Night of the Living Demon Slayer (12 page)

Then I shoved him back. He hardly noticed. His eyes were wild, his breath coming in pants. "Now," his voice boomed. His every word was pronounced. "Tell me what you are."

The bug landed on the side of his neck and melted into his skin as if it had never existed.

I wiped the dust from my nose and cheeks. "I'm a demon slayer." I'd gotten him and he'd gotten me. I gave myself a quick once-over. So far, I wasn't burning, or bleeding. Nothing was falling off. Yet. "You do that again, you'll get a switch star through the head."

He drew his brows together. "There is no such thing as a demon slayer."

"I'm about two seconds away from giving you a demonstration," I snapped. I'd wanted to be more cagey about this, but not if I was under attack. "Now tell me, where'd you put Carpenter?"

He stared at me, his breathing heavy and his manner unsettled. "Don't play games with me, little girl."

"I wouldn't dream of it," I said, advancing on him. He'd attacked me. We weren't pretending anymore. "I saw you take the necromancer."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small leather bag, similar to the one he'd used in the swamp. His lips curved into a menacing smile. "In the fog, it's hard to tell what you truly see."

I grabbed for it. He avoided my grasp, and damned if I didn't see the bag anymore.

"Cut the bullshit." Yes, the fog had been as unsettling as my dream last night. Maybe I was having trouble telling what was real and what wasn't, but the voodoo bokor had slipped up. He'd brought up the fog and in doing so, he might as well have admitted that I'd walked into his ceremony in the swamp—that I'd seen things I shouldn't. I took hold of his arm and pulled him close enough that my breath whispered against his cheek. I'd rather not think about where I'd suddenly gotten that kind of physical strength. "I know about you, Osse. I was there."

A rivulet of sweat trickled down the side of his face. "You invaded my ceremony. You walked through the spirits of the dead," he added, as if he could hardly believe it himself. He pointed a long, finger at me. "Yet you are not a necromancer."

"No." I agreed, gritting my teeth as I held him tighter. "You tied the necromancer to a post in the ground."

The bokor sneered. "He deserved it."

He shoved away, and I let him go. "Push me and you're going to find out exactly what a switch star is."

I wouldn't kill him. Not if he wasn't attacking. But I'd sure as Hades redecorate his office.

He held his wrist where I'd gripped him, and again, I marveled at my sudden strength. "It's not wise to threaten me when I hold your friend's life in my hands."

He had me there, and it made me angry as hell. I fought the urge to circle him, to surround him. "Did you lure Carpenter there?" I demanded. "Was the black soul in the alligator a way of trapping him? You bled him, you sicko."

His dark gaze held mine. "Sometimes, one must suffer for the greater good."

The bones of the dead rattled on the shelves next to me.

"You used his blood to resurrect a chicken. Then you drove off with him in a boat." I barked out. "I tried to be reasonable. I tried to come here and have a simple conversation with you, but the people I'm with, they want to destroy you." The witches had learned to fight evil without asking questions. Maybe I was a bleeding heart, but I'd been willing to talk. To live and let live. "I'm just trying to get the necromancer back."

His face hardened. "No. Not when he hurts the people I love." He took one deliberate step toward me, then another. "I will fight. I will die for her."

"Who?" I demanded, watching him shut down. He wasn't going to tell me. It didn't matter anyway. "Let my friend go. Stop tangling with black souls, and we'll leave you alone."

"Get out," he ordered. "Leave my church. Leave me in peace."

He was a fine one to talk about peace. "I'll go," I told him. "But I'm on you like a tick until you release Carpenter." And even then, I couldn't make any promises. Not if he tangled with another dark soul.

He stalked toward me, hovered right over me, his forehead slicked with sweat. "Then be like your friend," he challenged. "Test me. Just don't expect to win."

Chapter Eleven

Grandma opened the door while I was still halfway up the porch. A red bandana held her hair back and charcoal smudged her right cheek. "You bug him?"

"Yeah," I said. "He didn't make it easy."

She gave me a quick once-over. "Don't tell me you got hexed."

"Have a little faith," I said automatically. Then again, he had sprinkled that dust on me. From the way he'd acted, I gather it was a truth powder. I held my hands out to the side as I approached her. "Do I look I got hit with something bad?"

