Chapter 7

Elena was pacing the living room of the tower the next morning. "So let me get this straight: your friend here died 2 months ago and came back as a Ghost on the wrong planet, Valentina stowed away on your ship when you saved him, she's currently regaining her strength through the blood of teenagers, and now there's some sort of mind-controlling Witch we have to deal with."

Tech nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."

"That's it. You need me."

"Yeah, we all realize you can help us fight Valentina," Sophie acknowledged, "But we also realize that you're a Meridian—the very people who have spelled nothing but trouble for us in the past. And we also realize that even if we could trust you beyond helping us fight Valentina, we have no proof that you can fight this other evil thing we're dealing with."

"She's right, sister," said Duck, "Leave this one to the professionals. You can deal with the creepy snake girl and then you can go back to knitting on your home planet."

Elena glared at him. She stormed over to him, kicked him in the gut, grabbed him by the neck with one hand and the wrists with the other, and pinned him to the floor. "I lost my home planet when Valentina decided to kill me! Now go ahead and make your jokes for now but without me, you won't be alive to make those jokes much longer, when Valentina alone comes after you, let alone this new bad guy." She let go of him.

"OK, OK, I believe you." Duck ran off.

Archer walked up to Elena. "How can we trust this girl? We barely know her! Not to mention her buddy is the whole reason we're looped into this mess."

"Mock all you want, you little bulldog," said Elena, "I'm telling you, something major is at work here."

Rev raced in. "Guys-there's-a-press-conference-today-apparently-Valentina-has-been-really-busy-with-the-murders."

"We'd better monitor this thing," said Daniella, "Maybe someone there knows something we don't."

"And maybe someone knows something they shouldn't," added Ace.

"So someone should be there to make sure neither of those is the case," said Robert.

Naturally, everyone looked at "Witch-of-disguise" Kelly.

Kelly looked at them in return. She sighed, giving in, and walked off. "I'm all over the place lately."

Later…

Kelly snuck into the press conference room when no one was looking. So no one would recognize her (or at least realize that she was too young to be a reporter), she was also disguised in a trench coat, fedora, and pair of sunglasses. She waited and listened, making sure no one was asking any questions that seemed alarm-worthy. Nothing. Finally, the last question came suspiciously to her. Clearly, she should've seen that coming (especially being a psychic). Unfortunately, she hadn't and was unprepared. Oh, well. I'll wing it. She stood up. "Kara Kingsley, Acme Press. Are you sure that these attacks couldn't possibly have been by…oh, I don't know—a shape-shifting alien?"

"Uh—" started the guy at the podium.

"An out-of-shape cobra?"

"I'm not so certain that—"

"Perhaps some freakishly deformed mutant Witch—"

"I GET IT!"

Kelly stopped.

"Could you please just sit down?"

Kelly nodded and sat back down…making the chair collapse. She looked around at everyone. "Ha, ha, I'm just gonna—" She scrambled up and raced out the door to meet the others outside. "I am so getting you back for this."

"This line of work calls for undercover stuff, sis," said Ryan.

Kelly sighed and took off the disguise. Man, it seems hotter in here than usual. "Well, no one thought anything about magic. The guy holding the conference had no comment about anything referring to magic. But the murders they were talking about were definitely at the hands/fangs of Valentina."

"Alright," said Nadine, "Now we just have to find her and wipe her out before she can do anything serious."

"No, no, wait!" Sarah said, stopping them, "That's what she wants! She wants to get us cornered so she can snap the trap and get us in her clutches and from there on out we're nothing to her but an all-you-can-eat youth buffet!"

"So what do we do?" asked Jack, "Just let her keep draining the youth from the local teen populace?"

"No, just keep her on the ropes till we find a way to stop her. Maybe Elena can even help us with that. In the meantime, we also need to start finding a way around this other bad guy that was robbing the bank while we were dealing with Valentina."

Kelly sighed. "You guys get going. I kind of have a deal to follow up on." She walked off in the opposite direction the team went. And as she walked down the hall that led out the lobby (the rest of the team took the back exit), she grabbed one of the pamphlets and started fanning herself.

A little while later…

Kelly walked up to the Ghost in the back room of the bank. "Here you go. Your wife's dying love note."

The teller smiled at her. "Thank you."

"Yeah, just doing my job." She started to leave. Then she proceeded to zap up an ice pack and stick it to her head. "Man, it's hot in here." Just after leaving the room, she opened the door enough to peak back into the room.

The Ghost read the note and smiled. After he was done, he disappeared in a blinding flash of light. He'd crossed over.

Kelly sighed. "Vampires, pain in the neck—except Austin. Ghosts, deal-able. Undead altogether…fickle." She walked off. Then her cell phone rang. She picked it up. "Hello?"

"Kelly, it's Ryan. You've gotta meet me and Sarah at the old karaoke restaurant. We think that Witch-Siren-whatever might be going there and we wanna scope the place."

