Mystic Caravan 11 - Freaky Mage Read online

“Why?”

  “He’s a perverted sack of crap that somebody needs to put on a front porch and set on fire.”

  “Tell me how you really feel.”

  “I’ve wanted him gone for a long time,” I admitted. “It’s difficult. He and Max had a relationship before I joined Mystic Caravan. While Mark isn’t loyal, Max is. He won’t fire him without cause.” I was intrigued. “Would you want to take over business operations of the midway?”

  “Believe it or not, my major was law enforcement and I minored in business. I thought I might end up on some white-collar task force at some point. It didn’t happen, but I do like numbers.”

  “You could balance the books for me,” I offered.

  He laughed. “You’re good at your job and I wouldn’t want to step on your toes. Nobody likes Mark.”

  “I don’t think Mark even likes Mark,” I agreed. “I would need to talk to Max.” The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. “Mark’s contract is up this December. We always negotiate contracts during our down month in Florida.”

  “I don’t really want to get the guy fired,” Cole hedged. “I don’t feel comfortable with that.”

  “Oh, you should own it,” I said. “Everybody hates Mark for a reason. If you took over the midway, we might not be so disconnected from those folks. Plus, you would be able to achieve the balance that Mark has so much trouble with. He can only see profits, not the greater good. I’ve always wanted someone in that position who could see both.”

  “I still don’t want to displace him.”

  Cole was noble. I didn’t have that problem. “Let me talk to Max. He’s had his own problems with Mark this past year. We might be able to work something out.”

  “Okay.” Cole flashed a smile, although a hint of trouble lurked in his eyes. “Are we always going to be on the road? At a certain point, we’re going to have to settle down in one place.”

  I liked that he assumed I was part of his future plans. He obviously understood — just as Kade did — that Luke and I wouldn’t do well if we weren’t in each other’s lives. “Kade and I have been talking about that,” I said. “I don’t think anybody is ready to leave Mystic Caravan just yet.”

  “I put myself in that group,” Cole reassured me. “I’ve only been on the road with you guys a few months. Eventually, though, I would like a home to call my own. I want that home to be with Luke, and he’ll want you very close.”

  “You know that finding a place that makes all four of us happy will be difficult. We’re talking four distinct personalities. I think the only thing we’ll all agree on is that we should be close to the water.”

  “Oh, I’ve already thought of the perfect place.”

  “You have?”

  He nodded. “There’s an island. It’s called Moonstone Bay. It caters to paranormals. I have family living there. I’ve visited several times. We wouldn’t have to hide who we are, and the scenery is amazing. Also, they only have a two-week storm season. Sometimes it stretches to a month, but that’s rare.”

  “Moonstone Bay?” I racked my brain. “Never heard of it.”

  “You should do some research. Maybe we can take a weekend trip or something when we’re all in Florida for the month. It’s right off the coast, and I can get us a great deal on rooms.”

  “That might be fun. Even Kade might be up for a group trip, but once we reach our break I think Kade needs a full week away from Luke to decompress.”

  “I get it. I’ll make sure it happens.”

  Oddly, the conversation with Cole — which had been very off-the-cuff — had me feeling markedly productive. “I’ll talk to Max about Mark. As for the four of us, we’ll figure out a way to visit Moonstone Bay.”

  “Cool.” He grinned and inclined his head toward the building. “Shall we?”

  I hooked my arm through his and laughed as we fell into step together. “Just for the record, I think you’re the best thing that ever happened to Luke.”

  “Oh, definitely.”

  I waited. “You’re supposed to say I’m the best thing that ever happened to Kade,” I prodded.

  “I thought that was a given.”

  He made me laugh. “Let’s see what we can find.”

  He was all business now. “If women who all look alike are going missing, there must be a reason.”

  I wholeheartedly agreed. Unfortunately, I didn’t think it would be a good reason.

  DAKOTA DOLLOWAY WAS THE NEWEST detective on the force. He was often left behind and saddled with paperwork. He was bitter about it, and he didn’t bother to hide that bitterness. He was an easy mark when I picked him out of detective row.

  His mind was open, which allowed me to quickly invade and force him into his chair. Cole, already wise to the way we did things, shut the door and closed the blinds so we wouldn’t be inadvertently discovered. He then leaned against the wall with his arms folded over his chest to watch me work.

  “You have nothing to worry about, Dakota,” I reassured the young detective. The first thing I found in his mind was the fact that he’d only gotten his position because his father was the chief of police. The other detectives didn’t believe he’d earned his spot. Dakota’s mind was easy to infiltrate because all of his emotions were near the surface.

  “What kind of detective is named Dakota?” Cole asked, making a face. “Isn’t that a girl’s name?”

  “Boys have that name too,” Dakota shot back.

  “It was a popular name for both sexes for a time,” I said as I pressed my hands to either side of his head. He wasn’t fighting the effort. Someone who was strong with mind magic — even without realizing it — would’ve made me work for information. That wasn’t going to be an issue with Dakota.

  “We need to know about the missing women,” I said as I started poking through the layers in his mind. “How many?”

  “Seven that we know of,” he said dully.

