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

Tom rubs his neck. He’s probably embarrassed from the spill. I stand up and wipe the beer off my stool. I’m still wet, but it’d be crummy if I didn’t dry the seat and let someone else sit on it. I’m glad for the darkness of the room because no one will be able to see the beer stain in here anyway.

It’s freezing and unfortunately, I was sitting under the air conditioning coming down from the ceiling for the past two hours since Stella and I arrived. I’m a little colder now since the beer spilled on me. His trucker jacket feels itchy when he places it over my shoulders. I mutter a “thanks” feeling the heavy fabric weigh me down a little.

We part from the bar and head into the back of the spacious, rowdy room. A few pool tables are situated in the back. I find Stella watching the game Colin’s joined in on already. I meet her over in a lounge chair while watching the game with her from afar as Tom walks over joining in the game.

Stella swirls her pinkie finger in her half-empty glass of alcohol. “This is nice, want a drink? I was about to head back to the bar. I’ll grab you something.”

“Sure, just grab me whatever. I’m not feeling picky.”

Or thirsty much either, but I can tell she’s itching to get up from her seat. I’m a little annoyed Colin isn’t spending time with her and instead his buddies, but so is Tom. It’s just a game, but going by the amount of empty glasses accompanying Stella she’s been sitting here alone for some time.

Her glaring at Colin’s back is a pretty good indicator too of her mood. Not to mention the pretty brunette chatting him up right now. “Stella-” I start to say seeing her head over to the pool table.

I jump feeling something playfully pull my hair from behind my chair.

“It’s just me,” Tom says. His mask his off now letting me see his small sweet smile. “We haven’t hit the dance floor yet.”

“Alright!” I laugh while shrugging off his jacket.

I’ve never really danced with him yet, but I don’t think I can call this dancing. Other people are starting to notice too and I can’t really blame them. It’s not a slow song that’s playing. It’s club music, upbeat and blaring loud. Even if it was a slow song I don’t think his touch would be appropriate. I don’t even know if I can call it a “touch”.

His hand hasn’t abandoned its post doing rounds over my lower back and butt. I don’t think he’s ever even touched me like this at home. It doesn’t feel right in a place like this...or at all right now for that matter.

“Tom, you can’t grope me like this...people are staring.”

He still hasn’t bothered opening his eyes. “What?” he mumbles.

My face turns red seeing Will enter the crowd, but he hasn’t noticed us yet. I tug Tom’s arm leading him away from the dance floor. He isn’t walking fast enough. It feels like he’s doing it on purpose too. He probably was having a good time, but it was sort of uncomfortable for me and if Will would have came up to us...

“Let’s sit over here,” Tommy says while reclaiming his seat on the stool. I sit down on the other side of him -- avoiding the sticky stool he spilled beer on earlier. “Can I get the hot wings and...” he tells the lady behind the bar. He looks at me, but I don’t know what I want to eat.

In a hurry, I pick up the small menu ignoring the large man sitting on the other side of me who reeks of alcohol. “I’ll have a burger.”

“Me too.” Tom echos.

He slides his mask back over his face while standing up. “I’ll be back. I’m going to catch up with an old friend. I’ll only be a minute.”

“Okay!” I holler above the noise around us.

I prop my chin on my hand while feeling my stomach turn queasy. At first, I think its the curse mark acting up, but when I hear my stomach growl I get a different inkling. It grumbles again and I stand up gripping the counter tightly.

I didn’t even eat anything. Ugh. I abandon the bar and clumsily make my way towards the seedy restroom in the very back without seeing anyone I know. The bathroom is very small with only two stalls that barely seem to be holding themselves up. The one I’m in is ducked taped to the wall on the one side. Several words are carved into the cheap plastic entertaining me while I do my business. When I finish relieving myself, I walk out of the stall to wash my hands.

My face looks greyish in the mirror’s reflection. The beer stain on my dress looks like a gross brown now in this lighting in here.

I hear the toilet flush beside me as I continue checking myself in the mirror. Heels click as the person exits the stall.

