Circle of Blood (13 page)

Ed held up a hand, cutting him off. “Nothing Samantha ever does is reckless. It’s always calculated, thought out. This Lilith chick was expecting, hoping for a badass witch, and that’s what Samantha had to be. She needed to put the fear of God in the other witches to help get them under her sway as well. In Salem the coven leaders there specifically said they had been trying to bring out the inner witch in Samantha. They clearly thought they had succeeded. We had every reason to believe something similar was happening in San Francisco. In order to keep her cover with others in the community and to keep Lilith off guard, we had to present exactly what she was hoping and expecting to see. Anyone that’s worked undercover before knows you have to take on another persona, live it, breathe it, and make hard choices in order to protect it and those you’re working with. Samantha did what any cop would do to get the job done and she never once stepped over the line.”

Samantha decided then and there that she would always want Ed to be her advocate in all things.

“Is this true?” Connor said, turning to look at her.

“You know how it is—you have to really sell the part if you want your quarry to buy it. You have to make it so much a part of you it becomes almost natural so that you don’t get tripped up and get yourself and those around you killed,” she said. That was absolutely the truth. It didn’t explain her behavior over the last several days, but it was still a truth.

Connor leaned forward. “Here’s what I think. I think there is no Samantha Ryan. I think you buried yourself so far in the part you lost yourself and you don’t even know right from wrong anymore.”

She forced herself to stare back at him, unblinking. “If that were true, none of you would be breathing still.”

Shocked silence greeted her statement and she gave it a moment to let what she’d said sink in. “Think about it. I’m the sole survivor of the massacre of the most powerful dark coven that’s operated in this country in the last hundred years. I took down the new Salem coven. I stopped the events in San Francisco and helped rewrite time and history. Do you honestly think that any of you would be more than gnats to me if I had truly lost my way?”

She could tell her words were affecting some of the witches in the room.

“Look, this is ridiculous,” Ed snapped. “We’re all wasting valuable time here.”

Samantha could practically feel Connor twitching. She knew he wanted to take a walk through her mind or use magic to try to shock the answers out of her. One of the others walked over to him, leaned down, and whispered something in his ear. Whatever it was, it seemed to satisfy him for the moment and he nodded slightly.

The other man returned to his post and Connor stood up. “The proof is in the pudding, that’s what my mom always said. If you’re lying, we’ll know soon enough. Excuse us for a moment.”

He gestured and everyone filed out of the room. He went last and closed the door behind him.

Ed turned and gave her a puzzled look. Clearly he, too, was wondering what the other man had said. He glanced around the room and then focused in again on her.

Samantha, can you hear me?

He was thinking it, clearly as concerned as she was that they probably were being spied on.

Yes, are you okay?
she thought back to him. She saw him wince, a clear sign that he heard her loud and clear.

Been better, but hanging in.

What is it?
she asked him silently.

I know what you told them, but just to be clear, you went bat-shit crazy for a while, didn’t you?

Completely.

Fair enough.

“Okay, enough of that. You know it creeps me the hell out,” Ed muttered.

“And we wouldn’t want that,” she said sarcastically.

“A lot of thanks I get for being your partner. I have to put up with a lot, you know.”

“Yeah, like only getting to eat half the food off my plate, having me save your life, a whole lot,” she quipped.

“Smart-ass.”

“Jackass.”

“You’ll never know how much I missed our conversations,” he said with a sigh.

“You’d be surprised,” she said, smiling at him.

The door opened and Trina and Connor entered the room.

“So, what’s the story?” Ed snapped. “Have the big kids decided to let the little kids play in their sandbox?”

“For now,” Connor said, eyeing Samantha still with open suspicion.

“About fricking time. Now we can get some real work done,” Ed said, standing up.

“I’d like to get your take on some of the things we’ve found,” Trina said, addressing Ed.

“And I want to show you a couple of things,” Connor said to Samantha.

“If this is just a trick to try and separate us, it won’t work,” Ed said.

“I can assure you,” Trina said, “it’s no trick. I do need a fresh eye on some of the intel we’ve gathered, and Connor wants to show Samantha some things that fall into the . . . what did you call it? The ‘freaky tiki’ category.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Ed said, glancing at Samantha.

She nodded. “If I need help, I’ll scream.”

And don’t worry. You’ll hear me,
she told him silently.
Call if you need me.

