As long as Doc made sure to watch Lucy like a hawk, everything should be okay. I was going to have to step up to the plate, too. It wouldn’t be fair to make him do all the hard work. Besides, Lucy was my charge.

  My cell phone rang. I grabbed it out of my pocket. The number was one I recognized. This was it. I took a deep breath and swiped my phone screen.

  “Father Martin?” I asked.

  “Mr. Holiday.”

  I swallowed. “I’m assuming you have some news for me.”

  I almost didn’t want to hear. The waiting sucked, but now that I was getting an answer, I wanted to go back to ignorant bliss.

  He cleared his throat. “It is most strange. I have your paperwork that you submitted in my hands, and, of course, nowhere do you state that you do not want a translator.”

  “Yeah.” At least he’d found the proof. That was score one in my favor.

  I heard some rustling. “For that, I am quite sorry,” he said. “Though even more strange is the fact that there was no one logged into the servers at the time the network states that the refusal was posted.”

  I rocked back on my heels. This was something new. “Wow.”

  Maybe someone inside the Order hadn’t tried to screw me after all. Maybe Big Red was involved.

  “Because the powers of the supernatural are involved, you are not dismissed, but suffice it to say that the senior members are not happy with you.”

  Yeah, stuffed shirts wouldn’t be. “That makes sense,” I said. “I freely admit that I was an idiot.”

  He laughed. “I must say it is nice that you admit it.” I heard some more papers rustling in the background. “You are not welcome back to the school. This means that you will receive no more training in regards to exorcism.” He chuckled again. “Not that the standard way seems to be your forte. In any event, you either sink or swim. God will decide what to do with you.”

  Since that was kind of what I wanted in the first place, I wasn’t all that unhappy about it. I would have been better off working with a mentor, teaching me the ropes. Evidently, it wasn’t in the cards. “That seems fair.”

  “You may be able to find some….” He cleared his throat. “…willing partner in terms of mentors. I am going to make sure you have access to the Order’s marker list.”

  Something useful at last. It was close enough that I was starting to think he could read my mind. “I appreciate that.”

  “I will make sure it is sent to you sometime soon. But I’m not sure you’ll thank me after this,” he said.

  Here it was. The catch. “What?”

  “The seniors feel that you should be punished for your antics. So you are to be given the case that no one wants.”

  I laughed. “I thought that was every case.”

  “You do have a point. Also, this one isn’t so far from you. It is in Kitzmiller.”

  I’d never even heard of it. “Where’s that?”

  “Close to Maryland. I’ll be sending word so that they will be expecting you.”

  “No more information?” They were hanging me out to dry.

  “I think it’s best to hear from those who have witnessed the phenomenon. It isn’t something we’ve heard before and I’d like a fresh mind on the matter.”

  That wasn’t as bad as I thought, but still not great. “So I’ll be able to call you during this case?”

  “From now on, I hope you will keep in touch rather frequently. Certain avenues cannot be trusted.”

  This might be a man I could actually work with. “Okay, then. I’ll leave tomorrow.”

  “Tell your witch friend good luck.”

  I choked and he hung up.

  What the fuck did he mean by that? No sense in worrying about it now. I had to pack. Unless I royally screwed this up, my job was safe. I finally relaxed.

  I headed into the living room.

  “Well?” Tabby asked.

  She probably had heard me talking.

  “I’m not fired,” I said.

  She blinked. “That’s good.”

  I nodded. “And we have a case.”

  “Where this time?” she asked.

  “Kitzmiller.”

  Her face fell. “Oh, shit.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Apparently, she’d been there. Her reaction wasn’t good.

  She shook her head. “It’s better for you to see it for yourself.”

  “Why do I have a feeling that this is going to be the trend with this case?”

  She laughed. “Guess we need to pack, right?”

  “You guessed correctly, madam.”

  Packing was the easy part. Well, sort of. Isaac kept lying down inside the suitcase. Silly shit. Granted, he was going too, but I planned for him to have a better ride than that. No way would I ever do that to an animal. A demon, however…they could ride in my dirty gym sock.

