Witch's Net Read online

  “Why did you summon me, Christian?” Seta turned and looked down at the other vampire. Annoyance lit her eyes. “And who is this witch?”

  Malaika gulped as Seta's gaze fell upon her.

  “She's not aware of what she is, and nearly fried us,” Jake answered for the boyish-looking vampire. “You know an untrained witch is a highly dangerous one.”

  “So she's my responsibility?” Seta arched an eyebrow.

  “Can you train her?” Jonah asked, recalling his reason for coming to the church. Granted, he'd only thought Malaika to be psychic, but still… She had visions, and he could use them to solve the case. If she could be trusted. And nobody would know that better than Seta. From what Jake had told him, Seta was an extremely powerful witch, one you did not attempt to screw with.

  Seta glanced toward him and frowned. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as recognition sparked in her gaze. “Jonah Porter, Jacob's brother. I must say you look much better than the last time I saw you. Attractive, even.”

  “Thanks,” he replied, unsure how to respond to a compliment by a vampire-witch. “Can you help her?”

  “And why is it of importance that I train this witch?”

  “Other than the fact an untrained witch is like a walking bomb,” Jake interjected sarcastically. The statement earned him a lethal glare from Seta.

  “She's valuable to a murder case I'm working.”

  “Really?” The vampire-witch's head swiveled back toward Jonah. “How so?”

  “She's shown up at the crime scenes, says she sees the murders before they happen.”

  “Interesting.” Seta looked at Malaika. “Since she's untrained, I'm assuming her visions aren't as clear as they could be.”

  “No. Werewolves attacked my partner, but she saw beasts.”

  “Werewolves?”

  “Yeah. Two cops at the crime scene my partner and I were checking out turned out to be werewolves. They attacked her.”

  Seta frowned. “You saw them with your own eyes?”

  “Yes.”

  “I need that image.”

  Before Jonah could part his lips to ask what she meant, Seta was at his side with her palm against his temple. Heat seemed to burn into his skin under her hand. He saw Ronnie being attacked again, and then the image was quickly sucked away.

  “Were-hyenas,” Seta announced.

  “Oh, hell,” Jake groaned. “Not those nasty bastards.”

  “Unfortunately, I do not lie.” Seta wiped her palm on her jean-clad thigh. “And you know wherever you find a cackle of were-hyenas…”

  “You find their evil leader.”

  They both turned their heads to leer at Malaika, who squirmed in her seat. Jake let out a deep breath and pushed away from the table. “That witch's net isn't going to hold much longer. Christian, take Nyla where it's secure. Joe, come with me, and Seta—”

  “Drain her of information and find out which side she's really on,” the vampire-witch said in a menacing tone with a sparkle in her eye. Her mouth curved upward into a ruthless smile.

  Jonah had risen from his seat with the others, but paused in walking toward the door to look at Malaika. Her eyes pleaded with him as Seta stalked toward her.

  “Come on, Joe. Let Seta find out what she's really about.”

  Jonah gulped past the knot that had formed in his throat and looked at his brother who was standing by the door, waiting for him to leave the two witches alone. Jake jerked his head toward the door and careful not to glance back at the woman who still managed to spark his protective instincts, Jonah forced his feet to move him out of the room.

  “Will she hurt her?” he asked once they'd cleared the door.

  “If she's innocent, Seta won't touch a hair on her head.” Jake took the lead, guiding them down the narrow hall leading to the main doors of the church. “The little girl will be fine. Seta would never harm a child.”

  “What if Malaika isn't innocent?”

  “Seta will rip her head off and use it for spell ingredients.” Jake chuckled, but sobered when he realized Jonah wasn't laughing with him. “Here you go again,” he muttered, pushing open the door to lead them outside where the sun was descending.

  “What does that mean?”

  “You always want the ones you can't have.” Jake sat on the steps and glanced up, cocking an eyebrow.

  Jonah reluctantly sat next to him. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

  “Kathy Sabato from seventh grade, Tia Lawson from sophomore year, Angie Jackson, Jennifer Santiago, Aria Michaels.”

