Don't Hex with Texas

by Shanna Swendson

  She raised an eyebrow. “I was wondering what you were doing down there. I almost thought you’d recognized him and were trying to hide, or something.”

  I started to say that I had no idea who he might be, then realized that maybe this was a good opportunity to give her a valid excuse for keeping an eye on him. “He did look familiar,” I said.

  She gasped and put a hand to her mouth. “You didn’t see him on America’s Most Wanted, did you?

  Maybe I should call the police. Do you think it would help or hurt business if word got around that a famous serial killer stayed here? I mean, as long as he didn’t kill anyone while he stayed here. That would probably freak out potential customers. But if he got arrested here, that might get some attention, right? We’d at least have a few reporters staying here, and the motel name would get in the paper.”

  That was a little more excitement than I’d been aiming for. I’d forgotten how active Nita’s imagination could be. “No, nothing like that,” I corrected her before she could get carried away and call the police. “He just looks familiar. Maybe it’s someone I know from New York.”

  She put a hand on one hip. “Why would someone from New York be here?”

  Thinking fast, I came up with something I was sure would get her attention. “You know, he may be someone from this band I once saw in a club.” Not that I frequently went to see bands in clubs, but that was certainly her image of my Sex and the City life in New York, so I went with it. “He could be on his way to Austin from Dallas for a concert or music festival, or something, and he might be taking the back roads to really get into the roots of the country.”

  Her eyes grew huge. “Oh, wow! A rock star in my motel! Just think, if he ever does hit the big time, that could make this place famous! We could make room twenty-five the—” she had to check the registration form “—the Phelan Idris room, and we could decorate it with concert pictures. We could make this the Rock and Roll Motel!” She flipped up the counter and ran to the lobby, where she could look out the side windows toward Idris’s room, and I knew I had her hook, line, and sinker. She’d track every move he made. After watching for a few minutes, she turned to me. “Do you think you could watch the desk for a few minutes? I ought to get my camera. I’ll need proof he stayed here if he gets famous. We have plenty of rooms, so if someone needs a reservation, get their info and give it to them. There’s no way we’ll have another person checking in this afternoon. I’ll be back in a sec.” She was gone before I had a chance to object.

  When she was gone, I went back into the office and grabbed one of the extra keys for Idris’s room off the key rack and pocketed it, glad that Nita’s dad hadn’t yet upgraded to card keys. Then I picked up the phone. I realized I hadn’t asked for Owen’s cell phone number, and he certainly hadn’t volunteered it, but I knew Teddy’s number, and they were probably still together, so I dialed that one.

  “Hey, Sis,” Teddy said when he answered. “Have you settled down any?”

  “I’m fine. Is Owen there with you? I need to talk to him.”

  A second later, Owen came on the line. “Katie?”

  “Idris just checked into the motel,” I said without bothering with a greeting.

  “He what? Are you sure?”

  “I was right here when it happened, though he didn’t see me, and it’s his name on the register. There can’t be more than one of him.”

  “But why is he here?” He sounded almost frantic, which was strange for him.

  “Funny, that question didn’t come up when he was asking for a smoking room with an open-ended stay.”

  “I’ll get Sam on surveillance.”

  “He’s in room twenty-five, and I think he’ll already be under surveillance.” The front door chimed, and I said, “I’ve got to go. We can discuss it later.”

  Nita was back, breathless and with flushed cheeks from her dash to the family home behind the motel.

  “Any calls or new guests?”

  “Not a one.”

  “I already took a picture of his car, but it’s a rental, so it doesn’t really say anything important or meaningful about him. I guess we’ll have to wait for him to come out.” She dragged a couple of the lobby chairs over to the window, and I joined her. “Oh, I should have gotten snacks for our stakeout,”

  she added as she settled into a chair, her camera at the ready. “So, were you ever going to tell me what you were so upset about when you got here?”

  “Oh, just something with my brothers,” I said dismissively, not really wanting to get into any issues with Owen at the moment. Then I had a brainstorm. My brothers. Of course. I knew exactly why Idris had come here. “And speaking of my brothers, I’ve left Owen alone with them for too long. I’d better get back home. You’ll let me know if anything interesting happens?”

  She didn’t take her eyes away from the window when she responded, “Of course. This is the most exciting thing to happen to this place in ages.”

  “The band wasn’t all that good,” I said, already worried that I’d set her up for disappointment.

  “It doesn’t take much to be the most exciting thing to happen here,” she replied dryly.

  I was glad I’d parked on the side of the office away from Idris’s room, so even if he was so bored or paranoid as to be staring out the window, he still wouldn’t see me. When I got home, the barn was empty, so I headed into the house. The door to Dean and Teddy’s old room was shut, and I had a feeling that’s where the guys were. I knocked lightly on it and got out the “It’s” part of “It’s me”

  before the door swung open.

  “That must be really handy,” Teddy said. His eyes had a wide look of surprise and awe, like he was still taking everything in. He and Owen sat on one of the beds, most of the magic course pamphlets spread between them, while Dean sat on the other bed, watching the other two suspiciously. It almost looked like a slumber party for overgrown boys.

