Blood Witch (13 page)

His gray eyes looked at Leslie. “You are going to go into Mark’s office and apologize
and ask for your job back when your week suspension is over.”

He looked at the guys. “You two are off this case and are going on a mini vacation
with your partner here.”

As he went on her eyes went to the pictures on his desk they were of the sigils of
the crime scenes, and a memory gripped her.

“Blood. We are all connected by blood. But us few, we are more. We are meant to rule
to be the leaders when Lycanthia is reborn. We will bring our mother to this time
and she will be ours,” Carlota said.

“Blood,” the other people in the room said. Leslie looked around and there were different
Opposites there. Some hooded others not.

“Watch this,” Jonathan whispered into her ear.

“Kind of hard not to right. Does she know that at her age she shouldn’t be wearing
short see-through dresses?” she whispered.

He snorted trying to disguise the laughter into coughing. Rich hissed at them to be
quiet.

“This is our blood. Were, Fey, blood witch and even vampire; we are blood. Bring him
forward.” One of Carlota’s helpers brought a hooded figure forward. “Are you ready?”

“I am,” he said and pushed his sleeve up to reveal his arm.

Carlota picked up a tattoo gun. “A mixture of ink and silver so it stays in our skin,”
Rich whispered.

“Leslie,” Fred said waking her out of the memory. “Did you hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” she said but she had to get out of the room. She needed to know
what Rich had done to her brain. These memories. What else had they kept from her?

Patrick and Collin’s phones went off. “We have to go,” Patrick said and dragged Collin
out of the room.

“You all never listened to me,” Fred said.

“I have to go to. Have a date,” Leslie said.

“This thing between you and Nathan has to stop. Mark is still in his office.”

“You can hint all you want. I am not stupid, maybe naïve, but I am not asking for
my job back and, well, I like Nathan way more than I ever liked this job. I’ll see
you around Fred.” She turned to leave.

“You know being a Supervisor was keeping you on the path of good. Without us you will
fall into your old ways.”

“You never did have faith in me. But I will tell you this-if I go bad I’ll call you
up so you can tell me I told you so before you have to put a silver bullet in my head.”

“You are a walking time bomb.”

“As are you,” she said and walked out.

“You are what your blood is,” he called after her.

Her heart sped up for a second as his words echoed through her head. She steadied
herself and walked calmly to the dispatch desk. She picked up the pen, signed the
clipboard and took off the sticker. She waited until everyone was watching, and slowly
she licked the back of it weaving a spell into her saliva. She smiled and slapped
the sticker on the door, she walked out and through the little lobby and out of the
building. She had one thing on her mind at the moment. And she sure hoped he was in
the mood to talk to her.

She sat in her car staring at the building. She knew that Mr. Forever would have some
answers, but she wondered what he would want for it. Carlos was right, Mr. Forever
always asked for more than a question was worth. But he was the oldest being she knew
to be alive, other than Carlota. She tried to convince herself that Mr. Forever liked
her enough not to want too much from her.

She got out of the car and walked up to the bar. From the outside it looked like an
ordinary bar. Bright florescent light with a lady in a martini glass the bar’s name
flashed around it. Forever Wet. The windows were darkened in but there were pictures
of ads for alcohol and a few of the featured dancers who were dressed only a bit risqué.
She knew inside they weren’t dressed even close to their pictures. A friend of hers
had her bridal shower there two years ago. A lot was said about Forever Wet and Mr.
Forever. People mostly wanted to know how he kept the place going, when there was
so much negativity about it.

She pushed her way inside and saw the crowd, already heavy for the night’s festivities.
She glanced around and didn’t see Mr. Forever. Maybe he wasn’t going to be there tonight.
She made her way through the crowd to the bar. After about ten minutes she finally
got the bartender to come over to her.

“Sorry,” he shouted over the hooting as one of the girls removed her top showing her
perfect boobs. Purple tasseled pasties hid her nipples, and she started swirling them
perfectly to the music.

“I need to talk to Mr. Forever. He has been asking for me,” she managed to shout over
the crowd.

“Honey, everyone wants to talk to Mr. Forever,” the bartender said. His tight pants
left nothing to the imagination and his shirtless chest was almost perfect. Well,
perfect for a Normal: she had seen some very impressive chests on Opposites.

“Look, he said he wanted to see me. Please tell him Leslie is here.”

His eyes went wide and his mouth made a small O. He then turned and ran out from behind
the bar and whispered into one of the bouncer’s ears. The huge bear of a man was exactly
that, he looked over at her and nodded and gave her a quick motion with his head.
She nodded and started pushing through the crowd-by the sound of it another favorite
had started.

