by Jack Crosby
The Witch Wars: Volume 1
Jacoby’s Revenge
By Jack Crosby
Second Edition
Crosby Entertainment, 2016
Please do not re-distribute this book
in any way or format for
commercial purposes
or change the content.
This book is a work of fiction.
All of the names, places,
and events that occur are from
the author’s imagination.
Any resemblance to an actual
person, alive or dead, place,
historical event, or business establishment
is purely coincidental.
Cover image by Dark Moon Press
Formatting by Gen X Formatting Solutions
ISBN: 978-1536842500
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
The Witch Wars: Volume 1
Chapter 1 – The Zane Twins
Chapter 2 – The Safe House
Chapter 3 – Rest Stop Rescue
Chapter 4 – Hitchhiker
Chapter 5 – Merlin the Grumpy Old Wizard
Chapter 6 – An Old Friend
Chapter 7 – Battle for the Conchs
Chapter 8 – My Inner Demon
Chapter 9 – Cas and Tyra: The Update
Chapter 10 – Drop On In
Chapter 11 – Chumming the Water
Chapter 12 – The Flying Dutchman
Chapter 13 – Davey Jones
Chapter 13 – My Weird Family
Chapter 14 – Mermaid Deals
Chapter 15 – Ill Omens
Chapter 16 – In a Bad Way
Chapter 17 – Divine Intervention
Chapter 18 – House Crashers
Chapter 19 – The Choice
Chapter 20 – A Tale of Two Brothers
Chapter 21 – Time to Regroup
Chapter 22 – Angelic Consequences
Chapter 23 – Church by the Sea
Chapter 24 – A Pirate’s Life for Me
Chapter 25 – The Choices We Make
Chapter 26 – The Funeral
Chapter 27 – Merlin’s Rebuttal
Chapter 28 – The Return of Derrick Grimm
Chapter 29 – Full Throttle
Chapter 30 – The Falls of Sorrow
Chapter 31 – The Old One
Chapter 32 – Of Gods and Men
Epilogue – Six Months Later…
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About the Author:
The Witch Wars: Volume 1
Jacoby’s Revenge
Leaving the Garden of Eden, Oz finds himself mixed up
in a situation that goes beyond trying to find his brother.
The first two allies he meets, Caspian and Cassandra Zane
each come with their own baggage. As Oz tries to come to
terms with everything that’s happening, in the shadows the
witch Morgan Le Fey gathers more power with the help of
her knight Jacoby…
Chapter 1 – The Zane Twins
I eyed the girl standing in my house. There was something definitely off with her. “You can help me find my brother? How?”
I don’t think she was purposefully using her sexuality, but as the child of a Lust demon, I tended to bring that out in girls. Her breasts were hovering right on the edge of popping out, not that she seemed to care. “All will be revealed soon enough Oz. I just need you to trust me.”
She used that word again – trust. “Why is it so important for me to trust you this minute?”
“I can’t tell you everything until I know I have your trust.” Her green eyes were pleading with me to say I did. “I promise you I mean you no harm. You’re the last person on Earth I’d harm.”
I let my celestial fire go and the sword disappeared. Taking a deep breath, I sat down with her. “Alright Cassandra, you’ve intrigued me enough to listen.”
She reached across with her hand, but I jerked mine away. Something still wasn’t right. She looked hurt by the movement, yet I needed to be cautious for my own good. Dad said I’d have lots of enemies here.
Hiding her expression, “The first thing you need to know if I’m a witch.”
Oh shit, witches. On the long list of things dad told me to avoid, witches were A Number One. His words were clear as day – “Don’t get messed up in any witch shit Oz. They aren’t to be trusted.”
And here I was sitting at our old kitchen table with a witch. I hadn’t even been here a half hour yet and I was already on a stellar track. “If you know who my dad is, then you know the family position on witches.”
“My master warned me about that. He said the Grimms weren’t especially fond of magic users.”
“Who’s your master?” Curiosity got the better of me and I fired the question off before thinking. “Not that you need to tell me or anything.”
She took this as a sign of a trust building opportunity. “He’s part of the reason I’m here. You’ll get to meet him soon enough, so there’s no harm in telling you who he is.” Her purple lips turned up into a smile. “I train under the very best wizard the world’s ever seen. My master is none other than Merlin.”
“You’re shitting me?” There I went again, speaking before thinking. In an attempt to not destroy her feelings already, “Not that I don’t believe you, but he’s got to be like a thousand years old.”
She reached into her coat and pulled out something that looked like an old CD from back in the day. “He said you’d be skeptical, so we come up with a way to show proof.” She placed the disc on the table and waved her hand over it. The disc sparked red and then a grizzled old man’s face appeared.
Damnit, he looked just like a guy named Merlin should. Bushy white eyebrows, a long beard, with a face chiseled out of stone. “Young Reaper, my name is Merlin, royal magician to Arthur and well fuck it. If you don’t know who I am, go get a history book.”
I sat there in a state of shock. “Wasn’t expecting that.”
