by Amy Boyles
“I think I may have figured out how to help Princess. But we need the vampire, and unless we can get Princess to tell us who it is, then we won’t be able to help.”
A ray of hope shot through me. “Donovan’s working on a way to separate her from the rest of the bats so we can catch her.”
A dark look slashed across Axel’s handsome features. “The main thing I’m going to need is blood from Princess and the vampire.”
Bile crept up the back of my throat. “Uh. That involves way too many bodily fluids for me.”
He chuckled. “That’s how some of my magic works. I need organic material, and blood is the strongest of all.” He crossed to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “I know of other bodily fluids that you exchange and have no problem with.”
I cocked a brow. “I assume you mean saliva.”
“I do.”
He kissed me, and I melted into him, letting some of the tension dissolve from my shoulders.
When we parted, I said, “That exchange wasn’t so bad.”
“I didn’t think so,” Axel murmured as he nuzzled my ear.
I pressed my fingers onto his chest. “Okay there, boy. This is a public place.”
He backed away, gesturing wide in surrender. “You got me there. I’ll run a background for Rock, see what we come up with. I’ll let you know tonight what I found out.”
“Sounds great,” I said, admiring his straight jaw, the masculine line of his shoulders and the soft tuft of dark hair that sprouted at the top of his chest.
Axel left and I started locking up the store. I stashed Rock’s wallet under the counter and decided that if he came back, I’d simply tell him it fell from his pocket and I didn’t notice until after he’d gone.
When the animals finally quieted down, one of the parrots chirped, Where’s Donovan?
My heart lurched a little. The animals hadn’t mentioned him really, but I knew some of them had to miss my uncle. After all, I’d inherited most of the creatures, which meant many of them knew Donovan and had bonded with him.
“He’s out but will be back soon.”
The parrot stared at me, unblinking in a way that made me feel bad—like I was lying to the bird or something. “He misses y’all, too,” I added quickly.
The animals didn’t say another word about Donovan, which was a relief. I didn’t want to explain why my uncle hadn’t been around much, and to be honest, I didn’t know. I thought that Donovan would’ve missed the animals and wanted to see them, pet them, simply be in their presence.
But he hadn’t done any of those things.
I brushed my hands as if cleaning off the dirt from the day, locked up and headed home with Hugo on his leash.
When I got to the house, I found Betty stirring the cauldron in the hearth.
“Smells like stew,” I said.
“And cornbread,” she added. “A hearty meal for the work we have to do tonight.”
“Where’s Donovan?”
“On the back porch.”
I found him there reading a notepad in his lap. “I think the animals miss you.”
He glanced at me. “They do?”
I sank into a wicker chair. “They asked about you today.”
“Hmm. They’re good creatures.” He pushed his glasses up his nose. “When I first went into hiding, I didn’t know what I was going to do with myself. I thought if I didn’t have animals to feed and bins to clean that I might go crazy. But after a while I got used to it. I moved around a lot, trying to make sure I was staying ahead of Johnny Utah.”
“Until the margarita incident,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “Until that. But the truth is, I didn’t practice my magic while I was out in the world.”
I frowned. “You didn’t?”
He wagged a finger at me. “No, because I never knew who was watching and waiting. If Johnny hired a witch or wizard to spy on me, then by using my magic, I might be giving them my location.”
“Which is what happened when you stepped inside Magnolia Cove.”
“That it did.”
“So where did you stay?”
“Witchama City Beach.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s the witch version of Panama City Beach.”
I nodded appreciatively. “Oh.”
He rolled his shoulders back. “It’s easy to disappear down there. So many magical creatures vacation there, all I had to do was put on a tropical shirt and a pair of beige shorts and I looked exactly like everyone else.”
I laughed. “Sounds like an interesting place.”
“Oh, it is. Worth visiting at least once. There are lots of amazing water sports to take part in. It’s almost as easy to disappear there as it is Witch Vegas, and at least that city offers lots of shows.”
I smiled. “This, I know. Betty hired Barry the Dragon Tamer to come and help with Hugo when he was first hatched.”
His eyebrows shot up. “She did?”
I shrugged. “I had no idea what to do with a dragon.”
“They’re kind of like dogs.”
“Except they eat live animals like mice.”
He nodded as if embarrassed. “You get used to it, and when he gets bigger, he’ll hunt on his own.”
My stomach turned at the thought. “By then he’ll be big enough to eat household pets.”
Donovan shook his head. “No. Just feed him some steak and he’ll keep to the small stuff.”
I frowned. “Are you sure?”
“I mean, he might require a side of beef every now and then.”
I raised a hand in a gesture for him to stop. “I’ll think about that when I get there.”
“Okay, understood.” Donovan paused and glanced down at the pad. “I’ve been going over the plans for tonight.”
“Oh?”
Donovan scratched his head. “The whole point is to get Princess to leave the pull of the other bats and come to us.”
“Okay.”
“So she needs to, firstly, trust us, and secondly, she needs to believe we have something she wants.”
I moved to sit beside him on the couch. “So how do we do those things?”
