by Deborah Noel
“Are you kidding? If we leave without telling them, they will have our heads on the chopping block when we return.”
“We’ll leave a note.”
“I thought Jondra said the house was being watched.”
I winked at my friend. “This would be the perfect time to escape without being seen. Consider it a shift change.” I pointed to the horizon and the sun pushing the night further away.
“Well now,” she looked outside, “that makes perfect sense.”
“I’m going with or without you,” I said firmly
She looked at me. “To be honest, I wanted to cast some spells over the place. I also wanted to cast a few over Remmie, hide his scent, remove mine from his and such.”
“Well, let’s get a move on.”
With both of us already dressed in sweats and t-shirts, we had no excuse. I grabbed my notebook and jotted a quick note that we would be back, plus Declan knew how to get a hold of me if he needed to.
We made our way to the Jeep in the driveway, being as quiet as we could. I checked the windows to make sure we hadn’t woken anyone and put the Jeep in neutral, letting it roll backward down our sloped driveway. I popped the clutch at the bottom and then headed toward our destination.
We made it there in no time. Since it was early on a Sunday morning, there was no traffic to slow us down. And no one was following us. When we got through the woods to where we normally parked, Brae directed me to go up on top of the hillside near the stream that fed the waterfall.
“We need to make an entrance up here,” she explained to me. “I will safeguard it with magic. We’ll use the biggest tree we can find.”
Who was I to argue? So we darted through the dense forest on a mission for something specific. I wasn’t sure what, but Brae knew what she was looking for. Suddenly she stopped us in front of a huge oak tree that stood tall and wide. She rubbed her hand along the rough bark.
“Ah, here you are mighty one.” She addressed the tree with such tenderness. “Mighty oak, strength of the forest, I come to you asking respectfully for your help. Reveal yourself to me and only those I grant permission to and provide us with safe passage down deep into the hillside.”
We stood at the base of the largest tree. Brae began to chant. I listened closely to her words and chanted along with her when she started again. She pulled what I thought was a pencil from inside her ponytail. It wasn’t a pencil. It was her wand. She waved it at the tree a few times. I watched as, before my eyes, the tree split down the middle, revealing an archway within itself. A branch bent down behind us and gently ushered us in. Brae grabbed my hand and pulled me through the opening into the tree. Once we were within the tree, it sealed itself closed.
She changed the words of her spell. I repeated the new words in sync with her.
I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing, as we started to descend. Within seconds we stopped. Once more she tweaked her chant and I watched in amazement as the stone wall in front of us opened up and there stood the waiting area of our office. I stepped through and turned to watch the opening disappear. Brae, standing beside me, took my hands again. “Trust me?”
I nodded my head yes.
“This knowledge remains only yours. You speak of this to no one.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
“From now on,” she began to explain to me, “when you stand in front of this wall or the tree above and you want to activate the opening to get in, rub your left eye first, then your right as if you have something in it. This action will start the process. Once you enter through the passage, sneeze to start the descend or ascend, whichever is appropriate.”
“Got it.”
“I have set your sneeze like it’s done with eye scans and such for top secret places.”
“What about the others?”
“Everyone will have their own code and the same protective secret spell will be cast over each of us.” She continued, “Now, to bring along visitors, we will have a staff meeting to figure out the best way for that.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“I have some spells to cast.”
“That’s good because I have some pictures to review. If you need me, holler.”
“Will do.” She disappeared down the stairs to get to work with Remmie.
I thought I would hear the hum of the generator, but I didn’t hear anything. As I walked into my office, lights strung across the stone ceiling came to life. Motion detector mixed with a little magic. Shane’s doing while we were in Germany, I assumed. I was beginning to like this magic stuff.
I retrieved the pictures I was looking for and sat at my u-shaped desk. I spread the pictures out of the murders that I had been never yet able to fully solve and studied them carefully. I put aside all of the images of the old man’s murder. I knew that was a feast killing and had nothing to do with the rest, other than the possibility of the same vampire or vampires having committed the crime.
Before continuing, I went to the small closet to retrieve some essential oil for my decorative oil burner. I chose basil for clear thinking and concentration. I lit the small white votive candle underneath the oil basin. I sat down and closed my eyes to clear my mind of the excess thoughts. I took several deep breaths. I opened my eyes and focused on the pictures before me. Shannon MacNamanus stood out immediately. I already had the gut feeling that this family’s murder was a warning to someone, but the who and the why eluded me. As I pushed her group of photos into a separate pile, I noticed two pictures stuck together. I carefully peeled them apart. The picture on the bottom was a photo of a pair of man’s feet with a slice the length of each foot. I hadn’t remembered seeing that before. I set the photo aside by itself. I returned my gaze to the rest of the images before me. I stared at them until they lost focus.
Then I refocused myself. I reached in my drawer and pulled out the magnifying glass and scrutinized every detail. I studied the slash marks on some of the bodies. I piled the two murder scenes where the heads were detached from the rest of the victims and set them aside. Only two murder groups played out in photographs before me; the elder couple and the three young men. These two were surprise attacks. That was their commonality. Could I have four separate murderers here? I didn’t believe so in my gut.