  “Listen, you. We’re taking you along. Now, get out of there,” I said to him.

  He meowed at me, got up, stretched, then farted.

  “Oh, Jesus Christ. Thanks, Isaac.” I fanned the air in front of my face. That cat had worse gas than any other creature I’d smelled in my life.

  He trotted nonchalantly out of the room.

  “I take it you pissed him off,” Tabby said.

  I ran into the bathroom and sprayed down the room with Lysol. “I swear. That cat’s ass gets worse and worse.”

  Tabby giggled. “I could almost swear that he had a special compartment for these occasions.”

  “You may be onto something. Shame we can’t market it.”

  “Now that would be the end of the world.”

  I laughed. “Probably.”

  #

  The next morning, we all piled in the car early. Isaac was in his pet carrier in the backseat with Lucy and Doc. I’d been smart enough to call in advance and find a hotel. It was a plain old Best Western. They made me add on a pet deposit, but at this point, I didn’t care. As long as no one tried to break into the room, like in Arizona, we’d be in good shape.

  Tabby had made sure to bring plenty of warding materials, so I knew what her first task was going to be.

  “I can’t believe we are going to Kitzmiller,” Tabby said.

  “Why the hate?” I asked.

  “Because there’s nothing there. It’s just grass and trees and rocks and a general store.”

  I rolled my eyes. “There’s got to be more than that.”

  “If you say so.”

  Doc snorted from the back.

  “Hey, no comments from the peanut gallery,” I said, looking in the rearview mirror.

  He chuckled.

  “I think there’s something weird about this…Kitz-…place,” Lucy said.

  “Do you have a bad feeling?” I wanted to ask what else she had a bad feeling about, but I was probably pushing my luck.

  “Maybe. I’m not sure. It’s just weird.” She crossed her arms.

  “Okay. I’ll keep my eyes open.”

  Lucy stared out the window.

  “Did the Order give you any indication as to what this case is about?” Tabby asked.

  “You know what they told me. I guess whoever we need to meet will get in touch with us. Martin said he’d let them know we’re coming.”

  ‘That’s ever so comforting,” Tabby said.

  ‘Tell me about it. I’m already having flashbacks of Arizona.”

  “Ever notice how we always refer to the last case we dealt with?” Tabby asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, in Arizona, everything was like Sorrow’s Point. Now, everything is like Arizona.”

  I laughed. “God help us if next time everything is like Kitzmiller.”

  “I have a feeling that, if that’s the case, we’ll have done nothing wrong.”

  “Or something fantastic.” Hey. Might as well be positive.

  “That too.”

  “How much longer do we have to do this?” Lucy asked.

  “What, drive?” I asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Still a few hours left,” I said.

  “I’ve decided I don’t like car rides,” Lucy said.

  I laughed. The classic kid mantra.

  “Why not?” Tabby asked.

  “Because they’re long.”

  I chuckled. She was killing me today. “Well, want to play a game?”

  “Like what?”

  “A color game. My dad used to play it with us when I was a kid.” One of the few happy memories from my childhood I had, but I wasn’t about to lay that on her.

  “Okay. How does it work?”

  Woot. I had her attention. “It can be the color of something in the car that we all can see. Then, once you’ve chosen the thing, you say, ‘Willy, Willy, I, Dee, Dee. I see something you don’t see and the color is—whatever the color of your thing is. Then, we all have to guess.”

  “Okay!” Lucy said.

  At least she wasn’t bored anymore.

  #

  We decided to stop in Morgantown for lunch. At least they had lots of places to go. It was still springtime, so I didn’t have to worry about leaving Isaac in a hot car.

  “Any suggestions?” I asked as I pulled into town.

  “Well, the Indian restaurant went downhill when I was here last.” She drummed her fingers on the dashboard. “Want Italian?”

  “Fine with me. Where?”

