“I haven’t any other name for it. It was tall, hefty, grayish-black, with long arms and huge hands, and while it had no eyes, it could sense where I was, and it screamed in rage when it couldn’t reach me.”
He pounced on that information. “Why couldn’t it reach you?”
“It’s like a shadow. It has to have the light to appear.”
“But it can’t walk in sunlight.”
“But the spiders can. Caleb saw one on Miranda’s porch this afternoon, watching him change her locks.”
He lapsed into silence for a moment, thinking. “And the spell has to be present to guide them to you? But we got rid of the notes at the station.”
“Someone may have planted one in the car while we were inside and on Juliet’s porch. I don’t know if they can find us without the written note or not. When it gets dark and the streetlights come on, I guess we’ll find out.”
Shit!
The long street was lined with established oaks and maples, the neighborhood being one of the older ones just west of the center of town. The houses on either side were compact and well maintained, the yards as well. Chase scanned the street ahead, recognizing too many places where someone, or something, could lie in wait. Would his gun have any affect?
Juliet griped her purse by the strap like it was a weapon. She’d matched her strides to his, two to one, and realizing she was becoming winded again, he slowed, though the compulsion to rush and get inside burned strong.
They turned onto Potter Street. “Which house is it?” Chase asked. He stepped off the sidewalk to allow room for a young mother pushing a baby stroller. She smiled at them as she passed. He sought some way of telling her to get off the street but could think of nothing.
“The fourth one down on the right.”
The light was getting hazy, and the streetlights would switch on at any moment. “Run,” Chase urged.
She didn’t need any encouragement. They sprinted the last hundred feet across neighbors’ yards and hit the front porch just as the first light began to glow.
Juliet clung to the side of the house, as far from any ambient light as she could get. It was instinctive for him to position himself in front of her, blocking the light.
She grabbed his shirt and jerked him toward her. He braced an arm against the siding. His heartbeat kicked up as he tried to ignore the sensation of her breasts, soft and generous, pushing against him. Her head reached just beneath his chin. Even sticky with sweat, she smelled good. The incident with the spiders seemed days away instead of minutes. Would she smell like that after…? No, he wasn’t going there.
“You need to get as close in against the side of the house as you can,” she instructed. “Stay in the shadows. And hit the doorbell—”
He had a vision of her beneath him, demanding, issuing instructions while he thrust inside her. Blood rushed south to his groin, and he was rock-hard in an instant. Shit! He rolled along the outside wall, away from her, flattened himself against house, and pushed the doorbell.
The last light died and the streetlights brightened. Under each one, all the way down and on both sides of the street, stood a gray-black figure. They waited like sentinels, equal distances apart. Their long arms and hands hung, disproportionate and inhuman, at their sides.
A surge of fear rocked him, killing his erection, raising the hairs on the back of his neck and stealing his breath. Blood heated his face and his heartbeat soared. A chorus of roars and screams, rage-filled and hungry, rose and built to a crescendo. Juliet gripped his hand like a vise.
The door next to them swung open and a woman with red hair stood behind it and to one side. Chase didn’t wait for her invitation, but barreled inside, pulling Juliet with him. Once inside, Juliet clung to him, trembling, and he held her. He was shaking more than a little himself.
He had believed what she said in concept after the spider attack. But now he believed in truth.
Chapter 20
Miranda came into the living room dressed in the long, deep blue-green shift with elbow-length sleeves Aubrey had loaned her after her bath.
While she waited for Juliet to finish her cleansing, she studied the pentagram painted on the floor. It was professionally rendered, and she wondered who Aubrey had hired to do it. No one local, she’d bet. The round rug that had covered it was rolled up and stashed along the wall out of the way. Caleb and Chase stood to one side in their borrowed sweats and T-shirts, their uneasiness clear in their stiff, almost jerky body language.
The detective’s face showed equal parts of curiosity and wariness. But she couldn’t read Caleb’s.
It had been a shock for him. He had said he still loved her, but his understanding of who she was had been rocked. She had to give him some time to get used to the idea that his girlfriend was a witch. Or was she still his girlfriend?
How would she feel if he suddenly grew horns and a forked tail? Would she still love him?
Always.
Her love for him was a part of her. It had grown and evolved while they spent time together. What had started out as a childhood connection had turned to passion and something deeper after he returned from his two-tour stint in the Marines. After being apart for eight years, they had rediscovered each other through letters and phone calls, emails and Skype sessions. The connection had given her a safe haven, a link that transcended her normal reserve. She’d never dreamed he would come home to stay. But he had. Would they lose each other because of her inborn powers?
Maybe if she explained a small part of what was happening now, he’d come to understand.
She stood outside the circle “Aubrey and I consecrated each item inside the circle while you were showering. We do it in much the same way as your priest consecrates the things on the church altar, Detective. Each item has both a symbolic purpose and a practical one, and what’s included depends on the focus of the ceremony.”
“The focus tonight will be to ask for and forge some kind of protection against the creatures out in the street, and the strength to fight them,” Aubrey said as she and Juliet entered into the room, both dressed much like Miranda.