“Erma!” I exclaim in shock seeing the elderly aunt of Tom’s hobble around me to reach the sink.

A cute smile forms on her cracked, thin lips as she washes her hands looking up at me in the mirror’s reflection.

“Thomas make me come. He think I have nothing to do,” Erma begins while hugging her white shawl around her tiny frame. She leans in toward me while reaching for a paper towel. “You smell nice, dear.”

“Oh, thank you...”

I scrunch my eyebrows looking up at the moldy tiled ceiling when a draft of warm air washes over me. They really need to work on the heating system in here. One moment I’m frozen, the next they blast the heat.

Scrawny, sweaty fingers latch onto my elbow lightly. My heart plummets when I see in the dark corner of the bathroom the tall silhouette of a woman. The lights brighten around us, flickering in and out as time slows. Stella’s face is flushed, her pale hand covers the crook of her neck. A drunken smile lingers on her face as my mouth forms an “o” in horror at the sight.

It’s now that I notice the blood smeared across the floor that Erma and I have been unknowingly tracking around in here. I try to shake Erma’s hold off, but when she triples in height I go still seeing her wrinkled skin explode as a new figure of blood condenses into the shape of a man. A tall man with a buzz cut and dark sharp eyes peers down at me as his police uniform of blood solidifies into a smelly material-like outfit of dark red.

“I sorry, but I could not wait. I did not want trick you. Can I have drink?”

I’m still trying to keep my sanity after witnessing Heinrich...reform. “Y-you already had enough,” I stammer while watching him lick his lips. He won’t quit staring at the throbbing bite mark on my neck. “You hurt Stella.”

He waves his arm in dismissal. “No, no, no. She not hurt. It feels good, look.”

I did look and I’m fairly certain the only reason she hasn’t fallen over dead, going off the amount of her blood on the floor, is because he fed her his own. Stella’s lips are caked in it and her eyes clamped closed as she mumbles incoherently in some kind of sleepy trance. She looks peaceful, but I doubt Heinrich bothered taking her opinion into account before drinking from her.

I hear the bathroom door open behind me before I can form a response. Tom looks at me apologetically. I tap my foot anxiously seeing him stay by the door looking between Heinrich and me. Tom’s stare remains on the vampire.

It darkens uncharacteristically as sharp crackles and pops resound from him as his body explodes just like “Erma’s” did. He grows a few inches until his head is well above mine like Heinrich’s.

The blood hardens around his form just like Heinrich’s did. I cover my mouth watching his skin remain a solid black as the whites of his bones shine through beneath. The pearl color makes his blue eyes pop against the white bones of his skull along with his dark blonde hair.

I lower my gaze to the gross tiles of the floor. “You both tricked me.”

“It was not wise for us to walk around openly right away. I’m afraid we both are parched and in need of your blood so we can conceal ourselves better.”

I scoff thinking them no better than the children...our children. Always wanting my blood and whining when I try to make them use more moral methods of feeding themselves. Cow blood apparently doesn’t taste as good as mine. My hands are still covered in bruises from their feeding. I’m not letting either of these two so much as get a drop of my blood.

They owe me a better explanation. However, they probably never intended to tell me the truth and it hurts.

“I thought you didn’t want to see me again? You came to me last week, remember? I don’t know how you’re alive, but I don’t care. Look at what you’ve done.” Strangely, I feel like this isn’t the first time I’m bringing this up though.

Nick clicks his tongue after glancing at Heinrich. I feel like they’re talking behind my back with their mindlink since his response to my question his so delayed.

“I have not visited you until now. I told you I would come to you soon as I was in the flesh. Someone is pretending to be me, I can’t say I’m happy by the idea. We’ll find them, but right now, I want to know why you turned me into a snake as your farewell.”

“A snake? I wouldn’t know anything about that,” I lie while crossing my arms. Stella needs help right now, I don’t have time for this. “You must have shifted on your own.”

