All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella (1001 Dark Nights) Read Online Free

.
    They stood at a stop sign, and Sam took a minute to look at the group and smile. He was about to move through the intersection when he suddenly slammed on the brakes. A costumed pedestrian had rushed into the street and thrown himself on the hood of the car, grinning eerily at them. He stayed for a beat while Sam felt his temper flaring. The person in the costume stared at him through the windshield, donning a red latex mask. It seemed the entire body was red beneath a black cape, the eyes blood-streaked yellow. The person suddenly pushed off the car, cackling with laughter.
    “Ass,” Sam yelled.
    “Total dick,” Jenna said.
    “Vampire, demon?”
    “Boo-hag,” Jenna said.
    He didn’t know about a boo-hag. “What’s that?”
    “I guess it’s a regional thing, from the Gullah people. They’re from regions of Africa, mainly brought to this country as slaves. They got together and formed a group hundreds of years ago. They have a language, kind of like a Haitian patois joined with English, and all kinds of cultural stuff. And of course now, with time passing, the mix is African, Creole, and so on. They’re known to have lived in the low country of South Carolina, down to north Florida at one time.”
    “And what do these boo-hags do?”
    “To the Gullah, there is a soul and a spirit. The soul goes to Heaven, assuming the person was good, the spirit watches over the family. Unless it’s a bad spirit. Then, it becomes a boo-hag. Like a spiritual vampire.”
    “A spiritual vampire?” Sam asked.
    She turned to him, grave and knowing, a slight smile in her eyes. “When you slept eight hours and woke exhausted, that might have been a boo-hag. They suck energy out of the living. Usually, they leave their victims alive so they can feast off of them again. If a victim struggles, that’s when you find that person dead in the morning.”
    “And how do you fight a boo-hag?” Sam asked.
    “You need to leave a broom by your bed. Boo-hags are easily distracted. They’ll start counting the bristles and forget they came to suck your energy. To rid yourself of a boo-hag, though, you have to find their skin while they’re out of it, and fill it with salt. That will make them insane with agony when they put it back on.”
    “Guess we need to sleep with salt and brooms,” he said. “Easy enough to find at Halloween. How the hell do you know about all this? This is Salem, Mass, not the Deep South.”
    “You had to have known my mum’s mother. She taught me all about the banshees and leprechauns. She loved legends. And she also had a dear friend from the low country who lived in Charleston.”
    “Wish I could have known her,” Sam said. He was suddenly glad of the obnoxious drunk who’d thrown himself on the car. Jenna had finally become Jenna.
    “Those eyes,” she said, with a shiver. “Spooky.”
    “Contacts, most likely.”
    “Good ones, too. But there are a lot of great costumes at Halloween. You know that.”
    He did. “And no costume parties, huh?”
    She grinned. “No costume parties. But you’d make a great John Proctor. He was supposed to have been a big, tall, strong dude.”
    “Before he was hanged,” he said.
    She grimaced at that.
    They were nearly in the historic section.
    He turned to her sheepishly. “I forgot to ask. My house? Or is Uncle Jamie expecting us?” Sam asked.
    She turned to him, more relaxed than she’d been. “Uncle Jamie is expecting us.”
    “Okay, just so I know where I’m going.”
    She nodded, and he noticed a darkness settle over her again. There was something so pained about her eyes, and yet there was so much appreciation in them he felt a tug at his heart. He remembered meeting her when Malachi Smith had been accused of the brutal murders at Lexington House, and how strong and determined she’d been. Between her and Jamie, he’d found himself representing the young man pro bono. Even in the height of danger and true horror there, she’d never looked like