Death's Shroud

by Robbie Cox

  Regina went through the motions just in case she needed this for her to accomplish her goals and make her husband pay for his treachery.

  “Take three more deep breaths and then open your eyes,” Tansy said, her voice almost like it belonged to a meditation coach.

  When Regina opened her eyes, she saw the others smiling at her, a calmness covering their faces that did not reach into her soul. “That was fun,” she said with a lopsided grin. “Now what?”

  Tansy laughed, and Regina just smiled at her. “Now we can do the cleansing spell, and then we can open the store.” She shook her head. “I love your exuberance, Regina, but not everything happens overnight, especially with magic. If you get ahead of yourself, you could really do some damage, not only to you, but those around you. Magic is not about causing harm, but about healing, healing the earth, healing humanity, even healing yourself.” Her gaze dropped to the tracks on Regina’s arm. “Healing is the main thing, right?”

  Regina glanced down at her arm, her lips pressed together as she nodded. “Yeah, it is.” Inwardly, however, she screamed her desire for revenge.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Tansy watched as Regina went through the motions of the cleansing spell. She loved the girl’s enthusiasm for the path she wanted, but Tansy worried Regina tried too hard to move too fast. She seemed too wired, and for once, Tansy did not believe it was the drugs she suspected the younger woman stuffed into her body. She seemed to run on her emotions, which could be dangerous. Emotions were a channel for magic, but if the person’s emotions were raw, coming from a grim place within, the magic that comes from that tends to follow the same path. Regina had to find a way to follow the light in all ways if she would walk the right path.

  “Just keep your breathing slow, calm, as you picture the warm wind twirling around you,” Wanda said, her eyes closed as she led the exercise. “As you feel it caressing you, pulling at your hair, tugging your clothing, imagine it sort of dusting you off, polishing you so to speak, wiping the negativity off your aura, the wind picking it up as it falls away and carrying it off and out of sight.”

  Tansy had asked Wanda to lead the Cleansing Ritual, freeing Tansy up so she could watch Regina, make sure the woman actually did what they asked of her. There was still something there, something underneath the other woman that made Tansy pause. She was never one to see auras all the time; that was more Laci’s realm, which in itself came as a surprise. They had still not explored all of Laci’s powers and abilities. Of course, it had technically been barely a month since Laci Valentine walked through the front door of The Murky Cauldron. The truth was, Laci was just as green in her pursuit of witchcraft as Regina. Tansy failed there, in teaching the eldest Valentine daughter. Tansy would not fail with Regina, which is why she refused to speed the process.

  “Continue to imagine the wind polishing you until you feel the job is done, until your aura is clean,” Wanda’s voice reached Tansy’s ears.

  Tansy kept her eyes as closed as she could, but still peeked under her eyelids at the younger woman. She hoped…

  “Okay, and what do we do now?” Regina asked, rubbing her palms on her knees in her impatience.

  Tansy sighed. Barely a second had passed from Wanda’s last word to Regina’s begging for more. Her thirst for magic was too much, and Tansy refused to allow the woman to drink of its power until Tansy knew more. Something motivated Regina, and Tansy needed to know what that was before she taught the other woman too much. Magic in the wrong hands could cause damage, and Tansy had seen enough of that to last her for a while.

  If Wanda noticed how the younger woman wanted to rush, she showed no sign of it, her normal smile pushing up her cheeks. She patted her thighs. “I say we have tea.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Tea is always great for restoring one’s faculties after performing a spell.”

  This time, Regina could not keep her groan silent or hide her eye roll. “But we haven’t performed any magic. I thought once we did this cleansing thing that we would…” Her body went stiff, eyes wide, just before she doubled over in pain, clutching at her stomach as her words shifted into a painful wail.

  Tansy reached out, jerking toward the woman. Wanda rushed to join her, the older woman’s hands reaching for Regina who rocked over on her side. “Regina, what’s wrong?” Tansy asked as she tried to get the girl to roll back over. “What hurts?”

