Stealing Time: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel

by Gael, Christine

  “Phil, you spineless bastard. What have you done?”

  Chapter 13

  Five harrowing minutes later, we were all standing around the kitchen table, except Phil, who was anchored to a chair with his own neckties as Zoe bent over him, fairly shaking with fury.

  "That still doesn't explain why you came skulking in here at night," she spat. "I told you I would call you when I wanted to talk."

  "This is still my house," he whimpered, shooting Patrick a nervous glance, which was ironic, because Patrick was, in fact, the least of his worries. "I needed to get a few more things from my closet, is all. I wasn't going to bother you or anything."

  Phil was blubbering like a baby, and clearly confused, but I couldn't find even an ounce of sympathy for him as I approached with the magical mirror in hand. Zoe's hand at potion-making had only grown more deft with each passing day, and there was no question that Phil had caused her early warning system to go off. He'd been touched by magic in some way, and it was time to find out how, and if he posed an actual threat to us.

  Zoe backed away and nodded in my direction, so I stepped in, mirror extended.

  "Do you know Mitch Rasmusson?" I asked carefully.

  "The cop?" Phil replied, his brow furrowing. "Not personally. I saw his name in some newspaper articles about the cult case. Why?"

  I heard his words, but I was more focused on his reflection in the mirror. So far, it was just a red-faced, teary-eyed Phil staring back at me. I fumbled, trying to think of the right questions to ask.

  "And Verbena? Do you know who Verbena is?"

  He shook his head back and forth. "No. I don't know who—why are you guys doing this to me? Is this some initiation into your cult or something? Do I know too much? Because if you let me go, I promise to forget anything I saw and just--"

  "And what exactly do you think you saw, Phil?" I cut in harshly.

  His throat worked as he swallowed hard. "Nothing. I don't know."

  But the image in the mirror told another story. Phil, dressed in business clothes. The same ones he had been wearing the other night when he'd come home early from his trip. He had a pile of clothes in one hand and was rifling through his nightstand with the other. He paused and leaned closer to a notepad perched there. Then, he shrugged and continued to pack his clothing. I was about to press him when the image shifted. Phil, again, but this time in a low-lit bar or lounge. Across from him sat a stunning woman with long, pin-straight, black hair. Face of an angel, plump lips, wide cornflower eyes. She smiled, flashing her dazzling white teeth, and then leaned in to take Phil's hand.

  "Wh-who is that?" Zoe asked, her voice barely a whisper.

  "Her name is Victoria," Phil said slowly, eyes widening in terror-laden shock as he focused in on the image and then met my gaze. "But how--"

  Victoria, indeed.

  "What are the two of you talking about?" I pressed, clutching Phil's hair in my hand and forcing him to look back into the mirror. I had never seen Verbena's face before, but in the deepest part of my bones, I know I was looking at her now.

  "Nothing. Small talk." He shrugged defensively. "She likes me. Is that so hard to believe?"

  "Yes," I shot back. "Now, try to remember, did she ask about me? About the case or about Zoe and Mee-maw at all?"

  The mirror shifted and it was an image of Phil and Verbena on a hotel room bed, doing something so kinky, I'd only read about it in an Anne Rice novel.

  "What the-- That never happened! At least, not yet," Phil sputtered. "She said it would if I told her--" He broke off, his cheeks going pale. "Oh, no."

  My heart hammered wildly and I barely resisted the urge to bludgeon him to death with the mirror as Patrick crouched in front of us.

  "You need to unburden yourself, Phil. You need to admit what you told this woman that you shouldn't have."

  Phil's mouth contorted and he clapped a hand over his lips, but a second later, it jerked upward and a rush of words poured out.

  "There was an address for a place in Newtown in our bedroom when I went to get clothes the other night. I didn't think much of it until I read in the paper that Lizzie, Greg and Jack were at a safe house in an undisclosed location. She asked me if I knew where they were and I said I wasn't sure, but maybe there."

  I let out a strangled cry and shoved the mirror in Zoe's hands as I snatched up my phone.

