 
Corvis: Book One

By KS Henning

Copyright 2016 Karen Sue Henning

Smashwords Edition

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# Table of Contents

Start of Corvis

About the Author

# A Blurb

I just finished Corvis by KS Henning. For a first, short novel, Corvis is a good read. The characters are developed enough to keep you interested and the story moved forward without having to reread to figure out what just happened. While not everything was tied up by the end (it is only Book 1), I enjoyed the read. I look forward to Book 2. Finally, points for KS Henning in finding a way to incorporate a local Midwest villain into the story, a nice surprise.

# Dedication

A person knows who their real friends are during times of trouble. When you go through hard times, face illness, etc. those are the people that stick by you, help you, encourage you. And they do it with class because they never make you feel like a charity case or less than a fully competent human being. Thank you, KBE, for being that person. And for being the person that kept texting me, yelling at me to get back to work on this book--or else.

#

"He lived in the rich city as alien as a rat in a rich man's house that is fed on scraps thrown away, and hides here and there and is never a part of the real life of the house."

The Good Earth

Pearl S. Buck

# Chapter One

My eyes rolled up in my head and I caught a glimpse of the bare tree branches over me before I closed my eyes. Six. Six crows were cawing over me, silhouetted against the clouds scudding over the full moon. Didn't six of them mean death? Fitting. I would have laughed if I could have moved air into my lungs. My throat burned. Sparks of light were crackling in my field of vision. This had to end.

In desperation I brought my knee up as hard as I could.

How did I get here? Geez, where to start? My adoptive father always told me I'd come to a bad end if I didn't 'straighten up and fly right'. What? Yeah, that's right. I was adopted.

# Chapter Two

Anyway, I was telling you how I came to being strangled in a deserted old cemetery.

I was sitting in a coffee shop when she walked in. Jeri. At least that's what the baristo behind the counter called her. She smiled at him and put on an apron. That smile. I was so into watching her that I wasn't paying attention to what I was there to do. I also didn't see the guy that walked in.

"So, Mark. Do you know anything yet?" He was in plain clothes but his haircut and demeanor fairly screamed COP!

I closed my laptop to hide the program I had running. It didn't matter anyway; my target was packing up to leave, draining the last of his latte. Dickerson sat down across from me and drummed his fingers on the table. God, I hated that. I sat back and crossed my arms across my chest.

He leaned forward and said in a low voice, not quite a whisper. "Come on. You know our deal. You give me information and I look the other way. People are disappearing."

I picked up my iced coffee and took a sip. "I don't know anything." Dickerson looked disgusted. I set the cup down.

Dickerson sighed and leaned back. He looked tired. He was like 40 but his hair was graying. And he was one of the few that seemed to care about what happened in the wrong parts of town. People were scared and afraid to go out alone at night, more so than usual. In the last month nine people had simply vanished. Go out to work the night shift and poof. The first couple that disappeared, the cops chalked it up to dead beats running out. Which happens, of course, but some of the missing hadn't seemed the type. Poor, yes. But they weren't the criminals and scam artists that fit the stereotype.

So where were they? It wasn't just that people weren't talking to the cops. No one actually knew what had happened. There were no witnesses to any of the disappearances as far as I could tell. And not a thing to indicate they were still alive. It was the not knowing that had everyone so freaked out.

Me? No one I knew had disappeared and maybe I was being stupid, but I wasn't exactly afraid for myself. I'd always been able to take care of business if you know what I mean.

"Well?" Dickerson had been talking to me and I'd totally zoned.

"I told you already. I don't know anything." I put out my hands, palms up to emphasize how empty of information I was.

"I asked if the coffee here was any good." He stood up and walked up to the counter.

I took my chance and shoved the computer into my backpack, threw a couple bucks on the table and walked calmly out the door before he came back or noticed me gone. He was too involved with flirting with Jeri to see me leave. Fat chance, old man. I didn't see and nearly collided with someone just outside the door. He didn't look startled but narrowed his eyes at me as I brushed past.

I know, I know. I just blew off a cop. But you know what? I had something I had to get done before dark, something important, someone to protect.

*

The wipers were doing more to smear the rain around than cleaning the windshield so I turned them off. The clouds had moved in fast and thunder rumbled in the distance as I sat in the car waiting for Carrie. I hoped the sudden deluge would make it easier to do what she had to. I checked my phone for the time; she hadn't been gone but a few minutes.

Maybe I was freaking myself out, but that guy I ran into at the coffee shop seemed to pop out of nowhere; but that was impossible. Or maybe I was distracted getting away from Dickerson and by the task I had to perform so I hadn't noticed him before the collision. Whatever. I thought I heard something high and screechy just as the sky outside was getting very dark, very fast. And then lightened up just as fast. I tried to look out the fogged up windows to what was going on in the sky because even in late summer you could get a tornado with these sudden squalls. I jumped when the passenger door opened and a pale girl of about 16 darted in, slamming the door after her. Her soaked clothes clung to her, her short blond hair clung to her face and she clutched a shopping bag to her chest. She looked terrified.

"You alright?"

Carrie didn't say anything, staring at me with wide, almost popping eyes. She slowly nodded her head, yes.

I felt my stomach jump into my throat and started the car. "He's not out there is he?" I pulled into the street without looking as I fumbled for the wiper control. Fortunately, I didn't hit anyone.

"Chillax, Mark. The sun's still up."

She was looking a bit calmer.

"You're not thinking of backing out now, are you? 'Cause I've gone to a lot of trouble and you know Viktor won't be nice about taking you back. He probably already knows you're gone."

Won't be nice didn't begin to describe this freak. He only came out after dark and looked like he could drop dead any moment, though he had been looking a bit healthier of late. And don't look in his eyes. Thinking about him I gave an involuntary shudder in the warm, steamy car. Does it make me a horrible person to think that the world would be a better place without certain people in it? I couldn't say anything to Dickerson until Carrie was in the clear.

"I don't want to go home and I don't want to talk about it." Carrie turned her head to look out the passenger-side window.

I wasn't sure but I thought she was crying softly. I really sucked at this kind of thing. I mean if I touch her will she take it all wrong? But if I don't will she get more upset? She solved my dilemma when she wiped her eyes and turned back to look forward.

"I found a shelter you can go to. No one will make you go where you don't want to go." I picked up the envelope from the center console and handed it to her. "Just memorize your new birthday and they won't know you're under age."

She opened the envelope and looked over her new birth certificate and I.D. If she could hold out for 18 months, it wouldn't matter anyway. Her new haircut and dye job, new clothes; hopefully no one would recognize her from a milk carton or something. I honestly didn't want to know what she was running from. Viktor was bad enough. About an hour before sunset, I dropped Carrie at the train station with enough money to get halfway across the country with a ticket and food and the name of the woman from the shelter that was going to pick her up on the other end.

Now I had to stay out of Viktor's way for a while. I planned on tipping off Dickerson in a few days but until then I wanted to avoid him too. He might be an uptight cop but he knew how to read people and trying to delay telling him would only make him press harder.

I ordered a draft beer at a dive bar I'd never been to before and sat in a back, corner booth. Pulling the ashtray toward me, I pulled out the cloned credit card I'd used to finance Carrie's escape and lit it with my lighter, dropping it into the cheap glass as it melted and smoked. The TV over the bar was turned to the news and even though the volume was down I could see they were reporting on another disappearance. This one happened around the time and place Carrie was getting her hair done. Crap. Had she been upset about more than escaping from Viktor? I wondered if I should have asked her more about what was wrong when she got back in the car. It was too late now as she should be at least a hundred miles from here by now.

I finished my beer and ate a way too greasy cheeseburger. I didn't know it yet but I'd made a big mistake. I should have gone to ground before nightfall, holed up somewhere. Then again it might not have done any good because I didn't understand the kinds of things I was up against. No one sane would have imagined that some of the things in existence were anything but fairy tales and scary stories but they were out there, hidden, biding their time, things from the realm of nightmares. Things you don't want to disturb. But that's me: rattler of cages and poker of things with a big, sharp stick. Stupid me.

# Chapter Three

It was dark and it was hard to breathe. The air was musty inside the bag but I couldn't reach my hands up to take it off my head as they were tied behind my back. I was lying on what I guessed was hard dirt. I felt a small wetness on my wrists and from the stinging pain guessed I was doing more to cut the cords into my flesh than loosening them. After leaving the bar, I didn't remember making it to my car.

I could hear an owl hooting and crickets in the distance and knew I wasn't in the city anymore. It sounded like two men were arguing a little ways off in hushed tones so I couldn't make out their words but they sounded angry.

I heard a flapping sound and then a new voice, "What's this?"

"He was stirring up that vampire."

Vampire? Great. Crazy people were holding me hostage.

"So you grabbed him."

"If you can't keep him in line..."

I heard something that sounded like a fist hitting flesh, then a thud. A moment later the bag was ripped off my head and I lay there trying to see but the figure before me was only visible because he created a dark space, blocking out the stars above.

The figure before me half turned. "You watch how you talk about my son."

"Bastard."

There was a snort of laughter. "He's been conscious for half an hour. So why's he still tied up?"

"I think he's human. Why else could we have grabbed him in the first place," Another voice joined the first two.

Human? Of course, I'm human. What else would I be? The sky looked lighter and I could better make out the figures around me. The man closest to me stood over me, watching me.

I got my elbow under me and half-sat up. "You wanna untie me and tell me what the hell's going on?" If all else fails, bravado sometimes wins out. I felt a sharp edged rock near my hand.

The man knelt down beside me but instead of untying me put his nose near my head. His breath tickled as he sniffed my neck. I pulled back.

"What the fuck?" I tried to kick him but he was too close to me to get any power behind it.

He stood back up, taking a large hop out of range of me kicking at him again.

"Hey! Come on." I might as well as stayed silent for all the attention they gave me.

I heard him muttering under his breath as the others burst out laughing. When he turned toward them they fell silent, all trace of humor gone. I was vulnerable tied up. I didn't even know exactly where I was. But there was no sense letting any of them believe I was afraid. I was thinking fast, not letting myself consider too much about what I had against me, watching for a chance to get away. Getting untied would have to be my first priority.

"Leave."

The man was walking toward the others who had come together in a small knot. I began working the cord against the rock while everyone was distracted. I kept nicking myself but the cord felt like it was starting to fray.

He threw his hands at the other men in a shooing motion. "I said leave!"

I wasn't watching any of them directly as I was concentrating on getting loose but something in my peripheral vision seemed strange. I looked up as two crows were flying off. Two of the men were gone. The third was standing with his feet apart and his hands clenched into fists. There was a large bruise blooming on his jaw line; he must have been the one I heard hit earlier.

Unless these two started to fight, I didn't have much time. I wasn't sure what would be worse: Alone in the woods with a bunch of delusional people or alone in the woods with a single delusional person who I already knew was violent. I wouldn't get far with my hands tied behind me and forget defending myself if he caught up to me. They were talking in hushed tones and I only heard a word here and there. What stood out were the bruised man saying, "kill" and the other stepping toward him.

I kept sawing. I didn't feel the scratches and cuts on my wrists anymore as I desperately hacked at the cord. There was a spreading feeling of cold in my stomach. Fear? Up till now, I had been confident I could get away without any real danger to myself. I'd always been able to talk my way out of things and if that failed, my fists usually sufficed. But they ignored anything I said. At least these two were still arguing. As long as I had some time, I might get loose and away unnoticed and have a bit of a head start. The sun had now come up and, while the light was softly diffused through a light mist, I could see everything clearly.

The bruised man threw up his hands. "You must be reasonable."

The first man took another step toward him. I couldn't hear what he was saying but he was gesturing in a kind of intense way.

I felt part of the cord give. Maybe if I ran toward the sunrise, the refraction off the mist would help hide me? But they were between the sun and me. Besides, what would hide me would make it harder to run on the uneven ground, littered as it was with fallen branches, exposed roots and who knew what else. Man, I hate the woods. I'm a city boy, damn it.

"He's not one of us. And he's causing trouble we don't need."

"He doesn't know any better."

To my back, only a little distant, were the tumbledown grave markers of an old cemetery. This was clearly long neglected with trees growing everywhere between and very near the weathered stones.

"It doesn't matter. We have enough to deal with without him stirring up more trouble."

"I'll take care of it."

"He's yours so he's your responsibility."

"I said I'd take care of it!"

"See that you do."

I had to be seeing things. This had to be a hallucination or a psychotic break or something. What I was seeing just couldn't be. The bruised man put out his arms and pivoted on one foot. Maybe I was dreaming? Or high? But I hadn't felt high. Now my head felt a bit spacey and there was a surreal feel to all this but still. I think I would have felt that before now if they'd drugged me.

It happened so fast it didn't register at first what was going on. I was so shocked I froze, no longer paying attention to my sawing at the cord so that I didn't feel it finally part.

Where the bruised man had been was a crow in flight, lighting off into the trees, silent but for the sound of his wings on the air. The first man hung his head for a moment, his back still to me. He slowly raised his head and turned toward me. With a shock I remembered my predicament. His face was blank of expression.

He started toward me. "Mark."

I was still on the ground and scuttled backward on all fours like a crab. "Stay away from me."

"Mark, please. I won't hurt you." There was a note of pleading in his voice.

I paused. "You. I ran into you at the coffee shop. You were blocking the door." I got to my feet and started to back away slowly.

"I've been looking for you for a long time."

"Why?" I was still backing away, turning a bit so that I wouldn't end up in the graveyard; I wanted as clear a way as possible to run.

"Don't you know? You're my son."

Something of the conversation between him and the other men came back to me. Yes, I was adopted as a baby and I didn't have any information on my real parents. But this guy? My real dad? I didn't even want to think about it. Maybe this was a bad hallucination or maybe not. I might not be the shiniest example of humanity but I sure wasn't the worst. And if I helped people out, didn't that even the score? Whatever or whoever this guy was, I couldn't have come from him. I was sure I was 100% human. But my most important thought at the moment was this; I wanted to live. I finally had maneuvered to a clear running path. So I jumped up and bolted.

I ran and I ran. And I ran. Finally, I had to stop. My chest was burning and I just couldn't go on like that. I had been listening as I crashed through the underbrush, jumping over debris, but I hadn't heard any footfalls behind me. I started to feel ridiculous. I slumped over, hands on my thighs as I heaved in air. The stitch in my side was lessening now. I looked around and there wasn't anyone in sight, not even in the direction I had run from. The birds were chirping and a little ways off a squirrel was barking at me.

Somehow, I had ended up tied up in the woods and maybe I'd been drugged because how was it that I had no memory of anything after leaving the bar last night? And that same drug had been playing merry havoc with my mind. I was alone. And lost. But I was alone. I shouldn't believe anything I was seeing and eventually I'd come down and I'd know what was really happening to me. I decided that it wasn't a good idea to be running around until I was back in my right mind. So I sat down with my back against a large tree and dug my phone out of my pocket.

I pressed the power button and it turned on. As soon as it came up, it immediately turned itself back off; the battery was dead. Well, shit. I put my head back against the tree and closed my eyes. The sun shone red through my eyelids. It was going to be another hot day. I was itchy from sweat and bug bites. I just wanted to take a long shower. My stomach rumbled. I knew I wasn't imagining that. The light filtering through my eyelids dimmed briefly.

Something stirred the detritus on the ground near my feet. I opened my eyes and was startled enough to crack my head on the tree behind me. A crow was standing on the ground, staring at me with it's head cocked to one side, it's black eye glittering, probably all the better to see me with. It was just a bird, damn it. Just a bird. Okay. Maybe it wasn't a tiny little bird but it wasn't an eagle for God's sake. What could it really do to me? It took a cautious step toward me, slightly bobbing its head and cocking its eye at me, seeming to wait to see my reaction. But I'm talking about a bird. I wouldn't have guessed before that they could be intelligent creatures. Think about it. Birdbrain. Flighty. Featherhead. Hardly words that inspire thoughts of genius and cunning.

This time the crow took a hop toward me, within pecking distance of my foot. I let out a short scream and kicked out at it. It let out a half strangled squawk and fluttered up to a low branch over my head, still watching me. I stood up and flapped my arms at it. "Get outta here!" It bobbed its head a couple of times slowly. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought it was laughing at me. I walked away, turning and looking over my shoulder; the crow was still there, making a trilling croak at me. I ran.

# Chapter Four

I jumped when Dickerson slammed both hands on the table. "Damn it Mark. You were the last person seen with her. I'm not kidding around here." He went over to the one-way mirror and ran his hands through his hair. I had never seen him this close to losing it. Not that I was going to relieve his frustration if I could help it. He came back over and sat across the table from me. I fought down a smirk when I saw his nose wrinkle. I wasn't having any luck staying clean but maybe he wouldn't be too eager to keep me if I stunk up the place.

"Where is Carrie?"

"Can I have some water?"

"You've been gone...for how long? Two days? Where were you?"

Chanting and incense. And thunder in the distance. It felt like I ran all day through the woods. When I took off I just crashed through the undergrowth and a little ways ahead there was the crow. I switched direction, stumbling over a deadfall tree as I ran, thin branches slashing at my shirt and face. The ground, overall, was flat but there was a slight undulation to the surface, almost like small waves on the surface of a lake. You really couldn't see this because of a layer of wet, rotting leaves and small branches that had fallen over time so I kept slipping and tripping and almost falling no matter how careful I tried to be. But it's hard to be careful when you're running in a full out panic.

I ducked under a low hanging branch and my foot went into a hole filled with water and covered over with leaves. I fell and fell hard, managing to get my arms in front of me to break my fall but I felt a crack in my ankle and the sudden pain caused my vision to swim momentarily. A fluttering of wings behind me spurred me forward, crawling toward what I now realized was a clearing ahead. My foot came out of the hole with a sucking sound and I left the shoe behind in the thick mud.

Under the trees, the light had been fading and now I saw that even out of the woods it was getting darker. Not the dark of dusk but that weird half-light when the sun is filtering through storm clouds.

I broke through the tree line into tall grass. The wind was light, causing the grass to rustle. I pulled myself upright and tested my ankle; it hurt but not so much I couldn't limp along. Now that my head was above the top of the grass, I could see an old farmhouse across the way. A pull I'd been feeling grew abruptly stronger. I had to get out of the woods, away from the woods and to that house. The answers to everything lay within its walls. I was sure of it.

I pushed my way through the tall grass, heedless of dips and divots in the ground. I think I stumbled a few times but I was so intent on crossing the field I'm not sure how I got across it.

The closer I got to the house the stronger the feeling that everything I needed could be found there. Water. Food. A working telephone. Everything I needed to get back to the city. And not just any food and liquid. All my favorite things to eat and drink would be there, just laid out and waiting for me to walk through that green painted door. I could almost taste the ice-cold beer already.

