Would-Be Witch (28 page)

“We need to help them,” I said.

“Mr. Lyons is the most excellent strategist I have ever had the occasion to meet,” Jenson said, extending a hand to indicate that I should precede him from the room. “If he feels that he and the officer can handle the difficulties, I’m sure they will be able to.”

“Then why do we have to get locked in a vault?” I asked, walking out of the room.

“The vault is a terrible idea,” Lennox Lyons said, appearing from around a corner in the hallway. “And, as it happens, I am in need of Ms. Trask’s assistance with another matter.” Lennox looked like he needed the teaspoon of sugar and lumberjack breakfast I’d started the day with. He was pale and sweaty and even from where I was standing I could see the dark spot on his black shirt. His wound was bleeding.

“Sir, there seems to be rather considerable trouble. It would be best if you joined us in the vault.”

Lennox looked like he was considering it, then stepped forward suddenly and clocked Jenson in the head. The elderly butler went down like a sinker in a pond.

“Oh!” I gasped, dropping to my knees. His pulse was steady in his throat. “With the exception of some werewolves, I can’t remember when I’ve
ever
disliked anybody as much as you,” I said, trying to keep myself from screaming curses at him.

Lennox grabbed my arm in a steely grip, making me wince. I was already bruised from the darn wolves.

“Let go of me,” I snapped, trying to yank free.

A second later, I was staring into the barrel of a gun. My mouth dropped open in surprise.

“I’ve got no patience left and no time. Come with me or I’ll shoot you,” he said.

“What the heck are you talking about?”

“Let’s go,” he said, waving the gun to emphasize that he was in a hurry. I stood, glancing around. I hoped Steve was catching all this on one of those security cameras because I was
so
going to press charges if I lived through it.

I went with Lennox deep into the house, then out a back door through a fabulous-smelling garden to a path where a golf cart waited for us.

“You’ll drive,” Lennox said, sitting in the passenger seat.

“Does it interest you to know that your son needs help fighting werewolves right now?”

“He can take care of himself. I raised him,” Lennox said, his voice weary.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood, haven’t you?”

“Just drive.”

My mind raced as I drove the cart down the cobbled path. Lennox had been sick before the witch’s meeting. Maybe he hadn’t gotten his bad wound that night. Maybe it was just covered up and had reopened during the fight there.

“Why did you kill Diego, the werewolf?” I asked, taking a stab.

He ignored me. I noticed he didn’t deny it.

“Well? I have a right to know! I’ve nearly been witch tartare more than once, and now men I care about are going to be in a shootout over all this trouble you caused.”

“Quiet down, Nancy Shrew,” he said. “We can talk after.”

“After what?”

“After I’ve washed this blood off, and you’ve helped me cast a spell.”

“What spell?” When he didn’t speak up, I added, “I want answers, and I want them right now.”

“To quote Jagger: ‘You can’t always get what you want.’ ”

I pursed my lips together. Yep, I definitely hated him. I wished we were on the tor. Consequences be damned, I’d have made a crack in the earth and shoved him in it.

We parked the cart in front of the biggest pole barn I’d ever seen. Easily three thousand square feet. I followed him inside, stunned to see a huge aquarium full of murky water. The place stank of fish, and the tank took up two-thirds of the barn. It was incredible. The tank walls stretched up to about eight feet tall, and there were ladders leading to five-foot platforms. I wondered what in the world they needed such a big fish tank for.

Lennox hit a button, and I heard gears turn, but couldn’t tell what he’d done. He walked over to a ladder and pointed to it.

“Get in the tank.”

“I don’t—”

He grabbed my arm roughly, giving me an impatient yank.

I hissed in pain and climbed up the ladder, looking down into the grayish water.

“Get in the water now.”

I pinched my nose and jumped in. The salt water stung my eyes, but it wasn’t as cold as I’d expected. I treaded water, sputtering in aggravation.

A moment later, a set of bars slid overhead.

“What are you doing?” I screamed. He’d trapped me.

“I don’t want you wandering off while I’m occupied.”

“Let me out!”

“You’ll be fine. Just keep away from the bars.”

The bars were about three feet above my head. What the hell did I look like? A porpoise?

I heard a splash and knew he’d gotten in some other part of the tank.