  “Aria Michaels?” The image of the woman bound to a metal table, hooked up to a machine that drained her blood, flashed through Jonah's mind.

  “Well, her last name's different now, but yes.” Jake looked at him and chuckled. “Dude, you wanted her like a fat kid wants a Ho-Ho.”

  Jonah grunted, choosing to ignore the ribbing, and the ache in his chest at the reminder that the beautiful woman he'd instantly fallen for while investigating the case of the murdered women being left in Baltimore parks had been changed over into a vampire by her vampire lover, and now husband.

  “Whatever, Jake. Malaika is a lead, nothing more.” Even if she did have a vision of them having sex, a vision he'd wanted to become real not that long ago. Before he knew what she really was. He glanced down at the ring on his brother's left hand and shook his head. “So what happened? Condom break?”

  “No condom,” Jake replied, staring out past the parking lot for a brief moment before turning his head to meet Jonah's gaze with sincere eyes. “And I would have married her without her being pregnant.”

  Jonah blinked, replayed Jake's response in his head. “Who the hell are you and what have you done with my horn-dog brother?”

  Jake barked out a laugh. “I'm reformed. What can I say? I found a beautiful woman with a killer body who can behead a flying vampire in mid-air. I don't need to look anywhere else.” He looked sternly into Jonah's eyes. “And I don't care what you say. I know you, Joe. You got a thing for that woman in there.”

  “I told you—”

  “I know what you said, and I know what I witnessed. Even after knowing what she was, you still looked at her with compassion. Right now you're worrying about what Seta's doing to her.”

  Jonah sighed in frustration. He should have known his brother would see right through him. The younger man had an uncanny knack for reading people.

  “For what it's worth, I think she's alright. She truly doesn’t seem to know what she is.”

  “How did you?” Jonah searched his memory for any tell-tale signs and came up short. Even knowing she was afraid of water, he'd had no idea it meant she was a witch. “And what was with the whole taunting her with water thing?”

  “I took a shot. A lot of witches are terrified of water. It's due to their past life, when they were drowned during the Salem Witch Trials. Unless they were burned alive, then their fear is fire.”

  Jonah sat speechless. Malaika had been drowned during the Salem Witch Trials? A shiver tickled its way up his spine. The paranormal stuff was starting to creep him out. “How'd you know she was a witch?”

  Jake chewed on his bottom lip a while before letting out a deep breath. “I'm a slayer.”

  “Yeah, I know. You kill vampires.”

  “No, I don't mean I'm a slayer as in I happen to have killed some vampires.” Jake glanced his way and just as quickly glanced down at the ground. “I'm a slayer in the same way Christian is a vampire and Malaika is a witch. It's not what I choose to do. It's what I am.”

  Jonah stared at his brother, taking in the tight set of his mouth, the shadow of shame crossing over his eyes. “I don't understand.”

  “I have a supernatural gift. I can sense witches, vampires, shifters—you name it—and I'm drawn to kill them. Whether they're evil or not.”

  Jonah stared at his brother, unsure of what to say. He'd always been told supernatural creatures were evil. Then Seta, Rialto, and Christian had
helped Jake free him from Carter Dunn's lab. Jake hadn't killed them, had even developed a friendship with them. “You haven't killed Christian or Seta.”

  “Thanks to Nyla.”

  “What did she do?”

  “Nyla has an empathic ability. She drains the darkness out of me and keeps me from spinning into a bloodthirsty rage.” Jake looked him square in the eye. “She's what keeps me from losing control.”

  Jonah swallowed hard. “You make it sound like you're a cold-blooded killer.”

  “I am.”

  The two brothers stared at each other for a long moment before Jake looked away. Jonah took a breath and scratched his head, wishing the awkward moment would pass. What did one say when their brother confessed to being nothing more than a murderer?

  “It's just vamps and shifters, right? I mean, you've never killed a human.”

