Wicked Folk Read online

  "Go on," she replied, her voice breathy.

  "I'd never been with a witch," I said. "Not for lack of offers. As you know, some of the girls are pretty liberated in their thinking. I'd always thought it best not mix my romantic life with Judy's coven sisters. I felt it would be weird."

  "But not with Thea, apparently," Gabriella said. This time the disapproval in her voice was clear.

  "No. You're right," I said. "Thea … well, it just seemed like we'd be good together."

  "So what happened?"

  "As things intensified …" I pulled the memory of Thea back to mind. "We'd switched positions and I remember looking down at her, out of my mind with pleasure. I felt her reach out for me, trying to join."

  "As in a witch's circle?" Gabriella asked.

  "Yes. Only I didn't know how dangerous it was and I'm not sure I could have stopped myself if I had. In my excitement, I nearly killed her. One moment, we were joined as one, the next she was lying unconscious beneath me, blood running out of her eyes and nose. If I hadn't opened my eyes, I would have finished the job."

  I pulled my arms away. I had nothing left to share but shame and I couldn't bear to look at this woman who I so desperately didn’t want to lose. Hot tears rolled down my face and I sat back into my chair.

  Cool fingers brushed my cheeks and Gabriella's silky black hair fell across my face just before her lips met my own.

  "That's a heavy burden to carry alone," she whispered, cradling my head in her hands.

  "I couldn't tell you," I said. "It's … "

  "Seriously! That has to be the first rule. Don't talk about screwing old girlfriends!" Maggie said, walking back into the room and flopping into a chair. She was wearing one of my t-shirts which hung baggily on her thin frame. "And talking about killing them has to be way up on that list too. So this was your big plan, brother? You're more hopeless than I thought."

  Having bared my soul, I had no capacity for moral indignation. Even more, Maggie was right.

  "I've changed my mind," Gabriella said. "I'm coming with you to North Carolina."

  "What about work?" I asked, confused by the sudden shift of energy.

  She smiled at me and then Maggie. "I'm loaded with vacation time and I've always wanted to meet Judy and Gia."

  "What's going on?" I asked.

  "Felix, I can't read you, not without sharing the blood bond. Just like I can't read Maggie. That's unusual for me," she said. "I've taken your hesitance as non-interest, but that's not at all what I just felt. You've been protecting me by denying yourself something we both very much want."

  "Sex. Shit, can't anyone just use the word?" Maggie asked.

  Gabriella looked at Maggie and her smile broke into a grin. "She kind of grows on you, doesn't she?"

  Road Trip

  "Witches," Maggie lamented, breaking the silence after Gabriella left.

  "You're not much help," I said.

  "Just keeping it real," she replied. "We're headed to Judy's?"

  "How long were you eavesdropping?"

  "You remember when Gabriella arrived?"

  "Yes."

  "Since about then," Maggie said. "Bad habit from when I was a crow. Do you hear that?" She cocked her head toward the kitchen.

  "What?" I had phenomenal hearing, but only picked up the sound of wind through the trees. I'd recently come to realize that Maggie's senses were even sharper than my own. We hadn't talked about it much, but I suspected it had something to do with the way magic had been passed to her from our parents. I'd never seen her cast a spell or stir an enchantment, but she easily transformed into whatever creature she had in mind with virtually no thought, although it used a considerable amount of energy.

  "Beefy motorcycle rolling down our lane," she replied.

  I strained my ears and finally picked up the low thwupping of an approaching bike.

  "Probably Amak." I grabbed dishes from the table as I walked out of the dining room.

  "I didn't think she had a bike," Maggie said, following me into the kitchen.

  "She doesn't. I found that one in the garage last week," I said. "Only eight years old. Know anything about that?"

  "It was Geoff's, not that he'll be needing it anymore," she said darkly.

  Geoff was our older brother of whom I had no memory. More significantly, he was Clarita's father, and Maggie described him as a relatively weak wizard. To the extent that his death in the silver spell circle inside Tenebrius's laboratory was a measure of strength, I suppose she was right.

