Stealing Time: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel

by Gael, Christine

  “Go! Get out of here!” I shouted, turning back toward Verbena, who was now targeting Trudy with a flurry of attacks with the scissors. Zoe pushed her to and fro, helping her dodge attacks, but she was having trouble keeping up.

  “Die!” Verbena shouted again, her face red with anger as blood trickled down her temple from where Trudy had struck her.

  I watched for one, more, breathless instant as Patrick was again on the move with Lizzie, toward the exit. Then, I turned my full attention back to Verbena. I closed my eyes and took a long breath, calling up a miniature tornado in front of Verbena that swept up loads of broken concrete and metal as it whirled violently toward her. As the tornado was about to strike the dark witch, she lifted a hand to her thigh. Then, she threw something at me and, a moment later, she disappeared.

  I shot a panicked look around me as I tried to find her. Had she gone invisible herself?

  But my thoughts were derailed by a blinding pain that shot up my back as something slammed into me from behind. Letting out a yelp, I dropped to my knees, looking down to see the blood blooming through my shirt from a hole in my gut.

  Zrrrp

  My head spun as Mee-maw rewound time again in a dizzying rush. I was ready, a moment later, as Verbena disappeared again, narrowly avoiding the bolt of green lightning that’d struck me squarely through the core the first time around.

  Anna Cromwell had been right; Mee-maw’s item was the most useful for combat.

  I spun to face Verbena, just in time to see her picking up the dark crystalline orb she’d thrown before she tossed it again, this time in the direction of Trudy, Connie, and Zoe.

  She warped after it, reappearing right behind them, where the orb had landed. She used the scissors to send another attack at Trudy and, when Zoe pushed Trudy aside, sent a ball of fire at her while she was off guard.

  “Zoe,” I shouted, shoving my magic at Verbena’s attack, just in time to disperse the fire into nothing.

  How could we even fight someone like this? She’d only shown us two items out of the dozen or so strapped to her thighs. Would it ever end?

  In response, I mustered all the magic I could, forming a lightning bolt of my own and blasting it out at her. It cracked through the air, shooting at her before she had time to react. Rather than hitting her directly, however, it slammed into the green aura that surrounded her with an audible crash, slowing significantly as it battled against the sickly aura. Barely managing to power through and moving at a snail’s pace, it struck the side of her dress, smoke rising from the spot it’d hit.

  Her eyes re-ignited with rage as she shot another blast at Trudy that I didn’t have time to block. But a flash of red streaked by as Connie threw herself in front of the librarian, taking the hit and falling to the ground in a heap.

  “Silly Conservator,” she said, sneering as she held the older red-haired woman to the ground with a stream of green flame. Connie gasped and choked as the fire consumed her, and I used every trick I could think of to stay the attack, to no avail. Any normal human being would’ve been dead within moments, but the Everlasting Conservator earned her title as she writhed and pleaded, seemingly unmarred by the fire but suffering every lick of the flame.

  So evil.

  So cruel.

  Zoe and Mee-maw scuttled closer to me, launching attacks at Verbena to help distract her, but she deflected their attacks and only intensified her assault of Connie.

  “Cover me!” Trudy called.

  I turned my attention from Connie, her suffering almost unbearable to watch, and I dug deep, my wells of magic already waning as I forced out a protective barrier around Trudy.

  The second she was covered, I called to her. “Go!”

  “Enough!” Trudy shouted to Verbena, fumbling in her shirt for the amulet and lifting it in the air toward her.

  It had taken me some time to overpower the necklace when it had been used on me. As strong as she was, I could only hope that this would buy us enough time to gather the strength to subdue Verbena. But her reaction was far more extreme than I’d anticipated as her face went bone-white and she froze.

  “H-how,” Verbena whispered as her hands fell instantly to her sides, twitching, “how do you have that? Who gave it to you?” She stiffened, her body convulsing as a look of horror washed over her face. “Not this… anything but this!”

