The Witch Squad: A Witch Squad Cozy Mystery #1 Read online

  “You’re so quiet tonight, my little Jaxie poo, what’s the matter sugar plum? Cat got your tongue?” he said. He followed up his nauseating colloquialisms with a chuckle. We could hear him making his way towards the pull chain over the desk. We tried to smash ourselves against the wall as best as we could so that he wouldn’t accidentally trip over one of our feet or brush up against anyone’s arm or leg.

  Our hearts were in our throats and I wished that we had learned an invisibility spell over the past week. We could hear Evan bumbling around in the dark. Then the sound of the chain being discovered and then click – there we were, surrounded by light.

  It took Evan only a second to notice that Jax wasn’t on the table and by the time he had turned to look around room, we were already making our way towards the other side of the door. In a flash, he drew his wand from the waistband of his cloak and with a tiny crackle, the door slammed shut.

  “Well, helloooo,” he purred. “What a nice surprise! Jaxie darling, you didn’t tell me we were having guests. I would have made sure to have accommodations for everyone!”

  Jax’s bottom lip began to quiver. I squeezed her arm protectively.

  “It’s so nice of you ladies to join us. I was just going to put on a show! And your friend Jax was about to be the main event. Perhaps Jax told you, we had a few glitches earlier in the day, but I’ve just been to the wizard’s library and I think I’ve figured out what I’ve been doing wrong.”

  “Let us out of here, Evan,” I commanded, finally having had enough, I stepped forward with my chest puffed out as far as I could muster.

  He began to laugh. A psychotic where’s-my-straight-jacket, kind of laugh. “Oh, I’ll let you out of here. Once I’ve stuffed all of your spirits inside of this body over here. You see, the Autumnal Equinox is nearing. And I have something especially wicked planned. I’m going to prove to everyone once and for all, who is the most talented wizard at this school,” he droned.

  We tried to keep our eyes glued to him, despite the fact that Alba was using her powers of telekinesis to raise the desk behind him high over his head. Slowly, it approached him.

  “I’m going to get my name engraved on a stone in the lobby as student of the year, and I’ll go on to do great things. All by making this single spell work. You see, I’m an innovative wizard, a visionary really…”

  I shot him a broad sarcastic smile. “If you’re such a visionary Evan, I guess you should have seen this one coming.”

  With that Alba dropped her fingers swiftly, plummeting the heavy steel desk down on him hard. We watched as he crumpled to the floor in a heap under the desk.

  “Hurry girls! Sweets, Holly, take Jax and get out of here!” I commanded. “Alba and I are going to work on getting Morgan’s body out of here.”

  Sweets looked back nervously as Holly and Jax ran out the door. “Should I send help back, Mercy?”

  “I think we’ve got it Sweets. I forgot we had a professional mover on staff,” I said with a little wink at Alba.

  “Ok, be careful!” Sweets hollered before escaping behind Holly and Jax.

  “Let’s get her uncovered,” Alba said quickly.

  I nodded, holding my breath, preparing myself for the gruesome sight of Morgan’s corpse. I could see by the scrunched up look on Alba’s face she was bracing herself for the sight as well. Standing on either side of the stainless steel table, we each took a side of the tarp and pulled it back, exposing the lifeless body.

  “Oh, gosh. I just hate looking at myself like that,” I heard Morgan say from behind me. I turned around to see the poor girl looking like she was crying, though as a ghost, no tears were able to fall.

  “I’m sorry, Morgan, in all the chaos I forgot for a moment that you were still here. You should go. You don’t need to see this. Please, go, follow my friends to safety. We will meet up later, we don’t have much time. Evan could wake up. We need to get your body to safety, so your parents can have the closure to bury you properly.

  “Ok,” she said in a small voice as a little sob escaped her lips and with that she disappeared through the door.

  “You’re going to be able to float her out of here, right?” I asked Alba nervously.

  Alba nodded seriously. “Yeah, I think I can, the problem is going to be getting her out of here unseen. And what do we do about Evan? We can’t just let him get away with this.”

