mystic caravan mystery 02 - freaky lies (34 page)

“Or a social worker’s,” I said, my stomach twisting. “Did you kill the one they sent you home with the other day?”

“We let Daddy do it,” Mary replied. “He needed the practice. We only resurrected him a week ago. He’s still getting used to the new world.”

“Is that really your father?” Nixie asked, her eyes wide. “Did you cast a spell to resurrect him and then put him in the scarecrow?”

“We thought it would be easy,” Grace explained. “It was a lot harder than we thought because the scarecrow kept falling apart. That’s why we needed the real body parts to switch out. We had to keep him intact somehow.”

“What about the eyes?” I asked. “You needed only one set of eyes. Why did you keep taking them?”

“Because they’re wonderful on bread with jam,” Mary replied, her face full of faux innocence and light as she dissolved into giggles with her sister.

“Oh, these two are sick,” Kade said. “End this now. I don’t want to listen to that one second longer.”

“How are we going to end this?” Raven asked. “Are we going to let Nellie chop off all of their heads? That sounds … messy.”

That did sound messy. “I don’t know,” I said. “I thought … .”

I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence because Percival picked that moment to stroll into the tent. He was still in full clown garb, a purple foam ball on the end of his nose, and his eyes were inquisitive when they landed on me.

“All right, all,” he said. “What’s going on?”

I saw the scarecrow moving before I got a chance to utter a warning. It had its hands on Percival before he could register the being behind him. He turned, almost in slow motion, and when he realized he was looking at a monster instead of a man Percival unleashed a scream that would’ve been welcome in a horror movie – if he was a big-breasted girl and naked in the shower.

“What is that? Holy crap! What is that?” He tore away from the scarecrow, leaving the shoulder of his costume behind as he scrabbled to safety behind Raven.

It took me a moment to realize that he hadn’t spoken with a British accent when he made his excited exclamation. No, he sounded like a random Midwestern guy out on the town.

“What happened to your accent?” Nixie asked the question first.

“Wait, what?” Percival’s accent was back, although he was still flustered and the effort seemed forced. “There’s a monster in the corner and you’re asking about my accent?”

He had a point. Still … . “You’re not even British, are you?” I was disgusted. That accent was all he had going for him, as far as I was concerned. “Why would you lie?”

“Does no one see the monster in the corner?” Percival challenged. This time he didn’t even try to muster the accent. “There’s a demonic scarecrow in the corner, for the love of God!”

“Oh, I’m so disappointed,” Nixie said, glancing at me. “The only way I could look past the clown stuff was to listen to that accent.”

“You’re not the only one,” Raven said, disgusted as she pushed Percival’s hand from her shoulder. “Now he’s just a douche in a clown costume.”

“He was a douche before,” Kade argued.

“He was a hot douche who looked great with his shirt off,” Raven corrected. “The accent elevated him. Now he’s just … sad.”

“Why do you think I faked the accent?” Percival was beside himself. “Nobody wants to sleep with a clown, yet everyone wants to sleep with a British guy because they like the way he talks. I had to even the odds.”

I tilted my head to the side, considering. I could see that.

“I feel so ripped off,” Raven said, shifting her eyes to Kade. “Well, I guess I’m back to flirting with you.”

“No, you’re not,” I hissed, extending a finger. “You can keep the douche. He’s my … man.”

“Oh, so it’s okay for me to be your man but you can’t be my woman?” Kade was irritated. “How does that work?”

“I don’t even understand what’s going on,” Mary complained. “Are we going to fight or not?”

“We are,” I confirmed. “We just need to work this out first.” I shifted my attention to Kade. “I think you’re taking what I said wrong. I didn’t mean that you were my property. That’s how you made it sound when you and Luke were fighting earlier. This is not about property.”

“That’s right,” Raven said. “You’re not property, so you’re still open for offers.”

“He is not!” I shrieked.

“Oh, I can’t take one more second of this,” Mary said. “I don’t care what happens to the rest of you, but we need the Romani. Her body is powerful enough to hold our mother’s soul. The rest of you can take your argument outside for all we care.”

“You can’t have it both ways,” Kade said, ignoring Mary’s tirade. “I get the woman’s lib thing, but I’m a person, too.”

