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

WILL

Darren finally came out of his coma today.

Turns out this other ‘brother’ of his is not of blood relation to him. Rather, he was turned by the same couple -- the Silvets. His parents finally stepped forward and admitted none of their so-called children were born to them.

They were simply turned by them and taken in as orphans as most vampire families are created.

It may as well be called legalized kidnapping, no longer allowed of course. Long ago, the humans and our kind agreed to allow them to keep the ones they turned rather than attempt to wipe them all out.

They are not to be turning anyone now, they can only be born. In order for a human to turn it takes more than a bite, they must drink the vampire’s blood.

The vampires are under strict rule, no turning humans or other supernaturals. By law, they are to only feed from animals. We all have seen evidence otherwise, walk into any bar and you’re bound to see a couple humans with scarred over bite marks. Leftover from the sloppy feeders, smarter vampires know well to hide their evidence.

Some humans wear the scars like tattoos.

I turn my gaze away from Darren’s bite mark he left on my little sister’s neck. She doesn’t even care at this point to hide it, she’s been too busy fussing over Darren. Now that he’s awake, I can’t say I wouldn’t mind putting him back to sleep, forever.

If he turns her, I won’t be the only one coming for him.

Darren Silvet’s entire body is covered in white bandages, except his face. Crystal cries, seeing he’s regained his consciousness finally. That’s the only reason I’m still in this stuffy, crowded room with my parents.

“Where is he?” I chew out, not waiting for my parents’ permission to speak to the scum.

Crystal glares at me. She hides her head in Darren’s chest. Stiffly, he pats her head and I roll my eyes. He doesn’t love her, he’s using her.

My father stands next me, holding a stake behind his back in case Darren tries anything. You never know with vamps.

Meanwhile, my mother is trying to pry Crystal away from Darren.

“Don’t touch me!” Crystal yells at our mom.

Mom flinches away at her shrill voice.

“Where is the necromancer?” my father barks out, growing impatient with the vampire we’ve sheltered here behind the rest of the coven’s back.

If we didn’t nurse him back to health, he would have died without the amount of pig blood flowing into his IV.

“H-he’s hiding...police,” Darren finishes and his eyes flutter closed.

I knew it. Of course this brother of his would have joined the police force.

Dad looks at me. “Tell the chief the coven has ordered him to find the rat. I want you there when he interrogates them, do not tell the headmistress until you find the Silvet son we are looking for.”

It doesn’t take me long to get to the police station. I park on the street and jump out of my truck, marching up to the large building with the weight of the coven on my back. They are depending on me, so are the humans and most of all, Valerie.

“Oh, sir, you are not permitted past this area,” a policeman announces.

His eyes are as black as his vampire soul. He kind of reminds me of an angry bald worm with that buzzed-cut hair of his too.

Thankfully, we’re not stuck in World War ll like this vamp thinks we are. Otherwise, I’d gather the man a nazi with his pointed stare and the symbol printed on the side of his neck.

He reeks of evil more than anyone else in this circus.

The burly vampire blocks my way down the hallway leading to the chief’s office and I scoff at the poser. It makes me wonder if they’ve actually begun to spare some criminal’s lives and turn them instead of draining them dry.

“You and the rest of the cockroaches here belong six feet under. Now, get out of my way. I have business here with the human you’ve glamoured into providing your own sick fantasy world.”

A high stack of papers on the lobby of the front desk topples over, the papers scattering all over the floor due to my magic being put off by his presence.

“Bring him back here, Heinrich,” I hear the chief command from his office. With a smirk, the vampire, Heinrich, drags me by the shoulder with an iron grip.

He walks me to the human hiding in the office furthest down the busy hallway of the police station.

The brute pushes me into the room with enough force to send me crashing to the ground. Instead, I slam into the edge of the police chief’s desk. My hands grasp the desk, keeping me from flying across it.

Angrily, I sit down in my seat as Heinrich shuts the doors and leaves the two of us.

With a half grin, he stands up and silences his blaring police radio.

“William McCaster, how can I be of help?” he asks.

“I’m sure you know of the necromancer we are dealing with. We now have narrowed down our search and it has brought us here. I was told to interview your entire unit, with your compliance of course.”

He should be very nervous right now.

