Witch Eyes (13 page)

Nineteen

The next thing I knew, my cell phone was humming on the nightstand. The sheets underneath me were slick with sweat, and while I was a little achy, I actually felt a lot better.

Brunch?
Jade’s name was prominently displayed on the caller ID.

Brunch?
I typed back. Maybe Jade had skipped school too. Going back to sleep had done wonders; I barely felt the after-effects of the migraine.

Rich kid meal. You have gossip. 11?

She’d heard already, about Trey. I sighed. Avoiding Jade didn’t work, that much I’d learned on my own.
School?

Saturday. U sleep thru Friday?

Oh. Shit. My first week of school, and I’d missed a day and a half. Out of a possible four. That wasn’t good. I had
n’t even called Lucien to let him know. While I was thinking, Jade sent another text:
11:30?
I sent a positive reply, and climbed out of bed.

It was several minutes before Jade sent a text letting me know where to meet her, time I spent in the bathroom trying to coax life back into my rough-looking face.

Jade was already pacing at the door of the bagel place when I finally made it outside. I was so hungry, I almost stopped off for something to eat on the way. But I didn’t want to keep Jade waiting.

The moment she saw me, a light went off. “You’ve been sneaky,” she said instead of a greeting.

I shrugged my shoulders, looking away. “I’m always sneaky. Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

“Just say I was right, and we’ll call it even,” Jade said flippantly, holding the door open for me. “After you give me the details.”

“You were right?” I shook my head. The words tasted strange on my lips. “I don’t think I can say that. Not in good conscience. Why were you right?”

Jade’s annoyance manifested itself with a brutal flick to the back of my ear. “I told you days ago I knew the perfect person for you. You didn’t want to hear about it, remember?”

“I’m not talking about this,” I said, hoping to avoid the topic of Trey and me.

Jade led me to a table where there was already an assortment of muffins, coffee, and little strawberry-colored pastries. “Of course you are. You think because it’s my
brother that I’m not going to get the dish?”

“Ooh, coffee,” I said, sliding into a chair.

Jade pulled the cup out from in front of me and set
tled
it on her side of the table. “Sorry, no changing the subject. Breakfast is contingent on gossip. The currency is non-negotiable.”

“Breakfast? I thought this was brunch?” Jade waved a hand away at the question, so I pressed on. “What’d I miss yesterday at school?”

Jade picked up a piece of biscotti. The hard-crusted bread was like a ruler in her hands. In a few moments, she’d probably start rapping my knuckles with it. “How’d you and my brother meet?”

I snatched up a bagel before she could say anything. Ripping a giant piece off, I stuffed it in my mouth. It gave me a few seconds of much-needed time to think. “We kinda ran into each other. He’s got this hero complex. It’s kind of annoying.”

“Yo
u have no idea,” Jade laughed. She scooted the coffee a little closer to me. “He thinks he’s the only one that can save Belle Dam from a fate worse than death.” I almost choked on the bagel, thinking she was serious, before I saw her roll her eyes. “So, how long before he asked you out?”

“He didn’t.” After a long moment and Jade’s surprised stare, I finally shrugged. “We just hung out a few times. He’s kinda stalkerish.”

Jade shook her head and exhaled upwards, causing her bangs to raise slightly. “That boy gives me such a headache sometimes. I don’t care what he is, there’s a proper way to date.” Her eyes lit up with sudden insight. “Braden, you’re dating an older guy. Good for you!”

“I’m not dating anyone,” I said irritably. “We were just … hanging out and then we kissed.” It wasn’t a total lie.

“Trust me, I know better than anyone else how Gentry can get under your skin.”

I straightened up, relaxing the muscles in my face, in my best Stepford Wife impression. “Hello, my name is Gentry, and I’m
so
very important.”

Jade giggled, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. “Someone tried calling him Jenny once, and Trey sucker-punched the kid underneath the monkey bars. My mother was in a
fury
when she found out.” When the laughter died out, her expression sobered. “So what happened?”

“I told you—”

“That you don’t want to talk about it. Remember how I always get my way? If you’re not going to own up to your little tryst, I’ll find out from him. I’m sure he’ll have a lot of juicy dirt for me.”

I could feel my face starting to grow hot, and I grabbed the
ice water in front of me. “It’s not like that.”

“Like what? Like my brother finally found somebody that interests him? You may not know him very well, but this is a pretty big deal for him.”

