Hell and Hexes

by Dunbar, Debra

  “What?” Cassie stared, open-mouthed.

  “I know. I’m sorry. I tried my best, but you were right. I think the only thing that’s gonna work with these guys is threats, and even then, we’ll get sucked into fighting and probably some retaliation.”

  “No.” Cassie waved away my statement. “Honestly, I didn’t expect this to work, but you’re good at what you do, and I figured it was worth a shot. I mean the kids pooping cupcakes and stuff. What the heck is that about?”

  “Not pooping cupcakes. The cupcakes and the poop were separate things—at least, I hope they were separate things. A dozen kids showed up right as we got started and were racing around playing and yelling. It was some sort of birthday party.”

  Cassie frowned. “No. I talked to the manager and he specifically told me he’d block off the time so there wouldn’t be any parties.”

  “Well, he must have gotten the days mixed up or something, because there was definitely a party. Some kid fell and smacked Dallas in the face with a cupcake, then he stepped on a ball from the ball pit and went down. Then the kid that needed to poop decided that Clinton of all people should take him to the restroom. Clinton backed away and fell over Dallas who was on the floor and upended a whole box of cupcakes. I’ve never seen two werewolves move so fast. They were covered in cupcake icing. And you know how nervous they are around humans—especially human children. I had to stay and make nice with the parents, buying milkshakes and cookies to make up for the cupcakes.”

  Cassie shook her head and laughed. “Sounds like a mess. A perfect storm of bad luck.” I sucked in a breath at her comment and she reached out for my arm. “Crap. I’m sorry, Sylvie. I didn’t mean to imply anything. It was just a comedy of errors, not anything to do with luck.”

  Maybe it had a lot to do with luck. I pulled the button charms out of my purse and looked at them. The old me, pre-death, wouldn’t have had any of this happen. The old luck witch me wouldn’t have had her mediation interrupted by a mistakenly scheduled birthday party or had the cupcake-smashing, tripping-and-falling chaos at the end, either.

  I’d made these charms, and Eshu charged them. What an idiot I’d been. My sisters might be able to use demon energy to supplement their powers, but Eshu wasn’t really a demon. I should have known. He was such a contrarian. My charms had probably been charged and reversed to be bad luck charms instead of good luck ones.

  “Tell me what you think of these,” I said, handing the button charms to Cassie.

  Her mouth formed a surprised “o.” “Holy crap, these are charged to the max. But it’s not your energy.” She squinted at them, rolling the buttons between her fingers. “Is it? It doesn’t look like your energy.”

  I blinked back tears, hating to admit the very thing I’d been trying to hide from my sisters for the last two weeks. “It’s not my energy. I can’t work my magic anymore, Cassie. Not since I died. I can do the technical part of it, but when I go to bring a spell to life, nothing happens. It’s like I’m not even a witch anymore. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to work my magic again, that it will never come back.”

  She dropped the charms onto the table and came around to gather me into a huge hug. “Oh, hon. It’ll all be okay. Just give yourself some time to heal. You’re pushing too hard. You’re trying to do things when you’re still recovering from what happened. You just need more time, sweetie.”

  I laughed, feeling a few tears slip free. “I’m not coming back to stay on your couch, just in case that’s what you’re about to propose. Much as I appreciate you taking care of me, I really need to be back in my own house, trying to get my life together again.”

  She pulled back to smile at me, running a hand over my hair like she’d done when we were kids. “Okay. Just be patient with yourself. And stop worrying. You’re a witch. You’ll always be a witch. It’ll all come back with time.”

  What if it didn’t? What if I spent the rest of my life fatigued halfway through the day? Not able to cast spells? Having to rely on Glenda’s smoothies just to get through the week?

  But I’d worried Cassie enough with my fears. It would only upset her that she couldn’t do something to fix me with a snap of her fingers. I’d heal or I wouldn’t. No sense in continuing to cry over it.

  I wiped my eyes and pointed over to the button charms. “Eshu helped me power those up. I figured if Lucien helped with your magic and Hadur helped with Bronwyn’s, that he could help with mine.”

