The Curse that Bites

by Kennedy Layne

  “Yes, there is,” Cassandra replied, stepping forward before Jerry could stop her. He had no idea what had been suggested, and he didn’t like being left out of the conversation. “It’s okay, Jerry. They can tell us where Paul is right this minute.”

  “Is that true?” Jerry asked before the sound of a car door closing could be heard through the front windows. Hopefully, it was Knox. “Paul used to live here with our uncle. Well, now it’s just me. You can use something from Paul’s bedroom. I’ll talk to Sheriff Tate, sticking to the story that you told at the diner.”

  Piper quickly nodded, motioning for Pearl to join her in following Cassandra to the back of the house. The three of them had disappeared from sight by the time Jerry had answered the door. Hal had discreetly reached over the side of his recliner to push the wooden stake underneath the hanging fabric of the chair.

  “Sheriff, I know I shouldn’t have left the diner after having that altercation, but it was instinct. You’ve not been one of my biggest fans,” Jerry said with a crooked smile, his charm coming across forced. Sheriff Tate didn’t even break a smile. He tried again. “Cassandra told me that Mr. Palisade isn’t going to press charges, for which I’m very grateful. My only excuse for throwing that weight was that I did so in self-defense. He got me confused with someone else, and I was afraid he was going to attack me.”

  “Jerry, don’t say another word,” Sheriff Tate warned, stepping inside and bringing a gust of cold wind with her. I noticed that the clicking on Orwin’s laptop had come to a complete stop as he noticed the change in energy as well. Something bad had happened. As usual, whatever had occurred wasn’t in the plans. “Have you been here since you left the diner? Can Hal or anyone else verify you were here?”

  Sheriff Tate wasn’t wearing gloves, and her bare hand rested on the butt of her firearm. I didn’t get a sense of panic, as if she knew Jerry’s deepest and darkest secret. No, her reaction was more in line with doing her job as sheriff while trying to protect a resident she didn’t quite believe would resort to committing a serious crime.

  “My nephew hasn’t been out of my sight since we left the diner,” Hal confirmed, pushing himself out of his recliner so that he could move to rest a hand on Jerry’s shoulder. “What’s going on, Sheriff?”

  By this time, Orwin had closed his laptop and stood next to me. Cassandra, Piper, and Pearl must have also felt the shift of energy. Cassandra and Piper reappeared from the hallway, leaving Pearl to become invisible.

  Something tells me that we should have thought to scry for Mr. Kline’s brother before now, dear hexed one.

  I didn’t care for the fact that Knox had yet to join us, and I clenched my hands tight as I waited for the sheriff to fill us in on the latest development. Did it involve another vampire, or had Knox somehow been discovered by the hunter we supposedly had sent back to wherever he belonged?

  “Mr. Palisade was murdered in the room he’d rented above the bar,” Sheriff Tate stated grimly, her gaze settling on each and every one of us until she focused her attention on Jerry. “You’re the one who had an altercation with the man, Jerry. I’d like for you to come down to the station for more questioning. I had no choice but to call in the state police. They’ll want to speak with you, and we should make their job as easy as we can by providing them with as much information as possible.”

  Oh, dear. This is a twist that we didn’t see coming, dear hexed one.

  That was putting things mildly. Who would want to see Frank Palisade dead other than Jerry? Was Paul closer than everyone thought? Was he the vampire who hurt Orwin in my premonition? No matter what happened in the next few moments, Piper had to stay behind to scry for Paul’s location.

  “I’ll go with you,” Cassandra volunteered blindly, unable to see that she might very well be putting herself in danger. I couldn’t seem to get Pearl’s warning out of my head—where one hunter went, another would follow. Frank Palisade hadn’t been the only hunter to have knowledge of Jerry’s whereabouts. Professor Weaver had made sure of that when anonymously posting the bounty on Jerry’s head. “Hal?”

  “Already grabbing my coat,” Hal replied gruffly, his concern for his nephew palpable.

