Witch Hunter Olivia (20 page)

I’m surprised when her arms encircle my frame ever so gently, and I hear sobs next to my ear. I keep holding onto her, fearing that if I let her go, this moment will end, and I’m not ready for that yet. Any trace of her energy has diminished. All I feel is Tara standing in my arms.

When we separate, I immediately lock eyes with her, and a tired smile fills her face. It strikes me as odd, but a smile is much better than tears any day.

My cell phone begins to ring and I ignore it, waiting for Tara to say something--anything.

“You can answer it. I’m okay,” she says in an unusually calm manner.

“No, it can go to voicemail. This is way more important to me than some silly phone call.”

When the jingle ends, I go to say something and am interrupted by my phone ringing again. “It must be important,” Tara comments.

“I’m going to see who it is, and then we’ll get back to us, I promise.” I take out my phone to see the caller’s name flashing across the screen. It’s Topher’s phone.

“Who is it?” Tara asks, swiping away the few stray tears from under her eyes.

“Topher. He’s probably got info on my brother,” I answer, feeling conflicted now since this is an important phone call.

“Answer it,” she says softly.

“Are you sure?” I ask, and she replies with a nod.

Swiping the phone to answer the call, I press the phone to my ear and say hello. I face away from Tara when I hear Topher’s voice come through on the other end.

“Olivia?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Do you have any news about my brother?”

“I just saw him. He told me to tell you that if you ever wanted to see your little witch bitch, you should be at the bonfire tonight. Does that mean anything to you?” I can tell he’s confused.

“Unfortunately, it does,” I reply.

“He was not himself, Liv. I’m worried about him.”

I sigh. “Me too, Topher. Me too.”

“What’s going on?”

“I’m still in the process of figuring that out. It’d be best if you stay far away from my brother until you see me in person again. If you see me, then you’ll know everything’s fine.” He tries to say something, but I cut him off. “I’m sorry to cut this convo short, Topher, but I’ve got something to attend to. Thank you for relaying the message.”

“Of course. Be careful, Liv, with whatever you’re about to do.”

After we say our goodbyes, I turn my attention back to Tara. “Sounds like we’re going to the bonfire after all,” she says in a somber tone, almost like she’s in a daze.

“No, we’re going back to the dorm so you can rest, while Heath and I go to the bonfire,” I reply, to which she sends me a wan smile. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk about this?” I gesture between her and me.

“I think I’m pretty tapped out on this subject right now.”

“Okay. Just know that I’m here whenever you need to talk.”

All Tara does is nod slightly before panning her eyes over my left shoulder. I follow her line of sight and see Heath standing there with Jack by his side, both looking apprehensive.

“Everything okay out here?” Heath asks.

“As good as they can be, considering the circumstances,” I reply, and look back at Tara for her agreement.

Her absent stare has me worried. Her eyes are glossed over from the tears pooling up in them, and she’s looking even more like a shell of a person than she did before. She’s in deep thought, and I can’t blame her in the slightest. She just had a bunch of info dumped on her, and none of it was positive. That has to take a toll. Hell, I’m an emotional wreck right now, so I can’t even begin to imagine what she’s feeling like.

“You know what I’d love right now?” Tara asks, surprising me. “A nice long shower back at the dorm.”

“I think that can be arranged,” I respond with a half-smile.

Sitting down on my bed, I watch Tara pick up her shower caddy and load it up with her stuff before heading to the bathroom.

“I shouldn’t be long. Just want to soak a bit,” she says, her eyes looking tired, red, and swollen.

She had broken down into tears a few times during the drive back to campus, but that’s to be expected with everything she’s gone through. It probably didn’t help that I felt compelled to tell her everything we learned about her condition when she was in her magic-induced coma. I couldn’t keep anything else from her, and wanted to tell her everything I knew. No more secrets. To say she didn’t take that well would be putting it lightly.

After she closes the door behind her, Heath joins me on the bed and places his arm around my shoulders. “How you holding up?”

“No offense, but it doesn’t matter how I’m holding up. Tara’s hurting, and there’s nothing I can do or say to help her. And tonight I have to face my brother, or whoever it is, in order to help Angelica. I’ll let you know how I’m holding up after all this is over,” I reply, which causes him to release a heavy sigh.

“I’ll be right here with you through it all,” he says, taking my hand in his. He brings it up to his mouth and places a soft kiss on the top of it, then brings both to rest on his leg. A smile forms on my lips at this sweet gesture, and I relax my head against his shoulder, feeling content in this moment.

