Witch Hunt

by L R Deney

Both women nodded, then hurried through the club and found a side exit that led out into the alley. Behind, Mr. DeVos drew a red, burning sword out from thin air and stood to face the brothers. Quickly, Staci closed the door.

  Alone in the alley, the witch looked to Melanie. “Let’s go.”

  Melanie clicked her tongue ring in agreement.

  They raced down the alley toward another street only to be confronted by a man in a black duster and hat. He winked at the women and drew out his pistols and aimed at his quarry. Staci readied her hands for casting in retaliation for any attack that would come.

  “Why don’t you be good little girls and give yourselves up?” he said, drawing closer.

  “Not a chance,” hissed Staci.

  “Well, dead’s fine too,” replied Russell, firing both of his pistols.

  Hurriedly casting, Staci erected a shield of darkness that stopped the arcane shots from the guns. Then turning, grabbing Melanie by the hand, she ran down the other way along the alley. From behind they heard Russell curse and his booted footsteps follow, likely sidestepping the shield.

  Two more shots sounded, but Staci and Melanie had already rounded the corner away from Club Sepulcher. People, finally hearing the gunshots, began to duck and scatter in a panic. Hopefully that chaos would work to an advantage. Already there were people running out of the club, fleeing the fight from inside.

  Down the road they ran, escaping the chaos behind. Cops that had been down the street at the Runestone hurried over to the club, their sirens flickering silent in the dark. More gunshots filled the night amidst screams. There were other people running alongside the two women, trying to escape like they were

  Well this is certainly going to look interesting on the news, thought Staci.

  She was almost certain that they had lost the bounty hunters as part of the fleeing crowd when she caught something flicking to the side that was rapidly approaching. Without hesitation, she pushed Melanie to the ground with her. Something whistled past above them and suddenly they saw a multitude of Japanese throwing stars embed themselves into the window above.

  “Fuck, this is not going to be an easy night,” Staci grumbled.

  Melanie nodded, still speechless.

  Staci looked back to where the stars came from and spotted a shadow on top of a roof across the street disappear back into the darkness. Without wasting a further minute, she stood up, helping Melanie up with her, and led the dash again. Most of the crowd was ahead of them, disappearing into surrounding streets. Silently she cursed her luck, because now the two of them were going to stick out more. She wondered when they’d ever catch a break.

  “Do you think we can travel?” Melanie asked. “Get out of here?”

  “No, if we try that too soon, they’ll hop down right on top of us,” Staci replied. “We need to put some distance between us and them.”

  “Seattle’s never been the same after I met you.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “No, not at all. I love you.”

  “I love you t—”

  Staci was cut off when a police car went hurtling through the air and crashed into a building across the street. Then there was an unearthly howl. Both women stopped briefly to look behind them to see two, large wolf-like creatures tearing through the police at the club back down the road. Gunshots were fired, but the beasts seemed unharmed by the bullets.

  “Oh fuck,” Staci exclaimed.

  Melanie looked to her. “Are those what I think they are?”

  “Yes. Werewolves.”

  “Oh shit.”

  Not caring to see where the calamity back at the club was going any further, they resumed running. They turned down another road once they reached it and kept running as fast and as far as they could. Eventually they stopped behind a tree in a park. It was Cal Anderson Park, Staci noted, not that it was a particularly important detail.

  “Do you think we’ve lost them?” Melanie asked, looking back around the tree.

  “Probably,” Staci huffed. “Maybe. Possibly.”

  “That doesn’t sound very assuring.”

  “It isn’t,” Mr. DeVos said as he walked into view, his suit looking a little worse for wear. “You have a total of four bounty hunters on your trail. Maybe more in the future. Two of them are werewolves, you might have noticed. They’ll be really hard to shake off, they have your scents.”

  Staci looked at the demon in human guise. “I take it you have them to thank for those tears in your suit.”

  Mr. DeVos frowned, his eyes narrowing. “Indeed. Those two ruffians have no class.”