  "Stay calm, Cricket. You talked to Greg already," Mee-maw said, patting my shoulder gently. "Let's not get too crazy yet."

  But I was long past crazy as I pressed the redial button.

  "Hello?"

  "Put Lizzie on the phone," I demanded, knowing I sounded shrill and panicked, and not caring.

  Greg sighed. "She’s been worried about you, Cricket. She hasn't been sleeping well, and I--”

  “Put her on the phone right now, damn it!”

  "Okay, okay."

  I held my breath as nausea rolled through me. Please, God. Please, please, please...

  “Cricket...”

  All Greg said was my name, but his stunned, devastated tone told me everything I needed to know.

  I let out a guttural cry and wheeled on Phil, hitting him with a blast of magic that shook the room. He doubled over and wretched, gagging as he tried to catch his breath.

  Dimly, I heard Greg's voice in my ear.

  "There were some clothes stuffed under her blankets, like when she used to sneak out with her friends and go to those beach parties as a teenager. Maybe she just--"

  "Tell the officer that the safe house has been compromised and to move you and Jack immediately," I said. "I will call you when I find her."

  "He's standing right here. I'll tell him. Please be careful, Cricket."

  I hung up the phone and resisted the urge to hurl it across the room, and focused that emotion on a still doubled-over Phil.

  "Stop," Zoe pleaded, grabbing me by the wrist as I prepared to murder her husband where he sat. "Please. I know he messed up, but he didn't know."

  Phil groaned as Patrick straightened.

  "She's right. He's a piece of garbage, but he didn't seem to remember telling her the address until we put him in front of the mirror. She probably used some sort of spell to get the information out of him. I don't think he put your family in danger on purpose."

  I lowered my hand, but only because it didn't matter if Phil lived or died. All that mattered now was that Verbena had my baby girl, and I had no idea how to get her back.

  Zoe stepped closer to a trembling Phil and began to untie him. “You’re going to go, and you aren’t going to come back,” she muttered. “Don’t contact me again. Not for dry-cleaning, not to change your flights, and certainly not for Saturday nights. I’ll send you the name and number of my lawyer once I’ve retained one. Now get out!” Zoe shouted the second his bindings were untied.

  He didn’t need to be asked twice, and the door echoed as it slammed in his wake.

  A wracking sob, the sound of a thousand heartbreaks, rang through the house and I froze.

  Mee-maw.

  Chapter 14

  “Mee-maw?” I called, dread closing over me. Had she suffered another heart attack?

  Zoe rushed toward the living room, waving at me to follow.

  “She’s in here--”

  Fwip.

  My cousin disappeared, reappearing a few steps behind where she’d been standing.

  “What the?” I said, feeling slightly dizzy as I realized that my own perspective had changed, as well. It was almost like…

  “Mee-maw?!” I charged past Zoe, who was still looking down in a daze, and peered into the living room.

  Tears streaming down her face, Mee-maw was staring down at her gold pocket watch as she rocked forward and back. She looked up as we walked into the room but then disappeared from view a moment later as I was warped a few feet back into the hallway.

  “Damn it!” she shouted, a loud bang coming from the other room as she hit the floor with her hand.

  “It’s wor
king, Mee-maw,” Zoe called back, stepping into the living room with me. “Your pocket watch, it’s sending us back in time.”

  “Not far enough,” she said, shaking her head desperately. “I need to be able to go back far enough to fix this.”

  I stepped toward her, reaching my hand out, but was repeatedly shoved backwards by the magic, reappearing a few inches behind after each bit of progress.

  “Mee-maw…” I whispered, feeling a pain and anger radiate off her that rivaled my own.

  Patrick stepped into the room and opened his mouth to speak but then closed it as Mee-maw let out a groan and flung the beautiful pocket watch aside, sending it skidding across the floor.

  “I can’t do it.” She met my gaze, sweat pooling all around her. “I lost my daughter but I won’t lose my great-granddaughter, as well. This Verbena witch is going to pay for even trying something like this.”

