“Hubert’s not a Discordant anymore and you can’t pretend like you ever believed he was a proper demon anyway,” she shot back. “But that don’t matter. I’m not a Nyx and even with his new powers, Hubert can’t get into my head.”
“Alright, fine, but I’m totally not falling for this guy. I mean, yeah, I’m kind of frustrated and when he shows up with everything flapping in the breeze… I get a little… anyway. Lust isn’t love. It’s not even like.”
“Yeah, but Donna, it can be just as dangerous.”
There was a note of warning in her tone. Given some of her past disasters, Betty would know about the dangers of lust, but there was a huge difference between falling for a guy who was a physical threat and one who had no physical form.
“Okay yeah, but at least we know he’s not trying to get me to open the portal. That’s something, right?”
“Not really.”
“Huh?”
“Ugh!” Betty threw up her hands and went to her own room to grab clean clothes. “Donna, think about it. It’s like, classic reverse psychology.”
“But he can’t get through the portal even if I open it!”
“All right, look, yelling isn’t going to solve anything,” she said with a sad look, almost as if she felt bad for me. It was as embarrassing as it was infuriating. “I’ll look into ways to banish an incubus. I mean, there’s got to be something. Have you tried dating anyone lately?”
I glared at her. “Do you see the line of suitors out there?” I asked, waving my hand at the nonexistent crowd of men who were vying for my attention. “Before you say anything, I’ve been… careful about my… habits. But Betty, it’s only gotten worse since the token. It’s like I don’t even exist to the men of Blackbird.”
“Well, maybe you should take a vacation,” she suggested.
I snorted, but apparently, she was serious. “Wait, really?”
“Donna, Blackbird’s kind of a shallow gene pool and you grew up here. Most of the dateable guys are friends of yours. Don’t sell yourself short.”
“I guarantee you, it’s not just guys in Blackbird. And besides,” I added on a serious note, “It’s probably not a good idea to leave town with the end of the world coming.”
“Good point,” she said with a grimace. “Wanna come try to put a stop to the end of the world?” she asked with a hopeful smile.
“No thanks.” I couldn’t stop myself from feeling a small pang of guilt. As an earth witch, I was obviously opposed to fracking and the impact it had on the environment, to say nothing of the weakening of the wall between the realms. But I knew, and Betty did too, that standing around on the courthouse lawn with a bunch of well-meaning but unorganized hippies and college students while some stoned old geezer shouted incoherently through a megaphone wasn’t going to help solve anything. “I think I’m going to pay Harry a visit.”
“Harry?” She gave me a weird look, as though she thought I was nuts. I probably was. “You know you can’t exorcize an incubus, right?”
“Maybe,” I said with a shrug. “But I’m trying to keep an open mind. Not just about this, but you know, if we all end up working together. Remember the stories Seth told us? About the mystics who were sabotaging each other during World War Two. I don’t want to end up in a situation like that, so let’s just say it’s a social call. If he happens to have any incubus repellant lying around then, hey, bonus.”
“Well, good luck then,” she said, still wearing the expression that told me she thought I was crazy. Perhaps I was, but I still felt like I was making the right move.
I thought about that on my way out to the church. Of all the people in Blackbird who knew anything about who and what I really was, Desmond and Harry were probably the least trusting and most likely to expect me to massively screw up and bring about Armageddon. Yet, for some reason, I had a soft spot for the two cantankerous old coots. I had to wonder if there wasn’t some significance to that.
I had to laugh at myself. A couple of days ago, mom had warned me to keep an eye out for changes and she specifically said not to ignore our gut feelings. Ever since then, I’d been questioning whether or not everything from my choice to change breakfast cereals to a shift in weather was some kind of a sign. No, the fact that I was fond of Harry and Desmond said more about my own stubbornness than anything else.
I parked the Beast at the bottom of the hill and thanked my lucky stars that it wasn’t raining. She makes a lot of noise and I didn’t want to alert the clergy that I was coming up there. Last time I ran into one of the priests, he spent an hour trying to save my soul from imminent damnation. Admittedly, that was half my own fault. If he hadn’t been young and hot, I probably wouldn’t have gotten trapped in the fruitless conversation. Given my own problems, I couldn’t even begin to fathom why someone would choose a life of celibacy on their own. Talk about a waste of high cheekbones and clear skin!
I found Harry in the toolshed behind the church, sharpening the ancient blade from a lawnmower.
“You know, Sears sells those brand new for about twenty bucks.”
He looked up, eyebrows raised as if startled, but frowned as soon as he noticed it was me.
“Ah hell. What happened now?”
“Nothing,” I said, holding out my hands, mostly because he was still holding the blade, but he’d shifted it to more of a weapon-like grasp. “I just had a question, that’s all.”
“Uh huh,” he snorted, but at least he set the blade down on the workbench. “And you asking me a question means something is most probably wrong.”
I ignored the barb and the grain of truth behind it.
“I’m just wondering if it’s possible to do an exorcism on an incubus.”
He stared at me for a moment. If it was possible, his frown became even… frownier.
“You’re getting visits?”
I nodded
“Of a sexual nature?”