“Fine,” he said out loud.

Trina cocked her head to the side. “You two have a very . . . interesting . . . relationship.”

“Don’t get any ideas,” Ed said, rolling his eyes. “I’m a happily married man and my wife would kick your ass for looking at me sideways, powers or no.”

“She would, trust me,” Samantha said, unable to suppress a grin.

“I didn’t mean anything like that,” Trina said, quickly backpedaling.

“Whatever, let’s get to the real police work this century,” Ed said. “We’ll see if your witch-dar is even half as good as Samantha’s.”

“My what?”

Ed gave her a pitying look and strode out of the room, leaving the rest of them to trail behind.

Samantha had to hand it to him. Moxie he didn’t lack for at all.

He and Trina headed off to a different part of the mansion. Once they were out of sight, she turned to Connor, wondering exactly what he had in mind and sure that whatever it was, she wasn’t going to like it. He had clearly wanted Ed out of the way, and no matter the reason, that couldn’t be a good thing.

“What is it you want me to see?” she asked.

“We have a friend of yours,” Connor said.

Samantha raised an eyebrow. They couldn’t be talking about Anthony. She was fairly certain no one had arrived since they had. “Who?” she asked.

“Come with me,” he said.

She rose and followed him to a room in the back of the house that had two agents standing guard outside it. When Connor nodded the one opened the door, letting them enter.

Inside the room was a single window that had been boarded over. Two agents stood guard in front of it anyway. She wondered who they could possibly have that would merit so much coverage.

The sound of a chair creaking in the far corner caused her to turn her head. There, sitting in it, arms and legs chained to it, was Martin. There was a ring of something around the chair that looked like some sort of mixture of herbs.

“Martin?”

“Guess again,” the low, gravelly voice of the demon answered instead.

She felt a chill touch her. She turned to Connor. “What happened?”

“One of my men found him in this state. We picked him up not far from the St. Louis Cemetery Number One.”

Samantha felt another chill. “When?”

“Shortly after your altercation with Lilith.”

Altercation. That made it sound so harmless,
she thought bitterly. “Why did you bring him here?”

“We suspect the demon of having ties to her.”

Samantha had wondered that herself. She felt for the packet in her pocket. She had been carrying it since, just in case. She had reasoned that even if she didn’t run into Martin, the contents might be helpful in dealing with anyone else with a similar curse. It was New Orleans, after all, and the city was strange enough without the added influx of those with the power.

She stepped toward Martin and the demon, still careful to remain outside the circle that had been drawn. She shuddered as she stared at the slack face, the clacking jaws, and fought the urge to draw a circle of blood around herself before continuing.

“At last you show your true face,” the demon said.

“Yes.”

“You are no longer fragmented.”

“Yes.”

“I told part of you that you were not the person to kill Lilith.”

“That was because it wasn’t me, not all of me.”

“True,” the creature said.

“You work for her,” she accused.

“No.”

“Then what were you doing at the cemetery?”

“I wanted to see the show. I was curious what would happen in the state you were in then. Something has happened since then.”

“I am myself.”

“And yet you still don’t remember something, something crucial, something you ought to.”

“Be careful—don’t reveal anything to it,” Connor warned.

Samantha ignored him. “Yes, I don’t remember. Do you know why?”

The demon laughed. “Because you are still not ready. And how could you possibly hope to defeat her when you are not ready?”

“I must try. She’s killing people.”

“People die every day. Some deserve it, some don’t.” Martin’s head lolled to the other side as the demon continued to contemplate her. “You deserve to die.”

She gritted her teeth, refusing to let it get under her skin. “Everyone deserves to die. ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.’”

The demon cackled. “Romans 3:23, so the Christian has come to play at last. I’d begun to think you’d abandoned your God. Or is it He who has abandoned you?”

Samantha actually felt herself smiling. “Spoken more like what I would expect from a demon.”

It rolled Martin’s eyes in response. She refused to blink even though the gesture was one of the creepiest and most unnatural she had ever seen.

“Can’t blame a fellow for trying,” it hissed. “Part of the job description, you know.”

She refused to give it the satisfaction of responding in any way.

A minute passed in silence and she finally decided to break it. “So, did you have anything actually important to say or are you just intent on wasting my time?”

“Always enjoy talking to you, no matter who you are,” it said.

