Desert Magick: Superstitions

by Dana Davis

  “Ashes, ma’am?”

  “Yes, officer. My sorority sister’s mother died. She was very ill and she really loved this museum. We promised to spread her ashes under that palo verde.” She waved her arm in the direction of the open land off to one side of the parking lot. It was dark and she hoped to whatever gods might be listening that there was a palo verde out there. “We thought it was better to do it after-hours. Less people.” She would have batted her eyes had this been a man but....

  Bridgette stood clutching the pasta sauce jar to her chest. Well, between her ample breasts, actually. Daisy saw tears streaming down her cheeks when the other officer shined his light on her face.

  He stepped close, hesitated, then reached out for the jar. He turned the jar in his hand. “Ashes,” he said to the female officer.

  “That was her favorite brand of sauce,” Bridgette said in a distressed voice. Then she began weeping again.

  “Sorry, ma’am.” He handed the jar back. “Mind if we search your car? Seems there might’ve been a break-in at the museum and we’d like to dismiss you ladies as suspects.”

  “Oh, sure,” Daisy said. She placed a hand around Bridgette’s waist as though consoling her.

  Noah had caught on, of course, and stood with the two of them, stroking Bridgette’s back.

  “They’re clean,” the male officer said after a cursory inspection. “You’re free to go, ladies. Sorry for your loss, miss, but you might want to get a permit to spread those ashes.”

  “Thank you, officer,” Bridgette managed through sniffles. “I will.”

  Daisy and Noah followed her and got into the car.

  The patrol car moved at a slow speed, probably watching. When the cops finally disappeared around the side of the museum, Daisy said, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  They sped up the 101, careful not to get snagged by the freeway cameras. Now that the immediate danger was over, they couldn’t help but laugh and joke about how they’d almost gone to jail. Their original plan to steal more than just the Kachina and sell the stuff to a local pawnshop had been shelved when Daisy fixed up the one from Superstition Park to look just like the real one. Of course, once someone realized the one now in the museum was a fake, Paul Manny would suspect her. Hopefully it would fool him for a while.

  The cops would tell a different story. The only people they saw were three coeds and a museum guard who, without seeing any intruders or anything stolen, would assume the alarm had malfunctioned.

  Daisy wasn’t sure just how much Paul Manny knew about inherent witches and their powers, but he would know who had stolen the Kachina. Question was, when would he find out?

  It was after midnight by the time they arrived home. They’d dispelled the glamours as soon as they passed the last set of freeway cams. The adrenaline rush had dissipated and Daisy found herself with a throbbing headache and sweating like she’d done an hour on the treadmill.

  Daisy froze in the doorway that led from the laundry room to the kitchen. “Shit,” she uttered.

  “What is it?” Noah and Bridgette said in unison from behind her.

  “Holy crap!” Noah said. “We’ve been robbed.”

  “Stay put,” Daisy told him. She tried not to stare at the open cabinets, the broken dishes and small appliances that were strewn everywhere. “Bridge?”

  After an agonizing moment, Bridgette shook her head. “Whoever did this is gone now.”

  “We should call the police,” Noah said. “Shit. This is a mess.”

  Daisy stepped into the kitchen. She went cold at what she spotted on the floor in front of the dishwasher. “No police. This wasn’t mortals.”

  A nasty looking face stared back at her from the tile. The thing looked demonic with narrow eyes and sharp teeth set into a pallid and hollow face that seemed to be missing patches of skin. As she drew closer, she realized it was embedded into the tile. A message? A warning?

  Noah came up behind Daisy and put his hands over hers. “Who did this?”

  She shook her head. There were a number of unknown paranormals in the area. Bridgette’s siren. But this wasn’t within a siren’s powers. The Native couple, Joe and Maria Running Bear. Daisy knew next to nothing about them. Bridgette hadn’t sensed anything evil about them, and they seemed frightened just to speak of the skinwalker.

