Magic After Dark: A Collection of Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance Novels

by Margo Bond Collins

  “Don’t encourage her,” she said. “You don’t know what else she’s planning on doing.”

  “Hush,” Dawn said, but Becca got her desired look of alarm from Grant. She slipped her feet out of her boots and tucked them up under her knees.

  Dawn dipped the end of the crystal into each of the vials one by one. Several turned colors. Most didn’t.

  “What does that mean?” Grant asked.

  “Plague,” Becca said, touching one of the vials. “Herpes. Bad luck. Insomnia. Nervous tick. Anxiety. Snaggletooth.”

  “I swear you’re as bad as Quinn,” Dawn said. Becca grinned.

  “I’ve got no clue what they mean,” she said, turning to Grant. “You just wait until she tells you you’re fine, and then you hope she doesn’t stab you any more.”

  “Open your mouth,” Dawn said. Becca shot Grant a sympathetic look, and he looked even more panicked. Dawn sighed. “Stalling isn’t going to help any.”

  He opened his mouth and she put a small, round stone on his tongue.

  “Don’t swallow that,” she said. “Close.”

  He made a face as he closed his mouth.

  “It’th thour,” he said.

  “Yes, it is,” Dawn said, flipping his hand to look at the back.

  “Any aches, pains, abnormal sensations?”

  “Apard from thith?” he asked.

  “It’s like the dentist,” Becca said. “She always waits until now to ask questions.”

  “Do not,” Dawn said. “Though it’s a good point. I should ask before.”

  Becca nodded.

  Dawn glowered.

  “Shoes off.”

  He knit his brows, but did as she asked. She pulled his socks off and stuffed them into his shoes without any trace of embarrassment. Kneeling, she looked at his feet, then unceremoniously stabbed one sole with the quartz needle. Grant yelped again, with a lisp.

  “Not that bad,” Dawn said, reaching behind her to grab a cotton ball, which she used to swab his sole.

  “Is that needle even clean?” Becca asked.

  “Did you just ask if germs could live on an averse quartz?”

  Becca shrugged and Dawn shook her head.

  “I’m going to tell Billy you asked that.”

  Becca shrugged. One more thing to add to the list.

  “At’th not averth quarth,” Grant said. Becca widened her eyes mouthing ‘no’ in big letters at Grant, but he shook his head. “It’th not.”

  Becca slapped her forehead and shook her head.

  “It is,” Dawn said.

  “No, it’th not,” Grant said. “Averth quarth…”

  Dawn held up the needle, spinning it between two fingers in the light.

  “Oh,” Grant said. Becca wasn’t sure what he’d seen, because she didn’t actually know what ‘averse’ meant in the context of quartzes, but she obviously knew better than to question Dawn.

  Dawn stabbed his foot again and he jerked away.

  “Baby,” she said, grabbing his ankle and swabbing his foot again.

  “Wow, thith is thour,” he said. “Wow.”

  She nodded.

  “Supposed to be,” she said.

  She put a lotion of some kind on his foot and sat back.

  “Give that a minute.”

  “What ith it?” he asked.

  “Do you really want to know?” Becca countered and he shook his head.

  “No.”

  “Let’s go ahead and start you,” Dawn said. Becca held her palm out and Dawn stabbed her, going through the same dipping routine as she had with Grant. Different vials flickered colors when she was done and she nodded.

  “Obstinate as always,” she said. Becca smiled, holding up her foot and wiggling her toes.

  “Not yet,” Dawn said. “Knee.”

  “Aw,” Becca said. “Really?”

  Dawn gave her a stern look, and Becca sighed, rolling up her underskirts. The quartz stabbed at the underside of her kneecap, and she held on to the bed, trying not to wince.

  Wincing only made it worse.

  “Thour,” Grant said. “Really, really thour.”

  “Not done yet,” Dawn answered in singsong without looking at him. “Don’t swallow it and don’t spit it out.”

  Becca stretched her mouth, sort of a mocking empathy as Grant’s face contorted more and more.

