"Maybe ham," I answered. "Since we just had turkey."
"What are you going to do about a vegetable?"
"Um. Ask for your help?"
Together, we got online and picked out a recipe for green beans and another one for sweet potatoes. After that, we discussed the best apples for pie and Mom gave me step-by-step instructions for making pastry. By the time she was finished, I was convinced I should buy dessert. Unless Havoc was ready to take on the project.
I went to bed with a long shopping list laying on my nightstand.
Hooligan's frantic bark woke me on Thanksgiving morning. When I opened my eyes, I found my dog with his nose pressed against the edge of the door as if he was trying to squeeze through the narrow crack. He turned his face toward me and barked again.
A warm wash of sunlight filtered through the white cotton curtains and I realized the room was too bright. I'd asked my mother to wake me up before she left and I'd expected her to leave long before sunrise.
I threw the covers off my legs and hurried downstairs with Hooligan where I found a note on the kitchen counter. It had snowed twelve inches overnight. Expecting bad roads and slow traffic, my mom had gotten up early and left in the dark without waking me.
While Hooligan detoured straight for the mudroom, I rushed into the living room and looked out the window at the tire tracks in the snow. Feeling increasingly uneasy, I followed the sound of Hooli's anxious bark. I jogged into the mudroom and unlocked the door to the garage. Sunlight poured into the open garage bay and I cursed. In her hurry, my mother had left the garage door open. Normally she closes it. Not because we have to worry about anyone stealing our cars in a remote area like Pine Grove. But because the squirrels and birds are always getting in and trying to build homes.
The concrete floor was icy on my bare feet as I rushed into the garage. When I saw the mess, I stopped and covered my mouth with my hand. "No!" I whispered as I gazed out onto the driveway. Two tire tracks cut into the foot-deep snow. And scattered across the brilliant white blanket lay splintered slats of wood.
Hooligan raced past me and sniffed frantically around the garage floor where Valor's crate had stood. With his nose buried in the snow, he plowed out into the driveway a few feet. Then he stood in front of the garage, lifted his white muzzle upward and howled at the sky.
"No!" I screamed as I ran for the tool chest and grabbed the hammer. "He's gone," I cried as I tore at the crate that held Dare. "Valor's gone!"
The wooden boxes had been opened so many times that it wasn't hard to get the panels off but it seemed like forever before Dare stepped out of his crate. He took the hammer from my hand and worked on the next packing box while I moaned and hopped from one burning-cold foot to the other.
"MacKenzie, it's freezing in here. Go get dressed," Dare ordered me. "And put something on your feet."
I twisted my hands together, wanting him to get the boxes open, wanting him to do something, wanting him to find Valor, right now! I was afraid if I left, nobody would understand the urgency of the situation. Which was ridiculous. This was Valor's pack. They were going to be frantic to find him.
Victor stepped out of his crate and Dare went to work on the next wooden box.
"You have to find him!" I told Victor.
The golden gargoyle grasped my upper arms. "We'll do that, MacKenzie. Now come inside and get dressed."
Victor had to drag me back to the house where I raced upstairs. I was in such a panic, I didn't know what I was doing. I pulled on a bright tangerine tank top then took it off and put on my bra. Then I pulled on the tank top again like it was the middle of summer and we didn't have a foot of snow on the ground.
I yanked a pair of jeans up my legs, tore open my bedroom door then hurried back into my room for my socks and shoes. I grabbed my knitted hat from the top of my dressing table before I ran back into the hallway.
By the time I returned to the lower level, the gargoyles were standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for me. I hoped they weren't going to call a pack meeting because we didn't have time for the pulling-of-knives and the flipping-of-coins. "We have to find Valor," I panted inanely.
Victor eyed me calmly. "We'll find him, MacKenzie. But it would be a lot quicker if we knew where he was."
Yes. Yes. I agreed absolutely but why were they all watching me like I could tell them where Valor was?
Finally, Dare spoke up. "You have to find him for us, Mackenzie."
