by Amy Boyles
Kate jutted out a hip. “Go look.”
I moved toward the window. Trick-or-treaters had taken over the street. Transparent entities floated among them. “Vordrid! Come over here!”
The 8 Ball flew toward the window. “Oh dear! This is frightening but not unexpected. It’s Halloween, Andie. The power of the night is upon us. The paranormal activity will only get worse before it gets better.”
I bit down on my lip. What choice did I have? I might need the power of the three in case something went bad.
Kate swung an arm over my shoulder. “You need me, Andie. Normal needs me, and the world needs us.”
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Dot came in from the kitchen. “She’s right, Andie. We need to do this together. That’s the best and only way, the real meaning of Christmas.”
“It’s not Christmas, Dot.”
She glanced around as if surprised. “It’s not? Oh, I thought it was.” She clasped her hands beneath her chin. “Anyway, we need to get this done together. I’ve already transported the magic in the cans over to the square. I’m one step ahead, as always.”
And one or two thoughts behind.
Trust me, I did not say that out loud.
I sat down on the couch and pulled on my boots. “Isn’t someone going to notice the cans and say something?”
Vordrid bobbed on the wooden coffee table. “Dot cast a spell to make them look like extra shrubbery.”
“Good idea.” I rose. “Okay, I’m going into town to start patrolling. Who’s coming with me?”
Kate raised her hand. “I am! I’m coming.”
“I’ll be right behind,” Dot said.
I lifted my palms in a stop gesture. “Whoa, there. Hold on a minute. Someone’s got to watch Gabby. She can’t be left alone. Dot, your power of the three is going to have to be in those cans.”
Dot poked at her pink hair. “Andie, dear, Gabby will be fine by herself.”
“She’s two years old. She won’t be fine. Promise me you’ll stay here.”
She whimpered something I couldn’t hear.
“Dot, you’re staying here,” I commanded, “and I won’t hear another word about it. Kate, you’re with me. Vordrid, I need you here, too, in case I have to channel you for any help.”
“What about the book?” Vordrid said.
I lifted my arm and opened my hand. “Come.” From its place in the closet, the book rocketed through the house until it snapped into my palm. Its leather binding felt good, kind of like an old friend who sucks your life away one sip at a time.
“Let’s roll,” I said.
We reached town right as a light drizzle set in. Kate craned her neck at the throng of people who flooded the streets. “So what are we looking for?”
“Vampires.”
“That narrows it down.”
A commotion stirred up ahead. Glass broke, and I heard someone shouting. A second later a dark creature wearing a black hood floated by.
“Was that?” Kate said.
I nodded. “A ghost.”
Sheriff Terry Terry walked past, clearly not in the mood to chase down the creature. He was a thin man with a full head of salt-and-pepper hair, dark eyes and a constant frown.
“Sheriff Terry,” I said.
He nodded at me and sauntered over. “I’m sick of these kids playing with drones. They’re stirring up all kinds of trouble tonight.”
I bit my lip. “Yeah, you could say that.” I watched as the ghost whizzed down the street. “You going to chase it?”
He shrugged. “What do you want me to do about it? I can’t catch that thing. When I get my hands on whoever’s doing it, they’re going to be in a heap of trouble.” He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and lit one up. “Y’all have a good night.”
When he was out of earshot, I turned to Kate. “Well, it looks like we don’t have to worry about the local officials. Terry’s not going to do anything about the vampire/demon meet and greet.”
Kate hoisted her cauldron up on her arm. “He might not, but I’m ready to get this party started. I’ve been working on focusing my magic to help you.”
“Thanks, Kate. Come on, let’s go find Stone. This town is about to be in the biggest mess ever.”
We found Stone a little while later.
“Hey,” I said.
He squeezed my hand. “Hi.”
We stared at each other for a super long moment.
“Hi,” Kate chirped.
That broke the magic. Leave it to a woman with a ticking baby-making clock to snap me back into reality.