  Dawn wiped the quartz needle off on a cloth and put it back down, dripping something onto Becca’s knee that stung like salt and bubbled when it hit blood. Becca rolled her eyes, trying not to make a scene.

  Dawn nodded like it all meant something. Becca really could have sworn the girl enjoyed it. The secrecy and the control. Not so much sadistic, but a kind of secret club with only a single member.

  “All right,” she said, turning. “Spit.”

  She put out her hand and Grant’s eyes widened with a kind of horror, then he spit the rock into her palm. She dropped it into a tiny pink glass and looked at it for several moments, then took his foot and stabbed it again.

  “Ouch,” he said. “Really? How many times are you going to do that?”

  “As many as I need to,” she said evenly, without looking at him. Becca tipped her head with a sigh.

  “So is your friend coming back tonight?” Grant asked.

  “What?” Becca answered.

  “Jordan,” Grant said. “The one who laughed too much.”

  “Jordan,” she said. “I was looking for a T. Trevor, Travis, Davis, Tanner…”

  Grant glowered at her and she shrugged.

  “What if he is?”

  “You didn’t even remember his name?”

  She grinned.

  “He was fun. He wasn’t any more than that.”

  “He was all over you,” Grant said.

  Becca started to argue, then reconsidered, revisiting the night before in her mind. She hadn’t had that much to drink, and neither had he, at that.

  “No, he wasn’t,” she said. “We danced.”

  “You didn’t dance like everyone else did.”

  “Everyone else was old,” she said with humor. “And he was a good dancer.”

  “It was undignified,” Grant said and Becca snorted.

  “Dancing often is,” she said. “That’s why it’s fun. Why does it matter, anyway?”

  He looked away.

  “He’s an outsider,” he finally said.

  “So?” she asked.

  “One who thinks you’re a carnival side-show.”

  “Aren’t I?” she asked, mostly just needling him for the fun of it.

  “Why did you call me?” he asked. That hit her like a slap, and she didn’t know what to say. Eventually, she went with the truth.

  “I was going to call Dawn,” she said, “but your name went by first.”

  He swallowed.

  “You shouldn’t dance with him like that,” he said. Because I should dance with you like that? she thought, but took mercy this time.

  “I dance with him like that because it doesn’t mean anything to him either,” she said. “It’s just fun. If it mattered to him, I wouldn’t do it, because I’m not a tease, and I don’t want to be involved with anything but the tribe. This is what I’m serious about.”

  He looked at his hands, then frowned.

  “When did Dawn leave?”

  Becca shook her head.

  “She does that. Means we’re both fine, though.”

  “I already knew that,” he said, and Becca grinned.

  “Yeah, so did I. But she’s Dawn. Let’s go see what’s for lunch.”

  The weather had turned frosty cold even just over the course of the morning, and Colin had made a heavy porridge for lunch that smelled of cinnamon and oats, and Becca sat on a heavy canvas blanket on the ground, just relishing the smell and the heat of it. Dawn came to sit next to her.

  “You two sort it out?” she asked.

  “Shut up,” Becca answered, and Dawn laughed.

  “I warned you, didn�
��t I?”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Becca complained, and Dawn nodded.

  “It’s just who you are. I don’t know how much you notice how the boys our age notice you, but they do. It’s who you are.”

  “I didn’t ask for it,” Becca said.

  “And I didn’t ask to be a healer,” Dawn said. “I just am.”

  Becca frowned and looked at Dawn.

  “Would you be something else, if you could?”

  “More like you?” Dawn asked, then smiled and turned her face down to her bowl. “I don’t know. Being a fighter and big and strong and confident wouldn’t be so bad.”

  “I can’t believe you’re saying that,” Becca said. “You’re important.”

  “But I’m not important like Bella. Everyone is always watching to make sure I don’t break.”

  “I don’t,” Becca said, confused, and Dawn grinned at her bowl.

  “No. You don’t. I like you, for that.”

  Becca nodded.

