Waking the Witch (Otherworld 11)

Tiffany really needed to work on her parenting skills if her kid adopted the first stranger who paid attention to her.

I went through a repertoire of simple tricks--lights, sparks, fog, all the ones kids love. I'd learned all the ways to keep Elena and Clay's twins amused when I baby-sat. Now that they're school age, they want to learn the tricks ... and get royally pissed off when they can't.

So I entertained the baby as Mom and the local cult dude moved to full-on screwing. When they started banging against the walls, the baby got concerned again. I did, too. The house was old and they were really going at it.

I picked up an ugly stuffed toy from the buggy and made it dance. The baby grabbed it and threw it. I knew this game. I picked it up and gave it back. She threw it, then chortled when the stupid grown-up fell for it again.

The toy looked homemade. Tiffany didn't seem the type to lovingly sew toys for her baby. It was definitely an amateur job, with weird stitching along the seams. An older sibling? Whatever they'd stuffed it with, it wasn't exactly soft and cuddly. It felt like ... dried herbs.

I caught a whiff of something that made my eyes fly open. I lifted the toy to my nose.

It was stuffed with blessed thistle. Most witches don't use herbs outside of rituals, but blessed thistle used to be stuffed into sachets for protection and health. I think Wiccans still used it. I glanced toward the front hall. Was Tiffany Wiccan?

I looked closer at the toy and noticed the stitching wasn't actually messy. It was symbolic. Special stitching for protection. Not Wiccan. Witch.

Now I knew why the baby had been calling me Mama when she saw the spells. Cody Radu wasn't the spellcaster in the family. Tiffany was.

sixteen

Tiffany wasn't the cuddles and cooing type. She got what she wanted and left with a box of cookies to excuse her visit. I suspected the Radu household ate a lot of cookies.

Was Tiffany punishing her husband for screwing around with girls like Ginny? Maybe. But whatever Cody's hang-ups, I bet there was a touch of the Madonna/whore complex going on. Ginny and her ilk were for wall-shaking sex and Tiffany was for making babies and adorning his arm at company dinners. Only it turned out that Tiffany liked her share of wall-shaking, too. Alastair was a safe outlet--an outsider who was unlikely to ask for any commitment while he had a houseful of young women offering the same goodies.

It was all a little too soap-opera confusing for my brain right now, so I zeroed in on the part that really piqued my interest--finding out that I wasn't the only witch in town.

BACK AT MY bike, I called Jesse to see if he had a maiden name for Tiffany. He did. Baker. Not exactly as uncommon as I hoped. I asked him to dig a little deeper and see where she was from, maybe get some family details.

"So you've got one witch," he said when I explained. "Presumably married to another supernatural if she's been showing him rituals. You've also got Santeria. Sounds like there's more to this town than it seems.

My next call was to Paige. I still wasn't telling her about the case, of course, but she'd be my best source of background on Tiffany.

"I have a local witch," I said. "But she's using outdated magic."

"Which suggests she's from a family that has slipped outside the network. Well, whatever network still exists for witches."

I could hear the regret in her voice. Paige works hard to get that network running again, but after the witch-hunts, most witches took a "never again" attitude and disassociated themselves from their magic.

"Maybe," I said. "But if it's nearly useless magic, that screams Coven."

Paige sighed. She'd grown up a Coven witch herself. She didn't argue, though. The Coven was the worst offender when it came to keeping witches in the Dark Ages of magic, only allowing its members to use old and simplistic spells, like the light ball.

"Her name was Baker," I said. "Tiffany Baker. She's a few years older than you, so even if her family left the Coven, you should remember her."

"I don't. I'll check the records, though."

If Paige didn't recognize the name, the Bakers hadn't been part of the Coven, so I told her not to bother. I could handle this one.

I ARRIVED AT the McDonald's twenty minutes late for my appointment. Cutting through the parking lot, I saw Cody Radu stalking out of the restaurant, another man hurrying along at his side, trying to talk to him.

Cody's SUV was nearby, so I cast a blur spell, zipped around it, then cast a cover one.

"Every shred of evidence was supposed to be concealed," Cody was saying as they approached. "That's your job, Tommy."

"Yes, and I've covered it. If this PI has dug up something, then we've got a leak. But that's why I'm here--to throw her off the trail."

"Then you'd better work fast. I can handle the bitch. She's going after Tiff, though, and I won't take that."

Had Tiffany told him I'd confronted her? I remembered what Cody had said about me being in town a few days. Only hours later, Tiffany had accused me of coming to her house. Was somebody stalking them? Or had Cody and Tiffany just been under Bruyn's magnifying glass too long?