Roar (Witches & Warlocks Book 3) (2 page)

I brush the thought away. I wasn’t too slow. Noah’s fine. For now.

The trick is gonna be to make sure he’s still fine once I get time all set back to rights. I take a minute and walk around the scene. You’d think the snowflakes would melt when they touch my skin, all suspended mid-air like they are, but instead, it’s like the whole world distorts, bending them out of my way, only to spring back into place as soon as I’ve passed. I’m truly outside of time and therefore can’t affect anything.

Which means that I’m probably not going to be able to move Noah out of range of Nancy's teeth. Doesn’t hurt to check though, does it? Her hand moves without resistance when I pull it off his head. When I let go, though? It falls right back into place, like I’d never even been there. So now what? I’ve got him safe, but the instant I get time moving again, her teeth will pierce his skin and that’s just not gonna work for me.

Luke’s right there. His magic all coalesced into something all spiky and dangerous. Even with time stopped, it kind of hums with the threat contained inside. Of course, his eyes are glowing red, a furious crimson that I really can’t make myself look at. His face is all screwed up with rage. Truth is, he looks scarier than Nancy ‘cause when I actually do make myself look at his eyes, it’s clear how excited he is by this whole thing.

So, Luke’s ready. The moment I let time go free again, his magic will be loose, slamming into Nancy and probably hurtling her back away from Noah a bit. I just can’t quite trust that it’ll hurtle her backwards fast enough.

I take a breath. Close my eyes. Focus. Think.

There’s got to be a way to do this without Noah getting hurt. I’m a badass witch, after all. If Daya trusts me to save the whole flippin’ world, surely, I can save the man I love. Of course, that man doesn’t love me back, but that doesn’t matter at all right now. I run my hand through my hair and gather it over my shoulder.

I think … possibly … if I can manage to let time come back together very slowly, I can get a spell off before Nancy’s teeth sink all the way into Noah’s throat. I take another breath. If I misjudge the timing even a little, Noah will die.

Another deep breath and then I free the tiger, charge her with keeping me and Noah safe. I call on my magic and while it roars to life, I ever so slowly let time slip free, hoping and hoping and hoping some more that I’m strong enough to get the timing right.

Chapter Two

It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, magically speaking. Hell, maybe even non-magically speaking, too, ‘cause let’s face it, my pre-witch life wasn’t exactly taxing. I think of an hourglass, time constricted in the middle and falling through my grasp one grain at a time. All the while, I’m whispering incantations, protection for Noah, strength for Luke, clarity for me. My heart pounds around in my ribcage like it wants out and my breath might as well be shards of glass in my lungs.

When the snowflakes begin their slow motion descent once again, I change my incantation, drawing light magic from Noah and dark magic from Luke. When time finally rights itself or rather, when I finally release my grip on time, I’ll have made Nancy human again.

That’s right. All that time at the ranch, all those
tests
Daya put me through? Turns out, I am a rare witch indeed. With the proper amount of energy, I can turn death to life and life to death and what better way to hunt vampires than to bring them back to life? Make them human and vulnerable? Rid them of all those pesky supernatural powers.

And that right there, that one fancy parlor trick, is the culmination of my whole confused little life.

Noah is rich with light magic, Luke is rich with dark magic, and I’m the perfect blend of the two. And guess what. Since they’re so filled to the brim with the energy sources I need, I can do this little trick without having to kill anyone. Well, anyone other than the target.

The target still has to die.

I’m sweating now. It rolls from my hairline and drips from my eyebrow, tangles in my eyelash before burning my eye. I’m gonna have to do this now or I’m not gonna have the strength to complete the spell. I completely release my grip on time and in one big yell — a roar of power — I hit Nancy with the spell I’d been spinning.

Time rushes to catch up with itself and there’s a huge bang, like a gunshot, as air rushes to fill the void I created by moving while time stopped. I fall to my knees — dramatic, I know, but my legs are jelly — and cover my ears even though they’re already ringing and sore. My magic hits Nancy just before she clamps her teeth down into Noah’s throat. He bellows in pain and my heart flip flops as Luke’s magic slams into the vampire right after mine and skitters across her skin, knocking her to the ground.

