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

Will told me he didn’t know anything about Patty being resurrected and now he’s holding an entire meeting with the coven and high council. They all are going through a truth test right now. He hasn’t gone back to his apartment yet, but when he sees the door broken down I’m sure I’ll be getting another call. That is, if Marcella hasn’t already told him what happened.

Stella, Crystal and I are doing our best efforts to protect the house so Patty can’t get in again. While she was disguised as Marcella, she must have managed to aid in helping craft the ward around our home. So Stella had to break it and we put up our own one with just the three of us.

I was reluctant to use my magic to help with the new ward because technically my magic is still conjoined to Nick. When I told Stella and Crystal that he wouldn’t be in town anymore and about what happened last night, they didn’t seem to mind.

Well, I guess Crystal wasn’t very accepting of the idea, but I had to let the cat out of the bag. Crystal seemed very disturbed by my magic being conjoined to a vampire hybrid. Stella probably felt the same inside too, but I think she’s finally coming to terms with me about the vampires. Now Stella and Crystal both know about Nick’s situation and the devil connecting the two of us together. I know Stella will keep it secret, she has been all this time. I hope Crystal will too.

I can’t pretend the legend isn’t taking root in my life, but I will literally be damned if I don’t do anything to avoid it being fulfilled. If not by the devil, then by Patty. And honestly, at this point, I don’t know which would be worse. I just need to take things day by day. There has to be some way out of it, but I need to be careful and do the devil’s will in the meantime while I come up with a plan.

Stella and I cut open more bags of salt. Crystal’s emptying out her bag over the front porch. I took care of the back porch, but I’m going to help Stella finish the sides around the house too. We already put salt on the windowsills inside too just as a precaution. The salt we are infusing with clover, alfalfa, and wheatgrass -- all of them have protective purposes we use our magic to extract from and transfer into the salts. The salts have a dull greenish tint due to the remnants of the plants we chopped up and boiled in a big pot in the kitchen. We let the liquid cool and then infused it into the salts with our magic.

It kind of smells like a blend of mowed lawn and moldy hay in the house, but it’s better than the smell the candles the coven left in here.

Stella and I carry our salt bowls outside. I let the grains pour onto the dead grass by the wall of the house and Stella pours her salt along the side of the house in the opposite direction as me. We meet up in the front and then go back inside with Stella.

“Where are you going?” Stella asks me seeing me pull on my black corduroy silver button-up jacket.

“Work.” I sigh.

“Work?! My mother was here yesterday! You can’t go anywhere-”

“Stella, I’m not going to let that stop me from pursuing a normal life. She won’t come after me so soon anyway. She knows she’s already exposed herself.” I explain calmly.

“Alright, but I’m going over to their meeting. I’ll make sure they are making progress on finding her. I also have a few words I’d like to share with William and Marcella too. You can’t let him walk all over you like this Val. Aren’t you angry too?” Stella questions.

“I’m really sorry about Will, Val,” Crystal chimes in and continues, “I’ll go with Stella too. It really wasn’t like him to do this. Maybe he really was just offering Marcella a place to stay.”

Stella rolls her eyes and I offer a soft smile, hoping she’s right. That’s exactly what Will told me over the phone about it all because I ended up having to explain how Nick and I found Marcella in his apartment. I understand she may have needed a place to stay, but why wouldn’t he have bothered telling me about it while we were together? I’m more worried about Marcella’s influence over him because ever since she showed up in town, Will has been a lot more distant.

“It was exactly like him!” Stella retorts and I cringe at the iciness of her tone.

“Please don’t fight and...try not to cause any trouble with the coven. I get off tonight at five so I’ll bring home dinner.” I tell them gently.

I’m not really too sure about leaving the two of them alone, but at the sound of food they seem satisfied and somewhat more eat ease with eachother.

“Can you get us Chinese? I could really go for some general tso’s.” Stella pipes in and I nod with a grin as I step out the door.

_______________________________________

Yansmen

Today, the youth have finally arrived to be indoctrinated into our new society. The governor insisted this be so for his vision aligns with savior’s being the vampire hybrid he is. I wasn’t the one who concealed his aura, another hybrid did. He’s given us a hefty donation and Noctus took the offer even though we didn’t necessarily need the funds. However, we do need to keep the governor happy since he backed Noctus during his trial’s.

The governor knew our father back in the days of war.

A new stained-glass portrait was implemented in the back of the altar with a giant mural of goddess today. Below it, on a table, is where we’ve been placing our offerings in a large silver bowl.

