Feeding Frenzy: Curse of the Necromancer (Loon Lake Magic Book 1)

by Maaja Wentz

  Aunt Helen coughed, which set off a fit of deep, retching coughs that left blood on her tissue. The fit passed, and she laid her head against the window and appeared to go to sleep.

  Tonya continued north until the road became a country highway. Worry gnawed at her until she could take no more. She wasn’t getting any farther away from town until she knew Drake and Priya were safe. Ahead, she spotted the perfect spot to pull a U-turn and started the maneuver.

  Aunt Helen slammed her hand over Tonya’s heart, causing her chest to vibrate. It felt like a hundred tiny hammers were trying to batter their way out from inside. She hit the brake.

  “Are you with me, or Waldock?”

  “Who are you? You’re not my aunt. She would never kidnap me.” Tonya shivered. Or kill anyone.

  “I knew you’d be difficult.” Helen laughed, until a fit of coughing cut her off. “Trust me, things will go a lot easier if you just do what I say.”

  TO SERVE AND PROTECT, AND SERVE

  Drake roared as inmates threatened to sink their teeth into his arms. He tried to spin away but they held him fast. He launched himself against the side of the cell, banging Zeus’s head against the bars. He might be outnumbered but he was going down fighting.

  Gunfire exploded in his ears.

  Deafened by the shot, Drake located a cop who was shouting at them with such force it dislodged clouds of powdered sugar from his lips.

  Gradually, Drake’s ears adjusted, and he could understand what the officer was saying.

  “No more biting! No tooth marks.”

  “There’s a camera.” Drake pointed out a wall-mounted surveillance cam.

  “Faulty wiring.” The cop tapped the side of his nose. “Don’t worry.”

  “Worry? These men jumped me. They’re trying to eat me.” He held up an arm which was ringed with tooth marks. “What if I get an infection? I demand medical treatment.”

  The officer stared at Drake who refused to drop his gaze.

  “You’re a pain in the butt. Next thing you’ll be asking for a lawyer.”

  “Yes, please.”

  “We love lawyers,” Zeus smirked.

  With hot sauce, thought Drake. “So, can I see a doctor?”

  “We have a nurse.”

  Officer Icing Sugar couldn’t open the cell door fast enough. Drake waited obediently, hands held out for cuffing. He wished he could call his parents and ask them to send him a lawyer too, but if he admitted he was in trouble, they’d drive straight to Loon Lake and put themselves in jeopardy. He’d rather settle for a local lawyer, preferably one without tooth marks.

  “Can I make my phone call now?”

  “See the nurse first.” The Officer wiped his mouth on his sleeve, then made Drake walk in front of him until they reached the infirmary where he uncuffed him and sent him in.

  It was a large room with a high ceiling and thick walls. The young nurse’s immobile face could have been waxwork.

  Once the door closed behind him, Drake clasped his hands together. “Please, you have to get me out of here. Those prisoners were trying to eat me!”

  “You’re delirious. Once you come down things will make sense.” Her voice was flat.

  “I’m not on drugs. Ask me to walk a straight line or say the alphabet backwards.”

  “Do both if you like. Some drugs are performance enhancing.”

  “This is a misunderstanding. I haven’t committed a crime. I was being chased by a dangerous man when they brought me here.”

  She frowned into a tan folder. “The duty sergeant says you are AKA Duck.”

  “My name’s Drake, you know, like a duck.”

  “Nice alias, tough guy.” She told him to stand beside a tray of medical instruments.

  “Aren’t you afraid to work with these cops? First, they eat the prisoners’ lunches, then they stand back and watch them bite each other.”

  “Cannibalism, in Canada?” She raised one eyebrow.

  “You’re looking at the wounds.” He turned so she could see his back. “I must look like I survived the Franklin Expedition.”

  “The what?”

  “Explorers trapped in the Arctic, starvation, madness?”

  “Don’t make a fuss. I barely see tooth marks.”

  “What about my wrist?” He turned and inverted his arm, so she could see the beads of blood.

  “Don’t be a baby.” She sprayed cold liquid on his wrist and it went numb.

