“We don’t believe the stories Margaret was telling, if that’s what you’re worried about,” I offered.
“Speak for yourself,” Luke shot back.” I happen to believe the yellow snow story and will hold it near and dear to my heart for the rest of the days of my life.”
I ignored him. “It’s clear that Margaret has a vendetta against Tillie that she’s taking out on everybody else.”
Landon was calm as he met my gaze. “Margaret Little is ... a righteous pain in my backside,” he said. “This is not a new development.”
I had no doubt that was true. “I just don’t want you to be upset.”
“I’m not upset. This is normal behavior from her.”
“But ... she was saying things about Bay casting a spell on you,” I persisted.
“Bay did cast a spell on me.” Landon’s grin was mischievous. “She used her mother’s cooking, bacon, and a really pretty smile as potion ingredients.”
I realized quickly that he didn’t care what anyone thought. He was fine with his relationship and the whispers. He understood Hemlock Cove’s gossip river, and he was seemingly fine with swimming upstream without a flotation device.
“Oh, well, I just wanted to make sure.” I felt awkward as Kade moved to join me after trying (and failing) to pay for our lunch. “We were simply curious and asking questions after running into Thistle, Clove and Tillie at Hypnotic.”
Landon snorted. “You’ll have more questions by the time the week is out. I can guarantee that a circus is going to be too much for Thistle and Aunt Tillie to ignore. They’re going to be all up in your business.”
He seemed amused at the prospect. “Why does that make you happy?”
“Because that means they won’t have their noses in my business and I can sleep in for a change.”
“But ... .”
Landon waved me off before I could continue. “I know you’re worried that Mrs. Little somehow hurt my feelings. She’s not capable of that. Bay is fine. I’m fine. You have no reason to worry.”
Well, if he wasn’t upset, there was no reason for me to be. “I just wanted to make sure.”
“Thank you. We’re used to her crap. We’ll be fine.”
“What will you be fine about?” Terry asked as he exited the restaurant, pocketing his wallet.
“Poet here is worried that I’m upset by what Margaret Little said.”
Terry scowled. “That woman ... .”
I found I was amused by the fact that Terry was more agitated than Landon. “She said Bay enchanted you when she was a kid.”
“She did,” Terry agreed. “She did it with smiles and licorice whips. I’ve been involved with Bay, Clove and Thistle since they were kids because they got in a lot of trouble. I’m tight with them.”
“You’re their father,” I mused.
“They have fathers ... and they’re in town. I’m something else that defies categorization.”
I thought back to the story Margaret told before they’d entered. “I thought their fathers were chased out of town after multiple divorces.”
“They returned about a year ago,” Landon explained. “They own an inn called the Dragonfly. It’s fine. Although ... I am curious about everything else Margaret told you before we walked through the door.”
“She said that Tillie cast a spell on someone named Calvin so he wouldn’t follow his true destiny, and that Tillie is evil.”
“Aunt Tillie is definitely evil.” Landon made a face as he shook his head. “I never met Calvin, although I’ve gotten a clear picture of him over the years.” Something about the far-off expression Landon adopted caused my stomach to flip. It was as if he was briefly visiting another time. I tried to invade his mind with my magic, nothing too deep, but I was dying to see his surface thoughts. I was rewarded with a brief glimpse of a wind monster with eyes. It moved past Tillie, Bay, Clove and Thistle, and toward what looked to be a threat. I wanted to look harder but the vision dissipated almost as fast as it appeared when Landon shook his head.
“You don’t have to worry about Calvin,” Landon said. “My understanding is that he loved his nieces. He also loved Aunt Tillie ... and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a spell.”
“What about his great-nieces?” Kade asked. “Did he love them?”
“He died before they were on the scene. They know enough about him to cherish his memory, though. They love him and will never forget what he did for their mothers. I’m pretty sure that’s enough.”
