The Harbinger

by Wendy Wang

  "I …"

  "Just forget it," Charlie said, taking off after him. "I'll take care of it myself."

  Lisa called after her, "How? You don't even know the spell?"

  "No, but you do,” Charlie yelled, reaching the door. "Now, are you coming or not?"

  Lisa threw up her hands and took off after Charlie "You win. Come on, Daphne. Hurry"

  The three of them reached the back of the house, letting the screen door slam behind them. A pasture of golden, waist-high grass stretched out to a grove of trees, beyond the dead grass in the backyard. Charlie saw Gabriel stop when he reached the top of the white rail fence and look back at them. He gave them a two-fingered salute before jumping down and wading into the grass. He began to run and Charlie picked up her pace to a jog.

  Lisa was the real athlete of the group and she broke out ahead of Charlie, scaling the fence with ease and keeping a tight grip on her wand. Charlie pushed herself to catch up. Her one advantage was her long legs. Daphne stopped at the fence, bent over with her hands on her knees, gasping for air. Charlie paused for a second.

  “You all right?” Charlie asked.

  “Go,” Daphne said between heavy breaths, waving her on. “Get the bastard.”

  Charlie nodded and boosted herself over the fence, managing to hold onto the wand. She raced through the path of broken grass. A bloodcurdling scream echoed over the tall grass and Charlie pushed herself harder, fighting the burn in her thighs. Just when she thought her lungs might explode, she caught up to them.

  Lisa had somehow tripped him. Charlie realized the scream had been his. He lay on the ground with his arms stretched above his head and bound at the wrist by two thin, blue streams of light. His legs were bound and despite flailing his body and fighting against his restraints, he couldn’t break his arms and legs free. It was as if Lisa had staked him to the ground.

  "You caught him," Charlie said.

  "Like you said, we couldn't let him get away," Lisa said.

  Charlie rubbed the stitch biting into her side and chuckled. "They're not gonna be far behind us. How hard is the exorcism going to be?"

  "Pretty dang hard without all the stuff we need,” Lisa said.

  "So, it can’t be done?"

  "I didn’t say that. A witch isn’t worth her salt if she can’t improvise, right? " Lisa said.

  Charlie smiled. “Right.”

  “You stand on one side of him and I'll stand on the other,” Lisa said.

  “Okay.” Charlie took her place.

  “You still have the protection bag Jen gave us?” Lisa asked. Charlie nodded. “Good, take it and pour the contents into your hand.”

  Charlie did as she was told then watched Lisa empty her bag into her palm. A mix of salt and nine herbs made the base of the protection spell enclosed in the bag. But there were also several crystals and the bone of a chicken.

  “Hold out your hand,” Lisa said. Lisa picked through the salt mixture and plucked the black tourmaline and white quartz crystals from her palm before she poured the salt and herbs from her bag into Charlie’s hand. Lisa knelt next to him and placed the white quartz on his forehead and the black tourmaline in the center of his chest.

  “Okay, sprinkle the salt and herbs over him,” Lisa said as Charlie covered Gabriel from head to toe. He grimaced and turned his face to the right, spitting salt away from his lips. Lisa pointed her wand at the crystal on his heart. “Point your wand at the crystal on his head,” Lisa said then she began the incantation.

  Demon head, demon heart,

  I command you.

  I cast you out of this body.

  Leave this realm. Go home.

  To the netherworld where you belong.

  Demon head, demon heart,

  Leave this realm. Go home.

  To the netherworld where you belong.

  Charlie listened at first and joined in on the second chorus. Her wand tip began to glow pinkish red and a stream of energy extended to his head. Gabriel flailed against his bindings, but showed no signs of pain, just irritation at being bound. She watched carefully, waiting for some small sign that the demon was leaving his body, but Gabriel only yanked his arms and feet. There was no screaming. No thrashing. No growling or cursing at them. None of the things Charlie expected.

  "It's not working," Charlie said.

  "You have to give it time," Lisa said. She began to chant again.

  Charlie could hear the deputies in the distance drawing closer. Jason's voice called, "They're over here."

