WB

by test

  How did women in the olden days do it? Waiting weeks and months for word of their loved ones? All that waiting would drive me insane, already, I felt a little crazed as I picked at my fingernails and paced around the house, making frequent stops at the front door to look outside.

  A sidelong glance at Helene made me realize that she was in the same boat as me. She sat rigidly on the edge of her seat, her eyes glazed and focused a few inches above the television.

  She picked at her dinner and her hands were nervously active, smoothing her hair, picking lint from her pants.

  I didn't know what to say to alleviate her fears. I wasn't sure there was anything anyone could say to me to stop my worrying, so I didn’t bother . I tried to watch Pride and Prejudice, but Elizabeth and Darcy’s problems seemed silly and trite now. I barely noticed when Helene retired to one of the upstairs guest bedrooms.

  A long yawn caught me by surprise and I found my eyes were heavy with sleep when the movie was over. After bidding a quiet goodnight to Taryn and the guard, I slowly walked upstairs to bed. I knew there were three more guards outside and I felt a momentary annoyance that Gage hadn't taken them with him. What good were they doing here when the fight was with Hugo in Idaho?

  The bed was cold and a hint of the olive oil soap Gage liked, lingered on the pillows.

  With an exhausted sigh I curled up on his side of the bed and in minutes was fast asleep.

  WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 114

  Chapter Fourteen

  It seemed like seconds, but must have been hours later when I heard a dull 'thwump'

  sound. I am generally a pretty light sleeper. Every car door slamming and scooter motoring by jars me awake.

  I heard a light tread on the stairs and sat up in bed, my heart racing with exciting. Maybe Gage was back? A quiet scraping sound came from outside, followed by a muffled groan and a second solid 'thump.'

  Something wasn't right.

  The house was too quiet, I couldn't hear the guards outside or the television downstairs. I scrambled from the bed and before I could talk myself out of it, I was kneeling on the floor next to the large armoire. The armoire blocked me from the view of anyone standing at the door, but it wasn't a good hiding place if someone decided to do even a minimal search of the room.

  Light from the moon filtered in through filmy white curtains and I watched with dread as the brass doorknob slowly turned and the door pushed open. My eyes closed a moment as I silently wished that I would look up into Gage's smiling face. He would laugh to see me crouched down here on the floor and then he'd gather me into his arms and take me to bed.

  I opened my eyes and barely restrained a horrified gasp as I saw Celia's small form dart towards the side of the bed. She held a handgun which she lowered as she registered the empty bed and room.

  I held my breath waiting for her to start searching the place. Good one Anna, you found just about the most obvious hiding place. But to my surprise, she looked in the bathroom and then backed out pulling the door closed behind her.

  My heart was pounding and I was frozen in indecision. What should I do now? It was obvious she wasn't alone, how else could she make it past the guards unless she had backup?

  My next thought was for Helene. If Celia was checking all the rooms, her next stop would be the guest bedrooms. With a gasp of horror I stood up quickly and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead.

  The balcony for my room ran the length of the west side of the house and if Taryn had set up my mother in one of the two rooms next to mine I had a chance to reach her before Celia if she checked the rooms on the other side of the hall first.

  I quietly dashed for the French doors to the balcony and with tense hands carefully pulled them open and silently closed them behind me. A quick look into the bedroom window of the room next door revealed a neatly made bed, and I tensely sprinted to the next window. Bingo, a small lump was under the covers and I saw a long thin arm curved over the top of the blankets.

  With shaking hands I pulled the glass door wide. Distantly, I heard more doors opening and closing and I was too aware of how little time there was for me to get Helene out of here.

  I gave my mother's arm a firm shake and she turned to look at me with wide eyes, instantly awake.

  “Celia's here,” I whispered.

  With a shaky gasp, she sprang from the bed and followed me out onto the balcony. The WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 115

  floorboards were cold and damp on our bare feet as we quickly moved to the far corner. It was only a matter of seconds before Celia discovered where we were and I wasn't sure what our next move should be.