  “No class?” a deep, rumbling voice interrupted. “No class? Jim, I do believe the punk in the suit is insulting us.”

  “Yeah, I think’ you’re right, Jack.”

  The three looked to the two werewolves, the towering bulk of the beasts hard to miss. Every urge to run filled the instincts of Staci and Melanie. Staci knew how hard it was to kill werewolves; the creatures were among the most dangerous that ruled the night. Mr. DeVos simply looked unimpressed.

  “You know, you two are really beginning to annoy me,” the demon said, claws extending from his formerly human fingers.

  “Annoy him, he says,” Jim said with a deep, deep chuckle. “Why, I think it’s time we show him how annoying we can get, right, Jack?”

  “Right!” replied Jack as his towering figure moved to a streetlamp and tore it out of the ground. “We can get really annoying. Ha ha ha ha.”

  Mr. DeVos shook his head. “You two simpletons have no idea who you’re dealing with. I am a representative of the most powerful being in Hell. Fuck with me and you fuck with her. In fact you’re already fucking with her by fucking with them. These two are claimed by her, you have no authority to take them.”

  “Is that right? Well prepare to get FUCKED WITH!!” roared Jim.

  Jack leapt at the demon and swung the streetlamp at Mr. DeVos. Surprisingly, DeVos had enough strength to stop the improvised weapon with a clawed hand. He let out a distorted growl as he challenged the werewolf. The other Lupus Brother charged him from the side and knocked him back. However this foolish move caused Jack to accidentally whack his brother with the streetlamp, momentarily distracting them both.

  Mr. DeVos looked back at Staci and Melanie. “Get out of here. Travel anywhere. The crown is more important than these cretins. Find it for Kadmon.”

  “You really use a lot of ableist language, but I get the point,” Staci retorted, then took Melanie by the hand and opened a quick portal for them to escape the park with.

  Chapter 17

  “So you were seen!” Karl Dunkelstein roared, turning around and extended his hand out in a grasping gesture.

  The unfortunate Miles Johnson found himself lifted from the ground, choking and grasping for his throat. He wound up hovering several feet above the floor. He could barely concentrate on forming a sentence to plead for his life with.

  “She… she… gack!... she didn’t see… where… where… I went,” Miles struggled to say, breathing become a difficult task for him. “I… I lost her.” Then he wound up crashing to the floor, the magical grip around his throat gone.

  “Go on.”

  “Like, I went through the club, using everyone as a cover to slip into and disappear. She never found out where I went. I swear it, Fuehrer. The crowd was big; it was easy to slip out of view.”

  The Fuehrer took in a few relaxing breaths. “Very well, I’ll spare your life for a good job shaking it off. We cannot risk having our sanctum exposed. Neither to it, nor to anyone else. Understood?”

  “Perfectly.”

  Dunkelstein turned and stroked his chin. “Now, we have to be ever more vigilant. If the degenerate was in the neighborhood, it means that it is close on our trail. We must heighten our efforts to track it down first and eliminate it. It cannot be allowed to know where this sanctum is anchored.”

  “She will never find out where we are, we will make sure of it!”

  �
��You better, because I cannot tolerate any more failure….”

  “I will not fail you, Fuehrer.” Then Miles hurried to leave.

  But Dunkelstein, when alone, found that hard to believe. He was being failed everywhere when it concerned Staci Drenvauder. The degenerate appeared to be completely elusive, and not even Azramoas was able to recapture it, by all accounts. And now it came close to finding the sanctum? No, this could not be allowed, he could not tolerate it any further.

  Staci Drenvauder had to die.

  ◆◆◆

  The portal had opened on a random road in Spanaway, and both women hurried to a copse of trees and hid within. If any bounty hunter followed them here, they would be prepared; Staci had her spells at the ready. And so they waited, and waited.

