A Witch's Trial (Witch's Path Series: Book 3) (13 page)

"Yes, what's going on?" I shoved a finger in my ear to drown out Wells's shout. Call me crazy, but I had a feeling we were getting similar phone calls.

"Could you come to the jail? Gremlins are attacking, and we can't fend them off."

"Attacking? How many?"

Before Officer Brown had time to answer, Wells pulled my finger out of my ear. "My car. Now."
 

I nodded and bolted after him. The other customers dodged out of his way, leaving a clear path for me.

"It looks like several hundred. How soon can you be on scene?"

"I'm in town with Wells. I'll be there soon."

I gave my car, and all my supplies, one wistful look before belting myself into the police cruiser. Normally I wouldn't budge without my bags, but I had my wand, and that would have to do. Wells had us out of the parking lot and zooming down the road before I even got around to stuffing my phone in my purse and taking my wand out of the wrist sheath.
 

"What did you hear?" I asked.
 

"Nothing useful. Gremlins everywhere and backup is needed at the jail. Hush." He flipped on the radio and a voice crackled to life, repeating what he'd just said.
 

We clung to every word coming out of that radio for the ten minutes it took us to reach the jail. The jail had been locked down, with prisoners in their cells and armed police watching the perimeter. During the trip, we learned that there were packs of gremlins all long the fence and some had gotten inside the jail. The front gate had a crowd of them. Estimates on the number of gremlins varied, but the fence was beginning to buckle under their weight.

At this point, the police had a tactical problem. Backup was stuck outside the gate, and if an escalation in force was necessary, which was rapidly becoming the case, the two groups were in each other's line of fire.

Wells took a right, taking us up a hill. Partway up, he parked the car behind a line of police vehicles. As soon as the car stopped moving, we were out and sprinting up the hill. Cresting the hill, we found a milling group of policemen studying the mass of gremlins in front of them.
 

Personally, I didn't think the reports coming over the radio painted an accurate picture. However, it was hard to describe the scene. The last tenth of a mile of road was packed with squarely built, eighteen-inch-tall, semihuman-looking things swaddled in all types of dirty, ripped clothing. Not a one of their bulbous, squished faces was turned in our direction. In the distance, I could see smaller groups against the fence.

"Michelle, what do we do?" Wells asked.
 

"Um."

"Come on, this is your department."

"Give me a minute." Even though there was a small army of gremlins on the road, they weren't doing anything overly impressive. The crowd in front of me was simply pressing forward. The metal groaned, and I could see the fence sagging. The gremlins were slowly breaking the gate, but it wasn't a smart or efficient plan.
 

"Can you find Officer Brown? He's the one who called me," I said.

"Done." Wells hurried off, leaving me to contemplate the mess.

Generally speaking, small nuisance creatures fell to Animal Control. If this had been one or two rather than a streetful, that's who they would've called. It wasn't the worst idea for the current issue. Even though they didn't have the capacity to hold all the gremlins, it would get some of them off the street.
 

With Animal Control as a small-scale solution, I tried to figure out the big picture, but it didn't make sense to me. Gremlins were solitary creatures and wouldn't band together without direction. Gremory had to be behind this, but of all the things to do with an army of gremlins, why attack a jail? So far there had been some logic, even if it was twisted and abstract, to everything Gremory had done.

Wells jogged over. "Brown is working inside the jail. They're dealing with gremlins who snuck in when a patrol car came in for a drop-off."

"Do they need me?" I almost didn't ask. There were enough problems out here that we didn't need to spend time getting me in and out of the jail.

"He didn't ask for help."

I nodded. "Can you get Animal Control out here? It may not fix the problem, but they can't hurt."

"Done. Anything else?"

"Not yet."

"Let me know when you have a plan. I'll be back in a few minutes."
 

Wells was on the phone and winding his way through the officers before I had a chance to respond. I don't know how he did it, but in seconds the disorganized group of police was focused on him.
 