And the house itself! I wouldn't mind spending some time there, take a mini vacation in such a nice place. I'm not good with architecture but even I could recognize a Victorian style house. The frilly accents were brightly painted, one of those porch swings was gently swaying in the wind and music was playing just loud enough for me to hear halfway across the field. I could imagine the soft mattresses on the beds and a breeze cooling the room at night. A breeze? Hell, I bet this place had killer AC.

Those voices that were singing! I realized that it wasn't a radio or recording. A group of women were in there singing. Oh, what delights awaiting me in that house? Would they be around my age? Pretty? I began to imagine all my fantasies about perfect women were about to come true. And then I stopped.

Up to this point the thought that something was very wrong didn't enter my head. I'd been pulled along on hope and daydream of rescue and then some. All my imaginings seemed so real I could see and taste them. But something about thinking about the women waiting in the house broke the glamour because at that moment a vision flashed in my mind of Jeri, watching her tie on an apron and smiling as she talking to her coworkers.

I fell to my hands and knees like a puppet whose strings had been cut. A babble of excited voices from the house were no longer singing, or chanting, I now realized they had been chanting. A waft of strong incense caught at my throat. I looked up. I was now about 20 feet from the porch. Several cars were parked haphazardly in the yard. I put the nearest one between the house and me.

The house was different. It was still the Victorian I had seen before but it was falling apart. It was no longer the bright, cheerful place that had so drawn me toward it. Those fancy curlicues were broken or downright missing. The window frames were made of wood and the paint was peeling from them while the window glass was warped and cloudy. Some of the windows were open and yellowed, lacy curtains were fluttering in and out of the unscreened cavity.

A large crack of thunder sounded almost simultaneously with the flash of lightning. I had to get into some shelter before this newest storm hit but I'd be damned if I went anywhere near that creepy house. As if in answer to my thoughts, the front door creaked open and a thin older woman dressed in a faded hippy-type dress peered out. I ducked back behind the car and waited for her to go back inside. By the time the door shut behind her, rain was pattering in fat drops.

I reached up and tried the car door and I was surprised when it was unlocked. I guess the owner felt safe out here in the middle of nowhere.

I climbed into the backseat. The rain was now a deluge. I was sure it had cooled off but the car was still hot, it hadn't been in the shade before the sky clouded over with the approaching storm. The floor of the car was cluttered with discarded fast-food bags and empty soda bottles. I shoved enough of them out of the way so I could get directly on the floor and I wouldn't be seen through the windows. The hump was going to be a problem for comfort but there wasn't anything I could do about it. Now I just had to wait out the storm and get away from the house. There had to be a road nearby and maybe I could flag someone down.

I contemplated cracking a window but I didn't want to signal to whoever owned the car that something was different and have them come out to investigate. I was sweating and I could feel the grime sticking to me. My head was starting to feel stuffy from the humidity. I was hungry. And I was thirsty. There was a case of bottled water on the backseat. I tore the plastic enough to pry a couple bottles out and gulped them down. The water was as hot as the car but it was better than nothing. I lay back to wait.

You know how when you really don't want to go to sleep, it's almost impossible to stay awake? I can blame the heat. I can blame the rhythmic sound of the rain. I can blame being exhausted and coming down off a whole morning of adrenaline rush. I woke with a start as I realized the car was moving. It was also cooler as whoever was driving had the AC cranked. It was dark and lights flashed by once in a while.

"You're awake."

I froze. I guess it was too much to hope that the driver hadn't noticed me. The car slowed down and there was a slight turn to the right. Since I was made, I might as well get off the filthy floorboards; my back was aching from being bent over the hump. I pulled myself into the seat and sucked in my breath. Jeri half turned to look at me. I could just make her out in the passing lights.

"I have a bad feeling you are what we were trying to summon." She turned back to watch where she was driving.

Summon? I saw her watching me in the rearview mirror. She probably already thought me a mouth-breathing idiot, I thought as I closed my gob. We were getting off the highway at one of those oases of gas stations and fast food restaurants.

She pulled into a drive through. "What do you want? And let me guess. You don't have any money on you."

I fumbled in my pocket to fish out my wallet and handed her a twenty. "My treat."

She raised her eyebrows but took the money and ordered our food. She kept the change.

She left the fast food place and pulled into what looked like a park. "You look like hell and I can't be in that closed up car with you anymore until you get cleaned up." She pointed to what looked like a bathroom building.

Okay. So I did look like hell. I did the best I could with the foamy soap in the dispenser and the tiny sink. No hot water. There wasn't anything I could do about my clothes but I did pull off the muddy, now dried, sock I still had on the foot without a shoe. While I was scrubbing my pits a man and small boy came in, paused in the door, and slowly backed out again. Great. I smoothed out my hair as best I could, picking out the pieces of brown paper towel, and surveyed myself. Better. Maybe Jeri was into guys with two-day stubble. I walked out trying to act like everything was cool, nothing to see here. I found Jeri at a picnic table already eating. My food and drink were placed across from her.

That guy and kid were playing catch under the sodium light. The father kept glancing my way and it was making me nervous. "We might not want to stick around here too long. I think that guy over there might call the police."

Jeri finished chewing and took a sip. "Relax. I told him you're my boyfriend and you had a hiking accident." I felt a jolt and something hopeful must have flashed across my face because she narrowed her eyes and leaned forward. "DON'T get any ideas." She went back to her breaded chicken thingies.

Crap. We ate in silence for a few minutes. Three cheese burgers and fries for me. I gulped my soda. The sound of highway traffic was off in the distance but otherwise it was like we were still in the middle of nowhere. There was lots of noise from wildlife. Crickets I recognized and there was some kind of cheeping. Frogs? That was weird. I could see swarms of insects in the sodium lights and the two playing catch kept swatting themselves until they gave up and retreated to a car with a luggage shell strapped to the roof.

"Do you have some kind of powerful new bug spray?"

"Nope." She crumpled up her bag and took her trash to the can a few paces away. "So. What can you do?"

Um. "I'm good with computers."

"Oh, boy." She huffed and rummaged in her purse. "I mean what 'special skills' do you have?" She pulled out a hairbrush and set it on the table in front of her. Placing her hands a few inches over it, palms down, she closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. I looked around to see if anyone was watching us but the parking lot was deserted now that the father/son team had pulled out.

I reached out and put my hand over the hairbrush, pressing it into the table. The hair on the back of my arm stood on end under her hands.

"Jeri, I don't want another surprise today. I don't want to know whatever you're trying to show me. I've been kidnapped, possibly drugged, held in the woods, chased, rained on, and eaten alive by bugs and I don't want any more. I just want to pick up my car and go home." I could rent a motel room. That was home enough for me tonight. A shower and cable.

She was looking at me funny.

"What?"

"I didn't tell you my name. I don't even know yours."

I wasn't about to tell her about the coffee shop. How screwed up would that sound? I learned her name there and then she finds me asleep in her car in the middle of the boonies? Yeah. That shouldn't freak anyone out.

"Can you take me to my car and then I'll be out of your way. All I ask is that you don't leave me stranded out here. I don't want anything else."

She looked at me with her eyes squinted until I felt like squirming. I resisted the urge and held her gaze until she sighed.

"Where's your car?"

I told her.

"Alright." She stood up and I gathered all my trash and followed after her.

*

"It was right here. I swear it was." Crappity crap crap crap.

"Maybe they know inside what happened to it."

Maybe. It was still a few minutes to closing so we hurried in to ask. The bartender smirked and told me he called to have it towed that afternoon when he opened. Fuck.

"You can't pick it up until the impound lot opens tomorrow morning." He turned to serve a last round to some ratty looking guys at the end of the counter.

I turned to Jeri. "Can you take me to the train station across town?"

"What about your car?"

"I'll get it tomorrow. You can drop me off and I'll be on my way."

"I'm sure I'll regret this but do you need a place to sleep tonight?"

The real question was have the police been through the car or is it just locked up for illegal parking? Man, I was tired. I let out my breath and pinched the bridge of my nose, looking down at the sidewalk as we made our way back to Jeri's car. I guess a few more hours wouldn't make a difference.

"Are you inviting me over?"

"I have an extra room so don't think this is anything other than letting you crash for a night, ok. But if you don't have anywhere to go tonight you can stay."

We hadn't really talked in the car at all on the way back to the city but what limited subjects we had talked about had been exhausted. Jeri didn't want to give too much away about herself. I knew this because she avoided answering the questions I asked her. I didn't learn anything about the group of women that were in that house. Here I had her in a situation where we could get to know each other and neither of us was sharing much. The ride to her place wasn't any more enlightening. Awkward.

When we were walking down the hall on her floor, a door opened at the end and some guy stuck his head out. "I talked to Josephine. She said it didn't work." He paused. "Who's this?"

"It worked. They don't know it yet. His name's Mark."

"What happened to him?"

Hello. I was right here. My bare foot was sore from walking around and I was again self-conscience of my disheveled state. What was it to this jerk who I was?

"You hungry? I saved some dinner."

I followed Jeri into the apartment and she sat on the couch and pulled off her sandals. I looked around. They were both comfortable here. There were a couple pairs of men's and women's shoes on a rug by the door and there was a mix of feminine and guy things. Jeri accepted a glass of iced tea the guy handed to her and their hands lingered together for a moment. Okay then. After a shower and some loaned clothes, I went to bed. I was indeed in the 'extra' bedroom because those two went to bed together in the other. But here's the thing. While I was toweling off, I heard them arguing in low voices in the living room. There might be hope yet.

*

I stood at the counter at the impound lot waiting. And waiting and waiting. I nervously looked at the clock behind where the clerk usually stood. Jeri had dropped me off on her way to work so I either had to get the car or walk a mile or two to the nearest bus stop. I wanted my car. I wanted the laptop in my car. I was having second thoughts about not insisting going to the train station last night and I was anxious to make sure everything was undisturbed in the hidey-hole in the back seat. I leaned back on the wall and fingered the car key in my pocket. The ring with my other keys was hidden under the seat of Jeri's car, in case I ran into trouble.

The clerk hasn't returned and I wandered out the door to have a look around. The air was heating up but it wasn't sweltering yet. Puddles of muddy water dotted the parking lot's broken concrete. Maybe the light breeze would dry them up. I walked to the corner of the building and looked to the back where all the vehicles were parked behind a chain link fence topped with razor wire. I couldn't see the car but then there were so many vehicles parked in there that it could be easy to miss. I turned around at the sound of tires crunching. Two marked cruisers were pulling into the lot and they both had their lights on. I took a chance they hadn't seen me and bolted.

I ran along the fence and rounded the corner across a scrub field when the lot ended. I guess I'd gotten used to running over the last few days. Or I was feeling guilty about what was on the laptop. I was breathing deep, arms pumping. Whatever made me run, it didn't last long because one of the cops tackled me when I was about halfway across the field. I thought the parking lot was watery. I went down in a slimy puddle that smelled indescribably bad. At least I wasn't wearing my own clothes because I couldn't imagine that smell would ever come out. I quit resisting when the cop pulled my arm back to put on the cuffs.

The door of the interrogation room opened and Dickerson walked in holding a file folder. He stopped and gagged and went right back out, letting the door close softly behind him. I could hear some other cops laughing in the hall. I sighed. My nose quit working in the back of the cruiser before we got here. There was a blanket under me that they had made me sit on in the car so I wouldn't get it too dirty. They'd cuffed my hands in front of me so I could sign things I guess, but they were attached to a waist chain. A fan in the ceiling whirred to life and Dickerson came back in.

"Why'd you run?"

I didn't look up from examining the pattern in the tabletop.

"I thought at first you were a missing person. But when they called to say you ran at the impound lot and had you in custody, I thought to myself, 'Something more is going on here.'" He put the folder on the table and sat down across from me. "Let's talk about that."

"I thought we had a deal."

Dickerson slapped the table, startling me into looking up. "I don't care about whatever petty-ass shit you're up to! I want to know about Carrie."

I must have flinched because he got a satisfied look. "You do know who I'm talking about."

"She was fine the last time I saw her." No sense denying that I knew her now.

He leaned forward. "We have a series of missing people. Normally, you can tell me everything that's happening on the streets but on this you claim not to know anything. Now we have a minor missing who was last seen with you."

Oh shit. "I swear, I didn't do anything to her and she was fine when she left me."

"Where did you last see her?"

"You should talk to Viktor."

"He reported her missing. He said she was with you."

"Don't you think it's weird she was staying with him? That guy is seriously creepy."

"He's her uncle. She was staying with him because she was having problems at home."

I didn't have an answer to that. I also couldn't imagine it was true. Dickerson kept at it but I don't think I let anything slip that could lead him to her. Which didn't help me out any but it became obvious he didn't have anything more than Viktor's word. Finally, he came back to the same questions for the third time and I'd had enough. I didn't know if they could get a search warrant on the car but I didn't want to take the chance they'd Al Capone me and charge me for the skimming software on the laptop just to get me into the system. I had to get out of there.

And all I had to say were the magic words: "If you're not going to charge me with anything, I'm leaving." I stood up, holding my cuffed hands out, waiting for him to unlock me.

Amazingly, he did. I thought he might at least charge me with fleeing or resisting but he let me go. I didn't even try to clean up but went straight to a bus stop and went to the coffee shop. I got off a few blocks early because everyone was giving me dirty looks. You'd think the muck wouldn't smell so bad once it was dry. I waved at Jeri from the door and she let me into her car. I fished my keys out from under the seat.

"Let me see that."

I hesitated, which is stupid, but then decided it was okay.

"This is ... interesting." She turned it over and over in her hand, fingering the spiral design of the fob. There was a piece of green colored glass at the center.

I took the key ring back and stuffed it into my pocket. "It's the only thing I have of my mother."

"I'm sorry. Did she pass away?"

"I don't know." I left it at that. I hated to explain that I had tried to find my birth parents but there was no way to track them when you were abandoned at a fire station as an infant, only hours old, umbilical cord tied with sewing thread. The fob was on a chain around my neck. They never identified either parent. "I gotta go." I turned toward the bus stop.

"You didn't get your car?"

I shook my head.

She was looking at me in a way that made my heart jump. "I get off in about an hour. I can take you where ever you need to go."

Even waiting on her it would be faster than the bus. I went into the coffee shop with her and cleaned myself up in the bathroom. I got a coffee and a muffin and sat in a back corner to wait.

*

"Where are you trying to go? You're not leaving town are you?" She looked genuinely concerned. We were sitting outside the train station.

"I have a few things in a locker I want to get. Everything else I own is in my car."

We went in together. Jeri stuck close to me and she relaxed when she saw I was going over the to wall of lockers. I removed the key from the fob and inserted it into the lock of one of the larger ones. It opened with a click and I pulled out a duffel bag. I opened it back in the car. I had an extra wallet with money, ID in a few different names. A couple changes of clothes. And most urgently, a pay-as-you-go phone. I turned it on and dialed a number. When the other end picked up, I dialed a seven-digit number, hung up, and turned it back off. I removed the battery and looked up.

"Wait. Stop here."

Jeri pulled over at the river's edge and we got out of the car.

"Wow. All the rain we've been getting." Normally, the gravel riverbank was visible for several feet between the six-foot high retaining wall and the water. Today it was sloshing only a few inches below the top it. It was as wide as two football fields this spring before we started having near-daily rainstorms. Trees on the other bank were half submerged and we couldn't see the end of the flooded area. The current in the center raced with branches and debris. Perfect.

I hauled back and threw the burner phone as far out as I could. I didn't have to worry about what was on my laptop even if the cops found it and tried to search it. Without the proper code to deactivate the mal-ware I set in motion, it would wipe the hard drive so clean nothing would be left on the hard drive even if they tried to recover it. I could fix it and reinstall everything if and when I got it back.

I was surprised that Jeri didn't make a big deal about the phone. All she did was raise an eyebrow at me before we returned to her car. For that matter she didn't say anything about my still slightly smelly state, either.

"Come on. Let's go home."

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. But I wasn't going to complain. I could be in more trouble than I thought since this morning and I had to conserve my cash. Besides. I would enjoy causing trouble for Brad.

# Chapter Five

I gulped down the glass of water and set it on the counter next to the sink.

"Why wouldn't they give your car back?"

I wasn't sure what to tell her. I hadn't thought up a convincing lie and I thought if she knew I was a suspect in the disappearances she'd kick me out. I could always find a place to stay even if it was a squat to save money. But there'd be no power, or running water, likely. I also didn't want to go away from her. I knew I was hesitating too long but I couldn't think of anything to say.

"I think we have a common goal."

I looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"We both know people who are missing." She saw my look of confusion. "I heard you on the phone this morning trying to find someone. You sounded worried."

I waved my hand in a dismissive gesture. "She was out when I called. You know someone that's missing?"

She looked sad. "Two people actually. Members of my coven."

"You're Wiccan." Wiccan I could deal with. They dressed funny and held meetings in the woods and thought they could cast spells but they were essentially harmless. Harmless humans. Nothing weird or supernatural. Garden-variety people who worshipped nature. That would explain some of the clutter in the extra bedroom; the jars of what looked like herbs and powders, the strange items neatly laid out on shelves.

"Not exactly." She held her hand out and a ball of light hovered over her palm.

Or not. The light shrunk to nothing and disappeared and she rubbed her hand before putting them both back in her lap. I pulled a chair out from the table and sat down across from her.

"It was you."

"What?" I felt a rising panic. Me? Did she think I was making people disappear?

"Yesterday. We were doing a summoning and I was concentrating on the spell like everyone else and through it all I heard someone say my name. I was so surprised I broke the circle and the spell ended."

The door opened and Brad walked in, carrying bags of carryout. He narrowed his eyes at me before dumping the food out on the table.

*

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and put the baseball cap back on. It was still light out but the fireflies were coming out and a streetlight was trying to flicker on, not quite making it for more than a moment or so at a time.

"Are you sure he's in there?"

I glared at Brad sitting in the passenger seat. He grumbled and looked back to the house we were watching. It was gratifying to see him uncomfortable, and not just from the heat.

I looked out at the street. This was one of the worse parts of the city. There were row houses made of brick with a few vacant lots dotted between a few of them where the buildings were gone and never replaced. The vacant lots were yielding a great crop of weeds and broken glass and trash. A few people were sitting on stoops, trying to escape the heat built up inside their homes. At least three drug deals had gone down since we'd been sitting here. Loud music came from cheap speakers, grating and distorted. Who would send their kid here to solve problems at home? Carrie was better off in the shelter.