“Do you have information I can use about Lilith or not? Because, frankly, I’m getting a bit bored.”

It clacked Martin’s jaws together a few times before speaking again. “There is a hoodoo woman who lives in the bayou. She sees things, the future, the past. She knows what Lilith wants. If you seek answers, go to the swamp.”

“Is she the one who cursed Martin?”

The demon began to laugh. The laughter continued, moving from the low registers that it used to much higher pitched ones until it sounded like some sort of insane hyena. The sound was overwhelming, and from the corner of her eye she could see the agents in the room begin to squirm, which was just what the creature wanted, she was sure.

She pulled the small red bag out of her pocket and before anyone could make a move, she stepped over the protective circle and slammed the bag against Martin’s chest.

There was a roar and a moment later silence as his head fell forward onto his chest. She shoved the bag into his slacks pocket.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Connor demanded.

“Helping the poor man,” she hissed.

She stepped carefully back out of the circle as Martin groaned. Suddenly his head snapped up and his eyes flew open. He stared at her with a look of abject terror on his face.

“Please!” he gasped. “You have to kill me!”

Samantha was stunned. That was the last thing she’d expected to hear Martin say.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because of it. It wants something—I can feel it. I don’t know what, but I’m afraid that something terrible is going to happen and I don’t want it to use me.”

“We’re not going to let that happen,” she tried to reassure him even though she didn’t feel any too certain of that herself.

He stared at her for a moment, really looked at her. “You’re different,” he finally muttered.

“Yes,” she said, smiling slightly. “I was . . . sick . . . I’m better now.”

She was vaguely aware that she had told Claudia something similar before, and she tried to push that thought from her mind at the moment. Dwelling on her failure to help and protect Claudia would not make it easier for her to deal with Martin.

“He’s a liar, don’t forget,” Martin said.

“I won’t,” Samantha promised. The demon had so far told her two true things, though. And she felt that he was probably telling the truth about the hoodoo woman as well.

“Martin, he mentioned a hoodoo woman who lives in the swamp who has the power to see the future and the past. Do you know her?” Samantha asked.

Martin looked as though he was going to be sick. “Do not go to that place.”

“So, she is real?”

“Yes, but she is powerful, dangerous, tricky, just like the demon.”

“Is she the one who cursed you?” Samantha asked.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, and tears were shining in his eyes. “But I wouldn’t go to her even if there was a chance she could help lift my curse.”

That was significant. His fear of the hoodoo woman was clear and Samantha knew she would have to tread very, very carefully.

“I took my red bag that you gave me and I put it in your pocket,” she told him.

“Thank you,” he whispered. “You are a good woman.”

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I’m going to try to find a way to help you.”

He shook his head. His eyes were so sad that Samantha’s heart broke a little bit. “No one can help me. All you can do is protect yourself. Promise me that you’ll do that,” he said.

“I promise. And I will find a way to help you.”

She turned toward Connor and gave him a steely look before heading to the door. Once outside the room, she moved a little bit away and then she turned on him.

“How dare you keep that man a prisoner?” she fumed.

“That man is possessed and the demon possessing him has knowledge we can use. Even if that weren’t the case, it isn’t safe to let him roam the streets when that thing seems to be able to overtake him anytime it wishes.”

“Then why not help him?”

“We’re trying, but we don’t have anyone on the team who knows enough about hoodoo. Besides, right now we’ve got much more pressing problems to deal with. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Samantha wanted to protest. She had a growing suspicion that there was a connection that they weren’t seeing. She didn’t say anything, though. Instead she asked, “Have you heard anything about this hoodoo woman he referenced?”

“We have heard that there’s a hoodoo woman who lives in the swamp, one of us. She appears to have quite a loyal following.”

“Are any of those followers also like us?” Samantha questioned.

“It’s unclear, but it’s a safe bet.”

Samantha closed her eyes. “Then they’ll likely be a target for Lilith as well. Same with this hoodoo woman. Maybe we can help warn her or save her and in exchange she can help us figure out what Lilith’s ultimate plan is.”

“We were really sort of hoping you might have a clue what Lilith’s plan is,” he said.

“Are you kidding? I only just figured out who Lilith is. I have no idea what she wants with me after all these years or what she’s doing here in New Orleans and has called all these people to her for.”

“She’s killed quite a lot already.”

