“I’d think twice before continuing with whatever you’re doing,” Helena said.
Not quite the entrance I was hoping for. “I know who you are and what you’re up to.” Sort of. “Leave Clara out of this.”
“Quick, finish the ritual,” a man barked.
“Don’t move,” I demanded.
Cloaks rustled and the next thing I knew, Clara cried out as a gash formed on her arm. Blood streamed down her skin and seeped into the lines of the floor—inside the circle. I swore loudly.
“There’s no need for language like that, young lady,” a woman said. This time, I recognized the voice of Yolanda Lloyd. “The Puritan Club has standards, you know.”
“Good thing I’m not a member,” I said.
The floor trembled. Whatever they were summoning, the blood seemed to have done the trick.
I rushed forward and yanked Clara out of the circle before pulling down her gag. “You need to get out of here. Now.”
“Do you want me to call Neville?” she asked, her eyes round as a cloud of black dust began to swirl inside the circle.
“No, I can handle this.” I motioned to Helena. “Untie her so she can go.”
I faced the circle as Clara fled the basement to safety. “I’m going to strongly recommend that you adjourn your meeting now.”
Hoods came down, revealing their identities, not that I was in any doubt.
Oliver Sewall cast an aggrieved glance in my direction. “You can’t be serious. I haven’t had my wish granted yet.”
“And I haven’t put in all this work only to walk away at the last minute,” Patrick Smallwood agreed.
I blew air from my nostrils, my mouth closed in irritation. “What have you summoned? A djinni?”
They ignored me, turning back to watch the cloud of dust solidify into a muscular figure with curved horns and orange glowing eyes. The demon looked like he’d been carved from a lump of coal. In fact…
Helena nudged me. “Hey, he reminds me of the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings.”
Presumably this group had been having a monthly rendezvous with this demon and weren’t bothered by his terrifying appearance. He was smaller than the Balrog, so that was a plus for me. The main issue right now was identification so that I knew how to kill it.
“Do you know what it is?” I whispered to my cousin.
“Not a clue, but I’m digging those horns. Hey, they’d look good on your wall.”
The Puritan Club members joined hands and began chanting again. Orange light streamed from the Balrog to each of their faces. The chanting halted as their mouths and eyes opened wide and their bodies went rigid.
“Humans are so stupid,” Helena muttered. “You should just let them suffer.”
“Kind of goes against my job description.”
The creature was sucking out each member’s essence little by little. That was the price they paid for their wishes. Ten bucks said they had no idea this was happening every month. They probably thought the ritual itself was enough to have their wishes granted.
“Aren’t you going to kill it?” Helena asked.
“I need to know what it is first.” The last thing I needed was to stab it in the heart and find out it multiplied.
I held up my phone and snapped a photo of the demon, uploading it straight to Neville’s app.
Helena grunted. “You’re taking pictures? Do you post them on Facebook or something?”
I groaned at the results. “Too blurry?”
“Try portrait mode,” Helena said.
I took another photo, following her suggestion. I uploaded it and watched impatiently for the results.
“Ooh, it is some type of djinni.” Unfortunately for the Puritan Club, it wasn’t the kindly version from Aladdin that owed wishes to whomever rubbed its lamp. This kind would eventually kill them after enough ‘meetings,’ reducing them to mere husks, just as I suspected. According to the app, beheading the demon was the only surefire way to kill it and get their life forces restored.
“What am I supposed to use—a butter knife?” I mumbled. I tucked my phone into my purse as the demon continued to draw power from his victims’ life forces. I had to stop the demon before it drained them dry. At least if I could distract the djinni and break the connection, it would buy me time. “Helena, you’re up.”
My cousin perked up. “What do you want me to do?”
“Use your mojo on the demon to break the connection. Can you make it hallucinate?”
She smiled broadly. “Can a fox trot?”
I frowned at her. “That sounds like a dad joke.”
“Yeah, it does. Sorry.” She stepped forward, her focus on the demon and her hands undulating.
As the demon fell under her spell, the orange light dissipated. The members of the circle seemed to snap out of their trances at the same time. They blinked at each other, unsure what just happened.
“Fly, you fools,” I said. I knew their identities. I’d save their lives now and deal with their behavior later.
“Come on,” Helena yelled. “Everybody out. Now!”
Yolanda seemed torn between following orders and her monthly facelift. Grier nudged the older woman away from the circle. Once the basement was clear of Helena and the Puritans, the demon seemed to return to the current reality. It snarled at me with blazing orange eyes.
My gaze swept the basement and landed on a tri-colored ceremonial shield that adorned the wall. “That’ll do.”
I ran to the wall and ripped the shield from its place beside the Union Jack flag. I hefted the shield in my hands. The metal was light and thin, exactly what I wanted. I wrapped an arm around the edge and launched the shield like a Frisbee and watched it slice through the circle and right through the demon’s neck. Its head tilted forward at an unnatural angle and its body caved in on itself before the entire entity disappeared in a cloud of black dust.
I waited for another minute to make certain that the demon was truly gone. Then I trudged upstairs to find Helena outside and Patrick Smallwood still inside, waiting for me on the crushed velvet settee.
