Witch Gone Viral

by Sami Valentine

  Shifting in her seat, Red grimaced. She had been to shamans and oracles with clear questions, but facing the soulmancer, all she felt was muddy confusion. He couldn’t tell her what her real name was. He couldn’t tell her about her mother. He could tell her about Juniper, and Red had heard more than enough for a lifetime. The tension forced a nervous giggle from her throat. Coping with a cheap quip, Red tried to stall as she thought. “How much for the reading? The last soulmancer I met charged a hefty fee.”

  “Soul House is a nonprofit.” Matt touched her hand, fingers spreading over the knuckles like a blind man reading Braille. His soulmancy energy made her arm hair raise. “I knew Juniper enough to read her soul.”

  “I’m more interested in mine.” Red pulled her hand back.

  “The reading is the same.” Matt smiled. “I’m happy to see that the cosmos gave my friend another shot. I am not surprised to see what she would have become with a kinder life.”

  The meaning sunk in. Neck flushing and hands waving, Red shook her head, rocking her chair on its back legs. “No. No. That’s bullshit. I’ve already had the one opinion that I need on it, and he said I was fine.”

  “Of course, because you are. That other soulmancer was correct.” Matt gestured to her, brow furrowed. “You are a lively, intelligent woman striking out on her own destiny.”

  Red put her hand on her chest, trying to catch her breath. Had she misheard him before? “Thank you. I am.”

  “He just didn’t know Juniper.” Matt grinned and smacked the table. “It’s an honor to meet you again. How’s this life been?”

  Ears buzzing as if a shotgun had gone off, Red pushed her chair back. Thoughts crowded her brain like bickering clowns packed too tight in a circus car. Only her racing heart rose above the din in her mind. “You don’t get to just drop a bomb and then go back to small talk. That’s not how this works.” Red folded her arms. “Were you just waiting this whole time to bust that out?”

  “I wanted to get to know the woman who came to my door now, not the one I knew from the past.”

  Cursing, Red pushed back her chair and stood up. She was kicking Quinn’s ass for this. She couldn’t be Juniper’s reincarnation. It couldn’t be true.

  “You’re upset.”

  “Great soul read on that one.” Hands on her hips, eyes hot and moist, she shook her head. “This is why the Brotherhood rejected me. They were right!”

  “Why is it so bad to be her?” Matt lifted his hands, face crumbling in confusion.

  “I thought it was bad sharing a face with her, and now I have the same soul? I wanted something to be mine.” Trembling as if fear ran up one side of her body and anger ran down the other, Red stepped out of the kitchen. Basil said it wasn’t a big deal to have past life baggage. She was sick of carrying it. Somewhere in Hell, Maxwell had to feel vindicated.

  “Your path is what you’re resisting, Red!” Matt called after her. “You don’t have to control everything.”

  Red pumped her legs faster before common sense reminded her how stupid it was to run scared like prey in a vampire’s compound. She walked through the garden to the other side of the courtyard.

  Selene stepped out from behind the saguaro. “The grandfathers tell me a secret.” Her lips quirked up. “You love my garden.”

  Heart fluttering in her chest, Red took a step back. She bit her tongue. Shooting barbed words at Selene felt like kicking a puppy who was really excited by plants.

  “It’s beautiful.” Red looked around at the night-blooming cacti, wildflowers, and delicate ocotillo casting shadows from distant stars shining brighter than the moon. Her heart rate relaxed in the greenery. She gazed at Selene—the woman that she must have known in a past life. How had it felt, being on one of Lucas’s arms while Selene was on the other? Who were they to each other?

  “You were like a doll. I brushed your hair and dried your tears.” Selene answered Red’s silent question.

  “How did you…?” Red shifted back on her heels.

  “Don’t remember. Let’s just stay in the garden. We don’t need names here, pinkie promise.” Selene raised her hand, little finger poised. Her gaze glittered like a desert oasis under a full moon. Eyes widening large enough to dive into.

  Red shook her head, ripping herself away from the mesmerizing stare. She turned on her heel, fleeing the far sight piercing into her heart and soul.

