Chapter 1 Not Like That
NOT LIKE THAT
Cesar
I had put this task off for weeks, and now I was faced with a looming deadline. The task had seemed simple enough.
A lizard charm for a sick young girl.
That should have been easy. I had enough reptile bones to fill two cupboards. All I needed was a complete skeleton, the right invocation, a full moon, and a purple candle. But getting everything organized had felt like an impossible feat.
Okay, sure, there were a few other tiny ingredients I would need, but I was positive I had everything.
So, there I sat, pondering and tinkering. Stitching together the tiny bones late at night before I would have to hand the charm over. The skeleton couldn’t crumple or come apart the first time the recipient wore it. I had to take extra care when putting my talismans together.
Reputation in this community meant success or failure, and my career had been stellar.
I selected the bones myself; always did. I had performed this ritual hundreds of times; it was the mainstay of my income.
Of course, Dia de Muertos reanimations would bag me the foundation of my yearly pay, but these itty-bitty trinkets of good luck, fortune, healing, love, and protection were helping to put wine in the cooler and exotic plants on my terraza.
Charm, talisman, and amulet income gave me the extra cash to enjoy life.
As a man in my late fifties, the time and energy spent on big magical practices were fading. Those ceremonies were best left to younger witches. The energy cost of such elaborate rituals consumed me, leaving me exhausted for weeks afterward.
No, these amulets were far better suited for my talents. And frankly, they were easy to complete.
Usually.
This one, however, taxed my patience.
As I tacked another descending vertebra onto the tail, I realized I hadn’t paid attention to the size. The last couple I placed were too big. That meant I hadn’t completed the skeleton correctly.
I ripped them apart, then stood up and walked back to my cupboard to sort through my various containers until I had a tail laid out before me that looked right.
A lizard charm could be used for many things.
Disguise, bringing out a lot of the reptile’s ability to camouflage themselves.
Fast healing, as most lizards dropped their tail when attempting to scamper away from a predator, only to regrow one over the course of a few months.
Agility and stealth, if you’ve ever watched a gecko hunt insects at night you’d understand perfectly how nimble they are, and fast, and quiet.
And the beasts are associated with the element of fire.
Fire is destruction, purification, and cauterization. It is an element of creation and of ruin. These creatures’ bones held a wealth of power, and for someone to own a lizard broach meant that someone loved them dearly.
They were expensive to create, despite their diminutive size.
Satisfied that I had the right pieces, I scooped up the tail bones in one hand and returned to my worktable.
Glancing at the clock, it was already quarter past two in the morning. The moon overhead shone brightly, illuminating everything in a silvery glow.
That element of moonlight was critical. Bringing anything back from the dead, reanimating it, instilling a new spark of life had to be done with as much moonlight as possible.
It’s said that performing necromancy, or bone magic during a new moon – when the sky was dark – led to bad juju. Horrible things happened when moonbeams didn’t illuminate the insides of the reanimated.
That was why those brought back to life after death had a white light in their eyes all the time. It was the moon showing through.
I stood up and stretched. My back ached, and bones popped and clicked. My shoulder was out, requiring a trip to a healer in the morning.
I studied my finished work. The skeleton looked good — solid.
Now, I needed to do the magic part. I had to instill the charm with vitality.
The bones cried out for movement.
Shoving dried rose petals, hyssop, lavender, Sanjivani, mandrake, and thyme into the cavity of the skeleton, I carefully wrapped the midsection with strips of dried lizard skin.
I shoved a lock of the intended recipient’s hair into the ribcage along with the dried herbs.
This would make the amulet specific to the individual.
Then I plopped two opals into the eye sockets.
The semi-precious stones were easy to come by here in Puerto Vallarta, which meant they were reasonable in price as well.
The iridescent nature of the rocks gave the illusion of an iris—especially fitting for such a small charm.
They were also said to balance emotions and amplify personal energies.
That sounded perfect for this particular customer.
Once my creation was complete, I held it up and spoke the spell to impart the magic and bring the amulet to life.
Holding it high toward the moonglow radiating through the skylight above my workstation, I whispered, “Estar vivo una mez mas.”
Be alive once more.
Watching…waiting… The incantation was one I used frequently on the smaller beings and generally met with positive results.
The skin wraps sparked and illuminated. They fizzled together, the stench of burning flesh flooded the room as the scales adhered back to the bone structure.
Moonbeams from above concentrated around the charm as the opalescent eyes glowed with the light of the night.
The herbs stuffed inside began to smolder. A sure sign the incantation worked.
The tail twitched.
Its head bobbed.
Success!
One last item: a single drop of purple wax from the lit candle on the back of its neck. That would ensure the charm would remain loyal to the wearer and not run away.
Tilting the candle, I let a single blob of hot wax drop onto the talisman’s neck.
Then all hell broke loose.
The lizard flopped over and shimmied on its back, attempting to remove the paraffin wax. After it had succeeded in doing so, the little gecko attacked me, scurrying up the sleeve of my robe to get to my neck, where it latched onto whatever skin it could find.
“Ouch! You little—!” I yanked the lizard off my flesh and held it down on the table.
Its jaws snapped as its head whipped about, looking to escape but most likely trying to cause as much damage as possible.
It was only then that I noticed I had completely forgotten the memory anchor: a tiny crystal of amethyst I had set aside.
This was the one thing needed to tether the memories inside the bones to the new life instilled in the creature.
The stone within the beast linked the magic to the spark of life and those electrical impulses to the bones.
In the bones were the memories. That allowed the talisman to remember its power, its purpose, why it had been created, and to follow through.
I had forgotten the most important step of the ritual.
I had created an abomination. I had no choice on my next course of action.
Wrapping the reanimated lizard into my fist I squeezed, and squeezed, until I heard a “pop”.
Unfurling my fingers, the bones tumbled from my palm, and wisps of smoke rose from the destroyed charm. Shredded and dried herbs, now singed black and completely unusable, fell to my workspace.
The charred lock of hair floated down to join the rest of the ruined ingredients.
My head dropped.
“Shit.” I would now need to go back to the customer and request another personal item. “You fucking idiot,” I mumbled to myself. “Why do you keep forgetting the little steps!”
Admonishing and berating myself, I grew angrier. This wasn’t the first time I’d done this. And it was happening more often. The old brain was losing its abilities.
I was in trouble.
Just then, a knock sounded from the front door to my apartment.
I glanced at the clock. “Who the hell?”
Ensuring the lizard was completely incapacitated, I pushed myself up from the desk and went to my front door.
Glancing out through the peephole, I couldn’t see anyone, but I opened the door regardless.
An imp, red and black in colour, grinned at me, showing off a razor-sharp row of teeth. The sparse, greasy hair that adorned its head swayed from side to side as the creature rummaged through his rucksack, lifted out a letter, and handed it to me.
The front of it read:
To Puerto Vallarta’s Pre-eminent Bone Witch
Curious.
Ripping open the letter, I read in contents in abject horror.
I had missed several scheduled appointments to meet with the Hurtados; the most powerful, magically talented, and richest family on the Pacific Coast.
And they were summoning me.
For tomorrow night.
The amulet would have to wait.
This took precedence.