A sorcerer didn’t bring red roses on a casual first date.
My head spun, trying to figure out if I had sealed some kind of spell by taking the roses into my office, in effect, accepting them. Why did it have to be so complicated? And why was Evan suddenly coming on so strongly?
“Knock, knock.”
My head flew up to see Braden framed in the open doorway, his eyes fixed on the roses.
“Braden.” I didn’t need this confrontation right now, with everything so confused in my mind. He would need explanations, and I would need to give them to him, and I hadn’t even figured out whether or not I wanted to marry him.
Or had I? After three years, if I couldn’t decide whether or not I loved him, was it really that tough a question? I wanted to love him, but the only reason I could think to marry him was to escape, and using a person like that has nothing to do with love. I had nothing to offer in return. Not that I wouldn’t try, but I had to stand on my own two feet before I could be what he deserved.
“Who are those from?” Braden nodded towards the flowers.
“Evan.”
A dark shadow spread across his face. “I see. I take it you two are together now.”
“No!” The word exploded from my lips, carrying the force of desperate denial. No, I couldn’t be with Evan, and somehow I would have to convince Evan of that fact, when he could so easily manipulate me. He’s put a love spell on you, Kaitlin had said.
Not that I loved Evan, but it would have been convenient at that moment if I could bring myself to love Braden. And there was my second bad reason to marry Braden: to use him as a shield against Evan.
“Cassie,” Braden said, “you’ve told me before that red roses are a symbol of romantic love and fertility.”
“I didn’t realize you were paying attention.”
“I always pay attention to what you say. That’s why I never brought you red roses before Tuesday night.”
“Oh.” Somehow, I had always assumed that I was more into the relationship than he was, because I never dated anyone else, despite our non-exclusivity agreement. He had, and I had never begrudged him that fact, but I still thought it had meant more to me than to him. Now, I realized, it was the other way around.
“So, is it over?” Braden asked. “Are you choosing him?”
“No, I mean, yes.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “Braden, I don’t think we should get married, but it has nothing to do with Evan. He was just a friend when I needed one yesterday.”
“A friend?” Braden lifted a finger and jabbed it at the roses. “He doesn’t think so.”
“No, I don’t think he does.”
“I know I screwed up yesterday.”
“No, Braden, you–”
“Let me finish,” he interrupted. “I did screw up. You were upset, and I didn’t realize how much. I pushed you away. I don’t suppose you’d tell me what happened?”
I hesitated, but I figured the whole town would know about it soon enough. “My parents disowned me.”
“Oh, wow.” His hand twitched, like he wanted to touch me but he had to strain to keep his distance.
“Exactly, so please don’t blame yourself. You had no way of knowing what was going on and I think I already knew I didn’t love you enough to marry you. Besides, you need someone with her act together, not someone who needs a convenient escape.”
“Can’t I be the judge of what I need?”
“It’s over, Braden,” I said, as gently as I could, but there’s no way to say those words gently.
“I see.” He started for the door, but paused and looked back, still staring at the roses. “You said your parents kicked you out. Where did you stay last night?”
Swallowing nervously, I said, “Evan’s.”
“And now he’s sent you red roses.” Braden had the look of someone trying to work something out in his mind, but I had a feeling he was jumping to all the wrong conclusions. “He’s done something to you, hasn’t he?”
“Not exactly.”
“I should have seen it yesterday when you went tearing off after him.” He took a few steps closer to me. “He’s put a spell on you.”
“No,” I said. “I told you, we’re not together, and I have no plans to get together with him.”
“What are his plans? How easy do you think it’s going to be to say no to him?”
Since I had wondered the same thing, I forced myself to keep my mouth shut.
“It’s not over between us,” Braden said.
“What?”
He held up his hands to fend off further comment. “Look, I think we’re good together, but even if I’m wrong, I think you need someone to stand between you and him.”
“That sounds like an awfully dangerous place to stand.”
“If you think it’s so dangerous, you definitely need me there.”
I didn’t know how to respond.
“Don’t marry me,” he said. “Just come to Chicago with me in the fall. Maybe I can change your mind, and maybe I can’t, but at least in the meantime, you won’t be alone.”
“I can’t just use you like that.”
“Sure you can. I volunteered.” With that, he strode out the door, leaving me gaping at his retreating back.
28
THE REST OF THE DAY offered me no respite. Shortly after Braden left, the sheriff called, and he didn’t sound happy.
“I called you at least five times yesterday. Where were you?”
“I had problems.” I decided not to get into them. “Why did you call?”
“Because, as soon as we got off the phone yesterday, I realized you were holding out on me.”
“Oh?” I held my breath.
“Belinda was turned into a vampire at that cabin, and she went there with a man. She signed him in as Mr. Hewitt. So, either this unidentified man was also attacked, and we’ve seen no evidence of a second victim, or the man in question was the vampire who hurt her. I don’t think it was Luke, and neither do you.”
I had no idea what to do with a direct challenge, so I kept my mouth shut.
