How to Save a Life (Book Two/The Life Series/Supernatural)

Bad Day at Black Rock

Sam called to tell Dad and me about this rabbit's foot that had been in a cursed object box, saying that Sam had touched it.

My phone was on speaker on the desk in the library at home.

"Now, look, guys, we didn't know."

"You touched it?" Dad asked. "Damn it, Sam."

"Well, Dad never told us about this thing. I mean, you knew about this storage place at Black Rock?"

"His lockup?" Dad asked. "Yeah, I knew. Hell, I built those curse boxes for him."

"Listen, you have got a serious problem," I told him. "That rabbit's foot ain't no dime store notion. It's real Hoodoo, Old World stuff. Made by a Baton Rouge conjure woman about a hundred years ago."

"It's a hell of a luck charm."

"It's not a luck charm, it's a curse," I told him. "She made it to kill people, Sam. See, you touch it, you own it. You own it, sure, you get a run of good luck to beat the Devil. But, you lose it, that luck turns. It turns so bad that you're dead inside a week."

"Well, so I won't lose it, Ness."

"Everybody loses it," I told him.

"Well, then, how do we break the curse?"

I sighed. "I don't know if you can. We'll look through the library and make some calls. Just sit tight."

I hung up.

Dad was working on the Colt, trying to figure out how it worked so he could make more bullets since the last one was used on Yellow Eyes. "You work on finding that out for the boys. I'll be doing what I said I would be doing."

I put my phone away. "You got it."

I walked toward the bookshelves.

~~

I called Dean, sitting at a table by books.

"Hello?"

"Dean, good news. Wasn't easy, but I found a heavyweight cleansing ritual that should do the trick."

"Ness, that's, uh, great, except Sam, uh... Sam lost the foot."

I looked up in frustration, exasperated. "He what?"

"Ness, Nessie, listen. This, uh, this hot chick stole it from him. I'm serious. In her mid '20s, and she was sharp, you know, good enough at the con to play us. And she only gave the guy she hired a name, probably an alias or something. Uh, Luigi or something?"

I heard Sam's voice in the background. "Lugosi."

"Lugosi," Dean repeated.

"Lugosi? Lugo—" I sighed in frustration, realizing. "Aw, crap. It's probably Bela."

"Bela Lugosi? That's cute."

"Bela Talbot's her real name. Crossed paths with her once or twice."

"Well, she knew about the rabbit's foot. Is she a hunter?"

"Pretty freaking far from a hunter, but she knows her way around the territory. She's been out of the country. Last I heard, she was in the Middle East someplace."

"Ah, I guess she's back."

"Which means seriously bad luck for you. She's a greedy, selfish, ruthless, manipulative, stuck up English girl bitch."

"Great."

"But, if it is Bela... at least I might know some people who know where to find her."

"Thanks, Ness. Again."

"Just look out for your brother, dumbass."

I hung up, sighing, shaking my head.