I blinked. “What makes you think we’d try anything of the sort?”
“I know you, Maudlin Gallowglass. And that one,” she said, gesturing with her thumb at Max, “is head over heels. He’s the type to do anything to protect his woman. Or are you going to try to tell me I’m wrong?” She stared at Max. He just blinked. “I thought so. Get along, you two. I’ll stay here until my officer arrives, and make certain Sandy’s under surveillance all night.”
Reluctantly, Max kissed Sandy, promising to pick her up as soon as she could be released the next day. I followed him, giving her a peck on the cheek.
“You be careful, Cassandra Clauson. And don’t you worry. We’ll figure this out.” I brushed her hair out of her eyes.
“Jenna—what if whoever this is targets her because she’s my ward? I can get her tomorrow, but what about tonight?”
Before I could promise to drive up to Neverfall to talk to the head of the school, Max interrupted. “I’ll drive over tonight. I’ll make sure that she’s all right.”
With that, Dr. Beems returned and shooed us out.
Once we were outside the door, in the hall, I turned to Max. “Are you sure? I can take Jenna for the night.”
“They won’t let her leave without Sandy’s permission and she’s in no state to call the headmaster. I’ll drive up there and make enough of a fuss that they’ll keep an eye on her. I’ll stay there till morning.”
I nodded, not exactly feeling useless, but wishing there was more that I could do. We left the hospital and he walked me back to my car, leaning on the doorframe as I slipped inside.
“Maddy, do you know who could be behind this? Has Sandy said anything to you about anybody bothering her lately?”
I thought back, but most of our conversations lately had been focused on our businesses, on staging a massive late-summer blowout party for our friends, and on Aegis and Max.
“No, honestly, this comes from completely out of the blue. I can’t think of who would want to hurt her. I’m more likely to be a target, to be honest.”
He nodded, his lips pressed together solemnly. The weretiger was tall, though not as tall as Aegis, and he was beefy with wheat-colored hair. He had a scar—long healed—that traced down to his chin, starting at the top of his left temple. He was tanned in the way weretigers always seemed to be. They liked the sun, and most tiger-shifters were athletic as hell.
“Max, she’s going to be okay. We’ll figure out who did this, and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“I’ll tell you this,” he said. “If I catch whoever it was who tried to kill her before Delia does, they won’t be around long enough to ever see the inside of a jail cell.” And with that, he shut the door and motioned for me to lock it, then headed back to his own car.
NEXT MORNING, MY alarm broke through the fog of my dreams. I flailed around, trying to turn it off, then remembered that I had set my phone alarm and it was on my nightstand. I managed to fumble it into my hand without dropping it and turned off the blaring strains of the Black Angels. As much as I loved the band, they were just too psychedelic for morning.
Once the music was off, I lay back, breathing deeply. I shaded my eyes from the sun peeking through the French doors that led out to my balcony. My bedroom was painted in a pale green color—the color of bamboo shoots. The room was large, with a sitting area complete with loveseat and rocking chair. To one side was my vanity against the wall near the door. I had bought a bedspread in a swirl of green and purple that wasn’t too busy for the king-sized bed.
Artwork that I had collected over the centuries hung on the wall, including one that was an original Waterhouse. Nobody realized it was an original painting, and I kept it that way. No use inviting thieves into my room. But I had a brief tryst with the artist before he met the love of his life, and when we parted ways—amicably—he gave me a small painting as a gift. The painting was actually of me, and I treasured it.
As I was drifting in the memory, the covers shifted and the next thing I knew, Bubba landed on my chest, all fifteen pounds of him.
“Morning, Bubba. Hasn’t Kelson fed you yet?” I shifted him so he wasn’t planted on my boob. Fifteen pounds of cat could leave quite the footprint and I often found little paw-printed bruises on my body where Bubba decided to body-slam me.
“Mrow.” Bubba began to knead me, staring down his nose at me.