I pulled out my phone for the umpteenth time, even though I would have felt it vibrate if she'd called back. When I'd called the shelter this morning Carrie'd been out getting job counseling. If I could get her to talk to Dickerson, I could get him to lay off; it had taken most of the morning to shake the tail he had on me. I helped her. Now I needed her help. I wanted to tell her to get a burner phone to use so she couldn't be traced and we'd both be okay. And with some luck, I'd have some evidence against Viktor soon, too.

"That is so weird."

I turned to look at a smiling Brad. "What?"

"That crow over there. I would swear it's watching us. And when you were talking to people it was following you."

I hunkered down to look up to where he was pointing. Sure enough a crow was sitting on the sill of a second-story window. It cawed and ruffled it's feathers. My breath caught in my throat. There did seem to be crows everywhere lately. I told myself to calm down. Whatever hallucinations I'd had in the woods, I probably was just noticing them more. Like when you buy a blue car and you suddenly see all the blue cars out there. There aren't more blue cars than before. I was simply more aware of crows. It squawked one more time and flew off. So much for that.

The sun was below the horizon when the front door to Viktor's house opened and he stepped out, pulling the door shut behind him. Tall, thin and bald, he walked slightly hunched over. He was dressed in dumpy old man clothes. We watched as he shuffled down the street, moving like a sick man, his skin was pale and looked like it was stretched too thin over his skull. You'd think that would make him an easy target in this neighborhood but most everyone stopped what they were doing as he passed. A boy playing with a ball ran in front of him to retrieve it and an adult lunged forward and pulled the child back to the steps. They watched warily as he passed. He never looked up, still shuffling along slowly. After he rounded the corner, the activity slowly resumed.

"I see what you mean. That guy's creepy."

I started the car and we circled the block, parking a block away. We got out and went through a lot to the back door. I knelt and got to work on the lock.

"I always wondered how to do that." Brad said when we heard the click.

Why couldn't it have been Jeri with me? He was supposed to be watching out for anyone coming, not being my audience. I decided to impress on him how serious the situation was. I grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him into the side of the building, knocking the air out of him.

See Brad thought he was bad because he worked out with a gym membership. He thought he was bad because he could put on an attitude. But Brad was not bad. Brad was a middle-class pansy playing games with no idea what the stakes were. He thought this would all play out like in the movies with himself cast as the hero. Brad was going to get us caught. Or worse, killed. I was going into new territory myself, but at least I had a map and it wasn't courtesy of Hollywood.

I had to convince him not to dress all in black; black long sleeved shirt, black jeans, black ski mask, for God's sake. First off, it would have been horrible in this heat and the idea was to blend in, not have everyone pointing and laughing. I went through his closet and dressed him in some older summer clothes that were in a bag for donation. I felt the hairs on my arms lift and I was jolted back on my ass.

I jumped back up but my legs were like jelly. "What the hell? Are you packing a taser?"

"Nope."

I pulled back and made to deck him. He held out his hand in a stop gesture and I froze. I mean I really froze with my fist pulled back. I couldn't move.

"We don't have time for this. Are you going to behave?"

I would have told him off if I could have spoken. As it was I was a statue. He put his hand down after a couple of beats and I fell against the wall. Brad staggered a bit before catching himself. Ah ha. Whatever the hell he'd done, he couldn't sustain it for long. Brad was muttering to himself.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing. Let's do this." He cracked his knuckles and I felt like he was trying to stare me down.

I didn't like the idea of going into Viktor's house feeling like crap but I wasn't sure how long he'd be gone and we needed to search the place before he came back. As sickly as he looked I didn't want to tangle with him. Even the thugs were afraid of him. And I didn't think a pissing contest with Brad would help if we wore ourselves out right now. I could wait to deal with him. I pulled the medical gloves back on and opened the door. I looked over at Brad and he had a largish cross held in front of him and a small bottle uncorked in his other hand. Both Brad and Jeri had immediately said 'vampire' when I told them about Viktor. I rolled my eyes and got out the flashlight.

The room was completely dark and I soon figured out why. The windows were painted black and the streetlight couldn't penetrate. I was betting the sun didn't have a chance either but I still wasn't chancing the kitchen light wouldn't show through to the outside. I shone the flashlight around, keeping the beam off the windows. Yep. Backdoor. Kitchen. The smell was unpleasant. A musty odor overlaid with a hint of something nasty.

I'd stayed in nicer squats. The Formica counters were dingy and warped. The floor was hardwood but it had long since lost its smoothness; the wood was pale and eaten away along the grain. I could imagine splinters in bare feet. The refrigerator was an old model that looked like that avocado color from the '70's and it was on but there wasn't much of anything in it. A couple of bottles whose contents I didn't want to think about and some vitamin bottles. Mold grew on the rubber seals and unidentifiable spills were on the shelves.

There was a doorless opening toward the front of the house. The living room was nearly bare. An old couch was shoved against the front wall and heavy drapes were drawn across the front windows. I peeped behind the drapes and those windows were also painted black. A set of stairs off to one side led upstairs. The floor was in almost as bad shape as it was in the kitchen. A filthy rug was off to one side, not lying completely flat.

I opened the one door besides the front entrance. It was a small coat closet, empty. The next place to search was upstairs. I looked at the staircase warily. The banister was missing posts. I motioned to Brad, wanting him to go first. He didn't move so I moved forward.

My foot went through the step on the first stair. I pulled it out, taking the rotted out wood with it. I was more careful on the next step. I put my weight on the sides of the riser where it was nailed into something so my weight wasn't on the unsupported center. Things still creaked and popped as I made my way up. I looked back and saw that Brad had stayed downstairs. Good. Maybe he was actually looking out for trouble.

Upstairs appeared to be more of the same; bare wood floors whose stability was questionable. The staircase opened up on a hallway that led to four doors. All but the door at the end of the hall was open.

The first door was a small bedroom. The window was painted black and there was no furniture. The second room was essentially the same as the first. I cautiously walked to the third door. A bathroom. Unlike other rooms in the house this room looked like attempts to keep it clean had been made. I turned the faucet on the sink but no water came out. The cabinets held a minimum of toiletries and cleaning supplies. The small window was painted black.

I only had the last door. The one that was closed. I pulled out my phone to check the time. We'd only been in the house for a few minutes but it seemed like much longer. The dusty smell was giving me a headache and I wanted to get this over with. This door was a solid wood door, fresh and new looking. Not a scarred and cheap hollow-core like the others. There were several locking devices on the hall side, obviously to keep someone inside the room. They were all undone. I reached out for the knob.

"What's taking so long?" Brad from the foot of the stairs it sounded like.

I jumped and the floor gave an ominous creak.

"Is anyone coming?"

"No."

"Then keep your shirt on." I muttered.

I took a deep breath and waited for my heart to slow down. I reached out for the knob again and gave it a turn.

"Shit." I turned off the flashlight.

This room showed signs of occupation.

I'd turned off the flashlight because I didn't need it to see. A bare single mattress was pushed into the far corner and a few articles of clothing were folded and neatly stacked in and around a milk crate. This had been Carrie's room. There was still black paint on the windows but much of it had been scraped away so that the streetlight came through, casting shadows. It still smelled faintly of her. I noticed the bottle of perfume open and tipped over.

I clenched my fist. Damn it. There wasn't any evidence linking Viktor to any of the disappearances. I walked carefully down the stairs.

"Well?"

"There's nothing here." Nothing to explain why people were missing. Nothing to get Viktor put away. Nothing to clear me with Dickerson.

"What about the basement?" Brad led me back into the kitchen. He moved the raggedy rug in the middle of the floor and there was a trap door with a pull ring on one side and sunken hinges on the other.

Oh Jeez. Like this house wasn't creepy enough did we really have to go into the basement? It's not like Viktor was trying to keep up appearances in the rest of the house. If he was, he'd have furniture and it would look like real people lived here, not like an abandoned house that smelled of dust and mildew and dank, unmentionable things. But there had been the rug over the trap door like he was trying to hide that it was there. Or at least not trip over the pull ring. But Brad wasn't giving me a choice as he pulled the door up. I covered my mouth with my hand trying not to gag. A strong smell of mold and wet filled the kitchen.

A ladderlike set of stairs disappeared into the murky darkness. Brad took the flashlight from me and knelt by the opening. He flicked the light around, trying to look at what was down there before descending. Brad put a foot on the top step when there was a soft knock on the back door.

"Mark." Someone outside was speaking in a stage whisper.

Brad and I looked at each other and I shrugged.

"Mark. Time to go. The cops are coming."

Whoever it was we didn't want to chance getting picked up. I'd had enough of the cops this morning and I wasn't sure they'd let me go this time without posting bond for breaking and entering. I opened the door slowly and peeked out. There wasn't anyone there but I could see the flashing lights in the distance. Brad closed the trap door and put the rug back. I pulled him out after me and closed the door, making sure it was locked just like we'd found it.

We walked to the alleyway behind the house and I had to pull Brad back when he tried to take a right back to the car. There was at least one cop car near there. We turned left.

"How the hell am I supposed to get home?"

I looked at him sideways.

"And what about your car?"

"I'm not chuffed if I lose that car. You didn't touch anything in it without gloves, right?"

"Stolen? You stole a car?"

I laughed. "No. I bought a stolen car." I shrugged. "It was cheap and we didn't have time for paperwork." And Brad hadn't wanted to drive his own car. Good thing, too. He, and especially Jeri, couldn't be connected to this neighborhood since we'd had to abandon the vehicle. I'm sure his car was all legit and registered and everything. Brad looked like he was going to hit me.

"If you don't want to walk you can call Jeri to pick us up."

Back near Viktor's place there was shouting and what sounded like a gunshot. Brad flinched and I thought he was going to dive into the bushes and weeds that grew along the alleyway's fence but he held steady.

"I don't want her in this bad part of town." He pulled out his phone. "I'll call a cab."

I held back and thought I'd let him learn for himself. He argued for a few minutes before putting the phone back in his pocket.

"Shut up."

"I wasn't gonna say anything." It was too hard not to smile.

"She's mine."

I kept walking in silence.

"I see the way you look at her."

"Can't stop a man from looking."

"She's like my familiar. When we get back, you're going to pack up your things and leave."

"Sure. Whatever you say."

# Chapter Six

I dreamt I was suffocating. A heavy weight was on my chest and I was smothering in the dark. I jerked awake and looked straight into the glowing green eyes that were inches from my face.

"Shit."

I sat up and a large gray tabby cat jumped off my chest and over to the dresser next to the door. It sat there staring at me; tail flicking around its feet, licking its lips, while I tried to slow my breathing. I was in the spare bedroom in Jeri's apartment. When Brad and I had returned the previous evening, Jeri had first looked at me and smiled before even greeting Brad. I'd made no move to leave and so far Brad hadn't done anything to force the issue. It was obvious that Jeri still wanted me around and I wasn't going to leave unless and until she didn't want me there.

My phone said it was a little before 6:00 and the sky outside was brightening. The streetlights were still on. And I had to pee. I threw off the sheet and thin blanket and padded out into the small hallway that had the bathroom and bedrooms separated from the rest of the apartment.

On my way back to bed, I looked into the living room and saw a figure splayed out on the couch. Brad. I smiled to myself. So the argument I overheard last night didn't run in his favor. I wasn't sure what their relationship had been like before I came along but it sure wasn't going well now. I wondered whose idea it had been for Brad to sleep in the living room. I crept back into the spare room to try and get more sleep. The cat was curled up in the center of the bed just south of the pillow. It sat up and growled at me with its ears back. No more sleep for me; I'd noticed this cat was not declawed. The damned thing hissed at me as I went back out the door, grabbing my clothes off the floor as I went. I got dressed in the bathroom.

Now what? It was too early to be up in my opinion but there was nowhere to lie down except the floor. Unless... No, I dismissed that thought pretty quickly. As much as Jeri intrigued me, no matter how attracted to her I was, I didn't think I'd be welcome in her bed just now. Especially with Brad still in the apartment. But oh, was I tempted. Not to get up to anything funny. Not unless she was open to it. I wanted to be next to her. The truth was, it wasn't only the cat interfering with my sleep. It was torture knowing she was so near and I couldn't go to her. I wasn't sure what hold she had over me. I've been around pretty girls. Been with more than a few of them, too. Well, okay. Not that many. But I'd never felt this strongly about any woman before.

I decided to make coffee if I had to be up anyway. I walked as quietly as I could into the kitchen and turned on the light. I rummaged around looking for filters and coffee.

"You're making yourself right at home." Brad stepped closer and put himself into my personal space. He was rumpled and still wearing yesterday's clothes.

"Just making myself useful." I went over to the sink and filled the carafe with water. Brad followed me, staying just inside my comfort zone.

"You think you're useful. That was nothing last night. We broke into someone's house and for what? I don't think you even knew anything before you tried to hook up with Jeri."

"Insecure much?"

"I told you, Jeri's mine. We don't..."

"Jeri is not an object to be owned."

"You stupid bastard."

I let him talk. There wasn't anything I could say that would change his mind from what he was already convinced of. What was Jeri doing with this jerk?

Brad wrinkled his nose. "You smell like pot."

"You want some? I know a guy."

"No. I don't want some. I don't want that crap in my home."

I poured the water into the coffee maker. "If it makes you feel better, I smoked it on the fire escape so it wasn't in your home for long."

"Is that what you were doing when you were talking to people last night? Buying dope?"

"I was trying to figure out if Viktor has anything to do with the disappearances." And trying to get Dickerson off my back. "And hey, while I was there..."

"I want you out of here. Now. Before Jeri gets up you will be gone."

"What if I don't want him to leave?"

Brad spun around. I leaned back on the counter.

"Jeri. Look. He doesn't belong here. He doesn't know what's going on anymore than we do. He's just using us."

"I think he's the key." She held up her hand when Brad opened his mouth to speak. "I don't think he's responsible for it but I think he's our only hope of stopping it."

She wasn't looking at me. She kept her gaze on Brad as she took a slow pace toward him, flexing her hands into fists.

"I still think we should tell the coven. Let them decide if he's worth our bother."

"We've talked about this. You know my reasons for not going to them."

"I never figured you for the squeamish type." Brad stood in a casual stance but I could feel the tension pouring off him.

"If I could see the reason for what they want to do. Mark. Go in your room and open the window." Jeri still hadn't taken her eyes off Brad.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Just go."

Realization of something crossed over Brad's features, half turning to me. "Wait."

I left the room and there was a large crash behind me. I ran back to see Jeri and Brad circling each other around the broken table. It looked more like Jeri was pursuing him. Every time Jeri made a move to go around the table, Brad moved to keep it between them.

"If you want to help me, open the freakin' window!"

Had I seen right? Had the table been smoking as well as broken? I raced into the bedroom and threw open the window. The cat took off down the fire escape spitting and hissing, frightened off by the noise. I seriously thought about following it out. But I couldn't leave Jeri alone with Brad. What if he overpowered her? He was possessive of her but that might or might not have been in reaction to me being around. He couldn't be one of those assholes, could he? Better to stick around if Jeri needed some help.

There were more crashes in the kitchen and Brad was yelling. I could hear Jeri doing some sort of chanting over the chaos. I inched my way down the hall and peeked around the corner. The refrigerator was on its side, the door open and the contents spilling out. Jeri stepped onto it with her hands spread out at hip level. There was a growing light in her palms. Brad looked frozen in fear.

I ducked down and headed back to the spare room. Jeri was more than holding her own and I was out of my depth. After a few more crashes everything went quiet. I waited.

Nothing.

The only sound was something dripping and the fridge running and I could imagine it blowing cold air out the open door over the spilled food. Over anything else, like an unconscious Jeri or Brad?

I looked around. Something heavy. Something that would add to my reach. Because what if Brad had won? I wouldn't, couldn't, let him hurt Jeri.

I grasped the aluminum bat I found in the closet. Lessons from little league came back to me. Keep your hands together. Don't choke up on the grip. I really sucked at baseball. I almost started to laugh. I still couldn't reconcile what I had seen out there. Not just in the living room a few minutes ago but over the last couple of days. My life had definitely taken a weird turn. It felt a little too much like Through the Looking Glass for me. Nothing was what it seemed and I didn't know the rules anymore.

I stalked out into the hallway, keeping the bat ready to swing. I burst out into the living room.

I could see the floor in front of the open fridge. It was orange juice dripping into a growing puddle on the linoleum. Spilled takeout containers of what looked like chinese food. A broken glass bottle of ketchup. The dining table was broken into more pieces but had stopped smoking. The couch was pushed into the television. A recliner was overturned. The door to the apartment was wide open.

I stepped slowly around the rubble. There were lots of places someone could be laying on the floor and I wouldn't see them. Who would it be? Or both of them? Caution was well and good but I started to get nervous. Surely the noise had attracted attention. The cops could be on the way right now and I really didn't want to be there holding a bat with all this destruction around me when they showed up. And in this part of town they would show up. And fairly quickly if someone had called. I had to get her out of there.

I looked everywhere and was just bending over to look under a set of tall, overturned bookshelves when Jeri walked through the door. Her hair was wild around her head like a halo, her hands in fists tight to her side. I felt some of the tension leave my shoulders and I lowered the bat I had grabbed and raised at the movement.

"Get your things. We need to go." She said as she rushed to her bedroom.

I wanted to ask what happened to Brad but decided it could wait. I went and stuffed my things back into my duffel bag. Jeri was leaving her room with a suitcase when I got to the entrance door to the apartment. She hadn't done anything to tame her hair but she'd put on real clothes so at least she wasn't in her pajamas anymore. We walked out of the apartment and I had to take her elbow to slow her down. People would remember two disheveled people running from the scene. I steered her away from the elevator because who takes the stairs? Less chance of being seen on the way out.

Once we were in the stairwell, I saw why Jeri'd went for the elevator. She paused to smooth out her hair. It wasn't great but she no longer looked like she'd just stepped out of a hurricane. I grabbed her hand and gently pulled her behind me as we descended to the ground floor. I stepped over Brad who was leaning dazed in the corner in the bend of the stairway. He had a bloody nose and his eyes were unfocused. He garbled something or other as we passed. I thought about stopping to make sure he'd at least live but I heard sirens through the emergency exit door. I pulled Jeri into the lobby. As we reached doors to the street a couple of uniformed cops came through the front entrance.

"Hey. I think I heard something in the stairwell." I said it after they passed by us and I didn't look back.

There. Brad wouldn't die and get Jeri in more trouble than she might already be in. We exited the building before they could think to stop us.

Jeri got into the driver's side of her car. I tried to take the keys from her but she wouldn't have it. She pulled out of the parking lot smoothly but she was going too fast. She still hadn't said anything since we'd left. I grabbed the sissy handle when she ran a red light. It was still too early for rush hour so we made it through. I hoped there weren't any cameras at that intersection.

