“What did you tell them?” Daniella asked. She’d spent the day at the library, looking around the old maps. You’d think that they’d be lacking in accuracy, but this was mining country, and people surveyed things to the inch, because that inch could be the difference between bust and boom.
“I told them that we were working on some facial masks, and were testing various areas around Deadwood to see what might be a good fit.”
“Did they buy it?” Dee asked.
“No. Gunilla told me that while sulfur might not be so bad, pyrite was downright dangerous, and I should seriously rethink my business plan.” I still smarted at her dressing me down. I’d had to think fast about why it was we were trespassing.
Because we were.
And then I thought about how it was really fucking unfair that zombies had been up here for who knew how long, including one who’d been digging on their claim, and no one noticed. Let one of us Nightingales head up to the place, however, and it was call for the cavalry.
Yeah, I was still a little testy.
Deirdre laughed. “I can see her telling you that.”
“I don’t have to pretend to see her,” I grumped. “I can still hear her.”
“So you’re going to need to come up with a better plan.”
“You just hate getting caught with your pants down,” Daniella said.
“Don’t you?” I asked. “We do have to live here. Now I look silly for not knowing they had a pyrite claim.”
“Did you tell them you didn’t know?” Dee asked.
“No. I said that I’d read it was sulfur in this area, and that’s why I was here. Gunilla was happy to enlighten me.”
“She didn’t mean any harm,” Deirdre said. “You know that.”
“I know, I know. This is just frustrating.”
“We have to find it before DeGroat. Speaking of which,” Deirdre’s tone changed.
“What?” I asked.
“You think Zane really didn’t know his dad was here stirring up shit?”
Everyone turned to look at me.
“I do,” I said. “It’s not my tale to share, but there is a reason he and his dad are not close.”
“Outside of being a creepy necromancer?” DeAnna asked, wrinkling her nose.
“Well, there is that,” I said. “I think we have a date tonight.”
“You didn’t tell us that!” Dee got up. “That’s a good thing, Desdemona. Go out with him tonight—”
“Even if he might be the enemy,” Deirdre said.
“Shut up,” Daniella glared at Deirdre.
“And enjoy yourself,” Dee finished. She glared at Deirdre as well.
“I don’t know if I should,” I said. Zane hadn’t said anything, even though this was the third day after our first date, and I hadn’t seen much of him today, as he’d been tasked with seeing if he could track down his father.
I’d suggested earlier that Brian Earl DeGroat had gone back to the mine where we found him in Deadwood Gulch, but no one was interested in my opinion, so I’d taken myself off to the mine site where I’d been schooled by Gunilla.
“Yes, you should,” DeAnna said. “For the same reason we sent Deana back to Los Angeles. You have to keep living, even as the world is burning down around you.”
“I know,” I said. “Thank you for reminding me.” This was part of why I didn’t date. You got all soft, and mushy, and worried about things you didn’t normally worry about.
“Go,” DeAnna said.
I went up to my room, and showered. I had no idea what we were doing tonight. So I dressed a bit more casually, in black capris and a crop top. I might be over a century old, but I can still rock a crop top without too much shame.
When I came downstairs, everyone’s eyes moved up to me.
“Zane came by,” Deirdre said.
“Where is he?” I asked, looking around.
“He said he needed to cancel tonight,” Daniella said.
I didn’t look around. I didn’t want to see the pity and whatever the fuck else might be there. I turned, went to my room, and closed the door.
I was done for the day. Just done. But I couldn’t quit. Nightingales didn’t quit. Even when things completely and utterly sucked.
While part of me felt like I was going full on drama over a canceled date, the other part of me was swirling with red flags. It was like a hurricane warning inside my head. Something was up, and it was up with Zane.
It had to do with his dad. And he hadn’t told me.
Which was not good.
“Fuck this,” I said, looking at my sad face in the mirror. Who was this woman? Not Desdemona Nightingale. “No more romance,” I said.
I changed into pajamas and went back downstairs.
Everyone looked up at me again.
“Since you all are looking for where the sarcophagus might be, I’ll take the Connors family,” I said.
No one asked me anything. No one gave me any grief, pity, sympathy, or anything else.
Which was just the way I liked it.
When I finally went to bed that night, I had narrowed down the four names that I thought might either be Mariah Connors, or be related to her. Which felt good. We had too many balls in the air.
Time to take back control and put all the things that were pulling on me and on us in their proper place and get Deadwood—and our lives—back on the rails again.
Because that kind of balance was what made daily life better. And frankly, it had been too long since we’d had that balance.
Chapter Thirteen
When I woke the next morning, the sun was higher than normal in the sky. I looked at the clock and realized I’d slept in a lot later than I normally would. It was after eleven. I got a shower and went downstairs.
To my surprise, my entire family was there. Zane, thankfully, was not. Which I was glad to see. My resolve was steady, but seeing him would make it tough. I hoped he’d stay gone another day or two while I put my internal shit in order.
“What’s up?” I asked. I noticed that the mood around the kitchen was rather glum.
“Deana called. She had to leave Los Angeles, and leave our house,” DeAnna said.