I let my mind race again. I distracted myself with the two vampire attacks I had witnessed firsthand. The MacMartin’s niece and the couple on the beach. Sam had called in a favor and gotten a copy of Natalie’s autopsy. I pulled the file from the filing cabinet. The cousin of my babysitter hadn’t been sexually assaulted, and she was still a virgin. Instantly I thought of Rogi’s tale of virgin blood. Well, the “why” was solved on this one; now I needed to figure the “who.” I took the young girl’s photo and put it aside. She didn’t seem to fit into any of the piles I had made. I tucked the papers back into their folder and stuffed it back in the drawer.
The couple who was devoured by the savage beast on the beach had never been documented. No missing persons’ report was filed and to date their bodies were never found. Complete dead end.
I was jolted out of my train of thought when I heard a scream followed by “you fucking bitch!” I ran downstairs to the holding cells. Remmie was standing as far back in his cell as he possibly could. Brae was holding the bars of silver looking in at him.
“Get away from me,” Remmie hissed at Brae.
I reached out and put my hand on Brae’s shoulder. She let go of the bars and looked at me.
“He can help. I can cast a spell. He’ll talk.”
“I told the wizard all he wanted to know. Piss off.”
“Remmie,” I started with the calmest voice I could. “It’s okay.”
“Who are you? You don’t smell like a witch to me. I don’t like witches.”
“I’m not a witch,” I assured him.
“Who are you?”
“Call me Ci… ”
“Call her C, blood sucker,” Brae cut me off. She looked at me with a correction i
n her eyes. I knew she wanted to have true names kept silent.
“Humph,” the vampire breathed out. “I’m done talking to you people. The wizard got what he wanted. Talk to him.” He sat with a thud on the rock bench. “I’m thirsty.”
“We’ll bring you back something,” I promised him as I grabbed Brae’s arm and led her away and up the stairs.
“Bring me the sweet stuff,” the vampire yelled after us.
When we got upstairs, I turned to my friend. “Did you cast the spells you needed to?”
“For the most part.”
“We should get back. I want to watch Remmie’s interview.”
“Okay. I need to do one more thing before we leave.”
She walked me out of the office and I followed her down the hallway toward the home Declan created for us. We went right by that and stopped at the entrance behind the wall of water. Brae performed a few magical spells. I watched in amazement as a wall of stone closed the opening.
“We can’t take the chance of someone snooping around and stumbling into this place. The only passage in or out will be the tree, with one of us granting access.”
“Okay.”
We went back to the office and left the way we entered. In no time we were on our way back home.
Chapter Thirty-seven
The house was still quiet as we walked through the front door. Declan, however, was awake and pacing the kitchen floor. He politely said hello, then gave me the look with his eyes. I prepared myself for a screaming lecture in my mind about how stupid it was for us to leave and what were we thinking, but my husband’s voice never entered my head. Instead, he turned to the patio doors looking like he was checking on something.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
Without meeting my gaze he answered, “I woke up to Bullet throwing a fit, barking and growling. When you weren’t in bed, I rushed down here to find him carrying on and scratching at the doors. My heart sank as I had instant vision of you hurt outside and Bullet trying to get to you. I saw nothing outside. I just happened to see your note. Bullet wasn’t convinced that no one was outside, so I opened the door. He took off like a bat out of hell into the yard and went into the woods. Seconds later I heard yelping. Shane and Sam came bolting downstairs. I ran into the woods after Bullet and found him laying on the ground covered in blood.”
I gasped, “No! Please tell me he is okay.”
Declan turned to me. I held my breath waiting for his answer while my heart rose into my throat.
“He is pretty banged up. He suffered a big slash to his side, but it was clean and not too deep. Sam was able to stitch him up and I had the vet make a house call. He has been given shots and tested for rabies. He is in the piano room, resting on the sofa in there.”
I let myself breathe a sigh of relief.
Declan turned back to the doors, “Sam is scouring the woods now to see what he can find. Bullet took a chunk out of whatever was there.”
“I need to go back to my flat,” Brae announced. “I need my supplies and my books.”
My husband looked at us both. “Shane anticipated such and is on his way back with your things now.”
“Good.”
I reached out and touched Declan’s forearm, “Can I go see Bullet?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t see why not. We took pictures of his wound in case you wanted to see it raw.”
“Declan,” I began telepathically.
“Please don’t, Cianna, not now,” he answered quickly.
“I just wanted to apologize for scaring you.”
His eyes softened and I could see him fighting back tears. “In one fell swoop, for just one fleeting second, I lost everything or so I thought. Our daughter, you, our dog. Please don’t go off on your own like that again. I will deny you nothing, but I need to know you are within my protection. Geall dom? (Promise me?)”
“Ta, Declan. Gealliam. (I promise.)”
“Declan,” Brae softly interrupted. “Why is Sam out there alone?”
