Chapter 1

Payback is a Witch

Maya Daniels

Lesson number twenty-one: If you can't beat them, join them, although old habits die hard.

I didn't follow anyone, by principle.

I learned this one on the day as I stood at the bottom of the steps leading toward the great double doors of my coven building, more so than any other time of my life. I couldn't say why to save my life, and it truly pissed me off.

My eyes traveled slowly from the bottom of the steps, over the monstrosity of the building, until they settled on the very top of the glass dome, and I swallowed thickly the fear that tried to claw its way up my throat. While I was too busy self-loathing and doing my best not to die, they rebuilt the damage I caused to the structure, not once but twice.

Just as I was rounding the corner at the edge of the last bookshelf, my shoulder bumped into a line of stacked books protruding from it. It made me stagger, and the grimoire I had in my hands dropped on the floor with a heavy thud. That was followed by another smack when the damn book, which jabbed me in the arm, hit the ground too, falling on the spine, and it flopped open somewhere in the middle. An invisible breeze skirted across my skin, and goosebumps covered my arms. My heart jammed in my windpipe, and I flipped around searching for some asshole with air magic trying to pull a prank on me.

No one was in the library but me.

Dread pooled in my stomach, and I really didn't want to be in the damn room anymore. The first traces of dawn were peeking through the tall windows, casting purples and pinks over the wooden shelves and leather tomes. What little light was poking through the brightening sky pierced the liquid in the jars, giving all the eyeballs, fingers, and such a menacing vibe. I had every intention of snatching the grimoire and hightailing it out of there, but when I bent at the waist to grab it, the text on the opened book got my attention. It was a siren song overtaking my mind.

I was powerless to resist it.

A horn blared somewhere in the distance pulling me out of whatever rabbit hole my damaged braincells were pulling me in and I realized my fists were balled so tightly, my nails were cutting through the skin of my wet palms.

"You are seriously pathetic." I muttered to myself as I wiped my sweaty palms off my pants in disgust. "Witches don't get PTSD. Get your shit together girl."

The pentagram on the side of my finger tingled at that, reminding me that my life was no longer the same. I was no longer that same person every member of the coven gossiped about and whispered insults behind her back. Well, they still did that but for entirely different reason now.

I was no longer a dud.

I was the monster all of them feared.

Even Danika thought twice before squaring off with me these days.

Yet, again. Here I was….

A scared little mouse with shaky knees, too afraid to kick in the damn doors and walk in like I owned the place.

As I said, I was seriously pathetic and should be put down immediately preferably in my designer clothing. I would be turning in my grave if I ended up in the afterlife dressed in polyester.

A shiver skirted up my spine.

Instead of keeling over right there and then, with each step I counted the slow exhales of my breaths until I was certain that my heartbeats no longer resembled galloping like a racehorse while making sure no one saw the ridiculous display of weakness. Stupid, I knew, but, old habits die hard as I said. Deep down I was still the old Hazel. The one that hid her inadequacy behind a smart mouth, lots of bravado and a legendary sense of fashion if I could say so myself. My designer shoes and the leather wrapped around me could attest to that last statement even to a blind person.

On one side though, a very hidden-don't tell to myself hidden-space, I liked the new Hazel better. She was everything I ever wanted to be while growing up thinking I had zero gifts. Powerful supernaturals cowered in front of the power of her magic. It was who I prayed to the Goddess to make me growing up. What I never expected was for the people I cared about to be near constant threat of dying because of it. I wanted magic so bad so I could protect them better, not get them killed faster. For that reason, that part of the new me I disliked with passion as much as I loved it.

Which was the main reason I now stood in front of the closed doors of my coven staring up at the three red keys marking it as a tribute to Hecate. None of the skeleton keys were crooked and they all looked brand new as if the Goddess herself was pointing out to me that no matter how powerful I was, she could erase me from existence without a second thought. Like I never existed. Deep down I was sure that I was working on borrowed time and had to do something before it was too late.

