Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

“It has multiple steps, and it’s best if we don’t discuss it in detail until after the first steps are completed.”

  Becca worried, looking at the Makkai around the firepit, that Jackson was inviting open rebellion, but he held his ground.

  “I can’t say more,” he said. “Billy and Robbie are going to take their trucks and their travelers to get Aaron. Colin and Dina are going to take theirs to go get Patricia. That’s all I’m going to say right now. Other than that, once you have them, I will call you with where to go next, and that you need to make them come with you voluntarily and without mentioning the other. I will guarantee their safety insofar as I can control it.”

  The stir this caused was much more muted as the Makkai started to speculate internally and amongst themselves as to what this actually meant. Becca caught Billy’s eye, and he waved her over.

  “If we aren’t going to know what happens next until we get him, let’s go get him,” he said, and she nodded quickly.

  Even she didn’t know what Bella and Jackson had planned, and she’d been there for Peter’s big secret. She looked at Grant, who looked like he’d swallowed a frog.

  “You okay?” she called, jogging over to see him.

  “I haven’t been home since I joined the tribe,” he said.

  “You think your parents won’t be happy to see you?” she asked.

  “I don’t think my dad knows that the curse is back,” he said weakly. “We’re just going to show up…”

  “And ask him to come with us,” Becca said. “We don’t need to tell him it is back, if he doesn’t know, and…”

  “If he does, it’s going to sound like an accusation,” Grant said. “Everyone thought that it was because of him, and now…”

  “It doesn’t mean anything for sure,” Becca said.

  “Is it his fault?” Grant asked. Becca felt desperate and put on the spot, but she hadn’t found anything Peter had told them to be that helpful.

  “I don’t know,” Becca said. “I don’t know if I would tell you if I did know, but I don’t. I don’t even know if Bella and Jackson know.”

  “I bet they do,” Grant said glumly. “If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be this secretive.”

  “If they knew, they wouldn’t be secretive at all,” Becca scolded. “They don’t know who to trust.”

  “At least you aren’t a part of it this time,” he said, then his eyebrows shot up. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that.”

  She laughed.

  “Yes you did. It’s frustrating not to be able to tell you stuff, and, yeah, I could see how it would bother a lot of people that I’ve been one of the ones they trust, even if I think they’ve got some pretty good reasons.”

  He shrugged and kicked at the dirt.

  “Well,” he said finally. “Let’s get this over with.”

  It was a twelve-hour drive to Ohio, where Grant’s family lived. They got off the interstate and drove for forty-five minutes along smaller and smaller roads until they reached the gravel road that lead to the farm where Grant had grown up. They parked out front of the modest house, and a woman opened the front door as they got out, shouting back into the house and then coming out to hug Grant.

  “What’s going on?” she asked. Grant motioned with his arm.

  “That’s Robbie, Quinn, Billy, Ursa, and Becca,” he said. “We’re here to talk to Dad.”

  “I’m sorry,” the Makkai woman said with an easy smile. “He’s always been pretty much to the point. How long have you been on the road? Are you staying the night? Can I get you something to drink?”

  “We’re fine,” Billy said. “I don’t know if we’re staying or not.”

  The woman frowned.

  “This is serious, then?”

  “What is it?” a man called from the doorway. Several kids spilled out around him, coming to hug Grant as the older man made a more stoic walk down the front pathway. Grant’s father looked exactly like Grant, only his skin was tougher, somehow, and his hair, while in the same short-cropped style, seemed less uncontrolled, and was a stony slate color, rather than blond.

  “We need your help,” Billy said as Grant hugged his siblings and avoided eye contact with his father.

  “What is it?” Aaron asked again. Becca didn’t know what she’d been expecting - maybe someone softer and more sensitive, like Grant - but he had frightening eyes and a posture that was almost military.

  “Bella asked you to come,” Robbie said.

  “I haven’t heard from her in years, outside of the day she called to tell me that Grant here would be joining her tribe, and then she sends you lot to come talk to me?” he asked. “What’s going on?”

  “We need you to come with us,” Billy said.

  There was a brief silence, and Aaron looked at his wife. She raised an eyebrow and sighed.

  “We all know you’re going,” she said. “At least let me feed all of you a good meal and get you settled in for the night.”

  “Need to hear it from him,” Billy said, “and then I’m going to have to call Bella to see if we’re going to be able to stay overnight.”

  Becca saw Aaron make the connection. Where he had been a bit distant and firm, he suddenly went stiff and cold.

  Billy saw it, too, and he nodded almost imperceptibly. Aaron shook his head, taking a step back.

  “How bad?” he asked.

  “It’s different,” Billy said. “We need you.”

  Aaron took another step backwards.

  “She has Jackson,” Aaron said. “I’m not doing it again.”

  “I can’t leave without you,” Billy said. “She sent me and asked for you to come. We need your help.”

  “What’s going on?” Grant’s mother asked.

  “The curse is back,” Aaron said darkly, turning and going back into the house. “I”m not getting myself back into that. Not again.”

  Billy sighed, and Robby threw up his arms.

  “You didn’t have to tell him,” he said.

