by Ellie Moses
I scanned the forest floor as I went along, looking for traces of disturbed limbs or leaves that littered the area. It wasn’t as easy as it would have been in the daylight, but none of us would have slept a wink at Granny’s house anyway after the attack.
Just when we reached the outer edges of Granny’s property, I found a depression of leaves and some empty water bottles of all things. Granny frowned, her lips twisting. “Well now, I’ve surely cleaned up after plenty of young’uns out here with beer cans and cigarette butts, but I ain’t never come across no empty water bottles.”
“I’m thinking whoever shot your tea up earlier today was stuck here because of my magic. When I protected the house and property, I blocked all evil. I figured it would keep evil out, not lock it up in here with us.”
Granny chuckled as she picked up the water bottles. “Now that’s something they hadn’t thought of! Serves ‘em right. They were stuck out here while all our friends and neighbors freely came and went. And since they had these on them,” she looked at the empty water bottles, “they either came ready to set a spell or they have a powerful thirst.”
“And they’re desperate to end me.”
“Yes, child. I’m afraid they are. Shootin’ into a group with children present is lower than a snake’s belly in a mud puddle. I’ve lived all my life in these mountains and to my knowledge, I’ve yet to come across such a mortal or a magickal being as would stoop that low.”
I scratched my head as we turned to go back through the woods to the house. “Then why’d they miss me from forty feet away from the brush across the lane earlier today?”
Granny sighed. “I couldn’t tell you, Jolene. We’ll have to ask ‘em when we catch hold of ‘em.”
Silently, we walked on until we came up to the house, our eyes trained to the darkness by now. Two shadows moved up on the wide porch and I took Granny by the arm before she stepped out into the lane to cross over to her front yard.
Placing a finger to my lips, I nodded toward the porch. Old Blue was inside where Granny had put him when the shooting started. He began howling to beat the band and we hurried through the woods farther down the lane to come out and cross where we couldn’t be seen from the porch.
“Someone’s up there who ain’t supposed to be, tryin’ to break in,” Granny stated the obvious and I nodded as we made our way across the road and ducked back into the brush.
“Let me see if I can locate Ray and Delilah before we go in there without backup.” I stood stock still and closed my eyes, reaching out to my familiar. Her mind’s eye was open to me in mere seconds and I could see she and Ray were following Deputy Carter back to the house, the backyard just steps ahead of them.
“Come on, Granny. Let’s meet up with the rest of our posse and see if we can’t run our shooters to ground.”
In a matter of moments, I stood beside Delilah with Ray at my back as Granny told Deputy Carter about the water bottles and how whoever it was had to be the ones who’d shot at me earlier in the day and missed.
“You mean to say Jolene trapped them in here with y’all?” He seemed surprised by my inadvertent capture of whoever was causing so much trouble for my family.
“Well, it wasn’t my intention, believe me,” I said, nervous laughter underscoring my admission.
Granny patted my arm. “We know, dear heart. I just wish I’d been better with my shotgun. I’m gonna have to set up a target range back here if folks start coming round here with a mind to harm me and mine.”
Deputy Carter held up his hands, exasperated by the conversation. “You don’t need no target range, Granny Mack. You’ve got enough magick in your little finger to bring down an army.”
She beamed with pride at his compliment, but her features fell as she revealed her worry for me. “I reckon you’re right about that deputy, but I’m ashamed I didn’t protect my granddaughter better than I did. I tell you what, whoever is up there on my front porch is about to get a whoopin’ the likes of which they’ve not seen in a month of Sundays.”
The lawman flashed his badge. “I won’t say you don’t have the right, but as long as I’ve got this on my chest, you’ll have to leave them to me.”
Granny didn’t like that not one bit. “We’ll just see about that,” she said and whirled around to stomp off across the backyard. Deputy Carter looked at me like I could have stopped her. I shrugged at him with my eyebrows climbing my forehead in as much surprise as he apparently felt.
