Damned and Cursed (Book 2): Witch's Kurse (61 page)

Her expression was serious.
 
She surveyed her surroundings, looking like the predator Kevin knew her to be.
 
Taking a step forward, she stopped just at the mouth of the portal.

"What's going on?" Victoria asked.

"Aunt Victoria!" Tiffany shouted.

"Hey, sweetie," the vampire said, forcing a smile.
 
"Is everything okay?"

"Some guys kidnapped me!
 
But now Kevin's here and he's smacking them all around.
 
He's like a magician or something!"
 
She frowned.
 
"How did you get here?
 
This is weird—"

"Just take Tiffany," Kevin said.

Victoria reached through the portal and took the girl in her arms.
 
She lifted her with ease, pulling her halfway across the world into her hotel room.
 
Tiffany hugged her aunt, and Victoria lowered her to the floor.

"Do you need help?" Victoria asked.

Kevin shook his head.
 
It wasn't long ago the thought of armed men trying to kill him would have sent him running into a corner, even though he knew he was a witch.

"Nope.
 
It's just five guys."

Victoria shouted his name and pointed behind him.
 
He turned to see one of the men had finally regained his sight.
 
With Kevin's luck, he wasn't surprised it was the one with the rifle.

"Oh, come on—"

The shot forced him to the ground once again.
 
He narrowly missed falling inside the portal.
 
Looking up at Victoria, he could see the anger in her eyes.
 
He placed his hand on the edge of the portal before she could change her mind about helping him.

"I'll see you guys soon," he said, sliding his hand across.

"Be careful, Kevin!" Tiffany shouted, just before the portal closed.

He faced the five men.
 
The rest of them were finally on their feet, their eyesight returning.
 
Kevin smiled.
 
With Tiffany finally gone, he could have some fun.

"Did you guys see that?"

"No.
 
What?"

"There was like…a hole in the wall.
 
And a woman."

"You've been drinking too much beer."

"The girl's gone!"

"No, she's not.
 
He's just got her hidden somewhere.
 
And we'll beat it out of him."

"I don't know, man.
 
This boy's creeping me out."

"Okay," Kevin said, reaching into his coat.
 
"Let's see what we have."

He froze when he didn't feel what he expected.
 
Instead of pulling out a sleep potion, his hand came out with a shattered vial and liquid all over his palm.
 
He reached into another pocket, but felt more of the same.
 
Broken vials, and a coat soaking in ruined magic.
 
Too many shots from the rifle, too much force against his shield.

He
really
needed to rethink his shield.

The men drew closer.

His fingers finally touched a vial that wasn't completely broken.
 
The top was cracked off, and he cut his finger, but there was still some potion left.
 
Realizing what it was, he quickly guzzled it down.

The men gasped as Kevin vanished.

They stopped and stared at each other, but one charged forward, swinging the crowbar.
 
Kevin had already grabbed another magical trinket, his feather, and was floating above them, heading toward the ceiling of the hangar.
 
The crowbar missed his foot only by mere inches.
 
He continued to float up, and he finally let out a relaxed breath when his hand touched the ceiling.
 
Looking down, he had a bird's eye view of the men arguing and coming apart.

"What the fuck is going on?
 
Who is that kid?"

"Is he wearing a vest?"

"Of course he's not wearing a vest.
 
Look!
 
The bullets are right there."

"Do you think he's a werewolf?"

"Werewolves can't stop silver bullets in mid-air, you dumb shit."

Kevin squinted, and saw the bullets gleam on the ground below.
 
They looked silver, but from the height above, everything looked silver.
 
Were the men werewolf hunters?

"You assholes shut up!
 
Do you hear something?"

Everyone stopped to listen, including Kevin.
 
He could hear it himself.
 
Another vehicle was approaching.
 
A second van pulled into the hangar, parking next to the first one, and four men climbed out.
 
Kevin sighed as the men nodded at each other and shook hands.
 
Reinforcements.

"It's about time you showed up."

"What's going on?
 
Where's the girl?"

"Look, just shut up.
 
The girl's here somewhere, along with a guy, about twenty or twenty-one.
 
They're both here somewhere.
 
Just find them."

"I don't know about the girl.
 
I'm telling you, I think she walked
through
the wall—"

"You don't know what you saw.
 
Lock this place down.
 
They're both not going anywhere."

Kevin shook his head.
 
Locked doors meant nothing to him, but he didn't plan on going anywhere regardless.
 
He rested his back against the ceiling, still clutching the feather in his hand.
 
Running his hands through his coat, he felt through every pocket, taking mental inventory of the magic he had left.
 
He was missing quite a bit.
 
His sleep potions were nearly gone, down to another cracked vial.
 
He'd already drank the last of his invisibility potion, and it would fade soon.
 
His marker fell out of his coat; he could see it on the ground below.

Still, he had more than enough magic to handle a few humans.

He grabbed one of his latest trinkets.
 
Never did he think he'd have a use for it, but magic had a way of always being useful.

It was a seashell, large enough to fit in his hand.
 
It'd been boiled in a rather disgusting mixture.
 
A frog's tongue, the tail of a rattlesnake, the intestinal tract of a chicken, V-8 vegetable juice from the grocery store.
 
Speaking through the shell would let Kevin project his voice wherever he focused his eyes.
 
It was perfect for when he wanted to talk, but not be seen.

"Uh, guys," he said.
 
His voice boomed across the hangar, and sounded like it came from the center, where he was staring.
 
It was tough to hide a smile.
 
He felt powerful.
 
"You do know locking down this place helps me more than you, right?"

