Because of the charm pouches, I hadn’t seen Erasmus since the tattooing. I was beginning to wonder if it wasn’t a better idea to get rid of my pouch so he could be with me. I glanced quickly at Doc and while he wasn’t looking, I took it off and stuffed it in a seat cushion. Almost immediately I felt that rush of wind as he appeared behind me.
“Thank the gods you finally got rid of that,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry. I thought it was a good idea at the time.”
“I can protect you from any villager attacks.” He seemed insulted that I would use any other methods. I could see his point.
“I’m sorry.” I looked again to see if anyone was paying attention to me before I reached up and gave him a soft kiss.
He seemed more than mollified. A little melty, if truth be told. Some big bad demon he turned out to be.
He vanished again when Doc turned our way. “Shall we all ride together?”
I thought of all of us crammed in Doc’s Rambler. “I’ll take my Jeep. You all go with Doc.”
I could tell that Jolene wanted to protest, but Seraphina gave me a knowing eye and steered the teenager toward Doc’s car. Good old Seraphina. She knew exactly what was up.
Once the Rambler had pulled away from the shop, I got in the Jeep and wasn’t surprised when Erasmus appeared beside me. Before I could do or say anything he reached over and kissed me. When he sat back, he seemed a little proud of himself.
I started up the car. “No hocus pocus when we get there.”
“I haven’t the least idea what you are talking about.”
“No magic tricks. Just let everyone have their say. They’re naturally worried. I mean, this would be a really bad time for Baph—I mean, Goat Guy to show up.”
He shook his head the way he always did when I used my nickname for the god Baphomet. But he was the one who’d told me not to use his name in case the god interpreted it as a summons.
I couldn’t help but touch the amulet, feeling its familiar and somehow comforting warmth.
We pulled into the driveway of the church parking lot, crowded with cars from the village. “Hey,” I said, turning to my companion. “The church hall is hallowed ground, isn’t it? You won’t be able to get into the building.”
He scowled. “I hadn’t thought of that. I will be near, however. And if you should need me, I’ll…” But it didn’t look like he knew what he could do.
“I’ll be fine. Maybe you’d better disappear for now.”
Frowning, he glared at the cars in the parking lot and vanished.
I pulled into a spot and wrapped my coat around me as I slammed the door. I supposed the church hall was the natural place to meet. A central location with perhaps the biggest auditorium in Moody Bog. It was stifling hot inside so I quickly slung my coat over my arm. Seraphina was waving at me. Jolene waved too, though she was sitting with her parents. Jan and Kevin Ayrs looked rumpled in their corduroy and patchwork sweaters. I gave them a nod when they looked my way. They ran the plant nursery in town, seemed like nice people.
I was able to slide my way through the crowd. It was standing room only now, but I managed to get next to Doc and the coven.
“I think everyone’s here,” said Nick, stretching his neck to look around. “There’s Deputy Mustache,” he said, pointing, and using the nickname I had used for George.
I grinned. “He looks good in a uniform.”
“Don’t I know it,” he said proudly. I was glad to see that George was taking Nick out in public these days. It had to be better than sneaking around hotel rooms. Maybe becoming a werewolf had been good for Nick…in a strange way.
Nick pointed in the opposite direction. “And there’s the sheriff. He looks pretty good in uniform, too. Though…I guess he’s off the menu, huh?”
“Yeah.” But I looked anyway. He did look good. I sighed. Even if all of the rest of it wasn’t happening, I still would have chosen Erasmus. It made me feel better to realize that.
Besides. Wasn’t Ed seeing Shabiri, the other demon in town? What had started off with my suggestion that he get in close to her for a little undercover work had turned into…well, something. I don’t know if I really trusted Shabiri, but then again…I don’t know that I trusted Erasmus not to lie to me either.
Demons, I thought. Trouble all around.
I saw Hezekiah Thompson, the council manager, make his way through the crowd. Maine didn’t seem to have mayors but that’s basically what he was. He was a big man with a reddened nose. Friendly and boisterous. He had come to my grand opening and seemed genuinely pleased that I had opened my business.
The council members had assembled at a long table at the front of the room, flanked by a Maine flag and an American flag. I recognized some of the people there from the Chamber of Commerce Get-Together at the beginning of the month: John Fairgood of the Fairgood Gun Shop, Sy Alexander who owned the Coffee Shack where Nick worked, Reverend Howard and, of course, good old Ruth Russell. Two other people I didn’t know sat at the table beside them.
Hezekiah tapped a gavel. “I’d like to bring this town meeting to order,” he said loudly. He didn’t seem to need a mic. “If we’d all be quiet and settle down… There. We’re here tonight because…well…because we’ve never had such horrific things happening in our town before.”