We headed straight over to the town square, which was crawling with kids.
“Any idea where the cans of magic are?” Kate whispered.
“No clue. All I know is they’re a bunch of bushes.”
Stone quirked a brow. “How are you going to use them, then?”
Crap. I’d forgotten to ask Dot that.
“I’m going to release them,” a voice said from beside me.
I jumped with fright. “Ah!”
Dot blinked innocently at me. “What are you so afraid of, dear? Andie, we really need to get you out more.”
Frustration seized me. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be taking care of Gabby.”
Dot turned around. Lying in a baby holder strapped to her back lay a sleeping Gabby.
I scrunched up my fists and mashed them into my thighs. “You brought a baby to a vampire fight? Not just any baby, my baby. Are you crazy?”
Dot wiggled her fingers at me. “Andie, when you were little, you used to come with me on my vampire fights.”
“No, I didn’t. I didn’t even know that you used to be a hunter until this week.”
She shrugged. “It sounded good anyway.”
I massaged my temples. “Dot, please leave with Gabby. I’m begging you not to stay.”
“You need the power of the three, Andie. Otherwise you won’t be able to break the spell of the book.”
I sucked my cheeks in annoyance. “I’ll be fine, Dot. Please leave before they get here.”
A cold hand gripped my arm. I glanced over at Kate. Her face had paled to a sheet. “I think it’s too late for that.”
“Why?”
She pointed to a statue of an angel. On one side stood Oscar the Vampire and a hoard of about twenty bloodsuckers. Ringing the other side was a flock of demons. Horns protruded from their faces, and their noses were short, piglike snouts. Rings pierced their nostrils and skin in the weirdest of places—cheeks, foreheads. None of them looked happy.
I took a deep breath.
It was go time.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Try not to judge another’s intentions.”
—The Witch’s Handbook
* * *
“Wait until you see Star,” Stone said, grabbing my shoulder. “I’ll take her and draw them away.”
Worry stitched my brows together. “You’re going to take on the demons? I mean, you said that, but I didn’t believe you.”
He nodded. “I’ll be fine. You can’t fight them all.”
“I wasn’t going to try to,” I mumbled.
He kissed my forehead, leaving a blaze on my skin. “Yes, you were.” His gaze flickered back to the crowd. “There she is.”
And there she was—as gorgeous and ethereal as Stone. Star had long, flowing blonde hair and white robes—angel robes, I suppose they were. She had a dazed look in her eyes, which made me think the vampires had drugged her all week. That made sense. If she was unable to react, she couldn’t get away.
“Boy, I’d hate to compete with her at a bar,” Kate said. I shot her a look. Kate shrugged. “What? I would.”
“Go,” I said to Stone.
It all happened in a flash. Stone raced at superhuman speed toward the statue. He cut between the vampires and grabbed Star.
The lead demon roared. They took after Stone, leaving the vampires all alone.
I glanced at Dot and yelled, “Now!”
She raised her hands, but nothing happened. No explosion, no magic for me to draw on. No magic from cans exploding into the night.
“Now!”
She grimaced. “Those might not have been magic in a cans.”
Panic clawed up my throat. “What?”
“They might have expired. Or been empty. I can’t remember. I thought I put my magic in cans, but maybe not.”
Crap! The vampires turned to me. Their leader, the balding coroner, Oscar Snare, sneered. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Even if we lose the angel, we’ll hand the hunter over to the demons.”
He took a step forward. “You don’t think it was coincidence that you found out about tonight, do you? It’s been my plan from the start. Hand over the angel and the vampire hunter. Give the demons two toys to play with.” Oscar glanced around. “Ready, boys?”
I had to buy some time.
“Good try, Snare,” I yelled, slowly dropping my backpack so I could reach the soccer ball. “You became a vampire and have been using your daughter to bring your food. Using at-risk boys to feed yourself. And from the looks of it, to create your little army.” I took a step forward. “You know, it took me a while to figure it out, and I wondered how you got that old flyer, but you conned Edith good, didn’t you? Convinced her you were a good vamp. You had to.”
