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CHAPTER TWELVE

D emetrius was trying to focus on what Clarabell was telling them, but he found it difficult. Given the circumstances, he could definitely understand the reason he was having trouble concentrating, but he needed to stay in touch with what had been happening and the options available to correct the situation.

“How long has this witch been in town?” Cody asked.

“For a while,” Clarabell said. “Demetrius worked a Critter Catchers case with him, I believe.”

“Right. Yeah.” Demetrius looked back at Cody. “I told you this out in the woods. He had chipmunks in his hall closet.”

“Weird place for chipmunks to show up,” Cody said.

Demetrius made a face. “Yeah, you’re right. I didn’t think about it at the time.”

“He probably planted them there because he wanted to meet you,” Clarabell said. “Get to know you two since you’ve been the town guardians against the supernatural.”

“Fuck no.” Cody shook his head. “We’re not taking that title.”

“All right, don’t get excited,” Clarabell said. “Let me tell you everything I’ve learned since I’ve moved here.”

“I’m going to need another beer for this,” Cody said, standing up. He wobbled a bit, then looked down at Demetrius. “Jesus Christ, you really can’t handle your booze, can you?”

“How many times have I told you this?”

“Yeah, but I thought you just didn’t like to give up control. I didn’t know you physically had such a low tolerance.”

“Thanks?” Demetrius said, cocking his head.

“Do you want a beer?” Cody looked between him and Clarabell.

“I’m fine,” Demetrius said. “I’m having enough trouble managing your big body as it is.”

“What’s it like?” Clarabell asked. “Can you see his memories?”

“Yes, we can see each other’s memories,” Cody called from the kitchen as he opened the refrigerator.

“But I haven’t done a lot of snooping.”

“Probably best not to,” Cody said as he returned with a fresh beer and sat beside him again.

“Yeah, but you two are married,” Clarabell said. “And you’ve known each other pretty much all your lives. There shouldn’t be too many memories you don’t know.”

“You’d be surprised,” Demetrius said. “Come on, tell us about this witch. What’s he doing here, and why did he come?”

“From what I’ve learned, it all connects back to when the town was founded.”

“Of fucking course it does,” Cody muttered, taking a deep drink.

“Easy, big guy,” Demetrius said, putting a hand on his leg. It was strange seeing the size of his hand, and he stared at it a moment before Clarabell’s continued explanation caught his attention again.

“Do you two know the history of this town?”

“The witches who escaped Salem and settled in this area?” Cody said. “Tracey told me about them. Or you did. Somebody told me about them recently.”

“Right. But there’s more.”

“We were taught in school that Pastor Abbott Stone came to the area and loved the woods around the hollow so much he built a cabin for himself. A church soon followed, and other people settled around it.”

“That’s right. But do you know how those two things connect?”

Demetrius exchanged a look with Cody. “Not really. We’ve been wondering how the parson would have reacted to a coven of witches near his church. I mean, we found the spot with the church’s foundation and what’s left of the cemetery.”

“Graveyard,” Clarabell said. “If the bodies are buried on the same property as a church, it’s called a graveyard.”

“Filing that away in my things I never wanted to know folder,” Cody said and took another drink.

“So, you’ve been out there?” Clarabell asked.

“Yeah, it’s out by the wiggle,” Cody said, then snickered before draining his beer.

“Where the hell is the wiggle?”

“It’s the S-curve on 118 just past Parson’s Pines,” Demetrius said, then looked at Cody. “You’re cut off.”

“What?” Cody looked from him to Clarabell. “What kind of controlling crap is that?”

“I should never have two beers that close together,” Demetrius said. “You know this. You’ve had to drive me home from the Hollow Leg more than once because of it.”

“Fine.” Cody crossed his arms and slouched a bit.

Demetrius looked back at Clarabell. “Where were we?”

“This town harbors a lot of magic,” Clarabell said. “I’ve had magic sensitive people come here over the last few years, and all of them have said the same thing.”

“Magic sensitive?” Cody said with a sneer, giving her a look. “Really?”

“How’s that vampire bite feeling?” Clarabell said with a hard look.

Cody huffed and pouted more. “I don’t like this. I feel relaxed but anxious.” He looked at Demetrius. “Is this how you feel when you drink?”

“No, I feel like that pretty much all the time.”

“What the fuck is that about? Alcohol is supposed to relax you. I don’t feel like this when I drink. Why do you get so tense?”

“I don’t know. Why do you get so relaxed? Why are you so tall? Why are you so goddamn handsome it nearly kills me every time you smile at me?” Demetrius blinked and saw himself blinking back. He leaned forward and set the half-finished beer on the coffee table. “Okay, no more of this for me. Apparently, Cody’s body and my brain don’t mix well with alcohol.”