  “Let’s get the body out of here and then we’ll see what we can do about him,” I said, throwing Evan a nasty look. The sight of him made me sick.

  “Ok,” Alba agreed. She stood back and pointed her fingers towards the corpse, levitating her immediately. “It’ll be interesting getting her up that circular stairway.”

  “I’ll guide her, let’s go,” I said and started towards the open door.

  All of a sudden, the door slammed shut in front of me. “Not so fast,” we heard from behind us. Evan had crawled out from under the desk and was hunched over, leaning on the stone altar. His face was battered and bloody and his shirt was stained red. “What’s your hurry?”

  “We’re getting a little tired of seeing your face,” Alba said, her voice thick with annoyance. She rolled her eyes then moved her fingers downward, setting Morgan’s body back where it had been.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that,” Evan scoffed, walking towards us.

  I backed up, towards the door.

  “Don’t be sorry,” Alba said, challenging him. She made a quick motion with her fingers and brought the heavy chandelier swinging towards him.

  Evan lifted his arm, quickly deflecting the hit. “Oh, I’m on to you now, sister,” he said with an evil smile.

  Alba looked at me. I could see fear taking shape in her brown eyes. I scooted over closer to her, huddling by her side as Evan came closer. His wand pointed at us.

  As he lifted the wand to cast a spell on us, we heard a crackling noise at the door. Our three sets of eyes all turned to the door and found that it was turning to ice! A foot from the other side suddenly came plunging through it, shattering the door into tiny shards of glass like ice, crumbling the door to the ground. The Ice Princess jumped across the threshold with the Fire Queen hot on her tail.

  “Sup Evan,” Libby said with a tough smile on her face and her flattened palms at the ready.

  Evan grinned evilly at the dynamic duo. “Libs! So nice of you to join us! Cin, my favorite hottie, a pleasure as always.”

  “You guys know this clown?” Alba asked the twins.

  “Yeah, we’ve had a few run in’s. Let’s just say he doesn’t take rejection well,” Libby said. “He just doesn’t know when enough is enough.”

  Evan threw his head back and laughed. “Oh, puh-lease. You still think this is about you? I was never interested in you anyway. I just wanted to get you in bed.”

  “Exactly why we had to incinerate your bed.” Without taking her eyes off of Evan, Cinder finished , “Now, you girls look like you could use a little help.”

  “Definitely. How’d you know that we were down here?” I asked.

  “The other half of the Witch Squad saw us as they were running inside. They told us you might need a little assistance,” Libby revealed.

  “Why don’t the two of you get out of here,” said Cinder. “We’ll handle our old pal, Evan.”

  “Deal,” I said.

  Alba wasted no time in twitching her fingers, levitating Morgan’s body off the table.

  “Hold up, you’re not going anywhere!” Evan hollered and shot a stream of energy directly at Alba, but the twins’ reflexes were faster.

  Cinder deflected Evan’s stream of energy by shooting a stream of fire from her finger. Libby covered Evan from head to toe in ice, freezing him solid.

  “It’s as easy as giving a kid a piece of candy on Halloween,” Cinder said with a laugh.

  “We’ll watch him,” Libby said. “You guys go.”

  “Thanks girls, we appreciate it!” I told them. “Let’s go Alba, we need to get this body out o
f here!”

  Together, Alba and I worked the body up the spiral staircase. “What are we going to do with her?” Alba asked.

  I couldn’t think. My nerves were completely shot. “I have no idea. We can’t very well take her to the police station. Stone would kill us!”

  “Yeah, and what are we supposed to do about Evan? We can’t just let him get away with kidnapping Jax,” Alba added.

  Then it hit me, like a lightning bolt. “I’ve got it, I know the perfect place to put her body!” I said excitedly.

  { Chapter Nineteen}

  I pulled out my cell phone and quickly dialed the Paranormal Institute’s operator.

  “Paranormal Institute for Witchcraft and Wizardry, how may I direct your call?” the nasally voice on the other end said.

  “Warner Hall please,” I said.

  “Hold please.”

  “What are you doing?” Alba hissed at me at the top of the basement stairs.

  “Shh,” I whispered back, with a hand over the mouthpiece of my phone.