The shower shuts off and I put a little space between Heath and me for Tara’s sake. I’m sure the last thing she wants to see right now is our happiness. I don’t want her to feel any more uncomfortable than she already does. I’m surprised to see our next-door neighbor, Michele, open the bathroom door and enter the room.

“Uh, why did Tara come through my room a few minutes ago and run out my door?”

“What?”

“Yeah, she came through and went right out. She didn’t even say anything.”

I spring to my feet and rush to the door, flinging it open. I look up and down the hallway, but see no sign of her anywhere. Running to the end of the hall that leads to the other half of the floor, I still don’t see her.

“Tara!” I cry out, hoping and pleading she’ll answer, but deep down I know she’s gone. “Tara!”

I feel Heath’s hand take hold of my arm. “Any sign of her?” he asks, peering down the hall we’re standing in.

“She’s gone, Heath. She’s run away.” Emotion grips me and I fight to hold back the tears that are incoming. “We have to find her. She’s a danger to herself and everyone around her while she’s in this state.”
 

“I don’t mean to sound harsh, but do you really think she wants to be found? Especially after what you told her?” Heath asks. He’s not helping the situation.

“I don’t care. She’s all alone now, and it’s all my fault.”

“What about the bonfire tonight?” he asks. “You’re going to have to decide which is more important. You know that, right?”

“Yes, and right now, Tara’s the priority,” I reply before storming back to the room.

I take out my cell phone and dial Tara’s number. The instant it begins to ring on my end, I hear the song “Happy” by Pharrell fill our room. Looking over at Tara’s desk, I see her phone resting there, vibrating. My gut churns and a feeling of hopelessness engulfs me as I realize my only way of getting in contact with her is right there in front of me. Slumping down onto the edge of my bed, I stare at her empty one that she forgot to make before she left for the party last night.

I feel heat on my knee and look down to see Heath’s hand resting there. He doesn’t say a word when I look over at him, he just flashes me a worried smile before taking a seat next to me. “I’m sorry,” he says in a calming whisper. Even though he whispered, it sounded loud in the quiet of the room.

“I don’t want her to leave like this. I’m not ready to lose her again,” I reply. I almost let the waterworks take hold of me again, but I resist.

“I know.”

 
“It’s all my fault,” I repeat under my breath, feeling the sting of every single word.

“You were doing what you thought was right, Liv. You can’t keep blaming yourself for what Tobias did. This was his fault, not yours,” Heath argues, his tone heated. “I hate seeing you beat yourself up like this.”

“Try telling Tara that. Oh, that’s right, she gone,” I reply, which causes silence to fall between us.

My eyes drift toward the open blinds and realize the sun is setting.

“Shit! When did it get so late? The bonfire should be starting soon.”

“I thought Tara was the priority?” he asks.

“That was when I thought there was a chance of finding her, but now I realize maybe that was foolish of me.”

“It wasn’t foolish, Liv.”

“My mission is to keep Angelica safe, and that’s what I’m going to do,” I say, finding a way to snap out of my depression over Tara.

“Do you even know where this bonfire’s going to be? We used to have it in the empty field behind the gym, but with the construction there now—”

“Tara probably has a flyer for it around here somewhere,” I interject, standing up and making my way to her desk.

I search through the many papers littering the desktop but don’t find anything about the party. Looking over at the small nightstand next to her bed, I see one of her textbooks with a red piece of paper sticking out the bottom of it. Removing the piece of paper, I unfold it and see it’s a flyer advertising tonight’s party.

“It’s starting in thirty minutes next to the soccer fields,” I say after checking my phone for the time. “We need to hurry. If I can’t stop Tara from leaving, maybe I can at least save Angelica and my brother.”

“That’s not far from where we used to hold it,” Heath chimes in.

“So you know where it is?”

He nods before heading toward the door with me following closely behind.

*****

I guess Greek life does nothing on a small scale here on this campus. The parking lot in front of the twin soccer fields is full, and we have to resort to parking far away on the grass. Banners with every house’s Greek letters line the chain-link fence surrounding the soccer stadium, leading us in the direction of the bonfire. There’s a steady stream of people headed in that direction, so we fall in line with the crowd.

We hear the party before we see it. It sounds like the music fraternity and sorority are in full effect. Their harmonized singing accompanied by drums and several other instruments fills the air.

