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

I’m not a fan of taking care of the freezer section much because most of the items I have to stock are packaged in heavy boxes that I have to take out of the backroom. After I finish putting the last gallon of milk on its designated shelf, I wheel my empty cart back into the storage room. On my way inside, my stomach starts tingling and I narrow my eyes trying to see around the dark room for the demon.

I pause by one of the tables and walk around a few buckets in search of it. However, I accidentally bump into a smaller bucket and it spills all over the floor. A giant rat drifts out of the bucket and I cover my mouth in disgust and horror at the grotesque sight of its dead, limp body covered in the dark liquid.

“Valerie!” I hear Colin holler.

Since he’s holding the door open more light comes into the backroom. I stagger back from the red murky looking liquid the rat is soaked in.

“Ew!” I shriek and then turn toward my ‘manager’ for an explanation.

“I’m sorry Valerie, but I’m going to have to fire you.” Colin announces in a serious voice which just doesn’t suit him.

Seriously? What, just for spilling this bucket of...blood? He can’t fire me for something so silly.

“Why?” I breathe out feeling confused and a little offended since he’s my friend.

Colin grunts while picking the bucket up, “Corporate. We are doing cutbacks and I can only keep essential staff. There are plenty other better places you can find to work in town.”

All I can do is stare as he wordlessly carries the bucket into the walk-in freezer without even noting the dead rat by my feet. Corporate? What does he even mean? His family’s owned this small store for like a century.

“Colin, please!” I beg after exorcising the dead demonic rat.

I follow him into the freezer and nearly gag smelling all the old blood.

“W-what is this place? Jasper told me the buckets were full of water.” I deadpan while seeing a very human looking meaty skull on a wooden box in the corner of the freezer.

Before I can get a better look, Colin steps out and shuts the door cutting off my view.

“What’s going on here Colin?” I tremble with a sick feeling in my gut.

Something passes over his face and his eyes darken. With a gulp, I step away from him when he makes an animalistic growl. In a rush, he covers his mouth backing away from me and I raise an eyebrow.

I fold my arms and bite my lip watching him carefully, “Does Stella know? How long have you been keeping this from her?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He replies in a strained voice while covering his mouth.

After a moment, he straightens up and regains his composure.

“Colin, if something is wrong just tell me. What is all this blood doing here and why are you firing me so spontaneously?” I ask.

“I can’t tell you.” He whispers with a defeated look.

He hangs his head while trudging back into the main area of the store. There’s no way he would be keeping this blood all to himself. Just who else could he possibly be feeding this blood to and who even turned him to begin with? Could he be cheating on Stella? And how did he not notice the dead rat I found in the bucket?

“So that’s it? You’re just going to fire me because I happened to discover you stocking up blood for someone? If you had nothing to hide you would just admit who turned you and what you’re doing running this side-business!” I yell while running after him. I follow him into the employee break room and he hands me my jacket and purse.

“If you won’t tell me, I hope you at least confide in Stella about this.” I say quickly while growing irritated by him.

“I will...eventually.” He murmurs.

Colin gave me my tax papers to take home with me and my last paycheck. I’m not going to the bank though tonight. It’ll be closed by now anyway. On my way back to the house, I stop at the China Garden and pick up our dinner.

It’s true that Colin has been more distant from Stella and maybe it’s just cause I’m mad at being fired so abruptly that I think I’m just going to tell her what he told me. I have a feeling he doesn’t plan on telling her what he is since he’s been quiet about it this long. He’s in trouble and he knows running a blood program is against the law. I have my own suspicions about it all, but I need to consult with Stella and Crystal first.

I make it up the steps of the porch and unlock the front door. Stella and Crystal are watching some soap opera on the TV and I set the takeout on the table.

“So we talked to Marcella and Will. They traced some of Patty’s magic in her salon and already two witches have come forward admitting to executing Mr. Silvet.” Stella explains and I gasp.

“What? They killed him? They didn’t even make a public announcement! Didn’t they tell the police -- ” I start to rant.

