“Ginger!” Max was beside me. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s…” I caught my breath over the stinging fire of pain on my left side. I pushed up on my right elbow and looked at my left thigh. My jeans were cut into three even slices. So was my shirt on my side. “He’s hacking at the tree.”
Max put his front paws on my knee and looked at the wounds. His paws had a gold light around them and it was warm where he touched. I gasped as the wounds began to heal. “Oh no. Ginger…pull out of the tree. You’re too close to it. Your magic is still controlling it. Let it go or you’ll feel everything it feels.”
Another knock and I screamed this time as a deep gash appeared on my upper left arm. That’s when I realized what Rush Knight was doing.
He had an axe, and he was chopping away at the wood.
And me.
EIGHTEEN
The address Ginger sent David to gave him the willies. It wasn’t every vampire who found dark and creepy…well…creepy. David knew he was a bit different from the rest of his kind. He’d borrowed Dr. Helena’s car and parked it away from the building. In his wolf form he scouted the perimeter of the large building, noticing a dilapidated sign that read Castle Falls Bed and Breakfast. It was maybe a beat or so after seeing the sign that David realized where she’d sent him.
This was the building Ginger and Cassandra talked about in the library that day. What was the kid’s name? Bishop?
Tad Bishop. Wayland Bishop. David took a side path from the surrounding trees toward the building—and stopped when three heart beats caught his attention. Two were human and one was an animal. Small. A cat maybe. Letting the night air and its beauty take his senses forward, he pinpointed where the heart beats were coming from. Top floor, far right.
Shifting from wolf to man, David moved like a shadow to the front door. It was locked and for a second he feared he wouldn’t be able to go inside. A single twist and the lock opened. So—not a private residence. No one lived here.
Luckily he could see just like it was daylight or he would have stumbled over the pile of trash in front of the door. That might be what it was put there for. Some kind of alarm. He quietly closed the door and made his way around the trash and took a good look at things.
If the place had been finished, it would have been a work of art. The front door opened up on a spacious lounge area, complete with a large stone fireplace to the left, floor to ceiling windows along the far wall which were little more than warped and aged slabs of wood now, and a rounded counter beside it. He assumed this is where guests would check in.
To the right was more open space, a few scattered tables, half-finished tile and more boarded up windows. He recognized a bar to the left of the room and guessed there was a kitchen beyond the door by the bar. Holes in the ceiling were the only evidence left of light fixtures. He walked silently down the hall between the two spaces and spotted double elevators. A door marked Stairs was propped open to the right of the elevators so David went up.
Letting his senses guide him, David moved to the top floor and made his way to the farthest room, the one at the end of the hall. The heartbeats were louder, and he heard voices. A man and a woman.
“…more chance,” the male voice said. “Where is the book?”
“I’ve told you. You won’t listen. I have no idea. Nothing’s changed since you killed Carmine.”
That voice reminded him of Ginger’s. At that moment he knew this was Melody and realized Ginger must have realized Tad was the killer and he was holding her sister here.
There was a sound like a slap and then a sigh. “You really don’t seem to understand, do you? No one’s looking for you. They think you’re dead, just like your partner. That bitch at the library is going to take the fall for all of this.”
“Fine. You get away with murder, but that’s not going to get you that book, jerk.”
David decided he liked Melody. And it was time for him to shut the jerk up.
Vampires had many powers, some more than others. David was lucky that his maker had been powerful, and talented, and passed many of those attributes on to his brood. Of the three vampires he made, David had been the only one to inherit all the maker’s gifts. One of those abilities was to shift into smoke. It wasn’t pleasant, and it sometimes made him dizzy.
Luckily he’d just consumed blood, but he was also still recovering from silver poisoning. But he couldn’t see where Tad was in relation to the room and where Melody was. It was a risk he was going to have to take.
