Pretty Witches All in a Row (18 page)

“It’s served me well these long years.”  Ellie patted his arm once more and released him.  “This is me here.”  She pointed to the collapsible blue canvas chair.  “Try not to fret overmuch, Sergeant.  Some of life’s greatest mysteries go unsolved for centuries.”

“Not this one.”  The very idea chafed and he gave her a tight smile.  “Have a nice evening, Ma’am,” he bade her before joining the crowd again.  This time he gave up on pursuing Rose.  For whatever reason he wasn’t on her list of favorite people and he had to accept that. 

Nick was about to turn back in search of Annaliese, when the crowd drew to a hush.  A look to either side showed everyone’s attention fixed to one point ahead, and he saw Seraphine on a makeshift platform on the small patio.  She stood serenely, making no move to speak until she was certain she had everyone’s attention.  If she’d been beautiful dressed in corporate attire, she was simply breathtaking in the moonlight, her hair loose and flowing in dark ringlets down her back.  She wore a dress of blood red crushed velvet, her lips stained to match.  Exotic, heavy eyeliner with tiny painstakingly applied jewels at the corner of her eyes gave her an exotic, foreign appearance.  Before the sea of casually dressed soccer moms and shorts-wearing dads she appeared almost as an embodiment of a goddess herself. 

The rest of the crowd appeared to be just as swayed by her appearance, as utter silence fell across the yard.  Nick halted his progress towards Annaliese and stopped to watch the show.

“Thank you all for coming, Blessed Be,” she greeted them warmly. 

“Blessed Be.”  The crowd replied almost as one and Nick had the strangest déjà vu feeling of being back in church again. 

“It’s wonderful to see the community come together, I only wish it was under happier circumstances,” she continued, her voice easily reaching the farthest corners of the yard in the stillness of the night.

“We are here to remember our fallen sisters, Zoe, Skye and Meiliyn who have gone on to the Summerlands to await rebirth.  We ask the Lord and Lady to take them into their embrace, and guide them on their path.  Perhaps they will return to this world to work on their next life lesson, or perhaps they will ascend to the next plane and achieve spiritual oneness.  Take comfort one and all that we
will
meet them again to enjoy their many wonderful qualities.  Blessed Be.”

“Blessed Be.”  The crowd nodded and Nick almost found himself answering back this time.  Everyone started lighting their candles, flames passed from one to the other at some unspoken cue.  Nick accepted a light from the woman to his left and passed it along.

“Please join us now in song, as we honor our beloved sisters.”  Seraphine bowed her head and stepped back, gracefully descending the dais. 

Were they going to sing kumbaya now?  He hadn’t really been expecting a sing along, but it was clear from the reaction of the crowd that it came as no surprise to any of them.  A woman’s voice rang out from amid the crowd, her voice pure and clear, no less beautiful for lacking any accompaniment. 

He recognized the tune right off even if he couldn’t think of the artist’s name, she was one of those chick singers that did those Lilith faire concerts.  Nick’s eyes found her as the crowd shifted, swaying with the music.  Annaliese was singing; eyes closed as she sang from the heart.  Perhaps they were supposed to join along in the song, but the crowd seemed content to hear her sing alone for the moment and he couldn’t blame them.  She wove a spell over them; over him, he realized, and he wondered if there was some sort of magic present.  The air felt charged with something… but it didn’t make him uncomfortable, just that he was part of something special.  When someone grabbed his hand, he didn’t flinch or pull away, but took the hand of the person on the other side of him, careful with his lit candle. As a unit they all swayed to the melody, hauntingly beautiful in its simplicity.  When the song drew to a close, there was no applause, but Nick could hear whispers of “Blessed Be” reverberating through the crowd. 

The bartender from The Graveyard stepped up to the front of the crowd then, guitar in hand as he took a seat on the edge of the little platform.  He played a credible rendition of ‘Here Without You’ by 3 Doors Down in a heartfelt voice.  At that moment it didn’t look like he’d thought his relationship with Skye had been all that casual; the man looked like he was truly grieving. 

