Bone Witch Read online

  No, I wouldn’t do that, simply because I’d been the same, too. I might have not been vocal about it, but whenever I saw a fairy, I thought the same thing.

  It didn’t matter what anyone said. I was going to find a way to fix it. Reverse the ritual. Erase it. Hide it. Anything at all that worked.

  The room was surprisingly clean for a hotel room. I put the pizza box on the small desk by the window before closing the blinds. Good thing I ate half of it because after that witch’s comment, my appetite was completely lost. I didn’t have time to stop and think just yet, though. I took the fastest, most thorough shower ever, then washed my shirt with hand soap in the sink and used the hand towel to wipe the leather of my pants and jacket. It was going to have to do.

  The spell stones were right next to the pizza box on the desk, and I was trying to figure out where to put them now. I’d put them in the passenger seat in the car, afraid they’d activate on me now. Putting them in my braid just wasn’t doable. I didn’t think I’d ever tie my hair back, ever again. Not after the image I’d seen in the car window.

  Suddenly, something ignited in my stomach, something that heated my chest way too fast and made my skin crawl. Something awfully similar to desperation.

  I barely made it to the toilet before all the pizza I’d eaten came right out of my mouth. Ugh. I hated throwing up. Getting my brush from my apartment had been the furthest thing in my mind. Plain water was going to have to do.

  The mirror was right in front of me. I’d avoided it while showering like the plague, but now…

  Don’t look up, don’t look up, don’t look up…

  I looked up.

  My blonde hair was pretty thick, but the points of my ears cut through them, just visible enough to be seen. Shivers washed down my back, and that wasn’t even the worst part. My colorless eyes were no longer colorless. The small specks of blue that had been there before were now violet. Before, they’d look just grey. Now, the new color, the color every fairy had in one shade or another, took over the grey completely. It was disgusting. Terrifying. I looked like a monster, though nothing else seemed to have changed on my face. My nose was still small and slightly upturned at the tip, lips nearly white and completely dry.

  I walked out of the bathroom before I broke the damn mirror. I couldn’t afford to pay for it without selling my mother’s jewelry, half of which had fallen out of the inside pocket of my jacket, possibly in Alexandra’s basement. The twin bed looked so inviting, even with the ridiculous yellow covers, but I knew that if I closed my eyes, even for a second, I wasn’t going to be able to wake up. Sleeping in a motel room while people were after me was a bad idea. I wondered who Finn would send after me next. Then I took what was left of the pizza and ate it with my eyes closed. I needed my stomach full to function. I was already as weak as it got, and performing another healing spell wasn’t something I wanted to do.

  No, I decided I wasn’t going to use any more magic. Whatever this was, whatever the ritual had done to me, I was going to undo it. Reverse it. Get back to normal again, and a part of me said that if I continued to use the magic, it might be harder to undo it. I’ll admit, it was a pretty stupid part of me that said that, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

  A little over an hour after nightfall, I decided to get going. Seeing Amelia was not something I was looking forward to, but I was going to have to get to her anyway. The sooner I got this over with, the better. The second I got back to normal, I was going to give Finn a call and request an audience with whoever had hired him to hunt me down. I was going to explain everything to them and give them all I knew about Julian Walker. I’d tell them where he lived, too. About the dragon blood and his laboratory. They were going to have to listen to me. See that I was innocent, that I’d made a mistake by taking that job from James the vampire, but that was it.

  If they didn’t, dying was still better than living on the run, if you can even call that living.

  For now, though, my stomach was full, my knives were on me. I missed my gun so much. I’d lost it in Manhattan when Ralph first attacked me, but I was sure Amelia would know someone from around here who could sell me a decent weapon to replace it. My shirt was still a little wet though I’d put it on the motel room’s heater, but it was better than going without it. The pain was nothing but an annoying, numb feeling all around my body. I could move my arm and step on my injured foot, so I was far from complaining.

