Abandoned (Book Two of the Castle Coven Series): A Witch and Warlock Romance Novel (11 page)

“Everybody, give me your attention, please.”

Piers floated above the milling crowd, dressed warmly for the weather. To Hailey’s shock, there were a pair of short swords strapped across his back. She remembered what he said about assuming Templars, even if it was unlikely.
 

 
“Julie Ashbrook and Miles Canniff never came back from their patrol last night, and as of this moment, are not reachable by phone or GPS. None of the mind readers we have spoken to can locate them either, leading us to believe that they are at the very least unconscious. That means that they are lost somewhere on the mountain and that they are in some kind of trouble.” He paused, letting them silently absorb that. “We’re splitting into groups of two and three to find them, with a relief staying here to coordinate reports and to cross off search areas. If you find them, send up a flare, and stay with them. If you find them and there are Templars involved, do not engage unless you are confident that you can finish the fight. If you cannot deal with the situation yourself, get away and come back quietly. If Templars are present, unfortunately, Julie and Miles’ safety cannot be prioritized over that of the coven. It’s likely not Templars, but the chance is never something we take lightly. Remember that at this moment, the clock is ticking. The sooner we find them, the more likely it is that they are going to be able to come home to us safe and sound. Search quickly but be careful. All right, go to the people standing at the gates for your assignments. Good luck, everyone.”
 

Hailey started to turn to one of the people handing out assignments when Piers alighted next to her.
 

“You’re with me. We’re heading to the southern edge of where we patrol and working our way around that area.”

She took his proffered arm, closing her eyes as she sank into the golden sea of his power. She could never see the end of it. It lapped over her, warming her and comforting her even in this frightening situation. Again it was familiar, but she didn’t understand how.

“I thought that you would be working with people that you knew better,” she said curiously.

They cleared the wall and were sailing south through the air. The morning was beautiful. Hailey tried to tell herself that it was far too beautiful a time for her friend to die. She knew, however, that beauty was no surety against danger.

“I wanted you with me for many reasons,” Piers said as they flew. The wind carried his words back to her. “You’re strong, quick, and listen to orders, which is something that I tend to look for. More than that, however, I know your skills and you know mine. I figured that made us a better fit than sending you with someone who didn’t know your capabilities as well.”
 

Hailey nodded, and they flew on.
 

“Do you really think it’s Templars?”

“Think, no. Fear? Always.” Piers hovered in the air for a moment, pointing out a ridge that rose as white as a bone out of the forest below them. “That’s Elissa’s Spine. This is the general boundary of where we patrol. I figure we start behind it and move forward.”
 

They fell into a rhythm fairly quickly. One would stay on the ground while the other soared above. Hailey hoped that the differences in perspective would produce some results, but as time wore on, her hope began to flag. Piers insisted that she take energy from him very regularly, something she at first agreed to. The third time he came down and offered her his arm, however, she hesitated.

“I don’t need it right away,” she said. “I have plenty. I’m beginning to worry that you will not be able to access what you need if something terrible happens.”

Piers thought before shaking his head.

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Believe me when I say that I’ve been watching for signs of drain, and there’s just none of that yet. I feel healthy. I feel just fine. I could keep going for hours.”
 

Piers blinked at Hailey’s wide eyes.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing right now.”

He looked suspicious, but he allowed her silence. As she lofted into the air above him, she could feel her heart beating faster.

She remembered what it was like to take power from Kieran. She had been drunk on it at first, amazed at what she could do and how willingly he gave it to her. After a time, they noted that the process didn’t drain him, didn’t seem to hurt him at all. It was the creation of a bond, something symbiotic and rare. Donato, the master of the Angioli coven, had said that they were bonded.
 

 
Other people always felt drained or a little tired after she took their energy. They recovered fairly quickly, some only needing a few moments, but there was always at least a few moments of disorientation.
 

Both Kieran and Piers shrugged off the effects. They even looked recharged by what they experienced with her. There was some kind of deep magic going on. Unfortunately, there were no Wiccans with her experiences that could help her. As far as she knew, she was the only witch of her generation to possess this unique skill. The witches and warlocks that had come before her had disappeared or been destroyed centuries ago.

The day wore on, and though she peered anxiously at every odd bush, every outcropping, anything that looked like it could be shelter, they were no closer to finding the two lost Wiccans.

At noon, Piers called a halt, and forced her to take some soup and some dried meat from her pack. The food tasted like newspaper in her mouth, but at Piers’s insistence, she nibbled on it.

“If we can’t find them by tonight, what happens next?”

“We keep on looking,” Piers said firmly. “We’ll continue for some time.” He paused. “The mountains are a harsh place, and even some experienced and powerful Wiccans can fall prey to slippery slopes and dark nights. Julie and Miles are very well trained and strong, but bad luck can sometimes overwhelm that.”

Hailey shook her head hard.
 

“I refuse to believe that. Believe me, I am prepared to mourn them if I have to, but I’m not going to yet. Not when we’ve not heard from anyone else, and not when the sun is still up on the first day of the search.”

Piers started to respond to her, but his phone rang. He got up to answer it, walking away a few steps. From the tone of his voice, it wasn’t good news, but it didn’t sound like bad news, either. Not yet.

To distract herself, Hailey gazed around the small clearing where they rested. It was sheltered from the wind by a large stone outcropping. There was a blanket of dried pine needles on the floor, giving it a soothing, brisk smell. She wandered around the edge, beef jerky in hand, thinking about nothing in particular, but then she stopped in her tracks.

There was a small gray fox looking up at her, eyes wide, showing the white all around the edges. She backed away slowly, but the small animal still opened its mouth and growled at her, a sound that was both frightened and desperate.

“It’s okay. It’s okay, honey. I’m going to let you be.”

