by Martha Carr
Nickie shot the bulldog a condescending glance, to which he responded by rolling over onto his back with a little groan, his front paws dangling in the air.
“You sure there’s not something wrong with him?”
“Totally sure. He’s been to the vet plenty. Perfectly healthy, stinky dog.” She stuck out her foot to rub Speed’s belly with her toes. And if being passed down through my family for hundreds of years hasn’t killed him, deadly farts are no competition.
Chuck shook his head. “Man. Hearing you play is the only thing that makes the smell bearable right now. Is that new?”
“Yeah. I got some lyrics down, too.” She nodded toward her notebook on the coffee table, and he went right for them.
After a glance, he wrinkled his nose. “You trying to reinvent your handwriting?”
“What?”
“I mean, I normally have to slog through trying to read your lyrics. These are…legible. The little swirlies are cute.”
Nickie squinted at her notebook. “Swirlies.” Yes, she’d taken to writing down lyrics with her wand instead of a pen, which apparently hadn’t quite captured the look of her writing. And she couldn’t just tell him her magic had done it for her. Chuck was human. Nickie was a witch. And he only knows one of those things. I should probably tweak that spell a little.
“I dunno,” she said with a shrug. “Maybe it’s ‘cause of how much I like this one.”
He’d already tuned her out halfway through her sentence. “Wow, babe. This is excellent. And what you were just playing… You know, I’m pretty sure Dave’s gonna flip.”
“Ooh.” Nickie pulled the guitar strap over her head and propped her dark-blue Strat up in the corner of the couch—where it would also hide her wand. “Is this Dave, the owner of Blue Silk Records? Or Dave, your best friend?”
“Ha ha.” Chuck tossed her notebook onto the coffee table and stepped around the couch. When he stopped in front of her, Nickie spread her legs so he could get closer. “Very funny.” His hands slid up her thighs as he leaned toward her. “Because they’re the same guy, right?”
“Mm-hmm.” Nickie leaned back just enough to make him wrap his arms around her, and he pulled her in for a long, deep kiss. Then she jerked away with wide eyes, and he raised his hands in surrender. “You know, I really shouldn’t be making out with my manager.”
“Okay, okay. Taking off the manager hat. I promise.”
“Excellent.” She slid her hands up his chest to drape her arms around his neck and kissed him this time. Her feet brushed up along each of his legs before she dug her heels into the back of his thighs and drew him closer.
He chuckled and held the back of her head to keep her where she was, but Nickie pulled back anyway and bit her lip. Blue, blue eyes, baby. Love ‘em.
A loud snort came from the floor, where Speed was still lying on his back, either snoring or trying not to sneeze. With a sigh, Nickie ran a hand through Chuck’s soft blond hair and brought her lips to his earlobe. A little nibble on his ear, followed by a flick of her tongue, and she could hear him shiver.
“I need your help with something,” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Follow me.” She kissed his neck, then pushed herself off the arm of the couch and forced him a few steps back. Slipping out from between him and the couch, she headed toward the far side of the living room and the back of the house.
“Seriously?” Chuck called behind her.
“Oh, hey. Grab that hamper on the chair and bring it with you.” She turned to point at the plastic bucket of dirty clothes and grinned. “Please.”
The sound of his disbelieving laughter followed her under the huge house’s central staircase. Yeah, I’ll make it up to you.
In the mud room by the back door, Nickie opened the dryer and the washing machine to move over the rather small load. Only Laura would do laundry for like…six things. She’d put everything in the dryer, plus a dryer sheet, by the time Chuck caught up with her.
The plastic bucket dropped from his hands and thumped onto the stained linoleum. “Okay. I stopped talking shop. Not sure I can take off the boyfriend hat, though. So please tell me you didn’t ask me in here to do your laundry.”
Nickie laughed. “I’m a big girl, baby. I can do my laundry all by myself.” She started the dryer, then got to work dumping all her own dirty clothes into the washer.
“All right, babe. Do you even need my help, or were you just screwin’ around?”
