Page 17 of Hooked on a Witch
“I’m not good at creative spells under pressure. You can do this. You have to do this.”
“Give me clear direction to make it work, please.”
“When you cast it, you must find something to focus on which you believe in with all your soul. Something powerful. Think about it while you say the words. I can say it with you, if you want. On the count of three.”
“Yeah, that’d help.” She didn’t hear Jen counting from the other end. “Jen? You there?”
Nothing.
Then the phone flashed:Call lost.
Crap.
She shoved the phone into her pocket. Something she believed in? The Greek Gods, perhaps, but she didn’t like any of them since they seemed to like mucking around in the lives of their descendants. Her mind skirted through images. Her mother. Jen and the other Pleiades witch ladies. The image that popped into her brain and stuck was him. Merck. Inexplicably, she believed in him. He’d do what needed to be done inside the house to win. Focusing on him, she intoned the spell three times.
A walking corpse closed in. Chad emptied what was left in the gun into it, knocking it down with a head shot. A second corpse reached for them. Chad released an earsplitting scream. He tensed as if to move.
Shannon grabbed his arms. “Stay still. Don’t step outside the circle.”
“It’s going to touch me.” His body bowed away from the dead hand reaching toward them.
“Stay. Still.” She wrapped her arms around him to keep him in place.
He grabbed her tight and screamed again, causing her ears to ring.
The necrotic hand hit the circle boundary and ignited into flames that consumed its entire body.
Holy cow, the spell worked.
“So long as we stay inside the circle we should be okay.” She wasn’t sure he heard her through his terror.
Fifteen burnt corpses later, the remaining zombie-esque creatures fell to the ground like someone had unplugged them from their energy source. None moved. That could be good or it might mean something worse would come next.
“I think you can let go of me now. It looks like the zombie-things stopped.” She shook Chad, who’d gone from screaming to frozen.
Chad blinked rapidly a few times. “It was likeThe Walking Dead,only we were in it. What were those things?”
“I’m not sure, but there don’t look to be any more coming at us. We should leave. Perhaps, we go back to the gas station and wait for Merck there.” She wanted to get as far away as possible from a being that could conjure zombies.
Her phone buzzed against her hip. She wiggled to dig it out. “Hello?”
“Oh, God. I was so scared. I lost you and I thought the worst. Thank goodness. You’re okay?”
Shannon tried to cut in, but Jen’s babbling didn’t stop. “I didn’t know what to do. I can’t dimension hop well and—”
“The call got dropped. Sorry. I’m fine. Your spell worked. So, thanks.”
“Why are zombies trying to get you?”
“Long story…” She stopped talking when Merck emerged from the house carrying a small girl who couldn’t be older than five or six. An almost painful relief seized her insides.
“Merck’s coming.” Crap, she hadn’t meant to reveal his name to Jen.
“Who’s Merck?” There was a pause.
“I think he might’ve eliminated whatever controlled the zombies, at least I hope he did. I gotta go. We’ll talk later.” She shoved her phone back in her jeans.
Chad ran to Merck and grabbed the little girl out of her arms. “Is she...?”
