Witch for Hire (7 page)

"It's Jones."

"Hey, how's the map working?" He sounded amused, which could be good, but I had a feeling it wasn't.

"Oh, it's working. It's working a little bit too well. I don't know how much trolls and humans have in common, but the whole thing is lit up like a population density map."

"Clearly, I need to work on the parameters. Could it wait until tomorrow? I'm doing an all-day thing down here in Cherokee. I could be there at eight." I didn't want to search more houses, possibly clean up whatever was down here, and then drive over to Forsyth.

"The department will spring for a hotel, or have someone bring you, but they want this done today."

Sighing, I answered, "I can't blame them. Send the driver; I can sleep on one of the cots in the precinct. They get the best of both worlds, they only need to drive me and I'll be there tomorrow to fix anything else that goes wrong."

"Done."

"You were hoping I'd say that, weren't you?"

"Yup. Bye, Michelle." The man had sounded entirely too smug, but he knew I was dedicated to my job.

"Are you ready?" Jerry asked.

"Sure." I closed the car door and waited for the parade to get moving. The road, or lack of one, made me grab the door handle and seat, clutching my kit between my ankles. "How do people find these places?"

He navigated through a tricky part of the road covered in giant holes and run-off channels. "You know how they find them. If you want to blame someone for forcing this upon you, you need to blame yourself, or your unicorn friend. Seriously, if I was going to do some crazy breeding program I'd be at the next house."

I lost my hold on the door, but grabbed for it again as I nearly flew out of the seat, even with the seatbelt on. "Then why did we check all of those other houses?"

He turned onto what passed for the main road out here. "We had to go past all of them before we could get to this house. We didn't want to tip them off if they were doing something naughty, and we knew we could control access to this next place. Besides, the place fits your unicorn's description perfectly. It's technically in Cherokee, but no one comes out here and the county line runs down the edge of the property."

We bumped along a bit further. "How much further is this place?"

"About two miles."

I stopped asking questions. I knew I would just look dumb. Every ditch, hole, and bump made me happier that I wasn't driving my car. Eventually we rolled to a stop behind the car in front of us. With trees and brush on each side of the dirt road there wasn't anywhere to pull off to and I thought we might be backing out. Again, I was grateful I hadn't driven.

"We'll do this like the other houses. One officer will talk to the owner. You're going poke around magically from a distance." Jerry walked me up to a point where I could barely see the run-down shack of a house through the woods. It would be difficult for anyone to see us.

Watching an officer walk up the steps, I started to look, sort of. Closing my eyes I let down my inner barriers and threw some magic in the direction of the house. I was hoping to stick my magic to anything with magic in the house. Once I'd found the magical objects, I could examine them more closely. My magic floated to the ground, and for a moment I thought it would just pass into the earth and dissipate. Then it stuck, not just a bit here and there, but all of it. Not only did it stick, something—or some things—started to pull the magic in, like it was eating my power. The pull on my power had me stumbling forward a step before I braced myself. I quickly reeled in as much of my power as I could and cut myself off from the rest. The loss of power hurt, leaving me tired and a bit unsteady, but it was a small price to pay to avoid being sucked in by whatever was in there.

My eyes popped open. "You need to get everyone in there now. Surround that place and go in. I don't know what's going on, but it's covered in magic and someone feeding off the energy of sacrifices."

Jerry studied me. "You're sure?"

"Yes."
 

Jerry started issuing orders and sending people to the house. Two officers took off, faster than humans could run, to the back of the house. Another two officers charged in the door, and the rest covered the perimeter. For one short moment nothing happened, then screams, crashes, and a gun firing three times shattered the quiet moment.

I was up and running as soon as the last shot was fired. I had really powerful healing charms with me and someone might need them. I burst through the door and saw chaos. Two officers had something pinned to the ground and were trying to cuff it. The third officer in the living room was holding his arm, swearing. I ran to him.

"What happened? Let me see."

