Page 21 of Coven of Corpses

Cody made a face. “Weird, I guess.”

“Weird how?”

After a quick look around, Cody pulled a small wooden box from his jacket pocket. He placed it on the table between them and lifted the lid. Demetrius let out a breath when he saw the hex bag inside. He leaned in over the box to get a better look, then looked at Cody.

“Where did you find this?”

“In a bunch of my grandmother’s stuff.”

“Is it the same as we have outside our house?”

“I think so.” Cody gripped the lid in both hands in front of him. His fingers looked massive as they tightened on the small piece of wood. “It kind of freaked me out, so I told my family I got called into work. Then I went by the library to try and talk with Tracey.”

Demetrius sat back. He blinked and tried to understand the emotions coming up inside him. Surprise, of course. Cody and Tracey didn’t really like each other. He was also maybe jealous that Cody had gone ahead and jumped into a task that Demetrius usually took on. And he usually ran interference between Cody and his ex-girlfriends, of which there were many, so he felt left out, like he’d been excluded from a group activity.

“Oh?” he said.

“Yeah. When I left the storage unit and was driving into town, I thought I’d go by the library and check on Tracey since I saw her last night at the store.”

“Yeah, that whole thing sounded weird. Was she there?”

“No. And neither was Heath. But I ran into Clarabell, almost literally.”

“Huh?”

“She was standing right behind me in the library. She’d gone there to talk with Tracey, too. Turns out she was the one who planted the hex bag outside our house.”

“Clarabell?” Demetrius said, his voice going up on the last syllable.

“Keep your voice down,” Cody said, looking around. “She might show up like Beetlejuice or Candyman.”

“So, is she a witch?”

“Do you want my personal opinion or a fact?”

Demetrius gave him a look. “Never mind, I’ll ask her myself.”

“Good idea. Anyway, Clarabell and Tracey and Heath and some woman named Rita have been looking into what’s been going on in town.”

Demetrius leaned in. “What is going on in town?”

Cody leaned in as well and lowered his voice. “Ready for it?”

Demetrius made a face. “No, but go ahead.”

“There’s a witch in town.”

“Oh, shit.”

“Yeah, oh shit.”

“Oh my God, where did that come from?”

Margie had come up with their food. She stared down at the hex bag inside the box with a shocked expression. Demetrius saw the plates start to shake and reached up to take his salad from her.

“Oh, um, it’s okay,” Demetrius said. “Nothing’s wrong. It’s all good. It’s not bad.”

Cody took his plate as well. When Margie motioned for him to move over, Cody shot a raised eyebrows look across the table at Demetrius as he slid across the seat to make room.