“Agent Fury,” he said.
“Mr. Smallwood.” I stopped walking when I reached the settee and folded my arms. “You’ll be pleased to know that I’ve restored what the demon stole from you.”
“It didn’t steal anything,” Patrick said. “We gave willingly.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Do you know what the bargain was? What you were exchanging for your embarrassment of riches?”
His eyes dragged over me. “I thought you were in the cyber crimes division of the FBI.”
“Does it matter?”
He ruffled his thinning hair. “I suppose not. Listen, we had no intention of harming the Riley girl.”
“You don’t consider it harmful to bind and gag people and cut them against their will?” I clucked my tongue. “Mr. Smallwood, such an upstanding member of the community. You disappoint me.”
“We only meant to draw blood for the ritual, nothing more.”
“Whose blood do you normally use to summon your ugly friend?”
He averted his gaze. “It depends. We tend to take turns. Fresh and young yields the best results, though we rarely have that to offer. We saw the reporter as a gift horse.”
“And what did you think would happen? You’d frighten her into silence? Clara’s made of sturdier stuff than that.”
He ran a hand along the settee cushion. “Hadn’t really gotten that far. We saw an opportunity and we seized it, much like our ancestors.”
“There’ll be no more opportunities, Mr. Smallwood. The demon’s dead.”
He sat in stunned silence for a moment. “I see,” he finally said.
“I’d advise you not to summon another one, I don’t care how wrinkled your skin becomes. There’s Botox for that.”
He wore a vague smile. “That’s Joan and Yolanda’s wish, not mine.”
“Do you know where the demon came from?”
“Acco
rding to the book, another dimension.”
“That’s right. A place called Otherworld. Trust me, you don’t want to be opening windows there. You never know what else might climb through. Plenty of hitchhiker demons. You’re not the only ones willing to seize an opportunity, you see.”
He met my gaze. “You seem to know a lot about it.”
“Between you and me, I’m authorized to make your life miserable, but I’d rather not.”
“That’s kind of you.”
“It isn’t kindness, Mr. Smallwood. It’s preservation. Most people in this town don’t know anything about the supernatural world and I’d like to keep it that way. You can understand that, can’t you?”
He nodded. “Some of our ancestors knew. That’s how we made the discovery.”
“So the Puritan Club hasn’t been performing rituals for generations?”
“Not that I know of. Oliver Sewall found the book in his family’s attic, along with other oddities.” He draped a casual arm along the back of the settee. Smallwood was the kind of man who exuded confidence even under the current circumstances, a man of privilege accustomed to sitting at the top of the social and financial pyramid without fear of consequences for his actions, however ill-advised. I knew far too many men like him—one of many reasons that Sawyer Fox was a breath of fresh air in Chipping Cheddar.
“And he brought the book to a club meeting?”
He nodded. “We all like to show off our antiquities and this was a new find. When we stumbled upon the information about a wish demon, it seemed like an exciting adventure.”
“It’s only exciting if you look forward to a slow death. Next time take up skydiving or have an affair. Leave the demons alone.”
He rubbed his hands over his thighs. “What would have really happened?”
“Trust me. You don’t want to know the details.”
He rose to his feet. “Thank you for intervening. Truth be told, I’ve felt that we were in over our heads for a while now. I just didn’t know how to get out.”
“There can be an addictive quality to magic, especially for the uninformed.”
“Are you going to report us to the authorities?” he asked. “It would be very bad for us, even worse for our families.”
“I haven’t decided how to handle this, given the nature of it. There’s someone I’d like to speak to first.”
“I fully intend to apologize to Miss Riley. We were simply caught up in the moment.”
“That’s a start.”
He started for the door and turned back to me. “Will we lose our gains now that we’ve been…restored, as you say?”
“I’m not sure. I guess you’ll find out soon enough.”
He nodded and exited the bookstore. Helena lingered in front of the window where the scent of marijuana wafted through the air.
“Grandma will smell that on you before you step inside the house.”
“She’ll be asleep,” Helena said. “I’ll shower before bed.”
“How did you manage to…Forget it. Thanks for your help back there.” We ambled along the sidewalk toward home.
“It was fun. I hope there’s more of that while I’m in town. I might decide to stay longer.”
“Be careful what you wish for.” A lesson the Puritan Club had to learn the hard way.
“Who are you calling at this hour?” she asked, as I pulled out my phone.
“No one. I want to give my assistant feedback on his app before I forget.” I clicked all five stars and smiled as I hit submit.
Chapter Five
It was challenging to roll out of bed the next morning so that I could shower and drive to the art gallery to collect my painting. I needed to meet Nari on time because Rafael was due at the barn at eleven. It didn’t take much to convince him to give me a cooking lesson in my new kitchen. My family had planned an outing this afternoon that thankfully didn’t include me, so I’d arranged to make a nice lunch for the chief to celebrate my new home and a master chef was the ideal teacher.
The art gallery was starkly different in the light of day and without a crowd of people. It was a nice opportunity to fully admire the paintings without the distraction of wine, cheese, and the rantings of a vengeance demon.
