Free Circle of Blood by Debbie Viguié

a deep breath and try to calm down. He had valuable information, and his spirit tormentor might be of use to her in the future. There was no harming him now. She leaned across the table. “Do you have any images or impressions now?”
    He set the beer on the table. “Why, did he tell you something?”
    “Perhaps,” she said, not wanting to reveal what she knew just yet.
    He nodded slowly. “I keep seeing a figure in black in front of a grave.”
    Maybe the creature had been telling the truth about where she could find the witch she was hunting for that night.
    “Was it daylight?” she asked.
    “No, dark. Moon was shining, though.”
    She nodded. “Can you tell me who Marie Laveau is?”
    “You’re joking, right?”
    “No, why?”
    “She was known as the Voodoo Queen, very famous. Her tomb’s in St. Louis Cemetery One.”
    Desdemona sat back, contemplating that bit of information. “What can you tell me about her?” she asked at last.
    “She died over a hundred and thirty years ago, but people still make pilgrimages to her grave. They draw three
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’s on the side and ask her for things, hoping her spirit will grant them what they want.”
    “Does it?”
    “I don’t know, but I’m a guy who has his own private demonic curse. I tend to believe in just about anything. Personally, I don’t know anyone who has tried.”
    “I’m hunting a witch.”
    “Okay.”
    “He told me she’d be there at midnight tonight.”
    “Don’t listen to him. Don’t go. It could be a trap meant to kill you or capture you. It could also just be a huge waste of your time, but I wouldn’t trust a thing he said.”
    “Nothing else he said to me was a lie.”
    “That doesn’t mean anything when dealing with spirits. They have their own motivations and we cannot always fathom what they are. They don’t look at things the same way as we do. Life, death, people. It’s all just a big game to them. We’re the pawns they push around the board to amuse themselves, and they think nothing of sacrificing us on a whim.”
    “This is the best lead I’ve had. I can’t pass it up.”
    She didn’t know why she was telling him, confiding in him. Maybe it was because she already knew she wasn’t going to kill him. Maybe knowing how screwed he was made her feel a sort of connection with him. She hunched her shoulders. She didn’t need anyone. She was a witch without a coven, and she was just fine with that.
    Covens only got in the way and got themselves killed.
    She stood abruptly. “I have to go. I have a lot to prepare for.”
    “You don’t have to do this,” he said.
    “Yes—yes, I do.”
    She headed for the front door, eager to end the conversation. Once in her car, she set the GPS to head back to the house she was using. She had no idea where she even was, let alone how to get back after all the crazy turns she’d had to take.
    The trip looked as though it was going to be much shorter returning. In her head she started playing scenarios for her meeting that night in the graveyard. She would plan to get there at least an hour early so she could get the lay of the land and be prepared for anything the witch could throw at her.
    The more she thought about it, the more she was tempted to drive straight to the cemetery. There were things she wanted to get from home, though, and she needed a few minutes of quiet to center herself and reenergize after her experiences with Martin and his demon.
    That was exactly what she needed, a few hours alone to recharge and just focus on the task at hand with no outside distractions.
    She turned down a street. Her GPS was telling her she was less than ten minutes from her house.
    A sudden pulse of energy rippled around her. Before she could react, a man’s body came arcing through the air and crashed into her windshield.

6
    Desdemona slammed on her brakes as glass exploded inward, showering her. The body stayed lodged in her windshield, brown eyes wide-open, staring at her. Blood had