Hunted Witch Agency Box Set Books 1-3 (Hunted Witch Agency Set)

by Rachel Medhurst

  My heartbeat slowed as he lowered his head, his forehead resting against mine. I put my arms around his neck, holding him loosely as we inhaled each other’s breath.

  “A week.”

  My eyes closed, fresh tears coming to the surface. I had no idea I’d been gone so long. What had they done to me?

  “And, Kingsley was found quickly?”

  He nodded which made our noses touch. “Yes, I came looking for you when you didn’t come to work. Justina wanted us to speak to Lucia. She knew you’d have more influence because of what you did to save her familiar.”

  Gasping, I giggled slightly when he chuckled. “Yes, she found out. It’s okay, the cat is still where you left her.”

  “She is?”

  “Well, no, she’s with Lilia.”

  I had forgotten to mention that Lucia’s mother had refused to take the cat. In a crazy moment of weakness, and maybe a little tiredness, I’d taken her home for the night. Just so I could get some sleep. She’d instantly hit it off with Kingsley, sticking her nose through the cage and giving him a little lick. He’d squeaked in delight, which made me happy.

  Ever since, they’d been inseparable. And, once Lucia’s extra magic had drained from the cat, I’d decided to keep her. For now.

  “Lilia’s been calling her Snowball.”

  “What?” My ordeal was forgotten as I cringed at the ridiculous name Lilia had given my new pet.

  If Lucia found out I had kept her cat, would she have me killed? It wasn’t like she could do much from inside prison.

  “Devon. I missed you this week. I… didn’t know how much I’d got used to having you by my side.”

  My thoughts were brought back to the present. Gerard’s arms were around me, his fingers digging into my waist. My eyes were still extremely sore, but being held so cautiously, so lovingly… I felt nothing but him.

  “I thought about you all the time, too.” I couldn’t say anymore.

  Confessions of feelings or anything like it were not high on my agenda. I needed food. And, water. And, Kingsley. I needed a proper bed.

  Tucking my head into his chest, I hugged him tightly. I didn’t want to speak. In fact, my throat was drier than it had ever been, but I didn’t want to move. I would savour this moment between us before reality came crashing down, and I was dragged into the pits of tormented hell. I could feel it pulling at the edges of my sanity. I would resist. For as long as possible.

  The van came to a stop, the doors opening only moments after. I shut my eyes as the light attacked my retinas again.

  “Take her to the infirmary.” Kurt’s voice was serious. He was back to his agent self.

  I kept my eyes closed as Gerard carried me inside. Whispers came from different parts of the agency as he moved us through the building and to the healing room.

  “No one else is here,” Gerard said as he laid me on a bed. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Opening my eyes, I seized his hand before he could move away. The pain was forgotten as his face came into clear view. No blurriness. No shadows. Just him.

  “Thank you.”

  He bent over and kissed my cheek before he frowned. “You’re thirsty.”

  Retrieving a glass from the side, he lowered it to my lips, helping me to drink. When I’d finished, he put it back. Instead of moving away, like I thought he would, he reached down and traced a finger over my cracked lips. “You’ll never suffer like this again. I swear on my life.”

  “Gerard,” I said, my skin heating for the wrong reasons. “Don’t add this to your list of regrets.”

  He jerked back as if I’d slapped him across the face. My words might have been harsh, but I wouldn’t allow him to torment himself over me. Not in a negative way. He could torment himself with sexy thoughts of me any day of the week. But… this wasn’t his fault.

  “I need time.” What had happened to me wouldn’t just vanish.

  Nodding, he retreated when Kurt came into the room. The man wore a doctor’s coat over his fighting gear. Really? He fancied himself a doctor?

  “Right, Devon, I’m going to check you over. When you’re feeling up to it, you’ll have a session with our therapist.”

  Gerard was gone when I glanced to see where he was. I had hurt his feelings, I could tell. Maybe now wasn’t the time to be thinking about romance.

  “I didn’t know there was a therapist here. I want to see Kingsley.” I tried to sit up, but Kurt pushed me back onto the bed.

