The Wolf, the Witch and the Coffin

by Ophelia Preston

  ‘What kind of portal, and why would a vampire want it?’ Chris asked.

  ‘It’s a doorway, or in this case a pocket, holding something.’

  ‘Holding what?’ Koji asked.

  ‘The Book of Thoth.’

  ‘And he thinks he can just read it and gain the power of a god? Really? I thought that was a myth as well!’ I shook my head in disbelief.

  ‘A few months ago you thought werewolves and vampires were a myth and you question this?!’ Gran shook her head. ‘This is very, very serious. One spell from that book would give him the power and knowledge of Thoth!’

  ‘Who or what is Thoth?’ Chris asked.

  ‘An Egyptian deity. He was said to have brought the world into being through the power of the word, along with the God Ptah. Thoth is the Ibis headed god you often see in mythology pictures and hieroglyphs. He brought writing to humanity and hatched the egg of divine creation. He is a very, very powerful god,’ Saskia told them.

  ‘He wrote some of his knowledge in the form of spells, into the Book of Thoth, also called the Emerald Tablets of Thoth. It is said that anyone uttering so much as a single spell from it would gain his power. I can’t believe this vampire wants this. Why now? Why not get it before, when the vampires were in charge?’ I asked.

  ‘Maybe he didn’t know about it then?’ Ron offered.

  ‘Whatever the reason, he’s coming for it now,’ Gran shuddered. ‘I do not want a world where a vampire has the power of a god. I just don’t want to imagine the devastation he would cause.’

  ‘Do we know for certain that’s what he’s looking for? I mean, he could just want a really good view of the Statue of Liberty?’ Jerome’s joke fell on deaf ears. He sighed and sat down. Gran patted his arm.

  ‘Does he really need to have the city in order to get it?’ Chris asked.

  ‘I don’t know. Vampires have strange rules about what they can and cannot do with regards to cities.’

  ‘How did Egyptian tablets get to New York?’ Koji asked.

  ‘No idea. Perhaps they were brought here when America was first developing, to keep the European vampires away from them? Or perhaps the keeper of the tablets moved here and just brought them with him. I really don’t know. I doubt mother knows either.’

  I made a quick meal for us all, before Gran and Saskia left to meet May. Chris decided that he needed help on this matter. He contacted all the Alphas he knew and Ben as well, asking Ben to contact as many decent supernatural leaders as he knew.

  They met at the restaurant the pack owned, closing the doors to all other guests.

  Chris began by outlining the situation.

  ‘How is this our problem?’ Greig asked.

  ‘He is looking for something that will bestow god-like powers on him and you’re asking how it’s your problem? Really? Come on man, you’re not that stupid! He clearly doesn’t mind killing werewolves. How long do you think it’ll be before he wants something or someone in your city? If he gains these powers there’s not much any of us can do to stop him taking what he wants when he wants so the best option, our only option, is to stop him from getting this tablet or book, or whatever it actually is.’

  ‘What if it doesn’t exist? What if he’s after a myth?’ asked someone neither I nor Chris knew.

  ‘All myths have a rooting in reality. So it may be that this book doesn’t bestow god-like powers, just the power to annihilate anyone he wants? The intel is that this does exist and that it is very, very powerful. Why would someone hide it away in a portal if it weren’t?’

  Chris watched as the company took this in.

  ‘How do we stop a vampire with an army behind him?’ Another stranger asked.

  ‘Carefully,’ Claude leaned against the wall nearest the door.

  ‘You brought a vampire in?’ Greig sneered at Chris.

  ‘Know your enemy. Besides, I do not want to bow and scrape to Edvard any more than the rest of you. I’ve met him, he’s not that nice a guy!’ Claude sighed.

  ‘I can vouch for him. Claude has been my spy in Edvard’s camp for a while now. Just as not all werewolves are equal, not all vampires are best buddies.’ Ben made a point of staring at Greig until the other man looked away.

  ‘So are we right? Edvard is looking for Thoth’s tablet?’

