Turning to look over my shoulder, I saw Rhiannon frowning at me. I winked and smiled. “I think we’re getting somewhere.”
Since burned vampire skin was the rarest possible ingredient I’d come across, I figured logically it was a good place to start. I flipped to the index at the back and found about twenty-five page references for “Vampire skin, charred,” so I wrote each page number in the only bare corner of a piece of paper with other scribbles on it.
Rhiannon stood over my shoulder, her long drawn-out sighs every few moments evidence of her nervousness. I got to the fifth reference before I found an actual list of ingredients for a potion. Not one item on that list was werecat blood, so I figured it wasn’t what I was looking for. Just in case, I dog-eared the page.
I continued to flip pages until the sound of a phone ringing stopped me. Rhia jumped as if something had bit her on the rear then leapt for her purse to grab her phone.
“Sandy? Sandy, is that you?”
I could see by the look on her face that it was our friend the Sandman, so I stood from my seat and slid up behind her so I could hear the conversation.
“Where is he?” I asked her in a whisper. “Can he get here?”
A Sandman could travel through space to any location. They were right up there with tooth fairies in that they visited little children and some adults all over the world.
Rhiannon shook her dark head. “He’s hurt. He doesn’t think he has the strength to travel. Where are you, sweetie?”
Sweetie? Did she really just call him sweetie?
“He’s home. We’ll be right there, sweetie.”
I recovered my faculties when she hit the end key, grabbed her purse and my hand, and started tugging me out the door. It took me just a few moments to program his home into the grotto’s map. Then she and I hurried into the cave. Before the magic surrounded us, I grabbed my friend and took a few steps to the right, hoping we wouldn’t end up in Sandy’s closet this time.
I breathed a sigh of relief when she and I showed up in the middle of his bedroom. Rhiannon screeched and dropped to her knees at Sandy’s bed, clutching his palm to her cheek and crooning to him.
“Well you look like crap,” I muttered, rounding the bed to sit down on the side opposite Rhiannon. He was battered and bruised, his lip swollen and crusted with dried blood. Gold blood, believe it or not. Sandmen bleed gold. Even his bruises had a yellowish green color to them instead of black and blue. “Was it a dark witch named Susan Abernathy?”
He nodded, groaning. “I gave in to her. She wanted my dust and I finally gave it to her. I wouldn’t have. I would never give up my dust but she let your name slip, Lynlee. I decided the best way to get out of there and warn you was to let her have it and hope she’d let me live.”
“My name? She knows I’m hunting her then?” I chewed on that for a moment while my werevamp friend ministered to her boyfriend.
“She promised to let me go if I gave up and she did.”
Something really strange was going on, and every time I felt like I might get ahead, something tossed me back a few paces. I needed to get back to my reference book, but I wasn’t yet sure what to do about Rhiannon and Sandy.
“Can you sit up? I really need to get back…”
“He needs to rest,” Rhia practically snarled at me, and I blinked a few times in surprise. “I’ll stay here with him.”
“What if she comes back?”
Then she did snarl. My best friend in the whole world bared her fangs, lifted her lips, and growled, “I’ll protect him.”
Whew. She wasn’t flexing her muscles to scare me or warn me off. She was proving to me that she was capable of taking care of her man.
“Got it. You’ll protect him. Sandy, did she say anything specific? Something I should know?”
“She wasn’t alone. There was some guy with her but I couldn’t see him. She told the guy that she had to hurry because if you caught up with her she would never get to him in time.”
“Him who?”
Sandy shook his head. Clearly he had no idea who “him” was. I figured it had to be Tig. He was the only connection I had to the dark witch and I had no idea how to find him. The things Sandy told me sounded ominous for my mentor, and even though he was keeping some secrets from me, I had no interest in seeing something bad happen to him.
“Damn,” I muttered, shaking my head.
“Go, Lynlee.” Rhiannon touched my hand. “Go on, I’ve got Sandy. She won’t hurt him again.”
