by Lisa Sanchez
Southeastern Hoodoo, an offshoot of the Voodoo religion, was widely practiced by many who sought access to dark, supernatural forces for the purpose of gaining power, luck, and even revenge.
I continued reading down the page, taking in a laundry list of odd, Hoodoo superstitions and bizarre spells until my eyes stumbled across the answer to my desperate pleas. The entry was so simple, it almost seemed too easy, and I had to read it twice.
To harm the one who has wronged you, simply obtain a lock of his/her hair, burning a portion of it and discarding the rest. Thereafter, you may destroy your victim in any manner you choose.
I shook my head in disbelief. “Seriously?” Was the answer to my problem really that simple? I ran my hand over my forehead and back through my hair as I sat and stared at the page in front of me. What was an entry like this doing in the book? I’d been warned time and time again about the lure of dark magic. Was this some kind of a test? My head swam with confusion, and I could barely concentrate. There was a gentle knocking on my bedroom door.
“Come in.”
“It’s just me,” Taylor said as she walked into the room and sat down on the edge of my bed. “I’m going crazy. Is Jessica okay? Gabriel spoke with Xan last night before he brought me here, and he said she was better now, you know, awake. I tried calling her cell but she won’t pick up.”
“Yes, she’s okay. Thank God.” I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that, at the very least, my friend was no longer lying comatose on Xan’s couch. “She stubbornly insisted on going over to her mother’s house. Did you try her there?”
She picked at an imaginary ball of fuzz on my comforter. “Yeah. I did, and there was no answer at her house either.” She looked up. “I’m worried.”
The Texas-sized lump in my throat took on beach-front property, as panic set in again.
Jessica had been put through the ringer yesterday, and the thought of anything else happening to her made me sick. I hopped off my bed and grabbed my bag from the floor.
“What are we gonna do?” Taylor asked.
I slung my bag over my neck and shoulder. “We’re gonna go check out her house and make sure everything is okay, that’s what we’re gonna do.”
Taylor gave a sober nod. “Okay. I just need to go change out of my jammies.” She eagle-eyed my clothes I’d never bothered to change out of from the day before with obvious disapproval.
I heaved a sigh and rolled my eyes. “We don’t have time to mess around. Here,” I said and stepped forward, glamouring a new outfit for her.
She glanced down at her clothing and scowled. “Ugh, a boxy T-shirt? You’ve got to be kidding me. And what about your clothes? I mean…”
Oh, for the love of…“Taylor! We don’t know where Jessica is. It doesn’t matter what we’re wearing.” Seriously? Had she lost her mind?
“Well, all right! Sheesh!” She looked down to her feet, nervously playing with the hem of her T-shirt. “I’m just…scared. And when I’m nervous or scared I say stupid things. I’m just so worried about Jessica.” Her voice wobbled as she spoke, giant tears welling in her eyes.
I patted her arm then gave it a squeeze. “It’s okay, Taylor,” I said, trying to sound reassuring even though I was slightly irritated with her. I felt like an ass for snapping at her, but we really didn’t have time to waste. “We really need to get going.”
I took a step toward the door and then stopped. The fastest way to get to Jessica’s mother’s house would be to teleport. I’d done it twice before. What was stopping me from trying again? I bit my lip, unsure of whether or not to attempt it. I wasn’t really sure how I’d done it in the first place.
Well, why not give it a try?
I closed my eyes and focused all my energy and attention on my bed, willing myself to magically disappear into thin air.
Nothing. Not a damn thing happened.
“Martha? What are you — ”
“Sshhh. Give me a second here.”
Oh, for crap’s sake. How the hell had I done it before? I thought back to the two instances where I’d spontaneously teleported earlier in the day. Both times I’d been really upset.
“Huh…” I mused. Maybe that particular power was fueled by strong emotion? Lord knows I had plenty of those to go around, what with the craptastic few days I’d been having.
