Dark of Night

by Emily Goodwin

  Lucas slows to a stop, and I look up. We’re at the house—our house—and there’s no warding here. Lucas jumps onto the front porch. I push out of his arms and go down the steps, holding out my hands.

  “Elementals vocationem ore exíbit gládis acútus: hanc domun praesidio! Custodrie moneia malo!” I spread my hands apart, setting a line of magic around the house. The wendigo barrels out of the woods, sprinting right at us. Lucas leaps in front of me, putting himself in the line of fire.

  The wendigo runs into the warding and bounces off, roaring in frustration. It leans in, coming as close as it can to the warding without getting zapped.

  “I thought wendigos were extinct.” Lucas takes a step back, reaching behind for my hand.

  “Apparently not. I’ve never seen one in person before. But that…that’s not what they’re supposed to look like.”

  “How do we kill it?”

  “Cut out its heart with a silver knife and bury it in a hex box in holy ground, like a graveyard or church lawn.”

  “Does it have to be silver? I can’t rip it out?”

  I make a face. “We could try…but I don’t know how we’re going to get close to that thing. Wendigos are perfect hunters.”

  “So are vampires.”

  I look from Lucas to the wendigo and pray my warding will hold. The thing has to be nearly seven feet tall with razor sharp teeth and huge claws.

  “They’re not just fast and strong,” I start. “They have some powers.”

  The wendigo charges again, and I throw up my hands, muttering the incantation over again. “Elementals vocationem ore exíbit gládis acútus: hanc domun praesidio! Custodrie moneia malo!” A shockwave of magic erupts from the circle I cast, knocking the wendigo to the ground. Pissed off, it gets up and looks like it’s going to run at us again, but it turns and takes off into the woods.

  Lucas rushes to the edge of the circle, inhaling deep. “I smell blood. Human blood.”

  “Shit.” I go to the edge of the circle with him, shaking my head. “We have to go out there and help them.”

  “No, we don’t.” He grabs my shoulders, spinning me around and looking at me. “That thing is dangerous, Callie.”

  “I know, and we barely got away…humans…humans won’t stand a chance. And who’s to say that human you’re smelling isn’t a witch from my coven trying to get through the door. The crack is there because that demon was trying to get to me and only me. I know it’s not directly my fault, but you can’t blame me for feeling a little bit of responsibility for this.”

  Lucas’s fingers press into my shoulders and his brow furrows. “Once this is over, I’m taking you on that vacation. Somewhere far away from Ley lines and demons.”

  “We can go away from Ley lines, but I think demons might follow me around.”

  “I’ll handle the demons then while you relax.”

  “This is a plan I can get behind.” I smile as I inhale, turning and looking at the woods. “Can you follow the scent of blood?”

  “Yes, they’re not far.”

  “Let’s go.”

  Lucas takes a step and then hesitates. “Can we walk through it?”

  I nod. “It keeps evil away. We’re not evil so it won’t work against us.”

  “Smart.”

  “Thanks.” We step through the circle, and Lucas takes a breath, smelling the blood trail. Fangs drawn, he leads the way. I conjure strings of magic, weaving them between my fingers. A blood-curdling scream comes from only a few yards ahead, followed by several gunshots.

  “Witches don’t use guns.” I hold up my hands, eyes going wide. “Those are normal humans out there. They don’t stand a chance.”

  Two more gunshots ring out, and then the forest goes silent. Lucas stops, turning around to look at me. “You don’t need to see this, Callie,” he says gently. “If they’re dead, I’ll take care of it.”

  I nod, feeling the Ley line send out another wave of energy. Holding up my hand so I can see what’s in front of me, I let Lucas move a few paces ahead as we approach the site of the humans.

  Then something snaps behind us, and a person jumps out of the shadows, crossbow raised and aimed at Lucas.

  “No!” I shout, but I’m too late. The person fires the crossbow, sending a silver-tipped wooden stake flying right at Lucas’s chest.

