Death's Hexed Hobnobs Read online

  January’s lips twitched upwards at this strange turn of events. At least someone’s love story went right today.

  21

  January woke up the next morning with a strange buzzing sensation in her head. Someone’s at the door, her mind informed her. She realised that this must be the way the spell worked. Wasn’t it meant to tell her who was at the door, though? January frowned and got out of bed, walking over to her window and looking down across the front of the house. Whoever it was had gone.

  She went downstairs and turned on the coffee machine, noting that Simon had still not returned. He was smarter than he looked. She glanced up at the clock on the wall and realised that, as ever, Monday morning had come too soon and she had to get to work.

  She wasn’t sure what it was that made her hesitate before she opened the front door. Perhaps it was the mystery caller, who had disappeared, or maybe it was the feeling that everything outside the door was just too quiet. January’s fingers twitched and she looked again using witch sight. Nothing glowed.

  Her hand rested on the doorknob and she turned it halfway, before the itchy prickling feeling got too much to ignore.

  “Damn it!” She said and walked back down the hall, intending to go out the back way. She’d only taken two steps when the door exploded inwards. She had just enough time to throw herself forwards onto the floor, as invisible sharp objects flew through the air around her. January cursed, realising she hadn’t seen any trace of magic because it had only been activated when she’d touched the doorknob. It was another magical bomb like the one used in the werewolf bar. When she’d felt the strange buzzing sensation, the bounty hunter must have been tampering with the spell she’d put on the front door.

  Picking herself up, January rushed outside, knowing they would be watching to find out if she was dead or not.

  “Seriously, just come out here and give it your best shot!” The woods next to her house were silent, but she wasn’t fooled. Somewhere in them the bounty hunter was watching. January just wished she knew for sure who they were and how she could get to them. Was it Leah, or was she just an accomplice? Her fists clenched and unclenched by her sides, as she stared through the trees, trying to see something. This ends today! She thought and pulled out her mobile, quickly sending Danny a text asking him to tell Charlie that there was a family emergency and that she’d explain later, but couldn’t come in today. That took care of work. Now all she had to do was take care of the bounty hunter.

  “Ready or not, here I come,” she said aloud and walked into the woods.

  The hunter may have watched her come out of the house, but January soon realised they hadn’t stuck around. She followed their trail as far as she could, but was unsurprised when it came to a sudden stop. This time, she wasn’t going to give up so easily. She narrowed her eyes and noted the broken twigs and folded leaves that gave away the direction the hunter went. This person could cover footprints and scent, but they hadn’t accounted for every single detail, and January was a hunter too.

  Even with her knowledge of tracking, January lost and rediscovered the trail several times before she finally stumbled out of the trees and found herself…

  “Oh, you have got to be joking!” She was right outside the back of the house that had once belonged to Lewis, the band’s old drummer and a closet psychopath, who’d tried to kill her. She stuck her hands on her hips and sighed. She could see that the back gate was unlatched and the grass around it looked well-trodden down. Someone was definitely regularly walking this way.

  When Lewis’ disappearance had been reported, the police had been reluctant to admit he was missing. They’d searched his house and found the remnants of the weird witchcraft stuff that January had stumbled on, but her cleanup operation must have been better than she’d thought. They hadn’t questioned Mike at all, even though - unknown to the authorities - pictures of him had been pasted all over Lewis’ bedroom walls.

  Once it had become clear the drummer wasn’t coming back, (because he was dead and buried) the police search had sort of fizzled out. January hadn’t known what had happened to his house. Perhaps it was stuck in limbo, or perhaps someone had already sold it. Either way, there was someone in there now, and it made a lot of sense that a person new to the area would pick this place. Someone who’d come out of nowhere – like Leah.

  January raised her eyes above the gate and looked up at the upper floor windows, straight at Leah’s pale staring face. The stare lasted several seconds before Leah vanished from sight and January charged through the back gate, determined that the drummer wouldn’t get the chance to disappear again. She ran down the garden path, not caring if she were running into traps, and reached the back door she’d once broken into. The smashed glass still hadn’t been repaired, which confirmed her theory that the house was probably still in limbo. Leah was not the official resident.

  January wrenched the door open and almost crashed into the drummer herself.

  “Who are you?” January asked, half-crouching back into combat stance and then feeling silly. She’d got her wish and had found… someone. But she actually had no idea who Leah was, or what she wanted. “Are you a bounty hunter?”

  Leah tilted her head. “No, not really. There’s only been one set of professional bounty hunters sent after you. They were the best on the books. After you managed to stop them, it was decided that no more hunters would be wasted coming after you. I doubt it will come as a surprise that even the good bounty hunters don’t tend to live very long.” Leah raised a pencilled eyebrow.

  January regarded her warily. “You’re one of them.”

  The drummer smiled. “One of who?”

  “The Old Ones… the oldest vampires. The ones who started the entire race,” January said, feeling less certain of it when she said it aloud. Surely there was no way that was who Leah was? She seemed so young and up to date.

  “It’s good to know that despite the efforts of Gregory Drax, you still have no clue who we really are.” She smiled, pityingly.

