Counter-Hex (Covencraft Book 2) Read online

  Once the sling was ready, one of the counter-magic guys, whose name she didn't know, got spat on by the lizard when he tried to grab it away from Jade. She managed to shift herself over to the sling and once she bent over a bit to lay it down, it seemed to get the idea and pushed off her, landing in the hammock. They ended up sort of ferrying it out like a beached mermaid. It helped that Jade was tall. Her five-foot ten-inch height was on par or close to the male witches they'd sent in, making the sling pretty even as they carried it. The creature lay heavy in the sling, paddling its taloned feet idly as they maneuvered their way back out of the sewer. It started hissing and spitting whenever it lost sight (or maybe smell) of Jade. Daniel guffawed when Jade moved herself closer to the thing and it calmed down again. She didn't think its eyesight was too good. At least not once they were outside in the bright light of day. As they stepped out into the sunlight, it hissed loudly once and then a weird, dome-like Elizabethan collar snapped up and over its head, like a strange lizard-parasol. Jade saw Daniel flinch when it happened and she smirked, making a point to catch his eye to let him know she'd seen it and wouldn't let him forget it.

  Scaredy cat, she mouthed. He stuck his tongue out at her.

  Josef stepped forward to get a closer look at both Jade and the creature. "You're bleeding a bit," he said, gesturing to Jade's torso with a frown.

  "I'm also covered in sewer-sludge and my wading boots are full of water. I'll likely be dead from dysentery by morning."

  Daniel held his hand up to his chest in mock sorrow. "Ah, Jade. We hardly knew you."

  "Funny." Her face was deadpan as she pulled her ruined shirt away from her torso and inspected the claw marks on her chest by poking her nose into her shirt.

  She'd live.

  "I'll escort the..." Josef trailed off.

  "Lizard thing?" Jade prompted helpfully, shucking muck off her gloves one at a time.

  "Yes," Josef said. "I'll take it back to the Coven and get a vet or a cryptozoologist or a -"

  "Priest?" interrupted Daniel and he and Jade shared a laugh while Josef gave them a chiding look and chose to ignore Daniel's comment.

  "Good work, Jade," said Josef and she felt a surprising rush of warmth at his tone. "I'll see you back at the Coven."

  They loaded the lizard into the back of one of the city sewer trucks that the Coven had borrowed for the trip. As the truck pulled away, Daniel and Jade winced at the ear-splitting howl the lizard let out.

  "I think it likes you," Daniel joked.

  "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard."

  Daniel made to slap her on the back, but then stopped at the last moment, wrinkling his nose. Water was leaking out of the puncture wounds the lizard had left in her boots and Jade was standing in a little puddle of her own making. "Come on, we'll get you off to the medlab. I'm sure Gellar will want to give you a tetanus shot. Or twelve."

  "And a decontamination shower, I hope," Jade said, unhooking the straps of her boots and then wiggling out of them. She knocked them over, spilling the water and sludge out. Daniel stared singing softly, 'Tip me over and pour me out,' from "I'm a Little Tea Pot."

  She glared at him. He grinned his shit-eating grin at her again.

  "Welcome to Counter-Magic, Jade."

  CHAPTER TWO

  Jade ducked into one of the bathrooms in the medlab before Gellar could see the mud, sewage, blood and just general disgusting mess she was. She'd mostly finished dripping and sloshing on the ride back, but she still left wet, ugly boot prints from her waders. One of the more senior witches cast a spell to keep her from trailing too much muck and gunk as she moved, but it would have taken extra magic to make her completely drip-free and Jade hadn't been comfortable letting someone else do magic on her. Since she didn't know any spells of her own yet for it, she was left with the mess. The small bathroom in medlab was equipped with a utilitarian shower and Jade stripped off her clothes, bundling them up, tossing them with a wet plop into the bag for medical laundry.

  If they couldn't disinfect and clean them, no one could.

  She took the hottest shower she could stand, using one of the antibacterial bars of soap like it was going out of style. The claw marks and small wounds from the lizard burned and stung under the assault of the water and soap, but it was a good hurt - the kind that let you know things were getting cleaned up and cleared out. Jade stayed under the spray longer than she usually did, taking time to clean under her nails, in between her toes and wash her hair three times.