I nodded in agreement, even though my stomach was tied in knots. I waited to speak until we were on our way back to the fairgrounds and clear of potential eavesdroppers.
“You saw something,” Max noted as he walked with Luke behind Kade and me. “I felt it the moment you dove into his head. What did you see?”
“I don’t know.” That was the truth. “Four women holding hands. Landon and Terry standing to the side, watching in abject terror. Some sort of creature that looked to be made of wind with red eyes.”
Max arched an eyebrow, surprised. “I’ve never heard of a creature like that.”
“I think they made it.”
“Really?” Max’s voice was laced with intrigue. “I want to meet these witches. They sound delightful.”
I could think of a few other words for them.
WE SPENT THE REST OF THE day working. The circus was almost completely assembled by the time we’d finished. A few things remained, but overall the grounds looked good ... and it was nice to have that weight off our shoulders.
Kade, Luke and I made a trip to the grocery store in Gaylord. Even though we could eat for free in town, that didn’t seem feasible over the long haul, so we stocked up on everything we thought we’d need for the rest of the week. It seemed the safest bet.
Upon returning to the fairgrounds, we set about cooking steak and corn for dinner. Nellie and Dolph built a bonfire, and after eating and cleanup, we grouped around it for a necessary discussion.
“I don’t think the police are trying to pin this on us by any stretch of the imagination,” I offered, keeping my voice low. “Terry seems legitimately interested in finding out the truth. He didn’t stop by this afternoon like he intimated, but that doesn’t mean he won’t tomorrow.
“We have to be careful,” I stressed. “We need to make sure that we don’t give him cause to ask too many questions. We need to be really diligent about the animal tents. In fact, I think we should strengthen them with double wards ... just to be on the safe side. Tillie seems the type to go hunting through our personal business.”
“How can she get past the dreamcatcher?” Kade asked. “Won’t it alert if she crosses? She’s magical.”
“The dreamcatcher is meant to snag evil beings,” I replied. “Whether or not she would alert is up for debate.”
“I don’t understand.” He leaned back in his canvas chair and grabbed my hand to hold. “Margaret said she was evil in the diner. I didn’t realize that was up for debate.”
“No offense, but I don’t think dumping yellow snow at the end of someone’s driveway constitutes evil,” Luke argued. “It’s darn funny — especially because she seems dedicated to it and does it after every large snowfall — but it’s not evil. It’s more taunting than anything else.”
“Margaret seemed convinced she’d cursed that Calvin dude,” Kade persisted.
“Yeah, but Landon seemed equally convinced that Calvin actually loved Tillie. I tend to think Landon and Terry know the Winchesters better than Margaret.”
“You’ve been close to most of them now,” Raven interjected. “What do you think?”
I shrugged, noncommittal. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, don’t play that game.” Raven wasn’t about to back down when she sensed blood in the water. “You know something. What is it?”
Kade slid his eyes to me, curious. “Do you know something?”
“I don’t know anything.” I was firm. “I might have felt something when Tillie was here yest
erday,” I hedged. “I don’t know how to explain it. She’s ... powerful. There’s no doubt about that. I didn’t get a sense of evil from her, though. I think we’re fine as long as we don’t cross her.”
“You think we’re fine?” Kade was incredulous. “Does that mean you believe she could hurt us?”
“I don’t know what to believe.” I opted for honesty. “What I felt when we briefly connected was ... powerful. She knows what she’s doing. I didn’t sense evil there. Sure, it’s clear she likes to torture certain individuals — and I think Margaret is her favorite target — but what I saw in the memory I gleaned from Landon’s head is that she was standing with her great-nieces and protecting them. It was the man with the weapon who was threatening them.”
I involuntarily shuddered when I thought about the wind monster again. “I don’t think that’s a family you want to trifle with,” I added.
Kade gripped my hand tighter. “What do we know about them? If they’re dangerous, maybe we should leave.”
