In the Midnight Hour

by Katrina VanBuskirk

  She turned back to the girls, now huddled in their bubble of protection.

  “We’re going to leave for a minute so we can call the sheriff to come out here and get you,” Sarae said soothingly. “Don’t be afraid. We’re going to get you out of here as quick as we can.”

  “Hurry up,” Chloe pleaded. “Before Heather comes back.”

  Remy felt a shudder of lust pass over him at the hated name. He turned away from the girls to hide his face.

  You have to kill her, he told himself. Whatever you feel doesn’t matter. You have to kill her.

  “Send Her Beyond at Once!”

  Remy took Sarae’s hands. “We’re going to wake up right now so we can call the sheriff to help these girls. Say this charm with me.” He recited the charm that would wake them both up, Sarae looking into his eyes as she repeated the words he said.

  The next moment, they sprang awake in bed, still snuggled against each other, still naked.

  Remy glanced at the clock. It had been only two hours since they’d laid down together.

  He felt furious, cheated. Sarae really was beautiful. He felt genuinely safe with her. She had a good heart and she seemed to cherish him, too, which was something of a new thing to him.

  But now he couldn’t even have this gentle moment with her, waking up in her arms.

  “That was a short sleep,” he said, trying to be nonchalant, pulling the blanket off himself and sliding off onto the floor to find his clothes.

  Sarae, more modest, sat up, holding the sheet over her chest. “Go, um, dress,” she said, looking Remy’s naked body over appreciatively. “I hate to ask you to leave the room, but I need to get dressed.”

  “No time for modesty,” Remy said, picking up his pants, no longer caring if Sarae saw him or not.

  “Just go into the living room! Geez.”

  So he did, hopping around the living room trying to squeeze his legs back into his tight jeans as quickly as possible.

  The girls, he thought, going over what he’d just seen in the cellar. They’d said that Heather had been taking parts of their souls.

  Having your soul stolen was a torture in itself, to have that innermost part of you torn away, cut off. What the hell was Heather doing to them? And why?

  After a minute, Sarae followed him in, now fully dressed and putting her black hair up in a ponytail. “I’ll call my cousin. She’s the sheriff,” she added when Remy stared at her, confused.

  “Ah, I forgot about that. Tell her to meet us at the cabin, that the girls should be there.”

  Sarae already had the phone at her ear. “Ada, is this a bad time?” she asked. “We’ve found the girls.”

  The owls joined Sarae and Remy in her truck, making the cab very crowded. Nevertheless, Sarae drove like a bat out of hell down the gravel country roads to get to the cabin, and Remy held on to the “oh shit” handle over his door as they roared up hills and slid around corners. Gravel pinged off the undercarriage and a huge white cloud of gravel dust billowed up behind them.

  Sarae tossed Remy her phone. “Open up the police scanner app,” she said. “Then we can listen to what law enforcement is doing.”

  Remy tapped on the app, and it hissed and then a woman said, “I’m en route to the scene.” Her siren was on.

  “That’s Ada talking,” Sarae said. “If she’s leaving Swissville now, she should be here in 15 minutes.”

  They pulled up in front of the cabin and climbed out.

  Sarae looked around. The world around the cabin was silent. Too silent.

  “What the hell?” she whispered. “It’s not supposed to be this quiet out here.”

  “What?” Remy asked. “This isn’t the city. Of course it’s quiet. It’s quieter than hell! It’s creepy.”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about,” Sarae said as she reached in to help Zoe out of the truck. “There aren’t any birds talking in the trees. Usually with a lot of forest like this, there will be somebody singing someplace.” Sarae looked through the dark shadows of the trees that crowded the edges of the yard. “The birds will get quiet like this if there’s a hawk nearby, but….”

  “She’s right,” said Zoe, fluttering up from her hands. “There’s something wrong.”

  “It’s not a hawk,” Hinto said suddenly, opening his great wings from where he sat on Remy’s shoulder. “It’s because there’s some bad magic happening.”

  Sarae’s eyes went wide. “Right now?”

