“It was the water too. I was attracted to the water.” I let my mind remember the sensations. I had wanted nothing more than to let that water enclose me, take me down. I shivered.
“Yes. The doom is complete and inescapable. You will have to fight its call with all of your strength.”
“I didn’t know before. Now I do. I thought it was just a lost pony.”
“Yes, now you know better, but it won’t make it any easier.”
“And you saved me.”
“Yes, the dreadful demon saved your life.”
“You’re not as dreadful as you’d like people to think.”
He stared at me for a full minute before he turned away in a swirl of dark leather. “Don’t make it into more than it is.”
He was right. He had to save me. Not only was it his job, but I still had his amulet. It gave me power over him. Just not the kind I would have liked.
I had to tell my Wiccans…and find a solution.
CHAPTER FOUR
The coven said they’d come the next day after the shop closed. I had customers making good purchases, but I was afraid I sleepwalked through most of it. My mind was on so many other things.
Every now and then, I thought I saw a shadow pass by my window. I knew it was Erasmus.
Once the shop was closed, they arrived. Nick had brought homemade spaghetti and we all ate silently around the farmhouse table in the kitchen. My appetite was off. I spun my fork in the pasta but never managed to bring it up to my mouth. Finally, I just pushed the plate away.
“It’s all very distressing,” said Doc to break the silence. “A kelpie. I wonder if there is any rhyme or reason as to the monsters the book chooses to expel.”
I shook my head. “It’s not alphabetical. Who knows?”
“Would, uh, Mr. Dark know?”
“I don’t think so. He doesn’t seem to know all the finer details of how the Booke works.”
“I was reading about kelpies,” said Jolene with her mouth full. No one was surprised by her pronouncement. Setting down her fork, she reached into the backpack lying at her feet. The Hello Kitty skull patch on the front pocket was also wearing a witch hat. She pulled out her tablet and started swiping until the page she wanted came up. “It’s like Mr. Dark said. Kelpies pose as horses or ponies to lure their prey—usually younger people and women—who get stuck and then pulled underwater. Some legends say that kelpies eat their victims. Everything but the liver, and that’s what ends up floating to the surface and washing ashore.”
“Eww,” said Nick. “That’s gross.”
“I know,” said Jolene eagerly.
“Look,” said Doc, “let’s not dwell on the more prurient aspects of this. Let’s just learn all we can so that Kylie can dispatch it as quickly as possible. Before anyone else is snatched up.”
“But this is awful.” I dropped my forehead to my hand. “We know what it does. Can’t we somehow warn the public?”
“And say what?” said Nick. “‘There’s a demon horse out there. Stay away!’”
“You can’t say that,” said Seraphina thoughtfully. “But maybe we can say something similar. Doc, can we issue some sort of health alert? Like a rabies warning? If anyone sees a white pony on the loose, don’t get close or touch it because it has some deadly contagious disease?”
“That’s an excellent idea, Seraphina. I’ll have to consult with some veterinarians I know down in Connecticut and see what they might suggest. In fact, let me call one of them now.” He took out his phone and got up from the table, scrolling down his list of contacts.
I sat up. Warning people. It was too late for the two missing women, but stopping more deaths would definitely be a win for a change.
Nick was standing and leaning against the table. “So…is Mr. Dark out there right now? I sorta…sense something.”
“Yup.”
He shook his head. “I know I shouldn’t say this, but…he is wicked hot.”
Nick had an envious look in his eye. I wondered which fellow in town usually tickled his fancy. Someone dark and brooding?
“I don’t think it’s all that it’s cracked up to be, to tell you the truth. Stick to mortals.”
“Yeah. Well…I plan on it. He’s, uh, a little scary, really. And that Baphomet stuff—”
“He said we shouldn’t use that name. So now I’m referring to him as Goat Guy.”
“Goat Guy. I like that.”
“That’s true,” said Seraphina, not looking up from her notepad. “Names have power. And we don’t want to summon anything we have no control over.”
