Cut to the Crone

by Amanda M. Lee

  Zoe and Aric were the first to burst through the line of trees. Almost instantly I smelled something foul, something rotten.

  “Sulfur,” Gunner announced, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the shadows for movement. “Someone has been casting spells.”

  “It has to be the witches,” I replied. “Maybe the female shifters double dip on the paranormal front. They must’ve been trying to break through the wards.”

  Zoe didn’t speak but there was determination in her stance. She clenched and unclenched her hands into fists at her side. I expected her to head for the cabin but she remained rooted to her spot, her eyes roaming the darkness surrounding the cabin.

  “Cowards,” she hissed, moving her eyes from one side of the property to the other. “Dirty, filthy, rotten, disgusting cowards.” It was only then that I got to see her vent, and I knew the tree Sami had attacked earlier would never be the same again because the pink fire Zoe unloaded on it burned so hot and fast the trunk of the tree instantly turned black.

  “Baby, you need to take it down a notch.” Aric sounded calm but when my mind touched against his, trying to get a reading for the situation, I could feel the abject fear rolling off him. “She’s probably fine.”

  Zoe shot him a dirty look and then stomped toward the cabin. “Sami!”

  I cocked my head, waiting, but the child didn’t respond. I wasn’t certain if that was a good or bad sign.

  “Sami,” Aric called out, his tone much more conciliatory. “It’s Daddy. It’s okay to show yourself.”

  Still nothing.

  “I’ll check on her.” My instinct was to head toward the cabin, so that was where I pointed myself. Zoe shot out her arm to stop me. “What?” I was honestly confused. “Your daughter is most likely inside ... and my cat.”

  She barked out a hoarse laugh that felt out of place. “It could also be a trap. They could be inside.”

  I studied her a moment and then shook my head. “You would know if there was danger inside. You sense things.”

  “Not when you’re protecting the property with wards, I don’t. I could break them down but I’m assuming you don’t want that.”

  I thought of Emma and the fact that she could enter whenever she wanted. I was close to telling Zoe she could do whatever she wanted and then reality set in. The wards were my only source of protection. Breaking them down now was unwise.

  “I’ll go in,” Zoe announced, stepping in front of me. She looked ferocious rather than resigned. “Be prepared to run if I give the signal.”

  I had enough time to wonder what the signal entailed but that was about it. Zoe’s fingers glowed an angry red and she crept up the porch.

  “I’m coming in,” she called out. “If you’ve hurt my kid, I swear you’ll wish you’d picked another mage to mess with.”

  Aric silently trailed behind his wife. I could tell he wanted to shove past her, be the first through the door, but decades married to one of the most powerful beings in the world had taught him patience. Rushing things would get them nowhere.

  It was my cabin. To me, that indicated I should be the first through the door. It might not have been a rational argument, but it was something I couldn’t shake. The only thing stopping me from shoving Zoe out of the way and taking command was the fact that she could likely smite me where I stood.

  The cabin was dark, and when I flicked the light switch nothing happened.

  “They killed the power,” Gunner muttered. “That’s just great.”

  Because it seemed like the thing to do, I cast a net of magic over our heads. It was a nothing spell, pretty rather than practical. It was basically the equivalent of plugging in twinkle lights. It worked, though, and we could see clearly from one end of the living room to the other.

  Unfortunately, the first thing we all saw was Sami crumpled on the floor.

  “Sami!” Aric shoved past Zoe. He was the first to get to his daughter and his anguish squeezed my heart as he rolled her into his arms. “Baby, it’s Daddy.” Tears streamed down his cheeks.

  When I risked a glance at Zoe, I found that while she was sheet white, her expression never changed. She was determined, and her shoulders were squared as she dropped down next to her husband.

  What was she thinking? I couldn’t imagine myself in her place. Was her child already gone? Did she trade her husband’s safety for her daughter’s future?

  There was no time for additional questions because Zoe’s magic ignited when she placed her hand over Sami’s forehead. It was only then that I could see the huge knot near the girl’s hairline.