  "What are you doing?" Jason said as he entered the space with his gun drawn. His gaze bounced from Charlie and Lisa to Gabriel bound on the ground. He glanced back over his shoulder at the deputies gaining on them.

  "Stop that right now,” he hissed. “Put your wands away," he said and knelt beside Gabriel. "Let him go."

  Lisa lowered her wand and the energy holding Gabriel in place dissipated. Jason grabbed Gabriel's wrist. He jerked him up to a seated position and reached for the cuffs on his belt. Gabriel struck Jason with his free hand hard in the side, and shook his other hand free. Then he struck Jason in the face catching him off guard and knocking him backward. Lisa screamed. Gabriel clambered to his feet and headed into the grass. Jason managed to recover and chased after him. “Stop!”

  A shot rang out. The loud thunderclap-like sound was too close and made Charlie's ears ring. Everything seemed to slow down as she watched Gabriel fall forward.

  "Get them out of here," Jason commanded one of the deputy's. The next thing she knew, Charlie was being ushered away from the scene. Her heartbeat drummed in her ears. She kept trying to look over her shoulder, to see what had happened. Was Gabriel dead? She caught little glimpses of Jason and another deputy dragging Gabriel to his feet. His shoulder was bloody from being shot, but he seemed conscious, at least for now.

  Jen and Daphne waited by the back door. A look of relief flooded Jen's face and she rushed forward throwing her arms around Charlie and Lisa at the same time.

  "Oh thank goddess you’re okay," she said. "We were so worried. We heard a shot."

  "Jason got him," Lisa said. "Did you find the girl?"

  "Yeah, I did," Jen said. "She's in pretty bad shape. He worked her over."

  "It didn't work," Charlie said. She let out a defeated sigh. "He didn't react at all."

  "Probably because we didn't have all the things we needed," Lisa said.

  "What did you need that wasn't in your protection bag?" Jen asked. "It may be basic but it should have done the job."

  "Evidently we needed a star anise,” Lisa said.

  "No,” Jen disagreed. "That's optional."

  "Optional or not, the spell didn't work,” Lisa said.

  They all turned and watched Jason and one of his deputies walk across the yard with their prisoner in tow. A blood-covered Gabriel cut his eyes toward the witches. Jason kept his gaze forward. His expression stoic.

  "Jason looks mad," Lisa said.

  "He'll get over it," Charlie said.

  "I'm not so sure," Lisa said.

  "The deputy we talked to said they’re gonna want us to give a statement,” Jen said. "I don't really want to lie."

  "So don't,” Charlie said. "Tell them the truth. Tell them that I had a vision and we were following it. I don’t mind being the crazy one. We waited for the police but we heard a scream and we felt like we had to act. Don't lie. They’re just gonna take the statement and file it away."

  "You seem awfully sure," Daphne said.

  "Charlie's right. This guy will cut a deal. He’d be an idiot not to. He had a girl chained up in his house. There's no way to explain that away,” Lisa said. "We should all tell the truth. Except for maybe the part where I used a binding spell to hold him in place and where we tried to exorcise him."

  "How are you going to explain how you stopped him?" Charlie asked.

  Lisa shrugged. "The truth, I tripped him. I don't have to tell him exactly how. It's not pertinent. And that is the one thing you sh
ould know when dealing with the law. Never give them too much information.”

  “Do you know how dangerous and stupid this little stunt of yours was?" Jason asked not doing a good job of controlling the tremor or volume of his voice. His cheeks and chest heated. He couldn't believe he had to have this conversation with her. "One thing. I asked you to do one thing. But no, you couldn’t wait ten minutes for us to get there."

  "We heard her scream," Charlie said. She sat in a chair in the interrogation room at the sheriff’s station. She’d folded her arms across her chest and she wouldn’t look at him.

  "I don't care. You can't just go off halfcocked. What if he had killed you?”

  Or Lisa, his mind added. The image of the two women standing over Curtis with their wands pointed at him played over in his head. The blue streams of energy binding him to the ground. The red energy connecting with Curtis’s body as they chanted. It sent a shiver down his spine just thinking about it. He knew they were powerful. He'd seen it with his own eyes. But … it was always for good. Never in a million years did he think he’d see them do something so … vengeful. It scared him more than he wanted to admit.

