“He can’t come in,” I said, “because of the potion.”
“Seriously? Cool!” She shut the door on him and I got a tingle of pleasure as his shout of outrage was cut off.
She settled on a chair, putting her Hello Kitty bag beside her. “What did I miss?”
• • •
I changed and trotted downstairs. Everyone had on their jackets, and they all turned as I reached the bottom step. “Are we ready to roll?” I asked, sweeping the crossbow up in my hand.
“I guess,” said Nick.
I patted him on the back. “Don’t worry, Nick. We’ll get her. And you guys can go back to doing whatever it is you do on a Thursday night.”
The others exchanged significant looks but no one said anything.
“What?”
Seraphina took me by the arm. “Shall we?”
I shrugged and went with her, opening the door to Erasmus’s sour face. “It’s about time!”
I gave him a smug smile. “Oh, were you waiting for us?”
He sputtered and mouthed some strange curses I’d never heard before in that garbled language.
We marched across the street, heading into the woods. The plan was to trap the succubus in the meadow with Nick as bait. I just needed a nice clear shot at her.
I scoured the dark, swinging my crossbow from the hip like a video game heroine. I was anxious, but now my body was thrumming with excitement. Maybe it was the chase. Maybe it was because this would all be over soon. I could feel the crossbow’s excitement as well. Whatever it was, I felt I was ready this time.
“The crossbow is quite attuned to you.” I sensed Erasmus beside me even before he spoke. “It trusts you.”
“I know. I trust it. That’s more than I can say for you.”
I saw him winding up to deny it, but all at once he stopped in mid-sputter. He frowned instead. “About this evening. I…apologize.”
“You should be sorry,” I hissed. “That was very rude of you.”
“I know. Appalling behavior for a minion of the Netherworld.” I saw the gleam of his smile out of the corner of my eye.
“Well, next time curb the urge, okay? I’ve got my own life to live. When we’re done here tonight, I don’t expect to see you again.”
He looked at me strangely. He seemed about to say something when we made it past the trees and entered into the meadow.
We gathered in a little circle. “Got any creature-summoning charms?” I asked my Wiccans.
They looked at one another. “It’s never come up before,” said Jolene. “But Doc has the scryer.”
Doc fumbled at his coat pocket and wrestled it out. Erasmus leaned over and looked at it, muttering to himself, but didn’t seem to want to touch it.
“Never mind. Nick,” I said, turning to him. “You’re on.”
“I don’t suppose anyone’s changed their mind about this?” He checked our faces in the moonlight. “No? I didn’t think so.” Defeated, he trudged into the center of the meadow, looking back at us over his shoulder. His face was white and stark. He was scared and, catching his eye, so was I. “What if it’s the incubus that shows up?” he called out.
He had a point. “Seraphina, Jolene—you two be on the alert for the succubus and Doc and Erasmus will keep an eye out for the incubus.”
I knew I’d had my chance to get the succubus two times in the last twenty-four hours and I’d screwed up both times. What made me think I could do it this time?
I have to, that’s all. This has to be over! I didn’t want to be the butt of any Netherworld god’s games. And I sure as hell didn’t want to end up like Constance Howland.
My fingers opened and closed over the weapon resting on my thighs as I crouched in the undergrowth. We were all as quiet as we could be. Even Nick was barely breathing, though I could detect the clouds of breath puffing over his head.
Erasmus made no sound at all.
And then the moonlight that had flooded the meadow before suddenly darkened, as if a cloud had passed over it. When I looked up, I realized fat ghostly clouds had lumbered in and covered the face of the moon, shadowing the expanse of meadow around us. I looked toward Erasmus and he looked back at me. “The moon,” I mouthed.
He nodded. I wondered if it would affect things. If the succubus would only come out in the moonlight, then maybe it wouldn’t show.
And then the crickets stopped.
I held my breath. My eyes darted across the meadow. I saw a faint glow and realized it was the scryer in Doc’s hands. Crap. This was it. My keen ears picked it up, the rustling in the distance. I squinted. It looked at first like branches rising out of the undergrowth but then I recognized them as antlers. It looked like a big buck, but it seemed odd that it would come toward the meadow where Nick was obviously sitting, clapping his hands on his arms to keep warm.
