Bewitched (Betwixt & Between #2) - Darynda Jones Page 0,32

taking a shine to him.

Laughing, I opened the door to a familiar face, clenched in a gruesome mess of anger and derision. “Your phone is still unplugged,” said James Vogel as he wedged his way inside.

Seven

When people are dead, they don’t know they’re dead.

It’s the same thing when people are stupid.

-Meme

At least James Vogel tried to wedge his way inside.

The door didn’t budge. He pressed a hand against it to open it farther. When nothing happened, he tried again, harder, this time with his shoulder. Nary an inch gave under his command.

I peeked behind the door to find Percy had barricaded it. I gave him a quick thumbs up behind my back.

When James Vogel stepped closer, trying to barrel through me, I held my ground as well. “Mr. Vogel, if you’ll just tell me what it is that you need—”

“Minerva said you’re different.” If his reddening complexion was any indication, his anger was well on its way to a reprisal.

Seriously, how could anyone live with such volatile emotions twenty-four seven? Maybe it was a hormonal imbalance.

“She told me you could do things the rest of them can’t.”

Or an alcohol imbalance.

“You can do anything.”

He wreaked of cheap whiskey.

“You can bring people back from the dead.”

And the cologne he wore . . . Wait. What did he just say?

“I lost someone.”

Did he just say I could bring people back from the dead?

“There was an accident.”

Like, literally?

“I want her back.” His glare made it clear that saying “no” wasn’t an option.

After a moment of speechlessness, I asked, “Your niece told you I could bring people back from the dead?”

“Yes. She said you did it with Ruthie.”

What the hell? Weren’t covens supposed to be like Vegas? What happened at the crossroads stayed at the crossroads? I just figured it was an unwritten rule.

Minerva made my decision not to help him that much easier. I’d make sure the girl would never join another coven as well, and I would tell Ruthie that as soon as I could. But first I had to get rid of Jason Voorhees lurking on front porch. For realz, he just needed a hockey mask.

I did the only thing I could think of on such short notice. I laughed. “And you believed her?”

Laughing was, apparently, the wrong approach when dealing with the self-absorbed.

He shoved on the door. When it still didn’t give, his face morphed into an angry version of the Jason Voorhees mask. With a glower that could stop traffic, he reached for me, whether to push me back or to pull me out, I didn’t know.

I stepped back and speared him with a glare. “Mr. Voorhees—”

“Vogel.”

Oops.

“You need you to come with me.” His voice sharpened into a scalpel.

“Even if I were practicing right now, which I’m not, and such a thing were possible, which it’s not, I certainly couldn’t do it.”

His beefy hands curled into fists. But before he could do anything with them, something on the ground caught his attention.

We glanced down and watched as vines slithered across the porch like snakes. They curled up the walls and up my legs. To the regular joe, they had to be like a bad acid trip, but James Vogel seemed a little more knowledgeable than most.

He stumbled back with a scowl.

My cue to close the door. I slammed it shut, then peeked around the bay window.

He backed off the porch and studied Percy like he was trying to figure out a way around him. Definitely the creepiest Jason Voorhees I’d ever met.

“Thank you, Percy.” I turned around.

Roane was behind me in the foyer. He’d knelt to pet Ink, but I could sense the tension from where I stood, as though his muscles were coiled, ready for a fight. He smiled at Samuel.

“You can see him?” I asked.

He nodded. “Of course.”

“Thank goodness.” I knelt with him, partly to pet Ink but mostly to get closer to the blond-haired, blue-eyed angel I wished desperately to hold. “I was worried he was a figment of my imagination.” I left out the part where I’d wondered that very thing when I’d first met Roane. For about half a second, anyway.

“He’s not going to give up.” Roane tipped his head toward the door.

I released an annoyed sigh. “He thinks I can bring someone back from the dead.”

“You can, but that’s not the point.”

“Ruthie was different. I didn’t do that on purpose. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

“Still not the point.”

“Okay, mister know-it-all, what is the point?” I tore my gaze off the kid and