Maxie Duncan Box Set

by Webb, Melissa L.

  The man howled in rage as bits of smoke rose up from his fingers. I pushed at his hands, afraid of what the light might do to me. As I struggled the light grew brighter, causing the man to grimace in pain. A boom like thunder sounded between us, and Mr. Creepy went flying backwards into the metal gates.

  Landing hard on the ground, he was up again in an instant. He hissed at me, his face contorting in rage. He showed long pointed teeth like a cat as he snarled. Funny how I hadn’t noticed them before.

  “You’re going to pay for that, bitch,” he growled through the fangs. “I was only going to have a little fun before. Now you suffer.” He hissed again, lunging at me. The elevator rocked with the force of his launch.

  I swayed, unbalanced in the moving cage and fell, nearly missing his hands as I tumbled to the floor.

  He looked down at me lying there and smiled, confident in his victory. He crouched next to me. “Looks like the old man needs to find a new hope for his future.”

  I sucked in air and started to scream, but no sound came out. I was that scared. It was over. This psycho was going to have his way with me and there was nothing I could do about it.

  He was on top of me in an instant, my world suddenly stopping around me as his hands roughly grabbed my neck and yanked me to him, his head lowering to mine. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he whispered, his voice husky with excitement.

  “Leave her,” a voice suddenly commanded around us.

  I squirmed underneath him, trying to see my savior. “Please, help me,” I begged. I moved my head enough to see who had joined us in the elevator and gasped.

  It wasn’t a who at all.

  The dark shadow from the fifth floor stood by the gates, its red eyes burning down at my assailant. The fury it was generating poured off it in thick waves.

  Mr. Creep-Jersey-guy turned his head, eyeing the creature. “What the hell? Beat it. I saw her first.”

  I couldn’t believe my eyes. Had the whole world gone crazy around me? A walking shadow was standing over us as a man with fangs tried to have his way with me. What did they put in the water in California?

  The man turned away from the shadow and smiled again, making me feel dirty in an instant. “I guess he likes to watch,” he said, bringing his mouth to my throat.

  “I said leave her!” the shadow creature boomed, jarring everything around us. It felt like a sonic wave had struck us.

  Growling, the man looked back over his shoulder at the dark shape. “And I said beat it.” It was a standoff of the weird kind and I wasn’t sure who would come out on top. After all, it wasn’t like a shadow had a body.

  The shadow thing moved forward, plunging his hands deep into Jersey’s back. The man screamed as red light oozed out of him, bathing him in a bloody aura. He shuddered and flung my head away with inhuman strength.

  I fell back, my head striking the floor with a sickening thud. My eyes lost their focus, and the man writhing in pain became blurry, then completely disappeared as my world turned to nothing but blackness.

  Twenty One

  “Uhhh,” I moaned and tried to roll over, but the cement block chained to my head kept me in place. I took a deep breath, shuddering as pain flared through my already incapacitated body.

  “Easy,” a voice said softly. “Don’t move. You’ve taken a pretty hard blow.” I felt hands on me, probing lightly through my hair.

  I moaned again, my eyelids fluttering as I tried to fight the hands. It was a losing battle. My eyelids were too heavy and the hands stayed where they were.

  “Relax, Max. He’s only trying to help,” a female voice told me from somewhere close by.

  “Van?” I asked blindly, thrilled I wasn’t alone.

  “Yes,” she answered, her voice strained. “Now stop moving and let him help you.”

  I laid still and let the hands move through my hair. I didn’t know why I couldn’t open my eyes, but if the hands could do anything about it, I’d let them.

  A faint murmuring joined the gentle probing. It didn’t sound English, but in this state, I was lucky I didn’t think I was speaking Dutch. The soft words went on a moment longer and then died, my pain going with it. I felt the fingers leave my scalp and I opened my eyes slowly, afraid the pain might come back any moment. It didn’t and I let my eyes focus on the familiar form leaning over me.

  “Hey,” Jensen said, smiling down at me. “Welcome back.”