Bent over the hamper and tossing clothes into the wash, she looked up at him and winked. “I definitely need your help. Just give me a minute.”
“Okay…” Chuck folded his arms and watched her.
With the hamper empty, Nickie stood and stripped off her shirt. That went into the washer too, followed by her leggings. Next, she slithered out of her green lace panties and dangled them on her toe before kicking them into the washer. She paused and glanced down at her bra. I mean, clean is clean. So she took that off too, tossed it in with all her other dirty, unsorted clothes, and closed the door.
“So…what are you doing?”
After turning on the washer, she spun around and raised an eyebrow at him. “Multitasking.”
“Okay, when you said, ‘Follow me’, I thought you had something completely different in mind.” He looked her from top to bottom and cocked his head. “This isn’t helping.”
“Good.” Stepping toward him, she reached out and grabbed his belt buckle with both hands. “You weren’t wrong.”
The next second, he’d grabbed her face with both hands and kissed her with even more heat than last time. Nickie tugged on his belt again, pulling him back toward the dryer as she opened the buckle and unbuttoned his jeans. Laughing, he let go of her long enough to drop his pants, and she hopped up onto the rumbling dryer with a grin.
“Oh…” He grabbed her hips and jerked her just a little closer to the dryer’s edge. “Yeah, we got plenty of time.”
It turned out they only had two minutes alone in the mudroom before the front door burst open and Nickie heard both her sisters shout her name. She giggled and pulled Chuck closer.
“Nickie?” Laura called. “Your boots are in front of the door, so I know you’re here. I called you like five times. What’s going on?”
“I’ll go check the kitchen,” Emily said.
“Crap.” Nickie pulled away from Chuck and blinked at him. “She’s coming back here.” With a frustrated sigh, he stepped away from her as she launched herself off the rumbling dryer. “Babe, I’m sorry.”
“Guess that’s what we get for being back here, huh?” He snorted and put his clothes back on.
Nickie jerked open the dryer door and grabbed a bright-lavender tank top and a pair of damp cargo shorts. She’d just finished tugging on Laura’s clothes—which fit her but which she’d never wear—when Emily came through the doorway from the kitchen on the other side of the mudroom.
“Oh, hey. There you are.” Emily stopped and raised an eyebrow at Laura’s wet clothes on Nickie and Chuck’s hair sticking straight up, both of them looking like rabbits caught in a snare. “In…the mudroom, huh?”
Nickie kicked the dryer door closed, which turned the cycle back on. “What’s up?”
Emily grinned. “Sorry about the interruption, guys. Laura’s calling an emergency family meeting right now. Or more of a sister meeting, I guess.” She shrugged and kept grinning.
“How much of an emergency?” Nickie folded her arms over the wet tank top and raised an eyebrow.
“Enough to call me at work.”
“I thought you don’t answer your phone at work?”
Emily glanced at Chuck and cocked her head, still smiling. “I don’t, Nickie. Laura called me…you know. Directly.”
She means Sister Soup. “Oh. Is everything okay?”
“I have no idea. But she’s—”
“What is taking you guys so long?” Laura’s voice headed toward the mudroom from the living room on the ot
her side. “I’m not just making this stuff up. We have a serious—oh.” The oldest sister stopped in the doorway and plastered on a surprised smile. “Hi, Chuck.”
“Hello.” Chuck glanced from sister to sister, then ran a hand through his hair. “This sounds like none of my business. Which is totally cool. I’m just…I’m gonna go.” He slid an arm around Nickie’s waist and pulled her in for a kiss. “Call me later? We can finish our talk.”
Nickie gazed into his blue eyes and bit her lip. “Definitely.”
“Yeah.” Then he pulled away and pointed at her. “Your clothes are wet, by the way.”
“Thanks. I noticed.”
“Wait.” Laura frowned. “Those are my clothes.”
Chuck gave a short laugh and grabbed Nickie’s hand to give it a squeeze. “Whatever the emergency is,” he told her sisters, “I hope it’s not too bad.” Then he released her and headed out. “Later, Hadstrom girls.”
