Coven of Magic Read online

  “How much hay do you have in there?”

  “Oh, please. I stopped sleeping on hay years ago. That’s all feathers, dear. Lay her here.” She gestured toward the bed, and I did as she bade. Sara sank in, looking as if she were sleeping peacefully, save for her terrible coloring.

  I sat on the bed next to her, and took her hand. No sooner had I settled, though, than Agatha shooed me away.

  “Give me some room to work.”

  I stood up and hovered before she literally elbowed me out of the way.

  “That hurt,” I said, rubbing the sore spot as I glared at her back.

  “I did ask you to move,” she said without looking at me. She was busy lighting candles, normal ones, not the creepy black ones Dean had. Soon, the room filled with a soothing lavender aroma.

  I moved to a chair at the table, and it felt good to sit down. The burning had spread through my entire trunk, and it was halfway down my other arm. Only my legs were spared. Even my head felt like it was on fire. I wouldn’t have minded lying down next to Sara if the bed had been a bit wider.

  “I can do nothing for you, Merry. Just push through. It will be a long night for you.”

  “But the night is nearly over.”

  “The night is never over for you. Not anymore.”

  Two vampires walk into a bar…

  It had been a long time since I thought of Agatha and the night she saved Sara, or the night we were changed, depending on how I wanted to look at it. I missed her. She’d lived a long time, particularly for a witch. It probably hadn’t hurt that she befriended a few vampires, but her death introduced Sara and me to the sting of mortality, and what our existence would be like. When my husband died, we comforted ourselves by believing we’d see him on the other side. But as the vampires Dean so rudely turned us into, we’d never get that release.

  I’d asked Agatha what happened to vampires and other supernatural creatures when we were killed. Although vampires were immortal, I’d proven the night I dispatched Dean that they could, in fact, be killed. We only lived forever if our enemies decided to let us keep breathing.

  “I imagine they go beyond the void, just like the rest of us,” she’d answered.

  The void had been a totally new concept to me as a vampire. It wasn’t heaven or hell like the churches taught. It was just the land of the dead. Evil, tortured souls continued to be that way beyond the void, and good souls found peace. Or so they said. There was always that niggling feeling, though, that my race would be too damned to go beyond the void, and I’d just cease to exist.

  I smiled at the memories of my dearest friend, grateful for whatever had triggered them. It had been centuries since she’d gone beyond the void herself, and I’d never made a close friend like her since. Only one had come close, but we’d never connected quite like Agatha and I had. Today, as I sat in front of the council, I wondered what she’d think of my current situation.

  “What do you make of it, Ms. Young?” The councilmen’s question brought me back to the present, where I sat with a panel of supernatural creatures.

  The one on the end was giving me the creeps. He was a vampire, too, and something about him reminded me of Dean. Maybe his red eyes. Or that same Joker-like smile. It was hard to say. He’d been staring at me the entire meeting, giving me the willies. And that was hard to do, since, as a vampire, I was generally the giver of willies.

  I searched my brain, trying to zero in on what they’d been discussing. Occasionally, when they had an issue they needed help resolving with the demons, they’d ask me to sit on the council to problem-solve. But mostly, the council left me alone, and for that, I was grateful.

  They’d been vague about their call this time, which typically meant a bigger headache for me.

  “I think one incident doesn’t make a plague, sir,” I answered, hoping I’d hit the nail on the head with what he’d been referring to.

  “But there are more incidents daily,” a water nymph to my left said. We sat at a set of four long tables making a square. A huge map appeared vertically at the center. I could see where we were in the southern United States. A dot marked us. Another dot popped up out west. And still one more in Europe.

  “There have been two other incidents,” she explained.

  “Still, three incidents aren’t going to bring the race down.”

  The map projection disappeared, and the head of the council cleared his throat. He was a dragon shifter, and one of the most powerful supernaturals on the council. Which was why he was in charge of it, obviously. When he was mad, fire visibly ignited in his eyes. I’d been privy to the site a number of times.