  “Hi,” I said, feeling terribly confused. What was I doing here? I sat up on the couch I had been laying on. Jensen moved back, sitting on the coffee table next to me. I was in a living room, but not one I was familiar with.

  “You’re in Jensen’s apartment,” Van said from behind me. “He brought you here after he found you.”

  I turned around and looked at my roommate. She looked like she had been crying. Danny was standing with her and offered me a smile.

  Why did they all seem so concerned? You’d think someone had died or something. “What happened?” I asked.

  “You were attacked,” Van told me. “You were left in the elevator, bleeding.”

  So that would explain the pain in my head. I ran a hand through my hair near the scalp. It came away with sticky red, but I couldn’t find the cut. What was it that they said about wounds that didn’t hurt?

  “You’re okay now,” Jensen said. “I took care of it.”

  I barely even registered his words, I was too busy remembering the nightmare that occurred in the elevator. The guy in the suit wanting to have his way with me. I looked around at the others. “Did you stop him?” I asked in a rush. “What happened to the man in the suit?”

  They exchanged looks, none of them sure what they wanted to tell me. But I had to know. I needed to know if that pervert had touched me.

  “We don’t know what happened,” Danny told me finally. “When Jensen found you, you were alone.”

  I turned around and looked at Jensen, who only shrugged. “I stepped out into the hallway and heard a scream. You were lying in the elevator when I got there. I brought you here,” he told me, glancing away.

  I was alone? What happened to Jersey…and the red-eyed shadow? “There was a guy in there with me. He attacked me. I don’t know what I would have done, but this black shadow thing came in and stopped him.”

  The others stayed quiet around me, no doubt worrying that my head injury had caused permanent damage. I knew it sounded crazy, but that thing had been real. It had saved me.

  I looked at them, tears brimming in my eyes. “I know it sounds impossible, but I swear, that’s what happened.” I watched them exchange more glances, silently communicating with each other. They were probably wondering how fast the loony bin could get out here. “You don’t believe me,” I said softly.

  “No,” Van said quickly. “That’s not it at all. We believe you.”

  I glanced over at her. Was this some kind of trick to pacify me? Were they just humoring me to get me to go quietly?

  “It must have been something you manifested subconsciously,” Jensen told me.

  I looked at him in shock. Was he making fun of me? It was real. “I saw it. It pulled that psycho off me.”

  He nodded, a serious look on his face. “I believe you. You needed help and your powers found a way.”

  Maybe I wasn’t the one the loony bin should come for. “My powers? Are you kidding me?”

  “Stop and think about it, Maxie,” Danny spoke from behind me. “Things happen to you all the time that you can’t explain, don’t they?”

  I sat there in silence, trying to push down the dread rising up in me. So what? Weird things liked to happen to me? Big deal. Just because I got hunches about things didn’t mean anything. Neither did flinging drinks or floating off the ground. Did it?

  I looked up at Jensen, who was watching me carefully. “So…what? You think I’m some sort of magician?”

  He smiled slightly. “You’re a witch, Maxie Duncan. It’s who you are.”

  I couldn’t believe the wor
ds coming out of his mouth. This had to be a dream. I was still knocked unconscious on the floor of the elevator and this was all in my head. It had to be. Stuff like this didn’t happen in the real world.

  “Why would you even think that?” I asked Jensen, trying to understand where this was coming from.

  He shrugged. “Because it’s true,” he said mater-of-factly. “I know you’re a witch, Maxie, because I’m one, too.”

  And just like that, my world changed forever.

  Twenty Two

  Have you ever had someone tell you something that just couldn’t be true? And seem so very, very sincere about it? It leaves you in a moment of flux, wondering who to believe and where that leaves you in the reality of your world.

  I sat there in that moment trying to convince myself this was all a lie. That I needed to get up, pack my bags, and get away from these people as fast as I could. But I couldn’t. Part of me knew the truth when I heard it. Things happened to me all the time that I couldn’t explain. Deep down I knew they were right about one thing; I was different.

