Catastrophe by Liz Schulte Page A

into the railing.
    “It was my grandfather’s,” he said. “No one will find us here unless they have a boat, and then we’ll hear them coming. Even cell phones don’t work out here.”
    I nodded. That was probably true, that the location would keep away fae or probably a dozen other creatures, but I guessed they would have to know we were here to begin with. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you again after last night.” I pried my fingers from the railing and went into the house. The inside was cleaner than I would have guessed. “You come here a lot?”
    He shrugged. “When I need to think.” He dropped down into one of the four wooden chairs surrounding the table made from an old door. “Let’s start with what you are.”
    I sat down next to him. “I’m a Sekhmet.” He gave me the anticipated blank look. “I am a descendant of an ancient Egyptian goddess of fire, war, healing, and vengeance.”
    He leaned his elbows against the table and put his head in his hands. “You’re a delusion.”
    I pinched him hard enough to make him jump. “Can a delusion do that?” He didn’t laugh. Couldn’t win them all. “You can see me without my necklace on. Your eyes are open to the Abyss. New Orleans is bursting with my kind—well, not like me, but paranormals. You had to have seen more horrible creatures than just me.”
    He shook his head. “I didn’t say you were horrible. Just surprising. And I haven’t seen anything, except the loup-garou. That’s all.”
    It was my turn to be dubious. “Not even a vampire?”
    He licked his lips. “I know there are people who think they are vampires—”
    “Not those,” I said. Humans, as weird as they were, for some inexplicable reason, were absolutely fascinated with vampires. They wrote books about them, made movies and TV shows, dressed like them, and utterly romanticized them, even though most vampires saw them as little more than fast food. “Those are the groupies. I’m talking about the real ones. They probably stay in tight-knit groups. They are alluring and charming, yet creepy. Sometimes they stand really still. The best way to spot one is to watch them move.”
    “How is that different?”
    “Two ways. First, they are dead, so movement is unnatural. If they aren’t trying to blend, or forget to blend, they are still as a corpse. Second, when they do move, they have to be careful not to move too fast. They’re generally strong and quick, so that isn’t always easy. What that leaves you with are jerky, calculated movements. Trust me, once you know what to look for, you will spot them everywhere.”
    He nodded. “What else?”
    I gave him a helpless gesture. “If you have a story about it, chances are it’s real. We really don’t have time for me to tell you about an entire world.”
    “Where is this world?” he asked. “How do you get here?”
    “It is overlapping with your world. At least pieces of it are. For the most part, humans can’t see us, but we can see them.”
    “And the curse, that’s from you guys?” he asked.
    I shook my head. “I seriously doubt it. I would guess it’s a human curse. Most races in the Abyss control their magic usage. Witches, on the other hand, are very human and very free to do as they please.”
    His mouth dropped open. “A witch.”
    “Could be a hoodoo priestess. These are the things we need to figure out, but they aren’t a priority yet. We also need to know the origin of the original curse. And we need to know the exact terms of the curse, but still more important than any of that is to stop whoever is doing these killings. Now, I looked at your cases, and three of them look like they might belong to the person I came here to find.”
    “The three that we only found pieces of,” he said.
    “Exactly. Were you able to match the bite marks?”
    He nodded. “The lab’s findings were inconclusive. As for the loup-garou, I have researched as much as I could. Most everything is made up, or stories to