Chapter 9

Ifelt the promise buzzing along my skin, making my magic flare in awareness, and somehow, that promise gave me the courage to keep going.

Cos came up beside me, placed his hand on my shoulder, and said, “We need to move closer.” His anger was just as palpable as mine, a burning fierceness between us that was aimed at only one person.

He wanted to get across to Anderson, too.

Sometimes, I wondered if his need for vengeance was so strong because he could feel the aftereffects of my promise, or if it was his protective alpha-ness coming out to play. Maybe a bit of both.

But hearing Cosmo’s voice and feeling his warm hand on my shoulder helped push the fear down. I was okay. My mate—and my dyad—weren’t going to let him take me again. We were, if not safe, at least out of reach of that man.

With a breath, I asked, “How the hell can we do that when we can barely get their shields down? They’re going to eat us alive.” More like, they’re going to eat all the magi alive. Or at least eat away our magic.

Jude added, “They’re going to keep melting through our shields if we stay here.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” I muttered.

He elbowed me. “We need a better plan, Mads. This isn’t working.”

“I… I don’t know, Jude. I don’t know how to break their shields faster. And we can’t get through them without taking out some witches first.”

The witches pressed forward, shooting spells at us as they moved. Most spells easily bounced off our shields, but even those hits still stung inside my head a tiny bit. But nothing like the spells that burned our shields away.

I didn’t want to fight them face to face like that, but there was really nothing I could do to stop their forward progress. Everyone was hitting them with everything they had, but it wasn’t enough. Yes, once in a while—a long while—we were breaking a witch’s shield and taking that one witch down. But that was just it. We were only taking them down one at a time and so very slowly.

They were going to make short work of us as soon as they closed the distance. We wouldn’t stand a chance.

Our shooting made it difficult for them to move toward us, but unfortunately, it didn’t stop them. It only slowed them down.

Jude clenched his teeth. He looked so pissed, and when he spoke, his voice sounded angry, but I knew that anger wasn’t directed at me. “Think, bubba. We need a new spell. One that will penetrate their shields more effectively. Figure it out. You’ve created new spells before. You can do this.”

I grimaced. Good goddess, it wasn’t like it was that easy.

For the time being, I forgot about him across the battlefield and focused on the problem at hand. I’d worry about him later. One step at a time.

As another spell hit my shield, I closed my eyes on a groan and tried to think about the problem.

What in the world was making their shields so impenetrable?

I opened my eyes and watched for a few seconds, trying to figure out what had changed with their shields. Bullets rained down on a witch in the center of the front line, and I blinked as I watched them. Then I scooted closer to make sure I was seeing it right.

Well, I’ll be damned.

I glanced at Jude’s back and activated two freeze runes, plus air and fly. Then I quickly pushed freeze toward the witch directly in front of me. I saw the moment my freeze hit her shield. She looked shocked.

But most importantly, she looked scared.

Her shield was frozen.

Without waiting a beat, I weaved together a bomb spell and shot it right at her.

It hit, and her shield shattered.

Cos was right there with his gun, and he shot her in the chest over and over until she fell to the ground.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Jude yelled, shooting me a grin. “I knew you had this.”

I waved him off.

Over my HID, I said, “Freeze their shields before you hit them with a bomb. Their new shields are too pliant and elastic-y, so they keep absorbing too much of our attacks. Freeze them first to harden them up and make them brittle. I used two freeze runes followed up with a bomb.”

I received a bunch of copies, and I was relieved that Cos had already hooked our HID channel up with the other teams fighting here today.

The other magi followed my directions, and finally, we were able to strike.

But the enemy just kept coming.

Goddess, it was almost like they had a whole army inside that mall.

Movement on the right side of the building caught my eye, and I turned that way, aiming my magic in that direction.

But I stopped myself when a group of people wearing all black with ski masks covering their faces came around, and it only took me a few seconds to realize it was that magi and shifter vigilante group. When three magi in their group started shooting at the witches, I figured I’d let them be. The new magi saw what we were doing and followed suit, freezing and bombing witch shields. They weren’t as efficient as the TRD magi, but they were holding their own and taking out witches. And honestly, we could use all the help we could get.

Over our HIDs, Cos yelled, “The masked group is here to help. Don’t engage. Worry only about the witches.”

It was like he’d read my mind. I could kiss him for that. But… later.

