The Thief (32 page)

Mom pats her curls self-consciously.

I want to run and get help, but I don’t want
to leave my mom in the clutches of a crazy magic arsonist, no
matter if they’re old college buddies. And besides, who would I get
help from? Who would know what to do with this person?

Realization sparks in the back of my head.
Ms. Bea. She’d known immediately what to do at the library. She
practically keeps the imp as a pet. Maybe she can help. But that
still leaves my mom alone with pyro lady. I look up at Destin. In a
near telepathic exchange, I can tell he’s already had the same
idea.

“
Did you forget that thing
at the library?” I ask him.

“
Yeah,” he says. Ms. Bea
wouldn’t be working right now - she’d be at home. But Meredith will
probably assume we’re making up code for bringing her the Wolf. I
hope.

“
You should go get that,” I
say. “I’ll wait here.”

“
Are you sure?” Destin
asks.

“
Well, it’s my house,” I
say. I hope it’s vague enough not to alert my mom something’s
up.

Destin seems to understand. He nods, saying
“I’ll be right back,” and with a glance at my mom obliviously
conversing with our blackmailer, he leaves through the front door.
He cares about my mom too, I understand that. She had pretty much
filled in after his mom had left when he was eight. It was up to us
now to keep her safe.

“
Mac, was it?” Meredith
calls from the living room, already making herself at home. “Why
don’t you fetch your mum and I a drink? Surely you carry the good
stuff, darling?” she queries my mom.

Mom laughs. “It’s a bit early for that,
isn’t it?”

“
So you do have the good
stuff! Any drinking pal o’ mine would,” Meredith declares. “Bring
it forth!”

“
Oh, alright,” my mother
relents, blushing. “But only because it’s a special occasion.” She
gets up and goes to the kitchen.

I cross the living room slowly and sit in
the chair furthest from where Meredith is sprawled across the
couch, scuffed boots propped up on the coffee table.

“
You can’t hold my mom
hostage,” I say lowly.

“
It seems to be working
pretty well,” she leers at me. “Relax, munchkin, once I get my Wolf
I’ll be out of your hair. Scout’s honor. Your better half had best
be bringing it.”

“
He is,” I say.

“
Excellent. Then we all get
to stay civil and life will go on. I’ll forget I ever saw your
miniscule face and leave Havenwood forever. Maybe. Probably. Well,
that I can’t promise.”

My mom comes back in with a tray, two
glasses, and a crystal bottle of something dark.

“
Now that’s what I’m talking
about!” Meredith exclaims happily. “Well done, McAbbey. What shall
we drink to?”

“
To old friends?” my mother
smiles.

“
To old friends,” Meredith
agrees, holding her drink aloft, “and finding lost things.” She
spares a little grin at me, and downs her drink.

Destin, run fast.

Camille

Bea sat across the kitchen table from
Camille, regarding her seriously. “Are you sure you want to
know?”

“
You said Gabriel came to
Havenwood before,” Camille said. “Tell me.”

“
Twice, in my remembrance.
The first time was just before the lumbermill burned. He had been
discreet then, not making much of an impression, and in truth I
barely noticed him until he returned sixteen years later. He made
quite the spectacle then - he was doing research on the area, he
said, looking for a good site for an exclusive private school. On
behalf of the Uminos.”

Camille had thought she was prepared for a
surprise, but her jaw dropped. “Working for Umino?”

“
We were a poor southern
town, and he came in waving money and the prospect of a prestigious
institution,” Bea said. “People’s heads were turned. It was exactly
the sort of thing local government drools over. He wanted my
orchard,” Bea said, grimly. “Offered me ridiculous sums of money. I
distrusted his interest and refused to sell family land. We’ve
lived here since we crossed the mirror and changed our name, after
all. I wasn’t giving it up to some foreigner. In the end, he
settled for the closest thing to it. The MacAlisters sold the Umino
Corporation the plot of land where the school sits now, and made a
mint off it.”

“
But why?” Camille asked.
“What do the Uminos want?”

