Page 13 of Payback is a Witch

Her eyes latched onto my bleeding finger again. And she licked her lips.

My heart skipped a beat.

“I’m trying.” Hoping to keep her focused on talking to me, my gaze darted around watching the angry humans close up around us. “That’s why I need you to pinch yourself. A spell or someone is making you feel that anger. You need to snap out of it because I need your help.”

“What?” looking at me like I’ve grown a second head she took a step closer. “For once take responsibility when you fuck up, Hazel. You can’t always blame it on others.”

Hearing that made me see red. Sissily out of all people should know me better than that. Spell or not I really wanted to slap her and as she took another step closer while focused solely on my bleeding hand I slid the rest of the distance between us and pulling my hand back I slapped her as hard as I could.

Her head was flung to the side making her ponytail fly in an arch and end up on the side of her face instead of the beck of her skull. With a gasp she cupped the stinging cheek that had red fingers imprinted on it and leaned forward using me to keep herself from falling. Taking hold of her shoulders I helped her regain her balance and I showed her behind me so that she is between me and the coffee shop. The humans were too close and looked ready to attack.

“Bitch. Grab her. It’s her fault. She did it on purpose. I saw her, she tried to kill the poor lady.” Angry voices attempted to out-shout each other, the twisted faces of humans full of rage were blurring in front of me.

Angry.

They were all so angry.

And that’s when it dawned on me.

“Anger demon.” I called out over my shoulder praying to Hecate that me slapping Sissily did the trick to wake her from the effect. “Did you hear me?”

“The dead at the cemetery outside of Cleveland heard you, too. Not just me.” she deadpanned sounding unimpressed.

Doing a quick turn, I shoved my bleeding finger in her face and made her recoil away from me. “Oh, good. It actually worked.”

“You mean to tell me you slapped me like I owed you something and you had no idea that it will work?”

“You owe me plenty of things and I haven’t slapped you before.” I pointed out. “We have a bigger problem however. They are about ready to pounce and I have no clue where the Anger demon is.”

“If you look I’ll hold them back.” Having my best friend back was a relief like nothing else. Plus, her teeth were clenched and she was shaking her arms in preparation. Sissily was pissed so I felt slightly sad for the humans.

“Be nice, Sissily. It’s not their fault.” Using a low wall built to protect the floor to ceiling window of the café I stood on my tiptoes so I could better see where the demon was hiding. This particular demon’s power only worked if they had a visual of their victims at all times. So, he or she had to be near. I just had to find them. Instead of the culprit of all my trouble at the moment my eyes locked on Ace and my heart punched at the roof of my mouth. My mouth opened so I could warn Sissily but nothing came out apart from a pathetic squeak.

My bestie was busy, too, pulling her arms back and throwing them forward with a forceful wind that was knocking humans on their asses. On the bright side she was not harming them, so I held onto that silver lining. Swallowing thickly, I tried warning her again.

“Ace is furious and he’s about to shift in broad daylight.” The words came out rushed and shaky. My tone was all wabbly because my heart was beating in my throat.

“He wouldn’t.” Sissily pushed through clenched feet and shoved the group of humans back a few steps.

“Actually, I think he totally would.” As Ace started transforming I watched mesmerized and horrified at the same time. “And, he’s doing it. Super weird.”

“Oh, shit.” She saw him and her eyes widened. “You know what? Screw the demon. When I tell you, grab Ace and we are out of here.”

She didn’t give me time to agree or disagree. Lifting her right arm up in the air she spread her fingers and lightning streaked across the sky that were turning from bright blue to dark gray in seconds. Th moment the second lightning touched the tips of her fingers she threw her other hand in front of her and the lightning passed through her only to imbed itself in the middle of the angry mob. Good ting the demon could only make them angry not stupid. All of them dispersed running in all directions.

“Now” Sissily screamed and I dashed to Ace, wrapping both arms around him. With everything in me I sort of tackled him toward the door of the café which only worked since he was too busy trying to shift instead of shaking me off like a flea. Sissily joined me and all three of us tumbled inside Amber’s cafe with the marry jingling of the bell above the door.

Chapter 7

“Look what the wolf dragged in.” Amber spoke from right above us while we were a tangled mess of limbs on the floor. Her red corkscrews circled he face like a halo as she leaned over us to check for injuries.

I couldn’t just up to get my hug because I had to help Ace who was shaking his head adamantly but thankfully he was no longer shifting. He was however pale like he’s seen a ghost, and I was worried that he might get sick.

“Why are all of you not angry?” asked Amber while holding Ace up by his shoulders. “There is Anger demon outside causing a riot on the street.”

“Is that what that all was?” Ace rasped and leaned forward on one arm to cough out whatever was clogging his throat.

“We have wards around the shop. This has been going on the last two or three hours. The moment I caught what’s happening I called Alex and told him to keep everyone away from here. Especially himself. We closed the shop too.” Amber kneeled next to Ace rubbing his back soothingly. “If you’re still fighting the shift I can call him to command you, but he cannot come here. Not now, or we will have much bigger problems than a measly anger demon.”

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