Blood of the Covenant Read online

  Witches: Blood of the Covenant

  Mark Taylor

  Copyright © 2019 Mark Taylor

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Eden Royce

  http://edenroyce.com/

  Cover by Mark Taylor

  http://www.authormarktaylor.com/

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference. If any of these terms are used, no endorsement is implied. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Previously…

  In Lady’s house in London, England, Mary sat by the fire, gazing at Sarah and James from the corner of her eye. They were watching a film on the television. In the four weeks since they had become returners, they had still failed to grasp moving pictures. Perhaps something lighter than The Witches of Eastwick may have been appropriate, but hell, it was a start to their understanding. Mary had tried a variety of children’s programs, but the pair even found the childish scenes scary to some extent.

  She left them and joined Lady, ironing in the kitchen.

  “How are they doing?” Lady asked.

  Mary shrugged. “About the same. I can’t really blame them for their slow progress – it’s all so new to them.” She took a pair of pants from the laundry basket and started folding them. “Are we going to try again tonight?”

  Lady nodded. “After they’ve gone to bed.”

  Over the last few weeks Lady had taught Mary how to commune – a process of leaving your body and searching the ether for people with whom you are connected. Mary had lived alone for so long before learning of other witches. It had been an unsettling, if welcome, change to realize this connection was a byproduct of working together so closely with the coven in Salem. However, each time Lady and Mary had tried to commune, neither of them had reached Dina or Excalibur. They still didn’t know if either member of their coven was alive.

  It was of little comfort to Mary that she didn’t feel anything else in the ether, like the oncoming Mongers – or Him – like she had in Salem.

  “Do you think they’re still out there?” Mary asked.

  Lady nodded silently, placing a shirt on a hanger.

  Sarah and James sat in bewilderment, looking at the traditional fish and chips. “And this is fish?” James prodded at the crispy batter with his finger.

  “Remember,” Mary said. “Not with your fingers.”

  James nodded and picked up his knife and fork. He’d actually learned to use them well, but still forgot they were there on occasion.

  “I like chips,” Sarah added.

  The front door bell rang.

  “That’ll be the nurse,” Mary said, getting up. “She’s early.”

  The private nurses Lady had hired when they first returned to London were nearing the end of their work. Hard as it was to do it subversively, they had assured James was healthy, having been dead for three centuries, and that neither of them were carrying any diseases. The last thing Mary needed on her conscience was for one of them to cause an outbreak of the bubonic plague.

  She opened the door and just for a second, stared at the woman on the other side. “Excalibur,” she said, finally.

  Excalibur thrust a large travel bag into her hands. “This is for the returners,” she said. “We need to go.”

  Mary dropped the bag to the floor and threw her arms around her. “Oh, my God, you’re alive.”

  “Not now.” Excalibur removed her. “Dina’s in trouble, get Lady.”

  “Lady,” Mary called over her shoulder. “It’s Excalibur.” She grabbed Excalibur’s hand, “Come in.” She dragged her through the front door and closed it. “What happened, where have you been?”

  “Hell and back,” Excalibur said dryly. “Literally.”

  Lady bounded up beside them. “Hey, Sis.” She spoke casually, as if this sort of thing happened frequently. “Where’s Dina?”

  Excalibur shook the frivolities away. “We need to go. She’s in trouble.”

  Lady took her coat from the hook by the front door and put it on. “What’s up?”

  Before Excalibur had the chance to answer, Mary cut in. “How did you escape?”

  “You did notice that we can…how did you put it? Poof.” She smiled.

  Mary nodded. “And what’s in the bag?”

  “It’s whatever you want it to be,” Excalibur answered. “But we must go.”

  Mary glanced behind her to the door into the dining room as she took her own coat from the hook and slipped her arms into it. Surely they’ll be all right on their own…for a while?

  “What happened?” Lady asked.

  “I’ve just found out that turning the Devil into Vampyr is a really, really, stupid thing to do.”

  WITCHES

  BLOOD OF THE COVENANT

  I

  Nighttime saw less drivers on the road and so Excalibur guided the car with ease as it exploded onto the off ramp of the motorway. Lady gripped the door handle, white knuckled.

  “I didn’t know you could drive stick.” Mary sat in the backseat with her face between the shoulders of Excalibur and Lady.

  “How are the returners?” Excalibur asked.

  “They’ll be fine,” Mary answered. “But what about you? And Dina?”

  “I don’t think the Devil thought I would have that much of a commanding presence when I was on top.” She laughed. “The look in his eyes as I landed on him, pushing him to the floor, crouching on his chest.” Her smile dropped. “He pulled me down to hell. I think it was an instinctive reaction. Dina was beating monger ass.”

  “Of course,” Lady said.

  “Of course. But when she saw me go she jumped into the slipstream or something.”

  ***

  “Damn you,” Excalibur screamed into the face of the Devil as he fell to the ground beneath her weight.

