The Vegan and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (red white and royal blue hardcover txt) 📕

Shrugging, Silvia said with a sigh, “He’s from my hometown, Middleton Village. My dad works for him.”

Nothing would have shocked Audry more. Silvia actually knew Rick Deacon. But that explained their interaction earlier—all of it. He had kept safe distance from Silvia for a good reason. He knew her very well.

“What?” Harlin fumed over this news. He looked as if he was realizing that Rick was stealing away every girl he had ever ‘loved’.

Silvia nodded frankly. “Yeah. We went to elementary school together. I was a grade under him. My half-brother Daniel is one of his good friends.”

Audry remembered Daniel briefly from his visit. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Brown hair. Healthy physique. Glasses. He had an old gaze, though. Like he had lived a lifetime and had seen it all. He was the red crystal guy. He also at the time had carried a sword as if he were on the way to a renaissance festival. When she had seen it, he noticed and joked that he had a license to carry.

“That’s it!” Harlin shouted out. “That no good meddler! He’s gonna pay!” Before either of them could say anything, he ran off, charging from the area to possibly a parking lot where he had a vehicle.

“Do you think he’ll find him?” Audry murmured, wondering if she ought to call the police for Rick’s sake.

Silvia shook her head, shrugging. “I don’t care. Howie can take care of himself.”

Audry leaned away from her. “Howie.”

Chucking, her face coloring a little (especially on her cheeks), Silvia nodded. “Yeah…”

“You didn’t want me to know you knew him?” Audry asked, not ready to go back to the booth now. She had been craving truth. The internet was full nonsensey scandals and whispers about werewolves. It was like the online world was conspiring against the family. But Silvia actually knew the man. As she had said, she had grown up with him.

Shrugging again, Silvia replied, “Um… no, actually. I kind of wanted to separate myself from my hometown for a while. And uh, as much as the Deacons are actually one of the best things about the town—and don’t you let Howie know I said that—but the town itself is pretty much cursed.”

For a second, Audry was not sure she heard Silvia right. “Cursed.”

Silvia nodded, a mocking smile on her lips. “I know you don’t believe in that sort of thing. I mean, you’re a scientist basically.”

Audry nodded. That was the exact reason why she didn’t believe in nonsense like curses. Curses, voodoo, and witchcraft… all ridiculous.

“But where I come from curses are real,” Silvia said, her voice cutting though Audry’s skepticism like a silly piece of gossip.

Audry’s stare went dry. She was going to hear about Wicca. She just knew it. Silvia was going to preach to her—though she never really knew a pagan that preached before. Audry had distant cousins who were in to that sort of thing. They usually talked about going back to nature, but they didn’t care either way what other people believed.

“Middleton Village is an old, old colonial town. Pre-revolution,” Silvia said. “It is not even on the map.”

Audry thought on that, wondering what he was leading up to. Wasn’t there a Middleton in Massachusetts? She had seen that on a map. She had always assumed that was where Rick was from.

Silvia seemed to read her mind as she said, “Middleton Village is not Middleton, Massachusetts. Middleton Village is in the Berkshires. Far West near the New York/Massachusetts border in the forest.”

“In the forest?” Audry stared more.

Laughing, Silvia shook her head. “Ok. Not quite like Knight Shyamalan’s The Village. It is modern and everything, it’s just that…” Silvia peeked over her shoulder as if someone might be watching her and she lowered her voice, “There are people in my town who actually believe in and practice witchcraft.”

Audry just stared wanly.

“And I don’t mean Wicca either,” Silvia added.

Moaning, Audry felt really uncomfortable. This was getting ridiculous. “What? You mean black hats, brooms, wands, and caldrons and things?”

Chuckling, Silvia said with mockery of her own, “No. This isn’t Harry Potter.”

“Then what do you mean?” Audry said with a skeptical groan. “Because I don’t believe in that kind of stuff. Magic and voodoo nonsense. It’s all superstition.”

The look in Silvia’s eye said volumes. The first thoughts were heavy with pity and envy. But the rest judged Audry as naive.

“I don’t usually talk about this with people who don’t understand,” Silvia said, oddly like a patient mother. “But you have one foot in now and you need to be aware.”

“One foot in?” Audry’s eyes rested more heavily on her. “Excuse me?”

“Because you know Howie Deacon, and he seems to like you,” Silvia explained with hardly any shyness about it.

Audry colored. That was the second time someone had said that, though she and Rick still only ever argued. Him. Like her? Ridiculous.

Reading her expression, Silvia added, “Not like a girlfriend. But as a person. He respects you.”

Even more ridiculous.

“That was respect?” Audry pointed back to the booth, her mind going over the argument again.

Silvia nodded, smiling. “Oh yeah. If he disliked you, he would have slaughtered you. Howie actually can have a biting tongue, and he’s really smart. But he let you say your piece.”

Rolling her eyes, Audry decided that was enough of the conversation that she wanted. She started to lean back toward the booth, wishing to go back.

“Don’t go yet,” Silvia said, gently touching her arm. “I know you don’t and won’t believe it. But you need to hear what you can understand.”

Can understand? Audry did not like the condescension in Silvia’s word choice. It wasn’t a matter of understanding. It was a matter of sense. Curses were hokum. Superstitious nonsense.

“My mother is a witch,” Silvia bluntly explained.

