What Voodoo Do You Do? Read online

  The woman pinged right off the back of the cell and flew toward the door, hitting it hard enough to rattle the entire structure. She howled and snarled, slimy black spittle coating the bars and the floor beyond.

  But the spell seemed to hold.

  The male lunged toward Mavis, his running lope and sagging jaw reminding me of a cross between a large ape and a zombie. His red eyes glowed brighter as he zeroed in on my family.

  That was it. I was so over demons. Done. Narrowing my gaze on the monster as his clawed feet left the ground, I gathered all the magic in my core with a thought and flung it in his direction. The energy flew away from me in an unfocused wave, slamming into the male and enshrouding him in a sizzling wash of power that held him locked into place mere inches from Bev and Mavis. The building groaned under the force of the rabid energy and rocked on its foundation, dust sifting down on our heads.

  Still, the demon fought my control, managing to move a foot and the fingers of one hand within seconds. I wouldn’t be able to hold him for long.

  I looked at my mom and sister. “Get out!” I screamed, my voice reverberating unnaturally around the room.

  “We’re not leaving you,” Mavis screamed back.

  One of the demon’s arms wrenched free of my hold and his hand shot toward Mavis, the clawed fingers wrapping around her throat. The demon lifted her off the ground as she clawed at his fingers. Her eyes bulged and her mouth worked, fighting to draw air into her lungs.

  Bev threw another spell at the creature. It hit him in the face like a giant fist. He staggered back but held onto Mavis.

  Bev threw herself at him, clawing at his eyes. I wrapped an arm around his neck from the back and tried to choke him out. If we could get the human body to pass out, we might have time to restrain the demons before they woke up again.

  A door slammed in the distance, and heavy footsteps pounded toward us. “Get down!” Davis yelled.

  Bev and I dropped just as the cop shot the male in the neck with a large dart. Mavis was purple in the face, and she was going limp.

  I knew we had only seconds.

  I looked at Davis. “Blade!”

  He reached into his waistband and yanked out what looked like a hunting blade. It was ten inches long with a serrated edge. He slid it across the floor in my direction.

  I snatched it up and, before I could think about what I was doing, slashed down on the demon’s wrist, infusing the blow with energy.

  With a howl of pain that had an all-too-human edge to it, The demon staggered back, its bleeding stump of an arm clutched in one hand. Mavis sagged toward the floor, but Bev caught her before she hit her head.

  Davis shot another dart into the demon as it stumbled, trying to renew its attack.

  “Get her out of here,” I told Bev. She nodded, finally realizing the wisdom of my suggestion.

  Thank the goddess.

  “I’ll be back after I get her to safety.”

  I shook my head but had no breath left to argue. My knees were like rubber, and my arms were weak. The adrenaline that had been keeping me afloat was starting to wane.

  I was going to be as weak as a kitten by the time we got out of there.

  The male was finally starting to succumb to the darts Davis had pumped into him. Unbelievably, it had taken five of the things to slow him down.

  The chief was peppering the woman with darts as I watched, knife in hand in case he got into trouble.

  My mind raced. We no longer had a spelled cage to keep them in. I needed to get creative. I wracked my brain, looking for a solution.

  Then it hit me, and I sent out a call to the only person I knew could help. I need you.

  In the space of a single heartbeat, Reverend Dodson was floating up through the stone floor.

  “Aggy?” His wispy form floated a few feet away, his gaze finding the possessed humans and narrowing. “Ah. Poor souls.”

  I wanted to agree. I’d felt the same way. Before. “We need to stop them from breaking out of here. The only hope of saving them is to keep them contained until we deal with the vortex.”

  He nodded, his hands folded serenely at his waist. He thought about it for a moment, his gaze sliding around the room. “You need a field of consecrated ground.”

  “Yes.”

  “Very smart.”

  “Thank you. I’m afraid we need to do it fast, though. We’re having trouble keeping them down.”