A procession of performances followed, by people he didn’t recognize and then the crowd itself was singing.  Folk songs primarily.  Nick recognized most of them and by the second group song he was singing along to ‘Yesterday’, and trading smiles with the people next to him in the crowd. 

Belatedly, he remembered he was supposed to be working and excused himself from the human chain, making his way carefully through the crowd until he reached the edge, nearly getting singed a half dozen times by the swaying candles.  Annaliese stood near where she’d been giving out candles earlier.  Part of him wanted to go hold
her
hand instead of some stranger’s, but he spotted Seraphine up by the house all by herself and decided to take care of business first. 

“And here I thought you were the shy type,” Nick said near her shoulder as he pulled away from the crowd to where she was digging around in her purse. 

“Whatever would have given you that impression?” she replied smoothly, without turning around, her attention fixed on the bag. 

“I dunno, you struck me as the type who wouldn’t want to call attention to yourself like that, but you seemed right at home in front of this crowd tonight.”

Sera looked up, drawing out a gold lighter from her purse.  “These are my people; I have nothing to fear from them.”

That begged the question of course, “Do you have something to fear from me?”

“You tell me.  Do I?”  A delicately arched brow was raised, a faint smile on her painted lips. 

She might be a cold bitch, but she was still sexy as hell and God help him, there was a tiny part of him that was still attracted to her.  Still, he resisted the quip that rose to his lips and instead kept things on a more appropriate level.  “I just want to get to the bottom of whoever’s behind these murders.”

“That’s all I want too.”

“Then why the need for all the secrecy, Sera?  Why not level with me and give me what I need to work with?”

“Because nothing I have to say will bring you any closer to what you’re looking for.”

“I’d like to be the judge of that.”

“We can’t always get what we want,” she replied, her head tilting to one side as she lit a thin brown cigarette and Nick smelled the distinctive aroma of cloves. 

“What are you afraid of?” 

Her head came up sharply, and he fancied for a moment that he did see a flare of panic behind those dark eyes.  “Nothing you can protect me from.”  Seraphine brought a thumbnail up to her teeth and then jerked it away in annoyance, but not before Nick noticed that her nails had all been bitten to the quick.  A nervous habit?  It seemed out of place on this lady who was normally so tightly controlled. 

Nick stepped a little closer, his voice dropping sympathetically.  “You can trust me, Sera, I promise.  If you know something… come in and let’s talk about it.  We can protect you.”

“I shouldn’t even be here talking to you,” she muttered, looking away to take another drag on the cigarette. 

“Do you want to get together later and talk?  Someplace a little more private?  It doesn’t have to be at the station; we could go and get a cup of coffee or something?” 

“I have plans later,” she murmured absently, her eyes darting to the crowd.  “I have to go, duty calls.”  Seraphine flashed him a brief smile, dropping the cigarette onto the patio and crushing it with what was probably a pair of five hundred dollar shoes. 

“Sera… I want to help.”  He tried to call her back without causing a scene; the last song was winding down.

“I have much more powerful help at my command, Sergeant.”  Seraphine turned and gave him a serene smile, all traces of doubt or worry erased from her features as she left to join the crowd again. 

Nick stood watching her; more than a little disturbed by the way the conversation had gone.  What was it that had her so spooked?  And why not tell him about it?  It never ceased to amaze him how distrustful some people were where law enforcement was concerned.  Usually it stemmed from a guilty conscience, but with Seraphine he wasn’t so sure.  She almost seemed like she was being secretive for the sake of secrecy. 

“She shot you down, huh?”  Annaliese appeared by his side, and Nick turned away from watching Sera for the moment. 

“What?  Oh Sera?  Yeah, I guess she did.  Why, was it obvious?”

“Only if you were paying attention.”

“And you were?” Nick observed.  Everyone else seemed to be focused on the vigil, not paying him any particular mind at all. 

Something akin to chagrin passed over her face.  “I guess I was,” she admitted sheepishly.  “You shouldn’t feel bad; she’s really… picky.”

“How do you mean?” 

“She has really specific likes and dislikes, so you shouldn’t take it personally, it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you,” Anna added quickly.