Malice dances in those watchful eyes. “That brother y'all are lookin’ for is innocent. The necromancer has yet to appear. Ya have forgotten, my team is just as involved in this search as y’all. We have enough evidence to take Patricia Gild to prison, with her settin’ those houses on fire and all. But ya wouldn’t know anythin’ ’bout that, would ya?”

Patricia would never kill humans like that just to earn money when she already has a successful business. I swallow hard, Valerie had admitted to me before her own worries about the headmistress using her to bait the necromancer out of hiding. I wanted to pin the necromancer as one of the Silvets. If there really is another person out there then we are all in a lot of trouble.

“How do you know he is innocent?” I spit back.

The dim lighting in here hides half of officer Nick Dupont’s face in shadow when he leans back into his seat.

Then I see something he doesn’t want me to. I can’t help it, my magic has been itching to be released since I walked into this death trap. It crashes against his aura, but of course the officer has no idea. Only witches can see magic.

His aura flickers for the briefest of seconds, just long enough to give himself away.

It’s enough to send me lunging for his throat and I do. Jumping over his desk, I grip his throat while reaching in my coat to pull out my hidden weapon.

Stake in hand and my other free hand on his throat, I go to plunge it into his heart. For a minute, he struggles against me and then goes still. His muscles relax and for a moment, I think I’ve got him. Then his grimace turns into a small, creepy smile.

Why isn’t he dead? I plunged it right into where is heart should be. He rips the piece of wood from his police vest and I realize too late it’s bulletproof. Along with that, stake-proof too. No wonder they all still wear vests.

His vampire fangs appear as he snaps the stake in two, chucking the pieces onto the floor.

Then it’s like everything comes crashing down, his yellow aura completely disappears to be replaced by a dark crimson one. He uses his inhuman strength to send me flying across the room and banging my back against the wall near the door.

The door of his office opens suddenly and Heinrich body slams me to the ground before I can send a counter-attack against the vicious vampire in charge. He must be a pretty old one too, to be able to mask his aura for so long.

Heinrich vanishes into thin air and reappears by the vampire’s side, who I’m now guessing is his maker.

“You done broke the law doin' what you did just now, Mr. McCaster," the vampire articulates. "I’m held by my own jurisdiction to see to it ya receive proper punishment. We can’t have supernaturals tryin' to kill one another. What kind of example would that be settin' for the public?” he asks me quietly.

He circles around me as I sit glaring up at him, powerless.

“What will you bloodsuckers do, huh? I know your his brother, you gave yourself away."

“We vampires do not hold such sentimental feelings to those we grow up with. Unfortunately, Darren is not my blood brother nor was I sired by that married couple. I’m afraid y'all have regrettably confused me for someone else,” the tall vampire sighs.

What? He has to be lying. He looks just like Darren’s father!

“What do you want with Valerie? I saw you talking to her before. You are after the white witch aren’t you? I can see right through you,” I growl out, focusing on my bigger concerns.

He leans back in his large black leather chair. “Tell you what Mr. McCaster, I’ll pretend this little act of yours didn’t happen and you know what? I’ll even let you go."

He sits on that thing like it’s his throne. He the king and I the peasant.

“For what?” I retort.

The vampire looks at the clock above the door of his office. His stare drops down to his desk and he adjusts the collar of his shirt. Clasping his hands on his desk, a faraway look grows on his face.

All business, he looks back down at me.

He speaks as if amused by my predicament, “Your cooperation because what I am about to tell you are not going to like. You witches bring trouble upon yourselves. We found money in that supposed portal of yours. We have video evidence of Patricia Gild setting her own townhouses on fire, she couldn’t get her residents who wouldn’t payout. So she decided to take an easier way out, burn the buildings down and collect insurance. She is being taken into custody as we speak. Your coven is crumbling apart. I wonder, who will take her place when she leaves?”

“The headmistress would not kill those innocent people!” I argue, remembering my friend’s funeral.

The vampire strides over to a file cabinet and pulls out a big yellow envelope.

He empties the contents of it onto the floor and stoops down to pick up a CD. Heinrich yanks me to my feet, forcing me to watch the flat screen in the top right corner of the office.