  "I would not have let that happen," Charlie protested.

  "You don't know that," Jason said. "He could've had a gun for all you know." He leaned in close and lowered his voice. "And I don't care what kind of magic you work, I know you can't stop bullets."

  Charlie finally looked up at him, fury burning in her blue eyes. "We had it under control.”

  “I saw you pointing at him, Charlie, with that wand of yours. You were torturing him.”

  “No I wasn’t. We were trying to cast out that demon.”

  “Charlie, there is no demon,” he said, his voice rising again. “There never was. He’s just a bad man.”

  “Of course he’s a bad man. A demon can’t really make you do anything you don’t already want to do. He wanted to kill those girls. The demon just made it easier.”

  “Just stop it,” Jason said. “Do you hear yourself? You are obsessed.”

  “I’m obsessed.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re just … You’re just scared. You know, he wouldn’t have gotten away if you didn’t ask us to take the bindings off. You wouldn't have that black eye now and he’d be sitting in jail instead of in some hospital recovering from a gunshot. We had it under control until you interfered."

  "You had it under control?" He stood back up and threw his hands into the air. "You had it under control! You essentially broke into his house. You assaulted him. You put yourself and your cousins at risk of death. You know, I ought to arrest you for obstruction of justice."

  Charlie's jaw tightened and she narrowed her eyes. She thrust her wrists out defiantly. "Go ahead if it'll make you feel better. I did what I had to do. You didn't hear her screaming. If you feel I’ve jeopardized you or your case in some way then you go right ahead and arrest me. I stand by my actions."

  Jason put his hands on his hips. Frustration burned a hole in his chest. He licked his bottom lip and didn't look at her as he spoke. "I can't believe I’m about to say this, but I don't think we should work together anymore. I appreciate all the work that you've done and the help you've given me, but I think you're too emotional."

  The energy in the room shifted and the air stilled. His skin broke into goosebumps and the hair on his arms stood at attention. She stood up and glared at him.

  "I'm too emotional," she said too calmly. Her gaze locked onto his. "You have got to be kidding me. You know what you can do with your ‘too emotional’ bullshit Lieutenant?” Her fingers gestured air quotes. “You can take it and shove it where . . ."

  One heavy knock on the door stopped her mid-sentence. Beck stuck his head into the room. "Y'all just about done in here? I need to take a statement."

  "Yeah, we’re done," Jason said to his partner. Beck opened the door wider and led Jen into the room.

  "I'll get a deputy to walk you to your car," Jason said.

  If Charlie's stare could've killed, Jason knew he'd be dead. "No thanks. I know the way."

  Charlie breezed past him and he shivered. He’d been given the cold shoulder before, especially from the women in his life, but this felt different. If he hadn't known better, he would've sworn the temperature in the room had actually dropped.

  Chapter 19

  Friday afternoon, Ben waited in the upstairs bedroom of Arista’s house. He stood close to the window overlooking the grand lane waiting for some sign that Megan might appear. Arista said her niece had sounded normal on the phone. As if nothing was wrong. But Ben knew that was a lie.

  If Megan had summoned a demon, it would need a body to inhabit in order to do any sort of real destruction, and demons craved destruction like sugar addicts craved donuts and ice cream. They needed it, and they let nothing stand in their way of getting it. The problem with demon possession was that they could inhabit a person and then remain dormant for years. After all, demons had nothing but time and patience. They could hang around unnoticed endlessly until the time was right. Only then would they awaken, take control, and begin to feed––that addiction for destruction becoming the thing they lived for. Ben had never seen a demon willingly relinquish its power to annihilate. Driving a demon out usually took the host’s sanity with it. Ben didn’t have the heart to tell Arista that part. That her niece would never be the same.

  He left his post by the window, went to the bed and opened his messenger bag. He had a few supplies with him that would force the demon to show itself, if indeed it was there. And if it wasn't, Ben’s tools of his trade wouldn't harm Megan.

