Enchantment (36 page)

He slid out at an angle. His head hit the ground first, then his shoulders. But his legs, from the knees down, remained in the car. Channie screamed in frustration then opened her door and got out. She grabbed one of Harvey’s hands and pulled, dragging him another six inches out of the car. His right foot was caught under the seat. She grabbed the hem of his trousers and yanked his foot free.
 

Channie didn’t want to sit on the piss soaked upholstery and opened the trunk to look for a blanket or something to cover the stain. What she found turned her stomach …
 
a roll of duct tape, a box of heavy-duty garbage bags, a hand gun and a bone saw.
 

Harvey never had any intention of turning her over to the Veyjiviks.
 

She held onto the back bumper and dry heaved into the bushes then gritted her teeth and fashioned a seat cover out of the plastic bags and duct tape. She tried not to think about what Harvey had planned to do with these items as she climbed into the driver’s seat and shut the door.

The keys were not in the ignition. She searched everywhere including under the floor mats, inside the console and glove box. They had to be on Harvey.
 

She tried to explore his pockets with a twig, but it didn’t work.
 

It took Channie several minutes to work up enough courage to touch him. She slid her hand into his left pocket, but didn’t find anything. She turned it wrong side out. Nothing but lint.
 

Without giving herself a chance to think about it, she reached across his body and shoved her hand inside his other pocket — and pulled out four keys attached to a small metal ring.
 

She adjusted the rear-view mirror and barely recognized her own reflection. Both eyes were purple and nearly swollen shut. Her lower lip was split and her nose was crooked. She probed her injuries with her fingertips and marveled that she hadn’t noticed the pain before now.
 

It took Channie over five minutes to cast what should have been a five-second healing spell using Chastity’s negative energy, but when she was done, she didn’t have so much as a bruise.

She scooted the seat forward so she could reach the pedals, then realized she didn’t know which ones did what. There were three of them instead of two which further complicated matters. She’d just have to experiment. She studied the diagram on the little knob between the seats. It was easy enough to figure out that the “R” was for reverse, but she couldn’t get the knob to stay in that position. Maybe it had to be in the “1” position to start the car.

The first couple of times she turned the key, the engine coughed as the car lurched forward, but immediately died. She kept trying even after the engine refused to turn over, but when the starter quit grinding, she banged her head against the steering wheel and screamed.
 

It wasn’t fair, but sitting in a dead car next to a dead body wasn’t going to get her any closer to Aunt Wisdom’s house and it wasn’t helping her state of dehydration. Channie couldn’t remember ever being this thirsty. She got out and knelt in front of a puddle of rainwater. She didn’t have much energy left after frying Harvey and healing herself, but she used what she had left to kill the bugs, bacteria and parasites in the puddle. She skimmed the surface of the water with a twig to clear away the residual debris, but only managed to swallow two mouthfuls before the taste of rotted vegetation made her gag. Puking her guts up was not an option.
 

She took the cash out of Harvey’s wallet and the gun out of the trunk.
 

Channie was a good shot with a rifle, but she’d never even seen a pistol. The body count movies she’d watched with Josh and violent video games he was so fond of didn’t prepare her for the rush of adrenaline as she pressed the textured grip against her palm.
 

Chastity’s magic was strong but not invincible. Harvey’s drugs had proved just how vulnerable she was. But that vulnerability worked both ways. Even the most powerful mage couldn’t stop a bullet. If she’d had a gun when Harvey was beating her, things would have ended much sooner and she’d still have Enchantment’s magic in her heart-of-hearts.

She pointed the muzzle at the ground and examined the gun. There was a small switch near the grip, it must be the safety. She pushed it with her thumb. The gun fell apart. Or at least the handle did. She picked the small rectangular box up off the ground and slid it back inside the handle. She never found a safety switch and decided to remove the magazine again to keep from discharging the gun accidentally.

