Circus of the Dead: Book 2

by Kimberly Loth

  She grips her eye shadow but sets it down with a sigh.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  “It’s just... You look like you could be going anywhere and not on a hot date.”

  “I like the way I look.”

  She rolls her eyes. “I know. Geesh. Benny made me promise I wouldn’t make you look like a lady of the night.”

  “A what?”

  “I don’t know. A prostitute or something. But he just doesn’t get it.”

  I giggle. “Well, I’m sure I don’t get it either. Thank you for restraining yourself.”

  “Whatever, you and Benny are made for each other.”

  Of course, we are. I’ve known that for a while now. I just couldn’t admit it to myself.

  A light knock comes on the door. Juliette flings it open, and Benny stands there, his hands in his pockets. He always looks handsome. I let out a breath of relief that he’s still here. I don’t want to have to think about a lifetime of full moons where I worry that he’s going to move on.

  “Is she ready?” he asks.

  I step into view, and he sucks in a breath. “You look gorgeous.”

  “Thank you.”

  I want to reach for him, but my stomach flutters, and he reaches for me first. I melt into his arms. I wish he’d just kiss me already so I don’t have to be nervous about it.

  Juliette slips out the door.

  “Sit, I have a surprise for you,” he says.

  Surprises in this place are generally never a good thing, but I’m hoping Benny at least knows what a good surprise is.

  He goes back onto the porch and returns with a basket and a large box. He hands me the heavy box. “You go ahead and get this all set up, and I’ll get dinner out.”

  “What’s in here?”

  He wiggles his eyebrows. “The surprise.”

  I tear open the box and give a squeal of delight. “Where did you find this?”

  “One of the islanders had it, and I borrowed it for the night.”

  Inside the box sits a bulky old TV, probably only thirteen inches. Underneath it is a VCR player and a handful of videos.

  I plug the TV in and hook up the VCR. The videos are all old movies I’ve never heard of. I pick one that looks romantic-ish and pop it in.

  Benny and I eat and chat, and then we cuddle during the movie. I almost forget that if I step out of my door, I’ll be killed.

  The movie ends, and Benny reaches around me and plucks up one of my books. “You’ve been doing an awful lot of reading.”

  I don’t want to think about the Obeah man while he’s here.

  “That’s because I’m bored. You aren’t here entertaining me.”

  He chuckles. “That’s a lie. You’re looking for something. And you haven’t told anyone. Usually, you talk to people when you’re up to something, but you’ve been strangely quiet on all this. I’ve been studying your book selections, and I can’t figure out what it is. Something with dark magic.”

  I chew on my lip. I don’t want him to know what I’m doing, but I’m having trouble finding the answers I’m looking for. Benny won’t tell anyone, but he might try to stop me. Yet, if I don’t give him something, he’ll be no fun until I tell him what’s going on.

  “How did Samuel become an Obeah man?”

  “That was before my time, but anyone who uses dark magic is an Obeah man or woman. Voodoo priests and priestesses use light magic. That’s the only difference.”

  Woman? That’s new. I sit up.

  “I use dark magic. Lorena said that if I conjure fire, that’s technically considered dark magic.”

  “Yeah,” he says as if it’s obvious.

  “You mean I’m already an Obeah woman?”

  He looks at me like I’m dumb or something. “Yeah. I thought you knew that.”

  “No. I didn’t know that.” I swallow, and my insides buzz with excitement.

  “Apparently, Lorena left that out of your education. But just being an Obeah doesn’t mean you’re powerful. Samuel’s power comes from the one hundred seventeen souls he has trapped here.”

  I remember something I read out of one of my books. It’s possible to steal another Obeah’s souls.

  For the first time since I came to the island, I can’t wait for Benny to leave. This new revelation is what I’ve been searching for. I move away from him.

  “What’s wrong?” he asks.

  I shake my head. “Nothing. I’m just thinking about how our time together is too short.”

  My mind is racing. This will have to be done in absolute secrecy. No one will agree to help me, including Benny. There are probably a lot of unintended consequences, but I don’t care.

  I’m going to take over the island.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  As soon as Benny disappears, I dig under my bed to get a book and flip the pages to the very end, looking for the spell that I remember reading. I skip the chapter on how to create a ghost army and go straight for the one on how to steal one.

  Step one: Trap yourself in a circle

  Step two: Place an alligator liver in the center of the circle and a shrunken head of an Obeah man on top of it and light the head on fire with magic.

  Step three: When the eyes of the shrunken head burn white, place a voodoo doll of the Obeah you intend to steal from in the flames.

  Step four: When the smoke turns purple, get as close to the flames as you dare and inhale the smoke through your mouth. If done correctly, the smoke will willingly enter your body. Once the voodoo doll is ash, the spell is complete.

  The spell is absurdly simple. I still have all the ingredients to trap a soul, and I just need to find a shrunken head of an Obeah and the liver of an alligator. I’m pretty sure Lorena has both because she has all kinds of freaky ingredients. I know because once when I was looking for sage, I opened a cupboard with all sorts of dark stuff. Lorena quickly shut it and said she keeps that stuff for emergencies only.

