TWELVE

 

We arrived at Memorial Hospital’s ER in under twenty minutes, a new record for speed, and without getting a ticket. Walking into the waiting room, I spotted Olivia holding Randee in her lap and Gregory held David in a death grip on his. Both looked scared out of their wits.

Josh jumped to his feet. “I’m glad you’re finally here.” He nodded in Olivia’s and Gregory’s direction. “As soon as they found out what happened with Randee, they grabbed both kids and haven’t put them down yet.”

“I can understand,” I told him. “They’re their babies and always will be, no matter how old they get. Is Rae going to be okay?”

He nodded. “Uncle Herb’s back in the ER with her. The car clipped her on the hip and she fell down. No broken bones, just a few bruises and a couple of abrasions. Farley was actually hurt worse. He ate the windshield when he braked.”

T.J.’s grasp on my hand tightened at the sound of Farley’s name. “Is he okay?”

“I think so.” Josh motioned to his face. “He had a cut right here above his left eyebrow and his eye’s black and blue plus there are a few smaller superficial cuts. He looks like someone hit him with a beer bottle in a bar fight.”

“I’m sure he’s thankful for safety glass,” I said. “Is he in the back?”

Josh nodded. I turned to T.J.

“It’s okay.” T.J. gestured with his head toward the ER door. “I’m not Farley’s favorite person, but I know he’d like to see you.” He gave me a gentle push. “Go on, go see him. The poor guy’s probably eaten up with guilt over something he couldn’t stop.”

I walked back, feeling odd about leaving T.J. I reassured myself he was right, Farley was alone here at Neptune Beach and was probably beating himself up about the accident, especially since he’d seen the accident happen in his vision. Stars above, I’d hate to think what would’ve happened if Rae hadn’t shoved Randee to safety.

I walked down to Bay Three. There he sat on the exam table, tears running down his face, his right eye almost swollen shut. He held an ice pack to his temple.

“Oh, you poor thing!” I moaned.

“Poor thing, my ass,” he groaned. “I hit someone. She’s the one who deserves your sympathy.”

“I was worried about Rae. But she’s fine and so is Randee, the little girl she saved.” I walked over and placed my hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t kill anyone. Rae’s okay because you turned the wheel and hit a tree and clipped her. You were frightened when you saw the vision, hoping you hadn’t caused the accident. Remember?”

“I know.” He looked up into my eyes with his one good one. “But something happened to me, has been happening to me. Something I don’t like.”

I pulled a chair up to the table and sat in front of him. “What?”

“I’ve been having some blackout spells. I’ll be doing something, going somewhere, and all of a sudden I’m somewhere else. Not only do I not remember how I got there, but I’ve lost time.”

“You don’t remember anything? Nothing at all?”

“Nothing, until today.” He grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed. “Just before the accident, I heard this strange voice say, ‘Wimp. Stay out of my way. I’m tired of sitting by and letting you fix things. That bitch is going down.’

“Then my hands tightened on the steering wheel turning toward a little girl. I tried to right it. The next thing I knew, I was waking up with the paramedic over top of me.”

I stroked his hand. “You saved both of them.”

“Am I going crazy?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think you are.” Now, how in the name of Ms. C was I going to help exorcize his drop-in and save him unscathed?

* * * *

 

“I need a witch for a demon exorcism,” I said, standing in Hazel’s front room.

My friend grinned at me. “Have a seat. Merle and I were just visiting.”

I looked at my cat in surprise. “What are you doing over here?”

She jumped from her chair and wound her way around me. “You didn’t come home when I expected you and then I heard Uncle Paddy laughing, telling Pokey about catching you on the beach with T.J. Soooo, I thought I’d go out and plug into the Puss Grapevine to see if anyone knew anything.”

“And?”

“Horace down the block has a girlfriend, Ling-Ling, who lives near Mystic Dream, and her friend, Charla, has a friend, Big Guy, who lives just next door. While rummaging in a dumpster, he heard Seth tell Natasha that Rae’d been in an accident. Soooo…” She wound her way around me again. “I came to tell Hazel.”

“I already knew because Josh had called.”

I looked at Merle. “See, humans have grapevines too, and they’re faster.”

“But not as secretive.” She gave me a big cat grin. “FBI can’t trace us.”

“What happened to Farley?” Hazel asked. “I haven’t heard back from Josh yet.”

“He looks like he’s been in an anything-goes fight. What bothers me the most is he’s having blackout spells, and just before he hit Rae, he heard a menacing voice say he was ‘Going to take the bitch out’ and the car aimed for little Randee.”