“You’re hungry?” But when he headbutted my chin, I realized he wanted to be petted. I scooted up, gathering him in my arms so that he was snuggled against me. “You lonely, Bubs? I have been pretty busy lately, and with Aegis gone, I guess the house has seemed kind of empty.”
I didn’t suggest he find Franny and talk to her. Franny, the house ghost, was as impressed with Bubba as he was with her, and they politely ignored each other.
“I see he woke you up.”
Speak of the devil. Or the ghost, rather. Franny was standing in the doorway of my bedroom. I had ordered her to stay out of it because I really didn’t want her interrupting Aegis and me when we were having sex.
“Morning, Franny.”
She swished her muslin gown and let out a long-suffering sigh. In addition to being dead, Franny was quite the martyr about it. She had somehow been trapped in the house, and she had been here a long, long time—for over two hundred years. I had done my best to make life easier for her. I had to admit, she was a lot less annoying than she had first been.
“Good morning, Maddy. I was hoping you’d be awake. I wonder if you can check the computer? Something happened and it turned itself off.” She looked a little flustered.
“Did you try to touch it again?” I had set a computer up with an e-reader app, and programmed it to answer to Franny’s voice commands. She had loved to read when she was alive, and it was the least I could do for her. But when she got too close to the actual computer, sometimes her energy fritzed it out and it would turn off.
“Noooo.” But by the way she dragged out the word, I suspected she had. There was no use in lecturing her, though. Sometimes Franny’s eagerness translated into forgetting practicality. She couldn’t open doors, and she couldn’t move the mouse, no matter how much she wanted to see something besides the book on the screen.
“No? Maybe a power surge turned it off. I’ll check on it after I get dressed.”
“Thank you.” Satisfied, she vanished.
I shook my head. “Sometimes I wish—” I froze. I was absent-mindedly stroking Bubba’s belly.
He glanced up at me, his eyes all too bright. “Mrp?”
“No, no, Bubs. I don’t want anything. I’m not making a wish! Really.” I quickly removed my hands from near his belly and scratched him behind the ears instead. “See?”
Bubba was a cjinn. Rub his belly and make a wish and he might—might—give you what you asked for. Or he might take it into his furry little head to twist your words and give you something he thought you might like. Or that might amuse him. Cjinns were part djinn, all cat, and they were from the elemental plane of fire. I had found Bubba when he was a baby and he had been with me ever since, a faithful, caring, somewhat demented companion.
Bubba let out a loud purr and rolled over, showing his belly to me. He waved one paw in a come-hither gesture. “Mrp?”
“No, you don’t. Come on, time to get up.” I slid out from beneath the covers. I padded to the closet and poked around, deciding what to wear. It was supposed to be warm and balmy, with a breeze coming in off the straits today. I decided on a pair of cutoffs and a tank top. The shorts definitely weren’t daisy dukes. I wore low-cut tops and liked showing cleavage, but I most decidedly did not want my butt cheeks flopping out. As I dressed, it suddenly hit me that Aegis hadn’t called the night before. By the time I had arrived home from the hospital, I had been frazzled and preoccupied with what had happened to Sandy, and I hadn’t really noticed before I crashed for the night. But now, it hit me that he hadn’t called at all.
&nbs
p; Or had he?
After I zipped up my shorts and fastened my bra, I grabbed my phone and checked it. Damn—I had muted the ringer while we were in the hospital and forgotten to turn it back on. My alarm worked just fine, but I hadn’t received any notifications of texts or phone calls.
I checked. Sure enough, two calls had come in from Aegis at around eleven. And there were three texts from him, along with one from Sandy this morning. I read hers first, given the circumstances.
i’m bored. when are you and max coming to get me?
I texted back:
we’ll be there soon. will the doctor let you out?
Then, I flipped over to Aegis’s texts.
love, haven’t heard from you. is everything all right?
And then, a half-hour later:
i tried to call. no answer. what’s going on? are you all right?