  “Oh, dear,” Wanda said, shaking her head as she tried to cradle Regina’s in her lap to comfort her. “What happened?” She then looked up into Tansy’s eyes, her brows pinched with concern. “You don’t think..?”

  Tansy dreaded the thought. She turned back to the woman clamped in on herself on the floor. “Regina!”

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Sherri Rockford slammed against the other woman’s mind, shoving her way past the dybbuk who usurped her body. It was like slamming against a brick wall, and she felt as if she would rip apart. She kept slamming herself against it, however, over and over, feeling her mind turning raw with the assault. She didn’t care. She wouldn’t allow Regina to win, to steal her body, to kill her in the end. Sherri knew that was the ultimate end for her if she couldn’t break through the dybbuk’s possession.

  Pain sliced through her body, and she felt herself double over, her hands going to her gut as nails dug into her brain.

  “No!” another voice screamed.

  Sherri felt the dybbuk fight her, attempt to shove her back into the crevasses of her own mind. “You can’t have my body!” she screamed as she shoved against the wall again. God, the pain, the pain was excruciating. “Get out!”

  Something hit her, slamming her against the wall once more, knocking her…head?…against whatever was blocking her. She was too weak to fight back really, the drugs having taken their own toll on her reserves. She could already feel her body succumbing to the struggle, wearing out as her essence started to fade once more. She tried, one more time, to shove her way past the other spirit, to call out to the others in the room for help. Yet, nothing worked.

  Hands gripped her, if she could call them hands. She wasn’t sure what to call anything at the moment. She wasn’t even sure if what she thought was happening was actually happening. How do you get trapped in your own mind?

  “Get back in your little hole,” the woman’s voice spat. Regina. Regina Hawthorn. Sherri remembered hearing that name, but it meant nothing to her. Why had this woman stolen her body? “You…have….to….go!”

  “No!” Sherri screamed, and this time, she felt her lips move. “You can’t have…”

  One more punch or shove or…something…and Sherri found herself huddled in the corner of her mind again, her own consciousness fading until only blackness enveloped her.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Regina shoved Sherri’s spirit back into the recesses of her mind, clamping down on her sudden outburst. That the drug addict had managed to bust past Regina’s defenses as far as she did was surprising and a sure sign as to why Regina had to convince the witches to teach her what she needed to know. She needed their magic now!

  She sucked in a deep breath as she forced herself up slightly, holding herself up by her hands as she tried to get her breathing under control. “I’m fine,” she wheezed as she clenched her eyes shut, trying to shove the pain out of her head.

  The others helped her slide around into a sitting position, her hands on her thighs as she took deep, slow breaths.

  “We should get you to the hospital,” Wanda said, her face pinched with worry. “I’ll call for an ambulance.” She shifted, trying to push herself to her feet in a rush.

  “No, no,” she said, reaching out and gripping Wanda by the arm to stop her. The hospital was the last place she needed to go. She took another deep breath. “I’m not sure what happened. I get these spells sometimes. That’s why I’m interested in the magic. I hoped it would help me get my body under control.” She bounced her gaze back and forth between the others, hoping they would keep the questions to a minimum. She needed
time to come up with a story.

  Tansy stared back at Regina through narrowed eyes, her head cocked to the side a little. “What did you mean by ‘You can’t have?’ Who couldn’t have what?”

  Regina shook her head, her brows pinched. “I…I don’t know. I don’t remember saying anything, just wishing the pain would stop.” She gave a weak shrug as she chuckled softly. “Perhaps I was telling the pain it couldn’t have me?” She laughed again. “I honestly don’t know. I’m sorry.”

  Tansy nodded, her lips pressed into a thin line. Then she smiled as she patted Regina’s leg. “Well, that is definitely enough for today. We need you to allow your body to rest a bit before pushing forward. I think Wanda’s right; some tea would do the body good right about now.” She pushed herself to her feet.

