The Witch with No Name

“Nicely done, Mr. Kung Fu!” Jenks said, clearly impressed. “You didn’t kill him this time!”

This time? I inched in. “Jenks, are we clear?”

“Yep.” He was grinning, hands on his hips as he looked at Ellasbeth’s fury.

Trent dropped the unconscious man’s gun. Face white, he strode to Ellasbeth and yanked the gag down. “Where’s Lucy?”

Ellasbeth took a gasping breath. “That son of a bitch!” she raved, blond hair in her mouth, her eyes everywhere. “He’s crazy! He’s going to kill the ley lines! He’s going to end magic!”

“Where is Lucy, Ellasbeth?” Trent demanded, and then his head snapped around at a delighted “Daddy!” from the back room.

I stumbled out of the way as Trent bolted to her. I couldn’t help my smile when I heard Lucy calling again, her little-child voice raised in delight. “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Surprise!”

Jenks was at the door, looking in at them even as he hovered backward to me. “I love reunions,” he said, his dust shifting to a melancholy orange.

I looked at the clock on the wall, my smile fading. “Go get Ivy, will you?” I said, and Jenks’s dust shifted gray. Trent was out of it, and I needed help.

“You got it.” Jenks darted through the door and into the hallway as I opened it a crack.

“How about some help here?” Ellasbeth said bitterly.

Sighing, I listened to the quiet hallway, deciding everything was okay before I shut the door. “He tied you up, huh?” I asked as I used the downed elf’s knife to cut her bonds.

“Landon is a philistine,” she said, rubbing her wrists and wiggling her ankles for me to hurry up. “He’s tricking his own people into ending magic with the promise of killing all the demons. You can’t kill demons without magic. What if they aren’t pulled back? How do you do magic without the lines? You don’t!” She hesitated at the soft scuff at the bedroom door, her face going white as she looked at Trent standing there with Lucy on his hip, the little girl patting at his frown lines.

“Hi, Mommy,” she said, wiggling her feet. “Surprise!”

I blinked when a little purple rocking horse with wings suddenly appeared and Lucy squealed in delight. Al had taught her a new trick.

“Trent . . .”

Ellasbeth tried to stand, and I shoved her back down. Ticked, the woman frowned at me. “He’s using the vampires’ undead souls as an excuse to break the lines,” she said. “We have to stop him. With the lines broken, the ever-after—”

“Will shrink and implode on itself,” I said blandly, interrupting her as I freed her feet.

“How do you know that?”

Finished, I rocked back and slowly stood, deciding to keep the knife. “Because I stopped Ku’Sox from doing the same thing. It must have given Landon the idea.”

She started to move, and I shook my head. “Stay put.”

“I didn’t know that was his plan,” Ellasbeth said, peeved but flicking nervous glances at the man Trent had downed. “I never meant it to get this out of hand. I only wanted to scare you, Trent. I’m so sorry.”

Trent’s white face wasn’t going away. Lucy was singing as she sat on his hip, and his expression became frightened as his eyes met mine. “I can’t,” he said, those two words almost tearing him in two.

“Daddy, where’s Ray-Ray?”

I swallowed hard as I remembered him forcing Lucy into my arms and demanding I leave, Trent willingly becoming Ku’Sox’s slave to save her. “Don’t worry about it,” I said softly, and Ellasbeth looked between us, her lips pressed as she tried to figure it out. “Jenks is getting Ivy. Get them both out of here.”

“What?” Ellasbeth said as I pulled her to her feet. “Hey!”

Angry, I took out a little of my misplaced aggression on her, pinching her shoulder and getting in her face. “You want to be tied up again?” I said sharply, and her anger flashed to fear. “Then get out of here.”

The man at my feet moved, and I pulled out my splat gun and shot him in the back. With a little sigh, he collapsed. Ellasbeth looked at him, then me, standing before her with a gun in one hand, a knife in the other. Slowly I handed the knife to Trent, who double-sheathed it with his own longer knife. “I suggest you go fast and quiet,” I added.

“Where’s-s-s-s-s Ray-Ray!” Lucy bubbled, clearly not frightened, but hey, the girl had been kidnapped three times now.

Smiling, Trent jiggled her on his hip. “Shhh, Lucy. We have to be quiet to go find Ray.”

The little girl bounced happily, then suddenly concentrated on her fingers until she got them to snap. The flying rocking horse exploded into a puff of pink smoke, and the little girl laughed, delighted. If we survived this, I was going to have to talk to Al about the spells little girls should and shouldn’t know.

But she was being way too loud, and as Ellasbeth darted around the room gathering her purse, her coat, her heels . . . whatever, I turned to Lucy, worried they wouldn’t get down that first crucial hallway. Trent wasn’t having much luck as Lucy kept making and exploding winged horses into little pink clouds “Lucy?” I said suddenly. “Do you want to play hide-and-seek?”