The crowd murmured.
“Murders, some really quite…unspeakable. I wonder if we can have Sheriff Bradbury come up and talk to us, if he can, about what’s been happening and how far he is in his investigations.”
More murmuring. I turned and spotted Ed. He didn’t look too happy about being called up, but I could see him putting on his sheriff’s mask and striding forward. He was taller than most and I could easily follow him through the crowd. He made it to the front and stood to Hezekiah’s side.
“Good evening,” he said.
“Good evenings,” echoed from the assembled crowd.
“I’m not going to lie. Deputy Miller and I have had our hands full. Because of the nature of some of the deaths, we have had the help of the staties. But we are only one town and they have a lot on their plate. Beginning in early October, there were the deaths of Karl Waters, the tourist Joseph Mayes, Bob Hitchins, Nicole Meunier, Dan Parker, the Warrens, more recently the Browns, and the, uh, desecration of several graves in Moody Bog Cemetery. There are several missing persons that we are presuming dead at this point.”
He looked like you wanted your sheriff to look: determined, calm, statesmen-like.
“We have no leads at the moment,” he went on, “but we are working closely with the state on a forensic level.”
Hezekiah shook his head. “Do we have any idea if…well, if such a thing was done by a person or persons living here among us?”
“It’s too early to tell,” he said, keeping his steady gaze out over the crowd, “but it is my professional opinion that it is not someone local.” What else could he say? He now knew exactly what it was but certainly could never admit it.
By the sounds the audience was making, they weren’t buying that.
“How could it not?” cried a man in the middle of the crowd. “It’s all so personal, these attacks. Have you looked at Hansen Mills?”
“Yeah!” said a woman from the back. “How about that motorcycle gang?”
The crowd seemed to be in agreement about the Ordo. Some well knew that Doug was Ed’s younger brother.
Hezekiah raised his hands. “Now folks, we can’t all speak at once. We’ve got to be orderly about this.”
“I’ve seen some odd things here!” said a man from the far side of the audience. “Weird stuff.”
“Me too!” said another man. “Flying monsters! That wasn’t no exploding gas lines. I seen the beast!”
Uh-oh. I exchanged a glance with Doc. I suddenly felt naked without my charm pouch.
“Let’s quit pussyfooting around,” said a man with a deep voice near the front. “I know we’re all thinking it. None of these things ever happened…until she came to town!” He swung his arm to point…right at me.
Well, shit.
Ed’s voice rose above the angry murmuring. All eyes were aimed at me, and not many were being nice about it. “Now hold on! This isn’t a witch hunt.” I think he might have winced a little, because he knew that the next words would be—
“And those Wiccans, too!”
Doc’s expression was furious, as if he would leap up at any second. Seraphina even put a hand on his arm to hold him back.
How could I blame any of them? Because for once, they were right. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t come to Moody Bog.
Reverend Howard stood with hands raised to quiet the crowd. And there was Ruth, just sitting there, her mouth in a pruney frown, her arms crossed over her chest and that damned Babylonian locket around her neck.
“Now let’s all quiet down,” said the Reverend. He was wearing his clerical collar and I thought that more than anything else let him calm the crowd. “Are you listening to yourselves? You sound like the cast of some horror movie. That isn’t a sane argument. Kylie Strange has only brought something beautiful to this town: a lovely shop and customers who are now patronizing your store and yours,” he said, pointing out various retail owners. “I mean, are you really accusing Fred Boone who has been a solid citizen in this community for over sixty years?”
Some hung their heads, shuffling guiltily.
Reverend Howard stared them all down. “I’m ashamed of some of the things I’ve been hearing from otherwise intelligent people. There are logical explanations to what you think you’ve been seeing. And it has nothing to do with Kylie and Fred Boone’s Wiccans.”
Everyone was quiet for a moment, until… “You of all people, Reverend,” said someone from the crowd. A man stepped forward wearing a work shirt with a name stitched onto it. “You’re supposed to see the evil that’s around us and protect us. But I think there is something evil here. Something…not of this world. I know what I saw. Other people saw it too. Something big flying over us and it wasn’t no explosion from a gas line. It was some kind of beast. And I don’t care if it don’t sound sane or not. Nothing like that ever happened…until she came to town.”
He turned to glare at me again. I had never seen such spitting hatred as I saw in his eyes.
The assembly burst into argument again, some siding with Work Shirt and some arguing against. I was thinking a hasty retreat might be in order.
Doc seemed about to throw up some sort of protection spell, but I put a hand on his arm and got in close. “That’s all we need. Do you really want to show our hand? Do you really want to prove that guy right?”
