“Withered and desiccated,” Occam murmured to me. “Not what we have here.”
It appeared that Jamie Lee Frost and FireWind were old acquaintances, if not friends. They fell into instant discussion, and the boss pulled T. Laine in. He left Occam and me out of the discussion. “He’ll be sending us back,” Occam said, “bringing Tandy from HQ again to deal with any interrogations. I’ll be glad when LaFleur and Racer get in from Chattanooga. And I’ll be glad to sleep a few nights in my own bed.”
I got a text from Mud, who should be on the way to school. I called her back. “Morning, Mud. Is it spurting blood, roaring flames, or dead bodies?”
“None a them. It’s worse. Esther’s gone home to her and Jed’s place. She’s got a gun.”
***
After a night with only a couple of hours sleep sandwiched between too many hours on my feet, I drove past the armed guards and onto the church compound. As I drove onto the property, the church guards watched me with scowling faces that told me exactly how unwelcome I was. I ignored them, if not their shotguns.
The fencing was being pressed outward by the vines and trunks of the vampire tree I had foolishly set to grow and guard the church, back when the tree was amenable to suggestions, and before I realized that it was truly intelligent and not just a plant I could push around like all the others I encouraged to grow.
I was learning the hard way what I was, what I could do by act of will, what my blood did all on its own, and I had made mistakes. I hoped the tree was a mistake I could control. I hoped the mess I had set in play with Esther staying at the farm was something I could control. Or fix. Or run away from. I’d take any of the options that didn’t end up with me or one of my sisters killing someone we loved or ending up dead at the hands of the church folk.
I motored down the road to Esther and Jedidiah’s place, aware of the scowls and anger on the faces of the church folk I passed. Mostly. It wasn’t easy, as the worst offenders were from the faction that had once wanted to see me burned at the stake. Still did. A big batch of armed menfolk were standing outsideof Jedidiah and Esther’s house. As I eased into the short drive, they turned to face me, silent, accusatory. I parked, checked my weapon and holstered it, took a deep breath. Got out of the car. Wearing pants, a wrinkled store-bought shirt, and a man’s-style blazer. With a gun peeking past the lapel, under my left armpit, a weapon I didn’t try to hide. And carrying a stench that had in no way dissipated on the drive back.
I walked toward the men who barred the way, standing in a line, shoulder to shoulder. Nine of them, a Lambert and a Vaughn standing with two McCormicks, and five more I didn’t recognize right off, all of them a little older than I was, all looking mean, staring at my legs and my chest, the way weak men did when they wanted to intimidate and remind a woman that she was a thing to be used. I smiled. I let the spark of whatever I was shine through my eyes, malevolent and violent and willing to feed the land with their blood. “Afternoon, boys,” I whispered. Two of the men flinched.Weak links. They’d run if things got bad. That was good to know. “Move aside. I need to speak with Jedidiah and his wife.”
“Jed done divorced her,” a man said.
“You’un caused this,” another said. “You’un created discord and discontent and brought anger unto this holy land.” The speakers were from the Jackson faction.
“Move. Aside,” I said. I felt leaves curling from my hairline, beneath the wild curls, a tickling, insistent sensation as my body reacted to the unspoken threat.
“Let her through,” Jedidiah called out. He was standing on the front porch.
“She’s a law enforcement officer,” a familiar voice said from behind me. Sam, my brother. Backup. And I knew he’d be armed. I caught a breath, dropped my shoulders, and unclenched my hand, which had been lifting for my weapon.
“She was called to deal with this,” another voice said from my other side. Ben Aden. The man who had wanted to marry me, who my entire family wanted to marry me, and who was engaged to one of my sisters. And whose brother, Larry, had wanted me and then kidnapped Mud, and who had—I stopped the thought, but it was the truth. I knew that. Larry had been eaten by the vampire tree. Mixed bag, but I’d take the backup.
The men forming a line in front of me moved aside, justenough to let me through if I shoved hard enough. They’d make it a point to force me to touch them. To be touched by them. I nearly froze at that thought and my leaves rustled against my nape; I wondered if I had leaves growing from the front too. I strode toward the small opening. Two arms, wearing different shades of plaid, reached out from either side of me and shoved the men in front out of my way. Sam and Ben. They shoved them hard, tandem strength, sending the two men closest and the ones next to them stumbling, opening up a clear line for me. I didn’t even have to slow down. As if my backup had planned it.
My heart beating too fast, I walked toward Jed, who was standing on his porch with a shotgun. I stopped at the base of the short stairs and took in the house with its newly painted green front door and shutters, the rocking chair to the side of the door, the windows open, and what looked like the barrel of a rifle in the front corner. Daddy had taught all his womenfolk how to shoot. I had a feeling I had gotten here just in time to stop a bloodbath. And blood on the land in my sister’s condition might be a very bad thing. “Jed,” I said, no emotion in the word.
“Nellie,” he said back.
“You planning to use that shotgun on Esther?”
His eyes narrowed and his mouth firmed. “You’un know better. I been protecting her from her own damn foolishness.”
I raised my eyebrows in a noncommittalyou don’t saygesture and waited. When a woman in pants, with a gun, didn’t talk to a churchman, it could be more effective in making him speak than when she cajoled.
“She’s refusing to leave,” he said. “She thinks she owns this house.”
I pursed my lips, thinking, remembering the moment that Esther had stopped talking when she and Mud and I had been discussing her future. Suddenly I wanted to laugh. “Esther,” I said, louder than necessary. “How much was your dowry?”
“Twenty thousand dollars,” she shouted back through the open window.
“What did he do with it?”
“Jed used most of it when he paid for the house.”
My laughter broke through, a single soft chuckle. Most houses passed through family lines. When a new house was needed, it had to be “purchased” from the church in a financialsleight of hand that worked out to a lifetime rental. Twenty thousand dollars was enough to purchase use of a house from the church. “Jed. You accused my sister of infidelity. You got proof? You see her with any other man? You catch her out? And don’t you lie to me. I’m an officer of the law and if I think you’re lying I’ll cart your sorry ass to jail.”
Jed flinched at my use of the wordass. He looked at the small cluster of men standing behind me. His tongue flicked out and touched his lips, top and bottom, in what looked like a nervous tic. Quietly, for my ears only, he said, “Esther’s growing leaves.”
Just as quietly, I said, “Yeah. This church has practiced inbreeding for two hundred years. Things from the old country, from the distant past, are beginning to break through, like the devil dogs. Like the leaves. That your kid in her belly?”
