A Little Wicked (The Bewitching Hour Book 4)

by Mallory Crowe

  It was another reminder of how powerful Abigail and her minions were now. Sam stayed right where she was and, her jaw tight, she met Abigail’s eyes. “You’re going to bring Derek back?”

  “Would your mother lie to you?”

  She ignored the barb. “That’s not an answer.”

  “I want to get Derek away from Claudia more than you realize,” said Abigail. “I’m on your side.”

  Sam managed to hide her shock. Dante had mentioned that the darkness had plans for Derek, but hearing Abigail say it out loud gave Sam pause. Derek was human. She’d met his perfectly normal mother and perfectly normal father. There was nothing remotely supernatural about him.

  So what could Abigail possibly want with him? Didn’t matter. All of that would be tomorrow’s problem. Today, there was only one thing on her mind. “How do I get him back?”

  “You bring him to me and I’ll call him back.”

  She bit back a curse. “I don’t know where he is! Claudia is keeping him from me.”

  Abigail frowned. “Then we’re too late.” She looked up and the sun shone on her face. “It’s time to end this.” She closed her eyes and bent her head down, making a low-pitched, almost humming sound. Sam looked around them, trying to figure out what the hell she was doing, but there didn’t seem to be any change in the atmosphere.

  But it was becoming apparent that Abigail wasn’t going to do a damn thing for her. She took a step back, and a second later, the doors to the building opened and a stream of people—witches, because everyone Sam recognized came from a magical background—poured onto the street and one by one got into nearby cars. They couldn’t be their own cars, because they were jamming however many people would fit into each car. Abigail was sending her army out for something….

  She turned and ran back to the car. “Go!” she said. “Follow them.” She pointed to the cars taking off. When she turned back, Abigail still stood there, chanting; black ooze came from her eyes and ears. There was a lot of dark magic going into whatever was happening, and that terrified Sam.

  “What happened?”

  “I… I don’t know. She said we were too late. But she didn’t even ask to see Claire. I don’t get it.”

  “Or she found something more important than Claire,” said Dante. “If she’s sending an army out, that means she’s scared. If Claire’s with us, what scared her?”

  “It has to be Claudia,” said Sam. “If we follow them, they’ll lead us there, but it will be hard to help from behind.”

  “Ummm.” Angela took a fast turn to keep on the tail of the sedan they were following. “I might know where they are.”

  Sam frowned as she held onto the handle above the door to keep from careening into Angela. “What? How?”

  “You said Claudia took Derek. With your magic and all, I figure she didn’t turn off his phone, right? So I had one of the department guys track it.”

  “Why the hell didn’t you say that before?” shouted Dante from the back.

  “What difference would it make? If we had his body, we couldn’t bring him back. And Claudia does hate him. I still thought that Sam would keep on being stubborn and nothing would change.”

  “But you still traced the phone,” said Sam, torn between anger and admiration.

  “I cover my bases. Now these guys are speeding, but if I put the lights on, I can get to him faster. I promise.”

  “Where is his phone?” Just because his phone was there didn’t mean Claudia was there too.

  “Some place in Connecticut. Right around the place Abigail woke up the hellhounds.”

  Her house. Claudia was at Abigail’s home. Seemed fair considering Abigail had stolen Claudia’s house.

  “Go,” said Sam. “Go as fast as you can.”

  Sam’s stomach flipped over as Angela skidded to a halt. Except when Angela reached for the door handle, Sam managed to find her voice. “Stay here.”

  Angela looked at Sam as if she’d grown a second head. “There’s an army of witches coming here and you want me to stay in the car? You know how useful I can be.”

  “I do. But Claire is defenseless right now. You need to take her somewhere safe. I’ve already put her in too much danger. Claudia can take care of herself.” She wished she believed that, but all she could see were the waves and waves of people Abigail had sent…. They’d all been heading right in this direction before Angela had passed them all.

