Witches and Whatnots: An Izzy Cooper Novel (7 page)

When I woke on Saturday, I’d already missed most of the morning. One of these days I was going to actually get up before the sun. That day was probably going to be sometime after I retired, but I was determined it would happen.

As I munched cereal and drank my morning coffee, memories of the carnival returned. Although it had been a strange night, it was better than sitting in front of the TV watching reruns.

We’d even gathered a little information for our investigation, but I wasn’t sure how useful it would be.

What was really bothering me was Annabelle’s sudden interest in the Black Moon witches. My sister had always been the type to do her own thing, which meant she didn’t fit in well with covens.

In a coven, there were rules and Annabelle didn’t do rules, as was evident by the gazillion times she’d been suspended from school.

Nosing around a coven was a definite first for her.

I still had several hours before I would need to get ready for the ball, so I decided it was a good time to have a chat with my sister, but not before a shower.

Hot showers were the best therapy for relieving stress, well that and punching someone in the nose, but since that was illegal, I’d have to settled with a shower.

While trying to ignore the huge set of invisible black wings attached to my back, I brushed my teeth. Searching through my disarrayed closet, I found a pair of jeans and a Halloween t-shirt that featured a smiling jack-o-lantern.

If I was too busy to fix up my house for Halloween, the least I could do was dress festively, though officially, All Hallows Eve wasn’t until Monday.

On entering the Sandbar, I was surprised to see one of the witches I’d met the night before. She was working behind the bar, where I’d usually find my sister.

Shelly was a tall - willowy redhead, who even in the cold light of day, seemed a little witchy.

“Where’s Annabelle?” I asked, a hard edge to my voice.

“She’s busy in back. Can I help you with something?” She smiled, but it was a cold - guarded smile.

I drew my brows together and gave her one of my, yeah right looks. “Not really. I need to talk to my sister. What are you doing behind the bar?”

Shelly fixed her large blue eyes on me and barely blinked. “Just helping Annabelle while she is busy.”

Without comment, I started for Annabelle’s office.

The sound of Shelly’s voice stopped me. “You can’t go back there. Annabelle is busy. She is cleansing her spirit in preparation for Samhain. ”

Stopping, I spun on my heels. “Really? Well, I don’t think my sister will care if I interrupt her cleansing.”

Again I started for Annabelle’s office, but felt a sudden burst of heat. When I turned to look at the witch, I saw blue flames shooting from her eyes.

That witch was actually trying to cast on me!

Suddenly every part of my body started shutting down. First it was my muscles. I couldn’t move, and then my sight went dim.

The only thing running through my mind was that I had to do something, or they would steal my sister.

Reaching deep inside to the core of my being, I grasped for that dark glowing power that always burned, but that I refused to use.

In an instant, I was back to normal, or semi-normal. My arms were outstretched and my hands had a strange black light shooting from them.

“Bitch! Don’t even try to cast on me!” I bellowed, as the light became even more intense.

It was the sight of her skin bubbling that brought me back to my senses, along with Annabelle’s voice.

“Izzy! What are you doing?”

I stopped, almost horrified at the sight of the blistered witch, but only almost.

“What are you?” Shelly cried, staring down at the puss-filled blisters on her arms.

I glared at her, still tempted to use a little more of my demon juice. “I’m the bitch you don’t want to mess with.”

“What are you doing?” Annabelle asked again, shock making her voice sound a little shrill. “Remember what Granny said?”

That’s when the shame set in. I’d done so good about not using the dark powers that were now mine, mostly because Granny and Julius were sure that if I did, it would turn me into a full-fledged demon.

I was reminded of the time I’d super glued Uncle Aaron shoes to the floor while he slept in a chair. When he got up, he fell flat on his face, which resulted in him getting a broken nose, and me getting grounded for a month.

Although I felt bad about what I’d done, it also felt deliciously funny. I was feeling the same thing again.

Maybe I really was a bad person and deserved to be sent to the pits?

Now I’d messed up on that for a second time. The first time had been when I had to rescue Annabelle from the old classic movie she was stuck in.

My sister was messing me up big time. It was all her fault.

“She tried to cast on me.” I came to my own defense.

Suddenly I felt drained, and was in the middle of what seemed to be an intense hot flash. For just a few seconds, the room began to spin. After taking in some deep breaths of air, the spinning stopped and I felt a little better.

