by Michelle Fox
I rolled away and jumped to my feet. Taking a quick look around me, I found I was still surrounded and not likely to get away without getting shot. Vitor, for his part, had stayed where he was. I searched his gaze, hoping he had answers, but he just gave a small shrug.
We were well and truly ducked.
The High Priestess kicked my jacket and then grimaced. "Ow. What is in that thing?" Her expression changed as understanding dawned. "Bring me that jacket."
When the guards didn't move fast enough, she screamed at them. "Now!"
A guard scooped it up and gave it to her. She felt up and down the jacket, the twist of anger on her face giving way to glee. "There's something in here." Reaching into her cleavage, she pulled out a small athame. I'd seen her use it a million times during big holiday rituals. She stabbed the blade into my jacket, cutting through the lining.
"You know, there's a pocket. You can just unzip it." I mimed a zipping motion for effect.
She ignored me and continued to ravage the jacket with her athame. I had to look away, unable to watch its destruction. Mom had paid a small fortune for my leathers.
"Ah-ha. Here it is."
I looked back to see her lifting up the necklace. My stomach sank like it was on the elevator to hell, which given the situation, just might be my next destination.
This was all going so wrong. So many kinds of wrong. The worst kind of wrong. Apparently my life liked the worst theme. I didn't see how I would escape it now.
"Finally. After all this time." She petted the stones.
"It's not yours." I widened my stance and lifted my chin.
Her gaze pierced mine. She laughed. "You're too weak to take it, just like Penny."
"Penny tried to take the relic? Why?" I immediately felt stupid asking why since the obvious answer was power, but why this power? Why did everyone think they got to be First Witch?
"Who doesn't want to be all powerful? But I was stronger. I'm always stronger. Penny learned that the hard way." She lifted one shoulder in a life-is-cheap shrug.
I closed my eyes and reviewed the chessboard. Thorne had taken the necklace for his own purposes. The High Priestess had the same agenda along with at least one other witch, who it appeared the High Priestess had murdered. In all the world, it was just Vitor and I trying to do what was supposed to happen, but we weren't enough.
I lunged for the necklace. "It doesn't belong to you."
She stepped out of reach and motioned for a guard to hold me back. "And you think you're the rightful owner? There's bug shit with more magic than you, darling."
Guards played Twister to get a handhold on me. Who needed handcuffs when you had ten pairs of hands, right? Someone even grabbed me by the hair.
The High Priestess put the necklace around her neck. "Someone fasten this please."
A guard stepped forward and managed the clasp for her. She smiled and stroked the big stone in the center. She murmured an incantation. I strained to hear the words, wanting to know what magic would unlock the missing piece of my soul, but couldn't make anything out.
The magic understood her, though. A light inside the stones flared bright.
"I wouldn't do that." I strained to move toward her. "You don't know what will happen."
The guards dragged me back. "Be quiet," one of them barked at me.
She kept up the incantation. The stones glowed even brighter, shining like small stars around her neck. Magic filled the air around us, raising the hair on the back of my neck.
This was happening. The High Priestess was going to steal my soul.
I slammed my head back into the guard holding me and smashed his foot with a steel-toe boot. He yowled like a siren, but let me go. Twisting, turning, kicking, clawing, I pulled the rest of them far enough off balance to break free. Surging forward, I went to tackle the High Priestess. Maybe if I could break her concentration, I could stop this from happening.
But before I could reach her, a shot rang out. I'd forgotten about the guns. The bullet never hit me though, because Vitor took it. He dove in front of me. The bullet sank into his upper arm, throwing him off balance and back on his ass.
"Vitor!" I ran over and kneeled next to where he'd fallen. There was a large hole above his heart. "Are you okay?"
He blinked up at me, his eyes dull. "Whatever happens, promise me, you'll survive, Sylvie."
I nodded and helped him to his feet.
"Swear it, Sylvie."
"I swear. I'll survive." I didn't know how I would do it. The promise he wanted from me didn't come with any usable plan, but there wasn't time to argue with him.
