Page 86 of Coven of Corpses

“Tell us about it,” Demetrius said.

“Everybody finished?” Tracey said, her voice edgy with irritation. “Good. During the vampire infestation, we learned the vampires had been invited to Parson’s Hollow, but we never discovered who invited them until very recently.”

“Baron,” Demetrius said.

“Right. Baron Chambers, who is actually an ancient and power-hungry witch.”

“Oh my God,” Alice said, shaking her head. “What is happening to this town?”

“Clarabell and I have been doing a lot of research into that as well,” Tracey said. “Rita is… was a member of a Wiccan group in town who have been helping as well.” Tracey paused and grief flashed across her face. She dropped her gaze and, a moment later, looked back up, her expression hard and determined. “Rita became a good friend. She was the one who told us about the ley lines crossing near the site of Parson Stone’s church, out by the hollow. We all learned about the five members of the coven who had settled here as well, and the truth about the paternity of the children born to each member of the coven.”

“Oh?” Greg said. “One father for them all?”

“Parson Stone,” Cody said.

“Oh my word,” Alice said.

“One member of the coven was a Hedge witch, exploring and testing the boundaries between dark and light magic. She unwittingly summoned a demon, and it took all five members of the coven to imprison it inside the old oak tree by the church.” Tracey looked around at each of them. “That demon has been freed by Baron. From what we understand, he wanted to harness its power to supplement his own. But the demon didn’t want to be controlled. It cannot survive for long outside a host made of organic matter, so it has been possessing people.” She hesitated and swallowed. Removing her glasses, she held the fingers of one hand pressed to her eyes, gathering her resolve.

Demetrius picked up the explanation. “Her boyfriend, Heath, was possessed by the demon. If I understand it correctly, Tracey, Rita, and Heath had gone out to the site of the old church to explore and came upon Baron performing the release ritual. Heath was possessed and Rita didn’t make it. But the demon can’t possess a host for long because it, um, it burns through the host’s organic tissue quickly. So it’s been jumping from host to host. It was in Heath, then, from what it said, a squirrel. That happened when we got swapped. It apparently knows about the line of descendants from the original coven and has been seeking them out. Which is why it possessed the mayor, who tried to run the Bowers off the road.” He cleared his throat. “And then it became a tree.”

Tracey, having collected herself, put her glasses back on. “Right. So it’s most likely burned through that tree by now, and we have no idea who it will be next. We’ll have to be careful when we leave here.”

“Leave?” Alice said. “For where?”

“The old church site and the graveyard,” Tracey said. “We need to perform the ritual there to bind the demon again and end Baron’s attempt to gain more power.”

“If he wanted all this power,” Demetrius said. “Why did he invite the vampires here?”

“My guess is he was hoping to strike a deal with them,” Tracey said. “Use them to help him keep the people of town in line. Or he could have thought of them as a distraction or a test to see how you two fared.”

“We showed him,” Amelia said with a single nod.

“I remember something,” Demetrius said. “I saw one of the vampires, Aldrik, act like he was going to bite Baron out on the street in all the chaos. But then Aldrik said he was too stoned or something and released him.”

“Probably putting on a show,” Tracey said. “To give credence to why Baron wasn’t being attacked.”

“So, what’s involved in this ritual?” Cody asked. “Do we need to gather supplies?”

Tracey moved to the large bag she carried and pulled out the jar. “I have some of them, and Clarabell has the rest.” She sighed. “But with the mayor dead, we’ll need to figure out another descendant.”

“You’ve got one,” Amelia said, avoiding Demetrius’s glare.

“Who’s that?” Tracey asked.

“Me,” Amelia replied. “I was telling Demetrius earlier that my sister and I have traced our roots all the way back to the 1700s and this town.”

“I don’t like this,” Demetrius said.

Amelia finally looked at him, but her expression was tight, determined. “Your dislike has been noted, and we’re moving on.”

“What’s this about descendants?” Greg asked.

“For the spells to work, we need one descendant from each lineage of the original coven. We had four with the mayor, but now there’s three: myself, Margie, and Cody.”

“Can I be counted, too?” Greg said. “Felicia was my mother.”

“One descendant per lineage,” Tracey said.