That was apparently enough for the fox, which sprinted across the clearing. Piers, having hung up the phone, frowned as it went.

“That was strange,” Hailey mused. “Foxes are active at dawn and dusk. They usually want to stay away from people, not menace them.”

“Unless there’s something they want enough,” Piers said, his voice grim.

They walked to the edge of the clearing together. Now that Hailey was listening for something strange, she could hear it. The woods were utterly silent. The last time that they had stopped, the air was full of bird song. This area felt oddly muted. It was as if the woodland was holding its breath, as if it was waiting to see what would happen. Perhaps others would have found it peaceful. Hailey felt as if she was standing in a haunted house. She wanted to cover her ears and return to a place where there was sound. Instead, she stayed right where she was, determined to investigate the strange occurrence.

Suddenly she jerked, her nose crinkling up as if the tip were on a string.

“Can you smell that?” she asked.

Piers looked a little dubious, but when he sniffed the air, he startled. She could tell he could smell it now. It was a rank odor, something unhealthy and sour. She cooked with her father often as a child, and one of the memories that stuck with her was her father opening a small package that was enclosed in no fewer than three bags. The crumbled blackish-green spice on the inside had made her wrinkle her nose immediately. Her father had told her it was called devil’s garlic. A tiny pinch gave many foods a singular savor, but on its own, it smelled amazingly foul.

That was what she thought of. Devil’s garlic only grew in India and the countries nearby. There was no accounting for what she was smelling now.

Piers turned to her.
 

“Hailey, I’m being completely serious now. I need you to stay behind me. We’re heading in that direction. If anything, anything at all happens to me, I want you to head straight for the Castle and sound the alarm. Do you know the way?”

Hailey nodded, biting her lip.

“What about you?”

He drew one sword, leaving the other hand free.
 

“I can take care of myself, but I can’t do that as easily if I’m also worried about you. Please, Hailey. You can keep us both safest by doing as I say. Unless you can agree to that right now, I am going to send you back.”

Hailey hesitated before nodding.

“I understand. I’ll do as you ask.”
 

Together, they set off on foot, following the foul odor. After just a few dozen paces, however, they realized that they needn’t have worried about finding the source. The trunks of the trees nearby were covered with a coating of something black and unhealthy. The grass beneath their feet crumpled as if it had been rendered fragile.

Hailey could see that Piers was considering sending her back already. The only reason he didn’t was because she needed to know more if she was going to prepare people at the Castle.

Soon, they started to hear a strange noise. It reminded Hailey most clearly of someone smacking their lips, but the sound was far too loud for that and it went on and on. They drew closer, and it became clear that it was a kind of speech, uttered low and in a bestial fashion.
 

Piers held up a hand, making Hailey halt in her tracks. Peeking around his broad form, she could see an opening in the trees in front of them, and in that clearing was someone walking.

“Which-which-which shall I choose. This one is no good, no good at all, even if he was convenient.”

The voice raised goosebumps on Hailey’s skin. It was a human voice certainly, but it was like a human voice that had been pushed through some other animal’s voice box. There was a dead flat hum to it. Whatever it was could never have passed for human.

Piers shifted, drawing his second sword. Now Hailey could see more clearly into the clearing. When the tableau became clear, her blood ran cold.

Lying on the ground, tied up and quiet, were Julie and the man she assumed was Miles. Pacing around a small smokeless fire was a man, or what was left of a man.

He looked incredibly out of place in the forest. He wore a sharply tailored jacket over a bare chest. His sharp gray trousers were shredded below the knee, and he was barefoot. If he were any kind of a natural thing, he wouldn’t have been able to walk on his bloody and lacerated feet. As it was, he ignored the blood, the shredded flesh, even the white bone that protruded from one heel.
 

“Which shall I choose. Human vessels are so flimsy, so flimsy these days. Once they lasted years, I believe it, I do. Once I could walk and walk forever, and they would not tatter and tear.”

Demon,
Hailey thought with fear. They were not unknown to Wiccans, but so rare that a century or more might go before they would be sighted.

Of course, that was if there was anyone left to report the sightings.

Demons walked outside the world, but when they chose to enter it, they brought with them nothing but despair and suffering. She could feel Piers tensing for an attack when it all went wrong.

The demon looked up, and in that moment, both Piers and Hailey were captured by its gaze. There was no telling what the man’s eyes had been like before. Now they were a burning terrible yellow. The demon’s gaze pinned them where they stood. Hailey could no more move her arms than she could move one of the ancient pines.

The demon shambled towards them, wagging its head back and forth as it looked over one and then the other.

“Oh, very fine, very fine, very fine indeed. A fool who believes that he knows the way out of the forest and a vampire. How very fine, indeed. We shall see, yes, we shall see what kind of pleasure they might provide. Let us crack them open.”

Hailey saw the thing’s hands reaching for her, for her eyes
,
and she knew no more.

THE RAIN PATTERED against the window, making a steady rhythm that comforted her. Young Hailey listened to the rain instead of the man behind the desk.
 

“Are you listening to me, Hailey?”
 

On a whim, she had shaved half her head. She was underweight, which made her look even younger than her fifteen years. She dragged her eyes away from the window, and stared at him. From long practice, she kept her gaze sullen and empty. Before he could hide it, she saw the look of distaste and disgust that crossed the man’s face. He took in her skirt that was far too short, the tank top that was far too tight, and the tattered boots she had gotten at the swap meet.
 

Do you think I’m trash? Are you thanking your lucky stars that your daughters aren’t going to turn out like me?
 

Hailey kept her eyes turned carefully away from the pictures on the man’s desk. It was a happy family life that she couldn’t even dream of anymore, but the memories still cut like glass.

“Yeah,” she said finally. “I’m listening.”
 

He leaned over the desk and shoved her hard in the forehead with one bony finger.