“Dear goddess,” he muttered. “You’re right, of course. We are in a right pickle.”
I suddenly wished Erasmus was here, but that would have created the same problem.
A woman stepped forward, wearing a stiff pea coat despite the warmth of the room. Her hair was done in ragged braids and she had one of those hard midwestern Depression-era faces. “If she’s so new to town, how come she started in with them Wiccans right away? She’s always hanging with them. And just what was it they was spraying on my front door? I watched them. They was doing it at the crack of dawn to everyone’s houses. It’s either poison or some sort of hypnosis or spell or something.”
Ed stepped forward in front of the table. “They were helping the county,” he said. “They were spraying for maple beetles—”
“There ain’t no such thing as maple beetles,” said Work Shirt. “I looked it up. I saw you and the deputy spraying that shit, too. You’re in on it with them.”
“Roger Farley!” cried Reverend Howard. “Lisa Smith!” he said, scowling at Depression Woman. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you two! It’s absurd. Are you listening to yourselves?”
“I saw them Wiccans spraying that stuff, too,” said a farmer type. “And screw it. I’m not calling them Wiccans no more. They’re witches, plain and simple. Back in Salem, they knew how to take care of their like.”
I knew Salem would get dragged into it, I said in my head.
Hezekiah tried to bring order back by pounding the table with his gavel. “Now listen! Hush up, all of you! That’s all just plain crazy talk. Doc and his Wiccans aren’t doing any harm and you know it. And there are no such things as flying beasts!”
The ceiling exploded. Cracked plaster, acoustic tiles, and snapped trusses rained down on the screaming crowd. And then Baphomet landed right in the middle of the carnage, with his stupid goat face and his huge bat wings.
This was not helping!
People scattered, scrambling over one another to escape. Some just dropped to their knees and began praying.
I swept my glance toward Ed, who was aiming his gun two-handed at Baphy. George had managed to get his hands on his rifle. Though his aim was shaky—I realized that this was his first encounter with Goat Guy—he kept a fairly steady bead on him.
Reverend Howard was open-mouthed and flat against the far wall. And Ruth…
Well, well. Ruth was standing at a doorway, looking up at Baphomet, her mouth in a firm line. She seemed a little too nonplussed. Had she called on him? Damn her!
The Wiccans fanned out around him. At Doc’s signal, they all raised their hands and started chanting.
A hazy glow formed around Baphomet and he looked down at their spell with disdain.
The glow was getting stronger, pushing toward the god. He seemed to be getting a little bit nervous as it began to surround him. Then he bared his teeth, crossed his arms over his chest like he was gathering himself, and snapped them open. The glow shot back, knocking my Wiccans over. I was lucky to catch Doc before he fell and broke something.
By then all of the townsfolk had fled, emptying the hall. None of the board members remained. Even Ruth Russell was gone.
Doc wrestled out of my grip spitting mad. “That will not do!” he cried. He stood up and began a different incantation. There was suddenly a purple aura around him and when Seraphina joined him, the aura spread to her. Then Nick stood beside him, then Jolene.
They could do what they needed to do. And I could do what I could do. I whipped out the Spear of Mortal Pain from my jacket. Pushing the button, it telescoped out into a ten-foot long sharp weapon.
I grasped it in both hands and stalked up to Baphy. “You are pissing me off!” I yelled.
His weird goat eyes slid toward me. “Kylie Strange,” he said in that odd voice, somewhere between a lowing bull and a male baritone. “You continue to be a thorn in my side. Give me the book.”
“What is with you people and the Booke? You can’t open it.”
“Mortals cannot open it. I am an immortal. I can.”
Oh. I didn’t like that. “And I suppose you want it to open a gateway to let in flowers and unicorns?”
“No.” He leaned his twelve-foot-tall body down until his face was close to mine. I could smell the muskiness of the black fur on his face and shoulders, the male sweat from his human-looking torso, and some other scents like sulfur and tar. “I want to open a Hell Gate and let my brother and sister gods in. Mortals turned their backs on us centuries ago. I want them to pay for that insult.”
“Is that all? Why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Before he could draw back—and before I could chicken out—I hauled back with the spear and rammed it right into his eye.
It slipped out of my hands as he reared up, the spear still sticking out of his eye like a cocktail pick in an olive. He howled like the late banshee, screaming and cursing in some strange outmoded language, before he grasped the spear in a taloned hand and yanked it out. He threw it to the floor and I surprised myself with the presence of mind to go get it.
I must have really got him good, because he continued to howl, to clutch at his eye where black goo trickled over his fingers. He staggered back and leaned against the wall, which crumbled beneath him. Then he staggered forward and I thought he might fall on us. But he righted himself, beat his wings, and lifted from the floor, the wind knocking us all back. With a powerful stroke, he shot into the sky and disappeared.
