Samantha saw Robin run into the warehouse with some of the others and she screamed in frustration because there was nothing she could do about it.
The agents on the floor were scrambling back on top of the floats. She had told them not to risk themselves and they were listening.
Samantha tried to move, tried to fight, but it was as if she were frozen. Finally she discovered that she could slide one foot slowly ahead of the other, though it took all her willpower and concentration to do so.
Around her people started to collapse, dropping like flies. She prayed that outside Anthony was able to run to safety. She dared not spare a glance at Ed. She didn’t know what she’d do if she saw him die that way.
She saw Robin fall and she cried out, but there was nothing she could do for her. Trina saw, too, and she leaped down from the float. The moment her feet touched the floor, Samantha could see her start to crumple as the energy was pulled out of her. Still, Trina fought her way over to Robin. She picked the girl up and moved back to the float, where hands reached down to pull them both to safety.
Samantha returned her attention to Lilith.
The witch had a chalice and she was chanting and throwing various ingredients in it. She might not have come willingly, but she had come prepared. It all looked too familiar and Samantha knew her hunch was right.
Not again! something screamed in the back of Samantha’s mind.
“You’re crazy! Did you learn nothing from the past!” she shouted at Lilith. Lilith was about to summon a monster she didn’t understand and had no hope of controlling.
Lilith looked at her. “I learned long ago that those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. I had hoped you could help me learn from the past, but then I found out you didn’t even remember that night, so how could you help me figure out what went wrong when they raised the demon?”
Samantha kept silent, refusing to admit that she now knew the truth. She was also focusing on being able to move her feet forward, one step at a time, in a painful shuffle. It was, nonetheless, bringing her ever closer to Lilith even though the witch seemed oblivious of it.
“That’s when I knew I might as well kill you. I mean, what use were you to me at that point?” Lilith asked.
“Why did you stop trying?” Samantha asked as she continued to slide ever closer. She wanted to weep because of how long it was taking while around her she knew people were still dying. But she had to at least be grateful that Lilith either didn’t notice or didn’t care.
“When she woke up the hoodoo woman was very helpful. At least, she was until I killed her. She was able to tell me what you couldn’t.”
“And what was that?” Samantha asked, sliding ever closer. She was not surprised that Lilith had killed the woman after she had gotten what she wanted from her. At least she, Samantha, no longer had questions that were unanswered.
“She told me that the only person who could control the demon once it was summoned was you.”
Samantha hissed under her breath, wishing that Lilith didn’t know that. Of course, it could have been worse; the hoodoo woman could have told Lilith that Samantha was directly responsible for killing her father.
“That’s when I knew I had to keep you alive, that you still had a purpose for me,” the witch said. “With your necklace I control you and you control the beasts.”
Beasts.
Lilith had used the plural, and something told Samantha it hadn’t been an accident.
“What do you mean beasts?” she asked, desperate to keep her talking if nothing else.
Lilith cackled. “That’s the best part! The demon Abigail tried to raise? The thing chained under the mountain in Santa Cruz? They’re brothers! There were twelve originally. One was chained, eleven slain by magic users ages ago. Abigail only tried to raise one. Then again, she always lacked vision.”
Samantha’s blood felt as if it had turned to ice in her veins. “You’re trying to raise all of them!”
“That’s right. And you’ll help me use them to destroy the world.”
Samantha felt sick inside. She’d always worried that Lilith would try to use the necklace to control her, and now it looked as though she might actually accomplish that. It was too horrible to even think about.
Lilith dropped in the last item she was holding, and the chalice began to boil and bubble. All she needed now to complete the spell was a sacrifice.
And as Samantha glanced behind Lilith, she had a terrible sinking feeling she knew who it was going to be.
Thomas was also managing to move slightly and had been sneaking up behind Lilith. Suddenly Lilith spun and threw him to his knees. She yanked an athame out of her robes and held it to his throat while with the other hand she pulled something else that Samantha recognized all too well out of a pocket.
The necklace was dangling from the witch’s hand. She was prepared to use it to compel Samantha to control the demons as she poised the tip of her knife above Thomas’s throat.
Samantha looked around frantically. There was no one who could reach them in time. She was so weak, she couldn’t snatch either athame or necklace from the witch’s grasp from where she was.
Suddenly a black blur streaked past her and she stared in amazement as a giant black panther slammed into Thomas and Lilith, sending both dagger and necklace flying.
The panther jumped after the necklace and picked it up in his teeth and turned to Samantha. Only then did she realize that it was Freaky. How he was there and how he had changed himself back into a panther she didn’t know; she was only grateful that he had.
And the impact with the panther had been just enough to break Lilith’s concentration and she stopped pulling energy from everywhere.
Samantha sprang forward just as Freaky bared his teeth and Thomas snatched up the athame and both turned toward Lilith.
