A Haunting in the SWATS (The Savannah Swan Files Book 1)

by Balogun Ojetade

  The horde of spirits darted toward the conjured girls, flowing, like black water, at their faces. Lashey howled as the strain of directing the dead tore at her spirit.

  The spirits darted away from the girls then whirled into the air, forming a tight ball of seething, ancestral power. Lashey clenched her fists and ground her teeth, struggling to pull the splinters of the dead back under her control.

  But they fled from her, spiraling down into an old blue cooler someone had left sitting by the wrecked bar. Lashey sagged against the wall, all her strength gone. Her eyes fluttered, then closed.

  Rashad struggled against the conjured girls, but they were too strong for him. They pinned him to the ground, and he could only watch as the floating girl lifted Lashey over her shoulder with one hand and took the cooler with the other.

  “We’re done here,” the floating girl said. “Tell your woman,” she whispered, the words dripping like venom in Rashad’s thoughts. “That your life is our gift to her.”

  Rashad went limp. The world slipped away from him. When he opened his eyes again, the conjured girls were gone. Lashey was gone, as well.

  Rashad wailed as he staggered across the room.

  The mayor was slumped on the floor next to the fireplace, his hands folded in his lap. Rashad knelt in front of him. “Where are they? Where did they take my baby?”

  The mayor let out a long, pained sigh. “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”

  His eyes, locked with Rashad’s. “We’re all dead, now.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Savannah gunned the engine. The SUV roared through the shattered gate and up the long drive to the Briarcliff. She shifted her gaze from side to side, watching the trees for signs of danger, trying to catch sight of the big black dogs that guarded the place. The woods were quiet, though, and she saw no sign of life. No birds or squirrels or even the wind stirred in the deep, dark woods.

  A leaden weariness had settled into her bones during the night. She swallowed a mouthful of bitter saliva as she turned the last corner to the Briarcliff.

  She found the dogs.

  Their heads were nailed above the main entrance. One of them had been hacked open, its gutless corpse splayed across the hood of Rashad’s Ford Country Squire.

  Savannah took the pistols from the case then shoved them through the back of her belt as she exited the SUV. She holstered her revolver on her thigh.

  She wound her way through the bodies. The dogs’ blood was a sticky maze on the asphalt. Savannah weaved her way through the labyrinth then stopped at the doorway, peering into the gloom.

  The doors were gone, leaving behind jagged splinters of ancient wood that jutted out from the hinges that once held them. At the far end of the entryway, Savannah could see the flickering light of a fire and hear quiet sobbing. She hesitated at the threshold, weak and exhausted. She did not want to know what had happened; did not want to find out what new tragedy had befallen her family.

  The sobs pulled her forward. It was Rashad; she could feel it more than hear it – raw, ragged emotion. She followed Rashad’s sorrow down the hall, one plodding step at a time, until she came to the sitting room.

  Carter growled at Savannah’s approach. The boy hunkered near the shattered bar, bestial snout lowered, feral eyes catching the glow from the flickering fireplace. Savannah stopped in the doorway, letting her son recognize her; doing her best to appear unthreatening.

  The young man slunk back into the shadows, but his glowing eyes never left her.

  The mayor reclined in his gnarled chair, hands loose and trembling in his lap, eyes closed and swollen. Rashad crouched next to Mayor Green, his talented hands moving over him, finding his hurts, leaching away the sting and pain.

  A sharp rage burnt the weariness out of Savannah’s muscles. She cleared her throat. “Rashad… Carter… let’s go. We’re done here.”

  Rashad turned toward Savannah. “You’re too late. We can’t leave. Not now.”

  He sobbed again – a sound half-mad with fear, anger and despair.

  The mayor stirred, his shadow fluttering behind him. “There’s nowhere to go. No place will be safe.”

  Savannah stormed toward the tortured chair. She whipped a pistol clear of her waist band. She leveled the heavy barrel at the Mayor’s forehead. “I’m done. I quit. We’re going.”

  Rashad exploded up from his knees, shoving Savannah’s gun hand away. “You want to kill him? Now? When it won’t do us any good… now you want to quit?”

  Her husband’s touch curdled Savannah’s blood. The old curse wrapped around her spine and yanked her to attention. Her finger was heavy on the trigger, and for a moment, Savannah envisioned Rashad on the floor, blood and brains fanned out around his head like a halo.

  Carter growled then padded out of the shadows on all fours. His scimitar teeth gleamed white through curling lips as he stared at his mother. He was more grizzly than honey badger now, with a touch of American Bulldog.

  Savannah eyed her son then lowered the gun. “What the hell happened here?”

  The mayor coughed up blood. “I was wrong. We misjudged what was happening.”

  Rashad sighed. His eyes were ringed with bruises of exhaustion. “They took Lashey.”

  The pistol’s grip creaked in Savannah’s fist. “Who?”

  Carter licked his muzzle. “Your girlfriends,” he growled. “Those conjured hoes.”

  Savannah raised the pistol again. She aimed it at the mayor’s face. “How could you let this happen? They came here for protection.”

