by Maher Tegan
It was all I could do to keep my jaw from dropping open. He really was good at coming up with stories. He’d also laid on a layer of light flirtation, which I thought was a little over the top. Apparently they didn’t, though.
The lady I’d told to call 911—Alicia Sanders—gave him a smile that was closer to a leer. His glamour was attractive, but I didn’t think nearly as handsome as his real face was. I rolled my eyes because he fed on it.
The woman’s hand fluttered to her throat and it was all I could do not to roll my eyes. “You can park it in the lot over on the other side of the QuickStop,” she said, laying her hand on his arm. “That’s where most vendors are.”
“Thank you so much,” I said, stepping forward and addressing Sandy Adams, the one who’d been walking the bulldog. “I just love that scarf. Where’d you get it?”
Because I didn’t like to be insincere and tried in reality to give one honest compliment to a stranger a day, I infused warmth into my tone. A smile was free, after all.
“Oh, thanks!” she said, beaming. “My mother got it for me for my birthday. It’s my favorite one!”
She wasn’t the one. “It’s great!” I replied, keeping my smile in place despite my disappointment.
That was two down. The third lady turned and hustled away before we could say anything.
“Was it something we said?” Jake asked, trying to keep his tone light.
“Oh, don’t mind her,” Sandy said, flapping her hand. “She’s been like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs today. I don’t know what’s gotten under her skin, but she’s rushed off like that more than once since breakfast. She even knocked her coffee over at breakfast and had to run home to change before we came here.”
That sounded closer to what we were looking for. “You ladies have a nice day,” I rushed to say, trying to keep an eye on the woman as she weaved through the roomful of people.
“You, too,” Alicia said, though she had eyes only for Eli. I was definitely going to tease him about that later.
“She went out the back door,” Jake said as we weaved in between people. By the time we pushed through, she was halfway across the parking lot.
“I’ve got this,” Luther said, then quickened his pace to a jog. As long as his legs were, it didn’t take him but a few seconds to catch her. We weren’t far behind.
“Excuse me,” he said, moving around in front of the woman.
“What do you want?” she asked, her gaze shifting nervously. She tried to step around him.
He took her by her upper arms and stared into her eyes. “I want to know who you are,” he said, and his voice had a honeyed quality that even made me feel a little lethargic. For some reason, I took a couple of steps toward him.
“I ... Mary Ann Phillips,” she said. “My name is Mary Ann Phillips.”
He didn’t break eye contact. “And where are you rushing off to, Mary Ann?”
Her arms were slack against her body and she didn’t seem to be able to look away from him and her voice was faint. “To meet a man. I met him on a dating site, and he said he’d meet me here. I don't want Sandy and Alicia to know.”
Luther held her gaze for a few more seconds, and she swayed a little as her knees sagged.
“That’s enough!” Eli snapped, then moved forward and put himself between Mary Ann and Luther. He straightened his spine and looked Luther dead in the eye. “You got what you wanted. You’re done.”
Mary Ann shuddered and turned to look at the rest of us, her eyes wide. “Who are you people? What do you want?”
“It’s okay,” I said, moving toward her with my palms out. “We thought you were somebody else. We’re sorry. Please, have a good day.”
She scurried off, glancing over her shoulder every few strides until she was to the street.
“We’re leaving,” Eli said, then strode toward the truck without looking back.
The tension in the car was palpable.
“What do you think you were doing?” Eli asked, turning to Luther. He’d put me in the front seat.
“I had to be sure,” Luther said, his expression unperturbed.
Eli, on the other hand, was about to pop his cork. “You were sure after she spoke two full sentences. What was that crap at the end? She almost passed out.”
“That was nothing,” he said. “Like I said, I had to be sure.”
“This isn’t the time, guys,” Jake said. “We have a bigger problem. We just cleared the only three people at the scene. We still don’t know where Prudence is, and she’s had all night and most of the morning to get a solid grip on whatever body she’s stolen.” He shifted the rearview a little so he could see Luther. “Are you sure she jumped bodies?”
