BURY THE WITCH: Book 10 (Detective Marcella Witch's Series)

by Dana E. Donovan

  I looked back over my shoulder, half expecting to see her standing on the porch, tapping her foot and telling me to get my ass in there. “Yeah,” I said, “she tells me they want to contact the dead guardians and give the prime essentials back to them. Can they do that?”

  “I don’t see why not,” he answered, though his shrug conveyed less confidence. “That’s how Ursula got them in the first place.”

  “What happens if they’re successful?”

  “I don’t know. I guess Ursula loses the prime, but will still have the quintessential. I know I don’t like that.”

  “How bad could that be? Lilith told me Ursula came back from the Eighth Sphere with it, yet you didn’t even know about it for how many weeks?”

  “Yeah, but she didn’t know she had it then. Now that she does, well...”

  He turned his eyes down and away, not wanting to think about it. I lowered my voice and asked, “Hey, what’s with the bowl of water and the dirt? I’ve never seen those used in a séance before.”

  Carlos said, “They represent the essence of the prime. She used them the last time to help call the spirits of the guardians.”

  “Interesting.” I turned back to look at the house. It was dark inside, but for the candles and the burning kerosene flickering yellow and orange through the window. “You know I’m curious,” I said, “I’d love to watch them. You don’t suppose it would hurt for us to look in on them while they do this, huh?”

  “No, of course not. What could it hurt?”

  “Dominic?”

  He wrinkled his nose and cringed. “I don’t know. If we disturbed them, you know what Lilith will—”

  “You’re disturbed,” said Carlos. “Come on, that’s your wife in there. You have a right to see what she’s up to.”

  “Carlos, she’s not ‘up to’ anything. It so happens—”

  “He’s right,” I said. “You should listen to him.”

  “Thank you, Tony.”

  “No, Dominic. I mean Carlos is right. You’re disturbed. That’s our wives in there. We have a right to know. Now grow some nads, get your butt up to that window and see what the hell they’re doing in there.”

  The four of us, yes Jerome too, crowded up to the only two windows offering a view of the kitchen table: the window over the sink and the one on the back door.

  Carlos and I, being the tallest, took the one over the sink. Dominic and Jerome fought over the smaller window on the door.

  I could see that both women were in a deep trance, their eyes closed, hands joined across the table. The water in the salad bowl was on fire, so was the mound of dirt in the center of the bowl, which appeared to have taken on an unnatural form, vaguely resembling human faces.

  “It’s happening,” Dominic whispered.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “The guardians, they’re answering the summons.”

  Carlos said, “Yeah, but there’s only three of them.”

  “Three guardians?”

  “Yeah.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “There’s only three faces. One guardian is still missing.”

  “Do the girls know that?”

  Dominic answered, “I don’t know, maybe not. Their eyes are closed.”

  “Ooh!” Carlos again. “Lilith’s saying something. I think she’s calling for the guardians to take the prime essentials now.”

  “She can’t.” Dominic began reaching for the doorknob. “They’re not all there yet. We have to warn her.”

  “No,” I said, leaning over and slapping his hand away. “We shouldn’t intervene.”

  “We have to,” he said in an angry hush, “or it won’t work.”

  I inserted myself between him and the door, herding him back several steps. “I said no. We can’t interrupt.”

  “Yes, we can.” He pointed to Jerome and then at the door. “Jerome, open it now.”

  I turned my back on Dominic to warn Jerome he better stay put. “Don’t open—” I started, but I wasn’t quick enough.

  Jerome’s hand was already on the knob. He gave it a twist just as Dominic broke free and rushed the door. With their combined weight leaning into it, the door flew open, banging hard against the wall. The two spilled into the room. Dominic hit the floor, but Jerome, more nimble on his feet, merely staggered into the room a few steps and stopped just ahead of the table.

  A gust of wind blew through the door, marked by a ghostly trail of white vapor and sparkling dust. It swirled in cyclonic fashion around the fiery bowl of water and carved another face into the mound of dirt.

