Elemental Flame (The Eldritch Files Book 4) Read online

  Different types of Witches utilize energy differently. Whereas my power came from my will and from my Elementals, a Hedge Witch drew power from their herbs, incenses and ritual words. They pulled power and directed it from the plants and the Earth herself, but they rarely actually relinquished it like Elemental Witches did. So Kyle doing this without his accoutrements was like trying to power the lights at Wrigley Field with only half the juice needed. It wasn't going to last long.

  The Fetches picked up a little speed now as they approached us, moving from a slight limping crawl to more of a determined stride. I retrieved the other gun with The Lady inscribed on it and held them both out.

  Lady Darksome. "You got any suggestions?"

  "Not unless Ivan can come up with something."

  Ivan's magic worked through circuitry and the Internet. Out where we were, we'd been lucky he could open up Crwys's apartment.

  Reinforcements would be nice, but Levi wasn't available and my phone rested in the pocket of my leather jacket. I didn't dare put my weapons down to retrieve it.

  "Looks like we're on our own," I took in a deep breath. "One, two, three—"

  Grey attacked first. She snarled and barked as she scraped the chewed up concrete with her claws. She took off after the Muffler Fetch.

  I focused on Spider and Bottle Cap and fired as Kyle let loose a volley of bolts at Concrete Fetch. Every bullet I fired hit the Fetch it was intended for. My first shot scattered Bottle Cap all over the parking area and I immediately fired on Spider. The shots hit him as well, but they went through the plastic two-liter bottle. A few remained inside the bottle.

  Okay. So the bullets weren't going to work on Spider.

  Just as I came to that realization, my jaw dropped as the scattered caps bounced and quickly reformed Bottle Cap.

  -This isn't going to work.-

  Go away! I tried to will that voice back to where it came from. I don't need your help.

  -You will.-

  Sweet Lady! Okay time for plan B. I tossed my weapons into the still open door of my Jeep and summoned my Elementals. All four appeared in an instant, took one look at the Fetches and I didn't even need to say the word attack! I pulled energy from each of them, sending a long, powerful burst of water at Spider. With mine and my Undine's direction, most of the water went into the two-liter and weighed the thing down long enough for my Gnome to charge forward and start hacking the thing to death with her axe.

  Grey cried out and my heart skipped. Turning, I saw her limping backward as Muffler charged at her. It held a pipe in one hand with a gear on the end of it. It looked like a badly worked medieval flail, but I knew if he struck her with it, the sharp edges of those spikes would do some damage. Not to mention—that's my mother it was going after.

  -Let me help you.-

  No!

  Calling up my Salamander, I ran toward the little monster, loaded up a nice ball of fire and struck the thing with it. The impact knocked it backward and it tumbled a few feet away from Grey.

  "Get in the Jeep!" I called out to her as I created another ball of fire and threw it again.

  And again, it struck the Fetch. Again, it knocked it back, but it wasn't actually causing any damage. I needed something hotter, something stronger, to melt that son of a bitch into something that would knock that—

  Pain, sharp and alarming, climbed up my back. I stumbled as I cried out and went down on my knees. The rough concreted scraped my palms as something crawled over my body. I realized too late that Bottle Cap had lunged at me and now the caps were all individually spinning like tiny little round saws, digging into my clothing and my flesh. My Elementals came to my aid, zapping and shooting the caps off with Fire, Water and Air as my Gnome stomped on them when they hit the ground.

  -We can put a stop this magic now.-

  "Sam, watch out!"

  Something hit me again, this time in the back of the head. I saw stars, literally, as I collapsed onto the ground. I lost control of my body, unable to move but I could hear and feel as the caps continued to chew at my flesh. I saw the Undine swim by as it wrestled with an animated bottle cap. And then I saw Muffler standing over me. It raised a piece of flat metal ready to plunge it into my chest.

  The Fetch's movements slowed as a faint red tinge seeped into the edges of my sight. Then darkness followed with soft sparkling stars.

  -Samantha, we can end this.-

  No—you're trying to change me.

