Vengeance

by Carrie Whitethorne

  Jefferson turned to me and frowned. “What’s that, Honey?”

  I was already reaching into one of the braids in my hair, searching for my tiny wax candles. Well, I called them candles, but they didn’t have a wick. They didn’t need them.

  “Protection charm,” I answered distractedly, while I surveyed the ceiling for a moment. “Is there another door?”

  “No,” Cox spoke quietly.

  Not having heard a tone like that from him before, I glanced at him and instantly didn’t like his concerned expression.

  “Okay.” I nodded toward the ceiling. “Can you give me a boost?”

  He and Naylor both looked up, then back to me in confusion.

  I rolled my eyes and pointed to a patch on the ceiling the blast hadn’t damaged. “We’re a level down. The door is blocked. I can get us out, but I need that flat surface to do it.”

  “Take her left leg,” Cox ordered, looking at Naylor, apparently over whatever was wrong a few moments ago. “Keep her steady.”

  I expected more of a challenge, but they moved toward me in tandem. Cox faltered slightly at the sight of bare flesh when I lifted my skirt to my knees so they could get a firm hold. He muttered something under his breath I didn’t quite catch, but Naylor must have caught part of it because he snorted.

  With no more hesitation from Cox, they worked together and lifted me effortlessly to the ceiling.

  With my left hand on the top of Cox’s head to steady myself, I used the candle in my right to draw the correct symbol on the plaster.

  “Okay, I need to light it, and when I do, I’ll need you to get me down before it sets my hair alight. Ready?”

  “Yep,” the two holding me agreed in unison.

  “Careful,” Jefferson cautioned from behind us.

  A quick snap of my fingers and the wax rune I’d drawn on the ceiling began to burn.

  True to their word, the guys quickly lowered me and followed my lead when I turned away and covered my head.

  The sound of falling masonry was loud, and when it settled, I turned to survey my work.

  “I think we can get through there,” I muttered, peering up into the room above.

  When none of the guards responded, I looked over my shoulder at Jefferson and raised my brows.

  He nodded once. “Thanks. I’ll go up first, they can give you a boost second.”

  That wasn’t what I was expecting, but I was happy to go with it. I really needed to get out of here and figure out what the hell had just happened.

  Cox boosted Jefferson, and they made short work of hauling me up between them.

  The room was dark, and I considered an illumination charm, but a flashlight clicked on at my side before I could do more than blink.

  “Witch, huh?” a low voice asked.

  I glanced at Cox, who’d followed me up far more quickly than I’d anticipated, and got to my feet. “Something like that…”

  I wasn’t surprised that he knew what I was.

  They knew we existed, much the same as they knew about vampires, werewolves, and demons, but they rarely came into direct contact with us. That was the agreement. That was why the Fae stepped in and crushed us with rules and exile.

  Their play had been to push Wicca, a pseudo-religion, and force us to dumb ourselves down. At first it kept us safe, but now?

  Well, now wasn’t the time to go over it; it only pissed me off and Alva didn’t need any encouragement right now.

  With slightly cleaner air in the room above, it was then that I picked up a distinct scent in the air. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and cursed—larkspur and ghost orchid.

  Sons of bitches!

  Ground ghost orchid seeds mixed with larkspur would create a sufficient explosion in a large quantity. It would only require someone to mix it with water when they needed it, and then it would cause a big enough blast to take out a whole building. Ghost orchids were rare and bloody expensive.

  The only way they’d get something like that in here was if they got one of the guards to do it. I glanced at Jefferson and Cox before peering into the hole as Naylor was climbing through. It wouldn’t be them, but I wouldn’t put it past the night guards or even the morning guards.

  “I got a question,” Naylor mumbled, as he emerged through the hole. “If it was that easy for you to escape, then why have you been sittin’ there for four days?”

  Jefferson maneuvered through the destroyed room, heading toward the door as Cox announced, “She’s a plant. Looks like someone forgot she was here. That, or she wasn’t important enough to protect from whatever that was…”

  “It was an attack,” Jefferson grumbled as he struggled with the door.

  Cox and Naylor jumped into action to help him move the chunks of concrete and plaster out the way so I could walk into the corridor. They continued to debate behind me, but for the moment, getting out of here before the rest of the building caved in took precedence.

  I wasn’t about to let the guys in on my discovery. I needed to stew on the information for a while, formulate a plan, and then I’d find out who had screwed up on an epic level and they’d get to hear about it.

  “Where you goin’, Honey?” Jefferson questioned when he realized I wasn’t waiting around for them. Bizarrely there was no threat in his tone. Was he prepared to let me just walk out?

  I slowed my pace as I approached a security door and paused for them to catch up. I could get through it with some effort, but I didn’t believe in using excessive force when there was someone else to do the job just as efficiently and without magic.

  “Home, probably,” I answered, as Jefferson took a key card from his breast pocket and swiped it through the reader on the wall. I was surprised when a small light turned green and the box beeped to signal access was granted. With no interior lights on, I would have assumed the power had been cut off during the blast.

  He went through first, his rifle aimed ahead. When he was satisfied the route was clear, he looked to me and inquired, “Who was it?”

