Witch (5 page)

Ophelia

The black soulless eyes of the mysterious guy outside her
window were trying to tell her something. She didn’t know what, but she felt a
hum inside of her mind when she looked at him. He was ridiculously good
looking. He made Jake look plain. She couldn’t focus around him, something
about him was unnerving. He smelled like something she had never noticed
before. He was sex and seduction. His lips…She broke the stare and took a
breath.

“What are you?” She whispered.

He grinned at her.

Jake gripped her arms and shook her, “Ophelia we need to
call the cops and your parents. Where are they?”

She blinked at him, unable to process what he said.

He repeated himself, “Where are your parents?”

“They went to the movie.”

Jake’s thoughts seemed to pour into her mind, but it was
as if they found their way in through his touch. He was frightened, he liked
her a lot. He wanted to punch the beautiful stranger with the black eyes.

Ophelia snapped out of the haze and blocked his thoughts
from her mind. She pulled away from him and turned to her bedroom door. She
flung it open, panicked suddenly. His last thought made her skin crawl.

“Your sister.” Jake’s words were a whisper.

Her feet couldn’t move quickly enough on the bare hard
wood floor. She skidded down the hall and flung the door open. Abbey's dark
room sat empty. The only movement came from the huge picture window, where the
long white silky curtains billowed in to the black room. The open window looked
different. She shivered walking forward, feeling the carpet beneath her toes.
She gulped. Her sister wasn’t there. Her bed sat empty. The covers were pulled
back. The cool breeze that played with the curtains found its way to her. Her
skin prickled with fear and confusion. She stopped one foot short of the
window, seeing the screen was missing. Her sister was obsessive with bug
screens. She was allergic to mosquito bites.

Ophelia leaned forward to see the torn screen lying on the
grass below.

She gulped again and looked back at Jake who filled the
lit doorway behind her.

“She’s gone.” Her voice was a whisper.

“We need to call the police.”

She took a step back to him, “I know but I’m scared Jake.
That wolf didn’t look like any wolf I’ve seen before and that man on my window
ledge, how did he get there?”

Jake put a hand out for her. The feel of his warm skin was
a welcome feeling compared to cold of her sister's room.

Jake pulled his cell from his pocket and dialed with his
free hand. She let her hand drop from his and walked back in to her room. The
dark eyed guy was still perched in her window. His expression looked pained.

“She’s gone. My sister. Her window, the screen.” She felt
dizzy trying desperately to process it.

He nodded, “Others know about you Ophelia. You need to
come with us.”

“I want my sister back.”

“You have a spell on the house that will keep you safe as
long as you stay inside of it. Nothing can get to you inside of here but you
can’t ever leave. They will come for you.”

She shook her head, “You’ve come for me it seems.”

He smiled, “I have. I also have no intention of harming
you. They do.”

She shook her head, “I don’t know you. I just want you to
go away. I want my sister back.”

She closed her eyes trying to regain some composure. She
felt her grip on her emotions slipping.

“I called the sheriff. He’s coming directly.”

She spun, “Jake, he isn’t going to believe us. A huge wolf
snuck in my sister’s window and stole her in the night and this guy flew up
here.” She looked back at the guy in the window, “Will you even be here if the
cops come?”

He shook his head.

She put her hands on her hips and looked back at Jake.

His face was flushed, he looked angry in a way she’d never
seen, “Ophelia someone is fucking with us. He climbed, he never flew. The wolf
was probably trained to distract us so they could kidnap your sister. They’re
holding her ransom until you go with them.”

It made more sense than the explanation she was
processing. She couldn’t shake the feelings she was having or the fact she
wasn’t afraid of the guy in the window. The wolf didn’t seem trained, it seemed
savage.

She looked back at the guy in the window but he was gone.
The wind blew in the empty window. She frowned at the empty space and slumped
onto the floor.

Jake went to the window and closed it and the blinds.

“Sheriff’s here.” He ran out of the room and down the
stairs. She sat on the floor alone, waiting for something to start making
sense.

‘Ophelia you need to get out of here. They know. They know
you’re alive.’

