Corruption (Grumpy Old Wizards Book 2) (21 page)

Lorcan stepped away from the enchantment which had almost reached his feet. He backed towards them.

“Stop where you are or I’ll stun you,” Andrew warned.

“But it’s going to reach me!” Lorcan cried out.

Lorcan stepped up onto his cot but the smoke slithered over it. Lorcan made a panicked sound as he planted himself against the wall to keep away from it. The smoke continued to push closer. A tendril of it reached out and slithered over his left ankle. An instant later, Lorcan collapsed onto the cot and rolled onto the floor in an unconscious heap. Soon, his body was obscured by the red smoke as it traveled closer to Josephine, Ben and Andrew. It was only a couple feet away now and would reach them in less than a moment.

“If you have a plan, now’s the time,” Ben warned.

Josephine didn’t acknowledge him verbally as she reached out with her mind to a point in the matrix of the spell and twisted it in an attempt to make it fall apart. The patterns of the enchantment compensated by creating new threads of energy for support in case the one she attacked failed. Josephine heaved a frustrated sigh. The smoke continued to slither closer and was only a foot away now. She had seconds to figure this out. Josephine could sense that it wasn’t stable because it grew and mutated too quickly. It was designed to incapacitate its victims quickly but not necessarily remain active for long after that. Josephine put her wand away and created a thin and tight dampening field around the three of them. The red smoke reached the invisible barrier and began to rise in the room.

“How long can you keep it out?” Ben asked.

“Just a moment or two,” Josephine said. “If you and Andrew can reinforce the dampening field, it can help me with my plan.”

“We’ll do our best,” Ben rumbled.

Josephine felt their meager magic strengthening the protection she’d summoned that was swiftly failing. Her hunch about gaining just a little more time had been correct so hopefully her other idea would work as well. Josephine’s heart raced as adrenaline coursed through her body at the idea of becoming a Valituras prisoner. She knew they would capture her if she was knocked out and then it would be over for her. Josephine flooded the knockout enchantment with massive power that made it grow faster. The room filled up with the red smoke in seconds and billowed wildly against the dampening field which was threatening to collapse now.

“Whatever you’re doing, it’s having the opposite effect,” Andrew warned.

He didn’t realize what she was trying to do. Josephine couldn’t explain because she was out of time. Their dampening field waned and threatened to collapse at any second. Josephine continued to dump massive amounts of power into the enchantment, forcing it to expand. She knew it was probably growing outside of the prison now, hungrily reaching out to more victims. Hopefully, it was just knocking them out and not doing something worse. Josephine’s body trembled as she strained against the enchantment. The dampening field dissipated and the red smoke rushed over them. Josephine’s skin stung as red energy sparked over her but she remained conscious. She glanced at Ben and Andrew who were barely discernable in the thick smoke and could see they remained awake and standing beside her. Josephine felt her mind become sluggish as the knockout spell pushed against her. She tried to summon a thin dampening field against her body but failed. She was just too exhausted. Josephine leaned against the wall for support.

She wasn’t sure how long she stood here like this but after awhile, she realized the red smoke was thinning and she could start to make out details of the cell again. Her mind was becoming more alert and her body was regaining its strength. Ben and Andrew were doing better and had managed to keep awake as well. Lorcan was crumpled on the floor unconscious still.

“Good work, Josephine,” Ben congratulated her.

“Thank you, sir.”

The red smoke dissipated completely and the three of them stood over the sleeping prisoner. Someone approached them from the hallway dressed in jeans and a black shirt. As he drew closer, they could see he had a wand clutched in each hand and a satchel clipped to his belt containing more. He was tall and muscular with black hair, blue eyes and a thick beard.

“Who are you?” Andrew demanded.

“I’m here for the prisoner,” the man said.

“I’m not letting you free him,” Ben said.

“You don’t have a choice in the matter.” The man strode forward with determination.