Something had to change, and I knew just the person to talk to about it. The problem I had was I had to swallow my pride along with the new formed lump in my throat, to actually walk in, and get it over done with.

Danika didn't bite. I mean, what could she do now? She couldn't kill me if she tried.

I should've asked Sissily to come with me, but I thought she could use a day off from my drama. Good thing too because she never would've let me forget it when the double doors unexpectedly opened and I jumped almost a foot in the air. Luckily, I clamped my mouth shut and only a tiny squeak escaped me, hopefully low enough that the person barging through the damn entrance didn't hear it.

The male that walked out was someone I've seen in passing a lot around the coven, but I couldn't remember his name to save my life.

"Hecate help me, Miss Byrne." The middle-aged witch gasped, pressing a flat palm at the center of his chest. "You scared me."

My glare reminded him that I was not a friendly person on best of days for that type of a conversation, so he rushed to backtrack in the same breath. "I just didn't expect anyone to be standing there, that's all. Not that you are scary." My glower deepened more at that and he gulped, going as far as taking a step back and bumping the slowly closing door which made him jump a little to the side instead, as if physical difference would save him from my anger.

My magic reared its ugly head with those thoughts, churning at the center of my chest like a cobra waiting to strike. What was worse, was the fact that I felt justified to attack him according to the emotions filling my head. And all that from a simple, accidental bump in passing.

Who was I? What in the goddess name was happening to me?

I despised bullies. I was not a bully.

Fear from the monster I was becoming overshadowed anything my powers could artificially produce inside my head so I shook off the daze which was forcing its way to the surface. As much as I loved Danika, despite of all the skeletons coming out of the closet and everything she's done, I never wanted to become like her in that sense. I was an asshole, not an evil bitch. Still, I had a reputation to uphold that would hopefully keep people away from me. I never wanted to be a monster, but approachable I certainly was not.

"I could try harder if I'm not scary enough like this." Dust could've puffed out of my lips from the dryness of my tone as I cocked a hip and slapped my hand on it.

"I simply meant I didn't expect anyone to be anywhere near the coven at this hour, Miss Byrne." The male attempted to mold with one side of the door and mumbled almost to himself while color was draining from his face with each word. "It is the middle of the day."

"You are here." I told him reasonably, you'd think we were discussing the weather.

"I suppose you are correct." With a nervous chuckle that sounded more like a wheeze he slumped on the partially opened door and I watched with rapt interest how a drop of sweat rolled down one side of his face.

"Doing what exactly?" my eyes narrowed and zoomed in like a hawk on the male for a totally different reason now.

"I beg your pardon?"

"You are here in the middle of the day when no one is around, doing what exactly that you are so jumpy?" speaking slowly and deliberately I folded my arms across my chest and waited. When he said nothing for like five seconds my shoe started tapping and broke through the tense silence.

I learned that one from Sissily. It was proven to be an unnerving tactic when someone was trying to hide something. At least with me it was the case. Almost like a hot poker to my brain with each tap every time my friend did it.

"But…but…but…" the male stuttered rearing his head up, straitening and unfolding like a constipated flamingo. Blush started spreading up, pinkening his neck within seconds from his anger at my interrogation.

See how much I cared about his outrage.

"But, but, but… What, Sir?" stabbing a French manicured finger at his rapidly reddening face I squinted at him. "It's a simple question. Answer it!"

"If you are accusing me of some notorious reasons for being inside this building, Miss Byrne I will have no other choice but to bring this up with your grandmother." Squaring his shoulders, the so far meek appearing male stuck his nose up so he can look down it at me. "I am a respected member of this coven and will not allow to be questioned like a common crook. Not even by you." Yanking on his collared shirt unnecessarily, he puffed out his chest.

"That still didn't answer my question." I deadpanned, as the right side of my mouth twisted in annoyance. Would it be such a terrible thing if I socked him in the head, I thought to myself?

