Hellfire

by Lisa Manifold

  “Well, Doc did,” Daniella said.

  “Yes, he certainly did,” Granny said, sliding her eyes to glance at the ghost of Doc. “And as I’ve told you girls, I’m very grateful that he did. But now you know,” she said her manner becoming more businesslike and less emotional. “Now you know why I didn’t tell your mother much about my past, and why I lied and said that my mother had died of cholera, and I didn’t know where my father was. I didn’t want anyone to ever know that my mother, grandmother and I had all been hung as witches.”

  “I just can’t even believe that was still happening in the nineteenth century,” Deirdre said. “It doesn’t seem real.”

  “I’ll tell you, I was fairly surprised myself,” Granny said dryly. “But after that, that’s why I made sure that first I, and then your mother, all stayed on the good side of the ladies of this town. I would bet my bloomers that we were run out of that town because some woman had her eye on the doctor that my mother was friends with.”

  “Were your mom and that doctor involved?” I asked.

  A frown came across Granny’s face. “You know, for the longest time I would’ve said no. But after all that I’ve learned, I think she might have been falling in love with him.”

  “Why would you say that?” Asked Deana.

  “Because there is a curse on the Desdemona’s,” Granny said.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes. “I could’ve gone the rest of the night without bringing up the subject,” I said. Nothing would ever dim the moment when Granny told us that everyone with my name must die. It had happened right after we’d defeated Ashlar, so it had taken a bit of the shine off our win.

  “Ignoring something will make it go away,” Granny said glaring at me. “Excellent plan.”

  “Well, you certainly tried,” Deirdre said.

  I smiled gratefully at my sister. She wasn’t going to let Granny off the hook, and I appreciated it.

  But Granny was a Nightingale, and she had the same spirit and refusal to back down as the rest of us. “Yes, I did! And look where that got us! I think now, with that famous hindsight, it would’ve been better for me to be honest with your mother, so that she could be honest with you girls. And then, we might have broken this curse.”

  “What triggers the curse?” asked Dee.

  Everyone leaned in, the anticipation in the room growing to almost its own being. With all of the cleanup from our defeating Ashlar, there had been plenty of time for Granny to scoot away from answering this question. I even wondered if she told us this whole sad story to divert our attention from the curse.

  Granny sighed heavily. “The curse has nothing to do with my family, girls. I shared that so you could maybe see why I didn’t tell my sad story. No, the curse is entirely my fault. Once I knew I was expecting, I started doubling my efforts to work as a wise woman so that I could save money for after the baby was born. I was treating a woman, or rather I was treating her daughter.” She stopped, and I could tell that she was attempting to gather her thoughts, to say the words right.

  I understood that. You wanted to make sure that you said it exactly right, because you knew what you were about to say was the verbal equivalent of a bomb. I took a deep breath, bracing myself for what was coming.

  “A woman name Mariah Connors, a woman who lost her husband, she’d come to me one afternoon. Her daughter was very sick. Of course, I agreed to treat the little girl, because that’s what I did. And I felt for Mariah, because she was all alone.”

  “Why do I feel this is not going to go well?” Deana asked the room in general.

  To everyone’s surprise, Granny laughed. “Do these things ever go well? Would my history even matter if things had gone well?” She laughed some more, relieving the tension in the room. “Her daughter, Rebecca, had pneumonia. She been sick for a few days before I saw her, so it was intense. The pneumonia had a grip on the child. I visited her each day. Then Mariah came to see me one night and I wasn’t home. I’d agreed to spend time with Doc. I knew he was leaving, but I couldn’t help myself.” She smiled at Doc, but it wasn’t anything other than fond memories making her smile.

  Or at least, that’s what I hoped it was. Eww. No one needed that mental image.

