He shook his head. Just then, one of the kids slammed his knife into the camera. “I love to hear exactly what’s going on in that head of yours, but right now, we have a bit of a problem. If you’d like to have a little fun and frighten a few kids into running off, follow me.”
“There’s nothing going on in my imagination except curiosity about why a bunch of Goth kids would be ganging up on you. What’d you do, steal their vampire movie collection?”
“They aren’t here for me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Let’s see then, shall we?” He went through the last door in the hallway.
I followed, curious to see if there was another door to the outside. My mouth fell open when he tugged on the attic door string and pulled down the wooden steps. “We’re going to hide? That’s your fun? Hiding in the attic? Should we at least get the witch and take her up there with us? I know they’re kids, but Blythe is kind of little.”
He ignored me and climbed up through the narrow space. Dust flew up my nose and I sneezed loudly. Yet still I followed only to grin when I saw him going up a set of stairs to another door. Cool, fresh, morning air swirled into the room when he opened it. He looked at me over his shoulder. “We’ll jump off the roof right in the middle of the group. Should scare them into running off.”
The building wasn’t really that tall. I could leap to the ground easily. I sneaked to the edge of the roof and glanced over to find that all of the kids had gathered in the front of the store.
Too much had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Too much information was processing in my tired brain. These kids looked like a much needed distraction. I winked at Nikolos and jumped.
Pain spiked my heels as my boots slammed onto the hard asphalt, but I kept to my feet. It was a spectacular landing. I would have patted myself on the back if it weren’t for Phro, who’d come outside right then just to roll her eyes. Fred, standing beside her, bit his lip and looked away from me. I just grinned. “So, what’s up?” I asked. A handful of bees flew in to buzz about my face.
I had time to register shocked expressions before they did the opposite of run away in fear. They rushed me—five boys and two girls. This was nothing like the movies where the opponents held back and approached one or two at a time. No, it was utter chaos. I blinked into the blur of unpracticed punches. “Whoa! Wait a minute! Back off and tell us what’s going on here!”
They sort of slowed, but a boy with heavy eye-liner hauled off and punched my face.
I staggered back, surprised at the strength of his hit—my eyes were watering—and held my hand up. “Seriously you guys, back the hell down and speak.”
The kid snarled and rushed me again. He jumped in the air to kick me, so I grabbed his foot and pushed it aside. Those heavily-lined eyes flew open wide as he hit the pavement. Hard.
I waved the annoying bees out of my face and made sure the boy was okay.
The kids stopped rushing for a brief moment when Nikolos’s heavy frame hit the ground behind me. Instead of being scared of the big man, they were only spurred back into action. Pure shock registered on Nikolos’s face right before one of the girls lashed out.
Nikolos’s startled, slack expression and hesitation cost him as she landed a solid kick to his chest. His breath hitched right before he grabbed her foot, too. Unfortunately, he grabbed too hard. Her body flew up and back, her head making a sickening, cracking noise when it hit the blacktop. He winced and rushed to her, kneeling to make sure she was okay.
Her chest rose and fell, so she was still breathing.
A tall, rangy boy cried out and jumped on Nikolos’s back, grabbing his hair and screaming into his ear.
I lunged to help but got whacked in the nose with the side of a fist. My eyes watered again as pain exploded into my brain. “Ow. Shit!” Blinking rapidly, I jumped back, accidentally hitting one of the other kids with my elbow. I turned, knocked him off balance, and he immediately wrapped his arms around my waist. The top of his head didn’t even come to my shoulders.
We were beating up children.
With one hand over my throbbing nose, I shoved him off with the other and took a deep breath to yell. It was time to put a stop to this.
The second girl chose that moment to drop low, kick out her leg and sweep mine. This time, I hit the pavement. Luckily the back of my hand slammed the ground before my face, but I gritted my teeth as a layer of skin was scraped away from my knuckles. I looked up to see the boy who had been on Nikolos’s back flying toward me, strands of black hair clutched in his fist. He grunted when he fell on top of me.
