Secrets and Lies (Cassie Scot) (28 page)

“He also said Evan wants to marry you.”

I turned away. “I said I won’t talk about him.”

“Just move back in with us, Cassie.”

I was about to refuse when Juliana rushed in, apparently from Mom’s bedside. “Dad, they’re trying to draw blood again.”

“Damn.” He stalked past me, out the door, to deal with the more pressing problem.

Juliana took Dad’s vacated seat and crossed her arms. “They’re really getting annoying about that. Dad would have made her skin impervious to needles if she didn’t have to have the IV. The nurses keep saying they’re going to do what he says but then the next shift takes over and it’s the same thing all over again. They keep saying it’s standard procedure or something.”

“Well, there’s a reason we don’t normally go to the hospital.” I shuddered at the thought of doctors and nurses having that kind of access to my blood. Blood is the most powerful link to a person’s body, and they just collect it and put it into tiny vials like it’s water.

An image of Randy Sikes, the camp nurse, floated through my mind. My eyes went wide, remembering his casual discussion of cleaning the girls up after a tumble from a horse. I gasped and reached for my cell phone, ignoring Nicolas and Juliana’s looks of interest. A few seconds later, Evan was on the line, though his signal kept cutting in and out.

“There was someone else at the camp who had access to the girls’ blood when they fell off those horses,” I said without preamble.

Evan sucked in his breath. “Randy Sikes, the camp nurse.”

“Exactly. He told us he cleaned them up afterward. I don’t know if it means anything...”

“I’m on it,” Evan said. “I’ll call you as soon as I find anything.”

When I hung up, Nicolas and Juliana were still staring at me.

“What?” I asked. “I just thought of something Evan should check out.”

“He’s getting to you,” Juliana said.

I shrugged. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Juliana looked ready to argue, but Nicolas cut in before she could. “Henry Wolf will be back in town tomorrow. Dad’s hoping he can do something for Mom.”

“I didn’t know he was gone.” I looked between Nicolas and Juliana, curious to know why the reclusive old man had strayed outside of his home turf.

“He went to meet someone on the East Coast who’s trying to unify the magical world,” Nicolas said. “Some guy named Alexander DuPris. Actually got on a plane, if you can believe it.”

Not really, although I’d heard Dad grumble before about his old master’s views on magical unification. Dad was a staunch separatist who believed centralized power would lead to abuse. The fact that most of the powerful sorcerers in Eagle Rock felt the same way was the reason that they hadn’t even formed a local government or council, though there were times when the community banded together for a common cause. Henry Wolf was the closest thing to a leader the community had, and he didn’t use that leadership often. Perhaps that’s why people accepted him. Either that, or because he was so old and powerful.

* * *

Kaitlin should have been at work when I returned to shower and change for my date, so I didn’t think about her when I threw my purse on the floor and turned on the bright overhead light.

“Argh!” Kaitlin was on the floor, attempting to bury her head under a bean bag. “Off! Please!”

Fumbling for the switch, I quickly shut the light back off. That’s when I noticed that all the blinds were closed and the drapes pulled tightly shut.

“Kaitlin?”

“Sh! Loud. Too loud.” She moaned.

I had never seen a migraine that bad, and, as far as I knew, Kaitlin had never had one. But pregnancy could cause all kinds of symptoms so I didn’t question her. I did, however, go into the kitchen and set a kettle of water to boil. In the meantime, I went through our stock of vitamins until I found the magnesium, which I took to Kaitlin with a glass of water.

“Drink this,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.

Shutting her eyes tightly, Kaitlin lowered the pillow and sat up. “Doctor gave me Tylenol. Didn’t work. Worse. Much worse.”

“Try this.” I put the glass into her right hand and the pills into her left.

Obediently, she took the magnesium, then she handed me back the glass and buried her head under the pillow.

I didn’t have much luck getting Kaitlin to drink the tea, but I didn’t think it would help all that much anyway, not for a migraine. It was more of a comfort thing.