“Oh, dear, he does have a demon.” She walked over to her book of magick spells. “I have the spell to break former karmic ties, as you know. There’s also one for clearing negative energies. But, I don’t think it’s strong enough for a demon. Let me go on my website.”

“What website?” I walked across with her as she punched in a URL.

“Even us angel cats have chat groups,” Merle said. “I get online at night after you’ve gone to sleep.”

“What website is it, Hazel?” I squinted at the computer screen.

“White Witch Forum of course.” She smiled at me. “We have a shared spell databank. More than likely there’s a spell there for demons. Let’s see now, protection from demons, here it is!” She snickered. “I knew I’d find one. Now, you earth angels have the Big Daddies of the demon world after you, so I don’t know how effective it’ll be. Still, it’s bound to make whatever’s inside of Farley uncomfortable.”

“What would you like me to do?” I sat in a chair beside her.

“Oh, no, I have to do it.” She straightened her back. “Not only is this my calling, I have worked many long hard years to learn the craft and get certified.”

“Witches have a certification?” I leaned back in shock.

“You think Harry Potter’s all a fabrication?” she asked. “I’ll have you know the author’s…well, never mind.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“Well I have to have a cat present.”

Merle jumped up next to the computer. “You called?”

“What else?”

“Eye of newt.” She looked at me. “Old spell. We modern witches use regular old ground salamanders. The eyes don’t really count for more than the rest.”

I wanted to laugh, but knew she was serious. “Go on.”

“We’ll need some dried white rose blossoms.”

“I can get those from a florist.” I wrote them on my list.

“Then we need some honeysuckle vine.”

“That’s going to take some looking.”

“Okay, how about myrrh incense?”

“Natasha probably has some or knows where to get it. She loves that stuff.”

“Throw in some Hot Pete, a drop of castor oil, an indigo candle, and we have all our props.”

“Hot Pete?”

She nodded. “They can’t stand hot sauce, especially made in the South. We witches always laugh and say God’s a Mexican.”

“Good to know.” I grinned. Now I knew why Ms. C was so fond of hot sauce.

* * * *

 

“Let me see if I’ve got this right. Tomorrow, we’ve got to go to a florist and get dried rose petals, but they’ve got to be white.” Natasha pumped her arms as we power-walked down the beach.

“Correct, and honeysuckle vine too.”

“Well, I guess this is what people technically call Indian summer, but September is a mite late for that.”

I crossed my fingers. “Here’s hoping.”

“One thing I do know from working at the nursery, for honeysuckle you’ll have to find it at a garden center or nursery.”

“I suppose you’re right. By the way, do you have any myrrh incense? I bought some incense for the angel circle, but I couldn’t find myrrh.” I started to puff. I’m in pretty good shape, but Natasha is the power walk queen.

“Of course I have it. Most people don’t leave home without their credit card, I don’t leave without my incense.”

“Hazel says she has everything else for the attempted exorcism.”

She looked at me and grinned. “I see you’re running out of leg power. Let’s sit over there.”

We walked—actually I stumbled—over and sat down on a waist high brick wall next to one of the shops just off the beach.

“Now,” Natasha said. “What makes you think this is going to work?”

Palms up, I threw my hands out to each side. “What’s to lose? Hazel seems to think at least the demon will be uncomfortable.”

“I don’t know if I’d wanna be around an uncomfortable demon. What’s Plan B if the demon goes berserk?”

“You think we need a Plan B?” At Natasha’s expression, I suddenly knew what Olivia felt like when she blurted out one of her more inane questions. “Okay Plan B it is, as in, do you have any suggestions?”

“I think you should simulate Farley’s death. Maybe then the demon will vacate. You know what they say in Evolve class, ‘No demon waits till the last breath.’ Ask Seth about how to pull it off. If any of us would know how to do it, he would. He’s traveled the galaxies and is a big Sci Fi fan.”

“Let’s go find him.” I jumped down and turned around.

“Okay, gluttoness of punishment.” Natasha joined me as we headed back for the car.

“So, tell me how you and Seth are doing on the way.”

She turned and looked at me, beaming. “Oh, we’re doing swimmingly.”

“Do tell.” I’m such a sucker for a love story.

“I’m sure Olivia’s already told you he came in the night you talked to him and swept me off my feet.”

I nodded.

“We went to this secluded area on the beach near the country club.”

I momentarily closed my eyes. “Ah, yes. I can imagine what it looks like.”

“Well, you don’t remember, but I used to tell Olivia how earthy Kirby was. Not Seth. He’s heavenly. The man can do things to your body no ordinary woman could survive. They’re just too…too…orgasmic. That’s the only word I can use that comes close.”