I didn’t tell her the obvious, that it was clear the dark witch was finished with this Sandman and she wouldn’t likely come back for him. Still, this was one less thing I needed to worry about for the moment, so I was more than willing to let her be.
“All right. Call me if anything, and I mean anything, strange happens. Okay?”
As I started orbing away, the last thing I saw was her digging into her medical bag for supplies to treat her battered boyfriend.
It was one in the morning and I was feeling very grumbly. The first thing I did when I got home was call Tig. He didn’t answer so I left a detailed message about all that was happening. I didn’t spare a single detail, hoping that he would get enough information to protect himself. More importantly, I hoped he would know that he could trust me and would call.
Second, I called Beck and explained that I was wrapped up in a huge mess and couldn’t get to his house. He was disappointed, but I could hear Jilly fussing in the background so I assumed he was dealing with his own parenthood mess and didn’t really need the distraction my presence would provide.
After that, I grabbed some of Beck’s lasagna from the fridge, heated it in the microwave, and opened a bottle of cheap chardonnay. I knew I was in for a long night.
A second serving of lasagna and three glasses of wine later, I finally found what I believed I was looking for—a spell along with a potion calling for charred vampire skin, Sandman dust, and werecat blood, among a long list of other things.
“Crap.”
Birthing a Changeling read the section heading. I rubbed my furrowed forehead to ease my throbbing head.
In all honestly, I didn’t know a lot about fairies, elves, goblins, and the like. They were the types of creatures that got themselves out of trouble. Most of them could appear and disappear in a flash, and some of them were so small that non-MAUCs rarely even took notice of them.
All that is to say, the process surrounding the making of a changeling was foreign to me. I couldn’t imagine why the dark witch would want to make one, but it couldn’t be good no matter what.
And the fact that Tig, a goblin, was somehow tied up in the matter made it all the more worrisome. He still hadn’t called me back, so that meant I was still on my own.
I poured one more glass of wine. Then I decided I’d better not go overboard. I pushed it temporarily aside and retrieved a bottle of water from the fridge. When I got back to my desk, I perused the long list of ingredients for the changeling spell.
My head pounded and I struggled to focus on the overwhelming listing in front of me. It occurred to me that possibly I could track down sources for the items on the spell, but there were so many. It was possible she already had some of them and there was no way to know which ones.
Chugging my water, I leaned back in my office chair and put my feet on the desk. I thought about Henrietta’s words. Maybe I was still trying too hard. Maybe I just needed to calm down and a solution would come to me.
As I focused on relaxing my breathing, my cell phone dinged. Stretching my arm across the table, I tried to fetch it without changing my reclined position. The chair started leaning too far and I had to slam my feet to the floor to catch myself.
I had a text from Rhia, apologizing for her earlier behavior and saying that Sandy was doing better.
it’s ok. i get u were worried.
My water was gone, so that meant it was time for more wine. I sipped it slowly and glanced out my window. I couldn’t see my storage
building from here, but I thought about it and the fact that workers would arrive next week to start cleaning it up. Non-MAUC workers this time. I couldn’t afford another fiasco like the bike trail.
Another ding and I glanced at Rhiannon’s reply. Are you making any progress?
Some. Found the spell. Now have to figure how to get to the dark witch.
I shouldn’t have been surprised that she was awake. It was almost a full moon, so the night would start becoming her active time for a while. That was the way for weres.
Weres? The thought bounced around in my mind.
My mind turned to Donna Dodd and her daughter Penelope. Werecat blood was on the spell list, and knowing what I did about werecats, it was likely Susan Abernathy hadn’t gotten that particular ingredient. Werecats were a tight-knit group and every one of their people would know about the incident with Penelope.
It would require some doing to injure a werecat sufficiently to drain enough of their blood for the spell. And killing one wouldn’t work since a werecat would transform back into its human state upon death.
That meant that I might be able to use Donna to get the dark witch to show herself. I picked up my phone again and texted Rhia.
