The Curse that Bites

by Kennedy Layne

  “Knox?” I had planned on walking to him, but I could make out another set of headlights coming from the direction of town. Who would be crazy enough to drive around in this weather unless forced to? “Someone else is heading our way.”

  Perhaps a hunter. Step back from sight, alien hunter. No one other than me is permitted to torment you.

  “Someone else is in these woods,” Knox conveyed with concern, not hearing Pearl’s directive. His silhouette was quite dark against the backdrop of the forest, but the golden shimmer of his gaze was still recognizable. “We have company.”

  Uninvited, I might add. I abhor rudeness.

  I had a split second to make a decision.

  That you do, dear hexed one. Make it snappy.

  “Go,” I directed Knox, not wanting to be standing out in the middle of nowhere longer than necessary. “I’ll meet you at Hal’s place, and then we’ll hitch a ride with them when they decide to drive back to town. It’s not like they have anywhere else to stay.”

  Knox didn’t say another word and simply faded into the dark void to do what he did best—hunt.

  I shall stick to Mr. Cornelia’s side like glue, dear hexed one. Have no worries.

  “It’s the sheriff,” Orwin said with slight relief, still not through finishing the spell with Piper. They had both stopped chanting underneath their breath to come stand beside me. The last thing we needed was for us to look suspicious. “She must be driving to the fire.”

  I wasn’t surprised when the sheriff’s vehicle stopped beside the Land Rover, which was still somewhat close to the ditch. Orwin and Piper stayed where they were, with Pearl by Orwin’s side in her invisible state.

  “Is everything okay here?” Sheriff Tate asked through the rolled-down passenger window. Her blue gaze searched mine for the truth. “Were you at Hal’s place when it caught fire?”

  Trick question, dear hexed one. Tread carefully.

  “No, ma’am.” I pulled my right glove a little higher on my wrist as I leaned down to rest my arm against the open window frame. “It seems someone slit all four of my tires. We called a friend, and he was able to pick us up. Unfortunately, he hit some packed snow. We’re just going to change this tire as fast as we can before heading back into town.”

  “Friend?” Sheriff Tate asked, searching the dark void behind me. I knew for a fact that she’d only see Orwin and Piper. “Is he okay? Was he hurt when he ran off the road?”

  Time to bring this gathering to a close, Miss Lilura. I don’t like how she is searching the area for Mr. Emeric.

  Pearl hadn’t needed to say anything in the way of a warning. The suspicion in Sheriff Tate’s tone all but told me that it was time to wrap this conversation up as quickly as possible. I’m sure she already found the entire day odd, especially after finding the dead body of the man Jerry had attacked with a weight scale.

  Do we need to mention that the true hunters in this area haven’t seen any wildlife recently? Or that one of the local residents—Mr. Paul Kline—all but up and left his family and friends without even a simple goodbye? Sheriff Tate isn’t a fool, dear hexed one. She knows more about this town than probably anyone else.

  I completely agreed with Pearl’s analysis, but I couldn’t take the chance of having Orwin move closer to read Sheriff Tate’s thoughts…not with Knox literally hunting someone who was currently lurking in the woods behind us.

  “No, he’s fine,” I responded with a small smile, not willing to give up Knox’s name. I had no idea what Sheriff Tate might do with the information, and the weather was making a turn for the worse. As a matter of fact, I could barely stop my teeth from chattering. “We’re just going to change this flat tire and head back into town, but maybe I could get a ride with you to Hal’s place. I can get a ride back to town with Cassandra. I’m sure she’ll want to get an early start on the road after this storm passes.”

  “Why don’t you all hop in the car?” Sheriff Tate suggested, motioning to the road in front of her. “I’ll give you a lift. As your friend just experienced, these roads are treacherous. You can fix both vehicles come tomorrow.”

  Why does that offer feel like a trap? I’d rather stay out in this snowstorm than get in that vehicle, dear hexed one. Trust your instinct and—duck!

  Had I not been talking with Sheriff Tate and wasting time by attempting to throw her off our trail, I would have realized that the air had shifted in the last few seconds. It was a wonder that Pearl had noticed, seeing as she had been midsentence.