  Chapter Seven

  January 22nd, Evening, Somewhere in the Mojave Desert, California

  Red pushed the old yellow VW van to its limits on the lonely Mojave road. Only the kicked-up dust followed her. Her head swirled with the confirmation that she wasn’t just a doppelgänger—she was a reincarnation. Both of those things she would accept, but not at the same time. Why couldn’t Juniper have been reborn as a computer programmer in Sao Paulo?

  Red didn’t even bother with the pretense of putting on her audiobook. She drove, ranting to herself about her own destiny. Did she really choose it, or was this just an old pattern?

  Missing the exit for the highway, Red pulled over before accepting that she couldn’t drive yet. Existential angst wasn’t just distracting, it could give a girl a wicked case of dry mouth. She turned around to go to Baker, California. It was small enough to blink and miss it in the sea of dunes, but it was the only place to stop in this part of the Mojave. The VW van puttered into the village rest stop to the highway exit.

  A lonely diner glittered a neon welcome. Red slipped out of the van and into a vinyl booth. The florescent lights beamed down on sleepy truckers hunched over chicken fried steak in the Mom and Pop restaurant. Bored waitresses hid behind a bakery case to look at their phones.

  Chewing gum, a freckly teenager in a green polo muttered a dull greeting between glances at the clock as if she was willing time to speed up. Her jean pocket vibrated.

  Red ordered a coffee, donuts, and a water bottle quickly to release the waitress to answer the siren call of a smartphone. She frowned, wondering if she had worked in this kind of place once upon a time. It reminded her of the diner in Oregon that she had seen in the Dreamland. The teenager looked about the age she had been… well, before whatever happened in the eight years she forgot.

  She kept meeting Juniper’s people, learning more about her life, but Red wanted to know her own. The dead zone in her memory didn’t even include trivia or world events like the rest of her memory. Just poof—nothing. Simplest explanation was that a vampire had caught her, compelled her to forget, and then dumped her to avoid breaking the Dark Veil. They had tried to reverse the memory loss using shamans, spells, and even another vampire with the gift to mesmerize. Nothing worked. Beyond the boots she was found in and ghosts hinting about her mother, Red knew nothing of her past.

  She had a delayed inherited package from some foreign vault of Smith and Reaper waiting somewhere. The apologies from her agent Sheila Jones had gotten more fervent. Until the mysterious bank could grease the wheels of customs, it wasn’t a lead. It was a tease. Then what she saw in the Dreamland. Red still didn’t know what was real or what was one of Maxwell’s tricks. She had thought the odd flashback had been a hallucination. Selene confirmed that she had seen Red’s spirit in Scotland in the 1890s. What else had been real?

  On the longest night of the year, she had been visited by more than three ghosts. The hunch in her gut about the Oregon diner intensified. Neon and surreal, the Dreamland didn’t give up its secrets easily.

  Thanking the waitress absently, Red tried to shake the chill out of her bones. Selene and Matt—Father Matthew—had been nice in an Addams Family way, but this whole evening had been a level of weird that she didn’t ask for. Anger sparked within but she tamped it down. She needed to steady herself down to drive, not wind herself up. Nibbling on the donut, she stared ahead. Lost in thought, she didn’t look up when the waitress refilled her cup.

  “Could I get one of those too?”

  Surprise jolting a smile to her face, Red looked up to see Vic rolling toward h
er in his wheelchair. “He’s also going to want a bear claw.”

  Green trucker hat on and bundled into a brown bomber jacket, Vic stopped at the end of the booth. He leaned on his arm rest like a relaxed spring ready to pop up, excitement curling at his lips. “You know it. I’ll need it for the road.”

  “Vic, I know why I’m in the middle of nowhere on a Tuesday night. Why are you?”

  “Found you. Had to make sure you’d come out of that house. Quinn told me where you went in that yellow van. I figured that you’d need a pit stop and there ain’t much out here.”

  “It’s more than that.” Red picked up her phone and waved it at him. “We have these wacky things nowadays.”

  They paused as the waitress bought coffee and donuts.