In seconds David became little more than a column of black smoke. He squeezed himself under the door and slithered along the floor to a group of shadows by the room’s bathroom. He could see in this form, but not as clearly as he could as a man, or even better, as a wolf. This room wasn’t like the rest of the place. This room still had decent carpet, a canopy bed, a Jacuzzi in the corner behind David, and a decent sized bathroom. In the back of the room, next to the door, was a very small kitchenette.
Melody was on the bed. Long, curly reddish brown hair. She resembled Ginger, but not exactly. Her face was long and her eyes weren’t green, but brown. She was beautiful, just like her sister, and she radiated power as well. Her wrists were bound in front of her and then tethered by a long leash of rope to one of the bed’s four posts. He’d seen witches do extraordinary things in his lifetime and getting out of ropes should be a piece of cake.
Unless he was holding something over her.
Ah, wait. The third heartbeat. He had her familiar.
David slipped back under the door and tracked down the third heartbeat. He found the small orange cat locked in one of the rooms downstairs, inside a pet carrier with a large padlock. He returned to human form, braced himself against the wall to wait for the dizziness to pass, then removed the padlock and coaxed the cat out.
“Meerrr!”
“Look, I know you can talk. You’re a familiar. Melody’s upstairs with a murderer and if we don't get her out, I’m afraid he’ll kill her too.”
“Preposterous!” The cat’s voice was much different from Max’s. And he didn’t have an accent like Max. “Melody is a very powerful witch. I know. I helped train her.”
Oh wait, there was an accent. Self-Aggrandizement.
“That might be, but I figured as long as she thought the guy had control of you, she wasn’t going to make a move.”
The cat sat up and touched his chin with his paw. “That could be. Right. So we need to let her know I’m fine.”
“Want to help me take down the jerk?”
The cat nodded. “Yes. My name is Twinkle.”
David tried very hard not to laugh. “My name’s David.”
“You have witch smell on you.” The cat bounded to the door. “Let’s go!”
David and the cat made their way back up the steps to the door and listened. The two were still talking. He shifted back to smoke and went under the door and back to the shadow. Tad had his back to David but Melody had a bird's-eye view as David slowly shifted back to human form. Not as much dizzy this time, but apparently Melody’s expression gave him away because Tad turned and pointed his gun at him.
“Crap!” David said and ducked as the gun went off and put a silver bullet into the bathroom mirror, shattering it. David rolled out of the way and tackled Tad at the knees. The two went down and struggled for possession of the gun. David had it in his hand but it burned his skin and he hissed as he let go of it. Tad lunged for the gun but an orange blur kicked it away as David punched Tad in the face.
The kid lay still and David pushed himself up on his knees, only to face Melody who now pointed the gun at him. “Wait—” He managed to say as she fired it.
He was lucky that same orange blur charged at her and the bullet went wild.
“Don’t do that!” Twinkle shouted. “You’ll do serious damage with that gun. It uses silver bullets.”
“Twinkle!” Melody shouted and the ropes binding her wrists disappeared as she took the orange cat into he
r arms. Twinkle put his arms around her neck and nearly disappeared in Melody’s hair. “Oh, I was so afraid he was going to do something terrible to you!”
“I was worried about you too,” Twinkle said.
“Yay,” David said as he stood up. Tad was moving again. “Melody, can you make those ropes appear again, only on him this time?”
“With pleasure.”
The ropes appeared around Tad’s wrists, securely fastening them behind his back. The kid came to and struggled, but stopped when he saw the vampire, the witch, and the familiar staring down at him. He sneered at David. “I should have cut your head off.”
“Yeah, well, you didn’t know I wasn’t human, did you?” David looked at Melody as he retrieved his phone. “Your family’s worried about you.”
“How did you know I was here…and…” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Who are you?”
He held out his hand to her. “Doctor David Flanagan. We met in your store.”
“Yes!” she pumped his hand. “You bought furniture from me. You know, Carmine said you were different, like us.” Then her expression turned sad. “Carmine is dead, isn’t she?”
