Night Witch (Book 1) ✔️

33 - Darkness

Kit stared in horror as Cassie's body went limp, draping down the passenger seat and out the door she hadn't managed to close. It was just like... No. Cassie said that she would be fine which meant this was nothing like the time she'd found mom.

Child, take a deep breath. Do as your sister told you and call this Luke. Runsel's deep voice broke her line of thought just in time.

Taking a deep breath only to discover the salty taste of tears, she swiped her eyes dry and fumbled the phone open. Luckily, Cassie didn't have a lot of contacts and there was only one Luke. Even luckier, he answered on the second ring.

"What's up?"

"Um, is this Luke?" Her voice trembled.

"Yes, who is this?" There was a hardness in his voice that threatened to send tears spilling again. She fought them back and carried on.

"I'm Kit, Cassie's sister and she's really sick. She wanted to drive to you but she just passed out and told me to call you instead. I can't drive and I can't move her and she won't wake up." Her voice rose with every word.

There was the sound of scraping as Luke stood abruptly. "Alright, tell me where you are and I'll come get you."

"The house has a teleport pad. I haven't learned how to teleport yet so you'll have to come here." He grunted the affirmative. "I'll send you the key if you can get to a pad."

He took a steady breath before answering and she mirrored it. "Alright, that's good. Why don't you take the picture and send it to me and I'll stay on the phone so you'll know I got it. Then, I'll come to you."

"Okay," His calm voice had her fumbling for the first piece of leather Cassie had handed her, which she'd set on the dash to call him. She pulled the phone away from her ear and quickly snapped the picture.

Two seconds later there was a slight buzz on the line as Luke received it. "I'm coming for you right now. Why don't you tell me what happened this evening?"

There was a soft rustle as Luke moved, probably walking to the nearest teleport pad. "She came home and she seemed tired but then she was in pain and so she had me help her down to the car. But we figured she shouldn't drive so she was just going to be in the passenger side and teach me, you know? Then, she told me to call you and then have you take us to Damien instead. I think that's what she meant, anyways."

There was a second of static as the words rush out of her and the teleport pad lit up. As she finished rambling, a tall man with dirty blond hair in a suit materialized on the pad as the light faded. He pressed a button on his phone and the call disconnected as she hopped out of the car and went to stand before him, arms crossed. Runsel charged after her and stood growling at the man, but he barely spared the dog a distracted glance as he tried to take in the rest of the garage.

"You have a teleport pad at home too?" She blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

He frowned at her, turning away from his inspection of the garage. "No, I was still at work."

"Oh, sorry. Um, she's just in the car." Kit motioned but didn't turn, not able to look at Cassie again now that she'd turned away.

Luke hurried to the passenger side and opened the door. He noted the disk she still clutches with surprise but ignored it to check on her pulse. It beat steadily, but slowly. Letting the fear wash away, he reached out with his magic to see if he could discover what was wrong and instantly recoiled. There was a dark presence surrounding her, soaking in her magic, and attaching itself to her soul.

There was no way he could deal with this type of curse.

He turned back to face Kit, who looked like a younger version of Cassie but with blue eyes instead of dark brown, and remembered that he had to remain calm because she was freaking out. "Cassie told you to go to Damien, do you know who that is?"