Ignoring our masked friends—but fiercely appreciating their help—I concentrated on taking out as many witches as I could as quickly as possible. One after another, I froze a witch’s shield, then bombed it or hit it with an array of bullet spells while my team continued to shoot them with their guns.

Over the course of a few minutes, we helped take out all of the witches in the front of their group. Freaking finally we were making a dent.

The entire time I was fighting, I had one eye on Anderson. So it wasn’t a surprise when I noticed him and the Supreme Rose turn and head back into the mall as soon as they noticed the tide in the battle change.

“No! Shit!” I yelled. “They’re getting away. We have to go after them.”

Jude called back, “Go after them, Mads! We need to push our way through.”

My body felt like it was thrumming with energy, fighting itself on whether to stay and help my fellow magi or chase after the man of my nightmares and the person in charge of all of this destruction. My magic, of course, was pushing me forward. Trying to get me to go after the fleeing witches. Goddess, sometimes it was weird to think about Anderson being a witch. As if he wasn’t already a disgusting human, he had to add soul-sucking to his repertoire.

Through my HID, Ash said, “Go on, Mads. Go after them. Get those sons of bitches. We’ll stay here and make sure we take out the rest of them.”

I looked across to Ash, seeing him over the top of the shifters’ heads between us and gave him a nod. “Thank you.”

I heard Cos speaking beside me as he came up to stand at my shoulder. He spoke into his HID. “My team, on Mads and Jude. Back them up in any way they need. Ash and Wren, as soon as we push through, you need to close the gap.”

I had no doubt the two of them could handle it. So without waiting another beat, I maneuvered my dome shield, making it big enough to cover our entire group’s bodies. Once I knew everyone else was behind Ash’s shield, I dismissed my wall-shield and headed forward.

Since Cosmo could see my magic, I opened a small hole for him to push his assault rifle through as we moved. And Jude, Logan, and I continued our magical assaults. I froze witch shields as we moved, breaking them with bomb and bullet spells while the others took the witches out.

Freeze. Blast. Freeze. Blast. Freeze. Blast.

After the first few, most of the witches just moved out of our way, clearly afraid to get caught in our line of fire.

I didn’t really care as long as it got me to Anderson quicker.

I still tried to take out as many as possible as we ran through their dwindling ranks. My people were going to have these prickholes under control in no time.

I ran up the steps and into the front entrance of the mall, not taking the normal precautions to open the door. Jude and Cos both cursed behind me, but I wasn’t completely reckless. I made sure everybody was covered by a shield the entire time, although I had to manipulate it into a flat panel in front of us to get through the door. I widened it once we were through, blocking my family.

This mall was the biggest in the city, and the owners flaunted that fact as soon as you walked in.

There was a huge water fountain that greeted customers when they walked in, and massive, ornate columns holding up the upper level where people could look over the mezzanine. There were two huge staircases on either side that led upstairs, and behind the water fountain, the whole center section was filled with different kiosks, random arcade games, and benches for people who needed to rest. It was bright and loud and overwhelming, which was why I never came here—or to any mall. I hated them. They were always too peopley.

Normally, coming here, you’d smell a mixture of yummy foods, and even though it was all overwhelming, it still felt like a place that was welcoming—or at least trying its very best to be welcoming.

But it was the absolute opposite right now.

The smell hit me like the worst kind of smack to the face, and I started gagging before I could help myself. I hadn’t been expecting it at all. It smelled like a fucking slaughterhouse.

Even from where I was standing, I could see bodies everywhere. They were splayed on the ground, lying on the benches off to the side. There were at least two bodies on the staircases, and I couldn’t see much of the upper level, but there was blood dripping from several places off the mezzanine, and I could even see an arm—definitely a dead arm. From where I stood, I could see bodies and blood inside the stores off to the side, so I had no doubt they were as filled with gore as the open floor was.

I gagged harder.

But I didn’t feel too bad because nearly everyone behind me gagged, too. So much for trying to come in unannounced.

The Supreme Rose and Anderson obviously weren’t expecting us to follow so closely behind because they were standing right in front of the massive water fountain only twenty feet away from the front door. They both startled at our entrance—and subsequent gagging—and Anderson’s eyes widened.

The two of them exchanged a glance, although I still couldn’t see the Supreme Rose’s face under their hood. Without a word, they both turned on their heels and ran in opposite directions.

