Charmed Ever After (The Halloween LaVeau Series Book 6) (12 page)

“That’s what sleazy guys do. Come on, let’s go to the bar.” I motioned for Annabelle and my mother to follow me.

“I think a few of the women are checking me out,” Annabelle said.

I rolled my eyes. “We have a job to do.”

We sat on the stools at the bar. The bartender came over. He looked at us strangely. Had the spell worn off? Maybe that was why he was looking at me strangely for talking like a guy. I peeked in the mirror on the back wall. Nope. I was still the bald guy. The bartender brought over our beers. He was helping someone else, but as soon as the opportunity came up I was going to ask him about Nicolas and Liam. I took a drink of the beer and tried to make eye contact. For a brief moment we made eye contact. It was as if he recognized me. He couldn’t though, right? I still had the spell concealing my real appearance. Maybe he sensed the magic. I would have to act causal so we wouldn’t be caught.

I wanted to ask the bartender questions right away.

“I have a question if you don’t mind.”

He wiped down the bar with a towel. “Sure, what is it?”

“Did you happen to see a couple guys come in here the other day? They look a lot alike. Maybe they mentioned that they’re from Enchantment Pointe. Liam and Nicolas are the names.”

He glanced around. “Yeah, I saw them.” His voice was lower now.

“Do you know why they were here?”

He eyed us suspiciously. “Why do you want to know?”

“Yeah, they owe me money. And I intend on getting it back no matter what it takes.”

Without looking to my side I knew Annabelle and my mother were staring at me in shock. Obviously I couldn’t let this guy know the truth.

“Well, we don’t want any trouble here. They came in looking for Raleigh, the former owner. I don’t know what happened to them after that.”

I wasn’t sure if he was being honest. Why were Liam and Nicolas looking for Raleigh?    

The bartender looked at all of us, then back to me, as if he knew I was somehow the leader of this crazy group. “Are you here for the new coven meeting?”

I tried to act casual, but I was shocked at his question. “Oh, yeah, we’re here for the new meeting,” I said, taking a drink of the beer and trying not to gag. I had never liked this stuff.

“It’s in the back.” He motioned with a tilt of his head.

Now we were pretending to be with the new coven. This probably wouldn’t end well, but regardless, we got up from the barstools and headed across the bar. I had to keep tabs on Annabelle to make sure she didn’t hit on any of the women. She was still walking with a swagger. One role in the community theater play and she was ready to perform on cue.

“There he is.” A female voice came from behind us.

When I looked over my shoulder, I spotted the woman that Annabelle had wanted to buy a drink. The problem was there was a muscular guy with her. Based on the bulging veins on his forehead and the death stare, I was pretty sure he wanted to dismember our bodies with his bare hands.

“We’re in big trouble now,” I said.

My mother and Annabelle looked back.

“Oh no,” my mother said with a slight whimper to her voice.

How would we get out of this one? I didn’t want to miss the coven meeting because of this guy.

“Keep going,” I told my mother and Annabelle.

They kept walking thinking that I was coming with them. I stayed behind though to confront this big dude. I stopped immediately and stood in my best mean guy stance. Feet apart and chest out. Luckily, that caught him off guard and he didn’t punch me without at least giving me time to prepare first.

“What’s your problem, dude?” I asked.

My voice sounded so funny that I almost laughed at myself. He probably wouldn’t have found my laughter funny under the circumstances.

“Your friend was hitting on my woman.” His hands formed into tight fists.

I quirked an eyebrow.  “My friend thought she was someone else. Furthermore, if you call her your “woman” one more time, I will be forced to shove my shoe up your ass.”

How I hadn’t ended up with a throat punch from him, I wasn’t sure. He just stared at me in disbelief. I walked back toward the area where the coven meeting was being held with a newfound cockiness.

“What happened?” my mother asked when I reached them.

“I took care of him,” I said with a boastful tone.

When I glanced back, the guy was walking in the opposite direction. Whew. That was a close one.    

