Bone Lantern Witch

by Kat Simons

  “No,” Angie said. She didn’t have a hunter’s will, but she had a strong will nonetheless. One strong enough to command and control her own magic. And that was no little thing. She strengthened her protective circle and met the demon’s gaze with the force of her own will as Sebastian continued to chant.

  The mist swirling around the demon darkened, turning blacker around the edges of the red, and thickened into an almost solid mass.

  Sebastian’s voice rose, and he raised his hands revealing a knife Angie hadn’t seen earlier. His or Carmen’s? He slashed a pattern in the air with the knife, a glow following the movements, almost as if the knife were on fire. The glow wasn’t enough for her to discern the pattern so she’d have to ask him afterward what he’d drawn. But whatever it was, it had the desired effect on the demon.

  The demon rolled the ghostly illusion of the bone lantern in its clawed hand, and the lantern vanished like smoke. It snarled at Sebastian again. And when Sebastian slashed through the center of the image he’d drawn, the demon dropped its head back and screeched as it was engulfed completely in the now solid black mist. The mass of shadow and darkness swirled around the demon in a tightening storm, growing smaller and more dense, narrowing down to a basketball-sized sphere.

  And when the sphere of black mist winked out…

  The demon was gone.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Angie looked down at Carmen, still unconscious. She checked her pulse again, ready with the shock spell just in case.

  “I think her lantern rolled that way,” she said to Sebastian, gesturing into the trees at her right. “After you cut the circle, would you get that? I don’t want to touch it yet.”

  Without a word, Sebastian did as she asked. He thoroughly cut and destroyed the containment circle first, smudging his foot across the salt and chalk used to draw it into the rough dirt.

  Now that the fight was over, Angie could hear the traffic again, and some noise from the apartment complex. All the ordinary sounds of a New York night. She could even see the flash of car lights through the trees.

  So, the copse wasn’t as thick or isolated as she’d felt it to be just moments ago. That was interesting.

  She kept her gaze on Carmen, watching for movement, twitches, changes in her breathing pattern. It served two purposes—ensuring Carmen didn’t take her unawares, and keeping her gaze off the encircling trees.

  When Sebastian stepped close, lantern in hand, Angie finally rose to her feet and stepped back from Carmen’s prone body. She’d only created a very small protective circle, to keep the demon from reaching and using Carmen, so she didn’t have much room to maneuver.

  “Ready for me to cut this circle?” she asked Sebastian.

  He nodded.

  She mentally drew a line through the blue light, using her finger as the physical link to slash through the magic barrier. The blue light in her mind’s eye winked out, and Angie felt the magic break apart, some of it spilling into the ground, some of it rushing back into her.

  “Willing or not?” Sebastian asked.

  She didn’t need him to clarify. She kept her gaze on Carmen as she said, “I couldn’t tell. I didn’t open to her when I was touching her because I didn’t want to open to the demon.”

  “Fair enough. Want to try now?”

  “Nope,” she said.

  He didn’t argue with her.

  Carmen groaned and moved a hand to her forehead. Angie watched her closely, ready with a shield spell just in case. Carmen rolled to one side and pushed herself up to a sitting position, then her eyes widened as she took in her surroundings.

  “Where am I? What’s happened?” She looked up. “Ms. Angie? Mr. Sebastian? What’s happening?”

  Angie let Sebastian take the lead as she studied Carmen’s reactions.

  “How do you feel?” Sebastian said, his tone quiet.

  “Sore. A tingling in my body. What happened, Mr. Sebastian?” Tears welled in her big brown eyes. She looked around again but didn’t attempt to stand up.

  “Do you remember anything?” Sebastian asked.

  “No. I was packing to go to my sister in New Jersey.” She put a hand to her head. “But I don’t remember leaving.”

  “You have another sister?” Angie asked.

  Carmen blinked up at her. “What, Ms. Angie?”

  “You said you were going to your sister’s house in Connecticut yesterday,” Angie reminded. “Do you have more than one sister living in the area? Why did you change your mind about which one you were going to visit?”

