Night Shift(75)

Manfred winced. “So you found the witch.”

“I did, and I liked her. I was so impressed with her that I confessed why I had come. My father would be coming for her. She had had a forewarning, and she was gathering people to help her, other people with magical abilities.”

By now, Manfred could see where this story was going. “She planned to trap him?”

“Yes, grandson. She called together everyone of power she could find, because Colconnar was strong. If he gave me to his lord, the sacrifice of his son would gain him power. If he had sex with the witch, he would gain even more power. His ambition was to establish a kingdom on earth, a place all his own.”

“What about the rest of the demons? Why didn’t they want to do the same thing?”

“Do all humans want to conquer Russia? Or Australia?” Manfred had no answer for that. “So did the witch and her crew bind the demon?”

“Yes, they did.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you were here!”

“No, I was not. My presence would amplify Colconnar’s power, the witch said. And she sent me away to Tennessee.”

“So you don’t know what happened.”

“I do know that Colconnar is still trapped.”

“But not how.” Manfred slumped his face in his hands. “And there’s a demon under the crossroad. Okay, how’d you meet Xylda?”

“I traveled for years in what had become America. Sometimes I looked like my Indian self, and sometimes I looked like a white man. I kept going back to Tennessee, because it was my birthplace, and very beautiful. To my surprise, there came a sort of fashion for Indians, as we were called, and the remnants of my tribe held exhibitions there, of tribal dances and crafts and so on. Though I was a half-demon, and my Indian people knew that on some level, they still claimed me.

They allowed me to use my magic nature to train as a shaman. It was very strange to be valued rather than killed off. At one of these ‘Native American’ events, I met your grandmother Xylda. She was lonely, and she was wild and beautiful, too.” Sylvester smiled broadly. “Her gifts had made it hard for her to have friends. She was shunned in the com munity.”

I know what that feels like, Manfred thought.

“She was delighted when we met. It was her birthday, and she had no one to celebrate it with. We came together by way of celebration, and we stayed together for two years. We were the first for each other, and I know she wore my necklace until the day she died. I could feel it.”

“The necklace.” Manfred searched his memory. “The freshwater pearls?”

Sylvester nodded.

“She did wear it always. But you left.”

“She didn’t think I would make a good father for the child, when she did a reading of your mother as baby. She married a human man to teach your mother how to be human. Since I couldn’t.”

“So why are you here, now?” It can’t be a coincidence, Manfred thought. “You’re not just here to do your grandparental duty by me.”

“That’s the important part.” Sylvester looked even sterner than before. “I will tell you.”

Sylvester’s narrative style left a lot to be desired. Manfred was heartsick and had too much to think about to know where to begin. “Get to the point,” he said.

“However the witch imprisoned my father, the spell has lasted two hundred fifty years, and it’s about to wear out.” Sylvester was pleased to have finally gotten to what he considered the main point. “You’re going to have to do some more talking,” Manfred said.

“Everyone needs to hear this.”





24





That evening at Home Cookin, Quinn and Diederik were eating at the big round table the locals used, while the Rev was settled at his normal table for one. The Rev was not much one for conversation during meals, or at any time.

Soon after the two weretigers sat down, they were joined by Olivia, and then Chuy and Joe. The two men looked incomplete without Rasta.

“We can check on him with our phones,” Joe said. “We can see him in his kennel at the vet’s. We miss the little fella, but until the situation here is settled, that’s where he should stay.”

“He’s just too small a creature to handle all this,” Chuy said sadly. “The suicides, the tension, and now the smell.”

“Smell?” Diederik took a long drink of chocolate milk.

“Hasn’t the air seemed different to you?” his father asked. Quinn tried to speak gently, but there was an unmistakable chiding note in his words. Weretigers should be alert to smells and sights around them.