“Is this the coven meeting?” I asked a man who was standing by the door to the back entrance.

He remained expressionless, but nodded. “Yeah, that’s it.”

My apprehension was high as we walked into the room. It was jam-packed with people I didn’t recognize. Apparently they’d gotten rid of all the other witches. I didn’t quite understand why. Would they have their witchcraft taken away too? A few people looked over at us, but I hoped that we would be able to blend in. There were a few available seats at the back so I motioned for us to sit down. Just then the new leader, Brent, happened to glance our way.

He didn’t say anything to us though. He just continued talking to the witches. He was saying something about how things would be different now with the new leadership. What he meant by that, I had no idea. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like whatever it was. The change definitely wouldn’t be for the good. If there was any way to stop them I was going to do it.

Annabelle and my mother fidgeted in the chairs beside me. I knew they were nervous too.

Maybe this was a bad idea, but I did it anyway. I raised my hand and captured the attention of everyone in the room, including the coven leader.

Brent motioned toward me. “Yes?”

“Will the new leader of the Underworld be at the meeting tonight?” I asked. It was the only thing I could think of, but probably not the best question.

“No, she won’t be here tonight. She’s at LaVeau Manor,” he said, looking at me as if I should have known this. “Do you have any other questions?”

I shook my head. “No, that’s it.”

I was still talking with my male voice, of course. I thought I was doing a pretty darn good job of fooling everyone.

My mother glanced at me and her eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open. Something felt different now. Brent looked at me strangely. Suddenly, the room was all a-chatter. What was happening? My heart thumped and my stomach flipped. Something was definitely wrong.

“What are you doing here?” His nostrils flared and his veins popped out on the side of his temples. When I looked at my mother again, she was herself. Annabelle’s appearance was back to normal too. The spell was broken and now we were in the middle of this room with all of the witches. Our true identity had been revealed. We were in big trouble now. It looked as if it was time for us to get out of there. I guessed our odds of escaping were pretty slim though.

“Run,” I yelled as I jumped up from the chair. I helped my mother, practically pushing her toward the door.

“Stop them,” Brent yelled.

Suddenly arms stretched out toward us from every direction, reaching out to grab us. Someone made contact with the back of my shirt, but I managed to yank away. We had broken free from the back room now and were in the main part of the bar again. The space seemed a whole lot bigger than when we first entered. The door seemed a million miles away. People at the bar and around the room didn’t seem to notice us at first, but when we ran through the room with a bunch of other people running behind us it became apparent that something was wrong. My mother stumbled and I yanked her arm, practically throwing her out the door. Now we were back on the sidewalk.

“Get in the car,” I screamed.

I jumped in the backseat, lying down as my mother took off away from the curb. I couldn’t believe we’d gotten away. Her crazy driving skills left me clinging to the seat, trying not to be flung around like a t shirt in a washing machine.

After a couple more minutes, I asked, “Is it safe to sit up yet?”

“I don’t see anyone following us,” my mother said.

I leaned up in the seat and looked out the back window. How would we know if someone was following us?

After getting out of town, we decided to head back to LaVeau Manor. Brent had said Monique was there, so if I wanted to know more, I would have to go directly to the source. I wasn’t sure what we would do once we got there. Apparently, I never had a plan. There was more to Monique than she was letting me know and I had to find out.

The closer we came to the manor the more anxious I became. The place used to feel like home, but now I was just confused.

We were almost to the gated entrance.

“What should we do now?” my mother asked.

“I wouldn’t recommend pulling into the driveway,” Annabelle said. “That didn’t work out well the last time we did it.”

“I think she would do more than call the police this time,” my mother said.

“We should just wait outside for a while. See what she does,” I said.

“Maybe she never leaves the place after sunset,” my mother said.

“That would be a problem. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to watch the place for a little bit. If she doesn’t make a move in an hour or so we could think of another plan,” I said. “Go down just a bit and turn around.”

“Headed that way.” My mother punched the gas pedal.