  He nodded. “Alright then. I’ll get started. Can you get me some things?”

  “Of course.” I pulled out my phone, tapping the notes app. “What do you need?”

  A minute later, I called Bev to find out how Mavis was. “She’s ticked off but fine,” my sister told me, a smile in her voice. “It’s all I can do to keep her from coming in there again.”

  “I have a job for you two that might keep her busy enough to forget about flinging herself at a demon.”

  “Good.”

  “Reverend Dodson is going to create a barrier of consecrated ground to keep the demons in the cell. He needs us to bring him these things. I rattled off the items on the screen, which included sanctified water, several large crosses, and a rosary. I’ll text you the list. Can you get these things fast?”

  “We’ll be back as soon as we can.”

  “Thanks,” I told her. I disconnected and watched the male twitch as if he were trying to wake up. Glancing at Davis, I asked. “How many more of those darts do you have?”

  He snorted and shot another dart into the man. The demon-possessed went limp again. “Two more boxes. I’ll go get them.” He started toward the office and stopped, coming back to me. He pulled a gun from the back waistband of his jeans, handing it to me. “If all else fails.”

  I frowned but took it. The gun might kill the human hosts, which was exactly what I didn’t want. But I couldn’t keep chopping parts off of them either. I sighed, my choices limited. “Thanks. Can you help me pull him into the cell with the female before you leave? At least that will slow them down a bit if they wake up before you get back.”

  “Happy to. We should tie that arm off too. He’ll probably lose it, but we can at least keep him from bleeding to death.”

  A few minutes later, I watched Davis leave, wishing I could go with him. But I couldn’t leave. I was the only thing between the demons and the door. And goddess help me if it came down to me keeping them there by myself. I was almost too tired to stand.

  With a sigh, I leaned back against the wall, not daring to sit for fear I’d fall asleep, and watched Reverend Dodson walk around the cell, clutching his ghostly rosary and softly chanting.

  The door slamming at the end of the hall jerked me out of a doze. I straightened away from the wall and scrubbed at my face.

  Footsteps moved down the hall toward me. I waited in silence, expecting to see Davis returning with more darts.

  I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  It took me a moment to react to the seven-foot-tall creature with straight black horns that stuck out to the sides of its head and a narrow, triangular face. The creature’s dove-gray skin had a scaled aspect to it, the scales more texture than actual scaling. The eyes, exotically slanted, were black with fiery centers. Its hands looked surprisingly delicate against the oversized body, and its legs were bent, like a goat’s hind end, with split hooves like a farm animal.

  A lost one!

  Power bit at my fingertips as I drew energy without even thinking. But the creature stopped and folded its hands, cocking its strangely delicate head and staring at me through those unusual eyes. “I mean no harm.”

  The door slammed again, and footsteps pounded toward us. I held the energy, not wanting whoever it was to get caught in the crossfire. “I won’t let you have them,” I told the creature.

  It shook its head, a halo of soft blonde hair swaying with the motion. I frowned at the hair…the calm demeanor…and the relative delicacy of the creature. “You’re a lost one,” I said.

  It nodded. “Yes.”


  “You can’t have these demons. If you try to take them, I’ll have to kill you.” I only hoped I could live up to my bluff.

  Ferral emerged from the hallway, his movements tight with anger. Settling a snapping gaze on the lost one, he growled out. “I told you to wait for me in the office.”

  The creature’s smile would have been more attractive if it wasn’t filled with so many deadly teeth. “I was curious.”

  I glanced at Ferral. “You brought this thing here?”

  The lost one’s delicately slitted nostrils flared at my insult, but I didn’t care. Her kind had attacked my people and me not too long ago, sending one of the people I was supposed to protect to the Elysium Fields. I’d carry his death and my failure to save him to my grave.

  Ferral held up a hand, his angry expression turning on me. “Hold your magic and your judgment, Aggy,” he said. “Let me explain.”

  I settled onto the balls of my feet, my energy firmly held at the ready. “I’m listening.”

