Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2)

by Laura Kirwan

  “Nobody’s anonymous in Eldrich. Not if you’re clued in. You can’t keep secrets for long.” She looked at him to see if he got the hint.

  Russ looked back, his face carefully neutral.

  It was an expression she knew well. He was a lousy liar. If she wanted to find out about him and Natalie, this would a good time to ask. “So, Russ, um . . . about Natalie . . .”

  At that moment, Natalie screeched into the driveway in her ancient Subaru wagon and stopped inches from the rear bumper of the truck.

  “Aaaah,” Russ cried, a stricken look on his face. “Don’t smash my truck,” he yelled at her as she climbed out of the car.

  With a dismissive wave similar to the one Russ had just given Meaghan, Natalie said, “Relax. The thing’s built like a tank.” She glanced at Meaghan, then looked down, a slight flush on her face. She and Meaghan hadn’t spoken since Natalie had stormed out of the office that morning. “Hey, boss.”

  “Hey, administrative goddess, where’s my dinner?”

  Natalie looked up and smiled broadly, relieved. “In the back. Help me carry it in.”

  Jhoro ran out of the house, back in his skin-tight jeans and now wearing a snug white T-shirt, his hair still wet from the shower. “Nat-a-lie,” he roared and picked her up off the ground in a big hug. She giggled and slapped his arm lightly, but didn’t tell him to put her down.

  Marnie walked out on the porch, eyes narrowed, glaring at Natalie, who stared right back, with a defiant half smile.

  Meaghan felt a flash of anger. While she didn’t want Natalie sleeping with her brother, she didn’t want her cheating on him either. What next, Russ and Marnie? No sexual triangles—quadrangles, she corrected herself—in my house, she thought. Time to be mommy.

  “Put her down, you big oaf,” she said to Jhoro, smacking him on the arm, much harder than Natalie had.

  He gazed down at her, puzzled.

  “Put Natalie down.” She pointed at the ground. “Down.” She waited a moment. “Now.”

  With a dazzling smile, he obeyed her. Meaghan grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the Subaru. “Dinner.” She pantomimed eating. “Help me carry it into the house.” She popped open the unlocked tailgate and pulled out a heavy cardboard box filled with warm, foil-wrapped packages, and plopped it in his arms. “C’mon.”

  On her way to the back door, Jhoro following behind like an oversized duckling, Meaghan gave Natalie and Marnie a warning look. The first jealous witch who started blasting spells was getting her ass kicked. Both women, knowing that Meaghan was the only person in Eldrich who could make good on that threat, refused to meet her eye.

  Once inside the kitchen, she pointed at the counter. “There.”

  Jhoro set the box down and looked at her with a worried expression. She sighed and patted him on the arm. She couldn’t stay mad at him. He really didn’t mean any harm and she knew the grief that was fueling it. If Finn walked through the door right now, Jhoro would never look at a woman or another man again.

  But Marnie and Natalie were another matter. If they wanted to stalk around each other like a pair of wet cats, they could do it on their own time. And if either used magic against Russ or Jhoro, Meaghan would take them apart like a pissed-off grizzly bear. No goddamn soap operas in my world. Don’t I have enough shit to deal with as it is?

  Natalie and Marnie both stayed for dinner and glared at each other. Jhoro, happily oblivious, a dish towel stuffed in the collar of his T-shirt like a bib, ate with abandon. Ribs suited him. He still struggled to use a fork, so food he could eat with his hands made mealtime more pleasant for everyone.

  After he’d polished off a rack of ribs, he pulled off the dish towel, leaned back in his chair, and stretched like a cat while sucking grease off his fingers. Marnie and Natalie stared, wide-eyed.

  Marnie leaned into him, whispered something in his ear, and pulled her car keys out of her pocket. His eyes lit up. He took their plates to the sink, squeezed Russ’s shoulder, kissed Meaghan on top of the head, and he and Marnie were out the door.

  Natalie, her face red, stared down at her empty plate, then took it to the sink.

  Russ merely smiled.

  Time for a chat, Meaghan decided. “So, now that it’s just the three of us, there’s something I’d like to know. What’s the big secret you two are keeping? If you’re sleeping together . . .”