“What in the Sam Houston?” I mumbled, swimming toward the sound of him grunting in pain. I reached another set of bars. So the tank was partitioned in sections, like underwater jail cells.

Something in the next part grabbed my leg, but I didn’t have time to scream before it dragged me down. I thrashed and fought, but whatever had snatched my leg yanked it partway through the bars.

My pulse hammered through me as the thing tried to pull my leg out of joint. My chest squeezed tight. I needed air, but I didn’t have to worry about drowning. I was going to have a heart attack before that.

I pretended to relax, not thrashing, then I pressed my free foot against a bar and shoved with all my might. I guess all that Tae Bo three years ago really worked because I got free and broke through the surface of the water, sputtering and shrieking.

I treaded water, thinking that I was pretty damn tired of having the life nearly scared out of me all the time. My legs cramped, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could stay above water.

Then the thing’s head emerged. A ferocious face with slimy hair plastered around it and needlelike teeth. It shrieked, hurting my ears, and then, with a swish of its scaly, greenish tail, it disappeared.

I stayed silent in the water for what must have been five minutes before the bars overhead retracted and I saw Lennox, soaked to the bone on the ladder.

“I specifically told you to stay away from the bars.”

I made a nasty face at him.

“Would you like to swim a few laps or are you coming out of there?” he asked.

“What was that thing?” I asked.

“Merrow, from a very nasty tribe,” he said, glancing at the tank as he climbed down.

“Merrow?”

“Merman. His race is especially vicious. Also, he’s angry that I’ve had him trapped in a tank almost a month.”

“Why do you have him in the tank?”

“The scales from their tails have special rejuvenative properties. Fresh scales in salt water, ocean water, heal the most stubborn wounds. It’s the only reason I’m still alive.”

“So you plan to keep him in that tank for the rest of your life?” I asked, shocked.

“No, I’d rather be dead than continue this much longer. Do you know what it feels like to soak an open wound in salt water? And to be too weak to spell-cast properly? It’s no way for a Class Six wizard to live. No, this was a temporary solution.”

“Until you found a cure for a werewolf bite?”

“Precisely.”

“And have you?”

“Perhaps.” Lennox walked over to a button and hit it. “I open the partitions to give him more room to swim when I’m not in the tank.” He turned to me. “How is Zach, by the way?”

“He seems fine.”

“Yes, the scales work very well at first, but it’s just temporary.”

My eyes darted around the place, then back to him. “What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Despite the accent, you’re fairly clever.” He reached inside his shirt and produced my locket. “I want to meet your ghost.”

I gasped. Just like that, there it was. “Give it to me,” I said, reaching. He lifted the chain from around his neck and handed it to me.

“You put a binding spell on it, but I stole the bundle and protected the locket with counterspells,” he said.

So he’d been the one who’d broken into my house. Bastard. And that’s when he’d probably marked my house with the werewolf blood and put them on my trail. Bastard! Lying, thieving, bring-the-town-under-siege bastard!

“. . . but she hasn’t come out.”

“What?”

“I’ve done a lot of spells for calling ghosts. She won’t appear. It makes me believe she’s very stubborn and quite powerful. What spell do you use to call her? One of your family’s own creation, I suppose?”

I shivered. Even with the crazy heat wave, it was too cold to stand around soaking wet in a cool dark barn. “We don’t call her. Edie appears when she feels like it.”

He looked surprised for a moment, then tipped his head back and laughed. “Are you serious? You people can’t even bring a ghost to heel? How your family has survived all these years, I’ll never know.”

He sat down on a white marble bench up against the wall.

“We can’t wait for her to make an appearance. I expect she’s at least got a soul connection to you. When she realizes you’re in distress, she’ll come.”

I didn’t like the sound of “in distress,” but Lennox was the last person I felt like helping.

“Sit,” he said, nodding to the bench. “We’ll try some spells together.”

I didn’t move. He took the gun from his belt and pointed it right at my heart.

“We’re out of time. I’ve been spell-casting here today, so the wolves have tracked me to this place. Bryn won’t be able to contain them for long. I need to talk to your ghost so that I can get out of here. Then you can be on your way, too. When my full power is restored, Bryn and I will be able to defeat the wolves.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because I have a gun pointed at your chest?”