Ben and Andrew opened fire with powerful bursts of energy from their wands which raked over the attacker’s shields. He didn’t bother to fire back. Josephine unleashed a stream of telekinetic energy from her own wand but could sense that the shields remained strong. It would take time to take it down. Ben, Andrew and Josephine activated their own protection as he approached. They formed a blockade in front of the stranger but he continued walking as though he intended to walk right through them. The three of them continued blasting at his shields. He drew closer and was only seconds away. Even though there were three against one and he hadn’t even lifted a finger to strike out yet, Josephine’s anxiety mounted because his protection was still solid and unwavering. The stranger rammed right into them. Their shields flared into visibility as spheres of silvery light. Josephine, Ben and Andrew were shoved to the side while the stranger managed to continue walking towards Lorcan.

“Why are you risking so much for just two prisoners?” Ben demanded.

“The Valituras don’t leave their own behind,” the man said without turning to face them.

He placed both wands in his left hand and grasped Lorcan’s right arm. A bright silvery flash emerged from one of his wands and an instant later, both he and Lorcan were gone.

“He actually had a teleportation enchantment with him!” Ben exclaimed with shocked disbelief.

Such spells were so rare that most people never saw them used in their entire lifetime. Josephine swallowed with anxiety and her attention shifted to Andrew.

“What about Melodie? Is she still here?” Josephine asked.

“She’s down the hall. We can check,” Andrew offered. He led them down the hall to an empty cell. “She’s gone.”

Chapter 19

Josephine missed her jogs at the beach but she knew it was prudent to be cautious. Now more than ever. She boarded her car and backed out of the garage. Even without the relentless heat of the afternoon sun, the morning was warm and humid. Josephine turned on the air conditioner and as she reached the end of the driveway, she noticed the flag on her mailbox was up. That was strange as she’d already picked up the mail last night. Josephine reached out and flipped the flag down then opened the box. She discovered an unstamped envelope addressed to her and took it out. Josephine made a quick scan and detected a complete absence of magic or psychometric energy which meant it wasn’t booby trapped. She opened the envelope and unfolded the paper inside which contained a handwritten note that read:

“Josephine, you took everything from me. As punishment for my failings to subdue you and/or make you a member of the Valituras, I am alone now with no team members. Melodie was reassigned and I was stripped of my rank. The Valituras saved half of my possessions before the police came and confiscated everything in my home while I was in prison so I still have plenty of firepower. I have a new identity now and I’m going to kill everyone you care about. None of your family or friends are safe. You are as good as dead.”

Lorcan had signed his name at the bottom of the letter with a flourish. A cold dread gripped Josephine as she stared down at the letter for a long moment. She was tempted to destroy it in a burst of flames but refrained from doing so. It was important to turn this into to the police as evidence. Josephine stuffed the letter in her purse and drove to Helen’s condo. As they sat down at Helen’s dining room table, Helen leveled a concerned look at her friend.

“Tell me what’s wrong, Josephine,” she prompted.

Josephine hesitated then explained about the note and dug it out of her purse to show her. Alice arrived shortly after and they discussed the threatening letter.

“Toadstool needs to have his ass kicked again.” Alice’s eyes flashed with ire and indignation. “We need to teach him a lesson he’ll never forget!”

“You sound like a dark wizard,” Helen remarked.

“I’m just supporting our friend. I think it’s time to take action!”

“What do you think we should do?” Josephine peered at her with puzzlement.

“Lorcan is trying to terrorize you. The best thing we can do is continue to live our lives but just take precautions. What we need to do is find out what’s in your secret room. You may have a treasure trove of powerful weapons in there,” Alice said with passionate fervor.

“You’re right! Let’s go right now and take down that ward!” Josephine exclaimed.

Helen jumped to her feet and Alice’s expression turned horrified.

“We haven’t played cards yet or finished our coffee,” Alice protested.

“I’ll put our coffee in to-go cups,” Helen offered.

“But we always play cards in the morning.”

“For heavens sakes,” Helen sat at the table with an uncharacteristic air of impatience. “We can play ONE hand and then we’re out of here.”

“That’ll be okay,” Alice said with obvious reluctance. Josephine shuffled the cards and passed them out. Helen ended the game almost immediately and Alice squealed with protest. “No fair! We can’t leave it like this!”

“Why not?” Josephine threw her a questioning look.

“Because Helen isn’t serious about winning and that was like the quickest game in history!” Alice wailed.

“Would you be happier if Josephine won?” Helen asked.

“Yes, I would,” Alice confirmed.

“All right.” Helen fixed a congratulatory smile on Josephine. “Since you were second place, I forfeit my game which means you’re the winner.”

