Witch and Werewolf: The Fire, The Pursuit, The Reckoning (BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance) (9 page)

***

When
Deston heard Alicia’s scream of terror he cradled her close and spoke soothing endearments.  She choked out the context of her terrible dream and looked at him with stricken eyes. 

“They’re coming,” she moaned.  “We’ll all die.” 

Her sobs tore at his heart but he could do nothing to ease her distress.  He knew her visions were terrible.  And true.  The day of reckoning was approaching.  What were a single witch and her werewolf lover against a coven?

Kindling, that’s what. 

He didn’t know how he would react when the sweep of the fire was upon him.  How did anyone  solve the riddle of his own death?  Deston would not beg for his life.  But he would leap into the flames himself to spare Alicia.  And the child within her. 

No. NO!

Alicia blinked at him as he leapt out of bed and hurriedly dressed.  “So we’ll run again?  And then what, Rick?”  She coughed, her voice bleak.  “I was foolish to ever believe they would stop hunting.  I could bear the loss of my own life.  But not yours.”  She touched her stomach.  “Not hers.”

Deston
stood still.  A deep pain throbbed in his chest.  “You never told me you knew it was a girl.”

Her voice cracked heartbreakingly.  “Would it matter?” 
Deston jumped when she suddenly screamed in agony.  She flew at him, scratching, pounding his chest.  “You should have let them have me!  You might have had a chance!” 

Deston
tried to grab her flailing hands.  Failing, he curled his arms tightly around her body to still the violence. “I’ve never been sorry.  Alicia.  My love.  I won’t surrender and neither will you.  We have no chance standing and fighting.  So we’ll run as long as we can.  For us, and for...our daughter.”

She stopped struggling and sank into his chest.  “Aren’t you tired, Rick?”

He stroked her hair.  “No.”  He held her firmly by the shoulders.  “I’m not tired at all.”

Alicia threw her head back and looked into his eyes.  The despair had vanished and there burned the blazing resolve which he had seen at first glance all those months ago, as she lay abused and half naked at the feet of a pack of werewolves.  That same night he had yielded to the fever of the flesh and torn her clothes from her body as she eagerly opened her legs and let him pierce her resistant center. 

She withdrew her hand from his grasp and touched the side of his face.  “I’m not tired either.”

Deston
nodded.  “Take only what you need.  We leave in ten minutes.”

The bungalow became a whirlwind of activity as they sought to ready their few belongings for departure. 
Deston felt some regret as he looked around the bare little place.  It had been a place of happiness, a place where they would have willingly remained and raised their child were it not for the maniacal pursuit of the coven.

Damn them.

He had no idea where they would go next.  Perhaps further north to Canada.  Winter approached and the extreme cold might serve as a tracking deterrent. 

Alicia slung a bag over her shoulder and looked at him expectantly.  Her voice was calm now.  “I’m ready.”

“All right.  Let me go haul the rest of this into the truck and we’ll be off.”  He lifted the hastily packed bags, but then turned abruptly.  Alicia gave him a weak smile as he kissed her forehead.  “We’ll make it, baby,” he whispered.

The night was peaceful. 
Deston could scarcely hear the quiet lapping of the surf.  After he slung their battered belongings into the bed of the pickup, he paused for a moment.  He would miss this place, and not just for Alicia’s sake.  Perhaps someday it would be possible to return.  He looked fondly back at the creaky bungalow and stopped cold.   It was a cloudless night and the moon was in an early waning phase.  There should have been plenty of light.  He scarcely had time to look up at the sky with alarm before the first blow hit him and he fell senseless onto the ground. 

***

Alicia crossed her arms, running her hands over the soft fabric of her shirt as if to draw strength from it.  It was Deston’s shirt.  He hadn’t commented on her choice of attire, but he must remember.  After that first heady coupling in the desert rain he had offered this shirt to her since the one she was wearing had been mercilessly torn.  Though it no longer closed over her swollen body she felt stronger when it covered her.  The baby flipped abruptly and she watched the ripple of a questing limb roll across her stomach.  She placed a hand over the mound. 