Nikolos came to help, but one of the boys swung around, lashed out with a right. Nikolos stepped back. “Stop before one of you gets seriously hurt.”
But something was wrong. They didn’t listen, didn’t slow…didn’t even come at us in any logical fashion. It was like they were machines, programmed to attack no matter what. Nikolos and I were bigger, obviously better trained. It didn’t make sense. “I think they’ve been spelled or something,” I said, shrugging the kid off me.
Nikolos grunted when the boy punched his chest, jumped back then tucked, rolled, and slammed into Nikolos’s legs.
I twisted onto my back and wiped at the blood stinging my eyes. To be safe, I kicked out at anyone brave enough to come close. The second girl screeched and jumped on my stomach. Her knees dug painfully into my ribs. “Oof,” I grunted, lifting my hips to heave her off. She went but not before slitting my cheek with one of her dagger-like fingernails.
Phro came close, leaned over to get a closer look, and winced. “That’s not gonna be pretty.”
Ignoring my guide, I jumped up to ward off another kid’s punch, swung around and the side of my hand caught the girl in the mouth. Droplets of blood sprinkled her white hair. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. I kicked out at the boy still coming toward me and dropped to my knees to grope frantically for her pulse. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when I felt it against my fingers.
Just then, one of the topiary bushes near Nikolos caught on fire. He grabbed a boy by the back of his black T-shirt, held him in the air and put out the fire with one boot.
Blood and sweat stung my eyes. I turned toward the last standing kid.
The element of surprise wasn’t going to work with this one. I balanced on the heels of my feet and took in the damage he’d already suffered. An eye had started to swell shut and he lurched side to side a bit. Fury twisted what was left of his face.
“Fighting with that kind of anger only makes you sloppy,” I said.
He jumped. I sidestepped his punch, but I was tired of this bullshit, so I swung him around and brought his arm up into a twist. “I offered you a tip. You should have taken it.” I jerked the arm higher. “Since it’s too much of a coincidence that you guys showed up here today, I can only assume this isn’t some random stupid attempt at vandalism. The grin and the knife in the camera were blatant invitations—so why are attacking us? Did someone send you?”
He only growled and struggled. He wasn’t even looking at me. He was looking at the first girl, the one who hadn’t yet moved. His expression was a mix of terror and grief. Jeez. I could tell she was still breathing from here. Her hair was fluttering over her face where her breath hit it. “Your girlfriend is fine. For now. She might need some medical attention and she’s only going to get it if you spill.”
“I don’t know.” The words came between gasps of pain. I had his arm twisted unnaturally high. Not enough to break it. That would make me a monster. I felt bad enough about the couple of accidental booboos I’d inflicted.
“You don’t know. Yeah, right. Okay, let’s try this… why are you here?”
“This thing came to us. Paid us to come here and steal a book.”
Nikolos stood before the kid. “What book?”
“A magic book. Shelly…” He tried to turn his face, but I tightened my grip.
“Blonde or brunette?” I hoped it was the b
londe since she was the only one coming around. She’d sat up against the wall of the shop. Her mouth was bleeding but she wasn’t wiping at it, just sitting there watching us.
“Shelly’s my girlfriend. I think he killed her.”
Not the blonde then. “She’s not dead. I told you that already.”
“Look in her pocket.”
Nikolos glared at two of the boys who had gotten to their feet. One shook his head, held out his hands and backed to the shop wall next to the blonde. Nikolos pointed and the other moved to join him. That left two boys still down. And the girl. Nikolos walked over to gently turn her over, cradling the back of her head so it didn’t smack the ground again. Something fluttered in my belly as I watched his tender handling of her—saw the regret flicker over his expression. He pulled out a piece of paper and came back.
It was actually an envelope with writing on the back.
Nikolos chuckled. “It says, ‘Beat up the big, dumb redhead and get the witch’s magic book.’”
Sighing, I let go of the boy’s arm and crossed both of my own. Surely he wouldn’t try anything now. “So, what did this thing you mentioned look like?”
“A cop who looked like Brad Pitt.”
“Did the Pitt clone have cloven feet?”