  “Listen Anna, I can't fly like Laurent, but I can help us get down to the ground. Do you trust me?” She asked.

  I nodded.

  She closed her eyes and frowned. I glanced down and a momentary vertigo made the world tilt. The ground looked a million miles away and hard as ice. No way could I make that jump.

  Helene's eyes were tightly shut and a look of intense concentration contorted her face.

  Her lips moved silently and I saw her hands stretch out in front of her, the fingers shaking a bit as they seemed to almost play over an invisible piano. Her eyes snapped open and she gave me a fierce look of satisfaction.

  “Hurry Anna, you first, I can't hold it for long,” her eyes were wide open and teary with the strain. Her lips continued to move in a silent chant and as I watched her, her head drooped a bit. I looked to where her hand was pointing and started in amazement.

  Shimmery, silver stairs arched out from the edge of the balcony sweeping gracefully to the ground. The stairs looked solid enough but I was afraid to try them. I heard Helene give a low moan of pain and didn't waste any more time thinking.

  I climbed over the railing and placed one foot on the top stair. It felt solid and warm underfoot and so I quickly stepped all the way out. My breath was held waiting to see if I was about to plunge to the ground, but the stair held.

  The stairs were strangely warm and smooth underfoot and with arms stretched out to my sides to help me balance, I walked as quickly as possible down to the ground. When I reached the bottom I turned to gesture for Helene to follow me down but was shocked to see her stagger back a moment, going down on one knee. Her hand clutched at her head and her eyes were unfocused as she gazed out through the bars of the railing at me. Like a movie projection, the stairs winked in and out of sight a couple of times before disappearing completely.

  Great! What would we do now?

  “Helene, climb over, I'll try to break your fall!” I whispered, holding my hands up to her.

  It didn't seem possible to me, she was at least fourteen feet up and the gravel strewn ground was hard and cut cruelly into my bare feet, but I couldn't think of anything else to do.

  I stood with my arms raised up as she leaned over the balcony. Her face was pale with fear and her eyes red rimmed as she said in a harsh whisper, “Run.”

  For a moment I wasn't sure what she had said and I stood there dumbly, waiting for her to start climbing down, but with a last anxious grimace she said, “Please Amelie, run!”

  Then I watched as she turned back for the French doors and slipped inside of the house, closing the door quietly behind her.

  WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 116

  Chapter Fifteen

  My heart was pounding with fear and I realized with a start of shock that my face was wet with tears. I wiped my face on the sleeve of my nightshirt and glanced around with frightened eyes.

  Helene's return to her bedroom was a death sentence. I didn't know what Celia was thinking all those years ago when she kidnapped me, but it certainly wasn't warm and cuddly feelings for her younger sister, Helene.

  A light coming on in the kitchen had me stumbling back a moment, my eyes darted

  wildly, looking for a place to hide. But the trees were sparse and low around the house.

  Windswept bushes and the occasional tuft of sea grasses made for an u
nimpaired view of the ocean but made hiding near impossible.

  I thought about the guards Gage left behind to protect me and my heart contracted with pain imagining their crumpled and dead bodies lying in the house. Taryn must be among them.

  The thought of vibrant and cheerful Taryn dead was too much. This was all my fault!

  Running for the beach wouldn't help. The shoreline snaked around for miles before coming to the small town of Cannon Beach and I knew I wouldn't make it there unseen and what would I do when I got there? I couldn't go to the police.

  Hugo and his men would kill the small Cannon Beach police force without a second thought. There wasn't anywhere to hide in Cannon Beach where they wouldn't find me and without transportation, I wouldn't make it far on foot without money. Leah and Patty were a phone call away in Portland, but I couldn't involve them and by the time they drove here it would be too late.

