"Just tea, make sure you give Abigail some too, she'll be dealing with Carson tonight."
"How do you know that?" I asked her, and then it clicked. "Ah, you have the same gift as Riley."
Betsy nodded. "Exactly. Merick and I have already talked about it, and we know that you'll make the right choice."
"I don't like that that everyone else knows what choice I'm going to have to make, except for me." I snorted. "Sharing is caring."
"We can't influence your choice," Merick said. "We all know that messing with fate is a bad idea, and this is no exception. Now drink up your coffee so we can go check on Lawrence's place."
"I thought we were going to meet there."
Merick shrugged. "My meeting was shorter than expected, and then Betsy offered to introduce me to Riley. I wanted to see who was responsible for keeping you alive."
Riley gave a little bow. "Thank you, thank you, I'm sure Abigail's pure stubbornness has nothing to do with it."
Everyone laughed except me. I rolled my eyes. "Seriously, my stubbornness is no match for this curse." I downed the rest of my coffee. "Okay, Merick, let's get going." I handed Riley the empty mug and some cash for the coffee, and she handed me tea in a to-go cup before Merick and I left the cafe.
"I'm surprised that you could get in," I muttered as we walked down the street back to the building that Lawrence had taken Simon and me to.
Merick shrugged. "Evil and dark are a matter of opinion. Sometimes the means really do justify the end."
"Like when?"
"Like when saving yourself or a loved one." He met my gaze. "Sometimes one has to make sacrifices, Abigail, and occasionally that sacrifice is part of yourself."
I let his words sink in as we moved through the city to the building. We walked down the hill in silence, and I stopped at the entrance. On the doorknob was a locked case that held a key, like a Realtor would use, and in the window was a for rent sign.
"Interesting." I peeked in the window and saw it empty.
Merick looked around. "Are you sure this was the place?"
"Yeah, I'm sure it was. Liz said Ana told her he was at the warehouse, so let's go check that out and see if we can have any better luck there."
"Why didn't we try there first?" Merick walked up the hill behind me.
"Because I was hoping to catch him off guard, and the last time I went to the warehouse I was ambushed." I glanced over my shoulder. "I was hoping to avoid that outcome again."
I swear I heard him chuckle. I decided not to yell or snap at him because I'm sure he was just laughing at the situation. We walked together while I drank my tea. It seemed to calm some of the anxiety I was feeling about going to the warehouse.
We stepped up to the building, and he whistled at the sight of the burnt car. "What happened there? You?"
"No, it was linked to my car, and then Nathan happened to be a bit of an elementalist."
"A bit?" Merick looked at me.
I nodded. "Yeah, untrained. He was able to call up a flame and control an existing flame, but that was it." I walked in, and to my surprise, we found it empty. I let out a breath of relief.
"I'm assuming you're looking for my summoner?" Carson's voice came from behind us. Merick and I turned around to face him. "He's not here right now. He's off planning on what coven we're going to take over next since Ana freed all the members here." His gaze turned to Merick. "Ah, a Cult member. Abigail, you certainly have powerful friends."
Carson waved a hand, and a red circle appeared. Without hesitation, I threw up my own power, stopping his circle half way and forcing my magic to take his over. Carson walked around the circle. "My curse should have killed you by now, so who saved you?"
"Don't worry about it. It's time to end this." I felt my magic hum around me. Merick was at my side, letting me take the lead. It felt good to have him at my back. "You won't get to add my life to your death toll."
Carson actually laughed. "We'll see about that."
CHAPTER ELEVEN
His magic rushed towards me in a red and black arch. I threw my hand out, and a bubble of purple rose up and blocked his magic from me. Merick stepped up and lashed out with his own magic. Usually when we with magic his was a dark blue, now it was gray. I didn't let it throw me off.
Carson deflected Merick's magic with a flick of his wrist and without so much as a thought. "You forget yourself, Cult. Your people seek to destroy me, but I own one of your covens. That person you found? That was simply a warning."
