I contemplated that. Sneaking a glance at my sisters, neither of them were wearing expressions of doubt, distrust, or aggravation. Daniella was even giving Jo—Doc a look of what could be called affection.
So, okay. I had a grandpa now. I could get behind that, as tough as it was going to be initially. But with Meema gone, the only one left who knew us, who’d been with us, was Jo— Doc. I’d have to go into my room and practice saying that a million times. We’d always been so careful to not say his name, or talk about him. But his words, and his expressions...he wasn’t John anymore. He was Doc, and our family. As John, he’d been Meema’s dad. But now? I couldn’t explain the shift, but I felt it. His expression was sincere. All right. I had enough enemies to worry about. If he was now an ally, I’d take it.
“Fair enough. I give you my word, J--Doc, that once we sort this demon, I’ll help you with whatever you want to do. I’ll even work with this one.” I jerked my thumb at Zane. “And that gives me pain to say. I don’t have anything to do with necromancers.”
“Well, it’s good that you’re back from Hell all changed and sweetness and light instead of your normal grumpy self,” Deirdre said. “Because while you were gone, we’ve interrogated the daylights out of Zane. We vote he’s a good addition to the neighborhood, and that you have to get over yourself.”
I was so happy to be alive and with my sisters that I didn’t even snap back like I had only a few days before. “Really? Tell me what changed your mind.” I wasn’t going to just roll over, though.
“I am a necromancer. My father was one, and that is how he raised me. But I also studied with a witch after I broke my ties with him. I prefer different magical arts. Rather than raising the dead to exploit them, I try and help them.”
“Is that how you found him?” I asked Doc. I didn’t mention the fact that he’d studied with a witch—one that had to agree to take him on—was compelling. He’d mentioned that before, but I hadn’t been paying attention, I recalled.
“I met Doc while I was out walking.”
“But I’d passed along the word I was interested in meeting,” Doc added.
“To the ghost gossip hotline? Really? Those jerks. They never said a word!” No wonder all the ghosts down at Saloon 10 had avoided me that day.
“At the time, I didn’t feel it was your business,” Doc said. “And while I cannot leave, I have friends who pass by.”
“Keep your hair on. I told you, we’ll help you, if that’s what you want. We need to figure out what really happened between Granny and the demon. He’s not going to stop, so we need to stop him. That means I’m open to ideas,” I added.
“The diaries,” Doc said.
“What diaries?” Daniella asked.
“Your grandmother kept a diary every day of her life. I knew her but for a short time while alive, and even then, she wrote in it daily. Usually at night.”
“Meema never said anything,” Deirdre said.
“I doubt she knew. I know you all loved your grandmother, but she was a woman with many secrets,” Doc said.
“Yeah, and obsessive as hell with no sense when it came to demons,” I added.
“The diaries may shed some light on what really happened,” Zane said. “By coming here now, so long after her death, Ashlar was able to say anything.”
“Do you think the contract was fake?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No, I do not. Demons take their bargains seriously. But as I said, that contract was written by Ashlar, and it was written in his favor. I am sorry to tell you, but your grandmother never had a chance.”
“Even shady jerks like Ashlar?” Deirdre asked.
“Well, she beat him. She got away,” I said. “Even if that means we’re doomed.”
“I think there may be some hope. Not a lot. But Doc may be right,” Zane said. “The diaries may hold a key that sends us to the information we need. I’ll go home and start reading and see what I can find. They are magical, and descended from God, so demons are hard to kill. But everything has to die. I’ll come by later and let you know what I find.”
We all said goodbye and watched him go. As the door closed behind him, Daniella said, “I’m glad you’re not being an ass, Desi, because he’s a good guy. He’s been here every day offering to help since you and Meema disappeared.”
“We need to find the diaries,” I said to Doc. “We need to get ready. Ashlar is going to figure out that I’m gone sooner than I’d like, if he doesn’t know already. He’ll be back.”
“We need to lay Meema to rest,” Deirdre said. “That comes first.”
“Are you crazy? That needs to happen, but we need to be ready. I don’t think you understand. This guy was gleeful at having hundreds of years to torture me. And he is gunning for all of us! He’s not going to see that I’ve gotten away and think oh, well, too bad for me!” I could feel the panic rising. How could they not see what was coming?
“We have to live in this town,” Daniella said. “I know you’re scared, but have you forgotten that? Whatever we do, we still have to live here if we want the kind of life we’ve built for ourselves. So we need to think of that in addition to getting ready for the demon.”
“We could leave,” I said.
“Now I know you’re not thinking straight,” Deirdre said. “Yeah, we could leave. But we lose everything that we need to fight against this guy. We’re sitting ducks if we leave. We have to stay here. It’s where we can have the ability to fight back. And why should we leave because he’s all bent out of shape?”
The world was upside down. I was normally the one with the reasonable lines. But right now, all I could think was that I didn’t want to go back to Hell. I really, really wanted to stay here. “You’re right. If we leave, we have nothing that will fight him.”
“Why don’t you go sleep some more, and Dani and I will come up with something. I think Meema might have blown herself up in an accident in the shop. She was so crazy with her herbal experiments,” Deirdre added with a smile. “And this won’t take long, Desi. We are also totally capable of multitasking.”
