Page 44 of Last Witch Attempt
I frowned and pictured the scene we drove up on. “Someone had to be in the road, but it wasn’t the arachnids.”
“How can you be certain of that?” Steve asked.
“Would you stop in the middle of a dirt road as darkness was coming on if you saw giant spider people standing in front of you?”
“No,” he said on a dry laugh. “I would drive around them.”
“I would run them over,” Spencer supplied. “Bay is right, whatever got them out of the vehicle didn’t look like a giant spider.”
“What if the individual had a gun?” Steve asked.
“Paranormals rarely carry guns. Even if this individual had a gun, wouldn’t you still take a chance and try to drive over them given the surroundings?”
“I would,” Steve confirmed.
“So whatever was out there looked human,” I continued. “It could’ve been someone faking an injury or pretending to be lost.”
“That suggests a woman,” Spencer said. “I would probably stop for a man too, but I would definitely stop for a woman.”
I rubbed my cheek, managing a smile for Susan when she returned with my iced tea. “Maybe it was a child,” I offered after I took a sip. “No one would drive past and leave a child.”
“How would a child get out in the middle of nowhere?” Steve challenged.
I sent him a rueful look. He really was out of his element. He was trying—really hard—but he still wasn’t getting it. “Many magical beings can change their appearance.”
“Like the changeling,” Spencer said.
I nodded. “Yes, but that was even more in depth than other magical beings might be able to pull off. I can change how I look to you. I don’t actually change what I look like, I just make you see what I want you to see.”
Steve was excited. “Do that.”
I glanced around the busy diner. “Um…”
“She’s not a performing monkey,” Landon chided his boss. “If you want a demonstration—and Bay wants to give it to you—we might be able to manage something back at the inn.”
“Right.” Steve had the grace to be abashed. “Sorry. I just got excited there for a moment.”
“It’s fine,” I lied. Embarrassing him wasn’t going to make things better. “Suffice it to say that a grown paranormal could make itself look like a child. Not all, but a lot of them.”
“Okay, so the creature lures them out of the vehicle,” Steve prodded. “Then what?”
“Then the arachnids rush in,” I replied. “They poison the men—they have that ability—and carry them into the woods.”
“Do they kill them or does the leader?” Landon asked.
“It has to be the leader. He or she does what they set out to do, draws the runes on the trees as part of a ritual, then has the arachnids put them in the trees.”
“Why?” Landon pressed. “Was it a message to you?”
“Me specifically?”
“Or potential enemies in general.”
I considered it, then lifted my shoulders. “That’s the part we still have to figure out. We keep digging. That’s the only option we have.”
A buzzing drew my attention to the window again. Aunt Tillie was back, this time on her scooter and in the red cape. She lifted her finger and flipped off the restaurant as she buzzed by.
“What the hell is she doing?” Landon demanded.
