Page 59 of The Blood Witch
I wait for Jamie to turn and aim her demonic rage at me, but instead she focuses on the Order members now treading on her hellish sanctuary. I spot Prek and his team, along with several others including Marx and the Major as they dispatch shadow creature after shadow creature and move collectively closer.
Jamie screams, the sound something more akin to a Ring Wraith than a human. Her hair burns away as she floats in the air, a deep and steady chant falling from her melting lips. It feels like there’s a collective intake of breath before all at once, her chanting grows louder and the church all around us starts to shake ominously. I cover Elon protectively with my body, palming the silver blade I set next to my thigh.
Pieces of Jamie start to fall to the ground with sickening splats as she focuses all her borrowed magic on whatever it is she’s trying to do. I can’t tell if she’s trying to bring the church down on top of us or call something up from underneath it, but either way, I can see that the magic she’s using is incinerating her inch by psychotic inch. I watch her, wishing I had enough power to end her once and for all, but from the looks of it, she’s already doing that to herself.
All of a sudden, the shaking stops and Jamie goes crashing to the ground of the dais. She hits it so hard that the stone vibrates underneath me from the impact. At first, I think she’s out cold from the hit, but then she rolls over, tilts her head in that creepy way she does, and turns to look at me. She takes me in, a sickening smile on her marred face, only it’s not Jamie I see staring out of her gaze, it’s something else entirely.
Her one teal eye is now bright orange, and the pupil is slit horizontally like a goat’s. Every single one of the demon marks branded onto her body glows that same fiery orange as her one eye.
“Ossssteomancerrrr,” it practically hisses, using Jamie’s melted lips to speak my title.
I reach for my magic instinctually and try not to panic when it doesn’t come.
“Yoooou’re minnnneee,” it wheezes, and I stop myself from flipping it the bird.
Must not piss off demons you can’t protect yourself from.
Instead, I shoot it a glare. “Run, asshole,” I warn, calling on all the rage and need for vengeance I can. “We’re going to take your little pet alive, and when I find out who you are,I won’t stop hunting you until you and everyone who helped this happen is fucking dead,” I snarl, gesturing to Elon and the church.
The demon studies me for a moment and then starts to laugh. “See you sssoon then, Lennniiii.” And with that, Jamie blinks, and the demon disappears. I’m once again staring back into a gaze that’s one half teal and the other half demon mark.
Jamie looks shocked and starts chanting, “No, no, no, no, no!” A blood-curdling scream fills the air, then another, and another, and then all at once, the shadows that are fighting the Order turn and run toward Jamie. My first instinct is that they’re going to spirit her away, and I open my mouth to try and shout out a warning. But before I can, the shadows converge on her. She starts to fight them, begging and screaming, and it’s obvious the demon is tying up loose ends. Good, but if he thinks that will save him, he doesn’t know who the fuck I am. Like piranhas, the shadow creatures rip apart what’s left of the woman who sold her soul, while her demon marks turn on her and burn the rest of her to cinders.
Rot in hell, bitch.
I watch her meticulously reduced to nothing, without an ounce of pity in my heart for what’s happening to her. Far too many people laid on the altar she built, begging for the same mercy she just was, and did any of them find it at her hands? No. I hope she spends eternity paying for the magic she tried to steal and all the innocent lives lost because of her greed. Screams turn to gurgles, and then just like that, she’s gone, and all the shadow beings are gone with her. All that’s left is a bubbling puddle of rotten blood and black tar.
I fight to pull a relieved breath into my damaged lungs. I close my eyes and absorb the solace and finality that comes in knowing she’s gone and she’s not coming back.
Ding dong, the bitch is dead.
18
With serious effort, mostly because it feels like an elephant is parked on my chest and I’m pretty sure most of my blood is now on the floor all around me, I turn away from the puddle of sludge. I try to fight off the flash of images that play through my mind as I settle back against the front of the church, do my best to block out all the horrors I witnessed within the stone walls of this place, but I can’t seem to turn them off no matter how hard I try.
I hope they let us burn this tainted place to the ground before we leave.
My hold on Elon slips a little, and I try to pull him tighter to me, but my hands don’t seem to want to work. I try again when suddenly I feel Rogan nearby. I look up, terrified to see what’s in his eyes as he takes me in, struggling to hold onto the body of the one person who meant more to him than anything.
A choked sob tears out of his throat as moss-green eyes study first Elon and then me. I clutch his brother to me, still trying to protect him and also shield me from the heartbreak I know Rogan is drowning in.
“I need help!” he bellows brokenly, and then he’s on his knees in front of me, hands up as though he’s not sure where it’s safe to touch.
I look down and finally take in what’s causing the horror to seep into his face. Both Elon and I are covered in blood and battered beyond repair.
“Oh god, what did she do to you?’ he asks, grief choking his words as tears fill his beautiful green eyes and spill over onto his cheeks.
I want to reach up and wipe them off, but I don’t want to let go of Elon. I know I failed Rogan, and there’s nothing I can do to change that, but I won’t let Elon go until I know he’s once again in safe hands.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, a sob stealing away the conviction in my voice.
Rogan’s horrified stare bounces up to mine, and all I see there is agony.
He was so close. So fucking close, and it all went to shit in less than a blink.
“Somebody help me!” Rogan screams again, and this time several Order members come running. They take one look at us and freeze for a moment as though shock has stolen their ability to move and speak.
“Help her!” Rogan snarls as tears drip down his face, and the command breaks the unfamiliar Order members from their stalled stupor.