  She could still smell sewer-stench. It had probably invaded her soft palate and nasal cavity and would linger for days. She toweled off and snatched a set of scrubs, piles of which seemed to be ever-present in the medlab. Jade managed to slick her wet hair back in a dripping ponytail that left a cold, wet patch between her shoulder blades.

  This was the second time she'd filched a pair of scrubs from the medlab. She resolved not to feel bad until her total reached five. She rolled her eyes at herself. Given her history, she'd reach that total soon enough. Dr. Gellar was waiting for her, nearly tapping her foot with impatience when Jade stepped out of the bathroom in a cloud of steam and fog.

  "Did you think you could avoid an exam?" Gellar asked with a smile. Despite the fact that she was a doctor and most of the time Jade saw her it was because Jade was hurt or in pain, she liked Gellar. She was friendly, but not falsely so, and she seemed to genuinely care for her patients.

  "Trust me, you didn't want to see me before I showered."

  Gellar's smile widened. "I heard. Sewer detail. And Josef phoned in to say you had some small wounds."

  "I was going to tell you."

  Gellar motioned her into a small examining room and shut the door for privacy. She tutted as she saw Jade's wounds and went to work on cleaning them. One needed three small stitches and Gellar looked horrified when Jade said it wasn't worth freezing the area and to stitch it up without anesthetic.

  "I will do no such thing," Gellar said. "I don't tell you how to cast spells and you don't tell me how to treat you."

  Jade frowned. "I just meant it would be faster."

  Gellar sighed. "I don't even want to guess at the kind of medical treatment you've had in the past if you're so keen to get out of here that you'd rather me sew you up without anesthetic."

  "It's three little stitches!" Jade wasn't sure what the big deal was.

  Gellar mumbled something to herself about hacks, charlatans and gluttons for punishment as she prepped a needle and her suture supplies. She also poked her head out and asked one of her assistants to grab a tetanus shot and two other things Jade couldn't pronounce.

  Jade still smelled sewer. She surreptitiously sniffed her arm while Gellar prepared her items. She got a strong whiff of the medical soap, a little bit of detergent from the scrubs and eau de sewer stench. Hmmm. Possibly still just in her nose though. Tough to say.

  Gellar was quick. Ten minutes, four bandages, three stitches and three burning shots in her upper arm later, Jade was hopping off the table, wanting to curl her toes up and away from the cold floor. She wondered if Gellar knew where she could borrow some shoes.

  "You have to stay put for fifteen minutes in the medlab so we can be sure you haven't had a bad reaction to the shots. Also, you'll have to come back in five days and I'll take those stitches out," Gellar said as she opened the door to the little room.

  Paris was waiting outside the door, his sharp blue eyes frowning a bit when he saw Jade and heard the tail end of Gellar's words.

  "I was under the impression you weren't injured," he said, his crisp British accent perfectly enunciating the consonants. He always looked impeccable in his usual outfit of tailored slacks and a dress shirt - not a strand of dark hair out of place. Standing in front of him while she was wearing med-lab scrubs made her slouch, trying to make herself not as noticeable. With only a few inches difference in their height, she wasn't quite successful.

  Jade rolled her eyes. "I'm not injured." She waved a hand. "Couple s
cratches."

  Gellar pointed her finger at Jade. "Scratches that I want to keep an eye on. You were in a sewer with open wounds. Any redness, swelling, lines radiating out or undue pain, you come in. Immediately."

  "Sure," Jade said with a shrug moving to step by her. Gellar blocked her way.

  "I mean it."

  She leveled Jade with a look and Jade was unprepared and confused at the level of concern and care. "Okay. I will," she said, a little nervous. Gellar pursed her lips and stepped out of Jade's way.

  "Keep your bandages dry. Change them tomorrow." She made a flourish gesture with her hands towards Paris. "She's all yours," she said to him.