  But a witch? Really? I didn’t know if I was ready to get aboard the crazy train.

  “I know this is hard to believe, Max,” Van said, sitting down next to me. “It’s never easy when you’re brought into this world this late in life, but it’s true. You are a supernatural being. You are a witch.” She gave me a small smile. “It really isn’t a bad thing if you think about it.”

  I looked at her for a moment. “Are you saying you’re a part of this, too?”

  “Yes. I am.” She glanced over at Danny. “We both are.”

  “So…you’re witches, too?”

  “Good Gods, no,” Danny said quickly. “Witches are so pedestrian.”

  “Thanks, buddy,” Jensen said sarcastically.

  “Well, it’s true. Witches are just humans that have mutated into something else. We come from a long line of purity.”

  “Right,” Jensen said, rolling his eyes. “Like there’s anything pure about you.”

  I ignored the boy’s bantering and studied Van for a moment. Whatever was going on, she believed it. She wasn’t lying to me. She wasn’t playing me like the dumb blonde I thought they were. She was telling me the truth. I could sense that with 100% clarity. That only left one question. What was she really?

  Her smiled became less forced as she realized I believed her.

  I sighed, taking it all in. I wasn’t human and neither were my friends. “What are you?” I asked Van, curiosity getting the better of me.

  “I’m a pixie,” she told me in all seriousness.

  I couldn’t help myself. A laugh escaped my lips. “Like Tink? Aren’t you a little tall?”

  The look she gave me stopped my laugh completely. “I can be small when I need to be. But I’ll have you know, contrary to popular belief; this is the normal size for a pixie.”

  “Oh,” I said, completely thrown off by her.

  “And I’m a Trickster,” Danny told me proudly. “I am the only one on the West Coast.”

  Hmm, a trickster and a pixie? I’m sure there was a joke in there somewhere. I mentally shook myself when I realized I was buying into all of this. Where was the proof? Was this real or was I suffering from a concussion somewhere? These were way too many things for me to answer right now.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Van said. “I was thinking it the first time I was told I was a pixie. You want proof.” She turned from me, concentrating on Jensen’s apartment around us. She waved her hand and just like that,…flowers bloomed everywhere.

  Reds, yellows, oranges, pinks, and whites all swirled together, every shape and size, closing in on us like a floral shop gone wrong. The scent was cloying, too many mashed together to be enjoyable.

  “Great. Now my apartment will stink for weeks,” Jensen said, closing his eyes. He took a deep breath and the flowers were gone. I would have never even known they had been there if it wasn’t for the lingering smell permeating everything. Jensen was right. He’d be lucky if the smell ever came out.

  I tried to focus on the bigger picture here. Van had made flowers appear and Jensen had sent them away. This was real. They had powers, and that meant I did, too. I turned and looked at Danny. “What can you do, Mr. Trickster?”

  His smile was bright enough to power the whole city. “Oh, I can do a lot of things,” he said mischievously. He gave me an exaggerated wink, and suddenly I was no longer in Jensen’s apartment.

  My jaw dropped open as I took in the sights around me. I was sitting alone on a park bench in the warm evening breeze, staring up at the Eiffel Tower. Dusk was setting in and her lights were just beginning to glow.

  I stood up quickly, glancing around at the people strolling in the icon’s shadow, enjoying a memorable evening. I couldn’t believe this. How had I arrived here? Could Danny really send people places? This was amazing.

  I was in Paris!

  I mean, I had been here before, but…to get here by magic, that just made the experience even better. I stepped forward, wanting to live the moment. After all, who knew how long Danny would let me stay here. I mean if he could send me, he could bring me back.

  As I moved forward, eyes on the sparkling tower, I felt hands clamp down on my arms. I jumped, seeing nothing around me. I was standing alone on a path in the park. I tried to move again, but the hands held firm, keeping me in place. What was holding me?

  If witches, pixies, and tricksters-oh my!-were real, didn’t that mean other things had to be real as well? Something must have seen me pop in. Something too eager to have a little fun with the new witch on the block. I could only imagine what kind of terrible creatures stalked the night here.

