Spellbound Murder Complete Trilogy (Spellbound Murder Box Set Book 1) Read online

  “They wanted a sacrifice,” John said casually. “They always do, but now I can give them a Harker.”

  He was right behind her.

  Her heart pounded faster in her chest and her hand twitched.

  “For some reason,” John said, “they made it sound like he’d be hard to kill.”

  Mira glanced back. As before, the gun wasn’t pointed at her. Not directly.

  There was a knock on her front door.

  If anyone else came into the apartment, they wouldn’t survive long. Mira felt sure about that.

  John frowned back at the living room. “I don’t see this in the future either,” he muttered.

  Mira let loose with her spell. It was stronger than she anticipated. A flare, brighter than any that came from a camera lit in front of John’s face. The flash brought heat with it, which was an unexpected bonus.

  “What the hell?” John staggered and tried to rub his eyes.

  Surging forward, Mira bowled into John, trying to push the gun aside.

  He was bigger than she was, but distracted and partially blind. The gun clattered loudly to the floor.

  “Mira?” Gabriel called from the living room. “What the hell?”

  From his tone of voice, she figured he must have seen Emmit.

  John lashed out. With one hand pressed against his face, he used the other to hit Mira. Pain exploded from the side of her head and she fell to the ground.

  Right on top of the gun.

  She had no idea how to use a shotgun, but she was hoping the usual point and click approach would work. Scrambling away, she aimed the gun.

  “Stop!” she yelled.

  “You’re not going to shoot me,” John sneered.

  “If she doesn’t, I will,” Gabriel said.

  John looked panicked, but it quickly passed into a snide grin. “There’s no stopping them.”

  “Put your hands up,” Gabriel said.

  John closed his eyes and started muttering under his breath.

  Mira got shakily to her feet. It started to feel as though she was being watched. The cool, misty feeling that she associated with seers and the Ether began to gather in her apartment.

  “Gabriel, get back,” Mira said, afraid to raise her voice.

  Gabriel didn’t say anything, but he didn’t move, either.

  Being sure to stay as far from John as possible, Mira circled wide and joined Gabriel. Her eyes never left John.

  She tugged on Gabriel’s arm. “I think we need to move back.”

  He glanced at her, but again said nothing.

  John’s eyes popped open, though only the whites showed. His head turned, taking in the whole room until he ended up facing Mira and Gabriel. He couldn’t see. It would have been impossible for John to see with his eyes rolled back into his head.

  But something was looking at them all the same.

  “Ahh, it’ssss good to sssee thiss world onsse again.”

  Mira shivered at the sound of the voice and gripped Gabriel’s arm. “You can’t be here.”

  “It’s that thing?” Gabriel asked.

  Mira could tell that he was looking for confirmation, rather than asking a question. “That black, leathery monster. Yes.”

  Gabriel fired his gun.

  Mira’s ears rang from the noise. John, or the thing inside John, looked down at his chest, which was quickly turning red.

  John leered at them. “He wasss dead when he invited me in.”

  “Mira.”

  Mira spun around at the sound of Emmit’s voice. Relief washed over her.

  His shirt was shredded, but there was very little blood. Emmit was alive.

  Moreover, exceedingly pissed off—so much so that he was shaking. His pupils were so gray that they almost looked black. Anger radiated from him in waves

  Emmit didn’t look at Mira or Gabriel. His eyes were locked on the thing that used to be John.

  “Your ward,” Emmit said, “use it and get back. Gabriel, stay with her.” He stepped in front of them, facing John.

  Gabriel seemed conflicted with the order before grabbing Mira’s arm and glaring at Emmit. “We’re going to talk about this.”

  “Later,” Emmit snapped.

  “Drop the gun,” Gabriel said, pulling Mira back.

  Mira let go and gripped her pentagram. Around them, anything not attached to a wall began to rattle.

  “You are weak and pathetic in this world,” Emmit said, fury behind every word. “And you have no right to be here.”

  Gabriel managed to get Mira out of the kitchen, but she refused to let Emmit out of her sight.