They all called goodbye after him, then Laura gave Nickie a full once-over. “Why are you wearing my wet clothes?”
Nickie grinned. “You don’t wanna know. I’m gonna run upstairs real quick and change.”
“Okay, but seriously. I need to talk to you guys.”
“Sure, Laura. I’ll be right back.”
13
“You did what?” Nickie blinked and reached for the glass of water she’d poured herself. But she didn’t pick it up to drink it.
“Yeah.” Laura glanced at Emily, because Nickie was ogling the kitchen table where they’d sat for the emergency meeting. “I had no idea what the wards were for when I was at the Greenbelt, and honestly, I thought I blew something up when that shimmery energy thing exploded out of the stone. I only put two and two together last night when Dad told us about the legacy and gave us these.” She turned up her thumb with the silver ring on it, realized a thumbs-up wasn’t really appropriate, and dropped her hand back into her lap.
“I’m just wondering why you didn’t tell us about it, like…last night.” Emily had both elbows on the table and her chin propped up in both hands, scrutinizing her oldest sister with a narrowed gaze.
“I didn’t have the chance,” Laura said. “I came home to change, you graduated, we went to dinner.”
“Then you went to bed. After trying to crack the secrets of your family ring. And you could’ve told us this morning—”
“Okay. Yes. I had plenty of chances. Happy now?”
Laura’s sisters shrugged.
“But seriously, if I’d brought this up before I saw the really bad part with my own eyes, you both would’ve told me I was blowing things out of proportion and needed to wait until Dad shows us the Gorafrex prison site on Tuesday.”
Nickie raised a finger and opened her mouth to say something, then huffed. “Yeah, we definitely would’ve told you that.”
“Wait.” Emily raised her head and smacked both hands down onto the table. “What’s the really bad part?”
Laura stared at her, then grabbed Nickie’s glass of water and downed half of it. She set the glass down and gave them a low breath of frustration.
“I saw the Gorafrex this morning after I left Hopkins Antiques.”
Nickie folded her arms. “What were you doing there?”
“I figured Carl might know something about the Gorafrex, or at least know where to go for more information. Turns out I was right, and he—”
“Whoa, whoa. Hold on.” Emily shifted in her chair. “I know you and Carl are friends. Or acquaintances with the same weird interests. But you told him about this thing before you told us?”
“Yes.” Laura swallowed and looked at them. “I bought the bronze dagger from him, and since he knew how it could help me do what I wanted it to do, I thought maybe he’d also know why it did something I didn’t intend. I know I should’ve told you sooner, guys, but…I mean, it’s our family’s job to keep that thing locked up, and right before Dad decides it’s the perfect time to actually tell us that, I let this thing loose to go flying all over the city and work its revenge on the witches who locked it up in the first place. And since those witches aren’t alive anymore, I’m assuming it’s gonna come for us. I was trying to clean up my own mess before it got worse and dragged you both into it.”
Emily squinted and chewed at the corner of her fingernail. “Is that the really bad part you saw?”
“Not exactly.”
“Ooh, fun.” Nickie feigned excitement.
“The worst part, I think, is that the Gorafrex kind of…possesses people.” Laura spread her hands and glanced between them.
“Uh-huh.”
“Like, just anyone?” Emily asked.
“No.” Laura rubbed her hands together. “Otherwise, I’m pretty sure it would’ve zapped itself into me yesterday. Now that I think about it, it probably tried. But maybe couldn’t because I’m a witch.”
“Did Carl tell you all this?”
“Nope. I’m just putting all the pieces together as they—” Laura’s silver ring flashed again with its own light, and she jerked upright in her chair. “Oh. Thanks for speeding up the process.”
“Laura, we haven’t said anything.” Nickie reached for her water glass but still didn’t pick it up.
“What? Oh. No, I’m just—forget it. Like I said, all the wheels are turning.”
“Uh, you didn’t say that,” Emily added.
