Wicked Folk

by Jamie McFarlane

  I repeated much the same process as I had for the silver oak leaf and the fingerling wand, only this time, applying the components for the Lucem enchantment. Maggie was right. The crystal seemed to take to the enchantment very well and when I was done, it glowed slightly.

  "Now we rest," I said.

  "Good," Gabriella said as I followed her into the cabin where she climbed up onto a high bunk bed that held a full-sized mattress. She'd already laid out a couple of our quilts as well as our pillows.

  "Do you really think they won't send zombies up here after us? It's not like they had trouble finding us in Missouri," she said, lying next to me in the upper bunk. We'd set an old-fashioned wind-up alarm to wake us later in the afternoon, although Maggie had promised she wasn't going to sleep.

  The sheriff's cabin was well set up for sleeping and food preparation, but little else. There was no indoor plumbing and the facilities consisted of a privy several yards down the hill. It was, however, beautifully perched near the top of the mountain and looked out over a deep, forested valley.

  "It'd be quite a walk for a zombie. We're sixty miles from the nearest hospital or morgue," I said.

  She was quiet for a few minutes and then whispered. "What if my hair never turns black again?"

  "I think it's sexy," I said.

  "You would." She wrapped her hands around my own and laid her face next to them, kissing my hand. "Where do you think Lace went? I hope she's safe."

  "Me too," I said and drifted off to sleep.

  I'm not a big fan of daytime naps. When Gabriella nudged me awake, I had no concept of what was happening or where we were. Slowly, reality came rushing back and the weight of our situation settled back upon me.

  "Coffee?" Judy handed me an old mug.

  "I've been trying to come up with some way to locate Petaluma," I said.

  "What if we're overthinking this?" Gabriella asked. "Judy, do you have a signal on your phone?"

  "Sure, they upgraded the tower just last year," she said. "Better signal than the house."

  "Perfect." Gabriella pushed away from the table and ran out the door. A moment later, she arrived with her tablet computer.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "Give me a minute," she said, taking Judy's phone. "Crap, can you unlock it?"

  Judy unlocked the phone and handed it back.

  "I'm putting your phone in hotspot mode." I had no earthly idea what she was talking about. Gesturing furiously for a minute, she finally announced, "Bingo! We're online."

  "And?" Judy asked.

  "Just wait." Gabriella navigated to a website for something called the find-my-phone application. "Voila," she said triumphantly as a map filled the screen, showing Eppy Faire. A red dot sat prominently in the center.

  "Why is it red?" Judy asked.

  "I didn't have much battery left last night. It must have run out," she said. "It's showing I was at the sheriff's office when it ran out."

  "More like the back yard of the sheriff office's," I said observing that the dot appeared to be at least forty yards behind where the sheriff's office was located.

  "I don't think the GPS is that accurate. What about your phone?" Gabriella asked.

  "Do flip-phones do that?" I asked.

  She looked crestfallen. "No."

  "What about Luma?" I asked. "What if she has a phone?"

  "You have to know the password," she said.

  "Like a witch can keep a secret from her mother," I said.

  "She hid that book," Gabriella replied.

  After a prolonged conversation with Dolly, Judy finally extricated herself from the phone conversation. "The FBI came by the hospital today. They were already on Petaluma's trail. Unfortunately, she left her phone at the house. Thea has fallen completely off the radar and the Feds issued an amber alert for Luma."

  "Damn," Gabriella said. "Now what?"

  "Let me try something," I said, pulling the tablet over. I punched in an email address I hadn't used in a number of years and tried a familiar password.

  "What are you doing?" Gabriella asked.

  A map took over the screen. It zoomed in to a section of the national forest that had a common boundary with Judy's home as well as Eppy Faire. A dot was moving along one of the roads, just exiting the forest a few miles up from the Faire.

  "Who is that?" Gabriella pushed.

  "That's Thea," I said. "She hasn't changed her password."

  "You remember it from two years ago?"

  "It's my birthday," I said.

  "That's awesome," Maggie said. "She's so fricking twisted."

