Wicked Omen (The Royals: Warlock Court Book 1), page 3
The pressure on my limbs lessened and I could move. The four of them rose to their feet and stood in a circle around me. I sat up and pulled my legs into my chest. “What did you all do to me?”
“We didn’t do anything to you. You’re a warlock. This is part of who you are.” Beckett looked around the club then back down at me. “We’re leaving.”
I shook my head. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” They did this to me. I was sure of it. My breaths came in sharp puffs as the panic in my chest rose once more. Whatever Maze had done to me was starting to wear off.
“Be easy, that card will only hold her until the next blood moon, but if you put her through too much its hold will break early.” Maze took a step back then sucked in a sharp breath and his eyes went milky white.
Beckett pursed his lip then wound his hands under my arms and pulled me up to my feet. I spun out of his grip and pulled my arms away from him.
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He walked up to me like I was some kind of wild animal and met my eye. “If you don’t come with us, then you will die. We are the only ones who can and will keep you alive.”
Maze stumbled forward. His eyes were clear of the milky whiteness. He shook his head and grabbed onto Beckett’s shoulder. “We’ve got company.”
“Damn it. They’re here already?” Beckett held his hand out and a blue orb appeared between his fingers. He tossed it to the side where it grew and expanded into an oversized glowing oval. “Everybody in.”
Maze turned and without hesitation he walked right toward the orb. He didn’t look back, didn’t stop, just walked right into it and out of sight. Beckett grabbed my elbow and led me toward the blue orb. I planted my feet and pulled back on my arm. “There’s no way I’m going into that thing.”
The door to the club flew wide-open and a group of five men in long black cloaks stormed in. Their hands all lit up with balls that looked like electricity. One of the men in the center of the group threw the ball right at my chest. Beckett shoved me to the side. The ball of electricity smacked into his shoulder a moment before he tumbled into me. We stumbled back into a flash of bright blue light and then the world spun into twisted chaos . . .
Chapter 4
Astrid
My body twisted in a thousand different directions. I was pulled apart and put back together within seconds. One minute I was floating and in the next I was sinking. The world spun in circles. It was worse than any rollercoaster I’d ever been on. Then a hand latched around my wrist and yanked me toward a dot of light in the madness. It grew and expanded as I drew closer. I shot out of whatever the heck I’d been in like a bat out of hell. I tumbled forward. My feet hit the pavement just as I fell and smacked my face into someone. I pushed away from them and made my way over to a brick wall. My hands scraped up against the brick as I held myself upright. I lowered my head and sucked in a deep breath, trying not to throw up all over my shoes.
“Where the hell are we? We’re supposed to be at Warwick not in the alley below the club.” Cross bent over and pulled a knife from his boot. “Those loyal Alataris motherfu—”
“Cross, I got tagged in the arm. It took all the energy I had to get us down here, let alone Connecticut!” Beckett pressed his hand to his shoulder. Blood seeped in between his fingers.
Ophelia walked over to Beckett and pulled a vial from a pocket from the inside of her coat. The liquid glowed a deep red. She pulled the cork and dumped it over his shoulder. “There, that should hold you until we can get you to the infirmary.”
The blood flowing from his shoulder stopped. A red glow illuminated the skin and melded over it like a patch.
Beckett rolled his shoulder as he walked over to stand next to me. “Thanks, O.” He ran his eyes over me. “You look green.”
“I feel green.” Breathe, just breathe, it’ll pass. In through the nose, out through the mouth.
“Those warlocks would’ve killed you without thinking twice about it. Lucky I was there to take the hit. Trust me now?”
“No.” Bile rose up my throat and this time I couldn’t fight it. I leaned over and let my stomach empty out all over the alley. I heaved everything I had up. My throat burned and every muscle in my body clenched. Someone pulled my hair back from my face and held it away from me while I let it all out. It splashed on the ground and over the tips of my boots. I gagged and a whole other round started up. I sucked in a deep breath, praying it was over and I had nothing else to get out. I pressed my face to the brick, wishing it were the cold tile of my bathroom floor. Then the brick smoothed out to a huge section of white marble tile that was cold to the touch. I jumped back. What the hell?