  Cassie grimaced. “But Eshu is…different.”

  “You’re telling me.” I laughed. “Everything around him turns into a slapstick comedy. I should have realized any charm he powered would probably do the same. Instead of drawing luck to the meeting today, I drew bad luck.”

  Cassie pursed her lips. “I wouldn’t say bad luck. I mean, the birthday party totally threw the werewolves off their game. And the falling down and cupcakes and kid needing to poop defused a tense situation before it could turn into a fight, and before Dallas and Clinton said things they couldn’t take back. Maybe they are luck charms, only not in the way you usually define luck.”

  It hit me that Cassie was right. But even if they were Eshu-type luck charms, I was definitely going to think twice before I asked him to power my magic in the future.

  Chapter 16

  Sylvie

  “Where are the lions?” Eshu asked, peering around Adrienne as if he suspected she was hiding them behind her back. My sister had arrived right at ten-thirty, giving us plenty of time to head up the mountain and be in place before any midnight werewolf attack took place.

  “I couldn’t bring them. My truck is acting up and they won’t fit in my Fiat. Besides, it was steak night at the zoo and neither of them wanted to miss that. I’ll just have to make do with whatever animals are available up on the mountain tonight.”

  I grimaced, thinking this was an omen, a warning that tonight was not going to go as planned and would probably end up being a shitshow of epic proportions. But what could I do? Even if Ophelia were here to give me a glimpse into the future, I couldn’t exactly call the whole thing off and just allow Dallas’s group to attack Clinton.

  They’d been warned, and I had no doubt that the smaller pack was alert and ready, but Dallas had numbers on his side, and I knew how this night would go if we did nothing but stay at home.

  “We’ll take my car,” I told the two, knowing the three of us would have an uncomfortable ride squished into Adrienne’s tiny Fiat. I grabbed my purse and, at the last moment, stuffed the button charms into my pocket, just in case. They’d delivered a chaotic sort of luck at the McDonald’s, but hopefully they could serve in an emergency tonight as well.

  For the first time in weeks, I could feel a tiny trickle of magic like the brush of a feather along my skin. It both thrilled and frightened me. My power was returning, but this tiny bit wouldn’t do much against a mob of werewolves. I’d need more. But I tried to trust in whatever that my powers would be sufficient, that things would turn out right. Hopefully Eshu was right and this twisty path I was on wouldn’t lead to a dead end—emphasis on dead.

  We headed out of town and as far up the mountain as I felt we could go without detection, then we hopped out and headed into the forest on foot.

  A mile in, I was thinking this wasn’t such a great idea after all. I’d downed the rest of Glenda’s smoothie, and I did feel much stronger than I had this time last week, but not quite up to a late-night hike up a mountain. We veered off the dirt road and onto a set of winding trails as we kept ourselves on the downward side of the wind to avoid detection from the werewolves’ sensitive noses.

  When we were a reasonable distance from Clinton’s compound, we halted, trying to keep the element of surprise on our side. It wasn’t just someone sniffing us out that I worried about. Clinton had wolves in the woods keeping their eyes peeled and ears perked for intruders. Hopefully my luck would hold, and no one would know we were here.

  “What are you planning on using, Adrienne?” I aske
d, leaning against a tree for a bit of rest.

  “I’ve got sentries to give us notice of when they’re coming and to let me know from what direction,” Adrienne said. “Starlings. They really get a bad rap, you know, but they’re always willing to help. And they work well together. Two hundred of them are going to be giving us a hand—or wing—tonight. Once the werewolves get here, I’m going to use insects and birds to hopefully get them to turn around and go back home. How about you?”

  I fingered the buttons in my pocket. “A hex. I’m targeting plant life.”

  And I wasn’t sure what form that hex would take or how helpful it would be. I was hoping for some fur-penetrating thorny bushes, hedges full of briars—that sort of thing. And if I couldn’t manage it myself, I’d take a chance and use the power from the button charms to try something else.

