Blood Harvest by Russ Linton

Author:Russ Linton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Urban Fantasy, Demon, American myth, hoodoo, gullah gechee, african american, fantasy, Deep South
Publisher: Russ Linton
Published: 2019-09-22T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I stared across the table at Araceli and Caleb. They filled out the diner booth awkwardly, her sitting prep school straight and him hunched over the table like he’d had the first hangover of his adult life.

We’d cleared out the Break Fast diner when we walked in. The normal crowd of locals in their sweat-stained ball caps and button down shirts had taken one look at the black criminal alongside his Ren Faire accomplice and had cut their late afternoon shit shootin’ short. Araceli at least fit in with her sooty arms and a pair of overalls which would be the envy of the farm league.

I wished I could get Caleb uninvolved with this mess. He’d been dragged far from his gangster life of getting carded at the library and going to war in documentaries from the comfort of his couch. My guilt wasn’t so much I hadn’t been willing to burn up his phone plan minutes to lay down some truth for Kitterling.

“Cheerio, Kitterling’s Curiosities, how may I assist you?” Mr. Kitterling asked, his chipper act immediately trying my patience.

“Hop off, Mister Kitterling,” I said. “You got me out here in Westbumbafuck getting tossed in lock-up. And these aren’t good police, Mister Kitterling. They’re under the sway of demons. Legit, mortals-are-finger-licking-good demons, Mister fucking Kitterling.”

Atofo’s body-snatching of Caleb had pissed me off, but I’d been as much to blame. I’d learned enough to know better, no thanks to my five hundred-year-old tutor. He’d mentioned demons existed, and while I’d never encountered one, I knew from his stories they were very real and very dangerous. Kittlering had been at this game much longer than I had. And I found it impossible to believe he hadn’t known they’d be here.

“Eustace—” he started.

“That’s right,” I said, “you go ahead and call me by my full name. I’m sure as hell not your Ace and never was.”

“There may have been—” he sounded regretful, but I wasn’t having it.

“May? May have been what!? Details you missed? Or is this part of the ones you chose not to share? I’ve been locked up before working for you, had guns in my face, been chased by yokels, necromancers, and even had to put down some freaky feral horror shows. Remember werewolves, Edward? Remember the damn werewolves?” I hissed into the phone, not doing a very good job of keeping my voice quiet.

Caleb, who’d been glancing toward the counter where Becky nervously clattered plates, shifted to gape in amazement at the mention of werewolves. Might as well speak some truth. Church Boy would need a wakeup call soon enough.

I turned to face the wall and tried to lower my voice. “But never have I been trapped in a room with the guy who probably ate Hannibal Lecter and me in magic dampening irons, you feel me?”

The tense buzz of a silent connection told me he hadn’t hung up. My eyes flicked toward Araceli. Far from Caleb’s disbelief, she listened with a face which could both earn out at a poker table and provide a pleasant distraction.

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