“I’ve tried to talk to the other two men I was sure she was seeing, but neither of them is answering their phone. There seems to be a rash of that.”
“Sheriff, I’m working on it,” I said.
“Then why are you lying to me? I might have understood, when I was under that witch’s spell, but not now.”
“This case is dangerous,” I said. “I just don’t want the vampire to suspect anything.”
“Or you think it’s me.”
“No,” I said, a little too quickly.
“Interesting. That suggests daylight may not be the problem you said it was.”
The sheriff had always struck me as a man with more than a little intuition, and just then, I hated it. “I can’t talk about this.”
“Fine,” he said, “but I’ve still got duties, so if there’s anything you think I should know, anything that might save my life, I’d appreciate you telling me.”
“Just, be careful, and get behind a threshold. If I can tell you anything else, I promise I will.”
I was still feeling unsettled by the conversation with the sheriff when I received another call, from Frank Loyd, but this time, with good news. He had a small snoop job for me, and I desperately needed the money. All I had to do was follow the husband of one of his clients and get some pictures to prove his infidelity. It was simple enough, and it came with a two hundred dollar advance.
Of course, I reasoned as I followed Arthur Jenkins home from work and waited just across the street for him to make his next move, I could probably ease my financial difficulties by going back to my parents’ house to get my clothes. The only thing forcing me to start my new independent life without so much as a toothbrush was me. My parents had even offered me a fistful of money–probably several thousand dollars–that I had thrown back in their faces.
What was I trying to prove, anyway? That I didn’t need them? Probabl
y. The hurt and betrayal had overwhelmed me, and all I could think at the time was: If they don’t want me, then I don’t need them or anything they might give me.
How could I go back to them now and ask for my clothes? They hadn’t just asked me to leave; they had disowned me. I was no longer their daughter. If I went back, it would be as a beggar asking for handouts.
Well, I didn’t need handouts. I had two hundred dollars from Frank, and two hundred more when I finished. Evan wasn’t paying me for that investigation, thanks to our deal, but there would be more work. Kaitlin hadn’t asked for any rent money, but I intended to help her pay for the apartment and for groceries. I could get new clothes somewhere, too. They didn’t have to be as expensive as my old clothes; I could ask Kaitlin where she got hers. Or would that sound insulting?
I bit my lip, and looked at the Jenkins’ house with its flower beds and white picket fence. It wasn’t exactly out of Better Homes and Gardens–some of the paint was peeling and there was a crack in the front upstairs window–but it had that aura of home. There was a tricycle in the driveway, and a couple soccer balls in the front yard, yet Arthur Jenkins had chosen to turn his back on it.
If Mrs. Jenkins had hired Frank Lloyd, then she was ready to push him out and try to raise however many children she had all by herself. At least I didn’t have children to worry about. With my luck, maybe I would be better off if I never did. I couldn’t help but remember my mom’s suggestion that despite my lack of talent, the magic might skip a generation and settle in my children.
I waited in the hot rental car for two hours, trying to read a book, but mostly worrying about money. The cost of the rental was currently on Evan’s credit card, but that wouldn’t last forever, and then I would have to find a way to get a car. I wondered what I would be able to find for two hundred dollars. Nothing flashy, I was sure. I would have to hit up the used car lots but even then, I was pretty sure that two hundred dollars wouldn’t be enough. Hadn’t Kaitlin said she spent a thousand dollars on her beat-up 1996 Ford pickup truck? And it kept breaking down.
Well then, I would have to walk. Kaitlin only lived a mile or so from my office. It would make snoop jobs like this almost impossible, but maybe I could borrow Kaitlin’s truck until I could afford my own.
By the time this was all over, I would owe her big time. Good thing she wasn’t a sorcerer.
Finally, at around seven thirty, the garage door groaned open and Arthur’s car backed into the street. He didn’t even glance at me.
I followed him for about ten blocks before he stopped in front of a house not entirely unlike his own–though without the tricycles and soccer balls. A dumpy, red-haired woman met him on the porch, and they spent a minute or so posing for the camera. Luckily, I had kept a digital camera in my office, in case I ever needed it for a job.
When they finally went inside, I shook my head, and muttered an unflattering curse at Arthur and his dumpy mistress. I had what I needed, and it hadn’t taken nearly as much time as I had feared. If I hurried, I could even get to Kaitlin’s apartment before the sun set. Not that it mattered, now that I knew the vampire could get me day or night.
I had just put my car into drive when my phone rang, and I recognized Frank Lloyd’s number on the caller ID. I flipped it open. “Hello?”
“How are things going?” Frank asked.
“What an idiot,” I said. “He was making out with his girlfriend on the front porch. I’ve got lots of great shots. I’ll get them to you in the morning.”
“Can’t you send them to me tonight?” Frank asked.
My laptop was back at my office, which meant there was no way I would be able to get behind a threshold by sundown, but I needed Frank’s businesses. Besides, day or night, I wasn’t safe. “All right, I’ll swing by my office and e-mail them to you. You should have them in half an hour or so.”