He pulled his hand away from his arm long enough for me to see three deep slashes, and blood gushing out. "Damn thing got me with claws not long after I got inside. It was cutting up the," he looked sick, "person in the kitchen."

"Here, take this." I activated one of the major healing charms. "Press it against your arm." Knowing the charm would heal the damage, I left him standing against the wall and hurried into the kitchen. I nearly puked. It looked like it should have been a dwarf, but every inch of it was covered in shallow cuts. It was chained on top of the kitchen island. I pulled three more major healing charms out of my bag, activated them, and pressed them to his body as quickly as I could. The dwarf whimpered at the touch of the healing charms to his flesh. I left one charm at the base of his throat, one at his belly button, and the last on his knees.

"Michelle, we need you!" Jerry sounded panicked.

I'd been ignoring the noises behind me while I helped the dwarf, but Jerry's voice reminded me that the dwarf would've lasted a few more minutes. I turned back to the living room, looking at the woman who'd injured the cop for the first time. She was one of the strangest things I'd ever laid eyes on. She had a mohawk of greasy looking black hair, beady black eyes, and her nose and mouth had merged in to something of a beak. To go with her clawed hands, her bare feet had claws rather than toes. She was wearing some strange garment that wrapped around her, but had dislodged in the struggle, leaving her breast bare.

Several valuable seconds passed as I stared at her before noticing her struggle to break out of the two sets of handcuffs on her wrists. Now that I was paying attention, I could feel the magic she was using to break the metal. I sketched runes for metal and strength in the air, willing them to work. For a second they did, then her eyes glowed and I could feel the magic draining from the spells.

"NO!" I put power behind it, reaching forward to put my strength just inside of the metal, but where it wouldn't touch her. She wasn't behaving like a sorceress, but a hedge-practitioner. Sorcerers, or sorceresses, were as powerful as witches. Hedge-practitioners were less powerful, with limited education and abilities. If she couldn't touch the magic she wouldn't be able to break it. The creature struggled for a moment, and then spat at me. I jumped aside. I didn't think that claws were the only alteration that had been made. I quickly tied the spell off, making sure it didn't touch her skin.

"How do we contain her?"

I didn't remember Jerry coming over to me. "I don't think she can get out of those or the special containment cell at the jail. I'd put her in there. I think she's a hedge-practitioner, but from the look of things she's been harvesting energy from people. I doubt she has much power without gathering it in rituals. In a few days, when the energy has drained, she'll be mostly normal. But, if she can inflict pain on anyone, even herself, she'll start to gather power again."

She sagged down between the two police officers hauling her out and I could see the three bullet holes in her torso. "Admittedly, I'm not sure where her vital organs are. She may live, she may die. You have a nullifying cuff right?" A nullifying cuff would counteract any magic she had or could do. For something like her it was the perfect solution.

"Yeah, I don't know why I didn't think of that," Jerry said.

"Because you're freaked out, and most officers keep them in the cars, not on their person. I need to check out the rest of this place. Is there anywhere you want me to start?" I asked.

"Check on the shifters in the back. They should've been able to secure that area and may need help."

I walked past the paramedics working on the dwarf, who was looking less like raw meat, and out the kitchen door into the back yard. It had been fenced in and covered, but I could see where the shifters had ripped through; let's hear it for raw power. The enclosure was lined in cages with all manner of creatures held captive behind their iron bars.

Before I could take it in, one of the shifters walked over and said, "We've already called animal control and they are sending officers. We'd like you to label and spellbind anything that would cause trouble."

"Ok, sure," I said faintly. I took the big stickers he shoved at me on his way out of the yard. Spellbinding was a great way to prevent something from using passive magic, but I didn't have the ability to cut off a hedge-practitioner from their magic without spell reagents. If I'd had them with me, I would've bound the bird woman's magic by now.
 

