[Mystic Caravan Mystery 04.0] Freaky Games

by Amanda M. Lee

  I pressed my lips together as I headed toward Luke’s truck. All of my personal belongings – the ones not in my trailer – were there and I wanted to tackle them first. “Don’t forget to tell Dolph that you want to switch up the locations of the trailers,” I reminded him. “You want to put your trailer next to mine this time, right?”

  “I do.” Kade’s lips curved. “Even though I spend all of my nights in your trailer, I think it would be easier to have my stuff right next door should I need it.”

  “Yes, that definitely sounds convenient,” Luke drawled, appearing on the other side of his truck. “It will be like an episode of Three’s Company now. I can’t wait. When does Mr. Roper show up?”

  I shot him a disapproving look. “I thought the drive would’ve chilled you out,” I said. “Why are you in such a poor mood when you love Vegas so much?”

  “I am not in a poor mood,” Luke countered, grabbing one side of the bistro table and edging it toward the lip of the truck. “I’m in a good mood. I’m always in a good mood.”

  “What about the time you found out that The Body Shop discontinued your favorite body butter?” I challenged.

  “Hey, that was a terrible day,” Luke groused, flexing his muscles as he carefully shifted the table so I could help. “You know how much I like smelling like piña coladas. Soft skin isn’t just a luxury for me, it’s also a joy I bring to those around me.”

  “Only a man truly comfortable with his masculinity could admit that,” Kade interjected, grinning as he grabbed the table from my grasp and moved it to the spot between Luke’s trailer and my own. “Here?”

  “That’s good.”

  “I’ll have you know piña coladas are a very masculine drink,” Luke argued, refusing to let Kade’s taunt go without comment. “Coconuts, for example, have a very hard shell and need a hammer to break them. Pineapples, which are also a main ingredient, have hard husks that can cut your hand if you’re not careful. Even Papa Hemingway drank piña coladas. What’s more masculine than that?”

  Instead of engaging, Kade merely shrugged. “I stand corrected.” He directed his eyes to the open setting. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

  I shifted gears. As head of security, he would obviously have concerns. Most of the locations he’d seen so far had some sort of natural barrier to close off portions of the camp. That wasn’t an option here.

  “It’s different,” I agreed, bobbing my head. “There’s no water element, which will drive Naida insane.” Naida was one of our pixie twins – the one addicted to water. If she didn’t have a place to swim and let her fin out to air she melted down in spectacular fashion, which was worrisome because she can control the weather depending on her state of mind. “This location is one of the reasons we constantly move that hot tub around with us. It’s what keeps her from magically drowning us with a monsoon when she gets in a mood.”

  “There’s nothing to shelter us, though,” Kade pointed out, gesturing with his hand. “It’s not exactly a desert here, but it’s not far from it.”

  “No, but you can see the lights of the city in that direction.” I pointed for emphasis, some of the taller hotels cresting the horizon to the east. “Also, there is one good thing about this location.”

  “What’s that?”

  “No one can approach without us seeing them,” Luke answered for me. “This area is thick with paranormals. This setting isn’t ideal. It’s certainly not picturesque. But it’s easy for us to watch our surroundings in case something truly terrible decides to approach.”

  Kade stilled. “What kind of paranormals?”

  “It’s Vegas, baby,” Luke teased. “It would be easier to ask what kind of paranormals don’t live here.”

  Kade scowled. “That’s not what I asked.”

  “Aside from the colorful embellishment, Luke’s right,” I said. “This area is especially thick with vampires. However, that doesn’t mean vampires are the only thing we need to worry about.”

  “I’m almost afraid to ask,” Kade muttered. “What else?”

  “Believe it or not, the last time we were here we took down five mummies.”

  Kade worked his jaw, no sound coming out.

  “I don’t think he believes you,” Luke said, snickering.

