Page 58 of Hex You

“Hi Trish, this is Mercy Goode.” She tried hard, but couldn’t help that her voice sounded shaky—probably because she felt so shaky. “Someone just threw a brick through our living room window. It had a threatening Bible verse attached to it.”

There was a long pause and then Trish asked in a flat, emotionless voice, “Was anyone hurt?”

“No, but there’s glass everywhere,” said Mercy.

“Did anyone see who did it?” Trish’s tone didn’t change.

“No. Well, my friend saw that it was a truck, but it’s dark and—”

Trish interrupted. “If you didn’t see who did it and no one was hurt, what is it you expect the deputy to do?”

Mercy paused, shocked at the coldness in Trish. She knew Trish. Everyone in Goodeville did. She was a nice older lady who cried at dog movies. And now she couldn’t be bothered to care about what had just happened to them? Mercy was too surprised to be truly angry. Instead her stomach hurt and she felt confused. “I, um, expect Deputy Carter to come by and make a report, and then see if he can find who vandalized and threatened us.”

There was another long pause. “I’ll leave him a note about it. I’d say you could see him in church and talk with him, but you Goode twins don’t go to church, do you?”

Then the line went dead.

Slowly, Mercy put her phone back in her pocket.

“What happened?” Hunter asked.

“They hate us. The town hates us, and they’re not going to help us. At all,” said Mercy.

The sound of the back door slamming open had Mercy and Hunter jumping and Khenti lifting his hand to call his khopesh. Xena staggered into the living room. Naked except for the blood that dripped from several lacerations on her shoulder, she stood at the entry of the living room, swaying drunkenly.

“Xena! Oh, goddess!” Mercy shrieked.

The cat person focused her wide, yellow eyes on Mercy. She was panting so hard she was difficult to understand. “Kitten! It was terrible! The snake! Amphitrite! They…” She paused. Her face drained of color, and with a boneless grace, Xena fell to the floor.

TWENTY-FOUR

“I really think you should go back to bed.” Mercy hovered around Xena, who was lounging on the couch, wrapped in Abigail’s bathrobe, lapping cocoa from a big mug. There was an empty plate of scrambled eggs on the coffee table in front of her. Khenti had boarded up the picture window and after cleaning and dressing Xena’s wounds and putting the cat to bed, Mercy and Hunter had joined him to sweep the glass from the living room.

“Kitten, do stop worrying. I told you I have divine recovery powers. I slept quite soundly last night and feel almost myself this morning.” Xena put the empty mug with her discarded plate and sighed contentedly.

Khenti joined them at the couch. He smiled at Xena. “You do seem well today. Shall we change the dressing on your wounds?”

“There is no need.” Xena shrugged her shoulder out of the bathrobe to expose newly healed pink lines where bleeding lacerations had been the night before. Mercy bent closer, studying the wounds.

“Xena! These are so, so much better!”

“Yes, of course. Your Xena is much more difficult to kill than thathorrid snake imagined.” She paused and shuddered. “And that water goddess.” The cat person hissed softly before continuing. “She is an abomination!”

Mercy sat beside Xena. “Do you feel up to telling us what happened?”

“Oh, yes, kitten. I do apologize for how uncommunicative I was last night. What happened was quite a shock and I had to focus on healing myself.”

Mercy took Xena’s hand. “You really scared us.”

“Yes, all of us,” Khenti echoed.

“Well, I have returned to myself now and will be just fine.” Xena gazed around the room. “Where is Hunter?”

“She said she had to talk to Kylie.” Mercy shrugged. “She’ll meet us at the Japanese tree later to help trap and kill that bloody awful snake. But first you have to tell us what happened.”

“Should I not wait for Hunter kitten?”

“She said what she had to talk to Kylie about was really important,” said Mercy.