Chase Tinker & The House of Magic

by Malia Ann Haberman

  Golden ropes shot through the air. The long cords snaked around Roland, binding his arms to his sides. In a flash, he rippled into smoke and the ropes fell to the floor. Chase ducked behind the table again. That plan sucked, he thought, totally disgusted with himself.

  "Nice bit of magic, Chase, but you'll need more than a few rope tricks to beat me," said Roland when he reappeared in solid form. "I do have to say that it's bloody good to see you out and about. I wanted to drop by the house again, but Hiram has made it much harder to get in these days. But that's quite all right; my family will soon possess it, anyway."

  "How do you figure that?" snarled Chase.

  Roland shook his head. "It's not time to share our plans. It would ruin everything. Especially since my sister, Maven and our cousin, Clive are rather looking forward to meeting you. When your father escaped, I thought it would set us back, but things are right on schedule once more."

  "Let me freeze the big jerk!" whispered Andy.

  Chase didn't have time to agree or disagree as Andy jumped from behind the table and flicked his hands at the man. Roland was ready for him. Burning energy beams shot from Roland's fingertips. They hit Andy in the stomach and knocked him to the floor, surrounding him with a silvery-red, powerful glow that lit up the whole room. Andy screamed and squirmed.

  Chase stared at his brother, not sure what he should do.

  "Please—make it—stop," said Andy, his eyes rolling back into his head.

  Chase leaped to his feet. "Stop it! You're killing him!"

  Roland swung his other hand and hit Chase in the chest with the driving energy force. Pain exploded inside him. He felt as if flames were shooting through his body and out the top of his head. His knees buckled and he tumbled to the floor. He clenched his teeth as he tried not to scream.

  "It's a shame your father didn't handle this very well, either," said Roland. "You should've heard the fool begging for mercy."

  Chase lay twitching on the floor, glowering at Roland. "My—dad—would—never—beg—you!" he snarled. "And neither—will I!" He scrunched his eyes closed and curled into a ball.

  Then, without warning, Doctor Dan launched himself across the floor. He slammed into Roland's knees, causing him to lose his balance and crash into the wall behind him.

  Chase and Andy gasped for breath as the terrible pain stopped.

  "Chase," said Andy. "We can teleport, remember?"

  Doctor Dan rushed to help them up. "I don't know what's going on," he said in a shaky voice, "but we have to leave. There's no telling how long he'll be out of it."

  "What happened?" asked Chase. He staggered to his feet.

  "That man—or whatever he is—was so busy with you, he forgot about me. I've never seen anything like it," said Doctor Dan breathlessly as he clutched Andy's arm to keep him from sagging back to the floor like a piece of limp spaghetti. "I tackled him." He sounded surprised by his own bravery.

  Chase looked around and saw Roland Marlowe sprawled on the floor. He was twitching and moaning.

  "Let me kick him," said Andy, as he tried to tug his shaking arm from Dan's grasp and nearly fell. Chase wasn't sure how Doctor Dan managed to keep Andy from toppling to the floor when the doctor looked ready to fall over in a dead faint.

  "We don't have time!" cried Dan.

  Roland's eyes had popped open. He raised his arm, his fingertips pointing straight at them.

  Chase latched onto Andy's and Dan's arms. "Thomas's Room!" he shouted as the silvery-red energy blasted toward them. The three vanished into the welcoming whirl of wind and blackness.

  They arrived in Thomas's bathroom with a loud crash, all piled in the claw-foot bathtub. Doctor Dan grabbed at the shower curtain, which tore from its rod and fell on top of them.

  "Ouch! Ouch! Great landing, Chase," said Andy as he pushed his brother and the flowery curtain off his head and climbed out of the tub. He tottered across the room, shaking his legs.

  "At least I got us here. And I wouldn't mind hearing a thank you!" snapped Chase, smacking his head on the faucet. "Ow! This tub is not meant for three people." He rolled over the side and flopped onto the black and white tiled floor.

  Doctor Dan peeked over the tub's edge and gazed down at Chase. "Wh—where am I? And how did I get here?" He blinked. "Uh…who am I?"

