Last Exit

by Catie Rhodes

  I focused on the rope coiled at the base of the tree. Pumping power into it, I said, “Come.”

  The rope slithered toward Pappy’s feet. He watched it come with the same stupid surprise he’d shown at my attempt to bind him.

  “Take him.” I gave the two words power. My voice trembled with it.

  The rope wrapped itself around the branch Pappy had been hanging from, the fibers whispering against each other. The noose slithered after Pappy. He tried to run. The rope lunged and crawled up his leg, traveling up his body too fast for my eyes to track. The noose slipped over his head. Pappy let out a howl that shook the earth beneath my feet.

  “Hang him,” I grated out.

  The rope whipped over a high branch and hoisted Pappy into the air. His legs pinwheeled and pedaled. He tried to saw at the rope, but only managed to stab himself in the neck. Blood ran down in a hot gout.

  I reached with my left hand. “The knife.”

  The knife flew from his fingers and into mine. I set it at the base of the tree where I’d found it.

  Pappy continued to kick and flail as his blood rained onto the earth. After what seemed forever, his movements slowed. His skin turned gray, then brown and shiny. Pieces of him flaked off and fell around my feet.

  Priscilla’s voice came from beside me. “Do you see now? Your magic just saved you. You won’t survive unless you accept your destiny.”

  Without answering, I turned and walked down the hill. Embarrassment beat at me with each step.

  13

  On the walk back to Freakazoid Ranch, I swung my arms and forced myself to hum. Priscilla had to be watching and listening. I’d show her this was a walk in the park for me. The humming and arm swinging got old and sounded stupid even to my own ears pretty fast. I shut up and thought back to Pappy hanging from that tree.

  His survival baffled me. Was it an animation spell? An immortality bargain like the one Oscar had taken? Aside from going back to ask Pappy, there was no way to find out. Unless I asked one of my new friends at Freakazoid Ranch.

  Little chance of that. Those people—or whatever they were—had no limits. Their disgusting behavior made me wonder what Pappy had done to end up hanged and exiled from the rest of the family.

  My family had rules. No crybabies topped the list. What you saw in Sanctuary stayed there. No calling authorities into our business. Unflinching loyalty.

  Kenny, dead now in an act of sacrifice for Sanctuary, had acted as a traitor. Cecil probably would have killed him. But he’d left the choice to me. I had robbed Kenny of his status within the community, assigning him the lowliest jobs, but let him live. He had repaid me with his life. At the end, he’d been one of us.

  Did the members of Freakazoid Ranch protect each other by hanging Pappy on top of that hill? My instincts said yes. They must have had a sad life with him among them, even sadder than what they had now.

  Nearing the small grouping of houses, I slowed my pace. Thick Woman and Pink Bra stood at the mouth of the trail. Just great. I couldn’t fight them again. Dealing with Pappy had drained me both magically and physically. Tubby and Hannah would help me fight. Linus would too. But could we beat them without magic? I just couldn’t imagine moving any more energy right then. Every inch of my body hurt. Even my hair follicles ached.

  “You chicken out?” Thick Woman flashed her rows of teeth.

  I held out my hand to show them where Pappy had pricked the finger. The black rot had faded, but the wound was red and throbbed with each beat of my heart.

  “Nuh-uh.” Pink Bra crowded close, giving me a sour whiff of body odor.

  “She’s lying. She did that herself.” Thick Woman leaned close. Her hair gave off a stale, unwashed smell.

  Anger flashed in my brain. I formulated a retort but stopped short of saying it. Why bother with these two?

  I brushed past them, yelling, “Hannah!”

  Hannah hurried toward me, already reaching into her belt for her gun.

  “It’s fine.” Getting shot sounded like the least fun way to end this day.

  For one thing, I didn’t want another up close and personal encounter with Wade Hill. Desiree might not let me live through it.

  Linus hurried to me. “Thank goodness. I’m sorry I didn’t warn you. After everything…”

  He had known what waited for me on that hill and didn’t bother to give me any kind of heads-up? I simmered more anger but refused to act on it.

