Death's Shroud

by Robbie Cox

  “You know of another attack?” her mother asked, one eyebrow cocked. “Is there another demon about to try to rip my house apart?”

  Jayden sighed as she slid into one of the chairs around the table. “No, nothing is happening. Still, she needs to be prepared.” She stared down into her glass at the dark liquid. “She’s supposed to be doing this with me.”

  Her mother reached over, placing her hand on Jayden’s wrist. “What’s really going on? This is about more than her leaving the coven, isn’t it?”

  Jayden just stared at her tea, her stomach churning with anxiety. Her mom was always more perceptive than either of her daughters gave her credit. “The week she left, we had planned a trip for her to help me pick out a dress for this upcoming dance that. I was twelve, and we were having a sixth grade dance as a graduation type celebration. You know, leaving elementary school and heading to middle school. Laci was already in high school and knew how important this was for me. We set up a date to go hit all the major stores to pick out the right dress. I talked about it all week. It was to be a big sister-little sister thing.” She lifted the glass to her lips and took a long sip, mainly to stall and swallow the lump of remorse in her throat. “Then she disappeared. No note. No goodbye. No word that she was even alive or why she left. Eight years I went without all the things that should happen between sisters. No rivalry. No late-night bonding sessions. No secrets shared.” She grinned. “No sisterly blackmail over those secrets.” She shook her head. “I know it sounds silly, but I thought the Cauldron Coven was a way to recapture all of that. Make up for lost time, you know?”

  Her mother squeezed her wrist. “I do know, and I’m sorry for what you lost, what we all lost. I didn’t get to help my daughter go to prom, talk about her first boyfriend, see her graduate, or help her decorate her first apartment. But sweetie, Laci lost a lot, as well. I have to keep reminding myself of that very thing. She did what she thought was right, and it cost all of us. We’ll never get back what we lost, and that stinks, but we can’t keep your sister from following what she feels is the right path for her. She has to do what’s right for her.”

  Jayden nodded, placing her other hand on top of her mother’s. “I know. That doesn’t mean I won’t want what I lost, what we lost.” She shook her head. “It also doesn’t mean I don’t think she’s making a mistake by leaving the coven before she understands all she can about her power. The crazies already know we exist. They won’t be content just letting us be, letting her be. They’ll want to do away with anyone who might be a hurdle for them. She needs to be ready whether or not she wants to deal with it. They won’t accept the fact she wants nothing to do with magic, no matter how much she screams it.”

  Her mother settled back in her chair, pulling her coffee closer. With a shrug, she said, “That may be true, but it’s still her decision. She needs to make it, not us”

  Jayden nodded. “I know, I just wish she’d make the decision I want her to make.”

  Her mother chuckled as she lifted her cup. “You sound like a parent now.” She sipped her coffee, licking her lips once she finished. “We always wish our kids would make the decisions we want them to make.” She shrugged. “Instead, they seem to all have minds of their own and rush into battles with demons and dark elves, practicing magic, and putting themselves in danger. Still, we sit back, bite our nails, drink plenty of coffee and alcohol, and pray they stay alive.”

  “You should have grounded us for life,” Jayden said just before she took a swallow of her tea.

  Her mother laughed, nodding her head. “Trust me, I wish it was that simple.” She glanced down at her coffee, her smile wide. “However, I’m extremely proud of my daughters, both of them.” She turned her focus back to Jayden, and the youngest Valentine almost broke under that gaze. “You two are amazing women, and I wouldn’t change anything about you. What you each suffered made you who you are today, and you are each strong, powerful women. You have to trust your sister, just as I trust you.”

  Jayden reached out and squeezed her mother’s hand. “I trust her. I really do. I just want us as a team.”

  Her mother smiled over at her. “You’re sisters. You’re already a team, whether or not you’re in the same coven.”

  Seven

  Laci longed for her bed after the day she had, but she felt better as she slid in between her cool sheets knowing those terrible days were over. She hadn’t signed up to take her G.E.D. yet, but she at least had the information she needed to get started. She couldn’t wait to begin helping other women get off the streets, helping them begin new, productive lives.

  She pulled the covers up around her shoulders as she rested her head back on her pillows, eyes closed as she savored the comfort that surrounded her. The past few nights she slept in her own bed, her actual bed and not the guest bedroom in Rhychard Bartlett’s condo. While she appreciated everything the Warrior did for her, she must admit she felt better being back in her childhood home with her family, in her bed, with her things. She felt the smile spread across her face. There was no way she would risk losing this again.

  Glancing to the right, she reached over, grabbing the teddy bear her mother gave her a couple of weeks ago, the teddy bear her mother kept after Laci ran away. Rolling over, she wrapped her arms around the stuffed animal and nestled down into her bed. Her mother never gave up on her, even after she discovered Laci walking the streets. Laci’s only regret was that she never had a chance to tell her father why she did what she did. A tear pooled at the corner of her eye as she thought of how he must have hated her, thinking she turned her back on her family and didn’t want to be a part of them anymore. She would give anything to make that right, to take it back and let him know how much she loved her family, loved him.

