Page 150 of Black Willow Witch
The look he and her sister exchanged, the sheer intimacy in it, was indication enough that . . . ‘So you had your own affair. But that was not enough payback for you, it would seem.’
‘The position of High Priestess is the only thing that everreallymattered to you,’ Ward spat. ‘So now I’m going to make sure that you lose it.’
‘No,’ Emberlyn casually contradicted, ‘that’s not how things are going to play out.’
‘You’re outnumbered eight to one,’ Ames taunted. ‘Reena can’t help you – she can’t even access her magick right now.’ He cocked his head. ‘It’s funny. Grams mentoredyoubut notmebecause she said that I had no real potential. Look at me now; look at what I can do.’
Emberlyn snorted. ‘You can only do it because you’re filled with borrowed power. That’s nothing to brag about.’ She swepther gaze along the line of witches. ‘You’re not scary. You’re not powerful. You’re not even a real threat. And if you had any sense, you would have let me be.’ Her expression hardened. ‘But you didn’t. That was a grave mistake, and it’s one that you’ll pay for.’
Shadows moved behind her as wicked little giggles sounded. Giggles that gave Reena the honest to God’s chills.
Those shadows trickled out of the house, at which point Reena could make out several short, skeletal, grotesque creatures. The security lights poured down on them, illuminating their deep-red skin, black twisting horns, yellow eyes, bulbous noses, oversized ears, stinger-topped tails and bat-like wings.
Reena gaped, weakly scrambling backwards.What in the fresh hell?
‘Just so you know,’ Emberlyn added, again casual, ‘you didn’t hammer the shield down.Ilowered it. This seemed a good a time as any to finally get rid of you all. I have to say, I’m going to enjoy it.’
Penelope spat a curse. ‘Now!’
The Rabid were released.
The crows swooped down.
The creatures shot through the air like bullets.
The faction released streams of borrowed magick.
Emberlyn threw up her palms, slamming up an invisible shield thatswallowedthe power, causing every faction member to gasp in alarm. Smiling, she thrust her palms forward, emitting glittering rivulets of magick that turned into hundreds of black and silver and teal-blue locusts. ‘Now let’s have some fun, shall we?’
Stood inside his aunt’s diner, Ripper swept a glare over the ten bloody and bruised werewolves lined up in front of him. The last thing he’d expected to find was that the disturbance was causedby membersof his own clan; people who would normally respect and protect Yvette and her property. Yet, they’d been practically piled on top of each other as fists swung and feet kicked.
More, they hadn’t paid any attention to Crew or Logan when ordered to break up the fight. No amount of shouting at them or trying to pull them away from the pile-on had been successful. As if the wolves had been caught up in some kind of bloodthirsty frenzy.
Ripper’s command for them to stop had sliced through it, causing the wolves to back off. But they hadn’t said a single word since, too busy panting and blinking, seeming confused and disoriented.
‘What in the fuck possessed you to do this?’ he demanded.
The wolves exchanged sheepish looks, shuffling their feet or holding themselves unnaturally still.
Ripper felt his jaw tighten. ‘Somebody needs to answer my question,’ he bit off.
Neal snapped up his head and pointed at Caspian. ‘Hestarted it,’ he proclaimed in a whiny tattle-tale voice. ‘He shoved me.’
Ripper cut his gaze to Caspian, surprised. This particular werewolf could fight, but he wasn’t the type tocausetrouble, only to end it. ‘Why?’
Rubbing at his nape, Caspian raised his shoulders. ‘Someone told me that I should shove him. And I thought . . . “Yeah, yeah, I really should.”’ He frowned, blinking hard. ‘Which makes no sense now, but it didthen.’
‘Who told you that?’ Ripper asked him, narrowing his eyes.
Caspian’s frown deepened. ‘I don’t know. I can’t remember. I don’t remember what their voice sounded like, either. I just remember what they said.’
Kerr looked from Neal to Caspian. ‘When you two started brawling, someone told me that I should join in. At thatmoment, it honestly felt like a natural thing to do. So I did. I can’t recall if the voice was male or female.’
The other wolves also claimed to have heard a voice.
Logan sidled up to Ripper. ‘I’m thinking a witch – or more than one – sparked this off somehow.’
Ripper’s thoughts exactly. ‘There aren’t any witches here, though.’
