Something Wiccan This Way Comes

by Emma Harrison

“Oh, hey!” Jasmine said, tossing her curls over her shoulder. “Looks like we weren’t the only big winners tonight!”

  Paige laughed, stopping herself from questioning Jasmine’s use of the word winners after she and her friends had clearly cheated.

  “Piper, Phoebe, this is Jasmine,” Paige said. “She and her friends just went a little crazy at the roulette wheel.”

  “I went a little crazy at the slots,” Phoebe said proudly.

  “Cool. Wanna go blow it with us? We’re heading over to this new club down the Strip. It’s supposed to be hot,” Jasmine said. The rest of her coven was gathered at the end of the roulette table waiting for her, and Paige swore she heard one of them grumble her disapproval at the invitation Jasmine had made. Probably Purple Hair Girl.

  “Well, I’m in,” Paige asked. “I’m tired of the casino, but I’m too hyper to sleep.”

  She looked at her sisters hopefully. Paige didn’t mind the idea of hanging out with Jasmine and her friends. She had a feeling they’d be a lot of fun at a dance club, since they seemed to be a bit on the wild side, but she knew she’d have a better time if Phoebe and Piper came along.

  “What do you think?” Paige said, waggling her eyebrows. “We can do some sisterly bonding on the dance floor.”

  “I don’t know,” Piper said, scratching at her forehead. “I kind of want to go home and call Leo.”

  “Yeah, me too,” Phoebe said. “Call Cole, that is.”

  “Come on, you guys! We’re on vacation!” Paige protested. “Don’t be such old married people!”

  “Sorry, Paige,” Piper said. “But if that’s what I am, I just have to accept it.”

  “All right,” Paige said with a little laugh. “But I’m gonna go.”

  Phoebe shot Piper a look. “Paige, can I see you over here for a second?” she asked, tilting her head, since she had neither hand free.

  “I’ll be right back,” Paige told Jasmine.

  “Okay, but hurry up. The natives are getting restless,” Jasmine said, joining her friends.

  Paige followed Piper and Phoebe over to an out-of-order change machine. Phoebe adjusted the buckets in her arms and looked at Paige. Suddenly Paige had the feeling she was in for a lecture.

  “I don’t think splitting up is such a good idea with this psycho on the loose,” Phoebe said under her breath.

  “Phoebe, come on,” Paige replied. “I’ll be with friends.”

  She swallowed back the little wave of fear that hit her at Phoebe’s words. After all, she had just concluded that Jasmine could be a target for the kidnapper. But he wasn’t going to take her in the middle of a raging club, so there was no reason, at the moment, to tell her sisters about her suspicions. Not when she knew they would freak out and drag her right back to the campsite.

  “Yeah, she’ll be fine,” Piper said.

  “Piper! I thought you’d be on my side with this!” Phoebe exclaimed.

  “Well, for once I’m not going to be Responsible Piper,” she replied, pushing her hair behind her ears. “I think Paige should go out and have fun. Besides, she’s going to be surrounded by people. She’ll be fine.”

  “Thank you!” Paige said, giving a little jump of excitement. “Tell Cole and Leo I said hi!”

  Then, before Phoebe could protest any more, Paige turned and jogged over to Jasmine. It was time to have a little fun on this vacation!

  Chapter

  7

  “Oh, God. What’s going on?” Phoebe asked, her stomach turning as Piper drove the convertible toward the entrance to the campground. There were two cop cars parked right near the Tumbleweed Campground sign with their lights flashing. A couple of uniformed police officers stood alongside their cars, talking with their heads bent close together, the brims of their large hats touching.

  “Do you think someone else is missing?” Phoebe added.

  “I guess we’re going to find out,” Piper said as one of the police officers flashed an extremely bright flashlight at their car. He held up one hand to tell them to stop, and Piper slowed down, coming to a stop right next to him.

  “Evening, ladies,” the cop said, turning off the light. “State your business here, please.”

  “We’re staying here for the…uh…convention,” Piper said, shooting Phoebe a look. Phoebe knew her sister was avoiding the word Gathering because she was afraid of sounding like a kook.

