Anna's Hope Episode One (9 page)

“Ha. Unless you’ve forgotten, there’s a
goddamn soul catcher down there. We can’t do this on our own.”
Scott reached the open window, hooked it with his shoulder, pushed
the frame all the way open, and somehow managed to pull himself up
and out, even with the witch still in his arms.

Anna
, though she was tall, couldn’t pull
herself out, and had to drag a table over to reach the
window.

Scott screamed at her to hurry up.

Just as she heard boots hurrying down the
hallway, she pushed herself through the window.

She promptly fell on her face.

Scott didn’t let her rest. He poked her
with his boot. “Get up.”

She ignored the pain in her wrists and
elbows and hands – and everywhere – and hobbled to her
feet.

Scott pushed her into a run, not letting her
stop until they were several blocks away.

She slumped against a wall, practically dead
on her feet.

Scott gently placed the unconscious witch
on the ground, before standing back, picking at an itch on his
chin, and shaking his head. “What a night. This is one for the
books. A soul catcher and a witch with magical
allergies.”

She crumpled against a wall, letting it
guide her down to the ground so she didn’t fall and break something
else. Using the last of her energy, she angled her head up to
him.

He hooked one hand on his side, tilted his
head, and stared back at her. “You okay?”

She tried to smile. It was more of a
grimace.

“Now why don’t you start from the
beginning, Miss Anna, and tell me exactly how you got down there
and exactly how you managed to fight off that wizard?”

Though
Anna could have lied, she didn’t. She
told Scott the whole truth, even if it revealed every one of her
numerous weaknesses.

She’d enjoyed the impressed smile he’d given
her when he’d thought she’d taken down that wizard on her own.

Now his face stiffened with concern and
alarm. “You shouldn’t have been down there, let alone bounty
hunting with Merry. You could have gotten yourself killed,” he
reprimanded harshly.

She pressed her back into the cold brick
wall behind her. Playing with her hair distractedly, she nodded. “I
know that,” her voice was weak.

Scott harrumphed. “Right. I can’t say it
surprises me, though – like I said, Merry will drag anything in off
the street and give it a job.”

Anna
withdrew.

She’d had a tough night. Now this guy was
accusing her of being dragged in off the street like a stray
dog.

“Okay,” he conceded after a lengthy pause,
“that came out wrong. I didn’t mean it like that. But, Anna, this
is a dangerous profession. Okay, you don’t usually come across
mythical soul catchers that aren’t meant to exist anymore, but
every day brings more trouble. If you aren’t up to it—”

Anna
pushed herself up, standing despite
how wobbly her legs were. “Thanks for helping down there,” she said
in a subdued tone, “if you look after that witch, I’ll head
home.”

Scott stared at her. His head tipped to
the side slowly. He tilted his head an awful lot – he clearly saw
the world from a different perspective to most people. “I’m not
going to let you walk home alone – not in your current state. You
hold up, I’ll deliver this witch to MEC, and I’ll take you home
myself.”

“I’m fine,” she tried.

He snorted. “You are not fine. You almost
got kidnapped by a seriously powerful wizard, and then I spent a
good five minutes rudely insulting you.” He latched a hand on his
jaw and manipulated it back and forth. “Which I’m kind of sorry
about. You don’t need me harping on at you right now.”

Anna
blinked. She was used to being
insulted, but being apologized to was new. She stared at Scott
warily, waiting for him to chuck his head back, laugh, and continue
to berate her. When he didn’t, she pushed her lips together and
shrugged. “Okay then. But there’s something I’ve got to warn you
about.”

Scott raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
“What?” His lips kinked into a half-amused, half-intrigued
smile.

“I have a cat,” she said
seriously.

He cracked into a grin and laughed. “Ah,
thanks for the warning. But I’m not allergic.”

Anna
bit her lip. “You’ll understand when
you meet her.”

Scott shot her an odd look, shook his
head, then leaned down to pick up the witch. “You’re a pretty weird
one, Anna. I’ll text Merry and let her know you’re okay. Now let’s
get this done so we can get you home.”

Despite everything that had
happened tonight, and everything he’d said to her,
Anna found herself
smiling.

She didn’t know why, and she didn’t have
to.

She just smiled.

Once Scott dropped off the witch at the
MEC HQ, and their team of magical medical personnel saw to her, he
walked Anna home.

By the time she made it to her street, she
was utterly spent.

“Alright you, we’re almost there.” Scott
shot her a careful look, no doubt checking to see she wasn’t about
to fall headfirst into the ditch.

Anna
managed a groan as she pushed her
hair from her face.

The medical personnel at HQ had checked her
out to ensure she hadn’t been injured. Apart from a chronic flare
up with her allergies, and her general weariness, she was fine.

“So which one is your house?” Scott looked
around him, peering into the dark.

This street didn’t have any functional
street lamps. The evil seeping up from Anna’s house had probably
broken them all. Evil, after all, so did love the dark.

“Ah,” she turned her sleepy head around,
“that one.” She stabbed a finger at house 666.

Scott spluttered. “You’re joking
right?”

“Nope.” She flattened her hand down her
face and blinked wearily.

“What on earth are you doing living there?
That’s got to be one of the dingiest, darkest, evilest abodes I’ve
seen around Marchtown – and that’s saying something.”

“I kind of signed the lease without having
seen it first. I’ve already paid the first month’s rent, too, and I
don’t have enough to move somewhere else. I’m stuck with
it.”

Scott shot her a look, but she couldn’t
see it properly in the dark. “You’re not very lucky, are you,
Anna?”

“Nope,” she agreed as she opened the gate.
It creaked and groaned, exactly like a zombie rising from its grave
rather than some hinges that needed a good oiling.

