The screams became louder as they came out of trees into a clearing.
“Who is that?” Maura asked.
“Sorry, ma’am?” The man turned, holding up the lantern to look more thoroughly at them. He frowned, eyeing first Maura and then Curtis. His gaze moved over their clothing. “I’ll have Ida take you to one of the neighbors. It’s a long ride, but you shouldn’t be out here, ma’am. This is no place for a lady.”
“I’ll be fine here,” Maura assured him.
The old man stared at Curtis as if imploring him to help convince her. Having been raised in the South on stories of the past, Curtis knew all of the fears this man felt and why. “She’ll be fine.”
“Are you one of…” The old man glanced between the two visitors and thought better of asking his question. “Are you hungry? Ida will heat some supper.”
“That’s awfully kind of you, sir.” Curtis held out his hand. “I’m Curtis. This is Maura.”
“Folks call me Old Joe,” the man answered, not taking Curtis’s offered hand but instead giving a small wave, “on account there are sixteen Joes here, and I’m the oldest.”
The screaming continued. Warning bells went off in his head. Curtis shared a look with Maura.
She leaned close and whispered, “Vampires are near.”
Curtis nodded. He’d felt them too.
“Ida!” Old Joe yelled.
“She went to help Miss Hazel birth her baby.” The boy who’d taken the horse reappeared from around the side of a nearby cabin.
“Get inside. Lock in before they take you from your bed,” Old Joe ordered. The boy was slow to obey as he stared at Maura, but he eventually went into the home.
“Miss Hazel?” Curtis prompted. “Is that—?” He lifted his hand as another scream pierced the night.
Old Joe nodded. “Poor girl. This is the most anyone has heard her voice since it happened.”
Maura touched Curtis’s arm. He nodded at her meaningful look.
“We need you to take us to Hazel,” Curtis said.
Old Joe shook his head in denial. “This is no place for wanderin’. You’re best off inside. We don’t have much, but your welcome to share it.”
“I was sent to help. I’m a midwife.” Maura lifted her hand toward Joe and took slow steps toward him. Tiny lights appeared around her fingers as she touched the man’s arm. “Ya want to take us there.”
Old Joe slowly nodded. “Sure thing. This way.”
Chapter Five
“There.” Old Joe pointed at a cabin set aside from the others before quickly retreating.
“Thank—” Maura barely got the word out before he was too far away to hear it, and she wasn’t about to start yelling in the middle of the night with vampires in the area. Sure, they could already probably detect her, but there was no point in drawing attention.
Curtis stayed close to her side. She felt his nervous energy as if it were her own and couldn’t blame him for it. They were about to walk in on the birth of his grandmother.
“You’re a midwife?” Curtis asked. “Much call for that in the motel business?”
Maura shook her head. “No. That was a bald-faced lie. I have been present for two births. Both times I assisted my ma, and neither had been by lanternlight with the threat of vampiric danger lingering in the background.”
Curtis turned in little circles as they walked, keeping an eye on their surroundings. “Please tell me we’re here to help all of these people.”
Maura didn’t have an answer. Tonight was a night of feeling things she hadn’t in a very long time. Right now, that was nervousness. This situation wasn’t like any she’d ever experienced before. She wished she had her family with her to back her up if things went sideways. “I’d offer for ya to stay outside while I do this, but I don’t think we should separate.”
“You know what this means, right,” Curtis said. “We’re officially in the past. This isn’t a game.”
More screams came from the cabin.
“That is another problem for another hour.” Maura strode toward the screams of the woman in labor. “Luckily, my family exists in this time. In fact, I exist in this time, and I don’t remember having met myself. So, we probably didn’t do that, or maybe we do. This is why time travel isn’t pursued. It messes with the timelines. Alternate realities and all those headache-inducing theories.”
The screams became softer.
“As you said, that’s a problem for another hour.” Curtis rushed ahead of her toward the cabin.
The sun-weathered structure had wood rot along the edges. A dirty cloth hung out of the corner, shoved from inside to plug a hole. She couldn’t see any windows to peek inside. Light came along the bottom edge of the door. A small porch was made out of misshapen boards resting on the ground. They creaked as they stepped onto them.
“Hush her up!” someone whispered frantically from inside. “I hear something.”
Curtis knocked lightly before pushing his way inside. “We’ve come to help.”
“Go on now,” a woman scolded. “We don’t need no help. Men have done enough.”
Maura stepped past him into the one-room home. Three women kneeled on the floor around Hazel. They’d made a bed out of old blankets. One stroked Hazel’s head while holding a bowl of liquid. The two others, one in pale green and the other in brown, held down Hazel’s legs.
“We’ve come to help Hazel,” Maura stated. The humidity made it hard to breathe. She stared at the scene, not knowing what to do. She felt her magick calling forth power from the surrounding landscape, urging her to freeze everyone to make the moment stop. The panic wasn’t helpful.
“There’s nothing you can do, ma’am,” the woman by Hazel’s head answered. “Please don’t trouble yourself.”
“Not after what was done,” the woman in a faded green dress added under her breath.
“Margaret,” the woman next to her admonished.
“Ida,” Margaret mimicked Ida’s tone.
“Less talk,” the woman holding Hazel’s head ordered.
“Curtis, fan the door, see if we can’t get some air in here,” Maura directed.
Ida stood and rushed past Curtis to stop him. She jerked the door from his hands and slammed it shut. “Best not let the night spirits in.”
Hazel screamed, her whole body tensing.
“Shh.” The woman placed her hand over Hazel’s mouth, but it did little to stop the sound. “Sun’ll be up soon enough, and then you can make all the noise you want.”
Maura took a deep breath. These women clearly knew more about what to do than she did. As a warlock, human medicine wasn’t exactly her forte. If anything serious happened to a warlock, there was usually a magickal solution on hand.
“Ya know about what happened to her, by who?” Maura asked.
The women glanced at each other, but only Ida nodded.
“Then ya know about things that are…” Maura wasn’t sure how to explain it. She lifted her hand and rubbed the tips to make them glow like she had to read the letters. It was a simple trick, but it got her point across. The women gasped. “I’m here to help.”