“You got her killed, too, didn’t you? Always trying to help the pretty girls, always getting them killed,” the hooded figure said softly, his voice annoyingly mild.
I kept backing up, not sure what exactly he was saying, but I was guessing that maybe Robert had been teaching Evangeline? And she’d died.
Well, shit, everyone died.
“Back off.” I reached for my knives, but this was a dream and I wasn’t sure that they were even there. Or that they’d do anything if I found them.
The robed and hooded figure swirled his hands up faster than I could track with my eyes, and a blast of something slammed into me. There was no color to the magical thump, no sparkles, no scent, nothing. I was hit in the chest and thrown backward so hard, I struggled to breathe once I hit the ground.
Jerking my limbs this way and that, fighting my way out of the dream, I sat up in the dark room, panic clawing at me.
An arm was tight around me, and without thinking, I drove a fist toward the darkened figure. Only I think I hurt my fist more than I hurt him as my hand crumpled against his chest.
“Easy, easy, Bree, it was just a dream.” Crash rolled away from me and flicked on a light. The tiny clock on the bedside table blinked a disturbing three thirty-three a.m. My heart raced and my lungs burned as if I’d just run ten miles. Or held my breath. Or been suffocated.
I sat up and rubbed my arms. Sweat coated my skin, and all I managed to do was smear it around. “Bad dream, but I think . . . I think it was kind of real.” I shook my head and then nodded. “Yeah, I think it was real.”
Crash sat up and stretched his legs out along the bed. “Was it at least helpful?”
I ran a hand over my face and grimaced. “Maybe?” I told him about the dream and what I thought might be hidden in that cemetery. “And maybe Gran is there too.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “I won’t be able to go back to sleep after that. I’m going to shower and get going.”
His eyebrows rose. “You think that’s a good idea?”
I glanced at the clock. I’d gotten about six or seven hours of sleep, and really that was enough. “Yeah, I think it is. It’s like I can feel a timer ticking down, and if we get to the end of it and Gran and Charlotte aren’t found . . .bad things, you know?”
He tugged me to him. “Yeah, I know. The fae are all riled up here too. Kink is doing what she can to get me info. Something has NOLA on edge.”
I gave him a hard stare. “You know what Karissa wants the wings for, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“You going to tell me?” This was his chance to be straight with me, to not keep another secret. My heart beat a little faster as he sat there, saying nothing, and I wondered if he was about to pull a Corb.
Slowly he nodded. “There is a spell that would bind me to her in a way that I couldn’t escape. I would be blind to anyone but her and would be compelled to follow her every command. Semper Mea. It’s an old spell known only to the fae. So right now, I am running a fine line between keeping her loyalists believing that I am not with you, while trying to find the angel wings myself to keep them safe, while having her loyalists thinking I am working with them to find the wings for Karissa.”
“You know I’m trying to find them too? As long as one of us gets to them we’re good.” I paused and smiled. “We’re good.” That last bit held a little bit more meaning to it. Maybe he couldn’t be with me, but we were okay now that he was sharing.
With one finger, he tipped my chin up and kissed me, his mouth angling over mine. I slid a hand up into his dark hair, holding him close. I could almost feel him keeping his magic in check, as if he didn’t want to overwhelm me.
Which was the very opposite of what Corb had attempted. I smiled in the middle of the kiss and pulled back. “One of these days . . .” I didn’t finish my thought as I stood and let myself into the attached bathroom.
“One of these days what?” Crash asked as I shut the door in his face.
“One of these days, we’re both going to let our magic loose, and then it’s going to be a real party,” I said.
He groaned and thumped his head on the door. “Don’t tease.”
Laughing, I flicked on the shower, thoughts of another shower close to the surface. It was tempting to recreate it, but the memory of the dream and the necromancer blasting me out of my socks was still too strong.
Stripping down, I stepped into the hot water, grabbed the soap and shampoo and got scrubbing.
I knew a few things.