  Paris' lips curled into a bit of a smile. "I heard you had an interesting day. I thought perhaps you might appreciate a ride home since Josef is tied up with your discovery." He sniffed the air a bit. "What's that smell?"

  "Ugh, I knew I stunk like sewer! It's embedded in my skin, I swear." Jade plucked at the scrubs she was wearing and gave her own little unhappy sniff. "Plus, I don't have any shoes."

  He looked down at her bare feet and she immediately curled her toes and pointed her feet a bit inward awkwardly. Feet were ugly. It's why people wore shoes.

  "We can stop by the dungeon and see Callie. Perhaps she has something for you to borrow?"

  Jade looked sideways at him. "Have you looked at her feet? Ever? She has tiny perfect Cinderella feet. She wears a size six and half. I wear a nine and a half." She sighed. "I think I have my extra runners in the gym lockers. I can scoot down there and get them."

  "What happened to what you were wearing for your assignment?"

  She started making her way out of the medlab, trying not to feel like she was stuck in one of those nightmares she had where she showed up in public places with no shoes on. "With any luck, my clothes are being sent into an autoclave as we speak. Maybe I'll get the pants back. Being in your coven is turning out to be a little hard on the wardrobe."

  Paris followed her out of the medlab and toward the grand staircase that led down to the lower floor. The locker rooms were on the main floor with the gymnasium being an entirely separate building they'd constructed as an add-on to the Covenstead. The original Covenstead, built over 500 years ago, hadn't really had a need for one. Jade had almost gone to the locker room when she arrived back from the sewer instead of the medlab, but since she was certain she didn't have a change of clothes in her locker and she absolutely wasn't going to change back into her sewer infested ones, the medlab with its handy scrubs had seemed like the better choice.

  As she and Paris made their way down, she tried not to let the sideways glances and surreptitious glares annoy her. Although she'd agreed to join the Coven and had made some (dare she say it) friends, it didn't mean that she'd been as easily accepted in the general coven fold as Callie had made it seem she would be when Jade had first been asked to join. Jade wasn't a born witch - something that had never happened before. Witches were always born into covens, with at least one witch parent, until Jade was discovered. So far she was the only one - an anomaly. Jade also had a lot of power - untrained and unbridled power that she was still learning to control. All that on its own would have been enough to make other witches suspicious. The piece de resistance had been when Jade had been attacked by not one, but two demons. It ended up one of them had been called by a witch who worked in the Covenstead. Out of that, Jade had ended up learning demon magic, a skill she was still pursuing, unabashedly.

  Add it all up, and she made most people in the Coven nervous. Really nervous. Drug dealer trying to cross an international border nervous.

  It didn't matter, Jade told herself. She didn't need everyone to like her.

  Paris interrupted her surly thoughts. "Josef is dealing with a local vet and is consulting a herpetologist online to see if they can determine just what exactly you managed to find down there."

  "Herpte-what?"

  "Herpetologist. Reptile and amphibian specialist," he said, clarifying.

  She made a face at the thought of studying that her whole life and then considered his tone. "Why do you make it sound like it was my fault? It's not like I put it down there."

  He smiled a little at her. "No, but trouble does seem to have a way of... finding you."

  She pointed her finger at him. "That's victim blaming. It could have been anyone that waded in there and found the creepy lizard thing."

  "But it wasn't anyone. It was you," Paris said pointedly, raising an eyebrow at her. She was about to mouth off some more when a shout from the stairs below caught her attention.

  "Here she is! Our resident crocodile princess!"

  Jade rolled her eyes at Henri's enthusiastic greeting, hopping the rest of the way down the large staircase to meet him at his desk.

  "Daniel filled you in?" she said ruefully. It had been too much to hope that Daniel wouldn't tell his boyfriend the whole story.

  Henri laughed. "Oh my god, yes! My only regret is that there aren't pictures of you and that... thing. Whatever it is. I hear they are still trying to figure it out." He wrinkled his nose a bit. "You know you still smell like sewer, right?"

  Jade huffed. "Yes," she said, just barely managing to get the words out from in between her gritted teeth.

  He held up his hands in defense. "Just checking. Hey, if you can't rely on your friends to say you stink, then who can you rely on?"