Half an hour later she was showing no signs of improvement and I had not even started getting ready for my date. Sighing, I took out my cell phone and, disappearing into her room to keep the noise down, I called Evan. “I’m not sure I can come. Kaitlin’s got an awful migraine and I don’t want to leave her alone.”

“Did you give her anything?” Evan asked.

“Magnesium. It’s all I have.”

“Do you think she’d let me try a spell?” Evan asked.

I hesitated. “I don’t know... I told her all about magical debt.”

“Trust me, there would be no debt. She’d be doing me a favor if I can take you out tonight.”

“She’s pregnant. She won’t let you do a spell if it would hurt the baby.”

“Pregnant?” He hesitated. “Well, Linda Eagle would be a better choice, but I’m almost there and have a couple ideas.”

“All right, I’ll see you–” I broke off. Someone was knocking on the door and Kaitlin started screaming.

Tossing the phone down, I raced out to the living room and opened the door to see a rather surprised Nicolas standing on the other side, holding a metal thermos.

“What’s going on?” Nicolas asked, loudly.

Kaitlin made a sort of choking sound.

“Sh!” I gestured at Kaitlin. “She’s sick.” I mouthed the words, but somehow Kaitlin still seemed to hear.

Nicolas lowered his voice. “I just came by to drop this off. It’s the potion we were talking about the other day.”

It took me a minute to remember what potion he was talking about – and then it hit me: anti-love. I had completely forgotten. I also no longer intended to use it, but this wasn’t the time to tell Nicolas. It might never be the right time. I took the thermos from him, trying hard not to make any noise while I set it on the table, but in the dark I didn’t see my purse on the floor. When I stumbled, Kaitlin screamed again.

“What’s wrong with her?” Nicolas asked.

“She’s pregnant.”

“Jason’s?”

I was about to tell him I didn’t know when the building began to shake and I nearly fell. Nicolas caught me and after a second, the tremor passed.

“What just happened?” I stared at Kaitlin, who had gone ominously silent beneath her pillow. Her left arm was dangling limply to the side and I took it, feeling for a pulse.

Before I managed to find it, Kaitlin pushed me away so hard that I flew halfway across the room. I landed, heavily, on top of my brother.

Nicolas yelled as he caught the full force of my weight and we both fell to the floor in a graceless heap. Kaitlin screamed and once again, the building shook.

This time it was nearly a full minute before the building stopped shaking. Nicolas and I were pinned to the floor the entire time, scrambling away from falling pictures and knick-knacks.

Then, suddenly, everything went still. Neither of us moved for a long time, afraid that if we made a false move or sound, Kaitlin would explode again.

Slowly, Nicolas crawled to Kaitlin’s side and pulled back the bean bag covering Kaitlin’s face. Her eyes were shut tightly, her face a mask of pain. Nicolas touched her and muttered something – a spell. Immediately, Kaitlin’s eyes flew open and her mouth made a large ‘O’ of surprise or pain.

“You’re hurting her!”

I whirled to see Evan standing in the doorway, panting as if he’d been running. Kaitlin’s body arched off the floor, but Nicolas didn’t back away until Evan used his will to throw Nicolas away. When Evan knelt by Kaitlin’s side and took her hands in his, the pain instantly left her face.

Nicolas got to his feet and made a move toward Evan, but I stopped him with a look. The last thing Kaitlin needed was for these two men to get into a fight right now.

When Evan let go of Kaitlin and backed away, Nicolas was still glaring at him. “I was handling it.”

“You were trying to bind her magic, weren’t you?” Evan stood and took a few steps toward my brother.

Nicolas stood his ground. “I can do a simple binding spell. She obviously can’t handle the magic yet.”

“A simple binding?” Evan took another step forward. This time, Nicolas stepped back. “She doesn’t have any magic to bind! You have to bind the baby’s magic. If you want to do advanced magic, then get an apprenticeship and learn how. Otherwise, you’re going to get someone hurt.”

“Stop!” I placed my body between the two of them. “Now is not the time. Please!” I glanced meaningfully at Kaitlin, who was blinking rapidly, as if fighting back tears.

