kate storm 04 - witches dont back down (22 page)

Ash hit the brakes and grunted. "We're here."

I heard the words and the next thing I knew, Ash had a powerful arm wrapped around my waist. I struggled, kicking and pounding at him. Why was he stopping me?

"Kate." Ash shook me. "We can't rush in. We don't know where she has him. She might have set a trap. Kate." Ash shook me again. "Do you hear me?"

I felt as if Ash was calling to me through a long tunnel. There was a gap between his words and my understanding. I inhaled deeply and everything snapped back into focus.

We were all standing outside of Love Required by Ash's truck. Ash, Morgan and Drake watching me with various expressions of concern.

"I'm good." That wasn't true. Not even close. I was still on the verge of losing it. Nina had Al, but I was as close to maintaining my control as I was going to get right now.

Ash was right. We couldn't race in. I could do more harm than good.

But Al was just inside the door somewhere.

"Can you cast a spell?" Morgan asked tightly. Her eyes glowed like green flashlights in the dark. Equal parts anger and fear.

Spirits, I wished I could borrow some of her anger. All I felt was fear. Cold and panicky fear. I couldn't think clearly.

"A spell?"

"Yes." Morgan snapped her fangs. "We need to know if Nina set a trap of any sort."

Right. A spell. A trap. I could do this.

I needed a wand.

Ash kept me pinned to him with one arm. He lifted my hand with the other.

I already held my wand in a shaking grip.

Ash spoke directly into my ear. "You can do this, Kate. Al is going to be fine. Cast your spell."

Ash braced my arm with his. I took a deep breath, called upon my magic and sent it out.

I didn't need to cast a spell, which was good because my mind was spinning end over end. All I needed to do was send out my magic like a thread on a spider's web and see if anything struck it.

I felt nothing. Nothing at all. Which didn't make sense. I should be able to feel something. The edge of a chair. The outline of a door.
Something
.

I've done this a hundred times. It's the first thing I'd learned as a young witch. Being half-human as well as mortal, my mother had insisted I practice it over and over again. Fanning out my magic, using it as a sort of x-ray probe to search out hidden dangers I couldn't see with my eyes.

It had to be my panic over Al. I leaned back into the comfort of Ash's body, drawing strength from him and steadied myself.

I sent my magic out again.

Nothing.

It was as if a void existed beyond the front door to Love Required
.
I could feel the neighboring buildings and the alleyway behind, but within my office there was an absence. Still and quiet and empty.

I didn't pick up black magic. Or a strong emotion.

Or a living, breathing body.

Nothing at all existed inside Love Required
.

My knees gave out and I would have fallen except for Ash's strong arm holding me up.

"There's nothing," I whispered.

But it couldn't be. It didn't make sense. It defied the laws of human physics and magic.

Oh, Sweet Spirits. Love Required
hadn't vanished. My office stood right in front of me. I could clearly see it. Which meant . . . "I can't feel anything."

My magic had deserted me.

****

"
What do you mean you can't feel anything?" Morgan grabbed my shoulders and shook me. "Snap out of it, Kate. Al needs you!"

I wobbled back and forth. Trapped by Ash's arm around my waist and jerked to and fro by Morgan's hands at my shoulders.

"Morgan!" I don't know where I found the strength to shout. My world had just splintered apart.

"I'm not losing it. I'm saying I can't feel anything." I swallowed. "My magic isn't working."

It wasn't true. My magic was gone. I just couldn't say it. Not out loud.

I tucked my wand into my back pocket without looking at it.

It didn't matter. Not right now. Morgause . . . I couldn't think about all the consequences. The ramifications of what it meant.

I had to focus on Al. On saving him.

Ash pulled me out of Morgan's reach, his chest rigid behind my back. "Leave her alone.".

Their emotions battered at me. Ash protective. Morgan worried. Both of them confused.

"I can't help." I held onto Ash's arm. The one supporting me. Holding me up as my world collapsed under my feet.

Cursed. Half-bred. Mortal.

And now helpless.

"You . . ." Whatever Morgan planned to say, she bit back when I looked at her. After a moment, she nodded. "It's okay, Chicky."

