“Don’t worry about it, miss,” the Were with auburn hair said with a friendly smile. “We’ll take care of it. We’ll just put everything on the table over there.”
“Uh, okay, but listen.” I stepped out from under his heavy hand. “This is a witch’s kitchen, okay? Don’t open any jars or canisters. Don’t eat anything with a handwritten label on it. Don’t smell anything, don’t… just don’t, okay?”
Spence chuckled lightly and nodded. “Got it. Don’t wanna wake up as a spotted frog, right?”
“Actually…” I shrugged, earning four surprised looks. “Hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you. All right, I gotta go finish getting dressed. You fellas all right in here alone?”
“Of course.” Spence nodded. “Let’s move, guys.”
“Listen, Spence?” I stopped him with a touch of a hand. “I can’t stay. I’ve got work I need to do.”
“It’s all right, Ms. Kavanagh,” Spence said with an easy smile. “You can trust us. You don’t stay on McKendrick’s crew if you’ve got light fingers, you know what I mean?” He winked at me and turned to join the others. The back of his shirt proclaimed Jameson McKendrick Construction with a contact number and another black paw print.
“Oh, and please don’t tease the cat,” I called as I walked through the living room. “He’ll scratch your eyes out.” I heard the answering chuckle before I shut my bedroom door.
***
Tollis’s camp was well into the state park. I had no idea how he managed to stay there without getting kicked out, but it almost felt as if they’d already been there for generations. I saw cars and caravans and old-fashioned wood-and-canvas wagons everywhere. Children were chasing each other through the maze of vehicles and fires, high-pitched laughter echoing after them. There were cats and dogs and goats and even, gods be good, chickens just wandering around.
I tiptoed around two chickens, hurrying away before they could peck at my shoes. Once I’d put a wagon between me and the demon birds, I tugged at my jacket, straightening it and readjusting the strap of my messenger bag. Inside were my trusty knockout powder and a vial of truth serum, just in case.
All around me were conversations mixed with the yells of harried mothers admonishing their kids, and the lyrical notes of music drifting through the pop and crackle of fires set up between circles of encampments. People eyed me as I walked through; they were a mix of plain, mundane eyes and the glowing power of Weres. I didn’t bother to ask them where Tollis was—I knew none of them would tell an outsider. It was going to be on me to find him myself. The farther into the camp I wandered, the thicker the groups of people and vehicles and tents became, until almost everything was touching everything else. I kept a tight grip on my bag, one hand on the front flap, the other on the strap.
“Girl,” a woman called, her voice striking me between my shoulder blades.
I turned, knowing instinctively that the woman was talking to me.
“Yes, you, girl.” A round, bent woman ambled up to me. Her long black hair was held back in two thin braids that hung to her waist. They swung with her rolling gait as she moved through the swarm of pups and children.
She stopped within an inch of me and squinted. Thousands of tiny lines decorated her full face, and between her eyes, a red jewel was stuck to her forehead. She clutched a long, curving pipe in one hand and a gnarled staff in the other. She leaned her heavy weight against the staff as she stared up at me. It was a rare occurrence that I was taller than someone, but if the woman was over five feet tall, then I was a two-tailed salamander.
“Come with me, girl.” The woman stuck the pipe in her mouth, pinched the sleeve of my jacket, and turned me around, dragging me with her.
I tripped and stumbled as she dragged me to a tiny canvas-topped wagon. The three-step ladder squeaked as she waddled up to the tiny door that I didn’t believe she would actually fit through. I followed her in, not quite sure why. She seemed so insistent that I couldn’t refuse her.
The inside of the wagon was like being in the overcrowded closet of someone who refused to give up even one precious item from their life. Lanterns hung from the ceiling, and I had to duck to keep from banging my head. Shelves built into both sides of the wagon were overflowing with crystals, tiny boxes, books, and trinkets. Candles dripped wax onto the creaking floorboards, their flickering yellow light mixed with the muted orange light of the lanterns.
