by C. T. Phipps
Alex’s expression was pained. “Not even close.”
I raised my hand. “Okay, no, we’re not getting into any more weird mystical mumbo jumbo. We’re going to figure out how to find the Big Bad Wolf and kill it for good.”
I felt like such an idiot. Rudy had been trying to tell me about the twice-possessed. It was just the guy was so stressed he had babbled nonsense rather than coherently stating, ‘Oh, hey, Victoria and the Big Bad Wolf are possessing Clara. Don’t trust her.’
“Can we actually kill gods?” Emma asked.
“Gods are just spirits,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t know about killing them, though. I killed the kelpie but that was with your gun.”
“The Merlin Gun,” Alex said.
“The what?” I asked.
“It’s a gun made by Merlin. It’s a pretty self-explanatory,” Alex said, shrugging.
“There is nothing self-explanatory about your gun being made by a fictitious wizard.” That, of course, reminded me he practiced martial arts taught to him by a British science-fiction show. Personally, I’d never been a big fan of Doctor Who. I only watched the David Tenant episodes and that wasn’t for the plot.
“It kills evil beings as long as the cause of the wielder is just,” Alex explained. “Even gods.”
I opened my mouth and looked sideways. That was a princely gift. It wasn’t a blessed weapon, it was an artifact and those were considerably rarer. “Why did you give me this?”
“You needed it more.”
I stared at him. “Do you like anything normal?”
“Burger King Whoppers with only mayo.”
“Fascinating,” I said, meaning it. I liked those too! Except he didn’t mention cheese and a Whopper without cheese was like a bowling ball without a liquid center. “So all we need to do is get me close to Clara and shoot her? The monster is dead?”
“We are not shooting my aunt!” Emma snapped, staring at me. “That is the opposite of just!”
“I know,” I said, feeling my temples. “I’m just trying to work this out in my head. Does anyone else know you’re here?”
“No,” Alex said, putting his hands in his pockets. “After rescuing Maria from Clara and her deputies, I brought her here under the principle of hiding in plain sight. I have a very good talent at being ignored whenever I need to be.”
“Her deputies are helping her?” I asked, stunned. “They’re in on this?”
“I don’t think so,” Alex said. “I think Victoria, for lack of a better term, has them under their spell.”
“Can’t you call in the authorities?” I asked.
If this was the movies then there’d be some elaborate reason why we couldn’t get their help, but Alex was an FBI agent and this was a serious threat to the public.
“No,” Alex said, confirming I lived in a world that operated by bad-movie logic.
“The FBI wouldn’t want to deal with a possessed shapeshifter?”
Alex shook his head. “Oh no, Director Hague would be all over it. He hates the supernatural and would send in the National Guard and use it as an excuse to find reasons to detain every shifter he could.”
I grimaced. “Great.”
“Exorcise her!” Maria said, changing the channel from The Bachelor to a show about Vikings.
“What?” I said, turning around.
“Exorcise Clara,” Maria said, finishing her Coke. “If you don’t want to kill her, drive out the spirit from her body then shoot it. Can we get some room service?”
“No,” Alex said.
“Can we exorcise her?” I asked. “I mean, the Big Bad Wolf tore a hole in reality last time we fought.”
“It’s not got its former coven mates to possess and Victoria is its link to Clara,” Alex said, considering it. “It might be possible due to the fact we don’t have to break the demon’s connection to Clara but Victoria. It’s piggy-backing on her.”
“Is there any way we can save my sister?” Emma asked, looking between us. “I mean, she’s not the one actually doing all this. She’s possessed and she possesses others while possessed. I mean, twice-possessed, which I didn’t know was possible.”
“For gods, anything is possible,” Alex said. “The same for humanity.”
I, meanwhile, looked at Emma with a sense of sympathy. I didn’t want to mince words around her. “Your sister is dead, Emma. She’s a ghost now that’s being used by a monster. The only way to free her is destroy it.”
