Deadly Harvest Read Online Free PDF

woo-woo superstition into things always complicates matters.”
    â€œIt shouldn’t. Wiccans don’t believe in doing evil. Whatever one person does to another is returned threefold. So a wiccan wouldn’t hurt anyone, because they would be hurt three times as badly in return.”
    â€œYeah, and if you’re Christian, you go to hell if you kill someone. That doesn’t stop a lot of Christians from turning into cold-blooded murderers.”
    â€œI agree with you there,” she said.
    He’d had enough of the discussion suddenly. “Look, we’re not going to solve anything here, so why don’t we head over to the Quarter?”
    â€œYou’re taking me up on that drink?” she asked.
    He was. He wasn’t sure why, but he was. He liked the sound of her voice. He was interested in the things she had to say. He was drawn to her—well, hell, any heterosexual male was going to be drawn to her—even though he still felt as if he needed some kind of barrier between them.
    Not that it really mattered now. Today was it. She was leaving after tonight’s party. No more debates. Their paths would not cross again.
    â€œYeah, let’s do it,” he said. “In fact, how about we grab some lunch?”
    They headed toward Royal Street and a quiet restaurant, where Rowenna ordered tea and crawfish and he decided on jambalaya.
    â€œSo go on,” he told her, once they had been served. “I want to know more about what witches are today.”
    â€œReally?” she asked.
    â€œYes, really.”
    She arched a brow, doubtful, then plunged on. “The Salem witch community started in the early 1970s, when a woman named Laurie Cabot, who’s now considered the official witch of Salem, moved to town. There are now several thousand practicing wiccans in the area. They would have been in real trouble back when the Puritans were in charge. Ironically, they left England looking for religious freedom, then went on to persecute anyone who didn’t worship as they mandated. But wiccans—if there had been wiccans back then—would never have practiced Satanism the way the Salem witches supposedly did. The devil is a Christian concept, a fallen angel. So wiccans can’t worship the devil or sign a pact with Satan, because in their religion, he doesn’t exist. That’s not to say there aren’t Satanists out there, because there are, but that’s a different philosophy entirely.”
    He stared at her and nodded gravely. Was it a lecture on the ironies of man that he really needed? Maybe, in a way.
    Brad and Mary had gone to Salem. Mary had disappeared. He needed to know anything he could about the place, and Rowenna knew a lot about it. She was also beautiful and, frankly, enchanting, and the scent of her cologne was arresting. Mesmerizing. He felt his pulse stutter.
    She had never claimed to read minds, but he felt that she knew what he was thinking. That he didn’t really think witches or Satanists, real or imagined, past or present, had anything to do with Mary’s disappearance and the probability that something terrible had happened to her.
    Unless someone out there believed he was following the dictates of Satan.
    She smiled. “You think anyone who decides to practice an ancient and long-dead religion is an idiot.”
    â€œI don’t care if you want to worship palm trees—as long as you don’t use your belief as an excuse to hurt or kill anyone else,” he told her.
    She laughed. When she did, her eyes were like liquid gold, he realized. “You’d like the wiccans just fine, then. Like I said, they do no evil, because evil comes back threefold.” She shrugged. “I don’t think anyone has the answers to the questions that plague the universe. We all want to think people who hurt others will be punished—in this world or the next. Or, better, now and in the afterlife, assuming you believe