Demon Witch (The Ternion Order Book 2)

by Daniel R. Marvello

  Marcella gritted her teeth as she tightened the web of power that surrounded her victim. She sent pulses of power through the web, twisting segments of it, hearing and feeling Skyler’s bones snap under the pressure. Skyler’s eyes widened in shock and pain, but she didn’t have the breath to scream as her body was shattered under the assault of the spell.

  As soon as her power began to diminish, Marcella dropped the spell and let go of Skyler’s neck. The girl fell to the floor unconscious, a trickle of blood escaping from her lips to form a small pool on the floor.

  Marcella looked up to see Fenris watching her from the top of the stairs to the east wing. His arms were folded and his mouth was twisted into a smirk. Marcella didn’t want to hear any criticism or smug comments. She pointed toward the rag-doll pile of distorted limbs at her feet. “You have a problem with this?” she challenged.

  Fenris raised an eyebrow. “Me? Not at all. The bitch had it coming.”

  Marcella took a deep breath and let it out, her anger slowly abating. Her fury was replaced by the deep exhaustion that followed the use of strong magic.

  Fenris came down the stairs and approached cautiously, keeping an eye on Marcella. He knelt next to Skyler and put a finger to her neck. “She’s still alive,” he said with some surprise.

  Marcella waved a hand in dismissal. “Whatever. Get her out of my sight.”

  Fenris carefully collected Skyler’s broken body in his arms, eliciting small groans from the unconscious woman. He started walking toward Skyler’s room.

  “No,” Marcella said, stopping him. “Put her in the basement with our guest.”

  Fenris changed course toward the stairs to the basement in acknowledgment of her order.

  It was a shame to lose another Pack member, but Skyler could not be allowed to work against them. Adolphus would have to shape up or he would receive similar treatment. That left her with only three reliable pack mates. Was it enough?

  An alpha was measured by how many followers he or she had. Her standing was eroding along with the Selkirk Pack membership. Perhaps she could lure back a few of the members who had renounced.

  While Marcella walked toward her bedroom to recuperate from the strenuous spell, another thought occurred to her. Fenris was putting Skyler in with the visiting air witch in the basement. Although the blonde deputy might heal eventually, it would be a long and agonizing process to repair so much damage. Skyler would be frantic to escape that agony, and the moon would be full that night.

  Marcella smiled to herself. If Nemotea (“Skyler’s” true demon name) could muster the strength to take the body of the young witch, she might appreciate the opportunity she’d been given to redeem herself. On the other hand, if her body succumbed to its wounds in the next few hours, well then perhaps Marcella could convince Cara to let her summon Nemotea back from the abyss, adding another demon-powered witch to her coven.

  A laugh burst forth as she thought about how Adolphus would fee about that turn of events.

  Chapter 22

  Strike Force

  The black Suburban rumbled along, its headlights illuminating an old logging road as it flattened the pine saplings and weeds trying to reclaim the abandoned track. “Hang on,” Blackstone warned as the front wheels dropped into a small crevice carved into the roadbed by crossing water.

  Amanda slid back and forth on the back cargo-area bench seat, bumping against Kyle on her left and Tanya on her right. The custom bench had no restraints since it hadn’t been designed for use while the vehicle was in motion. Kyle’s arm gripped her tightly around her waist, pinning her hips to his while he held on to a grab bar. In turn, Tanya clasped Amanda’s right hand and braced herself as best she could against each pitch and roll of the big SUV.

  When the rear wheels of the Suburban bumped out of the dip, the rear of the vehicle hopped, lifting Amanda and Tanya off the bench seat. Tanya gasped as her head contacted the roof of the rig.

  “You okay?” Amanda asked.

  Tanya nodded, rubbing the top of her head. “Just startled. I didn’t hit hard.”

  “Almost there,” Blackstone promised.

  Jessie twisted around and checked on Tanya with a look of equal parts concern and guilt. She had scored one of the regular passenger seats along with her husband and Noreen.

