Midlife Witch Hunter (The Forty Proof Series Book 6) Read online

  “Not friend,” he growled, sounding just like his more skeletal self.

  I smiled. “Okay, not friend.”

  The doorknob turned, and we all took another step back, as if were in a damn musical together and the big bad wolf was about to blow the door down. Maybe not a bad analogy, all things considered.

  The large door swung inward, and in the framed doorway stood a rather nondescript man. He was wearing a sweater vest over a long, checked shirt, khaki pants, and knee-high black rubber boots. His light-colored hair was a mess, but it was jammed under an orange baseball cap from Hooters, so you couldn’t see all of it. Just the ends sticking out in every direction.

  “Who the hell are you?” I blurted out. “Because I’d have remembered you from the council chamber.”

  He cleared his throat. “If you must know, I have to dress in accordance with the rules when I am in the council chambers. But I can dress as I like when I am outside of those walls.”

  “And this is what you like?” Suzy whispered. “Wow. I mean, that’s some serious balls.”

  He smiled as if she’d given him a compliment. “Yes, wow indeed. But let’s continue to the matters at hand. The council wants to speak with you.”

  I startled. “What?”

  He leaned forward but did not cross the threshold of the door as he repeated himself, this time at a much higher volume. “The. Council. Requests. Your. Presence. Immediately.”

  I grimaced. “Louder won’t make me say ‘what’ any less. You have actually got to be kidding me. They don’t like me. I don’t like them. There really is no good reason for me to go to talk to them. They don’t even believe me when I am trying to help. We all recall me trying to tell them just YESTERDAY that Joseph was an issue, correct? Right. So, goodbye.”

  I touched the bottom edge of the door with my boot and started to shut it. “Time for you to go, Mr. Brave, and take your damn rope-a-dope spell with you.”

  He pushed the door open, which wasn’t hard to do with just my toe stopping him. “No. You must come. They have something—or should I say someone—that you will want to see.”

  “Bad idea,” Robert said. “All your friends are here.”

  Were they though? Yes, my closest friends were present, but there were other people in my life who could be hurt. Other people whom the council could use against me. Bridgette. Charlotte. Crash.

  My jaw ticked. “When do they want me to come by for tea?”

  Penny grabbed at my arm and squeezed. I agreed with her concern, but I didn’t know what else to do. I mean . . . it was the council. They could hurt someone I loved. It could even be . . .

  I looked at Sarge. He locked eyes with me, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. Corb worked for the council. He’d disappeared after I’d shut him down. My gut twinged, and I knew that I was right.

  Damn it, it really could be Corb.

  We were at odds, but he was still someone I cared about.

  Which meant there was no choice but to go.

  Chapter

  Seven

  Knowing that Corb or one of my other friends could be in the council’s custody was the only thing that made me agree to speak with them. Mind you, my friends were not going to let me go alone, not after everything that had gone down in the last couple of days.

  Not after the council had poo-pooed me trying to get them to help me go up against Joseph and his zombies.

  Penny stood at my side on my left, Robert on my right, and Suzy, Eric, Feish, Sarge, and Jinx (though the council couldn’t see her) ranged out behind us. Eammon claimed that he had a few errands to run, but Penny whispered the truth to me as we stood in front of the council.

  “His brother, Oster Boon, is likely here. Apparently, they’ve been fighting.” Her dark eyes swept the room as she spoke from the corner of her mouth. I did the same, but there was no sign of the smaller figure of Oster Boon.

  “Brought quite the entourage today?” Roderick said from his seat near the front of the council room. He shook his head ever so slightly, his eyes worried. And then he locked eyes with Robert.

  They shared a moment, one that had Roderick narrowing his eyes at my friend. For his part, Robert gave the slightest tip of his head toward the council member. They’d been friends once, but Skeletal Robert hadn’t liked Roderick. Was it because he’d known Roderick was a vampire and had no way to tell me? Or was it something else?

