13 Drops of Blood

13 Drops of Blood

Jodi Jensen, Beth W. Patterson, Chris Bannor, Crystal L. Kirkham, D.J. Elton, J.W. Garrett, Jasmine Jarvis, K.T. Tate, Kimberly Rei, M. Sydnor Jr., Maxine Churchman, Nicole Little, S.N. Graves

Black Hare Press

13 DROPS OF BLOOD title is Copyright © 2021 Black Hare Press

First published in Australia in February 2021 by Black Hare Press

The authors of the individual stories retain the copyright of the works featured in this anthology.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this production may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner.

Paperback: ISBN 978-0-6450739-7-3 Hardback: ISBN 978-0-6450739-8-0

Cover design by Dawn Burdett

Formatting by Ben Thomas

Isobel, Isobel

Course through time

I require your assistance

Isobel, Isobel

I beckon you

Bring my love to me

Jodi Jensen, 2021

Contents

1. Izzy

2. Issa

3. Cedric

4. Sarah

5. Jezelle

6. Caleb

7. Amanda

8. Silas

9. Meera

10. Red

11. Gillian

12. Ava

13. Muse

14. Enzo

15. Biographies

16. Black Hare Press

17. Acnowledgments

Izzy

The Love Spell by Jodi Jensen

Izzy chose her candle with the utmost care: red, made of beeswax, and never burned. Next came the anointing with virgin olive oil. Using her fingers, she pulled the oil from the top to the middle, then from the bottom to the middle until the whole thing was anointed.

She picked up her athame. After consulting the grimoire of her seventeenth century Scottish ancestor, Isobel, she started on the carvings. His name at the top, each line drawing down and stopping at the centre. Enzo—she smiled at the mere sight of her beloved’s name. Now, hers at the bottom, every line drawing up and stopping in the middle. Between their names, she carved Celtic love knots.

When she finished, she placed the candle on the palm of her right hand, stretched her left hand out, palm up, and closed her eyes. She visualised Enzo, walking towards her, his body strong and lithe rather than broken and bloody as she’d last seen him. She’d already asked forgiveness for what she’d done, so now, the imagined look on his face was one of love and acceptance. Harnessing that love, she wrapped both hands around the candle and let the energy pour into the warm, slick wax, then placed the candle into a lovely wrought iron pentagram holder.

With her candle fully charged and ready, it was time to evoke the necessary protection for her spell. She glanced at the grimoire again, hoping her Gaelic was up to the task, hoping she was up to the task.

Thirteen candles.

Izzy retrieved the long tapers and lit them around the room, then went and got her round mirror. Setting the mirror in the centre of the floor, she placed her love candle and holder in the middle. Next was the salt. She spread a circle of salt around the mirror, leaving plenty of room for herself to sit inside. Once she’d opened the circle of salt, she brought the tapers, one by one, and splashed melted wax on the mirror, then lined the candles around the outside of the circle.

Sitting cross-legged in front of the mirror, she waited quietly until the melted wax dried, then picked up her athame once again. This time she carved the name Isobel Gowdie—the Scottish witch. She held the blade in one hand and lit the love candle, focusing all of her energy on the flame. In her mind’s eye, Enzo came towards her, a smile on his face and love shining in his eyes.

She sat, unmoving, until the love candle self-extinguished, then slid the blade of her athame across the palm of her hand. As blood welled, she squeezed her hand in a fist, held it over the mirror, and recited the chant.

Isobel, Isobel

Course through time

I require your assistance

Isobel, Isobel

I beckon you

Bring my love to me

A dark orb rose from the mirror…then another…and another…

Izzy watched as orb after orb left through the opening in her salt circle. Her heart leapt into her throat as the orbs kept coming. Her gaze flew to the grimoire, landing on a single phrase. A drop of blood—she glanced at the mirror, counted the drops…eleven…twelve…

She jerked her hand away as the last drop plopped on the surface…thirteen…

Bloody fucking hell…

She leapt to her feet and spun around to find Enzo, and twelve other figures, there, but not there. Transparent. Feet not quite touching the floor. And looking pissed as hell.

Issa

The Rocked Cradle by S.N. Graves

After the fall…

The last notes of Happy Birthday petered out as Tobin’s wailing once again ruined everything. As if Siobhan hadn’t enough reasons to drink today, Joe’s little crotch maggot of doom was, as always, inconsolable.

My goodness. Joe scooped the birthday boy up from his highchair, bringing the child into the cradle of his arms for a soothing bounce. It’s just singing, buddy.

She washed down her husband’s giddy pacification of the infant with a near-choking gulp of wine. How Joe could be so endlessly cheerful, so full of adoration for a creature that only took and screamed and needed 24/7, she’d never know. No getting it twisted—she loved their son. Just not so much today.

Today, painful memories and his shrill keening urged her to grind his chubby little face down into the cake until his earsplitting wails turned to drowning gurgles, and those gurgles to blessed silence. But thank God for the wine, she didn’t. Cheap, tepid wine that she refilled her glass with for the umpteenth time. You shouldn’t coddle him.