I’m sorry I despaired, little one.  I won’t give up.

Alicia gasped.  There had been no sound to cause her to gaze toward the door with such sudden terror.  But she knew.   Her heart dropped to the floor as her mind struggled with the surety of what awaited her outside. 

Her hand trembled as she reached for the doorknob.  She quickly prayed that this was another dream but a sharp kick from the baby told her the moment was indeed real.  She had no choice but to confront it.

Staring at her was a scene from Alicia’s nightmares.  Deston struggled to rise from the ground.  Alicia could see the blood on the side of his face where he had evidently been struck.  He did not yet seem to realize that surrounding his prone form were eight witches who had once been Alicia’s sisters in the craft.  Now they were vicious enemies. 

“Alicia.” 

She recognized the voice and her eyes searched for speaker.  Magda remained slightly levitated as she approached her former protégé.   The coven leader had always been thin and gaunt but now she was virtually emaciated.  Her dark robes fluttered around her body which seemed to be merely a collection of bones covered with skin.  Evidently the long months of searching for the wayward couple had taken a toll on her.  She had waited a long time for this.

“You know the price a witch pays for betraying her coven.  We have come to impose sentence.”

Alicia glanced at Deston.  Every time he raised himself a few inches one of the witches would mentally slap him back to the ground.  She caught a glimpse of the terror in his eyes and was enraged.  Her fists balled and she rose from the ground several feet.  She knew she had little chance but she would say her piece before they eviscerated her.  She recalled Ester’s words and they strengthened her resolve.

“I have betrayed no one.   It is you, Magda, who has been the practitioner of sham and deceit.  You have helped turn the sacred craft into a weapon of conquest.  You are not a protector and certainly not an ally of humanity or any other creature which walks the earth.  You are the ENEMY!”

She screamed the last word and heard the shocked gasps of several of the other witches.  Surely this had not been what they were expecting.  They had likely figured Alicia would cower at their feet and beg for mercy.  Alicia felt the power of the elements coursing through her.  She felt the will of her tiny unborn daughter demanding to survive.  Alicia must make them see. 

But Magda was through with theatrics.  She snarled and raised her raised her skeletal arms to the sky.  “Now sisters, let this witch pay for her sins!”

Alicia fixed her gaze on the other witches and felt their hesitation.  It didn’t matter.  Magda would call the fire herself.  Deston managed to lift his head.  Alicia looked into the fierce face of her beloved.  Her senses warned her of the fire’s approach.  She lifted her own arms and with a desperate inner voice called to the only element which vanquished fire. 

Magda paused her terrible chant as she noted the small wave which had been lifted from the sea and traveled here to obey Alicia’s bidding.  Magda chuckled.  “Foolish girl.  You think such a soft trick will defeat us?”  She summoned a large fireball and hurled it at the waiting water.  The water hissed but was overcome, evaporating in a haze of steam. 

Magda had floated to within a few feet of Alicia.  Her breath smelled of festering decay.  “Now,” she said. “You will watch as I banish that beast to his own fiery hell.”

Alicia gave a cry and tried to move past the evil crone but her body was flung back to the front steps of the bungalow.  She heard the terrible chants and every particle in her body shrieked with agony as the fire prepared to consume her mate. 

I’ve failed you.  I’m sorry.

She heard the heavy crash of thunder.  As she was struck by the heavy drops Alicia looked up at the sky in confusion.  The other witches whispered with alarm.  Even Magda froze in a pose of
hellbent fury.  The sky had been cloudless when the witches descended moments earlier.  Alicia held out her hands.  They glistened with water.  It was raining. 

Within seconds the trickle which bled from the sky grew to a pour.  Alicia’s gaze settled on the empty lot across the narrow street.   The ground was dry only that short distance away. 
Deston took advantage of the witches’ brief uncertainty and with a mighty crack of thunder changed into his wolf form.  The witches circling him cried out as he leapt over their heads and landed at Alicia’s side.  She heard the hasty chant issue from their lips but it was to no avail; their weapon was useless in the thick curtain of rain. 

