by Clare Kauter
Henry placed a hand on my shoulder. “It’s OK, Ness. I get it,” he said gently as I took deep breaths to try and calm myself down. I was less in a ‘might accidentally kill someone’ mood than a ‘might accidentally leak from my eyes’ mood, and I wasn’t sure I liked the change.
“I don’t think you do get it,” I said quietly, sucking in a shaky breath.
“I’ll help you find out more about yourself,” he promised. “As much as I can within the bounds of the secrecy spell.”
“Really?” I said quietly.
He nodded. “Of course. Just please try to stay… you, OK?”
I gave him a smile and blinked a couple of times to keep back tears, nodding. Henry was going to help me find out more about myself. I had someone on my side.
Since I’d been busy talking to Henry, I hadn’t really been taking in our surroundings. It wasn’t until we drew up to a forest that I actually noticed where we were. This wasn’t the Black Forest that passed by my house, which meant this had to be the Gott Woods. (I don’t know who came up with the name, but obviously it was someone very mature. Or I guess it could have been someone with the surname ‘Gott’.) I’d been here once or twice with Satan when I was younger to collect rare herbs and potions supplies, but it had creeped me out so much that I’d determinedly avoided it in recent years.
“No, no, no,” I said, stopping in the middle of the red dirt track that led into the trees. “We are not going in there.”
Ravi and Henry stopped and turned towards me. “What is it?” Henry asked.
“You can’t feel it?”
Henry frowned. “I can feel something, but not strongly.”
“There’s some dark shit going on in there,” I said. “It’s a dodgy place for dodgy people.”
“You’ll be right at home, then,” said Ravi.
My jaw dropped. “This coming from a potion addict who followed a strange woman into the woods and got himself murdered.”
“Surely he wasn’t murdered here,” said Henry. “It’s so far from your house. Who would go to the trouble of killing someone here and dumping the body so far away?”
“Someone who doesn’t want to get caught?” I suggested. “Maybe they live around here and wanted to dump the body away from home.”
“But why Watergrove?”
“I don’t know, Henry. Maybe it’s on their way to work or something.”
“Or maybe someone’s trying to freak you out,” he said.
“Well, it didn’t work,” I said. “Dead bodies don’t even slightly upset me.”
Ravi and Henry gave me similar looks of concern with a hint of fear.
“Well, I mean, I’m sorry you’re dead, Ravi,” I said. “It’s just that I’ve seen a lot of bodies, you know? The shock value is kind of gone. But anyway, if someone was trying to freak me out, they would have left it in my garden or something, not across the road in the cemetery, surely.”
“Unless they couldn’t get through your wards.”
“They still would have left it closer, surely.”
Henry shrugged. “Maybe. Anyway, we should investigate the forest. If you’re right about him being murdered here, we might find the actual crime scene.”
“I don’t want to go in there.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been in there before and the energy is creepy. Don’t you feel it?” I asked again, unable to believe that Henry would be totally OK with walking into a place like that.
“Only a little,” said Henry, his brow wrinkling. He and I made eye contact and I could tell we were thinking the same thing: this forest had some sort of clouding spell over it. We’d encountered a similar thing before, back in Scotland, where I was the only one who could feel the dark energy contained in the forest. Then, as Henry spent more time around me, he began to be able to feel the energy too, thanks to my magical force field.
This did not bode well. Who had put a clouding spell over this forest? Only someone doing something super dodgy would do that. Last time it had been a cannibalistic death cult who feasted on light dwellers…
Oh my god. The missing magicals. The cloud over the forest. The body near my house. My eyes widened in time with Henry’s as our gazes met. How hadn’t we thought of this before?
“But we arrested them,” he said. “They’re all in jail.”
“But maybe not everyone was there that night,” I said. “Maybe they’ve come after us.”
“Do you think they killed Ravi?”
“Maybe. That explains why the body was left near my house, although I still don’t know why they left it so far away from my front door.”
“Maybe they were interrupted.”
I nodded slowly. “Maybe, but I’d kind of expect them to just murder anyone who got in their way rather than flee.”
“There might not be many of them,” said Henry. “Maybe they’re not as strong without the cult.”
“How did it take us so long to put this together?”
Henry shook his head. “We didn’t know any of them had evaded arrest,” he said. “We couldn’t have put it together without coming here.”
I nodded slowly. “I suppose you’re right.” I looked toward the forest and shivered. “Do we still have to go in there?”
Henry nodded. “I’m afraid so. We need to find their base, and it seems most likely that it’s in there somewhere.”
“Uh, guys?” said Ravi. “I feel like the conversation skipped a few pages and now I have no idea what’s happening.”
“Werewolf death cult,” I explained.
“Right,” he said slowly.
“Followed us from Scotland,” Henry added.
Ravi opened and closed his mouth before shaking his head and saying, “So, are we going into the forest or not?”
I sighed. “I guess we don’t really have a choice,” I said. “But we’d better watch our backs.”
