Blood Witch
Blood Witch Copyright © 2012 Ellie Potts
Second Edition 2013
First Edition 2012
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Evolution Press Publication
Edited by Danielle Ricci
Cover art by Ellie Potts
Published in electronic book format November 2012
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This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any persons alive or deceased,
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only for descriptive purposes.
This book is dedicated to all the paranormal readers, because we always need a new
paranormal book to read. A special thanks to James Gibbs for Mr. Forever, and to Danielle
Ricci who helped see through the madness.
Other Books by Ellie Potts:
Space Rebels
The Unicorn and The Serpent
Blood Witch
Short Story Collections:
Flights of Delusion
Coming Soon:
Awaken the Elements
Playing with Magic
Something bad had to have happened in the house to have provoked her. Blood witches
didn’t just let their magic go. This was exactly what Leslie seemed to have done in
the small three bedroom house. One thing you try not to do is anger a witch, and that’s
exactly what the trolls did. And said witch didn’t yet have control of all her powers.
The house stank of old blood, a stench which any Opposite could smell just passing
by. They were handed the anonymous call at the station. They got all the nut jobs
being rookies, they took them, and they fixed the problem and went on to the next
case.
Collin and Patrick leaned against the black SUV as the sun started to set. The tan
prefab house in front of them shook and shivered with enough magic to make even the
normal humans look around uneasily. The early spring weather seemed cold, yet not
as bad as the cold winter they had just had. They both remarked on how the rain from
the previous night had made everything look a little greener and healthier, avoiding
mentioning what could be happening in the house. The house groaned with the pressure
of the built-up magic, ready to pop like a balloon.
Collin, his unruly, dyed black hair falling in his eyes, looked over at Patrick. "Should
we help her?" He took a step toward the house.
Patrick let the sun bathe him as he shook his head. "She'll probably flay us alive
or something."
Collin leaned against the SUV once more, eyes watching the house. “I don’t want to
be flayed alive.”
Patrick shooed a bee away as the door to the house swung open with a loud bang, and
two short and very scared men came running out. They fell to the ground before the
SUV, pleading in their own language and slobbering on the ground.
Patrick watched as some of the troll dribble fell on his black steel-toed boots. It
made a small hissing sound. "Calm it down, boys," he said. He heaved himself away
from the SUV and pulled warded handcuffs from his pocket. They were normal, except
for the runes marked in the stainless steel to keep monsters trapped. The steel rendered
most of the fairy folk almost powerless.
Before he and Collin could handcuff the two crying trolls, Leslie came out of the
house. Her essence rode the air, magic, both dark and light, that tasted of blood.
Anger did not go well with a blood witch; the darkness radiated from her. The unseen
magic made her brown hair seem alive, as it moved in an independent wind. Her eyes
were nothing but thundercloud gray, no white could be seen. Her jeans and hoodie were
coated in blood, the black fabric darkened and dripping. It wasn't human.
"I need a shower," she said as she glared down at the small trolls.
To her, they were just trolls. They had odd shaped heads with a few strands of coarse,
dirt brown hair. Two small, beady, brown eyes sat on top of a long twisted nose. They
had no lips, so their mouths looked like slits just drawn on at the last minute. However,
to humans and Opposites, they looked like midgets depending on their own glamour.
"I bet that shit is burning," Collin said.
She nodded. "I've had some troll blood on me, but not drenched like this." She looked
down at herself. "Can you two slap the handcuffs on them so we can get a move on?
I really need a shower."
They did as she said and shoved them in the back. "You gonna ride in the back with
them?" Collin asked her.
The trolls started hissing and making a fuss. She glared at them again, and her magic
started to peek once more.
"Not wise," Patrick said. "Get in the back, Collin."
As he drove them to the station, he sniffed and made a face. "So where did all the
troll blood come from?"
"Booby trap," she said. "They either killed some of the others or they've been saving
up. By how fresh the blood is I'm thinking they killed some of the others."
"Taboo," Collin said. "You two are going to get eaten alive."
"Literally," Patrick muttered. Leslie rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms over
her chest. Steam rose from her as the acidic blue blood started to dry.