Vitor started to say something else, but we were both forced to move as more bullets came our way. I resumed my efforts to reach the High Priestess. Vitor would have to manage on his own for a minute. I'd worry about him once I saved my soul.
The light from the stones now engulfed the High Priestess, covering her until I couldn't see her. But she was still there. I could hear bits of the incantation, although I didn't recognize the words.
More guns roared, sending bullets zipping through the air. I pushed myself to move faster and I jumped the last few feet, hurtling toward the light shining around the High Priestess with everything I had.
Several things happened at once. A bullet hit the part of my shoulder not covered by the vest. Pain shrieked through my nervous system, and the light from the necklace exploded with the force of a bomb. The explosion threw me back like a rag doll.
I landed on top of a guard, knocking him to the ground. Rolling off him, I tried to climb to my feet, but my legs wouldn't work. Looking down, I found my entire arm covered in a moving stream of blood. Giving up on my legs, I crawled.
I didn't have much time on two fronts. One, I was losing a lot of blood really fast. I'd probably pass out from that soon. Two, the High Priestess would finish her spell any second and there would go any chance I'd ever had to be who I was supposed to be. I had to reach her before my bullet wound took me out of the game.
The sticks and stones on the ground bit into my hands as I dragged myself toward the High Priestess. The light around her had dimmed and I could see her now. She seemed bigger than before, like she'd grown. What really gave me pause though, was the fact that the moonstones had gone dark. There was no light in them anymore.
I kept going though, refusing to give up. I was the First Witch, not her. Also, I wasn't a bitch, which meant she wasn't supposed to win. Not if life was fair.
"Stop." The High Priestess' voice boomed.
Invisible power hit me like a fist and I stopped, my muscles trembling with the effort to keep moving. I couldn't catch my breath and kept gulping more and more air, trying to keep my lungs from burning. Blood dripped to the ground below me.
"Bring the vampire."
Two guards brought Vitor forward, holding him at each elbow.
"You have caused entirely too much trouble. That ends now. So mote it be." The High Priestess made a tearing motion with her hands and next thing I knew, Vitor's head was ripped off his body and thrown to the ground.
"Vitor!" I tried to scream his name, but could only manage a hoarse whisper. I collapsed into a ball. "He's dead. Oh Goddess, he's dead." The First Vampire was gone, the First Shifter had betrayed us, and a crazy witch was about to take the First Witch's soul. All the Firsts were ducked. This was bad. So ducking bad.
The High Priestess turned her attention to me. "And you, you are going to die next. You lied to me. You stole from me. You are not worthy of me." She raised her hand and punched the air.
I managed to roll to the side and her magic missed. It hit a guard behind me though, and he crumpled to the ground.
"First Witch, if you're in there," I said as loud as I could, which wasn't very loud. The world had gone dark around the edges, I didn't have much time left before my injuries got the best of me. "You've got to fight her. She's not you."
The High Priestess punched the air again and while I tried to move, I lacked the strength
for any speed. This time she got me and the world went dark.
Chapter Seventeen
I woke to the sound of snarling, like a huge engine had come to life. My vision was blurry, but I made out a wave of dark figures, low to the ground and streaming toward where I'd last seen the High Priestess.
The sun had crested the horizon, bathing the world in a hazy light. Not much time had passed since I'd been knocked into oblivion. The Council Guard was still there even.
I sat up, ignoring the nausea that rocked my stomach. My vision cleared and a long line of shifters came into focus. Forget packs, there were so many shifters, of all kinds, they were more like a swarm of ants. Bloodthirsty ones...all racing toward the High Priestess. Saliva dripped from their jaws, and the dark slits of their eyes held a gleaming menace.
Oh, hey. Finally, someone besides me had realized she was an evil bitch. But why shifters?
A howl answered my question. A...umm...something I didn't understand bounded into view. It wasn't quite human or shifter, but some strange mix of the two.
