A Witch's Halloween Read online

  “Liam will be here soon.”

  “Good. He can help round up the wolves.”

  “Dispatch also wants to know if there’s anything else you can do here,” Rodriguez said.

  I pointed at the yard of body parts. “Guard the scene from the wolves.”

  We were up to ten werewolves staring into the circle, with another loping over. One of the wolves tipped its head to the side. A cat hissed, and a black streak darted into the night.

  “There’s a problem closer to the highways they want magical support for. Should I go, or can you?” Rodriguez asked.

  Autumn pulled up in the car.

  The big issue was the shields. They didn’t need any more power to stay up, but he would have a hard time dismissing them as it was. “I could key the shields to you if Autumn could drive me.”

  Two police cars with lights but no sirens turned onto the road.

  “Done.” Rodriguez opened the trunk, retrieving tape and a few other things. “I’ll meet up with you later. Autumn, I’ll send directions to you for another incident that needs magic. Drive Michelle over and do what she says.”

  “Got it.” She settled back in the driver’s seat.

  I adjusted the spells so Rodriguez could easily dismiss them and got in the car. “Good luck!”

  “You too. I heard it’s hairy.” He waved as we drove away.

  I glanced at Autumn. “Hairy?”

  She shrugged. “I have an address and directions. Sorry.”

  The directions were on the screen. It wasn’t far, maybe two miles from us and in a subdivision next to the highway. There were a few of those for people who didn’t want to live in the city but still had to get there for work. Hopefully, I could be of more use this time. Standing around looking for mysterious magic wasn’t my favorite way to earn a paycheck.

  Autumn took a sharp left, and my shoulder bumped the window. She winced. “Sorry.”

  “I think we could slow down a little.”

  She didn’t reply, but when we took another turn, I stayed in my seat.

  A couple of minutes later, we were heading down a street bordered by houses of the same style but slightly different finishes. Most of them had Halloween decorations in the yard. If I had to guess, there were a lot of children in the neighborhood, or there was a decorating competition.

  We took a right, and a patrol car blocked the road. A few families were standing outside their homes looking in the general direction of the cul-de-sac. Nothing really caught my eye.

  Odd. Normally, I could spot my magical problems from a mile away. With my wand in hand, I got out of the car.

  A human-looking officer with a bit of paunch came over, talking before he even reached me. “You’re the witch, right? We need the witch. This thing can’t get away. People would panic. It would be on the news. And we don’t want that. No. We don’t want that.”

  I read the name off his shirt. “Officer Montoya, I’m more than happy to help, but you haven’t told me what the problem is.”

  His eyes bulged. Without saying a word, he pointed at a house with an over-sized headstone as the facade.

  It abutted the house, the front door opening under the ‘I’ of R.I.P. Windows on the second floor flanked the epitaph, the glow a muted gray. The crest of the headstone rose even with the top of the home’s roof line. Lanterns edged the walkway up to the door, each one held by a skeletal hand coming out of the ground.

  Perfectly normal for Halloween in the suburbs, complete with a giant tarantula clinging to the tombstone.

  Then the spider moved. Its sandy-brown hairs picked up the light as it walked down onto the lawn, turned, and lunged for the front door.

  It stopped short, either because it had hit its head on the small porch, or because it didn’t really want to go into the house. I hoped it was the latter because that thing couldn’t fit in the house. Its body alone was as wide as the door and almost as long as the Mini Cooper sitting outside the garage.

  “Do you know how it got to that size?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Best guess is a growth charm. Neighbors said they used one on the headstone.”

  “Great.” Halloween at its best. Magic gone crazy everywhere.

  “Can you fix it?” Officer Montoya asked.

  I lifted my wand. “That’s the plan. Officer Autumn Merriweather will assist. She’s on loan from Gilmer.”

  He nodded.

  Spiders weren’t my favorite, especially not jumbo ones. The good news was this thing was likely a pet. The bad news was it was now freaked out and larger than a shed. But it would be a great teaching case. “Autumn, do you know how to shrink a creature?”