Oscar opened his mouth. Sharp fangs sprouted down, breaking through his gums. “It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. The veil is ripped. Normal doesn’t belong to you anymore. It belongs to us.”
I quirked a brow. “Want a bet?” My fingers brushed the soccer ball. I yanked it from the pack, pressed the button, and threw it in the air. I waited for sunbeams to burst through the seams and wound the entire spread of vampires.
The ball fell to the ground with a thud. It hadn’t worked.
Dot grimaced. “I guess I didn’t charge it,” she said apologetically.
I just—I didn’t even know what to say.
Dot yelled, “Join the three.”
I pulled on their power, infusing it into me. I channeled the stream toward the vampires. I wanted to lasso the group together, to make it easier to dispose of them, but instead they scattered.
The magical chain broke. Let’s face it; I didn’t have much confidence in it anyway.
There was only one chance. I had to drain the book of all its power.
I opened my hands and yelled, “Open!”
The handbook whipped out of my pocket and hovered in the air. Its cover peeled back as a magical current flooded out of it, draining into me. There were maybe twenty vampires, the most I’d ever faced off against. It would take every ounce of power to destroy them. I closed my eyes, preparing to take all the magic the book had to offer.
Then it happened. One of the vamps, fangs flashing, launched himself straight for Dot. My aunt lifted her arms, but at the same time she tripped, which sent her sailing forward.
Gabby was completely exposed.
The vampire flew toward my daughter, canines ready to sink into her flesh. I pulled the power of the book into me and threw myself directly in the path of the creature.
Fangs grazed my skin, but I didn’t feel them puncture. That was weird. I figured I’d be vampire soup with those nasty canines hooked into me.
With the power of the book instilled in every pore, I conjured the witch stake from my fists. The magic enveloped the vampire in a golden halo, and half a beat later he turned into a cloud of dust.
I made sure Gabby and Dot where okay; then I turned and faced the rest of the flock of vampires.
“Okay. Who’s next?”
I actually didn’t wait for a reply because, you know, I’m a hunter and all and I really didn’t care what they had to say or wanted or any of that stuff. I fed off the power, filtering it into my body like liquid electricity. The magic zipped from my hands and sank into the crowd of bloodsuckers, engulfing them before they even had a chance to blink.
My power pierced the vampires and sent them back to heaven or hell or wherever, in clouds of spraying dust. The night stilled. I paused, taking a minute to think about those young men. Oscar had used his daughter on the fragile, those on the verge of delinquency.
What a creep.
“Missed someone,” a voice called from the statue. Oscar hugged the angel. One hand gripped the tip of a stone wing.
“I’ve got plenty of power left, Oscar,” I said. “I can get you.” I raised my hands. The electricity running from my fingers sparked and then fizzled.
I shook my hands. A sparkler-sized amount of power danced on my fingertips. It petered out with a low whistle.
“Crap,” I said. “That’s never happened before.”
“I’ll get you, hunter.” Oscar lunged from the angel, flying toward me.
I glanced back at Dot and Kate. “Get Gabby out of here. I’ll handle him.” I didn’t wait to see if they had listened as a dark blob of a man hurtled into me, knocking the wind from my lungs and forcing me across the ground.
I skidded over the grass and landed at the base of a fence with a thud.
Oscar scratched at my neck. “Thought you could defeat me, did you?”
I pushed him away. “Technically I got rid of your minions, so I sort of did.”
“Fool! You can’t defeat a vampire.”
Since when did he start talking like he was from the eighteenth century?
The garlic spray pressed into my back. I reached for it as Oscar cocked back his fist. Vampires are strong, crazy strong. Once one of them gets the upper hand, it’s almost impossible to win it back—unless you’re skilled. Which I used to be until I felt pain shoot through my jaw. The jerk had knocked me in the face. I saw stars and bars.