  I pushed through the swinging door into the mud room and out onto the breezeway that joined the house to the garage. With her heel, Amak kicked the stand, resting the bike on the brick-paved circular parking as she shut off the engine. The bike was an Indian Chief and sported the willow green and ivory cream two-tone paint, complete with light brown leather side bags. I'd never be mistaken for a gangster with this bike, but it fit my personality.

  Amak swung her long leg over the back, clearing the short passenger back rest as she did. As was common for Amak, she wore shorts and a loose shirt which I suspected bordered on pornographic when she rode.

  "That has a nice sound," I said, as Maggie and I approached.

  "My cuz Caradu had to send the bike out to a friend; she doesn't do motorcycles. They got you all fixed up, though," Amak said, pulling off a minimal helmet. "The Burb took a bit more, but it's ready too. If you hop on, we could go pick it up."

  "Ama'." Clarita came rolling around the corner of the house, apparently done watching cartoons for the morning. Amak scooped the small girl into her arms.

  "Any chance you're up for a road trip?" I asked.

  "Further than the shop?" she asked.

  "North Carolina," I said.

  "What's in North Carolina?"

  "Crabtree Valley. It's where Judy lives," I said. "Know anything about demons?"

  "That sounds ominous. You think there's a demon running around?"

  "I'm not sure. I've been having dreams," I said.

  "Tell her about the stiff," Maggie said. "You know, the one who was walking around dead."

  Amak lifted an eyebrow.

  "Judy saw a news report about a dead guy seen walking around town. It has people pointing their fingers at the local witches," I explained. "They found him in the same place I've been dreaming about."

  "And you're not buying coincidence." Amak already knew the answer.

  "If there's any chance Judy's in trouble ..."

  "Wish I could come with you, but I'm in the middle of installing a new security system out at the mansion. I shouldn't leave town," Amak said.

  "It would be great to have you along, but I understand," I said. "I'd love to take the Indian." I stepped toward the motorcycle that, at a minimum, had received new tires.

  Amak followed my gaze. "Eleven hundred miles is a long trip on a motorcycle, especially if you haven't been riding."

  "Don't think you're leaving me behind, and I'm not flying all the way down there as a crow again," Maggie said. I turned just in time to see her cross arms in front and pull the t-shirt she'd been wearing over her head.

  "What in the hell, Maggie?" I asked, turning away, her pale, naked form now burned permanently into my mind.

  "Baroof." The woof of a dog caught my attention and I looked back to where she'd been standing. In her place, I found a flop-eared, bright-eyed, golden-rust colored dog.

  "You've got to be kidding me," I said. "A Vizsla?"

  Maggie, in the form of an athletic looking red hound, trotted past me and proceeded to squat on the recently mulched path leading from the parking area to the breezeway.

  "Damn it, Maggie, couldn't you at least take it a little further out?"

  She looked over her shoulder petulantly and gave one good thrust of her back leg, flinging a stream of mulch nowhere close to the pile she'd just dropped. Leaning her head back, she howled defiantly and trotted over to where Clarita had extricated herself from Amak. The small girl wrapped her arms aroun
d the dog's neck and planted a kiss on its red nose. With a scream of delight, Clarita ran off across the pavers toward the heavily forested back yard with Maggie loping along happily behind her.

  "Looks like Maggie's traveling light," Amak said. "When are you leaving?"

  "After Gabriella gets off work? I figured we could make it as far as Big Spring in the Ozarks," I said. "You should ride the Indian while we're gone. It'd be a shame to leave it in the garage."

  ***

  I woke to the sound of Maggie's low growl. I checked my phone and groaned. It was four in the morning and we'd only arrived at Big Spring campground a couple of hours before. We'd done nothing more complicated than set up the tent and gang our sleeping bags together. It was the first time I'd trusted myself to sleep in the same bed with Gabriella. We were locked together, with her back to me and my arm holding her close. My hand cupped her breast and her small arms were wrapped around my forearm. It was innocent enough while we were both sleeping, but now that I was awake, she had my full attention.

