Witch (Supernatural #2)

27: Dark and Deep

Sinister, adjective.

1. threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous.
2. bad, evil, base, or wicked.
3. unfortunate; disastrous; unfavorable.

***

Melting the snow took less than a minute with Noah and I bundling our powers. Then it was a waiting game, something none of us really looked forward to. Ken climbed into a tree and disappeared out of sight. Tate went to check the presence of werewolves in the surrounding woods while Dean sat himself down in front of the fire like there was nothing better than sitting out in the open like a duck waiting to be shot.

Naturally, Noah joined him, so did I.

With little else to do, we played with the fire, making it bigger so as to expel more magic. Since we had no idea how the witch hunters tracked our magic use, we had no way of knowing whether using more magic made it easier for them to find us. In theory, it ought to. Besides, playing with fire was fun. It was something parents always told you not to do, then, when you finally did, there was this great sense of satisfaction. Unless it turned out the forbidden activity sucked, in which case you moved onto the next forbidden activity. But playing with fire was thrilling.

Tate returned and sat next to Dean. I looked at them, taking in the campfire and the tent. All that we were missing were the marshmallows. When the witch hunters arrived, we would look like a group of friends who were camping out here for the weekend. Except, of course, it was far too cold to camp, and there ought to be a foot of snow around us when there wasn't.

Normal, nothing suspicious or supernatural, right?

"There are three werewolves out there, and one more who is tracking the advance of the witch hunters. They don't seem to be in too much of a hurry so we have a little time. From time to time they do seem to move faster. Probably whenever there is a spike in your magic."

Noah arched an eyebrow and the flames flared. Effortless. Tate grinned.

"Yeah, that'll get them moving. Okay, now, I don't know how many you saw," he said, looking to me, "but there appear to be quite a few of them. Like, several dozens, which is good because the more we can dispatch today, the less we have to deal with on a later date." Dean muttered something about the hassle of tracking down criminals.

A wave of fear washed over me as I heard him say 'several dozens'. I had never seen more than fifteen at a time, which had put me in enough trouble. But 'several dozens' didn't even stop at twenty-four, otherwise, he would have said 'two dozen'. How many were heading our way? How many would we fight? How much trouble were we in? Part of me wondered whether there was still time for me to run and hide. Except, of course, I couldn't and wouldn't let myself do that. I was scared but I wasn't a coward.

"When they get here, what we need from you is to make sure they don't escape. Every time you were face to face with them, they ran the second they saw the mountain lion. I doubt today will be any different. Not to mention that there are also four werewolves that could seriously spook them. So, you have to try and keep them here. Dean and I will take care of them, and any that do escape - because it's bound to happen anyway - the werewolves will take down. But if you can keep as many as possible here, that'd be a great help already."

Noah and I nodded. Any that would run, we would pull back.

"The first time they cornered me, they had whips that they used to catch me. They might have them now, so we'll need to be careful," I added.

The hellhounds nodded. "Keep an eye on that. We can take care of ourselves but keep an eye on each other, and the shifter up there."

After that, it was back to waiting. Noah created a tiny ball of pure energy and tossed it around between his hands before tossing it to me. Each time it went back and forth, it grew in size, eating some of the magic we used to pass it around. It took little time to grow to the size of a basketball, at which time, Noah suspended it above the fire. It hovered there, while I created a new ball and we started the game all over. It was like we were creating ammo for the fight to come, the way you might store up snowballs before a fight broke out.