  Silence.

  I glanced back, and she was still on the other side of the police car, all the color drained from her face and her eyes wide. Great.

  “Officer Meriweather!” I snapped. “Get over here. We have to deal with that thing.”

  She shook her head. “Can’t.”

  “Can. Move your feet.” I truly couldn’t help myself. “It’s more afraid of you than you are of it.”

  Autumn shuffled ever-so-slightly closer. “Dad told me that all the time. It’s a lie.”

  “Suit yourself.” If she wasn’t up to it, she wasn’t up to it. The spider still needed to go back to its usual size, and I needed a better view of the porch.

  I went to the side of the cul-de-sac but kept a healthy distance between myself and the spider. A fuzzy memory made me think they could shoot their hairs at predators. If my memory was accurate, what was an annoyance when these things were palm-sized was a big problem now. I didn’t fancy being speared in the line of duty.

  The porch light flickered on, and the spider lurched back.

  I bit back a yelp.

  Standing in the doorway was a young girl with a black cat sitting at her feet. The cat hissed. The spider edged back, pulling clear of the porch, hesitating.

  I jabbed my wand at the spider. “Sowil.”

  A shield encapsulated the spider, and a quick probe confirmed the growth charm. I stripped the magic off the charm.

  The spider didn’t change size.

  Weird. That should’ve done it. I probed the spider again. There wasn’t any magic left, but it was still huge.

  The little girl walked forward. “Rose, it’s okay.”

  The spider rushed the front of the spell. It held, and the spider slipped back. The shield moved with it and started to roll. The spider kept walking, and the shield rolled away from the house.

  “No, none of that.” I flicked my wand up. “Nazid.”

  The bubble, and the spider inside of it, rose up into the air. That would keep it from rolling away, but it didn’t explain why the spider hadn’t shrunk back to a normal size.

  “Rose!” The girl walked to the steps, but the cat darted in front of her and hissed. She wobbled, then wagged a finger at the cat. “Bad kitty.”

  With the creature part of the problem under control, I crossed through the yard and under the impossibly huge spider. “Hello. My name is Michelle. Is the spider yours?”

  She tipped her head to the side. “It’s a Chilean rose tarantula, not a spider. And his name is Rose.”

  Not exactly what I’d hoped for, but it would do. “How did Rose get so big? Did you use a growth charm on him?”

  “Maybe.” She scuffed her foot across the porch.

  “Did you do anything else?”

  “Mom said the setting spray would make it last.” She kneeled down and petted the cat, who tipped its head to the side. The cat’s attention stayed firmly affixed to the spider. “Cute kitty. Not as cute as Rose, but cute.”

  “What did the setting spray look like?” I almost crossed my fingers, but given my luck, it would probably backfire.

  “I’d like to have a kitty one day.”

  Since that sounded like as much information as I was going to get, I left the girl with the cat. I went back to the end of the driveway where I could look at the spider from a better angle. Frankly, anything that got me out from under the spider was for the best.

  The spider had curled up on the bottom of the shield bubble. Poor thing.

  I reached out with another probe and went over the spider again. At first, I didn’t find anything. I went back over the spider with more detailed probes and felt a faint buzz.

  A spell of holding encased the spider in slender strands. I’d missed it before because I’d probed a gap between sections of the spell.

  With the growth charm, I’d been able to remove the spell from the charm and undo it. This was different. With the way it coated the spider, I’d have to find each node where several spell strands converged and undo them all at once. If I did them one at a time, sections of the spider would shrink while the rest remained this size. The result would be a painful death I wouldn’t wish on any creature.

  Settling into the magic, I found each node. Since it wasn’t possible for me to physically undo each one simultaneously, I constructed another spell that would unmake each node. I even put a levitation spell on the spider rather than the shield, so it wouldn’t fall and get hurt. With everything prepared, it only took a quick surge of power to activate my spell, unmaking the nodes and destroying the holding spell.