  “Quick, quick!” Zoe cried. “It’s over here!” The small owl flew low over the grass toward the cabin, swooping up into the air to sail over its roof, and vanished behind.

  Hinto hopped from Remy’s shoulder to his forearm, which he was holding sideways. As soon as Hinto lighted on it, Remy swung his arm up and boosted Hinto into the air. Hinto sprang aloft, great wings beating hard. “This way,” he cried, following Zoe’s flight.

  “Where do you think Heather is?” Sarae said as she and Remy raced after the owls.

  A strange shudder traveled over Remy at her name. “I am harboring some serious concerns about her,” he said, and pulled his velvet bag of powder out of his pocket.

  In the side yard was the storm cellar, just as Sarae had seen it in the dream, with the doors padlocked together. The owls landed on the door and both of them spread their wings to their full width and sang ‘WHOO’ in two-part harmony.

  “Can we break in?” Sarae asked.

  Remy pounded on the doors. “Get out of there, Heather,” he called through them, and shuddered when he spoke her name. “We’re not finished with you.”

  She came floating straight up through the doors before Remy and Sarae. The owls both stepped out of her way to allow her to emerge fully.

  Once she’d emerged, both of the owls hissed, their wings opening, and with that magic-infused hiss, they pushed her back from the doors and onto the lawn. Heather squirmed and fought their power, but to no avail.

  “What did you do to my girls?” she complained. “I can’t get at them now!”

  “Of course not, you bitch,” Sarae snapped. “What are you trying to do to them? You said you loved them.”

  “I’m trying to make them immortal, you little hussy!” Heather hissed, walking at her, her face going blotchy.

  The owls hissed at Heather, freezing her in place.

  “Send her under the ground,” Hinto commanded. “Send her Beyond at once.”

  “No!” Heather screamed. “All my secrets will die with me.”

  “There’s nothing new about a secret dying,” Remy said, trying to remain blasé. “Everyone dies with secrets. And yet the world keeps spinning.”

  “But I know something about your parents,” Heather hissed.

  Sarae was shocked to see the bottom drop out of Remy’s face, as if he’d fallen into a pit he didn’t see.

  “Don’t, don’t listen to her,” Sarae whispered.

  “What do you know?” Remy asked Heather.

  Now Heather swaggered a little. “Your mama had something for you,” Heather said. “She kept it back at the house. Something from Marie Leveau herself.”

  Remy was shaking his head. “That’s impossible.”

  Heather smirked. “She didn’t realize that she’d be gone when you came into your power … or what you had to give up to attain it.”

  Hinto hissed, leaning forward, wings opening sideways like two gigantic knives. “Send her!” he commanded in his deep owl voice. “Send her now!”

  “Leveau’s gift is still at your old house,” Heather whispered. “I know exactly where it’s at.”

  Remy’s hand holding the powder shook. Sarae saw him swallow.

  “My mama,” he whispered. Sarae could see the deep hurt and longing in his eyes.

  “Don’t listen to her.” Sarae sang the beginning of the charm to drive Heather under the ground.

  But Remy did not join her.

  Heather laughed softly … and vanished.

  “Dammit!” Sarae cried. “Remy, di
d you just let her go?!”

  She shouted a spell to drag Heather back, and the words sprang from her into the air like a rope. But then the rope-spell went slack. The spell didn’t catch her.

  Heather had escaped.

  But there was no more time, for here came her cousin driving up in her sheriff’s cruiser with a deputy behind her.

  Sarae turned her back on Remy in a huff and stormed away. He just stood there, wilted.

  “As soon as we get the girls out safely, I am going to send Heather beyond the veil so fast,” she muttered. “And Remy is not going to stop me.”

  Zoe flew to her shoulder. This time, Sarae didn’t cover her with her hair.

  “What the hell was he doing?” the little owl complained.

  “Oh, my God,” Sarae whispered to the owl, because now Ava was getting out of her cruiser. “I don’t care if that bitch had the freaking Hope Diamond. I would have sent her ass Beyond so fast….”