The Supreme Rose ran to the left, and Anderson ran to the right, both of them taking off through the huge mall.

My heart clenched in a panic.

What should I do? Which way do I go?

I knew I should go after the Supreme Rose. I knew it. They were the one in charge of this whole hatred movement. They were the one who needed to be taken down.

But that wasn’t what my magic wanted.

I could feel my magic pulling me to the right, and if I was being honest with myself, I wanted to go to the right. I wanted to stop the Supreme Rose, yes, but I needed to stop Anderson.

So I ran to the right, dodging bodies and puddles of blood and symbols drawn in that blood as best I could, my family running in my wake. Anderson ran behind the water fountain and in between two kiosks. I followed, trying to hold my breath, trying not to look at all of the bodies we were passing.

There wasn’t enough room in here for a dome shield. Not with me trying to move quickly and in between things to follow Anderson’s path. So I kept a flat panel shield—like a door but wider—in front of us.

My pride members followed behind me, having my back even though I had no doubt that they knew I’d made the wrong choice. I should’ve gone after the Supreme Rose. They were the bigger target.

But I was here now. I was going to take advantage of it.

Anderson peeked out from behind a kiosk, and I shot out a bullet spell with hardly a thought.

But Anderson was quicker than I expected and got up a witch shield, blocking my bullet spell easily. I was surprised by how quickly he activated his spell, but I supposed with the number of dead bodies in here and the amount of blood and life force these disgusting humans had absorbed, I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Anderson tried to hide behind a kiosk, but I could see the top of his shield. So I threw a freeze spell, catching his shield, and immediately followed it up with three bullet spells—I didn’t want to accidentally blow up the entire mall, or even part of it with a bomb spell. Luckily, I hit the shield with enough force that it broke.

I ran forward, pushing my panel shield in front of me and my pride, and turned the corner, ready to blast this bastard to pieces. But when I got there, he wasn’t there.

“Shit,” I muttered, then turned and searched for where the damn cockroach could be hiding.

“Over there,” Logan said, pointing his Bo at another kiosk about fifteen feet away.

I ran, weaving another bullet spell in one hand and holding a freeze spell in the other. When I rounded the kiosk, the space was empty, but I saw movement up ahead. Anderson was already taking shelter at another damn kiosk.

I sneered and headed that way.

Logan quietly said, “Let me, Haiden, and Zara go the other way. I’ll keep us shielded.”

Before I could argue, Jude said, “Do it. Let them help, Mads.”

I grunted, unhappy but also unwilling to argue right now. Logan didn’t hesitate to cover them with his own shield. They headed for a longer route toward the same kiosk as us. Hopefully Anderson wouldn’t be able to slip past us both.

I saw the top of Anderson’s shield sticking up over a display of hats and didn’t hesitate to send freeze to it, followed again by three bullets.

His shield shattered, and I heard him cursing up a storm before he yelled, “Even if you kill me here today, you’ll never stop us. You’ll never stop the Red Cloth from taking over. We will control you disgusting non-humans. We will own you. And there’s nothing you can do to stop us.”

He suddenly shot out from behind the kiosk and rapid-fired three shield-melting spells at me as he dove behind another stand. He might’ve shot at me, and it might’ve hurt like a son of a bitch, but I didn’t let that stop me from shooting bullet spells at him, too.

He yelled out in pain, and I almost smiled to myself for hitting the prickhole in the shoulder. Good.

He let out a manic laugh. “Still alive over here, Madeo. Nothing but a flesh wound.”

“I did promise to make it hurt,” I said before cringing at myself. I shouldn’t have said that. I shouldn’t talk to him at all, let alone yell something to make me sound like I was the damn villain. Gross. I felt gross.

Logan’s group came around the side, and Anderson shot four shield-melting spells at my little ce’oso, and I saw red.

I rushed forward, shooting bullet after bullet, but Cos grabbed my arm to steady me when I almost tripped and face-planted. I glanced down. Another body. Good goddess.

Jude waved Logan’s group over, and I was relieved they didn’t argue, rejoining us without issue.

I walked forward, dodging even more bodies and stepping over them. It was appalling. How had all of these people died and suffered like this without anyone in the outside world knowing? Didn’t any of them get away? Didn’t any of them call emergency services? They had to have. There was no way the witches had killed all of these people at the same time. Some of them had to have had time to call for help.

