by fox, angie
I was trapped in a dancing hell, along with the rest of my friends and all the other party guests. My eyes met Lucien’s.
He had the same manic expression on his face I feared was on mine. But his eyes were searching mine, silently asking me the same thing I was asking myself. How did we end up here? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was we needed to stop. To get a drink. To do something other than move our feet.
With my limbs not responding, I gathered the ball of magic that lived just below my heart and sent it shooting toward my fingers.
The magic erupted from my fingertips like a bolt of lightning, knocking both me and Lucien backward. We each landed on our backsides, gawking at each other.
“What the hell was that, Jade?” Lucien said, jumping to his feet to loom over me.
I smiled up at him and pushed myself to my feet. “A wake-up call.” I waved a hand around the dance floor. “We were stuck just like they are.”
His expression turned blank as his gaze lingered on the fatigued dancers. Then recognition lit in his clear green eyes. “Damn. We were sucked right in, weren’t we?”
I nodded and moved to the side to avoid being kicked by one of the dancers. “We need to get to Julius.”
“Can’t we just zap everyone out of their state?”
I glanced down at my white cotton dress and black Mary Jane pumps, noting my devil outfit was nowhere to be found. I shook my head. “It doesn’t look like we’ve left this reality, does it?”
“No, but—”
“Besides, we don’t know everyone’s tolerance for a magical electric shock. It was okay for you and me, but we’re witches. They aren’t.”
He fixated on Kat, who was off to our right, and furrowed his brow. The worry clinging to him brushed up against my psyche. I wanted to put a hand on his arm, do or say something to comfort him, but I had no words. And I wasn’t completely sure that we wouldn’t end up like dancing monkeys again if we touched.
I was just as upset about what was happening to Kat as he was. She was my best friend. And then there was Kane. He was a demon hunter. If Hell had found some way to take his soul, if that was why I couldn’t reach him, then… I couldn’t even think about it. The situation would be too awful.
“We need to separate Julius from Pyper,” I said.
“How?” Lucien studied the other man, his eyes narrowed.
“Ask to cut in, and I’ll invoke the spell?” I wasn’t at all confident that would work, as the pair seemed to only have eyes for each other, but it was worth a shot.
“I’ll try.” Lucien took a step forward and then paused. “Zap me if I go back into zombie mode.”
“Will do.”
The one thing about being in the time warp was that emotions weren’t really a huge issue at the moment. Joy and happiness actually filled me up, gave me a bit of a boost for a while until they wore me out. Even the fake kind. It was everything else, such as anger, depression, and sadness, that turned me into a basket case.
Lucien hovered around Pyper and Julius, and finally when Julius twirled her into his body and paused for a moment, Lucien moved in, placing a hand on the small of Pyper’s back. She froze and slowly twisted her head to glance at him.
“May I cut in, miss?” He half bowed just as he’d done to me, and suddenly I was certain his memory had been wiped clean again. But when he pulled Pyper into his arms, almost against her will, he winked at me and led her awkwardly toward the other side of the dance floor.
Relief flooded me. He’d only been acting the part.
Julius stared after them, a storm of emotion in his dark eyes. I saw the cloud of rage encompass him before I felt it. Pure hatred. Dark anger. The kinds of emotions that make men commit horrible sins. And it was all directed at Lucien.
“Whoa,” I said to myself, gathering every last ounce of magic I could grab onto. He needed to be isolated, and fast. A small twinge of longing for the help of Bea or the coven hit me, but I knew I could do this. I’d fought worse and won. I could take on one spirit.
I imagined the pentagram I’d conjured earlier in the day, only smaller, and as Julius moved past me toward Pyper, I pushed my hands out, aiming for his feet. The pentagram lit on the floor exactly where I’d intended. And Julius was smack in the middle of it.
“Capiantur!” I cried.
The light from the pentagram shot straight up out of the ground, imprisoning Julius within the circle.
The music cut off abruptly, and all the dancing stopped. A punishing wave of relief slammed into me as a fair number of the guests sank to their knees, winded from their manic dancing.
