📎A/N. Hello my lovelies. I hope your weekend went well and you are gearing up for another week.

I am so excited to be part of @KellyAnneBlount 's Wattpad Block Party. Check out the fantastic line up at www.wattpad.com/266425137-wattpad-block-party-summer-edition-ii-line-up

I will be posting more about it shortly as I'm going to need your help in deciding what to do for the party!

In the meantime, I'll leave you with the next chapter of Witch Doctor. Enjoy and don't forget to vote!

Take care

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At first, Keira's mind ignored the insistent, but irregular high pitched beeps. After finally falling asleep, it refused to let her out of her slumber without a fight. Struggling with the cobwebs that made it difficult for her to come too, Keira reached from under the covers and blindly grasped for her phone on the bedside table.

The phone disappeared just as quickly.

A moment later Keira shot up in bed fully awake. "Oh, Mother Earth no!"

She reread the message from her sister and cringed. -->Where are you? With sexy Sheriff Vamp and cute TA- what is he by the way? – can't work it out. Will be in the coffee shop next door.

Dayna was downstairs with Ryker and Marcus. Who knew what she had been telling them. Keira scrambled out of bed and promptly fell on the floor. During her unsettled sleep, she had managed to become one with the sheets.

Once she had disentangled herself, she flew to the shower, and, in record time was dressed and out the door, bypassing the lift and racing down the stairs to try and minimise the damage that only her sister was capable of.

As she burst through from the stairwell into the main lobby, she bumped into some very surprised hotel patrons in the process. After apologising profusely and picking up their bags, she raced the rest of the way to the main doors that would lead to the street. Just as she reached the exit, she stopped short and checked herself.

It wouldn't do to let them think she was concerned, and she didn't want to give Ryker any more reservations than he already had.

Keira raised her head, reached for the door and made her way out into the early morning sun. She didn't need to look too far. Dayna, Ryker, and Marcus were seated at a table under the awning of a small coffee shop.

As expected her sister stood out a mile in her white summer dress with bright lime green flowers.

"Dayna, why didn't you come and get me on your way down?" she asked after dispensing with the usual pleasantries.

"I did try and text you," Dayna said with a huge smile, "but the sun was calling, and I couldn't wait any longer."

"And, how lucky, you bumped into Marcus and the Sheriff," said Keira, trying to work out how long they had been sitting there.

Dayna unaware of Keira's distress nodded in agreement. "Ryker's been an absolute honey and let me in on all the local haunts to visit while I'm here." She winked. "You know, the ones that the tourists don't know about."

Keira raised both eyebrows and glanced at Ryker. "He has, has he?"

At least he hasn't escorted her out of town. Yet.

"Just doing my civic duty," he said. Although she couldn't see it, Keira was sure he was laughing at her.

"Perhaps you should just stick to the tourist spots," Keira suggested.

"Oh hush," Dayna said waving her hand dismissively. "I'm in no danger here, especially if the local law is around."

Ryker grinned as he pulled out the seat next to him and indicated for Keira to sit. "That may be the case, but I'm not so sure of my welfare where you are concerned. Something tells me you are more than a handful," he said to Dayna.

Dayna giggled. "Oh darling, you don't know the half of it," Dayna replied as she reached for her cup and winked at Ryker.

Dayna's light and carefree tone brought a smile to Keira's lips. She had missed her sister. While they had been in constant contact over the years, it had been nearly five decades since they had set eyes on each other.

Before Keira could determine what her sister might or might not have said to Ryker and Marcus, they were interrupted by a waiter who came to take her order. After requesting Green tea, she turned to Ryker and said, "Sheriff I wasn't expecting you this morning."

He shrugged. His ever-present shades in the daylight hid whatever thoughts were going on in his mind. "I managed to get a room for Marcus at a hotel on the next block. We'd just got him situated when we noticed Dayna out here alone. And, as you should never let a lady drink alone, we came across and joined her for breakfast."

"The Sheriff was just asking me what brought me here to Salem," Dayna said before popping a slice of melon into her mouth.

Keira tensed and turned her head to face Ryker, who was casually leaning back in his chair as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Oh? I didn't realise that all tourists were interrogated before being allowed to stay."

"They generally aren't," Ryker replied. While his tone was friendly, Keira could still feel the distrust.

"I think the smexy vamp is wondering why I turned up unannounced shortly after you," Dayna said.

Keira's gaze snapped to Dayna, then back to Ryker. "You don't think Dayna has something to do with this mess?"

"I didn't say that."

She narrowed her eyes and glared at him. "You think we both are involved?" Keira took a deep breath. "You seem to forget, you asked for my help. Not the other way round."

Ryker held up his hands. "Woah, I didn't say that either. I told you yesterday, I protect my own. I just need to know just how much trouble you two are going to bring me."

A snigger from Marcus caught her attention, and she looked across at her teaching assistant. "What?" he asked with feigned innocence.

