Spellcasters (35 page)

“How come they keep following her?” I asked.

“To be honest, I have no idea. Perhaps they’re feeding off her energy. I would assume, from my knowledge of witch folklore, that the sudden surge in a witch’s powers during first menses renders those powers unpredictable.”

“That’s an understatement.”

I leaned against a tree and exhaled. At my feet, a wisp of light floated from the earth. I jumped up so fast I banged my head against an overhanging limb.

“I thought you—”

Cortez waved me to silence. As I watched, the light drifted upward. Unlike the earlier spirits, this light was pure white. It floated up as lazily as smoke from a dying fire. When it reached a height of about five feet, it stopped and shimmered, growing denser.

At a motion to my left, I looked and saw four other towers of light, each a different height. I looked at Cortez, but he lifted a hand, as if telling me to watch and wait. The cones of light took on form. Particles of light flowed from all sides, adding to the shapes and giving them definition.

Before me stood five people dressed in Colonial-era clothing. A man and a boy in doublets and breeches, a woman and a teenage girl in fitted
jackets, skirts, and white caps, and a toddler, its gender indeterminate in its long white gown. Though the light remained white, the forms were so solid I could see the wrinkles around the man’s eyes. Those eyes stared directly into mine. The man turned to the woman and spoke, lips moving soundlessly. She nodded and replied.

“Ghosts,” I said.

The girl tilted her head and frowned at me, saying something to her mother. Then the boy reached out toward Cortez. His father leaped forward and caught his arm, lips moving in a silent scolding. Even the toddler stared up at us, wide-eyed. When I stepped toward the child, the mother swept up the little one in her arms, glaring at me. The father stepped toward his wife, motioning the other two children closer. The boy’s hands moved in the sign of the evil eye.

“Only they don’t know who the ghosts are,” I said.

Cortez gave a tiny smile. “Do you?”

The family, now clustered together, turned and began walking away. The toddler grinned and waved at us over his mother’s shoulder. I waved back. Cortez extended his left hand. I thought he was going to wave, but he said a few words in Latin. As he balled his hand into a fist, the family began to fade. Just before they vanished, the daughter glanced over her shoulder and shot us an accusing glare.

“Rest in peace,” I whispered. I turned to Cortez. “I thought you said Savannah cast a spell for summoning nature spirits, not ghosts.”

“It is. But Savannah’s spell seems to be doing a lot it was never intended to do.”

“How do we stop it?”

“By getting her out of this graveyard.”

“That’ll end it?”

“I hope so. Now, when we leave these woods, the spirits will return but, as you saw, they intend no harm. You simply have to move through them, as you moved through that sorcerer illusion in the funeral home.”

“Got it. If we head south, we’ll hit the road. There’s no fence, so we can—”

A howling cut me off. Not the howls of the spirits, but the distinct howl of a dog on a scent.

“The hounds of hell, I presume,” Cortez said.

“I wouldn’t bet against it. But I think those are tracking dogs, probably with the police.”

“Ah, I forgot about the police. Problem number sixty-three, I believe.”

“Sixty-four. The unconscious bodies scattered around Katrina Mott’s
grave are sixty-three. Or they will be, when they wake up.” I took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s think. There’s a stream to the west. Dogs can’t follow a trail through water. Plus, it’s in the opposite direction, so we’ll get a head start.”

“West it is, then.” He hauled Savannah’s limp form over his shoulder. “Lead the way.”

So we ran … away from the gun-toting state troopers, through a swirling mass of spirits, pursued by baying hounds, surrounded by the screams of the damned. You know, I think the mind has a saturation point, beyond which it just doesn’t give a damn. Spirits? Hounds? Cops? Who cares? Just keep running and it’ll all go away.

This whole running-away business is getting tedious, so here’s the condensed version: Run to water. Tramp through water. Fail to evade hounds. Throw fireballs at hounds. Make mental note to send sizable donation to the SPCA. Reach road. Jog to car. Collapse, wheezing, beside car. Get dragged into car by Cortez. Mutter excuse about childhood asthma. Make mental note to join a gym.

“Do you have the dirt?” Cortez asked.

“Dirt?”

I cannot describe the look on his face. The shock. The disbelief. The horror.

“Oh,
that
dirt.” I pulled both bags from my pocket. “Got it.”

I relinquished the driving to Cortez so I could stay in the backseat with Savannah, who was still unconscious. Good thing, too, because, while I consider myself an excellent driver, I have little experience at it, having always preferred to walk or ride my bike. The upshot being that, had I been behind the wheel, I would have been ill-prepared to handle what happened next.

Cortez pulled onto the road, not turning us back toward the highway, but heading farther down the dirt road, away from the cemetery front gates. Before we reached the first crossroad, sirens sounded behind us. I twisted to look out the rearview mirror and saw a state police car bearing down on us, lights flashing.

“Shit!” I said. “Don’t pull over!”

“I wasn’t about to. Are you both buckled in?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on, then.”

With that, he turned off the headlights and hit the gas.

M
argaret’s car was an Oldsmobile. An old Olds, probably from the mid-eighties. This meant that it went like a bat out of hell, but didn’t corner so well, as Cortez discovered the first time he sailed around a bend and nearly went into the ditch. On the plus side, the Olds, being a wide-bodied car, was also good at off-roading.

Yes, I said “off-roading,” as in leaving the road and cutting through a farmer’s field. Imagine it, please. It’s past midnight, with no discernible moon or stars, the headlights are off, and you’re rocketing across a rutted field at forty miles an hour. Let me assure you, for sheer terror, it ranks right up there with getting your breath sucked out by a koyut.

How we managed to get to the other side without flipping over is beyond me. The car never even slid. Before we’d gone fifty feet into the field, the police cruiser backed off.