  “Well, we have some officers on site dealing with a situation,” the policeman said, taking a step back. “If you’ll just go directly to your tent, it would be much appreciated.”

  “Situation?” Phoebe said. “Is someone else missing?”

  “Sorry, ma’am,” he replied. “I’m not authorized to divulge any information. Just proceed to your tent.”

  Phoebe and Piper exchanged a disturbed glance as the officer stepped aside and waved Piper forward. She pulled the car into the dirt driveway and started carefully down the road through the dark.

  “We’re not actually going to our tent, right?” Piper asked, gripping the steering wheel.

  “Like you even have to ask,” Phoebe deadpanned.

  The drive to the actual campground felt like it took forever as Phoebe tried to keep herself from thinking the worst. When they arrived, there were little clumps of people standing in front of tents and sitting on benches, talking quietly and looking over their shoulders into the dark. There was a thick, almost palpable sense of tension in the air. Piper drove right up to Treetop’s office, where two more cop cars were parked, and killed the engine.

  “If anyone’s going to know what’s going on, it’s going to be Marcia,” Piper said, slamming her car door and walking around the front.

  “What are you going to do? Just walk right in when they’re in the middle of an investigation?” Phoebe asked, scurrying to catch up.

  Piper replied by doing just that. Phoebe followed, but the moment she walked into the tiny cabin office, a chubby, balding police officer grabbed her by the arms.

  “You can’t be in here, girls,” he said, shooting Piper a semimenacing glance. “Why don’t you wait outside?”

  Phoebe’s eyes traveled over the office quickly. Two more officers were standing near a TV and VCR in the corner, while another spoke to Marcia and Ryan Treetop behind the desk. Marcia’s skin looked pale and her hair was all mussed, as if she hadn’t looked in a mirror all day, and Ryan’s forehead was creased with worry.

  “Marcia? Is everything all right?” Phoebe asked, the cop still gripping her arms.

  Marcia looked up, her eyes heavy, and it took her a moment to focus on Phoebe. “Yes, dear. The police have just confiscated a surveillance tape.”

  The cop released Phoebe, and her hands instinctively flew to her biceps to rub the sore spots where he had grabbed her. She looked over at Piper, knowing her sister was thinking the same thing she was. A surveillance tape? If whatever had taken Craig was on that recording and they could get a look at it, then finding the demon in the Book of Shadows would be a lot easier. It was always a plus to have a supernatural mug shot.

  “Ms. Farina, I told you that information was not for public knowledge,” the police officer with the serious grip said.

  “I’m sorry,” Marcia replied, clutching her hands together. “It’s just been a bit of a hard day.”

  “Can we see the tape?” Piper asked, glancing at the VCR, which appeared to be paused on a black-and-white shot of one of the many paths that traversed the campground.

  “No, you cannot,” the police officer said condescendingly, his nostrils flaring slightly. “This is official police business, and this tape is official evidence. Now, if you two would kindly leave—”

  “All righty, then,” Piper said. She raised her hands and with one swift flick of her wrists froze the room. The police officer stopped with his mouth half open and his eyes half closed, and Marcia was frozen mid-weep. But most importantly, both of the cops in the corner had stepped far enough away from the TV for Piper and Phoebe to access it.
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br />   “Okay, let’s go,” Piper said, rushing over to the VCR. She pressed Play, and she and Phoebe both stepped back to watch.

  The scene flickered to life in grainy black and white. It was an angle from above on a pathway between three tents. The timer in the bottom left-hand corner read 2:43 A.M. Phoebe held her breath waiting for something to happen, but a couple of minutes passed and they saw nothing. It was just a picture of an empty path.

  “I’m gonna fast-forward,” she said, pressing the button. “We don’t have enough time to watch the nothing hour.”

  The tape flew ahead with little but white tracking lines flying across the screen. Then, suddenly, Phoebe saw movement in the top left-hand corner of the screen. She jumped forward and hit the Play button.

  The timer now read 2:59 A.M. Three figures, inhumanly tall and wearing long black robes, moved onto the path from the top of the screen. Phoebe felt her heart pound with foreboding. The creatures moved slowly, deliberately, and they all kept their heads down. Something about the way they moved, almost as if they were floating, and the way their robes swished back and forth like a whisper, sent a chill down her spine.

