Page 40 of The Devil of London

Chapter Seventeen

Thescentofsage,lavender, and freshly cut herbs soothed my frayed nerves as I strolled through the shop, smiling. All the shelves had been fully restocked and organized, proving that I’d made the right choice in offering Mabel the promotion. Obviously, I’d hired competent workers, which was a good thing since Khaos was hellbent on making me spend my weekends at his house. Pausing in front of the large display of crystals, I moved a few back to their respective places and turned off the light that lit from above.

I spent a little over an hour tidying up the store, but the girls had done an amazing job of cleaning up. I hardly had anything to do. Honestly, I wasn’t worried about hovering over the girls. I’d trained them how to run the store in the event I ended up back in Nasir’s merciless hands. Call me paranoid, but I didn’t trust the false-freedom he’d awarded me, and he’d told me he’d have men watching me.

After flipping the downstairs lights off, I headed upstairs to grab my stuff. As I grabbed my purse, glass shattered downstairs, and I froze, listening for any other sounds. When none came, I moved to the window so I could see the sidewalk below. Several heavily armed men were approaching my shop.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. What now?” I muttered beneath my breath. Yanking on the threads, I forced a fissure between the shop and my neighbor’s house instead of my own just in case I had visitors there as well. Once I was fully inside her home, I carefully closed it, frowning before using my sleeve to cover my nose and mouth.

The house smelled of death and rot. Ignoring the roiling of my stomach, I entered Tara’s room, staring at where she lay on the bed, lifelessly looking up at the ceiling. There was a large bullet hole in her forehead. Regret shot through me when I considered how shitty of a neighbor I’d been. Sure, I had done a lot of work in her yard in exchange for using her attic, but I hadn’t been close to her. Tara had not known I was using her attic, but that was just semantics.

When I stepped back from the bed, my foot connected with something hard, which turned out to be Tilly. Cameron had shot a puppy who was not even six months old. Tears pricked my eyes at the loss of the pooch, which made me feel like shit.

“Sorry, Tara,” I whispered on my way out of her bedroom. In the hallway, I pulled the rope to bring down the retractable ladder, climbed the narrow wooden slats, and then pulled everything up and closed behind me. Then I headed for the attic window that faced the side of my house, and most of the front angle.

Men were beginning to infiltrate my house, but from this far away, I couldn’t make out the insignias on their arms. Whoever they were, they were packing M16s. After the third or fourth one disappeared through my doorway, I counted to five and smiled. Urgent sounds of distress erupted from within the house, and everyone who’d gone inside without my permission came running out.

The moment they stepped from the covered porch, their bodies started to steam as their skin burned, and the men started to scream. Their screams intensified as the skin sizzled. The ones who hadn’t gone inside tried to help them, but it was pointless. They grabbed one man’s hands, which caused him to howl as the skin liquefied from the bone. Idiots. One shouldn’t ever fuck with a witch’s home when she wasn’t there to invite them inside.

I’d built the house from the ground up. The foundation held a pentagram, which was strengthened by the crystals placed into the cement. Herbs were planted around the perimeter to enhance the circle. I had burned runes and incantations for protection into the wooden beams. Anyone, save for Khaos and those under his direct order, was protected from my magic. I hadn’t been allowed to spell my home against him or his men. Khaos had included that in the contract we’d written before he had agreed to give me space. But anyone who entered it intending to harm me? My house wasn’t very forgiving to them.

A loud explosion sounded beneath me, which shook the entire house. The sound of boots moving over the hardwood floors on the first floor below, had me heading for the bag I kept in her attic, making sure to bypass the floorboards I knew would creak. It was tucked under a pile of bags she’d stacked up here when she’d first moved in, and as silently as I could, I pulled it free. Call me paranoid, but I’d had an escape plan in place since I’d finished building my home.

Kneeling, I pulled off the jacket Khaos had dressed me in this morning, opened the large duffle bag, pulled out my holster, then secured it over my chest. Next, I slid on the waist belt, which had slits for the vials of tonics, toxins, and spell jars, and pulled out the one labeled ‘drink me’. I downed the citrus flavored, nulling tonic like a shot, then reached for the reasoning behind the tonic.