  Then she had another terrible thought. “Where’s Perky?” Her heart thudded against her ribs. “If the sonofabitch hurt my baby—”

  She pushed past Noah and Bridgette and took off toward the bedrooms calling the dog’s name, trying desperately to keep the panic from her voice. She heard Noah’s echoing calls behind her but she couldn’t hear the dog anywhere.

  Please, oh please, let him be okay. “Perky? Where are you, boy?”

  No room had been spared the chaos. Drawers, clothing, pillows and knick-knacks lay in disheveled piles everywhere. What were they after?

  As she searched the messy office a second time, she heard movement upstairs. “Shit.” She climbed over the toppled desk and bounded up the winding staircase with Noah and Bridgette on her heels.

  “Careful!” Bridgette called.

  “You said it was clear.”

  “I can’t sense every nasty in the paranormal world, Daisy. Just be careful.”

  Daisy nodded and readied a trussing spell. Slowly, she reached for the light switch at the top of the attic stairs and flipped it on. Everything had been disturbed except the magick books. Those were just as she’d left them. Obviously, the ancient protection spells were still doing their jobs. The spells inside wouldn’t work for a non-witch, of course, but the books would give off a nasty shock equivalent of 110 volts if someone tried to destroy them. Other paranormals knew that.

  “Perky? You here, boy?” A whine came from one corner behind a pile of paperbacks. Noah’s hand landed on Daisy’s shoulder and it took all her control not to jump out of her fucking skin. He gave a reassuring squeeze and followed her.

  She sucked in a deep breath before peering over the book stacks. “Perky!” She grabbed the dog up and cradled him. Thank the universe he was alive!

  Despite his shivering, he looked perfectly all right. She took him to the small table and sat after Noah flipped it and a chair upright. The dog offered a frantic tail wag and numerous licks. Daisy and Noah gave relieved laughs as they petted their beloved little friend. Until Daisy’s chuckles turned to tears. Noah held her.

  “I don’t think anything’s missing,” Bridgette said.

  “What?” Noah said.

  She rummaged through the trunk where Daisy told her she could store her potions and other more hazardous magickal supplies. “My stuff’s all here. Untouched. So’s yours. The guestroom’s a mess, like the rest of the house, but I don’t think anything’s missing in there, either. What about the other rooms?”

  Daisy kept one cheek against Noah’s chest as he turned toward Bridgette’s voice. Perky, she held tightly in her arms.

  Noah said, “I remember seeing the TVs and other electronics. The safe was still locked. So, our private papers should be fine. We keep passwords on the computers to access any financial information and the one downstairs looked to be in one piece. My laptop is over there. I just hope it’s not broken. Damnit.”

  Daisy sniffed and pulled away to study her cousin. “What’re you thinking, Bridge.”

  “Hitchhiker.”

  That sent Daisy’s head spinning and she stood with Perky cradled in her arms.

  Noah seemed to mimic her shock. He’d learned about the dangerous specters before the first séance.

  Daisy focused on Bridgette and uttered, “Damnit.”

  Had they let something through without realizing it? Had a hitchhiker attached itself to Grandpa Owen? It certainly wouldn’t be unusual for a strong spirit like Owen McDougal to attract a malevolent creature. There were more powerful paranormals than witches in this world. And the next. Deadly ones too.

  “A hitchhiker. You sure?” Her skin crawled. She hadn
’t done too much research into hitchhikers, other than she never wanted one around. She’d just resolved never to do a séance again after that incident as a child. Gran’s gonna blow a gasket when she hears about this.

  Bridgette frowned. “That would explain the face on the floor. That’s probably where he entered the house. As for this fucking mess—”

  Daisy finished, “A hitchhiker needs human blood to stay in this realm permanently. He came looking and we weren’t home. Shit. I knew we shouldn’t have messed around with séances.”

  They now had two enemies to worry about. No, make that three if Bridgette’s siren happened to show up. That would be just our crappy luck. Though he would be the least of their worries. Since they knew about him, he couldn’t gain control over them. They had no way to know where this hitchhiker had gone until he started killing. Shit, shit, shit.

  “Why didn’t he try to take one of us earlier?” Noah said. “Why is that face just now showing up?” Perky squirmed to be let down and Noah crooned to him.