He nodded, but I answered. “I talked to Melony after she went through the window. Prudence wasn’t there.”
Silence fell as we thought. “Wait a second,” I said, remembering the last moments I was with her. “The ladies weren’t the only people there.”
“Yeah, they were,” Jake said. “I was the first one out the door. They were still on the sidewalk. They were the only people in sight.”
I shook my head. “No, there was a man. He said he was a doctor.” I tried to remember exactly what he’d said. “No, actually, he just said the word physician. I didn’t even really pick up on it until now. Something wasn’t right when James told me her leg didn’t have my belt on it, but we moved away from the subject, and I haven’t really had time to think of it again.”
Luther sighed. “That was her. She was smart enough to keep her speech short so you didn’t pick up on it.”
“Why did she come back, though?”
He raised a brow at me. “The missing tourniquet?”
“Holy crap,” Eli said, his anger from a moment before shoved aside. “She went back to kill Melony.”
Luther dipped his head. “She did. Thankfully, she doesn’t have any knowledge of modern medicine and assumed the bleeding alone would do it. I shudder to think what she would have done if she’d known about IVs and transfusions.”
“I hate to point out the obvious,” Jake said, not taking his eyes off the road, “but we have no idea who this guy is. He could be anybody.”
Eli twisted in his seat. “I know you don’t want to, but you’re gonna have to call James again.”
“No,” Luther said, his tone sharp. “We’ll figure it out. This town’s small. We can do an internet search.”
“For what?” I asked. “Doctors? That guy probably wasn’t even a doctor. She probably just made that up.”
“The dog,” Jake said, whipping his head around to look at us.
“What dog?” I asked, confused. “The bulldog?”
Janke shook his head. “No. Luther almost ran over a Great Dane when we were leaving the Hennessey’s.”
“So?” Eli asked.
“Ohhhh,” I said as it clicked. “The dog probably belonged to somebody, and if our three women and the man were the only people there, it was probably the man’s. So we find the dog, we find Prudence.”
“Bingo,” Jake said. “I’m just not sure how the rest of us didn’t see him.”
I shrugged. “Aside from Sybil, you might have all been in the car already. He showed up right before she yelled for me to get a move on.”
I pulled up the information James had sent me and scrolled until I found Pete Hennessey’s number.
“Who are you calling?” Eli asked.
“Pete Hennessey,” I replied as the phone rang.
Jake glanced at me over his shoulder. “But he won’t know who you are.”
“He doesn’t have to,” I said. “He left his number with Willow in case we found any more jewelry like the pendant.”
Before they could say anything else, Pete answered. I put him on speaker.
“Hi, Mr. Hennessey. This is Sage Parker from Parker’s gallery. You left your number with us in case we found any unusual rubies. I was calling to see if you were still interested.”
“Uh, maybe, but
not right now,” he replied. “We’ve had a family emergency, so jewelry shopping is sort of at the bottom of my list.”
“Oh,” I said, grasping to find another way to get the info from him. “I’m sorry to hear that. I hope everything is okay. It’s been a little crazy here, too. My sister was bitten by a Great Dane this morning. His owner dropped his leash, and the dog bit her when she tried to grab it.”
Eli raised his brows and pressed his lips together, then gave me a nod of approval. He wasn’t the only one who could cook things up on the fly.
“That’s terrible,” he said. “Our next-door neighbors have a Great Dane, and he’s the most lovable dog I’ve ever met. John and Sara love him. They say he’s great company.”
“Oh, then I guess this was just an example of a bad apple, then. I’ll be sure to tell my sister that. Did your emergency resolve?” I really wanted to know how Melony was doing.
“Sort of,” he said. “It’s all a bit convoluted, but my wife’s pulling through, so that’s all that really matters.”
“Excellent,” I replied, truly grateful she was going to be okay. “We look forward to seeing you when things settle down.”
We said our goodbyes, and I hung up.