“Let’s just try this again,” I said under my breath. This time when I closed my eyes, I let the panic I felt for Jessica, along with the worry that plagued me earlier about my great-grandmother, to grow and multiply until I literally shook with anxiety. Just as before, an electrical current sparked, deep within me, traveling up and down the length of my spine, and toward my outer limbs. The familiar, low-level buzz filled my ears, and it wasn’t until I heard a loud gasp that I opened my eyes to find myself sitting atop my bed, several feet away from where I’d just been standing.
“You can close your mouth, Taylor. It’s okay.”
“Holy dooley! Did you just — ”
“Yes,” I said, cutting her off, feeling quite pleased with myself. “I figured out how to poof back and forth all on my own without help from anyone else.”
Taylor just stared at me, eyes wide, before shaking her head incredulously. “I can’t keep up. There is so much going on right now, my poor brain just can’t keep up.”
I felt a momentary twinge of sadness for Taylor, knowing how sensitive she was, and how everything affected her more than the rest of us. Frankly, I was surprised she held up as well as she did under the circumstances.
“Come on,” I said, crossing the room in a few short steps and grabbing hold of her wrist. “We need to get over to Jessica’s house, like now!”
I tugged her arm hard, pulling her until we stood in the center of the room. “Be very still and quiet so I can concentrate.” I laced my fingers through hers, then gave her a good hard stare. “And for goodness sakes, don’t let go of my hand, okay?”
“Wait,” she said, her voice filled with panic. “You’re not going to try and poof us both over there are you? Crap, Martha. You’re not exactly an expert at it yet, are you? What if you do it wrong? What if we lose some parts along the way?”
I groaned inwardly and rolled my eyes. “God, Taylor. I love you, but right now I need you to shut up!”
Her forehead creased with frustration, and she scowled at me. “Well, all right! Sheesh!”
I continued giving her the evil eye until she was silent. Closing my eyes, I gripped her hand tightly and allowed my irritation at her lack of confidence in me, along with my worry over Jessica, fuel my emotions until I was once again buzzing like a live wire, full of electricity.
Taylor’s own worry and fear traveled through her like a conduit, and with a loud bang, we were no longer standing in my room, but in front of Jessica’s house.
“Ugh, twice is enough for me, thank you!”
“Taylor, be quiet,” I said, trying to hush her. The entire neighborhood didn’t need to know we were there.
“I hate that,” she continued on, completely oblivious to my urgings.
“Taylor, please.”
“If you, Xan, and Gabriel want to poof yourselves back and forth, that’s fine with me. Just don’t expect me to come along for the ride. Ugh, it makes my mouth feel all dry and funny.”
“Taylor!”
“What?” she asked, sounding slightly irritated with me for raising my voice.
“You need to keep it down, please. We have no clue who or what may be waiting for us in that house, and I’d rather keep our presence here unknown. Is that okay with you?”
“Yes, fine. Sorry,” she said with a huff. She crossed her arms in front of her and mumbled something I thankfully couldn’t make out.
Jessica’s mother, Karen, lived in the center of a long row of early nineties tract homes. The sun was just beginning to rise, casting a lovely
glow over the two-story house. The property was warm and welcoming, sporting a well-groomed yard complete with an assortment of happy looking flowers, and a portly garden gnome, nestled alongside an impressive oak tree.
I eyed the porcelain gnome speculatively. “Hmph, stupid lawn décor manufacturers,” I mumbled to myself. “Gnomes are shifty little buggers, not pint-sized versions of Santa Claus. Idiots.”
“What are you saying?” Taylor asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Nothing.” I shook my head and motioned for her to follow me around the side of the house. “Let’s go.”
If there was a commotion, I didn’t want an easy audience, and decided entering from the side of the house was the best option. Besides, I knew Jessica hid the spare key under a rock in one of the large planters that lined her back patio.
“Stay behind me,” I said as I unlocked and opened the side door that led to Jessica’s garage.
Taylor nodded and grabbed hold of the back of my shirt with a loud gulp.