Annabelle stood there staring at me, as if I was crazy, but I knew I wasn’t. The witch had tried to cast on me. If it weren’t for my demon juice, the blast of power she’d shot at me would have probably rendered me brain dead.

“We need to talk.” I stalked toward her office without bothering to look to see if she were going to follow.

She did, but only after letting out a heavy sigh. “Okay … but why don’t you just calm down.”

As soon as Annabelle was in the office, I closed the door so we wouldn’t be overheard. “What the heck do you think you’re doing? Why are you messing with those witches … and she did try to cast on me.” I repeated.

“I think you are over reacting. What happened anyway?” Annabelle set on the edge of her desk.

When I finished telling her my version of the story, Annabelle opened the portable refrigerator she kept in her office and pulled out a couple beers. Twisting the cap off one of them, she handed it to me.

“Thanks, but don’t you think it’s a little early to start drinking?” I pointed out, though I took it from her anyway.

“I think you need to mellow out a little.”

After taking several swallows, I turned my attention back to my sister. “What are you doing with her here?”

“I’ve decided to join the Black Moon Sisterhood,” she informed me as casually as if she were telling me she’d decided to change the store she shopped at.

“Are you crazy? Did you miss the part about them being persons of interest in a homicide investigation?”

Annabelle shrugged. “I just think you’re off your mark with this one. Besides, I think these witches can help us find Granny Stella.”

“How’s that?” I wasn’t even slightly convinced.

“Together they are very powerful. After the carnival closed last night, I went to the Dell with them. I saw them bring a tree back to life, and they can actually levitate” she added.

I rolled my eyes. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. They probably drugged you, or maybe they have you under some kind of mind control.”

It was Annabelle’s turn to roll her eyes. “Really, Izzy … you have such an overactive imagination. I think they just know what I’m worth.”

My brows shot up. “I’m the one with the overactive imagination?”

It was obvious they were doing their best to convince Annabelle they were completely harmless.

“Wait a minute! Did you approach them or did they come looking for you?” Now it was beginning to make sense.

“Last night Shelly stopped by and invited me to come to their booth to meet Rayanne and the others.”

My sister was a powerful witch, and if she joined them, it would make them even more powerful than they already were. It was becoming apparent that the Black Moon witches were recruiting, but they were picking and choosing.

They hadn’t even approached me, which could be because of the fact that I was an FBI agent, but I thought their lack of interest had more to do with my lack of witchy power. They could sense a witch’s power, but what I had was much different. They wouldn’t be able to control me, and control was probably essential to their plan.

“I think you are making a huge mistake.”

Annabelle shook her head. “It’s what I feel I need to do.”

“So when are you doing this?”

“I’m being brought into the sisterhood on All Hallows Eve.”

Great! That left me only a couple days to change her mind. The problem was, I had no idea how to do that, especially if I couldn’t provide any proof that the Black Moon Sisterhood was involved in the murders.

“Am I invited … or is this hush hush?”

Annabelle’s mouth dipped at the corners. “Well, I don’t know … after you put blisters all over Shelly.”

Lifting my shoulders to show my indifference to witchy poo’s injuries, I took several swallows of beer. “Well invited or not. I’ll be there. As far as Shelly, she shouldn’t have tried to cast on me.”

My sister didn’t bother arguing. I had a point and she knew it. As far as a witch was concerned, casting on them was the same as punching them in the nose, or maybe worse. It called for defensive measures. So what if my defenses were supercharged with demon juice? That wasn’t exactly my fault; at least it wasn’t entirely my fault.

Even I was amazed at the reflection looking back at me from the mirror that hung on the back of my closet door. I didn’t look like me at all.

The nineteenth-century ball gown was gorgeous.

My dark hair hung around my shoulders in soft ringlets, and the way the black lace and red velvet bared my shoulders was kind of sexy. The only thing I wasn’t too comfortable with was the amount of cleavage showing.

Julius stepped back and whistled. “You’re going to be a sweet treat tonight, love!”

My guardian demon, AKA Julius, had volunteered to help me do my hair and makeup. In spite of him being mostly evil, he had done a great job helping me get ready for the ball. Of course, there had to be a motive, but I had no idea what it was, nor did I really care at the moment.

I’d never looked so good.

“So which man are you going to seduce tonight?” Julius asked, brushing a stray ringlet into place.

“None. I’m going with Tim.”

