"Adrian, please, don't hurt her," I said between sobs and gasps. "Please. You don't know what you're doing."
He turned to hiss at me, now completely a vampire. "I know exactly what I’m doing. I’m making her mine. If I can't have her, no one else will."
He turned to look at Jazmine once again, then hovered above her. She had her eyes closed, and I feared she was unconscious.
What is he going to do to her? Will he drink her blood? Will he kill her and make her a vampire like himself?
"Please," I cried, trying to plead with the small amount of humanity I knew he still had to have in him. "Don't hurt her."
Adrian gave me one last look, then sank down above Jazmine, his teeth piercing her skin.
"Adrian! No!"
In the second the fangs went through her skin, Jazmine opened her eyes. They were glowing a strong red color. She opened her mouth and lifted her hands, repeating a word:
"Crepitus!"
A huge explosion of purple light emerged inside the room, and Adrian was slung backward through the air and blown against a wall. In that same second, Kipp and Amy came out of the bathroom, soaked, his tail showing and her being a full-blown dragon. Next thing, the door to the room opened, and in stormed Jayden, looking like he had seen a ghost, yelling something about us not answering our phones and how is he supposed to tell us there’s danger if we don't check our phones?
I was about to say something, maybe even scream, but I never got around to it since there was a sudden knock on the window and we all turned to look. Sitting outside, tapping at the glass with one of his eight thin legs, looking back in at us, was Mr. Aran.
Chapter Forty-Eight
We could barely react before Mr. Aran jumped inside. He smiled widely as he glanced around at everyone.
"Oh, my," he said. "Now, what do we have here?"
He pointed at Adrian on the floor, who was barely conscious.
"A vampire?" He shook his head with a tsk, then laughed and turned to look at Jazmine.
"And don't you think for one second that I didn't see that little trick you did to make him fly, my dear child. I guess the apple really doesn’t fall too far from the tree, huh? I knew you wouldn't be able to keep from doing magic."
Jazmine mumbled something, but none of us could hear it, and Mr. Aran seemed not to care. Instead, he turned to look at Amy.
"Now, there's my beast," he said, "and who have you brought with you? If it isn't a…merman. I haven't seen one of you for a very long time. Almost extinct in this world, I’ve heard. Well, it will be my pleasure to get rid of yet another of you. I never cared much for fish. Floppy and scaly little creatures and so darn…wet."
"We didn't do anything wrong," Amy yelled and stepped up in front of Kipp, blocking Mr. Aran from getting to him. She was only half a dragon now and slowly transforming back.
Mr. Aran wasn't intimidated by her. He poked her muzzle. "See, that's where you're wrong, my dear beast. Now, I foresee I’m about to have myself quite the catch since you have all used your powers in the presence of two humans." He turned on his heel and looked at Jayden and me. "Robyn Jones and Jayden Smith were nothing but very human, last time I checked." Mr. Aran laughed loudly. "I guess that puts the rest of you in quite the pickle, now, doesn't it? I would say so. I would say so, indeed. But best of all is that you're not even the real reason I’m here at all. No, I came for the little girl over there," he said and pointed at Veronika, who gasped and crabbed backward on the bed. "For performing time travel in front of a human, yes, my dear, my little spiders saw it all. They saw you do it while Robyn Jones over here was present. And that, my dear, is illegal and punishable by death. I guess you'll go first."
Mr. Aran lifted his vacuum-thing and turned it on. The sound made Jazmine and me wince, remembering what it could do.
"Please," I said, rushing toward him, placing myself between him and Veronika. "She's just a kid. She doesn’t know how to control it. Please, sir. Give her a chance."
Mr. Aran lifted the machine in the air, its roar drowning out my pleas. He laughed and pushed me aside, then walked toward Veronika, pointing it at her. I screamed and threw myself onto his back, hitting my fist into his round body, yelling and screaming for him to stop. But he continued, nevertheless, and slung me off as he rushed toward her, his lipless mouth grinning from ear to ear. But as he was about to suck out Veronika's soul, she looked up at him with her big eyes, blinked them a few times, and disappeared.
Mr. Aran let out a loud shriek. "Where did she go?"
I fell to the carpet. Jayden ran to me. "Robyn!"
He helped me get up while Mr. Aran searched the room for Veronika. I knew she would be back shortly but prayed she could stay away a little longer this time. Mr. Aran turned to look at Jazmine, then ran toward her, but she took in a deep breath, then yelled three times: "Incendia."
She then stared at the spider-man's feet, and flames were soon licking at them. Mr. Aran screamed and stomped his feet to put out the fire, then opened his mouth and spat out a web at Jazmine, enveloping her completely, so she couldn't move. The more she moved, the tighter the web got.
He turned around, pointing the vacuum cleaner at each of us. "Anyone else wanna give it a go?"
Chapter Forty-Nine
"I do."
Amy stepped forward. "I’m sick of you and of how you're terrorizing all of us when all we want is to live the lives of normal teenagers!" she yelled, then spewed out a ball of fire.
Mr. Aran hissed, but moved away fast, crawling up the wall on his long skinny legs. Kipp then raised his hands and somehow made a strong wind blow in through the window. He used his hands to urge the strong gusts toward the giant spider-man, causing him to lose his grip on the ceiling and fall. Amy spewed fire at him once more, a big ball of fire. The ball exploded when it hit Mr. Aran, and he squealed loudly, but a second later he was running up the wall again. Meanwhile, Jayden and I tried to get Jazmine out of the spider web, but it was too strong and sticky for us to be able even to stretch it. Mr. Aran crawled quickly on the ceiling toward Amy, then lunged at her from above and landed on her head. Laughing loudly, he turned on the machine and yelled.