“Sounds good to me,” Josephine said.

Alice made another sound of protest but her two friends ignored her. Helen fetched to-go cups in the kitchen and soon they were at Josephine’s house standing in front of the doorway to the secret room. Helen and Josephine scanned the ward’s complex structure which was a beautiful array of sparkling gold, blue, silver and white energy. It was connected to the mini vortex of the house so the only way to overpower it was to remove that connection. Josephine and Helen studied the cords of energy weaved together that linked the ward to the power source. When they finally agreed on a course of action, they explained to Alice where to direct the energy since she wasn’t a six and, therefore, couldn’t see as many of the details as they could. The three women reached out with their minds and plucked at the agreed upon spot. After several moments, they changed tactics and sent a pulse of energy on either side of their target. They tried a variety of techniques but nothing made any impact. Josephine had to admit defeat at this point because she needed to go to work.

“We’ll stay and see what we can do about this. When we leave the house, we’ll activate the house wards behind us,” Helen said.

“Thank you. I appreciate your help with this.”

“I hope so. We gave up a long-standing tradition to work on this ward,” Alice grumbled.

“Excuse me?” Helen asked with confusion.

“She means we only played one hand of cards,” Josephine explained.

“Oh.”

“Jake’s still asleep in the guest room. Can you tell him what’s happened so he’ll be careful?”

“We will,” Alice promised.

“Thanks.” Josephine offered a grateful smile at her two dear friends. She left the house and headed for work. She turned the air up in her car since the morning sun was beating down through the windows. Obviously, there would be no relief from the unrelenting Florida heat. The weather forecasters predicted that the temperature high would be in the upper nineties today. It made Josephine grateful for modern technology and magic. When Josephine arrived at the police station, she garnered a lot of attention. She almost felt like a celebrity. As she approached her desk, Alex was eating a cake donut with vanilla frosting and sprinkles.

“Hey, Josephine. TGIF,” he said.

“TGIF,” she responded.

She settled behind her desk and found a sealed envelope with her name on it. Dread slivered up her arms and spine as she stared at it for several seconds. Josephine opened it with great reluctance and unfolded the letter. She was relieved to see it was from Mark but the feeling was short-lived. The note read:

“Dear Josephine,

I wanted you to hear it from me first so I’m letting you know that I’ve quit my internship at the police station. It has nothing to do with our relationship or anything that you’ve done. It’s not something I feel comfortable sharing in a letter. I have something important I wish to discuss with you.”

Josephine squeezed her eyes shut for several seconds then finished the rest of the letter which offered to meet Mark at his house after work. Her throat constricted with sadness. Even though he ended the letter “Love, Mark,” she couldn’t help but surmise that he was going to break up with her. He didn’t want to go out with her but instead give her the news in private. There’d been no warning whatsoever.

“Are you all right?” Alex asked.

Josephine’s eyes blazed with fury for several seconds but she composed herself before speaking.

“I’m fine. I just received some surprising news,” Josephine said.

“What happened?” Alex gazed at her with concern.

Josephine hesitated then decided to tell him about the threatening letter from Lorcan. She hid Mark’s letter and pulled out the one from Lorcan and showed it to Alex. He read it with wide-eyed surprise and outrage.

“You’ve got to show this to the chief-of-police! We need to nail this bastard to the wall!” Alex exclaimed.

Josephine received a similar reaction from Ben and was heartened that her colleagues rallied around her. Ben advised that he was assigning a couple of police officers to watch her house at all times to keep an eye out for Lorcan. Maybe Helen was right after all that Josephine really did need the work and the networking now that her powers were at their peak. Ben explained to her that all Valituras prisoners had been rescued from prison so the good guys were back to square one. But Josephine didn’t break her stride with solving the cases that came her way. It wasn’t until late in the afternoon that she encountered a challenge. Josephine and Alex stepped up to a small pink house in a medium-class neighborhood. The police had already secured the crime scene and the forensics officer was diligently working near the body.