  “You’re probably right, Ms. Young,” he said. “But what if it did? What if this is only the beginning? Today, it’s three, tomorrow it’s six, and by the end of the week, our race is being taken down in huge numbers.”

  “Huge numbers? Really? By week’s end, assuming you see the rate double tomorrow, which is a bit of a stretch, you’d see—” I did some quick calculations in my mind. Math hadn’t always been my favorite subject, but when sleep was no longer an issue, there was plenty of time for learning. “Nearly two hundred deaths. Hardly a troubling percentage considering the number of vampires living today.”

  “True,” the one who looked like Dean said. “But it’s not the percentage we’re concerned about. It’s the rate of gain.” His voice grated on my nerves, like nails on a chalkboard, and I clenched my teeth as he arrogantly watched me. As if he thought what he’d declared was so brilliant it must be the end of our conversation.

  “As far as I’m seeing, the rate of gain is speculative at best. You have three cases. How many have actually been killed?” News of the plague they were hinting at, but were too afraid to say out loud, had spread like wildfire through our community. An illness that could kill vampires. It was unprecedented. The alarmists came out in droves, saying it would be the end of our race. Seemed even the council wasn’t immune to the panic.

  “I’m afraid I’ve seen it,” he explained.

  “You have the sight?” I looked at him, and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow. Many supernaturals had additional powers beyond just being a mystical creature. But an oracle was rare indeed. Many claimed the ability, but the ones who could actually do it had danced with demons one time too many, and couldn’t be trusted. So, which was he?

  He nodded. A smile pulled at one side of his mouth, making his villainous expression even creepier.

  “How many turns with the demons have you had?” I asked, never one to mince words.

  That melted the smug look off his face, and it was my turn to smile.

  “How dare you?” he began to rise out of his chair but the grand pooh-bah, as I liked to call him, put out a hand, and he slowly sat back down.

  “Given your vast talents for wrangling the demons, we thought your expertise might be helpful in stopping the progression of the plague.”

  “Playing fast and loose with the word plague, don’t you think?”

  His stony expression told me that no, he didn’t think he was. I cleared my throat and let him continue.

  “We’re assembling a team of supernaturals, one you will head. You will find the snake responsible for this mess, and behead it quickly.”

  “Sir, I’m no fool. If you want me, you must assume demons are responsible. What gives you that impression?”

  He glanced at the one on the end again.

  “I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name. Should I just call you the oracle?”

  He frowned at my sarcasm. “Devlin.” His tone was so flat I thought he’d gone two dimensional for a moment.

  “Charmed, I’m sure,” I said, meeting his monotone and raising him about a million. If these stuffed shirts thought they could intimidate me into some vigilante mission, they had another thing coming. I wasn’t successful because I took orders from others. I knew which missions would pay out. And this one smelled like a big fat waste of time.

  The grand pooh-bah pulled u
p a new screen that flashed four faces in front of me. The vampire in particular was very handsome. Dark hair, gold eyes, pale skin. He certainly wasn’t winning any awards for hiding among the humans, but something about his chiseled cheeks and clean-shaven face made me lick my lips.

  “This is Levi Pietz. He’s a vampire specializing in pathogens.”

  “Pathogens? So, he helps the humans?”

  “I do.” His voice came from the back of the room, and was just as smooth as his skin looked. It sang to my blood, making it jump around beneath my skin, giving me goose bumps. It had been a while since a man had done that to me.

  “So, you have some siren qualities?” I asked boldly. If he didn’t, and he was just having that effect on me, I blew the cool-calm-and-collected look I was obviously rocking. Quickly, I swiped at my mouth to make sure I wasn’t drooling as I watched him cross the floor and take a seat next to me. Four other empty seats and he plops his sweet ass down beside me. But I was sure my annoyance was masked by the fact that my mouth was hanging open in complete admiration of him.

  “No, I don’t.” He looked at me with mischief dancing in his eyes.