  “What is that thing?” I kept my voice low and even, but Linus’s eyes widened all the same. Some of the color drained out of his face.

  “Pappy is a half-god.” He came a little closer and dropped his voice to a whisper. “The child of a human and one of the Old Ones.”

  A half-god. More specifically, an insane half-god. Priscilla had told me most weren’t viable mentally or physically. She’d also said I’d have the power of a half-god if I took on the mantle. Would I be like Pappy?

  Another memory came. “I thought half-gods could be killed.”

  “Sure. But they don’t want him dead.” Some of Linus’s color returned. The role of scholar must’ve been a comfortable one for him. “They keep Pappy alive because he knows things, and they deal in knowledge.”

  I asked my last question. “Why did they hang him?”

  Linus dropped his voice to a near whisper. “The children hanged Pappy for raping his daughters and killing the offspring.”

  A wave of cold washed over me. All of a sudden, I wanted more than anything to get out of this place and never see these people again. I glanced back toward the houses to see the whole crew—Pink Bra, Thick Woman, Swarthy, and Ginger Chest Hair watching us. Yes. We needed to go. We could figure out where the cemetery with the German writing on the gate was after we got elsewhere.

  “Let’s get out of here.” I turned toward Tubby’s trashed Cutlass.

  Linus stopped me with one hand on my arm. “Were you at least able to find out where Oscar hid his soul?”

  I told him what I’d seen.

  He listened, frowning. “So the bit about Oscar being an orphan was true. And I know that place. Damn it. I wish I hadn’t gotten so old. It’s right on the tip of my tongue.”

  By this time, Hannah and Tubby had joined us. He watched Linus think for several seconds before he spoke.

  “What’s special about it? Maybe that’ll help you remember.” Tubby lit cigarettes for himself, Hannah, and me. I noticed his fingers touched her lips. And she smiled at him.

  “Oh, I know exactly what’s special about it.” Linus’s voice rose in irritation. “I used the place in one of my books. A witch is buried there. People visit the grave to petition her protection.”

  That was the grave Oscar had visited and cried over. The witch must’ve been someone special to him.

  Linus paced around, lips moving. Finally he raised his head. The look on his face dashed my hopes.

  “It’s in my notes back at the house. Follow me back there. Spend the night even.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket, smiling.

  Hannah and I exchanged a glance. I didn’t want to go back to Linus’s house. Though he’d no doubt prove an excellent host, I wanted the comfort of my family. They equaled safety and home. Especially when I was hurting.

  Linus’s smile faded.

  “It's not that we don’t appreciate the offer, but I got hurt last night and don’t feel so good.” I took a couple of steps toward Linus and pushed aside my clothes to show him my wound.

  “This asshole stabbed her with a sword,” Tubby said. “She like to have died.”

  “Who healed you?” Linus’s eyes went bright with interest.

  “Can’t say. He’d be angry.” I took a step back from his avid interest.

  He recoiled from my refusal with a quick nod. “Very well. I’ll call you once I get home and look through my notes.”

  It didn’t take genius level intelligence to know he’d conveniently forget since I wasn’t willing to tell him Wade’s name. I’d refused to p
lay ball regarding Black Silas and was refusing again with Wade. I seemed like nothing but a well of need to Linus. The truth smarted, but I took it in stride. You can’t have everything.

  “Thank you for helping me today.” I stuck out my hand.

  Linus gave it an unenthusiastic shake. “Of course. Anytime.”

  He didn’t mean it, and that was okay. I strongly suspected I could reopen communications by offering something else that interested him. For now, I needed to find out the name of that cemetery. I knew two people who dealt in that kind of thing. Mysti and Griff.

  Linus walked to his car. I led the way to Tubby’s Cutlass and tried to get into the front seat.

  Hannah blocked my way. “Shotgun.”

  “You’re kidding,” I whined but climbed into the back seat without further protest.

  Hannah took the front seat without answering and started fiddling with the radio as soon as Tubby cranked the engine. The two of them exchanged a smile. Tubby followed Linus back to the main road but didn’t turn back toward Austin.

