Defender (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 11)

by Christine Pope

“Sounds great.” She went over to the window and peered out, but there really wasn’t that much to see, just a bright morning sun shining down on the fresh green of the manzanita trees, a light breeze blowing through the wild grasses and flowers. It looked to be a perfect day.

  A perfect day for what, though? That was the real question. He didn’t think their foe would approach the house in bright sunlight; so far, except for the trashing of his apartment, the warlock in question clearly preferred to work in darkness. Anyway, if someone who harbored dark intent was lurking anywhere in the vicinity, he would have felt it through the wards he had placed on the perimeter of the property.

  “Everything’s fine,” he said as he poured coffee into each of the mugs he’d set on the counter. “We’re alone here.”

  She gave a guilty start, then turned away from the window and back toward him. “Of course. I mean, I should have remembered that. You told me that the wards would let you know if anyone tried to come close.”

  “Exactly. So have your coffee, and we can figure out what we need to do today.”

  Without replying, she came over to him and picked up one of the mugs of coffee, and blew on the surface of the liquid. “What do we need to do? You made it sound as if we just had to sit tight while Luz talks to Connor and Angela, that it was up to them to figure out what to do next.”

  He went to the fridge and got out the small carton of milk they’d purchased, pouring in only enough to turn his coffee a milk chocolate color. “Well, yes, I am sort of waiting to hear what they have to say, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do some work of our own while we’re down here. I have a cousin in Tucson, Consuelo. She’s the clan’s expert on this kind of magic. I already talked to her once about your — about Jeff’s case, but with everything that’s going on in California, I thought it would be a good idea to speak with her again.”

  Kate didn’t look exactly thrilled by that suggestion. “Is it safe?”

  It would have been nice to be able to tell her that her worries didn’t have any true basis, but Jack knew that wasn’t the case. He’d reassured her over and over that they would be safe in their desert refuge, and now he was telling her that he wanted to leave the house down here in Tubac and go back up to Tucson.

  “I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. For one thing, it seems pretty obvious that our warlock doesn’t know where we are, so we don’t need to worry about being followed. Also, Consuelo has her house warded even more securely than this one. Even if something did try to attack us there, I don’t think it would get very far.”

  His words didn’t appear to reassure Kate, though. She didn’t answer immediately, only blew on her coffee a few more times before taking a very cautious sip. When she spoke, however, she didn’t offer any protests. “Well, if you think it will be all right….”

  “I know it will be. I’ll send her an email.”

  This time, one of Kate’s eyebrows arched slightly. “Email?”

  “Consuelo kind of lives out in the middle of nowhere. She doesn’t have a phone, and there’s no cell service where she lives. She has satellite internet, just like I do here.”

  “Ah.” This time, Kate shot him an arch look. “So when were you going to give me the wifi password?”

  He couldn’t help chuckling. “We were a little busy last night. But it’s Tubac256. Guess I’d better change it, though — that’s the password my agent set up for the last batch of guests. You can use it now, though, if you want to check your email or something.”

  “No, I’ll wait until the password’s been updated. I talked to my mother yesterday — and left messages for Colin and Sam — so I’m probably okay for a while.” She took a larger swallow of coffee this time, then added, “Am I making breakfast?”

  He gave a rueful shrug. “Well, yeah, unless you’re okay with runny scrambled eggs.”

  Kate grimaced and sent him a rueful but still affectionate look. “Never mind. I’ll take care of it.”

  After setting down her mug, she went to the refrigerator and got out more of the supplies they’d picked up the afternoon before — a carton of eggs, bacon, a package of English muffins. Even though she couldn’t know where everything was located, she got all the necessary items assembled in a remarkably short period of time.

  As she beat the eggs in a yellow ceramic bowl, she asked, “So you really think your cousin Consuelo will be able to help out with all this?”

