Chapter 30 Jail Bird Conversations
Cassidy Parker looked like she had not taken to prison life well. The joy that sparked inside of Eloise's chest was enough to make her grin at Cassidy's dry hair that held no life and her uneven skin that held no glow.
On the forty-minute drive, Eloise asked Tilly what was wrong. She could smell yeast that had bloomed too much and sat for too long. Tilly smiled at her.
"I can't fully explain, but pieces are floating around, feelings that keep sticking to my skin like puzzle pieces." She shook her head remembering Astra's touch and what had transferred. What was left behind? "I think Astra is lying."
"About handsome vampire drinking from you?"
The reminder pinched, and Tilly silently cursed it.
Because when Astra told her, she knew without poking at the words that they were true.
And then she shoved it into a dark space because heartbreak was not an obstacle she could face right now.
"No, I think," she paused, swallowing, "I don't know about that.
No, I think she's lying about why she's here. "
Eloise took her eyes from the road for two seconds to look at her friend staring ahead. She could smell pain and confusion, the working out of a problem. Then she turned back to the road and nodded. "Okay. Let's figure out what she's lying about and why she's here."
Once Cassidy joined them in the beige cinderblock room, there was an air of intrigue.
"Bring more peaches?" Cassidy asked as she took a seat across from Eloise and Tilly. Her beige jumpsuit did nothing to inspire the look of health, washing the woman out.
"No, but may I interest you in an hour of banter as I slowly heal watching you rot here?" Eloise asked with a bright smile.
Cassidy's face remained unmoved. Finally, she sighed. "What do you two little witches need?"
"Well," Tilly started and then looked to Eloise for help.
"Look," she assisted, leaning her forearms on the metal table between them, "your villainous effort to get The Lost Souls House back and lock me up was impressive."
Cassidy's blonde brows moved the slightest in a frown.
"And now we find ourselves in another predicament."
"Wow, you kittens really are catnip for trouble," she replied with her first smirk.
"Thank you."
"Not really a compliment," she said dully.
Eloise waved a nonchalant hand. "In the eye of the receiver."
"Anyways," Tilly interjected. "There are three witches in Salem with an agenda and trying to get us run out of town."
"Okay," she responded, her tone asking what that had to do with her.
Tilly and Eloise looked at each other silently communicating before Tilly said, "You came after us."
"And almost succeeded," Eloise added.
Cassidy smiled. "Thank you."
"Not a compliment."
She leaned forward. "In the eye of the receiver," she repeated Eloise's words, her eyes staring hard at her.
Eloise smiled.
"Not that we can force you to feel anything other than spite and dark feelings like wanting to drown puppies," Eloise said, making Cassidy's smile twitch, "but after stalking, framing and almost ruining our lives, we could use some help."
With a great sigh, the woman leaned back.
She looked small, but not breakable. Worn, but not worn out.
"Since I'm bored, no one in here is very smart and for some reason you all interest me," she was running the pad of her thumb over her short nails as she looked at them and spoke, "Fine. What do you need?"
"Three members of The Covenant are in Salem-"
Cassidy sat forward, her face paler than seconds ago as her eyes took on a serious and wide glint. "You got the attention of The Covenant? Shit. What the fuck did you do? Summon a demon from hell?"
Tilly frowned. "Can we do that?"
She shrugged. "Anything is possible with magic. But those witches are no joke. You know they track major magic and any dark magic used, right? They have like this weird connection to the earth that like...tells on witches. And those witches are serious bitches."
"Common ground of agreement," Eloise praised.
"Okay, so how did you avoid them? You weren't exactly Glinda the good witch."
With a roll of her eyes, she settled back against her seat. "Great dress, though."
"Very true," Tilly agreed with Cassidy.
"See? Look at us getting along," Eloise nodded with a cajoling smile. "Come on."
Cassidy gave them a blank stare, the silence stretching out as she made them wait. Finally, with another sigh, she placed her hands on the table.
"There are ways to block them. Just like breaking the law, if you're smart enough you can do it without a trace to yourself."
"Can you teach us?" Tilly asked.
Eloise's head swiveled to look at her in shock and Cassidy watched with amusement as the friends communicated silently with wide eyes.
"Hey," Cassidy leaned forward again with curiosity, "aren't you the one that they said was boring and had no weird baggage?"
Tilly frowned.
"We did not say she was boring," Eloise replied. She gave Tilly a conciliatory smile. "We were trying to buy time and talk about all of our weird backgrounds and couldn't think of anything for you," she explained.
