“The text was from Connor. Someone crashed their car into Rachel’s store.” Levi took Hayley by the hand and began to hurry down the path that led to the parking area. “He says it looks like it was deliberate.”
13
Main Street was utter chaos, with emergency vehicles choking the narrow section of highway and crowds of tourists gathered around to gawk at the destruction. Levi knew there was no way he would be able to get around the curve of the road by the fire department and so to his usual parking space behind his building, and instead squeezed the truck to the left, to the narrow street that led to an ancillary parking lot near the Gold King Mine museum. Once he’d parked, he and Hayley ran back down the way they’d just come, arriving on the scene just as paramedics from Cottonwood were loading Rachel into the back of an ambulance.
“What happened?” Levi asked of Angela, who stood next to Connor in front of the shattered display window of her aunt’s store. “Is Rachel all right?”
“They want to take her in for X-rays, maybe an MRI,” Angela replied. Tears glittered in her eyes, and Levi could see the way she forced herself to swallow, as though fighting to get past a knot in her throat. “The paramedics couldn’t say much more than that.”
A rustling in the crowd, and someone saying, “Let me through! Let me through!”
Tobias, pushing his way through the onlookers, only to stop as he realized the paramedics had already shut the ambulance doors and were pulling slowly away from the curb, and he wouldn’t be able to reach his wife in time. At once Connor went over to him. “It’s okay, Tobias. She’s alive. Angela and I are going to follow the ambulance down to the hospital. You can ride with us.”
“What about the person who drove into the store?” Hayley asked, and Angela turned slightly toward her, a frown pulling at her dark brows.
“He’s gone. He — ” Her voice caught, and she shook her head, as if reprimanding herself for that momentary weakness. “From what people have said, the person was driving a silver sporty-looking car, but no one seems able to identify what it was. They came down around the curve and plowed right into the front window. I guess R-Rachel” — Angela had to pause again and take a breath — “it sounds as though Rachel was right there, putting some stock in the display area. The car knocked her down, but then it just backed away and went speeding down the hill before anyone could stop it.”
“No one saw who was driving?”
“I don’t think so. A couple of people said the windows were tinted.”
“Angela.” Connor approached, Tobias right behind him. “We need to get down to the hospital.”
“I know. But….” She cast a helpless glance at the shattered window, the smashed pottery and crumpled books in the storefront. “What are we supposed to do about all this?”
“We’ll take care of it,” Levi said. “Don’t worry — I’m sure there are plenty of people who will be willing to pitch in.”
“All right.” Then one hand went to her mouth. “Oh, hell — Rachel was watching Lucinda. What are we supposed to do about that?”
“Levi and I will take care of her,” Hayley said at once, and Levi felt another rush of love for her, that she would jump in and offer to help, even though she was a newcomer here, and still finding her own way. “At least she’s seen us before, so we won’t be total strangers.”
“Thank you,” Angela replied, sounding so relieved that Hayley smiled in response, clearly glad that her offer had been accepted without argument. “I’ll call as soon as we know anything.”
And then she and Connor and Tobias were hurrying away, up the hill to the house so they could get their car. Deprived of further spectacle, the tourists who’d been watching the commotion began to disperse, leaving Levi and Hayley…and a gathering crowd of McAllisters, who’d apparently just gotten the news.
In the front of the group were Kirby, Angela’s cousin and friend, and Kirby’s boyfriend Jordan. “What can we do?” Kirby asked.
“Start cleaning up as best you can,” Levi said. “We’ll need to board up the window until it can be replaced. I suppose throw out anything that was damaged?”
“Better save it,” Hayley put in, surprising him. “Rachel might need to make a claim with her insurance company, and it’ll be easier if she has the broken stuff on hand so she can match inventory numbers or whatever.”