  “You won’t know them,” I murmured quietly, following after. I didn’t bother to check behind, I could hear the two sets of footsteps and the sound of doors opening as they checked the rooms we passed.

  “Try me.”

  His tone suggested he knew far more than I’d like to believe. Combined with his lack of surprise at my use of magic, it suggested he wasn’t going to take a bullshit answer. The problem was I couldn’t say too much without putting my own head on the block.

  “I only know who I’m working for, and believe me, you don’t want to cross paths with them.” I hated being so cryptic, but the less they knew the better.

  “Why?” Cox asked conversationally. “They gonna try and blow us up?”

  Touché.

  Back ridged with tension, I eyed them both. “Look. I don’t know how much you know about… stuff, but believe me, you don’t want to screw with them.”

  Jefferson sighed and reached out and squeezed my shoulder. “Looks to me like you’re screwin’ with ‘em already, Honey.”

  I didn’t respond, there was nothing I could say. When his hand slipped from my shoulder and they began walking through the corridor toward the exit, I took a breath before following. I hadn’t expected this, and answering their questions was setting me on edge.

  When we reached the double doors at the end, Jefferson stopped and held up a hand in a gesture for silence.

  I rolled my eyes and listened. There wasn’t anyone ahead, so I turned ninety degrees and pulled out the candle.

  “What are you doing?” Cox inquired, as I began to draw more runes on the wall.

  “Shh,” I hushed him, concentrating. I didn’t want to overshoot us, but I needed to put enough distance between us and here because it could still be dangerous. “If they catch us, we’ll all die.”

  “You know,” Cox muttered right into my ear, “they used to burn women like you.”

  I snapped my fingers, igniting the wax, and turned my head
his way. Asshole. I didn’t have to help them. I could have gotten out of here at the first sign of trouble and left them to find their own way out.

  I leaned further into his space, our noses almost touching, and smirked. “Didn’t have you pegged as a historian. Are you coming or not?”

  The post, considering the damage inside the small room, was untouched, and it was currently deserted. I could have looked around for evidence of who might have brought the explosive into the building, but nothing would have jumped out in the time I had.

  There would have been evidence, especially if the Assembly hired a human to do their dirty work. And it would have taken me even less time to find the evidence I’d need if it had anything to do with the guards who had been ‘watching’ me. But I couldn’t risk staying any longer, not with three humans left alive. As much of a nightmare the species could be, I wouldn’t want to see the three men hurt after they’d treated me so well.

  So, I had the portal pop us back into existence about a quarter mile from their post, and after gazing back at the building for a minute or two, I cursed under my breath and finally set off walking west.

  “Question,” Naylor said, the first to catch up to me. The other two held back, I assumed to watch the compound and our surroundings for any sign of us being followed.

  I knew what was coming. Without bothering to look at him, I stated, “Hit me.”

  “What was that?”

  “They have a number of names. Hell’s gate. Devil’s portal. Summoning circle,” I explained.

  “Why didn’t we just walk out? Between myself, Jefferson, and Cox, we could’ve scouted the area.”

  I snorted. “That’s a really bad idea. No amount of specialized training will keep you alive.”

  “Then why did you bring us with you? If we’re easily disposable, why not just leave us instead of having us slowing you down.”

  “You were kind to me despite me being your prisoner. I’m returning the favor. But if you keep asking questions, then I might just change my mind,” I answered honestly. Except that wasn’t enough. He still glared at me expectantly. “Look,” I mumbled, defeated, “they won’t think twice about killing the three of you. If you’re still here when they show up, they’ll finish what they started, burying any remaining evidence.”

  “Who are they?” he retorted immediately, ignoring my warning.

  “Whoever needed that place off the map,” I replied equally as fast.

  He glanced back as though expecting someone to be standing there watching our retreat. “I don’t get it,” he muttered, squinting at the compound over his shoulder. “Why would they attack their own post?”

  “They didn’t,” I grumbled, “The Assembly did.”

  “Who?”

  Of course he had no idea who the hell I was talking about. Another part of their master plan, throw the shifters under the bus, let the humans know just enough about the rest of us to keep them afraid or as in our case, thinking of us as zealots of a ridiculous religion, but keep their own existence confined to story books.

  “You think this was orchestrated by humans?” I snapped, becoming frustrated. “They couldn’t organize an orgy in a brothel. This was the Assembly’s handiwork.”

  “Who the fuck is the Assembly?” Naylor barked, his temper flaring.

  I responded with a single arch of my eyebrow, and he huffed and stomped ahead.

  He was doing well, considering he’d just discovered witches existed, although I suspected that had more to do with Jefferson’s presence than his acceptance. Explaining about the Assembly would probably be his limit.

  With Naylor up ahead and Jefferson behind me with Cox, it became impossible to keep an eye on all of them. And with the risk of getting caught hanging over us, I begrudgingly called out, “This is going to take too long on foot.”

  Naylor stopped sulking and stomped back. “So use another gate thing.”

  I shook my head. “No. Can’t risk it. If they have someone too close, following us...”

  “What’s the matter, Honey?” Jefferson quizzed, as he and Cox caught up.