The screen turns blue then a scene unfolds, Patricia walking down the street and chanting spells in the dead of night. Bright orange fire, everywhere. She looks like a demon walking through her own flames and setting more and more houses on fire.

“It can’t be,” I mumble feeling backstabbed by the woman who claims to protect us.

“Will, let’s be rational. The woman runs around all day making accusations, she preys on the innocent for her own greed. She is afraid, terrified. She has become what she has feared."

“A demon,” I say slowly with realization.

He steps closer to me while Heinrich handcuffs me.

“Purify her,” he commands me in a low voice, his face hard with focus.

Heinrich drags me out of the room and everything seems to happen in slow motion. I stare down at the back of the chief’s steeled-toed boots as he leads us out and to the right of his office and around a bend in the hall. He pushes open a set of gray double doors and two cops unlock a heavy door.

We walk through and enter a room with bars blocking the occupier’s escape.

The headmistress gets up from her seat on the bench looking relieved to see me. Her red hair looks like a rat’s nest and her neon orange jumpsuit looks surreal on her tall lanky frame.

“You killed my best friend,” I grit out feeling vengeful.

She’s too much a coward to defend herself, but her eyes widen in panic when I send a wave of my magic against her own shield of magic that protects her. It doesn’t even fracture her ward and my anger boils.

She cackles, her greasy long red hair hiding her face.

“His screams were music to my ears,” she says in a heavy, ragged breath as if reliving the memory.

Has she gone insane or has she always been like this?

A blue spark snaps and crackles in front of her face and I focus all my concentration on it. It grows into the size of a basketball and then raises up above her head-the weakest point in her ward. During her laughing fit she gave me an opening.

"Cadere!" I yell commanding the entirety of my magic to fall on her head.

I had condensed as much as I could and it worked, forcing Patricia’s ward to collapse. Her body slumps to the ground, dead. The weight of my magic much like that of a bowling ball falling over her quite violently.

Her lifeless body begins to bleed from the impact of hitting the ground so hard and I turn around to see the vampire chief holding Heinrich’s neck like a dog owner refraining its pet from attacking.

“What have I done?”

The police captain guides me out of the room. “A favor. In return, your attacking me will be kept from the rest of your people and we will continue to cooperate.”

I know he is the one who attacked Darren, blood brother or not.

He wouldn’t have done that if he wasn’t hiding anything. Since I didn’t find his aura tainted by black magic, I know he isn’t the necromancer. The head mistress’s aura wasn’t tainted either.

The necromancer is still out there.

I cannot believe I just killed the headmistress, my magic should not have been capable of overpowering her so easily. Only old warlocks and witches like my parents would have been capable of knowing if she was indeed truly possessed.

I acted too quickly, I let my emotions get the better of me. Foolishly, I may have mistakenly murdered our headmistress. It is something I will have to live with, something I will be in an awful lot of trouble for if the others find out.

“Don’t look so worried. We will release the news to the public in due time. I’ll make sure to form a good excuse to save your reputation.” He informs me sounding pleased.

“No, no...! I didn’t want to kill her. You glamoured me!”

The vampire’s carefree composure falters a little as he stiffens. “Do not insult me. I would never bite the likes of you or spare you a drop of my blood. You acted on your own free will, Will,” he chides.

“You’re just another Silvet. Do not pretend you are concerned with bringing peace and balance to our community. You’re not fooling anyone.”

“Heinrich, please escort Mr. McCaster out of the building and get this mess cleaned up. Oh and Mr. McCaster?”

“What?” I huff.

“You better be careful how you speak of the white witch. She has feelings too you know.”

When I glance back into the jail cell though it’s empty and I make a grunt of outrage. He wanted me to kill her so he wouldn’t have to and that’s exactly what I did.

Maybe it’s my possessive boyfriend instincts that make me paranoid. How could I forget catching him ogling Val right after the ice cream incident?

He was talking to her while she was in her car. He knows or he at least has to suspect, she is the white witch. He looked like he was ready to jump in there with her, but I kept my mouth shut.

I don’t want to scare her any more than she already is. If her and the rest of the coven not knowing what went on here will prevent that so be it. Nicholas Dupont may have succeeded in manipulating me, but if I catch him near Valerie again he’s as good as dead.