  “You are far too late, my dear.” He chuckled. His broad teeth shone with unholy brightness.

  Excalibur’s fire crawled up her arm rising to her shoulder as she raised it to strike. Briefly, without thought, she glanced to Dina. Electricity leaped from the witch; she was a skilled marksman, and mongers dropped like flies around her. Excalibur looked back to the Devil. He grinned his Cheshire cat grin.

  “I forget nothing,” he said. “I am still owed by the coven.”

  Before Excalibur could bring her arm of fire down, the Devil brought forth a darkness.

  Excalibur saw the distant fog suddenly be upon her, fingers of black surrounding her and it drew her into its path. It engulfed her. It engaged. And she didn’t know what to do.

  She looked at the Devil. “What is this?” she screamed.

  “It don’t matter, my dear. Matters only that you be one of us.” His grin broadened, turning slowly into a laugh.

  Excalibur tried to pull away from him but the darkness surrounded her. It became at one with her. And she started to drop from Earth.

  Silence.

  Blackness.

  It was like communing. But…evil.

  And then she felt the heat. A warm, embracing, heat.

  And the Devil was gone.

  Excalibur was alone in the darkness. She could feel nothing beneath her, nor above, weightless in a vacuum. And she c
ouldn’t feel her sisters. “Hello?”

  “Hello, child.” The southern drawl of the Devil surrounded her.

  “Where am I?”

  “You’re with me now. Same as your ringleader.”

  “Dina!” she called out.

  “She can’t hear you.”

  Excalibur felt something as it moved past her. She swung out with a fist, but contacted with nothing. “Face me, damn you.”

  And the Devil did as she asked.

  Drenched suddenly in light, Excalibur spun around, trying to get her bearings as the Devil sat silent at his large oak desk and watched. She was in a large office – ornate and…brown. She turned to him. “What are you – a librarian?” She flicked her hands back and two balls of fire rose within them.

  The Devil gestured behind her.

  She squinted at him, before cocking her head to the side and glancing behind her. Crawling over the walls and ceilings, an army of essence mongers waited in the shadows. She extinguished her hands, returning her gaze to the Devil. “So now what?”

  He gestured to the chair opposite.

  Excalibur sat and crossed her legs.

  The Devil regarded her silently. His head dipped to the side. He removed his hat and dropped his brown fedora to the table, running his fingers over the dark skin of his nearly bald head.

  “I was promised a child.” His eyes met hers and Excalibur saw his look of regret. “And I didn’t get it. And I had my favor taken from me. Lady’s favor. And you. You fought me.” His voice lowered to a growl, and a frown deepened across his face. Then he relaxed a little, almost brightened. “I would have assumed that in the circumstances you would have thought better of it, after what happened with your father.”

  “He is of no concern of mine.”

  “Be that as it may, you are sitting in my office. You are on a very narrow ledge, my dear. All of you are.”

  “What do you want?”

  The Devil looked down at his desk, glancing at a contract and then pushing it to the side. “I believe Lady still owes me a favor, but I do not suppose she will agree to that.” Looking back to Excalibur, he raised an eyebrow. “But then I have you, don’t I? And Dina.”

  “That won’t get you anywhere.”

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not. But what about Mary? She seems like the willin’ type. Or perhaps I should just go and find the returners. Look at where the four of you and your little sisterhood has left me.” He learned forward. “All a quiver.”

  “You’ll get no help from me.”

  The Devil reached over to a long black walking cane that leaned on the edge of the desk. Its black marble handle glinted in the light. He looked Excalibur in the eye, and banged the cane on the floor.

  ***

  Excalibur stood next to the Devil in the long grass of a grey field. Neither the trees in the distance nor the grass underfoot moved, the field devoid of wind. The air smelled stale. The sky was as gray as everything else. “Nice,” she said. “What’s this, your holiday home?”

  He stepped forward. “Watch,” he said. “In the distance. Can you see?”

  Excalibur joined him, squinting into the distance. Over the curve of the field flickers of light came. Once, then twice, a blue glow came and went. Then again. And again. She breathed in. “Dina,” she whispered. Excalibur rushed toward her.

  “There’s nothing you can do,” the Devil said.

  Excalibur ignored him and started running pushing off into flight, but she could only manage enough lift to get a few feet from the ground. She willed herself to be with Dina, but she couldn’t migrate. A memory flicked in her mind of Mary’s words. She couldn’t poof.

  She was half powerless here.

  Excalibur flew on, headed to join the fight. As she flew, balls of fire grew in her hands, ready. Dina was in the distance fighting off two mongers, throwing balls of electricity into them, but they weren’t to be stopped.

  She must not have strength here either, Excalibur thought.

  “Dina!” she screamed. “Down!”

  Excalibur flew in from the side. Dina scrambled to get away, and fell to the ground, landing in her path. Excalibur took her chance hurling fireballs into the oncoming monsters. Dina rolled to her feet, dragged herself up and started running again.

