Natural Witch (Page 50)

Power pulsed around me. The sky crackled.

“They are getting closer,” Marie whispered. “Muttering. I can’t hear what they are saying.”

“I know. I can feel it.”

The huge wave was loosed, rolling toward us quickly.

My hands spread out like claws, my teeth gritted, and my eyes closed. I had one moment to issue a plea that this would work as intended and save everyone in the records room, before I shoved my arms forward, and with them, my spell.

A complex wave, glimmering white, stretched out in front of us. It drifted toward the oncoming spell, slow and steady. Thick and violent.

A cloud of deep green slammed into my wall. Pops and sparks flew out, cracking and banging. The green mass tried to burrow through my weave. Eat it away. Punch holes into it.

My magic held fast, retreating with the onslaught.

My power stones burst with power, feeding the spell I’d already sent into the world. I had no idea how or why.

The colors changed. The weaves continued to do war. My spell held fast, wearing the other down. Corroding it.

“I’ll get the casters,” Marie said.

I snatched her arm and got a nasty scratch from a claw for my efforts. “No! My spell is just getting going. This is the defensive part. Your magic will be kicking off in just a moment.”

“My magic?” Marie said, stilling.

Electricity rolled across my skin, and then Emery was behind us. “What’s happening? Do you need help?”

“No,” I whispered, keeping a tight grip on Marie’s hand. This was about to be the worst thing I’d ever created. I could feel it. I needed to hold a hand—or in this case, a vicious-looking set of claws—to keep my courage. “This is the vampires’ fault, by the way. Let’s all acknowledge that up front.”

“I see them,” Marie said. “Walking forward slowly. Six of them. Arrogance at work.”

A bright flare of light lit everyone up, and suddenly I could see them too. Six, as Marie had said, three in red robes, two in purple, and one in orange. They had more ingredients in their hands, but no one’s lips were moving. They wanted to see how their first spell did before moving on to another.

How dumb could this organization possibly be? Emery and I didn’t need to memorize words or separate our ingredients out beforehand, so time would always be on our side.

As the full weight of what I was, and how lucky I was, hit me, my spell morphed into a strange, grisly-looking thing, replete with magical spikes and gaping black holes.

“What the hell did you create?” Emery asked, stepping closer.

“Something a vampire would be proud of,” I muttered, feeling a little sick to my stomach.

“We shall see.” Marie laid a hand on my shoulder, thankfully without claws. I wasn’t sure being her buddy was a good thing.

The spell flew forward as fast as Darius could run, drifting over the ground silently. It crashed into the mages, piercing them in a hundred places each, the spikes digging into their flesh. Now attached, it began eating away at its new hosts, a magical parasite.

Screams rent the night sky. Emery acted quickly, pulling from the ingredients scattering the ground and dropping a magical noise cap onto the scene.

He turned to me, his eyes intense, before a little smile curved his lips. A moment later, he was sprinting back into the building.

“He is proud of you.” Marie’s grip tightened on my shoulder. One by one, the bodies fell into a heap. “And I would be honored to take responsibility for the effects of that spell. It was magnificent. I hope to be in battle with you someday.”

I grimaced. Definitely not a personal goal to be her friend.

She stiffened, and I felt the coming spell. I turned to throw my hands up, not sure what I would do, but I went airborne. I hit the side of the building and tumbled to the ground. The spell harmlessly zipped past.

“My apologies. I didn’t know if you’d react in time.” Marie was zooming away.

Climbing to my feet, I felt another spell coming. These weren’t being created; they were already made. From casings, I’d bet. Weaker, but harder to sense until they were on top of me.

“We’re under siege,” I yelled over my shoulder. “We gotta go.”

I called up another shield and ran forward. A blast of light hit my magic, fizzing and popping. I shot out, my red jet of electricity enhanced with a few tricks I’d learned recently. A scream rose. A man in orange crumpled to the ground. Another turned and ran toward the building on my right.

I patched together a rolling ball of heat and really, really wished I knew how to make fire. The fire Reagan had summoned in that church had been way cooler than my efforts, not to mention more effective. I needed that kind of firepower. Literally.