  January felt at a loss. Leah was right. She wasn’t even certain if she was a vampire or not. The beam of daylight illuminating her face right now and the lack of flames and ashes suggested she was wrong, but then - who knew what could be achieved with the right magic?

  “Before I kill you, I have to know… why didn’t you take the offer to kill Gregory Drax and get your life back? It was a serious offer. We’d have let you live and left you alone forever. All you had to do was kill one last vampire.”

  January shuffled her feet a little, but didn’t look away. The situation was too dangerous for that. At any second, she could die. “He’s my friend. I don’t want to kill him.”

  Leah made a noise of disbelief. “He’s a vampire! You have nothing in common. We were offering you your whole life in return for the death of an acquaintance. I can’t believe you didn’t take it.”

  January gritted her teeth. She wasn’t completely certain about her decision on this matter either. “It wouldn’t be honourable,” she said, stiffly.

  Now Leah was laughing. “There’s no honour amongst vampires. They’re all backstabbing murderers. There must be more to you and Gregory Drax than just friends.” January didn’t know what Leah saw in her face but it must have been something telling. “Interesting,” she said and then looked at the door with a startled expression on her face.

  January turned without thinking and then cursed herself for falling for such a childish trick.

  Fortunately, it wasn’t a trick.

  Ryan stood outside the back door, looking from Leah to January with an expression of confusion on his face.

  “Oh, come in! I suppose you followed January,” Leah said when it became clear that the were-jaguar was just going to hover outside. “I promise I won’t kill you, too. January is the only one who needs to die today.” She sounded almost cheery when she said it.

  “Good to know,” January said, privately thinking that she wouldn’t go without a fight. Whatever Leah
was, no one was unbeatable, and no one entered a fight automatically deserving to win it.

  “Did I just hear that you had the chance to save your own life, but you refused to stake Drax?” Ryan shook his head in disbelief.

  January felt a stab of annoyance. “If it had been you that I had to kill in order to get out of the deal, would you still be taking this attitude?”

  Ryan glared at her, but his silence said it all.

  “Exactly,” January said, feeling far angrier than she normally would. Seeing Ryan had just reminded her of how she’d blurted out her feelings and discovered he probably didn’t feel that way at all about her. She was also angry that what Leah had said about there being more to her and Gregory Drax than just friendship was probably true. Everything was a big confusing muddle at the moment. It was almost a relief to think that she might be dead in the next few minutes.

  “Anything you two would like to say to one another? Any feelings you’d like to get off your chest?” Leah asked.

  January looked at Ryan, both of them thinking back to what had happened in the Cake Off tent.

  “Oh, just kill me now,” January said, flippantly.

  Unfortunately, Leah took her words at face value.

  A sword materialised in her hand. January just had time to duck as it swung above her head. She pushed a stunned Ryan aside and dived through the doorway, shattering the already weakened glass. Unlike in a film, she had no time to recover. Leah ran outside after her and stabbed downwards. The sword stopped an inch away from January’s heart when she stared at it, willing it to turn into rubber. At the same time, she could feel the force of Leah’s will telling the sword it was razor sharp and trying to push it downwards. They were at an impasse.

  Leah flashed her a grin. “That was fun,” she said.

  January realised she’d just been playing with her. As strong as her magic was, according to Tor, she didn’t have the physical strength to match Leah if she possessed vampiric traits in addition to the super speed. Not unless…

  The same moment the blade stabbed down, January pushed sideways and changed faster than she’d ever done before in her life. Normally, she’d have been freaking out about the high probability of someone noticing there was a big black unicorn standing in the back garden of their missing neighbour’s house. Today it didn’t even cross her mind.

  Leah’s smile turned to a scowl. She tried to summon more sharp objects, but January squashed the magic back into her, finding it far easier now she was in unicorn form. It seemed to amplify her magic.

  Leah lunged with the sword, but January was faster now. She knocked the blade aside and continued her jump forwards, landing with both hooves crushing into Leah’s shoulders. The drummer lay flat on her back in the grass. January tilted her horn, so it was touching Leah’s chest. The girl on the ground grimaced with pain.

  I thought you liked sharp objects, January goaded, projecting with her mind. Leah blinked and January realised she hadn’t heard.

  So she was a vampire after all!

  Old one or not, a horn through the heart would put an end to her.

  “You don’t want to do that,” Leah said, sounding completely calm about the situation she was in. January didn’t move, but she waited for the other girl to keep talking. “You’ve got me beat… well done. I’m as surprised as anyone. But, as you’ve probably already figured out, I’m not the only one of my group. The rest of them will be pretty displeased if I die. They won’t just kill you, either. They’ll probably wipe the whole of South East England off the map.”

  January thought that was a little overdramatic, but Leah’s straight face when she said it was worrying, to say the least.

  “Maybe if we all sit down and talk things over, we’ll be able to think of something that works for all of us,” Leah suggested.

  January kept her horn in place. It was easy to lie when you were about to die.

  Leah sighed. “Fine. I swear not to kill you. I can’t say the same for my family, but I will never be able to raise a finger against you.”

