Damned and Cursed (Book 9): Witch Trial Read online

  Then vanishing into thin air.

  His mind raced for a backup plan, in case their peering into the past didn't work. He ran through different potions and spells. He realized they were already on the backup plan. If his tracking spells didn't work, nor Alex's ability to sense, then they were in new territory.

  The seconds stretched, and Kevin fought panic. He looked up to see Alex still floating, still searching.

  "Alex!" he called, trying to keep quiet. "What—?"

  Alex suddenly moved. He dove toward the lot, his wings pulled in. Kevin thought he might crash, but then he leveled out and extended his wings, flying six feet above the ground.

  Still peering through the viewfinder, Alex flew away from the apartment building.

  Kevin chased on foot. He ran as fast as he could, the glass vials clanging and smacking into each other inside his coat. The foot race didn't last long. Alex dropped the camera as he pulled his wings in behind him and set his feet on the ground. His run slowed until he dropped to one knee. Kevin jumped over the broken camera and stopped by his side. Alex could fly fast.

  "What happened?" Kevin asked. "What did you—?"

  He stopped when he noticed Alex mumbling. Alex stood up and reached for the phone on his belt. He continued to mumble as he tried to eject the stylus from the phone, with no success. Kevin listened, and realized Alex was repeating a series of letter and numbers.

  A license plate.

  Kevin grabbed the phone and quickly launched the note-taking app. He scribbled the plate number, with Alex looking over his shoulder. Alex finally let out a breath and sighed when Kevin was done.

  "Thanks." Alex slapped him on the shoulder. "I couldn't remember that much longer."

  "What did you see?"

  "I couldn't tell where they came from. But I saw them…disappear, or whatever, with Alicia. And then ten seconds later a car sped out of the lot." He pointed at the phone. "That car. They were really rolling. I could barely get the plate."

  Kevin stared at his messy handwriting. Finally, they had something. Their eyes met, and neither had to say anything. They knew what the next step was.

  Alex took his phone and made the call. He turned on the speaker so Kevin could hear. She answered on the fourth ring.

  "Alex," Victoria said. Kevin never could place the vampire's accent. "Is this important? I'm in the middle of—" She paused. "An interview."

  "It's important. I'm here with Kevin. Alicia's missing. Two men took her."

  Kevin flinched when they heard a struggle. Something breaking, glass shattering. A cry of pain. Alex glanced at Kevin, both at a loss for words.

  Victoria spoke again.

  "Give me twenty minutes. To finish up here. Then Kevin can draw me a portal."

  Kevin wasn't sure about that idea. Twenty minutes, plus time to find a working printer. Patience was important, he knew, but he couldn't help but feel every minute counted. They needed to find Leese.

  He loved Victoria, would follow her anywhere, do anything for her. But they needed information, not necessarily her presence. At least not until they knew what they were dealing with.

  Alex agreed.

  "That's okay," he said. "You keep…interviewing. But can you call one of your people, run a license plate for us?"

  "That's three, maybe four minutes."

  "Perfect, thanks."

  Those three or four minutes felt like an eternity as the witch and half-demon waited near a tree. One car drove past, giving the pair a steady, accusing look. Alex simply waved and flashed a fake smile.

  "Who are they?" he asked. "Witches?"

  Kevin shrugged. In the middle of the hurricane that was his thoughts, he asked that same question.

  "I don't know."

  "They threw something at Alicia. Was it a potion? One of those invisibility potions?"

  He hated to repeat himself, but the answer didn't change.

  "I don't know. You drink an invisibility potion. Not throw it." He gestured around them. "And why turn invisible? You saw it. There was no one out here."

  "Shouldn't you know?" Alex's almost-angry tone had returned. "How can you not know a magic potion when you see one?"

  Kevin glared at him. He wouldn't have gone so far as to call Alex a friend. They didn't hang out with each other and watch the Orioles together. But he didn't think of him as an enemy. They had Leese and Victoria in common, and had been through their share of scrapes with the supernatural. He even attended Alex's wedding.