The living room showed signs of a violent struggle. The couch was overturned, the victim was lying on his back with an obvious broken neck. His name was Ed Long. He was thin with pale skin and black brittle hair. Violent energy pushed at Josephine’s mind, demanding to be read. It was obvious that an ignotus spell hadn’t been cast here. She braced herself and opened her psychic senses to the impressions swarming through the room. Information, impressions and violent images assaulted her mind. She immediately discovered that Ed was the rogue vampire. He’d adopted a new identity but Lorcan had finally found him and snapped his neck with a  telekinetic spell. Lorcan had left the psychometric energy in the room because the Valituras was no longer a secret and he wanted Josephine to see this. He was under the mistaken impression that this would frighten her.

Josephine was saddened by the wasted life but not any more afraid than she had been earlier upon reading the letter Lorcan had left her. It was unlikely that Ed knew anything useful about the Valituras but she scanned his body anyway. After several moments, she confirmed he knew nothing about this covert organization.

“This is the rogue vampire we’ve been looking for. Lorcan killed him,” Josephine said in a husky voice.

“It’s no great loss, is it?” Alex asked.

“No. Ironically, Lorcan actually saved us the trouble of apprehending this guy. I wish there was more information about the Valituras here but all that Ed knew was that he’d somehow adapted to the bond between him and his maker which allowed him to disobey his orders. Lorcan was the one who cursed him with immortality about thirty years ago,” Josephine advised.

She stilled as she detected traces of Lorcan. In spite of his privacy screen, the rage that consumed him caused the unintentional release of stray psychometric fragments. Josephine reached out with her mind and coaxed the information from them. She saw brief flashes of part of Lorcan’s front yard which was large and spacious with a couple of palm trees and one side was lined with neatly-trimmed hedges. One of his kitchen counters had a green and white checkered design which was the ugliest décor she’d witnessed and therefore came as no surprise that it belonged to Lorcan. A large room lined with wooden shelves containing a myriad of enchantments and curses flashed in Josephine’s mind. It was Lorcan’s collection he’d accumulated over the years. The ones that the Valituras had saved for him. Josephine accessed the vision of the partial view of the front yard and saw the house number on the front door which read 4417. Unfortunately, she couldn’t obtain any more information.

Josephine told Alex what she’d seen and they both jotted down notes so they could report it when they returned to the station.

“A street name would have been nice,” Alex murmured.

“Believe me, I tried.” Josephine clamped down on the rising urge to snap at him and refrained from calling him Whiney.

“It’s the best lead we’ve got.” Alex’s expression registered approval as he tucked the notebook in his pocket.

Josephine supposed she should congratulate herself on her self-control but her life was falling apart. If she could just take care of Lorcan, maybe everything else would fall back into place. She followed Alex out to the car and they headed back for the station.

“Are you alright? You’re pretty quiet.” Alex glanced at her with concern.

“I’m surprised you don’t prefer me this way,” Josephine said.

“Does this have to do with you and Mark? I was surprised to hear that he gave up his internship. He seemed so dedicated.”

“You’re right. It bothers me. I can’t help but think it has something to do with our relationship.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Why else would he just quit without notice and not tell me until today?”

“So you talked with him this morning?” Alex asked.

“No, he left me a note.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

Josephine gazed out the window as a flood of emotions surged through her. “I’m too old for this.”

“You want to retire again?” Alex shot her a surprised look.

“Not really. I was talking about dating. After all the experience I’ve had, I should know better than to risk it again. Relationships never end well.”

Alex’s eyes flicked over the road with nervousness as he was clearly uncomfortable with the turn this conversation had taken. He didn’t acknowledge Josephine’s declaration and drove in silence for a long moment.

“I’ll bet you’re glad we don’t have that rogue vampire on the loose anymore,” he finally said.

Josephine almost laughed at his clumsy attempt to change topics. She couldn’t help grinning and gazed out the window so he wouldn’t see her amusement. The day dragged by as Josephine worried about her meeting with Mark. He hadn’t said he was fixing dinner or that they were going out so it definitely wasn’t a date. Josephine was certain he was breaking up with her. She usually didn’t lose a guy this quickly and she was almost always the one who did the dumping. To make matters worse, she hadn’t seen this coming. Josephine couldn’t believe she’d had no inkling of any problems when she had a lifetime of experience and had married five times. A mixture of grief, disappointment and anger warred inside her as she walked up to his front door and rang the bell. Mark opened the door almost instantly and his expression was guarded as he invited her inside.