  "I don't suppose you'd stay behind?" I asked Gabriella. She didn't answer beyond a tip of her head and pursed lips.

  Judy handed Gabriella a smoothed stick with a single green jewel inlaid at the thickest end. "I have something for you,"

  "A wand? Judy, I can't take your wand," she said.

  "It's not mine," she said. "It was my mother's."

  Gabriella took a deep breath. "That's too much."

  "Nonsense. Maybe if it were my grandmother's," Judy said.

  Gabriella looked suspiciously at Judy. "Is it your grandmother's?"

  Judy chuckled. "Caught red-handed, but you'll still take it. I heard about that spell your coven cast allowing you to pin Felix down on the couch. Use that same incantation with the wand. It won't have the force of your coven, but it will help you focus the spell. You'll need to concentrate your energy as much as possible if you are going to win against the undead they've been throwing at us."

  "The spell we used on Felix seemed awfully dark to me," she said. "I didn't know it then, but my mistress was flirting with black magic."

  "A decision you will have to make. Personally, I've shied from conflict whenever possible. If pushed to it, however, you wouldn't catch me chasing demons and undead without a wand," Judy replied and then chuckled. "Of course, you wouldn't find me chasing demons either way."

  Gabriella smiled and waved the wand around experimentally. "And yet, you didn't seem to have trouble with those undead at your home."

  "There was a time …" Judy stopped. "The thing to remember is that they are no longer people. Their spirits have long departed and they are nothing more than puppets, doing the bidding of someone who would hurt you and your family. Also, go for their legs. Their controller will lose interest if they have to crawl after you."

  "I don't know," Gabriella said. "I don't know if I can make that spell work under pressure."

  "You didn't have any problem in my apartment," I said.

  "That was different. I had my coven behind me and I was doing the bidding of my mistress. Plus, I knew I wasn't going to hurt you," she said.

  Judy picked up Gabriella's hand. "Come with me. We can take a few practice swings." It was something I loved about Judy; she was quick to empathize with other's needs.

  While I'd have enjoyed watching Gabriella practice with Judy, I needed to get organized if we were going into the forest where we'd seen Thea's cell phone. Willum's ceremonies would take a fairly large space, possibly hidden some distance from the road Thea had been traveling. Once we turned down that road, we truly wouldn't be able to see the forest for the trees. I was thinking we'd benefit from an eye or two in the sky.

  "Is it safe for you to shift again?" I asked Maggie, who'd finally donned one of my t-shirts.

  Maggie waggled her eyebrows. "Tired of looking at me already?"

  "Apparently, I'm the only one with issues about you being naked all the time," I said. It was true that neither Judy nor Gabriella seemed even the least bit perturbed by her nudity. I'd have expected it from Judy, who felt the human form in its natural state was beautiful, but I'd have thought Gabriella would have been at least somewhat disconcerted.

  "I've been shifting a lot," she said. "I should be able to safely transition after all the calories I've taken in over the last ten hours, but I'll want to stay in that form for a few days. Why, what do you have in mind?"

  I pushed
the tablet over to her, having zoomed the map into a ten square mile area of the forest. "There's no way Gabriella and I can cover this much ground, especially on foot. I'll bet anything there are people coming and going to this cathedral. It can't be that hard to find from the air."

  "Nobody pays attention to a raven," she said. "Just so you know. I like old meat - the rottener the better - and don't be refrigerating it."

  "That's disgusting."

  "It's softer and tastes better," she said, pulling off her t-shirt and walking over to the refrigerator. From the freezer, she pulled out an ancient looking packet of mystery meat and stuck it in the microwave. "When this is done, throw it on the roof."

  I sighed and followed Maggie out the front door, recognizing that I was becoming inured to her naked state. The sound of popping, like that of bubble wrap, caught my attention and a rock the size of my fist jumped up in front of Judy and Gabriella. Gabriella swung her wand and a puff of dust erupted to the right of the rock.

  "I'm never going to get this," Gabriella complained.