  Lucas whirls around, moving so fast he’s just a blur, and catches the stake. The person holding the crossbow stumbles back, shaken that Lucas so easily caught the arrow. Lucas, looking bored, snaps the wooden arrow in half and drops it on the ground. Snarling, he lurches forward, and the person with the crossbow turns to run away but trips and falls. Lucas grabs him by the throat, lifting him into the air, flashing his fangs and looking just at terrifying as the wendigo.

  Three more humans move in, two with guns and another with a crossbow.

  “Let him go,” one of them orders, and his voice is vaguely familiar. “This gun is loaded with silver bullets with a wooden core. Unless you want to be nothing but goo on the forest floor, you let him go right now, you son of a bitch.”

  I jump forward, putting my back to Lucas’s and holding up my hands. “Stop,” I say, heart racing. “Put your guns down or I eviscerate you where you stand.”

  “Nice try, princess,” one of the hunters sneers. He’s the one with the crossbow, wearing dirty jeans and muddy boots. I know what he sees when he looks at me. A pretty girl with big tits, out of place in the forest.

  He sees me as weak.

  And I won’t have it.

  “Move away and let the boys handle this.”

  I cock an eyebrow and flick my wrist, shoving the end of the crossbow into the man’s face. He staggers back, and the other two move in, pointing their guns at me.

  “Anyone else want to try me?” I splay my fingers, sending sparks of magic into the air.

  “She’s a witch,” the guy Lucas is holding chokes out.

  “She is,” Lucas grows, turning around and tossing the guy at the other hunters’ feet. “And I’m with her.” He steps next to me and flashes his fangs again.

  One of the hunters lowers his gun. “Callie?”

  I hold my hands up higher, not letting my guard down. Squinting my eyes to see past the bright magic I’m holding, I see his face. And now I know why his voice was so familiar.

  “Easton?” I wrinkle my nose. It’s been nearly ten years since I’ve seen him.

  “Stand down,” he tells the others. “I know this witch.” He takes a step forward, and Lucas growls. “Mind getting your attack dog under control?” he asks, flicking his eyes from me to Lucas.

  “Depends.” I release the magic but keep it floating in front of us. “Are you going to try and kill me again?”

  “That was a long time ago.”

  The hunter I hit in the face with the crossbow wipes up the blood that’s streaming down his face. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “That’s a good question,” Lucas echoes. “And whoever you left bleeding over there is fair game for the demons that lurk in these woods.”

  “He’s right.” I swallow hard, looking past Easton and his band of witch hunters. A girl lies on the ground, holding pressure to a wound on her thigh. “Is that Melinda?”

  “Yes,” Easton says, voice faltering. Melinda is his sister and was more or less my friend the summer we met.

  “Is she okay?”

  “If we can get her out of here in time, yes.”

  I bite the inside of my cheek, looking at Lucas. Before I can explain anything or make any sort of decision, someone calls out for help deep inside the forest. The voice is high-pitched, sounding like a child. It echoes all around us, making it impossible to know where the voice is coming from.

  “The wendigo,” Easton and I say at the same time.

  “Do you have a silver knife?” I ask Easton.

  “Of course.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls one out, handing it to me. I give it to Lucas, knowing he has the best chance of all of
us to cut out the thing’s heart. “The wendigo is high on demonic energy, making it ten times harder to kill. We need to get you out of here now.”

  “Out of here?” Crossbow Hunter echoes. “We’ve been tracking this thing for weeks.”

  “Give me a few hours, and I’ll handle it,” I say. “Leave it to the girls, I guess, and we’ll get shit done.” I flick my gaze to Easton. “Get Melinda and follow us.”

  “You’re not seriously going to trust this witch, are you?” the guy Lucas grabbed by the throat asks, coughing as he rubs at his neck. “And that vampire?” He doesn’t make any attempt to lower his voice. “Really, Easton? A witch and a vampire? Have you lost your fucking mind?”

  “You don’t have much of a choice,” I snap. “I have bigger issues to handle, so you’re either coming with us now or not at all.”

  “Bigger problems than a hulked-out wendigo?” Easton raises his eyebrows. “Never mind.” He looks at the other hunters. “We’re following them. Now.”

  He races over to Melinda, who’s leaning against a tree, and helps her to her feet.