  “We need to figure out how to get in touch with her,” I said, rubbing my temples. “Maybe she’d be willing to trade Lizzie for Maude and I. If so--”

  Mee-maw shook her head sternly, pushing herself to her feet. “We’re all going to get out of this together.”

  “Agree. No one is sacrificing themselves, Cricket,” Patrick said gruffly, putting a hand on my shoulder. “It won’t come to that.”

  I opened my mouth to protest but thought better of it. If a trade was offered and it seemed at all likely that Verbena would follow through, I wouldn’t be asking for permission. But there was no point in alarming the others before it actually happened. I shook my head as the words from my prophecy came back to me with nauseating clarity.

  Root out the mole now, or risk the heart that beats outside your chest.

  Not Maude. My little girl. I’d assumed it had something to do with magic, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “We need to come up with some kind of plan to find her,” Zoe said, stepping toward Mee-maw and I. She opened her mouth to say more but, suddenly, the house phone rang, interrupting her.

  I felt a cold hatred flowing through my veins, already knowing who it was as I reached out to pick it up.

  “Hello, Cricket,” a woman’s voice said, her tone as smooth as honey yet somehow wrong, like she wasn’t entirely human.

  “What have you done with her?” I hissed, unable to control my rage.

  “Lovely Lizzie, you mean?” she asked, a smile in her voice. “Nothing at all. She’s perfectly fine, clairvoyant one.” She paused and let out a little sigh. “For now, at least.”

  I strained my ears and was able to make out a muffled voice in the background.

  “Mom!”

  Lizzie.

  I tightened my grip on the phone and tried not to let the icy tendrils of panic close over me completely.

  I had to stay calm if I had any hope of outsmarting Verbena.

  “Our little game of cat and mouse was fun, at first, but I’ve grown weary of it. So, the shoe is on the other foot now. It’s you who needs to come to me. If you submit yourselves willingly, I’ll spare your daughter. In addition, I can even promise an easy death for you and the rest of your coven. The silly ritual Finneas insisted on was so barbaric. I have an easier way. Almost painless.”

  Every fiber of my being wanted to accept. Anything to save my daughter. But the cost was simply too high not to at least try another way. I opened my mouth to reply but Verbena cut back in.

  “No need to answer right away, little witch. Your grandmother’s powers still need to develop and her item needs more time to charge. But don’t take too long or I might get… impatient.” There was a loud crack, followed by a muffled scream of pain before she hung up.

  I released the phone and it clattered against the ground as I stepped back into the living room.

  “That witch needs to die.”

  Zoe nodded, putting a hand on my shoulder. “What’d she say?”

  “She wants us to trade our entire coven for Lizzie,” I said after a long pause, wiping tears from my eyes, “but there’s no way to know if she’ll even keep her end of the bargain.”

  Patrick nodded, pulling me close. “We’ll think of a way to get out of this.”

  “I say we tell her we take the deal so she gives us a location, and try to finish her off there,” Mee-maw said, still looking furious.

  I took a few deep breaths, settling my racing mind, before looking up at my companions. There was no time to be emotional here. As much as I hated the thought of Lizzie being with that lunatic...of how afraid she must be, I knew we couldn’t rush off half-cocked if we had any chance of saving her. I needed to use the window we had to figure out how to rescue my daughter...without having to watch my beloved cousin and grandmother die in the process.

  “Every moment from now until we get her back is going to be sheer agony, and I’d love to rush in and attack. But we still need to go to the graveyard to strengthen our powers before we’ll have any chance at beating her.”

  Even the thought of it made me ill. But there was no other logical way.

  Mee-maw stared at the ceiling for a long moment, her muscles tensed. “I’m an old woman, Cricket. I have no qualms about handing myself over.”

  “Not an option,” I shot back. “She wants us all or none of us, so let’s get it out of our heads, okay?”

  For a second, I thought she would argue, but eventually she inclined her head, looking every bit as wrecked as I felt. “I know you’re right, but it’s hard to swallow,” she said finally.