“No! No blood will be spilled. Blood is the final ingredient in the spell,” Samantha shouted. She came to a halt in front of Lilith, who was rising onto her knees, and she stared down into her eyes. “So I rob you of your final act of terror.” She put her hand over Lilith’s heart and took her power. Before her eyes the witch withered and turned to dust with a scream echoing in the air all that was left of her.
Samantha ran to the chalice. She plucked a strand of hair from her head and dropped it into the mixture, anything to throw the mix off, ruin the reaction.
It worked; the liquid ceased to bubble. She waited a moment and then hurled the chalice onto the floor, shattering it and sending the contents leaking into the floor.
Above her, the jester head teetered for a moment, fell, and smashed onto the floor at her feet.
“I think that pretty much sums it up,” Ed said drily.
Half an hour later they were all sitting in the sanctuary at the church except for the wounded. The pastor and a few other volunteers were tending to them in the other room. Once they had made it back there, Samantha had destroyed her cross necklace. It had been a little bit sad, but she could never risk it falling into the wrong hands again. On top of that, she realized the vow she had made when she had sealed her blood inside was obsolete. As she destroyed it she promised God instead that she would no longer fear her magic and that she would use it to help others.
Finished, she joined the others and sat down, surrounded by Ed, Anthony, and Thomas. Both Ed and Anthony were eyeing Thomas warily as though expecting him to suddenly turn on them.
For her part Samantha felt a little bit as though she were floating. It was over. They had saved the world.
Again, she thought with a shake of her head.
“You should call Vanessa and tell her that everything’s okay, and that you’ll be coming home,” she told Ed.
His face lit up. “Yeah, I can.” He stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket and called.
“Hey, no, don’t worry—everything is great. We saved the world. Yes, again.”
Samantha bit her lip. She always had liked Ed’s wife.
/> “When will I be coming home? Tomorrow if I can manage it. I might have to stick around and help a bit with the cleanup, but the FBI’s here and I’m hoping I can slough that job onto them.”
Samantha certainly thought he should. He had done more than his part.
“Yeah, Samantha will be coming back with me. What? I miss you, too,” he said.
He moved off quickly as the conversation clearly started to take a more personal tone. Samantha was so relieved that he was okay and that he was going to be getting back to Vanessa soon. She was a good woman and deserved to have her husband by her side.
“You are going back to Boston, right?” Anthony said.
“Of course,” she answered. She had no idea if it would be permanent, if the police department there really wanted her back, but she had to try.
She wanted to see her adoptive parents, and frankly, she needed a very long rest.
Connor had been sitting quietly, his head in his hands, still trying to absorb everything that had happened. Finally he looked up at her with tired eyes.
“You ever want a job working for the bureau—” Connor began.
“I know who to look up.” She smiled.
He nodded. He stood, weaving slightly on his feet.
All of them were exhausted beyond belief.
“I’m going to go grab a section of floor and get some shut-eye while I can,” he admitted.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Samantha said. Personally she was still a little too wound up, but she knew that when the crash came it would be hitting her hard. Better to get wherever she wanted to be when that happened. And she, for one, was not looking forward to grabbing crash space on the floor.
“I think I have just enough energy to drive us all back to the hotel,” Anthony said. “I’m still not sure how Freaky got out of the room.”
“At least you have the answer to your question of whether or not he can track me,” Samantha said.
“And it’s a good thing he did,” Anthony said.
The kitten was back to his regular self and passed out on one of the pews, lying upside down on his back, his belly exposed, as though he had not a care in the world. She had no idea how he’d managed to transform himself into the panther form, but she was intensely grateful that he had. Maybe the bond between them was growing. Maybe he could access some of her powers because of it.
“Take care of your pets and they’ll take care of you, that’s what I always say,” Thomas said with a gentle smile.
“You heading out?”
Samantha turned and saw Trina. “Yeah, I’ve got to get some sleep,” she said, standing up.
Trina hugged her. “Thank you for everything. I’m sure I’ll see you before you go back to Boston.”
Samantha nodded.
“And don’t worry. I’ll make sure Robin gets safely back to her mom in California.”
“I’d appreciate it,” Samantha said, stifling a yawn. She turned to Anthony. “We’d better get going quick before I fall asleep here.”
He took her hand and started to lead her toward the back of the sanctuary, where Ed was still talking on the phone to Vanessa.
Thomas got up and trailed after them to the car.
“Can we drop you somewhere?” Anthony asked at last.
“No,” Thomas said, turning to Samantha. “It was good getting to know you. I’d like to continue the conversation.”
“So would I,” she said. She gave him a quick hug and then slid into the car.
“I know this is a few years overdue,” he said, “but I think it’s time I took my little girl to the most magical place on earth.”
“Where would that be?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
He grinned. “Why, Disney World, of course.”
“I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather go,” she said with a laugh.
20
Samantha and Thomas had spent a week together in Disney World, which had actually turned out to be perfect. They could talk when they wanted to and busy themselves with rides and activities when one or both of them weren’t in the mood. When they finally posed for a picture with Sorcerer Mickey, it was all she could do not to laugh hysterically.
