Hex You, page 16
Nure-Onna shrieked and bared her poisonous fangs, preparing to bite the creature.
“Do not kill her!”
The goddess’s command made Nure-Onna falter, which allowed the cat to leap away and disappear into the darkness. Sobbing quietly, Nure-Onna touched the scratches that crisscrossed her pale stomach. Precious blood trickled down her skin and she caught it with her hand, lapping it from her palm.
“I shall leave you now. You did well tonight. Next time leave your den earlier. I want that redhead, or the boy, or the brown girl called Emily killed. Sooner rather than later. I grow impatient.”
“Yesssss, goddess,” she said softly, still licking blood from her hands. But Amphitrite had already gone, leaving Nure-Onna to return to the soothing waters of the creek and make her way slowly back to the World of Darkness.
TWENTY-THREE
Mercy flopped down on the couch beside Khenti. “I’m so glad it’s Friday. Today sucked majorly. Everyone except the cheerleaders were so weird. I mean, serious staring and whispering.”
Hunter joined them from the kitchen with two big bowls of popcorn. She gave one to Mercy, and then Hunter took the second bowl and sat cross-legged with it in her lap in the recliner that was Jax’s favorite. She glanced around before asking, “Hey, Khenti, where did you say Xena went?”
“She said something about doing some night-bird hunting. I reminded her to change into her cat form before she left,” said Khenti around a mouthful of popcorn. “She promised she would not be gone long.” He put his arm around Mercy and added, “I am sorry your day was difficult. The death of a coach must have been a terrible shock to the school, as well as to the town,” said Khenti as Mercy snuggled into him.
“Yeah, but it’s not like Hunter and I killed her.”
Khenti frowned. “Of course you did not kill her. Your village must know that.”
“Our town isn’t thinking clearly,” said Hunter after swallowing a mouthful of popcorn. “I overheard enough of the gossip to know some of them actually blame us.”
“It’s Kirk.” Mercy snarled his name. “That jerk is spreading so much shit about us, the local farmers should hire him to fertilize their fields.”
“It has to be more than just him, though,” said Hunter. “It has to be the Nure-Onna. Rational adults don’t blame sixteen-year-olds for murders unless there’s other stuff going on.”
“I totally agree,” said Mercy. “So, now that we found its skin…” Mercy paused and the twins shivered in unison. “We know it’s definitely a Nure-Onna. Do we know how to kill it?” She and Hunter turned to look expectantly at Khenti.
The demi-god smiled. “Yes, I believe we do. It is rather simple, really. It is a snake. We kill it as we would any other snake. We cut off its head.”
“And you’re sure that’ll work?” Hunter asked.
“I feel confident it will kill the demon,” said Khenti. “I have dealt with many demons in my world, and when they manifest in a form that is tied to the earth—like a viper—they always have some of the same weaknesses as the mundane forms they mimic. As your familiar pointed out so accurately when we researched earlier today—vipers are easily killed by removing their heads—and my khopesh is an excellent weapon for that.”
“H, I think it’s gonna work. Plus, we get to go all Buffy on the demon!” Mercy grinned at her twin.
Hunter smiled back at her and quoted, “‘First lesson—stick ’em with the pointy end,’ said Buffy.”
“Yaaasss!” laughed Mercy.
“What is a buffy?” asked Khenti.
Utterly speechless, Hunter and Mercy stared at him.
Khenti looked carefully at each of them. “What have I said?”
Instead of answering him, Mercy turned to Hunter. “That cat had him watching those garbage reality shows instead of educating him on Buffy Summers!”
“That’s a serious fail on Xena’s part. Serious.” Hunter shook her head.
“We’re gonna have a talk with that cat when she gets back,” said Mercy. “The Bachelorette instead of Buffy? No. Bloody hell no.”
“A Buffy is a person? On the television?” Khenti asked.
“Buffy is more than a person,” said Mercy. “She’s iconic. She kicked ass—vampire ass, demon ass—didn’t matter what it was as long as it was a big bad. We’re gonna make like Buffy and kick that viper’s ass.” She paused and her gaze returned to her twin. “Ohmygoddess, H! You were going all Dark Willow!”
