Supernatural Fresh Meat - By Alice Henderson Page 0,35
business here?” Sam asked her.
“Tourists mainly, but we have a few devoted locals. It’s a nice day job to have to support the other one,” she told them quietly. Sam knew she meant hunting. “Let’s go into my office.” They followed her through a set of swinging doors, down a hall, and through another door. Inside was a cozy office, with a large batik print of a whale hanging on one wall. A Tiffany art deco lamp cast soft light on the red walls. She shut and locked the door behind them, then gestured for them to sit down in the office chairs next to her desk.
“So you really think you’ve found an aswang?” she asked.
Bobby nodded. “Seems that way.”
“I’ve never known someone to hunt one.”
“Me, either. Were you able to dig anything else up?”
She unlocked a drawer in her desk and pulled out an old leather-bound book. A ribbon marked a particular page and she opened to it. “This legend says that to keep the aswang away, the villagers created a special weapon that could spear it and drag it down to the earth. But it needs to be steeped in special spices and have an enchantment cast upon it.”
“Can you do it?” Bobby asked.
“I think so. I’ll need to get together all of the ingredients, and some are pretty obscure.”
“Like what?” Sam asked.
“Like ajowan and screw pine.”
“Wow. I’ve never even heard of those spices. Screw pine? Really?” Sam agreed.
“It’s also called pandan spice. I can do the enchantment part with Bobby.” She looked at Sam. “Can you gather the spices we’ll need to soak the whip in and the stingray barb for the hook?”
Sam pulled out his small notebook and pen. “No problem. Just give me a list.”
She skimmed over the book and said, “Okay. Salt, ajowan, galangal, screw pine, tamarind, wattle seed, kokum, kaffir lime, and lovage.”
“Lovage?” Sam asked. “There’s really a spice called ‘lovage?’ Screw pine and lovage?”
“Yes. And the whip has to be made out of twine that is two parts hemp and one part seaweed.”
Sam finished writing it all down, then read over the list. “Okay. This is all going to smell pretty bad, isn’t it?”
Marta was all business. “You’ll have to make a trip to Odysseus’s Spice and Curio Shop. It’s out on the coast. You can find just about anything there.”
Sam folded up the notebook and put it back inside his jacket. “Will do. How much time will you need on your end?”
“About a day, I think.”
“We really appreciate this,” Sam told her.
She smiled. “Just don’t tell any of my kitchen staff. They think I spend my nights doing extreme LARPing.”
“We’ll be discreet,” Bobby assured her.
“I figured you would, Bobby Singer.” She grinned again, and this time Bobby held her gaze for a few seconds longer before looking away, slightly embarrassed. Bobby was amazing in a fight and knew more about arcane magic and obscure creatures than anyone Sam knew, but he could get flustered when it came to regular human stuff. Bobby didn’t do regular too well. In fact, none of them did.
Bobby walked Sam out to the van. “She an old friend of yours, Bobby?”
“Something like that,” Bobby said evasively. “You get the spices and meet me back here. I’ll get started on the spell.”
“Think we can get all those items and do the enchantment before tomorrow?”
“We’re sure as hell gonna try.”
NINETEEN
Dean fired, and the figure vanished into the brush, moving away quickly out of sight.
“Who the hell is that?” Jason shouted, bringing out his gun.
Dean searched for any sign of motion. “Did you get a good look?” Dean’s heart hammered.
Jason stared around, pointing his gun. “No!”
Dean could feel eyes boring into his back. He spun. High up on another granite outcropping stood the thin figure, staring down at them. “There!” Dean shouted, pointing his gun. The figure vanished.
Dean turned to Jason. “We need to track this thing, find out where it’s holing up.”
“The speed that thing moves, we’ll have our work cut out for us.”
Dean walked to where he’d first seen the figure close up, standing by the tree. There were two boot prints in the depressed soil.
Sudden voices in the trees attracted Dean’s attention on his left. Catching sight of a flash of color through the branches, he stepped off the trail, followed by Jason.
Jason met his eyes. “Hikers?” he mouthed.
From the cover of a huge ponderosa, Dean peered out. Sure enough, hikers. Two of them with big backcountry packs on their backs. Dean scanned the ridge above.