  “We belong to thiss world,” John spat in the voice of the creature.

  The atmosphere became charged. Malice clung in the air around them.

  “Leave now!” Emmit yelled.

  Mira felt her own feet want to move away. Emmit’s words felt like an order, much like Gabriel’s had been in the Ethereal Plane. She poured more power into her ward.

  “We want the witch,” the creature said.

  For a brief, hesitant moment, everything in the kitchen went silent. The rattling stopped and Emmit even seemed to stop breathing.

  “No,” Emmit said.

  The apartment erupted. Wind ripped through the rooms, picking up smaller items in its wake. Mira never knew she had so much stuff until it began banging into them from all sides.

  Several voices together screamed, but in a whisper, as though they yelling from a great distance.

  “We’re not far enough away,” Gabriel said.

  Mira barely heard him as the cyclone in her apartment picked up its pace. Her flat screen TV slammed into Gabriel who cursed at the impact.

  “Get down,” Gabriel yelled.

  Emmit and what used to be John stood in the eye of the storm, neither saying a word.

  The screams continued.

  Chanting blew in on the wind. Mira looked to the door, expecting to find the source, but there was nothing there. Individual words couldn’t be heard, but the dark intent was heavy in the air.

  Mira grabbed her arm when her marble mortar tried to fly by, hitting her instead. Gabriel pulled her onto the floor.

  “Get off me!” she yelled, trying to push Gabriel aside.

  The angel didn’t budge. She could still see the back of Emmit, but John was blocked from her view.

  Windows shattered. Glass mixed with the other debris and Mira was forced to shield her face from the hundreds of tiny, razor-sharp pieces of glass joining the maelstrom.

  The apartment wasn’t moving, was it? A larger crash came from the kitchen. Mira chanced looking up, seeing that Emmit still stood in calm air.

  Gabriel pushed her head back down. “Are you crazy?” He put an arm over her head. “We need to find a way out of here.”

  A sound like the tearing of wood joined the wails. The floor shook under them and pressure began to build.

  Mira could sense the base source of the pressure building around Emmit. He was speaking in another language now, but rage and a harsh bite to the words told her it was nothing friendly.

  The worrying part was the tinge of fear that had entered Emmit’s voice.

  Was he losing? Gabriel wouldn’t let her look up, but she didn’t have to. She clung to her ward, squeezed her eyes shut, and concentrated on the circle in the garage below them. Having been called to action recently, the memory of protection still clung to it.

  Without the connection to the ground, it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t force the circle to expand.

  Eyes still shut tight, Mira tried to move toward Emmit, but Gabriel wasn’t exactly light, and he definitely wasn’t cooperative. “I have to get closer to Emmit,” Mira hissed.

  “Not a chance,” Gabriel said.

  “You can’t stop me,” Mira said, pushing against him.

  He was like marble.

  “Look, unless you want to get sucked back into the Ether, I need to get closer to Emmit.”

  She could feel Gabriel’s
hesitation.

  “There’s no time!” Mira was turning frantic as the increase in volume rose and the chanting took on a higher pitch.

  When she struggled forward, Gabriel let her go. She could hear him cursing under his breath, but she continued forward, trying to stay as low to the floor as possible. Stinging bites cut into her arms.

  Gabriel moved up beside her, clearly pissed off. “You have one minute, then we’re out of here.”

  Mira ignored him, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t get any closer to Emmit. When she tried to edge forward, she felt as though someone was grinding her into her carpet.

  Easing back slightly, Mira frantically tried to come up with a new plan. She couldn’t get close enough to put a circle around Emmit in order to connect with the one in the basement.

  But there were other ways.

  She tore her necklace off and wiped her hand down her arm, which was oozing blood. Clutching her ward, she began to draw symbols on the floor. First the pentagram for protection, then her own sigil, rarely used and never shown to others. She ended with a symbol of the Ethereal Plane and slashed through it.

  The wind began to slow. Larger objects dropped. The chorus of chanting became lighter, farther away.

  But the pressure didn’t lift.

  “That’s it,” Gabriel said, “we’re going.”