“So you don’t care that he’s gay?”

Jade gave me a strange look. It was a mix of pity and understanding
, but I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. “Of course not. He’s my big brother. As long as he’s not taking guys away from me, then we’ve got no problem. He’s who he is. That’s all that
matters. H
e’s still the same brother that used to roll his eyes when I invited him to high tea.”

The image of Trey sitting at a tea party was too much, and I started laughing again. Hanging out with Jade was good for relaxing, remembering what it felt like to be normal. I didn’t want to lose this.

“Is it because of your family?” she asked quietly.

It was an innocent question, but it still struck me like a slap. It was stupid to even talk about any of this—with Jade of all people—because things were so much more complicated than anyone else knew.

“I don’t know,” I said, even though I did. “Maybe. It’s just not something I can think about right now.”

“You should talk to him. He’s been almost human the last few days.”

“He’s usually something else?”

Jade was pensive, using a fork to push around pieces of her bagel.
Who ate a bagel with a fork?

“Aside from one very small part of his life, he’s not the most independent person I know. One of us had to have been adopted. The way my mother looks at me sometimes, I know it’s not him.”

“Maybe I’ll talk to him,” I offered.

Jade nodded, her lips slowly curving into a smug smile. “I knew you would.” She glanced toward the door. My stomach ran co
ld.

She didn’t. She wouldn’t have. “He’s not … on his way here now, is he?” I asked weakly.

To her benefit, Jade had the decency to look uncomfortable as she shifted in her seat. “I might have said you were meeting me for brunch,” she said.

That wasn’t so bad. I wanted to breathe easy, but something in the way she was sitting suggested more. “And?”

“And that you wanted to talk to him about the other night.” She looked away. “And that you were pretty upset.”

“Jade!” I pushed out my chair and stood up. “He’s coming here?”

“Well, I don’t know if he’s actually coming, but he seemed interested.” Jade glanced at the door again and I turned, half fearfully. But it wasn’t Trey walking inside. It was a pair of young girls I barely recognized.

Jade bit down on her lower lip and shrugged it off. “Anyway. He’ll be here soon. You should probably call him.”

¤ ¤ ¤

“Thanks for meeting me,” Trey said. The sky was overcast, leaving the park looking darker than it should have. I had found him sitting on top of a picnic table in one of the pavilions, dressed in a dark gray shirt and jeans.

“Sure.” What else could I say? Even before approaching, I could feel the tension rising. After last night—
the other night
my mind was quick to correct—everything was only getting more confused in my brain. Losing a day wasn’t helping any. “Did anything happen last night?” That was my main concern—that losing an entire day meant the hound would have really hurt someone.

“No,” he said, his eyes narrowed. “I kept driving around town, but there was no sign of it.”

Trey didn’t say anything for a moment. He was studying a little boy on the swings across from us. The boy’s mother was settled under one of the trees, watching him with a casual eye. Anyone that passed might have thought the book in her lap was more appealing, but I saw the way her eyes barely ever connected with the page. Her attention was on her child.

“Why’d you do it?” I knew it was a loaded question, but I asked it anyway. I hadn’t had a lot of down time to think about the kiss, but finding out that Trey was Catherine’s son had made me nervous.

“What really brought you to Belle Dam?” Trey countered.

I fumbled, closing my mouth before something wrong slipped out.
Focus, Braden
. I shoved my hands in my pockets. “I told you already,” I said. Trey cut me off.

“The truth.”

This serious, somber Trey was disquieting. It wasn’t helping the tension either, which seemed to swell even more.

“It’s complicated.”

“It’s always complicated,” he said. He reached out, grabbing my hand. “But I can’t help you until you tell me what’s going on.”

“You recognized it that night, didn’t you. You said I had the Widow’s eyes. Grace’s?” I waited for his hesitant nod. “The things I see are like some sort of beautif
ul monstrosity. I can pick out shades of green in a forest that only wolves see. But put me in a room where someone was murdered, and I soak up every ounce of violence there was. I can’t control it most of the time.”

“And you saw something?”

I nodded, but couldn’t elaborate. I wasn’t sure how much to tell him.

“Your uncle never came to Belle Dam, did he?” It wasn’t really a question.

“No,” I said, looking down at the ground between us. “I think something would have happened to him, if I’d stayed.”