  “Is she ... alive?” Gunner asked in halting terms.

  Aric didn’t respond but Zoe nodded, a lone tear slipping down her cheek. There was blood seeping from Sami’s nose and she had a gash on her cheek. Zoe put both of her hands to use and healed every wound she found.

  Then, as if a princess in a Disney cartoon, Sami slowly opened her eyes. She glanced between her parents, taking everything in. I expected tears, wails even. I thought she would curl into her father and demand he share his warmth.

  She bolted to a sitting position and let loose a string of curses that would’ve been fine coming out of the mouth of the most crass sailor on Lake Michigan. From a fourteen-year-old girl, it was quite the jolt.

  “Who taught you to swear like that?” Aric shoved Sami’s hair away from her forehead and gave her face a long onceover. “Is that how a young lady is supposed to talk?”

  Sami narrowed her eyes to dangerous slits. “They took him! And Mom says much worse whenever she’s watching sports on television and you know it.”

  Aric glowered at his wife. “I told you she was listening.”

  “Hey, the refs blow. It’s not my fault we’re stuck with the Lions and bad refs. Suck it up.” Zoe turned her full attention to Sami. “Are you talking about Rafael?”

  Sami nodded, her small features pinched with fury. “They came right after you left. I tried to call to you but ... it was weird. It was like there was an invisible wall separating us.”

  Zoe pressed her hand to her forehead and I could practically hear the gears in her mind working. To save time, I offered up the obvious explanation.

  “It’s the wards. I tried to strengthen them a bit this morning because ... well, I had a late-night visitor last night. I must’ve overdone it.”

  Zoe nodded. “That could be it. They could’ve done something, too.”

  Sami made a disgusted sound deep in her throat. “How can it not matter? Rafael is gone. We’ll never get married if they kill him.”

  “Then maybe we’ll let them keep him,” Aric suggested, although there was no “oomph” behind the statement.

  “Dad!” Sami’s shriek was ear-splitting, causing Gunner and I to shift away from the child we were only moments before praying would be okay.

  “Makes parenthood look fun, doesn’t she?” Zoe replied dryly.

  “It’s not funny,” Sami shot back. “They came at us fast. They hit us with a bunch of magic. Rafael made me hide under the bed with the kitten.”

  My spine stiffened. “Did they take the kitten?”

  Sami shook her head. “He’s probably still under the bed. I left him there when I crawled out. I heard ... I heard them doing stuff to Rafael.”

  Zoe looked conflicted. “What did we tell you about stuff like this?”

  “That I have to worry about myself first, but I can’t always do that.”

  “You have to, Sami,” Aric chided. “You’re the most important thing.”

  “No.” She fervently shook her head. “It can’t always be about me. I’m supposed to be like Mom. That’s what you want. She’s strong, and she wouldn’t have hidden under the bed while they were hurting Rafael.”

  Aric and Zoe exchanged a look and I knew exactly what they were thinking. I also thought it likely that they might be derailed on a tangent and I wanted to make certain that didn’t happen.

  “Tell us the rest of it, Sami,” I instructed, taking
charge. “You’re okay. Whether mistakes were made, the most important thing is that you’re okay. We need information if we’re going to find Rafael.”

  “I don’t know.” Sami looked helpless. She balled her hand into a small fist. She clearly wanted to bash someone – magic, words or hands would do – but that wasn’t currently an option. “They called to him, yelled stuff at him. They called him the world’s best babysitter.”

  Zoe’s frown deepened. “Did they act as if they knew him?”

  Sami tilted her head and popped her lips, clearly thinking hard. “Maybe. If they did know him, I don’t think it was all that good.”

  “Well,” Zoe corrected absently. “They didn’t know him all that well.”

  Sami flashed a “you’ve got to be kidding me” look. “Is now really the time for an English lesson?”

  “Grammar,” Zoe corrected again. “It’s a grammar lesson but go back to what you were telling us. Did he call anyone by name?”