  Russ spat out his sip of beer and started coughing. Natalie dropped the plate with a crash. Both stared at her, incredulous.

  After a long silent moment, Natalie said to Russ, “You wanted to wait to tell her until the right moment. I think this is it.” To Meagan she added, “I wanted to tell you right away, but he said it was too soon.”

  “Look,” Meaghan said. “It’s a little awkward, but if you’re both happy, I’m happy for you. But I don’t want to have to take sides if things go wrong.”

  Russ started coughing again.

  Natalie walked over and thumped him on the back and said, “We aren’t sleeping together. Ewww. Russ, if you don’t tell her right this minute, I will. She thinks we’re . . . ewww.”

  “Meg, Natalie’s not my girlfriend,” Russ said, his face still red from his coughing fit. “She’s my . . . sister.” He waited a moment to let it sink in. “Our sister.”

  Meaghan stared at him. Sister. Natalie was her sister. Which meant Matthew and Vivian . . .

  “Oh,” she finally said, eyes wide.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “Wait a minute,” Meaghan said. “You’re my . . . what?”

  “Sister,” Natalie said. “I’m your sister. Half sister. Matthew was my dad. I’m sorry we didn’t tell you sooner. Russ thought we should wait.”

  “How long have you known about this?” Meaghan asked, glaring at Russ.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “A while.”

  “How long a while?”

  “A fairly long while,” Russ said.

  “Russ, goddammit, how long?”

  “Twenty years or so. Since I moved here the first time.”

  “Twenty years?” Meaghan said. “You’ve known about this for twenty years and you’re only telling me now? Oh, look, another big secret we can keep from Meaghan. Another kid Matthew replaced us with. He even got the birth order and ages right.”

  The anger at her father that Meaghan thought she had shed came roaring back. “Why fix things with Meaghan and Russ when he’s got Natalie and Jamie? And here I am feeling guilty because I didn’t fix things with him sooner and he’s gone and gotten himself a new daughter. So, what, the only reason he wanted me back was because I was impervious and could take over his fucking job?”

  “I’m sorry. I’ll go. I’m sorry,” mumbled Natalie, her face wooden. She stumbled out the back door and a moment later her car roared into life and screeched out of the driveway.

  “Nice,” Russ said. He shook his head, his eyes narrowed. “This is why we didn’t tell you. Do you always have to be such a bitch? Does it always have to be about you?”

  Meaghan’s face flamed, her anger replaced with shame.

  “Dad didn’t replace you,” Russ continued. “He never even claimed her as his. She grew up thinking she didn’t have a father, that he’d died before she was born. I only figured it out watching the three of them together. I knew years before she did.”

  Meaghan stared at her feet. Finally, she asked, “When did she find out?”

  “Right before she moved to Philadelphia with Jamie. Vivian had cancer and she knew she didn’t have long and wanted Natalie to know.”

  “Why wouldn’t Dad claim her? Did he know?” She stared at her feet, still unable to meet Russ’s gaze.

  “He knew. It was too dangerous for anyone else to know. At least until she got powerful enough to protect herself.” Russ sighed. His anger spent, he began clearing the table. “I always meant to tell you. Once things settled down a little. Which they haven’t yet.”

  Meaghan had no reply. She sat as Russ puttered around the kitchen, both
avoiding each other’s eyes. She thought of Natalie, of how much she’d liked her the first moment she’d met her, of how much she depended on her. And instead of embracing the news that she shared an even deeper bond with this woman who had become so central to her life, Meaghan had attacked her.

  Finally she said, “You’re right. I am a bitch. I find out I have a sister and the first thing I do is send her running for the door. I have to fix this.” She rubbed her eyes and realized how tired she was. She hadn’t been sleeping well lately. Too many nightmares. “Did she go home, you think?”

  Russ nodded. “Yeah, probably.”

  “So, why the danger? Is it the war I’ve heard mentioned before? Which I haven’t found anywhere in Dad’s journals, which is kind of weird.”

  It was more than weird. Events had been excised from the record, leaving gaping holes in the narrative. It was obvious to Meaghan that scrubbing the record had not been Matthew’s idea, otherwise he would done a much better job of it. His ham-handed editing was a purposeful red flag to the reader that a significant cover-up had occurred.