  “Go to the town center. There’s one up there,” Tabby said.

  “You’re cleansing us,” I said. I remembered that when she’d come to Sorrow’s Point, she’d smelled like garlic. Tricky witch.

  She shrugged. “Sort of. It’s not like I meant for it to happen exactly.”

  I nodded. “I’m not mad. I find it interesting that you do it even without thinking about it.”

  “Guess I’m used to it.”

  “It was easy in Arizona with Vespa’s love of pizza.” I’d never eaten so much damn pizza in my life.

  Tabby laughed. “That it was.”

  “Anything else we can be doing?”

  She smirked. “Nothing legal.”

  Doc snorted.

  “I don’t think I’m even going to ask,” I said.

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Tabby said, then got an evil glint in her eye.

  #

  After lunch, we headed to Oakland, Maryland. That was the closest town to Kitzmiller. The scenery was already changing. There were a lot more trees. The green leaves were still that lighter green they were after they first budded.

  Checking in happened without a glitch. As I was unloading the car at the hotel, my phone rang. I almost dropped my suitcase.

  I fumbled with my pocket and finally retrieved my phone.

  “Hello?” I asked after I swiped the screen and put the phone to my ear.

  “You the marker?” he asked.

  His voice was gruff and countrified. Okay. One, I wasn’t used to people calling me that. Two, I wanted to know their ulterior motive.

  “Who’s calling?” I asked.

  “Name’s Sam Moore. Got your number through your boss.”

  Well, that part checked out.

  “How’d you know I was here?” It wasn’t like I had a special GPS tracker or anything. Or, at least, I knew the Order hadn’t given him one. They might be accessing my phone. At this point, I didn’t put anything past them.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  Maybe I was getting way too paranoid. “Never mind. We just got here.”

  “All right. Call me back when you’re ready to meet.”

  “Okay. Sounds good.”

  “Yup.”

  Then he hung up. I was starting to wonder what happened to normal telephone etiquette.

  I hauled the suitcase and Tabby’s large witchy bag up to the hotel room, then knocked on the door.

  She opened it soon after. “What took you so long?”

  I hauled the luggage inside and set it on the bed. “Our contact got in touch already.”

  “Damn. That’s fast.”

  Glad it wasn’t only me that felt it was odd. “Tell me about it. Makes me feel kind of weird.”

  Isaac meowed from his carrier.

  Tabby rushed over and let him out. He leaped free and darted under the table Doc had settled at.

  ‘That doesn’t look good,” I said.

  “Do we have time for me to ward the room?” Tabby asked.

  “Looks to me like we’d better make time.” I wasn’t going to take any unnecessary risks.

  Tabby grabbed her witchy stuff. I snatched the remote from the nightstand and turned the TV on for Lucy. No sense in her being without it when she didn’t have to be.

  “Thanks, Jimmy,” she said.

  “No problem, kid.”

  I sat on the bed and watched Tabby go through her routine. She used sage and a few other herbs, wound together in a stick and lit one end. Then, she went to all the heating vents, windows, and doors to the room and drew symbols with holy water. Each symbol glowed green like it usually did.

  Tabby’s magic always looked green to me. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it had something to do with the type of magic she did. Since I had no one to ask, I shrugged it off and put it on the “to be answered” list. That list was getting pretty damn long.

  I’d seen other colors come out of her magic before, but the predominant color was green. It reminded me of nature. That was probably a good thing.

  It didn’t take her long. Maybe twenty minutes and then she extinguished the herb bundle. The smell was pungent, but not horrible. Just herby and burnt.

  “That should do it,” she said.

  “I love watching you work.”

  She paused, then blushed. “You’re crazy.”

  “Nope. Really. It’s cool watching you do what you do.” Hell, I wished I could do it.

  She shook her head. “Well, thanks, I guess.”

  “Should I call the guy?” I asked.

  “Might as well.” She sat on the bed beside me.

  I pulled my cell phone free and dialed the number.

