Chapter 4 - Zephyr
The villa we rented over the summer had become familiar to me. We had fought the demons in Harper’s cottage, banished them for the time being, and reported all their activity to Commander Tylen. However, when the vacation ended, we found ourselves being sent right back for surveillance on the island.
So, I wasn’t really on vacation anymore, but how could I complain about working in such a beautiful place? Everyone knew each other; businesses had been in the families for generations, and the gossip was rife. Everybody wanted to talk and be friendly. I loved it.
I had claimed one of the upstairs bedrooms, the one with a balcony. I padded outside into the balmy air, inhaling deeply, letting that ocean breeze fill my lungs. Sometimes, I still swore my lungs were clogged with sand and grit from our past missions.
I gritted my teeth. My phone screen lit up with a message from Alex. The time flashed up as 3:47am. I had yet to sleep—part of me didn’t want to. I didn’t want to risk those Adalyn-filled dreams again. I had gone plenty of nights without rest, but demons were faster than humans, more acutely tuned into every sense they didn’t have. I couldn’t afford to risk seconds if they attacked, and I was sleep-deprived.
Like that, I was useless.
Alex: Whenever you want to stop pacing that balcony and talk to me about your hang up with Adalyn, let me know, all right? I’ve got your back.
I text back. I’m not pacing. And I don’t have a hang up.
Alex: Okay. I can feel your anxious vibe all the way over here. We’re attuned, remember?
I snorted. Of course, he could sense the turmoil. But this week was about him and Harper. I couldn’t let my issues with Adalyn get in the way of that, even if it meant ignoring her outright.
Alex: Try and get some sleep. You’re on duty with Sweeney and Hec tomorrow.
I sent back my affirmative and locked my phone. He was right; I really needed to get some sleep if I was going to do a decent job tomorrow. Or, rather, today. I groaned. Knowing Hec and Sweeney, they’d want to be up and out by the crack of dawn. I groaned, shoving the thick hair back off my forehead.
Sleep. Yeah, I needed some damn sleep.
But I couldn’t get Adalyn off my mind when I climbed back into bed. I was the fun guy , the talkative one, the one who diffused tension rather than created it. I teased and prodded at people, but I never started the aggravation. There was just something about the witch that brought out the worst in me. I hadn’t meant it—had I, about her being pathetic. She had proven me wrong, hadn’t she? Damn it.
“Get out of my head, witch,” I muttered.
I thought of her, submerged to her ankles in the pool by the waterfall. She had known I was there in the end but she had been looking for another enemy than me lurking in my wolf form in the woods. I hadn’t been looking for her but tracking demons with Frazer. Once again, things had fallen too quiet on the Cove.
But then there Adalyn had been: a witch in water, bathing in the moonlight. I had snarled, hating the sight, not able to look away. What was she doing to me? I loathed her. I would have rather clawed through her throat, let that pool run red with her blood, than be civil with her. Her whole damn coven deserved to die for the grief they had brought upon my family.
Soon, sleep found me, mercifully pulling me away from my roiling thoughts of a witch’s eyes that were like reflective black pools.
***
“Zane,” I cried, shaking the shoulder of my twin brother, who lay in his wolf form. His blood was everywhere—more blood than I thought possible for one thing to bleed. My sobs choked through my throat as I curled my fingers into his blood-soaked fur. It was the same color as mine—we had been identical in both forms. Brothers, two hearts, forever in tandem, linked by blood.
But now his had stopped.
All because of the witch with hair as red as my brother’s blood. She floated in midair, several feet above my brother’s form. Her hands were coated in blood, and her face was shrouded in darkness. All that I could see were her lips, painted ruby red. When she saw my face, heard my cries and pleas for my brother to wake up, she only smiled. Her teeth flashed.
The witch lunged at me, teeth bared. When she got closer, I saw Adalyn’s face.
I woke with a yell, fisting my sheets as I flung myself out of bed. I could still feel sharp nails and fangs on my skin, the witch trying to attack me before she had fled. I had been left with my brother’s broken body, immobilized on the side of the road, unable to call for help because all I could do was watch my own blood mingle with his. We had been seventeen at the time, mirror images of one another in every aspect.
The day after his funeral, I had gotten his name inked onto my head, forever imprinting my brother onto my skin. Even with the ink still healing, I had torn through states, following every lead the Lindell coven I could find. They had hidden well. Eventually, my hands stained with the blood of minor witches, I had retreated into the military.
