Page 7 of Witches Be Damned

“This isn’t helping anyone.” Knoxe came to Serena’s defense. “Everyone calm down, breathe, and relax, and we’ll figure it out.”

Loco and I took a moment to fall apart before we gathered ourselves. What a fucking pair we were. Pitiful superheroes and rescuers. Not the kind Supergal wanted on her side when we fell apart the moment she went missing.

Knoxe caught Loco’s shoulders, rubbing his back, urging him to focus on slowing his breathing and calming down, whispering that we’d get Astra back.

“I know it’s not ideal.” Serena rubbed her weary forehead. “It doesn’t mean we’re giving up.”

No way we were leaving Supergal behind. We’d do whatever it took to rescue her. At that exact moment, an even more elaborate idea came to mind. Knoxe would kill me if I enacted it, but fuck it, I wasn’t taking any chances when it came to my girl. First, we lost Raze from the team, Pascal came this close, now our woman, and I would do anything to fix this.

“Are we good to leave?” Serena asked, stepping up to each of us, checking us over like a mom would. “The sooner we round up these chumps, the quicker we get to Astra.”

We all muttered our compliance, trailed behind her and Knoxe, going to suit up and getting the hell out of here. I had to get out of these walls to carry through on my plan. And what a doozy it was.

Our leader swept a critical eye over the team, inspecting our weapon belts, then our faces, the reflection in her eyes not promising. We must have looked like an unconvincing wreck.

Loco fished his knives from their sheaths and twirled them anxiously on his fingers. Knoxe kept checking his weapons. And I clicked the button on my grenade pouch open and closed, earning Serena’s frown.

“Everyone, move out.” She swiped her fingers military-style to order us to depart.

We went through the rigmarole, the sentries processing our weapons, signing us out, approving us to leave, marching us to the portal room, seeing us off. The blue-white light dumped us six hundred feet from our target, where another team reported the weather anomalies I detected. CCTV footage showed deserters emerging from the row of commercial sheds for cigarette breaks and food runs.

An unkind breeze tugged at my hair and swept down the neck of my uniform. Glare from the cloudy day stung my eyes, and I squinted, orienting myself, scanning our surroundings. Vehicles parked along the road of the commercial area, made up of factories, showrooms, car dealerships and service centers, and warehouses. The bay of ten sheds we were headed for glinted in the distance like sunlight reflected on steel. A hideout for a group of ten traitors. Prisoners more important to collect than a loyal member of our team that didn’t run. The fucking irony.

“Make it quick, team.” Loco swirled his knives on his fingers with a precision that rivaled Pascal’s bullseye shots. “I want my daughter back.”

He marched full steam ahead without waiting for Serena’s order.

“Hold on a second there, Dad!” I called out after him. “Don’t be hasty.”

The knife came to a stop in his palm, and the glare on his face said he wanted to slice my hand off for daring to call him the D-word again against his warning. I didn’t care. He was practically my father-in-law.

Once we got out of the shithole known as the Guardians, I’d pop the question for real with Supergal. I already gave her a candy ring as a sign of my commitment. I didn’t give her a real ring because some asshole might steal it, or she might lose it on a mission. But shewasthe girl I’d marry.

I raised my palms to stop the order about to fall from Serena’s mouth to keep moving. “Does anyone else feel this is off? The warden claims we’re low on soldiers, yet he abandons Astra?”

Loco went back to flipping his knife. “The same question I asked myself.”

I crossed a few paces to lay an arm over his shoulder, hugging him, forcing him to get used to son-in-law cuddles. “We’ll get her back.”

“What did I say about the dad talk and touching me?” He tossed his knife into the soil at my foot, and it twanged from impact. I lived for threats. Lived to torment the guy.

Time to put my next phase into operation. Make another bargain and ensure no one died in the process.

Knoxe’s eyes flashed with disapproval as if he sensed my plan.

“Hades, Lord of the Dead, I summon thee.” I didn’t have a clue if it worked and waited.

We were three hundred miles from Supergal’s location and could open a portal and march into the vampire’s location or a possible trap. If the warden or the prison sentries noticed we navigated off course, they’d activate the button at his desk to activate a function in our bracelets that incapacitated us. This way guaranteed we got in and out alive.

Knoxe tensed and rubbed his knuckles. “Tor, not this bullshit again.”

“What the hell is wrong with you, boy?” Loco smacked me on the back of the head. “The gods have forsaken us and left us to rot in the Guardians.”

Serena went to order me to stop and move out when I made the call again.

The ground thundered, and a hole opened up, marble steps rising from the soil. A tall man with jet-black hair and equally as dark eyes climbed out of the hole. His skin glimmered with the same faint gold of his character in the Cupid’s Vengeance comics.

Serena drew her weapon faster than I’d ever seen before. Loco’s knife ceased swirling in his palm as he readied to throw it. Knoxe grabbed me by the shoulder as if to force me to return the Death god back to the Underworld.

---