Watch of the Wicked (Devil's Witch Book 3)

I had the worst nightmare yet last night and, in order to keep my sanity, I didn’t bother bringing it up to Crystal or Stella. The best thing I can do is forget about it and move on with my day.

Colin was supposed to come here and formally apologize like Stella had him convinced to, but he never showed this morning. Now, she’s more agitated than when she was on the phone with him last night. I guess he isn’t answering her texts either which also left a bad taste in her mouth.

After my dream last night, I couldn’t help bringing my friends along with me to investigate the church. I just know something isn’t right and Nick hasn’t been answering any of my calls since the police riots. Witch homes are getting invaded by the police left and right.

It’s been only a few days since Nick left, but it seemed like the moment he was gone everything fell apart. Could he have really been the one thing keeping his people from attacking our own? Nick already told me the police were upset with the coven, but I didn’t think things would get so out of control so fast.

I know the coven killed his father too so that may have had something to do with it, but the police should have known the vile man he was.

I just have to be sure Nick isn’t in on the riots.

Stella parks her car along the sidewalk outside the church Nick’s father belonged to. Crystal unbuckles her seatbelt behind me and I glance back at her in the rearview mirror knowing she wasn’t too keen on coming out with us to the church. If we get in trouble, the more magic we have on our side the better.

I nudge on the closed heavy wooden church doors, but they don’t budge.

"Patentibus." I whisper.

My magic drifts away from my fingertips embedding itself deep in the pit of the iron lock. A sharp click resounds and Stella pushes the door. It opens and we walk inside the large dark room.

Stella marches ahead of me with a glowing orb of blue light in her outstretched hand, “Since when are churches locked up? The doors should be open, it’s only three.”

Crystal hovers behind me and I let go of the church door letting it close behind us.

“What kind of church is this?” Crystal asks with worry.

If I were her, I suppose I would be worried too seeing the gigantic new stained glass mural hanging from the high ceiling to the center stage of the altar. That certainly wasn’t here when I was her last.

It looks like another image of a figure frighteningly similar to Mr. Silvet and a woman in a black dress with long white hair. A glowing white arch resides above their heads and the two people in the mural hold hands like lovers would. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I consider whether the man in the mural to really be Mr. Silvet or...

Stella shrieks loudly cutting off my thoughts, “Ew! Come look!” I rush over to her watching her pull out a long grey dried up snakeskin out from under one of the pews. Crystal gags and steps away from her gross finding.

“What if it’s your familiar? What if he’s still...in town.” Stella looks up at me with reproach speaking in a lower tone, “It’s that officer! He has to be here!” Her eyes dart around the darkness of the room and I shine my own light orb around myself while turning in a circle hearing or seeing no one else, but the three of us.

It doesn’t stop me from being spooked. The skin couldn’t belong to Nick, it’s too small. Still, it makes me shiver feeling like we’re being watched. Any really could be easily watching us somewhere above us on the balconies high up. However, we would have seen their aura by now if that was the case.

There are many rooms in this church though that someone could be hiding out in though. There are no more doubts in me about the vampire’s feelings toward the legend. It’s safe to say some of them believe in and are hoping for the legend’s success. They must be congregating here in secret.

I hold my chin watching Stella drop the snakeskin, “The skin is too small. We should search the backrooms. Let’s look around that mural first though. I think I remember a door being back there.”

We walk up to the altar and Crystal sneezes when we pass a rectangular marble stone slab of some sort. It reaches my shoulders and reminds me of some kind of sacrifice table out of a cheesy horror movie. I swipe my finger on its cold surface picking up a nice layer of dust.

A strange upside down pentagram is engraved on either end of the slab. The symbol belongs to the same flag I saw in Mr. Silvet’s office in here. It is notorious for being linked to vampire supremacists and there’s no way this would have flown by the coven if they found it here after our discovery of Mr. Silvet’s awakening.

Somebody has been actively spreading hate in here.

“It’s a shrine of you...” Crystal whispers. She hasn’t looked away from the stained glass mural since we walked up onto the altar. I know she’s wary of the legend, but it’s not like it’s going to come to life and kill her. I know I’m not.

She hugs her arms breaking her gaze away from it and watching me with wide eyes. Stella snaps her fingers in front of Crystal’s face and Crystal swats at her hand, “She isn’t going to hurt you.”

Crystal rolls her eyes and walks by her, “I’m not afraid.”

We follow Crystal behind a row of red and black flags matching the satanic symbol on the creepy marble stone. Sure enough, we find a door. However, when we enter it we find the room completely empty.

“Just call him Val and ask him if he knows about the new creepy portrait hanging in here.” Stella tells me as we walk out of the room together.

Reluctantly, I pull out my phone. He never answered the other times before, but maybe he’ll finally pick up. My phone rings three times before he finally answers.

“Hello, Ms. Parway.” Nick answers in his lazy sounding southern drawl. I look between Crystal and Stella biting my lip as they silently cheer.

How can a voice miles away make me feel so calm like he’s never left? It shouldn’t make me calm. It should make me afraid of what he could be or if I’m being honest -- what I’m fairly certain he already is.

I try not to sound nervous, “Hey, why didn’t you answer my calls before?”

“I’ve been busy. I did intend to call you when I had the time to sit down for a lengthy conversation. I’m still adjusting to my new job. I’m sure you can understand.”

