Mindful of the potholes still marring the lawn, I eased toward the front porch. Stinger and Elvis edged off to the right. I pulsed energy into the air again. Got two pingbacks. The killer and Stinger. Where the heck was Charlotte?
The porch steps creaked as I mounted them. So much for stealth mode. The fingers of my right hand tightened around the grip of my gun. I held it by my hip, not concealed, but not so someone could knock the weapon out of my hand either.
Could I take aim at a person? Other than shooting at rattlesnakes in my truck and a lot of paper targets at the range, I preferred not to think about the guns I owned. I didn’t have to shoot anyone, I reminded myself. The gun was a deterrent.
The front door of June’s Folly gaped wide, crime-scene tape dangling beside the door frame like last year’s Christmas lights. Inside the house, everything was dark and still. Oliver leaned against my leg.
“I know you’re in here, Cassie,” I said. “What did you do with Charlotte?”
In a back room, a match flared, then another. Light flicked. The sulfur smell drifted out to me as shadows shifted. My courage faltered, and I gritted my teeth. “Hello? Come on out, Cassie. Ford told me you’d be here.”
Edgy silence filled my ears. My pulse hammered in my head, making it hard to think. I brought the gun up in a two-handed grip shoulder high and inched toward the light. I wasn’t a marksman, but this outsider didn’t know that. For all she knew, Georgia rednecks were born with silver-plated trigger fingers.
“Cops are on their way,” I said. “After I found Ford, I called 9-1-1. The sheriff knows what you did. You won’t get away with murder, battery, and kidnapping.”
Every instinct screamed at me to get out of this house of death. I forced in a breath. I’d stare down the hounds of hell for Charlotte. The woman had stashed Charlotte somewhere, and I needed to find her before it was too late.
I studiously avoided looking at the bloodstained staircase where Marv and Bee had taken their last breaths. With each step I took into the house, the soft glow ahead beckoned. Lungs stilled, I glanced inside the lighted space. Six votive candles glowed on the floor inside a chalked pentagram.
“About time,” Cassie said from a shadowed corner of the room. “Did you stop off for a latte on the way here?”
She’d changed into black trousers and a snug black tee. Her hair was different, shorter, but the voice was the same. The white skin of Cassie’s bare feet gleamed in the darkness. Near her thighs something shiny glinted momentarily. The knife. Oh, God. It was the curved knife that killed Marv and Bee.
Cassie brought the knife forward, slashed it in the air. She was trying to scare the shit out of me. It was working, except I’d brought a gun to her knife fight. I kept the gun held high.
“You’re done, Cassie,” I said. “We know you and Ford teamed up to kill Marv and Bee.”
“Knowing’s one thing, proving it is another.” She circled to the right toward me. I edged left until she stopped. With dismay, I realized she’d maneuvered me into the corner and the doorway was behind her.
I was trapped.
I may have a superior weapon, but Cassie was a wily and practiced adversary. She’d killed before and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again. “Where’s Charlotte?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. But you. You’re going to squeal like a pig when I slice you open. You’re going to beg for mercy on your knees, but there’s no mercy in this house. Only death.”
“Ford said you took Charlotte hostage.”
“Ford lied. He’d do anything for me. Why would I take the reporter hostage when I could lure you out here just by saying I did?”
She’d tricked me. I hadn’t questioned the actor. I’d acted impulsively. Worse, Cassie had counted on my rash behavior. She had cunning on her side, but I couldn’t let her win. She needed to pay for her crimes.
“You’re the one who’s trapped, not me.” I managed a shaky breath. “Even if you hurt me, they’ll catch you. Your only chance to escape is to leave right now.”
Cassie snorted. “The powers of life hold no claim on me. I’ve channeled dark energy from the Other Side. It seethes inside me. Two overweight cops with a Taser gun are no match for me. I can defeat them easily. Should I give them flat tires right now so they don’t make it? I can do that.”
The flower tattoo on my hand heated. So did the one on my back. Rose. Was she here? Would her presence balance the evil forces?
Cassie lunged across the room at me, knife blade slashing in the vicinity of my belly. I should’ve pulled the trigger, but I couldn’t. I ducked to the side. “Get her, Oliver.”
A micro-second later, Cassie screamed, dropped the knife, and grabbed at her throat. Her vocal protests went deeper instead of shriller as I expected. She cursed a blue streak and bolted out the door. I kicked the knife into the corner of the room and followed her, hope warming my ice cold insides.
In the hallway, the darkness seemed absolute. After the candlelight, I couldn’t see worth a darn, but I had to keep moving. I had to see this through. Night blind, I heard someone cry out in pain. Stinger.
My heart thumped like a kettle drum. I hurried in the direction of the cry, keeping an elbow along the wall to my left. In the kitchen, I came upon them. Starlight illuminated the windows. Cassie held a butcher knife on Stinger’s throat.
“Come one step closer, witch, and I’ll cut him. I’ll cut him good,” Cassie threatened in a low rumble.
Where was Elvis? Stinger didn’t usually make a move without the little Chihuahua. For that matter, what happened to Oliver?
I sent out a probe for the dogs, but I kept my gaze locked on Cassie. “Don’t hurt him. He’s an innocent.”
“No one’s innocent, girlie. Everyone has blood on their hands. Even Christians talk about the purifying effect of the blood of Jesus. This man’s blood will sanctify me, just as Marv’s blood did.”
“You killed two people.”
“The woman wasn’t absolutely necessary, but it was a pleasure to watch Marv realize I wouldn’t spare her. Now I get to experience that rapture again as I take the life of your witchy familiar. I’ll anoint you with his blood before I kill you. I’ll take every one of your secret powers while I’m at it.”
I must have started.