“Why?” I asked, sitting down at the island.
Deirdre set a cup of tea in front of me. I smiled in thanks.
“Because that dumb ass friend of hers had to have her help, and then the vampires wanted her,” DeAnna said furiously.
“There’s something more,” Dee said. She was quieter than her mom.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“There’s something big she’s not telling us. I have no idea what it is, because having to haul ass out of town is pretty big,” Dee said. “But it’s something.”
“Where is she going?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I told her I didn’t want to know.”
“Did she tell you why she left? Who was bothering her?” Maybe it was time to call in a few favors with the vampires, and remind them that they didn’t fuck with us.
“Settle down, crazy Deadwood auntie,” Daniella said.
“That’s never going to die, is it?” DeAnna asked.
“Nope. You’re one of them now, too,” I said, grinning at her. “You know that, right?”
“It’s karma,” DeAnna said.
“Or a blessing,” Deirdre said.
We all smiled, and I felt better. This was us. Smiles out of a veritable shitstorm. While this one wasn’t roaring up on our front lawn, it was still a shitstorm.
“Does Deana know to call?” I asked.
Dee nodded. “She does. And she will.”
“All right. We need to trust that she’s a big girl, and she knows how to handle herself,” I said. “Let’s find that damn demon genie and see if we can’t track down the origin of our curse. Despite appearances, I don’t want to die. Or have anyone I love die.” I was going to be cheerful if it killed me.
But strangely, it wasn’t killing me. Faking it ‘til you
made it was making me feel better.
Good.
Fuck all the haters, I thought.
“Maybe we’re going about this all wrong,” Deirdre said.
“Which what are you talking about?” I asked.
“The ley lines. Maybe we need to activate them.”
“And we do that how?” Daniella asked.
“We’re witches. We magic. So let’s magic,” Deirdre said.
I opened my mouth and closed it. She was right. Sometimes the simplest answer was the best.
“OK, what do we need?” I asked.
“Nothing but us, and a shovel,” Deirdre said.
We all piled into her Jeep, and headed south. The Olaf Seim mine was south of us, outside of Deadwood proper. That’s where the ley lines were supposed to be.
Deirdre pulled over.
“Here?” Daniella asked.
Deirdre nodded.
“We’re awfully exposed out here,” DeAnna said as we all trooped up the hill.
“You’ll get used to it. Everyone thinks we’re weirdos. That’s why I got a lecture instead of a ticket yesterday,” I said. “It’s a good cover.”
“That’s true. I’m not used to being the weirdo,” Dee said.
I didn’t say anything, just followed Deirdre up to the top of the hill. We could see the town in the distance, and the road down below us.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Everyone clasp hands,” Deirdre said. “I had to make this up on the fly, but I think it will work. The spell is Activate Navitas. When you say it, imagine the lines glowing like fairy lights, like a pathway. Got it?” She looked around.
I nodded.
We all clasped hands, and I closed my eyes. I imagined the ley lines like small, thin gold lines that were all around. I loved the idea of fairy lights.
“Activate Navitas!” Deirdre shouted.
“Activate Navitas!” we all echoed.
There was silence, and I felt a humming, almost from someone next to me. I opened one eye, and I could see thick, greenish gray lines forming around us, pushing up the dirt and ground.
“Deirdre?” I whispered. “I think it’s working.”
These were nothing like I imagined. They were powerful, pulsing with what felt like a heartbeat. The heartbeat of the Earth. This was wild magic, old magic. It didn’t give a shit about us, or anything else.
Most magic had intent, based on who was casting it. This—this was like nothing I’d ever felt before. It rushed through me like a wave, like what being knocked down by the ocean would feel like. I’d never been to the ocean, but this is what it would feel like.
I was at the mercy of a power that I had no control over, a power that didn’t care about me, and to whom I was merely a stone on the road.
Tightening my hands around Daniella and DeAnna’s, I closed my eyes again and let it take me. There was no sense in fighting this kind of power.
When I let it have its way, it was like a bird flying high into the sky, freed from a cage. The exhilaration, the feeling of daring to go so high—wow.
I didn’t want it to stop.
“I’m here,” I murmured.
I heard someone else say something, but I didn’t know what it was, and I didn’t care. I wanted to keep moving, keep going higher. There was nothing else. Nothing else mattered.
Something grabbed at me, and I shook it off. I could not be stopped—would not be stopped.
Then I yelled as I fell to the ground, Deirdre and Dee on top of me, and my ass hurting where I’d fallen into a sitting position.
“What the hell?” I shouted.
“Des, look at yourself,” Deirdre said. “Look at your feet.”
The green gray of the ley lines pulsed beneath me, and my feet were in the ground up to my knees. That’s why I was sitting—I couldn’t stand. I’d sunk into the ground.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“What were you thinking?” Daniella asked.
“I don’t know… I was imagining the ley lines, and then I looked at them, and they were nothing like I’d thought they’d be, and then I was moving along with them,” I said.
Deirdre looked shaken, her face pale. “We can’t lose you,” she whispered.
I took her hand. “You’re not going to.”
