by J. C. Diem
With backward glances, the pack obeyed my silent command and we stepped aside to allow them to leave. “Good job,” I said and bent to pat the Doberman. “Keep watch outside and bark if anyone approaches.” He woofed in response and headed for the stairs. He wasn’t as attuned to me as Zeus was, but he understood my request.
“What’s happening in there?” Kala asked as we crowded around the door again. They couldn’t see the ghosts who were staring hungrily at the circle of witches.
When the spirits began to change, I wished I lacked the ability to see them. “The ghosts are turning vengeful,” I said. Reece wrapped his hand around mine as he nudged my mind with his, asking for permission to see through my eyes.
Granting his wish, I allowed him to take over a small portion of my brain. Together, we watched the sudden transformation of the lovely young woman into a withered, skeletal hag. Opening her mouth impossibly wide, she hissed and raised her claws. Her clothing had become a wispy, insubstantial black shroud. It billowed around her as she attacked.
Chanting frantically, the coven faltered when the wraith dived into their midst. Eunice shrieked in pain. I could only imagine her agony as the ghost solidified as she exited the witch’s body. Blood sprayed the walls as she was torn in half.
“Holy crap,” Kala said in awe as the body fell.
Jonathan broke and tried to run. He made it two steps before a trio of wraiths caught him. Two held him by the arms, trying to pull him in opposite directions. The third one wrapped its hands around his head, muffling his screams. He rose several feet into the air then his arms and head were torn from his body.
“Been there, done that,” Flynn noted when what was left of Jonathan thumped to the floor. The psychic known as Greed had been in almost the exact same condition after he, Kala and Reece had finished with her.
Ophelia and Jeremiah lost all semblance of control. They began blasting the spirits with random spells that had little effect. With eerie, hollow laughter, the wraiths struck. Backing away, horror stricken, Talitha watched as her brother and sister were turned into chunks of flesh and splintered bone.
When they were dead, blood and brains were splattered everywhere. Chunks of meat lay on every surface and the walls ran with sticky fluids. It was difficult to tell that the misshapen lumps had ever been human at all. An eyeball sat on the sodden carpet, staring up at us accusingly.
Desperate to escape the same fate that had befallen her siblings, Talitha ran for the window. She leapt through it and glass shattered. Falling headfirst, she screeched in triumph.
We rushed over to the window in time to see her halt just before her head was about to smash into the sidewalk. A wraith had caught her by the ankle. Her triumph turned into a wail of despair.
It dragged her kicking and screaming higher and higher as more spirits gathered around. No one stuck their heads out of their windows to investigate the noise. Maybe the spells that controlled the townsfolk were still in effect.
I had a feeling I knew where they were taking her and I leaped out the window in pursuit. Talitha had earned a prolonged and painful death and I wanted to be there to witness it.
The others were right behind me as I raced towards the park where the dark coven had performed their latest sacrifice. We pushed our way through the trees to the edge of the clearing. Just as I’d expected, the wraiths were holding Talitha suspended over the inverted pentagram.
“You can’t do this to me!” she shrieked in fury.
Hollow chuckles and crazed shrieks came from the spirits. In their vengeful guises, they were capable of sound, if not actual speech. They proved her wrong a second later when they swarmed over her.
This time, I reached out to Reece and took his hand as blood and body parts began to rain down from the sky. They splattered the pentagram, changing it from black to red. Her screeching finally came to an end and what was left of her was dropped to the barren ground.
With their vengeance finally satisfied, the ghosts lost their frightening forms and returned to normal. In unison, they began to fade. The lovely young woman smiled at me and lifted her hand in a wave. Reece and I returned her wave until we could no longer see her.
Talitha and Malachi’s son materialized beside me. I knelt so he could put his arms around me. Cold sank into my bones, but I stayed where I was. He put his hand on my cheek and gave me the sweetest smile that I’d ever seen. Becoming insubstantial, he faded, taking the chill with him. Then he was gone and we were the only monsters left in the clearing.
“Remind me never to piss off a ghost,” Flynn said as he surveyed the chunks of flesh.
“I think we’re done here,” Reece decided. “We should head back to Dawson’s Retreat. Mark is probably worried about us by now.”
We jogged through the streets openly now that there was no longer any reason for stealth. I made sure we passed by the café again. The pack was still standing guard. I dismissed them, making sure to give each of them a pat of thanks.
I picked up that they’d taken to roaming together at night when they could break free from their yards. During the day, they returned to their normal lives as domestic pets. They were the dog equivalent of vigilantes, searching for evil to put down.
Being beneath my control had awakened long buried instincts in them. I hoped they would eventually fade. It would only freak their owners out if they saw their pets roaming the streets at night. Since it was past dawn, they’d been on their way home anyway.
We trotted to the edge of town then put on a burst of speed once we were out of sight of the buildings. Zeus met us when we were halfway back to the B&B. He barked joyfully when he reached me. I hunkered down to pat him and received a swipe of his tongue across my cheek.
