Of Witches and Warlocks: The Demon Kiss by Lacey Weatherford

este
lugar?” Brad spoke in Spanish, stopping a man on the sidewalk and
showing him the shipping invoice we had brought with us from
Albuquerque.
    The man studied the paper for a moment and
began speaking rapidly in his native tongue, while pointing off in
another direction.
    “Si. Si,” Brad said nodding his head.
“Gracias.” He shook the man’s hand, before returning to us.
    “What did you say?” Shelly asked, tugging on
Brad’s arm.
    “I asked him for directions to the address on
the shipping invoice,” he replied with a grin.
    “Did he know where it was?” I asked.
    “Yes, he did. He said to take the main road
back to where Benito Juarez and Freemont Boulevard intersect, then
turn right and drive for about a mile before turning off on a
little unnamed street where the building is located.”
    “Great!” Vance said, and we walked back to
where the car was parked.
    We followed the directions we had been given
back into the main part of town, turning at the appropriate
intersection, and easily found the warehouse building we were
looking for.
    It turned out to be a multi-unit building.
There was a large gate at the property, with a security guard booth
there also.
    “Where are we going?” I asked feeling a
little confused as Vance drove past the property without
stopping.
    “I don’t think it would be wise to just waltz
in there. We don’t know what could be going on. I’m thinking we
should come back tonight when it’s dark and see if we can’t stake
the place out a little bit first,” he explained.
    “That sounds like a good plan to me,” Brad
agreed wholeheartedly. “Better safe than sorry.”
    Vance drove the car around the entire
perimeter of the building, before heading out the way we had come
and working our way back to the main intersection.
    We waited at the light for a few moments
before turning right on the street.
    “Hey, look. It’s an herbal shop like your
grandma’s,” Brad said, pointing out the window toward a business in
a little strip mall.
    “Let’s stop and walk around these shops,” I
suggested to Vance. “Maybe we can talk to some of the locals and
ask questions to find out if anything strange has been going on in
the area.”
    “That’s a good idea,” he agreed, and he
slowed down to look for a place to park the car along the
roadside.
    We decided to check out the metaphysical shop
first, though we stopped and visited with several shopkeepers who
were displaying wares out on the sidewalks as we passed by them.
Thankfully most of them spoke English.
    We slowly made our way down the block, toward
the store we were interested in, trying to appear casual as we
moved along. Vance even purchased a couple of Mexican artifacts
from some of the displays we passed. Finally, we reached the
entrance to the tiny shop.
    As we entered the door there was a chime that
rang, and a small Hispanic man came out from a back room. He took
one look at all of us before he rushed over, waving his hands
wildly in the air, speaking Spanish very quickly.
    Brad stepped closer and tried to get him to
slow down so he could understand him better. The man continued
waving his hands, gesturing to us.
    Brad turned to look at us.
    “He wants us to follow him,” he said.
     
     

Chapter 7
    We looked at each other briefly, before Vance
spoke up.
    “Lead the way,” he said, with a shrug,
motioning for Brad to follow the man.
    The rest of us moved behind Brad, as the man
led us through a beaded curtain near the rear, which went into a
small room in the back of the store. The man then walked over to a
small closet and pulled out several folding chairs for us to sit
on.
    “I … Juan,” he said, pointing to his
chest.
    Brad made the introductions of our foursome,
pointing at each one of us in turn as the man nodded at us
individually.
    “I try speak English, yes?” Juan said as he
looked around the space at us.
    We nodded our heads in understanding.
    “You … um … wishes?” he asked, looking