Of Breath & Soul (Ward Witches Book 2)

The Vodun Witches want her dead, and they will do anything to see it happen—even resort to killing those she loves.

When Piper agreed to help Tristan and his tribe of dragons regain their magic, she never considered the target she'd be placing on her back. After a spooky warning, and barely surviving an attack, she quickly realizes the Vodun Witches mean business.

Lives will be lost, morals will be tested, and an alliance with a powerful witch will prove to be essential in this pulse-pounding continuation of Piper’s story.

I couldn’t stop staring, and I didn’t know why. It wasn’t as though death hadn’t touched my life before. I wondered if it was because I’d never seen it on this magnitude. My eyes shifted from one black lump to the next as I counted the dead birds on my porch.

Thirteen.

The number meant something. I knew it did. I just couldn’t remember what.

“Thirteen,” I whispered, knowing there was a bad omen attached with the number as well as  with the birds themselves.

“What?” Reese’s voice startled me. I’d forgotten I was on the phone with her. My mind felt numb and my body not my own as I stared at the bizarre scene before me. I imagined this was what it felt like to have an out of body experience. “Thirteen birds?” The shrillness to her voice put me even more on edge.

“Yeah.” I swallowed hard, bracing myself for whatever she was about to tell me. I knew it wouldn’t be good.

“I don’t think you should be there any more, Piper,” she insisted. “Tell Paxton to get you out of there. Go to his place. Come here. Go back to Anna’s. I don’t care. Just get the hell out of there. Now!”

“Why?” It was a dumb question. I knew something wasn’t right. All I had to do to verify was look at the thirteen dead birds on my porch; it wasn’t as though it was a natural occurrence.

Even so, I couldn’t get my feet to move. I was frozen, staring at the grotesque scene and unable to look away. It was worse than looking at a car wreck, because I knew there was something inhuman behind the entire thing. It wasn’t an accident or a random fluke. This was something magical, something sinister.

“Reese is right.” Paxton grabbed my arm and tugged me through my front door. “We should go.” The second we stepped onto my porch, the birds caught fire and charred to ashes before us.

“Stay away…or else…” The whispered words floated across the night sky, traveling on a gust of chilly wind that seemed to swallow the ashes whole. While the words didn’t seem original when it came to communicating threats, the impact behind them did. My skin prickled with magic unlike anything I’d ever felt before. It was foreign and powerful. Ancient in a way I’d never known.

Paxton shifted to take a protective stance in front of me. His body shielding me from the remaining ashes lingering in the air. “This can’t be good.”

“What the hell was that?” Reese demanded. I couldn’t speak. Seeing the birds burst into flames and turn into ashes had been one thing, but hearing creepy voices telling me to stay away was something altogether different. “Piper, are you okay? Piper? You there?”

“Yeah. I’m still here. I just—”

Paxton took the phone from me. “I’m taking her to my place. Something isn’t right here,” he told Reese as he motioned for me to move toward his house. “Yeah. I will. Let me get off here and call Jasper. Okay. Yeah. Bye.”

I matched his pace as we crossed the street, my eyes darting from left to right as I searched for anything hiding in the shadows. Another gust of wind slipped along my skin, chilling me to the bone and causing fear to uncoil in my gut. I waited for more whispered threats, but nothing came. Whoever they were, they’d said what they wanted the first time, and it didn’t seem as though they were into repeating themselves.

“Reese is going to call her grandmother and see what she can make of the situation.” Paxton wasn’t looking at me as he spoke. He was staring at my cell screen, his thumb seeming to be scrolling at random. I knew he was searching for Jasper’s number though. “I’m calling Jasper to let him know what happened and where you are.” He pressed my phone to his ear.

“Okay.” I didn’t argue. All I wanted to do was get inside his house and out of the dark. Wrapping my arms around my middle, I picked up my pace.

The sound of my brother’s voice filtered from the phone to my ears, but I couldn’t make out his words. Knowing him, it was probably a smartass greeting.

“Um, it’s Paxton, but she’s all right,” Paxton replied, making me wonder how Jasper had answered his phone. Did he know something had happened? Had something happened to him too? “Yeah. I promise. No. I’m taking her to my place. Okay. No problem. I’ll let her know.” He hung up without passing me the phone. It was probably for the best. I was sure my tone would freak Jasper out even more than he already was. “He’s headed this way. Apparently, you weren’t the only one given dead birds as presents tonight.”