Nonsense. It’s his birthday. He continued to bounce the boy and rock him, Joe’s family flocking around to make token efforts to cheer the child with silly faces and coos. Besides, coddling is what babies are for.

"And that’s why he’s such a brat." Siobhan set her glass on the cluttered dining table and blew out the candle. Then took up the butcher knife to cut the cake. A cake shovel would have worked better, made it easier to flop the sugary lumps onto paper plates without making a crumbly, globby mess, but Joe didn’t believe in the sanctity of kitchen tools. The proper serving knife was likely in the garage somewhere, used as a cement trowel, or duct-taped into some piece of machinery to serve as a jerry-rigged replacement part. Gone forever to Joe’s whimsy.

I think your woman needs a nap, Jeff, a brother-in-law, said, voice pitched high with birthday balloon helium. Then through an Elmo over Joe’s shoulder, Bitch is cranky.

Don’t need a nap. Needs a dick, another brother interjected from across the room. I know she cut you off, man, but do it for the kid. Take one for the team.

Joe chuckled nervously, nuzzling Tobin’s hair and using the infant as a shield. Guys, c’mon. You trying to get me killed?

I’d never kill you, Joe. Cake sliced up as neatly as it was going to get with a butcher knife, she met her husband’s gaze and dragged the blade across her deft tongue in two quick swipes, stripping it of icing. Not with witnesses.

Just make him disappear, right, Shiv? Jeff had abandoned the Elmo and playful tone, his gaze full of open accusation. Like Issa, right?

Silence consumed the room, sucked out all the air until Siobhan thought she might choke. Then someone hissed with the sting of the comment, and another dared a muttered ouch. Siobhan couldn’t find her tongue, not before Joe handed Jeff a slice of cake with a limply admonishing, That’s not funny.

Siobhan begged off the rest of the gathering in favour of crawling into bed with her phone. Wine migraine, she’d said. The party carried on without her—loud, obnoxious, occasionally destructive—the brothers practically bounced off the hallway walls in their roughhousing. The house trembled with it, sending knickknacks toppling and family photographs along the interior wall askew.

The big portrait in the centre had now gone cockeyed.

It was the three of them—Joe and Shiv, shoulder to shoulder, Issa leaning back in Shiv’s arms. Issa was only four months pregnant in that one, hardly showing at all. She’d been such a slight thing, though when the pregnancy overtook her, she’d been more like a turtle stuck on its back most of the time. By month seven, that tiny bit of pudge Siobhan clasped her hands over in the photograph had become a monstrous swell of taut, pulsating flesh.

Sometimes a tiny foot would press against Issa’s stomach, leaving an imprint of the kicking beasty inside her. Sometimes it was a hand, as if Tobin was trying to claw his way out of her. Joe found this delightful, and Issa had always caressed the throbbing prints, teasing the baby’s foot or aligning her palm to his.

Look, Shiv, Issa would say. He’s waving at you. Saying ‘Hi, mommy!’ She’d bring her hand to her belly to wave along with the trapped babe, her smile ridiculous and beautiful and everything Shiv loved about her. Don’t you wanna touch it, Shiv? Wanna say hi?

No, Shiv had said more than once. No, I fucking do not.

Issa would pout, and that would always make Shiv’s chest clench, but she’d never asked for this. She wasn’t maternal. In fact, babies tended to give her the creeps. Her only solace was knowing it wouldn’t be a little wriggly maggot forever—a few years at most, right? And more importantly, back then, it eventually had to get out of Issa’s body and give Shiv her girlfriend back.

Tossing her phone to the mattress, she pushed up from the bed and crossed the floor to set the photo straight. She ran her hand along several others as well, levelling them out until she was satisfied, only to have someone crash into the hallway again.

Issa, nuzzling a set of kittens they’d fostered last summer, popped off the wall, hit the corner of the dresser, and shattered all over the floor.

Shiv flung the door open and stepped into the hall, now in complete disarray. When she roared, "That’s enough!, Joe and his brother were wrestling so close that her voice alone was sufficient to send them both ducking for cover. Party’s over. Home now. All of you."

But Shiv… Joe shrugged off the bulk of his brother, looking to her like some chastised five-year-old sent to his room without dinner. "I live here?"

You want to keep doing so? Clean up the damn mess and shut this shit down.

Yes, sir. Joe stood straight, sighing as if he’d some right to the exasperation he exuded, and pushed his fingers through his hair to set the dishevelled mess somewhat right.

An uneven chorus of mocking yes sirs made its way through the house, though Shiv was positive it wasn’t Joe they were mocking. She returned to bed, resisting the urge to slam the door behind her.

I don’t know why you’ve got to be so mean. Joe leaned against the door frame, hands in the pockets of his cosy cotton house pants, all his overexuberance drained away along with the guests in their home. Given the hour he was waking her, Shiv was fairly certain he’d finally cleared out all the family and friends.

You know what’s mean? she rumbled into her pillow, catching a deep stretch before squinting up at him and the glare backlighting him from the hall. Filling the house with your people, people who fucking hate me, then expecting me to play happy host.

