“Nothing. Nothing.” Annie held her hand to her lips and smiled. “How are you getting there? You have no magic.”
“See, that’s the thing. Robin said he’d go with me. He wants to find the market as badly as the Wizard Guard. I can help and he has contacts,” Jason explained.
Cham and Annie exchanged glances. She could no longer keep her reactions in. They all burst into laughter at his costume.
“You’re all very bad children,” Jason said as he waved them off and headed to the back porch to wait for Robin to fetch him.
“Don’t forget your boom box and cassette tapes!” Annie called out after him.
“You’re grounded,” Jason said as he slammed the door behind him.
“It’s weird having him back?” Janie asked.
“You have no idea.” Annie chuckled again.
“We should go. You should have the protection spell updated,” Janie said. She reached for Annie and gave her a hug.
After saying their goodbyes, Janie and Randy teleported from the back porch. Milo arrived minutes later. Annie opened the back door. “Why are you here?” she asked.
“I’m updating your magical protection,” Milo said.
“You’re retired.”
“Once a wizard guard, always a wizard guard.”
“Again. Why are you here?” Annie turned to Cham. “Did you send a text to the whole team and he’s the only one who responded?” she asked incredulously.
“Yes and no. Others replied. Milo demanded to come,” Cham said.
Annie smirked.
“Where’d you see her?” he asked, his usual gruff self on full display. Cham walked him to the front door, explaining what he had seen.
Milo, with his own way of doing things, walked up the stairs of a house he knew well, after spending much time here with Jason over the years. He entered Annie’s childhood bedroom, which currently sat empty. Annie followed and observed him as he scanned the yards.
“If Emily’s out there, she’s hiding herself well. I’ll up the magic around the house and take a tour of the neighborhood,” Milo said.
“You still look like hell. Not as bad as before, but it still looks bad,” Annie said.
“Thanks. I feel awful,” he said.
“Then why are you here?”
“Because if Gibbs were alive, he’d do it. He’s not here, so it’s me.”
“Milo?”
She saw him wipe tears from his eyes. He stopped and stared at her. “I loved your dad. He was a good friend. Gibbs and I promised him that we would look after you and Sami.” He walked past her, leaving her in the hallway.
*
Milo walked the perimeter of the backyard, adding magic along the fence. He knelt low and glanced inside the flower beds, moving flowers aside, lifting rocks and shaking them.
“What the hell is he looking for?” Annie asked.
“Magical spy objects maybe?” Cham said as they watched through the kitchen window.
Milo strolled through the gate along the side of the house to the small patch of grass that made up the front yard. He carefully increased the magic until he reached the other side of the yard. Satisfied with the additional magic, he entered the house and found them waiting in the kitchen.
“Well?” Annie asked.
“I added more magic to the protection spells. I did a preliminary check for any magical or electronic listening and video devices. I didn’t see anything, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the Fraternitatem used them. I think the Vampire Attack Unit should do a sweep and verify there’s nothing out there or in here for that matter.” Milo sat at the kitchen table.
Annie popped open a bottle of beer and handed it to him. “So you’re staying tonight?” she asked.
“Yes. You think you saw her across the street. I’ll take a look out there around midnight. I’m assuming your neighbors will be asleep by then,” he mumbled and took a sip of beer.
*
“This is ridiculous,” Annie said as she climbed into bed. Cham stood in the doorway staring at the darkened staircase.
“Milo will be back soon, and I’ll come to bed. He’ll let your dad back in,” Cham said.
“It’s only been three weeks. Emily’s not ready yet.” Annie yawned. Though she was tired, she didn’t think she could sleep.
Cham waited at the door until 12:45 a.m., when the back door opened and two sets of footsteps entered the kitchen. Male voices spoke in soft tones. Cham held his palms up and out as they neared. He and Annie exited the bedroom and switched on the hallway light; Jason and Milo were at the foot of the stairs.
“My first location was near the old portal in Patagonia. The portal opened to nothing,” Jason said.