  “Point is, why eat the prisoners’ food?”

  “Who says they did?” Licking her lips, she turned him around to treat his shoulder blade.

  Drake craned his neck to look back at her. “Why do the prisoners act like they’re starving?”

  “Not my business.”

  She stung his wound with antiseptic spray.

  Drake winced. “How long has this been going on?”

  “What?”

  “Attacks between prisoners, cops who pull cars over to search for food.”

  “Stop whining.”

  The nurse directed Drake into a plastic chair. “When the doctor comes, keep your mouth shut or I’ll make sure you’re committed for life.”

  “I won’t lie.”

  “Think institution for the criminally insane.” She stooped so close he could see the specks in her gray eyes, “Duck, there are lots of open cases a drugged-up suspect like you could help us close . . .” She unlocked a cabinet. “What shall it be? Cocaine? Oxy-Contin?”

  “Help!”

  “Nobody can hear through these walls.” She laughed. “Too bad you didn’t call someone to bail you out sooner.”

  “Would you drag your parents in here?”

  “If they were still alive, I’d send them running for the hills.” She looked up at the tiny window, a patch of blue in the thick wall.

  An officer came and waved her into the corridor. Drake couldn’t hear what they were whispering.

  They returned together. “You made bail,” she said.

  “You’ll be back.” The officer licked drool from his lips. “Walk.” He pointed down the hall.

  Drake went ahead slowly, heart pounding. It seemed like the whole world wanted a chunk of him.

  They emerged from the corridor into the light and Drake saw Zain, standing by the exit. He wanted to run out and join him, but first he had to return to the booking counter.

  The desk sergeant took so long to locate the bag with Drake’s belongings, that Zain came back to wait with him.

  “I’m so glad you came to get me,” said Drake.

  “Good, because I sold your camera for bail money.”

  MUSHROOM

  Under the earth’s surface, Roberto allowed himself to sink deeper beneath the Ash Tree. Around them, root threads wormed, whiskering across his cheek and into his ears. Around his waist and limbs, the white roots grew thick as pythons, pinning him in place.

  “How do you feel, Querida?” He strained against the roots to feel for Lynette lying beside him. She sighed, as if dreaming.

  The pressure built in his ear canals as gathering threads crowded against his eardrums, pressing until they pushed through. He saw fireworks and a blinding white light, pain made visible. His arms and legs felt warm for the first time since the autumn leaves started turning. Struggling against his bonds was impossible but Roberto changed his mind. There were still things to do and see in the world above. Something wriggled up inside his spine. Ugh, it felt like a centipede climbing inside his back!

  Wrong, I’m threading a hypha up into your brain, answered a voice in his head.

  A brighter boy would have figured that out, responded another.

  He’s intelligent enough, an acceptable candidate.

  A chorus of agreeing voices filled Roberto’s mind.

  Now I know Querida means dear.

  Roberto recognized the voice of Professor Rudolph in his head. Your girlfriend is no great addition, I’m afraid.

  Suddenly, Roberto became conscious of himself as he was, a coo
ling body in the cold ground. Snaky threads carried his thoughts below, conjoining his mind with something sinister and decayed, a dead thing that refused to join the wholesome earth around it. If he were still alive he would scream.

  Who are you?

  You’re mine.

  Was he really dead? Couldn’t it be a dream?

  In dreams, Roberto might be flying or kissing a girl or reliving the first time he water-skied. The problems of the day, his parents’ insistence on Loon Lake University, and loneliness might rub against each other in the tumble dryer of his mind. Other times, he remembered colors, like the blue sky over Lima’s beaches or the deep crimson of his parents’ Persian carpets. But in dreams there was no odor like this.

  Voices in his head crowded out his thoughts. He felt bound to an Entity of collapsing flesh. The roots which entrapped Roberto conjoined him with the collective, so he could no longer tell which senses were his own as the earth began to rumble and spread beneath him, tumbling Roberto into a reeking charnel pit.

  BLUE CHEESE SANDWHICH

  “Are my parents in danger?” Tonya’s hands blanched and trembled as she gripped the steering wheel.

