by Renee George
John Parker waved at me when we got out of Ford’s truck. He wore jeans and a leather jacket. Alice Michaels, a witch, and Rhonda Petry, a werecougar, were my on-duty officers. They guarded the perimeter tape, keeping the crowd from going back behind the diner. The pair had been patrolling together for less than a month, so I was glad Parker, a veteran cop, had been on site.
When we reached Parker, he led us around the backside. “Becksy Ansel found the body when she was taking the trash out.” He shook his head and clenched his fist. “Luckily, I was here for dinner. She’s pretty badly shaken, as you can imagine.”
Becksy was a perky teenage witch who waitressed at the diner. She was efficient and had always struck me as responsible. “Have you taken her statement?”
John nodded. “I called her dad and mom, too. They are on their way down to pick her up.” He gave me a look that dared me to reprimand him.
A low growl from Ford raised my brows.
“Is this personal for you, John?”
Before he could answer, Tanya came clacking on the scene in her four-inch-heels. “Is it really Agatha?” Her pale skin looked nearly gray. They must have been friends.
“I just arrived.” I nodded toward Parker. “Let’s get it confirmed now.”
The body had been laid out on a sheet on the ground. John or one of the other officers had placed a tarp over her body. I squatted down and pulled the tarp down to reveal Agatha’s head.
Agatha’s bright purple hair was matted and messy, not like the put together witch I’d seen this afternoon. Her dead eyes stared hollowly up at the sky. Her irises had gone milky.
Tanya gasped. “It’s definitely her.”
Parker nodded his agreement.
“Any apparent cause of death?” I asked.
“There’s this,” Parker said. He pulled the tarp up at her feet, sliding it above her calf. An S, like the one on the rubber legs, had been carved into her flesh.
“Goddess,” I breathed.
“Yep,” said Parker, his eyes burning with rage. “Shifters.”
“You’re jumping to conclusions, John,” Ford said.
“Of course, you’d say that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I heard the rising timbre in my mate’s voice.
“You’re one of them, so—” He let his words drop with just the implied accusation.
Ford took a step toward Parker, his shoulders squaring. Shifters loved a good fight, especially when they believed they were right. My man-bear was no exception.
“Parker,” I snapped. “Go out front and help Petry and Michaels get statements.”
He grunted his acknowledgment but didn’t take his eyes off Ford. Really bad idea.
“Hey!” I shouted. Parker whipped his gaze to me. I pointed my finger at him. “Do you need some time off?”
His angry expression eased. “I…I…no, Chief. I don’t need any time off.”
“Then get your head into police work and out of politics. We don’t have enough evidence to accuse a gnat of buzzing the corpse and certainly not enough to blame half our community. If I hear one whisper of anti-Shifter sentiment because you’re talking out turn, you’ll be doing more than taking some time off. You’ll be finding another job.” He was staring at his feet now, his jaw working back and forth. “Do you understand me, Officer Parker?”
“Yes, Chief,” he said sullenly. “I understand.”
“Good. Now go get some statements, and for Goddess sake, don’t taint the investigation with your prejudice.”
He turned on his heel and marched around the front of the building. “I could have handled him,” Ford said.
“And then I’d have had to dress down two of my officers tonight.” I waved my hand at him. “One was plenty, thank you very much.”
“Could it be Shifters?” Tanya said as she did a quick examination of the body.
“You’re the medical examiner. You tell me.”
She waved at the ambulance drivers to collect the victim. “I’ll do a full autopsy tonight and get back to you tomorrow with my preliminary findings.”
“Thanks,” I said. I hated to admit it, but I was grateful for Tanya’s ability to separate her emotion from her work. She was obviously distraught over Agatha’s murder, but she hadn’t jumped to any wild conclusions. “I mean it.”
She quirked her eyebrow up as if waiting for a follow-up comment, and when none came, she nodded. “I’ll call you when I have something.”
After the ambulance had taken Agatha Milan, Tanya followed them to the hospital in her car. Ford and I went back to the Dumpster area.