  Chase clapped his hand across his eyes and groaned, his relief at making it home dwindling away. Now they had to figure out how to explain things to Doctor Dan, who was definitely way out of it at the moment. Grandfather wasn't going to like this one bit, but they couldn't have left the doctor to be fried by Roland Marlowe.

  Chase heaved a sigh and climbed to his feet. "He did want to be part of the family," he muttered to himself.

  "I'm dreaming, aren't I?" said Doctor Dan as he gazed around dazedly at the old-fashioned bathroom. "I fell asleep on my couch and things will go back to normal when I wake up."

  "Nope, Doctor Dan, you're not dreaming," said Andy as he flung open the door.

  Janie and Persephone were sprinting down the hallway toward them.

  "What was that crash?" asked Janie, reaching the doorway and peering in. "And what's he doing here?"

  "Long story, made short," said Chase, leaning on the edge of the door, "we teleported here with him."

  "Ah, he's not so bad," Andy added. "He only wants a family."

  "Okay," said Janie warily. "But…why did you bring him here?"

  "The Dark Enemy man attacked us!" exclaimed Andy. "We had to get out of there fast."

  "What?" cried Persephone. "Where did this happen?"

  "At Doctor Dan's office." Chase quickly explained what had happened in town.

  "And besides being evil, that Roland sure is full of himself," said Andy, wrinkling his nose.

  "It sounds like you guys were lucky to escape in one piece," said Persephone.

  "We wouldn't have if we hadn't teleported to town in the first place," said Chase.

  "Doctor Dan saw you guys do magic? And he saw one of the Marlowes? Wow!" said Janie. "And I was going to complain about shopping."

  "Why? What happened?" asked Chase.

  "Nothing bad," Janie answered. "It's just my mom was acting weird. Usually she loves to shop, but she kept complaining whenever Persephone and I wanted to try something on. I wanted to rip an arm off a mannequin and smack her with it."

  "Shopping for clothes sucks," said Andy, scrunching his face in distaste. "I like video games better."

  "Yeah, but girls like clothes, shrimp," said Chase. "Anyway, what should we do with Doctor Dan?"

  "We saw Mr. Hiram in his study a few minutes ago," said Persephone. "Let's take the doctor to him."

  Her words made Chase remember why he and Andy had gone to town in the first place. "By the way, have either of you seen James lately?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

  The girls shook their heads.

  "But we haven't been home for long," said Janie. "He must be here somewhere. Didn't you guys go fishing?"

  "Hey! Would someone please tell me what's going on?" hollered Dan, before Chase had a chance to answer. The doctor was standing in the bathtub, waving the shower curtain over his head.

  Chase strode across the room and grabbed the rumpled curtain. Tossing it aside, he helped Dan from the tub. "You're at Hiram's house, Doctor Dan," he explained with the kind of soft, slow voice he would use if he were speaking to a lost kindergartener.

  "Hiram's house? How did I get here?"

  "We teleported."

  "Teleported?"

  "It's magic," said Chase.

  "Magic?"

  Chase blew out a puff of air and rolled his eyes. Was the guy going to repeat everything he said? "Yes. Magic. Real magic. It's something special the Tinkers can do."

  Doctor Dan looked from Chase to Andy to Persephone to Janie, and back to Chase. They all nodded.

  "There's no such thing as real magic," said the doctor, shaking his head.

  "We better get you to Grandfather," said Chase, guiding
the doctor across the floor. "I'm sure he's much better at explaining this than we are. At least I hope so."

  They headed off down the hall to Grandfather's study. Can this day get any worse? thought Chase as he swallowed and peeked around the corner of the doorway. He saw Grandfather relaxing in one of his cushy armchairs and drinking iced tea.

  "Um, Grandfather?" he called. "Got a minute?"

  "Chase! Come in," said Grandfather, smiling and waving him over. "And the rest of you," he added when he noticed the other four worried faces looking at him. "Ah, and Daniel is here too. To what do I owe the pleasure of this lovely visit?"

  They all shuffled into the room. Chase scuffed his toe on the carpet. He wanted to get this over as fast as possible. With a deep breath, he blurted it out: "DoctorDansawusdoing somemagictodayandnow—" another quick breath, "—youneedtotalktohimaboutit. Sorry."