  Good question. But the older witch had spent years researching magic’s darker aspects, tracking down its more esoteric manifestations. She might have more insight on how to handle a null, for example. The little Jack had heard on the subject had made it sound as though those witches and warlocks who could destroy all magic around them were nearly invincible, but he refused to believe that. No one was invincible. Everyone had their weak point.

  “More than anyone else I can think of,” he said, and drank some more of his coffee. “In general, we don’t like to explore the darker aspects of our powers. They can be very strong, but they can also make us reckless. And that’s one thing we really can’t afford to be, not when we have to live amongst those of you who don’t have any magical ability, not when we’re so outnumbered. So Consuelo is something of a rarity. I think she’s tried a few times to take some of my younger cousins under her wing, to teach them what she knows, but they haven’t been very receptive.”

  “She doesn’t have children?”

  “No.” Which was another rarity. He knew that she’d been married a long time ago, but her husband had died young, before they could start a family. No one really talked about what had happened to Consuelo’s husband, and Jack hadn’t spent much time wondering about the circumstances of his death. In a clan as large as his, it was hard enough to keep track of one’s immediate relatives, let alone the fourth cousins twice removed, or whatever Consuelo was to him.

  Kate appeared to think that over for a moment, then said, “Well, it does sound as if she’s the person to talk to. And it’ll give us something to do.”

  “What, were you worried about being cooped up in the house all day with me?”

  A slow smile, one that spread over her features like the spring sun coming up over the desert. “No, I’m pretty sure we could figure out something to do to amuse ourselves. But being overly distracted probably isn’t a good idea, not with what we’re up against.”

  Jack couldn’t argue with that statement. He watched as she poured the beaten eggs into a skillet where butter had been heating up and melting, and thought once again of what it had felt like to taste her, to plunge deep into her. Yes, going to bed would definitely while away the hours, but…they’d taken a risk last night, wards or no. Spending all day in that kind of activity could put them in danger. They’d be far too distracted.

  “You’re right,” he said. “I guess we can’t really pretend like we’re on vacation down here. Do you know how to shoot?”

  The question caught her off guard, he could tell; she startled slightly and turned away from her work on the stove top so she could give him a worried look. “You mean, shoot a gun?”

  “Yes.”

  “Sort of. That is, I went to the range with Jeff a couple of times. I really didn’t like it — the noise, the realization that I was holding something deadly in my hands. But yes, I know how to shoot. Why?”

  “Because you just never know.”

  “A gun against a warlock?”

  She appeared so skeptical that Jack couldn’t help chuckling. “We’re not supernatural beings, Kate. We’re just people who happen to have some special abilities. We bleed, same as everyone else.”

  “What about the demons?”

  He felt himself sober abruptly. “Well, yeah, demons generally don’t care if you plug them full of semiautomatic rounds. But that’s what my defensive spells are for. And I’m still not sure if we’d even be facing demons. Consuelo said it appeared that they’d been summoned and then dismissed once their work was done, whatever it was. You don’t really k
eep them around on a leash. That’s way too dangerous, even for the person summoning them.”

  For a moment, she didn’t say anything, only turned back to the stove and pushed the eggs around in the skillet. “This is all academic, right?”

  Should he lie to her, reassure her that he was just trying to be thorough, tell her they’d hidden themselves well enough that they really didn’t need to worry?

  No, he would never lie to her. She deserved better than that. “I don’t know,” he said frankly. “I’m just trying to make sure we have as many bases covered as possible.”

  Again she didn’t reply right away. In silence, she opened the package of English muffins and extracted several, then split them apart and stuck them in the toaster oven. “You’re kind of freaking me out, Jack.”

  “I want you to be freaked out.”

  That remark made her turn around back toward him, hazel eyes questioning. “Excuse me?”

  “Being a little scared is okay. It helps you to keep your edge. Too scared, and yeah, then you lose your focus. But we both need to keep it together, because I honestly can’t tell you what might be coming next.”