  My mind skipped to Roderick. He’d given me that check hours before. Why hadn’t he said anything about the council wanting to speak to me? His eyes swept left and right, and then I got it. His small head shake said it all.

  He hadn’t known about this.

  Either that or something had happened in the few hours between his visit with me and now. Also a distinct possibility.

  “Well, you know how it is when you want to crash a party. Best to bring everyone. That and I didn’t feel like being wrapped up in screaming ropes again.” I shrugged as if that was nothing but took note of the looks the council members exchanged.

  “Lucas.” Roderick’s voice went gravelly.

  Lucas had swapped his casual outfit for a long black trench coat, black pants, and shirt. The Hooters hat was nowhere to be seen. He looked familiar now, in this place and dressed relatively normally. He bowed at the waist. “You said she would need to be convinced to come speak with us. I did not think there was a great deal of time, so I made a decision. My ropes could have brought her here quickly if she hadn’t cut through them. Which, I should point out, she should not have been able to do.”

  Roderick looked to me. “She has a habit of surprising people. Get used to it.”

  The compliment made me feel better than it should have. Especially coming from a vampire. Unlike his brother Joseph, though, Roderick seemed to want to stop the whole rising of the vampire army business.

  I took note that the oldest council member, Stark, sat in his usual chair, seemingly asleep, his head resting against the back of the chair. I say seemingly because the old fart wasn’t as mute and over the hill as he liked to pretend. He’d given me advice when no one was looking before. The council seemed to think he was a nincompoop, but their mistake had worked in my favor.

  “You going to tell her what the hell has happened or not?” A strident, ear-piercing voice crackled out of the darkness. The old guy snorted and slumped further into his seat at the sound of that voice.

  A voice I knew all too well.

  Of all the people I’d thought might be there, Missy hadn’t made the list. Missy, my gran’s ex-best friend, the lying witch who’d sided with Joseph, stolen my gran’s book, and . . . “What the actual duck is she doing here? Why is she not locked up somewhere? Or dead?” The words flowed out of me as I stepped forward. My hand reached for my knife before I thought better of it.

  Roderick held up a hand. “Missy has been working for this council for many years, but quietly. She infiltrated the Dark Council and has brought us information that we can use to stop what they are planning.”

  His eyes locked on mine, and I felt my insides turn sloppy, sloshing around. He was talking about the vampire army that the Dark Council was working to raise, something so much worse than the zombie infestation they’d created using Joseph’s skill set. “Are you sure she isn’t fooling you? Because she’s pretty good at that.”

  Roderick shook his head. “After you and I had our discussion this morning, I . . . spoke at length with Missy. She is not lying. She corroborated what you and your team have deciphered. That the Dark Council is indeed trying to bring about a new age of vampires.”

  The council members all shifted uncomfortably.

  Missy huffed and put her hands on her hips.

  Penny drummed her cane on the ground, drawing everyone’s eyes to her. “That one cannot be trusted, but I will agree with the rest.”

  “This from the witch who taught Homer and Marge their voodoo magic,” Missy sniffed.

  I didn’t look at Penny, but I’ll admit the shock was real. Maybe it shouldn’t have been, though. Hadn’t I just seen her with a voodoo doll? Yes, yes, I had. Then again, Marge herself wasn’t a bad person, more of a trickster. She went where the money led.

  Penny sighed. “That was a long time ago, Missy. And it’s a mistake I’ll own. More than you’ll ever own yours.” She drummed her cane again. “What information has she brought?”

  I was glad Penny was speaking, because it gave me the chance to study the council members.

  She and the council members went back and forth while I looked around.

  There were eight of them, which meant they’d lost a few. Roderick, Lucas, Stark. Jacob the necromancer was also present. The other four were not familiar to me. But I was looking for one person in particular. No-face Bruce. Where was he? I’d seen him with Roderick a few times, and he’d given me the damn willies. The guy was literally hard to look at. His features morphed and danced, making it impossible to actually see what and who he was. Everyone else was talking and I . . . well, I let my feet move me. I stopped in front of the first council member I didn’t know and stuck out my hand.