“I’m going to use an evidence location spell while the scene is fresh,” I said.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” Ford asked.
“Probably not.” But what was the worst that could happen? It wasn’t like I could burn a hole to China or anything. Right. “You might want to stand around the corner just in case.”
My mate, who wasn’t a stupid man, stood around the corner.
I walked the perimeter of the Dumpster and incanted my second sight spell.
“Goddess bring me second sight.
Turn any evidence into light.
A crime is done, most obscene.
Reveal hidden truths, unseen seen.
Done is done, Goddess grant to me,
Second sight, so mote it be.”
For a brief moment, nothing happened, but then the whole area lit up with a rainbow of colors. “What is this?” I whispered as the power swam around me. I’d never seen so much raw magic in one area. The overlapping blues, greens, purples, yellows, and reds obscured my ability to find anything helpful in finding Agatha’s killer. Or killers.
The magic grew thick, almost choking as it tugged at my own power. Four shadows rose through the auras, wrapping and twisting. I could almost hear chanting beneath the loud hum of energy, and it felt as if the blood in my veins burned. My skin went taut as if it would split wide open. I bit back a scream and tried to end my spell with a quick:
“Second sight, go away.
You’re too bright.
Get away from me.
So mote it be.”
The area went completely still as if frozen in time. Then a quiet chorus of laughter sent chills down my spine. One by one the shadows punched their way through my body. I could hear them talk, I could feel their desires for power, and I could see the world it had once been for them. The buildings disappeared around me. No longer was I standing in the back of Lolo’s. Now I was in a small room. Wooden benches lined the walls, but the floor was clear of any furniture.
Thirteen women stood in a circle, their hands clasped as they chanted. “Macht, die, komm zu mir sein.” I didn’t understand them, but I understood the intensity as it threatened to choke me. Over and over, the same words.
A deafening boom, followed by the ground shaking, and the roof falling in, finally stopped their spellcasting. When the dust cleared, I witnessed nine of the thirteen get up while four of their sisters stayed crumpled, dead, on the wooden floor.
Two strong arms wrapped around me, and I could hear my name being repeated. I struggled to regain control of my mind and body, to chase the shadows away. The cold night air hit me with such force as I inhaled a gasping breath and sagged into Ford’s arms. I reeled at the implications of the vision.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“Ghosts,” I said. And not just any ghosts, witch-ghosts. Someone had cast a summoning spell and called forth four dead witches.
Chapter Nine
“I THOUGHT WE agreed on a magic ban,” my father scolded me for the umpteenth time. I felt like a teenager again. “That means for everyone, even you.” I’d called him from the truck and told him to get the Shifter Witch Council down to the coalition office. He and Tanya had arrived first. Oh, joy of joy.
“I know,” I said. I wasn’t trying to create anything, so I really hadn’t expected it to go so horribly wrong. “But the good news i
s that we know what we’re dealing with now. Right?”
“Wrong,” Tanya replied. “Witches don’t become ghosts unless they are summoned, and if these were the four witches from the original coven who died, then we are in deep dog shit here.”
Her language surprised me. It made Tanya seem almost like a normal person. Ugh. She was my nemesis, I didn’t to think of her like she was normal.
“The witches were chanting something like mack die come zoo der zeen, or something like that.”
“My babble to English translation is rough, but it sounds like German. A power spell, by the sound of it,” Dad said.
“Look, things were pretty rocky for me in that horror flashback.”
Bryant Baylor, Mary Lowe, and Mike Crandell had arrived at the coalition office and I had to tell the story all over again. Each of them looked at me as if I were the cause of all the gloom and doom. “I didn’t summon those stupid witches!”
“Well, whoever did, unleashed a big can of whoop-ass on the town,” Bryant said. “I’ve never seen so many disasters happen all at once.”
Again, it felt like an indictment. “Yeah, it’s not like anything bad ever happened in Paradise Falls before I arrived.” I resisted sticking my tongue out at my mate’s dad. “Again, I say, I didn’t freaking summon the dead witches.” Though, I had a suspicion it was one or more witches from the founding families that started this kerfuffle. With Adele Adams gone, it made the other witches braver. She was a psychopathic, homicidal maniac, but she had been mad powerful, which helped to keep the witches in town in check.