The boy’s mouth dropped open. “How did you know?”
Ignoring him, I turned to Nikolos. “Blythe and I already had a little run-in with the celebrity ghoul.”
Nikolos frowned. “A ghoul wouldn’t have had the means to attack my wards. Did he give you the spell you were trying to use to get past my outside wards?”
The kid nodded. “But I don’t think we did it right.”
“No, you didn’t.”
The kid moved toward his friends and looked around, his expression grim.
I turned toward the shadow I had just seen lurking near the front door of the shop. “Blythe!”
The little witch stepped out.
“How about giving the topiaries a break and helping with these kids? Can you do a binding spell? Send them home?” I lowered my voice. “Without fire?”
She nodded, biting her lip. “Want me to do something about their wounds?”
I nearly nodded, then hesitated. “No. Their wounds are all superficial. They need to feel them for a few days—maybe learn a lesson.”
Blythe opened her bag and pulled out a yellow stone. She held it to her lips and murmured a few words. Bits of light floated around her head as a small breeze lifted the ends of her hair. She smiled and before I could take my next breath, nearly invisible streams of light flew from her fingertips and wrapped around each kid.
One by one they got to their feet—some obviously in more pain than others. The largest boy picked up the brunette girl, who I was happy to see was blinking her eyes.
Nikolos and I watched them turn a corner. Then we both looked back to Blythe. She still stood, smiling, surrounded by the glow of whatever she’d tapped into. She was capable of so much more than she realized. She was no ordinary witch and all those doubts I’d had about her absent mentor came rushing to the front of my mind.
Nikolos touched my arm and I looked up at him.
“Let’s get our things. My home will be safer.”
“You have more powerful wards on your home?”
He didn’t answer—didn’t need to.
I followed him inside, grabbing a now-giddy Blythe on the way. The silly woman was still smiling, lost in some strange magical glow.
Nikolos came out of the farthest room—the one I hadn’t had time to really see since we’d only used it to get to the roof. He cradled several huge old texts in his arms. “We’ll use these books to help translate yours.”
I retrieved my knife, Blythe’s heavy spell book and watched Nikolos gather his keys and move toward the back door—the one I’d kicked open. I felt a little bad about that now. I opened my mouth to ask Blythe to spell the door so it would look closed, but one look at her bemused expression told me she was feeling a little of that magic drunk I had suffered earlier.
Nikolos pulled a slim cell phone from his pocket and dialed a number. “I need another back door,” he murmured into the phone. “Thanks.”
“You lose doors often?” I asked. He hadn’t looked up the number.
“Rough neighborhood lately.” He slid the phone away and I was startled to see amusement sparkle in those dark eyes. “Since you parked at the grocery store, I’ll drive you to your Jeep.”
Heat burned my neck. Some monster investigator I was. I was so not caving to vanity and buying the shiny red vehicle next time.
We all climbed into his truck—one of those huge Ford 350s. I was watching Fred and Phro settle into the back when I remembered Frida. Was he still in my car? I squinted toward the grocery store parking lot, trying to catch a glimpse of him and saw something wrong with my Jeep.
“They slashed my tires!” I was out of the vehicle before it even slowed, running to mine and looking in the windows. At least they hadn’t broken those. Frida still rested in the back. He looked better than he had earlier. My Jeep, however, did not. The kids had done more than ruin the tires. Fury made me shake. They had also keyed it. Lines crossed over each other from front to back and someone had spray-painted a huge black happy face on the driver’s side door. I touched the driver’s window.
“I should have broken all their arms. One by one.”
“They weren’t after you, you said?” Nikolos got out of his vehicle to look over my Jeep. He shook his head. “I’m sorry this happened. How did they know this was yours?”
“The Pitt ghoul must have told them.” The words came out clipped since I couldn’t unclench my teeth. I yanked my keys from my pocket.
“You can’t drive with those tires.”