  “How about you?” Adrienne turned to Eshu.

  “I’m just here to admire my couch-witch’s amazing backside. When this is all over, I’m hoping we can have sex on a nice patch of moss somewhere under the stars.”

  “I might need him,” I told Adrienne, unsure exactly how I expected Eshu to help. He wasn’t going to help me power my spells, and his sole contribution seemed to be telling me I was absolutely capable of doing this. Maybe I’d brought him along for a confidence boost? Moral support? To pull my amazing backside out of the fire if needed?

  “Have you got any kind of demon weaponry?” Adrienne asked him. “Pitchfork? That sort of thing?”

  “I got my pitchfork right here.” Eshu grabbed his crotch. “I guess I can use it as a weapon. I’ve never tried that before.”

  “I’m thinking you need to keep your pitchfork in your pants,” I told him. “At least until we’re back home.” I’d gotten rather fond of it and didn’t want to see it sliced up by werewolf claws.

  “It used to be bigger,” Eshu commented in a casual tone as if he were discussing the weather and not his penis. “A long time ago I used it as a bridge to help some people cross a river.”

  Adrienne snort-laughed and I rolled my eyes. “Your dick is big, but it’s not bridge-over-a-river big,” I told him.

  “It used to be,” he insisted. “But those stupid travelers wouldn’t cross one at a time. They were in such a hurry that they all piled on my giant dick-bridge, and it broke so they all fell into the river and drowned.”

  “That sounds painful,” Adrienne said.

  Eshu nodded. “It was. Thankfully my trouser snake is still an impressive length. The lesson here is never to let anyone use your genitals to cross a river.”

  “I’ll remember that.” I shook my head and chuckled.

  “You’re weird,” Adrienne told Eshu. “You’ll fit right in with our family. And you’ll certainly make Sunday night family dinner a whole lot more interesting.”

  I smiled to hear my sister say that. It was good to know I had one family member on my side as far as Eshu went. Ophelia would always back me up, but I knew she was perplexed as to why I was with the demon. And Cassie…well, maybe someday she’d accept Eshu, although I doubted she’d ever be a fan.

  Adrienne tilted her head and put a finger to her lips. “They’re coming,” she whispered. “Up the main road to the south of us. We’re downwind, and I’ll ask some deer to cover our noise as we move closer.”

  I nodded, and we made our way closer to the road, trying to be as quiet as we could. We weren’t in place more than ten minutes when I saw the mob marching up the road.

  No advanced scouts. No attempt at stealth. Either Dallas was incredibly sure that he’d be able to easily take the other werewolves down without any effort at surprise on their part, or he was secretly hoping to provide enough warning to his son’s pack that they could be prepared and maybe retreat off the mountain.

  I was hoping for the latter.

  Closing my eyes, I mouthed the words of my spell and felt the small thread of energy spark to life then die out. Sliding my hand in my pocket, I touched the button charms and tried again. This time, the energy roared through me with such force that it would have knocked me on my back if Eshu hadn’t been behind me.

  He put a steadying hand on my shoulder, and I drew in a ragged breath, hoping the spell worked as I’d intended.

  Adrienne gave me a nod and wiggled her fingers. Instantly, the air swarmed with hundreds of hornets, every one of them descending on the werewolves. I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle a laugh as the werewolves danced around, cursing and slapping themselves as they tried to ward off the stinging insects. Some of them dove into the nearby bushes that I’d hexed, only to shriek as they found themselves in huge patches of wolfsbane. A few of the werewolves raced forward instead of retreating, and with a wiggle of Adrienne’s fingers, a murmuration of starlings swooped from the sky, dropping a thick load of bird poop on the werewolves. It was working. The mob of werewolves turned and ran back home with only one werewolf remaining to shout after his fleeing pack.

  It was at that exact moment when my luck ran out. The wind shifted, and just as Dallas was starting to head after the others, he stiffened, turning around and lifting his nose to the air.

  I froze, but the gig was up. Dallas snarled, his eyes glowing bright yellow as he turned and looked straight toward where we were hiding.