“Of course.” He hadn’t even thought about insurance, or the mechanics of making a claim. Then again, he’d never had to do such a thing. He’d learned much during his time here, but it was obvious that gaps still existed in his knowledge. The lack bothered him, even though Hayley had made it clear that she didn’t mind his unusual origins, or the limitations he suffered because of them.
“Not a problem.” Kirby glanced around at the group of family members who’d gathered, everyone from Bryce, one of the clan’s elders, to young Lisa McAllister, who couldn’t even drive yet. “We’ll make sure we put everything in a box.”
“And I’ll get some boards,” Bryce said. “Got a bunch in my garage.”
Hayley came closer to Levi and murmured, “We should really check on Lucinda.”
She was right. Had Rachel locked the door to the apartment, or was there a possibility of the Santiago witch emerging at any moment to see the damage done to the place that was supposed to be her sanctuary?
“Hayley and I need to go upstairs for a bit,” Levi told the group. “Take care of the mess however you think is best.”
Bryce raised a gray-frosted eyebrow at that — he was probably used to being the one to give orders — but then shrugged and said something to Kirby, who nodded. The elder headed off, presumably to fetch the boards for the window.
Satisfied that the wreckage would be handled, Levi went inside the store, doing his best to avoid crunching on too much broken glass. Hayley followed, also stepping gingerly. Rachel’s apartment — well, it was now also Tobias’ place, although he still had the studio space and apartment he’d lived in before the two of them got married — was accessed by a staircase at the back of the shop, hidden behind a door. That door did turn out to be locked, but that was no real impediment. Levi put his hand on the knob, and it turned at once. They went up to the first floor of the apartment, but it was empty.
“Maybe she slept through it all?” Hayley asked.
That would be a blessing. “Possibly. But she must still be up in her room, even if she is awake.”
They headed to the third floor, where the apartment’s bedrooms were located. Levi went immediately to the one where Lucinda had been installed, and knocked softly on the door. “Lucinda? Are you all right?”
No answer at first, and Hayley gave him a worried glance, although she remained silent, her hands jammed in the pockets of her jeans, as though she didn’t know quite else what to do with them.
Then the door opened, and Lucinda gazed out at them, her expression puzzled. She did seem much calmer than she had been the night before. All Levi could see in her face was confusion, but not the snarling anger that had led her to fight back against him. Also, her hair had been neatly brushed, and she was wearing real clothes — jeans and a short-sleeved top with some pretty flowers embroidered around the neckline.
“I’m fine,” she said, her arched brows pulling together. “You — you were there last night, weren’t you?”
“Yes,” Levi replied. He glanced over at Hayley, who offered Lucinda a hesitant smile. “Hayley and I were both there. I’m Levi.”
“Right. Rachel mentioned you…I think.” She put a hand to her forehead. Her fingers still had faint traces of chipped dark red polish on them. Levi wondered if she’d been wearing that polish when Joaquin Escobar invaded her life and changed things forever. Certainly she wouldn’t have had much opportunity to remove it after that. “Sorry,” Lucinda went on. “Things are all kind of muddled together still. Rachel said I’ll get less foggy as time goes on, but right now….”
“It’s all right,” Levi assured her. “But we needed to
talk to you about Rachel.”
Lucinda’s dark eyes immediately flared with alarm. Maybe she had heard the commotion after all, or possibly she’d picked up a hint of psychic residue from Rachel’s shock and pain. “What’s the matter?”
“There’s been an accident,” Hayley said. “Some bastard drove his car into the front window of the store, then took off before anyone could stop him. Rachel was hit — they’re taking her to the hospital now.”
“We think she’ll be all right, though,” Levi put in hastily, because he could tell from the sudden grayish pallor of Lucinda’s warm-toned skin that she’d immediately assumed the worst. “They want to run some tests, just to make sure.”
“I want to see it,” Lucinda said. “Where the accident happened.”
