The Mayhem Sisters (9 page)

B
y the time Vivi got home, she was livid. She was tired of being afraid of what was happening to her, about the things she saw and what they meant. She was tired of stuffing everything down deep inside. Ignorance was not bliss. She paced around her apartment, and before she realized it, she was digging through her closet, stripping out of her cute flimsy skirt and adorable flats that she had worn for a night of fun and tugging on a serious pair of jeans, a long-sleeved black T-shirt, and her butt-kicking boots. Twisting her hair up into a ponytail and winding it around into a topknot, Vivi grabbed her favorite cropped leather jacket and bounded down into her shop.

In the past, she would have stayed up half the night going on an emotional potion-brewing bender. She would have invented a magical concoction to make herself feel better and soothe her hurt feelings. And the worst part, or best part depending on how she looked at it, was that it worked. Her potions did make her feel better for a little while, but they wore off, and they distracted her from what she was really feeling.

Not this time.

Scarlet had been right. Mayhem witches were strong, but they were also proud. They were born kicking and screaming. Honora and Clover were powerful witches, masters of their crafts, but Vivi was not. She had been hiding behind the glittery potion bottles for too long. Her true magic had wilted from neglect.

Once in her shop, Vivi made a beeline to the shelves filled with magical wards, protection bubbles, and watch-your-back spells. She sold many potions to protect a witch from nasty gossip, backstabbing, and bullying, including more powerful potions to block attack spells. She also had shield wards to stop lesser wandwork, and a full-on protective bubble. Against typical-strength magic, they worked great, but the stronger the spell or the more powerful the witch, the less the potions held up. Her shop was not stocked for an all-out assault, but they would give her some protection.

Vivi moved quickly, transferring the selected potions out of their pretty bottles into clear generic vials that slid nicely into the straps of leather on the bandolier. She kept moving; if she thought too much, she might change her mind. The time for sitting around meditating, talking, and thinking about what she should do was over.

She was going to use her
persuasion
to figure out what was really going on in the Dire Woods. Her sisters would be furious if they knew what she was planning. It was daring and maybe a little reckless, but she wasn’t about to crawl into bed and go to sleep. She was heading out to the woods in the middle of the night to scout the area for clues.

Vivi was going hunting.

Before she locked up the shop, she grabbed a piece of parchment from under the counter and scribbled a note to Pepper, telling her where she was going just in case something happened and she didn’t make it into work the next day. She was angry, but she wasn’t stupid.

She navigated the dark streets, crossing over to Main Street and down a crooked alley. She saw the portal gate from a block away. It was a shellacked green door with a brass head of a boar on it. The door once belonged to a crotchety old wizard who adored his familiar so much that when the boar died unexpectedly, he’d had him bronzed and mounted on a plaque. After the wizard passed on, no one wanted his grubby little one-room hovel, so the place was turned into a portal. This gate would take her to the portal closest to the Dire Woods. Then she was on her own to find her way back to the crime scene.

Vivi pulled out her golden portal key and approached the door. She knocked on the wood surface and the boar snorted, his brassy eyes blinking to life.

“You’re out late,” he said. The wizard had also enchanted him with the power to speak. Seemed he had a sense of humor after all. “Got a hot date?”

“I need to go to Outpost 11,” she said, matter-of-factly, which was difficult to do when conversing with a brass boar.

The boar snorted. “The Dire Woods. Tsk-tsk. I shouldn’t be surprised, with you being a
Mayhem
. What happened, did all the trouble in town dry up, and now you need to go looking for it in the dark corners of the witching world?”

She hated it when the boar got chatty. “Yes, I’m hunting for trouble. Now, let me through or I’ll yank you off your safe little plaque and take you with me.”

With a snort, the boar announced, “Outpost 11.” The boar’s snout twitched. Snorting again, he advised, “Careful, girly.”

Vivi slipped her key into the lock and turned. The door opened with glowing magical warmth. She stepped off the sidewalk of the back alley in town and walked through a crumbling stone wall on the other side of Willow Realm that boarded the edge of the Dire Woods. She held onto the side of the archway for a second to get her bearings.

She was far from her destination and still had to traverse the forest. The last time she had been there, she’d had her arms wrapped around the strong chest of a handsome sheriff. This time she was on her own—no hover bike to take her.