"You know there are hundreds of others waiting in the wings for your job?" Keira said as she crossed her arms across her chest.

Marcus snapped his mouth shut and sunk back into his chair.

Ryker leaned forward and placed his arms on the small table. "Look, I didn't come to argue with you. I actually need your help."

"Oh," Keira said, immediately feeling rash at her previous outburst.

"Perhaps we could discuss this elsewhere?" Ryker said as he pushed his chair back ready to stand.

Keira looked over the table at her sister and Marcus. There was no doubt they would need their help. The question was, how was she going to convince Ryker?

"Whatever you want to say to me can be said here. I trust both of them with my life, and we are going to need their help if we're to track down who's behind these deaths."

Ryker, who was already standing, looked between Dayna and Marcus. Keira held her breath waiting for his next move. She became anxious when his hidden gaze focused on her. As the moments ticked by, she was convinced that he wasn't going to agree to her terms as his unwavering stare continued.

Keira breathed out in relief when he sat back down. That had to be a good sign. Didn't it?

"We found out how they got to Rose," Ryker said quietly.

Keira glanced towards Marcus and Dayna. "Last night's victim," she said.

"We couldn't get hold of the officer assigned to stake out her property, so I sent a unit to investigate."

Keira gulped. She knew where this was headed. "Was he in the same condition as the others?" she asked.

Ryker shook his head. "No. It was a single knife straight through the heart. I don't think he knew it was coming."

"But surely he would have heard someone approaching?" Marcus asked.

"I didn't have enough Supernaturals to cover the coven as well as the two crime scenes and the cities hotspots," replied Ryker. "We're stretched a bit thin at the moment."

Keira leaned forward. "What about the officers guarding the others?"

"Vampires," Ryker answered. "Just to be on the safe side, I've doubled the teams and kept the contingent at Mystery Hill to monitor the place once the tourists have left for the day."

"What about the Worshiping Oak?" Keira asked.

"I've had to take a gamble and have left only a team of Naturals on guard for tonight."

From his tone, he wasn't keen on the risk to his men. "My biggest concern," Ryker continued, "is to round up the rest of the coven and get them to understand the danger they are in."

"Oh I think they are already aware of that," Dayna remarked.

Ryker ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Not from where I'm sitting they're not." He turned to Keira, "I need to you to help me talk to them. If you're right, and there are more that we don't know about, we can't assume that whoever is after them is not already in possession of this information."

"I'll help in any way I can," Keira said, thankful that he was allowing her to remain in the investigation.

Ryker reached into his pocket and threw some notes on the table. "I need to swing by my office first. How about I pick you up in an hour."

After nodding to Marcus and Dayna he left them and headed down the street.

Dayna watched as he made his way to his squad car. "I could stare at that tight butt all day," she sighed.

Both Keira and Marcus made groaning noises at the same time.

"Dayna!" Keira protested.

Dayna turned back to them and shrugged her shoulders. "What? I call it as I see it." She then turned to Marcus and raised an eyebrow. "I must admit, yours looks a bit better in jeans than it did in those silly flannel pants you had on last night."

Marcus, unable to speak at the sudden focus on to him, began to open and close his mouth in a fish-like motion. Something he did when embarrassment took over—which was quite often.

"Leave him alone," Keira said, shifting the focus away from Marcus to give him the space to collect himself. "We've got more important things to think about other than your libido."

Dayna scrunched her nose at Keira. "You always take the fun out of everything." She then sighed dramatically. "Fine, have it your way. You'd better bring me up to speed."

Keira's eyes darted around the cafe, they were in too exposed an area; anyone could hear their conversation if they so chose. "Not here, let's go back to my room and I'll bring you up to date."

It didn't take too long for Keira to brief Dayna and Marcus. For once, Dayna remained quiet. Whether it was because she was too shocked to speak or she couldn't find the words, Keira wasn't too sure.

The room remained silent once she had finished speaking. Marcus rubbed his jaw, deep in thought, while Dayna stared out the window onto the street below.

"But I always assumed that stories of the Leviathan were just that, stories," Marcus said, breaking out of his trancelike state.

Dayna let out a self-deprecating laugh. "So did we. What I'd give to go back to being ignorant."

"As much as I agree with you," Keira said before sinking onto the edge of her bed, "we know better, and the choice has now been taken from us. We've got to make sure we find who's behind this before anyone else dies."

Dayna turned back from the window, her eyes were filled with concern. "But if they already have depleted our power, and they have the sacrificial blood, I don't see how. We felt the drain when they made their first sacrifice, you know that yourself."

Keira closed her eyes. The next words from her mouth were the ones she never expected she would say. They went against the vow she took after their mother's death. "We have no choice but to step back in." She opened them again and met her sister's gaze. "I didn't expect you to show up. If I failed, you were going to be their last hope."

"What makes you think they'll believe us? For all they know, we're dead. We died a dozen lifetimes ago, and I hardly think this lot will let strangers in," Dayna said as she paced the room. She stopped and fixed her stare on the artwork on the wall. "Maybe we can get one of the others to reach out," Dayna said slowly.

