Tension stretched between us, pulling like a rubber band. The door in the bay was open, and the night poured in, smelling of night-blooming flowers, the stagnant water of swamp, the fresher scent of a recent rain, and the herbal tang of vamp. I heard a car passing by outside, the engine noise muted, the tires loudly splashing through a puddle.
I had met a few male witches in my life, way more than most people ever met. But as a traveling rogue-vamp hunter, I tended to end up with the supernats of any town I visited. My best pal was earth witch Molly, or had been until I killed her sister. Long story. Anyway, her husband was a witch, still in the closet, still hiding what he was. Her son was a witch, and I’d seen a third male witch die at the hand of a sabertooth lion. Another long story. My life was practically full of them. Now this dude with spell flames licking up his arm.
“No,” I said again. “I’m not calling Leo. And if you hit me with a spell, I’ll make you regret it.”
“Make me?” He sounded mildly incredulous. Then his mouth pursed in thought. “Some spell you gots on you? To do combat wid me? Some witch spell like dat charm on you bike? Keep-away/don’-steal charm?” His finger stopped swirling, and the tension in the air seemed to float out the window into the night.
I had no spell, no real defense against magic, but I did have Beast, and I had seen her neutralize spells meant to harm me in the past. So I kept any trepidation I was feeling stowed deep inside, my eyes almost lazy, and I let my lips lift just a tiny bit on one side.
“Okay,” Lucky said. “Why you not call Leo for me?”
“I’m not a deal broker.”
“Mebbe you change you mind when I tell you rest o’ my story.”
“Skip a few centuries to the part where I rode into town.”
Lucky nodded, lounged back in the chair, and pointed to my side. “Aspirin and water for you headache.”
I didn’t usually take drugs, but I did drink the water while Lucky got to his point.
“Suckhead coonass clan, Clan Doucette, in bayou, gots my daughter.”
I nearly choked, then blinked, set down the glass, and shifted into a more comfortable position. “Okay. That I didn’t expect.” Coonass was an insulting word for Cajun, and it was interesting that Lucky, a Cajun himself, called another Cajun coonass. “Okay,” I said again. “I’m listening.”
“When Leo and Amaury Pellissier kill off de blood-master of Clan Chiasson, dey leave suckheads in swamp. No trainin’ dey gots. No law. Some insane for decades. Suckheads and witches in dis town not get along, not never. Now dem suckheads got my girl, stole her dey did. Kidnap.”
Beast shifted her claws in my brain and said, Kit? We will save kit. I nodded, as agreement to Beast and as a signal to the witch in the chair to continue.
“I want her back. Word in de street is Clermont Doucette boy gone turn my girl and run wild with her, or mebbe chain her up in he attic for ten year.”
I blew out a sigh and felt part of the pain in my skull decrease. Skinwalkers healed a lot faster than humans, even after getting whapped over the head with a hunk of rock. I touched the sore place on my head, thinking. “Is your daughter a witch? Dumb question,” I answered myself. “Daughters get one of their two X chromosomes from their father. The trait passes on his X chromosome, and so of course she’s a witch. Got it. Witches don’t take well to the turn. They sometimes stay in the devoveo for forever.”
“She is witch, yes. Devoveo? Dis mean insane? Insane forever?” Lucky snarled. “Not my girl. No. I kill dem all firs’.”
“Yeah, yeah. I get that you’re ticked and wanting to stake every vamp in sight. You shoulda said all this in the first place, not coldcocked me. Understand that I am not happy and this is not over. But okay. I’ll call Leo.”
Lucky tossed me my throwaway cell, an unlisted one I had purchased at RadioShack. I’d had no calls on it in the last week, not one, because no one knew the number and I hadn’t called anyone to share my new contact info. I hadn’t even stopped at a library on the road to update my website and check for potential jobs, because I knew certain contract employees of Leo’s could tell if I had done so, determine which town I had updated from, and come looking for me. The only way to be invisible these days was to stay totally and completely off the grid. And even then it was hard.