I glanced toward Kane and Kat, triumph strumming through me. Kat was clutching her side, leaning into Kane. He was frowning and wiping his brow. He hadn’t seen me yet, but that was okay. I took a step toward them and then stopped dead in my tracks.
No one was dancing. The music was gone. But everyone was still in their nineteen-twenties outfits and the gaslights were still burning brightly, despite the fact they were no longer operational in our own time.
We should’ve morphed back to the twenty-first century but we hadn’t. We were still stuck in the time warp. At least people seemed to have their senses back for the most part.
“Move!” Lucien called. “Get off the dance floor. Everyone. Go now.”
The group of partygoers did as he asked and retreated from the stage. As each person left, I caught a glimpse of their outfits morphing back into their Halloween costumes as they disappeared into the fading darkness surrounding the dance floor.
“Go on now,” I said to a coed and her date. “Drinks are at the bar.” Her date’s eyes lit with interest, and the pair slipped back to where they belonged.
I was making my way through the crowd toward Kane and Kat when Pyper’s energy invaded mine, sending fear and pure disgust up my spine. I spun in her direction and froze.
Roy, an evil ghost we’d once sent to Hell after he’d tortured both me and Pyper, had his arm around her neck, locking her in a chokehold. Only he wasn’t solid. He was sort of translucent, which told me everything he was doing was fueled by stolen energy. But whose?
With my palms sparking with magic, I cried, “Let her go.”
“Not likely, white witch. But I’ll consider it, if you give me what I want.” He chuckled, his laugh low and sinister. “Nice try with the protection spell. A lesser spirit would’ve had trouble with that one.”
My body shook with uncontrollable anger. I wanted nothing more than to blast his ass into a million pieces. Only he was likely to just evaporate, considering his nonsolid form. I’d try it anyway, except he was using Pyper as a shield. I’d have to bide my time. “What is it you want, you sick bastard?”
He jerked his head toward Kane, who was a few feet away, barely being held back by Kat. She was whispering furiously in his ear, both hands clutched around his arm. “Give me his soul, and I’ll leave this one alone.” Roy tightened his grip around Pyper’s throat until her eyes bugged out from lack of oxygen.
“Never going to happen,” I said, sounding braver than I actually felt. I was fortified by the knowledge that Kane’s energy was back, and I felt every inch of his being straight down to my toes. He’d never been soulless.
Pyper was trying to claw at Roy’s arm, but there wasn’t anything there for her to grab. He was choking her using pure energy. “Let Pyper go, or else I’m going to let Kane end you for good.”
Roy cast Kane a sideways glance, the same dark anger that had been surrounding Julius radiating from him. Only it was stronger. Darker. Angrier. The cloud hadn’t been coming from Julius. It had been coming from Roy. He’d been here the entire time and had somehow been attached to Julius. Roy jabbed his head toward Kane. “You think that one’s going to take me down? Right. All he was ever good at was throwing a punch. And as you can see, that’s not going to work this time.”
“Think again,” Kane said, shrugging Kat off. He lifted his arm, holding his hand out. A flash of light shot from his pa
lm, and when it died down, his demon-hunter dagger lay in his open hand, the intricate symbol on the handle glowing blue.
Roy’s gaze locked on Kane’s hand. Fear flashed over his features. A second later, his expression went blank. “Forget it. I’ll take hers.” He jerked Pyper back, indicating he’d steal her soul instead.
“No way, asshole,” I spat out and then did the only thing I could think of. I launched myself at them, taking Pyper down in a heap of limbs.
She coughed and curled into a ball, rubbing at her throat.
I scrambled to my feet, magic pulsing in my fingers, ready to fight.
But Roy had vanished.
Chapter 6
“Pyper!” I dropped to her side, gently taking one of her hands. “Are you all right?”
She sucked in a breath and then pushed herself up, her eyes ablaze with fury. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. He’s gone.” I brushed her hair out of her eyes, but she shook me off.