He was still getting used to the idea of magic, so that was often Kade’s go-to response. If he didn’t understand something he wanted to flee. He needed to learn that we only ran when ... well, in truth, we never ran. That might eventually be our downfall, but we were the sort of fighters who stood our ground.
“I don’t think they’re dangerous to us,” I argued, and the more I thought about it, the more I believed it. “You guys are overlooking something important here. I saw them going after a killer. I’m sure that’s what he was. It’s entirely possible they’re exactly like us.”
“Handsome and strong?” Luke asked.
I glared at him. “Out to rid the world of evil,” I replied without hesitation. “We’re not the only monster hunters out there. We’re not the first and we won’t be the last. It’s possible the Winchesters are hunting monsters in their own way.”
“That right there is a thought,” Max mused. He rarely joined us for bonfires, but he seemed keen on the idea this evening. “I’m going to place a few calls and see what I can find out. I’m curious what my colleagues have heard about these witches.”
“Well, while the rest of you were wandering around gossiping with the townsfolk, I asked several insightful questions of the people I ran across,” Raven noted. “I think I might have some information to add to this discussion that’s not conjecture.”
Her tone rankled, but we were short on information, so I merely nodded.
“First, they’re definitely real witches.” Raven sounded completely convinced. “A series of interesting incidents has happened around these women for decades, and things seem to be picking up in frequency.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because I invaded the mind of the woman at the bakery. Her name is Ginny Gunderson and she’s ... a fountain of information. Apparently she used to be good friends with Tillie, but they had a falling out years ago. This was after Ginny’s husband died. She thought Tillie did it, but that turned out to be wrong. That Little woman — the busybody — her husband did it because Margaret Little was sleeping with Floyd Gunderson. It’s a whole big thing.
“Anyway, the dude was such a jerk he turned into a poltergeist that was unearthed years later and attacked the Winchesters,” she continued, warming to her story. “The blonde witch fought him off and basically shredded what was left of his soul with the help of her great-aunt.”
“Bay,” I volunteered. “Her name is Bay.”
“Well, Bay — and that’s a stupid name — is growing pretty strong apparently,” Raven said. “Ginny doesn’t want to know some of the things she knows, but she witnessed Bay fighting some kid who was trying to kill people while playing a game, and she saw Bay send ghosts after the kid to kill him.”
I was dumbfounded. “What?”
“It’s true. I saw the memory in her head. Ginny saw the ghosts. They became visible at the last second and looked like angry flashes of light, but she knows what she saw. The killer was going after Bay with obvious intent, and she unleashed a pack of ghosts on him.”
I rubbed the back of my neck as I looked to Max. “What do you think that means?”
Max looked equal parts intrigued and confused. “I don’t know,” he said finally. “My understanding is that seeing and talking to ghosts is a family gift. If Bay has it that probably means others in the family do.”
“This sounds like a little more than ghost whispering,” I pointed out. “Lots of people can ghost whisper. Technically I can do it if pushed hard enough, although I hate it because I find ghosts creepy.”
“Yours is an ability you try to control, though,” Max pointed out. “Bay’s is an ability that seems to invade her senses. As for sending the ghosts after the killer, I’ve never heard of that. Perhaps the ghosts wanted to hurt him because he was their killer.”
Raven’s eyes sparked with interest. “I didn’t think of that, but it makes sense. Maybe the ghosts were grouped together like that because he killed them and they wanted revenge. Perhaps Bay simply asked them to intervene.”
It was an interesting hunch, but I wasn’t sure I believed it. Right now, though, that was the least of our worries. “I did a cursory search this afternoon,” I offered. “This area is thick with stories about paranormal beings. At one time it was inundated with shifters. They seem to have moved to the middle of the state, at least for the time being.”
“That could mean they ceded the land to the witches,” Max pointed out. “Perhaps these witches are even stronger than they imagine. It’s possible they ran entire clans off the land, which would be impressive.”
