Rite of Passage I

Five pillars of fire erupted around the room.

With a sizzling sound, the monster barrier dissolved. The Drak Pack had flinched down when she'd snapped her fingers, but they still reacted fast. They reacted much faster than the humans did. Drak pounced out of the destroyed circle. He grabbed Pryce by the jaw and held him just so, keeping him from moving far.

Frankie leapt up. He landed on the girders in the roof and grabbed one of the support beams, twisting around so he was only one yank away from bringing the whole thing tumbling down. In the meantime, Howler leapt up. He pulled his lips back from his teeth and perched on all fours. He was ready to pounce on anyone who moved.

The three guards who'd come in with her and McGowan took one step forward.

Jess lifted a hand and blew them back.

'What have you done?' McGowan demanded, spinning around the face her.

Jess shrugged. 'I said you'd convinced me. I never said what you'd convinced me of.'

'You released the monsters!' McGowan insisted. 'Do you—'

'And thank you for that,' Drak said.

'Yeah!' Frankie called from above. 'We owe you for that!'

'Don't mention it,' Jess said. Then she looked back at her former teacher. 'I've told you before: witches are monsters too. You were a witch that hunted your own demographic. I label you a traitor.'

McGowan scowled. 'Countless corpses have been mutilated because of vampires!'

'And countless living people have been burnt alive, hanged, pressed to death, and what-have-you on account of witches!' Jess fired back. 'How is that better?'

McGowan jerked back. Her mouth worked for a moment, as if fishing for an answer. Jess turned and looked at Pryce. With Drak's hand around his jaw, he had gone pale in the face and he had frozen shock-still. Jess walked over. Drak yanked the man around so he was forced to face her as she said her piece to him.

'You said you protected innocent people against the things of the night that endanger them by virtue of existing,' she said. 'But witches fall under that category. Men and women alike have been tortured and mutilated while still alive because witches exist. So, technically, I fall under that category. And that's without even mentioning that witches are just as prevalent in horror stories as vampires or werewolves.'

Pryce looked like he was trying to say something.

Jess didn't give him the luxury. 'That's not even mentioning that throwing a werewolf at a house full of teenagers to force a point is not protecting anyone.'

'You saw that?' Drak asked.

'Yeah,' she said to him. 'I saw that. Who do you think drew the tramp in?'

'Witches are not monsters!' McGowan insisted.

'We do not have fangs or fur.' Jess turned back around to face her. The Seer's Shackle vibrated on her wrist. 'We do not have claws. We are not inhumanly strong. We do not feed on human blood or flesh. For all intents and purposes, we look human. But…we are still monsters.'

One of the goons lifted his rifle and aimed it at Howler. It was loaded with a silver bullet. Jess spun around and pointed at him. The magic flowed from her blood and went out her finger. It hit the man and, with a yelp of alarm, he shrank down. He was soon unseen…by almost everyone in the warehouse.

'Reow!' McGowan's cat suddenly rushed in from some other room. He leapt up the stairs and the sound of scurrying soon followed. The other men cried out in alarm, and even started shouting as the cat began his chase on the upper levels.

'She turned him into a mouse!'

'She turned him into a rat!'

'Whatever it is, she turned him into the cat's dinner!'

Frankie, the only one with a bird's eye view, started pointing and laughing.

McGowan took off, running around them. She ran up the stairs and yelled out as she tried to fire off spell after spell. Jess smirked to herself. She closed her eyes briefly and felt out the magic in the room. When she opened her eyes, she nodded to herself. She noticed Drak looking at her speculatively.

'Already stripped her powers?' he asked.

'Heard about that, did you?' Jess responded. 'Yeah, the morning after the werewolf incident. By now, she has hardly any power left.'

'I bet you she still challenges you to a duel!' Howler called from his perch.

Jess snorted in amusement. 'That's a sucker's bet.'

'Jessica Benton!' McGowan ran over to the railing.

'Yes?' she drawled.

'Turn him back this instant!'

Jess smiled and stretched her own magic out, transforming her daytime clothes into her Circe outfit.

:[

Frankie was relieved that Jess turned out to be on their side. Of course, she was right. If they were monsters, witches were too. She'd admitted to pulling that tramp in the night of the monster party…which explained why he'd just randomly wandered in. And now she'd turned a guy into a mouse, probably with full knowledge there was a cat in the vicinity.

Well, fair. The guy had tried to shoot Howler.

Then McGowan honestly expected to be able to just order her to turn him back?

Some chance!

Frankie watched in interest though. She'd been marched in here wearing regular civilian clothes. Now, those transformed into a long black floor-length dress with a black cloak thrown over the top. The cloak had a large hood that could easily cover her face. It had grey accents and a symbol emblazoned onto the back. Frankie was sure he'd seen the symbol before – it looked like a cross with two sets of arms. On each side of the upper set of arms there was a kind of horseshoe shape. There was also a horseshoe shape at the very top of the symbol.

Frankie guessed the symbol must have been the mark of Circe.

Jess – Circe now – looked directly at McGowan and said one word. 'Why?'

McGowan stared at her in utter disbelief. Then her face twisted into an ugly scowl. And Frankie knew exactly what was about to happen. He glanced at the other two guys. Howler went low to the ground. Drak's foot slid across. They weren't the only ones that knew what was about to go down either.

The Helsing Grunts were divvying up the Pack and already splitting off for their specific targets.

Frankie could see them, but Howler and Drak could hear them.

And the answer was obvious, even to a lunk-head like him.

With a yell, McGowan fired a blast of power at Jess.