  “I don’t think so. He wouldn’t let me see. He told me to hide under the bed. I didn’t want to. I thought it was best to use the fire that was still burning and set all their asses on fire, but you told me to do what he said.”

  “We also told you that swearing isn’t allowed,” Aric pointed out.

  Sami stuck out her tongue and blew a raspberry. “Mom does it all the time!”

  “Well, Mom is going to stop.”

  Zoe shook her head. “No, Mom isn’t.” She’d adopted a practical tone that I figured she whipped out whenever the mood struck. “Mom can’t always control what her mouth does. It is what it is.” She lightly knocked her knuckles against Sami’s forehead. “Tell me what happened. Tell me everything you can remember.”

  Sami sobered. “There was a lot of talking. They said they wanted the mage. I thought they meant you but—”

  “It was you,” Zoe surmised. “It’s okay. We’ve already figured that out. They used Gunner and your dad as fodder to draw us out. I think they believed we would be gone longer than we were. They told Gunner he was going to die, which means he was meant to serve as a distraction.”

  “They said Daddy wasn’t coming back at all,” Sami said, her eyes drifting to her father. “I didn’t believe them. I knew Mom would find you.”

  Aric shot her an encouraging smile. “She always does. We’re sorry you were left alone. We didn’t think they would make a move like that.”

  “I should’ve just burned them all,” Sami muttered darkly. “If I had, Rafael would be okay. Now he’s probably dead.”

  “Don’t say that,” Zoe cut in quickly. “We don’t know that. Besides, their initial plan failed. They thought they would kill your dad and Gunner and that would allow them to take you. Well, look around. Dad and Gunner are fine and so are you.”

  “But they took Rafael,” Sami persisted.

  “Yes, and he’s their only bargaining chip,” Aric noted. “I don’t think they’re going to hurt him, Sami. They’re going to want to trade him.”

  I stirred. “They can’t possibly think that you’ll trade Sami for him. I mean, you love him, but she’s your daughter.”

  “We don’t love him,” Aric argued.

  “We do so.” Sami folded her arms over her chest. “He’s going to be my husband one day, which means you have no choice but to save him.”

  Aric rolled his eyes, as if asking some invisible deity “why me.”

  “We’re going to save him,” Zoe promised. “However, they’re not going to try to trade him straight up for you. They’re going to try to maneuver us to trade something else and then attack again when they think they’ve got us exactly where they want us.”

  “What will they want to trade for?” Gunner asked.

  Zoe held out her hands. “I don’t know.”

  “When do you think they’ll want to do this?” I asked.

  “I don’t know that either. It won’t be tonight. That means we should all get some rest and go from there.”

  “I don’t want to rest.” Sami jutted out her chin. “I want to find Rafael. You know they’re just going to ask for the Archimage anyway. Why can’t we contact them and offer a trade? They won’t be able to fight us if we’re all together.”

  Archimage? The word niggled something in the back of my mind but I filed it away for later. “We can’t move on them tonight,” I said. “We have no idea where they’ve gone or what they have planned. They’re not going to engage with us anyway. We have to wait.”

  Sami didn’t look happy at the prospect. “But—”

  “We’re going to do everything we can, Sami,” Aric promised. “We’ll get him back.”

  “You’d better.” Sami was morose. “I’ll be alone for the rest of my life if you don’t save him. He’s my soulmate, like what Mom is to you.”

  Aric shook his head. “That’s not making me want to save him, Sami.”

  Zoe stood, dusting off her hands. “Double your wards overnight and think hard. We need to come up with a plan. They’re not going to wait long.”

  I nodded. “I’ll see what I can come up with.”

  “I’ll do the same. I honestly don’t think killing him will get them what they want. He’s likely safe for the night.”

  “He won’t talk?” Gunner asked.

  Zoe laughed hollowly. “He’ll die before he betrays us. You don’t have to worry about that.”

  Sadly, that was the thing I was most worried about. Wherever he was, the tanned vampire was in for an uncomfortable night.

