Savannah started an incantation, but I clapped my hand over her mouth before she could finish.
'See?' a woman's voice said. 'It is her. I told you so.'
The flashlight dropped and I found myself standing before four people, ranging in age from college-bound to mid-retirement.
'Wow,' whispered the youngest, a woman with rings through her lower lip. 'It's the witch from the newspapers.'
'I'm not-' I cut off the denial. 'What are you doing here?'
'Seems we should ask you the same thing,' a twenty-something man in a ball cap said.
An older woman, the one who'd spoken first, shushed him. 'She's here for the same reason we are.'
'To find the treasure?' the man said.
She glared at him. 'To communicate with the spirit world.'
'Is it true you saw her rise from the dead?' the younger woman asked, pointing at Mott's grave 'That is so cool. What was it like? Did she say anything?'
'Yeah,' Savannah said. 'She said, 'Bother me again and I'll rip your-''
I prodded her to silence. 'Do you people know what you're doing? It's called disturbing a grave site. A-uh-' I slipped my trowel behind my back. 'A very serious offense.'
'Nice try,' the young man said. 'My brother's a cop. We can't get in trouble unless we dig her up. We aren't stupid.'
'No,' Savannah said. 'You're just hanging around a cemetery looking for buried treasure. Hey, wait, I think I found something. Nope, just another rotting corpse.'
'Mind your tongue, child,' the older woman said. 'While I disagree with the concept of using the spirits for material gain, necromancers in the ancient world often did exactly that. They believed that the dead could see all- the past, the present, and the future-thus allowing them to locate hidden treasures.'
The elderly man beside her made a noise.
'Quite right,' she said. 'Bob wishes me to clarify that the dead are believed to be able to find
'He said all that with a grunt?' Savannah asked.
'Mental telepathy, dear. Bob has moved beyond the realm of verbal communication.'
'Maybe so, but he hasn't moved beyond the realm of human justice,' I said, bending to pick up a saucer of dried mushrooms, which I doubted were shiitake. 'Bet these help with the mental telepathy. Maybe you can explain this to the police.'
'There's no need to threaten us, dear. We're no danger to you or anyone else. We simply want to communicate with poor Miss Mott. A spirit who has been raised once remains very close to the surface, as I'm sure you're aware. If we can contact her, perhaps she can relay a message from the other side.'
'Or tell us where to find treasure,' the young man said.
The younger woman rolled her eyes. 'You and Joe, always on about your treasure.' She looked at me. 'Joe's another member of our group. Joe and Sylvia. Only Joe had bowling tonight and Sylvia doesn't like to drive after dark.'
'Uh-huh.'
'We don't need to worry about these guys raising the dead, Paige,' Savannah said. 'They're so dumb they couldn't raise-'
I elbowed her to silence. 'I'm going to ask you, once more, to leave.'
The young man stepped forward, towering over me. 'Or what?'
'Better be careful, or she'll show you,' Savannah said.
'Is that a threat?'
'That's enough,' I said. 'Now, we're all leaving-'
'Who's leaving?' the young man said. 'I'm not leaving.'
The older woman's mouth set. 'We aren't leaving until we've communicated with the spirit world.'
'Fine,' Savannah said. 'Here, let me help you.'
Her voice rose, words echoing through the silence as she recited an incantation in Hebrew. I whirled to stop her. Before I could, she finished. All went silent.
'Damn,' she muttered, leaning in so only I could hear her. 'It's supposed to-'
Her body went rigid, head jerking back, arms flying out. A deafening crack ripped through the silence, like the thunder of a hundred guns fired at once. A flare of light lit up the sky. Savannah stood on tiptoe, barely touching the ground, body shaking. I dove for her. As my fingers grazed her arm, something hit me in the gut, throwing me against a tombstone.
Chapter 36
WHEN I RECOVERED FROM MY FALL, I SAW THAT SAVANNAH had collapsed. The four would-be necromancers stood ringed around her prone body. I pushed myself up and ran to Savannah. She was unconscious, her face white.
'Call an ambulance,' I said.
Nobody moved. I checked Savannah's pulse. Weak but steady.
'Wow,' the young woman said. 'That was, like, so cool.'
'Call a goddamned ambulance!' I snarled.
Still no one moved. Around us, the air had gone still, but I could still feel the crackle of energy. At a sound near the trees, I looked up and saw a shape moving toward us. Someone was coming.
Cortez. Perfect. He had a cell phone.
I raised my head to tell him to hurry, then saw the figure emerge from the trees. It wasn't a figure at all, but a writhing mass of reddish light that twisted on itself, turning blue, then green, then yellow. To my left wisps of light wafted from the ground, congealing into a mass that hovered over the earth, then shot into the air. We all stared, transfixed, as one after another these airy phantasms of colored light rose from the soil around us.
'Oooh,' the young woman said. 'They're so pretty.'
Light shot up around us, gaining in speed, hurling into the air. One soared up right beside me, then swerved and dove at my head. The breath flew from me, literally was sucked from my lungs. I gasped. The light darted off into the trees.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Light streamed from the earth. Something knocked me hard, pushing me away from Savannah. A deafening howl rent the air. I dove toward Savannah, but a geyser of light erupted between us, pushing me back. The ground quaked, knocking me to my knees. Howl after howl tore through the night.
'Savannah!' I shouted.
The moment my mouth opened, the air was ripped from my throat. A globe of light surrounded my head, sucking the air from me. Pain cleaved through my chest. I couldn't breathe. As I fought, the light seemed to take form. I clawed at my attacker, but my fingers passed through it.
'Stop fighting!' a voice said at my ear.
I struggled harder, legs and arms flailing against the thing.
'Goddamn it, Paige. Don't fight! You're making it worse!'
Cortez? As my brain registered his voice, my body went still for a brief second. The light evaporated and I fell back, hitting the ground and gulping air. Cortez bent over me.
'They're koyut,' he said. 'They feed off energy. If you fight, you only produce more.'
I pushed him away and sat up, wildly looking about for Savannah.
'She's right here,' Cortez said, pointing at a prone form behind him. 'She's fine. I'll carry her. We need to move past the trees.'
He grabbed her up and we ran. When we reached the meadow beyond the trees, Cortez stopped me.
'We need to wake her,' he said. 'What did she cast?'