“Shane and Sam went together and found nothing. Shane went to get your supplies, I was to stay here and wait for you girls, and Sam is now collecting blood for testing. Whatever it was, Bullet chased it away.”
I left the two of them in the kitchen. I walked down the hallway and quietly turned the knob, letting myself into the piano room. Bullet lifted his head to look towards the door. He began to wag his little tail. I walked over and sat on the floor beside the sofa and stroked his head. He licked my hand. He cautiously let me look at his bandaged wound, though I didn’t remove the dressing. “What a brave little hero you are,” I whispered in his ear, “protecting your family like that; good boy!”
He wagged his tail faster and his eyes showed his pride, but he was too weak to get up. I continued to gently run my fingers through his fur, careful not to go near his injury. He laid his head down. I kissed the top of his head. In no time he was snoring. God, how much I loved this dog!
I returned to the kitchen in time to see Brae sorting through one of three boxes Shane had retrieved from their home. Shane was going through another.
“I need the dried Rowan leaves. The Hawthorne leaves should be in there too,” she took her nose out of the box long enough to put two mortar and pestle grinding bowls onto the counter. She spotted me. “Cianna, I need garlic. Fresh would be better if you have it, but powdered will do.”
“I can go to the garden and pull some from the ground if you want.”
She clapped her hands together. “Hot dog! Talk about fresh! Yes please, dear, and don’t be shy with it. No fewer than a half dozen cloves if you can spare them.”
“Certainly,” I matched her enthusiasm.
Declan opened the door for me and kissed me on my cheek. I turned to head out almost bumping head-on into Sam coming through the door. He had a bag full of bags.
“Good evidence here! That little fellow of yours sure knew what parts to bite!”
“Save the good stuff for me, Sam,” I hollered over my shoulder.
I made my way out to the garden to get Branwen her garlic for whatever new potion she was making. I stopped at my garden shed to get a pointed digging shovel. I left the door open and walked the few steps over to the garden. As I knelt down to begin to unearth the fresh garlic cloves, a hushed voice whispered to me from beside the shed.
“Cianna, please don’t be scared.”
I nearly jumped from my own skin. I swung around to see a beautiful young girl kneeling against the shed. As I went to throw the shovel at her, she raised a finger to her mouth.
“I mean you no harm,” she said to me in an angelic voice.
I froze for a second. She didn’t move from her spot, but offered her hand out as a gesture of peace. On her palm she had six small pills.
“These will help your little dog. If one in my pack is injured during a fight, I give them these pills. They speed up recovery time.” She chuckled, “Of course those in my pack are much larger than your small one. One of these per day will work just fine for the little darling of yours. I hope he wasn’t hurt too badly.”
“Who are you and how do you know about Bullet?”
“Questions for another time,” she said as she stood up and slowly glided over to me. “Much work still remains to be completed and neither of us has time for a social visit now. Please trust me. I will be by soon for proper introductions and explanations.” She dropped the pills into my hand. “My name is Malina. Knowing that should suffice for now. We will visit with each other again soon.”
Without saying anything else, she turned back toward the shed and disappeared into the wood-line behind it. I noticed something familiar about her as I watched her walk away.
I looked at the little blue pills in my hand. I smelled them. They had a funny odor to them. I put them in my pocket and dug up eight cloves of garlic. I threw the shovel back into the shed and closed the door. I headed back to the house.
When I walked through the door, Bullet was s
itting there waiting for me. He lifted his nose in the air and sniffed. His little nub tail began to wave back and forth with speed. He extended his paw out to me, like he does when I offer him a treat. He sat there waiting for me.
“It’s the damnedest thing,” Sam blurted out. “He came trotting out here and plopped himself down, just watching the door, waiting for you.”
I knelt down to him, “How did you know?” He gently and slowly stood, leaning his front paws on my thighs. He smelled my pocket, sat back down and offered his paw again. I reached in my pocket to get out a blue pill. I shook his paw and gave the pill to him. He chewed it quickly then retreated back to the piano room.
“What the heck?” Declan asked.
Knowing no one would believe my story, I gave the garlic to Brae and explained of my encounter with Malina.
“Who is she?”
I turned to Declan, “I’m not really sure, but I think she was here when the wolves killed Tomos and Remmie’s friend in crime.”
“A she-wolf,” Sam snorted.
“Or at least their caretaker,” I offered the explanation to myself as much as to my listeners.
“Our circle is getting more and more crowded with strange beings,” my uncle observed.
Brae shoved a peeler and a garlic press with some garlic into Sam’s hands. “No time,” she said in a frenzy. “Obviously this Malina meant us no harm; she said proper introductions would come later, and that we all had work to do. She’s watching over this place, so that’s a good thing! We need to get to work. Press this garlic. I need the Hawthorne and Rowan leaves crushed and crumbled, Shane, darling. We need a big batch, so use them all. The finer the better, too.”
I smiled watching everyone get busy with Brae’s instructions. “I’m going to go watch Remmie’s interview, then, since the kitchen is all under control.”