“She’s draining their powers, trying to gather as much as she can for herself.”

“We’ve noticed. It seems ridiculous, though, that she’d be planning on draining everyone.”

“Really? Because everything else she’s been doing so far has been so calm and rational and perfectly normal,” she said sarcastically.

“Point taken,” he said with a grimace.

“I have to go to see the hoodoo woman.”

“I’m not sure doing what a demon tells you to do is a good idea.”

“That demon tried to save my life once and he told me where Lilith would be after that.”

“And I’m not convinced he didn’t send you right into her trap when he did that.”

“Neither am I, but if there’s even a chance that he’s telling the truth about this woman, then I have to go. She might be our only chance for answers, and that’s something we’re in pretty desperate need of right now.”

“Fine, but you’re not going alone.”

“I’m not sure a horde of us descending is exactly the right thing. Besides, we shouldn’t tip our hand too early. We don’t know yet if she knows about your group or how many of you there are. After all, Randy certainly flew under the radar of the coven in Salem. As far as I could tell, no one had guessed he was one of you. I certainly didn’t until he was able to explain things to me.”

“He was one of my best men. I was sorry to lose him.”

“I was sorry, too. He seemed like quite a guy.”

“He was engaged to Clara, one of the agents you saw earlier.”

“That’s too bad,” Samantha said, feeling worse.

“They both knew the risks. I know she’d love to get some payback, though.”

“Not against me, I hope.”

He glanced sideways at her. “She’s not a fan of yours, but it’s Lilith she’s gunning for.”

“Good to know. Still, I’ll try to steer clear.”

“Good luck with that. We’re going to need all hands on deck before this is over.”

“Exactly, which is why I think I need to go to the swamp alone. If something happens to me there, it’s going to take all of you to kill Lilith.”

“I won’t agree to that.”

Samantha drew herself up to her full height. “If you think you can stop me, go ahead and try.”

She began drawing energy into her body from the ground beneath her feet and the air around her.

Connor took a couple of quick steps backward. He bared his teeth at her. “You’re a loose cannon, and that makes you dangerous.”

“You’d better believe it,” she said, sucking in more power rapidly enough that she could hear people around the building beginning to gasp.

“I’m not going to try to stop you, but I’m going to have backup waiting. I don’t like you, but I don’t think we can afford to lose you. At least, not just yet.”

She stared at him for a long moment, letting him feel the power that was emanating from her. He took another step backward, probably not even aware that he did. Then, slowly, she said, “Fair enough.”

He nodded and she knew that they had an understanding. She was the most powerful person in that house, and he was now fully aware of it. That was what she needed. She wasn’t going to be part of his task force, one of his team. If he expected to work with her, then he could work with her or for her, but she most certainly didn’t work for him.

She turned and walked away, not to any place in particular, just to remove herself from his presence. As she walked her mind was furiously working, thinking ahead, because, despite her earlier bravado, she was not looking forward to what was coming next. The demon’s words echoed in her mind.

If you want answers, go to the swamp.

The Swamp. She didn’t like the thought of going there. She would be completely dependent on a guide to get her in and out. Plus, that was a huge area covering hundreds of square miles. The information was so vague as to be ludicrous. Only the most powerful of witches could take such sketchy information and do something with it.

Fortunately she was one of those witches.

•   •   •

Four hours later Samantha was in a boat, powering down one of the river ways with a guide at the helm. She had strong misgivings about the entire thing, but she had found a guide who actually knew where it was she wanted to go. He had, however, made it very clear that he wouldn’t take her the entire way, but instead would drop her off and wait for her to return. Since she could tell he was being truthful about his intention to wait for her and take her back, she reluctantly agreed.

The bayou was everything her imagination had conjured when she’d heard tales of it as a kid. There were plants of all sorts growing out of the water and on the marshy stretches of land. Insects buzzed in the air, and the occasional ominous alligator slithered through the water, eyeing the boat with unfriendly curiosity.

As they went farther and farther, the air grew denser and the sky darker. Something began to change; there was a chill to the air that was more than just the temperature. They slowed as they came to a fork.

“Here as far as I go,” her guide said, cutting the engine and pointing down a tributary. “Hoodoo lady you seek lives down there.”

“I need to go all the way in,” Samantha said.

He pointed to a tiny rowboat mounted at the back of the boat. “You go, you go by self.”