“You didn’t think I knew about your psychic talents?” Cassie laughed, a harsh sound that grated on my nerves. “I know exactly who and what you are. I move freely across the veil, and the disturbance you’ve caused in the spirit world won’t be tolerated.”
“Says who?” I gripped the gun, sure that I had to shoot this woman, not sure if a bullet or three would stop her. If her alliance in the spirit realm was with someone as strong as Rose, Stinger and I wouldn’t survive this encounter. I needed help.
Oliver and Elvis were hiding in the hall. I sent Oliver a mental command to attack and hoped like anything that I spoke dog.
“Says me. And Many.” Cassie laughed again, the action causing the knife to dig into Stinger’s throat. A crimson trickle ran down his neck.
I heard the thunder of dog claws on the planked floors. Heard Cassie scream. Saw her reach for her throat to dislodge Oliver and at the same time try to shake little Elvis off her ankle. Stinger broke free and ran toward me. I motioned him out into the hall with a jerk of my head and waited for my chance.
As Cassie careened toward the window, I cried “Heel,” hoping both dogs would obey. Upon gaining relief from the dogs, Cassie laughed, an evil, diabolical sound that echoed through the empty house.
“You fool. You shouldn’t have called off the dogs. You’ll pay for your mistake with your life.”
“Stop or I’ll shoot.”
“You won’t shoot me or I’d already be dead.”
I retreated a step. “Stop.”
Cassie rushed forward, the tip of the sharp knife slashing through the darkness, inches from me. The choice was clear. Shoot or die.
I squeezed the trigger three times in rapid succession. Cassie fell at my feet. I sagged into the doorway. Moisture dripped from my face, and I felt horror, remorse, and shame at what I’d had to do. The room wavered and faded into the nothingness of the other realm. There, before me, was Many, a dark glob of pure evil. I recoiled inside, but I held my ground. I’d beaten Many before. A flutter of wings sounded beside me. Rose.
My odds of surviving this encounter were getting better by the minute.
“You!” Many snarled.
“I kicked your butt once, and I can do it again,” I blustered. With Rose for backup, I had a winning team. “You’re not welcome here. Crawl back into the dark hole you came from.”
“I will crush you,” Many said.
“You will not touch a hair on my apprentice’s head,” Rose said, the ground trembling as she roared her threat.
Many puffed to twice the size, a living cloud of utter darkness. “This will not be tolerated.”
Rose breathed fire over my shoulder. “Welcome to the new order of the world. Get used to heeding my words.”
Many howled his displeasure and dissolved before my eyes.
“Thanks.” I turned to Rose, expecting to see her in her angel or demon guise, but she towered beside me, a terrible nightmare from ancient mythology texts. Multiple eyes, oversized body, snakes writhing in her hair. I cringed and slammed into the wall behind me. Stinger fell beside me.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Couldn’t run.
I was going to die.
“Fear not,” Rose said, toning down the appearance to her equally terrifying demon shape. Her eyes glowed red in the murk of the spirit world. “The only way to get that bully to back down is to out-bully him.”
I sipped some air, relieved it wasn’t pure brimstone. Every time I thought I had a handle on who Rose was, I’d guessed wrong. Angel, demon, or something else, she hadn’t killed me, so I was in her good graces for now.
I dug deep for more courage. “In that guise you would scare the worst monsters ever imagined. My heart is still about to burst out of my chest.”
She smiled, showing a lot of sharp teeth. “That was the idea.”
“Is it over? Did I kill Cassie? Am I going straight to hell for killing someone?”
“The being you call Cassie isn’t dead, though his life force is draining away.”
Her words slowly penetrated my brain fog. Cassie wasn’t dead. Relief washed through me. I wasn’t a killer. I studied Rose as I processed the rest of what she’d said. “Cassie’s a man?”
“An evil man. He tortured and killed more than a dozen people. I can take his life if you so desire.”
The thought alarmed me. “No. Cassie needs to be brought to justice. Her confession, I mean his confession, won’t be enough to close the case. The sheriff requires evidence.”
“You’ll have it.”
“What will it cost me?”
“Consider this one a freebie. I haven’t had this much fun in centuries.”
“Fun?” I pointed down at Stinger passed out on the floor. “My friend and I nearly died tonight.”
“But you didn’t. Good triumphed over evil. Like it’s supposed to.”
“Evil plays a dirty game.”
“It’s the way of the world, sweetling.”
Rose started to fade. I had something I needed to ask. “Wait. You called me your apprentice. Am I like you?”
Rose brightened momentarily. “You are a fledgling in the scheme of things. What you become is up to you.”
I stood alone in the world of death, reeling from recent events. I’d shot someone. Nearly killed them. I’d confronted a monster and won. I’d had my own monster at my side. Hell. I might even be a monster myself. Only one thing was certain. I stood on a threshold.
I liked winning.
I liked being powerful. It was no fun to always lose. If I followed in Rose’s footsteps, I might someday be like her. Strong. Powerful. Mysterious. Multidimensional.
But was that what I wanted? To spend the rest of my life fighting bullies and chasing down supernatural baddies?
I snorted. It wasn’t even on my top one hundred list of things to do. Nope. I wanted to be Baxley Nesbitt Powell. A woman getting up every day and putting one foot in front of the other.
Life called to me.
My daughter, my parents, my friends. Rose’s suggestion weighed me down. Like taking a bite from the tree of good and evil, I now realized the responsibility I bore as dreamwalker. Sure, I helped people talk to the dead, but the ease with which I traversed the veil had become second nature to me. I felt comfortable over there, though it was still scary as all get out.
Whatever I was, I was on my way to becoming something else. Would my friends and family fear me? Would I like myself?
A voice called to me from the distance. I knew that voice. I listened intently until I could make out the words my mom was saying.
Time to come home, Baxley.