It was funny because it was true. Meema did a lot of spell creation and casting in the back room of the store. She’d blown her eyebrows off more than once.
“That would be a good cover,” I said. I could feel myself moving away from the blind panic.
“You’ll need a body,” Doc said quietly.
“We can manage that as well,” Daniella said. “Go sleep, Desi. You need it. We don’t know what Hell did to you. It might not show up right away.”
I was about to protest when I yawned so hard my jaw cracked. I thought about my reaction just a couple of minutes ago. Hell had done something to me. I couldn’t keep going off like this, or I’d hurt us more than anything else. “Okay. I’m not going to fight.”
“Thank the goddess for small miracles,” Deirdre said. “First time for everything. I think sending you to Hell might have been the thing we all needed.”
“Shut up,” I said, throwing my napkin at her. “Just for that, I’m not touching the dishes.” I got up and started back to my room.
“You’re just adding on more later,” Deirdre and Daniella said in unison, in a perfect imitation of Meema’s voice.
It was exactly what I needed. My worry wasn’t gone, but we had a plan. That was a good place to start.
Chapter Seven
When I wokee up, the clock told me I’d slept for about five hours. It was still daylight outside, and the house seemed to be intact, which meant Ashlar hadn’t shown up yet. I knew he was coming back. It was only a matter of time.
Downstairs, it was quiet, and no one was around. No one had left a note, which I found annoying.
“They’re all down at the shop, or the funeral parlor, or some such.” Doc drifted into the kitchen.
“Thanks,” I said. “I’m trying to remember to call you Doc,” I added. “John is habit.”
“Well, I haven’t been much of a family member. I’ve had m
y own concerns that have made me … surly a great deal.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” I agreed.
“It’s not as though you girls ever treated me as family,” he shot back.
I forgot, sometimes, how quick he was. That had been his reputation when he was alive, and he hadn’t lost that when he died.
He continued, “I think you’re ashamed of me. You don’t use my name, even though I’m the only male with any blood relation in this family.”
He was right. Meema had married a man that she told us was not our father, and he hadn’t been a big part of our lives. She’d never told us exactly who our father was, and after a while, we stopped asking. We had her and Granny and it didn’t seem to matter.
“I don’t think you understand,” I said as I poured cereal and then milk into my bowl.
“Enlighten me.” He crossed his arms and there wasn’t an ounce of give in his manner.
“There’s a thing with you. With your memory. With the idea of who you are. Or were,” I added. “It’s been like that for ages. After you died, the papers, and then the media, got on the Doc Holliday bandwagon. You’re a folk hero. As far as the rest of the world knows, you don’t have any children. There are theories, but none of them ever landed anywhere near here, and we like it that way.”
“You’re ashamed of me,” he said flatly as though I hadn’t said one single word.
“No, I am not. I don’t want all the notoriety that would come with telling anyone. In addition to all the people who would think we were lying.”
“So you are saying you do not want publicity?”
“Doc, you’ve been here, all this time, with us. When have we ever sought out publicity? Granny, and then Meema, had enough to keep us on the rails, and make it look like we’re a couple of generations more than we really are, and stop the old biddies who thought one of us was looking at her tired old husband.” This whole other-women’s-husbands thing was kind of a theme here. It’s tough, when you’re living down dance hall girl ancestors in a small town. Even though Granny, for all her batshit crazy, was worth ten of most of the people here.
He laughed, and it transformed his face.
I realized that I hadn’t seen a lot of Doc in happy situations. “Have you been so unhappy here?”
“I have, indeed. But after I watched you and Little Desi—”
“Little Desi?” I interrupted.
“That is how I referred to your mother, even though Desdemona never allowed me to see her while she herself was alive.”
“Have you seen Granny since she died?” I asked, getting us further off topic.
“No. She knew of my anger. She knew I wanted to be free, and she refused. She always said to me that she was promised love, and since I was there, that’s where I was going to be. I never understood that, although I do now.”
“She didn’t tell you about Ashlar?”
“Would you have shared such information?”
“Good point. Back to you. I’m sorry you’ve been miserable.”
“And I am sorry that I have added to the misery around this house. That creature, that demon”—Doc shook his head—“explains so much that I never understood. Your mother knew, I believe, that your grandmother had done something less than decent. I do not believe she knew the extent of matters.”
“I’ll agree with that. I think Meema was as shocked as we were. Granny is the key here. We need to find her diaries.”
“We will need to search both her room and your mother’s room.”
I sagged against the counter. That felt really disrespectful. Meema was barely gone. My eyes welled up—I was crying more in this week than I had in fifty years—and I rubbed at them.
“I know this all seems too soon, darlin’, but I happen to agree with your assessment of the demon. He is not going to be pleased to find you gone. He will return here.”
The fear that I’d been able to push away returned and hit me like a sledgehammer. “I can’t go back there, Doc. I won’t. I’ll kill myself before I let him win, much less drag me back.”
“I understand. Let us hope it doesn’t get to that point. I will do all I can to help you. It may not be much, mind you,” he added.
“Why the sudden change?”