  Amanda leaned forward and looked through the rear window, watching the Jeep behind them drive through the same dip. The driver, one of Jonathan’s hunters, gunned the motor on the way out, boosting the hop and making the rear end of the lighter vehicle bounce once and slip sideways a bit as it landed. Big grins split the faces of the driver and his passenger as the jeep straightened out again.

  Men. At least someone is having fun, Amanda thought.

  Amanda’s attention was drawn to the view out the front window as the Suburban turned off the road into a clearing bordered by the remains of a large burn pile and a loose stack of rotting logs. They had reached the log landing that Blackstone said was their destination. Blackstone turned the SUV around so it was facing back the way they’d come and turned off the engine. He told everyone to close the doors quietly when they exited. “The sound of a slamming car door carries a long way,” he warned.

  Sighing with relief, Tanya wasted no time in opening the back door and jumping to the ground. The strong scent of cedar wafted in through the open rear door as Amanda extricated herself from Kyle’s embrace and stood behind the vehicle, duplicating Tanya’s full-body stretch.

  The light of the incipient dawn was overtaking the residual twilight of the setting moon, but it was still dark enough that the forest around them was reduced to a jagged-topped curtain of black. A brief clench of panic shivered up Amanda’s spine when she realized that the setting moon was ominously full. She calmed herself with the knowledge that sunrise would be well upon them before the team arrived at the Foundation. She glanced toward Blackstone, wondering if his choice of timing was about more than simply allowing enough preparation time.

  Tanya looked around the clearing with a dubious expression. “How will we see the trail?”

  Blackstone answered as he came around to the back of the vehicle with a folded square of paper in his hand. “There’s no trail to speak of. We’ll mostly be bushwhacking and following wildlife paths where we can find them.”

  Tanya frowned down at her designer jeans and white running shoes. It wasn’t the best outfit for a scramble through the damp underbrush in semi-darkness, but it was the best she was able to do with the limited clothes she had at the sanctuary. Amanda had offered to lend her coven mate an old pair of hiking boots, but they turned out to be too small.

  Noreen and Jessie joined them at the back of the SUV. Jonathan left their group and jogged over to his team of hunters, who were suiting up behind the jeep. Noreen carried a thin wooden case to the rear of the rig and set it on the floor of the cargo area. The case was square and about the size of a dinner plate. Amanda shifted closer as Noreen opened the lid.

  The interior of the case was separated into compartments flocked with black velvet. A four-pointed star made of deep blue stone lay tucked in the center space. Gold chains were attached to each triangular point. The chains pooled in corner compartments, keeping them from becoming entangled with one another.

  Noreen put pressure on the center of the star and tugged on the chain attached to one of the star points. The point came away with an audible click and dangled from her hand. Noreen held the pendant out toward Amanda. “Put this around your neck.”

  Fascinated, Amanda did as she was instructed. She wanted to ask what the charms were for, but she was sure Noreen would explain soon enough. Noreen handed Jessie and Tanya a pendant as well. She put the center piece, which was now square, around her own neck. A final pendant remained in the case. If Cara had been with the coven instead of imprisoned at the Foundation, she would have undoubtedly received the remaining piece.

  As the others slipped their necklaces on, Amanda felt a magical charge building. Kyle distracted her
from the sensation by stepping in front of her and staring down at the blue stone where it lay nestled between her breasts.

  “See something you like?” she asked.

  “What?” Kyle asked, blinking a couple of times. “Well, yeah,” he said with hesitant confusion. A blush revealed the instant he became aware of her double meaning as well as the landscape surrounding the object of his attention. “I mean, the pendant. Can I see it?”

  Amanda glanced down. “It’s not hiding.”

  The blush deepened. “You know what I mean. Can I touch it?”

  Amanda looked up and turned her head to the side. In a long-suffering tone, she said, “If you must.”

  Kyle hesitated, still confused by her teasing. Gently lifting the stone, he turned it over in his hand, inspecting it closely. “I don’t see any kind of latch or magnet. How does it attach to the center stone?”

  Noreen answered, switching to her instructor voice and addressing everyone. “The artifact is called a Resonance Star. The components were formed from a single kyanite specimen, and the enchantment that was used to create the Star generated a strong affinity between the pieces. As Kyle noted, the base of each Star pendant clings to the center piece, but there’s no magnetism involved.”