“That’s not the only creature rumored to live in this area,” I pointed out. “There’s also something called the Dogman. I guess it could be a shifter, but people here seem to think of it like Bigfoot.”
“I think we can take the Dogman,” Luke said dryly. “In fact, I volunteer to take on the Dogman if it becomes a thing. I could use a good slap fight to lift my mood since there are no eligible bachelors in this town.”
The look I shot him was withering. “Not everything is about you.”
“What isn’t about me is boring.”
“Yes, well ... .” I trailed off when a howl filled the air. I snapped my head to the east to scan the horizon. It was too dark to see anything but treetops, but that didn’t stop my heart from doing a somersault.
“What was that?” Kade asked, instantly alert. “Was that the Dogman?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?” Kade’s voice ratcheted up a notch. “I don’t like it when we can’t figure out what sort of monster is stalking us.”
Uh-oh. The nerves I thought laid to rest were about to raise their ugly head. “Hey, it’s going to be okay.” I rested my hand on his arm and searched his eyes. “We don’t know that whatever is out there even cares about us. This is a sparsely populated area. Sound carries.”
Kade looked momentarily placated. Then Raven opened her mouth and made things worse.
“I think it’s a wendigo,” Raven announced, causing my stomach to threaten a revolt. “It was a weird cry, but it sounded more like a wendigo than anything else.”
We’d taken on a wendigo in California during our last fight. It turned out to be a tortured soul controlled by humans, but Kade was barely back on his feet. Seeing a wendigo — a creature that eats human flesh to prolong its life — so soon after the fact, well, it wasn’t going to go over well.
“We don’t know it’s a wendigo,” I said calmly, shooting Raven a warning look. “It’s hard to make out the sound in this area because of the way things echo. Let’s not get worked up.”
“Who cares if it’s a wendigo?” Nellie asked. “We’ve taken them down before. We’ll take them down again. The last one was a real disappointment because it wasn’t even evil. I could use some good wendigo action after the disappointment of that last one.”
I wanted to pull his dress over his head and give him a goo
d punch in the gut. “We don’t know it’s a wendigo, Nellie,” I snapped. “Let it go.”
As if sensing my unease, Max glanced between Nellie and me — and then to Kade — before deciding to take control of the situation. “Whatever it is, it’s clearly not coming after us tonight. If it does, the dreamcatcher will alert. I suggest everyone go to bed and get a good night’s sleep. We’ll pick up this discussion in the morning.”
His tone was such that no one put up an argument. Even Kade, who stuck close to me as we walked back to our trailer, seemed resigned to sleep rather than argument. “You have more of that potion, right?” He looked desperate.
I nodded, concern rolling through me. “I do. Are you sure you don’t want to at least try sleeping without it?”
“Not tonight. I ... just ... not tonight.”
The fear rolling through him was palpable. I simply didn’t know if it was the possible wendigo that set him off or the idea that his magic would escape during the night and somehow wrap a sparkling fist around my throat. “I have it.” I linked my fingers with his and sent him an encouraging smile. “You’ll sleep like the dead ... again.”
“Good.” He looked relieved. “We need to make sure we lock the doors before bed. I plan to sleep hard.”
“We will. Everything is fine. There’s nothing to worry about.”
I said the words, but I didn’t believe them. Something was definitely going on here.
8
Eight
I didn’t immediately give Kade the potion. I wasn’t keen on the notion because it seemed he was more than ready to use it as a crutch of sorts. Instead I wanted to attempt to calm him through other means.
“Let’s go to bed,” I suggested as he double-checked the locks.
He nodded without hesitation. “Sure. Where is the potion?”
“I have it if you need it. I thought we might spend a little quality time together first.”
His lips spread into a slow smile as realization washed over him. “Oh, really? What kind of quality time are we talking?”
I snickered at his expression. “Come with me and I’ll show you.” I extended my hand as he switched off the lights and took it. He followed me without complaint.
Freaky Witches (A Mystic Caravan Mystery Book 7) Page 7