Except she’s not a vampire. Not anymore. The look on her face would be hilarious if everything else about what’s going on wasn’t so awful.

“It’s true then,” says Nancy as she clambers to her feet. “You can make us human again.” Her voice is flat and the accent is thicker now and she looks surprised to hear her how it’s changed, now that she’s human again. “Lucy always said you can’t trust a witch. Good thing she never really has trusted Daya.”

Nancy staggers a few uncoordinated steps, another look of shock crossing her once beautiful face. Guess it’s not as easy to run in heels when you’re actually human. One glance at Noah tells me he’s fine. I mean, he has a huge ass human bite mark on his neck, but it’s not bleeding too much and he’s not dead, so that falls into the realm of fine at this point in time. I sigh and catch Luke’s eyes and try not to let him see me cringe from the pleasure he’s getting from all this.

I don’t like it when they run. It feels nasty. Chasing them down. Killing them with their backs to us. I don’t like it when they cry either. Come to think of it, there isn’t much I like about this part.

With a shout, I send another ball of magic towards Nancy and without waiting for it to hit, Luke sends his own blast of magic after mine. See, we could have killed her while she was human, but then there’d be a body. A body without any kind of records at all. Or if there are records, they’re bound to be decades old and that’s only going to open up a bunch of questions we don’t need people asking. And then there’s the little problem of all of our DNA being found around a murder scene. And then there’s Lucy finding out for one hundred percent sure that we’re able to make a vampire human again.

So, before we kill them, or rather, before Luke kills them, I have to turn them back into a vampire.

My magic hits Nancy in the back and she spins, the silvery glow coming back into her skin, her disjointed passage through the alley, all stumbly in her heels, becomes graceful and certain. A smile stretches across her face just in time for Luke’s fireball to slam into her. She ignites. It’s fast. At least I can say that. Vampires and fire really don’t mix at all.

There’s a woompf, a flare of heat, a flash of light, the briefest of screams, and then there’s just the three of us in a dirty little darkened alley behind a seedy nightclub. The wail of sirens in the distance tells me they’ve found Nancy’s victim, her
las
t victim, in the bathroom inside.

Without a word spoken between us, Luke helps me to my feet and the three of us head home.

********

Tired is too plain a word to describe the level of bone heavy exhaustion I’m feeling. I’m stretched out in the tub, coconut scented bubbles covering the water, candles lit in the corners and a glass of water within reach of my water-logged hand. It’s almost too much effort to lift the glass — especially with the heavy beads of condensation gathering on the outside — but I’m just so damn thirsty. And hungry. As soon as I can get my body following directions again, I’m gonna have to head out to the kitchen and scrounge up something to eat.

The magic just takes so much out of me. I sink a little lower in the tub, letting the water reach my chin. My hair’s getting wet, but that’s just going to have to be OK for now. I’ll pull it back tonight and wash it for real once I can trust myself to stand in the shower.

So, what? That’s number five? My roommates and I have killed five people? I sigh and close my eyes. They aren’t really people. Anymore. I mean, they used to be people, but they kinda turned in their humanity card when they started drinking human blood to survive. Plus, these guys Daya’s sent us after aren’t exactly good Samaritans. The exact opposite actually.

I go through this every time. The whole
the world’s a better place without them
thing. And it never really works. I still feel guilty and worn afterwards. I’m just not a killer.

Ha.

I open my eyes and sit up. I’m most definitely a killer. Like five times a killer, as of tonight. And that’s only counting the people I’ve killed on purpose. I guess I’m just not a very good one. I splash some water on my face and pull the plug, standing on my still weak legs as water filters out of the tub. I’m almost tired enough to ignore my growling stomach. I could just crawl into bed and sleep for days…

My tummy gives one gurgling protest and I pull on a pair of sweats and a tank top, pile my hair on top of my head and wrap a hair tie around it. I’ll just grab something quick. I’ll sleep better on a full stomach anyway.