“I will go in alone, but you will wait for me,” she said through clenched teeth.

“I will wait three hours, no more. You no come out by then, you no come out at all.”

“Agreed,” she said. “Now put the boat in the water for me.”

He did so quickly. As she watched him she could sense his fear of the place. She began to doubt whether she could trust him to even wait the three hours he had agreed to.

She put her hand on his shoulder and pushed energy through her hand and into him. She dropped her voice into a lower register. “You will wait for me. All night if you have to.” She was exerting her will on him, not her first choice, but she needed to make sure he didn’t abandon her. Magic could help her find her way back, but it wouldn’t be the easiest or most direct route, and in a swamp full of hostile creatures she didn’t need to put herself in even more danger than she was already in.

He nodded, his eyes slightly glazed. Then he helped her down into the boat. He handed her a paddle and she placed it in the bottom of the boat in case she needed it later. Then she pushed away from the larger boat and she was adrift in the water.

She pushed some of her energy through her hands into the boat and from there into the water. The boat turned and began to propel itself slowly in the direction she needed to go.

She drifted through the brackish water and slowly a mist began to spring up off it. She was getting close; she could feel it. Somewhere ahead was the distinctive thrum of power, a lot of it.

Slowly through the mist she could see a distant light burning. It grew larger until finally the outline of a two-story house rose out of the swamp. The entire place looked like something from a dream, or possibly a nightmare. It was like a deformed ghost of a house, with walls rising at crazy angles as though they had sprung from the earth itself and grown that way. Not a window was square. A lamp burned in the one next to what looked as though it served as a door. A porch wrapped around the front and sides and there was a place to tie up boats. A single, rusty rowboat was there already. The whole place looked rickety, as if it would tumble in a moment back into the swamp it had sprung up from.

There was such a sense of foreboding about the place that she considered turning around and going back. She understood why her guide hadn’t wanted to come anywhere near the place.

The boat turned slightly and floated toward the dock without her compelling it to do so, as though it knew where it was going. The hair stood up on the back of her neck. She didn’t like any of this. She had been a fool to listen to the demon. What if the hoodoo woman had no answers for her, or worse, what if this was a trap?

She squared her shoulders. She had found when dealing with others of power, particularly those who dabbled in the dark arts, that it was important to show strength, fearlessness, and a sense of arrogance and dominance. It had served her well in Salem and again in San Francisco. There was no reason to believe it wouldn’t do the same for her here.

The boat bumped up against the dock, and the rope that was coiled in the bow rose and looped itself around the mooring without her assistance. Further proof that the hoodoo woman was home and was inviting her in.

Samantha took a deep breath, stood up, and stepped out onto the dock. It creaked and groaned beneath her weight and for a moment she expected the rotting wood to give way beneath her feet and send her plunging down into the black water below.

The wood held, though, and she kept walking, up to the front porch and then to the door, which opened before her. Without hesitating she walked inside.

The inside looked like the outside, only much more so. A tree was actually growing up through the center of the building, alive and twisted, its branches stretching in all directions. Candles were perched on the edges of the branches, their wax having pooled and created stalactites that dripped down and formed corresponding pillars of twisted wax on the floor beneath that spiraled upward.

The furniture that was scattered around the various rooms, which were growing at crazy angles as though offshoots of the tree, was also crooked and formed of twisted pieces of wood, some of it petrified. A twisted staircase led to a second floor.

Hanging from the ceiling were an assortment of small, dead animals, hex bags, and handmade objects of twine and bones and feathers that resembled Native American dreamcatchers in the most rudimentary way.

The place smelled of the swamp but also a few herbs and something spicy that she suspected was some sort of stew cooking. At least, she hoped it was.

“Have a seat, dearie.” An old woman’s voice shimmered in the air, impossible to tell which direction it was coming from.

Samantha turned and saw that what passed as a kitchen table had two chairs. There was a hearth with an open fire and a cast-iron pot above it.

She sat down at one of the chairs, which creaked beneath her weight but held. She kept her guard up, expecting anything at any moment.

There was a swish of fabric and then she heard the groaning of the stairs and footfalls on them. She looked up. A wizened old woman with stringy white hair was shuffling down the steps, clawlike hands clutching the banisters. The entire thing shook under her weight, emitting a small cloud of dust with every step.