Three Witches and a Killer: Wicked Western Witches Book 1 (11 page)

Chapter Fourteen

As soon as I opened my eyes the next morning I called my cousins. There was still no answer, but then I hadn’t really expected there would be.

After grabbing a quick cup of coffee, I headed straight to my office. At this point I was ready to call in the FBI.

No one just disappeared without a trace.

Since I’d only had one cup of coffee, my eyes were only half open. That was my only excuse for nearly sideswiping the milkman. It was a good thing for both of us that he was a lot more awake than I was. His truck only ended up on the sidewalk, instead of through the front of the real estate office next door.

Plowing into the building might not have been so bad if Pinky was there, but since it was too early for her to be in the office, it would have been a big waste.

This time I parked right in front of my office instead of around back. I just wasn’t up to walking that extra thirty yards.

I would have missed the envelope entirely if I hadn’t dropped my keys while trying to unlock the door. Cursing like a sailor, I knelt down to retrieve the keys and saw the envelope.

Someone had made an attempt to stuff it beneath the door, without a lot of success, apparent by the damage to the envelope.

Snatching it up, I unlocked the door and stepped inside. Dropping my purse on one of the folding chairs, I carefully opened the envelope.

Pulling out the folded paper, I opened it, trying not to put too many fingerprints on it.

I wasn’t too surprised to see that the note was made up of cut out letters that had been glued onto the paper.

Talk about cheesy!

Wasn’t that only done in the movies?

If you want to see your cousins alive again, meet me at the hanging tree at midnight.

It wasn’t much to go on but it was something. I wasn’t sure how thrilled I was with the idea of meeting a kidnapper at midnight, near a hanging tree, especially since the kidnapper was very likely a murderer too.

In the movies there were always instruction included about not going to the police. Whoever left the note must not be worried about the police at all, as it wasn’t mentioned. The lack of concern about law enforcement had to be a clue. Either the kidnapper was someone connected to the police, or someone who could brush off the police with a swipe of the hand.

That left someone in the sheriff’s department or a witch. Unfortunately, that was pretty much exactly where I’d started.

Well almost. I’d never considered the possibility that someone in the sheriff’s department might be responsible. It was something to think about.

As it was only 9:00 in the morning and there wasn’t anything I could do until midnight, I figured I’d better feed Mickey D, especially since he was making one heck of a ruckus.

After pulling a bowl out of the refrigerator and unlocking the closet, I carefully pulled the door open.

As expected, he lunged at me. Making a sour face, I slid the bowl into the closet and slammed the door.

I had to face facts. My ex husband was decomposing fast. He had to be the ugliest zombie I’d ever seen.

After locking the door, I took a deep breath to slow my heart rate. I hated zombies and I hated Mickey D, so how the hell did I end up babysitting both?

Of course I knew. It was on account of me throwing a temper tantrum.

* * *

Chewing a mouth full of pepperoni pizza, I glanced at the clock for the tenth time in less than an hour. It was almost midnight.

After spending all day attempting to retrace Holly and Pax’s movements before they disappeared, I’d spent the rest of it pacing the floor in my office. I was more than ready for the witching hour and some answers.

For part of the day, I’d played with the idea of letting Buck or my dad know about the note, but I didn’t entirely trust the sheriff and Dad would have fits if he knew I planned to meet with a kidnapper.

At five minutes to midnight, I shoved the rest of the pizza in the fridge and flipped off the lights.

“Good night, Mickey,” I called as I headed for the door.

The only response I got was a growl, just like old times.

When I stepped outside, there was a low-lying fog crawling across the ground. We’d had fog twice in less than a week. That couldn’t be a good sign.

The streets were completely empty, but that was to be expected since it was almost midnight. During October it was different. There was always some kind of Halloween festival going on. But at the moment, Shadow Crossing was as dead as a ghost town.

As I stepped onto the path that would take me through Specter Square, a chill made its way down my spine.