  “We headed to where Cecil and the others are?” Tubby had to yell to be heard over the radio.

  I took out my phone. “Let me call Mysti.”

  Mysti answered on the first ring and began babbling. “Where are you? Tubman said you’re okay, but you know how he lies. If you don’t tell me where you are right now, I’m going to hex you. No, I don’t mean that. But where are you?”

  I told Mysti about the people we’d just met and what they’d showed me. “Linus said the graveyard is well-known because a witch is buried there. The area around her grave is supposed to offer protection.”

  I fell quiet, praying to whatever ruled the universe that Mysti had heard of this place. If she hadn’t, I was going to have to kiss Linus’s ass. Maybe even give up Wade’s name to get what I wanted. I still wasn’t willing to put Linus in the path of Black Silas.

  But Mysti didn’t let me down. “I do know that place. Well, Griffin does. Hold on.” Mysti patched Griff into the call, words running together as she explained what we needed.

  Griff was silent for several long moments. Long enough for fear to take root and bloom next to my heart.

  Finally, he spoke. “Just a minute. I’m seeing if I have the location recorded on my phone. Otherwise, it’s going to be an expedition.” A few seconds later, he said, “Shit. But I remember the road. Is Tubman chauffeuring you and Hannah?”

  “He is,” I said.

  “Give him the phone.” Griff had switched from concerned friend back to boss.

  Without thinking much about it, I handed Tubby my phone. He and Griff had a short discussion. He handed my phone back to me and started driving.

  I scrolled through my phone to Tanner’s contact info and dialed him again. I got the same message I had when I was dying. The number had been disconnected.

  It made sense. Tanner had first joined Sanctuary dead broke. We got together, and I’d wanted him to have nice things. I’d paid for his phone service. But Tanner’s pride wouldn’t let him continue to use a phone paid for by a woman he was no longer in a relationship with.

  That told me a lot about what to expect from him in the future. I leaned back against the seat, tears burning my eyes. Tubby reached out to change the radio station. Hannah slapped his hand away. He pulled her hair. They were flirting. The realization opened a pit of the deepest sadness and loneliness in my heart. I couldn’t even send them a mental well-wish.

  After long enough for me to want to crack their heads together, Tubby turned off the little two-lane highway onto a cracked one-lane asphalt road. I peered out the windows at the landscape, willing myself to recognize something from my vision. But the overgrown trees and roadways mostly looked the same.

  The asphalt road ended, and we crept along a dirt road. I didn’t recognize any of this. My gut clenched at the possibility we were going to the wrong place. Then a little clump of weathered buildings came into view. My heart jumped.

  “This is it,” I muttered.

  Hannah turned back to me, flushed and grinning.

  I pushed down my misery at having lost Tanner and smiled back. She likely wouldn’t find lasting happiness with Tubby, but at least he didn’t have a wife stashed out of state. He might kill people in front of her, but he would never hit or abuse her. He might not be able to love her, but he’d treat her well.

  The sign with the German words on it came into view. In daylight, I could see it stood over a brick entrance to a gated cemetery. Griff and Mysti’s SUV was parked on the side of the road, which I could see ended a few feet beyond the cemetery. Griff slid out of the driver’s side and waved unnecessarily.

  Tubby parked nose to nose with the SUV and shut off the Cutlass. He started to say something, but then cut it off. “Holy hell.”

  Mysti, colorful clothes flying, ran toward the Cutlass, her face pinched in determination.

  “Better let me out,” I said. “Otherwise, she might tear the car apart.”

  Hannah leapt out of the car and pushed forward the back seat just as Mysti reached it. I began the painful process of pulling myself out. Mysti, with more strength than I’d given her credit for, yanked me from the car. She threw her arms around me and squeezed until I yelped.

  She startled and let go of me, gaze running over my unstained clothes. “Wade healed you.”

  I nodded. The rest of it didn’t deserve a mention. Wade’s and my tryst had hurt my heart. I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.

