2 Yule Be the Death of Me

by J. D. Shaw

  “You have never used that, have you?” Joshua asked her with concern.

  “I don’t think I ever will. It feels too dark, at least to me.” She reassured him and closed the book. “We witches have to be aware of both the light and the dark magic, in order to work to the optimum potential.”

  “So how did Natalie get these spells?”

  “When we cast spells, they are sent out into the world free to travel without boundaries. From what I understand, certain spirits are more adept at capturing that energy and using it for their own purpose.”

  “Like when a haunting suddenly gets more active because someone used a Ouija board to try and contact the ghosts? Joshua’s blue eyes flashed with excitement.

  “I can’t tell you everything, sweetie.” Vivienne warned him gently. “We have our secrets for a reason.”

  “I know.”

  Vivienne walked away from the computer and sat on the arm of the sofa next to him. “So, they move back to Cayuga Cove and she gradually recoups her power while the Rothwell Natural Gas Company proceeds with the plan to start getting the mineral rights to start drilling.”

  Joshua reached up and caressed her arms with his hands. “They moved into the trailer court at Tall Pine Grove where at some point she must have brought Connor back from the dead.”

  “Connor has always been a lost soul, just like Natalie. He just couldn’t take physical form like she was able to do.” Vivienne felt a moment of pity. “She helped him by casting a risky spell.”

  “Why?”

  “There’s no greater tragedy than a young life cut short.” Vivienne mused. “When I had the vision with her in the attic, she was most troubled about Connor not living the life he was fated too. Using dark magic, she was able to correct that mistake on her own.”

  “So why not bring herself back from the dead and just go start a new life far away?”

  “I don’t know much about resurrection spells, only that they are the most dangerous to cast. One little slip up and the witch can end up as dead as the person they are trying to bring back.”

  “Natalie has nothing to lose.” Joshua quipped. “Why not cast it on herself?”

  Vivienne shook her head. “I don’t know the specifics. When I asked Nana Mary about it she said it only worked on a victim who was cheated out of their natural fate. Something that rarely happens.”

  “So Natalie was fated to die at the hands of Edgar Rothwell, but Connor wasn’t?”

  “That’s a good guess.” Vivienne replied. “We may never know why, that’s what makes working with dark magic such a risky proposition.”

  “Still, this seems like an awful long-term plan to slowly let Cayuga Cove get strip mined into oblivion.” Joshua remarked. “How could she be sure everything would work out to that end?”

  “This company takes short cuts and the men are paid extra money to do so. They don’t need to follow the rules.”

  “So they still need time to get all the mineral rights from the property owners and such.” Joshua argued.

  “No. That was Robert’s plan to make money.” Vivienne interrupted. “Natalie’s plan only needed one parcel of land to start drilling. Gus Holt’s.”

  “The same Gus Holt who saved you from suffocating in a sunken grave?”

  Tommy meowed and emerged from the bedroom, his yellow eyes blinking in the bright light. Vivienne reached down and ran her hands along his back as he rubbed against her legs. “While they lived in the trailer park, she still had access to all the information Robert’s company had accumulated.”

  “I’m following you.” Joshua replied.

  Vivienne pulled out an email she had printed from Samantha’s legal team’s research. “One of the tactics this shady gas company uses is scouring the newspaper legal section during tax time when all the delinquent property owners names are published for not paying on time. They match up the property addresses with their gas deposit research and look for any matches.”

  “Gus Holt has one of those delinquent properties.” Joshua added. “He charges hunters a fee to use the land during deer season. A couple of the guys at work do it every year.”

  Vivienne pulled up the title search and printed it out. “So he makes maybe one or two hundred dollars off of that, but it’s not nearly enough to pay the full taxes.”

  “That sounds logical.” Joshua nodded.

  “Natalie finds this property deed with Gus Holt’s name on it and now she has a motivated seller. She tells him about this new company paying top dollar for mineral rights. As a renter on the Tall Pines Grove property, they have no legal claim to any royalties earned by gas production. But to a property owner, it could be like a lotto jackpot win.”

