09 - Return Of The Witch

by Dana E. Donovan

  She seemed surprised at my question. “I did that?”

  “Yes, you did that! Look. You split the building in two. Do you know what this means?”

  She gazed out over the splintered ruins. “Where is my Dominic?”

  “I think he’s over by the—”

  “Ursula?” Dominic and Carlos came crawling out from beneath the stairs, the hold Gypsy had on them apparently broken. “Ursula!”

  We hurried to them and helped them back on their feet. Neither seemed badly injured, though Dominic had a bruise on his left cheek and a cut above his eye. Carlos, who I suspect fell on top of Dominic, had nary a scratch.

  “What happened?” asked Dominic. He grabbed Ursula around the waist and hugged her tightly. “Are you all right?”

  “All right?” I said. “Are you kidding me? The girl is fantastic! Did you see what she did?”

  I saw Ursula shaking her head and waving for me to shut up. Dominic saw it, too. He placed his hands on her hips and held her at arm’s length. “What did she do?”

  I shook my head at her. “Sorry, Urs. I have to tell them. This is too big to keep secret.”

  “Keep what secret? Lilith, tell me.”

  Carlos, who only then noticed that the cannery building was now a split duplex, asked, “What the hell happened here?”

  I started to tell him, when the sound of approaching fire trucks stopped me. “I’ll tell you later. Right now, unless we want to try and explain to the authorities what happened, we should, as Ursula would say, get thee gone and quick.”

  Chapter 22

  After the chaos at the cannery, we retreated to Carlos’ estate. We thought it best to regroup there for two reasons. One, because we figured Gypsy wouldn’t think of looking for us there if she hoped to launch a surprise attack, and two, if we decided to travel together again, we’d trade in Carlos’ monster truck for something more comfortable, like his Mercedes SUV.

  From the sunny poolside patio, we sat, sipped iced tea and discussed everything we knew or thought we knew about Gypsy, the four guardians and the quintessential.

  I started by telling the guys what happened after Gypsy blasted their asses off the observation deck. I told them about Gypsy’s incomparable powers over mass and energy, how she made my zip ball look like a 4th of July sparkler.

  “And that check-bind spell,” I said. “Madonna mi! I sure could use that little spell next time the cops pull me over.”

  “Lilith.”

  “Dominic, I’m joking. The point is that Gypsy is incredibly powerful. She can do things now that no other witch can do.” I looked at Ursula. “Except maybe this girl.”

  “Me?” said Ursula.

  “Her?” said Dominic.

  “Yes.” I reached across the patio table and took her hand. “Urs, don’t let this scare you. You’ve had the power all along, ever since you came back from the Eighth Sphere. You just didn’t know it. None of us knew it.”

  Dominic said. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s the quintessential, Dominic. She has it.”

  “Ursula?”

  “Yes. I don’t know how, but Paige knew that one of us returned from the Eighth Sphere with it. Hell, every witch in the underworld knew it but us. The funny thing is, if I had paid attention to the clues I would have seen that it’s been staring me in the face all along.”

  “How so?”

  “Well for instance….” I turned to Ursula. “Last week you called me, all excited because you learned a new trick. Carlos, do you remember that? We were at Gloucester Beach out on the jetty at the time.”

  “I remember.”

  “Yeah, and what did I do?”

  “You blew her off.”

  “That’s right. I blew her off. I figured it was some stupid card trick Dominic taught her.”

  “Hey!” said Dominic.

  “Chill, Houdini. Ursula, I’m sorry I did that. And I’m sorry I did it to you again later that night when you called me at home. I should have listened to you. Instead, I asked if you learned the trick from the Grimoire, if it involved a spell or witchcraft of any kind, and you said no. Remember that?”

  “Aye, for the trick made no use of magick that I knew.”

  “Yes, but it was a good trick, wasn’t it?”

  She shrugged lightly. “So I thought.”

  Dominic said, “Lilith, what does this have to do with—”

  “I’m getting to that. Ursula. Do you want to tell me what that trick was now?”

  “`Twas a small trick.”

