Curse of Night

by Emily Goodwin

  “Okay.” She closes her eyes and starts counting. “One, two, three…”

  Lucas grabs my hand, and we hurry through the doors leading to the other part of the hospital. The lights are dimmed in the lobby, which is closed after nine p.m.

  “Do you know where room 307 is?” Lucas asks.

  “I do, actually. It’s on the third floor and is away from the nurses’ station. I’ve interviewed a few people post-demon attack,” I explain. “It’s way past visiting hours. Be ready to hold anyone spellbound.”

  We briskly walk through the lobby and get into an elevator without seeing anyone. There are still people moving about the hospital, of course, and I think we could slip past undetected for the most part.

  The elevator dings at the third floor, and we get out and step to the side, taking a few seconds to look around. A nurse’s aide comes out of a room, carrying an empty cup. She heads down the hall to the ice machine, and Lucas and I hurry past, going into room 307. The TV is on, and the curtain dividing the two beds is pulled back.

  “They’re so young,” I whisper, taken aback when I see two girls who don’t look much older than twenty lying in the beds. Lucas silently closes the door, and I conjure a string of magic so I can look around the room.

  “Carly,” I read, peering over one of the girls’ beds so I can read her hospital bracelet. Her date of birth is listed on there as well, and it takes me a few seconds to do the mental math to figure out that she’s only nineteen.

  “This one is Maria,” Lucas says softly.

  “How old is she?”

  “Eighteen.”

  “They’re just kids.” Why has Ruth recruited teenagers to do her dirty work?

  “Do you recognize them from your coven?”

  “No, and Carly’s last name isn’t familiar, though she could be from another coven in a nearby area.” I quietly move around the bed and stand in the middle of the room, holding my hands up. I cast a circle, soundproofing our little area. “Okay. I’m going to wake her up. I kind of feel bad, though.”

  “They sent a hex that almost killed Betty,” Lucas reminds me, and now I want to poke my finger hard into Carly’s shoulder. I put my hand on her arm, careful not to touch the IV lines, and give her a gentle shake.

  “Carly,” I say softly. “Carly.”

  The girl’s eyes flutter open, and she looks at me calmly, assuming I’m a nurse. And then she sees the string of magic floating above my fingers.

  “It’s okay,” I rush out. “I just want to ask you some questions.”

  Carly turns, looking at Maria, who’s still asleep. And then she notices Lucas.

  “Who are you? Did sh-she send you?”

  “Did who send me?” I counter and notice the girl looks terrified.

  “I…I…” She shakes her head, and Lucas speeds forward, leaning over the bed.

  “What are you doing?” I ask. “You can’t hold witches—”

  “She’s not a witch,” Lucas says, able to smell, or in this case not smell, the magic in her. He has the girl held spellbound right away. “Who are you?”

  “Carly,” she replies.

  “Did you create a hex bag and send it to the store Novel Grounds?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “To get back at someone,” Carly answers. She knows what she’s saying somewhere deep in the back of her mind but can’t help but answer Lucas’s questions.

  “Who did you want to hurt?”

  “I don’t know her name. Only that she’s a bad person.”

  “Hmm.” Lucas nods and turns to look at me. “If she’s not a witch, how did she perform spells?”

  I slowly shake my head. “I don’t—holy shit.” My eyes widen, and I let out a shocked breath. “She used a conduit, that slimy bitch. It’s basically a funnel for her powers, protecting her from a return-to-sender spell. It would hit them instead of her.” The string of magic glows red with my anger.

  I can say these girls were stupid for teaming up with Ruth, but bottom line is she used them. And I’m willing to bet they had no idea.

  I step closer, gripping the bedrail and wrestling to keep my anger in check. “Who is the ‘she’ you referred to earlier?”

  “Answer her,” Lucas says.

  “Ruth.”

  “Why would you help her?”

  Tears slowly fill Carly’s eyes, but she’s compelled to keep looking Lucas in the eyes. “She said she would get us powers. Real powers. She said she could make us witches.”