  “Are you ever jealous of anyone?” Dawn asked. Becca frowned.

  “Why would I be?” she asked. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I want to get better at things. Maybe learn how to use a gun. Know more of the supernaturals. I don’t want to be like you and Quinn, with everything you know. It’s just too much responsibility. And remembering all of it… that would be hard. But maybe I do want to know all of it, just without anyone knowing I know. You know?”

  Dawn snorted.

  “You really don’t know what jealousy feels like,” she said. Becca shrugged.

  “I like me,” she said simply, dipping her spoon into her bowl.

  Dawn nodded.

  “And that’s why everyone else does, too.”

  Becca grinned.

  “The idea of being jealous,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s just a waste of time. Spending all your time on what someone else is, instead of what you are…”

  Spending all your time.

  She frowned, looking at Dawn, then turned to face her, dipping her head.

  “It’s kind of obsessive, isn’t it?”

  “What?” Dawn asked.

  “Being jealous,” Becca said. Dawn drew a breath and moved her head in a kind of defensive way and Becca waved her off.

  “Not you. Whatever petty thing you’ve got about not being big boned and having hair like a tangle of yarn. Her.”

  “Not following,” Dawn said. “Yarn?”

  “It’s how Mom describes hair like mine,” Becca said. “Not important. The witch who painted the evil eye. And trapped the ghosts. She’s obsessed with them, isn’t she?”

  Dawn bobbed her head back and forth for a moment.

  “Probably,” she said. “Hard to say, but…”

  “She’s still casting on them after they’ve all been dead for how long?” Becca asked. “She’s obsessed.”

  “Okay,” Dawn said. “What if she is?”

  “She’s watching them,” Becca said. “If you’re going to punish people for making you feel bad about yourself for that long, you’re going to want to watch them be miserable. Right?”

  “Yeah,” Dawn said. “Yeah, she’s probably…”

  Her mouth dropped.

  “We can trap her.”

  Becca nodded.

  “There are only so many ways to watch something like that.”

  “And through the eye seems like as good a way as any,” Dawn said, standing. “I need to find Bella.”

  “And I need to eat my lunch,” Becca said to the bowl in front of her, hunching over slightly.

  “No,” Dawn said, grabbing her shoulder. “You’re coming with me.”

  “Gah,” Becca said, tossing her bowl and her spoon onto the blanket as carefully as she could as Dawn dragged her away. “But it’s still warm.”

  “More important things,” Dawn said.

  “I don’t ever want to be so important that I can’t eat my lunch while it’s still warm,” Becca complained.

  “Yes you do,” Dawn answered, rounding a trailer and waving. “Bella.”

  Bella turned from her conversation with Jackson and Robbie.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked, real concern darkening her face.

  “Oh, no, I stabbed her and tested everything and she’s fine,” Dawn said. “It’s that she had a good idea.”

  Bella put her hands on her hips and swung her hair as she turned to fully face them.

  “Is that so?”

  “The witch who cast the evil eye,” Dawn said. “It’s a good bet she’s coming back to look through it pretty regularly.”

  “That’s a good point,” Jackson said. “And if she’s strong enough to cast that powerful an evil eye, we can probably trap her.”

  “See,” Becca said. “You didn’t need me to come tell them that. I could be eating my lunch.”

  She saw Jackson’s mouth twitch, but he didn’t say anything.

  “I’m not going to take credit for your idea,” Dawn said.

  “Then don’t take credit while I eat,” Becca said.

  “We should go,” Bella said. Becca sighed. She’d known that that was going to be the next thing that would happen. “If we can find traces of magic in the barn itself, we might be able to link to it with a threshold trigger that will keep her in.”

  “I’d go through the side of the barn on a tractor before I’d let you catch me,” Becca pouted, and this time Jackson did laugh.

  “I really do like the way you think,” he said.

  “Remind me not to get in front of you the next time you’ve got a strong idea in your head,” Robbie muttered, but not without warmth.

  “We’ll do the whole barn then,” Bella said. “Warner is just going to have to tolerate the risk to damage on his equipment.”