  The sound of a thud, like something hitting the Land Rover, carried off into the wind.

  “Orwin!” Piper called out after he’d emitted what sounded like a groan of pain. There was no one else present, so I wasn’t worried that he’d been bit by a vampire. “Are you okay?”

  I quickly ran over to where they were standing in front of Knox’s vehicle, noticing right away the wooden stake sticking out of the grill. Someone had a crossbow, but it was too dark to tell if it was the previous hunter that Knox had his run-in with or someone else entirely.

  A vicious growl emanated from deep within the forest.

  Whoever it is just might be about to meet their competition, but we might have a problem of our own to deal with, Miss Lilura. Please turn around slowly, so as not to startle Sheriff Tate. I don’t appreciate the way the town officials welcome tourists in this town.

  The sound of the police cruiser’s door opening after I’d run to Orwin’s side was unmistakable, but no more so than the noise Sheriff Tate made when removing her firearm from its holster. Oh, this put us in quite the bind.

  “Don’t move,” Sheriff Tate warned as I finally faced her. “Emily? Are you out there? What was that sound?”

  Emily?

  “Her daughter,” Orwin murmured, lifting a hand to his neck. My heartrate spiked when I realized that he was bleeding from the side of his neck. It had been just like my vision, only without the cabin. “Emily Tate is a hunter, Lou. She was the young woman who was reading at the diner. It’s her stakes that have the insignia.”

  Mr. Cornelia is now close enough to read Sheriff Tate’s thoughts, and he certainly has discovered a lot of details that would have come in handy earlier today.

  “Better late than never, cotton ball,” Orwin commented, still holding the side of his neck. The injury wasn’t bad, but my premonition could still play out. The cabin in my vision might actually be our safety net. “That’s exactly what I was thinking, Lou. Emily is who shot Knox, and she’s the one he is hunting now.”

  “How do you know all that?” Sheriff Tate demanded, her gaze darting between us and the dark abyss beyond to search for any sign of her daughter. I held up my hands, though not for the reason Sheriff Tate believed was my acquiesce. “You’re one of them, aren’t you? I didn’t believe Emily, but it all makes sense now. You people are vampires. What have you done with my daughter?”

  Oh, dear! I’m guessing now might be another good time to retreat and regroup.

  I instantly lifted my hand and all but tossed Sheriff Tate one way and her weapon the other. We had no idea if Knox had neutralized Emily, but it was best not to take any chances.

  “Run!” I yelled, using all my energy to make sure that Sheriff Tate wouldn’t be retrieving her weapon anytime soon. By the time I’d unleashed all the energy from my body, her firearm was buried in a snowbank on the other side of the road. The sheriff would take a while to find it, so I was close behind Orwin and Piper within seconds. “Go, go, go!”

  Another growl from Knox, somewhere to the left of us, practically vibrated the trees as we continued to run through the dense woods. It was shortly followed by a shrill scream that could only have come from Emily. Terror froze my blood in a way that the weather couldn’t, and I brought myself up short.

  You need to trust your werewolf, Miss Lilura. He didn’t spend all that time in that cave continuously changing into his intimidating form for no reason. Mr. Emeric is in complete control of his hunting instincts, as we must
do the same with our survival instincts. Now get those buttocks moving, dear hexed one. We have no time to waste!

  Chapter Sixteen

  Orwin burst through the abandoned cabin’s front door, holding the side of his neck just as he’d done in my premonition. It was nighttime versus daytime, and his injury wasn’t nearly enough to cause death, but that might not have been the case had Pearl not had the wherewithal to be in tune with our surroundings.

  No need to stroke my ego, dear hexed one. We’re all safe, and that is what matters. Would you care to see if this place has electricity?

  “Pearl, I don’t know what to say,” Orwin began as we all followed him inside. He tried the switch by the door. Thankfully, a small light came on that had been positioned on the entryway table. I quickly shut the door, completely willing to spend the night here. We needed time to regroup, anyway. “You saved my life.”

  Did I? It was in the spur of the moment, so don’t think for a second that I won’t continue to poke fun about your wacky conspiracy theories. Some are seriously over the top.