I was in the right place, even if I didn’t have a pinpoint spot. St. Louis Cemetery Number 1 was going to be a pickle. I needed to find a way to get a bunch of mean ghosts to talk to me.
But that wasn’t first on the menu. First was an abandoned amusement park. Charlotte was the one who needed saving, not a pair of wings.
Clean, I towel dried vigorously and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. I blinked and stared at the woman staring back, buck naked. My skin had changed with my weight loss. It was softer in places and in others, like along my belly, it was looser. Apparently my skin didn’t bounce back like it once had. Not that it mattered.
Unless I ended up naked with Crash again. Which, if I was honest, was exactly where I wanted to be.
“Later, you horn dog,” I muttered to myself. “Gran and Charlotte first, sex later.”
A buzzing of wings turned my head up to see Scarlet sitting on the windowsill, reminding me of how I’d first met Kinkly. I tightened my towel around my upper body. “Scar, what are you doing? And how the hell did you find this house?”
She snarled at me. “I can find my king anywhere.” Today her clothes were variegated in color, from the lightest pink through a deep, blood-wine burgundy.
I didn’t like that she could find this place. That meant we could be found here as long as Crash was with us. Besides, wasn’t Kinkly supposed to be following her? “Do you have an appointment?”
“Is he here? With you?” Her eyes swept over me and she gave a sniff of disdain. At least there was no sword this time.
I pointed to the door. “Through there.”
The fairy flew past me, and then, of course, stopped at the door. “Open it.”
“Oh, that’s not polite.” I pulled my towel up and around me again. “Ask nicely.”
“Open it, you filthy human,” she snapped as she swung around, and the cheek of her, she pulled her tiny sword and pointed it at me. I did not need a matching slice on the other side of my face.
I leaned a hip against the counter. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re here? And I’m not quite human either, if I’m being honest. If you’d been listening before, I actually have some fae in me.”
Part of me would like a whole lot of fae in me, but I didn’t think telling her that would win me points.
“I will not!” She seemed as horrified by my request as she was at the thought of asking me politely.
“I’m not opening the door”—I smiled at her—“until you ask politely.”
She flew at me with an ear-piercing screech, sword pointed at my left eye. I spun to the side, grabbed my towel by the corner, and jerked it off me.
She spun in the air and faced me. “You think to stun me with your hideousness?”
“Nope, a towel flick will do the trick.” I snapped my towel like a whip, the corner hitting her hard right in the belly.
Her wings collapsed as the color drained from her face and she went down in a tumble. I leapt forward and caught her, then set her on the counter.
“Bree?” Crash said from the other side. “Do I dare ask who you are talking to in there?”
“It’s an amazingly rude fairy dressed in all red, goes by Scarlet,” I said. “You want to talk to her?”
The door cracked open, and I scooped up my towel and covered up. Not that he hadn’t already seen me naked, but it wasn’t that kind of a moment.
His let himself in and his eyes landed on the small fairy. “Shit. Scarlet, what are you
doing here?”
“Trouble,” she wheezed as she held her belly. I wasn’t too worried. There was no blood seeping through her fingers, and I knew from experience that fairy folk were tougher than they looked.
I scooped up my clothes and went into the room to get dressed, leaving them to talk.
The low rumble of Crash’s voice was all I could pick up, no actual words. I made myself go to the empty room that had been mine for about five seconds. There were clean clothes in there, underwear and, thank Gawd, a fresh sports bra that would fit.
Much as wriggling into said sports bra was a workout on its own with my skin still damp from the shower, it was nice to have on clothes that weren’t days old. Dressed once more, I headed downstairs, not entirely surprised to see Penny sitting at the kitchen table with a large book in front of her. I’d say it was leather bound, only the leather still had long fur attached to it.
“Good morning,” I said as I sat across from her. She nodded to the pot of tea in the center of the table, an extra cup beside it. I poured myself some of the steaming liquid, dumping a good amount of cream and sugar into it.