  While Noreen spoke, Kyle’s attention had remained on the Star pendant. His eyes lost their focus as he turned the stone and angled it in different directions. “It knows where the center piece is,” he commented absently.

  Blackstone stepped closer. “What do you see, Kyle?”

  “The base of the triangle brightens a little when I point it toward Noreen.”

  Jessie and Tanya examined their pendants, angling them as Kyle had. “Mine doesn’t,” Tanya said.

  Kyle aimed a questioning expression at Noreen, silently asking for permission to explain. Noreen glanced toward Jonathan’s hunters. Addressing Tanya and Jessie, she spoke in a low tone of voice. “This relates to the subject I asked Amanda not to discuss at our coven gathering, so keep it to yourself. Kyle can see the Star’s magical aura. I didn’t know about the brightening effect he described, but I’ll be sure to add that information to the Star’s lore. We have background on how the Star was made and how it works in a controlled environment, but we don’t have much practical information about how it performs in the field. Thank you, Kyle.”

  Amanda and Kyle stared at Noreen in shock. Her comments had been almost complimentary, and it was unprecedented for her to express any sort of gratitude toward him.

  Noreen noticed their expressions. “Kyle’s attention to detail is probably his best quality,” she explained defensively.

  Kyle raised an eyebrow and shared a look with Amanda. “She must think we’re all going to die.”

  Amanda had to laugh, in spite of Noreen’s glare.

  Blackstone looked down, but not before Amanda saw a twitch at the corner of his mouth. However, Blackstone seemed to be the only other person who appreciated Kyle’s humor. Jessie glanced at Tanya, whose face had paled.

  “That’s not funny,” Jessie said with a frown. “This is serious. And dangerous.”

  Kyle’s brow wrinkled with concern when he saw Tanya’s reaction. “Sorry,” he said sincerely. “Bad joke.”

  Tanya ignored Kyle and held up the talisman. “What does it do?”

  Noreen cleared her throat and put her instructor face back on. “As I was explaining before we were interrupted”—she cast a meaningful glance at Kyle who had apparently demoted himself to nuisance status again—“the Resonance Star is so named because the individual pieces resonate with one another. The full explanation is somewhat technical, but the bottom line is it connects us almost as if we were working together in a casting circle.”

  “That’s … so cool,” Amanda said and looked down at her pendant. “How do we activate them?”

  “You don’t,” Noreen answered. “They’re always active. As soon as you draw on your own power for a spell, the amulet will draw from the rest of us. It basically pools our power and makes the entire resource available to whoever needs it.”

  “What about the spirits?” Jessie asked.

  Amanda was wondering the same thing. One of the reasons her coven used ritual circles was to protect their magical workings from the mischief of dark spirits while attracting the assistance of light spirits.

  “The beauty and the curse of the Star,” Noreen responded, “is that the spirits seem to have no influence on it. You could say that it creates a private network of power that can be accessed only by the pendant wearers. However, you still have to take the usual precautions. The Star won’t attract spirits, but the spells you cast using its power will.”

  “What if a pendant falls into the wrong hands?” Kyle asked.

  Noreen’s lips thinned, and she nodded, as if she’d been expecting the question. “That depends on whether the person who acquires it is a witch and recognizes it for what it is. The Star doesn’t discriminate, so any witch who joins the network has access to all of our power.” She held up the pendant she was wearing. “Also, this center piece is special. To continue the metaphor, it’s the hub of the network. None of the other pieces will work unless someone is wearing this one.”

  “We need to get moving,” Blackstone interrupted. “Noreen would have explained all of this earlier, but the Star isn’t very complicated, and she wasn’t sure her request to borrow it would be granted until it arrived by courier not long before we left.”

  Kyle addressed Blackstone. “So it doesn’t change our strategy—it just gives us an extra edge?”

  “Precisely,” Blackstone confirmed. He looked over at Jonathan’s group and waved them over.