Emma balled her hands into fists and didn’t say anything for almost half a minute. “I want to be the one that kills this thing.”
“I’ll get the Merlin Gun from my car,” I said, having hidden it under the driver’s seat.
Yeah, I was a real smuggling mastermind, wasn’t I?
My cellphone rang. I checked its ID and it said, “UNKNOWN.”
“An ominous sense of dread fills me,” I said, hitting ACCEPT and putting it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Hello?” I asked, my throat suddenly dry.
“Good morning, Jane,” Victoria’s voice sounded on the other end of the line. It caused the phone reception to crackle and pained my ear.
“Shouldn’t you be in Hell?” I asked. “You tried to send me there, but I think you’d like it much more.”
Emma glared at me.
“Oh,” I added. “Emma is glaring at me because she’s the only person in the world who gives a crap that you died.”
Emma’s mouth widened in horror.
“I care!” Maria said, calling out. “Give me the phone!”
“No!” I snapped at her.
“Aww,” Maria said, looking ready to pass out.
“Are you with Agent Timmons?” Victoria said. “Do you have my sacrifice?”
“She’s not your sacrifice!” I snapped. “She loves you.”
“Love is a strong word,” Maria said, accidentally knocking her Coke off the nightstand.
Emma displayed what sort of person she was by immediately going to clean it up.
“You are going to bring Maria to me and the knife,” Victoria said, her voice sounding distant and absent.
More like the Big Bad Wolf.
“And why the hell would I do that?” I growled.
“Don’t taunt her, Jane.”
“Why?” I said, glaring at him. “What is the dead bitch, and I mean that in the female dog sense, gonna do? Her demon lost its special place.”
“I have your family,” Victoria said, laughing. It was a weird, almost comical witch’s cackle, as if she was going through the motions of being evil.
I narrowed my eyes. “You know, I was going to maybe lead you to the light or whatever after I dealt with your demon but I am going to find a way to kill your soul. Like, full-on oblivion. What people think happens after you die but doesn’t.”
“Maybe I should take the phone.” Alex reached out his arm and I slapped it away.
Anger was replacing my fear.
“I have your brother, your sister, your mother, and your father,” Victoria said, acting like my threat didn’t matter. “They’re all tied up with me. Judy made a game effort to drive me out but your mother made a sacrifice in my name. She was marked by her offering and could no more harm me than fire could harm the sun.”
“Am I talking to the Big Bad Wolf or Victoria?”
The laughter was a combination of both. “I am the will, she is the vessel.”
“Uh-huh,” I said, having no idea what that meant. “So you want me to trade Maria for my family.”
“What?” Maria asked.
“Only one more must die to complete the ritual,” Victoria said, her voice hoarse. “That doesn’t have to be your brother.”
“The ritual to resurrect your family,” I said.
“Yes,” the Big Bad Wolf responded, no longer sounding like it was a woman at all. “I will have my children restored and my bride.”
“How does Victoria feel about you trading her for another woman?”
“I
will give her a new body in the sheriff’s. She, too, will join my pack.”
“Male wolves,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Never satisfied with just one spouse.”
“Polygamy is actually perfectly natural in nature,” Emma said, getting up off the floor. “Especially for—”
I put my hand over my cellphone. “Emma, I love you, but shut up.”
“Right, sorry,” Emma said, looking down.
“People die,” I said, trying to control my fear as I debated what to do. “Your family will eventually grow up and pass on. That’s how it works.”
“I will use the vampire to make them immortal,” the Big Bad Wolf said. “That is why I shared Victoria’s blood and body with him. To seal my control. When he changes my children, I will punish him for defiling her.”
I couldn’t hide my disgust. If this was the way it treated the people he supposedly loved then screw it and the Lodge it manifested in. “Your children are, well, children.”
“It doesn’t matter,” the Big Bad Wolf said. “All that matters is they will be mine forever.”