  "I'm starting to see why it is that I never had friends before," she said dryly and Henri smirked and bounced on his toes.

  He gave her the once over, taking in her bare feet. "Do you need shoes?"

  "Yeah, I think I have a spare set in my locker I can grab."

  "I have some runners here. I was breaking in a new pair of dress shoes last week. You can borrow them. I don't need them back right away."

  Jade felt embarrassed by the quick and easy gesture. She shifted from one bare foot to the other while Henri, not waiting for a response, immediately dug into one of his desk's drawers and pulled out a pair of sneakers.

  "Um, thanks." She took them and fiddled with them for a moment before undoing the laces and stuffing her feet in.

  Henri smiled. "No problem. By the way, I was going to text you. Callie and I are going shopping this weekend for our outfits for the Coven Ball. You in?"

  She looked at him blankly. "I don't know what that is."

  Henri looked from her to Paris and then back again expectantly. "You didn't get your invite? They went via email."

  Jade shrugged. "Nope, sorry." She turned to look at Paris, his familiar, 'I'm perplexed' frown on his face.

  "I'll have my assistant follow up with HR to see why you didn't get it."

  "Details," Henri said, flapping his hand. "So, shopping is a 'yes' then since you probably don't have anything to wear? It's in ten days so we have to go this weekend."

  "Uhhhhh, yes," Jade hedged. She wasn't actually committing to going to any kind of coven party thing without more information, but she liked hanging out with Callie and Henri. Even if she wasn't shopping for herself, she would still like to hang out with them.

  Paris and Jade left with Henri promising to text Jade with the details for shopping as soon as they were firmed up. Her feet flopped in Henri's runners, untied and loose, as they left the Covenstead main entrance. Jade noticed a few witches giving her a wide berth. Whether it was from the lingering stench that hung on her from the sewer or just the usual avoidance she was becoming accustomed to, she couldn't say.

  Once in Paris' car, she felt more on even ground, watching the sights of the city pass her by outside the window as he drove. Before coming to the Coven, she couldn't remember the last time she'd been a passenger in someone else's car. This morning she'd been picked up by Josef to take her to the sewer assignment and before that, she'd been hitching rides with Callie, Henri or Paris. She'd even taken public transit a few times.

  She missed her car.

  She missed a lot of her stuff if she was honest with herself. Jade had been putting off g
oing back to her apartment, the one she had before coming to live at the Coven. She wasn't looking forward to closing it out, breaking the lease and moving the rest of her life out here. She'd made the decision to join the Coven and she was... well, maybe not happy, but definitely satisfied with that decision.

  She didn't know if she was ready to let go of her old life yet either. She was reaching the point, however, where it was getting ridiculous. Her rent for the apartment was due. Jade had already paid one month to have it sitting empty and continuing to do so was just fiscally foolish. Her car was gathering dust back in the apartment building parkade, her clothes getting musty in the closet. A sigh escaped her lips.

  "Rough day?" Paris inquired, his tone slightly teasing and she knew it would likely be a long, long while before she lived down her sewer trip.

  Jade thought briefly about telling him what she was thinking about her apartment - about shutting it down and packing it all up. What came out of her mouth instead was, "Yeah."

  "Well, since you had to tackle sewer duty and were injured in the process-"

  "I'm not really injured, I'm just kind of banged up a bit," Jade said.

  "It's certainly enough to warrant the rest of the day off. Josef won't expect you back at work today."

  "Nice!" Jade fist pumped a bit. Although she was still new and her job wasn't hard, it was still pretty sweet to get the rest of the day off. She was already envisioning her sofa, a blanket, some TV watching and maybe some reading. With a fresh pot of coffee. Mmmm.

  "However, I did have something planned for tomorrow, if you agree."

  She shifted a bit in the passenger seat to face him better. "Um, okay. What's up?"

  "You recall Hannah, yes?" Paris asked simply.

  "Yeah. Oldest witch in the coven. She works for the Council, right? She holds a seat there and represents you guys with the other supernaturals? Well, us guys, I guess."