But what if there was still a bullet inside the chamber? She aimed at a dark spot on a rotted stump about fifty feet away and pulled the trigger. The thing kicked like a mule and nearly knocked her off her feet. Birds and critters scattered then fell silent. Channie missed the mark, but at least she hit the stump. She pulled the trigger again. A quiet click assured her the gun was empty. She slid the magazine into her pocket and tucked the gun into her waist band, over her left hip, then grabbed her pack out of the back seat, strapped it on and started walking.
 

As the adrenaline left her system, Channie’s exhaustion made it hard to put one foot in front of the other, but she refused to stop. The skies were clear now, but that could change. It was cold enough that each breath fogged the air. Hypothermia was a legitimate concern, especially if it rained again. She needed to find shelter before nightfall.
 
She walked for over an hour without seeing any sign of civilization other than the trail she was following.
 

A faint beep stopped her heart. She froze mid-step, left foot in the air, then pulled the gun out of her waistband as she dropped to one knee, but still felt exposed. Her hands shook as she fumbled the magazine into the handle and yelled, “Show yourself!”
 

Channie’s shout silenced the birds and insects, but not the beeping. She focused on the source of the sound until her ears rang — and found it in the side pocket of her backpack. It was her phone.

The words, “Missed Call” flashed beneath Josh’s photo. The tiny image punched a hole through Channie’s heart. She secured the gun then sat on the ground, until she could breathe again.
 

She desperately wanted to call Josh, especially after the vision she’d had of him crying, but decided to check her messages first. Unless Josh were in danger, she wouldn’t call him. He needed to forget about her and focus on Kassie and their baby.

Her voicemail was completely full.
 

There were eight variations of … “Channie? It’s Josh, call me back,” followed by three angry messages informing her that she was behaving like a child, a jealous control freak, and finally … a bitch. Nice. Channie almost hung up, but the next message made her gasp out loud …

“I did not get Kassie pregnant! How could you think that? She’s my cousin.”

Channie’s heart leapt into her throat. She clutched the phone so tightly her fingers ached.

“… I was trying to comfort her because … well, because she’s pregnant and she doesn’t know how to break it to Eric. I still can’t believe you thought I’d cheat on you. I am so pissed off, but I love you. Call me. We can work this out.”

The rest of the messages were variations of “Forgive me, call me, where are you, and I love you.” Each of them broke her heart a little more.

She disconnected from her voicemail, pressed the number two button, and held her breath.
 

~***~

Josh picked up on the first ring. “Channie! Where are you? Are you okay?”

“I have no idea where I am. Why didn’t you tell me Kassie was your cousin?”

“I thought you knew. What do you mean you don’t know where you are?”
 

“I got kidnapped by this creep—”

“WHAT! What do you mean you got kidnapped? What happened?”

“Calm down, it’s okay. I killed him.”

“WHAT!”

“Quit yelling. You’re hurting my ear.”

“Okay. Okay. It’s okay.” Josh did not sound okay. His voice was raspy and about two octaves higher than normal. “Look, Channie, hang up and dial nine-one-one. The cops can find you using the emergency locater in your phone.”

“Didn’t you hear me? I killed a man.”

“It was self defense? Right? I mean, you said he kidnapped you. Oh god … Did he … did he hurt you?”

“He didn’t rape me.” Channie didn’t want to tell Josh that Harvey had nearly beat her to death. He was already hysterical and she couldn’t exactly cast a be-calm spell over the phone. “Look, Josh. I don’t want to talk about it right now, but trust me, I can’t call the cops.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m backtracking out of the woods until I find a road or a highway. I was unconscious when that creep drug me out here so I have no idea how long it will take.”

“Channie, you have to call the cops.”

“Damn it, Josh. You aren’t listening. He was a mage. I killed him with magic. There’s no way I can explain that to the police. I have to get to Aunt Wisdom before the next full moon. The cops aren’t going to just let me walk away and start hitchhiking again.”

Josh threw such a fit over the phone Channie nearly hung up on him. He said, “Didn’t you learn anything from that creep? Promise me you won’t get in a car with another stranger!”

“There aren’t any cars. There’s not even a dirt road. I’m out in the middle of nowhere …
 
hold on a minute. I think I hear something.”