Ravi nodded and continued on his way into the forest, walking more slowly now so he could scan his surroundings for danger. Henry and I followed him in, feeling around for other creatures nearby, but the dark energy of the forest made it difficult to sense anything. Henry, in wolf form, sniffed the ground, trying to smell anyone who might be nearby. All of us kept an ear out, turning our heads and scanning the forest anytime we thought we heard something moving through the undergrowth.
It wasn’t just the energy of the forest that made it seem so creepy. Not a lot of light got through the canopy over head, and the grass to the side of the road was old and dead. More than once I thought I felt something drip on my neck and down the back of my jumper, but when I tried to wipe it away with my hand there was nothing there. The absence of any birdsong other than the cawing of crows didn’t do much to lighten the atmosphere.
We’d been walking for a long time without coming across another creature when we reached a fork in the road. Both ways looked equally as creepy so I had no preference.
“This way,” said Ravi, heading down the left prong.
“Wait,” Henry hissed.
“What is it?”
“Don’t you think it’s odd that we haven’t run into anyone?” Henry asked. “Even with the clouding spell in effect. It’s full moon tonight. This place should be crawling with magicals getting ready for rituals, but it’s dead.”
“Maybe your cult scared them off,” Ravi suggested.
Henry shook his head. “Something seems off. Like…” He trailed off, his ears pricking up. He’d heard something. I took his cue and cast out a net, trying to sense any energy nearby. It took about two seconds for me to ferret out what Henry had heard. My heart began to pound and the Doomstone and companions went from cold to white hot in about two seconds. That explained why the forest was so deserted.
Grabbers.
Two of them.
Making eye contact with Ravi, I pressed a finger to my lips, shushing him. Henry turned to me, eyes widened in panic. I sized up my companions. If this came to a fight, Ravi was no good to us. He could
n’t touch anything and I doubted he’d be able to perform any spells that could harm a grabber. Henry would do his best, but he was terrified, and with good reason – if the grabbers got hold of him, he’d be sold on the black market to whatever kind of sicko wanted to keep a shifter as a pet and he’d be kept in a cage for the rest of his life.
Cursing Satan for ditching us at the pub (and for being in a business meeting now so I couldn’t even summon her), I pointed towards the forest, gesturing to the others that we should get off the road, just in case the grabbers hadn’t sensed us yet. I’d taken on grabbers a couple of times before and it had always ended messily. I could fight them, but that probably wasn’t the best idea in front of Ravi. He was already suspicious of me after seeing what I did to that witch and finding out I was buddies with Satan and all. As unlikely as it seemed, I didn’t want to risk him figuring out what I was or reporting me or something.
We tiptoed towards the edge of the road and picked our way through the undergrowth as quietly and quickly as we could. The grabbers hadn’t noticed us yet. I could sense their energy, but it seemed like the dark magic of the forest was interfering with their ability to sense us, just as it was messing with our own magical radars. Maybe we’d be able to get away without –
Then I trod on a twig.
It snapped, impossibly loud in the near-silent forest. We all froze. Henry’s head swivelled towards me, his eyes wide with fear. I didn’t even bother entertaining the notion that maybe the grabbers wouldn’t have heard. Their probing streams of energy had perked up at the twig’s snapping, like a dog’s ears pricking up as it hunted for its quarry. Then the energy began to shoot towards us as the grabbers charged through the forest in our direction.
“We need to run!” Henry hissed at me.
I rolled my eyes, the Doomstone and its companions glowing white hot.
“It’s OK, Henry. I can take on a couple of grabbers.”
“We have a civilian with us,” Henry said. “And the darkness in this forest is sapping my energy. I’m not going to be any good in a fight. Please, let’s just get out of here.”
“You know as well as I do that we have no chance of outrunning them, Henry. I’m sorry, but we’ll have to stand and fight. I’ll keep you safe.”
Henry swallowed, looking sick, and transformed into his gorilla self. “Are you going to kill them?”
I shook my head. “No. I’m going to arrest them.”
Chapter 16
“What exactly is going on?” Ravi whispered.
“Don’t worry your transparent little head about it, Ravi,” I said. “This is police work. Too complicated for a ghost like you to concern yourself with.”
I bent my knees and raised my hands, ready to cast. The energy from the talismans I was wearing flowed into my body and bolstered my powers. Feeling around, I pinpointed the grabbers’ locations. They weren’t far away now, and they were running towards us at speed. I stretched my neck, cracked my knuckles and prepared to attack.
Even though Henry knew I’d taken on grabbers before and won, I could tell he hated this idea.
“You’re going to arrest them?” said Henry. “Why not just kill them? Surely that would be safer.”
I frowned. That hadn’t been what I’d expected Henry to say. He was almost always disapproving of murder.
“We need to question them,” I said. “They might know something about those missing magicals. And Henry, I’m not sure I like this bloodthirsty side of you.”
“When it comes to grabbers, they deserve whatever you can throw at them. They’re scum.”
“What are grabbers?” Ravi asked.
“Pure evil,” said Henry.
“We’ll explain later,” I said. “They’re almost here.”