  “Wait!” It was working; she knew it was. If she had more power, or maybe if she was less worn down.

  Whatever else, she knew she didn’t want to lose Emmit. Whatever he was, whatever he could do, he needed her help and she would do this.

  Gabriel grabbed her arm. “Let’s take the chance while we still have it.” His own blood was running freely in several places.

  Without even thinking about it, she reached out to a cut on his neck, pressing hard until she knew his blood was mingled with her own.

  Using Gabriel’s blood, her protector throughout their journey across the Ether, she slashed through the symbol of the Ether once again.

  The rushing air stopped. There was no slowing to a breeze. Instead, the air froze, deadened, everything fell to the ground, and the pressure lifted. The chanting was gone, but the memory of it still echoed in Mira’s head.

  A screech from the kitchen replaced the noise. Thin, high, loud, and extremely angry, it filled the space. Emmit said a few tight words and the wail ended.

  The lifeless feeling of the room disappeared, leaving them with a normal stillness of slow-moving, shifting air. The smell of burnt hair curled through the freezing room.

  Mira let her head drop and worked to catch her breath. She hadn’t even noticed when she’d lost it. Lying still, she tried to relish in the feeling that she was alive.

  Beside her, she heard Gabriel get to his feet. “What the hell just happened?”

  Mira had no idea if he was directing the comment to her or Emmit, and she couldn’t bring herself to care.

  “Mira?” Emmit’s voice was controlled and stark.

  “I’m okay,” she said, dragging her head up to look Emmit over.

  He was leaning against the wall, looking as out of breath as she was. Taking a moment to close his eyes and lean his head against the wall was the only reaction to what had happened. Except for his clothing, Emmit looked unruffled, and his face was as empty of emotion as his voice.

  “Someone had better tell me what the hell just happened, and now.” Gabriel’s anger seethed out of him.

  “Hell is exactly what happened,” Emmit said, not opening his eyes. “Or was prevented from happening.”

  “I’m going to need to know more than that,” Gabriel said, sounding as though Emmit had taken the wind out of his sails. “Where did that... guy go?”

  When Emmit didn’t answer, Mira took a stab. “I think he went to the same place we were. The Ether.”

  Emmit nodded dully.

  Gabriel looked like a million questions had just come up and he was struggling to pick which one would be first.

  Mira sighed and braced herself before getting to her feet. Even then, she winced and sucked in a sharp breath as red pokers of pain stabbed into her. Emmit was beside her, but she was too tired to feel startled. He began to look her over.

  While he did so, Mira put a tentative hand on his chest. Tattered remains of his sweater clung to him, held to his skin by drying blood.

  He gently moved her hand away, intent on her injuries.

  “I thought you were dead,” Mira said. She shivered as the adrenaline started to wear off and the coldness of the room started to sink in.

  Emmit’s face softened and he started to say something. Then he glanced at Gabriel and seemed to change his mind. “I’ll be okay. You, however, need medical attention.”

  “I’m okay,” Mira said.

  “Huh.” Gabriel shook his head at the obvious lie.

  Her eyes narrowed, but she was too tired to pull off a real glare. “I’ll be okay.”

  “I’ll call this in,” Gabriel said. “An ambulance can pick her up.”

  “Call in what, exactly?” Emmit asked.

  Gabriel’s eyes hardened. “This whole mess.”

  “You’re calling in a rift between dimensions?” Emmit asked.

  “I…” Gabriel stopped and tried again. “An attempted murder.”

  Emmit shook his head. “That would be unwise. This will be taken care of by different means.”

  Crossing her arms and rubbing them to ward off the cold, Mira watched the two of them argue. At this point, she didn’t care what happened. Looking around the room, she had trouble bringing up any remorse over her apartment either. The only thing that broke through the fuzziness that threatened to swamp her mind was the fact that she had drawn symbols on her carpet in her own blood.