Levi glanced over at Hayley, who gave a very small lift of her shoulders. Because he hadn’t had a real chance to talk to Rachel yet, he didn’t know for sure how much freedom Lucinda had been given to roam around the apartment — or the store, for that matter. But since word had presumably gotten out about her presence here, there didn’t seem to be much point in hiding her away. Besides, the only people downstairs in the shop would be other McAllisters. He didn’t have to worry about Lucinda saying or doing something that might attract the attention of any civilians in the immediate vicinity.
“It’s something of a mess,” he told her. “But if you really want to — ”
“I do,” she said.
Now it was Levi’s turn to shrug. “All right. Better put some shoes on, though,” he added, noticing for the first time that she was barefoot. “There’s a lot of broken glass.”
Her full mouth tightened slightly, but she only nodded, and walked away from the door so she could pick up a pair of flip-flops that had been resting on the floor next to the bed and put them on. Still not the best foot coverings he could think of, but of course the flip-flops were better than nothing.
The three of them headed downstairs, Levi in the lead, with Hayley bringing up the rear. Even in the midst of all this chaos, he could still recall the sensation of her lips pressed against his, the sweet scent in her shimmering golden hair. They should have been able to return to town and walk hand in hand down Main Street, look in the shops, possibly go to one of the wine tasting rooms once the afternoon was a little older. Instead, Rachel was in the hospital, and the other members of the clan were trying to help pick up the pieces.
They’d already done a good job. Kirby and Jordan and several others had carefully gathered up the damaged items and put them in several plastic bins. Where those had come from, Levi wasn’t sure, but he supposed a general call had gone out among the McAllisters for any items that could help with the clean-up. Bryce and David Moss, the husband of Allegra, another clan elder, were in the process of boarding up the window. Already the interior of the shop was getting darker — Rachel had always relied on natural light during the daytime hours — and so Levi paused and went over to the little alcove where the switches for the overhead fixtures were located, and turned them on.
Warm light shone down on them; Rachel hated fluorescents. While the lighting was friendly enough, it couldn’t conceal the damage that had been done to the quaint storefront.
Lucinda moved forward, toward the window. Levi almost put out a hand to stop her, because he knew that Bryce wouldn’t appreciate being interrupted while he was in the middle of boarding up the damage. However, the Santiago witch stopped a few feet away from the window itself, one hand going out to grasp the edge of a table filled with crystals and pottery. Luckily, it was just far enough away from the point of impact that it appeared to have escaped unscathed.
“The Escobars did this,” she said, her voice not much more than a whisper.
“What?” Hayley demanded. Her blue eyes were wide with shock. “How can you know that?”
“I just know.” She smiled slightly, but it was a sad smile. “It’s not that I have some special power that can sense dark magic. I wish I did — if I’d been stronger, then maybe I would have been the prima-in-waiting.” The smile faded, her eyes dark and tragic. “But if that was the case, I would have ended up as Joaquin Escobar’s plaything. Then again…father…son…how much difference does it really make?” Her hands knotted into fists where they hung at her sides.
If Levi had known her better, he might have tried to go to her and put a reassuring hand on her arm, provide a simple touch to let her know that not all men were like the Escobars. But because he and Lucinda were nearly strangers, he remained where he was, even as Hayley stood close by, her eyes filled with the same sympathy, one she obviously wasn’t sure how to express.
Then Lucinda pushed her hair back from her shoulders and shook her head. “Not much of a difference, from where I stand. Anyway, I’m sure they did this because they were looking for revenge. You stole me from them. Some might argue I’m not all that valuable, but that’s not really the point. You invaded their territory. So they invaded yours, and they hurt someone who was close to your prima. Simple math on their part, really. If they’d tried to strike at the prima herself, or her husband, or their children…that would have caused too much of a reaction. But Rachel? Now you’re distracted. You’re worried and upset…but you’re not quite out for blood.”
“I’m not sure about that,” Levi replied. Lucinda’s words had shaken him, but if it was the Escobars’ plan to make sure the McAllister clan was knocked off-balance by this latest act of violence, then he had to make sure he remained calm and in control. “I saw Bryce’s face as he was boarding up the window. He looked rather like he wished he was hitting something other than nails with his hammer.”
