“Your concern isn’t necessary. I’ve got this,” Tianna cut her off, and the air within the van crackled with an unseen power.
Bertie crossed her arms over her ample, sagging chest, making me glad for like the thousandth time since she’d arrived at the precinct that I didn’t live in Cottage Grove with the rest of the crazy Blacks. She narrowed her steely, wrinkled eyes at Tianna. “I’ll be watching you.”
“And I you,” Tianna shot back before pinning her attention on Cho.
Cho was somber, sitting on the edge of her seat. “We’ll have to be fast out there. We—”
“You can’t hurry good magic,” Bertie interrupted.
Willemena huffed and flung her hands in the air. “Will you shut up, woman?”
“Hey! Don’t talk to my mother that way,” Johnny said. “Only I get to talk to her like that!”
Every Black in the vehicle voiced their complaints all at once.
At this rate we weren’t even going to make it to the fog demon before everyone killed each other.
From the edge of his seat, Brock, with glowing yellow eyes that promised his wolf was close to the surface, growled so viciously that everyone shut up all at once. He held Bertie’s eyes the longest. “There’s only room for one alpha in this van, and that’s me. Stop acting like children or my wolf is going to come out and do something about it.”
Johnny gave Brock a murderous look, and just as I was about to intervene, the van slammed to a halt.
Brock pounded on the wall that separated us from Detective Swanson. His door opened and ten seconds later we were pouring from the back of the van, fully enclosed in Tianna’s protective bubble. Molly and a few of my cousins jumped out of the other van, making their way over to us with the deputy right behind them, and slipped into Tianna’s bubble.
The fog was thicker here even than it had been at the station. This was definitely ground zero, where the demon seemed to be concentrated. We needed to cut off the problem at the source, or lots more people would be dying—and soon. Our priority had to be getting rid of the damn demon fog once and for all.
“Detective,” I called out, “I think you and your deputy should stay with us. The fog is out of control. If we can dispose of the fog demon, your officer and his family will be fine.”
Detective Swanson took one look at how dark, thick, and menacing the fog that surrounded us was and nodded curtly. “I don’t think we have a choice,” he lamented. “Let’s get this done.”
After that was settled, I was pleased to see that everyone left the squabbles behind and executed their part in the plan with perfect focus and efficiency. Detective Swanson and his deputy planted themselves on the edge of what I assumed was Gary’s lawn, gas masks firmly in place despite the fact that Tianna’s bubble encompassed them too. The green fog was so thick here that it made it hard to see the bush a few feet in front of me. This was definitely where it was strongest.
Brock, Cass, Molly, and I created a loose square around the witches and warlock, protecting their backs. Nothing was more important now than dispatching this fog demon. My five female cousins, Paula, Melody, Caroline, Amy, and Samantha, spread across the well-kept lawn to mark the outer five points of the pentagram. The strongest of the witches and warlock positioned themselves to mark out the inner points of the pentagram. Cho, Willemena, Johnny, Tianna, and Aunt Bertie settled within an arm’s length of my cousins, stances wide and firm.
“Ready?” Cho called out as the fog rolled against Tianna’s clear bubble. As if the fog realized what was about to happen, it pressed against the bubble, appearing to try to crush it.
If Tianna hadn’t been wearing her signature kickass confidence like an outfit, I might have been tempted to double check that the bubble would hold. But if Tianna was sure, then so was I.
“Here we go,” Cho said, louder than before as the fog gathered power, pounding against the bubble, sounding a bit like the break of the ocean.
The petite woman flung her arms out to the side and started chanting in rapid-fire Japanese. Where had my dad found this witch? She definitely knew what she was doing.
After a minute of calling out the spell from memory, a line of searing white fire burst to life between Cho and Willemena on the inside, and between Paula and Melody on the outside, forming the start of a physical pentagram of fire along the ground. Johnny looked at the witch with a raised eyebrow, and I knew he was impressed.
Cho, Willemena, Paula, and Melody spit on the ground, contributing their physical energy to the spell and anchoring it. When each of them had also pulled out a few strands of hair and thrown them to the fire in an offering, Cho moved on to the next part.
The fog pounded harder against Tianna’s bubble, shaking it, making it tremble like we were inside a layer of Jell-O. Brock, Cass, Molly, and I watched the bubble warily, ready to intervene if something were to go wrong. It was our job to protect the others while they completed the anchoring of the spell, though the best we’d be able to do against the fog was have Cass and I hurl our magic at it. This fog demon was a fearsome adversary.
After another minute of Cho’s chanting, white fire seared to life in another line, connecting Willemena to Tianna, and Melody to Caroline, completing the second line of the pentagram. Tianna and Caroline spit and tossed their hair, and Cho started chanting again, her arms still held aloft, facing out toward the encroaching fog.
When a third line blazed to life to connect Tianna to Johnny on the outside of the pentacle, and Caroline to Amy on the inside of it, the fog roared and thickened, coating Tianna’s bubble so densely that it became impossible to see outside of it. I cast a wary glance at Detective Swanson and his deputy where they cowered along the inside edge of the bubble.
“Is that supposed to happen like that?” the deputy asked, backing away from the fog and closer to the center of the protective bubble, stopping short of interfering with the pentacle. None of us were going anywhere until the spell was completed at this rate.
“Of course it’s supposed to happen like that,” Cass answered reassuringly, but I knew my bestie. He was just trying to calm the guy; he didn’t know shit about magic other than the few things he could do. Freaking out wouldn’t help anyone, and with the way the deputy’s entire face seemed to twitch, he was one more crazy experience away from losing it.
A shot rang out from the house then, immediately followed by screams. All of us protecting the witches and warlock swiveled in the direction of the house, though we could no longer make out its outlines.
“We have to help them,” Detective Swanson said, but even he had to know we were doing all we could to help his officer. Once we destroyed the fog, its hold on the man would break.