The garage was pitch black, the musty smell of gasoline, old boxes, and dog food filling the air. I quickly willed the light on, refusing to allow anyone or anything to jump out at me in the dark. If I was going to be attacked, I wanted to know what I was facing.
My heart raced as I processed what I was looking at. Karen’s car sat in the center of the garage as it always did when she was home, but the driver’s side door was wide open, and the parking lights were on. I slowly made my way around the vehicle to see that the keys were in the ignition, which had been turned slightly, causing the lights to come on.
“Martha…” Taylor’s voice wobbled and cracked, full of fear. “What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a large, brown smear that trailed down the driver’s side window. The smudge stopped at the handle. I glanced back at Taylor to see her eyes tearing up.
She knew as well as I did, exactly what the smear was. Blood.
Bile rose up from my stomach, burning my throat and mouth. “No,” I said, trying desperately to turn my feelings of defeat into anger. Anger would serve me much better. “No! No! No!”
“Yeeeesssssssss,” I heard a low, spine chilling voice hiss.
I whipped my head around just as Taylor started screaming bloody murder.
“Oh, crap.” I didn’t think, I just took action, swinging my arm out in front of me and pinning the hideous creature that stood before us against a large wall of shelving lining the side of the garage with my magic.
“What the hell is that thing?” Taylor managed to ask between shrieks of terror.
“It’s a Chromandi,” I shouted, my eyes never leaving the enormous, snarling, hideous beast struggling against the stronghold of my magic.
“Get inside the house! Now!” I screamed. Relief coursed through me when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Taylor shoot over the hood of the car and barrel through the open door that led into the house.
I’d read about Chromandi in the Book of Light. They were mindless, savage creatures, with razor-sharp claws full of deadly poison, and rows of jagged, sharp teeth that looked like something out of the movie Jaws. These particular demons most often served as cheap muscle for hire for evil-doers who were too busy to do their own dirty work. The only way to kill a Chromandi was to pierce it through the heart, much like killing a vampire.
There was no way I was leaving the garage without putting the hell beast down, and I quickly scanned the room for anything that would serve as a makeshift weapon. My eyes settled on a large pair of rusty, pruning shears propped up on a nearby workbench.
Extending my arm out toward the shears, with a large, sweeping motion, I sent them flying across the garage, the tip spearing the hairy demon through the heart. A horrific gurgling sound bounced off the walls of the dank room as the beast let out its last breath. Its head lolled to the side as it bled out onto the garage floor.
The sound of Taylor’s screaming set my feet in motion, and I ran through the open door into Jessica’s house. Taylor stood at the opposite end of a long hallway, fending off another Chromandi with one of Karen’s wingback dining room chairs.
Girlfriend was giving it everything she had, swinging the fancy chair back and forth as though it weighed nothing. “Get away from me, you demon freak.” She screamed again, swung back, and smacked the hairy demon square in the stomach with the chair.
The Chromandi pressed forward, unfazed by Taylor’s blow.
“Taylor! Toss the chair and get out of the way!”
Several things happened at the same time. Taylor tossed the chair high into the air and dove under the nearby dining room table.
Past the realm of irritation, I felt my feet leave the ground as I levitated off the floor. I flew toward the snaggle-toothed demon threatening to eat my friend, hellbent on putting it down. Reaching out toward the wingback chair that was still flying through the air, I shattered it into a thousand pieces. I sent the flying kindling toward the Chromandi, who’d managed to grab a hold of one of Taylor’s feet and was doing its best to pull her out from underneath the table. Several large splinters of wood sliced through the creature’s hairy back, piercing it through the heart.
With a loud grunt, the demon crashed down on top of the dining room table. And much to my surprise, the table remained upright, holding the massive weight of the heavy — and very dead — demon that lay on top of it.
“Goddammit,” Taylor shouted as she scurried out from underneath the large wooden table. “I’m tired of being attacked by ugly-ass demons. What in the fuster cluck is going on?”