“That does it!” Mary stomped her foot in the center of the tent to get everyone’s attention. “I am not playing around. Pay attention to me!”

I couldn’t decide how to respond and was still considering three different ways when Nellie took everyone by surprise and swung the ax. I hadn’t even seen him sneak behind the tiny despot of terror. His blow hit hard and true, separating Mary’s head from her body and leaving nothing but a pile of ash in its place before he was even done following through with the swing.

Grace’s eyes went wide as she hopped back, shrieking as Nixie grabbed the back of her neck and opened her bag of pixie dust.

“I’ve got this one,” Nixie said. “I think she’ll fetch a pretty penny.”

“Stop,” Grace wailed. “I didn’t want to do any of this. It was all Mary’s fault. You already killed her. Leave me alone. Daddy!”

The scarecrow snapped to attention and vaulted over the trunk on the ground, racing to the shade’s aid. Naida, expecting it, lashed out with her magic, shredding the scarecrow into pieces as he moved. By the time he got to Grace’s side he was nothing more than a pile of rags, discarded body parts and dirty straw.

“No!” Grace tried to muster up her own magic, but without her sister to bolster her she was too weak to fight us. “I don’t want to die!”

For some reason my heart went out to her. Perhaps it was the stuffed bear she clutched to her chest as she tried to wriggle away from Nixie, but she seemed somehow gentler than Mary. That didn’t mean we could let her live, though. She was too dangerous.

“Close your eyes,” I instructed. “It won’t hurt and it will be over quickly.”

Grace cast one final desperate look in my direction. “We had to survive somehow.”

I shook my head. “Some things are meant to go extinct for a reason. You’re one of them. Go in peace.”

Nixie didn’t hesitate, her tight smile grim as she sprinkled the pixie dust over Grace’s head and watched with grim detachment as the girl opened her mouth to scream and instead shrank down until she was nothing more than a limp doll on the floor.

“Holy moly,” Percival said, his accent back in place. “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on here? I feel so … betrayed.”

“Don’t even bother,” Raven said, rolling her eyes as Nixie bent over to pick up her new trinket. “Without the accent, you’re dead to me.”

Thankfully for Lincoln, the evil stalking the city the past few weeks was dead, too. It was finally over.

Well, mostly. I still had one thing to do, and it was more terrifying than shades and demonic scarecrows.

31

Thirty-One

I
woke the next morning with my head on Kade’s chest, his breathing even as he slumbered. I took advantage of the moment to trace the line of his jaw with my finger, wondering briefly whether this would be the last time, and then pressed my ear to the spot above his heart and listened.

We’d gotten to bed late, which was to be expected given the busy nature of the previous evening. We had body parts to dispose of in a fire, and for once they weren’t of our making. We also had police questions to deflect. As much as I respected Detective Brewer, there was no way we could explain what happened in a satisfactory manner, so we left him to continue his search with a promise that we would be swift when we left town Sunday afternoon.

Melissa was excited by the turn of events, a bevy of questions tumbling out of her mouth as she followed me from one end of the circus to the other. We had to make sure every trace of Mary and Grace was eradicated. I could finally take it no longer, and invited Melissa to join us on the road. We could always use another person with abilities, and if she really wanted to learn I was happy to teach her. She said she needed time to think and would inform us of her decision at breakfast, but I already knew which way she was leaning.

“What are you thinking?”

Kade’s question caught me off guard and I shifted my head so I could meet his sleepy eyes with a rueful smile. “I was just thinking that it’s Sunday and we have a lot to do.”

“That’s funny, because I was thinking it’s Sunday and we should spend the day in bed,” Kade said, grinning. “We can’t open today. Brewer asked us not to, and you agreed because you didn’t want to tip our hand and admit to killing two little girls. This Sunday is a lot easier than it would normally be.”

“It is,” I agreed. “We still have a lot to do … and a long drive ahead of us.”

“I’m fine with that,” Kade said, rubbing the back of my head as he stretched. “You can ride with me and tell me the cheerleading costume story.”

I frowned. I thought he’d forgotten about that. Okay, forgotten isn’t the right word. I at least thought he would let it go until we settled in at this week’s home base. “There is no story. There are no photographs either.” If I had to hunt Luke down and sit on him until he agreed to my demands, I’d make sure those photos never saw the light of day.

