Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) (8 page)

The basement got
updated as well. Thankfully it started life as a cement poured basement and not
a traditional dirt floor Michigan cellar. That not-so-little detail saved
thousands on upgrades and made it so much easier to use. Now Grams had a nice
pantry for her canned goods and an extra fridge and freezer for when she made
holiday goodies. The woman loved to cook and bake, especially during the
holidays…any holiday. Homemade treats were her gifts of choice and no one ever
complained because Grams was just that good.

Every witch
possessed their own unique talents. My mom mastered potion and spell casting.
My best friend, Mel, leaned more toward tech witch and budding sorceress. My
powers lay in the realms of knowledge. Gram…I believed she was a kitchen witch.
Sure the woman was powerful as all get out. She could dematerialize and walk
through walls and shoot witch balls from her hands, but her true and best
talents lay in the kitchen where she created food that truly made people happy.
Hers was a unique and very useful talent.

I kissed her
cheek as I walked around her to lean against the island.

“Who’s this
little guy? He’s got to be the smallest goat I’ve ever seen.” I wondered what
Gram had gotten so upset about this time; she hadn’t had a goat in a long time.

Good thing since
her goat farm outside of town was pretty full. But the witches running it were
spectacular. They loved all the goats and took good care of them, using their
milk to make spa quality goat’s milk soaps, along with other bath and body
products. They also made the most delicious gourmet goat cheeses imaginable.
The farm became quite popular and sold products to many local stores and
restaurants as well as at their own online store. Granny’s goat farm (as I
jokingly called it) helped support the local witch community. A goddess-send in
this rough economic climate.

It was probably
an odd thing having a Gram who had a goat every time she got upset but when
you’re a witch some weird things just become the norm.

“He’s a baby
pygmy goat. I have not figured out what to name him yet.”

“He’s so small.
Are you taking him to the farm?”

“No, I think I’m
going to keep him here. He’s very friendly. Even Snowball and Mischief like
him. I found them all curled together taking a nap earlier.” She chuckled as
she pulled another tray of goodies from the oven and set them over a hot pad on
the counter.

“Wow those two
cats never like any of the newbies, especially not the goats.”

“I know. I think
it’s a sign I should keep him here.”

I gave little
goatie a last little rub on his head then put him down so I could grab a
cookie. “He’s sure the cutest goat I’ve ever seen.” I watched him scamper off
before asking the question I always dreaded asking. “So how’s Mom today?”

“I don’t know.
It’s odd. She’s been agitated. Pacing and muttering to herself. She’s like that
a lot as of late.” Gram seemed a little worried.

“Do you think
something is wrong?”

“With your
mother?  I don’t know, but I feel something in the air… it feels…heavy. Off. I
don’t know how else to describe it.” Tiny worry lines wrinkled around her mouth
and eyes as she spoke.

As old as Gram
was she didn’t have many wrinkles, which by the way, I had no idea how old she
really was. Witches aged differently than humans. Gram looked no older than
fifty but must be much older since my mom would have to be close to fifty, she
did not look a day over thirty. Mom had me in her twenties, and I’m close to
twenty five. I guess there were some very good things about my witch lineage,
we aged very gracefully…and super slowly and kept our youthful glow.

“You’re not the
only ones feeling the unease Grams, but no one seems to know what it is,” I
said as I nibbled on a freshly frosted ginger cookie.

“Have you had
many calls to work on?” she asked quietly.

She was fishing.
I knew she read the paper everyday—even though most of it was online now. The
Flint Journal reduced printing to only three times a week. She wanted to know
about the vampire attacks. Of course, the paper hadn’t used the word “vampire,”
P.I.T kept that under wraps. However, Gram was like most Others. Very
intuitive. She knew when something was supernatural in origin even if the
humans had no clue.

“I mainly get
called to the big stuff. I’ve been working on the murders, I’m sure you’ve read
about them in The Flint Journal.”

Her eyes
narrowed. “Of course. Another filthy vampire on a rampage killing innocent
young women.” She continued frosting the cooled batch of cookies.

“Gram…” My
attempt at stopping the tirade about to break out if we didn’t change the subject…soon.

“I know, I know,
save the bleeding heart liberal vampire speech, Anwyn. I’ve seen what those
leeches can do firsthand. Long before what happened to your dad, I’ve seen
their nastiness. The mess with the Hysteria and your father…sealed my opinion
of them. I know you think it’s a new millennium and things have changed, but as
long as vampires need human blood to survive they will kill innocents to slake
their thirst.”

She spoke
furiously, but kept right on drizzling white frosting in thin little lines
across the cookies as if nothing was wrong. Her culinary skills were truly
magickal.

“Gram we’ve all
changed. Not too many witches hide in the woods huddled over cauldrons anymore.
Weres and shifters no longer keep their furry forms secret. Vampires don’t need
to kill in the dark when they have willing donors lined up to fulfill their
needs. It is a new millennium, a new generation. Times are different.”

She turned and
frowned at me. “Times may be different but people and Others are not. We are
what we are, Wyn. Sooner or later you’ll learn.”

I grumbled,
grabbed another cookie and hugged Gram to calm her down. Then I turned away and
walked down the hall to say hello to my mother.

A cat like hiss
met me as I walked into her room. She turned to me. “Bloodsucking bitch, you’ve
been near her. That vampire whore! Traitorous daughter, do you screw them too?
Do you fuck those fanged freaks?” she spat at me.

I had never seen
her so enraged. Her eyes were wild and her nostrils flared. She lunged at me in
attack mode. My own mother wanted to hurt me? Why? I flung the closet door open
putting it between the two of us. I huddled behind it, wedged up against the
wall.