  Excalibur tried to move out of the way before Dina crashed into her, but failed, as she passed straight through her. Then she saw her fireballs pass unnoticed through the mongers. She spun around to Dina, who had kept running in spite of her efforts to help. “Dina!”

  Her friend could not hear, nor see her.

  As she stood there, the two mongers passed through her too.

  Excalibur clenched her fists and launched into the air. Flying back towards the Devil as he made his way slowly through the field aided by the cane. She landed in front of him. “I thought you were better than petty tricks.”

  “No tricks, my dear. It is all quite real. It is us that are not here.”

  Excalibur turned to face the direction Dina had run in, and the Devil banged his cane down.

  ***

  Back in the Devil’s office Excalibur stood from the chair. Her hands flamed instantly. “Where is she?”

  “Calm down, my dear. She is in the Limbo of the Fathers, with a thousand… a million… an infinite number of my mongers. You can see how tired she is. You can see that they will get her, eventually.” He smiled.

  “What do you want from me?” Excalibur’s flames rose.

  “Turn…down…your…spite.”

  Excalibur did as she was told, and the flame in her hands extinguished.

  He sat forward in his chair and leaned his weight on his elbows. He nodded to the chair. Excalibur sat. And he nodded slowly. An appreciation, perhaps. “I shall have what is owed,” he said. “You, your coven, I don’t think are to blame. I think that Marie-Anne is to blame. I think she has misled me.” He looked into Excalibur’s eyes. “I think she has misled you. I think she is causing trouble in the pack.”

  “The pack…?” Excalibur nodded slowly.

  “Coven, yes.” His voice became lower. “You can repay the debt by giving me what I want.”

  “The returners?”

  “That, and something else. Only then, can I release Dina.”

  “What else?”

  “I want the woman. I want the betrayer. I want Anne-Marie. I want Mary Anson.”

  “So Mary, and the other two. For Dina?”

  “Yes,” he scowled.

  “And how do you want me to do that?”

  “You are a most…resourceful young lady.”

  “Young?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “You beat around the bush a little, don’t you?”

  The devil sat back in his chair. He curled his fingers together. “Sometimes saying what you want is a curse.” He leaned forward again, and this time his voice was deep and sharp.

  “Leave here and bring me the returners, bring me Anne-Marie. I will let you be free. I will release Lady from what she owes me…and I will let Dina out. What have you to lose? You’ve known this cheap pretention of a witch for what? A week?” He shook his head. “You owe nothing to her. Only to your own. Your coven.”

  “Okay.” Excalibur shrugged.

  The Devil raised an eyebrow. “Well. There’s more of your father in you than I thought.”

  “I am nothing like him.”

  The Devil stood. “Then come with me.” He raised his arm, gesturing to the door at the rear of the lavish office.

  Excalibur joined him, seeing the mongers were gone. He led her to the door and opened it, taking her into the corridor beyond. Flocked wallpaper – red – covered the surfaces that were not polished mahogany. Rugs adorned the wooden floor. It was hot. He took her arm and they walked along the corridor together. “It’s tough running things down here. I have to admit, I’m getting tired,” he said. “I could probably use some help. Someone to housekeep.” They turned a corner, and came to a door.

 
; Excalibur looked at him, frowning. “Are you…are you propositioning me?”

  He pushed the door open, and beyond stood a short, dark, corridor, and beyond that daylight. He smiled but never looked at her. “You would be a welcome addition to the fold. It wasn’t until now that I realized how treacherous you were. Giving up one for another? You could do well down here.”

  “You said I was like my father.”

  “Indeed. Even more so now.”

  “I hate to admit it, but I am in one way.”

  “Which is?”

  “I’m a born liar.”

  The Devil shot a glanced into her eyes.

  Excalibur bared her fangs, fully extended. She lunged at him, sinking her teeth into his neck, sucking hard. She tore. A chunk of his flesh came away in her mouth and she leapt back, pushing him away, and spitting it to the floor. “You think I’d betray my sisterhood?” She wiped blood from her chin. “You think I’d give up the returners? You know nothing old man.”

  The Devil held his hand over the wound as blood drained from it over his suit. Dark, thick blood. “You don’t know what you’ve done.”

  Excalibur turned to the corridor and started towards the light.

  “You should not have mixed the blood line, Excalibur. Now I have control.”

  She reached the daylight, turned, waved, called, “I’ll be back,” and disappeared in a wisp of black.

  ***

  “Well?” Mary demanded. “What did he mean?”

  “No idea.”

  “So what now, Sis?” Lady asked.

  “We’re going to get some answers.” She glanced over her shoulder, her lips curling slightly at the edges to show a hint of her fangs. “Be easier if we could all poof.”

  Mary pouted and slumped back into her seat.

  “I made some calls on the way over. We’re going to have to cross the border and find the Northern Hedge Witch Council.”

  Lady turned and looked out of the window of the car. “Oh no.”

  “What?” Mary perked up.