“You really think so?”
“I do. Now you need to remember that you're Dymphna Ward, a kick-ass lawyer, and that you are one of the good guys. Believe in yourself. And when you're feeling vulnerable, you've got a support network. I'll always have an ear to listen, and your brothers love you. So keep making a difference, and don't let it get to you.”
“Thanks, Skylar; you're right. I had a feeling I could talk to you.”
“Like I said, any time.”
“Can we keep this between us?”
“Sure. I'll just tell Leo that we're dealing with the problem and he can stop worrying so much.”
“You're a good person, Skylar, and a good sister-in-law.”
“Thanks. Now let's get ready for the Coven meeting.”
“We're already running late.”
“Ah, Seb's used to me and Leo being late. It'll be fine.”
“We've got a problem!” Leo yelled, running downstairs. “It's happening again!”
Dymphna and Skylar ran to the stairs, where Leo fell down the last few, holding his head. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Now it was time to try to help Timothy's investigation and help Leo as well.
“Dymphna, call the Coven House. I'll take care of Leo,” Skylar shouted, and Dymphna ran to her cell phone.
Skylar ran to Leo, and gathered him into her lap. “Hey now, I need your help.” Leo stilled, which she took to be a good sign. “I know you're in pain, but I need you to look around. What can you see?”
Leo's voice was in her head rather than out loud. “There's a pentagram. It's for a sacrifice, I think. There's people. They've got knives. They're going to bleed us before they kill us.”
“Concentrate,” Skylar commanded as Leo started to squirm. “Do you know where you are?”
Leo stilled again, and again spoke in her mind. “Skylar, I can almost feel you there. I know how to get to them. To the victims. Get us in the car, I'll give directions as I go. We have to hurry. Maybe we can save them.”
“Dymphna!” Skylar shouted. “Help me get Leo to the car. He thinks we may be able to save some of the victims!”
Skylar heard Dymphna end her conversation on the phone, and she arrived in the hallway. “Let's go.”
Together, they got Leo to the car pretty quickly. Skylar turned the ignition, and the three were off. “Leo's getting information,” Skylar told Dymphna. “He knows where they are, and he's going to give me directions. Hang on, we're in for something big.”
Skylar could tell that Dymphna was gathering her magic in the backseat while Leo gave directions through Skylar's mind. Finally he indicated an abandoned warehouse. “They're in there.”
Skylar repeated the message for Dymphna.
“That's awfully close to Coven ground. Let's get in there and find out what's going on.” Dymphna called Justin and quickly told him where to find them. But until help arrived, the three were on their own, and with little time to spare.
Skylar grabbed Leo's shoulder hard enough for it to hurt him a little. “Wake up, Leo. We're going to need your help.” He shook, and shook some more. Then he woke up. “We need to be careful. We don't know what we're going to find in there.”
Dymphna crept towards the entrance and stopped at the door. She indicated for the other two to follow quietly. “I'm sensing ten. Four are injured, though. Those must be our victims.”
“They're still alive?” Leo asked, hopeful.
“Yes, they're still alive, but only barely. We've got to move.”
“Are we able to do a full-on frontal attack?” Skylar asked.
“We've got the element of surprise and not enough time to find a second entrance. We've got to go and we've got to go now.”
“Dymphna, if possible, save your power for healing,” Leo ordered. “Skylar. I know this is your first time out, but you need to remember that it's them or us. Take them alive if possible, but if not, don't hesitate. Do your best.”
“I will.”
The three of them looked at each other, grim faces all around.
“Let's do this,” Skylar said, and shoved the door open. Whoever was inside hadn't even bothered to lock it.
The warehouse interior had seen better days. But in the exact center was a pentagram drawn in blood and the interior painted in white. An unconscious person was on each of four of the corners, and the last point held someone who must have been the ceremony master. He was draped in a black robe that covered them from head to toe with a large hood to hide their features. He was in the process of raising a knife over one of the victims, who were all in white robes.