That was the reason for the death, that meant there were more behind his power. Merick had his answer; now I wanted mine. "Why wolves?"
"The wolves kept trying to merge with other packs to save themselves and move from Luna Grove. He wanted to take my power with him, and I wouldn't let him." Carson struck out toward me again. Once more I blocked it with my magic, easily. I knew he was playing with me. "You, Abigail, ruined everything Lawrence and I were working for in this town.
Merick cried out as he jolted forward, and red started to crawl around him, binding him in place.
I took a step towards him, and Carson laughed.
"I wouldn't Abigail. I can kill him in an instant with my hand. Just close the red tight, and you'll never seen him again. And here I thought you were a lover of the wolf, but seems you keep a Cult member in your heart too."
I turned to Carson, and I knew the look on my face was not nice. "Just because I care for someone does not mean I'm their lover. Now, let Merick go, and you and I will settle this, magic against magic."
"Don't just want to shoot me?"
"Oh, trust me, it's tempting, but that's not going to kill you." I pulled a knife out of my boot and sliced my shoulder, blood dripped down my arm, and I put my knife away. Wiping my right hand over the wound, I knelt down and looked up at Carson with a wicked smile.
His hand shot out with a red magic that wrapped around my wrist, but it was too late, my hand and blood had already smeared the ground, and I used my blood to fortify my magic circle so that he couldn't take it over. He jerked his hand, and his magic pulled me off balance. I imagined the demon circle I'd seen in the book, but my magic couldn't recreate it.
"I'm blocking it, Abigail." Carson walked closer as I stood. "You can't do anything that isn't black magic at this point, because my magic has blocked it."
Which meant I had barely managed to fortify my circle in time. I narrowed my gaze at him. "You're trying to force me into it."
"Look around you. In this world, at this time, there is no way not to perform black magic." He smiled at me. "And I know you have much of your father in you."
I doubted that, because Tobias wasn't my father. His attempt to throw me off didn't work. I forced myself to calm down. I glanced behind me and saw that Merick wasn't panicking in his binds, which meant that he had something up his sleeves while I distracted Carson. Merick gave me the barest of nods.
"So your little trick blocks my protective magic." I held my hand flat open, the palm facing my back, I called a flame to my hand. "But it doesn't stop all my abilities."
I threw a ball of flames at Carson's face. The demon dodged, but barely. He snarled at me, and for a moment, his true form shimmered through his human form. I threw another fireball at him, and this one hit him in the chest, burning the clothes there and exposing charred skin underneath. The smell of burning flesh filled the air as he stalked towards me, pulling me closer with the rope of magic around my wrist. He was close enough that our noses almost touched.
"You are nothing but a worthless witch."
I pulled my foot up, grabbed my dagger, and stabbed him in the side. He threw me away, and his magic around my wrist disappeared.
"Now my blood has been spilled here too. What a mistake Abigail, what a mistake."
His magic crawled up the circle, but that was okay. I could use it. I needed his magic to p
ull the circle together. His blood to fortify the demon circle because it would taint my aura less that way. I called on that dark part of me, the part that fed on my anger and my grief, the part that scared me, the part I used against the hundred hybrid vampires I killed. I felt it flow through me as I smeared more blood from my shoulder on to the ground and repeated the words I'd seen in the book. I called up the image of the demon circle and forced it to become reality, using Carson's blood as the catalyst and my blood to fortify my control over it. The lines shot across the circle, the runes burnt themselves into the floor, I felt the power burst through me, and it seemed to scorch my soul.
"You can't control this, Abby. It won't only kill me, but it will drag your soul into hell." His human form melted away like wax, leaving a red leather-skinned creature standing in front of me, bat-like wings shot from his back, claws on the tips of them. My breath caught. I never thought I'd be face to face with a high-level demon, but here I was, staring one down that I needed to kill.