  ‘You are correct. He wants to create a new era in American history; that of the vampire. I like things as they are. We are anonymous, unknown and I think that works. I don’t want humans thinking up ways of destroying us. Let’s face it, they are far too good at that. I like our invisibility. Edvard wants to be a god, to have humans supplicate themselves before him and drink them dry. I never understood that mentality. So, I can offer you information but that is all. I cannot be seen to go against him.’

  ‘Why not? You chicken?’ Greig sneered again. I really did not like this man!

  ‘Edvard is an old one. He drank directly from the source and is very powerful. I am almost as old as he is but I was made by an old one, and so lack his power and strength. It would simply be illogical to try to take him on. I believe you know that feeling, Mr Greig,’ the jibe reverberated around the room and Greig’s eyes took on a blue hue.

  ‘John!’ Chris put his Alpha voice on and Greig actually obeyed. The light dimmed as swiftly as it came. ‘I would appreciate you not antagonising anyone here, Claude. We need to stick together on this.’

  ‘I apologise,’ Claude inclined his head from Chris to Greig.

  ‘What information do you have?’ Ben asked.

  ‘Edvard is currently hiding out in New Jersey. He hasn’t divulged the location of the portal to anyone, not even his most trusted offspring. He is gathering more vampires to him as we speak. Many of those from the newly acquired cities are coming up for a fight. Oh, and he wants Emilia here very, very much. He’s put a price on your head but to have you brought to him alive. I think he might need you.’

  ‘Well he can want all he likes. She’s mine, and I will kill anyone who tries to harm her or take her from me,’ Chris growled. I knew he wasn’t calling me an object. He needed these people to believe that I was protected. I was, both by my mate and his pack, and by my own magic. I let him be this dominant Alpha for the crowd before us.

  ‘I do not doubt that, Mr Hunter. What I am saying is that Edvard’s plans include your mate here. I am not privy to what exactly those plans are but they do include Emilia.’

  ‘Do you have numbers?’ Chris demanded, barely containing his rage. He wasn’t angry at Claude, more at the fact that this interloper was trying to capture me. I wondered how it was that I knew that!

  ‘Not yet, people are still arriving. I should know more by tomorrow but I would hazard a guess in excess of three hundred, I believe.’

  ‘How does he propose to feed them all? That many bodies is going to cause a stir in the human community,’ another person who was unknown to me, said. I later learned that this was the previously absent due to injury Marco. He had very similar colouring to Ron and was very slightly slimmer.

  ‘I think they are bringing their ‘food’ with them.’

  ‘Have you an idea of when he’s likely to attack again?’ The question came from Ben this time.

  ‘Soon. In the next few days. He’s getting more tetchy with each day passing. I think this portal either has a time limit or it only becomes available for a short period of time,’ Claude shrugged in a very Gallic manner.

  ‘Can we count on you to back us in this matter? We can try to reach this tablet before him and move it somewhere else, or we can try to prevent him from getting to it in time, and keep him out of this city!’ Chris stated.

  Everyone agreed that they would back the New York pack in trying to prevent Edvard from obtaining the tablet, either within whatever timeframe he was working on, or by trying to find it ourselves and move it.

  As he was leaving, Greig paused before Chris and myself. He looked like it hurt him to say whatever he wanted to say.

  ‘We had tests done on
Peter. The doctors are completely stumped. He’s made a full recovery. I need you to thank that Shaya for us. If she needs anything, we’ll be there for her. We owe her big time. You too,’ he glanced my way. I nodded in thanks. Chris assured Greig that he would pass on his thanks to Shaya.

  Ben passed on everyone’s contact details to Chris, at their requests, and made sure Chris knew that he would back him as well. While he was usually the neutral party, preventing a nasty vampire from becoming a god was definitely on his list of exceptions to the neutrality rule.

  By the time we got back to Chris’s place we were both exhausted and collapsed on his bed.

  Graciela’s call woke me the next morning. She told me that I had an emergency meeting with Bradley Morgan from TitanCorp. I knew that my diary was free and wondered why I would need to have an emergency meeting. I let Chris know what was happening and his spider senses went on alert.

