Calm, collected, together, always the leader—at this moment, I’m not sure if I like the way Sapphire Belladonna takes charge of every situation.
Once Mom is safe and this awful night is over, things are going to change. I’m not going to be a doormat for anyone anymore.
“You know well why, Sapphire Belladonna. Don’t play games with me.” The man crosses his muscular arms.
“I don’t play games with your kind, Starlight.”
He grins and moves closer to her. “There was a time when you thought differently.”
I furrow my brow. Even confusion crosses Silver Tiger’s features for a second before returning to her disinterested gaze.
“That was a long time ago, and before I knew what you truly wanted.”
Starlight laughs heartily. “We all want the same thing. That’s why we’ve been fighting for so long.” His smile disappears, and his face grows serious. “You know where to find us. Come within the hour, or else sacrifices will commence.”
Starlight and Moonshine clasp hands. With their free hands, they throw something to the ground. A large cloud of smoke appears. Once it dissipates, the witches and I are alone.
“Where are they?” I demand.
“To the south there is an old cemetery,” Sapphire Belladonna says.
“The site of the first battle between witches and shamans,” Amethyst Wolf explains.
Lovely.
“Sacrifices?” I ask, my voice cracking. Please let that be a ruse.
“Witches use a different means to tap into their magic than shamans do,” Sapphire Belladonna says. “Witches use chants and the connection between themselves and magic. Although shamans are obsessed with their bodies, minds, and souls, they use their magic through outside means. The more powerful the spell a shaman wishes to use, the stronger the object they must use.”
“Let me guess… the strongest element is blood.” My mind churns. Since they don’t know Patricia is my mom, they won’t know who my friends are, but that doesn’t mean I want innocents to be killed because of me.
Silver Tiger nods.
“Is Mom really still alive? Are you and she really blood sisters? What does that mean?” I ask her.
“Before I realized I truly was a witch, I dabbled with magic, not knowing what I was doing. We pledged to be lifelong friends, and we sealed that vow with blood. We are indeed blood sisters. Yes, she is alive.”
“For now” is unspoken, but I read it in the haunting look in her eyes.
I rub my forehead. This night is proving to be nothing more than a series of traps. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Amethyst Wolf tilts her head. Three long, loud howls echo in the room. She clears her throat and faces me. “We wait for the rest of my coven.”
We need all the help we can get. I pace the room, unable to relieve some of my anxious energy. “Then what?”
“Then we go to the cemetery,” Silver Tiger says. “You still want to save your mom, I would imagine.”
“Of course!”
“It is a setup, Crystal,” Sapphire Belladonna warns, “but we are not young witches. We know much about the ways of magic. We will not fail you.”
I want to believe her. After all, if it wasn’t for her and Silver Tiger and Scarlet Blood, I never would have been born. To bring about the birth of magic could not have been an easy feat.
But now my blood is ice within my veins. What if I had been wrong in my assumption that the forest had been the location of my death? What if it turns out to be the cemetery instead?
Does it matter?
No. Mom is in danger because of me. I’ll do anything to save her, even if it means reigniting the war between shamans and witches, even if it means I might die. Patricia is my mom. I’d never turn my back on her.
“Is there anything I can do to prepare myself?” I ask. After all the earlier events of the night, my body is nearly taxed to the limit.
Sapphire Belladonna holds my hands within her own. “Just breathe and relax,” she murmurs.
Strange warmth radiates from the witch’s hands and travels up my arms, through my chest, to my heart. Foreign magic washes over me, and I gasp, shocked at how different and yet similar it feels to my own power.
Sapphire Belladonna steps back and breaks our connection. “How do you feel now?”
“Better. As if I’ve slept for an entire week. How did… what did you do to me?”
“I recharged you. It’s more important for you to be at your full potential than I.” The faintest of lines have appeared around Sapphire Belladonna’s eyes and mouth. Recharging aged her physically.
“Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it.”