  “Did I say Connecticut? I don’t have any family in Connecticut. My sister lives in New Jersey.”

  “Maybe you were just worried,” Sebastian suggested. His grip tightened on the lantern he held.

  “That must be it, yes.” Her eyes narrowed slightly.

  Angie sighed. “Carmen, why are you dealing with a Molder demon?”

  Carmen’s lower lip trembled. “A demon? Oh, Ms. Angie, I’m not summoning demons. That’s Mr. Grant who does that. I would never do that.” She crossed herself and said a few words of a Catholic prayer in Spanish.

  Angie nodded. “We’ll get to the bottom of it, Carmen, don’t worry.” She reached out a hand. “Here, let’s get out of here. Somewhere warmer, where we can talk better.”

  Carmen stared at Angie’s hand for a heartbeat. She didn’t reach up to take it when she pushed to her feet.

  “That would be good, Ms. Angie. I’m very scared. What’s happening?”

  “Well, Carmen,” Angie said, lowering her hand to her side, “one thing that’s happening is a near Oscar-worthy acting performance. Though maybe all the ‘Ms. Angie’s’ and ‘Mr. Sebastian’s’ are a bit over the top cliché.”

  Carmen let her bottom lip tremble again. “I don’t know what you mean.” And now the tears flowed down her cheeks.

  “Wow,” Angie said. “I mean, really that’s super impressive.”

  “What are you saying? I don’t understand.”

  “If you’re being honest with me, Carmen, why don’t you just take my hand for a moment. That’ll ensure we’re all being honest.” She reached out again. “A touch on my palm would be enough. I don’t have to hold your hand or restrict you. So you feel safe.” She infused her voice with her “reassuring psychic” tone, the one she used with skittish clients who’d paid for a reading but were actually terrified of anything paranormal.

  She met Carmen’s gaze as she held her hand, palm up, between them and waited.

  Carmen let another tear drop roll down her cheek, she raised her hand to set her fingers into Angie’s palm. A moment before she touched Angie’s skin, she folded her fingers into a fist and pulled her hand back.

  She let out a sigh and her entire demeanor changed. Her shoulders straightened, her baring relaxed. She made a face and rolled her eyes. “It was the Connecticut-New Jersey mistake that gave me away, wasn’t it?”

  Angie lowered her hand and shrugged. “That didn’t help,” she confirmed. “You keep changing your accent, too. Subtly, but enough to notice.”

  “Damn. I wasn’t expecting a white chick to pick that up.”

  Angie didn’t comment.

  “Your boyfriend didn’t.” Carmen threw Sebastian a kiss.

  He didn’t comment either.

  “Did you suspect all along?” Carmen said.

  “No, no,” Angie said. “You’re very good. I assumed you were just what you wanted me to assume you were. Overworked and overburdened domestic help.”

  “Well, that’s something I guess.” She glanced between them. “What now? It’s not like you can arrest me.” Her grin turned sly. “Just practicing my religion. I’m free to do that in this country.”

  “What’s the lamp for?” Sebastian asked, raising it slightly.

  Carmen’s gaze narrowed, and something like real worry moved through her expression. “Just part of the…process.”

  “So, if I touch it, I’ll only pick up…process?” Angie said.

>   Carmen considered her. “Your choice. I wouldn’t recommend it. For you.”

  “Why?”

  “Why the lamp?”

  “No, why all this? Why are you calling demons? Why sacrifice a child?”

  “I would never,” Carmen said with absolute outrage. “Who do you think helped that child all these years? And helped her escape her asshole father? Who do you think told her her mother was still alive so she’d go looking for her?”

  Angie glanced at Sebastian. “But… That demon just now, that was Grant’s demon. The demon he intended to sacrifice Mara to.” At least she was pretty sure that was Grant’s demon. She kept her uncertainty to herself, though. “How can you claim that wasn’t your intent?”

  Carmen pressed her lips together. “I’m not inclined to do the whole bad guy monologuing thing. It’s none of your business.”