“I’m afraid so. Neither did Hardin Manchester and Charles Willmington. Tad killed them.”
She looked at Tad and spat at him. “That’s why you want that book, isn’t it? Because your name’s already in it!”
That piece of information made David hesitated after he dialed the Sheriff’s office.
“Danvers,” the Sheriff said.
David told him where he was and that he had Melody, and that Tad Bishop was the killer. Danvers said he’d be there in a few minutes.
“What’s wrong with your face?” Melody asked as David dialed Ginger’s number.
“I’m worried about your sister. Something you just said.”
“My sister…” Melody’s expression brightened. “Is Ginger here?”
“Yes. And we found the book, by the way. Great disguise for it.”
Melody frowned. “Disguise? You mean you found The Book of Ill Deeds?”
“That’s my book!” Tad yelled out and David kicked him.
There was no answer. He hung up. “Yeah. You didn’t turn it into a deck of Tarot cards?”
“No. But that is a good idea. But, it might have been the book that did that, you know. Self-preservation. I heard that Silus Castle was very thorough when he made it, so it would be an autonomous source of vital information.” Melody nodded.
“What you said about Tad’s name being in the book. I’m thinking she sent me here to find you while she went to look at that book.” He gestured down at Tad. “To see if his name’s in it.”
Melody stepped forward and put her hand on his arm. “Oh no. There’s a Hunter in town. If she opens it, he’ll know where she and the book are.”
Damn!
“Go,” Melody said as they heard the first sound of a siren. “I’m okay here. As long as Twinkle is okay, this little criminal can’t hurt me.” She smirked. “He’s not a very good witch.”
“Tell Danvers where I’ve gone, okay?” And with that, he shifted into a wolf and ran out of the house.
I’d never been good at dealing with pain. I demanded and paid extra for extreme laughing gas just to get a cavity filled. This? I was in agony and ready to curl up in a ball in the bathtub like a blubbering idiot. I was bleeding real blood!
“Ginger,” Max was saying as the chopping continued. “Bond with me. Please. I can stop it from hurting.”
“No,” I said. I wasn’t trying to be noble or anything. I knew what familiars were capable of. I knew what he was prepared to do, but it wasn’t as if they made the pain magically go away. They took it on, and the last thing I wanted was for Max to hurt.
“This is silly!” Max was pacing now. “Just let me help you.”
“I don’t want you to die from this!” I finally shouted at him. Geez. Obstinate cat!
Max looked at me with very wide eyes. “You…you don’t want me to die? But, I’m just a familiar.”
“You’re not just anything,” I hissed through the pain. “You don’t have to bond with me. You can be free, Max.”
He looked at me, then I saw him look at the window. That was a way out. Yeah, it was a long drop, but a cat could shimmy up to the roof, couldn’t they? Save themselves? And I thought that’s what he’d do—until I saw his eyes go as round as goose eggs and his mouth opened in a perfect O to expose his fangs.
I tried to look in the direction of the window but Max abruptly grew to the size of a black panther and covered me as something crashed through the window. I heard familiar growling and then a hiss from Max as I said in a muffled voice. “Max, that’s David.”
Max moved away, and I looked into the beautiful wolfen face of David the vampire wolf. He licked my face and then sniffed at my wounds.
“I can fix them,” Max said, though his voice had deepened. “Just bond with me.”
“You want to be my familiar?” I stared at him. “You’ll be locked with me until I die, Max.”
“So? I spent my first years with a psychopath and then the next years with her brother. I think it’s time I have a much better forever home, don’t you?”
I wanted to cry at that moment, but another chop and I cried out instead.
“What’s going on?” the wolf demanded in a deep voice.
Max told him in simple sentences. When he finished, David looked at me. “Bond.”
“But—”
“Obstinate witch. Your sister is safe. Tad is in custody. Bond! You wanted a familiar. There’s one right here. Then I can take out that Hunter.”
I was still on my side, bleeding on the floor. I reached out to Max, and he moved his head under my hand. “I pledge myself to you, Ginger Blackstone.”