  “So, I guess y’all are all squared away,” I said, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind me, in case Mom came back or Granny showed up.

  “Yeah, Owen gave me the whole story,” Teddy said. “It’s absolutely incredible, isn’t it? I mean, all those years I spent playing Dungeons and Dragons, and it turns out to be real, and we never even knew. Just think of the trouble Dean could have gotten into if he knew he had magical powers all along. Though I guess he managed to get into enough trouble with them now.”

  “And think of how amazing my tattletale abilities would have been if I’d been able to catch him,” I said. Then I turned to my other brother. “Dean, you wouldn’t happen to have called anyone at your magical correspondence school about what’s been going on, have you?”

  “Well, there is a customer service number you’re supposed to call when you’re ready for the next lesson or if you have any problems.”

  “When was the last time you called it?”

  “Um, uh, well, last night, when I couldn’t get into the bank. You’re supposed to let them know if something doesn’t work, and being bounced off the door wasn’t in the troubleshooting list, so I called right away, and then they transferred me to someone higher up, so I guess it was a bigger issue than I realized.”

  “That’s why Idris is here, I bet,” I said to Owen.

  “What did you tell them?” Owen asked. He’d gone pale, and I could see the tension in the muscles around his jaw.

  “I described what I was trying to do and what it felt like. Then they asked me if anything had changed around town—if there was anyone new. I said my sister’s boyfriend was visiting.” His voice trailed off, and he then added a sheepish, “Oops. But I didn’t know it meant anything at the time. I was just excited because they’d let me talk to one of the main guys at the company. It would have been like running across a bug in Word, calling Microsoft tech support, and being transferred directly to Bill Gates in the middle of the night. So, uh, why does this matter?”

  “Because the guy running Spellworks just
showed up in town,” I said. “He has to know you’re my brother, and that means he has to know Owen’s here and was behind the wards on the bank.” It rankled me more than a little that Phelan Idris had known my brother had magical powers before I did.

  “He got here fast enough,” Owen said.

  I shrugged. “Well, this might be an even bigger crisis for him than it is for us. Us finding out in this way could put a stop to his little magic school before he hits critical mass. You know, it was really stupid of him to actually sign up one of my brothers.”

  “That’s typical,” Owen said. “He couldn’t resist getting a reaction out of you and showing off. As usual, he got sidetracked by looking for a reaction instead of following through.”

  I sat on the end of Teddy’s bed. “Did I really screw things up for you, Katie?” Dean asked. He actually sounded contrite.

  “No, in the long run you’ve helped. If you hadn’t been mixed up in all this, we might not have found out about this scheme until it was too late. It would have been nice if we could have avoided having Idris come here, but here may be the best place to deal with him. It’s harder to do magic here without the proper lines of power, and when it comes to raw magical resources, there aren’t too many people who can top Owen.”

  “Ooh, time for the magical showdown at the O-K Corral?” Teddy asked, brightening.

  “I hope not,” Owen said, “but I’ll still probably need your help.”

  Then a voice from downstairs called out, “Is anyone home?” It was Granny.

  I got up and went to the top of the stairs. “What is it, Granny?” I asked.

  “I tried to go to the bank to deposit my pension check, and they wouldn’t let me in the door.”

  I turned around to find the guys standing behind me. “I guess the wards are still up,” I whispered to Owen.

  “Well, Dad always said she was a witch,” Teddy said under his breath.

  I glared at Teddy, then forced a smile and headed down the stairs, wincing as I crossed the squeaky patch. “But Granny, the bank is closed for the day,” I said when I reached her, hoping that maybe there’d been a misunderstanding. “Remember, the lobby closes at three.”

  She rapped her cane on the floor. “I know that. And I was there in plenty of time, but I couldn’t get through the doorway. People were walking past me left and right, but I couldn’t go through. The bank’s been charmed, it has. Someone wants to keep the magical folk out.” She looked up at where the guys still stood at the top of the stairs and pointed her cane straight at Owen. “It was you who did it. I felt your magic.”

  I was all ready to spin an explanation, but Owen started down the stairs, the other guys following him.

  Once he’d passed the squeaky spot, he said, “I’m sorry about that. I should have lifted the wards already, but I wanted to be sure the bank was protected, with everything that’s been going on. I’ll take care of it tonight to make sure you can go there. You should be able to deposit your check tomorrow morning.” His voice was calm and even, as if he were having a perfectly ordinary conversation.

  That took Granny aback. She was used to being ignored, contradicted, and humored, but never taken seriously. “So, you were sent here to protect us from the scoundrel who’s been using magic against us,” she said, gazing steadily at him.

  “Yes, I was.”

  “You’ve got strong magic in you, stronger than anything I’ve ever felt.” She lapsed into that fake Irish accent that made it difficult for Teddy, Dean, and me not to laugh, but Owen kept a perfectly straight face. “I know a trick or two my Gran taught me, but nothing like what you do. You stopped our culprit, did you?”

  “Yes, I believe I did. He won’t be causing any more problems.”

  Her gaze darted immediately to Dean, who didn’t react quickly enough to put on a fake innocent expression. Guilt was written all over his face. Her eyes narrowed. “You! I should have known. You always were a troublemaker.” She rapped him across the knees with her cane, making him jump and yelp in pain.