Although it took only a few minutes to reach the hanging tree, it seemed like an eternity.

I was disappointed to find the clearing empty. It was a major anti climax to find that no one was waiting for me by the tree.

The only thing to do was wait and see if anyone showed.

It didn’t take long before someone stepped out of the bushes, or to be more precise, three someones.

The preacher and his bots, also known as sister wives, were standing less than ten feet away.

Of course I’ve been wrong before, so I wasn’t sure they were sister wives, but they sure looked that way to me.

“What’s this all about?” I asked, figuring I knew who the real culprits were.

“You are evil and must be stopped! You cannot be permitted to embrace destiny!” the preacher yelled.

At that moment, a big net fell from the tree, trapping me.

“You are totally in for it now!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs.

One minute the preacher was making his way toward me, and the next he was flying through the air.

The women screamed and started running.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Garrett was my rescuer.

“Could you help me out of this?” I asked.

Kneeling down beside me, he smiled. “Well, that depends. Are you going to be nice to me?”

If he hadn’t just chased that crazy preacher and his bots off, his words might have had me foaming at the mouth. Instead, I returned his smile.

“I’ll try really hard to be nice,” I told him.

Pulling a big knife from the sheath that hung at the side of his belt, he started cutting away the netting. Even before he was done, I was scrambling out of the net.

“Where’d he go?” I asked, running to the location I’d last seen the preacher.

“I’m sure they are long gone by now,” Garrett said, as he stood up.

“Damn! I think they might be the kidnappers and maybe even the killers.”

Garrett shook his head. “They’re just harmless bible thumpers.”

“How do you know?” I asked, glaring at him through narrowed eyes.

“I know that because I’m the killer,” he confessed.

My mouth fell open. “Damn! That was simple.”

It took a minute to collect my thoughts but then I turned on him. “Where are my cousins? You have thirty seconds to cough it up before I call the sheriff.”

“I commanded them to go into the woods, but I don’t know what happened to them after that.”

“Fine then. I’m calling Buck,” I said, pulling my phone from my back pocket.

“Now wait a minute. You promised to be nice.”

My jaw nearly dropped to the ground. “That was before you confessed to murder. You can’t really expect me to keep my promise now.”

He held up one hand. “I did confess to murder, but it’s not quite as simple as that.”

“Seems pretty straight forward to me.”

“Let me explain. I killed them, but I was under the command of someone else. I am a tool, no different than a knife or a sword,” he informed me.

“I’m confused,” I told him, still holding the phone in my hand.

“My real name is
Vidar
. I grew up in Norway thousands of years ago.”

His explanation did nothing to clear my confusion. If anything I was even more confused. “That sounds like a fairytale.”

“In a way, maybe.” He shrugged.  The goddess, Lilith came to my village. My brothers and I were foolish enough to drink of her blood. She murdered us and brought us back in her own image.”

“You’re a vampire!” I accused.

Garrett nodded. “I am one of four original vampires. We were considered too dangerous by some witches, so we were eventually put into a deep sleep and hidden away in a cave. Until the last full moon, that was where I remained.”

I wasn’t sure how much of what he was saying I should buy, but I decided to play along. “What changed?” I asked.

“A witch. She must have gotten her hands on some of my blood because she used it to wake me, but she has also used it to command me.”

Drawing my brows together, I asked, “So how does that work?”

“She casts a spell that turns me into a puppet to do her will. I black out and wake up energized because I have fed. The blood on me is the only evidence of what has happened. I have no conscious memory of killing anyone.”

“I don’t believe you,” I snapped. “A vampire can’t be controlled that easy.”

A smile played on his lips. “Do you know many vampires?”

I refused to answer, party because I didn’t know any vampire and party because I was embarrassed to admit it.

“As long as the witch has my blood and the ancient spell that controls me … I am at the witch’s mercy,” he finished with a loud sigh.

“You’re breathing and you have been out in the sun. How can you be a vampire?” I still wasn’t swallowing such a phony boloney story.