“I pledge…myself to you…Maximillian the Wise.”
David tilted his head to the side and woofed in a snicker.
I ignore him. “Are we bonded?”
“Yes.”
And at that moment I felt Max. Not just as something peripheral, but as an extension. I could actually hear him in my head. Feel him around me. And the pain…
It was going away! I looked at my body and watched as the cuts began to heal. “What…what happened?” I reached out and touched Max’s side. “Are you taking them?”
“No. I just severed your connection. We really need to train you on your power, Ginger.”
“Not now,” David said as he faced the door.
I noticed the tree was disappearing. Within seconds it was gone, and the door busted inward. Rise the dog—not looking so big and imposing now—rushed in. He faced a panther and a wolf. The wolf growled. Rise peed on the floor, turned and ran off, whining.
“Stupid dog! It’s just an illusion—"
That was about all he got out as David rushed him, came out of his shift and hit him across the face with his right fist. Rush went backward and landed in the hall, unconscious.
Max returned to his normal cat size and bounded into my arms as I sat up. I nuzzled him and he nuzzled back. I had a familiar! And what a sweet little baby he was!
David grabbed my back, took out my keys, picked me up and carried me down the stairs to the now shattered front door. “Let’s go see your sister.”
Epilogue
A week after Tad was arrested and my sister recovered, myself, David, Mama D, Melody, Kevin, Evie, Cassandra, and all of our familiars, gathered at mom’s house for a spaghetti dinner in honor of Melody’s return and my new familiar, Max. David had already started on the repairs to his house and I reopened Mama D’s shop and did a great first day.
Oh, and he’d found his car in the woods surrounding the Bishop property.
We were sitting around the table with coffee and dessert as Melody, David and I recounted the events. Mama D sat in her usual place and listened, smiling the entire time.
“I saw Hardin first,” Melody said as she stroked Twinkle’s back. He was in her lap. “He came to me to
get a reading. And it was a bad reading.”
“Yeah, Mama D told me,” I said. Max was napping on my lap. He was full of spaghetti and garlic breath. And he was burping garlic now and then. “That reading would have scared me too.”
“It did. I felt so bad for him, so I offered to give him something out of the counter. He picked out a pack of antique Tarot cards. I honestly had no idea how they got there or what they were.”
“So you didn’t put glamor on them?”
“Nope. I talked to Mama D about the reading and then went back to the store. That Hunter showed up, and I kindly told him to get lost. That’s when Tad Bishop showed up. I kinda knew him from the library. He demanded I give him some book about Castamundus and I thought he was crazy. He said I’d taken it from the library but I hadn’t. Yeah, Cass gave me a box of things she thought might be important.”
Kevin sat forward. “Do you think the book was in that box? Or maybe the book as a pack of cards?”
“I have no idea. Carmine checked everything in and insisted there wasn’t a book by that name. Tad was so furious he shot her. I don’t think he meant too, but once it happened, he was in over his head. He’d already trapped Twinkle and threatened to hurt him if I didn’t do what he said.”
“So you were in that building the whole time?” Evie said.
“Yeah. He’d leave me alone a lot, and I stayed put. I didn’t want anything to happen to Twinkle.”
“Couldn’t he just tell you he was okay?” I asked. I was thinking of how Max and I could talk easier now in our minds.
“Tad kept Twinkle drugged. I think David got lucky that night. Twinkle was awake.” She smiled at David. He held up his mug for her. I’d had the mug made for him when he was at Mama D’s. It said DAVID’S MUG. DO NOT DRINK, on the side.
“So in the meantime,” I said. “He confronted Hardin. We may never know why Hardin was in Mama D’s shop that night, but Tad followed him and poisoned him with the nightshade. Then he attacked Willmington and dragged him near Mama D’s shop to perpetuate suspicion on Mama D.”
The Book Of Ill Deeds_A Paranormal Cozy Mystery Page 15