The Witch With No Name (The Hollows 13)

I couldn’t move, the warmth between us comforting. Slowly Trent’s grip eased as he fell asleep. I listened to him breathe as I wondered how it had gotten so complicated.

Falling in love was the easiest thing in the world to do. Why was it always so hard for me to survive it?

Chapter 11

Something had changed. I froze, even as my eyes opened and my fingers clenched on the top of my afghan. The warmth behind my back was gone. I could see little in the predawn gloom of my room. I fell asleep, I thought, not surprised. Trent had been spooned up behind me, and we’d both been tired, the stress of meeting Cormel’s demands bringing me down long before I’d usually fall asleep.

The sound of breathing drew my attention. Trent was a dangerous shadow at my propped-open window. My pulse pounded. I’d done this before—waking up to an approaching threat—but Trent being with me was new. We’d both fallen asleep, still dressed and with our boots on—probably a good thing in hindsight. “What’s going on?” I whispered.

Trent gestured me forward, his gaze fixed outside. “There’re people among the stones.”

Crap on toast. I pushed the afghan off and stood. He looked as scary as all hell hunched at my window, and I felt queasy from lack of sleep. “Where?” I tucked my hair behind an ear and leaned closer to find the scent of spoiled wine amid the lingering burnt amber. He wasn’t happy. Neither was I.

There was nothing to see in the predawn murk, not even a pixy sparkle. “I don’t see anyone,” I whispered as I tucked my shirt in. I needed a shower in the worst way.

“Me either, but they’re out there.” Trent squinted out the window. “Hear the birds? I’ve been listening to them for the last half hour, and something is wrong.”

Chilled, I held my arms around myself. He’d been tucked in behind me, wide awake as he held me and listened to me sleep. Otherwise, how would he have heard the change in the birds? A robin chirped an alarm call, answered by another. There’re people among the stones.

“Cormel promised. He promised to leave us alone!” I protested as I drew back.

“He promised that you no longer look to him for protection.” Trent took his hand from the window. “It might not be him.”

My thoughts zinged back to the vampires at Eden Park. Swell. Not six hours ago I’d told Ivy that it would be okay. Damn it, how could I have just fallen asleep? Worried, I reached my awareness out and tapped the line out back. Energy slipped in, and my skin tingled where it touched Trent. He was already tapped into it, and feeling almost shy, I slipped my hand into his.

His grip was warm, his fingertips slightly rough. They’d raise goose bumps should he trace them over my skin. He took a slow breath as we both eased our respective holds on our energies, and with a swirling back-and-forth tide of tingles, our balances equalized.

“This is not what I wanted to do today,” I said, hands still intertwined as we looked for the first hints of the intruders.

Trent’s grip tightened at the sudden sound of pixy wings. Hands clasped, we turned as Jenks slipped in through the crack under the door. His dust was a dull silver, and he stopped in shock when he saw us looking at him.

“You’re up!” he said, a thread of brighter gold slipping from him. “And dressed. Tink’s titties, you were sleeping? Seriously?”

Trent’s fingers left mine. “Who’s in the garden?” he asked.

“Oh yeah.” Humming closer, Jenks landed on the sill, hands on his h*ps in his best Peter Pan pose. “Jumoke and Izzy are doing a count, but it’s vampires. None of them is Cormel’s.”

My teeth clenched. “Son of a bastard,” I whispered as I reached for my phone, only to remember I’d left it in the kitchen. I had Trent’s, though, and I handed it to him. “Where’s Ivy?”

“Out,” Jenks said, bringing both Trent and me up short. “She and Nina took Buddy to a vet-in-a-box to get him checked about an hour ago.”

“She left?”

“Yeah. That’s when the vampires showed up. I wasn’t going to bother you unless they moved. Hell, if I’d known all you were doing was lying next to each other with your clothes on, I would’ve told you right off. Tink’s diaphragm, you were sleeping?”

Ivy isn’t here. My first flush of fear shifted to an ironic relief, and I sat on the edge of my bed so I could pull up my socks without taking off my boots. “They aren’t after Ivy. Why?”