“We almost did.”
“Well, let’s get me out of here. I’m no longer on ley line duty,” I said. I held out my hands.
Dee and Daniella were on one side, and Deirdre and DeAnna on the other. All four pulled, but they couldn’t move me. Not an inch.
“Stop!” I yelled. “I don’t want to lose a leg, or something equally valuable.”
“So what do we do?” Dee asked.
I looked down. The lines were fainter, but they were still there. “Can you still see them?”
“A little,” Deirdre said. “Not much.”
“OK, good. I’m glad it’s not just me. I’m already a little freaked out as it is,” I said. “Let me try something.” I closed my eyes. Saw the green gray lines, and felt the swoop as I flew along with them.
I have to stop, I thought. I need to be here.
I felt a pull, a protest of the wind, of the earth.
I’ll come back, I thought. But my work is here.
The pull lessened.
I need something. I need the demon spirit.
Anger, white and hot, raged through me.
I opened my eyes, and I was free.
“What did you do?” DeAnna asked.
“I don’t know, really,” I said, grabbing onto Daniella for support. I sure as hell didn’t want to fall on my face.
The green lines pulsed with flashes of white and I knew that whatever had been left at the junction pissed off the energy something fierce.
I closed my eyes, and carefully knelt down. I’ll take it, I thought. Get it away from you.
I flew backwards, right on my ass.
In my arms was an old brown bottle, like the kind they used to sell whiskey in.
“Did you see that?” Deirdre whispered.
I got up, still shaky, clutching the bottle. When Daniella reached for it, I hugged it tighter. “One more thing,” I said.
I knelt down again, and put my free hand on the line, which was growing fainter. Show me, I thought. What did you give me?
Images rushed through my head, so fast and sharp my head ached. There was a demon—I recognized the horns. Not my pain in the ass demon, but a demon. And something white and gold and floaty—and then the demon and the floaty thing tangled. Then the bottle.
I was pushed backwards again. Thank you, I thought. I got to my feet, feeling shaky. The brown bottle was still in my arms.
“We need to leave,” I said.
“Are you all right?” Deirdre asked.
“I don’t know what I am. But we need to leave. The lines are done.”
Thank the Goddess no one questioned me. Instead, they helped me get down the hill, and we piled back into Deirdre’s Jeep.
“What was that?” Daniella turned around to look at me from the passenger seat. I was in between Dee and DeAnna, still holding the bottle.
“Did you guys feel it?” I asked.
“I felt something. It was big, and powerful.”
“Nature magic,” said Deirdre.
I nodded. “I got that, too.”
“Why did it suck you into the ground?” Dee asked.
“I was with it, whatever it was,” I said. “It was like flying. Like a bird up too high.” That was totally inadequate for what I’d felt, but it was the closest I was going to get.
“What’s the bottle?” DeAnna asked.
“So I asked it what this was. It showed me something that looked like a demon, and a floating magic looking person thing, and then that was it.”
“No sarcophagus?” Deirdre asked.
“Maybe that’s just a legend,” I said. “Whatever the hell this thing is, this is real. The ley lines were pissed it was there, too.”
“Really? How could you tell?” Deirdre was trying not to turn around and stare at the bottle.
“Eyes on the road. We don’t want to die the statistical five miles from home,” I said. “And I could tell because the ley lines were pissed, like flashing white and I could feel rage.”
“That is interesting,” Dee said.
“Maybe we don’t share this on the message boards,” Daniella said with a look at Deirdre.
“Are you sure I can’t even share a little?” Deirdre asked.
“No. Whatever this is, we don’t need every supernatural in the vicinity coming to look for it.” I was firm on that.
“How can we tell what’s in it?” Dee asked. “Open it?”
“No!” Deirdre, Daniella, and I all shouted.
“Goddess, no,” I said in a normal tone. “Never open something up when you don’t know what’s in it. That’s how you blow yourself and all the shit around you sky high.”
“Worst case,” Deirdre said. “Best case, just your eyebrows.”
Which made us all laugh.
“You scared me,” Deirdre said. “I thought you were just going to sink into the ground.”
“I could have,” I said. “It was that amazing.” I knew then, if I ever decided to die, to end my life, that’s where I would go. Back to the Earth, back to the energy that circled her. But I didn’t say that out loud. I could tell the whole thing had kind of spooked everyone. It had spooked me, too. It would have been so easy to let it take me. It felt that wonderful and intoxicating.
I could never go up there again. I knew, better than most, that when something was that powerful, there was always a price. That much power would demand a high price.
“So how do we see what’s in it?” DeAnna asked.
“Witches, remember? We magic stuff,” I said, making everyone chuckle.
I’d never been so glad to see Pearl Street. The lights were on downstairs, and when we came into the kitchen, Beeval was sitting on a chair at the island.
“Where’s Evil?” I asked him, giving him a one armed hug. I was still holding the bottle.
Beeval drew back from me. “What you have in there, Desimo?” he asked.
“What?” I said.
“There,” Beeval pointed at the bottle.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Something magic? Maybe a demon?”
Hellfire Page 14