The center was taken up with a low, round table covered in blue silk. She had a stack of worn tarot cards and even a crystal ball resting on a tarnished metal stand. I tried to hide my sour expression when I looked at the smoky quartz crystal ball. The woman waddled around the table before collapsing in a low chair that I was certain would break under her. She moved as easily around her cramped quarters as Ronnie did through her overstocked shop. She took two more puffs from her pipe, blowing out the blue-gray smoke to fill the wagon and make me cough, before she set it on one of the over-crowded shelves.
“Sit, sit, sit,” she said, waving impatiently at the large pillow on the floor in front of me. The red jewel between her eyes flashed in the light as she shifted into a more comfortable position.
“Oh, yeah, sure.” I grabbed my bag to hold in my lap as I sat cross-legged on the pillow. I gripped my bag to my chest and stared across the table at the old woman, waiting to find out what the hell I was doing there when I should have been looking for Tollis.
“M,” she said, tilting her head and squinting at me again. Her brow contracted into a bumpy relief map, and I worried that little red jewel was going to pop off and hit me square in the face.
“M?” I said, feeling my brows contract as I stared back at her.
“Your name. It begins with an M. I can see it.” She made a vague motion in front of her face.
“Yeah,” I said with a nod.
She waited, still squinting at me. She squinted so much, I still hadn’t figured out the color of her eyes and I doubted I ever would. I realized, when she didn’t try to discern the rest of my name, that was as much as she was gonna try for.
With a sigh, I said, “Matilda.”
“Mmmm, yes,” she said, closing her eyes and nodding. “Matilda,” as if that was the very name she was just about to say before I’d interrupted her.
I rolled my eyes before she opened hers. “What am I doing in here?” I glanced around again, not worrying about the bite in my tone. I’d come to see Tollis, not to talk to a pseudo-psychic hack.
“Tollis can wait. I have things you need to hear, girl.”
I blinked at her, and a slow, satisfied smile curled over her thin lips. Maybe she wasn’t a complete hack.
“All right,” I said cautiously. “Go ahead.”
“Ahem.” She tapped a shallow gilded bowl on the table between us, her pointy nails making a tinging noise. A faded piece of paper folded into a triangle in front of it said Donations appreciated!
“Gods.” I sighed, shaking my head as I dug into the front pocket of my bag and pulled out a few gold coins. I dropped them into the bowl with a clatter. “All right? Yes? Let’s hear it.”
The gypsy woman snatched up the coins like a magpie, examining them, sniffing them—I almost expected her to bite them. When she was satisfied with their worth, she pulled a small leather pouch from her cleavage and dropped the coins inside before hiding the pouch again.
She pushed the crystal ball out of the way and grabbed the tarot cards. After a quick shuffle, she laid out a complicated pattern on the small table and leaned over them. “Mmmm, yes,” she hissed before squinting at me. “I see you’ve had much heart break.”
I kept my face schooled, reminding myself that pretend psychics got away with their con-jobs simply by reading body language. Besides, how many people had never suffered through heart break? She might as well have told me she saw a great love affair in my future.
She hmphed at me and bent over the cards again. “I see two men and one woman.”
She glanced at me for a clue, but I d
idn’t give her one. But I had to admit, seeing a woman in my love life was a little strange since I didn’t swing that way.
“Yes, the woman is twined around one of the men, holding him back though his hands are outstretched to you.”
Now that rang a very big bell for me. I tried not to show any outward signs of distress, but inside, my heart was thudding away as I imagined Theodora, Vampire Mistress of all of Los Angeles County, wrapped around my ex-boyfriend Owen. I had loved Owen fiercely, only to have my heart ripped out twice when Theo called him back to her. I was trying to get over him. Again.
“Oh, how he loves you and you him, but here”—she pointed at a card, but I didn’t bother to look at it, keeping my eyes on her face—“here is another. He stands nearer to you, a strong possibility, and a strong heart this one has. You know him, but not well. He is brave and giving and full of life still, unlike this other, who is slowly fading away.”