  “That’s okay. I want you to share it with us anyway.”

  “No, I mean `twas a trick where I could make things small.”

  “Show us.” I set my glass of tea in front of her and asked her to demonstrate.

  She wasted no time, and merely by eyeing the glass between her finger and thumb, she pinched it down to something smaller than a thimble.

  Carlos and Dominic fell back in their chairs, stunned, yet grinning like fools.

  “What the….” Carlos picked up the tiny glass and tipped it upside down. A single drop of tea and four bitty ice cubes spilled out. “I don’t believe it.” He handed the glass to Dominic. “Feel that. It weighs the same as the bigger glass.”

  “That’s because it’s the same mass,” I said. “It’s just compacted into tighter clusters of atoms. I did the same thing to a statue in the great hall back at the Eighth Sphere.”

  “You can do this, too?”

  “Not here, I can’t. No one should be able to do that, not unless they’ve acquired the quintessential.”

  “Can Ursula do that to Gypsy?”

  “I suppose, but I’m not sure what good it would do. A tiny Gypsy is no less dangerous than a full sized Gypsy.”

  “I still don’t understand,” said Dominic. “How is it Ursula can do this?”

  “I told you. It’s the quintessential. Ursula has it. She’s been demonstrating it all along and neither of us realized it.”

  “I have?” said Ursula.

  “Yes you have. Don’t you remember what happened at Terri Cotta’s place? I got into an argument with her neighbor and he threw that crucifix at me. I backed away to put some space between us, and what happened?”

  “The ground opened up.”

  “Exactly. You made that happen. You can’t tell me you weren’t subconsciously wishing there was an impenetrable divide between him and me when that occurred.”

  “Aye, that I did. I wished he could not reach you.”

  “Of course, and your mind simply presented us with the most logical defense.”

  “Wait,” said Carlos. “Are you saying that Ursula created her own little earthquake?”

  “On demand.”

  “Incredible.”

  “I know, but Terri Cotta had a hand in it, too. See, Terri was the true guardian of the element earth. It was her essence that triggered Ursula’s response to the danger.”

  “I see,” said Dominic. “That’s why it was an earthquake and not some other phenomenon like a lightning strike.”

  “Precisely. Before now, I thought the guardians’ residual energy was causing spontaneous anomalies around their homes associated with their elements.”

  “So, it’s happened more than once?”

  “Yes. It happened at Russell Burns’ place.”

  “Who’s Russell Burns?”

  “Amber’s husband. We went to her house and her husband let us in. As we walked past the fireplace it spontaneously ignited.”

  “You think that was Ursula?”

  “Of course. She employed Amber’s lingering energy to start that fire.”

  “Could have been a coincidence.”

  “Sure, just like the coincidence at April’s house with the waterfall flowing uphill. The point is that Ursula possesses the power of the quintessential, and at every instance when she was around the guardians’ residual energy, she absorbed some of it.”

  “Are we talking about the same powers over the ele
ments that Gypsy has?”

  “Yup.” I turned to Ursula and smiled at her. “She just doesn’t know how to control it yet.”

  Carlos said, “How did she know to use it at the cannery? You can’t tell me that was an accident.”

  “You’re right about that. It wasn’t an accident. Yet it wasn’t exactly controlled, either. It’s seems to only work for her when brought about spontaneously. It’s event-driven, at least until she learns to master it.”

  “That’s not good,” Dominic said. “Because I’m assuming that Gypsy knows it now, and if Ursula can’t use it at will to protect herself….” He trailed off in a shudder.

  “Don’t worry. We’re going to figure out how she can do that. The fact that Ursula has it, means Gypsy won’t be so bold from now on. She has weaknesses. We just have to find out what they are.”

  “How do we do that?” asked Carlos.

  “We ask someone who knows.”

  Dominic said, “I bet Paige Turner knows?”

  “Bet you’re right.”

  “But she and Gypsy are working together. She won’t help us.”

  “You mean she won’t knowingly help us.”

  “Isn’t that what I said?”

  “Dominic, Paige doesn’t know that we know she and Gypsy are in cahoots. She’ll talk candidly if we ask the right questions.”