  Grandfather nodded, having surprisingly understood Chase's garbled sentence. "With so many magical people in the house, I can't say I didn't see this coming. He does spend a fair amount of time here."

  The kids' eyebrows all shot up.

  "You mean you're not mad?" Andy blurted out.

  "A few years ago I might have been. But now," said Grandfather, looking into Dan's eyes, "I would trust Daniel with my life."

  With a wave of his hand, Grandfather conjured more chairs and iced tea and gestured for them to join him. Doctor Dan gave everyone a silly, lopsided smile and plopped into one of the armchairs.

  All and all, Chase thought the doctor took the news that real magic existed pretty well. He had to be revived only once after fainting when Grandfather demonstrated his ability to turn from a man into a ferret…into a walrus…into a flamingo… into a polar bear…and back into a man.

  "Cool, Grandfather!" exclaimed Andy. "Can you do an aardvark?"

  Grandfather smiled. "Why don't we save the requests for later, Andy? Daniel needs a little time to recuperate. I have to admit though, it is going to be quite refreshing not to have to hide our magic from him anymore," he said while Janie fanned the doctor with a magazine and Persephone offered more refreshments.

  "Wow, magic really does exist," whispered the stunned doctor.

  "See, Doctor Dan," said Andy wisely, "seeing is believing." He patted the doctor's hand. "Don't worry, I had a hard time with it at first too. Now I think magic is cool!"

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Out of Control

  Chase was unable to sit still any longer. He needed to tell Grandfather about James. Out of the corner of his mouth, he muttered, "Um, Grandfather? Can we talk—right now?"

  He rushed outside with Grandfather following.

  "One moment please, Chase," said Grandfather, holding up his hand. "Before you get started, I need you to explain how Daniel saw you doing your magic."

  Chase gulped. He didn't want to say how foolish he'd been for thinking Doctor Dan was one of the Dark Enemy. "Well, Andy and I went to town looking for you and we, um, thought you might be at Doctor Dan's and—and I was so mad I accidentally made a lamp fly across the room."

  "I see," said Grandfather. "And why were you angry?"

  The words tumbled out as he told Grandfather about the fishing trip.

  While Chase talked, the natural color drained from Grandfather's face and was replaced by an unsightly shade of yellow. Gripping the handrail, he gazed out to the far-off Olympic Peninsula the late afternoon sun was slowly approaching. "This is completely my fault," he murmured. "I waited too long to tell them, but…I hoped…"

  "Waited too long to tell who?" asked Chase. He'd never seen Grandfather so shaken.

  "I never dreamed it would get this far out of my control," Grandfather continued to whisper to himself. "Now something must be done…but what?"

  "What is it?" asked Chase impatiently. "What's going on?"

  Grandfather took a deep breath and turned to Chase. "I want you to come with me to speak with James. I don't know if I'll ever be able to right this dreadful mistake, but I must try."

  "What are you talking about?" Chase struggled to keep up with what his grandfather was saying. "I don't—"

  But Grandfather had already reentered the study and was hurrying toward the hallway door. Chase sprinted after him. Janie, Andy and Persephone sent him questioning looks, but all Chase had time to do was shrug and run out the door after his grandparent.

  "Uh, Grandfather?" he said as they climbed a staircase.

  "Yes, Chase?"

  "Roland Marlowe magicked into a man and attacked Andy and me with his fingertip energy stuff when we were in town."

  "You were attacked!" cried Grandfather, clutching the stair railing. "They're getting much bolder. We have to find a way to stop them!"

  "And Doctor Dan saw it. It was when we were at his office."

  "Oh, dear, that poor man to have so much thrown at him all at once."

  "Roland said our house was going to be theirs soon," said Chase, sounding worried. "And they had a plan for getting it."

  "If they do," said Grandfather grimly, "we'll do everything in our power to thwart them."

  Chase nodded. He hoped, with Grandfather in charge, things would be okay. He wished he'd told Grandfather about James's rotten behavior sooner. Maybe if he hadn't been so foolish as to think he had the ability to handle things on his own, something would have been done before James had become dangerous. But then again, it sounded like Grandfather knew James might try something. Chase sighed. They both sure liked to keep things to themselves.