  “I’m sorry, Cassandra,” Sheriff Tate said, gesturing toward the rest of us now standing together in the living room. “I know your uncle is sick and that your brother came to take you back to see him. Hopefully, we’ll be able to clear away the roads sometime tomorrow for all of you to be able to make it before it’s too late.”

  Thankfully, Cassandra went along with the story we’d concocted. Jerry was holding up her dress coat in a gentlemanly fashion that would certainly score points with Pearl. All I could think of was that he hadn’t fed on anything since we’d arrived, and there was no telling how long he’d be holed up at the police station.

  That isn’t quite accurate, Miss Lilura. During my little stroll to the back of the house, I noticed an empty blood bag in Mr. Kline’s bedroom. I don’t believe it was old, given the scent it left behind.

  I scrunched my nose at Pearl’s description, but at least we no longer had to worry that Jerry might lose it in an interrogation room. That is, if the small police station even had one of those. Right now, we had some hunting to do on this mountaintop.

  “Hal, do you mind if we stay here?” I asked, hoping that Hal would understand the urgency to locate Paul. We had to be one hundred percent sure that he was nearby and could potentially be the one who murdered the vampire hunter. “I’m assuming the rooms above the bar are off limits now that the place is a crime scene.”

  “That would be best,” Sheriff Tate replied reluctantly, stepping to the side so that she could keep Jerry in sight at all times. At least she hadn’t put the man in cuffs. “I’m not sure how long the state police will have the bar closed off. They had Maggie shut down business for the day.”

  “Make yourselves at home,” Hal relied, nodding in addition to his answer. He was letting me know that it was okay to still locate one of Paul’s personal items for the locator spell. “We’ll be back as soon as we clear up this mess.”

  No one spoke until Hal had closed the door behind him, leaving us to figure out who really killed Frank Palisade.

  “Orwin, keep working on taking down that bounty,” I directed, attempting to figure out how we could speed up the process of getting off this mountain with Orwin’s life intact. “Piper, go back to Paul’s room and find something that you can use to find his location. Pearl, consider yourself that glue you were talking about earlier. I’m going to find Knox.”

  You believe that our resident werewolf will need to be the hunter in this situation, do you not? Have you considered that Paul might not have come by himself? That bounty had to have spread throughout the vampire community. He might very well be here to protect his brother, not knowing that we have things under control.

  “Yes, I’ve thought about that.” My cell phone was in the pocket of my jacket, so I quickly crossed the room to the coat rack. “Which is why we’ll be needing Knox in those woods if Piper finds Paul on top of this mountain. The last thing we need while ensuring Orwin’s safety is a war between hunters and vampires, all because of a human’s desire to be immortal.”

  Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, dear hexed one. In the meantime, I will be glued to the alien hunter’s side. It appears that in Mr. Palisade’s death comes victory for Mr. Cornelia. It is time we had a little talk about the hieroglyphics in the pyramids that depict those little green visitors from the skies above.

  “We’re going to be hearing conspiracy theories for a long time to come, aren’t we?” I asked with a small smile, somehow being the one to try and cut through the tension in the room. We were stuck in what could very well be an extremely dangerous situation that ended with my premonition. I really, really didn’t appreciate the irony of it all. “At this point, I would give anything to hear those speculations about little green men.”

  Then we all best get to work, dear hexed one. There
’s no time to waste if we wish to all enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner next week. I, for one, am looking forward to giving thanks that Mr. Cornelia has yet to fit my sleek fur with an aluminum foil suit. Now, let’s see if we can’t go about saving the day, shall we?

  Chapter Twelve

  The wind had definitely picked up speed outside, if the groans of the one-story house were anything to go by, signifying that the impending storm would be arriving sooner rather than later. That didn’t bode well for saving the day, let alone Orwin.

  “I can hear you.”

  I lifted my right shoulder in chagrin, not having realized looking out the window of the living room had put me within mental thought of Orwin’s position on the couch. It was going on five o’clock in the evening, leaving only two hours left on the premonition clock. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to get ahold of Knox, Orwin had yet to take down the bounty on Jerry’s head, and the incoming weather front was affecting Piper’s ability to locate Paul.

