A Witch’s Demons (Witch's Path Series: Book 6)

by N. E. Conneely

  Elron stopped in front of my altar. “Meditate, connect with the earth. You’ll feel better.” His hands cupped my cheeks and his eyes locked with mine. “I cannot bring you peace. I cannot bring you out of the maelstrom of emotions. The earth will help. Meditation will help.”

  Nodding, I broke away from him. The earth was surprisingly warm under me. It took longer than I wanted to push away enough thoughts that I could simply be. As I took deep, focused breaths, I could feel heat and calm soak into me. The earth was doing what it could to help me.

  I lost track of time while I was meditating, but when I finally opened my eyes, day had given way to dusk. Elron was still standing over me, ever watchful, ever protective. This time my smug elf had been right. The pain was still there, but it was manageable now. The images would never go away, but they had less power over me. Somehow the earth had given me months or years of healing.

  I stood up, walked over to Elron, ignoring the uncertainty in his eyes, went up on my toes and pressed my lips to his. His arms pulled me close, and for a moment, there was nothing but the two of us.

  When we broke the kiss, I found myself wishing we could have more times like that. More times when it could be just us and we could forget about the rest of the world. If we survived the coming days, I would make sure we had more of those times.

  Hours later, and after a satisfying dinner, we were sitting on the sofa, and I had my reheated chocolate in hand. The marshmallows had melted, but it would take more than that to ruin a cup of hot chocolate.

  “I think,” I said slowly, “the demon has been around longer than we realize. The teapot is what tipped me off. Morinji-no-okama are uncommon enough, but two in the same area? That’s really strange, especially since their lore and history are native to Japan.”

  Elron frowned. “This demon knows who we are and that we are Hunters.”

  “And I think the new medical examiner is connected to the demon. Could even be the demon. He’s the one who got people thinking I could be involved in Tiffany’s death.” To be fair, our falling out was something the police would have noted and looked into, but friendships broke up all the time. That didn’t instantly give me a motive for murder.

  I sipped on the chocolate, hoping it would help me make some connections. “Tomorrow I’ll talk to Wells, see if he can connect the truck that ran me off the road to the accident that killed the last medical examiner.”

  “Excellent choice.” Elron lifted his glass to me. I mirrored the gesture. “What will you do with the morinji-no-okama?”

  “I won’t write a report about it, that’s for sure. I couldn’t say anything the university would want to hear.” I took a sip of hot chocolate. “The tree was saturated in negative energy, more so than the teapot. I suspect it had direct contact with a demon.”

  “I expected as much. However, that does not answer my question.”

  Suppressing an eye roll, I answered the all-important question. “I’m going to dispose of both the morinji-no-okama before I go to bed. The teapot felt like it was dying, and I wanted to make sure that spirit is dead. I won’t have anything like that inhabiting the lodge. While I’m at it, I’ll deal with the tree sample.”

  He looked me over. “Is it wise to begin a lengthy series of spells when you are tired?”

  “Well, no,” I admitted. “But I’m feeling a lot better than I did earlier, and I won’t be able to sleep with those things sitting in my workroom. I don’t want to give the demon easy access to us.”

  “I wish I could stay with you while you work, but I must be at the university early tomorrow.” Elron raked a hand through his hair. “The black pine was stolen last night.”

  I sat up straighter. “Who stole it?”

  “As of yet, no one knows. The security cameras malfunctioned, and there are no witnesses. The university is investigating; however”—he shook his head—“I do not expect them to find the perpetrator.”

  “There’s a lot of that going around,” I muttered, thinking of the truck that had run me off the road.

  “Should you need anything, contact me. I will hasten to your side.”

  I patted his leg. “That’s very sweet, but I’ll be fine.”

  He didn’t look satisfied with that answer. “We have two primary problems. We do not know who the demon is, and we need something that belongs to the demon so we can lure him to us.”

  “True, but I talked to Burly. He said Ned occasionally mentioned someone named Hayato. That could be our demon.”

  “Possibly, but the only person who could corroborate that is dead.”

  Gudger had been a fine officer and had died after Ned took him hostage. “The physical evidence indicated Ned killed Gudger, but you said you could tell a demon had done it.”

  Elron nodded.

  “There was no sign Ned was a demon.” I leaned forward. “But he had to know them.”

  “Tell me how that helps us.” Elron’s eyes locked with mine.

  “I don’t know.” The words tasted bitter. “I took his memory. Anything he knew about the demon is gone.”

  Elron took a deep breath. “Last time we knew who the demon was, but we did not have the knowledge to kill it. This time it will be more difficult.”

  “I know.” I drank more chocolate, hoping it would cure some of my problems. “Do you have demon’s bane ready for harvest?”

  Elron rolled his eyes. “Of course. I have been nurturing the plants both here and at work. I have a small stock of prepared demon’s bane, though I doubt it retains enough potency to be effective, and several plants are ready to be harvested.”

  “As soon as we identify the demon, we need to be ready.”

  “We will be.” Elron came over and gave me a quick kiss. “Now I must get to bed, and you have more work.”

  “Good luck tomorrow.” I kissed him this time and couldn’t help but smile. I was very lucky to have him in my life.

