Stench of Healing

STENCH OF HEALING

A fter Mel and I clean up the bat dust, we decide to wait to try out the other spells.

As the door clicks shut behind her, I return my secret bucket to its hiding space under Owen’s bed. At least we destroyed Elias’s power stone. That’s one more worry off my mind.

Back in the kitchen, I gather the ingredients into the box from Mel’s shop and haul it down to the basement, the muscles in my noodle arms protesting the entire way.

“Sorry for the wait!” I shoulder open the elevator gate.

Zane rises from the cot and hurries over to take the heavy box from me. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve dealt with this bite for almost two weeks. A few hours more won’t kill me.”

I roll my shoulders. “Let’s make sure it doesn’t.”

Together, Esme and I set up one of my grandma’s old Bunsen burners and a small cauldron to brew the first poultice.

Heat from the flame warms my face. “Here goes nothing.”

I pull up the spell on my phone, and we decide to go in the order they arrived in. Esme locates the right ingredients, and we work together as we measure them out and add them to the cauldron.

Esme stirs the pungent mixture with a long wooden spoon. “This kind of reminds me of my mom’s cooking.”

“How?” I choke out a laugh as the fumes try to choke us. “Was she trying to poison you?”

“No, but she wasn’t the best cook. The stench isn’t that far off.”

She chuckles. “My dad would always make a big show of trying whatever she made and then flush the leftovers down the toilet when she wasn’t around. Then he’d take us to get ice cream, and we’d stop at a drive-thru on the way so we wouldn’t starve.”

I smile at the image she paints. My dad never did anything like that. “Sounds like you had a good childhood.”

Her smile fades, replaced by a wistful sadness as she stirs the concoction. “I did. And I regret how I acted when I found out I was adopted. I abandoned the people who loved and raised me to follow Calix.”

She glances at me, searching for understanding. “He made me think they’d reject me if they found out about my powers.”

My dad knew I was a witch, and he medicated me and let me think I was crazy instead of telling me, so I can see why a child wouldn’t want to admit they’re different.

“Isolation is a part of grooming,” Zane says, his voice gentle. “You were just a child.”

“I know.” Esme bites her lip. “But I wish I could tell them I’m sorry.”

The cauldron begins to bubble and hiss, filling the basement with a noxious stench, and I cover my nose with my sleeve. “Did something happen to your parents?”

“I tried to go back to them once, when I left Calix the first time. But he caught me before I reached them.” Her voice trembles at the memory. “He said he would kill them if I ever went near them again. So I didn’t contact them after that. ”

Zane grips her shoulder, offering silent support.

“After Calix died, going home would have put them in too much danger.” Esme swipes at her eyes. “It’s been years now, so it’s better to let them think I rejected them.”

Zane kisses her cheek. “When all of this is over, we’ll go visit your parents and ask for forgiveness.”

Esme offers a weak smile, but she can’t hide her doubt. I share her uncertainty that this will ever be over. After the results of the first anti-curse spell, I’m not eager to attempt it on a living person.

We lapse into silence, focusing on the cauldron.

By the time the potion reaches its desired consistency, the stench fades to something more manageable. Using potholders, we pour the poultice onto a piece of sterile gauze and wait for it to cool enough to apply it to Zane’s wound.

As we press the soaked gauze against his skin, he hisses in pain. “It tingles.”

“Tingles mean the magic is working,” Esme says with a small smile. “If all goes well, we’ll see some healing progress by tomorrow.”

I cross my fingers that this one does the trick. His health is the first priority. If the worst happens, he needs to be strong enough to run with Esme again.

Late the following night, I jolt awake, heart pounding like a jackhammer, a sense of wrongness gnawing at me. My eyes dart around the darkened bedroom, taking in my shadowed childhood furniture.

Ros lies on the edge of the bed beside me, his expression relaxed, and Owen’s soft snores come through the connected bathroom. Silence fills the house, disrupted by the occasional creaks and groans of old wood settling.

Unable to banish the sense of doom, I slip out of bed, not wanting to disturb Ros’s much-needed rest.

Padding across the room, I peek through the bedroom window, but it faces the wrong direction. I snatch up my robe and put on my shoes before unlatching the window and lifting it.

Cold air sweeps into the room as I climb onto the porch roof, walking around the side of the house, the unnerving sensation growing stronger with each step.

On the corner facing the driveway, I stop and focus on the treeline. The biting cold of the winter night fades into the background, and the barrier shimmers into view, silver fractals that brighten near the highway.

Drawn to it, I inch closer to the edge of the roof.

Just as my toes reach the empty air, a hand catches my arm, yanking me back to safety. The silver light turns off like a light switch, leaving me disoriented, and I turn to face my vampire lover.