Amethyst Wolf has been standing by the open window, her head outside. She ducks back within the cottage. “They’ll be here in a minute.”
“Tell them to hurry,” I plead.
“They’ll be here in a minute,” Amethyst Wolf says coolly.
Just as she said, a minute later, two more witches enter the cottage. Amethyst Wolf points to the one on the right. “Amber Lynx. And Azure Rose. Girls, this is Sapphire Belladonna, Silver Tiger, and Crystal.”
I hold out my hand to the newcomers. Azure Rose ignores it, but Amber Lynx pumps it enthusiastically. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” she says in a bubbly voice. She looks to be about my age. Although the other witches also appear young, Amber Lynx actually is.
“Thanks.”
Amethyst Wolf quickly updates her coven.
“Should we not ask for others to come to?” Azure Rose’s voice is brash and harsh.
She should have been named Azure Thorn.
“It’s possible some of our sisters and brothers are already alerted to their presence and have moved on their own,” Sapphire Belladonna says.
“We don’t have another moment to waste,” I break in.
Azure Rose ignores me. “How many shamans are there?”
“Nine,” Silver Tiger supplies.
I hadn’t bothered to count how many shamans had entered the cottage in the memory spell thingy. Nine versus six. Not the best of odds, but I’m not about to sit here any longer. My body hums with energy.
“Let’s go,” I demand. If they aren’t willing to leave now, I’ll leave without them.
Chapter 39
NO ONE ARGUES further, much to my relief. The “A” crew flies first, with Sapphire Belladonna beside me and Silver Tiger bringing up the rear.
We pass above the sleeping town of Mount Claymore. I spy Vince’s house and try to tell if he’s still sleeping, but our mental connection is no longer there. Bitterness squeezes my heart. We’ve been through so much, and I alone know of the pain we overcame, the complete closeness we shared. One day, I will tell him everything. One day, I will say I love you to him, and he won’t interrupt me, and he’d say it back.
I hardly traveled beyond the walls of my small town. While I’ve been on several vacations over the years and gone to California to visit my cousin many times, I’ve never seen before the land we fly over now.
Like a flock of birds, we maintain our formation. Stars wink at me, their beauty promising everything will be all right.
I bump into Amber Lynx’s legs. “I’m sorry.”
As one, the three “A’s” stop and change position from flying prone to standing upright, hovering hundreds, if not thousands, of feet above the ground.
Azure Rose glowers at me. “We haven’t far to go. Stay silent.”
Pain stings against my mouth. Did the witch magically slap me? She makes Silver Tiger look like a day-old puppy.
I open my mouth to say, “You better watch it,” but refrain. Mom and I need her help.
As we resume flying, I realize Silver Tiger is quickly becoming one of the nicest witches I know. Not many magical beings are polite.
What does that make me?
On the crest of a large rolling hill, large tombstone stick out of the ground like giant stone thumbs. We land in the t
hick forest that ends before the hill.
I shudder. Another forest.
The witch sisters look at each other. Sapphire Belladonna nods and walks first. Not caring if I’m supposed to wait, I follow her and don’t bother to look behind to see the rest of the order.
We march in single file up the hill. I watch my feet so I don’t stumble over the gravestones, while Sapphire Belladonna just glides along as if there aren’t any obstacles in her path.
Wish I knew that trick. I’m not exactly clumsy, but I’m not graceful either.
The air hangs heavy around us, as if it passed on like those buried here. Long gone is the sense of peace I felt when I discovered my birth parents’ graves. Anxious energy surges within me, and my magic simmers, ready for another battle, this one in the real world where life and death is no guarantee.
Sapphire Belladonna reaches the crest of the hill and stops. I halt beside her. The rest of the witches fan out.
From behind tombstones, the shamans rise, like ghosts in the night. First Starlight, then Moonshine, and the rest.
I step forward, wanting to demand my mom’s release, but something makes me look back at Sapphire Belladonna. Although the witch stares at the shamans, she shakes her head.