  January saw silver strands wrap around Leah’s throat when she said it, before they disappeared into her skin. She’d never seen anything like it before, but knew it was the vow that Leah had just made. January assumed that there were probably some consequences if you broke the vow. She could only hope that the consequences were dire enough to keep her from being stabbed the moment she backed off.

  January stepped away and changed back, feeling more conscious of potential neighbours watching, now that she was completely naked. Ryan cleared his throat and offered her his leather jacket. It was woefully too short.

  “Let’s go inside and I’ll find you something to put on,” Leah said, walking back towards the house and stepping around the shards of glass, like they hadn’t just been about to kill each other a minute earlier. January shook her head and walked after her. This day was definitely turning out to be a weird one.

  “Glad you’re not dead,” Ryan said when she walked past him.

  “Yeah, me too,” she replied.

  “So, you are a vampire,” January said after she’d changed into a pair of Leah’s jeans and they were all sat in Lewis’ magnolia living room.

  “What makes you say that?” Leah asked, smiling a little.

  “You didn’t hear it when I tried to speak mind to mind as a unicorn. Vampires can’t hear things like that. Maybe because their brains are dead?”

  Leah laughed. “We’re wired differently, I suppose. You’ve caught me. I’m a witch first, vampire second.”

  “You’re one of the Old Ones?” Ryan asked, sounding as doubtful as January felt. She knew they’d both been expecting cloaks and strange foreign accents - not pixie cuts and outrageous drum solos.

  “Not quite,” Leah said.

  January felt her spirits drop. She hadn’t been facing her true enemy after all!

  “I’m the first one they turned after they made themselves immortal. I’ve stayed with them ever since. You’re lucky it was me you were up against. You wouldn’t stand a chance against any of them.”

  January set her jaw. That remained to be seen.

  “Anyway, enough of this! We’re here to talk, so I’ll get things rolling. Here’s the problem… you’ve disobeyed an order from The Clan, which undermines everything. I’m afraid that can’t be ignored, as it could upset the balance of power. It’s incredibly delicate and complex. You have to die. Your lifespan is a blink of an eye by our standards, anyway. It’s not even that big of a deal… as long as you end up dead really soon.”

  January and Ryan stared at the vampire.

  “This is not what I was hoping for when you said we were going to work things out,” January told her. “I could have just killed you earlier, you know. This is hardly helpful.”

  “I haven’t told you the other option yet,” the drummer said.

  January waited.

  “Kill Gregory Drax and we’ll call it even. The offer still stands.”

  January sighed and looked away.

  Ryan made a sound of annoyance. “Are you kidding, January? You’re valuing the life of one vampire above your own? Maybe you should mention this to Gregory. He might stake himself for you, if he’s really holding a candle that bright. He’s lived for a thousand years, or something. That’s several lifetimes’ worth of living. You’ve only got this one life. I think you deserve to have a shot at doing what you want with it.”

  January looked into Ryan’s eyes and felt her heart breaking. She knew it wasn’t true. Even if she did kill Gregory, she would never be able to live a normal life. Not anymore.

  “Ryan… I have to tell you something.”

  “If it’s about what you said in the tent, it’s okay. I’m pretty sure I feel the same way. I just… I find it hard to say things like that. Also, I do want us to be together. I’ll even help you to do what needs to be done. We’ll have the bar and the pack, and you can sell cakes and make a name for yourself. Before you know it, you’ll be th
e best known cake maker in the country. We’ll be together and we’ll finally be happy,” he said, smiling at her and reaching out a hand to rest on her back.

  “I’m immortal,” she said.

  It sounded so blunt.

  The living room was so silent that the ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece was almost deafening.

  “Excuse me?” Leah said, a look of pure disbelief etched on her face.

  “I’m only saying what I was told by Tor Bennett. He’s a five hundred year old witch. Or something like that…”

  Leah’s eyes had narrowed at the mention of his name.

  “I’ve heard of him,” she said.

  “There was a test where he took some of my blood and put it in a flask of liquid. It went black and smoke like,” she explained, still not sure what it all meant.

  Leah’s pale face turned even paler. “You saw it? You saw your blood do that?” January nodded and Leah covered her face with her hands. “Well, that changes things…”

  January looked across at Ryan, who had suddenly become fascinated with the magnolia carpet.

  “You’re immortal? What does that mean?” He asked.

  January shrugged, wishing he’d meet her eyes. She knew just as much as he did.

  “It means your girlfriend isn’t really your type anymore,” Leah unhelpfully supplied, staring at January like she was a freak of nature. She supposed she probably was. “How?” She asked.

  “Something about my own magic and deep dark wishes backfiring on me, apparently,” January told her, not wanting to go into detail. She was still seriously annoyed that it was her own inner weaknesses that had led to this whole horrible situation.

  “No… that would make you an enchanter. They don’t exist,” Leah hissed, suddenly looking scared.

  January didn’t get a chance to ask her what was wrong because at that moment, the front door was broken down. January spun in her seat and saw the face of a huge wolf peering through the window before it disappeared, following the rest of the pack inside.

  “Do you think they heard all of that?” January said, knowing they had seconds before the living room door was also broken down.