  Her eyes, not as dark brown as mine but with a little more honey in them, flicked over my face. Her lips pursed. She knew something wasn’t quite right with me.

  “May I see?” She gestured at my midsection to let me know what she meant.

  I pulled away my shirt and lowered my jeans. This was getting to be a habit. Maybe I should pursue a career in exotic dance if the witch thing went south. Griff hurried over. The three of us examined the still livid, though fading, mark together.

  “Not bad,” Griff whispered.

  Mysti frowned. “What’s the shiny stuff smeared on it?”

  “An ointment Desiree had. She said it’s poisonous to ingest.” I took the tub out of my pocket and showed it to Mysti.

  She took it from me, unscrewed the lid, and sniffed. She made a face and raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know what that is.”

  “Me either.” I held out my hand for the ointment.

  After a second’s hesitation, Mysti handed it over. She’d have probably kept and studied it had I not demanded it back. Not for the first time, I wondered at the shift of power between us.

  Mysti had started out as my teacher. She still advised me when I needed it. But she now treated me more as a contemporary. Someone who performed just as effective magic as she could.

  “Daylight’s fading. Shall we?” She gestured at the cemetery, eyes crinkling in a smile.

  We walked below the arched gate into the quiet world of the cemetery. Mysti took my arm and hurried my step away from our friends. She hustled me a short distance away, stopped walking, and faced me.

  “I can tell something’s wrong. Spill it.” Her sharp, probing gaze clashed with her wrinkled peasant blouse and tiered, ankle-length skirt.

  I didn’t want to tell her. I’d made a mistake. But she’d asked because she cared. I motioned her closer.

  “I slept with Wade,” I whispered.

  She drew back and stared into my face. Her lips turned down. “And you finally saw him. Really saw him. I’m so sorry.”

  The pain of what I’d done throbbed to life.

  Mysti pulled me close and spoke into my ear, her breath hot on my face. “Life is full of lessons. The only shame is when you don’t learn from them.”

  “But Tanner…” I choked off the words.

  “Tanner left. Your world didn’t stop the second he walked out the door.” She held me tight. “If he can’t accept that, he’s not worth a second’s worry.”

  The others caught up. Mysti and I let go of eac
h other.

  Hannah pointed. “Is that the obelisk?”

  I swallowed a big gulp of dread and nodded. We trudged through the huge, old oaks standing guard over the graves. The monument seemed bigger with every foot of ground we covered. Waves of energy emanated from the huge stone. They found my energy and tapped at it, testing it. Yes, the person buried here had power even in death.

  “This damn place is creepy,” Tubby whined behind me.

  “It’s warning you not to play with things you can’t handle.” Mysti ducked under a low hanging branch as thick as her body.

  “As you can see, most people ignore it.” I gestured at the prayer candles crowding the base of the obelisk and leaned in to see the name. It was blank. I drew back, confused.

  “Other side. It faces west,” Griff called.

  We had to walk around the obelisk to read the inscription.

  Herta Schüler

  Born in Hamburg 1800

  Died in Texas 1898

  She was the right age to have been a foster mother to Oscar Rivera.

  In addition to the candles, visitors had drawn upside-down crosses, pentagrams, and some Xs on the smooth, gray stone. Dead flowers of all kinds littered the ground.

  Where could Oscar have buried his soul? In the vision, I saw him take it out of his cloak and saw it glint in the moonlight, but I’d gotten pulled out of the vision before he did anything with it.

  Griff held out a spade. “I guess we just start digging?”

  Tubby crowded in, grabbing for the tool. His blue eyes shifted around the enclosed space, and chill bumps made the blond hair on his arms stand at attention.

  “Come on,” he muttered. “Let’s get this over with and get the hell out of here.”

  I elbowed him away. “Wait a minute. Oscar’s going to know the second we have his soul. He’s going to come for us. We’ve got to have a plan, or this is a waste of time and energy.”

  “Good point.” Griff moved the spade out of Tubby’s reach.

  Tubby frowned at me. “What’s the plan then, boss lady?”