Believe: The Complete Channie Series (2 page)

She grabbed her willow-twig basket off the ground then hopped on her bike and raced down the mountain towards home.

Momma and Daddy were always warning her about how even the nicest boys were ruled by their carnal desires. They’d neglected to mention that girls could feel lust too.

A first kiss was supposed to be special. You were supposed to feel it in your heart, mind, body and soul. It was supposed to be
magic.

Channie was attracted to Hunter, but she didn’t love him. What she felt was lust, not love. And it wasn’t enough.

When
Channie was about two miles from home, she ducked behind an outcropping of granite and changed into dry clothes. She wrapped her wet things in Hunter’s towel and shoved them to the bottom of her basket then hid everything under a layer of Elderberry leaves.

She propped her bike against the north side of the cabin then cracked the screen door open to find Momma crushed against Daddy’s chest. Channie cast a bug-be-gone spell at the blowfly buzzing around her head then stepped inside. The screen door slammed shut with a resounding
thwack
.

Momma and Daddy sprang apart like startled deer.

“Sorry.” Channie cringed and set her willow basket on the pine bench under the front window. As her vision adjusted to the dimmer light inside the cabin, she noticed that Momma had tears in her eyes. “What’s going on?”

Daddy wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand. “I got some real bad folks looking for me, baby girl.”

“Again?” The word popped out of Channie’s mouth before she could stop herself. Everyone knew about Daddy’s gambling addiction, unpaid debts and tendency to cheat at cards, but nobody was supposed to acknowledge it. Besides, it wasn’t really his fault. His power name was Money and Daddy was obsessed with it. He invested what little cash he got his hands on in get-rich-quick schemes or gambled it away as fast as he got it.

Daddy smiled, but he also cast a spell to neutralize Enchantment’s power. “You can take what ever you can stuff into a pillow case, but hurry it up. I wanna skedaddle on outta here before moon-rise.”

“You want me to go with you?”

Daddy was always running from trouble, but he’d never taken anyone with him before. He shook his head. “We’re all goin’ this time.”

“Aunt Wisdom only gave me a week off. My apprenticeship starts up again in three days. I can’t afford to miss—”

“I ain’t in the mood for none of your backtalk. Now git on up there and git packed.”

Channie scampered up the ladder to the loft she shared with her older sister and three rowdy nephews who were, praise the lord, still napping. The triplets were ornery as the dickens but so darn cute they could get away with anything. Their carmel colored skin, big brown eyes and curly black hair added to the mystery of their daddy’s identity. There were plenty of mages in the Ozark region with dark eyes and hair, but they were all fair-skinned.

The back door slammed. Abby sat up and mumbled a nasty word under her breath.

Channie peeked out the window and saw Momma stomping down the path towards the family burial plot—with a shovel. 

Channie’s
imagination ran wild as she helped load their old hand-me-down Volkswagen bus. The more stuff they packed the more her anxiety grew. When Daddy dragged the sofa out of the cabin and tied it to the top of the bus, Channie realized they weren’t coming back. Daddy must have killed someone this time. Why else would he send Momma off with a shovel if not to bury the body?

When Momma came back, she was sweaty, grimy and in complete disarray. She always wore her hair pulled into a tight knot at the nape of her neck, but most of it had come undone. Grey wisps floated around her shoulders like ghosts and her eyes had that vacant, glassy look you see on the front row at funerals. She stabbed the ground with her shovel, burying half the spade with one angry thrust. “Well, I got it.”

Channie’s heart skipped a beat. “Got what?”

Momma raised her shield and glared at Channie. “None of your gall-darned business. Now, go help your sister wake up them babies and get ‘em loaded in the bus.”

“We’re ready to go?” Channie’s bike was still leaning against the side of the cabin. “What about my bike?”

“We don’t have room to take everything we own.”

“I’ll leave something else behind. I want my bike.” Aunt Wisdom had given it to Channie for her fourteenth birthday two years ago. It was her most prized possession. As soon as the keep-away spells around the cabin wore off, someone was bound to steal it.

“And I want a million dollars. Now do as you’re told before I take a switch to your bee-hind.”

“Calm down, Prudence.” Daddy grabbed Channie’s bike with one hand and tossed it on top of the pile of furniture bound to the roof of the bus. “Get me another rope out of the shed, baby girl. There’s no reason we can’t take your bike.”

