“You sound sure we’re going to get her back. I wish I could be as hopeful.”
“Oh, we’ll get her back.” After a solid six hours of sleep I felt strong, more in control. “I pity whoever did this, because we’re going to make her pay in ways you can’t possibly imagine.”
“And you’re sure it’s a woman?”
I shrugged. “That seems to fit the facts. It doesn’t matter. If it’s a man, we’ll simply adjust our spell so it punches him in the nuts before we dispatch him.”
Even though it was a serious moment, Kade barked out a laugh. “You have such a sunny way of looking at things sometimes.”
“I do my very best.”
KADE AND I WERE THE last to hit the breakfast area. I scanned faces looking for hints of new information.
“Where’s Max?” I asked automatically.
“He’s talking to the cops,” Raven replied, pointing for emphasis.
I followed her finger and frowned. It was Detective Walker. “What is he doing here?”
“We don’t know, but whatever it is I don’t think it’s good.” Luke patted the open spot next to him. “How are you feeling this morning, Poet?”
“I feel good.” I offered him a smile and a kiss on the cheek before taking the proffered seat. “How do you feel?”
“It’s funny, but having to shift in front of people doesn’t seem nearly as embarrassing when you realize young women are being turned into human dolls that can poison you.”
“Good point.” I sipped the coffee Nixie shoved in front of me. “How are you guys feeling after last night? I thought we might all have magic hangovers from the amount of power we expelled, but I feel okay.”
“You got a boost of mage power,” Raven pointed out. “You’re one up on the rest of us.”
“She almost died,” Kade snapped.
“Sit down, sparky.” Raven wrinkled her nose. “I was teasing her. We’re fine. We’ll be fully restocked by the time we need to move tonight.”
“Tonight?” Kade tilted his head to the side, confused. “I thought we’d move together this morning. Why wait for tonight?”
“Because we have a show to perform,” Luke replied. “We never miss our shows.”
“But … .”
“It’s not just that,” I offered, my voice soft. “We don’t want to embark on a magic fight during daylight hours. That’s a lot of memories to modify, and if we miss one … .”
“You can modify memories?”
“To an extent. I can do it on an individual basis, but that’s time consuming and draining. Nixie and Naida can do it with pixie dust, but that occasionally backfires. It’s better if we can fight without anyone else seeing us.”
“But we can’t wait until dark,” Kade pleaded.
“I don’t see a way around it. I don’t like the idea of leaving Melissa either, but we don’t have a plan and Max needs to study the area. Who knows, he might figure out a way to end things on his own. It’s happened before.”
“He’s that powerful?”
I nodded. “And then some. Most likely he won’t be able to do it himself, though. It’s a big job. When he gets back we’ll come up with a plan and get everything in order before we descend on the cave. We’ll need reinforcements.”
“And a lot of tonic if they have more poisoned blades,” Naida added. “I’m having Nixie whip up another batch this morning. It’s better to have too much than too little.”
“Good idea.” I turned my eyes back to Max and watched as he trudged in our direction. He didn’t necessarily look unhappy, but he was hardly giddy. Something was definitely wrong.
“What happened?” Luke asked as soon as Max was in earshot.
Max opted not to delay the inevitable. “There’s been another death.”
My heart rolled. “Melissa?”
Max shook his head. “Not one of the girls.”
“Then who?” Raven asked.
“A man. He washed up in the surf this morning.”
“A man?” That made absolutely no sense. “Why would she suddenly shift to going after men?”
“I don’t know.” Max held out his hands to signify helplessness. “It’s a man we know.”
“Who?”
“Barney Tolliver.”
Well, that changed things. Significantly. “Maybe he got too close.”
“Or maybe he knew who it was from the beginning and thought his daughter was safe,” Max countered. “Either way, I’m heading to that cave. I need Nellie to show me where it is. The rest of you need to carry on as if it’s a normal day. I’ll be back in time for lunch and we’ll discuss more then.”
WORKING WHEN MY MIND WAS so busy wasn’t easy. I knew I had to power through – which is what I did – but keeping my mind off Melissa was more difficult than I’d envisioned. That, coupled with Barney’s death, had me struggling to make it through the few readings I had during the morning shift.
“You’re never going to be the next Kanye West,” I told the pale-faced boy sitting across from me. He was fifteen and thought he had a real shot at being a professional rapper.
“I don’t want to be Kanye West,” Dillan Baker sneered, making a face. “I want to be Eminem with a twist of Kanye. There’s a difference.”
Not from where I was sitting. “It’s still not going to happen.” I don’t often try to crush dreams, but this kid was an entitled brat. “You don’t have the talent. Try business school.”
“Screw you!” Dillan hopped to his feet, his temper flaring. He had violence at the forefront of his mind – and, yes, it was against me – but he weighed a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet and was hardly a threat.
“Sit down,” I ordered.
“I want my money back,” Dillan snapped. “You were supposed to give me a good fortune, not a bad one. If I wanted to hear crap like that I’d spend more time with my father.”
“Sit down,” I repeated, allowing a hint of chilly menace to creep into my voice. “I’m not kidding.”