  Regina swore to get even with that bitch who owned her body for screwing up her chances. There were ways to make Sherri Rockford pay. Regina shifted, ready to get to her own feet, but Tansy placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “No, you stay put for a bit until you get your strength back,” Tansy said, smiling. “We don’t need you falling down and hurting yourself worse. I’ll get your tea.”

  Regina watched as Tansy turned and walked away, following Wanda over to where the woman had a small burner with a teakettle on it. Regina wanted to scream. All she had learned today so far was how to breathe and reach down into the earth with some imaginary light! She needed to figure out how to anchor her soul into Sherri Rockford’s body before the woman made another go at breaking out of her mental cell. Regina sighed. If only she could get the witches to think of something else besides damn tea.

  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “Now, this is interesting.” Tharon stared at the struggle in front of him, the two women sparring with each other for dominance inside of the one body. He had thought the one, the original owner for lack of a better term, would suffer at his hands, his next victim for wasting her life on meaningless drugs and prostitution, but this…this just might prove to be something else a little more exciting. He would wait, bide his time to see how this panned out. The usurper had guts and a purpose. He wanted to know what that purpose was. She could always die later.

  Fifteen

  Jayden popped into the kitchen, backpack over her shoulder, just as Laci finished pouring her second cup of coffee of the morning. Laci turned, resting back on the counter, arm draped over her waist as she held the cup in front of her, watching as her sister dumped the backpack on the table and walked over to the fridge, jerking the freezer door open. “Aren’t you running a little behind?” Laci asked before taking a tentative sip of the coffee. “I thought you had a class at nine? They do have classes on Mondays, right?”

  Jayden shrugged as she pulled out a box of frozen waffles. “It’s college. Half the class will either be late or not there at all. Besides, it’s math. I hate math.” She walked over to the toaster, pulling out two waffles and slipping them in the slots. Pushing the handle down to start the toasting process, she turned back around to her sister. “You thought anymore about what that crazy old man said Saturday?”

  Laci ran her tongue over her lips as she lowered the cup back in front of her. She turned and glanced out the kitchen window at the two mastiffs lounging in her backyard. “Hard not to think about it when two giant dogs are zonked on our lawn.” She turned back around, shaking her head. “I’m just not sure I believe everything he said, you know? I mean, we’ve seen some crazy stuff, but me, a necromancer? What the hell does that even mean, really?”

  “Maybe we should make a trip to the city morgue and test your new power out,” Jayden suggested with a bounce of her eyebrows. “You know, we could take the show on the road, work conventions, Halloween parties. You could actually make people think zombies are real.”

  “I’m glad at least one of us thinks this is funny,” Laci said with a shake of her head and a smile. Then she took a deep breath. “To be honest, I don’t know what to do. I thought Nazareth was off his rocker until he mentioned the man I saw in my dream.” She glanced up at her sister. “What if it wasn’t a dream? What if what he said was true?”

  Jayden crossed her arms over her chest as she stared at her sister. “You know where you can go for advice, right?”

  Laci felt her body tense as she took a deep breath in through her nose. She knew her sister would bring up the coven sooner or later. “I’m not going back there. I told you that. Just because,” she gestured out the window at the dogs snoozing on the grass, “is going on, doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind. I still want out.”

  Jayden shrugged. “I doubt Tansy’s advice would come with strings. Not her style. Besides, that weird elf is still hanging out at the Cauldron. I’m sure he might be able to give you some of his special history lessons. It’s worth a trip, don’t you think?”

