Hex and the Single Witch (Vehicle City Vampires) (31 page)

Just then I
heard something behind me, I almost screamed afraid it was one of the demons.
Mel’s hand went over my mouth. “Ssh girlfriend, it’s me and Sati. Backup is on
the way.”

“What the hell
took you so long?” I whispered.

“Sorry, I was
taking photos of all the magickal craziness going on. I wanted to capture it
and catalog the magick signatures. I found out a few very interesting things,
remind me to explain later. So, what’s going on?” She looked over to the scene
playing out in front of us. “Oh damn,” was all she could say.

“I don’t know if
Galen is planning something, or if he’s really gone back to his old ways. This
is the second woman I’ve watched him have sex with,” I said as despair and
jealousy rippled through me. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes. I sniffled
and tried to hold back the emotion.

“Oh, baby I’m
sorry,” she whispered as she stroked my hair. “We’ll save him. You got to trust
he has a plan.”

“What, to fang
and fuck every woman in town?” I sniffed with snark.

“Never mind,
it’s just sex. Would you rather he kill them?”

Easy for her to
say. It wasn’t her man banging someone else right in front of her. But she did
have a point, at least he wasn’t killing anyone.

“Here take this,”
she said, handing me a drawstring bag. “It’s a salt cleanser mixed with holy
water, herbs and some of Galen’s blood. Toss it on the demons, it’ll send them
back to their dimension. The incantations were said when I mixed up the batch,
it looks like they’re all within the area where they were summoned. All you
have to do is make sure the mixture makes contact with bare demon flesh.
Everyone has a bag, use it wisely, we have to get rid of the muscle, then we’ll
deal with Devlin.”

“What about the
circle?” I asked.

“I think Galen
took care of that,” she said, pointing to the silver dagger Devlin had used to
cut Galen. It lay outside the circle. When the hell had he tossed it out? And
how…oh! His blood. The knife was covered in Galen’s blood, which Devlin had
used to cast the circle and call the demons.

Oh, so when the
knife, covered with Galen’s blood, crossed the circle it broke the magick. How
had I missed that? Devlin must have laid it down when he grabbed the other
woman. And Galen grabbed it and tossed it out. Thank the goddess Galen was still
in control.

Backup arrived
just as Mel, Sati and I were running toward the demons sending fistfuls of salt
flying at them. Each demon disappeared with a swoosh and a pop, back into their
dimension. Devlin was so caught up drinking from the black beauty on top of him
he didn’t realize the demons were dispersed, until we stood over the three of
them.

When he caught
sight of me he started screaming, “No, no! Damn you Galen, you bastard, you
traitor!”

Galen pulled out
of the woman, pulled her off Devlin and roused her enough to get her out of the
way. One of the female officers grabbed her, tossed a blanket around her, and
led her away. Several officers were doing the same to the other women left in
the circle. The redhead was standing, though she looked woozy. Thank Goddess
she wasn’t dead.

I wondered what
kind of story they were all going to be spelled and glamoured into believing. I
briefly wondered who in the P.I.T Crew did the spellings. I know we had a
couple resident witches who could glamour better than some of the fae. I’d have
to start asking more questions. Or just hope my mojo got fixed so my knowing
magick worked once again.

Galen hauled
Devlin up to a standing position.

All Devlin could
do was rant and rave. “How could you? Why couldn’t you bring him back? I just
wanted him back,” he screeched insanely.

I think Devlin
had finally cracked. He started blubbering like an idiot.

Someone handed
Galen a blanket and a bag of blood. Thankfully Mel had come prepared.

Once covered and
fed, he led me over to the side of the group. The forensics team was busy
bagging and tagging everything in the area while two of Satinka’s Guardians
restrained Devlin.

His eyes were
filled with remorse and something else, fear perhaps.