When the antlers kept rising, I realized they weren’t antlers, but twisted horns on the top of something like the shape of a man.
Incubus! I raised my crossbow but it hadn’t loaded itself. What the…?
The apparition strode toward me, ignoring Nick. I stood. The jig was up, anyway. If the incubus attacked, I hoped that Erasmus would have my back.
For an incubus, it sure walked like a man. As he drew closer the details of his face became more distinct. He looked like a goat and was wearing leather from head to foot.
And he laughed, an almost familiar sound. Wait a sec… It was familiar because the goat guy was—
“Kylie Strange,” said the voice of Doug the biker. It was then I noticed he was flanked by his other biker buddies. The goat head was a sort of hat worn on top of his shaggy hair and trailed down on either side of his face, resting on his shoulders. The weird goat eyes with their sideways pupils must have been made of glass, but their eerie glitter was no less creepy. The twisted horns on its head reached up at least another foot and a half, making his already tall frame that much taller.
I tucked the crossbow into my hip. “Last time I looked, this wasn’t Hansen Mills.” I glanced behind me to share my little joke with Erasmus Dark, but the damned demon had gone AWOL again. I was alone.
Just me and my chthonic crossbow. Which I noticed had loaded itself with an entirely different quarrel this time.
His eyes darted covetously toward the weapon in my hand. “No. We usually stay on our side of the hill, but for some reason the signs pointed to our being in this meadow at this time. Got any idea why?”
“Nope. Not a clue.”
“And yet, here you are.”
“I was here first.”
He chuckled. His Ordo flunkies didn’t have keen goat hats like him, but they had painted their faces with funny squiggles in black paint. At least…I hoped it was black paint.
“Did Shabiri send you?”
Doug shook his head. The horns swayed a little. “She said she was none too pleased that we’d let that slip.” The Ordo shuffled uncomfortably behind him. “And she said she also paid you a little call.”
“Just a friendly welcome-to-the-neighborhood thing. She didn’t tell me why she wanted this crossbow. How about you?”
He shook his head with a smile. “Nothing doing. But I had hoped to run into you again, Kylie. You are one sexy bitch.”
I hitched the crossbow higher. “I’m sure you say that to all the girls with crossbows. Right, Charise?”
The redhead lunged but skinhead Dean Fitch held her back. “You got a mouth on you,” he growled.
“Hey!” said Nick, rising out of the meadow like the Great Pumpkin. “That’s a lady you’re talking to.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“We’re her friends,” said Doc, levering himself from the underbrush. “Now keep your language civil, Dean Fitch. Remember, I know your folks.”
The skinhead shuffled back, lowering his head.
“Fred Boone,” said Doug in a loud voice. “Don’t get excited. We’re only here for our own ritual. As are you.”
Slowly, the Wicca
ns came out of the bushes and met at the edge of the meadow. I tried to study the new quarrel covertly. But I also tried to keep an eye on the Ordo since I had no Netherworld backup.
Doc Boone folded his arms and stood face to face with Goat Head Boy. He was considerably shorter than Doug and if the biker had wanted to, he could have flicked his finger and knocked Doc over. I hoped he wouldn’t. “Doug,” he said, “I don’t want to have to make a fuss here, but we were doing something mighty important. It’s best if you and your club move on.”
“Club?” cried Charise. “It’s not a club, old man. It’s a coven.”
“It doesn’t cost extra to be polite, Charise,” I said.
“Hey, bitch. Fuck you!”
“Ladies,” said Doc. He shook his head and then looked at me. I had to agree. The trap was effectively sprung and we’d get no succubus activity tonight. Unless…
“Doc, let’s go. I have an idea.”
“What’s your hurry, Kylie?” said Doug.