“If you just wanted to talk to her, you could have asked for my help without stealing my locket. No, I don’t know why you want her, but I’m not going to help you call her.”

“If I’d asked you and you’d said no and then your locket disappeared, who would have been at the top of Sutton’s list of suspects? Now, sit here. I want you to think about the first time you ever talked to her.”

I tried not to let any memories pop into my head, but there Edie was telling me to cut all the Barbie dolls’ hair into bobs, including the Collector’s Edition Snow White that was supposed to be Georgia Sue’s birthday present. I’d gotten in so much trouble.

He murmured something and lurched forward and grabbed my sore wrist and squeezed.

“Ouch!”

He looked around. “She’s not here. I’ll need you to recite the verse with me.”

I’d always sworn I wouldn’t betray my family or friends. Not if terrorists took me hostage. Not if someone offered me two million dollars and a free lifetime subscription to
In Style
magazine. Edie was family, and Lennox couldn’t be trusted. I wasn’t going to help him.

“No,” I said.

He moved the gun and pressed it to my forehead. I squinched my eyes shut, my pulse pattering. Bravery is kind of overrated, and I hoped I wouldn’t need to be this brave in the afterlife.

Chapter 28

After a few seconds of not losing consciousness from a bullet breaking into my head, I opened my eyes. Lennox had leaned back on the bench with the gun sitting next to him.

“You were bluffing about shooting me,” I said.

He nodded curtly.

“Good for you. Maybe you won’t go to hell after all.”

“Too late.” He took a few short gasping breaths and pointed at the gun. “Take it. They’re coming. Get out.”

He tipped his head back to rest.

“This isn’t the time to pass out,” I said, taking the gun into my right hand with the locket and tugging on him with the left. “Get up.”

Blood seeped through his wet shirt. “C’mon, have a dip in the smelly water and then we’ll go. Edie will be showing up in a little while, and we’ll ask her if she knows a cure for werewolf bites.”

“That’s not the question to ask her,” he said. Sweat sprang up on his forehead, and he slumped over.

“Dang it,” I mumbled, trying to get him upright.

Mercutio darted in, meowing wildly, and I knew wolves were chasing him. I ran to the door, pushed it shut and bolted it.

“C’mon, let’s get you in the water,” I said to Lennox. I grabbed him and the locket fell to the floor. Mercutio snatched it, playing with the chain.

Lennox swayed, but pulled himself upright, leaning heavily on the bench. Something crashed into the door.

“Too late.” He sagged, but I grabbed him and squeezed his arms.

“Zach and Bryn will come rescue us. And we’ve got to be ready to walk out of here, maybe even to run. Now we’re getting in the tank. Show some grit.”

He didn’t say anything, but he let me lead him to the ladder.

He shook his head at the rungs. Mercutio scaled it easily and sat looking down at us, the locket hanging from his neck like he was some king cat on a throne.

“Gee, thanks for the help,” I said, shoving at Lennox, who climbed wearily.

The doors groaned under the blows, and Mercutio swiped at the air and then bent and grabbed Lennox’s shirt with his teeth and pulled.

A couple moments later, Lennox lay on the platform, panting. “Hurry,” I said, trying to roll him into the tank.

“Wait. You’ve got to raise the inner bars.” He coughed and there was a little bright blood at the corner of his mouth.

I scrambled down the ladder just as the bolt snapped and the doors flung open. Three snarling wolves rushed in. Merc roared, and I screamed.

Two ran, leaping in the air toward the platform. I fired at them. Lennox, who looked dead, moved a leg at the last moment and kicked one, causing him to vault into the tank, while Mercutio fought with the other. They rolled, snarling into the tank, too.

“No, Merc! Get out of there,” I yelled.

The last wolf changed into Samuel, and his yellow eyes narrowed. “My wolves have your friends surrounded. When their ammunition runs out, they’ll be ripped to shreds.”

My gaze darted to the open door and in an instant Samuel was on me, knocking me back, the gun flying from my hand. He ripped my clothes, and I screamed, struggling.

Water splashed over the edge of the tank as the animals in the tank battled. Suddenly a wolf broke the surface, howling in rage and fear. Samuel looked up at the sound.