Gypsy Witch

by David Delaney

  The things we could do with that tongue.

  Stop.

  Do not even go there.

  Why is it you pick the worst moments to interject your ridiculous comments?

  My beast laughed at me. I hated when he did that.

  "No, I completely understand your predicament," said Cynthia. "I will send a full tactical team to back you up immediately. They will arrive before sunup."

  "Perfect. I'll keep you updated on our progress locating Maddie," said Lucy, but before Cynthia could respond, a wave of energy so strong that I felt it physically washed over us. Lucy actually stumbled. I shot out an arm to stop her from tumbling backwards.

  "What the hell was that?" I asked, looking around for the source of the disturbance.

  "Cynthia? Cynthia?" Lucy looked at her phone. "It's fried. Completely dead." Lucy looked at me, her eyes wide with worry.

  I whipped my own phone out, pressed all the buttons – nothing. "Well, this can't be good," I said.

  Stinky, the hedge-witch, rushed by us in a full out sprint. He was shouting at the top of his lungs. "It's happening! The convergence is upon us! The ancient one comes!"

  In a burst of speed, I caught Stinky and tackled him to the ground. He became a whirling dervish of elbows and knees. The dude was seriously spazzing out.

  "Orson, don't hurt him. We need him conscious," cautioned Lucy.

  "That's easy for you to say. He's not slobbering all over you," I shouted over Stinky's ravings.

  I wrapped one of my hands around Stinky's neck and squeezed oh so gently. He stopped hollering. I guess that he agreed with me that breathing was more important than anything he had to say. Stinky gave a few weak swats at my hand and then went still.

  "Good boy," I said, smiling at Stinky. "Now I'm going to let up on your neck, but if you start yelling again, we're going to have a situation. Understand?"

  Stinky nodded.

  I slowly released my hold on his throat, just enough so that he could speak.

  Lucy squatted down, so that she was eye level with Stinky. "Where were you running to so fast?"

  "I need to get to the appointed place," Stinky whined.

  "Why? What's at the appointed place?" Lucy asked.

  "It is the convergence, where the ancient one will appear." Stinky's voice was starting to rise and get that psycho edge.

  "Can you tell me where the appointed place is?" Lucy asked, keeping her voice calm.

  "It is only revealed, once it has begun."

  "And has it begun?"

  "Yes," Stinky shouted, starting to squirm again. "Let me go!"

  "Let him go," said Lucy.

  "What?" I said surprised.

  "Do you know where that wave emanated from? Because I sure don't," said Lucy.

  Stinky was starting to hyperventilate.

  "Good point," I said. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three." I released Stinky and he sprang up like a jackrabbit and sped off into the night.

  Stinky led us straight to a sorority house that was having some serious issues. First, the house was shaking like it was the epicenter of a mini-earthquake; second, the interior was lit up like a Vegas hotel, the light shining out of the windows was blinding; and last, but certainly not least, was the screaming. The house had to be jammed with students because there was a chorus of voices joined together in ear splitting howls of fear.

  Stinky ran toward the front door, whooping with joy. He tore at his clothes, dropping them in his wake. Why was it that magic junkies always wanted to be naked when doing their weird pseudo-magic? I wasn't surprised at all when Stinky grabbed the doorknob and received the magic equivalent of an air-cannon to the face. The force of the blast launched him twenty feet in the air. I was feeling generous, so I caught him before he went splat on the asphalt. His nose was broken, and he was unconscious but still breathing. I tossed him across the street onto the lawn of a neighboring house.

  "How do we play this?" I asked Lucy.

  "Try not to kill anyone, unless they're clearly a bad guy," was her only reply.

  Great.

  Lucy powered up, but instead of blowing the front door off its hinges, which I had expected, she reached out her hands and used some sort of suction spell. The door bowed out, cracking and popping along its middle and then, with a splintering crunch, it pulled loose of its hinges and sailed up and over our heads. The two pieces crashed into a parked car behind us. The alarm on the car began wailing, adding to the already nerve jarring noise coming from the house.