  Her screech of agony pierced the air and our surroundings began to morph as I braced myself for whatever fresh hell awaited

  Chapter 22

  Blood rushed to my head as the smell of antiseptic and the sound of low groans filled a large room, lit only by lamplight.

  An older man leaned over another who was lying prone on what looked like a makeshift hospital bed. He shook his head mournfully as he prodded at a nasty looking wound on the other’s calf.

  “I’m sorry, but the infection isn’t going away. We’re going to have to take the limb, Robbie,” he said, his gaze full of pity.

  “Take it?” the younger man asked, his eyes widening in horror. “Doc, that can’t be. What of the farm? How will I care for my wife and--”

  The doctor shook his head, putting out a hand to silence his patient. “There is no other choice. It’s the leg or your life. The boys will soon be old enough to help on the farm, and you’ll be no good to your wife at all if you’re lying in a wooden box.”

  Robbie was silent for a long moment and then nodded, his throat working furiously.

  “All right, then.”

  “My nurse will help comfort you and assist with the amputation.”

  A woman with flowing black hair and kind eyes stepped into the room a moment later.

  Verbena.

  I recognized her instantly, but couldn’t help but be shocked by how different she looked. The same features, to be sure. Only without the sinister smile and haughty lift of the chin.

  Verbena, before she’d lost everything, including her heart and her sanity.

  She placed some kind of tool, wrapped in a towel, in front of the doctor before bending over Robbie.

  “It’ll be all right,” she said, stroking his head gently. “This will ease the pain some.” She handed him a cup full of some kind of dark liquid that reeked of alcohol.

  He drank it down greedily, his whole body trembling as he laid back against the bed.

  The surgeon opened the threadbare towel, revealing a wicked-looking saw that must’ve been designed specifically for the purpose, and I shuddered.

  “I’m going to strap you down to minimize the damage,” he murmured, his voice low and soothing as he gently fastened the man’s legs and torso to the bed before handing him a thick strip of leather. “Bite on this.”

  The young man muttered a quick prayer, making the sign of the cross over his chest before slipping the leather into his mouth.

  I was incapable of looking away as they finished preparing the patient for his surgery. Verbena took his hand and Robbie squeezed so tight that his knuckles went white as the doctor grabbed a clear, glass bottle from a tray beside him.

  “What’s that?” Robbie demanded, his words garbled around the leather strip.

  “We need to get it as clean as possible. I won’t lie, son. It’s going to burn.”

  Poor Robbie’s eyes began to roll back in his head as panic overtook him.

  “Shhh, shhh, it’s all right,” Verbena whispered. “It will be over before you know it.”

  The doctor didn’t dally, dousing the wound quickly and thoroughly with alcohol. For a second, Robbie stilled, and I wondered if the bottle had been some sort of potion that one of Verbena’s coven-mates might have concocted. But a moment later, Robbie’s agonized moans dissuaded me of that notion as Verbena did her best to soothe him.

  To the doctor’s credit, he didn’t hesitate or draw it out. Instead, he was steady as a rock as he picked up the saw and doused it in alcohol.

  A now-frantic Robbie tried to buck, tossing his head around and yanking Verbena’s hand, but she held him fast.
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  The doctor began to saw, and Robbie began to scream.

  The horror of the scene before me was like a living nightmare, and I tried desperately to retreat, to no avail. Surely he would pass out from the pain soon, the way I’d seen in the movies. But there was no such relief for Robbie as the sawing continued and his screams turned to slobbering pleas.

  Verbena shook her head, her tear-filled gaze pinned on the doctor now. “I can’t do it. I just can’t. I have to help him.”

  “Just you being here is a help. Comfort him as a nurse would. We agreed, Verbena,” the doctor muttered, sweat breaking out on his upper lip as he worked. Lord, the blood. So much blood. “Only in the most extreme cases.”

  “I won’t watch him suffer like this,” she murmured back as she leaned over Robbie and laid one hand over her heart. “What good is it if I can’t use it?”