  “I didn’t get home until the early hours of the morning,” Granny said. “And by that time, Rebecca had taken a very serious turn for the worse. I hadn’t been home long when Mariah was banging on my door, and she was furious with me. I went with her, but there was nothing I could do for Rebecca at that point.” Granny smile faded. “Rebecca lasted the night, but she didn’t see the dawn of the next day.”

  “I don’t see what any of this has to do with the curse,” Deirdre said.

  “I’m getting to that, if you keep your hair on,” Granny snapped. “What I didn’t know at the time, was that Mariah was a witch. Now why she couldn’t heal her own daughter, I will never know. But she was a witch, because I’ve been living with the fallout from that ever sense.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “The day after she buried her Rebecca, Mariah came to see me. She told me that she had come to me because she thought that I had skill she did not. And that’s when she told me that she was a witch. I asked her, why didn’t you save your daughter? She slapped me in the face.” Granny’s hand moved up to her face almost involuntarily I thought.

  “Mariah said that was not of my business, that she had come to me in good faith, paid me as a good customer, and that I’d had failed her. And she knew why,” Granny said. “She came closer to me then, her eyes narrowed, looking like she would breathe fire and burn me up. I have to tell you, girls, I wasn’t afraid of much at that point, but she scared me. She pointed her finger at me, and told me that because of me and my foolish choices over love, I, and every other Desdemona, would never be happy. We would always lose the ones we loved. That death would be our only constant companion.” Granny rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. “I will say that I was not kind at that point, girls. I told her that if she was a witch, she should have been able to help her daughter. And that she didn’t get to come around here and be hateful to me, and that I wanted her to leave.”

  “She looked at me then, and I could see the empty depth in her eyes. All she said was, You will regret your hubris. He will never stay with you. And then she dropped her arm, and she walked out my door. I never saw her again,” Granny said. “I assume she left Deadwood that night. After a while, I started to wonder if she even existed. If it was just a figment of my imagination, or some pregnancy fever my brain had dreamed up. And then I forgot about it,” Granny said shrugging her shoulders. “Doc left, and I knew for certain that I was pregnant. That completely absorbed me. For years, I didn’t even think of Mariah, although I always felt sad for the children I lost.”

  “What does this have to do with the curse, Granny?” Daniella asked, her impatience showing.

  “Well, I lost Doc. But I chalk that up to he was going to leave anyway and put no stock in Mariah’s words. That all changed when your mother fell in love.” Granny sighed.

  Daniella interrupted. “I’m going to assume that Burnsie wasn’t the true love?”

  Burnsie was the man I’d remembered Meema being married to. He disappeared before Granny died, although I remember it being around the same time.

  “No,” Granny shook her head. “He was not, although he was a good man. Don’t ever doubt that, girls,” she nodded at all of us. “He loved you dearly.”

  “That’s good to know,” I said, warmth flooding over me at the man who we’d grown up thinking of as our father.

  Granny nodded. “So there you have it. Mariah Connors cursed me, and when Meema had you girls—”

  “Yeah, how did you manage that, Granny?” Deirdre asked. “A multiple birth? During a time when twins killed women?”

  Granny shrugged. “I merely helped your mother. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I made sure all five of you had a fighting chance. With the medicine of the time, if it
weren’t for me, your mother would have died, and at least two of you with her.”

  “But how?” Daniella asked.

  “I don’t remember,” Granny waved a hand. “It’s been a long time.”

  “No shit,” Deirdre said.

  “No need for that,” Granny snapped.

  “So what’s the curse?” Daniella asked. “How did you know it was real?”

  “When you four were born, and your mother nearly died. I started to wonder if it was the women named Desdemona. But when Jack Fitzgerald died, I started to wonder. He died in a mining accident. He was the only one. No one else had any problems in the mine that day. Only Jack. And that’s how I knew. I’d lost John. Your mother lost Jack. If you look back, my mother lost the doctor. Not that he was worth it,” she sniffed, clearly not forgiving the man for having no spine.

  Jack Fitzgerald. We’d read that name in Granny’s diaries. I remembered that as she said his name. This must have been our father.

