Death Awaits Read online

  Death Awaits

  Book 10 in the Federal Witch Series

  T S Paul

  Copyright © 2020 by T S Paul

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  The Federal Witch Universe (and what happens within/characters/situations/worlds) are Copyright (c) 2016-2019 by T S Paul and Great God Pan Publishing

  Cover by Heather Hamilton-Senter

  Formatted by Nina Morse

  Special thanks to my wife Heather who keeps me grounded and to Merlin the Cat. We are his minions.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Author Notes

  Do you want to know more about Bigfoot?

  Also By T S Paul

  Chapter One

  Flying, swimming, and attacking all in the same battle wasn’t something I was used to doing. The moment the Dragon hit the water, I was thrown from his back. My personal shields are what saved me. The ballistic body armor Chuck had fitted me with almost dragged me down to the ocean’s depths. Slipping out of it with broken fingers was the real challenge.

  I felt like a wounded and drowned rat as I pulled myself to shore. We’d crashed near some small town. Fishing wasn’t my thing, and I’d barely gone anywhere in Maine other than town, so nothing stuck out. There were houses and a church. A small lighthouse blinked out at the sea. I could be anywhere. The Dragon hit water and several small watercraft when he’d crashed. I’d managed to swim to a spot near a large dock or pier.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! The fighter jets swooped low, firing into the Dragon. Like before, the missiles blew holes into his hide.

  Hearing an unfamiliar whirring sound, I scanned the skies. A trio of attack helicopters hovered near the other coast of the small inlet.

  Trying to stand upright, I realized one of my legs might be broken. Using my good hand, I dragged myself closer to the cement pilings of the dock, hoping it would give me some sort of protection.

  All three choppers and the planes opened fire on the Dragon. If he wasn’t dead before, he would be really soon. Modern weapons were a definite deterrent to their kind. It made me wonder if we shouldn’t have just let them into the valley. The government might have had some ideas of how to stop the invasion. No need for witches to die. It’s the human’s world too.

  I couldn’t just lie here thinking about what if. My buddy Fergus needed me, and Grams must be crazy with worry. I chuckled to myself darkly. The last anyone saw of me I was flying a Dragon! The blond chick on TV can kiss my ass.

  Carefully I worked my way up the embankment toward the church, crawling on my hands and knees. Surely they would have a phone I could use inside. Maybe some medical supplies or something as well.

  Crawling and hopping, I made it across the road to the front entrance of the church. A large sign read, “Cutler Methodist Church.” Cutler. It had to be the name of the town. At least once I found a phone I could tell Grams and she could send the troops to come get me.

  I settled down near the concrete steps to rest. My head was killing me, and my vision was screwed up. A concussion was all I needed right now. There were sirens and flashing lights all over the place in the distance. It sounded like more military or police. My creds were in my other pants and I was in no shape to talk my way out of anything right now. Magic be damned as well. I doubt I could stop a marshmallow, much less a tank or something. Too pooped to pop as Chuck would say. Gripping the railing in front of me, I tried to pull myself up the stairs. Who puts stairs on the front of a church, anyway?

  “Agatha Blackmore?” a voice asked me. Tipping my head back, I could see a couple of really blurry men wearing dark clothing.

  “If you’re arresting me go ahead, but I think I need a doctor first,” I replied holding up my one good hand. “Falling off that Dragon hurt like a bitch.”

  “Your name is Agatha Blackmore then? The only daughter of Teegan Blackmore?” the voice asked me.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and then opened them, trying to see better. “Sure. But leave my mom out of this. I’m the only one that fights Dragons around here.”

  “Excellent. They will be ever so pleased we found you,” the man replied. The blurry shapes closed in on me, blocking out the light.

  “What are you…” I felt a prick on my bad side and then blackness. My last thoughts were of my family as I faded away.

  Chapter Two

  Darkness.

  That was all I could see when my eyes opened. Whatever that guy had given me was powerful. I could hardly stay awake. I tried to still my mind. At the Academy, we’d learned about knockout drugs and truth serums, but I never thought I would run into either of them in the Magical Division. Paras tended to use otherworldly ways instead of chemicals.

  Wherever I was, it was enclosed and smelly. The feeling of being in a coffin wasn’t a good feeling. Sniffing the air, I got flashes of memory of my grandmother's garage and the damp mildew of a storage shed.

  It was the blinding light of a car trunk opening that brought all the clues together.

  “... they won’t come off, I tell you! Take a look if you don’t believe me. No latches, hidden buttons, or locks, visible or invisible. It’s like she was born with them on!” The man’s voice was familiar to me. Like a long-forgotten dream, it all sounded so real, so… so important.

  “What else?” Another man’s voice, this one more forceful, asked. He was unknown to me, a lisp blurring his words.

  Straining my ears, I tried to force the men to speak louder, to tell me what was happening, but I kept missing words here and there.

  “... damage. She’s stable for now… broken... search... the trunk. It was necessary!”

