pick you up every time they knocked you down…”

  “Say another fucking word, and I’ll kill you myself, Uther.” Everyone turned around as Callaghan’s deep voice echoed through the hallway. “Leave, go guard the doors to this place, and do not disturb us or come if you hear screaming.”

  “You need to tell her,” he snapped back as his lime-green eyes burned into mine. “Maybe then she’d stop fighting you so damn hard.”

  “Not another fucking word, Uther,” Callaghan warned, his blue gaze locked with mine. He was pissed, his shoulder hit against Uther’s, and the other Knight smiled with those shamrock green eyes as he watched me. “Got something to fucking say?” Callaghan hissed as he stared the other Knight down.

  “No, but I think you need to address the issue before it reaches further than our ears and eyes. If she can access the magic of the cauldron, this is a whole new ballgame,” he muttered as he pushed off the door.

  “Go watch the doorways. I want this place searched. I want to know if a fucking rodent is creeping within these walls. Now go,” he growled, turning those Nordic blue eyes to me, staring me down as the tick in his jaw intensified.

  “You think you are safe with her?” Rhett asked, his eyes watching me as if he expected me to explode and murder them all.

  “I think she doesn’t know what the fuck she just let out of the bag, and it needs to be handled delicately,” Callaghan growled.

  “Handled? You don’t handle that type of magic, it handles you,” Rhett argued.

  “Are you going, or do you want to stay and watch this play out?” Callaghan countered.

  “I got time, and she’s divine. Not my usual type, as you know. Redheads seem to be explosive, too hot to handle.”

  “I think you all should leave now,” I interjected into the conversation. “You’re not welcome here.”

  “Too late for that, sweet girl, you just let Pandora out of her box,” Callaghan uttered as he let his gaze drop to the see-through shirt I wore.

  I stared at him, knowing that he wasn’t leaving after I’d used that power against him, and while I knew I could harness it to send them all running, it left something stained across my soul every time I wielded it. I swallowed, and I watched the others retreating down the hall, waiting for him to speak again as he watched me like he wasn’t sure what to do with me.

  “How many fucking times, Erie?” he demanded once we were alone.

  “How many times what, Callaghan?” I whispered as I chewed my lip and rubbed my arm; I lowered my gaze to the floor.

  “How many times have you used that magic before?” he snapped.

  My eyes flashed to his as I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I replied honestly.

  “When you killed the young druids, was it you, or was it that magic that you hid so fucking well from us?” he growled huskily. “And if so, what else are you hiding from me?”

  “That was me,” I admitted as my eyes rounded, staring at him. “You knew that was me?”

  “I knew it was you, yes,” he admitted.

  “Mistress?” Fred’s voice filled the room, and we both turned, staring at the blanket-covered cooler.

  “Not now, Fred,” I uttered. My eyes swung back to Callaghan as my hands trembled, and his slowly narrowed as he stepped closer towards the cooler. “Callaghan, no!” I hissed as he pulled the blanket off of and kicked the lid open with his foot, staring down at the demon.

  “Is this wrecking ball penis guy? He’s hot,” Fred said with a silky tone I’d never heard him use before.

  “Erie,” Callaghan uttered. “There’s a decapitated demon head in a cooler, what the fuck?” he demanded.

  “He’s my friend,” I whispered as my throat tightened and my eyes burned.

  “It’s a demon,” he muttered as he dropped his foot and then recovered the cooler with the blanket. He turned to stare at me.

  “I know what he is,” I said as I tilted my head, rubbing my arm harder as I stared at the floor. “He’s my friend,” I repeated softly.

  “He’s not your friend, he’s a demon for fuck’s sake, woman,” he growled and stared at me as if I was crazy.

  “I talk to him, and he can’t hurt me,” I whispered thickly. “He’s all I have.”

  “You have me,” he snapped.

  “I can’t trust you,” I hissed harshly. “I can’t trust you to want me for more than what I can do for you. You’re a Knight first and foremost, and you would do anything to save your people. I come second to that in your world, always.”

  He didn’t argue as I frowned, watching him. “Come with me, woman. We need to talk,” he muttered as he rubbed his hand down his face, staring at the cooler and then back at me.

  “We can talk here,” I assured him, not wanting to leave the room with him.

  “I’m not talking to you about what just happened with a severed demon head in a cooler,” he argued. “You do realize that if he is alive without the use of his body, he’s a fucking High Prince of Hell, right?”

  I shrugged as I nodded at the door, needing to get him away from Fred. “I’ll follow you.”

  “Take me to the other room you
have in this place,” he ordered.

  “No way,” I said as my eyes went wide as I held his heavy stare in challenge.

  “Erie, I can find it from the outside hallway. I just figured we’d do this your way.”

  “Fine,” I said begrudgingly as I reached for my backpack.

  “Leave it, you’ll be back,” he ordered.

  I stared at him as I exhaled and shook my head. Once out of the room, he walked inches from my back, his heat radiating through me as the close confined hallway gave me little room to escape it, and when my pace quickened, so did his. I turned around too quickly to tell him to back off, and lost my balance in the small space, tripping backward as he captured my hand, pulling me against his chest and stared down at me as I was slowly forced against wall as I watched the shadows playing over his features.

  “You should be more careful,” he uttered, still refusing to release my hand as his thumb trailed over my palm, sending my heart into a rapid beat that hit against the ribs holding it. “You’re flushed,” he whispered hoarsely as he watched every subtle move I made. I shook my head, and I started to speak, but he released my hand, circling his hands around my waist as he forced me up. My legs wrapped around his waist, forcing my breasts against his chest as a cocky smile flitted over his lips.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.

  “Making sure you don’t trip again,” he growled as he paused, pushing me against the wall, his mouth brushing against mine, seeking permission. My hands pushed through his hair as I watched his eyes glowing from within. My mouth closed the distance, touching against his before I pulled back, watching the smile spread over his mouth as his hold on me tightened. His forehead rested against mine, and then he whispered into the confined space, “Erie, you have no idea what you’ve done.”

  “I thought you wanted me to kiss you,” I uttered breathlessly. I pushed against his chest as something tightened in mine.

  He laughed huskily as his eyes danced with his amusement. “I do, that isn’t what I meant. You can’t use that magic, Erie. It wasn’t meant to be used.” His eyes searched mine, and then he pulled back, letting me slide down his chest.