  “Wendy Skye,” I heard Carlos say under his breath.

  “What?”

  “The guardian, Air. That’s what was missing.”

  Lilith and Ursula appeared unaware of the guardian’s arrival, or for that matter the commotion Dominic and Jerome caused. Instead, Lilith continued chanting in rhyme, something about fire, air, earth and water bringing about a new world order.

  Ursula, for her part, maintained a placid pose, her eyes closed, lips thin and tight. If not for the subtle rise and fall of her breast, I’d have thought her dead in her seat.

  I was about to nudge Carlos and tell him we should go in and get Dominic, when it happened. The forces of the four elements collapsed in on itself in a tremendous rush, melting the bowl into a solid glass marble the size of a nickel.

  Carlos and I hurried into the room. Dominic was just getting up. Ursula opened her eyes and smiled as though fate had lifted the weight of the world off her shoulders. Lilith opened hers with a disapproving glare at the four of us.

  “What are you all doing here?” she asked.

  The others looked to me for the explanation. “The door was open,” I said. “We came in.”

  “No it wasn’t.”

  I looked at Dominic. He pointed to Jerome. “He opened it.”

  Carlos said, “You told him to!”

  “I was only trying to help.”

  “Enough!” said Lilith. She nodded at Ursula. “You okay, Urs?”

  Ursula smiled like a china doll, pure and angelic. “I am fine for the asking, thanks be to you.”

  “Do you still have the… You know.”

  She shook her head. “I do not feel it.”

  “What about the quintessential?”

  She raised her arm and held it out straight, making a fist and directing it toward the living room.

  “Oh, no,” said Dominic. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

  “What?” I asked.

  Lilith said, “Let her do it.”

  Ursula opened her hand quickly, as if casting water from her fingertips. A violent blast of energy shot from her palm, crossing the room in a sonic wave that splintered the front door into a million pieces. The sight of it made me recoil, as I considered what a blast like that might do to someone if she were angry enough to use such powers on him. I realized then why Dominic was so afraid of Ursula possessing the quintessential, and could only imagine the unlimited abilities she controlled as the Pentacle Prodigy.

  “All right,” said Lilith, seemingly satisfied with the results. “At least we got rid of the prime essentials.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  She crooked her brow as though I should know. “Because, Tony, if she still had the prime, she’d have blown the entire side of the house clear into orbit.”

  “And you were okay with letting her try it?”

  She palmed the table and pushed her chair away from it. “Come on.” She stood. “Let’s get this cookout started. Ursula, how about a margarita to celebrate?”

  “Oh, yes, sister,” she answered, snatching the glass marble off the table and pocketing it. “I so look forward to setting that little worm free.”

  “Are you kidding? Ursula, that worm’s—”

  “Lilith!” Dominic shook his head.

  “What I mean, is that the worm is already making plans to become a badass beautiful butterfly.”r />
  Ursula smiled. “Then we must drink quickly and spare none, lest he drown in wait of our good deed.”

  Dominic said, “I’ll make the margaritas. You all go and get started. Tony, there’s a cooler out back with beer in it.”

  “I’m cooking,” said Carlos, as if anyone else would want that job.

  While Dominic started on the margaritas, the rest of us went outside, grabbed some beers from the cooler and took up residence around the picnic table. Night had all but consumed the day. The sun was gone, but a pale purple sky gave light to the western horizon, giving it that soft velvety look that often hints of a brighter tomorrow. Then again, it might have just been my enthusiasm for the coming of night. I so welcomed it.

  “Hey.” I looked at Carlos. He had loaded the grill with charcoal and was patting down his pockets. “Anyone got a light. I need some fire to start the grill.”

  Jerome walked up to him. “Fire?”

  “Yeah, little buddy, I need fire. Would you go into the house and ask Dominic if—”

  That’s all he got out, when Jerome snapped his fingers and produced a six-inch flame on the end of his thumb. He then reached his hand into the grill and set it alight in a whoosh of wind and flame.