She mooched up to the front door, ignoring
the distinctly evil clicking of a cricket. A few moths flew past
her nose, and she swore they flapped curses her way with their tiny
silver wings.

She hated this place. Still, it had a bed,
and she needed her bed more than anything right now.

She walked up the front steps and opened the
door.

“You don’t keep it locked?” Scott asked as
he trotted up beside her. “That’s brave. A place like this would be
a magnet for every evil bozo in the city. You’d return home to find
them squatting in your basement.”

“I don’t need to lock it – I have a cat.”
Anna massaged her neck as she walked in.

Scott snorted. “Exactly what kind of cat
do you own?”

“You’re about to find out.” Anna leaned to
her left and flicked on the light switch.

The front door led right into a combined
lounge and kitchen.

While this house was most definitely wicked,
it was still roomy.

As soon as the light flickered on, it
revealed a regal, throne-like chair sitting in the middle of the
room, right in line-of-sight of the door. Luminaria was sitting on
top of it, Anna’s nicest silk scarf in tattered shreds at her
feet.

“Oh really?” She groaned as she walked
forward and grabbed the scarf. “And I thought I told you not to
move the furniture around. It’s plain dangerous. I could walk into
that chair in the dark.”

Luminaria shot her a dark look, her
whiskers straightening as she snarled. “You have no right to
lecture me, pup – you’re the one who’s been out all night. I am
hungry, and you have failed in your sacred duty to attend to my
needs.”

Anna
blew a breath of air against her
fringe, walked into the kitchen, grabbed a can of tuna, and opened
it.

“Ah, you have a talking cat.” Scott, who
was apparently still in the house, made the fatal mistake of
walking up to Luminaria and trying to pat her. “She doesn’t look
that bad.”

Luminaria straightened up, pulling her
head away like a dragon readying for a lunge. With her green-gold
eyes blazing, she hissed. “How dare you, mortal,” her voice rattled
and shook, “I don’t look that bad? I am the worst – the worst there
has ever been!”

Scott wisely backed off, hiding his hand
protectively behind his back. “O-kay,” he said slowly.

“Leave him alone, Luminaria. We’ve both
had a hard night.” Anna grabbed a plate from the cupboard and
upended the tuna onto it.

“Hurry up, child,” Luminaria snapped. “And
don’t you dare think of feeding me without garnishing that dish.
There’s some dill in the garden. Go get it.”

Anna
groaned. She walked past Scott and
back out into the yard.

Scott followed her out.

She hadn’t bothered to turn on the porch
light, and nor did she have a torch. Rather than go inside and get
one, she just walked around in the dark, heading towards a likely
looking bush.

“Ah, do you want a light?” Scott produced
a torch from somewhere and handed it to her. “I think you’ll be
less likely to trip over a garden demon in the dark if you have
this.”

She took it from him. “Thanks. Now where
the heck is that dill?”

“I wouldn’t eat anything growing in this
garden. Hell, I wouldn’t eat anything left in the house for too
long, either – it’s likely to get infected by some rare and exotic
magical disease.”

Anna
flashed the torch around, following
the sporadic weed-infested patches of garden bed, looking for some
sodding dill. Dawn would soon break, and she’d spent all night
being chased by or chasing evil wizards. And now she was out here
looking for garnish.

Life wasn’t fair.

“So how did you come across
that … cat?” Scott appeared to control himself. It was clear
cat
wasn’t the term he
wanted to use to describe Luminaria. Curse was probably more like
it.

“Ah, she’s a family heirloom.”

“…
Sorry?”

Realizing
that probably sounded pretty
weird, she gave an awkward smile that accentuated her dimples, even
in the dark. It could have been cute, if Anna wasn’t the most
awkward witch in the world. It made her look like she was trying to
escape from her own teeth. “Oh, sorry. Um, she has a magical
contract with my family. We’re indebted to look after
her.”

“An heirloom contract?” Scott sounded
mildly interested. “Are you sure it’s binding?”

She
gave another seriously tired but
awkward smile. “Oh yeah, pretty sure. If I stop looking after her,
terrible things start happening to me. One time when I tried to ah
… get rid of her,” she said warily, “I fell down a set of stairs
and broke my wrist. Another time when I kind of deliberately lost
her, I broke my nose and my leg. It’s a binding contract
alright.”

“Amongst us wizards, those kinda contracts
are illegal.”

“Yep, well, not amongst witches. Believe
me, my grandmother looked into it. The Summersville family is stuck
with Luminaria von Tippit until we die out as a bloodline. Which
might be sooner rather than later if I don’t find this bloody
dill.”

“Hey,” Scott pointed to the fence, “there
it is.” He ran over and picked her a few sprigs. “Here you
go.”

“Thanks.”

“So, I should probably be going. As much
as you owe me a coffee for walking you all the way home, I’m going
to pass on account of your seriously crazy cat.”

She managed a subdued laugh.

“Look after yourself, Anna. And I’ll see
you tomorrow.”

“…
Ah, you
will?”

“Hell yes. Tomorrow we have to debrief
with the MEC HQ. We gave them the shortened version of events
tonight, but tomorrow we’ll have to march back into their offices
to give them a proper briefing. We’ll also have to ensure they do
the right thing,” Scott’s voice dropped darkly.

She was too tired to ask what he meant.
Instead she walked with him back to the front door.

He nodded his head low. “Get some rest.
And ah,” he looked down at her clothes and coughed, “you might want
to change your clothes.”

Though she’d been smiling, it disappeared
as she looked crestfallen. “Oh, yeah, I know they’re not very
attractive—”

“They’re ripped, Anna, and they kinda
wreak of bad magic.”

“Oh.”

“See you tomorrow.” Scott waved, turned
over his shoulder, smiled, and walked off, hands in his
pockets.