"You don't seem boring. I mean, you have half-green hair, so there's trauma there somewhere."
"Well, I am not boring. And I wouldn't call it trauma."
Cassidy gave her a disbelieving raise of her eyebrows. "Never did I know a woman who dyed her hair without a relationally broken catalyst."
Tilly did not respond.
"Trauma dump or I end this conversation," Cassidy bartered.
"God, you're twisted," Eloise mumbled.
"It's fine," Tilly said. She looked at Cassidy's cocked head, waiting. "I hid a previous marriage from these guys that I don't like to talk about. I mean, he cheated, would rough me up a bit, I'd hide in the coat closet. He threatened to kill me if I left him."
Cassidy's light eyebrows rose as she spoke.
"And I'm pretty sure my older sister is a narcissist. My mom wouldn't let me feel anything, or show that I was feeling anything, ever.
And I wasn't aware of what a good relationship was until I moved here.
And I struggle with insane anxiety-like my nervous system does not know the difference between being chased by a bear and figuring out how to interrupt a conversation when I need to use the restroom. "
Eloise's eyes widened. "You get anxiety when you need to pee?"
"Well, only in social situations or like, when at work and I'm in a meeting or the middle of a radio session. Or like, when a guest at The Blueberry House is talking to me."
As she rambled the other two women listened with rapt attention; Eloise with a look of empathy and Cassidy with shock.
"Okay, I get it. You're fucked up," Cassidy finally said with a smile.
"Well, I wouldn't say-" Tilly started but Cassidy cut her off with a wave of her hand.
"No no. That's just a fact." She narrowed her eyes. "Why would you want to partake in dark magic? You strike me as," she looked them both up and down before finishing with, "prim and proper and lives by the rules."
"Yeah, why are we trying to partake in dark magic?" Eloise asked Tilly in a lowered voice.
"We can't fight them with what we've got."
"We-" Eloise started but Tilly cut her off, her voice strong and frustrated.
"Ursula can grow plants, you have a weird smell thing, Crystal's magic was bound, and our hexes are protective but no match for the FBI of witches!"
The silence that billowed after Tilly's passionate words, her fear permeating the room in a scent of perspiration mixed with gasoline made Eloise pause, and Cassidy watched them both with a kind of intensity as she tried to work something out.
"Magazines and a monthly visit from someone in your little coven."
Eloise and Tilly turned to look at Cassidy.
"What?" Eloise asked.
"That's my price. You send me magazines and one of your people visits me monthly and I will help you with dark magic."
"You want us to send you Teen Vogue and come hang out with you like we're friends? That's your price?" Eloise asked in disbelief.
"Look, I understand we'll never braid each other's hair and make friendship bracelets," she replied.
"But you're interesting and weird and a little sad but in like a fun way.
These women in here are idiots who got caught stealing or are on their fourth DUI.
No creativity. No brains. You guys," she gestured between the two women staring at her in confusion, "knocked me on my ass.
" She laughed shaking her head. "Honestly.
As pissed off as I am that I'm sitting here, at least you were a worthy opponent.
I mean," she leaned forward with a conspiratorial grin, "that fucking peach tree stuffing my mouth with a peach like I was a trussed-up pig for roasting?
Brilliant. Also, great peaches. Oh, bring me peaches too.
And I am more of a Homes and Garden girl, not Teen Vogue. "
They stared at her open-mouthed for a moment.
"And then you'll teach us dark magic?" Tilly hedged.
"Sure. But I mean, if you have goody two-shoes coven in Salem it may be difficult to get away with it. You get caught messing up with their magic system and they're likely to bind yours. Or worse."
Tilly and Eloise leaned forward, lowering their voices as one of them asked, "Death?"
Cassidy shrugged.
"What do you mean," Eloise shrugged, dramatically mimicking her. Then doing it again. "You can't say, or worse, but not know what the worse is."
"I mean, I'm just saying that binding your magic isn't the end of the world. Look at the cougar in your group."
"We don't," Tilly paused and looked at Eloise in confusion, "have any cougars. We have cats, a huge dog-"
"That is not a dog," Cassidy cut her off shaking her head with pursed lips.
"A few raccoons," she continued. "One of which you tried to kill."
"Oh, she made it? Nice," Cassidy nodded.
"Yeah, so did Bess. You know, the young girl you murdered, who was brought back by a vampire," Eloise's stare was solid and unflinching. Tilly could feel the sharp steel of it.