Page 75 of Coven of Corpses

“You should try being inside him,” Demetrius said, then made a face. “Sorry. That sounded worse than I intended.”

“Okay, enough.” Cody fixed Clarabell with a look. “What have you learned?”

“I found out Mayor Henderson is a direct descendant of the original bloodline, so that means we have four: Tracey, Margie, the mayor, and you.” She pointed to Cody, then at Demetrius. “Or both of you, actually.”

“Yeah, you said that before,” Demetrius said. “Why is that?”

“The bloodline is both physical.” She waved a hand up and down in front of Cody’s body. “And spiritual.” She gestured to Demetrius’s body. “So we should probably use you both for the Bower family descendant during the ritual.”

“Tell us more about this ritual,” Cody said. “What do we have to do?”

“It’s kind of involved.”

“Give us the bullet points,” Demetrius said, crossing Cody’s arms. He could feel the shirt sleeves strain around Cody’s biceps and had to admit he enjoyed it. Once this was all over and he was back in his own body, he was going to start working out more. Or again.

“I need to read some more about it,” Clarabell said. “Tracey left a book with me. But from what I know, we need to gather all the descendants at the site of the old church graveyard. The descendants need to each stand on the grave of their forebearer while the imprisonment incantation is read. Oh, I’ll need to gather some herbs, spices, and other things as well.”

“Herbs and spices?” Cody said with a scowl. “Are we performing a ritual or making fried chicken?”

Clarabell glared at him. “Good to see your sassy tank is still full.”

“How do we know who stands where?” Demetrius said.

“I’ve done some research, and I’ve mapped out who’s buried where. It’s really quite unique. The members of the coven were buried in the formation of a five pointed star.”

“Wait, like a pentagram?” Demetrius said.

“That’s kind of witchy for a church graveyard, isn’t it?” Cody said.

“I know, which is why I need to do some more reading,” Clarabell said. “I’ll do that after I pay a visit to Mayor Henderson and try to convince her about what’s going on and her role in stopping it without her thinking I’m a raving lunatic who needs to be locked up.”

“Well…” Cody said, which earned him a glare from Clarabell. “Why is everything with these cases so hard?”

“And I still haven’t figured out the identity of the final descendant.” Clarabell shook her head, the movement causing the daylight coming in the window over the sink to flash across her glasses. “And then we need to convince them to come with us out into the woods.”

“When are we doing this?” Demetrius asked.

“Sometime tonight if we can figure this all out.”

“We’re going to be up all night again, aren’t we?” Cody said.

“Just like being back in college,” Demetrius said.

Cody gave him a hard look. “Just like college? Like when I caught an STD?”

Demetrius covered his mouth to try to hide his smile.

“It’s not funny,” Cody said. “Fucking Ollie said that in front of my entire family.”

“I know that,” Demetrius said. “I had to cover for you.”

“Yeah, about that. Bang up job telling them the first time we had sex we did it raw.”

“I got nervous.”

“Knock it off, both of you. You’ve got to remain vigilant until we can perform the ritual. The witch and the demon will want to prevent us from completing it. They may come after you or any of the other descendants of the original coven.”

“Great. Another personal vendetta from a monster,” Cody said.