“Well, the first thing that needs to happen is to establish the trust. Since you connected with her last night, you’ll need to be the person to do that.”
I balked. “Me?”
He nodded.
“No pressure there,” I said, fumbling to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear.
Donovan squeezed my shoulder in a fatherly sort of way. “You’ll be great. Remember, you already have a bond with Princess. It’s weak but it exits. Your job will be to strengthen it. I know you can do it.”
I pressed a finger between my brows, smoothing out the worry wrinkle that had formed because y’all, I did not need premature wrinkles. “But how am I supposed to strengthen the bond?”
“Talk to her. Ease her into conversation.”
“This is a bat we’re talking about,” I reminded him.
“But she’s still human at heart. That’s what you need to focus on.”
I exhaled a shot of air. “Okay. So once the bond is nice and tight, what happens next?”
Donovan coughed into his hand. “Then we have to convince her we have something she wants.”
I scoffed. “The thing she wants most is that vampire.”
Donovan was silent.
I stared at him. “Are you saying we’re going to tell Princess that we have the vampire?”
He bobbed his head back and forth. “Only to get her to come to us.”
“But then she won’t trust us anymore,” I said. “All that trust will be broken.”
He shrugged. “By then we’ll have Princess in a cage and will tell her we need help identifying the vampire.”
I sank back onto the cushion. This was so many kinds of wrong. “I don’t know. That seems sneaky.”
He pulled off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Donovan blink
ed and then held my gaze in a way that caused a knot to form in my throat.
“Pepper, what we’re doing is for Princess. You can’t forget that. How much time does she have left before the transformation is complete and there’s no going back?”
I sighed. “I know… It’s just, I don’t want to lie, and if I were her, I wouldn’t want to be lied to. I’d want to know the truth up front. That’s how I like to be dealt with, and I figure most other folks do, too.”
Donovan smiled. “Your father raised you right. I wasn’t happy that he didn’t introduce you to us, but he did a good job with you. You’re a great person, Pepper.” He rubbed his thighs. “All right. We’re honest with Princess. The only problem with that is her bat brain probably has a lot of influence. It’ll be harder to wean her from the flock and get her to join us. But we have to if we’re going to break the spell.”
I tapped my foot on the tile floor. “Don’t you think that’ll be enough? If we just tell Princess we want to help break the curse and free her?”
“It might be,” he said, smiling. “We’ll simply have to try and see. If it’s not, we go back to square one.” He fixed his oval glasses on his nose. “Oh, and there’s one more thing you need to know about the bat.”
“What is it?”
The doorbell rang. Both of us turned our heads toward the inside of the house.
I glanced at my watch. “It’s too early for Axel to be here.”
Curious, we entered the main part of the house. Cordelia stood at the front door and held it open for Garrick Young. My shoulders slackened. He was probably here to take Cordelia on a date.
Only Garrick wore his police uniform. He wouldn’t be wearing that on a night off. His gaze flickered from hers to Donovan and me.
There was something dark in Garrick’s eyes. Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t a social call.
His boots hit the wooden floor hard. Garrick thumbed his belt, glanced at Donovan. “Mr. Craple, I’m afraid you need to come with me.”
“Why’s that, Sheriff?” Betty said, boobing herself into his path.
Garrick shuffled his feet as if embarrassed. “I’m afraid I need to discuss that with Donovan.”
My uncle opened his hands. “Whatever you need to say, you can say in front of my family.”
Garrick pinched the brim of his hat and slipped his fingers down one side. “I’m afraid I need you to come down to the station for questioning in the death of Carl Carlsburg.”
Donovan shook his head. “I don’t understand. Am I under arrest?”
“Not yet,” Garrick said, “but the way things are looking, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
FOURTEEN
“Apparently they found a chunk of cobalt in Donovan’s house,” Betty said at dinner.
I quirked a brow. “You mean the house that he hasn’t been staying at?”
Cordelia rolled her eyes. “I know Garrick feels badly about taking Donovan to the station.”
“Because you’re dating?” Amelia quipped.
Cordelia shot her a look full of fire-burning daggers. “Yes, that would be why.”
“So what’s the big deal about cobalt?” I said.
Betty poured gravy on a piece of country fried steak. “Cobalt was used to kill Carl. It wasn’t the lightning that did it, though that’s how it first appeared. Carl was shot with a charge of cobalt. Apparently it was a small incision from a custom gun. Took ’em a while to figure it out, but now the police know. Smart coppers for once.”
“And why does Donovan have it?” I said.
“He sometimes used it in spells,” Betty said.
“The problem is that it’s not a common element,” Cordelia said. “It’s used in technology, but very rarely by us magical folks.”
I studied my cousin. Her pinched face didn’t reveal much in the way of hints as to what was going on, but I had a sneaking suspicion she knew more than she was saying.
“And what else has Garrick told you?” I said.
“Nothing.” Cordelia tucked a strand of hair behind an ear. “He hasn’t said anything. I just know it’s not common to own the stuff. I don’t know of any witches who have it, do you?” she said to Betty.
“Only Donovan,” my grandmother answered.
