Page 10 of Pitch a Witch
She always got a case of the hiccups when she was nervous. That only served as a reminder that she hadn’t been nervous the night she saw the full display of my power. My best friend had been terrified of it. Knees buckling, I rushed to keep up with them.
A scream preceded the scene that opened before our eyes.
A dozen witches were spread out along the broken wall, each one casting magic as fast as a human would fire bullets. Wind was blasting the area outside the building, breaking branches from the trees and pelting the gathered demons with them. Ropes of fire streamed from a couple of my covenmates, igniting the limbs of the greenery and setting our attackers on fire. When I neared close enough to see better, I noticed the ground between the demons and the broken wall was a solid block of ice.
Danika stood like a general at the center of it all, her chin jutted out and her fury-filled emerald gaze locked on the shmucks. Her black-as-midnight ponytail lashed behind her head like the tail of an angry cat. Much to my surprise, Shadowblood stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her, shadows sneaking from his hands in thick tendrils that hissed and snapped toward the demons, daring them to move closer.
“You good?” Warmth spread through me when Sissily leaned closer to me.
“Ya.” Blowing a sigh through pursed lips, I shrugged off my jacket. “If you cover me, we can end this in less than a minute.” Gnawing on my lip, I stared at my pumps because I wasn’t ready to see the expression on her face yet. “As long as no one sees me, we should be good.”
“I think you should stay back, Hazel,” River murmured from behind me. He stood so close it took great effort not to lean into him, so I couldn’t give him crap for using my name. Tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, I swallowed thickly. “Something doesn’t feel right about this. Danika can tell too, and that’s why she hasn’t obliterated them yet.”
Ignoring his nearness, I narrowed my eyes on what I could see from the outside world. The block around the building was clear of any humans, but it wasn’t what made me pause. It was the absence of any other sound I associated with the city that poked at my brain.
“They warded the area with demonic magic.” Now that I knew what to look for, the reddish shimmer of the air in the distance became somewhat visible. “They didn’t want anyone to see what’s happening here.”
I’d seen this type of warding only once, and on a video feed of all things. Two witches, one inside the ward and one outside, who barely survived the attack had combined what they managed to record on their phones, and that video was used to teach us why it was imperative to be cautious when dealing with demons.
A lesson I’d ignored all my life.
“Alex is here,” Ace groaned after his phone chimed somewhere behind me. My grip on the broken wall turned rigid enough for the obsidian to bite into my palms. “I’m of half a mind to walk out and take my chances with the demons.”
“Don’t be stupid.” My nervous laugh earned me an arched eyebrow from Sissily, who was pressed on the wall next to me. “I’ll tell him it was all me. Trust me, he won’t think anything less of you. I’m very persistent, and your Alpha knows that better than anyone else. His hair is grey thanks to my nagging the last nine days.”
Why, yes, I had tried to convince him to let me visit the coven that very morning, but he’d kicked me out of his office with the promise of burpees if I didn’t remove myself from his sight. It had worked like a charm, but only because Ace had already promised to sneak me out.
The beta groaned as if in pain, but River snickered hyena-style.
My elbow found Blondie’s hard abdominal muscles.
“I can’t just stand here.” Sissily’s head jerked in agreement with me. “I don’t know what Danika is doing, but whatever it is, it won’t hold them back for long.”
No sooner had the words left my mouth when a string of colorful curses spilled from Ace’s mouth. Anxiety rolled out of the beta in waves that pelted my skin like needles, and I swung around to find his face blanched of all color.
The wolf ignored me and Sissily, which irked me to no end, but when he spoke, I forgot all about his behavior. “An entire kiss of vampires is spreading around the building outside the demonic ward,” Ace told River. “Alex just texted that he will try to hold them as long as he can, but he didn’t bring enough of our pack to actually fight them off.”
“What else?” There was something in his tone that told me there was more.
“Amber is with him.”
My blood turned to ice.
7
Lesson number nine: If you are a self-professed asshole, you should stick to it. Caring about people will get you killed.
“If you don’t get out of my way, Blackman, Hecate help me, I will mess your pretty face up.” My threat was met with a broad, infuriating grin by said pretty face.
“I’m with you on that one.” Sissily glowered at River, who was blocking our way.
“I understand that both of you are worried about Amber, but let me remind you that she is not a helpless female but a shifter. An alpha female, despite her smiles and baked pies,” Blondie drawled as if we were dumb and overreacting.
Even if we were both of those things, I needed him out of my way.
Swirling my arm in an overly dramatic fashion like the hostess on a prize-winning TV show, I encompassed the battle behind the broken obsidian wall we used as a shield. Knowing that the sweet woman was out there with vampires and demons circling around her, regardless of her mate being there, made the creature that was my magic pulse under my skin. If I didn’t lay eyes on her to assure myself she was okay, I had a niggling feeling I was about to go boom for the second time inside my coven.
“This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.” Mockery didn’t work any better than threats did on River. “Let me pass, Blackman.”