“So now all we need to do is find where John lives. He said it was his next-door neighbor, so that narrows it down.”
Jake turned the SUV around and headed back toward the Hennessey’s while I crossed my fingers and hoped that we were right.
Chapter 18
I t wasn’t hard to figure out which house had the Great Dane. Only one was fenced in, and the sound of baying from the backyard was a dead giveaway. Apparently, Prudence wasn’t a dog person, but that made me wonder what had happened to Sara.
We didn’t want to park right in front of the house, so we parked on the street halfway up the block and walked the rest of the way.
“Put your glamours back on,” Luther said. “The last thing we need is for her to recognize us and jump out of the body before we can lock her in it. Something innocent. Blue utility uniforms.”
The wave of energy from all of us using magic at once made my ears pop, and I noted in the back of my mind that Luther’s felt different than the rest. Not surprising, I supposed, but it was a piece to add to the puzzle when I wasn’t about to go up against my first angry spirit.
It felt strange looking at Eli, Luther, and Jake and knowing who they were but not recognizing them. I realized this was how Harry, Hermione, and Ron must have felt when they were going into the Ministry of Magic to save the day. Luther stepped forward and rang the bell while the rest of us stood back.
Nobody answered at first, so he knocked. I was starting to think he was an idiot for thinking a serial killer was just going to unlock the door when she—he—did exactly that.
“What doth—what?” the tall thirty-something man in a wrinkled suit snapped, and just with that simple slip, I knew we had her. I’d memorized the binding spell, so I started it, then Jake, Eli, and Luther joined in.
“No!” Prudence/John shouted, but Luther pushed him back inside before he alerted the whole neighborhood. We followed, and I slammed the door shut, locking it behind me before I threw a silencing spell at Prudence/John.
She tried to scream, and when nothing came out, she winged an R2D2 paperweight at me. Considering it went right through the drywall, I was glad I’d ducked just in time. Some disconnected part of my brain registered that these people were huge Star Wars fans—the paperweight was just the beginning. Lightsabers hung crossed above the fake fireplace, and a huge picture of them in Skywalker and Princess Leia cosplay costumes sat on the mantle. He was probably a pretty cool guy when he wasn’t possessed with a spirit who was trying to kill me.
Adrenaline coursed through me as I poured more magic into the binding spell, and it paid off a few seconds later. John shuddered a little as the magic wove through the air in the living room, then gave a silent scream of frustration. Eli cast a paralyzing spell, and John dropped to the couch behind him.
“That’ll do it,” Eli said, rolling his head on his shoulders. “Now what?”
Muffled sounds filtered down the stairs from somewhere on the second floor.
“Hopefully, that’s Sara and she’s not hurt,” I said, then rushed up the steps, half afraid of what I was going to find. Eli and Jake were right on my heels, and I held up a hand. The noises were coming from behind a door at the end of a hallway. I gathered my magic, and when I pushed through, a dark-haired woman about the same age as John lay tied to the bed by her wrists and ankles. She stared at me, wide-eyed with terror.
“Sara?” I asked, then did a quick magical scan to make sure all was as it appeared. When I found nothing amiss, I motioned for Eli and Jake to step back. The last thing she needed was a roomful of strangers. “Let me get her untied and settled.”
They nodded but didn’t move farther than the hall right outside the door. “Yell if you need us.”
I rushed toward her and untied her hands. She pulled the gag out of her mouth and untied one leg as I got the other. “He’s lost his mind,” she hissed, careful to keep her voice low. “I came back from a trip this morning and he was a raving lunatic, speaking in some weird language. We have to get out of here.”
“Everything’s okay,” I said, trying to infuse calm into my tone as she shoved off the bed. She swayed on her feet and took a few wobbly steps toward the door, and I wondered how long she’d been tied up. “We have him subdued downstairs, and this nightmare is going to be over soon. I promise.”
“Is she all right?” Eli asked, popping his head through the doorway.
Sara’s gaze flashed to me.