My heart stopped beating as I stared at the gargoyles' grim faces and realized they expected me to find Valor…with my nonexistent witch powers. You can't imagine how tragic it was to think I was their best and only hope. Me. MacKenzie Campbell. A totally red but equally pathetic excuse for a witch.
"But aren't there…aren't there any tracks to follow?" I asked, knowing that there weren't. I'd seen the splintered crate scattered across the pristine blanket of snow in front of the garage. There were no tire tracks other than those of my mother's Subaru. There were no footprints or paw prints or any other kind of prints except for the ones Hooligan had made when he dashed out in the snow, raised his head to the sky and howled in anguish.
Like the rest of the pack, I knew that Valor had been taken—stolen by a harpy.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Bring me the glass," I commanded, determined to locate Valor.
Havoc hurried out to the garage to find the pane of glass we'd used before, while Dare whipped down to the family room and printed out a map of the local area.
The guys had heard the harpy rip the packing crate apart and felt certain she couldn't have traveled far before the sun came up. They figured she wouldn't fly in the daytime because she wouldn't want to be seen. In addition, the gargoyles expected to find her on a ridge top, since harpies like high places. Evidently, they feel safer when they can see for a long distance. That way they can watch their enemies approach.
Everything considered, they probably had plenty of enemies.
I was one of them.
We spread out the map on the dining room table. Havoc carefully placed the sheet of glass over the map while the gargoyles gathered around. As soon as I sat down on the pine chair, my phone started beeping and I turned it off so it wouldn't distract me.
I stared at the map, hoping to see something. Anything. A glowing red dot to tell me where Valor was. A vision of Valor or a harpy or even a ridge top. But I saw absolutely nothing that would help us find him. "I don't see anything," I moaned. "Nothing at all."
"Try a mirror," Defiance suggested. He brought a little round hand mirror from the bathroom and placed it next to the map.
But when I looked at the mirror, all I saw was my own sorry face with tears spilling across my eyelashes. "It's no good," I cried. "I have no power."
"You stopped the neighbor from cutting down his trees," Dare reminded me gently.
I shook my head and tears fell from my lashes, making wet spots on the glass. "It must have been a coincidence, Dare. I'm not a witch. I have no power. We're just wasting time."
Victor knelt beside my chair and put his arm around me. "You'll find him," he said quietly. "You just need time to relax and focus." He lifted his gaze to his family. "In the meantime, we'd better start looking."
Together, the gargoyles picked out the nearest ridge tops, then second destinations further away. "If we don't find Valor at any of these locations, we return here to see if MacKenzie has had any luck locating him," Victor ordered while the rest of the pack muttered their agreement.
"Dare will stay here to protect MacKenzie." Victor gave the dark-haired gargoyle a grim look. "The harpy might return here and try to kidnap MacKenzie if she thinks Valor cares about her."
"I won't let that happen," Dare growled. His eyes flashed fiercely as his hand covered the hilt of his knife.
Victor rested his hand on Dare's shoulder. "I know you won't," he said as the rest of the gargoyles headed toward the front door.
In the hall, I pulled on my coat and boots and
followed the gargoyles through the snow out to the cliffs in the park. The snow was bright in the clear Colorado sunshine and I had to shield my eyes with my hand as Dare and I watched the pack take off over the empty forest.
Normally, the gargoyles wouldn't have flown in the daytime. Since they had no choice, they rose straight up into the air and climbed quickly to gain altitude. That way, if anyone saw them from the ground below, they'd be far enough away to look like birds. I watched Havoc grow smaller and smaller until he was a dark speck that swung west and disappeared against a hillside covered with snow-frosted pines.
"You guys said all I had to do was really care," I choked as Dare and I turned back toward the house. I felt like I had let everyone down. Myself. The pack. The beautiful gargoyle who said he was in love with me. And maybe most of all, I felt like I had let down Reason, who had believed in my powers right from the start and who had counted on me to protect his family while he sacrificed himself in Texas.
Hooligan pressed his nose against the pocket of my jeans and growled unhappily.
