A Wicked Good Witches Paranormal Romance Books 1-7 (Wicked Good Witches Seasons) (100 page)

Emily/Eva eyed Charlie. Egging him to attack.

“Where’s Emily?” Michael shouted at her. “What have you done with her?”

Jack Howard faced Emily/Eva. “We cannot allow her to live.”

Eva knew too much.

She knew the truth about how to access the power source.

A growl seethed through Charlie’s teeth.

A ripple of power surged through him. His body shifting and contorting in a deliberate need to intimidate his prey. Muscles bulged. His body heightened and thickened. Each controlled shift meant to warn Eva she would not see the light of day. 

Eva/Emily’s body contorted and shifted, matching Charlie’s deliberate movements. She would not be so easily intimidated. A haughty grin spread across her face as she reveled in the fact that her death had ended the fake pregnancy spell. She could shift again. It was not a full moon and Eva did not have a Guardian ring, but she was a shapeshifter and could take the form of her werewolf at will.

Her wolf was equal to Charlie’s in height and ferocity.

The stared each other down.

Snarling. Growling.

Jack spotted the silver chain Charlie’d been carrying to use against Eva. It was lying on the ground behind his son. Charlie and Eva circled each other with cautious, heavy steps. Each threatening to attack, but neither making the first move.

Lizzy struggled to keep Michael from getting involved. He was losing it, not knowing where Emily really was. And with the Feyk gone, Eva was the only person who knew.

Jack saw his moment and sprinted, sliding across the ground. He grasped onto the silver and flicked the chain outward. It slashed into Eva’s side. She snarled and spun, spotting Jack.

Charlie lunged. Eva lunged.

Charlie landed where Eva had been.

Eva landed on Jack Howard, sinking her teeth into his shoulder. Deeply.

Charlie howled as if he’d been bitten himself.

She was finishing the job she’d started ten years before. When she’d tried to bite Jack and Charlie had gotten in the way.

Michael escaped Lizzy’s grasp, scurried across the floor grabbing the silver chain. He climbed up Eva’s back and lassoed it around her neck.

Werewolf Eva released their father. Grasping at the chain. It burned her skin. Choking her.

Michael pulled tighter.

“How’s it feel to burn?” he spat out. “Where’s Emily?”

Eva choked, her arms thrashing at the silver. She spun around only to come face to face with Charlie’s werewolf. He thrust his claws into her chest, his eyes watching shock and dismay bulge into hers.

He didn’t want to kill her yet, they needed to find Emily first. But he planned on her death hurting. A lot.

Blood spurted out of Eva’s werewolf mouth. She started to shift again, no longer able to hold the form. The wolf contorted back into Emily.

Fucking hell. Why take her form again?

To make me hesitate…

Charlie pushed the face he knew so well out of his mind and put Eva’s face onto Emily’s. This wasn’t Emily, and he could not waver in his judgment.

He claws pushed in deeper; to show Eva just how sick he thought she was for doing this. And to prove exactly how in charge, he was. He forced back the memories of their time together. Although a little piece of his wolf basked in the glory that he’d made her submit to him.

His eyes danced in wild anger. He leaned into her ear with a guttural growl. “You will submit to me, Eva. One last time before you die.” He raked his claws deeper yet. “Where. Is. Emily?”

Eva/Emily laughed. A drunk, feral sort of laugh.

Doubt spread through Charlie. Along with disgust and disappointment. From the ring? His own subconscious, he was not sure.

He withdrew his claws. His body shifted back into his human self. Naked again. He didn’t care, this had to end and clothing was optional.

The lust for the kill raged inside him… it was wrong. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t part of his job. Sometimes they had to kill, but not for revenge or pleasure. They were not murderers. Eva being dead would make him happy, he could not deny that emotion. But it needed to be because there was no other choice. 

Michael held the silver chain firmly and wrapped it around her arms to bind her tightly. Eva screamed as the silver seared into her skin.

