Witching Moon

by Yasmine Galenorn

  There he was, sitting on my bed, wearing one of my bathrobes. Sometimes Raj liked to play dress-up, which I found odd given that gargoyles generally went around naked.

  “Raj scared Raven! Raven thought Raj had gone outside by himself. What’s Raj doing?” I asked, heading toward the bed.

  “Raj isn’t doing anything,” came the reply. He stared at me blankly, his go-to “I didn’t do anything” look.

  I hadn’t forbade him to play dress-up, but he was rough on my clothes and so I had bought him some thrift-store garb. He knew he wasn’t supposed to use my clothes instead.

  “Why is Raj wearing Raven’s bathrobe?”

  He glanced the other way, trying to avoid my eyes. “What bathrobe? Raj doesn’t see any bathrobe.”

  “Raj knows perfectly well that Raven can see that he’s wearing her bathrobe. Raj also knows that Raven won’t be angry, unless Raj lies to her or does something he’s not supposed to. Now did Raven say Raj can wear her bathrobe?”

  Raj thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No. Raven said Raj must wear his own clothes.”

  “Then Raj needs to tell Raven the truth.” With a sigh, I sprawled on the bed, staring at the ceiling as I folded my arms under my head. “Why is Raj wearing Raven’s bathrobe?”

  Raj deflated. He slipped out of the bathrobe, trying to fold it but only ended up ripping it in the process. I grimaced. The purple satin was one of my favorites, but I didn’t want to yell at him. He hadn’t meant to tear it.

  “Raj missed Raven. Raj was pretending Raven was here to talk to him.”

  Oh, good gods. Had I gotten that bad? I knew that I’d been distant lately, but I tried to be present as much as I could. However, Raj wasn’t like a happy-go-lucky dog who could handle a couple weeks of vacation if their owner left town. Raj was more like an extremely neurotic cat, and he acted out just like one.

  “Raven hasn’t been too far from home most of the time lately,” I said, sitting up and folding my knees into a cross-legged position.

  “Raj knows. But it feels like Raven’s been gone. Raven seems distant to Raj. Raj wonders what he did to drive Raven away.” He looked so forlorn that I burst into tears. The day had been exhausting, even though I couldn’t remember part of it. “Now Raj makes Raven cry.”

  I scooted up toward the headboard and patted the pillow next me as I leaned back. “Raj come sit with Raven.” As the massive gargoyle half-rolled, half-crawled his way up the bed, I laid my arm out wide and Raj slipped inside of my embrace, leaning against me with a contented sigh.

  “So, Raj should tell Raven just how he’s feeling right now.”

  Raj paused, then he closed his eyes and leaned against my side. “Raj is nervous. Raj is worried about Raven. She seems different and sad. Raj is worried that Raven’s going to go away and leave him alone.”

  So that was it. He was afraid I was going to abandon him. I leaned down and kissed the top of his head.

  “Oh Raj, please don’t worry about that. Raven’s not going anywhere, and if she does, she’ll take Raj with her. Raj and Raven are a team, and Raj, Raven, and Kipa are a team. And what do teams do?”

  “Teams work together. Rah-rah!” He waved one hand in the air, trying to clumsily give me a high five. I high-fived him back, and then tickled his belly. It was the softest place on him, a small spot on his underbelly. Like the dragons and Shelob of Tolkien, that was his most vulnerable place. He laughed and the sparkle started coming back into his eyes.

  “Raven promise?” Raj giggled in between his words, then fell into that nasal laugh of his. The smile on his face told me everything I needed to know.

  “Raven promises. And you know Raven never breaks a promise if she can help it.”

  At that moment, I heard the front door open. I stiffened, but then Kipa called from the living room.

  “I’m home! Where are you?”

  “Raj and I are in the bedroom. Come on in.”

  Kipa entered the bedroom, holding a bouquet of roses and a can of very fancy cat food. “Roses for my Raven, and Sheer Perfection for Raj.”

  Raj rolled onto his back, wriggling.

  I rose up on my knees, accepting the flowers as Kipa leaned down to give me a kiss. I scooted over, patting the bed next to me. “Sit down. These are beautiful,” I said, pressing my nose to the blossoms.