As if thinking of crazy had conjured crazy, a heavy shower of glitter, followed by Tanya groaning, “Oh, no,” and a colorful rainbow of a woman with the biggest bangs I’ve ever seen appeared in the center of the room. She had a ruched hot pink bow, nearly as big as her bangs, encircling her golden, heavily hair sprayed locks, and one side of her hair was swept back while the other flowed over her shoulder. She wore thick black eyeliner, had a penciled in mole at the corner of her mouth. She wore an off the shoulder hot pink T-shirt that said, “Don’t Call Me Shirley,” high-waisted jeans that fit so tight she’d need a vat of grease and a crowbar to get out of them, and sparkly silver jelly shoes.
“Is that a costume?” Bryant Baylor asked.
Tanya whacked him, so I didn’t have to. “Have some respect,” she said. “That’s our queen.”
“Baba Yaga,” I groaned.
“Hello, Hazel. It’s good to see you, too.” She blotted her bright red lips on a tissue. Where she got it or where it went after, I have no idea. “You have a big problem here in Paradise Falls.”
“No shit,” I muttered.
Tanya’s eyes bugged.
“Sorry, I mean, yes, you’re right. We have a big problem.”
“Whoever summoned the four ghosts unleashed them on your town without any real knowledge of how it would affect the natural energy this place holds,” Baba Yaga said. She looked at my father. “Hello, Kent.”
He grimaced. “Hi, Carol.”
Baba Yaga was the witch who jailed my dad seventeen years ago because she thought he’d been responsible for my mother’s death. It turned out, My mom had been the bad seed, and my dad had been trying to save me from her. She’d been part of Adele Adams’ crew. But, when the truth came to light, he went undercover for our witch queen to infiltrate Adele’s inner circle. It all worked out in the end, but it didn’t mean Dad liked Baba Yaga.
“How do we fix this?” Mary Lowe, the head of the felidae, or cat shifters, asked. Mary was generally a quiet woman, but when she did speak it was usually to the point. I dug that about her.
Mike Crandell, the newest member of the coalition, said, “I’ve had trucks adding gravel to that black hole all day, and I’m going to run out of rocks before it gets filled in.”
“That’s because it’s a hellmouth,” Baba Yaga said.
“A what-mouth?” Bryant Baylor asked.
“A hellmouth,” she repeated.
“As in Sunnydale kind of hellmouth?” I asked. “Where’s Buffy the ghost-witch slayer when you need her?”
“Or is it more like the Supernatural kind of hellmouth?” Tanya said.
Nooooo, Tanya, don’t be cool. Damnit. My nemesis was making me reevaluate my feelings for her. “I could use a hug from the Winchester boys about now.”
“The hell you could,” Ford grumbled.
“I meant that metaphorically,” I said. To Tanya, I mouthed the words, No, I didn’t.
She smiled and shook her head.
“You're both in the ballpark,” Baba Yaga said.
“Is that why all the magic is Revelation-ary?”
“Yes. The magic around here is always heightened near Samhain, which is why the non-magic prank competition began over a hundred years ago. It was a way to get the witches in town to focus their excess energy on things that wouldn’t kill them.”
“Wow. How come that wasn’t taught in school?”
Baba Yaga ignored me. “First thing you need to do is track down the witches who cast the summoning.”
“There're only about four thousand witches in town,” I said. “No problem.”
Baba wrinkled her nose at me. “I think we can narrow it down some. It has to be descendants from the original coven of thirteen. I believe there are thirty-one living here in town.”
“You wouldn’t happen to have that list handy, would you?” my dad asked.
Carol scowled at him, and he managed not to turn into a toad.
“Oh, I think I might know where to find one!” I looked at Ford. “Ms. Gedes.”
“The history teacher,” Tanya said.