Fine, I’ll do it her way… for now. I nod but neglect to move back beside her.
Neither side says or does anything, and my gaze falls to their feet. Bodies lie there, motionless, some under blankets.
They’re not dead. They’re not dead. They’re not dead… My short hair dances in a breeze, a breeze I’m creating. I’m starting to lose control. Already. Not good. Not good at all.
Starlight’s attention shifts over to me. So do the rest of the shamans. “I knew you were more than you seemed.” He turns back to Sapphire Belladonna. “A young girl? Really? You hid magic within a human girl?”
The utter shock and disbelief in his tone makes me want to giggle, and my anxiety melts away. The shamans do not understand what exactly I am. Somehow, I’ll use that to my advantage.
“I don’t care about your war.” I step over a grave and then another until I’m alone in the no man’s land between the two sides. “All I want is Patricia Miller back.”
Moonshine snorts. “What’s so special about her? She your mom or something?”
“Or something.” I smirk. Patricia’s so much more than just my mom.
“You’re young, too young.” Starlight doesn’t move closer, but the distance between us decreases. “What lies have they told you about us?”
“I can make up my own mind, and I’m neutral.” Even if Silver Tiger’s right and I’ll have to spend my life running, I’m not about to allow myself and my mom be dragged into some magical war.
One of the other shamans laughs. “Naïve girl. One day you’ll have to make a choice. There is no middle ground.”
“Just give me Patricia Miller, and we’ll go.” I glance behind me. Instead of five witches, there are eight. Another coven has joined the fight.
I gulp and struggle to remain calm. This is hardly the place for a fight, and there are so few shamans and witches. This can’t be the locale for the final battle, right?
The sun slowly climbs. Dawn’s approaching. Instead of being relieved at seeing the golden face, I’m even more worried. I can see the bodies at the shaman’s feet more clearly now, and they’re all people I know—friends and Mrs. Pullman. The shamans know more about me than they let on.
Fury and anger crash into me like a tidal wave, and I can’t hold back anymore. The mental dam within me shatters, and I hold out my arms as I transform into my true form.
“Give me Patricia and the rest of the humans,” I say in that voice that isn’t quite my own. “Or face my wraith.”
The shaman who laughed at me releases a low growl. He yanks the covering from his victim and flings it around his shoulders. It’s not a blanket after all—it’s a wolf skin. His nose twitches, and his entire body trembles violently. The sound of muscles growing and tendons snapping, bones breaking and skin stretching, echo despite our being out in the open. I can’t imagine that’s not a painful process, but his still human lips are stretched into an eerie smile. Not thirty seconds later, the shaman is no longer in human form. He’s a wolf.
The shapeshifting shaman lunges forward, jumps onto a large tombstone, and leaps into the air. His mouth hangs open, and saliva drips down his chin.
Unafraid, I float several inches above the ground and wait until he’s close enough that I can smell his breath—metallic and a mixture of spices—before I twist to the side. The wolf collides with a tombstone, a loud cracking sound rending the air, and he whimpers and whines.
By now, several other shamans have taken on animal form. One’s a rhinoceros, another a strange bear-dog hybrid creature. Fireballs whizz through the air, and lightning bolts sizzle as they connect with more gravestones than the shamans the witches are aiming for.
The fight escalates. As much as I want to remain free of the fray, the wolf stalks me. He leaps at me again, and this time, his teeth connect with my glowing leg-like limb.
I zoom up several miles before I bother to shake him loose. He plummets to the ground, howling all the while until he smashes against a tombstone. The wolf vanishes, replaced with the shaman, now dead.
My insides churn, and I make the sign of the cross. I killed him. He continually attacked me, would have slaughtered me without blinking a yellow eye. Had he known better? Or had life been cruel to him, and he didn’t know the way?
I lower myself to hover above the ground. The air around me pounds and shakes. The rhinoceros is bearing down toward me. The massive creature destroys the tombstones in its path, its head lowered, its horn glittering and glowering, reflecting the firelight and lightning bolts.