“
I just don’t know,” Bea
admitted. “I’d never heard of them before they came to Havenwood.
It’s clear they have an interest in the area - and in bringing fae
and ferals here - but I just can’t fathom their purpose. I wasn’t
planning on giving them Juliet, but when I saw her...I was just too
afraid...”

Afraid? Of Jul?

There was a loud pounding on the door. “Ms.
Bea! Ms. Bea!” someone shouted.

She hurried to the door, and there stood
Destin, breathing heavily and sweating like he’d run a mile. “The
tattoo lady,” he gasped. “She’s at Mac’s house.”

“
No,” she said, paling, and
snatched up her keys.

Destin explained what had transpired as Bea
drove them to Mac’s house. Her hands on the steering wheel were
tense.

“
That idiot,” Bea moaned.
“What does he think he can do? He’s as helpless as
Abbey.”

“
He sent me to you,” Destin
reminded her.

Her mouth set in a grim line, Bea
acknowledged, “I suppose. This is a bigger problem than you know.
Meredith hasn’t been to Havenwood in sixteen years, and she won’t
remember a minute of it. If we knew who her target was, where the
Wolf is, we could start to plan - ”

“
Um,” Camille said.
“Well...”

Bea glanced at her expression in the rear
view mirror, horror dawning. She swore. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

“
You?” Destin exclaimed,
leaning away from her involuntarily. A feather escaped his collar
and floated to the seat between them.

“
Perfect,” Bea
grumbled.

She pulled the car into the driveway of a
large, attractive two-story brick house with an expansive,
carefully groomed yard. “You two stay in the car,” she insisted.
“Destin, if anything happens - ” she handed him the keys. “You
drive to the school, you get to John Tailor and you tell him -
”

Just then, the front door opened and Mac ran
down the steps to meet them. “Come on!” he said excitedly. “It’s
ok, I think, but we’re going to need a hand...”

Swiftly, Bea exited the car and followed him
into the house. Destin and Camille shared a look and went in after
them.

Inside the house, a grungy woman dressed in
leather was passed out on an expensive-looking rug, clutching an
empty whisky glass.

A short blonde woman - Camille assumed this
was Mac’s mother - stood over her. Seeing them enter, she folded
her arms and smiled slightly at Bea’s look of shock. “And you said
an acting degree was a waste of my time.”

Bea shook her head slightly, as if to clear
it. “I take it back, Abbey, I take it all back. What did you
do?”

Mrs. Dupree picked up a
crystal decanter half-full of dark liquid. “I keep a bottle for
special occasions. Even immortals aren’t immune to knockout drops.
She might have forgotten the last time she came to town, but I
haven’t.” She made a rude sound. “London. I
wish
I studied in London.”

“
She is not going to be
happy when she wakes up,” Bea said grimly.

“
Please tell me you have a
contingency plan, here,” Mrs. Dupree said. She curled an arm each
around Mac and Destin and gave them a hug. “That was very clever of
you, boys, but remind me to give you a lecture later about talking
to strangers.”

Mac looked at his mother in awe. “You’re
kind of a genius,” Mac said, like the thought had never occurred to
him.

“
Well, I wasn’t exactly
planning on finding the Ender passed out on your floor, dear,” Bea
said. “That’s hard to plan for. But there is a way to contain her
for awhile...help me get her into the car.”

Mrs. Dupree gawked. “What?”

“
Do as I say, girl, before
she wakes up,” Bea snapped. “Do you want to get it right this
time?”

Mrs. Dupree’s face pulled harsh. “Yes
ma’am,” she said. “Yes ma’am I do.”

Mac

We had to wear oven mitts to
drag her out of my house, into Ms. Bea’s car, and then into
her
house. Destin and I
had a hard time maneuvering her in and out of the car, but we
managed. I just hope Bea actually has a way to contain her, like
she claims. Meredith could wake up any minute and I’m seriously
doubting she’ll just laugh off the whole drugged-and-kidnapped
thing.

Inexplicably, Bea directs us to drag her
into the room with all the teacups.

“
What, is china her
kryptonite?” I say, exasperated.

Bea gives me a withering look and reaches
into one of the three bookcases against one wall of the room,
twisting a bookend in the shape of a chesspiece. With a rumble, the
bookcase recedes into the wall, revealing a set of stairs leading
down, and a computer monitor hidden in an alcove.