“There’s a place on the side of the road where we can pull off. It would be down just enough that we can still see if anyone comes or goes.”

“Will she see us?” Annabelle asked.

“I don’t think so. It’s far enough away that she probably wouldn’t think to even look down that way. And since it’s going away from town, I doubt she would turn that way if she left, so we don’t have to worry about her catching us that way,” I said.

It all sounded good in my mind, but I didn’t know if it would work that way in reality. The crickets chirped around us. No other cars passed. It was desolate and spooky. The moon peeked out from behind the gray clouds. If she came up behind the car out of nowhere we would all freak out. Needless to say, my anxiety was high.

“Look, there’s a car leaving.” My mother pointed.

The black car pulled out of the driveway and headed in the opposite direction. It looked just like the one we’d seen before, but I couldn’t be sure that it was the same one. I hadn’t gotten a good enough look at the car earlier since we’d been too far away. I wondered if they’d seen us sitting there. Surely they would have pulled up and confronted us if they’d seen us. Unless they just liked playing a game of cat and mouse.  

“What should we do?” my mother asked.

“We need to follow them,” I said.

My mother started the car and shifted it into gear. “If you say so.”

Sure, I had my doubts, but I was willing to give it a try.

My mother took off. “I hope she doesn’t realize that we’re following her.”

“She deserves it after following us like that earlier,” I said.

“How do we even know she’s in the car?” Annabelle asked.

“I guess we won’t know for sure. Maybe we can get close enough. I have a feeling she’s in there,” I said.

“If we can get close enough then maybe we can see her in the car,” Annabelle said.

“Sure, but then she’ll be able to see us,” my mother said.

“They’re going into town,” I said.

It made me nervous to think that they might know we were following them. There was no telling where they would lead us to. We made a couple turns, trying to stay at a safe distance so they wouldn’t notice. Finally, they slowed down and then turned into the parking lot.

“I think they’re going to the Bubbling Cauldron,” I said.

“What should we do now?” my mother asked.

“Find a parking space and we’ll go in too.”

“Uh-oh, I hope this doesn’t end badly,” Annabelle said.

“It’ll be okay, I promise.”

The Bubbling Cauldron was the go-to nightclub for all the witches in Enchantment Pointe. I hadn’t been since losing my leader position. I hadn’t exactly felt like socializing. My mother parked the car along the street on the other side. We watched as Monique got out of the car with another dark-haired man. I’d never seen him before. Maybe that was the new Enchantment Pointe leader. I eyed the man up and down. It made me furious that he’d taken Nicolas’ job. We watched as they went into the bar.

I wasn’t much for the night club scene, but occasionally I liked to let loose and dance.

My other sat up in the seat. “Can we dance tonight? I want to get my groove on.”

Annabelle’s mouth dropped.

“I don’t think we have time for any grooving tonight,” I said.

Annabelle snickered.

“Maybe some other time,” my mother said.

“Yeah, some other time.” I looked back at Annabelle and mouthed, “No way.”

“I guess it’s safe for us to go in now,” I said.

“I’m not really dressed for a nightclub.” My mother checked her reflection in the rear-view mirror.

“I think it’s safe to say we all look like hell. At least I’m no longer a man,” I said.

My mother and Annabelle laughed as we got out of the car.

“Glad to know I’m still providing amusement for you all,” I said with a laugh.

It was the first time I’d laughed in a long time and it didn’t last long.

I had no idea what we would do once we got inside. I hoped it didn’t turn into some kind of huge embarrassing scene. But we were going to sort this out once and for all.

There was a small line when we reached the front entrance. We were the last in that line. No one waiting outside seemed to recognize me. Not that I thought they should. It seemed like many years since I’d been the leader.

I shifted from foot to foot. “I’m exhausted.”

“Me too.” My mother rubbed her back.

It had been a long day and I was no closer to locating Nicolas or Liam. The longer they were gone the harder it would be to find them. Finally, the line moved and we were at the door. The muscular man held his arm out, stopping us from entering.