“I’m very sorry
you had to see this mess I know it was rather grotesque and must have been
difficult for you to watch,” he said in a hushed tone so no one else would
hear. Chances were good someone else would hear us since half the P.I.T crew
was Other with supernatural hearing, but hopefully they were all busy or at
least being respectful. “I knew you were there, but I had no other options. I
realized the only way to distract Devlin was to play along, that’s all he
wanted. He wanted things to be like they used to be.” His tone was soft, but
his voice held a hint of ragged emotion.

“Why?” I asked.
I know he wanted me to believe him, to believe in him. But the images of him
and those women were burned into my brain.

“Cause he is
bat-shit crazy,” Galen replied with a sarcastic laugh. My eyes widened in
surprise at his answer. He spotted my reaction and continued, “No really, he is
flat out crazy. He was in love with Roark. Roark played with him, taunted him,
strung him along then flaunted me in front of him. I was always Roark’s
favorite toy. But sometimes Devlin got to play with us.” Galen shuddered at the
memories.

I made sure not
to touch him because I didn’t want to see anything. He might be too weak to put
up his shields.

“Roark promised
to change Devlin into a vampire, but after a few years he still had not, then
finally after much begging from Devlin, Roark forced me to change him.”

I knew a little
bit, Galen had told me. Of course, that had been the night Roark had been
inside him, so I wasn’t sure if it had been Galen talking or Roark playing with
my head.

“But why all
this? This craziness?” I gestured around vaguely.

“I can only
guess he wanted to force me to play his game. That is why he killed all those
women. To get my attention. He wanted Roark back. Somehow he had gathered
enough magick over the years to pull Roark here for short periods of time, but
he still was not strong enough to keep him. He figured I would be and wanted me
to host him.”

“But, what about
me? Why cast all the spells on me?”

“To keep us
apart, I presume,” Galen shrugged his shoulders not looking at me. “And, it
worked. It pushed you right into the arms of that fucking cop! Over and over
again.”

Malone. Who was
thankfully not here. If he’d seen Galen banging those women or even
worse…fanging them, he probably would have killed him on the spot. Hopefully,
he was still farther downtown, dealing with some of the other craziness. Which
reminded me, now that Galen was safe I was needed elsewhere. Part of me wanted
to stay with Galen but the images of him…I had to put some distance between me
and those visions. Which was a little hard to do with Galen still covered in
their blood and smelling like their…

“Wow, I see
Devlin’s plans are still working. I mention that cop and you are instantly
ready to run to him,” Galen said flatly. His eyes were hard, his jaw set. His
fists clenched at his sides.

I could see the
struggle going on within him. I knew he was horrified by the things he had to
do, felt were necessary to do to get out of the situation, but I also knew he
was angry at my reaction. And, my need to get away from him.

“It’s my job,
and this was just one of the problems in the city tonight. It’s Samhain and all
the crazies are out,” I said while trying to block all the emotion from my
voice. I wanted to run away and cry, to shout in anger, to shake and shiver and
let the overload of feelings flow out of me. But I couldn’t. There was still
work to be done.

“Fine.” He
turned away from me and headed straight toward Satinka. Figured he had to run
right to momma.

Jealousy ripped
through me so I stalled him. “Wait, I have one more question?”

He turned to me.
Torment etched his features before he got enough control to hide behind his
vampire mask of non-emotion. “What?”

“What about
Roark? Where is he?”

He shrugged. “Not
here. Back in his realm, I guess. I think he liked to come over and play, but
honestly I think he is quite happy there. No human restrictions. If he had
really wanted to stay here in a body, he could have taken me over completely.
He never did. I think he just played with Devlin like he always did. Devlin was
a toy he could always count on for amusement. But he would tire of him quickly
and go off to find something else for a while before coming back to him. It was
enough to keep Devlin waiting around, wanting more. Always willing to do his
dirty work.”

“Odd.”