  “He knew,” Billy said. “Why else would we be here?”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Grant’s mother said, looking back at him as the front door slammed. “Get yourselves set up for the night. He won’t turn you away, I don’t care how bad he thinks it was.”

  “Be kind,” Billy said. “You can’t understand, if you weren’t there.”

  The woman nodded and gave Grant another hug, then chased Aaron into the house.

  “Don’t know why she sent all of us,” Robbie said. “More of us are just going to make it harder for him to swallow his pride and come with us.”

  “You don’t?” Billy asked, heading back to the trailers casually. He looked back over his shoulder. “It’s because Bella and Jackson wanted to get rid of us.”

  They stayed two days. Aaron rarely came out of the house, so Becca and Grant took to walking the property between meals, sometimes with some of his siblings and sometimes on their own.

  “Do you think he’ll do it?” Becca asked.

  “I don’t know,” Grant said. “They were dark times. I think Billy and Robbie know better than I do, but when he came home, it took him a long time to be happy again.”

  Becca shook her head.

  “Then he should have left,” she said, and Grant looked alarmed. She shrugged. “When you get to the point that you can’t do something day after day after day and ever expect to be happy at it, you’ve been doing it too long or you’re doing the wrong thing.”

  He sighed, rubbing his face with his palms.

  “He stayed because they needed him,” he said.

  “I know,” she said. “And maybe it was right. I don’t know. I just think he was right to leave.”

  “What are we going to do if he won’t?” He stopped short. “What are they planning?”

  “I don’t know,” Becca said. “I don’t know how many more times I can tell you, but I don’t know.”

  “I mean…” Grant said. “I don’t like keeping the part about Patricia from him. Why
would they need both of them?”

  Becca shook her head.

  “I don’t have a guess.”

  “The story,” Grant said, with growing exasperation. “What does it have to do with it? Did Peter not tell you who cast the curse? Did he not know? Are we doing this without knowing who did the cast?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I think it was just asking for faith. But I don’t know.”

  “What did he tell you?” Grant asked. “Please.”

  They came to a point where a tree had fallen and Aaron had cut it off and dragged it alongside a field to get it out of the way, and they sat. Becca looked him in the eye, and he took her hand between his. She let it happen.

  Dawn said not to trust anyone.

  Grant said not to trust anyone.

  Jackson had asked her to keep it to herself.

  Had he?

  He hadn’t said a thing.

  She’d just been waiting for him to do something, to say something, because she’d felt like it wasn’t her place.

  But he hadn’t told her to keep it a secret.

  “He said that he knew the mage who cast it,” she said. “And that he died twelve years ago.”

  Grant was quiet for several minutes.

  “You told me,” he said.

  “You asked me,” she retorted.

  “You… You really don’t think I’m involved,” she said.

  “Nope,” she said. “I really don’t.”

  He shook his head.

  “So what does that mean? If the guy who cast the curse is dead. How is it still around? Does he have a son?”

  “Magic doesn’t work like that for anyone other than the Makkai,” Becca reminded him. “He might have someone who picked up after him, but Peter seemed to think that it was the same curse, still active.”

  “How?” Grant asked. “It was inactive for ten years.”

  She shook her head.

  “I don’t know.”

  He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.

  “I don’t…” he started, and then he froze.

  “What?” she asked.

  “It is me,” he said.

  “What?” she asked. “No it isn’t.”

  “It is,” he said. “I see what they saw.”

  “Okay,” Becca prompted.

  “Jackson was right. My dad has to be there, and there’s no way we can tell him about Patricia.”

  “Grant,” she said. “Now you’re being evil.”

  He looked at her, looking dazed.

  “It came back because of me,” he said. She frowned and he nodded. “It left when my dad did, and it came back when I joined the tribe.”

  She sat very still, putting the pieces all together.

  “I…” she started, wanting to see something else there, but finally she nodded. “I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I think you’re right. It is you.”

  “Come on,” he said, standing and pulling her to her feet. “I’m going to go end this.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked, walking easily after him.

  “I’m going to go convinced my dad that it’s time to go,” he said. “If we’re involved, we have to be the ones to end it.”

  “You aren’t going to tell him…?” Becca asked.

  “No,” he said. “I’m just going to end this.”

  She didn’t know how he’d done it. What she did know was that Aaron and Grant weren’t speaking to each other, but that was working out just fine because, instead, she was splitting her back seat with Aaron instead of Ursa, pushing Ursa to the front seat.

  And they were on their way.

  Billy hadn’t told them where they were going, but they were on the way.

  “I’m in the car now,” Aaron said testily. “Will you at least tell me now what’s going on?”

  “None of us have a clue,” Billy said. “So there isn’t much to tell.”

  Becca didn’t correct him. That, at least, felt like less of a lie than saying it herself.

  “What’s been going on?” Aaron asked. “Is Bella in active danger? Are you bringing me in to help keep her safe? Because I don’t want any part of that. Everyone blamed me for every single one of the others, and I’m not doing that again.”

  “You’d rather she die on someone else’s watch, so at least your hands are clean,” Ursa said darkly.