  “You can’t be made into witches,” I start.

  “She said he would give us powers. But we had to find him first.”

  “Who?” Lucas asks, but I already know.

  Lucifer.

  “The Dark Lord,” Carly goes on. “She said he would reward us like he’s rewarded others.”

  And that’s why Ruth isn’t attacking me. She doesn’t actually want me dead. She wants to break me down to the point of submitting to her because she still thinks I’m in cahoots with the devil.

  She’s batshit crazy and power hungry.

  “Do you know where Ruth is now?” Lucas asks.

  Carly shakes her head. “No. She moves around a lot. She’s paranoid someone is watching her.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “Three days ago, when we made the hex bag.”

  “And where where you?”

  “A cabin in the woods,” Carly answers. “By the lake.”

  “Lake Michigan?” I ask.

  “Yes. We could hear the water from inside.”

  That narrows it down to a few thousand cabins. I let out another sigh.

  “Where is your phone?” Lucas asks her, and Carly points to a clear plastic bag on the little table at the foot of her bed. Lucas gets it and holds it up to her face to use the facial recognition.

  “You humans really need to learn the dangers of technology,” he notes and looks at me. “Her location services were turned on. She visited this address thirteen times in the last week.” Lucas takes his own phone from his pocket and takes a photo of the screen. “It’s near the lake.”

  “Perfect,” I say with a smile, heart speeding up in my chest. “How did you get involved with Ruth?” I ask, shifting my attention back to Carly.

  “She found us.”

  “Elaborate,” Lucas commands.

  “Maria and I have been friends for a long time. We’re both fascinated with the paranormal and tried doing magic before. We were at a new-age store in Paradise Valley, and she came up to us, offered to teach us real magic.”

  “And you just took the candy and got into the windowless white van,” I mumble. “She lied to you, I’m sorry, and she used you.”

  Carly shakes her head. “She promised us magic, the way it used to be in the old days.”

  “You mean Satanism? That’s not real magic,” I say bluntly. “You’re being lent power that isn’t yours, and it always comes with a price. Always.” I look at Lucas. “I think we got all the info we need.”

  “You’re going to go back to sleep,” Lucas tells Carly. “You won’t remember any of this. We were never here. We never talked to you.”

  “None of this happened,” Carly echoes, staring at Lucas, unblinking.

  “Now lie down and close your eyes.”

  “Okay.” Carly slowly lowers herself onto the mattress and closes her eyes. We wait a beat and then turn to leave. I break the soundproof circle, and we get to the elevator without anyone questioning us.

  “Her roommate, Maria, was asleep the whole time, right?” I ask as the elevator doors shut.

  “Yes. I could hear her heart beating. It would have sped up if she awoke and listened to us, pretending to be asleep,” Lucas assures me. We ride down the three stories in silence and get scolded by a security guard for staying past visiting hours on our way out.

  “You know what’s almost funny?” I grab Lucas’s hand. “Ruth knows my powers exceed a normal witch’s. And she’s righ
t. They do far exceed normal witches. And she thinks I’m on team Lucifer, and I kind of am, just not in the sense she thinks.”

  “Will he grant powers like Carly said?” Lucas asks.

  “Yes, but it’s temporary and always comes at a high price. That’s his thing. There’s no give without take, which is why Satanism was outlawed by the Grand Coven. It’s too dangerous, as one of the things he likes to barter with is your soul.”

  “Your soul in exchange for the power of magic.” Lucas opens the car door for me. “I can see how tempting that could be.”

  “Me, too,” I admit. “And he comes to those in their weakest moments.” I close my eyes and shake my head, letting out a snort of laughter. “That’s what he does, and I’m so stupid for thinking—”

  I stop short, regretting my words.

  “For thinking what?”

  “For thinking us being family meant something to him. But I can’t forget who he is. He’s Lucifer. The devil. The Dark Lord or whatever other grim name you want to call him. He doesn’t hand out favors out of the kindness of his heart.”