  Tommy moved over to Joshua’s legs and rubbed against them. “So he sells his rights and the company starts drilling out in his field where very few people will see what is going on.” Tommy jumped up onto his lap and head butted Joshua. “Natalie starts up these Bad Santa notes exposing the town’s secrets to keep everyone from paying attention to what a shoddy job this company is doing.”

  Vivienne took a deep breath. “The company started the exploratory drilling process just the other day and are expecting to hit the gas pocket on December 24th.”

  “Christmas Eve.” Joshua looked at the calendar.

  “The last thing Natalie told me was that everyone here would be dead before Yuletide.” Vivienne shivered. “The company breaks into the gas pocket, Natalie sabotages the equipment, and the entire town is blown to bits from an explosion of hellfire.”

  “Not on my watch.” Joshua stood up, placing Tommy onto the sofa. “We’re going to make some calls and get a safety inspection team out here pronto.”

  “I’d feel better if we could get them and their equipment out of town for good.” Vivienne sighed. “We also have to stop her from setting another sabotage up with the bake sale tomorrow. If lots of people get sick, we could have chaos break out.”

  “We’re going to fix that too, before she can light the fuse.”

  Vivienne picked up her phone and started to dial. “It’s time we let Miss Octavia in on this plan.”

  “You trust her with that kind of information?”

  “She has the tools we’re going to need to stop Natalie.” Vivienne reminded him. “And you’re going to need her help to catch her.”

  “I trust her if you do.”

  Vivienne winked at him. “Miss Octavia, it’s Vivienne Finch. Let’s have a talk about setting a banshee trap. Sure, we’re free tonight if you are.”

  “I better get the coffee maker going.” Joshua smiled at her. “It’s going to be a long night.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Sunday, December 15th

  The bake sale at Our Lady of the Lake Church consisted of ten folding card tables that were setup in the lower level reception area where weekly bingo games were held.

  As she moved past the gaggle of church parishioners vying for a peek at what goodies were most likely to sell out first, they barely paid her any attention. Most of the glances, she suspected, were directed at the foil-covered plate in her hands. Was she bringing the highly coveted no bake cookies? Even though they were perhaps the easiest item to make, none of the women could ever find time in their busy schedules to make them at home. Thus, they gained a prestigious value at the bake sale. A sort of sugary holy grail that everyone quested for.

  “Vivienne, so nice to see you out and about after your misfortune.” Suzette Powell smiled broadly at her.

  “Thank you.” She replied.

  “I brought my famous peanut butter thumbprints.” Suzette pointed to a large oval platter where bags of four were neatly tied up with red and green curled ribbon. “I would just love to make something more challenging, you know. Like a Neapolitan mile high cake, but when the public demands a favorite, I just hate to disappoint.”

  “That’s true.”

  Suzette reached for the foil covering her plate. “So, what did the famous baker of Main Street b
ring today?”

  She gently slapped her hand away. “It’s a secret.”

  Suzette’s jaw dropped slightly in annoyance. “Oh, Vivienne Finch, I was only kidding.”

  “I really need to set up at the table in the corner, please excuse me.” She pushed her way past Suzette and disappeared behind a quartet of blue-haired ladies in purple choir robes who were admiring a joyously decorated yule log cake.

  Suzette turned to Clara Bunton, who had just arrived with two coffee cakes in her hands. “Someone is in a snit this morning.”

  “Who are you talking about?” Clara asked.

  “Vivienne Finch.” Suzette waved in the direction of the choir ladies. “You’d think she has gold from Fort Knox under that foil.”

  “Well, she had quite a bad week.” Clara rationalized. “You try falling into a grave and see how you feel afterwards.”

  Suzette shook her head. “Boy, there’s no shortage of nastiness in town lately.”

  “She saved you from getting wrongfully jailed not too long ago. Where’s your gratitude?”