Nick smiles while closing the distance between us. “I know I’ve upset you, but I wasn’t exactly in a position to defend myself. I apologize for my delay in arrival, but I didn’t exactly have many options,” he defends looking at ease. “The werewolves are a bigger problem right now. Jackson is alpha and wants you as his mate.”

I can’t hide my laugh. Mate? The werewolves really do reduce themselves to animals I guess. Why on earth does Jackson even want me of all people? I stiffen a little feeling Nick chuckle against me as he hugs me without asking. I want to be annoyed, but I can’t fight against it when I feel the soothing warmth of our conjoined magic radiate between us like a blissful cacoon.

“No hoard to self. Goddess promised to give me taste first,” Heinrich boasts while placing his hands on his hips.

I gape at his ridiculous claim. “I did not p-promise you anything!” I whisper-yell. It only makes his snarky smile widen.

I grit my teeth after Nick pulls away from kissing the bite mark on my neck. It was a tender kiss, but something about it made me feel like he was testing me. It was also kind of aggressive since he didn’t really give me a chance to breathe in my own space since he entered the room.

I feel like I’m suffocating in here with the two of them. It rubs me the wrong way. Quite literally too with his hand roaming over my lower back and bottom. New energy stirs deep within me making me feel more attached to him than I should feel.

I glare into his chest knowing fully well he hasn’t just brought back himself, but our magic that I never wanted to begin with.

He didn’t ask before returning my magic to me. Maybe it was an accident, but I have a feeling he knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to feel me up during our entire night here so far. He was spreading it all over me, little by little, with each stroke and touch.

It was sneaky and desperate. A low move on his end when he knows how much I want nothing to do with it.

I feel like I’m losing my mind because deep down I still quite like his touch. Maybe it’s because I know we could never be. There’s some strange comfort in knowing that, but an unwanted sadness that comes along with it too that I’ve been clinging onto for too long.

Stella told me to move on long ago and now I’m starting to see the benefit. I don’t feel so inclined to cry or dwell on everything that was or wasn’t between us. It’s easier to be angry than search for a shred of happiness somewhere in our muddled past.

My newly awakened craft whirs around me as I take control of our conjoined magic against his will. He doesn’t appear afraid, but Heinrich widens his eyes seeing the hanging urban lights above us rattle violently along with the locked bathroom door.

I look around the tiny space like a cornered rabbit feeling my hair raise off of my shoulders along with the weight of my worries and fears.

“Let go of me,” I mumble. “I’m going out now.”

A spark ignites in my throat keeping me from saying anything louder when he doesn’t respond or even look me in the eyes. He’s lost in his own emotions. I don’t find any comfort in his needy touch. It makes me want to cave in and I can’t afford to do that right now.

Silent tears fall down my face despite my resolve. Heinrich returns to Stella’s side as if to protect her from me. I glance in the bathroom mirror to find my skin as ghoulish as Nick’s since he still hasn’t removed his hold on me or his mouth from my neck as he has his way.

I think a few gulps should be more than enough. I nudge his shoulder with my hand, but he won’t quit drinking.

In a panic, I shove him back away from me screaming when my flesh tears even more against the movement because I’ve caught him off guard. He didn’t retract his fangs right away.

His bloodshot eyes soften. It makes him look fragile as he lands roughly against the dirty wall of the nearest stall. I didn’t mean to use our craft to my advantage like this, but he ignored me and chose to stare down my dress instead when I told him to let go. Then, he decided to completely disregard my feelings when he bit me. He knew I wasn’t in the mood for it too.

The door unlocks by way of my craft, but when I try to open it, it remains shut. I hear Nick walk up behind me and lightly pluck my hand from the doorknob. I blink a few times seeing our stained red magic recede from around the door by my will.

I shake his hand off of mine just as my craft throws the door of the bathroom open. I can feel him maneuvering our magic around the newly opened wound on my neck. It’s not enough to make what he did okay though.

I march out the back exit behind the pool tables watching my magic blow around the litter cluttering the streets. Yellow eyes peer out of a nearby bush and without even thinking I utter the devil’s curse because some part of me automatically listens and believes whatever Nick says.