Nimbly, I jump onto its back and touch either side of its head. She came from a long and proud history of shamans. Most stayed away from the war, but she joined after a witch hunted down and murdered the rest of her family.
So much anger. So much despair. So much grief. Her emotions cripple her. Through our connection, I force the shaman to think of happier times, when she played with her younger brother and taught him how to rain dance, when she learned how to crack a rock to make water flow. The rhinoceros slows and eventually stands still.
It’s amazing how unafraid I am despite the chaos and destruction all around me. A lightning bolt lands on the gravestone to my right. The air crackles with electricity and hums with magic. I’m in my element here, and—for now at least—I’m in complete control.
I climb down and pat the rhino’s face, trying to let her know I mean no harm. “Be free,” I whisper.
Doubt and confusion swim in the creature’s eyes. The dark orbs change into human eyes then become animalistic again. The rhino lowers its head and brings it up swiftly. I don’t have time to react. The horn pierces me, goring me.
Chapter 40
I HOLD ONTO the animal’s head as she races through the graveyard once more, the horn lodged deep into my midsection. With every booming, earth-shaking fall of her massive feet, I grow weaker, but I don’t feel pain. I know the lethal wound won’t kill me. No blood, not even a trickle leaks out around the horn, only radiant light.
Although it requires a great deal of effort, I force myself to fly and unimpale myself. Some of my trickling light falls into her mouth. The rhino transforms back into the female shaman Moonshine.
Light covers the lower half of her face and neck. She touches it, and her hand starts to glow. Moonshine brings her hand to her heart and collapses.
Footsteps sound behind me, and someone runs by. Starlight. He rolls Moonshine over. The light disappears, winking out of existence. Moonshine is dead.
Did my magic overload the shaman?
Starlight whirls around, his expression one of shock. “You killed her.”
“Let me guess, I’m an abomination,” I say dryly. Her death doesn’t bother me as much as the wolf’s. His was intentional. I honestly tried
to help Moonshine, to get her to, well, see the light, that revenge wasn’t all she had to live for.
“No.” There are so many conflicting emotions in his eyes—hatred, wonder, fear, and, surprisingly, respect.
Wonderful. Just what I don’t want. For the shamans to realize my true power.
“You saved her. Sent her to the next plane.”
I shake my head. “No, I…”
Wonder shines predominately in his eyes, but there’s something else too. Grief. He loves Moonshine.
The air crackles around me, and I zoom into the air. The lightning bolt pierces Starlight through his chest. He flies backward into a grave, and his body crumples. The scent of burnt flesh sears my nose.
From up high, I watch the fight. Although many on both sides have fallen, countless more have joined the fight. The final battle has indeed begun.
Magic fills the air. My energy and power expand within me as the magical people below expend theirs.
If I’m not careful, I will kill many more people before the sun rises.
I have to stop the battle. I’m on a timeline. For what? For who?
Vince.
My magic surges, and I have to stop thinking about my boyfriend. The stronger the emotion I feel, the less control I have with my power.
Like a mystical bird, I swoop down, scoop up Mrs. Pullman, drop her off in the forest, and untie her bindings. Mrs. Pullman doesn’t stir. As if knowledge just comes to me, I know what to do. I touch Mrs. Pullman in the center of her forehead. “You will remember nothing except that you went for a long morning stroll. You will return to the bakery and go about your business as normal.”
Mrs. Pullman opens her eyes. “I need to return to the bakery,” she says to herself, and she walks away.
It will take her a good two hours to return to Claymore, I figure, leaving her more than enough time to gather the goodies and bring them over to the fire hall before the memorial service starts.
Sudden heat explodes into my back, and I wince. An uncontrolled fireball must have hit me. I swallow up the heat, and the pain disappears. The consumed magic feels alien and strange, so I use it to close the gaping wound from the rhino’s horn. No more light spills out, although I still glow brighter than any star.
Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More Page 490