The grabbers had stopped at the fork in the road and were now advancing towards us more slowly. My guess was that they’d sensed that we weren’t running and had decided to be cautious in their approach in case it was a trap. When they picked their way through the forest, they didn’t bother about moving quietly. Twigs broke underfoot, leaves rustled as they brushed past trees and one of them was even whistling. The tune was in a minor key and I didn’t recognise the melody, but it sounded like some sort of twisted lullaby.
The grabbers broke into the clearing where we were standing. Henry clenched and unclenched his fists. He was terrified – and with good reason – but he was hiding it pretty well. I only knew because I knew Henry. Ravi had no clue what was going on so he just lurked in the background. I stood my ground.
Grabber number one was dressed in head to toe leather. Actually, head to ankle leather, because he wasn’t wearing any shoes. His feet were dirty and calloused, and his toenails were overgrown and black, matching his fingernails. He held his right hand in front of him, palm up, a contained ball of dark electric energy hovering and zapping in the air above it, backlighting his overgrown nails. His hair was long and matted, as was his beard.
The other grabber wore a singlet that had once been white, but was now stained all over with blood and dirt. She carried a knife in her left hand and when she grinned I could see that she was missing several teeth. I was grateful that the forest was so still, because I certainly didn’t want to be standing downwind from these two.
“What have we here?” said the male grabber. “A shifter, a ghost and a witch.”
“Shifter’s going to get us good money,” the other grabber commented. “Ghost not so much, but still worth taking. And you, witch…”
“Yes, psycho?” I replied.
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I’d suggest that you be a little more polite, witch, or we could make you miserable.”
I laughed. Not my usual laugh. This was a lower, more threatening, slightly unhinged laugh. “You could make me miserable? Good one.”
She walked towards me, knife pointed in my direction. “Do you have any idea what I could do to you?” she hissed. “I could make you wish you’d never been born.”
“Too late,” I said. “I already regret that on a daily basis. Thing is, grabber, I’m a cop, as you can see from my robes. And I intend to arrest you.”
Both grabbers threw back their heads and laughed.
“You’re an idiot,” said the man. “You’ve got weird energy, I’ll give you that, but I assure you that it’s nothing we can’t handle. You’re not going to arrest us. We’re going to take you and sell you, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” His ball of energy sparked and flared as he spoke.
“You’re very scary,” I said patronisingly. “Unfortunately for you, I’m scarier.”
With that, I blasted the closer grabber, the woman, away from me, using my energy to pin her to the ground. It writhed and coiled around her, and the more she struggled the tighter it grew.
“I’d suggest that you stop moving,” I said to her.
Yelling, the other grabber threw his ball of energy at me. I put up my hand and stopped it inches from my face. (I could have stopped it earlier, but truth be told I was kind of enjoying the theatrics.) When it came into contact with my energy, the ball changed from black to purple. With a wave of my hand, I threw the ball back at him at double the speed. It hit him in the chest and knocked him back into a tree, pinning him there as ropes of energy wound around him as well.
“Bitch!” screeched one grabber.
“We’ll get you for this!” screamed the other.
“Uh huh,” I replied flatly. “As terrifying as it is hearing two people it took me roughly ten seconds to overpower threaten me while they’re bound up and helpless, somehow I think I’ll be OK. You guys might have a tougher time of it in prison, though. We’ll be dropping you off at the jail in Hell when we leave here. Did you know they have magic dampeners over all the cells in there? I can’t spend too much time there because it freaks me out, but I hear if you’re starved of magic for long enough it can drive you insane.” I paused. “Too late for you guys, though, I guess.”
They tried to put on brave faces,
but terror was evident in their eyes.
“What do you want?” asked the woman.
“Answers,” I said.
“And if we give them to you, you’ll let us go?”
“I’ll consider it.”
That was a blatant lie. I was obviously going to take them to prison either way, but they weren’t the sharpest teeth in the jaw. (That’s the saying, right?)
“Answers about what?”
“I want to know where the magicals you’ve kidnapped are. We’ve had a lot of disappearances around here lately, and I want each magical accounted for.”
The grabbers didn’t answer immediately. They both frowned in confusion before the man spoke. “But we haven’t been around here lately. We only just got into the area.”
I shot a bit of extra energy into their bonds and both of them cried out in pain.
“Are you trying to torture them for extra information?’ Ravi breathed, watching in fascination.
“No,” I snapped. “I was just worried that I hadn’t bound them tightly enough.”
At that moment, a portal opened at the edge of the clearing and Death stepped through. I frowned in confusion.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
The Reaper glanced at the grabbers, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh, sorry,” he said. “I must be early.”
“I’m not going to kill them!” I snapped. “As long as they cooperate with my inquiries.”
“Remember earlier when you tried to convince me you weren’t bent?” Ravi said.
“Shut up, Ravi.”
“So what exactly is going on here?” asked Death.
“We were here investigating Ravi’s murder,” I said.
Death nodded at Ravi. “Good to see you again.”
“Uh, yeah,” said Ravi. “Good to see you too, I guess.”
“Don’t be rude, Ravi,” I said.
“I didn’t mean to be rude. It’s just –”
“Stop making excuses and apologise.”