In the last fifty years, I’d become adept at creating spell jars that could end mortals or immortals in gruesome manners. Of course, it hadn’t been without some catastrophes that ended up with me being spelled, but I’d found a way to null the magic from affecting me as they’d done when I’d begun practicing dark magic. I had to experiment through trial and error.

Once I had all the vials in the slots of the belt, I grabbed one handgun, checked the chamber and magazine, and slid it into the holster. After I’d checked the second one and secured it in its place, I pulled my jacket back on.

“She has to be close,” a man snarled from the hallway below. “The fucking bitch wasn’t at her shop. Our intelligence states she doesn’t go elsewhere. Find her! I saw an upstairs from outside. Find the fucking staircase.”

“Someone put a bullet in this bitch and her fucking dog. That’s fucked up,” someone else stated before chuckling. “Maybe we aren’t the only ones hunting this demon bitch?”

“It’s a possibility. Many have tried to end her throughout her lifetime. She’s an enchantress, according to the last asshole’s report.” The third speaker was moving into the hallway where the dropdown staircase would be visible as he spoke.

“She’s one of the original witches. Aderyn Caine isn’t even her name. If I told you who she was, you’d shit your pants, gentlemen. Fucking hell, I did when the Herne’s told me who this bitch actually was,” the first speaker replied.

I was weakened from casting the earlier spell and opening the last portal from my shop to the attic. So, of course, this would be when they would attack me. If it wasn’t for shit luck, I’d have none. I’d be lucky to escape these pricks, whoever they were.

“Found the stairs, sir,” the third man called out.

As I backed toward the thin window, a floorboard creaked, and I froze, not even daring to draw a breath. There was a heavy beat of silence before bullets were ripping through the floor around me. I gave up all pretense of hiding and rushed toward the window, pausing only long enough to yank the right one open before swinging one leg over the windowsill. Several points of light streamed through bullet holes in the attic floor, and my lips twitched as I uncorked a vial of toxins and tossed it into the room. Before it hit the floor, I was through the window and shutting it behind me.

I slipped into the alcove of the roof and watched men and women moving around on the ground. They’d brought an entire army to my house, which meant they were witch hunters. They were deadly and a huge issue if they had discovered Khaos’s sleepy little town of otherworld creatures.

Coughing sounded from inside, and I turned in time to see the window shatter. The asshole inside emptied his side arm into the window as he sought fresh air. The ghastly, wet sound of his cough was a prelude to his untimely demise. A loud thump told me that whoever had been climbing the ladder had fared no better. Unfortunately, the hunters on the ground below heard the shots and had come to check them out.

Shots peppered the roof around where I was hidden in the shadows, and before I could move from the spot, a stinging began at my side. Whispering a spell, I rushed to the edge of the roof, leaping to the ground below. Vines ripped from the ground, seeking the shooter as my blood dripped onto the soil. Another protection spell, one of many I’d implemented.

“She’s on the south side of the house!” a woman shouted.

“So much for sisterhood, bitch,” I muttered while holding my side. Then I lifted my hand and sent tendrils of dark magic shooting at her, tearing through her throat. Blood sprayed from her neck as her head slid to the side and then rolled onto the ground, moments before her body joined it there.

I didn’t stick around to see who would come check on her. Instead, I booked it to the corner of the house. As soon as I rounded it, I came face to face with a man. My hand lifted, brushing over his cheek. “Be a gentleman, darling. Go murder some of your friends.” His eyes turned white before he lifted his rifle and shot toward me. My mouth dropped open in shock and fear, but then the thuds of bodies hitting the ground sounded behind me. When I checked, the handful of men who had been creeping up behind me were dead. “I wonder how well they’ll work as compost?” While that guy opened fire on another one of his buddies, I inched my way to the back porch of my house, keeping close to the siding.

“Find her!” A male snapped inches away from me. The moment he passed in front of me, my fingers snaked out, brushing his hand. “Murderous bitch,” he whispered.

“Hey, I didn’t come looking for you. Now did I? No. You came to my house. Hand me your earpiece, baby boy. After you’ve done so, I want you to walk around the house and see how many of your friends you can shoot. As you do so, I want you to scream how small your cock is.” His eyes glossed over with the white, sightless film of my dark magic.

---