Momma pressed her lips into a thin hard line and glared at Daddy, but she didn’t argue.

As soon as he finished securing Channie’s bike, he nodded at Momma. “It’s time.”

She spun around and stomped back inside the cabin.

Daddy waited for Channie to climb inside the bus then jiggled the side door, testing the baling wire holding it shut. He leaned in through the passenger door. “You stay here and don’t come inside no matter what happens. I’ll send Abby and the trips out.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

The wrinkles around Daddy’s eyes deepened. “On second thought, if something happens, get your bike and ride as fast as you can to your Aunt Wisdom’s place and tell her what’s going on.”

“What
is
going on?”

Daddy scrubbed his face with calloused palms. “Just promise me you won’t go inside that cabin.”

“You’re scaring me, Daddy.”

“Good.” He squeezed Channie’s arm then patted her cheek. “Promise?”

“Yeah, I promise.”

He nodded once then joined Momma in the cabin. Abby and three very cranky trips stumbled out the front door.

Daddy’s
1956 panel-van Volkswagen bus was useful for avoiding prying eyes when running moonshine. But with no windows or rear seats it wasn’t very comfortable—even when it wasn’t packed floor to ceiling with half their earthly belongings. Channie helped Abby clear a space for the triplets in the back then wriggled between Momma’s cedar trunk and Daddy’s tool chest like a snake.

Abby grabbed Channie’s left foot and said, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Daddy told me to go get help if something goes wrong. How am I supposed to do that if I’m stuck in here?”

“Well, Daddy told me to keep ever-body in the bus.”

Channie pushed a little persuasive magic at Abby.

She sighed and let go of Channie’s foot. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, lil’ sis. You’re gonna get me in all sorts of trouble.”

Channie rolled onto her back and grabbed the steering wheel to pull herself between the front seats.

When she sat up and saw the cabin, her jaw dropped. Black, oily smoke seeped through the cracks between the logs and poured out around the door jamb and window sills.

She ran to the cabin and pressed her palms against the front window glass. The interior of the cabin glowed but Channie couldn’t see anything through the smoke. There were no flames and no heat. The cabin wasn’t on fire, it was bewitched. Energy pulsed all around her. Channie had been healed, blessed, bound and even cursed, but this magic was different, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. Her vision tunneled, going grey around the edges. She stumbled back to the bus and yanked on the rope holding her bike. “Abby! Get out here and help me get my bike!”

“No need, baby girl. We’re all done.”

Channie whirled around. Daddy was sitting on the top porch step, fanning smoke away from his face. Momma stood to the side, clinging to the porch post.

Channie slid her hand from the base of her throat to her hip. “Good lord, Daddy, you scared the bejeebies outta me.”

Daddy rocked forward and launched his massive body off the step. “Let’s get outta here.”

Fifty
miles west of the Oklahoma state line, Daddy pulled over and switched places with Momma, letting her drive. As soon as the trips fell asleep, he did something he’d never done before. He confessed. 

“I was on a winning streak, sold all my moonshine the first night and tripled my money playing poker with the boys. Me and Lucky Feenie decided to head on down to Hot Springs and play the ponies.”

Momma shot Daddy a sideways glance, but didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. They all knew Momma didn’t approve of moonshine or the Feenie clan. According to her, moonshine was a tool of the devil and Lucky Feenie was a traitor for marrying Triumph Veyjivik, a Cumberland mage.

Twenty years ago, Triumph denounced her own clan, swore a death pledge of loyalty to the Feenie’s and married Lucky, but that wasn’t good enough for Momma. As far as she was concerned, “that woman” was still a Veyjivik, still a traitor and not to be trusted. But her worst offense was contaminating the Feenie line with her Veyjivik blood. Just one more reason it was a bad idea for Hunter to court Channie. Momma would never accept him or his children.

Daddy sighed and wiped the sweat off his brow with a red shop towel. “Usually, the tracks, stables, horses and jockeys are shielded from magic, but there was some sort of hullabaloo going on that day with visiting celebrities so the track’s mages were a little distracted. Lucky found a hole in the shield and kept watch while I cast a weakening spell on Dark Magic, the colt favored to win in the fifth race. It would have been okay, except the horse belonged to…a very powerful mage.”