"Jeri. Slow down." She didn't. Instead she start to laugh.

She laughed until tears were wetting her face. "You don't know how long I wanted to do that."

I talked her into switching with me so I could drive. We were on the run after all and the last thing we needed was to get pulled over for a traffic stop. I was sure that by now they would be looking for us. And that reminded me of another complication. We were in Jeri's car. They were probably on the look out for it since it wasn't parked in her building's lot. Time to call in a favor.

*

"Why are we here?" Jeri was calmer. I'd explained to her what we needed to do: ditch the car, find somewhere to lay low.

I parked in the mall parking lot. One side of the lot was filled and I drove that way and in the middle of a cluster of cars. My phone buzzed and I looked at the text message. "Waaaaaaaay back in line what u want". I tapped out a reply.

I hesitated. "Can you do anything about the cameras?" I pointed up at one of those black, shiny bubbles on a light pole.

She took a minute to think. "I have something better." She twisted in her seat and reached for a bag in the back. She rummaged through to find a small jar made of smoked glass. She opened it and a spicy smell filled the car. She scooped out some goop. "Close your eyes."

I did as she asked and I felt her smear a thin coat of it on me face. My skin tingled and not just from what she was smearing on my face. I hoped we weren't sitting here just for her to give me a facial.

"Okay."

I opened my eyes. "What's that supposed to do?"

She pulled down the sun visor and opened the mirror.

My mouth gaped open. I wasn't me. I mean I was still me, of course, on the inside. I'm pretty much a generic white guy. Black hair, dark brown eyes that in the right light looked black as well. My skin tone suggests Italian or Spanish but given my background who the hell knows, right? But the dude staring back from the mirror looked thinner with a longer nose. Even my hair appeared different; shorter and blond. I looked like a freakin' Ken doll. Jeri finished smearing some goop on her face. It had the same type of effect on her. She was still very pretty, just in a whole new way.

"Um. This is great but this guy we're here to meet isn't going to talk to me because he won't recognize me."

She reached out and put her hand over mine on the steering wheel. Instantly, I saw her as she really looked.

"So all I have to do is touch him and he'll recognize me?" I didn't want to criticize her but I didn't think this guy would let me hold hands with him while we talked or all the way to where he gave us a ride to. And I sure didn't want to get all touchy-feely with him.

She bit her lip and gazed off into the distance. "Yeah. That could be a problem." She rummaged through her bag again and came out with what looked like a wooden nickel they sometimes use for advertising at stores. "This will let him see through the enchantment. Slip it into his pocket."

My phone buzzed again. "He said to meet him in the food court."

Walking through the mall, I couldn't help but notice that many of the stores were empty and had the security gates down. Malls all over were going under and this one seemed to be hanging on only by renting out one of the larger spaces to conventions and other temporary venues. People in elaborate costumes and carrying props were milling around everywhere. Jeri and I held hands to keep from getting separated by the crowds near the food court. At least we didn't stand out too badly carrying our stuff.

"What's going on?"

I grinned. "Tryouts for one of those TV talent shows." I couldn't wait to see what Gordo was going to do. He was such a spaz. I didn't feel too guilty pulling him away from this mess since he really didn't have any talents that I knew of. Unless you counted eating, getting loaded, and being a general nuisance. He wasn't all that bad, though. He was just one of those guys that wanted to drift through life.

I finally spotted Gordo and pushed through the crowd to the table where he was eating something huge and greasy. I approached him from behind and slipped the wooden disk into a fold of his costume while I grabbed his shoulder.

"Mall security. Come with me."

He stiffened and slowly turned around, his mouth still wide open because he'd been about to shove more food in. His eyes bugged out when he first looked at me and for a moment I was afraid the spell or disk or whatever wasn't working the way Jeri intended. I took my hand off his shoulder and he relaxed.

"Dude. For a minute there... I must still be tripping." He put the food down on the tray in front of him. "What's the big emergency?"

"No emergency. We want a ride across town. That's all. Then you can come back here and do whatever."

He motioned for us to sit with him at the table. We sat.

"What happened to your car."

"Impounded."

He nodded his head like that was an everyday thing. "Yeah, I just got mine back."

He was taking so long we decided to get some lunch as well. It was interesting to see all the people and try to guess what their acts were based on the weird, outlandish clothes some of them were wearing. I'd bet they were the ones that just wanted to get on TV. Like Gordo. He was dressed all retro. Who was that guy way back? With the baggy pants and the tall hair? Hammer. That guy. But there were just as many people dressed up and professional looking.

Gordo kept watching everyone, too. But he wasn't eating much anymore. He sat there holding his food, staring. I looked over at Jeri. She was watching him and looked worried. He kept looking around at the people. Every so often his eyes would grow wide. I followed his gaze but only saw what looked like ordinary people, costumes or no costumes.

Gordo smacked his sandwich onto the table in disgust. "This is crap. Let's go."

We followed him out to his car, a rusted out El Camino with a camper shell. We crammed ourselves into the cab after stowing our bags in the back. Gordo muttered to himself the whole way about not standing a chance at the tryouts. He dropped us off at a pay-by-the-week motel.

*

I locked and chained the motel room door. Jeri was checking out the kitchenette. She was opening the few cupboards and pulling out the mismatched dishes and other things that people had left behind. There wasn't much, but it would keep us from having to buy anything for the short time, I hoped, that we would have to hole up here.

I'd managed to get the wooden disk out of Gordo's clothing before he left. As soon as I'd taken it he'd looked very confused. Jeri encouraged him to go try out after complimenting his costume. I felt bad messing him up but what choice did we have? Dickerson seemed to think I was involved somehow in the disappearances and now Jeri's place was in shambles with Brad knocked out in the stairwell. And as far as they knew, now Jeri was among the missing. It was only a matter of time before Brad could talk and describe me. And he knew my first name. Dickerson was no genius but I'd bet he would put it together real quick. Jeri thought I could solve it. And I'd better if I didn't want to end up in prison.

Jeri bowed her head and dropped her arms to her side, her hair hung in a curtain hiding her face from me. I crossed the room when I heard her sob. I put my hands on her shoulders and lowered my head to get her to look at me.

"Hey."

Jeri wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry."

I pulled her into my chest and put my arms around her. She was stiff for a moment, then relaxed, putting her head on my shoulder. I felt the fabric of my t-shirt soaking up her tears. Her hands slipped around my waist until she held me in a tight hug. She was perfect. The perfect height to compliment my 5 foot 10. We fit together like a couple of puzzle pieces. I closed my eyes and rested my cheek on the top of her head. Her hair smelled faintly like flowers. It felt like I found something I never knew was missing.

I held her while she cried it out. Finally, Jeri's sobs evened out and slowed. She took a deep shuddering breath. I pulled back from her enough so we could look at each other.

"Everything's going to be okay." I really wished I believed that myself. I had no idea what I was going to do. But I couldn't make her feel worse. I didn't pretend to understand most of what I had witnessed over the last couple days. Maybe there was something to it? I did know that I needed Jeri as much as she thought she needed me. At least if someone else disappeared while we were together she could be my alibi.

I tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear and cupped the side of her face with my hand.

"You okay with this? Being on our own, I mean."

"I left everything and everyone back there. You're all I have."

My heart jumped. "So you trust me?" That was a loaded question. Didn't she just imply that it was me or nothing?

"I do. That's why I felt safe leaving."

I leaned forward and kissed her. She yielded to me, her mouth growing soft. I moved my hands lower on her back. She was kissing back now, getting some tongue involved. Her hands were roaming as were mine. We went like that for a few minutes.

Would she? I moved my hands down to her hips and stepped forward so her back was pressed to the wall. Jeri moaned and kept moving her hands so I pressed my whole body against hers. I wanted her to feel how much she excited me.

She broke off the kiss and put her hands flat on my chest. She lowered her head.

"I can't." She was trying to control her breathing.

"I have a condom."

She gently pushed me back enough to free herself. "No. You don't understand." Her voice was very quiet and her eyes were downcast. She grabbed her bag and went into the bathroom. I heard the door lock engage.

# Chapter Seven

I finally heard the shower turn off. I hoped Jeri had left me some hot water because that goop she put on my face was starting to itch and burn. I'd tried to wash it off in the kitchenette sink but it didn't really do any good, the water had just smeared it around more. I needed soap and a wash cloth.

Jeri came out dressed and a towel wrapped around her head. I took up the clothes I'd dug out and closed myself into the bathroom, avoiding looking at her. How embarrassing. I'd totally misread the situation. Or had she led me on? The last couple of days had been a confusing mess. I felt like I'd finally cracked. What was that term? Shared psychosis? Where someone gets infected with someone else's delusion? Three days ago, everything in my world made sense. It was crap, but it made sense. Now I had people talking about vampires, people who could turn into crows, magic. I shut off the water and toweled off. I sometimes wished that I could go home. But I didn't know how. Or what I'd do with myself once there.

She was sitting on the bed brushing out her hair and looking over some old looking book. She had a bag of peanuts and a soda from the vending machines. I pulled one of the chairs from the small table and sat down to pull my shoes on.

"There's food over there for you."

I ignored the packages on the kitchenette counter and began putting my things back into the duffle bag. I had to get my head together and I couldn't do it around these nuts. If there was one thing I learned on the streets, it was you didn't stay alive by getting involved with crazy people. Or stay out of trouble, or stay under the radar of the authorities. I was better off on my own. I slung the duffle over by shoulder and opened the outside door.

I walked to the corner and turned back to see Jeri standing in the doorway watching me go. She was too far away to read her expression. I kept walking even though I had no plan on where to go. Dickerson was bound to be looking for me so I didn't feel comfortable going anywhere he would know I frequented. Fortunately, I kept a lot of things to myself where he was involved.

It was almost noon when I finally walked up to the rundown house. I walked around back and found the back door locked just as I thought it would be. I jimmied the lock and closed the door softly behind me and looked around. There were a few dirty dishes in the sink and some clutter about but it wasn't too bad. There was even food in the fridge that I helped myself to.

A ratcheting sound in the doorway to the rest of the house made me pop my head up to look over the door of the fridge. I was looking into the barrel of a shotgun held by a tired looking woman in a bathrobe: Tami. She exhaled through her nose and relaxed enough to lower the gun. I swallowed my bite of pizza, heart hammering in my chest.

"By all means, Mark, help yourself." She flipped the safety and leaned the gun against the wall. She crossed to the counter by the sink and turned on the coffee pot.

I took the pizza box out and went to the table. She put a mug of coffee on the table and sat across from me, holding her own cup.

"I got interrupted. I didn't get his account number but I know the bank." Damn Dickerson ambushing me in the coffee shop.

She smiled. "That's enough. I can get all the back child support through the court with that. How much do I owe you?"

I told her and she winced.

"Too much?"

She shook her head. "I just don't have it right now." She left the room and came back with her purse and rummaged around in it. "I can give you thirty-eight now and when I get the rest, I'll call you." She held out a wad of bills.

I wiped my hand on my jeans and took the bills, stuffing them into my pocket uncounted. I knew I could trust her. Even if I couldn't, what could I do? "I could knock some off if you let me crash on your couch for a few days."

"Oh no. I think my ex is having the house watched. I don't need him making out that I'm not being a good mother with men sleeping over. I'll get you the money when I get the back support."

I didn't know if I should be disappointed or relieved. I liked her but her kids were on summer break still and they'd drive me up the wall after a couple of days. Speaking of the kids.... I looked around.

"They're having a sleep-over at my Mom's. I had the late shift last night." She bit into a slice of cold pizza.

I know what you're thinking. What a dope I must be going around helping people. Well believe me, I don't try to make a habit of it. Too often it comes back to bite you in the ass. But this situation pissed me off. Maybe I'm too sensitive about this kind of thing but you don't abandon your kids. And if I could get something I needed in return... well. Too bad I had to wait for it this time when I needed help myself.

*

I spend the night in an abandoned house. No running water and electric. But it had a roof and I wasn't out in the open. I didn't know if anyone else had disappeared but it wasn't going to be me if I could help it. I was at a loss. I still couldn't get Carrie on the phone to prove to Dickerson that I hadn't done anything to her. What scared me most wasn't even that. What if they decided that if I did something to Carrie then I must have something to do with all the disappearances? I didn't even want to think of the prison time for all that. I had to come up with a plan.

I didn't have much to work with. I had an old laptop from the duffel bag and another burner phone. A little cash. No car and no real place to stay. Maybe being on the move would be a good thing if Dickerson was looking for me but I needed to secure some place to go to ground if need be. It had been stupid to think to involve Tami and her kids. And I still needed the basics like food. I had some energy bars and water in my bag but that wouldn't last too long.

What a freakin' mess my life was. Times like this I really wished I could go home. But I'm not a kid anymore and they couldn't fix my problems for me. Hell, my adoptive father would probably turn me in and then where would I be?

Did I come up with a brilliant plan? I'm ashamed to say I stayed in the abandoned house most of the day feeling sorry for myself and trying to ignore the weirdness of the last few days. I didn't want to think too long on that. I was a rational person, or at least I liked to think I was. Maybe I should leave town. Maybe I should turn myself in. Hell, at least in jail I'd have a shower and food. Of course that wasn't an option. I ate the energy bars from the duffle bag, saving the canned ravioli until I could get a can opener. I slept, or tried to, in the heat.

I finally gave up well after dark. I needed a shower and I was well past a five o'clock shadow. I brushed the grime off me from the dirty floor as best I could but I was sure I was starting to look like hell. The air was still humid but after sweating all day I almost felt chill in the slight breeze. I took a bus across town. I sat in the back and looked out the window. I kept catching the driver's face in the mirror that covered the interior of the bus but I think he was watching the guy that was over dressed for the weather and was arguing with himself in a loud voice. I smiled to myself because I guess the driver didn't see the bluetooth earpiece. At least everyone was less likely to remember me.

I paid $200 in cash for another car. At that price I wasn't going to get a valid registration. I pocketed the key and left the car a few blocks over from where I picked it up. I walked around looking at all the vehicles. I knelt down and used my pocketknife to take the plates off a similar car that was parked out of the way, not easily visible from the street. I was busy working on a stripped screw and wasn't paying close enough attention.

There was a sharp pain on the side of my head and I realized I was staring up at the busted street lamp because I was lying on the ground. A dark figure was standing over me and it raised something in its hands, as it was about to take another swipe at me. I vaguely realized I should move or do something but I was finding it hard to think clearly. The baseball bat started a downward arc toward my head again when another figure came out of the dark and tackled the first. They were grappling on the ground so I rolled over and tried to get to my hands and knees. Everything was spinning around me and it was hard to stay upright. I managed to wretch the license plate off the car and half crawled, half staggered out of the alleyway. I didn't dare look back. I forced myself to walk as upright as I could manage as I staggered back to my car. No one followed me that I could see.

I threw the plate into the passenger seat and the car sputtered to life. I drove around waiting until my head cleared. This late at night there wasn't any traffic and I finally found a place to park for the rest of the night. I didn't mean to fall asleep. I mean, you aren't supposed to sleep after getting hit in the head, are you? But I woke up sweating in the hot car. The sun was beating through the untinted windows and it was like an oven. I turned over the engine and hit the AC button. There was a clunking from under the dashboard and no air came out of the vents. I shut it down and opened the doors, hoping to catch a breeze. I drank a bottled water that was hot from being in the closed up car and choked down an energy bar. I was killing time.

Go or stay? It felt like running away if I left town. But I was good at that wasn't I? If I left, I'd have to call in some favors before I left. I needed more money, for one thing. I couldn't wait around for Tami to pay me. And if the cops were after me, the less contact with her I had would only work in her favor: no sense dragging her and her kids into my problems. I started to make a mental list of people to hit up. I looked into the rearview mirror at the sound of running footsteps. A woman jumped into the passenger seat, slammed the door and started yelling.

"GO GO GO!"

I stared at Jeri with my mouth hanging open.

"START THE CAR AND GO BEFORE THEY CATCH UP!" She was waving her arms around and, clearly, she was panicking.

A boom somewhere behind the car broke through my shock and I cranked the engine over and hit the accelerator. Jeri kept looking behind us as I drove. I took as many turns as I could safely.

"What's going on?"

Jeri didn't answer, she just kept muttering to herself and watching every which way. Without any warning she reached over and pulled out a few strands of my hair.

"Hey, come on."

"Just keep driving!" She started muttering to herself again, pushing in the cigarette lighter. When it popped out, she grabbed it and pulled what looked like some sort of herb out of her pocket and dropped it onto the glowing surface along with my hair. The smell of burning grass and hair filled the car. Jeri put the lighter back and slumped in her seat. "Let's go find another motel."

I hit the steering wheel with the palm of my hand. "WHAT is going on?"

"I just saved your life, asshole."

"From who? And how did you find me?"

Jeri rounded on me. "With this." She held up some sort of amulet. "I can't believe how stupid you are acting. You know they're after us and you leave things lying around that can be used to find you. To hurt you."

"Us? There is no us. You made that clear yesterday."

"Oh for the Goddess's sake." She threw up her hands.

I pulled into a parking lot and grabbed the license plate and my screwdriver and got out of the car. I'd been lucky not to get pulled over so far, driving around without plates on the car. Jeri got out of the car and stalked into the restaurant. I almost took off without her. Instead I rummaged through the trunk. Something smelled bad but I was relieved that there wasn't a body back there. Did I mention how much I paid for this car? I could at least drop Jeri back to the motel since she didn't have a ride. But I had to get on things today if I was going to leave town tonight. It was too late to leave her anyway as she was getting back in the car holding a bag of food.

I walked over to the driver's side and got in. "How much money do you have?"

Jeri stopped eating. "Why?"

"Never mind." I put the car in gear and pulled out of the parking lot. "You want to pick up your stuff at the motel?"

"There's nothing to pick up."

We drove in silence for a few minutes. "So where do you want me to drop you off?"

Jeri looked at me in surprise. "We need to stay together. I don't think you'll survive without me."

"Really? Survive what? I've about had it with all this crazy shit."

She was quiet for a bit. Then she spoke while looking out the passenger window. "You honestly don't know, do you?"

"Know what?" Now I was getting really pissed. "All I've had the last couple of days is a bunch of people jerking me around. I don't know what kind of crazy club or whatever you belong to, maybe the Society for Creative Con Games, but I'm done."

My life was shit but at least a few days ago it was mine and only mine. Now the cops were looking for me, I could end up in prison for something I had nothing to do with and that's if someone didn't kill me before the cops got to me. Jeri had gone back to eating. She had about a dozen burgers and she ate the meat, rewrapped the bun before putting it back in the bag and taking out another. She noticed me watching and handed me one of the untouched burgers. I ate it because I wasn't sure what else to say. Because I hadn't eaten anything but a cardboard-like energy bar since last night and was hungry. Because maybe I really didn't want her to go? Not deep down, anyway. She handed me another when I finished the first.