Perhaps the kid was smarter than he looked because he grudgingly reclaimed his seat. “I want a refund.” He was petulant and morose, a dangerous combination.
I pointed to the “no refunds” sign on the wall and pinned him with a hard look. “Now, you listen to me. You’re not going to be the next Eminem. You’re not even going to be the next roadie for Eminem. You don’t have musical talent. You can’t rhyme. In fact, you’re rhythmically challenged.”
Dillan made an exaggerated face. “I can learn to dance. I can pay someone else to play the music. I can find someone to write the songs.”
“So you’re saying you basically want to be famous for nothing,” I mused.
“Is that so wrong?”
It was annoying more than anything else. “If you want to be famous, here’s the way to do it.” I outlined a plan that would allow Dillan to be the next Kardashian – he would have less talent, of course, if that were even possible – and when I was done, he was furious.
“I don’t want to start a reality show for wannabe rappers,” he snapped. “People will laugh at us.”
“Yes, but you will be famous for exactly fifteen minutes.”
“I’m done listening to you.” Dillan was back on his feet. “You’re a terrible person. I hope you know that.” He stomped out of my tent, whatever attitude he could muster on full display.
Kade appeared in his wake, and the smile on his face reflected amusement. “And how has your morning been?”
“Pretty much as you’d expect.” I stood and grabbed the “be back soon” sign from the back of the tent flap and moved it to the front. “I want to stop by Nixie and Naida’s booth before lunch. I want to make sure they have enough tonic when it’s time to move.”
“Okay.” Kade didn’t offer an argument, instead linking his fingers with mine and leading the way to the pixies’ tent. “The circus is dead today. I think the weather is keeping people away.”
“That would normally upset me, but I’m kind of
happy about it. We’ll be able to get people out of here on time and then move on the cave right after we close the gates.”
“What about the money we’ll be losing out on?”
I shrugged. “There are more important things than money.”
“There definitely are.”
NAIDA AND NIXIE WERE arguing when we approached. It was hardly out of the ordinary, but they sounded intense.
“We need more than that,” Naida announced, hands on hips, as she stared at the box of tonic Nixie held. “We need enough for everyone to have two bottles.”
“How many people do you think are going out there?” Nixie asked. “I’ve got fifteen bottles. We only had seven people out there last night. When you add Max, that’s eight people. We should be fine.”
“We need at least fifteen more bottles,” Naida pressed, refusing to back down. “I’m not kidding. We’ll have more bodies with us, and now that the attacker knows her poisoned blades work she’ll go all out.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Nixie challenged.
“I know all and see all.”
“Oh, you’re making that up.” Nixie pinched her face into a disgusted expression as she darted her eyes to me. “Will you tell her she’s overreacting?”
I wasn’t so sure that was the truth. “I agree with Naida. We need more. I’m pretty sure we’ll have to take Seth at the very least … and probably Dolph. Do you want someone to die because we didn’t have enough tonic?”
Nixie was sheepish. “Of course not. It’s just … we know what to expect now. We won’t be caught off guard.”
“They still outnumber us,” Kade pointed out. “There are fifty of those girls who are controllable. There are only about ten of us. Do the math.”
Nixie pressed her lips together, giving the impression that she was indeed doing the math. Finally she heaved a sigh. “Fine. But I think this is overkill.”
“We’ll have it for next time if we don’t use it,” Naida said, shuffling to the edge of the booth and catching my gaze. “How do you feel? We’re going to need you at full strength for the fight tonight. If you feel you need a nap I’m sure you could get away with it. This place is dead.”
“It is dead,” I agreed, snagging one of the voodoo dolls from the nearby shelf. It was a former insurance salesman who purposely sold his clients bogus policies that paid him before killing them. Nixie shrank him down in Georgia almost eight months ago. “Are their souls really trapped in these husks?”
Kade let loose with an involuntary shudder when he realized what I held. “Do you have to play with those things? They give me the heebie-jeebies.”
Naida ignored his whining. “They are. It’s a byproduct of the dust Nixie uses. The souls are trapped until the husks are destroyed.”
“And then the souls are freed,” I mused. “Do you believe in reincarnation?”
“We don’t face death in our realm like you do here. I’ve never really thought about it, but I would have to say no if pressed.”
“So you think when your soul passes on that’s it.”
“Pretty much.”
“Then explain ghosts.” I had no idea why I was in a combative mood, but something niggled the back of my mind and I was desperate to work it out.
“Ghosts are trapped souls,” Naida replied simply. “They don’t know enough to pass over. They remain here until they’re somehow directed to the other side. Sometimes that doesn’t happen. It’s not an ideal outcome, but it’s not always avoidable.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth. “Do you think there’s a way to make sure souls stay local?”
Naida knit her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
“A spell. Do you think there’s a spell that relegates souls to a certain corner or something, and allows something else to control the bodies while the souls are kept separate?”
Naida caught on to what I was asking. “I don’t know. Why?”
“What if we can craft a counter-spell to release those souls? I mean, in theory that would mean they could take over their bodies again, right?”
“As long as their bodies weren’t decayed or long gone, that’s definitely possible. Is that what you want to do for Melissa?”
“It’s a thought.”