  "That was very close and your aim will improve over time," Judy said. "Besides, those zombies are larger than rocks and they move slowly. Don't underestimate their strength, though. Do not let them get ahold of you under any circumstance."

  "Bonsai!" Maggie exclaimed, gaining everyone's attention. She sprinted toward the side of the mountain and jumped from a rock outcropping. I bit my lip as she plunged over the side. If she didn't shift and catch the wind, she'd fall forty feet into the wooded terrain below.

  "Shit." I followed after her once she'd fallen below my sight line, still in human form.

  "Felix?" Gabriella called after me, sensing my concern.

  Just when I reached the edge of the mountain, my eyes caught sight of the large black raven I'd grown up with, soaring down into the valley, gaining speed as she cruised mere feet above the tops of the trees. A gust of wind and a wide turn lifted her hundreds of feet in just a few seconds. I marveled at her grace as she circled overhead, crowing loudly.

  A Light in the Dark

  "Take mine," Judy said, handing me her phone. "I'll buy a temporary when I get to town."

  I reached for my wallet, but she held up her hand to stop me.

  "What will you do?" I asked.

  "I need to tell Aaron what's going on," she said, meaning the sheriff. "He was willing to let us use his cabin, but he's going to want to know I'm okay."

  "Will you tell him everything?" Gabriella asked.

  "No, but I have experience modifying reality with a more palatable version of the truth."

  "Does he know who you are? Who the girls are?" Gabriella asked.

  Judy gave us a wan smile. "At some level he does. He doesn't push it too hard, though."

  I hugged her. "Stay safe and call me if Lace or Petaluma show up."

  She turned back as she walked toward her car. "I will."

  As Judy put her hand on the car’s door, her phone rang. I recognized the number as belonging to Agent Anderson. "Any word on Petaluma?" I asked, picking up.

  "We had a lead out at Eppy, but it turned out to be a dead-end," she said. "Were you involved in the collapse of their church?"

  "They've a secret location where they're performing their rituals," I said, ignoring her question. "Can you track them electronically?"

  "If there were tracks to find," she said. "This group is smart."

  "We have a lead," I said. "We're going to check it out."

  "Bring me along," she said.

  "That’s not a good idea and besides, it's not like we know whether it'll pan out," I said.

  "My partner is missing, Slade. Other than ransacking every house in Eppy Faire, I have nothing else," she said, pleading in her voice. "My office is about to pull me back."

  "They can't do that," I said. "What about Mulper?"

  "They still believe he’s on vacation."

  "If you want a lead, check the security guards at Eppy. They kidnapped us last night and held us against our will," I said. "One of them was called Barnes."

  "You need to fill out a complaint if we're going to hold him," she said. "But I could pick him up for questioning."

  "He's dangerous. Take backup," I said.

  "I will," she said and hung up.

  "What about Maggie?" Gabriella asked as I put the Suburban in reverse and slowly backed onto the dirt track leading down the mountain.

  "She'll find us," I said.

  "She really did a number on the front of the truck," Gabriella observed. I'd been trying to ignore the bashed-in grill, dented hood, numerous scratches to the paint, and missing side mirror.

  "She hasn’t done much driving and there was that chain-link fence she had to take down," I said.

  The entrance to the part of the forest we'd be searching was well-marked and we stopped to look at a permanent map mounted between pine logs and covered with plexiglass. A steel map holder stood empty and its accompanying donation box had been jimmied open at least once.

  I pointed to the map as Gabriella joined me. "Judy's cabin is about ten miles over that ridge, just off this map. Eppy Faire is five miles over that way."

  "Why did it take us so long to get there?"

  "It wouldn't have if we were crows," I said. "The mountain roads wind all over the place up here."

  "Cawwk," Maggie cried as she landed on top of the map-stand.

  "This is the road Thea was on," I said, looking at Maggie. "It only goes another hundred yards north. Did you see anything like a church?" Maggie shook her head negatively to my disappointment. She should have seen a structure if they'd buried a church back in these hills. "Let's grab our hiking gear. There's a dirt road we can follow, hopefully Maggie will get a lead on something."