  He wasn't sure where the attitude came from.

  "How about we find Leese?" Kevin said. "Then we'll answer questions later."

  Alex calmed down, and regret flashed through his eyes. He nodded, then gave Kevin a friendly slap on the arm.

  "You're right. Sorry. I'm just worried about my sister."

  "Me, too."

  Alex's phone vibrated. He scanned through the text message, reading the most important parts aloud.

  "The car is registered to Dan Jansen. Perfectly clean record, no arrests or anything. He lives in an apartment on Baker Terrace." He paused for a moment, looking up at Kevin. "I know where that's at. Not too far."

  Kevin thought of the one problem using portals for travel eventually led to.

  "We don't have a car."

  Alex smiled.

  "Do you have that feather that lets you float?"

  He pulled it from his coat, careful in how he held it. His feather let him do some incredibly acrobatic things.

  "Yeah, right here."

  Kevin sighed, as he realized what Alex had in mind. His stomach was already turning.

  "Shit."

  Alex's wings emerged. He grabbed the back of Kevin's coat.

  Kevin let out a subdued shout as Alex dragged him up into the sky.

  CHAPTER 3

  Kevin was terrified of flying. When his human parents died in a plane crash, he swore he'd never get near one. They simply weren't natural. A machine designed to take people where they weren't meant to be, all in the name of travel. He could understand boats. Measures could be taken in the event of a boat sinking. But people didn't typically walk away from a plane crash.

  He never dreamed he would fly, without a plane.

  The night sky rushed by. Scattered clouds and the moon. The breeze played through his coat, giving him a chill. He kept his eyes locked forward, afraid to look anywhere else. Alex's wing would occasionally obscure his vision, but he didn't dare let his eyes stray. He clutched his feather as tight as he could, his fingernails digging into his palm. Not for any magical reason. He simply didn't have anything else to squeeze.

  Alex checked on him a single time during the flight.

  "You okay?"

  Kevin flashed a thumbs-up, which was a lie.

  They finally settled on the roof of an apartment building. Alex wasted no time in marching toward the locked door leading down.

  "Apartment 4-C," he called out.

  Kevin needed a second. He followed as quickly as his nausea would allow. Fumbling inside his coat, he grabbed a plain, ordinary vial of water. By the time he touched it, he'd already vomited.

  Alex vanished as he neared the door. It was an odd sight; one Kevin wasn't sure he'd ever get used to. Alex's ability to slip into the ghost and demon realms was as strange as magic.

  Kevin had his own ways of getting through locked doors.

  Gripping a random key in his pocket, he turned the knob. The door opened with no resistance to reveal a darkened stairwell. He slowly made his way down, using his mothballs for light. After several minutes the magic would fade. The mothballs would fall, leaving no evidence that a witch was ever nearby.

  There was light at the bottom. He carefully peered out to see he was on the top landing of the apartment building. One door was slightly open, marked 4-C. A flash of a bare arm moved in the living room, and he knew Alex was already inside.

  Alex was shuffling through papers on the coffee table when Kevin pushed the door open. Their eyes met, and Kevin saw the
anger, the disappointment.

  "She's not here," he said. "No one's here."

  Kevin sighed. He'd hoped they were at the end of the night's journey. They needed to find Leese, make sure she was okay.

  "Okay. Then what is here?"

  Alex held up the stack of papers.

  "Working on that now." He gestured around them. "This place is pretty bare. Fridge is almost empty. He hasn't checked his mail in a while."

  "I'll check out the rest."

  The apartment was small. No pictures, no decorations. Dan Jansen had apparently been living off take-out and the microwave. He didn't have pots, pans, or glasses. There were no pets, and he only owned two towels.

  "How's the bathroom?" Alex called.

  Kevin stepped into the hall and watched Alex as he tore apart the dining room.

  "Nothing. The guy doesn't even have a razor."

  He approached the bedroom door, the last room in the apartment.

  The door was locked.

  "Hey, Alex. Did you check the bedroom?"