  From his bag, he pulled out a small stainless steel flask filled with water he’d arranged to have blessed by a Christian priest and a silver-plated hunting knife a High Priestess in his home coven had blessed, then dipped in salt water and allowed to dry. He wouldn't even have to cut Megan and draw blood to see if this worked. Just a touch to her skin with the knife tip should be enough of a threat. He snapped the leather sheath holding the knife to his belt at the small of his back, testing to make sure he could easily release the retention snaps holding the knife in place. When he felt comfortable with the accessibility of the weapon, he tugged his shirttail over it to make it less conspicuous.

  He drew one more thing from his bag. A small Latin prayer book. He was not a Christian by any stretch of the imagination. He kept the pagan high holidays such as Yule, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Mabon and Samhain.

  He could also use spells to drive away an evil spirit or demon. But driving a demon away always seemed like he was just making it someone else’s problem. He wanted to deal with the creature and nothing seemed more effective to him than the exorcism ritual that the Catholic Church had come up with a few hundred years back. He thumbed through the small leather bound book and found the page detailing the exorcism. He actually knew the ritual by heart even though he rarely did any demon hunting these days. He just liked to stay on top of his game. To be ready for whatever the world threw at him. And his boss, Lauren, she could always be counted on to keep him on his toes, that's for sure.

  He tucked the book into the back pocket of his pants and shoved the flask of holy water into his front pocket. He would need a vessel of some sort to capture the demon. Some demons could be captured and put into glass bottles as long as the glass was opaque and a cork dipped in salt was used to trap it. But it wasn't foolproof. The only thing he had ever come across that was unfailing for holding whatever kind of spirit he encountered, human or non-human, was his amulet. He had captured spirits with it countless times, the most recent being a real SOB named Tony Smoak. Charlie’s reaper friend had helped him dispose of Smoak and now the amulet hung around his neck, waiting for its next captive. He ran his finger along the thick silver chain, pulled the oval amulet into his hand and held the stone against his palm for a moment. The energy of it thrummed against his skin, sending a cool sensation up his arm, spreading through his chest and torso, down into his legs. He let it go, and it landed wi
th a gentle thud on top of his gray T-shirt. Even through the thick layer of cotton the energy of the stone still vibrated.

  Ben closed the messenger bag and shoved it underneath the bed, out of sight, then went back to the window. A few minutes later a red Jeep Cherokee drove up the lane and parked in front of the house. Arista had made Ben move his truck around to the back of the house and park in the garage that had once been a stable. If they were going to catch this demon there could be no sign that Arista was cooperating with the Defenders of Light. He actually admired Arista for helping him. This was dangerous work and she knew it. Guilt or no guilt.

  Ben crept down the staircase to the foyer, stopping in the shadows to listen to the two witches argue.

  "What's this all about Arista?" Megan asked.

  "This isn't easy for me. You know I think of you as my daughter."

  He could not see Arista but he imagined his tall, elegant friend pacing back and forth in front of the couch, stopping every once in a while to tuck her long, silver hair behind one ear or to raise her hand in an animated fashion.

  "What are you getting at?" Megan asked.

  "I need to know what you’ve been doing," Arista said flatly.

  "I don't understand what you mean,” Megan said.

  "I think you know exactly what I mean," Arista said. "Miles and Rowena Carpenter."

  "What about them?"

  Even from where he stood, Ben could hear the bristle in Megan's voice.

  "They were murdered and their baby – that sweet, ten-month-old boy – was abducted.” Sadness tinged Arista’s voice.

  "So?" Megan lowered her voice and irritation edged into her tone.

  "Okay, I'll just come right out and ask. Did you kill them? Did you take that baby?"

  "What?" Megan’s voice rose higher. "No, of course not. What on earth would give you that idea?"

  Silence fell between them and Ben finished descending the steps.

  "I gave her that idea." Ben stepped into the living room. Arista stood on one side of the coffee table, her arms folded tightly across her chest. Megan sat in one of the overstuffed chairs. Her dark auburn hair looked wild and curly, a halo of frizz surrounding her head.