“You have no
idea how odd and completely sadistic Devlin and Roark are, especially together.”
Galen sighed and walked away. When he reached Satinka she enveloped him in her
arms. He had to sink down on his knees so she could. They didn’t embrace like
lovers. They truly were like parent and child. So very strange, yet comforting.
The jealousy inside me dissipated.

I found Mel
using a tiny vacuum to suck up any excess salt mixture left behind after the
demon disbursements. I said to her, “I’m heading into the city now to find
Malone.”

She looked up
and then looked over to Galen and Satinka. “Hmm hmm.”

“What?” I asked
with narrowed eyes and hands on my hips—classic girl WTF pose.

“You just gonna
leave him like that?” she gestured toward Galen and Satinka.

“I think he’s
fine, or as fine as he can be. I’m not sure how I feel about what went on
tonight or what has been going on for the past couple months. Galen is a
predator, a wicked predator who’s really mentally messed up. I just don’t know
how I feel. Or if I am capable of dealing with so much baggage.”

“And Malone?”
she asked, eyebrows raised.

“Malone is
human.”

“Therefore he’s
safe?”

“You know
there’s no safety when love is involved.” I grimaced as she barked out a laugh.

“Ain’t that the
truth?” she asked rhetorically.

“Unfortunately.”
I sighed.

“Well you go on
and find Malone. I’m sure he will be happy to see you. When I left he was
fighting with a crazy gnome whose garden had been trampled by a bunch of trick
or treaters. The gnome wanted to eradicate the kids. Malone was trying to talk
him into something a little less homicidal.”

“Halloween.” I
shrugged half-heartedly.

“Yeah.” She
giggled a little sarcastically.

Chapter 39

Once I reached
the downtown area things got a bit crazy. Saginaw Street ran red with blood. I
could tell it was a glamour. Boy, did it look creepy, and it was freaking a lot
of people out.

But film crews
were standing by, so most of the onlookers probably thought it was just another
movie being filmed. I had a sneaking suspicion the crew decided to film because
of the craziness. Less computer generated imagery they had to create. Crews
came here for more than the tax breaks and empty locations. I think they came
to Flint to catch the supernatural craziness on film. It was better than what
they could create with computers and special effects. Flint was a movie maker’s
heaven, especially if they were filming something paranormal.

I glanced up and
down Saginaw Street. Straggling trick or treaters and older bar hopping
partiers in costumes wandered about, along with a few vampires looking for a
good time. I spotted a werewolf lingering in a dark doorway smoking a
cigarette. I could tell it was a wolf because his eyes glowed with amber light.

He stepped out of
the shadows and waved. It was Troy, one of Satinka’s Guardians. I returned his
wave then continued to scan the area.

A couple of
drunken fairies stumbled along the sidewalk giggling and sifting sparkling dust
onto the concrete. The fae loved to party. I wasn’t surprised at all to see
them out tonight. When else could they mingle with humans and not have to use
glamour to hide themselves. Normally, it was pretty hard to fit in considering
many of them had skin in rainbow colors. Hair too. Yeah, fitting in with humans
when you had purple skin, pink hair and glowing blue eyes was not an easy task
even if you were good with the glamour. Tonight they didn’t have to worry about
glamour. They could go out and get drunk. Alcohol can diminish glamouring
abilities, make them unstable, which was why they didn’t usually party with
humans.

I wondered where
Malone was. Surely the gnome issue had been taken care of by now.

I walked down to
the P.I.T. station and asked one of the officers standing outside if he knew
where to find Malone. He informed me of a few calls Malone had been sent on.
Malone’s humanity left him dealing with the less dangerous stuff tonight, like
homicidal gnomes and trolls gone wild, and even a drunk fairy caught naked and
spilling glitter all over the park. I wondered if it had been one of the girls
I’d seen walking along Saginaw.

I hoped so
because that would mean Malone made it out unscathed…or unmolested. Fairies
could be quite…uhm…sensual. They were very similar to vampires in their quest
for physical satisfaction and in the effect they had on human sexual response.