The Witch with No Name

I took a breath. We weren’t out of it yet. They were wary, but that guy on the stage was still yelling at them to attack us. “She needed to be to keep me alive,” I said, edging forward and seeing people grudgingly begin to part. “She once took an orderly out with a bedpan so I could go home for the solstice.”

“Move!” Ivy’s voice came, and I turned. “Get out of my way!”

The man on the stage pointed, distance making him brave. “Stop them! She’s a demon! She took their souls! If you act together, she can’t stop you!”

“The hell I can’t,” my mother muttered, and hearing her, the people pressed back to make a path.

Ivy finally broke through. Her head snapped up at the harsh claxon that suddenly rang out. “Son of a bitch,” my mother muttered, staring at the sky. “They’re going to seal the circle. Run!”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but after seeing her blow a lynch mob off me, I wasn’t going to question her. “Come on!” I shouted, grabbing Ivy’s hand and running at the people circling us.

They screamed, parting in panic as we came at them, and we plowed through. Elbows hit me, and the scent of fear. My grip on Ivy never faltered as I followed my mom and Jenks’s dust. Adrenaline was cold fire as I felt the prickling of a rising field. It was just before me, and I lunged, dragging Ivy behind me as I dove for the rising shimmer.

“No!” I cried as it licked over me, hesitating a heartbeat as it decided what side of me it would form on, and then I was through, Ivy in tow. We hit the ground together, and she spun to her feet with unreal grace.

Shocked, I sat on the pavement and stared at the purple-and-green shimmering field behind me. It was so thick, I couldn’t see past it. My palm was scraped, and I rubbed at it as I tried to decide what hurt and what didn’t. I hadn’t known they could close the square like that.

My urge to rise vanished at the new pain in my shoulder. Hissing, I took my weight off my hand, then yelped when some guy smelling like vampire hoisted me up. “Hey! Let go,” I shouted, then looked for my mom, even as the man got a tighter grip.

“It’s a containment field,” she said, smiling as an I.S. officer wrenched her arms behind her and zip-stripped her. “Donald and I got stuck in it once during a protest and they let us sit there for five hours before dropping it.” She looked up at the man trying to haul her off. “Hey! I’ve a right to assemble!”

Jenks was grinning, darting back and forth to avoid a man with a net. “Your mom could write a book, Rache.”

They were arresting us? “Dude, I’m on your side!” I exclaimed, then gasped when the guy who’d picked me up off the sidewalk shoved me at a car and wrenched my arms back. “Ow! Watch the shoulder!”

“Nina is still in there!” Ivy was screaming, and I heard the familiar thumps and pained grunts that happened when you told Ivy no. The man let go of me, and I spun, wrists bound as I leaned against the car to watch. I kind of worked for the FIB. We’d get this sorted out as soon as we found Edden.

“Ohhh, that’s going to hurt for a week,” Jenks said in admiration as he hovered beside me, and I winced.

“Jenks, go find Edden, will you?”

“You got it!” he said cheerfully, and darted away.

Ivy was backed up to the shimmering barrier, keeping everyone a good eight feet away with her attitude. They knew who she was, and I thought it dumb they persisted. She was magnificent with her streaming hair and dark eyes, motions clean and sharp as she beat off two more agents who dared to try her.

I.S. officers in specialized vests were going in and out of the barrier as if it didn’t exist. I hadn’t even know they had this kind of thing. Ivy spun when Nina’s voice carried as she was brought through, subdued in a straitjacket as they bundled her to an I.S. van. The zealot was right behind her, and I hoped they put them in separate vehicles. What is taking Edden so long? This strip is too tight.

“Nina!” Ivy called, and then I gasped as a man in a vest came through the barrier right behind Ivy and took her down.

Ivy struggled wildly, and my mom inched to stand beside me, eyes wide in admiration as my roommate wiggled, twisted, and finally succumbed to a martial arts grip that would snap her wrist if she continued, her free hand slapping her thigh in a show of submission.

“Good girl, Tamwood,” the vampire who had downed her snarled. “Get me a restraining harness!” he shouted, louder.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, pissed. He was the same guy who’d zip-stripped me, clearly pleased with himself as Ivy was bundled up by his buddies. “I’m Rachel Morgan, and that’s Ivy Tamwood. What are you doing? We’re here to help!”

The vampire’s smile chilled me, but his charms fell flat as I lifted my chin and stared him down. “Rachel Morgan,” he drawled as he took his field harness off and handed it to a subordinate. “Resisting arrest? You’re going to be locked up for a long time.”