  “It’s not that I don’t believe her,” Kade cautioned. Lying was a bone of contention in our relationship. I kept the fact that Max was his father from Kade, and it blew up in my face, resulting in us taking some soul-crushing time apart. I was painfully honest now, and he treads carefully when it comes to teasing me about keeping something from him. It was something we’d have to work on down the road. “It’s just … mummies? I don’t even understand how that would happen.”

  “The Luxor,” I supplied.

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “The pyramid hotel,” I explained. “The owner wanted to create an army of mummy workers – he thought people would find it funny and save money because he wouldn’t have to pay them – but it backfired and they attacked. Five of them came here because the dreamcatcher drew them in. It was a big mess.”

  “Oh, well … .” Kade was mollified. “I didn’t even consider that. I guess it makes sense.”

  “It’s not just mummies,” Luke said. “There’s also a coven of witches who live in Vegas and they’ve been known to cause problems.”

  Kade arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me? Witches?”

  “Don’t take that tone,” Luke admonished, wagging a finger. “I’m not making it up.”

  “And all witches aren’t bad,” I added, drawing Kade’s attention to me.

  “They’re not?”

  Luke snickered, his earlier bad mood completely eradicated. “Dude, you know you’re technically kind of sleeping with a witch, right?”

  “I … no.” Kade shook his head, his eyes clouding with worry. “I thought you were Romani.”

  “I’m more than one thing,” I replied, patting his chest. “Don’t worry about it. You’re still learning. It’s not as if the learning curve is slight. It will take more than a few weeks. It’s fine.”

  “So you’re a witch?” Kade was understandably confused.

  “Does that bother you?”

  “I … no.” Kade fervently shook his head. “I just didn’t realize you considered yourself a witch.”

  “Oh, I’m many things,” I said. “For the record, though, I don’t really consider myself a witch. Other people might look at what I can do and think otherwise.”

  “So what do you consider yourself?”

  I shrugged. “Hungry.” I flashed a smile. “Let’s get unpacked and then start dinner. I want to get the dreamcatcher up as soon as possible. Luke wasn’t kidding about this area being thick with paranormals. They come out of the woodwork whenever we’re here.”

  THE DREAMCATCHER is our version of a magical trap. Naida and Raven, our resident Lamia, provide the bulk of the power to weave the magical tapestry, while I direct the power where to go. Nixie, Naida’s sister, also provides a dose of magic that draws evil supernatural beings into our web. It has the added bonus of calling to evil humans. We often dispose of them, too. We’re equal opportunity crusaders.

  I left Kade and Luke to continue setting up camp, and joined Raven close to the perimeter. She’d been scouting the edges of the fairgrounds for almost an hour. Her focus on one particular spot made me antsy, so I decided to see what garnered so much attention.

  “Do you see something?”

  Raven must’ve sensed me approaching, because she didn’t look in my direction to confirm my identity before speaking. “Maybe.”

  “Maybe?” I moved in closer, frowning when I saw the tracks in the dirt. Raven intently stared at them. They were odd enough to cause me to drop to my knees to get a closer look. “What is that?”

  Raven shrugged, noncommittal. “It could be an animal.”

  It could be, but I’d never seen animal tracks like this. “They would have to belong to a big animal … with
webbed feet. I mean … those look like webbed footprints to you, right?”

  “Yeah, that’s what got my attention.” Raven flicked her eyes to me. We didn’t have the best of relationships before she decided I stole Kade from her. We worked together, but we’d never be close friends. “There’s no water around here. Why would a creature with webbed feet hang around the desert?”

  That was a good question. “I’ve never seen a creature this big with webbed feet before, period. It’s not even about being close to the desert.”

  “Maybe it’s something that was created for Vegas,” Raven suggested, digging in her pocket and returning with her cell phone. “I’m going to take a photo and conduct a search. Maybe I’ll come up with something.”

  “That sounds like a plan.” Something about the first part of her statement bothered me. “You think someone created a web-footed creature because it’s Vegas?”