  “Information, may I help you?”

  “Yes, hello. I’d like to send my son a care package. He lives in Warner Hall. Could you please give me his room number?”

  “Yes, ma’am. What’s your son’s name?” she asked politely. I could hear her clicking the buttons on a computer.

  “Evan. Evan Lancaster,” I said, excitedly.

  “Lancaster, yes, here he is. Room 323. Can I help you with anything else?” she asked.

  “No, thank you, that’s all I needed,” I smiled through the phone at her.

  “You’re welcome, have a nice day.”

  I hung up the phone while Alba smiled broadly at me. “Room 323, piece of cake.”

  “I’ve got to give you credit, Red, that was a brilliant idea.”

  I grinned from ear to ear. “Thanks, I know. Come on, let’s go. We can’t have someone see us.”

  Getting Morgan’s lifeless body up the stairs via levitation was more difficult than one might think. She didn’t bend around the corners very easily.

  “I hope you’re a better furniture mover than you are a body mover,” I said sarcastically to Alba after she’d knocked Morgan’s head on the stone wall at least a half a dozen times. She was good at lifting, but her accuracy left a lot to be desired.

  Within fifteen minutes, we had stowed away Morgan’s body in Evan’s dorm room, without having been seen. Once we got safe and sound back to Winston Hall, I made one more phone call – an anonymous call to the Aspen Falls Police Department.

  “Yes, hello. I’d like to report that a body was just discovered at the Warner Hall dormitory. Room 323. Please hurry.”

  I hung up the phone and turned to Alba quickly. “There, hopefully the girls will keep Evan on ice until Morgan’s body is recovered!”

  “And hopefully no one will be the wiser that it was us calling it in.”

  “Exactly! Now, we’ve got to get upstairs. I’m dying to know if Jax is going to be alright,” I said.

  “Let’s go,” said Alba.

  Jax was sitting on the edge of my bed weeping when we came in. Sneaks was sitting next to her, patting her back gently. I rushed to her side and knelt down next to the bed. “Jax, are you alright? Should we take you to the infirmary?” I asked her immediately.

  She sniffed her nose and wiped at her eyes. “No, I’m not hurt. It was just so, scary!” she cried.

  “Aww, poor Jaxie,” Sweets cooed while hugging her tightly.

  Sneaks wrapped herself around Jax’s leg and purred softly. When she saw me, my mother sighed. “There you are! I’ve been worried sick!”

  I knelt in front of Jax and took her hands into mine, ignoring my mother. She winced as I turned her wrists over to get a good look at them. They were bruised and swollen and cut in several places from her trying to pull herself loose all day. “You’re bleeding,” I said. “Does anyone have a first aid kit?”

  “I’ve got some stuff in our room, I’ll be right back,” said Holly as she ran out quickly.

  “I’m just so confused about what’s going on,” I admitted. “If Evan didn’t kill Morgan, then do we know who did?” I asked Jax.

  “I have no idea who killed Morgan,” Jax said sadly. “I wish I knew, but I don’t.”

  I stood up and turned around to face Morgan, who was standing quietly in the corner of my room. “We haven’t had a chance to formally meet. I’m Mercy,” I told her.

  “Hi Mercy,” she said shyly.

  “I saw you on the side of the road the day that you were killed,” I said.

  “I saw you there too, and the rest of these girls,” she admitted.

  “This is Alba and Sweets. And obviously you know this is Jax,” I said as Holly entered the room with her first aid kid. “And this is Holly.”

  Holly looked around curiously. “Who you talking to?”

  “Morgan. She’s here,” I said.

  “Oh, tell her I said hi,” she said with a little wave. “And tell her I’m sorry she died.”

  “She can hear you,” I pointed out. “You just can’t hear her.”

  “Oh. Hi Morgan, I’m sorry you died,” Holly said loudly into the room.

  “She’s a ghost, Holly. She’s not deaf,” I said with a chuckle.

  “Sorry,” Holly said as she squatted down to help Jax clean up her wrists.