  ‘We know Edvard is gunning for you and what kind of company has an emergency meeting with their mineral finder? It’s not like they suddenly lost billions of dollars overnight, is it?’

  It was a rhetorical question but I shook my head anyway.

  ‘I’m coming with you. What time are you meeting this man, and where?’

  ‘At TitanCorp and in one hour. Down town.’ I said automatically and stopped. I was taking orders from him now? ‘And I didn’t ask you to come.’

  ‘No but you just learned that you have a bounty on your head and out of the blue this guy wants an emergency meeting? Too much coincidence for my liking,’ Chris watched me, waiting for my response.

  ‘Fine. But please don’t give me orders like I’m a pack member.’

  ‘Emilia, now that we’re mated you are a pack member but you are co-Alpha and I shouldn’t have tried to give an order. For that, I apologise,’ Chris drew me into his arms and kissed me soundly. The man was simply irresistible! When I’d finally come back to earth, we had showers, a quick bite and headed over to TitanCorp.

  Chris had let his pack know the address in the event that we went missing. We had arranged to call Ron at one o’clock, all being well.

  Bradley was waiting for us in reception when we entered the building. Rather than taking us up to his office, he asked whether we’d mind talking in the cafe next door. Neither of us minded.

  The cafe next door was stunning, chic and smelled divine. The menu was surprisingly reasonable for such an establishment. We ordered coffees and Bradley sat with us, looking around to make sure he didn’t recognise anyone.

  ‘I asked you to come because I’ve heard some disturbing things. This is not TitanCorp related. I heard Edvard is making a play for the city. Did I hear correctly?’ Bradley said after introductions were made.

  Nothing could have surprised me more than having someone I had known professionally for a few years make that comment.

  ‘You know about that?’ I was completely gobsmacked.

  ‘Of course! Why do you think I live in New York, if not to keep an eye on things,’ he sounded like this should not have been news. ‘Did Emilia senior never say anything?’

  My jaw seemed to have developed a life of its own at this point. This man before me, sounding as American as Chris, knew my great grandmother, who had never been to America, that I knew of.

  ‘Huh?’ It was all I could say, really. I think my brain believed someone was playing a joke on it.

  ‘Who are you?’ Chris said for us both. He had his hand on mine, which was on my lap, my body seeming to have lost all skeletal cohesion, hopefully temporarily.

  ‘I am...complicated. I am not on Edvard’s side, and that’s all you need to know for now. How the hell he found out about the tablet I will never know!’

  ‘You know about that too?’ This day just kept bringing the surprises.

  ‘Of course, who do you think....never mind. I need a plan. Can you hold him off, just until the second of May?’ Bradley glanced about again to make sure no one was listening.

  ‘Um...’ I turned to Chris. He nodded. Bradley sighed, his whole body seeming to relax.

  ‘Good. Good chap. I’ll see what I can do this end. Oh, and don’t get caught, Emilia. He needs an earth witch of great power and I can sense that your power has ramped up!’

  ‘Who are you?’ Chris asked again, disbelief in his voice.

  ‘I’m a friend, that’s all I can say at the moment. Must get back,’ he stood and threw a few notes on the table. ‘Really, do take care Emilia. Mr Hunter,’ he nodded and left. His accent kept switching between American and British. I had never noticed that before. Maybe it only happened when he was agitated.

  ‘What the heck just happened?’ I turned to Chris. He looked equally baffled and shrugged. We ordered bagels to go and went back to my place.

  Saskia came over that afternoon. She’d had another dream, this time more vivid and urgent than the previous ones. Whatever was going to happen was coming very soon.

  Chapter 12

  I only had one meeting that week, a potential new client. I had Graciela postpone it in case anything happened. Saskia’s bad feeling was rubbing off on me. I started to feel like I was being watched when I went grocery shopping.

  Remembering what happened last time I felt like that, I called Chris. He was in a meeting but had Shaya come and meet me at my apartment.