A single brass lantern hung from the wall of the portal gate, the darkness encroaching on her tiny pool of light.

“Illuminus,” Vivi whispered, and the stone in her ring glowed to life. She only had one idea on how she was going to get out to the Darklander territory.

Vivi pulled a potion from her belt, uncorked it, and swallowed before she lost her nerve and went home. It tasted like melted rubber and sour cherries. “Bleck,” she said. She swallowed a few times to get the taste off her tongue. A strider potion was an acquired taste. The spell would last a few hours and made every stride triple the distance. If she picked up her pace, she could walk a fast mile in five or six minutes. Run, and she would be to the north quadrant of the Dire Woods in less than an hour. It wasn’t as fast as flying—and it wasn’t as graceful—but it was her way. And she was going to make it work.

Vivi breathed deeply and started to walk. She quickened her pace with each step, her eyes adapting to the darkness. Her body bounded through the crowded landscape of shadowy trees as if walking on air. The wind blew a cooling breeze across her face. Her lungs stung, but she pushed on.
I really need to exercise more,
she thought, trying to ease her anxiety. The sounds of night birds surrounded her. The woods were teeming with creatures that preferred the darkness, even if just to watch from a high perch. Claws, beaks, and talons were just a few of their weapons. The trees stood like ghostly sentries. Rumor had been out hunting, or she would have brought him for company and to warn her if she became the prey.

Vivi held her glowing ring up to chest height, careful where she stepped. She was in a jog, her breathing steady. Sweat beaded on her brow. She was getting closer. The dark magic of the scorched circle radiated toward her. It had left a signature of soot and charred blood salt, and when she let her senses drift outward, she could feel its sickening pull.

Within a few minutes she slowed to a cautious walk. Haunting red lights glowed ahead like the eyes of a dozen small creatures. Alert, Vivi approached with delicate footfalls. The sheriff had marked off the area where they had found the old witch with a ring of glowing red illuma lights. The scene of the crime included the path the woman stumbled along and the charred circle where Vivi had found her. Technically, she was trespassing. Vivi gingerly walked around the lights, not wanting to disturb them and set off an alarm. Last thing she needed was the sheriff woken from his bed and hunting her down.

Her gaze drifted over the scene. Something wasn’t right.

Then it hit her—the crime scene was unguarded. She let her senses open and drift around the immediate area. No wards, no boundaries, just a few glowing trip lights that, when she thought about it, were probably more for show than anything else. How hard was it to just walk around them?
Not very.
An emptiness washed over her when she realized the investigation at the scene was over. No one was there because the police were done collecting evidence. A witch had been tortured and left for dead, and now the site was abandoned.

A shiver went up her spine.
Stay alert
.

Vivi’s attention was drawn deeper into the woods, to the sheer black obsidian rock of the Darklander’s stone fortress, his mansion and home base. Surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to see in the dark forest since it was surrounded in glowing illuma lights hung in the trees like ghostly lanterns. Was it a coincidence Clarissa was found so close to the evil wizard’s domain? Was that where the young witch was being held right now? It seemed foolish of him to be practicing dark magic so close to his own home.

Technically, the Dire Woods was part of Everland, and though the Darklander was on the fringe, he still lived within the rules of law of the council. It would be detrimental if he were implicated in black magic. He would be banished from Everland entirely.

The Darklander was anything but foolish. That wasn’t to say he wasn’t involved in suspect magical practices; most likely he was. He just didn’t have a reputation for being stupid or for getting caught, and performing sorcery on a witch in your backyard was not only a heinous act, but really stupid.

Vivi wanted to widen her search. The police had done a thorough job clearing the crime scene of all magical evidence, and she expected no less of the sheriff. Her attention shifted to the mansion. Had Lance stayed away from it to appease the council? Taking a closer look might be her best bet of finding anything to help her cause. She inhaled the midnight air. No backing down now.

Vivi made her way closer and closer to the mansion until suddenly a light flashed on, forcing her to advance in another direction, which set off another orb. For a second it reminded her of fireflies blinking on and off, but she realized the mansion was surrounded with motion sensors. She could only get so close before setting off an army of lights. Then who would be watching whom? The Darklander was certain to have an intense security field. In fact, when she opened up her senses to the surrounding magic, she could feel the pulse of wards.
Better not get too close unless I want to get zapped by his security wards.