  “What the hell is going on?” Lucas asks me, not taking his eyes off the hunters. “You know them?”

  “Only Easton and Melinda. We met years ago when I was sixteen. They were ordered to kill a witch, and I was said witch.”

  “They tried to kill you, and you want to help them?”

  “Melinda never tried to kill me.” I shake my head, not wanting to get into it now. “It’s a long story, and it’s one I’ll tell you later. Right now, I need to get them to the house and inside the warding so we can go back out there and kill that wendigo, close the crack, and fix the Ley line.”

  Lucas isn’t happy with any of this, but he nods. “Fine. But if they so much as look at you wrong, I’m ripping their throats out.”

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

  The energy shifts again, but this time the shift is welcome. Binx, Freya, and Pandora, shadow around everyone, freaking out the hunters. Lucas gloats in their fear, and Binx zeroes in on Easton, who’s helping his injured sister walk through the overgrown forest.

  “What the fuck are those?” one of the hunters asks, raising his gun.

  “My familiars, you idiot,” I say, rolling my eyes at his raised gun. You can’t shoot a spirit.

  “I don’t like them.”

  “Funny, they don’t like you either.” Binx circles me, red eyes glowing bright in the dark. He darts behind me, shoving Easton to the ground, bringing Melinda down with him.

  “I see he remembers me,” Easton says, getting to his feet and helping his sister up. “And still doesn’t like me.”

  Binx shifts back into cat-form, looking so small and innocent on purpose as a way to tease Easton. Meowing, he runs forward and falls in step with me.

  “He’d rip you to shreds if I let him,” I say.

  “That makes two of us,” Lucas grumbles, and Binx meows in agreement. The same childlike voice calls out, sending a chill down my spine.

  “We need to hurry,” I say, and Lucas and I pick up the pace. Freya and Pandora stay behind us, keeping us safe from the hunters should they try anything.

  “Where are we going?” one of the hunters asks.

  “My house,” I tell him, stealing a glance over my shoulder.

  “Our house is closer,” Lucas says. “I don’t know if she can make it much longer.”

  “Crap. You’re right. We can get them there and then come back with a car. The warding should hold.”

  Leaves crunch several feet away, and everyone freezes. All the hunters raise their weapons, and it’s all I can do not to telekinetically shove them down before they hurt someone. My familiars surround me, and Lucas darts forward, able to smell the scrapper before any of us can even see him.

  He plunges his hand through the demon’s chest, pulling out and crushing its heart.

  “Thanks,” I tell him as he drops it to the ground. “Let’s not forget to add this one to our pile of scrappers to burn.”

  The hunters look at Lucas with fear in their eyes, fingers itching to pull the trigger. Hunters are dangerous to people like Lucas and me, for obvious reasons. They know how to kill vampires and how to ward off witches. Luckily for us, Lucas is much stronger than the average vampire and I’m far from a typical witch.

  We emerge from the woods and into the overgrown lawn of the big white house. I stop in front of the circle I cast and hold up my hands, creating a door for everyone to go through. Lucas stays by my side. Easton and Melinda go through first. She’s limping bad, with blood soaking through her jeans. Her face is pale and sweat drips down her forehead. She’s not in good shape at all.

  “Like hell I’m going in there,” one of the hunters grumbles, grabbing the younger one who tried to shoot Lucas by the collar. “It’s a trap.”

  “Suit yourself,” I say and start to lower my hands, closing the door. “I’m not staying out there with the beefed-up wendigo.”

  “Get your ass in here,” Easton hisses, and the other hunters follow suit.

  Once everyone is in, I close the door and recast the circle, just to be safe. Melinda is leaning against Easton, looking like she’s going to pass out. Lucas rushes up the steps to the front door, pulling the keys from his pocket. I put a house key on my key ring, and I’m impressed he didn’t lose the keys while we were running for our lives.

  “Hey, Callie,” Melinda says through gritted teeth. “It’s been a while. You look good.”

  “It has been a while, and thanks. You look, well, terrible.”