Cassandra shushed me. The crotchety old wizard continued. “Cassandra here has been given the task to find you and recruit you to our cause. After my little intro video ends, she’ll give you the details.” The image zoomed in close to his face. “You’ve been picked for a reason. There’s a war on the horizon, one that will change the world. I’ll see you soon young Reaper.”
He blinked out, leaving the room dark again with just me and Cassandra. “Don’t mind him, he’s just antsy with Morgan Le Fey running around.”
I knew enough of my history to know she was the mother of all witches. Something big was brewing. “So Miss Cassandra, you’ve gone to great lengths to make a point to me. What’s really happening?”
“Le Fey is recruiting an army of witches and demons in an attempt to take over the world.” She laughed like it was nothing. “She tries this sort of thing once or twice a century. The problem is this time she’s recruited a lieutenant that actually gives her a chance.”
“Jacoby?”
I don’t know why his name came to me that quickly. And more disturbing was a brief mental image of my long lost brother dressed again in his black armor. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
She nodded at my question. “Yes Oz, your brother has been with Morgan ever since he abandoned Sabrina some years ago.” Talk about a day I’d never forget. “Together they have done quite well operating in the shadows, gaining power.”
Absent-mindedly, I was drawing circles with my finger on the table as my mind wandered. “Shit.” It was all I could say.
“Fear not, for Merlin has seen a way to avoid a catastrophe and that’s why I’m here.” She stood up and walked over to me, dropping to a knee so she could look at me closely. It was a little offsetting. “Two people have been chosen to take up arms against Morgan. Together they are stronger than they could ever been apart.”
Heat started building up around my neck. “Cassandra, what exactly do you mean?”
Her hand gripped mine. “In a dream I’ve had since I was fifteen, I’ve seen my chosen and at his side, the two of us defeat Morgan, ending The Witch Wars.” Uh oh, I had a bad feeling about this. “Oz Grimm, I’ve waited patiently for you to return from Eden so I could find you.”
This was too much too quick. “You’ve been dreaming about me?”
Her eyes told the story. “Almost every night for the past seven years. I can’t believe I’m here with you now, holding your hand…”
This just added to the surreal nature of what was quickly becoming the oddest day I’d ever dealt with. “That’s gre-” Before I could finish, someone else entered the house. The man, who looked a lot like Cassandra, casually entered the kitchen.
He looked jumpy. “Sis, you said it wouldn’t take this long. We gotta move, and fucking quickly.”
Cassandra saw my confusion. “Oz, this is my twin brother Caspian, but just call him Cas.” He gave a short wave. “Unlike me, he’s just a human with an extraordinary ability to act as a getaway driver.”
“Are we in some kinda trouble?”
Neither Cassandra nor her brother Cas answered that question. Nope, my question was sufficiently answered by loud yelling from outside the house. “All inside, come out with your hands up!”
Human police? “What the hell is going on?”
Cas pulled out a very unique looking pistol. When we weren’t under the threat of the law, I’d have to ask him about that. “Morgan has his claws everywhere. Maybe when you used your magic to activate Merlin’s message, it set off a warning or something.”
Another call from the cops echoed around. “This is your last chance before we come in hot. Surrender now or else.”
Cassandra closed her eyes and a low, blue light radiated off her hands. She took a short, sharp gasp. “This is most certainly Morgan’s magic at play.” When she reopened her eyes, she looked pissed. Fierce even.
Like a large cat walking towards prey, she strutted out of the kitchen and through the front door. Caspian and I were right behind her. “What’s she going to do?”
“She’s about to drop the bomb.”
Cassandra stopped on the stoop out front and all the cops who were there pointed their guns at her. The blue light I saw earlier exploded, sending out a concussive force towards our enemies. All the cops in the street were knocked back. And none of them were getting up.
I ran over to her. “Did you kill them?”
“No, they are merely knocked out.”
That was a relief. “We should probably get going, huh?”
Caspian had his keys out and parted between us. “Best idea I’ve heard tonight.” He pointed to the Camaro on the other side of the street. It was vintage, but it looked impeccable. “Quit ogling her and let’s go.”
I did as I was asked, wondering to myself if he was talking about the car or his sister?
Chapter 2 – The Safe House
Cas’s Camaro stopped about thirty minutes outside of Philly, in some rural Pennsylvania farm town. Dad hadn’t really felt the need to explore the areas outside the city, so I was already kind of lost. Nice one Oz, way to start this adventure out on the right foot.
Off to our left was an old farmhouse and to the right a barn. Cas dropped me and his sister off at the house and proceeded to pull into the barn. We waited for him, as I was in no real hurry to go into the house alone with a witch. He pulled the doors shut and rejoined us. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go get something to eat.”
Cassandra immediately went inside and opened the fridge door in the small kitchen. It was stocked with plenty of food; everything from steaks to burgers and I even think I saw brownies. My stomach rumbled – it’d been awhile since I ate real human food. No offense to the cooks in Eden, but fresh vegetables weren’t exactly exciting.