“I’m more concerned with who.” The dim light from Trent’s phone made his face severe. “No calls, not even a text,” he muttered. “I suggest we leave the church, circle around back, pick off one at the outskirts, and find a quiet place to chat. Mark’s is open, isn’t it?”

My lips parted. “And let them have the run of the church? I just got it cleaned up!”

Jenks bristled. “We can take them, cookie bits.”

Trent glanced up, a hard, I’m-down-to-salvage look to his face. “No doubt. We can stay and fight them off, but we’ll leave significant damage to the church and we might never find out who sent them or why.”

Allow them access to everything in the hope that they don’t damage or steal it all? It hadn’t worked in World War II, and I didn’t expect any difference now. “I need my splat gun,” I said breathily, and I walked out into the dark hallway.

Jenks’s wings clattered behind me. “We can’t sneak out, anyway. We’re surrounded.”

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I’d feel better with a little more to back my words up with than a smile and whatever magic I knew by rote. I strode into the kitchen, panic icing through me when a dark shadow swooped forward. Almost falling, I slid into a defensive duck. The ley line iced painfully through me as I recognized the sound of Bis’s wings and drew a surge of power back.

“Bis!” I said, my exclamation barely above a whisper. “Give some warning, huh?” I hadn’t been able to feel Bis’s presence since Newt changed my aura, and I kind of missed it.

“Sorry.” Black teeth catching the light, he landed on top of the fridge and gave Trent a bunny-eared kiss-kiss.

Bis didn’t look sorry, and I glanced over the dark kitchen wondering what I could eat without opening the fridge. The light would tell them we were awake. I plucked at my shirt, wishing I’d taken a shower. I knew I stank of burnt amber, but my nose had gone deaf. Irate, I reached for my coffee, cold and untouched, at the table. “Where’s Belle?” I asked, grimacing at the tepid bitterness. Rex could take care of herself, but I worried about the flightless fairy.

Bis ruffled his wings, red eyes seeming to glow as he glanced out the window. “With Rex. Real professionals. No high heels or noisy phones. They know how to sit still and not move.”

Trent looked up from texting something to Quen, probably. “Your life is never boring, Rachel.”

“I could do with a little boring.” My reach to open the nuker hesitated. It had a light, too. Disgusted, I set the cold cup on the counter and warmed it up with a charm. Ceri had taught me this, and a stab of regret cooled my anger.

“Nice,” Trent said. He’d seen me do this before, but probably not with such quickness. I was edgy, and I jerked again when Bis landed on my shoulder.

“You want to jump out?” Bis said eagerly. “Let them find an empty church? We need to go soon. The sun is almost up.”

My eyes flicked to Trent. That was why they were waiting. Sunup would put Bis and an easy escape out of reach. I was starting to like robins a lot more.

“We are not abandoning the church,” Jenks said, wings clattering.

Keeping silent and my options open, I scooped up my splat gun and checked the hopper. The charms were not old, but they weren’t new either—and vampires were fast.

“Rache?”

Jenks hovered, waiting for me to agree with him, but all I did was tuck the cherry-red paintball gun at the small of my back. Going to a drawer, I got a couple of extra canisters of CO2 to fire it. Someday I’d figure out a charm to propel them, but until then, it was good having a spell that would work without connection to a ley line.

“Ah, Rache?”

I leaned against the counter and sighed. I didn’t want to flee. Why were they even after us? Cormel couldn’t make me do anything. But then my heart thudded as I thought of Ivy.

“I need to call Ivy,” I said as I pulled my shoulder bag off the table. Damn it, I’d told her she’d be okay. I’d told her there’d be no reprisal. I shouldn’t have filled her head with such do-gooder tripe. I was going to get her killed.

We had about ten minutes until sunrise, and Trent sat casually against the table, ankles crossed and looking calm and even a little sexy. “Bis . . . ,” he drawled, catching my attention. “Can you leave undetected, find a vampire at the outskirts, and jump him here?”

My finger scrolling through my numbers slowed and my eyebrows rose. Jenks began to chuckle. “Oh, I like that,” he said as Bis nodded.