I tried to tilt my head to see what she was doing. “What’s that you’re working on, Seraphina?” Looked like my name and some graphs and numbers.
She stopped and stared down at it. “Oh dear.”
“What is it?”
She pressed her lips together and blinked her teal-shaded lids. “I was doing some numerology. To see where you stood.”
“Oh.” Another thing I never used to believe in. Could that be true, too? “What does it say?”
She closed her notebook and rested her hands on it. Each long fingernail was painted a pearlized pink. “Well, some of these things are less than precise,” she said nervously.
“It seems precise enough for you to worry. Come on. What does it say?”
“You shouldn’t mess with that,” Jolene scolded, clearing the dishes. “I don’t believe in it.”
Seraphina huffed. “How can you not?”
Jolene stopped, the stack of dishes in her hand leaning precariously. “Because it’s a quirk of fate. What you’re named, what spelling is used, if it’s spelled right on your birth certificate. And all sorts of factors go into your date of birth: international time zones, Caesarean sections, incompetent doctors, overeager midwives…”
“Can’t you see that all that is taken into account? All those factors come together in the universe to make you who you are.”
“But Kylie could have spelled her name with a ‘C.’ It makes no sense.”
“What does it say?”
Everyone looked at me. I hadn’t meant to yell, but it was all making me nervous.
Seraphina dropped her eyes and slowly opened the notebook again. “I use the Chaldean method of numerology. The total for each of the letters of your name comes to thirty-five. No matter how many ways I try to configure it, it always comes out the same. It is full of serious warnings for the future. Disasters will be brought about by…certain associations. Bad partnerships, bad unions, bad situations. And this combination advises that you should carefully reconsider the path you are following.”
Everyone was still, looking at me. After embarrassing myself only seconds ago by yelling, I tried to make light of it. “Oh, is that all? So far so good then. I’d hate to naysay my numbers.”
Seraphina laid a hand on mine. “This is serious, Kylie. You must be very careful. This path…”
“I don’t seem to have much of a choice about this path. I mean, if I did, I certainly wouldn’t be following any of it. I don’t have a choice.” And then that old engraving came to mind. The one I found on the internet that led me directly to Karl Waters and his museum. The one that maybe led the creature following me to his doorstep. It depicted eighteenth-century Constance Howland—the last Chosen Host we knew of—running for her life right before she was supposedly chased off Falcon’s Point. The person chasing her was Erasmus. He told me he hadn’t had any physical interest in her, but was that just to appease me?
“Demons lie,” I muttered.
“I’ve got it!” said Doc, coming back into the room and waving his phone. “Hendra Virus Disease causes severe respiratory illness that can lead to death in horses and humans and is highly contagious. I’m going to call the sheriff now so he can put out the alert. I hope to goddess this does the trick.” He put the phone to his ear and wandered away to tell Ed all about it.
“I wonder if I’m ma
king a mistake.” I hadn’t meant to say that aloud, but there it was. Freud was really racking up the points, it seemed.
“What mistake?” asked Nick.
“Sheriff Ed. I don’t know if it’s right to start something with him. According to numerology, my number might be up soon.”
He slumped back into his seat sideways, his arm resting on the seat back and his legs dangling over the chair arm. “I don’t know, Kylie. I don’t mean to be fatalistic or anything, but isn’t it a good idea to snatch love where you can get it before something happens? Not that anything is going to happen.” He shot Seraphina an angry glare.
“It does say that love and affection will be prominent in your life,” offered Seraphina.
Yes, but was that with Ed…or Erasmus?
“Do Sheriff Ed’s numbers,” said Jolene, coming back from the sink. She peered over Seraphina’s shoulder.
“Very well.” She scribbled and I found myself biting my nail. When she looked to be finished, she sat back with a frown line creasing her brow.