  “What the hell!” Lilith jumped up from the table and backed away a full three steps. “Tony. When did he learn to do that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, standing, but moving closer to Jerome rather than further back. “Jerome, how did you do that?”

  Jerome looked up at me, frowning as though he had done something wrong. “I sorry, Bossman. I no make fire no more.”

  He pointed to the keg-sized barrel of rainwater on the back porch, cupped his hands and simulated the act of dumping water onto the fire. Miraculously, a beach ball-sized blob of water lifted from the barrel, floated over to the grill and dropped onto the flames, snuffing them out completely.

  Lilith nearly had a flippen` bird, understanding the implications of what had happened long before the rest of us did.

  “Mothers of the coven have mercy,” she said, “I don’t believe it!”

  “I know,” said Carlos. “Look at that. Jerome’s a witch. Tony, why didn’t you tell us Jerome was a witch?”

  “Because I didn’t know it myself,” I said, although I don’t know how I was able to speak with my jaw permanently cropped open as it was.

  “He’s not a witch, you idiots.” Lilith marched up to Jerome, knelt before him and peered into his eyes. “He’s absorbed the essence of the prime essentials!”

  “What?”

  “The spirits must have picked Jerome to be the new guardian when he came through the kitchen door with the wind.”

  “Oh, no.” I shook my head in dismay. “This can’t be good.”

  “Oh, no is right,” said Lilith. She stood and faced me, gritting her teeth, her eyes narrowed to slits the width of dimes. “You, Mister Marcella…” It’s never good when she refers to me as Mister Marcella. “You did this. This is your mess. You clean it up.”

  She turned and started for the house just as Dominic was coming out with a tray full of salty-rimmed glasses and a pitcher of margaritas. She slammed the tray bottom with an uppercut as she passed him, an uppercut surely meant for me.

  Ursula turned with an arrogant shrug and followed her in. Dominic didn’t even attempt to pick up the tray or the broken glasses. He wandered up to Carlos and me. When it appeared to him that neither of us would volunteer the crux of the situation, he asked Jerome.

  “What happened?”

  Jerome shook his head. “I no make fire no more.”

  “Okay.” He seemed satisfied with that. Then he looked at the waterlogged grill. “What happened here?”

  Carlos said, “It’s a long story.”

  Chapter 14

  Thanks to the fiasco following the séance, Lilith canceled the cookout and sent everybody home. As for Jerome and me, she indicated we should spend the night outside, contemplating our options. When asked what options, she suggested I go fuck myself. I explained to Jerome the impossibility of that particular suggestion and advised him we should consider an alternate plan.

  I had never seen her so pissed. Truth was, however, spending the night outside with Jerome was no punishment. We had cold beer, raw meat, the ability to make fire and good company.

  I awoke around six-thirty the next morning, aroused by the aroma of fresh coffee wafting under my nose. Lilith had brought out a mug for me, along with a smile and the heaven scent of her soft hair glistening in the early sun.

  “Good morning,” I said, sitting up and pressing my back to the tree I had fallen asleep against the night before. I stretched my legs out straight and accepted the coffee, cupping it with both hands to chase the chill from my bones.

  “Where’s Jerome?” she asked.

  “Oh, he’s here, I’m sure.” I looked around. “He was beside me when I fell asleep last night. Probably chasing…” I cut myself short before finishing. She didn’t need to guess the rest. “So, you’re up early.”

  She leaned down and kissed me on the cheek. “I’m sorry I made you sleep out here last night.”

  “Oh, that’s okay,” I said, shrugging an easy forgiveness. “We screwed up. I get that.”

  “No, it was an accident. I should have locked the door.” She straddled my legs and sat on my knees so that her face was barely twelve inches from mine. “Tony, I know your return has been difficult, and I know you didn’t ask for any of this.”

  “No, but I did bring Jerome back with me. That was stupid.”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “But…”

  “No buts. It was stupid.”

  “Oh, I thought there was a but in there.”

  She took a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “The only but is you.”