  "You feel good," she whispered, eyes still closed. She pushed against the bag with her feet and slid back into me, making contact with things that needed to be avoided.

  "You play dirty," I said.

  "Best role reversal … ever," she said, gently rocking her hips and causing my eyes to cross. For a moment I considered taking her up on her invitation.

  What appeared to be the palm of someone's hand touched the outside of the tent and slid across the fabric. The tent shook violently as the intruder stumbled against a support line. Maggie barked menacingly, struggled to rise from the jumble of blankets and clumsily stepped over us, her big paws sliding on the uneven tangle of cloth and bodies.

  "That looked like someone's hand," Gabriella whispered, pulling a pair of jeans into the sleeping bag.

  Moonlight streamed in through the front screen as I hastily unzipped it. The smell of rot assaulted my nose as I wriggled out the door behind Maggie.

  "I need you to stay here. Maggie and I are going to see what's going on," I said.

  Gabriella laid her hand on my own. "Don't go."

  "Maggie smells something," I said. "We'll be right back."

  "Be careful," she said. "We don't know these woods."

  Outside the tent, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light of the waning moon. The sound of the nearby Current River was loud in the otherwise quiet early morning. I breathed deeply and again picked up on the malodor, the smell of rotted flesh and death.

  Impatient, Maggie took off into the woods in the direction of the river. A yip of pain twenty yards into the trees drew my attention.

  "Maggie," I whispered harshly and sprinted toward her cry.

  "Augendae," I incanted. It was a new zero-component spell I'd been working on. Without the energies of spell components and my blood to activate it, the sensory enhancement spell wasn't particularly strong. What it did do, however, was help me pick out the shapes of ankle twisting limbs and rocks as I wove through the dense undergrowth.

  Without hearing Maggie's throaty growl, I would have run right over the top of a dark haired woman Maggie was facing down.

  "Maggie, stop," I said. I wasn't sure what the woman was doing in the woods so late or why she'd been messing with our tent, but nighttime definitely made people less settled. "Are you okay?" I asked, reaching out.

  The woman turned toward me and a fresh wave of putrescence assaulted my sensitized nose. Maggie barked loudly and rushed the two of us. The world slowed as my brain processed the face in front of my own. Cloudy irises and drooping cheeks startled me and I tried to pull away. The woman's fingers clawed at my bare chest, finally finding purchase on my outstretched arm. Her grip was vicelike and boney, digging into my skin. A blackened, viscous liquid dripped from her open mouth.

  Maggie barreled into the two of us, clamping down on the woman's forearm. Protesting with a low moan, the woman was thrown to the side as Maggie pushed off her torso. I stumbled back, free from the woman's death grip.

  "Scutum." I ignited my pinky ring's protection spell. The glowing shape of a round buckler shield appeared in front of me. I’d never been able to see the shield before and wondered if it was due to the Augendae spell.

  "Leave," the zombified woman mumbled after she'd regained her footing. "Leave."

  "Definitely not my type, sweet cheeks. I'm having enough trouble with my girlfriend as it is," I quipped, looking around for a limb or something to use as a weapon as I retreated onto the sandy bank. I could go more offensive, but it would be a last resort. I'd read somewhere that zombies and the undead in general weren't in favor of fresh, running water. What I didn't know was whether this was a good application of that knowledge.

  "Leeeave …." She scratched at the shield, her fingertips nothing more than bone claws. The contact made no sound, but she was unable to reach through. I backed further onto the sandbar that ran alongside the river. My hope was to lead this thing away from Gabriella as quickly as possible. My ring had started to tap into my own energy reserves. It was a neat trick - the ability to channel extra energy to recharge my rings in real-time. The problem was, the shield spell was extremely expensive and I might need that energy for other purposes.

  While I considered all of this, Gabriella emerged from the tree line, branch in hand. In a single, fluid motion, she tagged the woman just behind the ear. The sound of crunching was not nearly as bothersome as the sickly squishing of interior matter.