She rolled her eyes. "People don't go around looking cursed."

I gave a snort. "You've obviously never seen me hung over."

She rested a hand on her hip, giving me a great view of the new butterfly tattoo on her wrist. "Well, the good news is you'd never make it through my wards if you were a shambling zombie."

"That's why you're in charge," I said, moving past her and into the foyer.

She let me go. "You find out anything at the funeral parlor?"

I let out a long sigh. "Osse Pade is deluded. And powerful."

Grandma groaned. "My favorite kind of guy."

I sprawled onto the settee just inside the door. "He seems to think whatever he's up to is a good thing, but he won't admit where he's keeping Carpenter." I leaned my head back. "I don't think he has him in the city." It would be too much of a risk. "Carpenter still has to be in the swamp somewhere."

I'd tell her later about the spirit that seemed to be hanging around me. I didn't want to give it attention, even in my thoughts. That seemed to be what it wanted, and so far, it hadn't hurt anything. I rubbed at my itchy eyes. Now that I'd reached the relative safety of the house, I realized how tired I was. "I need to lay down for a few minutes."

 
"Before you fall asleep where you're sitting… Here." She tossed me a round ball the size of a quarter.

I caught it in one hand. It was glittery and blue. Slippery, too. I worked hard to keep hold of it. "What's this?"

She closed the door. "Sneak spell for tonight. Stick it in your bra. Let it warm up to you. It'll work better that way."

"Of, course." I shouldn't be surprised. This was custom biker witch magic. I nestled the charmed sphere down past my bustier top and into my cleavage. "Just so long as it doesn't try anything," I added, eyeing her as the spell wiggled a bit. I jammed it in there tighter.

Grandma grinned. "The way you're built, I'm more worried about the damn thing suffocating."

I had to laugh. "Hey, at least I know where I got the gift."

Grandma didn't know when to quit smiling. "Speaking of things nestling in your cleavage—"

"Are we really going there?"

"Your husband called," she continued, not missing a beat. "He'll be here tomorrow."

Fantastic. I was more relieved than I wanted to admit. "We could really use him." Dimitri was strong and powerful, plus he had a great instinct for getting us out of trouble.

"I didn't tell him you were out chasing down dark voodoo."

He'd assume. Nothing much got past him. "Hopefully, we'll have Carpenter back by the time he gets here." I could wish anyway.

"Grandma nodded. "In the meantime, I've got something to show you." I pried myself off the couch and she ushered me into the living room to the right. About two dozen camouflage backpacks lined up along the pink papered walls.

"More spells?" I asked.

"All packed and set to go. Didn't seem right for me to crash until we had everything ready. And until we had you back. "I told the rest of the coven to head upstairs." We continued toward the dining room in the back. "We need 'em sharp for tonight."

We passed through the arched doorway and I drew up short. "You didn't…"

Grandma looked like the cat who at the canary. "Creely said you'd be speechless."

"I said I hoped." The engineering witch chuckled as she leaned over the big table. "I knew better than to think it would happen."

I scanned the room, amazed. The witches had transformed the place into a war room. Detailed topographical maps hung from the walls. I saw weather reports, the star and moon positions. A huge city map spread across the dining table, held straight by spell jars. "How did you get all of this together so fast?"

Sure, Creely had built a trebuchet in an afternoon. She'd taken mere hours to re-configure magical griffin armor into a defense shield for Dimitri's ancestral villa. But that was hands-on. This was…research.

Creely shrugged, the Kool-Aid red tips of her hair brushing her shoulders. "It's my job."

"I'm also shocked you guys are planning," I said. I was being honest, not trying to insult them.

Grandma shared a glance with Creely. "She acts like we can't learn anything new."

The engineering witch huffed. "Good thing we can or we'd still be letting Sneak Spells mingle with Chocolate Cookie Craving Spells. We'll never get all of those back under control."

Creely motioned me over to her position in front of the map. "Now look here. Whatever you said to your voodoo friend must have worked. About twenty minutes ago, he made a beeline out of the funeral parlor and out toward the swamps. See?" She laid a thin silver film over the map and I watched a glowing red line appear. "This is his trail. The guy's a regular speed demon." It went from the French Quarter, down the highway Carpenter and I had taken, out toward the swamps, and it was still moving.

