A Witch's Halloween, page 8
Rodriguez rubbed a hand over his face. “Those werewolves didn’t magic themselves drunk.”
“Agreed, but I can’t find a magical cause.”
He shook his head.
A soft chirp drew my attention down. The cat rubbed against my ankle and then darted to the stairs. It paused and looked back at me.
“Could it be a creature?” Rodriguez asked.
I shrugged. “Nothing comes to mind. I’ll do some research.”
Meow.
“We’ve come across other creatures that had strange abilities. Remember the bugbear?”
A terrifying bear monster that fed off the fear of children was hard to forget. “Yup.”
Meow! The cat head-butted my leg.
“Hey, what was that for?”
The cat darted over to the stairs again. Meooow. It stared at me with bright orange eyes, uncannily like the eyes of the cat from the other night.
“Rodriguez, I’m following that cat.” With a twist of my wrist, my wand settled into my hand.
As soon as I got to the stairs, the cat took off, running until it reached the intersection of two paths. It stopped and looked back at me.
“And I’m following you.” He was a step behind me down the stairs.
The garden paths cut between trees and around flower beds, crossing repeatedly. This time of year, the garden was a mix of dormant and leafy colors. The few trees that still had leaves sported bright yellows, bold reds, and rusty oranges. The rest of the trees contributed to the spooky decorations with their bare branches. The fake bats and eyes rocked in the breeze. The fountain in the center rose out of the ground, with the base coming up a good eighteen inches. In the center, the two-tiered basins bubbled and frothed before spilling over. Sitting on two hay bales leading up to the fountain sat two carved pumpkins and a carved turnip.
The cat trotted down a path that led toward the center fountain. Every few steps, it looked back to see if I was keeping up.
I believed in following cats when they worked this hard to get my attention.
I also believed in caution, so I let my power flow around me, searching for magic. I didn’t expect to find much in a garden at a shopping center. The only magic spell I noticed was the anti-freeze enchantment on the irrigation lines.
The cat stayed on the same path, stopping beside the fountain. It ignored the zombie and paced around to the body leaning against the base of the structure. The cat looked at me and sat.
Up close, the zombie was hard plastic with ripped clothing hanging off its bones. A quick probe confirmed it didn’t have any magic.
But the cat hadn’t stopped here. I followed the cat’s path to the other side of the fountain.
Before I’d closed the distance, the gaping throat wound made it clear. This wasn’t a prop. This was a body.
“Not again.” Rodriguez swore.
From a distance, her over-sized tan coat had hidden the neck wound. Up close, it couldn’t hide the grayish pallor of her skin or the wounds on her wrists. Her shirt and pants were flecked with blood, but there weren’t any slashes or punctures in the clothes. Her tangled brown hair was matted with blood and her face was covered.
She was upright now, but at one point she’d been upside down and drained.
“I don’t sense any magic. Do you?” Rodriguez asked.
“None.” I pulled my power back in, not wanting it around the dead woman longer than necessary.
The cat brushed against my ankle and then lay down next to a pumpkin. In typical cat fashion, it appeared to go to sleep.
Rodriguez swore again. “I’ll call it in.”
While he did that, I searched for spells. Other than an ever-sharp set of garden shears, which weren’t a likely murder weapon, I didn’t find anything I hadn’t already noticed.
Two murders. Two sets of drunken people who hadn’t been drinking. In my experience, coincidence didn’t stretch so far. Neither did magic, in this case. There had to be a connection, a commonality, a cause that we hadn’t found.
Unfortunately, until we found that connection, I wasn’t sure what I could do. My specialty was magic. Not investigations, not crime scenes, not murder, but magic.
Which would be a lot more useful if there was magic.
Chapter Ten
I flipped through another useless book before shoving it back on the shelf.
After promising Rodriguez I’d do my best to find out what creature could cause the problem, I’d come home to research. Two hours, several internet searches, and six books later, I had nothing.
Almost nothing. One book had a reference to a ‘hell beast’ with a Dionysus effect. The creature could induce a wild state, including violence and drunken revelry. It wasn’t exactly what we were seeing, but it was close. The book hadn’t been kind enough to include a description of the creature or alternate names.
I tried looking it up, but neither the internet nor any of my other books had a hell beast. The lack of supporting evidence made it difficult to trust the original story.
A light knock sounded on my office door.
“Come in!” I pushed away from the desk.
Tricks eased open the door. “You’d said we could do lunch one day.”
Ah. I had, but I suspected wanting to spend time with me wasn’t the primary reason for her choosing today. “Is today that day?”
She nodded. “They’re cycling between wedding plans and trying to pick a phone. Apparently, after not visiting their bank in two centuries, they’re having a hard time establishing their identity.”
“I could use a break, good company, and good food.” I got up and stretched. Three hours at the desk was too many without moving. “But before we make plans, I have to check with them.”
“’Cause I lied.”
No one had told me how hard it was to find the right things to say. She was sixteen going on six and sixty at the same time. Some of that was the elf, but a large part of it was her upbringing. The natural world held few mysteries for her, but the modern world and people were challenges she’d never face.