  “What are they?” she muttered, narrowing her eyes.

  “I have no idea,” Piper replied. “They could be humans. Freakishly large, NBA-prospect humans.”

  Then one of the creatures raised its face, and Phoebe’s hand shot out to grab Piper’s arm. It had a large, shiny jackal’s head with a long snout and blank, staring eyes. When it bowed its head again, it reached up to pull its hood down farther over its face, and Phoebe could see as clear as day that it had large black claws.

  “Okay, that’s freaky,” Phoebe said, releasing Piper’s arm shakily as the creatures passed all the way through the shot.

  “What’s freaky is that those things were walking around here last night while we were sleeping,” Piper said with a shudder. “Okay, quick, rewind the tape. Now at least we know what they look like.”

  “Are we gonna leave it here?” Phoebe asked, hitting the Rewind button.

  “We have to. The guy just put it in the VCR. If we take it, they’re gonna be too suspicious,” Piper said, going back to stand where she’d been before she froze everyone. “Besides, they’re just gonna think that somebody dressed up like that last night. No one but us is going to realize those things are real.”

  “Okay,” Phoebe said. She stopped the tape, hit Play, and then paused it again. Then she rushed into position next to Piper. “Do it,” she said.

  Piper raised her hands, and at that moment the door to the office was flung open. Phoebe had just enough time to get a glimpse of Taryn, Tessa, and Christian walking in before Piper unfroze the scene.

  Tessa’s and Christian’s eyes nearly popped out of their skulls, and Taryn had to grab on to the doorjamb for support. Phoebe wanted to throw up right then and there. Every last one of them had just witnessed Piper’s power.

  “—the office now,” the cop said, finishing the sentence he’d started before being frozen. Then he looked past them at the three new visitors and his face reddened. “Where the hell did you three come from?” he spit.

  “Come on,” Piper said, grabbing Taryn’s and Tessa’s arms. “We were just leaving.”

  She pulled them out the door, and Phoebe made sure Christian walked out ahead of her so he wouldn’t be able to ask any questions of the people inside the office. As soon as they were back out on the path, however, Christian was full of questions.

  “What was that?” he demanded wildly. “What did we just see in there?”

  “Nothing,” Piper said automatically. “I didn’t see anything weird, Phoebe, did you?”

  “Nice try,” Christian said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You did something to those people, and if you don’t tell me what’s going on right now, I’m gonna go in there and tell those cops what I just saw.”

  Phoebe looked at Piper, and Piper simply bowed her head, kicking at the ground with her boot and seeming very intent on watching herself do it. Phoebe opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She didn’t have a clue as to what she could possibly say to fix this situation.

  “So, I’m going,” Christian said, making a move toward the door to Treetop’s cabin.

  “Wait!” Tessa said, touching his arm and stopping him. She turned slowly to Piper and Phoebe and took a deep breath. “You guys, you have to tell us what’s going on,” she said. “Who has powers like that?”

  When Piper lifted her face once more, she and Phoebe exchanged a look of grim resignation. Suddenly Phoebe found herself wishing that she and Piper had opted to hang out with Paige. At that moment she knew it was going to be a very long night.

  Paige looked in the grungy mirror in the bathroom at the club Jasmine and her friends had brought her to, wondering why she hadn’t just gone home with her sisters. Even if they were just chatting with their men, they had to be having a better time than she was. The driving beat of the dance music pounded through the walls, causing the dim light fixtures to shake and piercing Paige’s temples with each downbeat. Apparently she couldn’t party like she used to.

  “Um, excuse me? Are you gonna hog that mirror all night?”

  Paige glanced at her reflection and saw an overly made-up girl of about twenty-one standing behind her in a shimmery silver halter and boots that practically went up to her navel. Just another obnoxious girl who thought the world revolved around her and thus should get mirror time when she needed it. This whole club was packed with them. Part of Paige felt like putting this girl in her place, but a bigger part was just too tired to deal. She moved away from the sinks and shoved through the door, rejoining the throbbing crowd on the dance floor.