Turning away from them, I refocused on my situation. Stretched before me was a tenth of a mile of two-lane road packed with problems. In the distance, the top of the fence wobbled. If I was going to keep them outside the jail, I was running out of time.
 

I let tendrils of power snake out from me, exploring the land, gremlins, and even the jail for spells. It wasn't easy to search for subtle spells using such a light touch, but if the demon had a nasty trick planned for me, I wanted to be able to pull back in a hurry.
 

With a heavy sigh, I tugged the power back into myself, disappointed with my findings. There was a buzzing energy moving among the gremlins, and I couldn't tell if they were doing it or if it was the result of magic. Either way, it was outside my experience.
 

I took a few steps forward and glanced over my shoulder. The police didn't seem to be paying me any attention. A few more steps, and I was inches from the last gremlin. It stood there, oblivious to my presence, leaning on the gremlin in front of it.
 

Wand ready, I brushed it with my shoe. It swung around, bared its pointy teeth, and hissed. I took a step back, and it turned back to the group, resuming its leaning. There went my hope that I'd missed an illusion spell.
 

"Michelle, what are you doing?" Wells shouted.

"My job," I yelled as I turned my back to the gremlins and returned to the police line.

All six of his fingers tapped against his leg. "Take one of us with you next time. Everyone, this is Michelle Oaks, our witch. Michelle, I think you remember Gudger. Please meet Lopez and Hill."
 

They nodded at me, and I nodded back. Gudger was a familiar face. He was a werebear who'd been on the scene to mop up after Amber was recovered. Lopez and Hill looked to be human, but so did Wells at first blush.
 

"What did you find?" Wells asked.
 

"Nothing particularly useful. There's an odd energy around them. It's not something I've seen before. The one I poked didn't like being touched, but it wasn't aggressive. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it's what I know." Now that I'd shared, I could use some information flowing in my direction.
 

Wells nodded. "At this point, we've redistributed the on-duty officers and called other departments for assistance. Several animal control units are on their way. It's going to be twenty minutes before the first of them arrive."

I doubted animal control units would be enough considering the numbers we were facing, even though gremlins could be contained without too much difficulty since they didn't have enough power to magic their way out of captivity. Capturing them was a different story. They were mean, vicious, fast, and small.

"What can you do to help?" Hill asked.
 

Turning to look him in the eyes, I answered. "It depends on what you want. I might be able to contain or disable most of them, but I won't be able to do much else at that point. Not to mention, that doesn't get them out of here, which is what we really need." Refocusing my gaze, I looked at all of them. "If you can think of something you want me to do, speak up."

"Reinforce the gate and fence," Wells said. "We can't afford to have any more of them in the jail."

"Then I need to get to the gate." I could do some work from this distance, but the spell I knew required me to be in contact with the item. Not to mention, I needed to get closer to see the extent of the damage I would be countering. From this distance I could tell the gate and adjacent fencing were at an angle and bowing under the weight of the gremlins.
 

"I'm going with you for your protection," Wells said.

I nodded. "Ready when you are."

Wells looked at the men. "Gudger is in charge while I'm gone."

They nodded and the two of us started down the road. A few feet from the gremlins, I followed Wells over the curb and started walking on the grassy shoulder. Wells was walking ahead of me, eyes scanning and a hand on his gun.
 

As before, the gremlins ignored us. Frankly, it was uncanny to walk past a knee-high threat that was oblivious to your presence. Not that I wanted them to notice me. One or two gremlins weren't an issue, but I didn't want hundreds of them attacking me.

The entire situation made me twitchy. Gremlins were known for sneaking around, messing up cars, tractors, laundry, or dinner. Nothing I'd heard mentioned them acting in large groups and being completely silent. Any communication was inaudible to humans, shifters, and witches.

The number of gremlins was compounding the problem. There were plenty of things I could do, but few of those would work on this many gremlins. Even if I did neutralize them, I'd have to stay to monitor the spells until we figured out what to do with them, and that could take a while.