  "I poked my head in. No one's in there."

  "Then why is it locked?"

  That caught Alex's attention. He joined Kevin, frowning as he stared at the door.

  "Like I said, I just stuck my head in. I didn't see anything."

  Kevin felt for the key in his pocket. He unlocked the door and stepped inside, turning on the light.

  Alex was right. There was no one. No Dan Jansen, no Leese Teague.

  But that didn't mean the room was empty.

  His jaw dropped as he turned and looked at the wall next to the door.

  The wall was covered with photos. One was an aerial shot of what looked like a remote farm, not a road in sight. Another was of a barn with handwritten scrawl and an arrow pointing to the door.

  One guard here.

  There was a photo of a rundown house. The windows were broken, the front door missing. More handwritten notes.

  Patrol here.

  A shed. What looked like an outhouse. Photos of the neighboring woods. Another aerial shot pulled it all together, with more notes detailing routes and guards.

  "What the hell is this?" Alex asked.

  Kevin pulled photos off the wall.

  "This," he said. "Is our way in. This is where they've taken Leese."

  Alex agreed, giving the witch a nod.

  "And if she's not there, it's a lead."

  Kevin handed the photos to Alex and pulled a potion from his coat. Each one was a potential portal. Part of him knew they were rushing, not thinking clearly. They had no plan. They were simply going where the current took them.

  But Leese was in danger, even if Alex didn't sense it. They had to hurry.

  "What do you think?" Kevin asked.

  Alex looked over the photos, knowing exactly what the witch meant.

  "The outhouse?" he asked. "All these patrols, I doubt they'd watch the outhouse."

  Kevin shoved the remaining photos in his coat and drew the portals. The photo of the outhouse was at an angle, so he drew the portal to match.

  He stayed his hand an inch from the wall, glancing at Alex.

  "Are you ready?"

  Alex nodded. Kevin pressed his hand to the wall.

  The portal appeared. It felt odd to stand in a warm apartment, and yet feel the cool breeze through the portal, through another part of the world. It was difficult to see through the dark, but there was a tree-line in the distance, and an overgrown, grassy field.

  Kevin stepped through the portal first. He closed the portal behind them, and the stench from the outhouse struck his nose. He quickly took in their surroundings. The photos were accurate. He saw the shed, barn, and decrepit house. There were a few buildings not in the pictures, and a row of trucks parked next to the barn. What looked like a flashlight moved about in the shed, and a lamp in the house.

  The pair didn't even get a chance to speak.

  "Hey!"

  They turned to see a man approaching. He shined a light in their eyes. Kevin held a hand up, trying to see through the beam. Alex wasn't bothered at all.

  "Who are you?" he asked. "What are you doing here?"

  Kevin saw the man raise his other hand, pointing, and realized he had a gun trained on them.

  "I'm not going to ask—"

  Alex vanished, catching both the stranger and Kevin by surprise. The man gasped, then opened fire.

  Kevin already had his hand raised. The magical stone he wore on his finger did its job, stopping each bullet. They flattened against the invisible barrier shielding Kevin, turning into metal mushrooms before dropping at his feet. The guard didn't bother reloading when the chamber clicked empty. He simply reached for another gun.

  Kevin reached for a potion in return. It turned out he didn't need to.

  Alex appeared from behind the guard. He wrapped an arm around the man's neck and squeezed. The guard fought, even pulling a knife from his belt. Alex's wings emerged, and what little fight there was became unfair. He smacked the knife away. Within seconds, the man was unconscious. Alex was not gentle in dropping him to the grass.

  "You alright?" Alex asked as he approached.

  Kevin shook his hand and nodded. He was fine, apart from the sting that came from stopping bullets.

  Sirens went off. A row of lights turned on, one after another, alongside the house. There were voices and people shouting. The front door to the house opened, and four men stepped out. One pointed in their direction.

  "Shit," Alex muttered. He gripped Kevin by the coat once again. "Grab that feather."

  He barely had time before Alex flew.