As soon as the door was busted in, the five others watching the ceremony instantly popped to attention. They were all wearing similar robes, but of red. Dymphna hung back as Skylar and Leo rushed forward. Two of the robed figures drew a pistol from within their robes, and they aimed right at Leo, perceiving him to be the bigger threat.
They were wrong. Skylar knew Leo's magic was depleted and Dymphna had to conserve hers. Skylar used a heating spell to burn the guns into molten metal, which the two assailants dropped on the ground with a hiss of pain.
She threw a low-power fireball at both of them, knocking them off their feet and against the wall. Their robes caught on fire, and they tried to extinguish them. One of the others pulled a fireball and lobbed it at Skylar. Skylar's fireball met it in midair, and they exploded, doing no damage to either of them. The other two looked poised to fire a spell of their own. Skylar threw three successive fireballs, hitting each square in the middle of the chest.
Then she realized that she had forgotten the ceremony master. While the others were trying to extinguish themselves, she was pulling a lot of power to make an immense fireball. Skylar hadn't even made one that big in training because it would have been too big for the gym, even with her shields.
Shields! That was the answer! Skylar quickly erected a shield in front of her party. When the black-robed figure threw the fireball, it hit Skylar's shield. Skylar concentrated hard on reinforcing the shield. She kept it though, if only just. But the distraction had multiple consequences.
At once, Leo was able to cast some kind of smothering spell on the ceremony master at the same time as the five onlookers put their robes' fires out and started to resume the attack. The two who had tried guns now had knives. Skylar melted those as well. But she could feel her energy fading. But when she saw one of the hooded figures chanting a spell to hit Dymphna, Skylar found new reserves of magic.
In a rage, she moved down the figure who was trying to hurt Dymphna. He flew back from the force of Skylar's larger fireball and thumped into the wall, falling unconscious on the ground. Skylar took only enough consideration of him to put out the fire before returning to the fight at hand. After all, Leo had wanted them alive.
She noted that Leo was still struggling with the ceremony master, and so Skylar turned her attention to the others so that she could help him soon.
Dymphna must have done something to the figure who had tried to attack her because all of a sudden he was choking and coughing up water. He fell unconscious. That left three.
One of the assailants who hadn't tried magic rushed Skylar. She used a move from her self-defense class to kick him in the breastbone and send him reeling. Three more large fireballs, and three more times extinguishing the fires she created, and the five onlookers were all unconscious. Then Skylar turned back to Leo.
He was gasping for air, but he also had his foot squarely on the ceremony master's breastbone. He was squirming, but seemed unable to do any more than that, as if tied by invisible bonds.
Then Dymphna ran to the closest victim, examining her wounds with her magic. Skylar paid attention to her attackers, making sure none of them moved, and Leo concentrated his attention on his own attacker. He bent down and removed the hood from his head.
They found it wasn't a he at all. The woman under the hood had light brown hair and a pretty face. Or at least, it would have been pretty if it hadn't been
taken up by a vicious snarl and hateful eyes.
“Stephanie?” Leo gasped. “It was you?”
She tried to talk, but Leo's spell held her.
Keeping an eye on the unconscious people still, Skylar dialed Justin.
“I'm almost there!” He yelled in her ear. “Don't do anything stupid!”
Sure enough, Justin arrived minutes later. He was winded, and ready for a fight. Seven other witches rushed in after him. When Justin saw the scene before him, he sighed resignedly. “What did I tell you about doing something stupid?”
“It was already done. Help Dymphna.”
Justin and two other witches, presumably water witches, went to tend to the victims. The others that Justin brought secured the five in red robes and herded them out of the warehouse. Leo kept his foot on Stephanie, but he looked worn out. He stood there, too, until the reinforcements gathered Stephanie from the ground and wrestled her outside as well.
Leo sat down on the ground, winded. Skylar crouched beside him. “It's been a long day, Skylar,” he whispered, as if he couldn't manage anything louder than a whisper.