  My body was weak. And, yet, I was ready to get on with my life. I would not let that woman ruin me.

  “You have a queue of people waiting outside to see you. Once I’ve checked you over, I’ll let them in.”

  Kurt took my vitals as I waited impatiently. I didn’t care about my parents, or anyone else, I just needed to feel the comfort of my best friend.

  “You need some food. It will have to be a light soup to start. You could do with some fattening up, so I’ll make sure you get high fat foods in the next few days.” Kurt put most of his tools away.

  Taking out a salve pot, he opened it, screwing his nose up as he put his fingers in and scooped some out.

  “Ew, that stinks. Please don’t put it on me!”

  He completely tuned me out as he spread the smelly stuff on the sores around my ankles and wrists. My eyes filled with tears as I sucked in a breath.

  “Devon.” He came and sat next to me, cleaning his hand on a cloth. “You might feel okay now. The relief of being out of that place will tide you over for a little while, but it won’t last.”

  “I’m…” I was about to disagree. “…going to be messed up, aren’t I?”

  The small incline of his head made me sigh as I let my head fall back against the pillow. The ceiling was white, just like the one at the hospital. Squeezing my eyes shut, I tried to think of better things. Tried to get the image of myself as a child out of my head.

  “When I came away from the fighting in our coven, I suffered with PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder often stays with us for the rest of our lives. It starts out as Post Traumatic Stress and develops into a disorder if it’s left untreated. I don’t want that for you, Devon. I… I can help you.”

  It wasn’t like Kurt to beat around the bush. He was always to the point. Which meant his point wasn’t something that could be taken lightly. Or even seriously. It was way worse.

  “How did you cope? What made you suffer with it in the first place?”

  Speaking to someone who had suffered with what I was about to go through made me feel better. If I knew that he could get through it, it meant that I could, too.

  Kurt crossed his leg at the knee, resting his hands on his thighs. “The day the fighting broke out, I had been experimenting on magical beasts. A few of the other witches had wanted their familiars to stand out from the rest. Call it an ego thing. They’d seen how powerful my horse was, so they’d asked me to help them with theirs.”

  He’d had a horse familiar? That was insane. Witches rarely had familiars bigger than themselves, it just wasn’t the way we worked.

  “The leaders of our coven were one of each race. So, a vampire and a witch. That day, I cast a powerful fighting spell on the witch coven leader’s fox. Little did I know, the vampire leader would play a trick on the fox, just to wind the witch up. There’d been tension between them for a while. Especially since I’d been practicing such powerful magic.”

  Staring at him was hurting my eyes, so I closed them as I listened. “Please, go on,” I said, just to make sure that he knew I wasn’t sleeping.

  The sigh that came from him was audible. “When the vampire attempted to trap the fox in a barn, the fox attacked, almost killing the vampire. I hadn’t meant to give him such power. Of course, it drove a huge wedge in the coven. The vampires believed that we were trying to get rid of them by turning our familiars into beasts who would attack.”

  “Oh wow. That’s a bit of a broad accusation,” I muttered, my whole attention on my boss.

 
; “Exactly. However, the vampires were easily led. They gathered in a mob and started to attack.”

  Shaking my head against the soft pillow, I cringed. “Were you hurt?”

  “They didn’t attack us, Devon. They drank the blood of every single familiar in the encampment. And, they made us watch. My horse… he was last. They made a show of it, as you can imagine. To try and force us into co-existing.”

  My eyes shot open, tears instantly popping into them. No. How could they kill all those animals? The lump in my throat expanded as I saw the tears that were coating Kurt’s brown eyes. No wonder he suffered from PTSD. I wouldn’t survive without Kingsley, let alone watching tons of vampires feed off him.

  “I need to see Kingsley,” I whispered, wanting to comfort him, but needing my own intended familiar.

  Taking a deep breath, Kurt blinked. “In a moment. Devon, that was when I ran away. The witches wouldn’t back down like the vampires wanted. In fact, the vampires tried to turn them against me because I was the one who had given the familiars more power.”