“Yes, her mother is one of the founding members. Remember how she had that chart she used in class to trace the genealogy of the original witches?”
“Goddess, you’re right.” She smiled, and then realized who she was talking to, and added, “Even a dog finds a bone every once in a while.”
“Are you calling me a bitch?”
The corners of her mouth curved upward into a grin. “Maybe.”
Was Tanya giving me banter? The world really was coming to an end. “Should we call, Ms. Gedes or just drive over to get the document?”
Baba Yaga sparkled out and in a few minutes returned with a piece of parchment in hand. “That woman is highly organized,” she said with admiration. She gave the list to my Dad. “Call everyone on this list and have them meet us at the hellmouth.”
My dad’s lips pressed into a thin line. I knew he’d had enough of being her lackey to last two lifetimes, but he finally nodded. Tanya put her hand on his arm. “I’ll help you,” she said.
Again with the goo-goo eyes. Sheesh. I did not want Tanya to be my new mommy. Wah!
“And what would you like me to do?” I asked.
“You need to pick someone up on your way to the hellmouth.” She gave me a look that made me both curious and anxious. “She will be important in finding our guilty witches since they will not confess willingly. Our kind never do.”
Chapter Ten
WHEN FORD PULLED up to the hellmouth on Bliss and Main Street, it was nearly five o’clock in the morning. The sun, of course, wouldn’t be up for at least another hour or so, but I felt every minute of the last twenty hours I’d been awake. Tizzy and Lily exited from the passenger side. We’d all squeezed in the front, but since Tizzy and Lily both had narrow asses, it hadn’t been difficult.
“I still don’t understand why Carol wants me here,” Lily said. Anxiety and tension pinched her expression.
“Carol, huh?” Tizzy asked. “You’re on a first-name basis with witch boogie monster.”
“We spent some time together when she took me to the healer, Zelda.”
“The one with the pottymouth?” Tizzy asked. “I’d love to meet the woman who can call her Baba Yocray-cray and get away with it.”
I smirked. I wouldn’t mind meeting Zelda myself. “She didn’t give me a whole lot of deets. Sorry. She just said you
were needed, Lily. You know I can’t say no to her. She is the head honcho, after all.”
There were men in black circling a group of men and women who looked frightened, angry, and tired. I couldn’t really blame them on any count. It was way too freaking early! Or late in my case. If the end of the world hadn’t been nigh, I’d gone home and crawled into bed. Baba Yaga or no Baba Yaga.
Oh, who was I kidding? That material-girl-living-in-a-material-world could strip me of my powers, as bad as they were, and throw me into the Salem jail—no trial, no jury of my peers, no habeas corpus. I would sit there and rot until she was good and ready to let me do otherwise.
Speaking of Baba Yocray-cray. She sauntered up to us, her jellies squeaking with every step. “Lily, it’s so lovely to see you.” She embraced my bestie as if they were long lost siblings. “You look beautiful.”
“Thanks, Carol.” Lily smiled. “You look really nice too.”
Baba Yaga beamed.
Ugh. I tried not to lose my shit. “I got her here, as ordered. Now what?”
“Have you been experiencing any unusual side effects to the increase in magic, Lily?” Baba Yaga asked.
“And has she,” Tizzy piped in. She crawled up my legs and was holding on to my head as if it were a giant acorn she had to protect. “Tell her, Lils. Tell her.”
“I’m getting there, Tiz.” She nodded to the Blonde Ambition, whom she apparently was on a first name basis with. “I’m can’t ask folks questions without them blurting out the absolute truth. Frankly, I’m scared to talk to anyone. This kind of thing could get me in a lot of trouble on both sides of the fence in this town.”
“Do you know much about your ancestors?”
“Only that my folks and their folks before them had been born here. Beyond that, I don’t know much.”
I was on pins and needles as Baba Yaga talked to my friend. I didn’t know what Lily had to do with all this stuff, but I wanted to protect her. To keep her safe. Whatever “Carol” was leading up to, I knew it couldn’t be good for Lily. Especially for her future in this town.