  She began to whisper, her words inaudible over the echoes of Robbie’s cries. A moment later, his body shuddered and his howls turned to low groans. His grip on her hand loosened as hers grew tighter. Her back arched, every muscle in her neck flexing in sharp relief as she began to writhe.

  She wasn’t easing his pain. She was taking it. Or, the brunt of it, at least.

  “W-what’s happening?” Robbie muttered, his voice thick and hoarse.

  “God must’ve answered your prayer,” the kindly doctor replied. “Now be still. We’ll be done soon.”

  I was still reeling from all that I’d witnessed when the scene shimmered and shifted and the distant clip-clop of horse hooves sounded in my ears. A moment later, a cloth-covered carriage came into view, moving toward me from where I stood on a dusty dirt road. I squinted, trying to make out the identity of the driver as a shout rent the air.

  “Now!”

  Three cloaked figures rushed from the trees, flanking the road as the horses reared back and then tried to run. A dark-haired man brandished the same sturdy scissors I’d seen Verbena using in real life just minutes before, cutting the road in half and blocking any attempt to escape.

  “Be careful. We don’t want them dead yet!” he shouted, an instant before Verbena leapt from the cart, rushing past the frightened horses, toward her attackers. She blasted the one with the scissors first, felling him on the spot as a half-dozen others surrounded her.

  Two other women jumped out of the covered section of the cart to join the fray, sending spurts of magic too weak to do more than stun the ambushers. Despite their number and the fact that several wielded glowing objects, Verbena dropped one after another, defending her weaker coven-members as she fought valiantly.

  “Mary! You and Katherine pull back!” she shouted to one, striking down another man before turning. “I’ll cover your retreat. Get back to the town and--” She broke off and shrieked, “Look out!”

  Her warning came an instant too late. A hulking man leapt out from behind a nearby tree, slamming into the younger witch like a Mac truck. I could hear her ribs cracking as he made impact, as if her scream of pain hadn’t been enough.

  Verbena’s magic surged and the huge man was slammed backward, not even having time to make a sound as his body shattered against a thick oak tree.

  The remaining attackers charged her all at once, but it was futile and her devastating magical attacks filled the road with their bodies. Despite the overwhelming odds, soon enough, only Verbena remained standing.

  The instant it was over, she wheeled around to face Katherine, who knelt over a prone Mary.

  “I don’t think she’s going to make it,” she said, swiping at her tear-streaked face.

  “What do you mean she’s not going to make it. Of course she is. She--” Verbena went silent as she reached her sisters and knelt beside them.

  A thin trickle of blood dripped from one corner of Mary’s mouth as she let out a rattling cough.

  “It’s all right, Bena,” she gasped. “You did so well.”

  “Mary, no! I can take this for you!”

  She reached under her cloak to pull out a necklace—the necklace—and I drew back in surprise as she held it over her heart.

  “Don’t, sister. You have suffered enough,” Mary whispered. But Verbena wouldn’t be dissuaded as she held tight and rocked back and forth over Mary’s chest, murmuring under her breath.

  “Bena,” Katherine said softly. When Verbena didn’t reply, she took her arm and pulled her back. “Stop. She’s gone.”

  The vision blurred and I wondered where I’d be taken to next, when I realized it was only my own tears getting in the way as I watched the sisters embrace and begin to sob.

  But their grieving was cut short as the trees rustled.

  “She’s here!” a male voice howled. “The witch is here!”

  I’d have recognized his howling, as it was fresh in my mind, but as he hobbled into view, the peg leg and cane sealed the deal.

  It was Robbie, the man whose pain Verbena had taken during his amputation. And he had betrayed her.

  “You,” she spat, eyes darkening with a fiery hatred, making her look a lot more like the Verbena I’d come to know. Her amulet seemed to glow, turning a blood red. It rose from her neck on its own accord, pulsing like a beating heart. Her hair whipped around her as she raised a fist and used the sheer force of her rage to snap Robbie the betrayer’s neck like a twig.

  But while she was busy exacting vengeance, a dozen more men surrounded the witches, and within moments, they were overcome.