  ‘You’re right, you are being followed. See that man over there, wearing the long coat and sunglasses, very inconspicuous, not! He came along behind you and has been waiting there ever since you came in. I called Ron and he’s sending Oli over to sniff the guy out. Literally, as well as figuratively,’ she flashed a smile my way, making me relax a little. Just knowing one of the pack was coming made me feel safer. Having Shaya there made me feel even better.

  I still didn’t know the names of all the pack members yet, which was pretty bad. However, several of them had been out of town. Now all twenty of them were back, in case another stand-off occurred.

  The man across the street didn’t move until Oli made a point of staring at him, after he had taken in as much information about him as he could, including his scent. The man moved away a little, but still had a view of the front door of the building. It unnerved me more than a little.

  Chris arrived a few hours later, having finished his business.

  ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner, because of my absence a lot of things had changed which shouldn’t have. Alex had new suppliers and there was a lot of underhand business going on that needed stopped. I’d put it off long enough. Oli told me the guy is magical, possibly a witch or fae of some sort. Not a Were but he certainly has magic. He didn’t look or feel particularly strong. Apparently he vanished the moment my car came along, which means he knows who I am.’ Chris hugged me close. I leaned into him, taking in his scent and warmth. He really was the most wonderful man I had ever met. He felt like home.

  We all left via the back door, going to the warehouse. I spent the night there with Chris, enjoying his company.

  I had to go to the office the following day to look up a report another regular client had sent through. The company just wanted me to have the information in advance of the meeting, which was set for the following week.

  On the way back I felt a shiver travel down my spine, a moment before someone yanked my arm and a cloth was shoved in my face. I passed out after that.

  The next thing I was aware of was being in a well lit room with a man in a well tailored suit. My head was very fuzzy and I felt terrible, on the verge of throwing up but not quite able to. It felt like everything was moving through syrup.

  The man in the suit sat observing me for a few moments, at least I think it was moments, time seemed such a foreign concept.

  ‘Ms Anderson, I presume?’

  ‘How very Bond villain of you, Edvard, or should I call you Mr Smith?’ I scraped the words out. My tongue felt spongy and dry. ‘What did you give me?’

  ‘Just a little cocktail to ensure you can’t use any of your powers until I ne
ed them. I’m running out of time to retrieve what I’m looking for.’

  ‘I won’t help you find the tablet.’

  ‘So you know what I’m looking for?’ His voice had taken on a harder edge.

  ‘We know much more than you realise. You will never get your hands on it,’ I managed to raise my chin. My whole body seemed to weigh so much, as though I was physically weighed down. I tried to use my magic and pain engulfed me. My head felt like it was ripping apart from the inside.

  ‘Tut-tut, dear. You really shouldn’t try anything like that. I have accounted for anything you might try,’ Edvard smiled. I managed to focus on his face. Some would call him handsome; he had the greenest eyes of anyone I had ever seen and short, well kept dark blonde hair. He was lean and of above average height, holding a cigarette in one hand and a glass of something, possibly whisky, in the other. His lips were neither slim nor full but somewhere in between and they were currently upturned at one corner.

  ‘You really are a patronising prick, aren’t you? Dear.’ I shook my head and regretted the movement instantly.

  ‘I see manners were absent the day they were handing out graces.’

  ‘And common decency was absent the day you were born,’ I countered. He snorted.

  ‘You would like that, I think, to paint me as a monster, wanting to take over the world. That is not the case,’ he leaned closer. ‘I just want a tiny part for myself. Is that too much to ask?’

  ‘Yes, you egomaniacal twat, it is!’

  I started to shake uncontrollably and felt hands behind me lower me back onto the bed I seemed to be in.

  ‘She can’t be strained. The drugs won’t remain effective and if we give her a stronger dose it could kill her. It will certainly render her unable to use magic,’ a voice said from behind. I didn’t recognise this voice at all but that didn’t surprise me.

  ‘Fine, let her rest. I need her,’ Edvard sighed. I wanted to make a snide comment but all I could do was close my eyes as sleep reached up to grab me.

  I wasn’t sure how long I was asleep for but when I woke next I could hear noises around me and tried to open my eyes, only to discover that I was blindfolded. I could feel the wind on my skin and guessed that I was outside but I had no idea where.