  Sam had plenty of time to replay what had happened in her mind. Abigail was sending everything she had to Claudia while not leaving the safety of her tower. She was going to try to kill Claudia while not putting herself in danger at all. Because she didn’t care about her minions. They weren’t real people to her. They were all expendable.

  Claudia was strong, but Sam knew there had been well over a hundred witches at the party Abigail had taken over. That had been days ago. Who knew how many people she could’ve gotten to between then and now?

  “Keep Claire safe. I’ll take care of this.”

  “You’re not thinking straight,” said Angela.

  “You’re right. I haven’t been thinking straight this entire time. But you, Dante, Claire… I’m not having anyone else get hurt because I can’t fucking think.”

  “But you’re allowed to get hurt.”

  “This is my family. My mess. Get out of here, Angela. I appreciate everything you’ve done, but your job is over.” Sam didn’t wait for a response or look back as she stepped out of the car and slammed the door. A few seconds later, she heard the tires screech as Angela pulled away and let out a little sigh. It wasn’t relief or resignation. It was something in between.

  She knew an army of evil witches were headed to her right now and would be there in just minutes, but it was hard to be afraid. If she somehow pulled a plan out of her ass and fought them off, then she’d live to fight another day. If they won, she’d be reunited with Derek. Strangely enough, death felt like it would be more of a victory at the moment.

  She kept those thoughts from her mind as she turned the knob on the heavy wooden door and stepped inside her mother’s home.

  It was eerily quiet as she stepped inside. There were no footsteps or voices. She hadn’t seen Garrett since Abigail had infected him. Was he on his way to kill Claudia? Maybe he’d gotten away. Maybe he was dead already….

  “Hello!” called Sam as she stepped deeper inside. She heard someone running on marble and all of a sudden Bastian came into view. She’d never seen him run before, and that was a bad sign during an already bad day.

  “You shouldn’t be here.” He gave her a disapproving look.

  She was too tired to be offended. “There’s an army of witches sent by Abigail to kill us all on their way. You shouldn’t be here either.”

  He stared at her for a moment before he turned and strode away, his angry footfalls echoing through the empty house. Sam followed him up the stairs and down the hall leading to the east wing, but when he reached one of the doors, he went in and slammed it in her face.

  Sam rolled her eyes but didn’t try to get into the room. If they wanted to be all secretive even when they were all about to die, let them. She went across the hall to another bedroom and looked out the window. Lights approaching signaled that they were out of time. Abigail’s army had arrived.

  She tightened her lips and took a deep breath. Her heart didn’t speed up. Her hair didn’t stand on end. She was supposed to have Derek back by now. She’d done everything she could think of and it wasn’t enough.

  Let the army come. Let them take her. She wouldn’t fight.

  She pushed away from the window and resolved herself to tell her grandmother that it was over. She was done. But when the door to the bedroom she was hiding out in opened, she didn’t see the Claudia she knew.

  “Grandma,” she breathed as she saw the great and powerful Claudia leaning on Bastian for support as he led her into the room, kicking the door shut with his foot. Sam ran to her side and put her shoulder under her gran
dmother’s other arm, giving another point of support. “What happened?”

  “Go,” said Bastian, notably not answering the question. “I’ll hold them off.”

  “Hold them off?” Her annoyance finally sparked something inside her and rage bubbled up. “It’s an army. When I say that, I’m not exaggerating. I saw dozens of witches, all hooked on dark magic, coming here. And who knows how many I didn’t see? Now I don’t know what the hell you are, but you can’t take them out all on your own.”

  “I don’t need to take them out,” said Bastian between clenched teeth. “I need to distract them. Now go!” Bastian pushed Claudia and her away in one quick motion.

  Claudia, who seemed barely conscious, let out a moan of pain. “Don’t leave,” she managed to get out.

  A look of frustration combined with agony crossed Bastian’s face. “No. Don’t make me stay here.”

  “It’s an order,” she said, even through clenched teeth managing to sound authoritative. “You’re needed here.”