Crystal speaks over me, “No, it was two of the older witches that admitted to aiding Patty. They are down at the police station now currently undergoing a truth test. They should be able to confirm Patty’s whereabouts or at least where they saw her last.”

Clearly, they murdered him out of spite for the impact he had on the community in his first life. I thought they were letting the high council take care of him though? I was fairly certain he would be sent up north to go through another trial before his official sentencing. It may have been only two witches who came forward, but I’m sure most of the coven agrees with what they did.

I’m afraid of what their thoughts are on Patty though. They know the crimes she did so they shouldn’t respect her at all anymore.

I wonder if Nick knows. Better yet, I wonder if the coven knows about the devil’s involvement in our lives now and if they got Mr. Silvet to admit anything. After all, he was listening to me and Nick argue over our curse. Mr. Silvet even admitted he hated me, but he hates the entire coven so I’m not too sure how much he would admit to give them an advantage over his own kind.

“Okay, this is a lot to take in. I guess now is a good time for me to tell you that Colin decided to fire me.” I grumble and Stella’s jaw drops.

She tilts her head to the side in disbelief and raises her voice, “He did what? I’m calling him right now.”

“Wait, that isn’t all. He’s a...” I tell her.

“He’s a what?” Her voice trembles.

“Vampire.” I answer.

Crystal scoffs and Stella glares at the floor with a sour look forming on her face.

“I saw he was storing blood in Wally’s like he was selling it to other vampires or something. I don’t know who he is supplying, but you should talk to him about it.” I reason carefully.

Without a word, Stella whips out her phone and marches upstairs loudly. I hear her door slam and frown while watching Crystal slump lower in the couch. I fix her a plate of general tso’s chicken and then head upstairs with another plate for Stella.

I hear her crying inside her room and talking to Colin over the phone in angry bursts of yells and sobs. Not wanting to intrude, I leave her plate by her door and then go to my own room for the night. A small black photoless picture frame sits on my nightstand. I don’t remember getting that as a gift from the coven or buying it myself. Maybe Stella bought some for the house. Feeling drained, I crawl into my bed and not long after I fall asleep.

_______________________________________

Colin

I can feel savior’s anger brewing before I step out of my loaded truck. Not only will I get in trouble for goddess discovering our blood supply, but I am a tad bit late to our meeting because tonight is New Year’s Eve. Traffic was awful and I had to park along the street rather than in the church parking lot where I normally park. I ended up two blocks down and informed my maker about the situation.

I come help carry buckets, Heinrich tells me in my head. I go ahead and carry two buckets in each hand. I see something flash by me and when I turn around I see the big vampire already with five buckets in his grasp.

Using my own vamp speed, I avoid the sight of humans and make it into the church with my buckets. I hear savior’s sermon, but focus on getting straight to work placing the buckets of blood on the tables in the back behind the rows of pews. After about ten minutes, Heinrich and I finish bringing out the blood and food into the church.

I settle down in the last pew on the left and listen to the last few minutes of the message. Savior is dressed in his black and red police uniform. He sits down on a large black painted oak chair in the center of the stage of the altar. He’s not looking at anyone in particular. I wouldn’t really know if he was anyway because his face is hidden in shadow beneath his police hat.

It brings me great sorrow to know our father has passed away at the hand of our tormentors. Tonight, it is our unconditional duty to bring vengeance for those who took part in bringing him to his death. They are more than a few, Savior states firmly in our heads and I nod in agreement just like my peers.

Now there was something else to be delivered here tonight, but it was not my job to handle it. Heinrich was able to use his blood bond with Stella to get the witch to agree to hand him over our goddess for tonight. Savior walks behind the rows of our flags and into the back room behind the altar and stained glass portrait. I struggle to contain my excitement and my foot taps rapidly on the stone floor.

I could smell it the moment I stepped in here, but not one of the new recruits look as affected as I. Savior must have put some of goddess’s blood in the offering bowl or perhaps he snacked on some earlier. I really don’t know. All I do know is that her blood makes me lose my mind and I hiss sharply seeing savior return with the source of my misery and hunger.