  I narrowed my own at him as those three words floated across my bare arms, tickling every inch of skin as they went. “Yes, you do.”

  “Maybe you’re just so attracted to me you want to believe it.”

  At that point, I was pretty sure my heartbeat was connected to the loud speaker in the room; it was pounding that hard. I had no doubt he could hear it, along with everyone else, for that matter. I fought the urge to swallow. He would not see any weakness from me.

  “I doubt that. Arrogance isn’t a quality I find terribly attractive.” It was actually a fair bit of work to hide my self-satisfied grin at my zinger. I mentally patted myself on the back.

  But his smile didn’t fade, which caused mine to falter a bit. Turd bucket.

  “Now that you’ve gotten to know each other, I’d like to introduce the rest of your team,” the grand pooh-bah said, seeming to lose patience with me.

  “Isn’t it a bit presumptuous of you, sir, to introduce me to the team,” I said, using air quotes around the team, “when I haven’t agreed to join?”

  He ignored me, and a new face appeared on the screen. Brown hair, lots of it. And bright blue eyes shining out from underneath the mop. Tanned skin and a strong build from what I could tell from a snapshot.

  “This is Ike Hamel. He’s a werewolf. He’ll be the nose of the team, if you will.”

  I heard the door close, and his heavy footfalls cross the room.

  “Thank you for having me, sir.”

  The grand pooh-bah nodded in his direction as the wolf took the empty seat on the other side of mine. What was with these guys? There were other open seats.

  “So, you can smell the demons, or the plague? What’s your role?”

  “To help.” I felt like those eyes could see into my very soul, and I looked away quickly. “I’m a tracker. I can find anything you give me the scent of.”

  “Could be useful to sniff out whoever’s behind this mess,” Levi whispered as he leaned over me. I pressed against the back of my seat, trying not to make contact with him. The two masculine scents mixed in my nose, sending my hormones into overdrive. Nope. I could not deal with this.

  Next, the image of an older gentlemen flashed in front of us. White hair with a short white beard to match. He looked rather distinguished in the purple robe he was wearing. Must’ve been some kind of wizard. His eyes matched his robe, giving him a distinct sense of intrigue.

  “Next we have Edthar Balshaw.”

  I snorted. What a name. Then I startled when I felt his warm hand on the back of my neck. “You can call me Ed,” he whispered in my ear. “And trust me, I’m not as old as I look. It’s a requirement for wizards to have white hair and beards.” He winked, and I struggled to gain my composure after being startled by a rather attractive man. He looked like the humans’ Sean Connery in his younger years.

  “I imagine having a wizard on the team would come in rather handy.” I watched as he took a seat next to Levi. There was one empty seat left, and I braced for the last member of the team who was sure to throw me even further off my game.

  The image rotated in the center of the tables just as all the others had. He was huge. Even though the shot was just from the waist up, I could tell. The sheer size of his neck was enough. He had a shaved head and a stern look in his grey eyes.

  “This is Oscar Carty. He’s your gargoyle.”

  “My gargoyle, huh?” I said as I watched him take a seat next to Ike. I noticed a small smile between the two of them, as if they knew each other already. “Strong silent type, I take it?”

  He nodded my direction, but said nothing.

  “That answers that.” I turned my attention back to the pooh-bah. “Well, it seems like you have a well-equipped team here. Strength, smarts, and everything in between. Not sure what you need me for.”

  The bottom line was I didn’t want to be on the team, or the mission for that matter. Particularly not now I’d seen my teammates. They were far too attractive for me to be able to concentrate on anything, let alone solve problems.

  A knowing grin spread across Oscar’s face, and I wondered what his talent was, besides strength. Mind readers were rare. It was probably just a well-timed smile. Nothing more.

  When I glanced back at him, he wasn’t looking at me anymore, convincing me further there wasn’t much beyond his gargoyle status that made him special. Gargoyles were a shrinking race, and I’d never known one personally. That by itself strengthened the team, with or without me.

  “You know why we need you, Merry. You’re the best. And we need the best.”