  Both men were just dark shapes to me. The glare of the sun behind them hid their features from me. I squinted to see better, my FBI training clicking in and giving me away.

  “She’s awake! Close the trunk!” The second man’s lisp sounded like how a serpent would speak. Lots of hissing.

  “No, let me do this instead,” the first man replied. “Keeping her isn’t part of our deal.”

  Try as I might, I couldn’t turn my head or even raise my arm. A sharp prick of pain came from my neck and like before, my world descended into darkness.

  I was aware and yet not aware as my mind tumbled over and over in the darkness. Whatever drug they gave me caused me to pass out but not lose consciousness. Somehow, I could understand everything all at once. Like my mind was on speed. Figures, colors, numbers, and concepts that should have been beyond me flitted through my brain. I could almost see how to construct portals and gates. The math was complex, but the sheer power they contained! If I could just…

  “Finally.” A dry and dusty voice sounded in my mind. It brought with it images of sand and ancient ruins. “We’ve tried before, but you weren’t ready.”

  “Ready for what?” I asked.

  “To accept us. To accept me. There is a proverb among your people. Good things come to those who wait. I’ve waited, Agatha. I’ve waited so, so very long for someone such as you to come along.” The voice was like an old coat, soft and comfortable, as it settled in around me.

  “Who are you?” I thought at him.

  “We’ve tested you and yo
u passed. You’re a true descendant of those who have gone before you. Agnes began what I will finish,” the voice replied.

  “Agnes,” I whispered in my mind. “What does she have to do with this?”

  “On the physical plane? Nothing. She put you on the true path of Guardianship. But you are injured and need your rest. Now that you can hear me, we will speak again,” he whispered.

  Whatever drugs they gave me were kicking in hard and just keeping my wits was a struggle. I tried and tried to hold on to the contact the voice was giving me. It was the only bridge to the outside world I had! “Wait!”

  The sound of my own dry, cracked voice surprised even me. My breath was ragged, and short, but I’d managed somehow to speak.

  The voice... the presence... an ancient feeling of loneliness and grief loomed over me again. The dry voice whispered again, “I am here.”

  My mouth was so dry it felt like the desert. The paralytic drugs made even breathing a struggle, but I managed to swallow the spit in my mouth. “My friends... family... the Coven. What. Happened.” I half gasped the words out.

  Nothing but silence answered me. I could still hear the murmurs of the men outside the car, but the dry voice was quiet. “Please,” I gasped again.

  “I will show you, but then you must rest,” the dry voice whispered to me. “Do you promise?”

  Against all odds, I nodded my head even as the very motion of it sent daggers of pain shooting through me.

  “Speak not and watch. Much has happened,” the voice replied.

  “We don’t know!” Robert Moore yelled, beating his hand on Marcella’s desk. The Species Council Consul and head WereCat was angrier than he’d been in a century.

  Everything had happened so fast. Dragons, cultists, zombies, and other monsters had blasted through Otherwhere and invaded the valley. Their intent was to seize and hold the Garden Gate. Only a combined force of Legionaries, Witches, and assorted Agents had stopped them. Government fighter jets had even shot down a Dragon. It was a frantic call from Marcella that brought Robert here, along with all the Weres he could round up. Driving them to Maine hadn’t been his idea, though. The human television show the X-Files had it right. Too many secrets.

  Robert took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “The people we have embedded in the military have reported in. Agatha isn’t being held in any location known to them. And before you say it, I am aware that many of the alphabet agencies have secret prisons and facilities. Trust me on this. My sources are impeccable and are at the highest level. They don’t have her.”

  “Then where the bloody hell is she?” Marcella demanded as she scanned the faces in the room. Three days. That is how long it had been since a Dragon fell to earth and Fergus lost his connection to Agatha.

  Robert leaned back in his chair away from the edge of the desk and sighed. “I wish to gods I knew. The army has the whole area outside the valley closed off. If it wasn’t for the barrier, we’d all be detained or worse right now.”

  “Catherine, do you have anything to say?” Marcella asked.

  Cat was sandwiched between Chuck, Madeline, the Bs, and what remained of the lost Arcane team. If that group hadn’t showed up when they did, she might have been zombie chow by now. “I called in every favor, trying to track down information. This new administration is good. They’ve managed to lock down the entire country. I tried everyone I could reach, and nothing. Even the Sea Scouts are under arrest. Marines out of Pendleton locked their facility down, going so far as to stretch a net over the harbor entrance. No Mer in or out. All of our people are blocked.”

  Madeline leaned forward, touching Cat’s arm. Casting her eyes upward, she locked them on the Witch Queen. “Arcane has gone to ground, at least the Mages have. They must have spent years infiltrating the government to set this up.”

  “Where do we stand then? This valley can’t be it. The humans don’t know all of our resources,” Marcella asked her.

  Madeline groaned and shook her head. “We did this one to ourselves, and I do apologize to you. Arcane is very thorough. We’ve watched your people for years. Much longer than you know, actually. Our units have shadowed the Blackmore family and all the known members of the Species Council for more than seventy years.”