  “I have thanked her numerous times, Clara Bunton, and you know it.” Suzette’s hands went to her hips. “As I told Vivienne, we have to keep friendship and business in two separate worlds.”

  “Is that what you’re going to write in the next Bad Santa note?” Clara quipped.

  “How dare you.” Suzette reached upwards with her right hand to strike Clara across the face, until the sudden hush of the crowd brought everything to a standstill.

  Clara blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry, Suzette. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Suzette lowered her hand. “No, it was my fault. I suddenly just felt so angry inside.”

  The general murmur of the crowd struck back up.

  “I blame it on an early morning and not enough coffee.” Clara tried to lighten the mood.

  “I wish I could blame that, but I’ve already had two cups here this morning.” Suzette relieved Clara of one of the cakes in her arms. “Let me help you with that.”

  The organist started the first hymn, announcing that the doors to the sanctuary had been opened. The crowd began to file toward Father William who stood at the entry way shaking hands and welcoming them to morning mass.

  * * *

  Carlton Jones smiled as he passed through the crowd to locate the cash box inside the church office. As he turned the corner past the restrooms, he nearly ran head first into Vivienne Finch. “Oh, pardon me.” His reading glasses slipped from his jacket pocket and skidded across the slick floor.

  “Let me help you.” She reached down and snagged the glasses in her grip.

  “Thank you, young lady.” He reached out for them only to have her plunge her ice-cold hands around his neck. Unable to cry out, the older man fell against the wall and slumped slowly to the floor as his oxygen ran out.

  “You’re welcome.” She hissed and dragged his body into the men’s room.

  She dropped the glamour spell, as her power was fading faster than she could keep up with. After leaving him inside one of the stalls, she hurried out into the hall to rest a few minutes more and compose her energy.

  “Vivienne Finch.” Suzette Powell’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else.”

  Natalie, caught off guard, lowered her head, allowing her hair to hide her face. “The restrooms are closed while I clean them. One of the toilets overflowed.”

  “I wasn’t going to use the restroom.” Suzette replied. “I was looking for my friend.”

  “There’s no one in here.” Natalie spoke quietly. “Just me.”

  “Do we know each other?” Suzette puzzled. “You look sort of familiar to me.”

  Natalie shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Do you know Vivienne Finch?” Suzette asked.

  “No.” Natalie answered.

  Suzette folded her arms across her chest and sighed. “She’s not inside for service and I know I saw her come down this hallway just a bit ago.”

  “Maybe she went home after she dropped off her baked goods?” Natalie asked her.

  “Could be.” Suzette acknowledged. “How did you know she had baked goods?”

  “Uh.” Natalie stammered. “Most of the women down here were bringing things to the bake sale.”

  “Are you sure you haven’t seen her?” Suzette pressed. “Is she trying to avoid me now?”

  “I’m just the cleaning lady.” Natalie averted her gaze from Suzette.

  Suzette exhaled in frustration. “Well, I was woman enough to try to find her and apologize if I said something to offend her. But I’m not going to chase her down.”

  Natalie shrugged. “I have to finish cleaning.”

  “Of course.” Suzette turned around and walked away, muttering under her breath.

  Natalie slipped back into the men’s room and pulled out the reading glasses from her pocket. She concentrated, wringing all the dark magic she could muster to change into the image of Carlton Jones. She dropped down to one knee, as casting the spell sapped her strength. She would need something other than her hands to carry out the next part.

  * * *

  Joshua Arkins pulled his Jeep into the parking lot of the church and chose a spot far in the back area.

  “Are you sure this is safe?” Miss Octavia asked.

  “Just stay down and keep out of sight until I need you.” He instructed. “Are you sure you have everything you need to trap her?”

  “She assumed Vivienne’s form just as we thought this morning.“ Miss Octavia surveyed the parking lot full of cars. “Spirits don’t like chaos, they are definitely creatures of strict habits.”