All at once it dawned on him what the hell she was talking about.  Annaliese thought that he’d asked Seraphine out and she’d shot him down.  “Oh… well, it’s kinda hard not to take it personally you know, you put yourself out there and someone isn’t interested… it can be quite a blow to the ego.  Especially for an ego the size of mine,” he added, unable to resist going along with what she thought they were talking about.  “Does she have many… admirers?”

“You could say that.”  Annaliese gave a little roll of the eyes.  “She’s got that thing, you know?  People are drawn to her, men, women…”

“Children and small dogs?” Nick quipped. 

“Probably,” she laughed softly, “she’s everybody’s type.”  It sounded like mostly admiration in her voice, maybe a little bit of wistfulness but no overt jealousy that he could detect. 

“She is very beautiful,” he admitted, his eyes on Sera’s back, “but she’s not my type.”  Nick could practically feel her start of surprise, though he kept his eyes forward. 

“She’s not?  Then…”

Nick turned to face her then, noticing that adorable little pucker of confusion on her forehead.  “I was only trying to talk to her about the case.”

“Then why…?”

“I just liked to see you get jealous,” he smirked.

“I was
not
jealous!”  She dropped her volume at the last word, more than a little embarrassed when they drew a couple of curious looks from nearby people.

“No?   So you wouldn’t mind if I went and asked her out then?”

“Why would you do that?  You said she wasn’t your type.”

“A guy can ask a girl out who isn’t his normal type.”

“What is your normal type then?”

“I think you know.”  He regarded her steadily, smiling when he was rewarded with her flush of awareness. 

“I thought I did.”  She met his gaze and he drew a measure closer to her, his thumb reaching out to lightly stroke against the back of her hand.

A steady chant rose through the air, a lower, more guttural counterpoint to the singing that was still going on in the yard.  

“What is that?”  Nick’s head canted to one side as he tried to pick it out. 

“What’s what?”  It took her a moment to key into what he was referring to, but then she nodded, moving a couple of steps away from the yard towards the house where it seemed to get louder.

“Burn witches burn… burn witches burn… burn witches burn…” could be heard with rising volume, the closer they got to the house. 

“Stay here, I’m gonna go and check it out.”

“The hell I will,” Annaliese frowned.  “I want to know what’s going on.”  Undeterred, she strode past him down the side yard to the front of the house.

Some women were too damn stubborn for their own good…  Unable to keep her from going to check it out, Nick jogged a few steps to get in front of her at least.  Coming around the corner of the house he stopped, mouth dropping at the sight that waited for them at the front of the house. 

A crowd of… protesters, he supposed they were, though he couldn’t quite understand what they were protesting, gathered in the street outside of Skye’s house.  The street and sidewalks were lined with people carrying picket signs with slogans like ‘Burn witches burn’ and ‘God hates witches’ among other winners. 

“Who the hell pickets a candlelight vigil?” he frowned, stopping in his tracks.  The answer came in the form of the Reverend Noah Cahill, who emerged with a bullhorn in one hand and a sign in the other that quoted ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’. 

“I don’t believe this…” Annaliese murmured at his side, staring at the group of protesters. 

“This is
so
not good…”  Nick scanned the crowd for any sign of his team or the other detectives, but their car was obscured by bodies.  “We’ve got to keep your friends in the back yard, okay?  No matter what these idiots say, this will only get worse if they come out and confront them.”

“I don’t know if we can.  Seraphine’s going to flip when she sees this, not to mention everyone else out there.”  She pressed a hand to her forehead, looking back to the yard that was barely visible from where they stood. 

“I’m going to go and try to talk to Cahill; you go and see what you can do.  Try and convince them that no good will come of any confrontations.”

“Alright, I’ll try,” Annaliese nodded, giving his hand a brief squeeze before she ran back to the rear of the house.

“This is not gonna end well…” he muttered, approaching the religious group slowly, his hands open and outstretched.  “I’m going to have to ask you to disperse,” Nick began, but the chanting continued, hell it might have even gotten louder.  Cahill did give him his attention though; his initial look of surprise giving way to understanding and a shrewd, calculating look came over his face.

“You did say we’d be seeing more of each other, didn’t you?” Cahill acknowledged with a shake of the head. 

“I didn’t think it would be this soon,” Nick nodded grimly.