  “That’s when you ran away to protect them all.”

  He gazed off into the distance, obviously remembering that time. “I lost it in those next few months. I couldn’t function without Artimas, my horse. Seeing the way he was slaughtered, it changed me. Other species don’t understand the bond between familiar and witch. They think we’re using animals, but as you know, they’re our family. They’re almost our own blood.”

  If he kept on, I would be weeping again. No wonder he sank into the pits of darkness. I would too.

  “I eventually tried to move on, but I couldn’t. In the end, I did the only thing I could.”

  “What?” My attention was riveted now.

  I hadn’t been through the same as Kurt, but I knew in the days to come, my mind would be unsettled. I had been tied up and forced to watch something continuously for days. No food. No water. And yes, my bodily functions had still gone on as normal. Which was why I was so grateful that someone had cleaned me up when I hadn’t even been aware of anyone in the room. I would have to ask Justina who had done that.

  “I cleaned the memory away. Completely got rid of it.”

  My mouth hung open as he glanced at me. His face was devoid of emotion now. Wait. If he’d done that, how…?

  “I wrote everything down in a journal, so I wouldn’t forget why the coven had split up, but the actual image of my horse, that’s gone. I don’t even remember what he looked like.”

  My stomach flipped as my chest compressed. He’d erased his memory of one of the most beloved things in his life? Wow, that was extreme.

  “If you’re suffering, Devon, I will help you. What you’ve just been through? That’s not something you need to remember.”

  Leaning across, he took my hand and just held it for a moment. I watched him, unable to speak, unable to express the pain that resounded through me. He had loved that horse so much, he couldn’t bear to know what had happened to him.

  “I’ll go and get Lilia to bring Kingsley in.”

  Smiling my thanks, I tried to sit up further as he left. My world had fallen apart in a way I had never imagined, and yet, as the reluctant, yet worried, faces of my parents and Lilia stormed through the doors, I knew that I would get through it.

  “Kingsley,” I breathed, the tears coming, yet again, when Lilia placed him in my hand.

  I instantly brought him to my face. He kissed me, his little nose poking my cheek. The squeaks were louder and more frequent than I’d ever heard. My little pal was safe. And, so was I.

  Chapter Five

  “Is this my therapy session?” I asked Justina as I followed her past the supernatural prison guard.

  Shrugging, Justina glanced over her shoulder and grinned. “You insisted on getting back to work. I decided to let you. As long as you’re my partner for now.”

  Gerard had protested when Justina had instructed that I work with her for the time being. I’d been having nightmares for the week since I’d been home. They hadn’t allowed me to go back to my apartment. In fact, I’d had the plushest room at the agency, right next to my parent’s room.

  “When we spoke yesterday, you said that we would be starting therapy soon.”

  My whining was allowed. I’d sat around playing with Kingsley, talking to my parents, and eating for the past week. I was bored.

  “Every time I’ve spoken to you, it’s been therapy. What’s bothering you?”

  We came to a stop outside the interrogation room. Lucia was inside. I’d hoped that coming back into the field would help me feel safe.

  My hands were shaking as I waited for Justina to let us in. She didn’t. Instead, she watched me, waiting for my answer.

  “It’s these dreams, I can’t shake them. The bit about the tree is playing in my mind continuously. And, when I’ve asked my parents about it, they’ve refused to speak.”

  “That’s my fault. I told them that you need time before you try and analyse what Helena was trying to get you to remember.”

  Frowning, I stared at her. “Surely, that’s hindering my progress? If I could find out what Helena wanted me to remember, I can forget about it.”

  Putting her hands on the tops of my shoulders, Justina looked at me. She was quite a bit taller, her large boobs almost in line with my face. I resisted the urge to stare at them.

  “We have to work slowly with you. I don’t want you to push yourself over the edge.”

  Dropping my gaze, I traced the lino squares on the floor. I wanted to move on. Needed to catch my grandmother so I could do that.

