Kitty Takes a Holiday

Thankfully, Tony interceded. 'Sheriff, I think I can help clean this all up. We can remove the curse, and remove the consequences of it.' He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the site of the slaughter. 'But the person who planned it, who worked the spell, needs to agree to it.'

He nodded. 'All right. Okay. It's Alice. She planned it.'

'Alice?' My jaw dropped, truly astonished. 'But she's always been so nice to me. Why—'

'Because she's nice to everybody, at least in person,' Marks said. 'I don't think she could be mean to some­body to their face if you held a gun to her head.'

Tony looked at me. 'Should we go talk to Alice, then?'

I still couldn't believe it. Sweet, friendly Alice. Alice who kept healing crystals on her cash register and hung good luck charms on her front door.

Then again, maybe she did know something about planting curses.

'Right, then. Off we go.' To Marks I said, 'You want to come along? Back us up?'

'To break this thing right, everyone involved should be there,' Tony said. He had an authority about him, from the gentle way he spoke to the way he'd grabbed Marks's arrowhead charm. Marks had let it go; it lay on top of his uniform shirt now, exposed.

The sheriff hesitated, then said, curtly, 'I'll meet you there.' He turned to yank open his car door. He revved the engine when he started it, and barely gave us time to get out of the way before he lurched the car into reverse, then spun in a U-turn, kicking up gravel all the way.

'I don't believe it,' I said, on general principle.

'She didn't really seem the type,' Ben said.

Tony said, 'Those are the ones you really have to watch out for. The real mean brujas? Always the little old lady down the street. The one who feeds cats off her back porch.'

'Every neighborhood has one of those,' I said.

'Makes you wonder, don't it?' Tony grinned.

Sighing, I marched to the driver's side of my car. 'Let's go and get this over with.'

Marks was already at the convenience store when we pulled into the parking lot. That meant he'd had time to warn her, to prep and get their stories straight. That made me mad. The whole town was against me, and the worst part was I shouldn't have been surprised. I was the monster, they carried the torches and pitchforks, and nothing would change that. Human nature being what it was.

At least I had backup this time.

I didn't wait for Ben and Tony, though. I wanted to break up their little witches' coven, and 1 wanted to do it now. While they were still getting out of the car, I stalked to the door of the store. Slammed it open. Sure enough, Marks and Alice were in conference, leaning over the counter by the cash register. They looked at me, shocked, though they should have expected me. Joe, standing behind Alice, quickly ducked for his rifle. I should have kept my distance, but I wasn't thinking too straight-

I went right toward them, closing the gap in a few long strides, and I must have had murder in my eyes because they both flinched back. That inspired me; let them think I wanted to rip their throats out.

I slammed my hand on the counter, making them jump, at the moment Joe cocked and leveled his rifle, mere inches from my skull. I could smell it, cold and oily-

The bell on the door rang as it opened again. 'Kitty!' Ben called, at the same time Tony said, 'No, wait.' 1 imagined Tony held him back from rushing to my rescue. I couldn't look away. I only had eyes for Alice.

'So,' I said, filled with fake cheerfulness. 'Did you really give those crosses to Jake to melt them down, or did you keep them so you could dump them back around my place?'

Bug-eyed and stricken, she stared back at me. Almost, she trembled, and a scent of fear-laden sweat broke out on her skin. She looked like prey. Like a rabbit caught in Wolf's sight.

What a great feeling. I had the power; I was the badass. If I so much as raised a finger, she'd probably scream.

Then, she knelt. Slowly, she disappeared behind the counter, and when she stood again, she held the bag of crosses I'd given her. They chimed when she set them on the counter.

This was one of those times when I hated being right.

'Goddamn it, Alice. I liked you! Why'd you Have to turn out to be such a bitch?'

The overly polite woman, the one who couldn't be mean to anyone's face, took command. 'You don't have to be so angry,' she said, with a righteous tilt to her chin.

I wasn't finished. 'If you hate me enough to kill small animals over it, don't turn around and pretend to be nice to me. Honestly, I prefer Joe here with his gun pointed at me. At least I know where I stand with him!'

Joe blinked at me over the stock of his rifle, like he was unable to process the rather backhanded compliment.

Marks said, 'Joe, why don't you put that thing away.' Joe obeyed and slowly lowered the weapon.

'I don't hate you,' Alice said softly. 'I just don't want you to live here.' Her thin-lipped grimace was almost apologetic.