  “I get it,” said Carlos, “reverse psychology.”

  “No, Carlos. It’s not reverse psychology. It’s called manipulating the interview. You should know that. You’re a cop.”

  “Oh sure, I know that. It’s just that when I do it, I usually throw in a little reverse psychology. It keeps them guessing.”

  “Carlos, you keep me guessing.”

  He smiled proudly. “Thanks.”

  Chapter 23

  I convinced Carlos and Dominic to let Ursula and me call on Paige Turner by ourselves. I felt that showing up at her door with two police detectives would only arouse suspicions after what happened at Suffolk’s Walk. As it was, our entire visit had me sitting on the edge of my seat with worry that Paige could sense the true reason we were there. I’m sure through subtle body language and

  bit intonations in my speech, she picked up that something was amiss.

  We showed up at her door about half an hour after leaving Carlos’ place. Paige escorted us to her parlor, and after shooing the cats off the sofa, offered us a seat.

  I looked at Ursula and caught her staring up at the ceiling. The witch’s circle and pentagram were gone. So were the candles, yet the outline of it all remained. If Paige had wished to remove circumstantial evidence linking her and Gypsy through her witch’s key, she most certainly failed.

  “Tell me, Lilith of New Castle,” she said, after the two of us settled into the thick cushions of her couch. “Tell me why you are here.”

  I manufactured a look of concerned perplexity, hoping she’d buy it. “We need your advice.”

  “Do you now?” She seemed pleased by that.

  I knew if she and Gypsy were co-conspirators, then she already knew about Ursula possessing the quintessential. In that matter, I had nothing to lose.

  “Yes. You see there’s been a major development regarding the prophecy. It’s come to light recently that—”

  “Oh, so now thou doth believe in the prophecy?”

  “Well…of course. Now that we know Ursula possesses the quintessential.”

  “She what?”

  I wanted to reach across the room, bitch-slap the old broad upside the head and tell her to crank it down a notch. Her acting was that bad. I looked again at Ursula, who maintained a most sincere face. I only hoped she could keep it together enough for the two of us.

  “Yes. That’s why we’re here,” I explained. “We recently learned that my mother, whom I thought was dead, but is actually still alive, killed the four guardians just like the prophecy predicted, and now she wants to kill me…, or rather, her.” I jacked my thumb up at Ursula “She nearly killed us earlier today out at Suffolk’s Walk.”

  Paige Turner eased back in her porter’s chair and thumbed the ball of her cane with her gnarly fingers. “Interesting.”

  “If you say so. The thing is, my mother stole the essence from those women and now she’ll stop at nothing to fulfill the prophecy by stealing the quintessential from Ursula. We have to stop her. To do that, we need to know her strengths and her weaknesses. We come to you because we’re hoping the Demdike Grimoire might have the answers.”

  She nodded slowly and cracked a crooked grin. “Her weakness is thy strength.”

  “I know. That’s why I’m asking for your help.”

  “No, I mean what makes her weak is the very thing that makes thee strong.” She looked at Ursula. “Or should I say makes you strong, dearie.”

  “The quintessential?” asked Ursula.

  “Aye. Doth thou know how to use thy newfound powers?”

  “Well, I am not so—”

  “Not so bad with them, is what she means,” I said. “She knows how to use her powers. Just this morning she tore an entire building in two. Didn’t you, Urs?”

  “Aye, but I did not—”

  “That’s right. Don’t be modest.” I said to Paige, “Please. You were saying?”

  Paige leveled her eyes at me and sighed. “To kill Gypsy, Ursula must penetrate her defenses down to her soul.”

  “How does she do that?”

  “By unleashing the full power of the quintessential in a single blast.”

  “You mean like, bam! All at once.”

  “Precisely.” I watched Paige Turner loosen her grip on the ball of her cane. She held her hand out, palm facing us. “You will feel it welling up from deep inside. Let it boil. Feed its intensity with anger. Let your rage build until it erupts like a volcano.”

  “Like a shockwave?” I asked.