“You shouldn’t have misled me. Had you told me the truth, I could’ve talked to your parents and worked out a compromise. But the bigger problem is you broke my trust. I want to think you wouldn’t do that again, but I owe it to your parents and a future version of yourself to be the adult. I have to check.”
She thought for a moment, and then she sighed. “If I prove myself, you’ll trust me again?”
“With time and consistency, yes. But trust is a fragile thing. It’s much easier to break than to nurture.”
“Like an orchid. They need things just so. Once it’s been damaged by too much water or the wrong soil, it’s almost impossible to save the plant.” Tricks looked at her hands. “Unless you have an elven knack for plants.”
“Exactly.” I had no idea if that was an accurate assessment of orchids, but it sounded right. “I’ll check with your parents, and you think about what you’d like to have for lunch.”
In a bit of good news, Enor and Erwin were so befuddled by modern identification requirements that they agreed without a fuss. We were on the road and headed to a Mediterranean restaurant in no time. Tricks spent the drive quizzing me about different dishes on their menu. As I parked, she was scrolling through the dwarven dishes.
“What about The Deadly Trio? Can I please try it?” She hopped out of the car. “It’s on the dwarf and elf menu.”
That information did nothing to reassure me. Dwarven cuisine was notorious for being toxic, if not fatal, to other races. “What’s in it?”
“Autumn Skullcaps, Webcaps, and Destroying Angels with roasted bell peppers, feta cheese, and tzatziki.” She bounced over to me.
“Those are all deadly to most species. Stick to something non-toxic.”
Tricks gave me big pleading eyes. “Come on, they won’t hurt me. It’ll be a fun experience.”
“Nope. I can’t go back and tell your parents you tried deadly mushrooms.” I held open the door for her. “What about the humus and baba ganoush plate?”
“Borinnnng.”
“If you get something that’s not toxic to most humanoids, I’ll get you baklava.” I was not above bribery.
“What’s baklava?”
“A pastry filled with chopped nuts and held together with honey.”
She froze. “Did you say pastry?”
“What are you getting for lunch?” I countered.
She bounced ahead of me. “Baba ganoush, grilled veggies—human ones—and baklava.”
I hid a grin. “Excellent choice.”
That didn’t stop Tricks from asking about the Deadly Trio, which this location didn’t have. Turns out it was only available at the restaurants in dwarven cities.
At our table, Tricks soaked in the room. Two fey, an assortment of humanoids, a centaur, and a family of brownies occupied other tables. She looked back at me. “Mom and dad aren’t always this bad. Most of my life, we were in Oregon studying the Red Twig Dogwood. We lived near a city of elves there. That was nice. It’s only the past few years up in Alaska that they’ve been like this.”
The food arrived, interrupting her. Her eyes went wide when she spotted the baklava. I nudged the plate of hummus in front of her.
“Right.” She dug in, talking between bites. “I think dad had a fight with someone. And that was when Elron’s name came up more.”
“You may never know why your parents have made the choices they have. What matters is how you want to live your life.” They could be as mad at me as they liked. If they’d shown her a more balanced life, she wouldn’t be so eager to leave.
“How do you decide? Do you just wake up one day with a vision of your future?” Tricks asked.
“It might work that way for some people, but everyone is different.” I picked at my salad. “I felt like I had to find a place outside witch society, so I did. Back then, I had no idea I’d end up where I am now. Elron had no idea his life would go this way. He lived outside society for a long time. I think that’s part of how he lost touch with Enor and Erwin.”
She scooped up the last of the baba ganoush. “That wasn’t helpful.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be.” I winked to take the sting out of my words. “Try the baklava.”
Trick took a huge bite of a square. Her eyes closed, and she melted back into the seat. “Perfection.”
I ended up giving her mine too. We chatted about different jobs and how the world worked before heading out. The conversation continued in the car until my phone rang. After a quick apology, I answered.
“I’ve got a neighborhood in chaos. I need you to fix it,” Rodriguez said. Shouts and screams echoed in the background.
“Where?”
He yelled at someone. “Sorry, South side of Canton. I’ll send you the address.”
I glanced over at Tricks. To take her home, I’d have to drive past the incident, which would cost precious time. Time we likely didn’t have to spare if we wanted to contain the scene. Two old and strong-willed reasons came to mind as to why she shouldn’t come with me to an emergency. “What’s the problem?”
“Magical Halloween decorations everywhere.” His voice went in and out. “Narzel. Skeletons.”
“I’ve got Tricks with me. How dangerous is it?”
He swore again. “More mayhem than murder if you stay away from the plants.”
“I’ll be there.” I hung up without waiting for more details.
Tricks bounced in her seat. “We’re going on a case?”
“I’m going on a case. You’re going to stay in the car where it’s safe.” Hopefully. It all depended on what was going on. Decorations didn’t sound dangerous, but neither did animated status, and one of those had nearly taken off a person’s hand.
“Your parents are going to kill me,” I muttered.
She shrugged. “With any luck, they’ll be too busy arguing with the bank to notice.”