  They were fuchsia, brilliant pink with darker pink edges. And they smelled like a wild garden, like a secret garden at night. I thought back to the place over near the veterans’ home, shivering. But these roses hadn’t come from there, and their spicy scent swept my thoughts away from ghosts and monsters. I set them aside and leaned over to kiss Kipa. He pulled me into his arms, and I straddled his lap, wrapping my legs around his waist. I was hungry for him, suddenly wanting him more than I had wanted anything for a long time. I caught my breath, gazing into his eyes, resting my head against his.

  “Raj, would you like to go eat your dinner?” I asked.

  Raj jumped off the bed, dropping the can of cat food in his excitement. Kipa glanced at me and I nodded.

  “Come on, Raj, I’ll feed you your dinner a little early.” Kipa turned back to me as he scooped up the can of cat food. “Get ready for me,” he said as he darted out the door with Raj following.

  Chapter Twelve

  I had stripped down and was starting to put on a sheer black negligée when Kipa burst into the room. Only he didn’t look turned on. Instead, there was a worried expression across his face.

  “I just got a call from Herne. He wants to know if you can come help us out.” He froze, looking me up and down. “Damn, you look hot.”

  My libido took a nosedive. “What’s happening now?”

  “I think you really did wake something up. Up at the Worchester cemetery, reports have come in that there are some skeletal walkers on the move.” He shrugged. “Herne could call somebody else, but you’re the quickest bone witch or necromancer to reach. You know how to deal with the dead—and the undead.”

  “Crap. Okay, call him back and tell him we’re on the way. I’ll get dressed.”

  As Kipa darted out of my room, I pulled off the nightgown and rummaged through my dresser, grabbing a pair of black-and-white striped leggings, which I shimmied into. I pulled a black jersey tank dress over my head and fitted a silver belt around the waist. Then I slid into a pair of black Fluevog Socas. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and slid a lightweight black denim jacket over the top. I slung my purse over my shoulder, and quickly stopped in my ritual room to grab my bag of tricks.

  Kipa was waiting by the door. He had already explained to Raj that we were going to have to go out. I noticed that he had armed the wards, and the security system. We hustled out to the car and I tossed him the keys.

  “I want to do some meditation and start building energy for spell work.”

  I jammed my seatbelt on as Kipa pulled out of the driveway and we sped up the road. He was a good driver, if a little bit reckless, but he had never gotten a ticket and he had never hurt anybody.

  I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. “You said skeletal walkers?”

  Skeletal walkers were different than zombies or ghouls. Reanimated bones, they had no sense or thought. Brainless, they merely carried out the orders their keeper programmed into them. The problem was, they wouldn’t stop until they were destroyed—as in pulverized. Skeletal walkers didn’t attack out of hunger or fear, and not once had I ever seen one spontaneously reanimate. No, they had to be given orders by either a necromancer or someone who worked with the dead. Given the conditions, I rather doubted that the Lykren was to blame for this. From what we had read, the Lykren couldn’t command the dead. No, there was someone else behind this.

  I drifted in the energy, gathering my power around me. Those of us who worked magic at the level I did could handle potent spells, but we had a limited amount of juice to go on. And when we were tired, the amount of magical energy we had to spare diminished accordingly. Strong emotions, physical ex
ertion, lack of sleep—all of these factors played a part in how much magic we could perform, as well as how strong the spells we could cast.

  And right now I wasn’t feeling incredibly strong. However, I was still horny, and I could use that as a substitute. Sexual energy and magical energy were close together in terms of both source and strength, tied through the kundalini channels. And so, I channeled my arousal into my magic, focusing on strengthening the magical nature of the energy. It was a little bit like sorting different-colored M&Ms. Right now I was setting the green ones to the side, and keeping the orange and red ones for myself. And yet, the fact that there were green ones meant there were also more red and orange to go around.

  Ten minutes later, I was breathing easy, my frustration gone. My strength felt like it was returning. I let out a long breath and opened my eyes.