The men searched, and he could see the fear in their sharp movements.

"Where's that coming from?"

"I think from one of the aisles."

"He's fuckin' hiding in a box.
 
I know it."

One of the men pulled out a cell phone.
 
"I'm calling Sean."

Kevin had already anticipated that move, and just finished wiping another potion on the ceiling with his palm.
 
It was a simple spell, one that came to him after watching his sister talk on the phone for three hours one night.
 
Simply pouring the potion would do.
 
All he had to do was expose it to the air.
 
But wiping it on the ceiling wouldn't give away his location.
 
It wasn't easy to do, considering he couldn't see his own hand, but he managed.

He laughed as the man tapped at his phone uselessly.
 
His colleagues followed his example, and all got the same results.

All wireless communication, voice and data, were suppressed by Kevin's potion for the next hour.
 
It was a fun prank when he did it to his sister, although he didn't know it affected all devices in a half-mile radius.
 
The phone companies surely hated him that day.

"I can't get a signal."

"Me neither.
 
Cory, try your phone."

"It's no good.
 
Nothing."

"I swear to Christ.
 
Will someone tell me what is happening here?"

Kevin held the shell to his mouth again.

"It's like the start of a horror movie, isn't it?
 
Out in the middle of nowhere, no phone signal.
 
I'll fill you guys in on what's up."
 
The men jumped, all pointing their guns at nothing, searching all around them.
 
"I see you're all big and strong, and don't have any problem at all kidnapping a young girl, but she's long gone now.
 
You've got enough guns to make a lot of holes.
 
But please believe me when I tell you.
 
You don't have enough guns to handle me.
 
I don't know what you're used to shooting, but you've never dealt with anything like me before."

"Brad, go back to the hotel and get the others.
 
I want everyone here."

"The hotel is an hour away."

"Then you'd better hurry."

The man named Brad walked toward the vans.
 
Kevin quickly poured a packet of sugar into another vial, corked it, and tossed it across the hangar.
 
As it sailed through the air, moving away from Kevin, the invisibility faded.
 
He watched it flip end over end toward its destination.

The vial landed on top of a van, and the explosion knocked Dave and two of his colleagues off their feet.
 
The vans lifted, tapping each other in mid-air, and landed with a crash.
 
One of them rolled on its side.
 
Kevin noticed the fiery explosion had a mix of green with its orange and blue, a reminder that it was fueled by magic.

"I could have thrown that at any of you," Kevin said.
 
"But I don't kill people.
 
Let's just make this easy on everyone.
 
Get in a nice tight circle, and I'll throw a magic potion at you.
 
You'll all fall asleep.
 
No one will get hurt."

The men panicked and fought amongst themselves.
 
Two of them fired at the shadows, thinking they were Kevin.
 
He smiled above them.

"Magic potion?"

"Shut your mouth.
 
There's no such thing as magic."

"Are you kidding?
 
Then what do you call what the hell he's doing?"

"It's a trick."

"Blowing up the vans and our cruiser was a trick?"

"Yes!
 
He's just a kid!
 
Find him and kill him, and it stops!"

"A trick," Kevin muttered.
 
He reached in his coat.
 
"Okay, then.
 
For my next trick…."

He uncorked a vial and splashed it contents on the wall behind him.
 
The mess slowly dripped down the wall, and Kevin silently counted the seconds in his head.

The thunder shook the walls of the hangar.
 
The storm clouds started to form, and Kevin had to release one finger on his feather, to float down several feet.
 
The rain came fast and hard, limiting visibility.
 
He slipped his glasses on to see better.

The men were speechless.
 
They looked at each other as the thunderstorm raged.
 
Kevin pulled out a packet of sugar and rubbed it in the mixture on the wall.
 
The thunderstorm changed to snow.

One man captured the collective emotions of the humans.

"What the fuck?"

Kevin pulled another trinket out and rubbed it between his hands.
 
It was a simple magnet, enhanced with a little magic.
 
It seemed to pulse in his grip before he tossed it below, in the center of the hangar.
 
He watched as the men lost their hold on their weapons.
 
Their guns, crowbars, even the belts around their waists fought to get away from them.
 
The objects sailed through the air, even striking one of them, in a mad rush to get to the magnet.
 
The weapons piled on each other, making clanging noises as they settled in place under the falling snow.

"Fuck this."

"Hey, the organization doesn't pay you to be a pussy."

"Yeah, and they don't pay us to deal with this voodoo shit."

Four of them inched toward the door, and Kevin saw his chance.
 
He grabbed the mirror from his coat while easing his grip on the feather, probably easing too much.
 
He landed hard on the snow.
 
His invisibility faded as he reached for another potion, not that invisibility mattered.
 
The falling snow gave away his shape.

The mirror was broken, but a shard would do nicely.
 
He poured the appropriate potion on the mirror fragment.

"Hey, guys!" he shouted.
 
"Check this out!"

The four men turned and looked at Kevin, along with a fifth person not far away.
 
They shouted in discomfort as their bodies warped and twisted.
 
A second later, they were all gone, their bodies and souls trapped in the shard of mirror.

One of the remaining four men charged him.
 
Kevin barely had another potion in his hand when the man was upon him.
 
He tackled him around the waist, driving him to the ground.
 
The shard fell to the ground, but luckily didn't break.
 
The man pulled his fist back, ready to strike, but coughed and choked when Kevin shoved the potion in his face.
 
He didn't want to use that particular potion.
 
He didn't want to terribly hurt anyone, but he also didn't want to be terribly hurt.