  “I’m not going to leave you!” screamed Bastian, and suddenly Sam felt as if she’d intruded on something much too personal.

  “Thank you,” said Claudia, more softly.

  Just then a loud pounding started, as if the witches were physically banging on the door. But soon enough the pounding was replaced with the sounds of exploding wood. These weren’t mindless zombies. The witches had found a way inside.

  Bastian looked as though he wanted to say more, but instead he just bent in and kissed Claudia. Sam’s eyes widened and she leaned away from the utterly mismatched couple. Claudia had to be at least three times older than him, but Sam knew better than most that witches’ ages were tricky. If they had a thing, that was between them. Though, at the moment, she was literally in the middle.

  The second they pulled apart, Sam started to pull Claudia down the hall. She didn’t want to stop true love or anything, but she could hear steps on the stairs and knew they didn’t have much time.

  She’d like to get out and to a car, but that time had passed. Right now, she had to worry about getting to a place to hide. There was only one room that came to mind. She half encouraged, half dragged Claudia toward the little research room, but when she turned down the hall to the east wing, a group of six witches was walking right toward them. Sam let out a curse before she sent a wave of energy down the hall, enough to send all the witches flying into the far wall behind them and crumpling into a dazed heap.

  It probably wouldn’t kill them, but it would give her the time she needed to get to Abigail’s library. She entered in the key code and sent up a silent thanks to the heavens when it opened.

  She was just starting to help Claudia in when she heard more footsteps behind her. Sam managed to pull Claudia out of the way as another witch send a fireball right where her grandmother had just been standing.

  Hiding wouldn’t do them any good if the house burned down around them. With a wave of her hand, Sam sent the grandfather clock against the wall careening toward the new witch, but right behind her, Sam saw a bunch more coming. More than she could count. The house was utterly overrun.

  She pulled Claudia inside and slammed the door shut right as she heard bodies slamming against the steel protection. She fell back a few steps and stared at the sound. The steel wouldn’t hold them forever. There were high-powered spells protecting this room. It would hold up against a dozen—maybe two—witches working together.

  Not a horde.

  “Any ideas?” she asked.

  Claudia fell into the room, leaning heavily against the bookshelves as she went farther from the door. “I can’t take us away. I’m too weak.”

  Sam had a sinking feeling she was going to say that but still hoped Claudia could find something else in her bag of tricks.

  But once again, her grandmother was letting her down when she needed her the most.

  “You took him.”

  Claudia was quiet, but Sam couldn’t help turning all of her accusing glare to her grandmother. Even though they’d almost died, it was only now that the full extent of her anger came out. “You took his body from me.”

  “Samantha—”

  “No!” she screamed. “You’re supposed to love me and watch out for me and when I needed you the most, you stole him! Why? Did you want to celebrate his death? Did you want to make sure there was no chance I could bring him back? Tell me why.”

  “I….” Claudia’s breath came in deep gasps. “I tried to be the grandmother you deserve. I tried to do things better, but….” She took in deep breaths of air. The bangs on the door increased and vibrated against the entire room, the protection spells working their hardest to keep the oppressive force out. “I can’t be the good guy and beat the darkness. I just can’t.”

  It felt as though Claudia were asking for some sort of forgiveness, but Sam didn’t have any absolution to give her right now. And she never answered her question. “Why. Derek.” The bang on the door was hard enough that one of the ancient spell books tumbled off the bookshelf, but Sam knew that wasn’t why she was shaking.

  Claudia shook her head and turned to face the shelves, not answering Sam’s simple fucking question. Sam was torn between just sitting back and waiting for the army to get in or yelling at Claudia more. But her grandmother seemed so… defeated. Sam just shook her head and leaned back against the nearest bookshelf. She’d have to die never knowing the truth. Just like Claudia probably wanted.

  Except when Claudia turned around holding the ancient-looking dagger in her hand, Sam pushed back up. “What the hell are you doing?” she asked as she came around.

  “They’re not going to stop.” She aimed the tip of the dagger at her heart.

