Chapter 29 Looney Tunes
LOONEY TUNES
Black fur rippled like water disturbed by a stone. The small body contorted, bones cracking and lengthening with sounds that turned my stomach. The cat’s shape blurred and expanded, limbs stretching, spine arching, until the outline of the animal dissolved into something larger and human.
My heart thumped against my ribs.
Where a cat had been, a woman in a dark dress now crouched on the forest floor. My hand was wrapped around her left ankle. She was breathing hard, her dark hair disheveled and her golden-rimmed pupils incandescent with rage.
It was a grown-up version of the girl from the photograph.
Esmeralda Thornwick looked exactly as Mrs. Chen had described her. Slender. Dark-haired. Sharp-featured. Attractive in the way a blade was attractive, all edges and cold beauty. She didn’t look a day over thirty.
The Thornwick arrogance Barney and Mrs. Chen had spoken of radiated from her like heat off a furnace.
Samuel was at my side in two strides, his alpha powers pressing down on the clearing like a physical weight.
Crimson pupils announced Barney’s presence as he materialized from the shadows.
Didi and Mrs. Chen arrived seconds later, the witch breathing hard and the old woman somehow not winded at all.
Gavin brought up the rear, his horns fully extended and trailing smoke.
Esmeralda’s gaze swept over us with a contempt that went bone deep. It lingered on Didi, slid to Mrs. Chen, and settled on me with an intensity that made my wolf bare her teeth.
“A white wolf.” Her voice was low and smooth, with an accent I couldn’t place. “I heard the rumors. I assumed they were exaggerated.”
“They weren’t,” Samuel said. His tone was the one that made lesser wolves whimper and cower. “Esmeralda Thornwick, you are under arrest by the authority of the Amberford Alliance for the kidnapping of the Lincoln sisters and the use of banned subjugation magic.”
I released her ankle and moved back.
Esmeralda rose to her feet in a single fluid motion. She was taller than I’d imagined and moved like a witch who was used to being the most dangerous person in any room.
Something shifted in her eyes. I frowned.
It wasn’t fear I’d just glimpsed in her gaze. It was amusement.
“Arrest.” She laughed, the sound short and ugly. “You think I’ve spent over a year building this to be undone by a couple of dogs, a pensioner, a dumb witch, a vampire who’s seen better days, and a weak dragon newt?”
I scowled. Gavin’s nostrils puffed in indignation. Didi’s eyes shrank to slits. Barney’s gaze focused on Esmeralda’s jugular vein.
“This pensioner helped exile your grandmother, kid,” Mrs. Chen said coldly.
Esmeralda’s amusement vanished at the mention of Cordelia. Something far darker surfaced in her golden eyes.
“My grandmother was the most powerful witch Amberford has ever produced,” she said, her emotions finally leaking through in her icy words.
“The covens feared her. So, they destroyed her and took everything she’d built.
Everything she was owed.” Her jaw tightened.
“The Lincoln matriarch stole that seat. They stole my family’s legacy.
And the covens stood by and applauded.” She jutted her chin out.
“This isn’t revenge. This is a restitution of power. ”
I could tell the witch believed everything she’d just said.
As Ellie would have said, Esmeralda was definitely in looney tunes territory.
“Cordelia attempted a coup,” Didi said flatly. “She tried to seize control of every coven in Amberford using forbidden magic, with the intention of extending her authority over the entire East Coast. That’s not a legacy. That’s a supernatural crime.”
“It’s just a matter of perspective, isn’t it, witch?” Esmeralda said with a smile that had no warmth in it.
Didi refused to rise to the bait, though I could see it was costing her.
“Where are the Lincoln sisters?” I took a step toward Esmeralda, my voice dropping to a feral growl. “And what the hell did you do to Melody and the Ashgrove witches?!”
I could hear the four women’s racing hearts and smell their terror and pain even from the distance. Alarm tightened my belly. Beneath them, the three pulses I suspected belonged to the Lincoln sisters had slowed down.
They’re getting weaker!
Just like Melody and the Ashgrove witches, something shrouded the Lincoln sisters’ heartbeats. Except theirs was much thicker. A dark miasma that seemed to be sucking their very life force dry.
Instinct told me it was the corrupt magic of the Black Chalice Rite.
Esmeralda glanced toward the house as if she’d read my mind.
“Their healing magic has been enormously useful,” the witch said, her lips stretching in a sinister smile. “Though it’s nearly spent. Another few days and there won’t be anything left to drain. Their powers will be mine.”
Didi’s magic flared around her hands. I felt the witch’s fury blaze hot enough to scorch.
Mrs. Chen began doing something with her herbs.
Shadows fluttered around Barney. His crimson eyes were fixed unblinkingly on Esmeralda.