"You should try to relax," Dare advised gently. He took my hand and led me to a fallen tree. He swept the snow from its wide trunk. "Why don't you turn on your phone and check in with your friends? Try to get back some degree of normalcy in your life."
Normalcy? How was my life ever going to be normal again? My boyfriend was a gargoyle. And he'd been abducted by a harpy. None of this should have been happening because none of this was even possible. Both gargoyles and harpies were supposed to be mythical creatures.
I sank down onto the tree's rough trunk and pulled my phone from my pocket. As soon as I powered it up, the damn beeping started again. That's all I needed, another frustration! I wiped my eyes and looked at the glass face of my phone and realized the travel app was turned on. Each time the phone beeped, a red circle pulsed in the middle of the screen.
I stopped breathing and my eyes widened on the phone. "Oh, no," I whispered. "How is that possible?"
"What is it?" Dare asked, leaning close so he could look at my cell phone. Hooligan pressed between my knees and touched his nose to the phone with the sort of avid interest he usually reserves for his food bowl.
"It's my travel app," I croaked. "Only it's not showing me the location of the phone, here at my house. It's showing me a different location." I rubbed my thumb over the pulsing red dot. The surface of the phone was smooth and cool to the touch. "Dare," I squealed. "The front of my phone is made of glass!"
I lifted my head and stared into the gargoyle's gold-flecked eyes.
"Valor," we said together.
I was so utterly stunned I couldn't move past the fact that what was happening was impossible. Either I was witnessing a miracle or…I was a witch.
"I'm scrying through my phone," I yelled as I jumped to my feet and pelted back through the snow toward the house.
"MacKenzie, wait!" Dare shouted.
But I wasn't waiting. Dare would just have to catch up as I tore through the garage and into the house looking for my backpack with my car keys.
"MacKenzie," he panted, when he caught up with me in the kitchen. "We can't go without the others. We have to wait for help."
I gave him the briefest look while I pawed through the contents of my backpack. "We can't wait. We can't risk what that harpy might do to Valor."
"He'll have my life if anything happens to you," Dare argued, his voice rising. "We must wait for Victor and the others to get back."
"I'm not waiting," I shouted as I clenched my keys in my fist. "The pack has only just left and they won't be back for at least two hours. I won't let what happened to you happen to Valor."
Dare's hard expression softened as he pulled my head into his shoulder. His chest lifted as he took a deep breath. "Then we'll just have to come up with a good plan," he muttered.
I lifted my face and wiped my eyes on the shoulder of his black trench coat. "We can figure it out in the car."
"No," he insisted. "We'll take five minutes and figure it out before we leave. Valor was taken in his stone form. He won't make the change back to life until he has to. Let's assume that he's safe for another five minutes."
Five agonizing minutes later, we were ready to go.
We had everything we needed for our plan and even a few things for a backup plan. I had changed clothes. Over my tank top, I wore two T-shirts, a long sleeved top, a heavy knitted turtleneck and a gray hoodie. On top of all this, I wore my coat. It wasn't that cold but my layered clothing was part of our strategy.
My knitted blue hat was secured to my head with bobby pins, hiding my red hair. The small bottle containing Valor's venom was in my backpack. In my coat pocket, I carried an ice pick with a wooden handle and sheath. Sheathed, the ice pick looked like a small, harmless rod of wood. Unsheathed, it was a sharp, deadly weapon long enough to reach beneath the harpy's stony armor all the way to her dark heart.
I wouldn't let that harpy monster take Valor from me. His note was buried in my pocket to remind me what I was fighting for.
We left the local map on the dining room table with our destination circled in red. When the rest of the gargoyles got back, they could turn around and come after us. We wouldn't be far away. The harpy had taken Valor to Evergreen Mountain, two ridges west of my home. And I had a good idea of where we were headed on that tree-covered hillside. I didn't think the harpy was out in the open. I was betting she was holed up in a large mountaintop mansion that had been built two years ago. I'd heard it was empty all winter long. It was probably the summer cabin of some millionaire.