  “Knox wouldn’t hurt Emily,” Piper said softly while Orwin and Pearl continued to banter. “He’ll be here soon enough once he retraces our steps.”

  I continued to search the cabin for any signs that someone might return at any moment, but found none whatsoever. There were no curtains on the windows, which meant we needed to shut off the light before someone spotted the golden hue from afar. Honestly, I just needed to keep busy. All I kept replaying in my mind was the sound of Emily’s screams that seemed to echo forever inside these woods.

  I’m sure the sheriff’s daughter was quite fraught at the sight of a massive lycanthrope straight out of a horror movie. Speaking of which, we might want to toss around some excuses to give the residents on top of this mountain while we’re waiting around in this abandoned cabin. I vote for an alien invasion. I’m sure we can spin the story in our favor.

  “You don’t need to shut off the light,” Piper said as I went to flip off the switch. She’d set down Orwin’s laptop that she held onto all this time, along with removing her body purse. She closed her eyes and held up her hands as she began to softly chant a spell. Orwin and Pearl had stopped razzing one another to give Piper silence in her concentration. Once she’d finished the incantation, she smiled brightly. “See? All done. No one will see the light shining through the windows.”

  Mr. Emeric should be here momentarily. He can explain his run-in with the sheriff’s daughter, and thus offer some details that may help us in this endeavor.

  “I don’t think Emily Tate is going to buy that the werewolf she encountered was from a different planet.” Orwin took the scarf Piper had pulled from her purse and pressed the soft fabric against his neck. While there were drying droplets of blood running down to his collarbone, it was clear to see that his injury had just been a graze. “We need to come up with something better than that.”

  “What about a gas leak?” Piper asked, pushing Orwin’s hand out of the way so she could get a better look at his wound. The premonition clock had to have gone past the timeframe by now, so we could breathe a little easier. With that said, there were still quite a few loose ends to tie up. “We did it, Orwin. See? I knew all along that you would be okay.”

  Piper and Orwin continued to exchange reasons that could explain a werewolf and a witch to the only law enforcement in this town. Their distraction afforded me the time I needed to sort through everything that had occurred within the last twenty-four hours.

  I can help you with that, dear hexed one. I just so happened to be listening in on every thought Mr. Cornelia entertained while I was glued to his side. Loads of conspiracy theories in that noggin.

  Pearl had gracefully jumped up on the rickety side table next to the window while I stared out into the darkness looking for any sign of Knox. I truly believed that Knox could control his rage while in his changed form, but what if Emily Tate had tried to attack him? What if she’d set off a chain reaction that had Knox acting on instinct? The results could be fatal.

  “I thought back to this morning’s encounter at the diner, and Orwin hadn’t been within six feet of Emily Tate. She’d stayed at her table the entire time without giving away that she, too, had been hunting Jerry.” My summarization meant that Jerry was still in trouble. I debated leaving Orwin and Piper here at the cabin. It might take me twenty minutes to head back to Hal’s house, but I still might be able to warn the couple that they needed to come with me until the storm passed and Emily received notification that the bounty on Jerry’s head had been lifted. “I’ll give Knox a few more minutes. If he doesn’t show up, I’ll have no choice but to head out into this storm to make the trek back to Hal’s place. We gave Cassandra our word that we would protect Jerry.”

  That we did, dear hexed one. The storm is picking up, though. I fear the only hunter left for us to worry about is Miss Emily Tate. Should our resident werewolf be able to neutralize her, Miss Saruman and her beau will be safe until morning. A piece of the puzzle that Mr. Cornelia was able to fit nicely into place was that the sheriff’s daughter had deviously made sure that Frank Palisade’s crossbow was visible to those who bothered to look at his bag.

  “Emily had wanted the upper hand over Jerry, so she’d made it so that he thought Frank Palisade was the lone threat.” It had been a very strategic move on Emily’s part. I gave her kudos for thinking outside the box, but that didn’t explain Frank’s murder. I was confident that Jerry and Cassandra had nothing to do with the hunter’s demise. Did that mean we had another player on top of this mountain? “We’ve confirmed that the key players are nowhere near here, so who killed Frank Palisade?”