  “Abusing the gift like that is dangerous,” she went on, ignoring Dean as he rubbed his knees.

  “Meddling with power can get you burned, and using it for personal gain takes you closer to falling into the darkness. I’d have tried to teach you how to use it, but your mother thought I was crazy.

  She’s got a different kind of sight, but she doesn’t understand the gift the way I do.”

  “Wait a second,” I said, “You knew all along about Dean?”

  “Of course I did. I felt the magic in him from the time I first held him. You’re like your mother, though. And Teddy, too. My Gran always said the family liked to keep a balance so we could keep each other in check, one side with the power and the other side with the vision.”

  “What about Frank Junior?” I asked, almost dreading the answer. With one brother a wizard and the other immune to magic, there was no telling what the third one might be.

  “Oh, he’s as normal as your father is. And thank goodness there’s someone normal around here.”

  “I had to go to New York to learn about magic, and you knew all this time?”

  She shook her head and tut-tutted. “I told you I don’t know how many times, but did you listen? I even tried to warn you about what you’d find in the city.” That partially explained why I didn’t remember her warnings. The family had been so busy telling me about all the criminals and deviants I was sure to run into that one more wacky warning would have been beside the point.

  “But Granny,” Teddy said, “We thought those were just stories.”

  “Just stories! Honestly. These children have no respect for their elders.” She turned back to Owen. “I assume you listen to your grandparents.”

  “I don’t have any grandparents,” he said, “but my foster mother is about your age.”

  “That explains it. You had to listen to your elders. Is there any coffee?” Without waiting for an answer, she spun and headed toward the kitchen fast enough that I wondered if she used magic to speed her pace.

  “I’ll make some,” I said, hurrying to follow her. It was a good thing I’d had my meltdown earlier and got it out of my system. Otherwise, I’m not sure how I’d have reacted to finding out that my grandmother was magical and had known about all this stuff all along.

  I got to the coffeemaker before Granny did and made a pot of half decaf, since I knew she wasn’t supposed to have too much caffeine and she’d have already had at least four cups of coffee that day.

  We certainly didn’t need her over caffeinated; she was bad enough as it was. For once, she didn’t fight me over who should make the coffee. Instead, she seemed content to sit at the kitchen table and let us serve her.

  That was probably because she wasn’t through with Dean yet. She rapped him again across the knees, and he wisely took a step back so he’d be out of cane range. “Now that you’ve had your little fun and you’ve shown what you can do, you are going to give all those things back, aren’t you?” she said. She phrased it as a question, but her tone of voice made it more of a command. “I’d hate to have to tell your mother what a disappointment you are.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Dean stammered. “I mean, I’d like to, but I’m not sure I can, not without getting caught. They’ve got better patrols now, and it was almost a fluke that I was able to do it in the first place.”

  “Well, if you did it, then maybe it’s right for you to get caught. Better to be caught bringing things back, even if you have to go in during business hours with a box full of stolen goods, than to be caught with the loot in your house or on your wife’s wrist. You’ll not be able to prosper until this wrong is set right.”

  Dean groaned. “Oh no; Sherri. I’ll never get those things away from her. And for once I was able to make her happy.” Apparently, he hadn’t heard a thing I’d said earlier. I suspected he was the one who was reluctant to return the goods, and Sherri was a convenient excuse.

  A shriek from the back door prove
d me right. “Dean Chandler, are you in here?” Sherri then stomped into the kitchen, her hair wild and her eyes blazing. “Just what, exactly, do you think you’ve been up to?”

  He took a step away from her, only to realize he’d returned himself to Granny’s cane range, so he took another step sideways. “Up to what, honey?” he asked, so cool and innocent that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

  “‘Up to what?’” she mocked, her voice going up nearly an octave. “What have you got yourself mixed up in, huh? And don’t play innocent with me. I know you’re up to something.”

  Dean’s innocent expression faltered for a split second, but then he was back to his usual cocky grin.

  “Mind letting me in on what you know, darlin’?”

  She raised her arm, showing a bare wrist. “I went to the jewelry store to get my new bracelet appraised, and guess what? They said it was stolen property. I told them someone had given it to me as a gift and turned it over to them.”

  “Wow, it really was stolen?” he asked, still maintaining the illusion of innocence. Granny leaned forward so she could reach him with her cane and gave him a good whack with it. “Ow!” he protested. “Okay, I got the stuff from a guy I know. I didn’t know it was stolen, but I’ll give it all back, I promise.”

  Normally, that was the point when Sherri melted, apologized for ever doubting him, and started calling him disgusting pet names like “snoogie woogums” while the rest of us tried not to throw up.

  This time, though, she tossed her hair back and said, “You’d better. I’m going to stay at Mom’s for a few days, and when I come back, all that stuff better be out of my house, or I’ll be packing up my things and leaving for good.” With that, she turned and marched out of the kitchen, letting the back door slam behind her and leaving an uncomfortable silence in her wake.

  “I don’t think Sherri will mind if you give the stuff back,” I said, breaking the silence before it got creepy.