"On my way." Kelly hung up. After she'd hung up she got an idea: her phone had a fan app. She quickly turned it on and let it let loose a breeze of cool air. "Oh, that feels good!" She walked off…not even noticing the ice pack she'd zapped up melting and then burning in her grip.

Later…

Kelly, Ryan, and Sarah stood in a line to get into the aforementioned karaoke restaurant.

"So let me get this straight," said Sarah, "This 'Witch-Siren-whatever' has a power almost exactly like mine and she's using it and her magic to take over the world?"

"That's how we're reading it," said Kelly.

"Man, some people can be so evil."

"Don't worry, Sare, I'm sure it won't happen to you," said Ryan.

"RYAN!" both sisters snapped.

"Oh, that's not where you were going with that!"

Kelly sighed. "Let's just get in there and scope the place so we can leave."

Ryan nodded. "Right." He started to lead their trio into the building but they were stopped by a bouncer.

"You on the list?" asked the bouncer.

"There's a list?" Ryan asked.

8 seconds later…

All 3 coyote teens were thrown into a pile of trash in the back alley.

Sarah sat up on the ground. "That could've gone better."

Ryan sat up, too. "Since when is there a list?"

Kelly sat up last. "I know! Like 2 years ago, there's was barely 18 people coming to this place in one night! When did they get so exclusive?"

Ryan led his sister's to the end of the alley to peak around the corner and find a way to sneak in. All this got him was even more upset. "What—he let those 3 in without saying anything!"

Sarah blinked. "Ryan, that guy was on 10 movies, that girl's on Broadway, and she has 3 bestselling records."

"So?" Ryan cried, "We've saved the world like 13 times!"

"No one knows that was us!" Kelly responded.

"What's your point?"

Kelly sighed. "Look, obviously, they're only concerned with letting in celebrities. So we've gotta pull a major incognito…"

A few minutes later…

Kelly walked into the restaurant in a strawberry blonde wig, brown sunglasses, and a faux fur coat.

The host walked up to her. "Welcome to—"

"2 steps back!" Ryan snapped. The host complied.

Kelly looked at everyone staring at her and spoke in an obviously fake voice: "Please. Stop looking at me! Why can't I just…" She flipped her wig. "…blend in?"

The host looked at her. "Might I ask who you are?"

Kelly scoffed. "How do you not know…" She flipped the wig again. "…me?" She looked at Ryan. "Papi, tell him who I be."

Ryan looked at her through his sunglasses. "Me?"

Kelly glared at him affirmatively.

Ryan panicked. "Uh…that's…she's…" He saw a tray of Italian food go by. His mind instantly blanked to that. He hadn't eaten in 5 hours. "That's Liz Onya!"

His sisters both glared at him.

The host, however, bought it. "Oh. Right this way, Miss…uh…Onya."

As they walked to their table, Kelly glared harder at her brother. "'Liz Onya'?" she hissed.

"Hey, you were almost about to be Pork Choppa!" he snapped back.

Sarah sighed and sat down. She started looking around at the women that were there. "Brown hair…brunette…redhead…brown hair…blonde!" She hit a button on the side of her sunglasses and it zoomed in on the blonde. "Brown eyes. Nuts!" She kept looking.

Kelly, sitting next to her, started to take off the coat.

Ryan stopped her. "You'll blow your cover!"

"Sorry, it's just really hot in here."

Sarah looked at her. She hit another button on her sunglasses and a thermometer measure of the temperature appeared on the lenses. "It's 62 degrees in here and we're underneath an air vent and a ceiling fan. How on earth can you be hot?"

Ryan looked at her. "Kelly…"

Kelly looked at him and instantly looked away.

"That hex you broke from me last night…"

"Ryan…"

"You didn't break it, you took it on yourself!"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I was just trying to protect you! I didn't mean to—I didn't wanna—"

"Kelly, by now it's too late to break the hex!"

"Unless we can kill the caster! If we can corner that little hobgoblin—"

"Say what?" Ryan and Sarah both said.

"Danni says it's the worst insult you can give a person."

"Well, I guess that would apply here," said Sarah, "No one messes with my family." She kept looking around for their culprit, now even more intent on finding her.

That's when a waiter walked up to Kelly. "Excuse me, would you mind going on next?"

Kelly looked at him. "Say what?"

"Everyone who comes in here has to sing."

Kelly was now panicking. "O-OK." She walked off.

Sarah looked at Ryan once she was out of earshot. "Let's get out of here before this train wrecks. We saw what happened with the veg-heads, let's not repeat that at double temperature." She walked off in the opposite direction, Ryan going the other way. But on her way out, Sarah stopped. She'd caught sight on someone who fit the description of their culprit, sitting alone at a table. She looked closer with the sunglasses. "Blonde hair…blue eyes…" She took off her sunglasses and stuck them in her pocket. She walked over to the woman. "Excuse me. Could I talk to you for a second?"

"Actually, I have to go." The woman grabbed her bag and walked off.