“Something bad?”

“He would have died,” I said, sounding more assured.

I could feel the pressure of his thumb slowly rubbing in a circle on my hand. He stepped off the picnic table.

“Someone would have killed him? Like with magic?”

“Yes. Or with something they summoned with magic.” I shook my head. “How much do you know about it? The
magic.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Enough. I know what it is, and what it can do. My mother never taught us much about it, but I picked it up by hanging around her. I don’t have the gift like she does. Like you do,” he added. “But I’ve seen enough of it to recognize it.”

I didn’t have anything to say after that, so I pulled away and then hugged myself. He reached out, tilting my chin up, and stared at me. “I kissed you because I wanted to,” he said, lowering his mouth to mine. It was a short, ne
arly chaste kiss, which Trey followed up with some sweet nothings. “What are we doing about that thing? You’re going to try and kill it, rig
ht?”

We?
“Kinda have to,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I just wasn’t sure what that would entail. Or even how to go about it. “That thing’s nearly immune to magic.”

“Not entirely. You held it back at the cemetery, and you managed to hide us from it.” His lips pressed against my neck. “Did I say thank you for that?”

“I have to go,” I said weakly. Leaving was not even close to what I wanted to do, though. “I need to do some research before tonight.”

“Then I’ll come with you,” Trey said.

On one hand, that thrilled me to no end. On the other, I knew it was a fine line I w
as dancing along. I’d keep lying to Trey, as long as I could, to keep my secret from him. I couldn’t stay away from him either, as much as I kept telling myself I should.

What if this was the only chance I got? I didn’t want to blow it.

Twenty

Our first stop was Gregory’s. The comic shop was about as busy as I remembered it, but this time there wasn’t anyone manning the front counter.

“He’s probably upstairs playing on his website,” Trey murmured.

We headed through the back and up the stairs. Sure enough, Gregory was ensconced at a small table near the windows looking out over the street. “Back already?” He swiveled around in his chair, facing us.

“Do you have a copy of
Montserrat’s Grimoire
?” I asked, stepping forward. It was the book that had the legend of the hellhound in it, and from what I knew from Uncle John, it was also a fairly common tome in magical circles.

Gregory’s eyes lit up, and without giving an answer he swiveled around and started typing. He didn’t look thrilled to see me. No surprise there.

“Hey, he asked you a question.” Trey was getting angry.

“
Yes, yes, I heard the first time. My hearing is quite exceptional, as a matter of fact.
” Gregory’s fingers slo
w
ed as he typed and talked at the same time. “Two reports of a spectral dog roaming the outskirts of town. I don’t believe in coincidence.”

So whatever the wolf was, it hadn’t managed to kill the last hellhound. Part of me had hoped it would be that easy, that the wolf would have killed all of them. But the leader was smart—I’d seen that firsthand.

Trey looked at me quizzically, not understanding the connection. I sighed and explained. “Montserrat collected myths and legends from the magical world. The legend about the hellhound is one of his particularly notable entries.” Gregory knew that too, apparently. I made a mental note to pay more attention when I was here—Gregory didn’t just sell the books, he clearly knew his way around the supernatural.

“So what’s he doing?” Trey mouthed silently at me.

My new sunglasses were starting to slide, so I pushed them back up my face. “He’s using that as confirmation, posting to his Internet buddies.”

“It’s an Internet
forum,
” Gregory sniped. “One that knew you were in town only a few hours later, so I wouldn’t deride it t
oo much.”

“Right,” Trey drawled.

God only knows how long Gregory was going to be busy confirming the sightings of the mysterious doglike creatures from last night. It reminded me that I’d lost a day, and anything could have happened in the meantime. “No one was hurt last night, right?”

Gregory favored us with a brief glance. “Lucky for you.” He only glanced at Trey for a second, but the look he gave me was longer. And a little afraid, I thought.

I didn’t like the way he always acted like he knew so much. He was just some comic book shop owner. “Do you have the book or not?”

“Look on the shelves. You might want to take the fresh meat home to meet your Mother, Gentry. She was here bright and early yesterday, thanks to that little display in the cemetery. Your new witch friend stirred up quite the little magical CGI. She’s in a bit of a tizzy.”

“I already planned on introducing him,” Trey said slowly.

“See that you do. Won’t look good, Catherine waltzing around town when
he’s
right under her nose.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” My heart was suddenly racing. The last thing I needed was another bus incident.