“Once we are animated, our bodies still need oxygen,” he explained. “And I am an original, which means that sun does not affect me.”

“Did you leave that note for me today?” I asked.

He shook his head. “The preacher did, but I saw him do it and knew what he was up to. I followed you today so I could keep an eye out.”

“Why would you even care?” The more he said the more confused I was.

“I need you to find the witch who’s controlling me.” He shrugged. “That might prove difficult if you are being held captive by a religious cult.”

He had a point.

“In any case, if you don’t find her you will die soon.”

“If you don’t remember anything, how can you know that?” I asked, now more suspicious than ever.

“Easy, whenever you are near, I can feel the witch’s animosity toward you. Why do you think I keep telling you to go away?”

Ouch! That hurt. I kind of thought he was hot, if a mite annoying. Now I knew all he’d been thinking about while I was near, was how to kill me.

To save face, I skipped right over the subject. “So, you are telling me that you have no idea who the witch is? You’ve never seen the person?”

“That’s right.” He nodded.

Well that put us both in a hell of a fix.

I opened my mouth to ask another question but Garrett suddenly fell to his knees. “You need to go … now!” His words came out in gasps.

“But …” I started to protest when he raised his eyes to look at me. They were glowing a strange blue color and he had fangs. Real fangs!

I wasn’t about to wait around to see what would happen. Taking off on a dead run, I headed in the direction of the police station at the city works building. A minute later, I was pounding on the door while still gasping for air.

It was locked up tight and no one was inside.

How was that possible? They always had a night dispatch.

I was beginning to suspect this witch was controlling a lot more in Shadow Crossing than just some old vampire.

Chapter Fifteen

Keeping my eyes on the Square, I continued pounding on the door. It was futile. If someone was in there they were probably under the witch’s spell too.

Just as the thought crossed my mind to break the glass and unlock the door, my phone alarmed.

It was a message from Holly.

“We will die tonight if you don’t come to the Hollows.”

My heart skipped a beat.

The Hollows were the woods behind Sleepy Hollow Park. We used to sneak away and play there as kids. I knew exactly where to go, but getting there was another story.

Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I called Dad’s phone. If the police wouldn’t answer, maybe he would.

No such luck!

Almost as soon as the call connected, it was dropped.

I didn’t have a lot of choice but to take care of the situation myself. I was completely aware that going it alone wasn’t the brightest move I’d ever made, but my cousins’ lives might depend on it.

To get to my car, I would have to either go back through Specter Square or walk around it. I decided walking around it was the better option.

It would take longer, but at least if someone decided to attack there was a better chance I’d see it coming.

Glancing over my shoulder every few seconds, I made my way around the square. As I walked, my footsteps echoed through the empty streets. The ghostly sound sent my imagination into overdrive.

Suddenly, I was sure Garrett was following - keeping just far enough behind me that he could quickly duck out of sight when I turned to look.

As soon as I reached my car on the other side of the square, I got in and locked all the doors. Only then did I feel any kind of relief.

I was actually a little surprised when I turned the key in the ignition and it started right away. Part of me had been certain someone would mess with my car, delaying any kind of rescue.

Shifting into gear, I took off so fast I actually peeled tires.

Five minutes later, I was parked in front of Sleepy Hollow Park.

No way did I relish the thought of walking through that park in the dark, but I didn’t have a lot of choice. What I did have was a flashlight, thanks to my father. He’d always insisted that I keep a gallon of water, along with a blanket and flashlight in the car in case of emergency.

Reaching beneath the driver’s seat, I pulled out the orange flashlight and switched it on. The batteries were old but still strong enough to put out some light.

I was jittery. No doubt about it. Every time a breeze stirred the trees, I felt my heart skip a beat. The hoot of an owl forced me to stifle a scream. It was the longest walk I’d ever taken but finally I made it to the clearing where we’d played as children. Back then; we’d nicknamed it Moonlight Glade.