That was when I noticed more parents out on the back porch.
“I’m Nick and this is my mate, Ashley,” The father said as he took my hand and held it a little longer than I expected. “We’re Jennifer-Nicole’s parents. We had to come and thank you in person. If you ever need anything, just call.”
“I was just doing what I felt was the right thing. I do have to tell you that the police have one suspect in custody. The kids said she brought them food.” I’d found dog food in the car. It turned my stomach to think the kids would eat that or starve.
“Why the police?” Nick’s voice took on an alpha tone, which I ignored.
Locking gazes with him, I said, “The fighting ring is connected to a serial murder case. The sheriff and the deputy know about the paranormal world and are working on concealing the supernatural part of it from human notice.” In fact, the paranormal aspects of the investigation were completely off record. As far as the record was concerned, all the deaths had been run-of-the-mill human psychopath murders. But I didn’t need to tell them that. There were too many questions that needed to be answered first.
The alpha wolf gave me a short nod, but I could tell he wasn’t happy about it. Tough. This was my rodeo and I’d do what I want. Including using the help of the police.
Suddenly something hit my side and latched on. I wrapped an arm around the sweet teen and hugged her close. She smelled of apples and spring air and her hair was still damp. “How are you?”
Jennifer-Nicole flashed me a smile. “Much better. Thanks to you.”
“Hey, I didn’t work alone.” I rubbed her shoulder and squeezed her tight.
“Well, thank you and everyone who helped save us.” Then she darted out the back door, followed by her parents. My gaze moved to the conservatory, relieved it was closed off to the kids. I didn’t need them getting into anything in there, especially the poisonous plants.
I spent the next few hours talking with parents as they collected their kiddos and took them home.
After my house was mine again, I sat on the sofa and took a piece of cheese from the platter. “Owen, Sam, and I are going back to check out the shed.”
Olivia sat beside me. Carrie had left about thirty minutes ago. After a few seconds, Olivia said, “I’ll need to take Sammie home to put him to bed. He has school tomorrow.”
I glanced outside through the window and frowned. The sun had begun to set. “I hadn’t realized it was so late.”
Olivia’s phone chimed. When she looked at it, she giggled. “Does Sam know he’s going with you?”
“No.” I grinned.
That made her laugh. “I’ll inform him he’s been voluntold that he’s going.”
“You do that. I’m going to shower and change.”
Olivia stood and called to Sammie, telling him it was time to go home. Moments later Alfred descended the stairs with a sleeping little boy in his arms. Taking her son from Alfred, Olivia, said, “Thanks, Alfie.”
The ghoul grunted and then handed me his tablet. One word was typed in. Dinner.
“No. Owen and I will be leaving when Sam gets here so we’ll pick something up.
Alfred looked put out that he couldn’t cook, which made me laugh. The ghoul didn’t even eat. “Alfie, thank you for everything you do.”
His features softened without actually softening, and he nodded before going back upstairs. I had a great group of friends and family. With all the twists and turns my life had, I needed these people to keep me semi-sane.
When Olivia went out the door, Drew came in. I frowned. “Why are you here?”
“To go back to the barn with you.”
“Okay, great.” I guessed Sam wanted to hold his son and be with Olivia. Who could blame him after seeing what we did today? “Owen, you ready?” I called up the stairs.
“I’m right here. You don’t need to yell.”
I jumped and whirled around. He stood in the archway to the kitchen with a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. “Geesh. I didn’t even see you come down.”
We piled into Dia, my Hyundai, and drove out to the site. This time I knew where the service road was, so we didn’t have to walk through the woods.
It was a wasted trip. The darn shed was magically sealed. Nothing Owen or I tried worked to break the spell. Drew even tried old-fashioned brute strength. He kicked the door, rammed into it with his shoulder, and even shot it. Nothing worked.
I needed witches for this. After all, it had been a witch who’d cursed the coins. With Penny involved, it made more sense it was a local witch. I just had to come up with a plan to fish the murderer out.
After returned to my house, I called Sam and Olivia and put them on speaker. Owen, Drew and I were in the conservatory because I’d found a truth serum recipe. I was cooking up the serum while we planned our next move.
“We are sure the murderer is a witch,” Sam said.
I nodded, agreeing with him. “It has to be. It doesn’t take a lot of power to curse something, but whoever was doing it would have to know how to create a curse and it takes magic that only a born witch has. Humans who study witchcraft don’t have the natural magic in their blood to activate the curse.”
I stood a little straighter because I’d actually known that one. Mainly because I read it in one of the grimoires the other day, but I didn’t have to tell them.
“Right. The only way to activate a curse is with witch blood,” Owen added.
“So it has to be someone in the coven,” Olivia said. “That would make sense because only coven members were killed.”
My thoughts exactly. “So we need to set a trap. What better way than a coven field trip?”
I poured the serum into an amber-colored jar and sat it in the window where it would get the morning sun. Unfortunately, as tended to be with these things, it took a week to mature. We were on our own until then. If I found myself in any real danger, as long as I was close enough to a cemetery, I could defend myself and mine, but out in the woods like that? I wasn’t sure if my witch side could step up to the occasion. Even though I was supposed to be all-powerful, I didn’t feel like it. I wasn’t ready to test the theory either.
Chapter Twenty-One
Bright and early the next afternoon, I drafted a letter and sent it to every member of the coven I knew. Owen helped me use their names and the internet to find addresses for each of them. If we did our spell right, they’d get the letter and come to my home this evening for an emergency coven meeting.
As the unofficial leader of the coven, I had every right to call such a meeting, but to them, I was a newbie among their ranks. CeCe had told me I would be the new leader in secret, so I assumed none of the other members knew. I wasn’t sure how any of that worked.
Someone was bound to know now that CeCe was dead. Either way, the members would be too intrigued to pass up the invite. At least I hoped so.
Since we had hours before the coven would arrive, if they did, Owen and I traipsed out into the woods past Luci’s house.
I’d wanted to go straight back to the barn where we’d found the children and start looking for buried bodies, but Owen and Drew and Sam and Olivia had all advised against it until we had a better idea of who was doing this.