No rest for the Wiccan…
One year has passed since Zoë Delante’s last big case, and everyone’s favorite Wiccan has managed to carve a normal-ish life for herself and her boyfriends, Jacob and Daniel. Then she gets the call that someone has discarded dead babies like empty soda cans off I-295 in the Baltimore/D.C. area, leaving strange scales all over the crime scenes. Another serial killer?
Zoë dives into the case when her one-year-old niece comes up missing, and she discovers that the guy running the Church of Holy Light knows magick and lies about it. Is he the one behind the mind control? Did he send the guys to drop magick all over her sister’s house?
And what the hell is up with her magick?
The visions are getting stronger, and weirder, and Zoë can’t remember the last time she slept. No matter. She has bad guys to catch and innocents to save. She’ll sleep when she’s dead…
…Or when the killer is.
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Excerpt:
I smiled. You have information I need.
His mouth moved, but it took him a second to respond. “Get out of my head.”
No. I was really beginning to like that word. You will give me what I want. Where is my niece?
“He’ll kill me!”
Do you believe the good doctor when he said that I am not a murderer? I shrugged. It’s true. I won’t kill you. There’s been enough blood spilt, but silly naga, there are things far worse than death. I slipped one sparkling finger through his left temple.
A strange noise escaped his lips, like sorrow and agony rolled into one singular sound that filled the immensity of the warehouse, and for the first time since we’d met, he feared me.
I pulled my finger out, covered in that gelatin memory goo. Where?
He let out a long, shuddering breath. “I can’t!”
I shrugged. Wrong answer.
Heath threw his hands up in front of his face, as if that was going to stop me. “No, please!”
Tell me where my niece is.
In Wicca, everything you put out into the universe came back to you threefold, or three times as strong, in this lifetime. We didn’t have the luxury of waiting for judgment in the afterlife. So we, of course, encouraged positive energy out for positive energy returned, but I had found that there was a place for negative energy, too. It was all a matter of balance in the ‘verse.
Was I pushing my karmic allowance this week? Oh, my illicit activity was skirting that line rather tightly, but in my head, if I could find Esther in time, I would do my penance, take what was owed to me, and eat crow like a good little witch. No matter how painful it may be.
After all, I was torturing a living creature.
My fingertips glittered against the sweat on his forehead. I tapped one, two, three times, energy against flesh.
He screamed and tried to move away.
“No, I don’t think so,” Seth reprimanded from behind me. “Tell the lovely lady what she wants to know, Harteij, and it’ll be over. I’ll even speak to the authorities on your behalf. Don’t tell her, and… well, she’s rather a persistent and stubborn woman. The choice is yours, but I have to tell you, as a doctor, you’re not looking too good right now.”
Heath growled. “His reach is farther than yours. You cannot protect me. She cannot 
protect me. If I tell you, I am as good as dead. You know this to be true!”
Seth sighed. “If you do not tell her, there will be no looking over your shoulder. Her gift is strong. You can feel it. She won’t kill you on purpose, but how much more do you think your mind can take? We may think we are immortal, Harteij, but we are not. Tell her, and we will take care of Simon.”
Heath regarded us separately for a moment before replying, his voice soft, the hint of an accent a little stronger. He was giving up. “I cannot. You don’t know the monster Adhiraj has become. I burned the shell that was Aatmaj, gave him up just like he was a human, because Adhiraj had found out that the naga had made the witch’s acquaintance. He’ll be no happier that you’re involved now, and as strong as she is, I don’t know if she can defeat him. I cannot take that chance.”
“Then I cannot save you. We need the information you have. If you will not give it up willingly, she has no choice but to do her job.”
I didn’t mention I wasn’t even on the case anymore. No sense in bothering with semantics.
“Then so be it.” Heath lay down his head and closed his eyes.
I looked at Seth, who nodded slowly.
I knelt next to the naga and slid my hands along the curves of his jaw. Drop your shields and let me in.
*****
About the Author:
Born in 1975, I’m the product of star-crossed lovers who took separate paths shortly after my arrival. Now a three-time mother, twice married woman, and eclectic person, I reside in the sunny biosphere that is Sierra Vista, Arizona, with my wonderful partner in crime, Peter, and three brilliant geeklings: Michael, Cami and Desmond. Oh, and a mop… er… Shih Tzu named Sir Lancelot the Brave.
Writing came to me naturally, and the dark clouds of childhood and adolescent angst gave birth to a myriad of story threads that reflected my inner struggle to find a place in this world. I haven’t quite discovered it yet, but I’ve fallen in love with the journey and all the stories unfolding in front of me. I’m a lover of many genres and a writer of a small handful, and rather content with that lot.
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Thank you!!