She heard something all right. Other than the sound of Josh’s voice, it was the most beautiful sound in the world — tires on pavement.

Channie saw a road sign in the distance, but it was too far away. She held her phone to her ear and ran up the hill until she could read it. She wanted to cry. “That son of a bitch drove me back to Oklahoma!”

“Where in Oklahoma?”

“Highway 80, sixteen miles north of Fort Gibson.”

“Where the hell is that?”

“I have no idea.”

“Can you find a safe place to wait for me? Someplace public?”

“I’ve gone as far as I can go. I’m gonna have to hitch a ride into town. I ain’t hiking sixteen miles.”

“I swear, Channie, you’re going to give me a heart attack. Just stay where you are ‘till I get there, okay? Can you do that?”

“You want me to camp by the side of the road? I’ll freeze to death.” She considered telling him about the gun, but didn’t know if that would comfort him, or further upset him.
 

“Hang on a sec.” Josh muffled the phone, but she could still hear him. “Hey, any of you guys know how long it takes to get to Fort Gibson from here?”

“Channie? I can be there in an hour.”

“Even if you fly you can’t get all the way from Colorado to Oklahoma.”

“I’m in Tulsa.”

“What are you doing in … Oh yeah, you're here for Grands, aren’t you?”
 

“I’m here for you.”

“I don’t want you to miss Grands.”

“Promise me you’ll stay put and wait for me. Can you do that?”

“The only thing I can’t do is walk another step.”
 

“All right, babe. I’ll get there as soon as I can. How much power do you have left on your phone?”

Channie’s heart fell when she checked the battery level. “Not much. There’s only one bar left.”

Josh swore quietly, then said, “Okay, go ahead and turn it off, but if anything happens, if anyone so much as looks at you, call nine-one-one immediately. Do you understand me?”

“Yeah.”

“Will you do it?”

“I’m not an idiot.”
 

“Yes, you are, but you’re my idiot and I love you. Now hang up.”

There wasn’t much traffic on the two-lane highway, but every time a car crested the hill, it made Channie’s heart skip a beat. She wished she’d asked Josh which car he was driving so she’d know for sure what to look for.
 

Channie shrugged out of her backpack and nestled it between the roots of a blackjack tree. She shoved the gun and its magazine to the bottom of the pack, then sat down on top of it and rubbed her sore shoulders.
 

Something lurking in the blackjack’s twisted limbs overhead raced across a wet branch. It released a mist of water that clung to Channie’s hair and beaded the waxy red, brown and gold leaves carpeting the ground beside her. She hugged her knees and shivered.
 

Her entire being — heart, mind, body and soul — ached to be reunited with Josh.
 

Channie’s heart stopped when a small jeep-looking red car with a temporary license plate slowed down and pulled off the road. It was the same car she’d seen in her vision.

She left her pack and ran to Josh. He leaped out of the car, wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground. They were both sobbing when he set her down and cupped her face in his hands — in his
bare
hands that did not burn her skin — and kissed her.

This kiss was better than anything Channie had ever imagined or dreamed a kiss could be. It was paradoxically chaste and passionate at the same time — the perfect, lust-free, curse-breaking, fairy-tale-kiss of true love.
 

~***~

Magic flowed between them as they kissed. A disembodied voice whispered, “
Break Chastity’s curse and lose your power; watch love bloom and passion flower. For every choice there is a cost and the things you lose are forever lost. You have until the full moon sets to bind your hearts with no regrets
.”

Josh pulled away from Channie and gasped. But he kept his hands on her face and wiped her tears with his thumbs. “Did you hear that?”

Channie nodded. “I’ve heard it before. Have you?”

 
“No. Where’s it coming from?”

“The Book of the Dead.”

“We have a choice?”

“Apparently.”

“If we break the curse … you won’t be able to do magic anymore?”

“Enchantment’s magic is dead. Chastity’s magic is all I have left.”

“And?” Josh’s eyes darted back and forth as he gazed into hers, still cupping her face in his palms.