  Kipa glanced over at me, a knowing look on his face. “You’re ready to go on the attack, aren’t you?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I can manage a fight against the skeletal walkers tonight.” I paused, then reached forward and opened my glove box to grab a couple candy bars that I kept there. The sugar would give me another temporary energy boost. I ate one of the Shasta bars, and then the other. They were coconut and chocolate, with cherry flavoring added in.

  “I don’t know how you can eat those things,” Kipa said with a laugh. “Give me a good old-fashioned chocolate bar any day without anything in it but a few nuts.”

  “I’m pretty sure we can manage to find the nuts. They seem to be breeding pretty fast these days. The chocolate I’m not so sure about,” I said with a laugh. “I like Shasta bars. I especially like the peanut butter ones.” I licked my fingers, then hunted in my purse for a wet wipe. As I wiped my hands, I added, “I saw one of the therapists at Ferosyn’s today. His name is Sejun. He gave me some herbal capsules for bedtime, to help me sleep better.”

  “How do you feel about going to therapy, now that you’ve been?” Kipa asked, swinging the car onto the 520 floating bridge. Traffic was light, given rush hour was over, and the brightness of Seattle glittered across the lake. Lake Washington was beautiful, stretching for miles either way. Twenty-two miles lengthways, the lake supported the floating bridge, which in itself was over a mile across, stretching from the Eastside to Seattle proper. During storms, the water frothed at the edges, sweeping over the pontoons.

  “I think it’s going to be good, although it’s the strangest thing. I can’t remember anything that happened during the session. I can’t remember what I told him, I can’t remember what he said. I just have a feeling that whatever it was, it was helpful.” I realized that I did feel a bit lighter, a little less weighed down.

  “Do you realize how the therapists there work? Especially with traumatic cases?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea.”

  “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to tell you, but I feel you should know. They bring the trauma to the surface while you’re talking to them, and then… They sort of absorb it out of your system. Then they cleanse it and let it go. They actually remove the traumatic injury to the psyche.”

  I stared at him, my jaw dropping. “They do what?”

  “Yes. Sejun’s actually siphoning the energy of the wound off of you and releasing it. You’ll keep the memories of what happened, but pretty soon they shouldn’t bother you—or at least, they won’t be painful flashbacks.” Kipa frowned, looking worried. “Should I have kept my mouth shut?”

  I wasn’t sure what to say. The idea that someone was siphoning off my pain felt both invasive and yet incredibly freeing. I didn’t know how I felt about it.

  “I’m going to have to process that for a while. I’m glad you told me. Herne didn’t say anything and neither did Ferosyn. You know, it would be so helpful if humans could devise a similar sort of treatment. There are some pretty broken people out there.”

  “I know,” Kipa said. “Venla had some dark secrets of her own when I was with her. I couldn’t help her that way, but at least I had love to offer, and a safe haven for the rest of her life.” His voice was tender, and I realized it sounded the same as when he was being gentle with me.

  “You really did love her, didn’t you?” I looked at him, watching his expression.

  He kept his eyes on the road, but gave me a nod. “I did. People wonder how the gods can love humans, but love transcends so many factors. Obstacles crumble in the face of it. I loved Venla in a way that I had never loved anyone. And in a way I’ve never loved anyone since… Until now.” He pressed his lips together, focusing on driving.

  I leaned back in my seat again, thinking about everything he told me. “I think, as long as Sejun leaves all my other feelings and emotions alone, I’m glad that he’s doing what he’s doing. I hate the fact that I don’t trust myself right now. I want to blame Pandora and not my own bad judgment, but it’s hard for me to do that, given I gave her a ride in the middle of the night, only having met her briefly.”

  “Everything she did to you is her fault, and her fault alone. You are not to blame for what happened to you, Raven. You’re never to blame for that. And one day, I will pay Pandora a visit, and I’ll make sure she understands why she should never mess with my loved ones again. I give you my oath. Because like Pandora, I’m a god, and I can do some serious damage to her. And that’s all we’ll say about that for now.”

  We drove in silence toward the Worchester District. I ran through my repertoire of spells that dealt with the undead, especially with skeletal walkers. There were several that could turn them to dust, but I didn’t know if I had enough energy for that. But I could freeze them in place until somebody else could beat the crap out of them. Once the bones were ground to dust, the magic would vanish. But they had to be pulverized, or the hands could creep around and still wreak havoc. That was where the story of the monkey’s paw originated.

