The ground shook.Thick, billowing clouds of sand flew in every direction.Cactus whizzed through the air as if they were missiles searching for their target.
Weaving side to side, the front wheel of my Harley bounced off the overgrown grass and packed dirt that created a curb on the side of the crumbling asphalt.It took the efforts of Lou and me together to keep the motorcycle upright and moving forward.Scanning the horizon, I saw a deep crimson glow rising from the far east corner.
“Son of a bitch!”I spat.Squeezing the throttle, I poured on the speed and growled, “That bastard doesn’t even have to be here to ruin my night!”
3
Without further ado, I marched forward and stood before the threshold of the twelfth and final vortex.It had been a pain in the ass opening and using all those Magical passages, but it had also been very necessary.I had to hide my tacks.Fogarty could not find out where I was going, how I was getting there, or be able to follow or track me if he somehow got wind that I was no longer in Gravesland.If he did, I had no doubt the bastard would kill me and make up another fantastical story about how I’d run off that his followers would spread like wildfire, so no one looked for me.
That’s what he’d done with when my mom ‘disappeared’.I knew it.He knew it.The bastard was a murderer.
And I was going to get the evidence to prove it.
Crossing the threshold of the portal, time stood still.Caught in the Mystical vacuum of Ancient Heatherton Necromancical Enchantment, it was as if the whole of the universe whirled and twirled around me even though I felt and heard nothing.It was fantastical, the stuff fairy tales are made of, and just one of the many wonders of the world that we Supernaturals got to experience.I thanked the Morrigan and the Universe just as I had been taught and had passed on to Iona.
The thought of my sister reminded me of the horrible fight we’d had before I left…
“No!”That single word, not yelled, rather spoken matter-of-factly, held just enough of Iona’s Magic that I felt it in my heart.She was still highly pissed but had grabbed onto her steely determination with both hands and was going to mount a defense she believed would convince me to let her come along on my first foray into criminal activity.
Well, that shit was never going to happen.I had no clue what I was walking into.Arrhythmia was a secret penal colony set up by Fogarty and his fraternity of fuckheads known as Stewards, after he illegally, unlawfully, and most definitely immorally revived a previously defunct, unlawful, and bigoted arm of the Southern Texas Branch of the Paranormal Council known as the Supernatural Stewards.
It wasn’t enough that they walked around like they owned the world.The idiots made up nonsensical laws with huge fines in a way to ‘legally’ steal from the Paranormal Community.When Fogarty got bored, he and his band of buffoons used the Magic they’d bastardized with hate and deals with the Devil to conjure a make-believe bomb detonation in the middle of the Chihuahuan Desert– and they did it up right.
The explosion had all the bells and whistles.The ground shimmied and shook– I was sure we were having an earthquake.As far north as Valentine, west as Mule Shoe and Holly Bush, west as Burning Hearts, and southeast as Bitter End, people were running around like Chicken Little just sure the sky was falling.
It wasn’t…
But that didn’t stop Fogarty and his shithead Stewards from spreading the word that the ‘damn humans’ were testing their ‘damn weapons’ in our desert.For a second, I thought he was trying to start another Civil War, then I realized what he was really up to.
As soon as Fogarty and his Stewards were sure enough people had bought into their bullshit story, the asshole I happened to be related to had ‘annexed’ the thirty-thousand square miles and enclosed every last inch of that stolen land behind Magical wards I knew were reinforced with Hell’s Sorcery.There was simply no way anyone, namely the Morrigan, the Celtic Triple goddess, Arawn, the Welsh god of the Dead, Hel, the Norse goddess of Helheim, or Scáthach, the Warrior goddess who guards the Veil, had helped Fogarty hornswoggle innocent Indigenous Tribes and other Supernaturals who’d called that part of the Chihuahuan Desert home.It was the only thing that made sense.I had done my research.There was literally no other way that it could have happened so quickly.
More evidence of a well-thought-out plan was that they waited a few years before declaring they’d found a way to clean up the toxic debris.When people asked for their land back, Fogarty said it was too late.He further produced genuine legal documents stating that he had ‘saved and improved’ the land and, thus, it now belonged to the Supernatural Stewards.
After ten years of legal battles, the poor people trying to get their land back were broke.Fogarty had once again won.
But it wasn’t enough for the Grand Poobah of Assholes.
He turned the town he’d built, named Arrhythmia because it was now the Heartbeat of the Desert, or so he said, into a penal colony.Although I believe it had been that all along.Then, to add insult to injury, he convinced the true Paranormal Council to use Arrhythmia as a last chance option for ‘Monsters’ who couldn't get along in the normal world.
I knew he’d built it, warded it against all prying eyes– both human and Paranormal– because it sat squarely over the largest and most powerful Hellmouth on our side of the globe–a fact I knew he did not share with the true Council.That was the ‘heartbeat’ the asshole was referencing as he laughed with his Stewards at the way he’d bamboozled everyone.I also knew, because I’d been able to talk to some of the rather dubious Recently Deceased over the years, and they confirmed that he’d been dumping the souls of his enemies into that Hellmouth pretty much since he discovered it.
That’s how I figured out what he’d done with my mom.It was the only thing that made sense.There is no way she would run off without taking Iona and calling me.
For all these reasons and so many more, I stopped counting.I could not and would not let my little sister go with me.I was breaking and entering Arrhythmia, Texas, for cripes’ sake.Nobody could say I wasn’t starting my criminal career off with a bang.It was a penal colony, for cryin’ out loud.Not that I believed those being held there were Monsters, but if the true Council was sending criminals there, then I couldn’t take the chance with Iona’s safety.Not to mention, I was opening a Hellmouth without following the proper procedure, but by using a very old, pretty much unknown, and ‘maybe’ extinct exemption and the Power of my Rainbow Moonstone.
I thought about reminding Iona that she was not even close to one hundred yet, and therefore, did not have her own Rainbow Moonstone, and thus, did not have the Power needed to defend herself against anyone with more than rudimentary Magic.However, I knew those facts would lead to a whole other argument, and damn it all to hell, I was running out of time.
I had to make her see reason without letting her know that she was indeed seeing reason and therefore, agreeing with me.Not an easy task even for me– the Queen of BS.
The bottom line was, I would never knowingly let my little sister walk into danger– and I was most definitely walking straight into danger with my eyes wide open.That’s just all there was to it.I got to make stupid decisions for myself.I did not get to do it with Iona’s life, and neither did she.It didn’t matter that she thought she was Wonder Girl and invincible, untouchable, and Teflon-coated.
It.Wasn’t.Going.To.Happen.
Sadly, I couldn’t just say those words to her, get up, and leave.That was not how it worked with us– the women of the Heatherton Family.Not only were we curvy and courageous with red hair and emerald eyes, but we had more sass than the average woman and a stubborn streak a mile wide.
So, the debate with Iona had taken way longer than it should have, and ended up costing me the newest MacBook Pro with all the bells and whistles, the most recent style of Uggs (even though we lived in one of the hottest places in the world), and the use of my credit card with the highest limit at the Galleria on a date to be determined when I got back home.
Shaking myself out of my memory just as there was a single flash of light and a whoosh of air, I stepped into the cool, night air of the Chihuahuan Desert.Looking at the full moon, high in the sky, I knew I’d made it just in time.Not only did I need the Magic of Rhiannon, the Celtic Goddess of the Moon, but I needed the extra oomph all of us Enchanted Ones got during the Witching Hour.