  If they were going to screw me over, then I wanted to know their names. “And you are?”

  The old white guy snorted. “I will not touch your hand.”

  “Your name,” I said.

  “No.”

  “Okay, No. Nice to meet you. I’m going to call you Fred.”

  I moved on down the line and was greeted with ‘I think not,’ ‘Go away’ and, my personal favorite, ‘Bitch.’

  Well, that rounded out the crew nicely. “Are you listening to any of this?” Roderick asked as I passed him.

  I returned to my spot at the front of the council room. Dredged up the words that had been said.

  “Missy thinks they’re still working on the spell. They stole the fairy cross, which I already knew, and suddenly she wants to help us. That about sum it up?” I raised my eyebrows and scrunched my nose.

  Roderick dipped his head, and Missy let out a long, low hiss.

  “You have no idea what you’re dealing with, girl.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Really? You think I don’t at this point? Clovis wants to raise an army of vampires. You think I don’t realize we’re racing against a clock that we can’t see the hands of? We don’t even know who’s really on our side, and who isn’t? Like you.”

  Even as I said it, a memory flashed through my mind. “You know what? That last bit isn’t true. You were on the dark side of Dr. Mori’s table.”

  I could feel the confusion rolling through the room. Of course, they didn’t know that Dr. Mori had a magic freaking table that showed where people stood in Savannah. In the shadows or the light.

  “What table would that be?” Roderick tipped his head, and I waved at him.

  “Never mind. I know Missy. She might say she’s trying to help you, but she’s just doing it to save her skin. Which means she’s worried for some reason. Maybe she lost clout with the Dark Council when Joseph died? Are they hunting for you now, Missy?”

  Her face paled and I nodded. “Thought so. Basically, unless you have some magical way of assessing whether she’s speaking the truth, I wouldn’t trust a thing she says.” I glared at the old witch, who glared right back at me, her moment of shock already buried under her hatred of me. When Roderick looked away . . . I stuck my tongue out at her.

  Robert grunted, holding back a laugh. The first noise he’d made since we’d come in.

  Roderick heaved a heavy sigh, but it was Stark who stood and drew everyone’s attention.

  “One element of the spell that would raise the vampires from the grave is more difficult to attain than the others. Once it is secured, the others will be more easily obtained.”

  “Stark, no!” Lucas yelled.

  Stark snapped his fingers on his right hand, and Lucas sat down like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Everyone stared at the man who had been silent for years. I grinned at him.

  Stark’s eyes crinkled at the edges. “You’ve inspired me to make a change, Breena O’Rylee. The others would tell you that the one they wish you to bring back to Savannah has done a great wrong. That they wish to put her on trial. But that is not the case. You must bring her back so we can keep her safe.”

  “Safe?”

  He gave a slow nod. “Safe. If the Dark Council gains her soul, they will be one step closer to creating their spell. One of the biggest steps, for the soul of a witch, particularly that witch, is not easily obtained.”

  I stared at Stark. “The spell. The spell to raise the vampires.”

  The words of the spell hummed inside my head.

  Of demon skin and angel wing

  Of stolen cross and healing spring

  Blood of a ghost, and an unmarked grave

  Soul of a witch, and a siren’s cave.

  Bound swiftly neath the darkest night

  Those of the blood shall have their sight

  Of death and power, of magic and pain

  That which comes shall find those slain

  Raised anew and given life

  A warning once, this call is strife

  One last line to lock this spell

  A soul whose blood has tasted hell.

  Thus shall the ambrosia be brewed and given life to death.

  Soul of a witch.

  “Can’t it just be any witch? Why didn’t they just take ole Missy here? She was already ripe for the taking.” I smiled at Missy. She glowered at me.

  “Because she’s not strong enough,” Penny said. “That’s what I’m betting, yes?”