  Crying, terrified students came streaming out of the open doorway. I didn't see any major injuries, just a bunch of scared college kids. I decided not to go full bear. I wanted to be able to communicate with Lucy and bear mouths weren't designed for talking. I did let my hands transform into claws; it would make it that much easier to rip the heads off any nasties lurking inside. We waited until the stream of people exiting stopped before stepping over the threshold. The interior of the house was total bedlam; the cause of the shaking seemed to be a rumbling sound that I could feel in my bones.

  Even though California's building codes were some of the strictest in the country, the house was no match for the relentless vibrating. Cracks zigzagged across the walls, furniture danced from room to room, and shattered glass from picture frames and the contents of kitchen cabinets littered the floor.

  The blazing, unnatural light was seeping from the cracks in the wall and the air vents and from underneath doors. Arcs of light also rippled across the ceiling and floor of the living room, the source being a set of double doors set in the back wall of the living room.

  There is death here.

  Yeah, I'm getting that too.

  "I've got a bad feeling about this," I whispered to Lucy, who ignored me.

  The magic spectrum was a kaleidoscope of color, but it was in total chaos. The normal smoothly flowing rivers of energy had turned into jagged torrents of raw energy. The bad juju seemed to be flowing from the same double doors that the light was arcing from. I could hear more screaming coming from behind those doors, it sounded like people inside the room were being ripped apart.

  Lucy held up three fingers, dropping them one by one. When the last finger dropped, she unleashed hell – the door evaporated in a cloud of splinters.

  I jumped through the gaping hole her magic had created, landing in a crouch and ready to rumble. My brain tried to make sense of what I was looking at. A black hole swirled in the center of the room, looking like a mini-galaxy. It had about a three-foot diameter; the edges seemed to be a liquid metal and were the source of the light. I watched, fascinated, as energy arced off the edges in bolts and sizzled along the floor and ceiling. The air in the room was somewhere near freezing, and what felt like a hurricane force wind was blowing from the black hole.

  And there were imps.

  Seriously, that's the only correlation my mind could make. Freaking imps – shiny black creatures that stood about two feet tall, with long bat-like ears, glowing green eyes, and sharp pointy teeth. The imps poured out of the hole in groups of two and three, skipping and shrieking around the room and attacking anything that moved, sinking their sharp little teeth into soft human flesh.

  Demons! Screamed my inner baddie.

  Thanks for the head's up.

  I didn't hesitate. I started grabbing and slashing at every imp within reach of my claws. They weren't hard to kill; they just kind of popped in my claws like overripe melons. I was very surprised when the dead imps started to poof into clouds of dust.

  Huh, at least the cleanup was going to be easy.

  Several students lay scattered around the room, clearly the victims of imp bites. A small group of partygoers had bunched together and were fighting back, using lamps, chairs, and anything else they could get their hands on as clubs. Unfortunately, the imps had a weapon a little more serious than just biting – they could shoot what looked like green laser light from their eyes. Seriously. From the reaction of the students, the beams burned when
they hit.

  "You need to get everyone out of here! I'll try to close the portal," Lucy shouted.

  The black hole was a portal? Of course it was. What else could it be? But a portal to where? The imps would imply a hell dimension, because that's where imps came from, at least in every video game I'd ever played. I started tossing students out the door, careful not to cut them with my claws.

  I shouted at the small band of fighters. "I'll cover you! Run for the front door and don't stop!" They didn't need to be told twice. They broke for the door.

  With the imps now attacking as one clawing, biting, laser-eye-beam-shooting mass, I dove at the evil little bastards, arms wide, trying to make sure none of them escaped. The imps, realizing the juicy humans were now beyond their reach, turned all their attention to me – they swarmed like locusts.

  I considered shifting, but the thought of losing my pants with the closest replacement pair back at the hotel kept me in human form, except for my claws, of course, and my teeth, which I had morphed into fangs. I gnashed and ripped and smashed.

  My beast reveled in the destruction.

  Let me loose.

  Nope, not tonight.

  Demon killing is what we are made for.

  Really? Interesting to know, but the answer is still no.