  Understandable about the doctor Granny had mentioned in the story about how she and her mom and grandmother had to run. He sounded like a big candy ass. “Yes, but the curse wasn’t in place then,” I said.

  “Do curses ever run straight and simple?” Granny asked, her expression bleak.

  “How do we break it?” I asked. “And is it the Desdemonas, or the people they love?”

  “I’m not sure,” Granny replied. “About any of it. I puzzled over it for years, and I can’t be sure.”

  “What?” Deirdre burst out. “You’re not sure? There’s still a Desdemona here!”

  “Two,” Dee said.

  “What?” I turned to her.

  “Mom was a Desdemona until she changed her name.”

  “Mom insisted on it,” DeAnna said. “She told me it was time to choose a name for myself.”

  “Did you lose someone you loved?” Granny asked.

  DeAnna looked away, her eyes distant, and her face more somber than I’d ever seen her. “I did.”

  “Dad?” Dee asked.

  DeAnna nodded. “It was before you were born. He never got to meet you,” she looked down.

  Dee patted her hand.

  Something inside me gave a tingle. Like the magical spidey sense. I had no idea why it would happen during this conversation, but I made a note of it.

  “Then there’s another,” Doc said.

  “Is it just the Desdemonas?” Deana asked.

  “As far as I know,” Granny said.

  “What about you, Mom?” Deana asked Dee.

  Dee and DeAnna exchanged a glance.

  That was interesting. Seemed the Nightingale branch wasn’t the only one with its secrets.

  “I didn’t lose my love. Your dad wasn’t a…” Dee stopped, and it was obvious she was searching for the words, “A permanent fixture in my life.”

  There was an awkward silence, and then Deana hooted with laughter. “I was a mistake by the lake?”

  “Never,” Dee said, her relief palpable. She’d obviously never told this to Deana before. “He might have not been the best choice, but you’re the best thing ever,” Dee continued.

  “Well, that’s a relief,” Deana said, rolling her eyes.

  I could see the relief on Dee’s face as well. She hadn’t told Deana any of this because she wasn’t sure how she’d be received. And here, with all our weird ass family, she’d spilled her beans, and it was fine.

  At least, I hoped it was fine. I watched Deana for a moment. She hugged her mom, and I couldn’t sense that she was putting on an act.

  “Well, that was quite the bedtime story,” Daniella said. “How about we leave it there, and add it to the list of things to be sorted out?”

  “What, because our list isn’t long enough?” I laughed.

  We all went to bed, and while the curse of the hedge witch, along with exactly what the curse meant, had gone on to our To Do list, we hadn’t made any progress on it.

  Mostly because the damn zombies kept popping up. They were like weeds. Poke weeds, or nettles. Stinging and annoying. The one today was the fourth one in two weeks. We’d already put three to rest, letting them finally die.

  Our not being able to move on to the hedge witch issue was due in large part to us not being able to figure out who was creating the zombies and setting them loose to shamble away. Besides, the hedge witch curse had been around for a century. It wasn’t going anywhere. Zombies were a bit more immediate.

  Shortly after that enlightening conversation with Granny, Deana had left, although I knew she didn’t want to. But her mom and grandmother were right. She needed to go.

  There was nothing here but a never-ending curse and a plague of damn zombies.

  I was going to twist the necromancer asshole in a knot when we finally found him. Or her. But it was probably a him.

  They usually were.

  Chapter Four

  The day after Zane and I found the zombie, I slept late. When I went downstairs, I found everyone talking. Granny and Doc were there.

  I’d thought Doc wanted to leave, but it didn’t appear to be that way. He’d told me he’d let me know when he was ready, and he hadn’t said anything about it since. That made me happy. I liked having him here now that we weren’t at war with him.

  Everyone was focused on Granny. I listened while I got a cup of tea.

  “That’s all well and good, Granny,” Daniella said. “But how do we stop it?”