“No. He isn’t. I still feel him. His ugly hatred, it’s here. He won’t leave until he gets what he wants.” She climbed to her feet, glanced around, and fixated on the light still shining from the pentagram. “Is Julius still in there?”
I nodded. “He somehow trapped us in a time warp.”
She shook her head. “No, he didn’t. That was Roy.”
“What?”
Kane joined me by my side. “What do you mean?”
“Let him out,” Pyper demanded. “Now.”
I glanced at Lucien. He raised his hands in an I-don’t-know motion.
“Jade!” Pyper turned and grabbed my shoulders. “Let him out. He’s in danger in there.”
She was so frantic, so insistent, I did as she asked. With a wave of my hand, the light vanished, and Julius stood in the middle of the pentagram, watching us. Nothing changed. The music didn’t come back on. No one started dancing as they had earlier. But we still hadn’t morphed back to our own time.
“What’s going on?” I heard Kat ask Lucien.
Pyper took two steps toward Julius and then froze, her eyes never leaving his. “Where is he?”
Julius stared over her shoulder, hatred pouring out of his dark gaze. “Right behind you.”
Pyper whirled, narrowed her eyes, and said, “Show yourself, you coward.”
Nothing happened.
“Pyper, we should probably leave and go back to our time. All we need to do is walk off this dance floor,” I said.
“No.” She placed her hands on her hips, fierce determination radiating off her. “Not until we finish Roy. He won’t leave me alone. Not now that he has an in.”
“An in?” I asked her.
She glanced at Julius. “He’s a ghost, you know.”
I nodded. “Yes, I thought he might be, but he’s unusual being in solid form and all.”
She nodded. “He was a witch.”
“Ohhh,” Kat said as if that explained everything.
“A white witch.” Pyper met my gaze. “A powerful one, like you. And for some reason, Roy’s latched on to him. I don’t know why or how, but I can feel it.”
I glanced at Julius and back at her. They were gazing at each other with a curious intensity. “Today isn’t the first time you two met, is it?”
Pyper glanced away, a blush creeping up her face.
“Pyper?” Kane asked, his curious tone tinged with concern.
“No. It is not,” Julius said rather formally. “I had the pleasure of meeting Miss Pyper not long ago when she was helping another research this hotel.”
We all turned and gaped at Pyper.
But before anyone could say anything, Julius’s head and upper body jerked back as if he’d suffered a blow. He let out a grunt and came up swinging, but appeared to only find air.
“Roy!” Pyper called and jumped forward.
Kane clasped a hand over her arm, pulling her back with him. “Stay by my side.”
“But I can’t let him go after Julius. You don’t understand. He feeds off of Julius’s energy.”
Her words clicked a switch in my brain. I could find him. If I tuned in to Julius, I’d know exactly where Roy was. “Lucien?”
“Yes?”
I waved him over and whispered into his ear. “I need to invade Julius’s energy. When I give the signal, I need you to cast a summoning spell.”
“Without a circle?”
“Yes. Once you cast the spell and I direct the energy to it, I’ll call the circle myself.”
He gave me a skeptical look.
“Trust me.”
“You got it, boss.”
With Pyper safely at Kane’s side, I threw my energy into Julius, instantly honing in on Roy tapping into him. I’d once been a victim of Roy’s wrath and unfortunately knew his energy intimately. It didn’t take much to follow that thread. And as I did, I severed the hold Roy had on Julius. It was just me and Roy now. In order for him to stay connected to our world, he had to siphon magic from me. Except I had no intention of letting him. Once he reached for my energy, I sent a bolt of magic straight into his energy, effectively latching on, and then wrapped him in an invisible binding. He wasn’t going anywhere now. Not until I was sure we were sending him somewhere where he could no longer get to Pyper.
And even though I was stronger now, had better control over my gifts, the dark taint of Roy’s shriveled soul made my skin crawl and my insides shudder from the pure filth that was Roy.