After locking Hooligan in the house, we raced through the garage into the snow. When we reached the Jeep, I backed it up and started to pull down the driveway…only to find our exit blocked by an unfamiliar SUV. "No!" I screamed, at that point beyond wild with panic.
Someone stepped from the car.
It was Alexa. Beautiful, brainless, harmless Alexa, dressed in winter ski wear with a colorful scarf wrapped around her neck.
"Move your car," I yelled at her as I jumped from the Jeep. "We have to leave."
"Hi, MacKenzie," she called cheerfully, her auburn hair glinting red in the sun. She bounced and waved a few times before closing her car door and heading up the driveway toward us. Her friend, Tara, got out of the passenger-side door and smiled at Dare.
If I'd been thinking straight, I would have just told her someone in my family was hurt and I had to get to the hospital right away. But I wasn't thinking anything like straight. "Move your car, Alexa. Now!"
"We're in a hurry," Dare added as he joined me outside the Jeep.
"If MacKenzie has to leave, maybe you'd like to spend the day with us," Alexa suggested to Dare, just not grasping the significance of the situation. "We're going snowboarding at the park next door."
By now I'd plowed my way through the snow and was like ten feet away from the two girls. "Move the car now," I gritted. "Or I'll move it for you."
Clearly insulted by my less-than-warm attitude, Alexa lifted her keys and dangled them in the air. "Uh, that might be kinda hard without the keys."
As my eyes narrowed on Alexa's keys, I felt a whole new force of emotion building inside me, unlike anything I'd ever known before. It tasted of passion, desperation and rage as I shouted, "Move the damn car!"
Alexa's pretty face turned unexpectedly ugly. "You know MacKenzie, I've never told you this before. But you are such a straight-A loser."
I was already as pissed as I thought humanly possible, my fury at the wicked harpy spilling over into my opinion of Alexa. But somehow her comment managed to make me even madder. And the snark about my grades was entirely uncalled-for. I'm not a straight-A student at all. I'm really more of a B student.
As I glared at Alexa's keys, they ripped from her fingers and flew at my face. My own keys were in my right hand and I raised my left one just in time to catch the jangling clump of metal before it knocked my teeth out.
"Thank you," I said, slightly stunned and staring
at Alexa's keys clutched in my fist.
Tara looked at her friend. A puzzled expression was on her expertly made-up face as a deep ridge settled between her waxed eyebrows. "Why did you do that, Alexa?" she demanded. "Why did you throw your keys to MacKenzie?"
"I-I didn't," Alexa stammered as I tossed the keys at Dare.
"I'll move her car," he said. His eyes glittered with a fierce light and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was.
I was a witch and we could do this.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The problem with plans is that things don't always go the way you suppose they will. Dare and I had intended to drive to the ridge top house where we expected to find Valor and the harpy. Dare was supposed to handle the dangerous part of the rescue. He was going to lure the harpy outside with the bottle of venom.
When he removed the cap from the bottle, he figured the harpy would smell the venom and probably think there was a gargoyle nearby. She wouldn't pick up Dare's scent before then because his venom was sealed behind his scarred hackles. After she went outside to investigate, I was supposed to sneak inside the house to free Valor while Dare defended himself with the car. I didn't know exactly how he planned to do that. To be honest, I didn't want to know the details, which I thought might be messy. I was just content to think Dare would be safe in my solid, old Jeep Cherokee.
We didn't plan on the harpy plucking me from the ground while Dare backed Alexa's car down the driveway.
The two girls scrambled to get back into their big SUV with Dare. I was heading back toward my Jeep with my keys in my hand, when a pair of sharp claws gripped my shoulders and lifted me from the ground. Despite my shock, I managed to drag my feet through the snow a bit so that Dare might have an inkling of what had happened to me when he came back up the driveway and discovered I was gone. And I dropped my keys for him, somewhat belatedly. I watched them disappear between the trees and sink into twelve inches of snow. It would have been nice if I could have left him my phone so he could use it to follow me to Valor, but it was buried in the backpack on my shoulder. There was no time to dig it out before we were flying over the forest.
The Greystone Bundle (Books 1-4) Page 18