  “Seven?” Cole pushed himself away from the wall. “I expected one or two, maybe three at the most. Seven is a pattern.”

  “Tell me about the women,” I instructed. “What do you know?”

  Dakota’s voice was dull as he laid it all out. “Seven girls, some are locals and others are tourists. They all have black hair. Eye color varies. All between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one.”

  I frowned. “Brock said twenty-five.”

  “No, younger. They’re being careful to keep the age thing quiet because they don’t want to hurt tourism. The ghost stuff is big with teenagers, especially girls.”

  “Right. What else?”

  “It’s a cult.”

  I didn’t expect him to admit that, but I’d already started to wonder. “What sort of cult?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just a normal cult.”

  “There’s no such thing as a normal cult.”

  “I agree. They’re all freaks and weirdos.”

  “What does this cult want?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “Does Brock have an idea?”

  “They’re just talking about a cult being responsible. I don’t think they’ve identified the cult.”

  “So ... it’s just an idea at this point.”

  “From the ritual scene you described, you can’t be surprised by the cult angle,” Cole prodded.

  “No,” I agreed. “I assumed it was a cult before the body was found. We were nervous enough to strengthen the dreamcatcher.”

  “What else do you know?” I insisted as I dug deeper into Dakota’s head. He might’ve been easy to control, but he wasn’t privy to much information.

  “There’s not anything to know yet,” Dakota replied. “We don’t have any bodies. Well, apparently they found a body by the river today. That’s the first one. They won’t let me go because they’re jealous of me. I’m the youngest detective ever in this department.”

  “Thanks to your father,” I said, pushing hard one more time. He’d told us everything he knew, which was depressing. “He doe
sn’t know anything else.”

  “It’s enough for us to start digging on our own,” Cole said. “We just needed confirmation, which you’ve gotten for us.”

  I released Dakota, who continued to stare off into nothing. “We need to get out of here.”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “I need to think.”

  WE EXITED THE POLICE station, being careful not to draw attention. At the door, my eyes were on Cole and I was ready to start plotting, but a sizzle in the back of my mind had me straightening.

  The whoosh of magic that ran through me was so powerful I tilted to the side. Cole, who had been watching me out of the corner of his eye as he made sure to gauge potential police interest in our presence, reached out to grab me. “What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

  Slowly, I tracked my eyes to the other side of the lobby, to a blond woman in jeans and a T-shirt. She would’ve looked casual to random observers, but her eyes were keen as they snagged with mine, and I sucked in a breath.

  I’d never felt magic like the type she possessed. She was unbelievably powerful. She didn’t look evil — not that you can always tell — but it was obvious she’d sensed me before I’d even managed to get a whiff of her.

  “Who is she?” Cole asked, following my gaze. He looked ready to throw down.

  “I don’t know.” I felt out of my depth. I couldn’t remember when that had last happened. I was almost always the most powerful person in the room. Well, unless Max was present. He was more powerful, but I was often craftier.

  “What do you think she’s doing here?” Cole asked, his eyes fixed on the blonde.

  “I have no idea.” My mouth was dry and my head was starting to pound. I knew better than trying to get a peek inside her head and yet I couldn’t stop myself. When I tried, I hit a wall of chilling magic ... and an enigmatic smile from her. She not only managed to keep me out but recognized what I was trying to do.

  Oh, crap.

  I etched the woman’s features into my brain. She was in her forties, fit, and seemed genuinely amused by my discomfort. She made no effort to intercept me. In fact, she seemed outwardly calm. Of course, if I possessed even half the power she did, there would be little to fear.

  “Mrs. Winters, the detective is ready to see you now,” the officer in the protective bubble said, drawing the woman’s eyes to him.

  “Thank you.” She cast one more look toward me. There was curiosity in the depths of her eyes, but she didn’t engage.

  “You can head back now,” the officer said as he gestured toward the door.

  “I appreciate the help,” the woman said to him. She didn’t look at me again. “Apparently everybody is so eager and ready to lend a hand in Georgia. That’s not how it is where I come from.”

  “You’re in the South, ma’am,” the officer said. “We aim to please.”

  5

  Five

  We returned to the fairgrounds to pick up Luke and Kade for our weekly grocery shopping run. I would’ve preferred handling it when Cole and I were out, but I knew better than to cut Luke out of a shopping trip. He would melt down in spectacular fashion.

  “What did you find?” Kade asked as we entered the store, grabbing a cart as Cole and Luke snagged a second.

  “They believe it’s a cult,” I replied, thinking back to the information I’d been able to glean from Dakota. In truth, I was more worked up about the woman I saw in the lobby when leaving than the cult angle.

  “And what do you believe?”

  That was a good question. “I don’t know.” I offered a one-shoulder shrug. “I mean ... cults are one of those things that don’t fall under one specific definition. Not all cults are like the Manson Family ... or Heaven’s Gate ... or the Children of God. They can be subtler, but that doesn’t necessarily make them less dangerous. Whenever you’re dealing with a charismatic leader who manages to subjugate a great number of people, that almost always leads to something terrible.”

  “I’m familiar with the first two,” Kade noted. “Who were the Children of God?”