“What a waste.” He shook his head. “Looking this good, you could get under any man’s skin.”

My eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Exactly which man are you thinking of?”

He brushed his lips against my forehead. “Me. I was thinking how fun it would be if you let me show you some new things.”

“As in sex things?” I really didn’t have to ask to know that’s exactly what he meant.

“I could easily take away some of that sexual tension you keep trying to hide,” he said, sticking out his long tongue and wiggling it.

The blood rushed to my face, though I had no idea why. Julius had always been crass when it came to sex, and the fact that he wanted to engage in it with me. I should have been used to it.

“Really Julius … I’m not that desperate.”

It was a mean thing to say, but I couldn’t let myself forget that he was a demon, and he was trying to seduce me to the dark side. There was no denying Julius was hot, and I imagined that he could do things to a woman that would drive her insane with pleasure, but just because I was a sexually frustrated fallen angel, didn’t mean I’d turned into Lucy Loose or Misty Rogers.

He draped an arm around me. “Oh come on love. You give me too much credit. Not everything I do is about soiling your soul. Maybe I just want to make love to you. I was human once too.”

I hated it when he read my mind, but still the news of him being human startled me. I’d always figured that he had been human once, but to hear him talk about it was a little shocking.

Turning from the mirror, I looked at Julius and tried to imagine what he would have been like as a regular person. “Who were you?”

A heavy sigh pushed through his lips. “I was Julius Randall. Your Uncle probably knew of me. I played lead guitar for Black Arrow.”

I’d never heard of Black Arrow, but he was probably right about Uncle Aaron knowing who he was. It slowly began to dawn on me why Julius had never made an appearance while Uncle Aaron was around.

One thing was for sure. Julius definitely had my attention. I’d often wondered about the real Julius.

“What happened?”

“Well I was buzzing on heroin and wrecked my car. That’s how I bit the big one.” Backing away, he plopped down on my bed.

“So you went straight to demon, with no chances?” For some reason I’d just assumed that everyone was given a chance.

“I was sent straight to Hell, no passing go, but I talked my way back up.”

“As a demon?” I asked, disapprovingly.

He nodded but didn’t elaborate.

“I can’t believe you weren’t given some kind of chance.”

“I didn’t just get into an accident. I killed three other people in the process, including my brother.”

“Oh! I’m sorry that happened to you … and them.” With that explanation, it made a little more sense. Some things couldn’t be undone. It was something I would have to remember while I worked at keeping my temper in check.

Julius shrugged. “Things are what they are.”

Curious, I asked, “What do demons get out of recruiting souls for the man downstairs. I hated to say devil, because I really didn’t know much about Hell, or who it was that was in charge.

Julius’s laughter was unnerving.

“We get to get out of being tortured for eternity with our own darkness.”

Well, I guess that made sense. No wonder he was trying so hard to recruit me. I had no doubt that a demon’s ability to stay up top was dependent on their job performance. Julius had made some progress, but not much. At least that’s the way I liked to look at it.

“So how many bad marks do you think I got for boiling Shelly’s skin.”

Although his demeanor grew serious, there was still laughter in his eyes. “Well love, I’d say you are well on your way.”

That’s what I was afraid he’d say. The only thing to do was change the subject. “What do you think of the Black Moon Sisterhood? Are they evil … are they killing people?”

There was more dark laughter, but from Julius that wasn’t uncommon. “I think Mystique Island is full of wicked witches.”

I couldn’t get over the feeling that Julius knew exactly who the killer or killers were, but he wasn’t going to make it easy, as usual.

* * *

In a strange - warped kind of way, I felt like Cinderella going to the ball, except I wouldn’t be with my Prince Charming. I would be with Timothy, and the ball wouldn’t be all glitter and magic, though I suspected there was bound to be plenty of magic going around.

This ball was dark, with subdued lighting, eerie music, and lots of Halloween props in the ballroom to create a spooky atmosphere. There were spider webs everywhere, and hologram projections to create ghostly apparitions that danced around the ballroom.

The guests were wearing spectacular costumes, but I did think they’d overdone the witch theme a little. Half of the female guests were in witch costumes. Dressed in the antique style ball gown and a mask made of black lace, I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to be, but my Goth look fit in well, yet it was different at the same time.

Most of the town of Storm Cove seemed to be at the ball, but there were some notable absences. Of course, Julius hadn’t come, but I figured that was because he was afraid someone might recognize him.