“Put that anger to use,” my older brother had told me. “Don’t dishonor Zane’s memory by bringing more hell upon our family’s name. Promise me you’ll do whatever it takes to put this vengeance behind you.”
I had promised him I would, while vowing, behind my teeth, to hunt every witch to extinction if I could. The military had provided a distraction, a place to hone my anger and need for blood, but now I had been presented with an opportunity.
Adalyn wasn’t the Lindell witch who had murdered my brother, no matter how my dreams tried to twist it, but she was another one to eradicate. A powerful one at that, even if I had taunted her otherwise.
“Zeph!” Frazer yelled through the door. “You up?”
“Yeah,” I called out, hating how raspy my voice sounded, thick with a lack of sleep. “Give me a second.”
“You got five minutes, or you’re getting the bucket, man. Hec’s waiting.”
The bucket was the ice bucket, something we had all subjected one another to when sleep had clung to us too deeply in the desert when there was work to be done.
“Hec’s probably been waiting since an hour before dawn,” I muttered. I hurried to get dressed. I donned a black hoodie over a black t-shirt, and sweats, the outfit light enough to allow good movement. It wasn’t what I usually wear, but I would be comfortable, at least.
I shoved the sleeves of my hoodie up before heading downstairs. Hector and Sweeney were ready to go.
“No Johnson today?” I asked Sweeney, who had braided his hair back off his face.
“Nah,” he answered. “We drank last night. He’s passed out, but I said I’d do his job today.”
“And I’m sort of doing Sweeney’s job,” Hector butted in, already peering at a map of Azure Cove. “So there’s been some demon activity on the western coast, right past the surf shack. I text Adalyn, and she knows the guy who owns it, so—”
“Please don’t tell me she’s coming with us,” I ground out. I had no problem facing the trauma of my brother’s death. I had long put those nightmares to rest, but Adalyn’s presence was messing with my head, twisting the day I had found my twin.
“As much as I’d love to see your face if I told you yes , she’s not,” Hector said. “She’s busy today.”
“Doing what?” I asked as if offended she hadn’t been coming with us despite not wanting her to be there. God, she had my head wrecked.
Both men looked at me. Sweeney cocked a brow at me. Hector shook his head before going back to his digital map.
“Ask her.” Hector shrugged. “Come on, we’re wasting daylight. Let’s go.”
I needed the distraction desperately, so I followed them both without a second thought. The last thing I needed to deal with was old wounds that I thought I had healed well from. Losing a brother was never easy, but I had processed it. Through long nights in the desert and mountains, long drives of listening to Frazer’s shitty music, and endless hours of waiting and watching, I had processed quietly and privately.
The witch just had to bring it all back for me, didn’t she?
***
Hector, Sweeney, and I watched the Highland Trail from our vantage point. Hector’s screen was silent, but a faint blue glow pulsed on the map he had up, indicating what he had called a pre-portal . Somewhere, the demons might or might not show up.
“It’s like binoculars, I guess,” he told us. “Scoping out the land before they actually come through. They’re checking it's safe.”
“Safe,” Sweeney snorted. “As if they’re not the threat.”
Our eyes were fixed in that direction. On Hector’s say-so, Sweeney needed to go ahead and mark the area.
“You know, this is where witches would be useful,” Hector noted. “If someone wasn’t intent on botching up our alliance with them.”
“We don’t have an alliance with witches,” I answered tightly.
“And we never will if you’re hellbent on antagonizing the one who could help us.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Hec’s kind of right,” Sweeney said. “We mark these areas, hoping they’ll move to another place and keep the trails safe. But they could just come back. The witches could put up defenses to ensure they don’t. They can snag them before the portals even open. We have to wait until a demon actually appears to attack.”
“We have defenses,” I argued, raising the spray cans Sweeney and I were equipped with.
“Guess where I got the solution that’s in those spray cans, genius,” Hector told me, smug. “Greta’s Emporium.”
“This is witch magic?” I asked, shaking the can.
“Yep.”
“We don’t need witch magic.”
“Yes, we do,” Sweeney interjected this time. “Zeph, I don’t know what your problem is, but demons aren’t like the humans or hunters we’ve dealt with before. They have magic; we need to fight it with magic. Or, at least, we need to defend it with other magic.”
