In the distance, he heard a twig snap. Heard Riley suck in a breath. Heard a gasp as the shape-shifter shoved Mary Ann behind him.
Riley was ripping off his clothing, snarling at the trees. “Sneaky witches.” Finally Riley was naked, Mary Ann was looking at him, blushing, and then he was changing from man to wolf, fur sprouting from his skin, bones elongating, reshaping until he was on all fours, sharp teeth bared.
“Witches?” Frowning, Victoria turned.
Aden fought past his emotions and followed suit just as woman after woman stepped between the trees, encircling their group.
“Break the circle before it solidifies,” Victoria cried. One moment she was beside him, the next she wasn’t, moving so quickly he only saw the blur of her clothing. When she hit the edge of the trees where the women were, she slammed into some type of invisible wall and flew backward, tumbling to the ground.
Aden rushed forward, placing himself in front of her. All eyes were focused on him as he bent down and drew the daggers out of his boots. He kept the silver hidden by pressing it against his arms, the hilts tight in his hands.
Witches, Riley had called them. He studied them. There were eight of them, all wearing white cloaks that draped their bodies. Hoods covered their heads, casting shadows over their faces. Power hummed from them, coating the air, glistening in the sun like flakes of snow.
“At last we have found you,” one of them said in an eerie, almost hypnotic voice. She stepped forward. She had long blond hair that hung over her shoulders, poorly concealed by her cloak. “The source of the summons.”
Riley snarled at her.
Inside Aden’s head, Caleb was sputtering, something he’d never done before.
Aden nearly moaned. Eve had said the exact same thing when they’d first seen Mary Ann. Was Caleb somehow connected to the witches? Perhaps Aden should have been studying the list of the dead and figuring out exactly who occupied his head. But he’d been too depressed, too preoccupied. He would remedy that, he decided.
If he lived.
“No way you can know her,” he whispered. “You can’t even see her.”
“Let me see your face,” Aden called after only a moment’s hesitation.
He was ignored, and Caleb pushed out a frustrated breath.
Again, Riley snarled.
“Which one of you calls us?” another asked, ignoring the wolf, too, as if he were of no importance.
Victoria was on her feet and beside him a second later, panting, leaves falling from her clothing. “You will leave us,” she said, “or you will feel my father’s wrath.”
The word
Aden raised his chin and opened his mouth to admit the truth.
“No, Aden,” he heard Mary Ann plead. “Don’t.”
He continued on. “I am the one who summoned you. Let the others go.”
“Now please, show your face.”
“He lies,” Victoria shouted. “Do not listen to him. I am the one you seek.”
As they had done to the wolf, they ignored her.
“Why?” the blonde demanded, concentrating on him. “Why do you call us? If you dared plan to lead us to slaughter—”
“No,” he interjected. “Never. I can’t help what I am any more than you can help what you are. Though I might wish otherwise, I am the one who summoned you. I didn’t want to, didn’t mean to, but nonhumans feel the pull of me.”
They murmured among themselves, their words too jumbled to hear.
“We have never heard of one such as you,” the blonde said when the others quieted.
He shrugged. “I had never seen a real vampire or werewolf until a few weeks ago. That doesn’t mean they weren’t always real.”
Another witch stepped forward, hair red and long. “If you cannot help what you are, how have you masked your pull so often?”
Riley snapped at her, saliva dripping over his lips. She flinched but remained in place.
“That,” Aden said, raising his chin yet another notch, “I will not tell you. Unless you let the others go as I asked, of course.”
“I can’t,” he whispered frantically. Information was the only card he held right now. To play it would end his usefulness—and thereby everyone else’s. The witches could attack his friends.
Again, they muttered amongst themselves. Again, he couldn’t understand what was being said. This time the words were frantic, determined. Elijah moaned inside his head, perhaps sensing the direction of their conversation.
“We will call a meeting in one week’s time, when our elders arrive. You will attend that meeting, human. If you fail to do so, the people in this circle will die. Doubt me not.”
In unison, the witches stretched out their arms and began muttering. Riley leapt forward, slamming against the same invisible wall Victoria had met. The power Aden felt pulsing from them grew in intensity, coagulating just above their upraised palms, first white, then blue, then exploding into golden flames. As one, they tossed those flames into the circle. Several hit Riley, several hit Victoria, but only one hit Mary Ann.
Riley, Victoria and Mary Ann screamed in pain, each of them dropping to their knees, panting, sweating, writhing. As Aden rushed to them, Riley morphed into human form, his bones realigning, his fur retracting under his skin, then switched back to wolf form, then returned to human form again. The sight was at once astonishing and gruesome.
“Until then,” the blonde said as if she hadn’t a care.
The witches backed up, never giving them their backs, and soon disappeared beyond the trees.
“How will I know where the meeting is?” he shouted. No response. Pushing them and their meeting to the back of his mind, for now, he crouched at Victoria’s side, patting her down for injuries. “Are you all right?”
Grimacing, she blinked up at him. He helped her sit up. “Fine, I’m fine.”
Riley had already recovered and was helping Mary Ann to her feet. “Come on,” he said, striding to his clothes and dressing. “Let’s get you guys home. We’re done with the woods. Understand? No one is to enter them again.”
“My thoughts exactly.” He wrapped an arm around Victoria and pulled her to her feet. “What’d they do to you?”
“Bespelled us.” A shudder rocked her. “With death.”
Breath froze in his lungs, sending frost through his bloodstream. So. His friends really would die if he missed that meeting. A meeting held in a location he didn’t know. No pressure. Really. “You’ll die? Even if I attend the meeting?”
“No,” Riley answered bitterly. “We’ll die only if you miss it. Once you attend, the spell will fade.”
What a wonderful day this had turned out to be, Aden thought, rubbing his temple to ward off the oncoming ache. His girlfriend was engaged to someone else, he was responsible for his friends’ lives, and Caleb might be the next to leave him for a group of witches. Caleb, who was even now pacing the confines of Aden’s mind, muttering about the stubborn blond witch who “should have bowed” to him.
Together, they rushed through the forest, jumping over fallen twigs, around rabbits and squirrels trying to rush to their homes, as well. They must have sensed the danger.
“How?” he rushed out.
“How what?” Victoria asked.