  “Good night,” he said as he closed the door.

  “Night.”

  I finished off my chocolate in a quiet apartment. Eyeing the walls, I hoped the lodge was smart enough to hold still while I was doing delicate magic. If it started moving things while I was unmaking the morinji-no-okama… Well, I didn’t really want to think about what could happen.

  After leaving the empty mug in the kitchen sink, I headed into the workroom. Since I wanted to ensure the teapot didn’t have anything to feed off while I was unmaking it, I started with the tainted tree specimen.

  I unpacked it and moved it into a double containment field. The sample went on top of a slab of rock etched with runes to amplify and purify. Taking out my wand, I tapped the corners, adding enough power to get the spells going. When I could feel them taking effect, I pointed my wand at the wood. “Fire.”

  A single belch of smoke was all that came out of the sample. I jabbed my wand in its direction again. “Fire.”

  Another puff of smoke escaped. Leaning forward, I tried to see through the pulsating lights of the purification spells, but they were too bright.

  Huffing out a breath, I waited for the spells to finish their cycle. It took longer than I would’ve liked, but a few minutes later, the lights started to fade. Had the thing burned, it would’ve been nothing but purified ash. Instead, it was intact and the only signs that I’d tried to light it on fire were a few dark lines. Leaning closer, I cursed violently. Of all the things that should’ve happened, this wasn’t one of them.

  Burned into the wood were the words “Take the wood in your hand, follow its pull to me, and your loved ones are safe. Bring the elf.”

  There’d been another spell in the wood. Hidden under all the energy, I couldn’t bring myself to touch. I swore again. If there was a spell to create those words, then there could be other spells.

  I leaned back in my chair and took a calming breath. Part of me wanted to dig through every bit of the wood and magic until I was sure no other spells were hiding in there. There rest of me knew that would put me in contact
with a great deal of negative energy, which could contaminate my magic and even give other spells a way to get past my shields. Investigating the tree sample wasn’t worth the risk.

  Even without further research, there was good news here; really there was. If the demon was sending messages to me, it meant I had a good chance of drawing it out. Plus it was focused on me rather than anyone else, and that would keep other people safe.

  As my anger died down and I was able to process things more logically, I had to admit that Elron was probably right. The demon knew we were Hunters.

  Following that line of logic, it was asking us to turn ourselves in so it could rid the world of the last Hunters and the knowledge of how to kill demons. Of course, this demon didn’t know how many people were now aware of the demons. Wells knew. I suspected several other officers had been informed. My parents, Ethel, and everyone at the lodge was aware.

  Then there was the knowledge of how to kill demons. Not only had Elron and I learned from Varro, but we had a small booklet he’d written. Since killing Gremory, Elron and I had turned what we knew and Varro’s notes into a pamphlet and given it to the police and everyone who knew about demons. Even if this demon killed the two of us, that wasn’t going to erase the knowledge.

  Now, it might buy it the time to figure out who knew about demons. But I doubted it would manage to kill very many of those people. There would be a bunch of angry witches looking for revenge, and groups of witches were scary powerful.

  One way or another, this demon wasn’t going to live very long. The real question was if Elron and I would make it.

  Taking a deep breath, I marched over to the piece of wood, stuck my arm in the containment spell, and formed my magic into something like a laser. Using my wand, I etched my reply over the demon’s message. “The police know about demons.”

  While I waited to see if the demon would reply, I set up the purification spells for the teapot. When everything was ready, I activated the spells. When they finished, I checked for a spirit. The teapot was completely inert. Since it was cast iron, I packed it back into its box. I’d have to take it to get melted, but that could wait.

  With the teapot taken care of, I checked the wood. It still had the message I’d etched in it. Since there’d been plenty of time for a reply, I decided it was time to purify the wood. The purification spell activated easily enough, and to my surprise, the wood caught on fire on the first try.

  I was glad no one was there to see my grin as it burned.

  Chapter Eleven

  I’d been almost surprised that morning to wake up to a very normal world. If the demon was retaliating, I was out of the line of fire right now. Hopefully it was too busy thinking how to manage lots of people knowing about demons to cause any of us trouble.

  After breakfast, I went into my workroom, determined to disenchant a few things. The demon didn’t change the fact that I had bills to pay and this was my job. Moving the container holding the teapot off my desk helped me focus on work.

  The first box I opened was full of knickknacks, the kind no one ever thought about. There were napkin rings, coasters, place mats, candlestick holders, and a couple of lighters. I really wasn’t sure why someone needed bespelled version of these things, but considering the variety of items I’d seen the past few weeks, I had to admit people would buy anything if it promised to make their life easier.

  I took the set of eight napkin rings out first. While I could feel the spells on them, I had to check the notes to figure out what they did. Apparently they had been designed to prevent the napkins from collecting dust or dirt. Now they attracted dirt. After probing the tangle of magic again, I simply stripped the spells off them.

  The coasters were next. This time enough of the original spells remained that I could tell they had been intended to prevent drinks from getting knocked over. When that spell broke, it amplified the force of what was going into pushing over the cup rather than transmuting it into a stabilizing field. It only took a moment to remove the magic from the coasters. The theory was nice, but it needed better magic to back it up.

