Page 18 of Hooked on a Witch
“She’s sleeping.”
“Time to wake up.” Chad jostled her.
The girl’s eyes popped open. “Daddy? Uncle Merck?”
“How’re you doing?” Merck asked.
“I had a weird dream. There was this bad sorcerer who took me…”
Merck touched her cheek. “You know I’d never let a bad sorcerer take you or hurt you, Princess.”
“I knew you’d rescue me. You’re my knight.” She smiled a toothy grin.
“In a previous lifetime I might’ve been a knight. Not now.”
The girl put her hand on Merck’s cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you too, Princess.” A gentle smile transformed Merck’s face, one that hit Shannon mid-gut with a serious case of theawws.
Over the top of her head, Chad said, “Thanks, man. I owe you one.”
“Couldn’t let the warlock…er, sorcerer get our princess.”
Chad smiled in gratitude, but his grin fell as he glanced around at the dead bodies. He pulled his daughter against him to keep her from seeing.
“What are you two doing here?” Merck’s expression shifted to fury and targeted her. “I told you to stay put.”
“No, you said to get a ride home from someone else after dumping me. Guess what? There wasn’t any cell phone reception at the gas station. Then Chad showed up with a firecracker up his ass to find you. I delayed him as long as I could.”
Chad scowled at her.
“Sorry, Chad,” she said. “Then we had to deal with zombies.”
“Zombies, huh?” Merck met her gaze.
“I handled it.” She stared at the no longer animated bodies.
“That you did.” Merck nodded, glancing at the chaos around them again.
Shannon chewed on her lower lip.
Merck asked, “Can you can get home okay, Chad?”
“I don’t know. The car stalled.”
“Mine too, but it was part of the deter spell on this place. Should be fine now, but we’ll wait until you get her started.”
“You and me are going to talk about all this later, Merck. I want to know how they got her and what we can do in the future to prevent that.”
“All right.” Merck pulled a knife out of his pants and placed it into one of his tactical vest’s pockets.
“I never saw anything like these things before. We’re going to have to review how to deal with them.” Chad pointed to the corpses and shook his head.
“Here.” Chad handed Merck the empty gun. “Borrowed it, man.”
Chad glanced at the circle in the sandy driveway. “She did some sort of spell. I don’t know if it qualifies as the type of magic you wanted to know about, but it kept those things away. Saved our asses.” He cast her a narrowed-eyed glare. “I’m pretty sure she still thinks you’re hot. Just thought you’d want to know.” As he marched past her, he whispered, “Now we’re even on delaying me. I never forgot you used to pump me for information on Merck in high school. Figured you still got a thing for him.”
Merck’s eyebrows shot up.
