Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2)

by Laura Kirwan

  “You’re not going to get stupid on me again?”

  Annie shook her head. “No, whatever power Jhoro’s got, it’s stronger than Marnie’s spell. With me at least.”

  She smiled at Meaghan, winked, and walked toward Russ and John.

  Meaghan slipped into the forge to take a closer look. It wasn’t merely iron molecules that would protect them. Around his workspace, Terry had constructed a large cage out of galvanized steel chain-link fencing. The chain-link fabric was lined on the inside of the forge with steel screen mesh.

  Along one wall of the cage, metal pipes had been constructed into what looked like a tool rack. Two vertical pipes had been bolted into the concrete floor, with horizontal piping between them bracing the structure.

  The pipes were still shiny and the hooks welded into the cross bars were empty, making her think it had been recently installed. The top of the rack was firmly attached to the ceiling of the cage. She gave it an experimental tug and felt no movement at all. Even with their combined strength, she didn’t see Russ and John pulling it down.

  The run of vertical piping from the floor to the first crossbar was long enough to let them sit or stand without stretching the cuffed arm into an awkward position. It wouldn’t be comfortable, but she could drag in the cushions from the break room sofa and leave them water and food. The trick was getting them in here and cuffed to pipes before they figured out what she was up to.

  Annie appeared at the door. “They’re coming. Got a plan?”

  Meaghan nodded. She trotted over to the door and handed Annie a pair of the cuffs. She pointed at the tool rack. “The vertical pipes, under the first rack.”

  “So they can slide the cuffs up and down,” Annie said, nodding. “Perfect.”

  “We can bring them some drinks and snacks and the cushions off the sofa.”

  “And something to pee in.”

  Meaghan nodded. “But first we gotta cuff them.”

  “I’ll take Russ, you take John. Follow my lead.”

  Meaghan’s heart pounded. She knew John would be furious and she wasn’t sure she was smooth enough to pull this off.

  Annie grabbed Russ by the hand and pulled him into the forge. “We need to talk to you guys. Before things get crazy again. John, you too.”

  She maneuvered Russ to the far end of the tool rack. Meaghan motioned to John and he came over to where she stood on the other end.

  “Russ, honey, I know the love spell might make you get all crazy for Jhoro again,” Annie said. “So, before that happens I want to remind you how straight you are.” She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

  “Um, me too.” Meaghan pulled John to her with one hand. With the other she cuffed his wrist.

  “What—” was all he had time to say before Meaghan attached the other cuff to the pole and stepped back fast. A quick look confirmed that Annie had done the same to Russ.

  “No,” John roared as he pulled on his cuffed wrist. “No. I want to stay with you.”

  “I know,” Meaghan said. “But you can’t help me with this.” She heard Russ banging on the tool rack. “Either of you. All you can do is get yourselves hurt or killed. This way I know you’re safe.”

  “I thought you were into me,” Russ said to Annie in a hurt voice.

  “I am, honey. That’s why I don’t want to see you get dead.”

  “Oh, ho ho. What’s going on here?” Sid walked into the forge. He waggled his blue eyebrows at Meaghan. “Meggy, I never saw you as the kinky type.”

  “Shut up,” Meaghan said. “Better yet, go get Jhoro to help you bring in the sofa cushions and some drinks and food. And a couple of buckets or trash cans.”

  “Meaghan, you can’t do this to me,” John shouted. He pulled at the pipe with both hands. Already his cuffed wrist was red and chafed from pulling. “You need me.”

  “I need you alive. When this is over. This is the safest place in town right now.”

  “But—”

  “Jamie needs you alive.”

  He glowered at her but said nothing.

  “What if you don’t come back for us?” Russ asked, in a petulant tone. “What if you get killed? We’ll starve to death.”

  Meaghan pulled out her phone. Service in Eldrich was notoriously spotty, but she had a strong signal. “You got a phone?”

  “I do,” John growled.

  “Then call Terry and tell him to come let you out.”

  “I’ll call him right now.”

  “Fine,” Meaghan said, exasperated. “You do that.”