  “So what did you end up giving Natalie when she showed up this morning?”

  “A harmless blessing potion. It’s supposed to soothe the nerves and calm the spirit.”

  Joshua nodded with agreement. “Smart move. Given the mood of everyone here, that could be extra helpful.”

  “That’s the general idea.” Miss Octavia cracked the passenger side window as the sun warmed the interior. “Wasn’t there a shady spot to park in?”

  “Not this far back in the lot.” Joshua replied as he glanced at his watch. “We don’t want to take a chance on Natalie spotting you before we can act.”

  “The things I do for magic.” Miss Octavia chuckled.

  “The things we both do.” Joshua lowered his window a tad and gave a listen. As the full moon was approaching, his wolf senses were coming into bloom. His sense of smell and hearing increased with each passing day. “They’ve started.”

  “Good.” Miss Octavia replied. “She won’t be anywhere near that sanctuary while the mass is going on. It would drain her energy quickly.”

  Joshua stepped out of the Jeep and gave one last look at Miss Octavia, hunched down in the back seat with a two way radio in her hands. “Don’t use that unless it’s an emergency. It could blow our cover.”

  “Right.” She clicked the two way on and kept it close to her ear. “Just tell me when to come and I’ll be there in a flash.”

  “Affirmative.” He closed the door and walked the distance across the parking lot to the entrance of the church. The sound of his boots, echoed between the rows of cars all lined up for morning mass. It felt strange to be dressed up in a suit and tie, but he had to blend in with the others as he targeted Natalie.

  As he pulled the main door open, he gave one last look at the Jeep and took a deep breath. He hoped the plan would work and that everyone would be back to normal by nightfall.

  “They’ve just started.” An older man dressed in a dark suit approached him with a flyer announcing the bake sale in his hand. “There are some open pews along the back right side.”

  “Thank you, but I must use the restroom first.” Joshua smiled.

  “Deputy Arkins, I hardly recognized you.” The older man’s eyes widened. “I didn’t know you were Catholic?”

  “I’m not.” He felt his cheeks redden. “I was up ea
rly and since it’s so close to Christmas I thought I’d like to enjoy some of the spirit this morning.”

  “Why yes, you’ve come to the right place.” The man handed him a bake sale flyer. “You know about this bake sale after service, don’t you?”

  “I do.” Joshua replied. “It’s a shame Vivienne couldn’t be here to see...” His voice trailed off the moment he realized his mistake.

  “Miss Finch was here earlier bringing something delicious.” The older man cocked his head. “Didn’t you know that?”

  “I did.” Joshua chuckled and patted the man on the shoulder. “I had to work the night shift last night, so I didn’t have a chance to see her this morning.”

  “Of course.” The older man chuckled. “Playing with your sleep schedule like that is bound to make it hard to remember things. Just wait until you’re older like me.” He adjusted his reading glasses on the bridge of his nose.

  “You’re sharper than I am this morning, that much is for certain.” Joshua hoped his cover up was enough. “Where is the restroom again?”

  “It’s downstairs, past the kitchen and to your right. You can’t miss it.”

  “Thank you. I’ll see you inside.” Joshua smiled and headed for the stairs as the usher returned to his post near the sanctuary doors.

  As he reached the bottom level of the church, his sense of smell was assaulted by the row upon row of sugary treats readied to sale. He usually never went to Vivienne’s bakery this close to the full moon because the overwhelming sweetness made him a bit nauseous.

  As he walked past the kitchen, the restrooms were located just ahead and to the right. He stepped into the men’s room and noticed one of the stalls was occupied thanks to the pair of black oxfords straddling the toilet. Once he secured the door lock, he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a coiled length of silver thread that Miss Octavia had blessed to keep Natalie bound securely. Once under control, he’d radio for Octavia to come find them and cast a silencing spell upon her mouth and throat, allowing them to quietly make an escape to the cemetery and perform the banishing ritual.