“Yes it has. I'm going to see how Dymphna is doing. Then we'll go home.”
“Home sounds like a great plan.”
Skylar went over to Dymphna, who was intently studying the victim in front of her.
“Is she going to be alright?”
“I hope so. There's only so much I can do here, though. Justin's agents brought three vans. Two are taking the prisoners back to the Coven House. We're about to load the victims into the other van. They're in bad condition, but they're alive.”
“Are you going to stay with the victims?”
“I have to. I'm a healer, and that's what healers do.”
“Leo's in bad shape. I'm going to take him home. Give me a call when you need a ride home, and don't worry about the time. Make sure you don't hurt yourself trying to help them.”
“Thanks, Skylar. Take care of him, alright?”
“I will.”
Leo couldn't walk completely on his own, so Skylar aided him in getting out to her car as the healers loaded the victims into an unmarked white van. The prisoner vans were already gone.
As soon as he hit the seat, he fell asleep, so Skylar took the liberty of buckling him in. Then she drove back to Ward Manor, feeling drained herself.
There had been so much blood in the sacrifice room from what the robed figures had taken from the victims that both Leo and Skylar were splattered with it. She got him out of his clothes, and they cleaned up in the shower. Not bothering to put on clothes, they fell into the bed, spent. Skylar made sure her cell phone was on the nightstand, though, in case Dymphna needed transport home.
Around two am, Skylar got the call. She got dressed and met Dymphna outside the Coven House. Leo's twin looked like hell. She didn't speak as she got in Skylar's car. Skylar could tell she didn't want to talk about it, and so she let her be until they got back to Ward Manor.
“Thanks, Skylar,” was all Dymphna said before heading off to her own room and her own shower.
“You're welcome,” Skylar called after her, though she wasn't sure Dymphna heard.
Skylar was the first one awake the next morning, and she made waffles for when everyone else got up. When she started eating, she realized that she was even hungrier than she had thought, so she had to make more waffles for her housemates. Something big had happened last night, and Skylar hadn't fully been able to comprehend it yet.
Leo, then Dymphna came down and ate in silence.
“We're going to have to go over to the Coven House,” Skylar said when the other two were finished eating.
“You're right,” Leo said, sighing. “I'm just still so damned tired.”
“We had a hard day yesterday.”
“But you kicked ass, Skylar,” Dymphna said. “We wouldn't have been able to help without you.”
“Thanks.”
“To use that much magic in such short order... you must be pretty powerful.”
“That's what Timothy keeps saying.”
“I'm glad you put his lessons to good use,” Leo commented, squeezing her hand. “The victims from last night might not have survived, but you gave them a chance.”
“Thanks. Now let's go see how it's going over there.”
When they arrived at the Coven House, Seb greeted them at the door personally. He gave them a rare smile and enveloped Skylar in a bear hug. “I hear that you're the hero of the day.”
She blushed. “I don't know if I'd go that far...”
Justin appeared behind his brother and smiled as well. “Come in, all of you. We'd love to hear what really happened before we arrived.”
“How are the others?” Dymphna asked.
“It looks like they'll all pull through. It's a close thing, though. Each of them has lost a lot of blood. But they're a lot better off than they would have been if you all hadn't arrived when you did.” This whole time, Justin had been guiding them subtly towards the Coven Protection office. “Do you mind if we record the conversation?”
“Not at all,” Leo said. “But it's Skylar's tale to tell more than anyone.”
“It started with Tim's suggestion earlier...” Skylar went through the whole tale, with only minor additions from Leo and Dymphna. “And I'm sure you know what happened after Justin arrived with the cavalry.”
“Indeed we do,” Justin said, switching off the tape recorder.
“What's going on with the prisoners?” Leo asked.
“As you know, we don't really have a jail. We've spoken to the local police, and found enough evidence that they've been able to charge each of the participants with attempted murder. Since we captured them, Boston PD has given us rights to interrogate them while they're in jail. It's very considerate since they know very little about us besides that we're an organized group of witches.”
