The COMPLETE Witching Pen Series, Boxed Set (12 page)

A woman, who looked around the same age as herself, stepped into the moonlight. Highly attractive, she stood tall and her hair was so black, it glinted blue under the dim rays. She didn't seem to be going anywhere; much like Amy, she sort of just lurked. As she got a little closer, Pueblo's demon blood grew cold inside her.

Interesting.

Wondering whether she should make herself known to her, she was suddenly thrown meters in the air when Elena's building exploded. Heat from the fireball washed over her, but never made it past her shield, for which she was grateful. Her luck ran out when she hit the floor, landing shoulder-first. A scream ripped out of her, and she heard footsteps thudding towards her.

The woman with the amazing hair was leaning over her with concern etched in her face.

Hmmm, my shield must be down. And why is she not on fire?

The woman's eyes, a piercing blue, the colour of tropical oceans, were even more amazing than her hair.

“Are you all right?” she called out.
 

“I don't know … my arm...”
 

“Your shoulder looks wrong. I think you might have dislocated it.”
 

“What the hell happened?”
 

“The building...”
 

“Oh, my God … Elena...”
 

“You know Elena?”
 

“We have to go see if she...” She left her words stranded in the air, mid-flow, as Elena walked out of the inferno. Only...
 

“Oh. My. God.”
 

The woman beside her sucked in her breath and she felt her stiffen.

Amy struggled to her feet, with her help. “Tell me I'm not seeing this.”

“If you're seeing a naked woman, who sort of looks like Elena, with grey skin that's … broken or something … and glowing green eyes, then you're seeing what I'm seeing.”
 

“Shit. What's she carrying?”
 

The woman squinted. “I think … Holy Mother, it's Karl!
It's Karl!
” And without any warning she sprinted towards them.
 

“Wait!” she called, as she ran after her, trying not to pass out from the burning pain in her shoulder. When she caught up with her, she and Elena were both staring at each other. Elena – if this
was
Elena – had Karl cradled in her arms. Apparently, she was super-strong now, and Amy could only assume it was Elena's own magic that had protected her and Karl from the blast. One of her hands clutched a small book.
 

Elena turned and looked straight at Amy. “He's dead,” she stated in a voice so hollow, it made her shudder. “I killed him.”

“No,” said the other woman, firmly. “I know you, Elena, and I know Karl. You did
not
kill him.”
 

“I did kill him, Mary. I sucked the life right out of him. I can feel him inside me – his glow.” And then she suddenly stared –
really
stared – at Mary. “Did you dream this? Is that why you're here? Did you
know
this was going to happen?” Her voice was low and deadly, crackling like the fire behind her.
 

“No! Of course not. I dreamt about a fire tonight, and I dreamt about this building, and when the dream woke me up, I was worried about you – I had to come see if you were okay...” Tears danced in Mary's eyes. “God … Karl...”
 

Elena ignored them and leaned towards her instead. “What are you?”

Mary shook her head. “What?”

Sirens sounded in the background.

“Elena...” Amy tried to speak as softly as she could. “Can we think about Karl? Fire engines are coming – there'll be an ambulance. Will you let them look after him?”
 

She tightened her hold on him, her eyes flashing.

“I know you don't want to let him go. But if he's truly dead, he deserves to be at peace, and if there's the tiniest chance he's still alive, a hospital will be the best place for him.”
 

Elena hesitated.

“He's human, Elena.”
 

Those seemed to be the magic words. She lay him down with a gentleness that looked out of place with her new demeanour.

Mary took off her coat and covered his naked form as best she could.

Elena shrank back.

“Wait, where are you going?”
 

“No one can see me like this,” she whispered. “Look at me.”
 

Sure enough, Amy didn't know how any of them would explain Elena's appearance.  “Where are you going to go?”

She stepped forwards one last time, and thrust the book she was holding, towards Amy. With her good arm, she reached out and took it.

“What's this?”
 

“The greatest lie of all,” she spat out, bitterly, hatred etched in every word. “The real reason Karl is dead. I'm going to kill them all.”
 

Elena became one with the shadows, and disappeared.

The fire engines and ambulance pulled up.

“You need to get that shoulder fixed,” said Mary.
 

“What are we going to tell them?” asked Amy, staring at all the uniforms.
 

“Let me do the talking.”
 

“Gladly.”
 

“And then I'm going to need a stiff drink.”
 

“Mind if I join you?”
 

“Please do.”
 

“I'm Amy, by the way. I'm a witch.”
 

“I'm Mary,” she smiled. “And I don't know what I am.”
 

Two and a half hours, and two shots of Tequila later, the two women sat in Mary's living room in silence, having just read Katherine's diary.

It was Mary who spoke first, voicing what they were both thinking. “We have to help her. We have to bring her back from … whatever she's becoming.”

“Do you think we can?”
 

“I refuse to think we can't. This is Elena. She's the exact opposite of evil – we can't do nothing.”
 

“What do you think she's going to do?”
 

“Sounded like she was planning a killing spree to me. I think she's gonna find a way into Shanka territory, and try to exterminate them all.”
 

Amy wrinkled her nose in a half-grimace. “I think you're right, apart from the planning bit. Elena may just be the most powerful witch to ever walk the Earth, whether she knows it or not. I don't think there's any planning, I think she's just going to go in there and let all hell break loose.”

“Because she's got nothing to lose.”
 