I wasn't driving with any particular destination in mind. I guess I was vaguely headed to the part of town where I could call in some of those favors. But I drove closer to the riverfront where I pulled over on the shoulder and got out. Ahead were barriers and warning signs. The road leading to the bridge was under water. Jeri got out and stood next to me.

"There's no way across for a hundred miles in either direction."

I put my hand on the hood of the car and fought to breathe. I couldn't go look for Carrie if I couldn't get across the river. The farther I had to go, the more money I'd need as this piece of crap I bought didn't get good mileage. I really didn't want to do any more credit card fraud. I only used that kind of thing for real desperate circumstances and to people who really deserved it, like Tami's ex. But too much, too often would get you caught. But if I couldn't prove to Dickerson that Carrie was alive and well....

I looked over at Jeri. She was looking at me with a mixture of disbelief and pity.

"What?"

"You really don't know, do you?" Her voice was soft.

"Don't know what? That I'm totally fucked?" Even though my voice was raised she didn't flinch. "You really don't want to be hanging around me. You know the cops are after me. They somehow got the idea I'm responsible for all those disappearances."

"But you're not."

"How do you know?" I took a couple steps toward her. "Maybe I am. Maybe you should be afraid of me!"

She just stood there, her arms loosely by her side, looking completely calm. "No. But together we can maybe figure out who or what's behind it."

I sagged and leaned against the back of the car. "Why does everyone think I know something?" I stood up. "And another thing. I can take care of myself, you know."

"I know."

In the distance, the sky was darkening and there was thunder.

I sighed. "Just what we need. More rain."

"Let's find somewhere to talk." We got back in the car and drove off.

# Chapter Eight

"I think you're running away."

"No. I'm trying to find the one person that can tell the cops I'm innocent."

"You said yourself that she left the shelter. How are we supposed to find her?"

Gone. That's what the lady at the shelter had told me. Carrie had finally returned late last night only to gather her things and leave. They gave her my message and she still hadn't called me.

"What about how you found me? Can't you track her down like that?"

Jeri sighed. "I would need something of hers like hair or fingernails. And it has to be fairly fresh."

The only chance I had of that was in my car. The one in impound. That the tech guys had probably vacuumed out looking for evidence. I hoped they hadn't found the hidey-hole.

"And we'd have to be within a couple miles of where she physically is. Something like that doesn't work over really long distances. And it doesn't get past flowing water. And she has to be alive."

"We could try. Get to the town and see if she left anything at the shelter."

"That's a long shot. How many people have passed through that place and how would we know what's hers? And how are we supposed to get across the river? There's flooding for miles. It would take us days to drive and it could be dangerous."

"You don't want to go."

"No, I don't. I think it's great you helped her out but she obviously doesn't want to be found. Even if we find her there's no way to know that she'll help you out. She may be too scared to."

We'd been having the same argument for hours. Problem was, I thought she was right but I didn't have a clue where to start looking for answers here in the city. Another man had gone missing. Would Dickerson really think I'd be so stupid to keep taking people right after getting questioned? He was a smart cop but he might be under so much pressure to make an arrest I could be an easy scapegoat. I was tempted to tell him about Carrie's new identity and give him the phone number. Maybe they wouldn't pursue her further if they knew she'd made it to the shelter? Who was I kidding? She was a runaway minor. I could only hope she was all right.

"I'm tired. Let's get some sleep and we'll start in the morning."

We were in another dive motel. Jeri had moved her things before the coven had come after her. They had tracked her because of my stupidity. That's another thing we'd argued about. I spread a blanket on the chair and tried to beat the anemic pillow into some sort of fluffiness. How was I to know not to leave hair in the shower drain? At least she knew a spell to block them from tracking us through me. I wasn't sure if I should believe in magic. But I had to believe in Jeri. She was the only person I had at the moment. The only one that believed in me.

The air conditioner rattled away but it was still warm in the room. Jeri had long since fallen asleep and I still lay there trying to sleep with too many things running through my head. I gave up trying to sleep in the chair and looked over at the bed. It was a double and she was sleeping all the way over on one side. Both of us had all our clothes still on. She wouldn't get the wrong idea, right? I needed to get some rest. I crept over and carefully lay down on the other side with my back to her.

*

The guy at the ATM turned and gave me a dirty look. Hey, I was standing way over and I couldn't see what buttons he was pushing. Jeri was looking around and she looked puzzled. I folded the paper with the news stories on the disappearances. The guy gave one last glance at us and took his card and money and left.

"This is where they said it happened."

"I'm not picking anything up."

I stuffed the papers into my pocket. I was nervous being out on the street during the day. I wasn't so much worried about Jeri's old friends as I was the cops. And here I was where someone had last been seen; It wasn't lost on me that this was the ATM Carrie had used before I took her to the bus station. I was the last to be seen with her. I was nervous about being on the street. We didn't have any of that goop and anyone looking for us might be able to recognize us. Jeri needed to get the ingredients to make more; we'd used the last of it at the mall. Jeri held up a pair of sunglasses from the top of the ATM machine.

There was a cop on the corner across the street. He wasn't yet looking our way but I wanted to get out of there before he noticed us. Jeri was just standing there holding her hand over the sunglasses. She jumped when I grabbed her arm and pulled her down the sidewalk.

*

I turned on the TV while Jeri unbagged the food we'd brought back to the motel. We were trying not to do anything that would bring the cops down on us so we bought some food at a discount grocery store and got back here quickly so we wouldn't be out on the street too long. Without a ready source of cash, we also had to economize. We sat on the bed, dividing the food between us as the news came on. Jeri paused with a handful of chips halfway to her mouth, staring at the TV. My own mouth fell open as she jumped up to turn up the volume. A picture of a smiling Jeri filled the screen as a newscaster narrated the story of a missing woman, viciously dragged from her home, her boyfriend beaten and left unconscious. A sketch of the suspect they next showed looked exactly like me.

*

I had to resist the urge to loosen the tie I was wearing. Jeri was dressed up, too. And I gotta tell you it was hard to think about what we were about to do. Apparently that disguise stuff took a few days to mature so we had to rely on more mundane methods of disguise. I'd had a few days growth on my facial hair and we'd trimmed it down to a goatee and Jeri had cut my hair. It still felt weird having it so short, so short that there almost wasn't enough left to comb. My eyes itched and felt dry. The blue-tinted contact lenses would take some getting used to.

Jeri had cut her hair, too, and the way it framed her face made her look very different. Makeup had helped to change the shape of some of her features.

"His familiar? He actually called me his familiar?" Jeri slapped the steering wheel.

Jeri turned her head to glare at me. Man, she was fuming. She'd been ranting for at least fifteen minutes and I had to smile to myself. I didn't think I had anything to worry about but anything I could help heap on Brad. Ya' know? Especially after what she'd told me earlier.

We drove in silence for a while through a posh part of town. I was beginning to feel more apprehensive the closer we got to our destination.

"Do you really think this is necessary? Can't we just find or buy what we need?" Like we had any money left. Convincing fake ID's to match our new looks didn't come cheap. A computer check would give us away but someone just looking at ID's to say pass us through a checkpoint out of the city, we'd probably be good.

Jeri pulled into a parking spot at the curb and sighed. There were ritzy townhouses all along the street. Nice trees and landscaping. Expensive cars dotted driveways. A light mist was falling, the heavy rain from earlier easing up finally.

"The house will be empty?"

"It always is on a Tuesday night."

*

Jeri and I sat stunned on the bed in the motel room.

"That bastard."

Our pictures were off the screen and now the newscaster was going on about the ongoing flood problem and where volunteers were needed for sandbagging. I got up and switched off the TV.

Jeri jumped up off the bed and started pacing. "That blood-thirsty asshole." She picked up a pillow and threw it across the room. She turned to me, her face pale.

"Brad?"

Jeri deflated and sat on the corner of the bed. "Sort of." She hung her head and put her hands to her face.

"Hey." I moved closer and put my hand on her arm. I half expected her to pull away but she didn't.

She put her hands in her lap. "They want to kill you, you know."

Now why didn't that surprise me? Those people in the old graveyard, too. They should all form a line. "Because you left with me?"

"Well, that, too. But remember out at the farmhouse?"

I nodded. There was that overwhelming desire to go to it. "You said you were trying to summon someone that could stop the disappearances."

"We were summoning a sacrifice." She wouldn't look at me.

I remembered Brad accusing Jeri of being squeamish. A person should be squeamish about murder, damn it.

I had to ask the question. "Why did you need someone to sacrifice?"

Jeri turned to me, shaking her head. "We've done that spell before to find out what to sacrifice. You don't understand. It's never revealed a person before." She looked at me with a pleading look.

I shifted and sat a few more inches away from her. "So animal sacrifice is okay?"

"No. Usually someone will have a vision of an object or something. If they were expecting a living being, a person, they didn't tell me." She put her head back into her hands.

"That still doesn't tell me why."

Jeri took her hands away from her face but didn't raise her head. "It was for the second half of a spell. The first part went wrong and ... something came through."

"When?"

"When what?"

"When did you do the first spell?"

"A few hours before the first disappearance."

*

Jeri turned off the windshield wipers. "I'm going to pull around back so we can go in the back door."

"Wouldn't it be less suspicious to go in the front? Act like we belong?"

"It's normal for the coven to use the back door."

We pulled away from the curb and drove another block before turning down an alleyway. The air had cooled off after sunset and the rain and a few wisps of fog were gathering around the streetlamp illuminating the back of the house.

I pulled the lock pick from my pocket and knelt by the door. Jeri punched a series of numbers into a keypad on the wall and the door clicked before I even had a chance to start. So much for showing off for her.

"I disarmed the alarm system." She pushed the door open and we crept inside.

*

I stood up from the bed and started pacing. Maybe it wasn't Viktor that was responsible after all. But.

"What do you mean 'something' came through."

"I think I'm the only one that saw it. It was small and dark and looked like a short deformed human. But I only could see it out of the corner of my eye. And just when I realized I was seeing something it was gone."

"So you really didn't get a good look?"

"Not really. No. When I looked straight at it I couldn't see anything at all. It was only visible in my peripheral vision."

So it wasn't something that could be arrested. I'd still work on blaming Viktor for something, if for nothing else, to protect Carrie and anyone else he came across. I still wasn't sure I believed the whole vampire thing. Whatever he was, he was dangerous.

"And you and your friends are now trying to get rid of it."

"They think it's something else."

"What the hell were you all trying to do in the first place?"

*

At least Jeri knew where everything was in the house. There was a small light on over the stove, revealing expensive appliances and marble counter tops. The house was quiet.

If they hadn't moved it, we should be able to find what we came for and get out quick. I kept a watch at the back door.

*

Jeri crumbled up a food wrapper and I put the bag of trash by the door to take outside to the motel dumpster later.

"You want to know what we were trying to do?" She was smirking. "It was all about Brad. It's always about Brad."

"I already got you don't like the guy."

She moved around to face more toward me. "Brad has always been an embarrassment to his mother. He's never had much power and most of what he has is because of that cat, his familiar."

"Is that why you wanted me to chase it off?"

"Yeah. The farther away he is from it, the harder it is for him to channel power."

"So the spell was to give him more power?"

"Josephine got tired of waiting for me to fall in love with the idiot and she was getting desperate."

"What has that got to do..."

"Oh, yeah. There was a different ritual they wanted to perform but it involved me willingly giving my virginity to Brad." She blushed and looked away. "I never really liked him in the first place but Josephine had us move in together like that would make me like him more. And then I found out it wasn't just to give Brad power because, you see, the power had to come from somewhere."

"You?"

She nodded her head. "And I had to do the ritual willingly and it didn't matter if I knew what I would be giving up or not. They were hoping I was too stupid to figure it out before it was too late."

I wondered if she was still a virgin. And if that had anything to do with why she didn't want to do anything with me. Seemed like the best way to derail their plans would be for her to find someone to help her out there, but then that probably was just me being hopeful.

*

Jeri came back into the kitchen carrying a weighed down, cloth shopping bag. "Let's go."

I looked out the window in the door before pulling it open. The alleyway was still empty except for the car we came in. The mist around the streetlamp was getting thicker. We only had to make it to the car and we were out of there.

Jeri grabbed my hand and we tried to walk casually down the alleyway. There didn't seem to be anyone around but there were buildings with windows all around and we didn't want anyone to think anything was wrong. We didn't want anyone to remember seeing us because we were acting out of place.

It was quiet back here. We could barely hear the traffic noises in the distance. Even the dripping water sounds were gone. We were just a few steps away from the car when movement at the end of the alley caught my attention.

It was a cat. I pointed it out to Jeri and she froze.

"I can't tell if it's Brad's familiar in this light." Her voice was a whisper but I could hear the tension in it.

The cat wasn't moving, staring at us. Maybe it was someone's pet or a stray. In the dim light we couldn't make out color or markings on its fur.

"Let's get to the car." I urged Jeri on. It didn't take much. We were walking with purpose, still trying to not look like something was wrong because someone might see two people running away from the house they just exited. The cat calmly turned and walked around the corner of the building and I began to relax. We were about ten steps from the driver's door.

As Jeri reached for the door handle, I started around to the passenger side.

I froze, the feeling of an electrical shock holding me in place.

"Brad."

Jeri came around the car as I fell to the ground, stunned. A man I assumed was Brad stepped over me.

The man laughed. "You're letting her drive?"

"Back off. Or do you want your ass kicked again?"

The painful prickling was letting up and I could finally move a little. I pulled myself up using the car's bumper.

"Run, Mark!"

Jeri and Brad were grappling halfway back to the house. I hesitated. I should help her. But then Brad was on the ground, rolling in pain.

"Damn it, Run!"

I was confident that Jeri would catch up with me. I turned and ran toward the alley opening. Jeri had the car keys. She'd get away, get the car, and pick me up. But right before I hit the cross street the alley opened up on, a police car, lights flashing, blocked my path. I turned to try to run but when I turned around there were two more cops with their guns drawn. I stopped and put my hands up. Neither Brad nor Jeri were in sight.

*

And so I found myself back in an interview room, in handcuffs. I'd been alone for a while now and I knew they were letting me stew. I put my arms out in front of me on the table and put my head down. I really wanted to go to sleep; being on the run was exhausting. And where had Jeri gone? First she was there and then she wasn't. At least she got away. At least I hoped she got away. If Brad had gotten a hold of her I doubt he'd let the cops know where she was. Except maybe to blame me for anything bad that he then did to her. I had to trust that she could take care of herself and was still working on solving the disappearances.

The door opened and I looked up. Dickerson and another plain-clothes cop I didn't recognize came in, carrying folders and a tablet computer. It wasn't my laptop and I started to feel at least some hope that they hadn't found the hidey-hole in my car. The two cops sat down across from me and began setting up the tablet and an audio recorder. Somehow I didn't think that they'd let me leave if I tried to go.

"I want a lawyer." I said before they could even start in on me.

*

They were keeping the jail too cold. I'd finally gotten a shower and I thought I was having a reaction to the crappy soap because I was breaking out in a rash. I know, I know. A rash compared to all my other problems. Wah.

Home invasion. Assault. Kidnapping. Murder.

Of course my fingerprints were in the apartment. The surveillance pictures of me with Jeri were damning, showing me pulling her through a crowd near one of the disappearances. And with all that Brad was blathering about coupled with his injuries; He was bruised up and had a concussion and their apartment was trashed. And my public defender was overwhelmed with cases. He just nodded while looking past me when I said I didn't do it and that Jeri was alive somewhere. The legal pad in front of him for notes was practically blank. Things were not looking good. He was even late coming to the hearing.

I felt bad about feeling happy about it, but another man had gone missing while I was in custody so I was off the hook for the disappearances. Unfortunately, three days in, I had no way to disprove what Brad was claiming. And no sign of Jeri. I wondered who the body really was because Jeri was okay. She had to be and not just because of the indictments against me. At least the +serious nature of the charges+ meant the others left me alone. All I had to do was glare at people and they backed off. And at some point someone was bound to see how tough I really was. I could handle myself but I didn't want to get into any more trouble than I was already in. I really didn't want to be the guy everyone tried to beat up to prove himself, either.

It also put my bail way beyond what I could hope to pay so I was stuck. I didn't know anyone that would, or could, help me out, either. So it was a surprise when I was told I had not just a visitor, but also an attorney that wanted to represent me. I didn't recognize the name Michael Ashe but I thought I should check him out. Anything would be better than the one I had. The guard left me in the room and I sat at the table, my handcuffs already chaffing. I mean, sheesh, I'm going to attack the lawyer that was here to help me?

"Oh, hell no." I said when I saw who came through the door. He looked different in a suit and tie but this was the man who claimed to be my biological father. He grinned at me and sat down across the table.

He opened a folder and pulled out some documents. He looked up from reading, "You are in some serious trouble."

"Really? A lawyer? You could have just come for a visit." The jail would have turned him away because I didn't have anyone on my visitors' list.

"We all have to make a living." He slid some papers toward me.

I leaned back in the chair and put my hands in my lap. Damn the handcuffs.

"Did you do it?"

"I don't trust you."

He gestured at the papers. "Sign this and anything you tell me is protected by Attorney/Client Privilege."

The air conditioning clicked on and the cold stream of air made me shiver. I wasn't feeling well and the itching was intensifying. I decided to call the guard and go back but when I stood up a wave of dizziness made me sit back down. Ashe came around the table and looked at me closely then went to the door and called the guard. I put my head on the table to try and get the room to stop spinning.

"This man is ill. Why hasn't he seen a doctor?"

There was a minor uproar while the guards looked me over and then whispered about what they should do. The idea that I might be contagious made the decision for them and I was shackled hand and foot and led out to a waiting van. Even in the heat outside I felt cold. The guard in the front passenger seat kept looking back at me and I could hear him talking to the female guard driving. He looked back at me.

"Hey, ya' know, he's not looking so good."

There was a loud buzz and he stiffened before slumping over in his seat. The female cop reholstered her taser and kept driving. Oh, god, I thought. I pulled at the handcuffs but they were solid and the chain through the belt at my waist limited my movements, weak and uncoordinated as they were becoming thanks to the fever. A few minutes later we pulled into an alley. The female cop got out and came around to the side door next to me and opened it. I was ready to kick her and try to get away when the crazy lawyer came up behind her. Figures he was the type of lawyer to follow people to the hospital.

"Witch."

"Ash-ee-she-shay"

"What did you do to him?"