We reached the gate without incident or speech, but I guess there wasn't much to say. I carefully made my way over to the curb, standing inches from the rather flat gremlins in the front of the line. If I was careful, I could lean over them enough to work on the gate.
 

"I'll keep watch." Wells stood beside me, though I wasn't sure what he would do if the gremlins became violent. We'd be overwhelmed in seconds.

Taking a deep breath, I settled down. I used the tip of my wand to inscribe runes for strength, endurance, and resilience into the gate. I blew out a breath, gathered my power, and spoke the remaining runes, feeding power into the spell. A first there wasn't a change, but then the gate straightened, pushing the gremlins back. The metal swelled, and if you looked closely, the air along the fence had a faint shimmer.

"Done. I'm going to help the fence out too." He nodded, but I was already doing a weaker form of the spell on the fence. The idea was the same, but on a much smaller scale. Basically, it gave the fence a boost, corrected weak spots or minor damage. It wasn't much, but it was what I could manage for the entire length of the fence while still keeping plenty of power in reserve.
 

When I cut myself off from the spell, my vision narrowed and clouded. The light-headed moment passed, and I pushed away from the fence. It had taken more effort than I'd expected to strengthen the fence, but it was worth it to keep gremlins out of the jail.

"Unless there's something else I need to do here, I'm ready to go," I said.
 

"Let's stay for a minute, see what's going on," Wells suggested.
 

We stood there and watched a lot of nothing. The gremlins, both at the gate and along other portions of the fence, continued their attack as the police on both sides of the fence kept a close eye on them.
 

The minutes ticked by until two trucks backing up the road caught my eye. "Wells, what are those?"

He shaded his eyes with one hand. "Animal Control. Let's go."
 

The return trip was as uneventful and creepy as the walk to the fence had been. The hairs on my arms were standing on end, as were the ones on the back of my neck. This was wrong, and nothing like typical gremlin behavior, though I had to wonder if anyone knew what gremlins would do when supported by a true evil, like a demon.

Back at the road, Wells led me over to the new arrivals and made the introductions. "Ladies, this is Michelle Oaks, witch. Michelle, please meet Officers Stallings and Shalatar."

"Nice to meet you," I said. Stallings was some type of fey, tall and slender, with green hair and brown skin. Shalatar was short for an elf, about five and a half feet tall, had the face of a middle-aged woman, and a slight belly. Under different circumstances, I'd be curious about her build since I hadn't seen many portly elves.

"Good to meet you too. Westmoreland speaks highly of you. Now, from what we were told, you want help removing these vermin?" Stallings said.
 

"Yes. I know you won't have the capacity for all of them, but I thought we could get a few out of here." I sighed. "I know that sounds stupid, but I don't have a better idea."

Shalatar smiled. "It's hardly a stupid idea. The scale is rather daunting, however."

Stallings picked up where Shalatar left off. "Additionally, this is abnormal behavior for gremlins. I've never seen it before."
 

She sent Shalatar a questioning look. Shalatar shook her head: no; she hadn't seen it either.

"It seems odd to me too. There's an energy about the gremlins, but I can't tell if it's a spell or something they're doing. They don't react to people being nearby. When I touched one, it did turn away from the group and hiss at me, but it immediately turned back to the group." Every word made me feel less than useful. In the time I'd been here, I'd learned very little about them and didn't have a way of neutralizing the mass of gremlins in front of us, never mind the ones elsewhere.
 

"Hmm, odd behavior for a gremlin. Well, let's see how many we can collect. Do you have gloves?" Stallings asked.

"Not with me. My kit didn't make it out here."

"I think I have an extra pair that will fit you."
 

"Thanks." Strange gloves, especially the thick ones used by Animal Control, would make handling my wand difficult, so I opted to stow it in my wrist sheath.
 

Stallings went around to the passenger side of the truck and scrounged around inside for a moment before coming back and handing me a set of heavy leather gloves. "See if these fit."