Wallie gaped as Alfred shook his hand rigorously.
I grinned at them. “I think he’s happy to see you, Wallie.”
Alfred nodded.
Wallie shook himself out of his stupor at meeting Alfred and turned back to me. “Anyway, Mom, I enlisted the help of my roommate. We figured out in the first few days that we both know about all this stuff. He doesn’t have any magic, but his step-mom is a witch, so he knows about it.”
I raised my eyebrows. “A lucky coincidence in a roommate.”
He nodded. “Yeah, but he’s a computer genius, right? So, I asked him to help me look into this witch hunter business. And he got some good information.”
I ushered him into the living room. “Well, come, sit, tell me about it.”
He stretched out in one of the chairs while the rest of us settled around him. I noticed Alfred heading toward the kitchen, probably going to make us something to eat or drink. I wished I could explain to him that he didn’t have to keep doing this. I felt bad that he always did things without me asking.
Owen noticed where my attention had gone and said, “It’s a ghoul’s job to provide services to their handler.”
Nodding, I sighed. “I guess.” We still needed to talk with Alfred about Betty’s death. But I wasn’t sure how at the moment. Besides, Wallie had dirt on the hunters.
“So, anyway, we found some websites that seemed a little more legit than the ones that were basically Buffy fan sites. Dustin hacked into one and found it had a whole private network behind it. Super protected with multiple firewalls and other stuff that I don’t really understand but Dustin does. And we hit the mother lode.” The grin on Wallie’s face made me proud. Somehow, I knew that if med school didn’t pan out, he’d most likely go into private investigating or something.
He pulled a bunch of papers out of his bag and handed them to me. “So, the gist of what we printed off was that the Walker family has been hunting for years.”
Olivia and I both gasped. “Did you say Walker?” she asked. She leaned over and snatched the papers from my hand, scanning them and rifling through them.
“Yeah, there’s even a family tree in there.” He looked at Olivia, then leaned forward. “Why?”
“That’s the local sheriff’s last name, and we’ve gotten some other type vibes off of him.” I pointed to Owen and then myself as I spoke.
Wallie nodded. “Well, check the page with the tree. It seems this thing doesn’t pass down to every kid, and they only have the family member with the gift on the tree.”
Olivia shook the papers. “Here it is.”
“There’s something else,” Wallie said. “I’m having some crazy powers out of the blue.”
Owen spoke up for the first time. “You didn’t have powers before?”
Wallie gave him a weird look. “I did, but they were pretty low key. Basic witch stuff. This is bigger. Like, I can heal superfast. And I don’t need an actual spell to achieve what I want. I think about it and will it so.”
Okay, that wasn’t normal necromancer powers so maybe he wasn’t one after all. I had hoped it would skip him all together and he just got the witch half of my family.
“Then,” Wallie added, lowering his voice. “We went to a party that was near a cemetery and I felt the dead.”
Crap! That was definitely necromancer magic. “I was sure hoping that you would be spared those powers.”
I sank down in my chair just as Alfred entered with a tray of coffee and snacks. When he sat it down on the coffee table, I said, “Thanks. Can you hold off on making dinner? We want to talk to you about something.”
Alfred looked unsure as he scanned the faces of everyone in the room before he took a seat on the floor next to Sammie, who was playing a game on his mom’s phone.
“When you started using your necro powers again, it must’ve jump started his,” Owen said.
“How can that be? We’d have to be connected in some way.” For the first time in my life I wish I trained more when I was younger. But I was so scared of my powers that it was hard to focus on how they could be controlled.
While Olivia was still reading through the papers, I thought of a way we could get Alfred to answer our questions.
“Here he is.” Olivia moved to sit beside me and shoved the papers under my nose. “He’s on their tree, one of the last on here. Along with a woman named Carmen that appears to be his first cousin.”
I stared at the paper in shock.
Holy crap on a cracker. They could be working together to kill off necromancers and witches. That meant my life and Wallie’s were in danger.
Turning to Olivia, I was about to tell her to go home and not come here, since she was human and now in danger by default. Was it too late?
Olivia flipped through more pages and gasped. “Moonflower is also here. Isn’t that Carmen’s last name?”
Alfred sat up straight and made muffled sounds like he was trying to talk while waving his arms in the air. Fear darkened his aura and reached out to me.
“What is it?” I asked.
Owen then asked, “Do you know Carmen?”
Alfred nodded vigorously and made the sounds again.
“Are you scared of her?”
Nodding got faster.
I glanced at Owen who frowned and asked, “Did you kill Betty Knolls?”
Alfred’s eyes widened and he shook his head. Then started making S sounds.
“Carmen.” Dread slammed into my chest when he nodded, confirming what I already guessed.
Snooze trotted into the room and went after Alfred’s string, harder this time. Olivia shooed him away and he growled at her. “Hey. Don’t growl at me, psycho cat.”
Snooze twitched his tale and walked about halfway to the kitchen and laid down in the middle of the floor, watching us.
I rolled my eyes at the cat. He was so weird.
Focusing back on Alfred, I asked, “Are you sure?”
Nod.
Damn, Drew and Sam went to talk to a killer. And Drew could be working with her and take out Sam.
I dug into my pocket and sent Sam a text. You coming over for dinner?
I didn’t want to say anything about Knowing Carmen is the killer in case Drew was right next to him when he checked the message.
Sure, since my wife and kid are there. lol
Okay, he was joking so either he wasn’t at Carmen’s or she hadn’t tried to kill him yet. I risked asking, Everything good on your end?
Yep. Wrapping it up. Be on my way in a few.
When I looked up, I met Olivia’s stare. She was still sitting next to me and saw the text. “I don’t like any of this.”
“Neither do I.” I directed my next question to Wallie. “How long are you staying?”
“As long as you like me to. I don’t have classes tomorrow, so I can stay through Sunday.”
Alfred jumped up and went to the kitchen, most likely to start dinner. Good because all this talk about killers and death was making me hungry.
Chapter Seventeen
“Wow, here’s irony for you.” Olivia held up a single sheet of paper. “The first witch hunter was born here in Shipton. And guess what?”