Bedelia felt a dimple form and then fall away.
“That glamoured female sent Liz on a search for a dog, one supposedly lost after a car accident, off the mountains from Morton’s Tunnel and Morton’s lookout, in the gorge.”
“Dangerous country.”
“Yes. Liz and Eli took the job together. They have a witch fob that’s supposed to be trackin’ the lost dog. Pardon me, Bee.” He took a call from Alex Younger, a young man aligned with the Dark Queen, Jane Yellowrock. Linc said, “I understand. Thank you,” and ended the call. He continued his story to her. “Instead of a lost dog, they found a demon bound into a leyline and it got free. Eli called for backup and extrication via helicopter, but the terrain’s rugged and right now there’s no moon to facilitate finding a safe landing site, and no moon up yet means Cia can’t assist fighting the demon. Liz and Eli are currently safe beneath ahedge of thorns, but they can’t last the night and Liz can’t fight the demon alone.”
As Linc detailed the problem, Bedelia’s heart flew from concerned to panic. She put a hand to her chest and gripped the labradorite focal stone. The amulet warmed, reacting to her fear. She took a calming breath. Another. But she reached out through the focal to her daughters.Yes. Liz is in danger. Linc glanced at her, his eyes intense and kind. “What else?” she asked when she was calm. Because with vampires and witches working together there was always more.
“Brute, the white werewolf aligned with Jane Yellowrock, indicated there’s a rabid werewolf pack in the vicinity. Alex Younger has discovered that Connie Carroll was bitten by a werewolf in the last attacks. She was in custody during her first full moon and didn’t go furry, but he thinks she’s furry now.”
Bedelia tightened her grip on her focal. The werewolf taint would destroy the mind of any bitten female. She shoved away all the things that needed to be said about Evangelina and about the two of them and their past. Saving Liz was the only thing that mattered right now. “Delayed transformation?”
“Or bitten again. Perhaps on purpose. There are such people.”
“What are the plans?”
“Eli Younger put a wifi in a tree. We have their GPS. Half an hour before the moon begins to rise, the helo will take off, carrying Cia, Jane, the white werewolf, and me if we have completed our part, or two of my best Mithran warriors if we’re still engaged, to a landing zone yet to be discovered. The twins, working together, can deal with the demon. Jane, Brute, Eli, and the Mithrans can take out the werewolves, including Connie Carroll. You and I, if you chose to accept this mission…” his smile grew at the allusion to an old TV show, “will track down the witch, Shania Mayhew, and take her into custody.” Linc watched her carefully. “And then turn her over to the witch council for null room sentencing.”
Bedelia frowned at him. “I don’t need the help of the witch council to protect my family.”
“No. You’re a warrior. And I adore you.”
Bedelia’s eyes flew to his. She opened her mouth say the things that were cracking open in her heart. Instead, she said, “Do we know where this Shania Mayhew is staying?”
“Yes. She rented a house above the French Broad River, just beyond Paint Rock. It rises above the river by a hundred feet or so, right where the river curves—”
“Green shutters? Freshly painted? Across from a small horse pasture?”
Linc looked surprised for a moment. “Yes. How did you—”
Interrupting him again, Bedelia shoved back from the table. “That’s the old gathering place of the Coraville coven back in the eighteen seventies. There’s a stone circle buried below the ground. It’s aligned with the cardinal points, with the motion of the French Broad River, and with a small leyline deep beneath the river. I helped to seal the circle when the Coraville witches died out.” And left behind them a prophecy that promised the circle would be sought by evildoers and had to be sealed. But Lincoln Shaddock did not need to know that at all. No non-witch needed to know that. “I’ll need a moment.” Bedelia walked away with purpose, moving down the hallway to her room, cell at her ear, calling for her human daughters to come sit with their grandmother.
When the family calls were in place, Bedelia opened her closet and stepped inside. She wrapped her hand around a prybar on the top shelf, shoved clothing aside, and bent in half. She raised the prybar overhead and slammed it against a cross-support in the corner. Again. Again. Over and over. It took too long, but the supplies she needed were things she wasn’t supposed to have, things she had hidden in the false wall of her closet.
As she worked, she considered the reinforcement witch power she would need to help. Two were old friends she kept up with on Facebook and Twitter. They knew the circle Linc had described because they’d been part of the larger group of witches who had closed and sealed the underground Coraville circle long ago. Moonrise would be perfect for Mable. Clara Anne had buried some stones at north. Bedelia had buried things there too: three focals tied to the circle and to a marble outcropping below the earth not too far away. If she was lucky, the rosemary plant she’d gifted to the previous owners two decades ago would still be growing there. Assuming they hadn’t killed it, she would have all her best elements on hand.
The prybar broke through the drywall, exposing the space between her closet and the bedroom on the other side. “Yessss,” she hissed. She grabbed up all the magical amulets. Moving fast, she bagged the stuff she’d hidden, pulled leggings on under her housedress, added wool socks, hiking boots, and layered on two shirts. She stuffed the bagged items from the back of her closet into a small shoulder bag and snatched a bulky old-lady sweater off a hanger. The sweater belonged to her mother. Linc would hate it.Good.
Quickly she set up a conference call between Mable and Clara Ann to explain the problem. Both witches agreed to meet at the buried Coraville circle. They would help to call the enemy witch. Good friends. They always had each other’s backs.
She grabbed up her keys and strode back through the kitchen. She stopped when she saw Linc still sitting at the table. “What,” she demanded, wondering why he was still here.
“Bedelia, my darlin’. You left before I could complete my commentary. Shania Mayhew has likely made a pact with the rogue werewolf pack. There may be more of them waiting for you at the rental house, knowing you would track Shania down.Werewolves, Bee.”
She stopped short. “Well, that’s atwice-damnedsituation,” she said.
He smiled slightly. “I have three of my best Mithran fighters in an SUV on the road down from your property and another watching the house Shania rented. They’re weaponed up with silver-shot. Vampires don’t go furry. You and your witches will, however, if they get to you. We’ll follow you to the house Shania rented and keep watch while you call and fight the witch. We’ll kill any wolves that attack.”
Bedelia tried to think a way through this. When she was younger there were no were-creatures in the area. She had never been forced to think in terms of battling them. She didn’t want to accept Linc’s help. But.Werewolves… anddemonsand—
She shook her head violently. “I accept.” Formally, she said the words that would bind her to him. “I accept this help offered to the Everhart Clan witches by the Master of the City of Asheville. What boon will I owe you?”
A slow smile pulled across Linc’s face.Thatsmile. If the devil had a smile it was that one. “Dinner with me,” he said. “At a time and place of my choosing.”
“No blood sharing.”
“One sip each,” he bargained.
