Chrys, the friendliest witch on the team, wore a similar outfit, though the leggings looked much better on her petite frame. Her chin-length jet-black bob shone in the fading sunlight, and she rolled her eyes, fighting a grin behind his back. Ember and the others wore the same kind of clothes. Take the weapons away, and they all could’ve been on their way to goth yoga.
“She might snag her tights.” Shade crossed his arms to mimic me, so I parked my hands on my hips.
“Fishnets are replaceable. My boot up your ass might be permanent.”
“Load. Up.” Ember opened the passenger door and cocked her head at me.
“As you wish.” This time, I did stick out my tongue.
If Shade glowered any harder, his skull might crack, but he did as he was told and climbed into the van with the others.
I slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Where are we headed?”
“The old cemetery outside town. Chrys spotted a few near the mausoleum just before sunrise this morning.”
I nodded and reversed out of the alley before hanging a left on Washington. “Let’s go kick some vampire butt.”
Shade blew a hard breath through his nose, but I ignored him. He was still miffed because I wouldn’t go on a second date with him last year. One night with an arrogant prick was more than enough, thank you very much.
The orange sun sank toward the horizon ahead, painting the sky in rich reds and purples. As we approached the top of the hill, the cemetery came into view. Most of the graves had simple headstones, many sinking at awkward angles due to years of neglect, but our target stood near the back fence. The decrepit mausoleum where who knew how many ghouls rested inside.
I pulled as close to the gates as possible, parking sideways so we could make a quick getaway if things got out of hand. Tension built inside the van, making my skin prick. With the sun so low in the sky, the tree’s bare branches looked like black bones silhouetted against a watercolor canvas. Spindly fingers stretched across the canopy, their long shadows crisscrossing on the ground like an intricate web.
Leaving the engine running, I turned in my seat to look past the headrest. The witches behind me sat utterly still. Chrys pressed her palms together in prayer to the goddess, while Shade rested the tips of his middle fingers against his thumbs, his lips moving as he silently recited an incantation. Miles and Ginger in the way back seat closed their eyes, either in meditation or prayer. It was hard to tell with those two.
Ember took a deep breath and blew it out, ending her prayer to the goddess. “Everybody ready?”
“Almost,” Ginger said.
I pursed my lips, a question forming in my mind. “If vampires fry in the sunlight, why do you wait until dusk to take them out? Seems like you could go in at noon, leave the door open, and stake them all in their sleep.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” Ember winked before sliding out of the van, and I rolled my eyes. Her life was in peril on a daily basis, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. The threat of a mile-high stack of grimoires falling on me was the extent of danger in my life, but someone had to hold down the fort while the big kids played. Lucky me.
Chrys opened the side door, and the rest of the witches filed out of the van. She popped open the secret hatch in the floorboard and pulled out a utility belt with a few knives attached at the hip. The rest of her tools belonged in a garden. She had a spade, a hand-held hoe, and one of those thingamajigs with three claws at the end that was normally used for breaking up dirt. How her gear would help her fight vamps was a mystery to me. Earth witches were weird.
Ember grabbed her enchanted sword, a three-foot-long, solid silver blade with a fireproof rosewood handle and skull pommel. She swiped it through the air as if testing its balance, which was totally unnecessary. She’d had the thing for five years, so she was probably showing off. After twirling it at her side, she gripped it in both hands, blade pointing to the sky. Fire erupted at the hilt, cascading upward until flames engulfed the entire blade.
Yep, definitely showing off.
The rest of the witches pounded pavement toward the gate, but Ember hung back, giving me that supposed-sympathy-but-looked-like-pity expression. “You’ll be okay waiting in the van?”
I held up my phone. “I’ve got three ereader apps and a million books in my TBR. I’ll be fine. I might even take a nap.”
She nodded and slid the door shut before joining the rest of the crew. They hopped over the waist-high brick fence, not bothering with the gate, and prowled through the cemetery. I could practically hear the dry leaves crunching beneath their boots as they shrank into the darkness and disappeared. Shade’s shadow magic came in handy sometimes. I had no problem admitting that, despite his sour demeanor.
While the big kids went off to play with monsters, I clicked my favorite reading app and opened the next installment of the romance series I was addicted to. My goal was to read one hundred novels this year. I still had forty to go and only three months to do it. If these damn monsters would stay on their side of the veil, it would be easy-peasy. With the way things were going lately, I might not make it.
I rolled down the window, stuck my feet through the opening, and sank into my seat, losing myself in the story. Reading had a way of making time stand still and move at warp speed all at once. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been sitting there when the shouts echoed from the mausoleum, but it couldn’t have been that long. I’d only devoured three chapters.
I snapped my head toward the cemetery, squinting as I peered into the trees. Shade and his damn shadow magic. I couldn’t see a thing. I mean, sure, we had to hide ourselves from the humans. If they knew what monsters lurked in the darkness of their quaint little town, all hell would break loose. They’d destroy each other faster than the monsters ever could, so secrecy mattered.
But it didn’t stop the irritation bubbling in my gut. I wasn’t part of the hunting party, so I was as blind as a human out here in the van.
“Ember!” Chrys screamed, and a flash of firelight illuminated the mausoleum for half a second.
My pulse thrummed, and I sat upright, shoving my phone into the cupholder. Shouting was normal, right? They loved it when the monsters fought back. Danger was wired into their DNA.
The shadows flickered, Shade’s magic faltering. That was also normal. Using magic drained us. Even a master witch couldn’t hold on to a spell forever.
Another shout. A smack like a body hitting concrete. A pained grunt.
It was the vamps getting their undead asses kicked. Ember was the toughest witch in Salem. She might’ve been a little reckless, but so were most adrenaline junkies. It was fine. Everything was fine.
Until it wasn’t.
The magical shadows rolled toward the mausoleum, billowing at the base of the door before dissipating into the ground. Actually, no. Not the ground. Into Shade. He lay flat on his back, a bloodsucker pinning his shoulders down.
Crap. Where was everyone? Shade was a pain in my rear end, but I didn’t want to see him become dinner for the undead.
I opened the door, and my boots thudded on the pavement as I hopped out of the van. My chest burned, my fire magic concentrating in the center of my being. Ember described the sensation as a raging inferno, but to me, it felt like heartburn. The warming sensation spread down my arms until my fingers tingled. My leg muscles tightened, and my stomach clenched as I prepared to sprint into the fray.
But before I could take a step, Ember emerged from the mausoleum, her flame-licked sword swinging through the air and slicing the vampire’s head clean off. She kicked the corpse, and it rolled to the ground before melting into goo. After giving Shade a hand up, they both raced back inside.
The final rays of sun disappeared behind the horizon, and I was about to return to the safety of the van and the comfort of my book when movement around the side of the structure caught my eye. A shirtless vampire crept toward a five-foot marble cross, its pale skin gleaming in the moonlight. Dark red blood rimmed its mouth, making my stomach sour. Hopefully the vamp had made a mess of his meal last night, and it wasn’t my friend’s life force smeared across his face. I held my breath, waiting for a witch to dart out after him, but he kept creeping, and no one noticed.
Well, crapity crap. I couldn’t let the monster leave the cemetery. I might have been banned from hunting, but I was still a Veil Keeper, and it was my responsibility to keep the city safe. I chewed my bottom lip, scrunching my nose as the vamp made it halfway to the gate.
I should alert the others, call for Ember or Chrys to come out and nab the bloodsucker. They had the tools and the skills to take it out easily. I had neither. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I forced a scream, “Vamp overboard!”