  She laughs, wincing in pain. “I know.” Her eyes go from me to Lucas. “So, what the fuck is worse than that wendigo? Is the apocalypse starting or something?”

  Lucas unlocks the front door and opens it wide. “Or something.”

  “You’re serious?” Melinda huffs as Easton helps her forward. Two hunters go in, flashlights on and guns raised.

  “It’s safe,” I say dryly. “We already killed the zombie in the attic.” I toss an energy ball up to light up the foyer, well aware the hunters are looking at me like I’m the Wicked Witch of the West. Easton sits Melinda down on the stairs and Lucas closes the door.

  “How bad is it?” I ask, looking down at Melinda’s leg.

  “Bad,” Lucas answers for her. “Her blood pressure is dropping, and her heart rate is slow.”

  “She needs to go to the hospital,” Easton says and pulls his phone from his back pocket. “Dammit! I have no service!” He’s a hunter by birth, just like Melinda. They didn’t ask for this life, and it’s the only thing that granted them any forgiveness from me, Evander, and Tabatha after Easton was ordered by his father to execute me.

  “I can cauterize the wound,” I offer, going over to Melinda. “It’ll hurt, but at least will stop the bleeding.”

  “Do it,” Melinda says through gritted teeth.

  “What? No!” Easton protests.

  “Then enjoy watching her bleed to death,” I quip. “Unless…” I look at Lucas. “Unless you can go to the house and get my car. It’s not like we can call an ambulance to drive into the woods. We can meet them at the crossroad that leads to the highway.”

  “I’m not leaving you here alone with them.” Lucas shows his fangs when he talks. All of the hunters tense, knowing Lucas could gut them all in under a minute.

  But I could do much worse if I wanted to.

  “I’ll be fine. Binx won’t let anyone near me, and you’re the fastest and strongest out of all of us.”

  Easton’s jaw tenses, not liking that he’s not the Top Dog in the room. It was one of the problems we had in our relationship even before I found out he was trying to kill me.

  “We need to get her out of here so we can kill the wendigo, fix the you-know-what before it infects the entire town, and make sure Kristy is okay.”

  Lucas zeroes his gaze in on me, able to sense the anxiety coming off me in waves. “Fine,” he finally says. “There’s one thing I have to do before I
leave.” He zooms over to the other hunters, who raise their weapons at him. In seconds, Lucas has them all disarmed and is holding them spellbound. “If you so much as look at Callie wrong, you will be overcome with crippling pain, dropping to your knees, making you unable to move.”

  Easton starts to get up to try and stop Lucas, but Melinda stops him. She’s scared of Lucas and it’s written all over her face. She was scared of me too when we first met.

  Lucas breaks the hold he has on the hunters, wanting them to be well aware of what he’s saying when he threatens to pull their spines out if they harm a hair on my head. I walk with him to the front door and throw my arms around him before he steps outside.

  “Be careful,” I say, pushing up onto my toes so I can kiss him. “Wendigos are smart, making them dangerous even without the added strength.”

  “I will be. And you too. I don’t trust them.”

  “You only trust two people, and one of them is right here.”

  His lips curve into a slight smile. “True. It’s done me well so far.” He leans down, kisses me hard, and then disappears into the dark of night.

  Chapter 27

  My heart aches, and my stomach twists with worry. Lucas is strong. He’s fast. He’ll be able to get to the house before the wendigo can catch him…and honestly, I don’t even know if a wendigo would go after a vampire.

  They eat the living. Vampires are dead.

  I close the door and turn around, coming face to face with all the hunters. My familiars stand in front of me, sitting tall and swishing their tails, letting everyone in the room know they will shift into shadow form and fuck shit up if they have to.

  “What’s going on out there?” Melinda asks, gritting her teeth and pushing up against the stairs. “You said it was…was something.”

  “It is something.” I go to the window, wiping away dust, and look out. The Ley line is pulsing again, and I hope each burst of energy doesn’t further fuel the demons. “What are you doing here? Coming into Thorne Hill is suicide.” I whirl around, cocking an eyebrow. “The Grand Coven was just here. Consider yourself lucky I’m the one who ran into you.”