“The Black Chalice Rite requires a pureblood vampire’s blood. Where did you obtain it?”
Something shifted in the witch’s expression. A flicker of satisfaction that made my skin crawl.
“A lonely vampire is a remarkably cooperative creature,” she drawled. “A few months of attention and affection and he was ready to offer me anything. He thought we were in love.” Her lip curled. “Men are so predictable. He wasn’t even useful enough to keep around once I had what I needed.”
Darkness trembled around Barney. Didi put a hand on his arm when he made to move toward Esmeralda. A muscle jumped along the vampire’s jaw as he curled his fingers so tight he scored lines in his palms.
“You should stop trying to get a rise out of us, witch,” Samuel said, his amber eyes hard. “The Alliance knows what you’ve been doing. Your shell companies have been traced and the Thornwick Family Trust is in the process of being seized. It’s over.”
A change came over Esmeralda then. One that had my shoulders knotting.
Samuel’s wolf growled across our mate bond as he registered the sudden threat.
The witch didn’t look like she was done by any means.
There was movement at the front of the house. I looked around distractedly. Melody and the Ashgrove witches were emerging from the front door, their faces pale and stricken in the spilling light.
Ice filled my veins.
I could tell from their stilted movements that they were moving against their will. More worryingly, I could see something faint and dark shimmering in and out of view around their throats and hands.
My head snapped back to Esmeralda.
Her smile had returned. It was worse this time.
“You brought my pawns to my doorstep,” Esmeralda told Samuel softly. “Along with two more witches. And you’re standing on a ley line convergence I’ve spent a year attuning to my magic.” She tilted her head. “Tell me, Alpha. Do you really think that was wise?”
I startled when the ground began to tremble.
It started deep, a bass vibration that traveled up through the soles of my boots and into my bones. I gasped when I felt the ley lines convulse beneath us. They surged, three rivers of incandescent power wrenched from their natural course and pulled toward the woman standing in front of me.
The Ashgrove witches crumpled where they stood on the porch, black lines flaring briefly like brands across their skin. Melody screamed, a raw, terrible sound. She clutched her head and collapsed to her knees. Blood oozed from one of her nostrils.
It took me a heartbeat to realize what was happening.
Dammit! She’s drawing on all the magic around her!
I exchanged an alarmed look with Samuel. He nodded jerkily.
The sharp smell of Mrs. Chen’s herbs hit my nose. Gavin sneezed out a stream of fire that scorched the grass.
“Get back!” the elderly witch barked. “Now!”
Esmeralda raised her hands as we stumbled away hastily.
The air turned to ice. Frost crackled across the grass. The temperature plummeted so fast Gavin’s flames snuffed out and Didi’s magic sputtered.
A foul energy erupted from Esmeralda’s body in a suffocating wave.
Samuel’s wolf reached for me across the mate bond.
The dark magic attack hit Barney first. It drove him to one knee and drained the redness from his eyes, the vampire’s ancient strength straining against a power that was designed to break things far older than him.
Gavin went down without a sound, his fire extinguisher rolling away across the grass.
The dragon newt’s horns and tail retracted and his eyes glazed over as he lost consciousness.
Didi and Mrs. Chen combined their powers and threw up a barrier, their magic blazing a blue-green in the darkness as they drew on the enchanted herbs the elderly witch held in her hands.
It held for three seconds before shattering, sending Didi sprawling and the old witch staggering back with a grunt of pain.
Samuel stepped in front of me when the wave reached us.
He fought it with all the power of an alpha.
My heart twisted as I felt him try to shift and fail. His wolf raged, straining against the pressure holding it back. His muscles trembled.
An unholy snarl ripped from my mate’s throat as he fell to his knees, his fingers curling in grass and dirt, his fury resonating across our bond.
He’d bought me all the time I needed.
I clenched my jaw, raised my hands in front of me, and braced.
The vile magic fed by the convergence and the stolen life force of three healing witches finally hit me.
My wolf stopped it.
Esmeralda’s golden eyes widened when she felt the resistance.
The impact drove me back a step, then two. My boots carved deep furrows in the soft earth as I snarled and leaned into the thick wall of corrupt energy, the power of the ley lines I’d tapped into rattling my teeth and bones.
The forbidden magic of the Black Chalice Rite crawled across my skin like oil as I strained to a stop, probing for my weaknesses, seeking entry through every pore. It found my eyes. My mouth. The cuts on my wrist where the cat’s claws had scored me.
It found nothing it could use.
“Impossible,” Esmeralda snarled. “How?!”
I smiled savagely. “It’s called a backup plan, bitch.”
I planted my feet wide and let my white wolf loose.