Sarah stared after her suspiciously. She inconspicuously held up a hand. "Sorrow of mind, heart, and soul, show me now what guilt you hold." She discreetly zapped the woman. She was instantly shown images of the 3 men the woman had just recently killed. Sarah half-smiled. She had their culprit. And she now had a name. "Esmeralda, eh?" She held up her hand and hit a button on her watch, activating a COMM link. "Guys, I found her. I'm following her right now." She turned off her watch without waiting for a reply and started following the woman she now knew to be Esmeralda.

Meanwhile, Kelly was on the stage. She had no choice but to go through with this. She looked around. Ryan and Sarah had already left. That made her feel a little better. It would be even better if the hot stage lights weren't so…well, hot. Still she pulled herself together and started up the first song that jumped to mind: "Can't Walk Away" by Anica. " I'll stand my ground, for right now, but I just know that I can't win, I don't know the rules to this game but, I hear the wind calling out my name and I just can't resist, 'cause I know it's worth a try, can't let myself fall without a fight, but I can only see behind my back, never willing to let go of the past, the road in front of me threatens change, but I can't stop the world from spinning, oh-oh… The drizzle that I'm used to, turned into pouring rain, nothing's gonna ever be the same, the blankets that kept me warm were torn, from under my hands, I'm facing the storm instead, but I know it's worth a try, won't let myself fall without a fight, but I can only see behind my back, never willing to let go of the past, the road in front of me threatens change, but I can't stop the world from spinning, can't walk away, I can't walk away, I can't walk away, oh-whoa-oh-oh… Oh-oh… " When finally the song ended, she jumped off the stage and ran off at full speed. Once she had left, she noticed that her watch was beeping at a really low volume that only Lexi's super ears or hers or Austin's Vampire ears could pick up. She hit the button to play the COMM message.

Out back, Sarah was watching from the shadows as Esmeralda walked into the alley. Esmeralda kept walking until she reached the center of the alley. Suddenly, she stopped and weakly grabbed her stomach. That's when 5 young men came into the alley. Esmeralda smiled. "Hey, boys."

One of them looked at her oddly. "Yo."

Sarah saw what was coming. "So that I don't fall under her spell, let my ears hear nothing she tells." She zapped herself. She listened to the rest of the conversation.

"No, we're just gonna…" said the boy. He led his boys towards the door of the building on the other end of the alley. That's when Esmeralda started to sing.

Sarah couldn't hear it. She sighed with relief. Then she watched the rest of it.

She could see Esmeralda singing and the boys instantly began to walk towards her. That's when one of them got close enough to her that she could touch him. She put her hands on him…and then quickly reached into her bag and pulled out a dagger, which she quickly thrust into his heart. When he collapsed, she leaned over him and pressed her hands against his chest, a white mist of energy flowing from him into her. She went for another boy. She plunged the dagger into his abdomen and thrust it upwards until he bled out, producing the same light show. She went over to the next boy and, in one swift motion, snapped his neck and took his soul. She threw him into the next boy hard enough to knock that boy against a brick wall, giving him enough head trauma to die when she simply held her foot against his throat. That only left one boy left for her. She smiled at him. "You know, in this light, you're kind of cute." She grabbed him and pinned him to the wall. She kissed him. Hard. As she did so, she clutched his chest with all her might, squeezing as hard as she could. Once she'd had enough, she grabbed him by the throat and let his soul flow into her. She thrust the heel of her hand up against his dead throat and the body lit up in flames, making her let go. It was ashes before it hit the ground. She smiled and held up a sparking hand. "8 down, 92 to go."

"Hey!"

Esmeralda whirled around to see Sarah there, already having traded her disguise for her black and blue Loonakids uniform.

"I hear you're in the murder business. I'll bid 5000 bucks for a wanted convict."

"Going once, twice—" She ran at Sarah and kicked her in the gut, hard enough to knock her back into a pile of trash cans. "Not interested!"

Sarah got up. "Would you believe that's the second time someone's thrown me into a pile of trash tonight?"

Esmeralda just moved to kick her again. She screamed her off. Esmeralda regained herself quickly and started at her. The 2 were quickly fighting. Finally, Esmeralda grabbed her by the wrists and kneed her in the gut, knocking her to the ground out of breath. Esmeralda whipped out her dagger and moved to strike it through her heart. Sarah, thinking quickly, held out her hand and zapped the dagger across the alley.

Esmeralda smirked at her. "Clever little Witch. Too bad I'm too strong for you." She held out her hand to make the dagger come back to her…and all that happened was that the blade twitched. She started pulling with her power. She'd exhausted it fighting Sarah. She groaned and gave up. "You win this round. But after about 15 more souls, my powers won't fade so quickly. And another 25 after that, they won't be fading at all. And after I've rounded the full 100, oh…you'll be sorry. All of you." She ran across the alley to grab her dagger and raced off, disappearing before Sarah could even get off the ground.

A couple minutes later, when Sarah finally regained herself enough from the beating to stand up, Kelly and Ryan raced up to her in uniform and the rest of the gang found the alley. Sarah glared at them all as she regained her breath. "Nice timing."