Hexed

to you for help.”
    “You already said that.”
    Breaking the silence loosens the tongues of the others.
    “We wouldn’t if it weren’t so important.” This from Min Liu.
    “It’s a matter of life and death.” From Susan Powers.
    No longer avoiding me, their attention becomes focused with the intense fierceness of cats watching a moth on a windowsill. An internal alarm buzzes and flutters. “What can I do for you?”
    Ariela seems to be the spokesperson. She draws a shallow, shaky breath and folds her hands in her lap, her fingers clenched so tightly that her knuckles turn white.
    “It’s a friend of ours. He’s been kidnapped. We need you to find him for us. We need you to bring him back.”
    Something in the way she says “bring him back” raises that alarm from buzz to scream and makes the question that springs to my lips rhetorical. “Kidnapped? Shouldn’t you be going to the police?”
    A brisk shake of her head sends the ponytail dancing. “No. The police can’t help.”
    Why does that not surprise me? The three sitting in front of me are part of the supernatural force called the Watchers. They maintain order among the otherworldly members of the local population. They are powerful witches who have powerful friends. Much more powerful than the mortal police force. I ask the obvious. “Why are you coming to me? I am not a Watcher anymore. There must be many among you who could help.”
    Another exchange of glances. More anxious frowns. I’m not aware that witches can communicate telepathically, but at this moment I wouldn’t have bet on it. Something passed between them.
    “No one else can help,” Ariela says.
    “And why is that?”
    “Because you’re the reason he’s been taken,” she replies. “And only you can get him back.”
    “I’m the reason?”
    A collective nod.
    A spurt of anxiety quickens my blood. I take mental inventory. I know where David and Tracey are. I spoke to my parents early this morning. As dismal as it sounds, the only other friends I have are shapeshifters and they can take care of themselves. I can’t think of anyone else who is close enough to me to warrant kidnapping. Or a reason why anyone would be. I haven’t been vampire long enough for the miracle of compound interest to make me financially independent. I still have a day job.
    Skepticism replaces concern.
    “It’s someone I know?”
    “We didn’t say that.”
    I lean forward. I’m getting impatient. Again. “No more riddles. How can I be responsible for the kidnapping of someone I don’t know?”
    “Because you committed a crime and you must answer for it.” Ariela holds up a hand, whether to stop me from interrupting or to stem the torrent of words that spill out of her mouth, I can’t tell. “You didn’t know you had committed a crime. We didn’t know, either. But we helped you and, in doing so, are being held responsible. Our friend—Susan’s brother—has been taken hostage. If you don’t agree to go back, he will be killed. A life for a life.”
    Tears spill down Susan’s cheeks, tears she either doesn’t notice or is too preoccupied to wipe away.
    I reach into a desk drawer for a tissue. I’ve done my share of killing—I can justify every life I’ve taken. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t committed any crime. I haven’t killed anyone who didn’t try to kill me first. I think—”
    “It’s Belinda Burke’s life you have to atone for.” Ariela says it quietly.
    Her words stay my hand and stir the hair at the back of my neck.
    She leans toward me. “You killed her and you killed her in a sacred place. Now you have to go back.”

FOUR
     

     
    ASTONISHMENT DOESN’T BEGIN TO DESCRIBE the reaction evoked in hearing Belinda Burke’s name in the same sentence as “life you have to atone for.” Belinda Burke was a powerful black-magic witch who almost caused the death of two close friends of mine and threatened to kill me and her own sister for helping rescue them. She was an evil bitch who among other things bled young female vampires to death to use their blood in an anti-aging cream. A cosmetic, for fuck’s sake.
    “Atone for what?” I’m speaking through clenched teeth, fighting to keep my tone civil. “She was evil. You know that. You all know that. It’s why you helped me.”
    Sadness pulls at the corners of Susan’s mouth. “We know,” she replies softly. “What we didn’t know was that Belinda Burke had gone to a place of