Part 13 (1/2)

”Razor-sharp as ever,” she shot back. ”Why, I'll bet you can count to 20 without even using your toes. I just came by to drop off your termination papers. I can't believe I had to come all the way to this sorry excuse for a one-horse town.” A little smirk. ”So where do they keep the horse?...You look awful, by the way. Is this your family?”

”She doesn't look awful,” Ca.s.sie growled. ”She just hasn't had a shower yet.”

Wonderful. Out of all that gibberish, she chose that part to respond to. My mother, on the other hand, zeroed right in. ”Termination papers?”

”Oh, yes. It's a long story. May I?” Without waiting to find out whether she might, Vanessa took the last vacant chair. ”She was fired a couple of weeks ago. They were both fired, actually. Devlin's problem was something about insubordination and witchcraft, but...”

”She was fired?” Mom repeated, rounding on me with a dire expression.

I didn't need that right then. ”We're appealing it. It's a misunderstanding.”

”That's not the point, young lady. You were fired, and you didn't tell me?”

”How is it your business?”

”If I could finish,” Vanessa said, clearly enjoying herself, ”I'll tell you about the insubordination.”

I broke off glaring back at Mom long enough to include her. Then I checked Connor and Amy. They looked vaguely stunned, which was fine as long as it kept them both quiet. ”Just give me the papers, Vanessa. Then get out.”

”What for? I might miss something.”

”That's the point.”

Ca.s.sie narrowed her eyes at Vanessa. ”Let's have a little talk in the other room. Devvy, why don't you go get your shower now?”

”Not a chance. I'm not leaving you alone with that...that...”

”Demon?” Vanessa supplied sweetly.

I let that go. ”Not to mention alone with my family. We're going to pack now and go straight to the motel, got that?”

”No,” Ca.s.sie said.

”No?”

”No.” Purposefully, she pushed her chair back and walked over to pat my shoulder. ”I'll handle this.”

”But...”

”No buts. Go shower. I'll handle it.” When I hesitated, she gave me a little push. ”Don't make me force you.”

”I'd pay to see that,” Connor said reverently.

Amy, somewhat recovered, kicked him hard enough to make him jump.

”Go,” Ca.s.sie said again. ”Now. Please?”

I couldn't very well refuse when she'd asked nicely; it would get me a lecture from Mom on top of the lecture I would already get about being fired. Besides, it would give me time to think. I did some of my best thinking in the shower; maybe lightning would strike.

Reluctantly, I turned to go upstairs. The last thing I heard was Vanessa's laughter.

I hoped she got a bad piece of coffee cake.

Some Christmas this was going to be.

My relatives were already on their worst behavior, and now a demon was sitting at the kitchen table. No matter what, things were only going to get worse, and no matter what Ca.s.sie said, we were leaving as soon as I got done here.

Muttering, I got a towel and washcloth out of the linen closet and started unpacking my toilet kit on the counter. Just as I was pulling the razor out of its travel case, something moved in the mirror behind me. Startled, I turned. Nothing was there. And for my trouble, I'd cut myself with the razor.

Great. Just my luck today, there'll be sharks in the tub.

I jumped again as a breeze blew past. That might have been my imagination, and so might the soft laughter that went with it, but it might also have been Vanessa's idea of a prank. The best thing to do was get a quick shower and get out.

Putting the weirdness firmly out of my mind, I hung my robe on the linen-closet doork.n.o.b and turned on the tap in the bathtub. A stream of bright-red liquid flowed out. It looked disturbingly like...

Blood. Quickly, I shut the tap off. A few seconds later, I turned it on again. The water ran clear.

”Humbug,” I said deliberately, getting in and pulling the curtain.

It was almost the fastest shower on record. I was just rinsing my hair when the lights went out, which was inconvenient but not critical. There were candles on the counter -- Hawthorne women were big on decorating bathrooms with fancy soaps and candles, which I'd learned the hard way were not for actual use -- and I could always light one.

But before I could even turn off the water, I heard a match strike and saw a faint glow through the shower curtain.

”Ca.s.sie?”

No answer. Maybe she was busy lighting the candles; the room was starting to fill with flickering light.

”What happened? Did the power go out?”

Very brief silence. Then a strong wind rose out of nowhere, flapping the shower curtain and blowing out the candles.

”Vanessa?”

I half-heard that soft laughter again -- immediately followed by an explosion of thunder and lightning.

There wasn't time to be scared. Whether the bathroom was haunted was pretty much irrelevant at the moment anyway; I was standing in a shower in a lightning storm, which was asking for trouble. Reaching down, I tried to shut the water off, but my hand pa.s.sed through something ice-cold. Alarmed, I pulled back.

In the flashes of lightning, I faintly made out the shape of a woman dressed in black, standing under the shower spray. I couldn't see her face, but her hair was blowing as though she were in a high wind -- and both it and her clothes were completely dry. In the darkness between lightning bolts, I saw a pair of glowing red eyes.

Oh-oh.