  He pulled his battered flip phone out of his back pocket, punched the number, and held it to his ear. “Is me . . . Nuh, I’m not drinking . . . Magic trouble . . . Yeah, the evil wizards . . . something in city hall with my boy . . . no, no, you don’t need to come right now, but Meaghan is handcuffing me to your forge to keep me safe.”

  He listened for a few more moments, his look darkening. “No, this is not a good idea . . . no . . . but . . . all right.” He held the phone out to Meaghan. “He wants to talk to you.”

  “Slide it over on the floor,” Meaghan said.

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Not right now I don’t.”

  Grumbling something in Fahrayan, John set the phone on the floor and slid it over to her.

  Meaghan grabbed it and put it to her ear. “You still there?”

  A deep, booming voice said, “Yeah. So, you got our buddy John locked up tight, huh?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good.”

  Meaghan had been prepared to argue with this man. “You’re okay with this?”

  “I built that space to be magic proof. Plus, the door has a special lock. It’ll keep the bad guys out. John’s still got the amulet key?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think I can get it away from him.”

  Terry laughed. “You don’t need to. Shut the door until you hear the double click. If the key’s inside, it works like a safe room. Time lock. That baby won’t open for twelve hours. On a scale of zero to apocalypse, how bad is this thing?”

  Meaghan shook her head. “I wish I knew. From what John’s son told me, probably closer to apocalypse.”

  “Well, shit,” Terry said. “I think me and Steph will start heading home a little early. Put Johnny back on the phone, okay?”

  “Will do. Thank you.” She slid the phone back across the floor to John. “He wants to talk to you.”

  John glared at her as he picked up the phone. He turned away, mumbled something to Terry, and then shoved the phone back into his pocket. “I still don’t like this.”

  “Too bad,” Meaghan said. Our first fight, she thought.

  Annie had gone in search of Sid and Jhoro and now all three appeared carrying supplies.

  “Don’t get too close to them,” Annie said. “They aren’t very happy about this.”

  Sid buzzed something to Jhoro, who laughed. John snarled something in Fahrayan. Jhoro flashed him an innocent smile and pointed to Meaghan while responding. She didn’t need Sid’s translation to know Jhoro was saying, “Don’t look at me. It was her idea.”

  John gave one more desultory tug on the handcuff and then sat down, his back turned to them.

  Jhoro gave Meaghan a sympathetic pat on the shoulder.

  “He’ll get over it,” Sid said.

  They tossed the sofa cushions over to John and Russ. Using a push broom, Annie pushed two plastic shop buckets filled with bottled water and whatever food she could find in the break room close to them.

  “Well,” Meaghan said. “I guess that’s it.”

  John turned to face her. “How can you do this? If you are hurt, I will never forgive myself.”

  “Likewise, which is why you’re staying here.”

  “I’m gonna tell him about every embarrassing thing you’ve ever done,” Russ said. “All dirt will be revealed.”

  “Fine. Shovel away,” she said, then turned to Annie. “We ready to roll?”

  “I gu
ess. Roll where?”

  Meaghan sighed. “City hall. I think. Come on.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  “Where’s Natalie?” Meaghan asked. There was no sign of her in the garage and Meaghan hadn’t seen her since Brian had left with Eliot and Ruth. “Oh, shit. Please tell me she’s still with us.”

  “The bathroom,” Sid said.

  “They put the door back?”

  Sid nodded. “She’s meditating. She’s trying not to get all giddy about Jhoro again.”

  “Is it working?”

  Sid shrugged. “She’s not out here wrapped around him. That’s a good sign, I guess.”

  Meaghan banged on the bathroom door. “You ready to get out of here?”

  Natalie cracked the door open and peeked out. “Is Jhoro going with us?”

  “Is that going to be a problem?”

  Natalie sighed. “God, I hope not.” She pulled the door open, then stared down at her feet without moving. “I’m . . . I was kind of into him before all this happened.”

  “Yeah,” Meaghan said. “I figured that out on barbecue night.”

  “I have to confess something.” She looked up at Meaghan, then looked away quickly. “Marnie wasn’t the only one messing with love magic.” In a rush she added, “He’s so hot and I was lonely and I should have known better but . . .”