So… why hadn’t they?

I heard another manic laugh before Anderson’s head popped up and back down too quickly for me to hit him. But he managed to shoot a spell right at me. At first, I thought it was another shield-melting one, but it wasn’t. A huge flash of light went off so bright and so big that I instinctively lifted my arm to block it. I had to blink to get my eyes to refocus.

By the time I could see again, Anderson was running around the elevator and escalator area in the very middle of the mall. Shit. He’d managed to give himself a decent lead. Not that it mattered since I wasn’t going to let him get away.

I ran.

My family followed me, and Jude said, “Let’s just keep shooting at him. If he’s distracted and dodging us, he might make a mistake.”

“Please be extra careful,” Cos said. “We don’t want to risk shooting an innocent bystander.”

I felt Jude’s cringe more than saw it. “I won’t use my gun. I can use my energy balls.” Meaning he could control where they went and if they needed to change direction mid-flight.

“Do it,” Cos said.

Jude didn’t hesitate. He manipulated my shield—something he’d become better and better at over the past couple of years—and started shooting at Anderson. It wouldn’t break his shield, but it was enough to distract him.

Logan began shooting his own bullet spells, sending them flying around my panel shield so I didn’t even have to worry about opening up holes in the shield for him.

I aimed my own bullet spells at Anderson.

We chased him through what felt like a maze of kiosks until one of my bullets almost hit his head, and he covered himself with a shield again. It was pissing me off, but the constant stream of magic aimed at him was slowing him down and allowing us to close the distance.

I shot another freeze weave at him, then took his shield out with bullet spells, and Anderson sent four shield-melting spells at me.

A yell came out of me at the burning sensation running through my head and sort of over my skin. I didn’t usually feel it like this, but then again, I didn’t usually get hit with this type of spell so many times in a row. I lost my footing, but Cos was there to grab me and set me on my feet again.

Jude said, “Forget the shield. Just knock his magic out of the way. You can’t keep letting him burn you up like that.”

“There could be other witches in here.”

“Logan and I have your back. You focus on him. We’ll keep everyone safe.”

Since I trusted him, I grunted, released my shield completely, and ran forward.

Anderson had run around to the other side of a large carousel, and another wave of the grisly smell of gore wafted up my nose. I did everything in my power to avoid looking at the actual carousel itself because I didn’t want to see any… small bodies on it.

Not that seeing all the large bodies around the ride was much better.

Breathing through my mouth, I ran around it and skidded to a stop as a new horror filled my eyes.

I hadn’t been inside this mall for years, so I’d forgotten what was on the other side of the carousel. This entire end of the mall was built for kids with toy stores, an arcade, a bouncy house place, and right smack in the middle of the first floor was an indoor playground.

It was a weekend, so of course this place had been packed. Not to mention that the mall hosted regular child-friendly events all the time, but especially on Saturdays… like today.

And the Red Cloth witches had taken advantage of that.

The thing about witch magic was that they got more power from people who had longer left to live, so in theory, they’d get more power from a child than from an adult. More power from a shifter or magi, who lived longer than humans, than a human. And more power from a non-human child than anyone else.

This mall had been filled with humans and non-humans… and their kids.

And those kids were… oh goddess, they were everywhere.

There was so much blood. And… and other body parts strewn about.

Goddess, they must’ve been terrified in their last moments.

They must’ve died horrible deaths. Painful deaths.

There were bodies everywhere.

Before I could stop myself, I was bent in half and puking my guts up.

Jude did the same thing. So did Cos. I was sure the others did as well, but I was trying not to focus on it, or it’d make me throw up more.

I tried to suck in a deep breath to calm my stomach, but that only made it worse because I got hit with the smell of death. So much senseless death.

As I puked again, I felt Logan’s magic surround me, and I knew he’d covered us with a shield. Then I felt him use air to move the air around inside his shield. He somehow opened a hole in the top of it and blew the stale, gross, atrocious air out, leaving behind something that was a little bit fresher. At the very least, it no longer smelled like death.

I took a deep breath and wiped my leaking eyes—unsure whether they were leaking from the scent or from crying. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He hesitated. “Where’s Anderson?”

Jude said, “He ran into that department store.”

I took another deep breath and stood. “Let’s go get the prickhole.”

