Tainted Blood (Hell's Belle Book 2) (9 page)

CHAPTER NINE

I gave her sixteen different reasons to beg off, but Darcy insisted on covering for me at the bar. She even showed up an hour early, looking spectacular in a simple pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, the tip of her lacy bra just peeking over the V-neck. She pulled her white-blond hair, now streaked with cotton candy pink, into a long braid, and it swung like a pendulum across her back.

She scooted past me behind the bar. "How was your day, hon? You look a lot better than when I left you this morning."

Grunting my response, I eyed her suspiciously. Humming away to the song playing on the satellite radio station while slicing lemons near the sink, she looked absolutely effervescent, hair and pale skin a sharp contrast to her black top. I didn't have to ask her what she was up to. Frankie had sent over a flurry of angry texts because she and Matty were holed up in his apartment, giggling and listening to Killing Haley's "emo crap," while he was trying to sleep. Part of me was happy I wasn't the only one running a huge sleep deficit. Misery loves company and all that.

Thankfully, he didn't mention anything about the hospital. Maybe our binding was blocked. Or maybe he didn't want to talk about it either.

I filled Darcy in on Al's light beer drink of choice for the evening. Casper had already oozed his way into my body. Like Darcy, he showed up early too. He was so excited to teach me spells that he pushed my heart rate up. By the way I clomped up the stairs, I was sweating as if I was halfway through a boxing workout.

Once in the apartment, I fired up the laptop in the kitchen and while we were waiting for Babe to Skype in from Mexico, I tore apart the kitchen looking for spell pots and various other witch-like paraphernalia. Casper's running monologue was filled with exasperation when I kept grabbing the wrong stuff.

"You never cook and spell with the same pots," he huffed. "Spell pots on the left side, cooking on the right. Hell's bells, Nina, we went over this last time!"

Great. He was giving me a migraine already. 

Skype chirped, and Babe's weathered face popped up on the screen when I answered. Placing the laptop on a makeshift shelf created by stacking several of Babe's grimoires, I could almost see eye-to-eye with her.

She waved. "Hi, sweetie! Is Casper settled in?"

I involuntarily blew her a kiss, Casper's way of letting her know he was possessing me.

"Hi, handsome!" she said with a wink. "Okay, circle cast?"

I gulped and stared blankly at my aunt's face in the laptop. Her smile melted into a disapproving frown.

"Dios mío, Nina. I showed you how to cast the circle before I left! Did you honestly forget it already?"

"You're making me look like shit," Casper said, fuming over my aunt's admonishment.

"She showed me once! Three weeks ago!" I countered. Thirty-three years old and my aunt and a teenaged ghost were yelling at me like a truant grade school student. It was humiliating.

"Casper, have you been spelling without drawing the circle?" With her disappointment now directed at him, I smiled smugly.

"We haven't been spelling. This is the first time she's committed to practicing since you left!"

I slammed my hand over my mouth. I hated it when he used me to speak. In this situation, I was literally telling on myself.

A very exasperated Babe rolled her eyes. "Both of you, draw the damn circle. No spelling in my building without one. Do you remember how?"

I'm pretty sure I looked like a deer in headlights. Babe's eyes went wide with surprise, and then narrowed into angry slits when she realized that I completely forgot what she taught me right before she left for her trip.

"Nina, do you remember why it's important to cast a circle?"

"To keep negative forces out while witches are at their most vulnerable," I parroted her words.

"And why else?" she pressed.

"To keep our magic from escaping and harming others if we spell wrong." I looked guiltily down at my hands.

"And that should be the most important reason for you," she scolded, and I had to agree. I wasn't exactly in control of my witchy faculties. Accidentally conjuring tornados doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

But I noticed that Casper also froze at her demand for us to cast the circle, and that made me snicker. He didn't remember how to do it either. "Safety first" wasn't exactly a popular motto for teenaged boys.

She tap-tap-tapped her nails against the computer, and they echoed through the microphone. "I'm guessing the ritual cleansing didn't happen then?"

Hoping I looked appropriately chagrined, I shook my head. Her sigh was long and loud. Babe liked her magic old-school, which included a ritual bath beforehand to cleanse oneself of negative energy, meditate and focus, and blah blah blah. I preferred going straight for the meat. Get in, kick ass, get out. Prep takes me no longer than strapping on my weapons.

"I'll let it go," she said, and then with emphasis, "
this
time." 

Babe already had a circle drawn in the apartment, which was marked by her beloved veladoras candles in the north, south, east and west apexes. With the candles as guides, I closed my eyes and imagined the circle, attempting to ignite the four candles in my mind, and hoping that they physically manifested fire as well. I heard one flame up before my concentration was interrupted and I opened my eyes.

The Internet cafe Babe was using was buzzing with action, and the noise level made it hard to focus. I looked past her to the people milling around in the background. Wondering if she could move to a quieter corner, something strange caught my eye. It was a man, pale skin and a shock of red hair, out of place in the sea of brown skin surrounding him.

"Babe, what's with the gringo behind you?" I asked.

This part of Mexico was a tourist trap during the Congreso Internacional de Brujos, the famous witch festival that filled Catemaco with visitors from all over the world every year. But the festival was about a month away, so seeing someone who clearly was not from the Veracruz area in the cafe made me suspicious.

"Maybe they came early for the festival," Babe said, brushing it off. "Catemaco has some lovely beaches. Not everyone is here just for Brujos. Now you see why I tell you to take the ritual bath? You are completely scattered."

The pale man stuck out like a virgin in a whorehouse, but I decided not to push it. Babe was annoyed enough with me.

I closed my eyes and, with every ounce of my mental strength, I willed those damn candles to light. I didn't dare open my eyes until Casper let out a low whistle in my head. "Nice one. You lit them all up in one go."