I was so used to Desmond’s prudishness that I was taken aback by the blunt nature of the question.
“Yes and no. He’s not able to do anything, but…” I trailed off, surprised that I was the one being prudish.
“I thought your mother said she took care of that nonsense.”
My what?
“She didn’t take care of anything,” I said, bristling. “I was the one who had… That’s not important.” I caught myself. I really didn’t need to spill my sex life or lack thereof to Harry, but I made a mental note to talk to mom. If she’s claiming that she had a hand in my breaking the curse, I really wanted to know what was up. “I’m pretty sure I’m cursed, Harry, but not like that. I am getting… unwanted visits from the incubus that was supposed to impregnate me and I was wondering if there was a way to get him out of my head… permanently out, that is.”
I explained the various methods I’d tried, including the turbo-boosted sleeping draught that barely lasted a full forty-eight hours.
“I’m sorry, kid,” he said at last. “Morphael Discordant can’t be exorcized because they never enter our realm.”
“Well, they have to, don’t they” I protested. “In order to impregnate women? That’s a physical process.”
“Nope. I can’t rightly explain the science behind it because there ain’t any, but it seems all they have to do is plant the idea of pregnancy into the mind of a virgin and the deed is done. ‘Course, it’s clear where they got the idea,” he added, shifting his gaze over to the church and the stained glass window depicting Mary’s ascension. I let it go. I didn’t have time to start a religious debate about the fact that the origin of the virgin birth mythos was far older than Christianity.
“I was hoping you might have something that could draw him over. Like maybe some relic associated with the Virgin Mother.”
“That’s not a bad theory,” he said with an appreciative nod. “I can understand why you would have thought to ask, but Donna…” I was a bit shocked to see something that could pass for concern in his usually stern expression. “I’m spe
culating here, but I would hazard a guess that getting that portal under the mill sealed up good might be the only thing what could put an end to your visitors.”
“If only it were that easy,” I said with a sigh and explained how Clyde didn’t seem to care about the portal.
“Well,” he said, puffing out his cheeks and exhaling deeply. “That may be a blessing. I got a feeling there ain’t gonna be much we can do about that anyway.”
“A feeling?” I asked, temporarily distracted from my own issues. “As in…”
“As in just an educated guess,” he said with a wary look. “I already told your mother I don’t put any stock in that psychic mumbo jumbo. I just happen to think that realistically, even if all of us work together, we ain’t got enough power to stop the inevitable.”
“Wow, way to be a fatalist.” I scoffed. Harry had always been pessimistic, so this should have come as no surprise.
“I ain’t said we’ll fall to Chaos,” he corrected sharply. “I just happen to think we’d all do better to prepare for the impending battle rather than waste our energies on a lost cause like keeping the portal closed.”
“Yeah, I’d have to agree with that,” I said, knowing that he was talking about Desmond. Of course, he probably didn’t know that the real reason Desmond spent so much time fussing with the mill was to avoid Seth. “So, other than simply closing the portal or sending all the Discordant packing, can you think of anything I might do to keep this guy away?”
“Sorry kiddo,” he said with what looked like genuine regret. “You know as well as I do that if the Catholic Church had a way of dealing with morphaels, you probably wouldn’t even be here right now.”
“Well crap.” He had a point. The vast majority of Nyx in the western world were the children of nuns.
“Of course, he might just have genuine feelings for you.”
“W-what?” I tried to ignore the little flutter my heart gave and kept my expression neutral, but Harry still frowned at me. “Is that normal?”
“It ain’t unheard of,” he grunted and moved past me, back out into the mid-day sun. “For your sake, I hope that ain’t the case. Ain’t nothing good can come out of ill-fated love except yet another tragic tale for the history books and kiddo, you just don’t seem like the Romeo and Juliet type to me.”
“No, you can say that again,” I said with a smirk, but instead of worrying me, I was actually relieved to hear that a relationship was possible. I would deal with the ill-fated part later.
Harry didn’t seem to be paying any attention to me. Instead, he was looking out past the car park and over the whole of Blackbird. I had to admit, the view from up here was pretty.
“Ain’t there some council meeting today to vote on the fracking issue?”
“Um… I think so,” I said, weirded out once again by Harry’s abrupt change of subject. “Betty was going to a protest rally at the courthouse, so that makes sense.”
“I better get down there then,” he said, surprising me once again as he locked up the toolshed.
“To the rally?”
“To the council meeting,” he corrected. “I know you got your own problems right now, but you and I both know the war is comin’. If the measure passes allowing the big rigs to come further into the city, we ain’t gonna have time to prepare.”
“But I thought you said it was inevitable?” I asked, confused. Harry was definitely not the hippie activist type.
“Inevitable don’t have to mean tomorrow,” he muttered. “Don’t know about you, girly, but I ain’t ready to take on the devil just yet.”
“I guess that makes sense,” I said, utterly confused and added with a weak smile, “Thanks anyway,” before heading back to my car.
I had half a mind to go back to the mill and demand answers from my father, but I didn’t want to risk running into Desmond. Also, if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to get Clyde into any more trouble than he was likely already in for coming to see me. Instead, I headed for home, intent on doing some mindless work on the Beast’s engine to decompress before work, but halfway there, I got a different idea. I made a sharp left turn and headed for mom’s house.