  “I can walk faster than the speed of this internet,” Orwin complained, his fingers still clicking away on the keyboard.

  “Maybe that’s what we should have done,” I surmised grimly, not liking how long we’d been waiting without any contact from the outside. Hal, Jerry, and Cassandra should have been back by now. “We should have gotten off this mountain first thing this morning and taken our chances in a place that isn’t about to be snowed in for who knows how long.”

  Don’t be such a negative Nelly, dear hexed one. We’ve managed to keep the alien hunter safe for this long. We can last two more hours. It is then that we’ll be able to take a more offensive stance instead of the defensive one we’ve been forced to adopt.

  “Maybe that’s our problem,” I muttered, wondering if by staying on the sidelines we’d taken the one path that could make my premonition come true.

  “I can still hear you,” Orwin exclaimed in disbelief, looking up from his laptop as he pushed his glasses a bit higher to get a better look at me. “You aren’t helping my concentration any by constantly doubting our decisions. We’re inside this house. If that changes, we’ll worry about it then.”

  Mr. Cornelia does have a point there, Miss Lilura.

  I moved to the other window on the opposite side of the front door, which still allowed me to keep watch of the front yard and gravel drive should Paul decide to pay his uncle and brother a visit. This way, Orwin couldn’t hear my thoughts teetering back and forth while affording me to be the first line of defense.

  “Pearl, I think I might have liked you better when you were thinking more like me.”

  I’ve since come to my senses, dear hexed one. Did you know that witches are the barrier between humans and the supernatural realm? It is our duty to protect them. Having one of our own in danger sidetracked me for a tiny bit, but it wasn’t anything a spot of warm cream didn’t fix right up.

  “Great,” I said wryly, shifting the curtain a bit so that I could check the other side of the property. Dusk had fallen later due to the time change. Even though I’d turned on the porch light, it was getting harder and harder to see all the way to the edge of the cleared property line. “A familiar who—”

  “I did it!” Piper exclaimed in victory, rushing down the small hallway. She’d been having quite a bit of trouble casting the locator spell due to the tempestuous elements in the air around us, so she’d moved to Paul’s bedroom in hopes that any remaining essence of the man would aid in the success of the incantation. “Paul Kline is currently in a small town near Cody, Wyoming.”

  I must say that information is a bit surprising, my sweet Piper. The western part of Wyoming is home to many lycanthropes and their cousins, the Grey Wolf. I wonder what the young vampire is doing in those parts, unless he has a death wish, of course.

  “We can’t worry about Paul,” I said, without the relief I thought would be entwined in those words. This discovery put us in another bind. To complicate matters further, my phone no longer had service. I did connect to the Wi-Fi briefly before Orwin just about had a coronary about me using up his precious bandwidth. My idea hadn’t worked, anyway. Knox had no service, leaving us in a bit of a bind. “If Paul is nowhere near this mountaintop, then that only leaves other hunters who might very well kill one of their own for that bounty.”

  “Piper wasn’t the only one successful in her mission,” Orwin shared, beaming with pride. He held up his fists in victory. “I was able to remove the bounty in spite of the worst internet on the planet. Yes! I remain King of the Internet!”

  “High-five, partner,” Piper quipped, walking over and slapping Orwin’s hand before she sat down in Hal’s recliner. She glanced at her watch. “A little under two hours left before the premonition window closes. We’ve got this. Piece of cake.”

  I gave Orwin and Piper a moment to be proud of their accomplishments, not wanting to burst their little hope bubbles into a billion tiny little pieces. Unfortunately, we didn’t have anything, especially a piece of cake.

  “Let’s see if we can put icing on that cake,” Orwin said as he stretched out his arms and laced his fingers as if he were loosening up his muscles. He hadn’t heard my thoughts on the subject of cake, seeing as I was still next to the front door. “I got to thinking that maybe Professor Weaver wasn’t solely counting on vampire hunters to take out Jerry. What if Professor Weaver drove here himself to see if Jerry was part of some nest, thus giving him a broader opportunity to convince one of them to turn him?”