  Roderick nodded, his eyes sweeping reluctantly away from Stark. The old bugger had really thrown a wrench in whatever they were planning. “Correct. In order for the spell to work, they must have the soul of the oldest witch alive. She is always the most powerful of all witches, and they need that level of power to push the spell into existence.”

  My back ached from standing on the concrete floor, and I reached back to rub at it. The council all leaned back as if . . . as if they were afraid of me. Maybe they were? I kept my hand there, massaging my lower back.

  “Do not pull a weapon,” Lucas said.

  I laughed. “My back is sore. I’m not going to stop rubbing it, thanks.”

  “We are leaving the track we need to be on.” Stark’s voice echoed through the room. “Breena O’Rylee, we need you to go and find the first witch. We need you to bring her back here for safekeeping. And we need you to leave post haste. You will start in Paris. You will have to face three challenges to reach the first witch. Fossette was ever so clever and wrapped a spell of protection around herself using other supernaturals as her dupes. They might even believe that she cares for them, but that is not the case. They are used, as surely as any tool.” He paused. “With each challenge, you will find a new clue that will take you closer to Fossette. It’s said that if you prove yourself worthy, she will award you with a boon. If that’s true, when you get to that point, ask her to come back to Savannah with you.”

  “How many people have seen their way through all the challenges?” Sarge asked.

  Stark looked over at my friend. “None that we are aware of.”

  Penny drew in a long, slow breath. “Why would you send the girl? Why not your own delegation? Unless . . .” She swept her hand to encompass the room. The missing members suddenly made sense.

  Feish finished her thought. “Unless they already messed up the bedroom.”

  “You mean shit the bed?” I turned to her, and she smiled and wiggled her webbed fingers at me. I turned back to Roderick. “You shit the bed already? That’s why there are council members missing? No one could bring her in. No one could get through the challenges.”

  Roderick nodded. Stark nodded. The whole damn room nodded.

  “That is where Corb went,” Roderick said. “He took the mission when it was offered to him.”

  So my gut feeling was right. Corb was involved in this mess. He’d stormed off in a snit, and the council had sent him on a jaunt. A very dangerous jaunt by the sounds of it.

  Behind me my friends muttered, Sarge cursed under his breath and Kinkly tightened her hold on my ear.

  “Your friend, Corb, was sent to her first. As a male siren, we thought—” Jacob shook his head slowly. “We thought he would be able to charm her. We lost contact with him and then we lost contact with our second delegation of council members a few days ago. We do not know if they are dead or defected.”

  Jaysus lawd in heaven, this was a mess. And they wanted me to clean it up. Again. Which of course I would do, because Corb was involved, and even if he’d been a bit of a dick, he was still sort of my friend. I didn’t want him to be hurt. Also, to state the obvious, I didn’t want the Dark Council to win. It wouldn’t be good for anyone if an army of vampires started running amok all over Savannah and then the world. But I wasn’t going to tell them that right away.

  I held up both hands, palms out, high above my head as if I’d suddenly gone to church and seen the light. “Let me get this straight. You sent Corb and a few of your council members to gather this first witch. They are missing, and we can safely assume she’s killed or otherwise harmed them, and now you want to send me?” Again, I had every intention of going, but that didn’t mean I didn’t want them to sweat a little.

  “You will go,” Stark said. “And you will bring her back. And, if you are lucky, your friend will still be alive.”

  The rest of my friends bristled around me, but none more so than Robert. He stepped out just in front of me. “You are sending her to a woman who is a known dark arts practitioner, one who fornicates with demons.” Kinkly giggled in my ear and whispered, “Sounds fun,” but Robert was just picking up steam. “A witch who hasn’t been seen since the last vampire uprising. Wisely so, since her predecessor was killed, her soul trapped for eternity. Corb—if he found her—is dead.”

  Everyone was staring at Robert now. Other than Roderick, who’d spotted him immediately, they seemed to truly be seeing him for the first time. His words cut into me, making my breath come in little gasps. Corb, dead? He couldn’t be. I felt like I would have known. I glanced over my shoulder at Sarge, who shook his head.