  I prayed under my breath that I wouldn’t have to see the end of the story. I’d already lived through it once.

  Barely.

  The scene before me faded as my vision flickered and went dark.

  Chapter 23

  A moment later, I was back in the now, standing in the ruined remnants of the abandoned factory. Based on the shell-shocked, tear-stained faces of the others, they had experienced the same devastating visions I had, but the lightning surging toward each of us left little time to process what we’d seen.

  No matter how we’d gotten here, the witch before us now was still our enemy. The Bena of the past was nothing but a memory.

  “You will pay for making me relive that day,” Verbena croaked, eyes filled with madness as she lifted a hand and ripped the amulet from Trudy’s neck, calling it back to her.

  She reached for the necklace as it grew close and then paused, letting it fall to the ground at her feet before looking away in revulsion.

  “No! I vowed never to touch that vile object again. Even in death, I used only my own power to take on the suffering of my sisters. And when those fools called to me in the afterlife with the candlestick, I fought my way back to the land of the living. Once I have all the items in my possession, the entire world will know my pain. Only then will I truly be able to rest in peace.”

  She lifted her hands high and unleashed a barrage of erratic attacks.

  Zoe threw up a shield to block her as Patrick came rushing toward us.

  “Where is she?” I asked, my throat tight with fear. “Where is Lizzie?” I demanded, gasping from exhaustion as the others gathered more closely around me.

  “Already in the van. She’s still groggy, but she’s starting to come to her senses. Now let’s finish this so we can all get out of here together.”

  “She’s crazed with grief at those visions. This is the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen Verbena,” Connie agreed. “It’s now or never.”

  We’d managed to throw her off her game. As the strongest magic user on our side, it was time to turn that advantage into a victory.

  “Shield me!” I called to the others as I bolted toward her, leaving the defense for Zoe and Mee-maw as I readied the last of the magic I had left.

  This had to work, or I’d be defenseless and as good as dead. Worse than that? The others wouldn’t be far behind.

  “Verbena,” Trudy called, her stare defiant, “is this what Mary would want you to do? You disrespect her memory. And what about Katherine?”

  Verbena’s attacks waver
ed and faltered for a brief moment, but then she shook her head. “Sisterhood is weakness. A vulnerability,” she called back, as an enormous stream of flame arced toward the librarian. “A curse.”

  “Would you tell Mary that if she were here right now?” Trudy said. “That she was a curse?”

  Trudy played her part well.

  The words struck Verbena like a hammer and so did I, slamming the entirety of my magic at her, intending to bind her. I’d never used a spell like it before but it seemed intuitive, somehow. She struggled and fought, pushing me back with a wave of power.

  “It’s not… I’m not strong enough,” I called, shaking my head. But the words had barely passed my lips when I began to feel Zoe, Mee-maw, and even Connie add their own strength to the mix, their energy merging and fusing with mine to create shimmering bright blue chains that seemed to battle with Verbena’s dark green energy.

  “You’re no different than that sniveling piece of trash that sold your coven out,” Trudy called, shouting with renewed vigor as she saw us making headway. “Did you ever consider for a moment, how many times you’ve killed someone else’s sister? How many times you’ve put others through the very same agony you suffered?”

  The chains sank in deeper, blasting through Verbena’s green aura and pulling tight around her body. She dropped to her knees, clenching her fists as she did her best to fight back, but the sobs were audible even over the steady hum of our magical struggle.

  “No--” Verbena protested. She was powerful, but she was no match for us as she was now. A twisted, broken version of the witch she’d been, who cared only for herself, versus a coven who knew the true value of sisterhood?

  A total mismatch.

  The chains fastened themselves around her, tying her to the ground, and her magic dissipated into mist. The walls of the building wobbled and shook as the hold she’d had over it released.

  Verbena pushed against the chains, trying to get out, but it was no use. Her magic had been completely sealed, and she wasn’t going to break through the chains our coven had created, with physical strength alone.