She looked around at the air. The voices usually brought
the ghosts with them.

No one was in the room with her.

She walked down the stairs after Jake.

“Sheriff I saw it.”

Sheriff Walker stood in her doorway, he didn’t seem to be
able to walk past the threshold of the door.

He grinned when he saw Ophelia.

“Honey are you okay?”

She nodded. She couldn’t help but notice he stood at the
line of her doorway. His feet never budged past the doorway.

“Sheriff come-“

“NO!” She shouted wild-eyed at Jake. She leapt at Jake and
clamped his mouth with her hands. She whispered, “Look at his feet, it’s like
the wolf.”

Jake’s eyes dropped to the feet staying exactly out of the
house but as close as they could get.

“Ophelia what’s the problem? Why don’t you come to my car
and we’ll see about your sister.” He stepped back and held a hand out.

Ophelia shook her head, “No my parents are upstairs. They
said she’s at a friends.”

The sheriff, she had known her entire life, watched her
silently. His smile turned to a sickly sweet grin, “Ophelia invite me in.”

She shook her head, “My parents are upstairs.”

His grinned hardened on his face, “Ophelia invite me in.
We need to make a report about the wolf.”

She took a step back, taking Jake with her. He had removed
her hands from his mouth but he watched in silence. The Sheriff suddenly seemed
to be much more than was possible.

Jake gripped her fingers, “Sheriff why can’t you just step
in to the house?”

The Sheriff laughed, “Oh Ophelia, you silly girl. Now,
just ASK ME IN THE FUCKING HOUSE!” His face erupted in anger. His skin paled
against the porch lights. Fangs shot from his front teeth.

“Ophelia you’re in danger. Bad people are coming for you.”
His eyes began to glow bright yellow. His face started to shiver. She screamed
and lunged at the door. She slammed it shut and jumped back at Jake.

“What’s happening? It’s like a horror movie out there.”

He stood completely still, his lower lip trembled
slightly, “I don’t know. We need to get out of here.”

She nodded, “We need that guy, I don’t know why but I
trust him Jake.”

Jake’s face turned dark, “You think he’s hot.”

She knit her brow, “What?”

He took a step toward her, “He’s a bad guy. A very bad
guy. I can tell.”

She took a step back, “Jake I don’t think he’s hot. I-I-I
just think he can help. Why are you saying this?”

His eyes focused on hers and then as if a storm passed he
blinked, “I don’t know. I feel like I’m not in control.” He blinked again and
rubbed his eyes.

She sighed and took the step toward him again, “It’s late
and you’re tired, I’m exhausted. Let’s just go back to my room.” She put a hand
out for him. He took it. She wondered if he was going to change like the
sheriff, who she had known her entire life.

He took her hand in his and squeezed, “Maybe it’s all a
dream, a bad dream.” He pulled her to him, “Except the part where you finally
let me in.” He smiled his charming grin at her.

She shivered seeing the look upon his face.

He pulled her into his embrace. His warm arms circled her
and crushed her into him.

He rested her head against his chest and kissed the top of
it. She closed her eyes and imagined it the way it was supposed to be. She
wished it was prom and she was in her prom dress and he was in a tux. She
wished they were dancing at the school. The night was filled with magical
lights and music.

Chapter Ten

Sam

“They’re gone.”

Lorri gave him a look, “What?”

Sam nodded, “They’re gone. They were in the living room
and then they weren’t.”

Her face knotted, “Where did they go?”

"They were dancing and then they were gone. I don’t
know how else to describe this. They vanished."

Lorri snarled, "Don’t get smart Sam. Find her."

Sam glared, "Lorri I was watching her."

Lorri pointed to the house and growled, “And yet she is
gone."

Sam looked around, "Whatever. Where are the
wolves?"

Lorri looked ready to rip his head off, "After Aleks's
dad. I told them to track him. When they get him we'll do a trade. Daniel for
Jon."

Sam pointed at the house, "Why'd Jon come here? Seems
too weird to be random."

"He has a thing for witches. Sam we can have this fucking
conversation later. Find the witch and get rid of the dark one. How long has he
been a traitor I wonder?" She glanced at Luke, "Your people never
knew the Sheriff was bad?"