Delilah took off after Granny and I was right behind her. Ray went on past me with a nod and was soon by my grandmother’s side as she rounded the corner of the house. Deputy Carter came up behind me. I turned to see him checking his sidearm and making sure it was ready for action.
Taking hold of his arm as he tried to go past me, I stopped him to give Granny a little more of a head start. “Look here, this is going to be bad no matter what. Whoever this is, they ain’t going without a fight. You just be ready to help throw in if it’s a battle of magick. I know you have your badge and oath to uphold, but nobody here tonight on the right side of the law is going to keep you from doing just that, after the dust settles.”
He looked like he might object, but then a fireball the size of his police cruiser shot into the sky and we both went tearing around to the front porch. Old Blue still howled and barked inside the house, but Granny had drawn our attackers off the porch and into the front yard.
I was shocked to find Luke Woolum and Sissy Prather standing together against my Granny. Luke’s pistol was trained on the woman I loved more than life and his girlfriend raised her arms to turn Granny’s firepower useless with a stream of water as powerful and beautiful as an inverted waterfall.
So she was a water witch! I ought to have figured that out on my own, but I’d been scared off by her hinky hijinks the day I went out to Luke’s after Billy Jack was arrested. Tears stung the corners of my eyes as I admitted it was my own failing that had brought so much trouble to my grandmother’s front steps.
The sound of Luke’s pistol firing wild into the night pushed me into action. I ran at him, mad as a hornet, and knocked him flat on his back. I hopped up, running on pure adrenaline and ground the heel of my boot into his chest making him cry out. Placing one cowboy booted foot on his throat, I dared him to try me.
Deputy Carter called out to Sissy, warning her to back down. She turned her head and water shot out of her mouth like the firehose firemen use when putting out a house fire. I was stunned but Granny made her move while Sissy was distracted.
The fire she commanded burned a bright blue, the hottest flame known to mankind and witchkind. I prepared for the sizzle of Sissy’s hide and anticipated it would sound like a skeeter in one of those big bug zappers in Granny’s backyard.
Instead, the heifer blocked Granny’s attack by stretching out her arm and meeting Granny’s fire with another huge stream of water. Knowing I had to help my grandmother, I bound Luke up with a spell that would keep him on the ground. I turned my attention to his pistol and grabbed it out of his hand.
I had no need of it, but I didn’t want him to have a chance to fire it when I left him. Turning as Granny called out my name, I faced frozen daggers of ice headed straight for my face. Without thinking, I breathed out a breath that melted the silly attack before it could succeed.
The world shrank around me and all I could see was Sissy in all her glory. “It’s me and you,” I told her, “what is it you want?”
Her laughter pierced my ears just like her voice had at the swimming hole. I was dealing with some kind of cross between a mermaid and a harpy. Her true self was revealed as the auditory assault continued and I hummed one of Dolly’s songs to distract myself from the terrible sound.
Granny’s voice broke through the noise. “Give her what for my sweet mountain witch. She has command of the waters of the earth, but you are ten times stronger than she could ever be.”
These words of encouragement made me focus my energy and Sissy knew it. Her v
oice sounded like thunder and I hoped Deputy Carter heard what she was saying. She had whipped out the other part of my summoning stone, the large piece that the small sliver I found had come from. My eyes bugged out as I focused on it.
“You and your granny can’t stop me from getting what I want, you weak little witch! You can barely keep your wards up and your boyfriend is a pitiful haint. It was easy as pie killing that man and making it look like your cousin did it. Now Luke can run all that shine Billy Jack used to run and I’ll finally have the money to build the biggest infinity pool anyone in this backwoods county has ever seen.”
I know my face must have been the funniest sight she’d ever seen as my jaw dropped at this stupid confession. An infinity pool! She had framed my cousin so her ne’er-do-well boyfriend could take over Billy Jack’s stills and make all the money she needed. “You framed an innocent man, shot at children, and came here to attack me because of a doggone infinity pool? So you could have a fancy pool with all the beautiful waterways we already have? You have to be pulling my leg!” I laughed so hard, I doubled over and took my eyes off her.