“Oh, there are photographs,” Kade said. “Luke promised to show them to me, and he’s a man of his word. Sure, he’s a man who complains loudly and wears ridiculous outfits sometimes, but he’s still a man of his word.”

Speaking of complaining loudly, Luke did just that when he arrived at the tent and realized we’d dispatched the enemy without his help. He was despondent about not being able to see the scarecrow in action, and he was even more depressed when informed we had to pack early and skedaddle – which would leave him no time to pose on a tractor.

“We’ll see,” I said. “Luke is my best friend. He won’t show you those photos. I have faith.”

“I have faith, too,” Kade said. “I have faith I’m going to see those photos and they’re going to be glorious.”

He has a sick mind sometimes. “I have faith that Luke needs someone to cook for him, and I’m not going to do it if he shows you those photographs. What do you think is more important? I think male bonding is going to fall by the wayside when I take his sausage away.”

“You’re such a killjoy,” Kade murmured, brushing his lips against my forehead as he pulled the covers tighter around us. “I’ll make a deal with you: If you agree to spend the next hour doing nothing but this I’ll give up on the photographs.”

That seemed far too easy. “Really?”

“For the rest of the day,” Kade clarified. “I think you’ve earned a day of rest given everything that has happened.”

“I’m actually pretty energized,” I admitted. “I thought the fight would be tougher than it was. In the end it turned out to be pretty easy.”

“That’s because everyone worked together and you didn’t take the weight of the world on your shoulders,” Kade said. “Still, I know you were upset about the death omen thing. You can relax now.”

If he only knew that the death omen was the least of my worries. Still, there was no reason to ruin a good morning. We had a few hours before the ultimatum deadline.

“Okay, we can spend another hour in bed,” I conceded. “You have to help cook breakfast once we get up, though.”

Kade’s smile was devilish as he kissed the tip of my nose. “Deal.”

“THAT
smells great,” Luke enthused an hour and a half later, sitting at the picnic table and smiling as he watched me toil over the grill. “I’m starving.”

“You didn’t do anything to work up an appetite last night,” I reminded him. “You were performing when everything went down.”

“That’s your fault,” Luke said, extending a finger. “You could’ve waited for me. Instead you had to take the creepy scarecrow down while I was otherwise engaged. I didn’t even get to see him. I’m so upset, and you know emotional upheaval makes me hungry.”

As far as I could tell everything short of nuclear destruction makes him hungry. “Fine,” I said, shaking my head as Kade handed me a carton of eggs. “You’ve earned your hunger. Are you happy?”

“For now,” Luke said, glancing around. The circus was quieter than a normal Sunday morning, everyone taking advantage of our peculiar situation and sleeping in. “Do you think your new friend is going to join us?”

“Her name is Melissa, and there’s no reason to dislike her simply because she didn’t like your leotard,” I said. “And … yes … I think she’s going to join us. She’s desperate to be around people who understand her.”

“I’m not sure I’d be so keen to be a part of this group after witnessing that scene yesterday,” Kade said, pouring himself a mug of coffee as he sat across from Luke. “She went from being able to see the future to watching a dwarf in an evening gown behead a child while a pixie used her mind to shred a human scarecrow and another pixie dropped some dust on a second child and shrank her into a doll. That might put me off from being a joiner.”

“That’s because you’re a downer sometimes,” I said, flicking the back of his ear as I reached around him to grab the sausage. “I think Melissa is one of those people who like to look on the brighter side of life.”

“I like to look on the brighter side of life,” Kade argued. “Right now, for example, I’m brightening just thinking about those cheerleading photos Luke is going to show me.”

Luke snickered, earning a dark look from me.

“I’ll ban you from breakfast if you show him those photos,” I said, waving the spatula for emphasis. “You’ll starve to death.”

“You would never punish me that way,” Luke said. “I would wear you down with pathetic cries and whimpers.”

I had no doubt about that. “Well, I still think you should lose those photos,” I said. “I almost died, but lived to tell the tale. I think that is one of those experiences that deserve a favor, and the favor I want is those photos going away forever.”