  “I’ll go get Quinn and we’ll meet you there,” Robbie said. “Should I bring Grant?”

  “May as well,” Bella said. “He’s getting good training out of this.”

  Robbie nodded and started away. Bella pointed at Becca and Dawn.

  “You two are with us.”

  Jackson got out his keys and tossed them into the air just to listen to them jingle.

  “But…” Becca said, just to have registered the complaint.

  No one responded this time and she shrugged. Dawn dashed away and only just caught up with them at the truck, carrying her knapsack. Becca was already carrying everything she routinely used, when they were out on a hunt, and she suspected Jackson and Bella were, too.

  The drive to the farm was quiet, and Jackson pulled all the way up to the barn before stopping the engine. Bella popped her seat forward to let Becca and Dawn out, and they approached the barn with an air of silence, all four of them listening hard.

  “You suppose it’s always this spooky, here, or is it just because I know there’s a trapped town of ghosts just over there?” Becca asked.

  “Probably the second one,” Jackson said.

  “I’m going to go start setting crystals to see if we can find anything about the witch who’s been here,” Dawn said, starting off.

  “Stay in sight, if you can,” Bella called after her. “Angry ghosts can do unexpected things, even if they should know which side you’re on.”

  Becca shook her head.

  “Ghosts and an evil eye at the same time,” she said. “You really shouldn’t be here.”

  She hadn’t meant it until she said it, and then she meant it a lot.

  “That isn’t for you to say,” Bella said. Her voice was calm, but there was an undertone to it that warned her she had crossed a line.

  “She’s allowed to be concerned,” Jackson said. “We all are. It isn’t bad to remember it.”

  “Wait,” Bella said, her feet coming together and her posture turning strong. “Just wait right there.”

  Jackson and Becca turned to face her, and she looked from one to the other of them with a stony face.

  “I was not there to see it, but as I understand it - and I understand i
t perhaps better than anyone - one of Jasmine’s mistakes was allowing conflict and fear to undermine her good decision making. Many of the queens who followed her, including Mona, who I did know, made variations of this same mistake. This tribe has suffered for it, and I won’t allow it. I have many examples to learn from, and I intend to do that.”

  “Does learning from them help if you don’t live through it?” Jackson asked.

  “Do you believe?” Bella asked. “Do you sincerely believe that their mistakes as leaders, or even their decisions at all, had any impact on what happened to them?”

  There was a long silence, and then Dawn whistled, behind them.

  “So,” she called. Becca turned to see her backing out of the barn. “I found something.”

  “No,” Jackson said quietly. “You’re right. They didn’t prevent anything, and signs are good that they couldn’t have. Not with the information they had. They needed better information, not better decisions.”

  Bella gave them a firm nod.

  “Then you will not coddle me, nor will you hamstring my leadership. We will tell the tribe when it’s time and not before, and in the meantime, you will stop coughing at me.”

  Jackson hung his head, not remotely chastened, but a symbolic and slightly playful agreement that she was right. Bella turned to Becca.

  “I will forgive your earnestness because you are young and because you are honest. But hear me. I am not afraid and I will not be afraid. You should not, either.”

  Becca stood taller.

  “I’m proud,” she said. Bella frowned for just an instant, then smiled, warmly, and nodded.

  “We’re working,” she said. “Do what we do.”

  Jackson and Becca parted to walk with Bella to see what Dawn’s entire body was pointing at.

  She’d placed a grid of crystals and had apparently been in the process of sprinkling them with a powder when one of them had started hopping up and down.

  “I’ve never seen that before,” Becca said. “Is that supposed to happen?”

  “No,” Dawn said. Becca hoped there would be more, some kind of explanation, anyway, but that was all Dawn had to say.

  “It’s a magic field,” Bella said. “Quinn will know more than I do, but it’s fluctuating. It might be reacting to the ghosts,” she said, lifting her head. “Or it could be that something else is going on. Whatever it is, it’s probably strong.”