I wanted to correct her because none of this was all right, but I knew what she meant. She meant we'd find a way to make everything right. She was my UDBF. She'd go to the ends of the earth for me. I didn't know how to tell her my world was exploding all around me.

Drake pulled Morgan forward. "Stay behind us." He looked at Ash as he spoke. "We'll go first."

Morgan and Drake could use their vampire senses. They weren't as good as my magic, but it was much better than going in blind. They'd go first and then Ash, with me bringing up the trail. I had to go last because I was now a liability.

Drake avoided looking at me. He didn't have to. I knew exactly what he meant.

Ash's warm breath brushed over my ear. "Don't," I told him before he could say anything.

I refused to sit in his truck and do nothing while they went to save Al.

I pulled away from his chest, keeping my gaze straight. "Let's find Al."

I knew Ash was frustrated. I knew he wanted nothing more than to toss me into his truck where I would be safe.

But I wouldn't be safe. Not anymore.

I didn't think I would be safe or whole ever again.

Ash growled and unsheathed his sword. "We're having a long talk after we find Al."

I shrugged, feeling his frustration rise. It wouldn't matter. Ash might be a protective demon, but I was no longer the same witch. I wasn't sure what I was.

Ash stepped in front of me.

I followed behind. Determined to save Al if it was the last thing I did. I was all too aware it just might be the last thing I would ever do. Any chance I had of staying alive had vanished with my magic.

30. The Evil Witch.

"
I can hear Al and Nina." Morgan tilted her head, listening.

I bit my lip. I would not cry.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Al's guardian angel must be working overtime. I couldn't thank mine. She'd clearly quit and gone to find a more promising prospect somewhere else.

"It sounds as if they're in your reception area." Morgan looked at Drake. "I can't tell anything else." She raised a perfect eyebrow in question.

Drake shook his head. "That's all I can tell as well."

Morgan and Drake couldn't perceive any traps. I was the only one who could have done that. And now I couldn't.

"Drake, you and Morgan take the back entrance. We'll go in the front. We'll enter at the count of ten." Ash rolled his shoulders, twisting his sword. Readying himself for whatever lay beyond the door.

I didn't get a chance to whisper, "Be careful," before Morgan and Drake flew over the top of the building.

Without my magic, all we were left with was luck.

Since luck seemed to have abandoned me along with my guardian angel, I braced my body and prepared to do a dash and grab.

Ash reached for the doorknob.

He threw open the door and strode forward, his sword at the ready, looking all around for hidden dangers.

I heard the alley door crash open. Then the door into the reception area.

I couldn't wait.

I dove around Ash. Steeling my mind for the sight of a knife at Al's throat. A broken leg. Blood dripping down his mouth.

As long as he was talking, I could get him to my Aunt Tabs for healing.

I was totally unprepared for the scene in front of me.

Al sat on Désirée Norma-Sue's desk. Completely unharmed.

He wasn’t wearing his amulet.

Nina Georgette, her white blonde hair cascading over her shoulders, sat next to him with her legs crossed. She wore back capris, black ballet shoes and a scoop-neck black t-shirt.

They both turned to look at us. Nina's violet eyes slightly alarmed, and Al's bulging brown eyes slightly irritated.

There was nothing alarming or dangerous.

Except for the black 9mm handgun resting on Nina's knee.

The barrel faced Al. Nina had her finger on the trigger.

"Hey, Doll." Al tilted his chin in greeting.

I was flummoxed.

Drake and Morgan stood frozen in the doorway to my human office.

Ash didn't move either. All three of them had their sights trained on the gun.

I couldn't look at it.

"Al." I paused, checked him over again. I couldn't see a scratch. He wasn't panting. His ears weren't facing forward.

He appeared totally calm.

I knew that in his line of work the hitman had to be used to staring down the wrong end of a gun, but Al acted as if there wasn't a gun.

He acted . . . I narrowed my eyes, looking more closely. Nope. I wasn't wrong. The little twerp sat confidently, head cocked, brown eyes glinting. All bold charm.

He acted as if he was on a date.