  “Your son has a great, strong spirit,” Billy said, darting a glance over at Ursa. “I recognize it from you. I think that what happened broke that spirit in you, but he knows that when there’s a problem and you can help, you don’t go running away from it. You charge straight at it. That’s what Makkai do.”

  “I charged it already,” Aaron said, putting his fingers to his temples. “I think I’ve proved there’s nothing I can do to help.”

  “Bella says there is,” Billy told him. “And so does Jackson. And right now I trust their word on who can help a lot more than I trust yours.”

  “They were so young when it happened,” Aaron said. “How would they know? Jackson has no idea what he’s in for.”

  “So you’re going to come help,” Billy said. He looked over his shoulder, his gaze sweeping across Becca as he looked at Aaron. “Look, there are enough of us around who do remember. I wouldn’t have come here if I thought it was just because they wanted a shield to keep them from having to take responsibility. They’ve both grown up a lot since you knew them, and they weren’t ever like that before. It’s been tough, but the tribe has hope right now. They’re doing a really good job, and you need to be there for this. I mean that.”

  Aaron looked at Becca as if he’d just seen her.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “Becca,” she said weakly, not knowing what was going to happen next.

  “I know all of the others,” he said. “They were all there, back in my day, and I get why she sent Grant, but why are you here?”

  She swallowed.

  She did not want to lie to this man.

  “I’m not supposed to tell you anything,” she said. “But I’m here because I need to be here. If that’s what Bella thinks, then that’s what I believe is true.”

  “What kind of cult is that woman running?” Aaron asked, turning to Billy again.

  “Not a cult,” Becca said. Aaron’s head snapped to look at her. She’d spoken out of turn again. More, she’d drawn attention again after it had moved on past her. Oh, well. That was what she was good at. “The tribe kept turning against the queen, didn’t it?” Becca asked. “Last time.”

  “It did,” he said, not giving away any emotion. She nodded quickly.

  “She’s making sure it doesn’t happen again,” she said. “She’s doing what she has to do. I don’t believe in her because she’s magic or infallible. I believe in her because so far, she’s been right when it mattered.”

  She saw Billy chew on his thumb nail, a sign that he wasn’t tense right now, and she breathed.

  “I’ll see for myself,” Aaron said.

  “That you will,” Billy said. Becca settled into her seat and started reciting her crystal groups out of idle habit.

  They went south.

  South and south and south.

  Camped overnight once. Aaron and Grant still didn’t speak to each other. Sleeping accommodations were awkward, because there were more bodies than beds, but Billy insisted that he was comfortable sleeping in his truck, and so Aaron slept - or didn’t, she couldn’t be sure - across the aisle from Becca. Ursa snored as hard as ever, so at least one of them got a good night’s sleep.

  They pulled off of the interstate in Mississippi and drove for a while through back land with almost no civilization to it, finally ending up in a field with no sign of civilization to it beyond that it was mowed and there was a truck and a trailer parked there. Jackson’s truck.

  Billy parked and Becca waited for Ursa to get out so that she could squeeze through between the seat and the wall of the truck, running to find Dawn.

>   “You brought him,” Dawn said, coming around the corner of the trailer as Aaron worked his way out of the truck. “He was the one they thought might not come.”

  “Where’s Patricia?” Becca asked. Dawn shook her head.

  “They’re still working.”

  “He’s going to be really impatient.”

  Dawn shook her head again.

  “He’s going to be even angrier when he sees her,” she said softly.

  “Why?” Becca asked. Dawn gave her an apologetic smile.

  “I can’t say.”

  “You are the queen of the evil tease,” Becca said, and Dawn laughed.

  “Probably so. Bella would just keep her mouth shut. But if I just didn’t say anything when there was something I wasn’t supposed to say, I’d never talk.”

  Becca laughed at this and hugged her.

  “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”

  “How is Grant?” Dawn asked.

  “Sore,” Becca said. “I don’t know why. Haven’t had a chance to talk to him. Hey. Um. He thinks that the curse is back because of him.”

  “Does he?” Dawn asked.

  “He does. And he thinks that it went away because his dad left.”

  “We’re going to have to be careful around the two of you,” Bella said, rounding the trailer and coming into view. “You are more perceptive than we would anticipate.”

  “If you didn’t want us getting so good at this, you could tell us things, from time to time,” Becca said, and Bella’s eyes twinkled.

  “I need to go greet Aaron,” she said, touching Becca’s shoulder as she went past.

  “She just schooled me, didn’t she?” Becca asked.

  “You really do learn eventually,” Dawn said. “Stubborn as anyone I’ve ever met, but make up for it in smart.”

  “That’s not funny,” Becca sulked and Dawn grinned.

  “We’ve been fending for ourselves for food for a few days. You want to go shopping with me to go get something better for dinner tonight?”

  “Grant’s mom fed us,” Becca said. “She’s a really good cook.”

  “Yeah, that doesn’t help me at all,” Dawn said. “Jackson does his best.”

  “I heard that,” Jackson called from somewhere around the far side of the trailer.

  “Are you all just hiding around the corner there waiting for me to say something embarrassing?” Becca asked, peering past Dawn. Jackson was in a folding chair reading a newspaper, sitting next to a tiny fire with his feet up.