  “Mr. Holiday?” the guy asked.

  “Yup. Where do you want to meet?” I was hoping it was going to be a decent place and not some hole in the wall.

  “Where are you staying?”

  “The Best Western in Oakland.”

  Tabby was making odd faces at me.

  I rolled my eyes. She could be such a dork.

  He paused for a minute. “There’s a diner down the road. I forget the name, but it’s only a couple of places from the hotel. How ‘bout I meet you there in a half-hour?”

  “Works for me. My assistant and I will see you there.” I wasn’t ready to eat again, but whatever.

  “All right.” And the guy hung up again.

  “Must be a cultural thing,” I mumbled to myself.

  “What?” Tabby asked.

  “Never mind. We’re to meet at a diner nearby in a half an hour.”

  “Guess we’re officially involved then.”

  “Guess so.”

  “Do we have to go?” Lucy asked.

  “No. You and Doc are staying here I think.” There wasn’t a reason at all for them to come along. “If someone breaks in, do what you did in Italy.”

  She grinned at me. “Okay.”

  What was I getting myself into?

  Chapter Sixteen

  POSSESSION

  TABBY AND I headed down to the lobby. I stopped at the front desk. After a minute, a young girl with long brown hair came over.

  “Can I help you, sir?” she asked.

  “How do we get to the local diner?” I asked her. It was much easier than checking online. Besides, Sam hadn’t even told us the name of the place.

  “Turn right at the parking lot. It’s a couple of places down. Look for the sign that says, ‘Mabel’s.’”

  “Okay. Thanks.” If I’d been wearing a hat, I would have tipped it to her. Maybe Doc was rubbing off on me.

  When we got to the car, Tabby paused. “Are you ready for this?”

  I shrugged. “It’s not like that part matters, does it? I have to do this, or you and I are going to have to get very creative about our finances.”

  Tabby got into the car and I crawled into the driver’s seat. What I wanted to do was spend the rest of the day hiding in the hotel room, but that wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’m thinking we’d better start saving more anyway,” Tabby said as I pulled out of the parking lot.

  “For what?”

  “So you aren’t beholden to the Order forever.”

  I didn’t answer. In a way, she was probably right, but this wasn’t the time for that conversation. I had to stay focused. Demon time was upon us.

  I spied the Mabel’s sign about two seconds later and had to slam on the brakes not to miss it. It was an older, smallish sign with “Mabel’s” spelled out in cursive writing.

  “Jesus Christ,” Tabby said.

  “Sorry. The oaf can’t handle doing more than one thing at a time.” I pulled into a parking spot.

  Tabby waited until we were about going into the restaurant. “You are not an oaf.”

  She stepped past me and entered the restaurant.

  I had to smile. I got that goofy feeling in my gut. My girl loved me.

  It was an old-timey-looking place with chintz curtains. I stepped over to the “Please Wait to Be Seated” sign, but then Tabby poked me on the arm. I stared at her. She was pointing at a guy dressed in a plaid shirt that was unbuttoned. He was waving us over.

  I followed Tabby’s lead.

  The guy stood up from the table and held his hand out to me. I noticed he had sidestepped Tabby. That, I wasn’t too crazy about. Countrified or not, being a dick wasn’t going to get you on my good side.

  I took it and shook.

  “Mr. Holiday. I’m glad you could make it,” he said.

  I nodded and sat down. Tabby sat beside me.

  I pointed to her. “This is Tabby. My assistant.”

  “Sam Moore. Nice to meet ya, ma’am.”

  She smiled. “Nice to meet you, too.”

  She was good at hiding her real feelings. I had to give her that. I knew, in a different situation, she would have kicked his ass.

  Sam turned back to me. His eyebrows were bushy. I was tempted to get out a weed whacker to trim them.

  “I thought we’d get somethin’ to eat while I explain this mess.”

  The food made sense. These were country people. If you didn’t share a meal with them, they figured you couldn’t be trusted. “Sounds good to me.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22