  “I was going to tell you tonight, but they didn’t give us much time for a goodbye. I finally got ahold of Lashawn. He was in Phoenix on business and drove out to Henry’s cabin.” Vic nearly bounced in his wheelchair. “I’m meeting him.”

  “That’s fantastic!” Red hadn’t seen him this excited in months. The two adopted brothers had parted on bad terms after hunting Hilde Higbee’s childer in Utah.

  “Now I know what it takes for my little bro to return my messages.” Shrugging, Vic chuckled. The flippancy drained from his expression as his mouth tightened. “I need to get out of the city for a while, too.”

  “You’ll be okay with the day to day stuff?” Red asked, even knowing he would never admit it. He had been pushing himself to independence in every physical therapy session for months. It was the one thing in the darker days of his recovery that he was sober for. His recovery had amazed regular doctors, but even magical treatments hadn’t cured his legs. Such a transformation required darker magics than either of them would touch. He had compensated by doubling down on physical therapy.

  “I have wicked guns now.” Vic kissed his bicep. “I’m hauling myself around every place with a handrail.”

  “Your room does have a monkey bars look to it.”

  “I’ll guilt Lashawn into the rest while I research from the cabin. I’ll have access to Henry’s library and the brotherhood database while I take in the fresh country air.” Vic assured her. He grinned, gesturing with the bear claw. “You’ve been chasing this folksy Oregon dream diner for a while. Let me take a crack at it. Save your bandwidth for whatever the supreme throws at you next.”

  “You’re the best! I can’t keep staring at that damn state map anymore.” She grinned. Vic wasn’t the most emotionally astute dude, but when he got it, he hit it out of the park. “When will you be back?”

  “Few days. I’m not pushing my luck with Cora.” Vic bit into his donut, his gaze growing distant as he looked out the window. “Even before I heard from Lashawn, I’ve been wanting to look at Henry’s old journals. I always got something out of them. Maybe the old man might have something in there that I need to read now.”

  Red knew what his adopted father had meant to him. This felt like a turning point in her mentor getting back to his old self. She smiled. “I’ll hold down the fort.”

  “Lay low after this delivery, finish Breaking Bad. The vampires have us by the balls. No running into alleys saving damsels.”

  “I’m not feeling heroic.” Red shrugged, looking out the wide windows into the parking lot to avoid his gaze.

  Vic frowned. “No. You’re looking like you’re eating your feelings. What happened?”

  “Quinn said I’d find answers after I ran some hot cargo.” Red hugged herself. The avalanche of emotions tightened her shoulders and froze her spine as she tried to hold back her existential crisis. “Turns out I found a legend.”

  “Good old Matt. I would have given you a heads up if I’d known earlier. He repaired the Millennium Falcon once.” Vic said as he brushed sugary crumbles off his coat. “So, what folksy wisdom did he give you on the porch while Selene twirled in a cactus patch?”

  “Reincarnation. That’s the expert opinion from a man who’s read us both.”

  Vic looked down, his brow furrowing. He didn’t need to ask who else Matt had read. “The soul man said it like that?”

  “Same face, same soul, same difference.” Red lifted her hands, mouth twisting bitterly. “I guess the warlock did find the right witch after all.”

  “Cut the crap.” Vic leaned forward, pushing his donut away. His eyes urgently sought hers. “Juniper was a witch who needed guidance. There was good in her. You told me Lucas’s memory. The Brotherhood should be assigning you a bard instead.”

  “I have one. You.” Red rolled her eyes before creeping her fingers toward his donut. She didn’t know if she would take his attempt at comfort, but she’d try for his snack. She was trying to eat her feelings, after all.

  “One who doesn’t keep a flask in their hunter’s kit.” Vic tapped her hand from touching his sweet treat. He shook his head. “Still. You know what I mean. You see this as an indictment. That’s a past life. You can make this one different.”

  “I know. You’ve trained me.” Red slapped on a brave smile. She couldn’t distract him with her drama. Vic needed this after months of radio silence from his adopted brother. Vic had done more than piss off Hilde Higbee in that Utah hunt. This was major for them. Her mystical baggage wasn’t going to ruin it for him. “Hey, I know you worry but I’ll be fine. This isn’t exactly out of left field even if I’ve been denying it. I’ll keep the lights on in the Bat Cave until you come back.”