They pulled into the station after a ten minute drive and used a side door to drag
the trolls inside. All the other Supervisors stared at Leslie as she made her way
to her office, steam rising from her hair and clothes. She could feel the welts the
blood had caused raising on her sensitive skin. Troll blood stunk worse as it dried,
and it made her nauseous since she had a sense of smell better than any blood witch
recorded. She slammed the door shut and went into the bathroom. The men could share
showers, but since she was the only woman Supervisor working in the Merced County
area, she was privileged with her own shower attached to her office. She peeled her
sticky cloths off as she started the water. Naked, she stepped in the steaming hot
spray. It burned her skin where the blood had been, but the pain went away, and the
heat felt good as she scrubbed the gunk from her hair and body.
When she was sure she had gotten all the blood off, she stepped out of the shower,
drying off with a towel. She dressed in her usual jeans and black t-shirt—either a
band t-shirt or one with a goofy saying, this one's was about sanity. She didn’t think
of herself as ugly or hot. She had all the curves where it counted; she was neither
prude nor slut. She wore clothes that were both comfortable and easy to work in that
made her blend in. She brushed out her brown hair and added some conditioner, which
would have to work for now. She looked down at her shoes.
Ruined
.
Making a face, she pushed the bathroom door open and nearly jumped back inside, seeing
Fred sitting at her desk. "Don't do that!" she shouted, calming her racing heart.
"Damn it."
He looked to be a normal middle aged man with a balding head. He held out some salve.
She had yet to master the herbalism some blood witches innately knew. She had been
a late bloomer, and her specialties were more with knowing myth and folklore other
than herbalism. Although she came into power late, Fred thought her the most powerful
of the three other blood witches in California including himself.
There were only four blood witches in the state as far as the Supervisors knew, and
the Supervisors knew everything. She and Fred worked as Supervisors. Richard, Leslie’s
evil bastard ex boyfriend, worked for the King Wolf in the county. The fourth blood
witch, Carlotta, had accepted the darkness a long time ago. She had to have been pushing
ninety years, and even though she looked it, she didn’t act old. She acted as if she
was still in her thirties, especially by the horror stories her lovers had released
before they died in some mysterious, horrible way over the years. The Supervisors
were always monitoring the other two, but so far, they did all their badness hidden
from view.
The Supervisors themselves are police who keep an eye on the Opposites. There is the
normal human world, and then there is the Opposite Side, the creatures of myth and
legend that live amongst the humans.
The first Supervisors stated that the Opposites had to keep the two worlds separate,
because humans scared easy, and so they formed a treaty, years ago. It was true: when
Leslie discovered what she was after staking a rogue vampire on the day she came into
power, she had been pretty freaked out. Who wouldn’t freak, to suddenly know that
the things they had read about and watched in movies were real? There were creatures
that really did go bump in the night, creatures who had a hunger for blood.
That had been three years ago. Now she helped supervise the world she had once known
from the creatures. Protect the innocent: that was their job. Secretly, Leslie wished
that the burden had not been shoved upon her, but then again, she had always known
she was different. She had power that clung to her, that made others uneasy when they
looked into her gray eyes. Human, yet not so. She sat down as Fred started to rub
some of the salve, which had a pungent smell of rosemary, on her face.
"I don't know what the three of you are going to do when I leave on vacation," he
said, finishing up. The salve was only to stop the itching. Her skin, as sensitive
as it was, healed quicker than most humans, and faster than a blood witch's should
as well. Fred always seemed a bit jealous about it, but to her it just seemed normal.
As a child she had healed unnaturally, spooking even her mom.
"We’ll be fine," she said, wincing.
He looked at her with his own gray eyes. All blood witches had gray eyes that changed
with their mood, so most of the other Supervisors didn't want Fred or Leslie to wear
sunglasses. Just in case.
"I don't believe you."
"So I went a little wild today," she said looking at the salve on her hands. "But
they drenched me in blood,
troll
blood. You would have gone a little bit wild today too."