“One more to knock off the list at least,” Milo said. He turned to Cham and held out a black bandana. “I don’t know if this belongs to Emily or not. But I found it in the yard where you thought you saw her.”
Annie grabbed the bandana. It had been tied around her neck or head. The knot was still there, and several strands of red hair were tucked inside. “Either they are really good or this is really her,” she said.
“It’s the color I remember she had,” Milo said and glanced at Jason.
Annie observed her father. His hands shook as he took the fabric.
When her phone buzzed, she glanced at it and chuckled. “Happy Sunday morning. The VAU is here to debug the house.”
*
Annie stayed out of Graham Lightner’s way as he directed his team: Sky Starling, Allen, Bernice, and Monica as they searched for magical and nonmagical bugs. Annie sat at the kitchen table cradling a mug of tea, Jason sat across from her playing with the phone Annie purchased for him. While it was a basic phone, it was far more sophisticated than he knew and he grumbled several times as he tried to make it work. Annie chuckled.
The team worked for an hour, sweeping her house for magic, searching for bugs and other items. Each magical trace they collected was compared to Annie’s, Cham’s, and Zola’s. They found nothing out of the ordinary.
After an hour, Graham sat beside Annie as the rest of his team searched the yard.
“So, what did you see?” Graham asked.
Annie handed him the bandana with the red hair in the knot. “Milo found it across the street. I thought I was being followed from the Witches Brew.”
Graham placed the bandana into an evidence bag and marked it. “I’ll look at the location just to get a second set of eyes on in. I’ll take the bandana to Perkins in the lab. If I remember correctly, Emily’s DNA is in the database.” Graham looked at Jason, his friend from so long ago. He, too, seemed to have difficulty believing that Jason was here, even as a corporeal ghost.
“You did. We used it to confirm she was—” Jason started. Whoever performed the magic on the anonymous body, did a thorough job, fooling them all.
“We know, Jason. We all failed. Their magic was too sophisticated,” Graham said.
Annie observed their exchange and understood the discomfort. “Someone else is buried in her casket. You and Mom were both buried in the wizard graveyard. Maybe we should exhume the body and return whoever it is to their family,” she suggested.
“Now that we know more, maybe it will help us with the Fraternitatem,” Graham said as he played with his hands. “Are you looking for her?”
“Bucky is,” Annie said.
“I expect you won’t wait for her to get to you. You’re going to strike first,” Graham said.
Annie nodded. “I was never happy with the decision to let them go in the first place and it looks like they need my magic to take control of the market. We need to be careful.” She sighed and texted Ryan, explaining the night’s events. He was through her back door before she put down the phone.
“You were awake,” she said as he entered the kitchen.
“I was working on something else,” he sat beside Jason. “So, are you asking permission to go after them or are you telling me?”
The rest of t
he VAU entered Annie’s kitchen and stood around the table. “There’s nothing out there. No bugs, no extraneous magic that doesn’t belong to you. They’re taking their time, either to upset you or to make you impatient and therefore cause you to do something stupid,” Sky said.
“Thanks for coming in so late. You can go home,” Graham said.
“Really? Shouldn’t we know what’s going on?” Sky asked.
Graham laughed. “Yeah. It’s Sunday morning. I’ll keep you posted.”
Reluctantly, the VAU team left Annie’s house. A rush of air swished loudly outside the back door as they departed.
“Too many people,” Graham said.
Though it was now two in the morning, Milo, Jason, Graham, Annie, Cham, and Ryan sat around Annie’s kitchen table. For Annie, it felt perfectly normal, which made her feel nauseated. Or maybe it was the nature of the plan.
She sighed and went to her locked cabinet, sticking her finger into the pin and drawing blood. The blood sprung the lock and the door opened. She pulled out the grimoire Archibald Mortimer had given her.
“What is that?” Milo asked.