Miranda breathed past the nervous fear triggered by the reminder. She recognized the same fear in everyone else in the room.
“Do you really think you can do that?” Chase asked.
“We’re going to do our best,” Aubrey replied.
Miranda used the consecrated broom to sweep the area; moving in a clockwise direction, she swept from the center of the circle to the edge. She glanced at the two men watching. “The broom was at one time a magical staff, a staff of power, used as a symbol of both protection and fertility. One end would be a phallic symbol, and a woman would ride it into the fields in a rite to increase their fertility and her own. The phallic symbol was later hidden with straw, and thus created the broom. It has the strength to brush away anything unneeded, to cleanse, and acts as an instrument of power to banish anything that doesn’t belong in the circle.”
Aubrey paused by the men. “I’ll invite you into the circle as soon as it’s purified.” She took up a small clay bowl of water and followed in Juliet’s path as she sprinkled it from her fingertips. “The water contains salt, elements of both water and earth, blended to purify.”
Juliet took up the sage stick, lit it with a quick hand gesture, then blew it out. She strolled about the circle, waving the smoking sage stick to cleanse the space. “The sage releases any metaphysical elements in the circle and sends them on their way. We’ll also be lighting incense to carry our prayers and sacrifices to the Gods.”
Aubrey set the bowl on the altar in the center of the circle, reached for the small bell, rang it three times, and placed it back where it had been. She lit an incense stick, placed it in a small clay holder, then raised her arms. “Bless us, God and Goddess. We humbly invite you into our circle.”
Juliet lit the red taper standing in a clay holder on the altar, while Miranda did the green. They each raised their tapers and lit a white one.
“The red candle represents the God and the green the Goddess. When we light the white candle it symbolizes their unity,” Miranda explained.
Aubrey motioned to the two men. “I’d like you to enter the circle before we close it. Take a position here, on the north side of the altar. Both of you seem very tied to the earth, so you’ll feel most comfortable here.” She handed Caleb a slip of paper. “You’ll know when to read the words I’ve written for you on the paper. We appreciate your willingness to take part and stand in as our fourth.”
Caleb’s gaze rose to Miranda’s, and she offered him an encouraging smile. She hoped his agreement to take part in their ritual would lead to a deeper understanding.
Aubrey moved to the altar and took the ritual dagger, an athame, in hand. “The circle must be cast from beginning to end. We’ll be moving from the east where the sun rises, to west where it sets.” She nodded to Caleb and Chase, and they fell in behind her and slowly walked the outer perimeter of the circle.
She pointed the athame at the salt-laced circle and, at each quarter, paused to draw a pentagram in the air. “With love and trust we build our circle with no beginning and no end. We construct its walls against the evil from which we seek to defend. We ask the gods for protection from harm for all those contained within this sacred space.” Each of them stopped within their quarter. “And inside us may strength grow so we may be so armed. By the power of all and thee, so mote it be.”
Miranda relished the surge of energy working its way up from the bottoms of her feet to the top of her head. She visualized bringing the circle up around them like an egg, protective, strong, enclosing them from all directions, as well as above and below.
An unexpected slide of warm, masculine power feathered through her, coming from where Caleb and Chase stood in the northern quarter. Was the feminine power filtering through the men to bridge the gap, or did one carry some latent ability he was unaware of? She pushed her concentration back into the task at hand, and drew upon the electricity spindling inside her to shore up the sphere. The sensation of pressure built inside the space, almost as if a door had closed, and she swallowed to clear her ears. For the first time since she’d sensed the presence upstairs in the library, she felt safe.
Everyone seemed to take a relieved breath in unison.
They gathered into a smaller circle, only few inches apart from each other, and sat cross-legged.
“To ensure there’s no disruption of energy, and no interference from what lies outside the house, we thought it might be smart to plan everything inside this circle,” Aubrey explained. “It will act as a barrier to anything metaphysical or otherwise that tries to eavesdrop on what we’re doing.”
Miranda interjected, “Chase, Caleb, is there anything you’d like to ask us about before we start to plan?”
“How long have you all known you had this power?” Chase asked.
That he asked, and knew what to ask, showed how far he’d come in a very short time.
“We were all three born with it,” Juliet replied. “Our mother turned away from it because it frightened her. But our grandmother helped us all she could while she was alive. And we kept it secret until we met Aubrey and her mother.
Aubrey flipped back her long red hair. “We moved here from Wisconsin when I was twelve. As soon as I met Juliet and Miranda, we all knew we had a connection.”
“Why keep it a secret?” Caleb asked, his gaze focused on Miranda.
“People don’t trust things they don’t understand, Caleb. And there are consequences for using magic. One summer it was hot enough to fry eggs on the sidewalk, like it’s been the last few weeks. I was about seven then. And I decided we needed a way to cool down. “I willed the fire hydrant in front of our house to open. The pressure sent the cap twenty feet into the air, and when it came down it went through the windshield of my mother’s car. She’d just pulled into the driveway, and it missed her by inches. She could have been killed.”
“You have better control now,” Juliet smirked.
