“I've known I've loved you pretty much since we met. I was so afraid you'd never feel the same. I want nothing more than to be with you. Forever.”
He sighed with relief. “Then dry your tears. Because from tonight on, you won't be able to get rid of me. I'm yours.”
“And I'm yours.” She wiped at her tears with his handkerchief. “Now let's eat.”
“One more thing. The food's not here yet anyway.” He pulled out a long jewelry box. “Both times my mother got pregnant, my father gave her a bracelet. It's been a long time coming, and to solidify my promise to you to love you and the babies forever, I got you one.”
He held it out and tightened it around her wrist. It was white gold in a filigree pattern studded with sapphires.
“Oh Justin, it's beautiful!”
“And it's what you deserve. You took me from a very broken man, and you're changing me slowly into a better person. I can't thank you enough for that.”
Tears welled in her eyes again, but luckily, the food arrived, and they dug in.
That was all they needed to say.
When Melanie hit twenty four weeks, and her third trimester, she was really beginning to show her pregnancy. According to Melanie, she was as big as a house. Justin had been keeping a constant eye on her, and thanks to daily magical infusions, he could tell that she was dealing better with her energy levels. She wasn't falling asleep nearly as often, for one thing.
With Rita at her side, and Skylar as support on call, Melanie was making leaps and bounds into promoting witchcraft in the community. It had been a hard fight, but her team and volunteers worked on it every day. She had been getting her volunteers out to children's hospitals around the area every other weekend, and other sects and covens across the country were doing the same. The protestors disappeared, preferring to make flame posts on the internet and hate web sites as opposed to showing their feelings in person.
But what was best about Melanie was how she seemed to seamlessly integrate herself into his life. He now looked forward to coming back up to his suite at night and hearing what she had done that day. And while it was hard at first, he had gotten used to talking about work with someone he didn't work with. If he was being totally honest with himself, he admitted that it took a great deal of stress of his shoulders to be able to come home and talk like that.
So when he came back that night to find Melanie missing, he felt it.
“You look pensive,” the object of his thoughts observed from the doorway. He hadn't even heard her come in. He was slipping.
“Yeah, I suppose I am. Here, sit.”
She sat down and handed him a plate of food. “Skylar sent this over. Apparently Dymphna told her that collard greens are healthy. Give it a try.”
“She did the best collard greens I've tried.”
Melanie laughed. “Which doesn't say much at all in favor of it. But she did slip me some balsamic chicken as well in case I didn't like it.”
“There's something bothering you.” That's what you get from living with an air witch, but Justin had grown used to it around Seb years before he met Mel.
“You know I've been tracking properties recently, right?”
“Yeah. Did something come up?”
“Quite possibly. We've got a farm out in Rhode Island that looks suspicious. The agents we've had posted there have reported a number of comings and goings from a few suspected Dark Order members. Me and some others are going to head out there tomorrow.”
“I see.”
“I don't know what to expect, and that bothers me. It could be something, it could be nothing.”
“And it could be dangerous.” She looked worried.
“That too. I'll be leaving early in the morning, and probably won't be home until tomorrow if all goes well.”
“I know you've been worried that nothing has happened in a while.”
“Yeah. I feel like they're planning something big right under our noses, and I haven't figured out what it is or how to stop them.”
“I'm sure you will. All I'd ask is that if you get a chance, you'll give me a call. Let me know you're alright. Dealing with the Dark Order is risky business, and now that I've found you, I don't want to lose you.”
“I'll try.”
“To give me a call or to stay safe?”
“Both.”
“Would you mind taking a look at the baby when you give me magic tonight? I know we would have been able to tell the sex of the babies for a while. I've postponed it for a few months, but I want to know now.”
“Certainly. It's about time for us to do that.”
She smiled, and Justin's mouth went dry as she pulled up her shirt to allow him access to her belly. He'd never found pregnant women particularly arousing, but either through the bond or some other kind of magic, everything about his wife was arousing. He tried to keep his mind off the blood rushing to his nether regions while he put her hands gently on her stomach. “This may tingle.” She nodded, familiar with the process.
He let his magic wash over him as he went into his healer's trance. Then he reached out through his hands to feel what was going on within her and see what they were looking for. Justin could almost see the baby through his magical vision, and he grinned. She was round with two girls. He gave both of them a healthy dose of his magic and withdrew.
“I can see from the look on your face that you found something.”
“It's a girl. Two girls, in fact.”
“Girls?” Melanie's face lit up. “We're having girls?”
“That we are.” He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. “Are you happy?”
“Couldn't be happier.” She planted a long kiss on his mouth, her tongue delving roughly inside. “How about you?”
“I'm excited. And a little scared. How will I know what to do with one little girl, much less two?” He rubbed on her back. From his examination, he knew her body was hurting from the additional weight of the babies. Her back in particular was bothering her, so he pushed some magic through her muscles to force them to relax.
“We'll figure it out together. But for now I think we need to celebrate.”
