Free Wicked Souls by Misty Evans

Gabriel screwing with
me. He’s controlling my willpower and making my magic go all
Exorcist on me. I keep throwing myself at Luc, but it’s only
because Gabriel’s making me do it.”
    “Why?”
    My fingers touched the matches. I grabbed
the pack out of the desk drawer and tossed them to Keisha. “Isn’t
it obvious? It’s payback for me supposedly putting a spell on him. He wants me to use my magic. He wants me to break my Witches
Anonymous oath.”
    “Kind of petty for an archangel.”
    I let out an impatient sigh, but then
thought about it. It did seem petty, even for such a prima donna as
Gabriel. Inside my head, the metal door pressed on my brain.
    Great. Here we go again.
    Keisha lit a candle and blew out the match. “Seems like if he could control your willpower, and he thought you
were responsible for keeping him on Earth, he would simply force
you to lift the spell. He likes to play games, but not to his own
detriment.”
    My brain reluctantly agreed and for its
trouble received a heavy door slam, as if someone had dropped a ten
pound weight on my head. I pressed a hand to my forehead, willing
my brain to bench press the weight back off. “Gabriel
hasn’t…exactly been…acting…rational.”
    Keisha leaned over the desk, examining me. “What’s wrong?”
    “Every time I—” The pain and pressure
increased and I moaned softly, squeezing my eyes shut and pointing
to my head. “Too much pressure. Can’t…tell…you. Can’t… think.”
    Grabbing my hand, Keisha snatched it away
from my head and checked my pupils. Her forehead wrinkled in a deep
frown. “You get a headache every time you try to figure this
out?”
    Headache was pure understatement. My head
was in a nutcracker and the nutcracker was in the hands of a
three-hundred-pound wrestler. I moved my head in some semblance of
a nod.
    She placed her open palm on my forehead and
closed her eyes. Her lips moved in a soft chant. The pain subsided
and the pressure eased. I laid my head down on the desk and
breathed a sigh of relief.
    “You’ve been bewitched,” she announced a
minute later.
    I popped one eye open, having closed them
while she was chanting, and looked at her. She stood, hands on
hips, still frowning. “By whom?”
    She began dragging her supplies back out of
the cabinet. “That über witch flying under the radar we thought was
after Gabriel?”
    “Yeah,” I said, not liking where this train
of thought was headed.
    “She was never after Gabriel.” She set her
cauldron on the middle of my desk and picked up her athame. “She’s
after you.”

     

Chapter Nine:
    Witch Hunt
     
    I popped my other eye open and sat up. “Eve. She’s been hanging around in cat form. I heard her meow at the fire
station right before Gabriel showed up, and she was outside in the
alley with me and Luc.”
    Without asking for permission, Keisha
grabbed my hand and pricked the end of my index finger with her
athame. I winced and tried to yank my hand back but she held it
over the cauldron to drip blood. “Eve? She’s not a witch. She’s the
mother of mankind.”
    She might be the mother of mankind, but…
“She can turn herself into a cat, Keisha. She’s certainly more than
your average human.”
    “Eve is the mother of witches, too? Whoa.” Keisha’s eyes widened momentarily as she considered the idea. I
nodded and she accepted the idea after a moment of contemplation. Then she pinched her lips together in an angry line, awe at our
discovery short lived.
    Releasing my hand, she searched her
collection of glass vials, selected one with a clear liquid in it
and added the entire contents to the caldron. “Personally, I don’t
care who she is, she messed with the wrong person this round. You’re a strong witch. You can take her. With my help,” she added
giving me her resolute African priestess face.
    “Ex-witch,” I corrected, my lips sucking at
my injured fingertip. “And I’ve never shapeshifted into a cat or
any other animal. I