  Then it hit her. She had also used Gabriel's blood. She sighed and rubbed her head, thinking about the consequences of taking someone’s blood and using it in a spell without permission. With a human, it wouldn’t matter, not really, anyway. Saving the person’s life would cancel that out, but an angel’s blood? She wasn't too sure of what the consequences of that would be.

  “I’m sorry, Gabriel,” Mira said, interrupting whatever they were saying.

  Both men looked up at her and Mira waved at the ground.

  “I didn’t ask,” she said as way of explanation.

  Gabriel looked confused, but Emmit knew exactly what she meant.

  “You don’t have to worry about the repercussions,” Emmit said, taking her hand. “Gabriel would never begrudge that if you used it as a way to protect yourself.” Then he frowned. “You are freezing.” Emmit checked his watch. “They’ll be here in less than two minutes.”

  “Maybe because he doesn’t really understand what I did,” Mira said, watching Gabriel. “And who is they?”

  “As far as anyone else knows,” Emmit said, “John arrived and attacked you. When Gabriel arrived to tell you about your shop, John fled.”

  Mira nodded.

  “It’s important that only the three of us know,” Emmit pressed.

  “I get it,” Mira said. “What would I even say? Something came here from the Ether? Della and Tyler would both freak out and try to get to know more.”

  “You’ve seen Tyler?” Emmit asked.

  “Not in a few days.” Mira said. “That’s why I went to see Gabriel in the first place.”

  Through the open door, sounds of boots on the wooden staircase blew in with the frigid air.

  “I need a moment with them,” Emmit said to Mira, “then you and I will leave.”

  “She’ll need to be questioned,” Gabriel said.

  “We’ll stay close by,” Emmit said.

  “Della will know things aren’t right if she sees me like this,” Mira said.

  “Lance’s is only a few blocks away. We can wait there,” Emmit said. He raised a hand to the three men that appeared in the doorway, motioning them to stop.

  Mira was too tired to feel any real panic, but she managed to remain leery. “I�
�m bleeding. I don’t think Lance will appreciate that, or me, after he sees me.”

  Emmit smiled and squeezed her hand. “You don’t need to worry about him.”

  “Who’s Lance?” Gabriel asked.

  “We’ll go over together,” Emmit said, ignoring the question. “It may be best for you to stay a few days. This will be a crime scene after all.”

  “What about Alchemy and Oracle?” Mira’s hand flew to her mouth when she realized she hadn’t seen the cats since John had entered the apartment. She looked around frantically and moved towards her bedroom.

  “Don’t!” Gabriel shouted at her.

  Mira only looked at him, confused.

  “The glass,” he sighed.

  She rubbed her forehead. “But—”

  “I’ll grab your shoes,” Gabriel said, looking hopelessly around the debris.

  Emmit started talking to the men at the door. Once he had passed Mira her shoes, Gabriel stood over Emmit’s shoulder.

  Mira went straight to her bedroom, the last place she had seen her cats. Now that she had a focus, she moved with purpose. She was relieved to find that her bedroom hadn’t sustained as much damage as the main rooms.

  When Mira called for the cats, she heard a mewling that she hadn’t heard since Alchemy and Oracle were kittens. Dropping to the floor, she lifted the bed skirt, and found two frightened sets of eyes peering out at her.

  Mira reached under the bed. “Are you two okay?” Even though she stretched her arms as far as she could, she couldn’t reach the cats. “Come here. Alchemy, Oracle, come here.”

  They only stared at her. Mira knew that the cats understood her magic, but what happened tonight was something beyond anything either of them had ever seen. She didn’t blame them for staying hidden.

  While discussion went on in the other room, Mira stayed put and talked to Alchemy and Oracle, until she could finally coax them out from under the bed. When Mira sat up, they both laid on her lap. She stroked their fur until they were calm, even though she could tell that neither was happy.

  Someone had placed a pet carrier in the room with her coat on top. Neither Alchemy nor Oracle fussed about going in the carrier, which spoke volumes about how unhappy they were about what was going on. Apparently, they were as ready as she was to leave this nightmare.

  Mira hunted down a change of clothes and a few other things, tossing them in an overnight bag. Emmit was waiting for her at the door.