I didn't even know where to start. Maybe she wanted me to sympathize. Maybe she wanted me to feel sorry for her. Instead, the rage flared even higher. I had to pause a moment, take a breath, and think happy vegetarian thoughts before I growled for real. What had I told Ben about holding it in taking practice? 1 was getting a lot of practice right now.

Finally, I said, 'Guess what? You don't get to tell me where to live.'

She looked away.

Tony stepped up then, sweeping away the tension with his presence. 'You know what you did wrong, don't you?' He addressed Alice.

'Who are you?' she asked.

'Tony. You know what you did wrong?'

She shook her head, hesitant, still full of that befuddled rabbit look.

'The cross on the doorway,' Tony said, gesturing back to where Alice had hung a cross above the door. 'The barrier of crosses. They're supposed to prevent evil from crossing, yes? Keep evil contained, keep it from intrud­ing.' He waited for her to nod, to acknowledge what he said. 'Kitty's not evil. I've only known her half a day and I know that.'

He said 'evil' and I almost heard 'dangerous.' As in, 'She's not dangerous. She's harmless.' I had an inexpli­cable urge to argue, but Tony kept talking.

'She may have danger and darkness in her nature, but so do we all. That isn't evil. Evil is seeking out the dark­ness, seeking out the pain of others.'

I glanced back at Ben, to make sure he'd heard. That was what I'd been trying to tell him. He looked at me, gave a tiny smile. Yes, he'd heard.

'Is it true what Sheriff Marks said, that our spell caused what's been happening to the cattle?'

'Your spell called out to evil. You may have drawn it here, yes.'

She rubbed her face—wiping away sudden tears, springing from reddening eyes. 'I'm so sorry. I thought I knew what I was doing, I was sure I knew—I have to fix it. How do I fix it?'

'Apologizing is always a good start,' Tony said-Alice looked at me, and for a moment I did feel sorry for her. She obviously felt so badly, and so tortured when the true consequences of what she'd done sunk in, I didn't want to be angry at her anymore. The words—Oh, it's allright, just as long as she never does it again —were on the tip of my tongue.

But the Wolf in me shifted testily. And you know, she was right. Alice wasn't going to get off that easily. 1 waited for the apology.

'I'm sorry, Kitty,' she said. 'I'm sorry for all the trouble.'

You 'd better be… 'Thank you,' 1 said instead.

'I think I can help clean all this up,' Tony said. 'There's a ritual I know, it'll clear away the curse. Heal some of the bad feelings. Will you all help?'

He looked at each of us, and we all nodded. Even Joe.

'Good,' he said. 'Be at Kitty's cabin at twilight, about five o'clock. We'll get this taken care of. Oh—and I'll take those. Thanks.' Smiling amiably, he grabbed the bag of crosses off the counter.

We left the store, Tony bringing up the rear, almost like he was herding us. Or keeping me from lingering and doing something stupid. Within minutes, we were in the car and back on the road.

'Cormac wanted me to have those melted down,' 1 said, nodding at the bag of crosses in his lap.

'That'd work, but I was just going to hold them under running water.'

'You mean that's all we had to do?' I shook my head. The more I learned…

He said, 'I'm curious where Alice learned her magic. If she was raised in some kind of tradition—healer or witch­craft or something—or if she got those spells out of a book somewhere. That's the trouble with you white people, you read something out of a book, you think you understand it. This kind of magic, though—you really have to live with it to know it.'

That reminded me of learning a language, how really learning it requires living it, speaking with native speak­ers, growing up with it—total immersion. Repeating vocabulary words in high school wasn't going to cut it.

I said, 'I can assure you, everything I know about the supernatural I've lived with personally.' That didn't mean I understood any of it.

Tony laughed. 'I believe you.'

From the backseat, Ben said, 'You really think what they did caused what happened to the cattle? What about what we saw in New Mexico?'

'Maybe what Alice and them did drew it here,' Tony said.

'Or did it follow Cormac?' 1 said.

That left us with an ominous silence. Because it made sense. There'd been two of them. Cormac killed one, and the other followed him, seeking revenge. Only Cormac wasn't here anymore. So it went wild, killing, like it had before.

If that was the case, Tony's cleansing spell wouldn't help. We needed Cormac back. If for no other reason than to warn him.

Chapter 12

Twilight settled over the forest, clear and stark. The sky turned the beautiful deep blue of prize sapphires. The first star shone like a diamond against it. That clean, organic pine forest smell permeated everything.

Ben and I sat on the front porch and waited, watch­ing Tony make preparations. He'd parked his truck at a national forest trailhead a few miles up the road, and moved it to my driveway during