  She nodded. Even though she was fairly tall, right then she looked small and frightened, like a kid who’d just realized the monsters under the bed might be real. Her expression made him go to her and wrap his arms around her waist. She immediately leaned into him, her arms reaching around him as well so she could hug him tightly.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  Whether he was telling her the truth remained to be seen.

  Such a beautiful spring day, and yet Kate couldn’t allow herself to enjoy it. Not really. She sat in the passenger seat of the Jeep and watched the landscape pass by outside, every mile bringing them a little closer to Tucson, and to this cousin Consuelo. What would she be like? Kate imagined that someone who’d spent most of their life researching dark magic must be somehow dark as well, bent and twisted. No, she was just manufacturing an image based on movies she’d seen and books she’d read. Jack would never take her to meet someone who wasn’t on the up and up. If the clan didn’t have someone who specialized in this stuff, how would they know how to fight it?

  To be honest, her current nervousness only had a little to do with leaving the sanctuary of the house in Tubac, and a lot more to do with the fact that Consuelo would be the first person to meet Kate after…well, after she and Jack had slept together. Under normal circumstances, that wouldn’t be such a big deal — this wasn’t the 1800s, after all — but when you had witches thrown into the equation, all the norms sort of went out the window. Would Consuelo be able to tell just from looking at her that she and Jack had been intimate?

  No, that was ridiculous. Kate didn’t profess to be an expert on the witch community, but nothing Jenny had said during the time she’d been married to Colin seemed to indicate that sniffing out whether people were sleeping together was a common witch talent, like seeing the future or casting illusions. Anyway, Kate knew that, of all the things which should be preying on her mind, worrying about whether anyone in the de la Paz clan might think she was a loose woman should be pretty far down the list.

  As they drove, she checked her phone. A message from Colin, saying he was glad she’d let him know what was going on, and that Jenny was doing fine and they both wanted to hear from her soon. He ended the message with, “A de la Paz warlock? I always hoped that someday you’d come over to the dark side.”

  The comment made her smile. “Dark side,” indeed. She did have to admit that being involved with a warlock would make some things easier — she definitely wouldn’t have to worry about hiding anything about Jenny’s family from Jack.

  There was also a text from Sam letting her know that her friend had gotten Kate’s message and that she hoped everything would be okay, and to please call her when she had a chance, that Sam would be available after six that night. Kate hoped she’d be able to make that call, but at the moment she really didn’t know what was going to happen next.

  On the other hand, Jack spent half their drive deep in conversation with Luz, who was waiting for Angela and Connor to arrive at her house for their meeting. Since Jack had the hands-free setup going through the Jeep’s sound system, Kate was able to hear every word.

  “…no reply at any of the numbers I called. Not that I have so many contacts in the Santiago clan, but Caitlin had given me Olivia Hernandez’s number — Matías Escobar’s sister — and she didn’t answer, and I also had the contact information for Simón’s younger brother Cristían, and he didn’t pick up, either. So then I called the number I had for Simón and Beatriz Santiago. Just to see what would happen.”

  Kate could feel her own eyes widen, and Jack apparently was just as shocked, because he said, voice rough with worry, “Why would you do a thing like that?”

  “Because I wanted to see how this — this interloper would react. And to show that I am the prima of the de la Paz clan, and not someone to be easily intimidated.”

  “So you spoke with him?”

  “Not at first. It was actually Marisol who answered the phone.”

  “She’s living at the Santiagos’ house now?”

  “I got that impression. Actually, it was difficult to get much of anything out of her. I can’t claim to know her at all…this was the first time I’d ever spoken to her…but she sounded almost drugged. Dreamy and not making very much sense. I tried to ask her what had happened to Simón and Beatriz, and Marisol just said that they’d gone away, and she was the prima now, but she couldn’t really talk because she had so much to do.”

  Jack’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “Did you ask her what it was that she had to do?”