“That’s ridiculous,” said Hunter.
Khenti rubbed his brow. “Is Dark Willow another name for Buffy?”
“No!” said the twins together.
“Hey, Mag.” Hunter’s eyes glittered mischievously. “Maybe I was kinda Dark Willow, but you were definitely Cordelia.”
Mercy narrowed her eyes at her sister. “Before season three Cordelia or Cordelia in Angel?”
Hunter grinned. “Prior to season three Cordy. Definitely.”
Khenti sighed. “I am very confused.”
“Tonight you start watching Buffy,” Mercy said solemnly. “You can’t go back to your world without knowledge of the Scooby Gang.”
“We have the entire DVD collection,” said Hunter smugly. “You’ve got some bingeing to do.”
“Oooh! And we already have popcorn! Plus, Buffy is a perfect antidote to the awfulness at school,” said Mercy, sitting straight up and bouncing a little on the couch cushions. It was so great to feel normal for a little while—so great to be with her sister and Khenti and laugh, eat popcorn, and talk about something as ordinary as Buffy.
Then Mercy deflated. “But first we have to figure out how to catch the Nure-Onna. I wish that damn cat would come home.” She looked at Khenti. “Did you two have any ideas about that?”
Khenti shrugged his broad shoulders. “I assume that we would simply wait at the Japanese tree for the creature to emerge.”
“That sounds like too much defense and not enough offense, plus that means we’d basically have to stake out the site,” said Hunter. “That could draw the attention of people, and the town is already hating on us. We don’t need them asking questions and watching us.” Hunter picked at her thumbnail.
“And we don’t know if the Nure-Onna returned to the Japanese Underworld, or if it’s still in this world,” said Mercy. She turned to Khenti. “Do you have any idea how long it can stay in this world before it dies?”
Khenti shook his head. “I would have to know how old it is. Remember, the older a creature is, the longer it can remain here without having to take on another body. My guess, though, is that the demon is old. The references we found to the thing drawing victims to it through the cries of a ghostly infant were ancient.”
“Waaaait, I have an idea!” Mercy said. “But Xena will have to help.”
“Xena?” Hunter’s brows went up. “What can she—” Hunter’s words broke off at the painful screeching of squealing tires that seemed to come from right outside the house. “What the—?” She stood and began to walk to the big picture window to peek out at what sounded like a major accident, when Khenti suddenly launched himself off the couch.
“Get down!” he shouted. He knocked Hunter to the floor and covered her with his body as something flew through the picture window, shattering it and raining glass shards all over them. The thing hit the wall behind the couch, where it broke a framed original of their mother’s favorite painting of Athena.
Khenti was instantly on his feet. He checked Hunter first. “Are you wounded?”
“No. I don’t think so,” said Hunter as she picked a shard of glass from her hair.
“Ohmygoddess! W-what the b-bloody hell?” Mercy’s voice shook with adrenaline. “She stood and started toward the pile of Khenti, Hunter, and glass that lay in the center of the living room.
Khenti held up his hand, palm out. “Stay back, Mercy! No one move! There’s glass everywhere! I shall return!” Then he jumped through the broken window as he summoned his khopesh.
“Khenti’s right, Mag. There’s glass everywhere. Stay there.” Hunter, who still had her shoes on, walked shakily to the couch. Carefully, she used one of the decorative pillows to brush glass from the cushions before she sat beside her twin and studied her. “Are you cut? Bleeding? Hurt?”
Mercy shook her head. Tiny glass fragments rained from her dark hair. “I don’t think I’m hurt. What the hell happened?”
Hunter looked behind the couch. “The thing that came through the window is back there. Hang on. I’ll get it.” Hunter carefully circled around the couch and picked up something. “It’s a fucking brick!” The words exploded from her.
“What?! How can that even be a thing?” Mercy was shaking her head back and forth, back and forth.