  I tore an imp in half and spun, ready for more, but the fight was over. I was standing in a pile of imp pieces and covered in imp goo, but a quick scan of the room revealed no more living imps. The imp bodies started going poof all around me. The cloud of demon dust made me sneeze.

  With all the imps dead, something strange started happening to the portal. It started to lose its circular shape, the wind howling out of it dropped in intensity, and the energy arcing off of the edges slowed.

  "I think it's weakening," I shouted.

  I glanced at Lucy to see if she agreed. She was glowing – that was new – but she was sending pulses of magic at the portal, which seemed to be helping close the thing.

  "Keep up the good work," I encouraged. She ignored me, her focus singular.

  Movement to my right caught my attention. I tossed a love seat to the side prepared to stomp more imps, but instead I found a guy cowering in the corner.

  "Well, surprise, surprise. If it isn't Mr. Jimbo-Pink-Pants himself," I said.

  Jimmy looked terrified. At the sight of me towering over him with my claws and fangs, he closed his eyes tight, as if he could wish all the bad stuff in the room, which I'm positive included me, away to the cornfield.

  Fat chance, dickhead.

  If Lucy had taught me one thing, it was that coincidences were anything but. So, when I pulled Jimmy from the room and he tried to run for it, I held him fast, growling my displeasure. I wasn't too happy to see that about a dozen imps had ignored the fight and made it out of the room. They were currently running out the front door. Fantastic. I knew I would have to hunt them down before they wreaked more havoc.

  The bone-rattling rumble started to decrease and the house stopped shaking itself apart. I looked behind me into the portal room. Lucy had the black hole shrunk to the size of a basketball, and then, with a final grunt of effort, she collapsed the portal to a pinpoint and it winked out.

  The sudden silence was even creepier than all the noise had been. Lucy was panting, her short hair matted with sweat. She turned around, her face a mask of stone-cold anger.

  Oh boy.

  I held Jimmy up with one arm and gave him a shake. "I think he is most definitely the droid we are looking for."

  CHAPTER 12

  Jimmy squirmed, but I had his hands pinned behind his back and his head palmed like a basketball, immobilizing him in a tight grip. The guy had already lost half an eyebrow as Lucy had gotten a little too close with a flaming fingertip. With his lack of cooperation, I was afraid he was going to lose a lot more than that. Lucy was pissed, and I was quickly learning she was not afraid to go all Jack Bauer to get information.

  A neighbor had wisely called 911, so we had to vacate the sorority house. Lucy had led us down the block, and we found a house with nobody standing on the lawn or peeking out the windows at the mayhem down the street. That meant the owners had to be out for the evening, because there was no way the destruction, screaming, and sirens could have been ignored. After verifying nobody was home, we let ourselves into the garage.

  "It may get messy," Lucy had said, glaring at Jimmy. "No reason to stain the carpet."

  Now, Lucy paced in front of Jimmy, hands clenched into fists. She looked like she wanted nothing more than to rip his head from shoulders and use it for kickball.

  "That was a Class Four breach," Lucy shouted.

  "A class four what?" Jimmy stammered.

  "Yeah, a class four what?" I chimed in because I had no idea what was going on. "I mean, obviously portals to hell dimensions are a big no-no," I continued, "but it's a bit worrisome that they occur often enough that the Society has a classification system for them."

  Lucy rolled her eyes at me. "Can you please let me handle this?"

  "Sorry." I gave Jimmy's head a tiny squeeze and growled. He whimpered appropriately.

  Lucy gave me a tiny grin, but switched back to snarling-mean face before bending down so that she was nose-to-nose with Jimmy. "I'll use smaller words so that you understand me. You ripped a hole in space, Jimmy, and opened a doorway into another dimension—"

  "No, no, I swear it wasn't me! How would I even know how to do something like that? And even if I did why would I?" Jimmy was trembling. "And those things, those monsters—"

  "Imps," Lucy said, using my word because she had never encountered anything like them. "You and Dahlia cooked something up, didn't you? Dabbling with herbs and potions and things you don't understand. We know you've been playing with chicken blood, but there's no way that caused a breach." Lucy paused and ignited another fireball right in front of Jimmy's eyes. "So, Jimmy, who'd you kill?"