  What the— “Claudia!” screamed Sam as she bolted across the room and pulled the knife from her grandmother’s hands. “You’re not going to do this!”

  “I know.” Claudia leaned forward and tried to take the knife back, but Sam wasn’t letting it go so easily. “You’re going to.”

  Sam’s stomach flipped over at the words. She started to step away when Claudia fisted her fingers in Sam’s shirt and held her close with surprising strength. “They’re going to kill me and the darkness is going to take over. I’ve already laid the groundwork for you to win, Sam. You’re never going to forgive me for what I’ve done, but I did what I needed for you to beat this. But if I’m not going to be here to fight the war, I need you to take my power and finish this.” She started to cough and fell toward Sam. Whatever magic she’d been working when Sam had come over, it had taken everything from her.

  “Grandma, I can’t—”

  Claudia wrapped the fingers of her free hand around Sam’s wrist and brought the dagger up to her chest. “I’m not going to survive them,” she warned. “And you will die defending me, no matter how angry you are. I can see how much more powerful you are now, but it’s not enough. This way, you will survive. And that will be one good thing I’ve done.”

  Sam shook her head, trying to reconcile the rage she still felt for her grandmother and the nonsense she was spewing. “You’ve done hundreds of good things. You were one of the best leaders we ever had.”

  “And in a few minutes I’m going to be dead.” She didn’t sound angry or bitter. Just as though she was stating a fact. “You’re strong, Samantha. I’ve always sensed it. Stronger than your mother. Stronger than your sister. You’re finally taking control of your power. But if you want to survive the darkness, you need more.”

  While Sam was trying to make sense of what she was saying, Claudia pushed forward with the dagger and Sam could feel the pressure give as it broke the skin. “Wait! There has to be some way….”

  “No. I’m not waiting any longer. I’ve given you everything you need. Now you need to put the pieces together. This is my last gift to you. Your last gift to me.” And then Claudia used strength Sam didn’t realize she was still capable of, and the dagger slid through the ribs, right into her grandmother’s heart.

  Sam s
tood there in stunned silence as Claudia went limp in her arms and then fell to the ground. Sam was still frozen in shock when the door flung open and the horde started to stream inside. Was she supposed to fight? She didn’t even know whether she could remember how to breathe. How was she supposed to defend herself?

  But that turned out to be a moot point because the mob stopped short when they saw Claudia’s dead body. One by one, after each had visual confirmation, they turned and walked away, like zombies suddenly denied brains.

  Sam belatedly realized her hand was still on the knife and she dropped it as though it had burned her. She pushed away from Claudia but couldn’t take her eyes off her. Her grandmother, the strong, dignified woman, looked powerful even in death. Her eyes were open, as though staring determinedly off into the distance.

  Suddenly Sam was overcome by the need to get out of this small, claustrophobic room, but the door was surrounded by the horde. Sam didn’t care anymore. She pushed herself up and ran for the door, physically pushing people aside as she tried to get past the witches. She hit one and suddenly she felt Derek at her side. No, it wasn’t Derek. But it was as if he were right there, holding her. She closed her eyes and she was back in the pitch-black urban garden and Derek was taking her weight as he led her back to the car.

  She blinked and stumbled into another witch. This one, even in his trance, was angrier, and he grabbed her throat and slammed her into the wall. When she opened her eyes, it wasn’t the nameless witch holding her. It was Derek, in the strobing lights of the solstice party, his fingers wrapped around her throat as she broke through the full moon potion to get to him.

  Except when the fingers tightened on her throat, it became very apparent that this wasn’t Derek holding her. She opened her eyes and stared at the man who squeezed her throat. He looked familiar but she couldn’t place him. There was no time anyway. She put her hand on his chest and called her power to knock him away, but before she had a chance, something solid slammed into the witch.

  Sam just stood there and stared for a moment as the two men rolled together on the floor. She had to be imagining things. Because right now, it looked as though Derek was about to kill the witch.