Finally:
i called again. you didn’t answer. i’ll be home as soon as i can. we just finished the last gig tonight. i don’t have the time to make it back before sunrise, but first thing tomorrow night at sunset, i’ll head out and probably be home by midnight. love you.
Damn it. I hated worrying him. I pulled on my tank top and slid my feet into a pair of ballerina flats. I sat at my vanity table and texted him back so he’d see it first thing when he woke up.
sandy was in a bad accident. somebody tried to run her down. i was at the hospital with max and muted my phone and forgot to take it off when we left. i’m going over to help out today. she has a broken arm and a sprained ankle. i’m all right. love you. miss you. xxoo—maddy.
After texting him, I brushed my hair back into a high ponytail and put on my makeup. Bubba let out a cat-sized sigh and wandered out of the room. Finally feeling pulled together enough to go in search of caffeine, I headed downstairs.
Kelson was serving breakfast in the dining room to our guests. Mr. Henry Mosswood was there—he had taken up what seemed like permanent residence at the Bewitching Bedlam. Human, he was a researcher who was deep in the throes of writing a book about Bedlam. I had the feeling that he just liked hanging around the town, and he was a retired teacher so he didn’t have much else to do. He paid his bill on time and was a model guest, so I didn’t object to his continued presence. In fact, I had negotiated a reduced rate with him in return for housecleaning every three days instead of every day.
In addition to Henry, we also had a young couple staying with us. They were newlyweds. Winter Fae, they had come up from Missouri where they had been born and raised. Once they got married, they decided that they wanted to live in the north, closer to the Winter Court. They were staying at the Bewitching Bedlam while they looked for a place to live.
I peeked in on them, waving. “Good morning. I hope you’re enjoying your stay with us.”
The wife—Cera—gave me a broad smile. “Oh, it’s lovely. And it’s so much nicer here during the summer, a lot cooler.”
“Usually. We have our moments where the sun gets a bit much, but Bedlam is fairly temperate. Have you had any luck house hunting yet?”
She shrugged. “We’re looking. We are going to visit the Winter Court today. Ideally we’d like to live there, but they are very picky about who’s allowed to emigrate.”
The Winter and Summer Fae Courts weren’t quite in the same dimension as we were. There were specified gateways that led into them. Bedlam was one of them. We had gateways into both the courts of Winter and Summer here, but they were heavily guarded and nobody got through without permission. I had never attempted to visit either court. The Fae could be scary as hell when they wanted to be, both the light and the dark.
“Well, good luck with your quest. I wish you the best.” Turning to our other guest, I said, “Morning, Henry.”
He glanced up from his paper. “Good morning, Maudlin. You’re looking particularly fetching today.” He blushed as he said it and I grinned. He flirted with me very lightly, but I knew it wasn’t serious. He knew that I knew. It had developed over the past few months and was just his way of being polite. He never overstepped his boundaries, and even Aegis wasn’t bothered by it.
“Well, thank you. I’m going to be out today, so Kelson will see to your needs if you have any specific requests. Remember: don’t rub Bubba’s belly. He’s in a mood today and I have the feeling you’d get more than you asked for.”
They laughed as I headed into the kitchen. There, Kelson had already warmed up my espresso machine and she was fixing me some eggs and toast.
“Bless you. I didn’t want to make a sandwich today.” Over the past few months I had broadened my repertoire, learning how to make a few simple dishes, but the simple truth was that I didn’t enjoy cooking. I enjoyed the results of cooking—I loved to eat—but I didn’t enjoy the process it took to produce the food. So any meals I pulled together tended to be quick. Sandwiches, nuking leftovers in the microwave, opening a can of something.
While Kelson was cooking, I told her what had happened to Sandy.
“It seems to me that if somebody is out to hurt her, they aren’t going to rest on one attempt. Not with that violent of an attack. She’d better be careful.”
“Yeah, you’re telling me.” I hadn’t really even thought of that, I had been so focused on how badly she had been bruised up.