“It’s a very ominous number. Hidden dangers, trials; this is a person who will face an uphill battle…”
Jolene snorted. “It’s like a horoscope. It’s vague enough to describe anyone. I wouldn’t put much stock in it, Kylie.”
“Do Mr. Dark’s,” said Nick.
“Oh, come on, Nick!” Jolene said.
“She did Sheriff Ed’s. She has to do Mr. Dark’s. Does it even count if he’s a demon?”
Seraphina frowned further and wrote it out. My teeth were certainly getting a workout biting my nails. Instead of frowning when she was done, she raised her brows. “It’s a…a very fortunate number. It promises the assistance of those of high position. It also has a strong connection to love and is an auspicious number for future events.”
“Well that proves it,” said Nick. “It’s all bullshit.”
Seraphina seemed to be recounting.
“How can that be?” I asked. “Ed is all trials and uphill battles, and Erasmus is love and rainbows? That’s completely messed up and backwards.”
Jolene nodded. “You can’t believe in those ancient arts. They aren’t worth the clay they’re cuneiformed on.”
“So how do you pick and choose? Witchcraft is okay but numerology isn’t? Horoscopes are hooey but pentagrams are fine?” My chair skidded back as I rose. “None of it makes sense. None of it!”
I fled upstairs. I would have flung myself to the bed, but I just didn’t feel up to the theatrics. Instead I sat. What had my life become? I had really hopeful days when it was just me and my shop, and then I had days like this, when everything seemed like a useless exercise. Not for the first time, I wondered if I would end up like Constance Howland. Or would one of the creatures get me? Just because I had the crossbow didn’t mean I would always win. Because Erasmus might not always get there on time. Nothing was guaranteed. Even my numbers didn’t add up.
A rap on the door. When I got up to open it, I wasn’t expecting who was on the other side.
Jolene stood awkwardly in the doorway. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” I drifted back toward the bed and sat. She hesitated in the doorway for a moment and then stepped in. After another brief pause, she sat beside me. “You really can’t listen to all of Seraphina’s wackiness. I’ve never held any store in numerology. It isn’t precise at all, any more than a horoscope.”
“What about tarot?”
“Well that’s different.”
I stared at her incredulously. “How?”
“Have you ever heard of Schrödinger’s cat?”
“Yes. The cat in the box. Is it living or dead? We only know when we observe.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that. It’s actually both dead and alive until someone observes what it really is. It’s always dead and it’s always alive while it’s in that box.”
“So? What does that have to do with tarot cards? That’s just as random as numbers and birthdates, isn’t it?”
She was getting excited now. Jolene liked puzzles and thrived on their intricacies. “But it isn’t random. The person who wants the reading shuffles the cards. And until those cards are turned over and observed, they are anything and everything all at the same time. It’s the person shuffling that opens the box and allows us to observe.”
“Are you saying that the cards can magically change until they’re turned over?”
“Sort of. The person’s life force makes those cards shuffle the way they do, and land where they need to be.”
“You know what? I’d rather not have my cards read either.”
“Probably a good idea,” she muttered.
My fingers were restless in my lap. “It’s not what Seraphina said. It’s not even the warnings of gloom and doom. I’m already living through that. It’s just…everything. The uncertainty. I mean, no one can be certain of their future. I get it. But mine seems wrought with death and injury no matter where I look. So why am I even worrying about Ed or Erasmus? I should just be concentrating on getting this all over with.”
“’Cause life is more than just doing your job nine to five.”
I stared down at my teenage philosopher.
She shrugged. “My dad is always saying that. He always encouraged a rounded education in the arts as well as the basics. That’s why he and Mom never discouraged my interest in Wicca. They wanted more for me than just reading, writing, and arithmetic. I suppose they thought that might mean music or art. But…love is also part of the equation, I guess. You can’t just put off love because it isn’t convenient. It’s a part of life. Not like I can give great advice on that.”
“I appreciate you trying to.”