  Meaghan sighed. “So how much of this insanity did you cause? And what can you do to fix it?”

  Natalie chewed on her lip a moment. “I don’t know. I don’t think my spell is the one that went wild. I cast it like three weeks ago.”

  “And it didn’t work?”

  “Oh, it worked. Sort of. I made him hot for a woman—which took some big magic, let me tell you—only it was the wrong woman. I didn’t factor in all the time Marnie spent with him combing out his dreadlocks.” Natalie groaned. “You saw them at dinner the other night.”

  “He was more interested in the ribs than either you or Marnie,” Meaghan said. She decided not to mention what Jhoro and Marnie had been doing before dinner. Better Natalie fawning and lovesick than scorned and vengeful.

  “Yeah, but I still came in a distant third.” Natalie sighed again.

  “What happened to your spell?”

  “I shut it down as soon as I heard they were together, but he’s still with her, so Marnie must be casting her own spells. Like last night.” Natalie shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  Meaghan relented a little. “Honey, you weren’t thinking. At least not with your brain. That’s the problem with love, at least at the beginning. We’ve all been there. But, I really need you to keep it together now. Jamie needs you to keep it together.”

  Natalie buried her face in her hands. “It didn’t help,” she said, her voice muffled, “that Jhoro looks so much like Jamie.”

  Meaghan gasped. Here was a wrinkle she hadn’t anticipated. Everything she’d seen and been told about Natalie and Jamie’s relationship led her to believe that they were like brother and sister.

  “I know,” Natalie said, running her hands through her tangled curls and looking back at Meaghan. “It surprised me, too. I’ve never had those feelings for Jamie. At least I don’t think I ever have. Patrice is my friend and I’d never try to get in between them. But he’s my best friend and he doesn’t need me anymore. Even if we get him better, without the amulet to maintain, what am I to him?”

  “Family. You’re family. Hell, my dad—our dad—helped raise him. And I’m . . . doing whatever it is I’m doing with his father. And I’m your sister.”

  “Which makes John my brother-in-whateve-it-is -you’re-doing.”

  “Exactly,” Meaghan said. “Which makes me Jamie’s not-quite-stepmother.”

  “Which makes him my . . . not-quite-step-nephew?”

  “Yeah, I guess it does.”

  Natalie grinned. “I’m totally gonna lord that over him.” She grew serious again. “If he survives this. If any of us survive this.”

  Meaghan grabbed Natalie’s hand. “You’re our best shot at making sure that happens. I need you on deck. You need to remember what’s real and ignore the hex. Can you do that?”

  She nodded. “I’ll try, but if I start getting stupid again, hit me with something, okay?”

  “Gladly. Now let’s get out of here.”

  They found Annie, Sid, and Jhoro out in the main bay of the garage, standing outside of the forge’s still open door. Sid turned toward them and smiled. “Oh, the profanity. English and Fahrayan. They are not happy boys.”

  “I know,” Meaghan said. She pushed the door closed without a word to John or Russ and waited for the second click. “There. Time-locked for twelve hours. Nobody’s getting through that door but Terry.”

  “So, boss,” Sid said. “Now what?”

  “City hall by way of the historical society. Unless somebody has a better idea?”

  Nobody did.

  “I’d like to get a look at city hall if we can sneak up,” Meaghan said. “See what we’re dealing with on the outside so we can tell Jamie—” She stopped short and looked around in panic. “Has anybody tried to call Jamie? I can’t believe I’m only thinking of this now.”

  “Yeah, because nothing else was going on,” Natalie said. “Relax. I called him when you were in the bathroom.”

  Meaghan looked at her blankly.

  “Right before the police car crashed through the door and the wizard exploded.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry.” Meaghan laughed and then abruptly stopped when she felt the hysteria well up. “Jamie’s okay?”

  “Fine,” Natalie said. “City hall’s a mess, though. We’ll need new office space.”

  “One crisis at a time. What’s the best route to get there?”

