Devils Bargain

Devils Bargain

## Blurb

**“A witch wants my baby!”**

Tamara Huntley is as mundane as they come. A suburban mom with two young children, her life revolves around her family, her job, and the comforts of home. So when her estranged, wild-child sister comes to her, begging for help and claiming a witch murdered her husband and wants to steal her baby daughter in payment for a long-ago oath, Tamara thinks she’s gone crazy.

Until she turns up dead, and the baby vanishes without a trace.

If Tamara’s going to get her niece back, she’ll have to expand her worldview fast. She’ll also need some expert help. But where can a normal, practical woman find help dealing with an evil witch?

Fortunately for her, aid is closer than she thinks. Who better to give button-down Tamara a crash course in things that go bump in the night than Stanford occult studies professor Dr. Alastair Stone? At least he can offer some tips, even if she’s sure he can’t help her any other way.

Because magic isn’t real…right?

Welcome to the spooky side of the street, Tamara. Hope you survive the experience.

## Plot

*Devil's Bargain is a standalone novella set during the four-year period between Stone and a Hard Place and The Forgotten. It is also the only story (so far) in which Stone is not the main character, and is told from a first-person point of view.*

Tamara Huntley attends her estranged sister, Susan Danforth’s, husband's funeral. Susan finds her in the bathroom and begs her to meet her for coffee; she's afraid someone is after her baby, Emma. Over coffee, Susan explains that, after being raped seven years prior, she'd gone to a psychic and poured out her story. The woman told her she can help, but the price is her firstborn. Susan, not wanting anything to do with men and, more importantly, not believing, agrees. The next day her rapist is dead. She still didn’t believe, but once she'd married Chuck and had Emma, the woman reappeared, demanding Emma as her due. Susan refused and, that night Chuck died in a freak accident. Now she's terrified of losing Emma, and begs her sister for money so she can flee, get away from the woman with her baby.

### Pause here a moment WARNING, Possible Spoilers Ahead

Tamara is notified Susan's been killed in a car accident - like her husband - three hours away. There is no sign of the baby. Then she receives a letter from her sister, written the day she fled, begging her to keep Emma safe if anything happens to her, and giving her the name and location of the psychic who wants the baby.

Tamara goes to the old woman - Madame Minna - and asks if she recalls Susan. As the conversation goes on, the woman matter-of-factly admits to killing the rapist, Susan's husband and Susan, and taking the baby - with magic. Tamara says she's going to the police, and Minna warns her not to. Outside the shop, Tamara tries to play back the recording she made of the conversation, but it's nothing but noise. She calls the police, and they humor her, saying they'll send someone to speak to the old woman.

Later, the Lieutenant calls back to say Madame Minna was cooperative, but told them Tamara had threatened her and made wild accusations. She let them look through the shop and there was no sign of a baby. Tamara is distraught, insistent, but the Lt. tells her the old woman asked about a restraining order, and to please calm down and let the police handle it. Tamara’s kids, Mel and Max, overhear the conversation and ask if a witch is coming to take them. Tamara swears no, she will keep them safe.

That night Mel wakes up shrieking, surrounded in her bed by bloody dead crows. They check Max's room, then go back to Mel's and the crows are gone without a trace. Tamara calls her ex and asks him to come home from his trip and take the kids for a couple of days, that she's having trouble dealing with the deaths and Emma's disappearance and needs time.

Looking for answers, she visits an occult shop in the city. Nothing there is helpful, except for an ad for a lecture at Stanford by a Professor Stone, on the occult. Skeptical, she decides to go anyway, hoping he may have some information that will help. She meets Stone after the lecture - he seems to intuit she has a problem - and agrees to meet him for coffee nearby. She tells him her story, and he seems to believe her completely. He asks her to take him to see the bed with the crows, and Susan's house. Tamara is supicious he's luring her off for something nefarious. Then he drops the bomb that magic is real and that's what she's facing. Tamara makes the leap of faith and has him follow her home.

Stone examines the bedroom and concludes that Mme Minna cast an illusion. Then he says he can find Emma with an object of hers. Tamara keeps wondering if she's lost her mind, but agrees to meet him in the morning and take him to her sister's house. They go, but find little in the way of magic traces. So they take a stuffed rabbit from Emma's crib and head to Stone's place to conduct the tracking ritual. Tamara watches as Stone conducts the ritual, convinced at last by the end, that magic is real. The ritual tracks Emma to Susan's neighbor's house - Mrs. Bond's.

They go to her house and she invites them for tea. Stone drops the pretense and demands she give them the child. She drops her act, too, and says the bargain was proper, and Minna has every right to the baby.  Tamara runs through the house searching, but finds nothing, so Stone uses magic to pin Bond against the wall and says very seriously that he will kill her. She morphs into a hideous monster, but Stone isn't fooled. He demands the child immediately. Realizing he's serious - and strong - Mrs Bond says Emma is behind an illusion in the master. Stone breaks the illusion, revealing a nursery and a wailing Emma. They're about to leave when Mrs. Bond tells stone Minna will make him regret getting involved.

They leave, and Tamara asks to stop to call her ex and check on the kids. Mark, the ex, asks her what she's pulling, she just left with them a half hour before. Stone calls Mme Minna, and she says she'll trade the kids for the baby, and if not... She implies she'll kill them. Stone says he'll get them back, but Tamara says no, she's going too. In fact, she suggests they play it like they're there to give up Emma. Stone warns her they could all end up dead, but Tamara accepts the risk.

When they arrive, Tamara demands to see her kids - they're asleep under a spell. She then asks what Minna could possibly want with a baby. Stone suddenly realizes it - Emma has magic potential, as did her mother, but Susan never knew it. Minna wants to raise and train her. Tamara, knowing she can’t give up her own children, asks Minna to swear Emma will be treated well, and loved. Minna says that's what she'd always intended.

Tamara is about to agree, when Stone stops her and says Minna has no right to the baby. Because Emma is magical, her consent would have to be given and, since she hadn't yet been born, she couldn't, so the contract is void. After some badgering, Minna gives in and tells them to take the kids and leave. Stone requires her oath not to bother Tamara or the 3 children again. Minna agrees. He also orders her to make an anonymous tip that Mrs. Bond had Emma in a secret room, had become obsessed with the baby, snapped, killed her parents and took her. He's sure Mrs. Bond, forewarned, won't be around to be arrested.

Later, Tamara is on track to adopt Emma. She stops by Stone's office to tell him that, and that things are well. And to ask what to do about Emma being magical. He tells her she has time - Emma won't show her potential until puberty, and how that plays out may make the decision for her. He also asks her to see him if that happens, so he can find her a good teacher.