  -No. We're here to help you. This situation is too far gone for simplicity. There are more foes working against you than you can see.-

  I…I don't understand.

  -Fetches like these are directed like little robots. Someone is pulling their strings. Perhaps…you would like to find out who?-

  On the outside I wasn't going to listen to this voice. I knew it was wrong, that somewhere, at some point, someone was going to see the Arcane and the Parliament was going to take action. But inside I knew I needed its help.

  -We are a part of you now. Just as we should be. Now, let us help you. Let us end this and save your mother and your friend.-

  Kyle!

  I don't remember giving vocal approval. The world grew bright again and I could see the Fetch and the piece of metal. Before it came down into my chest, I reached out and grabbed it.

  "No." It was my voice, my body and my strength, but it felt like it did before. Powerful. Unstoppable.

  Intoxicating.

  The metal melted in my hand but it didn't burn. In a nice, beautifully orchestrated succession the rest of the Fetch's suit melted until it was nothing more than a lump of metal. The caps stopped spinning as I reached out with what felt like a second skin. I willed them away like tiny insects and each of them disintegrated into nothing.

  Just like my dad's house.

  Standing, I saw Grey inside the Jeep in the driver's side, panting, on her side. A dark, bloody stain marred her beautiful coat. I looked inside of the wound and found the ruptured muscles, veins and flesh and mended them. Repaired them.

  I heard Kyle and looked over the Jeep to see he'd picked up a pipe and was fighting the Concrete Fetch. I walked around the front of my Jeep, held up my hand and pulverized the concrete into sand, returning it to its base elements. And if I looked hard enough, I could see the creature beneath. It had a shape like a large mushroom and little else. It hopped and moved away from me, thinking it was protected because it was invisible.

  I made a fist with the hand I held out. The little creature twisted like a Twizzler until its tenuous hold in this world snapped and I could hear the backlash of magic as its creator felt the same pain. A car engine started. I looked down the path I'd driven in time to see a sedan haul ass out of one of the other turns. It screeched tires as it peeled away.

  Too late. I reached out with the beautiful, glittering magic and yanked the vehicle back. The front end came up and the car pinwheeled backwards, ass over end, twice before it came to rest on its side. I waited for someone to get out. But nothing alive stirred.

  And now…now there was one left. The Spider.

  "Sam? Stop."

  I turned to see it rolling back and forth on the ground, the bottle half full of water. The holes in the plastic gave it some relief but they weren't large enough for a good amount of the water to escape, and my Gnome made good work of its wire legs. They looked like pruned branches of a bush. Short and useless.

  "Now it's time to see who is pulling your strings, little puppet." It was my voice, but I didn't direct it. I didn't stop it either.

  The Spider rocked and shivered and I could see the little creature as a part of it. I sent tiny little tendrils of Arcane Power toward it, pierced its little body, and knelt in front of it. "Time to release your secrets, Spider. Who is controlling you? Why are you trying to kill me? Who took Crwys?"

  It screamed and kicked, but it couldn't tell me what it didn't know. Simple creature. It was time to reveal who controlled it.

  So I killed it.

  A s
cream echoed in the industrial park, nearby. The one controlling the Fetches was watching us. Trying to kill us. Trying to kill me! I looked around as I stood. I was aware of Kyle near me, and Grey passed out in my Jeep. I went back to the vehicle, pulled the pistols from beneath Grey and headed in the direction of the scream. I would see the face of the one that tried to kill me, they would see mine, and then they would die.

  Cold, icy water fell on top of my head, instantly soaking me. It didn't stop. It was like standing under an arctic waterfall. I dropped the guns as I tried to run away from it, but the damn thing followed me. I sputtered and gasped for breath and then finally realized why.

  "Stop that!"

  The water stopped and I stood shivering, my arms at my sides with my hands balled into fists. I sputtered a few times before I raked my fingers through my thick, now wet, hair and looked around for my Undine. I spotted her hiding behind the Gnome. She was actually afraid, and that did more to snap me out of the Arcane's power than the douse of cold water.