Ros frowns down at me, concern etched on his face. “What are you doing?”

I glance back toward the forest. “Something is out there.”

His eyes flicker in the same direction before he draws me back the way I came. “Come on. I’ll drive you out to check.”

His hand drops from my arm to catch my hand, twining our fingers together, and my chest tightens. He doesn’t question me or insist on being manly and going alone. Ros has always believed I’m capable of holding my own, and it makes me love him even more.

At the open bedroom window, he releases me and waits for me to climb in first. Removing my robe, I throw a sweater on over my pajama shirt and follow Ros downstairs, where we pull coats from the closet.

Quietly, we step outside, the cold air cutting as we make our way to his SUV. He starts the engine and turns on the heater, pointing the vents toward me.

The headlights cut through the darkness as we roll down the driveway, and Ros glances at me. “Do you know what we’re searching for?”

“Something that doesn’t belong,” I say, electric ants of unease racing over my body.

Ros raises an eyebrow but doesn’t press further. He trusts me, and that means more than words can express.

We drive through the sleeping town and leave Main Street, driving down the rutted dirt road that leads toward the highway. The vehicle jolts as the tires catch in potholes, and I grab the door handle.

Ros grips the steering wheel tighter. “We should get these filled.”

I bounce on the seat. “Bring it up at the next town meeting.”

“It would be faster to go buy the gravel myself,” he grunts.

The road turns away from the source of my uneasiness, and I reach out to grip Ros’s arm. “Stop here.”

Without question, he brings the SUV to a halt and unlocks the glove compartment to retrieve a gun.

We climb out, and I lead the way into the forest, silver moonlight illuminating the way.

Ros stays close, his weapon pointed toward the ground as he stays alert for danger. Dead leaves and pine needles crunch beneath our feet as we walk farther away from the road, the sense of wrongness drawing me like a compass point.

Magic hums in the air as we near the barrier, and I slow to a stop before crossing the line. The fine hairs on my arms and the back of my neck lift, and a sense of being watched triggers my prey brain.

Breath catches in my throat as the darkness ripples and twists, alive with an unnatural purpose. I’ve never felt anything like it.

“Rowe…” Tension vibrates in Ros’s body as the shadows coalesce into the shape of a dog, its fur blacker than the surrounding darkness.

Golden eyes that glow like molten metal fix on me with unnerving intelligence.

Ros curses under his breath. “It’s one of the council’s dogs.”

A shiver skates through me, and my braided hair rustles on my shoulder. “There’s nothing for you here. Move along. ”

The dog tilts its head, then paws at the barrier, growling and baring sharp teeth that gleam like daggers.

Ros’s weapon comes up, and he fires point blank, but the bullet passes straight through the dog, leaving it unharmed. He curses again, though neither of us are surprised.

If it were easy to get rid of one of these, Zane would have dealt with it instead of running away wounded.

I bend to be on eye level with the beast. “Does your master know where you are?”

I focus on the dog, the same way I focus on seeing the magic barrier, and the fibers of magic creating it take shape, along with a golden leash, thin and barely holding on. I get a vague sense that its owner only knows the direction the dog is in, but not where it stopped.

If the dog returns to its master, though, the leash will strengthen, revealing the trail Zane and Esme left behind. And with this knowledge, the council will descend upon Hartford Cove.

I can’t let that happen.

“Sorry, puppy.” I reach out to touch the barrier, ignoring Ros’s sharp intake of breath.

My hand makes contact, and the barrier flares with brilliant silver light. Threads of energy reach out, wrapping around the council’s dog.

It snarls and snaps at the magic, but in the same way Ros’s bullet couldn’t touch it, it can’t touch the tendrils. They tear it apart, piece by piece absorbing the magic that created it until nothing remains.

When it’s finished, Ros glances around as if expecting another spectral beast to burst forth from the shadows. “Are there more of those things in our woods? Do I need to warn the patrols?”

I shake my head, my senses still tingling with the magic the barrier absorbed. “No, it was hunting alone. But if one found the trail, others will, too.”

“Great.” Ros tucks his gun into his belt and rubs his hands together for warmth. “I’ll warn the patrols not to engage if they come across another one and direct them to call me.”

“This bought us a little time.” The thought of more council hounds sniffing through our town fills me with dread. “Hopefully, by the time another one comes, we’ll have figured out a solution that removes Esme and Zane from danger.”

Ros offers me his arm. “Let’s get back to the car before we freeze our asses off.”

As we trudge back through the moonlit forest, my mind races. There has to be something we can do to keep our friends safe and the council at bay.