  “Actually,” Sebastian said, “it is my business. It’s my actual job to prevent humans from releasing demons in this world. And that demon of yours was about to break out, or I wouldn’t be here.”

  “The last one of you who showed up didn’t do so well against that particular beast,” Carmen said, smiling slightly. “Though…it might have had help.”

  Angie growled. “You helped kill a hunter.”

  “The hunter should have kept his nose out of my business,” Carmen said with no signs of regret. Not even a little twinge.

  “So, your basically evil, then,” Angie said.

  “Only evil to those on my bad side,” Carmen said.

  “You killed a hunter trying to prevent a demon from wreaking havoc on this world,” Angie hissed. “You fall well and truly into the evil category.”

  “If you say so.” Carmen shrugged. “Now, if you don’t mind. I’m tired. I’m going home.”

  Angie blinked. Carmen was right. There wasn’t a lot they could do to her. They could stop her from calling the demon or letting it out. They could protect Mara and prevent Carmen and Grant from sacrificing her. But… They didn’t have any authority over Carmen herself.

  It was always the problem in this world. Humans just kept summoning demons. And all the hunters could do was prevent them from releasing those demons, maybe even keep them from getting killed by their own hubris. Carmen must have a strong will if she’d been summoning a Molder demon for any length of time. Which meant it wasn’t likely to kill her yet. But Sebastian wouldn’t have been called to this summoning if the demon wasn’t on the edge of escaping. They’d likely saved Carmen’s life. And yet, Angie had no doubt the woman would just call the demon again.

  Carmen reached for the lantern. “I’ll just have my property back,” she said.

  “No,” Sebastian said.

  “That’s theft,” Carmen said. “I could have you arrested.”

  Sebastian smiled. “You could try.”

  Carmen narrowed her eyes. “You don’t know what you’re holding.”

  “I have an idea,” Sebastian said quietly. “That’s why I’m keeping it.”

  Angie held her expression, not letting her curiosity show, but she very much wanted to ask Sebastian more.

  Carmen let out a breath between her teeth. “It’s not yours to keep.”

  “Sacrificing children is evil, and we’re not going to leave you with something that helps you do that,” Angie said, watching Carmen’s reaction closely.

  “I said before, I was not sacrificing that child,” she snarled.

  “You helped Grant to plan her sacrifice, then?” Angie asked, pushing harder.

  “Of course not.”

  “That demon thinks it’s getting Mara as a sacrifice.”

  “No, it doesn’t—” Carmen cut herself off and cursed. “I don’t have to justify what I do to you. Or explain. Give me back my lantern.”

  “No,” Sebastian said again.

  “No sacrificing kids,” Angie said bluntly and matter-of-factly. Wondering just how far she could push Carmen on this.

  “I was not sacrificing a child, you bitch. Shut up and give me back my lantern.” Her voice deepened.

  Angie felt her will, felt her powerful intent, rolling out in that tone.

  Carmen held out her hand and stared at Sebastian as she said again, “Give me. My lamp.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Sebastian held his ground, but he dropped his chin and his lip lifted in a slight snarl. “Not to movie quote,” he said, his voice also very deep, “but my will is as strong as yours.”

  Angie almost smiled as she finished the line in her head: And my kingdom as great. It was from one of her favorite movies, Labyrinth, one she’d made him watch more than once. That he remembered the line made her heart happy.

  But that was emotion for a later moment. The clash of wills was almost palpable. There wasn’t much to the fight visually. They just stared at each other. The darkness under the trees masked a lot of their expressions. The sound of traffic just the other side of the copse was a quiet background hum.

  Nothing visually or audibly indicated any sort of struggle was happening. But Angie could feel the undercurrents of it, just at the edge of her senses. And the tension between Carmen and Sebastian was obvious enough even a mundane human would have noticed.

  Angie subtly put a protective circle around her psychic skills, and was tempted to build one around Sebastian to protect him from Carmen. But that might distract him and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

  Distracting Carmen on the other hand…

  “Why don’t I just take that lantern to a witch friend for safe storage,” she said. “Lot of dangerous artifacts in this world. Need proper storage. My friend is good at that.”