“I don’t know, you’re kind of hot right now,” Cody said. His eyes were a little droopy and his lips curled into a sexy smirk Demetrius had seen often on Cody’s mouth.

“Focus,” Demetrius said, giving him a shove. He gestured to Clarabell. “Go on.”

“As I was saying,” she said. “This town harbors a lot of magic. It’s in the soil, the timber used to build it. The water out at the pond.”

“Where did it come from?” Demetrius asked. “The witches? Did they do all of this?”

“No. Well, not really. They may have encouraged it, built up wards to strengthen it, but from what I’ve been able to tell, I think it’s just this place.” She paused, looking between them. “What do you know about ley lines?”

“Ley lines?” Cody frowned. “Like the flower necklaces you get in Hawaii?”

“No, those are leis, L-E-I-S. I’m talking about ley lines, as in L-E-Y.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of those,” Demetrius said. “They’re, like, lines of energy that go around the planet or something, right?”

“Yes, right,” Clarabell said. “Some people believe there are ley lines that connect different important sites on the planet. Places like Stonehenge or the pyramids. With everything I’ve been reading and what I’ve seen over the years, I believe Parson’s Hollow is a crossroads for two very strong ley lines.”

“Great. Will it bump up the value of our house?” Cody said. “Sorry, Amelia’s house that we live in?”

“Anyway…” Clarabell continued. “Back in the late 1600s, the coven settled here because they sensed the energy in this place.”

“How do you know this?” Demetrius asked. “About the coven?”

Clarabell smiled. It wasn’t a grin, a smirk, or a small twitch of her lips. It was a full smile that showed teeth. “Because one of them kept a diary, Elizabeth Ames. As did Parson Stone. And Tracey was gifted both of them a couple of years ago.”

“What?” Demetrius sat back and blew out a breath. “These diaries have survived since the 1600s?”

“Yep. Stored in heavy boxes and passed from generation to generation. When the latest recipient realized what he had, he donated them to the library for the local history section.”

“Wait,” Cody said. “Both diaries were kept together all these years?”

Clarabell’s smile turned to a smirk. “That’s right.”

“How did that happen?” Demetrius asked.

“I’ll get to that in a minute. Tracey read the diaries and found some interesting information in Elizabeth’s, so she let me read it as well. The short version of it?—”

“Too late.” Cody put his head back against the couch.

“Was that all five of the women in their group had been able to sense the stronger natural energy in the woods around town. But she was especially in tune with it because she was a very powerful green witch.”

“She was green?” Cody lifted his head. “Like in The Wizard of Oz ?”

“No,” Clarabell said, getting up to grab a thick ring binder off the kitchen island before returning to her chair. “Green as in nature. She would have been very in tune with the seasons and used things found in nature for her spells. She wanted to make the area where they settled a safe place for their coven. All five practiced different areas of magic.” She leafed through pages in the binder until she found the spot she needed. “Hannah Johnson was a divination witch, Abigail Brewster a celestial witch, Esther Hopkins a kitchen witch, and Catherine Winthrop was a hedge witch.” She looked up. “And, possibly, a necromancer.”

“Oh, shit,” Demetrius said as a shiver went up his back.

“What’s that?” Cody asked, looking between them. “It’s bad, isn’t it? Like, really bad?”

“She would have been able to raise the dead,” Demetrius said without looking at him, then he asked Clarabell, “Was she successful?”

“Not from what I’ve been able to tell on a first read through,” Clarabell said. “But she was a hedge witch.”

“So she did that thing with bushes?” Cody said. “What’s it called?”

“Topiaries?” Demetrius said.

“Yes!” Cody pointed at him, smiling, before looking back at Clarabell. “Is that what she did?”

“No. A hedge witch studies the boundary between the physical world and the spirit world.”

Demetrius looked at Cody. “That might explain the demon.”

“That’s right,” Clarabell said. “And here’s where it gets even more interesting. The coven lived in small shacks out in the woods, built close together around a shared fire.”

“Like a witchy commune,” Cody said. “But full of evil and dark magic.”

“Yes and no.” Clarabell turned pages in the binder. “From what I’ve been able to piece together, it was a peaceful coexistence.”

“Really?” Demetrius said. “As a man of God, Pastor Stone was okay with them living out there and practicing witchcraft? Even the hedge witch?”

“That’s an interesting point as well.” Clarabell turned more pages in the binder, then said, “Ah, here it is. This is an entry from Elizabeth’s diary.” She cleared her throat and began to read. “A visit tonight from Pastor Stone. Though he be a man of God, he finds we women to be comely and true to our word. Tonight he lay with me to help me find the true meaning of faith.”

