Page 22 of The Vampire and the Case of the Cursed Canine

‘I consulted the elders and they think that the curse can be broken with an ancient ritual that requires the afflicted to consume a potion made from a bunch of native ingredients. The problem is that one of them is hard to get here, and we don’t know if we have time to send someone to collect it from the nearest supernat town.’

I frowned. ‘What’s the ingredient?’

‘It’s a plant that’s generally found in the sub-Arctic called alpine azalea, or Loiseleuria procumbens. It’s an evergreen shrub with tiny pink flowers.’

I made a mental note to look it up. ‘You said hard to get. Can we find it here?’

Her face grim. ‘Yes, it also grows up there.’ She pointed at the mountains. ‘At the top.’

Well, fuck. We could only get it from there if we went beyond the barrier.

‘The elders have contacted tribal members in the subarctic, but it’ll be a few days, maybe a week before they can send some. Realistically, if we’re going to save Jeff someone has to get the plant from the mountain.’ Her look at me felt pointed.

I wanted to look behind me for someone else who could get it, but I knew no one was there. Besides, the only people who had successfully returned from beyond the barrier lately were me, Fluffy, Gunnar and Thomas.

‘Anything else?’ I asked, my voice amazingly steady even if my knees were weak.

‘We need some devil’s club, too. That grows everywhere, although if someone is going up there it would be better if it were naturally grown with no plant food or pesticides. The potion will be a little more potent.’

Great: devil’s club was covered in thorns and prickles. And, of course, we’d have to survive long enough to bring it and the alpine azalea back. ‘Thanks, Anissa,’ I made myself say even though I wanted to run away screaming.

She looked at Fluffy and paused. ‘How long have you had your dog?’ she asked curiously.

‘I got him right before I moved here.’

She frowned. ‘There’s something off about him.’ She stared at him and hummed a low tune in her throat. Fluffy’s tongue lolled out, then he looked at me and whined. I felt the little hairs on my arms lifting like they were full of static. Was she using magic?

She stopped humming and shot me a worried glance. ‘I don’t know if you know this, but your dog is cursed.’

‘What do you mean cursed?’ I said. ‘Is he going to be okay?’ Panic filled me. How could that have happened? Fluffy hadn’t been with me at the docks or the funeral home so he couldn’t have stumbled across either curse accidentally.

‘Not like Jeff’s curse,’ Anissa clarified. ‘This is something else. It’s a few weeks old at least – it’s worn a bit. I can’t see what kind it is, not without some proper study. But yeah, definitely cursed. It’s lying around him like an orange haze.’

‘Can we get it off of him?’ I begged. ‘Now?’

She grimaced. ‘I’m sorry; it’s not going to be simple to remove. I’m not saying it’s impossible but I need to look into it.’

My heart hurt. ‘Is he in pain?’

‘No,’ she assured me hastily. ‘He’d be whining if he was.’

‘I can’t leave him like this! Will the potion work on him, too?’

‘The one we have in mind is specifically for the nightmare curse, but alpine azalea is in the base of a lot of curse-breaking potions. Get me enough of it and I’ll do what I can for your dog.’

‘Thank you so much. Obviously I’ll pay for your time. How soon can you work out what’s going on with him?’

‘I’ll need to prioritise Jeff,’ she admitted. ‘He’s in jeopardy right now whereas whatever is on your dog isn’t life-threatening. If it were, the haze would be red. But after we’ve sorted Jeff, I’ll get right on it. It might be a week or so – I’ll have to fit it in around childcare and shifts.’

‘I really appreciate your help. The sooner you can get to him, the better.’ I was freaking out at the idea that Fluffy was cursed when I didn’t know when, why, or even how it was affecting him. I dropped to my knees and cuddled him. ‘We’ll fix you,’ I promised fiercely. He gave me a lick.

I looked up Anissa. ‘If ever you need a favour, let me know.’

She gave a shy smile. ‘No worries. Helping you is the right thing to do. I’ll start prepping things, but I can’t do much without the last few ingredients.’

I nodded. ‘I’m on it.’ And I was. Sure I wanted to help Jeff – but would I hurry beyond the barrier for him? No. For my dog, though, I’d tear the world apart.

As Anissa hugged Sidnee goodbye, I felt a weird twinge of jealousy. ‘I didn’t realise you knew Anissa well,’ I said after the door shut behind her.

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