  He frowned. “Remember when I told you earlier that I had a…situation?”

  I nodded. “When I asked why you were gone for so long.”

  “Yes.” He jerked his head toward the lost one. “The princess here was the situation I was referring to.”

  Well, that was as clear as tar. “Explain.”

  The “princess” cocked her head in his direction, a closed-mouth smile on her strange face. She appeared to be amused by his obvious struggle to explain her presence there.

  The hall door slammed shut again. More footsteps. Davis’s voice preceded him down the hall. “Sorry that took so long. I had to dig in my supply room to find more darts…” He jolted to a stop and paled, one big hand clutching a box and the other his dart gun. “What in the world?”

  I held up a hand. “Don’t shoot it, Davis. Ferral was just telling me why he brought it here.”

  The lost one’s lips curved higher, exposing a mouth full of nasty teeth.

  The chief turned another shade paler and took a step back. “Aggy.”

  “Yeah?” I said, watching him closely for signs that he was going to pass out.

  “On the subject of that magic stuff you told me about?”

  I cleared my throat and looked away so he wouldn’t see me smile. “Yeah?”

  “I believe you.”

  I chuckled then. I couldn’t help it. “Thanks, Chief.”

  Looking back and forth between us, Ferral’s brows lowered. “If we could get to the matter at hand?”

  “I’m waiting on you for that,” I told him, not fond of his judgy tone of voice.

  “As I was saying, the princess surprised me out there. It took me a moment to understand that I was seeing a full-blown lost princess in Rome in broad daylight. By the time I’d gathered my wits about me…”

  “What he’s trying to say is that I kicked his furry butt,” the princess interrupted.

  I barked out a laugh when Ferral’s arrogant face darkened to purple. “I believe I gave as good as I got.”

  She snorted, reminding me a lot of Wanda, which made me wonder how old she was.

  “Yet here you both are,” I said. “Together. In a protected place.” I lifted my brows at Ferral, letting him know, in case he’d missed it, that I wasn’t happy with his choice to bring the demonic creature to the jail when we already had our hands full with the two we had.

  “She offered to help,” he growled out.

  “And you believed her?” I snapped back.

  “Yes. I know you have a sour taste in your mouth from the lost ones we encountered before…”

  “You could say that,” I responded.

  “Layla is different.”

  I crossed my arms and gave him the look my mom used to give me when I’d told her a whopper. Unfortunately, not having been blessed with kids, I hadn’t been able to use it as much as I’d have liked. But I’d learned over the years that it was equally useful against men. I mean, since they were mostly like giant children. “You don’t say?”

  He glared at me, fuming.

  I’ll admit it. I was enjoying his discomfort. He was usually way too cool and collected for my taste.

  “He is correct, Madam Lares,” the princess said. “Have you not read our history?”

  I hadn’t, but I didn’t want to admit that I was a newbie in the magical world. I already felt too much like an impostor as a guardian deity who had no clue how to guard or…deit. I winced. “I know that you’ve been cast out of the demonic realm, and you want to go back.”

  The creature held up one long finger with a thick claw at the end. Unbelievably, the claw was painted in a French manicure.

  That made my eyes go wide.

  “You speak of the lawless, lower castes,” she told me. Her tone when speaking about the other lost ones sounded a lot like Ferral’s. Judgy and a bit arrogant. “I am royalty. We do not wish to return to that inhospitable place. We are happy here.”

  I blinked in surprise. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously,” she verified.

  I narrowed my gaze on her. “How many of you are there?”

  Shrugging, she examined her claws with a critical eye. “I do not have an exact count. There are many.”

  Realizing she wasn’t going to give me specifics, I asked, “You say you can help?”

  She nodded.

  “How?”

  The princess strolled toward the cage that contained our demon-possessed couple. She moved with a surprisingly light step, given the awkward bend and heaviness of her legs. Reverend Dodson looked up as she passed him, inclining his head as if she weren’t something from a person’s worst nightmares.