  An hour passed, and no one showed up. Not even the mysterious fourth one that had attacked with the ninja stars. That was a relief, after an hour of talking in hushed tones about their next course of action. They came to agree that the Runestone had to be staked out to watch out for Black Sun activity. The problem was getting there without garnering attention from the bounty hunters again. The two werewolves would be the most difficult, as they tracked mainly by scent, not magic.

  They left the copse of trees and walked around randomly to orient themselves in the area. Finally, Melanie took out her phone and set up the Google Maps GPS. They were actually quite a distance away from Theo’s trailer, so they wound up walking through the dark for well over half an hour.

  Finally the dirt track came into view and they hurried up the way to the trailer. Looking around, carefully, Staci inserted the key that Theo had given her and led the way in when the door was unlocked. Hastily it was closed behind them.

  Theo was on their couch, fiddling with some electronic gadget in their hand. A brief aura looking like computer code floated around it, and then Theo put it aside when they saw Staci and Melanie enter. Standing, they walked across the room to greet both women with a hug.

  “How did it go?” they asked, a bright smile forming over their lips.

  “Not as planned,” Staci lamented.

  “Oh?”

  “There were a lot of complications. We did find the address, it was a bar named the Runestone, and despite being a meeting place for our Nazis, it’s actually a fairly progressive venue. Anyway, we have bounty hunters after us now.”

  “Bounty hunters?”

  “Yeah, one’s a cowboy, two are werewolves and twins, and a fourth one is some kind of ninja.”

  “Oh, that sounds like quite an ordeal. Are you two all right? Anything injured?”

  “Oh, we’re fine, Theo, we had some help during our… adventure tonight.”

  “Help? Who?”

  “A demon named Mr. DeVos. We met him when we entered a Goth night club pursuing one of the Nazis. I think he was heading for the bar when he saw us and he ran.”

  “Did you catch the Nazi?”

  “No. He shook us off in the crowd.”

  “That sucks. So who’s Mr. DeVos?”

  Staci frowned uncomfortably. “He’s a demon that works for Kadmon. He was checking up on me in case I was slacking off on the hunt for the crown. I convinced him that my pursuit of Nazis had everything to do with that, then he helped us.”

  “At least you were able to convince him.”

  “Yeah, I only hope I don’t find out what the consequences of that action are. It would be nothing good for certain.”

  Melanie clicked at her tongue ring. “We’ll figure something out. You always have something up your sleeve, after all.”

  “Yeah, just worried that I’m running out of things,” Staci said with a solemn expression.

  “Well, until then, we have a safe place here and a bunch of beers in the fridge,” Theo said, their attempt at a smile trying to brighten Staci’s spirits. “And we can just sit on the couch and watch Netflix all night if you want. Ever seen Star Trek?”

  “I’ve only seen a few episodes here and there,” Staci admitted.

  “Well then, I guess we gotta remedy that.”

  So there they sat on the couch, watching Netflix for the better half of a night. Eventually the three started growing drowsy and decided to take their rest for the night. Once again, Staci and Melanie took the guest bed and spooned as they waited for the slumber to come.

  “Staci, do you think we’ll get through this?”

  “I don’t know, really. But at the very least we have to try. We got pretty close tonight to track down the Nazis. If we can accomplish that, who knows? I have to believe that we’ll win, I just have to. Otherwise everything we have done so far has lost its purpose.”

  “Yeah, you’re a pretty strong lady. I have faith in you. You’ll beat them all.”

  “Thank you.”

  And after that brief exchange, both of them started drifting off. Before they knew it, they were sound asleep, none the wiser of the world beyond Theo’s sanctum. Despite the trials that they had gone through, they dreamt only peaceful experiences, together, safe in their bed.

  ◆◆◆

  Outside the trailer, the fourth bounty hunter observed in silence. She had been sitting in the trees for a few hours now, examining the layout of the area. There were wards all over the place, this was someone’s sanctum. While she couldn’t get in through the wards, especially since they were of a very unusual nature, she could gather as much intelligence as she could before making her move. The two would have to come out eventually.