No one complained that I’d made us fall behind in our pursuit.

But I was the one who’d stopped. I was the one who’d let our surroundings get to me.

We rushed through the department store, everyone searching for where Anderson could be hiding. But I had a feeling he wasn’t hiding at all.

He and the Supreme Rose were selfish cowards and had left their small army of witches back there to die so they could get away. They’d sacrificed their followers, and given everything we’d seen today, I wasn’t surprised in the least.

Right before we reached the doors that led outside, four witches popped out from behind racks of clothing and the check-out counter. I almost rolled my eyes but somehow refrained.

Logan and I didn’t hesitate to throw shields around our group—domes still wouldn’t fit, but panel shields did, and I doubted anyone was coming through the ceiling to attack us, so we were good. Without even looking at one another, we wrapped them around ourselves, overlapping so mine was on the outside. Then we opened holes in the shields so the two of us and Jude could start shooting.

The witches hurled their spells at me, and I flinched at the damn shield-melting spells, but I wasn’t too worried, not with Logan and Jude by my side.

Lo and I both shot freeze spells, each aiming for a different witch’s shield. We froze them, hit their shields with bullet spells, then moved on to the next two while Jude used his assault rifle to shoot the shield-less witches one after the other.

We moved quickly and efficiently, and I was glad we were able to work so seamlessly together.

It took us probably less than two minutes to take all four of them out, but that was a two-minute lead Anderson had on us, not to mention however long the puking took. Shit.

“For crap’s sake,” I muttered, running past the now-dead witches and up to the doors.

I had to stop everyone from running into them. The doors were supposed to be automatic, but they were no longer working.

“Those vile monsters,” Jude said.

Logan muttered, “I’m going to be sick again.”

I did my best to clear my throat as I worked a weave and explained to the shifters, “They locked the doors with magic. No regular human would’ve been able to break out of these doors, no matter how hard they tried. Not even shifter strength would help. Only magi or other witches can break these spells.”

I finished cleaning and breaking the witch magic, then made Lo drop his shield so Jude and I could slide the doors open. I pushed a small wall-shield in front of us before we exited the mall, and I scanned the huge parking lot.

It was filled to the brim with cars.

So many people had been locked inside.

“Over there,” Kulani said, pointing across the parking lot.

I started running in that direction before I saw what he was pointing at, trusting him fully.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Dare yelled loudly. “They’re getting away.”

I watched as Anderson ducked into the passenger seat of an SUV right before the vehicle’s tires screeched as it pulled away.

“No, no, no, no, no!” I ran for a good twenty feet before stopping. “We can’t let him get away! How do we stop him?”

I started to weave together a grenade spell. Maybe with enough force I could hit the car and stop it. Or slow it down. If we slowed it down, the shifters could run after it and—no. No, they couldn’t because then I wouldn’t be there to protect them from any witch magic.

Jude put his hand on my forearm. “Bubba, stop it. He’s too far away.”

“No. Maybe if I use air and fly, I can hit him?—”

“He’s too far away, bubba. And he’s getting farther with every passing second.”

I felt my eyes fill with frustrated tears. “No. We can’t let him get away. We have to stop him. He’s not allowed to get away, Jude. He can’t.”

“We’ll get him next time.”

My teeth ground together angrily. “That’s not good enough.”

“It’s going to have to be.”

“It’s not.”

“Bubba—”

“Who’s driving? Anderson?” I asked. “Maybe we can use them to find him. We can pull vid footage and find out. Oh! Someone get a drone on them. Don’t lose that fucking car!”

Cos was already on his HID. I hadn’t even noticed.

“The Supreme Rose is driving,” Kulani said. “I saw a red hood in the driver’s seat.”

“That bastard waited for Anderson?” I asked in surprise. “Fuck! Fuck, fuckity, fuck, fuck.” I banged on my head with my fists. “Shit! I’m so fucking stupid! If I hadn’t stopped. If I’d just kept going. I shouldn’t have let it get to me. I should’ve buried everything down like we’re supposed to during a fight. I should’ve waited. If I?—”

“Hey,” Cos said, stepping close and grabbing my wrists to stop me from hitting myself. “Mads. Please stop hurting yourself.”

I stared up at my mate, disgusted with myself and wishing he wasn’t staring at me. “I let him get away.”

“No. This isn’t your fault.”

“Yes, it is.”