  “Good. Don’t start any of more of the shows we’re watching together either.” Vic wagged his finger. “Stick to Breaking Bad so we can finally talk about the ending!”

  “I know you’ll be watching the Netflix queue.” Red laughed before she trailed off. She sipped her coffee, wondering how many times they had found themselves in a lonely diner on a no-name stretch of highway. “You’re not worried to leave the intern unsupervised?”

  “You’re ready.”

  Ducking her head shyly, she smiled. It wasn’t passing the hunter’s challenge, but his respect meant more than he knew. A heaviness fell over her. She knew it was goodbye for now.

  “We both have a long way to go.” Eyelids crinkling, Vic nodded at her before turning his face to hide his emotions. “Check, please.”

  After paying, they hugged in the parking lot. Another small town, another job. This is where hunters usually parted. It felt weird to not climb into the Millennium Falcon for another trip to the Constantine family cabin.

  “Enjoy the family reunion. Try not to kill each other.” Turning around, Red walked away from Vic to her yellow van to get back on the long road to Los Angeles. She found only static on the radio. Turning it off, she rolled down the window to let the white noise of the open highway in. Her heart sounded in her ears. Wind eroded her thoughts to stillness. The glittering Milky Way faded as she reached civilization.

  She might have calmed down enough to not want to kick his ass, but Quinn still had some explaining to do.

  ---

  After rinsing off, Red pulled on a shirt borrowed from Lucas. She wrapped her arms around her waist, stroking the lived-in material before darting away from the wide mirror over her dresser. The shower brought on a second wind. She glanced at her bed, knowing she would just toss and turn. The thoughts simmered in her head. She needed some kind of release. Seeking her hunter’s journal, she walked out of her room, yearning to process the night.

  Lean and shadowed, a figure on stood at the balcony rail behind the glass doors off the living room.

  She smiled bashfully, tugging the white T-shirt down farther over her thighs, already knowing who he was. Lucas. Red wanted him to hold her. Did she want to, or was it just a reincarnation loop pushing her toward an old flame? She rubbed her arms, shivering at the thought, but she walked outside anyway.

  “So that’s where that shirt went.” An impish smile bloomed on his lips. His gray eyes devoured her as he stepped forward. The long black leather jacket, pocked with safety pins and old band patches, draped to
the holes in the knees of his jeans. Kissing her quickly, he nibbled at her lip before pulling back.

  Flush rising on her chest, silly grin curving her mouth, Red tossed her hair back. “I said I would bring it back, I just never said when.”

  “Keep it. Looks better on you.” Lucas put a hand on her cheek, his eyes searching under his messy black locks. “Are you okay? Woke up to the massage therapist next door telling me the cops came. Then when the old bastard rolled up without a word, you and Vic were nowhere to be found.”

  “The only thing I can say is that I went for donuts.” Red bit her cheek, knowing she had to lie. Cora had ordered that. No leaks. Looking at his handsome face, her voice trailed off, leaving thoughts of the supreme behind. She studied his stormy gray eyes. Was it that bad to be cosmically entangled with him?

  “You went a long way for donuts.” Lucas tipped up her chin, his gaze searching. “Baker, if I’m guessing right.”

  “They make the best bear claws.” Red shrugged, nuzzling against his touch before she caught herself. “I figured I’d earned a sugar binge.”

  “So, you’re going to give me the same stone wall that Quinn did?” Raising an eyebrow, Lucas wet his lips. “Are you done with it? Whatever secret thing that ‘she who must not be named’ told you to do?”

  “Did he tell you where I went?”

  “Took some doing to put the pieces together myself. There’s not much in that stretch of the desert.”

  “Well, he could have told me. I was blindsided. He played that wise mentor in a trench coat act, telling me I would find answers. Those answers sucked.” Red pulled away. Even in memory, her head still spun from the sucker punch of a revelation that Matthew had dumped on her. Was it a surprise? Not in hindsight, but it still stung like a sudden slap.