by Cassandra
When she looked into Chad’s eyes, she knew there was only one way for her to find out what it was.
She had never outright disobeyed her parents before, but there was always a first time for everything. Cautiously, she glanced back at them, seriously unable to remember the last time she had seen them so livid.
“Mom, Dad—what are you hiding from me?” she whispered.
Theresa sighed. “Honey, you don’t want to know. Not like this.”
“I do want to know. Now. Maybe it wouldn’t have come to this if you had already told me about it.”
“We’ll talk later. But please, don’t go,” Mark pleaded.
Jessica nodded. Relief swept through her parents’ faces, but it was only momentary. “I’m sorry, but ‘later’ won’t do,” she hissed, and darted out the door to follow closely behind the visitors.
Roger let out a low whistle. “You’ll be grounded for life after this.”
“I don’t care. Where are we going?”
“To your grandmother’s,” Chad confided and flashed her a rather impressed glance.
Chapter Four
“So…we’re actually going to my grandma’s?” Jessica marveled from the backseat.
“Yep,” Chad answered from behind the steering wheel.
Beside him, Roger turned the radio dial.
Everything had happened so quickly, yet Jessica felt like her mind processed things much slower than normal. She still tried to get over her shock at what she’d done.
Her parents had yelled so loudly as she ran off with Chad and Roger that she was sure the whole neighborhood had heard them. It made her slightly nauseous to disobey them so drastically, but her need to know what was going on had overshadowed her fear of punishment. As it was, she would probably not see sunlight again until she was eighteen.
However, there was still an inexplicable feeling within her that told her she could trust Chad—and Roger too, for that matter.
Granted, if they turned out to be a couple of cop-killing cemetery murderers, she would never forgive herself. Although something told her that wouldn’t be the case.
Still, she knew she was going to be haunted by her parents’ anger for a long time. Even after she had climbed into the backseat, she had seen her father chase after the car for a few moments.
As she sat there, she glanced constantly behind them, afraid that it was only a matter of time before her father’s truck popped into view and raced after them.
She also kept her ears open and listened for police sirens. Although her parents had never exactly been overbearing, they were fiercely protective.
The stress began to make her a little paranoid. She glanced at her phone and checked to make sure no amber alert featured her name and photo. It most likely took time for them to be issued, but she wouldn’t put it past her parents to work some kind of magic to have one sent out immediately.
Satisfied that her picture wasn’t floating around the neighborhood, she returned her phone to her pocket and glanced around the car. She noticed, for the first time, that there were all sorts of weird devices tossed haphazardly on the floor and across the seat beside her.
Jessica swallowed and wondered if they were weapons but didn’t want to think too much about it. The last thing she needed right now was to be reminded of how potentially stupid she had been to hop into a car with two men she hardly knew. She so didn’t want to give her parents a legitimate reason to say, “I told you so,” and lock her in her room for the next year.
“Well, can you tell me why you want to visit my grandma?” she asked and frowned around her nervousness. The words of those girls from history class drifted back to her. As aggravating as they had been, Jessica couldn’t pretend that they were the only ones who found her grandmother a little weird.
Heck, she found her weird too, if she were honest.
Grandma was no spring chicken, and it was no secret that the further on in years she got, the more her marbles seemed to stray. In other words, the old woman had lost more than a few of them. While she could be perfectly normal one second, she could suddenly be impossible the next. Sometimes, holding a sensible conversation with her was like pulling teeth—from a lion.
Jessica recalled the last time she’d spoken to her grandmother. The conversation had strayed in so many different and unexpected directions that she had literally felt dizzy afterward.
Virtually everyone had come to assume that the reason Grandma Ethel surrounded herself with cats was that they were as quirky as she was.
Needless to say, Jessica was a little worried about the impression she might leave on Chad and Roger if they didn’t know what to expect. But she remembered that they apparently already knew the old lady. After all, they were driving to her house.
“Your grandmother likely has some valuable knowledge for us,” Roger said into the silence and glancing at her, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
She blinked at him. “Yeah…that certainly tells me everything I need to know.”
He laughed.
In the rearview mirror, she saw Chad’s eyes glance briefly at her. “Your grandmother needs to know about what happened at the cemetery this past weekend.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa… What?” Jessica felt lightheaded all over again.
“Jumping right into it, then?” Roger asked and looked sideways at his companion.
“My grandma did not kill those cops at the cemetery!” Jessica shouted. “Who told you that? You’ve been talking to those girls from my school, haven’t you?”
“Calm down, kiddo,” Chad responded. “Nobody said your grandma killed anybody. Besides, I already know who killed them.”
She stared at the back of his head. “Did you tell the police then? Have they… Have they been caught?” she asked, although what she really thought was, Please tell me it wasn’t you two. Please tell me you didn’t do it.
“Trust me, this is no case for the police,” he answered grimly.
Jessica blinked again. “So murder isn’t a case for the police, but somehow, you think it’s a case for my grandma?”
“Yes. Because she’s absolutely the most badass witch I know.”