Audry paled. This was different. She was hoping Silvia was being metaphorical.

“She pretends to be Wiccan, but she’s not,” Silvia continued. Audry gave her room to explain herself, hoping she would make a less crazy statement—so Silvia continued with a grateful nod. “You see… The Ladies Aid Society in our town is a coven of witches. So is the Men’s Club—another coven. They pretty much run the town. If you ask Howie, he will tell you this. But I bet he keeps it a secret because most people are like you and don’t understand this is real.”

This was too much.

“But magic…” Exasperation swelled within Audry.

Silvia lifted her hands in caution. “Forget the word ‘magic’. I am talking witchcraft. This is the craft of witches. A secret, exclusive society that manipulates things behind the scenes from social action to politics.”

It still sounded insane.

“Secret…” Audry shook her head, wishing to leave. “You mean like the ‘Illuminati’?” Audry said with air quotes, peeking towards the booth again. Getting there fast to safety was a good idea.

Laughing with such mockery, Silvia shook her head. “Much older than them. And some of them are some of us.”

“Us?” Audry stared at her more. A creepy crawly sensation went over her skin. This was not something she wanted to get involved in.

Silvia nodded. “I told you, my mother was a witch. I was raised to be a witch. So were my brothers.”

“You mean that guy—?” Audry immediately thought of Daniel who seemed pretty cool, actually.

“Danny?” Silvia laughed, shaking her head. “No. Um. You know Danny is my half-brother, right?”

Audry nodded. She knew it.

Drawing in a mildly impatient breath, Silvia explained. “Ok. My mom married his dad just after his mother died in childbirth. I suspect my mom actually, uh, well… killed her.”

Audry felt sick. Silvia was nodding so matter-of-factly, almost flippantly as she talked about it, but it was murder she was talking about. Silvia was creepy, but this was just terrible, even it was just a fantasy.

“I don’t have proof or anything. But I am sure the coven arranged it so my dad would be available, because in grief counseling they had convinced him he was not up to raising the baby but it was best to get the baby a mother. So he married my mom, whom he knew growing up. Mom got pregnant with me right away. Danny and I are only ten months apart,” Silvia said. She then chuckled. “The thing is, my dad works for Mr. Deacon in a high position in the company. He’s a trusted employee—though not quite in the know of all Mr. Deacon’s secrets.”

“Does Mr. Deacon have a lot of secrets?” Audry whispered. That’s what she really wanted to know. Not all that other stuff. The Deacon family seemed enshrouded in secrecy and she just wanted to know the truth.

Silvia nodded. “He is famous for keeping secrets. But anyway, back to the story. My mom married my dad hoping to manipulate him for power and influence in Deacon Enterprises, but it didn’t work. Dad kept work and home life separate. So eventually my mom divorced my dad—but not after having two more boys—my younger brothers.” She then laughed. “Dad dutifully paid alimony until Mom remarried my step-dad. And my dad married Helena and had two more girls—the loves of his life.” Audry could detect bitterness in Silvia’s voice as she said this about her stepmother and half-sisters. “Danny was his favorite child until they were born. Now we are all set aside while he worships his two little princesses and his queen.

“The point is,” Silvia said, “If you are initiated into the coven, you can never leave.” Heavy regret was in her voice. So was a bit of fear.

Staring at her, out of all of this Audry comprehended one thing. Silvia was born into a dangerous family and she was scared. She had said she wanted to separate herself from that town….

“You want to leave?” Audry whispered.

Silvia shook her head, but painfully as genuine feeling slipped out of her eyes. “I can’t. Not if I want to live. I am in too deep.”

“You mean they would kill you if you left?” Whispering more, Audry could see now why Silvia carried so much darkness. She felt rooted to the spot, a bit like a person in a dream trying to run from a nightmare.

Nodding, Silvia replied, “It happened before. You know the CEO of Tristain Enterprises?”

Audry shook her head.

“Mr. Nicholas Toms,” Silvia hinted, waiting for her to catch on.

“I… I don’t keep up on financial news,” Audry said, coloring a little.

Shrugging, Silvia continued. “Ok. Anyway, he married a woman from our town. She was ordered to marry rich, and she ensnared this CEO of a huge company which rivals Deacon Enterprises easily. The problem was, she actually fell in love with him. And when they married and she got pregnant, she decided she wanted to leave the coven. But of course the heads of the coven would not allow that. So they killed her.”

“No way.” Audry drew in breath. It was most likely gossip, but what if it were true. “The wife of a big CEO was murdered? Wouldn’t that be in the news? I would have heard about that.”

Silvia nodded. “Well, I’m sure you did. Just not as a murder. She ‘drowned’ in the Pacific Ocean a few years after her son was born. It was reported as a surfing accident. Her son is Michael Toms, ever hear of him?”

Audry had. Michael Edmund Toms, heir to a corporate big wig had been reported missing for a summer. Kidnapped, some had assumed. Then later it was found that a cult living in some backward woods in Massachusetts had taken him from his Grandmother’s town where he had been visiting. He had escaped with a few others, returning with a degree of PTSD and a change in personality along with several oddly shaped scars that looked like war wounds from a medieval battlefield. Though he was an overachiever, he had been in therapy and was rumored to have gotten involved in occult activities. The story had made her skin crawl. She had no idea it was connected to