“
Got one more set of stairs
in you?” Bea asks, coolly. “We’re running out of time.”

Wiping the astonishment from our faces,
Destin and I haul the unconscious immortal down the stone steps,
cool, dry air rising up to meet us. Bea stops Camille at the top
step, a hand out. “Stay here,” she tells her. “Keep an eye on the
monitor for me.”

It’s clear that Camille doesn’t think the
monitor needs watching any more than I do, but she almost looks
grateful. She had sat as far away from the Ender in the car as she
could...she had followed at a distance into the house. I had
wondered before if Camille was afraid of anything - and it turns
out it’s a five and a half foot alcoholic furnace.

Bea flicks a lightswitch at the base of the
stairs, revealing a stone door. She punches a code into a keypad in
the wall and it swings open.

“
This is some fancy spy
stuff, Ms. Bea,” I comment.

“
My other car is an Aston
Martin,” she says.

I perk up. “Really?”

“
No,” she says flatly, as we
enter the basement.

Every bit of the room is made of stone. The
floor, the ceiling, the walls - even the inside of the door is
lined with thick granite. In the center of the room stands a cage,
about twenty feet square, also made of granite, with thick stone
pillars in place of bars. Unless Meredith has super strength I
don’t see a way she’s getting out of this.

“
She doesn’t have super
strength, does she?” I ask.

“
Last I checked, no,” Bea
says. “She may be indestructible, but she’s not
Superman.”

Destin looks behind us nervously. “She
doesn’t have any friends with super strength, I hope?”

“
She doesn’t have any
friends,” Bea says, holding the cage door open.

We lay the disheveled, leather-clad woman in
the center and exit. I for one am glad to be able to take off the
oven mitts. I’m sweating from prolonged nearness to her extreme
body heat. Bea shuts the cage and twists the stone lock.

“
Get upstairs,” Bea tells
us. “She’s fixated on you, if she sees you it’ll only agitate her.
I want to see how much she knows.”

Meredith stirs slightly, and that’s all the
prompting I need. Destin and I hurry back up the stairs, joining
Camille at the computer monitor in the tearoom. It shows a clear
view of the cage, with sound. There must be a camera planted in a
corner of the stone room. I sure hope Ms. Bea knows what she’s
doing.

“
Why didn’t you say you were
the Wolf?” Destin asks Camille quietly.

“
I didn’t know,” she
replies, “until yesterday.”

My jaw drops. “Seriously? It was you the
whole time?”

The Ender groans, and our attention is
recaptured by the image of her pushing herself up on her hands
unsteadily. “Ugh, I feel like I’ve been trampled by the post.
McAbbey, have we got any more?”

If she didn’t remember anything, why was she
calling my mom by that ridiculous nickname?

“
I’m afraid you’re enjoying
a different sort of hospitality now,” Bea says, entering the room
but staying a healthy distance from the stone cage.

Meredith glances up at her blearily through
her tangled hair. “Holy hell, you got old. Wait, who are you?” She
coughs, sitting back against the granite bars. “Forget it, I don’t
care. Just give me a minute and I’ll burn this place to the
ground.” She coughs again. “Heh, she wasn’t kidding, that was the
good stuff.”

“
We’re underground with two
stories above that,” Bea states. “Setting anything on fire would
bury you under fifty feet of rubble, trapped in a stone
cage.”

Meredith seems to notice the cage for the
first time. “Stone? That’s clever. Have I terrorized you before?
Wait, don’t answer that.”

“
The first time you came to
Havenwood was in nineteen - ”

“
I SAID DON’T ANSWER THAT,”
Meredith roars, throwing herself at the bars. Sparks spit around
her.

Bea is stock still, watching her
cautiously.

“
It might take me awhile,
but I can torch my way out of this,” she growls. “Everything burns
eventually, even stone. Your fifty feet of rubble would be an
inconvenience for me, nothing more. I am the definition of
resilience. Look it up in the dictionary. Resilience. Noun.
Meredith. When are you people going to learn that putting
obstructions between me and you only hurts you?”