He shook his head, trying not to smile. "You three are the youngest Supervisors, and
to leave you guys unsupervised is not a good idea. You guys get the job done, but
you push it. Even you, Leslie. I thought you would be the head of the group, but you
use your magic a little too much. It makes the others uneasy. None of the veteran
officers want the responsibility of watching over you guys when I leave."
"And why shouldn’t I use my power? I was born with it, so I might as well use it to
help others, right?"
“Like I said, you are making some of the other Supervisors uneasy. You know there’s
a line, and once you cross it there is no coming back, Leslie. I don’t want to see
you lose yourself to that darkness. And I certainly don’t want to be the man who has
to get the death order.” Fred was a nice guy, one of the nicest in the squad, but
he would follow the rules if he had too. “Just be careful.”
His eyes went to the door, as Collin and Patrick came into view. “He is lecturing
you again, I take it?” Collin said, arms crossed over his chest. He looked behind
him, but Patrick stood quietly. Werebears were cool like that. Actually, he just didn't
like Fred, so he tried to stay out of the old man’s way as much as possible.
"What do you two eavesdroppers want?" Fred asked.
"We bring in the bad people, and keep people safe. Our cases get closed faster than
most of the veterans. We’ll be safe, and try not to step on toes. Is that all you
wanted to hear us say?"
Patrick spoke up. "We have business"
Fred scratched his balding gray beard. "What are you three getting yourselves into
now?"
He stood up. Fred, like the other three blood witches were short. They stood five
foot to five-five. Leslie, a model five-ten, again different then the others. She
was sure there was something in her blood that might have been more than blood witch,
something which would account for some of the differences.
Leslie looked at the time. "Damn, nothing. It's the bear council tonight. Remember?
The tensions between them and the wolves are getting crazy and Nathan called a meeting.
He asked for us personally."
Fred shook his head. "Will you three
promise
me that when I'm gone you'll try not to get yourselves killed?"
"Sure," Leslie replied grabbing a clean black hoodie from the chair she was sitting
on. "We promise."
As they left the building, Patrick looked down at Leslie's socked feet. "Where are
your shoes?"
"Ruined. I need a new pair."
"I have a pair in the back," Collin pointed out.
"Gross. Have you not seen your feet lately?" she asked.
"We have enough time to stop by the house," Patrick said as he beeped another black
SUV open. The one they would have used needed to be cleaned and possibly given a whole
new interior.
After stopping by the house to get shoes, they drove over to the meeting hall. It
was your typical meeting hall for weddings, birthdays and other such big events. Leslie
mused over the thought that the owners had no clue that tonight they were housing
a bunch of werebears. The three got out of the black SUV and just stood there, she
felt the energy riding the air. Leslie could feel the nervousness and anger that spewed
from the plain brownish building.
The bears usually held their meetings at Scout Island out at the lake, but lately
there had been some problems with keeping certain meetings a secret. The sneaky wolves
were always nosing around where they weren’t welcome. She thought Jonathan had actually
planned that one out pretty well; sending a lesser wolf that wouldn’t be noticed.
The sun had finally sunk, leaving a slight fire in the western sky. They were a week
away from the full moon, so tonight would be a dark night, and most creepy Opposites
would be out stalking in it. Leslie shivered, rubbing her arms and the goose bumps.
She looked at her two close friends. They were coworkers and roommates, they shared
everything. At first she wasn’t sure she could live with two men, one being a werebear,
the other a half-breed, half werewolf half vampire, but they worked out fine, each
being easy to live with. She wouldn’t trade them for anything, she thought as she
looked over them, feeling protective like a big sister.
“Well, let’s get this over with,” Collin said.
“Yeah, Nathan doesn’t like us late,” Patrick agreed.
The energy had seemed to surround her. Leslie knew her eyes had gone a dark gray almost
black because the two men each stepped back when they noticed. Her skin vibrated with
the energy coming from the hall. Then, calm came over her, a new power, Nathan’s power.
A fatherly hand smoothing all his bears' anxiety and fears, it touched her like a
sensual caress sliding over her naked skin. She shivered, closing her eyes. She didn’t
know why she seemed so in tune with the bears, or why Nathan had such an impact on
her.