We shot out the other side onto empty country roads.

“Are you okay?” Cortez asked as he slowed the car.

“Jostled, but fine. That was some driving.”

“Where are we?” Savannah asked, sitting up.

“Heading home,” I said.

Cortez glanced in the rearview mirror. “Unfortunately, we have something of a predicament. I would presume those officers made a note of our license plate.”

“You’re right. I didn’t think of that.”

“Not to worry. It simply means we have to abandon the car outside town and walk in through the woods. When we get to your house, you’ll need to call Miss Levine and apprise her of the situation. If the police arrive before morning, she can claim the car was stolen while she slept. If they don’t contact her by nine, I would advise that she call and report the car missing herself.”

“Police?” Savannah said, blinking sleepily. “What police?”

“Don’t ask,” I said. “And don’t ever cast that spell again. Please.”

“I conjured cops?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Cortez said. “I’m going to pull over up here. I believe that leaves us with about a twenty-minute walk.”

He parked the car with the nose pulled into a stretch of forest, leaving the tail end out, so it could be found, but not easily.

“Should we leave the keys in the ignition?” I said as I hoisted my knapsack onto my shoulder.

“No. That would raise too many questions as to how the thieves obtained the keys. Better to make this look like a typical car theft.”

He opened his jacket and pulled out a tiny tool case.

“You’re going to hot-wire the car?” Savannah said, leaning over the seat. “Cool. Did you boost cars when you were a kid?”

“Certainly not.”

“Let me guess,” I said. “Another of those questionable, but necessary skills. Like knowing how to un-conjure ghosts and drive a getaway car.”

“Precisely.”

“How many cars have you boosted?” Savannah asked as we got out of the car and headed down the road on foot.

“Two. Both times, I assure you, it was an absolute last resort. I found myself without transportation and in urgent need of it. Fortunately, neither vehicle was damaged and I was able to leave it in a safe place, after washing it and filling the tank.”

I grinned. “Bet that had the cops scratching their heads. A conscientious car thief.”

Savannah rolled her eyes. “Don’t you guys ever do anything bad?”

“I lifted a tube of lipstick when I was twelve.”

“Yeah. You told me about that one.” She looked at Cortez. “Know what she did? Stole it, then felt so bad she mailed the money to the store. Tax included. You guys are really setting a bad example, you know.”

“A
bad
example?”

“Sure. How do you expect me to live up to it? I’m going to need serious therapy someday.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ve budgeted for that.”

“She probably has,” Savannah muttered. “What about—”

“Car coming,” I said. “Off the road.”

We tramped into a field.

“Do you do this a lot, Lucas?” Savannah asked. “Car chases and evading the cops and stuff?”

“On occasion, though I would hesitate to say it qualified as ‘often.’ ”

“The real question is: How often do you have to do it this often?” I said.

He smiled. “Not often.”

“So, we’re special?” Savannah said.

“Very special.”

“I don’t think that’s good,” I said.

I transferred the knapsack to my other shoulder. Cortez reached to take it from me, but I waved him back.

Savannah tripped in a groundhog hole, then jogged up beside Cortez. “So what kind of case is this? Compared to your other ones?”

“Frenetic.”

She glanced at me for clarification.

“He means we’re keeping him busy,” I said. “Mainly because we’re causing half the trouble ourselves.”

Cortez smiled. “I must admit, you two do have a unique predilection for creating new challenges.”

“Unique,” Savannah said. “He means we’re special.”

“Uh-huh.”

We reentered the house the same way we’d left, coming through the woods, then darting across the yard and in the back door. A quick peek out the front confirmed that such caution was still warranted. There were still three or four people camped out on my lawn. One of them had even erected a pup tent. Maybe I should have started charging site rental fees.

After sending Savannah off to bed, I called Margaret. The conversation went something like this:

When I walked into the living room, Cortez was standing in front of the television, flipping through channels.

“TV,” I said as I collapsed onto the sofa. “Great invention. The perfect mindless antidote for a hellish day. So what’s on?”

“
Night of the Living Dead
.”

“Ha-ha.”

“I’m quite serious.”

He turned back a few channels and stopped on a black-and-white image of the moaning undead lurching around a farmhouse.

“Kinda looks familiar,” I said. “Haven’t I seen this before?”

“Yesterday,” he said. “In the funeral home.”

“No, that’s not it. Those undead were much scarier. And they didn’t lurch. Well, Cary did, but only ’cause he was kind of squashed. Hmmm, where have I seen this? Ghouls surrounding a house, trapping the inhabitants within, refusing to leave. Wait! That’s my front lawn. Look, there’s a naked woman! Bet she’s a Wiccan.”

Cortez chuckled. “I’m glad you can laugh about it.”

I hesitated, then glanced over at him. “You know, if this gets to be too much … I mean, this isn’t quite the nice, easy court case you probably imagined. I’d understand if you wanted to back out.”

“And miss all the fun?” He shot a crooked grin my way. “Never.”

We looked at each other a moment, then he quickly turned to the TV and started channel-surfing.

“No, wait,” I said. “Go back to the movie. I could use some light entertainment. Flesh-eating zombies might be just the ticket.”

He returned to the old movie, then glanced from the recliner to the couch, as if trying to decide where to sit. I gestured at the other end of the sofa. He nodded and sat beside me.

“What’re we watching?” Savannah said, bouncing into the room wearing her nightgown.

“Paige and I are watching
Night of the Living Dead
. You are going to bed.”

“I just conjured a cemetery full of spirits. I think I’m old enough to watch a horror movie.” She plopped into the recliner. “Do we have chips or anything?”

“You think I’ve been shopping lately?” I said. “Pretty soon we’ll be down to pickles and preserves.”