Nari stood in front of a fresh canvas in a black smock. She turned to greet me as I entered. “Welcome back, Eden. Your painting is wrapped and ready to go. Unfortunately, my credit card machine is misbehaving, so I can’t take your money at the moment.”
“Would you rather I come back? I don’t need to take the painting before I’ve paid.”
“Don’t be silly. I know you’re good for it.” She set down her brush and crossed the room to meet me. “The system glitches sometimes. I think it’s because of the new technology where you sign with your finger. I’m not convinced how hygienic that is. Anyway, I’m sure it’ll be up and running later today. Just swing by the next time you run an errand. I’ll be here all day.” She offered a reassuring smile.
I glanced at the artwork, carefully wrapped and leaning against the counter. “If you’re sure.” I didn’t want to miss the chance for the chief to help me hang it. Who knew when my family would be out of the way again? It wasn’t often that the entire house was clear of nosy relatives.
“Absolutely. Take. Enjoy. Feel your bliss.”
I glanced over her shoulder at the new painting she’d started. “Hard at work already?”
Nari followed my gaze to the fresh canvas. “Yes. The muse struck this morning thanks to a new set of paints. Unfortunately, so did a hangover.” She laughed.
I squinted at the darker color palette on the canvas and noticed a faint sparkle. “I love the texture. How do you manage that?”
She crooked a finger. “I’ll show you.”
I walked with her to the canvas where I noticed a tray of vivid paint colors. Each one seemed to shimmer with energy under the artificial lights. “The liquid is…lumpy?”
“There are enchanted gems crushed and mixed in with the paint,” she said. “I haven’t worked with this particular kind yet, but I use magic-infused paint for most of my work.”
Now that she mentioned it, I could feel the magic emanating from the canvas. It didn’t speak to me the way The Rescue did, but the intensity was there. “Do you make the paint yourself?”
“Oh, no,” she said with a laugh. “My magic consists solely of creating art. I buy all my paint from a local mage. Kirby Germain. He’s a creative genius. Do you know him?”
“Can’t say that I do.” It occurred to me that Olivia might like a magical paint set. My niece had an artistic flair. She’d probably go nuts for paint like this. “Is it safe for children?”
“You’d have to ask Kirby, but I don’t see why not.” She smiled. “As long as they don’t eat it, of course.”
“Do you know what this will be yet?” There were no obvious images on the canvas, only streaks of color.
Nari pressed her lips together. “I think so, but I don’t like to say beforehand in case the muse pulls me in another direction. It’s like spoiling the ending of a book.”
Speaking of being pulled in another direction, I needed to get back to the barn to prepare for my cooking lesson. “I need to get going, but I’ll stop by later so I can pay you. Promise.”
“No problem. See you soon.” She lifted her paintbrush and turned her focus back to the canvas.
I carried my painting to the car, careful to push the door with my shoulder and hold it until the rest of my body had eased outside. It was slightly awkward because of the painting’s size, but I managed.
I arrived home and set the painting by the door. Excited to see my new purchase, I retrieved a pair of scissors from the kitchen so I could remove the wrapping and admire The Rescue. As I opened the scissors to slice through the paper, Alice materialized beside me, startling me. “A little warning, please. I don’t need to lose a finger.”
“I’m so sorry, dear. I thought you were accustomed to my comings and goings.”
“In the main house, sure, but I’m still getting used to the barn.”
She angled her head. “What’s this? It’s rather large.”
“It’s a painting for the big wall. I picked it up this morning from Nari’s art gallery.” I cut away the paper and removed the wrapping.
The ghost drank in the picture of the nymph on the pegasus, escaping the turbulent waves below. “My goodness, it’s lovely, isn’t it?”
“Thank you. I think so.”
Alice glanced around with a satisfied smile. “I can’t believe what you’ve achieved. To think, all of our livestock once occupied this space.” She shook her head. “The modern world is an amazing place.”
“Shouldn’t you be haunting the main house?”
Her expression clouded over. “It isn’t the same without you.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve been here for over a century. I’m a blip in time.”
“Everyone’s gone out today. I didn’t feel like watching anything on television.”
“Ah, the truth comes out. Don’t worry. They’ll be back before dinner.” And Chief Fox will be long gone.
“Why does everyone need to accompany Esther to a Little Critters tournament?”
“Would you want Grandma wandering the streets of Baltimore without a chaperone?”
Alice bit her lip. “I suppose it is dangerous for the other residents.”
“I’m sure my mother will use the opportunity to meet both eligible and ineligible men and Aunt Thora and Helena will shop. A win for everyone.”
Alice drifted over to the window and gazed toward the second floor of the main house. “Something is amiss with that cousin of yours.”
“Helena? Something’s always amiss with her.”
Alice played idly with the ruffles on her sleeves. “She’s acting strangely.”
“She’s a temporal demon, Alice. She’s as strange as demons come.”
“She seems distracted and she talks to herself.”
I laughed and rose to my feet. “If you think that qualifies as strange, then you’re living with the wrong family.”
Every Picture Tells A Fury (Federal Bureau of Magic Cozy Mystery Book 8) Page 4