  “So that’s the plan, then. Go to the cemetery and truly unite our coven,” Zoe chimed in, a grim but determined expression on her face. “I have to believe that the only reason she was so concerned about us all getting our powers at once and coming together was because she knows how dangerous we will be. Let’s make her worst fears come true.”

  “I’ll call Trudy. We need to get the words for the incantation to make the mausoleums rise from the ground like last time. We’ll go right now,” Mee-maw said.

  “There’s a chance Verbena will be waiting there,” I said, doing my best not to berate myself for the garlic knot fiasco. Now it was the middle of the night, we weren’t fully rested or feeling one hundred percent, and we were up against a wall. But I couldn’t imagine waiting another night while Verbena had my daughter in her clutches. It would be sheer hell. “We need to be prepared for a fight.”

  “She’s likely a good distance away from Rocky Knoll if she just took Lizzie, no?” Zoe asked, cocking her head.

  “I’m not sure we can rely on anything, given that we have no idea what her magical items do or what she’s capable of,” Patrick said, a frown marring his handsome features. “And don’t forget, if she wants the items fully charged, there’s a chance that she is planning to let you go to the mausoleums again without issue.”

  Fat chance, but we could hope.

  Mee-maw snatched up her burner phone and punched out a number.

  “Trudy?” Mee-maw said a moment later, the phone pressed to her ear. “I’m sorry about the late hour, but something terrible has happened...”

  Chapter 15

  “Is this really necessary?” Patrick said through a cough, waving his hand around in front of his face to disperse the smoke that Trudy had fanned at he and Zoe a moment earlier.

  “I read that it’s supposed to help keep us safe,” Trudy said, pulling her lantern up and pointing it at Patrick, shooting him an indignant look that was more reminiscent of Librarian Trudy than the Trudy we’d come to know, “and if Verbena is out here somewhere, we’re going to need all the protection we can get.”

  She turned back to the burning stick of plant matter in her hand, humming as she stepped toward me, still waving it.

  To her credit, despite the late hour, Trudy hadn’t hesitated, agreeing to meet us at the library so she could give us the chants and share any other information she could gather. She’d been a little subdued when we got there, though, and I’d had to pry the reason out of her. She’d lied to Ethan about where
she was going, knowing he would insist on coming. They’d gotten pretty serious, pretty fast, and she clearly hated the deception, but I understood her motivation perfectly. My actions had already put my daughter, and countless others, in danger, and the guilt was like a boulder sitting on my chest.

  So, now, while I was fairly certain that Zoe’s potion of protection would be far more effective than the ritual Trudy was subjecting us to, I held my tongue. I’d already had a shouting match with her as we prepared to leave the library for the cemetery when she’d refused to give us the chant unless she was allowed to join us. I’d shut her down instantly, but she’d stubbornly refused. It was only when she reminded me of Maude’s prophecy about it taking many to bring down the Lioness that I’d finally caved. I hated to risk her safety, but she was right. More than that, she felt that knowing us and being a part of this was her destiny. She’d done a lot for us and, though she wasn’t a witch herself, she believed in our cause and wanted to protect our kind, whatever it took. There was no truer, bluer friend and ally. If that meant I had to breathe in a little smoke, so be it.

  I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling the herbal-smelling smoke’s burn.

  Please, universe, keep my loved ones safe.

  “Do me,” Mee-maw said eagerly, though her face was set like stone. She was clearly still furious that Verbena had taken Lizzie. The instant the smoke actually hit her, however, she broke into a coughing fit.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, putting my hand on her shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” Mee-maw said, wheezing a final time as she pulled away from my touch, “now let’s get going.”

  Trudy began to walk, pulling the hood of her cloak back over her head. “What are the odds you can best Verbena if she does show up?”

  “Slim,” I said, shaking my head, “at least, the way things are now. But Newtown is a couple hours away. We might be fine. And if not, hopefully we’ll have a chance to do what we need to do before she gets here.”