  “Turn this car around and I’ll tell you.” Aunt Helen cleared her throat noisily and opened the window. She held her face in the wind, letting stray hairs dip and dance.

  Tonya glanced at the back of Aunt Helen’s head. Her white ponytail was thinning, revealing scalp like the floor of a replanted forest. When had she lost so much hair?

  Tonya made a three-point turn and continued north, waiting for her aunt to speak.

  “Well?”

  Aunt Helen sighed and stared straight ahead. “I found out Len was back in town, so I sent my sister on an eco-tour of Australia. Your parents will be camping for the next two months.”

  “Why haven’t they phoned?”

  “Every week I email them to say things are okay. Besides, they don’t have much internet in the Outback.”

  “Is that why they won’t answer my calls?”

  “I made them forget they ever had you.”

  “You can do that? How could you!”

  “I had to make them forget. I can’t keep manipulating them at a distance.”

  “I can’t believe you’d do that to your sister.”

  “She’ll make me pay for it. Eventually, the charm will wear off. Is she ever going to be mad when she remembers selling the house.”

  “What?”

  “I had to pay for their trip somehow.”

  “They told me you were in the hospital, that they were moving to Toronto to visit you. They wouldn’t let me see you, said you didn’t want me to. Mom was really clear about that.”

  “I’m not proud of any of this. When my sister finds out I impersonated her on the phone and manipulated her mind . . .”

  “Let me talk to them.”

  “It’s for their own good. The other side is watching, trying to get leverage on me. If your parents come back, or Waldock finds them, I can’t protect them.”

  “I don’t get it. If you knew it was so dangerous, why didn’t you send me with them?”

  Helen’s head drooped. “I wish I could.”

  “Now I know why Mom hates you.”

  “I hate me too, but I need you. The whole town does. I should be in hospital and if I die . . .” She sniffed. “It won’t come to that but you’re my backup, in case I can’t stop Waldock.”

  “Who?”

  “You’ve met his helper, Len.”

  “And his friend the telepathic farmer and his dog.”

  “A telepathic farmer? That man never lets up.”

  Tonya kept one eye on oncoming traffic to watch for help. Maybe her aunt was fighting against this Waldock for the right reasons, but brainwashing her parents and keeping Tonya from her friends? She acted worse than her enemies. And an eco-tour? Her sporty father would be happy anywhere, but Tonya couldn’t imagine her mother going on any trip without nice bathrooms and boutiques. No question about it, her aunt was evil.

  They drove until Tonya’s stomach growled out loud.

  Her aunt gave her a funny look.

  “What? I haven’t eaten in hours.”

  “Are you sure that’s all it is?”

  “I can’t promise I’m not infected. I was in the cemetery with the dead body of Professor Rudolph. I’m afraid I inhaled cursed spores.”

  “You have good instincts. Pull over here. Stop. Now!” She indicated a gravel lane so overhung with trees, Tonya would have driven past it. They turned off the highway and up the lane.

  Her aunt ordered her to park beside a weathered Victorian farm house.

  “I was hoping for a restaurant.”

  “First we visit a doctor.”

  They got out and Tonya looked around. The sagging porch and moss-covered shingles looked more like they should belong to a farmer than a doctor, and not a successful one.

  Tonya stood waiting on a porch overrun by carpenter ants. “Can’t we drive back to town?”

  “Shhh. The walls have ears.”

  Once again, her aunt refused to discuss things. Working summers in the Herbal Healing Shop, her aunt had often demanded quiet, especially when her teenaged niece asked about magic. It was something she hid from her parents, but below the surface of things, Tonya felt energy moving through the shop. Before that summer she had been forbidden to study or even discuss magic. Her aunt embraced it but after today, Tonya wondered if using magic was what had made her aunt sick, and turned her nasty as well.

  “Is this doctor of yours a friend?” Tonya wasn’t sure her aunt’s friends could be trusted.