  I get in the car and pull the seatbelt over my chest. Maybe this was the reminder I needed, because even now I’m wishing I could talk to Lucifer and work something out. He’s all about punishing those who did wrong and seems rather interested in punishing those who did me wrong…with me right there along with him.

  I plug the cabin’s address in the GPS. It’s twenty minutes away and is near where the Ley line reaches the lake. I mess with the radio on the way there, trying to find a song that suits my mood. We park down the road in front of another house and slip into the woods. Lucas moves without a sound, and I’m pretty darn impressed with my own sneaking.

  “This is it,” Lucas whispers. “Stay back while I check it out.”

  “No,” I counter. “I’m coming with.”

  “You’re safer here.”

  “Hanging back?” My eyebrows go up. “I’m the one with the magic, remember?”

  “Fine,” Lucas grumbles. We stop at the clearing, coming up to the cabin from the back. There are no lights on, and everything is perfectly quiet.

  We carefully move onto the back patio and wait a beat. Lucas doesn’t hear anything inside the cabin, so I use magic to unlock the door. The cabin is small and is something that would be rented out for a weekend trip. Lucas goes in first and inhales.

  “Her scent is weak,” he tells me.

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means she was here but isn’t anymore.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “She could be masking her scent somehow.”

  I hold out my hand. “There’s one way to find out.” I conjure a bright white ball of energy. “Hey, dipshit, I’m here! Come get me!”

  “Subtle.”

  “It’s my specialty.” I toss the energy ball up, illuminating the cabin. Nothing moves. Nothing scurries, and Lucas can’t hear anyone’s heart beating besides mine.

  “How long ago do you think she was here?” I slowly walk through the kitchen, looking at the clean dishes set on the counter to dry.

  “A day or so. If she was paranoid and moved around a lot, then she would have left this place once the return-to-sender spell hit.”

  “Yeah,” I agree. “I think so, too. Maybe she left something behind. Personal items make it easier to scry for someone.”

  “Let’s look.”

  We start in the kitchen and find nothing. The fridge and cupboards still have food in them, furthering our theory that she left here in a hurry. There are various occult books in the living room, all which came from a modern publisher. None of the spells in them are real.

  There are two small bedrooms in this cabin, and one is set up with two beds that have been slept in. A big suitcase is on the floor between them, and Lucas picks up a shirt inside.

  “It’s Carly’s,” he tells me. “They were staying here.”

  The other room is empty, and Ruth’s scent lingers weakly in the air. She’s gone, and she’s left nothing of hers behind.

  “Ugh!” I throw my head back in frustration. “We were so close!”

  The energy ball above me starts to splinter apart, and little tendrils of red magic swirl down to the floor. “We finally get a lead and she’s one step ahead. She was literally right here!” I sweep my hand out at the cabin. “I almost had her, but she slipped through my grasp like water.”

  “We will find her,” Lucas says calmly, believing it. “She’s going to be desperate, now more than ever, and desperate people make mistakes.”

  “You think she’s going to attack?”

  “I know she will.” Lucas takes my hands in his and pulls me to him, kissing me gently and calming my pounding heart. “Her puppets are out of commission for a while at least. She’ll either find news ones or wait until the previous are well enough to act on her behalf again. We might have another day or two to prepare for a battle.”

  “You’re right, and as much as I want to be mad at Carly and Maria, I don’t think they knew what they got themselves into. They’re just regular kids, and they’re probably in danger.” I toss my head back. “Dammit.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “They are in danger. They’ve been exposed. Ruth is smart enough to use a conduit spell, so she’s smart enough to know the second Maria and Carly were hospitalized, someone from the coven could recognize their symptoms were from a spell. Several people from our coven work at the hospital, and they…they…should be alerted,” I say slowly. “I need to tell Evander right away. Those girls need protection ASAP.”

  “You want to protect the girls who sent a hex bag to your store?”