Before I knew it, three sets of plates were being put down on the old wooden table. Steak and potatoes were waiting for us and it wasn’t long after Cas tore into his than did I join him.
The twin brother seemed to be enjoying his meal. “Fuck this is good Cassandra. You’re coming along on your seasoning technique.”
I too was enjoying the meal, but I kept my mouth shut. I was the stranger here and I very much felt out of place. Cassandra looked over at me to prompt a response. “Is it okay Oz?”
“Yeah, this beats the stuff from the Garden any day.”
Cas dropped his fork. “You mean my sis wasn’t bullshitting me when she said you’ve been living in the Garden? Fuck me…”
I pushed a potato around the plate. “Yeah, my dad made a deal with the higher-ups and got my step mom and me a place there.” Though Roxanne wasn’t my birth mom (I’d never meet her), she was as good a mom as one could ask for. “It was nice while it lasted, but I have to find my brother and set things right.”
As siblings, they seemed to understand that. I got the impression something happened between them, yet neither offered any clues. As for my brother Jacoby, it was weird. He was in fact my step brother, him being half Nyx where I’m half Lust demon. The last time I saw him, we were engaged in a sword fight that ended with me besting him. Instead of seeing reason, he disappeared.
Cassandra had already given me my first clue. A witch named Morgan took him. It was hard to believe that witches and wizards from King Arthur’s time were still here.
My silence hadn’t gone unnoticed. “You sure did pick a quiet one Cassandra.”
“We really didn’t have time for a proper introduction. I just threw as much at him as possible.”
That was an understatement. “Between my brother working for Morgan Le Fey and you being an apprentice or whatever to Merlin, yeah, I’d say you threw a lot at me.” It came out a bit harsher than I wanted it to. “I don’t mean to be pissy, it’s just this isn’t how I saw things happening.”
Cas laughed. “Cheer up Oz! You’re with the Zane Twins now, what could possibly go wrong?”
“Caspian, don’t jinx us like that!”
His sister practically jumped out of her seat, pointing a fork at him. “Whoa sis, take a fucking chill pill okay? Us normal folk don’t believe in all that weirdo superstitious stuff.”
She slowly sat back down, though the fork remained raised. “You’d do better to believe in it. What you scoff at as hokum and nonsense one day will bite you in your ass.”
It was at this moment I really took in the Zane Twins. Like his sister, Caspian had green eyes and longer hair. His was a bleached white that looked very much natural. He was lanky and a bit taller than the two of us. Cassandra was a few inches taller than me, but that had mostly to do with the leather boots she was sporting. Their accents were subtle, but I couldn’t quite place them.
The major difference was the mojo coming off her. Cas was just that, a regular old human. Cassandra, she had major amounts of energy underneath her exterior. I was pretty sure that demonstration she used on the cops outside my old house was just the tip of the iceberg. Again, I wasn’t sure how I felt being around a witch, especially one that seemed super powered.
After dinner, Cas retreated out to the barn under the pretenses of working on his car. I knew better, he wanted to give his sister time to really read me into what was going on without his constant interruption.
The two of us were seated in the small living room. I was just waiting for her to pick her story back up. She didn’t seem to be in any hurry. “So, what’s next?”
She came back from whatever little dreamscape she’d been visiting. “Oh right, yes, what’s next.” She tapped her chin for a moment. “If it is okay with you, I�
�d like to introduce you to Merlin in person, that way he can really explain things to you.”
I guess that was okay. “Where is Merlin?”
“His home base is in London, but since Morgan has moved on to the new world this time, he transferred as well.” She pulled out her smart phone and clicked on the maps app. “We need to go here, the Georgetown district of Washington, D.C.”
From the stories my dad told me, he once had a caper himself in D.C. It seemed only fitting for my journey to go there too. “That’s not too far from here. If we leave early tomorrow, we should miss a lot of traffic.”
“Right.” Her mind started to drift again. “Oz, about that other thing I said…”
“Listen Cassandra, you seem like a super cool girl. What you said earlier, let’s just leave it alone for the time being and try to get to Merlin okay?”
She gave a short nod and stood up. “That seems like wise advice.” Her voice had gone a bit cold. “Using my magic has taken a toll on me. I think I will turn in for the evening.” And just like that she left, headed upstairs to the bedrooms.
I was wide awake, so I was in no hurry to leave. I sat there idly for a bit before I heard Cas enter the house again. He saw that I was by myself. “Where did Cassandra go?”
“She went to bed, said she was tired.”
“Shit.” He plopped down beside me. “You turned her down didn’t you?”
Was this Twintuition? “I just said now wasn’t the time to talk about things.”
He rolled his head around his shoulders. “Oz, I’m with ya here. I’ve been telling her she can’t just go up to some random stranger and say hey we’re destined to be together and blah blah blah.” His head snapped back up. “But, you gotta remember, she’s a witch and they do things differently.”
Nothing like getting myself into the middle of something stupid. Neither dad nor Roxanne had given me great advice when it came to girls. “What would you do? You seem like a smart guy.”
“How old are you? Eighteen, nineteen?”