“Leslie,” the bear bouncer said. His skin was a rich chocolate brown and she wondered
if his bear fur was the same color. He had light brown eyes, more his bear eyes and
she wondered if he kept them that way to see better in the darkness of the club.

“Mitchell, I didn’t know you worked for Mr. Forever.”

“Side job, no one knows but he pays real good and well, I have three kids and another
on the way.” She nodded and he led her to a table. “Mr. Forever will be right here.”

“Thanks,” she said sitting down and smiling at him.

“Don’t tell Nathan you saw me here. He doesn’t like us associating with Mr. Forever.”

“My lips are sealed.” He gave her a quick nod and left to watch the loud crowd. A
waitress brought her a madori sour. She hadn’t placed an order, but it was one of
her favorite drinks. She sipped it as the half naked girl on the stage did a cartwheel,
her very short skirt showing string panties which hid nothing at all.

Mr. Forever slid gracefully across from her. He wore a gray suit that probably was
expensive, just like the cigar he had in his mouth. The smell of it brought another
flashback but it came on her pleasantly not hidden by magic like the others. No, this
one was just an old memory she had forgotten over the years.

“Mom!” a young Leslie called running through the house. School over for the summer,
she had plans. She heard arguing toward the back of the house where her mother painted.
She dropped her backpack by the kitchen table and continued on.

“Mom?” she asked entering into the room and seeing a man she had only seen once.

“Hey Leslie,” her mom said, nervously looking at Mr. Forever. “This here is Uncle
Ted. He just came by to check on us while your dad is away.”

She knew her manners after all she was going to be eight years old, and mom said eight
was a very grown up number. She stuck her hand out. “Pleased to meet you. Uncle Ted.”

He smiled a pleasant smile and his eyes went a bit wide as he looked down at her hand.
After a few seconds he reached out and shook it. Leslie never forgot how smooth and
stony his hand felt, almost like shaking hands with a statue, and his eyes were super
weird as well. She had only seen eyes like his in movies.

“It is a pleasure to finally meet you as well. Your mother has always talked about
you.”

She looked at her mother, who looked from Mr. Forever to her. The Woman smiled. “My
little smarty pants. Why don’t you go see if your sister is awake from her nap?”

“Yes Mom,” she said and ran off.

The dream faded leaving her staring at Mr. Forever. He seemed to be watching her as
if he could see the memory that had replayed.

“We have met before,” she finally said. “Before I was introduced to the Opposite Side.”

He nodded. “Small town, there are plenty of places for us to meet up on.”

“No, I met you at my house. My mom introduced you as Uncle…”

“Ted. I am always Uncle Ted,” he said mostly to himself and chuckled.

“Why is that?” she asked. “And how did you know my mom?”

“I remember that day. I had wanted to see you for some time but your mom had been
very protective.”

“See me for?”

He tapped the ashes off his cigar. “I wanted to see if you became an Opposite. I knew
of your great great uncle and the blood witch blood. I have been keeping an eye on
your blood line.”

“Just mine?” Leslie asked taking a sip of her drink.

He shook his head. “I keep an eye on others. Some old, some new. It just depends.”

“Depends on what?”

“If I know about it.”

She set her drink down as she looked around. “So how long have you been watching my
blood line?”

He put the cigar down and looked at the table. She watched the smoke roll off the
cigar. It danced, swirling and moving until it disappeared. “Quite a while.”

“That brings me to something else. What do you know of Lycanthia.”

Anger flashed through his face quickly. “Where did you hear about that name?”

“We were working on a case and the sigils drawn on the walls were there. Carlos found
a book.”

Mr. Forever leaned in closer over the table. “Did that Rat steal from the Dragon?”

“He borrowed. But the book showed the sigils to be her name.”

“I know the book you speak of. I thought it destroyed. Go fucking figure the Dragon
had it.” He shook his head. Leslie was taken aback. She had never heard Mr. Forever
curse. He was-Uncle Ted, the nice happy Mister Rogers of Opposites. “Lycanthia was
the name of a were-cult. They believed that there could be a goddess who had been
their creator, but no one really knows what really happened.”

She took in a deep breath. “Do you, Mr. Forever? Do you know Lycanthia?”

His hand smacked the table hard, making her jump. “Just mumbo-jumbo. It is best you
not even think of it anymore.”

“Do you believe that a goddess created all the weres like that? I mean, just speculating.”

He shrugged, placing his cigar in his mouth. “That is like saying that one person
created blood witches.”

Her eyes went wide. “Was there?”

He looked at the two dancers on the stage as they slithered around the poles. “It
is rumored that blood witches have been sired by one father.”