  By that logic, Professor Weaver wouldn’t be the guilty party in Miss Lilura’s vision. I don’t believe that someone who is that obsessed with vampirism would do anything to jeopardize his chance of becoming one of the undead. I, myself, don’t see the appeal of that type of liquid diet. I’ll stick to my delicious beverage of cream, thank you very much.

  “It wouldn’t hurt to rule Professor Weaver out of this equation,” I surmised, becoming a bit uncomfortable with all these loose ends. “Unlike Paul, who ditched his cell phone and any type of technology that could lead us to him, at least you have Professor Weaver’s cell phone number. Go ahead and pinpoint his location.”

  I’m not so sure that it’s the multiple threads of this case that has you uncomfortable, dear hexed one. I also sense the shift in the air, and the dire awareness that things are about to take a turn is very palpable.

  “I feel it, too. I thought it might be from the locator spell, but it’s only becoming stronger,” Piper said quietly, giving Orwin a sideways glance as he began to click away on his keyboard. “I realize that our current undertaking is to get past seven o’clock without Orwin meeting his maker, but we did promise to help Cassandra keep Jerry safe. If our cell phones have no service, then neither do the vampire hunters. They won’t know that the bounty has been taken down until sometime tomorrow.”

  By then, it might be too late, my sweet Piper.

  Hunters were turning on each other, all because of something far more evil than the dark side of the supernatural—money.

  “It’s a solo act,” Orwin said with only the slightest sniffle and a shrug. He continued to work while giving a broader explanation. “Think about it. These vampire hunters travel the world alone in search for their prey. Most likely, the responsibility has been inherited from generations past. It’s a dangerous and time-consuming hobby, leaving them questioning who to trust.”

  It’s not like the vampires wear signs around their neck, Miss Lilura. It takes very good investigative skills to unearth the undead. A bounty such as the one Professor Weaver is offering can allow a hunter to pursue vampires for years to come without the need for some mundane job to support their habit.

  “Professor Weaver isn’t on this mountaintop,” I declared before Orwin could confirm my suspicions. “Think about it. He had Jerry’s address from his college application. The professor could have easily come here himself without the aid of any hunters. No, he put that bounty on Jerry’s’ head for revenge.”

  “You’re right, Lou.” Orwin final
ly closed his laptop. “Professor Weaver’s cell phone is pinging at his residence near the college. I confirmed it was him through the camera on his computer.”

  “That’s not a violation of privacy or anything,” Piper said wryly, though she did appear quite relieved that there wasn’t another player up on this mountain. “Remind me to put a piece of electrical tape over the camera on my laptop. So now what?”

  I suggest we hunker down for the remaining time on that pesky premonition clock. What’s the old saying? Better to be safe than sorry.

  “Hal has a house phone,” I said, looking back out the window of the front door. Flurries had begun to fall in those few short seconds I’d looked away from the edge of the tree line. By seven o’clock, we wouldn’t be able to see past my red Jeep sitting in the driveway. “I’ll call the police station to see if I can either get an update or request to speak with Cassandra.”

  It might be in our best interests to hold off until that timeframe closes and is sealed shut, dear hexed one.

  “You don’t think that Jerry, Cassandra, and maybe even Hal would have tried to skip town, do you?” Orwin asked, leaning forward so that he could set his laptop on the coffee table. He pushed up his glasses and leveled me a stare. “Honestly, that’s what I would have done. Storm or no storm, it’s in their best interest to go into hiding.”

  “It’s not, though,” Piper disagreed, resting an elbow on the arm of the recliner. “Remember, Jerry doesn’t know that his brother isn’t on this mountaintop. No one would take a chance getting caught in this storm with a vampire and a bunch of hunters on one’s trail.”

  Lest we not forget that Mr. Kline would need access to those bags of blood in the refrigerator. He doesn’t strike me as the type of vampire who would feed on his uncle or girlfriend, though I’ve been known to make a mistake a time or two in the past century.