  I looked from her to Kyle, who stood a few feet away from me. His expression was unreadable, and he had another bruise on his cheek to match his broken nose and a cut on his lip. His clothing was torn and mussed and his hands still had the faint glow of power.

  A car door slammed close by and an engine roared to life, just as it had before. But this time the car squealed tires coming around the building facing Crwys's warehouse. And it came toward us.

  I pulled my Elementals with me as we dove out of the way. The silver Mercedes fishtailed as it made the left hairpin turn, narrowly missing my Jeep and sped off past the overturned car.

  Thunder followed the car's escape. I brushed myself off and worked my now soggy cell phone out of the pocket of the leather jacket. There wasn't a dry spot on me to wipe the phone's face on, so I went to the Jeep and wiped it on Grey's fur. She was snoring.

  I called Ivan and gave him the license plate of the retreating Mercedes and hung up. I held out my hand for my Undine and she hesitantly came to me and hovered, swimming in the air above my palm. "You dump water on me anytime you see me losing control, you got that? You did right. You are my hero."

  The Undine's tiny little face lit up and she did a spiral in the air before she blew me a kiss and vanished. The others bowed and I bowed to them, thanking them for their help just before they left as well.

  "We might have a problem," Kyle said as I prodded Grey and pushed her big self into the back seat.

  "Other than me losing myself to the Arcane during dangerous moments?"

  Ivan's text box showed up in the air in front of me with the name and address of the registered owner.

  Edmund Blackwood. The High Magician of the largest group of Ceremonial Magicians in Louisiana.

  Kyle got the same text on his phone. He held it up and pointed to it. "Yeah, other. Him seeing you lose yourself to Arcane Magic. I can handle it. But this guy?"

  He was right. If Blackwood decided to share this information about my little display of forbidden magic in the parking lot of this industrial park, finding Crwys would be the last thing I'd be allowed to do.

  I'd be dead.

  I pulled the Jeep alongside the flipped car. Kyle got out to see if the driver still lived. Maybe we could call an ambulance.

  He jumped back in the passenger's side. "Drive."

  "What? Is he dead?"

  Kyle swallowed before he looked at me. "I don't think it was ever alive. Let's go. Now."

  I floored the gas.

  EIGHT

  My wet jeans chaffed minutes into the traffic-laden ride back to the shop. Add in a drizzling rain and the drive back took an hour longer than it should have. I parked the Jeep in the back and the three of us piled out and jogged to the shop. The only noise between us was the sound of my soaked jeans rubbing together between my thighs.

  A few customers milled around inside. I assumed they were there to get out of the rain. I stopped in my tracks when I saw Dharma with one of the customers. The Cleric was dressed in black with very red lipstick and blue nails. The fact she was a Cleric was the first mark against her, the second was she held my Undine when I was warlocked, but the biggest thing I didn't like about her —she was dating Ivan.

  This isn't a jealousy thing. It's a me not being one hundred percent sure of her loyalties thing.

  I gave Dharma points when I discovered she let my Undine help me where she could against Circe, and she seemed genuinely infatuated with Ivan, to the point of knowing exactly what kind of Witch he was and not reporting it to Parliament. Why was that such a problem? Mostly because I didn't trust this group—not after they chose to warlock me instead of Arden Vervain when the Malleus Maleficarum disappeared. Yeah, I had it, but all the clues pointed to Arden. Arden was a public figure and took the credit for finding the Changeling children, so of course they didn't dare punish her. That would make them look bad in the magical community. So they chose me. The rogue. The one on the outside. The one who hadn't professed loyalty or fealty or whatever it was they wanted to the Witch's Parliament.

  After that, I swore to myself I would never hand over my measure to them. And forget any service. They'd destroyed trust with me.

  So the thought of letting them know that Ivan Westerfield had a yet unknown power within the world that actually worked with the Electronic World that had interfered with our magic since the invention of the light bulb filled me with dread. I'd seen their idea of "justice" and "understanding." I was terrified they'd invite him to participate in some experiments and then I'd never see him again.