  Carmen turned her ire on Angie. “That’s theft!”

  “That’s protecting the world from a dangerous artifact,” Angie said in as mild a manner as she could manage in the face of Carmen’s rage. “Shall we go to the police instead? Discuss the situation with them and see what they think?”

  “You aren’t going to the cops any more than I am,” Carmen said, though Angie heard the slight waver in her tone. “You’re just a loon who works as a supposed psychic at a Village cult shop. That’s what the cops will think. They won’t buy anything you say.”

  “They’ll believe Mara, though,” Angie said. “When we tell her you’ve been using her, helping Grant while pretending to be her friend…”

  “I was not pretending to be her friend,” Carmen shouted. “I saved her from that asshole. I kept her safe!”

  “Doesn’t look that way to me,” Angie said with a shrug. “Won’t look that way to Mara either after we explain all this.” She gestured to the smudged circle in the dirt and the lantern.

  “Bitch.” Carmen lifted her lip and charged at Angie.

  Angie had no idea what the woman intended, but she didn’t wait to find out. She stepped to the side, and stretched out her hand to intercept Carmen’s arm. The shock spell slipped out of her lips without conscious thought, modulated in power to send Carmen to her knees but not knock her out. The dance of subtle blue light over Carmen’s skin briefly lit up the dark.

  Carmen gasped and dropped, clutching her arm. “What the hell did you do?”

  “Little jolt. You’ll be fine. Don’t attack me again. That’s the mildest of what I can do.”

  To prove her point, she murmured one of the spells she’d been working to perfect over the last two years, holding her palm up and repeating the chant twice before the little ball of swirling fire formed in her hand. It wasn’t a wizard bolt of energy—she couldn’t do that with her type of magic—but she could call on the elements. And fire was one powerful ass element when thrown at an enemy.

  “This isn’t ordinary fire that you can roll in the dirt to put out,” she said, holding Carmen’s gaze as she flexed her fingers a little to make the small ball of flame dance. “I throw it, it burns until I put it out. Don’t tempt me.”

  “You play demon games, witch,” Carmen said. “They threaten eternal burning, too.”

&
nbsp; “For different reasons,” Angie said, not taking the bait. Her use of natural elements was not the same as what demons called upon or did.

  And Carmen didn’t need to know exactly how far she was willing to go.

  Carmen’s gaze kept jumping to the dancing ball of fire even as she tried to hold Angie’s gaze and prove her defiance. “You won’t use that. You consider yourself one of the good guys.”

  Angie shrugged. “Your choice. I believe in people making their own choices. And dealing with the consequences of those choices.” She flexed her fingers again. The flames flared a little brighter.

  “I never intended for Mara to get hurt,” Carmen said.

  “Since you’re not going to ‘bad guy monologue’ and tell us what you did intend,” Angie said, throwing out her own bait this time, “I’ll just keep believing you meant the child harm. And I’ll be sure to pass that information on to her.”

  Carmen snarled. Angie shrugged. Sebastian raised the bone lantern a little and looked at it closer.

  “Wouldn’t play with that, hunter,” Carmen said without looking away from Angie and the fire ball still in her palm. “You gonna put that out or not?” she asked, nodding at Angie’s hand.

  “Are you going to attack me as soon as I do?”

  Carmen relaxed back into the dirt, raising her hands in a kind of surrender. Angie didn’t buy the surrender, but even if Carmen were supernaturally fast rising and attacking from that position, Angie would still have time to recall the little fire ball now that she’d called it once. That was the lovely part of this particular spell. It had a “sleep” option that meant she could reawaken the fire in a snap.

  She murmured the “sleep” phrase that let the ball wink out of existence, though it hovered in the magical realm, waiting to be called into action. Carmen narrowed her eyes. Angie smiled.

  “You going to talk about any of this yet, or are we at a standoff again?” Angie asked.

  Sebastian lifted the lantern. “I’m very curious.”

  Carmen snarled at them both. “Curiosity killed the hunter.”