Charlie got into her face. “You’ve got about three seconds to talk. And live.”

“You’ll just kill me anyway. Why not just get it over with.”

Charlie looked at Michael. Michael closed his eyes. Eva wasn’t going to tell them, and they could not let her escape.

“We will find her,” Charlie promised.

Lizzy shouted to them. She had their father’s head in her lap, putting pressure on his wound. “He’s bad guys.” Her tone insinuated, whatever you’re going to do, hurry the hell up. Jack gasped for air. Blood gushing out of his shoulder, profusely. Lizzy attempted to use magic to close the wound but the werewolf bite was tricky, and too deep to heal.

“Eva, I’ll give you one more chance to redeem yourself before leaving this world for good,” said Charlie, as calmly and clearly as possible. “I do not know what happened to make you this way. We have all suffered loss. I really don’t believe that all of you is this evil. I saw a good side of you. Part of me was falling for that side. But you will have to live, or die, by your choices tonight.”

Eva just stared. Her gaze even, unchanging.

There was only one last thing Charlie could try.

He got down on his knees in front of her. “Is this what you want? My submission to you… for me to beg you?” He gazed down at his naked self. “I can’t possibly be any more submissive than I am right now. But I will beg, if that’s what you want… please, Eva. Do the right thing. Tell me what you’ve done with Emily.”

Eva was far beyond doing the right thing. Darkness had claimed her and there was no going back. Although seeing Charlie Howard on his knees, begging, gave her quite a thrill. But no. She would not submit. She would not surrender now.

They believed she was shifted into Emily’s form. That she had Emily hidden somewhere. Once she revealed she had taken over Emily’s body, they wouldn’t be able to kill her.

It took painful movements, but Eva/Emily wiggled her empty ring finger. Charlie didn’t know what she was doing, except stalling.

“Catch on yet?” she hissed triumphantly.

Michael’s eyed widened, complete horror enveloping him. He let go of her, the silver chain loosening. “Ring,” he stammered. A gut wrenching pain stabbed into his heart.

“I thought you’d come around,” said Eva/Emily smugly. She shimmied out of the silver chain, letting out a wince as the silver brushed across her skin and fell to the ground.

Charlie hadn’t stabbed Eva.

He’d stabbed Emily.

Dear, precious, Emily… his arm went to reach out for her but fell short.

If Eva left Emily’s body now, she would lose the ability to heal.

Emily would die. Her wounds were too extensive.

Charlie didn’t think her plan was to do that though. Eva wanted a new body. And she had control of Emily’s.

William had killed her. Eva had died.

Emily’s frame started to shift. Her long brown locks shifting to stark white. Eva’s shorter toned body formed with a satisfied moan. “So much better. The vessel’s body is… cute. But I do prefer my own.”

Something hit Charlie. Lizzy’s handbag. She’d thrown it at him.

Michael went to his father. He didn’t know what else to do. Everything was supposed to be okay now. Instead, it had spiraled out of control again.

Charlie opened the bag, another pair of shorts and a tee shirt pushed up out of it. He pulled on the shorts with a silent gratitude he’d figure out how to repay later. He looked up, hatred in his eyes, and handed Eva the shirt.

“At least cover yourself so I don’t have to look at you.”

“Oh. Poor Charlie. Don’t want to have another round, for old time’s sake?”

Charlie only stared in silent warning.

Michael cringed and pretended he did not hear. It was his girlfriend’s body. Not Eva’s, and she was defiling it with her presence.

“You can’t let her escape,” spurted Jack.

“I can’t kill her, Dad.”

Neither could Charlie. He wouldn’t do it. It was asking too much.

Jack’s breath grew uneven.

“He’s lost too much blood,” warned Lizzy. “Charlie,” she called out. Her tone pulled him to his father’s side at once.

Eva strode over to the power source. Her greedy eyes taking it in.