  No. I vowed to keep Ivan safe. He was my friend, my employee and my coven member. I would protect him and Kyle with my life.

  Ivan finished checking a customer out and had obviously seen my reaction, since I was still standing in the middle of the store soaking wet, my hair in my face, while Kyle and Grey moved into the break room. Ivan had his hands up and spoke in a low voice. "I needed some help and she was on her way over so we could go to dinner, okay? So don't freak out."

  "Why do you think I'm going to freak out?"

  "'Cause you got that look on your face, or what I can see of it. And I know you Arcane'd out over at Crwys's place."

  "How did you know about that?"

  "'Cause Kyle texted me."

  "Fine," I moved past him, ignoring Dharma, and stomped into the break room. Kyle stood at the kitchen sink filling up the electric kettle. "I'm getting a shower. We need to talk about what happened." I looked at the clock on the microwave. It was just before five. "Close the shop at five-thirty."

  "Sure."

  Grey lounged on the couch in the living room when I plodded up the steps and yanked my boots off. Shivering, I stripped down on the way to the bathroom. I filled the sink with water for my Undine, turned on the shower and stepped in. I left the bathroom door open. I always leave it open now, ever since I was attacked by a crazy Cleric while I showered.

  Fred.

  I hadn't thought about Fred in weeks. He attacked me and I killed him. I just…let the Arcane have its way and made him disappear. Maybe that was what bothered me about so much of this. I was always conscious when I took on its power, but it always felt as if I were just watching and not participating. I didn't actually see what happened to Fred. I didn't actually see what happened to my dad's body, or Pauline's, or the nurse, or even the house. It was all just…gone.

  What did that say about me?

  And what am I supposed to think about what just happened at Crwys's? I'd barely said yes to that voice before I was charged with power and took out those little monsters with little thought. If it weren't for my Undine and her cold shower, what would I have done? Killed Blackwood before he could escape?

  Did the Arcane know the Ceremonial Magician was there while I didn't?

  I didn't have a magic book or some kind of manual to tell me what I was supposed to do because no one, especially not a Witch, is supposed to use this power. I let the hot water wash over me as I put my hands on the scar at
my chest. I hadn't looked at it since that night at the restaurant. But knowing now that it was possible Crwys hadn't rejected me, that he hadn't just dumped me and left town, gave me courage to finally look down.

  It was the size of a silver dollar and about the same measurement in height above my skin. The last time I'd looked at it, the tissue around it was raw and looked more like I'd been burned or branded. Odd indentations decorated the surface and when I put my hand on it, it felt like whatever it was sat just beneath my skin. Crwys and I had toyed with the idea that the scar was the mark of Arcane, the mark the Witch Finders had used to catch the Witches who used Arcane. But the more the scar changed and grew…I doubted that was the answer. The Malleus Maleficarum, in all its flawed revelations, not accounting for the viewable words given to Cowens, non-witches, told of moles and odd growths hidden on the Witch.

  This sucker was not small, and it was not hidden. It was right out there for everyone to see.

  My Undine appeared just inside the curtain. She was beautiful, just as all my Elementals were. And when I saw her, I felt only love, affection and appreciation. I reached up and held my hand out to catch water from the shower. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't let the Arcane take control like that."

  She settled on my palm, her touch light and ticklish. When she shook her head in agreement, I smiled at her. "You're going to keep me on my path?"

  That's when all of them appeared. The Sylph just behind her, the Salamander just above the nozzle away from the water, and my Gnome who peeked in as she moved the curtain. All of them nodded.

  I dressed and ran a dryer over my hair, then gave up. It was thick and black and unruly. I grabbed clean clothes, jeans, a button down shirt, socks, and an older pair of boots I hadn't touched since I wore them to Savannah, Georgia nearly a year ago. My regular boots were still wet.

  Everyone was in the break room when Grey and I came down the stairs. Even Dharma. That didn't make me happy. The kettle was hot and I poured myself a cup of tea before I turned and faced them. "Dharma, this is a private meeting. You can go home."