  “You mean like a butthead?”

  “No. The but is that I’m worried about you.”

  “Why?”

  She drilled me with her eyes and tried peering into my soul the way she had done so many times before. I waited for the question, the one I would not need to respond to, yet somehow she would know the answer.

  “Tony, did you go back to the woods yesterday?”

  “What?” I laughed half-heartedly to suggest the absurdity of the question, but it came out sounding like a confession. “Why would you think—”

  “Did you?”

  I set my coffee mug on the ground, reached up and brushed the hair from the sides of her face with my thumbs. The ceramic mug had warmed them so that they raised a blush upon her cheeks. She had never looked more beautiful to me than she did then, her radiant skin glowing in the morning sun, her eyes so wide and bright. I studied them intently. They gave up nothing. She rolled her lower lip in and bit it gently, perhaps to entice me into distraction. It worked.

  “Yes. I went back to the woods yesterday.”

  “Did you look for the portal?”

  “Yes.”

  I expected she would ask next if I found the portal. I would have to tell her yes. But I knew she knew the answer. My soul had given it up already.

  She leaned in softly, as if a breeze had pushed her to me. Our lips met. She closed her eyes. I closed mine. We kissed a stranger’s kiss, a first kiss that lovers soon forget when their embrace becomes familiar.

  Our cheeks brushed as she leaned in closer and whispered in my ear. “Don’t go.”

  “W…what?” I tried that phony laugh again.

  She faded back until her face, framed by the wooded pines behind her, filled my view. I thought she’d say something else, something I didn’t know, something maybe I did.

  She rolled off my legs, accidentally knocking my coffee mug over as she stood. I squinted up at her and smiled. She gestured a nod over her shoulder toward the house. “Dominic and Ursula are here.”

  “Yeah? How come?”

  “I have an idea what to do about Jerome.”

  “Do you? What is it?”

  “It’s danger
ous.”

  “Everything’s dangerous with you.”

  “It’s okay, though, just so long as he does what he’s told. He’ll listen to you, won’t he?”

  “Like a kid listens to his dad, I suppose.”

  “Hmm...” She folded her arms below her breasts and shifted her weight onto one hip. I recognized that pose. She was considering other alternatives, or perhaps waiting on me to provide one. In the end, she tossed her hair back, dropped her arms and said, “Let’s hope he listens better than that.”

  I followed Lilith into the house to find Dominic and Ursula at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and nibbling on blueberry muffins.

  “Master Tony, merry meet.” This from Ursula, who I determined hands down was the second most beautiful woman in the world. As it did for Lilith, the morning sun stealing in through the window paid equally high compliments to her natural radiance. The difference was in her eyes. Though bright and clear like Lilith’s, they lacked the ability to mine sweep the soul, to peer beyond the innocence of her own and harvest the inner being of others. I used to think Dominic was lucky for that. I don’t anymore.

  “Merry meet to you, Ursula. Dominic?”

  “Hey, Tony.” He held up a white and blue paper bag from Muffin City down on Jeffcott. “You want a blueberry muffin. There’s one left.”

  I waved it off. “Better save it for Carlos. He’ll smell it on your breath, you know.”

  “Oh, yeah. Good thinking.” He rolled the bag up and set it aside. “So, what did you do, sleep outside again?”

  I shot him a look that said bite me. He thought it was funny. I said to Lilith, “I’m gonna grab a quick shower. Would you put another pot of coffee on?”

  “Sure.” She walked up and kissed me. “I’ll bring it in to you.”

  “Thanks.”

  While in the shower, I heard the door open and figured it was Lilith bringing me my coffee. I was under the showerhead rinsing soap out of my eyes, when I felt a draft from the curtain pulling back and a gentle pinch on my bottom.

  “Cute,” I said to her. “Why don’t you come in and join me?”

  She shut the door again without responding to my invitation. When I got out, I found a hot coffee on the vanity. Covering the top of the mug was a note that read, “Love you,” signed with a little smiley face.