The legs were still human, but the upper body was all wolf up except for the face which stayed human. Half shifts weren't really a thing, but then I remembered the First Shifter had more than one form. My brain parsed all the parts and pieces, and recognition dawned. Yep, definitely Thorne. A horror movie Thorne, but Thorne all the same.
All the shifters looked to him for a command and he howled again, pointed a claw at the High Priestess. The swarm immediately surged forward. The First Shifter obviously had some pull with the local packs.
I wondered how many witches would come if I called. Probably none.
Thorne joined the fray, launching himself at the nearest Council Guard and bowling him over with his weight. There was a wet sucking sound, and he thrust his hand in the air revealing a clump of bloody...what? I couldn't tell.
I looked closer at the guard. Throat. Thorne had torn the guard's throat out. Damn. Maybe we weren't going to be the losers after all.
But then he'd never wanted me to have my soul. He might win, but would I?
Still, the game had changed. A fierce hope bloomed in my chest. I wanted in on the fight now. Gasping with pain, I lurched to my feet. None of the Council Guard really noticed me. They were too busy fending off the slavering shifters. I staggered toward the High Priestess.
She'd swallowed my soul and I wanted it back. I didn't exactly know how to get it back, but I was cool with beating her into the ground and seeing if that worked. She'd stabbed my mom in the back, and been a general pain in my ass.
I was done. She was so over.
The shifters noticed me and cleared my path. Every time a guard even so much as looked like he might be a problem, a shifter took him out. Fountains of arterial blood burst out of bodies everywhere I looked. The Council Guard's super suits didn't do much against a shifter mob. I would have to remember that.
My injuries made me slow, but I finally made it to the High Priestess who'd been backed against a large oak. Lions flanked her to the right, werewolves to the left and the panthers prowled dead center. Somewhere in the crowd, a chicken clucked. Shifters animals tended to be alpha predators, but every so often the genes went wonky and you got a chicken, or turtle, or in one case, a slug. Hence the taboo on mixing, but that detail wasn't important at the moment.
I fell into the High Priestess, my legs giving out. I turned my fall into a hard shove, pinning her against the tree. "Give me my soul."
She shrank back against the tree and looked past me, scanning for an out. I smashed a fist into her cheek. Goddess knew I'd better make sure she didn't have time to launch any of her magic.
She shrieked and pushed me away. My balance was so off kilter, I stumbled back a few steps, and then lunged right back in, ready to pummel her.
The high priestess started a magical incantation. I skipped the punch I'd been about to throw and slapped a hand over her mouth. "There's no easy way out. We out number you. Just give me what you stole and you can go."
Really I should kill her. I knew I should, but I'd never killed anyone. It wasn't something I wanted to add to my resume, no matter how evil she was. Maybe I would kill her later. That could work, right? Like a death layaway?
One hand over her mouth, I wrapped the other around her throat and squeezed. I'd never choked anyone out before, but judging from the way the High Priestess' eyes bugged out, I was pretty okay at it. I just needed this soul stealing witch to pass out, and take her out of the game long enough for me to figure out what the hell my next step was.
Just as her eyes drifted shut, large hands grabbed me from behind and ripped me away.
"Let me go." I flailed and went nowhere.
Actually, not nowhere, I flew, but not by my choice. I was thrown like a ball, arcing up in the air and then coming down on top of a gutted Council Guard. Guts squished under my ass and I rolled away as fast as I could.
Goddess. My life suddenly had far too much blood in it. When had I made all the wrong choices and ended up in the middle of an all out war between shifters and witches? Oh, right. I hadn't. I'd just been born with the wrong sliver of soul. Some might say it was the worst sliver of soul even.
I fingered my charm bracelet, but it was still empty. No help there. I'd have to make do, but for what? Did I really want the rest of my soul given the amount of bloodshed that came with it? I pondered that question as I staggered to my feet.
Was this really worth fighting for?
Dying for?
The High Priestess started her incantation again. I winced as power throbbed in the air. Maybe she should win. Being a powerful witch, let alone the First Witch, was a different planet and I wasn't so sure I belonged.