  "Kill? I didn't kill anybody. I swear . . . please . . . Dahlia said it was safe . . . I didn't know. I swear, I didn't know." Jimmy started crying. "It wasn't supposed to be like this . . ."

  "What exactly did Dahlia say was safe? What did you two do?" Lucy demanded.

  Jimmy shook his head, tears streaming down his face, snot bubbling from his nose. "I swear we didn't do anything bad." Jimmy hiccupped.

  Lucy shouted in frustration. Jimmy missed it, but with my shifter senses, I could tell from the shift in her body and the glimmer of her aura that she was done playing nice.

  Oh, jeez. She's gonna burn him.

  "I think," Lucy said softly, "a little pain might help you concentrate better."

  Jimmy yelped in fear.

  My inner-baddie chuckled softly.

  The witch is a true warrior.

  A warrior? Because she's willing to torture a weak loser?

  No, because she has the will to do what must be done.

  I wasn't ready to watch the kid burn. "Lucy," I began as calmly as I could. "Maybe—"

  Another massive wave of energy washed over us.

  The flame in Lucy's palm flickered like a candle in a high wind and then guttered out. Lucy stumbled backward, eyes wide. "Impossible."

  "What just happened?" I asked. "Did that wave just knock your flame out? Please tell me the wave didn't just knock your flame out."

  "I think another portal just opened," said Lucy.

  "Another portal—" Jimmy began, like he was part of the conversation.

  I gave his head another squeeze. "Shut up."

  "This time I felt where it came from." I pointed. "Somewhere off to the right of us. Not far. Maybe a couple of blocks over."

  Lucy backhanded Jimmy hard across the face. Blood sprayed from his nose. "You need to tell us what you did, so we can stop this!"

  "We didn't do anything bad, Tinkerbelle said love spells are harmless," Jimmy sputtered.

  "Tinkerbelle? I think you broke him," I scoffed, but then I got a good look at Lucy's face.

  Oh crap.


  "A love spell? That's what you cast?" Lucy closed her eyes, and it seemed to me that she was deciding on whether to turn Jimmy into a toad or just a pile of slime. When she opened her eyes and didn't go ballistic, I let out a breath I didn't even know I'd been holding.

  "This was supposed to be a simple recruiting mission," Lucy muttered to herself.

  I let her gather her thoughts. After a moment, she gave herself a shake and sighed. "Love spells are wild, unpredictable magic," Lucy explained. "But, still . . . a class four breach . . . I just don't think that kind of spell would be strong enough to cause something like that."

  Lucy focused her anger back on Jimmy, "What else have you been up to?"

  "Nothing . . . I just wanted a date. Is that so wrong?" Jimmy sniveled.

  I let go of his head, not wanting his creepiness touching me any longer. "A love spell would certainly explain what I saw earlier," I admitted. "Jimmy was drawing women like flies. But does something like a love spell really exist? That seems so,. I don't know . . . TV movie of the week."

  "Oh, they exist alright, but they don't create love, they create obsession. It's ceremonial based magic, with blood as the catalyst, of course," said Lucy. "The problem is: love spells have to be broken by the caster. I can fix this, but we need to find Dahlia."

  "I told you," Jimmy whined. "It wasn't Dahlia; it was Tinkerbelle, the Gypsy witch."

  Lucy reached out and grabbed Jimmy's chin, holding his head steady. "We don't know what that means, Jimmy. What is a gypsy witch?"

  "She cast the love spell . . . I didn't know this would happen . . . I just wanted to have coffee with Maddie."

  Lucy and I locked eyes.

  "Maddie Sinclair?" I asked Jimmy.

  Jimmy nodded feebly and continued to whine. "Is that a crime? I just wanted coffee. Tinkerbelle said it was safe."

  "I'm assuming that the thing going on with Maddie's aura has something to do with this," I said, not liking the look on Lucy's face.

  Lucy nodded her head slowly. "Yeah. It must have been her magic, not Dahlia's like we thought, that saved everyone in the car that night. She has to be a natural born Paragon, and she must have one of the most powerful shield spells I've ever heard of. Which means: when this loser's spell hit her aura—"