  “Can’t,” Bridgette said. “They lose strength crossing over from the other side. Takes hours, sometimes days, to regain enough to move items, much less kill.”

  Daisy didn’t have the heart to tell him hitchhikers wouldn’t bother with an inherent witch just yet. They needed easy prey, powerless prey, and blood, mortal blood. At first. Thank the universe Noah hadn’t been home. Once hitchhikers got enough blood power, they looked for a strong paranormal to inhabit.

  Daisy shivered. This is one fucking bad mark on my karma.

  “And you’re sure a hitchhiker made this mess?” Noah said.

  “Well, a hitchhiker leaves a mark when it enters a home, usually a face print like that one on your floor. My research into them was years ago but I remembered about the face print when I realized nothing was stolen.”

  Daisy sighed. There was nothing else they could do now, except wait until the thing started a killing spree, so they could hunt it down and send it back to the other side. It certainly wouldn’t come back here, not with an entire city of mortals as his dinner menu. At least, not yet. It might be back once it gained enough blood power and wanted a paranormal body to possess.

  Damnit! Not another enemy. They could put wards around the house if it decided to come looking again. And they’d have to warn Fay and Jay Abbey, put out a bulletin to all the paranormals in the area. Daisy sighed and Noah planted a hand on her shoulder.

  Perky whined and squirmed. He wanted to go out so Noah took him.

  With Bridgette’s help, Daisy straightened up the attic then headed down into the family room and began to clean there, when she noticed the phone’s answering machine was blinking the number one. At least the intruder hadn’t destroyed it too. The phone lay on the dining table, where Daisy had left it and the answering machine still sat on the bar. The dining table was still upright, probably protected from the scurrying hitchhiker by the bar that separated it from the kitchen.

  Daisy pressed the machine’s button and listened to the message with Bridgette just behind her.

  “Hi, Daisy. Wil Miller here. I know you said don’t have a Kachina yet, but I’ve given it some thought and, well, I’ve decided to let you and your cousin come out to the Superstitions anyway. A—”

  He paused and Daisy heard a voice in the background then a car drive off. He didn’t have a cell so either he’d borrowed one or was at a pay phone. Crazy old man. How could anyone get along without a cell phone in this day and age?

  Wil cleared his throat and continued. “A you-know-what is nothin’ to mess with. If you’re right and one’s loose, it threatens the whole city. I’ll have to go with you, though. As guardian, it’s my job. So, give me a call and we can set up a time to meet.”

  He left his home number but Daisy had to replay the message after she located the notepad, which Bridgette found near the coffee table. Noah came back inside just as the message began again.

  “Well, that’s something,” he said after it finished. He offered a tired smile and disappeared into the front room with Perky trotting behind, nails clicking on the tile. Daisy heard him moving things, tidying up.

  “We can deal with this mess in the morning,” Bridgette said. “We’ll set a few wards tonight then I’ll call Wil tomorrow. You need rest.” Those green eyes dared Daisy to protest.

  “We still don’t know which of the riddance spells will work, Bridge.” Hell, she didn’t even know if the Kachina would work now that it’d been turned to ashes.

  But they had to do something. Anything was better than sitting around here waiting for another attack. With all the weird shit that’d happened lately, Daisy was beginning to feel like they lived in the Bermuda Triangle.

  “We’ve narrowed it down,” Bridgette told her. “We’ll try all of them if we have to. Now let’s get those wards up. None of us will be worth shit if we don’t get some sleep.”

  Bridgette headed to the front of the house and Daisy went to her bedroom at the back. They could cover the entire house in wards much faster working in tandem this way. She stepped to the bed, picking up debris from the hitchhiker’s visit on the way, and dropped the items on the trunk at the foot of the bed so she or Noah wouldn’t trip over them in the middle of the night.

  Something moved behind her. She turned. The skinwalker stood by the closet, still faceless, not yet corporeal. Mainly a shadow. She started a nettle spell and fingered the Rowan amulet at her neck but he flashed across the room and grabbed her. Before she could scream, something wrapped across her mouth. He slammed her against the mattress, bending her over the edge. Despite his shadowy visage, the bastard felt more corporeal than ever. Even his breath, which normally had no odor, gave off an unpleasant smell, like he’d eaten raw onions.