  “I don’t know much about the war myself,” Russ said. “You want more wine?”

  Meaghan shook her head. “I’ve got to drive over to Natalie’s. Tell me what you know before I go.”

  Russ sat down at the table. “It’s been going on a long time. Not everybody is happy about magic losing sway over humanity. They want the old days back. And by old days, I mean pre-Iron Age. Before the magic started fading.”

  “Jamie and Kady looked confused when I asked Natalie about it my first day at work. I only knew about it because Mom told me in that dream the day after I got here.”

  “What did Natalie tell you?”

  “Nothing. She said it was something different from Fahraya and they didn’t talk about it and I didn’t press it.”

  “So, what did Mom tell you?”

  “That Matthew didn’t try to keep in touch with us after we moved to Arizona because the war had started and it wasn’t safe.”

  Russ snorted. “And because she wouldn’t let him near us without a court-appointed babysitter. Even dead she’s still got the selective memory.” He got up and grabbed another beer from the fridge. “Sure you don’t want anything?”

  Meaghan ignored the urge to defend her mother. Not the right time. She’d never noticed before that Russ held a grudge against Mom. “I’m sure. But the war was part of it too, right?”

  Russ sat down, twisted off the cap, and took a long swig. “Yeah. I guess it was. He never told me much. When I asked, he’d change the subject. ‘Bad stuff’ was all he’d say.”

  “So is it over now?”

  “It’s never really over from what little I got out of Dad. It’s like the Cold War, but it heats up sometimes.”

  “So why it isn’t it in his journals?”

  Russ shrugged. “Hell if I know. Maybe there’s something out in the garage. Did you check?”

  Meaghan nodded. “I started going through his file cabinets a couple of weeks ago, after I got through the boxes, but I haven’t found anything out there either.”

  The day Meaghan had learned about Eldrich, Russ had brought over several boxes of journals and files Matthew had prepared for her before he’d gotten too sick to function. After she’d worked her way through those, she started going through the bulging file cabinets in the garage, but so far all she’d found was further evidence of Matthew’s deliberately clumsy scrub job.

  Russ nodded and said nothing.

  “Plus,” Meaghan said, “it appears things have been redacted. The war isn’t mentioned, but there’s an obvious hole in the story.” She watched him carefully to detect any signs of lying. “Any ideas why the war would be edited from his journals?”

  He gave her a puzzled look and shrugged. “Not a clue. Like I said, he wouldn’t talk about it with me. There was a lot he didn’t tell me.”

  Meaghan nodded, reasonably satisfied that he was telling her the truth. “So, if it’s not the war, any other reasons Natalie might be in danger?”

  “Well, yeah.” Russ leaned back in his chair. “Think about it. She’s the child of an impervious man and a powerful witch. Nobody knew if she’d have both traits or only one. Can you imagine? An impervious witch? She’d be unbeatable. The bad guys would want her taken out before she got enough power to be a risk.”

  “Or they’d want to turn her into a weapon for their side,” Meaghan said. “Which is why Dad and Vivian had to hide her until they knew.” Meaghan sighed. “Which makes me feel even shittier. I gotta get over there and try to fix this.”

  “Yeah, you do,” Russ said. “She’s always wanted to tell you, even though she thought you might respond like this. She said we owed it to you. We’re her only family, Meg. And now that Jamie doesn’t need her anymore, she’s feeling abandoned. You aren’t the only one whose life got hijacked by Dad’s destiny.”

  “I guess not,” Meaghan said. “Who else knows?”

  “Only you, me, Jamie, and Patrice. Some people may suspect, but Matthew and Vivian did a good job hiding it.”

  Meaghan nodded. “While we’re being honest, is there anything else I need to know? Somebody who I thought was human who isn’t? Somebody else I work with who you’re dating?”

  “I think you’ve got the scoop on our immediate circle and if you haven’t heard something, it’s just an oversight. Same thing with the rest of the town. Natalie was the last big secret I had.” He blushed. “You know Annie?”

  “The medium?”