  Eldrich’s town square was more accurately a rectangle, bordered on the west by Main Street and on the east by Eldrich Avenue. Eldrich Brew fronted on Washington on the north end. At the south end, across the aptly named South Street, sat city hall.

  The historical society house was located on Iron Street, about two blocks west of the square. Iron intersected with Main about halfway down the square. From there they could get a closer look at city hall. If they ran into trouble before Iron they could double back and take the side streets.

  Meaghan expected to see robed wizards, but instead saw a crowd, about a hundred people, milling around the south end of the square, their attention focused on city hall.

  “We need to get closer,” she said. “Any ideas?”

  “Yeah, hang on a sec.” Natalie stared intently at the light poles on Main while muttering a spell, then turned her focus to Eldrich Avenue. The street lights didn’t go out. Instead they slowly dimmed and the pools of light contracted and faded. The lights were still lit, but the north end of the square had been plunged into darkness.

  “Nice,” Meaghan said, impressed. Every time she began to take Natalie’s power for granted, Natalie did something amazing.

  “If we shut off the lights, they’d notice. This way, it’s almost as dark and nobody’s the wiser.”

  “Where’d you learn that?”

  Trying to sound nonchalant, Natalie said, “It’s a little something I came up with on my own.”

  They stayed on the other side of Main and worked their way slowly down the street, hiding behind parked cars, ready to bolt into the darkness at the first sign of the Order. They stopped at Iron, where Natalie dimmed a few more street lights, and then crept closer to city hall.

  The Order had constructed barricades on either end of South Street, blocking access to city hall. As they crept closer, Meaghan realized that the barricades were made mostly of overturned cars. One car, in particular, looked familiar.

  “My Audi,” Meaghan whimpered, as they stopped to crouch behind a low hedge. “The bastards smashed up my Audi. I love that car.”

  “You’ve never driven around here in winter,” Annie said. “Trust me. You would have been trading it in for an SUV after the first snowstorm.” S
he pointed to a knot of people, mostly women but also a few men, on the green lawn in front of city hall. “We’ve got bigger problems.”

  The smaller group was stacking up a pile of what looked like firewood and junk from people’s garages—odd-sized pieces of two-by-fours, sheets of plywood, cardboard boxes, a few old doors, broken pallets. The pile was built around the base of one of the twelve-foot tall decorative street lamps dotting the city hall grounds. Loops of heavy steel chain hung from one of the lamp’s arms.

  Several small gas cans sat next to the pile. The very combustible pile, Meaghan realized.

  She looked at Annie, eyes wide with shock. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Yes,” Natalie hissed in her ear. “Gee, who do you think they’re planning to burn? A witch maybe?”

  Meaghan felt sick. “Marnie. Oh, God, no. We have to find her now.”

  Jhoro crept up next to Annie. Meaghan heard the hiss of his sucked-in breath, then heard him whispering something in Fahrayan. Sid whispered back furiously.

  “What?” Meaghan asked. “Sid, what’s he saying?”

  “He says we need a diversion. Something to clear the crowd out a little. Natalie, he wants to know if you still feel Marnie’s spell.”

  Carefully avoiding looking at Jhoro, Natalie nodded. “Definitely.”

  “Do you think the mob’s affected?” Meaghan asked.

  “It’s mostly women up there,” Natalie said. “Some of them are witches. What do you think? Why else would they be participating in this?”

  Sid relayed everything to Jhoro in Fahrayan. He nodded and reached around Annie to give Meaghan’s arm a gentle squeeze. Then he stood up and sprinted toward the group assembling the bonfire, yelling in Fahrayan.

  As he got closer, he pulled off the ball cap, letting his long blond hair stream free. He stripped off his oversized Hawaiian shirt, whirled it around his head, and threw it. Finally he dropped his baggy shorts. Clad only in snug jersey boxer briefs, he let the crowd get a good look at him before running into the darkness on the east side of the square.

  Meaghan heard shrieks as the crowd realized who it was. The pile was abandoned as a stream of people followed Jhoro into the night.

  “If they catch him, they’ll tear him apart,” Natalie said, as she began to rise to her feet to give chase.