  As we came to the cemetery, I straightened up and hid my purse under the seat, stowing my phone and my keys in my pockets. Kipa had brought out a large wooden hammer, given blunt instruments worked better against skeletons than swords, and we pulled into the parking lot, where I recognized Herne’s car and Ember’s car. As we stepped out onto the sidewalk, I could see Herne and Ember at a distance, keeping an eye on several creatures that were headed their way. Viktor stood near his car, and I waved to him.

  “Are you ready to bust some ass?” I asked.

  “You’ve got it, chickadee!” he said, swinging a large hammer that he had propped over his shoulder. Actually, it was more like a giant croquet mallet, only it had metal ends on either side, and the wood looked to be a whole lot sturdier than whatever they used for the game. “So, do you think the Lykren stirred this up?”

  I shook my head as we hurried over to him. “No. The Lykren can’t animate the dead. This is somebody else’s work.” At that moment my phone rang, and I glanced at the caller ID. It was Ashera. That was a surprise.

  Ashera also had a big hand in helping me escape from Pandora. One of the Dragonni, she was a blue dragon shifter who did not share the destructive tendencies of Typhon, the Father of Dragons. When the Dragonni began to return to this world, Ashera had been one of them. She now lived on Bainbridge Island, to be near the water. We knew that there were several other dragons around, including twin white dragons who were Pandora’s helpers.

  “Ashera, what can I do for you?” I was pleased to hear from her, even considering the circumstances.

  “I wanted to tell you that Aso and Variance have been spotted in the Seattle area. I’m not sure what they’re up to, but they came down off the mountain. One of my informants saw them and gave me a call.”

  I blinked. So Ashera already had informants? That was news. “Can they raise skeletal walkers?”

  “There’s not much those two can’t do in terms of the dead. So, yes, I would assume they can.”

  “Can I call you back later? I’m about to go into battle with a few of the bony-assed creatures.” I said good-bye and jammed my phone back in
my pocket. “I think we know who animated the skeletal walkers, guys. Aso and Variance have been spotted in Seattle. It looks like they’re getting ready to raise hell for their father.”

  “We’ll talk about that later,” Viktor said, swinging in beside Kipa and me. “Right now we need to send those walkers back to the grave.”

  And with that, we headed over to meet Ember and Herne, weapons ready.

  I could see six skeletal walkers. I edged over to Ember, my gaze focused on the undead. “Do you know where they’re headed? Any time anyone animates a skeleton, they usually give them specific instructions. They don’t usually just let them run amok.”

  Ember shook her head. “I don’t know. One of Talia’s friends called her to tell her about them. He was walking by the cemetery when he saw them and he hurried out of here as soon as he could. He knew what they were. I wonder who animated them.”

  “I think I might know. I just got a call from Ashera over on Bainbridge Island. She said Aso and Variance were spotted in Seattle. Chances are they are starting something for their father. I suppose it could be payback for driving Pandora out, but I quite doubt that she has left the area.”

  I stepped forward, trying to gauge how far apart the skeletons were. If they stretched their arms out, they would have been able to touch the fingertips of the skeleton next to them, and they were walking in three rows of two. With my spell, I could probably freeze three to four of them, but that would leave two loose to roam free.

  “Damn it, the dragons. Of course.” Herne shook his head. “Just what we need. Damn Typhon’s spawn.”

  “Okay, here’s the thing,” I said. “I have a spell that can freeze three of them, possibly four. But you’re going to have to work fast after that because it will only hold them for possibly two or three minutes. You’re going to have to beat the crap out of those creatures, and the ones who aren’t affected by it will be attacking you. Unless they were given some extremely specific instructions, when you attack one of a group of skeletal walkers, the others will turn on you. They often act with a hive mind—or rather, a mindless hive acting on orders as one unit. They aren’t reasoning beings, and they have no needs of their own, like ghouls or zombies. Tell me when you want me to cast the spell, because it’s the best one I’ve got for the situation.”