He didn't have a chance to ask what she meant, but figured it out quickly enough as she pulled his button-down shirt from his pants and began to rub her hands over his chest. “Can you? Are you up to it?”
“Don't see why today is any different from any other day recently except that we've got something to celebrate. Now help me out here.”
He was only too glad to oblige, and they ended up in the bedroom in short order.
The next morning, he was loath to leave the bed at four in the morning. Her naked form was still curled up against him, and she let out a little moan when he pulled himself away. But before he got dressed, he had to take an extra minute to stand there and look his fill at her. She was too beautiful, inside and out, to be his. But somehow, she was, and she would bring him two babies to the equation. He was glad she agreed to stay with him, and wanted to tell her so every day. But when he did, she got jokingly exasperated and told him to stop. So he worked to show her rather than tell her.
He should really be thinking about how to show her how excited he was about their twins. The suite next door was unoccupied, maybe he could get Seb to knock a hole through the wall for a door so it could be a nursery. Justin himself would paint it, and the two of them would work out the decorations together. Pink decorations.
Justin shook himself slightly. He shouldn't be getting this sentimental as he prepared to walk into a potentially hazardous situation. He scribbled a note to Melanie and left it on the side table as usual. He wasn't sure how to assuage her worries when honestly, he wasn't sure she didn't have a point. But he assured her that he loved her and would call when he could.
Once dressed, he strapped on his pistol. He was a good shot, and if for some reason his magic wasn't getting the job done, he may need the extra protection. He could use his martial arts, but if he was in close enough
to need aikido, he was in bigger trouble than he planned on getting in.
His nine-person team met him downstairs, and they were all so wrapped in their own thoughts that they did little more than nod to each other in greeting before getting into the two black SUVs that would take them to Rhode Island. It was cold, and they all dressed as warmly as they could while maintaining the ability to be stealthy. Besides a quick walkie check, they didn't talk all through the drive either.
Once near the farm, they pulled over and hid the SUVs in the brush. They went through the plan again, just to make sure they were all well-acquainted with what to do.
“Radio silence for now, boys and girls. Watch yourselves and your team. We all want to get home safely.” Justin wanted to make sure they were focused.
“Copy that,” they echoed.
Justin took the lead as the approached the barn. According to the local agents, most of the suspicious visitors had gone straight to the barn without so much as looking at the ranch house. The two locals met him partway, and all twelve of them proceeded to the barn. He indicated for the sentries to take their position.
One of the five fire witches he brought burned a line in the lock's bar, just enough to open it and hopefully leave it inconspicuous until one of the residents got a closer look. The inside was dark, and Justin flipped on his headlight. The ten of them fanned out to look for people hanging around, but found no one.
“All clear?” Justin radioed.
“All clear,” he got the reports back from each individual in order. One of the fire witches made a self-controlled ball of fire to sit near the rafters for light, and Justin turned off his headlight.
For the most part, the barn looked just like you'd expect from a farm. But one of his team, Theresa, was already waving him over to a trap door in the floor in one of the corners. She had been moving the hay on the ground around, and that was what she found. “Looks suspect,” she said.
“Indeed it does. Theresa and I are going down. Everyone else continue the search and be ready if we need backup,” he radioed.
Theresa popped the trap door open and preceded him down into the cellar. Unlike the barn above, the cellar was stark and sanitary white. The first room was quite large for an underground location, with a number of computers humming on the sides of the room and seating enough for about fifty people. The wall they were facing was dominated by a computerized whiteboard behind a large table and podium.
“Think those could be some incriminating papers?” Theresa asked quietly.
“I hope so.” He radioed for two more to come down and shift through the papers on the desk and podium. “Theresa, you and I are going into that other room,” he indicated the door to the right side of the main room. “Let's see what we can find.”
Justin shoved his way through the door and gasped. On one wall were four cages, large enough to hold a human, he suspected. It made him feel sick. The center of the room held a pentacle, and even the strong smell of bleach couldn't overpower the smell of blood and sheer wrongness.
“Oh my lord,” Theresa said behind him.
“This is the place,” Justin radioed. “It looks like the place Skylar and Leo found before. Find everything you can. I don't care anymore if they know we were here; get it all out and into the SUVs ASAP. We don't want to be caught here. Brian, photos.”
As Brian moved around taking photos of everything, the others bagged and tagged all the evidence they could find behind him. It was the matter of about two hours before they were able to clean out, and by the time they did, everyone felt the evil of the black magic that had been done here seep into their skin. Justin wanted nothing more than a long shower and to hold Melanie until he could feel this place get out of him.
“Theresa, cancel the hotel reservations. We need to drive hard and get this back to Headquarters today if we can I think. I know it'll be long hours for all of us, but the ones not driving can try to get some sleep.” The others seconded his idea, and they all got back into the SUVs except the two locals, who would continue to keep an eye on the place. “Be careful, you two, and call us if anything comes up.”
On the ride back, he asked Theresa, “It looks like it hasn't been used for a while.”
“I thought the same. There was some dust and general neglect to the place.”