  I’d knew there had been a chance that the werewolves would scent us out and know we were behind this. Even if they didn’t, I still knew there was a good chance they’d put two and two together and realize that a swarm of stinging insects and dive-bombing birds were magically coordinated. I just assumed Dallas would realize that we Perkins witches weren’t going to let this sort of violence happen inside our wards any longer, and that he’d concede the battle to us, if not the war. What I didn’t anticipate was how incredibly pissed off he’d be.

  I’d seen werewolves angry before, but never this angry. A sane, rational Dallas would realize that if he killed us, he’d be sealing his fate, but this wasn’t a sane, rational Dallas. This was a werewolf who’d steeled himself to possibly kill his son and former packmates tonight, only to be stung by dozens of hornets, covered in boils from the wolfsbane, and coated with a large quantity of slimy bird crap. I reached inside my pocket to grip the button charms, hoping there was enough juice in them to get the three of us out of this.

  Dallas took a step toward us, claws lengthening from his fingers, his jaw extending outward with the appearance of huge sharp teeth. “This. Is. War,” he roared.

  Crap. I squeezed the button charms, trying to do something, anything. Make him slip and fall and injure himself enough to give us time to flee. Anything.

  “Wish I’d brought a lion,” Adrienne muttered.

  “Lion. Got it,” Eshu said.

  The words were followed up by a roar that answered Dallas’s, and I felt myself knocked aside as a giant tawny-furred animal leapt past me and into the road.

  It was a lion, but not like any lion I’d ever seen at the zoos. He was six feet at the shoulder and probably around a thousand pounds. He was a lion the size of a huge horse, and he was chasing Dallas down the road away from us and back home.

  Eshu. The guy could shapeshift. Now that would have been a good thing to know before we headed out on this excursion. But I wasn’t too upset because he’d clearly saved us—for now.

  “Think he’ll kill the werewolf?” Adrienne asked as the two figures vanished into the dark.

  “I hope not.” I winced. “Either way we’re screwed. Dallas caught our scent, and I doubt he’s going to let this go.”

  Adrienne stood up and brushed the dirt off her jeans. “Well, he’s got a choice. He can tell everyone in the pack we thwarted his attack plans, or he can keep mum about it and take revenge on us some other time. Or he can let the whole thing go and be grateful we gave him an excuse not to have to kill his son.”

  “For tonight,” I reminded her, getting up as well. “He could easily regroup and do this again. We can’t be up here every night protecting Clinton’s compound. Next time he�
�ll be ready for us, and we might not have Eshu-the-giant-lion to drive him off.”

  “Speaking of which, that was freaking awesome.”

  I agreed, and as we headed back to the car, I thought about how amazing Eshu had been. He’d let us take the lead but jumped in when we were in trouble and needed help. And I’d done magic. Yes, I’d needed to steal some energy from the button charms, but I’d still managed to pull off a successful spell. That meant a lot and made me feel as if someday I might actually be back to normal—or at least as normal as a witch who’d died could ever be.

  The pair of us were on high alert as we walked, but I still nearly jumped out of my skin to see a figure standing next to our car. It was only when he turned to me and smiled that I realized it was Eshu.

  Running, I jumped into his arms and planted a kiss on him. I was aiming for his lips but in my enthusiasm missed and instead ended up kissing his nose instead.

  “Thank you. He was so angry, and I wasn’t sure what he was going to do to us, and I was all tapped out of energy. If you hadn’t jumped in, I don’t know what would have happened to us.”

  “Hey! I wasn’t tapped out. I was planning on…I don’t know, summoning some earthworms or something.” Adrienne came up behind me and crushed me in the middle of a quick three-way hug. “Thank you, Eshu. You were even better than the lions at the zoo. But don’t tell them that. They’re real divas.”

  “I wasn’t going to let my couch-witch get mauled by a werewolf.” Eshu placed a kiss on my forehead. “Or her sister, either. Now if that Cassie sister had been here, I might have decided on a different sort of action, especially if she had Lucien with her.”