  I panicked, lashing out at the fingers curled around my arms, digging my nails in. Maybe my powers weren’t something I could control, but I was a girl, and I knew how to use a manicure.

  “Oh, damn it, Maxie,” a voice cried out in front of me. “I didn’t want you to run into the coffee table.”

  Paris rippled around me, the scene melting into nothing more than a blur. Suddenly it dropped away, leaving me staring straight into Danny’s face. “What…” I began, looking around Jensen’s living room, confused. “What happened?”

  “I stopped you from cracking your head open when you tripped over the coffee table.”

  “But…you mean…” I stammered, glancing at Van and Jensen standing nearby. “I was here? The whole time?”

  Jensen nodded as Van spoke, “You never left the living room.”

  I was stunned. “But I was in Paris, near the Eiffel Tower. I could hear the people. Feel the evening breeze.” I looked at all of them, eyes wide. “I could even smell the scent of fine food drifting in on that breeze.”

  Danny shook his head. “Never happened. It was only an illusion. You’ve been here the entire time.” He watched the disbelief skitter across my face and smiled. “That’s what I do. I trick people. I can make them believe anything I want.”

  “Anything?” I repeated, trying to cope with the meaning of the word.

  He shrugged, stepping away from me. “Pretty much.”

  Van grabbed my hand, pulling me back to the couch. As we sat back down, she watched me with sympathetic eyes. She knew what a shock this was. “Enchantment Cove is a safe haven for Supernaturals. Everyone who lives here is one.”

  “Everyone?”

  She nodded. “Yes, everyone. It was no coincidence you found your way here, Maxie. You are one of us.”

  Twenty Three

  I sat down on my bed, taking a deep breath. I couldn’t get over this. I wasn’t human. Why hadn’t my parents told me? Did they even know the truth? Too many questions poured through my mind, all swirling around one single thought.

  I was a witch.

  I changed quickly into my pajamas. I was glad Ryan had called to cancel our date. A slight emergency had come up requiring his attention for the evening. I was more than happy to let him off the hook. After all, how could I even expect to focus o
n anything right then? Even something as wonderful as him?

  Oh, no. Ryan!

  What was I going to tell him? This was something that could ruin everything. I could just see it. “Hey, I’m a witch. You still want to be with me?”

  Ryan Everheart, America’s golden boy, would run as fast as he could in the other direction. And I wouldn’t blame him. He could have any girl he wanted. There was no reason to stay with someone he thought was crazy. Or worse than that…a freak.

  No. I knew our relationship was doomed the moment I woke up in this strange new world. I just hadn’t wanted to admit it to myself. I guess I could try to hide it from him. Or maybe just forget this new part of me. Ryan was quickly becoming the most important thing in my life. Was I really ready to give up on that? Just for something I may or may not be able to do?

  That’s what I needed to know. What could I really do? And was it something I could give up?

  Grabbing a scented candle from my shelf, I set it down on the night stand. Sitting back down, I focused on its wick. If I was really a witch, I should be able to light the candle using nothing but my will. I had seen it done plenty of times in the movies. It looked simple enough.

  I cleared my mind of everything but the candle. I stared at the unblemished white wick, concentrating so hard my eyes were about to cross. In my mind, I let one word repeat over and over.

  Light. Light.

  After what seemed like an eternity, I pulled back, closing my eyes from the strain. Disappointment swam through me. I couldn’t even light one little candle. What good was I as a witch? Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to give it up for Ryan.

  Taking a deep breath, I tried again. It was the least I could do before I wrote off this new life forever. I stared at the candle for a moment and then closed my eyes; picturing it in my mind with perfect clarity. I then imagined holding a match to it. I needed the light from the flame. I yearned for the heat it offered. I wanted fire, and I wanted it now.

  I suddenly felt heat against me. I smiled, knowing the flame was really there, dancing before me. I opened my eyes and gasped in terror. My nightstand was on fire.