“Dad,” cried Charlie. They couldn’t get him back just to lose him again. Not like this.

“It’s my time,” comforted Jack. He’d had the ominous feeling almost since his son had found him on the side of the road. His wounds were deep. He could not recover.

He looked at his sons. Love and pride in his eyes.

“Tell Melinda how much I love her.” He spoke with strained effort. He hadn’t even had the chance to see his daughter yet. Other than the nearly dead mess she’d been when William rescued her. “I’m so proud of everything you’ve done here.”

After seeing Michael take the reins and deal with the locals, allaying their fears, and the depths at which Charlie was willing to go to fulfill his duty and not give in to the temptations that would only lead to darkness, he knew they’d be okay now. He had been given a last day, and he had given his son’s as much as he could.

Jack Howard’s last movement was to turn his gaze to Eva Jordan. His final thought,
unfinished business…
he would do what his sons could not.

But first, he had to die. 

His final breath sliced through his son’s minds like a knife.

He couldn’t be gone. It wasn’t supposed to end like this.

Charlie and Michael leaned over their father’s body, unable to let him go.

Lizzy had his blood covering her. She leaned over his head and closed Jack’s eyes.

Jack Howard’s spirit lifted, hovering over his lifeless body.

Moving his spirit body would not be easy at first. It took a little getting used to. However, unlike most newly departed souls, he knew what was possible.

He ignored the mournful sobs of his sons and focused his essence towards Eva. His electric energy floated just on top of the ground as he came up behind her.

She was running her hands across the power source, defiling it with her touch.

Eva gasped painfully, her body arching in a stabbing spasm.

Charlie, Michael, and Lizzy jumped up, no idea what was happening.

Eva’s body convulsed. Emily’s form and her form interchanging rapidly.

They were shocked when their father’s spirit materialized in front of them.

The power source started to pulse harder behind Eva and Jack.

Jack Howard jabbed his ghostly arms into Eva/Emily’s body, grabbing Eva’s spirit by the throat. His ghostly hands pulled at her in attempts to exorcise her out of Emily.

Eva’s spirit struggled as Jack yanked on her.

The power source’s beat sped up faster. Almost as if it sensed the struggle and was feeding off it.

Suddenly, the ghostly voices of Eva and Jack reverberated through the cavern.

Charlie, Michael, and Lizzy looked onward in shock. How were they hearing them? Normally only a ghost inhabiting a vessel could speak. Or in Lizzy’s case, since she was a ghast and not a ghost.

The pulsing Heart thumped hard. And fast.

“It’s got to be the source doing it,” muttered Charlie.

Eva fought hard, kicking and screaming. “You can’t win against me, old man. You have no magic here.”

“Nor do you. And with age, comes wisdom,” seethed Jack.

“But not power,” she claimed.

Jack squeezed harder. “Never underestimate the
power
of a father’s love for his children. Love is a power that requires no magic, and ascends all others.” 

Emily’s back, arched. Eva’s spirit form splitting out of her.

The Heart of The Isle pounded rapidly, its membrane-like casing throbbing powerfully with each pulse. 

With a violent pull, Jack Howard tore Eva Jordan’s spirit out of Emily Morgan.

She slumped to the ground. Limp. Lifeless. Still injured. Her wounds not fully healed. Michael and Charlie raced over, dragging her away from Eva and their father. Blood pooled on Emily’s chest, soaking the tee shirt in red. Her pulse was weak, her breathing labored.

They looked up when a crackle of electricity sparked. The Heart’s pulsing stopped, replaced with an ear pounding hum. It buzzed, like energy with no place to go.

Behind Jack, a wooden door appeared out of nowhere.

It creaked open.

Eva flailed, trying to escape his grasp.

She spied the door, her spirited eyes widening in horror as she saw the shapes of her parents waiting to greet her.

“I’m not going in there,” she shrieked. Wispy tendrils started to spark out of her body and reach toward the door. It was calling her through.