  Besides, the more I thought about it, I’d spent the last few days running away. If you added in the years that Celia and I were on the move, it was almost twenty years of hiding with no end in sight. I was heartily sick of it and more importantly, I didn't want anyone else to be hurt because of me.

  As much as I tried to convince myself otherwise, I was partly responsible for the death of my father and all the guards killed the last few days. Wretchedly, I knew that my mother and Taryn were in danger or already dead because of me and I was the only one that could help them.

  I turned back and saw that the lights were on in the house. In every window, upstairs and down, light glowed warmly cutting through the coastal fog making the house look like a giant lantern. My bare feet crunched painfully on sharp edged rocks and pine needles as I walked slowly, back to the house. I could feel the blood draining from my face and my heart rate sped up the closer I got.

  This is the right thing to do I told myself frantically. What else was there? I was out of options, I might be able to help Taryn and my mother this way. My hands shook a little and I clenched them at my sides as I moved carefully towards the double doors that opened onto the dining room.

  I took shallow breaths to control my emotions, but it didn't help and I felt a tide of rage, hatred and fear rising. A shout rang out as I neared the doors and I watched, as if from a WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 117

  distance, as the door was thrust open and two flack jacketed men rushed out at me.

  Their hands gripped my shoulders and they were rough and careless as they pulled me towards the door. My feet were dragged over the ground and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out at the abuse I was taking. They laughed and talked over my head about 'capturing the prize.'

  I tried to keep my head at eye level not wanting to see any dead bodies, but almost against my will, my eyes dropped to the floor as they pulled me around the edge of the table to the living room. A long smear of blood ran from the doorway of the kitchen on the left out to the white carpet of the sunken living room, but there was no body immediately visible and I could only hope that whoever left the smear of blood had somehow managed to get away.

  I was roughly pushed onto the sofa and Hugo’s men took up positions behind me as I sat on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to arrive.

  A cool voice interrupted their boisterous banter, “Shut up and secure the perimeter. Do I have to do everything around here?”

  The question was clearly rhetorical and the men with quiet, 'yes, sir's,' hurried from the room. I didn't turn my head to look at him. I recognized his voice from the night before. It had a vague continental accent, as if he had spent time in many countries in his long life and picked up a vestige of accent from all of them.

  He stopped in front of me and I refused to look away as he studied me with a critical eye,

  “You look like your father; the same hair and skin. You're tall too, sturdy. Your mother's a good breeder, I expect you will be too. You're young enough to get seven or eight babies out of you before your hips give out.”

  Was he going to check my teeth, or look in my ears now? I didn't have a response to what he said, so I didn’t say anything. He was dressed in white again. A caricature of a southern aristocrat's Sunday best, with a waistcoat, black string tie and a gold pocket watch looping across his flat belly.

  “Colonel Sanders called, he wants his suit back.” I was being a bitch, but it was an improvement over groveling for him.

  He laughed, but the humor didn't reach his eyes. Here was a man that didn't find many reasons to chuckle and even less reasons to be merciful. I reminded myself that being a smart ass would get me nowhere with him.

  “Where's my mother and Taryn?” My voice had the slightest quaver to it and I met his eyes squarely as I asked him.

  “Well, that depends on you Anna. Or, do you prefer Amelie?” His face was all courtesy and ease as he said this, like we were two old chums, chatting over coffee.

  “Explain what you mean, please? Have you hurt them? Are they dead?”

  He rocked back on his heels as if I had mortally wounded him, “I would never hurt a woman. Someone has been telling tales, I think.”

  I wanted to ask about Gage, Laurent and the Coalition's attack on his Idaho compound, but, I could be giving away their surprise attack and putting them in danger so I held my tongue.

  But I had to wonder what he was doing here, when he was supposed to be in Idaho getting his ass handed to him by some seriously angry witches, warlocks and werewolves.

  “I can almost hear the wheels turning, my dear. You are wondering why I am here. Why am I not at home in Idaho waiting to be attacked by your fiancé and his friends, hmm?”