Savior walks gripping goddess’s upper arms to hold her against his chest for us all to behold. Her eyes are closed and her head lulls to the side because she’s still in a deep sleep. He lays her on the black marble table in the center of the altar so she rests on her back. Then, he turns to the offering table and scoops up a pile of blood in his palm. It drips across the floor as he makes his way back over to goddess.

Savior uses his free hand and pulls up the bottom of her shirt revealing our father’s mark on her heavenly skin.

The coven members will die one by one. We were made victims in our tribulation. A daughter made to fall for a son. The greatest deceiver did unto her the greatest suffering. Now it is time for us to make our own path for our father has betrayed us. I will become...der Sohn und der Gott für unser Volk, Noctus informs us.

My maker is now the one translating his words since savior is leading most of the ceremony tonight. I didn’t quite catch the last bit of my maker’s translations of savior’s words. I elbow Heinrich and he repeats the last bit.

Noctus become our father and god now because our father curse goddess again behind our backs. Savior not forgive him this time, Heinrich snickers in my mind and I growl in anger.

Sensing my agitation at the new information my maker grabs my throat with a threatening hiss drawing attention to our pew. Noctus does not deserve to be our god. He should have obeyed father and already opened the portal when he was supposed to!

Now goddess must suffer by our savior’s own hand.

After a moment, everyone turns their attention back to Noctus who has been so enamored by goddess to not spare me a second of his attention. He pours the blood over her belly and I claw at my maker’s grip on my throat seeing her belly grow in size.

Goddess’s head tosses back and forth in her sleep probably in discomfort from savior’s magic working within her womb to finish our father’s wishes for her. Her stomach rises a good ten inches where his bloody hand waits. It begins to deflate just as quick and when it becomes flat, goddess jerks up a little coughing in her sleep. Savior grabs the slimy two foot long black snake that comes up. Goddess shudders when he finishes pulling it out.

He hands the snake to Yansmen to hold. I watch in awe as the snake turns into the body of a pale baby. It cries with new life and everyone applauds at the miracle our true god enabled goddess to do. How dare savior label the child a curse! He will never be my god!

My dumb maker has removed his hold on me to applaud and approve of both savior and goddess’s achievement. When really, the child belongs to that of our true father, not savior. After all, he just spit on our father’s image and then reclaimed his achievements as his own.

Savior ignores the newborn child and pulls goddess upright. He whispers something in her ear and like his newfound puppet, she stands up on her own in her sleep and clutches his chest leaning against him sleepily for support.

The ground below us tremors as the church doors open. Deafening cheers and hoots of approval fill the room for the stance of savior and goddess matches the very stained glass portrait behind them. I don’t know why everyone is in so much support of our savior’s actions though. The child wasn’t to be born so early and our goddess was to give birth to it naturally. I’m sure it would have been painful for goddess for the child is no normal human baby being that of our father.

It has razor sharp claws and pointy teeth. It claws at Yansmen like a rabid cat. Now I understand why savior did this favor for goddess. If she were to have the demon child naturally she surely would have died in childbirth. Goddess was to have the child in the other realm too so our father probably wished her to die there.

Understanding floods into me and I smile proud to call my savior my god now. He’s risking it all for our goddess going against our father’s command.

I’ve been so carried away in my own thinking, I haven’t noticed my fellow brethren already fled the church to wreak havoc upon our tormentors. I look up from my seat expecting to find my new god still holding goddess sleeping in his arm.

However, the room is completely empty.

Curious, I stand up and wander out of the big room and into the hallway leading to my god’s office. It’s best if I admit to him goddess working at my establishment before he finds out on his own. The hallway is dark and so I turn on my phone using it as a light to guide me.

I find my savior’s door left halfway open and before walking right in I stop in my tracks gripping the edge of the doorframe tightly and gritting my teeth to keep from slipping up right in front of my god.

He sits leaned back on his chair behind his desk with goddess perched on his lap. Her face is pained in her sleep, but my god’s face is full of pleasure as he leisurely drinks from her wrist; he also happens to be watching me watching him. After a moment, he drops her hand and stands up leaving goddess situated on his chair behind him. With his head cocked to the side, he approaches me with goddess’s blood still dripping from his mouth and onto his chin.

