Witches for Hire (Odd Jobs #1)(11)
“Aren’t you glad I work with disreputable guys like him?” Without warning, she began unwrapping the leg the rest of the way, because forgiving him was one thing, but pain was a healthy reminder not to do this again. “What happens if the fight’s outcome sticks?”
“Phaedran won’t forget that I attacked him.” Rudy inhaled sharply as the large portion of his leg came undone along with the bandage. Strings of ripped-apart muscle pulled like rubber bands trying to knit back to their original shape.
Jeremy groaned and unbuckled his seat belt. “I’ll wait outside.” He got out and walked a few feet away, so his back was turned to them.
“You’re telling the kids how this happened,” Simone said.
Rudy’s normal goofy smile appeared. “I’ll do it with great exaggeration and—dammit!”
Turning her head sideways to look at more of the damage, she clicked her tongue. “The bone has been cut through pretty badly too.”
“Less angry healer, please,” Rudy said as he gasped for breath.
“That’s the last of it.” Simone whipped the bandage out in a long streamer while using her magic to push the blood out of it.
“Hey!” Jeremy jumped to the side to dodge a splash of blood.
“Sorta sorry for that.” Placing her now-clean bandage in her lap, she made a sweeping gesture from inside the car to out. Tissue and blood that had gotten on the seat removed itself like the blood on the bandage. She snapped her fingers and the glove compartment flipped open. With a crook of her pointer finger, a small box flew into her hand. Stress was definitely getting to her if she hadn’t thought to put on gloves before. Simone clapped her hands and the blood disappeared from them too. I need to concentrate, so I don’t make more newb mistakes. She took out a square cloth and a stone jar. After flicking the jar open, she rubbed her cloth into the thick gel that had simmered for days and been blessed by she and her grandparents. “Honey, I’m going to need you to stay in control and not bite me.”
Rudy groaned like Jeremy had done earlier and grabbed the car’s roof handle. “Go for it.”
Simone clamped the cloth around the most torn flesh and broken bone. The handle snapped, but Rudy dug his growing nails into the roof. She’d give him some leeway in damaging her interior because there was no way in hell she wouldn’t be screaming her head off. Simone sat back, and the cloth stayed in place. Slowly, she twirled her finger. The length of bandage in her lap swung along with the motion in a perfect circular shape as it wrapped Rudy’s leg again. When the end tied itself off, Simone placed her hands on the finished piece. Rudy shuddered, but she continued, the cloth hardening into a cast as she focused her magic on it. “You’re damned lucky I come from the coven I do.”
Rudy smiled weakly as Simone dropped her hands. “Ask me how lucky I feel a little later.” His hands collapsed to his sides, and his chin drooped to his chest.
Overhead, a net of magic spread in a dome shape, covering a wide swath of the woods. Simone gently kissed the bottom of Rudy’s chin, careful not to touch his body. Jeremy was making himself useful by creating a barrier since burning shit did tend to attract the cops. Should I apologize to him? She shouldn’t have gotten herself so worked up during a job, and even if the risk was minimal, she’d practically endangered her life just like Rudy had. Stupidity and magic were never a good combination, and she had seen enough cases over the years not to forget it. Too tired to pick up the body, Simone hoisted it in the air with her will, not caring that her depleted magic made it wobble. It followed her to Jeremy, who stood in front of a newly made pit. Simone walked back to the car to retrieve her machete. When she returned to the body, Jeremy held a bottle of lighter fluid and matches.
“I can chop its head off if you want.”
“You staked it, so I’m doing my part. Besides.” Simone snapped her fingers and the locks clicked open. The chain unwound itself enough for the revenant’s neck area to be clear of obstacles. She swung down hard with the blade, chopping deep into its throat. “I have pent-up anger to get rid of.”
“Not on me this time?”
Mosquitoes that didn’t want to give up the battle with the coming fall sucked on her exposed arms. Simone knocked them away with her free hand. She looked at Jeremy. “Tell me why. Tell me why I was kept in the dark like a child while you and Levi decided to fight the big bad on your own?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Jeremy said softly. “Levi didn’t tell me what he was up to until that night either.”
“But I’m the one who got to find out by phone that an energy vamp I hadn’t done anything to was on their way to kill me when my kids were two feet away in the backseat.”
“I understand your frustration, but the Council ordered—”
Simone pointed her machete at him. “Fuck the Council. You don’t tell me the truth right now, you and I are duking this out the old-fashioned way.”
“I’d like to know too,” came drowsily from the car.
Jeremy’s eyes narrowed. “You’re exhausted, and all you have is a banged-up werewolf. I have a revenant whose blood I have on my shoes to command it as I wish.” His eyes glowed like blue moons in the night. “Don’t threaten me.”
“I can crawl and eat you,” Rudy insisted as unwanted backup.