It rolled over him, and his robes burst into flames. With the door open, the ball continued inside, searing the frame as it boiled through.

Good enough.

Smoke puffed out of the building. Light glowed and flickered from within.

“Oooooh…” I grimaced. If all the screaming and blasts of light didn’t get us noticed, a burning building would surely do the trick. “We gotta go!”

I turned and started running. Marie was beside me in a moment.

“We gotta go,” I yelled again, bursting into the records room.

Paper and overturned boxes littered the entire right side of the building. Gaping holes announced missing boxes from shelves. In front of me, three vampires waited, six boxes strapped to each of their backs with thick netting. The others were getting loaded up. Darius clearly planned to take as much of the record room with him as possible, but he didn’t think he was above hard labor. It looked like he’d be carrying out boxes too.

“Clearly we’re even in this endeavor,” I said, indignant for reasons I couldn’t name. “Just in case you try to call in a favor for helping us get into the compound”—I waggled my finger at Darius—“this is that favor. You’re welcome for our role in getting you in here.”

Emery smiled in approval and gave me a small nod. He only had one file, I noticed.

“You are not so naive as you seem,” Darius said, adjusting the straps of the netting over his shoulders. “How unfortunate.”

“Oh no, I’m horribly naive. It’s annoying and I hate it. But I’m not stupid. Now let’s go. I may or may not have set a building on fire.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

We sprinted out of the records building. Smoke coughed out of the opened door a ways up. Flames flickered in the windows. No denying that. I’d definitely set fire to it.

A jet of magic came at us. Emery shot something back before I could even blink.

I collected up my power stones and whatever handfuls I could of the natural items. I stuffed them into my belt and strapped it on as the vampires converged around us.

“Stay near me,” Emery said, grabbing my arm and pulling me close. Our bubble flared to life almost immediately, our power instantly amping up.

We jogged out the way we’d come. Movement caught my eye from the right, a pulsing beacon of death flaring to life in front of us.

“They’re creating a nasty spell that way.” I pointed in front of us.

“Exit strategy. Go left,” Darius commanded.

Like a flock of birds, everyone turned, the vampires gliding along effortlessly, seemingly untroubled by the weight and bulk strapped to their backs. Emery dropped a hazy shield around us, similar to the spell I’d used against the mage attack on our first visit. He could say what he wanted, but his brain was clearly just fine at quickly picking up and remembering spells.

We picked up the speed until Emery and I were flat-out running. The boxes bounced on the backs of the vampires. Evil sparked behind us.

“Incoming,” I hollered, whirling another heat ball into existence, then bowling it behind us.

“You have a very creative imagination.” Emery created a weave above us, perfectly done regardless of how fast we were running. “And a very scary one.”

“You literally have no idea.” Movement caught my eye to the right and I sent a red zapper that way. Someone shrieked. Marie sprinted away and the sound cut off.

“Left,” Darius said.

Emery and I turned together, moving into a part of the compound we hadn’t seen earlier. We passed between shabby buildings with black windows and sickly trees with bare branches. Marie caught up to us before stalling and drifting behind. I felt a surge of aggression, spiky and hot, ready to be realized.

“Oh no.” I jumped to the side so the vampires could pass me and sprinted back toward her, my heart in my throat. She was terrifying, but she had helped me. I didn’t want to see her die.

“Penny,” Emery called out, chasing after me.

The spell loosed, hurtling in roughly our direction. Marie ran in front of us, right at it. It would slice her in pieces. Even superior healing would not help her.

White-hot fire rose through me. I clapped my hand on Emery’s wrist, closed my eyes, and opened up to my intention. Blast away that spell.

My center exploded out, my power acidic. I staggered, clutching at my chest. Emery wrapped his arm around my shoulders, supporting me as my spell sailed right above Marie’s head. It hit the spell five feet before it reached her. An explosion of heat and light blasted Marie off her feet. She flew backward at us, her hair burned away and her clothes smoking.