I hadn’t killed him but that spear lived up to its name. “Good spear!” I said, shaking it.
“Kylie!” Jolene ran toward me. “Oh my God. You scared him off.”
I mimed jabbing him. “Right in the eye.”
“Good work!”
Nick slapped me on the shoulder. “That was wicked awesome!”
“He’s only gone temporarily,” said Seraphina. I noticed they were all still glowing purple.
“What’s with the purple?” I asked.
Doc waved his hand impatiently and it disappeared. “A powerful protection spell we’ve been working on.” He put his hands on his hips and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. “That was a poorly timed appearance.”
“Yeah. Now what? The whole town knows.”
“And thinks we’re conjuring him,” said Nick, running his hand through his hair.
Ed and Deputy George ran up to us. “You okay, Kylie?”
“Yeah. Did you see?” I jabbed the spear again. “Got him in the eye.”
“Yeah,” said Ed uncertainly. “I saw.” He glanced back toward the ruined door.
But what had everyone else seen? Only Baphomet and me before they scattered. “Do they still think we’re the bad guys?”
“I don’t think they think we’re the good guys.”
“Well, that’s not fair.”
“Everyone’s scared,” said George breathlessly. He held his rifle down at his side. “So am I, truth be told.”
“We can’t have the town against us, too.” I pressed the button to bring the spear back down to ruler size. “Did you see poor Reverend Howard?”
“Did you see Ruth Russell?” said Jolene.
I looked around. “Where are they now?”
Ed seemed concerned. “I don’t know.” He was right to be worried. Everything they just said about us turned out to be true. If they’d only stuck around, they would have seen me fight the god not side with him.
Jan and Kevin Ayrs pushed their way back through the carnage in the hall and ran up to Jolene. Her mother grabbed her and Kevin wrapped his arms around the both of them.
“Mom! Dad! Not in front of the coven!”
“Is this what you’ve been doing all this time, young lady?” her father gasped.
She struggled and got free of them. “We’ve been trying to stop him.”
“I don’t understand,” said Jan tearfully. “I thought you were just doing some benign pagan things. Crystals and herbs.”
“I have been. But…there’s also been some supernatural stuff going on and we…” she gestured toward the other Wiccans, “have been trying to help. There’s a lot of dangerous stuff happening.”
“Fred!” said Kevin, stalking up to Doc. “I trusted you to keep my daughter safe.”
“And I have, Kevin. But you must understand, we couldn’t do half the things we’ve needed to do if it wasn’t for Jolene. We need her. If you’re thinking of forbidding her—”
“That’s exactly what we’re going to do!”
“Kev, I give you my word that I will keep her safe. But darn it, we need her. You’ve seen what we’re up against.”
“Against? Are you trying to tell me you didn’t conjure that creature?”
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you, Kev.”
“Mr. Ayrs,” offered Nick, “I’ve been looking after her like a big brother. But honest to God—or whatever—we just can’t get along without her skills. We’d probably all be dead by now if it wasn’t for her.”
Kevin ran his hands over his argyle vest. His face contorted with indecision. He looked to his wife, who gazed sorrowfully at her daughter.
“Mom, Dad, believe them. We’re doing important work. We have a job to do.”
“Well…what did that…that creature mean about a book?”
Right on cue, the Booke of the Hidden popped into existence in front of me. Kevin and Jan leapt back, hands over their mouths.
I grabbed it out of the air and held it tight. “He meant this. Boy, what to say?” I looked pleadingly at Doc.
“You’d best tell them the whole thing.”
“This,” I began, showing them the Booke.
“‘Booke of the Hidden’?” Kevin read the cover.
“Right. I found it in the wall of my shop. For reasons too complicated to explain, I opened it and it released all these creatures into the world. The creatures have been killing all the people in town. I’ve been killing the creatures and putting them back in the Booke, but it hasn’t been easy. And Doc’s coven has been helping. Jolene’s found a lot of really important information for us. It’s been keeping me alive. So…so if you can see your way to letting her continue, we’ll all be looking out for her…as we’ve been doing.”
“Does she even really work at your shop?”
“Oh, yeah! She’s been great there too. Um…sorry for lying to you, but, as you can see…” I swept an arm over the chaos. The roof was caved in in the middle; the chairs and tables were overturned, and some were crushed; the double doors were knocked off their hinges from so many people scrambling to escape.
Everyone had high-tailed it out of there, including Reverend Howard and Ruth Russell. Had they all just gone home?
Wait a minute. In that split second of realization, my chest suddenly burst with fear. “My shop!”
I threw the Booke aside and ran.