He sent me a few pictures of how frantic he’d been when we’d gone hunting the soulless. He’d sensed that they were unnatural and had shamefully hidden inside the church. It hadn’t surprised him that we four had transformed into half-human, half-animals. He already knew about our dual natures. I sent him a reassuring thought that we’d handled the vampires and that I was glad he was safe.
“If you two have finished your happy reunion,” Reece said with false patience, “maybe we can continue?”
Reece wasn’t only jealous of other men showing me any kind of attention. He was apparently also annoyed with me having a pet dog. I scowled at him and recommenced my run, but at a pace that Zeus could keep up with. He didn’t want to stay outside and keep watch, but I promised him I’d come back with food. That was enough to perk him up again.
₪₪₪
Chapter Thirty-Seven
We found the backdoor unlocked and filed inside. Mark and Beatrice were sitting in the parlor. Our boss saw us first and surged to his feet. “Thank God you’re all okay,” he said in heartfelt relief.
He engulfed us all in a brief hug, starting with Kala and ending with me. “Where’s my dad?” I asked and frowned when he tensed up.
“I think he’s in the shower,” he said vaguely.
I couldn’t hear water running, but Beatrice spoke, distracting me. “I have the ingredients I need to cast the spell to find your mother.” She indicated a small bag sitting on the floor beside her. Tired and disheveled, her eyes were a little wild. She stood behind Mark, almost using him as a shield. She was back to being petrified. This time, she was frightened of all of us rather than just me. Being trapped in a small building while we changed into our deadly alter egos couldn’t have been a fun experience.
“Where do you want to cast it?” Mark asked. He’d already had firsthand experience at facing a werewolf. He didn’t seem to be affected by seeing all four of us in our other states. “Did you want to use the church again?”
She shook her head. “This spell will require a place of power. I assume the coven has somewhere in Bradbury where they cast their spells?”
I shared a doubtful glance with Kala. “You could use the pentagram where they sacrificed a bunch of people,” she said. “But wouldn’t that b
e dangerous?”
Beatrice waved her concern away. “The site itself isn’t evil. Only the deeds that were performed there were. Besides, I’ll have to dispel their wards. The best place to do that will be from where they first cast them.”
“Get changed and meet us at the SUV in five minutes,” Mark instructed. Fishing our room keys out of his pocket, he handed them around. He’d kindly retrieved the equipment that we’d left at the church, figuring we’d head here after we’d transformed back into our human forms.
We raced upstairs and I heard my father pacing in his room two down from mine. He must have heard us arrive, but he made no move to join us. Feeling unsettled, I quickly changed into cargo pants and a t-shirt.
Mark had placed my gear in a pile on the bed. My cell phone was sitting on top. It was fully charged, courtesy of our boss no doubt. I picked up my gun, checked that it was loaded and put it in my pocket. I’d lost some of my ammo when Malachi had taken me prisoner. Fortunately, I’d brought spares along in my suitcase.
Fully equipped once more, I tugged on my boots then stepped out into the hallway and locked my door. Reece joined me and we jogged back downstairs. While I was glad to be armed, it was even more of a relief to be wearing underwear again.
I took a couple of minutes to feed Zeus then asked him to stay behind and guard the house in our absence. It was daytime, so Katrina would be holed up in a dark lair somewhere, but I didn’t like my father being left alone. Zeus woofed his agreement then gobbled down his food. His table manners were almost as bad as Kala’s.
Mark was in the driver’s seat of the SUV and Beatrice sat beside him. There wasn’t enough room for all four of us in the back. Reece solved the problem by climbing in first and pulling me onto his lap. Kala grumbled about having to be in the middle, but Flynn gave her a light shove and she slid in beside us.
Reece’s lap wasn’t particularly comfortable, but I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t enjoy having his arm around me and his chest against my back. If we’d been alone, he wouldn’t have been able to fight his reaction to my nearness. Since we weren’t alone, he willed his desire away. I was struggling against the almost overwhelming urge to turn around and kiss him.
“Lexi,” he warned me and broke me from my daydream of running my hands down his chest to his tight abs.
Kala cut me a look. “Try to ignore the eye candy,” she suggested.
“How can I when I’m sitting on his lap?” I asked in a low whisper.
“Think about something else,” Flynn offered.
“Such as?” I was open to suggestions.
“Think about how Talitha looked the last time you saw her,” he replied with a smirk. “Speaking of which.” He directed a question at Mark as we drove away from the B&B. “Are you going to call the Cleanup Crew in to deal with the coven? We found them hiding in the apartment above the café. They didn’t last long once we broke through their ward and the ghosts got to them.”
Mark would have called in the Crew to dispose of the vampire’s that we’d slain. We were keeping them busy during this mission. Only contact with hallowed ground, fire or direct sunlight could burn them down to ash. Staking and beheading them always left a body behind.
“I take it the spirits turned vengeful again?” Mark asked and received four nods. He debated about it, then shook his head. “The police won’t be able to identify the attackers as from being beyond the grave. Once the wards are lifted and the coven’s spells are removed, the police will find their remains and the bodies they buried. Too many people have died for us to try to sweep this under the carpet. Either they’ll discover enough evidence to assume the coven was responsible, or it will remain a mystery.”
