Nail in Her Coffin (Devil's Witch Book 1)

I can barely move it’s so crowded and if I try to dance I’ll bump into someone easily.

“Yeah!” some big dude dressed as a banana yells when the team on the screen scores a touchdown.

The room echoes him, and he tries to push by us to get closer to the screen, accidentally spilling his beer on Stella’s dress.

“Oh, come on. This was new!” Stella hollers after the guy, but he is lost in the crowd now and way out of earshot.

She curses under her breath, storming in the direction of the bar probably to find a napkin.

“Will?” I ask incredulously, seeing a familiar head of dark hair and thinking I’m seeing things.

He wears a long black cape and fake plastic fangs, he isn’t alone either. He has an arm wrapped around a tall blonde dressed as a mermaid.

He yells sounding a little drunk, “Oh hey! I skipped out on the trip. Much rather stay here.”

How long has he been here? He can’t just skip out on his family’s vacation. If the coven finds him here, he will have to answer to them. It would also make his family look really bad.

“Oh, got it,” I laugh uneasily, unsure of what else to say. The woman next to him snickers and whispers something into his ear.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you underage?”

He knows I’ve been dead for ten years; does he still consider me nineteen?

“That depends on how you count time. Come to report her to my mother?” Stella hollers above the music, the beer spill on her dress gone.

She crosses her arms, walking up to my side and smiles wide at the two of them holding her own beer in one hand and a small plate of wings in the other.

Will grins. “By law, I would have to, but seeing as we both are indulging against it, I’m willing to keep quiet if you are.”

“Sure...” I mumble, realizing again he’s willingly in the coven and I’m not.

Just because I’m a witch should not mean I am automatically integrated into some society with ridiculous rules, sadly it still does. After ten years, I thought things would change.

“Have fun!” Will yells back at us, strolling away with his lady friend in arm.

“Quit pouting and lighten up, Val. He’s probably not even into that girl,” Stella whispers in my ear and I scoff. Is it really that obvious I like him?

Will and I have been interacting with each other more and yes, he is handsome. I just don’t think he sees me the same way. I think he looks at me like I’m another sister, like Crystal. If I was smart, I’d consider him at most a brother if not a friend.

Besides, I don’t even have the courage to admit to my best friend I like him out loud. So when will I ever muster the guts to tell Will himself?

“Yeah, you’re right.”

After a few minutes, Stella and I begin to dance when space opens up. We blend in with the dozens of humans. I’m not really good at dancing so I just do what Stella does, which mostly consists of jumping and swinging our arms around with our limited space.

Soon, there’s no room to dance again and feeling uncomfortable and claustrophobic I tell Stella I’m taking a dancing break.

On my way over to a bar stool, I hear the band change the tone of their music to a slower song. It sounds like an alternative rock version of an indie song I vaguely recall. Whatever the name of the song is, it sounds good and I slow down in my hurry to sit down. As if to ruin my one moment of happiness though, a familiar burning sensation sears across my stomach and I bend over in agony.

Gritting my teeth, I continue on my way to the bar, excusing myself as I squeeze between a group of guys dressed as ketchup and mustard. Finally, I find an open seat at the bar and am able to catch my breath. A large window that reaches from the floor of the bar to the ceiling is to my left, I sit at the very end of the bar. All the other seats are taken, I’m glad I found this one.

“Can I get you anything?” the woman behind the bar asks me. She must be Stella’s friend Joanna I gather after reading her name tag.

“A glass of water is fine, thanks,” I tell her in a quiet voice and she nods her head while bending below the counter in her nurse costume.

Joanna has long braided black hair, it sways back and forth as she walks. Her cream-colored nurse outfit goes well with her dark skin. She looks really pretty in it and I frown down in pain, looking at my outfit. Orange does not go with my skin, Stella could pull this off better than me.

Joanna walks back over in my direction with a glass of ice water with a serious expression as she tries not to spill the other glasses she carries in her hands. She suddenly looks upward, her neatly sculpted eyebrows raising in surprise. The corner of her lip quirks up into a sly smile as her eyes shift down to me when she slides me my glass of water.

“Thank you.”

“You better look out that window,” she says with a wink before turning away from me.

After taking another gulp of my water, I look out the window wondering what she was talking about. The town streets are rather empty and dark, but a police cruiser is parked under the tall street lamp right outside the bar. The police car’s lights are all turned off. In front of it, on the sidewalk, is a bench. A cop sits on it, most of his face hidden in the shadows of his police hat, except for his grin.

A prickling sensation picks up on the back of my neck, seeing the officer stand up and being able to see his face fully under the light.

What is he doing here?

He walks toward the bar with the same goofy grin I remember him giving me when he thought he had a warrant for the McCasters’ house.

I continue watching in stunned silence as he just continues to casually walk in my direction, not even towards the bar door, but the window I sit behind. Forgetting about the pain scorching my stomach for the moment, I consider he may be on patrol or doing rounds or something. I don’t know why else he would be here, what a coincidence.

A hand lands on my shoulder and my attention leaves the window when I turn around to see who it is.

“Hey, Joanna. You look great! You should be out here dancing too!” Stella yells drunkenly from behind me, guess I’ll be driving home. The pain searing across my stomach has finally left and I relax a little.

Joanna laughs back, “I think you should probably lay off the vodka a little bit next time.”

“Yeah. Come on Stella, I think we better head back,” I agree with a smile.

Stella and I grab our brooms. It’s probably going to be awkward seeing the cop again, but if I’m honest a small part of me is excited to see him. The bell on the bar door chimes as we exit the bar to be greeted by the crisp, fall air.

However, when we walk out onto the sidewalk my excitement diminishes into confusion. His car is gone and the bench is vacant as if no one was ever there. Stella still has her aura sight intact, she would know if a human was around recently. Auras leave trails, but they disappear after a couple of minutes.

Even though she’s drunk, she should still be able to see.

“Stella...” I say, adjusting my hold around her shoulders because at this point she can barely walk. Next time we really should stay together. I have no idea how much she drank, but clearly, it was too much.

“W-what Val?” she laughs with a hiccup.

“Do you see an aura trail out here?” I ask while pointing in front of us where the police car was.

She squints her eyes looking both ways down the street, then she closes them tightly.

“W-what...what do I s-see?” she mutters delirious sounding disgusted. I help walk her back over to her car.

“What does it smell like?” I ask tiredly, after hearing her complain about the smell out here smelling so bad she can’t even breathe. The only thing I can smell is the alcohol in her breath.

“Fish and cat pee,” she whispers grumpily sounding like she’s about to pass out as I help her into the car. The moment she hits her seat, she falls asleep. I glance down at my sleeping friend.

It makes me wonder about that policeman. If Stella would have seen him she could have verified him being human. Humans have yellow auras. Witches have blue auras. Vampires have red and werewolves have brown. When I talked to that officer before though he seemed like a human to me -- even if he acted a little strange for a cop. Besides, Mrs. McCaster even saw him before, and she would have told me or either freaked out if he was something else other than human.

Wouldn’t she?

Feeling a couple raindrops, I get into the driver side and shut my door hoping I remember the way back as rain begins to pour down on the windshield.