“I got this from Mortimer before I left for the past. He swears it’s a real grimoire from the Fraternitatem. I’ve been reading it. There’s stuff in there about Mom,” she said. They stared at the book.
“This is what we do know: they kidnapped a nonmagical, probably brainwashed her, and forced her to work for them. They killed Benaiah, one of their own. They’re coming for Annie for her magic so they can control the market. We told them not to come back here. If Emily is working for them and she’s here, they did not heed that warning,” Ryan said. He picked up the grimoire after Milo placed it on the table. “The last bit will hold if we can prove she’s here on their behalf. What else do we know?”
Annie pulled out the potion written on the scroll she got from Douglass Rand. “Douglass Rand said this potion will open the portal. I’ll work on the potion tom… today and we can test it out this week,” Annie watched the scroll roll to the middle of the table. “The other wizard guard units have listened to our warnings about the Fraternitatem. The South African guard has a man at the market I visited with Robin. The portal location is on map in the conference room.”
“You’ve been busy,” Ryan commented.
“Priority,” she said.
“Get some sleep and stay safe. We’ll prepare a full plan on Monday. If you need us before that, let me know,” Ryan said.
It was nearly four in the morning before Annie finally fell asleep.
Chapter 8
“You saw Mom yesterday?” Samantha asked over the phone with a shaky voice.
Annie rolled over; the clock said 11:30 a.m. Though she had managed seven hours of sleep, she was exhausted and not up for having this conversation with her sister.
“I didn’t see her. I heard someone,” Annie reiterated. “Did Dad tell you?”
Samantha was clearly pacing across her kitchen; her heavy footsteps across her wood floor resounded in Annie’s ear. “He wanted to warn me. Just in case she follows me.”
Annie sat up, leaving the warmth of the coverings. Cham, already awake, was busying himself in the kitchen. “Have you seen or heard anything?” Annie ran her hands through her gnarly, ratted curls, stepped out of bed, and searched her closet for something to wear.
“No. But I wasn’t looking,” Samantha said.
Placing her phone on speaker, she pulled on jeans and a T-shirt. As smart as her sister was, she wasn’t trained to fight nor was she hyper aware of her surroundings. Annie glanced at her phone.
Would the Fraternitatem use Sami to get to me?
When Annie was under the most stress, when her heart pounded rapidly, when the realization hit her, she could feel the magic move through her, and the itching became unbearable. She felt all of this now, realizing that Samantha could be a target. Samantha, who was thrilled to have Jason back. Where Annie had no emotional attachment to Emily, having no memory of her mother, Samantha remembered her and missed her every day.
“Sami. You need to be careful. Pay attention to your surroundings and look out for unknown people. You’re not exactly trained to defend yourself,” Annie warned.
“Really. She’s my mom. I don’t expect she’s going to hurt either of us. I think she’s being used to get close to us. She won’t hurt us.”
“Don’t be so naïve! If she’s been brainwashed, she’s capable of anything!”
“But, you feel nothing for her. They misjudged her usefulness to get to you. You said so yourself,” Samantha said.
Annie balled her hands into fists. If she thought it would help, she’d punch a hole in her wall to release her rising tension. Sometimes dealing with her sister was like talking to a wall that couldn’t really listen. “And, you still feel something for her. You are my weakness. They could use you to trap me,” she said with a shrillness in her voice.
“Annie… I…” Samantha’s voice cracked.
Annie walked out of her room and into the kitchen. “Put Dad on the phone. Now!”
Cham looked at her questioningly. “You okay?” he mouthed.
Annie shook her head.
“What’s the matter? Sami seems a bit frightened,” Jason asked, taking the phone over from Samantha.
Annie paced. “I didn’t think this through. I couldn’t figure out why they took Emily so long ago. I have no emotional connection to her. Her coming back makes me suspicious. I’m not longing for my mommy back. My connection’s to Sami, and she still has an emotion connection to Mom.”
“Oh,” Jason finally said.
