Page 10 of Witch Please
At least Jack stopped screaming. Instead of attempting to burst my ear drums he was trying to touch the flames dancing in a circle around him with yelps every time they licked at his finger.
“If you are serious about trying to find Leviathan now, I think it’ll be best to go to his domain first.” Sissily threw casually after delicately clearing her throat. You’d think Blackman was part of the conversation from the get-go the way she included him and he slid into it without blinking an eye, nodding and centering his full attention on her. “I’ve never been there personally but I’ve heard it’s not hard to gain access.” Her fingers flicked at some invisible lint on her shirt before she lifted her gaze and met mine levelly.
“You mean gain access to Hell?” making sure I understood her correctly my eyebrows hit my hairline when she nodded as if entering Hell and knowing the location to its gates was a common occurrence.
“I’m not disagreeing that it’s a good idea but hear me out first before telling me I’m a naysayer.” Bending down I finished putting my shoes on so I could buy myself some time to think. “Jack stop touching those flames before you burn your fingers for real.” My mouth twisted in distaste when I heard my tone. I sounded like a human. I had the misfortune to come across a few of those soccer moms in my life and let me tell you. They are an entirely different species of humans. I’d leave it at that.
“She’s not getting any maternal instincts.” My best friend explained to Blackman who must’ve looked puzzled by my comment. “She just doesn’t want to upset Amber or Alex after everything they’ve done for her. It has nothing to do with the safety of the kid.”
Raising up to my full height I nodded at blondie to confirm the statement. “What she said.” My forefinger stabbed the air toward Sissily’s face for emphasis. “The fact that we have Mazzikin around that cannot be sent back to Hell tells me we need to act fast. Each day things are getting worse and although Danika wants me tucked in safe, I think if Muhammed can’t go to the mountain, then the mountain will go to Muhammed.”
“She’s learning human metaphors through apps.” Sissily was having a separate conversation with Blackman.
Blondie nodded thoughtfully which irked me to no end. “Which means?”
“She is agreeing that we need to go visit Hell.” My bestie translated for him totally missing my glare that could’ve melted her face if my powers decided to gift me mental strength to inflict physical harm.
Both looked at me with expectant expressions on their faces like I was a monkey in a Zoo about to perform some trick.
“I feel like a cockroach in a chicken fight.” I told them. Sissily shrugged a shoulder when Blackman turned to her for another translation. If they want to be jerks, I could get creative with the metaphors. “We should go now before either the Mazzikin cause great harm to the pack or Alex storms in here and kill us all. I think the demons will follow us if we attempt to leave the premises.”
“I’ll meet you both at the side of the house. Give me five minutes.” River spoke as he walked toward the window, shouldered it open and threw himself out of it with a loud flap of his wings.
Sissily and I rushed to see what he was up to and were relieved when we saw him coasting over the parking area where the pack kept the majority of their vehicles.
“You sure he will be, okay?” I asked Sissily as I looked at Jack over my shoulder, my fingernails digging into the wood of the windowsill. Logically I knew that we had to go and put an end to the insanity overtaking my life, but I also worried about the kid. I’d never admit it, not even to save my life, but Jack grew on me.
I liked the little pest more than I should.
“Yes.” Reaching for me she squeezed my forearm reassuringly and my entire body visibly relaxed. “The flames will disappear as soon as anyone with the same DNA as Jack comes near them.”
“Thank you.” The cough that covered my mumble spoke volumes about my emotional state.
Hecate help me I was turning into a pathetic emotional wreck.
CHAPTER6
After we waited for River to hotwire a car and pick us up under the window of my room, I had to dangle Sissily above the open truck a good ten minutes while she kept hissing threats on my life if I dropped her, only to end up stuck with both of them in the middle of nowhere in a tin can with dozens of Mazzikin chasing us.
There were times when I did ask myself why I couldn’t just stay locked up in a room where shifters fed me, took care of me like I was an infant and I didn’t have to do anything apart from rake up Danika’s credit card balance with online shopping. Who knew that La Perla had an overnight delivery for a pushup bra in dusky pink directly from Bologna, Italy? Not me until a week ago, that’s for sure. That damn book must’ve crossed some wires in my brain because there I was, bouncing in the back seat of a pickup truck whose tires found every pothole and rock on the dark dirt road we took to escape pack lands.
As we suspected the spirits gave chase, forgetting all about tormenting the shifters. Why would the cursed spirits care about wolves when they had me where they want me? The problem was not that all of them followed us as if I was the Piper and they were the rats. It was the fact that the shrieking increased in pitch and in volume. I was developing a killer migraine which by default made me very murder-y. Pretty soon we might get the attention of the humans, too.
If that happened, I would just jump out of the moving vehicle and hope to break a neck or something. That would be a better alternative than explaining any of it to my grandmother. I haven’t seen Danika since our last fiasco with the kidnaping of Amber and Jack and I wanted to keep it that way.
“I’m assuming we just show up wherever you think this gate is and they’ll be more than happy to let us in?” I nervously prattled but Sissily with her great hearing heard every word I said in the noisy truck while I twisted and turned to check on our pursuers through the back window. As freaked out as I was, I still wanted to double check that all of them followed, and none were left behind that could harm the pack. Tiny rocks peppered the underside of the truck making it sound like a machine gun was going off next to my ear.
Why don’t they design a convertible pickup truck? That should totally be a thing if you ask me.
“Oh, definitely.” She told me, widening her eyes as if she couldn’t contain her excitement for sharing the information. “Especially for you, they’ll have a cloud soft bath robe, slippers, and a flute of Champagne so that you are fully relaxed for the experience. It includes all of the a la carte places in Hell for Hazel Byrne.”
“You’re such a jerk.” My tone was stern because I wanted to sound insulted, but my mouth was quirking at the corners.
“It’s one of my many talents as you know.” She smiled tightly at me over her shoulder before darting her gaze around and swallowing thickly at the sheer number of demons surrounding the truck.
“We will make it there.” River wanted to reassure us, probably aware of our state of mind from all the nervous energy assaulting his senses and filling up the closed confines of the truck but he had to raise his voice to be heard over the screams, which only sent a shot of adrenaline to spike up my heartbeat.
“I know we will, Blackman, no need for reassurances. Just watch the road, please. I can fix the problem with the Mazzikin if it becomes unbearable now that we are away from people we don’t want to harm. I can’t fix it if we end up wrapped up around a tree trunk.”