“There’s something written on a piece of paper tied to it. Hang on.” Hunter wiped pieces of glass from the brick and then untied the twine holding the sheet of paper. She lifted it and held it so that Mercy could read the Bible quote written forcefully in black Sharpie:
Exodus 22:18—Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Mercy’s stomach rolled with nausea as she tried to comprehend the hatred and bigotry that one sentence represented.
The front door opened and Khenti came in, still holding his khopesh—which disappeared when he tossed it into the air. “I could not capture them. Their vehicle moved too fast for even me to catch.”
“Did you see it, or was it too dark?” asked Mercy.
Khenti blew out a long, frustrated breath. “It was too dark for me to see many details, especially as they had their lights off. But it wasn’t like the vehicles you, Emily, and Jax drive. It was bigger and the back was different.”
Hunter took her phone from her pocket, tapped it, and then turned it so Khenti could see the screen. “Like this?”
Khenti’s forehead furrowed as he studied the picture of a truck. “Yes. I believe it was much the same shape and size, but as I said, it was so dark I could not see the color.”
“Half the football team has trucks,” said Mercy. “Show him a Jeep like Kirk’s.”
Hunter nodded as she joined Mercy on the couch again. “Good idea.” She went back to tapping on her phone, then showed Khenti a picture of a red Jeep.
Khenti shook his head. “No, the rear part of it was like what you called a truck.”
“Kirk is a dangerous douchebag,” said Mercy. “But when it comes to self-preservation he’s smart. He’s probably behind this, so no way would he drive his own vehicle.”
“You’re right, Mag. He instigates and thinks he can escape the consequences of his douchebaggery,” said Hunter.
Khenti looked around the glass-littered living room angrily. “I can bring the consequences to him.”
“That would be great, but we really need to handle this the right way—the legal way,” said Mercy. “Kirk has already proven that he’s violent and dangerous. Deputy Carter knows he has a vendetta against us. I’m calling the sheriff’s office.”
“Now?” Hunter asked.
“Absolutely. Maybe they can catch Kirk and his football buddies carrying around bricks.” Mercy took her phone from her pocket, quickly looked up the sheriff’s department number, and called it.
It only rang once when a familiar, perky voice answered. “Goodeville sheriff’s department, this is Trish! How may I help you?”
“Hi Trish, this is Mercy Goode.” She tried hard, but couldn’t help that her voice sounded shaky—probably because she felt so shaky. “Someone just threw a brick through our living room window. It had a threatening Bible verse attached to it.”
There was a long pause and then Trish asked in a flat, emotionless voice, “Was anyone hurt?”
“No, but there’s glass everywhere,” said Mercy.
“Did anyone see who did it?” Trish’s tone didn’t change.
“No. Well, my friend saw that it was a truck, but it’s dark and—”
Trish interrupted. “If you didn’t see who did it and no one was hurt, what is it you expect the deputy to do?”
Mercy paused, shocked at the coldness in Trish. She knew Trish. Everyone in Goodeville did. She was a nice older lady who cried at dog movies. And now she couldn’t be bothered to care about what had just happened to them? Mercy was too surprised to be truly angry. Instead her stomach hurt and she felt confused. “I, um, expect Deputy Carter to come by and make a report, and then see if he can find who vandalized and threatened us.”
There was another long pause. “I’ll leave him a note about it. I’d say you could see him in church and talk with him, but you Goode twins don’t go to church, do you?”
Then the line went dead.
Slowly, Mercy put her phone back in her pocket.
“What happened?” Hunter asked.
“They hate us. The town hates us, and they’re not going to help us. At all,” said Mercy.
The sound of the back door slamming open had Mercy and Hunter jumping and Khenti lifting his hand to call his khopesh. Xena staggered into the living room. Naked except for the blood that dripped from several lacerations on her shoulder, she stood at the entry of the living room, swaying drunkenly.
“Xena! Oh, goddess!” Mercy shrieked.
The cat person focused her wide, yellow eyes on Mercy. She was panting so hard she was difficult to understand. “Kitten! It was terrible! The snake! Amphitrite! They…” She paused. Her face drained of color, and with a boneless grace, Xena fell to the floor.