No use arguing with the corrupted nature spirit. “What if I could offer you another body that’s been marked? One that hasn’t been cleansed by Alex. It really doesn’t matter who is killed, does it?”
“They must be descendants of those who murdered my family,” the Big Bad Wolf said. “That is the ritual’s basis. Hate and rage for the wrongs committed against me are what allow me to reach beyond the veil of worlds to bring back those I care for.”
I wondered what its dead wife and child thought about this plan. It had been decades since they’d died and I liked to think you didn’t just stay static after death. Grandpa Jacob certainly looked like he’d been enjoying himself in the meantime. Would he just shove their adult ghosts into their remains or had he picked out new bodies for them? I was pretty sure resurrection came with a steep cost beyond needing to kill someone to do it because otherwise everyone would be doing it. The fact I suspected its wife would be horrified by the plan to rip her and the boys out of Heaven to turn them into vampires wasn’t something I could sell to the Big Bad Wolf, though. It’d taken the train to Crazytown—correction: Eviltown—and there was no return trip.
“What about Lucien Lyons?” I said.
“Jane, what are you doing?” Alex asked.
“He would be acceptable,” the Big Bad Wolf said. “So would Marcus O’Henry. Victoria was going to trade her grandfather for your brother. If the others had not betrayed her, like Courtney going to the police, Victoria would have just given me evildoers. You wouldn’t have had to lose so many associates.”
“Yeah, blame the victim,” I said. “Okay, maybe you have a deal.”
“Agree.”
“I said maybe. I know the danger of agreeing to a pact upfront. Tell me where and when you want the goods.”
“Midnight at the lumber mill,” the Big Bad Wolf said. “I will bring you your family alive and unspoiled. Do not test me.”
“I’m sorry, Jane,” Victoria’s voice added after.
Both hung up.
“Jane, what are you planning?” Alex asked.
“A double cross, obviously,” I said, looking up to Alex. “Uh, do you think your brother will be willing to help?”
“Maybe,” Alex said. “But I think we’re going to need some extra supplies.”
Maria looked at us. “By the way, I’m staying here. Just letting you.”
“No, we need you to help,” I said, a plan forming. Maria would be essential to getting my family out if, who was I kidding, when things went pear shaped. “So get yourself un-high and ready to help.”
“That sucks,” Maria said, sliding out of bed and revealing a decently done bit of makeshift surgery. “Can I get one more hit of Cure Light Wounds before I go?”
Alex sighed. “Sure. Jane, I want you to know I trust you but I wished you’d consulted with me before making this plan.”
“Yeah, well, I’m making this up as I go along. Do you normally listen to eighteen-year-old girls?”
Alex smirked. “Oh, Jane, no one could ever mistake you for anything but a woman.”
“Bow chicka wow wow!” Maria said, pointing finger guns at us.
I looked back at her. “Okay, no more magic for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
We ended up sneaking out the side of Pinehold with the aid of Alex’s magic and a bit of old fashioned, “look like you’re supposed to be here.” I was probably going to get fired for this but it was a small price to pay for my family. I will say, though, I was less than pleased with Alex’s choice of escape vehicle.
“Seriously?” I said, sitting in the passenger’s seat, looking out through the Falcon’s windows into the dark clouds beyond. “We have an entire fleet of cars to choose from, all the O’Henry family’s, and you choose mine?”
The four of us were packed into my car and we were driving through the worst storm I’d seen hit Bright Falls since, well, at least a decade. The rain was pouring down so hard it was hard to see a foot beyond the windshield. It was almost noon but it might as well have been early evening for visibility.
Emma had changed out of her housekeeper’s uniform into a pair of jeans and a gray hoodie with the Bright Falls Wolves logo on the front. We’d managed to get Maria out of bed into some of Emma’s clothes that she presently wasn’t bleeding into. She was suffering from magic withdrawal, though, which manifested in wearing black sunglasses while complaining of a massive headache.