  "What is that?" she asked, breathing hard from exertion.

  "Lucem," I said, causing my silver ring to emit a bright light which I directed onto the corpse. What we hadn't been able to see previously was the condition of the woman. It was clear, even to a casual observer, that this woman was well past her expiration date.

  "What's this?" Gabriella asked, crouching next to the woman's head. I thought she was going to ask about the rather large indention she'd caused, but she gingerly pulled back the woman's shirt, revealing the top of a scar in the shape of an upside down goat's head.

  "Satanists?" I asked, moving closer to illuminate the scar that looked like it had been burned into the flesh, possibly after her death.

  "Not Satanists. It's upside down," Gabriella said. "We should check her for identification."

  I steeled myself for the task and quickly searched through her pockets, coming up with nothing. I pulled out my phone and took a picture of the scar on her back. It was grisly, but I wanted to be able to refer to it in the future.

  "Is this the girl from your dreams?" Gabriella asked.

  "Too old and her face isn't right," I said. "I'll grab a shovel. We can at least give her a decent resting place."

  "We need to call the sheriff," Gabriella said. "This woman had family."

  I groaned. Gabriella was right, but I didn't want to get mixed up with the police.

  "That's fine, but the story is we just found her like this," I said, pulling out my phone.

  Two hours later the sun was just starting to rise and the sheriff finally showed up. He was an older man with a substantial paunch and a generous greying mustache. He was accompanied by a middle-aged woman dressed in khaki slacks and a lab jacket.

  "Were you the group that called in the DB?" His hand rested casually on a holstered pistol.

  "Yup, that was me." We'd packed everything but the coffee pot and camp chairs by now and I was anxious to get back on the road, even though I was tired from interrupted sleep.

  "I'm Sheriff Burford and this here's the coroner, Dr. Grant," he said.

  "Thanks for coming out, Sheriff." I offered my hand. For a moment he considered me and then reciprocated. "I moved her a little, trying to find some identification."

  "Why don't you show me the body, son," he said patronizingly as he pulled at his belt, not making any progress against his overhanging gut.

  "All-righty, pops." I'd always hated being called son. "She's right over here. My dog found her this morning." I led them down to the bank of the river.

>   The coroner walked over to the body and knelt next to it, pulling on latex gloves.

  "How do you know this girl?" the sheriff asked.

  "Mostly from her perfume," I said.

  He raised his eyebrows. "You getting cute with me?"

  "Yeah, bad habit," I said, not meaning it. "You're making an assumption that's annoying. We don't know her. We're just passing through, trying to do our civic duty."

  "You just happened to run across a dead girl?" he said.

  "If my dog hadn't found her, we'd never have known she was there," I said. "Didn't seem right, just letting her lie there, not telling anyone."

  He nodded and looked back to the coroner. "What do you have, Helen?" he asked.

  "This body's been moved," she said, looking at the body that lay face down in the weeds.

  "Preliminary cause?"

  "No. We'll have to get her back to the morgue," she said. "The body's in bad shape."

  He turned back to me. "You mind if I take a look in the truck?"

  Gabriella stepped between us. "What are you looking for?"

  "Maybe another DB. Just trying to validate your story, little lady," The sheriff looked over his sunglasses at her, tapping them downward with a chubby finger.

  Gabriella's eyebrows shot up at the last remark and she leaned forward, not at all intimidated. "You want to search our vehicle because we had the misfortune to camp next to a dead woman?"

  "It's called law enforcement. If I don't find anything, you'll be on your way. You can either let me search the truck or I'll call a judge and get a warrant," he said. "Regardless, I'm getting a look in there."

  "What's up?" I asked, turning to Gabriella. I got that she didn't like the guy, but looking through the Suburban to rule us out seemed reasonable.

  "He's asking to do a search without cause. Anything he finds and deems suspicious, he's able to use. A warrant requires cause, which he doesn't have. I'm advising you not to let him search," she said.

  "You're the district attorney," I said, shading the truth. She'd once been an assistant district attorney and was now working as a corporate lawyer.