Keira's gaze narrowed, she wasn't sure she liked her sister sudden change in tone. "What others?"

"One of the other crossroads covens, one that might vouch for us," Dayna replied with a sheepish expression.

"You didn't!" growled Keira.

"Well, living in Europe for the past fifty years, what did you think I'd do?" Dayna paused to sneak a look at Keira. "Don't look at me that way, they don't know who I am. I never stayed around for that long for them to notice. You can't tell me that you spent a century in Australia and not once reached out to them?"

Keira crossed her arms across her chest. "Actually, I didn't."

"I know you're angry with them, but even you can't blame this generation for what the ancestors did, or rather didn't."

Keira shook her head. "I don't really want to talk about this. We need to work out how to get the coven to speak to me, I'm just not sure whether I'm ready for them to know who we are just yet."

"You knew it wasn't going to last. The curse is there for a reason," said Dayna.

Keira looked down at her hands which were now resting on her lap. "I know," she sighed, "and I think it is time; there's someone here who knows who I am."

"What?" said Dayna as she halted in her tracks and swivelled to face Keira.

At this Marcus jumped up from his seat and raised his hands. "Just stop; both of you. Neither of you is making any sense, and quite frankly you are starting to scare me into next week." He turned to Keira, "What do you mean they don't know who you are. Of course, they do, if they didn't, you wouldn't be here."

Keira checked her watch. "Look we don't have time to go through all this now. Ryker will be back shortly to pick me up."

"What do you need us to do?" Dayna asked.

Keira paused before replying. They had no choice, but it wasn't one she was comfortable with. "If we have any chance of stopping this, we are going to need mother's Grimoire."

Dayna twisted a strand of hair around her finger and frowned. "I had a feeling you were going to say that. I'm assuming it's still where you left it?"

Keira nodded. "I'm going to need you and Marcus to go and get it." She reached into her bag, pulled out her wallet and scanned its contents. When she found what she was after, Keira pulled out three cards and handed them to her sister.

"Marcus will know what to do, but only I can gain access to the area. You are going to have to pretend to be me, and you'll need to make sure that no one knows you were there, or that it was taken out of the building."

Dayna accepted the cards and leafed through them. "Okay, but I'm not sure I'll be able to pull off the boring spinster schoolmarm though." She then gave Keira the once over. "And please don't tell me I have to wear your clothes?"

Keira rolled her eyes. "And what's wrong with my clothes."

"Honey, we don't have that much time for me to list the reasons," said Dayna as she rested her hand on her hip.

"Time out," Marcus interrupted. "You know I'm still standing here." He turned to Keira. "Where exactly am I going? And why?"

Keira rubbed her forehead. This was only going to work if Marcus played his part. While her sister could pass for her visually, there was no way she would be granted access to the place if they had the slightest of suspicions about her motives.

"You are going to steal a book from the rare collections archive at Beinecke Library at Yale," Keira said.

Marcus blinked at her. "You make it sound like it's as simple as walking into a local 7/11 and coming out with a pack of gum." He then glanced between them. "Are you out of your cotton-pick'n minds?" he shouted as he waved his arms in the air. "If I get caught I can say goodbye to my doctorate and any hope of an actual career. The Whitehouse doesn't have as much security as that library."

"Oh fiddle faddle," scoffed Dayna. "You won't get caught, you're with me. We'll be in and out of there before you know it, no one will be the wiser."

Marcus choked at her words. "You've got to be kidding me right? I've known you for less than twenty-four hours, and you are the least quiet person I have ever met. You wouldn't know how to blend in if your life depended on it. Jocks during pledge week are quieter than you."

"Enough," growled Keira as she shot up from the bed. "Marcus we need this more than you know. I wouldn't ask you to do it if it wasn't important. I need you to trust me on this one. I can't explain now, but I will as soon as we have more than five minutes to spare."

"And as for you," she said rounding on her sister. "Leave Marcus alone. He's extremely gifted, and you are going to need him to get you in and out. I do not want to have to break in a new teaching assistant."

By the time Ryker was due to return, Keira had managed to convince Marcus to carry out her hastily put together plan. To give him credit, he had succumbed a lot sooner than she expected.  Once they had managed to rent a car and found something that Dayna would agree to wear that wouldn't attract too much attention, Keira waved them off and stood staring at the last spot she had seen them before the car had turned the corner and disappeared.

She had to have faith they would return with her mother's Grimoire. She shuddered to think what would happen if she had to face the upcoming storm without it.

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📎A/N. Hmmmm... the plot thickens... I wonder what's in this spell book that has been hidden in plain sight for all these years... Hopefully, they manage to steal it without being caught!!!

...And Ryker & Keira are off to speak to what ever is left of the Crossroads coven. I wonder how she's going to get them to talk to her?

Don't forget to vote if you liked the chapter.

Until next time take care.

❤ ℳ