I kicked his groin. It didn’t even faze him. Oscar pinned my arms and sank his teeth toward my neck.
I pushed, but the bloodsucker was too strong. He would get me. I, Andie Taylor, vampire hunter, would be taken down by a middle-aged balding vamp who’d created a ring of teenagers to do his bidding.
There was just something really wrong with that statement.
A shadow loomed overhead. Next thing I knew, Oscar was off me and catapulting through the air.
For a moment I thought it was Stone, but I realized the shoulders were broader, the hair a little lighter and much shorter. Whoever it was, they picked up Oscar and finished him. I closed my eyes briefly, only opening them when the vampire king of Normal erupted into a cloud of smoke.
“Thank you,” I said to the man.
His shoulders sagged. He turned slowly. The glow of the streetlamps lit his hair, highlighting it just enough to catch the amber in it. His alabaster skin nearly glowed in the light, and his blue eyes flashed when he came full circle and settled his gaze on me.
I gasped. “Dex?” I said weakly.
A flood of love washed through me. A geyser of joy sprouted inside, only to be replaced by a valley of confusion. Why was Dex here? He was dead. But the man in front of me was very real. Flesh and bone.
Dex had never been dead.
And my husband hadn’t tried to find me.
“Andie,” he whispered. His voice was deep, husky, fueled with emotion. When he said my name, I noticed a glint of light reflecting in his mouth.
Dex had fangs.
“You’re a vampire?” I whispered.
My undead husband shot me a look so full of pain that I struggled to comprehend what had happened. Turned out, I couldn’t. The drain of my power and the swell of emotion took their toll on me.
I fainted.
What do you know; there’s a first time for everything.
TWENTY-EIGHT
“We can’t always know why evil exists. All we know for certain is that it does.”
—The Witch’s Handbook
* * *
I woke up on the grass, the exact same place where I’d gone down. Dex was gone and Dot was poking my head.
“Andie, are you okay,
dear?”
I pushed myself up on arms that felt about as strong as wet noodles. “Where’s Dex?” I said.
Dot shot Kate a confused look. “Dex isn’t here, dear. Just us. Oh, and this little cheat.”
I glanced up. Dot had Charlotte tied up with magical cord. “Good work,” I said. “She’s not a vampire, and it’s not like we can turn her over to Sheriff Terry. What are we going to do with her?”
“We’ll give her to the supernatural tribunal. They can decide her punishment.”
I looked at Charlotte. So much anger and hatred filled her eyes. I wondered how someone could lure others to their death. The darkest parts of humanity never ceased to amaze me.
“Luke will never know how close he came to being fed to your father,” I said to her.
Charlotte didn’t answer. Instead she looked away.
I turned to Dot. “How’s Gabby?”
Dot pivoted around, and I saw my sleeping angel still strapped in, snoring quietly. “Next time, don’t bring the baby.”
Dot scoffed. “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
I rubbed my temples. “She almost got killed!”
Kate jumped for joy. “But that was the sacrifice, Andie! You saved her life by sacrificing your own!”
I threw confused looks from Dot to Kate. “What?”
Dot bobbed her head up and down. “While using the power of the book, you threw yourself into the onslaught of that vampire. He did bite you, but through the power of love, you beat the bite and broke the spell of the book.”
“Huh?” I said, still not quite believing it.
Dot wagged her finger at me. “You drained the book. I saw it. Yet you’re still alive.”
Oh my gosh, that was true! I’d drained every ounce of power the book had because I’d used it all up, yet I was still alive.
“So what does this mean? Can I still use the book?”
Dot nodded. “Yes, though your power is limited since it’s no longer going to be yanking your life force away.”
I pulled the book from my back pocket and traced a finger over the cover. Vordrid had said the power of the book could be harnessed without ever using it. That was the only way to free him. I decided right then and there that I would do that. I would learn to harness the hunter magic without the book and free him from being a mentor for the rest of eternity.