I gritted my teeth, knowing they were right. But I hated the fact that we needed a witch’s help in the first place. I had come out today to get my mind off witches not to be centered right in their magic. Even knowing I was around, it made my skin itch.
“I just don’t trust them,” I finally answered. “How do we know this stuff we’re using to ward off demons won’t backfire on us?”
“Why would it need to? We’re not the enemy. Adalyn created this solution for this reason. If she was putting us in danger, she’d have said.” Hector paused. “I think.”
“I don’t think we’re giving the hot witch enough credit,” Sweeney shrugged.
“She’s not hot,” I snapped.
He grinned. “Nobody said you thought she was.”
I cringed back, rolling my eyes. “Whatever. Hec, are we good to go and spray?”
“Not yet,” he said, eyes back on the screen.
“Hey, remember when we met on that job in the Hills?” Sweeney asked me, glancing sideways as we waited. Around us, the Highland Trail spread out, webbing from the central point where all three of the island’s hiking trails began, through where we waited in the thick of trees, before going further north, towards the small mountain range that the island boasted. While we would eventually get eyes on the mountain, figuring out the parts more islanders populated was the best option.
“Yeah,” I laughed. “You were, like, a hawk. Born from the damn Appalachians themselves.”
Sweeney grinned. “Hey, I was told I was going to be working with the best gunman out there. I had to flex my skills.”
“You definitely did, man. But if I remember correctly, you didn’t only scout the area.”
“Hell yeah, scouted some women for you too, when we got off the job.” He frowned. “That’s why I’m surprised you don’t dig Adalyn. She’s hot and your usual type.”
Before I could say that the very thought of sleeping with Adalyn made me want to claw my skin off, Hector groaned. “Don’t tell me I have to listen to this all afternoon.”
“Don’t be bitter because you can only pull the latest tech,” I teased.
But Hector didn’t roll his eyes. He stalled . His mouth opened and closed, as if unsure of what to say. Then he shoved his glasses up his nose, averting his gaze. I was used to Hector’s ways: awkward at times but in control and authoritative when he knew what he was doing. But this was different. This was… shy .
“Hec?” Sweeney nudged. “Got somethin’ to share?”
“No,” he answered defensively.
“Oh, I think you do,” I laughed. “I really think you do.”
“Leave it,” Hector muttered. But his ears were tinged red, and he was scowling down at his screen. I sidled up to him.
“Met someone special, Hec?”
“I haven’t seen anything but screens turn his head,” Sweeney chimed in. “She must be real special.”
“She is.” The confession clearly came out before Hector thought to keep it in. He looked up, alarmed. “I mean—”
“There it is.” Sweeney grinned.
“She’s—” Hector swore under his breath. “She works in the café in town. Like, the only café. She’s the one with the pink hair.”
“I’ve never seen her,” I said, sort of glad, because I didn’t want to tease Hector anymore about it. He looked embarrassed, and I knew he’d always maintained a more private life. I’d had my fun; I didn’t want to ruin whatever this was for him.
But I couldn’t resist one last dig. “Question,” I said. “Does she come with a screen saver?”
“Knock it off!” Hector cried but he was laughing with us now. “I’m serious. She’s real.”
“The real question is,” Sweeney added, “Have you talked to her?”
“Of course I have,” he muttered. “I have to order whenever I go there.”
“Oh, man,” I laughed. “I am so being your wingman.”
“No, you are so going to spray the area we spotted ahead. Go .”
With that, all laughter and bantering died down. We were back to being focused, on our mission for the day. Helping Hector out with love could come secondary. For now, I had a goal. Use the damn witch spell to block the portal from fully opening. Then we would go on to the next place, and the next, playing chase with a bunch of demons.
Sweeney and I launched ourselves across the trail, disappearing into the thick of trees, listening to Hector command our location through the earpieces we wore. We sprayed each side of a square, meeting back at the center, forming a barrier that a demon wouldn’t get past.
“Great,” Hector said. “That spell will expand outwards. Depending on where the demons go next, the defenses should reach out to form a blanket over the woods. The demons are predictable. They want to be where the people are. People are always hiking, so we can use that to predict their movement patterns.”
“So what does this mean for our next move?”
Hector laughed. “It means we’ve got a long day of running around ahead of us.”