"Just a pox. Worked pretty well, huh?" She stepped toward him and started moving her hands in a rhythm. "I always wondered how effective it would be on your kind."

Ashe stepped back. Maybe I could slip away while they were distracted with each other. I wasn't sure what I'd do with the shackles and cuffs but I thought it was in the best interest of my health to get away; I could worry about other things when I was somewhere safe. I finally separated the seat belt and stumbled out of the van and fell to the ground with a thud. They both turned toward me but the female cop moved first. When she put her hand on my arm her face melted, taking on new contours, and became Jeri dressed in a uniform that looked like it came from a costume shop. I blacked out. When I came to they must have come to an understanding somehow because Jeri had her hands under my arms and was trying to hoist me up.

"Help me get him into the car."

"Where are you taking him?"

"Somewhere safe."

They put me in the back seat of the beater car I'd bought. I was in and out of consciousness for the ride and I finally woke up on a mattress on the floor in a dark room. A candle was burning a little ways over and Jeri was kneeling over me, muttering. She dabbed something that smelled herby on my forehead with her thumb. I still felt awful and like I'd never be warm again. The itching was terrible but I lacked the energy to try to scratch. Jeri finished and backed off, sitting on the corner of the mattress cross-legged watching me.

I tried to ask for water but it came out as a croaky moan. If anything, I was feeling worse. What had Jeri meant when she said it was a pox? Seemed kind of a harsh thing to do to me after all the help I'd tried to give her. And why wasn't I at the hospital. I never felt sicker in my life and was sure that I needed a doctor, not whatever it was that Jeri had found in the spice section of a grocery store. Antibiotics or an antiviral or something. I wondered how long she'd let me lay here before getting me some help. A tingling had started deep in my chest and was expanding outward toward my hands and feet until the torment of the itching was nothing.

I was feeling more and more agitated when a wash of heat came over me. I closed my eyes and moaned. I felt like I was on fire and the only way to quiet the pain in my muscles was to keep moving around. I felt a cool cloth pressed to my head but even what should have been relief was agony and I pushed Jeri away. I don't know how long I thrashed around but finally I wasn't feeling as hot. I was soaked with sweat as was the mattress I was laying on. This time when Jeri swabbed my forehead, I let her. I was drained and feeling almost lifeless. Jeri held a bottle of water to my lips and I drank, spilling much of it but I didn't care. Finally, I slept.

*

When I woke up, the room was dark except for the light leaking around a doorframe across the way. I lay there trying to remember the dream I was having when I woke up. Something about flying. And trees. But you know how it is. You can never really remember your dreams for more than a minute after you wake up. It took me a few minutes to fully realize the situation I was in. Jeri was yelling upstairs. I tried to get up and go to her but I was so weak.

I was dizzy and couldn't stand so I half crawled, half scooted over to the door. By this time another voice that I thought belonged to Ashe was yelling something back at Jeri. I was out of breath and had to rest because I felt like I was going to pass out.

"You promised he'd be better by now."

"His fever broke yesterday. He just needs to rest."

"Rest? We're running out of time. He needs to be on his feet now."

There was a pause before Jeri spoke again. "What are you doing?"

"No. What are you going to do?"

I reached up to the doorknob and turned it. It was indeed Ashe. And he had Jeri by the throat with one hand. But her hand was on his arm and he wasn't moving. Slowly, he let go of Jeri and fell to the floor. Jeri stepped back, and without taking her eyes of Ashe, she held up her hand to tell me to hold back. Which was a good thing, as I had no strength to help her even if I wanted to.

Ashe moaned and gradually sat up. He saw me half sitting in the doorframe and he looked over at Jeri.

"So he is getting better." He stood up and crossed the room to the front door. "Just so you know. I took care of the vampire." He opened the door and walked out into the night.

# Chapter Nine

Oh, hell. I don't think I'd ever been in so much trouble. Every cop in the city was probably looking for me. At least Jeri had made more of that disguise goop, I thought, as I tried like hell to not scratch my face. I was getting paranoid as we made our way into a crowd of people and hoped no one noticed my face changing if they jostled against me. Jeri plowed on without any kind of hesitation. In spite of the rainy weather and all the disappearances and the flooding that practically had the city isolated as an island, the art festival and carnival was going on as planned. It was crazy, I know, but everyone loves a party. I couldn't help but think of the disaster if one of the levees broke.

This of all things was Jeri's solution. I'd tried to talk her into going to the cops to let them know what had really happened so they would drop the worst of the charges against me. I even told her to tell them I had beaten up Brad, not her. She could say I was defending her after he tried to hit her. But, no. She said she'd already tried to talk to a friend of hers that was a cop and he wouldn't help. He was on Brad's side and she had barely escaped.

I argued that Dickerson would listen but she wouldn't trust anyone in a uniform. At least not until, well, who the hell knew what the hell she was waiting to happen. And all she had to say was "Carrie" to get me to shut up. I'd told her about helping her and she said she believed me but there was still the fact that Carrie never called me back. She could be anywhere. Besides, I couldn't drag her back here after all the trouble we'd gone through for her to have a clean start. I'd feel too guilty if anything happened to her for trying to leave.

Dickerson wouldn't trust she was alive and well without her standing in front of him anyway. And he'd probably hand her right over to that scary bastard Viktor because she was, after all, a minor. I wondered what Ashe had meant about having taken care of the vampire. Did that mean that Viktor was no longer in the city? Was he even still alive? Would that be another thing I'd be blamed for? And if Viktor really was gone, where would Carrie go? Another scary 'relative' or foster care?

I finally caught up to Jeri and rolled my eyes. She was buying food. Again. I couldn't believe how much she ate for someone so skinny. I hung back at the edge of the crowd pretending to look at one of the carnival rides. I hoped Jeri knew what she was doing. The person, or witch, she was meeting could have set another trap like Peter had done. I wasn't sure what I could do if it came to their kind of fight but I had insisted on coming along. I couldn't sit in a motel room waiting until she came back to find out if she was okay. I just couldn't.

I moved over to keep Jeri in sight. We were using the disguise goop again and the only reason I could recognize her was she had given me the wooden disk that she had planted on Gordo to expose what was under enchantments. I didn't know to what extent it would work but I could tell it was Jeri at least. She looked kind of weird, though. I could see both how she normally looked and what the disguise stuff made her appear to everyone else. There was also a greenish haze around her. Everyone and everything else looked normal to me.

I took a long drink from the cup I was holding. It was another hot evening and I was still not feeling quite back to normal after running the fever. Another reason I probably shouldn't even be out here but whatever. Kids were screaming on the carnival rides that were between the games and food booths and the mall. Yeah. We were back at the mall. The usual place this thing was held was too close to the levee and this was the biggest open space available. The arts part of the fair was indoors in the empty stores.

An overhead light flickered to life in the dying light. I looked around for anyone that might cause us trouble and focused on the trashcans across the way. A crow had landed on some of the overflow and was picking through it looking for anything tasty. It seemed to be ignoring everyone around but I couldn't help but wonder. It found a piece of funnel cake and flew off with it in its beak. Just a regular bird then.

Jeri had described the girl she was trying to meet here but I didn't see her. Jeri needed her help to perform some ritual or other to get rid of what was responsible for all the disappearances. She had managed to get away from Brad just as the cops showed up and she had kept the items we'd stolen from the head of the coven; a silver dagger and a plain stone bowl that was stained with what ominously looked like blood. Jeri had hesitated when I asked about that. Herbs and minerals, my ass. No wonder she wanted away from these people.

I jumped when a man stepped in front of me. He had a stack of flyers and made to hand me one. Someone in the crowd jostled him and he had to step toward me and brushed against me. He gasped and I pulled back, breaking the contact.

"Are you all right?"

The man's lips were moving but no sound was coming out. He must have had enough contact to see what I really looked like. I looked down at the flyer in my hand. There was that picture of Jeri from the news and an old mug shot of me. Great.

The man shook his head and turned and walked off. He walked a ways before he started handing out the flyers again. I had to look carefully at the crowd to find Jeri again. There she was, talking to the girl she had described. Damned distractions. I decided doing something would keep random people from coming up to me and possibly touching me. The nearest booth was a ring toss game. I set the money on the counter for a few tries and positioned myself so I could watch Jeri out of the corner of my eye and still look like I was playing.

I threw my first try. I missed. Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and stepped back to make sure there wasn't any physical contact but the man that was standing in front of me kept his hand on my shoulder. He grinned and I recognized him from the cemetery. He was the one that kept telling Ashe to kill me. I wasn't sure how he had known it was me.

"Well, well. We're here looking for witches and we find you." He smirked. "And you stink of magic."

I threw his hand off me and he pulled his fist back. I punched him in the Adam's apple. He doubled over, gagging. I turned to take off but another of the men from the cemetery was there and grabbed at me. I turned again and another of them grabbed me by the arms and held them behind my back. He pulled me up and back so that I couldn't quite keep my feet underneath me.

People were moving away from us and I barely noticed the sound of thunder in the distance.

The one I punched stepped up to me, rubbing his throat. "Hold him."

Three against one. I put my chin down to my chest and threw my head back hard. There was a satisfying CRACK and the bastard let go of me. The man who'd held me was bent over holding his face, blood pouring out between his fingers so I probably didn't have to worry too much about him. Two against one.

Thunder. And a light rain had begun to fall. They were getting people off the rides in the distance.

I needed to get away from these two and find Jeri. I moved away from the guy with the broken nose just in case he still had some fight in him. The other two took positions on either side of me, keeping me turning to keep them each in view.

The wind was picking up, rushing in the direction the storm was approaching from. A strange high pitched screech sounded. It seemed to be coming from right above me. I'd heard this sound once before, when I was waiting for Carrie to come back to the car and it had just started raining. I looked up at the lowering clouds, just visible thanks to all the streetlights and the lights from the rides and booths in the mall parking lot.

I saw something as large as a small plane and feathery up there before the clouds roiled back around it, obscuring it from view.

That's when I got tackled. The guy tried to throw me to the pavement. I twisted to keep from being thrown off my feet. We slammed into the ring toss booth, grappling. I was landing more hits than he was but I was still hurting. I grabbed him by the shirt and turned him so the other guy hit him instead of me. The first guy went down. One against one.

I turned to face the last guy. He stood there a minute and then turned and ran off into the crowd. The rain was coming down hard now.

Ya' know what they have at fairs and big public events? Something that I had completely forgotten about? Security, that's what. I looked over my shoulder and saw two uniformed cops were behind me. One ran past me after the last guy.

I knew that wooden disk was working looking at the remaining cop. Just like Jeri, there was a haze surrounding him but his was gray and black. This must be the witch Jeri tried to get help from when I was in jail. There was the loud screech again and the cop/witch smiled at me.

People were screaming louder like the crowd was getting closer. Another flash of lightning lit up the sky and there was a loud groaning of metal bending. The Ferris wheel had started to move again but it didn't look right: it wasn't just turning but was moving toward the game booths, gaining momentum. I decided that the crowd had the right idea and took off running, too. The cop/witch lunged at me but I managed to dodge out of his reach before I was swallowed up by the surging people.

Where the hell was Jeri? I fought my way to the other side of the crowd and ducked between some stalls. The canopy over the stall exploded and I took off again. The cop/witch was parting the crowd and coming for me. The Ferris wheel was rolling down the center of the fair toward the mall, people were screaming. I hoped no one was being crushed. The outer wall of the mall crumbled when the wheel hit it and fell on its side, taking out more of the roof.

Knowing Jeri she was in the worst of the chaos. Hell, she was probably causing most of it. Besides, I needed help with the jackass following me. I really hoped I could lose him before I found Jeri, but if he was throwing friggin' fireballs at me, I figured I couldn't handle him on my own. Unless...

I slipped through a puddle but stayed on my feet. Lights were still flashing on the abandoned rides, barriers were knocked over, and a couple of fires were burning in food and game booths. I found the game booth I was looking for and grabbed one of the prize baseball bats. The fun house was ahead. The rain was letting up and it had been awhile since the last flash of lightning.

The fun house was in a large trailer. I jumped the metal barriers that were there to manage the line for the ride and ran up the steps and tried the door. It was locked. I vaulted over the barriers again and circled the trailer looking for the exit, hoping it would be open. As I rounded a corner I was tackled. I hit the ground hard with my breath knocked out of me.

"Hey, Peter! I got him!" It was Brad.

I tried to roll and get to my feet but the cop/witch kicked me in the stomach.

# Chapter Ten

After what seemed like forever, the van stopped. I heard the back doors open and after they checked my blindfold, I was manhandled out of the vehicle and through a door. I was pushed down some stairs and would have fallen if the person holding me by the arms hadn't had such a tight grip on me. Finally I was forced to my knees onto what felt like concrete. I felt more than heard something flopping onto the floor next to me. Someone grabbed my hands and cut the zip tie that had them bound. Before I could whip off the blindfold and stand there was a crackle- like sound and I slammed into something tingly that threw me back. I almost tripped over Jeri who was still unconscious, lying there looking pale and helpless. Brad and Peter retreated up the stairs. Peter didn't look back but Brad did. A self satisfied look on face.

A few test pokes told me the circle was well cast. There was no way that I could break through it; I would just hurt myself for nothing, so I sat down and pulled Jeri into my lap.

"Jeri?" I smoothed her hair out of her face and kissed her on the forehead. She didn't stir. She was so still I had to check to make sure she was still breathing. At least she was still alive.

I looked around. Everything had a shimmering quality to it, viewed through the circle Peter had cast. We were in some dank basement. There were those little windows near the ceiling but they were covered over with something that only let in a faint light. After the blindfold my eyes were adjusted to the dimness, I could see that there really wasn't all that much to see. In one corner there was a furnace and a water heater. To my left, a set of wooden slat stairs going up. And two metal support poles holding up the floor above. If the basement was the size of the house, then it wasn't a very large place. I would have thought that we'd be taken out to the old farm house but judging by the traffic sounds we were still somewhere in the city.

The cement floor looked like it had been kept scrubbed clean, especially in the middle where we were. I guess you had to have a clean surface for the magic to keep a strong circle.

Every so often the ceiling would creak as someone walked around up there. Other than that and an occasional car it was quiet. I sat there for what seemed like hours. There was a soft light filtering through the windows but it had changed. Maybe it was getting toward morning? I didn't know. Brad had taken my phone and everything out of my pockets so I had no way to tell time. Jeri was beginning to make small movements and I could see her eyes moving behind her closed lids. I can't tell you how relieved that made me. She'd lain so still for so long I was afraid they'd hurt her bad. Like permanently bad. I decided to let her sleep. Who knew what we'd be facing when they finally remembered we were down here and I wanted her to be at her best.

Problem was I was getting really stiff and sore sitting on the concrete, not to mention sore from the fight earlier. And my stomach was beginning to grumble. I heard a car engine as it pulled up close to the house. Car doors slammed as more than a couple of people must have gotten out. Footsteps overhead and voices drifted down to us.

Jeri woke with a start. She sat up and looked around before turning to me. She gave me a grim smile after looking around herself.

"How long have we been here."

"All night, I think."

She stood up and started testing the circle. She was unsteady on her feet.

"Come on. Sit back down before you fall down." I was half up to take her arm but she turned and glared at me. We might not have known each other long but I knew by that look that I'd get nowhere and she would do as she pleased.

Jeri stopped and I heard voices in the house above us. Another couple vehicles had arrived and it sounded like a dozen or more people were now tromping around up there. Once in awhile dust or a cobweb would drift from the ceiling and sizzle out on the circle. Jeri looked afraid, which was saying a lot. She knelt down in front of me and took my hands.

"Listen. Whatever happens..." She looked at me with a sad expression before leaning in and kissing me on the mouth. We were still kissing when someone at the bottom of the stairs cleared his throat.

"How sweet." Brad. He was standing with his feet slightly apart, his hands to his sides slowly clenching and unclenching. Jeri stood up to face him but before either could speak someone called down the stairs.

"Yeah. She's awake." Brad called back.

I stood, too. Jeri took my hand, her palm cool and dry. Mine wasn't, just as my heart was pounding in fear. Jeri took a deep breath and slowly blew it out. She immediately appeared calmer but I could still feel her pulse beating rapidly through her wrist. While Brad was distracted, I had to ask.

"Can you do any magic?"

"No." She whispered back. "We need to buy some time."

If ever there was a weak link, it was Brad. I think Brad realized it, too, so he was always trying to make up for it. Now he wore an arrogant expression on his face and he practically swaggered. It was easy to feel superior when your foes are caged and helpless.

"You're not going to like what we have planned for you." His eyes were on our joined hands. He raised his gaze to Jeri." You picked the wrong side."

"This isn't over." I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face. "Why don't you take down the circle and we'll see who's the better man. Or don't you have the power?"

He stopped smiling. "I have more than you'll ever have."

"Ouch." I rolled my eyes and he glared at me.

He made as if to come toward me but caught himself before he hit the circle.

Jeri squeezed my hand and she laughed. "You never could take a challenge, Brad. Go ahead and touch it. I'm sure it won't hurt much."

"Go ahead and laugh. But after tonight, neither of you will matter any more."

Jeri opened her mouth to say something but it was my turn to squeeze her hand. We stood in silence, a united front. I didn't want to give Brad the satisfaction of asking what he was talking about. Jeri had stopped smiling. She had also tensed up.

Brad barked out a harsh laugh. "Oh man. She didn't tell you did she?" He was shaking his head and chuckling. "Yeah, Jeri. You joined the wrong side." He glanced up at the ceiling at the sound of many people walking toward the stairs. "It was nice knowing you."

Josephine came down the stairs first, followed by a large group of people. 13 people in all spread out around the circle, men and women about equally mixed. One was a girl who looked like she was still in high school and she was nervous looking, her eyes darting around at the others. I recognized her from the fair.

"Lucy." Jeri said this under her breath, a little sad.

Josephine stalked around outside the circle, staring at first Jeri, then me. The corners of her mouth were curved up slightly in a cruel, mocking smile. Jeri was stiff beside me but she met her gaze one for one.

Josephine turned to the others. "Instead of one sacrifice, we have two."

Oh shit. I hadn't had reason to doubt Jeri earlier but to hear it now made it too real. Josephine was still addressing the other witches.

"Tonight our terror ends. We will be avenged for those missing, killed by the Piasa."

The others murmured, sounding angry and excited. What the hell was a Piasa?

Josephine cleared her throat and started to utter something in a language I didn't understand while making complicated hand gestures. Jeri dropped my hand and stepped over so that she was between me and Josephine. A small static-like charge built up around Jeri but it felt feeble and she couldn't sustain it. It wavered, dying out when the circle dropped. It was like the circle had helped to contain the small energy and it burst out as the bubble died.