  I frowned. “It’s not a very cheery subject.”

  “Then give me a bare-bones refresher.”

  “In a nutshell, it was started in the 1960s by a traveling preacher. They believed in ‘free love,’ but only the sort where the women drew in more followers by offering sex. They abused children. And several Hollywood stars were raised in the cult.

  “The leader referred to himself as a king and the members proselytized on the streets,” I continued. “They had more than one-hundred communities at one point. They’re infamous for abusing children more than anything else.”

  “Well, that is distressing.” Kade made a face. “Obviously they don’t exist any longer.”

  “Actually, they do,” Cole interjected. “They call themselves The Family International now and claim that they’ve outlawed child-adult sexual contact, but they’re still on the radar. They refer to themselves as soldiers in the spiritual war of good versus evil.”

  “That’s pretty vague,” Kade noted.

  “They’re pretty weird,” Cole said. “If you ever want to lose yourself down a rabbit hole, look them up online. Make sure you haven’t eaten recently, or you’ll lose your lunch.”

  “Lovely.” Kade shook his head as we started picking out buns and bread. “What kind of cult could we be dealing with here?”

  That question was plaguing me, too. “I’m not sure. There are a lot of cults out there. About three years ago we came across one in New Mexico that worshipped aliens. They even dug up a dead simian from somewhere and claimed it was their alien leader and he was telepathically communicating with them from beyond the grave.”

  “And what was he telling them?”

  “That weed was good.”

  My flippant response made him laugh. “Oh, well ... they don’t sound so bad.”

  “They were one of the minor ones,” I said. “Two months after that, we stumbled across another cult. This one was in Kansas.” I shuddered at the memory.

  “They kind of based themselves on Children of the Corn, except they were adults,” I explained.

  Luke whined. “Ugh. Do we have to talk about those freaks?”

  I ignored him. “Come to find out, some guy reinvented himself after being released from prison. He called himself Jacob and managed to convince fifty people he had a direct pipeline to God.”

  My stomach twisted at the memory. “He took all the wives for himself, had sex with them whenever he wished, and then claimed all the children for himself.”

  A muscle worked in Kade’s jaw. “Okay, we don’t have to finish this. I’m sorry I asked.”

  “I’ll keep it brief. He started sacrificing the women and children when he lost interest in them. He strung them up in cornfields as sacrifices to God. The husbands and fathers let him, simply absorbing a new wife and taking on new children if the ones they entered the cult with were sacrificed.”

  Kade slipped his arm around my shoulders. “I take it they didn’t survive long after running into you.”

  “We freed the children and women, saved those we could.” I hesitated. “Some didn’t want to be saved. They didn’t see what they’d become, what they’d allowed. I had to dig deep on all of them to figure out who was a danger.

  “Some kids didn’t have parents when we finished,” I continued. “We had to make sure they got to Child Protective Services. It wasn’t easy, but we managed it.”

  “And the others?” Kade almost looked fearful to hear the answer. “Did you kill them?”

  “Just the leader. I used my magic and convinced him to kill himself. Suicide was a particular sin in his cult, and I had him do it publicly in front of the adult followers. I wanted to break the hold he had on them.”

  Kade nodded as he stroked the back of my hair. “And the others who couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong?”

  “I was afraid that the kids would be returned to some of the parents,” I
admitted. “I spent two days going through their heads. Some of the parents were legitimately bamboozled and didn’t seem to understand what horrible things had befallen the other members. They were idiots but not evil.”

  “So, you let them go home,” Kade surmised.

  “I ... modified, for lack of a better word ... some of their memories and gave them a hard shove toward what was right.”

  “Do you ever check on those kids?”

  “There were paranormals in the area. We met with a pack of wolves who’d had run-ins with the cult. They kept an eye on the kids. I think they intervened once or twice.”

  “You couldn’t save all of them, though,” Kade said.

  “Nope.” I grabbed six packages of hot dog buns and tossed them in the cart. “Those who refused to admit what they’d done was wrong and break from the cult’s teachings were left to Nixie.”

  Kade’s lips twisted. “She turned them into dolls.”

  “She did. She sold some of them, although I’ll bet a few are still in her collection, trapped forever with no way out.”

  “Well, that’s what they wanted to do to their kids, so I don’t have any sympathy for them.”

  “Me either.” I gave him a wan smile. “Cults can be really dangerous. If we’re dealing with one here, we need to be vigilant.”

  “We’ll be vigilant.” He pulled me close for a hug and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “How certain are you that it’s a cult?”

  “I honestly don’t know.” I held out my hands as we separated. “It’s entirely possible we’re dealing with a cult. That girl was killed in ritualistic fashion. I don’t know if she was alive when those runes were cut into her, but I’m guessing that’s the case.”

  “That’s not what I wanted to hear.” Kade rubbed the back of his head. “If it’s not a cult, what is it?”

  “That’s where we get into the unfortunate part of this business,” I said. “There are a lot of evil people who hide behind rituals to dole out pain and mutilation. If that’s what we’re dealing with, we could very well be looking at pure evil.”

  “Someone who is paranormal?”