A small hand patted my back. “It’s all right. You got it all out now.”
“Ophelia, we don’t have time for this.” Cross moved to stand beside her.
I swiped my sleeve over my mouth. My hair was slick with sweat and tears ran down my cheeks from showing off my upchuck reflex. I turned and narrowed my eyes at him. “You think this is all flowers and daisies for me?”
Just above Cross’ head was a faint green glowing light. It grew into long, thin ropes and slowly wove together. A ring of multicolored flowers and daisies formed and fell right on Cross’ head like a crown. I stared at him with wide eyes.
Ophelia, the girl who looked like Wednesday Addams, hunched over and started cracking up.
Beckett snickered then winced. “We can’t be exposed like this. We have to make it back to Warwick.” He spun in a circle. “Where’s Maze? Did he make it out?”
“He stepped out of the portal behind me and O.” Cross pointed to the top of his head. “Is there a freaking flower crown on my head?”
I pressed my hand over my mouth. Did I do that? I shook my head. No, this wasn’t possible. Then the flowers withered and died in an instant, turning to dust that rained down onto his shoulders. Or is it?
This wasn’t freaking happening! It was a dream, a really, really bad dream where crazy shit went down. I know I’ll make it into a movie idea or even better, I’ll write a book. Yes, this was all some kind of hallucinogenic, trippy, awful, horrible, bad something. I pressed my fingers to my temples.
“It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream,” I chanted over and over again.
“We don’t have time to wait.” Beckett conjured another blue orb in his hand and tossed it to the side. It grew and expanded once more. He waved toward it. “Come on, let’s go.”
I shook my head. “I’m not getting in there again. Forget it!”
Beckett wrapped his hand around my wrist and tugged me forward. “We need to move now. Before your friends up there make their way down here.”
“I don’t know what any of you want with me! But I am not the one you are looking for!” I dug my heels into the ground and pulled back on my wrist. I’d be damned if I was going into one of those things again. In my head I pictured a metal door slamming shut over it with a big handle in the middle of it like a safe. A hung metal door like the one I’d pictured slammed down from the sky. It dented the asphalt, sending little pieces of it flying up in the air. The handle on the door twisted and locked over the blue orb.
Beckett’s jaw dropped. “What just happened?”
The sound of a honking horn echoed off the walls of the alley and I spun around to see Maze pull up in a BMW X6. He blocked the entire alley so no one could see in. Great, just great! I glanced at the other end of the alley to a small opening. I had to get there to get away from these people. The car gleamed a perfect white under the streetlight. The windows were tinted a dark black. Maze hung out of the driver seat with only the window rolled down. “Need a ride?”
Beckett narrowed his eyes at him. “How did you know?”
Maze pointed to his temple. “You know . . . visions. Our girl here doesn’t want to portal and honestly your portals suck anyways. Can you blame her?”
Their girl? Blame me? These people were on something and I was getting out of here as soon as I could. It was stupid of me to talk to them on the street and in the club. I’m a New Yorker we don’t engage with strangers and the first time my dumb ass does it I get myself drugged and kidnapped. I’m smarter than this! Think, Astrid, think! I would run out of here the first chance I got. I was a fighter and no matter what they did to me I would not stop fighting.
Maze leaned back in the driver’s seat. His eyes turned milky white once more and his body went limp.
Beckett stormed up to the car. “What did you see?”
Maze shook his head and the milky white cleared from his eyes. “Ambush two miles out from the school.”
A wide smile spread across Ophelia’s face. “I got this.”
“Fine. Handle it.” Beckett tossed an orb over his should and it grew to that doorway looking thing once more. He pointed his finger at Maze. “You really need to get your visions under control so we can start using them to our advantage.”