  “Yeah. I’m not dating her, but I’m thinking about asking. She’s been helping out at John’s house and I really like her. I know my record sucks, so I’m not rushing into anything. No more whirlwind romance crap.” When Meaghan didn’t respond, Russ added, “I know you work with her, but not directly, and in a town this size that’s the best I can do.”

  Meaghan smiled. “I can live with that.” Her smile faded. “Before I go, any advice on how to deal with our baby sister?”

  “Don’t yell at her. That would be a good start.”

  “Russ, be serious.”

  “I am being serious. Nothing’s changed between you, except now you have another word to describe her and then only to a few of us. And the good news is you don’t have to worry about us sleeping together.” He gave her an encouraging grin. “She wants you to be okay with this. Show her you are.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Natalie’s house looked like a storybook cottage inexplicably dropped into a middle-class neighborhood. Eldrich was full of charming little houses like Natalie’s. Jamie’s house, around the corner, was a Tudor Revival straight out of an Agatha Christie novel.

  Painted a warm buttercup yellow, the cottage squatted in the middle of a riot of wildflowers, herbs, and vegetables. A stone path wound through the garden leading to a small front porch containing a battered rocking chair. Wind chimes clanked softly in the twilight breeze.

  Meaghan pulled into the driveway and parked behind Natalie’s Subaru. She hadn’t called first. This conversation had to be face to face. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Meaghan climbed out of her car and picked her way through the overgrown yard to the front door.

  Despite the mess, it all worked somehow. Like Natalie. The effect wasn’t neglect, but freedom, a warm sustained chaos full of joyful life.

  And here comes bitchy big sister to crash the party. Meaghan climbed the front steps onto the porch and knocked on the wooden screen door. She could hear music—Patsy Cline, it sounded like—drifting from the kitchen.

  “Natalie?” Meaghan pulled open the door and stepped into the living room. The chaos continued inside, still homey and comfortable. Stacks of books sat on the floor next to an overflowing bookshelf. Framed photographs covered the walls and mantel. Meaghan recognized Vivian—who looked remarkably like her daughter—Jamie at various ages, Jamie’s kids and his wife, and a few photos of a younger Russ.

  But no photos of Matthew. He was as absent from Natalie
’s life as he had been from Meaghan’s.

  Is that the price? Does this gift, burden, whatever the hell it is, force you to live apart, to push everyone away? Meaghan had done that all her life. Not many happy family photos of her floating around either. Or was it something about her and Matthew? A shared coldness that had nothing to do with the ability to repel magic?

  “Natalie?” Meaghan moved into the kitchen. An iPod in a docking station sat on the windowsill, blaring into the backyard. Turning down the volume a bit, she called again. “Natalie?”

  “Out here,” a muffled voice said.

  Meaghan pushed open the screen door and stepped onto the small enclosed patio. Natalie’s cottage sat on an oddly shaped corner lot. Most of the yard was out front, with the cottage crowding the lot line. The patio consisted of a concrete pad with a solid board fence, and a gate to the driveway and the overgrown alley behind the house. But Natalie had filled even this tiny barren space with colorful pots of herbs and flowers, and a string of twinkly Christmas tree lights.

  Natalie lay on a webbed, aluminum chaise lounge, her arm over her face. An empty wine glass and a half full bottle of chardonnay sweated on the small plastic table next to her.

  “I’m a bitch,” Meaghan said, sitting in a rusted metal chair.

  Natalie said nothing.

  “I’m a lousy excuse for a sister,” Meaghan continued. “And . . . well . . . I suck. There’s no other word for it.” She waited a moment. “Please forgive me.” Another silent moment passed. “At least yell at me or something.”

  Natalie sighed. With her arm still covering her eyes, she said, “We’ve had a super great day, you and I, haven’t we? That’s why I wanted Russ to tell you when you got here. Then if you wanted to fire me you could have done it right away before we got used to each other.”

  “Fire you? Where in the hell . . . You know damn well I couldn’t fire you, not if you had any interest in keeping your job. I’d never make it past the first post-termination hearing. My whole world would fall apart without you. That’s why I was so freaked out about you and Russ dating. I thought you’d break up with him and dump me, too.”