“We have time,” Trent said, his smile shifting to an ugly hardness. “If we can find out who and why, I don’t mind leaving. Especially if we can drop back and hit whoever planned this while their main force is still here.”

My God, the man might be a business tycoon, but his heart was that of a warlord elf.

Jenks’s dust pooling on the center counter turned silver. “Let me find Jumoke. He’ll know who would be easiest to snag.”

I kind of felt bad for whomever Bis was going to snatch. Then I caught a glimpse of movement between the tombstones and the guilt went away.

“Back in a sec.” Bis gave me a poignant look before he took to the air, a draft sending my snarled hair back as he followed Jenks out of the kitchen and presumably into the garden.

We were down to kidnapping, and heart pounding, I texted G2G to tell Ivy to go to ground, then hit her number, wanting to give her more than a text could handle. “I’ve got zip strips in the top drawer there,” I said, phone to my ear. Please pick up. Please.

“I’ve got something better.” Motions holding a hard intent, Trent cleared off the center counter, piling everything on Ivy’s stuff. I knew it would irritate her to no end. My skin tingled as he pulled more heavily on the line, and I hoped they didn’t have a magic user out there with them. They might be able to feel it.

Finally Ivy answered her phone, and I pressed it to my ear. “Ivy, thank God.”

“Rachel? Why are you up so early?” she said, following it immediately with “Shit, what happened? Is everyone okay?”

Clearly she hadn’t gotten the text yet. She sounded fine, and my eyes closed in relief. I could hear dogs in the background. “We’re okay,” I said, and I heard her say something muted to someone else. Nina, probably. “The church is surrounded. Bis is going to jump us out as soon as we know who it is, so don’t come back. You’re okay, right?”

With a slight shock, I realized I wanted to run. It was something new to me, but perhaps I was only now realizing the fragile nature of life. I wasn’t running away, I was running to find a stronger position. Whoever this was, they weren’t going to get away with it.

“Cormel!” Ivy hissed, her vehemence taking me aback.

“I don’t think so. I’ll let you know who as soon as we find out. Are you being followed?”

“No.” She was distracted, and I wondered what Trent was wanting to do with the overhead rack when he eyed it.

I jerked at the sudden displacement of air, reaching for my splat gun when Bis popped back into the kitchen. His claws were pinching the shoulder of a terrified vampire.

“What the hell?” the young, surprisingly muscled living vampire shouted, eyes pitch black and short fangs sheened with saliva. He took a breath to shout for help.

“Ta na shay, sar novo,” Trent said softly, every word seeming to have edges. My skin crawled, and the aura about his hand glowed a soft silver. I froze when he reached out and the glow vanished from his hand to blossom anew over the vampire—swamping him in a heartbeat. The vampire’s exclamation choked off. He stiffened as the charm soaked in, and he went still.

“Sar novo,” Trent said again, shoving the vampire against the center counter where he slumped, eyes open, breathing, but clearly unable to move voluntarily.

The entire thing had taken maybe three seconds.

“Uh, Ivy, I have to go,” I said, impressed and a little scared. “Please. Don’t trust Nina,” I said, ashamed, and the hum of Jenks’s wings dropped in pitch.

Ivy was silent, then, “Okay,” and the conversation ended with a click.

My eyes were on the terrified vampire as I put my phone in a back pocket. Bis had puffed himself up larger, managing to look menacing next to Trent. Jenks, though, didn’t give a fig about impressing our captive, clearly more upset about abandoning the church as he wiped the soot off his wings. “Rache,” he started, and I rubbed my forehead. It was the right thing to do, hard as it was.

The garden, my kitchen. But to stay and fight might get someone killed when we would be better off dropping back and attacking with more strength later. I was trying to make smarter decisions—I loved Trent, and realizing I’d abandon the church to get him out of this threat was . . . a gut-wrenching shock, both happy and sad.

“This won’t take long.” Trent didn’t sound like himself, and I watched, chilled, as he reached up into the rack, his motions sure and steady, his eyes never leaving the vampire’s. The vampire panted, small noises coming from him as he tried to break through the binding charm. Trent looked awful, showing a part of himself he wasn’t proud of—and being with me had brought it forth again.