By the time I’d regained my senses, she screamed some mumbo jumbo curse and encased me in ice. It happened so fast I hadn’t seen it coming. My teeth chattered at the cold that crept through my body. Granny couldn’t risk using her fire on me and even Deputy Carter didn’t dare harm Sissy for fear she’d kill me before he could stop her.
She grinned like the cheshire cat and stalked slowly across the front yard to stand eye to eye with me. The fact that I had experience with Ray’s extreme temperature tantrums meant I was able to handle being a witchsicle better than I thought.
Ray came to my side, his anger directed her way. She laughed and ignored him. “You can’t help her now. You need to cross over and leave her alone. She can never make you happy and her line will die with her cause you can’t make babies.”
Sissy set her eyes on Ray and I saw the plan in her mind. I was somehow able to read her mind. She meant to sever the link between me and Ray.
“Ray, get behind me now!” I screamed, the fear in my heart reaching him. He touched my frozen shoulder and moved quick as lightning.
I felt the link between us strain as she did her magic. It was like a knife trying to cut Ray away from me. While Granny had been right about Sissy’s command of the waters, there was something more to this evil creature.
I don’t know how I thought of it, but I linked my mind with Delilah and my familiar padded silently up behind Sissy.
I asked that she distract the evil woman long enough for me to melt away the ice encasing my body. In a flash, Delilah lunged and raked her claws down Sissy’s back.
The harpy witch mermaid spun as she screamed out in agony. My moment had come and I wasted not a second. The ice pooled into a puddle of water at my feet in seconds, almost as soon as I thought of it melting.
My powers were super-charged and I checked my pockets. I had my sliver of summoning stone, but the piece she had must have been helping me too.
Joy filled me and I laughed, the sound booming across the yard. I felt Ray’s arms around me and Granny’s power beside me. Delilah was snarling and dodging Sissy’s attempts to harm her.
My time had come. I ran forward and pushed her hard. She went down to her knees and I grabbed her by the hair of her head. Shoving her down, I put a knee in her back. “Give me my stone and save yourself a world of hurt.”
She screamed and fought me and before I knew it, we were rolling around in the yard clawing and scratching like two alley cats.
I reached for the stone she had clutched in her right hand and prised it loose. Sissy fought me hard then with every trick up her sleeve, but power surged from the stone through my body. The sliver in my pocket tore free and joined itself back to the larger piece right where it belonged.
“You can’t beat me!” she cried out pitifully, winded and looking like something the cat dragged in thanks to me and Delilah. “I took your summoning stone for myself and broke your ward. I killed that man and made it look like Billy Jack did it. That day you and your aunt came to snoop around, I gave you that vision of your cousin as a murderer because you took the piece of the stone I needed. Harlan would have fixed everything if he could have gotten more of your stupid arrowheads.”
“Well that was dumb. You just told on yourself. You have one chance to surrender yourself to Deputy Carter and save your hide. If I were you, I’d take that chance.” I was amazed by her confession but I wasn’t going to let her off easy.
“Luke started the whole thing, he planned it! I wanted to leave this place and never come back, but he promised me my pool and more money than I could spend. Even at the end, he almost blew everything by calling you this mornin’!”
Deputy Carter, who knelt beside Luke, spoke up. “You’re both going to trial for murder. He’ll go to my police station and you’ll be picked up here any minute by the RMP and taken down to Nashville for processing.”
Sissy couldn’t stand the idea of being imprisoned by the Regional Magickal Police. “If I’m going down, I’m taking everyone with me. I’ll turn Devil’s Elbow into my infinity pool!”
Before the summoning stone came my way, I would have doubted my ability to fight her off. But now, I knew the stone only highlighted the power already flowing inside me. I could take her without it.
I threw it to Granny and stood my ground, ready for the attack. “Block its power, Granny. I can do this alone.”
She began her siren song just like she’d done at the swimming hole and water gushed forth from her hands.