  “I think something’s wrong with him,” Zoe said, looking back over her owl shoulder.

  “This is me not caring,” Sarae snapped, though that was a lie.

  Unsanctified

  Sarae led Ava and the deputy to the storm cellar where they waited for the judge to issue a search warrant back in town. “We would have had the search warrant already,” Ava said, checking her phone, “but the judge was in the middle of a court case when we left town. She’ll call us when she is —”

  Just then Ada’s phone rang. “That’s her right now,” she said, answering. A minute later, Ada said, “Thanks” on the phone, then said to the deputy, “We have our warrant. Let’s get in there!”

  Out came the bolt cutters. In moments, the inside cellar door swung open, and everything was just as the dream had shown them.

  “It’s the girls!” a deputy cried.

  Ava and the deputies broke the girls free of their restraints, lifted them up, and carried them into the cool fall air and sunshine. The girls blinked and covered their eyes against the glare of the sun, crying.

  “Their parents told me these girls were just fine!” Ada said, outraged. “This is in no way fine! They lied to my face!”

  “From what I’ve seen of one of the parents, this doesn’t surprise me,” Sarae said.

  “Go through the rest of the cabin and see what you can find,” Ada told the deputies. “We have the search warrant now, so we’re good.”

  The deputies headed in. Somebody else was calling the ambulance to come pick up the girls and trying to figure out what the 911 address for this place so they could find it. “It’s off County Road 411,” one to the deputies was saying, “About a mile west of Smith’s Creek, up in the Monday Mountains.”

  “These aren’t mountains,” Remy muttered, putting his glasses back on.

  Sarae ignored his statement. “So, cousin, do you need me for anything else?” she asked Ada.

  Ada lowered her voice. “No, we’re good. Thanks for the lead.” Then she added, hopefully, “Unless you happen to have some evidence that might be admissible in court?”

  “I’m pretty sure I don’t, unless the court accepts ‘My cousin with the owl was talking to the dead’ as evidence.”

  “Welp,” Ada said.

  “Maybe next time,” Sarae said with a shrug.

  Ada put her phone back in her chest pocket. “Thanks for helping, though. I don’t know what you do with that owl, or how you do it, but it gets results. I’m glad you came out here to Missouri to live. I really am.” And now Ada was serious.

  Sarae blushed a little. “I’m glad I came out here too.”

  “So … you’re friends with the other owl dude now?” she asked.

  Sarae nodded slightly. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

  “Good good good.” Ada said briskly. “It’ll do you good.”

  Remy’s eyebrow arched just slightly behind his glasses.

  “I’ll say it has,” Sarae said. And grinned.

  * * *

  “Okay, so the girls are safe,” Sarae said, driving the truck home with Remy sitting in the passenger seat. “But I still have a million questions. Like, what the hell is going on with those monsters in the woods? Or the torture thing going on near the cabin? Or that thing where Heather said she has something of yours?”

  Sarae couldn’t help the bitter tone in her voice at that last comment.

  Remy looked out the window. “We’ve only found the girls. There’s far more to come.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  He didn’t say anything.

  “And the weird meat deliveries from the Miller’s house,” Sarae added.

  Remy gave her a confused look.

  “You know, when the farmer’s ghost told us about the fatback and the crappy cuts of meat that the Millers would take with them when they left the house?”

  Remy nodded. “They might have dogs … somewhere?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense.” Sarae pulled into the driveway next to her house and shut off the truck. They got out.

  “So….” she began, not wanting to broach the subject. “Where are you going to live if Marcus is leaving?”

  Remy made a vague gesture. “Um … Marcus hasn’t left yet. He said he had something to do. Though he might have just told me that so he could stick around, hoping I’d change my mind….”

  “Change your mind?” Sarae turned, giving him a narrow-eyed look. “Wait a minute. You said that he wanted to go home to his girlfriend.”

  Remy stopped next to her front door.

