Chase Tinker & The House of Magic (33 page)

"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!"

C
hase 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.