Warlock's Angel - Marly Mathews Page 0,4

she got her temper going. Something inside Dallas said, no, don’t let them in, but she had little choice in the matter as Clifton’s boisterous voice lit up the still evening.

“Come on, Dallas, gain hold of your senses and let the terrific trio in before those bloody witch hunters show up at your door.” She caught the slight expression of annoyance on Finley’s face before he replaced it with a vacantly nondescript smile. Why would he look as if he was offended by Clifton’s statement when it was common knowledge that Finley hated all covens of witch hunters with an unrivaled vengeance?

“Oh, seriously, Dallas, you’re taking all night. If you’re not going to let us in, we’re going to have to invite ourselves in,” Nicholas said, irritation creasing his brow. He pointed his index finger at the lock on the storm door and when his magic shot out of his hand, it hit the door and deflected back on him, knocking him right off his feet.

Oh, shit. That wasn’t a good thing. They must be disguised as Marion, Finley and Nicholas, which could only mean one thing—they were the witch hunters that were after her and she was in mortal peril. They were the sum of all her fears, and it was a price too high for her to pay.

“Holy fuck, Dallas, they’ve dropped their disguises. These guys are the worst of the worst. You don’t want to mess with them. Get the main door locked up again and get away from these pissants as quickly as possible. They are not what they seem.”

“You think?” She shut the heavy wooden door as fast as she could. Anya’s protective enchantment on the house had done its job. Relief flooded through her, coupled with intense anxiety. If they were strong enough—and by the way that Clifton’s voice shook they were—they just might be able to breach the perimeter and then she’d be up shit creek without a paddle. She couldn’t take on three seasoned witch hunters on her own, especially if they’d somehow been able to tap into Marion’s, Nicholas’s and Finley’s powers. She could only pray that they had merely incapacitated them and not killed them.

“I’m getting on the horn to find you some more help, honey. You just hang tight until we can get more backup for you. It looks as if we underestimated the strength of these particular witch hunters. They mean serious business… They are not like the others we’ve dealt with for you.”

“There were others?” she sputtered, fear clenching her heart. What the hell was going on with her life? Why did it seem as if she was always the last one to know anything when it came to her well-being? It was her life dammit.

“Why of course, we assumed that Anya had told you. Luckily they came for you when Anya was around and well, she dolled them up pretty quickly. Boy was she pissed, and you should know hell hath no fury like your cousin when she’s riled up. Why she’s worse than anyone I’ve ever known when she reaches her boiling point.”

Yeah, she did know that. Anya was like a demoness from hell when she got her temper up and when it came to keeping her family safe, there was nothing that could stop her. Not even twenty witch hunters could hope to out-witch her.

Regardless, Anya shouldn’t have kept that pivotal information from Dallas—it pertained to her own personal safety and not knowing they’d tried before put her even more at risk. Sometimes Anya was too confident for her own good—and for those who were close to her. She knew why her cousin had kept the truth from her. Everyone in her family believed Dallas to be as fragile as crystal but she wasn’t. She could deal with anything that came her way. She just wished that Anya had realized that.

The house shook under the impact of the magical bombardment the three witch hunters were throwing at it. She slipped and fell on her ass, and on her way down she knocked a vase off the hall table. The vase was from Vanguard and Anya had given it to her a few years back. It crashed to the ground, shattering into a million pieces. The shock of watching it break jarred her memory in a good way.

“We’ve got to get to the library, Clifton. Anya told me she was leaving an emergency kit in there for me. I only paid half-assed attention to her