“Yes, but if anyone besides our mother had figured out that I was responsible for it, we’d never have been permitted to play with any of the neighborhood children again.”
“The quote ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ is true,” Juliet mused. “If I had fried the spiders in your car today, Chase, the whole car might have gone up with them. We’ve all learned to be frugal about using our gifts, and careful when and how we use them. And there’s a boomerang effect. Whatever you put out there comes back to you times three.”
Chase’s expression shifted to one of speculation. “Should your abilities be recognized, you could all be locked away as a threat.”
Miranda’s tension spiked. Was that a warning? “Or be forced to become a weapon,” she added, shooting Chase a less-than-friendly look. “Either way, our lives would still be over.”
His brows rose. “Are you strong enough to do that?”
She exchanged a glance with Juliet and Aubrey. “We’d all better hope so.”
“We need to get to it,” Juliet snapped, scowling at Chase, her face tight. “The night is long, and we need to have our defenses shored up in case those things outside decide to try to get in.”
* * *
Watching the three women work together, Caleb realized they’d developed a sisterhood much like the brotherhood he’d experienced in the Marines. They had a common goal, not to destroy but to protect. Too many people lived on the residential street, and they’d all expressed their worries on behalf of the neighbors and the neighborhood.
While the women worked on a complex spell using crystals, Caleb shifted his attention to Chase, sitting next to him. He’d noticed Miranda and Juliet’s response to his comment about being locked up. “I wouldn’t try and fuck over these ladies if I were you.”
Chase’s pale eyes narrowed. “I was just stating what might happen if the rest of the world realizes witchcraft is real.”
“That isn’t how it came across. You might want to smooth it over with them before you find yourself on the wrong end of their broom.”
Chase chuckled.
Caleb tilted his head toward the three. “Does it look like they’re playing around?”
The large crystal Juliet held began to glow amber.
“No, it doesn’t,” Chase said. “I have four dead men tied to the same case, so I’m taking this pretty seriously myself.” His frown deepened. “I can’t do a damn thing to protect them. And I’m not about to interfere with their ability to protect themselves.”
Caleb nodded. “Eight years in the Marines, and with all the skills I acquired, I can’t do a damn thing either.”
“I’ve read your file.”
Caleb raised a brow.
“Why an auto mechanic? You could have gone into police work. Started your own security firm. You have a two-year college degree, and you’re an expert marksman. You were coming up the ranks. I’m surprised you didn’t stay in until retirement.”
Caleb loosened the fists that had automatically clenched. “I’d had enough of taking orders, and giving them.” And when I do have to give them now, nobody dies. And nobody is shooting at me. He rolled his head to relieve the knots in his neck. “When I’m under the hood of a car, with my earbuds in, I’m as far from that as I can get. I have two other guys working for me, providing for their families with what I pay them. Word’s getting out about our work, and I’m making a success of it. I’m building something here. Providing a service to my community.” And I don’t have to do any of it with a gun in my hand.
He’d told Miranda all this and more. And she hadn’t said a damn thing about any of her deepest secrets. The disappointment and pain pinged again. Although the detective’s quick assessment had helped him understand why she held back for so long.
He’d fought against people who killed in the name of religion. Fought for people who had been oppressed by power-hungry assholes who used religion like a lash, a club. And she had given up hers and a huge
piece of who she was to fit into a society that had at one time burned her kind at the stake.
Was this why she had held back for so long, or was it something more? She and Juliet had spoken about Clay Maddox last night. Their stepfather had left back when they were juniors in high school. After so long, what could he have to do with any of this, or them?
Miranda approached them. He read exhaustion in the way she stood, the curve of her shoulders.
“We’re getting ready to open the circle, but we want to call the quarters first. We’ve delayed doing that part so we can recharge our power before we expose ourselves to what’s out there.”
Caleb rose to his feet and offered Chase a hand up. She handed Caleb a green pillar candle, the small bowl of salt, and a book of matches. “Place these at the corner of the square between the spokes of the pentacle and light it.”
“Will do,” he said, and turned aside to do as she asked.
She moved away to gather her own candle and a small clay bowl of water.
The candles lit, Aubrey raised the ceremonial athame, made the sign of the pentagram and pointed toward the East. “My element is air. I call upon the God and Goddess to boost my strength from up above, to twist and turn, lift, blow, and shove. To sweep aside the threatening evil, and carry away all its upheaval. By the power of all and me, so mote it be.”
A stiff breeze whooshed through the room and spun around the circle clockwise, lifting their hair and causing the women’s long skirts to billow. Caleb sensed Chase’s restless movement beside him.
Aubrey turned and handed off the dagger to Juliet.
Juliet stood, feet braced, and thrust her arm toward the South powerfully before carving a symbol in the air. “My element is Fire. I call upon the God and Goddess to boost my strength, to light the way. To bind knowledge and justice, this course I’ll stay, to smite this threat with a fiery lash, and burn its power to useless ash. By the power of all and me, so mote it be.”
Deep Within The Shadows (The Superstition Series Book 1) Page 15