“Like each blood witch shares a common father?”

“Perhaps some,” he said and then slid out from the table. “I have to go. Leslie, I
have a meeting. But it is always a pleasure to talk to you.” He disappeared into the
crowd before she could say anything.

She sat there thinking things over in her head staring at the empty cup. Could it
be true? Blood witches sharing one common father. She shook her head. No, her father
was her father. He had died over in Iraq during Desert Storm, but she had earlier
memories of him being mostly happy. Could her mom have cheated on him? But she loved
him; she had been inconsolable when they received the news of his death. If the blood
witches shared a common father, then—

Her stomach cramped and she felt like getting sick. That would mean her and Rich.
“No,” she whispered to herself. “Mom would never. No.”

A waitress stopped. “Would you like another?”

“No thank you. How much do I owe you?” she asked as she reached for her wallet.”

“On the house. Mr. Forever put it on his tab. Lucky thing,” she said and walked off.

“I don’t know how lucky I am at the moment,” she murmured and fought the crowd to
leave.

Her phone chirped as she walked to her car. “Yes,” she said.

"Reminiscor -i dep,” a voice said over the phone and hung up.

She frowned at the phone in her hand. Her Latin sucked but she knew it had to be Latin.
She repeated the word. The magic floated around her until she felt she couldn’t hold
it any longer. She stumbled to her car, as she fumbled for her phone. She called Nathan,
but he didn’t answer.

“Crap,” she said strained and called Collin.

“Kind of busy here Les. Will call you back.”

“Something is wrong,” she managed to get into the car. She held the magic with all
her strength. “I can’t stop it.” I am going to explode she said head against the steering
wheel. Tears pushed out of her eyes as the magic fought hard to come out.

“What happened and where are you?”

“I got a call,” she said. “Forever Wet.” She dropped the phone as a scream ripped
through her throat. She had never felt anything like it before. The Magic was ripping
her apart.

Finally unable to hold it anymore she gave over to the magic and the pain. It spilled
out of her mouth with her scream. The windows blew from her car in an earsplitting
shatter, and she cringed waiting for the next downfall of her magic but nothing happened.
Breathing hard, she opened her eyes and looked out her missing window at Mr. Forever.

He had his hands out in front of him. A glowing ball of what she could only guess
was her magic moved between his palms. He opened his mouth and inhaled the magic.
She sat there, her body aching, staring at him, stunned.

He closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths. When he opened them, she gasped.
His eyes were blood witch gray. He shook his head, and his eyes went back to their
creepy whiteness. He walked over and bent down, looking in at her.

“You okay?” he asked his voice a little heavy.

She nodded. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

He laughed and straightened up to cough a little. “I am okay. Leslie, what happened?”
he asked, bending over to look in the car.

“I received a phone call and a voice said reminiscor -i dep.”

He did something that brought another gasp from her as he reached in and touched her
head. His stone-like hand felt cool against her skin. He closed his eyes, and she
felt her head get warmer. He opened his eyes and they were blood witch gray, which
faded away quickly.

“My dear, someone has mucked with your head.”

“I have been having flashbacks of things I did with Jonathan and Richard.”

“Dirty bastards,” he murmured to himself. He looked down in her eyes as his hand ran
over her cheek. “I cannot undo the magic because your own magic is already working
on it. But it will be unpleasant for you.”

“Will I have another outburst?” she asked as Patrick and Collin skidded to a stop
next to them.

He shook his head. “No. I fixed that.”

“Step back, Mr. Forever!” Patrick said, gun aimed at his back.

He put his hands up and stepped sideways slowly, turning around to face the angry
bear. “Put it away,” Leslie said, trying to get out of the car but too weak to do
much but talk.

“Leslie what happened?” Collin said, opening the door for her.

“I had a magic meltdown, and Mr. Forever saved whatever was going to happen,” she
told them about the phone call as Collin helped her out of the car.

“What is reminiscor -i dep?” Patrick said still eyeing Mr. Forever uncertainly.

“It’s Latin,” Leslie said.

“It pretty much means remember,” Mr. Forever said.

“Who was it?” Patrick asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know, it was blocked.”

Mr. Forever came over to her. “A minute alone with her, please.”

She nodded to the guys. “It’s okay.” Mr. Forever waited for them to walk away. When
they were gone, he looked her over and nodded.

He reached out and placed a finger to the middle of her forehead. “From you, it is
returned,” he whispered. She opened her mouth but closed it as she felt her strength
come back. His eyes went blood witch gray again, and he blinked it away. “Please tell
no one what has happened here tonight.”

“Why do your eyes turn gray when you do magic?” she whispered back.