Shaking my head, I tried to forget about him and get to work. Near me was a pair of Chihuahuas who looked like the ones I'd dealt with a few days ago, but I didn't get any feeling of magic from the two of them. I pulled a green sticker out of the stack and stuck it on the cage. Another green sticker had Animal Control scrawled across its face before I stuck it on the door.

Past them was a baby dragon. Its red scales looked dull, and there were signs of injuries to its wings. I knelt down next to its cage. "I'm Michelle. I'm with the police. We are going to get you out of here. Can you tell me your name?" Being less than two feet from rump to snout, with eight inches of tail, it was a very young dragon. I guessed it was around three years of age, but I couldn't determine gender.

It puffed a bit of smoke. "I'm Athe."

"Nice to meet you, Athe. Do you know who your parents are?" Athe was a boy's name, and he was very well spoken for a young dragon. Although dragons were born knowing their language it took a year or two for them to become fluent in English.
 

"My mother is Rhaun and my father is Yorel." He sounded very proud to have remembered them.

"Thank you, Athe. We'll find your parents so you can go home with them." I grabbed two yellow stickers, stuck one to his cage, and scrawled Child Services on the other one. "Do you think you could sit on the top of the cage, and not go anywhere until you are asked to move? No one here will hurt you, but I need to go help the others and I don't want to leave you in there."

He cocked his head to one side then the other. "I can sit on top. Can someone talk to me?"

I let him out and he jumped on top of the cage. "I think a lot of people will want to talk you. If you need me just shout. I'll be right here, ok?"

"Yes." He fanned his wings and I could tell they hadn't been stretched in a long time.

After sticking the yellow sticker on the door, I walked back through the door and called for Jerry.
 

He rushed over from the living room. "What do you need?"
 

"Have someone call Child Services and get them out here right away." I was angry. It didn't matter if Athe was human, witch, shifter, or dragon. He was still part of the civilized races and deserved better treatment.

"Alright. . . What's going on?"

"There's a baby dragon out back. Athe's parents are Rhaun and Yorel."

"I'll call, but it may take time to get him back with his family."

"Right now, he needs to get out of here." Softening, because this wasn't Jerry's fault, I apologized. "Jerry, I'm sorry."
 

"I get it. I'll call right now." His cell phone was at his ear before I had a chance to say anything else.
 

Back outside, I reassured Athe before I continued down the line of cages. The third cage contained a fairy light. I labeled it green, though fairy lights weren't really animals. They were more like spirits, with the ability to communicate with some people and a unique social structure. The fourth cage had a brown gryphon curled up against the back of the cage.

"Hi, I'm Michelle. I'm here to help you. Can you tell me your name?" Gryphons were part of the civilized races, but were very reclusive after being hunted by humans. The elder races had put a quick and violent end to that practice by capturing the offenders and turning them over to the gryphons. Gryphon executions were long and painful.

"People evil."

"Not all people are evil. I'm trying to get you back to your family." The gryphon moved around enough that I could tell it was a girl. She was young and I doubted she'd ever had a good experience with humans, and I looked human. Many gryphons keep their young in protected nests until they are fledged, not wanting them in the world until they have some defenses.

"People bad," she hissed.

I couldn't blame her for her feelings, but I wasn't equipped to help her. "Someone else will come help you." I stuck a yellow sticker on her cage. I felt bad for leaving her, but it wasn't my job to spend hours gaining her trust. It was my job to see if anything magical would cause a problem. An angry baby gryphon was something Child Services could handle.

There were three cages against the back wall. The one on the right was a silver and gray timber wolf. I stuck a green tag on him. The center cage held a unicorn. I walked over to it.

"
You will help me
?" The poor thing hardly fit in the cage, and the voice it projected into my mind was timid.
 

"I can let you out, but you need to wait for other humans to take you out of here. Can you do that?" I stuck a yellow sticker on his cage.

"
Yes. Did you find the dwarf
?" I released the latch so he could walk out and stretch.

"Yes, was he in the cage next to you?"

"
He was
."

"He's getting help."