  “Morgan, do you know who did this to you?” I asked her cautiously. I wasn’t sure what she knew yet. Sometimes ghosts remembered every detail and sometimes they didn’t. Often it just took time and they remembered everything.

  Morgan shook her head and looked at her hands nervously. “No. I don’t know. I’ve tried to remember that day, but I can’t remember anything. It’s like it’s being blocked from my memory or something.”

  Jax finally spoke up. “I feel like this has something to do with the Autumnal Equinox celebration. I feel like she was supposed to be a sacrifice.”

  “That thought had crossed my mind,” I admitted.

  “It did? Why?” Morgan asked, looking up in surprise.

  “We found your ring,” I told her.

  She looked down at her hands and saw that it was missing. “My ring? How did you know I had a ring?”

  “We went back to look for you. And we found your ring on the side of the road. It’s a purity ring, right?”

  She nodded.

  “That means – “

  “Yes. It means I’m a virgin,” she admitted shyly.

  I smiled at her as kindly as I could. “There are a lot of rituals in the spiritual world that require the sacrifice of a virgin.”

  “Oh,” she whispered. “So it was a witch that killed me?”

  “Not necessarily. We think it was a man. It might have been a wizard that killed you.”

  “You think it actually was Evan?” she asked fearfully.

  “Jax doesn’t think so. There are other wizards living in Aspen Falls. It could have been someone else.”

  She nodded, but I could tell that she was biting her bottom lip.

  “Are you alright?” I asked her.

  She shook her head, trying to hold back the tears that would never fall again. “No. Honestly, I’m not alright. It stinks. I saved myself for marriage and it got me killed. How is that right?”

  I wished that I could reach out and touch her, comfort her, but I knew I couldn’t. Her body wasn’t concrete. It was only her spirit that was present. “It’s not right, Morgan. I’m so sorry.”

  “If she was killed because she was a virgin that means whoever killed her had to have known her. How else would they know that she was a virgin?” Alba cleverly pointed out.

  “Who knew you were a virgin, Morgan?” I asked her.

  “Most of my girlfriends knew,” she said.

  I swished my lips to the side. “Eh, we’re pretty sure it was a man.”

  “Sam knew, but I don’t think that he would ever hurt me. He loved me. I’m sure this is really hard on him,” she said, choking up.
r />   “He’s pretty upset. So are your parents,” I told her. “We met them.”

  “You met my mom and dad? When? How are they? I miss them so much!” Morgan’s face crumpled at the mere mention of her family.

  “After we saw you at the crime scene, we went to the school. They were pretty distraught,” I said. “Who else knew you were a virgin?”

  “My parents knew and my youth group knew. All of us girls wore the same purity rings,” she said.

  “You mean you all wore a purity ring?” I asked, seeking clarification. “But not the same purity ring, right?”

  “No, we all had the exact same ring. It was a gift from our youth group counselor.”

  “What’s she saying?” Alba asked me curiously.

  “She said that all of the kids in her youth group wore the exact same ring. She said it was a gift from their youth group counselor.”

  “Who was their youth group counselor?” Alba asked.

  I turned around and looked at Morgan curiously.

  “Mr. Bushwhack,” she said.

  “Oliver Bushwhack?” I asked, astounded.

  “Yeah, Oliver,” she said, surprised. “You know him?”

  “We met him the day you were killed. He was in the office comforting your parents,” I told her, then I spun around to tell the rest of the girls what Morgan had said. “Guys, Oliver Bushwhack was her youth group counselor.”

  “So?” Holly asked.

  “We met him. He was in the office consoling Morgan’s mother,” I reminded them.

  “And? Why do you seem so surprised that he was the youth group counselor?” Holly asked. “He was introduced as the Guidance Counselor.”

  “I’m not surprised that he is the youth group counselor, but isn’t it more than a little odd that a male youth group counselor gave a bunch of girls a purity ring?” I asked. Something just wasn’t making any sense. “It just seems kind of creepy to me.”

  Suddenly a light seemed to click on over Alba’s head. “Oh, my gosh! I just thought of something!”

  “What is it?” Sweets asked anxiously.

  “Where is it?” Alba asked looking around the room like a mad woman.