I don’t really know if I can buy that, but I guess he may really be busy.

“The police are acting out of control. We need you to return to the station. Did you at least get a hold of Will? He’s been meaning to talk with you about it too.” I explain.

“Hmmm...that I did. Although, he wasn’t quite in favor of my solution.”

“Oh,” I begin to say, “What did that include?”

“Nothing you and I haven’t discussed prior, Ms. Parway. Is there something else you desired to confide in with me? I don’t have much time to spare I’m afraid I must hang up soon.”

Despite what he says, he doesn’t sound like he’s in any hurry though and it makes me wonder where he really is right now.

I try to steady my voice, but my panic seeps through and everything comes out in a rush, “Yes, I’m down at the church right now and there’s this giant new mural in here. Some amount of vampires are counting on the legend to come true. I’m staring at the evidence. I think our town’s been infiltrated by radical vampire supremacists. I’m really-” I begin to say.

He speaks lightly interrupting me, “Scared?”

I don’t answer right away. Stella waves her hand for me to hurry up with the conversation and Crystal hops off the stage of the altar to sit down on one of the pew benches. She looks sleepy and I know it’s late, but this is the way Nick is. Sometimes he seems to enjoy jumping around the topic of conversation as if to lead me on without giving me the information I need and perhaps hoping I’ll forget.

I didn’t intend to talk with him about my feelings. I just want to know if he knows what’s going on here.

I try to focus on just getting answers, “Yes, we need you to come back and work with the police. They shouldn’t be invading so many homes. A ton of witches have gone missing and some of them aren’t even devoted members of the coven. Their businesses have been destroyed by the police and some humans have gone missing too. Isn’t there anything you can do or know to help us? What did you and Will talk about?”

“I understand your concern, but you shouldn’t be afraid. Mr. McCaster knows what needs to be done and so long as he does it we should have nothing to worry about. I recommend you contact him.” He answers vaguely.

Since when does he ever encourage me to go to Will for help? Why can’t he ever just give me a direct answer instead of putting me off? Has he grown angry at me for something? He didn’t seem upset with me when he left. Maybe it happened another time at work when I could have done something...

I stare at the mural unsure, “I...I don’t believe y-you’re telling me everything.” I stammer.

“Well, now that you mention it I suppose I’m not.” His voice lowers as if he’s about to tell me a secret, “I had the strangest dream last night, but I’m not sure if you wish to hear the details it was quite vivid,” Nick starts to tell me and my face flames.

Does he even know I know? I didn’t think he would know our dreams are shared. I hope he doesn’t. Why does he think I want to know about something so embarrassing and forbidden anyway? It just makes me feel even more mortified because I don’t even know what we really are to eachother or what he’s thinking about it. I’m just surprised he would bring it up to begin with.

However, it would explain why he was acting more touchy with me the weeks leading up to him leaving his job here. Subconsciously, he could feel more inclined to get closer to me having already been my familiar. Now that our magic is conjoined, I suppose that could play a part in it too. If he truly believes in the legend that would certainly explain his behavior, but I just can’t...or more accurately, don’t wish to believe he does.

A sinking feeling grows within me and I break out in a cold sweat wondering if he’s told Will.

“What kind of dream was it?” I ask innocently testing to see if I’m right.

“I don’t want to scare you more than you already are of me. I must go now, Ms. Parway. We will be in touch.” He answers quickly right before hanging up.

_______________________________________

Yansmen

The boss puts his phone in his jacket pocket after talking with Valerie. He walks up the steps of the porch ahead of Heinrich and I. It’s the first time I’ve been to the boss’s house. He was generous enough to let his younger stepbrother live in this place. It’s a big old ranch house that by many would be viewed as a mansion.

Noctus lived over in town which was more convenient for work. Now, not so much. So we’ll be needing to take the house into repossession because Jackson decided to step out of line and invite his whole pack to live here since Noctus left it in his temporary care.

It’s not unusual for packs to live together, but the alpha should have known this would cause trouble for his kind. The werewolves made their decision early on to side with the coven since they are far more in number than us. Well, tonight they’ll learn what happens when you keep all your eggs in one basket.

However, I’m not really sure why Noctus called us out here on such short notice. I’m sure he knew they were living here the moment they all moved in. So it makes me wonder why we are doing this now rather than just waiting for the devil’s day of return to take care of them.

Noctus grips the doorknocker and lets it fall against the wooden door loudly. A scruffy looking fellow opens the door. He wears a gaming tee shirt and dark jeans. He sizes up Noctus and when he sees Heinrich and me, he crosses his arms stepping back and hiding behind the door. He looks a little alarmed which isn’t shocking since we are dressed in riot gear.

“What can I do for you officers?” The pack member asks us.

Heinrich chuckles next to me as the boss hands the werewolf a freshly printed piece of paper.

The pack member squints his eyes reading the fine print of our court ordered search warrant, “I swear no one’s growing anything funny out back...” The werewolf huffs incredulously while handing the boss the paper and watching Heinrich with raised hands.

He must think Heinrich is our captain and waves for Heinrich to come inside. The boss plays along though and lets me walk ahead of him following Heinrich inside the big ranch house. Then he shuts the door behind us with a small smile.