My own hunger for a taste of her sweet divine blood is what made me step foot in the room. I regret nothing, but feel the consequences literally drifting in the air. Fuelled and filled by her blood, his magic radiates around me with menace.

My maker told me only the conjoined like my god and goddess can make a feeding nest overtly like this to keep other starved vampires like myself from intruding. Yet, I am unhurt from my god’s magic that even now tries to strangle me in mid-air.

He looks up at me with eyes as dark as blood as if unsatisfied by his attempt to kill me. Why would he kill such a loyal follower as me? Something primitive boils within me, rage and something else perhaps long since dead. I want...goddess.

I snarl, landing on all fours when his magic drops me to the ground.

You were to be my chosen one, not him. Kill him and take her for yourself. He has betrayed me. After all, you brought the girl to life for me. You will become the head of my church and my followers in his place. Besides, what has he ever done for you? He shot you in the leg and marveled in your misery. You’re just his tool, so do it. Do it for our people! Kill him right now! Do it! A voice as old as time encourages me and I smile up at my false god knowing it is my true god and father speaking in my mind -- the devil.

“I saved your goddess schmutziger Mischling!” Noctus barks at me with rage in half german and I whimper no longer hearing or feeling the fleeting support of our true father.

I feel powerless and terrified at this wannabe god who is far more devilish than our father could ever be. He backhands me and pins me to the ground by stepping on my chest with his steel-toed boot. Noctus chuckles watching me struggle.

“I know also that goddess has discovered your handling of our blood. I have no more use for you. Your turning, of course, was because you accidentally happened to see my true self. You will be easily replaced.” The man I used to call savior tells me without a single drop of sympathy.

He bends down to my eye level greeting me with a cold smile.

Then I see it. Those blood red eyes blink once just as his skin fades into a darker hue. The flesh around his face isn’t black I realize, but that of a dark, deep red. It moves in a never-ending motion around the whites of his skull. His sharp teeth are soaked in goddess’s blood and his smile stretches wider as he stands back up revealing the bright outline of the whites of his bones burrowed within the flesh of the rest of his body that is tainted by our father’s craft.

“No...p-please! No!” I sputter out.

I hear the door close behind me.

“My god save me!” I scream in fury praying my father will hear my cries for help, or in the least, our goddess will awaken from her sleep, “Please! Someone!” I yell seeing Noctus bite into his palm mixing his own blood with goddess’s.

“I am your god, the father and the son.” Noctus corrects me in a grave voice as he transforms into a gigantic snake.

_______________________________________

Yansmen

After the annoying and frantic screaming, begging and pleading comes to an abrupt end, Heinrich and I wait a moment before entering the boss’s office. When we hear a chair squeak inside we open the door and go in.

Savior’s concealment is still dropped and his stomach is a little bloated from his recent meal.

“Any progress on Patricia Gild?” Savior asks us while sitting down on his chair with Valerie situated on his leg.

“No, but William McCaster visited the station this morning. He doesn’t believe you left the department. What should we tell him?” I ask.

He sighs heavily with a bored expression as if waiting for the two of us to leave, “I will call him shortly.”

“We leave then.” Heinrich states simply and I follow him closing the door on our way out.

I’m not really sure if that counted as cannibalism, but I’m not willing to stick around because the boss didn’t exactly look completely full even for eating an entire human. Then again, Colin wasn’t exactly a human or vampire. I feel like ever since he first shifted he slowly went insane and just became this embodiment of anxiety and some sort of lost soul desperate for constant approval. I think Colin had it coming, but I’m not sure if this what he deserved. I mean, I respect the boss and all, but I just don’t know if he handled this the right way.

It was almost a sloppy kill which wasn’t like the boss to do. He’s usually very careful about getting his own hands dirty. So to kill Colin himself just seems kind of unexpected. It must have been something personal, but what did Colin ever really do to the boss to make him lose it and eat the newborn? It had to have been more than him finding out Valerie was working at Wally’s.