“Good word.” Well at least someone was getting her cookies off.

Once in the car we drove to Mystic Dream and met up with Seth coming out of the house.

“I was on my way to find you.” He bent down and gave her a tender kiss.

“Before we go off somewhere,” Natasha said, a sparkle in her eyes, “Miranda needs help.”

I nodded. “We think Farley has a drop-in. Hazel has a witch’s spell to try to exorcize him, but Natasha thinks we need a back-up plan. Something that simulates death.”

He laughed. “And I guess I’m the resident angel expert on pretend-snuffing?”

“Yeah,” we both said.

He rubbed his ear. “Let me see. On Star Trek there was an episode called ‘Amok Time’ when Dr. McCoy gave Kirk a neural paralyzer so Spock could win a challenge when he was on Vulcan 2267. Then Kirk was revived after he beamed back to,” he covered his heart with his hand, “The U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701!” He gave the Vulcan sign.

He sighed. “That won’t work here, though. Farley wouldn’t live long and prosper. He’d croak. We’ll have to use a mixture of natural poisons in the right amounts. I did that once back in Egypt. I’ll just have to dig up the formula in my past life memory banks. Tell Hazel, I’ll mix it up and bring it over to her house ahead of time. When do you plan to do this?”

“Tomorrow night.”

* * * *

 

“You want to do what?” Farley stared at me, his eyes wide in bewilderment.

“I have this friend who’s into white magic. She thinks you may have an evil spirit close by, so we wanted to have you over and see if we could talk to it.” Okay, no way was I going to tell him I knew it was a demon and why it was here.

He nodded. “Being a psychic, I can see why that might be true. I don’t want it to be, but I think your assumption has validity. How do you want to proceed?”

“We’ll meet tomorrow night after dark, say ten p.m. at Hazel Peterson’s house.” I gave him a slip of paper. “Here’s the address.”

As he looked at me, his eyes grew dark, almost black. “I’ll be there.”

Shivering, I beat feet. No longer was the demon sleeping.

* * * *

 

“Miranda, I don’t think this is a very good idea.” Gregory shook his head, his lips held in a thin line. “You said the demon heard you earlier when you talked to Farley. What happened to the planner and the plotter? No offense to my wife, but this sounds like something she’d come up with.”

I straightened up in my chair. “The demon thinks we’re trying to contact him that’s all.”

Olivia looked at Gregory. “I think I resent my husband’s remark, but,” she turned to me, “this time I agree with him.”

“I can’t watch and see him severely injured or killed because some black soul has his tentacles, talons, who knows what, inside him. He’s too fine of a person, and deserves his freedom from that thing minus a lifelong disability or death. Besides, Natasha and Seth helped me work on a back-up plan.”

“If you can’t beat a demon, scare him out of the frickin’ body,” Natasha said. “Seth has a potion. All natural ingredients. It’s green.”

Leave it to an elemental to come up with that one.

Seth nodded. “Potion works like a charm. It brought down a bunch of Egyptian demons when I sent them packing during the Battle of Actium.”

“What if he attacks the minute you get him there? No one’ll have time to give Farley the potion.” Gregory paced the floor.

Never have I seen the man in such a stew. He’s always been the coolest head among us. Now he was acting like the man possessed, not Farley. I guess that’s what fatherhood will do. “Then I invoke the guardians. We’ll all be perfectly safe.”

“I don’t know.” Olivia threw her feet up on the sofa. “What if whatever kind of demon it is alerts Kendra and whoever’s out there this time? Do you think the guardians can ward off a huge bunch of demons with no one getting severely damaged not even knowing who or what will show?”

“We have two archangels and a witch on our side.”

“Michael might not be there,” Gregory said. “He’s Jared’s guardian, and if Jared isn’t close by, as he was when you and T.J. were attacked by the buzzard, all bets are off.”

“Natasha and I will be there, and Mandy and Neil will come to her aid.” Seth stared at Natasha for backup.

“Now wait a minute, speak for yourself.” At his imploring look, Natasha sighed. “Count me in.”

Gregory rubbed the back of his neck. “So will I, and that means Clarice will at least be watching out. She has to watch Olivia too, and Olivia is staying behind with the twins.”

She nodded. “I love a good fight, but it’s my duty.”

“This time, I’m going.” Rae came around the corner, all smiles. “I enjoyed shooting that night-owl two years ago.”

Gregory shook his head. “Not enough angels to stay with the twins, and you’ve just taken a nasty fall.”

Rae frowned.

Olivia jumped up and walked over to her, hugging her. “You’ve already saved one person from a demon this time.”