  Daisy pushed against his weight but he was too strong, so she kicked up with her heel, trying to make contact with his crotch. He seemed ready for that and something wrapped around her ankle and held it to the floor. She quickly retaliated with her other foot and caught him right where she intended.

  Suddenly, the weight was gone. She stumbled back and yelled the nettle spell Bridgette had taught her, trying desperately to hold onto the words while the air around her sizzled with static electricity. The skinwalker flickered in and out of his corporeal state before disappearing. Arms went around Daisy shoulders and without thinking, she began a trussing spell.

  “Daisy, it’s me,” Noah said.

  “Noah? Shit. I almost—shit!” A trussing spell wouldn’t hurt him, but it wasn’t a very pleasant feeling to be trapped like that, unable to move or speak.

  “I’m okay,” he assured her.

  She sank into his arms and let her tears run, more out of anger than fear. Exhaustion hit her and she breathed hard. She felt just like Bridgette had described feeling whenever she’d performed the nettle spell, like she’d run a block in one hundred degree heat inside a static ball. She didn’t like this feeling, but if it would keep the skinwalker away, she’d gladly perform it again and again. Just not tonight. Her strength had waned significantly. In face, she hadn’t felt this weak since her schooling days.

  Bridgette, looking tired herself, began to snoop around the bedroom, avoiding the clothing and other stuff that still littered the floor. “He’s gone now,” she said. “Took off soon as you nailed him. You all right?”

  “Yeah.” Daisy swiped away tears with an angry hand. “Just shaken. Sonofabitch. How’d he get past this?” She held up the Rowan tree.

  “He’s probably getting stronger. I need to recast the protection spell. Give it here. I’ll do it tonight.”

  Daisy did as she was told. She felt vulnerable without the charm around her neck, something she never would’ve thought about herself. “Let’s finish up those wards first. And we should add an alarm in case he breeches the wards. Make sure he doesn’t get in without waking the whole damn neighborhood.” That wouldn’t happen. But any paranormal within a half mile would hear the alarms screech.

  Bridgette narr
owed eyes on her. “You up to it?”

  “I can manage.” And that’s about it. What she really wanted was to sleep. She began to pick up clothing and stuff them back into the drawers. “We’ll have to limit them to the bedrooms, though. I don’t want Perky too close to those spells.”

  Bridgette nodded. “We’ll set them specifically for this bastard too, now that we have his blood. That should help.” With Daisy’s Rowan tree charm in hand, she left the room.

  Daisy studied Noah, who seemed more frightened than she felt just now. “I’m okay,” she said. “Really. But we need to get Perky into his kennel for the night. I don’t want him wandering around.” She caught his arm before he left. “Make love to me. Tonight.”

  He cocked his head as if to say, “Are you sure?”

  She needed to indulge in her husband’s touch, his sweat, his scent. She would find the energy for that. “Very sure.”

  He smiled and nodded. “I’ll be right back,” he said.

  Noah was especially gentle with her during sex, caressing and petting more than usual, indulging her as much as she wanted. As much as she needed. Finally, she was wet and panting.

  She pulled his head close and put her mouth next to his ear. “I want you in me.”

  He accommodated and soon she arched her back. Occasionally she could reach orgasm with him inside, like now. She clamped her lips to keep from crying out as wave after wave of pleasure took her, triggering Noah’s release too.

  Afterwards, they clung to each other until Noah drifted off.

  Despite her exhaustion, Daisy couldn’t sleep. Her mind wouldn’t shut up. Today’s events kept rattling around in her brain. The what-ifs made numerous scenarios, mostly bad ones, dance around in her head. She fingered the renewed Rowan charm at her naked chest. Even with its improved power and the wards and alarms around the house, she felt vulnerable.

  She also couldn’t help feeling they were missing something about the skinwalker, something even more dangerous than she’d first suspected.