  A pause, and Luz replied, “As I said, I tried. She just gave a strange little laugh and told me that she was going to do over one of the spare bedrooms. Because of the baby.”

  “The baby? Whose baby?” he demanded, and Kate felt a horrible creepy-crawly sensation move down her back. After all, it was pretty obvious from what Caitlin had described in her vision what had happened to the Santiagos’ prima-in-waiting after the screen went dark, so to speak.

  “I don’t know. Afterward, I talked to Caitlin and asked her if she’d seen any indication in her vision that Marisol was pregnant. Caitlin said that no, she hadn’t, but of course if Marisol was only a month or so along, she wouldn’t be showing anything anyway. But I don’t think that’s what she was referring to. I think she believes that this man, this null, has already gotten her with child.”

  The coffee and eggs Kate had consumed only an hour or so earlier flip-flopped in her stomach. She honestly didn’t know what was worse — that Marisol should be so sure already that she was pregnant, or that she seemed so happy to be planning for her rapist’s child.

  From the grim set of Jack’s mouth, it seemed obvious enough to Kate that his thoughts ran along more or less the same lines. When he spoke, his voice was tight but controlled. “What did she say after that?”

  “She said she had to go, but that Joaquin wanted to talk to me.”

  “Joaquin. That’s the null’s name?”

  “Apparently. There was a pause, and I could hear her speaking to someone in a murmur, although I couldn’t really make out what they were saying to one another. And then a man came on the line. He said, ‘Hello, Luz. What is it that you want?’ I told him that, as the prima of the de la Paz clan, I was gravely concerned by his actions. He told me that what happened in Santiago territory was none of my concern and that I should mind my own business. Then he added, ‘It is better this way. I have what I want. But if you press me, Luz, I will carry the fight to you, and I do not think you will much like what happens next.’ After that, he hung up.”

  “Charming character,” Jack commented, although Kate could tell he was being sarcastic to cover up how deeply Luz’s narrative had disturbed him. “What did he sound like to you?”

  “His accent was quite thick. I do
n’t think he is a native speaker of both English and Spanish, the way so many in our clan are. It seemed clear to me that he must have learned English later on. His voice was somewhat deep and rough, but I couldn’t really tell much from it. Anyway, Caitlin has already described him, so we know that he is probably in his forties. The accent only backs up her description of him being Hispanic.”

  Luz sounded very calm…almost too calm. What sort of effort had it taken for her to make that call in the first place, and then stay on the line as that monster, that murderer, spoke to her? Kate didn’t know if she could have managed it.

  “Well, it’s another piece of the puzzle. That news about Marisol, though….” Jack let the words trail off, but Kate could see the way his nostrils flared in disgust. “Anyway, we’ll just have to keep trying to put things together. I’ll let you go now, since we’re about to get off the freeway. But call me and let me know what Angela and Connor had to say.”

  “I will.” Luz paused before adding, “Be careful.”

  “I always am.”

  He pushed the button on the dashboard to disconnect the call. Because they were just pulling off the highway then, he didn’t say anything for a moment. It wasn’t until he had the Jeep pointed toward the foothills east of Tucson that he said, “Jesus.”

  “That was…pretty bad,” Kate ventured. “What do you think the null is doing to Marisol? Drugging her? Putting some kind of a spell on her?”

  “Probably the latter, although it’s hard to say for sure.” Jack’s brows drew together behind his dark glasses. It seemed like he was paying extra attention to the road in front of him because he didn’t want to look over at her, as if by doing so he’d reveal too much of the horror he must be feeling. At least, Kate assumed he must be horrified. She knew she was. “Just because he’s a null doesn’t mean he doesn’t also possess some secondary talents. It happens sometimes, though people who possess two strong talents at the same time are rare. Controlling other people — sort of like what Matías Escobar did to Roslyn McAllister and Danica Wilcox — could be another gift. And if that’s true, it means the null…this Joaquin person…is even more of a threat than I’d previously thought.”