No longer are we safe conversing in the native language of the people of this town. The boss has covered for our goddess too much and drawn more unwanted attention from the coven. So now when we communicate in here, we only do it mentally. Most of the talking is done by Noctus and Heinrich since they have the strongest blood bond over us.

Das ist deine göttin, Heinrich’s voice echos in my mind more for the sake of the new youths who need an idea of what their goddess, Valerie, looks like.

Heinrich stands behind a wooden podium in the center of the elevated altar. Behind him to the left savior sits with his head resting against the support of a closed fist. He appears bored, but really he is focusing on influencing our brains to understand the meaning of Heinrich’s language. Soon, it won’t be necessary and our minds will automatically understand the language. Because of the boss using the blood bond at such an immense intensity, none of us can break away our attention from Heinrich’s speech. Our brains may as well be locked in a steel trap and he holds the key.

The stained glass mural is the point of our focus and until savior wishes will our attention leave it. His magic looms between the rows of pews we sit on making us content with the scent of blood while we listen to Heinrich continue blabbering on and on about Valerie.

Once they have passed their course of allegiance to our cause, the new youth will be adopted into our police force as new recruits. It is true we are many in number now. So not all of them will be joining our police force at the station.

Most of them will reside in this building to congregate in our planning of ideas for our future with our own exclusive community we will soon establish come this nearing fall or as the witches refer to it, Samhain. Most of the vampires, women and men alike, are around my age and are recent graduates of college. A few are younger having recently graduated high school.

They all have history of being troublemakers in their education systems whether it be inciting violence or hate. Our state prisons are unwilling to accept our kind with their humans and the coven has their own privately owned prisons. We vampires usually don’t go to prison for our crimes and either receive death or placement in ‘camps’ under watch of the high council. They call them rehabilitation centers and for the younger vampires like us they call them juvenile detention centers. This group of the youth was handpicked by the governor to arrive here due to the overcrowded juvy centers in our state.

Our church will be the perfect place to house them especially since it used to run a Catholic academy in our father’s first life. There are two wings for them to occupy as their own. They will live a strict military-style lifestyle until the day of reckoning comes where their discipline will be put to use.

When our meeting concludes, each of the youth takes their turn doing their vow to our god and goddess by way of a blood oath to our savior. The blood is placed into the offering bowl to symbolize our faith in our goddess and Noctus. Once they complete their blood oath, they each receive an officer’s uniform and have their name added to a list. Then I have to print their Wixton Police Department IDs over at the station.

After the new recruits all receive their uniforms, they disperse and talk with one another while eating the delivered cake our supplier, Colin Wallace, brought over for tonight. He leans up against the banquet table eating a blood infused chocolate cream pudding pie.

Noctus departs from the buzzing crowd of new recruits over by the altar with his attention pointedly on Heinrich. Not long after, the two of them wave me over and we exist the church to check up on our sacrifice.

_______________________________________

Mr. Silvet

The ground is mushy beneath my muddy shoes. The forest is quiet around me mind the witches trudging around the dead, tall bald cypress trees surrounding me. They move like phantoms through and between the gaps in the old trees of the swamp. Their identities are carefully hidden behind the shadows of their cloaks.

I’m not sure why they bothered tying me to this tree with such a large anti-magic strap bound about my waist. I’m not a user of the craft. As a vampire, I did not receive a trial when they found someone had broken into the demon witch’s home. They came for me in the night and brought me out here, away from town and more importantly the humans. I’m sure they intend to keep this little act of theirs hidden.

If they believe my soul is truly of the devil they wouldn’t have taken me out here in such a remote location to execute me. Indeed, this is a public execution that the law stands behind them on. The law is pitted against me though and there is no use arguing my case at this point. The entirety of the coven is not present here, where their numbers are far and few between. Only their new headmistress and a handful of other coven members are here to attend my murder.

“Devil worshipper...you shall burn for your heinous crimes against our kind.” The witch in charge gloats while raising a long pointy fingernail in my direction.

The wind picks up a little and she approaches me with the only three other witches present behind her. Suddenly, the witches behind her drop to the ground as they begin to summon a good amount of their craft to initiate my execution.

A circle of fire ripples over the ground around me and I gulp remembering my first unpleasant death by the hands of that wicked McCaster boy. This time they rather make me suffer than give me a stake to the heart. Well, I’ve been in hell and I’ve felt more pain than these flames are capable of inflicting.

Hell changed me. I saw so many of my own kind roaming about there. However, not a single witch did I find suffering alongside me in my misery. In my first life, I had hoped my good deeds and teachings would lead me away from the depths of purgatory. I lived my life hating my son, but fate would have it I would come to see him surpass me in my second life.