“The prophecy
was mine. Written for your father and me. We were meant to fulfill it. But that
fanged bitch ruined everything,” she continued on, babbling under her breath.

I had no idea
what she was talking about. I huddled halfway behind the door figuring out an
escape that wouldn’t get either one of us hurt.

She stopped
babbling and reached her nails out to me again. “I won’t lose another to one of
those leaches. Stay away from them! All of them.”

Her nails raked
across my shoulder then I caught sight of her hand raised and ready for another
slash. Gram ran into the room and grabbed my mom’s hand saving me from a clawed
up face.

“What did you do
to her?” she asked wide-eyed as she held my mother to her, hugging her tightly.

“I didn’t do
anything. She was like this as soon as I walked in.” My mother was known for
being off, but this was crazy. She spat and hissed at me like a wild animal. My
grams held her tight so she couldn’t get to me. I feared my own mother.

“You better
leave, hun. I’ll call you later if I figure out what’s wrong with her.” Tears
brimmed Gram’s eyes.

I knew it killed
her to see my mom like this. As much as I wanted a normal life I was sure Gram
wished more than anything her daughter was normal, happy and healthy. I also
knew it tormented her no matter how much power she had as a witch nothing
seemed to pull my mother out of the darkness she had descended into the night
my father died.

I refused to
shed tears as I left my childhood home. I drove though Flushing ignoring the
subtle beauty which often awed me. I turned onto Coutant and followed it until
it turned into Kelly on the other side of Elms. I kept going not seeing my
favorite places I usually checked out along the short but scenic drive in the
area which used to be farmland. I turned and turned again then pulled into my
driveway. I sat in my car for a while, finally letting the tears fall freely.

What was wrong
with Mom? She mentioned vampires and a prophecy. I hoped Gram didn’t let her
have access to the newspapers or the computer. The last thing Mom needed to
know about was a crazy vampire on the loose killing women. It would just add
more fuel to her vampire hating fire.

After about ten
minutes I dried my tears and decided to go inside. I barely undressed before
falling into bed completely exhausted.

Chapter 9

Rod Stewart’s
shriveled little body chased me down an endless hallway telling me if I thought
he was sexy I should let him know.

I ran as fast as
I could but he kept getting closer and closer and just when his awful little
skeletal hands grabbed for my breasts…I woke up.

Oh, thank the
goddess! It was just a dream.

But why could I
still hear Rod Stewart’s awful voice talking about being sexy? Please make it
stop!

Then I realized
through my sleep clouded haze it must be my cell phone. The damn ring tone had
been changed again. And of course, it had to be Malone calling. It was always
his ring tone playing some awful annoying song I hated and it usually had
something to do with being sexy. Last time it was Right Said Fred’s I’m Too
Sexy, before that it had been the Devinyl’s I Touch Myself. Arrg!

I wondered how
he got a hold of my phone and changed the ring tones without me knowing. Hmmm.

Damn, Rod
Stewart still screeched at me. Had. To. Make. It. Stop. Where was the phone?

Found it on the
floor next to the bed.

“Uhhm yes,” I
grumbled sleepily.

“Wake up
sleeping beauty; we have a situation down at VAMP. I need you here ASAP.”

“What’s going
on, another murder?”

“No, two
vampires going at it in the middle of the freakin’ street with humans watching
the whole damn thing, one is an out of towner, the other lives here. Says he
knows you. His name’s Galen,” Malone’s voice had an icy edge to it.

Crap! This was
the last thing Galen needed, being hauled in by the cops. And I bet I knew who
the other creep was, Devlin. The British ass who’d chatted with Sati at the
club the other day. He had it in for Galen. I knew it. Somehow I had to get the
blood sucker to keep his fang filled mouth shut.

A spell, I
needed a silencing spell—like yesterday.

“Hello, Annie
girl, you there?”

“Yeah, sorry.
Still waking up. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t do anything stupid.
Satinka Tala and her men will keep everything stable and safe for you guys
until I get there to question them. Have the Guardians take them inside VAMP
and get all the humans out of there. Do not try to question them on your own.
Okay?”

Silence.

“Okay, Malone?
This is why I was hired.”

“Yeah, yeah,
okay. I’ll leave the bloodsuckers for you.” There was an icy edge to his tone
again. Malone had issues with vampires, I didn’t know what they were or why,
but I knew they were there.

“Good,” I
clicked the end button and scurried around my place looking for one of my mom’s
spell books. I knew there was a silencing spell in the purple one, if I could
find the purple book.

Ah hah! I found
it under the potion pot.

After scanning
over the spell I grabbed all the ingredients from my shelves, thank Goddess I
actually had everything needed, except an image of the person I needed to
silence. Crap I didn’t even know his whole name. I think Devlin was his first
name, hard to tell with vamps.

Oh, well it would
have to do. Spells were more about intent than ingredients anyway.

I cast my
circle, lit the candles, drew a primitive image of Devlin and wrote his name
across it, cast all the ingredients along with the image in the pot and chanted
the spell three times while concentrating on my intent to keep him silent about
Galen’s connection to the murders.

Once done, I
pulled out the image, drew an X over the mouth and bound it with black ribbon.
I sshhed at it then stuck it in a spell bag.

“So be it, and
so it is.”

I hoped that
would do it as I opened the circle, blew out the candles and scurried to find
some pants to put on.

****

The roads were
practically empty. I hit 75 south to 69 which took me right to the main
downtown exit at Saginaw Street. Usually it took fifteen to twenty minutes to
drive. This time of the morning I drove it in less than ten minutes.

Once I hit the
bricks on Saginaw Street I slowed down and looked for a place to park. My inept
ability to parallel park would not be an issue along the empty curb across the
street from VAMP.