“Okay, stop. Both of you just stop!” Laura flung her hands out for emphasis, her ring glowed, and the lights in the kitchen blinked off. Her sisters stared at her with wide eyes, then looked at each other. “Still haven’t figured out how that thing works yet. Have you?”
“No.”
“Not even a little.”
“Right. Can you guys just not say anything until I’m finished?”
She got curt nods, and she pressed her palms together. “Thank you. So, we know the Gorafrex hunts and kills witches. That’s what it was doing on our…homeworld. And that’s probably what it’s gonna keep doing now that it’s out of that prison-stone thing. From what I saw yesterday, and what I saw today, I don’t think it can actually do anything in its true form.”
Emily opened her mouth to say something, but Laura raised a finger. “Almost done. I think it needs a physical body to perform any kind of magic or affect anything physical. But it can’t squeeze itself into a witch or a wizard, so it took a human.” Laura put her hands in her lap and gazed from one sister to the next. “Okay. Finished.”
“Right.” Emily nodded. “First question. You actually saw the Gorafrex possess a human?”
“Yes.”
“And that was the really bad part?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think it awakened the human’s peabrain?”
Laura paused. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. No one else saw this thing floating around. I think they were all humans who haven’t woken up yet. And the Gorafrex made this sound, right? Like a heavy, fast, loud drumbeat. It was…primal, really. And nobody heard it but me.”
“So, humans are fair game, but they can’t see it coming.”
“Right.”
Nickie cocked her head. “And you called an emergency meeting because you want us to help you.”
“Right again.”
“Okay, Laura, I want to help you. Really.” Nickie shook her head. “Forget that you took a minute to tell us. But I literally have no clue how to help.”
“I need you to help me get in contact with someone who knows what to do.” Laura nodded at Nickie and smiled. “It’s actually the perfect fit for you. And I already know who we’re looking for.”
“That’s a plus,” Emily said.
“Yeah.”
“Who is it?”
“We have to find the Tree Folk.”
Emily turned to look at Nickie. “Do we also need a refresher course on this one?”
“I think so.”
Laura leaned toward them. “I hadn’t heard of them either. But Carl has this manifesto of all the races and
species that got on this ship as passengers however long ago. We found an entry in there about the Tree Folk. They’re basically elves who live in trees and look like monkeys.”
“Huh?”
“Yeah. And they supposedly have the longest memories of any other elven race. They’re immortal, and the long memory means—”
“They’re more likely to remember the Hadstroms who built the prison and put the Gorafrex in there.” The pieces were coming together for Nickie.
“Exactly. I mean, there was also something in there about the Tree Folk specializing in temporal repercussions. Carl said he thinks it means they’re just really good at predicting the future. Who knows? Maybe people thought they could actually tell the future at some point.”
“How is this a perfect fit for Nickie?” Emily kept chewing on her fingernail.
“The manifesto said they’re ‘attracted to simpering melodies.’”
Nickie threw her head back and barked out a laugh, nearly knocking herself backward out of her own chair. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Emily giggled. “Hey, there’s nobody simperinger than you.”
“More simpering?” Laura suggested.
“Yeah, but less fun.”
Wiping her eyes, Nickie leaned forward and fought another laugh attack. “Okay. You want some music. And this’ll give us a chance to talk to them about how to put the Gorafrex back in the cage?”
“That’s what I’m hoping. I’m also hoping the Tree Folk are actually still here. In Austin. I’m sure they are, if they remember the prison in the first place and are so good at predicting the future. Right?”
“Worth a shot.” Nickie stood, grabbed her half-full glass of water, and finally brought it to her lips to drain it. “Ready?”
“That’s a silly question.” Emily scooted her chair noisily backward and jumped to her feet.
“Oh, just one more thing.” Laura stood with them and wiggled her right hand with the silver ring on her thumb. “When I saw the Gorafrex this morning, I got the same tingly feeling from my ring. You know, the same as when we all put them on last night. I mean, we’ll be together now, but just in the future. Just in case. If your ring starts tingling, I think that’s a pretty accurate indicator that our escaped prisoner is somewhere close by.”