I swallowed past the lump forming in my throat. Owen wasn’t a young vampire anymore, having been turned a few hundred years ago, and the longer he spent away from the living, the dimmer the spark of life became inside him. But this other man, he was still full of life. A shape was forming in my mind, but I tried to ignore it. I didn’t want to give it shape, even if I had a pretty good idea about whom she was speaking.
The woman closed her eyes again and lifted a hand, waving it around as if trying to shift invisible things out of her way. “Yes,” she hissed, making a fist and grabbing something invisible. “F, I see an F.”
Fletcher. My mouth went dry, and the vague shape in my mind formed against my will. I hadn’t even wanted to think his name. He was tall and lean with brown hair and fair skin, all wrapped up in black leather and silver buckles, with an easy smile. He’d helped me at great personal risk, and all because he was just a good guy. Those were hard to come by. But I had promised myself no more vampires. I had also promised myself that one day I would stake Theo for the hell she’d put me through.
“F,” I whispered. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” She nodded, opening her eyes to look at me. “This man is F.” She pointed at the card from before, and I nodded. “He is good for you. This one”—she pointed at a different card—“is all heart-break and blood. Pain and suffering. And this one”—she pointed at a third card—“will never let you have him. You face much heartache if you follow that road. But if you follow the other?” She shrugged and leaned back in her chair, picking up her pipe and puffing on it. “Down this other road is the possibility of love and joy. It is an easier, perhaps safer, road. And, I must say, that would be quite the change for a tricky witch like you, Matilda Kavanagh.”
***
The bright sunlight was a shock of pain when I opened the tiny door and stumbled out of the psychic’s caravan. I held up my hand to shield my eyes once I’d caught my balance, stopping just short of the fire ring in the center of that cluster of vehicles. A wave of noise rushed at me, a cacophony of squealing cheers and laughter surrounding me on all sides. I felt tiny hands reaching for me, grabbing and pulling on my clothing. I grabbed my bag and held it close to my chest to protect it as I blinked the white spots out of my vision.
“Easy!” I yelled. “Calm down, jeez!”
When I could see clearly again, I realized I was surrounded by children. They were a mix of human and Were pups, only their golden eyes making them discernible.
“Witch, witch, show us a trick,” they chanted over and over until they drew the attention of a few curious adults. But the adults stood back, hiding in the shade provided by RV campers and wooden wagons. “Witch, witch, show us a trick!”
They weren’t going to let me pass if I didn’t comply. Two Were pups, one girl and one boy, were on all fours, scuttling around me and sniffing my feet, nearly making me trip. I had the vicious thought of digging out my knockout powder and sending them all off to La La Land as the trick they were so anxious to see.
“Witch, witch, show us a trick!”
I wondered, briefly, how they knew I was a witch, but these were gypsy children. Their intuition and spiritual gifts would be very strong so early in life, promising things to come as they got older.
“All right, all right,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender.
I snatched my bag up again when one of the young human boys got a little too close to it for my comfort. I shook my head at him, and something in my eye made him scurry away to hide behind the skirt of a slightly older girl. They all had smudges of dirt and mud on their hands and arms, and even faces in some cases. Their clothing was bright and colorful, if a little tattered and worn, speaking of possible hand-me-downs for more than one generation. But they all looked up at me with bright, hopeful eyes, excitement for adventure that I hadn’t known for a long time. I realized I wanted to show them that trick they were all so hungry for.
When the chanting stopped, they all backed up a little, standing around me. I racked my brain for a trick they would enjoy that would promise me safe passage through the encampment so I could find the elusive Tollis.
“Okay,” I said, clearing my throat and dropping my bag to hang at my side.
Nothing in my bag would work, not for what they wanted. I wiggled my fingers, trying to think of something, when a spark of power ignited at my fingertips. I heard a gasp from the closest pups and turned toward them. Their eyes were wide, staring at my fingers. A slow smile curled over my lips. I held up my hands and snapped my fingers. Flashes of bright light sparked in the air.