His laugh echoed through the warehouse, and I heard Merick groan behind me. "I can kill him, are you willing to risk that?"
I focused and found the thread of magic that was holding Merick captive, and I forced my magic out and severed it. I could tell I was already pushing myself, but now Merick was free. "You forget something, Carson. I own this circle."
Merick stayed behind me, but I felt his magic join my own in the circle. Carson met my gaze. "And you forget Abigail. I own you." He held a hand out, and pain shot through my left arm.
I looked down to see the black creeping up my arm at an alarming pace. I glanced behind me at Merick as panic settled in. I was going to fucking die right here and now.
"The circle, Abigail," Merick snapped, and it brought me back to the task at hand. I pulled myself together. If I was going to die, Carson was going down with me. I focused all my magic on the demon circle. I imagined it shrinking around Carson, trapping only him.
The pain overtook my shoulder and started spreading through my chest. My breathing became short and rapid as the world around me started to narrow down to just Carson's ugly form.
"Killing with magic is against the law, Abigail. You can't claim PIB duties, because you're on leave. Death sentence." Carson's voice echoed in my head.
He was wrong. Grasping at straws to make me hesitate. He wasn't human. There would be no trace of him once he died. I fell to my knees, but I kept pushing my magic outwards. I looked down to see the black on both my arms now. The agony in my chest felt like a thousand rocks sitting on me, and I wanted to throw up and pass out. He was right. This was wrong. Killing him with magic was wrong.
"It'll stain your aura."
Merick's words came back to me, and Riley seemed to whisper in my head. This was okay. This was the choice I had to make, me or the demon. I'd chose me a thousand times over to rid the world of this bastard and to avenge Clarissa.
"Killing me won't solve the problem, Abigail. Think. Someone had to summon me."
I wouldn't let him cloud my mind with doubt anymore. I closed my hand, closing the demon circle around him. His screams echoed around me as flames consumed his body. The smell of burnt flesh and blood stung my nostrils, but I continued to hold on to the circle and the magic until the flames died out.
My heart stopped, and I tried to claw at my chest as the pain choked the air from my lungs. I couldn't remember how to breathe. I couldn't move. Blackness was all I could see, and I swore I heard Merick by my side.
∞
The beeping of hospital machines dragged my mind to the surface. It wasn't the first time I'd ended up in a hospital, but this was the first time that I wasn't exactly sure what happened. The last time I'd checked, I was dying from a curse, and I was trying to take Carson down.
"Holy shit, you're awake." A woman I didn't know ran to my side.
"I don't know you." I had a terrifying thought, what if I had lost my memory? No, that would be silly, I wouldn't have remembered Carson and the fight. I threw the blanket off me and examined my arms. Faint white scars marred the underside of my forearms, the only physical sign of the battle that I could see.
The woman spoke after a moment. "Of course not, I'm sorry. I'm Jillian." She flashed me a beautiful smile, hinting at her fangs. She pushed her brown hair over her shoulders as she stepped away from the bed. "I was asked by the local vampire to keep an eye on you, as a favor to Levi."
Of course. That meant Levi knew that I was in the hospital. "Was there a reason someone needed to watch over me?"
She hesitated for a moment. "I was simply told no visitors." She shrugged. "I'm sorry that I'm not more help."
I nodded slightly and sat up. My body felt weak as I tried to find my strength. In the end, I gave up and used the button on the bed to lift the back. "There was a man with me at the warehouse, two of them. Was anyone else brought in with me?"
I tried to think through what had happened. Merick had been free of the curse when I had…my heart sped up sending the machines beeping. I had killed Carson. With magic. I tried to find my breath through my panic as the doctors and nurses came rushing in. Some of them lowered my bed while shouting orders that I wasn't paying attention to. I couldn't get my body to respond to me.
"Sedate her."
Goddess please no. I shook my head as the nurse injected something into my IV. A few minutes later my body started to relax, my heartbeat slowed down, and I felt like I was able to breathe again, though my brain was a little fuzzy.