The kitchen’s a disaster. Bread crumbs on the counter mingling with bits of shredded cheese. Empty water bottles fallen on their side and forgotten. A dirty plate, with bits of ketchup and mayonnaise drying to a hardened mess in the sink. Definitely Luke’s handiwork.

Normally, I’d at least wipe the counter clean, but tonight, I just work around the mess. He can take care of it in the morning. Hell, I guess it already
is
morning. He can take care of it when he wakes up.

Noah wanders in while I’m eating and my food turns to sawdust in my mouth. We’ve had to work together so closely these last couple weeks. I mean, we live together for Pete’s sake. And our jobs are right next door to each other. And then, you know, there’s the whole thing where we have to go on these crazy covert missions where we trust each other with our lives. You’d think things might have thawed a little between us.

That’s not fair. Things have most definitely improved. Just not to the level that I want them to improve.

“Hey,” he says as I try to swallow the lump of food in my mouth.

I smile and nod and grab a drink of water. “Hey.” I watch him open the fridge and dig around inside. He always has trouble eating after we manage to take out a target. “Your throat OK?”

He twists so I can see the spreading bruise, black and blue and quite clearly caused by a set of human teeth. “Gonna be hard to explain that one away.”

“Just say it’s your overzealous girlfriend.” I take another swig of water and pull out a bag of tortilla chips from the cupboard. Toss them his way. Even when he doesn’t have an appetite, he’s got room for those. “You’ll get a ton of street cred at work.”

Noah laughs. Not the good one. Not the one that makes me feel like I’m home. It’s this tense little thing, almost a cough. “I’ll heal myself when I’ve had a chance to rest up a little. You pulled a lot of energy from me.”

For a moment I’m back in that dirty alley, time stopped. Nancy’s teeth at his throat. The very last fraction of a second before she bit down and killed him. My heart wrenches in my chest. I don’t think he realizes how close he was to not being here with me, having this awkward conversation while he tears open a bag of tortilla chips.

I shrug a little and feel my eyes come back into focus. “Sorry.”

This is more than I can handle right now. I don’t have the energy to look him in the eyes, to know how much I love him, how much he doesn’t love me, and know how close I came to losing him completely tonight. I finish my snack and down another glass of water. Rinse my plate and fit it into the mess in the sink.

“Well, goodnight,” I say as I brush past him, eyes on the ground, careful to give him a wide enough berth so we don’t accidentally touch.

And then, out of the blue, his hand is on my arm and there’s that warm zing of his energy soaring through me. I freeze, but don’t turn around. I don’t want him to see the tears welling in my eyes.

“Zoe?” There’s a softness in his voice that I haven’t heard in a long time. I turn my head just enough to show that I’m listening and hope he can’t see the tears. Or feel how my whole body is trembling. Or if he feels it, that he’ll just attribute it to my fatigue and not know that it’s because he’s touching me and it feels so good.

“Ya?” I ask, glad that my voice doesn’t quaver.

“Thank you.” He lets his hand slide from my arm. I blink my eyes dry and face him. “I know I owe you my life. I’m not really sure how you did what you did, but thank you.” He smiles and it’s the first time since Windsor that it’s lit up his eyes the way it’s supposed to and if I don’t get out of here now, I’m going to lose it.

What do I say? Back atcha? You’d do it for me? I couldn’t let that bitch kill you because I love you?

No. I don’t think any of those will do.

I drop my gaze, speechless for the first time in a long time. Chin to chest, I shrug a little, old school blush flaring red across my cheeks. I mutter something along the lines of
you’re welcome
and disappear into my bedroom. I just stand in the darkened room for a bit, too weary to process what just happened. That’s the first time Noah’s acted even kind of friendly towards me, the first time he’s dropped his
all business
attitude.

The bed just about swallows me up as I lay down, it feels that good. Of course, since I’m more exhausted than I’ve been in ages, sleep won’t come. I’m busy replaying everything that happened with Nancy. Processing that is easier than processing Noah. As my windows start to glow with the early morning light, and my thoughts twist and dance around in my head, a grim mix of Noah and Nancy, I have one last thought.