“Belle Dam has a bit of a reputation. Witches don’t come here. Almost ever,” Trey murmured.

“Most take a wide berth to avoid us. This area’s been claimed since it was founded,” Gregory said, his eyes flickering toward Trey.

“There’s no room for outsiders,” Trey continued. “That’s the impression they’re given. A few have tried challenging that fact over the years, but not anymore.”

“Why?” I directed my attention to the store owner.

Gregory turned a sly glance at Trey. “Your little friend doesn’t know what happened, does he?”

The muscles in Trey’s jaw flexed. “C’mon Braden, let’s find your book.”

I was liking the situation even less. “Tell me now.”

Trey sighed. “Jason hired an outsider, a few years ago. The terms of their cease-fire stopped my mother from interfering directly. So she hired someone as well. It stirred up a lot of chaos.”

“And the witches?”

Trey looked away again. “They died.”

“
Don’t know that I’d call it dying, exactly,” Gregory said, his voice thoughtful. “No one ever saw them again. Hard to say what happened to them.”

“Fantastic,” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “And you get mad at me for not wanting to get involved with them?”

Trey turned toward me then, his face flushed. “That won’t happen to you. I’ll make sure of it.”

I waved him off and started investigating the stacks for myself. Gregory hadn’t given me a straight answer about the book one way or the other, but if it was here, I’d find it.

“Do you want some help?” Trey asked. He was hovering near Gregory on the far side of the room. Either giving me space, or quietly chewing Gregory a new ass. It didn’t make a difference to me either way.

Already, I’d found a couple of new texts. Different books than ones I’d seen before. “I don’t need help,” I said absently. “I’m fine.”

Trey
sn
orted. The lighting in the store sucked, and though I tried squinting to get a better look, it wa
s near impossible to read some or all of the titles. I wasn’t asking
him for help. No way. “Got it,” I said, plucking th
e notebook from the shelves. It was partly a grimoire of spells
,
and partly a description of everything the witch had encountered in th
e supernatural world. And it was the only thing I’d ever seen on hellhounds.

“That’s it?” Trey asked, as I crossed the room.

I nodded. “There’s a few others I wanted to pick up. Spells I’d never seen before. But I wouldn’t know how useful they are until I’d ripped through them all anyway.”

“Sounds like Jason,” Gregory wheezed with a shake of the head. My head shot up, and Gregory stared me down.
He doesn’t know anything
, I kept repeating to myself. “Never was much of a fan. He used to say the same things when he came in here. Thankfully, I banned his ass years ago. Catherine, on the other hand, now there’s a looker.”

“That’s my mother,” Trey reminded him quietly, an edge to his voice.

“Wasn’t always your mother, was she?” Gregory’s tone was all conversation now. “I’ll put it on your tab, Gentry. I figure he’ll be on the payroll soon enough anyway.”

They were talking about me like I wasn’t there. “Don’t think you know me. You don’t have a clue.” I wasn’t a weapon. I wouldn’t get sucked in.

Since Gregory wasn’t charging us, I took the
Grimoire
and hit the stairs. The owner’s voice chimed in behind me.

“Might want to be careful, Gentry. Don’t think the leash will fit this one.”

¤ ¤ ¤

“Are we going to talk about this?”

They hire witches to fight for them. They’d done it at least once before, and they killed each other. There wasn’t a whole lot to talk about.
“Aren’t you going to show me the recruitment package?” I said in an even tone. “I probably have some cavities, so the dental insurance better be killer.”

Trey jogged in front of me, crossing his arms. “If you’re going to ask me what happened, then just ask. Don’t play stupid with me. You’re not.”

“So tell me what happened, then. Was Gregory exaggerating?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t as scandalous as he makes it sound.”

I narrowed my eyes. “So, your mother and her arch-nemesis
didn’t
hire out a pair of mercenaries who apparently blew themselves up?”

“My mother hired her like any other employee. The girl just turned up on our doorstep—what was she supposed to do?”

“Makes perfect sense to me,” I snapped.

“She said they weren’t strong, either of them. Nothing to worry about.” He swallowed, his eyes far away. “Something happened. No one’s sure what. By the time anyone knew there was trouble, a storm had blown in off the coast. It knocked out the power, and smashed into the city. When she sent people out in the morning to find out what happened, there wasn’t anything left.”