  The mayor doubled over in a coughing fit. When he looked up at Savannah, one of his eyes was filled with a bloody stain. “They were not here for you. They came to the SWATS because of me. They took something.”

  Savannah’s finger hugged the trigger. One tiny bit of pressure would break her oath to this man; her lifetime of duty would end. The mayor looked weak, defeated. Savannah was certain one shot would kill him. She wanted to end him, more than almost anything in the world. But not more than she wanted her daughter back.

  She slipped the pistol back into her waistband then walked past Carter to the ruined bar. Carter sniffed at Savannah as she passed, but he did not growl. He sat on his haunches, grunting, watching Savannah dig for an unbroken bottle.

  Savannah raised a bottle of AsomBroso Añejo tequila. She snatched off the crystal top then took a long swallow, closing her eyes as the smooth, liquid fire found all the hollow places in her gut. She threw the top into the fire then took another drink. She felt the first tingles of a buzz tickle at the edges of her brain. For that moment, she did not feel like killing anyone. She stared at the mayor. “You’re going to help me get my girl back.”

  Rashad’s laughter was cold and metallic. “Look at him, Van. He can’t help himself sit up. If he lives through the day it’ll be a miracle.”

  The mayor nodded. “He is partly correct. Whoever brought those conjured girls here did it to hurt me; to rob me of my power; to disrupt the balance of the SWATS. I can offer advice, but little else.”

  Savannah felt the truth in the mayor’s words… and in her own body. The vitality, the raw force she had come to associate with the office of the Root Woman, was gone. “Then you’d better start filling in the blanks, old man, before I decide I really don’t have a use for you anymore.”

  Rashad rose then sauntered to Savannah. He looked down into his wife’s shadowed face. “You have to stop.”

  The air crackled with flashes of rage and regret, whipped into a furor by the Night Howler’s curse, which weighed heavy on both their hearts. Savannah wanted to reach out to her husband, but she knew her hand was as likely to strike as to caress. She clenched her fists. “Stop what?”

  “This,” Rashad replied. “Trying to kill your way out of every problem.”

  “The whole city wants to kill me. I might as well return the favor.

  Rashad took the bottle from Savannah, careful not to touch her fingers, wary of igniting their curse. He
allowed himself a long drink then handed the bottle back to her. “That’s what your mother understood, but you never did. She was a shepherd; she helped people stay on the Here Road.”

  “And what am I?”

  Rashad looked away from Savannah. “You’re a wolf, Van; a shark; an apex predator. You don’t care if anyone stays on the Road; you just kill whoever steps off of it.”

  Savannah drank from the bottle until she felt the tequila settle in her head, then she drank for a few more seconds before she lowered the bottle. “Did you step off the Road?”

  The mayor staggered to his feet. He leaned against his chair. “Lashey was going to die. Your husband did what any father would do. Without Rashad’s power, your daughter would not be missing. She would be dead.”

  Savannah felt the pistols pulse against the small of her back. Her hand hungered for their grips. This is what she had given her life over to; this was the code she had lived by since Rashad’s mother murdered hers.

  Savannah studied Rashad’s face. She recognized the shadows there, not as weariness, but as power. He was tired, but only from holding in the gifts his mother had left him. Rashad was overflowing with the stink of darkness.

  “You can’t banish every shadow, Savannah,” Rashad said. “You can’t kill us all.”

  Savannah took another drink. “This is what I am. This is what it takes to keep the world safe.”

  Rashad took Savannah’s chin in his hands, locking his gaze on hers.

  She trembled at his touch, at the twisting rage of their curse; at the way he made her feel, the strength of conflicting emotions so great she feared it would tear them both apart.

  “Are we safer now?” Rashad asked, releasing her. He pried the bottle from Savannah’s hand, then let it fall to the floor. “My mother’s dead; she’s been dead for years. She killed your mother. You killed her. Let it go. We can work together. We can get our daughter back.”

  Savannah took her husband’s hands in her own. She shook with the effort of not crushing the bones of his fingers. The curse burned within her. “At what cost?”

  “What cost is too great?” Rashad tore away from Savannah then motioned for Carter. He moved to the door. “We’ll be outside.”

  The mayor settled back into his chair. “Come sit with me, Savannah.”

  Savannah sat an unbroken chair beside the mayor then flopped into it.

  The mayor peered at Savannah over trembling, steepled fingers.

  Savannah wondered if she could take the old man; if she really could kill him in this moment of weakness. Her mother once told her that Jedediah Green could not be killed. He could just be… reset. She was curious to find out.

  “I will not ask you what happened to you, Savannah, but you need to know that something did happen.” The mayor took a long, shuddering breath. “Something in you has changed.”

  Savannah waved the mayor’s words away. “Just tell me how to get my daughter back.”

  The mayor sighed. “They took my power, your daughter, and the Izintwala at dawn. They will bring your daughter and the idols somewhere safe, somewhere they are strong.”

  Savannah leaned back in her chair. She drew the pistols.

  The mayor stared at her.

  Savannah smiled. “Don’t worry; I’m not going to shoot you. These things are uncomfortable to sit on.”