  The creature inclined her head in response. She stopped in front of the cell and slid a critical gaze over it. Then she reached out and touched the metal, creating a spark with her touch. She pulled her hand back, but not as quickly as I would have, given that her fingertip was smoking. “I will give you two of my people to guard the possessed.”

  I glanced at Ferral. He nodded. “They are unsurpassed in strength in their domain. They are less so here, in an unnatural habitat, but they are still stronger than the possessed.”

  The princess threw him a look filled with disdain. “I beat your furry butt pretty handily,” she reminded him.

  Ferral sighed. “Yes, Princess Layla. You beat my furry butt.”

  Her gaze sparkled with mischief. “I’m up for a rematch anytime.”

  My advocate stared at her a long moment, something sneaky slithering through his pretty silver eyes. Finally, he inclined his head, a slight smile curving his lips. “You’re on. After we close the Hellmouth.”

  9

  Let Failure Pierce a Guardian’s Pride

  “So, about that vortex,” I said, meeting the lost princess’s gaze. “Can you close it?”

  The creature shook her head without hesitation. “I cannot.”

  I waited for her to explain, but she didn’t, so I glanced at Ferral.

  “She’s correct, Madam Lares. The lost ones cannot manipulate vortexes. If they could, they would no longer be lost.”

  I blinked at the simple logic in his statement. “Oh. Right.” I sighed. “Okay, can I leave you to handle this, then? I need to get with the rest of the council and see if we can come up with a plan.”

  “Of course, Madam Lares.”

  “I’ll see you later at home,” I told Ferral. I collected Monty on my way out, passing Bev and Mavis on the stairs.

  “Sorry we took so long,” Bev said when she saw me. “We had trouble getting holy water. Saint Paul church is locked.” She frowned. “Father Ignacious never closes it. Something must be wrong there.”

  I bit back a sigh. She was right. I’d need to check on him. “Did you find the water?”

  Mavis nodded. “The Lutheran church had some.” She glanced toward the door. “You’re leaving? Does that mean the prisoners are secure?”

  “Sort of?”

  “Was that a question?” Bev a
sked.

  “Kind of?”

  Bev moved a jar of water and shifted some candles, looking harried. “Spill, Agnes.”

  I sighed. The full name thing meant she was cranky. “Ferral brought us a lost princess. She says she’ll give us two of her people to guard the possessed.”

  Mavis and Bev shared a look before pinning me with a dual glare. “And you just left that thing in there? It will release them as soon as we’re not looking. They’re all demons.”

  Technically, the lost ones were devils, but I figured it was a distinction without a difference. I shook my head. “Ferral seems very sure that it’s a good idea.” Descending to street level, I stopped with my hand on the knob, turning back to them. “Can your coven exorcise the demons from that couple in there?”

  Bev and Mavis shared a look. “We already tried, honey,” Mavis said. “While I was dressing your wounds Bev did an exorcism spell. It didn’t work.”

  I frowned. “Why not?”

  Bev shrugged. “We don’t know. We’re looking into it.” She didn’t look as if she had much hope they’d find a solution in time. I didn’t disagree with her. The demons had done a lot of damage to the Thomas’s in a short time.

  “Okay,” I said, disappointment burrowing deep. “Keep me posted on that.” I yanked the door open.

  “Wait, honey,” Mavis called out as I pushed the door open. “Where are you going?”

  “I need to check on the residents at Golden Years. I didn’t have time to do it because we had to rush here to stop three demons. Then I need to check on the priest at Saint Paul. Then somebody needs to monitor the town in case more of those things show up.”

  Just listing everything that needed to be done made me exhausted.

  “Okay, I get it. But you have a council for a reason,” Mavis said. “Use us.”

  She was right. “Yeah. Okay. I’ll do that. Can one of you break into the church and check on Father Ignacious?”

  Bev nodded. “Let me just get this stuff to the Rev, and I’ll go do that.”