Still of Night (Thorne Hill 4)

“I called Phil and let him know,” Abby says, closing and locking the door behind me. “Sometimes he gets chatty with surgical teams, but he’ll come straight back so you can go.”

“Really, it’s fine,” I press. “Lucas might be busy for a while.” I smile at Penny. She’ll be a good distraction from worrying about the VC not only finding me, but finding out that Lucas has a prisoner in the basement of his bar. “And I get to spend time with this little peanut. We’re going to read books until you fall asleep.” I make a face and Penny laughs. “Yes we are.” Penny grabs my hair, mesmerized by how long it is. “Does she like to be sung to?”

“Oh, she loves it. I used to sing her Twinkle-Twinkle and You Are My Sunshine every night, but now she’ll start dancing.”

I laugh. “Sorry, Abby, it has to be frustrating.”

“It is, but it’s cute, I know. And really…” She looks at Penny with so much love in her eyes. “She’s worth it. I know it.”

“Get your butt in bed, lady,” I tell Abby and follow her up the grand staircase. She gives Penny a kiss goodnight and then goes into her room, leaving the door cracked. I take Penny into the nursery and conjure a string of blue magic so I can see my way around.

Penny’s room looks like it came straight off a Pinterest board. It’s pink, girly, and has a vintage-vibe that I love. Penny reaches for the string of magic, and I lower my hand, bringing it a bit closer to her. It’ll give her an electric shock if she gets too close, though.

“You know,” I say as I pick out three books from the shelves next to her dresser. “There was a time when I thought maybe you’d have magic too. I’m sorry you won’t.” I sit in the glider and put my feet up on the ottoman. This thing is comfy. I might fall asleep before Penny.

“People think that being different is bad, but it’s the opposite, really.” I curl my fingers, bringing the magic over to me. Penny follows. “Being normal is okay, too,” I quickly add. “If that’s what makes you happy. You have a wonderful mom and a pretty good dad.” I pick Penny up and tuck a blanket around her. “But your grandparents…not so much. Don’t let them turn you away from what makes you, you. Okay?”

Penny babbles something about a “nay-nay” and reaches for the magic again. I hold out my hand, spreading the string out into a million tiny balls of magic, and change the energy flowing in from blue to pink.

Penny squirms in my arms for a bit, and I throw up another energy ball, exploding it into dark blue pieces of raw energy. They twinkle softly, casting the room in a glow of pink and blue diamond-like stars.

“Let’s start with this one,” I tell Penny, and open up Charlotte’s Web. She’s so enthralled in the magic glowing above her, I stop reading after two pages and just slowly start rocking her. Her eyes grow heavy and ten minutes later, she’s out. I stay in the chair, enjoying being still and holding her.

Then my phone buzzes with a text, and I scramble to get it before it wakes Penny up. Dimming the screen, I open the text from Lucas.

Lucas: The VC is still here, but don’t worry. Everything is fine. They’re trying to get me to join the Council again. I’ll be home to fuck you in an hour or so.

I smile and reply with three eggplant emojis. Then I put the phone down and snuggle Penny a little closer to my chest. It’s nice to hold her like this, and I have to work hard not to think about the fact that I’m never going to have children of my own.

“All the more reason to be close,” I whisper to Penny and start planning out all the fun things we can do together. I lean back and start to drift off again. Maybe forty-five minutes later, I hear the security alarm disarmed as Phil enters the house.

He’s rather loud and clomps up the stairs and into the nursery.

“Callie?” he whispers, and cracks open the door. Blue and pink lights shine down on his face. His eyes go wide and he just stares at the twinkling magic for a few seconds before tearing his eyes away to look at his daughter, sleeping in my arms.

“Hey,” I whisper. “She’s been out for a while now.”

Phil takes a step in, eyes going back to the energy floating in the air. I carefully move one hand off Penny, as not to wake her, and swirl my fingers in the air, pulling all the energy back down into a single ball. It’s too bright, so I clench my fist, lessening the energy in the ball.

“Holy shit,” Phil murmurs. “That’s…that’s…”

“Magic,” I supply with a smile and slowly get up. I get Penny in her crib and Phil tucks her in, lovingly running his hand over her curly hair before we both leave the room.

“Thanks for helping out Abby,” he says as he clicks the nursery door shut.

“It was no problem. Lucas is still at work so I had nothing else to do.”

“We both really appreciate it.”

I smile and start down the stairs. Phil walks with me. “I like spending time with Penny.”

“She seems to like you. How…how are you feeling? Abby said you were really sick just like a week ago.”

Shit. Right. I was dying a few days ago. I guess that means Abby didn’t tell Phil about Michael.

“Much better. Was a freak thing that burned through me fast.”

“That’s good.” We get to the front door. “Do you want me to walk you home? It’s late and you’re a woman, not to sound sexist or anything.”

“It’s not sexist, but a precaution one should take.” I hold up my hand and conjure another string of magic. “Though I’ll be fine.”

“Ah, right. You’d be protecting me,” he laughs and opens the door. Suddenly, the feeling of being watched makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “And it looks like Lucas is here to walk you home anyway.”

I jerk my head up, looking out in the dark. Something moves in the shadows, and it’s not Lucas. I shove Phil back and hold up my hand, throwing up a telekinetic shield right as a silver-tipped arrow is fired at my chest.

9

Witch hunters.

The arrow clatters to the ground and I look out at the yard in the direction the shot came from. Someone moves through the manicured bushes of a house across the street.

I don’t think, I just take off, running down the porch steps, not stopping until I get to the gate that leads from Abby’s house to the sidewalk. I freeze, whirling back around. The front door is still open, and Phil is still on the ground, looking out at me, terrified.

I can’t leave them unprotected.

But I don’t want the hunter to get away.

Letting out ragged breath, I hold up my hands, eyes darting across the street. A car engine revs to life a few houses down.

“Malum quo communius eo receperint hic,” I chant and a shock of pale blue light sparks and circles around the house. Then I take off, leaving the gate swinging open behind me.

I throw out my hand, trying to telekinetically knock the guy over. He dives behind a perfectly manicured bush, and a car comes down the road. I skid to a stop narrowly avoiding tumbling into the street and getting run over.

The witch hunter uses the distraction to his advantage and sprints ahead. I see an old-fashioned crossbow in his hands as he runs under a streetlamp.

“Hey!” I shout and conjure an energy ball, not caring that every house on this street most likely has some sort of security camera that could record me using magic. I throw the energy ball and it zooms across the street, hitting the witch hunter right between the shoulders. He flails and falls forward onto the ground.

I sprint forward, jump over a low hedge and jump on the witch hunter, tackling him and pinning him to the ground. He fights against me and flips me over in a second flat. Most hunters are well-trained in hand-to-hand combat. That’s all they have, and going up against supernatural creatures with powers is stupid, really.

I pull him back down telekinetically and magic weaves between my fingers.

“Go to hell, you fang-banging bitch,” he spits and jerks against the magical hold I have on him. My eyes narrow and I open my mouth to shoot back a r

etort, when another arrow comes flying through the air, clipping me in the shoulder.

I let out a cry of pain and fall back. The witch hunter staggers to his feet, kicks me hard in the gut and runs away. Pain radiates through my arm, pulsing with each beat of my heart. I clamp my hand over the wound and get to my feet, not giving up the chase just yet.

The hunter runs across the street, where the second shooter is waiting in a running car. He leans out the window and aims his crossbow at me again and I telekinetically shove it backwards and into his nose. Cursing, he slinks back into the car and they peel away, tires squealing.