  “Remy, what the hell is going on?” Sarae asked. “You say Marcus is leaving but he hasn’t left yet. And you freaking let that Heather bitch go. I’m sorry, that just blows my mind, okay? And now you’re acting all weird and changing your story on me.”

  “I could leave,” Remy said quietly, out of nowhere.

  “Leave? Why?” Sarae caught his arm. “And what was that crap you were saying to Heather about leaving me?”

  She gazed deeply into his eyes. Her anger faded into concern when she met those eyes.

  They held so much pain.

  “Remy, what’s wrong?” she asked, her heart going out to him in an instant.

  Remy caught her in his other arm, pulled her close, and kissed her.

  Sarae melted in his arms. She couldn’t help it. Their mouths opened to each other, and they kissed. His kisses were hard and brutal and Sarae’s knees went weak with passion. She returned them, thrilled, needing him again.

  He lifted her up, still kissing her, and he pushed open the door and carried her inside.

  Sarae was exhausted from all that had happened during the day and the previous night, and for lack of sleep, but when he brought her back into her bedroom and laid her on the bed, she had no complaint. His hard passion thrilled her.

  As soon as he laid her down, he was pulling off her clothes, and his. Remy covered her body with hot, burning kisses as she fought to get out of her jeans under his body.

  As soon as their clothes were off, he was pushing into her. “I don’t want to leave you,” he said into her shoulder with such longing that her heart tore to hear it, inflaming her need.

  “Then stay,” she said into his open mouth as they kissed hungrily, their breaths hissing. “Oh, God, Remy, stay.” He rammed himself home hard, and she rose to meet him, their bodies rocking. She clutched him, meeting his thrusts hard, slamming against him, his sweat dripping on her.

  They came together, Sarae gasping under his thrusts, and Remy groaned as he arched his back and buried himself deep inside her.

  When it was over, they collapsed together, breathing hard. Sarae was shaking with the intensity of the experience. She had not seen that coming. No pun intended. He nuzzled and kissed her face and neck.

  “Why are you going to leave?” she asked.

  “Because what’s going to happen next is going to be too much for you to handle,” he said.

  Sarae leaned back into the pillow, frowning at him. “I don’t
think that’s something you can make the call on,” she said.

  Remy gently kissed her face. “I’m familiar with the case. So I can make that call.”

  “Why don’t you tell me about it? What’s coming after you that has you so worked up?”

  Remy gazed sadly into her eyes, caressing her face.

  Sarae talked faster. “If I’m too weak to fight these things, I can get out of the way during battles. I can support you outside the fight. But … I don’t know if I can find anybody else who’s been through the same shit I have. You’re the only owl-bearer I’ve met.”

  Sarae could no longer meet his eyes, listening to the words coming out of her mouth. The pleading. No wonder he considered her weak.

  He gently ran his hand over her forehead. She felt a mild magic in his hand to soothe her mind.

  Remy’s hand gently lingered on her head. “I think I … I care very much about you,” he murmured.

  Her face fell.

  “I have something that will protect you from spirits like … like the ones we’ve been seeing,” he said quietly.

  “I don’t want to be protected from them,” Sarae said, raising herself on one elbow. “Dammit, Remy, I want to fight them. I want to know why you’re suddenly afraid to fight them. What is going on?”

  “It’s just a little charm,” he said sadly.

  He touched his thumb to the powder, quickly, so she wouldn’t see. With his thumb he drew a cross over her forehead, unsanctified as he was.

  And then, his heart hurting, he whispered a charm.

  Sarae realized too late what the charm was.

  Her eyes flashed with quick anger at him. But before Sarae could speak, or defend herself, she fell into a deep sleep.

  Her head lolled to the side on the pillow. Her breathing deepened. In a moment, Sarae was sleeping like a baby.

  And then, out of nowhere, Remy began to cry.

  “It’s the only way,” he told her through his tears, stroking her dear face. “It’s the only way I can keep you safe. Sarae, Sarae, my love, I don’t know what else to do.”

  Wrecked

  Marcus’s cell phone exploded with texts, waking him out of a sound sleep.