  Raven held her hands palms up. “That one guy created an army of mummies and seemed surprised when anyone noticed. That was after dead bodies started showing up in the hotel because the mummies were eating them.”

  “That’s true.” I rolled my neck until it cracked. “This area always puts me on edge. We’re always so busy with interlopers whenever we come here.”

  “I suggested to Max that we remove it from our schedule, but he disagreed.” Raven stood and brushed the sand from her skirt. “He says that we’re kind of like supernatural population control agents for Vegas – which is mildly insulting. We come once a year and take a huge chunk out of the evil population so it doesn’t get a foothold.”

  “You make it sound like a zombie invasion.”

  “Thankfully we’ve never had to deal with one of those.” Raven licked her lips as she straightened, the setting sun glistening off her silver-colored hair. “I wouldn’t worry about paranormals attacking. You have Kade to protect you.”

  I worked to tamp down my irritation. Raven and I went out of our way to avoid the Kade discussion whenever possible. Still, Raven is an instigator. Because she’s essentially a snake in human form, I guess that’s to be expected. “Yeah, well, I think this week will be a real eye-opener for him.”

  “He hasn’t seen anything like this before,” Raven agreed. “It might be a lot for him to deal with.”

  “He’s strong. He’ll manage.”

  “Yes, well … .” Raven wrinkled her nose as she glanced toward the horizon. “We need to get the dreamcatcher up right away. I don’t think we should wait until dark. Not tonight.”

  Something about her tone set my teeth on edge. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Just a feeling I have. I can’t explain it.”

  I would never trust Raven with my boyfriend, but her magical instincts – especially when dealing with something dangerous – are another story entirely. “Then let’s do the dreamcatcher now.”

  “I DON’T KNOW any creature that has webbed feet like that.”

  I decided to show Naida the tracks before we got to the magical heavy lifting. She squinted and hunkered low, making a face as she inhaled.

  “Do you know what that is?” Raven asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

  “No, but … do you smell that?”

  “Smell what?”

  “That.”

  I lifted my nose and scented the air, shaking my head after a few seconds. “I don’t smell anything. It smells like hot sand. It’s the desert, after all. It’s sweltering here.”

  “There’s something else.” Naida tilted her head as she stared at the open space to our right. There was absolutely no place for a creature or human to hide, yet she looked as if she believed otherwise. “Something was out here.”

  “Can you tell how long ago?”

  “I … don’t know.” Naida almost looked pained, which caused my throat to tighten. She wasn’t afraid of anything. Just a few weeks ago she took on a golem, essentially a mindless killing machine sans pain receptors, with nothing but her moxie.

  “Do you think it will come back?” Raven asked. She wasn’t one for messing around, and if we were in danger she wanted to know so we could prepare ourselves.

  “I don’t know what it is, so I can’t answer that,” Naida replied, her eyes moving to the camp when the raucous sound of Luke laughing drew her attention. “I think we should double down on the dreamcatcher this go around.”

  I had no idea what she meant by that. “Meaning?”

  “It’s something we’ve been theorizing about,” Raven explained. “We think we can make the dreamcatcher even stronger. We haven’t had occasion to practice yet.”

  “What happens if it fails?”

  Raven shrugged. “In theory, the entire dreamcatcher could fail if the enhancements don’t work. I don’t think that will happen, but it is a possibility.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that at all. “Is there any way we can do both?”

  Naida looked intrigued. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I don’t think we can risk the dreamcatcher failing,” I replied. “I’m all for giving this new dreamcatcher a test run. I’m not for doing it here if there’s a legitimate chance it won’t work.”

  “So you want to erect the normal dreamcatcher and then overlay the new one on top of it?” Raven asked.

  “Or what if we erect the normal dreamcatcher at our regular boundaries and put the new one out farther,” I replied. “That way we’ll know if it’s alerting. We can lay the second right on top of the first. It should be double protection.”

  “But you want to build them both separately?” Naida was already nodding. “I think that’s a really good plan.”