  My stomach churned and my breath escaped my lungs as if I had been knocked to the WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 118

  ground. He knew. Oh God, he knew it all.

  “Well, you can keep wondering, I wont say. I love secrets. Especially secrets that play out in my favor and believe me, this is a good one.” He chuckled at his own joke and my heart was pounding as I waited to hear what else he had to say.

  “I have a nice little surprise all set up for Gage, Gerald and your brother Laurent, too.

  Yes, I know he joined them yesterday. Your Aunt Celia watched as he left the house to join the others in Seattle. This has been a very profitable weekend for me.”

  His hands smoothed over his waistcoat with a practiced movement and I lunged up from the couch. My hands reaching for him before my conscious mind had caught up with my body.

  I saw his eyes widen in shock and I was able to get in one heavy slap to the side of his face before he pushed me away. My knee hit the edge of the coffee table as I made a grab for his foot while I fell. I felt the fine linen pull as I held on and he drew back and kicked me while yelling for his men. I didn't scream or cry when his foot landed a second time on the inside of my thigh.

  A pain like lightening ran up the inside of my leg and I was so intent on trying to drag him to the floor that I didn't hear anyone come up behind me until strong hands plucked me from the floor and pulled me back from him. I screamed so loud, fire raced up my throat and my arms strained to reach him when he moved back a step with a loathsome smirk stretching his face.

  My breath came out in excited wheezes. Hugo's face had a dark pink hand print on the side of it now and I felt fiercely glad to have been able to land at least one good blow. My rage had caused a leaking of magic and I watched as all the candles on the mantle melted and the art above the fireplace caught fire. With a lazy movement, Hugo waved his hand and the flames were extinguished.

  I tried to pull away from the man holding me, but his arms were tight vises over my own and the more I struggled the more he squeezed until I gave a breathless cough and let my head roll forward in defeat.

  Just to tease me Hugo stepped closer, goading me to try for him again, but I couldn't move and he knew it. He clapped his hands in glee and looked me over with satisfaction.

  “What a challenge you will be to tame. But, you can be a lady, can't you Anna?”
>
  Hugo's question seemed incomprehensible to me but I gave a small nod as his henchman squeezed me so hard,I felt a sharp pain in my ribs. He gave me a small grin and patted me on the arm. I flinched away, but he didn't seem to notice.

  “I knew you could. Your Aunt, she raised you right. Brought you up to know your place in the world?”

  He nodded his head in satisfaction and looked me over. I wasn't sure what he saw that made his face wrinkle up into a smile. My heart was breaking over Gage, Laurent and everyone else who attacked Hugo's compound.

  “So here's the rub, I think you are a very forceful young woman. A little too hysterical perhaps, it's not your fault, it's the fatal flaw in all women. Their emotions are stronger than their intellect, reason takes a back seat to sentiment. They are the weaker sex, after all.”

  “But I can work with that. I require three things from you.” He was pacing as he said this and stopped suddenly and turned to me, his face expectant.

  Did he expect me to guess what the three things were? My mind was in turmoil, part shock that this was happening and the other part angry that I was helpless to stop it.

  “Trust, love and acceptance. That's all. Then you will be ready to take your place in my WARLOCK’S BRIDE JENNIFER RINEHART 119

  coven,” Hugo said with a gentle smile and spread his arms wide like he was going to embrace me.

  I shrank at the thought of him touching me again. His words flowed so smoothly, it sounded like a well practiced sermon but it washed over me in an incomprehensible wave because all I could think of was Gage. Gage dead and gone forever. His body beginning to rot in some shallow, unmarked grave.

  Hugo was making grand sweeping gestures with his hands as he laid out his plans, the state of the world in general and his thoughts on me and other women in particular. Uh oh, I had a bad feeling about what exactly that place in his coven would be and if he thought I would go along with it, he was crazier than a crackhead in a house of mirrors.