  Eighteen

  Aric cradled Sami to his chest walking out, Zoe alert and keeping watch. Rather than climb in the passenger seat, Zoe slipped in the back with her daughter and Aric got behind the wheel. They were a well-oiled protection machine when it came to their child. They didn’t even have to communicate out loud.

  To outsiders looking in, they would appear to be a family in crisis. I knew better. Zoe would reclaim her vampire by whatever means necessary, and Sami was essentially an errant missile looking for her guidance system to lock onto something.

  Things were a mess.

  Gunner headed straight for the shower once they were gone. On another night, I might have made a play to join him. Not tonight, though.

  The first thing I did was find Merlin. Just like Sami said, he was curled into a ball under the bed, spitting and hissing when I tried to pull him out. Rather than traumatize him further, I set about strengthening the wards. By the time Gunner exited the bathroom, a towel slung low on his hips, I’d positioned myself so I was flat on the floor, an unsealed can of tuna in my hand.

  “Don’t you want me to pet you?” I said in my softest voice. “You’ll feel better if you climb into bed with us.”

  Gunner snickered as he leaned against the doorjamb, arms folded over his chest. The water gleamed on his cut torso, giving me ideas even though I was perplexed. It was hard for me to discard the shape we’d found him in.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.” He dropped to his knees so he could get a gander at the kitten. “You don’t need to worry about me. I feel like I’m as good as new.”

  “I just want to be sure. If you have poison in you—”

  He shook his head to cut me off. “Something tells me Zoe has handled situations like this before.”

  “She seemed pretty calm,” I agreed, rolling to a cross-legged sitting position. “Even when we were heading inside, when we didn’t know if Sami was here, or taken ... or something worse, she never fell apart.”

  “No.” Gunner positioned himself so his knee touched mine. “I think she knew Sami was okay.”

  I thought the opposite. “I think she was braced to do whatever she had to do to help Sami. If we’d found Sami dead, I hate to think what sort of wreckage she would’ve left behind when going after the guilty parties.”

  “Oh, she’s terrifying.” Gunner tugged a strand of my hair, settling it behind my ear. “She’s going to go ballistic finding that vampire. You realize that, right?”<
br />
  I nodded. “Do you think she’s right? Is the vampire still alive?”

  Gunner shrugged. “If I were in the position of those shifters, I would kill him and run. He’s dangerous. He could tear them limb from limb if he gets loose. He’s stronger than a normal vampire.”

  “They might not know that. Did they see him walk during the day? I’m pretty sure they didn’t. It’s possible they were positioned in the trees or something, but I have to believe they would’ve attacked the cabin if they knew where he was.”

  Gunner pursed his lips, his forehead wrinkling. “I hadn’t really thought about that. You’re right, though.”

  “I’m always right.”

  He smirked and moved his hand to my back. He seemed to understand that I was keyed up and would need time to come down from the highs of the run through the forest if I expected to get a full night’s sleep. “They might not know. That could benefit him.”

  “It could also be his undoing if they find out.”

  “There is that.” He moved both his hands to my shoulders. “Shift around a bit and I’ll give you a massage while we’re waiting for Merlin to rejoin the land of the living.”

  That sounded heavenly, and a bit entitled. “You’re the one who almost died. I’m pretty sure I should be rubbing you.”

  “While I’m usually not one to turn down a massage, I actually feel pretty good. That Zoe is a miracle worker. She has magic hands.”

  I didn’t bother to hide my scowl. “Someone sounds like he has a crush.”

  “Don’t even.” He poked my side. “I saw the way you looked at Aric when he took off his shirt. There was drool.”

  “I don’t drool.”

  “Tell that to my chest every morning when you wake up.”

  “Hey!” I jabbed my finger at his nose. “I don’t drool. Take it back.”

  “Fine. You don’t drool.” He leaned in again and gave me a soft kiss. “Turn around. There are knots in here as big as my fist. You’re not going to sleep until you relax, and Merlin isn’t going to come out until we’re both relaxed.”