“That is good of them.”
“We haven't gotten much out of them, and neither has the police.”
“There's something you're leaving unsaid,” Skylar observed.
“Yes. With these witches in jail, we're hearing more and more from protestors against witchcraft. I'm afraid if it continues to spiral we'll need to do something more proactive,” Seb said, looking troubled.
“And Skylar, this might be hard for you, Stephanie is saying that your aunt Linda is involved.”
“But she hated witches!”
“She may have changed her mind. Or something else may be afoot. But according to one of the Dark Order witches who has been most informative, Linda and, well, and Selby are among those providing the sacrifices for the Dark Order.”
Skylar's heart stopped. Leo pulled him to her, encircling her within his arms. “It can't be... Not Selby!”
“We won't do anything more without proof, don't worry. But we have to investigate further. The issue with Linda Crowley will have to wait to be resolved another day. This may be a valuable lead, or it may lead to nothing. For your sake, I hope it leads to nothing.”
“I hope so too.” Skylar considered, trying to be reasonable. “But he has been acting strangely lately. I just hate to believe that he might be involved in kidnapping and sacrifices.”
“We'll make sure. And we'll keep you informed,” Justin assured her.
“What happened at the meeting last night?” Leo asked. Everyone could see Leo's question as the ploy it was to change the subject, but they let it ride.
“As soon as I started to feel their pain, like you did,” Seb began, “Justin stayed with me, and Timothy took over the meeting. He managed to keep the whole thing under control as if nothing had happened. Really, he did an excellent job. Of course, when your call came in for help, that disturbed the whole set up. Again, Timothy kept it in check. Everyone waited for news, and it meant that we had more than enough healers on hand to take care of the wounded who came back last night.”
“That sounds ideal,” Dymphna pointed out.
“Indeed. Timothy's a goo
d man, and a good leader. I don't know where we would have been without him to take over the meeting,” Seb said.
“I suspect they timed it over the meeting so we wouldn't be able to get away,” Justin told them. “They couldn't have expected Timothy to be so capable. If Seb and Leo collapsed like last time, it would weaken their hold on the Coven. The Dark Order couldn't have suspected that Skylar could get information out of Leo while he was down.”
“And Stephanie was part of it all?” Leo asked.
“Apparently, she was using some of her Dark Order abilities to unfairly influence minds against me. If she could have taken hold of the Coven, just consider how many sacrifices they could get their hands on,” Seb said bitterly. “I wanted to solidify my hold as Duke, but I didn't want it to happen like this.”
“But people are back to normal after the Dark Order's influence?” Skylar asked.
“Yes. And they can't seem to apologize enough, it seems.” Justin laughed, but it didn't reach his eyes.
“If that's all...” Leo started. “We'd like to get back to Ward Manor.”
Dymphna clearly saw the look in his eyes. “I'd like to see to the patients if someone could give me a ride home later.”
“Sure thing.” Justin laughed again, but this time it was a real laugh. “See you later, Skylar and Leo. Don't do anything I wouldn't do.”
“That's not hard,” Seb ribbed his twin.
But Skylar and Leo had eyes for only each other as they left.
Back at Ward Manor, by unspoken agreement, they raced up the stairs to the bedroom. Skylar won, and Leo grabbed her in his arms and swung her around before kissing her passionately.
“I was so afraid I'd lose you,” Leo said, nuzzling her neck. “And it would have been my fault for leading you there.”
“You won't lose me, Pantaleon Ward. I'm yours, now and forever. You were brave in bringing me and Dymphna to save those poor people. I'm sure they'll have plenty to say to you when they're doing better.”
“You're mine?” He asked, picking up on that line above all the others.
“As I said, now and forever. I love you.”
“I love you too, Skylar. I've been around for years. But I've only really lived since I met you. You took all my expectations and threw them out the window. I want you in my life, as you said, now and forever.”
The Doctor Witch (The Ward Witches) Page 16