  “I don’t agree.”

  “You don’t think you’re the best? You weren’t kidding about the whole arrogance thing, were you?” Levi chimed in.

  I answered him with a glare and turned back to the grand pooh-bah. “I don’t think you need this team. Pardon me, sir, but I think it’s a waste of time and resources.”

  Silence hung heavily in the room, and Devlin glared at me.

  Levi leaned over. “Wow. Didn’t make friends with that one, did you?” he whispered.

  “No, I didn’t. I wasn’t interested. He seems like a real twatwaffle.”

  He snorted, and tried to cover it up, but earned his own glare from Devlin. “Tell me how you really feel,” Levi whispered before sitting back up.

  “I’ve seen it, Miss Young. I know what’s coming,” Devlin asserted. “And if you want to hide your head in the sand and wait for it to claim you, to claim your daughter, then so be it. We’ll find someone else.” He turned to a stack of papers in front of him. “How about Lilith Tate? I’ve heard she’s quite good,” he asked the council, although they didn’t respond. A fair number of them still looked at me, their eyes full of hope.

  “At what? Putting one foot in front of another? You’d do better to leave her out. These four can handle what you want them to do. Anyway, you don’t want two vampires on the team. It’ll throw the balance off,” I argued.

  Merry. Her voice was soothing in my head, but I still tensed. It was an odd sensation to have someone speaking that no one else could hear, and I never got used to it, no matter how long the Fae queen, Tempest, and I had known each other. I looked at her, and her light green eyes sparkled as she watched me. Please. Consider this proposition carefully.

  “I hate it when you do that,” I said aloud. A half smile crept over her lips. Damned fairy.

  You know we prefer to be called Fae, she reminded me.

  I’ll call you whatever the hell I please in my own mind, thank you very much. Arguing with a fairy in my head was giving me a headache, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. What do you think you can say that no one else has, Tempest?

  I’ve known you a long time. Almost since your birth as a vampire.

  Almost. I remembered the day we met. I was very young. Newly changed. Agatha introduced us. She
looked young with her short blonde hair, bright green eyes, fair skin, and perfect body, but turned out to be older than I could have imagined. Fae had been around since the beginning. And they’d be around long after Devlin’s end-of-the-world rhetoric passed by.

  I couldn’t help but notice how silent the room had gone. As if our conversation was heard by all. I glanced at Oscar, but he and Ike had their heads together, deep in a hushed conversation I couldn’t hear. Maybe everyone wasn’t listening.

  Forgive my confusion on the issue, Tempest, but your race has been around a long time. Why do you trouble yourself with the cares of the vampires? Once we’re gone, you’ll have more room. I shrugged.

  A soft smile spread across her face as she watched me. Child, our races are all connected. If one branch of the tree is cut, the whole tree hurts.

  You’re such a hippie. Next you’ll be telling me that pixies are more than just oversized, mischievous little gnats.

  She coughed, and I knew it was to cover a laugh. Oscar looked over Ike’s head at me with a glint in his eye before he went back to whatever they were doing. Were they brothers? No, gargoyles and werewolves weren’t related. But they were clearly thick as thieves.

  You, Merry, are at the base of this tree. You are one of the main roots holding it up. Which is why you need to get to the bottom of this.

  I sighed heavily. I understood her fear. Hell, I could feel it coursing through my mind as she spoke to me. But all of it felt unwarranted over three deaths.

  Standing from my chair, I looked at her. “I’m sorry, Tempest, and everyone. At this time, I do not see this problem as an epidemic. I would request we reconvene in a week to discuss any further developments.”

  “A week? That’s an eternity. It’s ridiculous,” Devlin shouted.

  Slowly, I turned my head and eyed him. “An … eternity, says the hundreds-of-years-old vampire?”

  “How dare you mock me?” he started.

  The grand pooh-bah interrupted Devlin. “It’s a perfectly reasonable request. Should developments progress faster than anticipated, this council reserves the right to call an emergency meeting with hours’ notice.”