  They were talking about the curse again. Hadn’t we covered this already? The curse was a big, fat question mark.

  “I don’t know,” Granny said. “I wish I did.”

  “What did you tell my mother?” DeAnna asked.

  “What do you mean?” Granny asked. It seemed as though she was stalling.

  “I mean, did you tell her everything that you told us? Is this why she left Deadwood?” DeAnna responded.

  The entire room got quiet.

  Granny nodded slowly. “I did. I was so worried. Burnsie, your stepfather, had just left, and I was starting to believe that the curse took our loved ones. I was worried about you girls, and Meema. I didn’t meant to, but I blurted it all out to her. She was so angry—it makes sense to me that this was why she left. The last thing she yelled at me was that now she couldn’t be with her sisters. Then she told me to go to Hell, and slammed out of the room.”

  I looked at Deirdre and Daniella. Unexpectedly, tears filled my eyes. I could tell that they were remembering the night Deana left. We’d caught her sneaking out a window. She’d looked like she wanted to cry. I remembered trying to be calm, and allow her to have free will. But also remembered that I’d wondered, after she left, if I’d asked her to stay with us, rather than wishing her well, if she would have.

  Deirdre grabbed my hand and gave me a squeeze.

  “I’m sorry she left, but if she hadn’t, we wouldn’t be here,” Dee said.

  “That’s true,” I said, smiling at all Dee and DeAnna. “You wouldn’t. And we miss Deana. We always will. But I’m glad you’re here.”

  “I hate to break up such lovely family tranquility, but we still need to figure out how to solve this,” Doc said, an edge of impatience breaking into his voice.

  “Doc,” Granny said. There was warning in her voice.

  “No, Desi, I will not be silent! There has been too much silence in this house, too much of not asking questions and insisting on answers. We have lost Little Desi,” he stopped, and looked down. But he continued, “I don’t want to see another one of the girls meet a bad end. It’s sheer luck that Desdemona returned. We cannot count on that luck.”

  I nodded. Thank Goddess Doc had moved us all back onto the right track. No one needed to be sobbing in their teacups. We had too much to do.

  The phone rang, breaking some of the tension.

  The phone rang and Dee hustled over to get it. “Deana! I’m glad to hear from you.” She listened for a moment, and then turned to me. “I think this needs you, Desdemona,” Dee said.

 
; After talking with Deana, I reluctantly gave her the name of a vampire I knew in Los Angeles. Zachary was a decent sort, for a vampire. He’d help her, or I’d take it out on him. He knew me well enough to know it. You never knew what was what with vampires. They had their own code. I found them full of pride and ego—generally a pain when it came to getting things done. But Zachary was all right. I liked him, vampire thing aside.

  A few moments later, I got a text. It was from Zachary.

  Did you send your niece to me?

  I did. Give her the help she needs. I texted back. He would understand the inherent threat, which was what I wanted.

  You owe me.

  Done. I had no problem offering a favor to help Deana. You needed all the advantages you could get with vampires. They were crafty as hell.

  That was the only good news—and that was a debatable piece of good news, because no one would deal with the vampires if they didn’t have to—we had over the next few days.

  We were making no progress on the hedge witch Mariah. It was as though when her daughter died, she disappeared from existence. Deirdre combed the message boards—there wasn’t anyone who knew of Mariah. And Deirdre was careful in how she asked. If Mariah was around, she didn’t need to know that the Nightingales were looking for her. Surest way to lose her forever.

  Meanwhile, the zombies continued to show up. Zane and I were often the ones who went and got them.

  “You know, we really need to find the source of them,” I said to Zane after we stowed another one in the basement of the shop. “It’s like a full house in there. A few more, and we’re not going to have any more room at the inn. Who could be doing this? They’re not getting anything out of it.” I kicked at a rock outside the back of the shop. “Why are they continuing to make the zombies? Also, where are they getting them?”