I rushed after him without stopping to grab a coat, even though the day was crisp and cold.
I didn’t care. Grant wasn’t going to walk away from me again.
“You go, girl!” I heard Pep calling after me.
“We’re going to stay inside where it’s warm. Have a great date,” Lark added.
I wanted to tell both of them to stuff it, but I was too busy trying to catch Grant.
He was about to hop into his car when I reached him.
“Now wait a minute. What did Corey’s information tell you?” I demanded.
Grant paused. “I thought you said you wouldn’t meddle.”
“I said I wouldn’t try to get Corey to tell me, and I wouldn’t sneak into his lab, and I didn’t. Why bother when I knew you’d tell me yourself!” I give him a bright smile and he sighed gustily.
“Fine. Look. Here’s the deal. The Root of All Evil is involved in this somehow. I’m going over to Edmund’s now to discuss with him exactly how,” he said.
“How about I hop in and explain it to you on the way?” I offered.
“Because you think you know?” he demanded.
“Even better. I’m sure of it,” I told him. Before he could change his mind, I hurried around to the other side of the car and got in.
When I was seated and buckling up, he almost reconsidered. I could tell because he hesitated before he started the car. But I just kept acting as if I was meant to be there, and finally we were off.
“Tell me what you know,” he said, and I knew I had won.
“The vampires each told me the other one did it,” I explained. “Nothing has stood out about this murder. There have been no suspects. All the stories were perfectly bland. It finally made me suspicious.”
“You think that because there isn’t some crazy enchantment, it means all the vampires know who did it?” he asked.
“I think all the vampires are protecting Edmund because they think he did it. They carefully choreographed implicating each other, but first they made sure there was no proof,” I said.
Grant nodded slowly. “That might make sense. Their stories did match up perfectly. Timothy died on a normal night, so there wasn’t much to find amiss.”
“Except that someone murdered him,” I said.
“Right.”
“Do you think it was Edmund, or one of the vampires?” I asked. “Or someone from outside?” If I was careful, he might reveal what the substance Corey had tested was.
“I just don’t know. Yet,” he said.
Driving back to Edmund’s in the daylight felt strange. Since the Undead had appeared on both my most recent visits to Edmund’s place, I kept looking around for them. This time they were nowhere to be seen, but I reminded myself that they were unlikely to show themselves in daylight. Still, I had a hard time shedding the feeling that it was strange not to see them. I kept expecting them to show up around every bend in the path.
It also felt strange that Grant was sitting right beside me. He had ignored me or tried to evade me twice in the past twenty-four hours, but at the moment we were companionable enough. He was clearly tolerating my investigating, but I knew that would last only to a point. He had tried to order me away, then changed his mind when I convinced him I could tell him something he didn’t know about this case.
I still wasn’t sure how Edmund himself would react to such news.
“Are you angry?” I asked him.
He sighed. “No, I’m not angry. I admire your grit and determination. I just wish you would do as you’re told and stay out of harm’s way.”
The gall of his Majesty of Magic, treating me as if I were a five-year-old to be ordered around! Clearly fame, fortune, and universal respect had gone to this nincompoop’s head!
My jaw started to hurt from clenching it. My cheeks felt hot and I knew my face had gone bright red.
“Then we’re going to have problems, I’m afraid. That is the one thing I won’t do,” I told him stubbornly. I didn’t have to put up with this nonsense.
“I gathered that,” he sighed.
His eyes were searching my face, and as furious as I was, I hoped he wouldn’t be able to read the anger there. Apparently, fool that I was, I still wanted to salvage something of what had been between us.
In the pale light of a winter’s day, his bright blue eyes stood out prominently, but his razor sharp jaw was relaxed. If he didn’t like this conversation, he wasn’t showing it.
Confusion dulled my feelings just a fraction. I thought he’d look at me, be able to read how I was feeling, and turn away, but instead those bright blue eyes just got brighter as he took me in.
My confusion deepened, but it wasn’t destined to be alleviated any time soon, because just then we were met at the door by Joel, who bowed slightly to greet us.
Vampires didn’t look tired even if they were, but I still had the impression that Joel was slightly tense.
“We’re here to see how Edmund is doing,” said Grant.
“Of course. Let me show you to the study,” said the butler smoothly.
The forest was quiet as we followed Joel into the house. What wasn’t quiet was my heart, which was thumping so madly that I was worried Grant would hear it. My nerves were jangling, and I wasn’t sure why. I just knew that something was amiss at Edmund’s place. But I had no idea what it was.
Whatever Grant knew or suspected, he wasn’t sharing it. But I knew him well enough by now to realize that he was tense as well. His relaxed mood in the car had been replaced by a watchfulness, subtle but perceptible if you knew what to look for.
As we headed for the study, Lewis came out of another room. His eyes flared when he saw us, but Joel glared at him for a split second and both vampires’ faces subsided into blandness. If I hadn’t happened to be looking directly at them, I would have missed the entire exchange.
Grant gave no indication that he had noticed anything.