"You could at least try to be civil. They don’t hate you, Shiv. They all just know how little you like them."

Her lips vibrated with the huff of unamused air she released as she pushed up from the bed and slung the blankets off. You give them way too much credit.

"Hell, half the time I question if you like me."

Just half?

"Look, I know you miss her. I miss her too. You can’t keep being like this, though. It’s not fair to the baby, and…it’s not fair to me. He shoved off the door, crossing the floor to flop on the bed so hard it nearly launched Shiv off—would have, had she not grabbed his thigh and gripped tightly. Before she could get an inch of distance, his arms were around her, pulling her close and nuzzling kisses to her neck. Not fair to you either. Things changed. Things changed bad. Doesn’t mean we don’t deserve to be happy, eventually."

I’m not mourning, Joseph. She pressed a hand to his face and pushed until he let up, until his lips couldn’t reach her and his arms strained around her and gradually dropped away. I’m not sad. I’m angry. I’m tired. And I’m not cut out for this mother shit.

He looked positively sullen, sitting there with his hands now folded in his lap, staring off into the room’s shadows. I leave for Tampa in about an hour. Jeff is taking me to the airport. Do I need to call someone to watch the baby, or can—

I can watch our kid.

You don’t seem to be in the best place for it right now. I can call—

What, Joe? You afraid I’ll bash his little brains in? Hmm? Drown him when he gets on one of his wailing jags? Maybe toss him in the soundproof freezer and forget about him?

He looked at her again, eyes wide. "Well…I wasn’t worried."

Kid’ll be fine, man. Go to your office. Do what you do. We’re all good here.

"I’m concerned for you. You’re not yourself, Shiv."

Joe was so clueless. She had nothing more to say, and the withering look she fixed on him seemed adequate enough when he threw up his hands and left the bed.

All right. I’m out. I’ll be back in a week. Please call me if you need me. I’ll come back, cut it short. Okay?

He stood there, and it took a moment for Shiv to realise he would continue to do so until she gave him something. With a roll of her eyes and dismissive wave, she mumbled, Yeah. Sure. Go on.

And then she was alone.

Tobin was crying. Screaming until it seemed his lungs would rupture. Shiv pulled a pillow over her head and tried to wait it out. Joe couldn’t have been gone more than an hour.

Shut up, you little mutant. She groaned into her pillow, fully prepared to will herself deaf and catatonic.

Something cold nudged beneath her toes, writhing, and she flung the covers off and threw herself from the bed so quickly she nearly landed face-first on the carpet. She jammed her fingers between the toes of her left foot, feeling for the bug, tick, spider…a roach? Nothing. Maybe she’d been half-asleep and dreaming still. She turned up the light at the bedside table and ran her hand over the sheets. There was nothing there.

Until there was…

A tiny white blob wriggled where her feet had been. She’d almost missed it, but now that she noticed it, she couldn’t take her eyes off it as it flipped and flopped and inched around the clean sheets.

A maggot.

How the hell had a maggot got into bed with her? She let out a disgusted yell and shivered like a sopping dog trying to violently eject the wet from its fur. She searched the bed after that, but only found the one; one was enough to have her stripping the sheets and climbing into the shower.

Still Tobin screamed.

I’m coming, you little menace! But not until she was washed. Not until the phantom tickles of non-existent bugs creeping over her skin had been thoroughly washed away. With the shower on, she could no longer hear the child’s wailing fit. She closed her eyes and submerged herself under the fall of water, letting the heat prickle her face and saturate her hair. It was the most relaxed she’d felt all day—Joe out of the house, the brat effectively silenced. She could almost drift to sleep right where she stood. Instead, she washed her hair and scrubbed her face, then opened her mouth to let the hot water flush over her teeth and tongue.

Something thick and slimy slid down her throat, squishy but firm enough to offer resistance against her swallow, like a bloated raisin.

Her gag reflex brutally kicked back at what might have been a chunky piece of animal fat. She could feel it lodged halfway down her oesophagus and bent double, hacking and tearing up, nearly vomiting in an effort to expel whatever had shot down into her. Her mind instantly went to the worst possible places for what it could be in there, and as it twisted and wriggled the possibilities darkened. Had she washed a spider into her mouth? Swallowed a greenfly?

Deep down, she already knew.

With a choking sob, the clump flew out and smacked the shower wall, sticking there a moment before slowly tumbling down the wet wall like a sticky, drunken slug.

Another maggot, this one more than a centimetre long, fat and white and stinking of death. She tore the vinyl curtain down getting free of the shower. Her whole body shook as she tied on a towel and fled the bathroom.

Tobin’s yowl was nerve shattering, piercing in his pitch and terror. A disgusting flash of imagery—a dirty, painful thought of the baby in his crib, surrounded and being picked to pieces by a horde of insects—stuttered her steps to her bedroom, and she course-corrected to the nursery. The light was already on—left so by Joe, no doubt—and the child was standing in his crib, gripping the rail with one hand and reaching out to her with the other.

His cries had taken form, a rapid and panicked litany of Mum, mmmum, mum.

I’m here. Right here. As she reached for him, something