  “When my father was killed, they shoved me into therapy straight away.” Justina let go of me and took a step back. Pushing the sleeves of her leather jacket up to her elbows, she put her hands on her hips. “It was too intense for me. Reliving that moment over again was painful. They didn’t even give me time to grieve.”

  “Grieve? I don’t need to grieve, I need to kill the witch.”

  The sudden desire to plunge my dagger into Helena’s heart almost made me lightheaded. Okay, so that wasn’t a good emotion.

  “I want to help you. And, I will. After we’ve spoken to Lucia.”

  Nodding, I agreed with my boss. She seemed to know how to proceed. I wanted to work to take my mind off what I’d been through. Sitting around wasn’t helping. It just made me think about it even more.

  The door opened when Justina looked into the camera. We both entered the room, our magic instantly numbed down by the wards that stopped the prisoners from using theirs. I’d spent some time practicing my witch magic since I’d been rescued. It wasn’t exactly amazing. Which meant I had to do something about it.

  “Lucia,” Justina greeted the witch. “I’ve brought Devon with me today.”

  The girl perked up, her sour expression lifting slightly. She sat forward as we took our seats on the other side of the table. She wore normal clothes, her lush dark hair piled on top of her head. She still looked amazing in prison. Would I pull off prison life so well? I doubted it very much.

  “I’m pleased you’ve come in. How is…?” Lucia gestured to nowhere in particular with her head.

  Glancing at Justina, I couldn’t hold back my blush. My cheeks warmed as my boss raised her eyebrows.

  “We know all about your familiar.”

  The sharp tone made me wince, let alone someone who desperately missed her cat. Was it wrong of me to feel sorry for her? Yes, probably. However, since Kurt had told me about his experience with his familiar, I’d had a slight pang in my chest every time I thought of Lucia.

  “The cat is being looked after. We have an offer to make you.” I spoke before Justina or Lucia could get a word in. It felt good to be back. “If you help us draw out Helena, you’ll be able to see your familiar.”

  A witch without their familiar was like a car without petrol. Losing the animal that we were bonded with made us weaker. Even though I wasn’t magically connected to Kingsley, my emotional wellbeing would be jeo
pardised if I ever lost him.

  “Really? You want me to go behind my friend’s back to-”

  “Friend?” I hissed, sitting forward. “Have you seen what your ‘friend’ does to witches? Do you need a reminder?”

  Justina put a hand on my wrist. Sitting back, I crossed my arms and leant against the chair. Okay, I needed that therapy sooner rather than later. The anger that singed my veins every time I thought of Helena was starting to get out of control.

  “I know what she did, I don’t need reminding. I also don’t need punishing any more than I am. I’m doing my time for my involvement. Can you cut me some slack?”

  The short burst of laughter that came from Justina was uncharacteristic. I almost joined in, but my temper was only just hanging on.

  “I’ll do it, okay?” Lucia said, leaning forward even further. “But, I want protection. Everywhere. She’ll get to those in here. They’ll kill me. She-”

  Holding my hand in the air, I stopped her speaking. “You have your own cell. You go out to a courtyard twice a day. You have plenty of protection.”

  “You have no idea, do you, Miss Perfect?” Lucia’s sneer was ugly.

  Good. At least she didn’t always look hot. I wasn’t impressed with someone who looked flawless all of the time. It was unrealistic. Especially as I hadn’t even brushed my hair that morning.

  “No, I don’t,” I said. “I’m not a criminal. Well…”

  Both women glanced at me, their thoughts evident to anyone who knew my situation. Really? They were going to judge me for something I did when I was possessed? Ugh. Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have spoken so soon.

  “Moving on,” Justina interrupted. “If we allow you to see your cat once the mission is over, will you draw out Helena? We need to end this slave trade once and for all.”

  “I heard whispers that she’d captured you.” Lucia pointedly stared at the fading red welts on my wrists. “Looks like they were true.”

  Tugging my sleeves down, I kept my gaze steady on her. “This isn’t about me.”

  “You look so like her. It’s hard to believe that she’s forty-five years older than you. Bloody Essex witches, they get everything.”