"Ms. Collins, do you know where you are?"
I nodded. "A hospital."
"Correct, you're at Luna Grove Community Hospital. You were brought in three nights ago, unconscious, and left in our emergency room. Do you remember what happened?"
"No." The semi-lie came easy to me, he wasn't a supernatural being, and there were enough drugs in my system now that I didn't think my heart was capable of speeding up again.
"You had no obvious wounds on your body. Our best bet was you were magically attacked. We contacted the emergency contact listed in your phone, and he sent Ms. Jillian to watch over you until you woke."
I nodded. "Any idea how long I'll be here?"
"Until your vitals improve. Your body is weak, there's been a lot of stress put on it, and it needs to heal."
I locked my jaw. "I want to go home."
"And you'll be able too, as soon as your vitals improve. At least twenty-four hours. Ms. Collins, you've been unconscious for three nights, one more night won't hurt you."
Assuming no one else tried to kill me while I was down, he was probably right. "Where are my belongings?"
"They are on the table. Your clothes are folded in a bag on the chair." The doctor wrote something down on the chart. "I'll have a nurse come in and check on you in a few minutes."
I let out a long deep breath. It wouldn't be long before the drugs kicked in and knocked me out, but they wouldn't keep me under for long either. A perk of being a witch, my metabolism was faster than a human's. I glanced at Jillian. "Would you be so kind and hand me my phone?"
She nodded and snatched it up off the table. "It's been going nonstop, so I turned it off to save battery."
"Thank you. You can head back home. Let your leader know I'm awake, and I'll contact Levi." I held the power button to turn on my phone.
Jillian nodded. "Of course. I'm glad to see you're awake, Abigail. You gave everyone quite the scare."
I must have if I had strangers watching over me. I thanked her once more as she walked out the door, and I watched my phone light up with messages, missed calls, and voicemails. The sheer amount of them overwhelmed me, and I didn't want to face them right now. I shot Levi a text message.
Awake, alive, and hopefully I'll be released in twenty-four hours.
Next was Merick.
Dear Goddess, I hope you're alive. I'm awake.
And
then Oliver.
Demon almost killed me, pretty sure I killed him.
And lastly Simon.
I'm alive, in hospital, hopefully released in twenty-four hours and then I'll come home.
I set the phone down on the bed and closed my eyes as the drowsiness of the sedative started to kick in. A few minutes later, I felt it vibrate against me, and I picked I up and answered it.
"Yo." Was all I could manage.
"Do you need me to fly out there?" Simon's voice came over the line, and it made me smile.
"No, I'm fine. I just need some of my energy back, and then I'll be home. You can take care of me then."
He laughed. "You probably won't let me. At least in the hospital you can't go anywhere and you have to be taken care of."
"If I weren't drugged up, I'd argue with you, but it's too much effort." I let out a sigh and a knock came at the door. "I have to go, either I have a visitor, or the nurse is here to poke me."
"Be nice, Abby. They are there to help you."
I laughed. "I'm always nice." I disconnected the call before he could argue.
Merick peeked his head in. "How are you feeling?"
I shrugged. "I've been better. I'm concerned about Carson."
"He's gone. There's no need to concern yourself with him anymore. It's time for you to focus on healing and tell me where you learned that spell."
I let out a short snort. "I found it in my big book of everything. Tobias used it to save my mother from a similar curse."
"When he summoned the demon," Merick stated. "He used it to kill the demon to save her."
I nodded and closed my eyes. "I killed someone with my magic."
"To save your own life, and mine. He was a demon, Abigail, not an innocent person." Merick sat on the chair by the bed. "There are nightmares to follow, I'm sure, but your aura is barely tainted. You used his blood and not a sacrifice."
Barely tainted. I pulled the blanket up and sighed. "I'm getting tired."
"I'm staying here until they release you, and then we'll fly home."
Between the Lines (Here Witchy Witchy Book 7) Page 17