"Nice try, young lady!"
"No!" I screamed and sprang to my feet. I ran toward Amy, while Kipp made a pillar of water gush in from the bathroom, but even though it hit Mr. Aran, it didn't stop him. Jayden threw himself at Mr. Aran's legs and made him trip, but Mr. Aran knocked him out using the back of the vacuum cleaner, and Jayden fell to the carpet, unconscious. The machine was too close to Amy now. It sucked hard and soon clung to Amy's skin.
Amy screamed for help, but there was nothing I could do. I screamed too and pulled at the spider's legs, trying to get him away from my friend, when I heard a loud roar coming from the window. I didn't even get to turn and look before the wolf leaped through the air and tumbled Mr. Aran to the ground, the vacuum cleaner falling out of his hands and skidding across the floor.
"Melanie?" I said, panting.
Melanie had Mr. Aran pinned down under her claws and was covering his mouth with her paw, so he couldn't spew web at her.
"Oh, have I wanted to do this for a long time," she said with a low snarl. Her eyes were glowing, her fangs dripping saliva on his body. Her claws were piercing the spider's skin.
"How does it feel to be the little one now, huh? How. Does. It. Feel? Huh? Itsy Bitsy Spider."
Melanie lifted her claw up close to his face. Mr. Aran whimpered beneath her. His fear-stricken eyes were staring up at her, pleading her for mercy. But Melanie had no mercy for the man that had kept her prisoner and tortured her for days on end. She had no compassion for the man who had starved her and mocked her every chance he got, and she certainly took no pity on the man who had almost killed her best friend.
Melanie swung her claw at Mr. Aran, but as she did, his long fingers managed to crawl across the carpet and pick up the vacuum cleaner, turn it on, and as Melanie's claws met his face, penetrating his skin, he turned it to
ward her and sucked.
"NOOOOO!" Amy screamed and sprang for him. She kicked the machine out of his hand, and Melanie fell to the carpet, human again, but still alive. Mr. Aran rose to his feet and wiped the blood from his face. Then, grinning, he turned to look at the rest of us.
"Let me see…who is next?"
In that second, something flickered by the bed, and Veronika returned. She was grinning until she spotted him and realized what was still going on. Then she whimpered.
"Aha," Mr. Aran exclaimed and rushed toward her, pointing that machine at her. I screamed again. About to burst with anger and devastation, Amy rushed toward him, blowing big balls of fire at him, but he turned and threatened her with the vacuum machine, and she backed up.
Meanwhile, Adrian had woken up and found Jazmine. In anger and frustration, he used his claws to rip open the web and let her out. I had my eyes fixated on Veronika, my heart crying, and my mouth whimpering. I didn't even see Jazmine jump to her feet, but I heard her yell at me.
"Quick. Give me that Yeti over there! NOW!"
I had no idea why she wanted the bottle that she used for bringing coffee to school, but there was no time for questioning her. Instead, I did as she told me and threw it at her.
She grabbed it in the air, opened it, then said, "Oh, Mr. Aran?"
The spider turned to look at her with a loud hiss. Jazmine smiled victoriously. Then she yelled at the top of her lungs:
"IN GENIE LAGENAM!"
A strong wind blew through the room. It circled around Mr. Aran, lifted him up into the air, and twirled him around before it carried him, hissing and screaming, toward the Yeti in Jazmine's hand, forcefully sucking him into it.
When the wind died down, and Mr. Aran was gone, trapped inside the Yeti, Jazmine screwed the lid back on.
Hearts still pounding in our chests, we approached her and looked at the thing in her shaking hand. She exhaled, relieved, then fell to her knees with exhaustion.
"I didn't even know I could do that."
"Will he stay in there?" I asked.
She nodded. "He's bound to the bottle now. Like a genie. He can't leave unless someone breaks the spell."
Amy was sitting by Melanie's side, crying and holding her paw. Melanie blinked her eyes and smiled at her, and they hugged. I swallowed hard when looking at the Yeti again. Jayden had woken up and came up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder. Adrian stood behind Jazmine, while Kipp stayed with Amy.
"There will be more," I said. "My parents said there would. They'll come looking for him."
Jazmine nodded. "We'll just have to take care of them too, then."
"Guess we just started ourselves a war," Jayden said.
"Guess so," I said, and threw a glance at Veronika, who was smiling comfortingly back at me. "I guess so."
I sighed, relieved, when the door to the bedroom opened, and my mother stepped inside.
"Robyn? You forgot your toothbrush…" she said then stopped and looked around at all the faces staring back at her. All had turned back to their human shape.
"Adrian?" she said. "What are you doing here?"
Then her eyes fell on Jayden, and I could tell everything inside of her froze to ice. She turned her head like an owl and stared at me, her eyebrows lifted.
"I thought we agreed there would be no boys? I do not like to be lied to, Robyn."
* * *
There were still three months till the Halloween Block Party.
Afterword
Dear Reader,
* * *
Thank you for purchasing Witchcraft and War (The Vampires of Shadow Hills #7). What an intense ride. I am completely exhausted. I hope you found it every bit as exciting as I did.
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Don't forget to leave a review if you can. And don't forget to check out my other books if you haven't already read them.
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As always, I am very grateful for all your support.
* * *
Take care,
* * *
Willow
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About the Author
The Queen of Scream aka Willow Rose is a #1 Amazon Best-selling Author and an Amazon ALL-star Author of more than 50 novels. She writes Mystery, Paranormal, Romance, Suspense, Horror, Supernatural thrillers, and Fantasy.