  The spider floated a foot off the bottom of the bubble and slowly shrunk until I couldn’t make it out. It was still there, but at its usual size, it didn’t catch the light the same way. I shrunk the shield and then lowered it. Once I could see Rose, it was easy enough to position the spider in the center of the shield and shrink the shield down to a ten-inch orb.

  “Clear!” I yelled.

  Officer Montoya went past me to the house, announcing himself as he went inside. The girl trailed along behind him.

  The cat stretched, it
s short black fur picking up the light. It wasn’t wearing a collar, but most strays didn’t have that shine to their coat.

  I kneeled and held out a hand. “Here, kitty, kitty.”

  The cat narrowed eyes and stared at me.

  I started back. Its eyes were orange. Not yellow or amber, but bright pumpkin orange.

  It stood up and darted into the bushes.

  So much for that.

  “I’m sorry.” Autumn offered a hand.

  I took the assistance, mostly to make her feel better. “This isn’t the only bad night you’ll have on this job.”

  She shook her head. “The body was gross, but I could deal. Spiders?” She shivered.

  “You have magic, and if that fails, a gun. Most people don’t have any way of dealing with an epically enormous spider. That’s why they’ve called you.” There weren’t many humane ways of dealing with a situation like this. A spider that size couldn’t be allowed to terrorize the town.

  “Have you ever been too afraid to act? Have you ever failed?” Her question ended in a whisper.

  “Yes.” I pushed back the memory of Patrick. “My best wasn’t good enough. You have to learn the difference between a fear to be conquered and a situation where you did your best but it was never going to be enough. That second one, it haunts you even when you did everything.”

  Autumn’s eyes bored into me. “How do you do it?”

  “There are times I haven’t. But I had people around me who cared. They helped me put myself back together so I could do this again and again.”

  “I don’t think I’m that strong.”

  “Only you can decide that.” I looked away. Those memories couldn’t have tonight.

  Officer Montoya came outside, talking into his radio. He finished and waved me over. “The spider’s tank is intact. This way.”

  I followed him into the house. Rose, still in the shield bubble, was levitating between us. “The parents?”

  The house was tidy, with Halloween decorations on the stairs and entryway. The girl and her parents were on the sofa in the living room, all of them giggling. Upstairs, we went to the last bedroom.

  “Drunk, delirious, something. I’ve called for paramedics and child services. They can sort all of it out better than me.” He guided me to a glass tank and opened the lid.

  I shrunk the shield until it fit tightly around the spider and levitated it in. When it was resting on the bottom of the tank and Montoya had closed the door, I removed the levitation and shield spells. That left one very ordinary spider sitting in her habitat. The rest of the room was a mix of pink and posters of bugs.

  “And peace descends over suburbia.” Montoya gave a wry smile. “At least for now.”

  “That’s the truth.” I followed him downstairs. “You said the parents are drunk. Did you see evidence of drinking?”

  He motioned to the giggling family as we passed. “No, but I don’t see another explanation. Neither of the adults had any idea something had gone on with the spider, which is crazy because the entire neighborhood was calling about it for half an hour. They couldn’t answer a single question without laughing.”

  “Weird.” I stopped in the entryway and probed for magic. Nothing on the adults. The only things I found were an always-sharp knife and a no-burn skillet. Nothing unusual about those items.

  “Something wrong?” Montoya asked.

  I shook my head. “Nothing I can find, it’s just that tonight is the second time I’ve come across people who seem to be drunk, but there’s no evidence of drinking.”

  He shrugged. “I’ll pass that along to the paramedics. I appreciate the help, but there’s nothing else for you to do here.”

  I offered my hand. “It was nice to meet you, and I hope the rest of your shift is uneventful.”

  “Same to you.” He shook my hand.

  I collected Autumn, and we headed back to the car. Autumn drove us back to Rodriguez, who was still with the body. The spider hadn’t taken much time, and he was securing the scene until all the right people got there.