“It is,” Naida agreed. “Freeing all those souls at once is going to take power.”
“It’s going to take a nexus of power, something our enemy has at the cave and we have here.” I mused, returning the doll to the shelf. “What if we can get our enemy to come to us?”
Naida leaned forward, intrigued. “What do you have in mind?”
“I’m not sure. It’s a hypothesis more than anything else, but I want to work on it.”
“We should check with Max first,” Kade supplied. “He might have already solved the problem.”
“It’s possible but unlikely,” Naida said.
“We can still check.” I squeezed Kade’s hand. “If he didn’t fix things, I think we should bring the fight here. We have the advantage here.”
“That’s easier said than done,” Naida said. “Still … I agree. If we can swing it, that’s definitely the way to go. No one can beat us here.”
“I’m hoping that our enemy is cocky enough to believe the exact opposite.”
26
Twenty-Six
I read a few more fortunes – basically busy work – and then shut my tent down early. The sky was ominous and threatening, and it kept visitors away. From a business standpoint, that wasn’t good. From a personal standpoint, it made things better.
I decided to go for a walk along the boardwalk, if only to see if I could pick a few stray thoughts from random minds. I expected to go alone, but Kade caught up with me and silently matched my pace as I swung myself toward the crafts fair.
“I’m okay on my own,” I offered, my voice gentle. “I’m not going to suddenly fall down and have a relapse.”
“I didn’t say you were.” Kade kept his gaze on the crowd. “Maybe I simply want to take a walk. Have you ever considered that?”
“I don’t want you to worry.”
“It’s too late for that.”
It was far too late for both of us on that front. “Did you see her face?” I had to force out the words, Melissa’s pale countenance from the night before haunting me. “If I couldn’t see into her mind, I wouldn’t have known she was there. She was like an empty shell.”
Kade slipped his fingers between mine and grasped my hand. “I saw. I’m still not sure I believe it.”
“Well, believe it. We have a fight on our hands.”
“It’s been that way since I joined.” Kade flashed a smile that didn’t make it all the way to his eyes. “This is no different. We’ll win.”
I wanted to believe him, yet something dark niggled at the back of my mind. “I handle things better when I’m the one in danger,” I admitted. “I don’t like worrying about other people.”
“You were in plenty of danger last night. I could practically feel the life spilling out of you.”
“That’s not exactly what I meant.” I slowed my pace. “I meant that I don’t often think before I rush into danger because I’d rather sacrifice myself than someone else. But now Melissa is in real danger and I don’t think I’m handling it very well.”
Kade grimaced. “I don’t know what you want me to say,” he said finally. “If you expect me to be happy that you’re fine sacrificing yourself for others … .”
“No, I don’t expect you to be okay with that.” I took pity on him, his palpable misery slamming into my chest. “I get it from your point of view now. That’s what I’m saying. I understand that my being an idiot has a profound effect on you, just like Melissa being an idiot hurts me.”
“Does that mean you’ll stop being an idiot?”
“Probably not. I’m going to be really sorry when I succumb to idiocy, though.”
Kade cracked a smile as he leaned closer and gave me a quick kiss. “I guess that’s progres
s.”
We resumed our walk, taking a moment to watch the scurrying artisans cover their booths with tarps. I flicked my eyes to the beach, an involuntary shudder running through me when I caught sight of the building storm clouds.
“I think it’s about to get ugly.”
“I was just thinking that myself,” Kade admitted. “How soon?”
“I don’t … .” I didn’t get a chance to finish because a hint of movement caught my attention.
At first I thought the girl standing next to Barney’s booth was someone who merely resembled Paige. The way the muted light hit the young woman’s hair and highlighted the intermixing red gave me pause.
As if sensing my presence, she turned and met my gaze, causing me to gasp. Kade thought something was wrong and instantly went on alert.
“What? Are you okay? Do you need me to carry you?”
That last question was something that would’ve normally set me off, but given the circumstances, given the expression on Paige’s face, I barely heard him. “I’m fine … but she’s not going to be for much longer.”
“Who?” Kade furrowed his brow as he followed my gaze. “Holy … what is she doing here? I thought she was missing.”
“I think we’ve been mistaken on a few things.” I squared my shoulders as I strode toward Paige. I opted for a brisk pace in case she decided to run, but she didn’t look as if that was a consideration.
“Hello, Poet,” Paige sang out. “I’m afraid you’ve picked a bad day for shopping, but if you want to come back tomorrow I’m sure you’ll find something that will strike your fancy.” Paige acted as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.
“Where have you been?” Kade barked, his temper flaring. “People have been looking for you.”
“I’ve been around.” Paige’s tone was light, airy. She was playing a game. I knew it. She knew it. Only Kade seemed to be lagging. “I’ve been around for a very long time, in fact. You’d be surprised how long.”
Kade made a face. “How great for you. You know your father is dead, right?”
“I heard.” Paige didn’t seem upset. “Terrible news, isn’t it? The police stopped by this morning. They seem to think he got drunk and mouthed off to the wrong person on the beach last night. I have no idea what he was doing down there.”
[Mystic Caravan Mystery 05.0] Freaky Places Page 23