“Then I'm not alone in fearing that this is not what we're looking for. We need to find out where they're actively functioning.”
“That's for sure.”
“Seb and Leo haven't felt anything since Skylar and Leo found their sacrifice pentagram before. I think they're blocking, and if they are, it worries me that we're so far behind.”
“We can't worry about that, Justin. We have to work on what we can do and not worry about what we can't.” They left it at that for the rest of the ride.
Earlier, Melanie had woken up around eight. Since she was up before Skylar and Rita usually started the day at their office, she took a nice long shower before getting dressed in some of her new maternity clothes. Imagine! Twin girls! She admired her growing belly in the mirror, knowing that time would only make it bigger. Probably a lot bigger, at that. She may have complained about getting bigger, but secretly, she relished it.
Humming, she brought her bag and cell phone to her office. She was looking for inspiration on something new to try to liven up her campaign. She was examining a large collection of books that she had amassed over the years when she heard someone else come in.
Of all people, it was that bitch who had wanted to get Justin back all those months ago. Melanie stopped and turned around. “Hello. It's Kelsey, isn't it?” She tried to smile and act like it was fine for her to be there. Melanie was confident of Justin's love, and she needed to act on her constant campaign to make a closer Coven. Kelsey was part of the Coven, and Melanie needed to play nice.
“Yes. It is.” Melanie's air witch feelings were going off that something was wrong when she looked closer at her visitor. “I'm here to get you,” she said calmly. Then, as if remembering something crucial, she turned her attitude. “Justin's been hurt!” Her heart stopped for a moment. Justin? Hurt? She would have sensed it, she was sure. Except that he was in Rhode Island, and her magical senses wouldn't go that far without some special spells. And Melanie was afraid that Kelsey might be lying to her. But besides a general feeling, she couldn't risk assuming anything. She had to believe it.
“Oh my god. How did it happen?”
“I'll tell you everything on the way. Hurry!”
Melanie wasted no time in sliding her cell into her bag and taking off with the other woman. She was in shock. How could this have happened? She got into Kelsey's black Mustang, and they were off. Melanie couldn't shake her bad feeling, but she felt like she had no choice but to go forward.
A few miles down the road, Kelsey pulled onto the grass. “What's going on?” Melanie asked as Kelsey rummaged around in her purse, finally pulling out a glass bottle with some kind of white cloth inside.
“You'll see soon enough.”
Melanie barely had time to realize what was happening when Kelsey shoved the chloroformed rag into her face. Then everything went black.
Melanie woke up in a stainless steel cage, one of four along a stark white wall. She could see three others in the other cages and a large pentagram on the floor.
“Where am I?” She whispered.
“Hell,” one of the other prisoners replied. He was probably mid-forties and in a very dirty suit. “I'd guess you're the air witch.”
“I'm an air witch, yes. What's going on?”
“We're going to be sacrificed,” another prisoner, a woman around thirty and equally dirty, whispered heatedly. “They said something about the Dark Order rising over all. My coven only recently got warnings about them, and we didn't take it very seriously. Looks like we were wrong.”
“Can we break out?”
“These cages are sealed with magic,” the man told her sadly. “Anything but black magic used around them g
ets reflected back on the caster. We've tried.” He held out his hands, covered in burn marks.
“What do we do?” Melanie asked.
“There's nothing to do!” The last prisoner, a teenage boy on the end, cried out. “It's all over for us!”
As Melanie was trying to grapple with the situation she had landed in, Kelsey came in the room. “Ah, Justin's little slut. I wondered when you'd wake. Congratulations on getting knocked up, by the way. Makes you perfect for the sacrifice.”
“What's going on?”
“Ah, so you're slow, too. You're going to die soon, my sweet, and Justin will be all mine. You see, we've assembled a special group here today. We have one witch from each element, and one witch with Ward blood. We have a whole complement of spells we'll be using you for. Then, the final spell, the one that ends in your death, will give us the Ward family on a platter. With the Ward blood in you, Melanie, we can use our magic to control the Wards. We can make Seb do what we want him to do, and that would give us access to witches galore for our experiments. And of course, Justin would be mine again.”
“What? He'd never let that happen! Seb is devoted to the Coven, and Justin will never be yours.”
“It's not their choice anymore. That baby you're carrying holds Ward blood, and the spell will call to the others, and make them part of our team. Pity we have to wait until the full moon to do it.”
“But that's tomorrow night!”
“Indeed. Rest up, for tonight will be your last chance.” She cackled and left. Melanie had known something was wrong, but she hadn't expected this.
“Does anyone know anything about the sacrifice or the spell?” Melanie asked, and the others shook their heads.
“Only that it needs one witch of each element. They have a series of spells they're going to work. They'll sap a little blood for each, and then when we're out of usable blood, our death will finalize the last spell,” the teenager said. “I'm water, she's earth, he's fire, and you're air. All I know about magic is pointing to something big if they need that kind of ammunition.”
The Dashing Witch (The Ward Witches) Page 13