“Look, Kylie. I’m your friend…as well as your employee. But as a friend, if you had asked me—which I realize you didn’t—but if you had asked me, I’d tell you to weigh the pros and cons. Right now, Sheriff Ed would probably be tipping the scales on the con side. Am I right?”
I nodded. But I really didn’t want to think about any of that right now. Mostly I wanted to take a nice long, hot bath and forget everything for at least an hour.
A crash sounded from downstairs. We looked at each other for a split second before we both sprinted for the door.
I scrambled down the stairs with Jolene on my heels and stopped at the bottom. Something slammed against the front door again.
My Wiccans were all assembled and frozen in place, staring at the door. The crossbow wasn’t making an appearance, and all was silent from the Booke. I figured it was okay enough to see what was going on.
No one else moved as I made quickly for the door and yanked it open. Erasmus was there and he was scowling. He held fast to the scruff of someone he had obviously tackled to the ground. The man was covered in wet leaves and mud.
“I found this lurking about, trying to peer into the windows,” he said, shaking the man. Erasmus heaved him through the open doorway that he couldn’t cross himself. The man fell forward onto my woven rag rug.
“Kylie,” the man said. “What the hell is going on?” He raised his bruised face toward me.
My blood ran cold and just as quickly boiled over. “Dammit! What are you doing here, Jeff?”
CHAPTER FIVE
“Kylie baby, I’m here for you. To win you back.” Jeff slowly got to his feet. Nick put out a hand to help him. There was the beginning of a bruise on one side of his face and his dirty blond hair had been made dirtier with leaves, twigs, and mud. Erasmus had given him a thrashing. I kind of wished I’d seen it.
“First of all, I’m not your ‘Kylie baby’ anymore, and second of all, you are never going to win me back. How dare you come all the way across the country expecting…expecting…argh!” I stomped away from him to the other side of the room, clutching my arms. I could not believe it. The absolute last person I ever wanted to see again, standing here in my new place, my sanctuary. “I thought this place was warded against evi
l.”
“Kylie baby…” Jeff implored.
Erasmus leaned in as far as the magic would allow him, wearing a hungry smile. “Toss him back out. I’ll deal with him.”
Tempting.
Jeff thumbed back at the demon at the door. “Who the hell is this?” He slowly looked around at each of my Wiccans, the burning sage, and the pentagram on the floor. “And what the hell is going on? Have you gone pagan or something?”
“Jeff, just get out.”
“Get out? I came clear across the country to talk to you.”
“That’s your problem. Out.”
He looked at the Wiccans again, and by their scowls, he saw no help there. “I don’t have a place to stay, babygirl. I thought…” He sauntered forward. Even bruised and muddy, his beguiling smile was on full wattage. His voice softened. “I thought I’d stay here. On a couch or something. Just so we could talk.”
“There is absolutely nothing to talk about. I’m here now, this is my new place, and you aren’t part of it.”
He looked around, nodding. “Yeah. It’s nice. Lots of nice touches. You learned a lot from me.”
“Yes I did. Mostly I learned what an asshole you are.”
“Name calling? Really?”
“I believe in telling it like it is. Now if you wouldn’t mind…” I gestured toward the door.
Erasmus was still standing in the doorway, and his duster had begun to smolder.
Jeff lost his smile. “I can’t even crash on your sofa?”
“What part of ‘no’ is so hard to understand?”
“You heard the lady,” said Doc.
“Excuse me, Grandpa, but this isn’t any of your business.”
“Excuse me, sonny, but I’m not your grandpa.” Doc flicked his wrist and suddenly Jeff was stumbling toward the door.
“Whoa! Wait! How are you doing that?”
He was sent sailing right into Erasmus’s waiting arms. “I believe the lady told you to leave.” He grinned. Though his face was mostly in shadow, I caught a glimpse of a mouth full of teeth far sharper than a human should have. Jeff must have seen it too, because he was scrambling to get away. And once free, he took off down the street at full bore.
Deadly Rising Page 5