It was a long speech and he seemed a little nervous. He kept his eyes firmly on the road as he drove the short distance to Bradbury. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he was avoiding eye contact with me.
Following Reece’s directions, he drove to the park that wasn’t far from Talitha’s café. The park was warded to keep human intruders away, but it was still too early for most people to be up anyway. Reece opened the door when we pulled to a stop and pushed me out with almost unseemly haste. A light sweat beaded his forehead. I realized he was holding onto his control by a thread. I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered that my nearness affected him so strongly, or to be depressed that he only wanted me because of our bond.
Beatrice had to murmur a counter-spell before she or Mark could enter the park. We followed a narrow path through the trees to the pentagram. The smell of fresh blood overlaid the older scent of death. Talitha’s bits and pieces still lay where they’d fallen.
“Oh, dear,” the witch said in a small voice as she took in the scene. Grimacing at the goat skull, she delicately shoved it aside with her foot and hunkered down to examine the pentagram. “It seems to be intact,” she said more to herself than to us.
“What do you need us to do?” Mark asked.
“Just keep your distance and try not to break my concentration,” she replied.
Taking his cell phone out of his pocket, he snapped off a few photos of the bloodied pentagram and of the body parts that were strewn all over it. When he was done, he wandered over to the trapdoor. Flynn ambled over to help him and pulled the door open. He made a face at the disgusting odor that wafted out. Mark shook his head in pity and took photos of the bodies.
Morbid curiosity had me moving closer before Flynn could close the door. Unwilling to be left out, Kala joined me. We walked side by side over to the pit. Together, we looked into the dark opening.
It was much worse than the pit at the farmhouse where I’d been held captive. At least those skeletons had been fleshless and dry with age. My vision doubled and Reece looked through me at the sight of dozens of rotting corpses piled up on top of each other.
Four of the bodies were fresh. We could see the remains of last year’s sacrifices lying beneath them. The space was too small to be able to contain all of the dead that the coven had killed over the past two hundred years. There had to be other mass graves in the park.
That thought unlocked something in my brain and I could suddenly sense the corpses beneath us. I could feel more scattered around the area. The entire park was riddled with secret death pits.
Kala backed away from the door and stood with her hands wrapped around her upper arms. She looked as spooked as I felt and I moved to stand beside her. She sent me a grateful smile and linked her arm through mine. Reece came to stand on my other side. He was close enough for our arms to brush when I shifted my weight. He’d withdrawn his vision from mine and I was alone in my head again.
Flynn closed the trapdoor then he and Mark joined us. We watched Beatrice as she prepared to cast her spell. She took a small ceramic bowl out of the bag and placed it on the ground. One at a time, she withdrew small parcels from the bag and emptied their contents into the bowl as she chanted her spell. It sounded like mumbo jumbo to me, but I felt power building. Flynn rubbed his arms, sensing it as well.
Taking a deep breath, Beatrice stepped into the middle of the pentagram. She was careful not to tread on the lines or on the globs of flesh. Crouching down, she placed the bowl in the dead center of the diagram and withdrew a final item from the bag. A glint of gold flickered then it disappeared into the bowl. Her chanting grew louder and power gathered until I could see it shimmering around her.
A puff of black smoke issued from the bowl as she finished her spell. A breeze carried it away before I could catch more than a faint whiff. The odor was hard to describe. It was earthy and herb-like, with a hint of metal.
Swaying on her haunches, Beatrice steadied herself with one hand on the ground and picked up the bowl with the other. “It’s done,” she said and Mark stepped forward to help her to her feet. “Now I just have to dispel the coven’s wards and any other spells that they’ve laid over this town. She didn’t look overjoyed at the thought of expending more energy, but she was determined to cleanse the town of the dark coven’s
influence. “Take this,” she said and held the bowl out to me.
I crossed to the pentagram, being careful not to step on the lines. I took the bowl and glanced inside. A gold necklace was the only item left. The other ingredients had been used up during her spell.
“Don’t touch it!” she said sharply when I made a move to pick it up. “You can only use the necklace when you’re ready to hunt your mother. The spell will only work for a short time. If you fail to locate her within that time, the necklace will become useless.”
“What sort of timeframe are we looking at?” Mark asked.
“Roughly twenty-four hours,” she replied and motioned for him to step out of the pentagram again. “Putting the necklace on will begin the spell. It will be able to tell Alexis when she is getting close to her mother. It will grow cold when she is facing in the wrong direction and it will grow warmer the closer she gets.”
I almost winced every time she described the target as my parent. Katrina Levine had died a long time ago. The creature wearing her face and body was a monster and I wished I didn’t have to be associated with her at all. It would be a relief to end her travesty of a life.
“It won’t take me long to dispel the wards,” Beatrice said. She lifted her hands and turned in a circle as she chanted another spell. This one didn’t require any ingredients and was based on pure power. I felt it emanate from her when she released it. I wasn’t even aware of the myriad spells that had been laid over the town until they broke apart and began to dissipate.
Sagging in exhaustion, Beatrice allowed Mark to take her arm. She very deliberately scraped the pentagram with her foot, breaking the diagram. The final spark of evil that had been hanging over Bradbury faded.