  “We need transportation,” Naylor informed him.

  Jefferson rubbed the top of his head with a wrinkled hand and looked around. We were a fair distance away from the freeway, and there were no houses or farms anywhere nearby.

  “Wait here,” Cox said quietly to Jefferson. “I’ll be back…”

  I looked right at the sergeant. All he did was shrug as Cox broke into a run and disappeared into the trees.

  With Cox gone before I could call him back, I silently fumed as we carried on heading west. I had no choice but to hope he’d catch up to us once he’d finished doing whatever it was he deemed important enough to risk his life for.

  I was annoyed with him. The stupid ass was slowing down our progress, and by splitting up, he’d made it impossible for me to keep him alive. Naylor and Jefferson talked between themselves, but I ignored them as best as I could while keeping an eye on our surroundings for anything that was out of place.

  It wasn’t until we reached the suspiciously unmanned gate that I realized we would look horribly out of place ourselves with the guys dressed in their ACU’s.

  With a wave of my hand their attire changed to good old jeans, shirts, and boots. Any alarm was kept to themselves, and I didn’t look back to check. We needed to get moving.

  An hour or so had passed with us mindlessly walking, and there was still no sign of Cox when a noise sounded distantly behind us. It took me a moment to pinpoint what it was. Turning on my heel, I hissed at Jefferson and Naylor to move toward the trees while I reached inside my skirt for the tiny piece of wax I had left.

  Checking to make sure they were out of sight, I stood in the middle of the road, preparing for a fight. A black Chevy SUV sped across the loose asphalt as they closed the distance between us. I squinted, trying to make out the driver as I pulled the wax from my skirt.

  The driver came into view as the sun’s reflection moved off the windscreen, and I breathed a small sigh of relief. At least the stupid bastard was alive. I pocketed the wax as I called an all clear to Jefferson and Naylor, and they climbed out of the underbrush to join me in the road.

  My curiosity burned when Cox climbed out the driver’s seat and wordlessly threw the keys at Jefferson before climbing into the back. Jefferson tilted his head, but he didn’t question where it came from, and indicated I should join him in the front. With all of us piled into the SUV, it didn’t take long to put distance between us and the compound and join the freeway as we continued to head west.

  It wasn’t long before Naylor had his head slumped against the window as he napped, and Cox remained silent while staring out the window.

  I rode shotgun, and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, Jefferson struck up a conversation.

  “So, how does someone become a witch?” There was interest in his tone, but he didn’t take his eyes from the road.

  “You’re born a witch. I come from a long line of them. It isn’t a choice like joining the army. How did you end up killing people for a living?”

  “That’s a long story, Honey.”

  I glanced into the back, Cox and Naylor both appeared to be asleep. “I think we have time.”

  With a small shake of his head, he chuckled. “I used to sweep the floors at my grandpa’s barbershop when I wasn’t in school. I’d stayed late one night to help him close up, and there was a ruckus across the street.”

  Turning in my seat, I inquired, “What happened?”

  “The police dragged a family of shifters out of the apartment block across the street. They beat the guy bloody, took the kids from the woman, and threw them into separate vans. I couldn’t work out why it was happening, and when Grandpa stood by watching, I got angry with him.”

  “Why didn’t he try to help?”

  “We couldn’t. I was still a nipper, and Grandpa was in his late seventies with a heart problem. The police would’ve beaten the pair of us a
nd taken us with the shifters. Once the street cleared, he pulled me back into the shop, sat me down, and gave me a telling off. I realized then that he was as spitting mad as I was.”

  “Times haven’t really changed all that much since then,” I grumbled.

  “They really haven’t. Humans will always fear what they don’t know. When I was a boy, it was black folk, like my parents and grandparents, who they fought to keep down, and then they discovered shifters living alongside us, and they soon changed the direction of their hate. People of all colors started pulling together to fight what they deemed unnatural. There were preachers in the streets leading riots because they considered shifters to be the devil’s work.”

  I recalled my time living in the UK before my mother moved us here. There were similar people in the streets, brandishing leaflets and shouting at the crowds about how the devil was at work and that God had told them we needed to band together to rid the earth of all supernaturals—Jefferson had at least two decades on me, but nothing had really changed in that time.

  Oblivious to my thoughts, Jefferson carried on, “Throughout the years, we’ve seen genocide all too much, and the guys up top, those responsible, they always get a nasty end. Watching that family get dragged away made me smart, and I got myself into a position where I could be part of the solution, not the problem.”

  “That’s why you joined the army,” I murmured, understanding.

  “Yeah, so while people see my job as killing people, it really isn’t. I didn’t kill you because it wasn’t part of the solution. Those I have killed deserved it. I’ve never taken an innocent life, and I don’t intend to start now.”

  He really was nothing like the humans I’d had the misfortune of dealing with before.

  First, he had compassion for all shifters. He was the only person I’d met who viewed their treatment with anything other than indifference. It wasn’t their fault humans had always overcompensated for their lack of magic with violence. After the slaughter of the lesser faeries and the witch burnings, not to mention the eradication of unicorns and several species of dragons, all the other races went into hiding.