  She closed her eyes, clutching her bear to her as she pictured her father the last time she saw him. Martin Valentine was a tall man, a hard worker whose body showed the long days of swinging a hammer. A quiet man, he rarely raised his voice to his children even when he wanted to kill them for something stupid they did. He had dark brown eyes and the blackest hair Laci remembered ever seeing on someone. She smiled as she corrected the image in her mind. Her father’s hair was dark except around his ears where the gray had started to salt the edges. He always blamed their mother, but Laci knew it was because of her and the stress she brought to his life in the end.

  She had just turned sixteen the last time she saw her father. He sat at the kitchen table with her, helping her with her algebra, neither one of them understanding one word—or number—on the page in front of them. She had been nagging him about allowing her to go to a party with Jerome, and her father was adamant that Jerome was too old for her, already having graduated. She should have listened to her father back then, knowing how things turned out. Martin Valentine was the wisest and smartest man she knew. He may not have known algebra, but he knew people. Laci was stupid for ignoring him and paid an expensive price.

  “A nice-looking man,” a deep guttural voice sounded in her head. “Seems like he was an excellent father.”

  Laci glanced around her kitchen, her father still going over the math instructions in her textbook. If he heard the voice, he showed no sign of it. She continued to search. “Who’s here?” She glanced back at her father, but he hadn’t heard her speak. It was as if the dream was still happening while Laci was having another dream at the same time.”

  “Only one dream, I assure you,” the deep voice said. “I’m something altogether different.”

  Laci continued to turn in slow motion, noticing her dream-self was still sitting at the table talking to her father. Okay, now this is new. “And what exactly are you?”

  From the doorway between the kitchen and the living room stepped a tall man wearing a black robe, his hands slid into the arms of the robe, the cowl pulled up over his head. He stared at her with burning red eyes that seemed to spark with flickering flames. Everything about him seemed normal except for his eyes—and the fact he was in
her dream. When did I fall asleep?

  “It happens when we focus on one thing long enough,” he answered her unasked question. “You just slipped from wakefulness to sleep while you thought of your father.” He glanced past her to the scene at the table. “This seems to be a bittersweet memory. Odd that you would return to it.” He straightened, turning his focus back to her. “You seem to have switched tracks in your life again, this time for the good. Surprising. Most people who seem to have lived the life you have wallow in self-pity, sinking deeper into the morass of bitterness and failure that surrounds them.”

  Laci shrugged. “What can I say? I’m a work in progress. Now, what are you doing in my dreams?” She felt to her core for the power she always kept stored there, but it was a smoldering ember compared to what it used to be. Since returning from the Summerlands and deciding to leave the coven, she had ceased her daily exercises in witchcraft, something that seemed would bite her in the ass now.

  “I felt you,” the man said. “I wanted to…” He shrugged. “Take your measure, so to speak.”

  “Take my measure?” She cocked her head to the side a little as she narrowed her eyes. With a deep breath, she shook her head. “I don’t know who you are or even what you are, but I’m finished playing games with the faerie world. However, that doesn’t mean I won’t kick your ass for pestering me.”

  He grinned at her, the fire in his eyes sparking brighter. “We both know you’re bluffing. I’ve heard your thoughts as you dreamed such a touching scene. You’re weak, and we both know it.” He chuckled, shaking his head. “Hekate has failed this time, I’m afraid.”

  Laci took a deep breath. Again with the whole Hekate shtick. This is getting old. “Fine, she failed,” Laci snapped. “I didn’t want in her little club, anyway, so I’m not really hurt by your appraisal. Now, if you’ll leave my dreams alone, yeah, that would be great.”

  The man nodded once and then his form faded from sight. Laci turned, glancing at the scene at the table one more time. She really missed her father. She could use his strength right now with all the decisions facing her, the new paths, the pulls on her future. Laci felt the tear slide down her cheek, soaking into her pillow. She missed her father’s arms.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Cale Hawthorn stared out the window as the wind kicked against the glass, the thick branches of the elephant ears beating the front of the house. He wasn’t sure where the windstorm came form; the news called for a beautiful night. There should be no crazy wind or storm. He leaned against the glass, trying to look up into the sky, but the bushes kept beating against the glass hard enough Cale thought the window would break. He was only glad Elizabeth wasn’t driving through it. Knowing his wife, she would be at the mall for another two hours running up his credit cards.

  Shaking his head, he stood straighter, turning to sit back in his recliner and finish watching his television show. I can’t believe how many windstorms this house gets. Before he took another step, however, the wind slammed against the glass, jerking his attention back around, and Cale could have sworn he heard his name growled in the wind. He stood there, staring, wide-eyed.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  The dybbuk slammed the glass, forcing the man inside the window to turn around. Cale! The dybbuk growled, wishing she could break into the man’s house and wrap her hurricane-force winds around his neck. She needed to get to him, make him pay, but she knew she couldn’t do that as she was, a wandering soul driven by vengeance, a soul betrayed and forced to remain behind to see the man she hated get everything he wanted. Twelve years. For twelve years she had swirled around this house, waiting to get inside, to make Cale pay. However, nothing she did caused anymore harm to him—or his precious new wife—than mess up his hair or rip open his shirt. It wasn’t enough!