Figured it out, but I might need your help. Call me 1st thing to let me know how Sandy’s doing. Can move him here for safety if need b.
I didn’t wait for a response. Sleep was pressing hard on me and I needed to get some if I was going to be on top of my game tomorrow.
Rhiannon and Sandy arrived at my house bright and early. It was clear that the Sandman was feeling much better, but my friend wasn’t having any of that. She was coddling him like a newborn baby.
“I will be fine. I promise to stay here in Lynlee’s house and veg out and watch movies. I already agreed not to go into work. What more can I do to put you at ease?”
“You might think you’re better, but she really pounded you. I just think we should wait a little longer before I leave you.”
He glanced at me and I rolled my eyes at him. He winked. I grinned. It felt so good not to worry about his previous attraction to me.
“Listen, I understand,” I told Rhiannon. “If you want to wait until tonight, that’s fine. If I’m right, she can’t finish the spell without the werecat. I’ve already told Donna to send the alert out to the rest of her people. Susan Abernathy will have a tough time getting to them right now.”
Sandy stood from his reclined position on my couch and approached Rhia. She looked different today, with a touch of makeup and her hair pulled back out of her face. It was clear my BFF was really developing strong feelings for her boyfriend and wanted to keep him interested in her.
He put both hands on her shoulders and kissed her forehead. “I don’t want you sitting here playing nursemaid. That’s not the girl I’m head over heels for. I want the tough-as-nails werevamp bitch to come out and go get that dark witch.”
The blush that crept up her neck to her cheeks was flaming red. She smiled, batted her lashes, and looked up at him with eyes glistening.
Ugh! For a minute I thought I was going to be sick, so I turned away and went back to checking my emails. When they finished their kissy-kissy talk, Rhiannon faced me with a look of resolution.
“All right, Lynlee. Let’s see if we can kick some dark witch butt. But first… I haven’t eaten well in a few days. Can we get breakfast?”
Snorting, I bobbed my head up and down, resigned to her request. “Wanna come too, Sandy?”
I hoped the Sandman had seen his girlfriend eat before, because if Rhiannon was as ravenous as I thought she would be, he was in for a show.
A few hours later I was feeling quite sorry for the restaurant we chose because I was pretty sure Rhiannon was going to put them out of business. The place was featuring an all-you-can-eat pancake special and I gave up counting by about the seventh plate of flapjacks she devoured. On top of that, she also ordered four eggs sunny side up, a side of bacon, sausage, and one of the pork chops plus two orders of hash browns—loaded.
Now, one might worry about how well she could fight after engulfing all of that food, but I knew my friend, and the extra carbs, proteins, and fats would have her on top of her game. Susan Abernathy wouldn’t have much of a chance.
Sandy, who had finished his very healthy egg-white omelet with a side of tomatoes and wheat toast about an hour earlier, was telling me all about how he and Rhiannon had begun to date. I wasn’t as interested as I should have been. I was going over and over my plan with the dark witch in my head as I tried to maintain eye contact. When my phone dinged, I over-enthusiastically dug around in my pocket for it.
i'm trying to track down a very good looking gal with dark hair and eyes. she spent one nite with me and i haven’t seen her since. can u help?
I tried not to smile like a loon when I read Beck’s text, but it was impossible to fight the warm tingle in my heart.
i might be able to help. i'm pretty expensive though & my methods might be questionable.
I’d barely torn my eyes from the screen when the phone dinged again.
if you do find this woman, i would really like to see her tonight. please…
My heart palpitated a little. i'll do my best. see you soon.
Setting the phone aside, I glanced back at Sandy to see him watching me with a knowing smile. Heat flooded my cheeks. Before he could speak, I turned to Rhiannon. “Ready?”
She wiped her mouth with her napkin, patted her stomach, and nodded. “Ready!”
Donna was already at the hotel with Penelope and Fredward when I got there. The werecat mother stood tall in the corner, her legs spread, her arms crossed over her chest, and her eyes steely. She was ready for war and she meant business. No one messed with a member of a werecat’s pack, much less that werecat’s daughter.