I had been a scared mouse before. After all, I had been their kidnap victim surrounded by all their biker buddies. There had been nowhere to turn. But not now. Not with my coven, I guessed, and my trusty crossbow that seemed to endow me with random acrobatic abilities. “Well, you’ve got your ritual and we’ve got ours. This meadow isn’t big enough for the both of us.”
“Then why don’t you stay with us, let this little coven be on their way.”
“Sorry. They kind of need me.”
Doug changed tack. He relaxed his posture, tried for suave, as suave as someone could be with a goat head hat. “Listen, about that crossbow. Sorry we tried to, um…”
“Forcibly take it?”
“Yeah. Actually, we’d be happy to buy it from you.”
“Sorry, it’s not for sale. We need to go.” I backed away. Nick was beside me.
“Hey look,” said Dean, pointing at Nick. “It’s the faggot.”
“Didn’t recognize you there, barista,” Doug said, showing his teeth. “I see you took second best.”
“It was a good choice after all, as it turns out.” I was proud of Nick for standing up for himself. He raised his chin. “I like being on the side of good.”
“Spoken like a queer,” Bob said, shaking his head.
“Do you think your little junior coven corners the market on magic?” said Doug. “We have our own, and it’s growing in strength. Maybe you felt it, too.”
“Let’s just all say good-bye—” I began.
Bob clenched his fists. “Are we going to take this?”
No one said anything more and I thought that was our cue to leave. I turned, keeping one eye over my shoulder on the Ordo, with Doug’s inquisitive-looking goat head looking on, and Bob and Dean flanking a twitchy Charise.
The Ordo didn’t look like they might follow us. They just stood there staring. But then Doug smiled a feral grin. He said nothing, but made a quick motion with both hands.
Knife blades flashed in the moonlight. Before I could react, Charise and Fitch lunged at me.
“SUFFLAMINO!” cried Doc.
Instinctually, I raised the loaded crossbow, but they suddenly froze. A golden light showered down on the Ordo and they remained motionless. I thought at first that they were just surprised that Doc had yelled that nonsense word at them, but I soon saw that they couldn’t actually seem to move.
“Doc!” I swung around. “What was that?”
He seemed just as surprised as I was. “By Godfrey! I can’t believe that actually worked.”
Nick gave Doc a high five. “Doc, dude! Seriously dope!”
Doc snapped out of it with a grim expression. “We’d better go. I don’t know how long this will hold them. Heck, I still can’t believe it worked!”
“Wow.” I didn’t stand around wondering. Keeping my eye on the Ordo, I walked backward a long time. They were still frozen, knives raised, faces grimacing, in a grisly tableau. Doug’s goat head became a silhouette against the vague silver light in the meadow and the crickets began to chirp again.
The chthonic crossbow had disarmed itself when I wasn't looking. I wished I knew what it knew.
Once we were safely away someone switched on a flashlight and we started jogging. “That scotches our plans for this evening,” Doc said breathlessly. His beer belly didn’t look like it got much running.
I stared at him. “You’re really a warlock.”
He nodded sheepishly. “I’ve been called worse in my day.”
I looked around at the coven. Sure, they had done their pentagram, and Jolene’s potion had kept Erasmus away, though I scarcely believed it. But this! This was really something. And useful.
“You guys can do lots of that kind of stuff?”
“Only lately, like you said,” said Doc. “I thought it might slow them down a bit, but by Godfrey, that worked!”
“I hope they’ll be all right,” said Seraphina, looking back.
“They know what they’re doing,” I muttered. “Or think they do. By the way, where the hell has Erasmus Dark escaped to? Bastard left me alone back there.”
“My apologies,” he said without emotion as he appeared jogging beside me.
“Don’t do that!” I said, hand over my racing heart.
Jolene giggled. “I think it’s kind of cool.”
“It’s not. And where were you? You left in an awful hurry.”
“Did I? I thought I heard something and went to investigate.”
Right. Demon equates to liar. I really had to remember that.
Seraphina didn’t seem to care about our exchange and plowed on through. “The Ordo have never attacked us before. Why were they going after you, Kylie?”