  Almost instantly two girls came running toward the bathroom and slammed right into Paige, nearly mowing her down. Neither of them stopped to apologize, and from the way they continued to giggle and gab, Paige was fairly certain they hadn’t even noticed. A group of guys in dark, trendy clothing stood near the wall and sipped beer from long-necked bottles. They eyed Paige appreciatively, and she glanced away. She had to get lost on the dance floor before one of them tried to hit on her.

  Paige held her breath and dived into the mass of moving bodies, trying to make her way across the hardwood floor toward the bar, where she’d last seen Jasmine and the others. She was pretty ready to pack it in, but she wanted to tell them that she was leaving. Not that they’d notice her absence, or care, but part of her still wanted someone to know where she was and where she wasn’t. Apparently her older sisters’ sense of responsibility was wearing off on her.

  Paige finally emerged on the other side of the dance floor, only slightly bruised, and took a deep breath. Glancing around, she saw Purple Hair Girl, whose name had turned out to be Chloe, talking to Annie of the long hair and Jesse, who was tiny, quiet, and seemed to look up to the other girls like they were her heroes. They were standing by the bar, and they were all giggling about something. Paige walked over and slipped into a tight spot between Chloe’s back and a couple of people who were making out as if they were in their own bedroom and not a public place.

  “Hey! Have you guys seen Jasmine?” Paige shouted at the top of her lungs to be heard over the driving dance beat.

  “Paige! You are never going to believe what I just did!” Chloe said, turning around and taking a long sip of her martini. “You see that guy over by the wall? The one in the hideous black-and-gray shirt?” She pointed across the dance floor to a geeky-looking guy in a retro top and black pants who was surveying the dance floor. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and he wore one long earring.

  “Yeah, what about him?” Paige asked, trying to ignore the hint of foreboding in her chest.

  “Well, he was totally coming on to Jesse and would not leave her alone, so I marked him,” Chloe said, smirking mischievously before taking another slug of her drink.

  “You marked him?” Paige repeated. She had no idea what it meant to mark someone, but it didn’t sound
like a good thing.

  “Yeah. I keep this potion in my bag in case I ever need it,” Chloe said, slipping a vial out of her slim black bag. “All you’ve gotta do is put some on your fingertip and wipe it across the back of a person’s neck. It’s like instant beer goggles.” She glanced over Paige’s shoulder and laughed. “See! Check it out!”

  The geeky guy was coming on strong to an overweight girl in an extremely tight bodysuit. He had her pinned up against the wall and was running his finger down her cheek lovingly. The girl looked totally uncomfortable and was finally able to inch herself away from the guy. Paige felt sick to her stomach. She couldn’t believe Chloe had worked a spell on the poor guy. And it wasn’t exactly fair to the female population of the club, either. He was probably going to come on to every girl present before the end of the night.

  “That’s not funny, Chloe,” Paige said. She was beginning to feel like she was dealing with kindergartners. Chloe’s face darkened, and Paige knew she was about to tell her off, but before she could, Jasmine returned, laughing and squealing excitedly.

  “I got it! I got a piece of her hair!” Jasmine said, holding out two pinched fingers.

  “Perfect!” Chloe exclaimed. She dropped the vial of potion back into her bag and pulled out a tiny white voodoo doll. “Here! Give it to me.”

  “You’re gonna love this one, Paige,” Annie said, leaning her elbows into the bar.

  Chloe wrapped a piece of long, almost white blond hair around the doll’s neck until it was tight. Then she held the doll in both hands and recited quickly, “With my words this doll becomes my instrument. Give me the power to work my magic on she whose hair here lies.”

  Chloe grinned at Paige, who started to squirm uncomfortably, then placed the doll on the bar. “Ready, girls?” Chloe asked conspiratorially.

  Annie, Jesse, Chloe, and Jasmine all placed one finger on the doll and looked across the room toward the bathroom. Paige glanced around, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to what was going on. There was too much mayhem in the room to take it all in. Besides, even if someone did see Jasmine and her friends working voodoo, they probably wouldn’t think much of it. This town was filled with more bizarre people than San Francisco.