  Laci lifted her cup to her lips as she thought about Famallumi. The elf was a Lore Master Apprentice from the Land Under, a hyper, overly exuberant, easily excited elf. She remembered the first time Famallumi used his powers around her; it almost scared her to death, but it was definitely an effective way to teach someone about history. The elf’s powers were such that he could make anyone within the sound of his voice see every detail of the story he recited. For her, it was the creation of the world and the beginning of time, a time humans didn’t even know about. He had turned Rhychard’s condo into some sort of virtual reality, placing the small group in the front row of creation. It was enough that Laci never wanted to experience it again. She didn’t say that to her sister, however. Jayden had yet to experience Famallumi’s powers, and Laci didn’t really want to deprive her sister of the pleasure.

  The waffles popped out of the toaster.

  Laci watched as her sister smothered her breakfast in syrup and then picked it up with two fingers, taking a bite, syrup dribbling down her chin. Perhaps Jayden was right, and a trip to see Tansy was due. She would at least have the answers Laci needed for the questions Nazareth brought up. She gave her sister a smile. “I’ll think about it,” she said.

  Once Jayden finished her waffles and another cup of coffee, she left for class, leaving Laci alone with her thoughts. Or rather, with all of her questions, and there were plenty of questions.

  “I miss waffles.”

  Laci jumped, splashing coffee over the rim of her cup as she jerked around. “What the..?”

  Duncan Underwood stood by the toaster, staring down in it as if he could summon another set of waffles for himself. She watched as he leaned over and inhaled the leftover aroma of Jayden’s breakfast. “I preferred them with butter pecan syrup, though.” He turned his gaze to Laci before he stood straighter. He gestured to the kitchen window. “I see you acquired some pets. They’re Hekate’s hounds, so you don’t really have to feed them.” He popped up on his toes and tried to peer outside. “I’m not sure how much a hellhound eats.” He rested back on his feet and shrugged. “Or what they eat for that matter.”

  “What are you doing here?” Laci licked the spilled coffee off her thumb as she settled back on the counter. “Shouldn’t you be, like, moving on with your next life or something? Hanging out in the Summerlands? Haunting an ex-lover?”

  Duncan grinned. “I like how you think,” he said with a chuckle. “And for the record, I did haunt her for the longest time. It was fun as hell, too. Everyone thought she was crazy, so she never took another lover, which served her right. The cheating bitch.” He shrugged. “Besides, what else is there to do when you’re a ghost?”

  Okay, fair point. “Did you really haunt your ex?” She took a sip of her coffee.

  Duncan shrugged again. “She had it coming. She cheated on me with my best friend while I was in the Army. So, when I died, I made sure she never had a normal relationship again. It was the least I could do.”

  “Kind of cruel,” Laci said. Her coffee had turned cold, so she turned and dumped it in the sink, setting the cup in the basin. “Still, I can see where it would be fun to get that type of revenge.” She tu
rned back around, arms over her chest. “Still no closer to crossing over?”

  Duncan tilted his head. “That’s a weird term, isn’t it? Crossing over? Like there’s a line in the earth you step over to get from this world to the next, almost like a border. But no, obviously,” he ran his hands up and down his ethereal body, “I didn’t cross over.” He shrugged. “No big deal, really. I mean, waiting here, waiting in the Summerlands, what difference does it make? It’s still just waiting.” He tilted his head to the side. “Still struggling with the whole necromancer thing, huh?” He stood straighter. “Can’t say I blame you. Talking to dead people is kind of weird. You’re not an introvert, are you? That would really suck. Hate talking to people, and dead people show up all the time. How do you avoid that?”

  Laci sighed. “I’m not an introvert. I just hate people.”

  “Ah, a regular social bug, you are.” He chuckled as he shook his head.

  “Why are you here?” she asked again. “I can’t help you. I already told you.”

  He nodded. “True, you did. But, perhaps I can help you. I could make a good lookout. It’s not like they’d ever discover me.” His eyes widened. “Hey, we could become a great team of thieves. You do the heavy lifting, because, you know, I can’t lift, but then I’d be able to warn you when the coppers arrived.”

  “Coppers?”

  “Yeah, I always wanted to say that.” He bounced his eyebrows at her. “So, what are you going to do?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back on the counter.