I sighed. “That’s not the right way to think about it.”
“Nope.” Tricks grinned sharply. “It’s the smart way to think about it.”
“Later, we’re going to have another chat about ethics.”
“Dad says the guilt fades after a few hundred years.”
I took the exit off the highway. “Talk to Elron. He doesn’t view it the same way.”
“Oh.”
Tricks didn’t say anything else as I navigated us to the subdivision. At first it looked normal enough, with nearly identical houses on nearly identical lots. Then I turned onto Paradise Lane.
Rodriguez’s car was across the road, not so much to block other people from wandering into the area but because he couldn’t go any farther. A gold coffin sat in the road, gleaming in the afternoon sun. Because people loved to size up their decor, it spanned the road from one curb to the other.
Past the coffin was pure chaos. Cats and dogs were running wild. A sunflower snapped at a dog, who scrambled away. A bony skeleton ran past. The sunflower tried to bite it, but its petals went through the femur. The skeletons appeared to be illusions, but the webs covering car sized lumps, shrubs, and doorways looked more substantial.
A bat fluttered in front of the windshield, only to be obscured by an irregular orange blob stretching across the hood of the car and around to the front windows. Even part of the dashboard vanished. The blob rippled and shone with light from within.
I put the car in reverse and slowly backed toward the main street. The dashboard and view out of the windows returned as the car emerged from the blob. I shifted into drive and went several houses down the main road before parking. “Stay in the car.”
“But I could help. Those poor cats and dogs!” Tricks reached for the door handle.
“Promise you’ll stay, or next time I take you home and you don’t even get to see it.”
Being an adult was hard. Especially when she was partly right: I didn’t have an elf’s knack with flora or fauna. But this was my job, and part of that job was keeping her safe.
She flopped dramatically against the seat. “I wouldn’t be in the way.”
I counted to three before I answered. “I’m not worried about that. I am worried about you getting hurt. Promise you’ll stay here.”
She huffed. “Promise.”
Good enough. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Tricks nodded and pulled out her phone.
I summoned my wand and jogged back to Paradise Lane.
The orange blob was gone. Down the street, several orange and black blobs had appeared.
Great. They moved.
It was hard to focus on more than one part of the street at a time. Skeletons, bats, and even people ran from house to house. One poor person was wrestling with a web across his front door. Every time he pulled some of it away, more appeared. Further down the street, a crate sat in one yard with more skeletons crawling out of it.
Rodriguez was supposed to be here, but I had no idea where.
Instead of searching for him, I sent out probes, targeting the various oddities. Each one was different, but they had common elements. It was similar to how spells cast by the same person often felt the same.
I extended more probes but didn’t aim them at anything specific. They found spells. A huge network of them covered the entire neighborhood.
Focusing on the network, I probed its strands. It wasn’t a network comprised of many different spells, but a single spell that allowed the other spells to manifest in different locations along the web.
That opened up a possibility. If I could take down the web, it might get rid of all the other spells. Or they could keep going but without the connections. I didn’t know if that would be better or worse.
I reformed the probes touching the network into hooks and yanked.
The net split apart, fizzled, and vanished. All the other spells vanished, including the coffin.
Perfect. My work here was done. I could get Tricks back to her parents before they had any reason to know we’d stopped by a magical incident. One less fight with the soon to be in-laws.
“Michelle! What did you do?” Rodriguez marched over, dirt streaked across his face. “Tell me you didn’t just shred the network spell.”
Narzel. “I’d like to tell you that. I really would.”
A miniature gold coffin, all of six inches long and two inches high, appeared in front of Rodriguez’s car.
“But I ripped it apart,” I said.
He rubbed a hand over his face, spreading the dirt around. “You think I didn’t try that already?”
The coffin vanished, then reappeared. Rodriguez’s car rocked, and the alarms started blaring. The coffin was even larger than before. It crushed the bumper off the front of the car and both curbs.
“Narzel.”
Orange and black blobs, twice the size of the one I’d encountered, appeared all over the neighborhood. Bats swooped down, more of them than had been here before. Two more coffins spanned the road. The skeletons were back, only now they roamed the ground and the air. The spider webs covered entire houses, including the guy who’d been trying to get into his house.
Narzel didn’t cover it.
I rubbed a hand over my face. This didn’t have to have happened. If I’d spent more than three seconds looking at the spell, I would’ve known this could occur. Destroying the magic hadn’t damaged whatever powered all these spells. Plus, it seemed to respond poorly to attacks.
“Let me guess,” I said. “You already tried this.”
“That’s how the plants got to their previous size.”
Oh, no. The plants.
The sunflower, which had been at a respectable knee height, was now up to my shoulder. Its flower had grown in proportion and was over a foot in diameter. And the center? All jagged teeth-like things. It snapped at a bat, caught it, and swallowed.
Either the bats were “real” now, or the sunflower had destroyed the illusion. Neither were great options.
“Do you happen to know what this is?” I asked. This wasn’t some charm a person had activated by accident. It wasn’t even a couple of charms haphazardly connected. This was real spell work, witch-quality spell work here.