Damn. "You're better than Q in the James Bond novels."

"Of course," she said, "I'm a woman."

"Look here," Grandma said. "He's stopping."

He was. The red bug paused at a lush green spot on the map, surrounded by water.

Grandma paused in front of a map on the wall. "The topographical overlay shows a series of small buildings in the area."

Probably a moonshine shack as well. "That looks close to where we were last night," I said. The small peninsula lay deep in the swamp, yet close enough to skirt a highway.

"You see this road here," Creely said, her finger following a winding tan line through the lush green peninsula, "This is a back way in, so we don't have to try and fit everyone into boats."

"We don't even have boats," I murmured, warming up to this back road idea.

"We could get boats if we needed 'em," the engineering witch muttered.

"I don't doubt it for a second," I told her. I studied the winding road out of the swamp. "There's a low bridge before you get there. Except for that, the road leads directly to the highway."

"Ideal for a quick escape." Grandma nodded. "We'll have to be stealthy."

The sneak spell wriggled in my bra, as if it knew. "Thanks for this." I wasn't sure Creely truly understood how much we needed her. "As usual, it's more than I expected."

She kept her head down, her eyes focused on the map, but I could tell she was pleased. "Your grandma wants to go in after sun down."

"Good plan," I said, turning to Grandma.

She rubbed at one of her eyes. "You should think about taking a nap. You look like hell."

That made two of us.

Although after last night, the mere thought of sleep made me distinctly uncomfortable.

"I'll just hang out in the lodge room," I told them. I didn't want another chat with my buddy upstairs. Besides, the snarling, stuffed wild game would keep me awake.

"That center room's still open," Creely offered, although your dog is bunking down with Sidecar Bob."

"I'm fine," I said, letting them climb the stairs. I chose a leather couch framed by curtains that appeared as if they'd been clawed apart at the bottom. I could handle the spirit situation, and the bokor. I just had to hold out for a little while longer.

***

"She's alive!" I felt a wet tongue on my ear and hot doggie breath on my cheek. I opened my eyes to see an excited Pirate right in my face. "I told you she wasn't possessed," he said, happy in a way only dogs could be, as if that were my greatest accomplishment today.

"I haven't been possessed since…" I trailed off. Well, it had only been a couple of months ago. I reached out to rub the scruff between his ears. "I'm sorry about that, by the way."

"It's okay," Pirate said, his eyes shining with sincerity. "I love you."

I groaned to a sitting position, scooping up Pirate along the way. I held him to my chest. "The world would be a better place if we all thought the way you do."

He licked my hand.

The couch rattled. Heck, the whole house probably did, as witches thundered down the stairs like an invading army. It's a wonder I'd slept through any of it.

Frieda approached me, looking more like a swamp creature than her usual, zebra-print, fabulous self.

"Does this ghillie suit make my butt look big?" She asked, clearly joking as she chomped on her gum. The brown and green full-body camouflage was layered with loose strips of burlap, strung with leaves and twigs. She fiddled with a stick near her shoulder. "We'll pick up some swamp do-dads too, once we get there."

"I think I'll stick to my demon slaying outfit." My powers and my weapons depended on my ability to maneuver.

"Suit yourself," Ant Eater said, wearing a suit and holding a stick of face paint. "Come on, Frieda. Let's make you beautiful."

The blonde witch tilted her head up. "Or at least invisible." She had a stocking cap stuffed in her belt. I'd never seen the witches try to blend before.

"You look like Lady Seal Team Six," I told them.

Ant Eater began slicking Frieda's face with the paint. "If that's what it takes to get in and out."

The front door hung open. Several witches had pulled their bikes out front. I saw them strapping duffel bags onto the backs.

Creely plopped down next to me with a map in her hand. She'd folded it to where only the swamp part showed. "We'll park our rides behind this curve in the highway here," she said, pointing to the winding stretch of road. "We'll find a place where the trees are thick. After that, we hoof it toward our first likely location. When we get a hundred yards out, we release the first sneak spells."