But if I didn't fight, there was going to be one hell of an evil witch in the world. She had no problem killing people. And she didn't like me. At least I knew I would use my powers for good. I didn't want to rule the world, just have a place in it that wasn't born of pity or 'oh well, I guess she'll do.'
I called on my magic, which came sluggish as a snail while I waded through the chaos back toward her, but she was so far away. Whoever had thrown me, should play professional baseball. Shifters continued to stream at her, but couldn't get close anymore. An unseen force rebuffed them.
Magic swelled, filling the air like a storm, stealing oxygen and humming over my skin. I pushed my legs to go faster and tried to rush my own magic. Whatever she was chanting wasn't going to help me.
She raised her hand, pointing straight at my heart. Uh oh. I pushed myself to move faster, but my legs were like lead anchors determined to see me dead. My breath came short again and the edges of the world frayed into a blur.
But I saw clearly the bolt of blue light that shot from her fingers, crackling and popping like lightning. She was going to tase me with flipping magic. Shit.
I dropped to the ground and rolled. The magic sizzled into the ground next to me, close enough to heat my face. The smell of singed hair hit my nose and I rolled again, patting my hair as I went just in case it was on fire. My fingers brushed my forehead and I discovered my eyebrows were gone. Worse, my bangs were crusty stubble
"You soul-sucking bitch, I'm going to..." I tried to throw my own bolt of power, but it sizzled into the ground. Great. So much for that. I rolled onto my hands and knees and tried to get up, but couldn't.
My legs didn't have anything left, they'd become numb and unresponsive.My hands tingled too, on their way to feeling nothing as well. My voice died, and I face planted into the ground, no strength left to do anything else.
Here's an epic understatement: Being shot was not going well.
"Somebody help me up." I held out a hand and waited for a passing shifter to give me a paw, but no one showed up. Fickle furdicks.
I wriggled my way forward, determined to get to the High Priestess and fight. More magic snapped in the air and hissed when it hit the dirt. It moved slow enough that it wasn't too hard to dodge.
But then the high priest
ess changed tactics. She gave up the taser magic and shifted into a new incantation. Power beat against me like a battering ram, tangible hits intent on breaking me. I'd never felt magic like this before. The First Witch had some serious juice.
White light seared the air like a new star. I ducked back and shielded my eyes. What fresh pain in my ass was this? Magic was charms and spells, not freaking fireworks. This was all kinds of not possible.
The light blinked out of existence. I lowered my hands and squinted hard at the creeping dawn, hoping to see something other than the truth. The High Priestess was gone, and so was my soul.
The worst part? All the motherducking magic I'd tried to cast came back. It had bonded with the remnants of the High Priestess' magic and now demanded its due. For a second time in less than a week, I tazed myself with magic. The world went black before I could feel the full brunt of my failure.
Chapter Eighteen
"Where did the High Priestess go?" I met the gaze of every alpha in the room as I sipped at a water bottle some random shifter had thrust into my hands seconds after I'd regained consciousness. It had been chaos once the High Priestess disappeared. I didn't know how long I'd been out, but the sun was high in the sky instead of filtering through the trees.
I'd remained prone in the grass, staring up at the perfect summer sky, too weak, too tired, too dying to do anything else. I wasn't sure I would survive, wasn't sure it mattered anymore, either. Vitor was dust. I was on my way to gone, and the shifters milled about, fighting amongst themselves. Thankfully, the alphas had finally asserted their authority over the various factions and someone noticed me bleeding to death in the grass.
Things were a little fuzzy after that. I'd dipped in and out of consciousness, but I remembered an all human Thorne picking me up and placing me on the soft comfort of the mattress in his bedroom. There'd been a pack doctor at one point, who'd patched up what he could.
And now I sat on the bed, trying to figure out how to put my life back together. Someone had stolen a lot of my puzzle pieces, though. I probably needed a whole new puzzle now.