I slipped between the hedges at the front of his house and started toward the carport. “Jasper was too?”

“Yeah. Thirteen of them, just like you.”

“Is he okay? Where was he?” An image of him driving down the street while birds started pelting his truck flashed through my mind. Panic squeezed my lungs as another image of him crashing surfaced behind it. I forced myself to remember Paxton had just talked to him. Nothing had happened like that. And if it had, Jasper was fine.

“He’s fine. He was still at Anna’s when it happened. He said he’s leaving there and coming to pick you up from my place.”

“At least he wasn’t in his truck driving when it happened,” I said, unable to let go of the horrific thought fully.

“Yeah.” Paxton opened the side door and let us into his house. The smell of popcorn hung in the air. Laughter streamed from the living room, along with sounds from their TV.

His parents were home tonight, watching a movie it seemed. Such a normal thing to do. Nothing at all like what my night had been compiled of.

My body grew tense as I stepped farther into the house. I was too on edge to be surrounded by the loudness of their movie. Paxton must have sensed my tension, because he headed straight toward the living room. I hung back, trying to compose myself before I had to be in the presence of his parents. While I liked Mr. and Mrs. Carver, their happy-go-lucky energy wasn’t something I tolerated well even on my good days.

The movie was put on pause as murmurings from Paxton floated to my ears, but I couldn’t make out what he was telling them. I knew though. I didn’t have to hear him utter the words to know he was relaying what happened with the birds.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Mrs. Carver said as she came into the kitchen. She pulled me into a hug and kissed the top of my head. It was motherly and warm, causing the threat of tears to pinch at the back of my throat. I didn’t realize how frazzled I was until someone’s arms wrapped around me. My bottom lip trembled, and I fought against the urge to cry harder.

When I pulled out of her embrace, I steeled my back and sucked in a deep breath. Crying wasn’t something I did in front of people. Ever. And I wasn’t about to start now, even though this was the craziest night I’d ever had.

“Who do you think sent you the warning?” Mr. Carver asked. He didn’t screw around wasting time panicking over a situation; he broke it down, searching for an answer or a solution as quickly as possible. I’d always enjoyed this quality about him.

I opened my mouth to tell him I wasn’t sure, but the answer hit me before I could. The warning was to stay away from the Vodun. It was that simple.

My gaze drifted to Paxton. “You said Jasper had the same thing happen to him. Did he mention anything about Liam?” My mind raced. I wanted to know if the birds had been a warning to us all—including Tristan and the others—or if it was solely for Jasper and me.

“He didn’t say.”

I searched my pockets for my cell before remembering Paxton had it. “Can I have my phone?”

Once Paxton handed it over, I sent a text to Tristan, asking if anything strange had happened to him in the last hour.

“What are you thinking?” Paxton asked when I didn’t voice my thoughts.

“That this was a warning from the Vodun.”

“You’re probably right.” His eyes had shifted to stare at something behind me.

I followed his gaze. There was just enough light from the streetlamp at the edge of their driveway to make out a black bird perched on a low hanging branch, staring into the house through a window at me.

The Vodun witches were watching me, and they were using creepy birds as their eyes.

My cell chimed with an incoming text, startling me. It was from Tristan.

No. Why? Is everything okay?

My eyes drifted back to the bird, and I knew I was right. The Vodun had threatened Jasper and me.

“Tristan didn’t have anything strange happen to him tonight,” I informed Paxton. My eyes narrowed on the bird as I spoke. It hadn’t moved. Even as the wind blew the branch it was perched on, causing it to sway, the bird didn’t seem to blink. It was almost as though it wasn’t real. “Only Jasper and me.”

“You need to be careful,” Mr. Carver said. “If I remember correctly, the Vodun aren’t the type of witches a person should mess with. They’re powerful and vengeful with magic unlike anything else in the supernatural world.”

He was telling me something I knew already.

I ripped my eyes from the creepy bird and sent Tristan a reply.

I’m okay. Just had a warning delivered in the form of some dead birds to my place.

From the Vodun?

Yeah.

Call me.

I will in a bit.

I pocketed my cell as headlights turned into the driveway. I hoped it was my brother, but I couldn’t be sure with the way my night was going. The engine cut off and the sound of a door slamming shut filtered into the house. I felt my heart thump hard against my chest while I waited for whoever it was to come to the door.

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