Before either of us could react we were both paralyzed, held by two of the others. Unlike Brad's spell outside Viktor's house, these held.

"Lucy. The tape."

The girl stepped forward holding a role of duct tape.

She trussed up Jeri's hands in front of her, winding the tape several times around. Then she came over to me. She moved my arms around so that they were together in front of me and held close from wrist to elbow. She only wrapped the tape around a couple of times for me. Next she pulled out two bandanas and folded them into what I assumed were blindfolds but she made Jeri open her mouth and gagged her. It looked like she paused a moment too long as she was tying it on. Jeri's expression didn't change. My turn was next.

Lucy was a few inches shorter than I am so she had to stand on her toes to reach up and get the gag into my mouth. She took her time, acting as if it were difficult to tie when it was so out of reach for her. She pressed herself right up on me and as she did she murmured to me. "You can tear duct tape. I hid the zip ties." My hopes soared as she whispered a few more instructions. If I could get free we might have a chance. "But wait until you're on the rock and we leave." I felt her push something into my pocket. Then Lucy stepped back.

Someone grabbed my arms and the paralysis was lifted. I nearly fell but was held up and pushed along. Jeri and I were taken up the stairs. Outside the air was warm and humid after the cool of being underground. We were loaded into the same van that had brought us there. I was thrown roughly onto the dirty floorboards next to Jeri. She was shaking and wouldn't look at me at first. As the van drove off, I wriggled my way to her and put my head next to hers.

We weren't blindfolded this time but this was a panel van that didn't even have windows in the back doors. So what did it really matter? The only thing I could tell was that we were leaving the city behind but that was mostly the noise and we were driving longer between stops and slowdowns. But based on the light, we must have been going north: The late afternoon sun was coming in on the driver's side. The driver and one passenger were silent. I thought one of them was Brad.

Jeri was calming down and would look at me now and I tried to communicate as best I could that I didn't feel any grudges, whatever happened. If we had any chance at all we needed to work together. We were both working on loosening the duct tape that bound our wrists when the van slowed and took a turn. We were moving slower now and passing shadows suggested we were in a wooded area. Finally we came to a stop. Tires crunched on gravel as a second vehicle pulled up behind us and the doors were pulled open.

Brad and the other man that had driven the van, Peter?, roughly pulled us out of the back, my shirt pulling up and scraping up my back. Peter pushed me along the path with Brad and Jeri following. I looked back and Josephine and Lucy brought up the rear. Lucy, looking scared, was carrying a largish box. We went along an overgrown path for what felt like a mile or more, the trees becoming thicker. I could hear rushing water in the distance and the further we walked, the closer it sounded.

We came at once into a clearing and the raging river was close, too close. It was out of its banks and branches and even small trees were flowing along in the churning center. Across the way were high bluffs topped by trees. Saplings and vines were growing up the sides and the surface was looked layered and crumbling. There was a large flat rock a few feet from the water and Jeri and I were pushed along until we were in the center of it and were forced to our knees and then into a sitting position. I thought of fighting back but Brad pulled a pistol from the back of his waistband and pointed at me, a self satisfied look on his face.

At a gesture from Josephine, Lucy came forward with the box and placed it on the ground in front of me. She briefly looked me in the eye with a look of apology before retreating back to the edge of the rock. Peter pulled out more duct tape and bound our feet together. Then, as if things couldn't get worse, he pulled a fishing vest out of the box. The pockets were filled with something boxy I couldn't see but wires were run to each of the pockets and to a cell phone hooked to one of the loops. Brad put the pistol right to my head as Peter cut the duct tape on my hands and forced me into the vest. He then retaped my hands. Only this time he wrapped it around more times than was probably necessary. How was I supposed to get out of it now?

I have to admit that as I sat there I really thought we were going to die. I mean come on. I was trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey and had a freakin' bomb strapped to me. And Brad had a gun. Lucy had said to wait until they'd all left us alone but I wasn't sure they were going to leave. Three of them stood around at the edge of the rock watching the sky and talking quietly between them. Lucy stood a bit apart with her arms crossed over her front. They all seemed to be waiting for something, some sort of signal. The sun was nearly overhead, midday.

I was paying attention to the group of witches, trying to lip read to know what was going on so at first I didn't notice the thunder in the distance. Jeri tried to talk around the gag in her mouth and motioned with her head to the north east where dark clouds were gathering. If the vest got wet would the explosives be able to go off? My hopes fell when I saw the look of terror on Jeri's face. That's when I heard that high pitched shrieking embedded in the thunder. The shrieking that we had heard when yet another person had gone missing while we were on the run. Whatever this Piasa was, it was coming and it had something to do with all the storms we'd been having.

The witches heard it, too. Brad and Peter both checked guns, making sure they were loaded and as Josephine and Lucy walked back down the trail we followed earlier, the men went into the trees deep enough I could no longer see them, though we could hear them breaking twigs and rustling the undergrowth. Everything went silent but for the approaching thunder.

It had to be now. Even if Brad and Peter were in the woods nearby, I couldn't sit here doing nothing. I had to try and save Jeri. It would be nice if I survived as well. But I wouldn't let anything happen to Jeri if I could help it. I remembered what Lucy had told me. I shifted around so I could put my legs straight out in front of me. I raised my arms, putting my elbows together. I hesitated. I was sure to hit some part of the bomb I was wearing. Would it go off? I blew out my breath and closed my eyes. The thunder was growing closer and rain started pattering on my face. I brought my hands sharply toward my waist, thrusting my elbows apart.

I struck myself in the lower stomach with my left elbow. But the tape had torn! Maybe not all the way through, sure. But it was tearing. I repeated the motion and the parted, taking some of the hair off my arms with it. But my arms were free. Jeri was looking between me and the sky. The wind had picked up, racing toward the dark clouds. Lightning flashed at the edge of the storm. I ripped the gag out of my mouth. Jeri began trying to tear the tape on her wrists the way I had done but she had so many layers of it.

"Hold on. Lucy gave me a knife."

She wasn't looking at me anymore but past me. Her eyes wide in terror. I looked around. It was humongous and terrifying and made all the worse when I realized it was still a long way off. There were four legs and what appeared to be bat-like wings. It let out a huge screech followed by the sound of thunder. I didn't want to believe what I was seeing. I kept hoping to wake up from this nightmare. Another screech and peal of thunder made me move for the knife in my pocket.

I had to lay right down on my back to get my hand into my pocket. The sound of thunder was near continuous. It was right above me now and I was whipped around by the downdraft of its wings and I was staring up into a colorful, feathered belly. I heard a shot. The beast swung around and its long, whippy tail caught Jeri and flung her toward the river. She rolled in the mud and came to a stop just a few feet from the raging water. I had the knife out now but the bird? thing? took off in flight, screeching in rage as it bore down on Peter.

I have to say that Peter, ass though he was, was not a coward. He stood with his feet planted apart and took shot after shot as the Piasa flapped toward him. It did no good. It grasped him in its clawed feet and shot up into the air, over the river.

I fumbled with the knife before I realized it was a switchblade and pressed the button. The blade came out and I was able to cut the tape at my ankles. There was another shot and Peter screamed as he was dropped into the center of the rapids. The Piasa turned in midair and I saw it was aiming at Brad, now. He looked frozen, holding the pistol limp at his side, a dark stain was spreading over the front of his jeans. He dropped the gun and ran into the woods. The rain was pouring down in drenching sheets.

Clutching the knife, I ran to Jeri. She had her hands free and was working the knot of the gag out of her hair when the Piasa came back. The earth shook when it landed a few feet away, clawed feet sinking into the mud. It was at least 30 feet long not even counting the tail which seemed as long as the body with a forked tip. It folded its wings over its back and shook itself like a dog. Water flew but the feathers didn't appear to be saturated. But the face. Oh my God the face. It was covered in the same multicolored feathers as the rest of the body but it was very human looking except for the fangs protruding from the wide mouth. It looked at me with its eerily human eyes. It took a step toward Jeri and pushed her over with one of its antlers. She screamed and I lunged at it with the knife but the feathers were too thick for it to penetrate. It picked her up in its front claws and took off flying toward the cliff face on the other side of the river.

"Jeri!"

I paced up and down the bank trying to think of some way to help her. The Piasa was headed straight for the cliff face. It slowed and seemed to hover for a moment before pushing past some vines and other growth and disappeared from view. A cave? It was a good 100 feet above the river, across the raging river. I screamed in frustration. I didn't see a way I could get over there at all let alone before she was dead. That could already have happened. I fell to my knees in the mud. What could I do? I would give anything to be able to fly. I had a knife and a bomb and I was helpless. I had failed. All I'd wanted to do was get us both out of the woods and back home. Safe. Oh, God.

It was coming back. I saw its head push aside the vines and look at me across the water. It was coming back and I had a knife and a bomb. I was determined that this monster wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else. But first I had to make sure Jeri was ok. And there was only one way to do that. I just hoped that the Piasa would cooperate.

The Piasa jumped off the lip of the cave and spread its wings. It made a lumbering flight back across to me and landed about 10 feet away. I clutched the knife, thumbing the blade release button and forced myself not to run. I noticed it was limping, favoring one of its front legs. Had Peter managed to wound it? I closed the knife and put it back in my pocket so I wouldn't lose it. I fought down the panic as it tramped its way through the thick mud. Standing next to it, I only came to its chin. It snuffled me and its breath was foul, smelling of blood and rotten meat. Would it take me to the cave or kill me here. I had no idea if Jeri were still alive and I might well be dead soon, too.

The Piasa lunged its head at me. It opened its mouth as it lunged and those fangs were fearsome coming at me. The head stopped an inch from my face and its tongue snaked out. I stood my ground, barely daring to breathe, the tongue rough like a cat's running over my face. I tried not to think that it was tasting me, decided whether it should eat me here and now. Its breath made me want to gag. It was almost a relief when it pushed me over and gripped me in its front claws. My stomach fell as it took off in flight.

What if it dropped my in the river like it had done to Peter? And if that happened and Jeri was still alive in the cave? What terrors would she endure before the end? I fought the urge to struggle and stayed as limp as I could. There was a sudden dark as we entered the cave. I expected to hit rock but was surprised to fall onto a pile of sticks and debris. The smell in the cave was overpoweringly that of rotten meat and mold. I could see the entrance because of the light filtering through the overhanging vegetation but my eyes needed time to adjust to the dark cave. I heard the Piasa lumbering further in and guessed it was going toward the right side.

I was afraid to move or call out. I didn't want the Piasa to come back to me but I was afraid that Jeri wouldn't answer. But what if it had gone to her now?

I whispered "Jeri?"

I held my breath. My heart sounded loud in my own ears and the Piasa was making licking noises and breathing heavily. "Mark?"

I closed my eyes and choked back a relieved sob. Her soft voice was coming from the back of the cave but to the left, away from the creature. She sounded a mixture of scared and relieved. My eyes were adjusting to the light and I could make out some vague shapes. There was a mound of sticks and debris in the middle of the cave and I could just make out a Jeri-shaped shadow over the crest of it. The Piasa seemed preoccupied attending to its wounds. And maybe it wasn't hungry? Had it eaten its fill before returning to the cave? I tried not to feel happy that someone else had met their demise instead of us. Anyway, it wasn't paying us any mind.

I cautiously put out a hand and crawled slowly up the pile, pausing with every motion so as not to cause the debris to roll down the sides. I listened at every pause for any change in the Piasa's attention. A thought kept creeping into the back of my mind. Even if we managed to kill this monster, how were we to escape the cave? Maybe the Piasa didn't care what we were doing because it knew we couldn't escape. And how to kill it without doing ourselves in? In this enclosed space, the bomb was likely to kill us as well and I sure didn't think the knife would be enough to finish it off. It had to have taken several of the bullets fired at it by Peter and it didn't seem happy about it but was hardly dying.

Jeri was watching the Piasa and I felt confident that she would tell me if it became too interested in me moving around so I concentrated on getting over to her. I put my hand on what I thought was a knot of wood and my fingers sank into two of the three holes in it. There was something wet and hairy on it. I picked it up and screamed, throwing it across the cave. It was a human skull. I wasn't climbing over wood or sticks or anything mundane like that. I was crawling over a large pile of bones and I could guess that it was mostly human bones given all the disappearances lately. The remnants of rotting flesh still clinging to them accounting for the awful smell. Ok. Ok. I panicked. Wouldn't you? I tried to run over the pile to Jeri and ended up fast crawling, floundering my way, scattering bones everywhere, sliding and falling and thoroughly wallowing in the carnage.

I stopped at Jeri's side, panting more in fear than exertion. The Piasa was staring at me. It gave a snort and stood up. I froze from wiping the goop off my hand onto the floor of the cave.

"Calm down or we're going to die." She whispered to me.

Die? Of course we were going to die. The proof of that was all around us. We were going to end up as more bones on the pile, moldering away. The Piasa took a step toward us. I tried to get myself under control. It growled, the deep sound rumbling through the stone of the cave. We both stayed as still as we could and after a few minutes the Piasa turned around and curled up, laying its head on the base of its tail. It kept its eyes open, still watching us.

"Can you help me with my feet?"

Jeri's ankles were still taped. I took out the knife and cut it for her. The bone pile hiding some of our movements. I wanted to hug her and make sure she was alright but she would have none of it.

"Good. You still have the bomb."

We talked quietly and planned how to kill the Piasa. The sun was now flooding the cave as the rain had cleared with the Piasa no longer in flight. We might not have too much time before it got hungry again and we had to get to work. The Piasa's eyes were closed now and its breathing was slow and steady. A low rumbling filled the cave as it exhaled. Snoring? I'd like to say that I took charge and came up with the plan and kept Jeri calm and that I rescued her. But that wouldn't be fair to her.

Over my shock at the human bone pile, I was able to think clearly. I still wasn't convinced that we wouldn't die but we could keep the Piasa from hurting anyone else. The first problem was how to set off the bomb. We could only hope that no one would call the phone attached to the bomb. A call from Peter was the trigger but anyone could dial it up, whether it was on purpose or a wrong number it didn't matter. And neither of us knew enough about it to safely cut it out of the circuit. Would it explode if we turned off the phone? And how would we set it off when we wanted it to go off? We were afraid to even mess with it to discover the number to call and even if we had that we didn't have our own phones to make the call.

The front of the vest had several buttons and my fingers were shaking too much to try undoing them myself. It didn't help that I couldn't see them all that well through all the wires and crap. Jeri gingerly undid the top one.

"Remember I was carried up here in that things claws and it didn't go off."

Another button slipped through its hole. "It doesn't look like anything is attached to the buttons but I'm still going to be careful." She smiled at me before turning her attention back to the vest.

I wanted to kiss her. The last button undone, she helped me to gently slip my right arm out of the vest. We eased my left arm out and set the vest aside. Now what?

"If we can set it off, do you think it would kill that thing just by being in this enclosed space with the blast?"

Jeri shook her head. "I really don't know. It depends how tough its skin is."

"Peter shot it I don't know how many times." The Piasa was gently snoring, kicking one of its legs as if dreaming. "It's going to be hard to kill."

Jeri looked thoughtful. "You know how you get a dog to take a pill?"

I shook my head. I'd never tried to give a pill to a dog.

"You wrap it in cheese."

I looked around the cave. "Do you think we can find a chunk of something big enough to wrap it in?"

"And will it eat it?

The monster was still dozing as I picked my way around the bone pile, prodding here and there hoping to find some sort of bait that hadn't been human at some point. Jeri was working on the vest with the knife, carefully cutting away as much of the fabric as she could. We didn't want the Piasa to choke and spit it out. The bomb and the bait together had to be small enough to swallow in one gulp. The Piasa had settled down into a dreamless slumber and was still.

Finally, I found it. At least it wasn't human, I thought, as I watched the fat, white maggots crawling over it. And into it. This is what must be causing most of the stench in the cave. I couldn't be absolutely sure but it looked like it had been a cow. There wasn't much left but one of the rear haunches. I waved to Jeri and she folded the knife, putting it into her pocket. She made her way over to me and showed me what was left of the vest-bomb. She'd done a good job considering her tools; there was hardly any fabric left, only what was necessary to keep the components together.

I gave up trying to wave the flies away and I half cut and half ripped a strip of flesh from the haunch and wrapped it carefully around the bomb. The meat was slimy and I kept discovering wriggling maggots squishing under my fingers and the hard slick feel of the beetles feeding. I finally got it into a compact package that didn't readily fall back apart. The whole thing was about the size of a cat. I hoped it wasn't too big. Jeri had backed off and had her back turned. She was gagging. Up till now I'd been holding my breath and had to finally breathe again. I swallowed repeatedly, hoping not to puke.

After placing the putrid bundle as near to the monster as we could, I rubbed my hands with dirt from the cavern floor but they still felt awful and smelled bad. We looked around for a means of escape. Sure, the most important thing was to kill this thing but that didn't mean we wanted to die in the attempt.

"Hey, Mark. Come look at this."

I joined Jeri at the mouth of the cave. There was a thin ledge from the mouth of the cave going up to the bluff above. Maybe we could use the vines and small trees to hang onto so we wouldn't fall as we climbed out? Not only was the water below raging but there were rocky outcrops we might hit on the way down. If we were lucky we'd be knocked unconscious before we drowned. If we fell. I wasn't hopeful but it was the best chance we had and we had to take it. And soon, I thought, as I heard the Piasa stirring, the rumbling respiration becoming irregular as it drifted to wakefulness.

A slight breeze brought some fresh air into the cave. Jeri grabbed me and kissed me.

We broke away from the kiss at a loud snort from the Piasa, Jeri clutching me in fear. The monster's head was up, staring at us. I pulled Jeri toward the mouth of the cave. It was time to go. Now I don't want you to think I put myself before Jeri and went out on that ledge first because I was a coward. There was a very good reason Jeri had to be the last to leave. How was I supposed to know how it would turn out?

The Piasa pulled itself up onto three of its legs, its back leg hanging limp, one of Peter's bullets finally laming the damned thing. But would it be enough to help us escape? It was sniffing around at the debris on the cave floor, nudging this and that. I put one foot on the ledge and slowly put more of my weight on it. A small shower of dirt and pebbles fell from it but it was holding for now. I started inching my way along the narrow path, holding roots and vines and rocks, hoping that none of them would come loose as I was depending on them. When there was enough room, Jeri came out after me but she stopped where she could see into the cave by leaning over a bit, her body against the solid bluff.

I stopped to wait for her.

"What's it doing?"

"Get out of here." She hissed, still watching the cave.

I wasn't going anywhere without her. She could blow the thing then we could climb out together.

Jeri started chanting under her breath. I was so intent on watching her that I didn't notice the single crow circling above the bluff.