  The green truck was a far cry from the stolen Mercedes, but at least it was mine. The stones were on the passenger seat, together with one of my knives for easy access. The engine started on the first try, and I took that as a good sign.

  “Here I come,” I said to myself, trying to believe that Amelia wouldn’t be too mad to see me. If she was, I wasn’t going anywhere until she talked to me. She owed me that much, at least. I was her niece, for God’s sake.

  Letting go of a loud sigh, I started to drive away from the parking lot.

  Then something fell right on the hood of my truck.

  My heart almost stopped beating as I took in the crouched figure, looking right at me.

  “I’ll be damned,” I whispered, unsure of whether to believe my eyes or not. I did when the vampire leaned his head back in shock at the sight of me.

  Johnny Darling was the biggest flirt I’d ever seen. He was already there when I started working for Finn, along with two others. A pretty old vampire, Johnny usually took a job every other month. Said it was just for sport because he definitely didn’t need the money. That’s why I was so surprised to see Finn had sent him after me, and that he’d actually accepted.

  I pushed on the gas with all my strength. Call it instinct or whatever. I was better off getting the hell out of there and saving my strength. I was going to need it later.

  Johnny fell off the hood as I drove off like a lunatic, sweat beads lining my forehead already. My palms were a mess, too. This wasn’t happening. How could they have found me so fast? I didn’t think I had a tracker on me. I’d searched my body and clothes thoroughly at the motel.

  It didn’t matter, though. I was on my way, and if I could get to Amelia soon enough, her house would be protected by tons of spells. Probably. Mother said she was a bit paranoid. Maybe I’d taken after her. And maybe she’d help.

  Maybe Johnny wouldn’t find me at her place.

  “Goddamn it!” I shouted as I hit the brakes with both my feet. Tears of anger blurred my vision. I swallowed hard, trying to come to terms with what I had to do—which was to go back. Go back and kill Johnny Darling.

  He’d seen me. He’d seen my ears and he’d seen my eyes. A phone call was all it took for the whole world to find out what that damned ritual had done to me. That it somehow had made me look like a fucking fairy. If Johnny remained alive, he would tell on me. He would tell Finn, and he would tell everyone else. I’d be the hot topic in the Paranormal world for months.

  I couldn’t have that. My whole life after this madness was over depended on it.

  Cursing under my breath, I put the truck in reverse and drove right back into the parking lot of the motel.

  With the stones in my hand, not caring if they activated or not, I climbed out of the car. The heat in my body didn’t let me feel any of the pain, and I was at least thankful for that.

  The parking lot was deserted, but I knew without a doubt that he’d still be there. All I could hope for was that he hadn’t called Finn already. That he hadn’t told anyone about me.

  “Come out, come out, wherever you are,” I shouted at the night. If I’d had my gun, this would have been over very quickly. Johnny couldn’t use stone spells, being a vampire, so no shield would have been able to stop my bullets, and I had a damn good aim.

  “Winter, darling, you keep surprising me,” Johnny said. His voice was coming from my right, toward the closed car dealership. Without another thought, I ran for the fences and I climbed them. He was right to hide behind the pile of broken cars. The diner was on the other side of the m
otel, and people would be able to see if we tried to kill each other in the motel lot.

  As soon as I landed on the other side, a huge car motor came right at me. I barely had time to jump to the side. Fucking vampires and their strength.

  “Stop hiding from me, Johnny. You’re going to have to face me anyway.” And with any luck, die by my hands.

  A dry laugh reached my ears a second before Johnny stepped out from behind a black car on the other side of the dealership yard.

  “I’m dying to ask what happened to your face, but I know you won’t tell me. You were always so difficult, my little witch,” he said, his wide grin in place.

  Johnny was as handsome as it got with his slick black hair, neatly combed behind his head, green eyes and gorgeous dimples. He came on to me hard every time I saw him. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I’d wanted to accept one of his many invitations more than once, and I would have if we hadn’t worked together. It was a rule of mine to never date coworkers, and right now, I was glad for it. How much more awkward would this situation be if I’d slept with the guy?