“When you figure out how to control psychic powers please let me know.” Maze gave him a withered look and rolled the window up.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” Cross called after Ophelia.
“Is that your way of telling me to be careful?” She winked at him.
A half smile spread across his face. “No need, I pity the warlock who comes up against you.”
“As you should.” She stepped through the portal door thing without another word and it closed behind her.
I took a step back. This was going to be my chance. My chance to get away from these psychos. I glanced over my shoulder. The alley was long and narrow, but luckily it wasn’t a dead end.
Beckett clicked his tongue at me. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
I took another step away from them.
He narrowed his eyes. “You can either get into the car or Cross and I will pick you up and put you in it.”
“Screw this.” I turned on my heels and sprinted toward the other end of the alleyway. I pumped my arms as hard as I could, forcing my feet to go faster. My muscles burned and my boots clicked on the asphalt. The cold air blew my hair out of my face and I was nearly there. Cars sped by on the main road. The blaring of horns forced me to go faster. If I could just turn that corner out onto the main street, there’d be no way they could take me. No way he could force me into that car without someone seeing.
My feet rose up off the ground and my body went completely weightless. No matter how hard I tried to keep running, I floated backward. Blue smoke surrounded my legs and twisted up to my hips. I swung my arms down at the smoke holding me, trying to brush it way, but no matter how hard I tried my arms went right through it even though it felt like cement on my legs. I struggled against it, sweat dripping down the sides of my face. I threw my head back and screamed. Blue smoke covered my mouth, cutting off my protest.
I was yanked back, and my head snapped down to my chest. I wiggled my shoulders, trying to escape, but there was no getting out of this. My body was laid parallel to the ground and I drifted farther into the alley. Beckett stood over me. I hovered in the air just at his waist. He waved his hand and I drifted toward the car.
“You had two options. Too bad you made me choose for you.”
The smoke around my mouth faded away. “You’ll never get away with this!”
He held his hand over my face. A puff of his power hit me square in the eyes and exhaustion overtook me. I fought to keep them open, yet they still drifted. Beckett shrugged. “I already have.”
And then there was nothing. . .
Chapter 5
Astrid
My head rolled on my shoulders and pieces of my hair fell over my lips. In my groggy state all I could make out were the faint interior lights of the car. The new car smell mixed with the scent of fresh laundry and I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and blew it out to force the hair off my lips. I lifted my hand to rub at my eyes, yet my movements were sluggish and I struggled to wake from my sleep.
“I think she’s waking up.” A smooth deep voice came from just beside me.
“We gotta pit stop anyways.” The car rolled to a stop and Cross threw it into park. “Is this the spot?”
Maze nodded. “Yup, this is the spot.”
Cross glanced around. “I don’t see her anywhere.” He slammed his hand on the steering wheel. “Damn it. I knew I should’ve gone with her.”
It took so much effort to hold my head upright. When I looked out the window, all I saw was a dark road in the woods. There were no streetlights or other cars. We were in the middle of nowhere surrounded by nothing and I would be seeing no one. I looked over at Beckett sitting next to me. He didn’t say a word, only stared. I felt like a bug under a microscope. I narrowed my eyes at him. Finally, he stopped looking at me and leaned back into his seat. “She’ll be here. Ophelia is a queen. There’s no stopping her.”
A queen? Was that some kind of compliment or is she really a queen? “Where are you taking me?”
Beckett crossed his arms over his chest. “To Warwick Academy.”
Say what now? “Let me get this straight. You kidnapped me to take me to a school?”
He shrugged. “It’s a special kind of school.”
“What do you mean a special kind of school? I’m not some troubled youth you see on Dr. Phil. I already have a school, thank you very much.” I reached for the handle. “Just let me go. You know someone will come looking for me soon enough and then what will you do? Jail time is real. Doesn’t matter how old you are. I would know, my dad is a lawyer, a big-time lawyer.”