But I wasn’t going to let him get the better of me. Not this time. As hard as it was, I forced myself to take steps toward the middle of the dance floor, toward the ugliest being I’d ever come in contact with, and that was saying something.
My movements became slower and slower with each step, my limbs like cement pillars, refusing to move. And when I was certain I was going to collapse from the sheer pain of holding on to Roy, I felt a hand slip into mine. Pyper’s cool, clean, refreshing energy rushed into my being, fortifying me, giving me the strength to hold on.
I felt Roy’s rage, his frustration at being locked in my magical hold, but clung to Pyper’s sure determination and cried, “Lucien, now!”
The low murmur of his Latin chant filled the silence, and a second later, I felt him let his magic go. Through our coven connection, I guided it, forcing it to hit exactly where I knew Roy was standing. And then as his form came into view, I raised my arms and called the pentagram.
Pure white light filled the ballroom, nearly blinding me.
“Whoa,” I heard Kat gasp. “That was impressive.”
Glancing down, I smiled in sheer satisfaction. Pyper and I were standing on the northernmost point of the pentagram, and Roy was trapped in the innermost circle. Exactly as I’d planned.
“Nice work,” Lucien said.
“Thanks. You, too. But it’s not over yet. What should we do with Roy?”
“I’ll take care of him,” Kane said, moving to stand just behind me.
I turned my head and raised a curious eyebrow. “Really? And how do you propose to do that?”
“Like this.” He palmed the hilt of his dagger, and in one swift motion he threw the magical blade right at Roy, hitting him exactly where his heart would be. Roy vanished, and the dagger hung in the air for a few seconds.
Then Roy reappeared for just an instant and shattered into tiny slivers of light that faded away before they ever hit the ground.
Chapter 7
The white light and the pentagram vanished as the lights dimmed and Maroon 5 blared from the sound system. My friends turned from nineteen-twenties swing dancers to sexified Halloween revelers.
Lucien strode over to Kat and gathered her in his arms, while Kane, sporting his kilt, wrapped one arm around me and his other around Pyper. But she was staring at Julius.
He stood by himself, watching her, a wistful expression on his face. “He’s gone.”
Pyper nodded.
“For good this time.”
“Yeah.”
We were standing i
n the packed party, surrounded by partygoers, and yet I felt as if I was intruding on something deeply personal. I tucked my hand into Kane’s and gently tugged him back. “I think they might need a moment,” I whispered to him.
He glanced down at me and frowned. “He’s a ghost. I don’t think—”
“You don’t need to think,” I said mildly. “He isn’t dangerous.”
Instinctively, I knew my words were true. Earlier I hadn’t been able to feel anything radiating from Julius, but I did now. There was only goodness and love and regret.
Kane reluctantly took a step back with me as we watched Pyper move toward Julius as if she was mystically drawn to him in some way. And when she stopped in front of him, he smiled down at her, cupped her cheek, and whispered something in her ear.
She shook her head slowly and placed her hand over the exploding heart she’d drawn on his chest. The sadness radiating off them just about brought tears to my eyes. Pyper rose to her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to Julius’s lips. They were frozen in the moment, the perfect zombie couple, and then Julius faded away. And Pyper was left alone in the middle of the ballroom.
She stood there, her shoulders slumped and her head inclined.
“Excuse me,” I said to Kane and hurried to Pyper’s side. I placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, you. Let’s get out of here.”
She shook her head, still staring straight ahead. “We have work to do.”
I made a show of glancing around. “Na. Kane and Charlie have everything under control. We’re free to do anything we want. Including grabbing a bottle of tequila and doing shots until we pass out.”
“Tempting,” she said dryly. “But maybe just a few beers.”
“You got it.” We walked together to the bar, where I grabbed four beers and a bottle opener. I waited a beat for Charlie to finish mixing a few drinks. The night’s events hadn’t fazed her at all. She was back at work, flirting with males and females alike, raking in the tips as always. “We’ll be in the meeting room just outside the ballroom if you need us.”
She gave Pyper a sympathetic smile. “Sure, but I’ll be fine.”