“I’m coming with you,” she said as I lifted the teacup to my mouth.
I set the cup down before I took a sip. “You’re coming with me?”
“To the abandoned amusement park,” she said. “That is where the Coven of Darkness is, and it’s where we will find the girl.”
I blinked at her.
“How did you know?” I’d not had the chance to tell anyone about what Marge and Homer had given me.
Penny sighed. “Because the coven phoned me after you left, and they propositioned me.”
21
I circled my hands around the teacup and suddenly wished I had whiskey in it instead of just tea. I looked at Penny across from me. “You were propositioned by the Coven of Darkness?”
“Only Missy and I are left in the south from the original Coven of Silver. The younger members have scattered farther even than I had thought, and the two locals are not willing to help. And so the young ones from the Coven of Darkness came to me for help, which I find interesting.” She tapped what I had a feeling was a spell book in front of her. “Apparently they tried a spell that binds demons to the caller. They wanted to make themselves stronger, but something went wrong. Not that I’m surprised. If they had not killed off all their mentors, they would not be in this pickle. It may be too late for me to help them.”
I was already racing ahead with ideas. “Do they have Gran and Charlotte?”
“They have Charlotte,” Penny nodded. “They admitted as much.”
Hope surged within me. Maybe this would be easier than I’d hoped. “What if we make a deal? You help them with their spell, and we get Charlotte? Would they go for that?”
Footsteps rumbled down the steps and Crash ducked his head into the kitchen, interrupting us. “I have to go. Bree. Scarlet says the fae hunting the wings are close to finding them. I have to get there before her, and before the rest of the fae. They think they are in the St. Louis Number 1 Cemetery.”
My jaw dropped open. “So I was right! That’s why the ghosts are so mean.”
He blinked. “What?”
“The ghosts there, they freaked out when I tried to go onto the cemetery grounds, and they repelled the necromancer too.” I stood and went to him. “Be careful, the ghosts were super strong. They dropped me to my knees.”
He nodded and then, as if he couldn’t resist, he strode to my side and bent to kiss me. Quick, but far from impersonal. My mouth softened under his, the heat rolling between us like a sudden flame that warmed me through and through. “You be careful too.” He pulled away, his hand lingering on my face for a moment before he turned and jogged out of the house.
Feish was right behind him, and she glowered at me, lips held tightly together in what was an impressive feat for her. “I have to go with him.”
I smiled. “You two be careful. Try to keep him out of trouble.”
She snorted, a burbling noise that sounded far wetter than it should have.
Penny waited for the door to shut behind them. “Why is he looking for the angel wings?”
“Semper mea spell mean anything to you?” I asked her, and she groaned, her eyelids fluttering closed.
“Damn that Karissa! She just can’t let him be!” She thumped her cane to the floor. “At least if he gets to them first, it’s one off your list.” She was silent for a moment, studying me, then added, “You be careful with that one. Hotter than sin, that fae king, and twice as dangerous to the heart and body.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I said. “Actually, tell me how are we going to get Charlotte back.” Her mother had to be losing her mind with fear, not knowing where her little girl was, and my stomach twisted into knots of empathy for her. We needed to hurry. I should not have slept so long.
Penny nodded. “The situation is not good. We have until sunrise to get Charlotte away from the Coven of Darkness, or they will mark her as one of theirs, and she will be lost to us forever.”
I spluttered on my tea and shot to my feet. “Then what are we waiting for? Sunrise isn’t that far off!” Four hours, maybe a little less.
Penny stood a little slower than me. “The amusement park is a long way off by foot. And the coven, they’ll be watching for me. They made sure to tell me to come alone.”
“They want you too then?” I asked the question but already knew the answer.
Penny sighed and leaned on the table. “Yes, I believe they hope to trap me. There are spells that could turn even an old lady like me into one of theirs. They’d only keep me as long as I was useful, then they’d kill me too and steal my power, I imagine. I’d hoped Missy would get here before something like this came up. Together, we could actually stand against the young ones. They might be powerful, but they have no experience.”