“He’s with me,” I told her before replying to him. “Yeah. She’s gonna be fine.”
“Good, catch her,” he said, then flicked his wrist. “Somnum.”
I barely realized what he was doing in time to keep her from dropping like a sack of potatoes.
“What are you doing?” I demanded. “She was calming down.”
“Yeah, just in time to freak out again,” Jake replied as he rushed forward to help me get her back on the bed. “You don’t honestly think she was going to be okay with watching us exorcise a spirit from her husband, do you?”
He had a point. “Fine. But we wake her up before we go this time. And we do right by her memories. We can’t just wipe her brain like a dry-erase board.”
“Agreed,” they both said.
By the time we got back downstairs, Sybil was there.
“Where’d you come from?” I asked, glancing toward the door.
“Believe it or not, I know how to teleport,” she replied, brow arched and her tone laced with sarcasm. “it’s much more efficient and less pretentious than my Caddy.”
“Ha, ha,” I said, smirking at her. “So we’re doing this here instead of taking him to your place?”
She nodded. “We are. I think it’s for the best. We can do a muffling spell so that neighbors don’t hear. The silencing spell you cast on John won’t hold after we start separating the souls, so we need that extra layer of protection.”
Luther picked John/Prudence up and tossed them over his shoulder like they were a sack of potatoes.
“Does he know what’s going on?” I asked, shuddering at what it would feel like to be locked in your own brain while somebody else was at the wheel. “I mean, is he in there and aware?”
She lifted a shoulder. “That varies from possession to possession. The important thing is that we make sure he’s definitely still in there. I’ve only seen it a few times, but in theory, it’s possible she tossed his soul clear out. If so, we have a much bigger problem.”
“She didn’t,” Luther said, his tone sure as he carried John’s body up the stairs. “I checked while they were upstairs and I was waiting for you. He’s still in there, though she’s got a stranglehold on him.”
Luther tipped the body onto the bed, and I ran into the room where Sara was and grabbed the bindings that Prudence had
used to tie her up. In just a couple of minutes, we had John’s body secured. Eli and I both cast muffling spells around the perimeter of the room, and I put one around the whole house just in case. Better too much than not enough.
“Ready?” Sybil asked Luther, and he nodded.
“Aren’t you going to use holy water or crosses or something?” I asked, then felt silly.
Sybil rolled her eyes at me. “At least you answered it for yourself even if you did say it out loud before you did.”
Luther reached for her hand. “You ready? It’s been a while.”
She pulled in a deep breath and nodded as she reached for his hand. As soon as they were joined, they started a chant.
“No!” John screamed as the silencing spell broke, his voice higher than it should have been. He tipped his head forward so he could see us. “I’m not leaving!”
Luther and Sybil increased the volume and the magic in the room made the hair on my arms stand up. A strange wind kicked up in the room, blowing the curtains and knocking knickknacks off the dresser. John’s body seized, and I swear it was just like in the movies. His back arched and he screamed. The lights in the room flickered, and the wind blew even harder as Sybil and Luther continued the spell. He twisted and jerked and fisted his hands, but as the chant crescendoed, John’s body started vibrating, sort of. I squinted; It was almost like I had double vision, or like he had an aura. The colors separated, and the wispy form of an infuriated woman pulled upward from him to hover above the body. Her blond hair blew around her, and her eyes glowed red as she let loose with an unearthly howl that made the hair on my arms stand up.
Luther and Sybil changed their chant as soon as she was free. It was still in Latin, so I focused on every word. They were performing a banishing spell, repeating the lines without pause. Prudence’s form swept toward them, hatred carved into her face. Jake, Eli, and I joined hands with them, pouring our magic into the spell. All of a sudden, it felt like a giant water balloon popped in the room. Prudence disappeared, and our magic collapsed in on itself.
The wind died down, and silence settled around us—the kind where you can almost hear dust moving through the air. The dog’s barking filled it after a few seconds as normal returned.