  Jake angled his head back around to look at him, then glanced back down at his feet. “I've killed vampires before with no regard to whether they were good or evil. I've killed witches… who are basically humans with powers, and shifters—”

  “But never a regular human being?”

  “No. I'm drawn to protect humankind, but if the need to shed blood ever got too intense, or if one got in my way…”

  Jonah shook his head emphatically. “You wouldn't do it, Jake. You're a good person. Hell, back in school you wouldn't even fight a kid if he was smaller than you.”

  Jake grinned as if recalling such an incident and shrugged his shoulders, seeming to shake off the intensity of their conversation. “Enough share-time, cake boy. Tell me about these were-hyenas.”

  Jonah grinned at the ribbing, glad for the change of subject. “Bodies have been popping up in abandoned buildings with strange bites. There's a lot of blood drainage, but none around the bodies.”

  “Sounds like a vamp.”

  “The bodies have been mauled by what appears to be a mix of dogs and … a dog with a human jaw.”

  “The were-hyenas.” Jake shuddered. “I hate those fugly bastards.”

  “Could they chew up a body and not leave a bloody mess all over the floor?”

  “No.” Jake pursed his lips in thought. “Were-hyenas are messy. They feast on bodies with no regard to neatness. I'm guessing organs were eaten?”

  Jonah nodded. “The last vic's heart was munched on.”

  “Vampires don't eat organs, but they can siphon enough blood out of a body to keep it from spilling all over the place while the body is being chewed on.”

  “So you think a vampire is involved?”

  “Definitely.” Jake stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Were-hyenas are powerful, but not the brightest creatures on the planet. They need a leader, someone to order them around.”

  “A vampire?”

  “In this case, yes.”

  Jonah frowned. “Wouldn't they just have, like, an alpha hyena or something? It seems like they'd want a leader who was one of their own kind.”

  “These are were-hyenas, Joe, not anything you'd see on the Discovery Channel. They can shift shape to look like a hyena, and since these ones are lycanthropes, not pure Weres, they retain a great deal of hyena traits, but they're basically stupid.”

  “How so?”

  “All they care about is feeding. Their main concerns are filling their stomachs and rutting their brains out.”

  “Um, Jake, that actually sounds a lot like you.”

  “Funny.” Jake speared him with a glare. “The point is they need someone to lead them or else the stupid things would never survive. They'd expose themselves to the general population and people would learn of their existence and snuff them out. This would lead to humans realizing there are supernatural beings out there and there would be more hunters.”

  “So other, smarter, supernatural beings step in and lead them to prevent their own exposure.”

  “That, and just to keep them as pets. They make good attack dogs.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Jonah rubbed his shoulder, where the were-hyena had sank claws into him.

  “You sure you weren't bitten?” Jake eyed him suspiciously.

  “Absolutely. I just got clawed.” He recalled the attack and something niggled at him. “These were-hyenas, the ones I killed, were men I'd worked with before. One was a regular cop and the other was the crime scene photographer. Could they have been lycanthropes for a long time?”

  Jake frowned and shook his head. “I don't know. I've never heard of any lycanthrope activity here in Baltimore, and these guys travel in cackles. They were probably newly made. Which makes sense, considering you managed to kill them with bullets that were only coated in silver. ”

  Guilt filled Jonah's chest. “They had families, loved ones, and I killed them.”

  “You had to.” Jake's hand clamped onto his shoulder. “And trust me, they would have either infected their family members or ate them.” He nodded firmly to press his point and removed his hand. “What I'm wondering is why two cops were conveniently turned into were-hyenas.”

  Unease prickled across Jonah's skin. “You don't think it was a coincidence.”

  “No, I don't. You said the woman sees the murders before they happen?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And she goes to the crime scenes?”

  “Yes.” Cold sweat trickled down Jonah's spine.

  “You know, some vampires can sense when someone is aware of them, especially if that someone is a witch or other supernatural being.”

  “And you think the vampire committing these murders has sensed Malaika at the scenes?”

  “It's a definite possibility.”