  A tiny lady opened the door. She was young, although it was hard to tell if she was closer to thirty or twenty. Her face hardly moved when she talked, even when she ordered them to “get in quick,” and snicked the door shut behind them. Tonya wondered why this lady in her crumbling farmhouse was wearing a pink angora sweater and pearls. A pair of Italian leather pumps stood on the shoe rack, beside mud-caked rubber boots.

  “You kept us waiting long enough,” said Aunt Helen.

  “The bad penny is back.”

  The women stared each other down, ignoring Tonya.

  “Sorry about this.” Aunt Helen shrugged. “What else could I do?”

  “You’d better sit down.” The lady brought them into the parlor and seated them on an antique sofa upholstered in hairy black hide. She left the room.

  Tonya’s stomach rumbled and ached. “Is she bringing us lunch?”

  “How should I know?”

  The lady returned with a towel over her arm and a bowl of something green and bubbly which she set on the coffee table. Definitely not appetizing, although if Tonya had to fast much longer, the grubby towel might start to look tasty.

  Was she a witch too? Tonya expected the lady to chant over the basin or recite a spell, until she put her hands in and washed them. Her aunt and Tonya did the same.

  “I’m Tonya.”

  The woman ignored Tonya’s outstretched hand. Without taking her eyes off Aunt Helen she asked, “What do you want?”

  Tonya burned to ask this doctor if she was infected like the others. Did they hear telepathic voices in their heads? Did they crave food all the time like her? Did they feel stressed out of their minds like her; or were they relaxed like Professor Rudolph, sleepwalking mindlessly into collapse? She hadn’t enjoyed a peaceful moment for days. Well, unless you counted some of her moments with Drake.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” announced Aunt Helen. “This one needs to eat something, and I can’t stand the sight of food right now.”

  The image of Lynette’s chocolate binge sprang into Tonya’s head. Lynette and the Professor were sleep-eating and sleepwalking. Was she? Would she know if she was? Did her aunt know about things Tonya was doing but couldn’t remember?

  “You never call, you never write, and you only come see me when you want something.” The lady attempted a kvetching voice, which didn’t come off as funny.<
br />
  Aunt Helen’s expression was grim. “Is this a bad time?”

  “I’ll be right back.” With a click of high heels on tile, the woman left. Tonya heard water running and her heart leapt. The lady was in the kitchen. Finally, some lunch!

  When it was brought out on a tray, however, the bread had a sprinkling of white around the edges that looked like mold. She tilted her head to peek at the slices of cheese which seemed too blue. She lifted the lid. Inside the sandwich was part cheddar, part kid’s science fair experiment. Who ever heard of blue cheddar? Rather than mention the burgeoning mold colony she just said “Thanks,” as the women headed outside.

  Tonya looked back at her revolting lunch. Even the glass of water looked cloudy. Was this fancy doctor trying to poison her? Forget that. They had a head start but from a side window she spied them going around the side of the barn. She zipped her coat up to go out, but there was one more thing to do first.

  She found a phone in the kitchen and dialed zero. An automated response greeted her, but Tonya persevered, pressing buttons until a live voice answered.

  “Operator.”

  “I’m lost at a farm house. Can you tell by my number where I am?”

  It was an odd request and took some explaining but at last Tonya got the address, a rural route northeast of Loon Lake. Without letting the door slam behind her, Tonya slipped outside to find out what the women were doing. If her aunt had a dark secret, she didn’t want to miss it.

  She edged her way along the side of the barn until she came to a knot hole in the wood and peeked through. Hay blocked the view, so she crept a bit farther.

  The cavalier way Aunt Helen had sent her parents away on holiday, if indeed that was what she had done, meant she was capable of anything. The only certainty was that her aunt was an active witch with powerful enemies. She had practically kidnapped Tonya and made her drive here against her will. Why?

  Near the corner, a board had fallen away. Peeking through the gap she saw Aunt Helen arguing with the woman, who was red-faced and gesturing wildly. Her aunt lounged against a post, arms crossed in front of her chest. What Tonya wouldn’t give to hear what they were saying, but no matter how loudly the woman appeared to be yelling, Tonya heard nothing.