The Spell Read Online Free Page A

She did it so that Lily wouldn’t have to. She did it because she was the fighter in the group, and that was the power she had to offer. It tore Malcolm Cole apart. It tore Lily and Dannai apart. But Charlie bore the burden with incredible strength and determined purpose. If it were not for her, so many innocent women and children would be dead – raped, mutilated, tortured, missing.
    While Charlie finished off the children’s abductor, Danny turned away and ran to join Lily by the bed. Lily was now holding both children, taking off her own sweater to wrap them both up in it. This is what Lily did.
    Her visions led her and her two friends to the sites of the crimes they were fated to stop. Her skills as a social worker and her love for the human race in general helped ease the trauma of the dark events for the victims they saved.
    And now it was Danny’s turn. As the most powerful witch in the most powerful coven in the world, it was Danny’s unique healing touch and her ability to make particularly traumatized women and children
forget
what they have gone through, that was required.
    Danny’s powers helped them heal, both physically and mentally, so that they could get on with their lives and leave the past behind.
    Danny knelt beside Lily and looked into her friend’s golden eyes; Lily nodded. Danny’s gaze skirted to the two children. They were tow-headed, both blue-eyed and pale-skinned. They had a few bruises here and there, but other than the scratches left by the ropes at their wrists, they were physically unharmed. It required only a very quick psychic evaluation of their minds to determine that neither child had yet been sexually violated.
    Danny and her friends had made it in time again. Danny closed her eyes, held her hands palm-down over each child’s head, and whispered the quiet words of an incantation. To the children, it sounded like a lullaby, soft and sweet and pure.
    And it was this tender thought that carried them off into their healing sleep as Danny released another, separate tendril of power that wove its way gently through the children’s bodies, repairing broken blood vessels, stretched or torn tendons or muscles, and easing away any visible signs of bruising.
    Charlie joined them once more, her forearms covered in blood that was not hers.
    From where she was knelt beside Lily and the children, Danny waved a quick hand over her friend’s upper body and the blood was gone.
    Charlie looked down at her now clean hands and exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath. “Thank you,” she whispered.
    Danny nodded and smiled.
    Charlie was a little shaken up, Danny could tell. She always was after a kill. The blood awakened a hunger in her; and the prey awakened disgust. The dichotomy of the cruel and inevitable situation was one that often haunted Charlie, though she would never admit it. But there was no way out of this duty of theirs. And even if there was… would they take it?
    “You look tired, Danny,” Lily spoke softly from where she cradled the two sleeping children in her lap. The thin gold chain she wore around her neck held a single enchanted pearl, which nestled in the hollow of her throat. It was a gift from Danny and it allowed her to transport to the scenes of her visions. It would also take her back to her gorgeous and swarthy, if a bit difficult , alpha werewolf husband when this was all finished, but not before Charlie’s curse took
her
back. They never had much time.
    “I’m fine,” Danny said, brushing off the question as she knew a friend should never do. Lily gave her a rueful look, but left it alone. For now.
    “I’ll take them to Council headquarters,” Lily said, looking down at the children asleep in her lap. “They’ll reunite them with their families.”
    Danny nodded.
    “Gotta go, guys. We still on for next Saturday?” Charlie asked.
    Danny and Lily glanced toward her. She was gazing down at her arms. A warm red glow emanated from beneath the leather