A hush fell over the car while she continued to stare at the back of his head. She was keenly aware that Roger had twisted in the passenger’s seat to peer at her, but she was momentarily frozen in shock.
Had Chad really referred to her grandma as a badass witch?
And he did say, “witch,” right?
Jessica replayed his words in her head and realized that the alternative wasn’t any better. Who the hell did he think he was to talk about her grandma like that?
“You jackass,” she spat. “Let me out. Let me out right now.”
Roger continued to look at her with his head cocked to the side. “What do you think you are, an action hero or something? Are you seriously trying to jump out of a moving car?”
“Yes. Because I have no interest in hanging out with people who call my grandma names. I swear to God, if anyone else calls her anything but Grandma for the rest of the day, I’m gonna…” Her words trailed off, and she let out what could only be described as a frustrated roar. Once again, she didn’t care how strange the woman was, she wouldn’t stand by while other people talked about her like that.
In the rearview mirror, she saw Chad raise an eyebrow. “Relax. I didn’t mean it as an insult. I said it because it’s true. No offense, but your parents totally suck. They should have told you this by now.”
“Are you kidding me? Now you’re insulting my parents? You have some nerve—”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he cut her off. “But they’re not making my job any easier by keeping this a secret from you.”
Jessica’s anger slowly began to dissipate at the word “secret.” She took a deep breath, forced herself to calm, and reminded herself that the whole reason she had run off with Chad and Roger was to discover the truth.
“Secret?” she asked.
Chad stopped
at the traffic light. He turned and looked at her and the sincerity in his eyes was impossible to fake. “Jessica, your grandmother is a witch. A damned good one at that. I swear, this is the truth. Your parents know but they didn’t want you to know. That’s the secret they’ve kept from you for all these years. Your grandmother is a witch and I need her help. I’m a demon hunter from an organization called Seventh Coven. Yes, demons are real too. They are what killed those cops. I’m going to your grandmother to let her know what’s going on.”
His words were spoken at a mile a minute, and Jessica had to replay them in her head in slow motion to make sure she’d heard him correctly. Speechless, she pressed her back against the seat and closed her eyes for a second. When she reopened them, she looked at Roger and expected him to wear a goofy expression that revealed this was all a joke.
“You can’t be serious,” she marveled.
“Oh, but I am,” Chad confirmed and accelerated as the traffic light turned from red to green.
“B-but…Grandma is only a crazy ol’ cat lady. She hardly even makes sense half the time.”
“No. Your grandma is awesome, and the coven needs her,” Chad argued.
“Are you sure you have the right grandma? Maybe you have us confused with some other family.” Even as she voiced her doubt, she remembered what her mother had said about Chad being exactly like her mother—meaning Jessica’s grandmother.
She swore under her breath and her skin erupted with goosebumps.
Her grandma was a witch. The cops were killed by demons. It was all too much.
Chad and Roger jumped at the loud sound as she slapped herself so hard across the face that she yelped .
“What the hell?” Roger cried and glared at her.
Jessica rubbed the side of her face gingerly. “I had to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.”
Chad chuckled. “A simple pinch would have done the trick. And you might want to give us a warning next time you do something like that. I almost thought you were possessed and that I would have to pull over and douse you with holy water.”
Jessica’s grandma’s house was the most easily recognizable one on the block—the multitude of cats gave it away every time. At the moment, two cats sprawled on the porch and one slunk maliciously across the front yard toward a bird perched on top of the wooden fence.
Chad and Roger wasted no time but scrambled out of the car. Jessica, on the other hand, sat for a moment and simply stared out the window as she struggled to wrap her mind around the news that had just been sprung on her.
My grandma, a witch.
She’d heard the rumor ever since she was a little girl but had never paid much attention to it. Instead, she’d thought people simply tried to make fun of her as the kid with the crazy cat lady for a grandma. It was unsettling to think everyone had known more about her grandmother than she did. Granted, she doubted they really believed Grandma Ethel was a witch, but still.
When he noticed that she was still in the car, Chad stooped and knocked on the window. “Are you coming?”
Jessica pushed the back of the seat forward and climbed out the door. It was late afternoon now, and the sun had sunk low in the sky. As she looked at her grandma’s house, she knew it was only her imagination that made it look like an actual witch’s cabin.
The trees loomed over it and cast dark shadows that stretched across the lawn. A black cat sitting in the window and…
Stop being silly, Jessica. It’s the same house that it’s always been, and you’ve been over here a million times before.
“Since it’s your grandma, do you wanna escort us in?” Roger asked as he gestured with his hand for her to take the lead.
She rolled her eyes—did he honestly think that would make her feel better? Jessica took a deep breath, headed for her grandma’s front porch, and tripped over a cat on the way up the stairs. With Chad and Roger behind her, she pressed the doorbell. One of the cats purred and rubbed against her leg.
“Who is it?” she heard her grandma call from inside.
“It’s me, Grandma. Jessica,” she called and her voice quivered with nerves.
Shuffling sounded from behind the door before it creaked open.