  “Yes.” I let out a breath and step back, taking Lucas’s hand so we can leave the cabin. “I don’t think they really knew what they were doing, and if they honestly believed they were seeking vengeance on a ‘bad witch,’ then they probably thought they were doing the right thing. Bottom line is they were taken advantage of and now they know too much. Just having an idea of how to actually summon something dark is dangerous for people without magic. They have no way of protecting themselves.”

  “Call Evander, then.” We go out onto the back patio, and Lucas sniffs the air. “I’m going to sweep through the woods. Stay here.”

  “Okay,” I say. “Do you have your phone on you? I left mine in the car.”

  He gives me his phone and takes off. I call Evander while I wait, and the call goes straight to voicemail as I assumed it would. Kristy’s does, too, making me wonder if she’s at the Academy again. I don’t know anyone else’s numbers off the top of my head, so I lower the phone and look around. If Ruth was performing dark magic here, there should be traces of it.

  Narrowing my eyes, I spot a shed about a hundred yards away from the house. I conjure a string of blue magic and walk through the yard, wet grass tickling my legs. The door is locked and sealed with magic.

  I toss the string of magic up above me, where it hangs in the air sparkling down on me, and put both hands up.

  “Patentibus,” I say, magically unlocking the metal lock. I hear it click, and then I try the handle, opening the door an inch before hitting a wall of energy. I take a step back, hold up my hands, and telekinetically shove the energy back.

  It works, and the door swings open with such force it breaks clean off the hinges.

  “Oops.” I hang back a second and then swish my wrist, bringing my string of magic inside the shed. The smell hits me right as the light shines down on severed body parts. I bring my hand to my face, covering my nose.

  There are jars of various herbs lining the shelves, along with other magical supplies. Holding my breath, I inch inside even more. This place was sealed with magic and got zero airflow. It’s ripe as fuck, and I don’t know how much more I can stomach before throwing up.

  “Fuck,” I mutter and bring my shirt up, hoping it’ll do a better job than my hand over my nose. Breathing through my mouth, I go over to a shelf that once held garde
ning tools. Ruth knew enough to take her personal items so I couldn’t use them to locate her, but she left in enough of a rush to leave most—if not all—of her magical supplies.

  “It’s me,” Lucas says, stepping into the shed so I don’t get startled.

  “Did you find anything in the woods?” I ask, gagging as I inhale the air.

  “Nothing, but it looks like you hit the jackpot…if you can call it that.”

  “My eyes are burning.”

  Lucas picks up a jar. “This is human blood.” He unscrews the lid and smells it. “It’s Maria’s.” There’s a second jar of blood behind that one full of Carly’s blood.

  “Fuck.” I shake my head and increase the size of the magic above us, lighting up the room better. I need to speed up the search and get out of here. My stomach clenches, and I know I have to get some air before I throw up.

  “I need air,” I tell Lucas and hurry out, holding my breath until I’m a good twenty feet away from the shed. I double over, trying hard to keep my food in my stomach.

  “Are you okay?” Lucas asks, appearing by my side.

  “Yeah. It’s just that smell.” I shake my head, gagging again. “I’m not usually that bothered by it.”

  “The shed is full of body parts. If I were human, I’d gag, too.” He puts his hand on my back. “I saw a tarp in there. I can cover the bodies. It’ll help a little.”

  “No, I should look at see what parts she’s used.” I wrinkle my nose. “It might clue us in on what she’s up to now.”

  Lucas looks at the house. “Hang on. I’ll be right back.” He kisses me and speeds into the house, returning a minute later with a torn piece of cloth.

  “What is that?” I ask.

  “A bit of a take on the old plague masks.”

  “The creepy bird things?” I cock an eyebrow.

  “They didn’t actually look like they do in pop culture, you know. And the beaks were stuffed with herbs the doctors thought would keep them from catching the disease as well as cover up the smell of their sick patients.” He smooths out the piece of cloth. “I put rosemary in it. I don’t know what you find to be a good scent, but this sounded like a better option than onion powder or garlic.”

  I take the folded-over cloth from him and smile. “You’re so thoughtful. And yes, rosemary is a good idea.” I tied it around my face and go back into the shed.