Another horn blaring, this one much closer than the one before, destroyed the built-up tension I had created hoping to make the male talk. Not that I had a feeling he was doing something wrong. But I learned the hard way that these days I couldn't trust anyone or anything. Check first, trust latter.

Look at me all grown up.

I was ready to pet myself on the back when the male hunched down and gave me all of two seconds before he tackled me out of nowhere. All the air was pushed out of my chest with a loud grunt when my back hit the pavement hard enough I heard one of my ribs crack. The back of my skull followed with a resounding smack on the patterned marble and black roses bloomed in front of my eyes while nausea churned in my gut.

"Motherfuc…" I wheezed a second before a fist was jabbed in my side forcing me to involuntarily curl up so I could protect my organs. The asshole was doing his damn best to relocate my kidneys, I would've asked if he was a nephrologist if I had any breath left in me.

A few more knees and knuckles connected with parts of my body before I realized the male had no intention of stopping his assault. This was not a simple reaction to me insulting him by asking what he was doing in the building in the middle of the day as he claimed. Oh, no. As is my luck lately I stumbled on some clusterfuck I would've rather avoided. Unfortunately, the douche didn't give me the option to refuse.

Sharp pain was spreading from my left shoulder all the way down to my pinky toe which was made worse when I twisted to that side in hopes to avoid another punch to my ribs. As a reward I received a fist in my left boob and saw stars spinning when my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

A scream was ripped out of me at that but it sounded more like a yell of outrage than from pain. My legs managed to wrap around his and I hooked the heels of my shoes as best I could so he couldn't shake me off. With a sharp turn of my hips I successfully turned us around so that he was now under me and I was straddling his thighs. The owlish look he gave me when I grinned at him through crazy strands of my messed-up hair made every punch and kick I received worth it.

"You didn't think I'll let you have the fun the whole time, did you?" I told him when he started buckling in attempt to get away. Laughing I rammed my fist in his cheekbone widening my smile when I felt it crunch under my knuckles. "How boring, darling. I prefer to be the one on top."

Holding him firmly on the ground I returned the favor on rearranging his organs until he stopped buckling and trying to escape. When he stopped moving so did I and I set fully on the back of my legs breathing loud enough to be heard all the way to New York. My knuckles were shredded and I could feel the blood that sprayed me in the face trickle down my chin. I tried to wipe it with my forearm then grimaced when it smudged all over the sleeve of my shirt. There was no way blood was coming off the angora sweater I was wearing. I managed to ruin yet another shirt in the cursed coven.

"Hazel?" Ace's voice coming from the steps made mi close my eyes and beg the universe for patience. "What in the world are you doing?" the soles of his combat boots thumped a soothing rhythm as he ran toward me.

"If I told you it wasn't my fault and he started it, would you believe me?" I asked with my eyes still closed.

"A fight not your fault?" The snort coming out of him as his shadow fell over me darkening the midday sun spoke volumes. "No."

"I didn't think so." On a heavy sigh I pushed myself up and stood to face him.

"You're bleeding." Ace snarled all humor leaving his features as he stepped too close for my comfort and reached for my face.

"Yeah, well," jerking away from his fingers I sidestepped to put distance between us in case he makes a grab for me. "you should've seen the other guy." He looked unimpressed at my joke, his wolf flashing briefly in his irises but I had other things to worry about instead of Ace's feelings. "You gonna help me carry him inside or you don't want to dirty your clothes? I need to know what he was doing here that made it worth it to attack me when I caught him leaving."

Predator watched me contemplatively for a long moment through narrowed eyes. Stubbornly I kept my gaze locked on Ace as best I could since one of my eyes was slowly swelling up. Without a word he bent over and snatched the passed-out male from the ground, unceremoniously tossing him over his shoulder. Stunned I watched his back retreating for a long second before I snapped out of it and rushed to catch up with him.

"Such a gentleman." I wheezed holding my side and hating my pretty shoes at that moment. I could bet my newfound magic that my compliment did not impress the wolf.