  If she doesn’t have them, she’ll know where I can find them. I still have the monkey blood I didn’t use on Elias, so that’s good since if I ask for that, she won’t give it to me because that’s only used on voodoo dolls.

  I wait until Lorena brings me lunch. I’m nearly bursting at the seams.

  “I’ve been practicing magic, and I need some spell ingredients,” I say.

  “What are you working on?”

  “Um.” I didn’t think she’d ask questions, which is dumb. Of course she’d ask questions. Maybe she won’t know what I need them for. She doesn’t deal with the dark magic anyway. And she won’t go asking Samuel about it. The only time I see them interacting at all, they are arguing.

  I give a big smile. “Surprise?”

  “Uh, uh. What are you doing?” She crosses her arms, keeping her ice blue eyes staring into mine.

  I act demure. “Come on, can’t I just play without explaining myself? It’s kind of embarrassing.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Fine. What do you need?”

  “Liver of an alligator and a shrunken head of an Obeah man.”

  She narrows her gaze at me. “Those are only used in super dark spells.”

  I swallow but straighten my shoulders. Confidence is best here. “So?”

  “So, what are you up to?”

  “Nothing,” I squeak. So much for being confident.

  “Sure you are. This is about Benny, isn’t it?” Her eyes sparkle. She just thinks I’m in love with Benny. Which I am, but that’s beside the point. She’s not suspicious in the least.

  I let out a breath. I can run with this. “Yes. I’m still trying to figure out how to take Samuel out, but first I need to make sure Benny will be okay. I’ll just tie him to me instead.”

  She cackles. “Oh, lord, Samuel’s going to have a fit. I hope you succeed.”

  “Thanks. Can I have them then?” I let out a breath of relief that she doesn’t ask any more questions.

  “Sorry, love. I don’t have the shrunken head of an Obeah man.
You can have the alligator liver, though. I’ll bring it by tonight.”

  “Do you know where I can find the head?”

  “Where did the ones go from your boat? Shelley had a ton.”

  Wait? Those were Obeah? Geesh, I’ve changed a lot since then. When I first arrived, I didn’t even think the heads were real, let alone shrunken heads of voodoo priests. I didn’t believe in magic.

  I point out the window. “Into the swamp.”

  “The only other person who had them is Samuel.”

  I roll my eyes. “Of course.”

  I collapse onto my couch. I have no idea how I’ll get that from him. He knows I’m up to something, and he’s not about to let me get away with taking spell ingredients. Surely the shrunken head of an Obeah man is only used in spells like the one I want to cast. Not only that, I somehow have to get blood and hair from him for the voodoo doll. Between those three things, he’ll know, and I’ll never get the spell done.

  Lorena sits in the chair next to me. “You’ve managed to get everything you ever wanted from him before. Surely you’ll figure this out as well.”

  I’m not nearly as certain.

  “Crap. I need sage.”

  I sit on my porch, studying the spell to make a voodoo doll.

  I scribble sage down along with a handful of other ingredients. A raven settles in my lap with something in his beak. He cocks his head at me and drops it.

  I pick it up and sniff. Sage.

  Holy flip. This is new. None of the birds ever brought me anything before.

  “Can you understand me?” I ask.

  The bird cocks his head again. I look around at the rest of them. “Can you all understand me?”

  Almost at once, each of their heads turn to look at me. I sink back, unsure what to make of this. The possibilities are endless. If I wasn’t trying to stop a murderous freak, I could have so much fun with this.

  I think back. The ingredients on my porch. The birds must have brought them. Plus, Samuel had once said that if I needed anything to send a bird. I can’t believe I haven’t tried to use them before.

  I rattle off the list, and a half dozen birds fly off. I have to be careful with this. I don’t know where they are getting things from, but if they can get me everything I need, then I’ll have the spell in the bag.

  I need to figure out how much they understand, though, because it’s not like they can just attack Samuel and get his blood and hair. They have to make it look like an accident or like he provoked them.

  The raven who brought me the sage stands in front of me. “Turn in a circle,” I say.

  I swear he rolls his eyes, but he does it, his little feet spinning around.

  “Ha.”

  I need to try something more complicated. “Go get me a lock of Luke’s hair.”

  The bird flies away just as the others are coming back, beaks full. Each one of them has exactly what I want.

  This is incredible but also scary, and I need to keep this on the down low long enough for me to cast the spell on Samuel. Then, if people know, it won’t matter. It’s like I have my own private delivery service.

  I take the ingredients from them and sit back and chew on my lip. All I have to do is tell them what I need, and they’ll get it.

  “Callie, what the hell is the meaning of this?” Luke bursts through the door, holding a squawking crow.

  I jerk my head up. Oh crap.

  My face colors. “What do you mean?”

  “This bird just attacked me and pulled out my hair.”

  “What makes you think I had anything to do with it?”

  He glares at me and lets go of the bird, but instead of flying away, it goes after Luke’s hair, pulls it out, and flies over to me, dropping the hair in my hand.

  I let out a breath. “Sorry. I just figured out that the birds listen to me, and I wanted to see what they could do.” Luke will keep my secret, but I can’t afford to let anyone else figure it out.