I’d changed into a pair of Capri slacks and a white blouse I’d very much like to have saved for an occasion other than this. It was the clothes I’d been planning to wear for a meeting with my literature professor today to explain why I hadn’t done any work on my last assignment.
“Your 2001 Hummer is a very formidable vehicle,” Alex said, his voice calm despite the fact he’d just spent the past few hours patching up Maria and was now heading out to prepare for a rescue attempt of four hostages. “Fuel efficient? No. Formidable? Yes. The latter may be more important now.”
I felt my face. “I am surrounded by Hummerdinger fans.”
“Seriously, we could get trampled by a herd of buffalo and be fine,” Emma said, bouncing in the back.
Maria, meanwhile, banged her head lightly against the left rear door window. “Magic…magic…my kingdom for some magic.”
“Sorry,” Alex said, shaking his head. “All tapped out. Besides, you’re almost healed.”
Maria snorted. “Almost is not completely, Harry Potter.”
I was grateful, in a way, to have a distraction like this. It kept me from thinking about the fact my family was tied up and held prisoner by a murderous werewolf possessed by two spirits. One who had the full authority of the law behind her, so there was no chance of calling the police on her.
“May I ask where we’re going?” I asked, having realized I hadn’t asked beforehand. “I know we have our work cut out for us in convincing your brother to be our hostage, but I’m sure with him as backup—”
“We’re not going to Lucien’s,” Alex said, squeezing the steering wheel hard.
“We’re not?” Emma asked. “But they totally helped us last time.”
“We can,” Alex said, correcting himself. “But I want to take us somewhere else first.”
“Disneyland?” I asked, unsure where my favorite FBI agent could want us to go. He’d already said we couldn’t get ourselves reinforcements.
“My master, Kim Su.”
“The lady who was supposed to teach me magic but never called?”
“It’s been a weekend, Jane. It’s not like she’s going to e-mail you a response.”
“Why not?” I said. “Archmages can use the internet.”
“I sent her a message,” Alex said, sighing. “However, while she’s sent me a response, it requires a bit more to get her to come to a new location.”
“Can we can the mysteriousness of mysteriousness? What do you mean?”
I blinked, processing that. “Okay, maybe there’s a reason wizards talk cryptically. Summon her tower? Like Isengard?”
“That will be awesome!” Emma said, grabbing the headrest of Alex’s seat. “Will it have a flaming eye?”
“No,” Alex said. “It takes whatever appearance would be appropriate for a location.”
“Boring!” Emma said, falling back into her seat.
“Can you please stop talking?” Maria said, feeling her head. “I need an ice compact and maybe a hundred Bloody Marys.”
“I’m pretty sure you’re faking now,” I said, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.
“Who was stabbed by the magic knife of stabiness?” Maria asked. “The one that killed my brother?”
There wasn’t much you could say to that. “You were.”
“Damn right,” Maria said. “So let’s go find this old wizard lady and kill Emma’s sister.”
“We are not killing my sister!” Emma snapped.
“We’re killing one of them but it doesn’t count because she’s dead!” Maria said, turning to her. “That’s fine by me.”
Alex smiled and laughed, which I did not think to be an appropriate reaction. “Like road trips with my sister.”
“You have a sister?” I asked, surprised by this revelation.
Alex paused. “No.”
There was a finality to it which put me in mind of Maria.
“She died?” I asked.
“Yes,” Alex said. “I killed her.”
Suddenly six eyes were staring at Alex.
“Not willingly,” Alex said, his voice low. “I’ve been party to your tragedies so I feel it only right you know some of mine. I tried to save her from my father once. He was beating her badly and perhaps worse would have happened. That was when my powers first manifested. I willed him to die. Samantha…she died too.”
“Jesus Christ on a pogo stick. That is messed up,” I said, before realizing that wasn’t exactly a sympathetic response.