A sharp whine follows from the bush. The werewolf scampers out of the bush and onto the sidewalk in front of me. It wasn’t a werewolf, but an old black lab. Guess the devil’s magic didn’t work since it’s not possessed either. It barks before running off down the sidewalk into the night.

What am I doing out here? Stella needs me. I have to go back in there.

The air feels icy all of the sudden making me pause on my way back to the bar. A man sits on the stoop of the stairs leading up to the dry cleaners next store to the bar. Haunting, piercing eyes peer up at me searing through to my soul. His hunched over form comes to a standing position before he transforms into Marcella.

The devil walks up the steps, reaching his scrawny arm behind himself to close the door. Inside the dry cleaners, he changes into the shape of a middle-aged asian man right before my eyes. I can see him sit down behind the counter on a stool from the large windows of the shop. He picks up a book, but watches me over it with his piercing gaze.

“Were you feeling sick earlier?” I hear Will ask from behind me.

I jump, startled.

Hesitantly, I point to the dry cleaners’ sign. “The devil’s in there. The man-”

“Devil? Someone had too much to drink. Oh, sweet. Your magic’s back!”

My face pales when I see Nick appear behind him. He uses his taser gun on Will with a cold, emotionless stare. As Will’s body convulses, Nick’s gaze shifts to the vacant seat the devil was sitting on a moment ago.

Heinrich moves ahead of Will’s body that now lays face-down on the ground. Somehow, he’s still awake, but his hair stands on end as he scrambles to his feet looking furious.

“Sorry, I pressed the wrong button.”

Will points at Nick with a shaky voice, “Sorry my ass! You’re supposed to be dead and damned-”

“Will!” I warn.

I cringe, losing control of the craft I stole completely from Nick. He won’t be able to use magic since I had taken it in the bathroom from him. It escapes my control in a violent wave sending many parked cards along the street into beeping frenzies as their car alarms get set off.

I catch Heinrich stuffing Stella into one of the beeping cars.

“Where is he going?” I mumble to no one in particular.

Will’s stare lands on me. He grabs my shoulders. He’s trying to calm me down, but yelling in my face isn’t helping.

My heart lands in my throat seeing Nick hiss much like the snake I turned him into. Will looks surprised, but stands his ground. I don’t know what Nick thinks he’s doing when he shifts on his own. My knees go weak seeing his huge snake form appear.

I can only imagine how Will feels now that Nick’s snake head his staring down at him. A long red forked tongue slips out of his snout as his hissing heightens with new threat. The very end of his tail whips around Will. It slams against the line of cars behind us on the street. It smashes them into the curb crushing them.

Feeling fed up with their fighting, I boldly grab Nick’s tongue. He makes a strange noise, but doesn’t shift back when I tell him to.

His head lowers near my eye level as I release his tongue. “I can’t,” he hisses back quietly as if a moment ago he wasn’t ready to eat Will in front of me.

One of the smashed up cars belongs to Will. He races over to it.

Meanwhile, Nick slithers down the road taking up an entire lane with the thickest part of his snake body as he escapes. Heinrich and Stella drove off before he shifted. I hope he took her to the house.

My neck is still really sore and my legs feel like logs. I feel like the devil could be just around the street corner, but there’s no sense in worrying over something I can’t control.

I can control my magic though, but Nick’s and my own combined...not so much as I found out tonight.

“I’m sorry Will-”

He puts his hands on the sides of his head seeing a bunch of people crowding around the scene.

He shakes his head side to side. “You’re not staying with Stella anymore. The high council-”

I try to be firm. “I cannot afford to stay anywhere else.”

“You should have told me he was alive. How long have you known?”

“Only a few days, but-”

“It’s okay, we’ll talk at my apartment. Not here.”

Reluctantly, I follow him down the street knowing I don’t have to do anything he wants. Now that he’s close to the high council though I have to be more compliant if I want them off my case.