Luke shook his huge wolf head. She clicked her tongue and
looked around.

Sam shrugged and looked at Lucas who looked at them both
and whined. He turned and ran around the back of the house.

Sam sighed and walked back to the front door where the
shifter-Sheriff lay dead in the garden. He grabbed the leg of the dead man and
flashed to the Grand Canyon. He looked around at the amazingly beautiful
surroundings. He felt the weight of the dead man in his hands as he sighed and
thought about Hanna. He opened his hands and flashed back to Maine before the
sound of the body hitting the canyon filled his ears.

The sheriff hadn’t expected to find their kind of Roses in
the garden. Lorri had snapped his thick wolf neck in one blow. The wolves would
be upset when they realized Lorri had killed one of theirs. They would be even
more upset when they realized he was a dark one. One usually meant there was
more.

“Sam, Lucas found them. They’re this way.” He looked at
the savagely angry face of Lorri.

“What is she?"

Lorri looked at him through her eyelashes, “Ever hear the
stories of Annabelle as a girl?”

He shook his head. Lydia was tight lipped about the
ghostly maid.

“She is worse.”

“She’s a witch, how much worse can they get?”

Lorri nodded, “She is so much more than that. Annabelle is
just a witch. Ophelia is half angel and half witch. Her mother is The Witch.
She’s been held in captivity since we lost Jonathan to them.”

Sam felt sick, “Over a thousand years?”

Lorri nodded, “Yup.”

“How?”

Lorri pointed down the road, “We need to go. If they get
her, we lose the war. She’s that important.”

“Hey I thought I was the piece of the puzzle that won you
the war.”

She rolled her eyes and flashed away.

He followed the scent of Lucas until his flashes led him
to a large building. It was a brick building that reminded him of the high
school he had watched Hanna attend as a teenager.

He frowned hearing music coming from the building. Cars
lined the parking lot. He looked at Lorri who looked incredibly pissed
suddenly, “She’s going to be my own personal fucking nightmare. Fucking
Jonathan. Fucking fuck.” She muttered and flashed inside of the school.

"You have a real potty mouth for an angel. Were you
like this when before you fell?"

If looks could kill, hers would have blown him into tiny
bits.

Teenagers lined the halls, gossiping and laughing.
Everyone wore a prom dress or tuxedo.

He looked at one girl who shook her head, “I seriously
thought prom was next week. I don’t even remember changing into my dress.”

The girl across from her wore a blank stare, “I know.”

Sam started to worry. He had seen Annabelle go poltergeist
once, he never wanted to see that again. Her magic was terrible.

The song Yellow by Coldplay blasted from the gymnasium. It
echoed through the school.

He turned the corner in to the gym to see couples slow dancing
to the haunting song. The girl stood in the middle of it all with her eyes
closed, gripping the teenage boy from her living room. They danced as if no one
else was in the room.

Lorri walked up to them. Sam flashed next to them quickly
before Lorri just tore an arm off and dragged her outside.

Lorri grabbed her arm roughly, “Ophelia I’m an old friend
of your dad's. It's lovely to meet you, now send all these kids back to bed.
You don’t want me to do it for you. I’m not really as gentle as I appear.”

Sam wanted to laugh at that, since she looked severely
sharper than she acted, but decided against it.

The girl looked up from the chest of the massive boy,
horror filled her face.

“H-how did we….?” She trailed off as she looked around at
the party she was at.

The teenage boy pulled her back in to him. He completely
ignored Lorri.

Lorri looked at Sam and nodded.

Sam touched her and the boy and felt the cool air as he
suddenly stood outside of the huge mansion on the old oak lined street. A warm
feeling filled his chest as he saw it.

Suddenly Annabelle was at the door on the front porch.

“What the hell?” The teenage boy started to freak out.

Sam smiled, “I did try warning you, let's not forget that
part.”

The girl looked worried, “Who are you?”

“I’m a friend. My name is Sam. That is Annabelle on the
porch and we are at the home of a friend named Lydia. She’s like you. She can
help you.”