She dished up the eggs, buttered the toast and set it on the side, and then added a bowl of fresh berries before carrying it over to the table by the sliding door that led out to the backyard. I fired off five shots of espresso, added milk, ice, and some raspberry flavoring, then slid into a chair and began to eat.
“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked her.
She poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down. She was a werewolf, but she was a domestic goddess. At fifty, she was still young, as far as werewolves went. Her hair, though, was stark white and I wasn’t sure if she had dyed it that way or if she had been born with it. She wore it in a bun that gave her the impression of being longer and leaner than she actually was. Around five-nine, she didn’t have an ounce of extra fat on her, and she tended to wear long rayon skirts, and button-down shirts that gave the impression she was older than she was.
“I thought I’d tackle the attic today. There are some things that need cleaning up there. And it’s laundry day. I also thought, since Aegis won’t be back in time to make dinner, that I’d stop at the Calou Bakery and pick up a cake for dessert.”
We offered dinner to our guests as well as breakfast, if they wanted. Mr. Mosswood almost always ate in, though the newlyweds had chosen to eat out at different restaurants. Aegis usually cooked. Breakfast for the guests was continental—muffins, Danish, coffee, fruit, and cheese. Dinner, if they indicated they would be eating in, was some gourmet treat whipped up by my vampire lover, who happened to be a foodie. But since he had been gone on tour, Kelson had volunteered to step in. While she made a mean spaghetti and meatloaf, she wasn’t so handy with baking. So we had been ordering the breakfast goodies and forgoing dessert at dinner.
“That sounds good. Chocolate, if you can find it. Black forest cake would be yummy.” I had a sweet tooth. My trainer had done his best to curb it, and I had been fairly good about swearing off about seventy percent of the junk food I used to eat. I had finally accepted that I’d never like shopping at the health food store for carob and bean sprouts.
“I’ll see what I can do. Are you going to be home for lunch?”
I shook my head. “I’ll be over at Sandy’s most of the day. I’ll try to be back in time for dinner. Keep it simple—maybe a sandwich bar. Bread, lunch meats, lettuce, tomato, you know the drill.”
“That’s easy enough.” She finished her coffee. “I’d better get to my work for the day.”
As she carried our plates over to the sink, I picked up Bubba, who was hanging out on a chair near the table, kissed him on the nose, and grabbed my purse and keys.
“Be good, you. Don’t hassle Kelson.” Then, remembering Franny’s r
equest, I dashed into the library, where I rebooted the computer. She flickered into sight as I was finishing. “Don’t touch it this time. I mean it. There, your book is set and the voice commands are working.”
And with that, I headed out to meet Max at the hospital.
Chapter 3
“TAKE IT EASY. Don’t try to put any weight on that ankle.” I opened the passenger door and motioned for Alex to bring the wheelchair around from the back of my SUV.
“I can hobble if you give me a cane,” Sandy said, looking frustrated.
“Not a chance.” I gave her a stern look. “Dr. Beems said for you to keep off that foot for at least a week. Then and only if she approves, you can start hobbling around. The last thing we need is for you to careen off balance and fall onto that broken arm of yours.”
“She speaks the truth, woman. Now let me lift you out of the car into your wheelchair.”
I stepped out of the way as Max approached the door. We had put Sandy in my car, given my CR-V was easier to get in and out of than Max’s Corvette, and he had followed me back to her place. Alex was waiting for us. Lihi was hovering around too. Sandy’s homunculus was obviously concerned, her little bat wings fluttering in an unnatural way.
“Can I do anything?” Lihi asked.
I glanced at her. “Why don’t you zip in and make sure Mr. Peabody is all right?”
I knew the creature wanted to help, and right now, that was the only thing I could think of to keep her occupied. Lihi was bound to Sandy by a mutual contract. She was paid in crystals—the currency of her realm—and was more than willing to pitch in. The size of a fashion doll, she wore leather hot pants and a halter top most of the time, and she was really cute, with bat wings and ears, and a rat-like tail.
She nodded and fluttered off.
Siren's Song (Bewitching Bedlam Book 3) Page 3