“But why?” I said.
“Because Donovan said it helped him communicate with animals better.”
I poked my mashed potatoes and stared at the plate of food. I didn’t know why I’d even made a plate, because I didn’t have an appetite.
“But why would Donovan need help communicating with animals?” I said. “He’s the master, right? Even you said that when we were voting who would communicate with Princess.”
Betty didn’t say anything.
Amelia pointed a butter knife at her. “You’re keeping secrets.”
“Some secrets are supposed to stay secrets,” Betty grumbled.
“And some secrets are supposed to be broken,” Amelia said.
“That’s promises,” Cordelia said, rolling her eyes. “Promises are made to be broken. Secrets are meant to be kept.”
“Where?” Amelia said.
“Locked in your heart, away from prying eyes.”
“But people can’t see secrets,” Amelia said.
Cordelia shook her head. “I give up.”
“Betty,” I said, pulling the conversation back. “What secret are you keeping of Donovan’s?”
Her gaze darted to her plate. “I’m not.”
“Yes, you are,” Cordelia said.
Amelia flared her arms. “I know! I’ve got it. Donovan can’t communicate with animals because of a freak accident that involved toxic waste—like in all those superhero movies.”
Betty rose, took her plate to the fire and pitched the uneaten food into the blaze. Hugo’s ears perked up, and he whined at seeing a potential meal burn up.
“I’ve already said more than I should,” Betty said.
I sank back in the chair and drummed my fingers on the armrests. “But he does have a problem communicating with animals, doesn’t he?”
Betty sighed and sat in her rocking chair. “I suppose since y’all nosy rosies guessed it, I can go ahead and tell you.”
“Yes, please do,” I said, leaving the table to join her in the living room.
When the four of us were seated comfortably, Betty lit her pipe and took a long puff.
“The trouble started not long before Donovan faked his own death. His powers started flickering, waning. I’d never seen anything like it before and told Donovan so when he came to me about it. He’d try to work a spell, and the magic would fizzle and dissolve like bubbles bursting. His spells simply wouldn’t hold.”
She paused, and I took a moment to butt in. “What about his ability to communicate with animals? Was that the main power affected?”
Betty sucked hard on the pipe, releasing a plume of smoke in the air that transformed into the image of a cat. “It was the first thing to go. He said he couldn’t match as well as he used to be able to. I’d read that cobalt could enhance certain traits and recommended he buy some, keep it with him. He did, but he also kept a chunk in his house.”
“That’s the piece they found,” Amelia said.
“Obviously. We’ve already established that,” Cordelia said.
“You don’t have to say it so snotty.”
Cordelia looked at her. “If just once you would think before you spoke, you wouldn’t ask questions that have obvious answers.”
“It wasn’t obvious to me until I said it.”
Cordelia threw up her hands. “Case in point.”
I cleared my throat to stop my cousins before they killed each other. “Okay, so the cops found cobalt in Donovan’s house, but there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. It’s not rare, is it?”
“Very,” Betty said.
“Oh, well that’s a problem,” I said. I glanced from my cousins to Betty. “I guess this just means we’ve got to do a b
ang-up job of freeing Princess to hopefully solve this thing and somehow find a way to get Uncle Donovan off the hook.”
“Whew,” Amelia said. “I’m exhausted just listening to you.”
I rose and stretched. “Axel should be here soon. Let’s get dressed. We’ve got a Princess to snare.”
By the time Axel arrived, we were all decked out in black. Even Betty, who wore a black cap to cover her silver curls.
“Are we breaking and entering?” Axel said, eyeing us like we were a bunch of crazy women, which we were.
“No,” I said, “but I thought the black might make us less scary to the bats that hopefully don’t carry rabies.”
He smirked; then his gaze dragged to Betty. “I heard about Donovan. I don’t think Garrick is going to hold him long. Just enough to question him and find out about the cobalt.”
“You know about it, too?” I said.
“It’s a small town,” he said, knocking his fists together. “Now. Who’s ready to hunt a bat?”
My stomach churned as I said it, but I gritted my teeth and grinned. “We are.”
A few minutes later we stood in the park with a large metal birdcage, several handheld nets along with a wing and prayer that this plan would work.
Axel’s hand slid over my shoulder. “Okay, Pepper, you ready?”
I bristled. “This all lands on me, doesn’t it?”
“You are the one who communicates with animals.”
“Don’t remind me. I’d feel better if Donovan were here.”
His hand squeezed, filling me with comfort. “He would if he could. Listen, you’re as good as Donovan ever was at matching, and you’ve only been in Magnolia Cove a short while. You can do it. I know you can.”
I nodded and glanced at my family. “Ready?”
They nodded.
I closed my eyes and slipped inside my mind, calling telepathically or whatever to Princess and the rest of the bat kingdom.
At first all I heard was silence; then her voice filled my head.
I’m hungry. I need food. Y’all got anything to eat over there? All these other stupid bats keep taking the best mosquitos so all I get are the leftovers.
My heart sang. It was her. I mean, who else could it be?
Don’t answer that. It could’ve been anybody, I know.