I put my hands to either side of my head and paced a small circle in the kitchen. There had to be a way to get Charlotte out safe and sound without risking Penny. There had to be. “I hate to ask, but is Missy actually coming? Should we—” I swallowed my pride, “—wait for her?”
For Gran and Charlotte, I would work with Missy. For Gran I would do a lot of things.
Penny shook her head and I tried not to feel relieved. “Don’t know. She said she was coming, but it’ll be on her time frame. As always.”
Of course, it would. I started my pacing again, thinking through our options. There was one I kept circling back to.
“I know the amusement park is abandoned, but do you think there’s a map of it online?” I scrambled through my hip bag and pulled out the cell phone that I’d never returned to Crash. I did a search for the abandoned amusement park, and several pictures popped up. I grimaced as I scrolled through the images of the dilapidated buildings, sunk under water, cringing at the faded paint, leering clowns with eyes hanging loose, and rusted metal ride parts. Each seemed to be taken under a gloom-filled sky, as if for maximum effect.
“Gawd damn, that’s freaky,” I muttered as I scrolled through the images until I found a map. I tried to make it bigger, spreading and pinching my fingers on the screen with no effect. It refused to expand.
Penny didn’t speak as I paced and stared at the screen, just let me be as I worked the problem through in my mind. I don’t know how much time slid by as a plan slowly formed. It might not be perfect, but it was far better than going in half-cocked by the seat of my very comfortable leather pants.
I closed my eyes and worked over the plan in my head. Satisfied, I showed the map to Penny. “Any idea where in here they might be?”
She looked at it closely, moving it around with her finger. “Here, they said to meet me at Jocos Mardi Gras.”
I grimaced. Of course, they’d chosen the worst of the rides with a big leering joker character hanging over the very dark entrance to a tunnel.
“Okay, here. Nemeth can take you in his cab. . .” I pulled the card out of my pocket and flip
ped it over. “He’s fae so I’m confident he can get you there safely. Make a deal with the coven, even if you can’t break the spell, but keep them busy for as long as you can. I’ll get Charlotte out first, then I’ll get you out, okay?”
It was the best plan I could come up with short notice, and I hoped I’d gotten it right.
“What about you?” Penny asked, her eyes sharp and considering. “What have you got planned, exactly?”
A hard smile slid over my lips and a burst of adrenaline rolled through me. Fight or flight, and I was fixing for a fight. “I’m going to bring the cavalry.”
*_*_*
As soon as Nemeth drove off with Penny, Nemeth rattling on about how honored he was to meet her, I roused the rest of the house, which was basically Suzy and Eric, and filled them in on the situation.
“Charlotte was taken by dark witches, Penny is going to distract them, and I’m going to get Charlotte out. You in?”
Suzy flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, her bright blue eyes sharp and glittery with a predatory gleam that hadn’t been there before. “I thought you’d never ask. Let’s see what they think of a mostly untrained siren. Make them all climb over each other.” She grinned and gave a rather lecherous wink, which made me smile. Yeah, Suzy was going to have some fun, and I didn’t feel bad for the coven, not one bit.
Eric touched his throat as if his bowtie were still there. “What can I do?”
“I’m calling up Skeletor,” I said as I showed them the tiny map of the amusement park on the edge of the water. A lagoon sat in the center of it, and it had overflowed, flooding a number of the rides. I pointed them to the Jocos Mardi Gras. “I can ride him across town without being seen, which will help me get close to the coven. Robert and Jinx will come with me—”
Suzy put a hand on my arm, stopping me. “Jinx is here?”
I opened my bag and scooped out the tiny spider. “See?”
Jinx waved. “What are we doing?”
“Rescue mission,” I said. “You in?”
Midlife Ghost Hunter: A Paranormal Women's Fiction (The Forty Proof Series Book 4) Page 17