He looked thoughtful, knowing exactly what I was referring to. “When I saw the demon attack the three of you, I realized that while your grandmother and I may have become enemies, I enjoyed her greatly while I lived here. She was a lively woman, full of spirit. And she had my daughter. She didn’t tell me, which was probably wise of her. It made me sad to think that she did all this because she wanted my love so badly. That want became twisted, and warped. I asked myself then, what had I ever done to better things? What had I ever done to make things right? With her, with your mother, with you girls? I’d done nothing. And I realized how much I loved your mother, my daughter. How much I loved you all. How proud I was of you. Then I realized what a fool I’d been, carrying a grudge all these years. I decided that I was changing my ways. Granted, it’s been all of five days,” he smiled, “But I’m a changed man.”
“Do you still want to go?”
“I cannot answer that at this time. I do not know. I know that I cannot leave you all to face this on your own. I have a hand in these dealings, and regardless of what may have been said, I did not cheat, and I played my cards to the end.”
“Great. You think this is the end?”
“I do not. I have seen all of you do a great deal over the years. You’re strong and smart. I think you have the best shot of defeating this demon.”
“Do you trust Zane?”
He wasn’t expecting that. “I beg your pardon?”
“Do you trust Zane? You know, the necromancer you hired?”
“I do indeed. I will confess, I hired him in a moment of desperation, where I would have hired Sallie the dog if the opportunity presented itself. But his behavior since you and Little Desi disappeared has been that of a gentleman.”
“What did you and Meema argue about?”
“I asked her to help me go. She told me she didn’t know how. I told her that her damned mother had done this, so she could right things. She disagreed. I told her I’d take matters into my own hands, then, and at that point, the conversation ended.”
I’d been right. They’d argued over this. Which was why Meema had told me not to just pop off and beat the necromancer down. I didn’t think the argument had been that simple, but he could keep his secrets in this. I didn’t think he was hiding anything we had to know. At least, I hoped not.
“We need to find those diaries. You said she wrote in them every day?”
“She did indeed. She wrote a great deal at night, and sometimes she would cry. Again, I wonder what part I played in that, and if I shall regret helping you to find them.” He smiled at me, but it was a sad smile. “It is never pleasant to revisit the scenes of one’s past, particularly if that past puts them in an unflattering light.”
“You were a shit to her, weren’t you? When you lived here, in Deadwood?”
Doc shrugged. “From my vantage point now, yes. At the time, I was on borrowed time. I determined that I should live as I pleased. I made no promises to any women. How could I? I was a walking death sentence.”
“Fair enough. You know, we have never talked like this, ever, in all the time I’ve been alive.”
“It’s been a house of secrets.”
“Yeah, well, that ends. Secrets are what got us into this mess. Come on, let’s go find these damn diaries and see what further mess Granny left us.” My tone was mild. But I hoped he’d gotten the warning. I was done with secrets popping up on the lawn and dragging me off to Hell.
Something Doc had said struck me. Granny had been full of life and spirit when he met her, and he’d had fun with her. She’d obviously changed. I’d seen women go crazy for love, and had a few of them in our shop, demanding a love potion. It was never pretty. It made me sad to think Granny might have gon
e that way. But considering the deal she’d made with Ashlar, it looked like that was exactly what happened. I didn’t have a good memory of it. We’d been barely ten when she died.
We went up to Granny’s room, which was where Meema had moved into after we got older. The house had been moved since Granny died, so where the diaries might have ended up was anyone’s guess. But we’d emptied the house, and as far as I knew, Meema hadn’t said she’d found them.
Would she tell us if she had? This family mystery took on more layers and crap every moment. I wish I knew what Meema had known.
If she had, she would have hidden them in her room, away from us. It didn’t make sense though. Doc was right. Meema had been shocked at the agreement Ashlar showed us.
Two hours later, with no sign of my sisters, I collapsed on the floor of Meema’s room. “I don’t know where she could have hidden this, Doc. We’ve been over the entire room.”
Doc looked thoughtful. He’d even passed through the floors to see if he could see anything, and come up empty.
“Where did she put the diary after she finished writing in it? You said she wrote at night, right?”
“It was by her bedside. I am afraid I didn’t pay much attention to what I thought was the writing of women.”
“Sometimes you’re just a peach,” I said.
“I prefer a daisy. And yes, I am.”
I threw one of Meema’s slippers that I’d pushed aside to crawl under the bed at him. It went right through him.
“That’s extremely rude.”
“I’m feeling extremely rude. Where the hell are these—” I stopped. Getting up, I went out into the hall. Our house was built in 1884. There was a large cupboard in the hallway where linens were stored. It was a massive wooden built-in with two large, ornate doors. The cupboard on the right extended to the outer wall of the house, and there was a compartment cut into it. We never knew who had done it but it was a great place to hide things.
I tore into the cupboard, pulling out blankets, and curtains, and who knew what else. There, at the bottom and back, was the small trap door I remembered. We’d tried to put Deirdre in there once, and Meema had almost whipped us. Almost. Whippings never were much of a deterrent to us. Not even Deana, who was the most mild-mannered.
Hellborn Page 6