  The place mats were my next project. Something felt off when I touched them. Jerking my hand back, I eyed the place mats. I probed the air above them and was flooded with negative energy. Taking the probe back, I took a steadying breath. Nothing in that box should’ve come into contact with the tree sample or the teapot. So why was I sensing negative energy?

  I quickly checked myself but didn’t find any trace of negative energy clinging to me. Now, that was odd. Usually it contaminated anything it touched. Grabbing the energy meter, I checked the box and all the items inside. Only the place mats registered on the negative side.

  After pulling on my gloves, I carefully lifted the place mats out of the box, spread them across the table, and cast a containment spell around them. With the source of negative energy contained, I rechecked everything and got the same neutral readings. Satisfied that I didn’t have a whole room of contaminated items, I shifted my attention to the place mats. I carefully checked each of them. The first three were neutral. The next two were just on the negative side of neutral. The last one was very negative.

  I moved the more or less neutral-energy place mats to the side. With the problematic one right in front of me, I looked it over. Visually it was the same burnt-orange color as the rest of them, and I didn’t see any anomalies in the fabric.

  Still unsure what to do with the contaminated place mat, I probed the normal ones. They had been bespelled to prevent food stains. Instead of repelling the food just enough so it didn’t sink into the fabric, the spell was using enough force to send the food hurtling through the air. All that was in line with the broken spells I’d been finding.

  Taking a deep breath, I hovered a probe over the contaminated place mat. The negative energy felt terrible, but I kept moving the tendril of magic until it was about an inch above the place mat. I could feel a couple of spells, but they were nothing like what was on the other place mats. One of them had to do with appearance, but I couldn’t figure out the purpose of the other spell.

  I really needed to know exactly what this thing had been bespelled to do. Wishing there was a better option, I lowered the probe until it touched the place mat. It started rippling, sending waves of negative energy at me.

  Yanking back my magic, I watched in horror as words formed. “Then they die too.”

  I sank into a chair, hoping that didn’t mean what I thought it did. How would the demon have come into contact with the place mat? And how many other items were contaminated?

  I grabbed one of the purification charms. When I was clear of any negative energy, I pulled on my gloves, picked up my energy meter, and started going over the boxes. The first two stacks were easy enough to check, and I found a box with negative reads. Since I was going to be moving all the boxes to get to the ones in the back, I set the box with negative reads under my desk. As for the rest of the boxes, well, half of them ended up in my living room. I promised myself I’d return them to my workroom as soon as possible.

  In the remaining stacks, I found three more boxes with negative readings. Those joined the one under my desk. Needing room to work, I restacked all the boxes in the office. Satisfied with the base, I retrieved the rest of the boxes from the living room and added them on top.

  Now that I had room to move, I checked the labels on the boxes. One was from Ellijay, one from Pickens, the county just to the north. Two of them were from my home county, Cherokee. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, but considering the number of police departments I worked with, it was a little odd that all the boxes with negative energy readings were from areas I frequented.

  I pried open the first box and was reaching for the energy meter when my phone rang. Sighing, I answered. “Oaks Consulting. Michelle speaking.”

  “Michelle, it’s Queen.” The words were rushed.

  Paige Queen was an extremely competent hedge-practitioner from Pickens County. Because she was so good, I d
idn’t get much work from that area. “What can I do for you?”

  “There’s been a magical attack at the joint training facility. I need your help.” The words were clipped and her voice strained.

  “I can be there in thirty minutes.”

  “Thanks, and there will be other agencies on this one.” Her voice hardened. “Officers died.”

  “I’m on my way. What happened?” As sorry as I was that officers had died and as much as I worried about my uniformed friends, I still needed to be a professional.

  Muffled shouts reached my ears.

  Paige barked, “Get here fast,” and hung up.

  As I stood up, I noticed that the words on the place mat had changed. “More will die.”

  “Not if I can do anything about it.” I stomped out of the room, grabbed my things, and raced to my car.

  I’d been on the highway for ten minutes when my phone rang again. “Oaks Consulting.”

  “It’s Wells. I need you at the joint training facility. Do you know the address?” He was talking so fast I had a hard time distinguishing individual words.

  “I do.”

  “Get there. Fast.”

  “Already on my way.”

  I tossed the phone in the passenger seat and hit the gas pedal. As I weaved through traffic, I whispered a prayer for those who’d died. With two departments calling me out, there was a growing chance I knew some of the deceased. Plus it was odd for Wells to be the one to call me to something like this. Usually the local hedge-practitioner, Patrick, would be the one to call me. I hoped he was all right. He was a one of the youngest officers I worked with, and while he needed a little more seasoning, he was a nice guy.

  When I arrived at the training facility, the gate that was usually operated by a keypad was open but guarded by two officers. I handed one of them my ID and waited as he radioed Queen and verified I was welcome.

  He returned my ID and waved me forward. As I rolled down the gravel road, I hoped this wasn’t as bad as I was thinking it would be. That thought lasted until I spotted four ambulances and a medical examiner’s van.