It was the first time I’d ever used my father’s job as a threat to anyone. It made me feel like I was one of those has been celebrities yelling at someone “don’t you know who I am.” But at this point I’d do anything to get away from these people even if the words coming out of my mouth felt stupid.
“Well, no matter how big-time a lawyer your father is, he’s not what you need now, we are.” Beckett glanced out of the windows then tapped on Cross’ arm. “We don’t have time to be sitting in the open like this.”
Cross shrugged. “This car goes nowhere without her.”
“What do you mean I’ll need you?” He couldn’t be serious. These crazies kidnapped me from my own birthday party, threw me in a car, and drove me to the middle of nowhere. I was probably going to die out here and he’d deluded himself into thinking I needed him. No freaking way! Little puffs of gold smoke seeped over the back seat.
Beckett reached out, grabbed my hands, and held them up to my face. The smoke rose from my palms. I was doing that! He placed his palm over mine. “Yes, you need us. To help you learn to control the power you have. Otherwise it’ll consume you and everyone around you.”
I shook my head. “No, this is some kind of trick. You did something to me.”
“The only thing we did to you was make sure you didn’t destroy that club and your a-hole friends.”
“I don’t believe you.” I didn’t want to believe him. Kidnappers always did crap like this to their victims. They played mind games with them, making them think they needed their captors to survive. Well, that wasn’t me and I didn’t need them. The first chance I got I was out of here.
“You don’t have to believe me. Time will convince you.” He was so dismissive. Like he didn’t think taking me was wrong.
Jackass!
“Will you please just let me go? I swear I won’t tell anyone about all this. Just let me go home.” I didn’t want to beg or plead, but I would if it meant I could go home. I didn’t belong here, not with these people.
“Astrid, I am taking you home.” His voice was so smooth, so soothing, yet his words chilled me to my bones.
Before I could say anything else, something huge fell onto the roof of the car. The ceiling dented in and the whole car shook. My pulse raced in my veins. “What was that?”
I looked out the front window into the darkness. The only light came from the headlights. Then suddenly a body flew from the woods out into the middle of the street. It looked like one of those cloaked figures from the club, although now he lay in the middle of the road like a pile of dirty rags.
Cross leaned back in the driver seat and chuckled. “There she is.” He glanced over his shoulder at Beckett. “My kind of girl.”
Ophelia sauntered out in the middle of the street to stand over the man. She tossed her long black hair over her shoulder and smiled down at him. She bent down low, pressed her fingers to his neck, taking his pulse, then she shrugged and walked over to the car. She was so tiny, yet in that moment she scared the hell out of me. How did she throw a full-grown man who was six inches taller than her and outweighed her by a hundred pounds? As she approach the driver’s side, Cross rolled his window down. “Need a lift?”
Ophelia laughed. She actually laughed after killing someone. “Sure. I’m a bit tired.” She blew on her nails and rubbed them on the collar of her shirt like she was so accomplished.
The others all chuckled at her, yet I was completely and totally horrified. She’d just killed one, possibly two men, and they were laughing about it! She came up to my door and I shifted away from her and nearly scooted into Beckett’s lap. She made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat then reached up and grabbed an arm I hadn’t seen hanging over the side of the roof. She took three steps back and the sound of something scraping across the roof filled the car. Then a body slid off the side of the car and onto the ground. Ophelia dusted her hands off and stepped over him. She yanked the back door open and climbed in beside me. “Hi.”
What did one say to a proven killer? My eyes bugged out of my head. “Umm, hi?”
She pulled the door shut behind her. “Ready to roll.” The car lurched forward, yet I couldn’t stop staring at her. She cleared her throat. “So, what’s up?”
What’s up? What’s up? That’s what she’s gonna say to me now? What do I even say to that? Did you have fun killing people? “Nothing.”