  “Then let’s do it.” I cast a look to our friends and colleagues. They cavorted and played as they normally did, working but enjoying themselves at the same time. “Then I think we should only tell some people – those in our inner circle – what we found out here.”

  “Does that include Kade?” Raven asked.

  “Of course.”

  “I don’t have a problem with that. I know why you’re worried,” Raven said after a few moments’ contemplation. “You don’t want anyone to panic. It never ends well when someone in our group starts panicking.”

  “It’s not just that,” I countered. “I also don’t want anyone to become hyper-vigilant. Nellie is already a menace with that ax. What will happen if he thinks there’s a web-footed monster out there stalking us?”

  Raven snorted at the visual I magically placed in her head, in which our bearded lady – who just happens to be a cross-dressing dwarf with a beheading fetish – went after a strange creature that smelled bad. “That would be classic.”

  “Unless it backfires on us,” I warned. “We need to be careful. That means not panicking the people we work with.”

  “I can live with that.” Raven squared her shoulders. “Let’s do this. It’s going to take double the time, and we’ll have to answer a lot of questions when we’re done.”

  She was right, and that made the agitation roiling in my belly grow exponentially. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

  3

  Three

  “You look pale.”

  Kade slid a paper plate in front of me as I sucked down a bottle of water shortly before sunset. He was so new to the supernatural game that he didn’t realize the dreamcatcher ceremony took twice as long as it was supposed to. I was practically a limp rag from exerting my power to form the newer trap.

  Naida and Raven took ten minutes to explain to me what they had in mind. I had to admit it was ingenious. It also resulted in a lot of expended energy. Raven and Naida looked as exhausted as I felt, although Naida was putting on a good show for the others. Raven had a reputation for being obnoxious, so her dark attitude hardly seemed out of place.

  “I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “It was a long day in the truck. I guess I’m just tired.”

  “Uh-huh.” Kade didn’t look convinced as he pressed the back of his knuckles to my forehead. “You’re a little warm
.”

  As if sensing my distress, Luke decided to take the onus of the conversation off me. “She’s smoking hot, man! Listen, it’s all well and good to get a woman. To keep her you have to remember to maintain the compliments. Women don’t like it when you forget to feed the slot machine.”

  Kade narrowed his eyes, confused. “So … wait … what is the slot machine? Is Poet the slot machine?”

  “If you can’t figure that out on your own you need more help than I have to offer,” Luke replied. “I want nothing to do with her slot machine.”

  Kade’s mouth tipped down into a scowl. “See, I think you’re trying to distract me.” He used both hands to push my hair away from my face, his eyes searching for something I couldn’t quite identify. “Something is going on. What is it?”

  “Nothing is going on.” It was a lie, but the last thing I wanted to do was upset my co-workers.

  “Something is wrong.” Kade refused to give up. “I know it. It’s written all over your face.”

  I dropped my voice in the hope he’d let it go until we were alone. “Can we talk about this later?”

  Luke being Luke – which is lovely sometimes, but not so much tonight – didn’t miss my pathetic pleading. “Wait a second … is something really wrong?” He scanned my face for signs of a coming apocalypse. “Something is wrong. I thought for sure he was laying the groundwork to take you to bed early so he could roll a hard eight, but I’m starting to think he’s right. What’s wrong with you?”

  “I don’t get the ‘hard eight’ reference,” I admitted.

  “It wasn’t one of my better offerings,” Luke said. “I’ll do better next time. What’s wrong with you?”

  I wanted to figure a way out of this situation, but Raven took the decision out of my hands.

  “You couldn’t hold it together for five freaking minutes, could you?” The look on her face was dark. “You’re such a drama queen.”

  Luke and Raven mixed as well as pink and red hair dye, so my best friend was affronted before I could muster the energy to fix the situation. “You’re the one who’s been groaning whenever you change positions,” he argued. “I just assumed you were looking for attention, but you’re a lot more obvious than she is. She’s trying to be quiet, and you’re being … well … you.”