When we reached the study, a tea tray was waiting.
“How did you know we were coming?” I asked curiously.
Joel cleared his throat and smiled. “Lucky guess. I remember how much you enjoyed the tea before.”
As soon as we were seated, Joel said he’d go get Edmund.
I leaned over to pour some tea. Joel was right, I had loved the tea when I’d been here before. This time I took the little stopper off the pot before pouring and inhaled the aroma.
“It smells a little different from last time,” I murmured.
I poured myself a cup, Grant watching me the whole time with a slight frown on his face.
The brownish liquid plashed into the fancy china cup and I glanced at Grant again.
“No, thank you,” he said to my unspoken question.
For some reason that I wasn’t even quite conscious of, I waited a heartbeat. In that single moment, everything about the situation felt off.
The house was quiet.
There was no sound from the vampires.
Edmund hadn’t come.
My eyes focused on the tea and I made myself pay more attention to the slightly different smell wafting from it.
Seeing my gaze, Grant leaned over to sniff the tea himself. As soon as he did, his nostrils flared and his whole face hardened.
“Do not drink that,” he ordered.
I nodded mutely.
“Where did the vampires go?” I whispered.
He shook his head slightly.
The house was too quiet, and now we both knew it.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Grant pushed himself out of the comfortable chair, his eyes trained on the door we had just come through.
As we listened for signs of life, I thought I heard something in the direction of the front door, so I walked as quietly as I could in that direction, leaving Grant to head toward the kitchen.
On the way toward the front of the house there was a window that looked out on the driveway, and for a split second I didn’t understand what I was looking at when I
glanced out of it
Then I yelled for Grant.
The three vampires were racing toward Edmund’s car. There was no sign of the old warlock.
Grant came tearing down the hallway, and when he saw was I was looking at he rushed outside after the vampires.
Doyle paused to glance over his shoulder when he heard Grant, the getaway interrupted.
“Find Edmund!” Grant yelled back at me.
A spike of panic went through me at the thought of Grant confronting the three vampires on his own.
But I whirled around back into the house, because he was right. Edmund might need my help.
I darted from room to room, but every space was empty. Edmund’s musical instruments stood unused, and there was no sign that he had even been near them lately. I was just thinking about going upstairs when I looked out the window and saw that the door of the shed in the back garden was open.
As I raced out there, I heard a series of yells, then a car starting up.
My panic increased, but I forced myself not to get sidetracked.
Reaching the shed and looking inside, I found Edmund, bound and gagged but otherwise apparently unharmed. He looked up at me with unreadable emotions in his eyes.
I pulled the gag off and asked if he was all right, then got to work on his bonds.
“Fine,” he gasped. “Lewis tied me up. Never suspected him.”
“It was all three of them. Grant is fighting them now,” I said as I pulled the last rope free.
The old warlock was surprisingly nimble as I helped him to his feet. “Let’s get a move on!” he cried. “That young man is good, but these are vampires, and there are three of them. No one is that good!”
We hurried through the house, and that’s when Edmund showed a bit of his age and the effects of his ill-treatment. He was determined, but he still wasn’t moving quickly enough to suit me.
I was in a panic of worry when the two of us burst out of the front door to find Grant grappling with Doyle. Lewis was on the ground, while Joel was trying to get the car started.
Edmund raised his hand, and a nasty-looking orange enchantment shot straight at Doyle.
At the last moment Grant saw it coming and spun just enough so that the enchantment hit Doyle in the back.
The young vampire went rigid for a moment, then fell to the ground.
At the same moment, Lewis revived and spun around in the dirt so that his sweeping legs knocked Grant’s feet out from under him.
Grant managed to twist in mid-air and land perfectly on Lewis’s chest.
Now those two supernaturals grappled with each other, locked in a deadly battle. I felt sick to my stomach, but there was nothing I could do to intervene, for fear of hurting Grant instead of Lewis.
Then the car roared to life. Without regard to anything behind him (luckily nothing was), Joel backed up and sped away.
I chased after him, throwing enchantments after the car, but it was no use. The vehicle was faster than I was, and my enchantments weren’t strong enough to catch it.
Just as I was giving up hope, a voice rang out from back near the house, yelling, “DUCK!”
I hit the ground just as a shaft of orange light burst over me.
A breath or two later, the light slammed into the car, which swerved as Joel tried to maintain control.
It was hopeless. The car slammed into a tree, and suddenly everything was still.
My cheek stayed on the hard dirt for a moment as I caught my breath and counted my lucky stars.
I glanced back toward the house. Edmund was hobbling in our direction. Behind him, Grant was dealing with the other two vampires.
Investigators swamped Edmund’s house. All three of the vampires tried to flee yet again, but none of them got away the second time, either. They were arrested and eventually taken away, but not before they tried mightily to justify themselves.
We had all gathered in the now familiar study for a chat, vampires included, but under the watchful eyes of half a dozen of Grant’s staff.