  “You just thought you’d see if they would pull out my hair?” His voice rises a few notches.

  I cringe. “Yeah. I didn’t know the limits of what they can do.”

  I expect him to stay and lecture me, but instead he storms away. I swallow hard. I can order the birds to get me the things I need, but if I just send them to get Samuel’s hair and blood, he’ll know. I have to be sneakier about this.

  I run after Luke. “Wait.”

  He spins around. “What?”

  “Can you not tell anyone what I can do?”

  “Why?”

  “I just don’t want this getting out. It’s one of the only advantages I have over Samuel.”

  He lets out a breath. “Okay. But you’ll have to be more careful. The second one of them tries to pull his hair out, he’ll know.”

  “I know. Thank you.”

  The next step is to figure out how I can get my birds to attack Samuel without him realizing anything. I have to teach my birds to wait for a signal and provoke him. If I can get him to attack me, it will just look like they are protecting me, and everyone already knows they do that.

  Oh, this isn’t going to be pretty.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  I wear my shortest shorts and a tank that scoops way too low. The birds and I had a long talk last night. Well, I talked a lot. They just listened, and I hope like hell they understand.

  If they do, by the end of the day, I’ll have all the ingredients I need to steal the ghosts from Samuel. I wonder if Benny realizes what I’m up to. He knows the ingredients I’m going for because he’s seen me talking to the birds, but he’s not a witch, so he might not know what they do.

  I hope he will at least make sure I don’t get into trouble. Oh, who am I kidding? I’m definitely going to get into trouble.

  I sent a bird for Samuel, and now all I have to do is wait.

  I hesitate a moment before answering his knock. It’s do or die time. I tug my shirt down a little, pull open the door, and slip outside because I need this to be out in the open. I drop my eyelashes a little and lick my lips. Samuel’s eyes widen, but he recovers quickly. I have to play this right. I can’t just throw myself at him, or he’ll be suspicious. He might already be.

  “You want to go for a walk?” I ask.

  He narrows his eyes. “Why?”

  “I just want to talk to you, and I can’t be out on my own right now. No one will attack me with you around.”

  “You’re up to something, but I’ll bite. Sure.”

  I let out a breath. Step one is a success. The raven who will steal an Obeah shrunken head takes off.

  “Your birds still freak me out,” he says, looking up at all the birds hanging out in the trees.

  I give him a look. “I can’t believe they scare you. Nothing scares you.”

  He chuckles. “That’s not true.”

  “Name one thing that scares you.”

  “You do.” His voice drops low.

  I’m a little taken aback. “I don’t understand.”

  “You are the first person who came to the island and challenged me. You’re tenacious as hell, and I never know what you have up your sleeve. Even right now, I know you’re planning something.”

  I take a deep breath. Show time. I stop and face him. “Thank you. That means a lot to me. I’m glad you’ve come to realize that someday I’ll best you.”

  He scowls but brings his hand up to my face. “I still want you to be mine.”

  “I know.” I close the distance between us, but I don’t touch him. He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me tight against him. I don’t fight, not yet.

  “What changed your mind?” he purrs in my ear.

  “I haven’t,” I say. “I’m still Benny’s girl. He’s twice the man you are.”

  He growls and clenches my side. “Your body says something very different.” He drops his lips to my neck. I’ve won.

  I struggle against him. Just a little.

  “Let me go,” I say.

  H
e holds tighter. “Oh, no, love, you can’t tease me like that and get away with it.”

  I look up into the trees and nod, and the birds descend in a mass. It only takes the first bird landing on his head for him to let go in a hurry. They peck away at his skin and pull at his hair.

  “Call them off!” he yells.

  “No way in hell. You didn’t listen to me when I said no, so why would I listen to you now?”

  I turn around and saunter away. Once I’m sure he can’t see me, I rush back to my boat. I leave the window open and pull out the voodoo doll I created. After a few moments, birds fly through the open window. A few drop the hairs on the table, and others rub their bloody beaks all over the doll. Thankfully, we didn’t need that much blood.

  I pull out a small bag of grapes and make sure they all get one. “Thank you. You all did awesome.”

  They take their treats and fly away, but I’m waiting for one bird. Time crawls past. If he isn’t successful, then this was pointless. I could have fun with the voodoo doll for sure, but I won’t be able to beat Samuel.

  I pace in my boat, but the raven still doesn’t show up.

  I go outside and watch the skies, but it’s grown dark.

  I bounce on my feet. Where is he? I hope Samuel didn’t catch him.

  A clatter sounds on the roof, and I spin. There, the raven perches, shrunken head in his beak.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Before the sun sets on the new moon, I find a secluded place in the woods. I need a spot where I can have an open flame, so my boat is a bad idea. It’s the one time I don’t have to worry about the islanders. They are too busy getting ready for the circus. Samuel’s basically ignored me after the birds attacked him, which is fine by me. It means he’s not suspicious about anything.

  The spell won’t be complete until both the shrunken head, and voodoo doll are turned completely to ash, so it will take some time. I hope against hope I’m not interrupted. The book doesn’t say if the person who the ghosts are being stolen from can feel anything.