  She returned her hand to her cane and nodded. “Like a shockwave. Do this, and realize the prophecy of Elizabeth Southerns.”

  “Okay.” I slapped Ursula on the knee. “You got that, kiddo? Let it build. Rage. Anger. Yadda-yadda. Maybe throw in a little PMS for good luck, and then BAM! Let her have it.”

  “Bam?”

  “No. BAM!” I clapped my hands together hard. “Like you mean it.”

  “BAM!”

  I looked at Paige. “I think she’s got it.”

  Paige smiled. “Go then. Thy destiny awaits.”

  “Thank you for your help.”

  Ursula and I got up and started for the door. We were nearly there when I turned and said to Paige, “Oh, one more thing, if you don’t mind.”

  “Yes?”

  “How did you know her name?”

  “Pardon?”

  “Gypsy. I never mentioned that to you, yet you called her by name.”

  She smiled, the way one often does when defeated but no longer cares. “What matter is it now?”

  I shook my head. “None, I guess, but do me a favor, will you?”

  “Yes?”

  “Next time you see Gypsy, tell her we’ll be waiting for her under the old stone bridge tonight at six o`clock.”

  She turned her eyes toward the clock on the mantle, but said nothing. I shut the door behind me.

  We called Carlos from the car and learned that he had already gone to work. For that reason, he suggested we all meet at the Justice Center to discuss our next move. While there, I asked Dominic to do a background check on Paige Turner.

  Ten minutes later, he rolled his chair over to Carlos’ workstation. “You’re not going to believe this,” he said, dropping a few pages of computer documents on his desk.

  “Believe what?”

  “I’ve got nothing on her. The woman’s an enigma. No priors, no traffic tickets, no jury summons. She doesn’t own property. She’s never been sued; never sued anyone. Doesn’t have a social security number, passport or drivers license. Near as I can tell, Paige Turner doesn’t exist.”

  “Man,” said Carlos. “Some people w
ill do anything to get out of jury duty.”

  “That’s not surprising,” I said.

  “What? That she wants to get out of jury duty?”

  “No, that she has no past. A witch that old, one that’s reinvented herself through so many rites of passage, doesn’t want to leave a trail of her existence.”

  “I can believe that,” said Dominic.

  Carlos said, “What I don’t understand is why, as old as she is, she hasn’t taken advantage of the last rite of passage cycle. From what you told me, her next opportunity won’t come for like ninety years.”

  “That’s right.”

  “Man, you think she looks old now.”

  “Carlos, she’s not going to make it. Don’t you get it? She apparently just wants to die.”

  “Oh. Well that’s kind of sad then, ain’t it?”

  “Yeah, real sad.” said Dominic. “Listen, forget that. Tell us what she said about Gypsy.”

  Ursula answered, “She told us how to kill her.”

  “Did she? I wouldn’t have thought you’d get it out of her so easily.”

  “We didn’t,” I said.

  “But Ursula—”

  “I know what Ursula said, but what Paige told us won’t kill Gypsy, but maybe that’s better.”

  “I’m confused.”

  “Me, too,” said Carlos. “How is not killing her better than killing her?”

  “It’s not.”

  “Ho-boy.”

  “Listen. When we went to Paige and asked her for help, we didn’t expect she’d tell us how to kill Gypsy. I hoped she’d tell us what Gypsy would want us to do, and that’s exactly what she did.”

  Dominic said, “Ah, so now you know what not to do.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Okay, for the record,” said Carlos, “that did nothing to clear up the confusion.”

  “Carlos, if we tried to kill Gypsy by doing what Paige told us to do, we’d be playing right into her hand.”

  “Is this about the quintessential?”

  “Of course, it’s all about the quintessential. See, there’s a reason Gypsy didn’t just come out and kill me as she did the others. I mean, let’s face it. She had plenty of opportunities. She knows where I live. She could have ambushed me anytime, turned herself into a shadow and zapped me with a vapor resonance wave. Out in the cow pasture, she could have turned herself into a tornado, picked up Detective Pierce’s car with all of us in it and dropped it from a hundred feet up.”