Despite it being barely five p.m., Grandma Ethel had a long nightgown on with an unbuttoned cardigan over it. She wore fuzzy house slippers, and her hair hung down in two long gray braids.
“Jessica, darling,” she cooed and glanced at the two young men behind her. She tsked and wagged her finger. “Now, when I was your age, I upset my parents by running off with your granddaddy. And yeah—he was a bit older than me, but things were different in those days. But here you are, just like me when I went to my granny’s for refuge! But two boys, Jessica? Two?”
“Grandma!” Jessica cried, mortified. Her face seemed to literally steam, and she knew her skin had turned beet red. “That’s not… That’s… Oh, my God. They’re here to see you!”
“What do two handsome young lads want with an old bat like me? I still got it, eh?” She cackled.
Jessica looked at the sky. “Oh, my God, Grandma,” she muttered.
“Ms. Ethel, it’s me.” Chad was barely able to conceal his laughter. “Chad. Remember? And Roger.”
Grandma Ethel squinted and after a moment, placed her hand on her forehead. “My word, so it is. Pardon me. This sun is playing tricks on my eyes. Come in, come in,” she invited and, stepped aside to permit them entrance.
Jessica knew she shouldn’t hold her breath waiting for her to apologize. It wasn’t like she could ask for an apology outright, either. Now that she knew she was a witch, she figured it probably wasn’t wise to demand anything from her.
She shuddered as she wondered whether Grandma Ethel had ever cursed anyone. Rather than pursue that thought, she cleared her throat and distracted herself by petting one of the cats that curled around her ankles.
Her grandma closed the door. “What’s going on here? Your mama called me a few minutes ago to ask if you were here. What are you doing with these two?”
“I’m sure they can explain better than I can.” Jessica waved a hand at the two men and still felt too embarrassed to look the old woman in the eye.
“Ms. Ethel,” Chad ventured as he stepped forward, “the coven sent me.”
Grandma Ethel placed a hand on her hip. “Say what, now?”
“Seventh Coven.”
“Did they really?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, hell.”
“Exactly,” Roger agreed.
Ethel scooped a cat into her arms and shuffled across the room to flop down on her couch. She turned her gaze to Jessica. “So, girly, I guess that means you’re finally in the know?”
“Uh…” Jessica hesitated.
“She knows a little,” Chad admitted. “But we have a lot more to talk about with you, Ms. Ethel.”
With a grunt, Grandma Ethel released the cat she held and pushed to her feet. “So I’m in for a long evening?”
Chad scratched his ear. “Well, it shouldn’t take too long.”
Grandma Ethel sighed and clearly didn’t believe him. “If I have to listen to the latest drama going on with the Coven, we might as well do it over dinner.”
Jessica finally looked at her grandmother. It was like she’d said the magic word. Dinner. She realized that she was starving, and a good home-cooked meal from Grandma Ethel was more than enough to make her forgive her earlier comments.
“Did you cook already?” she asked. She sniffed the air hopefully, but all she smelled was Lysol. Contrary to what most people thought, her grandmother had always kept a very clean house. It smelled nothing like what you would expect a house full of cats to smell like.
“Child, I only need a minute to whip something up. As a matter of fact, you can go ahead and set the table. And get an extra chair for Roger, will you?”
“Sure.” She stepped over cats and cat toys and walked toward the back of the house, headed for the basement stairs, while Chad and Roger cha
tted idly with the old woman.
A part of her still expected to wake up at any moment, while another part of her slowly started to accept reality.
Her grandmother was really a witch.
As she made her way carefully down the basement stairs, she sifted through memories from her childhood and attempted to recall if there had ever been any signs to indicate what her grandmother really was.
Her mind drew a blank. For the most part, Grandma Ethel had always seemed like a typical grandmother—full of stories, laughter, hugs, and cookies. The only strange thing about her had been her cats, and when she thought about it, it wasn’t even all that strange. It wasn’t like she was the only cat lady in the world.
Besides, what old person isn’t a little strange? she thought as she flicked the basement light on.
“Jessica, get one of the folding chairs,” Grandma Ethel called.
Jessica froze. She had actually reached for one of the good chairs but looked at the ceiling and frowned. Had her grandma somehow known she’d been about to retrieve one of those?
Come to think of it, it’s always seemed like Grandma Ethel had eyes everywhere—like she could see you even when she wasn’t in the same room. Is that a witch trait?
Contemplating her grandmother’s abilities, she grabbed a fold-up chair, climbed up the stairs, and flipped the light off.
Her jaw dropped when she saw the dining room table already laid with a mouthwatering meal. Rotisserie chicken, potato salad, green beans, buttermilk biscuits, and an apple pie seemed to have appeared from nowhere.
“Grandma,” Jessica whispered in amazement, “how did… You had this cooked already, didn’t you?”
The old lady smiled. “Honey, I been preparing food all my life. Eons before you were even born. It takes me no time at all.” She winked. “I can steal a six-course meal from Boston Farms before they can even notice a single slice of bread out of place.”
Chapter Five