It was too dark to do a physical search, so Vivi found a large tree about fifty yards from the huge front door and sat in the perimeter of darkness. She rested her back against the bark, closed her eyes, and focused her attention. She quieted her mind and body, trying to become still and one with her surroundings. Vivi cast a net of intuition outward, sensing the velvety darkness. She was looking for magic, any pulse or residue. Minutes crept by. She pictured a grid of the area in her mind and searched each area section by section, beginning closest to where she sat and then moving outward. She had gotten about fifty feet before a flicker of magical energy caught her attention. Excitement filled her. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to get her blood pumping.

Her eyes flashed open and she leapt to her feet. She moved cautiously in the direction of the magic, but it was waning, barely registering to her senses. Luckily, the magic was in the opposite direction to the mansion, and she avoided the security orbs. The area was more of the same—wooded, leafy, nothing special, only the fleeting pulse of energy to alert her. The ring on her finger glowed, and she projected the light in a search beam on the ground covered in leaf litter. She shifted the debris with her foot and was about to kneel and search the area by hand when she heard scratching, subtle at first and then furious like claws dragged across a tree trunk.

Vivi held up her ring against the darkness, fear pulsing through her.

A large creature flew in the shadows above the halo of light her ring cast into the darkness. Sharp wingtips dipped for a brief second into view and then retreated to the safety of the treetops. The beast rose, raking its body against the wiry tree limbs as it climbed higher. Vivi spun around, holding the creature with her gaze, trying to get a take on what the thing was. A hideous form swept through the trees, accustomed with its surroundings, turning her in circles.

Then the creature went still.

Her body tensed, her nerves on edge. She balled up her fist and moved the glow from her ring around the treetops like a spotlight. The creature clutched the tree bark about ten feet above her head. How long had it been resting there, watching her? She had never seen anything like the huge gray leathery beast that was double the size of an average vulture and had no feathers or fur. Its bony wing joints were folded as it sat perched in the tree with deadly sharp claws digging into the bark, leaving deep gouges in the tree’s tender flesh.

The creature stared down at her with glowing red eyes. Its snout was flattened, similar to a bat’s face, exposing a row of sharp, ragged teeth. Long strings of drool hung from its black rubbery lips. Worst of all was the way it studied her. This was no thoughtless animal. It appeared to be thinking, appraising her, recording her movements, waiting to see what she would do before striking.

Vivi crouched, giving it less of a target. She crawled slowly backward on her hands and butt, trying to put some distance between herself and the beast. She had heard stories of the Darklander’s familiars being conjured from the bones of ancient creatures of myth and lore—dragons, reptiles, and bats—but she’d never believed they were real. Until now. Who would breed such a frightening thing? It shifted on its haunches. A musty stench filled the air. The creature began to growl.

“Good boy,” Vivi said, her voice trembling. She backed up into a tree, pinned down like easy prey. Her heart pounded in her chest.

The creature made a terrible screeching sound and flew from its perch, making repeated swooping passes lower and lower, razor-sharp claws coming within inches of her head. Vivi’s heart was in her throat as she dove out of the way. She tried to hold the creature in her sight. She had to get out of there. Ideas raced through her mind. Her only chance was to make a run for it. The portal gate was far, but with the strider potion still active, reaching it was her best option. The creature could easily swoop down, and by the way its eyes were studying her, it would be on her the second she ran, but it was a chance she was willing to take.

What she really needed was a diversion. Her best bet was to cast up a ward for protection and use the mansion’s security system to her advantage, set off an alarm, cause a bit of chaos to distract the beast long enough to get a good head start, and then run like hell. Sounded like a plan.

The beast landed on a chunk of stone a few yards from her. It growled, watching her every movement. Trying to hide behind a bush, she sensed the flicker of magic again. In the commotion, she had almost forgotten about it. It was close, really close. She took a few steps toward the energy pulse and reached down until her hand brushed something cold in the ground cover. Waving the light across the area, she saw a thick silver band peeking out of the leaves. At first glance, it looked like a bracelet. Vivi inched her hand toward the piece of metal, her eyes locked on the creature’s face. Its gaze shifted. It saw the bracelet, too, and then suddenly, in a flap of wings, dove toward the shiny object.