  I pulled out a water bottle and stuffed Judy's phone into the lightweight day pack I used for hiking. We walked quietly down the deteriorating asphalt and stopped at a rusty chain hanging between two heavy posts. A sign that read 'No Admittance – Forest Service' hung precariously in the center.

  "That's a new lock," Gabriella observed.

  I agreed. "Curious."

  We walked around the post and started down the easy grade. "There's been traffic on this road this spring."

  "How can you tell?" Gabriella asked.

  "Look at the plant growth on the shoulder, then look at the track. No reason for the weeds to be clear along the track unless people are driving on it," I said.

  We continued for thirty minutes, which I estimated to be a mile in. As we trekked downhill, I thought I heard the trickle of a stream, probably within thirty yards, through the overgrown trees to our right.

  "Someone's coming," Gabriella warned. I strained my ears and heard the low rumble of a vehicle.

  "Over here." I jumped from the road and slid down into a ditch. We scrabbled up the other side and into the trees. Moments later a rusty old station wagon lumbered up the road, the people inside not bothering to look around as they drove past.

  "They're from Eppy," Gabriella said.

  "How do you know?"

  "I recognized the woman sitting in the back from the security station." she said.

  "Good eyes."

  We waited a few minutes to make sure they weren't being followed by another vehicle and then climbed back onto the road.

  "Look at that," I said, pointing to an opening in the trees where a number of cars had flattened the grass. A single pickup truck remained. Carefully, we crept up to it and Gabriella placed her hands on the hood.

  "What are you doing?" I whispered.

  "Do you really not watch TV? If the engine is warm it's been driven recently," she said.

  "Is it?"

  "No."

  Maggie landed on a branch next to the impromptu parking area. "I think Maggie sees something," I said, walking over to where she'd landed. When I got there, I saw what her sharp eyes had easily picked out. A well-traveled dirt path disappeared around the tree where she sat.

  "Thanks," I said as we pass
ed beneath her.

  The trail couldn't have been easier to follow. The people who'd recently used it had made no effort to cover their tracks. All manner of trash, bits of clothing and objects I had no interest in inspecting littered the edges.

  "Do you smell that?" It was the third time I'd smelled that type of decay. It wasn't unusual to smell plant or animal decay in a natural setting, but this stench was in a whole different category.

  Gabriella wrinkled her nose and pulled the wand from her waist pouch. "Yes."

  The sound of water increased and we soon found ourselves crossing a stream, the muddy banks sporting numerous shoe and bare footprints.

  "This can't be good." I pointed at one of the better defined footprints with a red-brown stain at its center.

  It was about seven in the evening and I'd miscalculated the sunset, not factoring in that we were on the eastern slope of a mountain and traveling downward. For us, the sun was already behind the mountain and the hollow where we walked continued to get darker.

  "Up there," Gabriella said as we came around a bend. She pointed at the side of the hill we'd started to climb after crossing the stream. The path we'd been on led to the mouth of a cave. Wooden stairs had been built into the hill, making the final climb considerably easier than it would have been otherwise. "Tell me we're not going in there." We both looked into the gloom of the cave, the unmistakable stench of death in the air.

  I gave a frustrated sigh and shook my head. "Yeah, I wish."

  I incanted my ghostly lantern, pleased to feel the energy transfer smoothly from the crystal hanging around my neck. The color of the light had shifted slightly, which I suspected was due to the shift in the enchantment's ingredients. The fire within was a translucent yellow ball with bright red flames coursing over its surface. I smiled at the small comfort I took from it.

  The entrance to the cave widened into a large room. It wasn't until we'd crossed the floor to where it narrowed into a hallway that I caught the fetid breeze that blew up from within. Where previously I'd had a few whiffs of decay, this was significantly more intense. I gagged, my ordinarily keen senses amplifying the effects.

  "Damn. I don't know if I can do this." I stopped and waited for the bile in my stomach to settle.