Nearing the end of the sidewalk, we run out of chain-link fence to follow and find ourselves walking on the patchy grass that surrounds the soccer fields. It leads to a hill that blocks our view of a party we can still only hear at this point. The tip of the unlit bonfire is the first thing I see as we near the top of the little hump of land.

“This should be fun,” I murmur sarcastically as we look down upon the sea of people. “How in the hell are we going to find anyone in all of this?”

“I think we’re about to be the ones who are found,” Heath comments.

I follow his line of sight and see my brother headed toward us, but no Angelica. “Are you ready for this?”

“Do you even need to ask?” he replies, flashing me a smirk. “No offense, but your bro’s going down.”

“None taken.” I start moving toward Malcolm.

“Took you long enough,” Malcolm sneers, coming to a stop several feet from where we are.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I reply with a hint of snark.

“It’s not me you kept waiting, it’s Angelica.” His mischievous grin spreads from ear to ear as his eyes shimmer purple for a brief moment.

“Whoever’s in there controlling my brother, just know you picked the wrong time to fuck with me and my friends,” I state. “And I’m not afraid of roughing up my brother if it means I can get rid of you.”

“Oh, I’m so scared. I’m shaking in my boots,” he replies with a laugh. “You’re so in over your head right now, and you don’t even realize it.”

“Quit with the cryptic bullshit and attack me already,” I shout, getting more frustrated by the second.

“Well, judging by the time, you have three choices,” he says, looking at his cell phone. “You can fight me, which you’ll lose. You can save Angelica, which you won’t. Or you can wait here until a group of your fellow Hunters shows up and takes you away for my murder. The choice is yours.”

“Your murder?” Heath interjects.

“I guess I can tell you now since no one will ever believe it’s true,” he chuckles, his eyes flashing purple again. “It’s me … Tobias.”

“No way. Tobias Young is dead,” I say.

“Ah, yes. My physical body is dead, that’s true, but my soul is very much alive inside of your older brother thanks to a possession charm.” His laugh and wide grin make me ball my fists in a fit of anger.

“If you really are Tobias, why did you do all this?”

“Such a loaded question, Olivia. The short version? I was tying up loose ends,” he answers.

“Why didn’t you just kill me? Why drag everyone else into this?”

He laughs to himself. “Stupid girl. It’s not all about you.” His vague answer makes me frustrated as hell.

“Where did you get the possession pendant around my brother’s neck?”

“Do you want to waste your time with all these silly questions?” he asks derisively.

“You bet your sweet ass I do,” I reply, putting my hands on my hips. “What do you have to lose by answering some silly questions?”

“Fine, have it your way. Like I said, this is all a formality. This pendant,” he begins, bringing it out from under the shirt to show us, “was a gift from Alana Grimore, the darkest of all dark witches. It was supposed to be used to start a war between the Guild and light witches, but then you had to come along and screw everything up. You were the reason I had to kill your little witch friend and her family. The plan was only delayed though, and there are now only two loose ends left,” he explains with a sinister grin.

“Why possess my brother?”

“To draw you out of hiding,” he answers while pointing at me. “And to fulfill the ritual, but if you want to know what that is, you’re going to have to beat it out of me, and by
me,
I mean your brother.”

“Well, I guess I’m in luck, since I have no problem knocking my brother around for some information. And now I’m about to kick your undead ass back to wherever will take your sorry soul,” I reply, getting into a defensive stance with arms in front of my face, ready to party.

“If you choose to fight me, you won’t be able to save Angelica. That I can promise you,” he hisses.

“That’s why there’s two of us,” Heath comments with a smug grin.

“Don’t think I haven’t already thought of that, boy,” he replies and snaps his fingers, producing three Maulers in front of him. We’re still far from the crowd, and no one seems to be paying any attention to our altercation. “You now have even less time to choose. I believe the Torres twins should be here soon too, with a few other familiar faces.”

“Where is she? Where’s Angelica?” I shout.

“If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m stalling,” he says with an evil chuckle. “You won’t save her, so you might as well give up.”

That last thing Tobias said resonates with me and makes something click:
I’m stalling. You won’t save her.

Stalling? For what? Time? Then it dawns on me. The flyer said there’d be a countdown to lighting the bonfire. Angelica’s in the bonfire.

“I can’t believe you’re planning an old-fashioned witch burning,” I say. “So cliché of you.”

I can see he’s surprised I’ve figured it out. “I’ll give you credit for that one, but you won’t get through me without a fight,” he sneers.

“Wasn’t planning on it.”