TWENTY-FOUR
“I really think you should go back to bed.” Mercy hovered around Xena, who was lounging on the couch, wrapped in Abigail’s bathrobe, lapping cocoa from a big mug. There was an empty plate of scrambled eggs on the coffee table in front of her. Khenti had boarded up the picture window and after cleaning and dressing Xena’s wounds and putting the cat to bed, Mercy and Hunter had joined him to sweep the glass from the living room.
“Kitten, do stop worrying. I told you I have divine recovery powers. I slept quite soundly last night and feel almost myself this morning.” Xena put the empty mug with her discarded plate and sighed contentedly.
Khenti joined them at the couch. He smiled at Xena. “You do seem well today. Shall we change the dressing on your wounds?”
“There is no need.” Xena shrugged her shoulder out of the bathrobe to expose newly healed pink lines where bleeding lacerations had been the night before. Mercy bent closer, studying the wounds.
“Xena! These are so, so much better!”
“Yes, of course. Your Xena is much more difficult to kill than that horrid snake imagined.” She paused and shuddered. “And that water goddess.” The cat person hissed softly before continuing. “She is an abomination!”
Mercy sat beside Xena. “Do you feel up to telling us what happened?”
“Oh, yes, kitten. I do apologize for how uncommunicative I was last night. What happened was quite a shock and I had to focus on healing myself.”
Mercy took Xena’s hand. “You really scared us.”
“Yes, all of us,” Khenti echoed.
“Well, I have returned to myself now and will be just fine.” Xena gazed around the room. “Where is Hunter?”
“She said she had to talk to Kylie.” Mercy shrugged. “She’ll meet us at the Japanese tree later to help trap and kill that bloody awful snake. But first you have to tell us what happened.”
“Should I not wait for Hunter kitten?”
“She said what she had to talk to Kylie about was really important,” said Mercy.
Xena raised her dark, perfect brows. “More important than this?”
“Hunter said it couldn’t wait, and I absolutely trust her,” Mercy said firmly and then her lips tilted up. “Of course her absence means you’ll have to retell your story. Do you mind?”
“It was a magnificent battle and well worth the retelling.” Xena shook back her mane of hair and launched into her tale. “I had tracked a whip-poor-will to that lovely little cluster of weeping willow trees by the creek, and was just about to pounce when…” Xena paused as she studied Khenti. “I have just begun, but you look quite confused, Khenti kitten.”
“I would not wish to interrupt you,” he said quickly.
Xena waved a hand dismissively. “Oh, kitten, you may ask me anything.”
“I was just wondering why you were not hunting your favorite prey, sparrow.”
“Because they are all tucked away in their little nests at night. Whip-poor-wills are nocturnal—like cats—and their song makes them easy to track. Though they are not as delicious as my juicy little sparrows. But, no matter, I tracked the bird to a willow tree and was readying myself to silently scale the trunk and devour my pre-bedtime snack when the snake was suddenly there!” Xena shivered and Mercy tightened her grip on the cat person’s hand. “The horrid snake demon raked its filthy claws across my shoulder. Well, that did not stop me! I pounced!” Xena lifted the hand Mercy was not holding to show that her usually perfectly manicured fingernails were jagged and broken.
“Xena! Your poor nails!” Mercy stroked her familiar’s hands and shook her head. “I just hate that you were attacked, and I’m so glad you got away.”
Xena’s smile was feral. “Not before wounding the snake. I clawed her soft belly over and over as the viper shrieked and above us Amphitrite watched gleefully.”
“You mentioned the goddess’s name last night right before you passed out,” said Mercy. “Are you telling us Hunter’s banishment spell has somehow been undone?”
“No, I do not believe so. The goddess was not in physical form. I could see the sky through her wet body.” The cat paused to shiver delicately again. “I have been going over Hunter’s banishment spell, and I think that the transparency of the goddess’s body proves it worked. Our kitten did, indeed, banish the goddess from this realm—but it only banished her physical presence and not her essence—her spirit.”
