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She’d pulled off the highway and zigzagged her way through the empty prairie. It didn’t occur to her until too late that she was lost.
Annoyed with Brenda for refusing to allow any cell phones on the ranch and with herself for being paranoid, she’d followed lights to a nearby town. It was late enough that the only place open was a shitty bar stuffed with the two things she hated as much as she hated Peri Sanguis. Drunk cowboys and cigarette smoke.
Perfect.
Determined to get in and out as quickly as possible, Destiny had barely walked through the door when she’d been hit by a powerful wave of magic. It had seemingly come out of nowhere. One minute she was waving away the cloud of cigarette smoke and the next her mind had faded to black. After that, she had noidea what happened. Not until she regained consciousness some time later to discover she was hiding behind a dumpster in the alley. That was bad enough, but true terror had slammed into her when she caught sight of the dead woman lying on the dusty ground.
Destiny didn’t recognize her, but she looked exactly like the witches after they’d been drained of their magic. Abruptly she understood the truth.
The lethal spell hadn’t vanished after killing the coven. It’d remained hidden, and when she left the ranch it followed her.
Why?
Because she’d witnessed its power? Because she knew the secret of where Brenda had gotten the statue that started this nightmare? Because it couldn’t bear for one of the coven to survive?
It didn’t matter. The only thing Destiny cared about was finding a way to keep the stupid thing from following her.
Creeping around the weirdly silent bar, Destiny had hopped into the van and squealed her way out of town. She hadn’t stopped until she’d spotted the remote motel.
Nothing could find her here. But just in case, she’d barricaded herself in the bathroom and wrapped the bathtub in the strongest wards she could cast.
Would she live to see the dawn? The odds didn’t feel in her favor.
* * *
The remote town in the corner of Wyoming had once been a booming location. It’d attracted the local miners as well as the overly opportunistic gold hunters and even a few tourists. There’d been a dozen bars, a large hotel, and a smattering of churches spread among the neighborhoods. Eventually themines had run dry and the gold hunters had moved on. Even the tourists preferred the lure of Yellowstone. Now Garland was rotting from the inside out, leaving the town center a dead zone, as if it’d been sucked dry by the surrounding scrubland.
Or at least that’s what Gabriel had told Valen when Valen had called to warn the vampire that he was returning to his territory.
Strolling past the empty stores and crumbling streets, Valen halted in front of the Jackalope Station. It wasn’t much of an improvement from the abandoned taverns they’d passed. If you weren’t a local, there would be no way to guess it was still in business if it wasn’t for the police tape haphazardly tied in front of the open door.
“This is the place?” Peri wrinkled her nose as she studied the narrow building with its peeling paint and rusty tin roof. There was a large window with the wordsJackalope Stationpainted in the center along with some sort of logo that was lost beneath the layers of dirt. “Why would the miasma be attracted to this place?”
It was one of a thousand questions that nagged at Valen. “Could there be a coven nearby that would draw the magic in this direction?”
“Not an official one. My mother wouldn’t tolerate competition so close to her ranch.” Peri peered through the window, her brow furrowed. “But the bartender was a practicing Wiccan according to her social media.”
“She was the target?”
Peri shrugged. “She might have some connection to Wisdom Ranch. Or the statue.”
“That feels like a long shot. Unless the magic that destroyed the coven was aimlessly roaming through the prairie and stumbled across this bar.”
She nodded. “Probably a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. If the attack was caused by the miasma, it might have sensed the bartender and drained her magic.”
“Let’s interview one of the witnesses.” Valen stepped back. “He might be able to tell us about the woman. Or at least share what the miasma looked like and why they decided to start shooting each other.”
Peri glanced at him in surprise. “At this hour?”
It was late. So late that this small town had not only been tucked in their beds for hours, but there were probably a few on the verge of waking to begin their day.
“One of them had minor injuries and is currently the guest of the sheriff’s department. I’m sure I can convince the deputy to give us access to his prisoner.”
“Lead the way.”
Valen glanced down the empty street. The air was laced with the usual human scents, but he ignored the rotting trash from a nearby dumpster and the musky scent of the stray dogs who’d scurried away in fear. When he was sure there were no threats, he walked toward the brick building at the end of the block. It was the only business around that had light spilling from the windows.
Peri remained silent as she walked next to him, her expression distracted. Valen could taste her worry as if it were a flavor. Sharp and bitter. She carried the burden of locating the power that murdered her mother’s coven and personally making sure it was destroyed.