  When they reached James's room, the door was wide open. The curtains were pulled across the sliding-glass door, making the room dim and gloomy. The bed covers were rumpled and clothing was strewn about, but James didn't appear to be anywhere around.

  Chase wandered into the room and gazed at James's scattered belongings. Right then and there, he vowed to be a lot tidier. The thought of being anything like his cousin made his skin crawl. As he checked in the bathroom, he wondered if James had ever found out what the power of his room was.

  "What should we do?" he asked. "It'll take forever to search the whole house for him. Don't you have some magic to track him down or to read his mind or something?"

  Grandfather walked to the sliding-glass door. Pulling the curtain aside, he looked out onto the walkway. "That would be wonderful," he answered, "but no, I don't have any special ability letting me know where everyone is at any given moment. We are, after all, entitled to our privacy and our thoughts."

  "So…you've never been able to read minds?" asked Chase, looking very relieved.

  "No, Chase," said Grandfather, smiling. "Your secrets are safe." His hand trembled as he dropped the curtain back into place. He looked ghostly pale, even in the shadowy room. Then, he doubled over as if in great pain. At the same moment, a large, black shadow dropped from the ceiling and wrapped around Grandfather like a suffocating blanket. For several heart-stopping moments, Chase stood motionless, as if Andy had frozen him in time.

  "No!" he yelled at last, lunging across the room. "Get off him!" He grabbed the strange entity in his fists and pulled with all his might, his breath coming in sharp gasps. What was this thing? "Grandfather!"

  No sound came from Grandfather or the strange being.

  A brilliant flash filled the air. Chase and the entity flew across the room. They smashed into the dresser with a loud, echoing crack. Pain exploded in Chase's head. White spots danced in front of his eyes. He shoved at the heavy weight squashing him into the floor, something, that seconds ago, had been a paper-thin thing, but was now a full-size person. Blinking to clear the spots, Chase saw the person, whose hands grasped his neck, was James.

  "Get off me!" he gasped, struggling to free himself. "What's wrong with you?"

  "All this magic is wasted on you people," said James. "I'll use it for better things!"

  "You're nuts!" With one thought, Chase sent James soaring across the room like a floppy, straw-filled scarecrow. He crashed into the closet doors, breaking and splinterin
g the wood, and lay sprawled in the wreckage.

  Chase staggered to his feet. He looked across the room at Grandfather, who was lying on the floor with a bluey glow surrounding him. The bright barrier flickered as it grew dimmer and dimmer until it had completely snuffed out.

  "What did you do to him?" Chase yelled, darting to Grandfather's side.

  James lurched from the closet. "The same thing I'm going to do to you, stinker!" he growled. He reached for Chase, who did a nimble sidestep to get out of the way of the stretching arms.

  "Missed me. Ha!" Chase taunted, staring into his cousin's glowering blue eyes. Squinting in concentration, Chase quickly twisted and twirled James's long rubbery arms. They went round and round, over and under, until they were a huge ball of tangled knots. The two snarled arms thudded to the floor.

  "My arms…" whimpered James. "You…!" With one last glare at Chase, he staggered from the room, dragging his clumpy arms behind him, and disappeared down the hall.

  "Good riddance," Chase muttered as he dropped to his knees beside his grandparent. "Grandfather?" Chase leaned over and saw that Grandfather was barely breathing and his face was now a strange shade of blue. "Hold on. Just hold on!" he cried, scrambling to his feet. "I'll be right back with Doctor Dan."

  He sprinted through the house, vaulting several stairs at a time, bouncing off walls and hurtling around corners. He smashed into Clair as he skidded into the study, and then almost fell face first into the chocolate cream pie Mrs. Periwinkle was setting on the table.

  "Chase! What's going on?" cried Clair, plucking herself out of the potted plant.

  "Sorry, Aunt Clair, but I need Doctor Dan!" Chase wheezed. "Hurry! It's Grandfather! He needs your help."

  "Where is he? Take me to him!" exclaimed Doctor Dan. He leaped from his chair.

  "He's—he's in James's room," said Chase, his voice shaking. "We have to hurry!"

  He wheeled around and darted from the study. Everyone followed close behind. Please let him be okay, thought Chase as they stampeded through the house, their loud footsteps echoing down the long hallways.