“Because of the crossbow. When they kidnapped me the other day, they took the crossbow, but it wouldn’t work for them. I figured that they realized they’d need me to go with it.”
She shook her head. “Too much disturbance in the planes. I don’t like leaving this undone. That succubus might kill tonight. And what about that incubus?”
I nodded and slowed to a walk. Everyone slowed beside me. “I don’t think we should leave it undone. Maybe we should go to the caves. Split up when we get there.”
“No way,” said Nick, who looked even paler in the moonlight. “Every time they split up in a horror movie bad things happen.”
“This isn’t a…hmm,” I said, taking stock. Maybe it was like a horror movie. “I still think we should go to the caves.”
Doc sighed. “What does Mr. Dark think we should do?”
Everyone stopped and turned to him. He looked back at the coven mildly. “I think you should take your little witches’ brooms and go home.”
“Now wait a minute!” Seraphina stalked up to him. He reared back, eyes wide with alarm. “You’ve been almost no help this entire time. You left Kylie alone back there when those goons faced off with her, and every time we ask a direct question you answer us with some prevarication. You want to close the book? So do we. Now start answering some questions.”
Nick crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah, what she said.”
Jolene clasped the shoulder strap of her canvas witch kit with a whitening hand. “You have to, Mr. Dark. Kylie has the amulet. You have to do what she tells you.”
“Within reason,” he said, teeth clenched.
It seemed wrong that they were ganging up on him, but then again, maybe because he looked like a man we were treating him like one. And maybe that was wrong. I felt it most keenly, especially when his glance darted toward me with a plea in his eyes.
“Guys,” I said. “Listen…Erasmus.” I felt so tired suddenly. My shop was opening for the first time tomorrow, but what was that to life and death?
Erasmus watched me steadily, especially since I used his name. “We need to finish this. Should we go to the caves? And if we do, will you be there to help? I really need you.”
His eyes were shadowed but he lifted his head incrementally, and I looked into those eyes. As usual, the
irises were dark, almost as dark as his pupils. But something more was there. It was so quick I barely registered it. But it was there. A longing. Was that for me? Or…something else? I shivered, looking away.
He cast his eyes downward, kicking at the turf. “Very well. But dangers await along that trail. It might be in hiding outside the cave. And then there is the other.”
“The incubus,” I said.
“Yes.”
“But you’ll be there to help, right?”
“I said I would.”
I breathed deep of the damp night, smelling moss and duff on the breeze. “Then I guess we’re going to the caves.”
Chapter Nineteen
“There’s only room for four others in my Jeep.”
Everyone turned to Erasmus. “I have no wish to ride in that hellish conveyance. I shall meet you at the trailhead.”
“Okay. Be careful.”
He looked at me oddly before he stepped backwards into the swirling breeze and blended into the night.
“Wicked,” said Jolene.
“I have to admit,” Nick said, “That was pretty awesome.”
“Nick,” said Doc as we got into the car. Nick, ever the gentleman, took the middle back seat. “I suppose you weren’t kidding about your earlier aspirations to join the Ordo.”
“Oh…uh…Well, at one time, I thought it would be cool to be an Ordo member,” Nick said. “You know, motorcycles, leather jacket. But that was before I really knew what they did. I mean, I didn’t want to worship Baphomet and didn’t think they really did that. But now I’m not so sure.”
I started her up. Turning my head to back out, I asked, “Just who or what is Baphomet?”
Jolene cleared her throat, interrupting what Nick was getting ready to say. “Baphomet signifies the duality of male and female, Heaven and Hell. At least in a sort of representational sense. It’s the ‘sabbatic goat’ or the ritual sacrifice, but at the same time it stands in for, well, Satan.”
I turned onto the highway. My headlights swept the forest, capturing small reflective eyes from nocturnal animals before settling into two beams on the black ribbon of road ahead. “So the Ordo are really a bunch of Satan worshippers?”
“Well, demon worshippers,” said Nick. “I mean like really heavy-duty demon worshippers. It’s not just lip service or some logo they found cool. The word is they really do it. I think we saw evidence of that tonight.”
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