This from Blythe. I snarled at her and I must have looked scarier than normal because she stepped behind Nikolos. “I know I can’t drive it. But we might need some of the stuff I carry in the back. Plus, I’m pulling all my info from the glove compartment. I’ll have to call a shop to come get it. Damn. Damn. Damn.” I continued cursing as I stomped to the back of the Jeep. Right about then, I saw a flash of blue that looked like the same color of the ghoul’s shirt. I didn’t slow—didn’t reveal that I saw anything. I was too far away to give chase.
I yanked up the back door and pretended to search for something as I tried to see exactly who was watching us. The staggering, lurching walk gave it away. It was most definitely the Pitt imposter. “Guess someone punched the dead ghoul.”
Blythe, who had been hovering over a more solid-looking Frida, scurried over to stand by me. “Huh?”
“Your pretty cop ghoul is by the side of the store. No, don’t look. I bet he’s the asshole who keyed my car. Looks like he’s been at it through the whole fight, too.” I slammed my hand on the duffel bag I kept in the back. “You know, I’d felt a little bit of guilt over temporarily killing him, despite the fact that he would have had no guilt at all over killing me. None. But this time, Blythe? This time, I’m gonna make sure he won’t get back up on his stupid horsey legs.”
Blythe nosily poked through my monster investigation bag, picked up my Polaroid and stuck it up to her eye. “Are we going to chase him? Do you think he’s faster with hooves?”
I yanked the camera out of her hands and shoved it back into the bag. “Not with just two. But he could easily shift into his normal form and take off. That ghoul I fought in Louisiana was a bitch to catch once he’d turned into his normal hairy self.” I stood and peeked around the side of the Jeep to see what Nikolos was doing. He was talking on his cell phone again, but was watching the ghoul through the loosened strands of hair that had pulled from his ponytail. Shaking my head, I finished putting everything in the bag and shoved the strap onto my shoulder before grabbing the paperwork out of the glove compartment.
Nikolos shut off his phone as we walked back to his truck. “Want me to ram him with the car?” Subtle humor laced his voice.
I snorted. �
��Yeah, but we’re not going to. He’s going to run the minute we get inside anyway.” I gave my Jeep a last sad glance as we walked to Nikolos’s truck.
“What about another binding spell?” Blythe asked as she climbed into the backseat and pulled open her bag.
“It worked on those kids.” I turned in my seat to better see her. “Had you done that trick before, Blythe?”
She nodded and grinned. Sometime in the last couple of hours, she’d managed to apply makeup, and her lips were a pale, shell pink. Faint, red scratches still decorated her pale skin. “It’s my second best spell.”
“Can you bind the thing and make him get into the back of the truck?” I looked at Nikolos. “We need to get moving—he’s going to be suspicious of us sitting here for so long.”
Blythe was already pulling out that stone. When the breeze swept through the interior of the car, I narrowed my eyes to slightly separate the dimensional layers to see what this magic looked like in the next one.
“Oh.” I gasped. “Blythe, it’s lovely!” Colors swirled from the trees and the ground beneath us. They also came down from the sky. One yellow string of the smoke-like tendrils floated from the light bulb on the ceiling of the cab. “You’re pulling from everything. Why don’t you use this ability on your other spell work?”
“Not supposed to,” she muttered out of the corner of her mouth. Her blonde curls swayed around her head and that dreamy expression from before crept back over her delicate features.
“Who told you that? Sophie again?”
She nodded then lifted her hands to tie an imaginary knot in the air. I was so busy watching her get high, I jumped when there was a knock on the glass by my head. The ghoul stood next to my door, the dimple in his chin prominent as he lifted an eyebrow and gestured at the window. I rolled it down only enough to hear his words.
“I’ll ride in the back.”
Chapter Eleven
“Oh my,” Blythe breathed. “The power. It’s intoxicating.”
I didn’t have to ask what she was talking about. I felt it. Nikolos’s home was several miles north of Jacksonville and as we slowed to turn into a heavily treed private drive, I felt the magic crawling along my skin. Invasive and explorative, the fibrous currents crackled in the air, like it scouted ahead to see if I was friend or foe. I knew my cheeks were turning red because the feeling made all my feminine areas tingle a bit.
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