  Almost the entire room looked at the former FBI Director, shocked by her words. The Species Council was one of the largest and oldest secrets in the world.

  “This is the modern age. Surely you knew it wouldn’t stay secret? Members of our Government have known about it since 1914. While you were trying to keep things from us, human intelligence agents were prying loose all your secrets. There are very few things we don’t know,” Madeline explained. She looked across the room to the Vampire in the corner. “You and your people are the only exception, and that is mainly due to where your cities lie.”

  “And the fact that we can sense them. Don’t leave that part out. Strangers stick out like sore thumbs in Russia. Arcane’s spies are easily spotted,” Anastasia remarked. “Our culture isn’t like yours.”

  Madeline inclined her head before continuing. “Arcane was the clearing house for information about all of you and others, but now even that isn’t sure. Commander Best may have gotten the buildings, but many of the assets are in the wind. The entire Mage force has gone underground, along with the surviving teams.”

  “None of which tells us where Agatha is,” Anastasia replied. The former FBI forensics head and Vampire elder stood, her gaze taking in the entire office. “All my backdoors into the Bureau have been closed as well. If they had her, they wouldn’t keep it a secret. Look what they did with the attack here…”

  Marcella agreed. From the get-go, the new government had proclaimed it was all the Witches’ fault. Everything from the Demonic invasion in Charleston to the Draconic Empire’s incursion. Witches and other Paranormals had gotten too far into how the government worked and were threatening the American way of life. That message was on every television, social media outlet, and newscast. It was a complete reversal from the previous administration.

  “So what now?” Chuck asked. “We know she’s alive. Fergus can tell us that much.”

  “We keep looking. But dealing with everything else is priority as well. We have to get a handle on the politics coming out of Washington and all these new military groups that have formed. How long can all of you stay?” Marcella asked the group.

  Beep... beep... beep... beep... beep... beep... beep

  “Ugh, make it stop,” I spoke into the darkened room. The incessant beeping woke me up. Discovering I could move my head without agonizing pain, I looked to my right. Wires and tubes connected me to several bags of liquid hanging on the IV stand. A red flashing light accompanied the alarm. Everything around me screamed hospital. But which one and where?

  “Where am I now?” I whispered to myself.

  Almost in response to my question, a door opened. A short older woman dressed in generic hospital scrubs rushed into the room. Without even a glance at me, she reset the IV machine, pushing several of its buttons all at once.

  “Hello?” I croaked. The woman in front of me spun around as if I was a killer or something.

  “Oh my! You’re awake,” she replied in a low voice. Stepping closer to my bed, she started checking my vitals. I blinked several times as the woman shined a light into my eyes. “Please don’t try to move. Your injuries are quite extensive.”

  Unable to turn my head or even raise my arms, I could only watch as the old woman pulled out a syringe and injected me. “This will help you sleep.”

  “Where... Where am I? Those men…” I felt my eyes start to close all on their own. “Why? Why are you doing this to m…”

  Locking her features into my memory, I filed her away for when I escaped whatever this was.

  Chapter Three

  The color of the room changed. That was my first thought as I opened my eyes. Checking myself over, I could see the IVs and other medical things were gone as well. Upon closer in
spection, I could see the room was different. “Where am I?”

  First things first. I stood up from the low cot I was on. Ground and center. Gathering my thoughts, I did what every single one of my magical teachers had stressed. Blank your thoughts. Think of a plain white wall if you have to. Feel the ground. Grounding isn’t just making sure you’re standing; it’s so much more than that. For Witches, earth is both an element and a power. It's one of the five cornerstones of all magic. Directing my thoughts downward, I embraced the power freely given. Now that I was grounded, I projected my personal shields.

  And nothing. I could feel my magic. It was a part of me as much as the fingers of my hand, but I couldn’t project it. Sinking into full lotus position, I felt for the earth again. Magic freely given I could absorb, but projection was null.

  “What the hell?” I muttered to myself. Visually scanning the room, I couldn’t sense anything but the walls. “Tricky.”

  Unfolding myself, I moved back to the cot. Earth and Air were available to me, but not much else. Very few Witches could bond with more than one element, and those that could do all five were almost nonexistent. Except within the Blackmore family. We were all taught to embrace all the powers. It was the reason my Aunt Camilla was so desirable to the Demonic powers. It was also one of the reasons my magic was different.

  Meditating, I sat unmoving for several long moments. The voice in my dreams spoke of many things both past and present. “Something wicked this way comes…” I murmured, paraphrasing one of my favorite Bradbury quotes. Ever since leaving Briarwood for the first time and entering the Academy, I knew there was a destiny unfulfilled waiting for me, but it was beyond reach. Now after braving Demons, Dragons, and the unknown, I could almost feel the edges of it. The voice hinted at it. Of Mice and Men, or in my case Guardians and Protectors. There was a difference between the real and the imagined. No matter what this new situation was, I knew there were greater things to be had.