“Timothy was going to join the Root!” cried Joel. “They had placed him here so that he could kill Edmund. We were merely protecting our boss.”
“There is some evidence that that is true,” said Grant grimly, “and if that is indeed how this murder played out, you might get some leniency. But you should have come to me. You cannot take the law into your own hands.”
“The Root is everywhere. There’s nothing you can do!” said Joel sullenly.
Edmund sighed. “My brother is right. He didn’t think I’d be safe living out here by myself, but I thought I knew what I was doing with this hiring process. I’m starting to think maybe I didn’t.” He glanced around the room and concluded tiredly, “We’ll discuss it later.”
In the end, it had turned out that my earlier theory had been slightly off. The vampires had been working together and coordinating their stories. But they’d known very well who had murdered Timothy. It was themselves they’d been protecting, not Edmund.
Grant led the vampires away, and Edmund followed. I walked out with them, then stopped at the edge of the woods and watched them go. When they were out of sight down the path I walked slowly back toward the house. As I reached the front porch, I glanced back. Fading into the woods were vampires. Dozens of vampires. Whole crowds of lurking vampires.
A lump formed in my throat as they disappeared into the thick tree cover.
The Root of All Evil was never far away.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
One mystery solved, one more to go.
Grant drove us back to Haunted Bluff in record time. I was amazed at everything that had been revealed, and also that Edmund was so casual about it. I wondered if his brother would feel the same way when he found out.
The Root was causing problems for everyone in Shimmerfield. Here I had been thinking that we were the only ones who were worried about it, or threatened, but now I was somewhat comforted by the fact that other people would be fighting on our side.
Edmund had promised to call Mr. Nutcracker, but that brought me no joy. For one thing, my grandmother would be angry; she was not a fan of Nutcracker. For another, I didn’t know whether I trusted him myself.
Grant and I drove in silence until we pulled up at the mansion. As we parked I said, “I’m glad that’s taken care of.”
When Grant still didn’t reply, I glanced in his direction, only to find him looking out over the lawns and woods, apparently lost in thought.
“Right?” I said.
His jaw clenched. He had come to some decision.
“We have to talk,” he said, turning to me.
Dread pooled in my stomach. This was it. He was sick of me. He wanted to let me know that two dates were plenty, maybe even one date too many. Or maybe two too many! Either way, it looked like there would not be a third.
I looked away so he wouldn’t see how upset I was.
When the silence lengthened beyond bearing, I finally broke it. “What do we have to talk about?” I asked.
“I have a lot of respect for you as an investigator,” he said. “I also have a lot of respect for your family. The trouble is, you don’t conduct official investigations.”
So this was where he was headed. He wanted me to stop investigating. Why was it that everyone was obsessed with making me stop doing the work I loved, and was good at?
“I was hired privately,” I pointed out.
“I want you to stop investigating. It’s too dangerous,” he said.
“No way. I’m not going to stop. As a private investigator I’m entitled to investigate if I want to,” I told him. “You aren’t my boss.”
I could feel my pulse quickening. I was getting angry.
“So under no circumstances will you stop?” he asked.
I couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice what he was going to make of my response. All I knew was that I was going to hold my ground. Not even my feelings for Grant were going to take this away from me.
/> “Under no circumstances am I going to stop,” I told him.
Even if it means losing you, I added silently.
For a few painful moments, Grant didn’t move or speak. My pulse rate kept increasing, and when the silence stretched on, I started to feel like I was going to be sick. I couldn’t believe I was losing him. Hadn’t he known that I had this independent streak from the beginning? Didn’t he respect that?
Maybe when he’d actually seen me in action he couldn’t handle it. He was His Majesty of Magic, after all. He was used to fame and the spotlight. It was far less clear to me that he was used to sharing it with anyone else.
Finally, though, his whole body shifted. His shoulders relaxed and his jaw loosened.
“Okay. Sounds good. Do you want to go on a third date on Friday night? You know the third date is usually when there’s kissing,” he pointed out.
He had shifted gears so fast I f couldn’t keep up, much less think of what to say next. So I simply turned to stare at him open-mouthed.
He managed to keep a straight face for a couple of breaths, then his expression broke into a bright grin.
I couldn’t help it. I started to feel warm all over. Maybe that was the blood rushing everywhere.
Now he was just making things up! The only trouble from my point of view was that I liked the sound of them.
“What are you getting at?” I demanded. I was totally confused, even more so because he looked so smug and amused. He also looked just as I felt. Happy.
“I was ordered by my superiors to try and get you to stay out of investigations,” he explained. “I tried to explain to them that there was no way you were going to stop investigating. They insisted that I make the effort. I now have. I can go back to them and tell them I did my best. You will continue with your unofficial investigations. I will continue with my official ones. Just know this,” he said.
He leaned forward, bracing his arm on the console between us. My heart fluttered once again.
“Forces have an eye on you. It isn’t just vampires and the Root that you may have to contend with. If I were you, I’d be very careful. I would also stick as close as I could to talented warlocks,” he said. His eyes were dancing.
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