  Amanda joined the others gathering around Blackstone. They’d all been through the plan multiple times, but she didn’t want to miss the chance for a final review. Unfolding the papers, he revealed a copy of the three maps he’d given to everyone on the team.

  Blackstone addressed the group. “We don’t know if they’ll be expecting us, and we don’t know if they’ll have sentries posted. We must assume yes to both and that the Pack will be prepared for our arrival. We will remain together as a group for as long as possible and break up into teams only after we determine that it’s safe to do so.” He flipped to a map that showed a topographical representation of the surrounding area and pointed. “We’re here, about a mile from the facility. I’ve scouted a path that we will take us all to the perimeter.” He flipped the page over, showing an overview map of the grounds. A red X was marked at two points along the perimeter fence. “The Xs are the best places to cross over.” He pointed at one of the marks. “The Order sent a rescue team through this entry point once before, so we will go in the other way this time.”

  Amanda was a member of the team that the Order had sent to rescue Kyle and his former girlfriend Sherry from the Foundation. It had been only a couple of months ago, but it seemed like a lifetime. She and Jonathan had sneaked into the Foundation compound at a place where the barrier wall joined with a rocky ridge—the spot indicated by the first red X on Blackstone’s map. Once inside the perimeter, they’d followed a wildlife trail toward the facility when they encountered Kyle coming the opposite way with Sherry draped over his shoulder. He’d essentially rescued himself.

  However, Kyle’s disappearance had not gone unnoticed. Skyler had tracked him in her wolf form and unsuccessfully tried to prevent his escape. The Pack knew that Kyle was familiar with that route and would probably share his knowledge with the Order. They would undoubtedly be watching that entry point closely.

  Blackstone quickly summarized the duties of each team and then folded up the maps. “That’s it. If you have any last questions, ask them now. There will be no chatter on the trail.” When no one responded, he said, “Let’s go.”

  For the trek up the hillside, Jonathan and Blackstone led the way with two of Jonathan’s men right behind them. Kyle and the remaining two tactical hunters took a rear-guard position, putting the witches in the center of the grou
p.

  Amanda stayed back with Kyle, growing more tense with every step that brought them closer to the Foundation. Would Reggie be patrolling the grounds? The team carried a single tranquilizer gun in case they got the drop on a sentry, but no one knew how well the drug would work on a werewolf or how long it would last. If they were attacked, the tactical team wouldn’t hesitate to use their regular rifles with silver-jacketed bullets. No one was sure if Reggie had been one of the wolves who had attacked the sanctuary just hours ago. If he had been, perhaps he was resting and out of harm’s way.

  Her concerns were interrupted when Blackstone signaled another halt and made the group backtrack a bit. On a previous scouting mission, Blackstone had marked the clearest path through the forest with thin white-paper flags. They wouldn’t last long, but they weren’t meant to. Unfortunately, the flags were a little too subtle, so Blackstone occasionally missed a turn. They kept up a good pace in spite of that and reached the perimeter wall within about fifteen minutes.

  Blackstone signaled everyone to stop alongside the block perimeter wall. A few yards farther along, a sharp ridge cut through at an angle. The masons had integrated the rocky obstacle into the border rather than try to build over it.

  Jonathan and Blackstone silently climbed up onto the ridge, choosing their handholds and footholds with care. Near the top, they hunkered down and peered over the wall with binoculars. After a few moments of spying, Jonathan waved the tactical team forward and disappeared over the ridge into the compound.

  Amanda’s senses sharpened when she crossed the ridge and set foot behind the wall. It seemed like they’d literally and figuratively crossed a line by entering the Selkirk Pack’s domain. Their objective was only minutes away.

  The tactical team fanned out and scouted the immediate area. A moment later, they all returned, giving the all clear signal.

  As the team formed up for the final march, Amanda glanced at Tanya and was arrested by her wide brown eyes. Tanya was trembling, and her lips were pressed into a bloodless line. Amanda was instantly sympathetic and berated herself for letting the girl talk them into bringing her along. She lacked the Order training that would have readied her mind as well as her physical body for the kind of danger they were about to face.