Amy nodded.

“Any result from that location spell?”
 

Amy glanced at the map on the dining table, looking for that magical red marker that would indicate where Elena was. “Nope. But I don't even know if this spell would work on a Shanka – they're not like other demons – they become shadow.”

“Elena's half-human.”
 

Amy sighed. “I hope she's still half-human.”

“She
is
,” insisted Mary.
 

Amy stared at her new, accidental ally. Over the last couple of hours, she had discovered next to nothing about Mary – not that she had divulged anything of herself either – but she trusted the woman. It was obvious she cared about Elena … and Karl. But she couldn't ignore the fact that the demon blood she'd drunk, which now seemed to form part of her DNA, whether she wanted it to or not, didn't like Mary one bit. Her blood grew cold and hummed in her ears whenever she got too close. She had no idea why that was. But her human self, told her Mary was safe, and since she'd known her human self longer than she'd known Pueblo, and all the craziness that came with him, she listened to her human self.

Speaking of Pueblo, her new blood heated up a couple of notches, suddenly roaring inside her, and she found herself turning towards the front door.

“Oh, no,” she muttered.
 

“What?” asked Mary.
 

There was a heavy, insistent pounding on the door.

Mary jumped up.

“No, Mary, I know who it is. I'll get it.” Ignoring Mary's quizzical look, she rushed to the door and flung it open.
 

Just as expected, Pueblo filled the doorway, a look of fury painting his features.

Irritatingly, she realised she actually felt a little scared, and pushed the feeling away with a huff. “What are you doing here?” she hissed.

“You're hurt.”
 

“My shoulder got dislocated; paramedics fixed it.”
 

His frown deepened.

“Okay,
maybe
they wanted to take me to hospital, and I
may
have mentally persuaded them to fix me as best as they could on the spot, but there are serious things happening here – I don't have time to go to hospital.”
 

“Did they fix it right?”
 

“It's fiiiiiine, Jeeeez!”
 

“Here.” He placed his hand on her tender shoulder. It instantly warmed under his touch. Energy coursed into it, weaving through every sinew and tendon. A sigh of relief escaped her as she felt every last trace of pain evaporate.
 

“You can heal people?”
 

“No. Only you.”
 

“Blood bond?”
 

He nodded.

She had no reply to that. She was grateful; she just kind of wished she wasn't tied to him.

A cough sounded behind her.

“Oh.” Amy stepped to the side. “Pueblo, this is Mary; Mary, meet Pueblo.”
 

“Hi,” she smiled.
 

“What is
that?
” Shock reigned the demon's face, his eyes wide with … not exactly fear, and not exactly awe...
 

“Hey,” came the contentious reply, “I'm the
human
that lives here.”
 

“Human?”
 

“Yes, human.”
 

“If you say so.”
 

“I do.”
 

He continued to stare at her … which irked Amy, somewhat.

She stepped back into his line of vision. “Look, Elena's Hulked out on us, and probably gone on a Shanka killing spree. We need to get her back to her sane self. Think you can help?”

“I will help. The Dessec are the Gatekeepers of chaos; we manage it, trying to make sure it never grows to large proportions. We never want to be in the position where we have to undo time to fix an event that chaos caused.”
 

The women stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Okaaay,” said Amy. “Pueblo, you're going to need clothes. You can't walk around in this dimension looking like that.”
 

“Can you magic him some clothes?” chipped in Mary.
 

“Yes, I suppose I can...”
 

“Okay, great. We have an army of three. Pueblo, come in.”
 

The demon entered, and Amy shut the door behind him. “So, we need a plan.”

“Elena is bound by blood to the Shanka tribe,” began Pueblo.
 

She crossed her arms to hide her exasperation. What was it with demons and blood?

“She will be drawn to them. We will follow her.”
 

“I hate to burst your bubble,” said Amy, “but we have two problems: one, we can't find her anywhere; two, she's had Shanka blood in her all her life – I don't believe she's ever been drawn to them before.”
 

“That's true,” said Mary. “I've known her for almost a year and, as I understand from what I've  learned tonight, it's only in the last few days that the Shanka's been around … and it was the demon that sought
her
out, wasn't it?”
 

“That's what Etienne said – speaking of whom, I may need to cloak this flat. He's good at finding me.”
 

“Do what you have to, Amy.”
 

Amy nodded her thanks. Since reading Katherine's diary and discovering Etienne was Elena's
grandfather
of all things, she needed time to figure things out – time
away
from Etienne. Her heart ached at his part in all this. If only he wasn't like a father to her...
 

“It makes no sense that Elena would not have discovered the Shanka earlier in her life. Her blood would have demanded it. Unless...”
 

“Unless what, Pueblo?”
 

“The only thing more powerful than a blood bond, is a soul bond. A blood bond needs physical form to be created; a soul bond, does not. A bond between souls is ancient – older than the planet.”
 

“Are you saying, that Elena would not have been affected by her demon blood, if she was already bonded to a … soulmate?”
 

“Yes, soulmate. But there are not many bonded souls left in the world nowadays.”
 

“Karl,” said Mary. “Karl's her soulmate, I'd swear my own life on it. Those two … you should have seen them together...”
 

“Then we must find this Karl – he will bring her back from the Shanka's shadows.”
 

Mary bit her lip and let her tears fall for the first time that Amy had seen that night. “We can't,” she whispered. “Karl's dead.”