I watched as it splashed all around us and knew she’d just stand there like a busted fire hydrant until she flooded us out.
Blocking her voice, which rose on a crescendo that nearly drove us all mad, I centered my energy and imagined her water drying up.
Letting loose on her, I held up one hand and sent a fire so hot, no amount of water could quench its flame. That zapping sound I’d expected to hear earlier rent the night air as the acrid smell of smoke filled the air.
She stood in a column of white hot flames, her visage showing her torment. The water she’d commanded left her and the ground beneath us soaked it all back in.
Granny ran to my side and pulled me into her arms. “Don’t look, sugar. She brought it on herself. You had no choice but to protect us all.”
Tears streamed down my face as the being that had been Sissy Prather burnt into ashes and blew away into the sky on a strong gust of wind.
A storm was brewing and Granny helped me inside with Ray and Delilah milling around, their worry for me as palpable as the scent of rain that assured me Sissy would truly be washed from our midst. Mother Nature would make everything whole again, including me.
14
When I awoke at Granny’s house, Ray was there with Delilah, he in the rocking chair by the window and she curled up at his feet. She had returned to her usual self, all pure white fur and icy blue eyes. I was amazed to see my familiar cozied up to next to Ray. I supposed she only did it because he loved me too, but something had shifted in their relationship.
I remained quiet so I could prolong the warmth in my heart at the sight of them. Sissy Prather had tried to take them from me. The memory scared me more than anything she had thrown at me. Part of me deep inside mourned for the woman I was before I’d killed someone.
Granny Mack came in, Old Blue right behind her. I closed my eyes and snuggled down into the sofa, pulling her radical rose patterned quilt up over my mouth, hiding my hurt.
“Jolene, baby, how are you feeling?” Granny asked as she sat beside me and nudged me over. She placed a steaming hot mug on the coffee table. I knew her special healing blend was inside by the way the spices that wafted my way tickled my nose.
I tried to lighten my mood. It wasn’t like I sought to end Sissy’s life. My had had been forced. I couldn’t let her kill Delilah. That would be like loosing another part of myself. “Like something the cat dragged in
that even the kittens don’t want.”
She laughed and glanced at my familiar. Her hand found mine under the quilt and she squeezed it gently.
“No offense, Delilah,” I murmured and smiled as she left Ray and came to jump on my chest, her sweet little paws finding purchase in the quilt.
Ray came to stand behind the sofa, bending over to place his ethereal lips on my forehead. “You were amazing, darlin’.”
I knew we’d talk more when we were back home in the upstairs apartment of Value Vintage. For now, he stayed where he was watching over me.
I sat up allowing Delilah to snuggle into my lap. That simple act grounded me in the present as much as the scent of Granny’s tea and the feel of her quilt around me.
Just when I felt like I could stand and make my way to the lady’s room, Billy Jack came in with Aunt Dixie.
“Get up off that couch and give me a hug, Jo! I can’t believe you really did it. I thought my number was up for sure this time.” Billy Jack grew serious at the end of his speech and I moved to stand up, handing Delilah over to Granny.
“Of course I did it, you silly goose,” I said, standing to hug my cousin, the brother I never had. I may or may not have seen a tear in his eye while dashing away the ones that had fallen from my own eyes.
Aunt Dixie held a plate full of my favorite molasses cookies. The scent drew me to her side and I swiped one with a sad grin.
“Go on and take two, sugar. Heck, take three! No one’s counting and they’ll put the pep back in your step.” She kissed my cheek and handed me the whole plate.
I sat down again and pulled Granny’s quilt into my lap, my plate of cookies blocking Delilah’s favorite spot. Ray reached down and ran his hand lightly along her back. “Come on, girl. You can sit with me.”
He moved back to the rocking chair and Delilah looked at me, her eyes full of judgment. I reached for the plate to move it, but she turned her back to me and leapt gracefully to the floor, her fluffy white tail raised up straight in the air.