  “You’re here to kill me, so go ahead and try,” I said, my fingers tight around the handles of my knife.

  “You used to be so beautiful,” Johnny said, slowly coming forward. “Whatever spell went wrong to make you look like this, I hope it was worth it.”

  In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of my face, mouth open, fangs clearly visible. Instinct took over, and one of my knives went into his gut. With a hiss, he slapped the hell out of me, and I fell back. He came at me again, lightning fast, and for a long minute, all I could do was dodge. Ideally, I’d be able to put a knife in the back of his head and be done with it quickly, but he was old. The older the vampire, the stronger he was. Johnny moved really fast, and though he had no fighting technique, the speed alone made up for it. Getting him to turn his back on me was impossible.

  I must have been more distracted than I thought because he managed to land a kick right on my chest. I flew up, and my back hit the fence. Air left my lungs, and he didn’t give me enough time to recover before connecting his fist to my face. Damn it, I’d just taken a shower.

  I swung both my arms at the same time, one aiming for his gut and the other for his neck. If I could stall him for just a second, that would be enough, but Johnny moved away, and the blades of my knives barely scratched his skin. He grabbed my left hand and twisted it until my knife fell, but I managed to land a fist on his jaw with my right. His ice-cold fingers wrapped around my neck—just as my leg went up, and I hit him hard right between his legs.

  He did not like that. His wide eyes said so, as well as his tightening fingers around me. I hit him again, and again, before he thought to close his legs, then hiss at my face. With my free hand, I aimed the knife at the side of his neck, but he stopped me. I sent my beads for his eyes. They weren’t going to do much, but…wait.

  Johnny fell back.

  He actually fell back and screamed in pain.

  I didn’t have time to wonder, though. I jumped forward and took advantage of the fact that he had both hands to his face. Both my knives went in and out of his gut more than twenty times, as fast as my arms would let me. I stopped when Johnny dropped to his knees.

  Another scream. His hands moved away from his face. My eyes almost fell out of my sockets. One of his fangs was broken. His whole face was disfigured, blood and raw flesh everywhere. One of his eyes seemed to be missing, too.

  “What the…” hell?

  My beads swirled around his face before I ordered them back around my hand. Had they done that?

  My God, they had.

  I didn’t know what to think, but when Johnny made an attempt to stand up, his face already healing, my body knew exactly what to do. I let go of one knife, grabbed a handful of his shiny hair, and put the other knife right behind his head. The second the blade touched his brain, he stopped moving. I didn’t have time to move away before Johnny Darling’s body fell on my legs, deader than he was a second ago.

  The urge to scream at the top of my voice was overwhelming, but I pulled my lips inside my mouth and kept quiet. Raising my left hand up, I looked at the five beads swirling around my fingers. I’d used them a thousand times before on many people. The worse they’d ever been able to do was delay an opponent for maybe half a second. Swell an eye, maybe draw blood from a lip—but this? What they’d done to Johnny’s face?

  Those weren’t my beads. They didn’t have the power to cut through flesh and break a fucking vampire fang!

  Grabbing the knife I’d dropped from the ground, I turned around and climbed the fence to get to the motel parking lot. Running like Johnny was still alive and coming after me, I made it to the truck and drove straight off.

  The world had gone crazy, and I was walking down the same path.

  Ten

  I’d killed those three vampires in the alley to save James, and because they would have killed me had I waited around. I’d killed Alexandra Chase to save Dylan. I’d killed Ralph Martinez to save myself. Now, I killed Johnny Darling to keep my secret.

  How many more reasons would there be to justify my killing people? Ten? A hundred, maybe a thousand?

  I never was a saint. I doubted I’d ever see Heaven if it even existed, but I was no murderer. I wasn’t, but it had taken me two fucking days to become one. And when I asked myself, what would my mother think?, I nearly broke down.

  My mother didn’t think. She was dead. I left it at that.