I set my back teeth.

"Al, Nina kidnapped you," I snapped, ignoring Nina whose violet eyes now held a hint of dismay.

"I know." He winked at me. "I love a nymph with a gun."

I took a step forward. When I thought of how worried sick I'd been about him I . . . I forgot about the gun.

Nina eyes widened and her hand twitched.

The gun went off.

I screamed.

Ash yanked me back into his chest.

Al coughed. "That was a little close, my sweet."

Nina snatched him up to her chest. "I'm so sorry, Al. Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to pull the trigger." She patted him over with one hand. Al sat on her forearm. The gun dangled from her fingers, apparently completely forgotten. "Kate startled me when she moved. I'm so sorry."

Al leaned into her hand. "Just a little singed fur." He puffed up his little chest. "Nothin' I can't handle."

What the hell was going on?

I turned to Morgan. Drake stood in front of her, shielding her. Morgan shrugged at me. She made a small circle with her finger near her temple.

I had to agree. Nina was not quite all there.

"What the hell is going on here?" I kept my voice at a normal level and didn't move. Nina still held the gun in her twitchy fingers.

"I kidnapped Al," Nina stated defiantly. She cuddled her all-too-happy victim between her breasts.

I was too mad to be jealous.

"I know that, Nina." I struggled to hold onto my patience. "You left a note."

"Ya left a ransom note?" Al asked. I swear he sounded proud.

"Well, no." Nina frowned. "I just told her where I'd taken you."

Ash's chest vibrated against my back. "This is not funny." I elbowed him.

"Nina," I tried again.

"Yes, Kate?" She blinked her violet eyes.

I still couldn't see anything bad in her. Nothing about her or this situation made any sense at all. Nina used black magic, but she wasn't bad. She'd kidnapped my Chihuahua, but she obviously cared about him. I didn't understand.

"Nina, why exactly did you kidnap Al?"

Nina's violet eyes went blank then wide with utter terror.

"Why to bring you and Morgan here, my dear long lost niece."

****

For one brief second in time, I’d thought I might be able to piece my world back together again. I might have lost my magic, but Al was unharmed.

I'd been almost optimistic.

That all vanished the moment the door to my HC office opened.

Morgause wasn't what I expected.

Then again, when I thought about her, I didn't have a visual, more like really bad feelings and a lot of fear.

I suppose if I had thought about her, it would have been as a shadowy figure wearing a long hooded cape with an empty space where her face would have been. More than likely holding a long scythe because, in my mind, Morgause equaled death.

Or possibly a raving beauty like Morgan. They were sisters after all.

They’d both disowned the other and seemed determined to ignore the other, but they were still sisters.

The rather plain woman standing a few feet away didn’t look like either death or Morgan. She had straight brown hair that fell to the middle of her back and was parted simply in the middle. Her skin was pale as if she didn't spend a lot of time outside. The best I could say about her features were that they were even, but totally ordinary. She was about my height, neither fat nor thin, but right in between like an average witch.

She had on a long sleeved, blue cotton shirt, stretchy pants and short brown boots.

Utterly unremarkable in almost every way possible.

Until I looked into her brown eyes.

When I think of the color brown, I tend to think of soil. Rich and fertile and fragrant with the potential to create life. Witches are bonded in nature. We gain strength from the earth. Plants. Trees. Life. Our magic flows from it.

There was nothing of life in Morgause's eyes. They were brown lifeless pools. I didn't see death lurking there. I saw nothing. A total absence of emotion or feeling. To have death, first you have to have life. I couldn't find anything in her eyes but a barren, brown color. Morgause didn't live. She existed.

Ash growled and tightened his arm around me. He raised his sword, holding it directly in front of me. Pointed at Morgause.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the glow of Morgan's skin fade until she was almost colorless. Her green eyes stark against her skin. Drake shifted his body, positioning himself directly between Morgan and Morgause.

Not that Morgause was paying any attention to us.

"You've done well, Nina." Morgause waved her hand.

Nina slumped forward.

Al stood up on his back legs and patted at her cheeks frantically with his front paws. "My sweet, are you all right?"