I hung up, then dialed Jason’s number to let him know I was still out. Hey, I’m not completely stupid.
29
THE SUN HAD DIPPED BELOW the horizon by the time I reached my office building. If only I had thought to bring my laptop with me, I wouldn’t have had to go back. Or maybe Kaitlin had a computer I could use. Why hadn’t I thought of that before? I’m sure it had to do with my independent streak, and my feelings of guilt for taking advantage of her hospitality.
It didn’t matter. I was at the office, and I just needed fifteen vampire-free minutes to upload the pictures to the computer. Then I could escape behind a threshold until sunup when, apparently, I would be no safer.
Stop that, I berated myself. There was no sense getting worked up. What would happen, would happen.
There was someone waiting for me when I opened the stairwell door and stepped into the hallway, but it wasn’t a vampire. From the look on Nicolas’s face, though, this confrontation wouldn’t be much better.
“Cassie, where the hell have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I must have called you a million times. Why did you turn off your phone? You better have been unconscious somewhere. No, wait, you’d better not have been. Where the hell were you?”
His eyes were flashing, which was a bad sign for the wooden structure of the building. He usually had his gift under control, but a powerful rage had even been known to set Dad off.
“Calm down before you set the building on fire.” Or me, I added silently, thinking of Mom setting my purse on fire the other day.
“Calm down?” Sparks shot out of his eyes, and with a tiny yip of surprise, I flattened myself against the wall while he continued to lay into me. “There are vampires running around out there and where are you? In an unprotected building with no threshold.”
“Mom and Dad kicked me out,” I said, a little defensively.
“Don’t you have friends?” Nicolas demanded. “What about Kaitlin? She would have taken you in.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “Um, do we have to have this confrontation, I mean conversation, in the hall?”
“I’d prefer to have it behind a threshold,” Nicolas said, “but I guess your office will have to do.”
Shaking a bit, I turned the key in the lock and let us into my office. I had just wanted to upload the pictures and leave, but now it looked like I would be there for a while longer, dealing with Nicolas’s hurt feelings. I didn’t think he was nearly as angry with me not being behind a threshold as he was that I hadn’t called him back.
“Where were you last night?” Nicolas asked.
“With Braden,” I said, the lie springing easily to my lips.
“Don’t lie to me.” He put on a haughty, arrogant look that told me he knew something I didn’t.
“Well, if you know the answer then why are you asking? Why don’t you tell me where I was?”
I didn’t actually expect him to know the answer, but he did, in quite a bit more detail than I would have preferred.
“You were with Evan Blackwood. Apparently, he put some kind of love spell on you.”
“That’s not exactly what happened.”
“He admitted it. He came by this morning to apologize to Mom and Dad for any harm he may have done to you.”
I had forgotten that Master Wolf told him to do that. My face burned scarlet, thinking about it, but then I shook my head, standing my ground. “They’re not my mom and dad anymore. I don’t care what they think, and I don’t care what you think.”
He glared at me, his eyes still sparking. I glared right back, silently praying he didn’t burn down the building. His fists tightened and released, and for the first time, it struck me how very much he reminded me of Dad. It wasn’t a comparison I relished at that moment.
“I didn’t disown you,” Nicolas said, finally. “I’ve been trying to find you for two days to tell you that.”
My voice failed me, so I nodded. In my heart, I had known that’s what the calls were about, I was just afraid to hear it. It was easy enough for him, he had always been Dad’s favorite–his eldest son, the one who shared his
gift. His place in the family had always been assured, and so he had never felt the least bit threatened by any of our brothers or sisters. Even as a small child, he had not had the normal amount of sibling jealousy.
“When Mom and Dad told me what they were going to do, I blew up the garage. They both need new cars now.”
I almost smiled, picturing that, but I couldn’t make my face form the expression. There was still a question weighing too heavily on my heart. “I guess they actually went through with it?” I held my breath.
“Yeah.”
“I figured.”
“So, about you and Evan-” Nicolas said.
I threw my arms up in frustration. “How can you possibly be angry with me for that if you think he put a spell on me?”
He grunted. “You’re right. I’m not angry with you, I’m angry with him. And at you for not calling me back. Did he tell you not to call me back?”
“No, of course not, and I’m not under a spell. Look at my eyes.”
I held still and let him lock gazes with me for a few long, seconds. He kept staring, even past the point when he should have recognized that there was no pink tinge, probably because he couldn’t believe it.
“Well, you shouldn’t trust him, anyway,” Nicolas said. “I’ve never heard a less sincere apology in my life. He looked way too pleased with himself, and when Dad told him to stay away from you...”
“What? You can’t just stop there.”
Nicolas took a deep breath. “He laid into them, told them they’d abandoned you, and they had no power to either control or protect you.”
“That’s all true.”
“It was the way he said it,” Nicolas said. “I don’t trust him.”
I opened my mouth, prepared to defend Evan, even if I had my own private doubts, but I never got the chance. At that moment, my office door crashed open with such force the glass shattered, and a vampire rushed inside–the walking corpse of Dr. Shore.
Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective Page 22