“I have no idea,” I said as I lowered myself to the floor. “We need to find Jessica and — ”
“Martha! Look out,” Taylor screamed.
Everything went black.
Chapter 15
I was yanked back into consciousness by an agonizing, throbbing sensation at the back of my head, and a hot, searing pain down the center of my back. It felt like someone took a meat tenderizer to my skull and a branding iron to the flesh on my back. A low groan escaped my lips as my hand instinctively reached toward the source of my pain.
A warm hand grasped onto my wrist. “Don’t. Leave it.” That voice. So familiar.
“Xan?”
I struggled to open my eyes, my eyelids fluttering and unable to stay open under their heavy weight. Where the hell was I? And what the hell was Xan doing here?
Finally deciding they would cooperate, my eyes opened. Xan hovered over me as I lay on my side. He was dressed as he had been the night before, in a pair of jeans and nothing else.
His brows were knit together, his eyes filled with terror, worry, and something that looked a lot like panic.
I braced my hands on the cold surface of the floor, and moved to sit up, when a sudden surge of dizziness overtook me.
“Oh…I think I might be sick.” I quickly rolled away from Xan, losing the contents of my stomach. Each retch intensified my pain. The flesh on my back felt as if it were being torn apart. “It hurts,” I said, weakly as I lay motionless on my side.
“I know, mi dulce. I know it does. Try to be still. The more you move around, the faster the poison spreads.”
So that was what the searing pain in my back was. I’d been scratched by the Chromandi.
“How bad is it?” I asked, knowing that if it looked half as bad as it felt, I was in some serious shit.
“Es malo,” he said grimly while brushing a piece of hair out of my eyes. “It’s very bad.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, knowing that at that point it was useless to freak out or get angry. Chromandi venom was powerful and worked fast. With each beat of my heart, the treacherous venom flooded, invaded and poisoned my system.
I felt Xan’s strong arms slip underneath my legs and shoulders, lifting me off the cold surface of the floor and onto his lap. My vision was blurry, and I couldn’t make o
ut where we were, just that we sat in a small patch of dark, a blinding white light in the near distance.
“Where are we?” I asked, my mouth beginning to feel dry and pasty.
“We’re in the solarium of the King estate, out on Mines Road.” He cradled my head in the crook of his elbow and brushed a piece of hair out of my face.
“Promise me…” I said, struggling to form my words. My jaw felt stiff ,and there was a tingling sensation traveling up and down my arms and legs. “Promise me you will find Jessica and Taylor. Promise me you will help them.”
“Sshhh…” He placed a fingertip to my almost completely numb lips and caressed my cheek gently. I felt a set of warm, soft lips graze my forehead, and an immediate sense of loss as his hand suddenly disappeared from my face. Never again would I bask in the warmth and comfort of his touch. I’d never again taste the magnificence of his lips against my own. My first kiss with Xan had been my last. My weak heart threatened to stop beating at the thought of never seeing Xan again, and I fought to fill my lungs with air. I had to tell him how I felt. Even if he didn’t share my feelings, he had to know.
“Xan,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “I’m so sorry…for everything.” My hearing wavered in and out. I was barely able to make out what sounded like a low growl. My hearing faded away completely for a moment, but not before I heard a hiss and the juicy sound of flesh being torn into.
Everything was dark, and I grew colder by the moment. My time was up. “I…want you to know…that I — ”
“Sshhh, carino,” he said, cutting me off. He placed his wrist to my lips. The last thing I remembered was a warm, delicious liquid, filling my impossibly dry mouth, and sliding down my throat as I heard Xan speak. “Te amo con todo mi corazon. Now drink.”
***
“Mmmm,” I murmured as I lifted my arms above my head in a slow, deliberate stretch. Warm. There was no other word to describe the bliss coursing through me. My entire body felt as though it were being bathed in warm, comforting goodness. Like a cat sunning itself in front of a window on a bright, sunny day, I felt good.