She had texted with Anthony for a few minutes every night before going to bed, but otherwise he’d given her space to deal with her father and all the new things she had to process. She loved him for that, but she had also begun to miss him so much it was unbearable.
When the week ended she and Thomas said good-bye as friends and made plans to get together again in a few months. It was beyond strange to her that the father whose name she had never even known was now going to be a part of her life. Even stranger, though, was the realization that she could finally return home to Boston and possibly pick up the pieces of her life that Lilith’s machinations had destroyed months before.
As she stepped out of the terminal and onto the sidewalk at the airport, she felt the bag in her arms begin to wiggle. Freaky had not appreciated being cooped up in the bag underneath the seat in front of her. She had discovered that for some reason she could no longer dispel Freaky’s energy and re-create him when she wished. He had become too real, too sentient; that was the only thing she could figure. Fortunately he was still pure energy and had no need for food, water, or the other things a flesh-and-blood kitten would have. She had not been prepared, though, to buy him a cat carrier and his own ticket on the plane. Clearly if he traveled with her by plane in the future, these were things they were going to have to work out.
A car pulled up to the curb and she felt a surge of joy as her adoptive mom hopped out and threw her arms around her. Her dad was smiling from behind the wheel.
She climbed into the backseat and quickly unzipped her bag. Freaky bounded out with an irritated mew.
“You got a kitten?” her mom said, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s a long story,” Samantha said.
“We look forward to hearing it,” her dad said, smiling at her in the rearview mirror.
“I love you guys,” she said.
“Not half as much as we love you,” he assured her.
“We were planning on going right out to eat, but does he need to get home?” her mom asked, eyeing Freaky.
“No, he’ll be fine in the car. I’m starving.”
“Won’t he overheat?” her dad asked.
“Not this kitten. He’s sort of . . . indestructible.”
“Okay . . . well, to the restaurant it is,” her dad said.
He drove right to one of her favorite seafood restaurants, a place they usually reserved for special occasions like birthdays. They went inside, were seated at a table, and she didn’t even bother picking up the menu since she already knew what she wanted.
“Let me guess,” her mom said with a smile. “Mahimahi in lemon caper butter sauce.”
Samantha grinned. “You know me so well.”
“True, but you seem different, happier,” her dad noted.
“A lot has happened,” she said.
“So we’ve gathered. Ed’s been over to visit twice in the last week,” her mom said. “Glad to see he’s mellowed out.”
Samantha nodded and picked up her glass of water.
“And the second time he brought around a young man by the name of Anthony,” her dad said, looking at her over the top of his menu.
Samantha nearly spewed her water. She choked it down and set the glass carefully back on the table. “He did?” she asked.
“Yes, although frankly, I always assumed that when a young man came to be introduced, you’d be the one bringing him and not Ed,” her dad said with a twinkle in his eye.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do with him,” she sighed.
“Which one?” her mom asked.
“Both,” she said with a laugh. “Well, what did you think of Anthony?”
“Nice, incredibly nervous, but nice,” her mom said.
“He’s clearly got some emotional baggage, but
he seems to be working through it,” her dad added.
“Leave it to the psychologist to come up with that assessment,” she mocked.
“Careful, now, or I’ll start in on you and this change I’m noticing,” he teased.
The waitress came to take their order and as soon as she had left, Samantha leaned across the table. “Believe it or not, I finally found peace.”
“Praise the Lord,” her mother said softly.
“A pastor actually helped me put the last piece of the puzzle together. He helped me understand that the gifts aren’t evil. It’s what you do with them that is good or evil or even neutral.”
Her dad reached out and squeezed her hand. “I tried to tell you that years ago, but you just weren’t ready to listen or accept it. I’m so glad you’ve finally come to the place where you can.”
The waitress came back with their drinks. As soon as she’d left, Samantha’s dad took a sip of his coffee and grimaced. “Too cold,” he said with a sigh. “No one knows how to do real hot coffee anymore.”
“Have you really come to peace with everything?” her mom asked.
Samantha grinned. “Let me show you.”
She reached out and put her hand on her dad’s mug. A moment later it was boiling. She pulled her hand away. “It should be hot enough now.” Her dad had always taken his coffee scalding.
“I think I’m going to hug you,” he deadpanned. “Also, you must go with us to all restaurants from now on. I can have truly hot coffee again.”
She laughed. “Anytime you need hot coffee, I’m your girl.”
“You’re always my girl,” he said with a warm smile.
She felt herself beginning to tear up. Thomas might be her biological father, and she was looking forward to spending more time with him, getting to know him more, but these people were her mom and dad, the ones who loved her unconditionally and would always be there for her no matter what.
“I love you guys,” she whispered again, just because she felt it couldn’t be said enough.
They both beamed at her and took her hands. Then her dad took her mom’s free hand so the three of them were joined in a circle.
Samantha smiled. This was the circle she had always wanted, a family, not a coven. She had it, and she knew, thanks to them, that love was thicker than blood.