“It isn’t.”

I barked out a laugh. “It sure as hell is, Cosmo. I had him right there, and I let him get away.”

He shook his head and surprised me by pulling me into his chest and hugging me to him. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Shh.” He nuzzled into my hair. “It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”

I sniffled, and for the first time, I realized I was crying. “All of those people, Cos. All those… those kids.”

“Shh. I know, baby, I know. But this wasn’t your fault. None of this is your fault.”

I clung onto him and buried my face in his chest. And I cried. He hugged me tighter and rubbed my back. I didn’t even know why I was crying.

I mean, yes, inside that mall was an absolute horror show, but I’d seen things just as bad in the past and had never wept like a baby, for crap’s sake.

When I calmed down, I murmured into Cosmo’s chest. “Can everyone pretend they didn’t just watch me have a breakdown?”

“There’s nothing wrong with showing your emotions. But no one’s going to say a single word, sweetheart.”

I took a deep breath, gave a nod, and pulled away. I almost didn’t meet his eyes, but that was stupid because he was my Cos, and I knew he didn’t think less of me and wasn’t upset with me or anything. So I looked up into his golden eyes and saw nothing in them but love and affection for me.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” I whispered. I gave his hand a squeeze before taking another breath and getting back to business. “Did they figure out where that SUV is going?”

Jude said, “No. They went under a bridge and never came back out. Some police went to check for us and found the SUV abandoned. They can’t tell if they left on foot or got into another vehicle. Another TRD team was called in on their off day. They’re going to go check out the vehicle and see if they can track their scents.”

Goddess, how long had I been freaking out for all of that to have already happened?

I closed my eyes in frustration for a moment. This fucking sucked. How could I have let him get away? How did I let him slip through my fingers like that?

But… there was nothing I could do about it right this very minute, so I focused on the next task at hand and gestured to the mall. “Are Ash, Wren, and the others okay?”

My dyad answered me. “Yes. They took out the rest of the witches. There’s no survivors. The little vigilante group left with no issue. Simon and Harriet are in charge, and I think most of the others are searching the mall for any survivors.”

I blinked at him. “And?”

He grimaced. “So far, not a single person.”

Holy shit.

I felt bile threaten to rise again, but I managed to keep it down. “Did they pull the mall’s vids? Do we know why no one called for help? All that… all the death in there must’ve taken hours. Why wasn’t the TRD called in sooner?”

Jude blew out a breath, and I could feel how on edge he was. “All good questions. Simon and Harriet are inside waiting for us in the security office. They want us to see something.”

I nodded and braced myself to go back inside. We all walked back to the mall’s door and then just… stood there. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to go back inside that macabre place.

“Where’s the security office?” I asked after several long seconds of no one moving.

Jude texted someone, and a second later, said, “On the other side of the mall, close to where we came in.”

I glanced at my family, back at the door, then at my family again before backing away and waving my arm. “Come on. We’re walking around.”

I didn’t think it was my imagination when I heard a sigh of relief from nearly everyone.

It took us a lot longer to get to the security office that way, but it was one hundred percent worth it. Not only did we not have to see that gruesome scene again, but it gave us all some time to breathe in clean air and get ourselves under control.

The mall didn’t smell any better the second time. In fact, I had to hold my breath a few times to stop my gag reflex from responding to the scent. I was pretty sure it was growing worse with every passing second. Or maybe because I wasn’t in pursuit of Anderson anymore, my nose was more focused on its surroundings or something. It was… fucking horrendous.

Ash seemed surprised when we walked inside from the front entrance, but one glance at our faces was enough for him not to bother asking. He led the way to the security office where Simon and Harriet were waiting.

“Everyone alright?” Simon asked as soon as we walked inside. The room wasn’t big enough for all of us, so only Jude, Cos, and me fit inside with him and Harriet.

“No one’s injured on our side. What about you guys?” Cos said.

“No injuries to report.” Simon gave my mate a nod before motioning to the large holoscreen that was divided up into many different vids in front of him. “We were able to play back what happened this morning.”

“This morning?” I asked.

It was nearing dark at this point, so if the witches had started this morning, then my theory had been right. They’d been at this for hours before the TRD was even called in.

Simon grimaced. “It looks like the witches got here early this morning. The mall was holding some kind of family-friendly event with entertainment on the little stages set up in the alcoves and free cotton candy and all kinds of things like that. This is a yearly event and something that’s always well attended. One of their biggest weekends, apparently.”

