And, I wanted to laugh, but she was wearing a female-type poncho.
I guess that ran in the family.
I didn’t laugh.
Instead, I smiled big at Poncho and called, “Hey! Welcome back!”
My body jerked when the woman shouted, “Basta!”
I looked to her but only got a quick look in because Abel yanked my hand so he could haul me behind his back.
This was likely because the old woman had her hand up, palm out toward me, eyes narrowed, fear etched into the wrinkles of her face, and she was now chanting in Spanish.
Poncho had his brows drawn and was moving to her, but as the others fanned around us, her head jerked from side to side as she took them in.
She stopped chanting and started shouting, “No! Basta! Basta! Déjame!”
Then she grasped the edge of her poncho, twisted it around her, whirled where she stood, and as she would have come back to facing us, she disappeared.
My mouth dropped open.
“What the fuck?” Abel clipped.
“Shee-it,” Poncho hissed, staring at the empty space where his aunt had just been.
“Uh, brother, you wanna clue us in to what just happened?” Dad asked, and Poncho looked to him.
“Sounded like she was chanting for protection,” Poncho told him.
“Against what?” Dad asked.
Poncho’s gaze came to me. “Against Lilah.”
“Me?” I asked, lifting a hand to my chest. “For goodness sake, why?”
He shook his head. “Don’t know. But when the other two came in, that’s when she lost it.”
“The other two?” Callum queried.
“Her,” Poncho pointed at Sonia. “And her,” he pointed at Leah. “Your bitches.”
“I don’t get it,” Sonia said quietly just as I felt activity at the door.
I turned that way to see Barb and Ruby walking in.
Barb stopped and lifted up both hands, her eyes getting big.
Ruby stopped and planted both hands on her hips, snapping, “Crap. Hoodoo. The place stinks of it. You got a bruja in here?”
“Who are you?” Poncho demanded to know.
“White witches,” Ruby shot back.
“Mi tía don’t practice no brujeria magia negra, woman. So, what gives?” Poncho returned.
“There’s great power in this room,” Barb stated.
“So?” Poncho asked.
“Does that mean she’s still here?” I asked at the same time.
“Our practice and the practice of magia blanca are quite different,” Barb answered Poncho.
“Again, so?” Poncho repeated.
“So, we have some professional differences,” Barb replied.
“Is she…still here?” Abel asked tersely.
“Yes,” Barb answered.
Abel turned to Poncho. “Talk to her, man. See what the fuck is up.”
Poncho nodded, then looked uncertain for a second before he cast his eyes upward and started talking in Spanish.
Watching him do that might have been funny, but I was weirded out.
I didn’t have a lot of time to process that before there was more activity at the door. I looked that direction and saw Ruby getting out of the way in order for a male vampire to stand in the doorway.
“Lucien, there’s someone at the gatehouse. Human. Hanger. He’s asking for you,” the vampire said, and the room got tense.
“A hanger is at the gatehouse and he knows I’m here?” Lucien asked, his voice scary.
“Yes. Says his name is Breed,” the vampire replied.
Lucien looked to Callum, then Abel, and finally Leah before he nodded and moved to the door, saying, “I’ll return.”
Lucien left just as Aurora and Yuri showed at the door. Aurora, probably sensing the bruja, halted before going through it, which meant Yuri almost bumped into her. Instead, at her quick stop, he wrapped an arm around her chest from behind in a protective way, narrowed his eyes, and scanned the room.
Totally cute together.
“Magia,” Aurora whispered.
“Yeah, they got a disapparated bruja clinging to the ceiling,” Ruby informed her.
Aurora grinned, her face lighting with excitement, and walked into the room, bringing Yuri with her, exclaiming, “Cool!” Then she waved at the ceiling and called, “Hey there!”
One side of Yuri’s mouth hitched up.
Totally cute.
“We’re standin’ around ’cause we got plenty of time to stand around, seein’ as fuck all is happening,” Abel shared with the room. “But we actually don’t have time to stand around, seeing as people’s lives are in danger. Around about a few billion of them. So something has to give with that. Now, while we wait for Poncho’s auntie to reappear, maybe you all can tell us how you can use what you got to do something to help save the world,” he suggested, lifting a hand and pointing a finger toward Barb, but he turned it side to side to indicate Ruby and Aurora too.
“What do you want us to do?” Barb asked instantly, easy as that, and I blinked.
“Whatever you can do,” Abel shot back. “But seein’ as I don’t know what that is, maybe you can tell us so we can get you started.”
“It’d be helpful if we had more witches and the bruja would work with us,” Barb told him.
“Poncho’s currently workin’ on that,” Abel returned. “As for more witches, that’s up to you to recruit. But you still haven’t answered what you can do, with others or with what you got.”
“Well, we can cast protection spells,” Aurora shared. “And we can do location spells, as you know. Though, we need blood from the person you want to locate, and if not blood, then hair.”