Page 19 of Signs and Wonders

That’ll come tonight, with the nightmares.

“I was lucky enough to find mentors who knew about this kind of thing, and that’s why I didn’t get myself killed right off the bat,” Seth continued. “They taught me enough to get started. I taught Evan. We’ve learned on the job since then.”

“Do you know who the warlock is?” Tyler asked. “Are you certain? You can’t just go around putting a stake through people’s hearts.”

“That’s vampires,” Evan replied. “Not warlocks.”

Tyler gave him a side-eye. “Vampires?”

“Not important right now,” Seth said.

Tyler glared at him. “I’d say it’s very important. Are they real?”

Seth let out a long breath, shut his eyes, and nodded. “Ghosts, vampires, and many of the creatures in urban legends are all real. But whatever you’ve seen in the movies is mostly wrong.”

Seth had given what he thought of as “the talk” to many people who found their lives disrupted by supernatural dangers. Some were more receptive than others, usually if they couldn’t deny their own experience. He didn’t fault the skeptics, who were lucky enough to be able to walk away and ignore an uncomfortable truth.

“My grandmother on my dad’s side was very superstitious,” Cameron ventured. “I’m not sure it did much good since Dad still died, but she was always making odd marks near the doors and windows and spreading salt on the sills and front step.”

“Right idea…but got the details wrong,” Seth said. “Salt repels ghosts, and protective symbols can keep certain…entities…away. But most of them won’t hold off a witch—especially not one as powerful as this one.”

“You still haven’t told us who,” Tyler pressed.

Seth was hoping to avoid that part until they had won Cameron’s trust. The last thing they needed was a misguided report to the local police.

“He’s effectively immortal, so over the past hundred years he’s gone by many names. Most recently, Fletcher Swain.” Seth admitted.

“He’s immortal?” Tyler challenged. “Then how do you ‘handle’ him?”

“We disrupt the ritual when he’s opening a portal to the trapped soul of his dead master and push him through,” Evan replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?” Tyler argued.

“Yep,” Evan said. “And I almost got both Seth and me killed because I didn’t believe until I nearly got bled dry and tied onto an altar like something out of the late show. ‘Crazy’ doesn’t mean ‘not real.’”

“If he’s a witch, why send hired muscle to grab me? Can’t he just hocus-pocus me to his secret lair?” Cameron sounded flippant, but Seth sensed a serious question under the bravado.

“Magic is hard work,” Seth replied. “It takes a lot of energy to do even small things. Big spells can drain a practitioner without proper preparation. That’s one of the things TV and movies get wrong—their witches just go zap-happy and never run out of mojo. It’s like how guns on television never run out of bullets.”

Tyler snorted in amusement at that, something Seth knew was a constant annoyance to people who knew their way around weapons.

“A smart witch avoids wasting energy,” Seth continued. “So they hire human muscle. Relatively cheap, disposable, and replaceable. He’ll either pay for their silence or put a geas on them to compel obedience and discretion. That’s a lot less magic than poofing you off the street.”

“Go back to this wicked warlock being Fletcher Swain. You mean the wellness mentor guy who bought that haunted old lodge on the mountain?” Cameron asked.

Seth almost missed the flicker of emotions that crossed Tyler’s face. Discomfort, recognition—and fear.There’s a story here. Maybe Tyler isn’t quite the non-believer he pretends to be.

“That’s the name he goes by now,” Evan replied. “The problem with immortality is that people notice if you never age. So he’s cycled through several names over the years and leaves the area in between sacrifices until people forget about him.”

“Swain’s a big deal.” Cameron shot a look at Tyler, who evaded his gaze.

Definitely a story behind that reaction.

“He’s supposed to have a huge following online, but no one ever sees him,” Cameron continued. “I guess if you pay for his retreats, you get to meet him, but he doesn’t allow cameras. I heard someone say that Swain says photographs ‘drain his energy.’”

Seth snorted. “Well, that’s one way to keep from being recognized.”

Evan looked to Tyler, who had gone quiet. “You seemed uncomfortable when the retreat center came up. Have you heard something?”

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