  The dybbuk pounded against the glass one more time and then swirled down the street, knocking over garbage cans and mailboxes. She needed a body, one that would last while she got her revenge. Yet, none lasted more than a night or two. She needed to figure out how to make the possession last. She needed it to last.

  She wailed through the town, tired of the many nights of failure that haunted her since fate forced her into this in between existence. She needed to pass on, but her hatred kept her grounded to this world. Cale would get his; she would make sure of it. Once she figured out how to remain in her next body, that is.

  The night life of Downtown Harbor City had picked up, people wandering in and out of bars, laughing, enjoying their lives. Enjoying their lives! She wailed into the night, twirling around them, flipping up the women’s dresses, pulling on the men’s ties. How dare they enjoy themselves while she suffered!

  A few doors down, the dybbuk noticed a woman leave her shop, but instead of closing the door and locking it like a normal person, the woman flipped her wrist, and the door closed. With a small burst of power aimed at the doorknob, the dybbuk watched as the other woman locked the door, not even watching what she did. The woman just walked toward her car as if everything was normal.

  The dybbuk swirled around the door, staring at the words, trying to form them in her mind, remember what words meant, letters. She didn’t use those skills often. Not since she died. Not since they killed her. All she did—all she had done—for the past twelve years was torment Cale.

  And his wife.

  Something about this new woman, though…

  The dybbuk hovered in front of the glass door, staring at the words painted on the front. The Murky Cauldron. She swirled around, staring at the woman who had zapped her business closed and locked as she slipped behind her steering wheel. Magic. The woman used magic. That was it! Magic. But the dybbuk—Regina, my name is Regina—never thought magic was real.

  She watched as the woman drove away. Magic was real. Could it keep the dybbuk in the next body? But how would she learn how to do it? How could she learn magic? She needed to learn magic to get her revenge.

  The taillights faded in the distance, but not from the dybbuk’s memory. The woman would help the dybbuk find a way to remain in the next body. The woman was the way to her revenge, the woman with the magic.

  Eight

  While the house was empty, Laci decided to do some of the exercises Tansy taught her. The feeling of weakness that enveloped Laci during her dreams when the robed figure appeared scared the hell out of her, and she determined upon waking she wouldn’t allow herself to feel so vulnerable again, even in her dreams. She needed to get back in touch with her surroundings, to the elements and the power they offered her, so no one caught her unawares again.

  Sitting crossed-legged in her backyard, she placed her hands on her knees and closed her eyes. With a deep breath, she calmed her mind, allowing her breathing to slow as she focused on the grass beneath her. She usually did this in the back of The Murky Cauldron, but Laci had to admit, being outside felt better. The key was to center yourself enough to reach out and touch the surrounding elements, to pull on the energy inside the air, earth, and water, fire if you could find it, and allow their power to become yours. She tried to put into practice something Rhychard told her a couple of months ago before she met the witches, something Kendalais had told him. Taste your environment. Feel your surroundings. Hear the very wind around you and allow it to speak to you. Reaching out to the elements was just like that, and Laci had forgotten that in her haste to get away from magic. Jayden was right in that part, anyway. Magic was a part of Laci, whether or not she wanted to be a part of the Cauldron Coven.

  Taking a deep breath in through her nose, Laci tried to calm her mind, not something that seemed easy these days. Her nightmare from last night still had her on edge, but she determined it was just that, a nightmare. Nazareth had put crazy ideas in her head, ideas she tried desperately to shove to the side, but for which he determined not to accept. Still, it woke her up to her lack of protection, something she determined to fix right away.

  Of course, she waited until Jayden had left for her Friday classes. The last thing Laci need
ed was her sister thinking Laci had changed her mind about leaving the coven. That decision, she sealed in stone.

  Laci took another deep breath in through her nose, feeling her chest swell with the air filling her lungs. She held the breath, feeling how the air expanded her chest, tightened the muscles around her heart, pushed her chest out. As she blew the breath out, the air slipping between her pursed lips, she pushed her senses out with the breath, reaching out to taste the breeze, feel the soil, smell the trees nearby. Life pulsed in everything she felt around her, like everything had a heartbeat, drew breath, lived.

  Placing her palms up, the backs of her hands still resting on her knees, Laci called to the elements around her, asking them to lend her their power, to fill her with the fluidity of water, the strength of wind, the power of earth, and the determination of fire. She felt each one, felt the power wrap around her, fill her, felt the energy course through each of her nerves. She basked in the rush of energy, remembering what she turned her back on by closing her eyes to what was still a part of her.

  A smile creased her face as she opened her eyes, glancing around the backyard. Her magic was still a part of her, but she still refused to be a part of the coven. No more battles, no more faeries and demons, no more people dying around her. She would do this on her own and her way. She inhaled deeply once more. She would never tell her sister this, but it felt good to feel the magic coursing through her once more. She would not allow herself to go so long without doing her exercises again.