  Autumn was quiet on the way back, and her driving was better. I didn’t once slide into the window.

  Tonight hadn’t been the easy introduction to magical policing she’d hoped for, but I didn’t know how to smooth that over. Part of it was the difference between being a witch and a hedge-witch. Magic had been a constant in my life. Hedge-practitioners developed their powers differently. Other than both of us having magic, there wasn’t as much overlap as the non-magical people liked to think.

  We ended up parking a block away and walking over. Since I didn’t fancy walking in the dark, I summoned lights to float along with us.

  Night was supposed to be quiet, but this one wasn’t. A werewolf howled. Several dogs and another werewolf answered. Lights flashed from the various cars, and the bus rumbled from where it idled.

  The situation had improved some since we were here. Two medical types were beside the bus door, checking the vitals of people herded over by the police. The werewolves were still milling about, but they weren’t looking at the body like it was dinner, so that was progress.

  Rodriguez hadn’t taken down the shields, but he had adjusted them, and various crime scene types were inside the shield doing their job. One person was busy taking pictures. The cars and werewolves blocked my view of the rest of it, which was for the best.

  Autumn and I edged our way past the wolves to meet up with Rodriguez. I gave him a look. “You could’ve told us it was a spider.”

  “Was it really as big as a truck?” He grinned.

  “Maybe bigger. I hope to avoid seeing another spider that size for the rest of my life.” It wasn’t my place to tell him about Autumn’s phobia, but he still should’ve known better. “Not everyone is prepared to confront a spider of that size without warning. No more surprises.”

  His smile faded. “Sorry. No more surprises. Sorry, Autumn.”

  While they talked, I searched for out-of-place magic. Like before, I didn’t find anything, which was odd. This many people didn’t end up drunk without a reason.

  Rodriguez turned back to me. “I got some information of note.”

  “Oh?” Anything would help.

  He tipped his head toward the bed-and-breakfast. “The owner came back. They’d been grocery shopping. The entire pack, all forty of them, is staying there. Behind the main house, they have another building with bunk rooms. Anyway, the owner is sober. They said the pack was having a cookout, but they didn’t see any alcohol. The pack has been here two days, and until now they’ve been the perfect guests.”

  “Rodriguez, I’ve looked. I can’t find a magical cause for their behavior.” As much as I’d like to. “This isn’t even my case.”

  “The drunkenness should be. The breath tests are coming up negative for alcohol. Once Liam gets here, we’ll be loading up the wolves to take to the hospital for blood tests and such.”

  I sighed. “No argument from me, except that I can’t find a spell or magic. The family with the spider, they were acting the same way.”

  “I’m saying it’s your case until we prove it isn’t magic,” Rodriguez said.

  “Fine. I’ll come out when you call, but I’ve got nothing.”

  Rodriguez’s phone buzzed. He glanced at it. “Thank the earth. Liam just parked.”

  Silently, I agreed. Liam could deal with the wolves. Then I could go write up reports and nap until morning or the next emergency, whichever came first.

  An officer guided a stumbling centaur over to the paramedics. After a quick evaluation, they lowered the ramp, and he shuffled onto the bus.

  One thing was sure, I wasn’t getting on that bus.

  “Lass!”

  I spun around.

  Liam trotted over, his red hair pulled back in a bun. “It’s been too long.”

  “Sorry, I was doing witchly business. You know Rodriguez, and this is Officer Autumn Merriweather from Gilmer.” I motioned to her.

  “Nice to meet ya. Liam McNeil, local pack alpha.” He shook her hand and then eyed the werewolves. “So you want me to round them up? Get them on the bus?”

  “Exactly.” Rodriguez filled him in on what had happened and why two of the wolves were in their own little bubbles.

  “They aren’t my pack, but I’ll do what I can. Do we have a back-up plan?”

  That I could do. “I’ll put them to sleep. It could be a little tricky getting them all down quickly, but it should do the job.” Not to mention I’d be out of magic by the time I did forty separate sleep spells powered for werewolves.