“Maybe. But you’re not planning a council of war. Your prima and primus aren’t here…leaving your town undefended.”
A chill went over Levi then, even though the shop felt quite warm, most of its air conditioning pulled out through the shattered glass of the display window. He hadn’t even stopped to consider such a thing, but he was forced to admit that if it had been the Escobars’ intention to make sure the McAllisters’ leaders were safely away from Jerome, they’d done a good job of executing their plan.
“There are still enough witches and warlocks here to protect the town, if it comes to that,” Levi said.
Lucinda raised an eyebrow, but her expression wasn’t mocking…more sad than anything else, as if she pitied him for his over-confidence. But then, she couldn’t know that he wasn’t quite an ordinary garden-variety warlock, that his powers were certainly a match for the Escobar father and son.
The two of them working together…along with any demons they might summon…well, that was a different question, one Levi wasn’t sure he wanted to answer. His powers were strong by any method of measurement, but he didn’t know if they were quite that strong.
Hayley stepped forward then. “Exactly. I don’t think the Escobars know what they’re up against in Levi here. He’s already beaten their demons twice.”
This revelation did seem to surprise Lucinda. She glanced from Hayley over to Levi but didn’t say anything, her entire stance showing that she expected some kind of clarification.
“It’s true,” Levi admitted with some reluctance. “But only a few at a time. I have no idea how many they can summon, if they truly put their minds to it.”
Lucinda appeared somewhat discomfited by his comment. One hand went up to nervously tuck a heavy lock of black hair behind her ear. “I don’t have any idea. They didn’t work their powers around me. Well, those powers, anyway. Obviously, Matías was back to his old mind-control tricks, or he wouldn’t….” She stopped there, a slight shiver running through her slender form.
Not wishing for her to dwell on those horrors, Levi said quickly, “Even if we don’t know how many demons they can summon at once, at least we have some experience fighting them…which means we’re not completely unprepared. I will talk to the elders. And — ” He stopped there, not sure what to say next. For while he knew it was important to let the clan eld
ers know exactly what they were facing, he wasn’t sure if Hayley and Lucinda needed to be present for that meeting. In fact, it was probably better if they didn’t come along, simply because Lucinda obviously couldn’t provide much more information than she already had, and he wasn’t sure whether Bryce and Allegra and Tricia would feel comfortable speaking freely in front of the Santiago witch, considering she’d been so recently freed from Matías Escobar’s influence.
Some of his hesitation must have communicated itself to Hayley, because she said, “How about I take Lucinda up to my place for now, and you can go talk to the elders? It seems the most logical thing to do, considering how the store is wrecked and everything.”
Levi wished he could kiss her all over again. She’d carefully attributed the reason for taking Lucinda over to the flat to the destruction of the store, and not the need to make sure that the other witch wasn’t left alone for any length of time. “That sounds like a great idea. Do you mind, Lucinda?”
A lift of her shoulders. “No. I don’t really want to stay here…at least, not until Rachel is able to come back.”
Which meant that they’d have to make arrangements for alternate lodgings for Lucinda. Levi pushed that worry away for now. They’d work out something. In the meantime, though, he needed to speak to the elders.
Together, they might be able to drive off the Escobars’ next evil incursion.
Perhaps.
14
Bryce had already taken off by the time the three of them emerged from the store. Hayley watched as Levi asked Kirby where the elder had gone, with Kirby pointing up the hill, presumably toward the street where it seemed like most of the prominent members of the clan had their fancy restored Victorian houses. Levi touched Hayley’s hand, bent down to murmur, “I’ll be as quick as I can, but it may still be some time before I can get back.”
She summoned a smile. “It’s all right — Lucinda and I can have some girl time while you’re gone.”
Deep Magic Page 17