Page 27 of Coven of Corpses

Ollie held up his hands in mock surrender. “All right, all right. Your secret is safe with me.”

“I mean it.”

Demmy walked past Ollie and stood beside Cody. He slid a hand between Cody’s jacket and shirt and rubbed his back. “He’s not going to say anything. Right, Oliver?”

“I promise.”

“This little excursion is off the record,” Cody said.

“Oh my God, I’m not a reporter anymore!”

“Come on, let’s head back,” Demmy said.

They started back the way they’d come, Demmy leading the way. When he reached the first red shop rag, he paused as he was untying it from the branch, looking off into the woods.

“What is it?” Ollie asked, his voice low.

“Do you hear something?” Demmy looked back at Cody. “I hear a voice.”

Cody cocked his head and focused his hearing. At first all he could hear was the breeze in the trees and the blood pounding in his ears. Then he heard it. A quiet but steady chant coming from deeper in the woods.

He looked back at Demmy and nodded. Holding a finger in front of his lips, he gestured in the direction of the sound. With slow, careful movements, the three of them stepped between trees and around fallen branches.

A flickering light between the trees drew them forward. Cody was even more careful where he stepped, and he could see Demmy and Ollie doing the same. They made very little noise as they eased up behind a line of trees and looked into a clearing. Firelight danced, and a figure knelt before it, hands outstretched. It looked like a man wearing black jeans and a black hoodie with the hood up. His quiet, persistent chanting made the hair on the back of Cody’s neck stand up.

Before any of them could made a move, Cody’s phone buzzed in his pocket. A shock of cold fear went through him. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and silenced it. But it was too late. The chanting stopped abruptly, and the hooded figure stopped chanting and jumped to his feet. The hood was low and the shadows within hid his face.

“Show yourselves!”

The voice was deep, but not as terrifying as he’d expected.

“Lower your hood first,” Demmy called back. Cody didn’t really think it was a good idea to have any kind of verbal exchange with someone they’d found alone in the woods chanting by a fire, but it was too late.

The figure cocked its head, and in the shadows gathered inside the hood, he saw the white flash of teeth as the man grinned.

“Ah, the Critter Catchers.” The man turned his head slightly toward the tree behind which Ollie was hiding. “And guest.”

A shock of icy fear went through Cody. But then he grabbed the last shreds of his courage and said, “You know us, but we don’t know you. Show us your face.”

“Not quite yet. Soon.”

The figure raised his arms, and a flash of light made them all duck and turn away. When they slowly looked around again, they discovered the clearing was empty, and the fire extinguished.

“He’s gone,” Cody said.

They stepped out from their hiding places. Cody kept one hand on the tree, the bark rough and gritty. He stood on his toes and looked ahead, squinting to see through the lingering smoke from the fire. No sign of the hooded figure. Or a source for the fire.

“There was a fire burning there, right?” Ollie said.

“Yeah.” Demmy took a step forward. “I saw it.” He looked at Cody. “Did you recognize the voice?”

Cody shook his head. “You?”

“He seemed familiar, but I couldn’t place him.”

Ollie had crept closer to the clearing and leaned in past the trees. “What is this place?”

Demmy started forward. Cody reached out to stop him, losing touch with the tree. He missed grabbing Demmy’s arm, and, feeling vulnerable and exposed, he followed. Turning his head side to side, he tried to see everywhere at once to head off any potential surprise attacks.