If anyone was going to have a way to make sense of all of this, it was mom. Besides, she could question my father without raising suspicion. At least, I hoped she could. But when I arrived, I heard a deep voice and realized she wasn’t alone. I should have known Desmond would be here. He was fond of mom and often spent time with her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really in the mood to deal with him, so I turned, intending to leave and come back another day, but as I did, I heard mom’s voice.
“I’m afraid that the whole situation is a little more complicated than you, Seth, and even Donna have been led to believe.”
I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I intended to find out. Silently, I said a shielding spell, crept up to the closed kitchen door, and put my ear to the thin panel of wood.
Chapter 7
Skeletons in the Closet
Taffy Reese is dead.
Really, the old bird was eighty-seven, so it should not have come as a shock to anyone, but the empty space she left, not just in my life, was hard to ignore. For the briefest moment, I was reminded that I too have more days behind me than ahead, but I shook the feeling quickly. There was no sense in dwelling on what I had no control over. On one hand, knowing when I would die was freeing. I never had to worry that I would be leaving Donna in the lurch. But on the other, it was always there and looming closer every day. Dear me, I’ve gone morbid in my old age.
We’d been best friends since childhood, Taffy and I. Right up until the moment she stole the love of my life away and had the audacity to ask me to be the maid of honor at their wedding. Oh, she was lucky that I am merely a psychic and did not have the power to hex her, though in hindsight, she did me a favor by taking that lout off my hands. And of course, I never asked her to follow me to Blackbird, so she had only herself to blame when she found herself as trapped as the rest of us.
But my feelings and our spotted history, this was nothing. The empty void Taffy’s passing left in my own heart paled in comparison to the void left upon Blackbird. I was never one to put much stock in the numbers game. That is, until I found myself in Blackbird. Even I couldn’t deny that the power of seven mystics had been impressive, even if we did seem incapable of working together at times. Still, with the fissure opening directly under the old mill, Taffy’s death and the imbalance it created did not bode well.
As it stood, Blackbird had always had seven mystics and I suspected that soon enough, our population would likely grow by one. However, whether or not that would happen in time to repair the damage remained to be seen. It was at times like this that I wished a psychic’s abilities were closer to what the charlatans of late night television pretended to have. My divining glass was giving me nothing on the matter.
I’d been so wrapped up in trying to glean even a glimmer of guidance that I hadn’t heard the knocking on my front door until it became a frantic pounding accompanied by Desmond’s shouting. I hurried to the parlor and threw open the door.
“I’m fine, I’m fine, come in,” I said, hushing the giant with a stern glance. “You worry far too much.”
“So lovely to see you too, Myrna,” he said in a flat, dry voice, but his eyes were smiling as he ducked to get through the doorway. Though when he saw the divining glass on the kitchen table his expression darkened. “I’m guessing this is the reason you didn’t answer the door right away?”
“I’m afraid so,” I said, reaching automatically for the pitcher of tea on the counter. “There’s been a disruption in Blackbird’s balance. Taffy Reese has passed away and I’m afraid I’ve not felt the heralding of her replacement.”
“Who…” he began, but stopped and pursed his lips. “She was the seventh mystic, wasn’t she? Seth mentioned that she was quite reclusive.”
“That she was,” I said with a sigh. “A spirit walker. Though I d
oubt the old drunken bat did much walking, spiritual or otherwise, for the last several years,” I added in a mutter that did nothing to disguise my frustration.
“Are you certain…”
Desmond took a deep breath and pursed his lips, clearly looking for a tactful way to ask what I was already expecting.
“She decided to spend her last moments in my head. I wish I could say it was a tender goodbye and that she gained clarity and insight as to why the way she lived her life was wrong, but I’m afraid that didn’t happen. All she wanted was for me to discover her body before her cats got hungry. I suppose I should be getting over there soon. For the cats’ sakes, at least.”
“As I understand it, she had been your best friend?”
His tone was understandably confused. Admittedly, that was due to my own mixed signals as much as Desmond’s own linear way of thinking.
“She was,” I said with a tight smile. “I loved her dearly, but I didn’t particularly like her.” Noting that Desmond’s confusion remained, I added, “I believe the term the girls use today is frenemies.”
“I’m afraid that too is a concept I do not understand, but that is neither here nor there. What do you mean when you speak of her replacement?”
“The power of numerology is strong here,” I explained. “According to Seth, there have always been seven mystics in Blackbird. At least, since he arrived after World War II, but I suspect that might have been the case going back much further. As you know, I was on my way from Chicago to Las Vegas when my road trip came to a premature end.”
“Yes, ah… You have already…”
I held back a chuckle at Desmond’s discomfort, which was both baffling and refreshing. The day I told him that I’d been an exotic dancer in my youth was one I may never forget. I understood that he still maintained some old fashioned sensibilities, but to think that any man could spend nearly three hundred years walking this earth and still blush at the thought of a bare breast was incomprehensible. Especially after spending the last several decades in Los Angeles.
Friends without Benefits (Rise of the Discordant Book 4) Page 8