“Maybe they got smart and booked it out of town?”

Trey shook his head. “Too easy. Carmen’s contra
ct with my mother was mystical. She knew where Carmen was all the time. She was just gone.”

“
They blew each other up? Is that what you think?” I posed the question, and then answered it before he could. “You do, don’t you? But if your mother said they weren’t that strong, they couldn’t have. I don’t even know if I could blow someon
e up.”

Trey looked troubled, though he didn’t say anything. I saw the tension furrowing between his eyebrows, and the way his jaw flexed and unflexed.

“Why come here in the first place, then? Money? If Jason’s so powerful, wouldn’t your mom have known better?”

“She didn’t go looking,” Trey said. “Carmen came to her. The same way I think the other one came to Jason.”

I thought that over for a second. “Like someone sent them in this direction. You think there was some sort of plot involved?” I saw Trey’s nod, and knew we were on the same page. For once.

“My turn to run an errand.” Trey glanced at his watch. “It won’t take long. You mind?”

I shook my head and Trey squeezed my hand. “It’ll be fine,” he tried to assure me. Too bad it wasn’t working.

The trip through town wasn’t far. In fact, it was only a couple blocks before I saw the high school looming out in front of us. How much did I miss yesterday? How much trouble was I in? I glanced at Trey, but the truck never slowed until we were past the high school.

Trey parked in the street in front of a small restaurant. The name was simple. Cay’s. Floor-to-ceiling windows gave an immediate view of the interior, which seemed to be done in a lot of green and gold.

“You’re taking me out to lunch?” I laughed.

Trey shrugged, hopping out of the car. As we walked inside, I noticed the hours of operation were for late afternoon and evening only. We were still several hours early to get a table.

Besides the gold and green, the only other colors evident were the dark-stained oak tables and chairs, and splashes of white lighting fixtures for ambiance. The layout was complex, with wooden booths arranged chaotically to create smaller nooks and crannies. There wer
e few straight lines in the whole restaurant; everything was turned on an angle and shifted out of the way. Something about the design was familiar.

I closed my eyes while Trey chatted with what I presumed was the manager. He was behind the bar with a clipboard. While he was busy, I tried to figure out what was bugging me about the design.

I pictured the restaurant as far as I could see it. Stripped away the tables, the chairs, and pictured
the lines. Everything was split up, the lines broken and twisted across the entire room. It was almost like someone was trying to break up … wait. Was it that simple, that the restaurant was designed to break up any magical acts in the area?

It was possible, as far as I could tell. Magical architecture was never something that interested me, the way that the flood of magic could conform to geometry. Something like this took way too long to plan and execute for me.

Trey came back a few minutes later, while I was still looking around curiously. “It’ll only take a minute,” he said, resting an arm on my shoulder. “My mom needed to see me.”

It was like my body went numb all at once. Bad idea, bad bad idea. “I’ll just wait outside then.” I tried for casual. It wasn’t as embarrassing as fear. This was not a meet-the-parents kind of situation.

“Don’t worry about it so much.” Trey grinned, rubbing my shoulder. “She’s going to love you.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” A part of me was dying to find out a little more about Catherine Lansing. I just
wasn’t willing to actually die to find out.

He leaned his head down, and all conscious thought left as our lips met. The kiss didn’t even have a chance to deepen before an annoyed huff and a glacial voice chimed in.

“When you’re done molesting the townie, I need to speak with you, Gentry. If it’s not
too
much trouble.”

I pulled away quickly at the sound, my body going from numb to painfully freezing cold. In front of us was a tall woman, with Trey’s blonde hair and Jade’s classic beauty. Dressed in white and gold, she looked every bit as powerful as people in town claimed.

Catherine didn’t even look my way; her eyes were for Trey alone. The snub was clear and to the point. She thought I was just some local, so I wasn’t worth her attention.

Realizing that actually made the situation easier.
She doesn’t know who I am.
My lungs began to work again, and the rushing in my ears died down. Underneath the sheer terror, there were still epic levels of panic, though.

This was her: the woman who would have killed Uncle John—and had already tried to kill me once.

I didn’t want to kill her, the way everyone else seemed to want. But I had to stop her somehow. Not to mention, I had to keep Trey from finding out who I was for as long as possible.

Whoever said teenagers had it easy didn’t really think that one through.