Fate would have it also, he strive to fulfill the legend eventually and win my approval to make these witches live a hell on earth seeing they get to skip torment and enter into the other realm in death. In hell, I had offered my body over to the devil and in my new life I willingly played my part to get my son where he needs to be. To avenge me and our fallen kindred before me.

We have always been the superior race and they have yet to learn their lesson. My blood will be spilled tonight, but I possess a life beyond that they can destroy. For my body is his, and his is mine. We are one and the same now. No amount of their craft can truly destroy me.

My son’s blood will be called onto me again and again. However many times it takes until every last witch in this damned town learns their place. Long ago, I fought a war over similar matters. Witch blood is thin and weak, just like their minds.

The flames start to scald the flesh of my ankles and I squirm, but remain silent. The circle of flames draws nearer and nearer to me. Soon enough, the fire closes in on me and the witches begin to cackle.

One witch, in particular, remains silent.

Her black hair all of the sudden blends in with the fire around her. Now that is interesting. This bodily form has kept me from seeing through her little concealment. I’m good at keeping secrets, but I’m afraid hers won’t last long.

“Behold my sisters, the demon spawn who murdered my sister. The great devil who possessed a child of our coven to fulfill the dirty deed of murdering me. He has tainted the minds of our own people and bent them to his will. No more.”

Does this witch think her sins will go unnoticed? In her death, she was sent to the other realm and lived in luxury. It brings me great joy to know in her life I will bring her such misery in just a few months. I know all her secrets, her desires, her everything. Her greed ruled her heart in her life. Yet, she paid no price in her afterlife. She walks again not because of my hand, but that of her people. Her people have broken their own rules in an attempt to avenge her.

What fun would it be to expose her immediately? My witch will eventually do that for me because she already knows of Patricia’s trick herself. It will only bring her nearer to my son and to my cause. A necessary happening needed for my return.

They can watch me burn for now.

Tonight, their torment begins and until their day of reckoning, this Hallows Eve, they will know true pain. Every knee will bow before me, but by then it will be too late for them. My demons will have snagged away their souls. I wouldn’t be here without my little loyal witch.

I promised her loyalty would be rewarded. Her life and a few friends of her choosing will be spared on my return. My son and her will open a certain portal to let my little pets out for play.

A new order will be created. My seed has been planted and my witch already harvests it for me.

It was not by my hand she came alive or by my son’s. Even in the purest of hearts is locked away a hidden desire. It is true my son is not my chosen one for my witch, but he is needed for my return. I will give a different lover for my witch knowing my son will be incapable of caring for my seed and witc. For he is innately tempted to disobey me given such things. He has already braved to do it once before and I will not be crossed twice!

After all, he already knows of who I selected to awaken my witch. He already knows who had desired her before him and who got to awaken his goddess. It is the very reason he turned the mortal without my permission and implanted a new mindset within him. So he could control and oversee the mortal in case the forgotten love was rekindled. It is the very reason he had my witch face death twice so he could awaken her himself!

To his disdain, I had already picked a mortal with a dull past and found it hilarious to use her childhood friend for the task. The mortal had grown out of his desire for my witch with her passing in death. Time went on and he fell for another witch. So I did not think my follower would be peeved by my decision of a mortal to awaken her, but he grew jealous and even now plans to use me to reap the rewards of the coming new order along with my witch.

He has forgotten I am all knowing and no amount of deception he pulls will go by unnoticed. He can have his little witch for now, but he will regret it. I could use Colin Wallace’s forgotten infatuation with my witch or better...perhaps let another human enter her heart.

My son is a tool and when my destiny is fulfilled by him and my witch, he will become less interested in her anyway. To ensure it, she will stay in the inbetween for eternity with a handpicked new lover I choose to keep her satisfied. Then, once they are separated, my son will quickly forget about her and resume being my willful follower as he should. He is the vessel of my beliefs and needs to handle the new order so I don’t have to.

After all I have other souls to torment and more towns to play with; I never stay in one place for too long.

This bodily form is no fun anymore and when I’m in it, it can prove a hindrance. I will be back in it soon if my son calls onto me, but it is unlikely knowing him. He will want me gone with this body and gone I will be, but I will be waiting.

His true desire is to fulfill his dreamed destiny and whether he wishes to admit it or not, that destiny can only happen with my help.

When the last of my temporary body burns to ash, I depart in search of another soul to torment until my son calls onto me once more.