  I parked my truck a block away from Amelia’s house, but for half an hour, I just couldn’t force myself to get out. I’d never been there, so I wasn’t even sure I’d find her house, though I knew the number. Half of me hoped I wouldn’t. But the other half knew that I’d be lost without her. She was the only person I had left.

  “Get your shit together, Winter,” I hissed at myself, hitting the steering wheel as if it were to blame for all my troubles. But it wasn’t. The fault was mine. I should have left it alone. When mother said don’t do it, I should have just given up for good. Now, I looked like a fucking fairy.

  That was enough to get my ass moving out of the car. Looking over my shoulders every single second pissed me off as much as it scared me. Finn had three more freelancers he could send after me, if he hadn’t already. Damn it, I didn’t want to have to kill anyone else. I just wanted to disappear.

  Aunt Amelia’s house was small, the facade painted in a pretty blue color. Her yard was huge, though. At least fifteen steps from the wooden fence gate to the one-story house. A single light was glowing on the porch right above the door. Flowers of all kinds decorated the sides of the narrow path set with concrete stones. A spell, no doubt about it. In this weather, it was impossible to grow them.

  My heart hammered in my chest as I looked around for one more time before heading for the gate. Aside from two people walking in the distance, I saw no one else. With a deep breath, I stepped forward.

  The flowers had no smell at all, which confirmed that Amelia had used a spell on them. The strangest thing, though, I couldn’t smell wet wood or menthol, either. In fact, the door to the house seemed insanely far away. I didn’t remember it being that far. The yard must have gone on for miles and miles…

  Something cold hit my right cheek, or my cheek hit something cold. I had only a second to realize that nothing seemed right before my consciousness gave up on me.

  ***

  “Winter,” someone called. “Winter, wake up.”

  I didn’t recognize the voice, nor did I want to. I was perfectly fine, lying on the soft bed, covered up to my head in a really soft blanket, in…where was I?

  My eyes popped open. The wooden ceiling was definitely not one I’d ever seen before.

  “Winter.”

  The voice called my eyes left. My aunt Amelia was sitting right next to my head.

  I jumped to my feet so fast, the whole room spun. There was a table in front of my feet made entirely out of glass, and I nearly fell over
it. The carpet beneath it was too colorful for my taste. The cream-colored walls and the paintings of brown and gold were unfamiliar. Even the smell in there was one I’d never smelled before.

  “You spelled me,” I whispered when I realized what had happened. I hadn’t felt the spell, but it must have activated right after I passed the fence and stepped into her yard. Amazing.

  “You spelled yourself,” she said and stood up to face me.

  Amelia hadn’t changed much. Her hair was even styled the same way: tied neatly behind her head in a perfectly round bun. Her eyes, the same as my mother’s, were grey, but they had more color than mine.

  My eyes…shit. The reminder hit me hard in the gut and took my breath away.

  “You did it.” Amelia sighed loudly.

  I’d considered that she knew about this, but I’d lie if I said I wasn’t shocked. “You knew.” How could she have known and not told me about it? How could my own mother keep something like this from me?

  “Of course I knew,” she spit, then turned around and walked out the arched doorway.

  Dumbfounded, I followed behind her into the kitchen, a room with a massive island in the middle, a small table for two, and lots of cabinets. Amelia stopped in front of a coffee machine, one of the expensive ones I never could afford. It was nice to see she lived comfortably, at least, though I had no idea what she actually did for a living.

  “Did Mother know, too?” It was a stupid question, but one I had to ask anyway.

  “What do you think?” was Amelia’s reply. She didn’t even turn to face me. She just took two white cups from her cabinet and poured coffee in them. I was surprised she even thought I’d like some in the morning.

  Panic set in when I realized I had no idea what time it was. I looked at the windows and saw it was light outside.

  “What time is it?”

  “Six in the morning,” she said.

  “What?” Holy shit! It had barely been eight when I got to the house. How had I slept for ten hours? Every second I was in there, I was putting her life at risk.