  “Emily.” Orwin might have been conversing with Piper, but he’d been listening to every word that Pearl and I had been exchanging for the last minute. With a cabin this small, it didn’t surprise me that he was able to overhear our conversation. “I was able to read Sheriff Tate’s thoughts right before you all but threw her across the road. Apparently, Frank confronted Emily inside the bar. He’d figured out who had messed with his hunting gear, and also that she’d planned on getting that bounty for herself. She hadn’t wanted anyone to overhear them, so they went upstairs to his room. One thing led to another, and she apparently killed him in self-defense. That’s the story that Emily told her mother.”

  “So, Sheriff Tate arrested Jerry to throw the police off Emily’s trail?” I asked, watching the snow come down heavier than before. I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to trek back to Hal’s place in this type of snowstorm. “I didn’t take the sheriff as that type of person.”

  “The memories I saw from Tate might have taken place after Jerry’s arrest.” Orwin adjusted the scarf a little tighter around his neck, using it as a makeshift bandage. It would have to do until we could get ahold of a first aid kit. He sank into the beat-up old couch that had seen better days, coughing when a layer of dust puffed up into the chilly air. “I’m believe they had been talking in the sheriff’s office.”

  “I’m sure Sheriff Tate didn’t believe a word her daughter said in that moment,” Piper said, giving the sheriff the benefit of the doubt. “I mean, can you imagine being told that vampires existed when you had no idea about the supernatural realm in general? Emily was lucky that her mother didn’t call the loony bin.”

  Piper hadn’t joined Orwin on the couch, but instead walked over to the small cabinet against a sink that served as part of the kitchen area. She was probably searching for a first aid kit.

  “Pearl, you’re awfully quiet,” I murmured, reluctantly deciding that I wouldn’t be able to make it back to Hal’s place in this weather. If the groans of the cabin were anything to go by, the gust of winds had picked up speed once again. “Anything you want to add?”

  I’d like to add that I’m glad we made it to the safety of this cabin with everyone’s lives intact. We were able to thwart your premonition, clear up any misunderstandings we may have had with Miss Saruman, and remove the bounty o
n her beau’s head. There is the pesky problem of the sheriff knowing about vampires. Given that her daughter is a hunter, it may have been a forgone conclusion. The truth was bound to come out at some point. All in all, I’d say this current case was a success, dear hexed one.

  “Cassandra can’t help us, though,” Piper pointed out, though not without a solution. She was an optimist at heart, even though she’d come up empty on the search for a first aid kit. “We’ll have to start searching for another medium. My coven didn’t have anyone with that specialty, but I’m sure there’s one out there somewhere.”

  I appreciated that Pearl had pointed out all the successes we’d had in the past twenty-four hours. We’d done what we’d set out to do, which was to save Orwin’s life. Hearing it said aloud allowed me to finally truly breathe, but I wouldn’t relax my guard in the least until Knox walked through the door to the cabin.

  Then you’ll be happy to know that your wish is about to come true, dear hexed one.

  I turned from the window upon hearing Pearl’s declaration, taking a step toward the only entrance in the cabin. I was brought to a complete halt when the door finally flung open wide to reveal Knox…and he wasn’t alone.

  Another twist I didn’t see coming, Miss Lilura. By chance, do you know how to properly strip search someone?

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Do I want to know how you convinced Emily Tate that you aren’t a threat to her?” I murmured, knowing full well how our voices carried throughout this tiny cabin. “After all, she did see you in werewolf form.”

  “First off, I can be very charming,” Knox replied, tossing a grin my way. We were currently sitting on the bed in the corner, allowing Sheriff Tate and her daughter to have the couch. Orwin had moved to the chair, and Piper was using the arm to hoist herself up. The four of them were having a serious conversation about the supernatural realm, and how everyone just wanted to live in harmony. “Second, I didn’t change fully. Only enough to scare Emily into listening to what I had to say. I’m pretty sure she was just too shocked to move, but I was still able to convince the two of them to ride out the storm here.”