  Irrational alarm slammed into Jonah's chest. The woman was a witch, and had nearly torched his brother, but still, he worried for her safety. And the fact that he knew he probably couldn't do shit against a vampire scared him even more. He was a cop, dammit. He wasn't used to feeling helpless.

  “Are you going to protect her?”

  Jake looked at him, his face devoid of expression. “I'm going to use her as bait.”

  FIVE

  No. None of it could be true. Malaika studied her young daughter, watched the steady rise and fall of her chest, and hoped her influence continued to work until she figured out a way to get them out of here. If she woke and heard this madness…

  “Answer me.”

  Malaika redirected her gaze to the Hispanic woman standing to her left. Her arms were folded under her ample chest and what looked like a mixture of curiosity, suspicion, and amusement glittered in her dark eyes. The question was How well do or did you know your grandmother?

  Malaika frowned. What did her grandmother have to do with anything? She'd been kept from her since she was just a young girl. Her mother had always been so scared of the harmful influence she claimed Grandma Mahdi had.

  “If you do not answer, you will soon discover how much I loathe to wait.”

  Malaika cringed under the threatening tone the proclaimed witch used. Proclaimed, my ass. Girlfriend poofed up in here out of the damn air. Malaika shook her head. No. She had a psychic gift and maybe this woman had some special gift, too, but witches weren't real.

  “My mother quit letting me see my grandmother when I was just a little girl.”

  “Before she could train you.”

  “Train me for what?” Malaika let the annoyance slip through her voice. These people were on her last nerve. Especially Jonah, just leaving her in here with this crazy woman. Seta. The witch.

  The dark-haired beauty rolled her eyes and turned to pace the room. “True witches are born every other generation. We come into our powers as we hit adolescence, and usually it is our grandmother who trains us.” She frowned, her body coming to a stand-still. “Alas, sometimes they don't,” she said after a moment of silence, “and sometimes they can't, like in your case.” She studied Malaika and the barest hint of a smile swept past her lips. “I was once like you.”

  Malaika squirmed under the woman's stare. “What do
you mean?”

  “I was an untrained witch, completely unaware why strange things happened to—or around—me… until I was changed into a vampire.”

  Again with the vampire stuff. “Look, lady. I'm not a witch and you're not a vamp—”

  Seta growled and brought her face down before Malaika's.

  Malaika gasped as the woman's lips pulled back to show her canines elongate into deadly fangs. There was no faking those.

  Seta's fangs receded and she backed away. “Believe in vampires and witches now?”

  Malaika shook her head and fought the urge to scream. She tried to wake up, but couldn't. If it wasn't a dream… No. “Fine. Maybe you are a witch and even a vampire, but not me. I'm not—”

  “Maybe this will help.” Seta clapped her hands together, spoke a few strange words and placed her fingertips to Malaika's temples.

  Scorching heat seared Malaika's head before everything went black.

  “Grandma Mahdi!” Malaika ran inside the small house without bothering to knock, impatient to see her grandmother. She'd just turned four and knew Grandma Mahdi would have a gift for her. She sped past the small living room into the kitchen, where she found Grandma Mahdi sitting at an oak table, cracking almonds out of their shells and depositing them into a cobalt blue bowl.

  “There's my baby,” she said with a warm smile as Malaika eased her small body into a chair next to her. The smile wavered as Malaika's mother stepped into the kitchen.

  “Malaika! You are supposed to knock before—”

  “My grandbaby can enter my home anytime she feels the need,” Grandma Mahdi said sternly, cutting off her daughter's reprimand.

  Helen Jordan squared her shoulders, clearly unhappy with having been cut off. “She is still my daughter, Mother, and I will raise her to act appropriately.”

  “She is acting appropriately,” Grandma Mahdi said with a kind laugh as she winked at Malaika, “for a four-year old.”

  Helen rolled her eyes and straightened a barrette clamped at the bottom of one of Malaika's many braids. “I'll be back to get her as soon as my shift ends.” She walked back out of the kitchen, pausing at the door to issue a command over her shoulder. “Don't be filling her head with all that hoo-hoo nonsense.”