Page 217 of Hidden Nature

She took the plate out, set it on the table with a couple of paper napkins.

“And I have. The plan’s come to me. It’s different than before, but it has to be.”

“No way around that.” He pried out a loaded nacho, said: “Mmm-mmm!”

“We’ll be taking him first—and that time has to be decided careful. She’ll hear about it right quick, being in the same town and all. We’ll take him, bring him here, and keep him sedated.”

Puzzled, Sam swigged some beer. “You don’t want his story?”

“We’ll get it. That’s why the timing’s so important, doll. We can’t wait more than a day or two before going for her. We have to bring her back here, so that’s more preparation.”

She sipped her wine as she fought off a craving for a couple of MoonPies.

“Protection from her evil for certain, but we’re going to need another hospital bed, the straps. I’m not worried about a monitor and all that for her, but we’ll need more tubing.”

Thoughtfully, she sipped her wine. “We don’t use her blood, Sam. It’s tainted. We burn it.”

He nodded, ate. “Are you sure the straps’ll hold her?”

“You know I don’t think much of the Papists, doll, but we’ll take a page from their book, get us some holy water, a crucifix, and we’re going to salt a circle around her bed.

“Now, I’m hoping that’s going to work, like I’m hoping we can take her when she doesn’t have the gun. But if that’s not how it works out…”

She rose, went to a kitchen drawer, and took out the Colt her father, and her grandfather before him, had used to shoot vermin.

“Clara!” Shock, and the excitement that rose with it, shined in his eyes. “Babe! You’ve always said no, big-time no, to using guns.”

“She’s not like the others, Sam, not fully a human being but at least part demon. We’re sending her to Hell, and she knows it. We can’t know what she might do.”

And Clara had had dreams. Visions? She couldn’t be sure, but in them, the witch aimed a gun at her and fired, over and over again.

“It stays here when we take Terrance Brown. But when we go for her, we take the syringe and we take this. We use whatever we need to use. This here is a Colt Single Action Army revolver. It was my grandpappy’s. You’re going to practice with it, and when the time comes, you’ll carry it.”

She set it on the table between them, and sat.

“I was going to surprise you with a trip to the beach, down in North Carolina.”

“Babe!”

“But, Sam, we’re going to have to take some time off real soon, a good week or more, to make sure we know where and when. He won’tbe different, but like I said, we have to move on her right after, so we have to know.”

She lifted her wine again. “Here’s how I think we’ll need to do it all.”

Sloan opened the door to her mother.

“Mom, you don’t have to knock.”

“Then next time, I won’t.” She moved in for a quick hug.

“Want a cold drink? I made some iced tea. It’s almost warm enough to sit on the front porch. If I had chairs to sit on out there.”

“That’s exactly why I’m here.” Elsie pulled out her phone, swiped. “I was out picking up some new pieces—new-old pieces—for one of the rentals, and saw these.”

Sloan angled her head, looked at the screen and the vintage metal chair on it.

“They have two,” Elsie continued, “and they just made me think of your front porch. Do you hate it?”

“I don’t.”

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