In complete contrast, Penelope appeared small and delicate. She was seated on the bed, her legs crossed at the ankle and her hands folded in her lap. She fluttered her eyes up at Fredward and he grinned down at her with the look of a lovelorn teen. It was probably best for Donna and her pack that Penelope was choosing a path outside of her species. She wasn’t cut out to be a tribe leader.
“Rhiannon, this is Mrs. Dodd, her daughter Penelope, and Fredward. This is my associate, Rhiannon. Just so you know, she’s a werevamp and also a doctor.”
No one said a word, but Penelope sucked in a breath as if frightened. I figured she was, though I wondered if she worried more for herself, her mother, or her lover. Maybe all three.
“I understand the dark witch has an accomplice and I need to find them too. It won’t do any good to catch her if I don’t know who’s working with her or how to find them. That means, if she’s alone, we can’t take her in.”
Mrs. Dodd raised her chin and sniffed. I knew she wasn’t going to like where this was heading, but I pressed on.
“If she’s alone, I need her to get what she wants and hightail it out of here.” I raised my hand to stop any objections. “I have a tracking spell I’ll tag on her. I’ll use that to follow her movements and hopefully to capture her accomplice.”
Dropping her arms to her sides, Mrs. Dodd approached me with a severe frown. “Then you want me to submit to her original request? To give her my blood?”
“Yes, I do. But only if she’s alone. Otherwise, we take them both down.”
By “taking down” I didn’t mean kill them. MAUCs have a sort of judicial system all their own. There was a method that could be used to defuse all of a magical creature’s powers so that they could be safely turned over to our authorities. Not all Neutralizers had access to The Net, as we called it, but I was one of the few who did. Another thing I received from training under Tig. He and I were authorized Enforcers. If a client or non-client MAUC’s actions were deemed to be an overall danger, then we captured them and turned them into the authorities.
After that the system was pretty much like most human judicial systems. There were judges, prosecutors, defenders, and even jurie
s. A guilty MAUC could receive punishments ranging from fines to removal of powers, and yes, in very extreme circumstances, death.
“Rhiannon.” I turned from Mrs. Dodd to look at my friend. “I want you in that bathroom. If things get crazy, you know what to do. Otherwise, it’s just me, Fredward, and Penelope and Mrs. Dodd.”
“So you’ll break the spell now?” Fredward asked, yawning.
It seemed the over-exuberance of his arrow shots was really taking a toll on him. He reached up for his sunglasses and I drew a breath to stop him before he could take them off, but instead he just reached two fingers beneath them to rub at his eyes.
“Yeah, I’m going to break the spell, Fredward. Is everyone ready?”
Rhiannon ducked into the bathroom and hid behind the door.
I wagged my hand, conjured my wand, and waved it in front of Fredward’s head. “Undo the spell that needs undoing. Reverse the curse that need not be brewing. Make all things back the way they were and not a trace of that magic upon him stir.” Then I touched his head with my wand and said, “The spell placed by the dark witch Susan Abernathy forthwith shall be removed.”
So this was a version of my Granny’s very own undoing spell. I changed some of the old world wording but otherwise used her verses. It had never once failed me. When I saw Fredward slump back against the wall like a huge weight was lifted from him, I knew Granny’s spell had once again worked.
“Feel better?”
“You wouldn’t believe,” he sighed.
Penelope pushed past me and got between us. She slipped his glasses off and we all waited to see what would happen.
I didn’t feel any different. I looked back over my shoulder at Mrs. Dodd and she hadn’t moved a muscle from her Amazon-like stance. It seemed this cupid’s arrows were no longer going haywire.
The young werecat girl touched her boyfriend’s cheek with exaggerated tenderness. “Oh, my love. I’ve missed your eyes.”
A Bundle of Trouble (The Lynlee Lincoln Sets Book 1) Page 15