Isn't it funny how sometimes time stretches out to ridiculous extremes? You know that only moments have actually passed but you remember everything with such perfect clarity that it seems to take forever for things to unfold. Jeri was chanting. The breeze that had been blowing earlier was stilling and you could hear birds chirping in the distance. An ant was crawling over one of my hands, tickling over the pain from the blood being squeezed out of it by the pressure of clutching a rock so hard my fingers were turning white. I will forever revisit this scene in nightmares.

The Piasa let out a screeching bellow that reverberated through the rock face. Jeri was chanting louder and faster and I could feel the hair on my arms standing on end. I closed my eyes and waited. I felt more than heard it; the sound was so low it heard my eardrums and another tremor ran through the rock face, this time feeling looser, almost liquid in how the rock moved.

And it didn't stop. It was slow at first but the whole front of the bluff was letting go. I felt Jeri grab my arm and I opened my eyes.

"We have to jump." She looked like she was shouting but I could barely hear her over the increasing rumble of the cliff shearing off.

We held hands and jumped out as far as we could with the path giving way beneath us. All I could think about were the rocks below and the rocks that were sure to fall after us. I was so worried about the rocks I forgot to take a breath and hold it. By some miracle we hit the water, going in feet first. It still felt like hitting a solid object and I gasped, taking in water. I started to cough but of course I was under water and couldn't clear my lungs. Worse, I felt Jeri's hand slipped from mine. I tried to hold on. I tried to swim toward her. But the rush of water pulled us apart. I did not want to drown and I didn't want Jeri to, either.

Everything was white, churning water and I couldn't tell anything about direction except that I was being tossed along, small objects hitting me with force. I pushed down the panic and let myself go limp, exhaled as hard as I could and a few bubbles escaped. The current was strong and the bubbles were swept along just like I was but it gave me an idea of which way was up. When my head broke the surface all I could see was water and floating debris and the riverbank sailing by.

I grabbed a floating tree limb and pulled myself up a bit out of the water so I could look around. The log rolled and dunked me back under briefly. It was no use. I couldn't get high enough to see anything below the surface of the water, like I could see through all the crap in the river. Did I mention how quiet it was? You'd think that the river would be roaring but it was mostly quiet. It was eerie. Surreal. I called out her name but there was no answer. Just me floating along in the sunshine.

A sharp pain blossomed on the top of my head. I looked up to see a crow wheeling around to fly back toward me. It came in feet first and grabbed my hair briefly, pulling it before flying off again. Was the damned thing trying to make me drown? I tried to swat it but it was too fast. It kept flying around and coming back for another grab or peck of its beak. Watching for it to come back around I saw it.

I swam hard toward a wad of debris and pulled out everything I could, working my way through the tangled mess to the hand resting on a branch. I dove under and wrapped my arms around Jeri's chest and swam back up. I floated on my back, cradling her upright with her face out of the water. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't responding to me talking to her. I couldn't tell if she was breathing but I didn't think she was. I tried squeezing her but that didn't seem to do any good. There wasn't anything else I could do about it in the water. I was so tired from just trying to keep my own head above water and now I was trying to keep Jeri from being pulled away from me again. I didn't think I could keep it up much longer. At least she wouldn't be alone.

It wasn't painful; the cold water was numbing. I almost couldn't feel my legs moving as I kicked to stay afloat. No matter how hard I kicked, I wasn't getting any closer to the bank. The current was too swift. It was nearly dark. We were also well away from the city with nothing but empty fields on either side of the river now so my hope that someone would spot us was dying fast. The crow had given up and left. My head dunked under and I came up spluttering but my strength was about gone.

Wait. A light flashed overhead. I started yelling in between taking in water and coughing. Hands reached down and pulled Jeri into a boat and then they came for me. I flopped into the bottom of the boat and saw that Jeri was at the other end with someone crouched over her. I tried to go to her but a man in some sort of uniform and life vest pushed me down onto a cushion and got right up in my face.

"Listen to me you fucking asshole. I'll fucking throw your sorry ass back in before I let you swamp this boat so just sit the fuck down and fucking stay there."

I sat gulping air and watching the other someone working over Jeri in the glare of the portable light. I swear to you I wasn't crying and if you say I was I'll come over there and smack you. The guy who yelled at me knelt next to me with a hand on my shoulder, I'm sure so that he could grab me and chuck me overboard if I moved and not to calm me down. Jeri convulsed and a great gout of water came out of her mouth. She started coughing. I put my head down on my knees in relief. I was shivering when the boat bumped onto the bank and I pulled the blanket I don't remember getting closer around me.

There were a couple of cop cars and an ambulance waiting for us and further down the river a helicopter was flying in a search pattern over the water. They laid Jeri out in the grass and two EMTs started looking her over. I tried to stand to go to her. The uniformed guy caught me when my legs gave out.

"Easy there." He signaled to his partner and together they mostly carried me onto the bank. They tucked another blanket over me and put something under my feet to raise them up. I tried to kick the blanket off but my legs just didn't cooperate.

"Come on, man, we're trying to help you." He retucked the blanket and put a mask attached to an air tank over my face.

I turned my head toward where Jeri was. "How is she?" my voice was muffled by the mask.

"If you stay there, I'll go check." He walked away, leaving me alone.

As soon as his back was turned I rolled to my side and sat up, propping myself up on an arm. I'd freaking' crawl if I had to.

"They underestimated you."

Startled, I looked behind me to see Ashe. He was grinning.

"You broke the coven. They're only 10 now."

He kept talking but the uniformed guy had seen me sitting up and was coming back.

"You don't listen very well, do you?" He picked up the tank and helped me up. "She's going to be fine. And she's asking for you."

I looked but Ashe had faded off into the woods.

# Chapter Eleven

I hefted the backpack onto my shoulder and walked into the woods. I hoped I had everything I would need. I know that Jeri thought certain religious artifacts were ridiculous and wouldn't work against vampires and other supernatural creatures but I didn't want to take any chances. The power of belief and all that. I had a cross and a bottle of holy water. One of those Jewish star things. Even a mini Ganesh.

It was a couple of hours until sunset. I still hoped I'd find the place before dark. I hadn't much paid attention when I was here last, concentrating on getting away, and not learning landmarks. The map I'd printed from the net showed an old cemetery and the ruins of a church and I guessed that that was where I needed to go. Did I mention I was a city kind of guy? Finding my way through wilderness wasn't something I made a habit of. And I really sucked at it. I kept checking the map and guessing at the landmarks but I didn't seem to be doing anything but going around in circles.

As I hiked I was reminded of all the reasons I preferred civilization; no biting insects, air conditioning, and most of all, people. I might not be the most sociable person but I did like the comfort of crowds. The anonymity. And sidewalks, I thought as I tripped over yet another tree root. I pulled out the map. Was that the hill on the map or not? I couldn't see anything at a distance thanks to all the trees. If that was the hill, I needed to turn right and that meant I was about half way there. I folded the map and put it back in my pocket. The sun was getting low and the shadows under the trees were making it difficult to see.

I walked on. Every few steps I noticed a slight rustling sound. It was sporadic at first and I only noticed on almost a subconscious level. I was too worried about getting lost in the dark. And that was looking more and more possible. What the hell was I doing out here? Every step I took felt like it was taking me one step closer to my doom. Of course that made me feel all melodramatic. But what, really, was I doing?

This afternoon I felt like I could take on anything. Jeri and me. Me and Jeri. There wasn't anything we couldn't do. Now out in the deepening gloom, in the middle of nowhere, I was having doubts. Now that the adrenaline was gone. And now that I was alone. Jeri and I killed the Piasa. It was no longer flying off with people. And then the creature claiming to be my father laid down the challenge. Alright. Maybe it wasn't meant as a challenge but...

Normal. I wanted normal back. If that meant I had to get rid of him to do that, I would.

My idea of normal wasn't what most people wanted from their lives but so what? I like not having too many attachments. Maybe Jeri would change that somewhat but otherwise I liked things the way they'd been. Sure I lived hand to mouth at times but there were good times, too. I wasn't always living out of my car. Just when I needed to keep my head down.

A caw caught my attention and I realized that I had been standing still, lost in my own thoughts and it had grown nearly totally dark. I looked up and could barely make out a crow watching me. It flew off a little ways and landed on another branch, cocking its head to see me. Maybe this was it. It would lead me to the graveyard. I followed.

The longer I walked, the darker it became. Part of this was sunset but here the trees were growing closer together, the overhead canopy weaving a tighter ceiling, letting in less and less light as I followed the crow. And this I was convinced was no ordinary bird. It would fly a little ways ahead and land on a low branch or rock. There it would sit, watching me, until I caught up and it would flutter ahead again. Other than the gentle flap of its wings it didn't utter a sound.

The leaf litter was deeper here. Dead leaves and twigs. Branches. The air smelled musty, like the breeze never made it here to clear out the smell of rotting vegetation. Nothing looked familiar. But how was I supposed to recognize one tree from another? Or that rock from any other I'd ever seen? I was thoroughly lost. Starting to trip over everything and nothing in the dark. I paused long enough to take the backpack off my shoulder. I dug around for my flashlight and finally found it. I flipped it on and took a step. The leaf litter around me quivered, the leaves rustling over the other night sounds. Okay this was freaky. I took another step and the leaves rustled again all around me for a few feet.

I swung the light around trying to see what was moving, afraid of what might be scurrying around my feet. About to attack? I couldn't make anything out against all the earth tones. I pushed some of the debris aside with the side of my foot, sending up more of that smell and several small black shapes scrambled to get back under cover. I leaned over and pushed more of the leaves around. Shiny black bodies and lots of legs.

Beatles. Harmless stupid beetles. The crow made a noise that sounded almost like laughter and ruffled its feathers when I aimed the light on it. If I thought I could find my way back to my car in the dark, I would have left right then. I was out of my depth and alone. I was used to being by myself but alone? I mean really alone?

With a shudder I decided to move on.

The crow flew off another short distance. This went on for I don't know how long. I didn't seem to be making much distance but then I didn't want to keep tripping and falling. Finally, the trees thinned out and I came across the first grave marker, a pillar about waist high that was so worn you couldn't make out any markings on it. It was nearly obscured by the vegetation growing around it. A full moon was just cresting some of the lower trees, offering at least some light. The crow flew off out of sight and I paused. I could hear low voices without making out what was being said.

I turned off the flashlight and fumbled the small bottle of holy water out of my pocket, stuffing my keys and a switchblade back in. I loosened the bottle's cap and keeping it hidden in my palm. The voices had stopped. It was like they knew I was there and were waiting for me. My heart felt like it was going to hammer itself out of my chest. Meet him out by the old churchyard. Useful even if I am... human. He'd said human as if it were a defect, shameful. Something to be hidden away or gotten rid of. This thing couldn't be my real father. He manipulated everyone around him to his own ends. Just as the others like him and the witches did. Jeri and me meant nothing to any of them except where we could be used. Even if we died because of it.

Anger was good. It helped to steady me and remind me of my purpose. I didn't think of it as revenge. Revenge meant making someone pay a price for a wrong. This wasn't that, I kept telling myself. This was like getting rid of the Piasa. Ridding the world of something dangerous, something that threatened everyone's safety. Of course if I really thought about it I would have come with backup or better weapons. The voices told me he wasn't alone. Could I fight my way out? And why had I assumed he'd be alone? I switched the holy water to my left hand and put my right in my pocket around the knife, thumb on the button to release the blade.

And I stood there undecided. Nothing was ever as simple as it seemed. Was this the "bad end" my adoptive dad was so fond of predicting for me? Would I die in these woods? I hadn't really thought of my mortality much until Jeri and I were staked out as bait. I surprised myself. Because my first thoughts about that had little to do with me. I thought about Jeri. And not just how I wanted to be around her but how my death would affect her. Would she be upset by it? I thought of her, waiting in vain for me to come back and I didn't want to cause her more pain. I let go of the knife and picked up the flashlight.

"Change your mind?"

I stopped short, startled. I hadn't even gone three steps. The man stood casually, his weight on one foot and hands in his pockets. He was smiling. "I didn't think you would come."

"It was a mistake." I tried to walk around him but he moved into my path no matter the direction I tried.

"Come on, Mark. Don't you want to know your people?"

"But you're not people, are you?"

He chuckled at that. "No, we're not." He took his hands out of his pockets and shifted around. "Everyone wants to meet you."

"We already met." My voice was cold. "Remember?"

He smiled. "Things are different now."

I broke into a run and he grabbed for my arm, catching my wrist in a loose grip. My momentum swung me around. I threw the holy water at him as I fell.

He calmly wiped his face and looked at his hand. "What was that? Water?"

I clambered to my feet and pulled out the knife. The shick of the blade sliding out of the handle sounded loud, moonlight glinting off the blade.

I held the knife in front of me. "I'm leaving."

"I don't think so."

He ran at me then. I dodged to the side, slashing at him as he passed. He was too fast for me. He turned and lunged for me so I bolted away from him. I wound my way through the tombstones toward the center of the churchyard. I was going the wrong way. I stopped and put a marker between us. He slowed and stopped about ten feet from me.

He was stronger and faster than me. I knew that already. But if I might be more clever I could outwit him... Well. I would have to try.

Did I say I could take care of myself? That I knew what I was doing in a fight? Most of the time I would say the same thing. But now? After the Piasa, I'd briefly felt invincible. It was that hubris that carried me to these woods and now I was faltering. Maybe, just maybe, I needed others. After all it was Jeri that had actually dealt the deathblow. I saved her by distracting the monster so she could cast instead of being eaten alive. Maybe we needed each other. Feeling guilty for coming out here and possibly never seeing her again wasn't going to help me win this fight.

He'd slunk closer while I was thinking gloomy thoughts; he was just outside of grabbing distance. I brought the knife back up and moved back another grave stone, feet fumbling over things because I didn't dare take my eyes off him again. I was hearing something moving behind me. Several somethings. The lay of the land, the ruined foundation of an old building, the overgrowth of trees and shrubs. There wasn't anywhere to go that didn't take me right past this man or through the graveyard toward what I assumed were the others. Maybe surprise was the key.

I turned and fled all out toward those sounds behind me. I came to a clearing that I recognized. The full moon cast eerie shadows in the half-light. There was a sort of hillock that was mostly clear of anything green and growing, including the dead tree on the summit. Six men stood around the mound. When they saw me they spread out and I thought they were going to block my passage but one by one they pivoted on a foot and flew into the branches above. They weren't going to stop me! I felt like laughing and crying as I pushed myself to run faster. I was over the summit, about to descend into the woods on the other side where I hoped to escape. And that's when I tripped.

I hadn't seen the tree root in all the shadows. It was so unexpected that I couldn't get my arms under me to fully break my fall. The wind was knocked out of me and the knife flew wide.

"I've been looking for you your entire life." He grabbed me and turned me over. "I wanted you to come here."

I tried to kick him and missed.

He pulled me up by my shirt and slammed me into the tree trunk. "I wanted to have you around."

I was hitting him with my fists anywhere I could reach. It didn't even faze him.

He put his hands on around my throat. "And you come here and threaten me?"

He squeezed his hands until I couldn't breathe. "I talked them out of killing you but they were right."

His grip was too strong for me to pry his fingers from my throat.

I was getting desperate. My vision was dimming, closing in around the edge to nothing but black in which sparks of light seemed to pop. I struggled to get my feet underneath me but he kept me off balance, slamming me into the tree every time I was about to find my balance. If I could have moved air through my throat I'm sure I was hitting hard enough to knock my breath out each time I hit. I was starting to feel fuzzy, like none of this was real. It wouldn't be long before I was unconscious and then it would be all over.

I brought my knee up as hard as I could but he moved his leg inward and I missed his crotch. Still, it had to hurt but it didn't loosen his grip on my throat. I could no longer see and could feel my limbs losing what strength they had. My only chance left was in my pocket. I reached in and pulled out my keys. Gripping them as well as I could, I slashed down on his arm and, miraculously, he let go. Turns out he had been holding me up as he choked me. My legs were like rubber and I fell in a heap at his feet, still clutching my keys. The crows in the tree were silent.

I gasped and coughed as well I could. My throat felt constricted and it hurt but I could get some air. I could now make out his feet as he stood over me, dripping blood onto the leafy vegetation near my face from the gash in his forearm. He lifted his foot and stomped on the hand holding the keys. There were a couple of sickening pops and my stomach heaved. I tried to scream but nothing came out and I could barely breathe again as my throat burned.

I cradled my bleeding hand and tried to sit up, groping for the keys with my good hand. He kicked me in the ribs. I curled into myself trying not to throw up. He bent over me. I cringed but all he did was pick up the keys. He stood for a moment staring at the key fob then looked slowly down at me, a grin spreading over his face. He laughed, holding the keys up toward the tree to show the crows there.

"He's bound!" He did a little dance still laughing as one after the other, the crows flew down around me, transforming as they landed. It was too late. I'd never get away with all of them around me, especially in my current state. Maybe I could bluff my way out again. I wasn't getting out of here by fighting, that much was obvious.

From the moment I'd brushed past this creature while leaving the coffee shop, had I ever had a chance? I lay still, panting, trying to get my strength back, hopelessly thinking what I could do to trick or convince them into letting me go. One of the men squatted down in front of me, looking at me intently. I recognized him as the one most vocal about wanting me dead. Meanwhile the man claiming to be my father was still laughing as he scrounged around on the ground. He stood up holding a rock as big as his fist. He laid the key fob on a nearby gravestone.

"No." I croaked as he raised the rock over his head. It was the only thing I had left of my mother and possibly the only way I could find her, find out why she had so despised me she had left me at a fire station. I struggled to my feet as he brought the rock down on the fob.

My entire body seized. It was like being struck by lightning and hit by a train at the same time. A powerful electric shock surged through me and my very bones felt like they were bending and cracking. I didn't even know I'd fallen back to the ground. My whole being pulsed with pain in time to my too rapid heartbeat. I could hear him yelling and whooping.

"He was bound! I knew no son of mine would be human!"

They were all towering over me now. My surroundings seemed out of proportion, too large, surreal. My breath could only come in gasps and every time I exhaled a strange grating noise escaped me. I tried to lick my lips but something was wrong with my mouth. I pushed myself up and it didn't feel right. I looked down. My arm was no longer an arm and it was covered in feathers black as pitch.

# About this work

###

I hope you enjoyed this ebook. As much as I enjoy writing it means so much more to know that my readers take pleasure in it as well. Please leave a review at your favorite retailer.

Thank you

KS Henning

# About KS Henning

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Other books by KS Henning:

The Garden & Other Stories

A Corvis Christmas

Coming this Spring! After Night: Corvis Book Two

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