“Oh my,” Cody said, grinning. “The good pastor was quite a rapscallion.”

Demetrius and Clarabell shared a look, then both laughed.

“Rapscallion?” Demetrius said.

“Hey, don’t blame me. That word floated up from your side of this brain.”

“This is so weird,” Clarabell said, shaking her head. “We’ve got to break this spell.”

“I agree,” Demetrius said. “So Pastor Stone slept with Elizabeth?”

“From what Tracey and I have been able to tell, he slept with each of them.”

“Go Parson Stone. Got himself a witchy harem.”

Clarabell ignored him, watching Demetrius. After a dramatic pause, she said, “Within a year, each woman gave birth to a child.”

“Oh. Oh, wow.” Demetrius felt a little lightheaded as so many things became clear at once. He got up, weaving a bit as he maneuvered Cody’s larger body around the furniture to an open space where he was able to pace. “So, the witches all had bastard children, who had been sired by a man of God. And was this common knowledge in the town?”

“The town was just getting built up. For a long time, it was just Pastor Stone and the coven in the area.”

“So each of those children grew up and, what? Stayed here in town?” Demetrius said, still pacing.

“Correct,” Clarabell said. “There were three boys and two girls. The coven came up with cover stories about why they were unwed mothers, which involved each of their husbands dying from some accident or disease before the child was born.”

“They covered for Pastor Stone,” Cody said.

“Absolutely. And he covered for them.”

“Convenient,” Demetrius said.

“It was. And when each woman died, she was buried in the graveyard of the pastor’s church,” Clarabell said, looking through papers. “The town was more built up by then, and there are records that state where each resident was buried out there in the woods.”

“Wait,” Cody said, sitting on the edge of the sofa. “The coven is buried out there? Is that why the witch keeps going back to that spot?”

“Yes,” Clarabell said. “Articles in The Herald and city council meeting notes all mention that the headstones were weathered and broken, so they were removed years ago. But with some research, I should be able to pinpoint where each of them was laid to rest.”

She closed the binder and looked between them. “Now, we need to talk about the demon.”

“Oh, by all means, let’s not forget about the demon,” Cody said, putting his head back against the couch. “Because we may have momentarily forgotten the truly terrifying demonic entity that caused all of this.” He waved a hand between himself and Demetrius.

Demetrius ignored him as he looked at Clarabell. “What about the demon?”

“It had been summoned by the hedge witch, Catherine.”

“Do you know why?” Demetrius asked.

“Catherine had been practicing her abilities to communicate beyond the barrier between planes and summoned the demon.”

“Guess she failed that part of her final exam,” Cody said.

“There was a battle of witchcraft and religion against the demon. After a long fight, the demon was imprisoned inside a large oak tree that grew beside the church. It had been decided it would be safest to keep it contained on holy land.”

Demetrius looked at Cody. “That’s the tree that looked like it had been hit by lightning.”

“Yep,” he said. “And now that thing has been freed and is running around town doing who knows what.”

“Exactly,” Clarabell said. “But there’s a way to imprison it again.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Cody said.

“Me, too,” Demetrius said.

“That’s my body reacting to everything,” Cody said. “You’ll get used to it.”

“What do we have to do?” Demetrius asked.

“We have to find a descendant of each of the original members of the coven,” Clarabell said. “So, we need to look through the town registry and determine who is a direct descendant of each one of the witches.”

“That sounds time consuming,” Cody said. “And that’s assuming someone from each woman has remained here in town.”

“Tracey and I already found two,” Clarabell said.

“You did?” Demetrius felt a tingle of surprise run through him. “Who?”

“Tracey herself, actually,” Clarabell said. “And Margie.”

“Not at all surprised Tracey’s a descendant of a witch,” Cody said. “That checks out.”

“Margie makes sense,” Demetrius said, starting to pace again. “She said her grandmother had hex bags…” He stopped and turned to look at Cody. “Just like Felicia did.”

Clarabell looked over at Cody. “That’s right!”

Cody looked between them, and Demetrius could clearly see the panic in his body’s expression. “Bag. She had one hex bag, that’s it. It wasn’t like she was making them for the whole town or anything. Maybe someone gave it to her, or she bought it at a flea market or something.”

“You’re the third descendant.” Clarabell’s voice was quiet. Then she looked at Demetrius. “Well, both of you, most likely, seeing as how you’re split.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, this town is going to kill me.” Cody put his hands over his face. “I’m going to literally just sit here and die.”

Demetrius took a breath and slowly let it out. “Okay. Three descendants and a coven of corpses. Sounds about right. What’s our next move?”

Clarabell stood up. “We need to find the other two descendants. And then we need to find that demon before it figures out our plan and starts eliminating people.”

Cody dropped his hands. “Wait. What?”