“Oh,” the gasp went through the gathered children, and I knew what to do.
I clapped my hands. A small boom of power exploded from the impact, and a puff of smoke rose into the air. The smoke transformed into a fluttering butterfly before dissipating. The girls cheered, but the boys looked as if they had sucked on something sour.
“Right,” I said, “how about this?” I threw another flash of power into the air and watched as the smoke transformed into a bird, flapping its wings and trying to get away. I made a finger gun and fired a bolt of blue electric light through the belly of the bird. It turned, dove to the ground, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
The boys cheered and hollered with approval.
“Okay? Good? Can I go now?”
The assembled children laughed and cheered until I couldn’t understand anything they were saying. The two pups that had been sniffing at my feet were in front of me, quiet and clear-eyed.
“Can you take me to Tollis?” I asked.
The boy reached for my hand, and I gave it to him. Together they turned and led me through the children, the boy tugging me as he followed the girl. The rest of the children seemed to part before her like water, and none of the other children tried to stop or harass me further.
I caught the eyes of a few of the adults who’d hid in the shadows of their vehicles. There was still a lot of distrust in their eyes, but there was something else, a caution of fear. They had seen the tricks but knew what else those bolts of power could do. But I had the children on my side, and that gave me a sense of security as we passed the eyes that tracked my movements.
The boy’s hand was tight around mine, his fingers blessedly dry and clean. He and the girl walked with a purpose but were eerily silent. I had to quicken my pace to keep up with them if I didn’t want to be dragged along. The boy was small, probably eight or nine, but he was surprisingly strong. We passed through parts of camp that were quiet and almost dark, and I wondered if everyone in that area was asleep for the day. After a few more yards, we broke through a line of tents and found a clearing filled with lively music and a group of people singing songs, playing games, and feasting.
The little girl leading us stopped, and the boy pulling me stopped beside her. He pulled his hand out of mine and pointed into the clearing. Across the way, I saw a group of men on the ground, playing a dicing game. When the one with the dice threw the dice, half the men whooped in a cheer while the other half groaned as if in pain.
&nbs
p; “He’s over there?” I asked, and the boy nodded.
The two pups stepped backward, slowly moving behind me until they were between two tents, almost hidden in the shadows.
“Thanks,” I said with a small wave.
The girl looked at me with her bright amber eyes for a moment, and I thought I saw a hint of fear cross her face. Before I could say anything, she turned and ran, the boy following quickly.
“Well that makes me feel safe and secure,” I muttered. Tugging at hem of my jacket, I straightened up, tucked my hair behind my ears, and turned back to the clearing.
Chapter 6
Though my mood had shifted to something cautious and a little anxious, nothing had changed in the clearing. The song one group was singing was lively and happy, the dicing game continued with cheers and groans coming in waves, and the smell of something savory wafted toward me. It was very welcoming, really, and not what I was expecting at all. I held on to the image of the little Were girl’s face, remembering her fear and caution. She was part of the pack. If everything was all peachy keen, she shouldn’t have looked like that.
I stepped into the clearing, expecting everyone to stop what they were doing and face me, ready to pounce. But no one did. As I moved forward, I saw a mix of werewolves and humans, intermingling easily. It was very strange. Weres, while acclimated to a mixed society, usually kept their dens human-free. No other creatures ever lived with Weres because they were so private and territorial. To see them eating together, talking, singing, even playing, was completely unexpected.
The humans seemed so at peace, so happy to be among the Weres. They smiled and laughed, not a care in the world. But they were all very young. I felt a little old among this crowd, and at only twenty-four, that was saying something. Maybe Jameson was right. Maybe Tollis was the cause of the rising numbers of missing humans. But no one looked unhappy, or even scared. Their smiles were a little too big and their eyes a little too wide though. It was creepy.
Samhain (Matilda Kavanagh Book 2) Page 6