Magda turned on them, her skeletal face a distorted mask of wrath.  “Traitorous harlot,” she hissed.  “I was mother to you.” 

Deston growled as once again the witch raised her arms, preparing to summon the fury of the earth.   Alicia took a step back as the werewolf crouched protectively in front of her, ready to spring even as they both knew of the futility. 

“Enough!”

The word was uttered with such loud command that all present turned in search of the speaker. The rain ceased falling from the sky and the fire was held momentarily at bay as Ester, the strange witch who had approached Alicia on the beach, stood alone in the empty street.  Her diaphanous gown seemed oddly illuminated, as if the material had absorbed the silvery moonlight.  She was not looking at Alicia.  Instead her gaze was centered contemptuously on Magda. 

Alicia heard Magda’s sharp intake of breath and realized the witch was afraid.  “You,” she whispered. 

“Me,” answered Ester.  

Magda swallowed thickly.  “I warned you never to cross my path again.”

“Ah, my dear sister, I haven’t.  You crossed mine.”  Ester peered through the sensual waves of her dark hair.  Her tongue clucked lightly, a mocking sound.  “Look at you, Madgalena.  You decay before our eyes.”

Magda’s hand was at her throat.  Her voice was a raspy croak.  “Wicked.  Always were.  You are of the devil.”

Ester smiled faintly and shook her head.  “There’s no such thing.”  She took a step forward as Magda recoiled.  Alicia realized how shrunken and weak she suddenly appeared next to the shimmering beauty of the mysterious Ester.  “But do you know what does exist, sister?”

Magda did not answer.  Her breathing had been reduced to ragged gasps as she glanced furtively at her silent coven sisters.  The witches remained in their small circle, uncertain what to do.  Alicia touched
Deston’s head.  His fur stood straight up and his muscles were tight beneath the skin. 

The voice which spoke was not one Alicia recognized.  “We exist.”

He had emerged from the darkness as if he had been molded from it and stood beside Ester.  Alicia saw the unnatural paleness of his face and her mind told her what her senses had already recognized.  He was like nothing she had encountered before. 

Alicia flinched at Magda’s sudden scream.  “Bloodsucking spawn of hell!”  She pointed a shaking finger at Ester and her companion. 

The creature only smiled.  Alicia could now plainly see the glint of sharp teeth and realized what she was looking at.  “Vampire,” she whispered, fascinated.  Deston’s ears pricked and he glanced up at her.

The vampire nodded at
Deston and tipped an imaginary hat to Alicia.  “Unfortunate we had to meet under such difficult circumstances.”  His voice had a bemused, musical quality. 

Magda’s chest heaved with deep gasps.  “We finished the rest of your kind a century ago.  You will not be long for this earth, bloodsucker.” She beckoned to the other witches.  “Sisters!”

But the witches saw what Alicia had only just noticed.  There, in the barren lot on the other side of the street stood a small army of dark wraiths.  Alicia’s senses unfurled and she felt many things at once; her mate’s watchful readiness, the witches’ fear, Magda’s rage, and finally… the vengeful thirst of a thousand wronged vampires. 

“You have made many enemies,” Ester said sweetly.  She sidled against the vampire and he put an arm casually around her shoulders.  As if a command had been uttered the dark shapes of the silent army began to move forward slowly. 

Magda began her deadly chant but Ester indifferently waved a hand.  The unseen force smacked Magda from her feet and she sprawled on the ground, panting.  Ester spoke tersely to the rest of the coven.  “You may leave.  Returning forfeits your lives.  As does any further attack on vampires, werewolves or forsaken witch sisters.  Now go.”

Alicia heard the stir of the witches’ robes as they silently considered the offer.  Magda cackled.  “I’ll never surrender to an ageless whore and her bloodsucking lover!”

Ester’s smile was thin.  “That’s why the offer was not made to you.”

Magda turned fiercely to the sisters of the coven.  “Stay,” she commanded.

But they had made their decision.  Raising dark hoods over their heads as if they were of one mind, they rose in the air.  And in the space of a breath were gone.