BloodMoon by David VanDyke, Drew VanDyke Read Free Book Online Page B

should probably see up close what they’re doing,” Amber continued.
    “I suppose.” Elle followed Amber to the bedroom to change from slippers to sneakers. I grabbed the jug of sun tea from the porch and went back to the pool house to stock up on cloves and fill a water bottle with Ashlee’s Long Island Tea of Tranquility. Hey, if I was going to revisit my glory days – or the sins of my past – I was at least going to be fortified with something better than Amber’s potion, California’s open container laws be damned.
    I call shotgun! Siegfried dashed for the garage as we headed for the vehicle. I guess the dogs were coming on this excursion as well.
     
    John Robert sat between his moms in the front seat and laughed as we drove down Olive to the Foster’s Freeze next to the White Rabbit, a popular bruncheon spot for the aspiring magick crowd, landmarking the beginning of Main Street, Knightsbridge, California, USA.
    At the edge of the street, a group of women, children and a few men, all dressed in all shades of yellow, poured out of a large lemon-colored pup tent and ran around. Some waved saffron streamers on sticks; others twirled flags, set off rainbow blooming flowers or fought over a couple of blue-and-canary lawn chairs. They sold drinks from a Knightsbridge Trojans cooler and sported a big banner that announced them as Station #1 of the Street Witches, Eastside Daughters of the Eternal, or SWEDEs for short. That seemed appropriate, given the many Scandinavians who’d settled the town so long ago.
    We rolled up beside them on the side of the street and Elle rolled down the window.
    “Hey Bea,” she said, and the whole car echoed as a half-familiar woman stuck her head in and gave us a brilliant smile.
    “Hello, ladies and gentlemen.” She gave Will a nod and settled her warm sunny disposition onto my nephew. “Well, what have we here? I’ve never seen you around here before and I know everybody.”
    “It’s just me, Aunt Bea,” John Robert responded, and dawned on me that we were looking at JR’s Sunday School teacher, Beatrix Soderstrom. The oddity of a witch holding that job would hit me later.
    “Well, this is a pleasant surprise. Inaugural run, is it?” she asked him.
    “First time for everything.” Amber smiled.
    “Well, Team Gordon-Scott,” she admonished with a wag of her finger, “obey all street signs, keep it moving, and Chinese fire drills only at stop lights with a Street Witches station on the corner.”
    “What’s a Chinese fire drill?” JR asked.
    “You’ll see!” we all answered together, laughing. Oh, this was going to be fun.
    “What’s a Chinese fire drill? What’s a Chinese fire drill?”
    I swear the kid did not let up until we hit Station #2, Street Witches Northside Brothers of the Eternal, or SWiNBEs, as they said it. Yes, the acronym was a bit more forced. This station held mostly men and their children dressed in green, with kids holding glow sticks and waving around emerald sparklers.
    We rolled up to the red light. Amber and I looked at each other from between the seats and screamed, “CHINESE FIRE DRILL!”
    The universe seemed to slow around us, the people thronging downtown stopped to watch as colored lights from above spotlit the car. We all clambered out of the vehicle and made one revolution of the SUV before climbing back in and starting the car again just as the light turned green. It always happened that way, and everyone clapped and laughed as we drove on.
    “Oh my gosh. I was so afraid we weren’t going to make it,” Elle deadpanned as JR hopped up and down on the seat.
    “Let’s do it again! Let’s do it again!”
    And though I know it might be fun for him, I realized that I’d begun feeling claustrophobic. “Hey Elle, can you pull over at the next street witches station. I think I’d like to walk for a while.”
    “Me too,” Will said, which was fine.
    She stopped at Street Witches Station #3, Southside Sons of the Eternal, or