  They soared up, away from the farm. Alex glided over the trees, climbing higher and circling back. Kevin looked down at the men as they searched everywhere. They shined their lights, spoke over radios, yelled at each other. The thought of finding Leese pushed back whatever nausea he felt.

  Alex was careful in how he approached. He stuck to the tree-line, just out of sight, while the men scrambled below. Kevin held onto the feather just enough to float in place without Alex's help, and the pair hovered side by side over the trees.

  Kevin reached for his glasses with his free hand as Alex's eyes turned red.

  "Do you see anything?" he asked.

  They weren't close to the farm, but Kevin peered as best he could. Despite the new lighting, there were still plenty of dark pockets. The house was barely lit inside, and the barn completely black.

  "No. Nothing."

  "Me, neither."

  Several men approached the trees below. Alex grabbed Kevin and flew back, keeping away from their flashlights.

  They were close. The supernatural pair could hear the conversation.

  "I'm telling you. I saw two of them. The witch has help."

  "Another witch?"

  "No. I mean…I don't think so. I know this will sound nuts. But…I thought I saw wings."

  Alex and Kevin looked at each other.

  "Great. Another freak we have to kill."

  "How the hell are they even here? Jansen just got here with the woman like ten minutes ago. How did they almost beat him?"

  "I don't know. And it doesn't matter. They didn't just disappear. They're around here somewhere. They'll come to us, and we have to be ready."

  The group left the trees and headed for the house. Kevin watched them walk away, his blood boiling. He balled both fists, which caused the feather to make him rise. He had to relax his grip to keep from floating away.

  Alex shared a similar mood.

  "Witch-hunters," he hissed. "They went after Alicia, just to get at you."

  Kevin noticed the tone, but let it go. He slipped his glasses on again. Most of the men were gathering in the house, in the living room. The rest of the house was dark. Others wandered about the upstairs with flashlights. He realized they didn't have power, and were probably running a generator somewhere.

  "We need to find Leese," he said. "This place isn't that big. She has to be here somewhere."
<
br />   "We'll split up. We can find her in no time. They won't even see me coming."

  Kevin laughed shortly, drawing another look from Alex.

  "What's funny?"

  "Splitting up. That never works out in the monster movies."

  "Well, this is a little different. We are the monsters."

  Alex had a point. He gestured to the house.

  "Can you handle this?"

  It was Kevin's turn to flash a look. He was long past cowering in a corner, worrying about what he was, and the people out to get him.

  It didn't matter if they were human or not. Humans, in fact, were nothing.

  "I'll search the barn and shed," Kevin suggested. "When I'm done, I'll join you in the house."

  Alex nodded. He pulled a magical stone from his pocket.

  "Sounds good. If I find her, I'll call."

  "Same."

  Alex flew away. Kevin eased his hold on the feather, and slowly descended. He gripped tree limbs and flung himself down to speed up the process. Adjusting his coat, he sipped an invisibility potion as he approached the farm.

  He tried to keep his emotions under control. He wanted to throw every ounce of magic he had, blow through everything in his way, until he found Leese. But that was dangerous, reckless. They needed to be careful.

  Hopefully, Alex would remember that.

  Using his glasses, he peered into the barn as he drew closer. There was still only darkness. He wanted to walk past and head to the shed. A barn didn't seem like the place they'd keep a kidnapped woman. There was no movement he could see, no muffled cries for help.

  There was no barn door, having fallen off years ago. He took a step inside. There was a musty scent, like an old basement. He saw a rundown tractor, bales of hay, old stalls.

  He'd pulled a handful of mothballs from his coat when the shot rang out.

  The wooden doorway next to him shattered into splinters. He dropped the mothballs, leaving a rainbow of colors in the dirt, as he held up his hand. Another shot, which his stone blocked, but the force sent him to the ground. His hand throbbed, and he wondered if it was broken. The more powerful the weapon, the harder it was to hold his magical shield.

  He crawled behind the dead tractor as another shot fired. Confusion settled in as he cradled his hand.