  So she lay in wait, no matter how long it took. She had mastered and disciplined her entire body. No spellcaster had ever come as close as she had in that aspect. Every inch of herself she could control, her abilities were unparalleled. Not even this Staci Drenvauder would be her match, she was sure of it.

  So she waited….

  ◆◆◆

  “Aren’t you at all worried about where the Council is taking our city?” Drake Okar demanded of Julia Frandsen.

  “Of course I am, Drake,” Frandsen replied. “A number of the Speaker’s new powers are a bit questionable. One has to wonder if he really needs them.”

  “‘A bit?’ They’re outrageous!” Okar swung his arm in a wide arc, his voice echoing through the hallway they walked through. “I mean, straight up outrageous! And don’t forget you voted for some of them, at which point I have to question your integrity.”

  “Drake, I really didn’t want to have this conversation with you. Yes, I’m worried, but I will also point out that some of the powers sounded necessary and reasonable, which is why I voted for them. Especially in the wake of what happened just barely a week ago.”

  “But don’t you see? This is a power grab. This is an attempt by Andersson and Visiliev to establish their authoritarian principles on the Council. The new Speaker is just their puppet to ram it all through.”

  “Drake, the matter has been voted on, we lost. We have to accept that fact, regardless of how much we dislike it. It’s time to move on, focus on the needs of Azramoas.”

  “And what if even more power is given to the Speaker?”

  “Then I guess I’ll join you in total dissent. Until that time though, the Council still mostly functions as it should. Get over it, Drake.”

  Julia walked away from him, leaving through an adjacent hallway. Drake stared after her, filled with frustration at her refusal to see the obvious. Couldn’t she realize that they were on the precipice of a dictatorship? Any more power given to the Speaker would virtually make the Council obsolete.

  He was about to turn around to head back down the hallway when something blunt hit him on the back of his head. He crashed down to the floor in a heap, struggling as the world started to darken and spin around him. The last thing he heard before losing consciousness was a familiar voice from the Council.

  “Another prize for the Black Sun and the Fourth Reich.”

  Chapter 18

  Both Melanie and Staci woke up late to smell the wafting odor of breakfast. Immediately filled with a sense of hung
er, they headed toward to the kitchen to find Theo cooking. After breakfast was served, both women hungrily devoured it, feeling quite contented afterwards. The flavor was astonishing.

  “Wow, you two, I don’t think I’ve ever seen food vanish so quickly,” Theo remarked, still halfway through theirs.

  “I was hungry,” both women said nearly at the same time.

  Theo chuckled. “Apparently.”

  “Thank you for that,” Staci said, drinking down some of her orange juice.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Melanie echoed.

  “Think nothing of it. Now, have either of you come up with a plan on how you’ll be able to have a stakeout of the Runestone?”

  “Not really, except we’ll have to use some practical means, rather than arcane. The only two we’d have to worry about then are the werewolves. Werewolves can track by scent once they have a whiff of it.”

  “Yeah… werewolves are a bitch.”

  “They’re also a bitch to hurt or kill. Some magical effects are helpful in that, but the most effective is their number one weakness.”

  “Silver?” Melanie asked.

  “Exactly. It’s like acid to them, straight up corrosive to their system. I imagine that it’s extremely painful.”

  “Unfortunately getting enough to fight a werewolf is kinda pricey,” Theo remarked, stroking their chin thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, and I’m rapidly running out of money, so using magic in a desperate situation will have to do. Onto the actual stakeout itself, we’ll have come up with a method of reaching the Runestone without resorting to magic. Otherwise they’ll be all on top of us.”

  “Car rental?”

  “I’ve never driven.”

  “I have,” Melanie said, clicking at her tongue with a bit of pride.

  “Okay, but how do we get to a car rental place?”

  “Well, the best thing about the Puget Sound area is that it has a very extensive bus system. Just catch a bus, ride it to a rental place, rent the car, then drive the rest of the way to Cap Hill.”

  “So where is there a car rental place?”