“No ‘oh,’ Dad. Sami was never interested in fighting or learning to defend herself. She’s not paying attention to what’s around her. They need a protection spell up at the house. Remind them to teleport in and out from the roof. I’ll be there soon,” Annie said and hung up.
“Baby. That’s a contingency we hadn’t thought of. It would make their plan a great deal more thoughtful if they would go after Sami. That would bring you to them in a much more emotional state,” Cham said.
Annie pulled her hair into a ponytail and slipped on her shoes over at the back door. “She’s my kryptonite. I need to go. I’ll call you later.”
Cham held her wrist and kissed her, slowly, passionately, until she calmed.
When she settled, he said, “I’ll meet you there. Be careful.”
*
Annie landed on Samantha and John’s townhouse roof. She always loved the view of the city from the rooftop, but, today it caused her great stress as she began walking the perimeter of the roof.
Annie walked along the metal railing with her crystal out, picking up any magic. With the perimeter clean, she began to crisscross the roof until the door to the upper hallway opened and Jason walked out.
“Finding anything?” he asked as he met her stride.
“Not yet.”
“You scared her,” Jason reprimanded. It reminded Annie of her childhood and the many times she frightened her older sister with stories of monsters and demons. Jason had never been pleased with that.
“She needs to be scared,” Annie replied as she sat in the outdoor lounger. “She needs to be aware of her surroundings. Sometimes she lives as though she’s a nonmagical and none of this stuff happens.”
“Well, you accomplished what you wanted,” Jason said.
“Don’t reprimand me. This is how you raised me. You left it up to me to protect her,” Annie spat.
Jason glanced at his hands. “I made a mistake,” he murmured.
Annie shuddered and placed her head in her hands. She rubbed her face and then looked back at Jason. “I saw you. Strong and brave. I wanted to be like you. Being a wizard guard was all I knew. All I ever wanted. It’s just now…” She glanced out at the glorious sight of Chicago to the east.
“And now,” Jason prodded.
“It’s like this. In the last year, I’ve learned the truth about your death, about Mom, about what Stur
tagaard did to exact his revenge against me. My life turned upside down because someone else orchestrated it.” Annie stood at the railing and leaned into it, looking through the courtyard outside the house.
“Seeing you here now, I wonder if all I was doing was trying to please you.” She shuddered, remembering that Sturtagaard had implied the same.
Jason shook his head and chuckled. “When you were eleven, you took one of my case files and reorganized and made notes in the margins. Frankly, you helped me solve the bloody thing.”
Annie turned back to him. “I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember because there were so many times you did stuff like that. You did research for me on your own without being asked. I got permission for you to work at Wizard Hall on summer break to research for the other guards. At twelve, you worked in the lab learning how they investigated the deaths. You asked for that and I agreed. Gibbs took you on a vampire hunt when you were thirteen because he wanted you to learn to fear them because he saw what I saw. You went to the prison on your own because you wanted to see the vampires locked up just before they were staked. I wouldn’t have done any of that if I thought you wanted to do anything else with your life. I never took John and Samantha, but I took you, and later, I took Cham—because you both desired to learn.”
Air popped behind them. Annie started and turned to see Cham on the roof. “How’s it going?” Cham asked cautiously, sensing the tension on their faces.
“I haven’t found anything up here,” Annie said.
“And down there?” He pointed to the attic door of the townhouse.
“Haven’t been down yet,” Annie said. “Dad’s reprimanding me for scaring her and reminding me I’ve always wanted to do this.”
Cham glanced between Annie and Jason. “It sounds like I missed a lot. I suggest we go down and make sure she’s okay.” Cham led them inside, through a back hallway to the stairs that led to the front room.
“I hate your job.” Samantha scowled from where she sat beside John on the sofa. Her arms were crossed tightly against her chest, keeping Annie at a distance.
“This has nothing to do with my job. It has to do with the stupid powers that the Fraternitatem want,” Annie said. She waved her hands and let Samantha see the magic as it floated from her palms.
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