It wouldn’t be too cool for some dead guy to show up at a ball, decades after he was known to have died. That might cause a bit of a stir. It would probably be a couple more decades before he could roam the earth, free of the threat of being recognized by some diehard fan.

Uncle Aaron also wasn’t at the ball. With most of the people on the island attending the ball or the carnival, he probably couldn’t find someone to take over for him at the station.

Poor Uncle Aaron. With my uncle being Aaron the Rock Baron, he missed out on so much, but he loved his little radio station, so I supposed he didn’t mind too much.

While Tim went to get us a drink, I was staking out the entrance. I wanted to see who showed up, and what they were dressed as. It was easy to recognize most of the guests, but there were a few I couldn’t guess.

“This is quite the get together.”

It was a good thing I wasn’t holding a drink in my hand. I jumped so high, there is no doubt I would have spilled it all over my dress.

Muriel was standing behind me, wearing a dark frown.

I wasn’t just shocked that she’d snuck up on me. She did that all the time, but this was the furthest I’d ever seen her from the Shipwreck Point Lighthouse.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, under my breath. I didn’t want the other guests to think I was talking to myself. Not everyone knew I could see ghosts, and even those who knew probably thought I’d lost my marbles half the time.

“Just checking in on you.” She shrugged. “I wanted to see how much fun you were having while I’m rotting away in an unmarked grave.”

“Muriel … you are so dramatic sometimes.”

Just then, Tim returned and handed me a tall Manhattan Iced Tea. “What was that thing you were talking to?” he asked, his face etched with worry.

“Just Muriel.” I took the glass, relishing my first drink of the cold liquid.

Tim shook his head. “I didn’t see Muriel.”

I was a little shocked, as Muriel claimed he could see her. So why hadn’t he seen her this time?

“Well, what did you see?”

“Just a black - smoky shadow.”

Now that was interesting. I recalled the dark entity that attacked me at the Marsh Estate years ago.

Was that dark entity actually Muriel, or had the entity disguised itself as the ghost girl?

It was a question I would have to come back to at a later time. Zane was making his way through the crowd, his eyes fixed firmly on me.

Taking my hand in his, he brought it to his lips and kissed it. “You are a vision of beauty tonight.”

What a silver-tongued devil!

“Thank you.” I smiled. Strangely enough, his words really did make me feel like smiling. Usually, he was irritating me so bad, I felt more like smacking him.

“May I have this dance?”

Without waiting for a response, he took my hand in his and led me out to the dance floor. Although he was the perfect gentleman, as we began to sway to the music, I felt the heat inside me stir.

Just being close to him did this to me, and I wasn’t so sure it was a pleasant feeling either. Sexual frustration, and a too hot to handle vampire, didn’t mix well.

Before I knew it, he’d led me out to a large patio. As we danced beneath the moonlight, he pulled me close and whispered in my ear. “Let me make love to you, sweet Izzy. Only then will you know the rapture no one else can ever give you.”

The sensation of his lips against my ear set my body on fire, and for a split second, I actually considered taking him up on his offer.

“We can’t,” I told him, putting some space between us. “I don’t know anything much about you … and you really don’t know me.”

His laughter was deep and sensuous. “I know more than you might believe.”

“Really?” My brow rose. “Did you know that I am a fallen angel?”

I couldn’t resist trying to get some reaction out of the revelation.

Although I was hoping for shock, I hadn’t actually expected it. When he looked down at me, his dark eyes were filled with turbulent emotion. “Well, that explains some things.”

“Like what?”

He shook his head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, but I would like to give you a warning. There are those who would pose as your friend to take advantage of the power you possess.”

It was something I hadn’t actually thought of, but there was every chance he was right.

“Is someone doing that?”

Without answering my question, he pulled me closer. “Let’s enjoy the night.”

Being close to him felt good, which was a little frightening. A million things ran through my mind, not all of them were G-rated.

Just as I was ready to end the dance in order to save myself, I heard the shrill sound of sirens, and they were getting closer.

“What’s going on?” Jumping back, I stared into Zane’s dark eyes, as if he would have all the answers.

I soon noticed the night was lit with flashing red and blue lights.

From the patio, we could see the police and emergency vehicles moving through the darkness, toward the carnival.

“I guess we better find out,” he said.

He almost sounded tired, which I found a little odd. Did vampires get tired?