“You do exactly as I say or I will put you in the trunk for your own protection,” I threatened, but Lily paid me no heed. She gave a little excited skip and ran around to the front door on the passenger side.

Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my cell phone just before sliding behind the steering wheel. After my initial arrival in Savannah, I had stumbled across a local witch who provided me with some valuable information on the workings of Mira’s domain. She hadn’t been too thrilled to help me months ago and I didn’t get the feeling she believed I’d actually survive when I went head-to-head with the Fire Starter.

“LaVina, this is Danaus,” I blurted out as soon as she answered the phone. “I’m bringing you someone that needs your help.” I hung up the phone before she could reply and started the car. I just hoped that she could help. Mira wasn’t going to last much longer as she was.

The small white two-story house sat out in the middle of a field nearly a mile from the road. Oak trees surrrounded the house, shrouding it from view with their thick leafy limbs. Lily shifted in her seat, growing more uneasy the closer we drew to the house. The night was overcast, blocking any moonlight, leaving the area cloaked in thick darkness.

“Whose house is this?” Lily asked as I put the car in park.

“Her name is LaVina and she’s a witch of sorts,” I replied as I unlatched my seat belt.

“What’s that mean?” Lily demanded as she slowly released her seat belt as well.

“LaVina specializes in voodoo, but has expanded her practices to various forms of earth and blood magic. Several months ago, she helped me to locate Mira,” I explained, and then got out of the car before she could ask her next question.

Lily followed behind me as I picked up a silent Mira from the backseat and carried her up the front steps. The old wood planks of the porch creaked under our combined weight, announcing our arrival.

The front door opened, revealing an old black woman as thin as a skeleton with her gray hair drawn back into a tight bun. Her bony hand wrapped around the door handle of the screen door, holding it shut.

“You shouldn’t have hung up so quickly,” she criticized in a heavy Southern accent. “I would have told you not to bother to come.”

“Just take a look at her,” I said, ignoring her comment. I wouldn’t be turned away.

“What am I supposed to do with a sick vampire?”

“She’s been drinking from a warlock,” I said quickly, hoping to pique her curiosity. “She’s been hearing and seeing things. Ghosts from her past. Savannah needs Mira. You know that. She’s not going to last much longer as she is.”

“Bah!” she scoffed, a frown drawing down the corners of her mouth. “Who’s the young one?”

“Lily. A friend.”

LaVina stared at us for another few seconds before she finally released the door handle and shuffled into the house, leaving us to follow.

“Danaus, are you sure about this?” Lily asked in a low voice as she took a step backward.

“Everything will be fine,” I said, raising one corner of my mouth in what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile. “What’s wrong? See something?”

“No, and that’s the problem. She doesn’t have an aura,” Lily whispered.

It was strange enough to give me pause, but not enough to stop me from opening the door. Mira needed help and LaVina was my only option at this point. I could only hope that maybe the child was tired and possibly mistaken. Or maybe LaVina was powerful enough to cloak her aura from others. Either way, it really didn’t matter. I was desperate.

“Just stick close to me,” I said as I entered the house. Lily was quick to obey, as she followed close enough to bump into me when I suddenly stopped outside the living room.

With her hands on her narrow hips, LaVina stared down at Lily, clucking her tongue at the girl. “You’re a bit of a ragamuffin. Need something to eat? Let me get you something fixed up.”

“That’s okay. Gabriel’s getting some pizza. I’ll just have that when we get back to Mira’s,” Lily quickly said.

“That’s no meal for a girl your age. You need some real home cooking and you’re not going to get that with some vampire,” LaVina argued with a dismissive wave at Mira, who lay limp in my arms.

“It’s okay, LaVina. We can’t stay long. We just need you to look at Mira,” I interrupted.

“Fine. Fine. Have it your way,” the old woman said, throwing her arms up. “Follow me.”

Suppressing a sigh of relief, we followed LaVina down a narrow set of wooden stairs into her basement. The old witch waved her hand as she descended the stairs, causing dozens of candles to flicker to life. To my surprise, a low giggle escaped Mira as she raised her hand. All the candles went out again, plunging the basement back into complete darkness.

“Oh, so the corpse is awake,” LaVina said as she lit the candles again.

“Sorry, LaVina,” I said, descending the last few stairs to the dirt floor. “Mira hasn’t been thinking clearly the past few days.”

“Bite me, Danaus,” Mira said as she finally started to stir in my arms.

“Just set the bloodsucker on the floor over there,” LaVina directed, waving one hand toward the far wall as she fiddled around on a workbench covered with all sorts of strange odds and ends.

I sat Mira on the floor so that her back was against the concrete wall and she was facing the bench where LaVina was busy pulling together whatever she needed. I remained closer to Mira while Lily sat down on the stairs, refusing to come any farther into the tiny, claustrophobic basement. There were no windows and the walls were covered in all manner of symbols, none of which I could identify. The air was musty, filled with the rich scent of dirt, dried flowers, and a hint of incense. Beneath it all was also the faint odor of dried blood. Creatures had been sacrificed in this small cloistered refuge from the modern world.

LaVina hummed a nameless melody to herself as she went about lighting a bit of incense and pulling down little bottles of unknown liquids and fragments of plants. Jerking open the door of an old wooden birdcage, the old witch plunged her hand inside and quickly pulled it out again, holding a small bird in her grasp. With a speed and ease that bespoke of years of experience, she picked up a small blade from the table and chopped off the creature’s head before it could make a single chirp. I quickly looked over at Lily and was instantly relieved to find that she was looking at Mira and me rather than the witch. She didn’t need to be exposed to any more violence and death than she already had been.

I was beginning to think that bringing her here had been a serious mistake. LaVina was eccentric at best. When I had seen her the last time, she had stood naked in a ring of fire in her backyard, her body smeared with the blood of a dead dog, demanding the spirits of the dead tell her where I should go to hunt the Fire Starter. I might not be a believer in her methods, but the next night, I finally encountered Mira and our journey together began.

“Good dirt,” Mira suddenly murmured, shattering the silence that had dominated, other than LaVina’s soft humming. I looked down at the nightwalker to find her digging furrows in the dirt with the fingers of her right hand. She picked up a handful and let it fall through her parted fingers. Her head popped up and she looked at LaVina for the first time. “This isn’t Savannah dirt,” she ventured. “Peruvian?”

LaVina took a couple slow steps toward the nightwalker, her brow wrinkled with surprise and her fingers stained red. “Good guess,” she replied softly. “Some of the dirt was shipped in from the Sacred Valley in Peru. I also had some brought in from the Black Forest in Germany and from the Blue Mountains in Jamaica. Strong bits of earth for spell casting. But I’m surprised you could tell such a thing.”