“I’m out of here.” Nicolas stalked toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Cassie.” With that, he left the apartment, closing the door behind him.

“What’s happening to me?” Kaitlin’s voice was faint, but at least it lacked the earlier pain.

Taking a deep breath, I sat beside her and put an arm around her. It seemed obvious to me now that Jason was the father of her baby, but I didn’t know what to tell her about what had just happened to her. I knew my mother channeled the gifts of her unborn babies, but I’d never seen anything like this happen to her.

“Cassie?” Kaitlin asked. “What’s going on? You know, don’t you?”

I looked helplessly at Evan. “Sort of. I mean, it seems obvious that Jason is the father of your baby.”

Evan cleared his throat. “Kaitlin, you’re channeling the baby’s magic. I bound its powers for now, but that’s not ideal.”

“Why not?” Kaitlin asked.

“Because if you don’t learn how to manage the magic now, the baby is going to go through what you’re going through after it’s born.”

A tear slid down her cheek. “But how am I supposed to learn magic?”

“Call Jason,” I said. “Call him right now. He needs to know.”

Her face went pale. “I-don’t know.”

“I do. Where’s your phone?”

She pointed to her purse, set atop the kitchen table, and I brought it to her.

“Evan and I will give you a few minutes to make the call.”

Kaitlin nodded, but I’m not sure if she heard me. Pulling Evan by the arm, I guided him into Kaitlin’s bedroom and softly shut the door.

I turned to look at him. He looked calmer now, with the target of his ire gone, but an unnatural breeze played with the ends of his hair.

The night before I had managed to separate Evan, the man, from Evan, the sorcerer, and realized that it would be possible for me to fall in love with the man. Tonight, however, I saw that the two could never truly be separated.

Evan frowned, slightly. “She’ll be okay. Or don’t you think Jason will take care of her?”

I opened my mouth, then shut it again. I wasn’t sure if Jason would take care of her or not, but I knew my family would. That wasn’t the issue. Forget diapers and formula, the cost of having a magical baby was much higher than mere numbers could describe.

“Cassie?” Evan said, stepping forward.

I stepped back. “I think I’d better stay here with Kaitlin tonight.”

He nodded. “I expected that. It’s okay. We’ll do this tomorrow instead. You can come out to my place – I’ll make dinner.”

“Okay.”

“Something’s not okay.”

“I just... I don’t think I ever want to go through what Kaitlin’s going through right now.”

Evan flinched. “I was hoping that wasn’t it.” He took a deep breath. “Look, Kaitlin’s strong. She’ll get through it, especially if you’re there to help her.”

He took another step forward and I tried to take another step back, but found myself pinned against the wall. “Besides,” Evan said, “I thought you always wanted a taste of magic.”

Yes, but not like that. Not when it would tease me for nine months and then go away just when I needed it the most, because suddenly I would have a magical child and no magic of my own with which to control it.

Evan planted a kiss on my cheek, daringly close to the corner of my mouth. “You’re stronger than Kaitlin. And you’ll have me.”

I swallowed, hard, wanting to tell him how presumptuous he was. Then I remembered Grace Blair’s prophecy and for a terrifying second, I wondered if I would have him at all.

“You could start teaching her grounding and centering tonight.”

It surprised me, his suggestion that I teach Kaitlin the most basic element of magic, but why not? I knew it, and practiced it. Even without the magical energy, it had a peaceful, calming effect. Mind over body.

“I’ll see you tomorrow night?” Evan said. “Dinner at my place?”

“All right.”

I didn’t walk him to the door, or even watch him leave, too caught up in my own doubts and reflections.

K
AITLIN DIDN’T GET A HOLD OF
Jason right away, which didn’t surprise me in the least. Jason wasn’t always an easy man to find. Even his mother, my mom’s twin sister, fell out of touch with him for months at a time. At least, thanks to Evan, Kaitlin wasn’t in danger any longer, and she also didn’t seem to be having morning sickness anymore. The next morning when she woke up, she decided to go in to work the breakfast shift to try to make up for the previous day’s lost wages.