Page 79 of Coven of Corpses

“Got pretty good, too,” Otis said with a nod.

“I wouldn’t let her shoot an apple off my head,” Eileen said, then shrugged. “But she is a good shot.”

Amelia ignored them both, keeping her eyes fixed on him. “I was able to help put down the vampires a few months ago, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit by while someone calling himself a witch causes havoc throughout our hometown. If I have decided to offer up my services in the interest of saving this town and the people I love inside its borders, then I shall do so. Is that clear?”

Demmy blinked and nodded.

“I said, is that clear?” Amelia repeated in an even firmer tone.

“Yes, ma’am,” Demmy said. “It’s clear.”

“Very good.” She gave a single nod “Now, tell me what I need to know.”

As Demmy started speaking, Cody’s phone buzzed. He checked and saw it was his mother. Catching Demmy’s eye, he tipped his head toward the kitchen. Demmy excused himself and followed him out of the room. Cody handed him the still buzzing phone. “It’s my Mom.”

“Ugh, I don’t know if I can take any more of her thinking I’m you. Amelia just shorted out my brain. Can you let it go to voicemail?”

The phone stopped buzzing in Cody’s hand and he shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I can.”

It buzzed again, displaying the word Mom and a picture of her. Cody made a face and held the phone out to Demmy. “Sorry. It might be important.”

Demmy nodded and took the phone. He cleared his throat then swiped to answer it, putting the call on speaker.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Cody!” Her voice was shrill, edged with panic. “Someone’s after us!”

Cody’s heart pounded, and he instinctively leaned in closer to the phone, shouting, “What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s trying to run us off the road! Greg, look out!”

The hard sound of crumpling plastic and the shriek of scraping metal sent icy dread up Cody’s spine.

“Mom!” Cody shouted, forgetting he was supposed to be Demmy. “Dad!”

“Oh my God, this woman is crazy! She just hit us! She’s trying to force us into the ditch!”

“Where are you?” Demmy asked. Cody barely registered that the others had gathered in the kitchen as well.

“We were headed to Amelia’s,” she said. “She came up behind us on 118. I think we’re almost at the driveway for the Pines.”

“Good!” Demmy practically shouted. “We’re here right now! We’ll drive out and meet you.”

“No! We’re turning in the road now. Stay where you are, we’re almost there.” Her voice softened as if she had turned away from the phone. “Oh no, Greg, she’s still following us!”

The call ended abruptly. Cody broke for the door, pushing through the others as he ran. Demmy was right behind him, actually overtaking him at the door thanks to his longer legs. Cody really missed being inside his own body.

“Wait!” Amelia shouted as Demmy yanked open the door. “It could be a trap!”

“I don’t care,” Cody shouted back.

He crossed Eileen and Dieter’s front porch then ran across the lawn to the street. The sun was about to set, and a winter bite had come back into the air. His breath plumed in front of him as he ran down the road toward Amelia and Otis’s condo, two houses down the block.

As the sun dropped, a streetlight across from Amelia’s condo popped into life. It illuminated the bottom half of Amelia and Otis’s front yard, and threw shadows across the low ground cover plants by the porch. A few of Amelia’s garden gnomes skulked among the leaves, looking like mini assassins.

Headlights swept around the bend, and tires squealed against the asphalt. He recognized their SUV running fast approaching where he and Demmy stood in the road. They moved to the curb as another car sped around the bend. One headlight was out, and in a quick flash of streetlight, Cody saw damage along that side. This vehicle swerved back and forth across the road, the engine rumbling as the driver accelerated after Cody’s parents.

“What the fuck?” Cody shouted.