"Okay, see? Focused. So what are we spelling today?" I thought about all the weapons I would love to spell — my bullets, my athame and the awesome blades that extended over my hands like claws. Then my mind wandered to Frankie. Maybe there was a spell for him, just in case we needed it.

"We're charging herbs," Babe said flatly.

Defeated, I reached out and grabbed at the herbs growing in my aunt's windowsill above the sink.

"What are you doing?" Casper took over my arm and slammed it down on the counter.

"Charging herbs. What the hell is your problem?"

"You can't just grab any old herb." He sounded so annoyed with me. "What do you want the herbs to do?"

I shrugged. "Ask Babe. I've no idea what we're doing."

"We are going to charge a mix of bay leaf and garlic."

"Sounds like we're making spaghetti sauce," I groused.

"Nina, please, be serious. What are those herbs for?"

"Bay leaf is for strength, garlic is for protection." The answer flew out of my mouth quickly.

"Good!" Babe beamed. "But that wasn't you, was it, honey? That was Casper."

I gritted my teeth and nodded. I sucked at this. Casper was showing me up.

"But you get the idea, right, honey? Alright, now..." El Gringo caught my eye again, and Babe's voice became an irritating hum in the background.

Sipping from a can of Coke, he looked like Uber-Tourista. You know the stereotype — loud shirt, Bermuda shorts, black knee high socks paired with brand new white sneakers, stupid straw hat. It was all wrong. He was trying too hard to look the part.

Absently, with my eyes still on the guy's image on my laptop, I reached into the cabinet above me and felt around for herb bottles and a head of garlic. Babe's shrill voice yanked me back to Earth.

"Nina, that's the cooking cabinet. What the hell is wrong with you tonight!"

"Sorry," I muttered, crossing the kitchen to the spell cabinet (God, this was a pain in the ass) and pulling out a bottle of bay leaves and a half used head of garlic. When I got back to the laptop, Babe instructed me to "charge" the herbs. I stared blankly at the screen.

"Oh for crying out loud," she fumed. "Casper, show her how it's done."

My eyes snapped closed and my hand jerked forward. "Hey!" I yelled, and then I felt pressure on my jaw as he clamped my mouth shut.

"I like you a lot more like this!" I scowled as his voice reverberated through my skull. I'd go through a full-on exorcism just to teach this little snot a lesson.

He held my hand over the bay leaves and garlic. "Stop fighting. Push your energy down into them."

What I wanted to do was keep an eye on the guy in the cafe, but with Casper welding my eyes shut, it was impossible. I gave in, although there was no way my energy was going to charge anything. 

So when a spark hit my palm, I yelped in surprise. My eyes popped open to catch the briefest glimpse of what appeared to be lightening flash out from my hand and down to the garlic and bay leaves. Casper was beside himself, doing a happy dance inside my body, which was making me twitchy.

Babe wore an ear-to-ear grin. "Oh my God! You did it! Or was that Casper?" Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"No, that was all Nina," I heard myself say, but it was really the ghost. Great. Now I was talking about myself in the third person.

Taking back control of my body, I grabbed the tea kettle, filled it, and fired up the stove. Reaching above it, I scrounged around the upper cabinet for a box of tea leaves, hoping for something soothing to ease me into sleep. Triumphant, I pulled down a box of chamomile, and moved to the end of the kitchen to grab a mug. Wrinkling my nose, I sniffed and turned to look at the stove. It smelled like something was burning. Suddenly hot, I looked down and realized I was the one on fire. The flame from the gas stove was too big for the kettle, and it ignited my sweater. Like an idiot, I froze.

If there was ever a good moment to have a ghost possess your body, this was it. Casper took over, forcing me to rip the sweater over my head. Before I could pray that it didn't send my hair in flames (God, I really needed to cut my damn hair off), the sweater landed in the sink. I turned the faucet, and smoke billowed into my face while the fire went out. Coughing, I fanned the smoke away and turned back to the laptop.

Babe looked horrified. "Why is my kitchen smoking up? Nina? Casper? You two better not be burning down my building."

"It's okay, Babe. We're okay," I said as I moved in front of the computer and waved, thinking it would make her feel better to see me.

"Nina, where's your top?" In my haste to prove all was completely normal, I didn't even realize that I was standing there in my bra.

My face grew hot and I crossed my arms over my chest just as the door burst open. Frankie and Matty bounded into the apartment with a fire extinguisher. They stopped dead when I turned to face them. Frankie actually burst out laughing, making my face redder and hotter. At least Matty was polite enough to avert his eyes.

Refusing to look away, Frankie stripped off his jacket and tossed it to me. He raised his eyebrows slightly and gave me a wink. I gave him the finger. Casper's laughing vibrated my body, which wasn't a good thing considering my circumstance.

"What the hell are you laughing at?" I muttered to Casper.

I settled into Frankie's coat, feeling a bit lightheaded. His scent — a mix of musk and sandalwood — was briefly overwhelming. 

"You okay, Frankie?" I asked, looking him over warily. He looked fine, completely normal. There was even a little color to his cheeks.

"You were on fire, and I felt it. Those flames were bloody hot, Nina."

"Hello, Frankie," my aunt deadpanned.

"Well, hello, Babette. Look at you, in the computer!" Frankie was a total Luddite.

With the dizziness abating, I turned on my heel and walked towards the bedroom to grab a shirt. I heard murmurs of conversation carrying on in the kitchen while I tore apart the spare bedroom I had moved into. Some of my stuff made it to the closet, but most of it was still in suitcases strewn all over the floor. I wasn't the best mover, which the mountains of unpacked boxes in my Olneyville apartment proved. I never really unpack. Ever.