That explained the number of people that were here today.

“Okay.” I gave him a nod to indicate that he should continue.

“The Red Cloth members showed up and started painting symbols on all the doors. It allowed the doors to open from the outside, but not from the inside. At first, it looks like people just thought some of the doors were locked and they had to exit out a different way. It wasn’t until a group of them tried several doors that they realized something was wrong, but… it was too late.

“The witches had a HID scrambler, so no one inside the building was able to reach anyone outside of it. That’s why no one knew what was going on. In fact, even after the… killings started, more people started to show up for the mall event, adding more and more victims for the Red Cloth.”

“That’s atrocious,” Jude said.

Simon nodded. “It is. We watched a lot of the footage, and even on fast forward, it was… difficult to see. These people—no, they’re not people anymore. These monsters… they took their time, killing their victims slowly and making them suffer.” For a second, Simon went a little green, and I was afraid he might be the next puking victim, but he managed to hold it in.

Harriet said, “There’s something else we noticed, though. The witches had to have come here with a lot of power to draw on already, right? Because they used magic to lock the doors, shield themselves, and take large groups of people down.” She looked at me. “Can you take a look at the beginning footage to confirm?”

I stepped forward, steeling myself to watch. “Sure.”

Simon hit a few buttons before pressing play, and the wall filled with dozens of vids playing at the same time. Simon pointed to one, so I focused on it and watched as a witch started drawing her symbols across one of the doors.

It didn’t take me long to confirm Harriet’s theory. “Yes. They were already very hopped up on energy.”

“How can you tell?” Cos asked after watching the same thing as me.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure how to explain it. It’s something about the way they move and the… air around them.”

“Like an aura?”

I thought about that for a moment before nodding my head in acquiescence. “I never really thought about it before, but yeah, that’s probably pretty close. I suppose I can sense or sort of see the magic, even on a vid.”

Cos hummed in acknowledgment. After a few minutes, he said, “So they came powered up before they even… slaughtered all those people.”

“Yes,” Jude and I said at the same time.

He added, “Clearly, this was a planned attack. Very meticulous in their execution. They had to case the mall long before they did this to make sure they had enough witches to help and knew where each and every exit was. They brought the HID scrambler. They hopped up on blood magic before they even came. They’ve probably been planning this for months, waiting for the mall’s busiest weekend to execute their plan.”

Even though the last thing I wanted to do was watch more of this, I said, “Let it play, Simon. Let’s see if we can figure out who the Supreme Rose is—I doubt they walked around with their stupid red cloak on before the killing started. I’m sure they wanted to blend in. Maybe we’ll see if there are any weaknesses in the witches’ plan. If they did it once, they’ll do it again, and I’d rather watch this now and figure out how to prevent it than have to walk through another… slaughterhouse like the one out there.”

Simon nodded and let the vids play on a quick speed, and I made sure not to look at any of the cameras over by the children’s section of the mall.

After watching it play, we decided to let the TRD analysts who specialized in this stuff take over. Mostly because I couldn’t handle watching it again. My stomach was empty, but I was sure it’d do an admirable job of trying to empty itself more if I continued.

Harriet and Simon sent us all outside for a break. For once, I didn’t argue.

“Goddess,” Logan breathed quietly to Haiden. I wasn’t trying to listen, but I heard him anyway. “All those kids.”

Haiden pulled Lo into his arms, and I didn’t even hesitate when Cos did the same to me. That had been one of the most brutal, wicked, and heinous things I’d ever seen… and I’d seen a lot of horrible shit.

My pride mates stood together, offering what comfort we could.

I felt… drained. Emotionally. Physically. Magically.

My magic was pissed. I didn’t know how I could tell that, but I could.

I couldn’t blame it. I was pissed, too.

I felt so lost.

I had no idea what to do or how to help.

So I let Cos hold me for a long time before I finally pulled away, but only enough to turn in his arms and lean my back against his front. He wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on the top of my head.

Logan was wrapped up in Haiden in a similar position, and his big, bright green eyes met my blue ones, sadness flashing across them, and he asked, “Now what?”

Now what, indeed.

“How the hell are we going to stop these people?”

Another valid question. Too bad I had no idea how to answer it.