  “You will not be able to take them head on. You need to find a way to weaken them, to even the odds. You will need allies. As my star has fallen, so, too, will the powers of your office falter. You are not as strong as you once were.”

  Savannah laughed. “There’s no one left in this town I can trust. The Chief Detective turned on me.”

  “Your son. Your wife. There are others in the SWATS whose interests intersect with your own, despite that you have angered them. They are far from powerless. Use them.”

  “You turned Rashad back to the shadows. How can I ever trust him?”

  “I do not know the answer to that. But you must find a way to mend the bridges you have burnt. Your husband is right. You cannot do this on your own.”

  “Great. Care to drop any more jewels?”

  “You do not have much time. Their triumvirate is complete. They will do what they came to do, and they will do it soon. I would wager before the next dawn.”

  “Then I guess I better get to work.”

  “What will you do?”

  Savannah walked to the doorway, stopped then turned back. “I’m going to get my daughter back. Somehow. Then I’m going to kill those conjured bitches and everyone with them.”

  “And then?”

  “I’m going to come back here, and we’re going to find out just how much I’ve changed.”

  ***

  Savannah stepped out of the Briarcliff’s shadowed doorway, then stepped around the scattered dog corpses to get to her Ford Flex. She did not look at Rashad; she did not wave, flip him the finger, or put a bullet through his forehead.

  Rashad sucked in a deep breath, obviously relieved, then let himself out of the station wagon.

  Savannah saw Rashad walk toward her, but she still would not pay him any attention. Rashad kept walking, skirting around the front of the SUV with his hands loose and away from his sides. He obviously did not want to spook her.

  He was five feet away from her, his hip next to the SUV’s front bumper when she decided to speak. “Why don’t you just stay right there.”

  Rashad froze. “I just want to talk.”

  “Seems like that’s all anyone’s good for today.” Savannah slammed the SUV’s door closed then pointed one of her pistols out the window.

  Rashad’s breath caught in his throat.

  “Go on, I’m listening,” she said.

  “I didn’t have no… any choice.”

  Savannah glared at her husband. Rashad did not look away. New streaks of vivid silver had woven through the waves of his dark hair. Shadows had sprung up around his eyes overnight, and no amount of morning sunshine would ever drive them away.

  “People keep telling me they have no choice,” Savannah sighed. “I keep saying it. Maybe it’s true.” Savannah raised the barrel of the pistol, then touched it to her temple. “Maybe none of us have any choices.”

  “I guess you and I’ve been headin’ this way for all our lives,” Rashad said. But it ain’t just coincidence that brought us together, and it ain’t blind luck that’s kept us that way either. I ain’t had a lot of choices in my life, Savannah. I didn’t choose to be the Night Howler’s son. I didn’t choose to fall in love with the woman who’d one day kill my mama. But I did choose to stick with you; to love you as best I could. I chose to give you babies. I chose to raise ‘em with you.”

  Savannah kept the gun raised. “Maybe those weren’t your best choices. Maybe they weren’t my best choices either. Maybe I should have chosen differently and put you down with your mother. It would have been easier twenty years ago.”

  Rashad threw his shoulders back and raised his chin, letting the tears roll down his cheeks. “That’s how you feel? Then go ahead. I got nothin’ to live for but you and my babies. I lost one of them today. I guess if you try to pop me, I’m gonna lose the other when Carter tries to keep you from killin’ me.”

  That got Savannah’s attention. She locked eyes with her husband and held onto his gaze.

  “I walked the There Road last night,” Rashad said. “And there ain’t no mistakin’ that. But nobody got hurt except those that wronged my family. I didn’t conjure up no haints to kill nobody. I sho’ didn’t draw spirits from their graves to do my biddin’. I saved my baby girl… or at least I tried.”

  “That’s a lot of words just to admit you broke the Road-Law.”

  Rashad brushed the tears from his eyes with the backs of his hands. “Get it over with then. Just promise me you won’t stop lookin’ for Lashey. Promise you’ll save our baby after you’ve killed me for what I’ve done.”

  Rashad closed his eyes and waited for the end.


  Savannah’s started the SUV’s engine instead.

  Rashad opened his eyes.

  Savannah motioned him over with a tilt of her head.

  Rashad walked to the SUV’s window on legs stiff with tension. He stopped a foot from Savannah. “I don’t understand.”

  “I can’t lose anything else today. I can’t.”

  “You won’t lose me,” Rashad said. “I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

  Savannah sighed. “I need you to take Carter and get in the wind until this is over.”

  Rashad’s eyes shrank to slivers. “You want me to just leave you?”

  “For now, yes,” Savannah replied. “I want you to get out of town until I’ve handled this.”

  The darkness around Rashad’s eyes deepened. “You need me here.”

  “This isn’t the time or place.”

  “This is the only time and place we got, now.” Rashad stepped back from the truck. He tucked his thumbs into the front pockets of his weathered jeans. “What’s your plan?”

  “I’m going to do what the mayor said. Talk to some people. Find out what they know; see if they can help.”

  Rashad smirked. “Who’re you gonna trust, Van, when you won’t trust your own husband to help you with this?”

  “It’s too dangerous. I can’t bring you and Carter into this mess.”