Page 35 of Coven of Corpses

“No need to whisper about it,” Oliver whispered back. “That disguise isn’t fooling anyone.”

“Hello, boys,” Margie called as she bumped out of the kitchen door with a plate in either hand. “My lucky day to see you again so soon. Iced teas?”

“Yeah, thanks, Margie,” Demetrius said.

“That’d be great, Margie, thanks,” Oliver said.

Demetrius led the way to the booth, sliding in across from Tracey and leaving room for Oliver to sit beside him. Tracey didn’t say a word, just looked toward the door and then over her shoulder at the hallway that led to the restrooms and the entrance and exit to the large parking lot in back. A plate with several crusts of toasted bread and smeared puddles of ketchup sat at her elbow, close to a half-finished tumbler of soda. She had to have wolfed down the food between the time she’d left the note on Oliver’s car to now.

“Hi, Tracey,” Demetrius said. “We got your note.”

“Were you followed?” Tracey still hadn’t looked at them, turning her head to keep her eyes on the door and the rest of the diner

“No. Are you okay?”

She looked at him then. Demetrius saw his own reflection in the dark plastic lenses of her glasses. She sat very still, then reached up to remove the sunglasses. She wore her usual prescription glasses underneath. Dark bruises colored the skin beneath her eyes, and she looked both sad and scared.

“Not really,” she said, but then she drew in a breath and gave a single nod as if telling herself she was safe. “But I’m getting by.”

Margie dropped off their iced teas. “Anybody need anything else?”

Demetrius and Oliver both said no. Tracey ordered a Reuben with fries to go. As Margie walked off, Demetrius took a closer look at Tracey. She’d cleaned up, based on how Cody described seeing her. Her hair was tucked under the baseball hat, but the little of it he could see looked clean.

“I left that note to bring you up to speed with what’s going on,” Tracey said, looking between them.

“What is going on?” Oliver asked.

“There’s a witch in town,” Tracey said. “He’s been here for a while now, since at least sometime last year. He’s powerful, too, playing with dark magic. I’ve been working with Clarabell and Rita on figuring out his identity, but we haven’t had any luck so far.”

“We saw him out in the woods,” Oliver said, looking to Demetrius for confirmation. “Just this morning.”

“You did?” Tracey looked at Demetrius as well. “Where?”

“We think it was the site of Parson Stone’s church,” Demetrius said. “We found crime scene tape rolled into a ball off to one side.”

“That’s where we found him, too,” Tracey said, tears glittered in her eyes. “Rita…well, she didn’t make it. And Heath got in the way of something that had been released. A demon.”

“A demon?” Oliver exclaimed.

“Quiet!” Tracey said, furtively looking around.

“Sorry.” He leaned in over the table and lowered his voice. “A demon?”

“Yes. The witch released it from some kind of containment. I think that’s been his plan all along.”

“Who put it there?” Demetrius asked.

“From what we’ve learned, it might have been the coven, a long time ago.”

“Are you part of a coven?” Oliver asked.

“No. But I have become interested in Wiccan studies the last couple of years. That’s how Rita and I became friends. Last year, we both realized someone with a lot more power had come to town, and we’ve been trying to figure out who it was. I invited Clarabell to help as well, since she has a lot of connections. Heath and Rita and I were out in the woods following up on something we found in our research when we came across him performing a spell.”

“What happened?” Oliver asked.

“The demon went into Heath,” Tracey said. “Took him over.”

“Possessed him?”